>>5350523"Alright. Take good care of her." you say to both Dr. White and Raditz, turning towards the door.
"Aren't you staying?" Raditz asks you, a hit of something accusatory in his voice.
"It's just like Dr. White said. You have to know when you can't do anything else to help." you tell him with a bit of a sad smile on your face, seeing the good doctor smirk a bit to himself. "If Dr. White can't do anything for her, then there's absolutely no way that by just standing around could I change the outcome. And she wouldn't want me just standing around either, not when there are other things I could and probably should be doing. I'll leave her in your care.”
With that you head towards the door, deciding on what to do next. As you do, for just a moment you remember back to the titanic Abyssal dragon you'd battled just yesterday. More specifically, how your sword seemingly sealed the Abyss away inside the beast when you'd stabbed it. But you can't just leave your sword down there forever, you never know when you'll need it next. And you can't just take it back either, else that sealed-away darkness may be able to come back. You ponder over the problem of how to get your sword back without re-releasing the Abyss, when suddenly it comes to you! You have an expert of all things Dark you can reach out to. So you do, walking idly down the halls as you reach out telepathically to the one who can help.
“Hey, Aku. Need your help with something, if you've got a moment.” you <span class="mu-i">think</span> out to the self-proclaimed Shapeshifting Master of Darkness. “It's about the Abyss.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FzSVnrHXa0“Kaaaarn, good to hear from you again!” Aku replies after a moment, you hearing the same unsettling noise through the mental link you do when in his presence. “And what's this about Abyss troubles, friend? That seal I put down on the rift should hold for a thousand years, at least. Don't tell me something managed to break through there?”
“No, not through there. We had another one.” you tell him, then quickly summarize what you learned from the Rak'kari about the Abyssal Trench, how you and their warriors had invaded it But when you got to the being who interfered, he stops you.
“Wait, you battled that meddlesome lurker?” he asks, tone pleasantly surprised. “This is good, now I won't have to worry about it every single time I travel through-”
“I didn't kill it. In fact, it stole something from me that may have made it stronger.” you interrupt, and explain how you'd battled a weaker version of it in another timeline and took something from it into yourself before this version ripped it out of you, stealing a chunk of your power then as well. “But that's not what I'm trying to tell you about. After it stole that from me, I fell even deeper into the Abyss, and came face-to-face with a titanic black dragon.”
“YOU WHAAAT?!”
cont
