-Majabah-

The townspeople were mostly evacuated when the volcano was erupting more and more violently, thanks to Mitsuki and Lazu's teamwork. The dragon (disguised as a cat) used ice power to mark the ground for the townspeople to know which direction they were supposed to be going.

Riku cast a barrier around himself while approaching the angry volcano. He wished he could cast one to cover the whole town, but he would need to save his magic strength to cast another spell to stop the volcano.

The lava heat was downright scary. The bits that were exploding out of the volcano's mouth started to splash on houses, melting parts of them down. They were hitting and penetrating Riku's barrier too, so the lord had to keep recasting it.

"So this is how Gaku felt when he was fighting my fire." Riku felt as if he was being roasted alive. He would have to act quickly before his health condition flared up or his magic ran out.

The townspeople were taken to another mountain top. They could see Riku as a small figure from there. People's faces were full of horror. What could a normal human do to stop nature's wrath?

Gaku gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. "My lord, you can't..." The butler knew when his lord said he was going to be alright was a blatant lie. Still, he went ahead and carried out his duty, knowing it was what Riku wished for.

Mitsuki was too terrified to say anything to help Gaku and Lazu feel better. They could only watch, hope, and pray.

The volcano cared for no one. Its anger could not be quelled by a speech from the lord of Majabah. Instead, it rebelled. The sound of the explosion could be heard a hundred kilometres away, and the lava came bursting out of the volcano's mouth.

To the people on the mountain top, it looked like Riku was about to be swallowed whole by the huge wave of hot lava. Everyone screamed, thinking that that boy was going to die for sure and that their homes were going to be completely destroyed.

"You will not stop me that easily!" Riku let out his most intimidating battle cry. The lord opened his arms wide and cast one of the most powerful magic: void.

The purple void of darkness appeared in front of Riku, swallowing the hot lava as if it were enjoying a feast. Then, the lord strengthened his power and extended the void to cover the whole volcano.

It took mere seconds for the void to eat the whole mountain up.

Everyone could not believe what they saw. A person just stopped the volcano from destroying the whole town. Among those people, Lazu's eyes widened. Flashes of vision came to him, making him freeze.

"I... I am..."

As soon as the void disappeared, "Nanase-sama!!!" Gaku cast time magic on himself and rushed down the mountain to his lord's side. The lord was on one knee, breathing heavily through an open mouth.

Gaku bent down and let Riku put his arm over his shoulder. "*Huff huff* is everyone safe?" asked the tired lord.

"Look in front of you, Nanase-sama."

The townspeople were standing a good distance away from Riku, staring at him.

"Ah," Riku smiled, even though it burned to breathe. Almost all of his body weight was on Gaku. "That's a relief." He looked up and smiled at his townspeople before his body felt too light to keep standing.

"...! Nanase-sama! Nanase-sama!" Gaku supported and lifted his lord's body up in bridal style before it hit the hard ground. One certain individual ran forward to them.

"Y-Yaotome-sama" It was the museum receptionist. "Please use our infirmary." Gaku nodded and followed the man to the large stone building with several clean white beds.

~~

-Silica-

"Are you sure you want to do this, Izumi?"

Iori lied unmoving on his big brother's soft bed. His eyes were blank. His head? Not very much so. Nanase Tenn and he were about to commit one of the greatest sins of Majabah, or perhaps of humanity even.

"Izumi Iori" Tenn, with his naked upper body, crawled onto the bed, staring at Iori below him. His wrinkled shirt was on the floor next to the bed. "We cannot reverse this."

"I know, Tenn-san." Iori pretended to act cool. It was obvious the boy was terrified. "Do it."

"You are going to feel excruciating pain." Tenn warned the high school boy one last time. "If you cannot bear it, your life will be lost."

When Iori did not reply, Tenn closed his eyes and let a big breath out. He channelled all the magic power inside him, creating multi-coloured orbs around his body. Iori closed his eyes. He had to be ready for anything that came.

Tenn sat up, keeping his eyes closed. "O Lord of the creation, this ritual I perform to ask for thy permission." He opened his arms wide, chanting the spell louder. "Grant this soul magic power. With it, our life force shall be shared!"

Tenn bent down and pressed a hard kiss on Iori's mouth. The multi-coloured orbs turned into a yellow sparkling glow of light, flowing from Tenn's body to wrap around Iori's.

Iori welcomed the passionate kiss coming from his crush. The instant Tenn pulled away, however, his eyes widened as his body felt like it was being torn apart from the inside. Iori screamed extremely loudly. Earlier, Tenn had to tie the boy's arms and legs to the edges of his bed with thick robes to prevent him from going insane from the unbearable amount of pain and hurting himself.

Tenn stepped away from the normally calm and collected boy. "The pain shall pass, Izumi." Tenn stared at a person he had come to hold dear in his heart. "You will get through it."

"You have to get through it." Tenn clasped his hands and sat on his heels, staring at the poor boy.

"AHHHHHH!!!!" Iori cried, his fingers and toes twitching and locking. His eyes rolled back a few times. It was a truly disturbing scene, yet Tenn watched with a straight face, believing he did not deserve to run away from seeing such a horrible display.

"When you wake up," Tenn muttered. "You will become a magic user."

That's right. Tenn and Iori had performed a ritual strictly forbidden in Majabah. It was actually possible for one magic user to share his magic power with another. The fact was kept well hidden from the public, but having lived in the Nanase mansion, Tenn had once sneaked into the room full of lord records and read about this magic sharing ritual.

The ritual was widely performed in ancient Majabah, where one with low magic power wished to cast more powerful magic. In the boys' case, if Iori survived the ritual, he would obtain Tenn's amount of magic power. Sounds wonderful, right?

Well, there was a limit.

If one person went into magic exhaustion, the other would be affected too. Magic exhaustion happened when a person had used too much magic power and the magic power inside them corrupted. Nothing could stop magic exhaustion, so it claimed several lives in Majabah. One would need to grit their teeth and bear the pain until it went away.

Another limit was that if one person died, then the other would lose all their magic power. The process was considered taboo in Majabah, so anyone found to have gone through it would face execution.

Even after Tenn's detailed explanation of the process, Iori decided to go through with it for several reasons. He knew himself to have a strong mentality, so the possibility of him not surviving the pain was low, or so he thought. The boy was mostly having trouble staying sane right now.

The high school boy, like Tenn, would do anything to save his loved ones. Even if no one had pinpointed Mitsuki's whereabouts, he would go to Majabah to search for his brother. Because of that, he needed the power to fight off anything in his way. He needed that power to protect his Nii-san and Tenn-san.

After the search was over...

Tenn would prevent Iori from facing execution. Iori would find a way for both of them to escape the death sentence.

~~

-Majabah-

"Oi, Lazu, what's gotten into you?" Mitsuki shouted at his dragon in cat forme when it stood at the mountain top in a daze. Townspeople had already gone back down after knowing it was safe to do so. Only Mitsuki and the dragon were there.

"I... I am..." Lazu muttered.

"Lazu?"

Mitsuki was about to reach his hand to touch the cat dragon when a bright glow of light surrounded the dragon's body. "Wahh?" The shape of the cat was shifted. Arms and legs were increasing in length. The dragon was starting to take the shape of a figure: a human figure.

The glow of light disappeared to reveal a man in an all-white suit with chin-length light blue hair and icy blue eyes.

"What the hell...?" Mitsuki took a few steps backwards in shock to see a dragon turned into a human.

"I am Yotsuba Tamaki, servant of the keeper of the Dimensions, Osaka Sougo."

Mitsuki blinked twice. "W-what does that mean...? What are you?"

"I'll answer later." Tamaki turned around, ready to run down the mountain. "We need to check on Rikkun."

Mitsuki nodded and followed Tamaki. It would take a while for them to run back down without the time magic. Mitsuki was not sure what was going on. It was clear Riku had managed to stop the volcanic eruption.

So why did he have such a bad feeling?

~~

-Silica-

Iori woke up on his Nii-san's bed the next morning, covered in sweat. His whole body ached, but his head felt much lighter. He turned his head to see Tenn cutting the ropes tying his arms and legs with wind magic. Iori's wrists and ankles were bruised thanks to his body struggling to cope with the pain through the night.

"Congratulations, you survived." Tenn sat on the edge of the bed and touched Iori's head to check his temperature. He smiled lightly when there was nothing to worry about.

"That was horrifying." Iori tried to sit up but failed without Tenn's help. Not only had he experienced physical pain, but he also had to sleep with a never-ending nightmare full of things that could be found in horror movies.

Tenn held an empty plastic cup in his hand in front of Iori. Iori looked at the guy as if to say 'what?'.

"Try casting water magic here."

Iori was about to ask how when he somehow had a feeling he could do it without instructions. He held up his right hand, imagined an image of water flowing into a cup, and voila! Blue orbs surrounded his body and water magic was cast...

...soaking his own body and Tenn's.

"..." Tenn wiped the water off his face with his arm. It was a useless attempt since their whole bodies were wet. "What a terrible control. And you claim to be a perfect high school student?"

The boy was too excited to listen. Iori smiled, looking at his hands, fascinated by his newfound power.

"We need to train you," Tenn stood up. "And in secret"

"Right." Iori nodded. He might have been young, but he was mature enough in Tenn's eyes.

~~

Yamato and Ryuu still needed a while yet with their world connection research, so Iori and Tenn had plenty of time to train. At night, they would meet in the middle of the artificial lake. Tenn would freeze the surface of the water so both could walk to the middle of the lake. Tenn would then destroy the walkway ice and only freeze the water in the middle, deep enough for himself and Iori to feel comfortable enough to stand on it.

Because Iori had obtained Tenn's power, spells came naturally to him. The only thing he needed to master was control.

Oh hold up... there was another problem.

After an hour of training, Tenn felt a wave of dizziness hit him and had to crouch to keep himself from falling over. He looked to the left to find Iori on his knees, panting.

"Your stamina is way too low." Tenn shouted at Iori. "We need to stop or we'll both go into magic exhaustion."

The two lied on their backs on the cool ice for a while to recover before Tenn said, "Hey, I have an idea."

"What is it, Nanase-san?" Iori turned his head to find Tenn already standing up and offering him a hand. Iori took it and felt himself being pulled upwards.

Tenn started to sing his own song, which immediately charmed Iori. The idol began to glide gracefully around the ice, using a little magic to help with balancing. He then danced, jumped, and twirled as if the ice was his dance arena.

After a full round on that land of ice, Tenn glided to a stop behind Iori. "Care to join me?"

Iori did not know how to skate. He did not need to as Tenn's magic was acting as a support. The boy did know how to dance, so they let themselves move to the sweet rhythm of the silent night. Tenn and Iori danced with joined hands, skipping and spinning in total sync as if they had been dance partners for eternity.

They hoped for a memorable moment like this to last forever.

~~

-Majabah-

"Nnnnggghhh."

The lord was resting peacefully on his bed for a short moment alone in the large room with his personal butler. Gaku's heart was beating loudly, hoping for Riku to rest well without interruptions. However, Riku's face started to scrunch up in pain. He was getting sicker and fast. His body shivered severely.

"No!" Gaku, who was kneeling by his lord's bedside, panicked. "Magic exhaustion!!"

"Nnnggghh. *huff*" Riku's hands and toes tensed up when he felt like his whole body was repeatedly cramping and relaxing every few minutes. Even when he wasn't casting anything, the lord's body was surrounded by dark glows. The magic inside him was rejecting its user's existence.

Riku was frail in terms of his physical health, so casting a large scale, powerful magic would, of course, make him suffer the consequences. The lord himself knew it was going to happen...

... and that he would most certainly not survive it.

If the eruption had not been stopped, the people Riku loved, including Gaku and Mitsuki, would likely not be here at this moment. Riku was not having any of that.

The lord remained unconscious most of the time, haunted by disturbing hallucinations. At one point, the lord opened his eyes, which showed much tiredness and little colour.

"My lord?" Gaku leaned forward when he saw Riku open his eyes. He grabbed a glass of water mixed with sugar and mineral salt and brought it up to Riku's mouth. Riku could only take a few sips before his body began to reject the intake.

"I cannot see you so clearly anymore." Riku spoke when his eyes were fixated on Gaku's face. His vision was blurry and he could not focus on anything.

"You can see me after you have recovered," Gaku spoke, trying not to sound so hopeless.

Riku smiled lightly, "... I am afraid my time is running out."

Gaku had never felt so shaken. He was not as afraid when he challenged his father to fight to the death. He felt much more hopeless and helpless now that he could only watch his lord's life slipping away from his hands. Gaku gripped Riku's arm. His eyes were clouded with tears.

"You are warm." Riku mumbled with his eyes shut. His breathing was getting softer and quieter.

"Keep talking to me." Gaku demanded. "Please my lord, don't go to sleep."

"...."

"It's not fair." Gaku's voice was getting shakier from desperation. "You lied to me when I was always loyal to you."

Riku remained silent.

"Majabah needs a lord." Gaku squeezed Riku's hand and started to cry uncontrollably. "A servant needs his master."

The lord showed no reaction whatsoever.

His heart had stopped.

"You can't die like this!" Gaku buried his face in his lord's chest and screamed, slamming his fist into the wooden bed. "Not after you've saved me and everyone else!" He shook his lord's body violently. "Damn it, wake up! I SAID WAKE UP!!!"

A series of rushing footsteps could be heard from the infirmary hallway. Within seconds, Mitsuki and Tamaki, who were panting heavily, entered the room to find a grieving Gaku.

Mitsuki did not have to walk any closer to know why Yaotome Gaku was screaming as if it was the end of the world. Having worked in a hospital, he knew that sound very well.

The sound of a person mourning another's death.

"No way..."

---------------------------

Again, like in My Crown im guilty as hell for writing such content so im gonna leave quietly through the backdoor please dont try to find me

I'm still leaving my twitter here tho -> kenarkrsun