Regis 6

“Welcome back, Sleeping Beauty,” a gruff voice sounded behind me. My battle instincts flared as I whirled around while unsheathing the white dagger using my left hand, only to find myself face-to-face with a shadowy entity in the form of a wolf.

It remained seated on its hind legs like a large dog, no threatening intent leaking from it. The only details that set it apart from what would normally be a very black wolf was the fact that it had a pair of horns protruding out of its head, each twisting like a gnarled branch as they came to a sharp point behind its ears. The other detail, and the one that stood out the most, was its glowing violet mane that looked more like flames rather than fur.

“Check me out. I’m majestic as fuck!” the wolf said with a toothy grin, its shadowy tail wagging excitedly.

My jaw dropped. “R-Regis?”

It took me a few minutes to swallow everything, but once I did, my curiosity only grew.

I bombarded him with questions. “What happened to me after I passed out? What happened to you? Why do you look like that?”

“Easy, pleb,” Regis said haughtily, holding up his giant black paw. “This one shall explain.”

I shot him a glare, eliciting an uncomfortable cough from the shadowy wolf.

“After you killed that giant golem, that purple flame was trying to consume you so I did what any loyal companion would do and went into your body to save you.”

“Loyal? Is that why you’re a dog?” I quipped.

“I’m a wolf!” Regis emphasized, offended. “I don’t know why I’m a wolf, and not some badass dragon, but this is what I came out as.”

“So how did it happen?”

“Well, I felt this huge surge of aether fuse with me.”

“Fuse with your body?” I repeated blankly before it finally dawned on me.

I expelled aether from my core, trying to siphon it through the rune on my lower back. Except there was no rune. I recalled the knowledge that had been ingrained into me upon forming the rune but it felt like a blur, like trying to recall the events of a drunken night.

“It’s gone,” I mumbled. “I-I can’t feel the rune anymore.”

My eyes locked onto Regis in an icy glare. “You stole it.”

“It’s not like I expected this to happen,” Regis retorted back. “And besides. You were dying.”

I seethed. “I had it under control.”

Regis let out a scoff. “Sure. Writhing in pain and blacking out was all part of the master plan, right?”

“You don’t understand! I need that power, Regis. Give it back!”

Regis bared his fangs. “You don’t think I tried? After dragging your sorry ass out of the black platform—you’re welcome, by the way—I tried going back inside your body and giving it back to you but I didn’t even know how!”

My brows furrowed as I reached out my hand toward Regis. “Come here.”