Bound To The Ice Dragon King
Chapter 224: Core removel

Chapter 224: Core removel

After Lilac agreed to do what Rhea requested, they started to think about how to test Lilac’s magic on Draven. He wasn’t an ordinary dragon, messing with his mind wouldn’t be as easy as messing with Ethan’s. Thus, the next day before Draven could go out to the forest for his daily practice, Rhea called him to the library with the excuse of him helping her to get a book at the top of the shelf.

Draven was happy to jump to help his wife as always, he didn’t sense anything strange and went into the library. He swiftly pulled out the book she pointed at and handed it to her. However, before he could leave, she told him to sit with her and read out the foreign language on the book.

"Let me see." He took the book from her and sat down beside her on the chair. He read through it and translated it to her. It was a book about the legend of the El-Dezeus. He told her how the El-Dezeus became the the most powerful because they were pure dragon breeds with no mix with any other creature.

Rhea realized from all the El-Dezeus, her husband was the only one to marry a human, which means if he had an offspring, they wouldn’t be as powerful as the rest. She had only told him to get the book because she wanted to distract him while Lilac do her magic to test him, but she now learned a new thing about his ancestors.

As Draven continued to read it to her, Rhea quietly gazed at his profile. He looked relax and calm in her presence. She now realized why Alina had so easily betrayed him in the past; whenever Draven was in the presence of the one he loves, he put his guard down, all his weak points were exposed.

Rhea swallowed the lump in her throat as she realized she would also betray his trust by giving away her life. As he continued to read, she signaled for Lilac to come out.

Lilac appeared from behind Draven, and as if sensing her footsteps, he turned to her but at that moment, Lilac snapped her fingers. "You didn’t see me in here, and you will get up now and leave the library, go on with your business."

Draven suddenly stood up and without glancing at Rhea, he left the library.

After he left, Rhea broke down into tears, she clasped her hands over her mouth to muffle her sobs.

"My savior, do you really have to do this?" Lilac also cried from the side, "Let’s talk to the king maybe there is another way to..."

"There is no other way, Lilac. He needs his core more than he thought he did..." Rhea sat on the floor of the library until she cried her eyes out. Tommorow, she decided, she would feed him the elixir in his food and give him back his core.

***

The next day, Draven awoke to a tantalizing aroma enveloping the air. He rubbed his eyes and found his wife’s side of the bed empty, a note on her pillow catching his attention. "Come downstairs," it read. Intrigued, he followed the enchanting scent wafting through the house.

As he descended the staircase, the fragrance intensified, leading him to the kitchen where the morning light bathed everything in a soft glow. There, he beheld his wife stirring a pot of soup. Her silver hair cascaded like moonlight, and her pale skin seemed to glow. Draven couldn’t help but think she looked breathtaking against the backdrop of the kitchen.

"Good morning," she greeted, turning toward him with a warm smile.

Draven, captivated by her beauty, walked towards her. "Why are you cooking by yourself?" he asked, wrapping his arms around her from behind, he rested his chin on her shoulder watching the bubbling soup in the pot.

Rhea chuckled, "I wanted to surprise you. You haven’t been eating well lately because of your new core, and I thought a meal cooked by your loving wife would do wonders."

Touched by her gesture, Draven felt a surge of love overwhelm him even more, he couldn’t imagine what his life would be like without his wife. "That’s incredibly sweet of you, my love." He pecked her cheek.

As Rhea prepared the soup, Draven continued, "I never knew you could cook. This is a pleasant surprise." Though they had been together for more than a year now, he had never seen her cook anything, but today.

Rhea managed to laugh playfully, "There’s a lot you don’t know about me." She said, but deep down, her heart was bleeding from what she was about to do today.

As Rhea cooked with Draven beside her, they laughed and shared the joy of the morning in the kitchen. When she put the pot of soup down, she turned to Draven with a gentle smile. "Pass me those plates, would you?" She asked, a loving glint in her eyes.

Draven, unsuspecting, handed her the plates. Little did he know, amidst the distraction, Rhea had seized an opportune moment and swiftly emptied the bottle of elixir given to her by king Henry into his bowl.

The couple finished from the kitchen and set the food in dining hall together, the aroma of the soup filled the air as they both sat down.

"Let me feed you," she whispered, her eyes sparkling with affection.

Draven was touched by her gesture, and he willingly obliged, patting his lap for her to come and sit down.

Rhea smiled and sat on his lap, cradling the bowl in her hands. With each spoonful, she lovingly fed him, savoring the moment and trying to etch it into her memory. The bitterness of the impending events lingered in her heart as she tried to prolong their shared meal, attempting to delay what she knew was inevitable.

Rhea felt her heart thightened with guilt. Her eyes turned blurry as tears welled up, she could barely keep her emotions in place as she fed him the food.

Draven noticed the tears that rolled down her cheeks. He stopped chewing and frowned in concern, he reached up to wipe her tears away. But before he could say a word, his head started to spin and his vision suddenly turned blurry. Even his wife’s face turned blurry. And before he knew what was happening to him, everything went blank.

Draven’s head slowly fell on Rhea’s chest, and she instinctively hugged him tightly, anguish evident in her tear-filled eyes. "I’m so sorry," she whispered, her voice trembling. "I didn’t want it to end like this."

Rhea continued to hug his head to her chest even tighter, her tears rolled down uncontrollably as she clung to Draven, apologizing with a heavy heart as she summoned Lilac to go and call King Henry.

***

Few minutes later, King Henry stood before the bed of the couple with both of them laying down. Rhea’s eyes were wide open while Draven’s was closed, as he was still unconscious. She turned her head sideways and watched as the king took out the glowing knife.

When King Henry walked towards Rhea, he looked at her with a faint encouraging smile and said, "This is going to hurt, I’m sorry I have nothing to stop the pain, but I will be fast."

Rhea, who had already prepared herself for any sort of pain, wasn’t scared or discouraged by the awaiting pain of digging out the core from her chest, she silently glanced at Draven’s face, and at that moment, she knew what she was doing wasn’t wrong. She was doing it for the man she loved, and for him, she was willing to endure anything and everything in life. For him, she would die a million deaths to see him succeed in life. With those thoughts, she looked away from her husband and looked up at the king, "I’m ready, take it out."

Lilac, who stood by the side, hugged herself with tear filled in her eyes as she watched the king use a sharp knife to crave out the core from Rhea’s chest.

Immediately the core left her body, Rhea cried out as she couldn’t hold back from the pain that overwhelmed her, however, when the pain subsided after the king used his magic to seal her wound, Rhea’s face paled up like a lifeless doll, she felt an overwhelming cold that seeped through her bones. The cold was unbearable to the extent she was slightly shivering, but she still managed to turn her head to watch as the core that was taken out of her body dance in a circular motion in midair.

The core vibrated in midair before it shot towards Draven like an arrow being released by a hunter, and in a split second, it slammed onto his chest like a child eager to return home after being away for so long.

No trace of wound was left in his chest as the core entered his body, but his body began to shake as the powers of his core began to fight the serpent’s core in him. A bright blinding white light emitted from his chest and illuminated the entire room. Then, slowly the light started to disappear and his complexion turned even much better, and all the bruises on his skin began to heal, even his hair darkened into a deeper shade of black.

The most powerful creature on earth, Draven El-Dezeus, was finally whole after decades of being weak.

He had finally returned to who he originally was.

But now, Rhea’s body had no more powers to make her live a life of an immortal. From now on, her life would be hanging on a thin thread. The fate between she and Draven was slowly coming to an awful ending...

As Draven was still unconscious, Lilac took the opportunity and pressed her fingers on his forehead and said, "When you wake, you won’t notice any changes in your body, nor will you notice any changes in Rheanna..."

Rhea’s eyes never left Draven’s face. And perhaps it was her imagination, but she noticed his eyes moved a bit when Lilac spoke those words.

Using all the strength in her body, Rhea pushed herself up to a sitting position and used her fingers to gently caress his sleeping face. She traced her fingers across his cheeks, nose, and eyes, as if she wanted to memorize all his features in her memories. With a bitter smile, she asked Lilac, "Is there a way for you to wipe off his memories of me so when he wakes up he wouldn’t remember me?"

Behind Rhea, Lilac pursed her lips, her expression look unhappy at what her savior was saying. "Myself can not do that to him. I can feel his strength now that his full powers are back, he is too powerful for my magic, I don’t even knows if this my magic will last until the battle...so don’t ask me to do something beyond my strength..."

"But you like eating people’s happy emotions, right?" Rhea asked without taking her eyes away from Draven, "From now on, I will give you the access to put him in your delusional world in his sleep and give him happy moments. Make him happy and eat your fill of his satisfaction..." She whispered softly as a tear slid down her eyes.