Chapter 35 Save Me

Chapter 35 Save Me
Jax found his consciousness floating in a place with no visible earth and no body to anchor him.

There was nothing else there.

Fragments of the previous battle flashed in broken pieces across the dark. The axe. The demon. The Wardback.

And in the final instant before everything had gone black, it had whispered to him.

Save me.

His eyes flew open with a single thought already burning through the haze.

Where’s Mira?

A heavy warmth rested across his chest. He looked down and found her there, bruised, tattered, and alive.

Relief loosened something inside him for one brief second.

Then pain crashed through the rest of his body.

Mana surged violently beneath his skin, and agony ripped down both arms in sudden, brutal waves that made his breath catch in his throat. He jerked hard enough to wake Mira beneath him.

"Jax…” Her voice was thick with sleep until she saw his face. “JAX!”

Panic sharpened her instantly. She pushed herself upright and reached for him just as another convulsion tore through his body. “Get in here! Now!”

Ironwind Triage and Alexander rushed in almost immediately, crowding to his side as the pain kept building. 

Jax could barely hear them over the sound of his own breathing. His vision blurred. His chest felt too tight. Like something inside him was dragging the air and mana of the entire room straight into his body.

It took all of them working together to force his mana back under control, and even then it barely helped.

“What the fuck was that?” Ana snapped, backing just enough to see him fully.

Alexander soaked a rag, pressed it against Jax’s forehead, and his expression hardened almost at once. “He’s burning up. This might be a mana seizure.”

Another wave tore through him.

Jax arched violently and clawed at his own chest with a scream that ripped itself raw on the way out. Ambient mana flooded toward him in visible strands now, dragged from the room in desperate, unnatural currents.

“He can’t handle all of that mana,” Clouse barked, both hands raised as he tried to break whatever connection had formed. “If this keeps going, it’ll kill him. Where the hell is it coming from?”

The world stopped for one impossible instant.

Emerald and gold light bloomed from Jax’s chest.

No one moved.

Jax tried to fight it himself. Tried to breathe through it. Tried to stay conscious long enough to understand what was happening.

He lost the fight.

The moment his awareness slipped, the mana collapsed inward.

Plates of the Wardback’s shell manifested across his body in overlapping layers, forming over his skin in a living pattern of stone, gold, and muted emerald. The armor sealed over him completely for a single breath. 

Then the light broke apart.

The shell dissolved as quickly as it had formed, flaking away into drifting motes of emerald and gold. In its place, just above his chest, a small turtle-shaped crest remained.

It pulsed once against his skin.

Then went still.

Jax’s breathing steadied immediately.

The pain vanished so suddenly it left the room feeling hollow.

For several long seconds, nobody moved.

Then the tension broke, relief filled the room in scattered breaths and exhausted silence.

Mira was the first to move. She kept one hand pressed against his chest and slowly lifted the other over the newly formed crest. Her fingers hovered for half a second before touching it.

“Alexander,” she said, her voice still tight, “check him again. Please. I’m worried something’s wrong and we just can’t see it.”

Only after she moved did Alexander step in closer and examine him properly. He took longer this time, his brow furrowing more with every second.

“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” he admitted at last. “But he’s alive. Thank the gods, he’s alive.” He looked once more at the crest on Jax’s chest. “And I don’t think this is a power he gained on his own.”

Jax swallowed, his throat still rough. “What happened while I was out?”

No one answered immediately, and that told him enough before anyone spoke. He looked between them, unease settling where the pain had been. “That’s not a great sign.”

Alexander stepped closer and dragged a hand down his face. “You lost control of your mana. At first I thought it was a surge. It wasn’t. Your body started pulling ambient mana out of the room. Fast. More than you should have been able to hold.”

“How much?”

“Enough that I thought you were about to die.”

Mira’s hand tightened slightly against his chest. “You couldn’t breathe. Then you stopped responding.”

Jax glanced at her. “I’m still here.”

“That wasn’t a guarantee.”

There was no sharpness in her voice when she said it. That made it worse. Alexander crouched beside him, eyes still fixed on the crest. “When you lost consciousness, the pull got worse for a second. Then everything collapsed inward. Straight into your chest.”

Jax let out a slow breath and looked down at the mark. It sat there small and still, too simple for what they were describing. “That should’ve killed me.”

“It should have.”

He looked between them again. “Then what?”

Mira answered first. “Shell.”

Jax went still.

“Wardback shell,” she said quietly. “It covered your whole body.”

Clouse folded his arms, his expression no easier to read than before. “Head to toe. Layered. We couldn’t touch it.”

Alexander nodded once. “It didn’t behave like anything I’ve seen. Not armor. Not a construct. Not a spell.”

Mira’s voice lowered. “It felt like something answering.”

Jax said nothing to that. His gaze dropped back to the crest and his fingers rose without thinking, pressing lightly against it. Solid and Real.

“I heard it.”

Alexander looked at him. “Heard what?”

“The Wardback. Before I woke up. Or before I came back. I don’t know.” Jax kept his fingers where they were. “It said something.”

“What?” Mira asked.

Clouse’s expression tightened at that, and Jax caught the shift immediately. “What?”

Alexander stepped in before Clouse could answer. “Because this isn’t yours.”

Jax frowned. “Excuse me?”

“The mark,” Alexander said. “It didn’t form from your mana. It didn’t stabilize like a skill. It attached.”

Jax stared at him. “That’s worse.”

Alexander didn’t disagree. He kept going like stopping would only make the whole thing heavier. “Your mana is stable now. No drain. No damage left from the surge. Whatever this is, it isn’t actively hurting you.”

Jax frowned. “So I’m fine.”

“You shouldn’t be.”

That sat badly. He looked down again. The crest was still there. Small. Solid. Silent. He pressed his palm against it harder this time.

“What happens if I use mana?” he asked.

“No,” Mira said immediately.

Jax looked at her. Her hand was still resting against him like she was making sure he stayed there. He let his own hand fall away from the mark. “Yeah,” he said quietly. “Alright.”

Alexander stood back up slowly. “Nothing about the mark leaves this room.”

Clouse nodded once. Mira shifted closer beside him and said, “We’ll figure it out.”

Jax looked down at the crest again.

Save me, echoed in his mind. It had asked for help. 

The words no longer felt distant. They sat with weight now, heavier than the mark itself, and whatever the Wardback had left with him, it wasn’t done.