A warm, thrumming light pulsed from the very core of Miro's being, radiating from each star scale to envelop Kaz's broken body in a cocoon of primordial energy. It did not heal the horrific wound, it was beyond saving, but it seemed to staunch the flow of time itself.
The encroaching, eternal cold was at bay. The tunnel of darkness, had started to recede. Kaz drew a shallow, rattling breath. His heavy eyes fluttered open to meet the two luminious orbs of his best friend.
"Kaz." Miro's voice was no longer just a hum in his mind, but a clear whisper that seemed to echo from the world itself. "Stay with me. Just a moment longer. I need you to hear this."
"Miro..." Kaz's voice was a ghost of a sound, a mere fragile exhalation. He could feel the Dragon's immense life force fighting against reality on his behalf. "You're... okay..." It was all he could think to say. His friend was safe. That was enough.
"I am not what you believe me to be," Miro said, his great head dipping lower until his massive snout was mere inches from Kaz's face. The warmth of his breath was a comfort. "The form you know... the dragon... is a cage I built for myself. I am a being known as a World Serpent. A being of the foundations. I used the drift to flee my world, not out of malice or instinct. My world is dying, I am the last of my species left. Behind the Drift there's only dead."
Kaz's fading mind, clinging to consciousness by a thread woven out of Miro's will struggled to comprehend. A World Serpent. The old, tattered books in his hut spoke of such beings in hushed, mystical terms. Creatures that coiled around reality, so vast their bodies created starts. To think he had been sharing his canned food with a creature of legends.
"I hid my nature, shrinking my form, compressing my power into this smaller shell to survive the transition and escape notice. But in this desolate place, I found more than simple survival. I found you. Well," a flicker of their old camaraderie colored the thought, "you found me, actually, back when I was just an egg."
The Serpent's mental voice was thick with emotion. "You were not my keeper, but an anchor. You became my purpose the moment I clumsily stepped out of that egg. And I am not willing to exist in a universe where you do not."
A fresh wave of grief, cut through Kaz's shock. "I'm sorry... I should've paid more... attention... I was too slow..." A single tear traced a clean path through the grime and blood on his cheek, a final, futile apology.
"Do not be," Miro's thought was gentle but firm. "This is not an end. It's a mere transition. And for that, I wish to establish a pact between us." Miro's energy flared, and Kaz felt a strange, pulling sensation deep within his own cells. "The reason you never manifested a System, Kaz, is that your body if 'Closed'. Your radiation pores are sealed shut. Most humans are like this; they cannot naturally hold the power needed to sustain Drift energy, so they reject it, or it makes them ill. But a closed door can be opened."
Before Kaz could process this, a searing pain blossomed in his very core, entirely distinct from his previous fatal wound. It was an internal unravelind. It felt as if a million microscopic doors, were being blasted open all at once.
"I am forging the conduit," Miro explained, his own form beginning to shimmer, the edges blurring. His colossal body became translucent, starting to dissolve from the tail up into a vortex of pure, incandescent blue, red and silver light. "You will not be able to contain a System. But you will not receive a common, mindless fragment of Drift energy. I will become your System. My consciousness, memories, power, my very being, all that will live on inside you. I will live on as the voice in your mind. I will be your shield and your sword. We will be one. You can walk among humans, and I will be with you, unseen. You will never be lonely again, and I will not have to live in a world without you in it.
The Serpent began shedding tears of raw emotion, landing on Kaz's lost expression. The light intensified, pouring into Kaz, a river of liquid stars flowing through the newly opened pathways in his soul. It filled the void in his stomach with swirling living power. The agonizing pain of the transformation was washed away, replaced by a feeling of impossible wholeness, like a puzzle finally being completed. He was being remade. Miro was becoming a part of him.
"This is my choice, Kaz. My wish and greatest act. So live. Live for the both of us."
The last thing Kaz saw was not the desolate Deadzone forest, but the brilliant, eternal light of his first and only friend flowing into him, sealing their pact. Then everything, the pain, grief, and the world, dissolved into a silent, perfect white.