The Doctor's Reckoning

The Doctor's Reckoning   Chapter 281: Doubts

“What should we do now, Mom? Dad is conducting an investigation!” James asked anxiously, his voice taut with unease.They were inside his office at VMH. James sat rigidly behind his desk, hands gripping the armrests, while Gracia reclined lazily on the sofa across the room, leafing through a glossy magazine as if the world outside didn’t exist.They had been talking about what happened to Jasmine and Joaquin, about how Javier had practically moved into the hospital, guarding his children like a sentry. James knew exactly how deeply his father cared for them—how far he would go to uncover the truth. And that terrified him, because if Javier succeeded, the truth would lead straight back to him and his mother.He never wanted this. He never wanted blood on his conscience.But Gracia had insisted.“Don’t worry, son,” she said, barely glancing up as she flipped another page. “Your father won’t know anything… unless you tell him.” Her tone was almost mocking, dangerously calm.James exhale

The Doctor's Reckoning   Chapter 280: Finding the truth

Jasmine slowly opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was the blinding light above her. Panic struck her chest as the thought hit—was she dead?What happened to me? she asked herself, bewildered.Her memory felt fractured, like someone had torn pages out of a book. She couldn’t piece together how she had ended up here. The last thing she remembered was being inside a warehouse with Joaquin… then the deafening explosion.“Ms. Lopez? Do you hear me?” asked Dr. Ramirez.He carefully opened one of her eyes and shone a small light inside. Her pupil reacted, and he immediately let go.A faint smile tugged at Dr. Ramirez’s lips as he glanced at Javier Villareal, who stood tense and watchful at the bedside.“She’s back, Mr. Villareal.”Relief washed over Javier like a tide breaking through a dam. He leaned down to see his daughter’s face more closely, his voice trembling.“Jasmine? It’s me. It’s your father.”Jasmine let out a faint groan in response. Her vision still spun, the world tiltin

The Doctor's Reckoning   Chapter 279: A Glorious Comeback

The Doctor's Reckoning   Chapter 278: The Last Blow

The air between them crackled, saturated with a magic so dense it seemed to choke the breath from Joaquin’s lungs. Neraxis stood at the far end of the sanctum, his blackened robes stirring in an unseen wind, his eyes burning with the slow, deliberate confidence of one who believed himself untouchable. The fractured remnants of his earlier spells still hung in the air — shards of warped light, fragments of distorted space, and threads of darkness weaving back into his grasp.“You have clawed your way through the Spire, boy,” Neraxis said, his voice deep as bedrock, “but here, at the heart, your strength ends.”Joaquin didn’t answer. Words were useless now. He tightened his grip on his weapon — the blade glowing faintly, flickers of his own magic laced through its steel — and forced his aching body to stand st

The Doctor's Reckoning   Chapter 277: It Bend

The air didn’t explode.It bent.One instant, Joaquin stood in the sanctum’s warped corridor, the next, the edges of his vision folded inward like a burning page. The walls were still there, but not in the same way. Stones swam through each other, dissolving at the edges. Shadows pooled on the ceiling like ink in water. The floor tilted, though the slabs beneath his boots didn’t shift an inch.He blinked hard, expecting the distortion to clear, but it only deepened. The air in front of Neraxis rippled as if heat rose from invisible flames, and in that distortion his form wavered—sometimes tall, sometimes impossibly narrow

The Doctor's Reckoning   Chapter 276: Cont.

The void shuddered.A rift of raw, black fire tore through the air where Joaquin stood, heat and cold striking him in the same breath. The world beyond the sanctum was gone—replaced by an endless chasm of fractured light and swirling darkness.And in that collapsing space, Neraxis moved first.The High Warlock’s hand slashed downward, and the void answered. Entire constellations bent inward, their dying light collapsing into a spear of shimmering obsidian. It hurt to look at it—like staring into the heart of every shadow Joaquin had ever known.The spear screamed toward him.Joaquin didn’t move by instinct alone; he let the storm inside his veins surge, the remnants of every battle he had fought here i