It feels hot… My body… What is this feeling… it's… foreign.
Dravion's mind reeled. His body burned, not with mana, no. This wasn't power flowing in. It was something else. Something deeper. Something… older.
Even as the forest trembled beneath his rising presence, even as the wind refused to blow. After all, this was not mere pressure. No. This was a transformation.
A golden light coiled around his tail. Slow. Deliberate. Like the hand of fate dressing a god for war. It wrapped him inch by inch: his tail, his hind legs, his wings. Finally, it reached his head.
The tiger turned her head toward him instinctively. The light scorched her vision. But she did not blink. She could not look away. It was as if the gods themselves had commanded her to bear witness.
Her fur no longer stood on end. Fear was gone. What remained was reverence. Worship. Her wide blue eyes stared into something she could not understand.
And then, a sliver of the golden light brushed her fur. And everything went dark for a long moment...
"This is my gift to you."
The voice echoed through Dravion's mind. It came from nowhere, and everywhere. Like an ancient echo, buried in time. But it burned inside him like a star reborn.
Who are you...? I've heard your voice before... I think… Dravion tried to speak, but no sound came. His jaw was locked. His thoughts scattered.
The golden light twisted around him, stretching, breaking, and reshaping. It wasn't gentle. It hurt. Excruciating. Violent. Like being ripped out of his own skin and forged anew.
Slowly, he shrunk and grew. Again and again.
His body no longer stood on all fours. No. He rose upright; two legs planted firm, his spine straightening with each pulse of golden energy.
A silhouette began to take shape within the light. Humanoid. But not human. It was impossible to make out his features through the thick embrace of divine light, but the energy leaking from him told the story. This was no ordinary transformation.
It was terrifying.
RIPPLE!
A shockwave blasted outward, gold and heat rippling through the forest like a god's breath.
Trees groaned. The earth cracked. Leaves were ripped into the sky as one by one the trees toppled around him.
The tiger didn't stand a chance. Her body was launched back, flung so far she vanished beyond the horizon.
Dravion's form suddenly expanded like a balloon of golden pressure. Then it collapsed, drawn inward, compacted, reshaped.
His form settled.
Now, only one being remained near the dried spring. A child. But not the one who had been there moments ago.
No longer a beast. Not yet quite a man.
A boy stood in the mist of fading gold, barely ten or eleven in shape, but far from human. His skin was dark, almost charcoal-blue, with a faint shimmer like stardust had soaked into his flesh. Not smooth, but layered; scales thin as silk, etched in faint golden lines that pulsed with life.
Two small horns curled back from his temples, still forming, their edges jagged like a crown carved from obsidian. Behind his head, strands of wild midnight-black hair fell past his shoulders, speckled with glimmers of violet and gold, like someone had dragged a comb through the cosmos.
His eyes were the most striking.
Not just golden, somewhat molten, slit-pupiled, glowing faintly like twin suns still waking.
Thin traces of ancient runes marked his shoulders and upper chest, peeking from beneath the remains of gold-tinted scales. His limbs were lean, not muscular, childlike, but carried a strange, fluid power, as if remembering the strength it once held.
A tail trailed behind him, still draconic, but smaller now, tapered, agile. His claws had receded just enough to pass as fingers, though their tips still shimmered faintly with danger. A pair of obsidian wings stretched from his back, sharp and elegant, completing his half-divine form.
He was barefoot. But the earth beneath him trembled as if afraid to touch what now stood upon it. Not beast. Not god. Not a boy. Something becoming.
Meanwhile, far away, a tiger limped through broken trees, her heart still trembling. But in that fear… a seed had been planted.
And someday, that seed would bloom into rage… or a fate that would echo through eternity.
"It hurts…"
Dravion clenched his right arm. Something stirred beneath the flesh. A force he couldn't contain. He looked at his hand, scaled, but soft. Not fully beast. Not fully man.
Like the hands of the ones I killed... but not the same.
This form felt alien. Yet at the same time… like it belonged to him. A single tear slid down his cheek. It dripped onto the trembling hand, and a vision burst through his mind.
A woman's image flickered before his eyes. She was glorious, breathtaking, but laced with a sharp edge of danger.
"My love…"
Pain exploded through his chest. Hatred poured in. The memory cracked open what had been sealed.
"You… stole my eyes."
His voice trembled.
"I… remember now... Betrayal... Abandonment... You will pay... All of you… will pay."
His voice shifted, cold and low. Words came without thought. But they were his. Somehow.
"This rage… this fire… will burn in my heart forever. I will carve my own path. Become the god none of you can defy. When that day comes, all will tremble beneath my gaze. All will die. Only the innocent will remain..." His voice dropped, cold and sharp as true ice. "There will be a purge."
He didn't understand why the words came. But he knew they were true. Those visions and the pain... they weren't lies.
And so, Dravion made his choice:
He would seek them out. The ones his soul remembered. And one by one, he would kill them.
But first, he needed power. And power… he would build.
His right arm responded, trembling violently. The pain surged up his shoulder. He couldn't hold it anymore. He raised his hand toward the trees.
WOOOOOOSH!
The explosion ripped through the world; a beam of raw, divine force shot forth, tearing heaven and earth apart.
Trees, stones, mountains, everything annihilated. Nothing remained.
From above, a golden path carved through the world. Ten kilometers wide. Expanding. Spreading. A forest that had stood for millions of years… gone.
Reduced to ashes... A sacrifice to the rebirth of the Dragon God.