Khael lifted his head.

His eyes were not merely red from blood, pain, or unshed tears; they were pulsing with a raw, unstable violet light that was utterly alien. The light did not emit, it drank. It absorbed the dim, ambient Shinrei of the ruined battlefield, gathering the faint energy like a swirling vortex.

K, who had been composed through countless acts of brutality, paused. His smile dissolved, replaced by a sudden, intense focus.

"That… resonance," K murmured, stepping back instinctively. He felt the shift in the atmosphere it was not just power increasing; it was the nature of the power fundamentally changing.

The Shard of Flesh the ancient artifact that had driven this entire conflict was no longer just an object in Khael's chest. It was a synchronizing catalyst. It was not draining him, as K had intended; it was fusing with the dormant, inherited powers of the Dragon Bloodline.

Khael's vision flickered with red warnings from his Dragon Knight system, the glowing sigil only he could see. ⚠ WARNING: THE SHARD OF FLESH IS SYNCHRONIZING WITH YOUR DRAGON BLOODLINE POWER, AWAKENING 2ND MASTERY OF YOUR ECLIPSE GATE. INITIATING UPGRADED TRANSFORMATION: DRAGONION FORM. ⚠

The pain was beyond anything Khael had ever known. It was not a physical wound; it was the sound of his soul ripping itself open and stitching itself back together with a material that didn't belong to this world.

"GIVE ME THE SHARD!" K commanded, the calm finally cracking in his voice. He lunged forward, not with casual elegance, but with the terrifying, absolute speed of a hunter realizing its prey is about to escape.

But Khael was already gone.

He did not dodge or step back. He simply existed elsewhere.

The raw Shinrei that erupted from his body was not the turbulent wind of his Dragon Bloodline, nor the familiar, desperate green of his allies' support. It was a chaotic, beautiful torrent of deep violet and electric black, roaring into the sky.

"The Eclipse Gate," Khael whispered, his voice distorted, layered with an ancient, echoing bass that resonated with the ruined earth. His hand the one that had been trembling and raised to surrender slammed down.

"ECLIPSE GATE: OPEN."

A thunderclap, dry and deafening, tore across the mountainside.

K's rushing body froze just two meters from Khael. His eyes widened slightly as he felt the sheer dimensional pressure of the Fifth Vein Gate the Eclipse Gate unleashing power that rivaled even the Lunar Sages.

Khael's skin began to flake and shed, revealing what lay beneath. Not flesh, but scales deep cobalt scales that looked less like armor and more like polished obsidian mixed with moonlight. His clothes disintegrated, replaced by a suit of sleek, segmented draconic plating. His arms thickened into powerful, scaled limbs ending in wickedly sharp claws, and a pair of massive, ethereal shadow-violet wings ripped out from his back, tearing through the air, not merely for flight, but for intimidation.

The Dragonion Form.

This was the true, complete manifestation of the Dragon Bloodline when harmonized with the ultimate emotional chaos of the Eclipse Gate.

The Shinrei flowing from him wasn't energy; it was a Field.

Juno, still leaning on his shaking arms, cried out as the Shinrei pressure compressed his body. But simultaneously, the pain from his open Gate receded slightly, the chaotic influx of Eclipse power temporarily stabilizing his flow.

Ceyla, lying shattered, felt the darkness of her Storm Affinity recoil from the sheer, overwhelming power of the violet aura. For a moment, her focus cleared.

Matthew, the unconscious hero, whose Harmonae Spirit was fading, suddenly saw his spirit guardian ignite in the ambient violet light. Harmonae didn't recover, but its light became pure, stripped of the battlefield's lingering corruption.

Khael's face was hidden behind a smooth, segmented draconic mask of the same cobalt material. Only his eyes those twin vortexes of violet and black were visible.

He looked at K. And he spoke.

"You sought the Shard to break my heart. You only succeeded in giving me a new one."

His voice was terrifying, ancient, and calm. The voice of a true Dragon.

K narrowed his eyes, recovering instantly from his shock. He had expected Khael to surrender, or perhaps die. He had not accounted for the Shard's ancient, symbiotic link to the Dragon Bloodline.

"A pathetic, emotional reaction," K sneered, though the confidence was a thin veneer. "The Eclipse Gate is the path to the Void. You've simply accelerated your own damnation."

Khael did not reply. He simply lifted a clawed hand.

The air around him didn't move, it shattered.

VOID ART: RUPTURE PULSE was K's signature speed attack, capable of instantly destabilizing a target's internal organs. K focused the technique, aiming it at Robi, who was attempting to crawl forward.

But before the ripple could travel an inch, Khael's hand flicked.

ECLIPSE ART: DRACONIC DISPERSION

A silent, massive wave of violet Shinrei crashed outward, not a striking force, but a barrier of pure potential energy. It struck K's Rupture Pulse, and the devastating Void Art didn't explode or deflect, it dissipated. The very concept of the attack was erased by the superior, synchronizing flow.

K's eyes widened. "Impossible. You countered the concept of the art."

Khael lifted his head, the voice now cold, alien, and absolute. "I am the gate, and the gate is closed to you."

Robi, using his Iron Nerve Gate, pushed himself to his knees, staring in awe. "That boy... he opened the Eclipse Gate."

Khael was no longer a person; he was a catastrophe contained within a suit of draconic power.

K, realizing the gravity of the situation, finally moved to his full potential. He raised his arms, and the void around him screamed.

VOID ART: SANCTUM INVERSION

The space immediately surrounding K warped violently, becoming a swirling vortex of blackness designed to pull apart the physical and spiritual components of anything that touched it. This was an ultimate defensive and offensive art, if Khael stepped into it, the Dragonion Form would be shredded to its molecular core.

Khael's cobalt armor pulsed, the Shard deep in his chest thrumming with dangerous power. He read the move instantly, not with foresight, but with the Dragon's Domain, the inherent superiority of his Bloodline over elemental forces.

Instead of avoiding the lethal vortex, Khael charged.

He didn't run. He opened his mouth, and a new kind of power flowed out.

ECLIPSE ART: VOID BREATHER

It wasn't a breath of fire or wind. It was a torrent of pure, solid violet Shinrei—the spiritual energy of the Dragonion Form fired like a cannon shell. The Art plunged straight into K's Sanctum Inversion.

The two ultimate powers clashed. The black void of K's art tried to consume the violet cannon, but the Dragonion Shinrei was too dense. It didn't break down; it merely stripped the void art of its corruption.

K's vortex shrieked, then cracked.

K, his face etched with pure shock, threw up his hands to defend as the purified violet blast smashed through his broken defense.

BOOM!

K was hit with the force of a tectonic plate shifting. He shot backward, skidding violently across the ruined earth, his elegant cloak ripped, his shirt torn, and his body finally slammed into a standing slab of stone, shattering it into dust.

Silence fell. The only sound was the heavy, echoing breathing of the Dragonion Form.

Khael stood amidst the violet storm. He was in complete control, yet the Shard's influence the reason he could access this form was a constant, cold whisper of power and despair.

He looked down at his friends. The raw power had settled the immediate chaos, protecting them, but they were still broken.

K, rising slowly from the rubble, looked damaged but not defeated. He rubbed his side, his breath slightly shallow. "A magnificent display, Dragon Knight. Truly. You bled me once; now you've wounded me. I underestimated the depth of your foolish compassion."

He looked at the Shard's violet aura clinging to Khael. "But the Shard is temporary, Khael Corzedar. It is a leash. And the moment that leash breaks, you will fall not to the Eclipse Gate's mastery, but to the Hollow Drift."

Khael took a step forward. The ground cracked beneath the Dragonion Form's immense weight.

"You lose the moment you rely on borrowed time," K said, but his voice was strained. He knew he couldn't win this prolonged fight. Khael, in this state, was a living calamity.

"Then I will win in the time I have." Khael responded, the deep voice resonating.

He raised both clawed hands, and the full power of the Dragonion Form was unleashed. The violet Shinrei coalesced around his palms, twisting and tightening into two massive, shimmering orbs of pure, compressed energy.

ECLIPSE ART: DRAGON'S JUDGMENT

The air screamed as the spheres formed, tearing gravity apart. K knew this was an ultimate attack one that his body, injured and surprised, could not fully defend against.

K lifted his chin, his eyes flashing with cold resolve. "Then let me show you the true price of such temporary power."

He did not raise a weapon or an art. He simply gathered a tiny, focused speck of pure black energy Void Shinrei at the tip of one finger.

Khael launched the attack. The twin spheres of concentrated Shinrei shot toward K with the speed of light.

And K smiled, cold and sharp.

"VOID ART: UNBIND."

The tiny speck of black energy didn't move toward Khael; it moved toward Matthew Lomwel.

The Unbind Art was not meant to kill Matthew, but to sever the faint spiritual cord holding his Echo Spirit, Harmonae, to his unconscious body. If Matthew's spirit broke, his body would fall to Khael's blast, and the Dragon Knight's emotional state the source of his power would instantly collapse.

Khael saw the tiny, black speck the devastating threat to his friend and his massive attack paused mid-flight.

The violet orbs, the Dragon's Judgment wavered, their destructive focus momentarily split.

K knew Khael's heart. He was banking everything on Khael's compassion, the one emotion that could override the cold, mechanical power of the Dragonion Form.

Khael was faced with an impossible choice:

Continue the attack: Annihilate K, but let Matthew's soul be severed, possibly killing him and definitely shattering the already-broken team.

Defend Matthew: Halt the ultimate attack and use the limited, unstable power of the Dragonion Form to protect his friend, leaving K alive to strike again.

In the Dragonion form, Khael's power was absolute, but his emotion now amplified by the Shard was his ultimate weakness.

With a primal, echoing roar of despair and rage, Khael made his move. He ripped one of the violet spheres of the Dragon's Judgment from its trajectory and spun it backward.

ECLIPSE ART: DRAGON'S SHIELD

The immense power of the attack was instantly converted into a vast, shimmering violet shield that intercepted the tiny speck of Void Art: Unbind just millimeters from Matthew's body. The clash caused a blinding, noiseless flash.

The other sphere the one still aimed at K continued, but its power was halved, its focus broken. K stepped cleanly aside, letting the reduced sphere detonate harmlessly against the mountain behind him.

Khael stood exposed, the Dragonion Form shaking with the emotional instability of sacrificing his strike.

K simply dusted off his shoulder, his smile returning, cold and triumphant.

"I told you," K murmured, looking directly into the pulsing, violet eyes of the Dragonion Form. "Emotion is a pathetic, yet reliable leash."

He raised his hand. The ground beneath Khael's shaking body began to crackle with Void Shinrei.

"The time you bought... is up."

Khael, trapped between overwhelming power and absolute emotional paralysis, roared in frustration. The Shard pulsed violently, threatening to consume him.

To be continue

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