The camp was still bathed in the trembling light of torches when I felt the change. At first, it was a distant rumble — like a heartbeat buried deep beneath the earth. Then, without warning, the air tore apart.

A portal had just opened on the horizon. Not a simple mana rift — a wound in reality itself. A tear of blue far too pure to belong to this world. The sky began to tremble. The clouds folded upon themselves like flesh under a god's blade.

I froze. My heart stopped cold. That sensation — I had felt it once before. Not here, but in Duskfall. A presence. An ancient voice. A vibration that devoured everything it touched.

— "No…" I whispered. "Impossible…"

The aura swept through us in a single breath. The tents quivered. The ground cracked. Students fell to their knees, some screaming, others completely drained of mana under the shock. Even Reina, standing beside me, pressed a hand to her temple. Her gaze hardened — almost feral.

— "That's not a dragon," she said in a low voice.

I swallowed, throat dry.

— "No… this is Sarhael's level — probably a Primordial."

That word, barely spoken, seemed to burn the air between us.

Something brushed against my mind — a cold caress, a whisper without a mouth. My stomach twisted.

The dragons in the sky began to spiral erratically, roaring in panic. Even they, the proudest creatures in existence, bowed beneath the weight of that entity. The ground trembled. The stones wept. The air itself seemed to implode under the pressure of mana.

— "Kaito…" Reina murmured, eyes locked on the rift.

— "I know."

Then came a sound. Sharp. Viscous.

Crack.

A wet noise. A cut-off breath.

I turned — not understanding.

Kairen.

He was there, only a few meters away. His gaze met mine, already fading behind pain. And behind him — Garrum, his arm buried through Kairen's chest.

A jet of blood splattered the earth.

— "Kaito…"

He tried to speak, but only a gurgle escaped his mouth. Then he collapsed, heavy, eyes wide open, staring at me.

Empty.

The world froze. Nothing else existed. Not the portal, not the fear, not the dragons howling in the heavens. Just him. And me.

I heard nothing. Not even my own heartbeat.

Garrum slowly pulled his hand back, still dripping with blood, and stared at it with a tired smile.

— "Finally… the signal," he sighed. "I was getting tired of pretending."

His face twisted. His features warped beyond recognition — a mix of hatred and delight. His mana exploded. A shockwave devoured the camp. The tents were ripped away, the ground hollowed, and the braziers' flames vanished in an instant.

Before my eyes, his body changed. His skin shimmered with metallic hues, then with crystal, then with a dark obsidian gleam. He was fusing — with stone, with iron, with mana. Each beat of his heart pulsed with lines of light running along his veins, forming a living network of unstable runes.

— "You thought I was weak, huh? Thought I was your little sick soldier?"

His voice vibrated with an inhuman echo.

— "I'm so much more than that, Kaito. More than any of you! I WAS CHOSEN!"

He raised his head — and above us, the dragons screamed, as if they recognized what he had become.

I didn't move. My gaze shifted between Kairen's corpse and Garrum's monstrous figure. My throat burned. My skin tightened.

The world had collapsed around me, leaving only that void — that pull dragging me down.

Something broke inside me.

I whispered her name.

— "Lyseria."

A white light flared in my palm. The staff appeared — solid, alive, trembling. Mana surged into it, roaring, answering my fury.

I looked up at Garrum.

He was still smiling.

— "You want to kill me, Kaito? Come on. Show me your real face. Show them all what you really are."

I took one step.

Then another.

Then the shock hit me. I barely had time to raise Lyseria before Garrum's aura burst, flooding the mountain like a tidal wave. The air vibrated; every stone, every grain of dust seemed ready to explode.

In front of me, he advanced slowly — his body no longer real. His skin kept shifting, changing texture with every heartbeat: steel, glass, rock, then something I couldn't even name. His eyes gleamed with a sick golden light, and his voice echoed inside my head more than through the air.

— "You're going to die here, Kaito!"

I didn't have time to answer. His wing snapped — the ground lifted — and I was thrown before I could even react. The impact tore the breath from me; I rolled across the dirt, back shredded, the taste of iron flooding my mouth. I tried to regain footing, but the mountain still shook.

Ahead of me, Garrum landed with a thunderous crash, and the shockwave alone shattered the rocks into shards of glass.

I gritted my teeth. It was insane. His speed, his strength, his mana flow — nothing in him resembled what he once was. A monster. That's what he'd become.

I lifted Lyseria with both hands. The staff thrummed under my grip, ready to obey. The air thickened with a crimson glow, a breath that burned without consuming. When he lunged, I had no choice but to meet him head-on.

Our weapons clashed with a sound like thunder. The shock ran up my arm, nearly splitting my shoulder. Garrum staggered back a step, eyes locked on me, then rushed again. I caught the blow, pivoted, and released all tension in a single motion: First Movement — Dawn's Bleeding.

Light burst forth — red and pure — cutting a perfect descending arc that split the mist. A wave of mana erupted, scattering dust and tearing through silence. The vibration of the strike shook my chest — but he didn't fall. He straightened, his wound already closing, the steel of his arm shifting into crystal to seal it.

I stepped back twice. Sweat ran down my spine. He was stronger, denser, more grounded. Every strike I landed seemed to feed him — as if each wound made him more real, more alive.

He charged again. His fist slammed into the ground beside me, shattering stone like a bomb. I threw myself backward and, without thinking, activated Genesis. Energy flooded me at once — cold and burning all at once.

Around me, matter tore open; I drew two silver spheres — unstable, pulsing. I launched them forward and detonated them mid-air. The explosion was silent, swallowed by the density of mana around us. The heat that followed ripped a scream from my throat, but Garrum was thrown back a few meters, his left wing charred.

He roared. His veins flared open, glowing with molten light that ran beneath his skin. Before my eyes, his arm reformed again — this time of glowing red metal. He raised his head, pupils slitted like a dragon's, and charged.

I parried, but the sheer force of the blow pushed me back, one step, then another. My feet carved into the dirt, my bones trembling. I had to scream just to keep from breaking — the sound lost in the storm. Every impact rang like a death knell, every motion tore at my muscles.

I spun, drew the staff low to the ground, and shouted: Second Movement — Rise of the First Ray.

A red line traced a circle around us. Mana gathered, twisted, then burst outward in a centrifugal blast. Garrum was hit full-on, his torso split, leaking a blackish light, almost liquid. He fell for a moment, on his knees, breath ragged.

I had no time to breathe. His laughter rose — muffled at first, then manic.

His flesh boiled, swelling. Something moved inside his back. A black filament — organic — pierced through his skin like a tendril, then another, then a third. They pulsed, oozing an energy that froze my very soul.

I understood, in that precise instant, that this wasn't Garrum anymore. Something else had taken him — something that had eaten him alive and was now laughing through his throat.

He slammed his fist down — the earth gave way. A wave of molten rock surged up, shaped to his will, and came crashing toward me. I leapt forward, dodged, planted Lyseria into the ground, and shouted:

— "Genesis, compression!"

The world contracted.

The air stopped.

Then the explosion.

A white sphere bloomed around us — so dense it swallowed the light. The entire mountain shuddered; ash fell from the sky like glass rain. When the shockwave faded, I was on my knees, ears ringing, skin scorched by heat. Garrum was still standing. Half-destroyed — but standing.

I slowly lifted my head. His face was a cracked mask now, but the smile remained. His aura stretched upward, reaching the clouds themselves.

I pulled myself to my feet, swaying. My body screamed to stop — but my hands refused to release Lyseria. Not now. Not after Kairen. Not after all this blood.

The air vibrated around me. The staff shone with red and gold light — the same that pulsed beneath my skin. I felt the mana align with my breath, pain melding with rage. The world shrank to a single point: him. Garrum.

I roared and charged.

Our auras collided — and the rest of the world vanished.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.