Ethan woke to pain.
His bones ached like they were being stretched from the inside. His clothes felt too small. The narrow dormitory bed seemed to have shrunk overnight.
Gray light filtered through the window. Dawn. But something was wrong with the quality of the light. Everything looked sharper and clearer.
"Oh Light!" Kaleb's voice cracked. "Ethan?"
Ethan sat up slowly. His roommate was staring at him with wide eyes.
"What?" Ethan's voice sounded different. Deeper.
"You... you're taller. And your face..." Kaleb scrambled out of bed. "How is that possible?"
Ethan looked down at himself. His nightshirt stretched tight across broader shoulders. His wrists extended past the sleeves. When he touched his face, he felt stubble that hadn't been there yesterday.
The fragment. It's changing me.
He stumbled to the small mirror hanging on the wall. The reflection showed a face he barely recognized. Still sixteen, but with the bone structure of someone older. Sharper jaw and deeper-set eyes.
Most disturbing were his eyes. They held silver flecks that moved.
"I need to get dressed," Ethan said.
"But how…"
"I don't know." Another lie. He knew exactly what was happening. The Kingmaker Blade fragment was remaking him, aging his body to match the power flowing through his veins.
Six months. Maybe more. All in one night.
Ethan's old clothes didn't fit. His pants ended inches above his ankles. His shirt split at the shoulders when he tried to pull it on. Kaleb, still staring, offered some of his own clothes that hung loose but were long enough.
"We should tell someone," Kaleb said. "The healers. Maybe they can…"
"No." The word came out harder than Ethan intended.
Because if they find out what I've done, they'll lock me away and I become a conduit for demon summoning. Maya might be going through the same thing and the Academy has people who would kill for what I'm carrying.
"Please," Ethan said instead. "Just give me time to figure this out."
Breakfast was a nightmare.
Students whispered as Ethan walked to the Silver section. Some stared openly. A few pointed. By the time he sat down, half the dining hall was watching him.
"Cole?" Chayton looked confused. "Did you... get taller?"
"Growth spurt," Ethan said. The porridge tasted stale in his mouth.
"In one night?"
"It happens."
But even as he said it, Ethan could feel the changes continuing. His muscles felt denser. His reflexes sharper. When he accidentally gripped his spoon too hard, the metal bent.
Across the hall, Maya sat in the Silver section looking perfectly normal. No visible changes. But when their eyes met, he saw something different in her golden gaze. Depth. Ancient knowledge that hadn't been there yesterday.
The Saint's Staff fragment was changing her too. Just more subtly.
After breakfast, Ethan headed to Advanced Combat Training. The walk felt different. His longer legs covered ground faster. Students moved out of his way without seeming to realize it.
Master Donovan was waiting in the practice hall.
"Cole," he said. His gray eyes tracked every detail of Ethan's altered appearance. "Interesting night?"
"Normal night, Master."
"Is it? Because you look like you've aged six months since yesterday." Donovan circled him slowly. "Gained two inches in height. Developed muscle mass that should take years to build naturally."
Other students were arriving. Settling into their usual spots. Pretending not to listen while hanging on every word.
"I don't know what you mean," Ethan said.
"Don't you?" Donovan stopped in front of him. "Tell me, what do you know about Divine Weapons?"
Ethan's blood turned to ice. "Nothing, Master."
"Nothing. How curious." Donovan's smile was sharp as winter. "Because Divine Weapons have a very particular effect on their chosen wielders. Physical transformation. Enhanced abilities. Accelerated aging as the price of power."
The practice hall had gone completely silent. Thirty-nine pairs of eyes watched the exchange.
Donovan paired Ethan with Giovanni Celci for sparring practice. "Let's see how these new... developments... affect your technique."
The other students formed a circle around them. Ethan could feel their eyes tracking his every movement. Whispers followed him.
Celci raised his practice sword. Water magic flickered around his fingers. "Ready?"
Ethan nodded and fell into a basic guard position.
The attack came fast. Celci was good - better than most Silver-ranked students. But to Ethan's enhanced vision, the strike seemed slow. Predictable.
He parried without thinking. His counter-attack moved with inhuman speed.
The practice sword stopped an inch from Celci's throat.
Dead silence filled the hall.
"Interesting," Donovan observed. His voice carried across the sudden quiet. "Very interesting indeed."
Ethan stepped back, lowering his sword. Around him, students stared with a mixture of awe and fear.
"How did you do that?" Celci asked quietly.
Before Ethan could answer, Donovan clapped slowly. The sound echoed through the hall, quieting the questions.
"Remarkable improvement, Cole. Almost as if you've been touched by something... extraordinary." The master's gray eyes never left Ethan's face. "Divine Weapons choose their wielders carefully, you know. They transform those deemed worthy."
Ethan's blood turned to ice. "Master?"
"Nothing to concern yourself with. Yet." Donovan's smile was sharp as winter. "But such rapid development does raise... questions."
He knows. Not everything, but enough to be dangerous.
"Class dismissed," Donovan announced. "Cole, remain behind."
Students filed out in whispered clusters. Ethan caught glimpses of their faces - confusion, fear, suspicion. His secret was unraveling faster than he could contain it.
When they were alone, Donovan circled him slowly.
"Six months of growth in one night," the master observed. "Enhanced reflexes. Improved muscle memory. The signs are quite clear to someone who knows what to look for."
"I don't know what you mean," Ethan said.
"Of course you don't." Donovan stopped in front of him. "But I've seen this before. In my second year in this same academy. A young knight who aged a decade in a month. Who could cut through steel like parchment. Who died at twenty-three, old and broken, clutching a blade that had consumed his very soul."
The fragment against Ethan's ribs pulsed with warmth. He knows about the weapons. About what they do to their wielders.
"That sounds like a sad story," Ethan said carefully.
"It was. Because he thought he could master the weapon's power and control its hunger." Donovan's voice dropped to a whisper. "He was wrong. They always are."
The fragment against Ethan's ribs pulsed with warmth. Changes were still happening in his body. Bones lengthening. Muscles developing. Mind sharpening.
How much longer until I'm not human anymore?
But that was a question for later. Right now, Maya had bought them breathing room.
The game was far from over and the real enemy was still out there, waiting.