From dust I was born. From flame I shall return. But in between... I will reign.
---
The night was strangely quiet. No sirens. No wind. No people.
Just silence.
Kairo Valtorin sat in his dimly lit apartment, staring at the glass of whiskey he never touched. It trembled faintly in his hand, not from fear—but from the strange, growing hum in the air. He could feel it in his bones, a resonance beneath reality, like something ancient awakening.
Something watching.
The screens in front of him flickered.
Kairo was not an ordinary man. At thirty-four, he had already built and lost an empire—twice. A tech genius, war analyst, and once whispered to be "the man with the mind of a god." But none of that mattered now. Not when he had just received the message.
> "They're coming for you. It's not human. Get out. Now."
He had no family. No friends left. Only enemies—some of them very human, and some not.
He stood, his long coat brushing against the cold tile, and opened the drawer beside his desk. A pistol. Not to fight.
To die on his terms.
But as he raised the weapon, the air shattered like glass. Not literally, but he could feel it—reality tearing open behind him. The apartment warped, light stretching like taffy across dimensions. And from that rupture, a voice spoke:
> "Chosen. Not condemned."
He turned, expecting monsters or men.
Instead, there was flame. A swirling mass of crimson and black fire that formed a dragon's eye the size of a planet. It blinked—once—and Kairo's soul was torn from his body like a thread from cloth.
---
Somewhere Else. Sometime Else.
Pain.
Then heat.
Then silence again.
Kairo gasped as his consciousness surged back into form, but this time he was not in a body. He was the body.
He lay coiled inside a massive, cracked egg, veins of molten light pulsing along its surface. He tried to move—only to realize his arms were now claws, his breath tasted like ash, and something long and coiled wrapped around him like a tail.
He was... a dragon.
No. More than that.
He could feel it. The pulse of Aether, the raw magic of this world, flooding his being. Memories that were not his—visions of ancient skies, forgotten wars, god-beasts, and dying stars—all surged into him.
He was reborn not just as a dragon...
But as the Crimson Ender, a divine creature prophesied in the old tongues to appear when the gods lost control of fate.
---
🌍 The World: "Elarion"
As the egg cracked open, Kairo saw the world through fresh eyes.
The sky was not blue—it shimmered like liquid silver. Floating continents drifted far above, tethered by vines of magic and storm. Below, a dark forest stretched beyond the horizon, trees taller than mountains and rivers glowing with bioluminescence. He was on one of the Outer Shards—a realm said to be sealed off by the gods millennia ago.
He was not alone.
Beasts moved in the distance—some humanoid, others grotesque amalgamations of flesh and steel. The sky crackled, and in the distance, he saw the silhouette of a colossal divine beast, its wings blotting out the moon.
Kairo (or whatever he was now) instinctively pulled his wings around himself. They were leathery and laced with crimson runes, a symbol of his Divine Aspect—a mark of his destiny.
> "This world isn't Earth," he thought.
"But I am no longer human. I am… something else."
Suddenly, his mind flooded again—this time with System-like messages in glowing red script:
> ⚠️ Draconic Core Activated
⚙️ Name: Unknown
🩸 Race: Prime Crimson Dragon (Class: Celestial Devourer)
💠 Status: Incomplete Godform
🔓 Abilities Unlocked: [Elemental Reign] • [Shifting Flesh] • [Aetheric Dominance]
And just beneath that…
> [Transformation Form: Humanoid Available – Locked Until Awakening Ritual Complete]
He growled, his voice deep and distorted. "Locked…?"
The world didn't answer.
But the winds shifted.
Something had sensed his awakening.
---
⚔️ First Encounter
Crashing through the canopy, a massive armored beast emerged—part rhinoceros, part insect, part nightmare. Its shell glowed with green veins, and on its forehead, a brand pulsed with an eerie light.
It roared and charged.
Kairo didn't know how to fight. Not yet. But something inside him—some primal knowledge—kicked in. His wings flared wide. He roared in return, a deafening sound that cracked trees and bent the ground beneath him.
Then he breathed fire.
But this wasn't ordinary fire. It was Crimson Flame—a divine essence that devoured rather than burned.
The beast screamed as its body was swallowed in burning runes. In seconds, only bones and molten armor remained.
Silence returned.
And Kairo realized he'd just slain something without knowing how.
---
🩸 Divine Curse — or Blessing?
As he walked across the glassy obsidian field left by his breath, he heard the same voice from before:
> "You are the last of your kind. The first of the new gods. But the world will not welcome you. They will fear you. Hunt you. Worship you. Use you."
> "What you become next… is your choice."
> ⚠️ [Humanoid Form Unlocked – First Shift Possible]
⚠️ [Warning: Aether Disruption Detected – Hunters Approaching]
---
Kairo narrowed his golden eyes.
"Let them come," he said, his voice dripping with divine certainty.
"I was a man. Now I am the end of kings."
His body shimmered.
Bones cracked. Flesh shifted. Claws retracted. Wings folded.
And then...