The forest wind stilled.
Mana thickened like honey.
Kael's lips curved in a lazy half-smile as he stepped away from the wall, rolling his neck again.
CRACK.
A ripple of draconic energy burst outward.
Vaelen flinched, stumbling back with a strangled inhale as black scales shimmered across Kael's skin—not growing, but multiplying, expanding, spreading like molten obsidian armor.
His silhouette warped.
His spine elongated with a deep, resonant thrum.
Wings unfurled—not the small ones he had seen earlier, but titanic, cathedral-sized membranes of ink and gold, erupting upward with a sound like tearing storms.
"W-W-Wait—" Vaelen choked.
Too late.
Kael's body surged higher and higher, bones rearranging with controlled precision. Golden horns spiraled from his skull—long, regal, and glowing faintly like dusk falling over a mountain peak.
His eyes—
No longer human.
They became twin suns.
Then his body grew again.
And again.
And again.
