The energies were still moving beneath their feet.
They did not explode.
They did not clash.
Instead, they twisted together, pressed against one another, and slowly rose…
as if searching for the shape they were meant to become.
At the center stood Siron.
His body no longer looked stable.
Black and white energy flowed beneath his skin, merging, separating, then merging again,
as though something inside him was still deciding what it wanted to be.
Ryan, Eileen, and Sera faced him.
None of them moved.
From a distance, the Shadow watched in silence.
Ryan spoke at last, his voice calm but careful.
"You're not attacking.
And you're not retreating."
Siron slowly lifted his head.
A faint smile appeared on his lips.
"Because I am not in a hurry."
Eileen clenched her glowing hand.
"This energy…
it's not offense, and it's not defense.
What are you doing?"
Siron looked at her, then at Ryan.
"I am reorganizing myself."
Sera frowned.
"With this much calm?
You know we won't just stand here."
Siron let out a short laugh.
There was no mockery in it…
only certainty.
"You are standing still because you can feel it.
Something greater than you is happening."
Ryan narrowed his eyes.
"If this is only half a transformation…
what comes after?"
The energy around Siron rippled once, then settled again.
"Zevyr."
Silence followed.
Eileen repeated quietly,
"Zevyr?"
"Siron," he said calmly,
"was a name for a phase.
This body does not end at one stage."
Sera stepped forward.
"So you admit you're not what we thought."
Siron looked straight at her.
"Neither are you."
Then his gaze returned to Ryan.
"You carry more than one body was meant to endure."
Ryan didn't look away.
"And you carry something that should never exist."
Siron's smile widened slightly.
"The difference…
is that I was created for this."
Rafa finally spoke, her voice low.
"This is not an opponent.
This is something else."
"I know," Sera replied.
"Then why are we still here?"
Sera was silent for a moment.
"Because if we leave now…
we may never learn how far he will go."
Suddenly, the energy around Zevyr rose…
not violently,
but like a warning.
His eyes opened fully, darker than before.
"The transformation is incomplete.
But what comes next…
will not resemble anything you have known."
Far away, the Shadow murmured to itself,
"…the next stage."