Mike appeared behind the villager who had snapped the branch. His movement was so fast it was barely visible, one moment smoke, the next a shadow towering over the man. A clawed hand seized the villager by the back of the neck, lifting him like a doll. The man's scream tore through the forest, high and ragged, before Mike silenced it with a single motion.
His jaws opened unnaturally wide. With one savage bite, he tore the man's head free from his shoulders. Blood sprayed in a crimson arc across the trunks, steaming as it struck his scales. The headless body crashed through the trees, twitching, before collapsing lifeless at Sorina's feet.
Her heart hammered.
Mike turned toward her, glowing red eyes locking on. His teeth glistened with fresh gore, and his chest rose and fell in slow, ragged breaths. Every line of his body radiated hunger.
Sorina lunged. Her spear shot forward, silver tip flashing as it struck his ribs. The impact rang out as if she had hit stone. Mike barely flinched, his laughter bubbling out in a grotesque mix of human rasp and dragon growl.
"You…" His voice was cracked, warped, as though two throats spoke at once. "…think you can stop me?"
He caught the shaft of the spear with one clawed hand and wrenched it aside, splintering the wood. Sorina stumbled but did not retreat. Her eyes, fierce and unblinking, held his in defiance.
The whispers howled in Mike's skull, louder than ever.
Kill her. Devour the chosen. She bleeds power. She bleeds purpose. Eat her, and the goddess who shields her will be nothing.
Mike snarled, his face half-shifting as scales tore through his skin. His jaw lengthened, fangs gleaming in the moonlight that cut through the smoke. He lunged forward, claws tearing furrows in the earth as he closed the distance.
Sorina braced herself, spear angled for another strike, but she wasn't fast enough. Mike struck like lightning, his hand seizing her arm and forcing the weapon wide. His other claw rose, poised to rip straight through her chest.
And then he froze.
For the briefest heartbeat, something broke through the haze. Not Sorina's weapon, not her stance but her eyes. Steady. Unyielding. Not prey. Not meat.
The whispers screamed, desperate to drown the hesitation.
Kill her! KILL!
Mike roared, throwing her back into a tree so hard the trunk cracked. She slid down the bark, breathless, but still alive.
The other villagers had scattered into the woods, their screams fading into the night. Mike's head whipped toward the sound, then back to Sorina. He stood between hunger and reason, his chest heaving, claws dripping with the blood of the man he had just slaughtered.
And then he disappeared into the trees with another blur of speed, leaving Sorina gasping against the cracked trunk, clutching her ruined spear.
Mike moved through the trees like a shadow. Every heartbeat was a footstep, every scream another thread in the frenzy pulling him deeper into madness. The whispers had become a single endless command.
Feed. Devour. Nothing escapes.
Branches snapped under his claws as he tore through the forest. One villager stumbled in the underbrush, crying out for mercy. Mike was on him before the man could take another step, lifting him into the air and tearing him apart in a spray of red.
Behind him, Sorina screamed, "Stop!"
She threw her broken spear like a javelin. It struck Mike in the shoulder, not enough to pierce but enough to make him turn. His red eyes locked onto her.
In that moment, she understood he wasn't cognizant anymore. He was death itself.
Sorina raised her arms, but Mike was already on her. His claw closed around her throat and slammed her back against a tree so hard the bark exploded around them. Her feet kicked against the air as she clawed at his grip, face turning red.
Mike leaned close, his breath hot, his jaw distending wider than human. His fangs gleamed inches from her face. For a moment it looked like he would bite her head clean off
But the whispers shifted.
Chosen. Stronger meat. Take her limb by limb.
Mike growled, and before Sorina could scream, his jaws clamped down on her left arm. Bone cracked, flesh tore, and her cry of agony split the night as blood sprayed across his chest. He ripped the arm away devouring it, roaring in savage triumph.
Sorina sagged in his grip, vision swimming from pain and blood loss, but her eyes still met his. Even as her body trembled, she glared into the monster's face, defiant.
Mike pulled back, opening his jaws wide again, aiming for her neck. His fangs closed in and then the forest lit up with a searing crimson glow.
A chain of pure fire snapped around Mike's chest, yanking him backward with a force that made the ground shudder. He roared, twisting and thrashing, his claws tearing gouges into the earth as the links burned against his scales.
From the treeline stepped Hamza. His eyes burned the same crimson as the chain in his hands, and his voice carried like thunder.
"Enough."
The chain tightened, wrapping around Mike's limbs, neck, and chest, pulling him to his knees. He fought with inhuman strength, the earth beneath him cracking, his tail lashing wildly, but the bindings only grew hotter, digging into him like molten steel.
Sorina collapsed to the ground, clutching her ruined shoulder, gasping for air, eyes wide with shock.
Hamza's gaze never left Mike.
"You've feasted enough," he growled, voice sharp as the chain itself. "If you take one more step down this path, there will be no return."
Mike's roar shook the forest, his eyes glowing like furnaces, but the whispers faltered suppressed by the weight of Hamza's power. For the first time since the slaughter began, silence pressed into his skull.
But silence was not peace.
The monster in him strained against the chains, desperate, unrelenting, as if even Hamza's will might not be enough to hold him.
Bahamut's voice finally made it through after days of shouting at Mike. "Fool! Stop giving in to your base instincts! Those whispers are poison!"
The chains burned hotter, searing against Mike's shifting flesh. He roared, straining with every ounce of power in his body, veins bulging beneath his skin as scales cracked and regrew in waves across his arms. The earth trembled beneath him, trees splintering as his tail smashed against the ground.
"Hey!!" Sorina croaked, clutching her shoulder, her voice ragged. "He'll break free!"
Hamza's jaw was clenched, sweat pouring down his brow as he pulled tighter on the glowing chain. The crimson links vibrated, groaning under the force of Mike's relentless thrashing.
"He won't," Hamza growled, though his arms shook with the strain. "I won't let him."
Mike lunged forward suddenly, dragging Hamza several feet across the ground despite the chains digging deep into his flesh. His jaws snapped inches from Sorina, hot breath washing over her face.
So close. One bite. One more. Feed.
Before Hamza could dig his heels back in, another voice cut through the chaos, calm and sharp as glass.
"He is chaos embodied. You cannot hold him long."
A ripple of shadow appeared beside Hamza, folding in on itself until it became a man cloaked in black and silver. Binyai stepped into the clearing, eyes glimmering like liquid obsidian. He regarded Mike with a strange detachment, though the lines of tension at his mouth betrayed the danger of the moment.
"I could not find him," Binyai said, almost to himself, "until now. His essence is fractured, twisted between mortal and divine. It was as if he existed everywhere and nowhere all at once."
Mike snapped his head toward him, snarling. His claws dug furrows into the earth as he tried to hurl himself free again. The crimson chains flared, shaking violently.
Hamza gritted his teeth. "Then tell me what you plan to do because he's not lasting another moment out here!"
Binyai raised one hand, and reality split with it. A jagged black portal opened behind him, its edges rippling like liquid obsidian, its center burning with violet light. The air reeked of ozone and sulfur, pulling the smoke of the battlefield toward it like a breath from another world. A dozen djinn soldiers rushed and threw chains onto Mike before stepping back into the portal and continuing to pull.
"He's so far gone brother," Binyai said simply. "I don't think you can hold him much longer."
Mike roared at the name, his body thrashing harder than ever. The chains stretched taut, fragments of glowing links beginning to snap one by one. Hamza's boots skidded backward as Mike's strength nearly broke free.
"Now!" Binyai barked.
With a guttural shout, Hamza wrenched the chains, wrapping them tighter around Mike's chest and throat. He heaved with everything he had left, swinging his whole body as he dragged the half-dragon monster toward the portal.
Mike's claws ripped into the earth, tearing trenches as he fought against the pull. His eyes blazed red fire, his maw snapping wide enough to bite Hamza in half. "I will not be caged!" he bellowed, his voice warped, a blend of human rage and dragon roar.
"You already are," Hamza spat. With one final heave, he hurled Mike into the portal.
The last thing Sorina saw was Mike's glowing eyes, burning with fury and hunger, before the black rift swallowed him whole. The air snapped shut with a thunderclap, leaving only silence, smoke, and the scent of blood in its wake.
Hamza collapsed to one knee, the broken fragments of chain dissolving into sparks around his hands.
Binyai stood beside him, expression unreadable. "This is only the beginning," he murmured. "King Maymun will decide if he is a weapon… or a catastrophe."
Sorina, pale and trembling, clutched her wound, her eyes fixed on the place where Mike had vanished.
And for the first time, she was no longer certain which fate she feared more.