The silver veins along my neck were no longer veins.
They were structures.
What had once been faint, branching lines beneath my skin now jutted outward, hardening into jagged ridges of translucent crystal. Every shallow breath I took sent a sharp, brittle sound echoing through my chest—like glass being scraped together.
I reached for my throat, my fingers trembling.
They passed over something cold.
Too cold.
My lungs convulsed, and when I inhaled again, the sound wasn't air filling flesh—it was grinding. As if something inside me was locking into place, layer by layer.
"No… no, no—" I gasped.
The inside of my chest burned and froze at the same time.
My lungs were crystallizing.
Not coating.
Not armoring.
Replacing.
They were turning into a transparent cage from the inside out, fragile and rigid and wrong. Every breath threatened to shatter me.
"What… is this…?" I choked, my voice chiming faintly, like broken ornaments clinking together. "Is this… an Awakened power…?"
Above me, Trigger hovered in the dim, frozen sky of the Underworld.
His glass body refracted the pale light into fractured rainbows as he tilted his head, observing me the way a scientist watched a specimen nearing expiration.
He didn't answer at first.
Then, calmly—almost gently—
"The internal transition is nearly complete."
My vision blurred.
I staggered back a step, boots crunching against ice. Panic clawed its way up my spine. Ifthis continued—if I stayed like this—
I'd shatter.
Transforming crossed my mind instinctively.
Dragon form.
Power. Mass. Heat.
But fear strangled the thought before it could bloom.
If I became massive and still couldn't fly…
I'd just be a larger target made of glass.
Beside me, Pandora flickered.
Her white flames wavered, dimming as she watched my azure scales slowly lose their color—turning clear, translucent, brittle. Her voice trembled.
"Ash…"
I didn't answer.
I couldn't afford to.
I forced my right hand to ignite.
Fire answered—barely.
A small, condensed sphere of white-hot Lunarian flame sparked into existence in my palm, screaming softly as if resisting extinction. I thrust it toward her with what little strength I had left.
"Eat…" I rasped. "I hope you can carry me."
Trigger's eyes narrowed.
"Interference is illogical."
The glass blowgun formed in his hand instantly, its surface rippling as he fired.
Crystalline shards screamed through the air.
CLANG!
I swung my burning arm on instinct, swatting the projectiles aside. The impact sent violent vibrations through my chest—through my lungs—and pain exploded behind my eyes.
But it bought time.
Pandora flared.
The moment the flame touched her, her body roared back to life, white fire surging outward in a blinding wave. Her form expanded, her presence sharp and furious.
"Don't die on me, lizard!" she shrieked.
I didn't hesitate.
Instinct took over.
My bones split.
Not cleanly—but violently.
Muscles tore and reknit as my body surged upward, mass multiplying in a brutal transformation. Azure scales erupted across my skin, but they didn't simply grow.
They fused.
Lunarian fire bled into them, veins of heat crawling across blue, sealing cracks even as glass continued to spread.
I exploded into my Azure Dragon form.
The sky bent around me.
But something was wrong.
Or… different.
A great, rotating ring of orange-white flame formed around my head—not smoke, not fire drifting freely, but a perfect circle. Dense. Controlled. Pulsing in time with my heart.
A halo.
Not divine.
Not holy.
Defiant.
Trigger froze midair.
"…Fascinating," he said quietly.
The ring rotated faster, heat distorting the world around it.
"It appears your 'failed' fruit has achieved a chemical reaction with your Lunarian lineage factor," Trigger continued, voice clinical. "You have catalyzed a variant form."
My massive body hovered just inches above the frozen ground.
No clouds formed beneath me.
My weight pressed down, heavy and wrong.
"…Remarkable," Trigger finished. "And ultimately futile."
The glass hadn't stopped spreading.
My azure scales began turning transparent again, cracking from the edges inward.
"I have… some time," I rumbled, my dragon voice shaking the ice below.
Pandora didn't wait.
She expanded again, splitting her essence into four massive pillars of white flame. They dove beneath my claws, compressing, solidifying—forming Flame Clouds, not gas, but condensed heat hardened into platforms.
"You're quite heavy, lizard!" she groaned as the clouds strained.
"Just help me move," I growled, eyes locking onto Trigger. "Rest… I'll handle."
I opened my jaws.
The air screamed.
Heat collapsed inward, Lunarian fire compressing into a dense, blinding sphere at the back of my throat. The halo flared brighter, rotating violently.
"S O L A R S T Y L E—"
The world seemed to hold its breath.
"FLAME DRAGON!"
The attack didn't fire.
It emerged.
A massive dragon of pure orange-white plasma burst from my maw, roaring as it tore through the air. Ice vaporized instantly, frozen roots turning to steam before they could crack.
Trigger swept his arms outward.
"Aera Glass: Absolute Barrier."
The atmosphere hardened.
Layer upon layer of reinforced glass crystallized into existence.
The collision was deafening.
Fire met glass.
The explosion lit the Underworld like a second sun. The barrier cracked, glowing red-hot, screaming under the pressure—
But it held, barely.
The glass along Trigger's arm sagged, refusing to hold shape under the relentless heat.
I didn't stop.
Using Pandora's clouds, I walked through the air, slamming my tail through the barrier. Glass shattered like falling stars as Trigger countered, raining crystalline lances down upon me.
Each hit struck deeper.
Where the glass had already spread, my scales didn't just bleed.
They snapped.
Chunks of my body shattered away, exposing burning muscle beneath. Steam hissed as blood poured across my hide, sizzling against the ice.
Trigger wasn't untouched.
My heat warped his form.
His left arm began to melt, glass sagging into useless sludge that refused to reform.
"You… are… breaking…" he gasped, voice finally cracking.
I roared, fire erupting uncontrollably.
"I'll break you too then—!"
The halo fractured, flames spiraling out of control.
I lunged.
My jaws clamped onto his shoulder as I unleashed everything—fire, rage, defiance. We crashed into the frozen ground in a cataclysmic impact.
CRACK.
My skin shattered.
The world went white.
When the smoke cleared, silence returned.
I lay human once more.
My body was scarred—jagged glass-like fractures carved permanently into my skin. Blood pooled in the snow beneath me.
Across the crater, Trigger lay still.
His left side was a blackened ruin.
Neither of us moved.
Only my ragged, shallow breaths broke the silence.