Shane replies in his calm voice, one that carries the shadows of bygone eras:
"Are you certain of your decision? There is no turning back… You are about to release a legendary creature, and that alone would be considered a catastrophe—if you truly understood what it means."
Arin hesitates slightly, yet his voice remains as steady as he can manage:
"No… no, I'm certain. Even though this is our first conversation… you leave me no choice. I'm standing before a being whose existence and power far surpass mine, and I can't even move my feet… so how could I refuse?"
In a brief moment of silence, a whisper flows within Shane's chest—one no one else can hear—as if a sealed memory is trying to reclaim its pulse:
"He's… completely ordinary. The sensation I felt from him earlier did not come from this fragile body… it can't be. This small human does not possess mana of such intensity. It seems my senses, after centuries of sealing, are confusing what is real with mere echoes."
But at that very moment, without warning, Shane senses something whose source he cannot identify… not mana, but an existential "vibration," like a severed thread between two worlds. A sensation unlike any human trace he has ever known.
His violet eyes narrow for an instant… then he quickly conceals it, as if what he has discovered requires another time to be spoken.
Shane speaks in a deeper tone than before, gently pushing the air aside with a subtle motion:
"Before we leave this stone tomb… I will return to my original form. What you see now—the form of a dragon—is merely a shell I rest within… as for my true self… it is something else."
Arin's voice freezes for a moment. He thought he had grasped the nature of power, only for it to shatter before a nameless level beyond comprehension:
"W-what… do you mean by changing your form?"
Shane does not answer.
Between one blink and the next, his body begins to collapse like light and rebuild itself anew. The wings fade away, the terrifying heat that once filled the place turns into a cool breeze, and the colossal frame folds in on itself like a page being turned.
When the transformation is complete… a young man stands before Arin, his features seeming to emerge from a lineage of both light and darkness:
Long black hair falls heavily, weighted with time. Two violet eyes resemble a night watching itself. His pale skin holds an unchanging coldness, as if emotion itself has been sealed away. In his left ear, a red earring gleams like an ember guarding a secret that refuses to die.
Arin steps back. He had expected a monster… not a form of such strange beauty, behind which lies an unbearable history:
"Y-you… are you… Shane? That enormous dragon?!"
Shane smiles faintly—neither mockery nor kindness, but a third thing unknown to humans:
"And who else could I be? There is no one here but you and me in this void… so do not seek an explanation beyond your limits, for you are now beyond the limits of your own world."
That final sentence strikes Arin's heart like a silent arrow.
Shane does not state anything outright… yet he has glimpsed the truth.
And Arin knows that he has discovered something—yet still chooses silence.
Both of them understand that this moment… is the first thread in a tragedy far greater than either can bear right now.
They stand in heavy silence, the space around them seeming to await every word.
Shane, now in his human form, stands before Arin in absolute calm. His violet eyes examine him closely, as if reading every pulse within him—every hesitation, every fear left unspoken.
At last, Shane speaks, his voice low but weighted with ages of experience:
"There is something strange about you… something that does not belong to this place. I do not know what it is, nor can I fully explain it… but it is there."
Arin trembles. He does not fully understand what Shane means, as if hearing words that surpass his comprehension:
"I… what do you mean?"
Shane smiles distantly, as though time itself coils around him:
"Perhaps you cannot understand it yet. Sometimes, things appear before they are understood. And the strange things around you… are not of your making."
Arin raises his hands slightly, confused and afraid:
"I don't… I don't understand anything. I'm just a human… nothing more than that."
Shane lets out a silent laugh—not mockery, but a philosophy centuries old:
"Your weakness is clear to me. You… do not know this place, do not understand what is happening around you, and know nothing of the forces that govern it. And that is true… and that is natural."
Arin shudders, his heart racing, unable to grasp the meaning of Shane's words.
Every sentence feels wrapped in an unbreakable mystery:
"But… I just want to understand… just to know where I am."
Shane replies in a calmer tone, as if speaking to himself before speaking to Arin:
"Understanding does not always come at once. Sometimes it is merely a feeling—an awareness that you are outside what you know… that you are small, weak, and unprepared for what surrounds you."
Arin looks around. The air, the light, the chamber—none of it makes sense. The more he tries to explain it, the deeper his confusion grows:
"I… don't understand anything… even your words… I can't grasp what you mean."
Shane smiles gently, without threat or mockery:
"That's fine. You do not need to understand yet. Time… will reveal what is happening. And if you never understand it, that too is part of this moment. Simply being here… is enough."
They both fall silent, each within his own world. Everything around them feels strange, meaningless, as though the place itself is testing Arin's patience with this new reality.
Arin has no idea what will come next—nor of any potential power.
He is merely a weak, lost human, facing a world he does not understand… and still does not understand.