The katana came down like the judgment of a dying star.
It should have cleaved Malphas in two.
It didn't.
A deep, guttural laugh rolled out from the Tyrant's chest as his skin began to crack, light and molten metal spilling from within like a volcano about to erupt.
"Bleed?" he rumbled, his voice now layered with something ancient and inhuman. "No… I burn"
The volcanic plain shook violently, the air warping under a sudden, suffocating heat. His armor began to fuse into his body, his frame swelling with muscle and molten stone until he towered even higher, eyes now twin furnaces that glared down at them.
Two great horns of obsidian jutted from his head, dripping magma like candlewax.
His greatsword twisted and warped, becoming a jagged cleaver wreathed in flames so hot they bent reality itself.
That was his true Form, Tyrant of the Ashen Conquest.
The roar that followed was not sound, it was a shockwave of wrath that tore through the battlefield.
