The room was silent except for the faint hum of the runes glowing beneath Milly.
But that glow was changing slowly shifting from dull blue to bright gold. The air trembled.
The Sage stood across the chamber, watching with his arms folded.
He sensed it an energy unlike anything he'd ever felt before.
"So…" he said quietly, "you're still awake in there."
Milly's eyes opened.
Not pink. Not gold. But a radiant mix of gold and maroon, swirling together like molten fire.
Her silver disguise shimmered for a second, a faint glint of her real red-and-black hair flickering through before settling back.
"I warned you," Milly said softly, her tone calm yet edged with power. "You shouldn't have tried to control me."
The Sage's eyes narrowed. "You resist the crystal's influence? Impossible. That artifact can break gods themselves."
Milly smirked faintly. "Then maybe you've underestimated me."
A pulse of energy burst from the runes cracks forming across the glowing circle that bound her. The room shook as her aura rose.
Flames flickered across her hands.
"Stop this," the Sage ordered. "You don't know what you're unleashing!"
Milly slowly stood up, the restraints shattering like glass.
Her voice was calm too calm. "I know exactly what I'm unleashing."
She raised her palm, and fire spiraled around her arm, forming a tight column of red and orange energy.
The Flamedro Tonado came to life controlled, focused, beautiful.
It swirled upward, scorching the ceiling without losing form.
The Sage took a step back, his cloak flaring from the heat. "That spell how are you maintaining it so precisely!?"
Milly's gold eyes narrowed. "Because it's mine."
She clenched her hand, and the tornado dispersed instantly.
Then she pointed forward, conjuring a sphere of crimson and black flame Blagos Endos.
It pulsed with restrained energy, ready to strike, but perfectly stable in her grasp.
The Sage's expression shifted from anger to awe. "That intensity… yet no instability. You've mastered both forms…"
"Almost," Milly said, a small smile curling at her lips. "But there's one more."
The air stilled. The world itself seemed to pause.
A faint glow formed behind her red light bending into shape.
A colossal dragon's head materialized, its eyes blazing like suns.
Arthianos.
The Sage's knees nearly gave out as the dragon let out a deep growl that echoed through the entire academy.
"That… that's the energy from last night's meteors…" he whispered. "That was you?"
Milly stepped forward, the dragon's image looming behind her like a shadow of her soul.
"Yes," she said softly, "and now, I can control it."
The dragon's mouth opened slightly, but Milly raised her hand.
"Not yet," she murmured, commanding it to stop.
The dragon obeyed and vanished into particles of red light.
The Sage stared at her, speechless.
"You… You could destroy this academy with a thought," he said finally, almost reverently. "Why hold back?"
Milly turned away, her expression calm but heavy. "Because that's not who I am anymore. I don't fight to destroy. I fight to protect."
The silence that followed was deep, broken only by the faint crackle of her remaining flame.
Then the Sage lowered his head slightly. "I misjudged you, Miss Mila. Gravely so."
She smiled faintly. "You did."
And as she walked past him, the golden light of her aura dimmed, fading back into her human disguise.
At the doorway, she paused.
Without looking back, she said quietly,
"If anyone asks, tell them I'm done being your test subject."
And with that, Milly left the chamber, the faint scent of smoke and power lingering behind her like the whisper of a dragon's breath.