Chapter 21: The Cataclysmic Gift
The coronation day arrived. The Royal Castle was filled with Drakain elite from across the five central continents, turning the ceremony into a massive political spectacle.
The attendees were a display of the empire's power structure:
* The **ten Faction Leaders** from Marcellus's northern continent stood together, stern and silent in their **black leather formal wear**.
* The **President and Vice President** of Serafina's eastern continent sat in prominent places, draped in **red formal attire**.
* Leading mages and hybrids from the twin continents represented Valerian and Charles: Charles's people wore **all white** with a black, spread-wing dragon pin on their right chest, while Valerian's people wore **all black** with an identical **white pin**, signifying their unbroken unity.
**King Damien** stood ready to bestow the ceremonial gift of power. The gift, enclosed in a small, plain box, was an artifact of immense value: a **personal teleportation device**. Valerian, before his disappearance, had only successfully created this single working prototype.
To honor the unassuming member of his adopted family, Damien handed the box to **Carter** and instructed him to present the gift to the new co-Princes.
Carter was ecstatic. He walked toward Jordan and Cornell with a proud smile, the box feeling strangely familiar and powerful in his hands—as if he were holding a piece of himself.
But as he approached the twins, his body began to **shake violently**, and his smile vanished. In an uncontrollable reaction, he spontaneously disappeared into the box in a terrifying flash of raw **black electricity**.
The box clattered empty to the stone floor. The flash of energy silenced every elite Drakain in the room, from the Faction Leaders to the Presidents, none having ever seen such a volatile, dark power.
Carter was not merely teleported within the Kingdom. His unique, untamed power had disastrously reacted with the rare device. The boy was instantly and painfully **catapulted through the cosmos**, a minuscule **electric bolt** sent impossibly **far away from Pandora**, leaving his stunned friends and the speechless King to grapple with the dark, primal energy they had just witnessed unleashed.