The first lesson Kael learned in the Silver Spire was,
Corrosion did not listen.
It devoured.
By the fourth month, the Silver Spire stopped repairing the floor.
They reinforced it instead.
The training chamber had been redesigned three times in half a year. Triple-layer suppression arrays. Mana-dampening pillars embedded into the walls. A secondary barrier system prepared in case the first failed.
Kael stood at the center.
Thirteen.
Bandages around both forearms.
Sweat already gathering at his collar despite the cold air circulating through the chamber.
Above him, Magnus observed in silence.
Sylas leaned against the railing.
Another enchanted steel monolith descended from the ceiling - not a block this time, but a pillar thick enough to withstand siege-class spells.
It locked into place with a heavy metallic echo.
"Again," Magnus said.
Kael inhaled.
Star-Breathing.
The Hybrid Mana stirred
Mana flowed.
He traced the inner structure.
The lattice was clear in his mind - reinforcement threads, stress points, density shifts.
He chose a point.
Released.
For a fraction of a second-
Perfect alignment.
Then the surge came.
Corrosion flooded outward.
The pillar didn't crack.
It imploded, then liquefied violently, molten fragments splashing across the suppression barrier.
The chamber shook.
Sylas grimaced. "At this rate we'll run out of materials before he learns precision."
Kael lowered his arm slowly.
"I saw it."
"And you drowned it," Magnus replied.
The next pillar descended.
Kael's breathing wasn't steady anymore.
Inside his mind-
"You're still holding back," Klaus said.
"I am controlling you."
"You are limiting me."
Kael stepped forward before the command came.
Mana rose again.
This time he didn't try to thin it.
Didn't try to soften it.
He let it build.
The air pressure in the chamber shifted.
Sylas straightened.
"Father…"
The aura didn't explode outward.
It compressed inward.
Like a collapsing star.
Black-violet scales tore through the skin along Kael's forearms, spreading up toward his elbows. His fingers elongated slightly, joints sharpening. His nails curved into dark claws.
The mana dampeners began humming louder.
His pupils split vertically.
The chamber lights flickered.
The pillar across from him-
Was no longer solid.
Every flaw screamed at him.
He stepped forward.
The floor cracked beneath his feet.
"I see it," he said.
Two tones overlapped in his voice.
Not separate.
Layered.
He drove his clawed fist into the pillar.
The impact did not sound like metal breaking.
It sounded like something ancient snapping.
A fracture spread instantly through the monolith in geometric lines - perfect, deliberate, surgical.
Then,
The entire pillar detonated outward.
Not melted.
Not corroded.
Shattered at its weakest points simultaneously.
The suppression arrays overloaded.
One barrier flickered out completely.
Mana pressure surged across the chamber like a shockwave.
Outside the Silver Spire, several S rank mages instinctively drew their weapons, sensing the spike.
Inside-
The scales began retracting.
Violently.
Kael staggered as blood surfaced along both arms, lines splitting open where the scales withdrew.
His aura collapsed in on itself.
The temperature in the chamber dropped sharply.
He fell.
Before he hit the ground-
Magnus appeared.
Lyda emerged a heartbeat later, catching Kael as his legs gave out.
His pulse was erratic.
Mana circuits inflamed.
Faint frost formed along his skin from internal shock.
"He overstrained his channels," Lyda said, already placing a restoration spell and a healing spell on his chest.
Mana surged gently from Magnus' palm, stabilizing the storm inside Kael.
The chamber doors opened abruptly.
Caelan entered, eyes sharp.
"I felt that across the estate."
His gaze shifted to the shattered remains of siege-grade enchanted steel.
"…He broke it."
Magnus didn't respond immediately.
He was watching Kael.
The scales were gone.
Only faint dark patterns lingered beneath the skin before fading.
Kael forced his eyes open.
His voice was hoarse.
"I didn't lose it."
Magnus studied him for a long moment.
"No."
That single word carried weight.
Sylas descended from the platform slowly, staring at the fractured remains.
"At thirteen…"
Lyda finished stabilizing the worst of the damage.
"He'll need two days for the circuits to settle."
Kael tried to stand.
His legs trembled.
But he stood.
He looked at what he had done.
The pillar hadn't been consumed.
It had been dismantled through force.
Controlled force.
Dangerous force.
Magnus finally straightened.
"Seal this chamber. Increase the suppression arrays."
Caelan crossed his arms.
"You're continuing?"
Magnus' eyes never left Kael.
"Yes."
Silence hung in the room.
Heavy.
Measured.
Historic.
Magnus spoke one final time.
"You forced synchronization with the Dragon."
A pause.
"Now you will learn to survive it."
"Slyas get this hall repaired, I need to talk to Aleric and Alfred",
Magnus exited the training hall talking with Caelan.