The council meeting lasted fifteen minutes.
Mira examined the materials Reven had brought back—the high-grade flame sac, the alpha's talons, wing membrane that were still intact despite the violence of the kill.
She tested the scales' heat resistance, studying the crystallized flame essence visible in the sac's translucent casing.
Finally, she looked at him. "You actually did it."
"We did it," Reven corrected, nodding toward Thane. "I couldn't have killed the alpha alone."
"Modest and competent. I'm impressed." Mira set down the flame sac carefully. "Which means I have to keep my end of the bargain. The Colossus hunt is approved. Provisionally."
Garrick leaned forward. "Provisionally?"
"We need more preparation. Better equipment. And"—she looked at Reven—"we need to understand exactly what you're capable of. That trick with your hands during the fight. The heat manipulation. That's not standard hunter abilities."
"I know."
"Can you do it consistently?"
"I don't know. The integration was temporary. It'll fade eventually if I don't maintain it."
Lysa, who'd been silent until now, spoke up. "Temporary integration. You're absorbing monster essence and manifesting their properties." Her voice was clinical, but her eyes were sharp. "That's not reshaping materials. That's reshaping yourself."
"Yes."
"That's dangerous. Potentially catastrophic if something goes wrong." She consulted notes she'd brought. "But it's also exactly what we need for the Colossus hunt. Standard heat-resistant armor won't be enough. You heard what happened to our last attempt—the gear failed within minutes. But if you can absorb heat instead of just resisting it..."
"I might survive long enough to harvest the shards," Reven finished.
"Might," Lysa emphasized. "Which is better odds than we'd have otherwise."
Kael, the Cartographer, cleared his throat. "I've mapped three possible approach routes to the Colossus's territory. All of them cross through increasingly hostile terrain. We'll need supplies, backup plans, and emergency extraction protocols."
"Start preparing them," Mira said. "We have seventy-nine days until the heartstone fails. I want to launch the expedition with at least two weeks' buffer. That gives us sixty-five days to prepare." She looked around the table.
"Garrick, work with Reven on equipment. Lysa, give him access to the heartstone chamber—let him study the resonance patterns. Kael, coordinate logistics. Borin, calculate supply needs for a hunting party of... how many?"
"Five," Reven said immediately. "More than that and we lose mobility. Fewer and we don't have enough coverage."
"Five it is." Mira stood. "Meeting adjourned. Reven, Thane—good work today. Don't let it go to your heads."
The others filed out. Mira lingered.
"You're really going through with this," she said quietly.
"Yes."
"You know the odds."
"I've survived worse odds."
"Vyraxes wasn't trying to kill you. It barely noticed you." Mira's expression was grave. "The Colossus will be actively trying to end your existence. And it's very, very good at it."
"I know."
"Then why?"
Reven looked past her at the council chamber's window. Through it, he could see the heartstone chamber, the flickering light that was Haven's Reach's only protection against the monsters in the dark.
"Because if I don't, everyone here dies. And I've had enough of watching people die because someone else made a calculated decision about acceptable losses."
Mira studied him. "Your old guild really did a number on you."
"They taught me what matters. Just not the lesson they intended."
"And what's that?"
"That loyalty flows both ways. Or it's worthless." Reven met her eyes. "Haven's Reach gave me shelter when I had nothing. Purpose when I was lost. That means something. That means everything."
Mira was quiet for a moment. Then she clapped him on the shoulder. "Don't die on this hunt, exile. We're just starting to get used to having you around."
She left.
Reven stood alone in the council chamber and felt the weight of what he'd committed to settle over him like a mantle.
Seventy-nine days.
Time to get to work.
Reven locked the workshop door.
The flame sac sat on his workbench, still faintly warm, the crystallized essence inside pulsing with bioluminescent light. It was a high-graded concentrated monster part. The kind of material that would normally be used for advanced weapon enchantments or sold to wealthy collectors for fortunes.
He was going to absorb it into his body.
The Emberstone fragment had been small. Minor fire absorption. Barely enough to survive direct flame for a few seconds. This was different. This was a major integration. The kind that could fundamentally alter his physiology.
Or kill him.
Reven pulled off his shirt. The crimson veins were visible across his chest, pulsing in that seven-rhythm heartbeat. His skin was pale, almost translucent in places where the Calamity blood flowed closest to the surface.
He looked like something between human and other. And he was about to push past that boundary further.
The flame sac was warm in his hands. He could feel the essence inside—concentrated, powerful, hungry in its own way. Fire wanting to burn. Flame wanting to consume. And he was about to invite that into himself.
This is insane, part of him whispered.
This is necessary, another part answered.
Reven pressed the flame sac against his chest, directly over his heart.
And pulled it inward.
Pain.
Not the sharp pain of injury. Not the dull ache of exhaustion.
This was rewriting. Cellular. Molecular. His body trying to incorporate something that wasn't meant to exist inside living tissue.
The flame sac's essence flowed into him. Not gently. Not gradually. Like a river of molten glass forcing its way through his circulatory system, burning channels where none should exist, creating structures that biology never intended.
Reven's back arched. His hands clawed at the workbench, fingers leaving grooves in the wood. He tried to scream but couldn't. His throat was full of heat, his lungs full of smoke that didn't exist except in the space where human ended and something else began.
His chest burned.
His human skin blistered. Cracked. Peeling away in sheets that revealed not raw flesh underneath but something harder. Crystalline. Scales forming in real-time as his body decided keratin wasn't sufficient anymore and needed something that could withstand internal temperatures approaching forge-heat.
The scales spread through his left shoulder and continued down his arm. Each one a tiny agony as bone structure reinforced itself, as muscle tissue adapted, as his body became a vessel for something it was never designed to contain.
Heat.
Reven's vision went white. Then red. Then colors that didn't have names because human eyes weren't meant to perceive thermal radiation directly.
Somewhere in the distance—or maybe right beside him, maybe inside his own skull—he heard his System screaming warnings:
[CRITICAL INTEGRATION DETECTED]
[HOST BIOLOGY EXCEEDING SAFE THRESHOLDS]
[ESSENCE LOAD: 4.7% → 12.3% → 18.9%]
[WARNING: REJECT REACTION IMMINENT]
[WARNING: CELLULAR DEGRADATION DETECTED]
[WARNING: THIS PROCESS MAY BE FATAL]
The heat peaked.
Reven's heart—beating in seven impossible rhythms—stuttered. Then stopped.
Then pulsed alive again. The muscle tissue trying to remember what it was supposed to do while being cooked from the inside.
And then, like a fever breaking, the pain shifted.
The burning became warmth. The agony became pressure. His body stopped fighting the integration and started accepting it.
The scales solidified. The internal channels stabilized. The flame sac's essence found spaces between his organs where it could nest without destroying vital functions.
Reven gasped. Fresh air rushed into lungs that were thirty degrees hotter than they should be. Steam rose from his mouth.
[INTEGRATION COMPLETE]
[MATERIAL: SCORCHWING ALPHA FLAME SAC]
[QUALITY: HIGH-GRADE][DURATION: 8 HOURS (ESTIMATED)]
[ESSENCE LOAD: 19.2% (STABLE)]
[NEW ABILITY ACQUIRED: FLAME GENERATION]
[EFFECT: HOST CAN GENERATE AND PROJECT INTENSE HEAT FROM LEFT ARM]
[OUTPUT: COMPARABLE TO FORGE-FIRE (1200-1400°C)][SECONDARY EFFECT: ENHANCED HEAT RESISTANCE (ENTIRE BODY)]
[COST: 2.3% ESSENCE PER HOUR OF ACTIVE USE]
[WARNING: INTEGRATION REJECTION WILL OCCUR IN APPROXIMATELY 8 HOURS]
[WARNING: REJECTION PROCESS WILL BE EXTREMELY PAINFUL
[RECOMMEND: PREPARE FOR MEDICAL INTERVENTION]
Reven opened his eyes.
His left arm was covered in crimson scales from shoulder to fingertips. They overlapped like armor, each one reflecting light with a faint inner glow. When he flexed his hand, the scales moved with natural fluidity—not restricting movement, enhancing it.
He focused on his left palm.
Heat gathered in concentrated mass. Building over itself until his hand glowed like metal fresh from the forge.
The wooden workbench began to smolder where his hand rested.
Reven lifted his hand quickly and focused on dissipating the heat. The glow faded, but the scales remained. His entire left side was warmer than the right—not uncomfortably so, but noticeably. Like standing near a fire.
He stood. Trying to test his new balance, his left arm felt heavier, denser, but his body had already adjusted. The integration was complete. Stable.
For eight hours at least.
Then it would reject. And from the System's warnings, the rejection was going to be catastrophic.
Worth it, Reven thought, watching his scaled hand flex with inhuman precision. Absolutely worth it.