A storm of dark purple magic erupted from me, violent and untamed. It surged outward in waves, shaking the very foundations of the chamber. In a single instant, everything around me was obliterated—reduced to dust and ruin. I roared again, the sound deeper this time, corrupted by blood gurgling up from my throat. It spilled from my eyes, my arms, and from dozens of open wounds carved into my body.
With a furious beat of my wings—now fully unfurled, glistening like obsidian veined with violet fire—I launched myself into the sky. My instincts had taken over, primal and ravenous. I raised both hands high as hundreds of magic circles formed in the air around me, glowing with dark promise.
My daggers twisted mid-flight, morphing into twin submachine guns. Their barrels shimmered with an arcane hue that pulsed like a heartbeat—my heartbeat.
"ACCEPT YOUR DEATH GRACEFULLY AND SMILE!"
My voice—warped and monstrous—rattled through the air like an unholy hymn, vibrating with raw bloodlust. The magic circles ignited. I pulled both triggers.
Rays of pure magic light rained down in a cascade of destruction, enough to vaporize mountains. But my target... she danced through it.
Despite her grotesque form, the woman moved with a surreal, mocking elegance. Her expression, ever-smiling, didn't falter. She twisted through the beams like water, like shadow, slipping between annihilation and retaliation.
Then she struck.
In one flash of motion, her claws plunged into my stomach. Pain tore through me. I screamed—no, I roared—dropping my weapons, which reverted back into daggers the moment they hit the ground.
She didn't stop. Her claws moved in a brutal rhythm, slicing, tearing, ripping. My body was shredded. I could feel bones cracking, organs rupturing, skin flaying.
Everything was slipping away. The edges of my vision blurred, darkness closing in, and yet...
I smiled.
She thought she had won. She thought this was the end.
But I still had one last card to play.
"If I'm dying here…" I choked out, my voice a barely audible rasp, "...then I'm most definitely taking you with me."
A divine golden light ignited across my body—the last of my magic, pure and unforgiving. Heaven's Last Grace: a final sacrificial spell that unleashed every drop of my remaining power in a single, all-consuming blast.
With trembling fingers, I latched onto her leg, locking her to me.
The light intensified, golden and holy, piercing through the shadows and bathing the chamber in radiance. Even in my maddened state, I channeled just enough focus to reinforce the space magic shielding Satre. She would live. She had to.
The woman's smile faltered—just for a heartbeat.
Then a voice slid into my mind, elegant and venomous.
"Oh my... I wasn't expecting you to be so protective. I'll have fun breaking you."
It wasn't hers. This voice was something else—ancient, cruel, intoxicating. I didn't recognize it, but its presence chilled me to the core.
Before I could question it, the explosion hit.
The golden light expanded in a blinding pulse, consuming the chamber, the mountain, the entire continent. In a blink, the planet was gone—reduced to particles lost in the cosmos. Obliteration. Perfection.
Then, nothing.
No pain. No light. No sound.
Just darkness.
Was I dead? Floating in the void, thoughtless and weightless, I wondered. Had I taken her with me? Had it all been worth it?
That's when I heard it—a voice, sharp and amused, cutting through the void like a knife of thought.
"Kwahahah! I hope you don't think you're dead. Because I'm your next skill."
The voice was male, mocking, intelligent... and far too comfortable inside my head.
Suddenly, the darkness was replaced by a surge of deep purple light, blooming inside me like a supernova. Across the canvas of my mind, glowing white text etched itself into being:
Beast of Destruction.
I wasn't dead. Not even close.
My body drifted in the cold abyss of space, but it was stirring. Power crackled through me—raw, untamed, unrelenting. I had been broken. Shattered. Burned down to the final cinders of existence.
But now?
Now I was something else entirely.
And something... terrifying was awakening with me.