The white void stretched endlessly around Irene, a blank canvas between memories. She stood there, still feeling the phantom warmth of her mother's hand reaching across the centuries, still hearing the echo of words that had once meant everything to her.
"I never wanted that for you. I wanted you to be happy."
Happy. Such a simple word, yet it felt foreign on her tongue now. When was the last time she had been truly happy? Before the war? Before the magic? Or had happiness died the moment she made her choice?
The void began to shift around her, colors bleeding in like watercolors on wet paper. She knew what was coming next. She could feel it in the way her chest tightened, in the way her hands began to tremble.
The scene that materialized was one she had tried to forget for four hundred years.
She was back in the sacred grove where Belserion had taken her, away from the castle, away from prying eyes. The ancient trees towered overhead, their branches forming a natural cathedral. Moss-covered stones marked this as a place of old magic, where the boundary between human and dragon was thinnest.
"Are you certain about this, Your Majesty?" Belserion asked, his massive form coiled around the clearing. Even in his dragon shape, his eyes held deep concern. "Once this magic is within you, there will be no undoing it."
Young Irene stood before him, already in her twenties, her crimson hair catching the dappled sunlight. She looked so determined, so certain of her path. Behind her, at a respectful distance, stood Rung - her husband of political convenience, the general from the neighboring country whose marriage to her had ended the territorial disputes between their nations.
"I'm certain," she said, her voice steady despite the magnitude of what she was about to do. "Our people are counting on me. The western dragons will destroy everything we've built here if I don't act."
Rung stepped forward, his armor clanking softly. "My queen, perhaps we should consider other options. This magic you speak of... it's untested. Dangerous."
Irene turned to look at her husband. Rung was a competent general, a skilled warrior, and a decent man. Their marriage had been purely political - an arrangement to unite their kingdoms against common threats. There was no love between them, only mutual respect and shared duty to their people.
"There are no other options," she said firmly. "The pro-coexistence faction is losing the war. If we don't act now, both our kingdoms will fall to the western dragons."
Belserion's great head lowered until he was eye level with her. "You speak of burden, but you cannot comprehend what you ask of me. To place dragon magic within a human body... it will change you, Your Majesty. Not just in power, but in essence."
"I understand the risks," young Irene replied, though the older Irene watching knew she understood nothing at all.
"Do you?" Belserion's voice carried infinite sadness. "Do you understand that you may lose pieces of yourself? That the magic will not simply coexist with your humanity, but slowly consume it?"
Irene lifted her chin defiantly. "I'm strong enough to handle it. I have to be."
Strong enough. The older Irene wanted to laugh at her younger self's naivety. She had thought strength meant willpower, determination, the ability to endure pain. She had no idea that some changes couldn't be resisted, no matter how strong one's will.
Rung placed a gauntleted hand on her shoulder. "If you're determined to do this, then I'll stand by your side. We'll face whatever comes together."
Together. The word held such hope then, such promise. Neither of them could have imagined how this decision would destroy not just Irene, but everything they had built together.
"Very well," Belserion said finally. "But know this - I give you this power not because I believe it wise, but because I believe in you. Hold onto your humanity, Your Majesty. No matter what happens, remember who you are."
The great dragon began to glow with an inner light, his scales shimmering like polished gems. Magic poured from him in waves, ancient and powerful, carrying the weight of centuries.
"This will hurt," he warned.
Young Irene nodded, bracing herself for physical pain. But when the magic hit her, it wasn't her body that screamed - it was her soul.
The dragon magic crashed into her like a tsunami, foreign and overwhelming. It tore through her being, seeking to reshape her from the inside out. She felt her human essence being stretched, twisted, forced to accommodate something it was never meant to hold.
But the worst part wasn't the pain. It was the hunger.
The moment the magic settled into her bones, she felt it - a deep, gnawing emptiness that demanded to be filled. The dragon within her was awake, and it was starving.
"Irene!" Rung rushed to her side as she collapsed to her knees, his face etched with worry. "What's happening to her?"
"The transformation is beginning," Belserion said gravely. "The dragon seed has taken root. She will need time to adapt to her new nature."
"I... I can feel it," young Irene gasped, looking up at her husband with eyes that were already beginning to change. "Something inside me. It's alive."
Rung helped her to her feet, his touch gentle despite his armor. "We'll get through this together," he said firmly. "Whatever this magic does to you, we'll face it as one."
The older Irene watched this scene with growing dread. She could see the subtle changes already beginning in her younger self - the way her pupils dilated slightly, how her breathing changed, the predatory grace that was starting to creep into her movements.
The scene began to fast-forward, showing flashes of the months that followed. Young Irene training with her new abilities, marveling at her strength, confident that she could master this power. Rung supporting her through every step, even as he began to notice the changes.
She watched herself eat meals with less and less enthusiasm until food became merely fuel. She saw herself lying awake at night, staring at the ceiling, unable to find rest. She observed the way her younger self's laughter became rarer, her smiles more forced.
Most painfully, she watched as her relationship with Rung began to strain. Not from lack of trying - he remained steadfast, dutiful, trying to be the support she needed. But the dragon magic was making her distant, cold, less human with each passing day.
"You're changing," he told her one night after a particularly difficult battle. They had won, but at great cost. "The magic... it's doing something to you."
"I'm becoming strong," young Irene replied, but there was a hollowness to her voice that hadn't been there before. "I'm becoming what our people need me to be."
"What about what I need you to be?" Rung asked quietly. "What about the woman I married? The queen who cared about more than just power?"
Young Irene looked at him with eyes that seemed to hold depths of winter. "That woman was weak. She couldn't protect anyone."
The older Irene wanted to scream. She could see how the magic was manipulating her thoughts, making her equate humanity with weakness, compassion with failure. But her younger self was already too far gone to resist.
The scene shifted to show her first major battle using Dragon Slayer magic. The western dragons had finally reached their borders, and young Irene stood on the battlefield, power coursing through her veins. Rung fought beside her, as he had promised, leading their combined forces against the draconic threat.
When she opened her mouth and roared, dragon fire erupted forth. When she moved, it was with inhuman speed and strength. When she fought, it was with a savagery that made even her allies step back in fear.
But it was the look in her eyes that haunted the older Irene most. The predatory satisfaction, the joy she took in destruction. That wasn't human emotion - that was dragon triumph.
"She's becoming like them," she heard one of her soldiers whisper to another. "Like the dragons she's fighting."
They were right. With each battle, each use of her power, she was becoming more dragon and less human. The magic was patient, relentless, consuming her piece by piece.
The memory fast-forwarded again, showing the end of the war. Belserion's death at Acnologia's hands. The victory that felt hollow because of what it had cost them.
And then came the moment she had dreaded most.
One week after the war ended, young Irene stood in her chambers, looking at herself in the mirror. Her reflection showed the subtle changes that had been building for months - the slightly pointed teeth, the way her eyes seemed to glow in certain light, the patches of scale-like skin that had begun to appear on her arms.
She was turning into a dragon.
The door burst open and Rung entered, his face a mask of horror and disgust. "What are you?" he demanded, his hand moving to his sword.
"I'm still your wife," young Irene said, turning to face him. "I'm still your queen."
"No," Rung said, his voice filled with revulsion. "You're a monster. You're becoming one of them."
The words hit her like physical blows. This was the man who had promised to stand by her side, who had sworn to face whatever came together. And now he was looking at her like she was something to be destroyed.
"I saved our kingdoms," she said desperately. "I did what needed to be done."
"You became the very thing we fought against," Rung snarled. "You're no different from the dragons that attacked our people."
"I'm still me," she pleaded, but even as she spoke, she could feel the dragon magic stirring within her, responding to the threat he represented.
"No," Rung said, drawing his sword. "You're not. And I won't let you become another Acnologia."
The scene that followed was one of the most painful in Irene's long memory. Rung ordering her arrest, having her dragged to the dungeons like a common criminal. The people she had fought to protect turning against her with fear and hatred.
But the worst part was what came next. When she told him she was pregnant - carrying his child - and watched his face twist with revulsion and denial.
"I don't have a child with a monster," he spat. "You're lying."
For three years, she was tortured, beaten, humiliated. All while using her magic to keep her pregnancy halted, protecting the life growing within her even as her own existence became a nightmare.
The older Irene watched her younger self endure this torment, saw the way it twisted her further, hardening her heart until compassion became a foreign concept. The woman who had once believed in human-dragon coexistence was learning that humans were no better than the dragons they feared.
As the memory began to fade, the older Irene was left with the terrible knowledge of what she had become. She had gained the power to slay dragons, but in doing so, she had lost the very humanity she had been trying to protect.
The trial wasn't testing her strength or her resolve. It was testing whether she could face the truth about what she had chosen, what she had become, and whether she could find forgiveness for the girl who had made those choices with the best of intentions.
"I understand now," she whispered to the void. "This isn't about changing the past. It's about accepting it."
And for the first time in four hundred years, Irene Belserion allowed herself to truly grieve - not for the monster she had become, but for the woman who had tried so hard to save everyone and ended up destroying herself in the process.
======
Get early access to 30+ chapters of my fanfics by supporting me on Patreon! [email protected]/ShuuraiFF