Ethan's body now looked like a boiled lobster, his skin flushed a violent red as bubbles streamed endlessly from beneath the surface of the lake. The milky-white water seeped through his pores, forcing its way into his body, drilling inward as if it had a will of its own. The blood within his swollen muscles was squeezed out strand by strand, pushed aside as every muscle fiber filled with that pale substance.
Then the burning began.
The milky-white liquid ignited like gasoline, every single cell in his muscles flaring into searing pain. It was not a single burst, but a sustained, merciless burn that seemed intent on reducing him to nothing. Only after that agony did the substance begin to change, slowly losing its opaque color and transforming into transparent particles of light. Those particles drifted outward and merged seamlessly with the scattered starlight already embedded throughout Ethan's body.
