"How?" The word escaped from both of Brakhtar's mouths in perfect synchrony as he watched the impossible unfold before his eyes.
Black smoke poured from every inch of Adyr's body, wrapping around him until even his once-white wings turned into cursed clouds of darkness. His hair deepened to the color of night, blending seamlessly with the surrounding void, while the pure-sky hue of his eyes filled with something indescribably malevolent. The sight and the feeling it carried froze everyone in place.
"How can this be possible?"
It wasn't merely the physical manifestation of evil that stunned them, nor the suffocating, bone-deep dread that came from witnessing it. The true impossibility lay in who the power belonged to: Adyr, a Practitioner of the Astra Path, now radiating the aura of corruption itself.
They tried to make sense of it, to decide if what they saw was illusion or reality, but there was no doubt. It was real, taking form right before their eyes.
