The world don't look the same anymore. Not cause the sky change or trees move weird, but cause he changd. Coker stood at the cliff edge, lookin down at the academy that used to spit on him with every stare. That place where they laughed, mocked, and treated him like trash. His hands was trembling, but it wasn't from fear—it was something else. Something burnin deep inside now. That shadow thing, it didn't just come from nowhere. It was part of him. Or maybe it always was. It didn't feel like a normal beast. It felt like it belonged inside his soul.
Voices came behind him.
Two upper ranked boys stood there frozen, both wearin golden beast crest on their chest. He knew them. They the ones who used to trip him in the halls, call him names like dirt face and no beast. But now, they mouths was open for a different reason. Fear.
"You saw that right?" the skinny one said. "That wasn't normal."
"I seen the altar explode," the taller one muttered, stepping back. "He summoned somethin. Or maybe it summoned him... I dunno."
Coker ain't say nothin. He just stepped forward slow, and the shadows follow. With every step he took, the light around him twisted, like it was scared to touch him. Even the wind held its breath. The ground near his feet turned dark, and that feeling—it got heavier. Like the whole world was watching.
"You ain't suppose to be here," the tall one said, shakin hard. "No beast appear after fifteen. That the rule."
"I don't follow none of yall rules," Coker muttered.
Then it happen.
His shadow, it moved. It didn't copy his shape no more. It grew big, twisted with horns and wings, like a monster crawled out of a place not even nightmares wanna go. The shape behind him rose up like death itself. The two boys dropped their crystals and ran, screamin like kids.
Coker didn't chase. He just watched them run with a face that ain't even surprised. He looked back down at the academy. That place that said he wasn't good enough. That he had no beast. That he would always be weak.
He smiled. Not happy. Not angry neither. Just that kinda smile people wear when they done pretendin.
They said he was nothin.
Too late.
Useless.
Now they gonna see what happen when nothin turns into somethin they can't never stop.