The first crack came with a sound like splintering glass.
Kiel froze, the noise echoing inside his skull rather than the air. Then came another crack, sharper, followed by a deep thrum that made his teeth ache. The hybrid core inside him wasn't just unstable anymore—it was breaking.
Nyra reached him, grabbing his arm. "Kiel, we need to—"
The world inverted.
Colors bled wrong. The sky rippled into a whirl of crimson and black. The ground lost its weight, pebbles floating around them as though gravity had simply forgotten to exist. A sound—half roar, half scream—tore through the battlefield, and Kiel realized with sick certainty that it came from inside him.
---
Shadows exploded outward, not as tendrils this time but as living storms. They twisted into beasts with hollow eyes and snapping jaws, each one moving with his hunger. The crimson veins in them pulsed in time with his heartbeat—fast, erratic, unstoppable.
Nyra staggered back, shielding her face from the surge of heat and wind. "Kiel! Stop it! You're killing everything—"
"I—can't—" His voice fractured mid-word, part of it echoing like something inhuman was speaking alongside him. His claws dug into his own chest as if he could hold the core together by force.
---
Aeloria dove from above, golden light flaring from her wings. "We'll restrain him—"
She never finished the sentence. The moment her light touched the storm, it shattered into shards that twisted midair and slammed into her like spears. She spun away, barely managing to block with her blades. "He's rejecting everything!"
Seris, already moving from the flank, hurled chains of shimmering runes toward him. They snapped tight around his limbs—only to melt into black sludge as the hybrid energy ate through them.
---
The swarm, sensing opportunity, surged again. But the beasts didn't reach him. The moment they crossed the edge of his storm, their bodies unraveled into strands of silk and ash, absorbed into the crimson fog.
Kiel's core was feeding.
---
He screamed, but the sound was wrong—layered, deeper than his own voice. The hybrid flame and abyssal shadow inside him merged completely, swirling into a vortex that roared up into the storm above.
The sky answered.
Lightning the color of fresh blood tore across the clouds, striking the battlefield in jagged bursts. Each bolt left behind a crater lined with writhing shadow.
Nyra ran toward him again, shouting over the wind. "Listen to me! You're still you! Fight it!"
His head snapped toward her, eyes no longer just crimson-gold—they were fractured prisms, shards of light and darkness spinning in their depths. For a moment, recognition flickered. Then the storm flared, and that flicker was gone.
---
The ground split wide beneath him. From the fissure, a massive claw of pure shadow rose, curling protectively around him like the limb of some ancient titan. More followed—four, then six—until he stood in the heart of a colossal silhouette that towered over the valley, its form barely holding shape in the chaos.
The Titan-Shadow roared, and the sound flattened the grass for miles.
Even the Alpha hesitated.
---
"Kiel!" Nyra's voice broke as she planted herself in his path. Her daggers dripped with silver fire, her stance unyielding. "If you're going to lose yourself, you'll have to go through me first."
The storm hesitated.
The Titan's head tilted, the shadows rippling like uncertain thought.
Then, in a motion too fast to follow, the massive claw swept down—
—and stopped an inch from her. The pressure was enough to send cracks through the earth, but it didn't crush her.
Kiel's voice—his real voice—came through, faint but clear. "Run… while I still can hold it back…"
Nyra shook her head. "Not leaving you."
---
The Alpha roared and charged, shattering the fragile pause. The Titan turned, shadows coiling like whips, and met it head-on. The impact shook the valley, sending shockwaves into the storm above.
Somewhere deep inside the chaos, Kiel fought to take himself back.
But the core was still breaking… and when it finally shattered, there would be no holding back at all.