His body began to twist and stretch unnaturally, bones cracking like thunder. A thick darkness surged from beneath his skin, until black, jagged scales tore forth across his limbs and chest, gleaming with an otherworldly sheen.
With a violent pulse, six massive leather wings erupted from his back, edged with abyssal purple fire. Above his head, a cracked, pitch-black halo spun slowly into existence, leaking thin trails of corrupted light.
The blood pool floor rippled as his massive, draconic form towered into the air—horned, monstrous, ancient. He inhaled deeply, the void in his lungs pulling her closer like a vortex.
Hlusturia trembled, broken and near-lightless. Her remaining eye widened with sheer horror as he opened his maw, lined with rows of jagged, silver-glinting teeth.
She tried to resist, to fly, to blink away—but her body betrayed her, far too weak, her divine core already fading.
"No—!"
