I drifted through the endless void of space, weightless and broken.
Pain crawled through every inch of my body like molten glass trapped beneath my skin. My flesh had been ripped apart, burned away, then reconstructed piece by piece through instinctive healing. Every nerve screamed during the process. Healing magic was cruel like that. It closed wounds, but it never spared you the agony of being stitched back together.
I had heard rumors of ancient shadow arts capable of painless regeneration. Forbidden magic. Lost magic.
At the moment, I would've traded entire kingdoms to learn it.
Because this pain?
It was unbearable.
Somewhere in the distance, gravity caught hold of me.
A planet.
The pull strengthened rapidly until suddenly my body was dragged downward at terrifying speed. Atmosphere ignited around me in streaks of violet and crimson light as I plummeted through the skies like a dying star.
Then impact.
BOOOOOOM.
The earth shattered beneath me.
Stone exploded outward as my body carved a massive crater into the planet's surface.
For several moments, I couldn't move.
I simply lay there staring upward.
Two moons hung in the night sky.
If this had been my old world, I guessed it would've been around nine at night.
Slowly, painfully, I raised a trembling hand and snapped my fingers.
Darkness wrapped around me instantly, forming a cloak of shadow magic over my ruined body. Familiar. Comfortable.
Safe.
I forced myself upright.
Every muscle protested.
Every bone ached.
But I walked anyway.
North.
I didn't know why north.
Just instinct.
The pain slowly faded over the next few days as my body repaired itself more completely. Hunger gnawed at me constantly, but rage kept me moving.
By the tenth day, I finally saw it.
A city.
At first glance, it looked invisible.
Mountains surrounded it completely while advanced camouflage magic distorted the landscape around its borders. To normal eyes, nothing existed there.
But my eyes pierced through the illusion effortlessly.
And what I saw stunned me.
The city looked impossibly advanced.
Towering silver buildings stretched toward the sky while glowing pathways cut through the metropolis like veins of light. Massive statues nearly twenty feet tall guarded the entrance gates, depicting dragon-like humanoids clad in armor unlike anything I'd ever seen.
As I approached, a crimson beam swept across my body.
A holographic screen flickered into existence before me.
[NAME: SHIRO HIROYUKI]
[RACE: DRAGONOID]
[LEVEL: 75]
My breath caught.
Dragonoid?
The word echoed strangely inside me.
Like something ancient had just recognized me.
Then agony exploded through my body.
"GRAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"
I collapsed to my knees screaming.
Something burst from my back violently.
Dark purple wings erupted outward in a spray of blood and shattered cloth. A scaled tail slammed against the ground behind me while dark scales spread across portions of my body like living armor.
The gates immediately burst open.
Soldiers rushed toward me shouting things I couldn't understand.
Then darkness swallowed me whole.
…
When I awoke again, I found myself lying in a sterile white room.
Machines hummed softly around me.
A hospital.
I sat up slowly, gripping my forehead.
"Where…" I muttered hoarsely. "Why am I still alive?"
A voice crackled through hidden speakers overhead.
I didn't recognize the language.
Yet somehow—
I understood it perfectly.
Magic translation.
Useful.
I instinctively tried summoning darkness.
Nothing happened.
I frowned.
Movement magic.
Nothing.
Shadow magic.
Nothing.
My heart sank.
Even when I summoned one of my daggers, it appeared incorrectly. The weapon refused to transform no matter how much magic I forced into it.
Then I noticed the bracelet around my wrist.
Black metal.
Covered in glowing symbols.
A sealing artifact.
My eyes narrowed instantly.
I dropped the dagger and backed myself into the corner of the room automatically. Instinct.
Corners were safe.
No one could approach from behind there.
Then the memories returned.
The explosion.
The destruction.
The planet.
Satre.
A sharp pain twisted through my chest.
"Satre…" I whispered weakly.
My voice cracked apart.
"Was it me…?"
The thought alone nearly destroyed me.
"Was it the person you loved… who killed you?"
A single tear rolled down my cheek.
Then suddenly—
I started laughing.
Loud.
Broken.
Hollow laughter echoed through the sterile room until it twisted into sobbing. My shoulders shook violently as everything inside me finally began collapsing under the weight of grief, rage, guilt, and exhaustion.
Eventually, my body simply gave out.
Darkness claimed me again.
…
Footsteps.
I woke instantly.
Three people entered the room cautiously.
The moment they got close enough, I moved.
The first man hit the ground as I swept his legs out instantly.
The second took a kick directly to the chin hard enough to crack bone.
The third barely reacted before I used his shoulder as a springboard and launched myself through the doorway.
Alarms immediately screamed throughout the facility.
I sprinted through endless silver corridors, instincts guiding me more than thought. Scientists and guards shouted around me while red warning lights flooded the halls.
Then I saw an opening.
Outside.
I burst free into the night air and immediately ducked into a nearby alleyway before leaping upward onto the side of a building.
My wings unfurled again.
Painfully.
Beautifully.
With one powerful beat, I launched into the sky.
But something felt wrong.
I couldn't stay near the city.
Danger crawled beneath my skin like instinctive warning.
I flew for miles before finally landing beside a quiet lake hidden deep within a forest.
Breathing heavily, I stared into the water.
And froze.
The reflection staring back at me barely looked human anymore.
Dark horns curved from my skull, each crowned with flickering purple flames.
Long dark-purple hair covered portions of my face.
Dragon wings folded behind me while a scaled tail dragged silently against the ground.
The armor I once wore was gone.
Instead, I was dressed in pristine white robes resembling some kind of ceremonial clergy uniform.
"…What the hell happened to me?" I whispered.
Then voices echoed nearby.
"Find him!"
"The Dragon Lord escaped!"
"The Queen wants him alive!"
My eyes widened.
I instantly tried calling forth darkness again.
Nothing.
No movement magic.
No Sanguine.
No Kyoko.
Nothing answered me.
Panic clawed briefly at my chest.
Then—
"There! He's here!"
A soldier burst through the trees wielding a spear.
My body moved before thought did.
I lunged forward instantly.
Two slashes.
Clean.
The soldier's upper torso separated from his lower half before his head even hit the ground.
Blood sprayed across the trees.
Silence followed.
I stared at the corpse for several seconds.
Then slowly looked upward toward the alien moons hanging overhead.
This world was dangerous.
My powers were sealed.
And somehow…
things were only getting worse.
But none of that mattered.
I survived the destruction of a planet.
I survived myself.
So no matter what this world threw at me next—
I would survive that too.