Karl stiffened as the suppression field flickered, the hum in the walls suddenly louder, deeper, like the ship itself was bracing for something.
Kaelis stepped back from him, claws clicking against the steel floor. His small frame rippled—then began to grow.
Scales stretched, glowing brighter with molten veins. His wings unfurled, each one tearing space wider until the walls themselves bent. The chamber expanded around him, panels pulling back, steel folding open as if the Sanctum had been waiting for this moment.
Karl’s mouth went dry. He had seen dragons before. His father. His brother. Ancient lords in the capital. But this... this was different. Kaelis wasn’t a beast. He was a world taking shape in front of him.
The little dragon was gone. Before him stood a mountain of fire and scale, horns brushing the chamber’s expanded ceiling, claws digging trenches into the steel. Heat radiated off him, thick enough to choke.
Kaelis rolled his shoulders, wings cracking open with a thunderous snap. His voice came out heavy, deep enough to shake the floor.
"Lucian wasn’t lying. This ship really does accommodate me. Clever brat."
His head dipped, molten eyes boring into Karl. Smoke curled from his jaws as his fangs parted in a grin.
"So," he rumbled. "Who’s the little lizard now?"
Karl forced a shaky laugh. "Yeah... point taken."
Kaelis leaned closer, his breath hot enough to sting Karl’s skin. "Brace yourself."
Karl’s smirk faltered. "Wait, what—"
It wasn’t fire like Karl had ever seen. Not wild, not chaotic. It was controlled, precise, but heavy with something older than language. The breath of a dragon king of kings.
The flames swallowed him whole.
Karl screamed. His body arched against the restraints as the fire poured through him, not burning flesh but burning deeper—blood, marrow, the very essence of what he was. His veins lit up like molten cracks in stone. His claws scraped against steel, sparks flying as the restraints rattled, threatening to snap.
He felt everything. His weak blood screamed as it was rewritten. The scraps of dragon power he had inherited from his father tore apart, shredded, reforged into something rawer, truer.
His skin split in places, glowing veins bursting through. His bones creaked, reshaped, each one humming like a blade being forged. His roar tore through the chamber, half human, half beast, echoing against the steel as Kaelis’s fire poured into him without pause.
"Don’t resist!" Kaelis thundered, wings spreading wide. "Let it break you. Let it build you. This is dragonfire, not the scraps your father called blood."
Karl’s eyes rolled back, his chest heaving as if his lungs would explode. The fire coursed through him, tearing through every limit he had ever known. The memory of being weak, of being cast aside, of kneeling while his brother laughed—all of it fed into the storm inside him.
The restraints shattered.
Chains fell away in molten pieces as Karl’s aura burst outward. Not black, not the faint spark he once carried, but a blaze—red and gold, sharp and wild, filling the chamber with heat.
Kaelis reared back his head, cutting off the stream of fire. Smoke rolled from his jaws, wings folding tight as he watched.
Karl dropped to his knees, chest heaving. His skin smoked, his body trembling—but alive. More alive than he had ever felt. His aura stretched wide, cracking the air, the floor beneath him glowing with heat.
Kaelis’s massive head lowered until his molten gaze filled Karl’s vision.
"Gamma rank," he said, voice low but satisfied. "You’ve leapt there in one breath."
Karl blinked through the haze, then barked out a rough laugh. "Gamma...? Just like that?" He flexed his hand, claws sharper now, skin tougher, his body humming with strength that hadn’t been there before. "Feels like I could tear a mountain in half."
Kaelis snorted, smoke curling high. "Don’t let it swell your head. Gamma is nothing. A child’s step. But it’s a start."
Karl grinned through the pain, blood dripping from his lip. "Better than rotting at XXX Rank."
The dragon’s massive fangs gleamed. "You’ve shed that weakness. What you are now—" His voice rumbled, heat vibrating through the chamber. "—is mine. Dragon to dragon."
Karl tilted his head back, breathing hard, then smirked weakly. "Yeah, yeah. Lapdog. I remember the deal."
Kaelis’s eyes narrowed, but there was a hint of amusement in his voice. "Don’t forget it. Your strength belongs to me. Your fire, your blood, your very breath. All of it."
Karl pushed himself to his feet, wobbling but steady. He rolled his shoulders, testing the weight of his new power, the way it coursed under his skin like liquid steel.
For the first time, he didn’t feel small.
He met the dragon’s gaze without flinching. "Fine. I’ll fetch the sticks, like I said."
Kaelis rumbled, the sound shaking the chamber. "Good. Then fetch them well."
The brig was quiet again, save for the heavy sound of Karl’s breathing and the low hum of Kaelis’s presence. But beneath it all, there was something new.
Not weakness. Not chains.
For the first time in his life, Karl felt like he was finally clawing his way out of the shadow he had been born into.
And standing before him, wings folded and eyes blazing, Kaelis only growled in approval.
The monitor flickered quietly in front of him.
Lucian sat in the dim control room, one hand propped against his chin as he watched the feed from the brig. Kaelis filled most of the frame now, wings folded tight, his molten gaze fixed on Karl, who was still on his feet, smoke rising faint from his body. The chains were gone. The aura spilling off him was different—raw, sharpened.
Lucian’s jaw tightened. He had expected Kaelis to do something, but not this quickly. Not this violently.
Karl laughed faintly in the footage, still clutching his side, trying to stand straighter than he should. Kaelis only rumbled back at him, the sound shaking the camera for a second.
Lucian let the scene play out for a moment longer before he leaned forward. His finger pressed against the console, and the screen beeped.
The brig’s locks disengaged. Restraints, fields, the last of the suppression—all gone.
He didn’t bother watching Karl’s reaction. He knew what it would be. Freedom. Power. For now, that was enough.
Lucian leaned back in the chair, exhaling through his nose, quiet. "Lapdog," he muttered under his breath, not sure if it was meant for Karl or Kaelis.
The monitor dimmed as he shut it down.
He rose, cloak dragging across the floor as he turned toward the corridor. There was no more to see here. The brat would either stand or fall under Kaelis’s eye.
Lucian had somewhere else to be.
He left the control room, boots echoing against the steel as the Sanctum’s hum carried him forward. Past the brig, past the silence, toward another wing of the ship.