The pain did not come gradually.
It struck Adler like a lightning bolt through his ribs- raw, scorching and unrestrained. He collapsed to one knee, with fingers digging into cracked earth as guttural sound tore through his throat.
Simon rushed forward, but a pulse of invisible force blasted outward, throwing him several paces backward. Anya shielded her face, as the air around Adler warped, vibrating as though the world was pulling towards him.
"Adler". She shouted, voice trembling. "What's happening to you?"
He couldn't answer.
Words scattered like dust in whirlwind swirling inside his skull.
All he felt was pressure- collosal, ancient and crushing.
He could taste iron on his tongue.
Through the agony, memories had buried came clawing to the surface- his birth atop a celestial mountain, the night were stars themselves bowed to crown him god and...the day when his elder brother turned away from the light.
Hart...
The name sent a burst of fire spiralling through his vein.
His heartbeat thundered so loudly it drowned the wind. Every thud shook the cliff beneath them. The ache in his chest grew sharper, more violent, as though something gargantuan was trying to break free.
Simon scrambled to his feet. "This is not ordinary magic."
The ground quivered again, dust rising in trembling clouds.
A fissure of golden-red energy clawed down Adler's spine, splitting into four parts. The very air seem to bow.
Anya stepped back in awe. "Your body it's changing."
Four magnificent Wings- scaled burning, divine- unfurled with a deafening roar. Each wingbeat sent a wave of pressure across the land. Flattening grass, bending trees to their base and cracking the cliff edge.
You've turned to your dragon, Simon whispered.
"No", Adler corrected, voice lowered- his human tone intertwined with a celestial echo. "A Dragon god."
And Hart. Anya whispered, horror creeping into her voice. "He's-"
"Close". Adler said.
Adler stood tall, wings span to full divine length.
For years, he had hidden this truth, buried behind humor, silence and duty. He had told himself- this is not the right time. The heirs does not need to know. That he could carried the burden alone.
But now the burden had become a storm.
He remembered Hart's darkness. The promise he had made to someday end it.
I've waited for this moment. The fire in his eyes flickering like twin suns.
He raised his gaze towards the battlefield where Ammon and Ayden struggled, beasts crawled the horizon and Hart's presence loomed like a shadow ready to swallow everything.