Chapter 175 Seraphine
Darkness.
It swallowed everything.
No sound. No ground. No air.
Just… nothing.
And then... Pain.
It ripped through me so violently that I folded in on myself, a scream tearing from my throat, but it didn’t echo, didn’t travel. It just existed in the void with me, raw and broken and endless.
My dragon roared. Not the controlled, terrifying sound I was used to. This was different. This was panic. Agony.
Make it stop—make it stop—
“I don’t know how!” I choked, clutching at my chest as something inside me burned or more like splitting, like my bones were being pried apart and remade at the same time.
I dropped to my knees, or at least it felt like I did. There was no ground, but my body reacted like there was, folding under the pressure of it all.
My skin burned. My veins burned. My soul burned. And then I saw her. My dragon.
She wasn’t whole. Not anymore.
Her massive form twisted in the darkness, her body writhing as black fire poured over her back, familiar, terrifying, ours but beneath it… Her scales were changing.
“Wait—” I gasped.
They weren’t just black anymore. White. Silver.
Cracking through like fractures in obsidian, spreading across her body in jagged, glowing lines that pulsed with something I didn’t recognize.
Something ancient. Something wrong.
She screamed again, her claws scraping against nothing, her wings snapping outward as if trying to escape her own skin.
It hurts—
“I know—I know—” I crawled toward her, even though distance didn’t exist here, even though everything felt warped and endless. “I’m here—I’m right here—”
The moment I reached her the pain doubled.
I cried out, my hands slamming against her scales as the burning transferred straight into me, like touching her tethered us completely.
Her pain. Was mine.
My breath hitched violently. It felt like something was pouring into us, through us, filling every empty space, every crack, every weakness.
“I can’t—” I gasped. “I can’t hold this—”
Something is inside us, she snarled, her voice breaking apart, layered with something unfamiliar. Something new—
“I know—”
It’s wrong—
“No,” I forced out, even as my body trembled violently. “No, it’s not wrong—it just—”
Another surge hit. Stronger. Brighter.
I screamed.
The darkness around us split. Like something tearing open a curtain.
And suddenly, the void wasn’t empty anymore.
It shifted. Stretched. Expanded.
The black turned… deeper. Richer. Alive. Stars began to appear. One. Then another. Then hundreds. Thousands.
They flickered into existence around us, scattered across the endless dark like shattered glass catching light.
The night sky.
We were standing inside it.
My dragon stilled for half a second, her breathing ragged, her massive form trembling as the black fire along her back flared violently... then stuttered.
Because something else answered. The silver in her scales glowed. Not like fire. Not like anything I’d ever felt before. Cool. Endless. Heavy in a completely different way.
What is this— she whispered, her voice shaking.
I swallowed hard, staring at the stars as they pulsed faintly in rhythm with the glow spreading through her.
“…I think…” My voice cracked. “I think it’s the egg.”
Another wave hit, but this time it wasn’t just pain.
It was pressure. Power. Something ancient settling into place.
My dragon snarled again, her black fire surging violently, lashing out across her back like it was trying to burn it away.
No— she snapped. No, this is ours—this is ours—
“I know!” I cried, grabbing onto her again, even as it felt like my skin was peeling back from the heat. “But you’re not losing it—you’re not losing anything—”
It’s taking control—
“It’s not,” I forced out, even though I wasn’t entirely sure. “It’s just—different—”
I don’t want different—
Her fire exploded outward. Black flames roared across the space, devouring the stars closest to us—consuming them in violent, possessive bursts.
The sky flickered. Shook. But the stars didn’t disappear. They bent. Shifted. Moved around the fire instead of being destroyed by it.
And that made my breath catch. Because the fire wasn’t winning. But it wasn’t losing either.
They were... Coexisting. Clashing. Testing.
It won’t submit, my dragon growled, her voice low, dangerous now despite the pain. It should submit—
“It’s not going to,” I said, my voice shaking but firm. “It’s not like you.”
Another pulse of that silver light surged through her, spreading further along her body, weaving between the black like threads of starlight stitched into shadow.
She roared again, but it wasn’t just pain this time.
It was frustration. Territorial. Possessive.
This is mine—
“And it still is!” I shouted back, grabbing her face, forcing her to look at me despite the chaos ripping through both of us. “Nothing is taking you away from me! Nothing is replacing you! Do you hear me?”
Her breathing stuttered. The fire faltered. Just for a second.
And in that second, the stars surged brighter.
Not attacking. Not consuming. Just… existing.
It’s still here, she said, quieter now, but strained. It’s pushing—
“I know,” I whispered, pressing my forehead to her scaled snout, ignoring the heat, the pain, the way my entire body felt like it was unraveling. “But you don’t have to fight it like it’s an enemy—”
It feels like one.
“I know,” I said again, softer this time. “But what if it’s not trying to take control?”
Her fire flickered. Uncertain.
Then what is it doing?
I looked up. At the endless sky stretching around us. At the way the stars pulsed, not violently, not aggressively, but steadily. Like a heartbeat. Like breath.
“…balancing,” I whispered.
Another surge hit.
But this time, it didn’t rip through me.
It spread. Slow. Heavy. Overwhelming. But not destructive.
My dragon sucked in a sharp breath, her body trembling as the silver continued to weave through her, no longer cracking, no longer breaking, but integrating.
I can feel it, she said, her voice still strained, still pained but different now. Power…
“Yeah,” I breathed, my own body shaking as it flooded through me too. “Me too…”
It’s not fire.
“No.”
It’s not death.
“No.”
It’s something else.
The stars flared brighter around us. The black fire rose to meet them. They didn’t fight. They aligned.
And it felt like standing in the center of something ancient. Something terrifying. Something powerful enough to reshape everything.
My dragon let out a low, unsteady breath.
I don’t like it.
I huffed weakly despite the pain still lacing through me. “Yeah… me neither.”
Another wave hit. Not as sharp. But deeper. Settling.
It’s not leaving, she said.
“I don’t think it’s supposed to.”
Silence fell between us again. Not empty. Not dark. But full. Of stars. Of fire. Of something entirely new.