Chapter 274 CHAPTER 274

Chapter 274 CHAPTER 274
For one endless second, I was sure I was dying.

Not just from the betrayal of the dragon that has saved me, loved me, directed my path all these while, but from fire in its most extreme state.

My skin should have been blistering. My organs should have been cooking.

Every nerve ending screamed that this was the end.

I was burning alive from the inside out, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. The pain was so complete it almost felt like peace.

Then something inside me screamed louder than I was trying to.
Then blasted outward, enveloping everything within me.

It wasn’t gentle. It felt like a dam shattering. Like something ancient and sleeping had finally been jolted awake by the fire.

At first, I didn't know what it was, thinking in such extreme conditions wasn't exactly easy.

But as I flipped through thoughts and feelings, I got to a riveting realisation.

The power that had been slowly stirring in me for months — the one my mother swallowed and passed down to me — was what had exploded outward.

It didn’t just fill me; it swallowed me instead.
There was no me and the power; I was it, and it was me.

Completely.

I felt it rush through every vein, every muscle, every bone.

My chi, which I had always thought was strong, suddenly felt tiny in comparison.

Like I had been sipping from a cup my whole life while an ocean had been waiting underneath.
But still, I knew how important my life source was; my Chi is my energy supplier, if it goes off, everything shuts down.

Still, it was hard not to notice the way the power proudly screamed its importance.

It flooded every part of me until there was no space left for anything else.

I had stopped screaming at some point; my body probably realised I wasn't dead yet for some reason, and curiosity set in.

My mind went over the current state of things gradually.

The fire was still inside me, but it no longer hurt.

It felt like it belonged there, and I was no stranger to fire, but one of this level, I thought, would be too much. I'm no dragon.

But it seems I was made of the same material, or this power inside me was turning me into something else.

My body suddenly stopped fighting the fire and started drinking it in instead.

Through my pores, ears and nose. I opened my mouth and tasted fire.

I could feel the egg somewhere nearby, glowing brighter than before, but I couldn’t see it. I couldn’t see anything.

My mind had been taken over by something else.

Memories that weren’t mine flashed behind my eyes.

Old gods and their Kingdoms, things that destroyed them.

Dragons the size of mountains travel through worlds, seeking men and beings worthy of them.

Once more, my mind is being expanded and stretched, from the real estate agent back in Utah to a dragon kin, training in an academy. Now I'm seeing things not meant for people like me, hearing decisions that shaped the world.

I'd been scared of helping to wipe out an entire species of Fae, but now, I knew that leaving even one child alive would lead to this cycle repeating itself.

It's either them or us, no survivors.

Two powers existing on the same level, none higher or lower, and having polar opposite energies, can't live on the same planet.

The voices tell me this is what I'm made for, to end a cycle.

They have given me the power a long time ago, and it's time to start using it properly.

I had been using a sliver of the extent of my powers.

All this time, I thought I was powerful. I thought the darkness and the flames I could call were the peak of what I could do.

But this… this was the ocean I had only been touching the surface of. And it had been waiting for me to stop being afraid of it.

All that training paid off, and the pain was gone now. In its place was something terrifying and beautiful. I could feel every spark of fire in the volcano.

The destruction it offered.
They were mine if I wanted them. I could feel the ancient power stretching, testing its new home inside my body, and finding it acceptable.

I rose and finally opened my eyes.

The lava parted around me like it didn’t want to burn me anymore.

My skin glowed gold, bright enough to light up the darkness around me. When I looked down at my arms, I saw scales — not the ones I was used to.

These were different. Sleeker. Golden and black, shifting like living metal.

My eyes…

I blinked once, then realised I didn’t need to.

I could see everything without blinking. The heat signatures. The flow of magic in the lava. The faint golden thread connecting me to the egg that had already sunk deeper into the volcano.

My vision was sharper, wider, endless. The world didn’t look the same anymore.

I wondered how I was going to get out, but the power caught the thought even before it finished forming, and I began to rise

I broke the surface of the lava and kept rising until I stood on it like it was solid ground.

Steam rose around me in thick clouds.
The power inside me pulsed in time with my heartbeat, no longer something I had to reach for.

Valyra’s voice drifted into my mind, tired but proud.

"Your transformation is complete. You can rise up now."

I didn’t answer out loud; I just thought about obeying her words, and the air began shifting to my will.

Soon, I rose out of the pit, and she stood back for me to step on the ground.

"Glorious," she whispered, "you're truly the best choice we've made in millennia."

"You could have warned a girl, you know?" I whispered back in her head, struggling to adapt to this new reality.

My skin was cooling now, and I was covered in more scales than before.

"The battle is coming soon, and you will lead us to triumph."

"You're not going to war, Val. You just laid an egg," I replied with a frown, slowly walking towards the entrance.

"Go and get some sleep, Alira. You need it."

I didn't argue with that; my body was already threatening to shut down as I walked.

When I got to the entrance, naked as the
day I was born, Florian, Zade, Draco, and their dragons were waiting for me.

I fell into a waiting arm and the world went dark.