And as the battle raged on, a voice called out through the chaos, a voice that seemed to cut through the very fabric of reality itself. "Kai," it whispered, and the Red Dragon paused, his fiery eyes searching the destruction for its source. "Dad?" he called into the fray, his heart aching with hope and doubt.
The shadowy form before he shuddered, and the mask fell away, revealing a hauntingly familiar face. It was Ragner Halsten, his father, the man he had thought dead. But the eyes that stared back at him were not the warm, loving eyes he remembered from his childhood. They were cold, filled with a power that seemed alien to the man he had known.
"No, Kai," Ragner said, his voice a harsh whisper. "I am not your father. Not anymore. I am something... greater."
