Kael'thir moved, his breath slow, his body burning with the aftereffects of his latest kill.
The mana from the serpent-devourer had been different.
Stronger.
Darker.
It had not just strengthened him.
It had changed something inside him.
His core felt heavier, the power within it pulsing in an unfamiliar way.
His wings ached, twitching against his back.
His claws flexed, tingling with energy.
And the space around him—
For the briefest moment, during his evolution—
Had bent.
Kael'thir did not understand it yet.
But he would.
And when he did—
He would make it his.
The fox was watching.
She stood closer than before, her golden eyes locked onto him, her tail flicking once in slow, thoughtful movements.
She had seen it.
Felt it.
And for the first time, there was something like certainty in her expression.
Kael'thir did not know why.
He did not care.
He had his own path to walk.
His own power to unravel.
If she followed, then she followed.
But she would not slow him down.
Nothing would.
The wind shifted.
Kael'thir's head snapped upward.
The air felt different.
Lighter.
Thinner.
The canyon was ending.
And beyond it—
Height.
A path upward.
A chance to reach higher ground.
His tail flicked.
Perfect.
The time to crawl through the earth like lesser creatures was ending.
He needed to see what lay beyond this realm of stone and ruin.
And the sky—
The sky was waiting.
Kael'thir began to move.
The fox followed.
As always.
The cliffs rose ahead, steep and jagged, the last barrier between him and open sky.
Kael'thir stared up at them.
His instincts whispered.
Climb.
No more failures.
No more slipping.
No more falling back to the dirt.
His wings were still not ready to carry him.
But his body was stronger now.
His claws sharper.
And this time—
He would not stop until he reached the top.
Kael'thir's tail flicked once.
Then he leapt.
The first few movements were quick, effortless.
His claws dug into ancient stone, his tail curling to steady himself.
The weight of his body felt different now.
Lighter.
Stronger.
This was nothing like before.
This time, he would not fall.
Higher.
The wind grew sharper the further he climbed.
It howled through the narrow passageways, biting against his scales, dragging at his limbs.
The world beneath him shrunk.
The canyon, the ruins, the lands of weak prey—
All of it was falling behind him.
Kael'thir did not look down.
His eyes were locked above.
On the sky.
On the horizon waiting beyond this final wall of stone.
The top.
Kael'thir's claws scraped against the edge of the cliffside.
He pulled himself over.
And then—
He saw it.
The world stretched far beyond what he had known.
Not wasteland.
Not ruins.
Something greater.
The land rolled into towering forests, stretching into deep valleys of mist, ending in mountains that rose to scrape the sky itself.
And beyond all of it—
The heavens.
For the first time, Kael'thir stood on open land, nothing above him but endless sky.
For the first time—
There was nothing trapping him beneath the earth.
The sky was right there.
Waiting.
His wings twitched violently, pulsing with the need to spread wide.
To lift him.
To take him where he belonged.
But they were still not ready.
Kael'thir gritted his fangs.
Soon.
Not yet.
But soon.
He took a slow breath, his crimson eyes burning as he gazed at the world beyond.
The hunger returned.
A hunger that was no longer just for mana.
No longer just for survival.
It was a hunger to dominate.
To take everything before him.
This world had no rulers.
Only beings that had not yet been devoured.
Kael'thir exhaled sharply.
Then, without another word, he moved forward.
The next hunt had begun.
And this time—
It would not be in the dark.
It would be beneath the open sky.