My girlfriend is trapped in my superpower

The world split open in fire and stone. The floor heaved, cracks spiderwebbing across the training hall as screams erupted outside. A deafening roar swallowed the city, rattling my bones.

"TO ARMS!" one of the Masters bellowed, but his voice was drowned by the sound of something tearing through walls.

I stumbled to my feet, Lyra materializing beside me in a blaze of violet fire. "Oh, this is going to be fun," she said, her tone sharp with anticipation instead of her usual mockery.

Bram yanked me upright. "Move, Kael! We're not waiting for it to come to us!"

We burst from the training hall into pandemonium. The streets of Ashthorne were pure chaos—mages shouting incantations, steel flashing, civilians running in all directions. Buildings buckled as something massive slid between them, its shadow blotting out the torches.

The Hollow Wyrm.

Its body stretched on forever, a titanic serpent of bone and ash, hollow sockets glowing with a sickly white fire. Its scales weren't scales at all—more like jagged shards of broken obsidian, scraping against the city's walls with every coil.

Its jaws opened, and the sound it made wasn't just a roar. It was a scream that scraped the soul raw, tearing the courage from the lungs of men.

Mira's sword was already out, her knuckles white. "You've got to be kidding me…"

Lyra grinned at her. "Oh, don't worry, princess. This one's gonna make for fantastic exercise."

Bram cracked his knuckles, voice low. "A monster made of bones. Hope it likes getting broken."

The Hollow Wyrm turned its eyeless gaze toward us, the fire in its sockets flaring brighter. Its massive skull tilted, and I realized with a chill that It was looking straight at me.

The Hollow Wyrm's scream rattled the stone foundations of Ashthorne.

Masters spilled into the streets, staffs raised, spellfire already igniting the night sky. They shouted orders over the chaos, their voices clipped and desperate. "Contain the breach!" "Circle its head—NOW!"

Contain it? That thing? My chest felt hollow just looking at it.

Lyra leaned lazily against a crumbling wall, fire curling from her fingers. "Contain it, they say. As if a paper shield will stop that walking catastrophe."

"Lyra, not now!" I hissed, though even I couldn't tear my eyes from the creature.

She only smirked. "Why not? If this is my last night alive, I'm going out entertained."

Bram squared his shoulders beside her, sarcasm thick in his voice. "Then you're in luck—because if that thing eats us, you'll have a front row seat inside its ribcage."

"Sounds cozy," Lyra shot back, grinning like they were at a tavern, not facing a monster that made my blood freeze.

Mira snapped at both of them, her voice cutting sharp through the rising hysteria. "Shut up—both of you! This isn't a game!"

But even her anger couldn't disguise the fear in her eyes.

The Wyrm shifted its colossal body, scraping towers into rubble. Its hollow sockets locked on us again, like a predator scenting the one meal it wanted above all others. Me.

The Masters noticed it too. One of them, Elder Veyr, jabbed his staff toward me. "Get him out of here! NOW!"

Another Master—grey-bearded, furious—snarled. "No! He's the reason it came. If we move him, we lose control of its focus."

The air grew thick with more than smoke; it was tension, suspicion, fear. I felt it press against me heavier than the monster's shadow.

Lyra whispered in my head, voice low and sharp, "They're thinking of throwing you to it, Kael."

"Don't be ridiculous," I muttered back.

"Ridiculous?" Lyra scoffed, voice like embers licking the edges of my mind. "Look at their faces. Half of them are already weighing which is worse: losing Ashthorne, or losing you."

She wasn't wrong. The Masters bickered like vultures circling a corpse.

"We can't sacrifice him—he's untrained!" one snapped.

"And yet the creature only answers to him," another spat back. "You saw it turn! The Wyrm doesn't just wander here by chance."

Their words scraped raw against my nerves.

Bram stepped in front of me suddenly, spreading his arms wide as though daring any of them to argue. "If anyone so much as points a finger at Kael again, I'll break it off. Slowly." His grin was all teeth, but his eyes were hard. "We're the A-team. We stick together, remember?"

Mira's blade was out, steel flashing with her trembling fury. "If you even think about offering him up, you'll answer to me."

The Masters faltered. For a moment, silence hung heavy—until the Wyrm let out another shriek, shaking the ground so violently that tiles rained from rooftops.

Everyone staggered. Smoke choked the air. The city itself seemed to pulse with terror.

Lyra appeared fully beside me then, her flames guttering into the shape of a woman. She crossed her arms and tilted her head, mocking as ever. "gods, you're all a delight. Standing here debating morality while that thing chews your city like it's jerky."

One Master sneered, his patience fraying. "Voidflame, silence yourself. You are no ally of ours."

"Oh?" Lyra's smirk widened, dangerous and playful all at once. "Then who keeps your precious little city from becoming Wyrm fodder? You?" She let a flicker of flame ripple across her palm. "Please. You'd last half a heartbeat."

"Enough!" Elder Veyr roared, his staff crackling with power. "The Hollow Wyrm won't wait for our arguments. Form the lines!"

The monster didn't wait. With a sound like bones grinding together, it lunged. The ground split where its claw struck, ripping a gouge through the training yard as if it were parchment.

The walls of Ashthorne shuddered. And just like that—the fragile debate shattered. Everyone moved, scrambling into formation, magic hissing and swords uns

Words died in my throat as the Wyrm surged forward, its bulk blotting out the burning sky. Spells lit the air like fireworks, streaks of blue and green and crimson crashing against its obsidian hide. But they fizzled, splintered, useless.

"It's laughing at you," Lyra said almost gleefully, firelight dancing in her eyes as if she saw something the rest of us didn't. "Every wasted spell, every frantic scream—it's drinking in your fear like wine."

Bram shoved her shoulder roughly. "Then how about you stop enjoying the show and actually help, flame-doll?"

She smirked, flipping her hair as though the city wasn't on the verge of collapse. "Say please, and maybe I'll consider it."

"Please choke on a brick," Bram fired back, even as he drew steel.

"Later," Lyra purred.

Mira spun on both of them, face pale with fury. "Is this really the time?!"

The ground buckled again—stone splitting like dry wood beneath the Wyrm's claws. Screams erupted deeper in the city as whole sections of wall crumbled under its weight.

I could barely breathe. It was too much—too big, too wrong. That empty, hollow face seemed carved out of nightmare, and the way its gaze kept crawling back to me… I wanted to tear my skin off just to escape it.

The Masters shouted frantic commands, throwing up barriers of light and earth. They sparked and shattered under each strike, every collapse sending shrapnel through the air.

Then, beneath all the chaos, I caught it—an undertone, a whisper almost woven into the Wyrm's shriek. My name. Kael.

The sound froze me cold. Lyra's smirk faltered. Her head cocked, flame flickering uncertainly. "…That's not possible."

"What?" I whispered back, my mouth dry.

Her fiery eyes locked on the beast. "…It knows you. And not because of me."

The Wyrm's jaw unhinged, a hollow roar tearing through Ashthorne.

And with that, everything dissolved into chaos—Masters screaming incantations, soldiers rushing, Mira dragging me backward, Bram cursing at the top of his lungs while Lyra's flames exploded outward to shield us.

All I could hear, through the fire and the terror, was that whisper again.

"Kael."

The Wyrm's voice slithered through my head like oil, coating every thought. Kael… mine.

My chest tightened. My pulse hammered so loud I barely heard the chaos in the training yard anymore.

"Don't listen to it!" Mira shouted, her fingers digging into my arm, trying to keep me anchored.

Easy for her to say—she didn't feel it crawling inside her skull, clawing at the edges of her mind.

"Mine," the whisper came again, louder now.

Lyra snarled, her flames flaring dangerously hot. "Shut your mouth, ash-breath!" She hurled a torrent of fire so bright it scorched the sky itself. The Wyrm staggered back, hissing, but it didn't retreat. It watched. Still staring at me.

Bram planted himself in front of me, sword leveled, jaw tight. "Kael, snap the hell out of it. You hear me? You don't belong to anything."

"Funny," Lyra muttered, lips curling, "that's what I keep telling him, too."

"This isn't the time," Bram shot back.

"Oh, but it is, darling," Lyra teased, though her flames licked higher, hotter, betraying her unease. "Because if that thing is calling his name, it means it's not here for your precious guild. It's here for us."

The Masters didn't hear her—or maybe they didn't care. They threw themselves at the Wyrm in coordinated bursts, shouting incantations that rattled the very stones beneath us. Bolts of pure force cracked against its body; spears of light drove deep into its hide. And still, the monster advanced, unstoppable.

Then—crack.

The barrier that shielded the city wall shattered like glass. Dust and screams filled the air as debris rained down.

"Evacuate!" someone yelled.

"No," another Master bellowed, desperation sharp in his voice. "Hold the line!"

Lyra rolled her eyes, muttering under her breath, "Idiots. All of them. They're trying to kill it."

Bram's head snapped toward her. "And what would you suggest?"

Her grin sharpened, dangerous and far too confident. "You don't kill a Wyrm." Her flames coiled like a crown around her. "You outsmart it."

She turned her gaze to me then, fiery eyes narrowing. "And, Kael… it wants you. Which means you're the bait."

My stomach plummeted. "What—no—"

Before I could finish, the Wyrm let out another hollow roar, and the ground beneath us split wide open.