No! I don't want to be a Super Necromancer!

Rage Monkey flexed dramatically. "Elite? Pfft. Labels are for mortals. I am the storm that snacks between dimensions. I sweat battlefields. My footsteps create local seismic instability. And my poop glows faintly red from residual fire mana."

Damien blinked. "That's… incredibly specific."

Rage Monkey snapped his fingers and pointed dramatically toward the sky. "Also—whoever killed me? When I find them, I will politely introduce their spine to their lungs, their lungs to their ears, and their ears to my autobiography, which is currently just one sentence: 'He came. He screamed. He exploded.'"

Rage Monkey glared at his surroundings and suddenly noticed Blackie, arms folded with elegant disdain.

Rage Monkey's confident grin faltered.

Their eyes met.

"...Mom?"

Blackie tilted her head. Then, slowly, painfully slowly, raised her hand and gave him a thumbs-down. Elegant. Precise. Emotionally catastrophic.

Rage Monkey gasped, stepping back like he'd been slapped. "You dare?! I return from the abyss! I ascend from oblivion! I evolve into a triple-element temporal juggernaut and you rate me like a second-rate lizard?!"

Blackie tapped her chin, then gave him two thumbs down.

Rage Monkey threw both hands in the air. "TWO?! You gave me a combo thumbs-down?! I was born from your majestic agony during the Blood Moon Convergence!"

Blackie rolled her eyes and made a talking-mouth motion with her hand, then pointed to the nearest crater, suggesting he go live in it.

Damien watched, amused. "She's not really one for sentimental bonding."

Rage Monkey squinted at her. "You abandoned me during a thunderstorm and told the others I was a failed egg!"

Blackie shrugged without shame and mimed cracking an egg open over a pan.

Rage Monkey clutched his chest. "This family dynamic is toxic!"

Blackie smirked slightly and walked away, adjusting her elegant black cloak as if she hadn't just emotionally detonated her own son.

Damien sighed. "Yeah… you're gonna fit in just fine."

Rage Monkey crossed his arms, tail lashing. "I don't need her approval anyway. I've got fire, shadows, and time itself. That's more family than I ever needed."

He paused. "But if she ever wants a rematch… I'm free Tuesday, about a thousand years from now."

Damien folded his arms and stared at Rage Monkey's towering, flame-rimmed form.

"Alright, enough showboating. I've already got one giant undead dragon doing spooky fashion week. Now its your turn."

Rage Monkey raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Transform into a human. You've got the mana for it now. Let's not traumatize every village we pass by. Fifteen years old, human eyes please."

The monkey snorted, flames flickering from his nostrils. "Fine. You want human? I'll give you human."

He cracked his knuckles, flared his mana, and

FWUMP!

Disappeared in a puff of smoke.

When it cleared, Rage Monkey stood in a new form.

Or rather, towered.

He was now in a humanoid body that technically could be called fifteen years old... if fifteen-year-olds were over two meters tall, broad-shouldered like a war golem, and had biceps thicker than Damien's waist.

His eyebrows were still flame-colored. His ears were still slightly pointed. His "human" eyes glowed faintly red. And he wore a black school uniform that looked like it was stitched out of tent canvas.

Damien stared. "That's… that's not a human. That's a truck wearing pants."

Rage Monkey struck a heroic pose. "Behold! Human Mode: Adolescent Apex Form! I look like a school student."

"You look like the kind of transfer student who bench-presses the principal." Damien's eyelids twitched.

Blackie walked by, glanced once, and gave another double thumbs-down.

Rage Monkey glared. "Oh, come on. This is grade-A, banana-fed peak puberty!"

"You were supposed to be a fifteen-year-old human. Not a bodybuilder cursed by puberty gods."

Rage Monkey pouted. "This is what fifteen looked like for me!"

"Right. Okay. Let's try again." Damien made a rolling gesture. "Less gorilla. More teenager. Human eyes. No glowing. And for heaven's sake, get shorter."

"Got it!" Rage Monkey snapped his fingers and transformed again.

Smoke.

Clear.

Still two meters tall.

Still glowing eyes.

Now wearing a hoodie with the words "Time Is Bananas" across the chest.

Damien squinted. "...You got bigger. How did you get bigger?!"

Rage Monkey shrugged. "Maybe I'm emotionally tall?"

Damien turned to Blackie. "Did you pass on any normal genetic material?"

Blackie just adjusted her cloak and mimed bashing her head into a wall.

Rage Monkey puffed out his chest. "I like this form! I feel cool. Strong. Sexy."

"You look like a rejected RPG boss who accidentally joined a high school."

"Exactly!"

Damien groaned into his hand. "One more try. Final warning. If you fail this, I am de-summoning you. Normal height. Human eyes. No muscles so dense they generate their own gravity."

Rage Monkey nodded solemnly at his master's threat. Apparently this one doesn't take soft, only hard.

Smoke again.

And then…

A still-tall-but-acceptable teenage boy with dark skin, a lean build, sharp brown eyes, and a surprisingly well-fitted uniform appeared. His hair was short and messy, he had a faint smirk, and he looked… normal.

Finally.

Damien exhaled in relief. "Okay. Now you look like a 15-year-old human. Congratulations. You're no longer an international security risk."

Rage Monkey gave a casual thumbs-up. "Still stronger than the rest of the world though."

Blackie passed by one more time, looked him up and down… and then slowly, very slowly, gave a neutral sideways thumb.

Rage Monkey beamed. "That's practically a hug!"

Damien chuckled. "Let's just get moving before you decide to grow again."

Blackie gave Rage Monkey one last deadpan stare, then turned to Damien and slowly shook her head. Not in annoyance. Not even in exasperation. But something heavier. More knowing.

She pointed to her head, eyes locking with his.

Damien raised an eyebrow. "You want me to… read your memories?"

She nodded once.

He stepped closer, then gently rested his hand on her forehead.

In that instant, the world fell away.

His vision blurred as he was yanked through a swirling vortex of memory—raw, unfiltered, ancient.

Blackie's life unfolded like a storm.