NOVEL NEXT Chapter 69: Dragon?!
His heart — gods, his heart — pounded with unnatural force. Each beat wasn't just blood, but power, sent racing through every circuit and node. He could see it, feel it, the pulse of raw energy rippling through his body.
And then came the pressure. His soul — or what he thought was his soul — stretched painfully. A crushing weight pressed on his chest, then expanded outward. His soul vessel was growing, forced to expand to contain the potential bursting within him.
Flashes of sensation followed — elemental echoes flickering through him. Fire sparked inside his veins, heat blooming like embers. A chill gripped his bones, as if ice coiled around his marrow. Stone weighed down his muscles, heavy and grounding. It was chaotic, each element fighting for space inside him.
Then, sharp pain. Like knives stabbing through his circuits, old blockages shattered one after another. He could feel them breaking open — scars and knots from past strain torn apart, leaving the channels clear for the first time.
Deeper still, unseen gates creaked open. His spirit veins, long dormant, unlocked. Mana flooded into places that had never felt its touch before, awakening power he didn't even know existed.
The veil between him and the world thinned.
For a terrifying moment, he felt himself merging with the ambient mana around him — as if he could reach out and grasp the very fabric of the air, the earth, the sky. He wasn't just inside the world anymore. He was part of it.
His body flickered between unbearable heaviness — so dense he felt like he would sink into the earth — and weightlessness, floating as though gravity no longer applied.
Then came the pulse.
A primal, instinctual surge.
Something deep inside him roared awake. An ancient, animalistic force that made his blood boil and his muscles twitch. He felt powerful. Aggressive. Alive in a way he'd never experienced before.
But his mind—
His thoughts—
They stormed. His brain was reformed and strengthened, soon that part was over as well...
Memories, knowledge, instincts flooded in. Chaotic at first, tangled and incomprehensible. But then they sharpened. Clear patterns emerged. His instincts as a healer — as a medical student, a doctor — kicked in.
He could feel the systems in his body: the reconstructed muscle fibers, the fortified bones, the expanded circuits. He analyzed it instinctively, breaking it down like an anatomical diagram.
"Efficient mana flow ratio… nodes stabilized… spirit veins open at optimal pressure…"
His heart raced, not in fear, but in sheer exhilaration.
Unlike what one might expect, Ethan didn't panic. No — he found it thrilling.
Every pain, every pulse, every chaotic storm inside him was a sign that he was evolving — breaking past limits. It was messy. It was raw. But it was progress.
And deep inside that cocoon, as his body melted and reformed, as the storm of evolution raged on…
Ethan smiled. He doesnt know how he did that without a mouth, but it felt like he was smiling.
But then—
A prompt appeared within the darkness, glowing softly. He didn't have eyes anymore — at least, not in the usual sense — but he saw it all the same. Clear as day. Strange, yet undeniable.
[Unfated Scoin's First Summoning Act: Activated]
The letters pulsed once—
And then his vision went black.
***
What followed was disorienting.
He wasn't in his normal body.
He knew that much instantly.
Everything felt off — heavier, denser, massive. His limbs didn't respond the way they should. There was power coiled in every motion, but it felt… alien. Strange.
He lifted one hand — no, not a hand.
A clawed talon, thick and scaled, glinting faintly in the ambient light.
"…Scales?" Ethan's thought echoed in confusion.
Then, a realization sparked.
Dragons.
Back when he was studying beasts in Gareth's Labyrinth, in Nexa, he had pored over anatomy charts and scrolls describing their bone structures, mana cores, and evolution stages. The mighty dragons — apex beings, with bodies perfectly forged for both physical and magical supremacy.
But still… this couldn't be. Could it?
Even with all his knowledge, a part of him doubted.
Yet when he looked up — and up — what stood before him shattered any lingering uncertainty.
Two colossal figures loomed ahead.
Dragons. Not just beasts, but titanic, ancient beings, their very presence warping the space around them. Their scales shimmered like living starlight, each movement radiating power that defied imagination.
They stood motionless, watching him. Their gazes heavy and filled with something deeper than mere curiosity.
And then— Their bodies began to change.
Light flared from within their forms — a blinding brilliance that made Ethan instinctively flinch, though his massive draconic body handled the light with ease.
The two dragons shrunk, their scales shifting and receding as their towering forms compressed. The sound was like cracking stone and whispering wind all at once. Their wings folded inwards, tails dissolved into mist, and in their place stood two humanoid figures, still radiating the faint outline of their draconic majesty.
It was… overwhelming. Ethan's heart, or whatever beat inside his current form, pounded with shock.
But then something surprising happened.
Something stranger than all the transformations.
The female among the two stepped forward.
Her eyes shimmered — golden, deep, and shining with unshed tears.
She reached out with slender, scaled fingers and gently patted his massive, thick-scaled head. The gesture was so gentle, so warm, it made Ethan freeze.
Then— She hugged him.
Her smaller, humanoid draconic form pressed against his massive dragon skull, arms wrapping around as far as they could reach. And he felt it — every detail. The softness of her body, the warmth radiating through the contact.
His thick skull shouldn't have been sensitive to such touches, but somehow, he felt everything. Especially the soft press of her ample chest against his scaled head.
It was… confusing. And strangely… comforting.
Ethan's mind short-circuited for a moment, torn between the clinical observation of physical sensation and the very real, very warm presence embracing him.
The dragon woman — whoever she was — didn't notice his conflicted thoughts.
Her body trembled slightly as she tightened the hug, her tears falling silently as she nuzzled against him. Her free hand continued to stroke his head in long, soothing motions. The care in her actions was unmistakable — love, concern, and deep relief woven together in every touch.