Chapter 32

Full Dragon

The war lasted three days before Kael lost control completely.

At first, the reports arriving at Black Citadel sounded manageable. Dragon forces pushed human armies back across the southern ridges. Entire siege divisions burned before reaching the mountain passes. Human wyvern riders fell from the skies beneath dragonfire storms.

Victory.

That was the word the generals kept using.

But through the soulbond, Evelynn knew the truth.

Kael was getting worse.

Every hour the bond burned hotter. Less controlled. Less human. She felt the dragon inside him growing stronger with every battlefield soaked in fire and blood.

And beneath all of it—

rage.

Not temporary battle fury.

Ancient rage.

The kind buried for centuries waiting for an excuse to wake up again.

By the fourth night, Black Citadel itself shook beneath distant explosions beyond the southern walls. The war had reached the outer city.

Evelynn stood atop the western tower wrapped in heavy furs while dragons screamed through the storm-dark skies overhead. Smoke rose from the lower districts beneath the mountain where human siege fire had struck the outer gates hours earlier.

The soulbond pulsed violently.

Pain.

Kael.

Then suddenly—

terror.

Not hers.

His soldiers’.

Evelynn froze instantly.

Something had gone wrong.

The bond exploded open before she could even breathe.

And suddenly she saw everything.

Through Kael’s eyes.

The battlefield stretched below in absolute chaos. Fire consumed entire valleys while dragons clashed against wyvern riders beneath black storm clouds split open by lightning and dragonfire.

Human armies covered the mountainsides.

Thousands.

Too many.

Silver weapons flashed everywhere.

Poison.

The smell alone made the dragon inside Kael recoil violently.

Then Evelynn saw the trap.

Huge iron ballista towers hidden along the cliffs fired simultaneously from three sides at once. Massive chains tipped with silver hooks exploded upward through the smoke.

Toward Kael.

One chain wrapped around his wing.

Another tore across his shoulder.

Poison burned instantly through dragon blood.

Pain slammed through the soulbond hard enough to drive Evelynn to her knees atop the tower.

Kael roared.

Not human anymore.

Dragon.

The sound shattered windows across half the battlefield.

And then—

something broke.

Evelynn felt it happen inside him.

The last restraint.

The final human control holding the dragon back for three hundred years.

Gone.

The transformation hit like an explosion.

Kael’s body expanded violently beneath storm clouds while black fire erupted across the mountains in waves hot enough to melt stone instantly. Wings larger than fortress walls tore through the sky as scales spread like living obsidian across a form no longer remotely human.

Full dragon.

Not partial transformation.

Not controlled shifting.

This was the real Dragon King.

Ancient.

Massive.

Terrifying beyond reason.

The battlefield stopped.

Humans froze.

Dragons froze.

Even the storm itself seemed to recoil.

Kael rose above the mountains like a living apocalypse.

His wings covered the sky.

Black flames poured from between enormous teeth while gold eyes burned brighter than wildfire through the darkness.

Evelynn couldn’t breathe.

The soulbond flooded with instinct so ancient and violent it barely felt understandable anymore. Hunger. Fury. Territorial rage. The unbearable need to destroy every threat in sight.

The Ash King had fully awakened.

Then the fire came.

Black dragonfire tore across the battlefield in one massive wave.

Entire siege towers vanished instantly.

Stone melted.

Armies disappeared.

The mountains themselves cracked beneath the heat.

Evelynn gasped as the bond nearly overwhelmed her completely. Every emotion inside Kael had become dragon now. No separation left between rage and instinct.

He was winning.

And that was the terrifying part.

Because nobody could stop him anymore.

Far below the western tower, dragon soldiers across Black Citadel stared upward in horror as the massive black shape blotted out the storm clouds entirely.

One guard whispered shakily:

“The Ash King…”

Another crossed himself instinctively.

Evelynn forced herself upright despite the soulbond clawing through her chest. The pain from Kael’s poisoned wounds still pulsed beneath everything else now, but the dragon barely cared anymore.

It only wanted war.

Then suddenly—

through the chaos—

she felt fear.

Not from the battlefield.

From Kael himself.

Buried deep beneath the dragon.

Tiny.

Drowning.

But still there.

He was losing himself.

“Oh God…”

Another wave of black fire consumed the southern ridges.

Human armies fled now. Entire divisions broke apart in panic while dragons scattered from the skies to avoid the sheer scale of destruction.

Kael no longer fought like a king.

Or even a creature.

He fought like extinction.

The soulbond surged violently again.

And suddenly Evelynn saw one final image through his eyes—

Black fire spreading toward the outer city walls.

Toward civilians.

Toward Black Citadel itself.

The dragon no longer recognized the difference.

Panic hit her instantly.

If Kael fully lost control now, he wouldn’t just destroy the human armies.

He would destroy everything.

Evelynn turned and ran.

Guards shouted after her as she sprinted through the tower halls toward the upper launch platforms while the entire fortress shook beneath distant dragonfire explosions.

The bond burned hotter with every step.

Kael’s mind slipping further away.

The dragon taking more control.

By the time Evelynn reached the highest launch platform, the skies above Black Citadel looked like the end of the world.

Black fire split the storm clouds.

Dragons screamed through smoke.

And at the center of it all—

Kael’s true form circled above the mountains large enough to shadow entire districts of the city below.

Beautiful.

Terrifying.

Completely lost.

The soulbond pulsed once more through Evelynn’s chest.

Not rage this time.

Pain.

Ancient unbearable loneliness buried beneath all the destruction.

And suddenly she understood the horrifying truth:

The dragon wasn’t destroying the world because it hated humanity.

It was destroying the world because it had finally stopped believing there was anything left worth saving.