Ren gasped awake.
His lungs burned as he dragged in air for the first time in his new body. Gone was the alley, gone was the void. He blinked against harsh sunlight stabbing through the canopy of trees overhead. The smell of damp earth and greenery filled his senses, sharper, richer, more alive than anything he'd experienced in his old life.
Every sound was magnified—the chirping of birds, the rustle of leaves, the distant snap of a twig. He could even hear the faint heartbeat of a rabbit scurrying through the underbrush. His ears twitched at noises he never would have noticed before.
"What… is this place?" His voice sounded deeper, resonant, like it carried weight that wasn't there before.
Ren sat up, and only then realized he wasn't the same as before. His body was leaner, harder. Muscles shifted under his skin as if forged by fire. When he touched his chest, he felt the faint warmth of the seven sigils glowing beneath his skin, pulsing in rhythm with his heartbeat.
The moment he placed his palm flat, his vision wavered.
"Husband…"
The voice brushed against his ear, soft and sultry. He froze, whipping his head around, but no one was there. Only the whisper of leaves in the wind.
Then another voice overlapped, colder, like ice dripping down his spine. "You breathe only because we allow it."
His heart skipped. Seven whispers, layered, different yet the same, echoed through his mind. The dragon wives had not remained in the void. They were inside him.
Ren gritted his teeth. "So it wasn't a dream."
The mark on his arm flared faintly, the crimson sigil glowing. Heat spread through his veins, fire surging with his heartbeat. For a moment, the ground beneath him smoked, scorched by an aura he couldn't control.
Ren staggered to his feet, panic racing through him. "What the hell is happening to me?"
The earth answered.
A roar split the forest as a massive beast emerged from the trees. A horned boar, taller than a carriage, its tusks glinting with bone-white malice, charged at him. Its eyes burned with hunger, its breath reeking of rot.
Ren froze. In his old life, he would have been crushed in an instant. But now—his blood boiled. His instincts screamed not fear, but predator.
His vision sharpened. The beast's muscles rippled in slow motion, every twitch of its leg visible. His hands curled into fists, nails sharper than they should have been. Power thrummed in his veins like a storm waiting to be unleashed.
The crimson voice purred in his mind. "Strike him down, my beloved. Let fire baptize your new life."
Ren raised his hand without thinking. Flame erupted from his palm, twisting and writhing into a spear of pure fire.
The boar lunged.
Ren roared back. His arm swung in a wide arc, the flame-spear cleaving through the beast's skull like butter. Fire exploded outward, engulfing the monster in searing heat. Its scream split the air before collapsing into silence, its charred body falling lifelessly at Ren's feet.
The forest went quiet.
Ren's chest heaved. He stared at his own hand, trembling, flames still licking harmlessly across his knuckles. He hadn't even meant to summon fire—yet it obeyed his will as though it had always been part of him.
Slowly, a laugh escaped his throat. Disbelieving. Shaken. Yet exhilarated.
"This power… this is insane."
But the moment of awe didn't last. A new whisper slid into his ear, jealous and sharp. "You smiled. Was that for us… or for the thrill of killing?"
Another voice, mocking, electric with jealousy. "Be careful, sisters. If he enjoys too much, he might forget who gave him that strength."
The voices tangled together, sweet and suffocating.
Ren clutched his head. "Enough! Stop talking inside my skull!"
But they didn't stop. They chuckled, cooed, whispered promises. "You are ours." "No one else will touch you." "We will follow you always."
Ren's knees buckled under the weight of their obsession pressing down on him. His body felt both empowered and imprisoned, every vein alight with their presence.
When he finally forced himself to steady his breathing, he noticed something glittering near the boar's corpse. A faintly glowing crystal, pulsating like a heart.
Ren picked it up, and information he didn't know he possessed poured into his mind.
> [Beast Core: Horned Boar – Rank F]
Absorb? Y/N
"What the—?"
Before he could even question it, his body moved on instinct. The mark on his chest glowed, and the core dissolved into light, flowing into him. Heat surged through his veins again. His muscles tightened, sharper, faster, stronger.
> [Absorption complete.]
Strength +5
Vitality +7
Ren staggered back. "Stats…? Like a game?"
The storm dragon's voice laughed in his mind. "This is the law of the world you now rule, my king. Take, consume, ascend."
His lips curled into a grin despite himself. This world was nothing like the one he had died in. Here, he wasn't powerless. Here, he wasn't betrayed trash. Here, he was something else entirely.
But before the excitement could consume him, the shadow dragon's voice slid in, soft and poisonous. "Do not forget. All that you gain… belongs to us."
Ren clenched his fists. His new life had only just begun, and already, he was trapped between unimaginable power and the suffocating obsession of seven dragon wives.
Yet even with their voices clawing at his mind, a single truth burned within him.
He would never die as trash again.