The screen on the wall still showed the two patterns side by side.
On the left was the Divine Serum: a messy, powerful, but flawed web of energy.
On the right was his own: a pure, perfect, unwavering star.
Jonah stared, unable to look away. The workshop suddenly felt like a cage. The truth, instead of setting him free, had locked him in a prison of one.
SIt was all you.
The words echoed in the silence. He wasn't a product of the system. He wasn't a copy of a dragon. He wasn't even a hybrid. Every other Awakened in the nation, from the weakest Rank One to the Headmaster himself, shared a common thread. They were all branches of the same dying tree.
But he wasn't. He was something else entirely. A different kind of life that grew in the cracks of their world.
He was an alien. An anomaly in the truest sense of the word. And for the first time since he'd left the Undercroft, he felt a fear so deep and cold it seemed to freeze the blood in his veins.
