Chapter 116
The fire did not stop.
It consumed him from the inside out — a relentless, invisible flame that burned through flesh, through bone, through the very essence of what he was. And yet, every time his skin peeled away, it grew back. Every time his veins ruptured, they sealed themselves. Every time his organs failed, they regenerated stronger than before.
Dax sat in the center of the storm, his eyes closed, his breathing steady.
Pain is just data.
He had told himself this a thousand times. A million times. And yet, this was different. This was not the pain of battle, of wounds inflicted by an enemy. This was the pain of creation. Of breaking himself apart and forcing the pieces to reform into something new.
Around him, the mana surged.
It poured into his body through every pore — through the cracks in his skin, through the openings in his flesh, through the spaces where his body had not yet healed. And as it entered, it changed him.
