"Cold... trapped."
His divine powers collapsed, his rising sun crumbled, and the five forms calamity gnawed at his body like maggots clinging to bone.
The man slumped to the ground, a rasp rattling in his throat as he fought to sustain that tiny gleam of pure gold at his heart.
"Aaargh!"
Suddenly, he screamed. Every bone in his body felt as though ants were devouring it, an unbearable itch boring into his heart. Then pain surged like a tide, as if something foreign were writhing and multiplying deep within his marrow.
Living things seemed to crawl beneath his flesh, swelling and sinking, and he involuntarily curled into a ball.
His bones gave off teeth-grating cracks—not breaking, but twisting, proliferating, growing backward!
His vertebrae bulged one after another, piercing his skin. His flesh split, and in an instant, inky filth seeped out, congealing into dark, dusky feathers that stood on end.
His once-slender fingers grew wildly, then curled into sharp iron hooks. Black feathers sprouted between them as well, and they gradually lost their human shape, becoming feather-covered claws.
"Ugh..."
The man stirred slightly. The Transformation seemed to have brought him considerable relief. He exhaled at length and slowly raised his head.
His face was the most sinister part of all.
At some unknown point, his imposing features had sagged like melting wax, flowing downward and spreading over his face. His gray eyes bulged grotesquely, their whites stained a filthy yellow, while his pupils contracted into pinpoints of scarlet, nailed deep within their sockets and reflecting the boundless, unfathomable darkness of the Great Void.
He extended his sharp claws and slowly formed a strange hand seal.
"Fate-Reversing Embryo."
At that moment, even if he had not died, he was nine-tenths dead. He had also discarded almost everything he could discard.
His