Richard was right. That was the first level of pain. Right now, I am experiencing the most painful time in all my life. I wanted to scream to ease my suffering, but thanks to Richard's spell, my mouth was sealed shut.

I felt the muscles tearing apart and reforming at an extremely high pace. You'd think I would become numb to what was happening by now, but no. I felt every tear and every reform that happened, and since this cycle repeated at least a million times, I felt myself diving into insanity little by little.

Soon, I passed out; it was a miracle that I lasted this long. What felt like an instant to me may have been a long time in reality, but I opened my eyes nonetheless. But there was one problem: I didn't know who I was, or what I was.

I looked down at my body and saw it completely covered in sturdy blue scales. My hands were claws that could rip anything apart, my teeth transformed into sharp canines, a tail that was as powerful as any club, if not better...

I have become a beast.

And the only thought I had in my head was to destroy, to rampage.

I discovered that I could move at last. I shot myself up and summoned a violent gust of wind and swept it through the room. Instinctually, I thought that the room didn't want to exist anymore, so it let me destroy it with ease.

Painfully, two wings sprouted from my back and flapped slowly. I flew out of the destroyed room and roared at everything that my eyes laid on and destroyed them.

From the darkness of the night sky, a man materialized with a serious expression on his face. I felt that he was familiar, but couldn't remember who he was. But I didn't care about his identity, not one bit. I ran towards him and sent an attack, which he evaded and threw me to the ground, crushing me. I felt my bones were reduced to dust, but in an instant, everything healed. I charged at the man again and punched at him with my fist and he did the same.

Our fists collided, causing an explosion that crumbled everything. A small drop of blood could be seen on my opponent's lips.

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He attacked with more force and ferocity. My body was bathed with my blood. I was completely overwhelmed and overpowered, but that didn't stop me from attacking.

And as if he finally had enough, the man in front of me started transforming into a huge and majestic black bird. Its beautiful cry made me dizzy, causing me to faint.

...

I woke up in the hospital wing.

Tulip was sitting next to my bed, reading a book. For the first time in days, the pain has disappeared. My mind became clearer and I could finally think clearly. I looked at my hands, to find that my skin returned white again, albeit paler than before.

"Hey," I said to her, though my voice was cracked due to not being used for a long time.

She turned her head towards me and hugged me so hard that I couldn't breathe. It was the first time we ever touched; her hug was so gentle that I hugged her back. Then she sensed the awkward moment, pulled back, and punched me in the face.

"Ow," I complained, though I didn't feel pain at all. On the contrary, she was the one that felt it.

"YOU BLOOD HEADED FOOL!" she screamed at me, "YOU HAVE SLEPT FOR TWO ENTIRE WEEKS!"

"I- what?" Two weeks? Was my transformation so severe?

She caught her breath and said calmly, "Yes, you have slept for two weeks. Every night you would wake up like a crazed monster and start to destroy everything. Richard had to beat you up every single night."

"Oh great" I sighed in annoyance at this. Then I calmed myself and said, "I guess you now have something to tease me about for a lifetime."

She laughed. Over the year, we have become too close to each other.

"Um... There is something that Richard forbade me from telling you." she said hesitantly, "but I am still going to say it."

"What is it?" I looked at her curiously. If he forbade her from saying means that he wants to be the one that does it.

"Every night you would transform into a blue-scaled dragon," she replied in one breath.

"WHAT?"

"Yeah, and Richard had to sometimes turn into his phoenix form to calm you."

"Have you checked your changes?" she said after I seemed to have calmed down from the shock. I looked at her, questioning the meaning behind her words. She handed me a mirror and said, "Look."

Oh my God.

My body had become muscular instead of the fit body I had before. My hair had turned white, and my eyes transformed to blue, they were both a complete contrast to the original dark brown color.

"It bothers me to say this, but..." she said while teasing me, "You look kinda handsome now."

"Yeah right," I snorted at her teasing, but I could sense that deep within her words, she meant it.

Without any warning, the burning sensation suddenly returned to my forehead. And I passed out again.