The Last Flames of Creation swallowed Danny's vision, bending time and memory into spirals of gold. The world of Pyra'nael blurred away, replaced by ancient roars, cosmic birth, and the pulse of a dragon so vast its wings eclipsed galaxies. Danny's body trembled as the flame wrapped around him like a cocoon.
He didn't fight it.
He let it burn him clean.
Let it rebuild what he was meant to be.
Behind him, Kael'ar bowed deeply, wings spread wide in reverence.
"Become, Golden One," they whispered.
"Become."
The universe shuddered.
And far across the Rift, another power awakened.
A colder one.
The Wolf King stood alone atop a jagged floating island within the Riftlands, claws flexing restlessly. He hadn't slept in weeks. The truce held, but tension roared through his blood. The plateau of his power gnawed at him.
His lieutenants had grown quiet. Red Howler simmered with frustrated heat. Hallowjaw paced anxiously, ribcage rattling like dry bone. Shadeclaw watched from a corner, still haunted by memories of Danny's gold.
But for once, none of them dared speak.
The air shifted.
An unnatural cold slithered through the Rift.
The Wolf King's flames dimmed by instinct.
Every hybrid froze.
Every lieutenant stiffened.
Only Shadeclaw seemed to recognize what approached.
His eyes widened in a tremor of fear.
"My king… something ancient is coming."
The Wolf King snarled and stepped forward. "Let it come."
The space before them cracked open.
A green light leaked through.
Then a figure stepped out of the tear.
Bones.
Not towering, not roaring, not a being of fire in this moment.
He stood small, humanoid in silhouette, but carved from emerald cosmic flame. His bones glowed like molten glass. His hollow eye sockets radiated power older than nations.
No one breathed.
Bones looked around the cavern, expression unreadable.
Shadeclaw collapsed to one knee immediately, trembling.
Red Howler stepped backward unconsciously.
Hallowjaw's ribs snapped shut in primal terror.
The Wolf King only narrowed his eyes.
"You." The Wolf King's voice rumbled dangerously. "The one the dragons fear."
Bones tilted his head.
"I am the one everyone fears."
A pulse of sickly green light rippled outward, silencing the flames of every hybrid in the cavern. Only the Wolf King's fire resisted, flickering stubbornly.
Bones examined him like a scientist studying an interesting insect.
"So you are the Wolf King. I felt your hunger from across the void."
The Wolf King bared his fangs. "And I felt your chains echo through the Rift."
Bones' smile sharpened.
"Good. Recognition is the first step to war."
Shadeclaw whispered, "My king, we should retreat—"
Bones looked at him.
Shadeclaw's voice died instantly.
Hallowjaw let out a rattled growl, stepping protectively in front of his king.
Bones raised one finger.
A thread of green fire flicked out—
—Hallowjaw exploded into dust.
No scream.
No struggle.
Just obliteration.
Red Howler roared in shock and fury, molten veins blazing. He leapt at Bones—
Bones snapped his fingers.
A ring of emerald fire sliced outward.
Red Howler's body disintegrated mid-leap, ashes scattering across the cavern.
Silence.
Only Shadeclaw remained beside the Wolf King now, trembling violently.
Bones lowered his hand slowly.
"You may collect what is left of them," he said lazily. "Or not. The dead bore little purpose."
The Wolf King stepped forward, flames swirling violently around him.
"You break the truce."
Bones chuckled softly.
"The truce is not mine. I did not agree to it."
His voice deepened, echoing through the cavern walls.
"I walk where I wish."
The Wolf King crouched, ready to pounce.
"You come into MY realm… and kill MY pack."
Bones tapped his chest with a skeletal claw.
"They stood too close to me. Their fault, not mine."
A growl reverberated across the cavern.
"Do you think me weak?" the Wolf King snarled. "Do you presume to test me?"
Bones leaned forward until their faces were inches apart.
His eyes burned brighter.
"If I wanted you dead," Bones whispered, "you would not be speaking."
The Wolf King faltered—for only a heartbeat—but it was enough.
Bones straightened, flicking dust from his fingers.
"I did not come here to fight you, Wolf King."
He lifted a hand, and Shadeclaw flinched violently.
"I came to offer you… opportunity."
The Wolf King's flames stabilized.
"Speak."
Bones began pacing slowly, his skeletal feet leaving cracks of green fire on the ground.
"Tell me: what do you desire most?"
The Wolf King answered instantly.
"Evolution."
Bones smiled.
"And beyond evolution?"
"Dominion."
"Beyond dominion?"
The Wolf King paused.
Bones' voice sharpened.
"Destruction.
You wish to become destruction itself.
A god of ruin.
Or perhaps… something older than gods.
Something born in the cracks of destroyed universes."
Flames flared at the Wolf King's feet.
"You know my ambition."
Bones nodded.
"And I can give you the path to it."
Shadeclaw stammered. "My king—this is a trap—"
Bones flicked two fingers, and Shadeclaw's voice box sealed with a pop of green energy.
Silence fell again.
The Wolf King stepped closer to Bones.
"Speak your proposition."
Bones' grin widened.
"I am forming a counter-force. A mirror of the Buddies. A group unrestrained by rules or balance. A dark organization that enforces destruction, chaos, and raw, unbound will."
His voice echoed deeper.
"The Dark Buddies."
The air trembled.
"I want you," Bones said, "to lead them."
Shadeclaw collapsed to his knees, eyes wide.
The Wolf King said nothing.
So Bones continued.
"Your power peaks. You cannot evolve further without conflict. But under me? Under my shadow?"
His flames surged, filling the cavern with green inferno.
"You will evolve endlessly."
The Wolf King's claws tightened.
Bones' eyes narrowed.
"Work with me.
Become my agent.
And when the universe burns…
you will sit beside me in the ashes."
The Wolf King inhaled deeply.
His flames flickered—
—not in submission
—not in fear
—but in thought.
He did not bow.
He did not kneel.
He did not surrender.
But he didn't reject the offer either.
Finally, he spoke.
"I am no one's servant."
Bones chuckled.
"I did not ask for a servant. I asked for a king."
Their gazes met.
Predator and destroyer.
Hunger and void.
Fire and bone.
A dangerous alliance trembled on the edge of becoming.
Bones stepped backward into a swirling green fracture in spacetime.
Before he disappeared, he spoke again.
"Consider my offer.
And tell Shadeclaw to prepare a message."
The Wolf King snarled. "To whom?"
Bones smiled wickedly.
"To a certain child-mage creating a planet of chaos."
Magic Kid.
Shadeclaw trembled.
Bones vanished.
The cavern went silent.
The Wolf King stood alone with Shadeclaw, the ashes of two lieutenants drifting softly in the Riftwind.
Shadeclaw whispered, "My king… will you accept?"
The Wolf King growled low.
"I do not accept."
Shadeclaw exhaled in relief—
"But," the Wolf King added, "I will consider."
His claws tightened, cracking stone beneath him.
"Because even destruction must choose its allies."
He stared into the void where Bones had vanished.
"And when Danny ascends…
when the Golden Dragon awakens fully…
the universe will not survive a battle between creation and consumption."
His flames rose higher.
"But with Bones beside me…
I might."
Shadeclaw lowered his head, terrified.
The Wolf King lifted his gaze toward the distant dojo—toward Danny.
"Burn brighter, Golden One," he whispered.
"Make me yearn for the kill."
He turned, eyes glowing with molten hunger.
"And when you rise…
I will be waiting."
And so the seeds were planted:
Danny rising in creation's fire.
Bones forging a dark counter-Buddies.
The Wolf King caught between temptation and desire.
Magic Kid unknowingly next on Bones' recruitment list.
The multiverse moved closer to its shatterpoint.
And Danny… was moments away from becoming something the universe hadn't seen in eons.