The second we hit the hallway outside the seal chamber, the tower started coming apart around us. Cracks ripped through the walls while dust poured from the ceiling hard enough to turn the air gray, and somewhere deep below us something roared loud enough that I felt it in my chest before I actually heard it.

Reika immediately moved to the front of the group with her ears flattened tight against her head while Celeste stayed close behind me, one hand already glowing with lightning mana every time the corridor ahead flickered gold.

"Faster," Reika warned after another roar echoed upward through the tower. "There’s movement below us now. A lot of movement."

"I’m carrying the ancient dragon princess equivalent of a magical pipe bomb right now," I shot back while tightening my grip on the unconscious girl in my arms. "I’m going as fast as I can."

That wasn’t even an exaggeration anymore. Every few seconds another violent pulse of silver mana rolled off her body and slammed into mine hard enough to make my entire chest ache.

Fire mana burned beneath my skin while Valka’s darker mana twisted together with the new draconic signature inside me in a way that felt increasingly unstable the longer we moved.

Black flames flickered briefly across the back of my hand before silver sparks snapped through them hard enough to blow the fire apart again.

Celeste noticed immediately. "Your mana is leaking."

"Fantastic."

"That wasn’t a compliment." She shot back.

The floor beneath us blew apart hard enough to make everybody stumble at the same time.

I slammed my shoulder into the wall to stay upright while Valka caught Reika by the back of her shirt before she lost her footing completely.

The princess shifted weakly in my arms during the impact, her fingers tightening slightly against the front of my shirt while another pulse of silver mana surged through my chest hard enough to blur my vision around the edges.

"This place smells wrong now," Reika growled while regaining her balance. "Everything smells like her."

We kept moving while the tower groaned around us in a way stone absolutely should not groan. The dragon carvings lining the walls glowed faintly every time another mana pulse rolled through the structure, and I stopped liking the place entirely when one of the stone dragon heads actually shifted slightly as we passed it.

"Celeste," I said while pointing at the carving with my free hand. "Tell me I imagined that."

Another explosion shook the tower somewhere below us. Heat blasted through the corridor hard enough to send dust and broken stone flying past our heads while several glowing crystals embedded in the ceiling burst apart overhead.

Reika immediately crouched lower as her tails puffed up behind her. "They’re close now."

"Who’s close?" I yelled over the sounds.

The answer came flying through the wall before she could finish.

Three Drake Hounds burst through the cracked stone ahead of us fast enough that pieces of the wall exploded across the hallway behind them.

The things barely looked normal anymore. Silver mana leaked visibly through the cracks running beneath their scales while glowing spit dripped from their mouths every time they snarled.

"Why are they glowing?" I barked while trying to shift the princess higher against my arm without dropping her.

"The tower mana is mutating them," Celeste answered while already pulling back the string on another lightning arrow. "Try not to let them bite you."

The first Drake Hound launched straight at me before I could reach for my spear properly. I tried grabbing the weapon while balancing the princess at the same time, which turned out to be a terrible idea because another violent mana surge exploded through my chest right as the monster reached me.

Black fire erupted across my arm automatically, silver mana crashed through it immediately afterward, and then fire mana joined the entire disaster for absolutely no reason.

The hallway vanished in black-and-silver flames for half a second.

The Drake Hound hit the wall hard enough to crater stone before sliding lifelessly to the floor in a smoking heap. Then the recoil hit me.

Pain ripped through my arm like somebody shoved molten metal through the bones themselves. I almost dropped the princess immediately afterward while black smoke curled off my fingertips.

[ NEW TRAIT UNLOCKED: MANA COMBUSTION ]

[ WARNING: MAY CAUSE UNKNOWN BACKLASH ]

"Glad we’re all on the same page," I hissed through clenched teeth while trying to shake feeling back into my hand.

The other two Drake Hounds kept moving before anybody could process what just happened. One sprinted low across the wall itself while the other lunged directly toward Celeste.

Reika intercepted the second one before it reached her, ice erupting across the floor beneath her feet as she slammed shoulder-first into the creature hard enough to send both of them crashing into the wall together.

Celeste reacted instantly afterward, driving a lightning arrow through the monster’s skull while Reika was still pinning it in place.

The last Drake Hound tried going around Valka instead of through her. That turned out to be a huge mistake for it.

Valka caught the creature by the throat mid-lunge while barely slowing down at all. The monster snapped wildly at her arm while silver mana leaked from between its teeth, but she looked more irritated than threatened before slamming it headfirst into the floor hard enough to crack the stone beneath it.

The hallway only stayed quiet for about two seconds before another violent tremor shook the tower hard enough to split the wall beside us open completely.

Cold air rushed through the new opening immediately afterward.

I looked down through the gap and instantly regretted it. The center of the tower wasn’t hollow. It was wrapped.

Massive glowing chains spiraled downward through the middle of the structure itself, disappearing deeper than I could even see while silver mana pulsed through every single link like blood moving through veins.

Celeste stepped closer to the edge before her face immediately paled. "Wait... the chains are connected to the entire damn structure,"

The rest of the climb turned into complete chaos almost immediately. The tower kept shifting around us while corridors partially collapsed every few minutes, forcing Valka to physically shove broken sections of wall out of the way so we could keep moving.

Celeste fired lightning behind us every time something moved through the dust while Reika stayed ahead of the group, yelling directions whenever another collapse blocked our original path.

Meanwhile the mana inside my body kept getting worse.

Every pulse from the princess made the different signatures inside me slam together harder. Black flames flickered unpredictably across my hands while silver sparks crawled beneath my skin often enough that I finally looked down long enough to notice scales briefly flickering across the back of my arm.

"Okay I’m officially having a bad time now," I muttered while trying very hard not to think about that.

"What happened?" Celeste asked from behind me while ducking beneath another collapsing archway.

"I think I might be turning into a dragon a little bit." a laugh forcing its way out of me. "I hope not though, I don’t want a tail!"

"That sounds medically concerning."

"Thank you, Celeste. Very helpful."

Moonlight finally appeared ahead of us a few minutes later through the collapsing upper corridors, and I had never been happier to see outside air in my life. We practically stumbled through the tower entrance while the entire structure continued rumbling behind us against the night sky.

Nobody talked at first because everybody was too busy trying to breathe.

Reika bent over with her hands on her knees while Celeste leaned against a broken pillar covered in dust and sweat. Valka somehow looked mostly fine, which honestly felt unfair considering the rest of us looked like we’d survived a magical industrial accident.

I adjusted the unconscious dragon princess slightly in my arms before looking back toward the tower behind us. The glowing chains inside were still pulsing through the cracks running along the structure.

Then another system window popped into my vision.

[ WARNING: DRACONIC SIGNATURE SUCCESSFULLY INTEGRATED ]

[ WARNING: USER STABILITY DECREASING ]

There was absolutely no way this wasn’t about to become my problem.