Chapter 359: The Half Dragon Transformation Training
The potential of his body was far higher now, with the Ascended Body and Stellar Physiology working together in harmony. Every cell in his body had been refined, strengthened, and pushed beyond what a normal human could ever achieve.
With that foundation, he was confident he could achieve the full Half-Dragon Transformation right here, right now.
His current usage of the Half-Dragon state lasted only five minutes, with a brutal three-day cooldown after each use. That limitation had always been a problem, one that held him back in prolonged fights.
The goal today was to make it permanent.
Now that he had reached Ace Rank, his body should be able to handle the strain. The Half-Dragon Transformation gave a massive boost to every stat, and beyond that, there was the full Dragon Transformation waiting even further down the line.
He then turned towards Freya and spoke.
"Ready?"
"Yeah, I got you, Big Brother Origin." Freya said with a grin, green healing light already swirling around her fingertips.
Caelus took a deep breath and focused inward.
The key to making the transformation permanent was simple in theory but difficult in execution. He needed to enter his full dragon form first, then suppress that power back down into his human cells, forcing them to absorb and adapt to the draconic power and features. That was what gave him the boost in Combat Score and triple stats.
Each time he did it, his cells would resist, tear apart, and rebuild.
Each time, they would grow a little more tolerant.
And eventually, the dragon would live inside every cell of his body, not as a transformation he had to activate, but as a part of who he was.
He called upon the power of the Chaos Perception Dragon.
The response was immediate.
BOOM!
Energy exploded through his veins like fire, and black-blue scales erupted across his skin in waves. His spine cracked and extended, his shoulders widened, and massive wings tore out of his back with a sound like ripping fabric.
As soon as the dragon form appeared, he forced it back down, pressing all that power into his human cells like shoving an ocean into a bottle.
The pain that came with it hit him instantly.
It felt like every cell in his body was being torn in half and stitched back together at the same time by the draconic transformation.
His scales cracked and receded, his wings folded and melted back into his skin, and his bones snapped back to their original size with sickening pops.
His human form returned, but the draconic energy was still inside him, thrashing against the walls of his cells like a caged beast.
"GGHHH!"
A groan escaped his throat as his knees hit the ground.
Blood seeped from the corners of his eyes and dripped from his nose. His skin turned red and purple in patches where the cells were failing to contain the energy.
The Dragon Transformation was winning, and he was officially undergoing Cellular Disintegration.
But his Cellular Adaptation passive kicked in. He didn’t instantly die. Instead, his cells began adapting to it.
Freya was already moving. A warm green light washed over Caelus as she began healing him.
The ruptured cells immediately mended, the bruises faded, and the internal bleeding stopped. The Spirit Fairy Garden responded as well, releasing a soft mist that settled over his mind and erased the lingering mental shock from the pain.
Caelus gasped and wiped the blood from his face, his hands trembling slightly.
"Okay, this is more painful than I thought," he muttered.
"Do you want to stop, Big Brother Caelus?" Freya asked with a concerned look.
"Nope." He shook his head and steadied his breathing. "The trauma from it has been cleared by the Spirit Garden. I can continue now."
He stood up, closed his eyes, and called upon the dragon form once more.
Scales and draconic features erupted from him once again, and then he suppressed it.
This time, he was more precise, pushing the power into his cells slowly instead of all at once. The pain was still there, but he gritted his teeth and held on.
His cells resisted, swelling under the pressure like balloons about to pop.
One by one, they started to crack.
But this time, a few of them held thanks to the Cellular Adaptation passive.
Not many, perhaps just a handful in his right arm, but they didn’t rupture. They absorbed a sliver of the draconic energy and kept it, like a sponge soaking up a single drop of water.
[+1 Combat Score]
[Combat Score: 12.37 -> 13.37 (Ace-Rank)]
[Your Stats have increased subtly.]
But just as the notification rang out, the rest of his cells gave out, and the dragon form shattered again.
He collapsed forward, blood pouring from his mouth.
Seeing this, Freya immediately initiated the healing.
The garden’s mist followed, soothing the mental strain and clearing the fog of pain from his mind.
"It’s working," he exclaimed as he felt the power coursing through him.
The cells were adapting!
His theory was right after all.
Without hesitation, he began calling the power back in.
Since he wasn’t fully materializing the transformation, he could do this indefinitely without worrying about the duration.
The third time, his cells held a little longer.
The fourth time, a little longer than that.
By the fifth attempt, the cells in both his arms retained a visible amount of draconic transformation before failing.
Each cycle was the same. Transform, suppress, endure the pain, collapse, get healed, and do it all over again.
The Spirit Fairy Garden worked tirelessly, its mist thickening around him with each attempt, wiping the accumulated mental trauma clean so he could focus on the next round without hesitation.
Freya’s healing never stopped either.
By the eighth attempt, the changes had become more obvious.
When Caelus suppressed the dragon form this time, the cells in his arms, chest, and legs all held at once. The draconic power settled into them like water filling cracks in stone, and for a brief moment, his entire body hummed with a stable fusion of human and dragon.
Then the cells in his spine gave out, and the whole thing collapsed again.
But the progress was undeniable.
"One more time. It should work next time."
"Big Bro, maybe you should rest for a bit," Freya said, her brow furrowed with concern. "Your body has been through a lot."
"Nah. I’m not stopping till I completely reach the full transformation." Caelus smiled.
Freya looked at him for a long moment, then nodded.
"Okay. One more."
Caelus closed his eyes and reached deep, deeper than he had before, pulling on the full reservoir of his Chaos Perception Dragon bloodline.
The transformation erupted with more force than any of the previous attempts.
Then he began the suppression.
He let it wash over him and kept his focus entirely on his cells. He pressed the power down slowly, feeding it into every cell one layer at a time.
His arms absorbed it first, the cells there already conditioned from the previous attempts. Then his legs, his chest, his back, each region accepting the draconic energy like soil absorbing rain after a long drought.
As soon as that process was done, his body began thinning. He was transforming back into his human form as his cells formed a resonance.
His cells held firm, every single one of them containing a thread of draconic power that pulsed in rhythm with his heartbeat.
But there was still one part left.
His spine.
It was the last region to resist, flaring with searing pain as the draconic energy tried to settle in.
His vertebrae felt like they were being crushed and rebuilt at the same time.
But he didn’t stop there.
He pushed the energy deeper, forcing it past the resistance, demanding that his cells adapt or break.
He also made Freya heal him in this state. He didn’t want to waste another attempt.
She had to heal him right now as he pushed it further.
The dragon power and his cells were all forming a resonance in real time as Cellular Adaptation worked overtime to overcome the final hurdle.
For a moment, everything went silent.
The pain around his spine completely vanished.
Then it happened.
BOOM!
A shockwave of energy erupted from his body, sending a blast of wind tearing through the Spirit Fairy Garden.
"It’s done!"
Caelus’s excited voice came through the shockwave of energy as he stood in the center of it, immense power erupting from him.
Two curved black horns rose from his forehead, with faint blue veins of energy running through them. His eyes had changed too. They were now vertically slit and fully blue, with black sclera as energy patterns stirred across them.
Faint traces of black-blue scales lined the edges of his jaw and ran down the sides of his neck before disappearing beneath his collar. His skin carried a subtle sheen, as if reinforced from within by something far harder than flesh.
But he was still in his human form.
The dragon lived inside him now, woven into every cell of his body.
[Half-Dragon Transformation has been fully integrated.]
[The transformation is now permanent. All stat bonuses are now passive.]
{+74 Combat Score}
[Combat Score: 13.37 -> 87.37]
[Cooldown and duration restrictions have been removed.]
[HP: 284/284 -> 852/852]
[CA: 284/284 -> 852/852]
[Mind Power: 240/240 -> 720/720]
[You’ve unlocked Dragon Transformation.]
Caelus looked down at his hands, flexing his fingers slowly. The power coursing through him was unlike anything he had ever felt before.
He looked up at Freya with his blue dragon eyes and grinned.
"How do I look?"
Freya stared at him for a long moment.
"Like a final boss of a game."