The stone shattered instantly, exploding outward in a spray of lethal shrapnel. The beast's spine snapped on impact with a sickening crunch, killing it before its heavy body even hit the forest floor.
Sol stood in the settling dust, his body radiating a heavy, oppressive heat that visibly warped the air around him, while the petrified ground beneath his boots webbed with hairline fractures under his newfound resting density.
Deep within his core, the profound shift was still stabilizing. The Dreadwing... the phantom that had been his first true anchor... let out a silent, triumphant screech that vibrated through Sol's very marrow. It was no longer just a captured, stagnant spirit, having devoured the ambient essence of the slaughter, it had violently forced its way up the hierarchy, evolving into a true Layer 1 entity.
And the beast didn't just ascend alone.
