Vivienne spent the few nights immersed in the quiet iy of her experimentation. The fight against the aether-ied wolf had exacted a heavy toll, stripping her of pieces of herself—memories, fleetiions of what it was to be fully human. But it had also imbued her with something far more potent. The fragments she absorbed from the creature pulsed within her like the rhythm of a heartbeat, settling into her new form, reshaping her in ways she could barely prehend. The power she had gained was intoxig, raw and unrefined. It was as if the wolf’s esses primal ferocity—had bee part of her, a dark, unspoken bond that both thrilled and terrified her.

  She had learo accept that her body no longer obeyed the old rules. The transformation had turned her into something mutable, something that could shift and evolve by sheer will alohere were no limits, not yet. And every night, she tested those limits.

  It was the dead of night, and Vivie vigil as the shadows swallowed the world around her. Rava slept soundly, her breathing steady and untroubled, pletely unaware of Vivienne's quiet struggles. Sihe ge, Vivienne had found that her need for sleep was all but gone. She felt no drowsiness, no pull to close her eyes a. It was as if the aether in her veins had repced the need for rest with something else—something far more unnerving. She didn’t feel weakness, not anymore, but the daylight sapped at her in strange ways. During the day, she felt sluggish, as though the sun’s warmth pulled the strength from her limbs. But when the night crept in, when the sun's power faded and the shadows thied, she felt as strong as she ever had.

  Tonight, she would push further.

  Her form rippled iill air as she focused, the half dozen heads that had sprouted from her hydra shape shifting and writhing with a life of their own. The pressure in her mind built, her will pulling the aether that flowed through her, coaxing it into something more trolled, more refined. She flexed one of her massive limbs, and shifted it to the humanoid limb she’d worked on previously, and marvelled at the power she had found in it. It was strong—far strohan her inal limbs had been as a human—and the fingers, though alien, were surprisingly nimble for their length.

  “I have one arm down,” she murmured to herself, a quiet smirk curling at her lips. “Let’s see if I do two now.”

  The air around her shimmered as her thoughts solidified into a. The transformatio like an intricate dance, a series of movements that had to align just right, eae a thread that wove into the . She felt the bones in her form stretd shift, the muscles beh her skin expanding, building. It was exhirating, but terrifying at the same time. Every ge she made felt like a step further into the unknown.

  Slowly, painfully, the sed arm began to take shape. Her f shifted and ged, the jagged edges of bone and siretg, t with unnatural precision. The transformation was slow—agonizingly slow—as the new limb sprouted from her side, like an appendage fighting its way ie felt like she was ripping herself ope she held steady, breath steadying as she willed the aether to follow her ands.

  The skin over her newly f arm began to smooth out, scales like polished obsidian stretg across the surface. There ower in it, undeniable strength radiating through the newly grown limb, and for a moment, Vivienne allowed herself to revel in it. She flexed the arm carefully, testing the range of motion. The joints creaked with a metallic sound, but the more she trated, the smoother the movements became. A subtle hum of aether echoed in her mind, like a soft but persistebeat. Her sed arm, now fully formed, was a thing of beauty and terror, eaent fluid yet monstrous.

  But she couldn’t stop. Not now. Not when she felt so close to uanding this new body, this new power.

  The hunger cwed at her again, a deeper, more insisteo e. It was different nolified by the aether she had taken from the wolf, an almost primal urge that drove at her core. The wolf had been a powerful creature, its esseeeming with aether and bloodlust—and now, that same fury and hunger had woven itself into her being. But Vivienne suppressed it once more, fog on the form she was shaping, not the urge to feed.

  Her body quivered slightly as the sed arm settled fully into pce, but she wasn’t do.

  Her muscles stretched as if they were being pulled by invisible strings, t with a power that wasn’t her own. She focused inward, pulling on the deep well of aether that had filled her, coaxing it to transform her further, willing her limbs to shape into something greater. She could feel the ge crawling through her body—her bones grinding, shifting, being mid as they thied, the joints growing rger and more defined.

  The new arms felt alive with raw power, but they were not enough. She o push further. She o uand the full extent of her transformation.

  Vivienne’s chest expanded as endrils of aether surged through her body. The pressure iorso built until she could no longer hold it in. Her back arched painfully as more mass began to gather, rippling across her form. Her spihened with a siing crack, and the space between her shoulders expanded. It wasn’t just limbs this time. Her entire shape was growing, reshaping into something more terrifying.

  Her skin, now covered in jagged scales, began to tighten, glowing faintly uhe moonlight as the aether surged to the surface. Each scale was sharp as a bde, and the edges glimmered with an almost obsidian sheen. Her once-hydra form began to lose its serpentine fluidity, now taking on a more humanoid shape—if one could call it that. Her legs, which had been numerous and twisted, now fused into two colossal appeheir bohied and eloo support the growi of her form.

  With a groan of exertion, Vivieorso expanded. Her ribs cracked, but they didn’t break—just stretched, widening to aodate the strength c through her. Her shoulders swelled as her hied, a sed set of arms sprouting from her back. Her head spun with the rapid ges, the world around her blurring as she lost herself in the sheer magnitude of her power.

  Her body was now nearly double its inal height, t over the surroundings like a god of destru. The heads of her hydra form, ondepe and scattered, now merged into a tral cluster, their eyes glowing with a sickly light, unblinking and predatory. She flexed the new limbs—massive, muscur arms that could easily crush stone—and the grouh her trembled as she moved. Her cws scraped against the earth with a sound like crag gss.

  She stood there for a moment, breathing heavily, feeling the weight of the transformatiole around her like a cloak of power. Her refle in the pool of water nearby revealed the truth of what she had bee—a terrifying, colossal figure. Her face had bee something else entirely: a hybrid of beauty and nightmare. Her once delicate features were no, angur, a viask of predatrace, eyes glowing with a deep, unnatural fire. Her hair, once silver, now shimmered like the dark sky, threaded with silver streaks of lightning.

  The hunger swelled again, but this time, it wasn’t just a physical craving. It was an instinctual, primal need, something that radiated from every inch of her monstrous form. The wolf’s essence had unlocked something deep within her—something a and untameable. She could feel it. Feel the raw power thrummih her skin, just waiting to be released.

  For a long moment, she stood, taking in the enormity of her form. She had crossed a threshold, and there was n baow.

  This is what I am, she thought, her voice a low growl that reverberated through the very air. A monster.

  The transformation had given her power beyond measure, but it had also given her something else—an uling uanding of what she could bee. The hunger was still there, but now it was a hunger for something more than food. It was a hunger for domination, for the destru of anything that dared stand in her way.

  No. She wouldn’t fall prey to these desires. She was a mother, a wife, a friend. Those identities had once been the foundation of who she was, and even though they might feel distant, even though they were tied to a life she could no longer reach, she would not abandon them. She would not let this monstrous power define her.

  She had e from a pce of love, of warmth, and no matter how far she had fallen—no matter how much this p her—she would hold onto that. She would recim her humanity.

  Vivienne closed her eyes, the growl ihroat subsiding as she took a deep, steadying breath. The beast within wao be free, to tear, to e, but she would not give in. She would not be the mohey feared.

  She opened her eyes, and for the first time in what felt like ay, she saw past the raw power, the shifting scales, the fearsome cws. She saw the woman she had once beeher, the protector, the one who had fought for her family. Those memories, they were still there, faint but tangible, like whispers on the wind.

  With deliberate focus, Vivieook aep. The world around her shifted beh her weight, but it wasn’t as if she hadn’t expected it. She was massive now, a behemoth with the strength of a thousand storms. But she could feel the weight of that power too—like a shackle ing around her soul. It was tempting to give in to it, to embrace the monstrous side of herself fully, but she wouldn’t let it define her.

  She ched her hands into fists, feeling the power crackle through her veins, the raw energy of the wolf's aether thrumming at her core. She could feel the hunger, g at her insides, but she suppressed it, fog instead on the warmth of her memories—the quiet moments of love and tenderhat had once defined her life.

  “I am more than this,” she muttered under her breath, the words both a promise and a vow.

  The wind howled through the trees, and the distant sound of Rava’s breathing filled the silence. Vivieurned, her massive form creating a shadow that stretched far across the ground. She moved toward her, the heavy footfalls causing the earth beh her to tremble. She had no choice but to trol this new form, to tame it.

  Rava stirred in her sleep, her body tensing as if she could sehe ge in the air. But Vivienne held her position, waiting.

  As much as her body had transformed, there was still something vital withihat resisted—something that wao return to the woman she had been. The flict within her raged, but she was beginning to uand something that had eluded her in those first moments of ge: Power was not her enemy. It was the loss of trol that would be.

  She had always been in trol of her fate, her destiny. It was what made her strong in her past life, and it would be what made her strong now. The thought brought crity.

  Vivieook aep. Then another. Eaent was a struggle, but with every step, she recimed more of herself. More of the woman who had onown joy, ughter, and love—though those memories felt like distant dreams now, fragments of a life long past. She refused tet those she had loved, the family and friends who had made her whole, but she knew she couldn’t afford to remain trapped in the past. She would op moving forward, no matter how heavy the weight of her transformation became.

  She looked down at her cws, the dark, jagged tips gleaming faintly in the moonlight. Her body had bee a twisted refle of power, and her senses were sharper than they had ever been. Through the uneven qui of eyes, she could see the world around her in ways she never had before. The irises, once human, were now a swirling mass of shadows and light, flickering with the same dark energy that coiled inside her. More eyes gred back at her along her arms—eyes that were not her own, but a maion of the aether she had ed. They blinked in unison, their cold gaze adding to the terrifying nature of her monstrous form.

  The weight of it all nearly buckled her knees, but she stood tall, her body trembling slightly as she forced herself to remain upright. With each breath, the power inside her grew, a stant pull at her soul, urgio unleash it all.

  But she wouldn’t. Not yet.

  Vivienne flexed her cws, the sound of stone scraping against stone filling the air. The sensation was raw, brutal. She had the strength to level mountains if she wished, but instead, she held herself still, resisting the urge to crush everythih her. The hunger burned within her, relentless, but she would not let it trol her. She would not bee the monster her form suggested.

  She turoward the sleeping form of Rava, clearly far more exhausted tha on. The one who saw her as more than this creature, this abomination. The hunger in her chest intensified as she watched Rava stir, but Vivienne pressed her sharp cws into the ground, digging them deep into the earth, grounding herself.

  Her heart, the ohing that had not ged, hammered in her chest, reminding her of the woman she had once been—the one who had loved, fought, and lived. But that woman was fading, like a ghost, her memories slowly slipping through her fingers like sand. The aether had taken much from her, and she wasn’t sure if she could hold onto what was left.

  With an agonised groan, Vivienne ched her fists, the sound of bones crag as the power surged through her arms. Her eyes—those fn, uling eyes—shifted as she focused on the horizon, on the dark forest stretg out before her. She wasn’t sure what y beyond, but she knew ohing: she couldn’t afford to remain here, in this broken form, this fractured state. She had to move forward. The world was waiting for her, and it wouldn’t wait forever.

  But as she took aep, the hunger surged again, sharp and primal. She felt a deep, gnawing ache in her gut—an overwhelmio feed. It wasn’t just an instinymore; it was a call from deep within, a feral demand she could no lnore.

  Vivienne’s new form trembled with the force of it, her body at war with itself. She could feel the essence of the wolf inside her, its bloodlust and fury coiling in her veins like poison. But she had learned enough now. She had learo resist it, to suppress the urge long enough to maintain trol.

  Her head swung back toward Rava agaihe only anchor to the woman she had once been. With one more slow, deliberate step, she bent down, bringing herself closer to the ground. The eyes on her arms followed every motion, blinking in time with her own. There, beh the weight of her transformation, the hunger raged, but Vivienne mao push it down, burying it beh yers of willpower.

  “Not yet,” she whispered to herself. “Not like this.”

  With a deep, ragged breath, Vivienne forced her monstrous body to rex. She was stronger now—strohan she had ever been before—but that strength came at a cost. The bance was fragile, and she couldn’t risk losing it.

  With a low, rumbling sigh, Vivienne allowed her body to rex, feeling the tension in her limbs slowly ebb away. Her dangerously beautiful features—those jagged, nightmarish elements of her form—began to melt, as if being absorbed by the very air around her. Her cws, still sharp and twitg with raw power, withdrew into her body, merging seamlessly with her form. The unnatural, aether-charged markings on her skin faded, leaving behind the familiar, inky bess that had once been her own. Her limbs retracted, the monstrous appendages folding into her torso, disappearing as the shadows that had once defined her became oh her being.

  She had learo shed the weight of her monstrous appearance, but the power—the core of what she had bee—remained. Her body hummed with raw energy, but it was trolled now. She was not as formless as before, not as wild. Instead, her shape became more deliberate, the outline of her amorphous form solidifying, her density growing, as her body pressed itself inward and densed.

  Ba her base form, Vivie out another deep, guttural sigh, the tension in her body unwinding. She slipped through the underbrush with a fluidity that belied her massive size, moving as easily as a shadow. Her presence was no longer something to be feared, not in this moment. She reached Rava’s resting pd, gently but decisively, slid her body around her panion. An inky ring formed around Rava, the darkness of her form creating a barrier around the warrior..

  Vivienne’s seingled with the huhat still simmered beh her skin, but it was distant now, muffled by her trol. With a final, soft exhale, she settled herself in the cool night air, tent iillness. Her body curled protectively around Rava, her presence a stant reminder of the battle she had fought—not just against the world, but against herself. For now, the fight could wait.

  She closed her eyes, the shadows of her past and the weight of her future settling beside her. Tomorrow would e, and she would face it as she had faced everything before—with unyielding strength, and an unwaveriermination to hold on to who she was, even in the midst of ge.

  SupernovaSymphony