I Received System to Become Dragonborn

They were all breathing hard, the sound of their ragged gasps echoing faintly across the chamber's cold stone.

One by one, they slumped to the ground, their bodies too heavy right now and their chests heaving too fast. The pressure they'd just endured even though it was just the mere presence of that thing's shadow had drained them beyond anything they had faced before.

Even now, none of them could find the words to describe what they had felt. It wasn't just fear or pain or even Magic. It was something older, deeper, something that looked at their soul.

"You saved our lives," Kaela said, still struggling for breath. She looked at Jan with a mix of awe and gratitude, her voice low but firm. "If you hadn't acted as fast as you did..."

She didn't finish the sentence, but everyone knew what she meant.

That shadow of the Forest God had almost crossed the veil. If it had succeeded and if they had remained frozen for even a few seconds longer under its presence... they might have been emptied like the bodies they saw before. Their minds ripped clean and their souls consumed.

The others didn't speak. They didn't need to. Their silent nods and weary glances toward Jan said enough.

Though they remained sprawled across the floor, slowly recovering, the unspoken truth hung in the air that Jan had pulled them back from the edge of their doom.

Then Mark stood, his shoulders stiff and his expression was a grimace.

"We can't stay like this for long. We have to do something about that circle," Mark said.

And he was right.

Groaning, grimacing, and swaying on unsteady legs, the eight of them rose one by one. Their limbs trembled but the urgency in Mark's voice pushed them forward.

Together, they approached the circle again.

It still emanated its strange black and green aura like poisoned mist that curled softly above the etched runes.

They stepped carefully, half-expecting the shadow of antlers and teeth to rise from the light again.

But it didn't.

What they saw instead made their blood run cold.

Beyond the veil, where the Forest God's shadow had once smiled, a new sight took shape. It was not of a singular being but a lot of them.

Countless grey creatures moved just beyond reach, their bodies pale gey, hunched, some massive and bloated, others thin and insect-like. They have shapes that twisted in ways that defied logic.

The adventurers saw that there were limbs where there should be none, faces with too many eyes or none at all. Some appeared like the corrupted beasts they had encountered in the forest. Others were entirely different. They were the new forms belonged with these unnamed horrors.

They stood in eerie stillness, atop a black, cracked land that looked like scorched ash or black earth. And they were waiting to cross.

"Damnit..." Hund muttered, his voice brittle. He clenched his fists until his knuckles went white. "If those things come through… we're all fucked."

No one disagreed. The sight alone was enough to freeze their hearts.

Mark let out a long breath and turned to look at the others.

"We must destroy this circle," he said. His gaze fell on Esther, Selene, and Annette — the three most adept in Magic among them.

But what he saw made his brow tighten with concern.

The three women stared at the circle not with determination, but fear. Pale-faced, lips pressed into thin lines, and eyes trembling. As if they weren't seeing a Magical structure, but something impossible. Something was wrong.

Selene spoke first.

"This is… this is hard. I don't…" Her throat tightened, and she shook her head. "I don't think we can stop it even if we all poured every drop of Magic we have."

The words struck like a blow to the chest.

Silence followed next, not the kind that invites peace but the kind that means the ground has just opened under your feet and you're still waiting to fall.

Meanwhile, the circle lay before them still breathing. Still counting down.

"What do you mean?" Mark asked, his voice sharp, but not angry, just desperate.

He wanted to understand and do something immediately. But when he saw Selene looking at him with trembling eyes, he already suspected the answer.

He let out a slow, exhausted sigh and ran a hand through his hair that crusted with dirt and sweat.

"Alright," he said quietly. "Just tell me simply… why can't this damn circle be destroyed?"

Selene hesitated, then looked at Esther. The other witch gave her a small grim nod, and Selene took a breath.

"It's not just a summoning circle," she began, voice shaking despite her effort to steady it. "It's already developed into a link, or… a root, or… a bridge between this world and that one. But its not a bridge of dimension that we usually build. It wasn't made with our laws of Magic."

Esther stepped in and start explaining as well.

"We're looking at something far older than anything we've ever studied. I don't even think the people who first summoned the Forest God understood what they were doing. They actually just dig a hole in the foundation of reality itself. This is more than just teleportation portal."

"And this circle is alive. It's not just Magical energy but something intelligent. It's feeding on this world, drawing power from this whole forest and it's using that energy to widen the breach," Annette said.

Mark stared at them, each word sounding worse than before. "So what… it's already too far gone?"

"No," Esther said, but her voice wasn't reassuring. "Not too far. But it's not as simple as breaking it. If we try to destroy it outright, it might speed up the process. Like rupturing a dam. All those creatures you saw? They're on the other side pressing in. If we break the structure the wrong way we will give them the opening they need."

"So…" Jan said. His voice turned low and grim. "We're standing in front of a door to another world full of monsters. The door is already cracked open. And we can't shut it. We can't break it. We can't even touch it without risking ripping it wide."

Annette nodded slowly. "This is a god-rooted design. Not just a spell. This is anchor point made with laws of Magic that existed long before us. We're not just facing summoned beings here. We're facing a system meant to overwrite our reality."

A heavy silence followed. Behind them, the circle pulsed again as though some otherworldly thing was simply waiting for the right moment to open its eyes again.

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