She-Ra: The Cosmic Guardian's Ascendance by Jade Gretz
Nightmares had sharp edges. Adora had known this since childhood, but never quite like this. She wiped blood from her lips as she staggered through the withered forest, the once-verdant trees of Eternia now twisted into grotesque shapes that seemed to reach for her with gnarled, blackened fingers. Her transformation into She-Ra had failed three times already. The sword felt heavier with each attempt, as if rejecting her very touch.
"For the honor of Grayskull," she whispered again, her voice cracking.
Nothing. The sword remained cold, unresponsive metal in her trembling hands.
Five days had passed since Shadow Weaver's curse descended upon Eternia like a suffocating shroud. Five days of madness and mutation. Five days watching friends transform into hollow-eyed vessels of something other.
Blood seeped from between the cracks in the earth beneath her feet. It wasn't real blood—at least, that's what Adora told herself. The curse twisted perception as easily as it twisted flesh. What was real and what was hallucination had become impossible to distinguish. The only certainty was that Shadow Weaver's handiwork was spreading, consuming, transforming.
A sound like breaking glass echoed through the forest. Adora froze, clutching the sword against her chest as if it might protect her despite its current uselessness. The sound came again, closer. In the darkness between ancient trees, something moved with unnatural fluidity.
"Adora." The voice was familiar but wrong—Catra's inflections but filtered through something that had never known human speech. "Adora, I found you."
She emerged from between two gnarled trunks, and Adora's stomach lurched at the sight. Catra still wore her face, but that face had been revised. Her eyes now numbered five instead of two, scattered across her forehead in a pattern that defied anatomical sense. Her jaw hinged too wide as she smiled, revealing row upon row of needle-like teeth.
"The weaving is beautiful," Catra said, her voice overlapping itself like multiple speakers slightly out of sync. "Shadow Weaver has remade me. She can remake you too."
Adora backed away, raising her sword. "This isn't you, Catra. This is the curse. Fight it."
Catra's laugh rippled through the air like oil on water. "Fight it? Why would I fight perfection? For the first time, I see everything." All five eyes blinked independently. "Come with me. She's waiting. She wants to thank you personally for bringing the sword to Eternia."
Something cold settled in Adora's spine. The sword. Of course. Shadow Weaver's curse had begun the very day after She-Ra had returned to Eternia with the Sword of Protection. Whatever ancient magic the blade contained, Shadow Weaver had found a way to twist it, invert it, transform its power of protection into something that violated the very fundaments of reality.
"I'm not going anywhere with you," Adora said, her voice steadier than she felt.
The thing wearing Catra's face sighed, a sound like escaping steam. "Then I'll have to bring you to her in pieces. She only needs the sword and your heart. The rest is... optional."
Catra's body contorted, joints popping as her limbs elongated, fingers stretching into blade-like appendages. Adora turned and ran, crashing through the underbrush as the creature that had once been her friend pursued with a sound that was half-laugh, half-shriek.
"For the honor of Grayskull," Adora gasped as she ran, clutching the sword in white-knuckled hands. "Please, for the honor of Grayskull!"
Nothing.
The ground beneath her feet suddenly turned soft, viscous. Adora looked down to see the soil transforming into something like quicksand, but darker, pulsing with veins of crimson light. She tried to pull free, but the earth had become adhesive, clinging to her boots, pulling her steadily downward.
Behind her, Catra's unnatural laughter grew closer.
"Shadow Weaver sends her regards," Catra called. "She says transformation hurts less if you don't struggle."
Adora felt the panic rise in her throat as the ground pulled her deeper. Desperation surged through her veins, and she raised the sword high overhead, focusing every fragment of her will into a final attempt.
"FOR THE HONOR OF GRAYSKULL!"
Light exploded from the blade, blinding in its intensity. Adora felt the familiar surge of power flood her system, her bones lengthening, muscles redefining themselves, hair flowing golden and ethere
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She-Ra: The Cosmic Guardian's Ascendance by Jade Gretz