The Weight of Scales: A New Fate (Ch.0)

Drake's questing party is completely wiped out by a powerful Undead Litch after entering an old tomb in the middle of a dark forest.

The litch moves to attack him next.

Drake does his best to defend against the litch's onslaught of magic. But, its not good enough.
This fight is child's play to the undead fiend.

The litch slams him against a wall and cracks the stone along with some of Drake's ribs. 
 It taunts Drake in a show of superiority. It offers Drake a deal. Live as an undead servant or die and rot in the tomb.

 Drake chooses neither option. Instead, he decides to use a magical item he had in his belt pouch. He crushes it in his fist to activate the spell within.

A magic circle forms beneath Drake's feet. Tendrils of golden magic reach up and fuse together to create a protective barrier.

The litch is NOT happy about being tricked. It casts magic to try and dispel the shield, but the shield is unaffected. Then it tries to touch the golden barrier directly with its necrotic hand. This proves to be a mistake.

With the litch blasted, and no trace of it remaining, Drake's adrenaline wears off. The pain of his injuries cause him to pass out inside the magic circle.

The  Magic circle activates its secondary function and transports Drake to a starry void.

In this void is a gigantic moth-like being. It pulls at the golden tendrils of magic like lines of thread to draw Drake closer to it.

The Moth-like being, Aether, uses its many hands to pull golden Strings of Fate into triangular pattern around Drake's unconscious body.

They speak encouragement with layered voices in soft tones as they transform Drake from a dragon-man into mostly just a man. His silvery scales flake away like ashes in the wind.

Then Aether sends Drake onward through a new portal. To a new Fate~

Drake is wrapped like a cocoon of glittering fate strings  as he passes through the new portal. Other strings do their best to slow the cocoon's entry into this new world, but the tethers snap quickly.

Drake's little pod is sent plummeting to the middle of a small wooded clearing. It smashes into a fallen log. Shattering it in two. Though the cocoon did manage to soften the landing a bit.

It pops open to reveal a mostly in-tact Drake. With its job done, the remnants of the cocoon float back up to the portal in the sky.

This causes a violent magic reaction in the clouds. Lightning cracks and rain begins to fall.

The water douses the arcane scorched grass and Drake is left unconscious in a new world.

(This chapter was originally made back in 2023. Please forgive my newbie art and panels~)