When even Armaleos' mind can't figure out how his own body should look like, that's the form he ends up with. A dragon skeleton covered by a void curtain with only his head, paws, wings and tail escaping from the dark nothingness. That happens when his body is crushed or rendered to smithereens. After trying different possibilities and realities, his illusion gives up and resets to this scary appearance. It last some time and prevent Armaleos from controlling how he looks like, but at least the dream dragon cannot be harmed at all and is safe from ruining the reality with nonsense.

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This is basically how Armaleos ended up after this scene: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/38424805/. His appearance is inspired by Death from Terry Pratchett's Diskworld, mostly for the fire eyes and coat of nothingness where the character from the novel pulls his hourglasses from. I made it just in time for spooky month!