Blood-red lightning streaked across the dark, oppressive sky, which was smothered beneath thick clouds.
Deep black mist surged outward like a raging flood, spreading at incredible speed.
As the black mist came into contact with the Miasma in the air, the thin traces of Miasma scattered throughout the atmosphere were utterly helpless against its corrosion, disappearing beneath it at a rate visible to the naked eye.
"That aura...!"
Enhela, who was locked in fierce combat, suddenly froze, his face filled with shock and suspicion.
He instinctively looked up at the sky, disbelief appearing in his eyes for the first time.
Although the White Dragon Lord and the Platinum Dragon Lord had both wielded the power of Catastrophe against him earlier, their use of it had been superficial at best.
At most, it had been enough to irritate Enhela slightly. It had never posed any genuine threat to him.
Compared to this newly emerging force of Catastrophe, their mastery of it was insignificant.
And the amount of Catastrophe now surging forth was so immense that even Enhela had no choice but to take it seriously.
Black mist churned violently, heralding the arrival of Catastrophe.
All because a single figure had appeared.
It was an awe-inspiring dragon.
Its streamlined body was covered in gleaming silver scales, enormous wings spread prominently behind it, while crimson-tinged black flames enveloped its entire form.
It hovered silently in midair without making a single movement, yet everyone's gaze was naturally drawn toward it, making it the absolute center of this world.
Everything around it seemed to lose its luster in its presence. It alone was the undisputed focus.
The Embodiment of Despair and Catastrophe!
The Malevolent Star of Silver Wings!
The Dawn of Catastrophe: Platinum Dragon Lord · The Fallen Chosen One.
On the ground, awe filled the White Dragon Lord's single remaining eye.
Although the dragon's appearance differed slightly from what he remembered, he recognized it instantly without the slightest hesitation.
That aura, one that made even his Soul tremble, was something he could never forget.
Meanwhile, the Minotaur Sage standing not far away muttered inwardly.
Why does this feel so strangely familiar?
He looked up at the dragon in the sky, frowning as he desperately tried to figure out where this sense of déjà vu was coming from.
For some inexplicable reason, unease began to rise in his heart.
Elsewhere, the Clear Light Dragon Lord curled inward as he continued backing away, glancing nervously from side to side.
No one dared make a careless move.
A moment later, the Platinum Dragon Lord slowly opened his eyes.
[Did it work?]
[No. I'd say it failed.]
A deep, calm voice echoed inside his mind.
The voice belonged to Naraku, who was currently fused with the Platinum Dragon Lord.
Now that the two had merged into one, their minds were linked, allowing them to communicate with one another without any obstruction.
[We were too pressed for time, and we'd never attempted or tested anything like this before. In the end, we could only force the result together with the Power of Faith.]
[And I doubt this state can last very long.]
There was no emotion in Naraku's voice.
From the beginning, he had regarded this reckless attempt as nothing more than a high-stakes gamble.
After all, trying to predict the outcome through theory alone without any actual experimental data to support it made failure almost inevitable.
So he felt neither particularly surprised nor disappointed.
In truth, being able to maintain this fragile state, like a porcelain doll that might shatter at any moment, and briefly gain access to a portion of the true form's power...
That was already enough!
...
Outside, everything fell deathly silent.
"So it was all just for show."
Enhela narrowed his eyes and carefully examined the Platinum Dragon Lord before him.
At first, his expression had been grave. But as he continued observing, he seemed to notice something unusual, and his tense features gradually relaxed.
At some point, countless hair-thin cracks resembling a spiderweb had begun appearing across the Platinum Dragon Lord's enormous body.
The cracks spread rapidly, as though they were about to tear his entire dragon body into countless pieces.
At the same time, dense black mist, thick as ink, continuously poured from those fractures, making him look even more sinister and terrifying.
The Platinum Dragon Lord now appeared to be on the verge of complete collapse.
"Whether it's all for show or not, we'll find out once we try."
One move.
Naraku silently judged his condition.
With the Power of Faith barely holding this body together, he could probably unleash only a single attack.
After that, disintegration would be unavoidable.
In that case, he might as well put everything into one final gamble!
The instant that thought crossed his mind, the Platinum Dragon Lord moved.
[Descent of the Catastrophe God]
[Sword Dance]
[Dragon Dance]
In the blink of an eye, Naraku applied several powerful buffs to the dragon's body.
Next, he would unleash the strongest move currently available to him.
Dragon Soul, Health, and Mana all began draining away simultaneously.
Wild Magic: [Ultimate Explosion]
Special Skill: [Dragon Starfall]
The former was high-tier Wild Magic.
The latter was a special skill belonging to the [Dragonslayer] class, capable of sacrificing all HP and MP at once to trigger an unprecedented self-destruction.
[Descent of the Catastrophe God] activated, imbuing everything with the Catastrophe attribute.
The Dragon Magic Caster special skill [Perfect Fusion Magic] activated.
Two completely different types of magic were layered together and released as a single spell.
[Ultimate Explosion] + [Catastrophe Attribute] = [Catastrophe·Ultimate Explosion]
[Dragon Starfall] + [Catastrophe Attribute] = [Catastrophe·Dragon Starfall]
[Catastrophe·Ultimate Explosion] + [Catastrophe·Dragon Starfall] = ???
Pitch-black light seeped from the cracks covering the Platinum Dragon Lord's body as an unprecedentedly savage aura gathered around him.
"No...!"
Enhela realized something was wrong and immediately tried to retreat.
But a flash of silver streaked past.
The Platinum Dragon Lord appeared directly in front of him in an instant.
A dragon claw wreathed in blazing black flames shot forward at lightning speed and clamped down on him without mercy.
At the same time, another torrent of incredibly dense black mist erupted from the Platinum Dragon Lord's body.
It rapidly coiled around him before transforming into roaring pitch-black flames that completely engulfed his enormous dragon form.
The flames seemed almost alive, constantly leaping and twisting as they crackled violently.
Then came a sharp, piercing sound as something tore through the air.
Like a brilliant meteor streaking across the night sky, the Platinum Dragon Lord transformed into a streak of light with a long luminous tail and shot toward the heavens at astonishing speed.
"Hahahaha! Get ready for an explosion that'll tear heaven and earth apart!"
His wild laughter thundered through the sky and echoed across the land.
In the next instant, an incomparably brilliant pillar of black light erupted in midair.
The black beam resembled an enormous pillar holding up the heavens, shooting straight into the depths of the sky.
A deafening roar exploded like a thunderclap, causing the entire sky to tremble.
With that tremendous sound, an enormous torrent of energy swept outward in every direction like a tsunami.
The gloomy sky seemed to plunge downward, as though some invisible force were forcibly tearing it apart.
The solid earth shattered at the same moment, countless fissures spreading across it like a spiderweb.
The surrounding space itself could no longer withstand the pressure and twisted violently, as if it might collapse completely at any moment.
The terrifying torrent of energy surged outward like floodwaters bursting through a broken dam.
Everything it touched was instantly flattened.
Before that overwhelming destructive force, everything was reduced to nothing.
On the ground, the Minotaur Sage did not hesitate for even a second.
He pulled out a precious magical artifact to defend himself while furiously digging downward at the same time.
He finally remembered why all of this felt so familiar.
This kind of suicidal fighting style...
Damn it!
It was definitely that guy!
On the other side of the battlefield, the Clear Light Dragon Lord had already prepared an escape route.
At some point, his enormous dragon claw had seized a massive Gigant Basilisk.
He glanced toward the Minotaur Sage and hesitated briefly before exerting his strength and charging into the entrance of another dimension, which shimmered with strange light, dragging the Gigant Basilisk with him.
In the blink of an eye, both vanished without a trace, as though they had never been there.
Unlike the Clear Light Dragon Lord, however, the White Dragon Lord made no attempt to escape.
[If I get caught in the blast and die heroically like this, I should get even more rewards...]
With that thought in mind, the White Dragon Lord furiously flapped his already tattered wings and began climbing higher into the air.
As for the Demihuman Alliance, the Zern, Neia, and the others, they had no time to react at all.
Before that terrifying torrent of energy, their fragile bodies were like candles flickering in a storm.
In an instant, they were completely engulfed and reduced to ash.
The ashes scattered into the wind and soon disappeared without a trace.
Several minutes passed before the waves of destruction finally began to fade.
Across the devastated earth, formless flesh emerged from the void as Enhela's body began reconstructing itself.
"That guy... I didn't expect him to blow himself up. Still, it looks like I won in the end."
As Kuyō's Divine Right repaired his injuries, Enhela looked around and let out a faint chuckle.
But moments later, a sharp cracking sound caught his attention.
Within the torrent of energy created by the self-destruction, a tiny fissure had appeared in the false sky.
It was slowly beginning to close.
Then, in the very next moment, an unbearably shrill sound rang out.
The sky, which had nearly finished healing, was forcibly torn apart once more.
Countless streams of black mist began seeping through the opening.
Along with them came a savage aura so overwhelming that words such as uncontrollable, dark, and eerie were nowhere near enough to describe it.
From beyond the fissure, an absurdly enormous eyeball appeared.
Its cold gaze looked down upon the world.
***
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