Chapter 109: Fierce Aerial Battle, Sudden Change

"Roar!" The wings, fully reconstructed from swirling smoke, beat against the air, whipping up a tempestuous gale. In this moment, the dragon manifested the absolute dominion over the sky that befits a creature of legend. Its colossal frame should have been impossibly heavy, yet before such raw, absolute power, weight was rendered meaningless.

Flight, neither claws nor fangs—merely a simple, brutal impact. Sufficient mass combined with velocity beyond all conventional limits amplified the force of this collision into something cataclysmic.

The purple humanoid thrust out its hands in a desperate attempt to parry, but in the blink of an eye, it was twisted, snapped, and shattered by the dragon’s momentum. The massive draconic body slammed into the humanoid’s chest without reservation.

Though the two were not vastly different in size—the purple entity even appearing slightly larger than the red dragon Zig had become—the disparity in power gave the dragon an absolute advantage.

The chest caved in, and purple fragments burst outward, dissipating into nothingness in the air. The purple humanoid, which had been hovering in defiance of the dragon, was hammered downward, leaving a gargantuan splash in the lake below; the entire artificial basin, modest as it was, surged and churned.

The dragon, wings beating steadily, stared down at the lake surface as it slowly calmed. Had the enemy truly crumbled under that terrifying blow? Yet, in the dragon’s eyes, there remained a deep, lingering vigilance.

How could it end so easily? Suddenly, the water erupted with countless sprays—small in size, but vast enough to blanket the entire expanse of the artificial lake.

Infinite purple arms sprouted from beneath the surface, stretching with a madness that defied all laws of reality, reaching upward to seize the dragon in the sky.

Form, perhaps, was one of the least significant attributes for a creature of the Void.

The dragon did not choose to retreat. With such an overwhelming number of projectiles pursuing it, evasion was virtually impossible. Better, then, to turn and meet them head-on, to annihilate them all.

Enveloped in a fierce current, the dragon dove. Its tail, lined with sharp, hooked barbs, transformed into one of its most lethal weapons.

Facing the forest of twisted, sprouting purple limbs, the dragon pivoted its body, wielding its tail like a colossal blade—a spinning, shearing strike!

As the dragon rotated, the arms were shredded as easily as tofu. The frenzied, sprawling limbs were sent flying, unable to inflict even a scratch upon the dragon.

Amidst the tide of limbs that showed no sign of retreat, still growing and spreading with manic intensity, the dragon flew and spun, using claws, tail, and every part of its draconic form to hack and slaughter the appendages that sought to ensnare it.

This seemingly all-encompassing sea of arms failed to pose any real threat. Before the dragon’s absolute might, numbers had lost all meaning—or had they?

The dragon continued to dance and destroy, yet the number of arms did not diminish.

Within the limited time, Colin, drawing an endless supply of energy from the Void rift, possessed effectively infinite reserves. For him, consumption was the least of his concerns.

But by the same token, Zig was also draining Colin. The material world’s suppression of Void creatures would grow stronger with time until it reached a critical threshold, forcing the rift to close and the entity to be sent back. Zig was waiting for that very moment.

Neither side would engage in meaningless actions. Could this ocean of arms—so excessively weak against Zig that they barely served as a drain—truly be useless? The answer was a resounding no.

"Captain, Professor! Look at those severed arms."

Though Charles felt dizzy and nauseated from the dragon’s frantic, spiraling maneuvers, he continued to observe the shifting battlefield. He noticed that the severed limbs were undergoing a transformation.

"I know." How could Shugin not have noticed? These fragments did not dissipate; instead, they began to twist, deform, and coalesce.

Masses of them combined, and soon, deep purple, armored, centipede-like creatures appeared, slithering through the air.

The mouthparts, reconstructed from unknown matter, ground against one another, their razor-sharp teeth enough to chill the spine.

These centipedes, formed from countless purple shards, began to gather above Zig’s head, circling and hovering. Their numbers continued to grow as Zig destroyed more arms.

They seemed to be waiting for an opportunity—a moment when their numbers reached a threshold sufficient to swarm and kill the dragon.

The dragon continued to easily destroy the surging sea of arms below, but the swarm of flying centipedes above grew ever thicker. It appeared as if a great beast was being slowly surrounded by countless worms, from above and below.

"Kee-kee-kee!" The shrill, piercing buzz came from the centipedes—now numbering in the hundreds and each the size of a calf—as they rubbed their mandibles. It was the clarion call of their assault.

At this piercing shriek, the centipedes went mad. They kicked against the empty air, crawling upon the void itself, and darted with lethal speed toward the dragon.

"Zig, gain altitude! Let me handle these centipedes first; we cannot be attacked from both sides." Standing upon the dragon’s back, Shugin relayed his plan as he watched the Void worms closing in from every direction.

Without hesitation, Zig obeyed. The dragon beat its wings, rapidly ascending to distance itself from the arms reaching up from below.

Though it could not stop the limbs from their physically impossible growth and pursuit, it was enough to create a gap.

However, moving away from the arms meant drawing closer to the terrifying centipedes. Zig had no intention of dodging; it charged straight into the swarm. It was not alone, after all.

A massive amount of smoke billowed from Shugin, forming chains that radiated outward from the dragon’s back, their tips sharpened into lethal points.

These chains danced, lashing out at the centipedes as the dragon climbed. Though made of smoke, they were impossibly agile and hard.

The centipedes flew faster than any bird, yet the chains were swifter and more lethal, twisting and accelerating like countless vipers hunting their prey. Shugin’s chains began their slaughter.

The sharp tips pierced the heads of the oncoming centipedes, shattering the hollow spaces within their skulls.

Other chains wrapped around the joints of their limbs, embedding themselves deep into the gaps before twisting, tearing the creatures apart with terrifying pressure.

The frantic dance of chains met the sea of mad centipedes, breaking through layer after layer of the encirclement, allowing the dragon to reach even greater heights.

But like the arms, these centipedes did not perish when broken. They quickly reassembled from their fragments, turning into new centipedes and charging again. As Zig ascended, their density became absurd.

Slowly, a gap appeared in Shugin’s defensive dance. A centipede, taking advantage of a moment where the chains were busy shredding another, darted to Zig’s side and slammed its glowing purple mandibles into the dragon’s belly.

"Hum." It was not the sound of hard objects colliding, but a strange vibration and a sickening tear. Where the mandibles clamped down, a chunk of Zig’s dragon-scaled flesh was simply erased.

Searing dragon blood sprayed out, revealing the raw, crimson muscle beneath. This was the first time Zig had truly been wounded.

"Roar!"

"Damn it! These centipedes are using sorcery—spatial cutting! They’re using spatial cutting to bite! What exactly is that Colin thing?"

The dragon’s roar and Charles’s scream rang out simultaneously. The destructive power of these centipedes was beyond imagination. Even if they had been allowed to get close, the dragon’s defense might have held, but now? No, they could not be allowed to surround it.

"Zig, high enough! Counterattack!" Shugin’s voice remained steady. In the course of their battle, they had reached a sufficient altitude. Now was the time to strike back.

With another beat of its wings, the dragon surged upward, clearing the swarm.

Then, the dragon turned its head, aiming its maw at the dense, frenzied cluster of centipedes below. Within its throat, heat and light began to accumulate.

"Boom!" True Dragon: Red Dragon’s Breath. Unlike the fire-spitting tropes of traditional fantasy, the breath Zig released as a red dragon was like a cannon shell. A beam of red light pierced the sky, and where the laser-like trail vanished, an explosion erupted within the swarm.

In the sky, a small, brilliant sun bloomed abruptly, outshining the true sun. Centered on the point of impact, a zone of annihilation was born. Within its radius, all matter, all enemies, were swallowed by endless light and heat, dissipating into nothing.

A biological nuke? Perhaps the power was far less, but the impact was even more staggering.

The brilliant sun set after a brief flare. The dense swarm of centipedes vanished entirely. The sky was cleared by a single breath, and the shockwave of the explosion reached the lake, flattening the grass and trees along the shore.

"Hum, hum, hum..." This was not the drone of a machine, but the vibration of the dragon’s wings. On its chest, a patch of skin glowed with an eerie red light. There lay its heart, the source of the dragon’s breath. It was not magic, nor sorcery, but a brilliant, dazzling power born of biological evolution.

Massive amounts of heat accumulated there, causing light-trails to appear on the dragon’s skin—the result of blood saturated with excess energy. The surrounding air distorted from the temperature, making the dragon appear blurred.

The breath had taken a heavy toll; Zig needed a moment to dissipate the excess heat.

"Is it over?" Charles glanced at the cleared sky.

"Very powerful..." came Colin’s strange, distorted voice.

A giant hand abruptly appeared behind Zig, seizing the massive draconic body. The scale of this hand was absurd, bordering on the ridiculous.

"You shattered me—was that your way of giving me the chance to build a vessel even closer to your own, even stronger?" Colin’s voice droned on.

Discouragingly, the centipedes struck by the terrifying breath had not been destroyed. They had merely reassembled after turning to ash. It seemed that for a Void construct, attacks of any material nature were meaningless, provided they were not of the Void itself.

These destroyed centipedes had turned into fine dust, drifting near Zig, providing a springboard for Colin to condense a new vessel.

The purple palm squeezed, crushing the dragon within. Though it lacked a full body, the sheer size of the hand was overwhelming. The five fingers tightened, beginning to grind the dragon.

"Grrr-krr!" The sound of the dragon’s bones straining against the giant hand echoed out—a testament to the immense force at play.

The palm tightened further, the dragon crushed by increasingly violent power.

"Zig, can you hold on?!" Shugin was tense. He did not know if Zig could endure. All he could do was support the dragon, protect Charles, and continue to execute the plan.

"Roar!" A violent roar erupted from within the palm. A power previously unseen surged within the dragon. A sudden, explosive increase in strength allowed the dragon to manifest unprecedented destructive force. Its claws tore through the giant palm, burrowing into the center like a drill.

"Battle aura? You’ve imbued your draconic body with battle aura? Unexpected, Zig. You truly are a genius. Without magic, you’ve allowed the dragon race to give birth to battle aura. My harvest will be greater than I imagined!"

Colin’s voice remained strange, devoid of emotion, but his words identified the power Zig had suddenly unleashed: battle aura.

Zig ignored him. Fueled by the brief, explosive surge of aura, it tore frantically at the giant hand, digging toward a single point.

Even if void creatures transcend physical form, their presence in the material realm necessitates a core, a tether that anchors their existence; sever that, and they are forcibly banished.

The inability to inflict meaningful damage upon those centipedes and limbs stemmed from the persistence of this core, yet as members of the Night’s Edge, how could they lack the means to shatter it? This core resides at the very epicenter of the void creature’s power.

Since this colossal hand is the manifestation of Colin’s strength, the core must be hidden somewhere within.

Found it! The dragon’s eyes shifted; having breached a layer of violet matter, Sieg reached a hollow chamber thick with volatile void energy—the core had to be here.

"Oh? My congratulations, for you have uncovered the unique curse that belongs to you alone, the dragon with broken wings."

Yet, at that very moment, Colin’s voice resonated once more, and before Sieg appeared a massive, sealed eye that snapped open the instant he entered.