Chapter 373: Dragon God Descends, Bottomless Maelstrom

"Damn it all to hell."

Wang Yu spat the curse, ignoring the wave of weakness washing over him from his compounded injuries, and without hesitation, he drew out the Fire Elemental Lord core cannon he had previously used to assault Feilie.

Avia moved to his side in perfect sync, channeling her mana and mental energy into the terrifyingly powerful magitech weapon, forcing it into a state of immediate readiness.

"Click!"

The skeletal mantis had just finished repairing its form with Feilie’s power; as its phantom bone limbs touched the surface of the water—which seemed solid to it—a crisp sound rang out, followed instantly by a blast whose trajectory radius already exceeded the length of the creature’s body.

"Boom!"

The power of a light cannon fueled by a legendary Fire Elemental Lord’s core was undeniably legendary in its own right. While it could hardly threaten Feilie, the Arch-Bishop of the Dragon Cult who stood several tiers above the legendary, the sheer extension of its force reduced the mantis to ash in a flash of extreme heat and destruction.

A brilliant beam of red-yellow light pierced through the skeletal mantis and slammed dozens of meters into the water, turning countless tons of seawater into rising steam until the entire space was shrouded in white mist.

"Sizzle, sizzle..."

The shoulder upon which Wang Yu braced the heavy alchemical cannon hissed with a tooth-aching sound as the heat radiating from the weapon scorched his flesh. His blood-armor continuously surged from his blood pool, replacing the charred meat that flaked away in blackened, brittle chunks.

"It’s still regenerating. As long as Feilie lives, this thing will never truly perish. But with this weapon, we can keep it suppressed and prevent it from fully manifesting. The rest depends on Noel. This fight is unwinnable; we have to run."

Drawing on every ounce of his strength while his body processed the potion he had just gulped down, Wang Yu stared intently at the immortal, ever-regenerating skeletal mantis as he spoke.

"This alchemical weapon can’t handle such rapid-fire intervals. It will melt down after five or six suppressive shots. I’m trying to regulate the output so none of the destructive force goes to waste."

"As for Noel, don't worry. Her understanding and application of the Phase Gate spell are exceptional. Once she finishes the analysis and uses the Perfect Fractal Lens, we can use the mark Ariane gave us to jump straight out of the Tidal Channel."

Avia, multitasking with intense focus, responded to Wang Yu with calm precision.

"Rumble!"

On the other side, streams of crimson and black energy collided. Faced with Feilie’s sudden ambush, Zig displayed astonishing combat prowess.

Across his back, the living dragon-armor twisted and deformed. At Zig’s command, the biomass pierced his own flesh, docking with pre-established channels connected to his heart—the core of his power.

His burning heart throbbed violently, pumping the tyrannical power within the red dragon’s body through those channels, reinforced by battle-aura, until it erupted from the self-formed openings in the living armor.

More than a dozen searing rays, each slightly thinner than a dragon’s breath, burst from Zig’s back. After a brief, chaotic barrage, they converged into a thick, crimson torrent of energy that slammed into the pitch-black breath exhaled by Feilie, the two forces clashing in a frantic stalemate.

"Oh?"

Feilie let out a soft, surprised sound. He had to admit that Zig’s power far exceeded his expectations. Even as an Arch-Bishop of the Dragon Cult, he would have to take this seriously; an ordinary dragon would likely not have survived a single exchange against Zig.

"Bang!"

The continuous collision of the two breaths compressed the energy between them until the mounting pressure inevitably triggered a devastating shockwave. An invisible force exploded outward, sweeping the surroundings and cutting off both Zig’s and Feilie’s breaths simultaneously.

Zig flapped his wings of iron and steel, shedding several structural plates. The entire set of metallic wings detached from his body, though the material of the Nameless Magic Armor extended to fill the gaps, allowing him to maintain flight.

The detached wings continued to operate autonomously, their internal structures pushing power to the limit to hold up the massive, oppressive tombstone, freeing Zig to act.

"Human toys? Since when do dragons stoop to using things that even lesser drakes would disdain?"

Feilie’s voice emerged from the giant tombstone, dripping with mockery. At the same time, a thick, pitch-black fluid began to pour from the monument. To a different perspective, one would see countless phantom skeletons wailing and struggling within the viscous sludge.

The black liquid dripped downward, filling the area sealed by the tombstone’s power. As it touched the autonomously operating iron wings, the slime rapidly corroded the tough alchemical alloy, gnawing inward step by step. The substance’s corrosive power was terrifying; the wings would be devoured in moments.

If Zig hadn’t made the split-second decision to let the iron wings hold up the heavy tombstone in his stead, it was hard to imagine how he would have countered the encroaching rot.

But Zig clearly had no intention of trading blows with Feilie any longer. His entire body ignited with crimson flames, his mana fluctuations spiking explosively. He transformed into a fireball and slammed into the boundary of the tombstone’s seal, triggering a wave of scorching heat.

However, the tombstone’s sealing power acted as a single, unified whole. Zig tried to break a hole at a single point, but his destructive force was distributed across the entire structure.

"Crack!"

Fine fissures appeared on the surface of the giant tombstone—a testament to the sheer force of Zig’s dragon-ram. Feilie, clinging to the monument, narrowed his draconic eyes. Where did this naturally crippled dragon obtain such immense power?

It didn't matter. No matter how strong, it wasn't enough. If Zig couldn't break the seal, only death awaited him.

But Zig’s next move shocked Feilie. The dragon’s body suddenly shrank, transforming into human form before his very eyes. Zig pressed his hand against the boundary of the seal.

Mana flickered on his palm, and a delicate, iridescent blade with a blue hue appeared in his grip. He slashed at the boundary—the very barrier that even a dragon’s body couldn't smash through. It was the "Flow-Magnetic Spectral Sword," a secret technique from the highest-clearance library of the Sky Mechanics.

Zig’s mastery of his human form was something most dragons could never hope to reach. He had spent more of his life in human form than as a dragon, and thus his combat capability in that state far surpassed his kin. He utilized the advantage of his smaller volume to perfection.

The Flow-Magnetic Spectral Sword was a specialized tool for barrier destruction. It functioned by homogenizing the user with the barrier, concentrating extreme power at a single point to "hack" it, forcing the barrier to spontaneously open a gap. Most barriers with self-repair functions would take a long time to even realize they had been breached.

The unified sealing power of the tombstone was shattered by this secret art. Zig opened a small hole in the barrier and slipped through.

"Bang!"

At that exact moment, the iron wings, eroded by the black liquid, detonated as their energy cores were compromised. The powerful explosion bloomed, forcing Feilie, who was trying to retract his power to pursue Zig, to pause.

That pause cost Feilie his only chance. The moment Zig stepped out of the seal, a phantom doorway appeared beside him—the spatial spell, Phase Gate.

It wasn't the girl who had prepared it; she and Wang Yu had been busy dealing with the skeletal mantis. The spellcaster was actually Noel, who had been hiding in the Eden Seed space. They had formulated their strategy the moment they realized the strength of their opponent: retreat.

In a fight with such a disparity in power, a death match was never a wise choice. If escape was possible, retreat was the only logical path. It was difficult, but they could do it.

By using the mark Ariane had left them in combination with the Phase Gate—a special spell that minimized the power required for teleportation once the coordinates were confirmed—they could succeed.

This super-springboard would carry them all across a vast distance, pulling them directly out of the Tidal Channel. Once outside, they could reconnect with the Lady of the Night and use her power to conceal themselves, breaking the deadlock.

Through the blood-soaked efforts of the trio and the timely spellcasting and calculations of Noel, who had been receiving magical instruction from Avia, their plan was realized.

The Phase Gate tore through space, enveloping them all. The mark left by Ariane shimmered upon it, vastly amplifying the spatial jump and extending the range of their transition to an incredible degree.

Feilie could only watch. He had already released his own spatial sealing power, and countless translucent bone spikes emerged from the surrounding space, attempting to lock it down.

But his power was ultimately inferior to that of the Silver Dragon Ariane. The Phase Gate, empowered by her mark, could not be stopped by his efforts.

"Clang!"

A phantom sound rang out abruptly. Just as Wang Yu and the others were about to escape the battlefield via the Phase Gate, time seemed to freeze. A power familiar to everyone swept across the field, originating from within Feilie’s own body. A look of sheer terror appeared in his eyes.

"Damn it!"

Feeling the nature of that power, Wang Yu cursed as the Phase Gate flickered and failed. It was the power of the Dragon God. At the very moment of their escape, "He" had descended, using Feilie as a vessel.

"No!..."

Before the plea for mercy could finish, Feilie’s body disintegrated in an instant. The deity the Dragon Cult worshipped had killed its own Arch-Bishop without a second thought.

Then, where Feilie’s body had shattered, golden lightning and swirling clouds emerged. "His" golden dragon eyes and massive claws pressed down from within. Merely by appearing, the leakage of "His" power caused the Phase Gate, reinforced by Ariane, to collapse instantly.

"Run!"

Wang Yu didn't dwell on why the Dragon God had descended, how powerful "He" was, or how slim their chances of survival were. As long as he wasn't dead, he would struggle to the bitter end. He shouted at Zig, scooped up the girl, and began to sprint across the water, fueled by the "Water Walking" spell, away from the site of the divine descent.

Zig reacted immediately. The Dragon God’s power seemed strange; it didn't press down on him directly, or he would have had no power to resist. Reverting to his dragon form, Zig flapped his wings, his speed climbing to the limit in a heartbeat. He snatched up Wang Yu and the girl he was carrying, fleeing the site of the descent like a madman.

The Dragon God’s power did not, as it usually would, crush Zig and leave him unable to struggle or escape, waiting for annihilation.

This time, after manifesting, the Dragon God simply pointed a claw toward the sea, slow yet swift. The moment it touched the surface, a vast power resonated with something hidden beneath the channel, and with a thunderous roar, a layer of reality was pierced—revealing something that had been concealed beneath the depths all along.

With but a single, simple thrust, the power granted by the Dragon God’s descent was utterly spent, and the colossal golden claw and piercing eyes that had manifested from the thunderclouds slowly dissolved into nothingness.

A void appeared at the point where the Dragon God’s claw had met the sea, causing the waters to collapse inward as an abyssal pit began to form; though the endless ocean surged into the breach, it could not fill even a fraction of that bottomless maw.

The circumference of this hollow expanded in widening rings, a gargantuan vortex spiraling outward with a velocity that accelerated with every passing moment, transforming what began as a mere puncture into a yawning abyss.

This breach, as if the very ocean had been torn asunder, grew ever more vast with time—a sea-eye was perhaps the only fitting term—and as the pit reached a certain scale, an irresistible gravitational force was birthed from its depths.

Wang Yu and his companions, fleeing at top speed toward the exit of the tidal passage, began to feel the pull of this unknown force; at first, they could barely hold their ground against it, but soon the expansion of the pit outpaced their desperate flight.

The bottomless crater opened up beneath them, widening faster than they could escape, and looking down, they saw no longer the boundless sea, but a void of infinite depth and measureless expanse.

Air, mana, and even the energies of the void—the suction grew increasingly grotesque, evolving from mere force into a hunger that claimed all things; the draconic magic Sieg used to sustain their flight collapsed the instant its mana was siphoned away, sending the dragon and the two riders plummeting downward.

The mark left by Aerylian was activated as a final resort, yet, defying all expectation, even the power of the Silver Dragon withered under the influence of the insatiable abyss below.

More harrowing still, Noelle was forcibly ripped from the sanctuary of the Eden Seed, dragged downward against her will.

"Go!"

With a kick against the dragon’s hide, Wang Yu signaled Sieg to abandon him and Avia to protect Noelle instead, and in that moment, the four were swallowed by the nameless sea-eye, beginning a descent that seemed to have no end.

The expanding crater, as if satisfied by the consumption of the four, began to close and mend itself, leaving the tidal passage once more with a surface of tranquil water, though not a single living soul remained within.