Chapter 399: Endless Bloody Battle, Ultimate Pilot?

"Snap!"

Empowered by the void, the cybernetic dragon widened its maw—now several times broader than its natural state—and clamped down upon an alchemical golem that had been skimming low past it.

The clash between immense strength and reinforced metal lasted only a heartbeat before the outcome was decided; the golem was crushed into a heap of mangled scrap, falling to the earth in ruins.

Turning its head, the cybernetic dragon beat its wings and surged skyward, though its movement lacked the grace of flight. Instead, it seemed pulled by an invisible thread, dragged along a rigid, unnatural trajectory.

Around it, a multitude of identical cybernetic dragons moved in unison, having already slaughtered the golems and hell-demons that once held them at bay.

Save for the alchemical machines streaming from the Sky Mechanical City and the hell-demons pouring from the infernal portals, no conventional force remained to bar their path.

Unencumbered, the dragons turned their focus toward the titanic entities wreaking havoc on the battlefield: the Iron King, Borgul, and the Demon Lord who had crawled from the titan’s carcass to manifest a portion of its true form in the material plane.

"Clang, boom!"

Thrusters at the rear of the Iron King’s armored fists ignited at full capacity, accelerating the metal gauntlets in a short burst to a velocity capable of pulverizing anything in their path, colliding head-on with the lead cybernetic dragon.

The impact was absolute. The superior durability of the alloy shattered the dragon’s formidable frame; the unimaginable kinetic energy, focused against a creature that seemed diminutive compared to the Iron King, reduced the dragon to a spray of severed limbs and debris.

"Boom, boom, boom!"

This was merely an appetizer. For both the Iron King and the dragon swarm, shoulder-mounted mechanical arrays rose, revealing banks of alchemical cannons. They swiveled and unleashed a torrent of fire at the dragons encircling them from every direction.

Explosions ignited the heavens, the indiscriminate destruction blasting the incoming dragons out of the sky. Those struck directly had their wings shredded, stripping them of their agile mobility.

Before the flames could die or the shockwaves settle, the swarm surged through the ruptured sky, indifferent to their burning flesh, and pressed their assault against the Iron King.

Dragon breaths of various forms converged on the Iron King’s position, while other dragons wove through the gaps in the crossfire, claws and fangs dripping with murderous intent.

"Hum!"

Mana surged violently through the internal conduits as the five power cores—four auxiliary and one primary—pushed to their limits. Energy flooded every system, activating layers of embedded arrays until a thick, translucent barrier shimmered into existence above the Iron King.

The dragon breaths swept across the barrier, a boiling cauldron of conflicting energies erupting in a dazzling display of fireworks. The shield trembled and flickered, yet remained far from breaking.

The charging dragons reached the Iron King’s frame, some slamming their bodies against the mana shield, others bypassing the limited perimeter to strike directly at the titan’s core.

The Iron King swung its fists, explosive knuckles flipping out from within the mechanical structure. Rocket-assisted impacts turned single-target strikes into area-of-effect detonations, blasting the flanking dragons away.

At the front, a brilliant radiance gathered upon the Iron King’s brow. At the moment of peak saturation, it unleashed a concentrated beam through the mana shield, piercing the dragons that were still spewing fire. Light and heat erupted, leaving a trail of death and injury, halting the swarm’s momentum.

Yet, it was far from over. A massive, dragging force from below shook the Iron King’s frame. The earth ruptured as a horde of dragons, having tunneled beneath the surface, lunged upward the moment the Iron King cleared the skies, pinning themselves to its body.

Claws dug into legs, teeth gnashed into heavy armor, pulling, tearing, and twisting to compromise its balance—a chaotic yet effective assault.

Dragon breaths erupted in unison, hammering the Iron King’s shell before it could redeploy its mana shield. The reinforced armor held with stubborn resilience, the concentrated radiation merely melting away the surface layers, leaving the enchanted inner materials largely intact.

But the Iron King was not a living thing; damage was difficult to repair during the heat of battle. What was a negligible accumulation of wounds for the swarm was, for the Iron King, a fatal attrition.

More damaging than the fire were the void-infused claws and bites. The leg armor began to crack, and whether by coincidence or some primal instinct of war, the attacks converged toward the core hidden within the titan’s ankle.

"Snap, boom!"

Sections of armor fell away, revealing the alchemical bombs stored within—a contingency for when the Iron King was surrounded. They detonated in a synchronized mid-air burst.

The explosion blanketed the space beneath the battlefield, obliterating a vast number of the dragons that had emerged from the earth.

But as the Iron King looked up, the sky was once again choked with dragons, gathering for another strike. Their endless, relentless assault left the mighty Iron King feeling profoundly isolated; a giant fighting alone would eventually fall to an infinite sea of enemies.

"Boom!"

Several steel projectiles streaked across the sky, slamming into the nearby ground. As the reality-stabilizing spears embedded themselves, a field of stability expanded, suppressing the activity of the surrounding void. In an instant, the dragons’ void-granted strength and regenerative properties withered.

From the coast, an attack split into multiple shards, manifesting as giant, energy-wrought tridents that streaked toward the various fronts of the Dragon Island battlefield. Upon impact, they unleashed the power of the Lord of Oceans and Storms, a tidal wave washing away the swarms of dragons now stripped of their void-born resilience.

The space around the Iron King cleared, granting a moment of respite. The furnace roared back to life, and an arc of gravity-magic shimmered above the titan. Nearby matter began to be pulled into the anomalous gravitational well; it was preparing to clear the field once more.

Rolling waves of flame swept outward, and massive hellfire blades, weaving through the inferno, cleaved the approaching dragons in two. The hellfire burned upon their severed remains, refusing to be extinguished.

"Ah... these annoying things can finally be killed for good. Why didn't I realize those damned wizards and void creatures were so persistent? Impossible to fully eradicate—disgusting and pathetic."

The Demon Lord’s projection muttered in irritation. It had been slaughtering the dragons with ease, its vast arsenal of single-target and area-of-effect attacks rendering the swarm helpless against it.

Yet, the Demon Lord had found that no matter how many it killed, the dragons were reshaped by the void and returned to the fray. Even if the pain was minimal, the constant biting and clawing had stoked its fury.

Only when the reality-stabilizing spears fell from the Sky Mechanical City did the dragons become truly mortal. The tidal tridents, acting in concert with the spears, wiped out the remaining mass of enemies.

In high spirits, the Demon Lord swung its hellfire blade, carving through the remaining dragons. For a time, no enemy could approach the powerful demon, and the number of lesser demons in the vicinity began to swell.

Yet, the Demon Lord failed to notice that whether the dragons were immortal or mortal, their severed corpses were sinking into the earth, gathering toward some unknown destination, destined to form something yet unseen.

...

High above, Zig and Aerylian completed their rendezvous, two dragons engaging the powerful vessel piloted by Melos and the heretical dragons that had become his puppets.

Silver radiance transformed into a sky full of blades, striking the heretical dragons, while the mechanical structures on Zig’s body opened fire at maximum capacity. Rays, high-speed spears, and alchemical bombs poured down like a torrential rain. The destructive power displayed by the two dragons was no less than the combined dragon breaths of Melos and his brood.

Melos’s figure flickered in the sky, his dragon breaths clashing against the rain of destruction from Zig and Aerylian. Relying on his deep connection to the void, he slipped through the rifts between realms, seeking an opening for a lethal strike.

He materialized suddenly, his claws slashing toward Zig, who was busy pouring fire from his heavy alchemical armaments. The strike aimed directly for the dragon’s back—one of its vital points.

When Zig appeared, Melos was genuinely stunned. He knew this dragon; he had seen it through the eyes of the Arch-Bishop of the Dragon Cult. For some reason, this dragon radiated an inexplicable sense of threat—a feeling he had only briefly sensed from Aerylian and the Dragon God.

Without hesitation, Melos sacrificed the Arch-Bishop, sending Zig, his companion, and two humans into the eternal prison within the Tidal Barrier.

Now, the dragon had returned, and that sense of threat had transformed into a palpable reality. It drove Melos to accelerate the power covering the entire island; he intended to go on the offensive, concentrating all his strength to destroy these two dragons that had slipped his control.

"Clang! Boom!"

Melos’s claws raked across Zig’s back, the outer armor shattering and falling away in large plates. Yet, thanks to Zig’s swift displacement, the strike hadn't hit as much armor as it should have.

The answer revealed itself a moment later. The discarded armor exploded in mid-air, the shockwave engulfing Melos at point-blank range. This was reactive armor—explosive countermeasures designed to punish any enemy that dared to strike Zig in close quarters.

"Hum!"

The blast of the reactive armor hit Melos with tangible force. Even with his superhuman durability, the impact forced him to stall for a fraction of a second.

For Aerylian, that moment was enough. She flashed out of existence and reappeared above Melos, the silver radiance in her claws coalescing into a massive blade, which she swung down with savage force.

"Squelch, crack!"

The silver blade of destruction swept across Melos’s shoulder, violently shearing into the joint between wing and back. It tore through layers of flesh before being forcibly halted by the incredibly dense bone, yet the blade remained embedded, inflicting a grievous, undeniable wound.

"Boom!"

The reactive armor’s blast was an automated defense, but Zig’s active assault followed immediately. Though he lacked the living dragon-armor, his body had been modified into a more versatile form.

Several energy vents on his back opened, unleashing a pillar of red dragon breath. The extreme heat and melting power struck the abyss-creature square in the chest.

"Whoosh!"

Melos’s body showed clear signs of destruction. Despite his resilience, he could not withstand the full force of Zig’s alchemical-enhanced dragon breath without sustaining damage.

Below, the heretical dragons rushed toward the sky, instinctively attempting to break the siege on their master.

The fastest in flight was naturally that black dragon of exaggerated physique; he was perhaps the only dragon whose physical strength had diminished after being modified and influenced by Void energy, yet as compensation, he had gained powers no black dragon should ever possess.

Piercing through the clouds, he swept forward, arms wide as he charged toward Zig in the sky. Zig responded in kind, pushing the mechanical wings on his back to maximum output, a violent burst of reverse-thrust flame erupting directly into Melos’s face.

Downward, upward—the two dragons collided head-on, though Zig’s speed, bolstered by his alchemical armament, was clearly superior.

"Bang!"

The two dragons slammed into each other, the surrounding air exploding with a deafening roar. After the impact, neither side paused; the thrusters on Zig’s back pushed him to extreme acceleration, pinning the black dragon as they plummeted.

The black dragon’s claws dug into Zig’s neck, tightening their grip, while Zig’s own talons locked onto the opponent’s, straining to force them apart. Their strength was evenly matched, locked in a stalemate until a surge of power coursed through Zig’s body: Battle Aura.

This power, realized by Zig himself, instantly doubled his strength. To one who has mastered it, Battle Aura acts as an amplifier, allowing the physical form to erupt with multiplied force for a fleeting moment.

Zig had actually displayed this unique power back at Alastair; otherwise, how could one explain that, despite his misleading appearance, he was undeniably a powerful red dragon who excelled in physical prowess, even if his dragon form suffered from innate magical defects?

A brief 2.5-fold increase is not considered exaggerated among human knights, but among dragons, it left almost no room for a frontal contest. Perhaps the black dragon Pompey could have suppressed Zig before, but now? Not a chance.

Forcing the black dragon’s claws off his throat, Zig pushed upward, accelerating downward with his opponent, aiming for the red dragon below and the Reality Stabilization Spear that had been projected from afar and embedded in the earth.

"Bang! Boom!"

The heretical red dragon, caught off guard, was crushed by Zig and the black dragon together. All three slammed into the ground at terminal velocity, striking the Reality Stabilization Anchor. A violent explosion erupted, mingled with a sudden, sharp spike in material stability.

Amidst the flames, only Zig emerged, having shed large portions of his alchemical armor. The other two modified dragons, linked to the Void, were left unable to move.

Zig realized then that these heretical dragons should not have been so weak; their bodies had already been shattered in the battle against Melos. The forms reshaped by the Void lacked their original integrity, merely being several layers stronger than ordinary modified dragons—nothing more.

High above, Melos had seized the opportunity to retreat, leaving Aerielian to face the remaining bronze and white dragons. The intended psychological warfare had failed to produce the slightest effect; both Aerielian and Zig knew these heretical dragons were already dead. Hesitation had never existed.

The radiance grew brighter as Aerielian’s silver dragon form was enveloped in luminous, high-energy matter. She charged toward the bronze and white dragons, who were unleashing their breath weapons once more. Pushing through the overlapping torrents of fire, using the high-energy matter as a shield, she broke through layer by layer, displaying an aggressive posture.

"Boom!"

Charging all the way, she finally collided with the white dragon’s body, unleashing that immense energy. It instantly engulfed both dragons, the shockwave shattering internal organs and bones, forcing their bodies to plummet downward.

Zig was already waiting there. He snatched up a Reality Stabilization Spear brought from the surrounding area and hurled it upward with all his might. The high-speed spear collided with the two falling dragons, triggering another explosion. The stabilizing ripples spread, and the final two enemies were completely neutralized.

Aerielian landed beside Zig, standing shoulder to shoulder. Her gaze locked onto a specific point in space; her connection to the Void allowed her to vaguely sense Melos’s location.

"An unexpected arrival. The things that affect me most are these little trinkets that disturb the Void. Heh, but this island is my domain after all."

Melos’s form materialized. Just as Zig and Aerielian prepared to strike, Melos spoke to himself and dove toward the ground.

"Boom!"

"Bang!"

Two deafening explosions in the distance briefly drew Zig and Aerielian’s attention. They spared a fraction of their focus to observe the scene, and what met their eyes sent a chill through their hearts.

From somewhere, two massive monstrosities had emerged. They looked like hideous trolls stitched together from the remains of countless dragons—twisted, grotesque, and powerful.

Their overall posture still resembled the concept of a dragon; Melos’s connection to dragonkind was clearly too deep, as every power he wielded bore their shadow. Their strength was effectively the sum of the modified dragons that composed them.

A dragon tail lashed out, piercing the Hell Lord’s heart from behind in a brutal sneak attack. Amidst the Lord’s look of disbelief, the monstrosity hurled him toward the massive Hell Portal. Their opposing energies clashed.

It was unclear if the monstrosity did this consciously, but it was an effective way to destroy the portal. In the sky-piercing flames, the entire Hell Portal dissolved into brilliant light, scattering across the horizon.

As the portal maintaining the connection between the Hell plane and the demons vanished, the invading demon legions were immediately repelled and sent back by the main plane, disappearing from existence.

The other monstrosity was locked in a struggle with the Iron King. The two titans’ powers collided, the glow of gravity magic appearing on both their bodies. The opposing forces gave the Iron King a slight advantage, pushing the monstrosity backward.

But the situation did not favor the Iron King. A large number of modified dragons that had not been integrated into the monstrosities emerged, swarming over the Iron King’s body. Bogul, the Iron King, fully occupied with the monstrosity, could not spare the strength to fight off these modified dragons and was submerged in a very short time.

The Sky Mechanical City noticed the situation and quickly launched long-range artillery support. However, the sudden change happened too fast; before the shells could arrive, the Iron King had reached his end in a self-destruction that engulfed all the surrounding modified dragons and the monstrosity.

From the remaining flames, the beast, its body shorn of large chunks, stepped out slowly. Modified dragons that had rushed from the demon battlefield climbed onto the monstrosity’s wounds, filling the gaps with their own bodies, repairing it completely in a very short time.

Having dealt with their enemies, the two monstrosities turned their gaze toward the distance, where the massive Sky Mechanical City floated, its artillery fire pouring down incessantly.

But these monstrosities were far stronger than before, and the swarms of modified dragons that no longer needed to fight the alchemical legions or demons were using their own bodies to patch the beasts' wounds.

Broad wings whipped up storms as the massive monstrosities took flight, soaring toward the Sky Mechanical City. The vegetation and earth below were swept up by the hurricanes generated by their wings, reaching high into the heavens.

More alchemical legions and fiercer artillery were deployed by the Sky Mechanical City, but none could stop the advance of the two beasts. Their size was not massive compared to the city, but the high-energy reactions within them could not be ignored. If these two monstrosities truly reached the Sky Mechanical City, the consequences would undoubtedly be unimaginable.

"That city affecting the Void must be destroyed, or it will be troublesome. Don't think about walking away. As expected, to make you lose focus, one needs something real."

Aerielian and Zig immediately planned to retreat to defend, rotating to contain Melos. But the power Melos suddenly erupted with made them both realize he had not been using his full strength; what he was doing now was what he had truly intended all along.

Blood flowed from the massive wound Melos had just carved. Aerielian, maneuvering at high speed in the air, wore an expression as grave as Zig’s. The power of Melos’s true form and the tenacity of his derivative powers were truly astonishing.

Dealing with him alone already occupied the two dragons—the peak combatants of the battlefield—so completely that they could not spare a thought for the situation elsewhere. If they lost focus for even a second, death would arrive abruptly.

The two beasts grew faster, the distance to the Sky Mechanical City shrinking rapidly. Artillery fire roared, but could not stop their advance. The great cannon named "Skyfire" was charging; firing at this range would damage the city itself, but the Sky Mechanical City could no longer afford to care.

The great cannon roared, the beasts charged, and a collision at the brink of disaster was imminent. No one knew how it would end, but at this very moment, a cataclysm occurred that no entity could have foreseen...

In the path of the two beasts, the earth began to tremble. Countless rocks and soil burst from the surface, and in the next instant, a "mountain peak" rose from the ground. It was hard to imagine what kind of power could achieve such a feat.

"Bang!"

Unable to stop, the two beasts slammed headlong into the "mountain," embedding themselves a hundred meters deep. Then, the "mountain" suddenly exploded. From the massive crater, the two beasts were sent flying backward, sliding across a vast distance before crashing to the ground, shaking the surroundings.

A giant shadow emerged from the breach in the "mountain," and its appearance left everyone on the battlefield momentarily stunned, for it was impossible for it to be here at this moment!

The Dragon God. The giant shadow appearing here was the Dragon King whose body had been split open by Aerielian’s blade. His wounds were healed, his posture as powerful as ever, and his presence alone shrouded the entire battlefield.

"I never expected that one day, I would be able to pilot something like this. It is truly exhilarating!"

The Dragon King, Wendel Mix, soared into the high sky. Behind him, a cloak woven from the night and the starry sky fluttered without wind. Between his claws, magic gathered from the void, clutching crimson lightning. Two thunderous spears fell from the firmament.