The battle began.
Vorlagrath erupted with the catastrophic fury of a dying star.
With a single, devastating beat of his massive wings, the throne room was violently transformed into a hurricane of golden fire and razor-sharp ash. Cyclones of superheated pressure ripped across the obsidian floor, physically lifting Climbers and tossing them like ragdolls.
He inhaled, and his breath weapon tore through the chaos. It was not the liquid slag of the Forge Drakes or the toxic ash of the Imoogi. It was pure, concentrated solar fury—a blinding, hyper-dense beam of golden light that instantly melted the volcanic glass floor into bubbling slag wherever it tracked.
Despite his colossal size, he moved with terrifying, fluid speed. His heavy claws carved deep, smoking trenches into the floor, and his tail swept the cathedral like a falling skyscraper.
"Lock the line!" Seraphine screamed over the deafening roar of the flames. "Silver Drake, absorb the impact! Ground him!"
The vanguard’s constructs snapped together, erecting a massive, tiered barrier of steel and mana. Vorlagrath’s solar breath washed over the shield wall. The constructs instantly glowed white-hot under the thermal stress. One barrier shattered entirely, the construct instantly vaporizing as its Climber was violently thrown back. The rest of the line buckled, cooling to a dangerous cherry-red, but it held.
"Red Dragon! Break his momentum! Fire against fire!"
Torren’s pyromancers retaliated. Salamanders unleashed blinding torrents of crimson flame, meeting the golden solar beam in a cataclysmic mid-air collision. The overlapping shockwaves of thermal energy threatened to cook the air in their lungs, creating a volatile stalemate. But it gave the assault teams the opening they needed.
"Celestial Peak! Goldcrest! Flank!" Nathan barked, sprinting out of the heat zone. "Mirko, Golem—pin his left side! Garrett, anchor the midline! Dillon, blind him! Elise, shatter his footing! Kuro, sever his mobility!"
"Hmph! Finally, an opponent worthy of my full attention!" Mirko triggered [Impenetrable Fortress], becoming a blazing emerald comet as she charged directly into the golden storm. The solar fire washed over her barrier, the green mana violently flickering and hissing, but she pushed through. "I have waited my entire coded existence for this! Do not disappoint me, your majesty!"
She reached his massive left foreleg, pivoted, and swung with everything she had. [Aegis Strike] carved directly into the charred crimson scales. KRAK-BOOM. The kinetic shockwave rippled violently up the dragon’s arm.
Vorlagrath’s ancient eyes widened slightly.
"Your Knight strikes with the feral spirit of the ancients," the dragon’s voice rumbled through the chaos, laced with dark approval. "Good! Show me more!"
The Frost Golem lumbered through the smoke, slamming its icy fists into Vorlagrath’s right flank. Elise braced her boots against the glass floor, raising Aurora’s Heart. The staff flared blindingly bright. [Glacial Lance] materialized—massive, hyper-dense, radiating the absolute zero of the Frozen Throne. She hurled it. CRRRRACK. The spear punched flawlessly into the dragon’s right wing joint. Ice violently expanded across the ancient, tattered membrane. The wing seized, throwing the dragon off balance.
Above, Dillon and Cloudy executed a perfect dive. Cloudy’s static discharge ripped across Vorlagrath’s face—CRACKLE-BOOM—the blinding flash of voltage forcing the dragon to snap his eyes shut. Capitalizing instantly, Dillon chained [Flash Step] directly over the dragon’s shoulder. [Thunder Edge] fell. KRAK-BOOOOOM. The lightning blade tore across the thick crimson scales, leaving a deep, scorched trench of cooked flesh.
But Vorlagrath was not a mindless beast. He was a tactician.
"A samurai surfing on lightning. A frost mage wielding the heart of a butterfly. A Knight channeling the rage of a dead race." The dragon’s mental voice echoed with grim amusement. "You are a coalition of the impossible, Summoner. The Shepherd declared that only the strong inherit the System. But raw strength is brittle. True survival requires adaptation. Let us see if you can adapt to this."
Without warning, Vorlagrath whipped his massive tail in a devastating, low-sweeping arc that covered half the room.
The Silver Drake shield wall caught the brunt of it, but the sheer kinetic force shattered their lines. Three elite Climbers were launched backward like artillery shells. One triggered his emergency extraction mid-air, vanishing in a flash of silver light before he hit the wall. Another slammed into a pillar, slumping unconscious. A Red Dragon mage was barely caught by her squad, her ribs visibly crushed.
"Garrett! Red! Plug that gap! Do not let him isolate the mages!"
Garrett didn’t hesitate. He planted Volcan deep into the glass floor, while Red’s fleece locked into maximum armor. Vorlagrath’s massive claw swept toward the exposed flank. Garrett met the strike head-on. [Impact Strike] collided with the talon. CRUNCH. The kinetic feedback nearly blew Garrett’s arms out of their sockets, but the mace held the claw at bay. Red caught the talon on the rebound, ramming its horns into the soft tissue between the scales to lock it in place. "We have him anchored! Keep pushing!"
Across the room, Derek’s Salamander unhinged its jaw and unleashed a hyper-concentrated beam of white-hot fire directly into the fissure Mirko had carved in the dragon’s leg. Vorlagrath roared—a sound of immense pain, but also profound respect. Derek stood in the heat wash, his commands sharp and perfectly timed. "Goldcrest! Focus fire on the compromised wing joint! Bring him down to our level!"
The coordination was flawless. Vorlagrath’s right wing, already crippled by Elise’s ice, absorbed a relentless barrage of punishment. The Golem’s fists. Dillon’s lightning. Derek’s fire. And Nathan’s sniper fire—Thwip-Thwip-Thwip—each [Mana Arrow] precisely detonating against the fractured bone.
The Capacitor dipped to sixty percent. The Leyline Ring burned against Nathan’s skin. The F-Rank ceiling pressed down on his lungs, a suffocating reminder of his limits, but he forced the mana through. Every shot was deliberate. Every strike counted.
With a deafening crack, Vorlagrath’s right wing joint gave way. The colossal dragon stumbled, his massive body crashing heavily against the obsidian floor. The entire cathedral shuddered violently, deep fissures webbing across the volcanic glass.
"Phase one complete!" Nathan yelled, his throat raw. "He’s grounded! Push for Phase two—"
Vorlagrath slowly raised his heavy head. The golden fire in his eyes burned with a terrifying, transcendent brilliance. He opened his jaws, and he did not breathe fire.
He breathed a magical ash that invoked confusion inducing memories.