Adyr massaged his temples, the pain slowly fading from his eyes as he said, "Yeah. Better destroy it, but be careful."

Whatever was happening behind those walls felt alive, like a process still forming, something monstrous trying to take shape. If possible, Adyr wanted to crush it before it was born.

He was right. Inside, Sevrak was upgrading Black Dragon, its body glowing with molten veins as each second passed. The only question left was whether that ritual could still be stopped.

Liora gave a short, confident laugh. "Alright, you stay here. I'll give it a quick shake and come back."

Her white cloud drifted toward the towering palace wedged between two colossal mountains. As she ascended, her body began to swell, the transformation spreading through her frame.

Muscles rose beneath her skin, bones cracked and lengthened, and her once-petite form climbed until a colossal shadow fell over the city under the black-and-white sun, like an eclipse.

Dark brown, metallic fur burst from her skin, spreading across her arms, chest, and face until every inch of her was covered in dense, armor-like hair.

Then, with a soft rumble, the cloud Spark beneath her gave way. Unable to carry her increasing mass, it flickered out, and she dismissed it into her Sanctuary before gravity claimed her.

BOOM!

Her still-growing Titan Ape form slammed into the city, crushing a two-story home beneath her weight. Shockwaves tore through the nearby streets, sending debris and dust billowing outward in every direction.

Liora did not even flinch. She planted her knuckles into the cracked earth and drove forward.

Each stride grew heavier and faster, her body expanding with every movement. Her four-limbed sprint ripped through the district, and the ground crumbled beneath her steps.

The earth seemed to protest her advance. Walls collapsed, spires snapped, and the very foundations of the city shook under her growing might.

By the time she reached the heart of the Umbraen city, she had become a walking calamity. The sheer weight of her muscle strength split the streets open like dry soil, and with every step, a new quake rolled across the kingdom.

Just witnessing her was enough to understand why Rank 4 Practitioners were forbidden from fighting inside cities. The war had not even begun, yet the capital was already breaking apart.

When her transformation reached its peak, Liora bent her knees and leaped skyward. The ground cracked open beneath her, leaving a smoking crater and a shockwave that shattered all the windows across the city.

Adyr watched from a distance, his expression carrying the cool interest of someone enjoying a fine movie. "This will be quite a show."

High above, the Titan Ape raised her colossal arms. The palace that once loomed between the mountains now looked like a toy beneath her towering frame.

Energy gathered around her fists, and the air thrummed with expanding vibrations.

Adyr felt the fine tremors spreading across the land as she charged her ultimate skill, the one that had earned her the title Earthshaker.

The Seismic Pulse skill she got from Colossith was activated.

When her fists came down, the world seemed to split.

BOOM!

The impact was cataclysmic. The grand palace collapsed inward, its towers folding like paper. The flanking mountains quivered and cracked, hurling boulders the size of houses.

A wave of destruction raced outward, swallowing streets, homes, and entire districts.

Buildings sank into the ground as if taken by an unseen maw, and in moments, the Umbraen capital turned into a field of pulverized stone and dust.

The Earthshaker's strike landed and left the capital flattened to a plain of broken stone and choking ash.

As the devastation spread, Adyr's gaze lingered, and a low laugh slipped into the night, pure, unfeigned delight.

In his previous world, he had been the man everyone called evil and heartless.

Since his rebirth, the things he had witnessed made him look almost saintly by comparison.

It was not only the nuclear war that dragged an entire world into deep pain and lasting scars. Even here, someone like Liora, an Astra Path practitioner, could become walking destruction, surpassing Adyr's past deeds in pure, indifferent cruelty.

With a single strike, she crushed millennia of labor and civilization, erasing a whole race's monument from history as if it were nothing.

There was also Sevrak, who murdered his own kin and wiped out his bloodline in a single night, all to gain enough power to keep his face among the region's powers.

"What a perfect world. You can kill and destroy, then call it 'purpose' to justify anything."

In a place where everyone sought reasons to turn villain, his wish to leave his past behind and be human looked absurdly ironic.

He beat his white-and-black wings once and held over the city's heart, studying the ruins below the way an archaeologist reads a lost age.

But his calm attention broke when movement stirred in the grand palace's collapsed remains.

After leveling the structure and even the twin mountains holding it, Liora stepped back to see what had been hidden inside.

And soon, something eerie lifted out of the heaps of stone and soil, and pressure seized her chest as if an unseen hand had clenched her heart, pulling her backward.

"What is this thing…" Her ancient, deep voice rolled through the shattered buildings and echoed between the broken walls.

Through the rubble, a colossal head forced its way up, tearing soil and rock as it climbed.

At first, it resembled the Black Dragon Sevrak rode, yet it was different. It was no longer black.

Its scales shone like molten blood, bright and searing. The massive teeth, each one like a small hill, were entirely red, creating the illusion that it had just chewed living flesh, fresh blood trailing along the edges.

Then the eyes opened, and that was what pushed Liora another step back, unknown fear rippling through her enormous frame.

Two long slits stared out, each filled with boiling blood. Inside that churning red, countless warped figures twisted and writhed, as if condemned to burn forever.

Faint sounds drifted out of them, ghostly screams and thin groans of pain, slipping into the mind of anyone who met that gaze.

"What have you done, Sevrak…" Liora's simian features tightened, and her entire body went taut.

She finally understood where the Umbraen had gone. They were inside the dragon now, part of its power.

She tried to sense the Rank 4 Spark, but only instinct answered. A cold fear slid down her nerves. There was no aura, no presence, nothing to feel at all, and that emptiness made the dread worse.

The Blood Dragon heaved itself fully free of dust and earth until its entire body stood clear to the eye.

It studied the Titan Ape before it with a look that measured an unworthy opponent.

Then its jaws opened wide.

GRRRRRAAAAUUUGH!

The absence that had masked its presence cracked in a single shockwave. Power rolled out across the ruins, as if the dragon had simply chosen to stop hiding.

Liora finally felt the aura she had been searching for, and her dark-brown fur began to tremble.

"This is not a Rank 4 Spark anymore," she murmured, trying to cover her ears with her huge hands.

She had come ready to face three Rank 4 Practitioners, yet the thing revealing itself as the enemy crushed her courage and will in an instant.

While she struggled to endure the roar and the weight of its presence pressing on her, blood-red electric currents started to gather inside the Blood Dragon's mouth.

Sensing the incoming strike, her fur stood on end across her whole body.

A single blood-red electric beam burst from the dragon's jaws, burning the oxygen in the air and corrupting the ground it crossed, turning the earth into molten, dark liquid as it rushed toward the Titan Ape.

She tried to turn her massive frame out of its path, fully aware her defense could never withstand a strike like this, but her responses were dulled, and her reflexes were too slow to respond on time.

When the red beam was a breath from her body, ready to corrupt and tear through her flesh, an interference appeared.

The beam buckled and bent as if it had slammed into an invisible wall in front of her. Its straight course sheared off, veering away and gouging a deep channel across the ground.

Corruption crawled along the scar until the beam bled out and vanished, leaving a kilometers-long ribbon of molten darkness behind.

"Sorry for my intervention, Liora the Earthshaker." The voice followed the fading destruction, deep and resonant like a drum.

Realizing she had survived, Liora looked up and saw a giant fleshy eyeball hanging in the sky. On top of it stood Throgar Gorat, looking down with a hard, furrowed expression.

Soon after, another massive figure descended nearby.

"I know we promised not to interfere," Silverlight Zephan said as the Silver Whale steadied beside them. "But it seems the plan has changed."

They understood that to defeat this enemy, they had to join forces. Only together did they have even a chance to strike back.

***

A/N: I know my publishing schedule has become messy again, as I'm still in the process of moving. I will make it up to you with bonus chapters soon. I'm also reading all the comments and reviews, trying to answer everyone and keep improving by taking your suggestions into account. Thanks a lot for that.

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