It was an indescribable sensation.
His body, his mind, his very soul were trapped in an amorphous prison of shadow. Everything around him was an absolute darkness that seemed to dissolve reality itself.
The feeling was worse than being devoured; it was a slow, terrifying erasure.
For the first time, a sliver of genuine despair and fear pierced Orionâs composure. It coiled around him, heavy and exhausting, a shackle on his will.
"You see," the voice of the Great Dragon King of Light, Mondusath, echoed from everywhere at once. "I told you. You cannot escape."
Above him, in the dark firmament of his prison, a face emergedâthe partial visage of Mondusath, so colossal it blotted out everything else.
The effect was nauseating. It was as if Orion was trapped at the bottom of a deep well, and the only sky he could see was the impossibly vast, leering face of the Great Dragon King.
Every subtle shift in the dragonâs expression was amplified a thousandfold. What Orion saw was pure mockery. Utter contempt.
In the world outside the shadow, Mondusath loomed over the dark mass Orion had melted into, its physical form peering down at its trapped prey.
"Tell me," the dragon commanded, its claw igniting once more with radiant fire, the very laws of physics seeming to bend around it. "Where is it? Who has it?"
Zing!
At that moment, a spectral spirit sword tore through the fabric of space, appearing directly above the pool of shadow.
"Alexanderâs Flaw-Seeker!"
Alexanderâs cold, sharp voice cut through the air. The spirit sword hissed as it descended, aimed directly at Mondusathâs head.
Mondusath gave a dismissive snort, and a halo of light pulsed from its body to intercept the attack. But this time, the light failed. Alexanderâs Flaw-Seeker was an attack that bypassed all defenses to strike at a targetâs fundamental weakness.
With a sickening
schlick
, the avatar of the Great Dragon King of Light was cleaved cleanly in two.
The instant Mondusath was struck, the shadow prison dissolved. Light and darkness rushed back into equilibrium, and Orion stumbled out, the terror of his confinement still clinging to him.
"Bro! Just in time!" Orion gasped, appearing beside the hovering spirit sword. "That thing is the Great Dragon King, Mondusath!"
He had to warn him, afraid Alexander would underestimate the foe and pay the price.
"I gathered it wasnât normal," Alexanderâs voice replied from the sword. "A peak arch lord shouldnât be this terrifying."
And it was terrifying. Across from them, the two halves of Mondusathâs body slid back together as if nothing had happened, leaving not so much as a seam. It fixed its cold gaze on Orion and the spirit sword.
"So, it seems you also had a hand in the desecration of my tomb," Mondusath accused the newcomer.
Alexander didnât deign to reply. The spirit sword merely trembled, gathering power.
"This is just an arch lordâs shell," his voice transmitted to Orion. "No matter how powerful, it canât surpass a demigod. With the right approach, it can be killed."
It was both an observation and a statement of supreme confidence.
"Right," Orion grunted, subtly collecting a few droplets of blood that had been flung from the dragon by the spirit swordâs attack.
Alexanderâs avatar hadnât just saved him; it had secured the medium he needed. Alexander had known from the start that a single blow wouldnât be enough. For a man who preferred to end fights in a single, perfect strike, that fact alone spoke volumes about how dangerous he considered Mondusath.
"Again!"
The spirit sword wasted no more time on conversation, transforming into a streak of light as it shot toward Mondusath once more. Alexander was buying him time.
"Hmph. May the light in your eyes be your undoing, and your slaughter illuminate your own demise!" Mondusath chanted. Another halo coalesced around it, the law of light itself manifesting as a perfectly circular, shimmering mirror.
The spirit sword slammed into the mirrorâs surface, its energy rippling against the reflective barrier, threatening to be refracted and turned aside. But a furious roar emanated from the sword avatar, and the repulsive force ceased.
A horrific, grating screech filled the air, like two tectonic plates grinding against each other. The mirror shattered, and Alexanderâs spirit sword was thrown back.
"A Regulus Blade?" Mondusathâs voice was laced with genuine shock. "A holy relic?"
It couldnât believe that a mere arch lord would possess a sacred sword capable of ignoring the laws of light and meeting it in a direct clash of power.
Its answer was not a reply from Alexander, but the final words of Orionâs incantation.
"Dragon-ghost, slumbering in the endless dark, hear my call! By this blood, I offer a tribute you covet! Descend and feast! Arise, Ghost Dragon!"
The forbidden summoning skill, Ghost Dragon, activated. An aura that made Mondusathâs scales crawlâan energy fundamentally opposed to its ownâdescended, enveloping it completely.
Body, mind, and soulâall were sealed in an instant. Mondusath couldnât even command the law of light to defend itself.
Now!
Orion and Alexander shot forward from opposite directions, their target the paralyzed dragon.
Aura Lock! Berserk Aura! Instant Impact!
Bolstered by his Titan Form and the Ancestorâs Soul, Orion became a living thunderbolt, slamming into Mondusathâs white dragon form.
Just as its physical body was about to be obliterated, a furious shriek erupted from within. A faint sphere of light burst forth from the corpseâthe white dragonâs body of faith. Mondusathâs own will projection.
But what met the escaping will was not Orionâs charge. It was another ultimate attack, one Alexander had been preparing all along.
"Kill!"
"Kill!"
In that single moment, the wills of Alexander and Orion burned as one, their focus absolute: destroy Mondusathâs avatar, here and now.
BOOM!
BOOM!
Two massive impacts echoed in rapid succession. Mondusathâs physical form was annihilated by Orionâs charge, its dissipating body consumed as a sacrifice by the rising Ghost Dragon. At the same time, Alexanderâs spirit sword collided with the sphere of light, a high-pitched, resonant hum ringing from the blade as the two forces locked in a desperate stalemate.
Orion gripped his trident, preparing to join the tug-of-war between fundamental forces. But just then, a titanic roar echoed from the distance.
It was Leonidas.
"BEHEMOTH OBLIVION BEAM!"
The lightning armor around Leonidas surged violently, countless arcs of electricity leaping from his body until he resembled a miniature sun. In the next instant, that sphere of energy compressed into a perfectly straight beam of incandescent power, a bolt of divine punishment that lanced across the sky and struck the white dragonâs body of faith.
The truth was, Leonidas could have finished the black dragon arch lord long ago. He had been dragging out the fight, waiting for precisely this kind of opening. Compared to the black dragon, the cards up his sleeve were almost limitless.
"DAMNABLE WRETCHES! FILTHY TOMB-ROBBERS! YOU INFERIOR INSECTS! I WILL ANNIHILATE YOU! I WILLâ"
Amid the grinding shriek of sword light and the crackling roar of thunder, the voice of the Great Dragon King of Light, Mondusath, grew fainter and fainter, until it vanished completely.