The skies of Varkath darkened as clouds turned to ash and flame. Beneath the fractured heavens, Ao Shun reared his moon-sized serpentine form. A pulse of primordial hatred radiated from him, swirling in tendrils of flame and shadow that dripped from his wings like molten glass.
He opened his maw, hellfire swirling between fangs the size of warships. Another breath—another city—gone. But not this time. A blinding arc of pure light cleaved across the sky. It struck Ao Shun's mouth before the fire could release, cracking the beast's head back with explosive force. Wind howled, and clouds split apart in the wave of light that followed.
Baihu Long hovered just above the collapsing cloud line, his radiant form glowing like a sun. His mane shimmered with every spectrum of color, ethereal robes billowing around an armored core of celestial steel. "Enough, brother."
Ao Shun blinked, then smiled—a slow, sardonic curl of his lip. "You speak now?" he rumbled, voice like tectonic plates grinding. "So the silent one dares the first strike. What changed, Baihu? Did mortals finally beg prettily enough for you to crawl out of your cave?"
Inside the steel belly of the command ship, soldiers and tacticians stared in open disbelief.
"Wait... they're—talking?"
"How the hell are they talking? They're dragons!"
"Is that magic or... are we hearing them in our heads?!"
The confusion spread like fire, but there was no time for answers. Because then—the sky detonated. Vermirion struck next. A spear of crimson thunder lashed through the clouds like a comet, crashing into Ao Shun's spine with a roar of a thousand exploding suns. The force sent the serpent spiraling toward the stratosphere.
But Ao Shun twisted mid-air, caught himself, and slammed downward, his colossal tail crashing into Vermirion and cratering a mountain range below. Then, from the east—The skies turned to ocean.
Ryujin surged upward from a vortex of stormclouds, his coils made of mist and wave. He struck like a tidal god, ripping through Ao Shun's flank, water slashing flesh and dark flame alike. The celestial beasts spiraled through the upper atmosphere like falling stars, their massive forms breaking sound barriers with every clash. Each impact tore through space and storm, warping the very air.
"We're reading shockwaves above ten thousand Kelvin!"
"They're ripping through ion layers—somebody shut down all non-critical satellites!"
"Mother of stars… they're going to tear each other apart!"
Baihu Long, dancing with precision and deadly magic, fired bursts of pure light from his claws, each searing like surgical lasers through Ao Shun's infernal skin.
Vermirion flew wild and wrathful, a comet of fire and storm. Every motion was violent, unpredictable—a flurry of flame meant to burn even a god.
Ryujin, slow and vast, moved like a glacier… until he struck. When he did, it was with the full pressure of oceans collapsing upon a single point.
And in the center of it all, laughing like a mad titan—Ao Shun, the Black Dragon, reveled in it. "You try to stop me—again?" he roared between clashes. "You think the chains that held me before can hold me now?"
He blasted back all three of them with a wave of ice-fire—a corruption of heat and frost twisted into one. The storm above Varkath turned into an apocalypse. Flames licked the stratosphere. Thunder cracked mountains open. The oceans themselves rose into the air as gravity faltered from the chaos of divine power colliding overhead.
Three dragons against one. And yet it was Ao Shun—wounded, scorched, bleeding ichor the color of night—who grinned. A lash of his tail tore a mother ship in half. The wreckage spiraled down like falling suns, pulverizing entire districts of the once-proud capital.
Inside Zys One, General Calloway stood at the center of the command pit, eyes locked on the monitor wall. Every screen flickered with death. Civilian zones once colored green now flashed red—then black.
"Status on Sector 7?"
"Gone, sir. We lost all signatures within 12 seconds."
Calloway's jaw clenched. His gloved hand hovered over the holographic interface that pulsed with the heartbeat map of Varkath. Each dot—a life. Each flicker—gone.
10,457,201
9,884,027
8,671,440
7,980,219...
"Gods help us…" whispered the comms officer.
Ryujin's tidal spear struck Ao Shun through the ribs, pinning him to the stormclouds. Baihu Long followed, releasing a barrage of solar blasts into the wound, making the air burn golden.
But Ao Shun ripped himself free with a howl that shattered sound barriers. Vermirion dove from the sky like a burning sword—but Ao Shun twisted, catching him by the throat with coils of shadow. "You're still slow, flame-worm."
He hurled Vermirion downward. The impact left a crater that swallowed four city blocks. Civilians vanished in a blink—no time to scream.
Aboard another mother ship, CPG evacuation squads tried to fly low into the chaos, but a shockwave from the dragons' skirmish sent them spiraling off course.
"Multiple hits to medical pods! We're losing evacuees!"
"They're dying in the sky!"
Calloway stared as the heartbeat monitor dipped again.
6,489,112
5,902,330
4,210,119...
A hand trembled over the terminal. For the first time in his service, the legendary General Calloway looked... defeated.
"Are we losing signal, or..."
"No, sir. We're detecting actual terminations. Neural syncs collapsing. Bio-signatures vanishing."
Calloway didn't speak. He couldn't. He just looked—hollow-eyed—at the red tides flooding every sector on the map.Ontheground, buildings crumbled. Energy lines ruptured. Skyways snapped in mid-air as Ao Shun's body swirled like a black hurricane.
Vermirion, scorched and bloodied, launched a spiral of lightning-infused flame straight into Ao Shun's chest, sending the elder dragon tumbling through seven skyscrapers like falling metal.
Baihu Long followed, wings spread wide, casting a dome of radiant light to deflect the blast away from one of the last remaining evacuation corridors.
Ryujin roared a chant in the Old Tongue, calling forth a barrier of stormwater that caught the falling rubble, diverting it away from a collapsing city block.
Ao Shun's scream tore the sky in half. Black tendrils of dark ice lashed out wildly, striking Ryujin across the flank and knocking Baihu Long into a collapsing CPG mother ship. Vermirion descended in a meteor trail of crimson lightning, only to be caught mid-dive and hurled like a broken comet into the sea beyond Varkath.
Even three against one, Ao Shun raged stronger. Every strike he endured only deepened his madness. The old bindings—fragments from a war long buried—were gone. All that remained was unfiltered wrath. He howled to the sky, "You think you can bind me again?"
And yet—As the three dragons circled him once more, preparing for another round, their gazes shifted. Not at each other. But below. The world was breaking. The streets were oceans of rubble. The spires of Varkath burned like candles in a funeral rite.
A mother ship spun out of control, crashing into Sector 14 where once stood the Temple of Unity. Screams still echoed beneath every plume of smoke. So many voices had gone silent. And worse, the dead were being buried by gods' collateral fury.
Ryujin hovered still. Silent. Then looked at the others. "No more."
Baihu Long nodded slowly, golden aura dimming. "We're not here to destroy him."
Vermirion, scalescracked and body seared, bared his fangs. "Then we seal him… one last time."
They formed the Triangle of Sundering. A ritual forbidden since the First Calamity. Each one took position in the air, miles apart, forming an arcane geometry so vast the light of it turned the dusk into false dawn.
Ryujin chanted first, voice deep like the ocean trenches. "By the Law of Balance… By the Tithe of Realms…"
Baihu Long followed, his voice ethereal, weaving starlight with sound. "Let light hold the night, and time chain the fallen."
Vermirion, the last, snarled his words like fire cracking wood. "Burn his name from memory. Let the shell remember what the world must forget."
The air howled. The sky turned white. Ao Shun, still roaring, still furious—paused. He trying to retreat. But it was too late. From each dragon came a tether—a celestial thread of light, flame, and tide—that wrapped around Ao Shun like a divine net.
He struggled. He screamed. He scorched the clouds with infernal breath. But the seal completed. In one unified pulse of power, the threads pulled tight—compressing his colossal body, shrinking the very concept of his wrath into a compact core. And in a sudden silence...
A radiant explosion of multi-elemental energy burst through the sky. When it faded—Floating at the center of the light—Was an egg. Swirling with storm and frost and shadow within its shell. Massive, silver-veined, and gently pulsing with life. The egg began to fall. Slowly. Gracefully. As if the world itself held its breath.
And as it descended, the wind went still. Fires dimmed. The chaos paused. The egg touched down softly in the shattered plaza of what once was the heart of Varkath.
The skies finally stilled. Smoke curled gently from the ravaged skeleton of Varkath. Emergency lights bathed the ruins in flickering red, like veins pulsing across a dying heart. Inside the Hall of M, silence reigned as the dragons faded into the clouds beyond the atmosphere.
Rick broke it first. "…Did that thousand-meter monster just turn into a giant omelette?"
Seraphina blinked, still pale from her injuries. "I… think that was an egg."
"Same thing," Rick shrugged. "Giant. Fragile-looking. Omelette."
Barry stared at the screen, arms crossed. "Doesn't look fragile. Looks like it's watching."
The monitor zoomed in—revealing the surface of the enormous egg pulsing faintly, like it had a heartbeat of its own. No cracks. No scorch marks. Just stillness.
Professor M stepped forward, expression unreadable. "I've seen many forms of stasis and containment. But this… this is seem different than anything I've studied."
Before he could speculate further, Veymar suddenly arched backward, eyes glowing white.
"Veymar?" Serene asked, startled.
His voice when he spoke—was not his. It was three voices. "The egg cannot be broken by force. It is the prison… and the rebirth. When Ao Shun hatches, he will not remember this rage. He will seek redemption."
The glow in Veymar's eyes faded. He stumbled forward, coughing. "I—I think they used me as a conduit," he muttered. "Typical gods. No boundaries."
Kai raised an eyebrow. "So… that's it? Just wait and hope he's less homicidal next time?"
"No," Veymar said, slowly regaining composure. "They've given us something… else."
"Hope?" Vera offered.
"Balance," Veymar corrected. "Ao Shun was a guardian once. Before the madness. If he returns without his fury… he may become that again."
Everyone stared at the screen as the egg glowed faintly against the ruins. The three dragons were gone—just trails of energy spiraling back into the stratosphere. Silas stepped forward, arms folded, gazing at the egg on the holo-screen with his usual half-smirk. "Well, guess now you've got company, Barry."
Barry turned, brow furrowed. Silas gave him a sideways glance and said. "Another monster trying to do better."
He patted Barry's shoulder—mocking, sure, but not without a strange kind of respect. "Better hope the big lizard's learning curve is faster than yours."