Lo Quen stood alone, facing the terrifying Kraken rising from the sea of blood like a mountain.
Hatred and an unsettling sense of familiarity flickered within its massive blood-red eye.
He was certain of it. Euron's consciousness had taken residence within this thing.
The Kraken unleashed a deafening shriek. Several tentacles ripped through the air, smashing viciously toward Lo Quen on the shore.
Those tentacles were densely packed with writhing suction cups, a sight that made the scalp prickle.
Faced with this overwhelming assault, Lo Quen's gaze hardened. He stopped holding back.
He drew a deep breath, and his Magic surged instantly to its absolute limit.
[Ultimate Skill]!
[True Dragon's Descent]!
BOOM!!!
A blinding golden radiance erupted outward from Lo Quen, instantly swallowing his figure whole.
The light was so intense that it briefly suppressed even the sinister blood-red pillar blazing from the High Tower.
The charging Kraken Euron froze for a split second, its colossal crimson eye flashing with sheer shock.
Then the light receded.
What stood there was no longer the human form of Lo Quen, but a vast, towering creature.
A colossal golden dragon, more than three hundred and thirty feet long.
Its entire body was clad in scales that looked as though they had been forged from pure gold. Its head was proud and imposing, its draconic eyes gazing down upon all beings with absolute authority.
Its wings spread wide, as if they could blot out the sky above Battle Island itself.
The golden dragon threw back its head and roared, a thunderous cry that made even the distant Blooddancer let out instinctive, reverent low calls.
The Kraken Euron's forward momentum stalled, a trace of fear surging up unbidden.
But the madness of Euron's will crushed that fear instantly, replacing it with even more violent fury.
"ROAR!!!"
The Kraken Euron howled, its voice a grotesque blend of crashing waves and shrieking psychic noise. Its enormous tentacles whipped forward with renewed frenzy, slamming toward the newly transformed Golden Dragon Lo Quen.
Golden Dragon Lo Quen beat his wings and rose effortlessly into the air, narrowly avoiding a blow powerful enough to smash a castle.
The tentacle struck nothing but empty space before crashing down onto the beach. Sand and mud exploded outward as deep trenches were gouged into the ground.
High above, Lo Quen's molten-gold dragon eyes locked onto the twisted monstrosity below. He opened his massive jaws, and a torrent of blazing golden Dragonfire poured forth.
The heat and power of this Dragonfire far exceeded even the flames of a Blooddancer.
The fire slammed into one of the Kraken Euron's tentacles as it lashed out again.
"AAARGH!!!"
The Kraken Euron screamed in agony.
The thick tentacle blackened and carbonized almost instantly under the searing Dragonfire, snapping apart and plunging into the sea with a violent hiss as white steam and the stench of scorched flesh rose into the air.
The intense pain drove the Kraken Euron into a frenzy. Its immense body surged fully out of the Bleeding Sea and onto Battle Island.
Countless tentacles shot upward at once, stabbing and lashing toward the golden dragon in the sky, trying to tear this threat apart.
Lo Quen's massive draconic body moved with astonishing agility.
He twisted and weaved through the air, climbing sharply one moment and diving the next, shifting direction in mid-flight as he cleanly evaded every single strike.
At the same time, he circled continuously, seizing every opening to unleash scorching Dragonfire upon the Kraken Euron's enormous form.
Blazing golden flames charred its hide and incinerated tentacle after tentacle, drawing out an unbroken chorus of agonized shrieks.
The air filled with the smell of burnt flesh and acrid smoke.
Yet the Kraken Euron's vitality proved terrifyingly resilient. Despite the damage, its core remained intact.
Its blood-red eye fixed on the golden dragon above, and then, without warning, it made an unexpected move.
It abruptly turned away, lunging toward the black stone that still radiated an eerie crimson glow, endlessly siphoning Magic from the sea.
Before Lo Quen's stunned eyes, the Kraken Euron opened its gaping maw, lined with jagged teeth, and swallowed the massive black stone in a single gulp.
Golden Dragon Lo Quen felt a flash of shock and uncertainty.
What was it trying to do?!
After swallowing the black stone, the Kraken Euron suddenly went rigid, then began to convulse violently.
Inside its massive dark-brown body, pulses of blood-red light flared rhythmically, like the beating of a heart, as though some utterly terrifying power had been ignited within.
"AAAGHHH—!!!"
The Kraken Euron let out a scream far more agonizing than when it had been burned by Dragonfire, its cry saturated with indescribable torment.
Lo Quen's dragon eyes narrowed, a sharp sense of danger sounding in his mind.
He didn't know exactly what was about to happen, but Euron swallowing that eerie black stone was unquestionably bad.
He couldn't allow this to continue.
Without the slightest hesitation, Golden Dragon Lo Quen dove straight down, throwing open his massive jaws as even fiercer streams of blazing golden Dragonfire poured forth, hammering unceasingly against the Kraken Euron's huge body as it curled and writhed in pain.
RUMBLE—!!!
The extreme heat engulfed the Kraken Euron completely. Flames scorched every inch of its flesh, even vaporizing the surrounding seawater and laying bare the blackened rocks of the seabed below.
And yet, something utterly shocking happened.
This devastating golden Dragonfire failed to carbonize and destroy it as swiftly as before.
At some point, a faint blood-red barrier had formed over the Kraken Euron's surface.
That barrier, seemingly composed of the purest malevolent energy, deflected the vast majority of the Dragonfire's power.
Though it shuddered violently under the sustained assault, flickering in and out, and the Kraken Euron continued to howl in agony, it held.
What was worse, the blood-red energy radiating from the black stone was now passing through the barrier, pouring steadily into the Kraken Euron's body.
Under Lo Quen's horrified gaze, the Kraken Euron's massive, bloated form began to undergo a grotesque transformation that defied reason, shaped by the overlapping forces of bloodlight and flame.
Its body was no longer an amorphous mass of soft flesh. Instead, it writhed and reshaped itself violently.
It was as if a twisted humanoid form were forcing its way out of that horrifying mass of meat.
Where its head had once been, the flailing tentacles drew inward and hardened, becoming even more grotesque as they merged into a terrifying head crowned with writhing feelers.
The middle of its body abruptly rose upright, stretching into something resembling a torso and limbs.
Those limbs were coated in slick, clammy skin, fingers and toes webbed together, their ends tipped with razor-sharp claws.
Most horrifying of all, two enormous flesh tumors rapidly bulged and expanded from the area of its shoulder blades on its newly formed back.
Their surfaces glowed with an ever-deepening blood-red sheen, and patterns resembling scales began to emerge, along with runes that were impossible to comprehend.
"This is…"
Even with Lo Quen's mental fortitude, witnessing a transformation so utterly beyond reason sent a surge of dread and nausea through him.
This had completely surpassed everything he understood about this world.
He absolutely could not let it complete its metamorphosis.
A resolute light flashed in Golden Dragon Lo Quen's eyes.
He ceased his long-range breath attack, and his massive draconic form surged forward with overwhelming momentum, charging straight at the Kraken Euron as it continued its horrific transformation.