★216
The Dragon growled, irritation rippling through its massive frame, and as its jaws parted, sparks flared within, the heat rising so violently that the surroundings began to soften and melt. Entares hesitated for a fraction too long, caught off guard by the sheer intensity.
"Already?"
He barely had time to register it before the Void Acid Flames surged toward him. He moved immediately, dodging and retreating, but the Void Dragon gave him no room to escape.
The flames pursued him relentlessly, bending and twisting through space guided by intent, tracking his every movement without fail. Within seconds, the palace below collapsed into molten ruin, its structure reduced to a sea of magma as Entares shot upward into the sky.
Behind him, the Void Dragon spread its colossal wings, and darkness spilled across the heavens, swallowing the light as if night itself had been born from its presence. With a single, overwhelming beat, it launched upward, the sky trembling under the force as it closed the distance between them.
"Oi, oi, oi, there's no way you're fast with this large body."
A colossal fireball tore through the sky, roaring as it closed in, and with a sharp, controlled motion, he split it cleanly in two with his violet blade. The flames had barely begun to disperse when the Dragon followed through, its claws drenched in Void Acid slashing down to rip him apart.
He reacted just in time. His twin violet blades crossed, forming a thin barrier that caught the strike at the last possible moment. The collision shattered the air around them, and the force hurled him violently back towards the earth.
While still airborne, Entares twisted his body and hurled one of the blades with everything he had, but the Unmaker of Gods avoided it effortlessly, shifting aside with a speed that made the attack seem almost slow.
In response, it opened its jaws wide and unleashed a torrent of searing flames, pouring downward like divine punishment, threatening to swallow everything below in an overwhelming inferno.
"Close call."
He muttered.
He raised one arm slowly, a faint smirk forming on his lips as the flames crashed onto the the land, burning deep enough to pierce through to the world's very core.
The violet blade hung suspended in the air, and he appeared beside it in the same instant, teleporting with precise timing as his hand closed around the hilt. Without pause, he drove forward and unleashed a swift, merciless strike at the Dragon.
The creature reacted immediately, sensing him despite the infernal flames still raging from its jaws, but it was too late. His other hand, wreathed in Violet Void, shot forward first, and the punch connected with crushing force.
The impact shattered the air, snuffing out the flames as it drove into the Dragon's jaw, wrenching its massive head violently to the side.
"Now!"
At his command, the void arc materialised on the Dragon's opposite side, striking true and snapping its head back once more. Without pause, Entares gripped one of its jagged horns, his aura surging like a storm. With a single, thunderous motion, he swung the beast in a sweeping arc and cast it into the heavens, its massive form vanishing into the burning sky.
This was a self-contained World without space or divide. Above them stretched another realm, not apart but interwoven with the same reality. Together, they formed the true entirety of the World of Darkness.
"Ah...let's end this..."
His hands cupped, drawing forth both Darkness and Violet Void as he soared skyward. Above him in the upper realm, the Dragon rose to its feet, shaking the rubble from its massive form.
'To think he'll leave a permanent mark on my body... 1!'
Its gaze locked onto a jagged hole, the very point where Entares would break eventually through. Too swift to cause any disturbance, he shot through the realm, plunging deep into the atmosphere, his attack ready to unleash devastation.
'Taste Enta's Destruction.'
He spoke within his mind, careful not to alert the beast. Then he unleashed a beam without sound or light cutting across the immeasurable space of the World of Anarchy, unstoppable and unseen.
(Chaos World = Anarchy World. Chaos World has no Order or Law.)
The beam struck within a heartbeat, yet at the last moment the Dragon's halo flared into a blazing azure ring as it twisted its body, breathing flames threaded with spiralling void. The beam slipped through the clash, almost intangible against the oncoming force, but the inferno surged forward with equal, if not greater, speed, colliding with Entares at the exact moment his attack reached the Dragon.
The impact was catastrophic. The current realm and the one beneath it were swallowed in the collision, both collapsing into complete annihilation under the sheer scale of power unleashed.
Entares had been caught off guard, but the Void Armour was practically indestructible. The flames broke against it, their force absorbed and dispersed, leaving him with only minimal damage.
The Dragon was not so fortunate. Its crimson scales blackened and cracked under the assault, its wings blistering and burning as Entares' Destruction tore through it without restraint, ripping into its very existence with relentless force.
'Why… why are we losing? Isn't Phase One enough?'
Jagarette's voice carried both frustration and anger, her composure slipping as she watched the Dragon take damage it should never have sustained.
'Silence. The real fight is about to begin.'
Spectre replied, his tone unnervingly calm, as though everything that had happened so far meant very little to him, even at a stage where they had once held clear dominance over the Dragon and were now watching it suffer under this level of destruction.
(Yes, in Phase One, Spectre has control over the beast, as Jagarette does in Phase Two. Though the multiple heads provided more assistance.)
"Now… this wasn't accounted for."
Spectre said, his voice echoing without the slightest trace of irritation.
"We still haven't explored everything Phase One has to offer, but with the damage sustained and the lack of time, we'll have to move on."
He continued, as if the decision had already been made long before this moment.
"You've done well to last this long. Valtonix and the Heavenly Saints barely managed to defeat an incomplete Phase One."
From the gaps between the Dragon's scales, a black mist began to seep out, thick and heavy, coiling into the air like something alive. It wasn't just void energy, it felt like the beginning of something far worse.
"Besides the Emperor, you're the second to witness this walking catastrophe."
Spectre's voice shifted as he spoke, deepening and distorting as though something else was beginning to take hold.
"I'm not done either."
Entares replied, completely unbothered and unfazed by the escalation of this fight.
His armour reformed, every fracture sealing as the dark plating restored itself, and his blades shimmered back into existence, whole and ready. The very realm trembled as the their transformation reached its peak.
From the depths of the spreading darkness, vast and overwhelming wings unfurled, revealing a creature shaped entirely from void. Its form wavered like liquid shadow before solidifying into scales that seemed to weep darkness itself, every movement carrying a presence that pressed against the mind.
"VOIDBORN!"
The name echoed with finality, a Phase only two had ever witnessed and only one dared to face.
Entares should have been frozen where he stood, crushed under the sheer terror of what stood before him. Instead, a grin spread slowly across his face.
It was clear now. He hadn't been pushed to the edge at all. He had been holding back and perhaps he might win in doing so.
"Let's go."
To be continued...