A massive explosion erupted for the tenth time in just five seconds, followed by a torrent of lightning bolts descending violently from the sky as divine punishment.
An ocean of lost souls, wailing and screaming like a whirlpool in the sea, clung to the draconic paws, attempting to pull the enormous creature down, only for it to easily free itself with a flap of its wings.
Despite the flames and the burning ground, which had turned into magma or mere rock fragments from the explosions, impacts, and heat, blades of ice flew everywhere in a devastating blizzard that wasn't stopped by some spell, colliding with the black scales and either digging into them or bouncing off.
At the same time, dozens of monsters rushed toward the Dragon, which roared mightily while unleashing another series of explosions around it, destroying half of the hungry Demons in an instant.
"ROOOOAAAAHHHHHHH! YOU CAN'T WIN, YOU DIRTY PLAYERS! NOT EVEN WITH YOUR ENTIRE ARMY OF DEMONS!" Rasilyk roared, opening his jaws and firing a massive beam of chaotic energy forward.
Betelgeuse watched the shot, preparing countermeasures, but it wasn't necessary, as a tall Demon in white armor leaped from the shattered ground and placed his marble shield in the middle, taking the beam full on and being pushed back a few meters while the Devil was able to move out of the way.
"[Blindness]!" He chanted in response, causing Catastrophe's vision to blur for a moment. In that meager split second, a shadow emerged from one of the ice blades, delivering a powerful punch to the Dragon Lord's head. He roared as the impact rattled his bones. He quickly unleashed another pulse of chaos around him, creating an explosion that blew away the ice and Daemons standing too close.
Achernar placed his arms in front of him, blocking some of the damage from the blast, but was still thrown back by the shockwave as his skin burned slightly with a second-degree burn.
On the other hand, a flame-covered fist took advantage of the instant Catastrophe ran out of energy, surrounding him, slamming into the Dragon Lord from the side and sending several scales flying in different directions. Before Rasilyk swatted him away with his palm as if he were a fly, with an explosion worthy of a high-powered missile occurring upon contact.
In response, finally expiring, the Evil Lord of Wrath roared furiously as his body glowed, before exploding at point-blank range in the Dragon's face.
But as expected of the Dragon Lord of Catastrophe himself, the damage he received from the explosion, albeit a literal nuclear blast, was nil, with only the fire and radiation threatening to harm him, but due to the Dragon Lord's resilience, these were also nullified. Still, the shockwave was still enough to make him stop for a moment.
That instant was seized by an enormous Phoenix, its feathers like reddish blades and its beak covered in crooked teeth like a crocodile's. It fell upon the back of the gigantic creature and spewed a torrent of voracious hellfire flames at the Dragon Lord, digging its claws into the draconic scales.
Catastrophe roared in pain, feeling the hellish flames creating nasty burns. He quickly turned around and swatted at the legendary bird, sending it flying and crashing to the ground. It exploded into an ocean of flames, then disappeared into embers and loose feathers as a symbol of hellfire shone where it had been. The demonic bird that had died finally reappeared, screeching violently as it soared into the sky like a fiery comet.
"[Ray of Agony]" Sang 'Crimea,' better known as Bachelory in the guise of Ghost. A beam of ethereal, blackish energy shot out from his hand, slamming into Catastrophe as a Giant Demon swooped down to strike down the Dragon. Upon impact, Rasilyk roared in pain, slashing at the Demon with his paw and easily decapitating it, allowing Achernar to take advantage of the moment's distraction and swiftly advance on the Dragon Lord's body, landing dozens of blows wherever he passed.
A giant, magma-spewing, horned, black-scaled serpent coiled around one of Catastrophe's arms, while a plane-sized wasp with obsidian for chitin and stingers on each leg pounced on the other arm.
Quickly, a giant, dying fly, along with a swarm of smaller red flies, swarmed into Catastrophe's stomach, taking advantage of the open wounds and devouring the flesh with a desperate, grotesque hunger and voracity.
Finally, Achernar reached the giant Dragon's neck and delivered a powerful blow after chanting a skill, causing a crack to sound and Rasilyk to roar again, before his entire body was covered in clearly unstable red energy and Achernar leaped away.
Meanwhile, an instant later, the snake and the wasp were disintegrated by an energy blast, while the small flies were already reduced to nothing the moment Catastrophe moved, crushing them between its massive body.
And the enormous fly... Like four others like it before, though with enough differences to identify them as different summons, it vanished into dust while laughing in an unnatural voice, completely unbecoming of a literal giant insect.
"[Call Greater Thunder] [Maximize Magic: Obelisc]" Betelgeuse chanted, causing a powerful crash of thunder to fall upon the Dragon Lord, followed by a massive, thick pillar of rock that erupted from the dust that was the ground, stabbing into Rasilyk's back as it lifted him into the sky.
"[Claw of the Dragon God]" Achernar's voice was heard from above, and a second later, a vertical slash appeared, with Achernar suddenly on the ground despite having been heard above the Dragon Lord, although… At his side, a long tail fell, completely severed, shattering the ground.
"ROOAAHHHHHHHHH!" Once again, Catastrophe roared in pain, before chanting. "[WILD MAGIC: CHAOS STAR]!" His entire body, as if becoming more compact, shrank in size, and concentrated into a kind of red energy comet, which, although smaller than Catastrophe's gigantic form, was still more than 10 times Achernar's height.
And as if it were a fighter jet, the energy sphere zigzagged through the sky, leaving a violent trail as its speed increased noticeably.
Betelgeuse suddenly covered his face as a small piece of that red energy shot toward him, colliding with his magic shield and destroying it in a violent explosion.
"[Twin Magic: Obsidian Sword]!" Bachelory chanted, two obsidian blades appearing at his sides, and shooting out in an attempt to chase the comet, as did the demonic Phoenix and the nearly cadaverous, fire-covered serpent with bat-like wings.
Things certainly weren't looking good… For Catastrophe, of course.
As if breaking free from his cocoon, Catastrophe emerged from the sphere of energy, spinning around and colliding squarely with the two summons, vanishing them for good as the Dragon Lord landed on his feet, causing the ground to shake in a small earthquake. He then extended a hand to his side, manifesting a series of small balls of destruction, and hurling them toward Bachelory.
He disappeared with a simple teleportation, while Achernar appeared behind Rasilyk, causing the Dragon Lord to snarl as he sent a wave of destruction in his direction, but he was too slow to reach him before the Ninja hid in the shadows.
Catastrophe created another sphere of destruction, this one much larger than the previous ones, but it exploded like a bubble, leaving glass bottles with red liquid in its claws. It opened its jaws and devoured them…
Suddenly, several of his wounds healed noticeably, while his tail grew back. But not all of them healed, and he was still noticeably injured.
Emerging from the shadows, shooting like a missile, Achernar delivered a solid punch powered by several abilities, slamming into the wing the Dragon Lord had barely managed to get in his way, shattering it into several pieces, while beams of plasma, electricity, ice, and infernal energy impacted against the Dragon Lord's back, causing him to snarl as he charged a breath of destruction, whipping his tail around and slamming it into the ground behind him in response, creating a powerful explosion that expanded like napalm in the direction of the two Devils, disintegrating the few summons that ran towards Rasilyk, only to be replaced by dozens of Infernal Protectors by Bachelory while the explosions went unnoticed thanks to his protections.
A [Hold Species] prevented the Dragon Lord from firing his breath at Achernar, giving him the instant he needed to disappear and avoid the beam of destruction. Rasilyk was forced to turn his head and drag his breath along the ground, aiming for Betelgeuse, who unleashed a torrential downpour after hurling a ball of ice at him. It shattered against his scales, leaving a nasty frost on his body.
The Arch-Archaeologist barely managed to place a shield between himself and the red beam before quickly teleporting away, avoiding the ensuing explosion that followed half a second after the beam passed by.
And in all of this, the white-armored Demon finally managed to reach Catastrophe, ramming into his foot and shoving him with his shield, nearly knocking the Dragon Lord off his feet, while the knight's sword sliced through the flesh of his other leg.
"[Summon High-Mid Level Demon: Fly of Gluttony]" Bachelory chanted, his hand extended over a page of the book in his hand, the page glowing as a disgusting creature emerged from the pentagram.
The rotten flesh monster, as tall as a transport ship, not because of its body, but because of its elongated, tendril-like legs swarming with mucus and pus, buzzed like a fly as the familiar laughter began to drive Rasilyk mad. Those flies…
The giant, deformed flesh fly, with the jaws of various animals along its body, walked swiftly like a spider toward the Dragon Lord. The Dragon Lord somehow created a chaotic energy shield and avoided another blow from Achernar, only to be struck by three massive lightning bolts from the sky, amplified by the rain.
The Dragon Lord suppressed a roar at the painful impact of the lightning, but opened his mouth at Bachelory.
"[WILD MAGIC: BREATH OF EXTINCTION]!" He roared with all his might, a beam of red energy forming in his mouth. Luckily, it was not far away, but not close either, but still perfect because he couldn't avoid the impact in any way.
Thus, in less than an instant, the sky was covered in red, while an enormous laser of destructive red energy appeared from Catastrophe's mouth, tearing the sky itself in half and letting its breath escape into space... Without a doubt, Bachelory would have no way to avoid such a quick attack, but... When it ended, Bachelory was still standing... "..." Catastrophe glared at him murderously, but in her gaze, there was something else, something that overcame her desire to kill it... Confusion... That insect should have disappeared... But it only had smoke surrounding it...
"I see~ Hahaha~ As expected of Her Majesty~" The fake Devil hummed, grinning from ear to ear. "[Maximize Magic: Nova]!" He chanted toward the Dragon Lord, a sudden pale burst of white fire exploding across Catastrophe's face, causing Achernar to strike at his flank. The white-armored Demon slashed at the Dragon again, ramming his shield down as Betelgeuse continued his lightning attacks.
Rasilyk gasped, beginning to falter a little... What had just happened...?
Certainly, the Dragon Lord of Catastrophe wasn't in the best of situations...
Hundreds of spheres of destruction, at the cost of a good portion of his remaining Mana, which, while still half of his Mana, still spoke volumes about what he'd been expending, manifested around him, shooting out in all directions and creating massive explosions that forced everyone to take cover.
He slashed out at Betelgeuse, creating a reddish gash in the air. It exploded in a way that made no sense, as if the explosion had been sent out of control, slamming into the Devil and sending him flying as the massive damage battered him.
Teleporting away and avoiding the enormous jaws of the mutant fly, which didn't even care about the explosions from before, he appeared behind the Archaeologist, his breath ready to explode.
The Devil, in response, extended a hand, tucking it into his robes and throwing a scroll into the air. "[Black Mirage]" He chanted, before the beam of destruction struck him at near-point-blank range, knocking him to the ground as the massive explosion ensued.
"The Supreme genius, it's terrifying~" Bachelory muttered to himself, watching the fight unfold, staring at his own hands… It was incredible to be a pawn in the Supremes' game~
"Did that confirm your assumption?" Achernar's voice asked from the side of nowhere. "Immunity to 'Wild Magic'." Recalling the term Bachelory repeated from the interrogation of the Young of Tomorrow.
"Indeed~ It seems to have an effect similar to a World-class item, so having one on us effectively makes us immune to its effect." He hummed with a smile, extending a hand toward Catastrophe. "[Maximize Magic: Demonic Punishment]" He hummed, dozens of black spears suddenly sprouting from the ground and stabbing into the Dragon Lord's body, causing him to stop and roar in pain, while Betelgeuse took the opportunity to teleport away, appearing quite far away as his place was taken by the white-armored Demon, leaping up and onto Catastrophe's chest, plunging his sword into it and attacking him fervently.
The Arch-Archaeologist gasped as he spat out a mouthful of blood. Taking that breath was certainly a severe blow to his HP, but thanks to the [Blank Mirage] scroll, which was supposed to reduce the damage taken from any attack that takes more than 10 HP points by half, coupled with [Black Mirage] which reduced the constant HP damage by 1 point per instant of damage, the blow was noticeably less than what could have been losing half of his entire health.
A thunderous sound caused a shockwave as Achernar precisely connected a powerful punch to the base of Catastrophe's neck, sending him to the ground where he was buried by the brutal speed at which he fell, leaving only an explosion that raised dust and rocks. With a wave of Bachelory's hand, all impurity vanished from the air.
He watched in amazement as Catastrophe ripped out his own heart...
"GRAAAAH! YOU'RE GOING TO DIE! NO MATTER WHAT IT COST ME!" He let out with immeasurable hatred, crushing his heart in his claws. "[WILD MAGIC: AURA OF ANTI-EXISTENCE] [WILD MAGIC: BLACK MESSIAH]!" Spitting blood, the Dragon finished, the heart in his hand suddenly igniting in black fire, so that suddenly, everything around him turned black...
The ground began to disappear, everything around Catastrophe was ceasing to exist...
Bachelory and Achernar instantly understood that they couldn't see him because it was an invisibility or concealment spell; the light simply didn't reach him, as it was destroyed before doing so. No method worked to locate him in that black sphere that was growing larger and larger.
"Betelgeuse, retreat." Bachelory ordered, feeling the Gluttony Fly and the Demon Who Turned Paladin vanish instantly despite still having too much HP to be one-hit kills.
The Archaeologist remained silent, but could only obey.
"Of course, Lord Crimea. [Teleportation]" He muttered. Since he didn't possess any world protections, this might as well vanish him instantly… Only, instead of simply disappearing instantly, his body elongated, as if it were stretching across spacetime in a mirror image of something turned into noodles while trying to pass for jelly…
"That's it… Teleportation delay." Achernar clicked his tongue.
Not only did Betelgeuse not have sufficient resistances against it, but the effect was effectively impossible for the Archarchaeologist to ignore, who was obviously not entrusted with a powerful artifact. Things ceased to exist as the sphere absorbed and destroyed everything.
The air disappeared, the light disappeared, the earth disappeared, the blood disappeared, the clouds disappeared. Everything simply vanished as the wild magic did its thing.
"The destruction also affects space-time." Bachelory exclaimed, knowing why the teleportation became so slow, almost effectively nonexistent because of how space and time were literally being destroyed.
"It means time is going much slower for us. Or it's simply not passing at all." Achernar muttered, growling. "Well, now they lost the ability to interfere elsewhere. For example, if Don't Say My Name herself requested their presence right now, they would never know until they were back in ordinary space and time.
It took practically no time at all for both NPCs to be inside the sphere of darkness, with the good fortune that Betelgeuse was able to leave before it was touched.
"Yes. And it means we're completely cut off from the world. So we'd better finish this quickly. We don't know how fast time is passing outside this sphere." Bachelory said coldly.
"Yes." The Dragonoid nodded, clenching his fists as he tried to see through the endless darkness…
But all they could see was spacetime twisting, collapsing and ceasing to exist as it was re-created, physics shattering as logic became useless, atoms twisting in agony as they tore apart, creating explosions that instantly disappeared while what was technically considered Hawking radiation whizzed all around, in response to the unpleasant situation that was happening to reality, tearing apart everything that might survive nonexistence, but without affecting either of them, as if it were leaving them alone…
"Hm, seeing a Singularity up close certainly is interesting~" Bachelory hummed before extending a hand. "[Fire Ball]" He muttered, a magic circle manifesting in front of his hand for an instant, but quickly shattering and disappearing as a spark happened for a second, but was still consumed by absolute nonexistence.
"This…" Bachelory frowned, very surprised, in a bad way… The spell he had just used counted as used, and therefore, had its cooldown of a few seconds… But the cooldown was… Now…
He understood… In the absence of time, the cooldown was essentially infinite… A mage-killing trap…
A thunderous roar came from everyone and nowhere at the same time, echoing in a void that didn't exist, while a sucking sound that wasn't a sound, nor sucking, was heard… And suddenly, the darkness disappeared along with everything inside the sphere, vanishing into a black dot in space that shattered into motes of darkness…
That was until the vacuum created by the destruction of everything reacted, and the air quickly created a strong pressure that, however, caused no discomfort to either of the two NPCs…
And the Catastrophe Dragon Lord… Was nowhere to be seen.
"… That was a bit anticlimactic." Achernar muttered. They were literally looking at something as broken as a World Item. It caused infinite cooldowns, sensory inability, and other things that weren't pretty at all…
"[Life Essence]." He chanted, the spell effectively applying itself and showing only one HP bar… Achernar's. "[Widen Magic: Life Essence]" Effectively confirming that the cooldown had returned to normal.
With the spell's range maximized… Again, he only saw Achernar's HP bar.
Narrowing his eyes, Bachelory scanned his surroundings, seeing the massive gap that the 'black hole' created for miles around…
"Hm, I have to admit, it was certainly anticlimactic. The Catastrophe Dragon Lord is either dead, or somehow managed to escape." 'Crimea' muttered, his shoulders slumping slightly, but still not letting his guard down.
"Did he die under his own spell?" The assassin asked doubtfully. "The Dragon Lord of Darkness died in a similar manner, but he summoned something with his death." He said more seriously to Bachelory, reminding him of such a thing.
"In this case, his death summoned that black hole, so it seems the result was the same." The fake Devil murmured in response. "But don't let your guard down. We're retreating, but I'll keep summons guarding the area. I'd rather not leave without confirming Catastrophe's death, but I don't think he'll make such an open appearance if he managed to survive that."
"S-Sirs… W-Where did you go…? Please… Don't disappear from my supervision like that…" Eyesight sounded from the sky.
"I apologize for that, Eyesight. It wasn't within my power to negate that effect." Achernar exclaimed, crossing his arms. "But I suppose you saw what happened."
"Y-Yes… It was an attack comparable to a World Item… But the results are more than favorable. I will immediately report your achievements to the Supremes so they know about this important countermeasure." Eyesight exclaimed to the pair, who had a slight smile on their faces. The Supremes would learn of their achievements from them~
"Wonderful~ In that case… The losses were minimal, if not nonexistent, in the extermination of the Catastrophe Dragon Lord. Let's go, Achernar. [Gate]" Ordered the Prime Minister of Titania with a satisfied smile as a kaleidoscopic whirlpool opened up in front of him.
Mission accomplished~
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[Wild Magic: Extinction]
The end. The ultimate extinction where nothing remains. The final destruction that destroys everything. Catastrophe, fire, and desolation. Leaving only a dark-scaled monster in the corpse of a dead world.
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A Wild Magic spell that requires massive energy expenditure. When used, it manifests a sphere of destruction at the edge of the atmosphere toward a target, and upon impact, it explodes with enough power that its shockwave, based on fire, destruction, and raw power, ravages the planet to its foundations. The initial explosion alone is enough to destroy half a planet like the New World. At least that's how the theory goes. But its destructive power is enough to easily take out a level 100 player with high protection against explosive damage.
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[Wild Magic: Aura of Anti-Existence]
Nothingness itself. An aura that denotes the absolute finality of everything: ceasing to exist. Pure darkness in cataclysms of matter and energy, destroying each other until absolutely nothing is left. A black abyss where neither the brightest light can enter, nor the most powerful miracles have power. The opposite of existence, being reduced to nothing, even if it requires the destruction of oneself.
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A Wild Magic spell. Its consumption is conventionally absolute, devouring all soul and life energy from the caster at the cost of its use, effectively being a suicide spell. When deployed, it applies a level 10 instant death effect constantly in a large radius while destroying any solid object, negating the casting of magic, and even distorting time and space, delaying teleportation and rendering time-stop magic useless. An ultimate trap card that, combined with another Wild Magic spell, ensures the absolute victory of the Catastrophe Dragon Lord, and his survival.
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