The battlefield was a desolate plain of grey ash, a grim stage for the end of the world. A horizon to horizon line of the allied forces demonic legions in crimson and black standing shoulder to shoulder with the righteous sects in their whites and blues was a tense, unprecedented, and fragile wall of defiance. The air was unnaturally cold, crackling with a shared, silent terror. Before them, the Bakunawa awoke.
It was not one serpent, but three, a tri headed hydra of the abyss, fused to a single, colossal body that seemed woven from the fabric of a starless night. One head was crowned with jagged, crystalline horns and seemed to exhale pure, devouring silence. The central head was the largest, its eyes ancient and soulless. The third writhed with ethereal, shadowy tendrils, whispering a constant, psychic litany of despair into the minds of all present. It uncoiled its immense form and slithered forward, the very ground turning to dead, grey dust where its shadow fell.
Before the encroaching aura of hopelessness could shatter the armies' resolve, a single, defiant point of light shot into the sky. Lan Yue, a silver comet of pure, unwavering will, positioned herself between the allied forces and the apocalypse, unleashing her celestial aura to draw the beast's fated attention.
The battle began with a roar of unified desperation.
"Harassment arrays! Fire!" Wei Chen's command was sharp, and thousands of cultivators unleashed their power. Beams of spiritual energy streaked across the sky, a beautiful and utterly futile light show. The horned head of the Bakunawa simply inhaled, and the volley of attacks vanished into its maw, causing it to rumble with a sound like grinding galaxies. The cultivators felt their own energy being siphoned away, their greatest efforts becoming the beast's appetizer.
"FOR THE EMPRESS AND THE DYNASTY!" Commander Kael's bellow was a physical force. The demonic legions charged, a tide of steel and fury, their enchanted axes and obsidian spears crashing against the beast's hide. They were met by the lashing, shadowy tendrils of the third head, and warriors vanished mid stride, their life force consumed, their armor clattering emptily to the ground.
The initial assault was a disaster. The allied army was being outmatched and consumed. Despair began to take root.
It was in that moment of faltering hope that a new roar, this one pure, divine, and full of a celestial fury, cut through the chaos. A column of silver blue light descended from the heavens, and Xiao Xing, the celestial moon dragon, appeared. No longer a pet, he had assumed his full, majestic battle form, a divine beast of shimmering scales and horns of pure moonlight, his presence a direct, healing counter to the Bakunawa's aura of despair. He landed with a ground shaking thud, unleashing a blast of pure moonlight energy that made the despair whispering head recoil in pain.
In her distant throne room, Xue Lian gasped. He came for her. For our daughter's sake.
Lan Yue saw her opening. She flew down, landing gracefully on the dragon's broad, shimmering back. "Hello, old friend," she said, her hand resting on his neck. Xiao Xing rumbled in acknowledgment. "Let's show this overgrown snake what true celestials can do."
With a powerful beat of his wings, Xiao Xing launched them into the sky. They were a single, unified fighting force. Xiao Xing's moonlight breath neutralized the whispers of the third head while Lan Yue's blade, glowing with holy light, engaged the horned head that devoured energy. They were a perfect, synchronized unit, a dragon rider of myth and legend, and for the first time, they pushed the Bakunawa back.
Hope, fragile and brilliant, was rekindled. It was this hope that the System, the cruel author of their fate, could not allow.
The Bakunawa's movements, once driven by a sort of predatory instinct, suddenly became preternaturally intelligent. The three heads moved in perfect, deadly sync. The despair head unleashed a focused psychic scream, stunning Xiao Xing for a fraction of a second. The horned head inhaled, creating a powerful vortex to halt their momentum. And the central head, the true danger, acted.
A colossal tail, wreathed in the devouring energy of the Void, whipped through the air with impossible speed.
The blow was absolute. It slammed into them both in mid air. Lan Yue felt Xiao Xing's cry of agony through their shared celestial bond as the Void energy seared his scales and shattered his wing. She was thrown from his back, the same corrupting, anti energy catching her, her celestial light not just scattered but visibly eaten by the darkness.
From the ground, the armies watched in absolute horror as their two divine champions, their beacon of hope, were swatted from the sky. The great moon dragon crashed to the earth in a broken, bleeding heap. Lan Yue followed a moment later, her fall a long, slow, hope destroying plummet, until she hit the ground with a sickening, final thud. A broken doll in grey robes.
A collective cry of pure, soul shattering despair went up from the allied armies. Their champions were down.
In her distant throne room, Xue Lian screamed. It was a raw, agonized sound as the full, undiluted agony of the blow of Xiao Xing's broken wing, of Lan Yue's shattered bones and the searing, soul deep cold of the Void's touch slammed into her through their Soul Bond. She collapsed from her throne, her body convulsing with a shared, sympathetic agony.
On the battlefield, the Bakunawa, its victory now absolute, turned its three heads towards the terrified, broken armies. Its central maw opened, a vortex of annihilation gathering to unleash the final, world ending attack. The gambit had failed. All was lost.
No.
The thought was a whisper, a promise, a mother's unbreakable vow. Not my daughter's world. Not like this.
Back in the Netherworld, Xue Lian staggered to her feet, her face a mask of grief so profound it was terrifying. She gave one last, desperate look through her scrying mirror at the broken form of the woman she loved. Then, she turned to her horrified commanders. "Protect the princess," she commanded, her voice a low, terrifying growl that promised untold violence. "No matter what."
On the battlefield, as the Bakunawa prepared to deliver the killing blow, the very fabric of reality behind it began to tear. Not a portal, but a violent, swirling rip in space, centered on the distant Whispering Pass. A pressure wave of pure, ancient power washed over the battlefield, forcing every soldier, human and demon alike, to their knees.
From this tear, a power so immense, so ancient and full of a grief stricken fury, erupted into the world. It was not the form of a woman. It was the form of a god.
A colossal, divine beast, a fox larger than any mountain, its fur the color of pristine, freshly fallen snow, emerged into the mortal realm, its paws shaking the very foundations of the earth. Its eyes were twin suns of burning, molten amber, incandescent with rage and sorrow. And behind it, nine immense, ethereal tails, each one a flowing river of pure, untamed soul energy, lashed out, whipping the very air into a frenzy.
The Empress was gone. In her place was a force of nature, the true, atavistic form of the last of the royal White Fox clan, unleashed in all its terrible, beautiful glory.
The armies, both human and demon, stared in absolute, paralyzing terror and awe. The Bakunawa, the Moon Eater, stopped its attack, its three heads turning in unison to fix their soull ess eyes on this new, equally cosmic level threat. The two god beasts faced each other across the ruined battlefield.
The real battle had just begun.