If before he simply wanted to defeat this old rival and pin the blame on the Plasma Cult, Caesar now had a reason to kill him.
He was determined to take the MEGA Evolution stone in the opponent's possession!
Caesar flipped his Shadow Claw, and a purple-black diamond-shaped crystal appeared in his palm. This was the loot from killing that Plasma Cult Bishop earlier—a Ghost-type z-crystal.
Caesar had no interest in doing some cringey dance like Bishop Andorn; any extra movement in battle was just giving the enemy an opening. He directly funneled the power of the ghost element into his Shadow Claw and slammed it violently into the ground!
"Domain Expansion—"
"Z-Move—Endless Nights Temptation!!"
Accompanied by a low shout full of chuunibyou flair, a burst of pitch-black energy exploded outward with Caesar at the center.
The originally clear sky darkened instantly.
It wasn't the darkness of dark clouds obscuring the sun, but rather light itself being swallowed by something.
Countless pitch-black arms stretched out from the shadow beneath Caesar's feet like wildly growing vines, spreading in all directions. They grabbed the flagstones on the ground, the collapsed walls, the air, and even the light itself.
The entire cathedral square, along with the surrounding buildings, was dragged into a world composed of pure shadow!
Fafnir, who had just completed his Transform and was preparing to dive down to enjoy the thrill of slaughter, suddenly felt the ground vanish beneath him.
Those black arms were like living venomous snakes, crawling frantically up his leg armor, instantly wrapping his semi-dragonized body into a massive black cocoon.
Before he could use his power to shatter these shadows, the surrounding scenery changed completely.
The shattered cathedral square was gone.
In its place was a grey, distorted world.
The sky was an oppressive black-grey, the ground was composed of countless writhing shadows, and in the distance, blurry outlines of buildings could be seen—looking like reflections of Osterburg, but all dilapidated as if they had been burned for eons.
Fafnir suspended himself in mid-air, and with a sudden flap of the Dragon wings on his back, he blew away the black mist clinging to his body.
He looked around, his face showing no panic, but rather a playful expression.
"Spatial magic?"
No.
"This is... the Shadow Netherworld?"
As a Prodigy of the True Dragon Imperial Court, Fafnir's knowledge was not lacking.
This method of forcibly pulling the real world into a projection of the Shadow Plane was usually something only old liches who had lived for hundreds of years could pull off.
This guy claiming to be from the Plasma Cult actually had a method of this level?
Fafnir looked down at Caesar standing atop a broken stone pillar, his gaze finally landing on that now-dimmed purple-black crystal.
That's good stuff.
Definitely good stuff.
A gem containing pure power of the laws—if it could be presented to his teacher... the interest in Fafnir's eyes almost overflowed.
His teacher had been in a bad mood lately due to Soul damage; if he could bring this thing back, Teacher Ilena would surely be very happy.
Fafnir could feel that in this projected Domain, his strength was not suppressed in any way.
Fighting outside required worrying about whether he'd kill those fragile humans; after all, the True Dragon Imperial Court had signed a non-aggression treaty with humanity, and things like massacring a city were quite troublesome.
But here, he could completely let loose, no longer needing to worry about whether those fragile humans would be caught in the crossfire.
"Interesting."
Fafnir cracked his neck, the sound sharp and crisp, as his gaze locked onto Caesar standing on a black tower not far away.
"Is this your trump card? Creating an independent space?"
As he spoke, Fafnir raised his hand, a dark red fireball condensing in his palm. "Plasma Cult... you have indeed given me many surprises. However, the gap in our strength is too large; I can't imagine a possibility where I lose."
"Hand over that stone, and I might consider leaving you an intact corpse."
Dragon flames compressed to the extreme flickered in the red-haired youth's palm, the temperature so high that even the surrounding space began to distort. Caesar stood atop the high tower, his cloak flapping loudly in the dark wind—
"You want it?" Caesar reached out his hand, palm up. "Then come and take it yourself."
"Stubborn."
Fafnir snorted coldly, the Dragon wings behind him flapped violently, and he turned into a crimson meteor, heading straight for Caesar. His right fist was clenched tight, and what was condensed on it was no longer fire, but a highly compressed, dark-colored Core Burst—an attack powerful enough to briefly tear through space.
Caesar was equally unhurried.
Since he had created such a large ghost-type home field, he naturally had to let a professional do the fighting. That old ghost Viola usually resided in his sharp claw; this was the perfect time to let him out as an enforcer.
Two against one—the advantage is mine!
"Come out, Viola! I choose you!"
Caesar confidently issued the summons.
According to the script, Viola should make a domineering entrance at this time, using his Legendary-level Soul pressure to intimidate the entire field, and then cooperate with him to grind this Red Dragoninto the dirt.
However.
One second passed.
Two seconds passed.
The sharp claw had no reaction; not even a tiny spark of soul fire emerged.
Caesar: "..."
Are you kidding me, old man?
Are you there? Starting off as a clown? With so many Souls, you're still not waking up?
Seeing Fafnir's fist, carrying terrifyingly high temperatures, about to smash into his face, Caesar could even feel the scorching breath attached to the wind of the punch—
Just at this critical moment.
"Pop."
A soft sound.
A red object floated out from Caesar's chest.
It wasn't Viola.
But a completely translucent red, bouncy dragon bubble that looked like jelly.
This chibi thing was only the size of a head, with two tiny wings and a short tail. At this moment, it was rubbing its sleepy eyes, looking like it hadn't woken up yet.
This is... dragon bubble?
Caesar was stunned.
This thing was a Soul fragment that Viola had torn off that Legendary Red Dragon back then. It usually resided in the System interface as a desktop pet; if poked, it would even spit out smoke rings.
Why did it come out?
Before Caesar could figure it out, Fafnir had already charged in front of him.
Seeing that little red bubble, Fafnir's originally aggressive movements suddenly stiffened.
That was actually a dragon Soul?
Its image was exactly the same as the current forms of those three disappointing Sub-dragons: Gan, Wen, and Cui.
More importantly, a strange feeling hit him.
Familiarity.
It was too familiar.
The Aura emanating from that bubble, although weak, carried a pressure originating from the depths of his Bloodline that made all his scales stand on end.
It was like... the feeling of being caught red-handed by his teacher while sneaking a drink of her private stash of fermented wine as a child.
What was going on?
Fafnir was certain he had never seen this thing before, but he couldn't explain this sense of familiarity.
Forget it, no matter what it is, deal with it first!
The half-dragon, half-human Fafnir immediately changed his attack method, opening his mouth to release a blast of scorching Dragon flames, intending to burn that eyesore of a bubble along with the cloaked man into ashes.
However, in the next moment, an astonishing scene occurred.
That seemingly harmless little dragon bubble actually slowly crawled onto Caesar's arm and then opened its comical, large mouth.
Then, inhale—
That compressed Dragon flame, which was enough to melt steel, was sucked into that large mouth like bathtub water swirling down a drain after the plug was pulled.
In the blink of an eye, the fireball vanished.
After devouring the Dragon flames, the dragon bubble's size seemed to grow by a circle, and its body became even more bright red.
Immediately after, a blinding red light gathered in its mouth.
Boom—!
The atmosphere was ignited, and a deafening roar rang out.
An energy cannon, with intensity far exceeding the previous Dragon flames, shot out from the dragon bubble's mouth, effortlessly shattering Fafnir's subsequent fire-type magic and blasting straight toward him.
"What...!?" In his shock, Fafnir could only twist his body aside, and the red light grazed past his shoulder.
BOOM—!!!
The red light slammed into a distant abandoned bell tower.
That stone building, dozens of meters high, didn't even go through the process of collapsing; it was directly evaporated into powder in mid-air.
The shockwave from the explosion swept across most of the ruins, with countless pieces of rubble flying like bullets.
"..."
Even Caesar himself was dazed by the sight.
This terrain destruction was caused by that cute-looking dragon bubble?
He immediately pulled up the System panel to check and found that in the dragon bubble's ability column, two large words were written—
Flash Fire!