Selistar's face soured as he was getting reports blasted into his ears nonstop. He cursed as he looked at Lord Cefketa.

"What the hell are you planning?" Selistar asked.

"A little of this, a little of that." Cefketa chuckled.

Selistar groaned; there was no point in talking to him anymore. Selistar stared at the glowing crack in the middle of Cefkata's sternum; he had no clue what it meant. And whether proceeding forward would be a good or bad thing. Selistar cracked his knuckles and vanished from sight. He appeared before him, a sword in hand.

"OOOOOOH, I've never seen that before." Cefketa's grin stretched from ear to ear.

Selistar frowned. Cefketa had never seen it because Selistar never needed to use it. There were many things at his disposal that he never had a reason to use, but there was no reason for him to hold back anymore. Cefketa parried Selistar's first slash with his scythe and felt the weight behind the blow. It was something that was not possible from Selistar alone.

Selistar slashed down. Cefketa didn't bother to parry; he dodged to the side and grabbed the wrist holding the sword. Cefketa stared at the sword for an instant before staring Selistar in the eyes. Selistar froze in place as he felt an unseen force wash over him. His body shivered, and even though only his wrist was bound, no part of his body wanted to move.

"Where did you get this sword?" Cefketa asked.

It was a single-handed sword that looked ancient in its design. It looked more ceremonial with its ornate design and artistic etchings. However, those etchings were far more than just meaningless designs. They were intricate and complex systems. It was more complicated than anything he had seen up till this point. Just looking at those etchings expanded Cefketa's understanding of systems and Vaylora.

"It's been passed down since the beginning of Heka," Selistar responded without speaking.

"I see… The Wanderer. Do you even know how to use it?" Cefketa asked as he kicked Selistar away but kept his sword in hand. Selistar's eyes widened as the etching on the sword lit up. Cefketa lazily swiped the air next to him, and reality was ripped in half like butter.

"Good sword." Cefketa tossed the blade towards Selistar, who snatched it. He frowned at Cefketa.

"How?"

"I talked to it… it's a little chatty." Cefketa chuckled. Selistar didn't know what the hell he was talking about. He knew the sword had a storied history and was abnormally durable and sharp, especially for something so old. He also could easily channel his abilities through it. He had never seen it respond the way it did with Cefketa.

"Allow me to demonstrate." Cefketa laughed as he slowly twirled the scythe in his hand. The systems on the scythe began to glow. He made a circular motion with the scythe, and a system formed. He then slashed the system in half. Selistar was startled as space was severed next to his person.

Selistar focused himself as Cefketa charged towards Selistar in his confusion. Selistar was bombarded by a maelstrom of blows. Cefketa's speed and power had increased even more than before. Selistar wasn't sure if Cefketa was getting stronger as they fought or if he was holding back until now. In reality, it was a little bit of both.

Selistar struggled underneath the blows; whenever he teleported to get some distance to regain his composure, Cefketa was on him. Selistar didn't understand what was going on.

"His understanding of space manipulation is on par with my own. What is happening?!" Selistar screamed internally. Selistar felt a sharp pain in his gut as he was kicked. He was launched through the air but immediately stopped himself as he saw Cefketa soaring towards him. Selistar held his sword in the air above him and shouted,

"Help me, you stupid thing!!" Selistar shouted, and a faint glow emitted from the blade as he slashed down. Cefketa held out his scythe to block the slash. But the space of the scythe was severed. The severed space extended to Cefketa's body. He dropped the handle of the scythe that was cut in half and wrapped his hand around the necklace's pendant.

Along with the glowing crack on his sternum, a shining line ran down half his body vertically. However, even the severing of space could not fully penetrate the hard shedding of a young dragon. Cefketa looked at Selistar and then at his weapon and scoffed.

"Damn good sword." Cefketa chuckled.

Cefketa tossed his broken scythe aside as Selistar looked down at the blade in his hand. The dead etching now had a light glowing hue to them, but they didn't shine as brightly as they had done with Cefketa, but it was a step forward. Selistar looked at Cefketa, still not fully understanding what was going on.

"What?" Cefketa asked.

Selistar didn't see any worry on Cefketa's face; if anything, he looked disappointed that the scythe was broken.

"What do you want?" Selistar was genuinely confused by his friend's actions.

"To kick your ass, without you having any excuses. Hurry up and learn how to use that damn sword." Cefketa shook his wrist, and nanites rolled over his body forming two daggers in his right hand. As soon as he did this, he leaned backward.

There was a loud booming noise as a gray orb shot past his face, dispersing the clouds as it raced past. In the wake of that gray orb, bits of matter were left in its trail. Cefketa looked at them as they ignited.

"Fascinating…" Cefketa mused as those bits of matter exploded in an antimatter explosion.

Unfortunately for Selistar's side, that explosion rapidly reduced in size until a tiny orb rested above the palm of Cefketa's hand.

"Looks like your support is here." Cefketa clenched his fist around the reduced antimatter explosion, extinguishing it completely. He tossed one of the daggers into his left hand as Gladiolus and Fenrir floated next to Selistar. Fenrir was riding a plate made of the same undefined matter he had shot at Cefketa just moments ago.

Around Fenrir were several orbs of the same matter. Those orbs constantly changed their shape as if they were alive.

"Tsk, overclocking is really going to be a pain in my ass, isn't it?" Cefketa smirked.

"Stall him," Selistar commanded the two of them.

"Stop commanding me, Rene—"

"Shut up and stall him!!" Selistar cut off Fenrir, who was about to argue with him again. Fenrir bit his tongue and turned his attention toward Cefketa.

"Aww, is puppy upset?" Cefketa teased.

Fenrir began sending a machine gun barrage of matter at Cefketa. It was shot out from the matter orbs that he had created. Cefketa narrowed his eyes and flew away at incredible speeds. This was the correct decision, as those pieces of matter would have resulted in an antimatter explosion at Fenrir's will.

After overclocking, Fenrir had solved the one weakness he had ever perceived with his program. He no longer needed to touch matter to produce an antimatter explosion; he could manufacture his own matter to detonate at will. Unfortunately for Cefketa, Fenrir could also freely control the unnamed substance he had created.

The tiny bullets that he had fired at Cefketa followed him. Cefketa looked over his shoulder to see that no matter what he did, he couldn't lose track of them. Cefketa's movements started to slow down tremendously. He felt the heavy pull of something holding him back. He looked over to see a gravitational vortex in the distance.

Cefketa looked at the matter that Fenrir was launching at him, which was now being consumed by the gravitational vortex and vanishing. Someone who could infinitely produce matter and someone who could endlessly compress it. They were trying to create a black hole.

"Crazy bitch!!!" Cefketa shouted at Gladiolus, who looked to be in deep concentration.

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Cefketa frowned as he formed a system and slashed through it to attack Gladiolus by severing space. However, the sounds of space clashing rang out as Selistar appeared. The etching on the sword now glowed slightly more brilliantly.

"That was fast." Cefketa mused as the two of them clashed at speeds impossible to follow, as the two of them fluttered through folding space.

"It's still not good enough!" Selistar shouted, and Cefketa nodded his head in agreement. It wasn't good enough.

Selistar had managed to scratch the surface of Vaylora, with no knowledge of its existence; just the smallest hint and an ancient weapon with a system etched on it were all he needed to make bold, tangible strides in just moments. A brilliant human mind… but human nonetheless. Cefketa's laughter rang through the skies as the sounds of their clashing continued to rage.

"I have a bad feeling," Gladiolus said, as she continued to compress the limitless matter that Fenrir was creating.

"What did you see with Spoilers?" Fenrir asked.

"Everything is going perfectly as planned," Gladiolus responded.

Fenrir felt a shiver run down his spine at Gladiolus' words. If everything went as planned, was it really their plan or Lord Cefketa's? Fenrir snarled at the thought and spat as he continued to produce matter.

"Keep going; we can't let ourselves be swayed."

"I agree, but why did he instantly ignore what we're doing?" Gladiolus asked.

"I-I don't know." Fenrir reluctantly answered.

He would be a fool not to have the same ominous feeling, but all they could do was act on given information. So far the only thing that did any damage to Cefketa was the antimatter explosion and the focused attacks by Selistar on Cefketa's cracks.

The melee between Selistar and Cefketa increased in intensity. Now that Selistar had a deeper understanding of the sword, he could bring out more of its power. Each slash tore through space, like cleaving through butter. Selistar found the entire situation odd. He had been Cefketa's training partner for years. But everything about his style of fighting seemed to have changed.

Selistar internal sighed, he didn't know whether it was because of what Cefketa was, or if it was because of his innate nature. Since the moment Devin meet Zac, Zac had constantly been evolving and improving. The fervor with which he approached life, was like a human who had limited time. However, he was a creature, who's life span dwarfed stars.

"Yet, I've been content with my progression for so long." Selistar chastised himself.

The Persequions had extended their life span, but had lost the agency they once had, because they had become complacent, in the wake of their perceived power. They had lost the edge that pushed humanity forward. Selistar stared into those slit eyes of Cefketa and sighed, as he sent a torrent of slashes, that were gracefully parried by Cefketa.

This dragon, a creature of reason and longevity, was now being swayed by its emotions and lived life like there was no tomorrow since Selistar had met him. Selistar a creature of emotion and a fragile life, lived cold calculating always planning for the future decades in advance. He actively tried to extinguish his humanity, while Lord Cefketa had relished it.

"It's time for a change." Selistar reasoned. Sending another slash.

Cefketa gracefully parried the slash with his left dagger while going to slash at Selistar's wrist with the other. Selistar folded space to make that slash go for Cefketa's neck, and Cefketa folded space to redirect the slash to go for Selistar's eyes. In the blink of an eye, the two had folded the space of that single attack countless times, aiming for each other's vitals, until Cefketa gave up and let the slash hit his neck.

Nothing came of the blow as it landed against his thick shedding skin. The two quickly folded their own space and separated from each other.

"You're better at controlling space than me, congrats." Cefketa chuckled as he looked at Selistar.

"Is this all a game to you?"

"This in particular… yes. Most fun I've had in a while."

"Well, it's time for the game to end…" Selistar sighed.

"Is that right? How do you plan to do that?" Cefketa asked,

Without warning, Selistar slashed through space. He was aiming for the necklace that was on Cefketa's neck. Selistar noticed that Cefketa was oddly protective of it. Cefketa dodged out of the way, gripping the necklace as he did so. The space where it once floated was torn open, and behind it, there was a black hole 1/100th the size of a pinhead.

During their melee, Gladiolus and Fenrir had poured all they could into that black hole. The matter compressed there was 1/100th the mass of the moon. The suction of the black hole dragged Cefketa through the torn space. Selistar sighed as he began to create a pocket space to confine what would happen next.

"Die in the event horizon!!" Fenrir laughed manically as the tiny black hole began to glow. Fenrir generated antimatter in the center of the black hole. The bright light flashed and vanished, along with Cefketa, as Selistar created the pocket space right in time.

Selistar let out a sigh. The antimatter explosion that would have been produced by that black hole would have been cataclysmic if it had been released on Earth. There was no way that even a dragon could have come out of that unharmed. Selistar floated back to the others. Even if they had dealt with Cefketa, monsters were left in the area. However, none of those same monsters made a move.

"Why are they not doing anything?" Gladiolus.

"Because they don't need to." Cefketa's voice echoed and caused Gladiolus's heart to drop.

"S-s-spoilers…" Gladiolus stammered as her eyes glowed.

"No…nononono." Gladiolus floated back towards the ground, and Selistar and Fenrir followed her.

"What's the matter? What's going on?"

"It's it it it it's… impossible." Gladiolus had never experienced anything like what she saw in her life. She had never felt more helpless.

"It's over… he's coming." Gladiolus dropped to her knees.

"Gladiolus… What is happening!? What is coming?!" Fenrir commanded.

"Congratulations, Lord Cefketa Sorvynth Zymuji Somnion, a descendant of the Brood of Tiamat, Keeper of Dreams!" The voices still hidden in the fog spoke up. The chant was accompanied by the sounds of space shattering.

Selistar and the others looked to the sky above and saw clawed hands ripping space open. Cefketa walked out of the space that Selistar had created. Behind him, they could see the devastation that the massive antimatter explosion had caused within that pocket space. Selistar and Fenrir staggered as they looked at Cefketa coming out of the space.

There were signs of blood flowing over his body, but what was even more frightening was his shedding falling off of his body. The more shedding that fell away, the more his scales came into view. Those black scales, scattered around his body, shone like obsidian even in the dimly lit night sky. His cocky smile was accompanied by vicious fangs. Small horns began to emerge from his crown.

As the last bits of his shedding fell, black-feathered wings burst from his back as he grunted with pleasure. He sighed with relief as he could finally feel the touch of wind on his skin. He cracked his neck and shivered as his new scales quivered on the surface of his skin.

"Such an odd sensation," Cefketa smirked as he moved his scales at will. His deep purple eyes looked down at Selistar and the others; the three of them felt an unbearable pressure bearing down on them.

"Oh… that's how you do it." Cefketa instinctively was able to understand how to control his dragon fear, as well as his scales.

His scales began to move over the surface of his skin until he bundled them to take the shape of the Veridahn symbol over his left pectoral. His claws retracted, as well as his wings and horns. He was about to speak but began to have a coughing fit. He pounded his chest repeatedly as he tried to compose himself.

With each proceeding cough, subtle flames began to spark from the corners of his mouth.

"RAWGH!" With one final cough, he shot out a torrent of black and purple flames from his mouth towards the ground below him. He forcefully angled his head upward as those flames barely missed Selistar and their group. Cefketa released the rest of his flames harmlessly into the air above him. Fenrir's breathing picked up as he looked at the ground touched by those flames. There were no burn marks; he felt no heat. No, the ground was just erased.

"It seems that Leonie is the only one who understands her position. I'll forgive this transgression, as a thank you for helping me shed. But you will still need to, Kneel!" Cefketa commanded.

That unspeakable force they felt earlier returned, bringing Selistar and Fenrir to their knees. Cefketa floated down from the air. He looked off to his side and spoke.

"Even after witnessing your powerlessness, you will not accept my judgment."

Cefketa held out his hand, and a system formed in his palm. He brought that system to the side of his head, and a strange mist flowed into the system, from his head.

"I have copied and stored the memories I hold from the darkest day of my life. So that you all can see my justification." The "memory disc" formed by Cefketa disappeared, and a screen appeared behind him.

Deep in the base, the twins and the others watched what was happening with shocked expressions. Even the Twins didn't know what to expect, nor did they fully grasp what Cefketa wanted to do. The "memory disc" appeared before the Twins, and they heard Cefketa saw through the screen.

"Play it… and show them." The Twins looked over at Number 3, who ran over to help them figure out how to make that happen.

"What in the world?" Roratha said she was unable to comprehend what she just saw. If this was his power after his first shedding, then what Nina had demonstrated during the Darkest Day wasn't even a fraction of what Dragons were capable of. She had always assumed that to be the case, but understanding how deep their power went was frightening. She closed her eyes in relief that even if that was the case, humanity had a being that could contend with such creatures.

There wasn't a soul who saw what was happening outside and could bring themselves to speak, let alone move. Cefketa was more akin to a god in their eyes now. Even Seren, who thought herself clever for having dealings with him, felt like a fool. That thing did not need to bargain; it did not need to negotiate. It could just take and destroy at will.

Another such creature now stood before her. After making quick work of the guards outside, he now stood in the wake of the unconscious bodies of Elders spread around them, and only her husband standing in front of her. She stared apprehensively at Mythara, with Team Watabe and Michael behind him.

"Don't worry, you need to watch this first. So you can fully understand what you've done… you piece of shit." Mythara glared at Aron.

The images on the screen stuttered before the image of Dr. Varma appeared.

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