[Destination: The Draconic Seal.]

Alvian's blood ran cold. They weren't taking the blood back to a base. They were taking it straight to the finish line.

He activated his comms.

"Valeria. Seraphina. Get to the Deepest Trench. Now."

"Alvian?" Valeria's voice was worried. "What happened? Did you get the blood?"

"I had it," Alvian said, equipping his gear. "And then I lost it. Baron is back. And he's heading for the Seal."

"Baron?" Seraphina asked. "The dead prince?"

"The undead cyborg prince," Alvian corrected. "He has the blood. If he reaches the gate before us, the Draconic Legion wakes up. And then Azureus dies."

He ran out of the docking bay. He ignored the loot from the Warlords. He ignored the stunned Karkinos who was still cowering in the corner. He had one goal.

He reached the edge of the drop-off. The dark water of the trench beckoned.

"I'm coming," Alvian whispered.

He dove.

He pushed his speed to the limit. His [Greaves of the Tide-Runner] flared, burning mana to propel him downward like a missile. He passed the ruins of the Octopus Palace. He passed the site of the prison.

He saw the red light at the bottom of the world.

The Draconic Seal.

And standing in front of the massive bone gates was Baron. He was inserting the vial into the lock mechanism. The red blood flowed into the runes on the gate.

"NO!" Alvian shouted, firing a beam of void energy.

Baron turned. He smiled. He didn't try to dodge.

"Too late, hero."

The lock clicked.

"BOOM!"

The massive gates groaned. The ice Alvian had placed over them shattered. The ancient seal, held for a thousand years, broke.

A wave of red energy exploded outward, knocking Alvian back.

The gates opened.

From the darkness beyond, hundreds of yellow eyes opened. A sound like a thousand tectonic plates grinding together filled the ocean.

The Draconic Legion was awake.

And the real war had just begun.

The silence that followed the opening of the Draconic Seal was not the quiet of peace. It was the intake of breath before a scream.

Alvian floated in the dark water, his [Vestments of the Void Monarch] tattered and leaking violet mana. He watched the massive bone gates groan outward, pushing against the crushing pressure of the deep ocean. The red light spilling from the rift wasn't just light; it was a physical force, a slurry of ancient, stagnant mana that had been festering for a thousand years.

Standing before the widening maw was Baron. The Revenant Prince, the cyborg puppet of the Syndicate, stood with his arms spread wide, the empty vial of the Human King's blood floating beside him.

"Rise!" Baron's voice was amplified by the Syndicate tech in his throat, a mechanical rasp that grated against the water. "Rise, Eighth Faction! Your liberators have come! The Syndicate commands you!"

"Inefficient," Alvian whispered, gripping his lance. "He thinks he's a master. He's just the doorbell."

From the red fog, a sound emerged. It was a low, grinding vibration, like tectonic plates rubbing together. Then, the eyes appeared.

Hundreds of them. Yellow, slit-pupiled, and ancient. They didn't look at Baron with gratitude. They looked at him with hunger.

A massive shape pushed through the gate. It wasn't a biological dragon. It was a nightmare of bio-organic engineering that predated even the Syndicate's technology. The Draconic Legion weren't born; they were forged. Scales of adamantine, claws of crystallized mana, and eyes that burned with the heat of the earth's core.

The first entity to fully emerge was a Soldier-class Dragon. It was fifty feet long, serpentine, with four legs ending in obsidian talons.

[Target Identified: Draconic Vanguard]

[Level: 55]

[Class: Ancient Construct / Biological Hybrid]

[Status: Awakened / Ravenous]

"I am Baron of the Whale Shark Kin!" Baron shouted, floating up to face the beast. He held up a Syndicate control rod. "I hold the keys! Obey me!"

The Dragon didn't pause. It snapped.

"CRUNCH."

There was no fight. There was no resistance. The Dragon's maw closed around Baron's upper body. The Adamantite armor, the Syndicate enhancements, the revenant flesh—it all crumpled like wet paper. The control rod sparked and died.

Baron's legs drifted slowly toward the seabed.

"System. Analysis," Alvian commanded, his voice devoid of emotion.

[Target possesses [Dragon Scales]. Magic Resistance: 90%. Physical Resistance: 80%.]

[Weakness: Unknown.]

"Ninety percent magic resistance," Alvian noted. "My ice will be inefficient."

The Dragon finished swallowing Baron and turned its gaze toward Alvian. It let out a roar that boiled the water in a hundred-meter radius. Behind it, more shapes were pouring out of the gate. A legion. An army of apex predators.

Alvian didn't retreat. He couldn't. If he let them pass, they would ascend to Azureus in minutes. The city, still recovering from the civil war, would be wiped off the map.

"Valeria, Seraphina," Alvian said into his comms. "Go."

"What?" Valeria's voice was frantic. She was still swimming down from the upper ridge, having seen the explosion. "Alvian, look at the size of those things! We need to group up!"

"You can't hurt them," Alvian stated calmly. "Your physical attacks will bounce. Seraphina's daggers won't scratch the paint. I need you to go to the city. Evacuate the lower districts. Seal the transport tubes."

"And you?" Seraphina asked, her voice tight.

"I'm going to buy you time."

Alvian cut the connection. He looked at the Draconic Vanguard rushing toward him.

"System. Activate [Thundergod Bracers]. Max Output."

[Warning! Mana levels fluctuating. Soul Strain at 45%.]

"Do it."

Blue lightning arced around his arms, mixing with the violet void energy of his [Vestments]. He didn't wait for the dragon to reach him. He used [Void Step].

He appeared directly above the Dragon's head.

"Physics Lesson Number Nine," Alvian whispered, spinning the [Lance of the Void Winter]. "Force equals mass times acceleration."

He didn't thrust. He dropped. He used the [Void Anchor] ability to increase his density to the maximum, turning himself into a singularity of weight.

"SMASH!"

He landed on the Dragon's skull.

The impact sent a shockwave through the trench. The Dragon's head was slammed into the stone floor, creating a crater twenty meters wide. The beast thrashed, its tail whipping around to crush Alvian, but he was already gone.

He reappeared under its belly.

"[Glacial Void Pierce]: Point Blank."

He drove the lance upward, aiming for the gap between the scales. The black ice blade bit into the flesh, freezing the blood instantly.

[-15,000!]

The Dragon roared in pain, but the damage bar barely moved. It had millions of HP. And it was just a grunt.

"Tough," Alvian muttered, dodging a claw swipe that would have bisected a battleship.

More dragons were pouring out. Two. Five. Ten. They swarmed into the trench, their yellow eyes locking onto the only source of resistance.

Alvian realized the tactical reality. He couldn't kill them all. Not here. Not like this. He needed to create a bottleneck.

He looked at the narrow canyon leading out of the Deepest Trench. It was the only path up to the city.

"Positioning," Alvian said.

He used [Void Step], blinking away from the swarm, positioning himself at the mouth of the canyon. He stood on a ridge of rock, looking down at the army of monsters rushing toward him.

He reached into his inventory. He pulled out the [Essence of the Kraken Queen]—the leftovers he hadn't consumed during the fight with Ursula.

"System. Crafting on the fly."

[Warning! Unstable process.]

"Combine [Kraken Essence] with [Frost Descent +2]. Create a hazard."

Alvian crushed the essence in his hand. He slammed his palm into the canyon wall.

"[Glacial Kraken Field]."

Black ice erupted from the walls. It didn't form a wall; it formed tentacles. Hundreds of massive, frozen tentacles shot out from the rock, weaving together to form a chaotic, shifting web of ice and void.

The lead Dragon slammed into the web. The ice shattered, but it held for a second. The tentacles lashed out, wrapping around the Dragon's limbs, slowing it down.

[Status Effect: [Deep Freeze] applied.]

[Movement Speed Reduced by 40%.]

It wasn't a stop. It was a speed bump. But it forced the Dragons to bunch up.

"Now," Alvian whispered. "The punish."

He raised his lance. The [Tear of the Infinite] in his chest spun wildly, pumping mana into the weapon until it vibrated with a hum that hurt the ears.

"[Glacial Void Pierce]: Railgun Mode."

He threw the lance.

It flew straight and true, piercing through the chest of the lead Dragon, then the one behind it, and the one behind that. A single line of void energy carved through the vanguard.

"ROAR!"

The Dragons stumbled. Alvian recalled the lance to his hand. He stood alone in the canyon, a speck of black against a tide of red.

"Come on," Alvian said, his eyes burning. "I have inventory slots to fill."

.

A/N: Creation is wild, exhausting, and sometimes my brain wants to run away. Power stones are my only bargaining chip to drag it back. If you liked this chapter, toss me one or a few, it helps more than you think.

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