The black ice blade extended, a beam of concentrated cold slicing through the water. It struck the dragon's exposed neck, right where the scales had been weakened by the corruption.

"CRACK-SNAP!"

The dragon's head was severed. The massive body went limp, drifting down to crush a row of houses below.

[You have slain True Dragon - Inferno Drake (Level 62)!]

[Experience Gained: 1,200,000!]

[Level Up!]

[Level 56.]

Alvian landed, breathing hard. The exhaustion from the battle in the trench was still clinging to him, a heavy weight on his soul. Killing one dragon had taken a significant amount of effort. And looking up, the sky was filled with them.

"We have to go," Alvian said, grabbing Valeria's arm. "Now."

They ran. They didn't stop to fight the smaller wyverns. They didn't stop to help the stragglers. They moved with the desperate speed of prey running from a predator. They reached the Palace steps, a grand staircase of white coral leading up to the royal gates.

But the way was blocked.

Five Wyverns landed on the steps, screeching. They blocked the path, their tails lashing, poison dripping from their stingers.

"Through them," Alvian ordered.

Valeria didn't need to be told twice. She was the Shield. Alvian was the Spear. They moved in perfect synchronization. Valeria charged, her shield catching the bite of the first Wyvern. Alvian stepped out from behind her, his lance piercing the beast's throat. They moved to the next. Block. Stab. Step. Kill.

It was a dance of violence on the steps of the palace. They fought back-to-back, surrounded by enemies on all sides. Valeria took the hits, her armor dented and scratched, her health bar fluctuating wildly as she tanked the damage meant for Alvian. Alvian dealt the death, his void energy reaping lives with cold efficiency.

For a moment, amidst the blood and the screaming and the red rain, Alvian looked at her. He saw the fierce set of her jaw, the way her eyes burned with defiance. He felt the warmth of her back against his. In his past life, he had died alone in the mud. Here, standing on the steps of a falling kingdom, he was not alone.

"You're slow," Alvian muttered, parrying a claw strike.

"You're heavy," Valeria shot back, bashing a Wyvern in the face with her shield hilt.

They broke through the line. The heavy doors of the Palace opened, revealing the terrified guards and the remnants of the Abyssal Guard. They rushed inside. The doors slammed shut behind them, sealing them in with a heavy, final thud.

The outer city was lost. The siege of the Palace had begun.

-----

The sky bled.

It wasn't a metaphor. The tear in the fabric of reality above Azureus dripped a thick, crimson viscous fluid that wasn't quite liquid and wasn't quite gas. It fell into the ocean, turning the pristine blue waters of the Eternal Sea into a murky, suffocating red soup.

[Global Environmental Effect: The Red Rain.]

[Status: Active.]

[Effect: All non-Draconic entities suffer [Corruption] stacks every second. Draconic entities gain [Frenzy] and [Regeneration].]

Alvian stood on the steps of the palace, his chest heaving. He had just killed the Golden Crab King, Jinsha. He had dismantled an army. But there was no time to rest. The [Tear of the Infinite] in his chest spun wildly, trying to filter the corrupted mana from the air, but even its infinite capacity was straining against the sheer toxicity of the environment.

Beside him, Valeria leaned on her claymore. Her golden armor was stained pink with the diluted blood of the Red Rain. She gasped for air, her face pale.

"Alvian," she wheezed. "The people... look."

Alvian looked down at the city below. It was a scene from hell. The civilians who hadn't made it to the shelters were screaming. The Red Rain burned their skin. Scales erupted from their flesh. Bones cracked and reshaped. The weak were dying. The strong were mutating into mindless draconic thralls.

"Inefficient biology," Alvian muttered, his voice cold. "They cannot process the mana density. It is rewriting their genetic code."

"We have to help them!" Valeria tried to step forward, but her knees buckled.

"Stay down," Alvian ordered. "You can't save them. You can only survive them."

He looked up. The true threat was descending.

From the rift, massive shapes plummeted toward the city. They weren't the Wyverns or the hybrids Alvian had fought in the trenches. These were True Dragons. Level 60+. Their scales were harder than diamond. Their breath was pure elemental destruction.

And leading them was a monster clad in obsidian armor, riding a storm of red lightning.

[Target Identified: General Lin (Draconic Vanguard Commander)]

[Level: 65 (Raid Boss)]

[Class: Storm-Breaker Dragonkin]

[Status: Empowered by Red Rain]

General Lin landed in the Central Plaza. The impact vaporized the fountain and sent a shockwave that leveled the surrounding buildings. He stood thirty feet tall, a humanoid dragon with four arms, each holding a weapon made of crystallized blood.

"AZUREUS!" Lin roared. The sound shattered windows miles away. "BOW BEFORE THE LEGION! SUBMIT AND BE CONSUMED!"

Alvian gripped his [Lance of the Void Winter]. It felt heavy. His stamina was low. His cooldowns were resetting.

"System. Analysis. Win probability."

[Calculating...]

[Probability: 0.001%]

"I hate those odds," Alvian whispered. He stepped forward. He didn't have a plan. He had a spear.

But before he could launch himself into a suicidal charge, the ground beneath the palace shook.

It wasn't an earthquake. It was a mechanical unlocking.

The massive doors of the Royal Palace, which had remained sealed even during the riots, groaned open. A blinding blue light spilled out, cutting through the red gloom of the rain.

A figure stepped out.

It was Lord Oceanus. The City Lord. The ancient ruler of Azureus.

He looked different. The regal robes were gone. The long white beard was gone. His skin, usually a pale blue, was peeling away like old paint, revealing a chassis of gleaming, ancient star-metal beneath. His eyes were no longer the soft eyes of a benevolent king. They were burning optics of blue plasma.

"My city," Oceanus said. His voice wasn't human. It was the sound of grinding gears and rushing water, amplified by the city's grid. "You dare defile my city."

[Target Update: Lord Oceanus]

[Race: Ancient Construct (Admin Type)]

[Level: ???]

[Status: Safety Protocols Disengaged.]

Alvian's eyes widened. "He's not a Merfolk. He's a machine."

Oceanus walked past Alvian. He didn't look at the Godslayer. His gaze was locked on General Lin.

"Guardian Alvian," Oceanus's mechanical voice echoed. "Conserve your energy. You are the future. I am the past. Let the past bury the invaders."

Oceanus raised his hand. He didn't cast a spell. He issued a command.

"System. Activate Protocol: Leviathan."

"BOOM!"

The water around the palace exploded. Massive pillars of water shot into the sky, freezing instantly into solid constructs. They weren't ice. They were hard-light projections fueled by the city's core.

General Lin laughed, a grating sound. "A puppet? The humans built a toy to guard their fish tank? I will scrap you!"

Lin charged. He moved with blinding speed, his four weapons weaving a net of death.

Oceanus didn't dodge. He didn't block.

"Physics Lesson," Oceanus said, echoing Alvian's own mannerisms. "Fluid dynamics."

The City Lord's body liquefied. He turned into a stream of high-pressure water, flowing around Lin's attacks. He reformed instantly behind the Dragon General.

"SMASH!"

Oceanus didn't use a weapon. He transformed his arm into a massive piston of hydraulic steel. He punched Lin in the back.

The impact was cataclysmic. General Lin, a Level 65 Raid Boss, was launched across the plaza. He crashed through three skyscrapers, bringing them down in a cloud of dust and bubbles.

[-450,000! Blunt Force Trauma!]

"Impossible!" Lin roared, exploding out of the rubble. His armor was dented. Purple blood leaked from his mouth. "You are just a machine! Where does this power come from?"

"From the city," Oceanus stated, walking down the steps of the palace. Every step cracked the stone. "I am not just the ruler. I am the battery."

[System Warning! City Lord Oceanus is burning Core Life. Lifeform degradation imminent.]

Alvian saw the mana readout. Oceanus was burning his own soul matrix to fuel his stats. He was overclocking his engine to levels that would melt his circuits.

"He's dying," Valeria whispered, standing beside Alvian. "He's killing himself to fight them."

"He's balancing the equation," Alvian said, watching the fight with intense focus. "He knows he can't win a prolonged war. He's going for a trade."

General Lin screamed in rage. "ALL UNITS! FOCUS FIRE ON THE CONSTRUCT! MELT HIM!"

Hundreds of Draconic Soldiers swarmed the plaza. Inferno Drakes circled above, raining fire.

Oceanus looked up. His optic sensors flared.

"Pollution," Oceanus stated. "Purge."

He slammed both hands into the ground.

The entire plaza turned into a whirlpool. But it wasn't water. It was pure, liquid mana. The soldiers were sucked in, their armor crushed by the pressure. The Drakes flying above were yanked out of the sky by gravity beams shot from Oceanus's shoulders.

"CRUNCH. SNAP. SPLASH."

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