Chapter 698: Victory and Glory!

In the distant depths of the void, the stars stood silent.

The golden sun, with unstoppable force, pushed the blood-red celestial body away from Bernardo.

Garoth's six massive arms pressed firmly against the Ominous Star, his claws sinking deep into the flesh tissue. At the same time, the gravitational field extending outward from beneath his claws wrapped around the entire planet like an invisible net.

Time passed, second by second.

Under the continuous pressure of the gravitational field, the surface of the Ominous Star was torn and stripped away, piece after piece of flesh ripped from the planet by the invisible force. The moment they separated from the main body, they were burned to ash by the golden light, not even a single fragment remaining.

Layer after layer.

Its volume was shrinking.

The flesh tissue of the entire planet was being shaved off layer by layer, scraped repeatedly by the gravitational field like an invisible colossal blade.

Yet even so, it remained despairingly vast.

A flesh-and-blood celestial body on the scale of a planet, even after having its surface ground away and a considerable portion of its tissue stripped, still remained enormous enough to suffocate, enough to make any existence on Bernardo hesitate.

With the abilities of a normal Material Plane Immortal, there was simply no way to contend with such an existence.

Except for the one currently locked in confrontation with it: Scarlet Emperor Cangxing.

Garoth did not relax in the slightest.

Although he held the upper hand, pushing and tearing the Ominous Star without resistance, he could also sense that this flesh planet beneath his claws was not simply heavy.

Beneath the muscle-fiber-like tissue, something seemed to be awakening.

At that moment.

As if confirming Garoth's suspicion, a will suddenly echoed in his ears.

Ancient. Vast.

As if it had existed since the dawn of the universe, traversing endless eons, it fell directly into his consciousness, transforming into a voice that only immortal life could comprehend.

"I had thought this would be an easy harvest."

"A remote life-bearing planet, a group of insignificant creatures living in shallow understanding... I have crushed many such targets in the past, and I thought this time would be the same, just as it has been countless times before."

"But I did not expect... that you would already be able to stand before me."

The voice paused, a hint of amazement creeping into it.

"A life like dust, yet you have managed to reach this point, earning the right to contend with me."

"How swiftly the times change. How swiftly things develop."

"Once again, I find myself in awe."

Garoth felt no surprise at the appearance of this voice.

From the moment he first suspected a Primordial Wastes entity behind the frenzied flame, he had prepared himself mentally. Later, as his understanding deepened, he became completely certain of it. He had long known this thing possessed a will, that it was no lifeless object.

"Spare me the awe."

Garoth's massive arms pressed against the Ominous Star, muscles bulging, as he spoke calmly.

"You, who crossed the deep void from countless light-years away to stand before me, are the challenger."

"And frankly speaking, you came too late."

"If you had come a hundred years earlier, I might have found you troublesome. But you chose to arrive at this moment, when I already stand at the limit of the Material Plane. I cannot lose."

He held no contempt for the Ominous Star.

Before it truly arrived at Bernardo, Garoth had sensed this would be a fierce and difficult battle. After all, the opponent was a Primordial Wastes entity that had existed since the dawn of the universe, having weathered countless eons and crushed countless lives.

But when it actually appeared before him, he remained just as cautious as before, yet only one overwhelming thought remained in his heart:

Victory will belong to me!

Never underestimate the opponent, but also maintain unwavering belief in your own victory.

Only thus could he sustain high morale and focused spirit in battle, unshaken by the ancient Primordial Wastes identity of his foe.

As his words fell, the muscles of the great dragon surged upward in a sudden swell.

BOOM BOOM BOOM!

All six massive arms expanded a full size, tendons bulging, large chunks of muscle swelling and tensing beneath his scales.

This was not him using some skill or activating a special form. It was purely his body continuously receiving the information of "contending against a planet" and making adaptive changes.

At the same time, during this confrontation, the flesh beneath his scales was rapidly adapting and evolving. Every inch of bone within him was restructuring and strengthening for this contest of strength.

The great dragon's entire body grew more powerful, and the range and intensity of his gravitational field manipulation rose accordingly.

In the past, even with the Battle Dragon trait, Garoth could not have adapted and evolved this quickly in combat.

But things were different now.

After adaptation evolution was forged into a Potency, aside from its powerful effect, every other aspect of Garoth had also been enhanced, elevating his overall capabilities to a new height.

His massive arms swelled, and the gravitational field twisted further.

The Ominous Star was pushed even farther away.

Its enormous volume also began to diminish at a visibly accelerating rate. Large chunks of flesh were stripped away and turned to ash, and the entire blood-red celestial body, while being pushed sideways through the void, gradually grew thinner.

To this, the will of the Primordial Wastes once again transmitted, the amazement in its voice fading somewhat.

"I? The challenger?"

"Heh. An amusing claim."

The Primordial Wastes seemed to recall something, letting out a low chuckle. Ripples spread across its previously calm, placid will.

"I have witnessed the primordial chaos of the universe. I have watched stars born under my gaze, only to extinguish one by one over the long ages, turning to dust."

It spoke unhurriedly: "I have seen countless civilizations rise and fall. Countless self-important beings brandished their sharp edges at me in every manner imaginable. But in the end, they all became ash drifting in the deep void, and I still remain."

"And you, a trivial thing whose life is brief as a single instant."

"How could you possibly be worthy of being challenged by me?"

Even with its apparent disadvantage, pushed back and continuously diminished in volume, this Primordial Wastes entity still did not regard Garoth as an opponent on the same level as itself.

In its perception, the other was merely a newcomer who had barely managed to stand before it by riding the coattails of the era. It was not worth a proper glance.

And it did indeed have the right to speak such words.

Compared to it, Garoth was far too young. Less than a millennium of existence was hardly different from a single instant in the Primordial Wastes' perception of time, merely a moment's lapse.

"Is that so? How arrogant."

Garoth could naturally feel the contempt within the Primordial Wastes' will, as if it were looking down on him from on high.

This was something he rarely experienced.

In his previous battles, existences like the Lord of the Flame Prison, while opponents, still maintained a certain respect for powerful foes. But this Primordial Wastes entity completely disregarded him.

Even with the great dragon standing right before it, it still seemed to view him as merely a somewhat stronger insect.

But Garoth did not find this strange.

If this thing actually respected him, that would be the truly abnormal thing.

The inherited memories also mentioned that these original Primordial Wastes were all more stubborn than the last.

They reminisced about past glories while refusing to accept the reality of the times surging forward, viewing themselves as ancient and noble life forms. They looked down even on the gods themselves, let alone an Immortal of the Material Plane like him.

Of course, there were also original Primordial Wastes who were not stubborn.

But those existences had long chosen to stand in the camp of the gods, becoming one of them.

In other words, by the current definition of Primordial Wastes, every Primordial Wastes entity was necessarily arrogant to the extreme, because a non-arrogant Primordial Wastes would no longer be a Primordial Wastes.

But knowing this was one thing.

Garoth had no intention of yielding in this exchange of words and wills.

He spoke in a contemptuous tone:

"The insignificant thing whose life you claim is brief used merely what you call 'a single instant' to stand at the same height as you within the Material Plane."

"Heh. If the length of years equaled strength, then why is it that what now hangs above the multiverse are the gods themselves?"

"And Primordial Wastes like you can only hide in the Material Plane, surviving on borrowed time, using past glory and worthless antiquity to paper over a defeat whose outcome was decided long ago."

Relying on your ancientness to try to bully a youngster like me?

Garoth would not tolerate it.

If he were in the Outer Planes, encountering such an Ancient One would certainly make him take a detour. After all, in the Outer Planes, an Ancient One was simply too powerful. But in the Material Plane... everyone stood on equal footing. Who feared whom?

He struck back directly, attacking its weakest point with the most cutting words.

The red iron dragon's words hit the nail on the head.

The facts lay right before them. No matter how the Primordial Wastes touted its own ancientness and nobility, it could hardly refute them.

The gods had won. The Primordial Wastes had lost. This was an unchangeable result after the Dawn War.

It fell silent.

But strangely enough, its frenzied flame could drive all things into madness, even making Immortals lose their reason. Yet as the source of the frenzied flame, even when struck by such piercing words from Garoth, it showed no anger whatsoever. Utterly calm.

Garoth continued:

"Oh, let me correct one thing. Antiquity is not entirely worthless. At the very least, you have rather impressive emotional management skills. Perhaps after too many failures, you've grown accustomed to this kind of rhetoric."

Press the advantage!

In this exchange of wills and words, Garoth relentlessly attacked the Primordial Wastes' weakness, sentence after sentence, leaving it speechless.

A few seconds later, its voice sounded again.

"Your vision is as small as yourself."

"You can only see the present, what's before your eyes, the trivial achievements of your brief life."

"But I have experienced the past, exist in the present, and can gaze upon the future."

The voice paused, then the Primordial Wastes stated with certainty: "Those gods who stole our position, their victory and glory are merely temporary illusions in the cracks of time. The myriad universes will eventually return to primordial chaos, to the rightful home of us Primordial Wastes."

"Unfortunately..."

"You will not have the chance to witness this beautiful sight."

The instant those words fell.

The Ominous Star suddenly trembled violently.

Across the surface of the entire flesh celestial body, mountain-like muscle masses bulged and twisted, interweaving into continent-like limbs and a humanoid outline... One of those limbs struck viciously toward the red iron dragon.

Alarms blared in Garoth's mind.

With a single beat of his wings, his entire body shot backward amid the surging Dragon Qi, putting great distance between himself and the Ominous Star.

At the same time, as Garoth steadied himself.

The Ominous Star vanished.

Or more precisely, its planet form vanished.

What now appeared before Garoth was a colossal deity of blood-red color.

Muscle fibers without skin were exposed in the vacuum. Dark red striations with coiled blood vessels ran across the surface. Humanoid in shape, upright torso, thick and long limbs, a chest so broad it seemed made of several continents. Its face was utterly empty, bearing only a pair of deep, sunken eye sockets.

The next instant.

Within the eye sockets, a cluster of fierce flame ignited.

The colossal deity came alive.

The might of an Immortal spread out, blood-red staining the starry sky. Even the light from distant stars seemed to dim at this moment.

"So this is its true form?"

The red iron dragon narrowed his eyes slightly, feeling the vast pressure bearing down upon him. This was not on the same level as any Immortal he had faced before.

Under the suppression of Material Plane rules, Immortals could only unleash power at the limit of their four-thousand-tier.

But setting aside richer skills and more formidable Potencies, there were enormous differences in the life essence of Immortals themselves.

Take the Primordial Wastes before him, for example.

Its body was like a planet. Its 'base stats' were so astronomically high that normal Immortals could never hope to match. But Garoth was also a Celestial Life, standing at the same level. This was the reason for Garoth's strength.

In some ways, he already possessed a body comparable to a Primordial Wastes.

"The gods once feared me, calling me... Omens of Myriad Disasters."

"Remember this name."

"It will be the last thing you ever see."

Omens of Myriad Disasters.

Although its body had already been torn and stripped of many layers by Garoth earlier, what remained was still too vast to measure by conventional scales.

At this distance, with the naked eye alone, all Garoth could see was blood-red striations filling his entire field of vision. It was as if the entire universe had become a wall of flesh, with nothing but dark red muscle fibers above, below, left, and right, suffocating to behold.

Only by sweeping both his Eye of Truth and perception together could he glimpse its full form.

This planet-scale colossal deity was lowering its head, looking down upon him. The flames in its eye sockets burned like pupils.

Garoth could feel its power.

The earlier planet form, while oppressive, seemed to be merely a layer of disguise. Now, it was a truly ancient existence awakened from the long passage of time.

If he were still a Fate Legendary.

Garoth could defeat ordinary Immortals, but he could never contend with a Primordial Wastes like this, even in the Material Plane, even under the suppression of rules.

But now, he too was an Immortal.

The red iron dragon felt no fear.

He even revealed a smile.

ROAR!!

The red iron dragon raised his head in a silent roar.

The gravitational field around him twisted and expanded once again. The golden light of his Shining Form radiated outward, stretched and shaped by the turbulent force field, finally condensing into the outline of a colossal great dragon, majestic and solemn.

The golden great dragon spread its wings, its size no less than the Primordial Wastes across from it.

It roared silently.

And at the center of the golden light, the radiant dragon of diminutive size beat its wings and launched a proactive attack toward the Primordial Wastes.

Dragon Qi erupted from his body. The radiant dragon transformed into a streak of golden light, closing in on the Primordial Wastes' colossal form in an instant, aiming directly at its enormous head.

The dragon outline formed by light and gravitational field distortion was merely a projection.

Garoth's true size at this moment was around a hundred meters. Before ordinary life forms, he was already a colossal being, enough to make mortals on the ground crane their necks in awe.

But before Omens of Myriad Disasters, this size was practically negligible.

As he charged toward the Primordial Wastes, he was like a grain of sand hurled at a mountain, utterly mismatched in scale. But his speed was too fast. Dragon Qi trailed behind him in a streak of light, as if the entire deep void had been split open by that brilliance, dazzling and blinding.

The flames in Omens of Myriad Disasters' eye sockets flickered slightly, watching this tiny existence that dared to swing its claws at it.

"The courage of an ant is worthy of praise. But that is all it is."

It did not dodge.

However, the flames in its eye sockets suddenly blazed brighter, flickering and burning, gleaming with intensity. Piercing through the obstruction of flesh, they branded directly into the red iron dragon's mind.

The next instant.

Invisible and colorless, a cluster of flame descended upon Garoth's consciousness before any attack, beginning to burn.

In that moment, rage engulfed Garoth's mind.

Rage at the Ominous Star... even the pent-up dullness of his long slumber became fuel... Every emotion that could be ignited was ignited, madly scorching his reason.

Garoth's will was iron, with extremely strong resistance to the frenzied flame.

But the rage flame burning him now was on an entirely different level from the frenzied flame he had endured before. Even he found it difficult to bear.

Potency: Rage Flame.

Unquenchable rage. Unquenchable flame.

Any living being, whether or not it possesses emotions, becomes fuel for the rage flame. When the rage flame burns the heart, even an iron-forged will melts away. If targeting an existence already prone to anger, the Potency's effect multiplies exponentially.

Trait: Epoch-Enduring Will.

The will of a Primordial Wastes, tempered by the primordial chaos of the universe's birth, immune to mental attacks and soul erosion. You believe firmly in all that you believe. Even the gods cannot shake the Epoch-Enduring Will.

The Rage Flame Potency did not wholly belong to Omens of Myriad Disasters.

However, this Primordial Wastes could still use the Rage Flame Potency to a certain degree. Moreover, the Potency's effectiveness was not fixed; it was intimately tied to the user. The stronger the user's own will, the more powerful the rage flame when it burned the heart.

The Primordial Wastes also possessed Epoch-Enduring Will, so its rage flame burned with exceptional ferocity.

Under the crushing weight of its will, the rage flame engulfed Garoth's will like an ocean.

The great dragon's forward charge froze abruptly, losing control of its body.

The Ominous Primordial Wastes seized this opportunity instantly.

Its palm closed into a fist. A fist that blotted out the sky, carrying planet-scale mass and power, descended upon the red iron dragon in a plain, unadorned strike. And it hit him dead on.

BOOM!

The deep void seemed to shudder.

The radiant light was nearly scattered by this punch. Golden flames splattered in every direction.

The great dragon was like a being struck head-on by a true planet. His body tumbled backward through the vacuum, carving a straight line through the black expanse. Crimson dragon scales shattered and curled, revealing dark flesh beneath. A torrent of scalding blood surged from his mouth.

The might of a Primordial Wastes was plain to see.

Garoth barely steadied himself, beating his wings several times before stopping his backward momentum.

He coughed out a mouthful of bloody foam.

The impact, along with the pain of shattered scales, restored some clarity to his rage-clouded mind. Blood flowing from between his scales ignited, wounds healing at a visible rate. Broken scales fell away, new ones growing in their place.

Injury was unavoidable.

But Garoth was not so easily gravely wounded.

To this, the Primordial Wastes showed a moment of surprise.

Its earlier attack appeared plain, but it had actually used a Potency imperceptible to mortal senses, rendering the red iron dragon unable to move or employ any defensive skills.

That punch had connected solidly.

Under normal circumstances, this dragon should have been shattered into a mist of blood, his bones ground to powder on the spot.

Yet that was not what happened.

The Primordial Wastes only felt that it had struck something extremely hard, something indestructible. Although it wounded the red iron dragon, the flesh of its own fist also collapsed inward...

"Your growth truly delights me."

"But this also means that when I obtain your Potency, I will receive even more surprises."

Having landed a successful blow, the Primordial Wastes spoke as if it had already achieved final victory.

At the same time, before the red iron dragon could even catch his breath, the blood-red in his vision expanded once more.

Omens of Myriad Disasters took a single step. For a body of planet scale, its movement was by no means slow. It teleported before him, its massive fist descending, striking head-on once again.

The rage flame also surged again.

Garoth's reason and will had barely recovered when they were about to be engulfed once more.

"This thing's Potency should be related to mutation, but why is it a rage flame that burns willpower?"

The great dragon's thoughts raced at lightning speed.

He had once thought the frenzied flame was some special means mutated by this Omens of Myriad Disasters, just as he had mutated various forms in the past. Mutation should be the Ominous Primordial Wastes' true Potency. But from their recent contact, that did not seem to be the case.

This thing had not used its mutation Potency at all. Its offensive methods were primarily the frenzied flame.

Its Potency's effect focused on burning emotions, not so closely tied to flesh transformation.

"The same trick... used on me a second time..."

Time seemed to slow. Before his heart was completely consumed by rage, the red iron dragon looked up, his pupils reflecting the rapidly enlarging fist of the Primordial Wastes bearing down on him.

HUM!

A ring that only he could perceive emerged from his chest, spinning once in an instant.

Adaptation Ring.

The manifestation of Garoth's Potency.

No lengthy process required. When the Adaptation Ring rotated, everything imposed upon him could be specifically adapted to, evolving into a means to resist or even become immune.

And so, in that same instant.

An invisible barrier rose up outside his mind, isolating the soul-burning flame. At the same time, Garoth felt his thoughts become clearer and sharper than ever before.

Rage. Pain. Excitement. Killing intent...

These emotions were all stripped away, pushed beyond the barrier, like watching a fire from across a river.

He could feel his negative emotions still existed, but they no longer affected him.

At the same time, a peculiar sensation surfaced.

His perspective suddenly elevated. His vision kept rising, until he seemed to stand at some higher dimension.

The vast, boundless starry sky shrank into a flat plane before his eyes. The blood-red colossal deity, the golden version of himself, all became outlines moving across that plane. And his body remained perfectly under his control, not a single hair out of place.

The rage flame continued to burn.

But Garoth had evolved a higher-dimensional will, no longer affected by it.

The Adaptation Ring fell silent, then began to turn slowly at a measured pace. The first rotation required no buildup, only having clearly suffered an attack. But after that, he would need to wait for it to complete another full rotation before he could specify another adaptation.

"Hm?"

Omens of Myriad Disasters noticed the change, the flames in its eye sockets flickering.

In that split second.

The radiant dragon, having fully recovered its reason, charged head-on into the colossal fist that seemed to crush the very stars!

BOOM!

A collision of beings trillions of times different in size; the concept of clashing head-on did not truly apply.

Garoth was like a red-hot steel needle piercing into snow.

His diminutive dragon form drove straight through the flesh of the giant fist in an instant. Six arms folded tight against his sides, his entire body condensed into one point. Claws as the tip, scales as the blade, he charged with all his weight and speed.

The muscle, tendon, and bone of the Ominous Primordial Wastes were pierced through layer by layer before him.

Garoth had intended to wreak havoc inside the Ominous Primordial Wastes' body this way.

But soon, he burst out from the wrist, streaking into the deep void covered in blood. He did not continue destroying within its body, nor did he remain inside.

On the giant fist, a hole that ran clean through remained.

However, this hole appeared extremely minute on the Primordial Wastes' body. It existed for less than a single breath. As flesh tendrils intertwined and muscle fibers continuously healed, it closed up in the blink of an eye, not even a trace left behind.

Regeneration.

This was a trait commonly possessed by immortal life, and a Primordial Wastes' flesh regeneration was often far superior to other Immortals.

At the same time, Garoth did not immediately press the attack.

He sensed something wrong with his body.

From his scales came waves of numbness and itching, as if countless tiny insects were crawling beneath the scales.

He glanced down.

On his crimson mirror-like dragon scales, tiny flesh barbs had sprouted at some point, crooked and twisted, slowly squirming like living things. And with the appearance of these barbs, his originally seamless, dense structure was being compromised by these growths.

His overall integrity and defense were being slowly reduced.

If he had stayed inside the Primordial Wastes' body any longer, this change would likely have penetrated to the bone, becoming far more severe.

Moreover.

Simply passing briefly through its flesh had caused this.

The inside of a Primordial Wastes was not somewhere to be trifled with.

This is... mutation?

"After becoming a Celestial Life, my mutant form was smoothed over by my dense bodily structure, making further mutation difficult."

"I should have resistance in this regard, yet I was still mutated."

"This must be its Potency's effect."

"Mutation, and the earlier frenzied flame... This thing has two Potencies?"

Garoth assessed the battle situation. And even amid fierce combat, standing at a higher-dimensional perspective with emotions stripped away, his thoughts ran like lightning, coldly rational to the extreme.

His guess was correct.

What had affected his celestial body was the Primordial Wastes' core Potency.

Potency: Aberrant Metamorphosis.

All things can be transformed, and transformation always brings deformity!

At full power, Omens of Myriad Disasters could forcibly induce aberrant metamorphosis in any existence, be it life, matter, energy, or even Potency, Authority...

Flesh would twist into monsters. Metal would grow tendrils. Time would knot...

Wherever Omens of Myriad Disasters passed, order was shredded, everything twisted and deformed into unnameable shapes.

Even in the Material Plane, unable to fully unleash its Potency, it could still induce mutation in targets through mere contact, and the mutation was inevitably a deformity harmful to the target.

Garoth swiped his claws.

An invisible force field swept tightly across his dragon body, grinding the barbs and mutated tissue to dust.

But this was not so easily eliminated.

The gnawing sensation of insects biting still persisted on the surface of his body. Potency-level mutation was deeply rooted.

How should he fight this?

I can't go deep into its body. This thing might mutate my Potency. Even if I can adapt and recover, it would take a long time for the Adaptation Ring to spin around again. And I just used it once, so it's currently on cooldown...

Cold calculation took only an instant.

Garoth made his decision.

He beat his wings and pounced once more.

Omens of Myriad Disasters' massive fist came straight at him.

Garoth did not dodge or evade. He collided head-on.

But this time, he did not concentrate his force into a single point.

The moment of contact, the gravitational field covering his entire body erupted outward, spreading the impact from a point to a plane, traveling up the Primordial Wastes' fist and along its entire arm.

BOOM!

The dragon's body was as small as dust, yet this collision was as heavy as a celestial body.

In essence, he was not far inferior to the Primordial Wastes.

Cracks suddenly erupted across the Primordial Wastes' fist, spreading from the finger bones to the wrist and forearm. Bodily fluids carrying a powerful mutating effect gushed out.

Like a mayfly trying to topple a tree, yet somehow shaking it.

The colossal Primordial Wastes body staggered. It bled.

It was thrown off balance.

But this was far from fatal. The Ominous Primordial Wastes merely took a step back, then its other fist swept in, locked onto Garoth.

Being small had its advantages.

Garoth transformed into golden light, slipping between the Primordial Wastes' fingers. The giant digits closed on empty air, failing to hit their target.

The Primordial Wastes' attacks were simple in form. Back and forth, just fists.

It raised its enormous fist again, slamming down at the red iron dragon.

But at the same time, the frenzied flame rage flame no longer targeted the red iron dragon's mind primarily. Instead, it radiated outward, becoming tangible flame. Tongues of fire licked and curled through the vacuum, transforming the surrounding starry sky into a searing sea of fire.

The frenzied flame licked at him, and the gnawing sensation on Garoth's body grew stronger.

"The frenzied flame also carries the mutation effect."

"This thing actually managed to fuse two completely different Potencies into one? It shouldn't have reached that level. This is just a coordinated use of both."

Garoth's thoughts flew.

The inherited memories mentioned the fusion of different Potencies.

This was extremely difficult. No one had truly succeeded so far, at least nothing in his inherited memories recorded such a feat.

While the frenzied flame radiated across the starry sky, the space itself underwent mutation.

The originally empty void background spread with blood vessels and meridians inch by inch out of nowhere. Dark red striations grew and spread like living things, forming a terrifying wall of flesh.

Garoth was caught in the wall as well.

Limbs formed from countless muscle fibers reached from all directions, seizing his body, binding him tightly in place.

The Primordial Wastes' massive fist came straight at him.

There was no room to dodge.

But dodging wasn't strictly necessary either.

The red iron dragon spread all six arms wide, seizing the invisible lines of force and yanking them to the side.

The Primordial Wastes' enormous body tilted slightly. Its attack trajectory was forcibly dragged off by half a degree, punching into empty space beside his dragon form.

At the same time, a dragonqi bomb condensed between the great dragon's claws, spinning as it shattered the wall of flesh.

Seizing the opportunity while the Primordial Wastes' massive body was slow to turn, he flipped around and crashed into its knee. The force spread outward through the gravitational field, shattering the Primordial Wastes' kneecap entirely.

Blood and shredded flesh rained down.

Garoth could feel the mutating force stronger than the frenzied flame. The closer he got, the more he was affected.

He struck and retreated immediately, never lingering in battle.

The battle of mismatched sizes continued.

A streak of golden light wove around the blood-red colossal deity, like a fish circling a mountain, like a golden thread piercing back and forth through planet-scale flesh.

Viewed from a macro perspective of the deep void, this was a truly bizarre sight.

A Primordial Wastes so vast it defied estimation flailed its limbs, shaking the starry sky, while wrapped around it was the radiant dragon, as insignificant as dust before it.

Every attack from the Ominous colossal deity was enough to shatter continents, yet it repeatedly missed. Every counterattack from the speck of dust seemed negligible, yet it struck true, grievously wounding its body.

Time flowed through the starry sky.

Slowly, cracks gradually covered the colossal deity's body. Flesh continuously burst and healed, but the speed of healing was beginning to lag behind the speed of rupture.

Its wounds grew more numerous.

Newly grown tissue often had not yet fully closed before being torn open again by the next strike.

Size did not mean everything.

The advantage currently belonged to the radiant dragon pressing the attack.

But he was not unscathed either.

Omens of Myriad Disasters' frenzied flame and shed flesh could pollute and mutate the surrounding environment.

Although Garoth was extremely cautious, merely fighting the Primordial Wastes, merely approaching it, caused him to be affected by its mutation Potency. Small mutated growths kept sprouting on his body, recurring endlessly, difficult to eradicate. As a result, he had also been struck by the Primordial Wastes' attacks multiple times.

Due to the reduced integrity and defense of his dragon scales.

Every attack from the Primordial Wastes dealt considerable damage to him. Nearly half of his scales were shattered, blood flowing down his dragon form only to ignite into flames, healing the wounds.

But by comparison, the Primordial Wastes' injuries were far more severe.

Before long.

Omens of Myriad Disasters suddenly stopped moving.

It had grown weary of this entangling battle. The flames in its eye sockets flickered.

"Eight hundred years of your time is but an instant to me."

"And a life that reached this point in a single instant... You are indeed worthy of my serious attention."

As the words fell.

BOOM!

A denser frenzied flame erupted from within its body, covering its entire form in the blink of an eye.

Across the vast starry sky, the entire colossal deity transformed into a burning torch. Rage flame enveloped every inch of its being.

Within the flames, its body began to contract.

Layer upon layer of excess flesh collapsed and burned away in the frenzied flame. The density of the remaining tissue soared crazily. The colossal deity that had blotted out the sky shrank bit by bit, eventually settling at a size much smaller than before, yet still larger than the red iron dragon.

At the same time, over the exposed muscle surface, a layer of skin grew and hardened rapidly, gleaming with a dull luster like rock and metal.

Like a suit of natural armor, covering all the flesh completely.

Garoth watched its transformation and let out a low laugh.

"That's more like it."

"A challenger should look like a challenger."

He did not hesitate either.

Dragon Pearl Ignition! Second Radiant Overdrive!

The golden light surged once more. Blood flowing from his dragon body had no time to change before being evaporated and ignited entirely, condensing into dense rose-gold radiance that coiled and plated over his scales.

The two pairs of dragon horns atop his head, including the Force Horns.

They grew madly, twisting and curving. The crown-like array of horns stretched backward, swelling with majesty.

His body size continued to grow, finally transforming into a great dragon over two hundred meters from head to tail.

Compared to the Primordial Wastes across from him, this size was still diminutive.

But his aura had surged to an absolute extreme. Rose-gold radiance blazed fiercely, even forcing the frenzied flame's crimson glow that covered the starry sky to retreat three steps.

Within the rose-gold radiance, the great dragon spread its wings, like a new star being born.

The essence of Shining Form was compressing a vast amount of life energy and releasing it in an extremely short span.

This was a form of overdraft combat, which by all rights should be brief and violent, exhausting the user's full strength within a few breaths.

But Garoth's life energy was simply too vast. This burst technique, which should have been a flash in the pan, was gradually approaching something close to a normalized state for him.

But that did not mean the burst had weakened.

Quite the opposite. The stronger he became, the more his life quality grew, and the more powerful the effects of Shining Form became.

Within the Aola Star Network, the debate over which of the Red Emperor's forms was the most powerful and majestic had never ceased.

People listed all his combat forms, from the original base state to the various later variants. They compared one by one, argued again and again. But amid all these debates, people tacitly excluded Shining Form from the discussion.

Because they held a consensus that needed no explanation:

The Radiant Emperor of Sacred Aola was, without question, the number one form. Possessing both power and sacred majesty.

What people mainly debated on the Star Network was the second place.

In their eyes, when the Red Emperor's body blazed with light, no matter what formidable enemy stood before him, they would be reduced to dust before his radiance.

And in the starry sky.

The Second Radiant Overdrive brought Garoth more than just increased size and some changes in bearing.

Strength, speed, scale toughness, mastery over force fields... all attributes surged. The invisible force fields around him felt like extended limbs in his perception, moving as easily as his own arms.

His increased power allowed him to command more force fields, and the enhanced force fields in turn improved his control over the battlefield.

Garoth pounced at the Primordial Wastes once more.

Omens of Myriad Disasters did not retreat either. Every wisp of flame tempered its flesh. The body it had compressed and forged under the rage flame was stronger than before.

A fist came thundering.

The Primordial Wastes' armored giant fist carried the frenzied flame, its speed more than double what it had been before.

Garoth crossed his six arms before him. Gravitational fields stacked layer upon layer, condensing into a shield.

BOOM!

Two forces collided violently in the depths of the vacuum.

An invisible shockwave swept in all directions. The surrounding space seemed to turn into water, ripples and waves visibly forming, undulating violently.

Fist met shield. The force-field shield shattered inch by inch.

The great dragon was knocked backward, only stopping himself with frantic beats of his wings. Deep cracks appeared on the scales of his crossed arms. And on the Primordial Wastes' fist armor, spiderweb-like fissures also appeared from the shock of the parry.

"Such a hard body. Excellent."

Garoth shook his dragon arms, his gaze sharpening, then closed in again, faster than before.

Or rather, he was faster every second than the second before. Beyond the leap in stats from Shining Form, his entire body was steadily growing stronger with each moment of battle. His body was adapting to the intensity of this fight, becoming more powerful with every passing second.

The Primordial Wastes' defenses and other attributes had also undergone a qualitative leap.

The body forged by the rage flame elevated it to a new level.

The enemy had also grown stronger. Clearly not good news.

But Garoth only smiled.

A stronger opponent was more worth defeating.

If this Primordial Wastes collapsed easily, wouldn't the urgency and unease it had caused him earlier have been meaningless? A joke?

The two closed in.

The great dragon slipped past the Primordial Wastes' forearm, his claws carving deep furrows into its armor. Armor shattered, flesh torn layer by layer. The Primordial Wastes' massive elbow swung back in a counterattack. The great dragon dodged, and his tail whipped out in passing.

CRACK.

The wrist armor shattered.

The Primordial Wastes swept back with its hand, its giant palm descending.

Touch of Mutation!

At that moment, all the wounds eroded during the earlier fighting erupted simultaneously.

The power of the mutation Potency had been secretly seeping through, and now it finally bared its fangs. The dragon scales on Garoth's body twisted and deformed, losing their original form in an instant, transforming into tendril-like flesh tissue.

These twisted, overgrown tissues turned against the body they had originally protected, attempting to bind the great dragon's form.

The radiant dragon's movements slowed by a beat.

And in that one beat, the giant palm seized the radiant dragon.

"Insignificant thing, you will ultimately submit within my grasp."

Omens of Myriad Disasters murmured. The frenzied flame ignited on its giant palm, condensing into solid form, while pressure continuously built up, crushing down to grind the radiant dragon to dust.

HOOOSH!

A straight beam of dragon breath punched through the thick flesh, burning a passage.

Before it could heal, the radiant dragon shot out through the blood hole. Turning back, he unleashed another breath, the dragon flame striking the Primordial Wastes directly in the face. Flesh sizzled and crackled.

But the next instant.

Dark red flame ignited once more across the armor of the Primordial Wastes' entire body.

Rage flame.

But this time, the rage flame was not burning the enemy. It curled back, covering the Primordial Wastes' own body.

Potency: Rage Flame.

Beyond being able to overwhelmingly ignite the enemy's mind and burn away their reason, it also had an effect on the user: it could ignite their own fury, transforming it into greater power.

And the Primordial Wastes' fury was immense.

Although it had appeared calm and composed when communicating with Garoth, Omens of Myriad Disasters had been defeated, sealed, banished... forced to drift through the Material Plane for countless eons. Its dissatisfaction and rage at the changing times had grown day by day.

Why were there so many races? So many lives?

Too noisy.

Too loud.

They bred, expanded, fought, and died. Generation after generation, without end.

These insignificant lives were pests of the multiverse. They gnawed at the universe, polluting what had once been pure.

We Primordial Wastes are the true masters!

We, who were born together with the universe from the primordial chaos, are the ones worthy of ruling this universe!

Omens of Myriad Disasters marshaled its fury.

The boundless rage it had accumulated over countless years now all became fuel.

Under the covering flames, the Primordial Wastes' aura climbed madly.

Then, fists fell like rain.

Plain attacks, backed by absolute speed and power, combined with the burning of its Potency, transformed into the most terrifying storm. Every punch carried the rage flame and the force of mutation.

Sidestep. Flip wings. Dive. Sudden turn.

The great dragon wove through the gaps in the rain of fists.

When he truly could not avoid one, he grabbed the lines of force and yanked, deflecting the fist half a degree off course, letting it graze past his scales, leaving cracks and burn marks in its wake.

Defend for long enough, and a lapse is inevitable.

A hook punch broke through the gravitational field's deflection and slammed into him head-on.

BANG!

Scales caved in. Blood sprayed. Garoth's entire dragon form was sent flying sideways.

But even as he flew, gravity and Dragon Qi condensed and shaped in his grasp, forming a powerful sphere of dragonqi bomb that struck the Primordial Wastes dead in the chest, tearing and shredding its armor, causing massive collapse of its flesh.

Both sides took damage continuously. Both healed continuously.

The battle grew ever more intense.

But the situation was gradually becoming troublesome.

Garoth seized an opening, spreading impact from a point to a plane, shattering one of the Primordial Wastes' arms entirely. But before the fragments could drift far, countless threads of flesh shot out, intertwining and pulling, reconnecting in the blink of an eye. What had been burned to ash by the rose-gold flame was replaced by new flesh squeezed out from within its body.

Omens of Myriad Disasters was utterly indifferent to injury.

Primordial life.

You were born together with the primordial universe. You coexist with the multiverse. Your stamina and energy reserves are infinite and without end. Injuries can continuously recover. Consumption can continuously replenish. Any war of attrition is a guaranteed victory for you.

This was one of Omens of Myriad Disasters' greatest sources of confidence.

Garoth, by contrast.

His Shining Form was no longer as brief as it had been at the start.

Through constant training and bodily adaptation, his Shining Form now lasted far longer than the initial version, able to sustain for considerable time in high-intensity combat. But in the end, this was still a burst technique.

The Dragon Pearl's energy was draining away bit by bit. If this continued, it would eventually be exhausted.

"First time I've met an opponent who can contend with me head-on in life energy consumption."

"Ancient Ones truly are different."

Garoth thought to himself.

Although in the earlier exchange of words he had belittled and disparaged the Primordial Wastes, calling them losers and obsolete relics eliminated by the times, this was a strategic psychological pressure tactic, part of combat.

He knew very well in his heart that these original Primordial Wastes must never be underestimated.

Case in point.

This thing's life force was even more vast than his own. Its health bar was so long it made even Garoth feel troubled. And in the past, he had always been the one standing in this position. Now he got to experience a bit of what his opponents felt.

"I can't drag this out with it."

"If I keep burning through my reserves like this, I'll definitely lose. I can't even see where its limit is."

Garoth took a deep breath and made his decision on the spot.

In the time between his breakthrough to Immortal and the Primordial Wastes' arrival, he had not been idle.

While training and familiarizing himself with his Potency, he had also been deeply developing his own skills. The Immortal body granted him more room for trial and error, allowing him to attempt all sorts of dangerous skill modifications.

Take the Dragon Pearl, for example.

Ever since he gained the choice between resurrection and Shining Form, Garoth had discovered that the nature of the Dragon Pearl's energy had fundamentally changed.

It had become far more controllable.

Under Garoth's will, the Dragon Pearl's energy could be warm as water, used to sustain life and repair wounds. But it could also be violent as flame, igniting instantly when an outburst was needed, pushing energy output to the limit.

Most crucially.

Even when he activated Shining Form, the Dragon Pearl was not pushed to its absolute limit. On top of that baseline, the Dragon Pearl still retained a portion of reserve energy.

But what if, in certain extreme situations, he needed complete, total power?

After development and experimentation, Garoth had obtained a very powerful skill on this basis.

But its drawbacks were immense. It would damage the Dragon Pearl, requiring a long recovery period. During recovery, he would be far weaker than his peak state.

Unless the situation was exceptional, he would not rashly use it.

And now, it was time.

Burn!

In an instant, the already surging energy of the Dragon Pearl was violently compressed and detonated by a resolute will. Garoth forcibly breached the Dragon Pearl's safety limits with his will, deactivating all protective mechanisms!

CRACK!

A sound only Garoth could hear echoed from within his body.

His Dragon Pearl cracked, then shattered.

Pearl Shatter!

The next instant, time seemed to freeze for one second. Then, light and flame erupted skyward.

The dragon scales across his body lifted one by one, blinding light leaking through the gaps, as if he harbored a star on the verge of going supernova within him.

In the Pearl Shatter state, Garoth poured nearly all of his energy into a single strike.

Not only that.

The impact of the Dragon Pearl's shattering pushed his entire body to the brink of collapse. At this moment, he was in a state close to death.

Therefore, Born from Death was pushed to its extreme.

Extreme Fury Ascension, Death Incarnation... these skills activated simultaneously, stacking layer upon layer.

In a single fleeting instant.

All of the radiant dragon's stats surged once more, power climbing to an inconceivable degree. And centered on him, the dragon outline formed by the twisted gravitational field became solid, inch by inch.

Dragon horns, fangs, claws, scales. Every detail rendered with perfect clarity.

"Omens of Myriad Disasters, my challenger. Face your end!"

The great dragon let out a low roar.

The Primordial Wastes sensed the terrible power emanating from the great dragon and said: "There are many insignificant things, but you stand out among them. I believe I will remember your name."

The two existences charged toward each other along a straight line in the deep void.

The Primordial Wastes' fist, burning with all its fury. The great dragon's charge, condensed with everything he had.

No reservations.

BOOM!

The great dragon and the colossal deity collided head-on.

It was as if a grand thunderclap echoed through the vacuum. At the boundary between force field and flesh, there was first a bizarre moment of stillness.

Then.

The Primordial Wastes' armor shattered. Its arm bones snapped at every joint. Its shoulder collapsed. Its chest caved in... Cracks spread madly from the point of contact, crawling across its entire body. The vast, enormous golden great dragon completely passed through its form.

Entering from the front. Exiting from the back.

CRACK!

Under the great dragon's Pearl Shatter onslaught, the Primordial Wastes body that stood in the way was shattered entirely!

Fragments scattered in all directions, each one ignited and burned by the golden light of Explosive Qi, reduced to drifting ash, leaving no room for regeneration.

On the other side.

The light wrapping the great dragon gradually dispersed, revealing a dragon that had returned to its normal state, roughly thirty meters in length.

Garoth hovered in the deep void, chest heaving violently.

He had paid a heavy price as well.

Every scale on his body was cracked, not a single one intact. The energy within him was almost completely spent. Even his flames could not ignite. Only searing hot air rose from the gaps between his scales, distorting the starlight around him.

Almost not a single drop remained.

Even his bodily regeneration had ceased. He had reached his limit. His true limit.

Garoth breathed deeply, trying to absorb and squeeze what little energy he could from the surrounding starry sky, barely maintaining his current state.

But the effect of this strike was dramatic.

A Primordial Wastes that massive had been run straight over by him. Its entire body had been shattered, not a single intact piece of tissue left. As far as the eye could see, only drifting ash remained.

However...

Garoth did not relax. Instead, he grew even more wary.

In his higher-dimensional perspective, he could see.

Among the ash and shredded flesh drifting through the deep void, the frenzied flame had completely extinguished. But at the same time the frenzied flame died out, a black light began to shine.

It was pitch black, as if it had swallowed all light. Perfectly round, like a black sun.

Though it radiated no energy whatsoever, it was impossible to look away from.

The Primordial Wastes' will also remained coiled within the starry sky.

Ancient, carrying a trace of delight.

"Little dragon. You have done your utmost, shattering the seal upon my body. This pleases me."

"As a reward, you will have the honor of becoming part of me."

"When the primordial chaos descends, you shall exist forever with me."

Omens of Myriad Disasters murmured with satisfaction.

The 'Ominous Star' that Garoth had shattered was not its true body.

In essence, it was a seal.

Long ago, Omens of Myriad Disasters had battled an immortal existence that wielded the Rage Flame Potency.

That opponent was extremely powerful, like itself, impossible to kill easily. The battle seesawed back and forth through the starry sky.

But in the end, it was the Primordial Wastes that proved superior, achieving final victory.

However, after the Lord of Rage Flame was slain, it burned away its Potency in a peculiar manner. The fury of death transformed into rage flame, latching onto Omens of Myriad Disasters' body, burning at its very essence, attempting mutual destruction.

Forced into a corner, Omens of Myriad Disasters mutated a flesh-planet-like body.

The rage flame spread through its flesh, gradually fusing with it over the long ages. It now wielded both the Rage Flame and Mutation Potencies. But the problem was, the rage flame had never truly been tamed.

It was always seeking to kill Omens of Myriad Disasters.

In the Ominous Star form, it could only unleash a fraction of its mutation Potency, with combat focused on the rage flame Potency.

And when the Ominous Star was shattered, although it would eventually need to mutate another Ominous Star form to contend with the unquenchable rage flame as time passed, its mastery over the rage flame would increase by another degree.

"Seal?"

Garoth's gaze sharpened.

He did not know what had happened to Omens of Myriad Disasters.

But the fact before him now was that Omens of Myriad Disasters had not died. Its form like a black sun seemed to be its original appearance. And with the shattering of its flesh body, in Garoth's perception, it seemed to have shed a layer of protection, becoming somewhat weaker. The flesh before had also been part of it.

But now, it seemed utterly unbound.

The balance between loss and gain meant that although it seemed slightly weaker overall, its danger level had not truly decreased.

And Garoth, at this moment, had reached his limit.

"In the end, it has come to this."

"An original Primordial Wastes... truly a powerful opponent. But you are still the challenger."

The red iron dragon murmured, his gaze growing calm.

At this point, there was no room for hesitation. Relying solely on his Immortal body, he was indeed somewhat inferior to this Ancient One. Although the Primordial Wastes had been defeated, those endless years had not been spent in vain.

But besides being an Immortal, he had another identity.

The red iron dragon raised his head.

His gaze crossed the deep void, crossed the drifting ash and shredded flesh, crossed the pitch-black, sun-like Ominous Primordial Wastes, and looked toward a distant place.

Sacred Aola.

His empire. His people. His followers.

Congratulations. You have defeated Scarlet Emperor Cangxing. Now it is time to face the great Lord of Victory and Glory!

The red iron dragon's eyes closed slightly.

In that same instant, he immediately felt it.

Flowing from Bernardo, across the vast starry sky, crossing spatial distance and all obstacles, converging upon him.

Faith.

Sacred Aola. Countless citizens.

Lives that had followed him since he was a mortal. At this very moment, they all raised their heads.

The Star Network was broadcasting the delayed images from the deep void.

They saw the golden sun. They saw the colossal deity form of the Primordial Wastes. They witnessed the earth-shattering collision. And then they personally witnessed their emperor, with an invincible bearing, shatter the terrifying colossal deity entirely.

The prayers and cheers, however, were not delayed. They all transmitted directly into Garoth's will.

"His Majesty will surely win."

"Scarlet Emperor Cangxing, undefeated in battle!"

"Victory and glory belong to Sacred Aola!"

The people cheered, countless voices converging into a torrent.

Garoth could hear the voice of every single citizen and feel the unshakable belief in victory within their hearts. In their eyes, the great Red Emperor was also the great Lord of Victory and Glory.

He had never let them down. They believed this time would be no different.

He was invincible. He would triumph. All glory belonged to him.

Garoth accepted all of it.

This was not the first time.

He could clearly feel his body undergoing profound changes.

Divinity. Authority.

Power condensed from the prayers and trust of billions of living beings!

This power converged upon Garoth.

And so, in the dark, profound starry sky, a pure white sacred radiance blazed to life. It rose from within the great dragon's body, pouring out from the gaps between every scale, shooting forth from his eyes.

His body began to expand inch by inch. A change in essence.

Thirty meters. One hundred meters. Three hundred meters. Eight hundred meters... Finally, in the blink of an eye, shaped by divinity and Authority, he transformed into a great dragon several kilometers in length, coiled within the starry sky.

His size was even larger than his previous apotheosis state.

Without a doubt, his divine Authority had also reached the limit of the Material Plane.

Any higher, and he would no longer be an existence that could fully manifest within the Material Plane. That was precisely why the Divine Seat was needed.

But the faith now was sufficient.

Garoth's original form had been majestic, but it still bore too many ferocious features, which only his people could overlook. But now, his entire body seemed to have undergone a fine-tuning and reshaping.

Flawless.

Sacred and majestic.

He was now like the ultimate ideal of what his people could imagine a dragon to be. The collection of all their fantasies, condensed into a form combining power, majesty, wisdom, and supreme beauty.

Anyone who saw Garoth at this moment would feel the urge to prostrate themselves in worship, daring not a single blasphemous thought.

Not only that.

Light flowed continuously, gradually gathering above his head. Upon the dragon's already imposing and magnificent horned crown, radiance condensed, shaping a brand new crown.

Dazzling and brilliant. Magnificent and noble.

Crown of Victory.

It represented the first Authority he held as the Lord of Victory and Glory.

Victory!

The collective embodiment of all definitions and expectations of winning. An extraordinarily powerful Authority.

Following this, a long sash emerged from the void, passing beneath the great dragon's arms, wrapping around behind his head, drifting slowly through the starry sky. It flowed with sunlight-like radiance, bearing boundless glory and honor.

Sash of Glory.

It represented the second Authority he held as the Lord of Victory and Glory.

More precisely, it was a subsidiary Authority evolved from the Victory Authority. The subordinate Authority of victory. Glory was the shadow of victory. When victory was remembered, celebrated, transformed into songs and epics, it became glory.

But even so, it was still a complete divine Authority.

The domain it represented was equally vast and boundless.

Two great symbols. Two great Authorities.

The Crown of Victory above his head. The Sash of Glory behind him. One represented certainty of the future. The other represented the crystallization of the past.

Because he would surely triumph, he was worthy of glory. Because he bore glory, he would surely triumph.

The Lord of Victory and Glory. Hereby. Ascending to godhood!

Everything seemed slow yet happened fast, all within a single fleeting moment.

Across from him, the will of Omens of Myriad Disasters first faltered.

Then, sensing the earth-shattering changes in the great dragon, its killing intent blazed!

"A god..."

"Another crawling insect that stole our dominion!"

Almost all original Primordial Wastes held a natural hostility toward the gods. Hatred was carved into the very depths of their souls. Even after one millennium after another, it had not faded in the slightest. Every contact with the aura of a god rekindled it.

Omens of Myriad Disasters' emotions fluctuated visibly for the first time.

It was enraged.

But at this moment, it could not unleash the full might of its Rage Flame Potency. This fury was wasted, unable to become its own power.

No matter.

At this moment, Omens of Myriad Disasters had complete mastery over its mutation Potency.

HUM!

The black sun began to metamorphose.

Its round outline twisted and collapsed, continuously deforming and expanding, rapidly transforming into an unnameable shape. Overall, it resembled a true black hole, its edges churning with deformed flesh patterns.

The next second, the black hole abruptly vanished.

The second after that, it appeared centered on Garoth, completely enveloping the Lord of Victory and Glory, swallowing him whole.

All perception was blocked.

All of Garoth's senses were reduced to darkness. But besides the darkness, there was also the brilliant, shining faith.

At the same time.

Omens of Myriad Disasters' mutation Potency was pushed to its absolute limit.

Within the black hole, Garoth's body began to deform and mutate at an inconceivable speed.

Scales bulged and twisted, sprouting new spikes. Bones made creaking sounds as they bent in wrong directions. Flesh churned beneath the scales, trying to burst through the constraints of the dragon scales. His tail began to split. Twisted wings appeared on his spine...

Scales twisted. Flesh twisted.

His entire body was undergoing aberrant metamorphosis.

And this was only the simplest part.

Garoth's traits were also being thrown into chaos, mutated into negative traits harmful to him. Even the operation of his Potency began to grow sluggish. If the mutation continued, even his essential Potency would be deformed into something unimaginable.

Even his divine Authority was within the erosion range of the mutation.

His Authority began to be polluted. Upon the great dragon's head and behind it, the sacred Crown of Victory and Sash of Glory began to crawl with black mutation patterns. The pure white light was being extinguished inch by inch.

Yet, there was not a single ripple on Garoth's faceplate.

He was the Lord of Victory and Glory, but he was also Scarlet Emperor Cangxing.

Divinity resided within his Immortal body. The two were not entirely separate.

"Mutation..."

"How many times have you used it on me since the battle began?"

Garoth asked calmly.

Under the suppression of the mutation, the operation of his Potency had indeed slowed.

However, this suppression was not instantaneous.

The harder the suppression pressed, the harder it was for him to adapt. But the harder it was to adapt, the faster he adapted. So the slower the adaptation, the faster... In any case, in this contest of Potencies, Garoth's Potency existed in a delicate state, essentially not truly affected.

And so.

His Adaptation Ring, under the present pressure and mutation erosion, finally completed a full rotation.

Garoth's expression was impassive.

As the Adaptation Ring spun, he designated the Primordial Wastes' mutation Potency and adapted to it.

BOOM!

Pure white holy light erupted from the great dragon's body, wrapping around him layer after layer, standing in opposition to the black sun, contending for supremacy.

Within the holy light, the great dragon's body was like glass and fine jade, clear and translucent.

At the same time, all the accumulated mutations from before began to dissolve inch by inch. Squirming barbs, twisted tissue, all dispersed as black smoke. The frenzied deformation brought by the mutation was also suppressed.

Omens of Myriad Disasters noticed this.

It said nothing, merely continuing to operate its mutation.

The black erosion surged once more. Cracks and distortions reappeared on the great dragon's glass-like body. But in the end, they were not as violent as before. Just subtle changes that did no real harm.

Like waves crashing against a reef.

Great in spectacle, but unable to shake the foundations.

"My Potency! The Potency that has accompanied me through countless eons since my birth! How can it be suppressed by such a young life?"

Omens of Myriad Disasters could no longer remain silent, resentment churning within.

The strength of a Potency had nothing to do with age.

Strong was strong. Weak was weak.

And frankly speaking, Omens of Myriad Disasters' Potency was not weak at all. There was no inherent advantage or disadvantage between it and Garoth's. There was another major reason for the current situation.

Garoth's Victory Authority was also taking effect.

Victory: Fate will flow toward a future where you triumph. No matter what difficulties or desperate situations you face, you will always have the chance to win.

It was an Authority as powerful as causality and probability.

Under its influence, once Garoth's Adaptation Ring began operating, it naturally evolved in the direction that was strongest, most formidable, and most conducive to his victory.

Divine Authority and Immortal Potency.

At this moment, they complemented each other, working in tandem.

Having only a Potency, compared to an existence possessing both Authority and Potency, was an inherent major disadvantage.

Garoth's expression was sacred and majestic as he murmured: "Loser of a bygone era. Remember my title. Scarlet Emperor Cangxing, Lord of Victory and Glory! I will be the last thing you ever see. How fortunate you are."

As the words fell.

The Crown of Victory and the Sash of Glory rose on their own, merging together above the great dragon's head.

Light stretched and reshaped, inch by inch.

Finally, it formed a sacred, extraordinary greatsword.

Its blade was broad and long, radiating a brilliance interwoven of gold and white. The hilt was wrapped in supple fabric. Magnificent dragon wings extended from the sides. The spine of the blade was inscribed with the runes of victory and the hymns of glory.

Sword of Victory and Glory!

Garoth extended his claws and grasped the Sword of Victory and Glory in his grip.

Facing the black thing that had devoured him, he raised the sword. And brought it down.

HUM!

Brilliant light pierced through the darkness!

First strike. The sword's edge tore through the barrier of the black hole.

Thick darkness split into a narrow seam; holy light poured through.

Second stroke—the blade slashed across.

The seam widened into a massive cruciform rift; black matter could not heal.

...

From the cosmic vantage this was a stunning sight.

The great black sphere hung like a dark sun, like a blood-flesh black hole bearing ancient danger.

Then it cracked dramatically.

A divine blade pierced through like dawn stabbing eternal night.

Then a second, a third...

The Sword of Victory and Glory fell again and again, leaving dozens of gashes across Omens’ body, each wound running through the entirety and emitting pure white light like blossom-lotus radiance.

The blade paused.

Yet the light within the rifts intensified, white eddies devouring black.

At last:

Boom!

Along each streak of light the massive black sphere shattered; under the holy glow it rolled and dimmed, pouring like a dark rain in deep void.

The black droplets attempted to recombine, but divine radiance encompassed and incinerated them into ash.

Omens’ will grew weaker.

“You... tiny... thing...”

“But... this is only... a mom...ent... I will...”

It could not finish.

The final black fragment turned to ash and the Primordial’s whispers abruptly ceased.

The Sword of Victory and Glory disintegrated and returned to its former state.

The holy dragon stood quietly in the deep starfield.

Crown brilliant, sash flowing; where sacred light shone, darkness recoiled.