My Ultimate OP System: Summoning All Dragons, Gods, Heroes & Villains

The forced separation between Carson and Lancelot had been a direct consequence of that effect as the fusion had been reverted to a point before it existed.

Likewise, Sigurd’s activation, forcing the weapon back into an inactive state.

In essence, Audrey had forced a restart.

She then immediately adjusted her stance, preparing to cast a follow-up spell while her opponents were still recovering from the effects of the reset.

But suddenly, the gigantic dragon descended from above, its entire body now engulfed in flames.

Then she released a deafening roar, raising both massive forelimbs before bringing them crashing down toward Audrey with tremendous force.

Both Carson and Lancelot pushed themselves back onto their feet almost immediately. Despite the effects of the Time Bomb, neither had wasted a second.

Carson swept his hand downward, grabbing sigurd back into his grasp before dashing forward with Lancelot by his side.

Then their bodies began glowing once more as Bluish-white light erupted from both figures, causing an instant merge between them.

The fusion was completed in a single motion and the armored knight reappeared from the radiance, now carrying Sigurd once more.

Carson launched himself forward to join the struggle between his dragon and the Grand Caster that had reached a deadlock.

Beilong’s colossal flaming forelimbs continued forcing themselves downward.

The dragon roared continuously, pouring every ounce of strength into the descent.

Directly beneath her, Audrey stood her ground with one arm raised, causing the surrounding air to distort under the pressure of her Time Zone.

She gritted her teeth as she held a powerful time halt over the descended dragon, preventing Beilong’s strike from completing.

———

Meanwhile, the princess and Anton had torn through the city at frightening speed, their path stretching farther and farther away from the ruined palace grounds.

To any observer, it no longer looked like a fight, but more like a hunt.

It looked like Anton was being chased by an enraged shadow demon.

Isabella’s silhouette still retained a feminine shape, but asides that, very little of her remained visible.

Shadows flowed endlessly from her figure like a cloak, while thick miasma spilled outward in waves. From within that darkness, tentacles constantly erupted, intertwining and expanding into gigantic shadowy arms that lashed across streets and buildings alike, all of them seeking a single target.

Anton.

Thankfully, earlier that day, the King had ordered the immediate evacuation of all citizens within the palace’s immediate vicinity, knowing that a battle between two Grand Class beings would be large enough to endanger everyone around them.

"Tch." Anton clicked his tongue as he weaved through the relentless pursuit.

The distance between them never seemed to widen. No matter how far ahead he moved, those dark appendages were always reaching.

As they continued crossing the city, Anton snapped his fingers from time to time.

Each snap caused something random to appear directly between himself and the pursuing princess.

A piano.

A wrecked car.

A section of railway track.

Even a shipping container.

All of them suddenly materialized into existence, forming obstacles meant to slow her advance.

But every attempt proved meaningless.

Some were smashed apart, others were hurled away by gigantic shadow arms. A few were simply swallowed by darkness itself.

At one point Anton swept across a deserted road, and his shadow stretched beneath him across the pavement.

Then suddenly, the shadow itself began moving.

Large dark hands burst upward from the tracing silhouette beneath him, extending from the ground without warning.

They lunged for him from every angle.

Anton’s eyes widened as he turned sharply and swerved at the last possible second, forcing his flight upward toward the skies.

But the darkness followed.

More arms emerged, intertwining and stretching higher and higher until one finally succeeded.

A massive shadowy hand clamped around his right leg and his body jerked.

For a brief instant, panic flashed across his face, then he vanished.

Less than a second later, Anton reappeared at a completely different location several streets below.

The sudden relocation was so abrupt that he couldn’t properly stabilize himself before crashing directly onto the roof of a rusty destroyed car.

This particular vehicle had carried one of his marks. That was why he could teleport to it.

However, the instant jump had been completely instinctive as a desperate attempt to save his life.

The impact sent him rolling off the car and onto the ground.

Anton groaned. The pain from the fall barely registered compared to the condition of his right leg.

Blood ran down the side of it and part of the trousers was gone along with the boot had been ripped away.

But even then, he wasn’t safe, because the moment he looked down, two glowing blue eyes opened inside the shadow beneath him.

Anton froze as the darkness under his body instantly expanded into a massive pool.

Then countless shadowy arms erupted from it and grabbed him from every direction, dragging him downward into the darkness.

Isabella herself had found him.

His descent had almost completed, then suddenly, both Anton and the entire pool of shadows vanished from the world.

By making direct contact with him, Isabella had unknowingly given Anton exactly what he needed.

A mark.

And once the shadow she occupied had been marked, sending it away became easy.

So Anton, along with Isabella and the entire mass of living darkness surrounding her, disappeared together into one of his dimensions.

——

Elsewhere across the battlefield, General Iroh and Esmeray were locked in their own exchange.

And it seemed as though they were evenly matched.

Well, at least the spells from the magic they cast most often were. Each was operating at Tier 7, with both of them being SS-tier casters.

A magic circle would suddenly open above Esmeray’s position, each one glowing with the signature of gravity magic.

But the instant they appeared, Esmeray would fly away.

She moved with an almost unnatural sense for danger, narrowly avoiding the moments where immense gravitational pressure would descend from those circles and crush the space she had once occupied.

At the same time, her own magic circles continued opening around her, shooting out dozens of thin threads from them.

The strings latched onto the scattered debris littering the ruined palace, and the moment they connected, Esmeray flicked her fingers.

The debris were launched like projectiles toward Iroh.

The calm looking General raised a hand towards them, causing magic circles of gravity to form.

Each incoming piece of rubble abruptly halted mid-flight before becoming suspended in place.

Then, with a motion of his hand, the entire collection reversed direction and shot back toward Esmeray at even greater speed.

But the threads moved again, slicing apart every piece of returning debris into dozens of smaller fragments that scattered harmlessly across the battlefield.

Neither side had managed to gain an advantage, but it was an endless cycle of attacks and counters.

—

Far away from the palace, a lone figure raced through the night skies.

Ethan.

The moment he entered a certain range airspace, his expression changed immediately.

The sheer density of mana saturating the atmosphere was impossible to mistake.

Members of the Grand Class were colliding with such intensity that even from this distance he could sense the disturbances spreading through the air itself.

Then he zoomed his vision to the point it came from, only to see the palace in ruin, flashes of magic illuminating the night and the colossal dragon in the distance.

The battle had already begun.

"Damn it."

Ethan’s speed increased dramatically and all that was left in the wake of his movement with a flash of lightning.