Chapter 891: Resonance

Vergil brought a hand to his temple the instant Niddrog’s voice tore through his head.

That had not been ordinary communication, nor telepathy deliberately directed at him. The sensation was far more invasive, as though the dragon’s mental roar already existed inside some newly opened layer of his own soul and had simply found a path to emerge.

He could still feel the new energy absorbed from the spawn circulating beneath his skin, mixed with his demonic power and the primordial energy Qliphoth was trying to refine.

The problem was that, at that moment, part of that same energy seemed to be responding directly to Niddrog.

"Qliphoth," he called quickly, frowning as another growl reverberated through his consciousness. "Why the fuck am I hearing that crazy woman screaming?"

Qliphoth did not answer immediately.

Vergil felt the mistake before she could explain.

Absolutely monstrous pain exploded inside his head.

It did not begin as a sharp ache and gradually increase.

It simply appeared at maximum intensity.

Vergil lost control of his legs instantly, dropped to one knee, then planted one hand against the ground while impossible pressure seemed to pull his brain, soul, and perception in different directions.

His eyes widened.

Black veins appeared around his temples, and golden lines began surfacing beneath the skin of his neck, pulsing along with the energy he had just absorbed.

"SHIT—!"

Vergil’s hand sank into the dust of dead leaves.

Inside his mind, Niddrog’s voice became even louder.

"I TOLD YOU TO LEAVE!"

It was not just volume.

Every word carried the creature’s presence.

Fragmented memories that did not belong to Vergil appeared alongside the scream: gigantic roots between teeth, golden sap running down black fangs, entire ages spent beneath Yggdrasil, hunger, rage, sleep, thousands of spawn being born and dying, worlds changing above while that creature continued chewing on the World Tree as though nothing else mattered.

Vergil clenched his teeth.

"Qliphoth... disconnect."

Silence.

"DISCONNECT THIS SHIT!"

"I’m trying!"

Qliphoth’s voice no longer contained even a trace of humor.

Vergil raised his head with difficulty.

"What do you mean, trying?!"

"I CAN’T!"

Another wave of pain struck him.

Vergil collapsed fully onto one hand, the other clutching his head.

His entire body trembled as Yggdrasil’s primordial energy reacted to Niddrog’s roar and began circulating faster inside him.

Qliphoth herself was connected to it as well, and that connection had created a bridge neither of them seemed to have anticipated.

Vergil had not simply absorbed energy from the spawn.

He had absorbed something from the bloodline.

And the bloodline answered to the mother.

Far above, Nivara and Crymsaria realized something had changed.

Niddrog was not merely enraged.

She was completely losing control.

The enormous black dragon twisted her body and struck Crymsaria with a paw so violently that the impact tore open the space behind her.

The red dragon was launched kilometers away, smashing through an entire root before managing to stabilize her wings.

Nivara attacked from the opposite side, trying to freeze the neck joint, but Niddrog turned her head and struck her with one of her horns.

The blow opened a fracture in space-time.

Not metaphorically.

Space simply cracked.

A black line appeared behind Nivara and opened for hundreds of meters, briefly revealing a void between dimensional layers before sealing again.

Nivara was hurled into Yggdrasil’s trunk, shattering an enormous region of bark and sending a rain of golden fragments down over the dunes below.

Crymsaria returned immediately.

"MY TURN!"

She slammed into Niddrog’s flank with her entire body wrapped in fire.

The two tore through another layer of roots.

Niddrog roared.

Crymsaria bit her neck.

Niddrog bit one of her wings.

Nivara returned from above and buried ice-covered claws into Niddrog’s shoulder.

All three began falling together.

Even in the middle of that chaos, Nivara managed to look down.

Vergil was on the ground.

She immediately felt the irregularity in the connection.

"Vergil?"

Crymsaria noticed too.

"What the fuck is happening to him?"

Niddrog took advantage of their distraction and struck both of them with an explosion of energy expanding outward from her body.

Nivara and Crymsaria were forcibly separated, but recovered almost immediately.

Now, however, both were looking at Vergil with more concern than at their opponent.

Crymsaria growled.

"Can we hit to kill?"

Nivara glanced sideways.

"Finally, a useful question."

Down below, Vergil could barely breathe properly.

Niddrog’s voice was still inside his head.

Yggdrasil’s energy kept growing.

And now Nivara and Crymsaria were also pouring an absurd amount of power into the environment.

Vergil raised his face just enough to shout:

"SHUT THAT HYSTERICAL WOMAN UP!"

Nivara blinked.

Crymsaria went silent for one second.

Vergil slammed his hand into the ground.

"MY HEAD IS COLLAPSING!"

Crymsaria opened a tooth-filled draconic grin.

"That means we can hit harder."

Nivara did not disagree.

Both turned toward Niddrog.

Then they stopped holding back.

The change was immediate.

The world reacted before the attacks even began.

Far above Yggdrasil, where no conventional sky should have existed, an enormous sphere of light began to form.

First as a red point.

Then an incandescent circle.

Within seconds, a celestial sun appeared above the roots of the World Tree.

It was not an illusion.

It was a manifestation of Crymsaria’s authority.

The temperature rose absurdly.

Red light passed through the golden leaves, turning that entire region of Yggdrasil into a horizon of fire.

The gray dunes began vitrifying.

Currents of heat rose for kilometers, and some of the more superficial roots began smoking simply from exposure to the presence of that artificial sun.

At the same time, the ground froze.

Nivara opened her wings.

An Ice Age was born.

Frost spread across the dunes without melting even beneath Crymsaria’s sun.

The ice did not depend on ordinary temperature.

It was draconic authority turning the concept of cold into matter.

Within seconds, hundreds of kilometers were covered in white and blue layers.

Dunes became frozen mountains.

Dark lakes vanished beneath crystalline plates.

Yggdrasil’s roots were coated in ice even as celestial heat burned their upper surfaces.

Two impossible conditions began to coexist.

Fire and ice.

Sun and absolute winter.

Yggdrasil began adapting.

That was what disturbed Vergil the most.

The World Tree was not simply being destroyed.

It was reacting.

The golden leaves above shifted position.

Some roots withdrew into deeper regions.

Others began releasing gigantic quantities of primordial energy, as though the tree itself recognized that absurd forces had emerged within it and was redistributing energy to prevent irreversible damage.

Nivara beat her wings.

Billions of ice spikes were born.

Not thousands.

Billions.

Each rose from the frozen ground, some small, others larger than towers, surging toward the sky like a forest of crystalline spears.

Niddrog raised her body and was struck by an endless sequence.

The first shattered against her scales.

The next penetrated between the plates.

Others struck wings, belly, legs, and tail.

Niddrog roared.

The sky answered with fire.

Crymsaria opened her wings before the celestial sun.

Rain began to fall.

Not water.

Drops of fire fell over Yggdrasil.

Each carried enough energy to destroy entire regions.

The flames passed through the golden leaves without consuming them completely, but left luminous scars across some of them.

Others struck the roots and exploded, creating seas of fire over Nivara’s ice.

At the center of everything, Niddrog began answering.

The black dragon tore through billions of spikes, destroying them with her body.

She opened her wings, broke through part of the firestorm, and charged Crymsaria.

The impact between them destroyed dozens of kilometers of ice below.

Nivara appeared from behind.

Niddrog struck her with her tail.

Space tore again.

Another fissure.

Then another.

And another.

The dimensional fabric of that region began developing cracks in every direction.

Vergil tried to stand.

He could not.

The new energy inside his body had gone completely insane.

His demonic power tried to absorb it.

Qliphoth tried to refine it.

Niddrog’s bloodline tried to answer its mother.

And Yggdrasil apparently recognized Qliphoth as something connected to its own roots.

All of those forces were passing through Vergil at the same time.

Blood began running from his nose.

Then his eyes.

He managed to plant one foot against the ground.

Fell again.

His head felt ready to explode.

"QLIPHOTH!"

No answer.

"QLIPHOTH, WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING?!"

The shout emerged carrying energy.

It was not merely a voice.

Demonic Authority, Death, the newly absorbed primordial energy, and the connection to Qliphoth exploded together.

The result traveled through Yggdrasil.

Vergil’s shout ran through the roots.

Climbed the trunk.

Passed through branches.

Crossed leaves.

Spread through the dimensional layers connected to the World Tree.

For an instant, everything in that reality heard it.

Nivara heard.

Crymsaria heard.

Niddrog stopped mid-attack.

The spawn still alive in distant regions raised their heads.

Even the World Tree’s energy seemed to fluctuate.

Then Qliphoth appeared in front of him.

She emerged from Vergil’s shadow practically stumbling, something he had never seen her do before.

Her normally confident face was completely serious.

Long red hair floated around her body while golden and black lines ran across her skin.

"Vergil."

He raised his face.

"Disconnect."

"I can’t."

"THEN RIP IT OUT!"

Qliphoth knelt in front of him and placed both hands against his face.

"Try to calm down."

Vergil almost laughed.

"My head is being used as a battlefield by a tree and a psychotic dragon!"

"I know."

"Then do something!"

Qliphoth closed her eyes.

Tried to pull the energy.

Her body began to glow.

For an instant, it worked.

The pain diminished.

Vergil managed to breathe.

Then something answered.

Far beneath the roots.

Or perhaps far above.

It was impossible to tell.

An amount of energy so enormous that even Qliphoth could not identify its origin passed through the connection.

Her eyes opened.

"Wait."

Vergil saw the fear.

"Qliphoth?"

Her fingers began disappearing.

They did not burn.

They were not cut away.

They simply dissolved into golden particles.

Qliphoth looked at her own hands.

"That shouldn’t..."

Her arms began following.

Vergil tried to grab her.

His hand passed through part of her body.

"Qliphoth!"

"I’m not dying."

"You’re disintegrating!"

"I know!"

"That is usually bad!"

"Vergil, shut up for one second!"

Her body continued disappearing.

The particles were not carried away by the wind.

They were being pulled into Vergil.

He looked at his own chest.

The same golden lines returned.

This time, they did not disappear.

They spread.

Neck.

Arms.

Face.

Legs.

Yggdrasil’s energy enveloped his entire body.

Then Niddrog’s energy came.

Black.

Bluish.

Corrosive.

Draconic.

The two met.

Vergil stopped feeling the ground.

Qliphoth’s eyes widened.

"Ah..."

Vergil looked at her.

"Don’t say ’ah.’"

"Vergil..."

"Qliphoth."

"Something is pulling you."

He tried to open Yamato.

Nothing.

Tried to use Mjölnir.

The hammer flew into his hand, but the energy around him had already become too dense to pierce.

Vergil opened his wings.

All six disappeared inside the light.

"QLIPHOTH!"

She reached toward him.

Vergil tried to reach her.

Their fingers almost touched.

Then the energy of Yggdrasil and Niddrog closed completely around him.

There was no explosion.

No portal.

No dimensional cut.

Vergil simply disappeared.

Consumed by the energy of Yggdrasil and Niddrog.