Chapter 806 - 805: The Appearance of the Dragon They Wanted to Control."

Gradually, the sun was setting over Midgar and disappearing beyond the horizon, slowly plunging the gigantic city into the darkness of evening. This was the time when the exhausted streams of people returned home from work, eager to get back to their families or friends as quickly as possible. But at this very moment, absolutely every resident of the Upper City had literally frozen with their mouths hanging open, all turning toward Sector Five at once.

Everyone's attention was fixed on the enormous, dazzling fireworks display that had taken the shape of some very familiar figures—the very same people whom the residents of Midgar could never possibly mistake for anyone else. And no one had the slightest idea how they were supposed to react to the fireworks blazing across the sky, forming the silhouettes of Heidegger and President Shinra passionately kissing while holding each other far too tightly. Nobody even understood how they were supposed to comment on such a bizarre performance or what they were supposed to do in such an absurd situation, so everyone simply continued staring in stunned silence at the strange fireworks.

However, there were also those who were openly laughing at the sheer audacity of the provocation. And these people weren't limited to the residents of the Slums or the inhabitants of the Upper City: even among the stern Grunts guards, occasional snickers could be heard, which they desperately tried to hide so that nobody from Shinra's higher-ups would notice. But there were also those who simply didn't care in the slightest whether anyone noticed them or not.

One of those people was Reno, who was currently in the Turks' office on the 49th floor of Shinra Headquarters. Reno was practically rolling around on the floor, clutching his stomach from uncontrollable laughter. Not far from him stood Rude, Tseng, and Elena, who were likewise standing by the enormous panoramic window and silently watching this highly compromising fireworks display.

"Oh, shit!.. I'm seriously going to die laughing! How the hell did that guy even come up with the idea of making fireworks like this?!" Reno managed to say while struggling to suppress another fit of laughter, wiping away the tears that had appeared after his prolonged laughing.

"How the hell did that guy even manage to pull something like this off?" Elena asked in genuine confusion, unable to understand how Alex had managed to time the detonation with such precision.

"Hmm... I have absolutely no idea how exactly he did it. But I'll admit, watching fireworks like this is rather fascinating in its own way," Rude replied, adjusting his sunglasses without taking his captivated eyes off the glowing image in the sky.

"If you've finished behaving like little children seeing fireworks for the first time, then get back to work immediately. Very soon, we'll all be facing another brutal round of overtime," Tseng said coldly, continuing to work through a stack of documents without even attempting to look at the fireworks outside the window.

Elena quickly returned to her desk to continue going through the documents. Reno and Rude, however, remained where they were by the panoramic window, genuinely interested in seeing what would happen next. After all, they couldn't possibly be unaware of the large-scale operation Shinra was carrying out at that very moment or the consequences it could ultimately lead to. But there was one thing both of them were one hundred percent certain of: they were in for quite an entertaining show.

Reno narrowed his eyes slightly as he stared toward Mako Reactor Five. And despite the fact that in two out of their three personal encounters with Alex, Alex had knocked the stuffing out of him twice, Reno had no intention of saying this aloud, but he genuinely believed that Shinra's new experimental Airbuster had rather poor odds against Alex.

Rude thought exactly the same, believing that Alex would have absolutely no trouble escaping the trap Shinra's leadership had prepared for him. Smirking slightly, Reno turned back toward the working Tseng, who had been ignoring both the fireworks in the sky and the entire spectacle Shinra had arranged against Avalanche from the very beginning.

"Dammit, Boss... You ruined everything again! Aren't you even a little interested in what happens next?" Reno said dejectedly, turning toward Tseng, who was once again forcing them to work overtime.

"Not particularly. They have their job, we have ours. None of this concerns us until we receive a direct order," Tseng replied calmly, turning his head slightly toward Reno.

"And yet I'm damn curious whether our buddy—the Generation 0 SOLDIER—can actually defeat this new experimental robot. I heard the eggheads stuffed some fundamentally new power source into it," Reno said with a smirk, shifting his gaze back toward the dying fireworks.

"Perhaps he isn't a Generation 0 SOLDIER at all, as you call him... Perhaps he's something entirely different," Tseng said thoughtfully, folding his hands beneath his chin and staring intently at Aerith's dossier, which was open on his work screen.

"Boss, are you saying..." Rude asked with a frown, turning his head back toward Tseng.

"I won't officially confirm it. But I have a strong suspicion that another Cetra has appeared in this world. Otherwise, I simply can't logically explain his anomalous abilities," Tseng replied, lowering his hands onto the desk and bringing up Alex's dossier on the main screen, showing his photograph in the Bear Mask.

As soon as Tseng's reasoning was voiced, a palpable silence briefly descended over the office. Reno and Rude, who had interacted with Alex and Dean more than anyone else, couldn't deny that they might have encountered another living member of the supposedly extinct Cetra race—with the exception of Aerith. And both of them silently agreed that this explained quite a lot, especially Alex's anomalous ability to freely command the elements without using any Materia.

Rude was just about to ask whether Tseng had passed such classified information on to his superiors or had kept these suspicions to himself for now. But before Rude could voice his question, a very familiar deafening boom erupted outside the window, instantly drawing all their attention.

Turning their heads slightly to the right, Tseng, Reno, Rude, and Elena saw the enormous Mako Reactor in Sector Seven seemingly twisting into an invisible vortex, literally devouring itself and rapidly collapsing into a vacuum-compressed sphere. Seeing this already-familiar spectacle of a Mako Reactor being destroyed, even the stupidest person would have immediately understood that someone had known every detail of Shinra's treacherous plans for Reactor Five from the very beginning.

"Don't tell me they're planning to destroy two reactors in a single evening?!" Elena asked in astonishment, staring in undisguised shock as the enormous industrial facility instantly vanished from the face of the earth.

"Perhaps that's exactly what's happening. It seems Shinra has lost this battle spectacularly once again... Now I'm genuinely curious to see what happens next," Tseng said, smoothly rising from his leather chair, stepping right up to the panoramic window, and fixing his intense gaze toward Mako Reactor Five.

"Boss, didn't you just say we'd be facing brutal overtime? And now you're the one deciding to take a break and watch the show that's about to begin?" Reno said with a sly grin, narrowing his eyes behind his sunglasses at Tseng.

"That is indeed the case. Perhaps we'll genuinely have a tremendous amount of work to do very soon. Therefore, a short little break certainly won't hurt us right now," Tseng said calmly, clasping his hands behind his back without taking his attentive gaze off Sector Five.

At the same time, a small group of people was located in a residential district on the Plate of Sector Seven, lost among the crowd of stunned residents who were watching in undisguised horror as the enormous factory simply disappeared from the face of the earth. But what caused even greater confusion among the citizens was the fact that despite the complete disappearance of the Mako Reactor, the electricity in their district was still working.

None of the residents could understand how such a thing was even possible, since the main source of energy had literally just vanished before their eyes. And while the confused residents of the residential district buzzed with discussion about the unbelievable phenomenon, a small group of people cautiously began making their way through the crowd of onlookers, discreetly leaving the scene. Dean and Wedge were part of this group, still dressed in work coveralls with protective helmets on their heads.

Once they escaped the dense flow of people, Dean adjusted the sports bag over his shoulder with a satisfied smirk. For a second, Steve's Tonberry's green paw emerged from the bag, tightly clutching the detonator. Carefully pushing Steve's paw back inside the bag, Dean turned his head toward Jessie, Aerith, and Yuffie, who were standing on the opposite side of the street. Meeting the girls' gazes, Dean gave a slight nod, signaling that it was time for them to head toward Sector Six, where they had arranged to meet the others.

Jessie nodded back at him and immediately led Aerith and Yuffie away, since she was the only one who knew the inconspicuous route between the sectors in detail, allowing them to avoid attracting the attention of Shinra patrols. As Jessie led her companions away, she couldn't help wondering anxiously what was happening in Sector Five right now and whether Alex and the rest of the group were all right.

"Hehehe, that was freaking awesome! The whole factory just went—whoosh! And then—boom! And it was gone!" Yuffie said, laughing loudly as she enthusiastically gestured with her hands, showing how the enormous industrial complex had literally vanished into thin air.

"Seeing something like that with my own eyes really was incredible... Fortunately, thanks to our backup plan, my parents have most likely already reached the port in Junon safely," Jessie replied with a relieved smile, slightly shaking her head from side to side.

"Ugh, a whole month of proper vacation at a resort... I want that too! I want to swim in warm water, eat fresh seafood cooked over a grill, and take a walk along the beach in the evening... I want all of that! Where's the justice?!" Aerith sighed, beginning to complain with exaggerated sadness as her desire to immediately head to a resort flared up.

"Then all we have to do is make someone open their wallet nice and wide so that our whole big group can go on vacation once all of this is finally over!" Jessie said with a laugh, warmly wrapping an arm around Aerith's shoulder and resting her cheek against Aerith's.

"Sounds like an excellent plan," Aerith said with a smile, trying to hide her anxious thoughts about the difficult events that were coming behind her cheerful tone.

"Hey, don't forget about me! I'm coming with you too!" Yuffie shouted energetically, practically jumping onto Aerith and Jessie from behind and refusing to let them take another step without her.

"I said our whole group! And if we're lucky, we might even be able to go see a recording of my old performance. As far as I know, they still show it occasionally at the famous Gold Saucer theater," Jessie said with bright laughter, nostalgically dreaming of standing on the stage again or at least seeing her work on a big screen.

Continuing to smile warmly and walk beside Jessie and Yuffie, Aerith sincerely hoped that Alex's plan would work and that he would truly manage to change what seemed to have been predetermined forever. She desperately didn't want to lose her new friends because of the terrible tragedy that was coming to Sector Seven. Trying not to show anything and worry her companions, Aerith sighed softly and raised her gaze toward the darkening evening sky, continuing to believe that sheer willpower could change even something that had already been carved into Fate.

Lowering her gaze, Aerith returned to her conversation with Jessie and Yuffie, who were already enthusiastically discussing various pleasant little things, especially how Jessie had once performed on a grand stage. Listening with bated breath to Jessie's stories about her former life as an actress, Aerith simply couldn't hide her happy smile. Chuckling at the silly and amusing situations from Jessie's past, Aerith suddenly noticed a barely visible silhouette of a White Whisper flash near the heavy technical door Jessie was leading them toward, slowly passing straight through the thick metal.

Seeing this, Aerith smiled happily, feeling a deep sense of relief. Jessie and Yuffie, of course, didn't notice the White Whisper—it was still completely invisible to their eyes. The girls calmly approached the massive doors, which, to their surprise, turned out to be unlocked. Taking this as an incredible stroke of luck, Jessie laughed happily and confidently stepped forward, intending to reach their meeting point in Sector Six as quickly as possible.

As she was the last to enter through the doors, Aerith turned around for a second and saw five more White Whispers hovering motionlessly in the air above Jessie's home, silently looking in her direction. Smiling softly and gratefully, Aerith waved goodbye to them before disappearing behind the doors. To her, this sign was the long-awaited confirmation that gave her unshakable hope that Fate could be corrected and the catastrophe prevented.

Several minutes before the Mako Reactor in Sector Seven finally disappeared, Alex and Barret were still loudly laughing at Heidegger's stunned face, frozen in horror after seeing the compromising fireworks display. Neither of them restrained themselves in the slightest, and they even began loudly whistling at Shinra's head of security.

However, a few moments later, Heidegger's expression abruptly changed from profound shock to furious, explosive rage that he could no longer control—especially when he saw with his own eyes on the neighboring monitor how Mako Reactor Seven simply melted into thin air. All of his murderous rage was caused by the realization that he had been completely outplayed, having been made to believe until the very end that the entire situation was under his absolute control.

Heidegger's furious roar thundered in every direction through the speakers, and Alex immediately realized that this was their perfect opportunity. While the head of security was completely distracted by his own outburst of rage, Alex gave Tifa, Claudia, and Barret a discreet signal to quietly leave the balcony while he himself drew the remaining attention toward himself.

At first, none of the three wanted to retreat and leave Alex to deal with Shinra's entire army alone. But Alex quickly made them understand that if any danger arose, he would have no trouble escaping on his own—immediately after making the corporation's leadership's lives even more miserable. Clearly showing how unwilling he was to leave, Barret first raised his frowning gaze toward Heidegger's roaring projection and then lowered his eyes to Alex.

"Don't stay here too long, kid. I have no intention whatsoever of having to bury my new friend and comrade later," Barret said grimly, giving Alex a firm pat on the shoulder before turning around and running toward the exit from the T-shaped balcony.

"Please be careful. We'll be waiting for you at our agreed meeting point," Tifa said, gently squeezing Alex's hand one last time before immediately running after Barret.

"Good luck," Claudia said briefly with a slight nod, playfully punching Alex in the shoulder in farewell before immediately sprinting after the others.

Watching Barret, Tifa, and Claudia hurriedly leave the T-shaped balcony, Alex merely stretched lazily beneath Heidegger's furious screams, which showed no sign of dying down. He didn't care in the slightest about what was happening to Shinra's head of security right now, because he'd already witnessed a spectacle like this dozens of times throughout his life.

Once he finished stretching, Alex calmly took off his familiar black coat and casually stored it in his inventory so that the expensive garment wouldn't accidentally be damaged during the upcoming battle with the combat robot. Left wearing nothing but a black T-shirt and jeans, Alex leisurely lit another thin cigar, looked at Heidegger's projection, and then snapped his fingers sharply, drawing the enraged director's attention.

Hearing the snap, Heidegger turned his head with a face twisted by rage and stared at Alex with an undisguised desire to personally tear the insolent young man to pieces. Responding to that murderous glare with nothing more than a lazy yawn, Alex exhaled a thick cloud of smoke through his nose and casually flicked the ash onto the ground beneath his feet.

"Where did the other rats go?!" Heidegger shouted with murderous fury, beginning to breathe heavily and unevenly as he barely managed to control yet another fit of rage.

"Old man, you wouldn't happen to be developing dementia, would you? I've been here alone from the very beginning... Or are you already hallucinating? Oh, well, then you really should see a doctor. It could be a very serious condition. Have you talked to your new husband about it yet?" Alex said in an utterly carefree tone, lazily leaning against the metal railing and smirking at Heidegger's projection.

"I don't give a damn! Even if you're here alone, it doesn't matter anymore! First, you'll die in agony, and everything left of you will be sent to the laboratory... As for the other rats, their fate is no better. Too bad you won't live long enough to see it!" Heidegger said with a wide, malicious grin, bursting into disgusting laughter as he fixed his vicious gaze on Alex.

"Hmm... Interesting. And then what? You'll launch your robot and send it after the others?.. You know, that's a pretty lousy plan. In my opinion, I'd even call it downright pathetic," Alex said casually, taking Heidegger's loud threats completely unseriously.

"Enjoy yourself while you still can, Slum rat! You can't even imagine what's waiting for you right now!" Heidegger said arrogantly, nearly bursting with rage at the sight of Alex's utterly composed expression.

"Yeah. How about you just hurry up and finish your clichéd villain monologue so we can finally get started? Someone promised me a few hugs when I get back, after all," Alex said with a lazy smile, calmly sitting on the metal railing with his cheek resting against his fist.

Hearing yet another lazy remark from Alex, Heidegger decided not to give in to his anger anymore and waste words on someone who, in his firm conviction, was already a walking corpse. Seeing that the director had finally managed to regain control of himself, Alex smirked slightly and tilted his head to the side, waiting for the finale. And immediately, he noticed a wide, malicious grin spreading across Heidegger's face, followed by a strange, steadily intensifying rumble coming from below.

Looking down, Alex could see through the metal grating of the floor that something was rapidly flying upward from below, heading straight toward him at tremendous speed. Narrowing his eyes, he immediately recognized the gigantic Airbuster bursting out from the very depths of the industrial complex. The next thing Alex saw was the turrets on Airbuster's back beginning to light up one after another with blinding light.

At that very moment, Airbuster unleashed a devastating stream of compressed plasma upward from each of its weapons. The solid column of plasma instantly incinerated and melted the T-shaped balcony, surging high into the sky and piercing through the clouds. Heidegger, watching all of this through the cameras of the flying drones, laughed arrogantly, firmly believing that Alex hadn't even had time to realize he had been vaporized by a single shot. Airbuster flew higher and hovered directly in front of the laughing Heidegger's hologram.

"Whoa, that almost got me! Now I understand why you stuffed so many energy cores into this tin can. Shooting compressed plasma isn't exactly child's play. It takes skill. Though, I suppose the same could be said about picking your nose," Alex's bored, ironic voice came from somewhere above, directly from the roof of the complex.

"Why the hell are you still alive?!" Heidegger shouted in complete shock upon seeing Alex calmly crouching right at the edge of the roof.

"Oh, sorry, sorry. I didn't even think it would upset you this much. Though I admit, the attack was almost unexpected. Or not," Alex said cheerfully, propping his cheeks up with his palms and playfully shaking his head from side to side.

"Attack him at full power! Kill that RAT!" Heidegger shouted at the top of his lungs, issuing an urgent command to Airbuster's control system.

Upon receiving the direct command, Airbuster immediately aimed every single one of its weapons directly at Alex, who continued sitting calmly on the very edge of the complex's roof. Locking all of its rear turrets onto him, Airbuster raised its enormous metal arms, which transformed in an instant into powerful multi-barreled cannons, their energy charges rapidly building.

The robot's final and deadliest weapon was a massive cannon hidden inside its chest. The robot's chest compartment emitted a quiet hiss and slid open, revealing a gigantic barrel. Watching this massive transformation with undisguised investigative interest, Alex noticed a very familiar energy signature being utilized by Airbuster.

Narrowing his eyes slightly and activating his magical vision, Alex was able to see through the thick armored metal hull and identify exactly what kind of core the robot was using as its primary power source. And the moment he saw that core, Alex immediately understood why Airbuster's appearance was so suspiciously similar to that of an ancient, powerful creature. This discovery also perfectly explained why devastating weaponry had been built into virtually every inch of its steel armor.

Alex could only sincerely marvel at how Shinra's idiot engineers had managed to tame and adapt such a creature for their technological needs at all. And while Alex was absorbed in these thoughts, Airbuster charged all of its systems within mere fractions of a second and unleashed an even larger and more concentrated plasma barrage.

Seeing the enormous, solid column of all-consuming fire racing toward the roof, Heidegger smirked arrogantly, already celebrating absolute victory—even if achieving it meant completely destroying the complex in Sector Five. To him, it was a negligible price to pay for Shinra to rise even higher while simultaneously gathering invaluable combat data under real battlefield conditions.

Continuing to lose himself in sweet dreams of Shinra's future greatness, Heidegger suddenly flinched: just before the column of plasma collided with the roof, Alex's clear and perfectly calm voice echoed through the air.

"Turn all that exists to ash, Ifrit... Azept," Alex said calmly, raising the bright crimson Summoning Materia to his chest and literally forcing it straight into his body.

At that very moment, a colossal tornado of fire erupted around Alex, immediately twisting the deadly column of plasma and forcing it to change its trajectory, sending it far beyond the borders of Midgar. At tremendous speed, the column of plasma slammed into one of the barren hills outside the city and instantly incinerated it, transforming solid rock into bubbling molten stone that spread in all directions.

The fiery tornado surrounding Alex radiated such an immense temperature that the thick metal of the roof around him began rapidly melting, while the air became so scorching and dry that the flying drones observing the battle began shutting down one after another. The last thing Heidegger managed to see before the final drone went offline was Alex slowly stepping out of the epicenter of the fiery tornado, having assumed his new demonic form.

Long, branching horns adorned his head, resembling the still-burning branches of ancient trees, with elegant golden ornaments hanging from them like earrings. From his neck and across his entire body stretched impenetrable black armor, riddled with pulsing veins through which actual molten lava flowed. His arms and legs were protected by black guards ending in sharp beast-like claws. But the most distinct and terrifying features of his face were his bared razor-sharp teeth and bright red slit-like eyes.

After cracking his neck slightly following the completion of such a wild transformation, Alex threw his head back and began greedily absorbing all the surrounding flames in a single exhalation. At that very second, the last functioning combat drone finally went offline, and all of Midgar watched in shock as a powerful firestorm erupted directly in the center of Mako Reactor Five. After absorbing every last spark of fire, Alex gave a small belch, exhaling a tiny burst of flame, and shifted his unblinking gaze toward Airbuster.

"Hmm... This feels noticeably different from merging with Ddraig... At least nobody's trying to talk to me inside my head. They're only growling nonstop..." Alex said with a satisfied smirk, involuntarily breathing out small tongues of flame with every word he spoke.

And while Alex was completely occupied with checking the parameters of his new transformation, worried that he might overdo it with his demonic power, he didn't immediately notice the Grey Whispers rapidly gathering around the motionless Airbuster, swirling into a dense vortex. A moment later, dozens of Grey Whispers began entering Airbuster one after another at tremendous speed, causing its systems to enter critical overload.

Hearing a strange, steadily intensifying hum, Alex curiously tilted his head and happened to notice the very last Grey Whisper flying straight into the robot's open chest. Intrigued by what these annoying "Grey Feathers" had planned this time, Alex calmly took a thin cigar from his inventory and lit it from his own burning horns as usual. Exhaling a thick stream of smoke, Alex watched as Airbuster began transforming before his eyes into an entirely different form, becoming even more similar to the ancient creature whose core had originally been used as its primary power source.

And just a couple of seconds later, a genuine Mechanical Bahamut stood where the robot had been, albeit smaller than its true form. After completing its massive structural reconstruction, Mechanical Bahamut spread its enormous wings with a deafening metallic clang and roared furiously, unleashing a solid stream of raging plasma from its mouth. Seeing all this, Alex couldn't help admitting that he definitely hadn't expected such a trick from the Whispers.

Now he was even more interested in discovering what this steel dragon was actually capable of. Alex immediately understood that the Grey Whispers hadn't merely changed Airbuster's appearance—they had forcibly awakened the sleeping soul of Bahamut itself within the core, forcing it to merge with the metal body and use it as a conduit. Tossing his smoldering cigar aside, Alex assumed a solid fighting stance, predator-like black claws extended menacingly in front of him.

"Well then, let's see what you've got! Will you be just as powerful and majestic as a real dragon, or will you turn out to be nothing more than a pathetic and useless tin can? Show me everything you've got, Bahamut!" Alex said with a wide, excited grin, waving his hand slightly and inviting Mechanical Bahamut to attack first.

In response to Alex's taunting words, Mechanical Bahamut beat its wings powerfully, and roaring jet turbines immediately extended from them with a metallic click. Seeing this, Alex's smile widened even further, eager to test what Bahamut was capable of in such a technological hybrid form. Beating its mechanical wings again, Bahamut literally vanished from its position at maximum speed and appeared directly in front of Alex's face in the same instant, swinging its massive clawed paw.

With a wide grin, Alex met the swing with a direct punch, precisely restraining his own strength enough to match Bahamut's level perfectly. Alex's and Bahamut's fists collided with a deafening crack right in the center, and a dense shockwave filled with scorching air blasted outward in every direction.

The moment he landed the first strike, Alex immediately clenched his other hand into a fist and drove it directly into the steel body. Mechanical Bahamut roared furiously and answered with a devastating symmetrical strike. Alex's and Bahamut's fists continued colliding at insane speed, generating more and more shockwaves that destroyed everything around them. The residents of Midgar standing outside the factory with protest signs in their hands panicked and scattered in every direction, desperately trying to leave the disaster zone as quickly as possible.

Dropping the banners that immediately caught fire from the waves of heat, the citizens didn't even notice that the scorching impulses were setting the hidden Grey Whispers ablaze—the very ones pushing people toward their deaths. Even the Grunts garrison, which had been called in to contain the crowd, began urgently evacuating the area while helping civilians escape.

Meanwhile, Alex and Mechanical Bahamut continued clashing in brutal close-quarters combat. Laughing sincerely, Alex blocked another punch from Bahamut with a hard guard, grabbed the mechanical dragon by the head, and slammed his forehead straight into its nose with all his strength. Bahamut's head snapped backward from the violent impact, while a mass of compressed plasma instantly began forming inside its open jaws.

As Mechanical Bahamut prepared to fire the plasma point-blank at Alex, it tried to lower its head, only to immediately receive a devastating uppercut directly to the chin. Another blinding stream of plasma shot straight upward, completely scattering the night clouds. After landing a precise blow to Bahamut's jaw, Alex spun on the spot and delivered a lightning-fast roundhouse kick directly into the mechanical dragon's body. The impact sent Bahamut flying backward like a stone, its back smashing straight through the reinforced metal walls of the factory.

Laughing loudly, Alex charged after it through the breach, catching up with his opponent in midair. Pushing off the edge of yet another hole in the wall, Alex leaped forward, spun in the air, and plunged downward feet-first. At the same instant, Alex slammed both feet into Mechanical Bahamut's chest at full speed, sending it into yet another prolonged flight. A moment later, Mechanical Bahamut crashed down with a deafening roar directly into the center of the lower Mako storage facility.

"Oi, Bahamut! Ready for round two?! Or are you still just a powerless bitch for those Grey Bastards?!" Alex shouted with a provocative grin, landing on the upper balcony of the Mako storage facility with a heavy metallic thud.

Hearing Alex's provocative words, Mechanical Bahamut suddenly began trembling and jerking violently from side to side. Watching what was happening to the metal dragon, Alex clearly saw ghostly gray chains begin tightening around Bahamut's body with a whistling sound, literally robbing it of the ability to move freely. Alex immediately understood: the Grey Whispers had forcibly clamped Bahamut in their grip and put it on a leash, preventing it from breaking free and forcing it to act strictly according to their whims.

Fully aware that his intervention could have colossal consequences for the Fate of this world itself, Alex nevertheless decided to give the trapped dragon a little help. Bringing his index finger and thumb together, Alex fired a precisely aimed burst of compressed flame with a sharp snap directly at one of the gray chains. The moment the demonic fire touched the gray chain binding Bahamut, it immediately melted and snapped apart.

Feeling freedom with the first broken chain, Bahamut let out a deafening roar, clamped its teeth firmly around another chain binding its left foreleg, and tore it out with flesh, swallowing and absorbing the Grey Whisper holding the restraint in the process. Growing stronger, Bahamut immediately began ripping apart the remaining gray chains one after another, finally reclaiming its free will.

And the moment Bahamut was completely freed from their control, its heavy metallic body began shining brilliantly and melting before their eyes. Throwing its head back toward the ceiling, the dragon let out a devastating roar, displaying to everyone around it the true majesty of the Demon King.

Plasma bursts erupted roaringly from every one of its built-in weapons in all directions, burning straight through the reinforced walls of the complex and causing its rapid collapse. Alex watched the catastrophe with his eyes narrowed slightly, perfectly aware that from this point onward, the battle was going to become several times more interesting and insane.

After finishing its chaotic barrage, Mechanical Bahamut curled in on itself, and its superheated metal body rapidly restructured itself, transforming into a gigantic, pulsating red cocoon. A moment later, a deafening crack of tearing metal rang through the storage facility, followed by a tremendous explosion. The explosive shockwave spread in every direction, bringing even more massive destruction to the complex.

Slightly shielding his eyes from the dust and scorching air flying into his face, Alex narrowed his eyes again and saw Bahamut standing before him in its true organic form. In this shape, Bahamut was so enormous that its colossal body reached all the way to the ceiling of the Mako storage facility.

Lowering its massive head, the dragon looked directly at Alex with unblinking green slit-like eyes and, with the slightest movement, subtly tilted its snout upward. At the same moment, Bahamut spread its wings to their full width and soared upward, smashing straight through the floors and ceiling of the complex with its gigantic body. Watching the dragon rapidly fly away through the opening it had created, Alex grinned broadly and then burst into loud laughter.

"Ha-ha-ha! So you want to continue this outside?! Excellent, you son of a bitch, I'm in!" Alex laughed loudly, perfectly understanding the meaning of Bahamut's inviting gesture.

When he finally stopped laughing, Alex narrowed his eyes slightly, and a fiery storm immediately condensed around him with renewed force, becoming larger and hotter with every passing moment. And just a second later, an enormous beast-like paw with long black claws burst from the fiery tornado, followed by a horrifying bestial head with an elongated maw and curling horns.

Assuming his colossal true Ifrit form, Alex let out a triumphant roar and powerfully leaped upward. Clinging to the shattered edges of the broken ceiling with his claws, he began making his way toward the highest level of the complex at tremendous speed. After all, how could he possibly refuse a direct duel with such a magnificent creature as the legendary dragon of Gaia? And at that moment, Alex was no longer thinking about any temporal or plot-related consequences whatsoever—he was now completely consumed by the wild excitement brought on by this battle.

To be continued...

(So, I decided it wouldn't be a good idea to cram the battle against the Dragon robot and then the Kaiju battle into one chapter. Like, it wouldn't fit in one chapter at all, or I'd have to cut a lot to fit it all in. So, Alex as Ifrit will be fighting Bahamut next. Yeah, I know I'm such a jerk for ending on a cliffhanger again. Just don't beat me up, heh. It's not my fault, it just happens. Now, time to eat. Peace, love, and Roooaaarrrrrr.)

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