Soleil POV
"So, you are the brat that Rigurd keeps talking about? His so-called 'little brother'?" The voice of the Dragon God, Great Red, rumbled like a tectonic shift. "The fact you were able to harm me with your first move shows my friend's terrifying insight once again. But know this, brat…"
His halo began to shine and spin, spreading magic around his form until it suddenly stopped. He smiled, a terrifying sight.
"You drew first blood on me, brat. For that… I will annihilate you!"
And the world flipped upside down.
My mind raced, trying to make sense of what had just happened. By the time my senses recalibrated, I found myself trapped in the palm of Great Red's massive hand. He opened his maw, a sphere of concentrated annihilation forming within it, aimed directly at me.
As the beam of pure, obliterating energy erupted from his mouth, I immediately activated Blink, hoping to teleport to the other side of the battlefield. The worst possible thing happened.
It didn't work.
No—it was more accurate to say I was locked. My innate control over space was overridden, my teleportation trapped within a constricted pocket of reality he had defined. Damn it. I knew he was strong, but strong enough to overpower my spatial authority? In truth, I should have expected it. He was an ancient Dragon God; of course he would have developed countermeasures against teleportation.
In a desperate, final bid for survival, I channeled every ounce of my cursed energy and mana into a desperate reinforcement, wrapping my body in layered shields. It barely helped. The attack hit me with the force of a continent being dropped from orbit, and everything went dark.
Minato Namikaze POV
A silence so profound it could be cut with a knife permeated the battlefield.
The Dragon of Dreams, immediately after being injured by Soleil Strider—one of Earth's strongest and most influential figures, despite his reclusive nature—had just demonstrated why he was the apex. People had latched onto Soleil after his first, improbable victory against Diodora Astaroth, a time when he was overwhelmingly weaker. He had shown humanity that these supernatural powers could be challenged, that growth was possible. He motivated us to grind, to push beyond our limits, and before we knew it, humanity boasted over three hundred Ultimate-Class beings.
I had discovered a great talent for chakra and ninjutsu, dedicating myself wholly to it. I created my signature techniques—the Flying Thunder God, the Rasengan—and achieved grandmastery in sealing arts through intense study. Initially, I needed to manually place my mark to teleport, but after years of meditation and tinkering with fuinjutsu, I learned to combine it with my sensory abilities and touki. Now, as long as I can see or sense a target with my chakra, I can place a Thunder Mark on them stealthily. I had already seeded markers on thousands of participants and objects across this island as an insurance policy for survival. The only ones who had noticed and purged them were Kushina, Gojo Satoru, and Sir Lancelot.
Seeing Soleil get speed-blitzed and seemingly incinerated was a sobering lesson. Great Red knew of us, understood which of us posed a threat, and was taking this fight seriously. Soleil was nowhere to be found—either critically injured at the bottom of that new crater or already defeated and ejected from the battle.
"Hey, Minato, right?" The voice belonged to the legendary hero from Bet, Eidolon, floating alongside the human monster, Thomas Andre, who had revolutionized the understanding of Touki. "Andre and I are moving in. You're a teleporter; we'll need tactical support. You coming?"
Thomas Andre had taken the common understanding of Touki and flipped it on its head, demonstrating its complexity and power by developing special abilities, techniques, and, most importantly, vows and restrictions through it. For this groundbreaking work, the Voice of the World had rewarded him by loosening the metaphysical constraints of such vows, allowing him—as a true specialist—to create even more powerful Hatsu. His Meditation Engine, for instance, permanently increased his Touki reserves as long as he sat perfectly still and meditated, granting him a monstrous pool of energy no one else could match.
(Yes, Thomas Andre had essentially evolved Touki into a variant of Nen, retaining its original attributes while incorporating Nen's versatile properties.)
"Yeah, I can help," I replied, "but I'm not sure how much I'll be able to contribute against that. He may be large, but he's faster than most of us. That size alone is a monumental threat. He's a god; he'll have ways to counter spatial abilities, especially after what we just saw happen to Soleil."
"Nah, just leave it to us," Thomas Andre said, the wind picking up to blow his lion's mane of hair, giving him a starkly heroic silhouette. "Coordinate our movements and leave the heavy hitting to us."
"Fine," I conceded. "Let's go hunting."
I turned my gaze back to the chaotic melee. Great Red was being assaulted by thousands simultaneously. I saw Legend blasting powerful lasers, trying to hold the dragon's attention and create openings for others, only for Red to suddenly accelerate and swat him from the sky. Before the dragon could press the attack, he was struck by a miniature sun that burned away part of his face, revealing bloody bone beneath. The only one capable of such grievous damage was the strongest human, Cardinal Vasco—the only Satan-Class human. He followed up by punching the dragon so hard it was sent flying several hundred meters before skidding to a violent stop.
Seizing the opening, I immediately teleported myself, Eidolon, and Thomas Andre to a position directly above the dazed dragon's head. The combo was on.