The silver dragon's body trembled, arcs of lightning sputtering across his battered scales. Blood seeped from the corners of his mouth, evaporating into sparks before it touched the ground. Yet his eyes… they were steady, burning with a silent resolve.
Two threads of radiant energy extended from his chest, one piercing into the heart of the red dragon, the other binding itself to Khai. Their energies intermingled in a strange, flowing current.
"This… is the only way," the silver dragon whispered, his voice ragged but firm. "We will not last if we remain divided."
Khai's cold face hardened, his jaw tightening. The red dragon snarled but didn't sever the threads. For the first time, the three fought as one, their breaths in sync, their strikes perfectly woven together. Blades of fire, arcs of lightning, and halberd shadows descended in unison, shaking Damien's world with a force that made even its creator frown.
The skies rippled. The fractured edges of the Myriad Worlds grew more unstable, small shards breaking off and dispersing into energy dust.
Damien's calm smile curved into something sharp. "Impressive… but still too shallow."
He raised a hand. The skies darkened, a thousand suns compressing into one spear of light, and hurled it down. It pierced straight through the silver dragon's chest.
Blood splattered the air, sizzling as it met Damien's laws. The dragon staggered, scales cracking, breath failing.
"No!" Khai's voice finally cracked with emotion.
The red dragon's eyes burned crimson. His roar split heaven and earth, shaking the fragile fabric of Damien's world. The sound was so filled with anguish that even the laws bent. The sky turned a mournful purple, lightning storms swirled, and tremors split the ground beneath their feet.
Damien's eyes widened. For the first time, the phenomena of his world slipped beyond his control.
The silver dragon's breath grew faint. Yet he smiled faintly, his fangs stained with blood. "Live. That is… my choice."
His body glowed brighter and brighter until the threads snapped taut—then he was gone, vanishing into pure energy. His sacrifice coursed into Khai and the red dragon, leaving nothing of him behind but memory.
"Brother…" The red dragon's roar was unrecognizable now, raw grief turning into fury. Lava poured from his scales, firestorms rising with his tears. His entire body throbbed with incandescent rage.
Damien, even with his dominion, raised a brow. "So… he chose death. Admirable… but useless."
He was wrong.
The shared rage turned into power, Khai's spear howling as it split space, the red dragon's flames so fierce they blistered the false heavens themselves. Their combined strike tore into Damien, for the first time drawing blood. The godlike man staggered back, his expression hardening.
"…You actually wounded me." His smirk returned, though this time there was steel beneath it. "Then I'll take the rest."
Damien seized more of the crumbling world, drawing 99% of its energy under his control. The balance tilted sharply once again.
The red dragon glanced at Khai, a deep sadness burning beneath his fury. "There is only one path left."
Khai's eyes snapped to him. "Don't. I won't lose both of you today. This is my burden—"
"Enough!" the dragon roared, flames bursting higher. "It's because it is your burden that I'll bear it! You carry the deadliest blade—let me give you the fire to swing it."
"No!" Khai's eyes blazed with something more than grief—desperation, denial. His hands shook. "You'll die! I brought this upon us, I—"
But the dragon had already chosen. His colossal body dissolved, flames compressing into a radiant sphere before pouring into Khai's core. The spear in his hand vibrated violently as it was engulfed in the dragon's fiery essence.
Khai staggered, his body shaking as if it would tear itself apart. Power surged through him, so vast that the fragile world quaked and broke faster. Chunks of heaven shattered, collapsing into the void.
Damien's eyes widened. "This resonance… it's destabilizing my creation!"
Khai raised his spear, his face still cold—but his eyes were wet, and his aura howled with grief. Every swing he unleashed now carried the agony of loss, the wrath of vengeance, the despair of standing alone. His strikes no longer faltered—each one tore into Damien's body, drawing blood, burning flesh, cracking bone.
Damien retaliated with cataclysmic blasts—oceans of light, collapsing suns, storms of annihilation—but Khai met them all, tying with Damien inside his own dominion.
"This ends here," Damien growled. "I'll tear the answer from your corpse."
He seized the last fragments of the world, exerting complete control. His aura became absolute. Khai staggered, blood spraying, body ripped open by blows.
And yet… his eyes closed.
For the first time, he smiled.
When he opened them again, they glowed with a serene, brilliant blue. His voice, calm yet resolute, drifted across the crumbling sky.
"I already won."
Damien's chest tightened. "What are you—"
Khai's lips curved faintly, and he whispered, "Final Sunset."
The world froze. The heavens turned to twilight. A single orb of azure energy swelled in his chest, feeding off the agony, the sacrifice, the remnants of his brothers. It burst forth, a wave so overwhelming that the world itself split apart.
The Myriad Worlds cracked and shattered like brittle glass.
Damien's eyes widened in rare alarm. "Stop! Fool! This will kill us both!"
But Khai's smile didn't waver. His halberd surged forward, channeling everything into that single strike. The attack devoured all light, then burst in a radiant blaze of blue, swallowing the brothers whole.
For what felt like an eternity, only blinding light remained.
When silence returned, half of Damien's body was charred, his flesh burned to bone, blood dripping into the void. His breathing was ragged, yet his eyes still glimmered with indomitable fire.
Floating nearby, Khai's broken figure drifted in space. His body was dissolving, fragments of him scattering into starlight. His halberd was gone, his strength extinguished.
Still, he smiled faintly.
"I won… brother."
Then his form disintegrated completely, vanishing into the cosmos.
Damien's lips parted, but no words came. Something twisted in his chest—grief? Fury? Fear? His hand trembled as he pressed it over the half-burnt side of his body.
"No…" he whispered, realization dawning.
He tried to heal, but his regeneration crawled like a dying flame. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw it: a faint projection of energy, streaking into the distance, vanishing into the forbidden reaches of space.
His heart dropped. The thing I came for… it's gone.
And worse—he recognized the direction. His master's forbidden lands.
For the first time, Damien's confidence faltered. His smirk was gone, replaced by grim resolve. Without another word, he tore open a portal and stepped into it, vanishing.
The void was silent, save for the fading echo of Khai's last smile.