Chapter 550: Pisces, Lisa, and Vaeloria’s Tag Team

Pisces, Lisa, and Vaeloria moved through the outskirts of the western parts of Anbord in their battle dresses. They’d also been gifted by Ethan with these battle dresses, and they couldn’t help but want to proclaim to the world that their husband and beloved had gifted them something priceless.

Well, they could, but that had to wait. For now, they had a battle to finish, and this opponent was especially powerful. He was a fourth ascension Sain Realm dragon with insane defense that would rival Galeno’s defenses. And he was a crystal dragon by the name Zerath.

...

The hover vehicle cut through the scorched air like a blade, its undercarriage humming with restrained power as it skimmed just above the fractured terrain. The western outskirts of Anbord were no longer what they used to be. Lush lands had become jagged fields of crystal growths, as if the world itself had been infected and forced to grow something unnatural.

Inside the vehicle, the atmosphere was... strangely relaxed.

Pisces leaned back slightly, one leg crossed over the other, her icy-blue eyes scanning the horizon lazily.

"You know," she said, voice soft but amused, "for something labeled a fourth ascension threat, this feels a bit... underwhelming."

Lisa snorted from the driver’s seat, fingers tapping lightly against the control panel as arcs of faint lightning danced unconsciously around them. "You say that now. Watch him turn out to be some dramatic lunatic with ten transformations and a tragic backstory."

Vaeloria, seated beside Pisces, didn’t laugh, but her lips curved faintly. Her silver-violet eyes shimmered with psychic light, flickering in and out as if she were already brushing against unseen layers of reality.

"He’s nearby," she said calmly.

Lisa raised a brow. "That’s either confidence or stupidity."

Pisces tilted her head slightly. "With dragons? Usually both."

The vehicle slowed and stopped. Ahead of them, sitting atop a massive outcrop of jagged crystal, was a man. A very large man, round, wide, and comfortably, unapologetically fat. He sat cross-legged, a massive slab of something unidentifiable in his hands, chewing loudly with zero concern for his surroundings. His skin had a faint crystalline sheen, refracting light in dull, prismatic hues. Each movement caused faint clinks, like glass shifting against itself.

Zerath. The Crystal Dragon.

Lisa blinked.

"That’s him?"

Pisces stared.

"That’s him."

Vaeloria nodded once. "Yes."

They stepped out of the vehicle. Zerath didn’t even look up at first.

Crunch.

Crunch.

"You know," Lisa called out, placing a hand on her hip, "it’s a bit rude to ignore guests."

Zerath paused mid-bite. Slowly... very slowly... he lifted his head. His eyes, faceted like gemstones, locked onto them. He swallowed and spoke.

"You’re loud."

Silence.

Pisces blinked once.

"That’s it?"

Zerath shrugged, reaching for another chunk of whatever he was eating. "You interrupted my meal."

Lisa’s eye twitched. Vaeloria stepped forward slightly, her voice calm, composed, almost gentle.

"Zerath," she said, "you’re outmatched. The war is already turning. Surrender, join Anbord, and you’ll be spared."

Zerath stared at her, then at Pisces, and at Lisa, and laughed. It was... unpleasant: A wet, grating sound that echoed across the crystal fields.

"Join?" he repeated, amusement dripping from his tone. "Join a lesser empire led by a human who thinks himself a god?"

The air shifted. Lisa’s lightning crackled louder. Pisces’ breath frosted. Vaeloria’s eyes dimmed slightly... then sharpened.

Zerath stood. The ground creaked under his weight.

"You three," he continued, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, "should feel honored. I’ll kill you quickly."

Lisa sighed.

"Yeah," she said, rolling her shoulders as lightning burst fully into existence around her, "I gave him a chance."

Pisces stepped forward, frost blooming beneath her feet.

Vaeloria’s body flickered.

"Same," Pisces added.

Zerath smiled.

"Good."

The first strike came from Lisa. She vanished in a burst of lightning and reappeared directly in front of Zerath, her fist wrapped in condensed thunder.

"Try this!"

BOOM!

The impact detonated like a storm, collapsing inward. Electricity exploded outward and stopped. Lisa’s fist... hadn’t moved. Zerath had caught it barehanded. His crystalline fingers tightened slightly.

"You’re fast," he said flatly. "Not strong."

Lisa’s grin widened.

"Who said that was the point?"

The lightning detonated again, this time from within. Zerath’s arm cracked, thin fractures spreading across the crystal surface. His eyes narrowed. But before he could respond, the temperature plummeted.

Pisces appeared above him.

"Don’t blink."

A massive sword of pure ice formed in her hands, sleek, elegant, and impossibly dense. She brought it down, and the air screamed. Zerath raised his other arm.

CRASH!

Ice met crystal. The impact shattered the ground beneath them for kilometers. Frost spread violently, freezing entire sections of the terrain, but Zerath stood firm.

He grinned.

"Better."

Then, his body expanded. Crystal surged outward, his form growing, thickening, becoming something monstrous. His skin hardened, layers stacking over each other like armor forged by the earth itself.

"Now... my turn."

He swung. A simple motion, but the force behind it split the horizon. Pisces barely blocked. Her ice shattered. She was sent flying, crashing through three crystal formations before stabilizing mid-air. Lisa reappeared behind Zerath, lightning spears forming instantly, but they shattered on contact with his back.

"Annoying," Zerath muttered.

Then, everything went quiet. Vaeloria moved. Her body dissolved. Her form became translucent, then invisible, and suddenly, Zerath froze. His body... stopped responding. His thoughts... slowed.

"What..." he started, but the word never finished. Vaeloria’s voice echoed inside his mind.

"You rely too much on what you are."

The world around Zerath bent. Reality itself seemed to tilt slightly, not physically, but perceptually. His senses betrayed him. Up became down, near became far. His own body... felt distant.

"Psychic domain," Vaeloria said softly. "You are inside me now."

Zerath roared. Power surged. Crystal exploded outward, trying to break the influence, and it worked partially. He moved again, but slower.

That was enough. Lisa appeared again. Pisces descended. And this time, they didn’t hold back. Lightning spears rained like divine punishment. Blades of ice formed in dozens... hundreds, each one sharper, denser than the last. Vaeloria compressed his perception, distorting his reactions, delaying his movements by fractions of seconds that... mattered.

Zerath fought back, and he was terrifying. Each swing of his arm shattered entire zones. Each stomp cracked the earth for kilometers. His defense was monstrous. Attacks that would obliterate mountains barely left marks. But he was being overwhelmed slowly, inevitably.

Cracks spread across his body, first thin, then they became deeper and more visible.

"You..." Zerath growled, breathing heavily, "...are not normal..."

Lisa smirked, lightning dancing wildly around her.

"Yeah," she said.

"We get that a lot."

Pisces raised her hand. All the ice around them responded: every shard, every fragment, every frozen particle converged.

A single blade formed, massive and elegant.

Vaeloria’s voice whispered one last time in Zerath’s mind.

"Sleep."

His movement halted just for a moment, just long enough. Pisces swung, the world split, and Zerath, the Crystal Dragon of the Fourth Ascension, was cleaved apart, clean and precise.

Silence followed.

Then Lisa exhaled.

"Okay," she muttered, looking at the remains, "now that was worth it."

Pisces rested the blade on her shoulder, letting it dissolve into mist.

Vaeloria reformed beside them, her expression calm... but her eyes deeper than before.

"He chose pride," she said softly.

Lisa shrugged.

"Then he chose death."

Pisces glanced at the fading battlefield.

"Let’s move. That won’t be the last one."

And none of them argued.

...

The sky trembled. Far above the fractured lands of Debranlith, beyond storm clouds, beyond the reach of ordinary sight, something cut through the heavens with terrifying speed.

A streak of molten gold and abyssal black tore across the sky, space warping around it as if reality itself struggled to keep up. The air shattered, leaving rippling distortions in its wake like scars across the firmament.

Each movement bent distance, collapsing miles into inches. Mountains far below cracked under the pressure of its passing. Oceans churned violently, tides rising and falling in chaotic defiance of natural law.

Its eyes burned, focused, locked on one destination.

Anbord.

A low, rumbling growl vibrated through the air, deep and ancient.

"Ethan..."

The name rolled off its tongue like a curse carved into existence itself. This was no lesser dragon; this was something closer to the origin. Closer to the beginning of the draconic line.

The sky darkened as it accelerated further. Clouds evaporated instantly in its path. Stars flickered faintly despite the daylight as if acknowledging its presence. And then it stopped.

The world snapped around it.

A ripple spread outward, silent but violent, distorting space like a stone dropped into an invisible ocean. Something... had intercepted it. The dragon’s massive body hovered mid-air, wings slowly spreading, eyes narrowing.

Before it, there was nothing. No figure, no aura, no visible obstruction. Just... empty sky. And yet, it couldn’t move forward, as if reality itself had drawn a line and said: No further.

For the first time since it began its flight, the dragon hesitated.

"What?"

Its voice was low, edged with disbelief. Its senses expanded instantly, scanning across layers of existence, mana, space, causality, even conceptual traces, and found... Nothing but the path ahead remained closed.

A faint distortion shimmered barely noticeable, like heatwaves on a distant horizon. The dragon’s pupils shrank.

"Something is here."

It growled, power rising. The sky responded violently. Storms formed instantly. Lightning coiled like serpents around its body.

"Show yourself!"

Its roar tore through the heavens, but the response was not what it expected. It was a sound, a soft voice that sounded almost amused.

"You’re in a hurry."