Battle of islas Malvinas

The dragon opened its massive maw again, absorbing light from the world around it and then exhaled, unleashing cylinders of white-hot flame one after another. They weren't as overwhelming as before, but they were no less deadly.

Klaus dodged each blast, blinking rapidly from one point in space to another until he reappeared near the beast's flank. He couldn't use Devourer since he send it to Antarctica. Without it, his raw combat power was noticeably lower, and he could feel that gap like a weight dragging at his limbs.

Even if he wielded a Transcendent-ranked weapon, it wouldn't matter. They were still inferior to the tools Devourer could grant him, specially in terms of sheer versatility and lethality. Relying on random, half-suitable Memories that couldn't even scratch the dragon felt like crippling himself.

So Klaus decided to rely solely on his own abilities. After all, his primary objective wasn't to fight. It was to lure the dragon into the trap. And so, he did exactly that.

Slowly, deliberately, he began leading the creature toward the designated location, weaving through ruins and shattered skies like a ghost. The dragon, despite its madness, wasn't a fool. It sensed something was wrong. Klaus wasn't attacking, only maneuvering, provoking, retreating. Suspicion sparked in its ancient mind…

But the thought vanished before it could form.

Loki stole it.

Every time a flicker of doubt arose, every time the beast tried to make sense of Klaus's actions or turned its gaze toward Loki, those thoughts were plucked away, erased before they could evolve into instinct or intent.

At one point, the dragon growled and twisted in the air, trying to lash out at Loki, but Klaus was already on it. With relentless teleportation, blasts of repulsive spheres, and sheer spiteful defiance, he kept the beast distracted.

It wasn't easy. Loki was visibly strained. Stealing thoughts from such a powerful and ancient being was like siphoning fire from a sun. The dragon was wise and old, but it was also defiled. A corrupted horror with a mind that was twisted by hunger, wrath and madness.

Luckily, Klaus was doing an exceptional job at pissing it off.

And a furious mind was much easier to steal from. If dragon was focused and calm, Loki was hundred percent certain that he wouldn't be able to steal from it.

Klaus narrowly avoided the sweeping claws of the terrifying devil, twisting through the air like a shadow. With a snarl, he redirected the dragon's blazing breath using layers of repulsive forcefields, scattering the fire across the night sky.

He scowled at the dragon and then vanished completely.

The dragon froze mid-flight, its burning golden eyes sweeping the ruined landscape. It could feel it... llusions. Trickery. That wretched human was trying to confuse and mislead it. But illusions were nothing before its tyrannical will. It could shatter them with mere presence.

Then, something caught its eye.

The sky above lit up as a colossal meteor descended from the heavens, cloaked in flame and shadow. The dragon's maw parted, and it let out a deafening roar that shook the heavens. Instinctively, it inhaled, devouring all light in the surrounding space and unleashed a devastating breath of annihilation.

The white-hot cylinder of flame soared upward to meet the meteor...

But the meteor disintegrated.

Dark purple dust, not rock, exploded outward and scattering in the wind like ash.

The dragon's pupils narrowed, its molten gaze flashing with displeasure. Another illusion. But this one was different. There was something more… tangible about it. A deceptive mixture of sorcery and misdirection, meant not to fool the eyes but the instincts.

The dragon growled, and then Klaus felt a pulse. As if the dragon were breathing but instead of inhaling and exhaling air, it was absorbing and producing radiation. It felt like breathing, but it wasn't. Not really.

The dragon was a living nuclear reactor. Its entire body radiated deadly power. That pulse Klaus sensed was the monster generating radioactive energy, cycling it through its twisted organs, refining it like a machine of war.

The dragon's mane began to glow, deepening into a furious crimson that almost looked alive, like a crown of fire erupting from its spine. From its head to the end of its serpentine tail, jagged dorsal fins began to grow, slowly and grotesquely. The glowing plates were sharp, uneven, and lit with a blood-red hue that pulsed with violent energy.

And than flood of black smoke and superheated gas billowed out from its mouth, hissing like the breath of the underworld. The toxic fog curled through the air, covering entire battlefield.

Klaus instantly held his breath. His pupils contracted.

Without hesitation, he reinforced his body with spirit essence and activated Faceless, forcing every ounce of focus into cleansing his cells from the radioactive intrusion. He could feel it already, particles trying to corrupt his DNA, twist his organs, tear his mind apart.

Then, smoke condensed into a blistering crimson flame that incinerated everything in its path. Klaus managed to teleport just in time, barely dodging the attack by a hair's breadth. He trembled, that same primal fear gripping his heart like a vice as he looked down.

It was an apocalyptic sight. The entire landmass was swallowed by fire. Everywhere Klaus looked, all he saw was crimson, as if an ocean of flames had consumed everything. Trees, lakes, buildings... all of it was engulfed in those terrifying flames.

"N-no... way..."

He whispered, wide-eyed, a smile twitching onto his face from disbelief and shock as the dragon pulsed again and locked its golden eyes directly on him.

The dragon let out an eerie, mechanical, and distorted growl. Then, its plasma flames condensed again, focusing into a narrow beam that was projected with deadly, pinpoint precision.

Klaus cursed and blinked from space to space in disbelief and fear. It felt like a needle of raw destruction, an unrelenting line of annihilation. The beam carved through buildings, land, and life alike, slicing everything in its path.

No matter how fast he moved, the beam followed. It hunted him.

Desperate, Klaus turned intangible and phased through the beam, vanishing from sight. He reappeared near the dragon's spine, panting. But when he glanced back, what he saw chilled him to the core.

A mountain had been sliced in half.

An actual mountain!

And just as he thought he'd found a moment to breathe, the dragon's dorsal spines lit up behind him with that same eerie glow. Then without warning, dozens of thin, deadly beams burst upward and outward, sweeping across the land and sky in a violent web of destruction.

Then came the tail.

Impossibly long and serpentine, it rose with dreadful grace… and fired.

A crimson arc of death slashed through the ruins like a reaper's scythe, merciless and absolute.

Klaus hit the ground hard, groaning in pain. He had barely managed to teleport in time. The beam hadn't touched him directly but the heat alone had sliced open his abdomen like a fucking lightsaber.

He was hurt. He was exhausted. His entire body screamed in agony. Cells mutated. DNA corrupted. His organs were failing. Radiation twisted through him like poison in his veins. His thoughts came sluggish and disoriented, his mind fraying under the invisible pressure.

I want to rest... just a few minutes... just a little sleep...

No!

Focus!

He snapped at himself, biting down on the urge to collapse. Gritting his teeth, Klaus released his illusions, and in a breath, hundreds of him burst into the air, swarming toward the dragon like a vengeful storm.

The real Klaus staggered upright and began moving toward the designated location, every step feeling like it was taken on shattered bones. But he kept going. He had to.

Dragon released beams fromm every direction. It felt like a 360° kill zone, making escape nearly impossible. And in seconds, all the illusions were annihilated. They weren't perfect anyway, Klaus didn't had enough mental strength to maintain perfect control over illusions.

Then, dragon's gaze snapped to a speck in the sky. Zooming in, it recognized the shape.

That human.

The same pest.

Rage burned through the beast's veins as it twisted midair, preparing to pursue. But something made it hesitate.

Why… why was the human leading it toward so many souls?

A trap?

Suspicion began to form but was gone before it finished blooming. Just like the last time.

The dragon blinked, momentarily dazed. It had been… forgetting things. More than usual... strange.

But the smell of human souls stirred something primal inside the creature. Rage and hunger overcame caution, and the dragon dove from the sky with a roar of fury, chasing the lone human into the waiting dark.

Klaus glanced back at the dragon and flashed a dark, wicked grin, only to cough up blood a second later.

His entire body was breaking down.

He was weakening, both body and mind crumbling under the pressure. Every breath was a struggle; every muscle screamed in agony. His DNA was degrading, mutating... collapsing from within.

He was dying.

But he didn't care.

"Doesn't matter..." he hissed through clenched teeth, blood staining his lips. "You're already in place."

Resentment burned in his chest as he glared at the beast and then the ground erupted in a pillar of amethyst light.

A thunderous hum echoed across the sky as complex geometric shapes unfolded, dimension upon dimension twisting around each other in a surreal and monstrous configuration. The shapes were alive, interlocking in patterns the human mind could never comprehend.

The dragon howled, its roar shaking the clouds, and tried to rise but its couldn't.

It was as if a mountain had been dropped on its back.

The first enhancement, gravitational amplification, restricted its movement, anchoring it to the air itself.

Then, the twisting dimensions began spinning in every direction, feeding on one another, building in intensity. Rings of light folded and fractured around the beast, forming an eldritch cage of power and sealing the dragon inside a prison of layered barriers.

The abomination thrashed in defiance, light pouring from its scales, but it was no longer free.

Lich remained perfectly still, his skeletal fingers glowing with runes as he stabilized the array, maintaining balance with eerie precision.

Klaus, meanwhile, poured every last drop of his spirit essence into the formation. Veins pulsed beneath his skin, eyes bloodshot, body trembling under the pressure.

At the center of the array, surrounded by a maze of collapsing dimensions, was a single impossibility:

A zero dimension.

Space had no business existing there. Or not existing. It was a paradox, an anchor of absolute stillness that devoured motion, matter, and time.

All around it, space began to collapse.

The surrounding dimensions twisted and overlapped, folding in on themselves, each layer compressing toward that single, impossible point and grinding reality tighter and tighter. The dragon roared in fury, its body thrashing violently, claws rending at nothing as space itself compressed around it.

Klaus clenched his jaw, blood dripping from his nose and eyes as he forced more essence into the spiraling construct. Even with every countermeasure, every preparation, every safeguard... it was still barely enough. The sheer force required to contain something so far beyond him... it was crushing.

If not for the True Names of Control, Harmony, Space, and Change inscribed on his spirit cores, he wouldn't have lasted even seconds. Without them, he wouldn't have even been able to dream of confining a being so monstrously powerful.

And yet…

A wild grin tore across his face. His expression twisted with mad euphoria. A dark, gloating laughter escaped his throat.

"You've lost."

The dragon's golden eyes widened in disbelief, then pure rage. But it was too late, its body had already frozen. Movement ceased.

And then, inch by inch, it began to shrink.

The howls of a majestic predator echoed one last time as the geometric dimensions collapsed in unison, swallowing the beast into a singularity. A moment later, all that remained...

What remained was a single object resting beneath the array's core.

A mirror.

Quiet, perfect and unassuming mirror.

But within its reflection, trapped inside was the image of the dragon, coiled and unmoving, watching with ancient, seething hatred...

Battle of islas Malvinas was over.

Chaos Ascendancy emerged victorious but at the same time, entire archipelago was destroyed...

***

Holy! What a fight that was!

Seriously, guys. I've been writing this long ahh, two-thousand-word chapter since yesterday. But come on, wasn't it cinematic?

I know you probably have a ton of questions about the battle, it was a bit confusing, I admit. Don't worry, though! I had to dig up my old math notebook just to remember some geometry myself so it's nothing. Well, Everything will be explained later, I promise.

That's it for now.

Enjoy, my disciples!

***