Facing the corrupting darkness of the demon, the dragon did not lower his gaze, staring straight into the dark abyss. He was a dragon, and he would never bow to a demon, no matter how powerful.
Then the voice of the dragon god boomed again: "Enough; we have no time for your games. It is only a matter of time before the worms wiggle their path here." The darkness vanished, leaving Vesuvius breathing out in relief.
'Who is this demon...' Vesuvius couldn't even finish his thought when a terrifying aura spilled over the land of marble, crashing down from the sky and flooding the world. Vesuvius felt nearly overwhelmed by the pressure; the aura was potent, only slightly less so than those of the gods he knew, yet it was unrestrained and brimming with threat and malevolence.
In response, the energy around the dragon god surged skyward, rocketing towards the encroaching aura. The sky lit up with a golden radiance of fire, lightning, and light, rising and dispersing the malicious aura before it could subdue him.
Then more auras, obscured by the endless gold of the dragon gid, descended. In reaction, the auras of the gods on the ground rose, massive seas of energy crashing against each other.
'The battle of gods.'
Only the weakened aura of the god of knowledge lingered, murmuring, "The mortal gods and their puppets are here. Now, ascend higher, or perish."
An orb of concentrated, blinding, rainbow lights popped into existence, slowly descending towards the dragon. Vesuvius immediately recognized it as celestial energy.
The sheer volume made his two hearts falter, as the radiance and his keen magical senses revealed it contained more XP than he had ever seen. Amidst it, he could sense another type of energy he had never encountered before, tinged with demonic corruption.
"Consider this a gift for the promising youth. This should be enough for your transformation. Now you must use your divine energy to control it and forge your royal throne and crown. Otherwise, it will destroy you."
The sky ruptured as another enemy presence, accompanied by an endless tsunami of water flooding everything above, arrived and crashed against the golden barrier.
"Do it! We will hold back the strongest in the immaterial world, but some rats might slip through the material world." The knowledge whispered once more, urgency palpable in her words.
In the sky, the monstrous wings of pure golden radiance, ablaze with golden fire, crackling with lightning, and countless other elements swirling between them, enveloped the entire sky.
The draconic silhouette of the golden dragon god, made of pure energy, rose higher and higher, expanding so much that its size no longer fit within Vesuvius's line of sight.
The aura became more terrifying than ever as the dragon god unleashed his entire power.
...
Ding!
//
Unable to level up, all the XP redirected to {missing}
//
Feeling the swirling energy, Vesuvius heeded the guidance, his instincts clarifying the path forward. With a deliberate thrust, he funneled all his power into a pulsating golden mark. Then, like a snowball, it absorbed the currents of energy ravaging his body, growing denser by the second.
'So this is why I needed at least one hundred divinity points—to tame the energy with this snowball effect.'
As the energy converged on the mark located directly above his heart, Vesuvius didn't hesitate. He lunged with his gaping maw towards the floating orb of celestial energy, his mind overtaken by greed and a voracious hunger for power as his instincts impelled him to consume it.
His eyes shone, but then a dazzling white light intersected his path—a colossal spear of light, dwarfing even the tallest human-made structures, impaled the ground with explosive force.
The already-cracked ground shattered further, and a shockwave of holy energy slammed into the dragon, the darkness of his armor seeming to swallow all the light, leaving nothing but pure darkness in its wake.
In the blast, the vessel of the god of knowledge turned to ash.
A serene, feminine voice declared, "Dragon, dragon, over the past years, you have wrought such evil and destruction. You have pushed the world to the brink of anarchy, with empires laid waste and continents soaked in blood. Yet you are now here, revealing your presence to us, in a world without rules."
White feathers drifted down, as a gate of light cleaved open the sky, legions of angels in formations of gleaming silver armor descending from the golden radiance of the dragon god above. Beyond the gate, Vesuvius sensed the formidable presence of lord-level angels and, even more terrifyingly, the energies of what he presumed to be king-level angels.
"Accept your divine punishment!" The voice of the angel turned mad as the radiance intensified.
Reality itself continued to fracture, revealing more fissures as elements aglow with raw elemental powers appeared. Holy spirits clad in the armor of pure faith, angels wielding lances of light, and armies of gods poured forth, filling the sky.