Emery was still in pain, recovering from the brutal lightning strike.
It was then that a whisper slithered through his mind—deep, pulsing with raw hunger.
<Let me free… Let me free.>
“Whose voice is this?”
His limbs trembled—not from pain, but from exhilaration. Every fiber of his being had been jolted awake. His senses sharpened, instincts screaming for release.
At first, he thought the voice belonged to the Star Devourer, but that couldn’t be. The beast was merely a reflection of himself. Then who—?
Before he could dwell on it, another voice rose in his mind.
<Stop!! Calm down… You are making things worse>
This voice—this one he recognized. It belonged to his other self.
But there was no time to dwell on it.
A sudden surge of energy made his skin prickle. Emery snapped upward, locking onto a massive formation of intertwining lightning bolts descending from the heavens. Each chain crackled with a force beyond the natural realm—a cosmic artifact imbued with Raijin’s unrelenting will. The web of pure lightning expanded, forming a dome around them, sealing them inside a spherical prison of crackling energy.
King Rig and Ha Ron, who had been by his side moments ago, had been pulled into his domain just in time. Had they remained outside, they would have been reduced to cinders in an instant.
The Avian Chief, however, was not done.
With an almost casual swing of his war hammer, he sent a violent pulse of electricity coursing through the cage.
CRACK—BOOOOM!!!
The force was devastating. The entire storm prison trembled, its walls constricting like a tightening snare. Sparks flew from its edges as arcs of lightning lashed out, the immense pressure compressing everything within. Emery felt the crushing weight bearing down on him, Raijin’s cosmic mastery pressing against his very soul.
Then, a desperate voice rang through the battlefield.
“Chief Raijin, stop this! This man is a guest, invited by Lady Kaelyin! He is of fey lineage!”
It was Soltz, making a final attempt to reason with the furious avian leader.
Raijin scoffed, his golden eyes narrowing with disdain. “Like I said… You can explain in holding!”
Lightning surged around his body, his wings spread wide, crackling with raw power. He raised his hammer once more, preparing to deliver another crushing blow.
Soltz turned to Emery, his voice filled with urgency. “I think we should surrender.”
But as he spoke, his expression shifted—first to shock, then to something bordering on disbelief.
Not only had Emery recovered from the brutal lightning strike—his wounds completely sealed—but his very form was beginning to shift.
[22% integration… 24%… 28%…]
<Break this cage!!…>
The voice entered again, followed by an explosion of power.
His muscles expanded. His bones cracked, shifting and rearranging. His skin darkened as thick, coarse fur sprouted across his body. His hands twisted into powerful claws, his shoulders broadening, his frame growing in sheer magnitude. His breathing deepened into guttural snarls, a primal force awakening within him.
ROAAAAARRR!!!
The sound reverberated through the battlefield like an earthquake, sending shockwaves through the surrounding air. The lightning cage trembled as if recoiling from the sheer force of his presence.
BAMMM!!!
Emery’s colossal form crashed into the cage’s glowing walls, his claws digging into the crackling energy, pushing against the bindings that sought to contain him.
Raijin’s eyes widened for the first time.
“Huh?! Fey, you say? That thing is definitely NOT a fey!”
The chief snarled, gripping his hammer tighter. He slammed it against the sky, sending another devastating surge through the cage. The chains tightened, arcs of electricity slicing through the air, aiming to subdue the raging beast within.
But Emery was no longer fighting alone.
A deep rumble echoed through the battlefield as Soltz finally moved. The Grand Magus’ eyes glowed with a golden hue as he raised his arms toward the heavens. Towering stone arms erupted from the ground, their massive fingers wrapping around the edges of the lightning cage, fighting to keep it from shrinking further.
The battle had escalated to an extreme level—one so intense that even the other Avian cosmic experts dared not intervene.
Then, something else happened.
“Impossible!”
Raijin’s voice rang with disbelief. His unbreakable storm prison was being held back. Worse yet—the power of his divine lightning was… diminishing?
His gaze snapped back to the beast within.
Emery—no, the creature Emery had become—was doing more than just resisting. He was feeding.
The beast’s enormous jaws opened, and to Raijin’s horror, the golden chains began to unravel, their energy siphoned away by the monstrous force contained within. Tiny cracks formed along the bindings.
Raijin’s expression darkened. “I won’t allow this!”
He reached into his belt, pulling forth all three of his nails looking artifatcs.
Chanting an incantation, he released them into the air.
The nails expanded, growing to the size of towering pillars. They hovered in a triangular formation around the cage, crackling with an unimaginable amount of cosmic energy.
Then, raising his hammer to the sky, Raijin called upon the full force of his power.
KA-BOOOOM!!!
The heavens split apart as a titanic bolt of lightning surged downward, striking the first nail. The energy ricocheted through the formation, amplifying a hundredfold before slamming into the prison with devastating force.
The air ignited with white-hot plasma.
The beast inside howled in agony.
Soltz’s six stone arms shattered one by one, unable to withstand the onslaught. Yet both he and Emery continued to push back, refusing to be crushed under the godly storm.
Raijin gritted his teeth, gripping his hammer tighter. “Even a godly beast would have perished under my Thunder God Nails!”
Yet the beast still stood, roaring defiantly.
Even as its limbs shook, even as the ground beneath it cracked and crumbled, even as the divine storm threatened to tear it apart—it would not fall.
And then—the entire cage ruptured.
KABOOMM!!!
With a deafening explosion, the bindings shattered. Smoke billowed outward, swallowing the battlefield in thick, rolling clouds.
As the dust settled, Raijin’s sharp eyes scanned for his opponents.
But both Emery and Soltz were gone.
