Isaac was doing most of the work.
Roots as thick as trucks erupted from the ground, intertwining into shields that intercepted the falling lightning.
Each time a bolt struck, the roots blackened and cracked, mana bleeding out of them like smoke.
The lightning carried a mana drain effect. Anyone else would have collapsed within seconds.
Isaac didn’t.
His mana pool was massive, absurdly so, and while the drain was noticeable, it wasn’t enough to stop him. Not yet.
"Left side, pull back!" Isaac shouted through the earcomm. "That strike will soon start chaining."
Several awakeners barely managed to dive away as lightning struck the ground and then crawled outward, skimming across the surface like living veins of light.
Time passed in fragments.
Then the clouds began to part again.
Isaac noticed it instantly.
"Second Eye is going to appear! Everyone maintain distance from each other! Choirs, you too!"
His voice carried clearly through the earcomm, sharp and urgent.
The response was immediate.
The Choir formations loosened, healers spreading out instead of clustering together.
It weakened their combined healing output, but it was better than losing everyone at once.
The clouds split apart.
A gargantuan eye appeared in the sky.
It was smaller than the First Eye, but the killing intent radiating from it was far more intense. The pressure alone made several people stumble.
The lightning changed the moment it opened.
Instead of disappearing after striking Isaac’s root shields or the ground, the bolts began to travel. They skittered across the surface for hundreds of meters, branching and twisting unpredictably.
"Ground-based chaining!" someone yelled.
"This means—" Celia started.
"Unless you can fly, it’s guaranteed to hit," Vale finished grimly.
People moved constantly now, never staying in one place for more than a heartbeat. Even so, some were too slow.
Lightning wrapped around legs, climbed up armor, burned through mana defenses.
The Choirs reacted immediately, rushing to those who fell. Healing light flared, mending flesh and stabilizing mana cores.
But because they were dispersed, their healing was weaker, and slower.
Isaac used his skills.
His clones moved through the chaos, staying hidden as much as possible, dragging the critically injured out of danger and stabilizing them before moving on.
Sweat dripped down Isaac’s face as he juggled too many things at once.
"This is dragging on," he muttered.
Then he felt it.
Another shift in the clouds.
His head snapped up.
"Third Eye is appearing!" he shouted.
The clouds parted again.
This time, the eye that appeared was slightly larger than the first. Its pupil was green, vertical, snake-like.
The effect was instant.
Everyone froze.
Muscles locked. Thoughts stalled. Even breathing felt delayed.
’Five seconds stun,’ Isaac thought grimly.
Five seconds was more than enough to die here.
Golden light flared.
Alice activated Miracle of Grace, her expression strained as the blessing washed outward. At the same time, Isaac’s clones triggered the same effect from different angles.
The stun shattered.
People gasped as control returned to their bodies, immediately diving and rolling as lightning struck where they had been frozen moments earlier.
No one relaxed.
Because now, they could see it.
Behind the thinning clouds, a faint outline became visible. A massive body, still partially obscured, but unmistakable.
Seven wings.
Each one looked large enough to blot out sections of the sky on its own.
But even the wings weren’t the most shocking part.
"W-What is that size?"
"How can something so big fly?"
"O-Oh Lord, protect us."
The sheer size of the Crimson Sky Wyrm made it look less like a creature and more like a flying landmass. Like a hill torn from the earth and forced into the sky.
The pressure it emitted pressed down on everyone, heavy and suffocating.
At that moment, Isaac’s comm buzzed.
Sword Empress’s voice came through, calm but firm.
"Isaac, do the attack."
He didn’t hesitate.
"Okay," he replied.
He broke into a sprint, weaving between falling lightning, then leapt onto a half-destroyed structure and began climbing. His hands found purchase on broken concrete and exposed rebar as he pushed himself upward.
The tallest building that was still standing loomed above him.
When he reached the top, the wind nearly knocked him off his feet.
He steadied himself and looked up.
Three eyes.
A massive body.
Seven wings.
He took a deep breath.
"Let’s do this," he muttered.
Isaac activated Flame of Judgement.
Golden light gathered in his hand, condensing rapidly. A spear began to materialize, its surface smooth and radiant, heat rolling off it in waves.
But he wasn’t done.
He activated another skill.
Venomous Spirit Thread.
Professor Catherine’s skill flooded into the spear, injecting spiritual poison meant for flesh, thoughts, courage, and clarity.
A purple tinge spread across the golden surface, forming vein-like carvings that pulsed faintly.
Among Catherine’s many overpowered skills, this was one of the few attack-type abilities that didn’t require concealment.
That mattered.
The Crimson Sky Wyrm could see him clearly. There was no "assassination" condition here. Most of Isaac’s attack-type skills from Catherine were unusable.
But that didn’t bother him.
Because he wasn’t here to deal damage.
He was here to get its attention.
Isaac pulled his arm back and threw the spear.
The air exploded.
The building beneath his feet shattered from the shockwave, chunks of concrete tearing free and falling away.
Isaac barely kept his balance as the spear turned into a streak of light, shooting upward into the sky.
The three eyes of the Crimson Sky Wyrm tracked it.
The monster did not dodge, or block.
The spear vanished into the clouds and detonated against the Catastrophe’s body.
For a moment, the dark clouds were bathed in gold.
Then... nothing.
No roar. No recoil. No visible wound.
The Crimson Sky Wyrm was completely unharmed.
Isaac clicked his tongue.
"Crazy bastard. Why is it so tough?"
Despite the situation, he was smiling.
Because the goal had never been damage.
Venomous Spirit Thread didn’t just poison bodies. It poisoned thoughts. It introduced instability, doubt, irritation.
The Crimson Sky Wyrm’s mental defenses were immense. Everyone knew that.
That was why this was only the first step.
A setup.
"I’m ready," Althea’s voice came through the comms, steady despite everything happening around her.
She took a slow breath and activated her skill.
The song began quietly at first, carried through mana rather than air. It was a calm melody.
The skill was called Resonant Hymn.
Its effect was simple but powerful. It strengthened the target’s vocal skills and any abilities tied to words, chants, or voice-based influence.
Althea chose Isaac and Celia as the targets.
The moment the skill locked onto them, a faint glow wrapped around both of their bodies.
Celia was flying far from the main formation, keeping her distance from the chained lightning and the drifting clouds.
She felt the change immediately. Her throat felt lighter, her breath steadier, as if her voice could reach farther than before.
She turned her head and looked in Isaac’s direction.
Isaac, who was also airborne, noticed it at the same time. He glanced down at his hands, then back up at the sky where the massive presence loomed.
"Got it," he said quietly into the comms.
Both of them knew what came next.
At the same moment, Isaac and Celia activated Temptation Whisper, Celia’s skill.
The ability didn’t control minds outright. It nudged them. It increased the chance that the enemy would listen, react, or be provoked by spoken words.
With Resonant Hymn amplifying it, the effect became sharper, and Venomous Spirit Thread had weakened the mental defenses of the monster, allowing the new skills to be more effective.
They spoke at the same time.
""How dare a mere lizard fly above true dragons?""
Their voices echoed unnaturally through the sky, layered with mana and intent.
The Crimson Sky Wyrm froze.
For a fraction of a second, the world seemed to hold its breath.
Then the air turned cold.
A roar exploded through the heavens, heavy enough to shake buildings and rupture mana barriers. The sound carried pressure, rage, and something dangerously close to wounded pride.
Isaac and Celia were hit instantly.
The shockwave smashed into them midair, sending both flying downward like broken arrows.
Isaac twisted his body mid-fall, burning mana to stabilize himself. He flipped once, then twice, and slammed into the ground on his feet, cracking the pavement beneath him but staying upright.
Celia wasn’t as lucky.
She was falling too fast, her balance completely broken.
Professor Catherine moved before anyone else could react. A translucent barrier formed under Celia, slowing her descent just enough for Catherine to catch her by the shoulder and pull her in.
"You okay?" Catherine asked, already scanning her for injuries.
"I’m fine," Celia said, breathing hard. "Just dizzy."
"Stay close," Catherine replied. "Don’t fly again until I say so."
At the same time, the Crimson Sky Wyrm roared again.
The sound rolled across the city like a living thing.
One massive eye turned and locked onto Isaac.
Another shifted toward Alice.
The third focused on Priscilla.
Three eyes.
Three targets.
Three true dragons.
The meaning was clear.
The Crimson Sky Wyrm roared again, and this time, it moved.
Whether it was the lingering effect of Temptation Whisper or simply its pride being wounded, the result was the same.
The monster flew down.
The clouds were torn apart as a gargantuan body descended, finally revealing itself fully.
"What is that...?" someone whispered.
The Crimson Sky Wyrm’s body was massive, easily the size of a mountain, but it wasn’t majestic.
It was... wrong.
Its dark crimson scales were dulled and uneven, covered in countless tiny scars and old wounds. Blood and pus leaked constantly from between the scales, dripping downward like rain.
Four of its eyes were closed.
Three remained open.
It had seven wings, but the place where an eighth wing should have been was nothing more than a jagged stump, as if something had ripped it off by force long ago.
Isaac stared, his expression tightening.
As the creature came closer, more details became visible.
Its legs didn’t match. One looked draconic, another resembled something insect-like, and a third was thick and misshapen, clearly from a different species entirely.
Its abdomen was covered in dull gray scales that didn’t belong to a Crimson Sky Wyrm at all.
Half of its face was exposed skull.
The other half was scarred flesh stretched tightly over bone.
Hundreds of tiny monsters of hell—imps—swarmed around its body, biting into its flesh, tearing pieces away, and consuming them midair.
The awakeners froze.
Fear spread through the formation, heavy and paralyzing.
The Crimson Sky Wyrm’s body was horrifying.
"A chimera...?" Isaac muttered quietly.
Was that why each eye was a different size?
Sword Empress’s voice cut through the comms.
"One of the Crimson Sky Wyrm’s abilities allows it to consume other monsters’ bodies to heal itself. However, when it does so, it temporarily gains their physical characteristics as well," she said.
"So it can heal itself?" Isaac asked. "Then why is it this injured—"
"I’ll explain later. There’s no time now," Sword Empress interrupted.
Her tone left no room for argument.
The Crimson Sky Wyrm continued its descent, its massive body aimed directly at the city.
It wasn’t attacking with lightning now.
It was going to crush everything beneath it.
Sword Empress closed her eyes.
She exhaled slowly.
Isaac felt the shift in mana immediately.
He began preparing his own skills, fingers twitching as he stayed ready to react at any moment.
Because if that thing hit the city, the impact alone would wipe it off the map.
Just the shockwaves would flatten everything.
"Sword Empress can do it, right?" Celia asked quietly, flying down to Isaac’s side despite Catherine’s earlier warning.
"I hope she can," he replied honestly.
Beside them, every awakener had stopped moving.
All eyes were on Sword Empress.
She stood still, her sword resting inside its scabbard.
Her posture shifted.
An Iai stance.
Slowly, an intense blue light began leaking from the scabbard’s opening.
The air around her distorted, bending slightly as if it couldn’t handle the pressure building there.
Blue lightning lashed outward, striking the ground and leaving glowing cracks behind.
The Crimson Sky Wyrm roared again, disregarding the attack, believing no one in such a backwater city could harm it.
And then—
Sword Empress drew her sword.
The motion was simple, and clean.
One step.
One draw.
One swing.
But the moment the blade left the scabbard, the world changed.
Isaac would remember it for the rest of his life.
It felt as if the sword had transcended space itself. As if distance, size, and even dimension no longer mattered.
As if the swing had been made by something far beyond human limits.
The blue light expanded, cutting through the air in a line that didn’t look fast.
It looked inevitable.
Three wings on one side of the Crimson Sky Wyrm were severed instantly.
The massive limbs fell away, tumbling through the air as the creature let out a scream that shook the sky.
Blood poured freely.
The mountain-sized monster reeled, its descent disrupted for the first time.
Isaac moved.
He summoned roots, creating a platform to slow the descend— no, fall of the Catastrophe.