A blood puppet with 300 million HP lasted less than ten seconds before it was reduced to a fine mist of blood.
As the puppet exploded, the storm of lightning only grew fiercer, surging once more toward the group.
Before Orson could even issue a command, Crimson Lizard King snapped open her wings, sheltering everyone beneath her. Her blood-red eyes blazed with fury as she roared into the heavens—
A direct challenge to the celestial projection of Vortigon!
Death God's Breath!
Black dragonfire blasted into the sky, colliding with the divine thunder in a cataclysmic crash.
For a brief moment, the gathered lightning was scattered, but as Crimson Lizard King pushed harder, the Vortigon projection seemed to sense the defiance in her aura.
Countless arcs of lightning twisted through the sky, fusing into a terrifying dragon-shaped bolt that came screaming down.
Her breath was shattered in an instant. Crimson Lizard King let out a pained growl as a deep red number rose above her—
"True Damage – 100 million!"
Orson's eyes widened in shock. That was beyond insane! The combined force of that lightning... it could kill gods.
Once more, that god-slaying power gathered.
Thousands of lightning bolts came raining down on Pondenorlin City.
It was like the end of the world.
Other than the allied players who had already retreated, no one else looked likely to survive this.
Velorith: "DIE!!! DIE!!"
Wrapped in lightning, Velorith cackled wildly. The Forbidden Curse scorched everything, enemy or ally—it didn't matter. Her own HP was plummeting too.
Crimson Lizard King smoked under the thunderous barrage, but she still raised her head high. With a snap of her wings, she took off again—charging straight toward the Vortigon projection.
A suicide charge… or maybe the only way to stop the Forbidden Curse.
Orson's eyes flashed. That might be the only move that could work.
But how could anyone survive this level of lightning damage long enough to reach the projection?
"Shit! If you're going to die doing this, I'm dying with you!"
Without hesitation, Orson grabbed onto her scales and flew with her into the storm.
"That dragon—doesn't it look exactly like the legendary Celestial Winged Dragon?"
"Wait... that's Orgod's mount... HOLY SHIT! It really is Orgod! I'd recognize that bastard even if he turned to dust! Is he seriously charging the heavens?!"
Before the eyes of the world, Orson became a living myth.
Like a god of ancient war, he rode the Celestial Winged Dragon straight toward the heavens.
Battered by divine thunder, sword in hand, he raised his Supreme Arcane Blade to the sky, veins bulging as he roared—
"Even if the Dragon God himself descends—he still won't kill me!!!"
True Damage – 50 million!
True Damage – 50 million!
Beneath a downpour of annihilating lightning, the world cracked and trembled.
Crimson Lizard King faltered mid-air, a blood-red bolt slamming into her wing and nearly tearing it in two.
Blood burst from her mouth as her scales cracked and splintered, but her roar still pierced the chaos—unyielding, undaunted.
Death God's Breath tore through a swath of stormclouds, opening a narrow path. The roaring wind howled in Orson's ears—Vortigon's projection now less than a kilometer away!
BOOM!
The closer they got, the fiercer the lightning storm became.
Hundreds of thunderbolts struck down like divine judgment.
It was like the apocalypse—below, Pondenorlin City crumbled, and over a hundred thousand players were vaporized in the backlash.
It was insane.
Surviving players looked skyward in shock, unsure if they were still in a game or trapped in some vivid nightmare.
"Let me handle this!"
A cold voice rang out through the storm, sending a jolt through every player's heart.
Standing atop Crimson Lizard King's head, Orson drew his sword and pointed it to the sky, voice booming with righteous fury.
Awakening: Heavenly Fire Slash!
A flaming sword cleaved the sky—like a divine torch held high by a wrathful god.
Awakening: Tidal Slash – Ninefold Barrage!
Waves roared. The sea itself seemed to rise.
Awakening: Demon Slayer Spear!
Hair flying, dark-red aura surging, Orson lunged forward, merging with the lightning itself as he threw out three awakening combat techniques.
The bloodstorm of lightning finally cracked—just slightly—but the backlash slammed into him, his HP plummeting.
He grit his teeth and roared again.
A dark shadow shimmered over his body. His eyes gleamed.
"Awakening: Hades Slash!"
Five crescent blades of black energy exploded from his sword, slamming into the divine lightning head-on.
The sky erupted in thunder.
"He's breaking through a Forbidden Curse?! That's... that's impossible!"
Players below were frozen in awe.
Even though they knew death here would cost them dearly, they couldn't tear their eyes away.
They couldn't even see the man clearly—but in their hearts, they knew.
There was only one answer.
Orgod!
Triple Crown winner from the US.
The man who had risen to the peak of Infinite Dimensions in mere months—then mysteriously vanished from every leaderboard.
He carved a bloody path through the storm with brute force alone.
True Damage – 80 million!
But more lightning slammed into Orson, lighting up his skull like a bulb and smoking his whole body.
He clenched his jaw.
This was the true might of a Dragon King's Forbidden Curse—one move that could wipe out an entire city.
The more you fought back, the more you got targeted.
But if you didn't fight—
You'd still die.
Orson and Crimson Lizard King took turns tanking the hits, finally breaking through the vortex with only a third of their HP left.
"The storm's easing up... did we just outlast the Curse's duration?"
He frowned, glancing back at the fading lightning with unease.
They'd flown up to the edge of the heavenly ruins… and the storm had stopped chasing them.
But when he looked forward again—
He instantly understood why.
The Forbidden Curse hadn't followed because…
They were now face to face with the being that had cast it.
"Compared to this Celestial Winged Dragon… a Dragon King is just a snack."
Orson's skin crawled as he stared at the projection of Vortigon.
It was just a projection, but the pressure it radiated could crush souls.
Its glowing blue form coiled around the massive floating palace—its size rivaling even the corpse of Draconis left in the orc sanctuary.
Then he saw it.
Vortigon's eyes were closed.
He was… asleep?
The Celestial Thunder Wrath—this insane, world-ending storm—it was just his breathing.
Each breath in and out gathered thunderclouds. Each exhale scattered blood-red lightning at random.
Crimson Lizard King froze beside him.
Even she didn't know where to begin against a being that had once stood at the very peak of Infinite Dimensions.
A stray lightning bolt crackled toward them.
Orson instinctively switched back to Chaos Mage and swatted it away with Grip of the Underworld.
"Screw it... 'Heaven's Sovereign' or whatever—dead is dead. Ghosts can't judge me."
With that, Crimson Lizard King let out a roar and dove.
No hesitation. No fear.
Blazing Meteor Shower!
A rain of molten meteors arced down toward the sleeping projection.
"You dare zap me?" Orson bellowed.
"THEN I'M COMING FOR YOU!"