The chamber fell into stunned silence for a breath. Then chaos erupted.
"He was here all this ti!" one of the humanoid beasts bellowed, slamming his clawed fist into the stone wall, splitting it apart like fragile wood.
Tower Lord Mathew’s face turned grim as he scanned the wreckage with his divine sense, but Max’s aura was nowhere to be found. "Impossible... I never detected him. Not a single fluctuation of soul or mana! How did he—"
Thunder Lord Xander’s jaw tightened, his eyes flashing with killing intent. "No human should have been able to enter this lair. For him to appear here unnoticed..." His gaze turned ice cold. "...soone must have guided him here."
Max, anwhile, was already gone, his body a crimson streak darting through the void-like tunnels of the underground. The wind scread in his ears, his heartbeat pounding in rhythm with the lightning raging inside him. He didn’t dare look back. He could feel their senses clawing at his trail, chasing, hunting—but none could catch the phantom speed he unleashed.
’That was too close...’ he thought, his expression dark. ’If I hadn’t reacted instantly, I would’ve been torn apart.’
And yet, the revelation hit him harder than the danger itself:
Not only had he uncovered the Tower Lord and Thunder Lord colluding with these beasts—he had also revealed himself to them.
There would be no turning back now.
"You think you can run away after what you’ve seen?"
The booming voice of Leone, the lion-headed humanoid beast, thundered through the underground like a collapsing mountain. His tone was dripping with malice, filled with an authority that sought to crush everything beneath it.
Max’s Three Dinsional Body instantly picked up on the killing intent chasing him. His senses painted a horrifying image—behind him, a colossal lion wreathed in golden flas rampaged through the void-like tunnels, each of its steps leaving trails of molten destruction. Its roar shook the very bones of the underground structure, and then—
Hooooom!
The flaming lion opened its maw. Inside, light gathered, coalescing into a burning mass of radiant death. In the next instant, it spat out a golden fireball so massive it dwarfed Max’s fra, its heat so intense that the stone walls and steel-like floors of the underground dissolved into nothingness.
’Crap!’ Max’s eyes widened, his instincts screaming. Without wasting a fraction of a second, he summoned his trump cards.
"Dragon Scales Transformation!"
His body was instantly wrapped in a surge of draconic power. Black glowing scales burst across his skin, exuding a radiant golden sheen as 800 Draconic Scales roared awake inside him. His muscles tightened, his aura skyrocketed, and his very flesh pulsed with terrifying resilience.
At the sa ti, Max conjured his dual defensive arts. "Eternal Bulwark! Omni Guard!"
Boom!
A colossal red gate, ancient and unyielding, materialized before him, its surface carved with runes older than civilizations. It was backed by the green, hexagonal sphere of Omni Guard, a protective barrier layered like interlocking plates of erald light.
Both defenses encased Max in a fortress of absolute defense.
Then it struck.
BANG!
The golden fireball slamd into the Eternal Bulwark. The collision unleashed a cataclysmic explosion. Shockwaves howled through the underground chamber, tearing walls apart, splintering the air, and vaporizing the ground in every direction.
The Eternal Bulwark groaned. Runes flickered desperately, cracks spiderwebbed across its surface.
Crack! Crack! Craaack... Shatter!
The colossal red door splintered, disintegrating into nothing but fragnts of fading light. The golden inferno roared forward, unrelenting, smashing into the Omni Guard next.
The green sphere trembled violently as its hexagonal plates lit up one after another, struggling to withstand the overwhelming force. But against Leone’s fury, it was hopeless. The plates shattered in sequence, bursting apart like glass.
BOOOOM!
Max was swallowed by the explosion, his body thrown like a ragdoll. He crashed through the underground, smashing through stone walls, ceilings, and reinforced floors. His body tore through the labyrinth of the chamber like a teor punching through layers of earth.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The destruction followed him until suddenly—
Whoosh!
The air changed. Cold and fresh air whipped across his face. Dust gave way to moonlight. Max’s body burst out of the underground chamber and into the open sky above the hidden city.
Max coughed blood midair but forced his spinning body to stabilize. His scales glowed faintly, battered but still intact, proof of his transformation’s resilience. He sucked in a sharp breath as he gazed at the burning wreckage of the underground far below.
’I flew all the way up... to the hidden city?’ His thoughts were in shock. Leone’s attack wasn’t just powerful—it was apocalyptic. If not for his defenses and transformation, he would have been erased completely.
But Max didn’t allow himself to hesitate. Imdiately, he pulled out his communication treasure and shouted with soul force:
"Elder Liam! Now! I need you here—imdiately!"
His voice was strained but steady. This was no longer a matter he could handle alone.
Before he could even catch his breath, a growl, low and venomous, tore through the night sky.
"You survived my attack? A re peak Champion Rank insect dares endure my flas?" Leone’s voice rolled across the city like thunder.
Max’s head whipped to the side. From the collapsed ruins of the underground chamber, the golden flaming lion erged. Its enormous body was cloaked in infernal radiance, flas rising from its mane like molten rivers. Its eyes—burning orbs of gold—locked onto Max with feral bloodlust.
The city below trembled as its presence alone distorted the air, turning night into burning dawn.
"How can I not survive?" Max sneered, his voice dripping with mockery even as blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. His golden-draconic scales glinted under the moonlight, cracked but unbroken. "After all, that attack was so very weak—like being pawed at by a little kitty." His lips curled into a smirk, his eyes gleaming with provocation.
The taunt echoed through the hidden city, sharp and deliberate.
Leone, the lion-headed beast, did not rage. Instead, his burning golden eyes narrowed, his feral face calm in a way that made the silence more terrifying. The flas along his mane flared higher, scorching the very air.
"Nice try," Leone growled, his tone almost bored. "But jokes aren’t my thing."
His lion head tilted back slightly, then snapped forward in a sudden motion. From his flaming maw, tens of blazing disc-shaped projectiles burst forth, each one spinning violently as if forged from molten suns. They shot through the sky in arcs, leaving trails of golden fire that split the night like cracks of dawn.
Whhooooom! Whhooooom! Whhooooom!
Max’s pupils shrank. His Three Dinsional Body mapped the trajectory of every disc, painting a terrifying picture in his mind. Each flaming disc wasn’t just destructive—it carried the weight of the Divine Rank.
’These attacks... they’re all at the Divine Rank level!’ Max’s heart pounded. The pressure pressing on his chest was suffocating, heavier than any mountain. His teeth clenched as his body tensed. ’Even one of these could kill if I misstep. I can’t—no, I must not take them head-on.’
His thoughts raced as his senses tracked every incoming strike, preparing to weave lightning and space together for a desperate evasion.
But before he could act—
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