Unnamed Island
Europe
Earth
Soleil Strider
As soon as I arrived, I was greeted by the most terrifying sight I had ever seen. A red, gigantic dragon, roughly a hundred feet long—robust and densely packed with muscle—blotted out the sun with wings sprouting from its back. A crown of thorns woven from holy magic hovered above its head, and a thorn-like bone structure protruded from its forehead.
This was Great Red. He was the platonic ideal of a dragon: titanic, intimidating, and exuding an aura of unassailable power. To think this was merely his avatar, and I could already tell we stood no chance of defeating him.
From what I learned in the Underworld, Ophis was the first being in existence, the Infinite Dragon, touted as the most powerful—until a few centuries later, when Great Red arrived, defeated her, and seized the title of the universe's apex existence.
He lives in the Dimensional Gap, a place known to annihilate all who venture there, yet he is so powerful he treats its infinite expanse as his personal playground. This was an old monster, one that surpassed even Yahweh, the Biblical God.
His domain was also perplexing: Dreams. No one understood why this seemingly abstract concept allowed him to reign supreme over gods with domains like Time, Space, and the Universe itself.
I looked around at the seemingly endless sea of humans. Some were flying, others levitating. Some chanted spells to buff themselves.
Fools, all of them. This wasn't a fight we could win. Our only goal was to prove our worth to both Great Red and the Faceless One. As we were now, there was no way we could defeat him…
["Mongrel! From my bloodline, is that cowardice I hear? A mere avatar, and you are already shaking in your boots. Kill yourself so I no longer have to suffer your existence."]
Gilgamesh's voice echoed in my head, a phenomenon that was no longer shocking. As the First Hero, he possessed the authority to perceive the thoughts and behaviors of his descendants and communicate with them across vast distances.
"How dare you! You can feel it too, can't you? The vast difference in our strength and power. Even you at your peak would be nothing but a larger ant to it. You can't win, so I definitely can't. What's wrong with me planning how to lose less?" I shot back, the indignity of my own cowardice weighing heavily on me.
Ever since I reached the Ultimate Class, I had deluded myself into thinking the power levels weren't as exaggerated as claimed. Great Red had completely divorced me from that notion. Just standing here, I could feel his will and power pressing down on us from a distance. I watched as dozens of people passed out and were instantly teleported out of the bounded field surrounding the island.
[And so what?] came the reply from the King of Uruk. [So what if the odds are skewed? So what if it's a dragon? Do not forget what we truly are, boy.]
[We are humans, and we have been doing the impossible for a very long time. Now, we do it again.]
I won't lie… getting a pep talk from Gilgamesh was not on my bingo card for today. But here we were, and surprisingly, his words resonated deeply, pushing all my doubts aside. He truly was the First King.
[And don't you forget that, boy.]
With that, I felt him disconnect. In the few seconds I had spent internalizing his words, others had already moved to attack Great Red.
And they died in droves.
With one attack—a single, casual flame breath—he annihilated more than half of the humans here. Over eighty million had gathered the courage to fight for the future of this world. In a few seconds, sixty million were dead and teleported, unharmed, outside the closed dimension, disqualified from re-entering the fight. In one move, he proved that in this world, quantity could not trump quality—especially not the quality of a Dragon God.
I saw the barrier erected by magicians and sorcerers, which had managed to mitigate a large part of what was clearly a casual move from him, now filled with holes and cracks, crumbling rapidly.
The dragon took flight, hovering above us all, preparing another blast. Suddenly, he was punched by Alexandria, one of the Triumvirate and one of the most powerful parahumans from Earth Bet. Her power granted her a time-locked body, making her functionally immortal and unageing, enhanced by a thinker ability that boosted her comprehension and senses. Essentially, she had a Viltrumite power set, though her strength didn't increase easily and her flight was barely supersonic. With access to the System and magic, she had undoubtedly grown stronger, as shown by her punch disrupting Great Red's attack.
She went for another strike, but in a burst of speed shocking for his size, he dematerialized and rematerialized above her in less than a second, slamming her into the ground with force that left a massive crater.
"Cowardice is not a good look on me. Lock in, Sol," I muttered to myself, taking a deep breath. I teleported directly in front of Great Red's massive eye. My Cursed Technique activated in an instant.
"Cursed Technique Maximum: Winds of the Underworld!"
My ultimate technique was inspired by the frozen pockets of land I'd witnessed in the Underworld—realms frozen solid and inhabited by high-class demonic beasts. The ice there affected the soul, constantly and continuously weakening any exposed to it, both physically and magically. I had spent weeks there, enduring the effects, to copy and incorporate this principle into my technique, creating an ability akin to Aokiji's "Ice Age."
It was a large-scale Area of Effect attack that froze targets and sapped their strength for as long as they remained within its range. And since it was my technique, I could pick and choose who it affected.
The effect was instant. A wave of absolute zero, tinged with soul-rending energy, flash-froze the air itself and shattered Great Red's eye, causing him to recoil and crash back to the earth. Unsurprisingly, he shrugged off the weakening effects almost immediately, but the damage was done. I could hear the cheers from behind me; my plan had worked and boosted our morale immensely.
Great Red straightened to his full height, his remaining focus now entirely on me as I floated in the sky, looking down at him. I decided to farm a little aura, to see if I could get under his skin and make him act recklessly.
"So," I said, my voice cutting through the silence. "You do bleed, beast."