For a long breath the void was silent. Only the faint crack of residual thunder echoed around them. Zeus floated still, one hand on the sword hilt, body rigid. Across from him, the Sky Dragon's chest rose and fell slowly, each exhale distorting the air. The world seemed to wait.
Zeus straightened. Ozone stung his nose. The air trembled with static. 'Energy almost drained. Need precision now, not power.'
The dragon's eyes flared white. The stars dimmed. Pressure folded in from every direction. Wind coiled around its body like chains made of air.
Zeus moved first. 'Thunder Vein.'
A network of bright cracks spread through space. Lightning branched out, converging on the dragon's torso. The creature twisted, dodging through gaps, but each pulse forced its movements slower.
It countered with a flap of its wings. The void behind it exploded outward, a cyclone pulling Zeus forward uncontrollably. His armor rattled. He braced, kicked off an invisible wall of compressed air, and shot to the side. 'Can't fight the wind head-on.'
The dragon turned in pursuit, opening its mouth again. Fire and ice spiraled together into a dense sphere. It fired the mass forward.
Zeus drew breath through his teeth, sword held in both hands. 'Cyclone Core.'
The air and lightning twisted around him once more, forming a rotating barrier. The mixed projectile hit and splintered, scattering flame shards and ice fragments in every direction. The barrier held but weakened. Sparks bled from its edges.
He pushed out of it before it collapsed and appeared above the dragon's head. 'Lightning Spear.'
The javelin formed instantly. He threw downward, aiming between the horns. The spear drilled in, detonating at the halfway point. Light burst; fragments of scale scattered like burning dust.
The dragon jerked back, stunned. Zeus dropped with momentum, swinging his sword down its snout. The impact carved a long gouge across golden armor plates.
The creature roared silently in the vacuum. Its claws lashed upward. Zeus crossed his arms, blocking with both forearms. The force shook every bone. 'Still too much. Need to break its rhythm.'
He forced his own body into motion, using the recoil to twist behind its wing. 'Chain Arc.'
Lightning chained through each wing joint, running along the bone. The dragon convulsed. Its next wingbeat faltered.
Zeus capitalized. He flew upward, cutting through the storm of current he had made. 'Volt Strike.'
Every spark in the area bent toward him, concentrating. His body turned into a single pillar of golden light. He crashed into the dragon's back, carving a glowing path down its spine.
The explosion spread in a straight line. The air pressure folded outward. When the glare faded, a deep trench of molten scale marked the creature's back.
Zeus hovered below it now, breathing fast, shoulders trembling. 'Not enough depth. Core still intact. Focus on the chest next.'
The dragon turned slowly. Steam rose from its wounds, already sealing. Its tail swept out in reflex. Zeus dipped below it, then dashed along the underside toward the heart area.
The dragon's body twisted violently; its tail reversed direction. The movement caught Zeus's shoulder, spinning him sideways. His vision blurred for a second.
He forced clarity back. 'Stay sharp. One mistake and it's over.'
The dragon inhaled. Lightning gathered in its throat this time—its own thunder. The light grew blinding. The void trembled again.
Zeus steadied his stance midair, holding his sword forward. 'Overload Burst.'
He triggered it the instant the dragon fired. Both explosions collided—one from within the creature, one from Zeus. The impact point burned white. The recoil slammed Zeus backward through the upper atmosphere again.
He emerged from the cloud with smoke trailing his armor. 'That almost tore me apart.'
Above, the dragon staggered. Its mouth smoked, jawline fractured slightly. A visible burn ring surrounded its chest. 'Damage reached inside. Good.'
He extended one hand. 'Storm Pulse.'
The sky below him turned silver. The pulse ring expanded, washing upward. The dragon crossed into it again. Lightning engulfed its entire frame.
Zeus used the cover of light to climb straight toward its chest. The core's position pulsed behind armor and muscle, glowing faintly through layers of scale. 'There.'
He raised his sword with both hands. 'Aether Enhancement.'
The current flooded every vein. Muscles screamed. Sparks covered his vision. He brought the blade down.
The strike hit precisely where the faint light pulsed. A dull shock rolled through the dragon's body. It spasmed once, then slammed its wings together, crushing the space around it. Zeus was caught in the pressure wave, forced downward.
He braced with lightning armor at full output. The pressure tore strips of energy off the surface of his suit. 'Hold. Hold.'
The wave passed. He pushed free, lungs burning. The dragon's eyes narrowed, fury building again. The core light still flickered.
The creature exhaled violently, projecting a storm of blue frost. Everything it touched solidified. Zeus moved through it as fast as possible, frost collecting along the edges of his armor. His joints slowed. 'Too cold. Must counter with heat.'
He focused power to the surface of his sword until it glowed bright yellow. 'Thunder Punch.'
He struck the air beside him, igniting the oxygen with heat and compression. The blast shattered the ice around him. Steam burst outward.
The dragon came again, full-speed charge. Zeus didn't retreat this time. 'Lightning Burst.'
Energy erupted from his body in every direction, a sphere of white flashes. The shock intercepted the dragon's charge. For a moment both forces ground against each other—then broke apart.
He shot upward through the burst's residue, appearing above its head. 'Thunder.'
A bolt fell from the dark sky overhead, straight down onto the dragon's skull. The impact flash blinded the world for a heartbeat.
The dragon dropped, tumbling through the air, wings limp. Zeus followed immediately. 'Finish it before it heals.'
He accelerated, catching up with the descending body. 'Thunder Vein.'
Dozens of thin lightning branches crawled down, all converging into the open wounds along the spine. The electricity dug deeper, burning channels toward the heart.
The creature convulsed violently. Its tail thrashed, wings twitching in uneven bursts. 'Now.'
Zeus thrust his sword once more into the glowing chest mark. The blade sank halfway. 'Volt Strike.'
All light condensed into that single point. The explosion wasn't outward—it folded inward, collapsing through the wound.
The dragon's entire chest flashed, then caved slightly. The shock wave spread through its body. Zeus pulled free, retreating fast to avoid the backlash.
For several long seconds, nothing moved. The dragon's limbs shook once, then again. Its wings opened halfway and froze. The light inside its chest flickered irregularly.
Zeus held position, breathing heavy. 'Core destabilized. Need confirmation.'
The creature's eyes brightened suddenly; a final surge of power. Lightning burst from every scale. The blast struck Zeus head-on, spinning him through the air. He recovered, barely keeping balance. 'It's trying to regenerate by absorbing ambient energy. Must destroy the head or the core reforms.'
He gathered what remained of his strength. 'Aether Enhancement.'
The charge roared back to life around him. Every nerve burned, but he ignored it. 'Cyclone Core.'
Air condensed once again, forming the rotating sphere. He dove directly at the dragon's chest, dragging the storm behind him. The impact swallowed both figures. The combined sphere compressed, imploded, then burst outward with pure white light.
Silence followed. When the glow faded, Zeus floated above the wreck. The dragon's chest was gone—reduced to a hollow crater. Energy bled into the void in pale threads. Its eyes dulled, head lowering slowly.
It dropped from the sky. The remaining wind pressure flattened beneath it, forming waves through the gas layers of the planet. Zeus descended slowly after, every motion heavy. 'Over. Finally over.'
He hovered above the fallen body. The atmosphere around them steadied, storms easing. Tornadoes dissolved one by one. Lightning stopped crawling across the clouds.
Zeus lowered his weapon. Sparks still traced the edge. 'This power… if I hadn't pushed everything, it would have crushed me.'
He looked down once more. The enormous form below no longer moved. Its scales lost their glow. The air around it became still and cold.
Zeus exhaled, long and slow. 'Sky Dragon—ended.'
He turned upward, eyes fixed on the dark void where light from distant stars began to return. The energy in his body pulsed faintly, denser than before, steady. "Rank ascended. God King."
For a while he said nothing more, drifting in silence as the wind calmed completely. The storms that had raged for centuries faded into thin streams of cloud. The black expanse above shimmered faintly, clear and endless again.
Zeus sheathed his sword. The metal clicked softly. Lightning around him dimmed to a thin glow, flickering along the seams of his armor.