THE GENERAL'S DISGRACED HEIR

The Sun Empress and Seraphina's combined shields continued to hold against the undead dragon's corruption breath, but both women were visibly straining under forces that attacked existence itself. Cracks spread across their solar barriers like spider webs as the necromantic assault intensified, each fissure representing another moment closer to catastrophic failure.

I can't maintain this much longer, Seraphina thought desperately, sweat beading on her forehead as she poured her enhanced understanding into maintaining divine-level magic. Even with my newfound abilities, this is beyond what mortal magic should be able to accomplish.

The Sun Empress felt her own strength wavering, divine power depleted from her earlier transformation and the cosmic battle with Azaroth. My people, she thought with fierce determination, I will not let them suffer because I lack the strength to protect them.

Above them, Bahamut surveyed the scene with disdain. His crimson scales rippled with barely contained fury as he witnessed the abomination that dared wear draconic form, his multiple horns catching the light of the strained shields below.

This mockery has existed long enough, he decided with the calm certainty of natural law.

"Rest, child," Bahamut's voice carried across the capital with the weight of threatening authority. But his words held no gentleness, they carried the promise of absolute annihilation delivered with cosmic inevitability.

The Tyrant of Wrath opened his massive maw, and reality itself began to respond to his will. This wasn't mortal magic or even divine power, this was dragon magic, authority that operated on the fundamental level of existence itself.

Recognizing the devastating scope of her brother's power, Luzara moved with swift precision. Her magic wove complex protective equations around Bahamut's spell, not to diminish its effects but to ensure the humans below would survive the forces about to be unleashed.

Like a master surgeon working with delicate instruments, she calculated trajectories and magical resonances with focused concentration.

Must contain the spillover, she thought, her ancient mind processing variables that would have driven mortal mages to madness. Bahamut's fury burns too hot to care about collateral damage.

[Eradication] manifested as a beam of absolute negation that erupted from Bahamut's opened maw. Not light, not energy, but pure authority made visible, a lance of fundamental rejection that carried the weight of judgment.

The beam struck the undead dragon with the force of universal law asserting itself. Where it made contact, existence itself recoiled in horror. The creature's corrupted scales began to lose definition, their edges blurring as if reality could no longer quite remember what they were supposed to look like.

The abomination tried to roar in defiance, but the sound emerged hollow and distant, already half-forgotten by the universe as the eradication beam carved through its form. Its massive wings, which had blotted out the sun moments before, became translucent where the cosmic force touched them, then transparent, then simply... absent.

The beam swept across the dragon's body with surgical precision, reality editing out each element of the creature's being as if an invisible hand were erasing it from a cosmic manuscript.

First the corruption breath ceased mid-stream, the necromantic energy dissolving into nothing as the eradication force consumed it. Then the creature's form began to fade from wherever the beam touched, its outline becoming increasingly uncertain.

The dragon's burning eyes, which had radiated malevolent intelligence, grew dim and confused as the beam reached its head and its very thoughts were unwritten. It reached desperately for the capital below, claws grasping at air that no longer acknowledged its presence.

Within seconds, Bahamut's eradication beam had swept across the entire undead dragon, and where a massive elder abomination had hung in the sky, there was simply empty air. No debris fell, no energy dissipated, no shadow marked where it had been. The universe had agreed with Bahamut's assessment and corrected what it now recognized as an error in the fabric of existence.

There was no struggle, no death cry, no final desperate attack. The creature simply ceased. One moment it existed as a corrupted mockery of draconic majesty, the next there was nothing but empty air where it had been.

Unlike normal destruction, which left evidence of what had been destroyed, [Eradication] removed the target so completely that even the concept of its existence became questionable. The corruption breath vanished mid-stream, the necromantic energy dissolved into nothingness, and reality smoothed over the wound the abomination had created like water filling a void.

It's gone, the Sun Empress realized with relief and terror in equal measure. Completely gone. As if it never existed at all.

While Bahamut had dealt with the creature through sheer authority, Luzara's enhanced senses had analyzed every trace of necromantic magic that lingered in the air. Her expression grew thoughtful as she processed the magical signatures, her ancient knowledge categorizing the corruption's origin and purpose.

"Interesting," she murmured, her voice carrying harmonics that existed across multiple dimensions. "This wasn't random corruption. Someone with significant knowledge created this deliberately. Someone who understands dragon physiology well enough to pervert it."

For a moment, the capital experienced perfect silence. The undead dragon's roars, the corruption breath, the sound of straining magical shields, all gone. Only the fading light of the exhausted barriers remained, and even those were no longer necessary.

The threat that had overwhelmed divine power had been erased as casually as one might swat an annoying insect.

As David watched the cosmic display unfold above him, urgent text blazed across his vision with clinical precision:

[EXTREME THREAT DETECTED]

Entity: Bahamut - Tyrant of Wrath

Threat Level: REALITY-ENDING

Entity: Luzara - Dragon of Treachery, Lies, and Half-Truths

Threat Level: REALITY-ENDING [

ERROR: Threat assessment exceeds displayable parameters]

[ARC COMPLETION NOTIFICATION]

Current story arc entering final stages. Prepare for transition to next phase

Even the system recognizes these beings as operating beyond any scale I've encountered, David realized with growing comprehension of his own insignificance. These aren't just powerful enemies, they're forces that could rewrite existence itself.

Throughout the capital, millions of people witnessed something that transcended their understanding. The divine battle they'd just observed, their Empress achieving temporary apotheosis, reality domains being manifested, cosmic forces clashing in the sky, now seemed quaint compared to the casual erasure of a threat that had overwhelmed their goddess-ruler.