[The Eternal Prison, Pigmen World, Sulthar's POV]
Every 10 years a Dragon's one scale changes color — Sulthar had learned that by observation of his own body. Every 10 years, one among thousands of his scales would turn half blood-red. He had only seen the last few of his full black ones turn blood-red in the end.
Sulthar had thousands of such scales, already half blood-red, when his father gave him the gift of life. Thousands of years wasted, in that confined, suffocating, restricting space. Mindless violence and savage fury — that's all Sulthar remembered of his thousands of years old life.
"A piece of me resides in you, Sulthar." He remembered the words. "That makes you my child."
After granting life to Sulthar, the Divine One was elated. He was also exhausted. It had taken him years to wake up. That's how it was — every time the Divine One granted them life.. he slipped in and out of consciousness. Some days he was there and they talked for hours; some years he didn't even move an eyelid.
The ability to think, the ability to wonder, to feel, to love, and to live in the true sense of the word — the invaluable gift of life. Sulthar knew even if he served for eternity.. it wouldn't be enough to pay the debt. The younger ones took it too lightly.. they didn't fully realize how much the Divine One had given to grant them all this gift.
"There are people here.." Sulthar remembered once arguing with him, "I can do it. I can make all of them submit. With their faith revived in the Sun God, you shall become the almighty being that I know you are.."
"Extending life to live in my bindings for eternity? No, my boy. I do not wish for it. But you can go out.. see this world. Live freely as you want. This is my prison, not yours." That was the answer he received.
But the Divine One was vulnerable. What kind of son would he be if he left his only parent alone in such a state?
And as Sulthar had expected — there it was. The enemy he never knew he was waiting for all this time. This was his purpose. The one singular goal of his life. As long as he was alive, no unnatural force would harm the Divine One.
As long as he was guarding — none shall pass.
[The Eternal Prison, Pigmen World, Damian's POV]
Damian stood there, holding the massive cannon in his hands as the gigantic Dragon unfurled his wings, drowning the whole shrine under its shadow. And then followed the earth-shaking roar. Damian felt it in his steel and bones. It was a declaration.. A challenge.
Damian had just wanted to see if he could reach the Sun God — how far he could go before getting stopped.. But now there was only one thing standing between him and the answers he had come seeking. There was no if now.. The Dragon King must die today.
Damian pushed a pedal near his leg under the control panel. The side podium slid the metal cover, and a steel cube was pushed up. Damian used a few mana threads to power it up, and in the next second, a solid 5-meter-thick armor of air shield encompassed the whole steel titan from head to ankle, leaving perfect cut-outs for the many joints and moving parts.
The steel cube had the custom spell of Air Shield, shaped to cover the steel golem in perfectly fitting armor. If only activated or placed the runic circle in this fixed place would it be a perfect fit. It was continuously mana-powered, so the damage could be mended instantly — the only limitation was the steel not being able to hold on under long mana strain, which was why Damian had set up many such steel cubes to come up the second the previous one was destroyed.
Sulthar pushed from the angular top of the shrine with his thick, building-sized legs and moved his wings to rise higher in the sky. The searing heat emitting from his body alone was making Damian sweat inside his steel golem and inside his active fireproof suit. It wasn't a simple flight, though. After reaching some height, suddenly Sulthar flapped his massive wings down with a powerful force, creating a shockwave of burning wind and raw force.
In a second, it reached Damian and crashed into his armor-covered golem's body, pushing his 800 million tons of steel body back as it left deep grooves in the magma land.
Fuck! How could any man hope to face such monstrosity?
Damian stopped thinking useless things and powered up his laser cannon to the max, unleashing the massive beam of light energy. Sulthar brought his wings forward, covering his body — the metal-like wing plates stopped the powerful laser as if it were a simple torchlight. It did push the Dragon several meters back in mid-air, though, and it landed with a booming sound in front of the shrine.
It was useless. Damian rotated his hand and stored the giant steel cannon back in the golem's spatial storage and took out the long curved sword, letting it fall onto the magma-covered land. Damian instantly moved his hand and picked it up.
However, before Damian could activate the sword's runic spell and attack, the belly of the massive Dragon started to glow ominous red. It spread to his chest and then throat with a dangerous humming sound. Damian understood what was going to happen and immediately powered both the left and right sides of the massive runic circles inscribed on the steel giant golem, activating both the shield and short flying/jumping spells.
But it was too late. The Dragon King unleashed a super powerful, fully charged beam of condensed hellfire mixed with molten mana in a sweeping arc that incinerated everything in its path.
Damian could not jump out of range in time with his massive body, even after decreasing the weight to the very lowest. He pushed the massive, powerful, thick golden shield in front of him, increasing the weight. The impact of the lightning-fast and intense beam of molten hellfire crashing onto the shield shattered the land around them — resounding in a loud, earth-shaking clash.