Chapter 609: I stopped holding back.
As soon as the first island was reduced to nothingness, Strax was not satisfied. The colossal void he had left behind seemed only a harbinger, a tiny spark of all he could still do. His colossal body glowed with black flames again, and with a powerful flap of his wings that split the air like blades, he rose and launched himself toward the next island.
His crimson eyes did not blink. The wind did not move him; he moved the wind. With each flap of his wings, black clouds tore into red lightning, and the horizon seemed to open in scars that betrayed his passage.
When he finally spotted the second island, he immediately realized it was different from the first.
It was larger in size, but strangely deserted. The forest was reduced to sparse patches of vegetation, smothered by great swathes of gray sand that stretched as far as the eye could see. It was a barren land, a piece of a forgotten world, as if drained of life.
But Strax didn’t hesitate.
His reptilian eyes closed for a moment, and his aura expanded. The entire world seemed to hold its breath. His perception spread like an invisible wave, passing through stone, sand, roots, fissures, and hidden spaces. He didn’t just see: he felt. Nothing could hide.
And then, he found it.
In the midst of that desolation, a small opening. A hidden cave, a hole in the rocky slope that would go unnoticed by any other living being. But not by him.
His eyes opened again, shining like scarlet suns.
He wasted no time.
“Samira. Get out of there and come here. Now.” His voice thundered through the space, vibrating in every grain of sand, in every stone on that island. It wasn’t just an order. It was an absolute call, impossible to ignore.
Inside the cave, Samira shivered. She was already cowering, trying to protect herself, trying to stay hidden after hearing the cataclysmic roar that had devastated the first island. The sound still echoed in her bones. The ground had vibrated for minutes after that blast of pure destruction, and the sky was still scarred with black thunder.
She had felt it.
It wasn’t just power. It was something beyond power.
A decree, an order against existence. And she knew no one—not even herself—could resist it.
When his voice filled the cavern, her heart nearly stopped.
Samira swallowed hard, struggling to her feet. Her legs trembled, not just from fear, but because she hadn’t yet fully recovered her strength. The storm, the fall, the fight… everything had drained her energy.
She approached the entrance hesitantly and peered through the narrow hole.
And then she saw him.
Strax.
Gigantic, colossal, covered in black flames and smoke. His eyes were red as embers, his aura so suffocating it seemed to suck the air from the island. He wasn’t just furious. He was in a state beyond anger, beyond rage, a state where every beat of his wings was a harbinger of annihilation.
And then his voice returned, even more cutting:
“Come on now. I’m going to blow this island up.”
Samira’s heart raced, as if gripped by an iron fist.
“What?!” she whispered, incredulous, but knowing her words would never reach that colossal creature. There was no time for hesitation.
She knew the truth behind that threat.
It wasn’t bravado. It wasn’t exaggeration.
If she didn’t leave immediately, not even dust would be left in that cave.
Desperation took over. Samira took a deep breath, her chest burning with fear and urgency, before throwing herself out. Her body glowed in a flash of gold and crimson, her skin shattering like glass, revealing what had always existed beneath the human mask. Gleaming scales emerged, sharp as blades, covering her body in waves of energy. In moments, where once stood a weary, wavering young woman, now roared a towering dragon, golden as the sun and red as blood, with wings that flashed like swords in the storm.
Her leap sent waves of sand exploding, as if the earth itself were incapable of containing the force of her true form. And as she spread her wings, the air around her vibrated, charged with energy. She flapped, soaring toward the waiting titan.
Strax did not move.
She remained suspended in the sky, motionless, her colossal body surrounded by black flames and smoke that snaked like living currents. Her crimson eyes followed her unblinkingly. There was no warmth, no tenderness—just the cold judgment of a predator assessing whether its prey deserved to survive.
When Samira finally reached his height, hovering just a few meters away, she felt the weight of his presence. It was suffocating. Even in her dragon form, even with her renewed strength, the pressure emanating from Strax was overwhelming. It was like flying before an abyss that wanted to swallow her whole.
She opened her mouth, tried to say something, anything—but couldn’t.
Her voice died in her throat.
Her eyes merely locked with his, and in that instant, she understood: if she had delayed a second longer, the island would no longer exist.
Strax turned his head slightly, as if confirming that she was indeed there, and let out a heavy sigh. The black smoke that escaped his nostrils descended like veils of ash onto the sea.
“Hm. At least that much.” His voice rumbled like muffled thunder, a sound that seemed to echo both in the air and within her bones.
Samira was still trembling. It wasn’t cold. It wasn’t pain.
It was instinct.
Every cell in her body screamed that she was facing something that shouldn’t exist, a force so vast it defied logic. Seeing Strax in that state was like looking into the heart of a cataclysm.
The island below groaned, as if sharing the weight of that presence. Cracks opened in the ground, spewing black smoke, and the sand began to be sucked into invisible vortices. It was as if his mere existence was enough to make the world crumble.
Samira didn’t understand.
Strax had always been strong, had always been fierce. But this? This was beyond strength. It wasn’t just power. It was an absolute force, a presence the entire world seemed forced to acknowledge and obey. As if reality had given way, admitting him as its new supreme rule.
She swallowed hard, gathering her courage so that her voice finally came out:
“…Strax…what happened to you?”
For a moment, she thought he wouldn’t answer. That he would simply turn his back, or worse—that he would swallow her in the same silence with which he swallowed entire islands.
But his eyes burned even brighter, two hungry embers in the night. The answer came in a low, almost intimate growl, but one that echoed through the sky like an inevitable thunderclap:
“What happened?” He tilted his head, staring not at her, but at the empty horizon, as if speaking to something beyond. “Nothing.”
Silence.
And then he added, in a tone so cold that the air seemed to freeze around the words:
“I just… stopped holding on.”