Both dragons stared at one another emotionlessly, initial shock and revelations passed to make way for further conversation. Akevorax’s question hung in the fragile air between them. Or so it seemed…

Hoarse laughter erupted opposite. Raw and hardened with a metallic grating as the bodysuit’s plating grinded together, and almost on impulse, he couldn’t hold back from joining in. Madly laughing at the dire situation made things all the more bearable. Unfiltered pleasantries rarely lasted long though, brought back down to reality as the encased dragon came with strong intent, and he already knew the trouble brought about. Such moments gave time to better understand what happened.

Their bodysuit, some life-preservation device, covered his scales from head to tail. Claws, jaws, horns, and even wrapped over his wings, only two slits for Alkuthuzen’s eyes peered outwards. Even those miniscule holes could be covered though, when the two locked gazes not too long ago there were no such gaps in the armour.

His voice emanated from the bodysuit, robotic even though the pitch and tone matched his Draconic, “It is amazing you recovered so quickly, especially after losing most of your heart. Or was it all lost?”

“I hardly think it matters, you’re the one who seems to be in a far worse condition. Besides, you seem to have cheapened out on this armour, I didn’t think such a renowned alchemist lacked wealth to this degree.”

Nostrils opened up on the headpiece to release a powerful snort of air, however, such an action forced him to cough violently. A further opening appeared without any indication as he huffed and sputtered with the ability of a dying infirm. Ordinarily such a thing indicated weakness, but the fact his snort released a shockwave of air was enough to ward away any attacks.

No supreme tier was stupid enough to truly leave an opening while they coughed their insides out… Seriously in this case. Chunks of red, white, and black crystal laid on the glacier but rapidly deconstructed into pure elements and runes.

His violent fit finished, allowing him to say through the bodysuit, “Don’t play the fool, not when you have their Eye. How could you even survive the runic damage with that body… Useless thoughts. Pointless– YES!” The armour cut out for that last word, instead pure emotion exploded outwards and released his words as a wave of psychic force. That word boomed in his head like the planar wills but with far more harmful intent than the Dark Sun realm. It single-handedly hit his mountain and shook its structure.

Alkuthuzen’s bodysuit continued, “You lied. Lied to my face. Lied about knowing– About having a method.”

“I don’t think I explicitly lied… You’re not naive enough for that to work. Did it never occur to you that I might be stalling though?”

He replied with a mechanical sneer, “Why else would I scan a whole sub-realm and apply complete spatial seals?” Bluffing clearly didn’t work in the slightest either, so was there even a need to talk?

Deepening the bond between his divinity, spirit, and body, an enjoyable rush of power awaited. Just a test to start.

He jumped forward, leaping into the air before flapping both wings to circle around. Space quietly curved steeply ahead, accelerating him towards Alkuthuzen with an artificial gravity assist. Against the dragon over three times his size, the pitifully compared younger kin couldn’t truly damage him like this. Instinctively, he called for the dark orb to intercept a blocking wing and leave it in a recoiled state. His teeth primed to clamp onto a metal scale part of this bodysuit’s wings, but a flash of danger shattered his resolve at the last second. He extended both wings and flew back to safety. Landing about a hundred metres, roughly the distance this all started at, the interaction ended without results.

Although… He took back that assessment. Some information came from this all, learning that Alkuthuzen moved at a reactable speed now. With acceleration, he stood a chance of equal melee abilities.

Pretty useless against a dragon infamous for their magic.

“And what would my void flames achieve for you? It’s not all that useful against real Exeters.”

“So long to just get a title. The flames don’t matter, I want that blood! Your catalyst! Divinus and God-wrecking cannot merge, they shouldn’t ever merge, but that blood says otherwise!” His suit’s mimicked voice shouted out across the ice, displaying his obsession but missing so much tone seen back at the lab… Why did he refer to the blood so vaguely as well? Did he still not know where it came from?

Akevorax shot back, “You think I just carry so much around?” Once more the bluff utterly failed, the emboldened dragon opposite mocked him through laughter. “Will you ensure her survival?”

“It’s a serious kindness that you helped her take the step, but for what reason would I kill her? She will make it back. Alive and in one piece, disregarding her already broken bones,” Alkthuzen readily accepted the easy deal. He couldn’t source more blood if Akevorax destroyed the current supply, this at least ensured that some of it reached his lab for research.

For a moment, as he looked away to the glacier’s edge, Adret’s murderous glare from within the barrier still reached. Part of him could do nothing but apologise profusely in his head.

The other part of him activated the storage ring and extracted a purple seed. Time slowed dramatically, his pocket watch appearing at the same instant. Inches from his face rested the crystalline seed, Alkuthuzen immediately recognised the object and the gap in speed remained. On the other hand, this gap in focus introduced all the openings necessary.

It was just 100 microseconds. No cornem tier in their right mind missed that window of opportunity, but the 50 times increase Akevorax experienced gave him so much more to do…

The storm now reached its crescendo, vanishing from his senses. He wasn’t the one to act.

…

Space, mana, soul power, and psychic power all lasso’d around the crystal boundary, a momentary decision of panic as Alkuthuzen assumed every action was some trick. He immediately released his attempt to grab it not long after, about 10 microseconds after its appearance. Logic and reason told him that the seed’s activation only benefited him in actuality. But at this point, he overextended, too inept at his drastically lowered might to block the newly arrived array plate.

No. His thoughts went awry once more.

Blocking the array achieved nothing, he had to isolate it spatially, like placing it into another dimensional storage. How was he meant to win through knowledge when making such basic mistakes?

The array blasted out with a directed cloudy-white beam, doing nothing to harm his Soul or Mind Palace except for bringing back his attention to reality. Not that it mattered.

Hundreds of litres of condensed mana rose up from Akevorax like a small tidal wave, the river of energy surging towards an array with rather crappy construction in his eyes. But anyone at his level could tell it was just a stupidly powerful seal… And then a third of it focused on Origin Force. Things Alkuthuzen couldn’t really analyse without experience in using the element as opposed to sealing or blocking it.

His powers couldn’t take hold off the array in time to isolate it, still half-concentrated around the crystal boundary, so perhaps he could still use that instead?

Some link between the boundary and array existed, but the armoured dragon’s utterly drained Mind couldn’t think properly. Mana rapidly filled the half-charged array and he bided his time, counting in microseconds, at some point the Origin Force had to go in as well. Last time that step relied on the golden-coloured spirit, so he waited.

And waited. Then waited slightly more… It was becoming somewhat ridiculous…

Why hadn’t either appeared yet?! It’d been 80 microseconds! The array was already charged too!

…

Unable to wait much longer, the same forces immediately surged around the crystal seed once more. Sat in space, so defenceless, Akevorax couldn’t restrain it in this battle of might. He hadn’t even paid attention while inside his dimensional storage for a third time to retrieve the crown. The moment it rested on his head, a boundless auric pressure descended all around him, but the lasso of weaved forces barely wobbled. If he let this seed go, then Alkuthuzen was free to leave at any time while he remained trapped!

He left the crown’s operation entirely to the spirit. Origin Force smoothly transferred towards the array and he now stood opposite a dragon wholly above him, in a tug of war.

Exalted Soul at supreme tier, Mind Palace two or three tiers greater, bloodline no lesser than the wyrm king, second stage True Will, and years of experience controlling all sorts of powers. Every spare power available wrestled back control of the drifting seed. Space, Mana, Soul, and Mind rose up to meet the seed, all of them together barely slowed the insurmountable force on the other side. This was with a 50 times acceleration as well, just how intact were Alkuthuzen’s facets?!

He steeled his gaze. The risk of losing this was a surviving enemy, a degenerate and obstinate one whose bottomline had yet to appear.

Divinity drifted away from him, instantly weakening his body several times over, but in exchange now able to join the tug of war taking place during insufferably short time periods. Reactions at the millisecond degree already pushed his Elemental Body slightly, so to then force himself onto a scale on which Alkuthuzen reacted in the barest sense… His pounding headache took its toll, but not much time remained. Twin chains of Divinus fired out from his body and wrapped around the seed, further restraining its flow away from him.

This just had to be the moment where his limited control over divinity backfired. In that case, why not just throw out more crap until it worked?

A master tier soul bomb flew towards the stationary dragon, Domination Force descended to completely cut off both sides’ psychic powers, and– No other instantly activated abilities could affect Alkuthuzen at this time.

The bomb landed first as it flew through a ball of Origin Force, propelled forth by his soul power and an escape of material at its rear. While that damage shook the previously stable and consistent soul power, a quick recovery led to no changes, if allowed to make one. Without forewarning, all psychic elements projected outside their palaces suddenly disappeared. He lost a small counterweight, but their second strongest power vanished.

A stalemate appeared. The pocket watch reached its end.

So, he repeated it.

Acceleration worked relatively to his own perception, otherwise he’d just be able to extend one second into fifty, or sixty into three thousand. His limits always remained roughly the same though, scaled alongside his perception of time. Another 100 microseconds extended 25 times over. A headache was manageable; dizziness less so.

He refused to lose against this dragon on life-support!

Halved acceleration meant half the available force, immediately turning the scales into the opposition’s favour. A spray of sap might have made a real difference earlier on. No matter though, he wondered if Alkuthuzen had noticed yet…

The array was only 20% full of Origin Force. Streams of invisible elements passed above at a constant pace, needing 5 milliseconds total to fill up such an array. One might notice that this acceleration only granted 2.5 milliseconds, but he knew better than to believe any opponent sat around and gave him time to fill up any part. This array corrected many past mistakes, and to that end, he finally activated it.

110 microseconds since this started. 5.25 milliseconds under the accelerations. All for a disgusting prelude to get the battle into a starting position. The first seal activated, Mana Loss.

…

The crystal boundary now just 40 metres away didn’t matter. Alkuthuzen tried to take a step forth, learning physically just how much power he tied to dragging the boundary closer, leaving no speed in his steps. Ruined and supported by that suit, unable to teleport, and in a physical form several times slower than his Mind and Soul. That distance, not so much longer than his body length, now blocked his route for survival. Removing the one obtainable item capable of halting Akevorax’s plan–

Although… What if…

Alkuthuzen tossed away his pride. Methods to reach that fabled level would appear, and if not, then he’d create them!

Capturing the ice cream dragon wasn’t worth it. He instantly noticed another evolution after the coat of divinity came off, observing the new bloodline closely for worrisome effects, but overall didn’t think it too problematic. One moment with Akevorax stunned won in a single fell swoop, and he already knew how to obtain it.

Spatial control retracted first, his connections of mana and soul power promptly disappeared but moving their control required slightly more time. Space around him warped into a deepening pit, stretched thinner and thinner to the point where any dimension usually tore itself to shreds, yet it remained intact. Sprays of condensed mana stabbed into the rubbery dimensional wall, ripping and tearing the eggshell thin boundary with so little time to spare. These 5 microseconds changed everything. Neither side could speak under such conditions, the young adult dragon already set his Mind aflame to keep up with all this. How to stop his escape was even easier.

Dimension Force, such an annoying power to go against. One moment, one thought, and everything collapsed. So, Alkuthuzen aimed for the gap. That tiny instance where nothing took a hit, perhaps Akevorax never realised such a gap even existed.

His True Will waited patiently and his Exalted Soul existed calmly without a trace of change, externally suppressed by Dimension Force, but boiling vengeance filled its insides. Another microsecond passed, Alkuthuzen’s brain and Mind endured a forceful return to his original speeds.

Cracks in space grew clearly defined, pried open under the combined powers. And just as expected, the time came.

Restrictions on his Soul entirely disappeared, new Dimension Force decrying space had yet to convert over and saturate the surroundings. A hazy dragon laid itself over his armour and the grey metal scale wings transformed to a resplendent lustre. Like light bouncing off an opal, but far more terrifying as behind it came the disgruntled roar and frustration of an Exalted Soul. His powers revealed their full extent. Space quaked and rippled, cracks separated the glacier beneath, the ambient pressure from Akevorax’s crown vanished, and for the next second, chaos ensued.

Both sides ignored all of those insignificant ambient effects. The fear invoked by his True Will and rampaging power of his Soul struck its mark. He purely focused on the floating crack, lowering the mana in his head to slow perception once more. Just a little extra force expanded the crack to double his size, the seal couldn’t stop an escape now!

A ninth microsecond passed, the final one. Space clamped shut– No?

That should’ve been impossible?

Dimension Force arrived in full force against all expectations, applied to spatial dimensions to remove any direct influences. But that negated the crystal boundary too!

The possibility that he missed something could not exist– By no logical reason did it exist!

Reality did not conform to those observations though. Light shined on him from the array plate, its activation imminent. Time sped up, both sides stopped their deepened perception, and behind him, a crack already broke the silence. Somehow, Akevorax moved after taking a combination of powers like that. The same powers which temporarily stunned him just a single evolution ago…

Trapped within this sub-realm together, even with the four core powers sealed and isolated from one another, he promised that only one would escape alive.