Chaos' Heir

Khan's brain was on fire. Violent cries filled its every corner, and a bottomless bloodlust begged him to be unleashed, but he tried to retain a modicum of concentration to channel part of his energy into the rune above his head.

Drawing runes with no hands was easier than condensing the raging sparks into a stable and meaningful symbol. Khan had never attempted to fuse the two processes, but the situation gave him no choice.

Khan could endure his lightning bolts better than the snake since his body had evolved through his element. However, his attunement was incomplete, and the Great Old One's resilience was several levels above his. Khan would always come out worse from those clashes, so he needed something stronger.

The Great Old One was startled once again. The unstable symbol looked familiar, but the creature couldn't connect to anything it had sensed during its long slumber under the blue sea. Thilku had crossed that area and fallen prey to its perception, but Khan had turned that art into his own language.

Moreover, the Great Old One understood mana relatively well, allowing it to sense some intrinsic meanings inside the unstable rune. Those feelings conflicted with its knowledge, but one detail quickly became clear. That crackling symbol was absorbing energy, its energy.

Khan sensed it before seeing it through his heightened eyes. Gales spread throughout Coravis, converging toward the immense snake, carrying the pale green energy with them. Similar strands of mana flew back to the ancient creature from outer space, attempting to deprive the world of most of its symphony.

The snake wouldn't let Khan's rune absorb its energy so easily. It was even willing to give up on its quasi-divine perception to hinder Khan, but he didn't care. The Great Old One also seemed to grow stronger as more of that pale green mana fused with its body, but Khan barely took that into consideration.

The Great Old One was there, and Khan's array of lightning bolts was ready. He didn't need anything else.

Khan instinctively released a clicking cry, which the thunderous spells suppressed. The lightning bolts descended at full speed, reaching the stunned snake's head in no time and detonating, filling the world with their destructive shades.

The Great Old One couldn't resort to its previous trick while retrieving Coravis' mana, so it endured the spells with its sheer body, letting those explosions ravage its already destroyed scales.

A series of explosions expanded, releasing all the destructive energy they contained. Scales, blood, and flesh broke and disappeared under their crackling sparks. Charred craters opened on the immense reptilian head, exposing more and more of its insides, but the Great Old One didn't budge.

Khan had expected a similar event, so he had never stopped moving. He had followed after the array of lightning bolts, flying through their expanding destructive sphere. Those purple-red sparks cut him all over, but he kept descending until his left leg landed on the Great Old One's ravaged flesh.

Busting another leg for a kick that wouldn't kill the ancient snake wasn't worth it, so Khan opted for a relatively simple attack. He had mastered the Transcended Step's foundation form, so he unleashed it to add damage to the injuries inflicted by the surrounding explosions.

More and more skin above the snake's head parted away, but no more blood flowed. Some blue geysers occasionally surged, but the Great Old One's wounds no longer bled. Reabsorbing the pale green mana enhanced its physical abilities, and its effects didn't stop at mere resilience.

Khan had just kicked the snake in the head, but the latter moved, displaying uncanny swiftness as it retracted its neck. The purple-red explosions still raged, but the Great Old One's movement pushed them away, seemingly unable to endure that immensely ample gesture.

Of course, Khan moved alongside the snake, following its head to retain his advantageous position. However, the Great Old One suddenly lowered and lifted its mouth, managing to point its tip at Khan.

The Great Old One used its body as a whip, snapping it to fling its massive head at Khan. Its nose hit his waist, and he couldn't describe the pain he felt. Something definitely broke, and a mixture of blood, saliva, and stomach fluids spurted out of his mouth, ending in a mess of broken scales and exposed flesh.

Khan had to thank the Great Old One's massive frame there. He honestly couldn't feel anything below the waist now but knew his legs were still attached to his body. The snake couldn't even eat him due to how huge it was. Still, the ancient creature kept flying forward, diagonally cutting through the sky and applying unbearable pressure on him.

Khan struggled to move and had to rely on his destructive influence to gain some room to breathe. He was basically half-lying on the upper part of the snake's mouth, bound in place by the acceleration's pressure. The world was crushing him, but he caught a far scarier picture from the corner of his eyes.

The Great Old One was flying diagonally, rising through the sky. Its speed was incredible, and Coravis' atmosphere would eventually end at some point. Khan had guessed the snake couldn't survive long in space, either, but that didn't mean he could live there longer than the creature could.

Nevertheless, Khan's options were limited. He could barely move his upper body, but something had survived the clash. The unstable lump of lightning bolts in the shape of a rune still floated above him, albeit its time looked short.

Khan summoned the bloodlust inside his brain, feeding it as much mana as possible before grunting. He forcefully grabbed his left wrist, and a scarlet color covered his hand. Khan felt unable to stretch his fingers but still stabbed them into the snake's mangled flesh, releasing all the sharp energy he was capable of.

"Why do you fight, Heir to the Nak's Chaos?" The Great Old One hissed from below Khan, feeling the sharp energy ravaging its head. "We have broken you."

"We can still die together," Khan announced, a defeated expression taking control of his face as he forcefully lifted his right arm, stabbing it into the cracking rune.

The rune ravaged Khan's hand, but he still closed his fingers, finding a handhold. He pulled, and the tip of a giant lightning bolt came forth, filling the sky with thunderous rage.

Then, an explosion unfolded, and Khan lost track of his surroundings. He only felt his body falling before the familiar nightmares filled his vision.