Chapter 52 — The Meat Grinder of Gods

Draco stood paralyzed by the sheer impossibility of the moment. He watched Jay, whose skin was sizzling, emitting a foul, grey smoke that smelled of burnt ozone and overtaxed nerves.
「ANSWER ME, JAY VON LANCER!」 Draco’s roar shattered the remaining glass in the city below.Jay turned, his eyes like two chips of ice buried in a face of soot. 「It’s a spear made of mythril, lizard.」 His voice was a rasping blade. 「With a little extra kick to it.」【That technique... he needs both hands to stabilize the recoil,】 Draco calculated, a jagged grin splitting his snout. 【If that’s the case, he’s limited.】 「A kick, you say? I have to admit, you certainly know how to keep a suicide mission interesting.」Jay remained unnervingly calm. 「Thanks.」
The air snapped. They didn't just resume fighting; they entered a frantic meat-grinder of a duel. This wasn't the tactical chess match of the opening act. It was a kill-or-be-killed frenzy. Every strike was aimed at the throat, the eyes, the core. Every block was a desperate gamble to avoid being erased from existence.
◽At the Old Ruins◽
The atmosphere in the command center was thick with the scent of copper and desperation. Zakry was bark-ordering soldiers, moving with the cold efficiency of a man preparing for a funeral. They were readying the "Fail-Safe"—the kingdom's secret weapon.
「Father, it is ready,」 Zakry said, his voice devoid of emotion.Alberto nodded, his face aged ten years in a single hour. 「When will it be used?」「When Draco has been bled enough, Father. We wait for the opening.」Alberto leaned in, his hand trembling as he gripped Zakry’s shoulder. 「If your brother is in trouble... if he looks like he’s slipping... fire it. Don't hesitate. Kill the dragon or kill the world, I don't care. Just save him.」「Of course, Father.」
 ◽In The Azure Capital◽
Jay dived, a streak of violet light cutting through the smoke. He slipped beneath Draco’s massive belly and swung the knobbed club with every ounce of kinetic energy he could muster. The impact sounded like a mountain cracking. Draco was sent spiraling upward, his massive bulk tumbling uncontrollably into the stratosphere.
「~GATE!~」 Jay screamed.
The sky tore open. The dimensional storage—a void of endless nothingness—yawned wide above the dragon. Jay propelled himself into Draco, physically shoving the massive beast into his pocket dimension. The rift slammed shut behind them.
Draco stabilized himself in the void, looking around at the infinite, lightless expanse. 「Hmm... not even my own dimensional storage is this vast. You are a bottomless pit of surprises, Jay Vin Lancer.」「I know,」 Jay said, his voice echoing in the vacuum. 「Let’s keep the small talk to a minimum. I’m on a schedule.」
They collided. Jay fought with a suicidal proximity, staying inside Draco's reach, forcing the dragon to burn through his mana just to keep the human from tearing his throat out.
◽In The Old Ruins◽
Clara’s lower lip trembled. 「Where did Papa go? The screen is dark.」「He moved them to his dimensional storage,」 Lena said, her voice eerily steady for a child. She had a fanatic's belief in her father. 「He’s just taking him somewhere he can go all out.」「Will they come back?」「Yes. Only two ways out: Dad opens it, or someone hits the walls with enough power to break reality.」
◽In The Dimensional Storage◽
The void was screaming. The internal dimensions of Jay’s storage were warping under the sheer pressure of their combat.
Draco executed a deceptive tail sweep. Jay, blinded by the frantic pace, committed to a block for an attack that never arrived. It was the opening Draco needed. The Dragon King’s right paw slammed into Jay, sending him skipping across the non-existent floor of the void. Draco followed up with two more bone-shattering strikes.
Jay was reeling, his vision swimming in a sea of red. In a flash of scales and teeth, Draco lunged. His jaws snapped shut.
Jay screamed—a raw, guttural sound that tore his throat—as his left arm was severed at the shoulder.【Shit.】
Jay didn't panic. He used a localized flame to cauterize the stump, the smell of his own cooking flesh filling the void. Draco hovered nearby, a mocking, bloody grin on his face.
「What now, Jay Lancer?」 Draco laughed. 「Will you lose the other one too?」「Ight, bet,」 Jay said, his voice dropping into a terrifyingly calm register. 「Lancer Technique: Second Form...」Draco faltered. 【Wait, I took his arm. He shouldn't be able to—】
Jay was already there. He appeared in Draco's blind spot, the knobbed club glowing with a violent, pulsating violet light. He swung with his remaining arm, striking Draco’s left front leg with the force of a falling star. The bone didn't just break; it disintegrated. Scales shattered like glass as a shockwave rippled through Draco’s entire body, launching him hundreds of meters back.
Jay stood in the void, steam pouring off his overheated marrow. 「...Chicxulub Impact.」Draco coughed, a spray of dark, draconic blood painting the emptiness. Internal bleeding. 【How... how is a human this strong?】Jay let out a manic, jagged laugh. 「Guess we’re equal now, you lizard fuck! Good idea eating my arm—now I can’t restore it, but at least I don't have to worry about protecting it anymore!」「Don't patronize me!」 Draco roared. 「~Annihilation Ray!~」
Draco unhinged his jaw to fire, but Jay was ready. A portal opened inches from Jay’s face. It wasn't a shield; it was a mirror. The Annihilation Ray Jay had absorbed earlier in the capital shot back out, augmented by his own desperate mana.
The two beams—original and copy—clashed in the center of the void. The energy peaked, stabilized for a heartbeat, and then detonated.
The explosion tore the dimensional storage apart. The combatants were spat back out into the real world, falling through the sky like broken toys. They slammed into the ruins of the Azure Capital, the shockwave of their reentry leveling the few buildings that were still standing.
【Dammit.】 Jay coughed up a thick glob of blood, staggering to his feet. Every nerve ending was screaming for the sweet release of unconsciousness. 【The fucker is still breathing.】
Draco pulled himself up, his left front leg dangling uselessly. Jay’s left arm was gone. His ears were ringing with a deafening silence. Jay used his mana detection to "see" through the haze of blood in his eyes.
Draco was a wreck. Scales gone, internal organs ruptured, the scar on his flank ripped wide open.
「You know, human...」 Draco wheezed. 「This is a first for me.」Jay used a pulse of mana to hear the words. 「Well. There’s a first time for everything.」「That... is something I can agree with,」 Draco said, a rattle in his chest as he laughed.Jay sighed, his knees buckling. 「Too bad I couldn't kill you, though.」Realization hit Draco like a physical weight. He looked at Jay’s crumbling form. 「I see. So that’s how it is. You’re spent.」
◽In The Old Ruins◽
The silence in the ruins was deafening. Their "Hero," their only hope, was a one-armed wreck standing at death’s door.
Lisa was a mess, her face smeared with snot and tears as she begged the Goddess for a miracle that wasn't coming. Saalin was crying silently, physically holding back Lena and Clara as they screamed for their father, trying to run toward a battlefield miles away. Rina’s fists were balled so tight her nails drew blood. Liani was rocking, her mind a frantic blur of useless calculations.
Then, Iris’s voice cut through the despair like a whip.「LISA! LIANI! RINA! SAALIN!」
They froze, looking at her. Iris stood tall, her face a mask of iron, though tears tracked through the dust on her cheeks.
「Jay only loses a fight when he’s dead,」 she said, her voice trembling but unbroken. She looked them each in the eye. 「So don't you dare give up on our man yet. He’s still standing.」
She turned back to the screen, her heart screaming what her lips wouldn't. 【Finish it, Jay. Come home.】