Chapter 35: Wrath

His body cracked, his body shuddered and rebelled, it was no use, pristine black and shimmering cobalt blue scales erupted from within, but a dangerous crimson-red electricity zig-zagged across his changing body. The awakened wrath engulfing his heart began disrupting and loosening the locks within his soul. The seal over the glimmering wisp within his soul cracked but did not open, that was enough, however. It began with a growl building up from within him, rumbling the earth and acting as a catalyst for the transformation. All at once his body burst and shifted into the mythical creature that he was. Powerful hind legs that grew claws and dug deep into the earth as he flexed them, then the arms coated in jagged armor-like scales with shorter claws allowing him to form a fist. He was no longer human, rippling muscles of the beast within him made his body grow to about half the size of the demon before him. His head morphed and cracked transforming into a sleek reptilian-head with four jagged horns and piercing golden eyes. 

The growl rose up in power before he roared. And with that as a signal superheated flames simmered inside his body.

His body then erupted in flames. 

They danced at the end of his vision, bathing him in a crimson-orange glow. They were warm and so bright against the shadows that loomed at the edges of his aura. They could not penetrate, but the demon in front of him infused power into the shadows and they began gnawing at the edge. They were breaking through his aura of flame and destruction. With a grunt, the dragon manifested countless holy marks upon the aura and successfully slowed down their pace, but the towering being before him let out a roar. 

The building around him collapsed, awakening the few little critters that did not fuse with the demon but he grasped onto them all the same. But when he pulled them back, the demon abruptly used one of his arms to tear into its flesh and stuff the struggling demons inside. 

His anger rose along with the wails from those trapped within. A roar so deafening it blew back his adversary and the demon let out a wail of pain. 

This was good, he was somewhat in control, but the battering in his soul was incessant and soon he would no longer be able to hold back the tidal wave of ferocity and destruction. 

He grew, and grew some more, pouring power and using the wrath as an ignition to destroy a blockage that still held him back. And though cracks spread, they held but streams of red energy poured inside and pulled back power. With a click fixing itself in place, his body exploded in energy and his growth sped up. Now, instead of the beast demon towering over him, they were staring eye to eye. 

A battle of the Titans was fitting in this world. But his control wavered and that lifted the dam and he felt fury flow. 

The titanic dragon of wrath cloaked in a pressurized aura of destruction and holy flames bellowed out a challenge. He coated his arm in cobalt dragonfire with bursts of crimson licking the flames and with a burst of speed appeared before the demon. 

The demon did not sit still, and after he recovered from the roar, he used his countless limbs to block the oncoming barrage of fists. The pain seemed to register for the demon as he began shrieking in fury, but he remained immobile until he shifted his feet back and lashed out with a wound-up tentacle. The dragon opened his maw and bit down severing the limb and bathing the demon in blue flames. 

They coated the demon's body, instilling a primal fear that quickly morphed into an indignant rage as he lashed out with a barrage of appendages, the dragon to his credit was able to hold off the oncoming ones with his fists, but soon rage clouded his ability to defend and he was knocked over with a clean strike on the bottom of his maw shattering scales, but he had clamped down to protect his teeth. The dragon crashed on the ground shaking the earth, and the demon seized that chance, letting out a scream that shuddered reality around him. The demon with a snap from one of his limbs manifested countless bolts of lightning, filled with crackling black energy. He grinned ominously and launched them at the downed dragon. 

With a roar of defiance, the dragon pushed himself up and the aura surrounding him shattered most of the oncoming strikes, the rest were struck down by his tail, cutting through the bolts, not before one of them found purchase on the two right horns effectively blackening and shattering them. The demon rammed his body against the dragon and began pummeling it onto the ground, the area around them rumbled tearing it apart, as the relentless onslaught battered against the dragon's scales. They were stained with demonic energy, shattering bit by bit as the foreign mana began eating away at the magical properties and penetrating the defenses. And even though that was true, the pain did not register, he was able to feel the tingling sensation of his soul weathering damage the dragon still pushed itself off using its maw to clamp down on one of the demon's legs, infusing flames into it that purified the limb disintegrating flesh and purging the negative aura clinging onto it. 

The dragon's counterattack commenced as he toppled over the demon and took to the skies. Another roar of rage blanketed the sky, and surges of destructive energy bombarded the surroundings, several magical circles manifested above him and were launched as countless beams of energy hit the struggling demon and the dragon began diving. The demon morphed part of his lower body to slime, nullifying his vulnerability, reflecting the energy beams, and resisting the tail lash the dragon hit him with. The increased gravity caved in the ground beneath him, but with a bellow in protest, the demon sent a barrage of fists hooking onto the right side of the dragon and effectively throwing it off. 

Ichor dropped from the demon's body, and cracks began appearing, but the dragon looked far worse, healing kept him in the game but the damage they dished out to one another kept the injuries from healing effectively. And yet the pressure exerted by the dragon rose, and the fury within his eyes did not diminish in the slightest, he climbed and barreled himself toward the angry demon. Flashes of red screens covered the dragon's vision, but with a mental swipe ignored them and continued his onslaught of flame-cloaked fists and tail over the demon, as he too sent a barrage of appendages. Blood and ichor oozed, pooling to the bottom and boiling from the flames, that either purified or cleansed it.

Growls and roars bounced off of the two titans fighting for supremacy, they did not appear to be tiring, but the regenerative ability of the demon kicked in, far slower however, and the dragon did not have the presence of mind to notice. The dragon zoned out for but a moment, drawing in inspiration and took a breath as his neck drew a semi-circle over the demon and plummeted atop him, effectively smashing him onto the ground. Steam rose from the flattened head, but the demon in either rage or fury morphed one of his appendages into a maw of all-encompassing teeth aiming for the arm coated in dragonfire. Before the dragon could detect and move away from the oncoming attack, the demon took hold of his hind legs with tentacles keeping him in place and latching onto the fist snuffing out the flames with an inky black liquid. It sizzled but the saws in place tore and shattered scales and though no pain was registering, panic set in but it was far too late, soon the hand was severed and fell onto the ground. The demon had no chance to gorge himself, the dragon in a bellow of rage and barely registered pain swung his tail engulfing the demon in a purifying light of fire. 

Rage took hold of both beings and soon they clashed once more, far less effectively with their injuries but the attacks kept coming though. Though the wound the dragon had was far more grievous, he had energy in spades, but the demon in his unstable form faltered for a second. Rage bubbled up from within the dragon, transforming it into a beam of pure destructive flames that launched out of his maw toward the stumbling demon. 

Holy energy was twisted and intertwined tightly within the destructive energy, either from a brief flash of inspiration from the dragon, or by instinct, it does not matter, but the demon received the full brunt and a resounding scream of pain followed. 

A pillar of light and fire engulfed the demon, vaporizing its flesh and ceasing its regenerative properties. His howl reverberated through the insides of the dragon, cracking the wrath wall but not breaking it within his soul. 

A wave of positive happiness and grateful thanks washed over the dragon, but so lost it was in a rage, he could not register them, but a twinge from his soul momentarily stopped him and got him to look at the floating and swaying souls shooting to the sky as the remains of the demon crumbled and splashed onto the ichor beneath it. 

Fury clouded his eyes once more after the last of the souls disappeared and he foolishly threw himself onto the remains of the demon, demolishing his decaying flesh burning him with the dragonfire still coating his one draconic arm and vanquishing the remaining negative energy. The healing energy from within surged into his stub, and though the dragon was able to manipulate gravity to place his arm in place, the punches made it far harder for the process to be effective. He found nothing wrong, however, and kept up the attacks. 

The dragon did not stop. 

He could not stop. 

The wrath was overwhelming and the pain of the soul still hammered him within, reminding him of how much pain they went through and how angry he was at the one who put them through this. 

Stone, rubble, flesh, and trees were torn apart by the destructive aura coating his body and the fists demolished it into pieces. With no rhyme or reason, the dragon kept hammering his cracked claws and fists over the body, the demon no longer existed however, he had long been purged but the roars, or wails emanating from the dragon were defeating. 

Fury and sorrow were coiled tightly together, but soon a wave of pressure blanketed the area around the dragon. He could not move, he could not do a thing, the wrath that had consumed him entirely was banished and left smoldering at the pit of his stomach. Soon his size diminished, the scales receded, and the wings, tail, and horns retracted as he transformed back into a young boy into the pile of rubble and destruction he himself brought upon. His hand stitched itself back together faster, but still far slower than normal, soon he would be healed though, so he paid no mind to the itchy sensation. 

Exhaustion, system messages, cries of panic, and soul fatigue dominated his mind, his head pounding in a dull ache as his heart clenched in sadness. At the end of his blurring vision, he saw four individuals with an aura of awe-inspiring power, two of them familiar and the other two not so much. Serafall's face flashed into his vision and then a red blur in his peripheral, he could make out lines of worry on both, and he could feel them look upon the devastation. Soon his eyelids could no longer hold themselves up, and he was embraced by a soft cool body that felt nice against his superheated one, he blissfully enjoyed the sensation of safety and then darkness overtook him.