A streak of light shot through the kaleidoscopic Dimensional Gap like a bolt of lightning, leaving sonic booms echoing in its wake.
Leo flew at maximum speed toward the source of those two auras, ten demonic wings beating furiously. He only veered off course when his magic detection picked up fragments of Nothingness drifting into his path.
Kanna wasn't with him. The cowardly dragon refused to go anywhere near those two auras, no matter what he said, so Leo left her at the castle to wait and serve as a coordinate anchor in case he couldn't find his way back.
He'd already carved a magical marker into Kanna, the same kind he'd once used on Cerberus, allowing him to sense her location from any distance.
Then he set out alone.
The journey wasn't smooth.
A cataclysmic boom ripped through the Gap, and a shockwave tore outward like an invisible detonation, more violent than any storm, warping the very fabric of the Dimensional Gap around it.
Leo grunted. The pressure wave hit him like swimming against a tidal surge. Every bone, every muscle in his body rattled and groaned, threatening to come apart.
He barely held his ground, fighting to stabilize himself against being blown away.
"What are those two doing? How are they generating shockwaves this massive?"
Leo grimaced.
Good thing this was the Dimensional Gap. In the real world, a shockwave like that could have flattened an entire city, reshaped the terrain, shattered the earth, and sent skyscrapers tumbling through the air like scraps of paper.
And the closer he got to the source, the worse it became. Leo was starting to wonder whether flying straight toward it was going to get him killed.
But he had no choice. This was his only lead on escaping the Gap.
He gritted his teeth and unleashed his own aura.
"Balance Breaker."
He had no choice but to activate it.
Only by enhancing his own power could he get close to those two auras without being torn apart.
Pure white aura erupted around him, shielding him from the incoming shockwaves. His demonic power surged, and the wings on his back shifted from ten to twelve, pushing him firmly into the highest tier of demonkind.
With Balance Breaker active, Leo's raw demonic power alone reached Super Maou-Class, incomparably stronger than before.
Thanks to that, he finally moved through the shockwaves with ease, his form becoming a streak of light again as he rocketed toward the source.
He flew for what felt like an eternity.
Then he stopped.
And he saw them.
His eyes went to the massive creature first.
A dragon. Entirely crimson, covered in scales, ferocious and majestic. Its body stretched at least a hundred meters long, and the aura radiating from it was deep and vast as an ocean, carrying an unimaginable weight.
That aura was both draconic and divine.
"The True Red Dragon God Emperor, the Apocalypse Dragon... Great Red."
Leo murmured the name without thinking.
The strongest being in this world. One of the two Dragon Gods. The guardian of the Dimensional Gap, master of dreams. Great Red.
Looking at the crimson dragon, Leo felt a shock that went beyond words. Not just from witnessing the dragon's imposing true form, but because standing before this Dragon God felt like standing at the end of all ambition, the far shore of every ideal. The awe rose from somewhere deep inside him, unbidden.
But his attention quickly shifted to the other presence.
Compared to Great Red, this one had almost no presence at all. Where Great Red's body stretched over a hundred meters, this one was a petite girl who might not even reach a hundred and fifty centimeters tall.
She wore a black dress, somewhat revealing, leaving her slender limbs, arms, thighs, and midriff exposed. Her features were more delicate than a porcelain doll's, more refined than a figurine's. Only her eyes stood out... hollow, as if they could swallow everything in existence, hiding an endless abyss within.
And yet, despite her insignificant appearance next to Great Red, the aura pouring off this girl was staggering.
It was no less terrifying than Great Red's. But where Great Red's aura was deep and weighty like an ocean, hers carried an indescribable sense of desolation, of absolute emptiness. More distant than a black hole.
Leo knew exactly who she was.
There was only one being in all of existence who could stand against Great Red as an equal.
"The Infinite Dragon God, the Ouroboros Dragon... Ophis."
The serpent that devoured its own tail, symbol of infinite cycles. Born from the Nothingness itself, crowned with titles of Chaos, Infinity, and the Void. The other Dragon God.
Leo's hunch had been right. Those two bottomless auras could only belong to these two supreme beings.
Both had been born in the Dimensional Gap. Their presence here was only natural.
But these two didn't get along.
The proof was right in front of him. The two Dragon Gods, radiating seemingly infinite and terrifying auras, were clearly in the middle of a fight.
Another deafening collision. The shockwave shook the entire Dimensional Gap.
Great Red's colossal body shot forward at terrifying speed, becoming an afterimage too fast for even Leo to track, and slammed into Ophis.
Ophis watched with empty, quiet eyes. Her body was smaller than a single one of Great Red's teeth. A single snort from the dragon's nostrils could have blown her away. Yet she didn't retreat a single step. She simply threw her small, delicate fist forward and struck Great Red square in the forehead.
The impact was apocalyptic. An invisible distortion rippled outward, pulverizing everything in its vicinity.
Leo's expression changed instantly. Without hesitation, he activated his Balance Breaker ability and deployed a bubble around himself, sealing himself inside.
The bubbles created by Speranza Di Briscola might look fragile enough to pop with a touch, but in reality they could contain countless natural disasters raging within them without cracking. They were impenetrable barriers.
Used defensively, a bubble could trap an enemy inside with no escape. Used as a shield, it could block external attacks. Even a meteor falling on it wouldn't make it budge.
Leo's only goal right now was to use it to survive the aftershocks.
Even so, the bubble containing him tumbled through the invisible distortions like a tiny boat tossed into a tsunami, rolling end over end, completely unable to stabilize.
And this was just the beginning.
The two Dragon Gods seemed entirely unaware that a tiny devil had wandered into the vicinity. They clashed within the kaleidoscopic Dimensional Gap, generating terrifying shockwaves with every exchange.
Their fighting style was brutally simple. No overwhelming barrages of attacks, no exotic abilities. Just pure physical collision, body against body.
Each casual strike could shift the stars. Each slight movement shook the earth. Every collision was like two planets smashing together, devastating beyond comprehension.
All Leo could do inside his tumbling bubble was sense the two colossal auras surging, colliding, and thundering. Beyond that, he couldn't perceive a thing.
"So this is what Dragon Gods are...?!"
Leo gritted his teeth and held on, fighting to keep his bubble from being blown too far away.
His magic detection was running at full power, but all it could pick up were those two oceanic auras. Nothing else registered.
One was the True Dragon of the Apocalypse.
The other was the Ouroboros serpent of infinity.
Both were dragons among dragons, gods among dragons. Either one possessed the power to single-handedly challenge every mythological faction in the world combined, forcing countless gods and devils to bow before them. With Leo's current strength, not yet even at God-Class, there was no way he could perceive anything more.
All he could do was endure, surviving in the gap between two titans, fighting not to be swept from the battlefield.
He endured. And endured. For how long, he couldn't say.
Then, with one final, earth-shattering collision, the two Dragon Gods finally separated, their forms becoming visible again.
"I-is it over?"
Leo barely survived the last aftershock. Looking at his bubble, now cracked and on the verge of shattering, he turned toward the center of the battlefield with lingering dread.
Great Red stood there, still imposing, still massive, seemingly uninjured. Its aura was just as overwhelming as before.
Ophis, by contrast, looked somewhat worse for wear. She didn't appear injured either, but her aura had become unstable, and for the first time, something like emotion flickered in those hollow eyes as she stared at Great Red.
Great Red stared back, looking far more composed.
The verdict was clear. Both Dragon Gods wielded terrifying power, but Great Red was ultimately the stronger of the two.
They faced each other in silence for a moment longer.
Then Ophis moved first.
As if acknowledging that she couldn't win, her expression remained blank as she dissolved into nothingness and vanished, disappearing without a trace.
Great Red huffed with satisfaction, like a victor savoring a battle well won, then turned and began drifting leisurely in another direction.
It looked like a whale singing in the ocean. As carefree as could be.
"Wait!"
Leo saw his chance.
He had to call out to Great Red. Get the Dragon God to open a way out of the Dimensional Gap for him.
As the guardian of the Gap, Great Red had the ability to open passages to the real world at will.
That was why Leo had risked coming here in the first place.
But Great Red either genuinely hadn't noticed Leo's existence, or had noticed and simply didn't care about something so small. The dragon continued drifting away without pause.
"Wait! Great Red!"
Leo was about to give chase when a voice from behind stopped him cold.
"...A human?"
The voice was clear, almost musical, yet utterly devoid of emotion.
Leo froze. Then he whipped around.
Standing there, in the warped space of the Dimensional Gap, was the girl who had just dissolved into nothingness and vanished moments ago. As if it were the most natural thing in the world, she stood quietly, watching him.
"Ophis..."
Leo forced her name out.
The Infinite Dragon God had come back.
"...Not a human?" The girl didn't seem to care that he recognized her or knew her name. She spoke as if talking to herself. "A devil?"
Those quiet, hollow eyes fixed on Leo. She wasn't doing anything, yet the pressure bearing down on him was immense.
And the pressure was warranted.
This seemingly fragile girl could probably erase Leo from existence with a flick of her finger.
With the True Red Dragon God Emperor, Great Red, serving as the Dimensional Gap's guardian and never willingly leaving this place, the Infinite Dragon God was, for all practical purposes, the strongest being in the world. Above every god. Above every devil.
Compared to her, Leo was no different from an ant.
Frankly, the fact that Ophis had even noticed his existence, when Great Red hadn't spared him a glance, already surprised him.
Leo took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.
"I'm a devil." His voice had gone hoarse without him realizing it, but he spoke to Ophis steadily. "I'm here to ask for help."
He had no intention of beating around the bush. He stated his purpose directly.
Because he knew that both Great Red and Ophis, for all their overwhelming power, had equally straightforward personalities.
Ophis especially was innocent and naive, completely ignorant of the world's complexities. In some ways, she might actually be easier to communicate with than Great Red.
So Leo planned to be direct. No games, no pretenses.
Ophis was a Dragon God born from the Dimensional Gap. If she was here, she could obviously enter and leave at will.
Asking Ophis for help was just as viable.
Even if, technically speaking, she was supposed to be his enemy.