The abrupt, colossal roar didn't just drown out the sounds of the battlefield. The sheer shockwave generated by the scream alone shattered swarms of demons and drones in the sky.
Blue-white drones and black-red demons fell like rain... no, like the sky itself was collapsing.
In an instant, the entire battlefield seemed to clear up.
Tony, who had just been getting a handle on the Dimension War, was frozen in shock. Even Luca, who had been about to leave, stopped and looked solemnly at the massive dragon in the distance.
"They deployed a Hero Unit? They really couldn't hold back, huh..."
Clearly, the appearance of this Hell Dragon was intended to stop the Hex army's massive resource transfer operation.
Without a thought, the silver [Quincy Cross] on Luca's left wrist dropped into his hand.
But before he could act...
Inside the Hex base, the ground trembled slightly. A streak of crimson light shot straight into the sky. In the blink of an eye, it appeared right in front of the ascending dragon.
The figure was clad in pitch-black Pandora armor, armed to the teeth. It was Ipei.
Facing the dragon that had appeared out of nowhere, Ipei didn't hesitate. Leaving an afterimage in the air, he appeared instantly and swung his massive greatsword down on the dragon's head.
CLANG—
A deafening metallic ring echoed.
A pure white shockwave exploded from the point of impact, expanding rapidly in all directions.
On the ground below, soldiers from both sides were blown away by the blast. Just the shockwave from this initial "greeting" cleared a massive circular area in the middle of the chaotic battlefield.
ROAR—
The dragon, which had been roaring in fury as it ascended, suddenly changed its tune to a scream of pain.
Its long, slender neck was smashed downwards. With a thunderous crash, it slammed into the ground, kicking up a massive cloud of dust.
However, as a ninja, Ipei didn't have any hang-ups about fighting fair.
Seeing his ambush succeed, he pressed the advantage.
Still in mid-air, Ipei threw his greatsword high above him. As his hands flew through a series of seals, his body dove rapidly toward the ground.
By the time he landed, the jutsu was complete.
He placed his right palm silently on the head of the dragon, which was still dazed from the impact.
The next moment, countless blue-black rock spikes erupted from the ground like vines. In the blink of an eye, they bound the Hell Dragon tightly, pinning it to the earth.
Before the dragon could struggle free, the greatsword Ipei had thrown into the air spun back down into his hand.
Gripping the hilt, Ipei's palm moved slightly.
Vrummm—
A hum resonated.
The monofilament vibrating blade was suddenly coated in a layer of blue-green Wind Release chakra.
After a split-second charge, the black sword—tiny compared to the dragon's massive body—slashed down.
The brilliant streak of light seemed to drain the color from everything around it.
This time, there was no metallic clang.
In a single instant.
Like a hot knife through butter.
Foul, viscous dragon blood sprayed wildly.
The massive, hideous dragon head was severed and sent flying into the air, spinning before crashing heavily to the ground.
The headless dragon body twitched a few times, then twisted and shrank, reverting into the corpse of a headless demon, only slightly larger than a human.
Tony had expected a fierce battle between dragon and tiger.
He hadn't expected Ipei's decisive strike to end the fight in seconds.
"Ipei, that guy... not bad."
Seeing the battle end faster than expected, Luca decisively put away his [Quincy Cross].
Although tests confirmed he could exist in the Dimension War normally while wearing the [Spirit Pressure Restraining Eyepatch], Luca felt it was better not to use Hex particles if he didn't have to.
Yes, besides dropping Tony off, Luca had come to the Dimension War personally to test if the eyepatch worked.
He had already done basic tests on Earth.
While wearing the eyepatch, the Hex energy in his body was instantly devoured.
Even inside the high-concentration particle field generated by the Hex Solar Furnace, the particles trying to merge with Luca's body were consumed by the eyepatch before they could initiate any modification.
With Luca's current technology, he couldn't even measure the upper limit of the eyepatch's "Spirit Pressure" absorption on Earth.
The "assimilation" by the Hex Dimension happened because of Luca's unique connection to it, causing Hex energy to flood into him uncontrollably and rewrite his biology.
Now that the eyepatch could absorb the energy the moment it entered his body, the modification process was halted.
So, naturally, Luca wanted to see if this allowed him to step onto the battlefield.
Although this was the intersection of two dimensions and the Hex energy concentration was about half that of the Hex Dimension itself, the worst-case scenario was just retreating immediately if he felt something was wrong.
With Luca's current physical resilience, he wouldn't be fully assimilated even if he stayed for a few hours without protection.
But now, it seemed the [Spirit Pressure Restraining Eyepatch] was working exactly as expected.
Although it hit its absorption cap the moment he entered, it managed to throttle the speed of Luca's "evolution" down to about 30-50 times the rate of the Solar Furnace exposure.
At this rate, unless Luca was suicidal and planned to live on the battlefield for years, he was fine.
Running over here occasionally wouldn't just be safe—it would actually help him build up his adaptation to the energy.
Better yet, once he arrived on the battlefield, Luca discovered something even more interesting.
The item description said: "The consumed energy isn't stored inside the patch. Instead, it is released back into the world."
When "Spirit Pressure" was replaced by "Hex Energy" inside Luca, the return path for that devoured energy pointed straight back to the Hex Dimension.
The Dimension War was essentially a special zone created by the collision and fusion of two dimensions.
That was why the energy here was balanced, a 50-50 split.
Normally, under the principle of "balanced energy distribution," neither dimension gained or lost anything from the environment itself.
But... now there was Luca, a vacuum cleaner furiously sucking water back into his own pool...
"Come to think of it... I think I'm making a profit here."