WHOOSH!

​The radioactive winds of Staten Island howled through the massive crater left behind by humanity’s failed nuclear strike. Sitting cross-legged before the pulsing, apocalyptic gateway was the final gatekeeper. Unlike the previous guardians, this four-horned demon radiated an absolute, terrifying calmness. He slowly raised his head towards the distance, his slit eyes staring at the four colossal dragons and the towering centipede rushing towards him through the ash-choked air.

​"Human, are you the one who killed the other four guardians?" He asked. His voice did not boom or roar; it was a highly condensed wave of pure energy that perfectly reached Mirabella’s ears just as Reese stopped some distance from the gateway’s edge.

​"You aren’t worthy to ask my, Master anything!!" Vespina yelled at the dragon. Her pride instantly flared at the creature’s lack of reverence. She turned to Mirabella, her bat wings snapping open:

​"Leave him to me."

​Mirabella analyzed the energy density surrounding the gatekeeper, her expression unreadable. "Go ahead."

​With Mirabella’s words, she shot forward like a crimson bullet.

​"Hey dragon! Accept your punishment!!!"

​She yelled, as dozens of razor-sharp, vitality-draining tentacles violently shot out from both her pale palms, flying towards the dragon, and rapidly wrapping around its armored form, brutally biting into him to siphon his life force.

​"You underestimate a Great Celestial Stage cultivator."

​The gatekeeper didn’t even flinch. The dragon’s four horns suddenly glowed brightly with a blinding, abyssal light, and instantly, all the parasitic tentacles caught in highly destructive, conceptual flames. The fire didn’t just burn the physical limbs; it followed the tentacles’ energy pathway, heading rapidly towards Vespina’s core.

​"You dare cut off your tentacles?" The dragon asked, staring at her, his expression entirely flat.

​"You!" Vespina was stunned. The tentacles were a direct extension from her two hands, and she doesn’t have any other hand to cut them off; with no other choice, she forcefully shattered her own physical form into countless individual tentacles, watching as the burning ones fell to the deep, irradiated Crater the gateway was sitting on, sizzling as they hit the nuclear ground.

​The remaining, unburnt tentacles all moved together in the air, and seamlessly merged back into one, reforming Vespina again.

​’This guy isn’t reckless, and it seems to know how to use it brain and powers more than the last one.’ She thought, her arrogant demeanor cracking. She looked over her shoulder at Mirabella, who was staring at the scene with a completely flat, calculating expression.

​’I can’t disappoint Master.’ Vespina thought, her demonic eyes narrowing in lethal focus as she stretched her hand to the side.

​WHOOSH!!

​Tentacles violently burst out from her arms, rapidly moving to her open hand, and compressed themselves under immense pressure to formed a long, unbreakable black rapier.

​"Come on!"

​She shot forward, abandoning her area-of-effect draining skills for pure, concentrated piercing power.

​The dragon stared at her incoming strike with a profoundly bored expression. To a Great Celestial, a Nine-Star entity was barely an annoyance.

​"You are arrogant, were the other guardians so weak, that a nine stars dare attack a Great Celestial?" He pointed one single, armored finger at her charging form.

​"I will just show you the horror of a great Celestial."

​BOOOOM!!!!

​A gigantic, hyper-condensed fire blast burst out from that one finger, effortlessly vaporizing the air in its path, heading towards Vespina with insane, unreactable speed.

​"You!!" She gritted her fangs, instantly infused all her demonic energy into her sword, and struck it forward with everything she had at the incoming attack.

​BOOOOM!!!

​The two attacks collided mid-air, but there was no struggle. The physics heavily favored the higher cultivator. Vespina’s sword aura shattered like fragile glass, and Vespina flew backward like a broken doll, vomiting a mouthful of dark, corrupted blood as her internal organs ruptured.

​"From the nine stars, the difference in each rank is like heaven and earth. You are too weak to kill the other Gatekeepers." The dragon said, stating a fundamental law of the dimensional hierarchy. He finally stood up from the crater’s edge, his massive frame casting a terrifying shadow, casually crossing his arms on his chest:

​"The humans in this world sent their strongest attack, and they could only damage the surroundings, do you think I am weakling?!" He declared, referring to the nuclear weapon that had previously detonated on this exact spot. His body had absorbed the radiation and lived. He raised his heavy hand high above his head, as the very fabric of the sky violently tore opened, and a huge, ethereal dragon claw made of pure, crushing atmospheric pressure appeared, rapidly descending towards Vespina.

​"DIE!!"

​"Nothing can kill me!!" Vespina spread her arms wide, her survival instincts pushing her past her limits:

​"Demon feast!!"

​BOOM!

​The spatial fabric behind her cracked opened with a sickening sound, as a huge, grotesque demon maw appeared from the void. Thousands of thick tentacles shot out from it, heading rapidly towards the descending dragon claw above to devour its energy.

​"Pathetic!!"

​The dragon scoffed and simply dropped his hand, and the huge, ethereal claw smashed down with ten times its original speed, carrying the full weight of a Great Celestial’s authority.

​"This?!!"

​BOOOOM!!!!

​The sheer, overwhelming force of the attack instantly shattered the demon maw into fragments of dead energy particles. Vespina flew backward uncontrollably, violently smashing on Reese’s massive draconic head, vomiting another massive mouthful of dark blood:

​"If I haven’t used that Demon maw to block the attack, I would be dead." She muttered in sheer disbelief, her health bar flashing a dangerous red.

​Adira, hovering silently near Mirabella, gracefully stretched her hand towards Vespina. A stream of healing magic washed over the demoness, instantly healing her shattered ribs and ruptured core.

​"That’s your punishment for rushing ahead." She said, her voice a soft but firm reprimand.

​"Thank you, second Big sister." Vespina said with a heavy sigh, deeply humiliated by the absolute defeat, and turned to Mirabella:

​"I am Sorry, Master. I will accept any punishment."

​Mirabella observed the difference between them. "It’s not your fault, he’s two ranks stronger than you." Mirabella said, processing the gatekeeper’s stats.

​"Leave it to me!!" Toxin yelled, refusing to let the vanguard fall. The massive Fusion-stage entity shot forward, its dozens of colossal, chitinous legs digging deep holes in the irradiated ground, ignoring the residual nuclear heat.

​"I won’t underestimate you!! Poisonous judgment!!"

​Toxin screamed, as huge, highly concentrated poisonous Balls, capable of melting through elements and souls alike, appeared rapidly above him.

​"You are only a fusion stage realm Boss! Do you think you’re worthy to be my opponent?!" The dragon scoffed at the attack and violently slammed his heavy feet on the ground.

​BOOOOM!!!

​The earth fractured, and a geyser of highly radioactive, abyssal fire burst out from the ground, brutally smashing Toxin from below. The erupting pillar threw the huge, fifty-meter centipede violently backwards through the air, creating deep, sizzling cracks on his previously invincible carapace... His poisonous shattering into harmless smoke.

​"Kill it!!!"

​The three realm boss dragons yelled in unified outrage, and flew aggressively towards him, simultaneously releasing devastating breath attacks of ice, poison, and darkness energies towards the gatekeeper, which smashed into his shield.

​The gatekeeper looked up at the dragons. He recognized their lineage immediately. He was instantly filled with rage.

​"You are all low-blood dragons, how dare you attack an ancient dragon?!!" He yelled, absolutely enraged by the insubordination of lesser beings.

​Mirabella watched calmly from Reese’s back. The four glowing gemstones she had harvested from the previous gatekeepers hummed faintly in her inventory, resonating with the immense energy pool this final Great Celestial possessed. Yet, she knew from her own lineage that the gatekeeper’s so-called Ancient bloodline was nothing compared to true God bloodlines—the kind she currently possessed as the Beast Empress.

​Unaware of the God-tier sovereign watching him, the gatekeeper waved his hand dismissively before him, invoking his Ancient Bloodline authority.

​BOOOOM!!!

​The pressure in the entire borough increased one hundred folds instantly, and violently smashed into the three flying dragons like an invisible mountain, forcing them all brutally into the irradiated ground.

​BOOOOM!!!