Crimson winds spread around Oswald, forming a giant cage of slicing currents around Max. At the same time, Thor vanished into the storm, his body becoming one with the lightning, flashing from one direction to another so quickly that most eyes could no longer follow him.

Wind sealed the space around Max, while lightning searched for an opening inside the shrinking cage. Hundreds of crimson blades rushed toward him from every side, and blue lightning flashed between them, trying to strike the small gaps in his armor.

Max looked around, amused, then lifted his free hand.

A black vortex opened above his palm.

The wind cage bent under the terrifying pull. The crimson blades twisted out of shape, pulled toward the vortex. The sight made the Wind Emperor’s face pale.

Lightning struck Max’s armor again and again, but it only scattered across the surface, unable to find the flesh beneath the layers of void protection.

Oswald roared, forcing more power into the cage as Thor appeared in front of Max, aiming the trident straight for his throat.

Max’s eyes narrowed slightly, and he stepped forward in the air. That single movement sent a wave of ancestor pressure bursting outward. Oswald’s wind cage collapsed for a breath, and Thor’s lightning flickered.

Max grabbed Thor’s trident shaft with one hand and kicked him in the chest, so hard that Thor shot backward, blood bursting from his mouth before he managed to stop himself in the air.

Oswald attacked from behind, his spear aiming for Max’s spine.

Max turned halfway and met the spear with his void blade. Sparks of crimson and black scattered between them.

Max twisted his wrist, sliding the blade along Oswald’s spear and forcing the weapon aside before his clawed hand shot forward.

Oswald barely raised a wind shield in time before Max’s claw struck it, forcing his defenses to explode and sending him flying backward again, his arms trembling from the impact.

Max laughed softly, just enough for both emperors to hear it.

"You two really are emperors? Pathetic."

Their faces burned red with humiliation.

Thor wiped the blood from his mouth, his eyes filling with madness. His pride, his empire, his people, his treasures, his wife, everything had been trampled by this human.

He could not accept it. He refused to accept it.

Blue lightning gathered around his body, denser than before. The clouds above him darkened.

And then, he vanished.

This time, his speed was different, so different that even Max’s eyes shifted slightly. A blue flash appeared behind him, and Thor’s trident crashed into the middle of Max’s upper back.

But Max did not block or dodge. His lips curled in amusement.

The attack landed with everything Thor had left. The force was monstrous, enough to split mountains.

But the void armor held its ground. Thor’s face turned ashen as he understood that the trident had never reached Max’s scales.

Still, the raw impact blasted through Max’s body, shaking his organs and forcing the taste of liquid iron into his mouth.

Slowly, he turned his head to face Thor’s stunned eyes.

"I’m not as weak as before anymore."

Thor’s pupils shrank.

Max grinned, twisting his body while slashing with his void blade. A black crescent moon tore out from the edge, faster than Thor could retreat, making his eyes widen as the blade passed through his extended arm.

For a single breath, time seemed to stop.

Then blood burst from his shoulder, making Thor scream as he pulled back, his severed arm falling through the air, still gripping the trident that had once made the Thunder Dragon Empire tremble.

For a moment, even Oswald forgot how to breathe. He had always thought of Thor as his enemy, but in this moment, he finally understood the danger of the greater threat before them.

Max was no longer just a human with strange magic. He was something that could swallow their clans whole if they allowed him to keep growing.

"Hey, human trash!" Oswald shouted at the top of his lungs.

But Max barely glanced at him.

That single look made Oswald’s face twist.

Crimson winds gathered behind him, twisting into a giant sphere that grew heavier with every passing breath. His spear trembled in his hand, and the veins on his arms bulged as crimson light poured from his body.

The crimson sphere pulsed like a heart.

Max glanced from the corner of his eye at what the Wind Emperor was preparing. At first, his expression remained calm, but then his eyes widened as danger crawled down his spine.

Something about that aura was suppressing him. Something about it felt painfully familiar.

The crimson wind sphere slowly shaped itself into a giant dragon head. Horns of twisting wind curved from its skull, its eyes burned with crimson light, and its open jaws revealed rows of razor-like currents spinning in place of teeth.

And in that moment, Max recognized it.

It looked similar to the Fire Dragon Progenitor that had almost claimed his life.

"Progenitor? How?" Max muttered through chattering teeth.

He no longer feared much in this world. But that creature had carved a trauma into him that strength alone could not erase. His body remembered the heat, the pressure, and the feeling of standing before something far beyond him.

His fingers tightened around the void blade. For the first time since the battle began, his smile faded.

Oswald’s lips slowly stretched into a sharp, crooked grin. His green eyes began to turn crimson, pulsing with light and madness, as if something ancient was staring through his face.

He looked sharper than before. More focused. But also far closer to madness.

Max gritted his teeth, suppressing his initial fear as he understood that this was nothing but a trick. No matter how dangerous this attack was, it could not match the real progenitor he had fought before.

But even a shadow of that monster was enough to make his blood run cold.

The crimson dragon head opened its jaws wider, and the winds around it began to spin faster, drawing in clouds. Everything was dragged into the mouth of that giant head, compressed into a single crimson point.

Max’s wings spread wider.

Black void armor crawled thicker over his body. Purple ice flames burned along the edge of his blade, but even that flame flickered under the pressure of the crimson dragon head.

Without any warning at all, Oswald thrust his spear forward, the terrifying dragon head roaring behind him.

A beam of compressed crimson wind shot from its mouth, tearing through the sky toward Max like a drill, grinding the air apart as it rushed toward him.

Max exhaled slowly, frost spilling from his mouth.

"Don’t compare a fake shadow..." Max muttered, raising his void blade with both claws as darkness gathered around him. "To the real thing!"

The crimson beam slammed into him.

Purple ice, black void, and crimson wind exploded together, turning the sky above the Fire Lands into a storm of three colors.