"Mm… another bowl!"
Inside a barrier-protected cave, after a full day of fighting and exploration in the ruined world, Raize and Vali's group rested to recover. Kanna's voice echoed inside the cave.
Cooking tools and a simple stove were set up, along with a large table filled with food. Everyone was eating and resting.
Kanna sat on a small stool, holding up her empty bowl toward Raize. He filled it again, then looked at the table—nearly cleared of food—and stood up to prepare more.
"Does anyone want anything else?"
In response, the food-devouring Bikou muttered that he wanted more stir-fried meat.
Arthur elegantly cut into a special steak while savoring fragrant Dionysian dragon blood wine, requesting another steak.
Le Fay ate gracefully, not wanting to gain weight, while Kuroka happily enjoyed Raize's fish dishes.
"Meow! Three more servings of sashimi and fish dishes, please!"
"Another large bowl of noodles, please."
Vali set down his empty bowl, still steaming, and asked for more noodles.
Because of his upbringing, noodles were his favorite food. Raize's noodles were unbelievably good. After once eating ramen Raize made for his mother, he had even thought about learning from him.
Bikou also greatly enjoyed the delicious food, his chopsticks sweeping across the plates of meat. When he saw the last piece of grilled meat, he immediately reached for it.
Smack!
With puffed cheeks and food still in his mouth, Bikou widened his eyes and looked at Kanna—who was also staring back at him.
Both of them had grabbed the same piece of meat. They struggled briefly, but neither could take it.
Bikou swallowed his food and gave Kanna a fake smile.
"Kid, I grabbed this meat first."
"I'm not a kid! I'm fourteen thousand years old! You're the kid!"
Kanna's puffed cheeks bulged angrily. Don't judge a dragon by her size—he didn't even come close to her age.
When it came to food, Kanna guarded it like a greedy dragon hoarding treasure.
No one takes food from a dragon's mouth!
"Fourteen thousand years…"
Bikou's mouth twitched. This little girl really was ancient.
Thinking of the Infinite Dragon God who also looked like a cute girl, he shrugged it off.
But he wasn't giving up the meat. Even if she was a dragon, she couldn't possibly have power like Ophis, right?
Bikou smiled slightly. As Kanna stared at him like an enemy stealing food, his hand moved subtly, releasing a faint energy fluctuation—and he let go of his chopsticks.
"Fine. You're the elder. I won't fight you."
Kanna froze, then lifted her chin proudly. She put the fragrant meat into her mouth.
She chewed blankly—but there was no taste or texture. Instead—
"Ptoo, ptoo!!"
Kanna spat, and a long monkey hair fell from her mouth.
She stared at the hair on the ground, then looked up at Bikou, who was grinning smugly.
The meat she had fought over was now in his chopsticks. He tossed it into his mouth with a wicked grin.
"Too naïve. You didn't really think I'd let you have it, did you? No way, no way, no way."
Seeing Bikou acting smug and annoying like a true monkey, everyone at the table twitched their mouths and pretended not to know him.
No matter how one looked at it, the scene really did seem like Bikou was bullying a child—except that the other party was a giant dragon older than everyone present.
Coming back to her senses, Kanna realized she had been tricked. Her face flushed bright red, her cheeks puffed out in anger, and she ground her teeth as she stared at the smug Bikou. Crackling sparks of electricity danced across her entire body.
"H-Hey, hey! I was just joking—don't tell me you took it seriously?!"
Seeing her obvious fighting stance, Bikou immediately leaped backward, pulling out his golden staff and holding it horizontally in front of him. He stared warily at Kanna, whose body was bursting with electric sparks.
She was a giant dragon. He hadn't missed the destruction she had caused earlier. Now that Raize had healed her, her terrifying strength had clearly returned. If they really fought, even he would be scared.
"That's enough, Kanna. Don't bother with him. This monkey is even more mischievous than you are."
Raize walked past Bikou carrying several plates, more hovering behind him with energy. He shot Bikou a glare, then placed the food in front of her.
"I'll give his food to you."
Kanna looked at the fragrant grilled meat in front of her, then viciously glared at Bikou as he protested. She opened her dragon mouth and swallowed the grilled meat together with the plate in one bite.
Even though Kanna kept saying she didn't trust Raize, she still stayed by his side.
Once they finished exploring this ruined world, he would send her to Kobayashi's place and let Kobayashi properly take care of her.
"Vali, with monsters like that swarming this ruined world, most resource-type things must have already been eaten clean. Should we really keep exploring?"
Raize sipped his juice and asked Vali. Finding an Ultraman statue inside a BETA nest was already a decent haul for him. Searching for anything else here would probably be difficult.
Those BETA devoured anything they considered a resource. He had no idea why they were so obsessed with gathering resources. This world was already on the brink of collapse—continuing to harvest resources would only hasten its destruction.
"Yeah, that's true… Do you think those monsters could be used by us?"
Vali thought about Raize's words. He was right—finding opportunities here would be difficult with the BETA around. Still, he didn't want to leave empty-handed, so his attention turned to those mass-produced creatures with considerable combat power.
After fighting them for a while, Vali felt they were excellent weapons of war. If they could be utilized…
Arthur frowned when he heard this. He set down his knife and fork and warned Vali:
"Vali, you know how dangerous those creatures are. If something goes wrong after bringing them into our world, what then?"
After learning about those ugly things from Raize, Arthur had become extremely wary of them. They devoured everything, treating all things as resources.
If they ever went out of control in the human world, it would undoubtedly cause massive disasters. Arthur was part of Vali's team, but he was also human.
Betting the safety of all humanity was unacceptable.
Aside from Kanna, everyone else also thought of the danger those creatures posed. They frowned and stopped eating. BETA could indeed serve as weapons, but they were also a dangerous double-edged sword.
One mistake could backfire on them all.
Everyone in Vali's team was elite—no fools among them. Le Fay disliked those hideous monsters, Bikou had no fondness for them either, and Kuroka wanted to wipe them out the moment she saw them. Raize himself had no desire to bring such dangerous things into the human world.
"Vali, even if you brought them back, are you confident you could control them one hundred percent? If they fell into the hands of some brainless but ambitious fool, it would benefit no one."
Rather than warning Vali like Arthur did, Raize calmly laid out the pros, cons, and risks, leaving Vali to think it through himself.
Vali loved fighting, but he wasn't stupid.
"You're right… Since we can't use these biological weapons, then we should destroy them completely!"
Vali didn't disappoint Raize. After weighing the pros and cons, he made the right decision. Then he glanced at Kanna, who was happily stuffing her face, his gaze turning cold as he said to Raize:
"If we can come here, then other beings can too. You said it yourself—we can't let ambitious people get their hands on these weapons. Then we'll destroy them entirely."
Everyone glanced at Kanna eating away. She shrank her neck a little, confused, and looked at Raize. Raize simply gave her his portion of food and patted her head, signaling that everything was fine.
Everyone understood what Vali meant. Besides them, Kanna had appeared in this ruined world—so wasn't it possible that others could come too?
Almost every powerful faction explored ruined worlds. If they couldn't obtain these weapons, then they certainly couldn't let anyone else have them.
"But just like Raize said earlier, the number of those disgusting things is enormous. Even just clearing one nest takes a lot of time and effort."
Kuroka licked her pale fingers and pointed out the difficulty.
She was right—the sheer number of BETA was terrifying. To wipe them all out with just this group… wasn't that a bit unrealistic?
Bikou chewed on a toothpick, his face turning slightly green at the thought of their numbers.
"Vali, I'll fight alongside you, but there really are way too many of those monsters. If something goes wrong…"
He didn't finish his sentence, instead glancing at Kanna. Everyone understood the risk.
They could cover for each other, but if they were swarmed and exhausted by endless BETA, the scene with Kanna earlier was proof enough.
Even a powerful white dragon like her could be worn down to death. Their stamina wasn't infinite either.
"I have a solution. After Albion saw Raize use Reduce, he unsealed his own poison. With that, numbers won't be a problem."
Vali looked confidently at the surprised Raize. After Raize used the White Dragon Emperor's poison and informed Albion of the Red Dragon Emperor's disappearance, Albion no longer kept himself sealed.
That poison ability had originally been self-sealed by Albion after his worldview changed upon meeting Ddraig. In the original story, it was only unsealed again after witnessing Vali's resolve during the Evil Dragon War.
Unexpectedly, this allowed Vali to use the White Dragon Emperor's deadly poison earlier than expected. Even though he had lost to Raize before, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
If given the chance, Vali wanted to fight Raize again. Losing due to his own limitations was embarrassing for both him and Albion.
Everyone recalled the terrifying power Raize had displayed during his spar with Vali—power that nearly affected them as bystanders. With that level of strength, numbers truly didn't matter.
Arthur nodded in understanding and finally agreed.
"If that's the case, then we—"
Boom!!
Suddenly, an overwhelming shockwave like a collapsing mountain erupted. The cave began to shake violently, and everyone felt it. Le Fay's expression changed drastically.
The barrier she had set up was violently destabilizing and breaking apart. The detection magic she placed outside also picked up something horrifying approaching.
Everyone rushed out of the cave. Thinking another BETA attack was coming, they froze in shock when they saw the scene outside.
ROAR!!!
One earth-shaking, cloud-rending roar after another echoed across the sky. Dozens of monsters over fifty meters tall roared in the distance, surrounded by countless smaller flying creatures shrieking wildly.
But none of them were the true source of the disturbance.
More than ten kilometers away, a colossal entity over two hundred meters tall was moving toward them. Its body weighed over two hundred thousand tons. Though its movement was slow, each step sent tremors through the earth.
Countless BETA attacked it, but their weapons couldn't even scratch its hide. A casual swing of one of its tentacles turned huge swaths of BETA into minced flesh.
No one here had ever seen the sky collapse—but they were witnessing the earth splitting apart.
The massive surge of dark energy thickened the black clouds in the sky, while the ground itself cracked apart. Thick black mist poured from the fissures, rising to merge with the clouds above.
In the distance stood a mountain-sized monstrosity. A massive spiral shell rose from its back, its surface riddled with countless black holes. Its eyes were located beneath its mouth, and its cry resembled that of an elephant.
It looked like a sea monster, countless tentacles writhing around its enormous body. A single casual strike from one tentacle caused unimaginable destruction.
Everyone felt the surrounding darkness boil and grow denser and more violent, as if it were trying to invade their bodies and minds.
They each activated their powers to expel the negative influence. Kanna stared at the distant monster, her entire body bristling.
She couldn't win. That monster was far beyond her.
It was more terrifying than any demonic race she had encountered. The evil aura alone was overwhelming, and the surrounding darkness was clearly its doing.
She had only ever felt such pressure from dragons capable of destroying powerful civilizations.
Instinctively, she grabbed Raize's leg, trembling slightly as she stared at the monster.