CHAPTER 264: CHAPTER 264 - ESCAPE?

The Red Dragon moved.

It did not charge. It attacked.

The fallen chains that had once bound it tore free from the ground like awakened serpents. Each link was thicker than a fortress wall, etched with fractured runes that still screamed as they were forced into motion.

WHRRRRAAAANG—!!

The dragon swung.

The chains scythed through the chamber in vast arcs, pulverizing stone pillars, ripping trenches through the earth, and flattening everything in their path.

"Scatter!" Lucien roared.

The Verdant Veil broke formation instantly. Their bodies moved on instinct rather than command.

Marie skidded to a halt atop a rising earth platform and snapped her head toward Lucien.

"Luc!"

She made a gesture.

"The Gundam!"

Lucien understood immediately.

He didn’t hesitate.

He reached into his INVENTORY.

The air split open.

A colossal silhouette tore free. The mobile suit descended like a god of war.

Marie was already moving.

She leapt.

Mid-fall, the cockpit recognized her authority. It opened, sealed, and locked around her in one seamless motion.

THOOM—!!

Thrusters ignited.

The mobile suit surged upward. The jets screamed as it climbed to meet the dragon head-on.

For half a heartbeat—

The battlefield froze.

"What in the heavens is that—!?"

"A construct?!"

"No— it’s piloted—!"

Marie laughed inside the cockpit as her cheats activated.

"Alright," she said, rolling her shoulders. "Let’s dance."

The mobile suit moved like it was alive.

Thrusters flared in impossible vectors as it slipped past a sweeping chain, countering with a massive punch that slammed into the dragon’s jaw.

CLAAAAANG—!!

Sparks erupted like a storm.

The dragon reeled half a meter. It looked more surprised than hurt.

Lucien exhaled.

"...Clean execution."

Then—

His eyes sharpened.

He activated his job skill: Cram Session.

His mind snapped open.

Then...

He copied Vivian’s skill: Wings of Atonement.

Light detonated behind him.

Brilliant wings unfurled.

Lucien lifted off the ground effortlessly. Flight came to him as naturally as breathing.

Gasps rippled across the battlefield.

"Wings—!?"

Lucien streaked forward, narrowly slipping past a chain that would have crushed a mountain.

The dragon twisted midair.

Its chains did not flail wildly. They moved with terrifying discipline.

It had learned to fight while bound. It had learned to kill with restraint.

Lucien aimed for the fractured scales, the wound left by the detonated magic circles.

But the dragon’s tail snapped around with surgical precision, intercepting the strike.

"You thought I would leave that open?" the dragon rumbled, amused.

Chains spun around it like orbiting moons.

Below, the Verdant Veil snapped out of their awe.

"Formation, NOW!"

"Join the fight!"

Spells flew. Barriers rose. Vines lashed.

Artillery fire and techniques slammed into the dragon from every direction...

Yet its scales held. Still unbroken.

Just then—

Footsteps echoed from the entrance.

Hundreds of them.

Figures poured into the chamber from the corridor, drawn by the earlier roar.

They stopped the moment they entered.

They looked up.

And their blood ran cold.

A Red Dragon.

Ancient Beings imprisoned in towering cages.

A colossal mobile suit dueling an Eternal monster.

A winged wolf weaving through chains midair.

And the Verdant Veil fighting beneath it all.

"...This is insanity," someone whispered.

Recognition struck like lightning.

"Wait— that’s the Red Dragon...!"

"And those— those are the ancestors from the legend—!"

The ancient beings stirred as their gazes swept over the newcomers.

A low growl rolled through the chamber.

Everyone swallowed.

"If they escape—"

"The world burns."

The Celestial proxies said nothing at first.

They weren’t looking at the cages. They were looking at Lucien. At his wings.

They recognized them.

Celestial wings.

Then their gazes hardened as they turned towards the Red Dragon.

"Everyone," one of them said calmly, voice carrying weight.

"Let’s join them."

Weapons were raised.

"This is the current era’s strength."

The chamber answered.

The Celestial proxies lifted into the air. Their wings blazed as they flanked Lucien.

The Starforge Cartel deployed bombardment constructs. The Obsidian Collegium erected void-stabilizing fields. The Lunareth Sect began chanting suppression rites. The Scarlet Sect ignited blood-forged formations. The Dawnblade Order advanced as one, blades drawn.

Even independents like the Sskavyrn duo, and Vorren and his partner, stepped forward without a word.

No alliances were spoken. No grudges remembered.

Because everyone understood the same truth.

If this thing escaped... there would be no second chance.

Lucien hovered at the center of it all.

The Red Dragon snarled. Chains lashed as it surveyed the gathered forces.

"So many insects," it mocked. "And yet... how delightful."

Marie’s mobile suit hovered beside Lucien, scarred but unbroken.

"Hey," she said over comms. "Looks like we’re not alone anymore."

Lucien smiled faintly.

"No," he replied. "We’re exactly where we should be."

Above them—

The Red Dragon spread its wings.

Below them—

The factions aligned.

...

The chamber erupted.

The Red Dragon descended like a falling star. The chains whipped outward in disciplined arcs.

"Hold the lines!" someone roared.

The factions answered as one.

Starforge bombardment arrays fired in synchronized volleys, detonations blooming against the dragon’s scales like dying suns.

The Obsidian Collegium’s void-stabilizing fields warped space itself, redirecting the chains just enough to spare dozens from annihilation.

The Lunareth Sect suppression rites stacked layer upon layer, forcing the dragon’s aura to compress.

And still—

The dragon laughed.

It swept low. Its tail smashed through a pillar that anchored another set of chains.

CRRRAAACK—!!

The pillar imploded.

The chains clanged loose.

A massive shadow shifted inside another cage.

The Storm Roc spread its wings. It was still restrained but no longer immobile.

The Behemoth leaned forward as its chains dragged across stone with a thunderous scrape.

The Titan’s eyes gleamed.

"It’s destroying the anchors," someone shouted in horror.

Lucien saw it instantly.

The Red Dragon wasn’t just fighting.

It was preparing the board.

One by one, the pillars anchoring the chains were shattered. The other Ancient Beings began to move freely within their cages.

Waiting.

Letting the Red Dragon do the work.

"Clever," the Storm Roc crooned. "Break the cage for all of us."

"Let him," the Behemoth rumbled. "When we are free, this era will drown."

Far behind them...

The Abyssal Monster opened its eyes.

Its gaze fixed on the broken pillars.

And for the first time since the battle began, it spoke.

"Idiots."

The word did not echo. It pressed into existence.

The other Ancient Beings ignored it.

The Abyssal Monster continued with a heavy voice.

"Yes. You will escape this place."

A pause.

"But you will not gain the freedom you believe awaits you."

The Storm Roc scoffed.

"Stillness has rotted your mind, old thing."

The Abyssal Monster did not look at them.

It looked—

Toward Lucien.

Silence followed.

Just then—

Lucien disengaged.

Marie noticed first.

"Luc?" her voice crackled through the comms.

"Continue the battle," Lucien replied, calm and precise. "Hold that big lizard for me."

She didn’t question it.

"Got it."

Lucien folded his wings and vanished downward. He slipped through the collapsing stones, whipping chains, and detonating spells as though the chaos had parted for him.

Above, the battle raged on.

Factions clashed against the Red Dragon in a storm of fire, steel, and light. Chains screamed through the air.

The Red Dragon—

Unknowingly—

Gave Lucien exactly what he needed.

With the anchoring pillars destroyed, the Ancient Beings were no longer bound to the prison’s fixed points.

They were still trapped...

...but no longer rooted.

And that meant—

Lucien could act.

He moved without haste.

Without fear.

He stopped before the nearest cage.

Inside, an enormous figure stirred, an Ancient Beast whose name had once defined an era. Its presence pressed down like a collapsing sky.

It laughed.

A sound older than kingdoms.

"So the little wolf comes to die," it rumbled. "Run back to your betters. Divine energy will not—"

Lucien raised his hand.

Divine energy flared. It spread with inevitability.

Golden radiance climbed the cage like law made manifest. It wrapped around the bars, runes, chains, and the very concept of containment itself.

The light thickened.

Even the Ancient Being was swallowed by it.

The beast sneered, unmoved.

"Futile. This will not harm me even if you—"

It never finished the sentence.

The world blinked.

The cage vanished.

The Ancient Being... was gone.

Lucien lowered his hand.

A restrained smirk touched his lips.

These Ancient Beings now looked like resources to him.

The cages and chains limited them, just like the Gargoyle Monster Emperor within his own inner realm.

And unlike the Red Dragon...

These ones had no leverage.

He exhaled slowly.

"Next."

Lucien turned toward the adjacent cage with bright eyes.

Far behind—

The Abyssal Monster opened one eye.

It watched Lucien for a long moment.

Then... closed it again.

As if deciding not to interfere.

Around Lucien, the remaining Ancient Beings finally reacted.

They stared.

For the first time since their imprisonment—

They felt something unfamiliar.

Unease.

The Abyssal Monster’s warning echoed belatedly in their minds.

’You will escape... but not into the freedom you imagine.’

One by one—

Lucien moved.

And one by one—

The cages disappeared.