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Chapter 36: Deadly Serpents

(Remnant; Wilderness of Vale)

Vali was starting to reevaluate the world of Remnant, and not just because of Azazel's curiosity. There was a greater uniqueness to the world, mostly from the reduced populations of humans (and Faunas) at certain corners of the world. That left the planet almost untouched and allowed nature to flourish without fault. It was the forests and jungles that dominated the continents, and the animals that thrived within them.

That was why Vali decided to take a leisurely walk deep in the forests of Vale, farther than the outermost villages of the country. Indeed, he never thought of walking under such dense forests on Earth. There weren't even beaten paths from human transportation or hiking. The only discernible ones were carved by the many critters that scampered through the tall grasses and bushes.

More than what Vali could see was what he can hear and smell. From the scent of the blooming flowers and the chirp of the smallest insect, it was all for the Lucifer descendent. So many of his senses registered fauna and flora that he had never seen before. He was sure Azazel would see this world as a goldmine with its own ecosystem.

It was also because of Vali's hearing he was able to hear the hiss of the snake above him right before it made its attack. There was hardly a sound when the would-be ambush animal pounced from its perch directly onto the half-devil; only to be caught by a swift grip at the base of its skull. Once Vali was sure his hold was firm, he slowly brought his hand down to take a closer look.

Immediately, the snake that Vali beheld was one of the most bizarre of its kind in comparison to those of earth, even as the serpent in question hissed angrily and tried to lunge its head to bite Vali. Starting from the scales they were a glossy obsidian black perfect with occasional patterns of grass green resembling vines and leaves. Perfect for hiding within the confines of the canopy. On the head leered a pair of sickly yellow eyes with a black slit pupil, and at the base of the skull, there were two bulbous puffs giving the snake's head more of a triangular shape. This is where Vali guessed where the serpent stored its venom, and by the size, there was a lot of it.

What was most peculiar about the snake were the pair of horns growing just behind the eyes where once above the head they curled forward. They were black as their scales at the roots and lighting in color to a sharp tip. Yet when close up, Vali could smell something foul from these horns, perhaps from the stench of a rotting carcass the serpent may have dug through.

"You know," Vali mused, "I almost didn't hear you until you jumped."

Vali only got angry hisses from the snake as it still tried to lunge at him. With each one, its mouth would open revealing not just fangs at the forefront but also a jaw lined in razor-sharp teeth. All of them glistened in a green slimy substance that Vali could only deduce was its venom.

"You're quite the angry one, aren't you?" Vali commented.

The black snake continued to make more angry snake noises. Until they stopped with only the soft flick of a forked tongue the only constant noise. When Vali looked at the snake in his grasp, there was a gleam of intelligence in its eyes. That was his only warning before the snake flared its fangs out and struck the flesh that could only be within reach: the very hand that held it.

Vali did not make a sound, but there was a wince in his eyes as he felt the fangs not only puncture through the side of his hand but go as far as the middle of his palm. In the same instant, the fangs were released dripping with freshly squeezed venom. The half-devil felt as if a burning pain was eating the inside of his palm, and he saw how the flesh paled and the veins blacken from whatever substance had entered his body.

Anyone else would be frothing on the ground under the excruciating pain. Vali who has been through much to improve himself kept on his feet without making a whimper but his hand shook nonetheless. The black veins were already spreading up his arm which the pain would soon follow. A series of strange hisses came from the serpent still in his grasp, as if it was laughing at Vali's soon-to-be demise.

"You think this is funny!?" Vali said with a strained tone. "It's not... as funny... as your face..."

And then in an instant, Vali was the picture of health. The deadly dose of venom that ran through his body was suddenly absorbed. The black veins disappeared to healthy skin all the way to his bitten hand, where even the bite mark faded away.

"Impressive venom you've got," Vali said, raising the snake that was now giving the half-devil a more fearful look. "One of the more tasty ones I've had."

A strange change came over Vali that left the serpent quiet. In its limited intellect, it could tell the 'ape' was no more and now stood something that could be called an apex of its cold-blooded kind. It knew it the moment those eyes of his turned from their round blue to sharp slits.

A disturbance in the foliage caught Vali's attention in time to see the arrival of a young woman with long brown hair, brown eyes, and a pair of bunny ears on top of her head. His only reaction to the new arrival was a quirked eyebrow. While the race known as Faunas was big enough of a surprise, being around Kuroka tempered that surprise from getting him off guard. In fact, Vali remembered seeing this particular person ever since his stay at Beacon academy incognito as a student.

"Ah, you're Velvet Scarlatina, right?" Vali greeted neutrally.

"Eh, what are you doing so far out here?" Replied the bunny Faunas. "Most people wouldn't dare go out here so far from civilization."

"I was going for a walk," Vali said nonchalantly.

"A walk?" Velvet said exasperatedly. "While miles away from the nearest town... in the middle of Vale's untamed wilderness?"

"I take very enthusiastic walks," Vali answered.

He wasn't even wrong on that front. Sometimes, if he's lucky, one of those walks can even land him in a good fight.

Velvet sighed. "Look, I know you're strong. Your spars in Prof. Glynda's classes show that much. But only my team- HOLY FUCK!"

It was at that moment Velvet finally took notice of the nine-foot serpent caught in Vali's hand. Her survival instincts clicked into gear and she hugged herself to the nearest tree trunk. Velvet's whole body shook with terror much like her aforementioned Faunas species. Vali's response to Velvet's sudden behavior was a curious tilt of his head.

"Is there a problem?" Vali asked.

"Y-Y-Your hand," Velvet said, pointing a shaky finger at the snake. "Th-Th-Th-That's a FUCKING FOREST REAPER! WHY ARE YOU HOLDING ONE OF THE WORLD'S DEADLIEST ANIMALS!?"

"Oh?" Vali mused, giving his attention back to the identified reaper. "I was wondering what he was. As you can see, I'm not very well-versed in Vale's ecosystem. I'm not a local, coming from Mantle and all that."

"WHAT YOU SHOULD BE DOING IS LETTING THAT THING GO BEFORE IT KILLS US!" Velvet screamed, her ears twitching madly.

"You see that would be a logical decision to make, given how you're shaking like a leaf there," Vali said, no concern evident in his tone. "But on the basis of my curiosity about this little guy, I have elected to not do that. In fact, it might be a detriment if I do drop this snake. My hold on him is the only thing keeping him from biting either one of us. If I let him go, who's to say he won't try to come for you?"

If Velvet wasn't anymore afraid before, she definitely was now by how ghostly pale her face became. In the haze of her fear, it was hard to tell if it was the thought of the Forest Reaper coming after her, or how her instincts were screaming at how dangerous Vali Lucifer truly was. All that her body pleaded with her was to not die, and Vali was her best chance at living.

"What do you want to know?" Velvet said, trying to keep her voice even.

"Just a bit of information, but I am curious about the venom and those horns this snake has," Vali said.

He has had his fair share of toxins and poisons dealt upon him, mostly by those who wanted him dead of course. Vali remembered such deadly concoctions made him feel like fire burning through his body. Or how neurotoxins made him drowsy by numbing all of his senses throughout his body. None really took their fatal tone thanks to Albion's heart beating in his chest. And yet most of these toxins did not have such an effect as what this snake produced.

"I-I guess since you're from Mantle, you'd hardly know about these killers," Velvet said, just managing to calm herself down with the prospect of Vali being the only thing keeping the snake from killing her. "The snakes w-we call Reapers here in Vale are one of the most dangerous animals in the world. T-Their venom is the most deadly substance known on Remnant. One bite and even people with Aura w-will die in less than 30 seconds as their whole body burns from accelerated necrosis. Some call it the Rotting Serpent because of the effects of its venom. Anything is a free meal once they sink their fangs in."

'Interesting,' Vali thought before he asked one last question. "And what's with the horns?"

Velvet shivered. "That's what makes them so deadly. While they are sharp enough to punch through armor, the danger is the fact they can-"

She was interrupted by a loud hiss from the reaper that had another take of rebellion toward its captor. From the horns spouted twin jets of acid-green liquid aimed toward Vali's face. Rather than take it head on, the Lucifer descendent merely tilted his head out of the way. Where the spewed toxin landed on the foliage, which gave a hiss on impact as the substance was eating away at the plant life like an acid.

"OHMYGODSAREYOUOKAY!?" Velvet panicked, her concern over Vali overriding her fear of the serpent.

Vali held out a hand before Velvet got too close. He gave the serpent a look before turning back to the bunny Faunas, showing off his lack of injury from the sudden attack.

"See, not a scratch on me," Vali said, "He's a persistent little prick, isn't he?"

"Yeah," Velvet said uneasily. "It's really lucky you've avoided that. Especially since you have a young reaper in your hand."

Vali quirked a brow. "Young?"

That threw Vali with a load of questions. The snake in his hands was already nine feet tall. How was this considered young?

"If it was an adult, it would be much, much bigger," Velvet explained with a nervous gulp. "I'd say this one is just in his adolescent years. But that makes this reaper more dangerous. It doesn't have that much control over how much venom to eject."

"...You are awfully well informed about the dangers of untamed wilderness," Vali noted after a short pause.

"Considering I am the leader of a team that contains a nutjob I have to" Velvet grumbled before a small amount of rage simmered in her eyes. "Do you know how hard it is to lead a team that specializes in wilderness missions and yet somehow attract the most dangers nature can come at us? I swear, if they somehow attract some Hunter-killing super animal, I am going to freak!"

"My condolences," Vali said neutrally.

An awkward silence descended between the two in no small part from Velvet. Her terror came back again remembering the deadly reptile still trapped in Vali's vice grip.

"A-A-Aren't you gonna, ya k-know, get r-rid of him?" Velvet asked.

"Hmm," Vali said, "I'll be fine. Perhaps you should get back to your troublesome teammates. Who knows what kind of mess they landed themselves in?"

On cue, there was a great series of loud bangs that could come from a high-caliber minigun. This was followed by the retreat of countless birds flying into the sky, followed by the enraged roar of a cross between a bear and a tiger. Upon hearing these sounds, Velvet stood ramrod straight, but the air around her changed. The shyness boiled into an aura of cold rage, only measured by the mad twitching of her brow and bunny ears.

"I am going to strangle them," Velvet hissed under her breath before leaping through the foliage to chase down her wayward teammates.

Now left to his own devices, Vali stared back at the impressively deadly snake still hissing in his grasp. A train of thought ran through his mind going over the new details of Remnant's forest reaper. This was one of the most venomous snakes in this world, to which Vali could attest from the brief episode from the bite earlier. It was young, making its venom more potent, and its already considerable size suggested an even greater amount of growth. And the best thing was this snake came about through the natural evolution of Remnant's untamed wilderness. It was an animal in the truest sense without a hint of magic to its existence unlike manticores of hydras.

So it begged the question in Vali's head. What would happen if he made it his familiar?

"You're an interesting little thing," Vali mused as he brought the snake closer for examination. "Brave and persistent too, even after having failed two times to kill me."

It would be the third time when the reaper tried to make its kill by launching another volley of its venom. At point-blank range, there was no way that Vali was going to dodge in time. But that was exactly what the half-devil was hoping for. Flashing a brief smirk, he opened his maw to let the corrosive venom into his mouth without hesitation. Even the serpent paused at the sheer ridiculous stunt the 'human' before it pulled off and expected Vali to writhe in pain as his fleshy insides corroded.

Apparently, Vali chose to have problems with reality when he woke up today. Rather than dying on the inside, Vali gave a noise of satisfaction as if he had a tasty snack. His tongue flicked out to catch any droplets of poison that instead splashed at the corners of his lips.

A forked tongue like that of a snake.

"You know," hissed Vali, his eyes taking on a more reptilian look, "when you get powers from my circumstances, you also acquire new tastes. And I mean that literally in the fact that I've found poisons, venoms, and all kinds of toxins to have their own flavors. The more potent and deadly, the tastier. Mild ones are bitter, so from how your venom tastes, it's a lot more dangerous than manticore venom. Impressive from something that has never come from the magic world, but in the end..."

Vali raised his free hand and the air around it shimmered from a colorless miasma. The reaper could not identify the substance(?), but whatever was it struck newfound terror in the animal. It instinctively knew that it would reduce it to crumbling dust in less than a minute. So it dawned on the snake that the human before it was no human.

This was an apex predator.

"...I never could find anything to match Albion's poison," Vali said.

He held his free hand over the snake's forehead. A green magic circle opened from his palm in the formula of the Familiar ritual. The serpent felt Vali's will upon it, but not in a forceful way. The Familiar circle communicated to the snake in a way to give a mutual agreement to Vali and thus bind the pact.

"I could just toss you away, but you're too curious to simply let go," Vali offered. "So why don't you be my Familiar? You do certainly fit the bill in what I'm looking for; that being persistent despite your failings and deadly to boot. You'd grow bigger, get smarter, and of course get a whole lot stronger than you ever would. The only catch is that you have to stick with me, but I can promise a much more thrilling life than the everyday fight for survival in the jungle.

"So then," Vali intoned with a smirk to make his great-grandfather proud, "do we have a deal?"

In its limited intelligence, the snake momentarily paused to think over its options. It did not take long before the snake gave its best of mental communication of consensual agreement. The Familiar circle flared to a brighter life in response. To the snake's perspective, it felt its mind for a lack of a better description grow.

Suddenly, the world around the snake seemed much more to him.

"Now you need a name," Vali said. "And judging by your scent of a male... How about Nazir?"

Vali wasn't expecting a response, but the serpent seemed to preen at the name. It reacted to the term that was used to give the snake an identity. Something he never imagined in his former limited capacity of intelligence. All he knew before was the instinct that drove him to eat, kill and survive.

Right now, however, it wanted to express in some way the alien joy at being given a name.

"...Ysss~..." The now-named Nazir hissed in a strange way to construct the word 'yes.'

With his new familiar accepted, Vali was wondering how he can use his new friend to scare the shit out of Bikou.

(Earth)

Yang's mind was probably shut off multiple times by the insanity she was witnessing. It was hard to process the sheer destruction happening in real life that would have leveled Vale several times. She watched as her sister transformed into her admittedly awesome armor while fighting a giant armored fox that was tearing the land apart like a raging toddler with a sandcastle.

Honestly, Yang sometimes thought she was on some serious drugs that got in her drink at the bar.

Then there was the sight of Ruby being blasted through mountains. Yang felt her heart plummet and feared for the life of her sister when she sank into the ocean. That was then turned to disbelief when in her place arose a giant crimson dragon roaring in all of its glory. As to its identity, the silver eyes and red scales were a dead giveaway despite the sheer incredulity of it. She could hardly even voice it.

"Is...Is that RUBY!?" Weiss exclaimed, being the one that was shocked enough to shout it out.

"Indeed," Yasaka confirmed.

"But she's a giant dragon?!" Weiss exclaimed. "Why is my partner a giant dragon all of a sudden?"

It was Lie Ren that replied, "Do you not remember when Ruby first told us after initiation? She does have a dragon form, but she's never shown it until now."

"It's much more than that," Yasaka elaborated. "The forms you've seen Ruby are nothing more than an advanced disguise. It's never how she really looked. What you see now is Ruby's natural form as a dragon, much like how the guise you seem me is false compared to my true form as a Kyuubi."

"So... uh... oh!" Blake said with a look of realization as she looked at her hands. "That's why it feels 'tight' when we're like this. We are actively restricting ourselves from how we really are."

"How smart of you," Yasaka complimented. "This is how Ruby feels for so long. At first, it is annoying but over time you will feel this need to finally break free. I imagine this is a great stress reliever for her having to confine herself."

Yang's eyes widened in realization. "Oh, that explains so much!"

"Uh... is this gonna happen to us?" Jaune asked, not exactly liking the idea of turning into a giant dragon all of a sudden.

What if something like this happened while visiting his family? How was he going to explain that to his sisters?

"Hmm, that is a good question," Yasaka said. "Perhaps it's not as bothersome considering none of you have been dragons for long, is that right? But enough about that. Let's look at Ruby. There is a slight problem now she's revealed her real form."

"What kind of problem are we talking about?" Pyrrha asked.

"In the times Ruby becomes a dragon, she loses all rational thought," Yasaka informed, getting alarmed looks from Ruby's pride. "Dragons are beings of extremes, especially their emotions. Ruby's human soul is overwhelmed by the sheer potency of emotions she must be feeling. In these cases, Ruby's likely to go on a rampage."

"That's bad," Yang replied. "That's bad, right?"

"Depends," Yasaka said. "If she loses control now, Kurama will simply knock her out. If she manages to rein in control, well, we will be in for quite the show."

(Mirror World)

Kurama did not attack, letting Ruby fight out the war within her mind. It wasn't the first time Ruby entered her dragon form during these spars, but by then Kurama had to knock her out when she inevitably lost control. On the outside, nothing much was happening with the exception of the raging storm above their heads and the rapid blinking of the crimson dragon's eyes. Within Ruby's mind, she was warring against the crushing ego of her inner dragon threatening to overtake her psyche. Already Ruby could feel corners of her vision darkening.

Still, she fought on to keep herself awake, to be the one in charge. She wasn't an animal. A dragon wasn't some rabid beast. It was more than that. Power incarnate is what she was, and by whatever gods cared Ruby refused to devolve herself into such a state.

She was better than this!

"SKKREOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWR!"

The dragon that she became gave out such a tremendous roar that the land gave out beneath her, the seas roiled back, and the mountains crumbled before her voice. The storm above answered in kind, crackling with violent bolts of red plasma like a deranged electrical rave. Those same bolts lashed down on Ruby's body, not to attack but to add their power to her as arcs of plasma licked across her scales and wing membranes.

When finally Ruby opened her eyes, it was not the blind stare of a rabid animal. For the first time, Ruby tamed down the dragon in its most primordial form. When she gave the last push against it to stay conscious, something else pushed with her as well and gifted the mental clarity she hasn't had for a long time. Silver eyes gleamed brightly even amongst the darkness erected by the storm at her control.

She locked her gaze ahead to the massive, chakra-armored kitsune Yokai lazily waiting for Ruby's next move.

"So are you done with your hissy fit?" Kurama mocked.

He expected something like a growling gruff or a straight-up snarl. Kurama wasn't expecting the curl of Ruby's maw exposing those rows of fangs to give herself a menacing grin. And he certainly wasn't expecting Ruby to speak.

"Oh, I'm done alright with that," Ruby spoke, her voice deep and thundering but with an obvious feminine tone. "Now, I can get on with putting the pain on you."

"Now that's the spirit!" Kurama exclaimed in kind.

The two giant monsters charged at each other, crossing the leagues between them with a speed that gave the middle finger to physics. Sword and claw clashed in a clang of steel for the whole of Japan to hear. In the opening, Ruby swiped down her left claw managing to get past Kurama's guard and sink into the chakra armor. Her other hand was trapped with Kurama's blade, locking them in a stalemate. That left Kurama with one arm free with a whole blade to attack with.

It was a fact Ruby knew too well and so she moved before a sword stroke would come. Instead of a swipe of her claws, she lunges forward to clamp her jaws over Kurama's right arm. Even with his immense strength, it was impossible to escape the vice grip of a dragon's jaws. She twisted and turned so her fangs dug deeper through the chakra armor and into the flesh of the arm.

Kurama was forced to abandon his other blade from his left hand so he could grab the dragon's head to try and pry her off. Ruby hissed and growled in annoyance, and the two turned around to one-up the other's strength. The kitsune swiveled around to throw off Ruby, but her jaws simply clamped down tighter. He bashed Ruby into the side of a mountain to jostle her off but to no avail.

"Will you piss off!?" Kurama bellowed.

Ruby's response was a determined snarl. She brought her free hand up to claw onto Kurama's shoulder to gain more leverage, putting her in a bipedal position. Now standing on her hind legs, it put Ruby just a head taller than the kitsune who was crouched lower from his trapped limb. The shift of her weight was forced down on Kurama but not enough to get the kitsune off his feet due to his own tremendous strength. Her thrashing around and the claws sinking into his was what made it difficult for Kurama to get Ruby off in the first place.

Then from the gaps of her fangs spewed out a growing inferno of crimson flames. Her body lit up in crimson light as electricity danced across her scales towards her mouth to join the growing flames. The result was a point-blank explosion of destructive power that went off when Ruby let it out in a breath. The fallout of smoke and ash was big enough to consume both of their titanic forms, only in the next moment for Kurama to leap back out to gain distance now free.

However, he did not go off scot-free. The armor of his right arm was burned and missing both the sword and chakra armor that protected it. Kurama's healing factor was taking care of the damage, but that didn't mean much when a dragon out for blood came pouncing out of the smoke.

"No," Kurama simply intoned. "How about you eat a Beast Bomb?!"

He opened his maw slightly and just in front of his lips malicious and pure chakra gathered into a dense sphere of black energy. This all happened in an instant which was then launched at Ruby and marked its impact at her sternum. Despite the small size, the dense energy of the chakra sphere pushed her back before exploding with a yield matching a nuke. The dragon fell onto her side, seemingly down for the count.

Then a red light caught Kurama's attention. From the tip of Ruby's tail, each of her spines started to shine in bright red light and crackled with lightning. The light traveled up her back till it came to her head where her mouth was open to reveal the back of her throat glowing a vivid red. There was a hum in the air of growing energy till it reached a crescendo, and Ruby unleashed the built-up energy in a breath of pure crimson plasma.

Whatever the beam touched turned to molten slag. The recoil of the powerful blast made Ruby swivel her head in the direction of the mountains, reducing them to a smaller size from the tons of molten rock flowing down. She hung her head up splitting the sky in two before righting herself to take aim at Kurama properly.

The kitsune nimbly dodged out of the way of the blast and countered in a more esoteric offense. His many tails lifted up behind him and the tips glowed varying colors. The topmost tail which was glowing neon blue suddenly fired a stream of azure lightning that flowed through the air like water. It struck Ruby, forcing her down to the ground, and the continuous stream pushed her back.

More of his tails fired, each with its own elements. Some with fire, others with pure beams of heat, or even concentrated cold itself. It all served to push back Ruby more, who could only do pained roars. The more firepower Kurama unleashed, the more he marched forward till he was close enough to grab the remaining pair of his chakra blades. He almost acted casual as he tested his hold on the titan-sized weapon even as his tails unleashed elemental havoc on the dragon.

Through the pain, Ruby's mind was running for a minute trying to figure out a plan. Any move to get on the offense was offset by the powerful onslaught of elemental attacks on her body that forced her back more and more. The pain continued to flare from hot to cold to blunt to piercing, all threatening to puncture through her scales. When it reached a crescendo, an idea finally clicked in Ruby's mind. She forced her head towards the sky and thundered the words to enslave reality to her cry.

"STRUN BAH QO!"

The skies above were turned asunder and they unleashed their fury at Ruby's command. Gigantic bolts of crimson lightning rained down like the judgment of the gods and struck with the same fury on Kurama. Powerful though, even the strongest Yokai could not help but flinch and stumble from the onslaught of thunderous strength summoned by the words of dragon kind.

The onslaught on her person was stopped as Kurama tried to weather the storm, allowing Ruby to get back on her feet. Her wings spread to their full glory to encompass mountains beat down on the ground. This created a tremendous windstorm strong enough to uproot the most stubborn of trees till it was enough to lift Ruby off the ground. She now had air superiority over Kurama and used it to her full advantage speaking another string of dragon words.

"YOL TOOR SHUL!"

The words forced the hottest and brightest of flames onto reality right on top of Kurama. He leaped out of the immediate area and perched himself on top of a mountain, whereas his previous position was reduced to ash. Kurama looked up to the sky where Ruby flew alongside the storm and out of his reach. With her closeness to the storm, Ruby channeled the lightning from the sky into her spine which then flowed through her body to her wings. This resulted in the leathery membranes gaining a crimson sheen and crackling with their own potent power.

By her mental command, the span of her wings unleashed their own storm of crimson lightning as if they were thunderclouds themselves, only with greater potency and concentration. As if it wasn't enough, Ruby breathed out an inferno of red flames that lit up the sky in its baleful light. In response, Kurama willed his chakra to form several black orbs that were then shaped into discs that intercepted the lightning strikes while he used his impressive agility to avoid the flames of Ddraig.

While he can keep up his own defense, the problem for Kurama was getting Ruby grounded. He already tried shooting her down by launching one of his orb constructs, but Ruby either batted it away with her tail or avoided it entirely. The kitsune needed something to surprise Ruby. Then a memory hit the powerful Yokai; specifically his fight with Susanoo. A mischievous grin broke his face.

'Yes, that will work,' Kurama thought, gripping his remaining blade with two hands. 'A blast from the past.'

When Ruby attacked again, Kurama jumped as usual but not to the side. Instead, he sent himself high into the sky. He was high enough that Ruby flew away in precaution but he only continued to ascend right where the storm's rage was greatest. As expected, the storm unleashed all of its might bathing both sky and land in red light as all the lightning was focused to strike down the kitsune. Instead, all of that power met the chakra-made blade. The blade did not break and was in fact acting like a lightning rod absorbing as much power as Kurama willed. Once the power of the storm was under Kurama's command, he leveled a hard stare at Ruby before bringing it down.

For just a second, there was no sound in the world as it was blinded by bright light. When the world came to, two things were apparent. One was that the fierce thunderstorm was no more having been cut in two to reveal the clear night sky of the Mirror World. The second was the ungodly abyssal trench that carved through the land as far as the eye could see. Its very width could swallow valleys and mountains, and as far as it went it quite literally split the land of Japan in two large enough to be seen from space.

As for Ruby, the great dragon was falling from the sky sporting a bleeding gash from shoulder to hip. Yet she still clung to consciousness as silver eyes glared back at Kurama. At the last second, she spoke the words of power to quickly augment her physical abilities but only made it to two words before the attack landed. If Ruby needed to heal herself, she could either use Senjutsu or use the Boosted Gear to focus its boosted prowess on her healing. Both of those options were out the window by Kurama's next move.

"Planetary Devastation!"

Ruby's eyes widened in terror when she heard the name of the technique. It was already too late when an unseen force locked its grip on her entire body. From below, the earthy was torn apart as it all gathered around her via the gravity well cursed on her. They gathered on her body without mercy till she was completely covered in rock. Still, gravity well pulled more and more with the pieces getting bigger until entire mountains were torn down with their remains used to build Ruby's prison. This process went on for a whole minute until the land was completely barren and in the sky was a new satellite casually in the stratosphere like a perfectly round asteroid with Ruby trapped in the middle.

Planetary Devastation, a technique created by Kurama that utilized the manipulation of gravity through chakra to its highest potential. It traps opponents in a gravity well where it then pulls in the chunks of the earth to build a prison around them until what was left was a giant asteroid held up in the sky. Sometimes that very same asteroid can come crashing down on armies with the force of an actual falling meteorite. Classified as a sealing technique, its true danger is known through its capability of trapping the very gods themselves. Very few have freed themselves from this imprisonment, usually beings that can call themselves peers to Kurama's might.

There was a tense moment of silence that fell over the battlefield, and for once Kurama let himself relax. He focused on his internal energies and the damage on his chakra armor was repaired with the return of his right arm guard. Not once did his eyes leave the floating asteroid. Knowing Ruby, her tenacity would never allow this to end.

A chink on the surface confirmed those thoughts. They grew wider and in number all over the asteroid where soon lightning and fire erupted like the blood from a freshly cut artery. These forces intensified when they were followed by emerald light, heralding the power of a dragon that earned itself the title of emperor of the heavens. It announced itself to the world with a great bellow.

[WELSH BALANCE BREAKER]

Vali is missing out on one of the most intense battles a whole dimension away. At least he got a cool familiar. Will the Mirror World survive the clash of student and master? We are gonna need a lot more snacks then.

Up next is Chapter 37: Gaia Juggernaut Drive

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