I am God LSLCCF

She had delivered power right into his hands, and yet had also unleashed the Death Demon Plague on a massive scale, killing more dragon people than could be counted.

But seeing his old enemy come diving down out of the sky, the black dragon was hardly one to back away. He unfurled his divine power field, and surged forward to meet her head-on.

Black rain fell from the sky, and dragon fire surged up out of the earth.

But the King of Lust offered not the slightest resistance, letting the black dragon strike her down as he pleased. She seemed to fling herself straight into the dragon fire itself, melting away within it.

Yet Black Dragon Anu did not for one moment believe she had truly died like that. He froze at once, and looked warily all around him.

And just then, a voice echoed within his own mind. ”Anu!”

”Hand your power over to me!”

In that very instant, Black Dragon Anu realized in horror that she seemed to have appeared inside him, speaking directly within his own consciousness. A portion of the power within the devil dragonʼs body already belonged to Melde.

Anu had never seen a method like this in all his life. Even Dark Moon himself had never witnessed a technique that could drag a being walking the path of a demigod down into the standing of a mere mythical artifact.

Only a being who had grasped the reincarnation method to its very depths, who understood the distinction between the road to myth and the gulf between demigod and myth to a degree beyond imagining, could have found a demigodʼs weakness with such precision.

Melde seemed to appear right behind Anu, her grip closing like iron around his throat. That signature voice of hers surfaced once more, cold and lofty beyond measure.

”Anu, your magic crystal is no different from a sky messengerʼs crystal stone. Both spring from the Authority of Spirituality, both spring from the power of the Lord of Radiance!”

”How fitting. Let you and your magic crystal both become my angel staff!”

But Melde had long since forgotten that she was no longer the Lord of Radianceʼs sky messenger at all, that even the Lord of Radiance himself was no longer the Lord of Radiance.

She was nothing now but a fallen angel dwelling within the dark Abyss, keeping company with black mud and monsters. Her angel staff, by rights, ought to be called a fallen angelʼs staff instead.

Anu whipped his head around, but saw no trace of Melde anywhere.

Because her shadow, at that very moment, was inside his own body, wrestling with him for mastery over this black dragon flesh.

”So it was me you were after all along!”

Anuʼs experience and his tactics fell short of Meldeʼs own, but he was no fool. He might not know just what method she had used, yet he understood her purpose well enough.

”You mean to seize my power, to use me to become myth?”

Black Dragon Anu twisted his head and snarled at the emptiness around him. There was no shadow anywhere in sight, and he looked, for all the world, as though he were talking only to himself.

”Do not even think it. You will not succeed...”

Black Dragon Anu fought back with all his violent might, willing even to fling the power out of his own body rather than let her have it. But at that very moment, Meldeʼs voice rose up again.

”You still mean to resist?”

”So much mingled divine blood pours into your body, and still your mind holds its clarity. It seems the Path of Wisdom truly does hold some special method for keeping oneʼs reason intact while becoming a mythical artifact.” ”No matter. Your power, and that method besides, will be mine soon enough.”

Melde felt no urgency at all. Matters had already come this far. He could no longer slip free of her grasp.

Even more than that, as her corruption crept steadily onward, she found herself able to command a portion of Anuʼs own body. And so Melde set the ritual in motion once more, letting Anuʼs black dragon flesh drink in power all over again.

”Do not resist, little lizard.”

An endless stream of power came pouring in from every direction, sinking into the black dragonʼs own body.

But the black dragon wanted none of this power. He fought Melde for control over his own body, driving the power inside himself back out again and again.

The black dragon beat his wings again and again, hurtling up toward the sky, desperate to escape this place. ”Disperse!”

”Scatter, all of it.”

One flowing in, one flowing out. For a moment it seemed some kind of balance held.