When Serena's crystal dragon wings split the bloody moon, slimy starlight was seeping out from the demon's quantum tentacles. She bit the fragment of the reverse scale with her fangs, and the black and red dragon blood dripped onto the contract slate, burning the words so that they twisted like living maggots.
"As usual, three reverse scales in exchange for the key." Her tail shattered the low-level demon that pounced on her, and the minced meat splashed on the pupils of the demon's clone. "Don't fool me with illusions, I want the real thing."
The body of the demon collapsed and expanded in the center of the altar, and 299 faces emerged in a cycle in the mucus mass - Gray's ice claws, Liria's embryo crying face, and the gear structure of Ryan's symbiote. In the end, it was fixed into the mechanical mask of the first judge, but the amber vertical pupils of the Dragon King were embedded in the eye sockets.
"The greed of the vampires... is still disgusting..." The demon's voice was like rusty gears crushing bones, and the holy seals of the church around the altar suddenly lit up.
Selina's dragon claw dug into the edge of the altar, and the cut surface of the reverse scale fragment reflected the small words at the bottom of the contract clause - a warning that the genetic chimerism rate has exceeded the critical point. She pretended not to see it, and her crystal wings suddenly spread open, nailing the demon guard who tried to attack to the rock wall: "Stop talking nonsense! The key!"
(A tearing sensation came from the root of the dragon's wings - Ryan, in his 299th reincarnation, was pressed against the furnace - Liria's cannon barrel pierced his spine -)
The demon's tentacles suddenly folded quantumly, wrapped around Selina's neck and lifted her into the air. Mucus seeped into the gaps in the dragon scales from the contact point, and she saw an illusion - the first generation Dragon King was dismembered by the mechanical arms of the Church, and every bone was engraved with a holy seal. And the quantum heart of the Dragon King was suspended in the core of the demon, resonating with the skull fragments in Ryan's backpack.
"Your blood... smells like betrayal..." The demon's mask cracked, revealing the dragon's unique amber nerve bundle underneath, "Just like the beast who betrayed the tribe back then..."
Selina's pupils suddenly contracted. She released a powerful dragon breath, but the crystal flames penetrated the demon's body and melted the secret door behind the altar - the incubator filled with Lyria's cloned embryos, each with a Type III brand oozing blood.
"Fuck... Are you the fucking remnant soul of the Dragon King?!" Her dragon wings broke through three demon tentacles, and when the black blood splashed onto the contract slate, the first generation dragon language clauses emerged.
The demon laughed like a stuck gear, and the altar suddenly collapsed into a replica of the furnace core. His tentacles turned into 299 genetic chains, with a "III" drill at the end that pierced Selina's reverse scale: "The contract is established... Pay the deposit..."
Selina's crystal tail thorns shredded half of the chain, but the drill had already embedded in her spine. In the severe pain, she saw the engravings on the surface of the chain - it was the blood map of the royal family of the dragon clan, and the part tampered with by the Holy Seal of the Church corresponded to the scar of Ryan's reverse scale.
(Young Selina struggles in the chimera cabin—the judge's mechanical fingers dig out her first reverse scale—Elena's crying mixed with the sound of the electric drill—)
"Fuck your deposit!" She bit the demon's token hidden under her tongue, which was a gear broken off from Ryan's symbiote.
The gear fragments burst out with astral radiation, and the demon god let out a real scream - a human-shaped hole was burned in his quantum body, revealing the beating heart of the dragon king at the core. Selina took the opportunity to pierce the hole with her dragon claws, and her fingertips touched the first generation dragon language engraved on the surface of the heart: "Lyria-Ω".
The contract slate suddenly floated into the air, and the clauses were rewritten into blood-red dragon language by the astral radiation. The fragments of Serena's reverse scales automatically flew to the heart of the Dragon King. Every time a piece was embedded, the mask of the demon god peeled off a layer, revealing the mechanically modified dragon skull underneath.
"I see..." Selina's wings were torn into asphalt-like cracks by the genetic chains, "The old thing has been transformed into a contracted watchdog..."
The remains of the demon (or the first dragon king) suddenly went berserk, and the altar collapsed into a waterfall of magma. His mechanical dragon claws grabbed Serena and pressed her towards the boiling contract slate: "Sign... or feed it to the furnace..."
Selina's fangs pierced into the mechanical wrist, and the dragon poison flowed through the pipeline into the demon core. His quantum heart stopped for half a second, enough time for her to flip over and jump up, nailing the last piece of reverse scale fragment into the "breach of contract" item in the contract.
The entire space was quantum trembling, and the contract was split into 299 parts and projected onto the foreheads of each Lyria clone embryo. The demon's mask was completely shattered, revealing the dragon king's skull corroded by the holy seal. His chest was cracked open, and the furnace key - half of the judge's mask - was embedded in the dragon king's heart.
"Give me the key!" Selina's tail wrapped around the key and pulled it hard, pulling out a bunch of dragon nerve bundles.
The demon's dying counterattack turned into a genetic storm, tearing apart Selina's left wing. She fell on the contract slab, looking at the truth emerging on the surface of the key - the inside of the mask was engraved with the genetic mosaic of Elena and the first generation Dragon King, and in the signature column of "Project Lyria", the code of Ryan's reverse scale scar was clearly visible.
(Gray's ice claws pierce the incubator - the cry of Liria's embryo suddenly switches to Elena's voice - "Mom, I'm sorry...")
"Selina!" Ryan's roar came from the quantum rift, and the symbiote's right arm grabbed her broken wings.
The last wave of the demon before it completely dissipated activated the "III" brand of all Lyria clone embryos. Selina laughed wildly as she fell, clutching the blood-stained key tightly: "I'm making a killing... This deal..."
Branch Undercurrent:
The remains of Gray's Ice Claw suddenly appeared outside the contract space, with a warning of "The Key is Contaminated". The Dragon King's skull in Ryan's backpack was resonating with the newly acquired fragments of the Judge's Mask, oozing out Elena's DNA sample...