Meanwhile, Skyler’s group was facing no lighter burden.
Before them loomed the Storm Dragon—warden of the skies, the very creature even clouds dared not drift near.

A colossal beast of sapphire scales, each one an ornament forged for the gods. How big was it? Large enough to blot out half the sun with its body alone. And wings—not two, but six. A single wingbeat could cast a shadow over an entire city.

Its eyes glowed crimson, cursed rubies that could strip away your very humanity if you stared too long.

“…We shouldn’t take this head-on,” Skyler muttered, pupils whirring with calculation speed at [LV. 95].

“Our only chance is to dodge. If we get hit even once… it’s Game Over, no reloads, no saves.” His voice wavered as he squinted at the dragon, awe edging into fear.

“Not necessarily. If it’s about speed, no one can keep up with me,” Zoe shot back, jaw tight.

Roxy tightened her grip on her spear, letting out a long sigh. “Don’t underestimate it. This isn’t a game. Dragons are beings whose breath alone can topple a city.”

Her voice had barely left her lips when the dragon gave the faintest beat of its wings—in dragon-speak, that meant Category 5 Hurricane.

Zoe clenched her teeth, struggling not to be swept away. The spear Roxy had hurled earlier vanished from existence, swallowed whole by the storm. Skyler fared no better; The spatial rift he’d torn open convulsed, flickering with jagged frames—reality glitching mid-channel, collapsing in the raw violence of a system crash.

[Error 404: Spatial Rift Not Found]

Then came the roar.

It wasn’t just sound. It was seismic. The earth trembled, the skies convulsed. Shockwaves were invisible wrecking balls, slamming into them with brutal force. Feet tore from the ground; the three were hurled apart in different directions.

And yet—this battle had only just begun.

The storm-wrath coiled around the dragon’s body, winds howling with the promise of annihilation. Its very next breath could mean the end of everything.

[STATUS: Zoe — Fusion Power with Nine: Cooldown 78% | HP: 62% | Condition: Elemental Disadvantage vs. Wind]

No way! My power… it’s weak against this dragon?! Nine’s echo throbbed inside her mind as she gripped her katana until her knuckles whitened.

Zoe’s face paled slightly. Sure, she wasn’t the type to scare easily—but this was a dragon, not some earthworm.

“…That’s nasty,” she muttered under her breath.

She tilted upward, watching the titan that hovered above the world itself. Sapphire scales shimmered with every wandering gleam; six wings beat slow. Steady. Each stroke shook the air—as if the planet itself were ready to change seasons.

Suddenly, the Storm Dragon dove. The ground shuddered as though it might cave beneath the weight of its force. Massive talons came down—storm-born claws that tore the air asunder.

Skyler rolled aside, barely clearing the strike. Roxy hurled her spear on instinct—

[Attack Result: Ineffective | Damage: 0 | Dragon Armor Integrity: 100%]

Even the mere exhale of the beast created a shockwave, the force blasted all three into the maelstrom, their bodies weightless—reduced to dust hurled screaming inside a hurricane’s throat.

Zoe dragged her katana along the ground, sparks flaring in her wake. Skyler flailed midair, his form unraveling into graceless panic as he tore a rift in space to slow his fall. Roxy jammed her spear into the earth, anchoring herself against the gale.

Impressive. They were still standing.

[STATUS — Zoe: HP 51% | Skyler: 74% | Roxy: 66% | Team Condition: Ready for Counterattack]

Zoe pushed herself upright, katana gleaming as the latent legend within her stirred. Roxy summoned a colossal Mirror Spear, its edge expanding into an AOE frontline. Skyler split the upper atmosphere, loading a salvo of meteors to crash full force.

The dragon twisted in midair, conjuring a cyclone vast enough to swallow everything. The combined assault was scraps, tossed into a black hole and gone.

[Skill: Meteor Call | Base Damage Output: 87% | Countermeasure: Cyclone Barrier — Negated 100%]

“You insignificant humans…” The dragon’s roar was a seismic force, rolling through the air in waves that rattled the bones and scraped at the spirit. “You are unworthy of this domain! I am lord of the skies—and I can crush you with a single breath!”

Zoe straightened, chin tilted high. “So what if I’m just a speck of a human… I’ll take you down!”

[Zoe — Nine Fusion: Forced Unlock | Mode: Sacrificial Power — ACTIVE | Limit Break Surge: 175% | Duration: 20 sec]

Her form rippled with aura, nine fox tails unfurling into the storm with ethereal grace. She launched forward, speed breaking past the human eye.

The dragon swiped with a claw—casual, almost lazy. The impact smashed her into the ground with merciless weight.

[Zoe: HP reduced to 29% | Fractured Arm Bone | Status: Wounded]

“Arghhh!” Her scream tore the air. She clutched her useless arm, chest heaving under the crushing pain.

Skyler barely steadied his mind. The sight of Zoe pinned beneath those talons struck harder than any spell. He lunged forward—power bursting from his palm, a last-ditch pulse to save her, frail but defiant, as though he could take the wound into himself.

“…Just hold on,” his voice wavered, but he forced it steady.

“I’m fine, Sky… just a scratch,” Zoe whispered through clenched teeth, forcing a crooked smile. She even nodded, as if she were the one reassuring him.

But within Roxy, the world was no longer just the dragon towering before them. It fractured into shards of memory—every moment she’d nearly lost her sister. Twice. Two close calls. And now… she swore this time would not become the third.

All her life, Roxy had disciplined herself to master her emotions with brutal rigor. No tears. No weakness. No vulnerability. A fortress built from silence, because she believed that was the only path to true power.

She remembered it clearly—when her father and sibling vanished, she had to stand strong for her mother. She became someone untouchable, unreachable, her defenses forged so high and so dense they surpassed what most would even call strength.

But then… fighting side by side with Zoe cracked those walls. That shrill laugh, that reckless insanity that drove her mad—strangely warm, strangely whole. It changed something inside her.

And Skyler… Skyler taught her a lesson no one else ever dared: Feelings are what make humans human. And some powers… require a heart as the only weapon.

From this moment on… the walls I built are no longer to keep the world out. They’re to protect you.

Roxy shut the world out and drew a deep breath into her very core. She felt something stirring—not just transformation, but propulsion, driven by trust. Zoe’s hand squeezing her arm. Skyler’s hand resting on her shoulder, wordlessly saying We are here.

And in the darkness of that awareness, a vision unfolded.

—

An ancient omen no textbook had ever recorded. Yet her soul recognized it, as though she had known it from birth.

From the mosaic of endless reflections, shards of glass began to glow.
A colossal bird emerged from the void, its body sculpted from crystalline fragments vibrating through dimensions to announce its existence.

Its wings stretched wide, shimmering with auroras refracted through every splinter of truth. Its body burned in silver-violet flame—neither wholly radiance nor pure imagination, but the seam between them.

Its cry was deep, resonant enough to make the world pause and listen.

The Phoenix of the Mirror Dimension—a myth said to appear only when a wielder transcended the kind of faith unseen by vision, but felt through the tether of hearts.

Reflections fluttered across Roxy’s soul.

— Vriiiing —

Reality warped under the sweep of the bird’s blazing wings. She rose, weightless, energy streaming from her body in trembling arcs of flare.

Her hair unfurled, flowing to her mid-back—a waterfall spilling from a mountain peak. Shards of crystal draped across her, a cloak unfurled—war-banner in the wind, its whip a vow of battle.

The very air changed. What gleamed in her hand crystallized—no longer a spear, but into Wings of Conviction—weapons not meant to kill, but to pierce every boundary of truth itself.

And thus began the legend.

The Queen of Imaginal Worlds… had awakened.

[Status: Roxy — Awakening Mode: ON]

• Dimensional Power: +300%

• Weapon Creation Speed: Instant Cast

• New Ability Unlocked: Imaginative Projection

And the Storm Dragon… was about to witness the imagination of someone ready to fight—not for glory, but to protect everyone she loved.

Amidst the raging storm, her words thundered louder than the sky itself:

“Hey! …Let her go!”

Her fist clenched tight.

[Roxy — Assassin Mode: Ready | Rage Meter: MAX | Armor-Piercing: Activated]

Her stance was unshakable, an aura pulsed from her form, regal—the sovereign presence of a queen enthroned in a realm woven from sorcery itself. Her aura, sharp and unflinching, seethed with the authority of judgment.

“I command you to release my sister—now! Or face the consequences.”

The dragon’s laughter rolled across the skies, echoing—gales tearing through the ruins of an ancient cathedral.

“And what gives you the audacity to command me, little girl?”

Roxy did not blink. “I am Major Roxy, Captain of Special Unit Sigma-Four. And I don’t care who—or what—you are. Lay a hand on her again… and you’ll pay the price.”

The Warden of the Skies laughed once more, this time with mockery laced in anger. “Such arrogance. Do you truly believe your power can touch me?”

Her reply was a whisper sharpened to a blade: “You’re about to find out.”

She raised her hand. Dimensional energy erupted, cascading upward until the sky itself twisted as though dreams were being projected, warped and bent across the heavens.

Then, one by one, colossal spears materialized.

[Skill Activated: Dreamfall Lance]

• Count: 99

• Cast Time: Instant

• Damage: Piercing + Void

She stepped forward—each stride supported by glass platforms materializing beneath her feet, as if the world itself bent to her resolve. Her gaze never wavered, locked on the dragon with surgical precision.

The air ripped apart as ninety-nine lances streaked downward, a jeweled rain of destruction tearing through the storm. The dragon recoiled, beating its wings in desperate retreat. Its roar split the firmament as its talons finally withdrew from Zoe’s frail body.

Skyler seized the moment, pulling the girl out of danger’s reach. A rift tore open behind him, summoning a barrage of meteors in a crossfire assault—cutting off every escape route the beast might claim.

And Roxy… she struck. Her spear drove into the dragon’s chest, piercing scale and sinew alike.

A fracture bloomed across its ancient armor—a nightmare unearthed after a thousand years of slumber.

[Status: Dragon — Armor Fractured at One Point | Flight Capability Reduced by 30%]

Its wings thrashed in fury, the beast spiraling midair as a storm surge roared across the battlefield.

[Status: Dragon — Angry Mode: ON | Accumulated Damage: 42% | Weak Point: Detected]

Skyler moved fast, pouring healing force into the pink-haired girl—his palms blazing with urgency, not hope. The wound had barely begun to close when she pushed herself upright—springing forward, a bullet tearing through the winds of heaven—rushing to join Roxy at the front.

Her blade sliced through the air, unraveling the violent streams of gale the dragon had conjured.

[Status: Zoe — Buffed | Speed +200% | Skill Cooldowns: Reset]

Zoe carved a path, opening the strike zone for her sister.

Roxy lunged, driving her lance with surgical precision, her dimensional power flaring at the tip—shaping raw imagination into a piercing force beyond measure.

CRAAAASH!

The sound thundered louder than the cracking of the earth’s crust. Her lance shattered the dragon’s scales, Fragments were shards of a fallen star. The Storm Dragon reeled back, wings flailing, retreating through the sky with a shriek that echoed through the abyss.

“…Impressive,” the final Warden’s voice reverberated across the storm. “No one has stood against me like this for thousands of years. I will remember your name… Roxy.”

Its crimson gaze lingered on the trio—a smile carved in silence—before the colossus beat its wings and disappeared beyond the horizon, dissolving into the sky with silent grace.

“We did it! That was a dragon—an actual dragon!” Skyler’s tone cracked into a pitch higher than he’d ever admit, brimming with exhilaration. And in the back of his mind, stray thoughts spilled without filter:

Maybe I should start a channel called ‘How to Slay a Dragon in Three Minutes.’

Roxy only answered with the faintest smile, wiping sweat from her brow with her sleeve in quiet relief.

And Zoe? She leapt—radiant, triumphant—the idol who had just won her grand finale.

[Achievement Unlocked: Stormbreaker]

• Boss Clear: Sky Dragon — 100%

• Loot: ???

And so, this was the victory no one else thought possible… except for them.