I Regressed With a 10,000x God-Tier Multiplier-Chapter 55: The Duel for Dominance [ii]

"You call this a duel?!" Isolde shrieked.

The Winter Sovereign’s voice cracked like a splitting glacier.

Her reptilian white eyes burned with absolute primordial fury.

She stared at the Warlord, the Fallen Valkyrie, and the Star-Touched Oracle surrounding her on the pristine white marble of the pocket dimension.

"I call it winning," Lucifer stated coldly.

Isolde roared. She did not bother arguing the semantics of the Law-Weapon. She unleashed her overcharged core.

The air around her violently distorted as she pushed her physical stats to their absolute limits.

Isolde lunged.

She ignored Lucifer. She targeted Sarah. As an ancient predator, she immediately identified the fragile Oracle casting spells in the backline as the weakest link.

Isolde crossed the thirty feet of white marble in a speed of light. She raised her massive diamond claws, aiming to decapitate Sarah in a single, brutal swipe.

"Hold!" Elara yelled.

The Fallen Valkyrie intercepted the charge. Elara dropped from the gray sky like a golden meteor. She slammed her silver shield directly into the path of Isolde’s claws.

CLANG.

The impact rang like a massive temple bell. The sheer force of the Royal Dragon’s strike sent a shockwave across the flat marble arena.

Elara’s boots skidded back, carving deep grooves into the stone, but she didn’t fall. Her celestial armor flared, taking the full force of the impact.

"Get out of my way, winged rat!" Isolde hissed, raising her other claw to gut the Valkyrie.

"Gravity Crush," Lucifer commanded.

A black singularity materialized directly on Isolde’s raised arm. The invisible, crushing weight slammed down with the force of a falling mountain.

Isolde grunted. Her arm jerked downward, missing Elara entirely. The diamond armor on her shoulder cracked under the intense spatial pressure.

Sarah did not freeze in fear. The Oracle gripped her Scepter of Cosmic Alignment. The violet orb at the tip flared with blinding light.

"Starlight Bind!" Sarah cast.

Two thick, glowing silver chains erupted from the marble floor. They whipped around Isolde’s ankles, locking her firmly in place. The cosmic magic hissed against her diamond scales.

Isolde was trapped. Her left arm was crushed by gravity. Her legs were bound by starlight. Her right arm was blocked by a Valkyrie.

Lucifer moved.

He activated the Zephyr’s Grace Emblem. He became a blur of dark leather and black armor. He did not aim for a lethal blow. He needed her alive.

Lucifer swung his longsword. The Carnage Core on his hip pulsed violently, flooding the steel blade with pure, ruby-red True Damage.

He struck Isolde’s right arm, slicing directly through the thick diamond armor plating.

The True Damage bypassed the draconic defense entirely. The blade bit deep into her flesh. Bright, glowing blue blood sprayed across the white marble floor.

Isolde shrieked in pain and shock. She had not bled in thousands of years.

[System: True Damage Applied.]

[Target: Isolde (Health -8%)]

"You dare!" Isolde roared.

She violently twisted her body. The physical strength of the Royal Dragon was incomprehensible. She shattered the Starlight Bind on her ankles through sheer brute force.

She ripped her left arm through the Gravity Crush, tearing her own diamond scales to escape the spatial anomaly.

She spun around, whipping her crystalline horns toward Lucifer’s chest.

"Void Step," Lucifer whispered.

He vanished a fraction of a second before the horns impaled him.

He reappeared flawlessly twenty feet away, his sword dripping with blue blood.

Isolde stumbled forward, hitting empty air. She was fast, incredibly durable, and hit like a siege engine, but she could not touch him.

Lucifer’s team moved with flawless synergy. They were a perfectly optimized raid group dismantling a lone boss.

"Is this the power of the old world?" Lucifer mocked, resting his glowing red blade on his shoulder. "You are slow, Sovereign."

Isolde’s pale face contorted with rage.

She opened her mouth. She drew in a massive breath, pulling the ambient, neutral air of the pocket dimension into her overcharged core.

A blinding, liquid blue light ignited deep within her throat.

"She is casting frostfire!" Elara warned. She leaped backward, raising her dented silver shield.

"She cannot pull from the environment!" Sarah yelled, analyzing the magic with her Oracle sight. "She is burning her own vitality to cast it!"

"Then let her burn," Lucifer said.

Isolde unleashed the blast.

A concentrated, hyper-dense beam of liquid frostfire erupted from her jaws. It was not a wide wave; it was a focused, high-pressure laser of absolute zero magic.

It shot across the arena, tearing a deep trench into the indestructible white marble.

She aimed directly at Lucifer.

Lucifer did not dodge. He dropped his sword.

He raised both iron gauntlets. He channeled his entire Archmage-level mana pool into his hands. His void-swirling eyes widened, consuming the light in the arena.

"Void Singularity," Lucifer roared.

He did not cast a small black hole this time. He tore a massive, swirling spatial rift directly in front of him.

It was a perfect, pitch-black void, five feet wide, humming with terrifying gravitational hunger.

The beam of liquid frostfire slammed into the singularity.

The impact was very loud. The sheer volume of draconic magic fought against the absolute consumption of the Void.

The black hole trembled, its edges turning a violent, glowing blue as it drank the frostfire.

Lucifer gritted his teeth. The physical feedback strained his Warlord core. His boots slid backward on the marble, but he held his ground.

He kept his hands raised, maintaining the singularity.

Isolde pushed harder. She screamed, forcing every ounce of her overcharged mana into the breath attack.

"Elara! Now!" Lucifer commanded.

The Fallen Valkyrie did not hesitate. She launched herself into the air, flying high above the beam of frostfire.

She gripped her celestial spear with both hands, angling her body directly toward the vulnerable, over-extended Dragon Queen.

Elara plummeted.

Isolde looked up. She saw the golden meteor falling toward her, but she could not stop her breath attack without suffering a massive internal magical backlash. She was trapped in her own assault.

Elara drove her heavy boots directly into the center of Isolde’s chest.

CRUNCH. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

The physical impact shattered the diamond armor plating over Isolde’s heart. The Royal Dragon gasped, her breath attack instantly cutting off. The beam of frostfire vanished.

Lucifer immediately closed his fists. The Void Singularity snapped shut, completely swallowing the residual magic.

Isolde crashed hard onto her back. The white marble floor cracked beneath her. She coughed up a splash of blue blood.

Before the Sovereign could even attempt to stand, Lucifer used Zephyr’s Grace.

He crossed the arena in a flash. He picked up his discarded longsword mid-stride. He materialized directly over Isolde.

Lucifer drove a heavy iron boot down onto her right wrist, pinning her clawed hand to the floor. Elara landed gracefully on her left side, pressing the glowing tip of her celestial spear directly against Isolde’s throat.

Sarah stepped up behind them, leveling the Scepter of Cosmic Alignment at the dragon’s head.

Lucifer pressed the edge of his ruby-red True Damage blade directly against the center of Isolde’s chest, resting it over her exposed, beating heart.

The Warlord’s Sovereign’s Weight crashed down on her. The aura of the God-Slayer pressed the ancient predator flat against the marble.

Isolde was completely paralyzed.

"It is over," Lucifer stated. His voice was cold, echoing with absolute finality. "You are beaten."

Isolde breathed heavily. She stared up at the dark armor, the swirling void eyes, and the red blade resting on her heart. She looked at the golden Valkyrie and the silver Oracle standing over her.

She was a Royal Dragon. She had ruled the skies. She had terrified armies.

But right now, she was entirely at the mercy of a mortal.

[System: Duel Conclusion Imminent.]

[Awaiting Victor’s Execution or Loser’s Submission.]

"You cheated," Isolde hissed, blood staining her pale lips. She glared at Lucifer with undiminished hatred.

"I utilized my assets," Lucifer corrected her. "You fought with pride. I fought to win. That is why you are on the floor, and I am holding the sword."

Lucifer pressed the blade slightly deeper. A thin line of blue blood welled up on her white skin.

"Yield," Lucifer commanded. "If I push this blade, your core dies. Your lineage ends here, in a blank gray box. Yield to me, and you fly again. You live to see the new age."

Isolde closed her reptilian eyes.

Her pride screamed at her to choose death. A Royal Dragon serving a human was a profound, unimaginable humiliation.

But beneath her pride, the ancient instinct to survive burned fiercely. She had waited a thousand years in the ice. She did not want to die to a technicality.

Isolde opened her eyes. The burning white fire in her slits dimmed slightly.

"I yield," Isolde spat. The words sounded like poison on her tongue.

[System: Sovereign’s Duel Concluded.]

[Victor: Lucifer of Obsidian.]

[Reward: 10% of Target’s Base Stats permanently absorbed.]

A rush of pure, cold energy surged from Isolde’s body. It flowed up Lucifer’s sword and rushed directly into his Warlord core.

His muscles tightened. His bones grew denser. The physical strength and durability of a Royal Dragon permanently fused with his own attributes.

[System: Entity Subjugated.]

[Name: Isolde, The Winter Sovereign.]

[Status: Reluctant Hero (Vassal).]

[Loyalty Level: Low (Target respects Warlord’s power, resents authority).]

The white marble arena immediately shattered.

The gray sky dissolved into nothingness. The pocket dimension collapsed, returning them instantly to the real world.

Lucifer, Elara, Sarah, and Isolde materialized back inside the Throne Room of Eternal Ice.

The temperature was still freezing, but the oppressive, Absolute Zero curse was gone. Isolde’s awakening had shattered the hibernation ward.

The massive chunks of the broken diamond throne lay scattered across the glowing blue floor.

Lucifer stepped back. He pulled his sword away from Isolde’s chest and sheathed it at his hip. He lifted his heavy boot off her wrist.

Elara lowered her spear, stepping back to Lucifer’s side.

Isolde slowly sat up. She rubbed her bruised wrist. The deep cut on her chest and the gash on her arm were already beginning to heal, her immense draconic regeneration kicking in.

The heavy diamond armor covering her body shifted, returning to the elegant, shimmering ice-crystal gown she had worn in her sleep.

She stood up. She towered over Lucifer by a full foot, but her posture lacked its previous arrogant dominance.

She was a subjugated vassal. The system’s magic bound her to his command.

"You have my oath, Warlord," Isolde said coldly, refusing to look him in the eye. "I will serve as your weapon. But do not expect me to grovel."

"I don’t need you to grovel," Lucifer said. He turned his back on her, walking toward the ruined dais where the throne had sat. "I just need you to follow orders."

He stepped up onto the dais. He looked at the massive, smooth wall of blue ice behind where the throne used to be.

Lucifer activated his Void Arcanist sight. He saw a massive, complex grid of silver energy pulsing deep within the glacier wall.

"The vault is behind this ice," Lucifer announced. He looked over his shoulder at his new, reluctant dragon queen. "Melt it, Sovereign."

Isolde glared at the back of his head. She hated his tone. She hated his absolute lack of fear. But the binding magic in her soul forced her to comply.

She raised her pale hand. She channeled a focused stream of intense heat.

The solid wall of glacier ice hissed loudly. It melted rapidly, turning into a waterfall of freezing water that flooded down the steps of the dais.

Within seconds, a massive, thirty-foot-tall archway of dark, Precursor metal was revealed.

The metal was covered in ancient, geometric patterns. In the center of the archway sat a massive, heavy iron wheel.

The entrance to Zephyria’s engine room.

"We have the key," Lucifer said, his eyes locking onto the dark metal doors.

"Now, we take the core."