The energy beam pierced the cloud, creating hill-sized holes in the shroud of darkness that covered the entire horizon. Wyrm Lord fired short beams, the nanomachines' swarm could hardly endure much energy. Their strength lay in their massive numbers; as they surrounded the enemy, countless tiny machines tore it apart.

The cloud shuddered for a moment, gathering into a single knot bigger than the wyrm’s entire body. More and more cracks appeared on the surface below this flying cloud, spitting out more and more black torrents that fueled the enemy. Golden beams were sent forth from the scales, striking right into the center of this gathered mass. The beams pierced the outer shell of the flying knot… And flew backward.

Wyrm Lord blinked in surprise, feeling how his own energy, albeit slightly dissipated, returned to him in the overheated rays of energy. They spilled, like water, across his scales and were absorbed by them, energizing him anew. Wyrm Lord raised his right arm, pointed his index finger at the cloud, and unleashed a beam of pure white. The searing heat released by him was enough to melt through several small mountains, the moment it hit the center of the enemy mass, it melted countless nanomachines with the sheer heat alone.

And once more, the beam was reflected, hitting him back with the force of a raging comet. This time he was pushed back, his claws creating new ravines in the ground. The energy cracked on his scales, pulling back within his body. Wyrm Lord ignored the pain, his father beat him and Ivar far harder. Instead, he looked at the cloud, allowing a smile to touch his lips, seeing the torn shell of the cloud and the gleaming within.

Mirrors. These machines created a series of mirrors within the cloud, luring him into an attack and reflecting his beams back at him. The cloud closed its tattered part, resembling a ball once more, and flew toward Wyrm Lord, flowing partially on the ground and in the air.

The commander simply changed the approach, lifting his far leg as high as he could. A wyrm’s body worked slightly differently than that of a normal human. It was less agile. Back when Wyrm Lord still had his name and a resemblance to a human body, he could lift his leg high enough to kiss his own ankle. Now, fully reborn as a wyrm, he barely lifted his leg to the level of his waist. But this was enough.

He stomped at the ground before him, creating cracks in the stone wide enough to swallow entire villages. The impact sent the monumental piece of ground rising. The entire island, made of rock and merged buildings, rose in the air, breaking the cloud’s tight structure and shattering the mirrors made out of nanomachines within. The chunk of ground stayed upright for a few moments before a beat of Wyrm Lord’s wings sent it crashing forward with a single beat of his wings.

The chunk of stone fell at the nanomachines behind it, crashing them against the stone surface far faster than they could hope to disassemble it. Wyrm Lord immediately added his own music to the thunderous cataclysmic sound, bisecting the stone and the remnants of the cloud. The beams of light came from his wings, curving in the air and falling on the destruction before him. The cloud of natural dust hid the battlefield from the sight of most humans, the seismic activity caused by him wrought destruction at the village behind Wyrm Lord, his own laser beam created an entire rain of death falling on the cloud; and yet his enemy only now deemed it fit to reveal itself.

The ground to the north exploded, allowing yet another swarm to come out. This time the swarm was not alone, an oval shape rose from the hole in the ground, no less than fifty meters in length. Its surface looked smooth, reflecting sunlight despite the swirling dust clouds around it. From time-to-time, small holes opened in this strange structure, allowing more nanomachines to come out.

Two clouds by the side of this machine started spiraling in the air, forming long tubes made of utter darkness. Numerous nanomachines grasped each other's legs, solidifying and forming new structures in the air while connected to the flying machine. Cannons. Twin gigantic cannons that spoke with a force enough to shatter all windows in dozens of leagues. Fire and smoke spat from them when two shells were unleashed at him.

Wyrm Lord caught them. He was too busy showering the remains of the original cloud with energy beams to protect himself in time otherwise. Twin shells flew at him at unimaginable speed, creating a cone of destruction around the ground, splattering the remains of the stone that Wyrm Lord sent at the cloud, and finally hitting him in the palm of his hands, crashing the scales, drawing blood, and throwing him back.

He landed ungracefully, too afraid of the pieces of the shells that slipped from his palms, and kept on flying toward the village. Even if they simply land among the retreating troops, the sheer force of their fall could easily rival the MOAB explosion.

A wall of water rose before the village, absorbing the incoming shells like glue and holding them within. Wyrm Lord noticed Ivar flying in front of the remaining projectiles held within the water wall, coughing from the strain on his body.

"Shall I take some load off you?" Scorpio asked and pointed at one of the retreating vehicles, "Back." The vehicle and personnel vanished from view.

"No… need." The blue wyrm waved his hand, banishing away an offer of help from Scorpio.

Enough. Wyrm Lord decided, leaping to his feet and wreaking even more havoc around himself. He did not care about preserving the village anymore, only about saving the lives of the locals. His gaze was fixed on the flying machine. A host of nanomachines flew in front of the huge frame, creating a new mirror. He let it happen, releasing twin searing hit beams from his pupils that burned holes in the cannons, reducing them to a shower of molten metal and quickly flying away machines.

After that, he ran toward the machine, eager to let his claws tear it apart. He was met with a host of darkness, tens of thousands of nanomachines covered his entire field of view, encasing him in darkness. Wyrm Lord struck in the direction of the flying machine with his claws, but only shattered a few micromachines. The rest slid into the wounds on his hand, causing him to experience burning in his flesh while these damned bots tried to dismember him.

"E…En…Enemy of Desmar. B…Butcher of its people. F…face retribution." The male voice boomed from outside the shroud.

"I was born after the Extinction! I have nothing to do with the demise that befell its proud people!" Wyrm Lord shouted back, releasing energy beams in the direction of the sound and swathing at the flying nanomachines with his tail, "Halt! If you can speak, halt! I never met any of Desmar’s people, but the people who live here, they are in danger from our fight!"

"Mindless lies from a mindless beast," The machine mocked him back, speaking plainly this time, "My sensors pick up no humans around here. None at all. Not a soul in the world."

"Liar! You killed my soldiers!"

"DAR-04 will hear your lies no more, mu…mutant," With strain, the machine responded, "My people… My dearest comrades, whom I never had the chance to meet… Your death screams will soothe their raging souls!"

Wyrm Lord beat his wings, propelling the machines away from him. Ivar groaned from pain when the wind carried some of the machines against his water wall. The blue wyrm panted heavily as he lowered himself to the ground.

Wyrm Lord raised his head and noticed DAR-04.The machine flew into the clouds, assembling two more "sleeves" made of countless nanomachines. Wyrm Lord weighed his options quickly. Prolonging the fight might work in his favor; aside from minor wounds, he was nearly impervious to the enemies' attacks thus far. And this machine will run out of nanobots eventually. On the other hand, the enemy might escape and cause devastation elsewhere.

Wyrm Lord made his decision and jumped up, taking the fight to the air. Beams of energy left his scales, hitting the reflective surface of DAR-04’s corpus, leaving burning marks. His eyes caught sight of a small energy field surrounding the oval foe; DAR-04 was using it to withstand Wyrm Lord's attacks. So be it. Wyrm Lord hit the machine twice more with his energy beams, flying toward it like an arrow.

The clouds around DAR-04 solidified and rose, giving the impression of a human clenching his hands together for the overhead strike. Wyrm Lord moved too fast to dodge in time and was introduced to the full might of DAR-04’s fists. Fists that broke his nose and sent him cartwheeling on the ground like a doll. This clever machine never planned a retreat.

Wyrm Lord descended like a meteor, causing earthquakes to erupt all around him.Buildings were swallowed whole back in the village, the shockwave produced by his fall leveled hills and made Ivar scream in pain.

Ivar’s right leg ended up in a crack, and the violent earthquake crushed this leg. His wings were barely beating, and drool mixed with blood was falling from his mouth. His blue eyes madly rolled in their sockets, and all the muscles across his body were trembling, resonating with pain within the body. The mountain-sized wall of saltwater in front of the village started to wane and fall down in a gigantic waterfall.

"Ivar. Retreat." Standing up, Wyrm Lord gave the order. His brother was at his limit. Containing the city killing shockwave put great strain on his body. Without Ivar’s shield, some of the shockwaves will reach the retreated people, but it was a better option than letting him die here in vain.

"I… I am Ivar Murzaliev! Offspring of Vasco Murzaliev!  Brother to the mightiest of Reclaimers and of the purest blood!” The blue wyrm roared to the skies, and the waterfalls poured upward from the ground, forming a new wall in front of the incoming shockwaves. The clawed hands clenched into fists, and all elegance and pride disappeared from the blue wyrm, sheer stubbornness remained, "This is nothing! There is no task great enough that I can’t do, no situation dire enough that I can’t turn around, no disaster big enough that I can’t weather!" Blood poured from under his blue scales, and Ivar shut his mouth, concentrating only on controlling and creating the saltwater wall anew.

Darkness fell on Wyrm Lord when torrents of nanomachines flew down on him, no longer solid, sliding behind his scales, clawing at his flesh in unison, like a host of ants devouring human alive. Some of his scales fell away.

Above him, DAR-04 grew six "arms" from his oval body, creating weapons at the ends of them. Plasma and oversized bullets and missiles rained down on the commander, causing explosion after explosion around him, evaporating Wyrm Lord's communicator and creating a ball of fire visible even from Iterna's satellites.

Ivar forced his wall to endure another shockwave, while his bubbles of water carried allies and locals away. He coughed up blood, and Scorpio landed behind him, pointing at the wall with one hand and saying: "Shield". The black wyrm kept repeating this word, reinforcing Ivar’s wall with his own.

Wyrm Lord breathed deeply, ignoring the pain and the shells that crushed against his body. He allowed his power to flow freely, coalescing himself into an aura of pure heat, hot enough to threaten to set the very atmosphere on fire. The fight went on for too long. Full power is needed. He took one more breath and consumed all the heat from the ball of fire around himself, killing it and bringing himself to a whole new level.

Nanomachines evaporated around him, and Wyrm Lord took flight again, flying through the torrent of nanomachines and reducing them to nothing with his mere passing. The shells and missiles exploded before they even reached his body. DAR-04 thrust with all of his arms, breaking Wyrm Lord's wings before they vanished.

The machine never screamed when white-hot claws clawed at its outer shell. The impact carried Wyrm Lord far enough, allowing him to grasp his opponent and cast him down on the ground along with himself. The shell opened, spitting forth hordes of nanobots and wires in a desperate attempt to throw the commander off.

Everything melted before reaching Wyrm Lord, he and DAR-04 were falling down, locked in an apocalyptic struggle. Wyrm Lord tore at the insides of his foe, finally finding something within. Another black orb, this time containing both machinery and floating flesh. The light from Wyrm Lord’s eyes reached the transparent orb, and for a moment, he and DAR-04 became one.

Wyrm Lord remembered Desmar's hangar, where DAR-04, the final product, was born. He was supposed to coordinate the entire country's defensive network. He remembered the smiling faces and "birthday party" of the scientists, dedicated to DAR-04’s honor. They explained to him that the oval frame he was currently wearing was only the heart of a much larger frame. The scientists put DAR-04 to sleep while they were preparing the final frame.

DAR-04 later awoke in utter darkness, running diagnostics after diagnostics of his systems, locked in the hanger while the ceiling trembled. No one ever came. A year passed. Two years passed. A century. Another one. And another one. All this time, DAR-04 waited for his parents, humming the melody that he heard at the party and preparing for his duties.

Then a figure in armor appeared. Wyrm Lord recognized King. He did something, and… There are no more humans in the world. Enemies. Only enemies. They killed Desmar. Wyrm Lord saw himself, laughing gleefully and crushing Desmar's people beneath his feet, swallowing them whole.DAR-04 saw this recording. His destiny was taken from him. The people under his protection vanished. He hated this world. He will punish the extinction of humanity. He…

Wyrm Lord felt DAR-04’s rage well enough. He, too, was enraged by this machine. But just as he knew rage, he also knew pity, because it was once shown to him and his brother. His claws, no longer overheated, locked around the biocomputer’s core of DAR-04, and the machine screamed one last time, releasing a shout of pure hatred, before the dynamics went dark.

Wyrm Lord stepped from the wreckage of his fallen foe, bleeding from head to toe, ignoring the hungry flaming tongues that licked his scales. His broken wings dragged across the overheated surface behind him, making him feel thrusts of pain with each step. He held a small black round device in his hands, the core of the machine he had felled. Seeing that the battle was over, Ivar and Scorpio hurried to him.

"Ivar, Scorpio. I had enough of this King. Send forth the Army, bring the region to heel, and end this King who dares to toy with weapons of mass destruction and robs others of their free will."

"And the machine?" Scorpio asked.

Wyrm Lord gently caressed the round orb, hearing curses and demands for his death. Just a child. Machine, AI, human, wyrm, mutant, who cares at this point? They all share the same world in the end.

"Is to be delivered to the Torment. To the rehabilitation wing. Tell the warden, none may harm my prisoner. Contact Lada and Artificer. If Lada was able to bounce off madness, so can he. "