The dragon's eyes narrowed, smoke curling from his nostrils. "You sound almost human," he said. "Perhaps you have changed since taking that form and being… tamed. That makes you weak."

Lyra's aura flared. "Maybe I have changed," she answered, "but that change taught me to protect life, not snuff it out. If you truly want war, you won't find me cheering you on."

A low, cold laugh shook the lava fields. "Then you stand in my way," the Divine Dragon King rumbled. "I will destroy you as I will destroy everything that opposes me."

"So that's what you want — you really want this?" Lyra said.

"If the deity and archangel up there can't come down, you still won't change the law, Maybe," the Divine Dragon King growled. "But even if they try, they won't be able to stop me now that my seal is broken. The Creator may have commanded me once, but that chain is gone. I'll unleash my wrath on humans. After I finish with you, I'll kill your master — the one who tamed the apes. He might be strong; I'll eat his flesh."

"How dare you mock my master? How dare you speak of him that way!" Lyra shouted.

In an instant she transformed. Her body swelled; her hands grew huge and her wings unfurled, white and massive. Her face shifted into its fearsome, maw-like form. She slammed her claws into the ground; the rock cracked and splintered under the force.

"What did you just say?" Lyra demanded.

"We're not sparring like we used to. I've regained my divine title — you're the one who will fall," the Divine Dragon King growled.

You dared insult my master, and you will pay," Lyra said.

The dragon's eyes flashed. "Very well," he replied. Then they charged.

"Don't worry, I won't spare you anymore. I don't plan on sparing you. I'll give you a painful death for insulting my master," Lyra growled. Her behemoth form loomed, her wings spreading wide enough to blot out patches of the sky as she thundered forward.

With a sweep of her colossal claws, she conjured a massive barrier that stretched high into the heavens, shielding the land from their destruction. The Divine Dragon flapped his titanic wings, rising to meet her, and in an instant they collided, the clash echoing like mountains breaking.

The Dragon roared and unleashed a torrent of flame, a river of fire that burned brighter than the sun. Lyra darted aside, her massive body moving with terrifying speed. The flames struck the barrier and disintegrated into nothing.

"What? My flame vanished?" the Dragon snarled, eyes narrowing.

Lyra's bloody maw curled into a grin. "Your fire is extraordinary, but it doesn't matter. No matter how many barriers you destroy, I'll keep rebuilding them." Another massive wall of light spread behind her as she spoke.

"How dare you look away from me? Do you mock me?!" the Dragon bellowed. He lunged forward, his claws raking across Lyra's enormous cheek, sparks flying. With a brutal spin, he whipped his colossal tail across her chest and sent her crashing into the earth.

Boom! The ground split apart, trees flattened, and entire herds of beasts were crushed beneath the impact. Dust and smoke swallowed the forest.

But Lyra rose again, her bloody mouth form snarling, eyes glowing with fury. She glanced at the devastation: a single burst of the Dragon's fire had carved a thirty-five-foot crater into the earth, despite being no larger than two boulders.

"Dangerous," she muttered, flexing her wings. "But not enough to stop me."

With a mighty flap, the behemoth rose back into the sky, ready to meet the Dragon King head-on once more.

"You should have stayed on the ground when you had the chance. I gave you that opportunity," the Divine Dragon King rumbled, his massive wings stirring hurricanes with each beat. "And still, you refuse to use your true skill?"

Lyra's bloody maw twisted into a snarl. "What about you? You haven't used yours either."

"I don't need to," the Dragon King said coldly. "If I unleash it, this battle ends instantly. My flames are more than enough to burn you down."

Lyra's voice thundered across the skies. "You dare mock me again?" Her claws slashed through the air, summoning a spectral tiger head made of searing divine energy. It lunged forward with a roar, jaws snapping at the Dragon King before erupting in a blinding explosion.

The Dragon didn't even flinch. His scales gleamed, untouched. "Is that all you can muster? Pathetic. My hide is far too thick for such toys. But yours…" His eyes glowed like twin suns. "…can you withstand mine?"

The Dragon's chest expanded, and in the next instant his mouth opened, spewing forth a torrent of fire that warped the very sky. The blaze surged like a collapsing star, swallowing the air around it.

Lyra roared back. Her bloody mouth gaped wide, gathering divine energy crackling with streaks of lightning. The raw power condensed into a sphere of destruction before erupting outward to meet the Dragon's inferno.

The heavens split as fire and lightning collided. The clash lit the world in searing brilliance, the shockwave tearing clouds apart, flattening mountainsides, and sending ripples across the land.

At first, Lyra held her ground, her massive form braced against the storm. But slowly, relentlessly, the Dragon's flame began to devour her lightning. The blaze pressed forward, swallowing her attack, pushing it closer, closer.

"No… I won't fall here!" Lyra roared, straining, her claws digging trenches into the earth below as she tried to resist. But the overwhelming torrent consumed her beam and smashed into her body.

The explosion flung her like a comet, her enormous frame crashing through forests, shattering stone, leveling entire stretches of land. She tumbled, consciousness slipping away.

Then, in the blink of an eye, the Divine Dragon King moved. His colossal figure blurred with impossible speed. One moment he hovered in the sky, the next his teeth sank into her scaled shoulder, flipping her body with a violent twist.

Boom!

The impact crater swallowed half the forest as Lyra's body was driven into the ground, dust and fire erupting skyward like a volcanic eruption.

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