I don't know whether he's aware of the fact that a Crawling Chaos fears fire the most or not, but the fact that he basically turned himself into my bane means I won't be able to eat him. Especially since I know that he's able to cause explosions by pointing at people, so in this form he's most likely much stronger than before.

Why did he die from one spike to the neck and stay down for a long time before, but was able to return right after getting melted and burned up this time?

Maybe it's because he's a phoenix and they resurrect when their bodies are immolated. Does that mean I provided him the basis for this power-up? Last time there was no fire around, which he could use to come back with immediately, but this time an entire city in flames is right at his fingertips. In other words, it's entirely possible that as long as he has any fire here, he'll be immortal.

"[Tahiri, make it rain!]" I yell down into the city streets where the others have dismounted, and are looking up to me and the phoenix I'm facing. The presences of Uten and Saten have distanced themselves and are moving away from here, just as I told them to. I'm really happy to have such obedient children.

"[I won't let you rain on my parade!]" Roaring like the sound of a blaze, Felgar flaps his wings and heat emanates from his form in an invisible wave. Scorching winds are whipped up and open a huge hole in the clouds above us. He's using his control over hot air to dissipate Tahiri's influence over the weather.

You weren't that strong last time we fought, flamboyant weakling!

I summon several pools of water over him with the only water spell I can remember, though I have a feeling that it won't be very useful against him. After all, this isn't a game where certain elements beat others in a rock paper scissors system; there are somewhat real physics involved, as far as I could tell from all the experiences I've had up to this point.

And sure enough, the water falls onto him and is instantly evaporated, causing a massive explosion in its wake which knocks me away. Catching myself in midair by funneling bursts of air into my back boosters, I look up at where the giant flaming bird was. It reforms from the fires of the explosion and I can't help but think that he's actually grinning with a smug expression in there right now.

I feel like I've learned about something like this in school, regarding water splitting or so. As far as I can remember that required some really high temperatures, which would melt humans instead of igniting them, if they came into contact with it directly. I'd rather not let my children get close to something like that as long as they don't have as much combat experience as I do. And most specifically, don't have the dragon template.

So water is out, and Felgar has turned into a living conflagration against which physical attacks should be useless. What else can I do?

For now I'll use the dragon armor and engage him so he doesn't think about swooping down on the others. I'm not at all worried about Tahiri and Korenga, but I'm sure Awhina, Mereana and even Tokomaha won't get away unscathed, if they come into contact with his body. Creating more boosters on my shoulders and legs, and growing out solid wings for better maneuvering, I practically turn into a carapace-plated biological version of a mecha.

"[Felgar, your opponent is me!]" Raising my voice to draw his attention, I fly forward and directly at him. It's the only thing I can really do right now, to keep him from attacking those on the ground, since I'm racking my brain to think of a way to take him down.

Bursting through him, I'm once again shown clearly that his body is simply made of fire, rather than any burning materials. I simply can't wrap my head around this at all, and I think that's most definitely why I took so long to learn very limited transmutation magic. For these gods, performing such feats is just part of their nature, just like how transforming and moving my convenient body is for me.

Swinging around and dispelling the flames clinging onto me, I look down to see what the others are doing. Awhina is using her magic to break apart houses and create a path for their retreat, while Tokomaha and Korenga cover her. Tahiri is nowhere to be seen. I don't doubt that she went somewhere to find a way to help, because I can't believe she would just run away under these circumstances.

"[Useless useless useless! Everything you do is useless against me!]" Felgar's voice returns my attention to him. He's flapping his wings and coming straight towards me, but I feel like it's an exercise in futility, since we seem to be unable to hurt each other anyway. Still, I meet him head-on, spreading my rigid wings and activating the boosters for additional speed.

We fly straight into each other, but just like last time, I don't feel any resistance as I move through his body. Then I realize that there doesn't seem to be any end. I can feel the heat even through the dragon carapace, indicating that I haven't passed through him yet. Replicating dragon eyes and the sideways closing membrane that lets them withstand the heat of their own breaths, I open my eyes I kept closed before to see what's going on.

But I'm surrounded by fire and can't see anything other than light. It seems Felgar is purposefully surrounding me so that I'm unable to get my bearings. At least I can still tell up from down, so I shouldn't crash if I fly around to try and shake him.

Just as I think that and fly in a random direction, I hit a wall face-first. I feel the dragon carapace breaking from the impact and my unprotected form underneath come into contact with the flames.

It burns!

Quickly repairing the damage, I cover myself in the armor once again. So apparently I chose the worst direction, because that was the mountainside.

"[Hahaha, what's wrong? Didn't you want to fight me?]" The annoying voice surrounding me and permeating my every fiber only serves to increase my determination to break out of this.

Turning around and activating all my boosters at once, I fly away from the wall. But the fire keeps clinging onto me, not letting go at all. I can't tell how far I've flown, but I'm sure we've already left the city behind us. If that's the case, then at least the others are safe from being attacked by this guy.

I feel the heat around me steadily increase in intensity. It seems Felgar is still able to make this worse by possibly becoming hotter than a dragon's defenses can withstand. Maybe I could expand myself to my full size for a moment and become bigger than he can contain? Would that cause him to be torn apart or even dissipate him, even if only temporarily?

Wait, as long as he's still not hot enough to burn or melt the anti-magic armor, I can do something else.

Reverse all thrusters!

I start to suck in the flames in my surroundings like a vacuum cleaner, and pull them into separate chambers close to the surface of my body. I've gained a lot more control over where I put things inside me ever since the incident of the academy instructor detonating me from the place where I wanted to slowly digest him. This way, if anything explodes, it won't be my entire body, but only a portion near the surface. And I also won't distribute all my mass evenly, and instead gather it in an area as far from all those chambers as possible.

"[W-what are you doing?!]" Echoing all around me, I can hear Felgar's frantic voice call out.

The result is astounding. Since my insides are practically infinite, I swallow all the fire around me easily. Then, with the dragon armor lining the interior chambers, I pull out all the air. The flames are immediately extinguished, leaving behind only heat, which I vent by opening slits between my armor plates.

I truly feel like a mecha while doing so.

I can see again. Looking down at myself, I notice that my plated skin is glowing red hot like superheated steel, but nothing is melting yet. Just in time, huh?

It seems that we've traveled a distance away from the burning city, and on the opposite side of me is a much smaller phoenix, no longer completely on fire and actually showing a physical form. That must be his main body. It's nowhere near as impressive, but still almost human-sized.

"[What's wrong? Wasn't everything I did useless against you?]" My words really aren't meant to mock him, since I'm not really feeling haughty; instead, I'm thinking of a way to kill him for good without burning him. Spirits spears should do the trick.

Felgar doesn't say a word and immediately circles around me to try and fly back to the burning city, where he still has a lot of fire to work with. I react instantly and follow him, conjuring up an array of small spirit spears under my wings. Firing them at his back in something that can only be described as a missile barrage, it feels like I'm a fighter jet shooting at a biplane.

But it seems he still has some fight in him, as he's able to take sharp evasive maneuvers and avoids most of the shots aimed at his body, with some piercing only his wings. Using the fires that burn on his feathers, he frantically repairs the damage, but I don't let him off so easily. Since my aim against a moving target isn't the best, I'll use the advantage a mecha has over a plane: I'll use melee weapons.

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Creating a blade from my arm, covered in anti-magic armor, I activate my boosters and quickly gain on him. I can see him turn his head slightly and notice my approach, but I'm too fast for him to shake. All he can do is take evasive maneuvers, which only serve to slow his return to the city.

I'm stalling because thunderclouds have gathered over the city and are just about to reach critical mass. Tahiri has personally gone up to make sure that the rain will be coming down and putting out the fires in the city. And it seems Felgar noticed it too, as he flaps his wings as quickly as he can to get back, so that he can regain his bigger form and use its heat to break the clouds again.

But it's too late, and before he can get close enough to exert his control over the blaze, the clouds start to spill their water like buckets, straight over Uarapo. Within a few seconds, all fires are put out, and before long there aren't even embers left. Felgar's wings are sizzling under the downpour, but they aren't extinguishing, just like his flaming form earlier. I guess it won't completely extinguish him, though I doubt his current powers amount to much at this point.

And here I thought this guy actually became a big problem, but it wasn't as hard as it looked it would be, since I don't really have to fear fire anymore. This dragon template saved my life once again, and I'm seriously grateful for it.

"[... magnificent...]" I hear him speak in a strangely composed tone. Actually, there's a hint of admiration in it, too. "[Magnificent!]" He erupts in laughter as he flaps his wings to hover in place.

I have a bad feeling about this.

"[I see why you would dare to ride on the capital and challenge His Majesty.]" He would have applauded us if he had human hands, of that I'm sure. "[But you are nothing before his might!]"

With these words, his body begins to glow brightly and before I can react and try to cut him down, he explodes into a wave of heat. When I replace my eyes with fresh ones to immediately dispel the bright spots in my vision, and look where Felgar was just a moment ago, he has disappeared. Don't tell me he actually detonated himself in an attempt to suicide-bomb me, or to avoid becoming a prisoner? I mean, he did speak some cheesy villain lines before doing it, so that might actually be the case.

Whatever the case was, it only caused a bang and a big flash. We're still far enough from the city for it to have not affected any of the others, and I'm completely unscathed, too. It was a futile attempt at saving his dignity, because that was just pathetic compared to what he was capable of before.

But what happens next completely blows away any thoughts about the weakened firebird.

The peak of the mountain before me suddenly explodes from the inside out, spewing flames and molten rock. A little over a second later, the sound reaches me and I immediately close off my ears due to its intensity. Just mere moments later, the shockwave resulting from the displaced air causes me to lose my balance in midair and I tumble. Shutting down my thrusters and gaining my bearings, I quickly save myself from contacting the ground face first again.

The mountain was actually a volcano! Mereana never told me anything about that! Don't tell me Felgar actually made it erupt with his self-destruct move? Or is that actually him?

Then I notice the pyroclastic flow coming down the mountainside and rolling towards the city of Uarapo. As far as I can remember from what I learned in school about volcanic eruptions, that wave of super heated ash and flying rocks can reach temperatures capable of melting glass. While not as hot as Felgar's body was, it's still a considerable threat.

And the others are still in that city!

Activating my boosters, I fly towards where I can feel their life forces. They're on horseback and riding away from the cloud rolling down the mountainside, but I know that the flow can reach velocities far beyond a horse's top speed. There's no other way around this, I'll fly them out. Good thing I can't feel the presence of my children nearby, because I don't want them to get involved in this.

"[There you are!]" Awhina comments when I swoop down in front of them. "[What's that appearance?]" She looks at me strangely. This is the first time she's actually seen the Chaos Warhead form, and as someone from this world where the concept of giant robots flying in the sky don't exist, I must look really strange.

"[No time to explain, get on.]" With this, I expand and turn into a full dragon. All eyes are on me, sparkling in awe - although I do notice that Mereana is terrified. It seems dragons are a universal existence that induces fear in people. I haven't heard or seen any mention of them in this nation, but I'm sure they exist here, too.

"[What about the horses?]" Korenga asks and points at the one she's carried for most of the day. It kind of hurts me to leave them behind, but I'm not big enough to take them all with me. And since I know the effect the insides of my body have on living beings, I won't be able to just swallow them as a means of transportation either. And while Korenga is around, eating them isn't an option, so it's basically good meat wasted.

"[They'll find their own way.]" Is all I can say while I help Awhina up by lifting her on my wing. I know they won't be able to outrun the ashes, though; the death zone can span several kilometers after all.

When Awhina, Mereana, Tokomaha and Korenga get on my back, I quickly take off. Now that I think about it, I could have just turned myself into a jet plane and used the same technique I use in Chaos Warhead Mode to propel myself. I'd even be able to install a cargo hold that isn't completely submerged inside my body. Though if the wind spell's thrust isn't enough, we might crash. I should have tried this a long time ago, but now it's too late to think about it. This situation doesn't exactly lend itself to conducting a test run.

"[What's that?!]" I hear Awhina shout on my back and I turn my head. The top of the volcano is spewing lava like a pot of boiling water, but from within the caldera, a massive figure seems to emerge. Its body is made of molten rock, but it's taking on a vaguely humanoid shape.

"[Rise, Roamukao!]" Echoing across the area, I hear Felgar's voice. So that bastard still isn't dead yet! "[Rise and rain down fire and brimstone! Burn the world to ashes!]"

I see absolutely no way how I could defeat something like that. If it's literally living lava, then it'd have a sheer limitless supply of it to regenerate itself, simply by pulling out more magma from the planet's depths. My most destructive attacks are spirit spears and the plasma breath, and neither would be able to put a considerable dent into that thing.

A lightning bolt comes down in front of me and I practically screech to a halt in midair, almost causing my passengers to fall off. Inside the lightning was Tahiri, who now floats in front of me with a serious expression.

"[We have to stop him.]" It's rare for her to speak in such a voice. The first time I ever heard it was when she came back after being disintegrated by Rapania, and she wasn't playing around at that time.

"[What is that thing?]" I circle around Tahiri because it's not easy to flap my wings and stay in place without making it hard for the people on my back to stay on it.

"[That's Roamukao, God of Destruction.]" Well that's a pretty obvious and evil sounding title... "[He usually slumbers beneath the earth and is only awakened when powerful gods clash, to partake in the battle and sow chaos and destruction.]" That doesn't sound ominous at all!

"[But the battle stopped.]" I mean, Felgar and I somewhat concluded our battle - leaving aside the fact that I'm not a god - and while he seems to be still alive, I don't see him anywhere.

"[That just means that he's being influenced by something else. Does this so-called God King have sway over even Roamukao?]" Her expression grows grim. "[ In either case, if we don't stop him here, he'll rampage across the lands and destroy a lot more than just Uarapo.]" Pointing at the city that's quickly being swallowed by the pyroclastic flow, Tahiri seems to suggest that it'll be the fate of everything around here.

Then I see what she actually means. From within the ashes I see hundreds of smoke-covered humanoid beings run downhill, setting fire to their surroundings by coming into contact with them.

"[Those are aspects of Roamukao. Whenever he appears, his army of Ashlings are let loose to spread his influence.]" With these words, lightning begins to surge through Tahiri's body as her rainbow-colored eyes focus. "[Without gods fighting nearby for him to join, there can be no end to his rampage. Come, Chaos.]" I think this is the first time I've heard her call my name like this. Actually, I feel like it's the first time she's called me by name at all.

In either case, it means she's serious, and she needs my help.

"[What do you say?]" I speak to the ones on my back. Aside from Mereana, they all seem to be raring to go. Well, they are two gods and one demigod after all. "[Then let's go.]" I don't take the former's opinion in this, since she can't help out anyway. She should just evacuate with my children.

Speaking of which, they're appearing on my radar again, coming towards me. Looking in the direction, I see them flying side by side in the distance. Apparently they chose to return after seeing the volcano erupt and the giant god emerging from it. It's the perfect timing to give them the same job as last time.

I land on the banks of a river I just discovered from the air to let the others down on the ground. Then I undo my transformation and return to my human form. Moments later, Uten and Saten come down from the sky with frantic expressions.

"[What's going on?]" Uten asks.

"[What is that thing?]" Saten inquires.

"[No time to explain. Keep Mereana safe. We'll go and stop it now.]" Since these Ashlings are spreading out as we speak. I turn to Tahiri. "[The Ashlings-]"

"[Are weak individually.]" She cuts me off and gives me the reply as if she knew I was about to ask that. And her eyes are fixated on Tokomaha as she speaks, too. Apparently we already know each other's motives well enough to do something like this.

"[Tokomaha, you know what to do. Don't let them get through.]" Petting the little goddess, I hand out her role. She pouts at the gesture, but doesn't slap away my hand; it's clear that she understands the situation and is willing to cooperate, just like she did in Rapania's castle. Turning to the next person, my expression changes to one of skepticism. "[Awhina, try to create a wall to contain them.]" It would have to cover a huge area, so I don't know if she has the power to do it.

"[Leave it to me.]" Pumping her fist, Awhina shows a determined smile.

That leaves the last person.

"[Korenga?]" I turn to the Black God. She looks at me with her pitch black eyes, awaiting my next words. "[Smash.]" That's all I can think of.

And she responds with a wide grin, as her eyes grow wild. It's the same expression she had when she tried to beat me to death last night, and a shudder runs down my spine at the thought of having to stop her rampage if she gets out of control again. But at least for now she's going to target whatever isn't us, so it should be fine.

"[Let's roll out!]" With these words, I transform into the mecha form I had during the battle against Felgar. Taking off alongside Tahiri, we each move to face the God of Destruction, Roamukao, in our own way.