Overhead, a canopy woven from countless massive branches was rapidly closing.

Below, innumerable vicious roots erupted from the earth, coiling upward like giant pythons.

In every direction stood impenetrable wooden walls, shimmering with jade-green runes.

They were trapped within a cage forged from the power of the entire Endless Forest Sea.

The light was being devoured, bit by bit.

The space was being compressed, inch by inch.

An immense and boundless imprisoning power pressed in from all sides, threatening to grind all matter within this space into dust.

"ROAR!"

The Golden Dragon Sun let out a terrified roar. It felt as if its body was bound by countless invisible chains, making even a single flap of its wings incredibly difficult.

The same was true for the Black King. Its massive body froze in midair, and for the first time, a look of despair surfaced in its dark gold, slit pupils.

"Do not panic."

The three simple words were like an anchor in a storm, instantly steadying Raylo’s heart, which had been about to leap from his chest.

He snapped his head up to look at Astra.

The thousand-meter-long Thunder Dragon, even within the rapidly closing Cage of Ten Thousand Woods—a prison that would drive any other creature to despair—still held its head high with pride.

Its enormous, sun-like eyes calmly observed its surroundings, showing not a hint of panic—but rather, a trace of... disdain.

"As an Ancient Dragon who has lived for millennia, is this the extent of your abilities?"

Astra’s voice pierced through layers of space, carrying clearly beyond the cage and into the ears of the Jade Dragon Emperor.

"How... disappointing."

Instantly, all the lightning cloaking Astra’s colossal draconic body converged inward!

The surrounding Sea of Thunderbolt, once a raging tempest, vanished without a trace in that same instant.

In its place, Astra’s serpentine, mountain-range-like body, covered in azure scales, began to radiate a silver-white light. It was an unprecedented, blindingly brilliant glow, almost impossible to look at with the naked eye.

"BZZZZZZT!"

Countless fine, silver-white arcs of electricity danced and flickered madly across its skin.

Its body was becoming translucent.

Its very form was undergoing a fundamental change, one that transcended the Law of matter!

’This is...’

Raylo’s eyes widened as far as they could go.

He watched as Astra’s massive body of flesh and blood transformed, bit by bit, into pure lightning.

Astra was unreservedly converting its entire thousand-meter-long draconic form—every piece of flesh, every Dragon Scale, every drop of blood—into the purest, most fundamental essence of lightning!

This was the core, the most powerful, and the most fundamental racial talent of the Thunder Dragon clan.

Body Thunderbolt Transformation!

This was not merely a technique for high-speed movement; it was an ultimate sublimation, elevating one’s very existence from the plane of "matter" to that of "energy"!

It was an inherited talent Astra had only begun to master after ascending to the Catastrophe Level.

"BOOM!"

A boom that seemed to originate from the depths of the soul.

Astra’s massive draconic body vanished completely.

In its place stood an immense silver-white Thunder Pillar, over a hundred meters in diameter. It spanned the entire inner space of the Cage of Ten Thousand Woods, looking as if it would cleave the world in two.

The Thunder Pillar was incredibly condensed, unbelievably pure.

Yet the ultimate destructive power it contained—enough to pierce all things and annihilate everything—made the entire Cage of Ten Thousand Woods emit a violent, overburdened "CREEEAK."

The Jade Dragon Emperor’s eyes narrowed abruptly!

It felt an unprecedented sense of danger!

Without hesitation, it frantically poured all its remaining Power of Origin into the Cage of Ten Thousand Woods, attempting to use its ultimate power to completely imprison and crush the terrifying Thunder Pillar.

However, it was too late.

At the very instant the imprisoning power of the Cage of Ten Thousand Woods reached its apex, the silent, massive silver-white Thunder Pillar moved.

The direction it chose...

...was straight up!

"BOOM!"

There was no earth-shattering explosion.

There was only a crisp sound, like a bolt of fabric being torn in an instant.

The silver-white Thunder Pillar, at a speed that transcended space and time, shot upward and pierced through!

Before that pure, ultimate Thunder Pillar, the indestructible dome of the cage—forged from the power of the entire Endless Forest Sea—was as fragile as a sheet of paper.

It was pierced through with contemptuous ease!

A massive, perfectly circular hole over a hundred meters in diameter, its edges impossibly smooth, appeared in the ceiling of the cage.

After bursting through the cage, the silver-white Thunder Pillar’s speed did not diminish in the slightest.

It continued upward, upward, and ever upward!

Three thousand meters!

Five thousand meters!

Finally, it soared ten thousand meters into the sky, leaving an eternal, brilliant, silver-white trail against the dark, deep void left behind by the raging energy storms.

This was the greatest advantage of the Thunder Dragon clan.

Transform into lightning, and cross a thousand miles in a flash!

As long as one could not completely imprison or instantly kill it before it transformed, then anywhere between heaven and earth, as far as the eye could see, was a place it could reach in an instant!

「Ten thousand meters high in the sky.」