A massive shadow, emerging from nowhere, abruptly blotted out the moonlight.It descended slowly from the sky like a hellish shroud.A deep, guttural, inhuman rumble echoed through the air — low and resonant. Aquila's talons clenched beneath me, his predator's instinct reversed by a visceral fear. I looked up.
Salazar had returned. But nothing human remained.
His new form stood easily fifteen meters tall, with a wingspan of thirty.Bat-like wings, membranous and monstrous, beat slowly, stirring whirlwinds of ash and dust.His torso — broad and twisted — was covered in glistening scales, black as soot, crisscrossed by glowing red veins that pulsed with a sickly rhythm.
His head, misshapen and crowned with horns, no longer resembled that of a degenerate noble… but of an infernal vampire, screaming in rage, his mouth filled with fangs far too long for any natural jaw. His eyes burned with pure hatred — twin blazing orbs scanning for prey.
"I survived, Mr. King!" he roared, his voice distorted by a beastly, guttural howl.
"Lord Saddler's gift flows through my veins… AND I WILL OBLITERATE YOU!"
His claws, elongated and twisted like war scythes, looked capable of slicing through a reinforced jeep like butter.
And at the center of his chest, where a human heart once beat, a glowing red core pulsed — unstable, corrupted, and radiating deadly power.
With a savage roar, Salazar launched himself into the air.His wings beat with tectonic force, whipping up tornados of dust and hurling roof tiles from nearby buildings. A shockwave rippled outward, striking Aquila squarely.
The giant eagle faltered, beating its wings with all its might to stay airborne, but I felt its cry of pain echo in my mind. Its talons slipped in the turbulence, and we barely veered off course, avoiding Salazar's killing blow by a hair.
"Shit!" I growled, clinging desperately to the saddle grip.
Without hesitation, I summoned thousands of raptors from the factory — mutated hawks and black steel-feathered eagles with talons as sharp as daggers. They dove toward Salazar like a storm of flying blades, a living tempest ready to shred him apart.
But as they closed in, Salazar beat his wings violently.The shock was seismic.A vortex of brutal wind repelled my creatures like straw in a storm. Many were slammed into the castle walls or torn apart midair, their cries slicing through the darkness.
A guttural laugh rumbled from the monster's twisted mouth."You think I'm bothered by sparrows, King?! That's your best shot?!"He spat a spray of black acid that melted a dozen of my raptors mid-flight.
I clenched my jaw, gripping my mount's leather straps tight."FUCK YOU, CLOWN!"My voice cracked across the sky like thunder.
I summoned a Mark-V rotary gatling gun directly from my inventory, the barrel already spinning.At the same time, three Bloods erupted into the air behind me — dark-skinned, bat-winged, sinister and swift.I also summoned two more Aquila, their obsidian feathers shimmering in the moonlight, ready to serve as escort and aerial relays.
Without wasting a single second, I locked onto Salazar — or rather, the nightmare he had become.He was charging straight at me, massive, feral, his enormous wings beating the air like war drums from a forgotten age.His body was a horror of mutated flesh — a writhing mass of muscle, claws, and fangs.His eyes burned with pure hatred, and his gaping maw no longer spat words — only screams of rage and blood.
I began spraying the air ahead with heavy bursts, the gatling roaring in my hands like a mechanical dragon.The recoil kicked me back hard, forcing me to grip the Aquila tighter as it carried me, but I stayed focused on his wings.If I couldn't kill him outright, I could at least bring him crashing down.
Bullets tore through the sky.Some struck their target, others ricocheted off his bony armor, spraying only small bursts of shredded flesh.But his speed… his speed was monstrous.
He suddenly folded his wings tight against his body and dove — a black streak ripping through the sky, heading straight for me.His trajectory was predictable, but his weak points weren't exposed enough.My Aquila screeched, veering in a desperate maneuver.But the demon's slipstream caught us — a roaring gale that overwhelmed everything.I realized I wouldn't be able to dodge him much longer.
"Shit!"
I immediately stored Aquila in the factory, feeling his body vanish beneath my feet.I plummeted into the ravine.The air howled around me.The weight of the gatling pulled me down like a meteor.
Salazar roared in triumph, his massive claws reaching forward, ready to tear me apart mid-air.The idiot was diving after me — but I didn't panic.
I kept firing at him.Toward his twisted face — now that his wings were tucked in, I had a clearer line of sight.The tracer rounds lit up the night like fireworks, but Salazar's momentum overpowered everything.His monstrous arms shielded his eyes and core from the barrage.
Fifty meters between us — I ran out of bullets.
I holstered the gatling with a swift motion and took a deep breath, focusing my will in my diaphragm."DIE!" I roared, and released all the pollen I could from my throat — an invisible blast of searing, toxic plant matter, saturated with incendiary spores.
Salazar inhaled it mid-dive.
His roar turned into a sharp choking screech. His eyes swelled, reddened, then clouded over with a pale membrane.He lost balance for half a second, spreading his wings to regain altitude — but his right wing scraped against the cliffside and tore.
He lost control completely.
But the beast wasn't done.One of his claws slashed through the air — and hit me in the chest. I felt my ribs snap.My torso opened like a fruit split by a blade. Blood sprayed into the air — unfortunately for him.
My blood ignited.
Thanks to the T-Veronica virus combined with my cellular modulations, every drop of my blood reacts to oxygen like a volatile fuel. The red fluid ignited across his skin, bursting into blue-red flames.
Salazar howled in pain.
He flailed with his remaining wing in a panic, trying to extinguish the fire on his shoulders — but he was too close to the ground.
I let myself slip into his shadow and extended my dorsal vines. Two of them pierced into his scorched flesh, giving me leverage. With the third, I propelled myself toward one of the Bloods I had summoned earlier.
The Blood dove beneath me, catching me in her powerful talons just before I hit the treetops below — though her wings took a hit from the momentum of my fall.
My chest had already begun to heal, allowing me to take a deep breath. I had narrowly dodged death — or at least an unimaginable level of pain. I still wasn't sure if I would've survived the impact long enough for regeneration to even begin.
Salazar crashed violently into the mountainside forest, bringing down with him the still-smoldering remains of the Inquisitor.Centuries-old pines exploded under the impact.The shockwave rippled across the entire valley, launching geysers of dirt, embers, and ash into the air.
The fire — fed by my burning blood — died out in a single breath.The blast had snuffed the flames, swept away the glowing cinders… and replaced the inferno with a silence thick as soot.
I flew over the carnage, about thirty meters above ground, carried by my newly summoned Aquila, eyes locked on what remained of Salazar.
But he wasn't dead.
He rose slowly, mutating again — not to evolve, but to reach some form of physical viability.His silhouette emerged from the wreckage like a demon ripped from the depths of some forgotten hell.No more wings.His back, charred and broken, oozed black corruption.Salazar had become something else entirely — a massive creature, fifteen meters tall, with a gnarled torso and skin like weeping rock.His arms had grown longer, his claws shimmered with a dark glow, and his barbed serpentine tail lashed the ground with a crack strong enough to shatter an armored vehicle.He growled.No — he vibrated.A low, guttural frequency pulsed from his body, almost animal.
"So that's how you want to play? Fine…"
I opened access to the factory.Two evolved Nemesis units appeared in a thunderclap of steam and flesh.
They were beautiful — in their horror.Fifteen meters of dense muscle, skin reinforced by organic plating. Regeneration activated the moment they materialized. Arms as thick as tree trunks, and pale, hollow eyes locked onto their target.
Salazar turned his head toward them slowly.
The battle began without warning.
One of the Nemesis leapt, fist raised, and came down like a meteor on the demon's head.Salazar raised a clawed hand, parried the blow, and countered with a backhand that tore through the mutant giant's left shoulder in a spray of black ichor.
The second Nemesis rammed him from the side, grabbed his waist, and hurled him violently into a rocky cliff. The ground shook. Rocks tumbled down.
But Salazar refused to be overwhelmed.
His tail whipped the air, shattering the left knee of one of the Nemesis, forcing it to kneel.In a flash, he jumped onto its back, driving his claws into the neck, trying to rip out the spinal column.
The second one intervened, smashing his head against a boulder with a thunderous crack —But Salazar roared, arched his back, and blasted both Tyrants away with a burst of organic energy —A raw Plagas shockwave, pulsing straight from his thoracic core.
From the air, I watched — expressionless, but focused.
My creatures fought well.They were strong, fast despite their size, and their coordination improved with each hit they took.But…
Salazar was unpredictable. More vicious. He wasn't attacking to kill quickly.He was maiming — thankfully I had sent these two instead of my giant beasts.
I watched him rip off part of a jaw with his bare hands. Tear a hand clean off one Nemesis.He lunged, rolled, used the terrain like a seasoned predator. He was no longer anything like the sniveling aristocrat he once was.
One of my Nemesis tried to choke him from behind. Salazar drove his tail into its thigh, nearly severing the leg. A reverse shoulder slam sent it crashing into the trees.
The second returned, grabbed him with both hands, and slammed him into the ground.The battle turned into a primal struggle — a festival of flesh against flesh.Every blow echoed like cannon fire.The mountain itself trembled with each impact.
Tintin and evolved Super Tyrants in general gain a faster combat boost but suffer a temporary loss of rationality — until the mutation is no longer needed and they revert to their base form.
But the regeneration of my Nemesis units held strong — and even better, unlike Tintin, they retained their adaptive evolution in combat.The more those two fought, the stronger they became — without ever losing cognitive function.
Their flesh regenerated.Their bones reformed.And their power kept growing, forcing Salazar into an increasingly defensive stance.
I watched, tense, arms crossed in the freezing wind.Salazar was beginning to weaken.His once-relentless figure now wavered under the repeated blows.His roars had become ragged, broken gasps.His tail, which once lashed through the air with fury, now merely dragged along the ground, stirring clouds of ash and dried blood.Even his movements — once too fast for my Nemesis units — had slowed, becoming heavy, hesitant.
The first Nemesis charged again.With a guttural roar, he leapt and drove both fists into the demon's ribcage with such force that a dull crack rang in my ears.Shards of bone and flesh scattered into the air.
The second Nemesis followed instantly. Like a predator at full speed, he rammed into Salazar from the side and tore off his right arm in a spray of thick, black fluid.
I descended slowly, landing about ten meters from the fight, eyes fixed on the monster — once so proud — now on his knees. I savored the moment.
"You really pissed me off… You had the money and the power, and now you're just a pathetic creature at my mercy. Why did you challenge me?" I said coldly.
The demon struggled to raise his head toward me.His face was a ruined mask — a dislocated jaw, one eye melted from the heat of my blood, broken fangs. And yet, despite the pain, despite the abomination he had become, he tried to speak.His words were fragmented, distorted — shaped by a body too mutilated to articulate properly:
"L-Lord… Sah…ddl…ler… prom-promised… el-e-e-vat…ion… I… I'm…n-not… a f-f-failure…"
A wet, gurgling cough cut off his final word. Black blood streamed from his cracked lips.His chest barely rose anymore. He was nothing but a shell.But I understood what he was trying to say:Lord Saddler promised him ascension. He wasn't supposed to be a failure.
I simply raised an eyebrow, then whispered with calm disdain:
"Pity. I'll give you a new master to serve."
With that, I sent his remains into the factory, along with my two fighters so they could rest and stabilize their mutations.
(Author's Note: That's it for this fight — I hope you enjoyed the scene! Feel free to leave a rating or a comment if you liked it.)