100% DROP RATE : Why is My Inventory Always so Full? - Chapter 265

Chapter 265: Chapter 265 – Portal
The Red Dragon finally noticed.

A subtle absence rippled across the battlefield. A pressure that had been present moments ago… was gone.

Its head turned mid-battle.

Scales scraped as its massive neck rotated. Its eyes burned as they locked onto the golden glo weaving between the cages below.

Lucien.

The wolf was no longer fighting.

He was taking.

The realization struck.

While the Red Dragon had been shattering anchors and tearing open paths for liberation, Lucien had been harvesting the board itself… removing pieces without noise, without any form of spell flare, and without resistance.

The dragon could not sense teleportation. No spatial distortion. No ritual signatures.

Yet one by one, the ancient presences were vanishing.

Gone to a place the dragon could not detect.

A low growl rolled from its chest, vibrating the chamber like distant thunder.

“So that is your game,” it rumbled.

The dragon tried to turn fully—

But it failed.

Because the sky itself had become hostile.

The two Celestial Race proxies moved in perfect synchrony.

They raised their hands—

And the battlefield obeyed.

Golden sigils unfolded across the air like constellations snapping into alignment. Divine energy poured outward. Not as a weapon, but as a blessing.

The divine field wrapped around every allied combatant simultaneously.

In that instant—

Their strength multiplied. Their mana circulation stabilized. Their mental fatigue vanished. And their techniques sharpened.

It was not brute amplification. It was optimization.

The Starforge constructs roared as output spiked past projected ceilings.

The Lunareth suppression arrays locked tighter, overlapping without interference. The Dawnblade formations cut deeper. Their angles are perfect and their footworks are synchronized beyond training.

Scarlet Sect blood arts burned hotter but without backlash, pain converted cleanly into force.

The Red Dragon felt it immediately.

Its chains were no longer merely deflected.

They were being contained.

Lilith moved.

She seized a descending chain. Space compressed around it.

The massive link, capable of pulverizing fortresses, stopped mid-swing, shrieking as dimensional pressure folded inward.

Her jaw tightened.

“Hold,” she commanded.

And the battlefield listened.

Then—

The black-robed faction advanced.

Professionally.

Their leader’s expression himself was grim. He locked another chain in place, binding its motion through an invisible force.

Above him, the black-robed women leapt at the chain itself.

They ran up the writhing metal. Their cloak snapped violently as they ascended toward the dragon’s torso.

Others followed.

One by one, fighters used the restrained chains as pathways.

Hooks bit into scales.

Blades struck joints.

Techniques detonated at precise intervals.

The Celestial proxies watched it all. Their hands never lowered.

Every time someone was knocked back—

A spell flared.

Gravity softened and the impact was diffused.

No one fell unjustly.

They were not just commanders. They were perfect support.

For the first time since its release—

The Red Dragon was being contained by coordination.

Its chains had once again become liabilities.

And worse—

It could still feel Lucien.

Below.

Still moving.

The dragon’s pupils constricted.

…

“Tch,” the Red Dragon snarled.

Only now did it understand.

The factions it had dismissed as insects were no longer fighting blindly. They were containing it. They locking its options, denying momentum, and forcing it to bleed strength without allowing release.

Its power was not yet whole… Not while the chains remained.

The dragon had thought flailing would shatter them.

It had been wrong.

The united factions had done something far more dangerous.

They ignored the chains entirely. They attacked around them.

They understood the restraints are their advantage. They understood that a bound Eternal was more dangerous when freed.

And worse—

The real threat was not above.

It was below.

The Red Dragon’s gaze burned downward.

Lucien.

The wolf was still moving.

Still taking pieces from the board.

The dragon made a decision.

If it could not stop Lucien directly… then it would force an ally into existence.

Its claws shifted.

With a bone-shattering crack, the Red Dragon tore a section of its own scales free.

Molten blood sprayed into the air like falling stars as the scale was hurled downward.

The scale ignited mid-flight.

Magic circles carved deep into its surface. It has the same internal sigils it once used to destroy the prison from within.

The dragon did not aim randomly.

It struck a structural weak point.

…

Just then…

Lucien felt it.

His instincts screamed.

He turned… but it was too late to prevent the detonation.

A shield snapped into existence around him as divine energy surged instinctively outward.

At the same time, Lucien acted.

He did not hesitate.

He expanded his divine energy in overlapping waves, enveloping every cage he could reach before the impact landed.

BOOOOOOM—!!!

The explosion ripped through the chamber.

Stone disintegrated.

Runes shattered.

And then…

One cage collapsed completely.

Darkness poured outward like liquid night.

The Dark Shade escaped.

Its form unraveled, shadows screaming as it reassembled.

But still—

Only one cage had fallen.

Lucien had already moved. Every other nearby cage had vanished. He stored the others inside him.

The Dark Shade was the only failure.

Lucien saw it then.

His divine energy… was consumed.

When he had attempted to store the Dark Shade’s cage, the divine energy that enveloped it had been devoured.

Lucien didn’t dwell on it.

Because now… his instinct is ringing hard.

Lucien withdrew instantly. He entered his divine energy core and calculated its fall on a small wound on the ground. His core… was hidden from sight.

And then—

The battlefield just realized what had happened.

“The cages—!”

“They’re gone—!”

“The Dark Shade escaped—!”

“Move! Now!”

There was no time to process it.

Above, the Red Dragon continued to endure a calculated storm.

The black-robed women surged forward. Their bodies blazed with the buffs layered by the proxies.

Their strength crossed the mortal threshold.

Then, they moved as one.

Greatswords formed simultaneously.

They struck the dragon’s tail.

Once.

Twice.

Third—

GROWWWWL—!!!

The blade paths intersected.

The tail came off.

A colossal severed limb crashed into the ruins below.

The Red Dragon howled.

It could no longer flail its tail.

…

The battlefield shifted.

The Dark Shade chose.

It had been searching for Lucien but Lucien was gone.

So it joined the only viable axis.

The Dark Shade moved to the Red Dragon’s side.

Eternal words passed between them. They came into an understanding.

Their eyes gleamed.

Then the Dark Shade acted.

It did not charge. It disrupted.

It appeared beside Lilith. One strike and the spatial force detonated, breaking her grip on the chain.

Then the robed leader, another strike. His momentum was severed.

These were enough.

The Red Dragon tore free of containment.

It retreated. The chains dragged and its movement was still impaired but space opened.

The Dark Shade expanded fully now. It was like a living eclipse. It intercepted spells, devoured formations, smothered assaults.

Not recklessly. But like a veteran at work.

It was… buying time.

And far below—

Lucien revealed himself once more.

He did not rejoin the battle.

He stood before the last cage.

The Abyssal Monster.

Its eye opened.

And the chamber felt it.

Lucien felt no killing intent.

No hostility.

Only—

Pressure.

A presence older than law. Stronger than the Red Dragon. Deeper than fear.

Lucien swallowed.

“This one…” he murmured.

The Abyssal Monster stared.

Then closed its eye again.

As if bored. As if amused. As if allowing it.

Lucien did not hesitate.

Divine energy surged.

The cage vanished.

The Abyssal Monster disappeared into his divine core without resistance.

Silence followed.

Above—

The Red Dragon stopped attacking.

It closed one eye.

Focused.

The Dark Shade screamed into minds, flooded the field with distortion, and bought seconds.

And seconds were enough.

The Red Dragon burned its essence.

Its claws rose.

The air screamed.

And then—

Space tore.

A massive portal bloomed open.

The Starforge Cartel shouted in unison.

“That’s—!”

“It leads outside!”

“Beyond the ruins—!”

“Stop it!”

Everything converged.

Light. Steel. Void.

The Dark Shade was struck by a spear thrown by the Sskavyrn duo, reinforced mid-flight by layered light attributes.

It coughed blood.

But it did not turn.

It regrouped with the Red Dragon.

The dragon looked at them all.

Then at Lucien.

A molten smile curved its jaws.

“This isn’t over.”

One signal.

The Red Dragon entered the rift.

The Dark Shade dissolved into shadow.

Both vanished into the portal.

But then…

The gate remained open.

Leading out.

Silence crashed down.

Weapons lowered.

Breaths returned.

The Starforge Cartel stared at the portal.

“A path… out.”

Lucien hovered, wings folding.

His expression hardened then steadied.

He looked at the empty space where the ancient beings had once been.

Then the portal.

Then the gathered factions.

“We didn’t win,” he said. “But we didn’t lose.”

Silence reigned.