BOOM!
A heavy blow cracked through the sky as a blinding streak of light slammed a fist into Vali's chin, sending him hurtling once more into the air.
"Gah…!"
He couldn't even dodge.
Faced with that overwhelming speed—faster than the eye could follow—Vali couldn't react at all. The impact lifted him clean off the ground, shattered his helmet, and forced a spray of blood from his mouth.
He hovered in the air for a moment before slamming down into the earth with a crash, sending up clouds of dust and making the ground quake. His white dragon armor was covered in cracks, ready to fall apart at any moment.
"M-My power…"
Vali staggered to his feet, holding his chest, his face filled with a rare mix of shock and confusion.
A closer look revealed his aura had dimmed to a pitiful flicker.
Before this, even without Balance Breaker, Vali had strength on par with a top-tier devil. But now? His presence had shrunk to less than that of an upper-tier devil—perhaps even lower than mid-class.
For Vali, this was a first.
Born of Maou blood, he was blessed with immense magic power since birth. Even as a child, his raw strength exceeded many high-class devils. In other words, he had never experienced being weak.
He'd seen others struggle with weakness, of course—but he had never tasted it.
Until now.
"How does it feel?"
The figure identical to Vali in Balance Breaker armor floated gently down from the sky, arms crossed, wings flared wide. The power radiating from him hadn't weakened—in fact, it had grown stronger after absorbing Vali's strength.
"You've always used the White Dragon Emperor's wings to drain your enemies' power, to feed yourself," the voice echoed from Kaiser's helmet, faintly distorted yet calm. "But now you're the one being drained. You're the one being targeted by the same ability. Your power has become my fuel."
"No schadenfreude here, but… doesn't feel good, does it?"
Though he spoke without mockery, the effect was just as cutting.
"…You're right," Vali muttered, wiping the blood from his mouth. "It doesn't feel good. I hate being weak. I hate being this version of myself even more."
He tried to restore his armor, but found his magic so drained he couldn't.
He tried to take flight—but even his wings had dimmed, sluggish and delayed. His Sacred Gear, too, had lost much of its power.
"So this is what it's like… to be on the receiving end of Divine Dividing." Vali gave a bitter smile. "I finally understand how my opponents must have felt."
"Then remember it well," Kaiser said flatly. "If you keep coming after me, this may happen again."
"…You think that'll stop me?" Vali's eyes lit up with renewed fire. "I haven't lost yet."
"You're still going?" Kaiser arched a brow under his helmet, voice tinged with dry amusement. "You couldn't even beat a mid-class devil right now. And you want to fight me?"
"I'm stronger than you in every way—Sacred Gear or not."
"Without a Sacred Gear, I can fight toe-to-toe with ten-winged angels or devils. You only have eight."
"With our Sacred Gears? My Divine Dividing is stronger than yours, even more so after Balance Breaker."
"In your current state, you can't win. Not in any state."
"…Unless,"
Vali cut him off before he could finish.
"Unless I use that."
He rose into the air again, armor barely holding together—but his gaze was bright, and his aura surged with new resolve.
"I was already planning to. Just didn't think I'd be forced into it in this state."
Before Kaiser could speak again, a voice rang out—Asazell, locked in battle with Cruzeray, shouted across the field:
"Stop, Vali! Not in your current condition—!"
But Cruzeray silenced him with a blast of magic, sending him flying.
"What's he doing…?" Issei, somewhere else on the battlefield, punched a cloaked magician aside, a wave of unease rising inside him. His boosted gear arm suddenly began to burn, aching inexplicably.
"Don't tell me… he's using that!?"
Ddraig's voice rang out, solemn and tense.
Vali ignored them all. His eyes never left Kaiser.
"I know I'm in bad shape. If I use Juggernaut Drive now, I'll lose control. I'll be consumed by the curse and lose both mind and life."
Even as he said this, his body erupted in flame.
The aura was faint at first—but it grew, and grew, until it dwarfed even his former peak.
The pressure was overwhelming—no longer a storm, but a tidal wave.
"Juggernaut Drive is dangerous," Vali continued. "A power that loses control, that cannot withstand the judgment of God's will. You showed me that last time."
"So I thought. I thought hard about how to contain its curse—how to suppress the madness."
"And I succeeded."
Those words sent shockwaves through the battlefield.
"I'll show you," Vali declared, "what the Juggernaut Drive looks like when I control it."
He raised his hand high. His wings flared wide. Holy light bathed his white armor, and every jewel embedded in it began to glow.
"I am the awakened one—"
Vali began to chant.
"The White Dragon Emperor who casts law into shadow—"
The once ominous incantation had changed.
It now pulsed with battle spirit.
With relentless resolve.
(To pursue the extremity of the Heavenly Dragons!)(To walk the path of the White Dragon's might!)(We shall transcend infinity and devour illusion!)
Even the phantom-like voices—once resentful, full of curses—now echoed with sheer fighting will.
"Marching through the destruction of infinity and dreams of dawn—!"
"I shall become the unsullied Dragon Emperor—"
"And lead thee to the pinnacle of silver fantasy and demonic path—!"
Vali poured every drop of resolve into that chant, and his body burst into a blinding silver light.
Then—
Vali, Albion, and the surrounding voices merged as one to shout a name that had never before existed in this world:
"Juggernaut Over Drive – The Silver Juggernaut Dragon!"
In that moment, a new evolution of the Heavenly Dragons' curse-bound power emerged.
BOOOOM!!!
The silver radiance formed silver dragon armor around Vali, and a monumental wave of aura exploded outward—warping space itself.
The energy shook the sky.
It shook the earth.
Even Kuwang Academy's barrier trembled violently, cracking with ominous groans.
"Not good!"
"Dangerous!"
Michael and Gabriel's faces turned pale. They immediately formed massive magic arrays, pouring the power of the highest seraphim into stabilizing the shield.
"AAAAAHHHHHHHH—!!"
But within the barrier, there was no such protection. Fighters—friend and foe alike—were blown away by the overwhelming shockwave.
"Vali!"
"Lucifer!"
"What is this power?!"
Even Sharba, Catreya, and Cruzeray were forced to retreat or form defensive barriers, grimacing under the sheer pressure.
As Maou bloodlines themselves, they'd never considered Vali superior. Even knowing he was the current White Dragon Emperor, even knowing he carried Lucifer's blood, they had dismissed him—especially since his blood was half human.
They had Ophis's power, after all. Why should they care about mere Heavenly Dragons?
But now—that superiority crumbled.
"What… is this?! What is this…?!"
Issei felt it more than anyone. It was as if some invisible thread connected him to Vali—he trembled like glass under pressure.
"…This is unreal, partner."
Even Ddraig's voice shook with disbelief.
"Keep your eyes open. Don't blink."
"You're witnessing something no Heavenly Dragon has ever touched before."
"The Juggernaut Drive—once cursed and ruinous—has now become something else entirely. This White Dragon Emperor… he's rewritten what was thought impossible."
As Ddraig whispered like a man stunned into awe, Vali emerged from the swirling tide of energy.
His silver form gleamed.
The Silver Juggernaut Dragon.
A form that completely suppressed the mental collapse experienced by all Juggernaut Drive users. A form that turned the curse into boundless, indomitable will.
Vali's voice was calm—eerily so.
"This form—this silver Juggernaut—burns life twice as fast as the original. But I've found a way to substitute that cost with pure magic power. It still has a time limit, but I'll no longer lose my mind… or my life."
He had worked tirelessly over the past months for this.
All for one purpose: to defeat Kaiser.To defy the judgment of God's will.To overcome the fate of the Heavenly Dragons.
With this form, his will was unbreakable. His power would not burn away his soul.
"This is the form I'll use to defeat you, Kaiser!"
Vali reached out—and unleashed a terrifying technique.
"Compression Divider!"
The jewels on his armor pulsed—
BOOM!
The space around Kaiser twisted, as if trying to crush both him and the very air he stood in.
"…!"
Kaiser's instincts screamed. He dodged instantly, trailing a comet of light.
But the distortion chased him like a tsunami, hungry and violent.
Everything it touched—be it devil, angel, or fallen—was crushed into a point, vanishing before a cry could escape.
Everything—solid or spectral, real or illusion—was compressed out of existence.
"Get back!"
"Don't touch it!"
"The barrier won't hold! RUN!"
Michael and Gabriel shouted in panic, and the surviving defenders fled in a mad scramble.
"A powered-up version of his domain?!" Azazel gasped, retreating swiftly. "He took Divine Dividing's halving effect to its absolute extreme?!"
Yes.
The normal Half Dimension halved objects within its domain.
But this version—
Compression Divider——could crush everything into nothing. Even dreams, illusions, and concepts.
It erased the world itself.
Everyone had the same thought:
This is bad. Really, really bad.