Three months later.
"Boom!"
The ground split open under King Kong's last devastating punch.
The shockwave rolled like thunder through the cavern, sending shards of rock and bone crashing into the walls.
The red-backed Skeleton Monitor Lizard beneath his fist convulsed once, then went still, its skull crushed into the blackened earth.
Silence followed. Then came the low, guttural roars of victory from the gathered dinosaurs of the Jurassic Alliance.
Around them, hundreds of skeletal carcasses littered the battlefield, a grim monument to the war they had fought over the past three months.
The nest of the Skeleton Monitors had been purged.
Grey, her six wings folded tightly against her shimmering frame, oversaw the cleanup.
The surviving dinosaurs moved with surprising coordination, stripping the battlefield, gathering Titan Essence Blood from the fallen monsters, and checking the shadows for any that had escaped.
When the work was done, Grey raised her head.
"Report complete. All Titan Essence collected."
The air shimmered. From above, a vast shadow descended, the silver form of Miraluz, the Dragon God himself, ruler of the mutant dinosaurs.
His scales gleamed faintly under the eerie light of the Hollow World.
"Present the essence," he ordered, his voice echoing across the chamber.
Grey placed the vials of glowing crimson liquid before him.
Miraluz studied them, then began distributing the Titan's blood to his first-generation dinosaurs.
Each recipient lowered its head in reverence as the burning essence merged with their veins, their eyes glowing with newfound power.
By now, every first-generation member of the Alliance had absorbed at least one portion of Titan Essence Blood.
Their bodies had evolved far beyond their original limits, sub-Titan in name only, for in battle they could rival the real thing.
Enhanced with hybrid genetic abilities and sharpened intelligence, they fought with discipline, strategy, and terrifying unity.
Their evolution was a miracle born of design, and of Miraluz's will.
He watched them proudly.
"The first level of the Inner World is almost ours," he murmured.
"Only the main nest remains."
For three relentless months, his army had waged war beneath the earth, sweeping across the Hollow World's first layer.
They had hunted and destroyed countless creatures, sub-Titans and Titans alike, but none had been as numerous or as stubborn as the Skeleton Lizard clan.
Their white bones now formed mountains around the caverns.
Only the largest nest remained.
Miraluz's senses reached far into the depths, perceiving the pulse of life ahead, a colossal hive sprawling across molten caverns.
Inside, over five hundred sub-Titan Skeleton Monitors waited.
Thirty more bore the crimson spine of Titan rank.
And at the center of it all… a presence that dwarfed them all.
The Supreme Skeleton Lizard.
A living mountain of bone and sinew.
Its jagged dorsal spines glowed red with inner heat, and from its back jutted blades of bone shaped like scythes.
Its tail ended in a curved, serrated hook that shimmered like forged steel.
Three hundred meters long, a hundred tall, ten thousand tons of death.
The Scythe-Bone King.
This Alpha-class Titan had ruled the first layer since the fall of the ancient Kong clan.
Its descendants infested both the Hollow World and Skull Island.
It wielded the terrifying Alpha ability of Bone Dominion, control over every structure in its body.
It could grow, reshape, harden, or shatter its bones at will, using them as armor or weapon.
A predator as ancient as time itself.
Miraluz's wings spread wide, stirring hurricanes of dust.
His massive form rose from the ground, eyes burning with anticipation.
His own power had surged during the campaign, hundreds of millions of gene points refined, abilities upgraded to Level 4.
His frame now stood 120 meters high, 250 meters long, weighing twelve thousand tons.
Yet he felt restless. No Alpha worthy of him had appeared in months.
"Little lizard," he rumbled, voice deep as thunder.
"Don't disappoint me."
He raised his head and roared, the sound reverberating through the stone.
"All troops, march! Target: the Skeleton Giant Lizard main nest. Leave none standing!"
Grey, King Kong, and the other first-generation dinosaurs responded with a unified bellow that shook the walls.
Then the army began to move, a tide of steel and scales, claws striking in rhythm as they charged into the abyss.
The final conquest of the first layer had begun.