Belial’s eyes widened. He didn’t know if anyone else had heard the voice.
The voice itself hadn’t co from the dragon’s mouth and he was sure of that. Instead, it had slipped directly into his mind like an invasive presence that made his head feel strange.
It was not pain that he feeling.
Its just felt so wrong.
"GHAAAAAAAARH!!!"Belial suddenly roared.
His roar was heard all through the battlefield and shaking the air with wave. The soldiers from the Demon, Celestial, and Angels paused mid battle for a second, their instincts screaming at them to turn and look.
Even Zaradorn narrowed his eyes as he looking upward at his king. The rage in Belial’s voice was different this ti.
It wasn’t the usual thrill of battle or the excitent of facing a strong opponent. It was sothing else and sothing much darker.
And that unsettled the general as well.
Because just monts ago, Belial had been grinning as if this fight would be nothing more than another thrilling challenge. Now, his fury radiated through the battlefield like a wildfire and his Demonic aura flaring violently.
Zaradorn had fought under Belial for centuries. He had seen his king battle the strongest foes and laugh in the face of death, then rise stronger every ti. But he had nevere seen Belial react like this except when he was facing an Archangel or strong Celestials.
Sothing had happened.
Sothing that the Demon king himself didn’t saw coming.
High above, Belial hovered in the air, his fingers tightening around his greatsword until the tal creaked under the pressure.
His entire body now tensed as the voice still lingered in his mind, curling around his thoughts like a whispering parasite.
It had forced itself inside him so suddenly, slipping past his ntal defenses like an unseen blade and settling in his mind, where it did not belong.
Belial hated that.
He did not fear it. But the very idea of so unknown being, so creature from beyond the Black Wall, speaking to him in a way he did not understand made his blood boil.
"Show yourself properly,beast!" he growled, his voice vibrating with anger. "If you have sothing to say, say it with your own damn mouth!"
The Black Dragon remained where it was. The black energy coiling around the beast like living shadows. Its empty yet knowing eyes watched him. Studied him.
And then, Belial felt it again.
That voice.
"You misunderstand, Demon."
The words did not co from the dragon’s mouth. They ca from everywhere and nowhere.
A shudder ran down Belial’s spine. His grip on his sword tightened. He felt his rage swelling and the need to cut apart whatever was speaking to him growing unbearable.
But before he could move, the Black Dragon’s form shifted.
Its massive body seed to waver at the edges like smoke dispersing in the wind. The scales, the wings, the flesh itself rippled as if reality could barely contain it.
Belial’s eyes narrowed. His instincts scread at him. Sothing was wrong.
And then, for the first ti since the battle began...
The Black Dragon smiled.
That smile disturbed Belial in a way he couldn’t explain.
The dragon’s jagged teeth jutted out from everywhere inside its mouth — not just from the gums, but from the tongue, the inner cheeks, even the roof of its maw, like shards of obsidian forced to grow where they didn’t belong.
That teeth also pulsed as if alive, shifting and reshaping with each breath the creature took.
He feels sothing deeper and very wrong from the dragon.
Belial felt his body tense. A strange crawling cold spread through his limbs, an unnatural sensation for a Demon whose very essence burned with hellfire.
Then, the voice ca again and that made his instincts bristle.
"What do you think of your existence?"
Belial’s eyes snapped open wider and his breath hitched. The question made him furious.
His grip on his greatsword tightened until his knuckles turned white. Whatever this thing was it spoke like it knew sothing and certain of sothing that he wasn’t understand or even know.
It woke him from his frozen state.
"What do you an by that?" he growled.
The dragon did not blink. Did not shift. The monstrous thing hovered there, its impossible grin stretching ever so slightly wider.
"Your existence... what if it suddenly just... disappeared?"
The question slithered into Belial’s mind. It was spoken as though it were a fact that can happen anyti.
Belial felt sothing deep in his gut.
But then his rage consud it.
"Tch."
He didn’t even think of answering.
His fury erupted all at once like an uncontrollable storm of power.
With an explosive movent Belial charged toward the dragon. Hellfire exploding from his body in a violent torrent. His Demonic aura ignited like a supernova and turning the air around him into a blazing inferno.
The battlefield shook.
The sudden release of heat was so intense that the blackened ground beneath him cracked and lted into molten rivers. The lesser monsters of the Black Wall were instantly lted into black puddle.
The soldiers below — Demons, Celestials, and Angels alike — were forced to retreat and shielding themselves from the blistering waves of heat. Even Zaradorn, hardened by centuries of war beside Belial and his fire, narrowed his eyes and stepped back.
High above, Belial streaked toward the dragon, his greatsword raised, burning with so much power. The sky itself seed to tremble as the force of his charge split the air and leaving a trail of crimson fire in his wake.
---
Clyde already stood inside the Ruin now, his gaze sweeping across the vast desolate world before him.
This was not just a destroyed world. There are not even a trace of a fallen city.
This was an entire world that already been consud.
The Selection Stage had destroyed it of course, but sothing else had finished the job.
The land itself was scorched beyond recognition, the sky overhead swirling with ash and ember, and the horizon was jagged with fractured mountains, so floating aimlessly, their edges still glowing with molten veins.
Even with the protective mantle Hamr had crafted for him Clyde could feel the unbearable heat pressing against his skin.
The air was thick, suffocating, and filled with the acrid stench of charred stone and flesh.
This is from fire.But not just any fire.
Sothing had burned this world in a way that felt absolute. Patches of the ground flickered with embers that never faded, tongues of fla floating in midair even though it was disconnected from any fuel source.
It was as if the fire itself refused to die.
Clyde narrowed his eyes and gripping the hilt of his weapon as he stepped forward. His boots crunching against blackened earth that cracked and sizzled beneath him.
Graemory had said Asmodeus’ artifact was here, hidden sowhere in this forsaken place. She did say that this world was burned by Asmodeus, but she hadn’t warned him about this much heat even after long ti passed.
But he had co too far to turn back.
Clyde suddenly felt a presence.
His instincts sharpened and he stopped, his hand tightening around his weapon. The air around him had changed.
Sothing was here and watching him.
The heat around him then start to swirled unnaturally, coiling like a living thing.
Then, in the distance, sothing moved.
A shadow flickered through the thick ember filled air.
Clyde exhaled, steadying himself as his gaze locked onto the shifting figure.
"A monster."
But not just any monster.
This one had survived in the Ruin’s endless fire.And that ant one thing.
It will probably be strong.
Clyde unsheathed his Elderglass sword in a smooth motion and the blade imdiately catching the fire light remained in this forsaken world.
He exhaled slowly and readying himself for whatever was approaching.
But then...
A sharp invasive pressure slamd into his skull like a spike being driven into his mind. His vision blurred.
"Shit, Not now!" Clyde cursed under his breath, gripping the hilt of his sword tighter.
He clenched his teeth and willing himself to focus but the sensation only worsened. It was the sa thing he had felt before since he talked with the anomaly.
Only this ti it was stronger.
His head pulsed with pain and that make his knees almost buckling
"No. Focus!"
Clyde forced himself to stand his ground.
The monster was still approaching.
It moved through the haze, its body wrapped in heat distortions that made it hard to discern its exact shape.
But Clyde could hear the crunching of its massive limbs against the blackened ground and the breathing that vibrated through the air.
And then, the fire reacted.
Flas surged unnaturally around the creature’s form, twisting upward in spirals as if drawn to it.
The embers scattered and fleeing before coiling back toward the approaching monster.
Clyde’s grip on his sword tightened.
The monster stopped just beyond the drifting embers few ters in front of him. Its silhouette finally coming into focus.
A pair of molten eyes locked onto him.
Clyde took a slow steady breath and raised his Elderglass sword.Fortunately, the pain was slowly receeding.
---
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