The robotic dragon snake Ouratrix slithered into position as it slid out like an unleashed cocoon surrounding Dante.
"What is that human planning to do?"
said Malric the Demon King as he saw the dragon slither up in front of his view.
From the ground, the android burst out into the air. Though half-broken, it was still functioning.
They got into position. Dante raised his right dominant arm high up.
KKRRAAGGHHH!!!
Ouratrix, the snake robotic dragon, and the android began Operation 45. The dragon opened its mouth and glided down onto Dante's right arm, deep into its throat.
Inside, Dante grabbed a hidden handle in its mouth. He pushed it forward and twisted it halfway.
Ouratrix shifted into position. Its scales turned black with a shifting motion. Its slithering body straightened up.
"Hrrrkkk!!!"
Dante, with his last bit of strength, pulled his arm down into position at the Demon King's small army.
Ouratrix's scales, each side marked with a white point, began to glow. The droids, using every last bit of energy in the mana crystals etched into their plated chests,
began shooting plasma beams at Ouratrix's white-point scale locations.
"Charging is at 20 percent, sir,"
said one of the droids, as it waited for Dante's orders.
"Keep going!"
yelled Dante as he held on against the heat surrounding Ouratrix.
"By Behemoth! Is that a cannon?!"
said Malric, his eyes widening in realization. He looked at the position Dante was aiming. It wasn't at the army.
"FALL BACK!!! FALL BACK!!!"
yelled Malric to his army. Vexira also called off the assault and ordered all demons to return to the demon realm.
"Sir! Charging is at 60 percent,"
said one of the androids, losing energy. One was out, then another.
"Si...r... warning... critical... mus..t—!"
"Override all protocols!!! I know the risk!"
Dante yelled in pain. His arm was burning at lava temperature.
"DO IT!!!"
All the remaining androids fueled up Ouratrix's body as much as possible. Steam burst out one by one from Ouratrix's body.
"Hang in there, girl!"
KKRRAAGGHH!!!
The robotic dragon huffed steam from its nostrils. Its body began to glow redder by the second.
"Warning! Warning! Overload at 10... 20... 50... ^#^-..=.#"
The last android fell to the ground, lifeless, as it slowly gave its last response to Dante.
"Over...load... at... 1000 percent..."
The demon army had retreated back to their realm. Malric looked back and saw Dante's arm crackling with blaze inside the robotic dragon.
He caught a glimpse of Dante gazing at him with wrathful, scorching eyes. Dante grinned and prepared to deploy his last trump card.
"Checkmate..."
he whispered to himself with a grin and twisted the handle again, pulling it outward with a wrathful scream.
BHOOMM!!!
The ground exploded into a cobweb of destruction. A powerful plasma energy burst out of Ouratrix's mouth like a ginormous cannon. The ground shuddered in a direct line from the beam's vibration.
The beam shot straight into the portal to the demon world kingdom. Malric witnessed the huge beam from above as it streamed into the demon realm.
From the royal demon castle, Malvera, current queen of the demon race, witnessed the unknown white object coming through the portal.
"What in Behemoth—!"
The beam blasted through the south side of the castle.
BHOOMM.....!!!
There was silence,
A ringing sound,
Pure emptiness.
The beam struck the ground. A tidal wave of smoke burst through the city. A ginormous, thunderous bang — the sound of the clap of the gods themselves.
A humongous red blaze with smoke exploded outward, forming a flower-like bloom. The ground crumbled to dust, buildings vanished into nothing, and demons were burned to crisp ashes.
A silent gaze from Malric and Vexira as they witnessed the tragedy. Half the demon kingdom was destroyed in the blink of an eye — a light, a silence.
All demons of the army witnessed the tragedy in silence. Malric's eyes widened. He could see the smoke forming a skull-like shape. Though it was faint, he could tell.
From the look of the half-destroyed kingdom, from the eyes of the demons welling with tears, he thought:
What if they had mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, a child, a newborn?
A family.
From the other side of the portal, Diana held her hand over her mouth in shock, eyes widened. Will, Evan, and Avabel were stunned by the chaotic destruction of the demon realm.
"By Bahamut..."
Xilang held her hand over her mouth, witnessing the horror. Giang quickly shielded and hugged both his wife and his daughter, Zhurong, blocking them from the horrifying scene.
Milan, the elf queen, eyes wide in horror. She had seen and experienced war over the past hundred years. But this was unlike anything she had ever witnessed firsthand.
This was extinction.
The entire academy — students, teachers, soldiers, generals, commanders, the armies of dragons, elves, and humans — witnessed the most powerful and terrifying tragedy of their lives.
As the blazing lights of the explosion cleared, both realms became gray. Rain poured heavily on both sides.
Vexira huffed in rage and turned back to see Dante, exhausted.
"YOU HUMAN!!!" She was about to lunge at Dante, but Malric stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.
"Your Highness...?" she asked, confused, witnessing Malric's eyes lost in thought.
"Head back first,"
said Malric.
"But, Your Majesty—"
"Tend to the wounded, the civilians, the people... because a King... protects... his own."
Vexira scoffed in rage, fully aware of the situation. The entire demon army returned to the realm. As the portal slowly closed, Malric took one last look over his shoulder at Dante and muttered silently with his lips,
A promise, with boiling blood of rage:
"This. Means. War."
The portal closed. Dante fell to his knees — tired, exhausted, and critically wounded. He pulled his right arm out of Ouratrix's mouth.
"You with me, girl?"
He slouched his back against the dragon's destroyed body.
KKKRRUUGGHH...
The robotic beast purred from its creator's worry, exhausted, and powered down with a flicker.
As the rain poured, Dante looked around. He saw Domikhael, the Sinner of Pride, still breathing as he got up.
"Huh... huh... huh... you wretched human..."
he muttered, unaware of the tragedy that had happened.
"Die, Dante Ruthwilfer!!!"
In a split second, before he could kill Dante with his broken longsword, Dante uttered a sentence:
"Rise up..."
Stabbed!!!
A powerful black shadow of a spear pierced Domikhael in the heart.
"Urk... kagh!!" He coughed blood heavily and looked down at the shadowy figure.
"Kagh... impossible...! I killed you... how...?"
Domikhael muttered.
"How are you still alive, Lustia...?"
Another figure loomed out of the ground, a shadowy darkness, and sliced off Domikhael's head in a clean, swift cut.
The head dropped and rolled to Dante's feet. He gazed up and saw the two fallen demon generals — Taouon, Sinner of Sloth, and Lustia, Sinner of Lust.
Their eyes glowed with looming purple light. Yet instead of hostility, the two death demons turned shadows and knelt in respect before Dante.
As if showing their loyalty to him.
"Cough... so this is my mana foundation after all these years... Spatial and Necromancy..."
He coughed up blood, closed his eyes, and passed out. The shadows of both Taouon and Lustia faded and swam into Dante's shadow.
It was raining. There was destruction. The high possibility of death. Countless lives lost. Allies banded together.
It was over. The Academy had fallen — but could be rebuilt. Yet the scars on the fallen, the survivors, the ones who lived to tell the tale, could never be healed.
All was over. The battle was victorious. As Diana descended the hill and ran up to Dante, she hugged him tightly in her arms — in tears of worry but joy. Seeing him breathing was enough.
"Dante... my child..."
Even though Dante wasn't Diana's biological son — but the child of a dark mage — she held him close to her big, soft chest, not wanting to let go.
She finally understood what it meant to be a mother.
As for Dante, he could finally rest. But the pain of losing Lytharis, the elf girl — his friend — could never be stitched, healed, or forgotten.
For as long as he may live.
Inside Dante's spiritual presence, Kilamahi studied the explosion and soared through Dante's memory of his previous life as Shan Abhay.
"August 6th, 1945," she read aloud.
Hiroshima.
The atom bomb.
A boy named Shan Abhay once studied it. Once wondered what it would be like to wield such destruction.
Now, she understood.
"Now I understand you a little better, kid."
Her voice was soft. Heavy. Haunted.
"Your past life wasn't ready for this world. But this world… is barely ready for you, Dante."
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Chapter 29 — End