Screams tore through the night like the wails of the damned.
The battlefield outside Tepes Castle had become a graveyard drenched in crimson light.
The sky above was shrouded in a dense, purple fog that snuffed out the night sky and sealed the area like a coffin.
Beneath it, hell had erupted.
Crimson flames raged across the earth, devouring everything in their path.
Two-thirds of the vampire army had already been incinerated to nothingness, and what remained fought desperately against a fire that refused to die.
The once grassy clearing had turned into molten rock and scorched earth.
Forests on the outskirts now burned like torches, trees screaming as they split apart under the heat.
Crimson beams fired across the field, and the force of each impact sent vampires flying in pieces.
Some tried dousing the flames with magic, others summoned walls of shadow, or attempted to bury themselves beneath the earth.
None of it worked.
The fire clung to them, consuming everything it touched, including their souls.
The Captain, clad in his dark armor, a walking fortress with blood-stained broadswords, leapt to the side as another beam crashed beside him, the force flinging bodies like rag dolls.
"Advance! Maintain formation!"
He barked, voice gritted with fury and panic.
"Lieutenants, send in more reinforcements! Hold the line! Hold-"
*ROOOOOAAAAAR!!!*
A roar shattered the air.
A sound, ancient and monstrous, one that rattled bones and pierced hearts.
The Captain turned, barely raising his swords in time to slice a molten boulder in half.
The explosion still hurled him backward, sending him skidding across the blood-soaked ground.
Smoke and flame licked at his armor as he came to a stop, coughing out blood.
He pushed himself up, red eyes wide with disbelief.
"What… is this? This wasn't supposed to happen."
He looked up.
The sky was a cauldron of swirling clouds, boiling with malevolent energy, and through it burst a massive, draconic form wreathed in red light.
Arthur, no longer bound by reason or restraint, descended like a meteor.
His wings, massive and organic, whipped windstorms with every beat.
His Dragon Aura cracked around his form like thunder, causing everything around him to collapse.
His claws tore through vampires mid-air, shredding them in flashes of red.
His fangs sank into necks, torsos, skulls, ripping, tearing, devouring.
With every kill, the flames burned hotter, the screams louder.
One vampire screamed and hurled a spear made of condensed shadows.
Arthur didn't dodge, and it shattered against his scales.
Another formed a spear of blood and flung it like a javelin.
Arthur caught it mid-air and snapped it between his claws.
Vampires surrounded him with ritual circles, launching coordinated blood-cursed spells.
He flew through the barrage, breaking their formation. Dozens were incinerated in seconds.
He fought like a beast possessed, no technique, no restraint, just pure destruction.
But within the maelstrom of death and fire, inside Arthur's mind was fighting a different war.
Voices, hundreds of them, whispered, shouted, wept, and cursed.
(So noisy... Is it always like this for the others?)
Arthur growled in his mind, his tail pierced another vampire like a spear.
The voices grew louder, angrier, painful, regretful, and mad.
Their emotions infected his own, trying to pull him under.
Within his soul, Ddraig's voice rumbled deeply.
(You're holding together better than most.)
Arthur grunted.
(But still... Unlike the first time, it feels like my whole body is on fire, and my brain is on the verge of turning to mashed potatoes. Is it always this intense?)
(Actually, this is more tame than the last Boosted Gear possessor, but most couldn't handle it like you do. You're lucky, Arthur. If it weren't for your immense Demonic Power as an alternative source of fuel for the Juggernaut Drive, your lifespan would've been siphoned out one second at a time, and your soul would've been devoured by the madness an hour ago.)
Arthur clawed into a vampire's chest and crushed his heart.
He took flight again, rising into the air and spreading his wings wide, fire licking off his body as crimson beams fired off the green jewels on his body.
The vampires below shrieked in fear.
And then…
[BLAZING INFERNO OF SCORCHING FLAMES!]
He opened his jaws, and a hellish torrent of crimson fire poured down from the heavens.
It was complete annihilation.
The ground melted as the vampires were reduced to nothingness.
The blaze swept across the field in seconds, igniting the castle's outer defenses and swallowing every remaining patch of forest.
Some of the vampires began to run.
Cowards or survivors, it didn't matter.
They reached the edges of the battlefield and tried to teleport.
Nothing happened.
They tried again, but they screamed in panic.
"It's not working!"
"We're trapped!"
"It's all over for us!"
The purple mist enclosing the battlefield pulsed ominously.
On the scorched ground, the Captain stood, battered and burned, watching his soldiers try and fail to flee.
His red eyes turned to the fog.
"What is this?"
One of his lieutenants finally returned, landing beside him with a panicked look.
"Captain! We can't contact anyone! Any form of communication, teleportation, summoning, everything's blocked!"
The Captain clenched his jaw as he crushed a chunk of burning rubble with his boot.
"This mist… It's cutting us off completely."
He looked back toward the battlefield, toward the ever-growing sea of fire, the endless screaming, and the crimson blur of destruction rampaging across the land.
And then a massive explosion of red light erupted in the center of the army.
Hundreds of vampires vanished in that moment, incinerated instantly.
From within the pillar of light, Arthur emerged once again.
He roared, the sound rolling across the land like the cry of war.
The Captain stared.
His grip on his swords trembled.
"…This… monster…"
And above it all, Arthur's thoughts boiled with fury.
(How pathetic. You leeches murdered the innocent for this?)
He breathed more fire and dove back into the slaughter.
(Then burn. Burn like the parasites that you are.)
And the night screamed.
DxD
Outside the purple mist, the atmosphere was deceptively calm.
Georg stood with one hand outstretched, fingers curled as his Longinus, Dimension Lost, kept the fog dome active, a massive grimoire floated lazily next to him.
Next to him, leaning against a tree with arms casually folded, was a man dressed in white with soft blond hair and a bored expression that masked his strength.
"So... Can you see what's going on in there, Georg?"
Dulio asked, glancing at the mist with a lazy smile.
Georg didn't take his eyes off the purple mist dome.
"Arthur's on a rampage. The vampires inside are being slaughtered. Most of them didn't even get to scream before being burned alive, with not even ash remaining."
Dulio hummed.
"Yikes. Sounds like a fun party I'm missing."
Georg glanced at him from the corner of his eye.
"Remember what Arthur said. If Arthur is unable to control the Juggernaut Drive and becomes unstable-"
"Relax, Georg, I know."
Dulio interrupted, still smiling.
"Contain the rampaging dragon and make sure the rest of the world doesn't learn what kind of nightmare is happening here."
He sighed and scratched the back of his neck.
"But honestly, if it comes to it… I'd like to see just how strong Arthur's become. Just a little, maybe."
Georg raised an eyebrow.
"You're not even a little nervous at the idea of facing someone who could be the most dangerous Red Dragon Emperor in centuries?"
Dulio tilted his head, thinking.
"Well, if Arthur mixes his Demonic Power with the Juggernaut Drive's power, I might be in a bit of a pickle."
He admitted casually,
Georg's voice was dry.
"So would you lose?"
Dulio laughed.
"Nah. I'd win."
Before Georg could respond, a voice rang out from the treeline.
"So this is the source of the dome."
Both men turned sharply.
From the forest shadows, figures began to emerge, dozens, then hundreds, until an entire army stood before them.
Vampires, all armed, armored, and marching in perfect sync.
Unlike the frenzied ranks inside the dome, these were calm, organized, and expecting a battle.
At their front rode a tall figure cloaked in black armor atop a skeletal black horse, a long bloody lance resting on his shoulder.
Georg frowned.
"Reinforcements. So they did prepare for failure."
The horseman looked down at them with imperial disdain.
"We are the Tepes Faction's reserve army. It seems contact with the vanguard was lost. And now I see why."
His eyes fell on the mist dome and the subtle glint of Georg's magic.
"The Red Dragon Emperor was not alone. That coward brought others with him."
Dulio stepped forward, his smile still present but now tinged with anger.
"You mess with the people my favorite junior wants to protect, and you think he's gonna just sit down and listen to you idiots?"
He kept walking forward, letting the wind tousle his hair.
"If that's your plan, then you're stupider than you look."
The horseman narrowed his gaze.
"Battle formation!"
He barked.
At once, the vampire army moved with terrifying coordination.
Shields formed a wall, spears locked forward, mages formed up behind the lines, ready to fire enchantments.
The very ground trembled as their blood magic seeped into the soil.
Georg looked at Dulio and asked.
"Do you mind if you handle them alone? I need to focus on the barrier just in case Arthur goes berserk."
Dulio cracked his neck.
"Don't worry about it. I don't mind. I've been itching to move around anyway."
The horseman scoffed.
"A single human dares stand before us? You overestimate yourself. We are vampires, the natural predators of mankind, the creatures of the night that prey on the weak."
Dulio just smiled wider.
"You guys don't go outside Romania much, huh? Haven't heard of me?"
The horseman clicked his tongue.
"Should I?"
Dulio stopped walking.
Storm clouds began to gather above them.
Black and grey, they twisted unnaturally, lightning pulsing inside their bellies like living serpents.
"My name is Dulio Gesualdo, Bearer of Zenith Tempest, Heaven's Vanguard. But the Chruch also calls me…"
He raised a hand to the sky.
"The Coming Storm."
As if in response, a sudden cold wind swept across the forest, chilling even the vampire soldiers.
In a flash, the ground beneath the front lines of the vampire army turned white.
Jagged ice burst from the earth, freezing the legs of half the vampires in place, armor, weapons, and all.
Even the black horse neighed in panic as its legs locked up in an instant, unable to move.
The horseman's eyes widened.
"You!"
Dulio finished, smirking.
"Surprise."
He clapped his hands together.
"Let's make this quick, shall we?"
Above, the clouds burst open.
Bolts of lightning surged down like chains of judgment, striking the vampire army, sending some flying.
A howling wind gathered into a cyclone behind Dulio, the beginnings of a tornado that pulled in air, dirt, and vampires alike.
Georg, still holding Dimension Lost, couldn't help but smirk slightly.
"Show-off."
Dulio raised both arms to the side, basking in the growing storm around him.
"Now, let's see if the so-called predators of mankind can survive a storm."
He said, voice rising with the wind.
And with that, the storm descended.
DxD
Hello readers!
I'm back, and STILL stressed out of my mind!
But I might as well give you readers something to read while my remaining brain cells suffer in silence.
ALSO, I recommend that you readers read back at Chapter 1, as I've made a lot of edits and there are some changes.
Thank you, everyone, and see you later!