"Oh?"
"So you're saying... there's a demon lair there?"
A spark of interest was kindled in Cassius. Supporting his colossal frame on his powerful limbs, he slowly rose to his feet, fiery light dancing within his molten-orb pupils.
In his memory, the demon invasion in the Anstica Mountains had originally been brought about by the original "Cass." But the current timeline had diverged long ago, and this plotline that was supposed to occur had shifted as well.
"Yes, Master," Alger replied in a steady voice, half-kneeling on the ground with his head bowed.
He withdrew a magic scroll from his pack, displaying an image of a bizarre creature that resembled a hybrid between a human and a vulture.
"Master, according to the compendium provided by Lord Trump, this is without a doubt a vrock. Additionally, I spotted typical demons such as barlguras and hezrous, and even a corrupted giant that has already undergone demonization."
Cassius gazed at the illustration. Stroking the keratinous spurs on his chin with a claw, he narrowed his eyes slightly.
"It seems that corrupted giant is the anomaly."
"And the lair's exact location?"
Alger immediately took out the magic scroll he carried and presented it respectfully.
"The southwestern corner of Anstica... Very well."
Cassius cast it only a glance before looking away.
The red dragon gave his body a brief shake and unfurled his broad wings. Magma-like radiance leaked from between his scales, and the dragon crystal embedded in his chest began to hum to life.
"Have Trump prepare a giant Dimension Door for me."
Brilliant streamers of flame danced in Cassius's pupils, and he even licked his lips—a restless battle lust for an unknown foe.
"After slumbering for so long..."
"It's about time I stretched my limbs."
"Let me see with my own eyes what these demons of the Abyss are made of."
Having undergone his ancestral bloodline metamorphosis, Cassius possessed absolute confidence in his strength. Even if a demon lord were to descend upon the Material Plane in person, he was certain he could hold his own, let alone against a mere demon lair.
"Yes, Master."
Alger and the tiefling guards hurried off toward Northwind Keep to prepare for the red dragon's expedition.
...
Inside the dark, damp cavern.
The corrupted giant stared into the reflection formed upon the murky liquid, his gaze fixed on the four-horned red dragon in the image. He muttered under his breath:
"He... he has grown stronger."
From the void came the low voice of that "demon of vengeance."
"Koman, you are afraid."
"Do you not believe in the power of the Abyss? Have you... forgotten the hatred in your heart?"
The voice carried a subtle undertone of threat.
Instantly, images of the annihilation of the Everfrost Tribe flashed through the giant's mind once more.
Koman gritted his murky yellow teeth, his expression twisting into a vicious snarl. As his massive frame trembled violently, this last frost giant was consumed by fury once again.
"Yes! That is mere bluffing! I am far stronger than him!"
"I am the darling of the Abyss, the Chosen of Jezralslak, the supreme demon of vengeance! I am an entity of dread transcending death itself...!"
"Churn now, sublimate! I shall bring him the most absolute chaos!"
The hideous corrupted giant roared toward the ceiling, abyssal fire erupting from his eyes.
"Very good, Koman. Keep going like this..."
"You will have everything you desire."
Jezralslak's praise echoed from the void.
Emboldened by the demon's praise, the giant grew feverish with excitement and hoisted the black mist-wreathed spear in his hands.
"I will have my revenge! I will destroy everything he has!"
Throughout the lair, the demons grew restless, erupting into a chaotic cacophony of cheers and snarls. They shrieked out their hatred for all creation until the din grew intolerable even to themselves.
...
An ear-splitting shriek pierced the heavens.
Across a clear, cloudless sky, a comet-like figure streaked past, trailing a long plume of flame and leaving several condensation trails in its wake.
—It was Cassius.
Accompanied by howling gales, he touched down directly atop the mountain peak. Looking down upon the cavernous entrance that gaped like a bloody maw, he listened to the howls echoing from within.
"This must be it..."
"Once the Mouth of Anstica, now a demon lair."
As a dwelling of abyssal fiends, the cavern was undoubtedly fraught with danger. The Cataclysmic Dragon Eye floating beside the red dragon had already glimpsed numerous visions of the future: putrid gore, expanding darkness, chaotic and twisted limbs, and magic circles painted in viscous fluid, turning the cavern into an extension of the Abyss within the Material Plane.
Though Cassius had no fear, such nuisances could indeed cause him considerable hassle.
"Since there's so much disgusting filth, might as well save some time."
With that thought, Cassius let out a cold smirk.
"I wonder if these abyssal demons know the trick of smoking out a rat's nest."
The red dragon slowly parted his jaws. Energy throughout his body was channeled through dense fundus vessels into the dragon crystal embedded in his chest, converging there. Blinding fire flared from the surrounding crevices, and the translucent crystal erupted with unimaginable light, resembling a miniature sun.
The dual rows of vents along his neck and tail snapped open, flaring with brilliant plumes of flame and blasting out billows of white smoke.
Amid the swirling smoke, that hyper-dense energy was funneled deep into the red dragon's throat. Finally, accompanied by the sound of air combusting, an intensely searing column of incandescent white fire erupted outward, blasting straight into the cavern entrance.
Boom!
In that instant, the interior of the cave lit up as bright as day.
The demons lurking in the shadows, poised for an ambush, were instantly reduced to flying ash by the superheated flames.
Anything standing in the path of the breath weapon was ruthlessly annihilated.
The fiery pillar even melted and bored through solid rock, penetrating into the depths.
Screaming in agony, demons flew and scrambled in every direction throughout the cavern, fleeing the dreadful breath.
Yet this was far from over.
Spreading his wings, Cassius wove magic with his sheer will while maintaining the breath weapon.
Under his transcendent, nearly tangible Charisma, the Weave violently convulsed, whipping up a tempestuous tide of sorcery.
Burning Stone Haze.
Hundreds upon thousands of tiny, incandescent volcanic stones plummeted from midair into the maw, followed by billows of volcanic ash pouring down, flooding the entire cavern.
"Have a taste of the Material Plane's smoke," Cassius said.
Ordinary demons needed to breathe. Their lungs were exceptionally tough, boasting formidable resistance to foreign gases—including the lethal miasmas of the Abyss that could poison most mortal creatures. Likewise, demons could breathe any natural gas on the Material Plane.
Cassius's volcanic smog, however, was no mere natural gas, but a storm of ash and debris imbued with terrifying heat.
The ash turned a demon's body into a searing furnace, even melting its physical shell outright.
Dozens of vrocks flew erratically through the smoke, colliding into one another in their blinded state, until inhaling too much ash suffocated them completely, sending them plummeting downward.
Over a hundred dretches writhed on the ground, even brawling among themselves, yet none could escape the doom of death.
Some demons dissolved upon death into puddles of black, tar-like pus.
Others shed their skins, leaving raw muscle and viscera exposed.
Some collapsed, their flesh instantly rotting into a sickening stench; their bones remained intact, only to crumble to dust at the slightest touch.
Still others turned translucent, vanishing in a burst of electrical sparks, leaving their silhouettes scorched onto the surrounding rock walls.
The demise of demons often induced all manner of bizarre phenomena. Created by the Abyss as vessels for its chaotic consciousness, they were more akin to the living embodiment of disaster than a mere "species."
Even more demons fled toward the outside in unison. Chaotic and savage though they were, they still possessed the instinct to preserve themselves.
Those fearsome fiends now howled in anguish as they scrambled from the cave, caked in ash.
And this played right into Cassius's hands.
A glint of mockery flickered across the red dragon's pale-gold pupils.
"Looks like the 'rats' are being smoked out."
Cassius slowly shut his jaws. Distorted by extreme heat, the surrounding air warped, and thick white smoke curled around his muzzle.
He slashed with his massive claw, veins bulging along his scale-armored forearm.
Scratch.
A shimmering, claw-shaped force field materialized nearby like a talon reaching from the void, cleaving several demons in two at the waist.
Tenacious of life, the demons wailed and groaned upon the ground, spilling black, foul blood as writhing maggots crawled out from their mangled remains.
Finally, those demons turned to ash and vanished, leaving behind only the squirming worms.
When a demon was slain on another plane, its physical body would ultimately return to the Abyss—unless bound by magical means.
Whatever happened to its corpse, so long as a demon was killed outside the Abyss, its "essence" would return to the primordial chaos of the Abyss, where it would be reconstituted into a new demon.
"Roar!"
"Worms of the Abyss!"
Cassius let out a thunderous roar, his massive, nearly thirty-meter-long body charging straight into the demonic horde.
"Awoooo!"
Several brawny hezrous built for melee combat let out piercing howls and charged from multiple directions, attempting to rend the red dragon's scales with their disproportionately huge claws.
Yet before an absolute disparity in strength, all struggle was futile.
Like a moving mountain, the red dragon ruthlessly crushed the approaching hezrous into black-red pulp. Their massive claws were incinerated by flames before they could even brush against his scales.
Even demons that fled at the mere sound of him were reduced to ash by the lightning and fire wreathed around him, their essences banished back to the blood pools of the Abyss.
Several ape-like barlguras took running leaps, landing on the red dragon's back to pummel him.
Yet striking him was like crashing into a fortress wall. Cassius didn't even feel the blows, while crackling arcs of lightning made the barlguras seize and tremble.
Ultimately, they tumbled to the ground, crushed beneath the dragon's feet with casual ease.
In moments, hundreds of demons were effortlessly slaughtered by Cassius. He even began to feel a twinge of boredom.
"Is that all?"
Standing upon the blood-drenched earth, Cassius slowly unfurled his wings, casting a dark shadow over the shivering demons.
Suddenly, a blurry, colossal humanoid figure emerged from the smoke-engulfed cave entrance—the corrupted giant.
Abyssal fire flared from his eyes, and his entire body was crisscrossed with cracks that radiated a dim, murky yellow glow.
"Cassius, I will kill you!"
The giant roared. Brandishing his black spear, he broke through the smoke and leaped high into the air.
That single leap carried him nearly a hundred meters high. The gleaming spearhead pointed straight toward the red dragon's skull, as if poised to impale it the very next second.
The giant plummeted downward like a falling meteor.
Yet under the enhancement of Draconic Agility, the red dragon's speed and reflexes were honed to the absolute peak—to say nothing of the fact that he had foreseen the danger approaching from behind.
Whoosh—
Cassius merely beat his wings, churning up violent gales as his immense draconic form blurred, soaring straight up hundreds of meters into the sky.
Midair, Koman's expression warped in shock. His strike hit nothing but air, yet his downward momentum could no longer be checked.
Instantly, the earth shuddered, kicking up a towering cloud of dust.
When the dust cleared, the corrupted giant knelt on the ground with a savage scowl, his black spear driven meters deep into the cracked bedrock.
Slowly rising, the giant gripped the spear, veins bulging along his arms.
With a muffled scrape, he wrenched the spear out from the earth's depths.
He hoisted the black spear aloft, its tip aimed once more at Cassius in the sky.
Throwing his head back, he let out a frantic, gut-wrenching roar. These words had fermented in his mind countless times, waiting only for this moment of absolute release.
"Tremble, Cassius, for I have returned!"
"Never will I forget my hatred, for hatred is my spear of vengeance! I tell you, every single night for the past three years, I have envisioned meeting you once more! I will tear apart every inch of your flesh, rip off every single one of your scales, plunder all your treasures, annihilate your kingdom, and slaughter all your people!"
"Every ounce of humiliation you inflicted on me, I will repay a hundredfold!"
"Remember the name of the giant who brings you this despair: Koman, Son of Chaos and Vengeance!"
The corrupted giant roared, venting all his long-suppressed emotions. His massive, corrupted frame shuddered, demonic fury dancing within his murky eyes.
Yet the red dragon in the sky did not fly into a rage as he had expected.
Instead, Cassius leisurely flapped his wings and lowered his head in thought, trying to recall who this giant was.
No matter how hard he racked his brain, however, he couldn't remember ever crossing this demon giant, nor where such a vengeful nemesis could have possibly come from.
And so, in a thoroughly puzzled tone, Cassius asked:
"So... who are you?"
Far worse than any insult, indifference was the ultimate humiliation.
In an instant, Koman felt as though he would cough up a mouthful of foul, corrupted blood, his fury nearly turning physical.
The nemesis who occupied his thoughts day and night had no idea that a vengeful foe like him even existed—or rather, didn't care about his vengeance in the slightest!
Chapter 256