Vengeance

High in the sky, enveloped by scorching gales. Cassius's pupils shifted unceasingly, one moment a clear pale gold, the next mottled and blood-red. "Roar... Roar..." The red dragon let out restless, low growls. Bloody light wavered across the scales of his body, and deep-crimson flames of chaos coiled around his massive draconic frame. Cassius's will locked in a relentless struggle against the will of destruction for control of his body. He writhed in agony within an abyss of power, fighting against the desires buried deep in his bloodline. "Cassius, stop!" "Don't let that power control you! That isn't the real you!" Olivia called out again and again in frantic desperation. Ignoring all restraint, the silver dragon beat her wings with all her might against the hurricane winds, trying to draw near to the struggling red dragon—so much so that scorch marks streaked across her slender silver form. "St... op..." "Hurry..." Another searing blast of wind howled past, blowing her back several meters. Olivia spread her wings wide, the words forced almost through clenched teeth. ... Behind an earthen mound on the ground, Leo Bosque lifted his head, fixing his gaze upon the red dragon hovering in the air. "Behold... this is your finest chance for vengeance. That red dragon is teetering on madness; he won't notice you." "You will become the hero of the Northlands; you will become the supreme ruler of Anzeta..." The deep voice resonated once more within Leo's mind. Indeed... It was all that red dragon's fault. It was the red dragon who had put Bosque's rule in mortal peril, annihilated the army he took such pride in, slaughtered several of his heirs, and brought House Bosque's thousand-year foundation to the brink of collapse. Kill him. Kill this red dragon, and everything would be his. His House Bosque would rule the Northlands forever, hanging high in the sky like the sun and moon, never to fall through tens of thousands of years. Boundless hatred churned in Archduke Leo's eyes, alongside the intoxicating thrill of being about to slay his nemesis. His lips twitched slightly, making his beard tremble. "Quick, tell me." "Please tell me, what... what must I do?" The voice chuckled in response. "Very simple: hatred is your weapon." "Fine." Leo gritted his teeth, forcing himself to recall every memory of rage and resentment, the hatred in his eyes deepening by the moment. He failed to notice the growing cracks spreading across his sturdy physique, through which seeped the dim yellow, eerie light of the Abyss. Soon, black smoke churned in Leo Bosque's grasp. The chaotic vapors gradually condensed, finally solidifying into a black short spear. The Spear of Vengeance. A creation born of pure malice, extreme hatred, and abyssal energy entwined. "Very good. Picture your enemy's heart being pierced through, and then throw it." The voice dripped with delight. "D-Die!" "Red dragon!" Leo Bosque looked up at the red dragon high in the sky, a twisted, fanatical grin plastered across his cracked face, and hurled the short spear with all his might. Whoosh— A turbulent abyssal current surged upward against the wind, streaking straight toward the red dragon suspended in midair. Yet midair, the silver dragon caught sight of it. "Is that... abyssal power?" "No!" Olivia watched the black short spear tearing through the air, then looked at the red dragon still writhing in turmoil, her heart burning with panic. She cast protective spells one after another in rapid succession, yet none could arrest the chaos-laden Spear of Vengeance in the slightest, not even by a fraction. "I..." "I can't let him be completely corrupted by that power." Olivia bit her lip, a flicker of resolute determination flashing in her eyes. In a mere instant, the young silver dragon beat her wings forcefully, throwing herself into the trajectory of the black spear to shield Cassius with her own flesh and blood. "Aaooogh—" Olivia cried out in a shrill shriek of pain. The black spear tore mercilessly through her silver wing, continuing its ascent into the sky. Meanwhile, the silver dragon plummeted limply from midair. A gruesome, horrifying wound had torn open across her wing, its ragged edges already festering under the corrosive mist of the Abyss. The piercing wail of agony finally jolted Cassius completely awake, lucidity returning to his pale-gold slit pupils. "This is—" "Jezralslak?" The red dragon turned his head, his expression instantly turning deadly solemn. In a single glance, he recognized the handiwork of the Demon of Vengeance, an exact mirror of what had happened with Koman before. Without hesitation, he exhaled a deep-green anti-magic ray. However, the chaotic energy within the short spear was not abundant this time; it seemed meant merely to trigger Cassius's destructive bloodlust and drive him into utter madness. Thus, Spell Wither rather easily unraveled the hurtling Spear of Vengeance. "Despicable human!" "How dare you borrow the power of the Abyss!" On the ground, the gravely wounded Oszedro struggled to drag himself up, unleashing a roar mixed with shock and rage. As guardians of cosmic balance, the silver wyrm had led the Melvold clan on the front lines against the Abyss for years uncounted, and naturally nothing was more familiar to him than such power. Yet under no circumstances had he imagined that this human noble from the remote Northlands would become an agent of demons. "Elder, it's too dangerous here! We must leave at once!" "Your injuries are too severe, you cannot fight any longer!" Leonard and several silver dragons supported the heavily injured Oszedro, manifesting a Gate to take him away from this place. "Old fool, is this your beloved ally of the Northlands—a human corrupted by the Abyss?" "Is this the order you preach so loudly?" Cassius looked down at the ground, scoffing without expression. "You win, Cassius." "Go." Oszedro cast one last glance up at him, saying nothing more. He simply assumed a battered humanoid form and entered the portal alongside his silver dragon juniors and retainers, departing this Great Anzetta Waste that had cost him so dearly. Meanwhile, the red dragon tore through space, appearing directly before Leo Bosque. His vast wings cast an immense shadow, completely eclipsing the human noble standing rooted in place. A human was utterly puny before such a colossal behemoth. Leo Bosque's face had gone pale. Looking up at the red dragon's colossal frame, his eyes brimmed with spite and despair, his fissure-covered head shaking incessantly. "No, no..." "It wasn't supposed to be like this." "I was supposed to kill you and become the supreme ruler of the North—" Boom— Before he could finish, the air detonated with a thunderous roar. Raging flames swallowed him whole, turning the ground where he had stood into a rolling sea of fire. Cassius remarked with a sigh, "A foolish human overestimating himself. Yet another dupe blinded by the Demon of Vengeance." "Though... it doesn't seem to be quite that simple." Suddenly, a blurry silhouette emerged within the sea of fire, accompanied by the reverberation of a low chuckle. "We meet again, Cassius." "Tsk. A grand abyss lord from ten thousand years ago, a Demon of Vengeance imprisoned in the Astral Plane by the gods, reduced to parasitizing the flesh of a mere mortal. How pathetic." Cassius fixed the blurred figure with utmost vigilance, yet did not miss the chance to sneer. "Cassius, we shall meet again soon." "No matter how you struggle, you cannot escape the inevitable destiny of the cosmos..." The flames continued to crackle and burn, the demon's whispers echoing within them. Yet the blurry silhouette vanished in a sudden crackle of lightning, leaving behind nothing but a grotesque, humanoid scorch mark upon the nearby stone wall.