Dragon Claw

On the outskirts of Isdalia, a steam locomotive sped along the tracks, churning out billowing plumes of white steam. *Hoooot—!* The whistle let out a piercing shriek. Suddenly, someone pointed ahead of the train, trembling as they asked, "Wait... Wh-what is that?" Enveloped in steam, a colossal dark silhouette abruptly materialized, standing directly in the train's path. Soldiers aboard reacted instantly. Raising their rifles, they opened fire and shouted in alarm. "Damn it, it's a demon!" "Stop the train!" *Bang! Bang! Bang!* A dense volley of gunfire erupted, yet the shadowy figure blocking the tracks stood completely unmoved. It even let out a low, skin-crawling cackle. *"Khehehe..."* The train conductor scrambled frantically, throwing the brake lever all the way back. "I can't stop! The braking distance is too short!" *Screeech—!* An ear-splitting screech of grinding metal rang out as the brake shoes clamped hard against the wheels, sending sparks flying beneath the undercarriage. The entire train shuddered violently. Panic gripped the passengers throughout the carriages, erupting into terrified screams. "What on earth is happening?" "Did we derail?!" *Boom!* A world-shaking crash tore through the air, drowning out the screech of metal and the frantic screams of the passengers. The locomotive was flipped over by an immense force. The carriages trailing behind swayed violently, hurling people off their feet. Passengers crashed and piled against one side of the car, crying out in chaos. "Stop it!" "Help!" "What's going on?!" Finally, the dark shape in the steam unveiled its hideous, gruesome appearance. The massive, spider-like creature possessed three clawed, tentacle-like tails that writhed unnaturally, and eight legs connected by fleshy membranes, each ending in a glinting, barbed spike. Its venom-fanged maw dripped with thick, murky saliva—foul-smelling fluid that hissed and corroded the train's iron hull upon contact. Its clusters of compound eyes glared hungrily at the passengers trapped inside the carriage, radiating insatiable greed. This was a bebilith, a demon that voraciously devoured every creature it defeated. Rather than fresh meat, a bebilith preferred thoroughly rotted flesh, particularly the decaying carcasses of other demons. Moreover, the curse carried in its bite served as exquisite seasoning. Yet among all its feasts, a bebilith relished cannibalizing its own kind above all else. "Wh-what is that thing?" "Cassius above..." "My eyes! Wh-what am I looking at? That's just..." Upon witnessing the bebilith's horrifying visage, many of the faint of heart plunged straight into madness, chaotic auras swirling across their eyes. Others, unable to endure the visceral revulsion, vomited right there in the carriage. As demons native to the lower layers of the Abyss, bebiliths possessed a supernatural hideousness that provoked a soul-deep nausea in any creature native to the Material Plane. Under the blanket of the bebilith's corrupting aura, surrounding weeds withered and trees decayed, liquefying into maggot-infested sludge. *Skrrch—!* A spear-like leg punched straight through the train's iron hull, pinning the conductor directly to his seat. Blood splattered across the carriage windows. The conductor let out a shrill, agonized wail. "Aaargh!" The bebilith yanked back its colossal limb, the barbs dragging the still-living, thrashing conductor out with it. Foul slime spewed from its fanged maw, engulfing the conductor. Within mere breaths, his body broke down rapidly, dissolving into an unrecognizable puddle of rotting flesh. The bebilith swallowed the putrid sludge, gnashing its mouthparts, and thrust its legs back in, eager to drag out more passengers from the carriage. *Crash!* Glass shattered as a sharp limb plunged in once more, seizing a tiefling passenger. "Help!" "Save me!" "I don't want to be eaten!" The passenger shrieked and flailed wildly in midair, but to no avail. *Sizzle!* Covered in thick slime, he was stuffed directly into the gaping maw of the monstrous spider demon. The bebilith fed with effortless ease, as though it were a child reaching into a jar for candy. "Let us out!" "I don't want to die!" Inside the overturned, ruined carriage, people screamed in terror. Crowding near the door, they pounded frantically on the crushed, warped frame, desperate to escape. *Bang! Bang-bang!* The soldiers aboard fired endlessly at the bebilith. Yet before the demon's thick carapace, the bullets ricocheted harmlessly away, completely ineffective. "Nina, don't be afraid..." "Don't make a sound. His Majesty Cassius will protect us..." A tiefling mother held her child close in the corner of the carriage. Her body trembled, yet she forced herself to stay calm for her child's sake. Ironically, this drew the bebilith's attention instead. Abyssal demons delighted most in the exquisite agony of humanoid creatures; to them, it was intoxicating wine. And for a bebilith, what tasted sweeter than the despair of a mother about to lose her child? *Creeeeak—* The screech of tearing metal resounded. The iron roof of the carriage was peeled open like a tin can by the bebilith, exposing everyone inside to its ravenous gaze. Terror spiked as the passengers huddled together. With nowhere left to run, they could only close their eyes in despair. The tiefling mother hugged her child even tighter. She could already feel that covetous gaze locked onto her, but she could do nothing except offer a silent prayer. "Cassius above..." This tiefling had lived through the massacre a dozen years ago, had followed Mezrolash through exile, and had witnessed the empire rise step by step. She firmly believed that no matter what enemy they faced, His Majesty would always lead them to victory—even an overwhelmingly mighty demon that treated mortal life like dust was nothing before him. The bebilith let out a raspy chortle and slowly extended a membranous leg toward the crowd, the venomous barbs at its tip glinting coldly. The passengers inside had fallen into total despair. The demon was simply too powerful. Neither blades nor bullets had the slightest effect on this twisted, grotesque spider monstrosity. At this point, only a miracle could save them. Suddenly, space twisted. Accompanied by scorching flames, a planar rift ripped open in midair. *"Awoo?"* The bebilith raised its head in surprise. It suddenly felt an aura of unimaginable danger, one that set all three of its tentacle-like tails quivering. Instinctively, it flapped its bat-like membranes, desperate to flee into the sky. What on earth was on the other side of that portal? The bebilith soon had its answer—and it would be the very last thought of its existence. A colossally massive red claw thrust out from the rift, descending with unstoppable, terrifying might to stomp directly down upon the bebilith's head. *Boom!* In an instant, the world shook. The earth cracked open, and the ground within dozens of meters caved in, forming a massive crater. Half of the bebilith's body was crushed to paste. Foul slime and rotten gore smeared the soil, only to be incinerated to cinders by blazing flames. "Cassius above..." The tiefling mother opened her eyes, her gaze filled with piety and wondrous relief. Looking up, she saw the colossal crimson claw pressing into the earth, the thick, muscle-corded arm towering like an enormous pillar. She had survived! And His Majesty himself had intervened to save them! A majestic physique whose arm alone commanded the awe of mortals could belong to none other than the Cinder Emperor. "Long live His Majesty Cassius!" "Loyalty to the Great Red Dragon!" "It... it really is His Majesty Cassius!" The survivors aboard the train opened their eyes, realizing who had saved them, overcome with profound excitement. The terror and panic from moments before vanished completely, replaced by fanatical reverence for the master of that crimson claw. "Disgusting vermin..." The giant red claw gave a casual flick in midair, then withdrew into the planar rift and vanished. All that remained were the passengers continuing their prayers, kneeling in worship before the giant crater and marveling at the crushed remains of the bebilith. *** "As expected of the Abyss—it never fails to spawn things that offend my aesthetic sensibilities. "I thought that nalfeshnee was ugly enough, but to think there are things that make even a dragon feel physically ill." Cassius exhaled a plume of sulfurous white smoke from his nostrils, unable to hold back his distaste. With a look of disgust, the red dragon shook his claws once more. A torrent of flames swirled around his arm, burning away every lingering trace of gore and slime. It was like a human crushing a cockroach with their bare hand—even with total dominance in strength, the act itself still left behind a lingering wave of nausea and disgust. Another teleportation portal opened, and a panting ogre emerged before the red dragon, dropping to one knee. Cassius asked, "How is the situation?" Trump cupped his hands and replied, "Master, the demons inside the empire have caused considerable casualties, but we have largely wiped them out." Trump waved his staff, and several magical projections appeared in midair, displaying an assortment of grotesque, terrifying, and formidable demons. They had wreaked havoc across cities, villages, and the wilderness, but were swiftly eliminated by the empire's mobilizing elites. The fierce fighting figures of Misha, Anthony, Alger, Mezrolash, and even Trump himself appeared within these magical projections. Trump said with a solemn expression, "Over the past ten thousand years, the Demon of Vengeance prepared numerous contingency plans in the Great Anzetta Waste, leaving behind countless demonic seeds. "Their strikes were highly targeted, focusing specifically on critical infrastructure such as railways and armories. These demons mobilized en masse precisely to disrupt the empire's order. "Therefore, this subordinate surmises that the Demon of Vengeance expended all these hidden assets primarily to draw the empire's attention, using it as cover for his next move." A glimmer flickered in Cassius's pale gold pupils. "You mean... "The full-scale invasion of abyssal demons is about to begin?" Trump nodded grimly and answered, "In my humble opinion, the previously missing Leo Bosque is very likely to appear among the demon army. "And that Demon of Vengeance... is also extremely likely to descend upon the Material Plane in person." Cassius nodded slightly; he had already suspected as much. Last month, he had expended the three wishes granted by the Empire of the Efreet to divine the invasion. Yet every time, past a certain temporal threshold, the future shown by the prophecy devolved into a chaotic mess of disordered color. A *wish* was the most unreasonable of ninth-tier spells; setting aside the perversion of its wording, it could achieve virtually anything a mortal desired. For such magic to be completely blocked, only one possibility remained: the entity he was attempting to pry into possessed quasi-deity status, or an even higher essence. And Cassius could easily guess who was interfering with the divination— Jerlazax. The demon sealed upon Garyx's divine body, an abyssal lord from tens of thousands of years ago, seemed to harbor goals tied to the fate of the multiverse itself. "Is it finally time..." Cassius's tone was calm, yet an irrepressible excitement gleamed in the depths of his pale gold eyes. It was time to decide the victor. He had waited far too long for this day, and he was certain that demon had as well. The red dragon raised his head and gazed into the distance, a piercing gleam flashing deep within his pupils. His gaze crossed nearly a thousand li, sweeping over the vast Savedra Plain, piercing through the majestic Anstica Mountains, and landing upon that towering, snow-capped peak. *** Mount Thierry. The sky was azure, the cold wind bitter. This was the highest peak in the entire Great Anzetta Waste, permanently blanketed in pristine white snow, yet exposing vast swaths of pitch-black crags. The people of the Northlands called it the "King of the Snowy Mountains." For the past thousand years, any ruler of the Northern United Kingdom would liken themselves to Mount Thierry to flaunt their supreme authority. —The red dragon emperor, however, was an exception. He had never needed external symbols to display his authority; his very existence was the embodiment of divinity. *Whooosh—* The gale grew increasingly violent, unleashing piercing shrieks high in the air as the azure sky suddenly darkened. Colossal black claws tore through the heavens, gouging unfathomably deep vortexes both high in the sky and across the earth, from which countless hideous demons surged forth. They poured in like a tidal wave, their grotesque bodies blotting out the sun and plunging the land into gloom. Their shrill shrieks vented pure hatred for all creation, deafening even to themselves. A deep, raspy voice drifted from the abyssal vortexes, echoing among the peaks and striking terror into the hearts of all mortals. "Cassius— "I know you are watching. But soon you will see that all your struggles are futile, and the empire you take such pride in is nothing more than a laughable toy. "I will make you watch with your own eyes as your empire is destroyed. Prepare to welcome—your final doom!" Vrocks, barlguras, goristros, nabassus, hezrous, nalfeshnees, bebiliths... Countless powerful demons of diverse breeds appeared within that surging fiendish tide, many of which had been seen during the earlier strikes against the empire. Only this time, they came in swarms, taking the annihilation of Anzeta as an absolute given. Soon, the raging tide of demons blotted out the sky and blanketed the earth, their numbers reaching into the tens of millions—surpassing the entire population of the Cinder Empire. Finally, a familiar figure stepped forth from an abyssal vortex. It was a humanoid creature with crimson skin, tall and burly, with bat-like wings spreading from his back. The demon gripped a flaming longsword tightly in his hand, staring into the distance for a long time. "I have finally returned... "Northlands." He uttered that name, one that had been abandoned for years—the Northlands. In the present Cinder Empire, no one reminisced about the Northlands' past glory. The word had even become an insult; when drunkards brawled in taverns, they would curse each other as "Northland cowards" or "maggots of the Northland nobility." At the thought, raging fires of hatred ignited in the demon's eyes, his voice dripping with venom. "Shameless, treasonous commoners, uncouth brutish monsters, and the reptile that ruined everything I owned... "I will destroy everything you have—your armies, your cities, and your very nation—and make you taste... what I once felt." So spoke the demon—or rather, Leo Bosque.