Vengeance

Cassius stomped heavily onto the Abyssal dragon's back, his razor talons instantly piercing through scales and gouging bubbling wounds that welled with blood. "Roaaar—" The Abyssal dragon threw back its head and let out another long roar. It thrashed ceaselessly, flailing the stumps on its back as it slammed toward a nearby hillside. Yet Cassius seized the opening once more. Lunging straight forward, he sank his jaws into the unhealed wound on the side of the Abyssal dragon's neck, tearing away hide and flesh in a single wrench. *Riiip—* A massive cloud of bloody mist erupted from the dragon's neck as great slabs of flesh were torn away, drawing an agonizing screech from the Abyssal dragon. A torrential rain of blood showered down from high above. Bathed in the gore, Cassius mauled and ripped with reckless abandon. An exhilarated grin spread across his draconic visage, rendering him all the more ferocious and terrifying. Before long, the Abyssal dragon's neck and head were mangled beyond recognition, vast sheets of scales ripped away and chunks of flesh gouged out. Had it been an ordinary dragon, it would have breathed its last long ago. Yet Jerlazax was, after all, a scion of the Abyss—a demon lord possessing the body of a deity, an entity whom the celestial legions referred to with dread as an "abomination." Even suppressed under Imperial Domain: Severance, he survived through sheer, tenacious vitality. Beneath Cassius, the Abyssal dragon writhed constantly, its resistance growing increasingly frantic. At last, Jerlazax forcefully threw the red dragon off his back. From deep within his rotting throat issued mad, delirious murmurs. "If only I devour you... "If only I devour you, I can..." Yet Cassius blurred into a crimson afterimage, lunging directly to the Abyssal dragon's flank as his razor claws swept across its tens-of-meters-long arm. *Slash—* Blood sprayed once more. Accompanied by a sharp crack, the pale bone of Jerlazax's pillar-like left arm was laid bare before snapping completely in two. "Cas... Cassius..." "I will kill..." The Abyssal dragon's massive frame sagged abruptly. Hobbling, he wheeled around unsteadily and exhaled a foul-smelling gale in a desperate attempt to mount a counterattack. Yet the red dragon's crimson silhouette flashed past his foot once more, ripping away great slabs of scaled flesh—this time from the rear left leg. *Crash!* The Abyssal dragon's remaining limbs finally buckled under the horrific burden of hundreds of thousands of tons. That mountain-like draconic frame collapsed with a thunderous impact, heaving slowly with every breath. *Pant, pant...* Within Cassius's Imperial Domain, Jerlazax—despite possessing both the power of the Abyss and the body of a progenitor dragon—was reduced to nothing more than a beast waiting to be slaughtered. "Urrgh..." Yet the Abyssal dragon still struggled to crane his head upward, stretching his neck toward the red dragon. Jerlazax's eyes burned a murky reddish-black. His expression was twisted in madness, completely indifferent to his head, which hung by a thread, and paying no mind to the blood gushing like a cataract from his wounds. He squirmed desperately, even turning belly-up. Only one final sliver of will remained to him. —The primal instinct to devour the red dragon's body containing the Heart of Garyx and transform into the Doomsday Dragon. *Thud!* Cassius showed no mercy, stomping the gaping, maw-bearing head into the dirt and kicking up clouds of dust. The vertebrae connecting the neck snapped entirely, leaving only shredded meat and the windpipe barely holding it together. The red dragon slowly raised a claw. Instantly, an invisible force descended, bearing down upon the crown of the Abyssal dragon's head and pinning it motionless. Yet Jerlazax's sunken eyes remained locked onto the red dragon, his pupils dripping with fathomless greed and malice. Cassius stepped forward and chuckled, his pale golden pupils glinting with amusement. "Tsk, tsk. Look at you now, Jerlazax. "A former demon lord of the Abyss, now looking just like livestock waiting to be butchered." *Pant, pant...* Jerlazax heaved ragged breaths. At this final precipice, he seemed to recover a semblance of false "sanity." He peeled back his mangled, bone-exposed jaws, letting out a bloodcurdling sneer like that of a dracolich. "Heheh... Cassius, do you truly believe you have won the ultimate victory? "It is futile, red dragon. You have already drawn the gaze of the great will of the Abyss. I may have failed, but the destruction of this world is predestined. "And you will never escape. One day, your heart will be devoured, your wings broken, and your head severed..." Jerlazax's voice grew raspy and his features contorted as he spat the most venomous, hateful curse upon the red dragon before him. "Jerlazax..." Cassius merely paced calmly to the Abyssal dragon's chest, raised his razor talons, and brought them crashing down. *Riiip—* The sound of rending flesh echoed, cutting the low curse abruptly short. Foul blood flooded out like a deluge. The already wounded flesh was carved wide open, revealing the gory viscera within. "Oh?" Cassius looked slightly surprised. For what appeared before his eyes was no beating heart, but rather—a massive winged demon, or more precisely, a balor. The demon was suspended in the center of the chest cavity, linked to countless blood vessels and mucous membranes, continuously pumping blood that glimmered with a dark luminescence and brimmed with chaotic power throughout the dragon's body. This demon had merged into one with Garyx's remains. Their flesh was entangled, venting black-and-red flames of chaos, inseparable from one another. This was Jerlazax's true demonic form. "A demonic heart like Ashardalon's... I never expected him to actually put it into practice," Cassius could not help but marvel. Suddenly, the demon fused within Garyx's body snapped its eyes open. Raging flames of vengeance blazed within them as he laughed maniacally. "Cassius, no creature targeted by the will of the Abyss can ever find release! I will be waiting for you in the Abyss! "When that time comes, I will make you understand—" Cassius had no patience to hear him out. The red dragon simply snapped open his cavernous maw, blinding fire blazing in his throat. *Boom!* A massive pillar of fire roared forth. The breath weapon, imbued with the power of the Imperial Domain's laws, reduced the demon acting as the heart directly to ash. A piercing howl arose as an intangible, spindly demonic shadow shot skyward, uttering a screech that shook the very soul: "Hahaha! I will be waiting for you in the Abyss!" Abyssal demons—so long as they died outside the Abyss, their wills would inevitably be reborn in the blood pools. Because of this, even the gods found it nearly impossible to truly kill a demon; sealing them in the Astral Plane was often the best recourse. Yet with a thought from Cassius, the power of the Imperial Domain locked down the surrounding space, ensuring that neither matter, spirit, nor soul could escape. The screeching of Jerlazax's soul broke off abruptly. "How can this be?! "The great will of the Abyss should be delivering me back to the blood pools to be reborn..." The red dragon beat his wings and rose into the air. Tilting his head, he asked in feigned bewilderment, "Have you never heard a certain proverb from within my Empire?" Cassius reached out a massive talon, easily snaring the soul, before searing dragonflame erupted from his palm. "No—" "Cassius, we can still cooperate! Do you want to become a true deity? Do you want..." A bloodcurdling wail tore out. Within the blazing flames, the ghostly silhouette thrashed, shrieked, and even begged for mercy. "'When a red dragon takes vengeance, he pulls the weeds up by the roots.'" Cassius looked on impassively, the firelight and struggling dark shadow mirrored in his pale golden pupils. The corners of his mouth curled slightly into a sinister smile. He had waited far too long for this moment. The Emperor would never permit a demon outside his control—one privy to his deepest secrets—to exist in this world.