Hearing the red dragon's words, the balor's face twisted in rage. He lashed his whip through the air with a deafening crack. "All of you, attack! Slay this wretched red-scaled reptile!"
"Kill!"
"Tear it to shreds!"
"For the great will of the Abyss!"
Tens of thousands of demons of every size surged forward like a swarm of locusts. Swarming layer upon layer over Cassius, they bit and tore in a rabid frenzy, their grotesque bodies quickly submerging the red dragon from view.
Cassius simply folded his vast wings and held them before his chest, seemingly intimidated by the overwhelming demonic tide.
The balor threw back his head and roared with laughter. "Hahahaha! Red-skinned vermin, what good does all your power do you now? The might of the Abyss shall swallow everything, and you are no exception! Even if you are stronger than a great wyrm red dragon, you cannot possibly slaughter hundreds of thousands of demons!"
The balor whirled around, pointing his flame whip toward the devils. His face contorted with savage malice, his eyes burning with hatred. "And you bastards of Hell, I will rip every last one of you into pieces!"
"ROAAAR—!"
A colossal roar shook the heavens and the earth, unleashing a terrifying aura of pure devastation.
"Wh-what is this...?"
In an instant, even the balor's ears rang with deafening thunder. Dizziness washed over him, and he wobbled in midair, nearly losing his grip on flight altogether.
The weaker demons fared far worse—they fainted en masse, plunging from the sky one after another or shattering into dust on the spot.
With a booming shockwave that shattered the air, Cassius snapped his wings open, revealing the brilliant, sun-like dragon crystal nestled against his chest.
*Whoosh—*
The downward sweep of his wings stirred up gale-force gusts infused with monstrous power, violently tossing tens of thousands of demons into the sky.
Searing dragonfire erupted forth. The violent winds caught the flames and billowing smoke, spreading them at breakneck speed across the sky to conjure a raging firestorm over a dozen kilometers wide centered on his titanic form.
With every beat of the dragon's wings, the flames flared hotter, and the firestorm grew even more tempestuous, churning, rending, and incinerating the demonic horde.
Caught in this apocalyptic tempest, the demons' bodies fluttered like fragile sheets of paper adrift in a hurricane. Amid shrill, agonized wails, they were shredded mercilessly by the gale and reduced to cinders by the blinding radiance.
Immediately after, serpents of furious flame leaped toward the heavens, coiling and writhing in midair like pillars of fire linking earth and sky, hurling thick smoke and ash into the clouds.
They were fire tornadoes!
Any demon caught within them was torn apart and burned to flying ash within two seconds.
At this moment, Avernus seemed to have become an immense grand stage, where Cassius was staging a magnificent, dazzling performance—and the lives of demons were the fuel for the show.
Bringing ruin to a world-ending catastrophe, striking terror into the hearts of mad demons—this was a true calamity, a true inferno!
"Wh-who are you, really?"
The balor, a fiend regarded by mortals as a walking cataclysm, now flapped his leathery wings desperately like a tiny bird struggling in a gale, shrieking in disbelief.
"Dragon! How dare you make an enemy of the Abyss and obstruct the great Blood War? The Lord of Wrath of the Iron Wastes will never let you off! Never underestimate the fury of an Abyssal Lord!"
"An Abyssal Lord?"
Cassius flapped his wings in an unhurried glide until he loomed before the balor, a mocking smirk playing on his snout. "What a coincidence. Not long ago, I killed an Abyssal Lord myself. I certainly wouldn't mind putting down another."
The balor, whose name was Zande, froze. His murky eyes filled with profound wariness—and then sheer terror.
"Y-you... you are... Cassius, the Demon-Slaying Dragon?" Zande's voice shook violently.
"You know of me?" Cassius raised an eyebrow, amused.
Then he realized that as an ancient balor, Jerlazax must have held quite a reputation among his kin.
A wave of despair flooded the balor's mind.
He had believed he would become a celebrated hero in the conquest of Avernus and receive the blessings of the Abyss. Never had he imagined that halfway through his march, he would cross paths with the monster who had slain an Abyssal Lord—Cassius, the Cinder Emperor, the Demon-Slaying Dragon.
Was this the punishment fate had decreed for him?
No! Zande could not accept such an end! He was a demon, an incarnation of chaotic evil, the physical embodiment of cosmic chaos!
"Dragon! It is not over yet! You're coming to the grave with me! Die!"
The balor threw his head back and bellowed. Fire flared from his eyes, nostrils, and maw, while the demonic heart inside his chest blazed with radiant crimson light, threatening to detonate with boundless energy.
"How tedious. The same old trick."
Cassius casually raised a massive claw and clenched it in midair.
Instantly, an invisible force surged from all directions, forming a hundred-meter spectral claw that clamped down on the balor. No matter how violently Zande thrashed, he could not budge an inch.
*Crack! Tear!*
Amid the sickening sounds of tearing flesh and snapping bones, the balor was brutally crushed. His muscles and skeleton folded in on themselves, compressed into a single sphere of burning meat.
"To think you could drag me down with a parlor trick like that... pure delusion."
Cassius gave a toothy grin. With a single glance, he had recognized that Zande intended to use an implosion spell to take him down in a suicidal blast.
Yet as the master of Chaos Fire, why would he fear the mere self-destruction of a balor?
The red dragon parted his jaws slightly and exhaled a stream of dark-crimson dragonfire. Like a ravenous beast, the flame instantly consumed the balor's compressed remains, leaving nothing behind.
A mighty balor had died just like that—casually snuffed out without a whisper of resistance or a ripple of fanfare.
The surviving devils stood within the radius of the storm, yet the fire had spared them entirely. Trembling, they looked up at the red dragon hovering at the heart of the tempest.
Amid the churning storm of flames, the peerless, titanic red dragon beat his wings slowly, radiating such intense waves of energy that the very air warped around him.
The roar of dragon wings blended with the crackle of fire, the howling gusts, and the dying shrieks of demons, resembling the world itself venting its fury of total destruction.
Then, the red dragon raised his head high, swept his wings outward, and let out a resonant roar, commanding the natural order with irresistible majesty.
In an instant, the sea of dragonfire spanning over a dozen kilometers receded like an ebbing tide. The violent winds died at once, leaving behind a scarred, barren landscape blanketed in a thick carpet of ash—the remains of tens of thousands of demons.
"Lord of the Nine Hells..." a devil whispered dizzily, eyes wide in disbelief.
Even knowing this red dragon was technically their ally, the devils trembled all over. Their voices quivered, their faces were pale with dread, and their eyes betrayed profound wariness.
Before such pure, all-consuming might, even the most cunning and wicked of devils felt bone-deep terror.
Cassius glanced down at them. "I presume you know who I am. Under whose command do you serve?"
The lead devil officer gathered his wits, lowered his head, and bowed deeply.
"O great Cinder Emperor, Cassius! From Mount Celestia to Baator, your glorious name is known to all. Your immense might and majestic form have left me in utter awe. Today, the sight of you setting the sky ablaze and single-handedly exterminating tens of thousands of demons will remain burned into my mind forever. Truly, you are a nightmare to all demonkind..."
He stole a furtive glance at the red dragon, his tone steeped in the servile flattery and dread typical of a fiend addressing a superior.
"Get to the point."
Seeing that Cassius's expression remained indifferent, tinged only with a touch of impatience, the officer answered with utmost care. "We are the remnants of the Twenty-First Legion under Lord Bel's command. We thank you from the depths of our hearts for slaying those Abyssal bastards and saving our lives."
"Bel's troops after all... Heh. Even if you had served Zariel, that madwoman won't be staging a comeback anytime soon. After all, I killed her with my own claws."
Cassius let out a faint sigh of amusement, then asked, "Where is Bel right now?"
The devil officer pretended not to hear the terrifying remark about Zariel, keeping his head bowed low. "Lord Bel is personally holding the Bronze Citadel, leading the elite forces of Avernus against the main host of the Abyssal army. Over these past few days, he has worn himself to the bone fighting day and night to repel the demonic invasion. He has spoken your name often, Your Majesty."
"How fares the battle?"
"Not well. The demons came in staggering numbers with terrifying momentum. They have already overrun the northern reaches of Avernus and pushed all the way to the gates of the Bronze Citadel. Fortunately, Lord Bel took command of the defense in person, barely managing to hold the line."
"In that case... take me there." Cassius pulled back his lips into a smile. "After all, I am his 'close ally.' At a critical juncture like this, I must lend a helping hand."
The devil officer was overjoyed. Bringing such a formidable ally into the fold would count as a massive achievement. It might even win him the favor of the new ruler of Hell and earn him a promotion to higher fiend status.
He raised his steel pitchfork and pointed toward the south, speaking in a hurried, eager rush. "Your Majesty Cassius, please follow me! I am certain Lord Bel will be thrilled by the arrival of such a powerful ally!"
"Very well."
Cassius turned his gaze toward the horizon. In the far distance stood a colossal pillar forged from demon skulls, towering over the wasteland as though propping up the firmament itself.
The armored devils beat their bat-like wings and flew ahead at top speed to lead the way.
Thunder rumbled across the sky as the red dragon unfurled his immense wings. Trailing tongues of flame and riding a searing tempest, he swept over the barren wastes, casting a gargantuan shadow across the scorched earth.
***
Inside and outside the Bronze Citadel, the air was filled with the frenzied shrieks of demons and the disciplined battle cries of devils.
Upon the flat plains stretching before the fortress, demonic legions surged like a boundless tide. Goristros, vrocks, barlguras, glabrezus, and even fiendish giants formed ranks across the ground and sky, filling every inch of sight.
With each charge, they crashed like waves against the fortifications, while the disciplined infernal defenders stood braced upon the outer walls of the Bronze Citadel in tight formation, repeatedly firing their heavy hellfire cannons to beat back the onslaught.
By now, tens of thousands of demon corpses had piled high on the battlefield, reeking of sharp copper blood and a nauseating, brine-like stench.
"For the great will of the Abyss! Tear them apart! Avernus belongs to us!"
"Slay these Abyssal bastards!"
"By the Lord of the Nine Hells, what cursed beasts! Do not let them breach the Bronze Citadel!"
The devils were rigorously organized, their tactics precise and cold.
Some held tower shields to hold the line, others loosed arrows from afar, and many more manned the hellfire cannons to vaporize charging fiends in blinding flashes of heat.
Tactical squads of twenty-odd devils worked in seamless coordination, forming layered defensive perimeters. Even the frail lemures and imps scurried back and forth along the walls, feverishly repairing and fortifying the bastions.
In stark contrast, the demons' tactics were laughably crude—they merely let out unified roars and threw themselves recklessly at the enemy.
The cosmic clash between Law and Chaos was laid bare in their methods of warfare.
Demons crashed into the defensive lines like tidal waves. Tens of thousands of fiends tore into one another, blood splashing and gore flying, treating life as cheap as dirt.
The demons were limitless in number, but through superior discipline and battlecraft, the infernal legions managed to hold the Bronze Citadel, keeping the horde from completely overrunning their positions.
Right then, an uninvited guest broke onto the battlefield, shattering the delicate stalemate.
"ROAAAR—!"
A ringing draconic roar shattered the heavens, sending a shiver through the hearts of every battling demon and devil.
Immediately after, a sea of flame rolled across the earth like a surging deluge, incinerating the horde pressed against the outer perimeter of the Bronze Citadel into ash and clearing a wasteland hundreds of meters wide in the blink of an eye.
The red dragon circled several times overhead before sweeping his wings and touching down heavily atop the ramparts of the Bronze Citadel. The entire fortress wall shuddered under his weight, shaking loose clouds of dust and cascades of rubble.
Not far away, a towering, burly devil materialized out of hellfire in midair.
He was clad head to toe in dark-red scales, with massive bat-like wings unfurled from his back. Fastened around his waist was a belt adorned with twelve severed angel heads, and he gripped a greatsword that blazed with roaring flames.
The moment he appeared, an overwhelming aura of lawful evil washed over the fortress walls. The surrounding devils immediately dropped to one knee, adopting postures of reverent submission.
With such a display, his identity was unmistakable—Bel, the provisional ruler of Avernus.
Bel looked upon the red dragon perched on the Bronze Citadel, his expression grim. The devil seemed to be gritting his teeth, barely keeping his burning hatred and fury contained behind his smoldering eyes.
Cassius dipped his head slightly in greeting, offering a faint smile. "It has been a while, Lord Bel, my faithful ally. You have finally reclaimed your throne as you wished, taking command of Avernus once more."
"It has indeed been a while, Your Majesty Cassius... You are finally here." Bel forced a polite, familiar smile, though every word sounded as if ground through clenched teeth.
Before his voice had fully faded, a crushing wave of infernal authority radiated from Bel, pressing down toward the red dragon. Yet a heartbeat later, a crimson glow flared from Cassius's chest, unleashing an identical aura of infernal majesty.
The two forces collided and clashed, tearing spatial fractures and turbulent rifts where their powers met. The surrounding devils kept their heads pressed to the stones, not daring to make a sound.
Bel stared intently at Cassius.
*That familiar power... That's it! It really was him!*
*He was the one who stole my authority over Avernus! He is the reason I cannot become a full Archduke of Hell!*
Chapter 722