Kostchtchie bellowed at the top of his lungs, swinging his greataxe in a wide arc and chopping furiously at the red dragon's head. The surrounding air erupted with fierce pressure as a deep, eerie radiance flared along the axe blade.
Countless massive, twisted demonic phantoms materialized in the sky, dragging at the red dragon's legs and coiling around his body as though seeking to drag him down and swallow him into the Abyss.
Yet several colossal spell vortexes appeared in Cassius's talons, bursting with immense gravitational pull to devour every scrap of abyssal power. At the same time, a pale violet glow resurfaced across his scales.
—This was his final 10th-tier spell slot as an epic True Dragon Sorcerer.
Eternal Freedom!
The red dragon snapped his wings wide and soared upward, turning into an afterimage trailing radiant flame. Shattering the shackles of the chaotic fog, he ascended ten thousand meters into the sky in a single bound.
Without a moment's hesitation, he swallowed Matalotok straight into the extradimensional space within his stomach. Under no circumstances would he let the frost giant reclaim it.
*Whoosh—*
Kostchtchie's greataxe swung through empty air, cleaving open the fabric of space before him and tearing open an abyssal rift hundreds of meters long. Tens of thousands of grotesque, deformed demons poured out, screeching and howling in a chaotic din.
Wreathed in heavy black mist and gasping heavily, he glared with venomous fury and hatred at the red dragon in the sky.
"Reptile—!"
*Boom!*
A column of divine-retribution flame descended from the heavens with annihilating fury, piercing straight through the tanar'ri frost giant's torso.
Yet soon after, thick mist from the Abyss surged into the wound, instantly transforming into writhing flesh and blood to plug the blackened crater.
The tanar'ri frost giant remained completely unharmed, his fury only intensifying. Wild flames of rage blazed in his eyes, and his roar made all creation tremble.
Kostchtchie lunged once more, but Cassius nimbly dodged aside, spewing the silvery Flame of Order from the depths of his throat.
Engulfed in silvery-white fire, the tanar'ri frost giant howled in agony and frenzy. His flesh burned away unceasingly, only to regenerate again and again.
*An immortal essence...*
Sensing that demigod-tier abyssal pressure and gazing at the tanar'ri frost giant's colossal, terrifying form, Cassius furrowed his brow slightly.
*Matalotok can only suppress his divine power for a moment... Even without it, this tanar'ri frost giant still possesses a demigod's essence and cannot be slain by ordinary means. I cannot let this drag on,* he thought.
"Since we are in Avernus..." Channeling the authority of Avernus within him, the red dragon drew a blazing longsword from the void with his talons and held it aloft. "Then I shall execute him with the power of Hell!"
*Hum—*
A power carrying the laws of Hell swept across the sky, taking dominion over the plane. Boundless hellfire rose from deep within the earth, surging toward the red dragon aloft.
Cassius sent a telepathic message to the distant pit fiend: "Bel, I need to borrow your power! Only the complete authority of Hell can execute a demigod-tier frost giant!"
Bel's expression instantly darkened, his tone laced with suppressed fury: "Impossible! I am the Lord of Avernus acknowledged by Lord Asmodeus!"
Dodging a thunderous punch from the frost giant, Cassius continued his transmission: "Bel, think this through! If you don't kill Kostchtchie now, once he regains his sanity and reclaims his divine power, all of Avernus will fall!
"The foundation of the Cinder Empire lies in the Material Plane. Even if all of Hell is overrun by the Abyss, I will only lose a few enclaves—it will not harm my vitals!
"But if Kostchtchie claims Avernus, you will be reduced to a stray dog once again! Nowhere in the entire multiverse will there be a place for you!" Cassius's tone was exceptionally fierce.
Bel asked, "Then why shouldn't I be the one to wield the complete authority of Hell to slay him?"
"Because you cannot beat him."
Bel gritted his teeth, his voice raspy: "I don't trust you, Cassius. You are even greedier and more shameless than any of us devils."
Cassius chuckled, once more evading an axe cleave falling from above. "We can forge a contract. The River Styx is always the most impartial witness, is it not?"
*Boom!*
The frenzied Kostchtchie struck the ground with his axe, cleaving the earth open and sending deep, mournful tremors through the land.
After a moment of silence, looking upon the utterly mad tanar'ri frost giant destroying everything in sight, Bel felt a lingering dread. In the end, he spoke with a trace of defeat:
"Fine."
The contract was sealed. With immense reluctance written all over his face, the pit fiend hurled his infernal longsword, allowing Cassius to catch it in midair.
The powers of the two authorities fused together, radiating terrifying fluctuations that sent surging hellfire sweeping across the heavens to incinerate everything. Even Kostchtchie let out an agonized howl.
A thousand-meter-long infernal greatsword slowly manifested in the sky, radiating overwhelming dread. It was the physical embodiment of supreme dominion over Avernus—the very thing every devil dreamed of.
"Look!"
"That power... It feels like Zariel in the past!"
"Could that be the authority wielded by an Archduke of Hell? But—how did it end up in the talons of the Cinder Emperor?!"
"Indeed, shouldn't that belong to Lord Bel?!"
Watching the infernal greatsword aloft, the devils erupted into discussion. These cunning, treacherous creatures seemed to sense what was unfolding, and their gazes toward Bel turned slightly playful.
Perhaps, in this realm of Avernus, Bel was no longer the only powerful patron to latch onto.
Cassius reached out his talons and gripped the hilt of the infernal greatsword. Instantly, an absolute, supreme power surged through him.
The framework of the plane and the laws of the realm flooded into his mind; it felt as though the red dragon stood within a divine domain.
To the current Cassius, Avernus felt almost like a game, and he held administrator privileges, able to reshape anything with ease and even wield the strength to contend with deities.
This was the master of a plane!
This was the power of a Lord of Hell!
"What magnificent power..."
At this moment, Cassius finally understood why Bel was so obsessed with that iron throne. Such a feeling of complete control was nearly irresistible, even for him.
Yet for now, the most crucial task remained slaying Kostchtchie and bringing an end to this abyssal invasion.
*Roar—!*
The red dragon raised his head and unleashed a deafening roar that shook the heavens. The authority of Hell slowly merged into his colossal draconic frame as boundless hellfire rushed toward him.
The scorching hellfire converged, condensing into flesh, scales, and even bones.
In the end, an enormous dragon nearly five hundred meters long, crimson throughout and resembling an ancient hellfire dragon, manifested in the skies. Flowing magma cascaded across his body, entwined in raging hellfire, like an incarnation of the inferno itself.
Merely gazing upon that majestic and terrifying form would instantly plunge ordinary mortals into thoughts of every evil and depravity in existence: murder, betrayal, lust, slaughter... They would sink into it, entirely unable to free themselves.
Their souls would plunge straight into Avernus to become wretched petitioners tainted by Baator, condemned to eternal suffering.
*Roar—!*
Another earth-shattering roar echoed out, this time saturated with supreme, unassailable majesty.
In an instant, hell hounds, manes, imps, and virtually every infernal creature felt an uncontrollable urge to prostrate themselves in worship.
"By the Lord of the Nine Hells..."
"Wh-what in the world is that...?"
"How is this possible? Is that red dragon the incarnation of Avernus's will?!"
"What a towering form! What a formidable existence!"
Listening to the devils' marveling cries, Bel felt thoroughly unsettled. He clenched his fists tightly, muttering in a voice only he could hear, "All of that should belong to me... It should be mine!"
Under the unsparing prayers of the tanar'ri frost giants, Kostchtchie finally regained a sliver of clarity, a surge of divine frost power radiating from within him.
The Prince of Wrath raised his head, staring in disbelief at the towering draconic shadow, his voice raspy: "No, impossible!
"How could that pit fiend yield the complete authority to you?! How could that old bastard in Nessus allow a chromatic dragon to become a true Lord of Hell?!"
Kostchtchie's eyes turned bloodshot. Staring at the red dragon in the sky, the flames of fury in his heart burned even hotter.
"I see now..."
The tanar'ri frost giant stood tall upon the burning, fiery wasteland. Raising the frost greataxe in his hands toward the sky, he roared in fury, "Damned reptile, you're bluffing!
"Die—!"
Kostchtchie leapt into the air, swinging his axe and releasing the full extent of his divine frost power.
Radiating extreme chill and a surging, chaotic black mist, he vaulted ten thousand meters high in a single bound, bringing his greataxe down violently toward the colossal red dragon.
Cassius beat his wings, whipping up a scorching tempest as a deep, reverberating growl rumbled from his chest: "Kostchtchie, in the name of Avernus—
"I grant you death!"
The cavernous maw large enough to swallow a giant whole slowly parted, dark red hellfire churning deep within his throat.
Within that hellfire, countless bizarre, twisted phantoms flickered:
There were weeping petitioners screaming in agony; shrilly cackling imps; erinyes seducing mortals with beauty and honeyed words; and ambitious pit fiends leading infernal legions to war...
It was the convergence of all evil, greed, torment, and hatred within Avernus, the materialization of Hell's order—an extreme order forged by the denizens of Hell amidst an agonizing inferno.
All of it gathered deep within the throat of the infernal dragon Cassius had become, condensing into hellfire of supreme evil and corruption.
This was a breath infused with the fundamental laws of Baator, powerful enough to shatter immortal essence—
Hell Breath!
*Boom!*
The hellfire blotted out the sky, pouring forth like a raging tidal wave. Tongues of flame danced like wild serpents, ravaging heaven and earth as they engulfed the tanar'ri frost giant in midair.
In the sky, Kostchtchie felt the intense fluctuation of fundamental laws, and sheer terror finally surfaced on his grotesque, ferocious face.
That familiar aura...
It was the purest will of Avernus, without the slightest deception!
With scarcely a moment's hesitation, the frost giant swung his axe frantically, attempting to cleave an abyssal rift so he could abandon the tens of millions of demons and hundreds of his fellow tanar'ri frost giants to flee alone.
Yet Cassius had anticipated this long ago. Dimensional chains woven of hellfire had already locked down Avernus; let alone a demon lord, not even a fly could escape.
"No—!"
Kostchtchie unleashed his majestic divine power. In an instant, biting winds howled, the earth shuddered, and magma froze solid.
Amidst deafening rumbles, countless ice mountains surged from beneath the ground, forming solid walls of ice thousands of meters long to block the deluge before him.
Simultaneously, the abyssal mist condensed into pitch-black armor, enveloping his entire frame.
Kostchtchie roared, "Cassius! I am the sovereign of frost giants, a true deity, and the favored child of the Abyss!
"I endured tens of thousands of years, braving countless trials and agonies to attain the power I hold today! What right do you have to oppose me?!"
The icy gale spread wildly, freezing everything it enveloped until even time and space seemed to solidify for that single instant.
Yet in the next breath, surging hellfire poured over it all. The ice mountains melted, the snow dissolved, and the surrounding world began to flow once more, overtaken by dark red fire that transformed the area into a blazing sea of flame tens of thousands of meters across.
Kostchtchie stood amidst that sea of fire, wrapped entirely in raging flames, roaring in agony.
"No! I am the great King of the Frost Giants, the Prince of Wrath!"
The chaotic mist across his body clashed against the hellfire, quickly falling into disadvantage. The hellfire scorched his flesh and corroded his demonic heart, even unraveling Kostchtchie's immortal essence.
"I am immortal!"
Yet his screeching roars were soon drowned out by the crackling roar of the blaze.
Cassius increased his effort, pouring everything into his Hell Breath. A thick column of flame a hundred meters in diameter erupted from deep within his throat, instantly submerging the tanar'ri frost giant.
Within that dark red pillar of fire, a faint silhouette flickered, accompanied by harrowing, soul-tearing shrieks of agony.
In the end, amidst the churning sea of hellfire, only a charred skeleton remained standing. Pitch-black throughout, like an ancient sculpture, it retained the frost giant's final posture in life.
It knelt on one knee, its right arm reaching toward the red dragon with everything it had, jaw agape in a savage grimace. Endless rage and hatred still seemed to linger within those hollow eye sockets.
The ancient demon lord, god of the tanar'ri frost giants, Prince of Wrath Kostchtchie, was slain!
Under the corrosion of hellfire, Kostchtchie's mighty body was destroyed, and even his soul was torn to shreds.
As an immortal evil, he might one day reform in the foul blood pools of the Abyss, his hatred burning even fiercer, but he would only be able to return as an ordinary fiendish frost giant.
The sky of Hell faded back to its blood-red hue. The majestic five-hundred-meter dragon spread his sky-blotting wings, looking down upon all living beings.
"Kostchtchie is dead!"
"By the Lord of the Nine Hells, the Prince of Wrath is actually dead!"
"Emperor Kai takes the field, invincible under heaven!"
Within the lines of the infernal legions, devils and players marvelled and cheered, while the demons were stricken with terror and despair—especially the tanar'ri frost giants.
"Lord Kostchtchie... He's actually dead!"
"Impossible!"
"Quick, back to the Iron Wastes! That lord is immortal; he will surely reform in the Abyss!"
In an instant, the demons fell into complete chaos, a clamorous rout spreading as tens of millions scattered in panic, fleeing aimlessly across the wastelands of Avernus.
*Awoooo—!*
A clear, resounding roar echoed from the heavens, reaching the ears of every creature in Avernus—Cassius had sounded the horn for the final counteroffensive.
Chapter 739