Chapter 499: Celebrity In CinderFall
The room fell into a silence so complete that even the distant sounds of soldiers outside seemed to disappear. Fulgur remained frozen at the top of the ruined staircase, staring at Damian’s back with complete shock written across his face.
He had always been awed by Damian’s victory against Kaizer, and even before learning the truth about the Abyss, he had possessed an immense amount of respect for the young Prince who had accomplished what seemed impossible. Yet admiration had never completely erased the questions in his mind. Fulgur had served Kaizer for an extremely long time.
He knew exactly how powerful the red dragon was, and he knew that defeating him was not something that could simply be attributed to clever tactics or superior combat ability.
Even Fulgur’s own coup had only achieved a limited degree of success despite the enormous preparation behind it. Before confronting Kaizer, Fulgur had secretly poisoned him for days, taking advantage of the Emperor’s notorious drinking habit to introduce small quantities of poison into his drinks until the accumulated effects significantly weakened his body and interfered with his ability to circulate his demonic force.
Fulgur had then launched his rebellion while Kaizer was at his weakest, yet even with that advantage, the battle had ended in a crushing defeat. Kaizer had torn through the rebellion, Fulgur himself had been severely wounded, and the entire plan had collapsed.
To the outside world, the only explanation for Kaizer’s current absence had been the terrible wound Fulgur inflicted upon him years ago, with the red dragon supposedly still recovering from that devastating attack.
Fulgur, however, understood the truth.
The wound Kaizer had been struggling to recover from was not from his attack. The poison had continued ravaging his weakened body, preventing him from fully recovering and that was the real reason why the Emperor of Wrath had been unable to personally come to the western province.
"LORD KAIZERRRRR!" Kai screamed, throwing his head backward as his voice thundered through the manor.
He waited for the familiar oppressive presence of Wrath to descend upon the area, but nothing happened. There was no response.
Kai’s face slowly stiffened as reality began settling over him. Kaizer truly was not coming. Koi, meanwhile, could not take her terrified gaze away from Damian. The young Prince stood before them with an amused grin, completely unconcerned by the fact that he was surrounded by enemies inside the very realm governed by one of the most powerful beings in existence.
There was no hesitation in his posture, no uncertainty in his eyes, and most disturbingly, no indication that he believed himself to be in danger.
Damian looked at the two dragons as though he had already decided their fate. "I have always wanted to gain the dragon inheritance for myself, and now I have the chance."
Damian said calmly as he stretched out one hand. Black flames immediately erupted around his palm, twisting violently for a moment before condensing into a single enormous greatsword.
The weapon was completely black, its surface swallowing the light around it while faint crimson cracks pulsed along the blade like veins carrying something alive.
The pressure emanating from it made the air itself feel heavier, and even Fulgur could sense that whatever had been created by those black flames was far beyond an ordinary weapon.
"We will leave! We will leave! Spare us!" Koi begged, the fear in her voice finally overwhelming whatever pride she had left.
She took several steps backward, her eyes fixed on the Abyssal weapon while Kai remained beside her, equally tense despite trying to hide it.
Damian merely shook his head.
He raised the greatsword over his head with one hand, his expression almost sympathetic as he looked at them.
"You have seen too much to be left alive."
He chuckled, and the words immediately destroyed whatever hope remained in their expressions. Fear twisted into desperation, and desperation quickly became rage when they realized that pleading would accomplish nothing. Koi’s pupils narrowed as her body began expanding, black scales erupting across her skin while her demonic force surged outward.
"I’LL KILL YOU THEN!" Koi roared, abandoning all pretense of retreat.
BOOOM!
The entire estate exploded violently as the two dragons transformed and burst through the remaining structure, their enormous black bodies erupting into the open air. The force of their transformation demolished the upper floors and sent debris raining down across the courtyard, while Damian and Fulgur were propelled into the sky amid the destruction.
Kai and Koi opened their enormous jaws simultaneously, revealing blazing orange light accumulating deep within their throats. The flames continued gathering until the heat became so intense that the surrounding air distorted visibly.
Fulgur’s eyes widened when he recognized the technique. Even in his weakened condition, he knew exactly what was coming. The Twin Dragons of Wrath were not ordinary dragons, and their combined breath attack possessed enough destructive power to annihilate entire sections of a battlefield.
"Heavenly Dragon’s Breath!"
Buzz!
Two concentrated beams of brilliant orange flame erupted from their mouths and raced toward Damian and Fulgur with terrifying speed. The surrounding air screamed from the sheer heat as the attacks tore through everything in their path.
Fulgur instinctively attempted to summon his demonic force, but his wounded body immediately protested, his chest seizing with pain as he realized he could do nothing.
Damian, however, did not even flinch. His raised hand simply shifted its grip on the greatsword, and as the two beams approached, he swung the weapon horizontally with so little effort that Fulgur almost failed to understand what he was seeing.
A vast arc of darkness erupted from the blade and swept across the sky. The two streams of Heavenly Dragon’s Breath were split cleanly down the middle, the flames separating around the black arc as though they had encountered an invisible wall. The attack continued forward without losing momentum, passing through the enormous bodies of Kai and Koi before they could react.
Their heads separated from their bodies.
Fulgur stared in disbelief, his mouth slightly open as he struggled to process what he had just witnessed.
"Just like that?" The thought escaped him as he looked at Damian.
How could Kai and Koi, two powerful dragons who had fought countless battles under Kaizer, have been defeated with a single swing?
Their dragon scales were renowned for their incredible durability, yet the Abyssal sword had passed through them as though their bodies offered no resistance whatsoever. Fulgur had fought beside Kai before. He knew how strong the dragon was. Seeing him reduced to a corpse in a single attack made the gap between Damian and ordinary demigods painfully clear.
"There will be nothing left!" Damian hissed as he closed his free hand into a fist. Black flames immediately erupted around his knuckles, and without wasting another moment, he punched downward.
The air beneath his fist distorted violently as countless streams of Abyssal flame poured toward the estate. They fell like a black waterfall from the heavens, spreading across the ruins and consuming everything they touched.
The bodies of Kai and Koi were swallowed by the flames. Not even Lord Mier was fortunate enough to escape.
Damian’s gaze swept across the hundreds of soldiers caught inside his Illusionary Domain, and he moved his hand again. More black flames erupted outward, rolling across the courtyard and consuming everything in their path.
The soldiers screamed as they were swallowed by the darkness, but the screams never escaped the domain. To the outside world, the entire scene remained hidden behind the overlapping supernatural effects Damian had established.
Fulgur watched in horror as hundreds of demonic soldiers vanished beneath the Abyssal flames. There was no prolonged battle and no desperate resistance.
The soldiers simply disappeared, their bodies and demonic force reduced to nothing as the flames consumed them. Within mere seconds, the estate and the surrounding area had been completely cleared.
Fulgur slowly raised his gaze toward the enormous black barrier surrounding the area, and understanding began to dawn upon him. He could still feel the strange distortion caused by Damian’s Illusionary Domain, and now he realized there had to be another layer above it.
The illusionary domain served as the first layer with the main purpose of hiding realm zero. It reminded Fulgur of the false world Damian had created during his battle against Kaizer.
"How did you get your hand on such an inheritance?" Fulgur finally muttered, still staring at Damian with a mixture of awe and unease.
Damian casually shrugged as though the question could wait. "I’ll tell you back in Velmora, but for now we need to get out of here."
Damian said before snapping his fingers.
Abel immediately vanished in a puff of black smoke, and the darkness surrounding them began collapsin as Realm Zero disappeared.
At the same time, the Fox Illusionary Domain dissolved, and the hundreds of soldiers and civilians who had been waiting patiently to could finally see them.
Buzz!
The crowd watching the estate from a safe distance erupted into shocked cries when they saw what remained. The luxurious manor had been completely flattened. The soldiers who had surrounded it were nowhere to be seen, the crimson arrays had disappeared, and the powerful barrier that had sealed the property had vanished as though it had never existed.
Standing amid the destruction was a single human dressed in black ceremonial robes with long black hair, with Fulgur standing beside him. The crowd initially struggled to recognize the figure but the distinctive patterns embroidered across his robes eventually caught their attention. Someone among the crowd stared for several seconds before their expression changed completely.
"The Prince of Velmora..." someone muttered.
The words spread rapidly through the crowd, and disbelief swept across the gathered demons. Everyone knew Damian. Everyone had heard of the Prince who had defeated Kaizer. Yet knowing that he had entered Cinderfall was one thing. Seeing him standing beside Fulgur after destroying an entire estate and apparently eliminating everyone inside it was something else entirely.
Why would the Prince of Velmora come all the way into Cinderfall to save Fulgur?
What connection could possibly exist between the two of them?
The questions spread through the crowd almost as quickly as the rumors about Fulgur’s capture had done.
Among them, Loyd remained disguised beneath the appearance of an ordinary demon, his eyes fixed upon Damian with barely concealed disbelief. He had known Damian was powerful. Yet even Loyd had not expected him to actually storm into the estate, kill the Twin Dragons of Wrath and erase hundreds of soldiers before walking out with Fulgur alive.
"He actually did it... He slaughtered everyone." Loyd muttered under his breath, his expression caught somewhere between awe and fear.
Then the crowd erupted.
RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
The roar rolled through the streets as hundreds of Fulgur’s supporters raised their voices in celebration. They had spent hours believing their hero had finally been captured and that Kaizer’s forces would drag him back to the capital for execution. Instead, someone had appeared from another realm and taken him away directly from under the noses of Wrath’s soldiers.
As stubborn supporters of Fulgur, they naturally welcomed anyone willing to stand beside the dragon who had taken the bold step that so many others had been too afraid to take. Their cheers grew louder as they began chanting and celebrating in the streets.
Damian allowed himself a small grin as he looked over the crowd, though he knew he could not remain in Cinderfall for long. His gaze moved across the faces surrounding the ruins until it found the disguised Loyd. Their eyes met for only a moment, but it was enough.
Damian did not need to speak aloud. His voice entered Loyd’s mind directly. ’It’s time to go... Move it.’
Loyd immediately understood and subtly began moving through the crowd, keeping his disguise intact as he created a path away from the gathering without drawing attention to himself.
Purple flames suddenly erupted around Damian and Fulgur, wrapping around their bodies as the air distorted around them. Fulgur barely had time to react before the two figures vanished from sight, leaving nothing.
The crowd continued cheering at the top of their voices, unaware that the person they had just celebrated had already disappeared. Their excitement only grew as they realized what had happened. Their hero was no longer in the hands of Kaizer. He was now under the protection of the same man who had once defeated the Emperor of Wrath.
Meanwhile, the entire western province of Cinderfall descended into chaos. Tens of thousands of soldiers who had been mobilized to search for Fulgur were suddenly given two urgent tasks, neither of which they had anticipated.
The first was to determine what had happened to Kai, Koi and the two hundred soldiers who had accompanied them to Lord Mier’s estate. The second was far more dangerous. They had to find the Prince of Lust.