Chapter 277: The Darkness Dragon Attacks
In the distant lands of the Demon King Rohan, a group of demons conversed with the relaxed tone of those who had achieved victory without the slightest effort.
Five Infernal-rank demons, four Abyssals, and a dragon in humanoid form walked as if they owned the place.
"Hey, Luka," commented one of the Infernals, wiping the sweat from his forehead and looking at the dragon with annoyance.
"You should revert to your true form. If you carried us all on your back, we would return quickly to the fortress."
The dragon disguised as a human stopped for a second and looked at him with profound disdain. Luka flatly refused.
"Not even in your wildest dreams will I let you use me as a horse," Luka said, crossing his arms. "I will not allow anyone of your pathetic level to ride me. The only being in this world who has the power and the right to do something like that is my lord, the demon king Rigal."
Faced with the dragon’s harsh reprimand, one of the younger Infernal-rank demons clenched his fists in frustration.
"Just wait and see," the young demon commented, lifting his chin. "Someday I will also be immensely strong, I will ascend to king, and I will have my own personal dragon to carry me through the skies."
It was then that the rest of the demons and Luka himself burst into loud laughter, mocking him without mercy.
"You are delusional, Allen," said one of the Abyssals, patting the young man’s back with so much force he almost knocked him to the ground.
"That is simply impossible for someone with your lineage. You better settle for just delivering the report of this mission, and with a lot of luck, maybe someday you can ascend to leader of a small squad."
Luka, the dragon, ignored Allen’s complaints and looked toward the dark horizon with a smile of superiority.
"This mission was far too easy," Luka commented, stretching his arms. "There was not a single challenge worthy of my power."
"Of course it was," one of the Abyssals nodded with pride. "The demon king Rigal will be immensely pleased with us when we deliver the results to him. We better return immediately to receive our reward."
"That stupid demon king Rohan will not be able to avoid falling right into our lord Rigal’s trap after what we did today," another Infernal commented, imagining the imminent fall of their rival kingdom.
They all began to laugh again, celebrating their success in advance.
But their loud voices suddenly fell silent, cut short by an anomaly in the environment.
A voice completely foreign to their squad, a female voice, soft and highly melodic, also let out a laugh among the trees.
"Who goes there?!" Luka yelled, immediately going on guard.
The demons instinctively drew their weapons, wondering how it was possible for someone to get so close without being detected. They looked frantically in all directions, but the landscape was empty.
They saw absolutely nothing more than rocks and dust.
Then, the environment changed in a visually terrifying way.
The rocky ground beneath their feet began to quickly be covered by a kind of black, dense, unnatural smoke. It was not simple fog; it behaved like a liquid shadow that devoured light, creeping up their boots as if it were alive.
The female laughter increased in volume, but it echoed with a ghostly, multidirectional resonance. It was impossible for the Abyssals’ sharp ears to distinguish exactly where the threat was coming from.
The entire landscape had turned into a dark abyss.
Then, the deafening sound of the wind was replaced by the sharp, clean whistle of multiple invisible slashes.
It was like a dance. In the blink of an eye, the head of an Abyssal fell heavily onto the dark ground. Then another fell. An Infernal-rank’s heart was cleanly pierced from behind before he could even scream.
"That magic... Is it the darkness dragon?!" exclaimed one of the surviving Abyssals, his eyes wide with terror. "What the hell is she doing here?!"
"Luka, do something!" another desperate demon yelled, seeking the protection of their strongest member.
But the answer he got froze his blood. With a dull thud, the humanoid body of Luka the dragon fell lifelessly onto the puddle of shadows, his throat completely destroyed.
"Who are you, show yourself!" the remaining demons yelled.
Their attacker’s silhouette moved too fast for their eyes. She seemed to be made of the night itself. She would appear out of nowhere, materializing in the air, kill with a single fluid movement, and plunge back into the shadows before the blood even touched the ground.
"Ha ha ha," the mysterious woman laughed, genuinely enjoying the panic of her prey.
And finally, she appeared before them with a terrifying elegance.
Her feet did not seem to touch the solid ground, but rather distorted and perfectly merged with the darkness of the floor, as if she herself were the creator of that liquid abyss.
Janina became visible. Her beautiful short pink hair was perfectly styled, creating a hypnotic and unreal contrast with the grotesque scene of death around her.
In her right hand, she gracefully held a fan. But it was not a normal accessory; it was a lethal weapon with immensely sharp, bloodstained metal tips.
That beautiful, small tool was exactly what she used to decapitate the demon generals with such ease.
"I cannot use my elemental manifestation!" yelled one of the Abyssals, unsuccessfully trying to ignite his hands in fire.
"I cannot channel mana either, what the hell is going on?!" Allen responded, trembling upon seeing the girl with the fan.
Janina looked at them with a smile laden with pure superiority, closing her fan with a sharp snap that echoed in the silence of the massacre.
"You are complete idiots," Janina said with a sweet but venomous voice.
"You spent more than half of all your strength reserves in this place fulfilling your treacherous mission, and because of that, your weakened bodies cannot resist my technique."
She walked toward them, and the darkness parted in her path.
"Although, I must admit I can only use this seal of silence when my targets’ mana is reduced to exactly half their total capacity. But... you will keep this little secret for me, okay? In the grave, I mean."
Before the demons could process the explanation or try to flee, Janina disappeared again.
Her agility and speed were purely visual, a pink and black flash that crossed the space. The remaining demons fell to the ground, cut to pieces with the same ease that scissors cut a thread.
Then, the beautiful dragoness approached the last demon still alive with slow, silent steps.
"Your name is Allen, right?" Janina asked, tilting her head.
Before he could beg for his life, Janina pierced the young demon’s chest with her bare hand. Her slender fingers sank into his flesh, and she roughly stirred his insides, causing him an agony so intense it stole his breath away.
Janina’s eyes shone brightly. And seeing that unnatural glow, Allen became even more paralyzed. It was the authentic look of a powerful and ancient scaly predator who felt absolutely no empathy for her prey.
Her entire appearance of a cute and refined girl was just a perfect facade that she was now acting out for her own amusement.
All his comrades were dead.
And heavy tears of helplessness and pain fell down the Infernal demon’s cheeks.
"You are very, very weak, and yet you so proudly claimed that you wanted to have your own personal dragon?" She laughed subtly, bringing her beautiful face close to his.
"Do you know why we high-ranking dragons make loyalty contracts with demon kings?" Janina whispered, enjoying the smell of fear.
"It is simply because their dense and overwhelming element of darkness is very delicious to us. It is the best food. Ah... I can already just imagine the incredible reward and the mana feast waiting for me when I return home with my lady Ophelia. Do you understand now?"
She asked, fixing her bright eyes on the demon’s pale, dying face.
"That is why insignificant, pathetic, and weak beings like you, or like fragile humans, would never in your lives be fit for superior beings like us to obey you."
Janina looked at the demon, expecting to see the final despair in his eyes, but she was met with the empty stare of a corpse.
"Tsk," Janina clicked her tongue, pulling her bloody hand out of Allen’s chest and letting the body drop like a trash bag.
"This loser died without me finishing speaking. What terrible manners Rigal’s subordinates have."
Janina shook the blood off her hand, but before she could put her fan away, an immense and powerful presence touched her mind.
’Janina!’ Queen Ophelia’s telepathic voice resonated strongly in the darkness dragoness’s mind.
"Lady Ophelia, I hear you loud and clear," Janina replied instantly, changing her sadistic tone for a highly respectful one.
"I am done here, I made sure the demon king’s subordinates will not return as reinforcements. I will go to you right now, my lady."
’I am very glad everything went well over there and that the ambush was a success,’ Ophelia commented through the mental link.
’But I do not need you to come here. Everything has already ended in this place. Rigal has died.’
"Oh, wow, as expected of my incredible lady Ophelia," Janina said with a huge smile of adoration. "You managed to easily defeat that damn demon king in his own territory."
’...’
Her queen’s strange, heavy silence on the other end of the telepathy made her hesitate.
"Is something wrong, lady Ophelia?" Janina asked, worried.
’It was not me who killed him, Janina. It was our human ally, Ryan.’
"Ho..." Janina widened her eyes, and the surprise left her speechless for a second.
"That certainly is a disconcerting surprise. I do not remember that human having so much magical talent when I saw him. How did he manage to become so strong in just a couple of days?"
’...I do not fully understand it myself either,’ Ophelia admitted with a mental sigh.
’But trying to think about that makes no sense right now. The main issue is that everything is already over here, and I want you to return to Kainon immediately. I do not trust the security of my lands at all if you are not there guarding.’
"Ho... but I really wanted to go with you and see you in your moment of glory, lady Ophelia," Janina complained with a clear childish and apathetic tone, dragging out her words.
"Anyway. If it is an order, I will go..."
’Do not complain now,’ Ophelia scolded her slightly.
’If you obey and arrive quickly, I will give you double your usual reward. So, go on, hurry. And keep me informed of any news.’
"Oh! If the offer is like that, I cannot refuse for anything in the world," Janina replied, instantly recovering her bright smile, imagining her mistress’s delicious reward.
She cut the telepathic connection and looked toward the south.
The liquid darkness beneath her feet began to agitate violently, enveloping her body in a whirlwind of shadows. Her scaly eyes shone one last time in the middle of the demon king Rohan’s lands.
"Then. It is time for me to go to Kainon," Janina murmured, disappearing into the air, leaving behind nothing more than a trail of mutilated corpses under the daylight.