Shhhlllcccssshh~

The flames flicked around the entire street, licking the buildings like living serpents hungry for the world's end.

Heat shimmered through the air, bending reality as Dracula stood before the roaring inferno, watching everything burn and collapse. He stood still, a silhouette of cold arrogance against the blaze, wearing a wicked smile as he stared at the once fuel bank, now nothing but twisted metal and smouldering destruction.

"Good" he muttered, staring at the burning car as if admiring a piece of art created for his amusement.

He could see Camaztoz burning within the wreckage, his black sludge dripping from his pitiful body like molten tar, falling apart piece by piece as if he were literally melting into the earth.

"Pity that you had to go this way… till the end you are nothing but a toy for me" he smirked as he focused on the driver's seat… for a second, he frowned, unable to see clearly through the writhing flames.

It was hard to see through the flames until… as he tilted his head, the inferno parted just enough, and his eyes widened in disbelief when he saw… the driver's seat was just empty?

"Where? Did he get pulverised?" Dracula muttered with a slightly confused tone, irritation edging into his voice as he wondered if Leo really got pulverised by the flames after all.

The blast had been strong enough to shatter buildings, much less spare that pathetic human Leo.

Dracula hummed with a small sigh, more amused than affected. "Not even ashes? Talk about fucking fate," he smirked. "Anyway, where is the relic?" he muttered. He searched the ruins with narrowed eyes, glaring through smoke and embers, but there was nothing there… where had it gone?

It too got pulverised?

No. That didn't fit.

He was fucking sure he saw the glimpse of a blue light separating from Camaztoz. Just as he lost in thought, he frowned when his ears twitched furiously…

Trrrrr!

He heard a dragging sound… not quite close. It was distant, echoing faintly as if someone was dragging something heavy through scorched streets. The sound grew weaker, not stronger... someone escaping?

Dracula's eyes widened,

"That HUMAN!!! HOW DARE HE TRICK ME!!!"

Meanwhile, through the streets far from Dracula, a reddish-black-haired man dragged the relic while his legs bled furiously, leaving a trail behind him. Yet his face was twisted with a smirk and wicked satisfaction, the kind only someone who cheated death could wear.

"What? Did he think I'd fucking believe him? Hahaha," Leo chuckled, breathless but amused, as one hand clenched the metal rope that caught the relic and his sword.

Leo, of course, didn't believe that asshole. The moment he turned the car to a sharp turn was the moment he rolled out of the car.

But how did the car speed up?

That's a classic trick: the rock on the accelerator and a stick to the wheel so that it didn't turn on its own.

Simple yet enough to fool someone blinded by arrogance.

That one second was the thing he needed. Dracula took a second to turn the corner, which was enough for Leo to execute his plan, landing in the alley and just enough to catch the relic as well!

Pretty pathetic to see the great Dracula actually fall for this lame trick, but who cares as long as Leo had his fun!

"Oh dear… the fun just began!" Leo smirked as he clenched his teeth. The hissing sound echoed as his legs boosted, running faster with magic thrumming beneath his skin.

The relic was being dragged behind him, glowing faintly with power, sparks scraping off the asphalt. His eyes focused on the highest building ahead.

He was almost reaching it.

Almost reaching it!

Almost—

"MONGREL!!!"

Dracula appeared furiously, the air cracking around him as if reality itself recoiled from his rage. His eyes bulged in anger, burning red with a fury he couldn't explain in a single word — a wrath born from humiliation, from disbelief that he had been tricked by this pathetic, useless human!

Three magic circles rotated around his body, each glowing with different shades of crimson. They spun faster, humming with bloodlust as Dracula fired different types of blood-morphed weapons at Leo — spears that twisted mid-air, axes that howled like hungry beasts, and needles that pierced through the ground with explosive force.

"Shit!" Leo clenched his fist as he zig-zagged across the street, running with desperate, reckless speed. The spears, axes, and needles slammed on the ground right where he had just stood, the asphalt erupting in violent bursts. Leo felt panic biting his legs; he almost reached the building.

He couldn't lose now… not after everything.

Dracula clenched his fist. Suddenly, the blood weapons that stabbed into the ground dissolved, liquefying into thick red sludge before flowing into the ground like veins crawling toward prey, before breaching the earth like fractures spreading across the asphalt.

Leo's legs shook, a tremor of dread running through him before he could even make his next move, when—

A huge blood hand erupted from the ground.

It burst upward with a violent roar, breaking the asphalt in a shower of dust and debris. The monstrous hand rose, fingers curling like talons, and before Leo even understood what happened... he was in its palm.

And—

Crack!

The bloody hand clenched tightly!

For a second, there was no sound… just pure silence, the kind that freezes the world. Dracula's haughty smirk cut through the stillness as he stepped forward.

"You should have died there… See, now you had to suffer in my hands… Why do humans keep chasing suffering rather than ending themselves for good?"

As he landed right beside the hand, he waved it lazily. The hand slowly opened its palm…

There he was.

Crushed.... Broken and barely moving.

Leo's body trembled violently, his hands twisted in a weird, unnatural position, and his legs… God, how was he still alive?

Bones poked beneath the skin, muscles torn and shredded. He was in a position nobody should ever be forced into — a mangled heap of pain.

He couldn't even scream. His jaw was twisted, hanging at an impossible angle, and his tongue was bitten clean through.

Dracula looked at him with an amused expression, seeing Leo's bulging eyes, wide and shaking, almost tearing on their own. The sight excited him!

Tears flowed from Leo's eyes... the pain... was fucking hitting his brain!

Dracula nodded slowly, admiring his handiwork. "Now you look perfect… just fucking perfect," he said as he licked his lips before turning to the relic lying on the road. He walked toward it, his eyes turning strangely pitiful, almost tender.

"Look at you? None would see your worth… They dragged you like a piece of shit, and only I am worthy of holding you!" he muttered with a romantic, unsettling expression, as if he were literally falling in love with the relic or something twisted beyond comprehension.

Just as his hands were about to touch the relic… to finally take the beauty and win the war and end this madness once and for all, when—

Fliprrrr~

A wet yet cracked sound snapped the air, making him flinch. His hand halted mid-reach as he slowly looked up…

There he was.

Camazotz.

A bony figure half alive and half dead, half flesh and half exposed bone, his remaining organs pulsing like dying embers. Literally half of his body was burned away, yet his corpse-like form still moved.

Everything was covered in sticky black liquid, dripping like oil from a shattered statue. His hollow socket eyes stared at Dracula with an emotionless, abyssal hatred. One wing was burned flesh; the other was nothing but bone — both fluttering in the air!

His throat bulged furiously, swelling as if something monstrous was gathering inside. The air around him hollowed, sucked inward violently like the world itself was shrinking. Dracula's face turned pale, his hand twitching away from the relic in delayed fear.

Before he could even budge, before he could disappear, before he could save himself—

KKKKKKKKKKKKKYYYYYYYYYRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!

A powerful sonic boom erupted from his mouth, a monstrous roar that carried enough destructive force to erase an entire province… The sonic blast tore through the air like a divine punishment, shattering buildings into fragments, then pulverising those fragments into dust, vaporising them entirely.

The wave of pressure surged outward with terrifying speed, spreading across the land like ripples on water… except these ripples annihilated everything they touched.

Essa and her group, who were walking through the street, suddenly felt the shift. Essa flinched, sensing it before anyone else. "Everyone get behind me!" she shouted. She raised her hand, and a greenish barrier manifested instantly, shimmering like living emerald light as it covered her entire group.

The wave of pressure surged forward — a crushing, world-shattering force — destroying everything in its path!!

The buildings collapsed around them, falling like dying giants. Azrael hugged Raphael, and Raphael held Ophis and Valra tightly as they all clenched their eyes shut, bracing for the end.

Even the flames that had been slowly devouring the buildings were suddenly blown away. The sonic wave extinguished the inferno as if it were nothing more than candlelight in the wind.

For a second… There was nothing but silence. A silence so absolute it felt unnatural.

And destruction.

Everything was destroyed!

Everything had collapsed!

And everything… returned back?!!

The police officer who was standing on the bridge felt his clothes whip violently from the sudden force. He grabbed the rail with both hands as the shockwave blasted past him, nearly throwing him over. His eyes widened as he saw the buildings, the flows of flames, the debris — all blowing off the surroundings, almost hitting him. He closed his eyes for a brief moment, bracing himself, then slowly opened them.

The entire province had returned back to the usual burned state — the huge crater… nothing but darkness except for scorched earth.

The land turned to blackened soil, broken rocks, and a massive crater.

Nothing else!

Just like it had been for the past decade.

Everything disappeared… those new buildings, those new lights, those streets… everything vanished as if they had never existed at all!

There was not even the destruction that had just happened before… not even the fallen buildings or broken structures.

Just pure, scorched ground except… the relic that hovered in the air.

Its petals flourished and trembled, glowing faintly as blue energy leaked from its top, drifting upward like ethereal smoke, as if it was waiting — waiting for something to end.

Around it… Three figures lay on the ground.

Dracula, whose body was healing, grotesquely stitching itself back together as his form had been blasted into countless pieces when the sonic wave hit him directly.

And… Leo, whose body was perfectly fine?!

Only his shirt was shredded, nothing else. Except for the pants that were torn but still intact. His upper body was completely exposed, but no mortal damage.

For a moment, he didn't move at all, lying still like a dead man, until—

"Cough, cough"

Leo suddenly coughed as his eyes widened. Each cough expelled shimmering white particles drifting out of his mouth like fragments of broken starlight. He clenched his stomach, wincing with a painful expression.

"Damn that hurts…" he muttered. His whole body throbbed like hell, every nerve screaming with echoes of the pain he suffered before, as if remembering the crushing death he narrowly escaped.

But then he exhaled sharply and whispered, "T-Thank goodness… I saved the last healing stone at the right moment."

He muttered the words while rubbing his teeth, spitting out any remaining white stone fragments inside his mouth — remnants of the healing stone that saved him.

Before looking up… the relic was there hovering, glowing softly as it slowly rotated on its own axis, shedding faint streams of blue light like falling petals. Leo frowned at the sight before shaking his head, wiping the blood from his lips.

"So you finally finished your game?" he muttered, voice low and rough as he pushed himself up. His legs screamed in pain, dragging weakly across the scorched ground, each step sending a sharp ache up his spine. Still, he reached for his sword, pulling it into his grip with trembling fingers before slowly moving forward.

His legs were dragging and painful.

Yet he moved toward his end goal, his battered body refusing to stop. His lips curled into a wicked smile despite his pain.

'That One Billion is fucking mine!' he thought with a sly grin, eyes locked on the relic as if it were the crown of the heavens itself.

Meanwhile,

"Arrh!" Dracula groaned as his eyes slowly fluttered open, the world spinning around him. His body, torn apart by the earlier shockwave, slowly stitched itself back together, bones knitting and blood reversing its flow.

He blinked through the haze as he looked up— and his eyes widened.

Leo was still moving?

How?

No! Now was not the time to think about it—

"W-Where am I?"

Dracula flinched when he heard that voice. It was right beside him. He turned to the side and… saw Camazotz?

No.

Not the monster.

Not the half-melted, black-sludged abomination.

Just… normal Fallen Camazotz.

The one he actually knew.

"Oi? Are you… Alright?" Dracula asked, unsure whether he wanted the answer.

Camazotz blinked slowly, rubbing his temples. "What do you think? Asshole?"

Dracula's lips twitched. That tone... that was definitely him.

Camazotz's body was slowly healing up, too, flesh re-forming, bones pulling together, the black sludge drying and falling away like old scabs. The last thing he remembered was facing Ophis and…

"Shit, oi fucking Dracula, you didn't tell me about your fucking daughte—"

"We need to move now!" Dracula interrupted sharply, panic rising in his chest as he pointed toward Leo, who was already reaching the relic.

Camazotz blinked.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.