Standing in the middle of fire and chaos, Dante faced the descending dragons.

Nine S-rank beasts of pure elemental power. Not a mindless horde. A council of executioners.

His desperate counterattack had bought them a stalemate. But a stalemate was just a slow death.

The true battle was about to begin.

"Masha!" he roared. His voice raw. "Frost Drake! Match its cold and hold!"

He looked at Kael who was still concussed yet standing protected by Erica. And if he was standing it means he can fight.

"Erica, Kael! Face Storm Drake! Wait for my signal!"

"Eric, Jin! Stone Drake! Defense only! Wait for openings!"

"Lana, Talia! Shadow Drake! Stay mobile!"

'Divide and conquer. It's our only chance. They're stronger, but we're not that far away and there is no other way as well.'

His commands sparked the final phase.

---

Masha stepped forward. The Frost Drake descended toward her. Massive. Ancient. Radiating cold that made the air crystallize.

It breathed. Not fire. Pure, absolute cold.

The blizzard would have frozen them solid months ago. But Masha had changed.

Her S-rank core pulsed. She slammed her grimoire into the ground.

"Eternal Winter's Bulwark!"

A wall of black ice erupted. Not normal ice. Ice so cold it burned. Ice infused with the fire of the Juggernaut's core.

The Drake's blizzard hit the wall.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

The surface spiderwebbed. But held.

The Drake shrieked. Frustrated. It charged. Using its massive body as a battering ram.

BOOM!

The wall shattered. But Masha was ready.

She'd already cast her next spell. A dozen ice spears materialized around her.

"Glacial Barrage!"

They launched. All at once. Striking the Drake's face, neck, wings.

Not to kill. To blind. To slow. To buy time.

'I just need to hold it. That's all. Hold it until—'

The Drake roared. Furious. It unleashed another blizzard. Stronger. Colder.

This time, Masha had no wall.

The cold hit her. Her reinforced body from the pool screamed in protest. Frost spreading across her skin.

'No. Not yet. Not when he's giving everything. I won't fail. I WON'T!'

She poured more mana. Creating a dome around herself. Barely holding.

---

High above, the Storm Drake gathered its power. Lightning coalescing on its scales. The sky turning white with electrical charge.

"Now, Erica!" Dante screamed.

Erica and Kael moved as one. Both launching plasma lances.

FWOOSH! FWOOSH!

But not at the Drake. At the air above it. At the center of the gathering storm.

'Overload it. Turn its own power against it. That's the only way.'

The superheated plasma struck the raw lightning.

For a moment, nothing.

Then—

KRA-KOOM!

The explosion was blinding. The sky turned pure white.

The Storm Drake shrieked. Its own lightning feedback burning through its scales. Sending it tumbling from the sky.

CRASH!

It hit the ground. Hard. Stunned. Smoking.

But not dead. Not even close.

It struggled to rise. Electricity still crackling across its body.

---

The Stone Drake was a living mountain. Granite and obsidian fused into an indestructible form.

Eric charged. No shield. Just his body and his will.

His greaves flared. Anchoring him. He slammed shoulder-first into the Drake's leg.

BOOM!

The impact should have shattered him. Instead, the Drake stumbled.

Jin was already moving. His gauntleted fist blocking a retaliatory swipe.

CLANG!

The force sent shockwaves through his arm. But he held.

His sword darted forward. Seeking the cracks between stone plates.

SCRAPE. SCRAPE.

Nothing. The hide was too tough.

"We can't hurt it!" Jin shouted.

"We don't need to!" Eric yelled back. "Just keep it busy!"

The Drake roared. Lifting both massive arms.

SLAM!

It brought them down. A shockwave erupted. Throwing both fighters back.

Eric coughed blood. The crack in his chest plate spreading. Deepening.

'Hold. Just hold. That's the order. I am counting on you.'

---

The Shadow Drake was the most dangerous. Not because of power. Because of cunning.

It melted into the long shadows cast by the bones. Appearing. Striking. Vanishing.

Talia fought blind. Her Kinetic Eye useless against something that cast no shadow.

She relied on instinct. On the whisper of displaced air. Her daggers spinning in defensive patterns.

CLANG! CLANG!

Blocking claws by sound alone. By feeling.

Lana was grinning. But her eyes were calculating.

"Talia! Keep it moving!"

She fired her crossbow. Not at the Drake. At the walls. At the ground. At the bones.

THWIP! THWIP! THWIP!

Her invisible force bolts ricocheted. Unpredictable angles. Turning the entire area into a death trap.

The Shadow Drake appeared to strike Talia.

A ricochet caught it in the side.

SCREEE!

It shrieked. Revealing its position.

Talia's daggers flashed. Poisoned steel sinking deep into its flank.

The Drake vanished again. But slower. The venom working.

---

While his living army fought desperate holding actions, Dante's titans battled the remaining five dragons.

Ouroboros and Hephaestus were locked in brutal combat.

The Magma Drake breathed fire. Hephaestus met it with its own. A contest of volcanoes.

The Iron Drake was pure physical power. Slamming into Ouroboros with earth-shaking force.

The Venom Drake spat acid. Melting stone. But Ouroboros's ghostly form simply reformed.

But they were losing.

'Too many. Too strong. Even with two S-rank summons, we're being overwhelmed.'

The drain on his mana was crushing.

Ouroboros's seven heads moved slower. Hephaestus's core was dimming.

Around him, his team was faltering.

Masha's ice dome was cracking. She was on one knee. Gasping.

Eric coughed up more blood. The crack in his chest plate spreading across his torso.

Talia cried out as the Shadow Drake's claws raked across her back. Venom eating through armor.

'We're going to lose. All of us. After everything, we're still going to—'

Then he saw it.

The Frost Drake, seeing Masha weakening, charged.

It shattered her ice dome with one massive blow.

CRASH!

Masha flew. Tumbling across the stone. Her grimoire sliding away.

She lay there. Broken. Vulnerable.

The Drake loomed over her. Jaws opening. Cold mist pouring from its throat.

Preparing the final blow.

And something inside Dante shattered.

Not his will. Not his resolve. Something deeper.

The cold calculations. The manipulations. The careful control.

All of it burned away in a single instant of pure, primal rage.

'Not her.'

The thought came unbidden. Unwanted. Terrifying in its honesty.

"GET AWAY FROM HER!"

The scream tore from his throat. Not human. The roar of something cornered and desperate.

He held Soul-Drinker high. And stopped thinking.

He just acted.

The black blade became the focus of his will. His desperation. His rage.

He didn't absorb energy. He ripped it from reality itself.

The fire from the Magma Drake. The cold from the Frost Drake. The lightning from the Storm Drake.

The stone from the Iron Drake. The poison from the Venom Drake.

Everything scattered in the ground around him every trace of energy.

All of it. Everything.

He pulled it into the sword.

SCREEE!

The blade screamed. A sound of tortured metal. Of a mortal object forced to contain divine power.

His body became the channel.

Fire burning. Ice freezing. Lightning electrocuting. Stone crushing. Poison corroding.

All at once. All together.

"AAAAGH!"

The pain was beyond description. Beyond comprehension.

Like being torn apart and put back together and torn apart again. Every second. Forever.

His skin cracked. Blood pouring from every orifice. His eyes. His ears. His nose.

'I won't let her die. I WON'T!'

He didn't know if it was protectiveness of his tool. Or just the desperate need to protect something that was his.

He didn't care.

He poured that stolen, chaotic, impossible power into his summons.

Ouroboros swelled. Transformed.

Its pure darkness became shot through with veins of fire. Tendrils of ice. Arcs of lightning. Fragments of stone. Rivers of poison.

No longer a creature of the void. An embodiment of elemental apocalypse.

All seven heads opened wide.

And unleashed hell.

Not darkness. Not void. Pure, concentrated elemental chaos.

The dragons didn't stand a chance.

The beams struck. And didn't kill. They unmade.

Scales, bone, flesh, spirit. All of it simply ceased to exist.

Hephaestus roared. Its obsidian shell glowing white-hot. The core in its chest becoming a miniature star.

It unleashed everything.

A full-body detonation of volcanic fury.

BOOM!

The shockwave flattened everything. The remaining Wyverns. Three of the dragons.

When the fires died, silence fell.

The dragons were gone. Simply gone. Erased from existence.

The floating island was a ruin. Cratered. Melted. Frozen. A testament to the war they'd survived.

Dante collapsed.

Soul-Drinker clattered from his hand. Every inch of his body was agony.

Bleeding from everywhere. Coughing black blood. Vision fading.

'Is she... did I...'

He tried to look. To see if Masha was alive.

But his body wouldn't respond.

Around him, his team was equally broken.

Jin leaned on his sword. His left arm hanging wrong.

Talia was unconscious. Lana shielding her. Both covered in poisonous gashes.

Kael was waking. Groaning. Erica beside him. Both smoking from lightning feedback.

Masha was a crumpled heap. But her chest rose and fell. Shallow. But breathing.

Rina was on her knees. Hands glowing weakly. Trying to heal. Failing. Tears streaming.

'We did it. We actually survived.'

Then a new sound.

Not a roar. Not magic.

Shing.

The soft sound of a sword being drawn.

They all looked up.

Eric, their unbreakable wall, was trying to stand. His eyes wide with sudden terror.

He let out a choked sound.

Shnk.

A sword, impossibly sharp and pale, had been driven through his back. Emerging from his chest.

He looked down. Confused. Then back at them.

The sword was wrenched free.

Shliick.

Crimson sprayed across white stone.

A second figure appeared. A flash of steel.

Eric's arm—the one that had held against gods was severed.

THUMP.

It hit the ground.

He staggered. Mouth opening. Trying to speak.

Another flash.

And his head tumbled free.

THUD.

Rolling to stop at Dante's feet. Eyes still open. Forever betrayed.

"Eric..." Jin whispered. Breaking.

Dante looked up.

Six of them. Silhouetted against dying fires.

Students. Young. Healthy. Well-equipped.

But their eyes were empty. Of sanity. Of mercy. Of humanity.

And they were smiling.

"Well, well," one said. A girl with twin daggers. Voice cheerful. "Someone did our work for us."

"Ten S-rank dragons," a boy with a warhammer added. "Impressive."

A girl with a bow smiled wider.

"Now they'll die after a real success what a irony"

Dante tried to move. His body wouldn't respond.

Tried to summon. His mana was empty.

Tried to lift his sword. His arms were dead.

'No. Not like this. We survived hell. We can't die to students. We CAN'T!'

But he couldn't move. None of them could.

They'd given everything.

And now they had nothing left.

The six began walking forward. Weapons ready. Smiles wide.

And there was nothing Dante could do to stop them.

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