Demonic Dragon: Harem System-Chapter 420: You must be...

Strax clenched his fists, his eyes fixed on the figure that was slowly rising from the rubble. The dust around her began to swirl, being drawn to her body as if it were gravitating around a dormant divine core that was gradually beginning to awaken.

"You said I was Hades," he said, stepping forward. His voice was firm, but now there was a trace of harsh curiosity, almost a demand. "But who are you?"

The elf didn't answer.

She stood up straight, her head down, her silver and green hair covering part of her face. The runes around the clearing began to glow faintly, and the sound of the floating stone at the center of the shrine intensified - no longer melodic, but distorted, like a chant being sung from behind a sealed tomb.

Tiamat raised her hand, but hesitated. "Strax... she's collapsing some form of inner seal. She's... summoning something."

Ouroboros widened his eyes. "It's not possible..."

With a dry snap in the air, the elf raised her head. Her eyes now glowed pure spectral green - no pupils, no humanity.

The chains in her ears tinkled with the sound of clattering bones.

"I will exterminate these pests..." she whispered, and her voice came in layers, reverberating through space as if several versions of her were speaking at once, in different dimensions.

She raised the hand that held an old bow.

The air split with a low, sharp roar, as if the very fabric of the world was being torn apart. From within the dimensional crack, the weapon in her hand transformed.

Not made of wood or metal, but of pure essence. A bow carved from matter that didn't reflect light, but devoured it. It had the appearance of a braided bone with living roots and golden threads pulsing like exposed nerves. The bowstring was a string of tensioned energy that seemed to scream in silence, so intense that it distorted the air around it.

The simple act of wielding it made the surrounding trees bend backwards as if to flee. The floating stone over the center of the shrine emitted a high-pitched scream, and cracks appeared in it as if it recognized the weapon - or feared it.

"Run. I'll hunt you down," she hissed, as an arrow began to form between her fingers - made of black light, surrounded by emerald flames and symbols that formed and shattered every second.

The arrow formed with a cruel slowness - not for lack of power, but for excess of it. The energy was such that the air vibrated, and time around seemed to hesitate. Each symbol that appeared on the surface of the projectile seemed to contain a death sentence written in a forgotten language.

Tiamat took a step back, her eyes fixed on the bow. "She's not aiming at me," she whispered in surprise.

The arrow was aimed directly at Strax. The elf raised her bow.

Without ceremony. Without warning. She fired.

The world held its breath.

The shot tore through the air like silent thunder - a line of black and green energy, too fast for mortal eyes. Where it passed, space bent. The ground cracked. The light itself receded.

Strax didn't try to dodge it.

He just raised his hand.

With a dry snap and a flash of ruddy mana, his fingers closed around the arrow just as it was about to pierce his forehead. The energy exploded around Strax's palm like trapped lightning. The impact pushed his feet back a few centimeters, creating a groove in the ground, but he didn't fall. He didn't stagger.

He was holding the arrow.

And his expression was one of pure disdain.

"You're kidding, right?" he growled, with the arrow still trembling in his hand. The symbols on the shaft glowed, trying to escape - but Strax crushed them with his fingers. The projectile dissolved with a sharp sound, like glass being crushed in a furnace.

His gaze rose, red like hungry coals.

"You throw curse arrows as if they were thunderbolts from the gods..." He took a step forward. The ground sank beneath his boots. "But if you think you can kill me with that..."

CLANG.

His sword came out of its sheath with a metallic roar that made even the shrine's runes fade for a moment.

"...then you have no idea who you're hunting."

The words had barely left Strax's mouth when he disappeared - not with ordinary magic, but with pure space disruption. A red flash streaked the air, and the void where he had been imploded in a puff of inverted gravity.

Before the elf could react, he was already in front of her.

With his eyes burning like a furnace and his fist clenched in crimson flames, Strax struck with concentrated fury. The impact was brutal.

CRACK.

The sound of the blow reverberated throughout the clearing - a crash that seemed to break not just bones, but the very reality around her. The punch hit the elf's rib with such devastating force that her body was flung like a green comet through the trees, passing through trunks as if they were paper and disappearing amidst debris and smoke.

The roots of the forest roared.

Tiamat and Ouroboros instinctively retreated. The earth shook. Ancient runes glowed all over the sanctuary floor - not in activation, but in alarm.

Strax fell to the ground on his knees for a second, his hands braced like an animal in attack position. His aura exploded around his body like black flames dancing in reverse - drawing the light into itself.

He stood up slowly, not looking at his companions. Only forward.

The mist began to dissipate. The spot where the elf had fallen was now a crater. But she was alive.

Very much alive.

The figure emerged from the smoke gasping, bow still in hand, blood dripping from her mouth, but her eyes... brighter than ever.

"You broke my ribs..." she said, surprised - but also excited, almost as if she was rediscovering what it was like to feel pain. "You made me bleed."

Strax walked to the edge of the clearing, firm as a sentence.

"No more bluffing. No more damned nostalgia," he growled. "Do you want to know who I am?"

He spread his arms and roared into the forest:

"Then see me. Feel me."

The energy around him collapsed into his body and then exploded in all directions like a ruddy-black shockwave. The earth cracked beneath his feet, and the sword in his hands roared - alive, hungry, fully awake.

"I'm very nervous..." growled Strax, each word spitting out like embers. His eyes burned, and the muscles in his jaw contracted in an effort to contain his growing fury.

"Because I'm already dealing with a bunch of fucking gods trying to play destiny..." He took a step forward, and the ground crackled under his feet. "And now another one comes along to get in my way?"

The forest answered even before the elf.

Strax's aura lit up like an inverted eclipse - a ruddy red, thick as boiling blood, expanding into spirals of pure condensed rage. Every beat of his heart made the energy pulse like a war drum, distorting the air around him.

Bloodlust spread.

Nearby trees withered in a dry snap. Branches twitched as if trying to escape. Animals - even the largest predators - fled in blind panic, guided by an instinct older than time: absolute fear.

The forest, for an instant, seemed to cease to exist. Only Strax and his wrath remained at the center of that vortex of collapse.

He pointed the blade, now completely engulfed in dark flames, at the fallen goddess.

"Let's see..." his voice came out lower, deeper, as if from inside a crypt "...how much of your arrogance you can sustain... when I rip it out of you by force."

The air around Strax crackled, opening micro-fissures in space as if the world itself was being torn apart by his presence.

The forest was about to meet something worse than a god.

It was about to meet Strax... without control.

The fallen goddess didn't even have time to react.

Strax disappeared - not by speed, but by sheer violation of space. He was simply there, and in the next instant, he was on her.

The first blow struck her belly like thunder incarnate. The impact made the goddess spit emerald blood as her body was thrown backwards, smashing into an ancient tree that screamed as if it were made of flesh.

Before the trunk had even finished breaking, Strax was already on her again.

A second punch. This time to the face. The impact cracked part of her crown of thorns and exploded the ground beneath her feet in a flaming circle.

She tried to summon a defense - a barrier of enchanted vines rose up around her - but Strax broke through like smoke.

Third blow.

Fourth.

Fifth.

The forest no longer dared to breathe.

Each blow was accompanied by an ancient roar, not just of pain or anger, but of decades of oppression, forced choices, alliances with gods who only knew how to demand.

The goddess fell to her knees, her body trembling, her green eyes blinking in disarray, as if the divine connection was being torn apart by Strax's brute force.

He grabbed her by the collar, lifted her body off the ground as if she weighed no more than a rag, and stared into her eyes.

"Are you still convinced that I'm Hades?" he snarled, blood dripping from his closed fist, his voice imbued with pure contempt. "Because he'd make you suffer a lot less."

The goddess coughed, trying to speak. The pride was still there... but it was beginning to crumble. She tried to raise her hand, but couldn't.

"Enough..." she whispered, her voice shaky and broken. "...mercy..."

Strax released her. She fell to the ground like a wet rag, gasping, her aura still burning around her, red eyes glowing in the growing shadow of dusk.

"You spoke of hunting, and considering the gods I've met, you must be Artemis," Strax said as he crouched down beside her. "Are you siding with that son of a bitch Zeus?"