Dragon King: Throne of Demons and Gods-Chapter 195: Act IV, Scene III: The Ravager and the King

Bel kept his mind calm and cold. He thought back to his fight with Mammon.

Back then, he only used raw destruction, with his complete form. It had barely worked.

Against the Slumbering King, that would be a problem. If he used his dragon form now, he would lose speed and precision. So he had to use his human and draconic forms, at least for the beginning, holding his void orb, ready to rely on speed, control, and timing.

This fight would decide where he stood among the Demon Lords.

The three made a triangle on the broken platform. Bel, with his scythe raised, purple aura slowly coiling. The Slumbering King stood like a mountain, immobile. Aurus stayed at the side, tense, his sword lifted like a drawn bow.

The silence dragged, pressing down on all of them. It was the silence before the main event of this whole expedition began.

Behind Bel, Regulus focused. Between a former hero and two Demon Lords, he was nothing. But his new condition gave him a chance to help in some way.

Then, the Slumbering King moved. His body shook slightly at first, and slowly, the ground trembled.

"Erase me from the race? Do you think all of us are as weak as Mammon?"

A crushing shockwave blasted out. Stone cracked, puppets flew apart like broken dolls, and the ground split.

"Let me show you the power of a true King."

His aura exploded, mixing streaks of black and white, breaking the platform under him.

Aurus was thrown back, but he caught himself on a floating rock. Dust swirled as he looked down, eyes widening.

In the middle of the impact, Bel had not been thrown. His boots dug into the stone, cracks spreading, but he stood firm. His body bent, muscles tense, but he remained on his feet. His eyes never left the King.

He clenched every muscle in his arms and legs. Then, in a blink, he was gone, leaving a crater behind.

From Aurus's view, Bel had vanished. The air cracked, and then violet flashes struck the King's body. Each hit left a heavy impact, shaking the air, leaving shockwaves that broke air and stone.

The King's huge hands tried to catch the flash, but then the scars left by Bel's scythe lit up one after another. Each glowing line burst like a timed electric bomb, lightning ripping out from the wounds and striking him hard.

Bel was already on his arms, cutting at them. His scythe slashed through threads and dark armor like butter, his speed turning him into a flash of afterimages.

To Aurus, it looked like chaos, lines of purple ripping across the giant, each step ending in a burst like lightning.

Hundreds of puppets jumped at Bel, filling the ground and sky. For a moment, they buried him from sight.

Then bolts of violet ripped through them, one, two, a dozen, a hundred. In seconds, a massive flash tore through them all, burning and breaking them in a storm of fire and thunder.

Aurus clenched his jaw, following the chaos with a heavy heart.

Minutes ago, he had fought hard against the King, cutting down waves of puppets with ease, but when he faced the King's body, he had struck a wall.

He had been the strongest warrior, a hero people counted on, but even his best had barely left a mark.

Was he even at his best? Didn't he lose power through decades of peace?

Now Bel was here, and already he was doing what Aurus could not. Every slash left a wound that burst with lightning, every move pushed the King back.

Aurus felt a sharp sting of frustration mixed with awe. Was this the difference between the old generation and the new? Was this why all his friends were killed?

He kept his distance, watching closely, his pride aching but his eyes unable to look away.

The Slumbering King growled in anger.

"Fast… but you're still nothing before me."

His aura bent the air. Time slowed, pulling everything into silence. Puppets hung frozen in the air. Dust floated as if underwater.

In this space, the King had control over everything, even time. Yet, Bel still moved, only slower now.

"... I see. You're pretty fast, aren't you? Sadly, now your game is over," the King said.

Dozens of invisible threads stretched out toward Bel.

They were about to touch....

Flash.

An explosion shattered the silence. The King's huge body staggered back for the first time, the stone under him breaking.

He froze, confused.

Bel stood further away, scythe lowered at his side, purple haze trailing from its edge. His eyes glowed faintly.

From his position, it seemed that he had moved again at a terrifying speed. This alone should have deeply concerned the King.

Time was supposed to be slowed down; Aurus didn't move an inch from the moment it started. So how?

The King turned and heard a crack. On his side, frost spread in sharp white lines. Ice crawled across the battlefield, cold mist rising and clashing with Bel's heat.

The King's head tilted as if the world had betrayed him. The slow tide of his own power, his control over time, felt corrupted. In his mind, there was only one question.

How… did he…?

But he had no time to think. The ground split as Bel moved again. The King raised his massive hands on instinct to shield his face, but the scythe never aimed there.

Bel blurred aside, fast as lightning, and carved into his flank.

The cuts weren't clean. Each left glowing scars, and each scar burst a moment later with violent purple lightning. The aftershocks made the King sway like a mountain under a storm.

"This can't be…" The King's thoughts were muddled.

He had slowed time. Nothing should move in this space, not dust, not air, not light.

Yet... Bel was slashing through him as if the law of time had never considered him.

He felt frustration turning into confusion. His threads pulled wide, but they couldn't catch the figure darting through them. Every move he tried, Bel was already gone.

What the King didn't know was simple: Bel wasn't outrunning time. He wasn't bending rules by speed alone. Around him, faint lights shimmered, like broken gleams circling his body. This was his body's passive: Mantle of Ruin.

It erased outside interference, whether they were curses, spells, and nullified control. The King's time-slow had no power against it.

From Bel's eyes, the world was dotted with those pale lights, moving with him, shielding him. A notification had already warned him.

He knew he had the upper hand here.

This power is fascinating.

He shifted, scythe glowing brighter with each swing, lightning bursting harder with every slash. The storm was building. The King staggered again, and Bel thought through every strike.

Regulus had explained everything he needed to know: this wasn't the real body of the Slumbering King. This was only a vessel in a dream layer. Attacking it might be useless.

But Bel knew one thing: every layer torn open forced the King to show his fangs. Destroying this form might push him to open another door, just as when he had reawakened the dreamscape.

That was the path forward.

Cut through, force him out, annihilate him until nothing is left.

Bel's focus sharpened. His body lit with purple haze, white sparks, and blue fire. The scythe in his hand split apart, changing into seven floating blades that whirled around him.

Then, a burst of energy exploded out of him. It was the recipe for a disaster for the King. The obsidian giant raised his giant hands, reaching forward to crush him, but he was never able to touch Bel.

[Frostfire Burst]

Hundreds of strikes hammered the giant body in an instant. Each cut erupted in a violent mix of blue fire and frozen shards. Several explosions shook the entire platform. Shockwaves spread out in rings, tearing apart stone and swallowing puppets by the dozens.

Anything in contact with a single particle of frostfire instantly covered in ice and cracked like fire. Added to that, Bel's Authority of Destruction corrupted the whole area.

The King was outclassed for the first time.

Time rushed back to normal. Aurus barely had time to notice the chaos that had unfolded when time slowed, and he found himself face to face with this strange situation.

The King's body cracked, whole chunks breaking off like shattered glass. And then, Bel appeared above, palms pressed against the King's helm.

[Destruction]

A soundless shockwave expanded from Bel's touch. The King froze in place, trembling as cracks spread through his helm.

Slowly, the black surface crumbled, disintegrating into gray dust. The spread continued down, parts of the giant's body collapsing into drifting particles.

Aurus's eyes widened. Regulus gasped beside Bel.

"It... It worked! You did it!"

The King's massive body was breaking apart before them. Pieces vanished into light, fading like sand in the wind.

Aurus stayed immobile, eyes wide. To him, who was unaware of the King's true power, this looked like the end of a long battle.

Did he really… do it? Just like this? Is a Demon Lord truly dead?

His grip on his sword tightened as he stared.

Bel landed back on the broken ground, haze rising off him in cold waves. He looked up at the giant's body still disintegrating, then at his own system window. Regulus hovered near him.

"Now that his body is destroyed, the King will have no choice but to open another door to reach this dimension. When he opens another door, I'll try to place a spell on it. Something like an 'always open' mark. I'm not sure if it will work on a Demon Lord the same way it did with Hypnos, but… you'll have to rush in when it happens."

Bel's gaze shifted to him, then back to the King's fading shape. But his concern wasn't only there. His eyes were fixed on the system numbers.

[Demonic Essence: 1,899 / 2,000]

His brow furrowed.

So much already? This is a problem.

He had hoped that with Novaria's return, he could recover essence steadily, but something felt wrong.

The battle was going on his favor, but unlike Regulus, Bel couldn't be satisfied with a simple domination. He needed to be sure that the King would die before he ran out of essence.

And just as he thought about it, a massive red slash tore across the space.

The space split apart, cracking like glass shattering. Regulus and Aurus flinched, eyes snapping wide. The whole battlefield was torn apart instantly.

In the center, Bel's eyes widened.

The slash had cut through him, separating cleanly his body from right shoulder to left thigh.