Dragon King: Throne of Demons and Gods-Chapter 198: Act IV, Scene VI: The Bloom and the Volcano

Outside, it was pure chaos. The roar of Novaria's flames devoured the night, a wave of red and gold fire surging across the warped streets.

Buildings crumbled under the heat, their stone facades melting like wax, while screams of fleeing civilians pierced the air, swallowed quickly by the inferno.

The rooftop where the battle began was gone, reduced to ash and rubble, and the blaze spread relentlessly, painting the frozen skyline in hues of apocalyptic fury. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

Novaria stood at the epicenter, her dragon wings blazing with fire, the red flames licking the air like hungry tongues. Her eyes, golden and slit, burned with rage, locked on Elysia, who danced through the chaos with a delighted giggle.

The Infernakar Blade in Novaria's grip pulsed, its molten edge trailing searing waves with every swing, each arc aimed to erase Elysia from existence.

"I'll kill you!"

Novaria roared. She swung the blade in a wide crescent, unleashing a flame surge that roared forward like a living beast, blue fire twisting into claws and jaws. The street below exploded, cobblestones vaporizing, as the flames chased Elysia through the destruction.

Elysia twirled effortlessly, her body morphing mid-step into a grotesque abomination, a writhing mass of flesh and bone, limbs elongating and splitting like a spider's legs sprouting from a pulsating core.

The fire grazed her, charring a chunk of her form, but she laughed, splitting apart into glistening tendrils that reformed a few meters away, completely intact. Her human shape returned, her black dress safe from ash, her eyes sparkling with twisted glee.

"Oh, sweet puppy," Elysia cooed, dodging another fiery arc with a pirouette. "So fierce, so fiery! Bel made you into such a delightful toy. Look at you, burning everything for little old me."

Her voice was soft, teasing, like a mother praising a child's tantrum.

"But you're wasting all that passion on this poor town. Don't you want to aim it properly?"

Novaria gritted her teeth. Her wings flared wider, scattering sparks that ignited nearby rooftops.

Her body trembled, not from exhaustion but from the raw emotion Elysia's words stoked. Dusteria, her friend, her anchor to the human she'd been as Sienna, was suffering because of this monster.

The thought drove her deeper into rage, her fire surging hotter, red flames turning blue. She charged, the Infernakar Blade slashing downward in a vertical blaze, splitting the ground into a molten fissure.

Elysia giggled, her form shifting again, this time into a lithe, panther-like creature with crimson fur and too many eyes. She leaped over the fissure, landing lightly on a crumbling wall, her tail flicking playfully.

"Such a big sword for such a cute temper! Oh, I love how you try so hard."

Another swing from Novaria caught her, burning away half her body, but she dissolved into a puddle of writhing flesh, reappearing instantly as herself, brushing ash from her dress.

"Keep going, darling. Show me how much you care."

Below, the town burned. Civilians screamed, running through streets choked with smoke and flame. Astros used one of his techniques, Celestial Mandalas, vast spinning sigils of starlight that glowed like constellations.

He stood on a shattered rooftop, hands raised, redirecting waves of fire away from a huddled group of citizens.

The mandalas spun faster, forming a shimmering dome that absorbed a rogue blast of Novaria's flames, nullifying the heat before it could reach the fleeing crowd.

"Move! Stay behind the light!" Astros called.

His eyes flicked upward, tracking Novaria's rampage and Elysia's taunting dance.

"This idiot... She's going to destroy the town."

He compressed a mandala into a razor-thin wheel, slicing through a falling beam to clear a path for more civilians. His priority was clear: protect the innocents, no matter the cost. But the scale of destruction was overwhelming. Novaria's fire spread faster than he could contain.

Maël, meanwhile, darted through the chaos below, his golden aura covering him like a miniature sun. He leaped between collapsing buildings, catching falling debris with a flick of his wrist or vaporizing it with a snap.

"C'mon... let's not make this harder than it needs to be," he grinned despite the carnage.

He grabbed a woman and her child, pulling them from a burning alley, his aura burning away the encroaching flames.

"Stay low, and don't make me come back for you!"

His eyes flicked to the blue moon frozen in the sky, its eerie glow intensifying the chaos.

"That's a real problem," he muttered, his playful tone sharpening. "If I don't stop that thing, this whole town's done for."

He didn't engage Novaria directly; his mission was the Demon Lord, not the pawn wreaking havoc.

But every explosion from her blade made his job harder, the fires threatening to outpace his divine speed.

Novaria's rage only grew, her draconic instincts drowning out reason.

Her roar shook the air, a deep bellow that cracked windows and sent embers spiraling.

She swung, unleashing a cone of Dragonflame Surge that engulfed an entire street, buildings collapsing into molten ruin.

Elysia clapped her hands, morphing into a grotesque

mirror of Novaria's form, with writhing flesh-wings and a maw of jagged teeth.

The flames caught her, burning away half her body, but she split apart, chunks of flesh scattering like seeds before reforming into her human shape, untouched and smiling.

"Oh, you're magnificent when you're angry!" she sang, dodging another swing with a dancer's grace. "Bel must adore watching you burn like this. Such a loyal little puppy, setting the world on fire for him."

"Shut up!" Novaria's voice was a growl.

She dove, claws raking the ground, sending up a wave of molten earth and flame. Elysia shifted again, this time into a swarm of crimson bats that scattered, reforming behind Novaria with a teasing laugh.

The town was a furnace, flames climbing higher, the air thick with ash and the stench of burning stone. Astros strained, his mandalas multiplying to shield larger groups of civilians.

He wove a massive sigil overhead, its starlit patterns redirecting a falling wall of fire away from a marketplace packed with screaming people. Sweat beaded on his brow.

Maël, leaping to another rooftop, caught a child thrown from a collapsing building, setting him down gently before blasting a wave of fire away with a casual wave.

"Man, this fire chick's got issues," he said.

Astros shot him a glare mid-mandala.

"Maël! Help with the people! These flames are killing them!"

Maël shrugged, smirking.

"Relax, star boy. I've got my eye on the big bad. Civvies are your gig."

Novaria's flames grew wilder, her aura pulsing, urging her to burn everything in her path. The shard of Bel's Authority of Destruction within her amplified her rage, unraveling barriers and structures with every swing.

A street exploded into cinders as she slashed at Elysia, who morphed into a writhing mass of tendrils to slip through the flames, reappearing with a mock pout.

"Oh, dear, you're burning all these poor people's homes! Don't you care about them? Or is it all for me?"

Her eyes gleaming with delight, Novaria's burned hotter.

"Don't... talk about him... DON'T... talk about... HER!" she bellowed.

She swung the Infernakar Blade in a massive overhead arc, the flames coalescing into a blazing phoenix that dove toward Elysia, scorching everything in its path.

The Crimson Bloom laughed, splitting into a cloud of crimson mist that reformed a dozen meters away.

"Such passion! You're making me blush, puppy. But you're not quite good enough to catch me."

Astros, his mandalas straining under the relentless flames, redirected another surge away from a group of fleeing citizens.

"Run, now!" he shouted.

He wove another mandala,

absorbing a wave of heat, but the strain was clear; his power wasn't enough to shield the entire town.

The civilians were in pure chaos. Children wailed, clutched in parents' arms as they ran through rubble-strewn streets. An old woman collapsed in the heat, coughing smoke, only for Astros' mandala to shield her from a falling ember rain.

Families dragged each other from burning homes, faces smeared with ash, eyes wide with fear. Maël casually vaporized a wave of debris hurtling toward a group, his light nullifying the threat, while Astros caught a crumbling building with a massive sigil, holding it up long enough for people to escape underneath.

Novaria, lost in her fury,

charged Elysia, slashing with relentless fury, each strike unleashing waves of Abyssal Fire that tore through streets and homes.

Elysia dodged with infuriating ease, morphing into a grotesque parody of Dusteria herself, pale, blood-streaked, but with Elysia's cruel smile.

"Wait! Sienna... It's me, don't you want to save me?" she taunted, splitting apart as Novaria's blade cut through the illusion, reforming instantly.

"RAAAGHHH!!!!" Novaria screamed, her voice breaking.

Her wings flared, slicing through the air, carving gashes in the earth. The town suffered, flames spreading, civilians caught in the crossfire.

Novaria's flames were less aimed and more like a storm. Her strikes turned erratic, blue fire mixing with red, exploding in wild bursts that leveled entire rows of houses. Elysia's taunts fueled it.

The Bloom morphed again, into a blob of elongated flesh that stretched like taffy to dodge, always laughing, never fighting back. Astros and Maël exchanged grim looks; the city was crumbling, flames threatening to consume everything.

The chaos made everyone forget that they were under the threat of another Demon Lord.

Novaria's eyes blazed, her body trembling.

"Kill you... I'll kill you... I SWEAR, I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!!!!" she roared, her voice echoing in the whole town.

Her aura erupted, flames coiling around her in a vortex of blue-white fire. The air shimmered, the ground melting beneath her. She raised her arms, and several massive pentagrams ignited in the sky.

Her body swelled with explosive fire, scales bursting outward as she let her rage consume her and spread on her body, initiating a new change in her body: a transformation.

Above, the pentagrams spun like fiery wheels, their edges etched in strange symbols that pulsed with purple light.

From each gate, shadows stirred, and nightmare creatures appeared.

Wyverns and drakes, of all sizes and forms, emerging like the last doom of the world.

First came the drakes, sleek and armored, their scales shimmering with different colors as they burst forth with roars, some with wings unfurled in elegant sweeps, their bodies gliding through the air.

Wyverns followed, larger, terrifying, their jaws gaping to reveal furnaces of

fire, ice, or purple lightning within. On top, a massive one, way bigger than any other: Vauldron.

The sky filled with them, a swarm of draconic beauty, scales catching the firelight, wings beating in synchronized rhythm that created gusts of hot wind, scattering ash like confetti.

Below, the people froze in horror. Screams turned to gasps as the beasts descended, their shadows eclipsing the streets.

Children pointed upward, eyes wide with awe and fear, while parents were petrified.

To all, the monsters that wandered the Earth were well known and a common occurrence.

But the idea was widespread that one of them was so rare, if not never seen alive, that they agreed it was nothing more than a legend.

But now the legend corresponding to the drawings had materialized, and the ground, shaking under the roars of the beasts circling in circles, proved that the myth was no longer one.

Astros' mandalas flared desperately, shielding crowds from the initial gusts, but his face paled at the scale. Maël lost his grin for the first time.

"Now I understand why I couldn't stand this guy."

At the center, Novaria rose under a new light.

Her complete form expanded into a colossal nightmare, towering above the burning city, her size dwarfing even Vauldron and every wyvern presents.

A giant red wyvern of impossible scale. Her body erupted in a final, cataclysmic blaze, flames covering her like the birth of a volcano, torrents of red fire tearing the night apart and lighting the sky brighter than day, a terrible beauty in perfect symmetry.

Her scales rippled across her vast frame, each plate shimmering like molten armor, while wings unfurled wider than entire streets, crimson sails blotting out the skyline.

Her horns were curved like spears, and her golden eyes burned as her fangs split the air in a snarl that promised nothing but death.

She raised her head, a majestic terror, the right hand of the Ravager.

Elysia watched from below, her face splitting into a wide, open smile. Her eyes sparkled with pure joy, and a soft giggle escaped her lips, growing into delighted laughter that cut through the roars.

"Oh, yes! Magnificent, puppy! Show me everything!"