It was nearly midnight at Tepes Castle.
Deep within the candlelit war room, King Tepes, a gaunt yet regal figure with silver hair tied back and a heavy fur-lined cloak draped across his shoulders, stood before the obsidian table marked with territory lines and enemy positions.
He glanced toward the balcony, where the rain now fell in a quiet drizzle, before turning to face his son, Marius Tepes, whose crimson eyes gleamed with ambition.
"This deal with the Old Satans... it still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. To align ourselves with such filth, creatures who failed their own kind. It feels... desperate."
The King murmured, his voice weary and measured.
The Lords of House Manthar and House Vladi, both ancient nobles with features worn by centuries of power and bloodshed, nodded in agreement.
Lord Manthar's gravelly voice cut through the silence.
"Their promises are many, but their loyalty is nonexistent. We risk much, Marius."
"But we will gain more. They offer knowledge we do not have, their researchers have already begun working with our own on unlocking the full potential of the Sephiroth Graal. Think of it, Father. Think of the power to survive the sun, the power of immortality beyond what we know. Complete dominance towards other inferior races. And in return? All they ask is one of the three grails… and the head of the Red Dragon Emperor."
Marius countered smoothly, folding his arms.
"You speak as if it's nothing. Do you not understand the cost?"
Lord Vladi said, skeptical.
Marius smiled thinly.
"We've already paid it. We murdered an entire town, did we not? We burned it to the ground. Man, woman, child… all for his attention. There is no turning back now. So why hesitate? This isn't desperation. It's a small step for our kind."
The room fell into a grim silence as that truth settled on them.
King Tepes closed his eyes for a moment, then looked to the lords.
They exchanged glances, whispers of caution and uncertainty, but the die had already been cast.
As the king opened his mouth to speak, the chamber doors suddenly burst open with a loud crash.
A young vampire soldier, out of breath and drenched in sweat and rain, stumbled in.
"Your Majesty!"
He shouted, eyes wide with panic.
"He's here! The Red Dragon Emperor! He's arrived!"
The room erupted in tension.
King Tepes straightened, his cold eyes narrowing.
"Already…?"
Marius turned, a slow, sinister smile forming on his lips.
"Good. Then the game begins."
Without waiting, he turned on his heel and strode toward the door.
"Where are you going?"
King Tepes demanded.
Marius didn't look back.
"To retrieve the instrument of our victory. The halfblood must not be found."
He vanished into the shadows of the hall as King Tepes barked an order to the guards.
"Sound the horns. Ready the army. Tonight, we bear our fangs on the famous God Killer."
DxD
Outside the castle walls, thunder cracked as the vampire forces assembled.
Thousands of armored soldiers marched onto the mist-covered clearing that lay just beyond the eastern gates.
Glowing crimson runes shimmered on their halberds, swords, and rifles, enchanted by blood magic.
Obsidian armor, and every single warrior carried a thirst for blood.
At the front of the formation stood a towering figure in dark obsidian armor etched with crimson veins.
His helmet resembled a goat with burning eyes, and across his back were strapped two massive, blood-stained broadswords.
This was Captain and the Tepes' finest general and executioner.
He stepped forward into the fog, surveying the land.
He narrowed his eyes.
The grass was damp beneath his boots, and the wind carried a strange scent.
"How odd..."
He muttered, resting a hand on one sword hilt.
But he dismissed it and raised one blade.
"Form up!"
The vampires moved in disciplined lines, weapons drawn, eyes glowing.
For a moment, there was only silence.
Then...
"Look! The sky!"
One of the soldiers pointed upward.
High above them, barely visible through the thick clouds and fog, a figure hovered in midair, glowing with an ominous red hue.
Scale Mail armor shimmered with crimson and emerald light, the dragon wings of the Boosted Gear curved outward.
It was him.
The Red Dragon Emperor, Arthur Pendragon.
Captain sneered under his helmet and raised a sword at him.
"Red Dragon Emperor! Come down and face your demise with some dignity!"
He shouted, voice booming.
No reply.
Arthur remained still and silent.
Then slowly, he descended, his armored boots landing softly on the grass as the fog began to swirl around his ankles.
The silence returned, heavier this time. The vampires tensed, surrounding him on all sides.
Captain stepped forward, swords raised.
"Battle formations! Prepare to strike on my command!"
Arthur's voice cut through the mist like a knife.
"Where are the orphans?"
A murmur rippled through the ranks.
The Captain blinked.
"What?"
Arthur repeated, slower, colder.
"Where. Are. The orphans?"
The Captain tilted his head.
"A dead man has no right to demand anything from us."
Arthur was silent.
He inhaled deeply, and then his voice dropped to a whisper.
"So there's no orphans..."
Arthur looked around the thousands of vampires surrounding him on all sides.
"... Good."
He stepped forward once, clawed boots clicking softly against the wet ground.
Then he looked at the Captain, voice calm.
"Before we begin… I just want to thank you."
Captain narrowed his eyes.
"...For what?"
Arthur's tone sharpened.
"For making this way easier for me."
Suddenly, the thick fog twisted became a purple mist, swirling into an unnatural current that crawled across the ground, leapt into the air, and consumed the battlefield.
It swallowed the sky, veiled the moon, even wrapped around the very towers of Tepes Castle.
"What is this…?"
Captain muttered, his swords twitching.
Arthur raised his head, his emerald eyes glowing brightly from his helm.
"You really thought I'd come alone? That I'd follow your bullshit like an idiot?"
He took a step forward, power beginning to surge withi him.
"You burned down my town. Slaughtered innocent civilians. Killed defenseless children."
His voice cracked like thunder.
"And you thought you leeches could demand shit from me?"
Arthur clenched his fists, wings unfolding wider as the air began to hum violently.
"No. You fuckers don't deserve my mercy."
His expression twisted with fury.
"You insignificant mongrel! You have no honor whatsoever!"
Captain growled and raised his sword again.
Arthur paused as he began chuckling.
"Hehehehehe..."
Then it slowly became louder until it turns into full-blown laughter.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
His voice echoed like a war drum through the mist.
"Honor?! You fucking dare have the audacity to spit the word honor in front of me?!"
He barked.
"Where was your honor when you burned down a town of innocents?! Where was your honor when you murdered children who couldn't defend themselves?! Where was your honor when your godforsaken kind desecrated one of the only good memories I have of my childhood?!"
His red aura exploded outward like a shockwave, pushing the front line of vampires back.
The purple fog thickened, trapping everyone inside the battlefield.
"You want to see honor?! Very well then! I'm gonna show you so much honor that you'll all be begging for mercy!"
A towering pillar of red energy burst from his body, blasting a crater into the ground. The pressure cracked the earth, warping the air as vampires shielded their faces, some collapsing from the sheer intensity.
"Heed my words, Vampires! I, Arthur Pendragon… Son of Sirzechs Lucifer… Descendant of King Arthur… Bearer of the Boosted Gear… SHALL BURN YOU ALL DOWN!"
The Captain's eyes widened as he saw Arthur's Scale Mail shift, growing larger, more organic, more dragon-like.
Countless voices echoed from Arthur, his own voice dark and resonant as he began his chant.
"I, who am about to awaken..."
"Am the Heavenly Dragon who has stolen the principles of Domination from God..."
"I laugh at the "Infinite", and I fret over the "Dream"..."
"I shall become the Red Dragon of Domination..."
<
''And I shall sink you to the depths of the crimson purgatory!''
The crimson pillar of light twisted, condensing.
And then... Arthur emerged anew.
"JUGGERNAUT DRIVE!!!"
An eruption of draconic power exploded across the battlefield, blinding red and black mixed with a blood-curdling roar that cracked the heavens.
A massive red dragon towered over the rest of the vampires.
It's presence tore through the clouds and sent a red shockwave hurtling across the land, uprooting forests, causing fissures, and shaking even the foundation of Tepes Castle.
And thus, the massacre began.
DxD
One hour before the massacre.
Deep beneath the Tepes Castle's hidden dungeon, its corridors were lined with rusted chains, lit torches, and screams of despair.
Torchlight flickered across the blood-stained walls as vampire guards patrolled lazily, their armored boots scraping against old stone.
They moved in pairs, chatting in low voices about the approaching battle above, unaware of the shadows that stirred in the corners.
From within one of those shadows, a black mass coiled and gave way to a figure with black hair and black shades.
Connla stepped out first, silent as death.
A moment later, a taller figure emerged beside him, clad in a Chinese coat with a holy spear in his hand.
Cao Cao glanced down the corridor, lips curled in a half-smirk.
"We're in."
Connla adjusted his black shades, keeping his voice low.
"Remember the plan."
Cao Cao nodded.
"Find the children. Rescue any innocents. And don't get caught."
As they turned a corner, the sound of footsteps grew louder.
A group of vampire guards was coming their way, just beyond the bend.
"Multiple hostiles."
Cao Cao whispered, gripping his spear.
Connla raised a hand calmly and slid his sunglasses down to the bridge of his nose.
His eyes, usually concealed, now turned into an abyss black via Aeon Balor.
"Balor."
As Connla stated, the world went still.
Torches stopped flickering, footsteps ceased mid-motion, even the dust suspended in the air froze.
Cao Cao looked around and whistled softly.
"Okay… that's honestly kind of cool."
Connla smirked and unpause the time-freeze field.
The two of them slipped past the vampire guards, unseen and unheard, then vanished into the corridor beyond.
For almost an hour, the dungeon yielded nothing but disappointment.
They opened cells to find skeletons slumped in corners, long dead and forgotten.
Some held desiccated corpses, others contained prisoners reduced to incoherent madness, their minds shattered by torture and time, and the walls stank of blood and rot.
Cao Cao let out a frustrated sigh as they came to yet another empty cell.
"Nothing. No orphans, no traces. Just death."
Connla clenched his fists.
"So it was a lie. We need to tell Arthur. He needs to know before-"
"Wait."
Cao Cao stopped him with a raised hand.
He stepped forward, closing his eyes.
"...There's something here."
Connla tilted his head.
"What is it?"
"Holy Power. It's faint, but I could still trace it."
Without another word, Cao Cao moved deeper into the corridor, tracing the source like a bloodhound.
Connla followed without hesitation, and together they snuck past more patrols, slipping between gaps in the walls and weaving between columns and old statues.
Eventually, they reached a dead end.
A massive gargoyle statue loomed in the shadows, its grotesque face snarling down at them.
Connla frowned.
"I'm gonna assume this isn't just decor."
Cao Cao narrowed his eyes and began inspecting the base of the statue.
Runes faintly carved into the surface began to glow slightly in his presence.
He stepped closer and ran his hand over the left horn.
*Click.*
A sharp grind echoed through the stone as the wall beside the statue began to shift.
With a heavy rumble, it slowly pulled open, revealing a narrow staircase that spiraled downward into pure darkness.
They shared a glance.
Connla muttered.
"That's not ominous at all."
"Which means we're getting close."
Cao Cao said.
The stone steps went on and on, the deeper they went, the colder the air grew, until finally they reached a heavy iron door.
Cao Cao summons the True Longinus, and with a firm heave, he wedged the spear between the iron plates and forced the door open with a screech.
The room beyond was small, circular, and bathed in shadows, chains clinked softly from the far wall.
They looked around as Cao Cao's True Longinus illuminated the chamber.
Connla then spotted something move in the corner and motionedfor Cao Cao to look.
There, curled up in the corner of the room, chained by the wrists and ankles, was a young girl, who couldn't have been older than fifteen or sixteen.
Her short blond hair was tangled and unwashed, her body thin and bruised, clad in nothing but tattered rags.
Her eyes were dull red and vacant, staring at nothing, unblinking.
The faintest glimmer of Holy Power clung to her like a faint beacon.
Connla's voice was barely above a whisper.
"Is she... alright?"
The girl's eyes slowly turned toward the glowing spear hovering behind Cao Cao.
Her voice cracked through the silence, brittle and hoarse.
"...Are you here... to kill me?"
Cao Cao stepped forward, gently shaking his head.
"No. We're not here to hurt you. We're here to get you out of here."
He raised his spear and sliced cleanly through the chains.
As the shackles fell, the girl slumped forward, unable to stand.
Cao Cao let the True Longinus hover beside him and gently picked her up in his arms.
"Sorry for the lack of ceremony, but you're too weak to walk."
The girl didn't resist nor didn't even react.
She just let herself be carried like a broken doll.
Connla frowned deeply.
"She's been tortured. Physically and mentally. She's gonna need rehab."
Cao Cao sighed.
"Thanks for stating the obvious. Let's just get her out of-"
The floor beneath them lit up in a magic circle.
"Shit!"
Too late.
In a flash of crimson light, all three were gone.
...
They reappeared in the center of a vast, stone colosseum.
Pillars rose like fangs, and torches blazed along the walls, and the stands above were filled with vampire soldiers, armored and silent, surrounding the center.
"Well, fuck me. We're trapped."
Connla stepped back, shadow tendrils writhing from his body.
"This is so embarrassing."
Cao Cao kept the girl secured in his arms as his spear returned to his side, glowing brighter towards the hostiles.
From the highest seat in the arena, slow clapping echoed.
A figure emerged from the shadows and descended the marble steps with arrogant grace.
Marius Tepes.
He smiled down at them with a smug satisfaction that practically radiated off his cloak.
"Well, well. I must say, this is quite the surprise."
He stopped at the edge of the balcony and looked down.
"When I was informed of intruders, I didn't expect it to be the bearer of the True Longinus himself. And a nameless whelp who could control time beside him."
Cao Cao's eyes narrowed.
Marius's gaze then turned toward the girl in Cao Cao's arms.
"I'm even more surprised that you've even managed to find her. Our dear little disappointment. My worthless sister, Valerie. The key to the Tepes Faction's ultimate triumph."
Cao Cao looked down at the girl.
(Valerie... So that's her name.)
Marius smiled wider.
"Unfortunately for you, Mister Intruder, I can't allow you to leave. Not with her. Not with your lives."
The vampire soldiers began to move, descending the stairs, forming tight lines around the arena. Dozens. Hundreds. All armed. All hungry.
Cao Cao sighed and gently adjusted Valerie in his arms.
"Connla?"
"Yeah?"
"This is gonna be a drag."
Connla smirked from his shades.
"Then let's drag them all to hell."
DxD
Hello readers!
Please, good readers, may I have some more Power Stones?
Thank you everyone and see you later!