A Systematic Tale: The Hero! Ch 44 (Patreon)

Chapter 44:

– Silas –

The echoes of the sickening crunch that had ended the lives of God and Lucifer still reverberated through the air, a grim reminder of just how fragile even the mightiest beings were in the face of the apocalypse.

I was hovering there in my colossal dragon form, wings beating against the stagnant air of the Underworld, my heart pounding a rhythm against my ribs that felt like a war drum. My instincts were screaming at me to charge, to throw my massive bulk against the monstrosity that was Trihexa, to tear and bite and burn until one of us didn't get up. 

The dragon inside me wanted blood.

It wanted to prove it was the apex predator, even against a beast that defied logic. But before I could surrender to that suicidal impulse, a rush of displaced air signaled an arrival at my side.

Tiamat, in her sapphire dragon form, banked hard and pulled up right next to my head. 

"Silas, no!" her voice roared. "Reign in those instincts of yours!"

I turned my massive horned head toward her, huffing a cloud of smoke from my nostrils. I wanted to argue, to tell her I could handle it, but then I looked back at Trihexa. 

Tiamat’s mental voice cracked with desperation. "This is something all male dragons experience when they see a strong threat. Your instincts want you to face it in single combat and prove your dominance but you are not ready to face the apocalypse on your own. You are strong, my mate, but you are not invincible. Please... shrink down into your human form so you can get some control back."

I let out a low, rumbling growl of acquiescence and nodded my massive head.

My perspective shifted, the underworld expanding around me as I shrank. The massive scales receded, the claws retracted, and the raw, physical power condensed into a smaller, denser package. I hit the rocky ground on my boots, stumbling slightly as I readjusted to being human-sized. My Nightingale armor materialized around me instantly, the enchanted black leather hugging my frame. But the transformation wasn't total. I kept the advantages I needed. A pair of large, black dragon wings burst from my back, and I could feel the weight of my dragon horns on my head.

"Whoa!" The sudden shift in size left Taylor, who had been perched securely between my neck plates, momentarily suspended in mid-air. She yelped, flailing as gravity took hold.

"I got you!" Before she could hit the ground, a blur of motion swept in. Rebecca moved with that amazing Viltrumite speed, snatching Taylor out of the air effortlessly. She skidded to a halt beside me, holding Taylor securely in her arms, bridal style.

Taylor blinked, her hands instinctively clutching at Rebecca’s shoulders to steady herself.  "Oh... um, thanks," Taylor stammered, looking up at Rebecca with wide, adoring eyes. "That was... a hell of a catch."

Rebecca looked down at her, a smirk playing on her lips that softened the hard lines of her face. The dust and blood of the battlefield didn't detract from her beauty. If anything, it made her look more gorgeous. 

"You'd better get used to it," Rebecca murmured, her voice husky. 

She leaned down, ignoring the roar of the monster in the distance and the chaos around us, and pressed her lips firmly against Taylor's. Rebecca then turned her head up to me, as Taylor squirmed in her arms, and gave me a sultry look that had me turning red and Tiamat huffing next to me.

“I can’t believe I have to say this, but this isn’t the time for any thoughts of mating…” Tiamat grumbled next to me. 

Gabriel descended from the sky, her twelve wings spread wide and glowing with an intensity that burned away the shadows of the Underworld. The Crown of the Seraphim rested upon her brow, radiating waves of pure, holy power that felt like standing next to a warm sun. Her face was set in a mask of absolute, divine resolve. 

“This, my brothers and sisters, is the final battle! We stand at the precipice of a new era! We end the Great War here and now!"

The remaining angels and devils, who had been wavering in terror after their leaders were eaten, seemed to rally at her words. The most amazing thing was that the holy power she was radiating didn’t seem to be injuring any nearby devils.

Uriel and Michael flew down to flank her. Uriel, who so far had mostly been a sour-faced cynic, looked at his sister with something akin to awe.

"So," a sultry, albeit slightly shaky voice cut in. Runeas Gremory floated down near us. She let out a laugh, but it sounded not very confident. "Who wants the honor of attacking the monster that just turned Lucifer into a chew toy first? Anyone? I’m feeling generous, I’ll let someone else take the glory!"

She glanced sideways at Zekram Bael, the future Great King of the Devils, who was hovering next to her. "Do not look at me, girl," Zekram snapped, though his voice lacked its usual bite. He held up a hand, gathering a ball of dense, chaotic destruction magic. "I will provide support. I will blast it from a distance. But I am not—I repeat, not—going to be the first one to draw its attention!"

The battlefield seemed to hold its breath. Trihexa roared again, a sound that vibrated in my teeth, and began to lumber toward us, its many heads snapping and snarling.

"I'll do it!" The voice was small compared to the roar of the beast, but it was steady. Rebecca lowered Taylor to the ground, and the insect mistress stepped forward. She stood tall in her black angelic armor, her chin raised defiantly. When every eye—angel, devil, and dragon—turned to look at her, she flushed a deep crimson, suddenly realizing she was the center of attention. "I... I mean, I can do it," Taylor clarified, her voice faltering for a split second before strengthening. Out of pure habit, she reached up to adjust her glasses, her fingers brushing against her bare temple. She froze, blinking, realizing that Gabriel had fixed her eyesight days ago. She cleared her throat, dropping her hand and balling it into a fist at her side. "I can distract it," Taylor said, her gaze hardening as she looked at the towering monstrosity. "My swarm... the big ones. I can make them charge first. It'll buy you guys an opening to get some real hits in."

The vast, scorched plains of the Underworld had emptied out with startling speed. Runeas’s earlier, vulgar command, that anyone without at least ten wings needed to "fuck right off"—had actually been heeded. 

The sky was no longer clogged with thousands of fodder soldiers, the ground wasn't teeming with weaklings who would only serve as collateral damage.

Instead, the battlefield now felt eerily spacious, occupied by less than a hundred individuals. But every single one of them was a heavyweight. It was definitely better this way. Quality over quantity.

"Go!" Taylor screamed, her voice cracking with strain as she thrust a hand forward.

The ground trembled rhythmically as her nightmares charged. Leading the assault was a spider the size of a multi story building—a hairy, multi-legged horror that moved with terrifying speed for something so massive. It skittered over the cracked earth, its mandibles dripping with venom that sizzled against the rock.

Trihexa, the Beast of the Apocalypse, roared in challenge. The shifting, black scaly flesh of the abomination rippled as it turned its multiple dragon-like heads toward the incoming threat.

Taylor’s spider lunged, leaping through the air to latch onto Trihexa’s central mass. The two beasts slammed together with a wet, meaty thud that echoed like thunder. The spider shrieked—a high-pitched, chittering sound that grated on my nerves—as it sank fangs the size of spears into Trihexa’s mutating hide.

And yes, Trihexa was mostly just a mindless beast, but it was also a god-killer.

Three of Trihexa’s snarling heads snapped around instantly, their jaws unhinging to reveal rows of serrated teeth. They bit down simultaneously into the spider’s hairy legs. There was a sickening crunch of exoskeleton shattering, followed by a spray of thick, green ichor that painted the ground. The spider screamed again, thrashing wildly, but it held on, its remaining legs digging deep to anchor itself.

"Dammit! I’ve got more bugs though!" Taylor shouted, sweat beading on her forehead as she orchestrated the carnage. A second wave of horrors surged past the grappling monsters. Cockroaches the size of tanks scuttled between Trihexa's massive, armored legs, biting and distracting it. Giant ants, their mandibles snapping like hydraulic presses, swarmed up the Beast's flanks, tearing at the shifting black scales.

It was chaotic and gross, but it was working. 

Trihexa roared in annoyance, thrashing its malformed tails to crush a dozen giant ants into paste, but for every one it killed, two more seemed to take its place. They were barely leaving flesh wounds on the apocalyptic beast, but they were buying us the one thing we desperately needed—an opening.

My dragon blood sang, demanding I join the fray. "Let's do this!" I shouted. I flexed the muscles in my back, and my large black dragon wings snapped open, catching the stagnant air of the Underworld. With a powerful downstroke, I launched myself off the ground, shooting into the sky like a bullet.

To my right, Rebecca matched my ascent perfectly. Her arms were wrapped securely around Taylor, holding her bridal-style against her chest to keep her steady.

I glanced over at them. Taylor’s face was scrunched up in intense focus, her eyes darting back and forth as if she were watching the battle through dozens of different pairs of eyes at once. Which she was. She was pouring everything she had into maintaining those kaiju, making sure Trihexa stayed distracted for even just a few more seconds.

"Don't drop her, Rebecca!" I called out over the wind.

Rebecca shot me a confident smirk, her dark hair whipping around her face. "Not a chance in hell, Silas. I've got her."

From below us, a sapphire blur rocketed upward.

"ROOOAAAARRR!"

Tiamat unleashed a deafening battle cry. Her massive blue wings beat the air, creating shockwaves that ruffled my own flight path. Behind her, Gabriel led the charge of the remaining Archangels. The Crown of the Seraphim upon her head shone like a beacon in the gloom, and her silver wings trailed light as she rallied Michael, Uriel, and Raphael into formation.

We were a flying wedge of god-tier power, diving straight toward the throat of the apocalypse.

I didn't want to get into melee range with that thing just yet. My dragon form was tough, and my Nightingale armor was enchanted to hell and back, but Trihexa had literally just eaten God and Lucifer as a light snack. Getting within biting distance of those snapping, shifting heads felt like a really bad idea until we softened it up.

I extended my right hand, palm open, and focused. The air shimmered, and the Nightingale Blade materialized instantly in my grip. The sword was a masterpiece of Daedric craftsmanship, virtually indestructible and sharp enough to cut through reality if you swung it hard enough. But I wasn't going to swing it. Not with my arm, anyway.

I took a deep breath, centering myself. I reached deep into the well of power that the System had granted me—the Electromaster ability from the Toaru universe. It felt like a humming generator inside my chest, a coil of raw potential waiting to be unleashed.

"Let's see how you like this," I growled. I tossed the blade gently into the air in front of me. It didn't fall. I caught it with my magnetic field, suspending the dark steel in a perfect, weightless stasis about a foot from my palm.

I focused harder, narrowing my eyes as I channeled everything I had into that small gap between my hand and the sword. Blue-white arcs of electricity began to dance wildly around my fingers, snapping and hissing like angry snakes. The ozone smell intensified, sharp and metallic, filling my nose. I built the charge up, layering magnetic fields on top of each other, creating a makeshift railgun barrel out of pure electromagnetic force. The air around the sword began to warp and distort from the sheer pressure. The blade itself started to hum, vibrating at a frequency that made my teeth ache.

Trihexa was busy crushing a building-sized beetle, its attention momentarily diverted. One of its heads—a twisted, goat-like visage with four curling horns and eyes burning with madness—swung around, scanning the sky.

It locked eyes with me.

"Too late, ugly," I whispered. I released the charge.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!!!

The sound wasn't like a gunshot, it was a thunderclap that shattered the dark sky. Three distinct sonic booms detonated instantly as the Nightingale Blade broke the sound barrier multiple times over in a fraction of a second.

A streak of orange-hot plasma trailed behind the sword as it tore through the atmosphere at Mach 7. It moved so fast it was essentially a solid beam of light.

The impact was catastrophic.

The sword slammed into the forehead of the goat-head with force even more powerful tactical nuke! There was a micro-second of resistance, a flash of sparks as the Beast’s divine-tier scales tried to hold, and then—obliteration.

The goat head exploded! Bone, brain matter, and black blood erupted outward in a grotesque fountain, spraying the surrounding heads and coating the rocky ground below in gore. The sheer kinetic energy of the strike snapped the massive neck backward with a sickening crack, sending shockwaves rippling down the Beast’s spine.

Trihexa screamed—a multi-tonal shriek of agony and fury that sounded like metal tearing apart.

I smirked, extending my hand again. A few seconds later, the Nightingale Blade came whistling back through the air, recalled by my magnetic grip. It slapped into my palm, steaming and coated in black ichor, but perfectly unharmed.

"First blood to the Dragonborn…" 

But I wasn't the only one bringing the pain.

To my left, the air temperature plummeted sharply. I turned to see Tiamat, her colossal sapphire form coiling through the air like a living river of blue scales. She roared, a sound that rivaled Trihexa’s own, and unhinged her massive jaws. "Burn in the freezing hell of the Dragon King!" she bellowed. A torrent of blue fire erupted from her maw—not hot, but paradoxically freezing. It was the Chaos Karma flame, a breath attack that burned and froze simultaneously, tearing matter apart on a molecular level.

The beam of blue death slammed into Trihexa’s upper back, right between the shoulder blades of its shifting wings. The impact was instant and violent. The black scales hissed and cracked, freezing over with thick layers of jagged blue ice before immediately shattering under the thermal stress.

Trihexa thrashed, trying to shake off the assault, but Tiamat was relentless. She strafed the Beast, bathing its spine in that destructive blue light, carving deep, freezing furrows into its flesh.

"Forces of heaven, strike with me!" Gabriel’s voice rang out, clear and melodic even over the din of battle.

I looked up to see the Archangels hovering in a perfect formation high above the Beast. Gabriel was at the center, the Crown of the Seraphim shining on her brow like a miniature silver sun. Her twelve wings were spread wide, glowing with blinding silver light. Michael, Uriel, and Raphael flanked her, their own halos flaring with power.

They raised their weapons in unison. The “sky” above them split open, summoning golden clouds that I could see parting to reveal a massive, complex magic circle composed of intricate runes and holy script. It spanned miles, casting a golden glow over the entire battlefield.

"JUDGMENT!" Gabriel cried out, bringing her sword down.

The circle ignited.

Countless spears of pure, condensed holy light rained down from the heavens. These weren't small projectiles, each one was the size of a skyscraper, thick shafts of burning gold that hummed with divine wrath.

They slammed into Trihexa with the force of meteors.

THOOM! THOOM! THOOM!

The ground shook violently as the spears impaled the Beast, pinning its limbs to the cracked earth. Holy fire erupted from the wounds, searing the dark flesh. Trihexa writhed and howled, smoke rising from its body as the holy energy burned away the corruption of its being. It was an orbital bombardment of divine proportions, a rain of destruction that turned the dim Underworld bright as day.

"Don't think you're leaving us out of the fun!" a sultry voice shouted from below. I looked down to see Runeas Gremory hovering mid-air.  The crimson-haired devil was floating with her legs slightly apart. Her palms were raised high above her head, channeling an obscene amount of demonic energy. The air around her warped and twisted from the sheer density of the magic she was gathering.

A massive fireball, easily the size of a modern skyscraper, swirled above her. It was a churning sun of dark crimson and black flames, roaring with heat that I could feel even from way up here.

But Runeas herself... damn.

The effort of controlling such immense power had flushed her pale skin a deep, alluring pink. Beads of sweat glistened on her forehead and neck, trickling slowly down into the deep valley of her cleavage. Her chest heaved with heavy, ragged breaths, her large, soft breasts bouncing noticeably within the tight fabric of her dress with every pant.

She looked wild, powerful, and incredibly aroused by the destruction she was creating.

She must have felt my gaze, because she turned her head, locking eyes with me across the battlefield. A wicked, playful grin split her face. She bit her lower lip, her pink eyes flashing with lust and adrenaline, and then she exaggeratedly winked at me.

"This one's for you, handsome!" she yelled, her voice dripping with flirtation.

With a grunt of exertion that sounded almost like a moan, she hurled her arms forward.

The skyscraper-sized fireball launched from her hands, roaring across the sky like a rogue comet. It streaked toward Trihexa, trailing a wake of distorted heat.

At the same time, Zekram Bael and the other Ultimate-Class Devils unleashed their own assault. The combined might of Hell’s elite slammed into Trihexa’s flank.

KA-BOOOOOOM!

The explosion was blinding. A mushroom cloud of red and black fire rose thousands of feet into the air. The shockwave hit me a second later, strong enough to knock me back a few feet in the air even with my wings bracing against it.

When the smoke cleared, a massive chunk of Trihexa’s side was simply gone. Vaporized. Burned away by Runeas’s fire and erased by Zekram’s destruction.

We were actually doing it. We were hurting the unkillable beast…

But the celebration was short-lived.

From the crater of gore where the goat head used to be, black sludge began to bubble and boil. Bones knit themselves back together with sickening snaps. Flesh wove itself out of nothing. In seconds, the goat head reformed, shaking itself off and roaring with renewed fury!

The gouges on its back from Tiamat’s ice breath steamed and sealed shut. The holes punched by Gabriel’s light spears closed up, pushing the holy energy out of its system. Even the massive crater in its side began to fill in, muscle and scale growing back at a terrifying speed.

Trihexa shook its massive body, sending waves of black blood flying, and let out a roar that shattered the nearby rock formations. It wasn't slowing down. If anything, it seemed more pissed off.

It turned its remaining six heads—and the newly regrown goat head—toward the sky. Toward us.

Fuck me, this thing was a really poweful regenerator!

"It's regenerating too fast!" Rebecca’s voice cut through the air. She was hovering near me, her black armor scuffed but intact. "We need to hit it harder! We need to destroy it completely, all at once!"

"I know!" I shouted back. 

Before we could formulate a plan, Trihexa attacked.

The lion-headed neck snapped forward, its maw opening wide. A beam of concentrated purple energy—pure, condensed hatred—shot out, aiming not for me, but for the group of devils hovering below.

"Look out!" I roared in her direction.

Runeas looked up, her eyes widening as the beam rushed toward her. She was drained from that massive fireball, her reactions slowed. She tried to raise a defensive shield, but her hands were trembling. "Oh, shit," she whispered.

I didn't think. I just moved.

"WULD NAH KEST!" I shouted the Whirlwind Sprint, my body blurring as I shot downward faster than the eye could follow. The world turned into streaks of color. I slammed into Runeas mid-air, wrapping my arms around her tight waist and twisting my body to shield her.

The purple beam missed us by inches. I could feel the heat of it searing the air, the crackle of energy singing the edges of my wings. It slammed into the ground where Runeas had been hovering a split second ago, vaporizing a multiple-mile long stretch of rock instantly.

We tumbled through the air, rolling over each other until my wings caught the wind and stabilized us. I hovered there, breathing hard, holding Runeas tight against my chest.

She blinked up at me, her face pale, her chest heaving against mine. Her arms were locked around my neck, her body trembling. "You..." she breathed, her voice shaky. "You saved me."

"Can't have my favorite devil dying on me," I said, managing a cocky grin despite my heart trying to beat its way out of my chest. "Who else is gonna sexually harass me all the time?"

Runeas stared at me for a second, then let out a breathless, hysterical laugh. She pressed herself closer, burying her face in the crook of my neck. "You idiot," she murmured, her hot breath tickling my skin. "You magnificent, heroic idiot. I'm going to fuck you so hard when this is over!"

"Deal…" I said, pretending to not act flustered in that intense moment. "But first, we have to survive and kill this raging monster."

I looked back up at Trihexa. The beast was rampaging now, thrashing its tails and swiping its claws, keeping Tiamat and the angels at bay.

"Silas!" Taylor’s voice came over the wind. She was still on the ground, perched atop a giant beetle that was trying to hamstring the beast. "It's healing too fast! We need something bigger!"

I knew that, but we just hit it with almost everything we had. And if I tried to use the Dragonrend shout to stop it from healing… Well, Tiamat was pretty clear death would be the least of my worries.

Black, tar-like muscle fibers wove themselves together with sickening, wet squelching noises that echoed across the silent battlefield. Bone snapped back into place. Scales grew over raw flesh in seconds. It was undoing our best shots in real-time.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me," I muttered, the words tasting like ash.

I watched, helpless for a fraction of a second, as the few remaining brave souls—the angels and devils who hadn't fled in terror—threw themselves at the Beast. They were ants attacking a mountain, but they didn't stop.

A ten-winged angel, dive-bombed one of Trihexa’s lower heads, his spear glowing with holy light. He struck true, piercing the beast’s eye.

Trihexa didn't even flinch. A massive, clawed hand swiped through the air, faster than something that size had any right to move. There was a wet crunch, and the angel was simply... gone. Reduced to a fine red mist and a shower of white feathers that drifted mournfully down to the blood-soaked underworld.

Beside him, a High-Class Devil unleashed a barrage of crimson demolition magic, screaming in defiance the whole time. Trihexa turned a lion-like head toward him and exhaled a stream of acidic bile. The devil didn't even have time to scream before he melted, his form dissolving into sludge before he hit the ground.

I didn't know their names. I didn't know who they loved or what they fought for. But they had stayed in the face of the apocalypse to fight with us. In my book, that made them heroes. And I was watching them die for nothing.

"We can't win this," Runeas whispered against my neck. She was still clinging to me, her body trembling not from passion this time, but from the cold realization. "Silas... look at it. It's playing with us."

I tightened my grip on her waist, hating that she was right. "We need a new plan."

A flash of silver light descended from above. Gabriel flew down beside us. Her newly silver wings were a bit singed, her golden armor dented and stained with black ichor, but her eyes burned with a fierce defiance.

I let go of Runeas. "Gabriel," I said, my voice grim. "Tell me you have an idea, because brute force isn't working."

Gabriel clenched her sword and looked down at the regenerating Beast as it slew more devils and angels. "We cannot kill it," she said with a sad sigh. "Not today. Not with our current strength. It feeds on despair, death, and destruction, it regenerates faster than we can damage it. If we continue this attrition, everyone here will die."

"So what? We give up?" Runeas snapped, though her voice lacked its usual bite. "We just let it eat the Underworld?"

"No," Gabriel said firmly. She turned to us, her expression steely. "We seal it away."

I blinked. "Seal it?"

"It is the only way," Gabriel insisted. "We lock it in a dimensional prison. A void between worlds where time does not flow. It won't kill the Beast, but it will remove it from reality. It will give us time—centuries, perhaps millennia—to prepare for its return. Hopefully, by then... we will be strong enough to finish it."

Runeas threw her hands up. "Okay, great plan, Heavenly Princess. Just one tiny, insignificant problem!" She pointed a manicured finger at the gargantuan monster currently stomping Tiamat into the dirt. "In the future Silas told us about, it was God who sealed that thing away! That future is looking pretty fucking fucked right now, because he just got turned into dragon chow!"

Gabriel bit her lip, looking pained. Her tiara started glowing brighter again. "...I know, but make no mistake, my REAL father is still with me, even right now and I will not give up! To create a seal strong enough to hold Trihexa requires a catalyst of immense power."

At that moment, Rebecca flew closer to us. "What's the play?" Rebecca asked while hugging Taylor close. "Taylor is out of ammo. Her bugs... they're all gone."

Taylor leaned against Rebecca, looking frustrated and small without her kaiju insects. "I’m sorry they didn’t last very long," she rasped, her voice hoarse. "But there's nothing left alive out there to control. I'm useless right now."

"You're not useless," I said firmly, meeting her gaze. "You bought us the opening. You did your part. You’re amazing, Taylor, never think otherwise," I flapped my wings and got close enough in the air to kiss her cheek.

"Silas is right," Gabriel said urgently. "But we are running out of time. I know the sealing spell. I have the knowledge. But I lack the raw power to fuel it. I need a power source for the ritual."

I racked my brain for any possible solution, my mind racing with canon knowledge—but we were in the past during the Great War, and I was drawing a blank sadly…

Thump-thump!

The sensation was sudden and jarring. It wasn't a sound, it was a physical pulse that originated from inside my own inventory space. It felt like a heartbeat, heavy and rhythmic, resonating against my very soul.

Thump-thump!

My eyes widened. "No way..." I focused on my inventory and the random loot I kept in there until my mind’s eye landed on two items I had completely forgotten about. Items I had looted from the carcasses of the Krayt Dragons on Tatooine.

They were sitting there in the stasis of my inventory. Before they had always felt powerful, flowing with the force. But now? They felt like miniature suns. 

"Gabriel," I said, my voice low as I gave her a slightly nervous glance. "You said you needed a catalyst? Something with immense power?"

She looked at me with desperate hope flaring in her eyes. "Yes! Anything! Do you have something?"

"I think I might." I raised my hand, palm up. The air in front of me shimmered and warped. Two heavy spheres dropped into my hands. They were massive—the size of bowling balls—and heavy, dense with compressed matter. But it wasn't their weight that was impressive. It was the light. They glowed with an inner, swirling luminescence, shifting from pearlescent white to deep, nebula blue. But more than the light, it was the feeling. A wave of energy washed over us, rolling off the pearls like heat from a furnace. 

It wasn't magic. It was the force.

Gabriel gasped, her hands flying to her mouth. Her eyes were locked on the pearls, wide and trembling. "Silas... what are those?" she breathed. "The energy radiating from them... it is not Holy, but it is... pure. It is vast. It feels like the breath of creation itself!"

Runeas leaned in, her pink eyes reflecting the swirling galaxy trapped within the orbs. "I've never felt magic like that," she murmured, reaching out a hand but stopping short of touching them. "It makes my skin tingle. It feels... neutral. Balanced."

"They're Krayt Dragon Pearls," I explained, struggling to hold them up as they seemed to grow heavier with significance. "From a galaxy far, far away. They're basically concentrated life energy. The Force." I looked at Gabriel. "Can you use them? Can you drain them to power the seal?"

Gabriel reached out, her trembling fingers brushing the smooth surface of the pearls. As soon as she made contact, her wings flared open involuntarily, the silver feathers glowing brighter. "Yes," she whispered, looking up at me with tears in her eyes. "Oh, yes! This... this is more than enough. This energy is incredibly potent. With this, I can weave a seal that not even the Beast can break!" She looked at the pearls, then at me, her expression hardening into the resolve of a general. "But Silas... the ritual. It is complex. I need time to channel this energy. I cannot be interrupted."

"How long?" Rebecca asked, looking very serious. She hadn’t gotten a chance to fight yet, but I could see her Viltrumite form looking ready to finally step up.

Gabriel took the heavy pearls from me, cradling them against her large chest like precious eggs. The light from them illuminated her face, making her look more like a goddess than an angel. "Thirty seconds," she said. "I need thirty seconds of absolute, uninterrupted focus to anchor the seal."

Thirty seconds. In a normal fight, that was nothing. In a fight against an apocalyptic beast that could wipe mountains off the map with a sneeze, it was an eternity.

"Keep her safe," Rebecca commanded to Runeas. She didn't wait for an answer. She simply floated over to where Runeas was hovering. Taylor was nestled securely in her arms, looking frustrated but resigned to being sidelined without her swarm. Rebecca practically tossed Taylor into Runeas's waiting arms. 

The crimson-haired devil caught her easily, shifting her grip to hold Taylor against her perky chest. "Oh, don't worry, Rebecca," Runeas purred, a wicked, playful glint lighting up her pink eyes despite the apocalypse unfolding around us. She adjusted her hold, one hand sliding boldly down to cup Taylor’s backside, squeezing the soft flesh through the black angelic armor. "I’ll keep our little insect queen very safe. And very close." Runeas smirked down at Taylor, clearly enjoying the flustered squirming of the younger girl.

"Get your hand off my ass, Runeas!" Taylor grumbled, her face flushing red as she tried to swat the devil’s hand away. "I’m serious! We’re in the middle of a war zone!"

"Details, darling, details," Runeas teased, though she did tighten her grip protectively as a stray shockwave rattled the air nearby.

A deafening, wet thud echoed across the underworld. We all spun around. Tiamat had been thrown. The massive blue dragon skidded across the plains, carving a trench through the rock before slamming into a ridge. She let out a howl of pain that tore at my heart.

Trihexa towered over her, its seven heads screaming in triumph. One of Tiamat’s wings was bent at a sickening angle. Deep, gushing claw marks raked down her sapphire side, magma-like blood pouring from the wounds.

She struggled to rise, snapping her jaws at the Beast, but she was exhausted. She was battered. And she was alone.

"No!" I shouted, rage flaring white-hot in my vision. "Get away from her!"I turned back to the group. My voice dropped to a gravelly growl. "You heard the lady. Thirty seconds. We hold the line. We buy her that time, or we all die right here!" I locked eyes with Rebecca. She gave me a sharp, curt nod—a silent promise of violence. "Let's go," I said. 

Rebecca and I plummeted toward the ground like twin meteors. The wind screamed in my ears, tearing at my armor, but I didn't slow down. 

Below us, the situation was critical. Trihexa, the Beast of the Apocalypse, towered over the broken form of Tiamat. The massive blue dragon was struggling to rise, her limbs shaking, blue blood pooling around her like a lake. The Beast raised one of its seven grotesque heads—a horned, reptilian nightmare—and opened a maw filled with teeth the size of greatswords. It was poised to strike, to rip Tiamat’s throat out while she was down.

I was still hundreds of feet up, too far to strike with a sword. But I had a voice. And I had a soul filled with the power of dragons. I drew a massive breath, feeling the energy coil in my diaphragm, ancient and thundering. I focused all my rage, all my protective instinct, into three words of power.

"FUS... ROH DAH!"

The world seemed to greyscale for a split second as the Shout left my lips. The Unrelenting Force didn't just push air—it hammered reality. A visible cone of distortion erupted from me, expanding rapidly as it slammed into the side of the Beast.

Trihexa was lifted off its feet and its multiple heads all had a look of shock. The Beast wailed, a discordant shriek from seven throats, as it was launched backward. It flew through the air, crashing through a ridge of stone, tumbling over itself across a distance of multiple football fields before slamming into the ground with enough force to register on a seismograph.

"My turn!" Rebecca roared next to me and she accelerated. I watched, awestruck, as she pushed her new Viltrumite speed to the breaking point. A cone of white condensation formed around her body as she shattered the sound barrier, then Mach 2, then Mach 3 and beyond.

The air of the Underworld couldn't handle the friction and ignited. Rebecca became a streak of living fire, a human shaped comet! She slammed into the recovering Trihexa just as it was trying to stand.

CRACK-BOOM!

She hit the Beast center-mass, burying herself in its flesh like a bullet. Trihexa doubled over, vomiting black ichor, and was sent flying backward again, skidding through the dirt and debris, carving a trench deep into the bedrock of the Underworld.

While Rebecca kept the monster occupied, I flared my wings wide to act as an airbrake, banking hard to land beside Tiamat. I hit the ground in a crouch, boots skidding on the stone, and immediately sprinted toward her.

"Tiamat! Are you okay!?"

The Chaos Karma Dragon was a mess. Her beautiful sapphire scales were rent and torn in a dozen places. Deep gouges marred her flank where Trihexa’s claws had raked her, and thick, glowing blue blood gushed from the wounds, sizzling where it touched the ground. 

She shifted as I approached, her massive head lifting slowly. Her slit-pupiled eyes, usually so arrogant and fierce, were hazy with pain, but they cleared the moment they focused on me. "Silas..." she rumbled, her voice a deep vibration that I felt in my bones. She tried to push herself up, her limbs trembling with the effort, before collapsing back onto her side with a pained grunt.

I reached out, placing my hand gently on her snout, right between her nostrils. Her scales were hot to the touch, burning with feverish energy. "Easy," I whispered. "Don't move. You took a hell of a beating."

She let out a huff of air that ruffled my hair. Her large eye fixed on me, pupils dilating. "My mate..." she growled softly, a low, possessive purr rumbling in her throat. "You came to save me... You actually threw that monster aside for me."

"Of course I did," I said, running my hand along the ridge of her jaw. "There’s no way I would stand around and let that monster kill you!”

She shifted again, ignoring the pain, pushing her massive head into my hand like a colossal cat seeking affection. A dark, sultry chuckle rumbled through her chest. "That display of dominance... that power..." she murmured, her voice dripping with a lust. "When this battle is over, Silas... I am going to fuck you so hard you won't be able to walk for a week!"

I felt the heat rush to my face, blushing furiously despite the apocalypse raging behind us. "Jesus, Tiamat," I muttered, shaking my head. "That is literally exactly what Runeas just said to me a minute ago..."

Tiamat’s head snapped up. Her eyes narrowed into dangerous slits, and a plume of blue smoke hissed from her nostrils. "That slutty devil needs to learn her place!" Tiamat huffed, her voice turning sharp and icy. "She thinks she can compete with a Dragon King? I will remind her of the pecking order once I have recovered!"

With a groan of exertion, Tiamat forced herself up. Her muscles bunched and coiled under her scales as she fought through the injury, rising to her full, terrifying height. Blood still dripped from her side, but she stood tall, spreading her wings wide to shake off the dust and debris.

I looked up at her, concern gnawing at me. "Hey, easy," I said, stepping back to give her room. "Are you sure you're okay to keep fighting? You’re losing a lot of blood."

Tiamat looked down at me, her expression shifting from jealousy back to that regal, arrogant pride. "Are you asking if Tiamat, the strongest Dragon King, is too weak to continue?" she asked, her tone incredulous, as if I had just asked if water was wet. Her eyes bored into mine, conveying a message clear as day. Who the hell do you think I am?

I couldn't help it. I chuckled, shaking my head. "Right. Stupid question. You’re the strongest."

"Damn right I am," she growled. She turned her gaze toward the distant form of Trihexa, where explosions and shockwaves marked Rebecca’s ongoing assault. Tiamat’s eyes burned with blue fire. "Now," she roared, her voice echoing across the plains, "I have a debt to repay to that ugly abomination!"

With a powerful thrust of her hind legs, Tiamat launched herself into the air. The downdraft nearly knocked me over as she beat her wings, accelerating with frightening speed back toward the fray. She opened her maw as she flew, unleashing a torrent of freezing blue fire that strafed Trihexa’s flank, joining Rebecca’s physical assault.

I watched her go for a split second, admiring the sheer tenacity, before snapping my focus back to the task at hand.

Rebecca was doing an incredible job. I could see her black-clad figure zooming around the massive Beast like an angry hornet. She was striking it with force that shattered the sound barrier over and over—BOOM, BOOM, BOOM—keeping the monster off balance, aiming for its eyes, its joints, doing everything she could to distract it.

I was glad she was a Viltrumite now. Before, a single backhand from that monster would have turned her into paste. Now? She took a glancing blow from one of the dragon-heads that knocked her through a rock formation, and she just shook it off and flew right back in, punching the head so hard its jaw dislocated.

"Alright," I muttered to myself. "Thirty seconds. We’re almost there..."

I looked back toward Gabriel. She was floating in the air, the Krayt Dragon Pearls orbiting her like twin moons. Her eyes were closed, her face a mask of concentration as she wove the complex sealing spell. The light around her was intensifying, growing brighter by the second!

We just needed a little more time. A little more damage.

I planted my feet firmly on the cracked stone. I reached deep inside myself, tapping directly into the wellspring of power the System had gifted me.

I raised both hands high above my head, palms facing the dark, stone sky of the Underworld.

"Come on," I gritted out. Sparks began to dance across my armor. Blue, white, violet. They jumped from my fingers, arcing high into the air. I wasn't just summoning lightning. I was building a star. A sphere of pure, superheated plasma began to form between my hands. It started the size of a basketball, swirling with violent, magnetic energy. I fed it more power, draining my reserves, pushing my limits. It grew. Beach ball. Car. House!

I needed more power! 

The heat radiating from it was intense enough to melt the ground underneath me, but my magnetic fields kept it contained from burning myself. The air around me warped and shimmered from the thermal distortion. 

"Eat this, you ugly son of a bitch!" I growled, my teeth bared in a feral grin. The ball of plasma swelled to the size of a large building, a crackling sun of blue-white destruction hovering above me. The hum of it was so loud it drowned out the roar of the battle. With a roar of exertion, I threw my hands forward!

The massive plasma sphere screamed through the air, turning the darkness of the Underworld into a blinding day.

Rebecca saw it coming. She broke off her attack instantly, shooting straight up into the air to get clear. Tiamat banked hard, peeling away right afterwards!

Trihexa turned its heads, seven pairs of eyes widening as the miniature sun rushed toward it. It impacted dead center of its body.

KA-BOOOOOOM!

It took everything I had. My reserves were drained, my body trembling from the recoil of unleashing that much magnetic force at once. I slumped slightly, bracing my hands on my knees, fighting the black spots dancing in my vision as I watched the impact.

The explosion engulfed the Beast’s entire upper torso.

"Burn, you ugly fucker!" I roared, my voice raw and scraping against my throat. I grinned, a feral baring of teeth, as I watched the devastation. The plasma didn’t just burn, it disintegrated. Three of the seven heads—the wolf, the bird, and the lion—were caught in the expanding radius. They didn't have time to scream. Their flesh bubbled, blackened, and then simply melted away, sloughing off the bone like wet wax before the bones themselves turned to ash and scattered into the wind.

The remaining heads shrieked, a discordant, multi-tonal wail of absolute agony that vibrated in the air. The Beast thrashed, stumbling back, its massive claws tearing gouges into the bedrock as it tried to escape the heat that was cooking it from the inside out.

But we weren't done!

"NOW! DO NOT LET IT RECOVER!" Michael’s voice boomed from above. I looked up to see the Archangel diving down, leading the remaining legion of angels like a spearhead of light. "Strike! Pour everything you have into it!"

Dozens of golden lightspears materialized in the air above the reeling monster. With a collective shout that shook the ground, the angels hurled their weapons.

The barrage was relentless. The spears rained down in a golden blur, piercing the regenerating flesh, pinning the Beast’s limbs to the ground, exploding against its scales. Every time the black tar of its healing factor tried to knit a wound shut, a holy spear detonated inside it, blasting the flesh apart again.

From the ground, Zekram Bael stepped forward. He raised his hands, gathering a swirling vortex of crimson and black energy—the pure Power of Destruction that his clan was famous for!

"Devils! Fire!" Zekram commanded his own people!

The remaining devils, the ones who hadn't fled or died, unleashed a torrent of demonic magic. Crimson blasts, bolts of black lightning, and waves of crushing gravity slammed into Trihexa from the ground level. Zekram’s own blast hit the Beast’s knees, the destructive energy erasing matter on contact, causing the mountain-sized monster to buckle and crash onto its side.

The earth quaked violently as Trihexa hit the dirt, pinned by holy light and flayed by demonic power. It thrashed, its remaining heads snapping blindly, but it couldn't rise. It was drowning in a sea of magic.

"Enough time has passed," a melodic voice chimed out, cutting through the chaos like a bell.

I turned my head, squinting against the glare. 

Gabriel was floating high above the center of the battlefield, suspended in the air by her twelve silver wings. She looked ethereal, a goddess of judgment poised against the dark backdrop of the Underworld ceiling. The Krayt Dragon Pearls orbited her faster now, blurring into rings of pure, nebula-blue light. "Everyone, get clear!" Gabriel’s voice wasn't a shout, but it carried to every corner of the battlefield, amplified by the immense power she was channeling. The silver light around her bloomed, expanding outward until it swallowed the sky. 

The sheer pressure of it forced me to take a step back, shielding my eyes. 

"You," Gabriel spoke, her eyes glowing white, fixed on the writhing form of Trihexa. "The Beast born from the hatred in the hearts of all beings in this world..." She raised her hands high, the Crown of the Seraphim on her brow shining with a blinding intensity. "I SEAL YOU AWAY!"

With a sound like shattering glass, the Krayt Dragon Pearls disintegrated. They didn't just break—they dissolved into pure energy, a torrent of blue and white stardust that swirled into a massive, complex geometric seal in the sky.

Gabriel brought her hands down in a chopping motion. A beam of solid silver light, thick as a skyscraper, hammered down from the seal. It struck Trihexa with the finality of a gavel.

There was no scream this time. No roar of defiance. The light enveloped the Beast completely. 

I watched, breathless, as the massive, shifting form of the apocalypse began to dissolve. It wasn't burning, it was being unmade—at least for a long time. The black scales turned to gray mist, the massive limbs faded into transparency. 

The reality of the monster was being overwritten, pushed out of our dimension and into the void between worlds.

The light flared one last time, blindingly bright—and then, with a soft pop that felt like the air pressure suddenly dropping, it was gone.

I blinked, spots dancing in my vision. Trihexa was gone. Completely. Where the mountain-sized beast had been thrashing just seconds ago, there was nothing but a massive, scorched crater. No blood, no body parts, no lingering aura of malice. It was as if the monster had never existed in the first place, erased from the timeline.

Only the utter devastation of the surrounding landscape—the shattered mountains, the glassed plains, the miles of trenches carved by the battle—remained as proof of the nightmare we had just survived.

A heavy silence descended on the battlefield. Angels and devils alike stood or floated frozen, staring at the empty space, unable to process that it was actually over.

Then, a soft rustle of feathers drew my attention.

Gabriel descended slowly from the sky. Her silver wings beat tiredly, the glow fading from them as she touched down on the cracked earth a few yards away from me. She stumbled slightly upon landing, her legs clearly shaking from the immense drain of the ritual.

She floated—or rather, staggered—over toward me.

I straightened up, ignoring the screaming protest of my own muscles, and looked at her. "Damn..." I whispered.

She looked wrecked, but in the most breathtaking way possible. Her golden armor was tattered, rent by claws and blasts, hanging off her frame in pieces. The metal breastplate was cracked down the center, revealing the sheer, torn fabric of the white under-suit beneath. Her skin was flushed a deep, healthy pink from exertion, covered in a sheen of sweat that made her glow in the dim light. Her chest heaved with deep, gasping breaths, her massive breasts pushing against the ruined armor with every inhale, threatening to spill out. Her golden hair was a wild, tangled halo around her face, sticking to her damp cheeks.

She looked exhausted, disheveled, and absolutely, undeniably beautiful.

Gabriel stopped in front of me, her blue eyes bright with tears of relief and exhaustion. She looked at me, then at the empty crater, and a shaky, radiant smile broke across her face.

"We did it, Silas," she breathed, her voice a husky whisper. "It is done… The beast won’t be back for a very long time…"

I couldn't help myself. I let my eyes rake over her, taking in the flushed skin, the heave of her chest, the way her tattered skirt clung to her thighs. She was the real MVP right now. She had pulled off a miracle. "Yeah," I said, my voice thick. "You did it, Gabriel. That was... incredible."

She laughed, a breathless, giddy sound, and then she practically collapsed against me. I caught her, my arms wrapping around her waist to hold her up. She felt warm, soft, and solid against me. She buried her face in my chest, letting out a long, shuddering sigh.

"I could not have done it without the catalyst," she murmured into my shirt. "Without you."

Before I could respond, a sudden commotion to my left made me look over.

"WE FUCKING DID IT!"

Runeas Gremory was screaming at the top of her lungs. She grabbed the nearest person—which happened to be Taylor—and effortlessly hoisted her into the air.

"Runeas! Put me down!" Taylor squeaked, her legs kicking helplessly as the devil woman tossed her up and down again and agian.

"We survived! We won!" Runeas cheered, ignoring Taylor's protests completely. She caught Taylor and spun her around, burying her face in Taylor's stomach and blowing a raspberry, making my poor girlfriend shriek in mortification. "We beat the apocalypse! I'm going to have so much sex to celebrate!"

I let out a chuckle, the sound turning into a heavy sigh as the adrenaline finally crashed. My legs felt like rubber. "Alright," I muttered. "I think... I think I'm done."

I released Gabriel gently, making sure she was steady on her feet, and then I just let gravity take over. I flopped backward, hitting the ruined, dusty ground with a thud. I didn't care about the rocks digging into my back. I didn't care about the dirt. I just stared up at the dark stone ceiling of the Underworld and breathed. "Why don't we all just… take a minute," I groaned, closing my eyes.

My body felt heavy, anchored to the earth, but my mind was light. We had done it. Against God, Lucifer, and the Beast of the End, we had actually pulled it off.

Ping! The sound was sharp and clear inside my head.

My eyes snapped open just as a bright blue System screen popped into existence directly in front of my face, hovering in the air.

[Congratulations on saving this world!]

I stared at the text, a tired grin spreading across my face.

"You're welcome," I whispered to the empty air.

The text scrolled, revealing more.

[Quest Complete: The Great War Finale.]

[Objective: End the War between the Three Factions. Status: SUCCESS.] [Objective: Ensure the mutual destruction of God and Lucifer. Status: SUCCESS.] [Objective: Defeat/Seal Trihexa. Status: SUCCESS.] [Objective: Keep your Harem alive. Status: SUCCESS.]

I snorted at the last line. My "Harem." The System really wasn't subtle about it anymore, was it?

[Calculating Rewards...]

[Reward 1: The Divine Divide.] [Description: You have been granted the spirit of the Vanishing Dragon, Albion. However, unlike the Sacred Gear of this world, this power has been assimilated directly into your physiology. You now possess the ability to Divide the power of your opponents upon physical contact or via ranged magic, adding their strength to your own. You can also Reflect attacks. Wings of light are now available in your transformation arsenal.]

My eyes widened. The Divine Dividing? Vali's power? And I didn't need a gear for it? That was insane. I could literally halve people's strength just by touching them!

[Reward 2: Twilight Healing (Integrated).] [Description: You have been granted the power to heal all physical injuries with a touch. This power has also been assimilated. This power does not heal diseases.]

"No way," I breathed. I got that too? I was almost like a second Panacea at this point, except I’d be sure to keep this trump card closer to the chest once back on Earth Bet.

[Reward 3: World Travel Unlocked (Permanent).] [Description: You have successfully completed 3 Major Quests across the multiverse. The restrictions on your travel have been lifted. You may now travel freely between Earth Bet, the Star Wars Galaxy, and the DxD Universe at will. You may bring companions with you.]

I let out a low whistle. World travel was huge. It meant we weren't stuck here. We could go home. We could go back to Earth Bet and actually fix things with the power we had now. Or we could go chill on Naboo if we needed a vacation…

"Silas?" Gabriel’s soft voice broke my concentration. She was leaning over me, her blonde hair tickling my face. "You look very happy. What did father just tell you?” She asked as she watched my System screen above my face vanish.

I blinked the screen away and looked up at her. Her face was still flushed, her eyes heavy with exhaustion but shining with happiness.

"He gave me some amazing awards and I was just... checking my loot," I joked weakly. I reached up and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "We did it, Gabriel. We actually saved everyone."

She smiled, leaning down to press a soft kiss to my forehead. "Yes. We did."

That made my eyes widen! Gabriel just kissed me!? And she was giving me a very sultry look now too…

"Hey! No fair!" Runeas’s voice shouted.

I winced as the crimson-haired devil literally threw herself onto me, landing on my stomach with a heavy oof. Taylor, who she had apparently dragged along, stumbled and fell onto my legs.

"Group pile!" Runeas announced, wriggling until she was comfortable on top of me. She grinned down at my face. "Since we aren't dead, that means we get to celebrate. And since we're all exhausted, I vote we celebrate by napping right here! And then later we can all go back to my mention and celebrate even more, but in a much more fun way!"

XXX