Demonic Dragon: Harem System - Chapter 393

Chapter 393: At last… the traitor shows herself
Strax stared intently at Aldric. His eyes, golden like embers containing restrained fury, burned with the weight of a thousand battles fought. The silence that followed was so thick it felt like it could cut through reality itself. The world around them trembled, as if even the wind held its breath for what was to come.

“I always figured something was going on behind the scenes… especially with an idiot like Aldric chasing power…” Strax spat the words with contempt, the muscles of his body trembling with barely contained force.

He took a step forward. The ground groaned beneath his feet, and cracks spread like webs on a battlefield about to collapse.

“Come on… show yourself.”

His voice echoed like thunder from the dawn of time. It wasn’t a plea. It wasn’t an invitation. It was a sentence. A demand that could not be ignored.

For a moment, nothing moved. But then — the light bent. The sky, once shrouded in black clouds, split open with a vertical purple rift that pulsed like a living wound. Silver lightning slithered through the clouds like starving celestial serpents.

The air grew heavier. Denser. Suffocating, as if the world itself was being crushed by a presence beyond comprehension.

Behind Aldric, a shadow emerged. Not an absence of light, but an entity made of living darkness — oppressive, colossal. Something too ancient to have a name, too cruel to be called a god.

Aldric’s eyes glowed crimson. His lips curled into a twisted grin, as if savoring the fear radiating from the space around him.

“You’re not a fool after all…”

The voice that came from his throat had two layers — as if another presence spoke alongside him. Deep, resonant, echoing with the wrath of the heavens and the chill of the abyss.

Then, from the celestial rift, a colossal figure descended. A beard made of lightning. Eyes that sparked like collapsing stars. A mantle of storm clouds and living thunder. The aura it exuded was divine… but brutal.

[The God of Gods, Zeus, looks upon you.]

Reality itself seemed to quiver under that gaze. Animals in faraway valleys fled in terror. Mountains, even at a distance, trembled like leaves in a storm. Time hesitated.

Strax did not look away. The flaming wings on his back burst open with a thunderous roar, spewing golden embers. Every inch of his body roared in challenge.

“What do you want in this world?” Strax asked, his voice steady, but laced with barely controlled tension. There were many questions in his mind, but in that moment, he needed Zeus to confirm just one.

Zeus stepped down. The ground beneath his foot cracked and turned into smoldering glass, as if the heat of his presence scorched even the fabric of reality. Around him, light flickered, torn between existing and vanishing — as if his body hovered between planes, creation and destruction coexisting within one being.

“Even as a Vessel… you still don’t know?” Zeus’s voice cut through space like thunder laced with scorn. “My foolish brother… You really think I’m a joke? That you can use someone else’s body and hide that from me?”

Strax’s eyes widened for an instant. Disconnected fragments began to click into place in his mind. The encounters with Persephone… The System’s cryptic messages…

‘I see now… Persephone lied… “H” stands for Hades… He created the System… He was never gone… she was just following his orders and pretending he had vanished…’

The truth hit him like a blade. But it wasn’t the only thing.

A blinding flash exploded in front of him. Zeus raised his arm, and in a single instant, channeled a colossal bolt of lightning that descended with an ancient roar. The bolt tore through the sky like a divine spear, striking Strax dead on.

The impact was so brutal that the earth cracked open into craters. Strax’s body was launched through the air, crashing through mountains as if they were made of paper, until he slammed into a rocky ridge that shattered around him. Dust rose in a colossal cloud, and for a moment, everything fell silent.

Zeus stood motionless, his arm still raised, his eyes glowing like suns on the verge of exploding.

“You’ve grown strong with his help, Vessel… but you still don’t understand the game you’re playing.” Zeus’s voice echoed for miles, even though it was spoken in a whisper.

On the far side of the shattered throne hall, amidst the smoldering rubble, a golden spark flickered.

It grew. From a faint glimmer into a living flame, burning in golden and crimson spirals. The dust around it vanished in an instant, swept away by pure, radiant force — revealing a single being.

Strax.

His body was covered in burn marks and cracks across his scales, but his eyes… his eyes still burned like twin suns ablaze. He rose slowly, the sound of cracking stone beneath his feet accompanying each movement. A muffled growl escaped his throat.

His flaming wings spread wide once more—grand, majestic, and furiously divine. The aura around him wavered like a volcano on the verge of eruption. But before he could speak, two figures descended.

Fast as meteors, silhouettes wrapped in light and blood fell upon him with divine brutality.Kaelis, current vessel of Athena, and Grunnar, vessel of Ares, attacked without hesitation.

Strax barely had time to regain his footing before the twin collisions struck him like celestial hammers.

Kaelis, cloaked in a silver light reminiscent of moonlight itself, attacked with surgical precision. Each of her blows didn’t just slice through flesh and scale—it felt like they were cutting into his soul. Athena’s blade, forged with the wisdom and justice of the ages, targeted the pressure points in his draconic structure, aiming to paralyze, subdue, neutralize.

Simultaneously, Grunnar, vessel of Ares, crashed down like a war-born comet, his body wrapped in a cloak of boiling blood. His fists carried no grace—only raw chaos, unbridled savagery, and killing instinct. He roared as he drove a brutal hook into Strax’s abdomen, forcing him to spit golden blood into the thinning air.

The earth quaked. The atmosphere pulsed. Lightning and fire danced in a spiral of destruction.

Strax staggered, his feet sinking into the fractured ground. But his eyes—those damn golden eyes—still hadn’t faltered. He twisted on his heel, narrowly dodging Kaelis’ next strike, and retaliated with a flaming punch that collided with her spiritual shield. The impact caused the light around her to ripple violently, distorting the air like a mirage of war.

Grunnar charged in from the flank, roaring in fury, but Strax flared his wings and unleashed a wave of explosive embers, forcing the warrior to retreat momentarily.

“You two… are just pawns?!” Strax growled, blood dripping from his lips. “Or are you too blind to see what that old bastard really wants from you?”

“Silence!” Kaelis shouted, her eyes gleaming like storm-filled moons. “You don’t understand the balance we’re trying to preserve. This world needs order!”

“And what he wants…” Grunnar interrupted, rotating his fists now wrapped in crimson energy, “…is our only chance at surviving what’s coming beyond the veil.”

The fight intensified. Strax was forced to draw the sword he had sworn to keep sealed—the one forged from billions of trapped souls. The sword Artorias had entrusted to him.’This is going to be rough…’ he thought, panting, his scales drenched in blood and soot. ‘I need to get out of here. These two… they’re far beyond Emperor Stage…’

And then—a scarlet blur ripped through the battlefield.

A devastating kick struck Grunnar in the gut, launching the vessel of Ares dozens of meters away. The impact cratered the land, sending clouds of dust into the air.

“I thought we were going on a date…” — a sweet voice, sharp as a blade, echoed — “…and you decided to start a war without me?”

The dust parted, revealing her — Scarlet Vermillion, his wife. Her crimson-violet hair floated like a flaming veil, and her very presence made reality tremble.

She was smiling, but her eyes burned with the fury of a betrayed goddess. Her footsteps echoed like war bells.

“How did you…?” Kaelis tried to ask, but her instincts screamed. She leapt back, a desperate reflex—but too late.

SHRAAAK!

A slash of black fire tore through her like death’s own lament. Her left arm was severed effortlessly, carbonized before it even touched the ground.

A new presence had arrived. Xenovia, cloaked in a shimmering black mantle, appeared beside Strax. Her violet eyes glowed with absolute power, and a dark phoenix—born of cursed energy—spiraled around her.

“Reckless,” Xenovia murmured, watching Kaelis writhe in pain. “You’re toying with forces you do not understand.”

Kaelis gritted her teeth and stepped back.

From the phoenix itself, darkness bent. Like a sudden eclipse, night folded in upon itself.

Nyx.

[The Primordial Entity, Nyx, is watching you.]

The System notification flashed in the corner of Strax’s vision, but he didn’t need it. He could feel it—his very soul trembled in her presence.Not from fear… but from reverence.

She remained in her humanoid form and looked directly at him.

“You’re all broken…” Nyx said softly, almost motherly. “I don’t like seeing you this way.”

She extended a hand and, with a simple gesture, the energy around Strax glowed with a deep black—like the constellations themselves were singing only for him.The cracks in his scales closed. His muscles regenerated. The pain vanished like an old dream forgotten at dawn.

“I’ll heal you,” Nyx said again.

His aura erupted in a silent roar. The flaming wings spread violently, casting golden and crimson flames in all directions. The battlefield now resembled a throne forged from his fury and glory.

Kaelis and Grunnar hesitated.For the first time, the vessels of the old gods realized—they weren’t just fighting Strax.

“At last… the traitor shows herself,” Zeus spoke, his voice cold as thunderclouds, his gaze locked onto Nyx.