"Oh, I'm going to love this," Lustia purred, her crimson eyes gleaming as she watched Dante point both guns at her.
Without hesitation, black leathery wings burst from her back. She lunged at him, a blur of seduction and violence.
Dante immediately backpedaled, squeezing the triggers. Bullets roared through the hall, but Lustia twisted and danced between them with ease, her movements graceful and mocking.
"For a child to go head-to-head with me?!" she laughed, amused but unimpressed. "You've got arrogance... and guts, boy!"
Dante gritted his teeth, pivoting left and right, firing more rounds with desperate precision.
"Foolish child!" Lustia spat, voice venomous. "Your pathetic little mechanisms can't harm a higher-ranked demon!"
She was right—until one bullet found its mark, piercing her torso.
"Ugh!" Lustia halted midair, staring down at the wound, her expression twisted in shock.
"How...?" she whispered.
Dante smirked, his eyes cold. "Who said I was using mechanical rounds? Look closer."
Lustia clutched her wound, feeling the pulse of unfamiliar energy. Dragonic mana.
"You!!!" she hissed in realization.
"Yup," Dante said casually. "After King Giang tackled you out of the castle, I asked Lady Xilang to infuse my weapons with her mana."
Snarling, Lustia dodged two more shots, fury burning in her gaze.
"Arrogant brat!" she shrieked, and with terrifying speed, she closed the distance, ramming her fist into Dante's gut. He flew backward like a ragdoll, crashing into the stone wall with a sickening thud.
Blood splattered from Dante's lips. Across the room, Will Ruthwilfer felt the curse within him stir, a black tide ready to awaken if Dante perished.
"Fool! Get to safe—!" Will's voice cut off abruptly, silenced by Lustia's magic. She placed a finger to her lips, mockingly. "Shh. Adults are talking."
Lustia turned back toward Dante, who struggled to breathe, every rib aching.
Dammit... I'm not ready for a royal demon. A succubus is even worse, he thought grimly.
Desperation clawed at him. His eyes darted around the battlefield—and that's when he noticed it: Iccia, Will, Xilang, Giang, and Diana had taken positions around the hall, forming the points of a star.
An idea sparked.
He staggered to his feet, wiping the blood from his mouth.
"Come on, old hag!" he taunted.
Lustia arched a brow—and then, without warning, delivered a brutal punch, sending Dante flying straight into Iccia's arms.
"Kid! What the hell are you doing?!" she shouted, catching him.
"I have a plan," he rasped quickly, drawing a crude symbol in the dust.
Iccia's eyes widened. "Kid, that's suicide."
"Got a better idea?" Dante challenged.
Iccia hesitated, cursed under her breath, then nodded grimly. "Dammit, kid. You better not die on me."
Before they could act further, Lustia descended like a vulture, striking Iccia and slamming her into the corner of the hall.
"There you are, little runt!" she screeched.
"Shit!" Dante cursed, narrowly rolling away. He fired point-blank at Lustia's thigh, the mana-infused bullet punching deep.
"AGGH!!!" she screamed, clutching her wounded leg in rage.
Without mercy, she backhanded Dante, sending him tumbling toward Giang and Xilang.
They caught him midair.
"No time!" Dante gasped, hurriedly explaining the next step of his plan.
Understanding flashed between them. Giang unleashed a thick smoke, filling the ballroom with swirling gray clouds. Visibility plummeted to near zero.
Under the cover of smoke, Dante sprinted, weaving through the confusion, whispering hurried instructions to Will and Diana Ruthwilfer.
Moments later, Dante emerged alone from the haze.
"Hey, old hag!" he called, waving.
Lustia turned, sneering. "Found you!"
She launched at him. Dante dodged nimbly, retreating, always just out of reach. He fired again and again, driving her, luring her toward the center of the hall.
Bruised, bleeding, panting—he kept moving.
Finally, they reached the exact spot.
"No more running," Lustia hissed, her smile predatory. "Give up... or die."
Dante raised a single finger.
The middle one.
Snarling, Lustia lunged for the final blow.
But just as she struck, Dante leapt back—revealing the trap.
From the smoke, Giang and Xilang surged in from her flanks. Behind Dante, Will, Iccia, and Diana charged forward. Together, they poured their remaining mana into Dante's gun, the weapon glowing and groaning under the overload as it begins to crack little by little.
Lustia realized too late.
"SHIT!" she screamed, eyes wide with horror.
Dante grinned, his breath ragged, and whispered one word:
"Checkmate."
The trigger pulled.
The gun unleashed a colossal beam of raw mana, a cannon-blast of fury and light.
The ballroom exploded into utter chaos. Chandeliers ripped from the ceiling. Furniture vaporized. Walls cracked and shattered. Windows burst into shards, the night air screaming through the ruined hall.
"AGGHHH!!!!" Lustia's screams tore through the maelstrom as the blast engulfed her.
The ground shook, floors shattred and destroyed into cobwebs. A massive hole was blasted through the Ruthwilfer castle's main hall.
Silence reigned.
Debris rained down like ash. The battlefield was wreckage and ruin.
Minutes passed.
Groaning, Dante was the first to rise, clutching his side. He looked down at his guns, one was intact but drained of mana. The other, cracked and broken beyond repair.
"Cough... cough..."
He turned toward the sound.
Lustia—half-burnt, disintegrate, broken—was crawling across the rubble, trying to escape.
"You've gotta be kidding me," Dante muttered.
Staggering forward, he blocked her path.
Lustia looked up at him, her beautiful face bloodied but calm.
"Tch. Damn it... kid..." she rasped. "You used yourself as bait... forced me into a trap... I've never been played like that in centuries."
Despite everything, there was a glint of admiration in her ruined eyes.
"But I admit it," she said. "Your strategy... it was brilliant."
Dante raised his surviving gun.
Lustia didn't flinch. No fear. Only resignation.
"Do it," she said softly. "End it. End us."
But Dante hesitated.
Slowly, he lowered the gun.
He knelt beside her, his voice grim and low. "Get out. Before I change my mind."
Lustia stared at him, stunned. But she wasted no time. Summoning what little magic she had left, she conjured battered wings and fled into the night.
Dante watched her go, then turned and limped back toward the wreckage.
"Dante!" a voice cried.
Zhurong stumbled free from the debris, rushing to him, followed by the old smith. Others emerged—bruised, bloodied, but alive.
The battle was over.
The demon raid had failed.
Lady Diana rushed over, her face a mixture of anger and fear. "Boy, I swear—I'll kill you myself if you pull another stunt like that! You're still a kid!"
Iccia Fafner approached, her smile wry. "Dante, was it? I gotta say... that was one hell of a plan. For a kid."
Giang came and headlock Dante playfully and nudge his head. "Kid!! That fuc—." Xilang knocked her husband hard. "Not infront of a kid, Giang!" Yelled his Xilang since Dante was 9 years old.
But they didn't know that Dante was reborn. He knows all the foul languague. So Dante just pretends to not use it for awhile till he is a teenager.
Dante simply nodded, exhausted.
Then he turned—and found Will Ruthwilfer staring at him.
"Dante." Will spoke to him for the first time in ever years.
"Father," Dante said, voice flat.
Will only glanced at him coldly, then walked past without a word as he tends to the wreckage and the protected nobles.
"Will—!" Lady Diana shouted, furious, but Dante cut her off.
"Leave it," he said, hollow. "He'll never see me as his son. And I'll never see him as my father."
Diana looked at him sadly.
From the shadows, Evan Ruthwilfer clenched his fists in rage and shame, seeing his own son, Taka, unconscious among the rubble.
He vowed silently. "I will raise Taka myself. Even if I have to be cruel to do it."
Far away, deep in the dark forests beyond the castle, Lustia staggered through the trees.
"Huff... huff... Escaping from a kid and was showned mercy... how shameful," she spat, disgusted with herself.
"You were warned," came a voice.
A shadow detached itself from the darkness—Taoun, the Sinner of Sloth.
"Lustia," he greeted with chilling calm.
"Taoun," she rasped.
"The Queen will not be pleased," he said. "But... she grows weaker by the day."
Lustia's heart stilled. "Did she—?"
"Yes," Taoun said, his face unreadable. "She gave birth to him. The one who will usher in a new era for the Demon Clan."
Pain flared in Lustia's body, but hope flickered in her heart.
"Then the young master—"
"Will be raised by us," Taoun finished. "The Seven Sins. The Queen's final wish... is to see him ascend before she passes."
Lustia shuddered.
"Oh, I will gladly teach him all the techniques. Because Im gonna need to sharpen my combat once Im all healed up." Lustia said seductively.
"Come," Taoun said. "Let's return." He notices Lustia's current form. Halfy disintergrated. "Who did this much damage to you?" Asked Taoun.
"I rather not say it." Lustia, embrassed and shamful.
"Now let's go. We got work to do." Said Lustia.
And with that, Lustia climbed onto Taoun's back and flew back to the demon realm.
This time. The world will hear and know about. For that the Demon clan, has returned.
---
Chaoter 8 — End.