Return of the Calamity-Class Death Knight

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Chapter 307: The Power Of The Past (3)

***

Dorugo let out a blood-curdling scream, her voice echoing through the battlefield. Damien coldly sneered at her agony.

"Does it hurt? This is just the beginning."

Damien infused dark mana into Dorugo\'s body via Erebos. She was consumed completely as the dark mana burst into flames.

"Aaagh! Aaaahhh!"

Dorugo tried desperately to pull Erebos out, but her strength was no match of Damien.

-Damien! No, Lord Damien…!

Epsilon cried out urgently, her expression pleading, but his body was too broken to move.

-Please, spare our mother! I beg you!

Damien frowned at the plea.

"Why are you addressing me so formally?"

-I’ve remembered everything! I remember who you were in your past life!

For a brief moment, surprise flickered across Damien\'s face. But only for a moment.

"You remember… and yet you’re asking me to stop?"

His voice trembled with rising anger.

-I know what she did to you! But… but…

"Shut up."

Damien glared at Epsilon with killing intent in his eyes. The sheer terror of his gaze silenced him.

"Stop spouting nonsense and watch from over there. After I finish killing this one, you’re next!"

Damien had no intention of leaving anything tied to Dorugo alive.

Whether it was undead, human, or even knowledge, he didn’t care.

"Anything connected to Dorugo will be wiped from this world! I’ll leave nothing behind!"

With fury in his voice, Damien shoved Erebos even deeper into Dorugo\'s body.

"Arrgghhh!"

The pain distorted Dorugo\'s body, causing her head and vertebrae to arch backward in anguish.

* * *

Lichs used to be dark mages who turned their own mortal body into an undead form.

The undead body could withstand even the most severe wounds and was nearly immortal.

But that wasn’t the full extent of their power.

A lich could hide their soul in a magical object called a life vessel.

The lich wouldn\'t die even if their body were totally destroyed as long as the life vessel was still there.

For this reason, Dorugo had lived for hundreds of years, free of death and dread.

She couldn\'t even remember feeling pain because it had been so long since she had last felt it.

"Aaahhh!"

But right now, Dorugo felt the excruciating pain she thought she had forgotten

Yet it wasn’t the pain itself that was the true danger. The true danger was the utter collapse of her soul, which had been kept in the life vessel.

This was dangerous. If her soul were to be completely annihilated, Dorugo would face true death.

Maybe because death was so close, memories from her life began to go backwards and forwards in her mind like a reel of film.

Dorugo\'s mind was overwhelmed by memories, her past and present colliding in a whirlwind of emotions.

The sound of a waterfall filled the air in the clear memory of a bright forest. A man with beautiful blue eyes stood in front of her, his expression filled with sadness and gratitude.

"Dorugo, thank you for choosing me" He said.

His voice trembled as he continued.

"And I\'m sorry. Because of me, you became a traitor to your own kind."

He knelt before her and took her hands in his hand. Back then, Dorugo wasn’t the skeletal figure she was now—she had been human, alive, and full of life.

"I swear, from this moment on, I\'ll do everything to make you happy."

As a memento of his promise, he put a wooden ring with carvings on her finger.

But the memory shattered as reality came crashing back, dragging Dorugo into the unbearable agony of the present.

"Ruin!"

Dorugo screamed through the pain and her eyes regained their fierce determination.

"I can\'t… die like this…!"

She clenched her teeth and grabbed Erebos with both hands, attempting to draw it out.

"I haven’t avenged Ruin yet… I haven’t even seen him again…!"

"Feeling wronged, are you?" Damien\'s voice dripped with cold satisfaction. "Good. Now you understand a fraction of the pain I endured."

He twisted Erebos deeper into Dorugo’s body, causing her bones to crack and the pain to intensify.

"Aaaargh!"

Dorugo\'s entire body convulsed, and her eyes, which had been filled with resolve, began to cloud with despair.

Then, she heard something.

- What an awfully dangerous situation you’ve found yourself in!

An unwelcome voice whispered in her ear causing her eyes to wide open with surprise.

\'Vahel, how…?\'

-Don’t be so shocked. It’s nothing special. I’m just speaking to your soul.

\'Impossible! You’re trapped in the Inferno! How could you…?!\'

-Sending a voice through isn’t that hard. How else do you think we gather followers?

Vahel’s voice was as smooth and smug as ever.

-But this isn’t the time for idle chatter, is it? You might actually die if we don’t act soon.

He chuckled mockingly before continuing.

-Dorugo, use the key. Break the oath that binds us. I’ll help you and your children.

\'Shut up! Do you know how much we sacrificed to banish you?! And now you’re asking me to free you?!\'

-Hahaha, ‘we’ you say?

Vahel’s laugh was dripping with condescension.

-After being betrayed by the Salvation Squad, you still talk like that?

\'That’s…!\'

-Because of them, you lost your lover. And not only that, you were grievously wounded as well.

\'Stop… talking…!\'

-So, you abandoned your body and became a lich. Why? To take revenge on the Salvation Squad, wasn’t it?

Vahel’s words stirred emotions Dorugo had long buried.

The day she was betrayed by her comrades and lost her lover—Ruin.

The despair and rage she felt in that moment surged back to the surface, as fresh as if it had happened yesterday.

-Dorugo, if you die here, who will avenge Ruin? No one will even remember you. Your name, your sacrifice—it will all be forgotten.

The demon\'s whisper was insidious, seeping into the cracks of her weakening resolve.

-Humans will continue to praise the Salvation Squad, forever ignorant of the true heroes who died in vain.

People will continue to praise the Salvation Squad, unaware of the true hero who lost his life.

Dorugo had completely forgotten about the pain because of Vahel\'s words.

-So, break the oath. Set us free. You know how to do it.

And yet, she hesitated.

Breaking the oath would be easy, just as Vahel said. But doing so would unleash unimaginable horrors upon the continent once again.

Vahel sensed her hesitation and continued to press on and deliver the final blow.

-Ruin, forgive us.

It wasn\'t Vahel’s own voice; he was acting now.

-We don\'t want to be buried in your halo. We want to go down in history as the heroes.

He repeated that moment.

The moment when Ruin was betrayed by his own people.

The moment when the Ruin lost his life.

-So disappear already.

Ruin\'s death replayed in Dorugo\'s mind, a nightmare that had haunted her for centuries.

Her eyes flared with anger as she unknowingly opened subspace and grasped the key within it.

Click.

The key entered something unseen and Dorugo twisted the key.

In that moment, everything changed.

***

Damien instinctively looked up at the sky.

"...What?"

Something had happened just now. Something that had covered the world had vanished.

"Heh...hahahah!"

Suddenly, Dorugo burst into laughter. Damien frowned and stared down at her.

"It\'s over... It\'s all over now! You, me, the humans—everyone\'s finished!"

His instincts screamed of danger. Damien moved quickly to destroy Dorugo\'s soul completely with Erebos.

But before he could, something shot up from beneath Dorugo.

Damien quickly channeled his mana and formed a barrier to block the attack. Despite his defenses, the impact sent him reeling backward, and Erebos was pulled from Dorugo\'s body.

Damien stared in shock at what had struck him—a transparent, rectangular pillar.

His mind raced to comprehend what he was seeing when, suddenly, a dimensional portal opened beside Dorugo. A man stepped out of it.

He looked human, except for the horn protruding from his forehead.

The moment Damien saw the man\'s face, he cried out in horror.

"Vahel...!"

As he stepped outside, the first thing he saw was Dorugo. She lay on the ground, gasping heavily.

"Dorugo, you\'ve suffered greatly. But fear not, you can rest easy now. I’ve come."

Vahel smiled warmly at her, but Dorugo glared at him and asked.

"You\'ll keep your promise, right?"

"My promise? Ah, yes, I\'ll keep it. But it\'s a bit unpleasant."

Bam!

Vahel stomped on Dorugo’s head without any prior warning. Dorugo’s head slammed into the ground.

"Learn your place, will you? Now that the oath is broken, and I don\'t need you anymore.”

Vahel\'s smile disappeared, replaced by the cold, ruthless demonic nature he had always been.

"Because of you, we were trapped in Inferno. Consider it a mercy that I\'m not killing you right here, you traitor."

Dorugo\'s expression twisted with humiliation as Vahel finally lifted his foot off her head.

"Damien, it\'s been a while, hasn\'t it?"

Vahel turned to Damien, his tone as if he were greeting an old friend he hadn’t seen in years.

"I’ve missed you more than you know. I\'ve never met anyone quite as entertaining as you."

While Vahel seemed delighted, Damien was thrown into a whirlwind of confusion.

Summoning a Duke class demon like Vahel should have required an immense sacrifice.

Yet, Vahel had descended to the mortal realm as casually as if he were out for a leisurely stroll.

And this wasn’t just an avatar—it was Vahel’s true form.

The overwhelming pressure radiating from him was proof of that, and it was enough to make even Damien feel cautious.

But the real shock was yet to come.

“Oh, I almost forgot. I should introduce my subordinates as well.”

With a clap of his hands, Vahel opened a massive dimensional portal. From it, a horde of demons poured out, each one radiating an overwhelming aura.

"My Lord, as per your orders, I have gathered all the demons from the rank of Earl to Marquess."

A demon with a bull\'s head knelt before Vahel and spoke. Vahel looked pleased.

"Asthar, you\'ve done well."

"I am honored to have been of service, my Lord."

Asthar rose to his feet. As he did, he noticed Damien standing nearby.

"How dare a mere human direct killing intent at our Lord? Such arrogance!"

"Asthar, it\'s best if you don\'t provoke him." Vahel advised Asthar.

"No, my Lord. I will bring that insolent human before you at once."

Asthar stepped toward Damien. The difference in their sizes was so vast that it looked like an adult facing a child.

Asthar opened his palm, and a massive, long-handled mace materialized.

"Damien~."

Vahel called out with a teasing tone.

"That one\'s a Marquess class demon, so don\'t underestimate him."

Asthar lifted the mace high above his head and then swung it down with tremendous force.

The mace hurtled toward Damien\'s head and a loud voice rang out like someone slammed onto the ground

"Oh, impressive."

Vahel remarked in admiration as he observed the scene.

"Asthar, I told you not to let your guard down, didn\'t I?"

The figure embedded in the ground was not Damien.

It was Asthar who had been slammed into the earth.

Just moments before, Damien had not only deflected the mace but also leaped over Asthar\'s head and struck him down with Erebos.

"Why are there so many nuisances getting in my way?"

Damien walked past the fallen Asthar and faced Vahel directly.

"I have no business with you. Get lost."

"You want to kill Dorugo? That won’t do."

Vahel replied calmly.

"Then I\'ll just have to deal with you first."

Damien began channeling his Nameless mana art.

The darkness that had been lying dormant on the ground began to ignite once more.

***

[PR/N- And this isn’t even bro’s full strength. ]