After slamming the Dragon into the dungeon’s bottom with maximum force, Alex leaped back as far as possible and lit a cigarette, waiting for a reaction from his defeated opponent. Pressing the lit cigarette to his lips, Alex took a deep drag and glanced at the Dragon’s crash site. However, no sounds came from that area, as if nothing had fallen there at all. Alex looked around, assessing the destruction caused by his attack.

“Well, that’s what I expected from a secret technique,” he remarked, eyeing the debris around him.

“Good thing I did this in the dungeon. If that kind of strike had hit the surface, the entire city would have been wiped out,” Alex added, raising his eyes to the ceiling, which was no longer there, revealing a massive hole extending far upward.

Shifting his gaze back to the crash site, Alex listened intently, trying to discern what had happened to the Dragon. The silence around him was broken only by the sound of falling stones and the smoldering of the cigarette in his mouth.

The dust from the Dragon’s fall refused to settle, making it impossible to see what was happening at the epicenter. Despite this, Alex remained vigilant, awaiting the Dragon’s next move.

“Hey, are you alive down there?” he shouted towards the cloud of dust.

“If you’re alive, just roar so I can hit you again!” Alex called out again when he heard no response.

When there was still no reaction, he frowned, puzzled by the Dragon’s lack of movement and sound. Before, no matter how much damage the Dragon took, it always roared and thrashed about, but now it was completely silent.

This made Alex wonder: Was this Dragon really that weak, or had the combination of the secret technique with gravity magic had such a lethal effect on it?

“Is it really dead?” Alex thought, tossing away the cigarette butt.

“I need to check,” he decided, heading toward the Dragon’s crash site.

Moving slowly forward, Alex used magic to disperse the dust that stubbornly refused to settle. As he approached the center of the enormous hall, he noticed a crater far exceeding the Dragon’s size. Walking up to the edge, he peered down but couldn’t make out the Dragon’s silhouette due to the lingering dust.

“Hey, are you alive down there?” Alex shouted, standing at the crater’s edge.

“Are you really so weak that you couldn’t survive that hit?” he added, but again received no response.

Clearing away the last of the dust, Alex saw only a mass of flesh, mixed with bones and covered in black blood. The Dragon’s remains showed no signs of life, and even the echoes of its energy were gone.

In this mess of flesh, there was nothing that resembled a living creature. Alex tried to sense even the faintest trace of energy, but his efforts ended in disappointment. Even the chaotic energy flows that had previously roiled within the Dragon’s body were now completely absent.

“Hey, get up,” he shouted, kicking a stone toward the dragon’s mush.

The stone fell into the Dragon’s remains and disappeared, covered in black blood. Alex grimaced in disappointment—the Dragon seemed to be truly dead.

“I spent so much time preparing, and you ended up dying so easily!” Alex complained, crouching down and staring into the crater.

He continued to search the dragon’s mush, hoping to see some sign of life, but it was all in vain. Rubbing his brow, Alex straightened up, realizing that the battle was over and there was no reason to stay here any longer.

“Well, since you’re really dead, I’m out of here,” he muttered, walking away from the crater.

“That means I’ll have more time to watch movies,” Alex thought with a smile, pulling out a new cigarette.

As Alex pondered how he would spend the rest of the day, he brought the lighter to his cigarette, ready to light it. But at that very moment, a pillar of light, shimmering with violet and black hues, shot up into the sky behind him.

Alex’s hand froze near his mouth, and his eye twitched in annoyance—the battle was clearly not over yet. The energy emanating from the center of the crater far exceeded the Dragon’s power up to this point.

“Not again,” Alex muttered, turning to look at the black-and-violet pillar of light rising towards the dungeon ceiling.

“I should have just burned the remains and gone home. But no, I decided to play with the corpse, shout at it, and throw rocks,” Alex mentally berated himself, watching the unfolding scene with a blank expression.

A vein bulged on his forehead out of anger. He had been looking forward to going home, relaxing, and starting to plan his travels to other worlds. But this situation was beginning to irritate him—what started as fun was now just exhausting.

Alex tried to count how many times he should have already killed this creature in the form of a dragon and sighed wearily, realizing he was to blame for what was happening.

“And what kind of evolution is this Pokémon Dragon going through now? This is the third time during our fight,” Alex mumbled, watching the pillar of light that refused to die down. He pondered how the Dragon’s evolution was occurring, absentmindedly stroking his chin, trying to piece everything together.

“If in the first stage it was like a liquid, that could be called the body formation phase… In the second stage, it grew muscles and bones—the beginning of an organism… And in the third, will it develop skin and gain full control over its body? Become even stronger?” Alex speculated, running various scenarios through his mind.

He observed the pillar of light, wondering what form the Dragon would take after what seemed like its final evolution. It was logical to assume that after each stage, it became more resilient. The pillar of light began to gradually shrink, becoming more transparent.

“I used to think you should never let an enemy grow stronger, but now I’m curious to see what comes of this,” Alex thought, watching as the energy slowly dissipated.

“I wonder if it’ll resemble Lovecraftian monsters or something out of Bloodborne? Or maybe something entirely new,” he muttered, seeing the pillar of light nearly disappear.

When the pillar vanished, Alex moved towards the crater to get a glimpse of the Dragon’s new form and satisfy his curiosity. “I wonder what you’ve turned into?” he asked aloud, approaching the edge of the crater and peering down.

But what he saw left him frustrated. Instead of seeing a new monstrous form, he found a violet cocoon where the Dragon’s remains had been. “What the hell? What was all that light show for? Couldn’t you have just taken your new form right away?” Alex shouted in irritation, kicking a rock towards the cocoon.

Rubbing his eyes, still annoyed, Alex continued to throw rocks at the cocoon, waiting for some kind of reaction. “Doesn’t the enemy usually reveal their new form to the hero after a light show like that?” he thought, but the cocoon remained silent and motionless.

Seeing nothing happening, Alex began to wonder. “Could this cocoon be empty? Like a box with nothing inside?” he mused, stopping his stone-throwing and crouching down, never taking his eyes off the strange formation.

“If nothing changes, I’ll just destroy it and go home,” he decided, already preparing to use force. “Great plan!” Alex smiled, anticipating the end of this boring, drawn-out battle.

But just as he raised his hand, ready to destroy the cocoon, it suddenly began to crack. The cracks slowly spread from top to bottom, covering the entire surface. The cocoon was crumbling, and a large chunk fell to the floor, raising a cloud of dust.

Alex was about to disperse the dust when suddenly, a figure burst out of the cocoon at incredible speed, making it impossible to make out.

“What the hell is this?” Alex thought in surprise, realizing that the Dragon still hadn’t said its final word.

Alex looked around, trying to spot anyone or anything that had left the cocoon.

“What is this…” Alex began, but he was interrupted by a gust of wind rapidly approaching him.

A dark figure suddenly darted from the right side, attacking with frenzied speed. Alex reacted instantly, dodging the blow. The creature’s strike was so powerful it caused a strong gust of wind and destruction around.

Alex, throwing his head back, saw a black, scaled fist fly past his face as if in slow motion. The impact kicked up dust, making it impossible to see who had attacked. All he could see was a hand raised in front of his face.

“You know, it’s rude to attack without warning the opponent,” Alex said, grabbing the creature’s hand.

“And now you’ll face the consequences,” he added, squeezing the hand so tightly that the crunch of scales and bones was audible.

He held the creature’s hand firmly, not letting it escape. Then Alex kicked the creature with such force that its hand remained in his grasp. The blow was so strong that the creature crashed into the wall, and the dust that was kicked up scattered in all directions. Alex glanced at the detached humanoid-scaled hand and gave it a slight shake.

“It looks like this dragon Pokémon has shrunk and taken on a more human form,” Alex thought, examining the hand.

Shifting his gaze to the creature he had sent crashing into the wall, Alex decided to see what had become of it.

“Now let’s see what you look like,” he said, heading towards the impact site.

Looking at the hole in the wall, Alex heard no sounds or signs of movement and frowned.

“Could it be so weak that it died from one blow? Or did I overdo it?” he thought with a wry smile.

While Alex pondered whether he might have accidentally killed the final stage of the dragon, a hand appeared from the wall, human-sized but covered in scales. Following it, a head with a pair of black dragon horns and long black hair emerged. The face appeared pale, visible through the swaying hair. As the creature fully emerged from the wall, Alex was able to see it clearly.

The dragon’s new form resembled a tall, pale man with long black hair and a pair of horns on his head. His eyes were an unusual color, like the night sky illuminated by the northern lights, with a dragon’s pupil in the center.

He stood over two meters tall, with skin covered in scales in some places, and a line resembling a bone castle running down the center of his torso. The remaining hand was completely covered in scales with sharp claws on the fingers, and black, tar-like blood oozed from the spot where Alex had torn off the previous hand.

Below the man’s waist was a dark mass emitting miasmas. This new form surprised Alex, who had expected the dragon to assume a final, gigantic form but ended up taking a humanoid shape.

Alex and the creature, now in humanoid form, stared at each other, unblinking. Their silent duel did not last long: the creature shifted its gaze to its severed hand in Alex’s possession, then to the spot where it used to be, and frowned. Alex was unsure what was going on in the creature’s mind and decided to probe its thoughts, curious about how developed it had become.

“Hey, it looks like this is yours. Want me to return your hand?” Alex shouted, waving the detached hand in front of the creature.

The creature watched the movement of its hand, held by Alex, without taking its eyes off it. An idea flickered through Alex’s mind on how to use this to his advantage.

“Now catch this, as a kind gesture I’m returning it to you,” Alex shouted, throwing the severed hand toward the creature.

The creature focused its gaze on the severed hand that Alex threw, not noticing as Alex disappeared at the same moment. When it reached out with its healthy hand to catch its lost limb, Alex suddenly appeared right in front of it, already poised for attack.

“You shouldn’t get distracted by your opponent in a situation like this,” Alex said, and with a powerful strike to the head, he drove the severed hand directly into the creature’s face, sending it flying across the hall.

“Its mind is like that of a newborn baby,” Alex voiced his thoughts aloud, watching where the creature flew.

He kept a close watch on the spot where it had crashed. When the dust settled, Alex saw the creature devouring its own hand. Once it finished, a new, seemingly stronger hand grew in place of the severed one. Alex frowned, realizing the creature was getting stronger by the second. Deciding it was best to make it expend all its energy on regeneration rather than evolution, Alex went on the offensive.

Instantly appearing in front of the creature, Alex unsheathed his sword and delivered a vertical strike, aiming to cut the opponent from groin to head. But just as the blade was about to reach its target, the creature suddenly moved to the side, and Alex’s sword only cut through the wall, leaving a deep mark.

Narrowing his eyes, Alex adjusted his grip and immediately delivered a horizontal strike. However, despite the long mark left on the wall behind the creature, the creature itself remained unharmed. Alex frowned, unable to understand what had just happened and why his attack had failed.

He leaped back, trying to make sense of the situation and understand why the strike missed. Watching the creature, which remained still, Alex pondered deeply.

“I hit it twice before, but those hits didn’t cause significant damage, except for the severed hand. When I tried to cut it the first time, it dodged, and the second time, it stayed in place,” Alex thought, keeping the creature in his line of sight.

“I need to figure out why the second sword strike didn’t work,” he said, formulating a plan.

Alex approached the creature, closely observing the changes in the energy flow surrounding his opponent and how it moved within its body. But as Alex got closer, he heard a faint mumbling coming from the creature. Squinting, he listened, trying to understand what it was saying. What he heard made him frown.

“Who am I?” the creature muttered, looking at its hands.

“Why was I created?” it continued, trying to grasp its essence.

“What is my purpose?” the creature said, looking at the approaching Alex.

“That’s not my problem,” Alex replied, stopping a few steps away.

“Then who are you?” the creature asked, staring intently at him.

“I’m the one who’s going to kill you and go home to sleep,” Alex said calmly, not breaking eye contact.

“What is death? What is its purpose?” the creature mumbled again.

“You’ll find out soon,” Alex said, and with that, he instantly closed the distance to the creature and delivered a sword strike, aiming to behead it.

However, the creature managed to dodge at the last moment, and only a thin cut was left on its neck, from which black blood began to flow. The creature needed a moment to comprehend what had happened. It touched the cut on its neck, looked at its hand covered in its own blood, and emotions began to flicker in its eyes, emotions that hadn’t been there before.

“I remembered who I am,” the creature said, its voice now firm and confident.

“And I remember you!” it exclaimed, pointing at Alex with anger in its eyes.

Alex squinted, realizing that the creature before him was starting to regain its composure, and its chaotic thoughts were beginning to organize and make sense.

“I AM EREBUS THE GOD OF ETETNAL DARKNESS!” Ereb roared loudly, creating a shockwave with his voice.

“And you’re the bastard who’s been thwarting my plans,” he said with malice.

“Hmm, so you managed to become self-aware amidst all this chaos. I must admit, that’s impressive,” Alex said, beginning to clap his hands, trying to enrage Ereb so that he would lose control again and fall into madness.

“Your arrival ruined everything! All my plans went to ruin because of some damned mortal meddling in things that don’t concern him!” Ereb’s voice was seething with rage directed at Alex.

“You’re wrong about that. You messed up the moment you decided to accept help from that creature,” Alex replied calmly, shaking his head and ignoring Ereb’s hysteria.

“How could you possibly know that?” Ereb asked, narrowing his eyes.

“Just guessed,” Alex shrugged.

“A mortal can’t know such things,” Ereb said skeptically.

“I know more than you can imagine. Now, enough wasting time; I still need to get home,” Alex said, drawing his sword and pointing it at Ereb.

After speaking, Alex instantly appeared in front of Ereb, intending to strike, but Ereb reacted faster and counterattacked. Alex, noticing this, raised the sword’s sheath to defend himself. Ereb’s strike hit the sheath, causing Alex to take several steps back.

“You’ve grown stronger,” Alex noted, shaking his hand.

“You will die here, mortal, and then I can carry out my plans,” Ereb declared, suddenly appearing in front of Alex.

Seeing his movement, Alex immediately dodged to the side, avoiding the blow. Ereb continued to attack fiercely, but each of his strikes only hit an afterimage of Alex, who was dodging with incredible speed. Alex expertly blocked and redirected Ereb’s attacks, not allowing him to inflict any damage.

“You’ve gotten stronger, but you’re still just as clumsy,” Alex taunted, jumping to a safe distance.

“With my new power, you cannot escape,” Ereb growled, as purple energy began to accumulate in his chest.

Alex raised an eyebrow, watching the scene unfold. Ereb’s chest started to open up like a giant mouth, gathering plasma inside. Alex grimaced, realizing that despite his new state, Ereb was still using old tactics. At that moment, Ereb released a column of plasma toward Alex, intending to obliterate him.

The plasma column was massive and hurtled towards Alex, ready to engulf and destroy him. When the plasma struck the spot where Alex had just stood, a huge crater filled with lava and black miasmas was left behind.

Ereb began relying on his enhanced senses to detect Alex’s presence. Not sensing him, Ereb was about to smile, thinking he had rid himself of the enemy who had constantly thwarted him. But his joy quickly turned to disappointment when he heard an annoying voice behind him.

“In your previous forms, you also shot plasma at me. Maybe it’s time to come up with something new?” Alex stood behind Ereb, also looking at the lava-filled crater.

Ereb didn’t respond. Instead, he turned and kicked, which Alex dodged by crouching. Without wasting any time, Alex struck Ereb’s knee, knocking him off balance. Ereb lost his footing and collapsed to the floor.

Alex raised his leg, intending to crush Ereb’s head. The kick landed directly on the right side of Ereb’s face.

“You should have tried harder,” Alex said, increasing the pressure with his foot, aiming to crush Ereb’s head.

Ereb felt the pressure on his head intensify and tried to escape. But Alex didn’t give him a chance. He applied even more force, and Ereb’s head burst like an overripe watermelon.

Finishing with Ereb, Alex removed his foot and squinted, waiting for further actions from the remains of his body.

While Alex waited to see what would happen next, a powerful energy erupted from Ereb’s body, propelling him a significant distance away and creating a strong wind in the room. A new Ereb emerged before Alex, with sinister wings growing on his back, covered with numerous eyes glaring at Alex with hatred.

“Just because you’ve grown wings doesn’t mean you can beat me now!” Alex shouted, looking at the airborne Ereb.

“We’ll see, mortal,” Ereb replied with contempt, and the eyes on his wings began to glow, releasing streams of plasma towards Alex.

Alex began to deftly dodge the plasma bursts coming at him in huge quantities.

“This is old news, come up with something new!” Alex yelled, continuing to evade the attacks.

Ereb ignored Alex’s taunts, only increasing the intensity of the plasma bursts.

“If you want to play for real, then bring it on!” Alex said, disappearing from his spot.

He reappeared at a distance and summoned “Chastifol,” instantly revealing its true form.

“Let’s see if you can hold him off for me for a while,” Alex said, and “Chastifol” glowed as it assumed its new form.

“The true form of ‘Chastifol’—Guardian mode,” Alex declared, and a massive green stuffed bear appeared behind him, looking like a pumped-up version of a regular stuffed bear.

“Hold him off for a while; I need to prepare,” Alex ordered, and the bear strode towards Ereb with large steps.

Ereb, noticing the new opponent, couldn’t react in time as the bear sent him flying with a powerful blow. Meanwhile, Alex focused on the inner power he had been restraining, so as not to destroy everything around him.

“Come on, you’re part of me, so you should work as needed,” Alex muttered, concentrating on his source. Inside him, the power, like an ocean previously calm as a sea during a calm, began to churn, preparing for action.

“Great, now, just like we practiced,” Alex said, noticing the Guardian flying past him in a pitiful state, with severed limbs and a massive hole in its chest.

“Is this all you’re capable of?” Ereb sneered, slowly approaching Alex.

“You’re mistaken. Everything I’ve used so far is meant to avoid resorting to my primary power,” Alex replied, looking up at Ereb.

“But now, I think it’s time to end our battle,” he said with a smile on his face.

Ereb suddenly felt a severe threat to his life and quickly approached Alex, who had a mysterious smile on his face. Everything around Ereb seemed to slow down—he saw Alex raising his crossed fingers. At that moment, Alex’s words sent a chilling cold down Ereb’s spine. His instincts screamed to run, but the distance between them was so small that Ereb had no chance left.

Alex calmly watched as Ereb approached, showing no emotion. He crossed his index and middle fingers, raising them to his face level, and, looking at the enemy who was now ready to strike, smiled.

“Domain Expansion: Annihilation of All Things,” Alex said calmly, directing his gaze at Ereb.

At that moment, the world around them lost its colors; everything turned black and white. Ereb froze, his hand extended toward Alex’s face, remaining motionless as if the entire world had suddenly stopped. But suddenly, his hand began to vanish, slowly disintegrating into particles as if it had never existed. Ereb collapsed to the ground, as if he had hit an invisible wall.

“What have you done?!” he screamed, feeling his body weaken and disintegrate into fragments.

“I’ve destroyed your body and soul, and now you’re disappearing irretrievably. That’s exactly what I meant,” Alex replied coldly, watching as Ereb’s limbs gradually disappeared.

“A mortal shouldn’t possess such power…” Ereb whispered, feeling his life slipping away with each passing second.

“I never said I was a mortal. I am the Demon King from another world,” Alex said, continuing to watch calmly as Ereb’s body disintegrated halfway.

Ereb suddenly began to laugh madly, gazing up at the ceiling.

“What’s so funny?” Alex asked with a frown, not taking his eyes off the dying enemy.

“Who would have thought I would be defeated by the ‘Demon King,’ not the ‘Hero’…” Ereb whispered, looking up as if trying to see the sky.

“Anything to say before you go?” Alex asked, observing as only half of Ereb’s body remained.

“Tell Nyx I sincerely regret how I treated her…” Ereb said weakly, looking at Alex.

“I will pass it on. Now farewell, god of darkness Ereb. It was fun destroying your plans,” Alex replied, watching as only Ereb’s head remained.

“Goodbye. Perhaps things could have been different if we had met earlier…” Ereb whispered one last time and disappeared completely.

Alex watched the spot where Ereb had died for a while, then took a deep breath. He pulled out a cigarette, lit it, and looked up at the ceiling. Perhaps before his death, Ereb had managed to rid himself of his madness and achieve mental clarity.

But it no longer mattered—he had caused much harm and even secured the support of a dark entity. Nyx might never forgive him, or she might accept his apologies and move on. Who knows. But Alex decided he would keep an eye on that “foolish goddess” Nyx, for she might be left alone.

Alex finished his cigarette and realized that fighting villains did not always bring joy, especially with ones like Ereb, who had simply gone astray at one fateful moment. Alex glanced once more at the place where Ereb had disappeared, and, taking a deep breath, decided it was time to return.

To be continued…

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep