Chapter 60: The True Chaos

{Present, Leviathan Office}

—Serafall Leviathan—

Serafall paced the room, uneasy, biting her nails. Her mind couldn't focus for even a moment; not a single one of her messages had gone through in the past four hours.

"This is bad," Ajuka said, eyes fixed on a holographic map. "The entire area is covered in anti-teleportation, anti-flight, and anti-transmission runes. There's practically no way to reach it other than walking there."

"We have no way of contacting Faiser," Falbium added, sitting with a scowl. "All our armies are ready, but without him sending any form of proof against Rizevim, or confirmation that Crom Cruach attacked him first, we cannot make a move."

Serafall didn't hear any of them. She kept moving, consumed by worry.

"Are we just supposed to sit here?" Sirzechs asked, a helplessness he had never felt before creeping over him. "Even if we get the news, we can't teleport there. It'll take hours just to reach the place because of the anti-teleportation magic."

Sirzechs had been anxious for days. Since Faiser returned to the devil society, the Satans had been nothing more than figureheads. Not once had they been able to actively influence the council or directly assist Faiser.

"How strong is Crom Cruach?" Serafall finally asked. "You've clashed with him before, haven't you, Falbium?"

All eyes turned to the Satan in charge of the military.

"He nearly cracked my defense."

That single statement sent Serafall's worry through the roof. To anyone who had never faced Falbium, it might mean little. But everyone in the room understood its weight.

Falbium was known as Asmodeus of Defense, the possessor of Absolute Defense — the strongest defensive magic in the underworld, possibly in the world. Only a handful of individuals could break through it, two of whom were her fellow Satans.

"What class is he?" she asked, meaning disaster level rather than rank.

"If you fought him," Falbium said, staring her dead in the eye, "you would lose."

She went silent. Falbium turned to the others in the room.

"Even Sirzechs and Ajuka would struggle against him unless they unsealed their true powers. With the seals intact, they wouldn't come out unscathed either."

It was a horrifying thought. Serafall worried for the devil who had gone with only his legions and two peerage members.

'Peerage!' she thought, finding a flicker of hope. "Wouldn't Ingvild's Longinus work against—"

"If… she can manage to keep her demonic power and senses until she faces Crom," Ajuka interrupted. "With Rizevim involved, even if he doesn't fully know the abilities of Faiser's peerage, he won't strategize to give Faiser any advantage. Most likely, he'll create situations where the peerage is split and exhausted, leaving them unable to help."

Another worry loomed: Rizevim himself.

None of them knew if or when the devil would intervene directly. If he did, not a single vampire — not even Queen Carmilla, her army, and Faiser's peerage combined — would be strong enough to defeat him.

As their anxiety grew, a knock echoed at the door.

"Come in," Sirzechs called.

The person entering was the one they had been waiting for.

"Lord Zekram?"

Zekram Bael, the man who had spent a fortune building an information network, walked in. His presence meant news.

"Prepare your forces," he announced. "Crom Cruach has appeared."

The four Satans froze, unsure whether to feel relief or dread at hearing that.

* * *

{Present, Estate of the Carmilla Royal Faction's Southern Gate}

—Tepes Von Vlad—

"Manias—" King Tepes' voice cracked, haunted by the sight of his third son's death. "Manias…"

Before his eyes, protected through magic, lay the corpse of his son — burnt, reduced to ashes.

Queen Carmilla, on the other hand, was stunned by the sight of Bova, sitting atop a corpse twice his size, the dragon's jaw broken, its insides melted and spilling out.

"MY SONNNN!"

King Tepes' vampiric power erupted, throwing everyone nearby multiple feet away. It didn't matter if they were enemy or ally — all were caught in his blind rage.

Carmilla knew the moment had come. "All troops! Forward!"

Tepes was too consumed by grief to command, leaving his commanders and captains to lead. He didn't even flinch when one of his own commanders was beheaded by Carmilla right beside him. All he cared about was the death of his most important son — his heir, Manias.

"Show me the other fronts!" he yelled, releasing blood magic so fatal it erased half a legion on Carmilla's side.

The king wasn't thinking straight. He needed to know the status of his other sons.

"Show me Manael!"

Carmilla used the moment to her advantage, maneuvering her troops to slowly but surely trap Tepes' forces.

"Y-Yes, my lord," the vampire magician stammered, hurriedly displaying the situation at the second son's front, praying to the True Ancestor for better news.

Alas, it wasn't.

"M-Manael…" Tepes' heart sank. Carmilla's face turned stoic. She felt a pang of sadness seeing Elmenhilde and Ingvild injured and exhausted, but the result brought her a grim satisfaction.

"You… fucking monsters!" the king roared, beheading the magician instantly — erasing the display before him. "No! Marius is there! Marius cannot fall! He can never fall!"

Carmilla noticed he didn't even glance at his daughter, lying unconscious beside Elmenhilde.

"You!" he bellowed. "Show me Marius!"

The magician, terrified after witnessing his friend beheaded for revealing the truth, trembled. He knew refusal meant death, so praying for a better scene, he complied.

It was a mistake.

The moment the display appeared, the magician's vision went blank. He didn't even realize his head had been severed as his eyes remained locked on the scene.

A dead, semi-rotten dragon sliced into dozens of pieces.

Marius Tepes, the most ambitious of the Tepes, lay dead, his head next to a certain devil — who kept it under his foot like a football.

Worse, while previous fronts had at least half a Tepes legion intact, this scene showed none. Every Tepes vampire had been cut to pieces. It was a sea of blood, with Carmilla's forces and devils standing to one side, and the devil with Marius' head standing as if contemplating.

That was all the magician saw before the scene vanished — his head severed as punishment.

"Why!" Tepes screamed. "Why! Why! Why!"

Carmilla immediately seized the moment. "Everyone! Attack!"

For the first time since the war began, she believed victory was possible — and without as many losses as she had feared.

But in war, one must expect the unexpected. And in this moment, she had forgotten to account for Rizevim.

A presence suddenly spread across the battlefield, making her breathing shallow.

"What—" she whispered.

"What is that?!" King Tepes himself shuddered, sensing it, though he didn't fully comprehend it.

Everyone on the battlefield recoiled at the sheer aura.

Worse, it wasn't near them.

It came from far away.

It came from the Eastern Front.

A terrifying, draconic presence.

* * *

{Present, Estate of the Carmilla Royal Faction's Eastern Gate}

I was tired.

I was exhausted.

Even after draining energy from every last vampire in the Tepes faction, I still didn't feel energetic enough.

"Are you alright, Lord Faiser?"

It took me a while to gather enough strength to answer that. Even then, all I could manage was a small, tired smile.

It wasn't my body that was exhausted. Sure, I was drained, my limbs heavy and my muscles aching, but most of that had already recovered after using Absorb on hundreds of thousands of vampires. What was truly worn out was my mind.

I was mentally fucked. After so much fighting and bathing in so much blood, I was numb. The purple and gold of my armor were buried beneath layers of crimson, and even my feet felt pruney from walking through pools of it.

"We can return once we recover our fallen soldiers, sir," one of the vampire commanders said.

And as their Lord—the one responsible for both the living and the dead—I nodded. They deserved that much.

The fallen devils deserved a proper funeral.

For now, I decided to pour the vials over my bracelet.

[The ability 'Samael's Curse' has been added to the Bracelet of Imagination.]

[The ability 'Divinity Eater' has been added to the Bracelet of Imagination.]

Those were going to come in handy. Especially with all the godly bastards waiting to make an appearance later.

For now—

Ugh!

<Cognition>

My entire body burned. Skin melting, nerves screaming, collapsing into nothing.

Dying.

It was a vision—one that made me shout immediately,

"Run away!"

But it was already too late.

<Blink>

I teleported high into the sky, wings bursting open, barely stabilizing myself midair—while the soldiers below weren't so lucky.

"F-Fire!"

Their screams tore through the night.

"Gahhh!"

"S-Save me!"

"S-Someone! H-Help—"

But no one could help. Not them. Not me.

My stomach twisted as I watched my own men burn alive—melting, screaming, dying.

In seconds, almost the entire army was gone.

And then, just when I thought it couldn't get worse, I heard it—

"Moonlight Cleansing."

The blood moon above, once hauntingly beautiful, turned deadly. Its crimson glow flared white-hot, burning through everything beneath it.

Every vampire. Every devil.

All of them dead.

Instantly.

No one remained—except me.

And him.

"Hah. I didn't expect any of them to survive even after the draconic breath," came an amused voice. "Well, nothing a final attack can't fix."

Even before I could look at his face, the system screamed in my mind—

[Survive!]

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{A/N: Got a pat reon named RedLamp01 with 30+ chapters + Other Stories. }