Chapter 30: The Golden Phoenix & The Demon

King Dante began walking away from Sarah and Zuru, who still lay tied on the floor, towards Star, or rather, Vehitoshi.

As he walked, he slowly unpinned the red soldier’s cape from his back and let it wash onto the ground. There wasn’t even the slightest trace of amusement on his face as he stepped forward, eventually stopping a few feet away from the demon.

"Derius... Crestfold." Vehitoshi’s deep voice reverberated through the night, his piercing gaze fixed upon Dante. "A thousand years in mortal chains, cast to perish in the prison the First Mandate created."

Another crimson flash tore through the sky, followed by the rumbling thunder.

"...A place where sanity itself is treated like a sin." Anger seeped through his voice, malice tightening his expression. "My soul divided into pieces, my honour trampled beneath the feet of those who came after me."

He slowly folded his fingers into fists. "Yet here I am, reborn and freed from shackles that no one has ever escaped. And now, it is time I fulfilled my promise..."

He looked up at Dante.

"Destroy you."

Slowly, Dante’s lips curled upwards. The smile did little to hide the faint tension running through his body, but whatever fear existed beneath it was buried beneath something far colder.

"You are even more foolish than I thought." He replied, doing his best to hold Vehitoshi’s gaze. "What has it been, four days since we struck the deal?; I destroy the strongest heir of the Crestfold lineage with your core, become king, and purge the world of the Crimson Mandate... While you just kill the boy. That was our bargain. But here you are..."

He pointed at him. "Calling me Derius. What? You don’t even recognize me? Tsh. I suppose a thousand years in my ancestor’s prison did more than divide your soul. It left you so consumed by revenge that you’ve become pathetic enough to think of nothing else."

The smallest smile touched Vehitoshi’s face.

"So it was you then." He said calmly, his deep voice shaking Sarah’s very core. "I can’t believe I had such high expectations. Come to think of it..." He studied Dante carefully. "The dilation of your pupils, the sweat trailing down your temple, the tremor in your fingers, and oh..." His smile widened. "That tiny change in your heartbeat as you force yourself to keep it steady."

His eyes narrowed.

"You’re scared."

Dante’s teeth clenched angrily, but Vehitoshi’s smile only widened, becoming more mischievous.

"I really thought you were, Derius, my captor... a worthy opponent, but how disappointing. You’re just the weak, desperate prince who played tricks with ice using his useless ice beast... before crawling to my prison and begging for help."

Dante’s teeth clenched harder, but Vehitoshi’s smile only grew.

"Yet you call me stupid..." He sighed. "Yeah, perhaps I was. I saw that little spark of light your forefather, Derius, had left within you and thought you were him. But that is the only meaningful thing in you. You’re just as useless as the others who came seeking my help. The difference is, I spared you because you were useful. You were a thing worth keeping."

He sighed again, this time with such disappointment that Dante’s anger rose even further.

"Ugh! I detest weak things, especially treacherous ones. Do you know what I do to demons that act as you?"

He hesitated, but Dante was far too furious to reply.

"Fine." He drawled. "I’ll just tell you." He spared him a glance. "I tear their bodies apart, joint by joint, piece by piece, until finally I rip out their souls and cast them into the Eternal Void. Because something that pathetic isn’t worthy of existing, let alone being claimed."

"Enough!"

That was it. Dante reached his breaking point. His eyes flashed golden at once, and golden flames surged around him.

"How dare you speak to me in that manner... Comparing me to filth like yourself!" His voice turned into a rage-filled growl. "Right after failing to keep your end of the deal!"

Vehitoshi casually shifted a few strands of hair away from his face, as though the blazing flames around Dante were nothing more than fireworks.

"Oh, I see." He croaked lazily. "You’ve acquired some new fancy abilities. Ah... The beast you told me about... Pardon my shaky memory."

He tapped his chin lightly. "What did you call it again." He frowned. "Pink hawk? Red falcon? Green fish?"

"Golden Phoenix!" Dante hissed furiously.

"Yeah, I said that."

Dante vibrated of frustration. "No... You didn’t."

Vehitoshi only shrugged dismissively. "Pretty sure I did."

He drew in a long, deep breath.

"Besides, you were the one who thought you could fool me. Did you really think I didn’t know why you wanted my core? You intended to use it to steal my host’s golden falcon..."

"Phoenix!" Dante cut in venomously.

But Vehitoshi didn’t even seem to hear him he simply continued talking.

"...rise to this..." He gave Dante a disgusted look. "...power of yours, and then rid the world of every being that isn’t Blessed."

He shook his head. "You never planned to destroy the Mandate like our deal demanded. Doing that would only rid you of the power you struggled so desperately to acquire. Pity. Pathetic, really."

His grin returned. "And you thought I wouldn’t notice such a measly little plan?"

He spread his arms. "Besides, I can’t let you purge every non-Blessed person in this world. Their blood is filthy, yes, but..." His crimson eyes gleamed with twisted amusement. "There is something thrilling about hearing them cry over the corpses of their dead families after we drank them dry."

"Hihihi."

He spread his arms.

"And speaking of my body, he’s strong. Very strong. So why should I kill the one vessel capable of holding me, for now. And he truly hates you. I can feel that hatred burning within our heart. Oooh, I love that..." His grin widened. "And I bet he can kill you since his body was the only one that could carry me, yet I still remember how pale you became when you held my core. Had you not taken the Golden Phoenix’s power when you did, you would have died miserably."

"Shut up!"

Dante yelled. He slammed his palms together, golden flames bursting violently around him as his voice echoed across the ruined village.

"Phoenix Requiem...!"

The rings around his irises began glowing brighter.

"Aspect Two."

He spread his arms.

"Eternal Judgment Flames."

A huge, radiant translucent Phoenix rose behind him. Its enormous wings spread across the night sky, flooding the ruins with blinding golden light. Cirella and Cindella immediately shielded their eyes from its brilliance.

Dante then brought his palms together once more.

"Consumption."

At once, a massive roar tore through the night as the lucent Phoenix flew high into the sky, its golden light illuminating the entire night before it suddenly turned and plunged downward like a blazing comet, falling straight towards Vehitoshi.

"Beast Aspect Two." Vehitoshi croaked. "How shameful. You dare use a low-level Aspect against me?"

His body dissolved into blackness.

The Phoenix crashed into the ground where he had been standing.

WHOOOOSH!

The impact sent a tremendous wave of golden flames across the ruined village.

"Hihihihi!"

Vehitoshi reappeared behind Dante’s attack, laughing harder.

"I don’t think some measly Aspect Two can... Huh!"

His breath caught. Before he could finish, a huge roar of flames exploded from where the Phoenix had crashed seconds ago, and before Star could make another move, the flames had already raced around him, rising into a towering wall that completely surrounded him.

Star looked around frantically, but all he could see were flames. The heat pressed against his body from every direction, making him extremely uncomfortable and, worse, strangely immobile. It was as though his body had suddenly become several tons heavier, each movement requiring an impossible amount of strength.

’No! This can’t be... I can’t be trapped again already.’

He was still trying to move a muscle when another wall of flames came roaring towards him from the front.

’Damn!’

He shut his eyes at once, and when he opened them again, their crimson colour was gone.

They now burned black, with tenebrous cracks spreading around them.

He joined his two fists together and raised his head.

"Void!"

Immediately, blackness surrounded his body, swallowing his form beneath a shroud of darkness. Therefore when the wall of flames reached him...

"Aaaaaaargh...!"

His yell tore through the night.

His arms flew outward as the flames engulfed him.

The flames hadn’t vanished into the blackness. Instead, they burned through it and began scorching Vehitoshi’s body.

The problem was that they weren’t only burning his flesh. The flames were sinking deeper, burning through his very essence and scorching his soul.

But that wasn’t all. Just then, another unmerciful wall of flames came crashing towards him from his right. It washed over him before roaring towards the opposite edge, just as the first one had done, leaving him suspended at the heart of the two intersecting walls.

Vehitoshi could feel his soul being consumed bit by bit. The flames were simply too overwhelming, yet he continued fighting them desperately. His skin kept burning away and healing, only to be burned again moments later, forcing him through the same agonizing cycle over and over.

"You’re stubborn." Dante’s voice came through the flames, mischievous as always. He walked directly through the inferno, yet not even the hem of his clothing was burned.

"...And perhaps strong. I’ll give you that. But not even you can resist the Eternal Phoenix Flames forever."

He halted and narrowed his eyes.

"Well, the reason is quite simple. This power was made to purge."

He resumed walking towards him.

"I planned to honour you by deciding not to purge the world of demons and other filthy creatures, but to purge it of these weaklings who can’t even defend themselves. But see what you have made me do."

Now he was standing directly in front of Vehitoshi, who remained kneeling at the centre of the agonizing flames.

"It would have been my wish to let you see how I burn this world and build a new one from its ashes, one fitting my taste..." He shook his head. "But you’re simply too evil to be left to roam about, so I will consume your soul here and now. And on the day of the Mandate Conjunction..." He spread his arms majestically. "I shall purge the worl—"

"..."

His breath caught as his eyes widened. A sudden pain shot through his entire body, causing him to stiffen as veins bulged across his face.

"..." He tried to speak, but—

"Ghk!"

He coughed out a mouthful of blood, the crimson liquid splashing across a hand buried deep inside his stomach before more of it splattered onto the floor.

Immediately, the roar of the flames began

to dwindle until it finally died down.

Vehitoshi drove his fist deeper, causing even more blood to spill from the king’s mouth.

"Hihihihi..." His grin widened. "He just talks too much!"