Becoming the Strongest Through (Draconic) Racism - Chapter 11 (Patreon)

Aži Dahāka, Diabolism Thousand Dragon POV:

Once the panic at the Infinity subsided, what she—It actually said settled in.

It was there to bare witness, not to interfere. And that made sense, as doing so would not help the Dragon Slayer grow.

Yet it seems the Ouroboros' ignorance of basic reality such as one combatant against overwhelming odds results poorly for the one alone.

Or perhaps eagerness at having a Dragon Slayer, supposedly one meant to slay the Dragon of Dragons himself—Aži Dahāka had to hold back a shudder—face off against them in a sealed dimension, like a some kind of Gu ritual, made Ouroboros not realizing how folly such planning was.

Regardless...

"Since the Ouroboros isn't interfering" Said Dahāka's Right Head.

"And the slayer won't do what's wise and work with us," Said the Left Head.

"Then let's show him how terrifying Dragons truly are, for he seems to have never experienced so." Said the Middle Head.

Diabolism Thousand Dragon deliberately ignored that he could no longer detect the Infinite Dragon God, as it just disappeared after its announcement. He also intentionally pushed down the terror, of that being just... seemingly having and displaying such ability out of nowhere.

"You don't even seem to realize you've lost before the battle's even begun." All three heads of Aži Dahāka's said smugly.

"Oh? You used that viciously reprehensible thing? The Ahriman Serpentine Touch? " Apophis said with some curiosity and interest, rather than disgust as his words might imply.

The story of Aži Dahāka was pretty well known. In the ancient past he was a prince named Zahhak, he was a wicked and greedy prince of the land of Persia.

Zahhak was easily fooled by the Evil God of Zoroastrianism, Angra Mainyu, following the Evil God's counsel and wishes, till the prince was tricked into 'rewarding' the disguised Evil God into laying a cursed upon himself.

This curse the prince foolishly, willingly took, created two snakes protruding from his shoulders.

These snakes would have killed Zahhak if he does not feed each one a human brain, once a day. Zahhak discovered that whenever his shoulder snakes devoured someone's brains, he would gain all that person's knowledge and skills, thus he eagerly had the snakes devour someone's brain daily, not only to survive but to amass knowledge. Eventually Zahhak's wickedness and degradation reached such a point and he participated in the consumption of a human's brain.

That day where he, and his two snakes, each devoured a human brain was the day he completely lost his humanity and became the dragon, Aži Dahāka.

After a long series of strifes, wherein Aži Dahāka fought army of the Gods of the Zoroastrianism, he was eventually defeated and sealed by the hero, Fereydun, otherwise known as Thraētaona.

"I've already improved on that Divine Curse, it no longer requires consent to administer, and simply with a thought, I can activate—" Aži Dahāka began to explain, bragging when Caleb acted.

By stabbing himself through his own torso with his greatsword. All the way through that the blade went out his back.

Aži Dahāka's eyes widened and his jaw dropped.

"...Did he succumb to despair?" Yamata no Orochi asked with his eightfold echoing voice, clear disbelief visible in his harmonized voiced.

"PFFFFT-HAHAHAHAHA! Look at the weakling! Look at him kill himself in fear of facing all of us."

"Is it really that easy?" Ladon couldn't help but ask, incredulous.

"No way! There's no way you gave up and deprived me of our fight, did you, Caleb Gunnar!?" Grendel shouted in anger.

"Something the matter, Aži?" Apophis had his focus on his fellow Heavenly Dragon, for the three-headed Diabolism Thousand Dragon seemed worried than joyous—No, Aži Dahāka was outright frightened, unable to believe his eyes at the Dragon Slayer's actions.

"There's no way he could have figured out a solution that quick..." Aži Dahāka said to himself, yet it was as he feared.

Caleb's body was engulf with Dragon Slaying Aura that enveloped him, pulsing from within him echoing outward, while his sword in his chest, let out a burst of Dragon Slaying Aura sounding like a chainsaw cutting through flesh.

Then Caleb began to pulled the sword out. He almost seemed struggling, yet as he kept pull it out, he looked like some entangled while mass made of vines was upon the sword.

With a sharp, violent pulled Caleb wretched the sword out of his body, screaming in pain and rage as he did so.

Yet what caught the present Evil Dragons' gaze wasn't the spray of blood of a body immediately healing, it was the wailing and hissing of a conjoint mass of black snakes, almost a monkey's fist of black vipers.

It was Aži Dahāka's modified Divine Curse given physical form.

"You, all of you... seem to be under the impression that I'm trapped in here with you." Caleb said. His Longinus thrummed and roared with power and corona of red energy, that exploded upward and erasing the curse in totality. The mass of serpents screamed in pain futilely as they were destroyed. "Let me rectify that misconception."

Caleb raised his bloodred greatsword and it gathered power.

The intelligent Evil Dragons burst into motion to counterattack, as their army of mindless Evil Dragons swarmed forward.

"DRAGON! SMASHER!" Caleb swung his blade.

A beam of Dragon Slaying Aura pierced the sky like a red tower.

===x===

I was like I had a red marker and the painting in front of me, of Evil Dragons close and those further way, anything in the direction of my beam attack was erased.

I didn't do anything special this time. No technique, no multi-swings, nothing. Just concentrated Dragon Slaying Aura focused into my blade, into one swing.

With one attack a hundred or so Evil Dragons, all at the level of Ultimate Class of varying degrees, just died. Evil Dragons that where actually taught their nature it seems, as they all now generated negative energy.

Heh. Okay then, let's do this.

I lunged forward, jumping into the air crossing the distance. Multiple magicians were in the background firing spells at me. I guess those are the ones from Nilrem.

Kami-e was all I needed to avoid anything they threw at me. Honestly, their spells were so slow I didn't need to think about it to dodge. And weak enough I'm tempted to use as Tenkai training to see if Magic Resistance can be trained. Maybe later.

The whole dimension I could feel was the size of a small country. At the far end, was a massive castle, I could feel strong devil's demonic power there. Rizevim, huh.

Crom Cruach seemed to have headed there recuperate and to watch the show. Alright then, let's give that fucker a preview of his execution.

My body feels weird though.

I reached my first Evil Dragon before they realized I was there, before they could ever react. I sliced their head off, using their body as a platform to jump again. Spinning in the air, I slashed around me while somersaulting and spinning, killing five dragons and those behind them from the wind pressure alone.

Good weird, not bad weird.

Like that curse Aži Dahāka threw at me. I felt it move and writhe under my skin. I felt how it tried to tangle and twist into my spiritual pathways, like it belong. And how wrong that felt.

My instincts scream the immediate solution. I didn't think, I didn't contemplate or hesitate. I just acted. I stabbed at the problem, and blasted it with my aura.

Not just that, the moment I turned my Sacred Gear's Dragon Slaying Aura inward—I didn't even process stabbing myself in that moment. It didn't feel important—my own aura and my Longinus' moved through my body, moving at opposites, grinding and dragging the curse between them, till I glued the curse to my sword, and just... pulled.

That... hurt. Noticeably. Pain had becomes background noise for a while now. That was the first shock to make me pay attention to it, in a while now. Soul deep. That's probably the reason.

But because of that, a lot of things became clear. Heroic Second Wind healed even the scraps and scratches on my soul from that curse, guided by my instincts. Thus reinforcing my soul and empowering it from the effort.

All of that from a single instant without any thought, just gut feeling.

My instincts were on methamphetamine. Okay, extreme description, but felt more or less right.

A better way to describe it would be, Hyper Intuition from Hitman Reborn.

It felt like how I should move, fight and optimize my actions, physical and energy-wise were laid bare for me. As if I was pulled to it, not needing to fight to get my body moving as I want. I didn't have to struggle do the correct attack sequence. The more I let go, and just allowed my instincts to take over, the less I forced it, the better I fought.

It was freeing. I could finally move as I want. I couldn't stop grinning.

Yet it was counterintuitive. It was like unlearning everything I knew, and needing to rebuild my way of fighting from the ground up. Rather than push through everything through sheer will as I had to learn to survive, I now just needed to, well, vibe with the flow of battle.

Not an easy thing with my mind demanding I plan and react.

Yet for the first time in a long time, it felt like was having fun. So I dived into this feeling, to not think and just act.

There were a dozen or so football stadiums length of distance between me and the two Heavenly Dragon Class enemies before me. The Evil Dragons, Aži Dahāka and Apophis (wasn't he also called Apep?).

Between me and them were the army of Evil Dragons, Niðhöggr, Yamata no Orochi, Ladon behind them all, and Grendel standing at the front.

Wind energy swirled around my body and sword.

I surged forward, First Form: Dust Whirlwind Cutter, torpedoing through the horde of Evil Dragons between me and the Crime Force Dragon. From that tornado surrounding me, hundred of aura wind slashes launched like missiles, at not just the Evil Dragons I went through but those behind them. How silly of them, thinking grouping up would work against me?

Grendel only began to react when I reached him. His punched slammed into my swung blade, sending an echoing shockwave. The shockwave along ruptured the ground and slammed back the closing Evil Dragons. Some died of the impact. Weak.

"GAAAH! You?! That's stronger than last time." Grendel cried out in confusion as fist and sword locked in place. Grendel was still in his Outrage Mode, he amplified his kinetic energy more than ten times his normal punches, yet I stopped his assault.

Well, I wasn't really struggling to push forward like he was. His arm was shaking, trying to move forward, while mine was steady. The clash didn't even hurt.

That confirmed it. Physical-wise at least, my strength finally broke into the Heavenly Dragon Class level.

Now let's see if everything else is the same.

"Berserk Shattering." Grendel immediately went into his ultimate move, breaking his body to try and hit harder.

BRAAM! BRAAM! BRAAM! BRAAM!

I met his fists head on. Focusing my aura to the max, trying to let none of it leave or be wasted from the blade. My sword leaving a clean red light streak as it moved.

Every one of his supersonic punches were met and matched, every single time. He was moving so wildly that other Evil Dragons didn't dare jump into the middle of this.

"Worthless! All of you!" "Are you dragons or not?" "Use your breathes!" The three heads of Aži Dahāka said one after another.

The dragons surrounding me and Grendel pulled their serpentine heads back. Their long necks glowing with light and heat as they readied their Dragon Breaths.

"Yeah, I'm sitting gonna just sit here." I said to myself while in the middle of meeting and blocking Grendel's combo. For me, he was now moving slower. I stopped humoring this.

"How? How?! Were you holding back on me? It's impossible you could have gotten stronger that fast—?" Grendel shouted.

"Shoot Style," I answered back. "Hundred Rising Dust Storm."

Grendel found his combo broken as he was forced to jump back.

"DAMMIT! How could you have possibly..." Grendel's eyes widened as he looked at something impossible around him.

A crimson elemental wind tornado exploded around us. It looked like a localized hurricane as it ripped apart the Evil Dragons around us, while expanding outwardly.

I think going for a hundred might have been too much. Ten would have been enough.

The dragons far enough to survive were shouted in anger and terror. The important character ones, were the ones to voice that disbelief.

"What the hell?" Niðhöggr shouted.

"This Dragon Slayer's strength seems... significant." Apophis noted. "Was he at this level of power when we first observed him?" He asked his equal.

"No." Aži Dahāka said back with a focused look, with none of the previous carefreeness.

"Art thou preparations complete?" Yamata no Orochi asked.

"Not yet!" Ladon replied.

Back with me and Grendel.

"I'm not done yet! I will show you what true violence is!" Grendel said as he began to generate and absorb negative energy.

Only for his focus to snap, as I slammed a knee into his face and latched onto him, with my hands grabbing his horns. The thorned ones spreading to cover his body.

"GAAAH! Sunnva—"

"I'm afraid your grace period to me testing my new strength is now over. Now I'm gonna start counterattacking." I grinned and tightened my grip.

"W-Wait, what the hell are you say?!" Grendel cried out in terror as he swung his arm to punch me off.

"I'm saying yeah, I did get this strong fighting Crom Cruach." And then I pulled and kicked off his face.

The horns cracked and broke off, coming with me in my hands.

Grendel screamed as the thorned horns that seemed to act as extra weapons for him, were now turned against him, cutting and shredding hid body as they were pulled out of him.

The massive tornado began to dissipate making me and Grendel visible to the Evil Dragon leaders and army again. Actually that happened too quickly. I looked to see the Zoroastrianism Evil Dragon's hand glow as he waved it down. Guess I know who can cancel any magical effect I can make. I need to prioritize him, but I don't think I'll get lucky enough to focus on him.

"Grendel!" Yamata no Orochi shouted in shock.

"Hahahaha, holy shit, he really tore you apart." Niðhöggr laughed out loud.

Grendel was teleported away, and this time I got an up-close and personal look at Aži Dahāka's spell. Hmm, okay, I think I started to figure it out.

"Yeah, yeah, don't worry, you're next." I cut off whatever else the dragons were going to say, as I held the thorned horns like whips. Although they were harder and less elastic as whips. "Although it's such a shame for all those dragons and magicians so far back aren't part of the action." I smirked, as multiple of the humans, and other species, magicians paled at my words. "Let's fix that."

I grabbed Chaskampf Ordained like a spear and launched it. With a sonic boom it flew all the way back, passing by all the dragon leaders, including Aži Dahāka and Apophis before they could react and speared through one of the mages that looked important. His robes were more elaborate, so he was probably a leader or something.

"Leader Varas!" Shouted one of the magician subordinates.

"You guys don't have time to be shocked or morn." I said.

Then telekinetically had the sword start zipping through the air like a missiles, acting like a Yondu's arrow, piercing through anything that moved.

"Now show me what you got, because your numbers mean shit!" I cried out as I lunged forward with the thorned horns as improvised weapons.

===x===

Cadre Kokabiel, Fallen of the Stars POV:

The underground of old city of Lucifaad was disturbingly serene in how quiet it was.

Kokabiel thought it was disturbing, because as the original Capital of Underworld and the Satan territory ruled by the original Lucifer, he felt that this place should be eerie. That it should exude malice, or discontentment, that makes people unable to be comfortable to live there.

Yet the place remained serene.

Hell, the only reason the filthy bats moved Capitals was as a political statement. Kokabiel lightly scoffed.

The only devils that still lived in Lucifaad were all Low Class Devils, and they were more of custodies to the place rather than beings making a home and thriving. Nothing of import is meant to happen in Lucifaad.

Which is why the Old Satan Faction member would sometimes use that place to hold meetings in secret. Just to brag about being in 'their place of power'.

The secret tunnels under Lucifaad were a place that no one should even know they exist. Not the 72 Pillars, not even the descendants of the original four Satans. For the deep underground ruins under Lucifaad housed a secret temple, the Temple of Oblivion.

One could wonder how a group of Fallen could have possibly discovered this location, let alone navigate it as well as they did.

The reason being Satanael's Alastor Organization. While the factions of Khaos Brigade were made over the last few decades, Satanael had been building his group in the background over centuries.

The trick was that, they didn't seem like a group or had any cohesion. They were simply the 'help'. A supernatural logistics company in a sense. They were the ones to aid other groups build up or get started. They're the ones to offer basic information, or more, to those looking to know how to start on a path in the supernatural world.

Due to this, they had worked with hundreds of groups, if only to aid in transportation or the like. And thus from all that background aid, came Satanael's greatest source of information and planning ability.

Because he used all that leverage and influence, virtually never, it came as a surprise when he used it all at once, to help swiftly build—in a relative manner—Khaos Brigade, centered around the Infinity Dragon in a manner of a few short years. Less than a decade if Kokabiel recalled.

The Fallen group came to a two-way path.

They looked around for a moment and located an illusionary wall.

"Satanael's instructions were to ignore the two path at this point, and go through the fake wall but..." Asbeel, the Deserter of God commented. He was a old ally to Kokabiel who was one of his loyal supporters trapped with him in Cocytus. He was also one of the few Cadres of the Grigori, making him a peer to Kokabiel, even if he mostly followed his lead. "That hidden room is a trap from what I can see."

"And that is the true illusion." Kokabiel said, nodding. "We'll need to pass through that illusion trap room without any hint of magic, least the illusion transfigurate into real objects that will damage us. So... Jerry, you're up." The Fallen Angel of the Star gestured to a random Low Class Fallen to walk through the illusion room first.

"W-Wait, what? Why me, Lord Kokabiel?" Jerry the Fallen cried out in panic. Jerry wasn't a True Fallen Angel who lived Heaven, but one born of two Fallen Angels on earth.

"You volunteered, remember?" Said another Fallen.

"Yeah, you bragged about doing this while drunk." Added another Fallen.

"I was drunk!" Shouted Jerry.

"Yes, yes, we all admire your bravery get moving." Kokabiel said while waving the young Fallen forward.

Jerry was pushed up till he was forced to walk through the fake wall.

"And remember, don't use any magic or the traps become real, and that would be annoying, since we won't know if you died because you activated the traps, or if they were real all along." Said Asbeel.

"SO I'M A GUINEA PIG IN THIS!?"

Ultimately after a lot of running, screaming and flailing, Jerry proved the passage was safe to pass, if one doesn't use magic.

The passage was actually pretty short, but Jerry was so scared he was running with his eyes closed and hitting the walls.

"So these are..." Kokabiel said with wide-eyes as he and his group entered the Temple of Oblivion proper.

The main room of the temple was vast, enough to fit several buildings.

Twelve giant shrines were divided across the room, and within each shrine was an altar upon which a state of sorts was place.

No. A totem in the shape of an emblem.

"We found them, just as Satanael said." Asbeel uttered. "The Evil Claws."

As if in response to finally having the presence of an audience before them, the emblems released a presence that dominated the room. Showing a peek into a power so vast, many of those present fear even getting close to the emblems.

"Malebranche, the so called 'Satanic Arms', heh." Kokabiel chuckled and shook his head. Almost as if sensing his dismissal, the Malebranche sense a wave of power, that brought any being not High Class to their knees, yet Kokabiel's heart was unmoved. "How childish." He couldn't help but say.

"H-How are you withstanding it?" Asbeel asked.

The pressure vanished, as he felt a sense of confusion projected from the emblems. But for the Fallen of the Stars, the power of the Satanic Arms means nothing before the Bloody Truth he learned, thus weathering the Malebranche's presence was child's play.

"Is there any reason to feel fear from the horrors of this world?" Kokabiel asked in a calm voice.

"Even so... No, I suppose not." Asbeel said, before he felt his wings twitching again. "Kokabiel, have your wings also felt off? Like they—"

"Ignore it." Kokabiel quietly commanded. "There's no changing our status given God's command is being 'enforced' even now." Contempt entered his voice.

"Wait... I felt this ever since I learned that Truth from Satanael. Are you saying we...? And Heaven's System is acknowledging us again, yet Michael is—"

"Get moving all of you." He commanded, cutting off that line of conversation with Asbeel, so his anger doesn't erupt. That's not the time for it right now. "We're transporting these weapons to the new base." Kokabiel stared right at the Malebranche one by one, the Twelve Convicted Sinners as they were titled, without any fear nor care. "It's time these things finally have a use for once in their lives."