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Dan stared at his armored hands. He could feel endless power flooding into him, so overwhelming that even his pain vanished.
"No… no, no, no—! Why?! WHY HIM?!"
Vlad's shriek was hysterical. In a flash, he appeared before Dan, claw clamping around his throat.
"Why him?! For a hundred years you never submitted to me—so why choose a worthless brat?!"
Kivat II sneered. "I only serve the true King."
"I AM the King!!"
Vlad howled, reaching to rip Kivat off Dan's belt.
"Do you think I'm just going to stand here?"
Dan's voice was ice. Revenge blazed in him again. He smashed his fist into Vlad's skull.
"He's mine! That power should be mine!"
Vlad counterpunched without hesitation. Blow for blow, they traded hits—neither dodging, neither backing down.
But the gems on Dark Kiva's chest pulsed, feeding endless strength into Dan. The power healed him, awakened something buried deep inside.
"Return your soul to God!"
Emerald light gathered in his fist. Dan swung hard.
"HUUU-RYAAA!"
The punch exploded against Vlad's chest, searing a glowing green Kiva crest into his flesh.
"God won't take me!" Vlad roared. With a vicious swipe, he shredded the mark—and his own chest—then unleashed a storm of fleshy tendrils, absorbing every energy tube in the lab.
His body swelled grotesquely. In seconds, the man-shaped monster ballooned into a towering mass of flesh with bat wings, a nightmare tumor sprouting from the ground.
"What… the hell…?"
Dan froze. In minutes, Vlad had grown the size of a building.
"He's gone berserk," Kivat explained sharply. "He's absorbed too much energy. If we don't end him here, the consequences will be catastrophic."
"WORRRM!!!"
The monster howled, and a smaller lump of flesh bulged out of its body—morphing into Vlad's upper torso, grotesquely fused into the tumor with wings and writhing tentacles.
"Die!"
Hundreds of tendrils lashed at Dan.
He leapt, soaring high, and aimed a flying kick at Vlad.
But Vlad wasn't letting him through. Tentacles whipped from every direction.
One slammed Dan midair, hurling him back. He twisted at the last second, using raw strength to spin clear of the pursuing lashes, and landed heavily.
"Damn it… his power's insane. I can't even get close."
"Die, brat!"
The storm of tendrils surged at him again.
Kivat's urgent voice cut through the chaos.
"King! Grab the Zanvat Sword!"
"…Zanvat Sword?"
Dan turned his head—and sure enough, there it was: a golden longsword lying in the rubble.
"That's… the Demon Emperor's Sword?"
Even he recognized it instantly. The Demon Emperor's Sword—the blade that only the Kings of the Fangire clan could wield.
If he remembered right, only someone with the true qualifications of a King could use it. Even Wataru, a half-blood, needed the help of those three idiots before he could lift it. If Dan grabbed it himself… wouldn't he just keel over on the spot?
"Raaagh! Die, you little pest!"
Vlad, frustrated with Dan dodging left and right, beat his massive wings and came crashing down.
"Seriously? With a body that big, how the hell is he even flying? That's not scientific at all!"
But now wasn't the time to care about science. Dan threw everything he had into sprinting straight for the Demon Emperor's Sword.
"That's mine! You thief, I'll kill you!"
From above, Vlad clasped his hands together, twisting them into a massive drill, and dove straight at Dan.
Dan didn't have time to hesitate. He gripped the sword stuck in the ground and yanked it free.
The instant he touched it, a violent surge of power and countless whispers slammed into his mind. It felt like a thousand unseen eyes were staring him down all at once.
His head spun with chaos.
"Get… out of my body!"
With a furious roar, the voices vanished. The sword quieted down.
Dan held it tight, slicing his palm across the blade's edge.
Then he leapt high, sword raised, and brought it down toward Vlad.
"Seeen!"
A blinding arc cut across the sky. For a split second, it felt like the world itself might split in two.
"Shhhrrk!"
The swollen tumor of Vlad's body was cleaved clean in half. Blood rained down like a storm.
The monster's scream was so shrill it shook the ruined castle, collapsing it further.
"Not dead yet? Then how about this!"
Pushing off a falling boulder, Dan shot toward Vlad's remaining half.
He swung the Demon Emperor's Sword down at the exposed flesh.
"No! You can't kill me!"
Vlad whipped his remaining tentacles at him, but with one flash of steel they were shredded into dust.
Dan slashed upward, splitting the rest of Vlad's body and sending it flying high into the air.
"This ends now!"
He pulled a whistle from his belt and jammed it into Kivat II's mouth.
Kivat blew sharply, the sound echoing.
"Wake Up 2!"
Dan leapt, kicking hard at Vlad's half-body. Power burst from his feet, forming twin bat-winged blades.
"BOOM!"
The strike detonated, carving a massive Kiva crest into the gray sky.
Finally, Vlad—the monster behind it all—was dead. Dan's revenge was complete.
But with his purpose gone, his body couldn't hold out any longer.
The Dark Kiva armor shattered off him, and he plummeted toward the ground.
"King!"
Kivat II shrieked, trying to catch him. But after a century of torment, his strength was nothing like it once was. He couldn't stop Dan's fall.
The two of them crashed into the ruins together.
As his consciousness faded, Dan glanced toward Krim lying in the rubble.
"Sorry, Mr. Belt… guess you'll be buried with me here too."
"....."