The ceiling was crumbling above us with every passing second.
From every crack and crevice, blood-curdling screams erupted: people being devoured, ripped from life without a shred of mercy.
"What is happening?! Is this the end of the human race?" "God has abandoned us!"
Those words pierced my soul… but my body wouldn't respond. I wasn't regenerating. Nothing moved. Dragon stood a few meters away, motionless and silent.
My heart beat at an impossible rhythm, and my bones screamed from within.
Then, the ground trembled under the weight of his mere presence.
My bones shattered one by one; every breath felt like a hammer blow.
Dragon didn't move. His power was a wall.
The pain rose, pooling and becoming unbearable, and there was nothing I could do.
The building collapsed as if imploding.
I couldn't hear the rubble; I couldn't hear anything.
The pressure destroyed my eardrums.
My world became absolute silence… until what came next made it worse.
Dragon approached and crushed the beam beneath my body.
He pierced my chest once more, and with his left hand, he crushed my windpipe.
I couldn't scream; I couldn't breathe. I could barely register the horror of every organ being torn apart.
He lifted me off the ground, and my eardrums regenerated instantly.
This wasn't a fight. It was a silent extermination, a calculated martyrdom.
The screams of others were clear now… but I felt them in my own chest:
"Save my daughter! I don't want to die!"
Some were turning into monsters; others bled out and vanished forever.
Becoming a hybrid was a near-impossible miracle; I wouldn't have that luck.
Dragon held my neck as if I were a broken doll.
My body refused to heal; every second was a reminder of the slow, inevitable creep of death.
The world around me was falling apart, but my mind could only cling to one promise:I would get back to Valentine… or was it already too late?
My eyes saw the chaos, my bones felt the pressure, and inside me, only a mute scream remained—a plea that couldn't escape.
The end… was already here.
"I've grown tired of this," Dragon's voice rang out.
"Bunker: descend and turn everything to ash!"
A creature fell from the sky, faster than a bolt of lightning. It resembled a mythological dragon, its body glowing red like molten lava. The destruction was instantaneous. Its fiery breath leveled everything in its path. Only those standing near Dragon survived.
Valentine returned to life, her eyes fluttering weakly, still unconscious on the ground as smoke and ruin filled the air.
My mind couldn't process the scene. That beast flapping in the sky gave off a pressure equal to a deity. Yet, compared to Dragon's pressure, it seemed like a newborn hatchling from the jaws of hell.
"Brat," Dragon called out again. "Keep admiring this magnificent destruction. After all, this is where I'll bury you both once and for all!"
His gaze shifted again; his bloodlust chilled me from my bones to my soul. Every organ inside me began to tear apart, bit by bit.
"It's time to end this warm-up," Dragon declared.
His pressure began to fracture my bones once more, but this time, my eardrums held.
"Cocytus, bloom…!" Dragon whispered.
Upon hearing that word, an intense, agonizing pain flooded my body.
"Something is growing inside me!" Valentine shrieked.
"You can feel it, can't you, boy?" Dragon shouted.
"Gaaah...!" Valentine gasped. "Help me, Jack; something is eating me from the inside. I don't want to die!" Her voice was shredded by agony.
We were finished. My body was a corpse that refused to move.
Dragon mocked us like a psychopath, eager and patient for the death of his prey.
"That girl is amusing… she'll die soon, and you won't be able to do a single thing to save
her," Dragon stated. "And all because you are weak. You disgusting half-breed!"
I couldn't help it: Dragon had succeeded in breaking me completely.
"Ah… what a pity. Your girlfriend is dead; she lasted forty seconds against the birth of
Cocytus. But don't cry, mongrel. Look on the bright side: you'll both be reunited soon. I'll
personally, see to it that you join her, you inferior creature!"
"However, ... I think I'll watch closely to see just how long it takes for you to die."