Lucifer: Godless Reawakening-Chapter 259: Battle of monsters

A behemoth flew across the sky.

Emma had not expected to see something like this when she woke up today. She certainly had not wanted to, especially when the creature’s target was her beloved.

Along with the other soldiers, she rushed outside the moment she sensed that overwhelming presence. It pressed against their chests, heavy and suffocating, as if the very air had thickened.

"That..." Grover’s eyes widened as he stared at the colossal being dominating the sky, its massive frame cutting through the clouds while it chased a lone figure.

William.

...

"Damn it," William grumbled, veering sharply to the side as a volley of flames roared past him, close enough to scorch the air around his body.

The monster was at least twenty meters long, and its temperament was as ferocious as its size. It charged straight at him, ignoring the arrows raining down from every direction. Shafts struck its hide and shattered, unable to slow its advance.

"KRRGHHHH!" it bellowed, its massive wings beating once. Snow exploded outward like a white storm, swallowed by the turbulence it created.

Its crimson eyes flashed, locking onto William with predatory focus.

"Khuk!" William groaned as a crushing pressure slammed onto his shoulders, forcing his body downward mid-flight. It felt as if a mountain had been dropped on him, threatening to drag him into the earth.

The aura it released was far more ominous than the ranked devil he had fought before. That creature was nothing compared to the monstrosity now hunting him.

Obsidian scales, jagged and sharp. A massive frame built for ruin. A thick, spiked tail that tore through the air with a single sweep.

It was a monster born for destruction. Chaos wrapped in flesh.

’Have I unleashed something far more dangerous than they were anticipating?’

The cracks had stopped spewing lesser monsters.

In exchange, they had been given this colossal horror.

The dragon drew closer.

William raised his hand. There was no other choice now but to engage.

One second.

Two seconds.

The dragon parted its maw. Flames gathered within, violent and raging, compressing into a blazing core that lit its fanged mouth from the inside.

Three seconds.

Four—

DOOOM

William was blasted backward as a pillar of light descended from the heavens, crashing onto the beast and completely engulfing its head.

The impact split the clouds. The sound followed a heartbeat later, thunder tearing through the mountains.

William steadied himself midair, eyes widening as he traced the source.

A man stood atop the nearest peak, blade lowered, cloak snapping in the wind. The destruction had come from him.

William recognized him.

Someone who had come to meet him recently. One of the seated members of the Great Hall.

Lancelot.

The only student of the Sword Saint had arrived.

Lancelot’s aura was different from the times William had met him before.

His eyes were cold and unwavering. He held his blade in one hand, posture rigid, precise, prepared for death or victory.

The pillar of light receded.

The dragon roared, not in pain, but in fury. Its face was slightly charred, smoke rising from its scales, yet the wound looked shallow. The sky itself seemed to tremble beneath its presence.

William drew a slow breath. The constant weight pressing against his chest kept increasing, each second heavier than the last.

That alone told him everything.

This was a General ranked devil.

...

"Can he handle this on his own?" Emma asked. Her voice carried clear anxiety as she and the others watched the clash between the dragon and the knight.

Lancelot moved like a streak of silver. He cleanly split apart the flames sent toward him before surging forward with a counterattack.

His sword arts were overwhelming, sharp arcs of light carving through the air. Yet the dragon’s body was like forged black metal. The blows struck. Sparks flew. But no visible damage remained.

"I will go," Grover said, pulling out his chained mace as he prepared to leap into the battlefield.

"That’s not your role to play, Grover."

Everyone flinched at the voice behind them.

Emma turned instantly. She recognized the man at once. She had seen him recently in the East Wind Building, speaking with her father.

General Dawntress. Commander of the Royal Legion.

His pale grey eyes were fixed on the behemoth dominating the sky.

He drew the long sword from behind his back and spoke calmly, "Step back. Let me handle this."

The soldiers complied, clearing a path without hesitation.

Ice crackled beneath his boots.

Then he lunged.

He shot forward like a projectile, the ground fracturing from the force of his launch.

The dragon sensed the incoming threat. Its massive body twisted midair, its spiked tail whipping downward to crush the approaching commander.

Lancelot seized the opening.

"Particle Divider."

His blade elongated instantly. Aether coiled around it like a dense sheath, humming with compressed force. Midair, he swung. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

The strike severed the dragon’s tail cleanly from its body.

"GHUAAAGH!"

The dragon howled, true agony this time. Its enormous tail crashed onto the mountain below, splitting stone and snow alike.

But the assault did not stop there.

Commander Dawntress drove his long sword between the dragon’s obsidian scales, targeting the exposed seam where flesh lay vulnerable. With augmented strength, he forced the blade deeper, piercing into tender tissue beneath the armored hide.

The blade sank deep.

For a fraction of a second, the world held still.

Then the dragon retaliated.

A shockwave burst from its body. Not flame. Not wind. Raw, compressed force. The air warped and detonated outward, ripping snow from the mountainside and hurling both warriors away.

William had already took his distance and was now watching the battle as a spectator.

Commander Dawntress twisted midair, dragging his blade free before the pressure could shatter his arm. He was flung backward, boots carving trenches into the frozen slope as he landed.

Lancelot crossed his blade before him.

The shockwave struck.

Light split around him in a clean arc, parted by the edge of his sword. The force still pushed him back, boots skidding across air itself, but he did not break stance.

The dragon’s severed tail writhed on the mountainside.

Then it began to dissolve.

Black mist coiled from the stump, thick and violent. Flesh bubbled. Bone reformed. In mere breaths, a new tail erupted from its body, larger and lined with sharper spikes.

The sky darkened.

The dragon’s chest expanded unnaturally. Flames did not gather in its maw this time. Instead, cracks of crimson light spread beneath its scales, branching like veins across its entire body.

"It’s amplifying," William muttered from a distance, stabilizing himself in the air.

The pressure tripled.

Emma fell to one knee below, soldiers gasping as the aura pressed down like an invisible ocean.

The dragon roared, and the sound carried magic.

A storm of burning shards erupted around it, each fragment shaped like a jagged spear. They did not scatter wildly. They targeted.

Dawntress moved first.

He raised his sword and slashed upward. Each motion was minimal, efficient. His blade intercepted the incoming projectiles one by one, precise cuts splitting them apart before impact. Explosions rang around him, but none touched his body.

Lancelot did not defend.

He advanced.

Through the storm.

Each step in the air created a faint ripple, as though he were walking across invisible platforms. His blade traced silver lines through the chaos, carving a path directly toward the dragon’s core.

The dragon beat its wings.

The mountain below shattered from the pressure alone.

It lunged downward, jaws open wide enough to swallow a house. Dawntress vanished from sight an instant before the bite connected, reappearing above the dragon’s neck in a blur of motion. His blade descended toward the spine.

Clang.

The sword struck scales that had thickened instantly.

The dragon’s eye snapped upward.

Its regenerated tail whipped around at impossible speed.

Lancelot intercepted it mid-swing.

Steel met scale.

The collision rang like a bell across the valley. The impact hurled Lancelot backward, but he twisted, redirecting the force into a spiral that bled into the air instead of his bones.

Dawntress did not retreat.

He drove his knee into the dragon’s skull and forced his blade down again, this time sliding it along the seam Lancelot had previously exposed.

Blood sprayed.

Black and steaming.

The dragon shrieked and surged upward, carrying both men with it.

Higher.

Above the mountain peaks.

Clouds tore apart as the beast ascended, trying to shake them loose. Lightning began to crackle around its body, drawn by the density of its aura.

Lancelot planted his blade into the dragon’s wing joint, anchoring himself.

Dawntress balanced on its neck, feet firm despite the violent climb.

The dragon suddenly folded its wings.

They dropped.

Freefall.

Wind screamed past them as the ground rushed upward.

The dragon twisted mid-descent and unleashed a concentrated beam of crimson fire directly at its own back.

At them.

Lancelot kicked the air and drifted away but the General didn’t have a way to move away mid-fall.

His eyes widened as the flame grew closer and all he could do was to cover his face with his arms.

But...the flames didn’t touch him.

"What?"

"Huh?!"

The soldiers exclaimed in shock as they saw the flames descending upon their commander suddenly getting sucked into an orb that appeared right before the man.

**DOOOOOM**

The General hit the mountain slope but he didn’t fail to see the orb that engulfed ever bit of flame and saved his life.

He turned and looked behind him.

William stood there, eyes trained at the devil and his hand raised.

’He saved my life....’ Dawntress clutched the handle of his blade, his aura making the ice melt around him before he muttered, "It’s about time I end this."

•••••••

A/N:- Thanks for reading.