Chapter 53…
At last…
“It’s done.”
Sensing the vast surge of magic rising from behind him, Dante knew instinctively.
The long-awaited moment had finally arrived.
His lungs felt like they would rip apart from breathing at the very limits of his endurance.
Barely holding on, he turned his gaze back.
Bel Carceron—
Veratis’s low incantation spread through the air like a divine mystery.
And then—
The world itself tore open, spilling light through the cracks.
One beam, two beams, three beams—
An innumerable cascade of golden radiance, impossible for human eyes to count,
blossomed in the sky like petals unfurling.
Only one word came to mind: beautiful.
So dazzling it stole his breath.
So serene it blurred the edges of consciousness.
Like petals scattering, countless motes of light formed a silhouette in midair, clearer than starlight.
No one—no thing—
could hold back their awe before such rapture.
—Yet.
That beauty soon revealed itself in its most lethal form.
KWA-A-A-A-ANG!
Space twisted. Countless chains of light burst forth, ensnaring the crimson mother.
Flesh writhed and tore, the sound of hide bursting under relentless pressure.
Imprisonment.
The chains of light overlapped, weaving a lattice that engulfed Erebos’s colossal form.
The brilliance remained.
The beauty remained.
Nothing outwardly changed.
But the rapturous light was now a cruel prison, pinning down the ominous being.
Bel Carceron.
Prepared by the Third Magic Battalion, invoked by Veratis—
an absolute spell with only one purpose:
A perfect seal.
So Erebos would never again manifest upon this earth,
locked forever in an eternal, flawless prison—
“…What is this?”
Dante’s brow twitched.
Everything seemed on track.
The spell was powerful, and Erebos was being crushed within it.
And yet—
A chill of foreboding seized his whole body, tightening his grip on Arpheon.
“Get ready.”
It was Isabella at his side who spoke.
And then…
Creak, cre-e-eak!
The prison of light groaned.
It swelled as if about to explode, twisted, losing form.
CR-R-R-R-ACK!
Veins of crimson-black fissures crawled across the radiant cage.
The spell was perfect.
Flawlessly executed, a transcendent work of magic.
It should not—must not—break.
And yet.
“…It failed.”
With Dante’s quiet murmur, it shattered.
KWA-A-A-A-A-ANG!!
Bel Carceron burst apart.
What had been as beautiful as a god’s creation scattered like shards of a broken mirror.
The aura shielding the magic battalion collapsed in an instant.
“Ghh—!”
“M-My mana’s… backfiring…!”
The battalion’s magi screamed in agony, dropping like puppets with severed strings.
The collapse of perfectly contained magic rebounded into them,
ravaging their minds and bodies with catastrophic shock.
They writhed on the ground, as if their bodies were tearing apart.
“Protect the battalion! Form the defensive phalanx!”
The commander of the Luminergarde knights bellowed, his cry nearly a scream.
Despite the sudden disaster, the knights did not falter.
They braced themselves against the oncoming tide of power.
But it was not easy.
They were already exhausted—
their flesh rotted away from Erebos’s plague-laden assaults after holding the front for nearly an hour.
And yet, not a single knight broke rank.
If Acrassion was the coalition’s sword—
“Then we are its final shield!”
A desperate vow, a will unshakable.
“Hold formation! Not one step back!”
They staggered, legs long since useless, armor corroded blood-red.
But they did not fall.
With dying magi at their backs,
they faced the looming shadow.
KR-R-R-RUMBLE!
Erebos’s body swelled, vomiting waves of crimson mana.
Each fragment of her body was a disaster—
a touch dissolved flesh and bone, erased existence.
A knight’s arm holding a shield melted away.
Another lost his leg, collapsing.
And still—
“Maintain formation!”
They stepped over fallen comrades, raised their blades again.
Not one retreated, though the tide of ruin bore down.
“Dante!” Isabella cried.
Dante did not answer.
He was already moving.
Pouring all his mana into Arpheon,
he leapt straight toward the freed Erebos.
KWA-A-A-ANG!
As Dante lunged, Isabella streaked through the air like an arrow,
her white blade shining blue.
“Be split apart!”
Her voice was both declaration and vow.
SHHHHRRRIP!
Flesh tore, a path opened.
Dante surged through without hesitation.
Erebos screamed.
Though Bel Carceron was broken, its remnants still burned her with fatal power.
She turned her agony into frenzied wrath, hurling torrents of crimson flesh.
KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA!
Hundreds of tendrils lashed the air,
filthy red mana blasting like shells.
The path was closing again.
Dante swung Arpheon by instinct.
It wasn’t hard—
decades of honed practice carried him.
None of Erebos’s blows pierced his blade.
But the strain battered his body—
bones splintered under the shock.
Arpheon howled, the mana along its edge writhing with pain.
Even sanctified flame barely held back the annihilating force.
Any lesser man would already be dead.
Dante gritted his teeth, blood spilling from torn lips.
He did not stop.
Behind him, Isabella’s sword roared like a storm,
a white blade like the heavens cutting a new path.
KWA-A-A-ANG!
“This time, I won’t be too late!”
He pushed his legs, muscles shredding, blood spraying in his wake.
Through the opening Isabella carved, Dante raised his sword.
The blade he had seized beyond death—
Arpheon.
He brought it down, heavy and resolute.
“Fall.”
SCHRRRRRK!
Arpheon cleaved through Erebos’s massive torso,
splitting her in two.
Her scream shook the Muroidia Mountains once more.
But Dante knew—
the wound wasn’t fatal.
Still—
“It’s fine.”
Because he wasn’t fighting alone.
As if she had always been there, Isabella’s form shimmered beside him.
Her blade pierced Erebos’s riven flesh.
STAB!
Her sky-like sword blazed with purifying force,
burning the accursed flesh.
Three powers united—
the flame to scour corruption,
the infinite will of possibility,
the holy edge of heaven itself.
They crushed her dark mana from within.
Her hideous body boiled,
its attempt to regenerate collapsing into charred nothing.
Thousands of crimson eyes turned on Dante.
For a moment, it felt like being pierced through entirely.
But fear no longer touched him.
The opened stigmata of two knights already trampled Erebos’s last frenzy.
The sanctified flame roared, engulfing Arpheon,
proving its worth in radiant fury.
“This is the end.”
Dante raised the burning blade once more—
and struck.
SLASH!
This time, he was certain.
He had cut not her flesh,
but her very essence.
At once, Erebos’s body crumbled from within,
blue fire devouring her existence.
Flesh melted, blood evaporated, her being dissolved into nothing.
No resistance, no scream, no counterattack.
She unraveled into red smoke and vanished.
KWA-A-A-ANG!
A final blast shook the mountain depths—
a signal flare marking the end of a long war.
Nothing remained.
Not a fragment of her crimson flesh.
The foul shadow that had threatened the principality was gone.
Clear, fresh air filled the mountains as though it had all been a lie.
Dante slowly looked around.
The battlefield bore scars so vast, it was hard to believe it had been a single battle.
“Are you alright?”
Isabella’s voice was weary.
Dante nodded.
“I’m fine. But…”
His gaze turned behind.
There stood a knight, his body rotted and ruined,
yet still upright, sword planted in the earth.
Even in death, he had not fallen—
guarding those behind him to the very end.
Theonil Valentian.
Commander of the Luminergarde knights.
He fulfilled his duty to the last,
and there closed his eyes forever.
