Dragon Raja 3; Chapter 461: The Sword of Damocles (21)

Dragon Raja 3

The face encased in an exoskeleton could neither smile nor show sorrow. The newly reborn Chisei looked up to the sky, breathing deeply with a guttural sound.

He was something between an angel and a devil, a mistake that shouldn’t exist in this world.

“Dragon blood! You… you used dragon blood?!” Osho exclaimed in terror.

“Yes, as the emperor, I couldn’t kill you. But as a demon, I can surpass the limits of the emperor,” Chisei said softly. “My whole life, I’ve been an Oni-slayer, but only now do I understand why the demons longed for power.”

He gazed up at the dark night sky, the rain pattering against his hard face. “When you’re surrounded by endless darkness, how can you not rush toward the flames?”

His grip tightened, and the claws pierced into Osho’s skull. With a faint crack, the head burst like a pipe breaking. He dropped Osho’s body to the ground, his regal golden eyes observing it until he looked away. The body never moved again.

Osho was dead. This specter who had survived Black Swan Bay, a man who had controlled everything and had once been considered the strongest Hybrid in the world, hadn’t even been able to put up a proper fight before he died. He had been completely suppressed by the fully dragonized Chisei. When the emperor becomes a demon, all demons can do is wail!

“Your mentor is dead. Does that not bother you?” Chisei asked, looking at Ruri.

“Isn’t it better this way? In my heart, he should’ve died long ago.” Ruri showed a strange smile. “Now, no one will be around to constantly nag. It’s just the two of us now. That’s how this story was always supposed to end, right?”

“Yes, I came here to see you.”

“But look at you now. What’s the difference between you and me? You once wanted to kill me because I was a demon. Now you’ve become a demon yourself. Is this the gift Tachibana left for you?”

“Yes, perhaps it’s the best gift I’ve ever received.”

When Chisei arrived at the shrine, the chief priest handed him a gilded wooden box. The key, they said, had already been given to Chisei. It didn’t take him long to figure it out—the key was hidden in the hilt of Tachibana’s blade, Shinkiri. No wonder he had heard something jingling inside the hilt when he first held the sword. Before meeting with Uesugi Erii, in the quiet back hall, he had opened the wooden box. Inside was a quartz vial preserved in liquid nitrogen, containing a half-coagulated black-red liquid. Tachibana had left no letter or explanation, but Chisei already knew what was inside. Years ago, when Tachibana was still Bondarev, he had collected this precious fetal blood from the hold of the Lenin. Compared to Osho’s evolution serum, this was the most potent drug of all.

But after drinking this potent drug, he would never be able to turn back. His bloodline had already reached its limit at birth. If he took one more step forward in evolution, he would lose control and become a demon.

Chisei turned off the cooling system and quietly waited for the blood in the vial to become active again. In those few minutes, he thought of Sakurai Akira and the demons he had purged. How ironic it was— the strongest Oni-slayer and the strongest demon would ultimately be the same person.

He also remembered Sakurai Akira’s words before his death: If the light of Amaterasu Mikoto could not illuminate Sakurai Akira’s darkness, then he would become a demon himself. Only that way could he reach the world of demons and sever the fate of the Oni Clan.

He poured the dragon blood into a bottle of strong liquor and drank it all in one gulp.

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