Dragon's Awakening: The Duke's Son Is Changing The Plot
Chapter 203 - 202 - Nightmare DLC?

Chapter 203: Chapter 202 - Nightmare DLC?

Smoke still curled from the scorched crater like a battlefield exhale.

Everyone stood in silence.

Clara leaned against Raven’s arm, rubbing her forehead. Jessy wiped blood from her lip. Rufus lay flat on his back, mumbling something about a vacation.

Siris was threatening to perform a dramatic funeral for his soul. Again.

Then, amidst the groans and sighs of relief...

"...Wait," Selena murmured, her eyes narrowing.

"Something’s wrong," Jessy added, her tone unusually alert.

Raven’s dragon-scale armor had faded, his bare chest still steaming slightly in the sunlight, but his gaze sharpened immediately. "Where’s the yelling?"

They all froze.

The battlefield was silent—way too quiet.

Raven slowly turned his head. "Where’s... the loud one?"

"You mean Alex?" Rufus asked. "He’s right there, looking as dumb as ever."

Alex, still half-merged with Blargh and coughing up a bit of smoke, lifted his arms. "Hey, rude."

Clara blinked. "Crisaius?"

It was only then that everyone realized it.

Selena frowned. "He was fighting the demon..."

Siris cocked her head. "Why does it feel like we lost the family goose?"

Then they all turned forward, toward the spot Crisaius had been moments ago.

There was nothing. Only the faint outline of his boots was scorched into the stone.

His dual swords, cracked and glowing with residual lightning and fire, lay stuck in the ground, crossed at odd angles.

"No," Clara whispered.

"...He didn’t... right?" Rufus said, sitting up slightly.

Jessy bit her lip, suddenly too tense.

Selena placed a hand over her mouth.

Even Siris looked stunned for once. "I—I didn’t get to stab him even once..."

Raven stepped forward slowly, looking at the still-blazing swords—the soot, the lack of remains... the silence.

"Crisaius..." he said, voice lower than usual as he gritted his teeth. "That crazy old bastard."

That old man was standing at the epicenter of an explosion that caused Argon’s fingers—the only body part exposed to the fire—to burn.

If Argon didn’t have his sword with him, then his whole body would’ve been like his fingers—burned to the point where bones were almost exposed.

That was when he was standing this far and had a second to prepare for the explosion. Crisaius didn’t have that luxury.

So...

A long pause.

Then, in a soft and casual tone, someone asked from behind, "Uh... who are we crying for?"

No one turned.

Not a single soul.

"Not now, Alex," Raven muttered without even glancing back.

"Dude, it wasn’t me!" Alex snapped, clearly offended.

Raven blinked. "...Then who the hell—?"

Realization hit.

They all stiffened.

Slowly... like a horror movie with comedic budget cuts... they all turned around.

There stood... A man.

If you could still call him that.

He looked like a chimney sweep who had been inside the chimney during a house fire. Crisaius’s hair was half-gone, burned off at an awkward 45-degree slope.

The remaining strands poofed up in every direction like he’d tried to comb them with lightning. His eyebrows were singed to frazzled commas.

Soot covered his face like he’d faceplanted into a barbecue pit. His robe was gone—only his charred pants and scorched undershirt remained, one sleeve missing entirely, the other halfway up his arm. He stood there.

Holding a burnt sock in one hand and a partially melted spoon in the other.

"Why is everyone looking like they saw my funeral tax?" He asked, blinking innocently.

Everyone’s jaws collectively dropped.

Omni, in his tattoo form on Raven’s hand, vibrated suddenly, his voice bursting out. "YO, SOMEBODY GET THIS CRISPY CHICKEN WING OUTTA THE BARBECUE PIT! Grandpa lookin’ like he just lost a fight with a volcano and won."

"YOU’RE ALIVE?!" Jessy shouted.

"You look like a resurrected chimney," Rufus added, eyes wide.

"I—I saw your boots, old man!" Raven yelled. "Your swords! I thought you exploded into poetic dust!"

"Oh?" Crisaius raised a sooty brow. "Nah. I just had a... spiritual out-of-body barbecue experience."

"You’re half ash!" Clara snapped.

"I am seventy percent charisma and thirty percent trauma!" Crisaius retorted. "Fire cannot defeat style!"

Siris tilted her head. "You look like a haunted scarecrow."

"You smell like my disappointment," Alex muttered, waving smoke away.

"Is your hair... steaming?" Selena asked gently, trying not to laugh.

"Silence, ye peanut gallery of ungrateful brats!" Crisaius cried, lifting the spoon like a scepter. "I survived the incineration of my eyebrows, the betrayal of my own beard, and the spontaneous combustion of my left sock!"

Everyone blinked.

Then Jessy lost it. She fell to her knees, laughing until tears rolled down her cheeks. Alex followed, holding his stomach.

Even Siris giggled behind her hand.

Clara leaned on Raven again, smiling in disbelief. "He’s impossible."

"Death just said, ’no thanks,’" Selena added.

Raven stepped forward, inspecting Crisaius like he wasn’t sure he was real. "...What did you even do?"

Crisaius looked serious for a second. "I rolled."

"...You what?"

"I hit the ground, curled into a ball, and rolled downhill like a flaming meatloaf of resilience!" He struck a proud pose. "Momentum is the truest of shields!"

There was a beat of silence.

Then— Nibbles poked his head out of Alex’s shoulder symbiote, holding a new wooden sign. "Rolling for initiative: Grandpa edition."

Everyone burst into laughter.

Even Argon, standing off to the side with his sword still on his shoulder, cracked the faintest smirk.

Crisaius spread his arms dramatically. "You may now bask in my survival! And someone bring me a hat. I think my scalp’s been drafted into the ash realm."

Raven ran a hand down his face. "I cannot believe this is the man who taught me."

Clara leaned closer. "We can’t replace him. No one else would survive on pure chaos."

Crisaius puffed out his chest. "Who needs a strategy when you have vibes?"

Nibbles flipped a sign. "Someone put him back in the toaster."

Argon suddenly stepped forward, towering in his usual stoic glory. His face was unreadable, his tone calm as ever.

"Crisaius," he said.

Unlike before, he wasn’t calling the old man Master because there were people around.

The old man straightened, holding his melted spoon like a war trophy. "Yes, oh mighty brick wall of a man?"

Argon’s crimson eyes flicked over the singed hair, the half-missing clothes, and the burnt sock still dangling in Crisaius’s hand.

Then, without a hint of humor, he said—

"...Looks like you had a hot time."

Silence.

Crisaius froze mid-breath.

Jessy stopped laughing mid-snort.

Rufus, still in pain, fell to his back. "...Not again."

Omni’s voice vibrated from Raven’s hand. "Bro, stop him, please. Tell him to chill for a bit, take a damn breather..."

Alex doubled over, wheezing. "...NO WAY HE SAID THAT WITH A STRAIGHT FACE—"

Siris tilted her head. "Was that humor? Or a threat?"

Others, however, only sighed, used to it by now.

They had realized that screaming and yelling wouldn’t get them anywhere. The best way to survive it was to let it pass.

Crisaius just gawked, clutching his burnt sock like it was his last dignity. "...I survived hellfire for this disrespect?"

Argon didn’t blink. "You’re welcome for the compliment."

Crisaius groaned. "Kill me properly next time."

The group smiled again, even as they collected themselves and gathered to move forward, scorched, exhausted, and reeking of victory and fire.

But as the laughter faded and the dust settled... the memory of Mala’s warning still lingered in the air. They were not the final bosses.

As if to prove their thoughts right before their laughter even finished echoing, it began.

A low crack, faint at first—like someone stepping on the world’s angriest stick.

Raven’s smile faded. "...Please don’t be what I think it is."

Craaaaack.

This time louder. Sharper.

The kind of sound that made squirrels dive for cover and grown warriors clench involuntarily.

The ground beneath their feet rumbled. It was subtle at first, then grew more violent with each second.

"Oh come on," Rufus groaned, dragging himself upright. "I already erased my dramatic last words in my head, and now I gotta write them again!"

Jessy stood slowly, blood trickling from the corner of her lips, her iron dust floating again around Clara and Siris. "That crack’s coming from below."

Selena narrowed her eyes, casting shadows out like radar. "The underground colosseum..."

Raven turned. His eyes met the exact spot where they’d sealed the facility beneath. Now, it was covered with debris because of the earlier explosion.

A faint glow, however, leaked through.

Then—

BOOM.

The ground exploded. Chunks of scorched stone blasted upward like the world had belched lava-flavored regret.

Smoke, heat, and a deep red glow erupted from the pit. From the fissure, a sound emerged—a hum too deep for ears, more like a vibration in their bones.

Then... they saw it.

A line.

No—a tear in the air, jagged and shimmering like someone had sliced open the fabric of reality with scissors powered by bad intentions.

It was thirty meters high, pulsing with spatial mana, and glowing with abyssal pressure.

It just floated there... humming.

Omni’s voice echoed from Raven’s arm. "Aight, who invited existential terror to the party?"

"...Did we forget to turn something off?" Clara asked, trying not to sound nervous.

"No, we punched everything until it stopped moving," Siris muttered, flipping a dagger. "That’s standard Vaise protocol."

Alex, still partially Venomed-up in Blargh, hissed, "That’s not standard! That’s the ’oops-we-opened-a-door-to-Hell’ protocol!"

"I just fixed my ribs," Rufus mumbled, poking his side. "Not even three minutes ago!"

Nibbles flipped a sign: "ROUND 2: WHO ORDERED NIGHTMARE DLC?"

Raven stared at the rift, the sword-marked earth still steaming under his feet. His hair still smoked slightly from the transformation, and his chest, still bare, gleamed in the sun.

Behind him, Clara, Selena, and Siris stood taller again—each touching him for strength.

Jessy, as usual, stood at the edge of the group, arms crossed—but her eyes lingered just a second too long on Raven’s abs before snapping back to the threat.

She coughed. "So. The shirt’s still gone, huh?"

Omni whispered, "Bro out here lookin’ like a holy protein ad, and we gotta fight another boss? Man, this world needs therapy."

Raven cracked his neck. "Alright. Guess we’re not done yet."

Argon stepped forward, blade still over his shoulder.

Crisaius groaned beside him, still holding his burnt sock. "Can’t we have one single ’we won’ moment without demonic DLC patches dropping mid-credits?!"

The crack in space pulsed again—hungrier this time.

Everyone rose.

One more fight. Probably the last.