Dragon's Awakening: The Duke's Son Is Changing The Plot
Chapter 204 - 203 - Landlord from hell?

Chapter 204: Chapter 203 - Landlord from hell?

They stared at it.

A single line—so thin it almost looked drawn by a cosmic toddler with a faulty ruler—stretched across the sky, hovering just above the scorched remains of the battlefield.

It didn’t shimmer. It didn’t glow.

It hummed.

Low and deep, like the universe clearing its throat before delivering bad news.

Raven squinted. "...That’s not a normal sky crease."

"Nope," Clara muttered, pressing closer to him, her instincts screaming.

Selena narrowed her eyes. "That’s a problem line."

Jessy’s hair floated from static. "Why is it giving me anxiety when I’m filled with trauma?"

Omni whispered from Raven’s hand, voice unusually still, "Yo, boss. You ever look at something and feel like your soul wants to call its mom? ’Cause, I swear, this is one of those moments."

Suddenly—

CRACK.

A sound like splintering ice echoed through the air. All heads jerked up.

From the line—now flickering faintly with violet mana—a claw emerged.

It was sharp, long, and disturbingly graceful.

It was dark enough to absorb any light it came in contact with.

But it didn’t end there, as another claw popped out.

Then two more.

Four claws gripped the crack like curtain rods.

Then—slowly, groaning—those claws pulled.

It was as if someone was pulling apart a zipper that was holding the world together.

The crack widened.

Spiderweb fractures danced across the sky in trembling waves. Magic sizzled. Wind shifted. Mana itself twitched.

Argon took one step forward and stopped, his shoulders tense.

That alone was enough.

Crisaius exhaled sharply, his burnt sock hanging limp in his fingers. "...That’s not a boss. That’s a landlord from hell coming to check who’s been late on soul rent."

Even Siris looked a bit pale. "I... don’t think I can stab that thing yet."

Rufus stared up, swaying slightly as his armor was still not healed. "My nanoparticles are filing for early retirement."

Jake, emerging from a shadow, looked up once and said, "Nope."

Then it looked back.

A single eye appeared behind the crack. It was massive, alien, and layered with shifting irises like a kaleidoscope made from fear and disdain.

It was staring directly at them.

Everyone froze.

Selena whispered, "That’s an eye. That’s a literal—why is it so big?"

Omni shrieked in Raven’s mind. "That ain’t an eye, that’s a window to trauma! I just made eye contact with my next five years of therapy!"

Raven, however, was looking at the crack, staring at where it originated.

It was clear that it came from the colosseum, but why? It wouldn’t materialize from nothing.

From the cracked earth, he peeked inside, only for his eyes to widen.

Raven’s eyes snapped open in surprise as he saw the scene. "Wait—where are the demon corpses?!"

They all turned.

The colosseum, half-buried in smoke and dust, was glowing.

Not with flame.

With a ritual circle.

Burned into the stone beneath where the demons had died, it pulsed a sickly greenish hue, sucking in the swirling death energy like a hungry funnel.

All the demon generals. Mala. The battle. The chaos.

They were all working like a power source for the crack.

Everyone noticed that.

"Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me," Jessy muttered, realization dawning.

"We were teleported right into the summoning circle," Clara whispered. "They sent us here... to kill those demons."

"So that they could power that thing," Raven finished, pointing at the widening rift. "They played us like a damn anime opening theme."

Crisaius dragged a hand down his soot-streaked face. "Oh. We have a doomsday villain before us because of you guys?"

Even Argon growled softly under his breath, his grip tightening on his greatsword. "...We’ve been used."

Omni buzzed. "Yo, not to interrupt, but that eye is still staring, and I think it just blinked in ’eat-the-party’ language."

They all looked at each other.

One beat of silence passed.

Then Raven pointed sharply toward the sky. "We kill it."

"Excuse me?!" Rufus yelped.

"Before it gets out!" Raven continued. "Its body’s still trapped. That eye’s the only part exposed."

Clara nodded. "It’s the weakest part of any creature. And it’s already staring like we insulted its ancient grandmother."

Jessy cracked her knuckles. "So we poke it in the soul socket. I’m in."

Selena’s voice turned sharp. "All at once. We throw everything."

Even Alex leaned forward, flames rising from his symbiote armor. "This is the stupidest plan I’ve ever heard. I love it."

Raven grinned, fire dancing in his eyes.

"We’re tired. We’re half-dead. And one of our strongest members is still holding a sock."

Crisaius held the sock higher. "This sock is symbolic."

Omni hissed, "Alright, boys, girls, squirrels, and undead maniacs—it’s eyeball-popping time!"

They rose.

Every member—burned, battered, bruised—stood tall.

But then, Siris suddenly raised her hand. "Are we supposed to approach it?"

The moment she said that, everyone realized the flaw in their plan.

They couldn’t approach that thing on the other side of the crack. After all, it seemed to be able to move its hands, so what if that hand slammed on them?

They couldn’t take the risk.

Then Raven blinked and slowly turned toward the rift—toward the four claws gripping the sky, the cracks widening, and the monstrous eye glaring at them like an ancient debt collector.

"...Yeah, no. Getting close sounds like a fast track to splatter art."

Even Omni chimed in, "Yo, I like risk, but I don’t like suicide-by-cosmic-eye. We need snipers, not stabbers."

Crisaius clicked his tongue. "Alright. Who here can attack from range?"

Alex, still symbiote-skinned and lava-hissing, raised a hand. "I can breathe fire. Big fire."

Rufus lifted a shaky arm, metal plates twitching. "My suit has dual mega-beam cannons. Side effect: I won’t be able to move after that."

Raven casually raised his hand. "Voidfire dragon breath."

Crisaius nodded... until that last part.

Then blinked.

"...You have dragon breath?"

Argon—quiet, steady, still holding his greatsword—also turned to look at Raven, brow slightly twitching. "You can breathe fire?"

"Voidfire," Raven corrected, rolling his neck. "It’s more explodey."

Crisaius lowered his sock. "You—How can you, who trained under me for two years already, use it?! I trained for a hundred years and only got a flaming cough."

Argon’s eyes twitched. "The last time I tried dragon breath, I breathed smoke."

Raven shrugged. "What can I say? Built different."

Omni whispered, "Tell ’em, boss. Just ’cause they got age, don’t mean they got the juice."

Crisaius grumbled something deeply unholy.

Argon, eyes narrowing, looked at the sky. "It doesn’t matter. If we’re launching from the range, we need to coordinate one big, precise blast."

Crisaius snapped his fingers, and flames burst into existence around his hand.

Lightning danced along his fingers like tame snakes.

Then came the shimmer of time.

He focused, compressing it all into a spear—a massive, glowing lance of fire, lightning, and condensed time energy, crackling and burning with unstable brilliance.

It floated beside him, humming with chaotic promise.

"Mine’s ready," he said.

Alex stepped forward. His symbiote flared, and from his throat, glowing lines began to trace up toward his mouth like magma veins. "I’ll go full dragon-spider on it. Blargh’s hungry."

Rufus opened both palms. Blue and white circuits lit up across his arms as twin shoulder plates locked into place. "Mega-beam mode initiated. If I pass out after this, I want a statue."

Argon lifted his sword with one hand, then let it hover midair as layers of earth and space mana began forming an enormous stone arrowhead behind him.

It hovered like a meteor on pause, spinning slightly, bending the air around it with gravitational pressure.

Then all eyes turned to Raven.

He transformed into his Voidborn form, his cool and charismatic dragon head turning toward the eyes.

He clenched his jaw, white smoke hissing from the side of his mouth while his throat turned red-black.

But suddenly, Crisaius squinted his eyes. "How are we supposed to know if that eye wouldn’t just avoid our attack?"

That made everyone pause, but Raven spoke up. "I’ll make sure that our attacks hit."

The old man raised an eyebrow. "How exactly?"

Raven’s grin sharpened. "My other power. Did you forget about it already?"

Crisaius blinked, recalling the power Raven had used to freeze the demon generals a while ago and the same power that he had used to put a scratch on him during his training.

"I see..." He nodded, focusing back on the eyes; his lance of lightning, fire, and time pulsed with power.

Raven then glanced at the girls and Jake, who was holding Nibbles. "You guys, back up."

All of them nodded, moving away before Raven cracked his knuckles. "Fire only when I say."

The others obeyed, lining up in a formation like some twisted, endgame fireworks show.

The claws in the sky groaned louder.

The eye twitched.

But it wasn’t ready for what came next.

Raven narrowed his eyes as he took a deep breath, ready to launch the attack.

Time stretched.

"Now."

A sonic boom erupted behind them as five attacks screamed toward the sky:

—Alex’s hellfire jet stream roared, yellow and orange like a sun vomiting rage.

—Rufus’s twin mega-lasers streaked the sky in blue-white arcs of condensed annihilation.

—Argon’s stone arrow shattered sound, carving the air like a falling god’s blade.

—Crisaius’s time-lance shimmered, dancing through space like lightning in slow motion.

As for Raven—

He opened his mouth mid-air, eyes glowing with starfire.

From his lungs came Voidfire—black and red, hotter than suns, edged with cracks of red that tore the air apart.

In that moment—

Raven whispered, "Soul Freeze."

A ripple went toward the eyes faster than any other attack.

The eye stopped.

Frozen mid-glare.

Mid-blink.

Mid-breath.

The sky around it trembled—but the eye could not move.

Then, the five beams of destruction crashed toward it like judgment.

Light.

Fire.

Stone.

Void.

Time.

All aimed dead center.

BOOOOOMMMMMM!!!!