Chapter 36: going with esabella

The royal carriage swayed gently as the massive, armored lizard beasts pulled it across the black ash desert. Inside, the noise of the marching army outside was reduced to a low.

Dante sat by the small, reinforced window, his back straight. He kept his eyes locked on the empty, dark landscape outside, completely ignoring the woman sitting directly across from him.

Esabella didn’t seem to mind his cold attitude at all. She leaned forward, resting her elbows on her thighs. The position made her slender waist look even thinner, while her large chest was perfectly shaped, resting prominently against the tight fabric of her black lace corset. Her long, silky black hair draped over her bare shoulders, and her massive black-and-purple horns tilted forward as she stared intently at Dante’s handsome profile. Her pitch-black bladed tail curled loosely around her ankle, its switchblade-like bone-shards completely flattened and smooth for the first time.

’He is so calm,’ Esabella thought, her attractive red eyes dilating as she tracked the sharp line of his jaw. ’Any other creature trapped in this room with me would be sweating or begging for their life. But his pulse is completely steady. He isn’t even looking at me.’

The silence inside the carriage stretched for several minutes before Esabella finally spoke, her melodic voice breaking the quiet.

"You know, it is quite rude to ignore a lady who just offered you her entire vanguard," she said, her red lips curving into a soft, teasing smile. "Especially when I don’t even know what to call my new King. Earlier on the steps, you completely walked past my question. Tell me, what is your name?"

Dante didn’t turn his head. He didn’t blink. He simply kept staring out the window at the swirling gray fog.

’There is no reason to give her any information,’ Dante thought to himself, his mind calculating coldly. ’She calls me a King, but she is a high-level demon who rules half of this floor. If I show a single moment of weakness or let my guard down, she could easily use that shadow curse to lock me up again. Until I find the core and fix my system interface, everyone here is a potential enemy., i can’t trust anyone’

Seeing that he wasn’t going to answer, Esabella let out a soft, gentle giggle instead of getting angry. Her heart pounded slightly faster just seeing his stubbornness.

"Still silent? You really are a difficult man to please," Esabella murmured, her tone shifting from playful to unusually soft. She leaned back against the plush velvet seat, her expression turning distant as she looked down at her own long, red-nailed fingers. "Fine. If you won’t speak, then I will talk first. It’s only fair."

Dante didn’t respond, but his ears twitched slightly. He was still listening.

"My full name is Esabella Vaelorix," she began, her eyes dimming as she stared at the floor. "My clan has ruled the southern sectors of the Black Basin for over three hundred years. Before me, my father was the Supreme Ruler of this entire dimension. He was incredibly powerful—a true demon lord who brought order to this chaotic wasteland."

She paused, her fingers tightening slightly against her Medusa-style skirt. The high slit shifted, slightly revealing her long white thigh under the carriage’s dim purple crystal light.

"But few year ago, everything changed," Esabella continued, her voice dropping to a cold, sharp register. "The leader of the northern Blood-Gorged Clan, Balor, invited my father to the neutral volcanic border under the pretense of a truce. It was a complete lie. Balor ambushed him in the dark with thousands of armored soldiers and crude poisons. My father fought bravely, but he was brutally murdered. Ever since that day, Balor has possessed the floor core, using its energy to build his fortresses while my clan is pushed further into a losing, bitter war."

Dante’s eyes narrowed slightly behind the window glass.

’An ambush in the dark... by people he trusted,’ Dante thought.

The story hit incredibly close to him. Dante’s mind instantly flashed back to the 55th-floor raid of the tower—the look on Marcus’s face, the locked exit doors, and the massive obsidian claw coming down on his chest while his own teammates retreated down the extraction corridor. He knew exactly what it felt like to have your world ripped away by a treacherous coward.

For the first time since entering the carriage, Dante slowly turned his head. His eyes locked directly onto Esabella’s face.

"How does the core work in this world?" Dante asked, his voice flat but focused. "If Balor has possessed it for a year, why hasn’t he used it to wipe your clan out completely?"

Esabella’s red eyes widened in surprise when he finally spoke. A genuine spark of happiness flashed across her face, and she quickly leaned forward again, eager to answer him.

"Because the core requires a specific bloodline imprint to unlock its full destruction potential," Esabella explained quickly. "Balor can only draw out a fraction of its raw energy to power his volcanic fortresses and forge his weapons. He needs to capture me alive to fully break the system lock on the core. That is why he keeps sending his vanguard forces and scouts into my perimeter."

She looked straight into his eyes, her expression suddenly becoming incredibly intense, filled with that wild, fanatical devotion.

"That is also why I love you so much, Dante," she whispered, her voice shaking slightly with raw emotion. "When I saw you standing in my throne room, completely unafraid, physically overpowering my raw strength, and looking at me with those ruthless eyes... my heart completely stopped. I have spent my whole life surrounded by weak monsters, cowards, and traitors like Balor. But you... you are a real conqueror. I can feel it. I will do absolutely anything for you. I will give you my army, my palace, and my life. Just let me stay by your side."

Dante stared at her blushing cheeks and her desperate, obsessive expression. He could tell she wasn’t lying; her natural energy signature was completely turbulent with raw emotion. But his face remained a cold, emotionless mask.

" Dante, my name is dante" he said plainly, his voice echoing in the small compartment.

Esabella’s breath caught in her throat, a breathtaking smile stretching across her full lips.

"Dante..."

"But don’t get any wrong ideas," Dante added immediately, his icy whisper cutting through her excitement like a blade. "I don’t trust anyone easily. In my world, the people who said they would do anything for me were the exact same ones who lef–. If you try to slip a knife into my back, or if your obsession gets in the way of my goals, I will kill you myself without hesitation."

Instead of being terrified by his death threat, Esabella’s heart hammered violently. His brutal honesty and absolute refusal to trust her only made her love him infinitely more.

"I accept those terms, my King," Esabella whispered back, her bladed tail thrashing against the carriage in pure ecstasy. "If I ever betray you, you have the full right to rip my soul apart."

BOOM!

Suddenly, a deafening explosion rocked the entire vehicle.

The carriage tilted violently to the left, the walls groaning under a massive impact. Outside, the armored lizard beasts let out terrified shrieks, and the sudden sounds of clanging metal, screaming soldiers, and roaring monsters echoed through the desert fog.

Dante’s reactions were instant. He grabbed the frame of the window to stabilize his balance, his right hand sliding into his pocket to grip the invisible Seven-Sins Asura Blade.

Esabella’s sweet, obsessive face vanished in a second, replaced by a freezing, murderous expression of pure royal fury. Her jagged bone-shards violently popped outward along her tail, scraping aggressively against the floor.

"Enemy ambush!" a demon soldier yelled from outside before a wet splat cut his voice short.

Dante looked through the shattered glass of the carriage window. Through the black smoke, hundreds of burning, red eyed demon assassins wearing volcanic bone armor were pouring down from the nearby ridges, slicing through Esabella’s vanguard line.

Balor’s forces had launched a surprise strike before they could even reach the northern mountains.

Dante let out a cold smile, his foot stepping toward the carriage door. "Looks like your rival warlord couldn’t wait to die."