Chapter 143: Death of the Demoness

"You—you’re not a Black Dragon at all!"

After the raging flames slowly subsided, the once-arrogant Demoness was now charred black. She stood barefoot on the baked, cracked ground, pointing at "Aiksuuri" and roaring hysterically, occasionally spewing profanities that Ron and the others couldn’t understand.

"Abyssal Language, Purgatory Language," the golden dragon snorted a puff of thick smoke disdainfully. "Is that the best you can do?"

His body returned to its true form in a flash of light. With a casual flick of his tail, he sent the snarling Night Howling Hounds flying.

"You have only one path left, monster—surrender!"

"Never!" The Demoness frantically activated what few Magic Items she had left. But the adult golden dragon stood as immovable as a mountain. He had come fully prepared for this fight; runes rippled and shimmered across his scales like waves, and no matter how the Demoness attacked, she couldn’t faze him in the slightest.

Seeing this, the Demoness transformed into a plume of poisonous smoke, hoping to slip away. However, the golden dragon spat a dazzling array of Magic Materials from his mouth, weaving an inescapable web in the space around her. No matter how she darted and dodged, she could not escape.

"You’re wasting your energy," the golden dragon’s voice was deep and majestic. "What did you do during the fall of Green Swamp Town?"

"What did I do?" With nowhere to run, the Demoness reverted to her true form. Cowering in the ever-shrinking invisible prison, she cackled madly. "I didn’t do a thing!"

"I was just trying to avoid the contamination released by those damned Elves, so I joined forces with a few of my sisters to defend ourselves! Is self-defense a crime?!"

"There’s more to it than that," Aive said, walking over. "Your daughter told us you gave the Elves a prophecy?"

"Half-Elf, or Half-human?" the Demoness sneered, eyeing Aive sideways. "That’s right, so what? You going to pass judgment on me? Throw me in jail, you little wench?"

"I told them there was something underground, but it was a warning! A warning! We didn’t trick them into digging it up themselves!"

"A warning? You’re really that kind-hearted?" Sera, shouldering her greatsword, spat a glob of bloody saliva onto the ground. "You definitely did more than that!"

"Oh, give me a break, you illiterate beast. What’s the difference between you and some dumb bear in the woods?" The Demoness lashed out at anyone who spoke. "We’ve lived here for who knows how long. You think we don’t know how dangerous the thing beneath us is?"

"If we wanted to destroy a little town, we have ten thousand ways to do it. Why would we pick the stupidest one?!"

"And after? Were you truly caught in the fallout, like Polly said?" Silvia asked, only to receive a thick gob of phlegm from the Demoness in reply.

"I don’t talk to ugly corpses! Just looking at you is enough to blind me!"

Sera, Aive, and Victoria rushed forward to restrain Silvia, who was on the verge of exploding. "Calm down! In a Ghost Witch’s eyes, beauty is ugliness and ugliness is beauty! Just calm down!"

"Alright, then what if someone else asks?" Ron stepped in front of the Demoness. "Can you tell us the answer to that question?"

"No. We have our ways to avoid it, of course. How else would we have survived this long?" the Demoness snorted coldly. The invisible shackles binding her tightened, forcing her to speak the truth.

"But even we have to prepare for a long time to use those methods, and they’re completely useless for you anyway—can you get this golden dragon to loosen these bindings a bit? I’m suffocating!"

"A cornered tiger asking for leniency?" Ron laughed. "The last person who made a request like that ended up with their head on the city gate. If you don’t have some method of resurrection, you’ll share the same fate."

"What?! You bunch of shameless, dishonorable heathens!" the Demoness howled. "I answered your questions, and now you’re just going to kill me off now that I’m no longer useful?"

"A monster like this deserves no pity." The golden dragon tightened the bindings another notch. Ron and the others could hear the sickening crunch of bones and organs being crushed inside the Demoness’s fleshy shell. "Any more questions? If not, I’m killing her."

She was his captive. He naturally had the right to dispose of her as he wished.

"You don’t want to kill me," the Demoness cackled. "You won’t! You don’t want to be stained by filthy blood, do you? You’re purity, you’re righteousness, you’re innocence! Believe me, you don’t want to do this."

"Let me go, and we can all part on good terms. I get to live, and you’ve learned everything you wanted to know. Why must you press the issue?"

"One last question," Ron said, signaling for the golden dragon to pause. "The thing from your prophecy—what is it, exactly?"

"Power. The manifestation of power and knowledge, though it also contains... something else I don’t know about. Not much, just enough to destroy all of Delusional Land," the Demoness cackled, knowing her death was certain. Even under the spell’s compulsion, she was still forced to answer Ron. "You’ll all get what’s coming to you! I curse you! I curse you, golden dragon! When you touch that power, it will corrupt you! You will tear off that hypocritical mask and devour everything and everyone around you!"

"You will—"

The golden dragon’s front claw clenched shut. Before the Demoness could finish, she was instantly reduced to a heap of gore and shredded flesh. The scene was so gruesome it made even Ron and the others want to vomit.

"Couldn’t you have used a gentler method of execution?" Ron complained, looking up. He’d nearly been splattered in the face with blood. "I thought you golden dragons were supposed to be..."

"You’re thinking of silver dragons," the golden dragon said, averting his gaze. "Unfortunately, I don’t know many, so I can’t make any introductions."

"That Ghost Witch was trying to curse me. I couldn’t let her succeed. So I had to resort to this... slightly ’radical’ method."

Ron replied, "I feel like you’re using air quotes. I can’t see you making the gesture, but I just know."

The golden dragon’s Flame Breath had already destroyed the Demoness, along with nearly all of her belongings. His final blow then utterly pulverized her body, leaving nothing but paste. Ron and the others, accustomed to looting their defeated foes, found no valuable items this time.

"It won’t happen again." The dragon’s tone held not a hint of remorse. ’He probably just thought all the Demoness’s stuff was ugly,’ Ron guessed. ’And since there was nothing he wanted, he destroyed it all.’

"So, how’s the brawl with the other Ghost Witches going?" Sera’s question snapped everyone back to reality. They had no time to dwell on the Demoness’s remains and hurried back to the clearing where the coven had gathered.