Dragon King: Throne of Demons and Gods-Chapter 144: Permanence

Bel was frozen face to what appeared like a piece of art.

The world around him was strangely beautiful. Tall grass swayed gently under golden light, the wildflowers bloomed in quiet clusters, vibrant and full of life.

But there was something off. The birds didn’t sing. The wind didn’t move. The scent of grass and earth was missing.

There was no smell. No sound. No warmth.

Only silence.

And in the middle of it all, at the center of his view, she knelt.

Sienna.

Her head was bowed slightly, like she was praying. Her short hair fell softly over her shoulders. Her eyes were closed.

Her face, calm. Too calm. As if she was peacefully sleeping.

She rested in a bed of flowers, surrounded by four healers who lay like they had simply fallen asleep. No wounds, no signs of struggle. Just... stillness.

It was peaceful.

Too peaceful.

It unsettled him.

He remembered her well. The noisy, persistent girl who never gave him space. Back when he broke from New Horizons, she was the one who stayed close.

Always talking. Always smiling.

He had ignored her. Brushed her off. But she never left.

"Why are you here...?" he muttered.

His eyes scanned the clearing. Dozens of others were down, knights, adventurers. No visible injuries. No sign of a battle.

Yet something had happened here. Something wrong. He could feel it.

The energy in the air was stale, like a breath held too long. Like the world had forgotten how to move.

He stepped forward, slowly. The weight of the silence pressed against him. Every movement felt like it echoed too loudly.

He stopped in front of her.

She looked like she might open her eyes at any second. Like she might smile and say something annoying.

He raised a hand, hesitating. Then, carefully, his fingers brushed her cheek.

Everything shattered.

A flash.

Screams.

The clearing was gone, replaced by fire and chaos. Blood soaked the ground. Bodies fell. The sky turned red.

A song, distant and haunting, played like a lullaby twisting through the air.

And at the center of it, a girl with white hair and purple eyes, smiling.

Bel gasped and pulled back. The vision vanished. The peaceful clearing returned.

His heart pounded.

He stared at his hand, then at Sienna.

This was the proof that something horrible had happened here.

He gripped her shoulders.

"Sienna. Wake up."

Nothing.

He shook her harder. Still nothing.

Then...

[Curse of Permanence: Effect Nullified.]

He froze.

A curse?

He blinked, confused. He hadn’t felt anything. He looked at his hands, then back at her. Slowly, he touched her cheek again.

Another flash.

Another message.

[Curse of Permanence: Effect Nullified.]

[Curse of Permanence: Effect Nullified.]

[Curse of Permanence: Effect Nullified.]

He stepped back, breathing shallow.

The curse was on her.

And it spread through touch.

He looked at the healers around her.

They probably tried to help... and ended up like her.

Yet... their positions were too clean. Too precise. It was like they had been placed there. Like part of a ritual.

He whispered to himself.

"Permanence...?"

What kind of curse locks people in a moment?

Then something caught his eye.

At the edge of the clearing, a man lay in the grass. A sword rested against his throat. His limbs were tense, face twisted in a grimace.

Bel didn’t recognize him, but this man was one of the leaders of the kingdom, Edward.

He walked toward him.

The man looked dead, but something was wrong.

Bel crouched down.

His body didn’t feel dead. Not exactly. There was no decay, no slackening. He looked too alive to be a corpse.

Like he was frozen in time.

Bel stood and turned.

A horse grazed nearby. It was alive, moving normally.

But when Bel stepped closer, it didn’t flinch. Even with his power, even without masking his presence fully, it didn’t react.

Animals always reacted, his very presence was a curse to them. Yet, the horses were tolerating him in their little world.

He reached out. Touched its side.

Flash.

The whole area rippled.

Then the horses panicked, whinnying and bolting.

Bel stayed still, watching.

He looked at his hand again.

"I get it now..."

He turned, slowly facing Sienna again.

"This is a Demonic Authority. Time itself is frozen."

Only his Authority of Destruction could bypass it.

His mind worked quickly.

Was this the attack against humanity Mammon’s sidekick mentioned? A trap? Who could even do that?

He knelt before Sienna again. Looked her in the face.

If his authority could bypass it, could he break the curse?

He grabbed her and pulled. Nothing.

She didn’t move.

"Even if I can touch her... she’s still trapped."

Only he could see this. Only he could act. But nothing could work. She was trapped in a space out of time.

He stood there for a moment, staring down at her.

"If it were anyone else," he said softly, "I wouldn’t bother."

He tilted his head, weighing the situation.

"You were always loud, always clinging. But... not entirely unbearable."

His gaze lingered. There was no urgency in his voice, he was almost praising her. But in the back of his head... There was something else.

He looked at the sigil slowly forming in his palm, a faint violet glow pulsing outward.

The mark of Destruction.

Face to him, a human without any hope, so in short, a perfect test subject.

He exhaled slowly.

"After all... You wanted to be an adventurer. But in your state, you won’t be anything at all."

The light intensified, casting strange shadows across the grass.

"Besides, I’m supposed to be against the demons. What harm in saving one human?"

His lips curled slightly, not quite a smile.

"With people with that kind of power... You need at least that to survive."

He raised his glowing hand above her. The shadow stretched over her calm face.

"With the demons coming," he whispered. "You won’t survive it as you are."

The pentagram shimmered, spinning slowly in his hand. Its glow reflected in his eyes.

"Just think that this is also for your sake."

His voice dropped, smooth and low, and then, he brought the mark down.

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