Dragon King: Throne of Demons and Gods-Chapter 71: The Eye Beneath The World

The night had finally fall, yet, Bel was still inside the dungeon.

"It’s been too long," someone muttered. "He should be back by now."

Sienna was sitting on a rock near the edge of the clearing, gently patting Dusteria’s back. The pink-haired girl still had puffy eyes and her arms folded tight across her chest.

"You okay?" Sienna asked softly.

"I’m fine," Dusteria replied, her voice dry. "Just tired."

Sienna gave her a look but didn’t push. Instead, she leaned back and looked toward the glowing rift. The absence of movement was starting to feel heavier.

"Bel’s not usually this slow," she said under her breath. "I wonder if he’s alright."

That got Dusteria’s attention. She wiped her eyes quickly and stood up straighter, shaking her arms out like she was trying to brush the feelings away.

More of the adventurers had gathered near the rift now, some whispering, others pacing.

"Should we check on him?"

"What if he needs backup?"

"No way he’s still clearing monsters, right?"

The two guild officials, standing to the side with clipboards now tucked under their arms, exchanged anxious looks.

"We said he was a Sacred," the older one whispered. "We’ve let them wait here because of that assumption. But..."

"What if we were wrong?" the younger one completed. "What if he’s not coming back? What if... if maybe... we should have checked it for real?"

The panic started building.

They had trusted too much, taken too big a gamble. If anything happened to someone with that kind of potential, it would be on them.

The older one swallowed hard.

"We’re going in. We can’t risk it."

Sienna looked over as the two men began moving toward the rift. Her brows furrowed. Something wasn’t right.

Dusteria stepped forward beside her, still pale but walking.

"Is there a problem with Bel?" she asked, mostly to herself.

Unable to hold back anymore, they moved inside the dungeon.

"We’re going in," a party member said. "Everyone, stay close."

They crossed the rift together, and what greeted them... wasn’t danger, but shock.

A cavern of ice and ruin stretched before them. Giant golems lay shattered, frozen mid-motion.

Their bodies cracked and broken, scattered like pebbles across the glittering ground.

There wasn’t a single sound. No sign of life. Just frost, ruins, and silence.

The group stared.

"Okay," a party member said slowly. "This is definitely Bel’s work."

"But where is he?" Lyraen added, her voice low.

The deeper they went, the stranger it became.

No trail, no scorch marks, no footfalls.

It was like the dungeon had ended before the real fight began.

Meanwhile, at the heart of the ruin, Bel was alone with the two orbs in his hands.

His eyes didn’t blink. His breath barely moved. He had gotten what he wanted, guidance, direction, truth.

And now that he had it... he didn’t know what to do.

To be a demon? Like the monsters in the books? The things that burned cities and devoured people? Was that really him?

But Vezalia’s words were haunting.

He killed to evolve, not saving, so he was already similar.

He stared into the black orb. It beat steadily in his hand like a second heart.

He hesitated. Not out of fear. But because the moment he accepted it, there would be no turning back.

He’d step into something deeper.

But deep down...

He already knew.

It wasn’t an option, this thing was already inside him.

He raised the black orb, his jaw opening slightly.

The party reached a vast chamber of the frozen ruin.

They stopped walking as they stood before the remains of a colossal golem, now completely frozen in place.

Its body was like a mountain turned to crystal, jagged and beautiful, towering over them with chunks of it shattered like glass.

No one could speak right away.

"He... did this?" someone finally whispered.

Another member let out a low nervous chuckle.

"Yup. That’s definitely Bel’s work."

Sienna folded her arms, trying to understand what might have happened here.

"If he could do that... That means he’s fine, right? There’s no way he would lose."

The younger guild official stepped forward in awe.

"This guy is insane... Definitely what the guild said! I mean, just look at this! He froze an entire dungeon! There’s no way he is a regular."

He turned to his older companion.

"Hey, don’t you think this confirms it? He’s definitely Sacred material... Uh?"

But the older man didn’t share the excitement. His face was pale. His hands clenched tight.

"If he really is that powerful... then we can’t afford to lose him..." he muttered. "Something happened. It’s taking too long."

He turned to the party, voice firm.

"We need to find him. Now. Split into groups if we have to. Check every passage, every—"

But before he could finish, the ground rumbled.

A deep pulse rippled through the ruin, like a heartbeat made of thunder.

Then, a blast of energy.

Several party members cried out as they dropped to their knees. Others stumbled, barely keeping balance.

The frozen ruin shook. Ice cracked along the walls. Some pillars trembled.

"What the hell was that?!" someone shouted.

"That came from beneath!" Crest growled, pushing himself upright.

The older official’s face turned grim.

"Hurry! Move! We don’t have time!"

The world around Bel had vanished.

His body floated in a cyclone of purple energy. It surged and coiled like a living flame.

His eyes were pitch black, and glowing veins of purple light pulsed across his skin like lightning trapped beneath the surface.

[Assimilating Draconic Soul...] [Draconic Evolution System Upgrade: Initialization in progress.] [Warning: Host body entering synchronization state.]

Bel gasped, but no sound came out. His body trembled, beginning to flicker... then fracture.

Particles of light lifted from his skin, dissolving into the air. First his fingers, then his arms, his legs, torso... his entire body was disintegrating, pixel by pixel.

[Warning: Core stability at 72%]

[Warning: Risk of Failure Increasing.]

[Do Not Interrupt the Process.]

Flashes assaulted his vision.

A green forest, leaves shaking in wind.

A burning desert.

A silent ocean.

A white city floating in the sky.

The flashes grew faster.

A deep trench of bones.

An obsidian castle with a bleeding moon.

A battlefield littered with masks.

[Warning: Critical Threshold Reached. Core at 51%]

[Warning: Subject drifting beyond dimensional anchor.]

Bel’s heart pounded in the fragments of his chest. It wasn’t just physical. Something inside him was unraveling, peeling away his being to lay it bare.

Then, terror.

A burning eye with endless pupils. A field of corpses laughing. A child floating upside down, whispering backwards. Hands, too many hands. A mask with no face but endless mouths.

[System Overload Imminent. Critical Exposure: Demonic Memory Stream Detected.]

Bel screamed, but only light came out.

Then—

Silence.

No more warnings.

No more energy.

Bel floated in a void, pure and white. His body was gone. His thoughts were hazy.

And yet, something stirred within the emptiness.

A spark.

Small. Flickering. But alive.

Bel was nowhere. But something was watching.

Something that had always been there.

The world was gone.

Bel stood in a blank, silent void.

No sky, white ground. Just emptiness stretching in all directions. He looked down and saw... nothing. Not even a shadow.

His breath didn’t echo. There was no sound, no wind, no weight.

"Where... am I?"

The words didn’t reach his ears. He couldn’t even hear himself. It was like trying to shout underwater. Then, he gasped.

His eyes widened and focused to the side.

Off to the side, just a few steps away, was sitting a boy with pale skin, and long white hair.

The child was kneeling on the invisible floor, dragging a stick across the ground as if it were sand.

Bel stared, petrified. The child was humming a soft lullaby.

He turned slowly, his whole body tense, then stepped forward.

The ground beneath him shifted, grainy, like sand. He walked slowly, carefully, until he reached the boy.

The child didn’t look up.

He was drawing. A rabbit, a bird, a lizard, a wolf. Simple lines, but with eerie precision.

As Bel stepped closer, the child’s voice was now clear.

"People going to a party, everyone wore their best shoes. But the host was upset, arguing with his teddy bear. The teddy with seven demons inside, all whispering at once. They told him to hide the host, then to bite the guests. So the pet collector came and took them all away. Now the house is quiet, and the party never ends."

The child kept drawing, his voice calm and strange.

Bel’s mouth opened, but no sound came.

Then the boy stopped.

"Hm," he murmured. "What else should I add? It’s not perfect yet..."

The boy tilted his head, thinking.

"What do you think?"

Bel’s eyes snapped wide. He had spoken to him.

The boy’s head turned slowly.

Bel’s breath caught, frozen by the sight.

The child’s face was his own... But younger.

A younger version of himself with black eyes. Deep, bottomless black.

The boy smiled gently.

"Ah... of course," he said. "How could I forget?"

He lowered his stick.

"A dragon."

The stick moved.

A line scratched the ground.

And Bel gasped.

A feeling sliced across his body.

He stumbled, looking down.

A glowing slash now cut across his chest. The mark shimmered, then pulsed.

A drop of blood slid down his skin.

But it wasn’t red.

It was purple.

The boy tapped the ground.

"Look."

Bel forced his eyes back to the drawings.

But they were gone.

In their place, a single, massive eye filled the space.

The boy giggled.

"Now it’s perfect."

He dipped his stick into the puddle of Bel’s blood, then touched the center of the eye.

It glowed.

Ba-dum.

Like a heartbeat.

Bel’s legs trembled, the ground beneath him split.

A giant eye opened and swallowed them both.

As he fell into the blackness, he heard the boy’s voice echo one last time:

"Enjoy it... and see you later."

R𝑒ad lat𝒆st chapt𝒆rs at f(r)eew𝒆bnov𝒆l.com Only