Dragon King: Throne of Demons and Gods-Chapter 72: Too Late

The void returned.

Black and endless.

Bel floated once again in the nothingness, his body breaking apart, glowing veins unraveling into shards of purple light.

But this time... something was different.

[System Notice: Dragon Soul Assimilation Successful.]

[System Notice: Forbidden Fruit Integration... Complete.]

[System Notice: New Authority Detected.]

[Synchronization: 23%... 54%... 79%... 92%... 100%]

Bel’s eyes, now pitch black, twitched as the last pieces of his head began to fragment. The purple veins across his chest pulsed brighter.

Then... his eyes snapped open, glowing bright violet.

A roar, loud and primal, tore through the void.

[System Update: Evolution Complete. Welcome, Lord Ravager.]

The void shattered.

Then, silence.

Pitch dark.

Bel couldn’t see, move, or even feel. For a moment, it was like he wasn’t even real.

But then...

Muffled voices. Distant and blurred, like underwater echoes.

"...move back!"

"He’s not breathing!"

"Oh gods—no, no, no—Bel!"

It sounded like a crowd. freeweɓnovēl.coɱ

More shouting. Footsteps crunching on frost. Panic.

"Don’t shake him like that!"

"Sienna, calm down!"

But Sienna didn’t listen. Her hands gripped Bel’s shoulders tightly as she tried to wake him, her voice cracking as she yelled his name again and again.

Dusteria stood frozen for a second, then rushed forward, falling to her knees beside him.

"Bel, please... come on, get up!"

She grabbed his arm, shaking it lightly, then harder.

The older guild official stepped forward.

"We need a healer! Quickly!"

His younger partner was already scrambling to call for backup.

Crest stood a little behind, silent.

He watched the scene, tense.

Dusteria, frantic. Sienna, near tears. Both hovering over Bel like he was the most important person in the world.

He clenched his jaw, then looked down, saying nothing.

Bel’s mind drifted again.

In a skyless land of black sand, monsters moved.

Hundreds of them, a whole army. Crawling, stomping, slithering across the dead earth, all heading in the same direction.

Shadows with horns. Wolves with too many legs. Eyeless giants dragging clubs of bone. The ground cracked beneath their weight.

And at their front... a thing.

A creature too strange to name, its form like melted wax and twitching limbs, dragging a long shadow behind it. It pointed a crooked hand forward, toward a faraway shape rising in the dark.

A massive dragon.

Then—

Bel gasped.

His eyes snapped open.

The sunlight filtered through a window, pale and golden. He blinked, confused. Sheets rustled around him.

He was in a bed. A real one, for the first time since the duke’s mansion. White sheets, warm air, something... peaceful.

Where was he?

He shifted slightly, and that’s when he saw her.

Dusteria.

She was sitting in a chair beside the bed, head resting on her arms, sleeping.

Her pink hair was messy, and her face looked tired. She must have been there for hours.

But with the noise he made, her eyes fluttered open. She blinked slowly.

"Bel...?"

He didn’t respond, and didn’t need to as she jolted upright.

"You’re awake! You’re really awake!" Her voice trembled between relief and panic.

she almost jumped on him, but managed just in time to control the urge.

Bel looked around, lost.

"Where am I?"

"The infirmary. We brought you back. You... passed out in the dungeon. You scared everyone half to death."

He stared at her.

"Passed out? Me?"

Dusteria kept talking, trying not to show how much she had worried.

"I mean... You should have known your limit. What’s the point of doing so many raid anyway? Do you see the consequences now? And... You were unconscious for days, okay? I had to watch over you because... because everyone else was busy, that’s all!"

Her words came out in a rush. A poor excuse. Her eyes betrayed the truth.

Bel sat up slowly, blinking.

Then his hand clutched the side of his head. He remembered, a catastrophe.

The orbs... or rather, the orb. The white one.

He ate one. He remembered the action , but not clearly what happened after. But he remembered having only eaten one.

So what happened to the other?

His body tensed. He turned to Dusteria and grabbed her shoulders, eyes wide.

"Where’s the dungeon?!"

She squeaked, her face suddenly very close to his.

"W-what?! Why are you—?!"

"The dungeon! The one with the golems! It’s been days?! Where is it??? What happened after I... after I blacked out?!"

Her cheeks turned pink, her mouth opening and closing like she forgot how to breathe.

"A-ah... Y-yeah. Yeah, the recovery team came. They tried to take stuff, but it was all frozen... Like, nothing would budge. Not even a chip. The dungeon’s still open, but they said it’s not dangerous for now since it was cleared... So..."

But Bel had already jumped out of bed and disappeared in an instant.

"Wait! Bel..."

Dusteria reached out instinctively, as if to grab him, but how do you catch a shadow?

Her hand froze in the air, she sighed, lowering it.

Then, with a pout and red cheeks, she muttered.

"What are you doing? Idiot..."

Bel burst out of the hospital like a gust of wind.

He didn’t even stop to breathe. He jumped off the steps, hit the ground running, and sprinted through the street like a shadow under the rising sun.

People blinked and stepped aside as he passed. Some shouted, a few cursed, but none of it mattered.

Only one thing did.

"The white orb," he thought. "I should’ve eaten both. Why didn’t I only take one bite?"

He bit his lip, eyes wide and focused. His mind spun.

"I can’t lose it. I can’t afford to lose something that that strong."

If there was one good thing, it was that his ice had sealed everything. The entire ruin, locked under a frozen tomb. Maybe... just maybe, the white orb was still safe.

He took a sharp turn near the edge of the city, where buildings were lower and the streets emptier.

Scales started crawling across his arms. His legs thickened. His power surged through him.

He stomped the ground hard, cracking the stone beneath his foot as he crouched, ready to leap.

"Where are you going, Bel?"

He froze.

His head snapped sideways.

Elysia.

Standing casually near a stone fence, arms folded, her silver armor gleaming lightly under the morning light.

Where had she come from? When?

Bel stared at her, completely confused.

"You look better than expected," she said cheerfully, walking closer. "It’s good to see you so quickly on your feet. We were starting to worry. You’ve been out for days."

He said nothing.

She tilted her head, still smiling.

"The others came to see you every day. Your party. You scared everyone when you collapsed."

Bel turned his eyes away. His scales disappeared as quickly as they had appeared.

"I’m fine now."

He started to move again, but she stepped in front of him.

"Going somewhere?"

"It doesn’t matter."

"Let me guess," she said with a chuckle. "The dungeon?"

Bel blinked.

She nodded.

"Yeah, I figured. I’ve learned that the dungeon you cleared is still open. The recovery team couldn’t extract the boss core because it’s frozen inside solid ice."

She gave him a teasing look.

"You really know how to make everyone’s job harder."

Bel tried not to roll his eyes.

"Then let me help by going now."

But Elysia just smiled and waved a finger.

"Nope. Let’s keep talking, you have all the time to relax, because you’re too late. The dungeon is closed."

A wall of ice shattered in bel’s min. He blinked.

"What?"

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