Reincarnated in a novel: I am the villain!-Chapter 283: Main Battle!

The Altar of Iron trembled.

Duke Varic Vane stepped fully out of the crimson portal.

The mana pressure in the room shifted instantly, from the crushing, heavy gravity of the Orc Emperor to the sharp, metallic scent of absolute bloodlust.

Yes, much like the orc emperor, the Duke was very much also an eighth-order powerhouse, a battle-ready one at that

So stepping through the altar, his bloodlust fully unleashed, for a while the whole area seemed to be overflown with a sea of red

However despite this, his attention was not on his opponent, the Orc emperor as Varic did not look at Thraka immediately.

His crimson eyes swept the room. Coming into his sight, he saw Captain Vesper, his loyal knight, broken and bleeding on a pile of scrap.

He saw Isabelle the maid who had followed that interesting human that claimed to be a baron, unconscious and battered near the console.

And finally, he looked at Damien. He saw the sword protruding from the boy’s stomach, the blood pooling around his boots, and the defiant grin on his masked face.

A wound not gotten from the orc in front of him most likely self-inflicted, in a trance he paused for a bit guessing what had happened before he arrived

The Duke closed his eyes for a second. Then, he threw his head back and laughed.

"Ha... Hahaha!"

Unfortunately, it wasn’t a laugh of amusement. It was a sound of pure, crystalline rage that made the lava in the pit boil.

"Thraka," Varic said, his voice dropping to a velvety whisper that carried more threat than a scream.

"It has been a hundred years. And the first thing you do is break my toys?"

"Toys?" Thraka sneered, his abyss-steel skin glowing with the heat of his anger. He towered over the noble vampire.

"They are rats. Just like you, Blood Rat."

"The only difference between them and you is that you’re a bigger rat" he said Sneering at the intruder in front of him

Thraka raised his massive fist. The red aura of Azazel coated it, turning it into a hammer of annihilation.

"You think appearing here changes anything, Vane? It just brings my victory closer. I will crush you, and then I will summon my Lord on your corpse!"

"With the power of my lord, I am undefeatable!"

"After today! Not only will I kill you and your whole family, but I will complete my ultimate goal and sacrifice this whole layer of the abyss to my lord!"

As he spoke, his pupils began to glow red, his levels of fanaticism and craze rising with every word he spoke

Yes, Thraka at this moment, was determined to end this dragged out war once and for all

And the Duke, looking at the mad orc emperor in front of him, he too was not backing down

"Victory?" Varic smirked, his canines lengthening.

The blood on the floor, Damien’s blood, Vesper’s blood, the blood of the slain orcs—suddenly rose into the air.

It swirled around the Duke, solidifying into a sleek, crimson exoskeleton.

[Blood Art: Monarch’s Raiment.]

"The only thing you will summon, Thraka," Varic hissed, "is your own end."

BOOM.

They moved.

Thraka threw a punch that broke the sound barrier. Varic met it with a fist encased in hardened blood-crystal.

The impact didn’t make a sound at first. The air in the chamber was instantly sucked into the point of collision.

Then, reality snapped.

KRA-KOOOM!

The shockwave turned the stone floor of the Altar into fine paste. The lava pit exploded, sending geysers of molten rock shooting into the ceiling.

The entire underground facility groaned. The steel walls buckled. The ceiling began to crack, massive boulders raining down as the mountain above them failed to contain the energy of two high-ranking entities clashing.

In this fight between two monsters, no one around him was safe, be it the land, the walls, even existing space began to shatter under their immense might

"Shit!" Damien shouted, his eyes widening.

The shockwave was expanding fast. If it hit them, Isabelle and Vesper would be vaporized.

Damien didn’t hesitate. He reached deep into his soul, he used the ability he had copied from Alfred.

’Alfred. I’m more glad than ever you have this.’

[Spatial Art: Mass Displacement.]

Damien pushed his hands out.

The space around him twisted. He grabbed the unconscious Isabelle with one hand, snagged Elian by the collar, and kicked Vesper’s broken body into the circle of distortion.

ZWOOP.

Just as the shockwave engulfed the console, they vanished. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

...........

[Location: The Surface – The Ridge Overlooking the Facility]

The air on the surface was cold and grey.

POP.

Damien and his group materialized on a rocky ridge, tumbling onto the hard dirt.

Damien coughed, spitting blood onto the ash. The teleportation had strained his already broken body, but they were alive.

"We... we made it," Elian gasped, clutching his chest.

"Not yet," Damien wheezed, looking down.

The ground beneath them shook violently.

RUMBLE.

Below them, the mountain that housed the Altar began to bulge upward. Cracks appeared on the surface, glowing with red and purple light.

BOOM!

The top of the mountain blew off.

A pillar of debris shot into the sky. And from the dust cloud, two streaks of light ascended.

One was the muddy, violent grey of Abyss Steel. The other was the brilliant, piercing crimson of Blood.

Thraka and Duke Varic broke through the ceiling of the world.

They hung in the air, miles above the ground, two titans silhouetted against the bruised purple sky of the Abyss.

Thraka roared, swinging his massive axe. Varic laughed, summoning a thousand spears of blood.

The air pressure dropped so low that Damien could feel it in his teeth.

Damien pulled himself up to a sitting position, watching the sky burn. He pulled the Pantheon Sword from his stomach, wincing as the wound began to knit together.

"Look at that," Damien whispered, a grin spreading beneath his mask.

"The main battle... is finally starting."