High School DxD: Return of the Crimson Dragon Emperor

Chapter 411: Chapter 401 The Price of Survival

[Kiba’s Perspective]

”The entire world is within his firing range...!”

Azazel-sensei’s words hung in the air, thick and suffocating. A collective gasp rippled through our group.

The ’Gates’ floating in the sky were direct conduits to the pseudo-world Asem had constructed in the Dimensional Gap. The beam we had just witnessed was beyond any standard measure, not just in its sheer destructive power, but in its impossible range. If those Gates could be repositioned at will, the conclusion was inescapable.

”Did he aim for an uninhabited area on purpose?” Rias-senpai whispered, her voice trembling.

Azazel-sensei nodded grimly. ”Likely. It was a demonstration—a way to show his hand to every corner of the globe. Every mythology, every race... he wanted them to understand that no one is safe. No matter who you are, you are a target. This was mere stagecraft.”

Stagecraft. To erase a mountain range across multiple mythologies simultaneously just to make a point... the scale of his ”performance” was sickening.

As if he had heard Sensei’s assessment, the projection of Asem offered a thin, mocking smile.

「It seems some of you have already deduced the truth. Yes, this is a performance. A warning. No matter who you are, or where you hide, there is no escape.」

His message was clear: evasion was an impossibility.

”He claimed to have allied with Apophis,” Azazel-sensei muttered, his eyes narrowing. ”That means Trihexa must be with him. But where...?”

After vanishing from the Norse front, Trihexa and its legion of Evil Dragons had dropped off our radar entirely. We suspected they were using the forbidden techniques of the augmented Azi Dahaka to mask their presence. If they had truly joined forces with Asem, it stood to reason they were hiding within his newly constructed world.

The fact that someone could build a realm one-third the size of Earth without anyone noticing was a terrifying testament to his power.

Suddenly, the view through the ’Gate’ shifted.

「Next, I imagine you’re wondering about Trihexa’s whereabouts, aren’t you? Naturally, it’s right here with us.」

Asem snapped his fingers again.

Another magic circle manifested, projecting a different view. There, silhouetted against a blood-red sky, stood the seven-headed beast of the apocalypse: Trihexa.

We knew it was coming, given the alliance with the lead Evil Dragons, but seeing it on screen sent a cold sweat down my spine. The sheer weight of that monster’s presence was enough to choke the air out of the room.

Then, the creature began to change.

Trihexa’s massive body pulsed, a sickening, rhythmic throb. For a moment, its form seemed to blur, and then—

It began to tear itself apart.

The space between its seven heads widened until there was enough room for a full body between each one. Through the widening gaps, I could see raw muscle fibers stretching and straining like taut cables. The fibers snapped in the center, writhing like severed snakes, before rapidly regenerating into new limbs, new torsos, new tails.

”It’s fission...!” Azazel-sensei’s eyes went wide. ”That monster... it can divide its entire body into seven separate entities?!”

The strongest beast in existence had just quintupled its presence. The tactical implications were horrifying.

”It means he can launch simultaneous assaults on seven different locations at once,” Azazel-sensei said, his voice dropping into a terrifyingly calm register. ”He’s really going all out.”

We had already seen Trihexa’s logic-defying power. It had shrugged off our concentrated attacks and god-class strikes as if they were nothing more than annoying gnats. It could regenerate instantly, turning its flesh into a fortress. Its counterattacks—jets of primordial flame—had erased mountains and swallowed gods whole.

Even if its power was divided by seven... even a single head possessed enough strength to rival Ophis in her prime or Great Red, the symbol of Dreams. A seventh of an infinite nightmare is still a nightmare.

Worse yet were the sheer numbers of its escort: an endless tide of mass-produced Evil Dragons and the terrifyingly efficient Cloned Red Dragon Emperors. Fighting them alone was a nightmare; fighting them alongside seven Trihexas was a death sentence.

The view through the Gate shifted again. From the gaps between the white, cubical structures of Asem’s city, massive shapes began to rise. They were giants—Magic Gods—standing on a scale that rivaled the Super-Beasts that had once terrorized the Underworld. Six arms, each clutching a colossal weapon.

Those were the Magic Gods created by Bel... the very monsters that had tormented Miu-san time and again.

They were surrounded by swarms of mass-produced dragons and Issei-kun’s clones, floating like a dark cloud around the giants. There were too many to count. Thousands? Tens of thousands? The number was so vast it made the very act of counting feel futile.

-------------------------------

I’ve already uploaded 70 Chapters of this story on Patreon!

If you enjoy it, come check out the latest Chapters in advance.

Here’s the link:

[patreon.com/Greyhounds]

Thank you so much for your support!!

”And If you’re enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!”