Chapter 185: He Is Vulnerable

Azriel

Everything about his dark, mocking laughter scraped against my nerves like a rusted blade.

I had heard stories of Draca through the fragments of memory my mother left behind, stories of a terrifying, god-like tyrant who once brought all three realms to their knees.

Yet here he stood, wearing the body of Kaevian, a pathetic omega who had once been my concubine.

Hiding inside the corpse of a dead traitor was a coward’s move.

"I caught this wretched soul as it descended toward the underworld, and I chose his corpse in particular because it still burned with such delicious hatred for you," Draca sneered, a wide, unnatural grin twisting Kaevian’s familiar features.

"I promised him a second life if he surrendered his flesh to me. But when I finally woke, do you know what I found? I had been discarded in a mass grave, left to rot alongside pile after pile of decaying bodies."

He clicked his tongue, shaking his head with mock disappointment.

"You truly are a ruthless prince, Azriel. You kept this little omega at your side for years, and then threw him into the dirt the moment he outlived his usefulness. I must admit, your demonic cruelty far outweighs whatever celestial blood runs through your veins. A pity your magical strength does not match it." Draca let out a raspy, dark chuckle, low and oddly melodic, and the sound of it bore an unsettling resemblance to his son.

I locked my eyes on his, keeping my expression flat. "Do you not feel the slightest embarrassment?"

Draca paused, lifting an eyebrow, his smirk faltering into something confused.

"For a legendary Demon King who slept for millennia, I expected an ancient god," I said smoothly, stepping forward with deliberate calm.

"Instead, I found a coward hiding behind the face of a weak omega who betrayed me and then ended his own life."

Draca’s eyes flashed with a flicker of black fire, though he shrugged it away easily enough. "Castiel’s divine light shattered my true form. I was left with no other choice. But none of that matters now. I need only the dormant divine power sleeping inside your unborn child to rebuild my immortal body. I never expected Castiel’s holy bloodline to manifest so strongly in an omega. Seraphel, bearer of an absolute cosmic vessel."

A chilling laugh tore out of his throat.

"I will not permit such power to exist beyond my control. That strength belongs to me. Everything in this realm will bow to my will. Once I am whole again, I will march on Elysium and repay the deities tenfold for every century they kept me buried in the dark."

I watched him carefully, catching the faint tremor running beneath his posture.

Underneath all the proclamations and burning wrath sat something older and far more bitter: the hollow, rotting loneliness of a being left alone for thousands of years.

He masked it almost instantly behind a cruel, empty smile, but not quickly enough.

This creature did not simply want power. He wanted to butcher my mate and tear my unborn child out of the world.

"You will never lay a hand on him," I growled.

I slammed my foot down against the stone, and the ground beneath us split apart.

Thick, obsidian-red vines studded with razor thorns burst up through the cracked bedrock, coiling around my arms like living serpents before launching forward through the air, straight for Draca’s throat.

I glanced past them toward the far side of the cavern.

Malachi stood planted in front of Seraphel, shadow-daggers drawn, while the rest of my brothers had torn free of Draca’s binding trap and were now trading devastating blows with the seven Demon Lords.

With Seraphel guarded, the weight pressing down on my chest finally eased.

I no longer needed to hold anything back.

"I hope a few thousand years beneath a seal have not made you soft," I roared, my Sin aura flaring into a blinding crimson storm. "Because I am about to show you exactly what happens when someone threatens a Sin’s family."

Draca threw his head back and laughed.

As my vines closed the distance, the enormous two-headed black serpent coiled around him whipped its tail forward, shattering them into splinters while Draca leapt backward, drifting effortlessly into the air.

I studied his movements, watching every second of his defense.

Something was wrong. He was not casting anything himself, not a single high-level spell. He relied entirely on the twin-headed beast to shield him, directing its attacks through silent commands alone.

Kaevian’s fragile, dead flesh could not contain the raw force of Draca’s true soul. He was weak. He fought through a proxy because his current vessel was already failing beneath the weight of his own power.

A vicious grin spread across my face. He is vulnerable.

I raised both hands, drawing a wide circle through the air. "Crimson Diamond Petals."

The cavern floor trembled as thousands of crystalline red diamonds erupted from the bedrock like jagged spears, shooting upward to trap the serpent inside a cage of deadly glass.

One of the spikes drove clean through the serpent’s thick scales, impaling it through the middle.

The beast let out an agonized roar that shook the entire mountain, black blood erupting from the wound and raining down onto the rocks below.

With the serpent crippled, its defensive barrier collapsed. I seized the opening, flicking my wrist to send a thick cluster of thorned vines tearing straight through the beast’s bloody coils.

They slammed into Draca’s chest with the force of a battering ram, launching him across the cavern. He struck the far wall hard enough to crack the solid rock behind him.

"Ah. So you worked it out," Draca wheezed, brushing debris off his shoulders as he floated back down.

He reached out and gently stroked the snout of his bleeding serpent. "Rest now. I will call for you again once your strength returns."

With a snap of his fingers, the beast dissolved into black smoke.

Draca turned back toward me, his dark eyes burning with something close to madness. "Now then. Where were we?"

He swept his arms wide, and the air around him crackled with golden-white light.

Dozens of ethereal swords materialized midair, their blades humming with divine energy.

A flick of his wrist sent them streaking toward me like falling stars.