CHAPTER 33: IN THIS DAMNED PLACE

Dante whirled around, his roar shaking the very air as he parried a wicked thrust from a short sword that was inched from his face. Sparks erupted, illuminating the shop and scaring the surrounding people. His red eyes burned with rage, locking onto the two adventurers daring to challenge him.

The second human lunged, blade slashing at his neck, but Raoul materialized from the shadows and blocked the attack. Moments later, the Salty Hearth exploded into a vortex of carnage as the Black Knight, Bloodraven, Sulla, and Medea, alongside the Death Army, materialized like harbingers of doom, their blades causing screams and blood to echo out.

After minutes of the slaughter beginning, the air grew thick with the stench of death as Dante’s excitement exploded. His eyes blazed thanks to the Death Mana rushing through his body, forcing the air around him to quake, killing anyone who got in the way. He raised his hands, dark power surging through his body like a tidal wave.

From the mangled corpses of Ashvale and Thornbrooke’s fallen that he’d collected, he summoned horrors: Zombies, Ghouls, and Rotlings. His voice thundered, scaring everyone who heard it. ’’Kill every human in this city! Let them experience the wrath of the Death Monarch!’’

The streets of Dreadport became a nightmare in the flesh, where the living would learn the true meaning of dread. He glanced at the two adventurers, and his grin widened as their shocked faces stared at the mounting dead bodies and undead roaming, killing everything in their path.

Dante then noticed Mary and Marianne rushing around the restaurant, killing any soldiers who came close. He raised a dagger at the strongest one, who was a D Rank warrior, and declared. ’’You will be remembered as the man who brought ruin to Dreadport. I will kill every living thing in this place thanks to you attacking me.’’

As if to seal his promise, the Death Giants stormed out of the Domain and rampaged through the streets, their colossal bodies wreathed in necrotic miasma, butchering all in their path with a savagery that none had ever witnessed. Men were ripped apart, their torsos split like rotten fruit, entrails spilling across the cobblestones.

Women screamed as massive feet crushed them into pulp, bones snapping like dry twigs, while others were dragged into alleyways to be devoured. Children, clutching their families in vain, were slaughtered without mercy, their cries silenced in pools of blood. The Darkmoore soldiers were paralyzed by pure terror and couldn’t move.

’Look at them, they cannot do anything,’ he thought manically as he readied to attack the adventurers.

The enemy could only watch as the Zombie Brute and Feral Revenant tore through their ranks, commanders’ heads smashed to bloody ruin, their bodies mangled. Dante stood amidst the carnage, his laughter a chilling tribute to the death unraveling in the northern city; he was reveling in the crimson tide of death.

Seconds later, the adventurers’ courage shattered into fear, and the duo gaped in horror at the apocalyptic nightmare they were witnessing, their souls scarred. The streets were soon drowned in a wave of blood and despair as the Death Bears rampaged through the ranks of soldiers, their claws tearing through steel and sinew.

Limbs flew, torsos were crushed into crimson paste, and the air filled with the sickening crunch of skulls under their paws. At their side, the Death Wolf Leader, its jaws tearing through the militia like a whirlwind of fangs, ripping throats and disemboweling the living using its claws.

The Black Knight and Bloodraven carved a path through the city’s elite guard, their blades a blur, slicing through armor and bone as if they were paper. Heads rolled, bisected torsos slumped, and the formations crumbled into a slaughterhouse of screams. Swarms of zombies shambled, clawing at the living.

Ghouls, eyes glinting with feral hunger, pounced on fleeing citizens, tearing flesh from bone. Most horrific of all, the children of Thornbrooke, now twisted into grotesque Rotlings, scuttled through the chaos, their tiny bodies oozing pestilence, gnawing at the fallen and jumping on the backs of others.

Dante stood atop a mound of corpses, his eyes ablaze with ecstatic madness, his voice a thunderous decree that echoed through the carnage. ’’Bring me every corpse in this damned place!’’

Sulla, the Death Lich, loomed like a specter of doom, his hands weaving necromantic energies that pulsed with sickly red light. From the blood-soaked streets, the fallen rose again, mangled soldiers, broken civilians, and shattered children, reanimated as zombies, their hollow eyes fixed on the living.

They joined the fray, an unstoppable tide of death, as the adventurers’ horrified gazes locked onto the apocalyptic scene. Their hearts pounded with dread, their minds buckling under the weight under the sudden chaos and death that engulfed them. He quickly noticed they were thinking about fleeing, but he’d stop it.

Dante surged forward and appeared in front of the D Rank only to cut the tendons, bringing the armoured man down before stabbing him through the back of his neck while casting Death Bolt at the second enemy, who was taken off guard, only to be killed by the deadly projectile.

’Looks like I can relax as my monsters caught the city off guard,’ he mused and stole the coin pouches, only to spot a ring on the first man’s finger.

’’Oh, is this the storage ring Bella mentioned?’’ Dante muttered, picking it up and slipping the thing on.

His mana rushed toward it and wrapped around the artifact and crushing the previous owners, taking it over. Soon after that, he sensed all the stuff inside and cringed at some of the clothes the man wore. ’’Fucking cross-dresser? The fuck!’’

Just then, Bella appeared, giggling as she ignored the carnage around, causing him to think. ’Does she have stockhold syndrome? How is she blanking out these dead bodies?’

Dante shook his head and questioned. ’’Why aren’t you bothered by all this?’’

He pointed at the Boneblade and Ghoulweaver toying with a family before the Death Guardian sliced the father into several pieces. Bella shrugged and answered. ’’Do you forget I was in Thornebrooke and heard the stories of what you did to the farming village?’’

’’Oh.’’

’’Yes, oh, my lord,’’ she grinned. ’’There’s also the fact that I live under the threat of death if I scream, so I chose to get used to it.’’

Dante’s eyes narrowed. ’’Good, you remember. Now let’s go visit the City Lord and take Dreadport’s wealth.’’

Following that, the duo walked through the burning city as bodies lined the road. They noticed the Death Wendigo’s collecting the corpses and throwing them into piles in one of the squares the bears were eating. When Bella saw this, she curiously asked. ’’Don’t you need the dead for your army?’’

’’No,’’ he replied, walking around a pile of dead soldiers. ’’There are thousands of people here and I can’t keep all of them. So I’ve ordered Sulla to turn them into Zombies or Ghouls and let them loose on Nemorath. Once I do this with the southern city, the continent will be overrun.’’

The blonde elf shuddered at his words, her blue eyes wide with dread as she bore witness to the apocalyptic ruin of Dreadport. The once lively city lay in tatters, its cobblestone streets slick with blood and littered with debris from ruined buildings. Flames roared through marketplaces, devouring wooden stalls and sending plumes of acrid smoke spiraling into the ash-choked sky.

Screams of terror and anguish clawed at the air, a haunting chorus as the living were cut down by shadowy figures darting through the chaos. Bodies slumped in grotesque heaps, some still twitching in their final moments, while others lay eerily still, their lifeless eyes staring into the void.

Dante’s senses burned with the weight of the Death Camp, swollen to bursting with the influx of dead bodies,

[Death Camp Capacity: 6000/6000]

’I’m not upgrading it anymore,’ he mused.

After that, he spotted the City Lord’s mansion at the end of the road they were on, but it was lined with ranks of Darkmoore soldiers and scared adventurers, causing his eyebrow to raise as he summoned the Death Giants and Bears that lined up behind him before he ordered them to kill every human in their path.

The Death Bears let out roars followed by the giant gorilla, who rushed forward, shaking the ground with every step. While watching this, Dante noticed Demi-Humans and Elves hiding inside ruined buildings, staying out of the way of the chaos. He ignored them as he didn’t dislike those races; it was just humans he hated.

Abruptly, the horde slammed into the enemy frontlines, carving through their ranks as effortlessly as a searing blade through soft butter. While they were fighting, Dante cast several Death Bolts and Blasts into the crowd of soldiers. Explosions erupted, sending bodies flying everywhere.

Death Giants and Bears destroyed the force guarding the City Lord’s home, allowing him to approach without any trouble as the city lay in ruins.