Dawn Will Be Under My Control, Part 3

Dagon was preparing to attack.

Seeing him like this, in his true form, was enough to assume that was his name. I hadn’t known him from the start, but now I had no doubts.

Dagon was known for the size of his debts, as well as his childish attempts to rid himself of them. Attempts that usually didn’t end well. In fact, on the contrary, they only made things worse for him. And the mountain of debts kept piling up.

He assumed that retrieving his medallion was another of his childish schemes.

Dracula had been asleep for like a thousand years, but did he have to choose precisely this moment to get moving? The era of his awakening, of his resurrection?

I would say it was just extremely bad luck, being generous, but I was not very generous. I was the Prince of Darkness.

Moreover, I knew that wasn’t it.

After all, he had come barking about defeating me.

It was a shame for him and his entire lineage, but clearly, he was just an idiot.

Well, a relatively powerful idiot, I had to admit. Dagon’s aquatic attack broke the illusory space, bringing everyone back to reality. It was part of his castle, but it could not be said that he had achieved a great feat.

After all, it was just a part.

A Fragment, like the fragment of the medallion that had spawned it.

However, for a being of Dagon’s level, it was something to pat himself on the back for. That too I had to admit.

The reality was the following: the road was wrecked by a surge of water. The ground was filled with cracks, vehicles were flung about, telephone poles and traffic signs bent under the pressure of the water.

A hellish charge that could carry anything in its path.

At least, that was how Dagon thought of his attack.

He had gathered all his power and pride there.

A pity it wasn’t enough. Not remotely. Dracula withstood the water’s onslaught without particularly straining himself. It didn’t just not make him back down; he stood firm against wind and tide.

"Nice try. But I told you. I warned you… Game over. From that very moment…"

A dark red energy began gathering in Dracula’s left hand. Gathering and expanding, taking the shape of a gigantic sword. Dagon couldn’t know it, but if he focused his vision, he might see that the red energy sword actually consisted mostly of hundreds and hundreds of bats continuously spinning, flapping their wings.

With that sword, in a single movement, he split Dagon in half.

"You were already dead."

And that was all.

There was no surprise like him being stronger than expected, regenerating from a wound that should have been lethal as if it hadn’t tickled him, or revealing that it hadn’t even reached him thanks to some secret ability. Or something like that.

No, he simply died on the sidewalk, split in half.

And, like all demons, he disappeared without a trace as soon as he did. Which was very convenient, although I usually didn’t have to kill demons, because the mess cleaned itself up. Well, this road would belong to me when I finally took possession of the world anyway. Some care had to be taken.

"Fuck!" shouted one of the demons who had accompanied the poor, poor Dagon. If he had ever had a mother, she wouldn’t be very happy right now, but that was the least of his concerns. They beat a retreat, with their tails between their fucking legs, which was the only place they could be, well, at least his was there.

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So, they got the hell out of there. They disappeared almost as fast as their boss once dead.

I wasn’t interested in crushing cockroaches, so I let them do it.

They only left behind chaos.

There were burning vehicles, and the screams of people in agony rose even higher than the flames, toward the heart of the skies. The road looked even worse than I had first thought. With so many ups and downs, it looked like a fucking roller coaster.

Yes, I knew what that was now.

The internet was something useful.

"Is this a dream?" In contrast to the screams, some poor bastard whispered that as if he had just woken up and wanted with all his might to go back to bed. Which would happen, of course.

Probably.

But not as fast as that guy would like.

In any case...

"Shit, what a mess."

For a moment, he thought of lending a hand. Putting out the fire, dragging the idiots out of the deadly traps their vehicles had become. Fortunately, the madness was fleeting.

"Why would I do that? Haha, how silly."

His body dissolved. Transforming into a swarm of bats, he flew away from there.

——

To their relief, they soon found transportation after escaping the carnivorous forest. Not so much for the owner of said car, a middle-aged woman who had been left crying.

But they hadn’t hurt her, of course, and had made sure to be seen by a few security cameras so they couldn’t claim that she had made the car disappear to abuse the insurance money or something like that.

It was stupid, of course. But the insurance would use any excuse not to have to pay.

Alex had been left more at peace with his conscience after that, at least. It was a bit childish on his part. They were on a mission to save the world, a few collateral damages were permissible for that end. So stealing a car from a woman who could afford it wasn’t nearly the worst thing he had done to ensure a mission ended well.

But still, after so many years, something like that could make his stomach twist.

Was that a weakness or a sign that, despite everything, he had clung to his human spirit?

He had indeed become more peaceful. Then he made the mistake of looking at the news. He said nothing in response. He didn’t need to. What Daniela said in the silence of the endless road stretched to the horizon with no other vehicles or buildings for a good while perfectly summed up his thoughts.

"This is a fucking nightmare. That forest will end up swallowing some city or town, and now this. Our ancestors have been working to protect the masquerade for hundreds of years, and it’s going to collapse in hours?"

"As soon as that man appeared," murmured Alex.

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean. Monsters, vampires... Everyone knew about those things before Dracula was defeated. After all, he is the Prince of Darkness. The dragon, Dracula. The darkness didn’t... sleep, but it did weaken. But now he’s back. And he has a lot of lost time to make up for."

Daniela leaned back in the driver’s seat, stretching her neck as much as she could. Anything but a relaxing posture. She inhaled and exhaled deeply, as if preparing to speak.

Words always gained power out loud.

As mere thoughts, they could ignore the worst, push it into some dark corner of your mind. But as soon as you spoke your greatest fears, they came to life around you, leaving you no escape.

"Do you realize that if you’re right, we’re fucked?"

It was a pretty mild way to put it. It was hard to process, but in this cramped car...

They were talking about the end of the world.

A return to the times when creatures of darkness stalked humans at their leisure and civilization was just a few flashes of light amid a vast mass of darkness.

With the Dragon, the Adversary, as the heart of that impenetrable darkness.

"That’s life, isn’t it? A continuous rain of shit. I can never get the smell of monster guts out of my clothes."

A trivial complaint.

For some reason, that was the first thing that came to mind.

Well, all the supposedly trivial things were probably what you thought about most at the edge of death…

If she died today, she wouldn’t regret the long list of things she had never done, but not being able to spend more time with her partner.

"That’s why I never get a boyfriend."

"Nor are you interested."

"True, men are a pain. They only serve to scratch where it itches."

She had interests in men, unlike her partner, but purely biological interests. She couldn’t think of anything worse than being tied to a man, feeling for him, fearing for him. And having her head hurt because of him. She was much more peaceful alone.

"Great. How direct."

Well, not alone.

Love was overrated. Friendship was the most valuable thing.

"But it’s true."

"Yeah. That’s why I’m a lesbian."

And they burst into laughter tinged with a hint of hysteria, as what they were: two women contemplating the end of the world.

Dawn Will Be Under My Control, Part 3: FIN