Scheme (6)

Outside the village, at the edge of the forest.
"Captain! Thank goodness you're safe," said the Lieutenant upon seeing Nicholas return with the villagers. Then, the Lieutenant continued, "Captain, about that Black Dragon..."
As if understanding the Lieutenant's intention, Nicholas nodded once. "Yes, for some reason, that black dragon didn't touch the villagers at all."
"About that..." The Lieutenant showed a worried expression while glancing toward a girl beside him.
"Hm?" Nicholas also followed the Lieutenant's gaze directed at the little girl. "What does this have to do with this girl?"
The Lieutenant seemed hesitant to answer.
"Actually... the one who summoned that black dragon here was... this girl..."
Before Nicholas could be shocked, a thunderous sound was heard.
That sound came from the direction of the village.
When Nicholas looked toward the village, he saw a giant black sphere in front of the black dragon.
The black sphere seemed to absorb everything around it. Then, it began to crack like fragile eggshell, until it finally hatched.
***
Hmmm? What is that?
I see a black sphere in front of me. That black sphere suddenly appeared when I was chasing one of those knights.
That black sphere is really the size of a soccer ball to me.
Should I kick it?
However, when I wanted to kick it, suddenly something appeared from many directions.
It was light.
Gentle and weak.
I know this.
This is a soul.
Souls of people I killed, or those who were already dead before I came.
And that black sphere absorbed hundreds of souls that existed in this village, including the soul of the person who summoned this black sphere.
That person's soul was forcibly pulled out from inside their body, and eventually entered into that black sphere.
But it seems the soul absorption doesn't affect me.
Well, rather than something troublesome emerging, I'll end it quickly.
Just as I stepped back two steps to prepare to kick that sphere, the black sphere suddenly cracked and shattered.
Huh, seems I'm too late.
***
From inside that black sphere, hellfire gushed out, and from within emerged a demon figure nearly ten meters tall. Its skin was red like lava, its horns were sharply curved, and its bat wings spread wide. Its red eyes blazed full of wrath.
"Who dares to summon me?" the demon's voice thundered, though still not as powerful as the dragon's voice.
The demon observed its surroundings. Stone and wooden buildings that were already destroyed and hundreds of corpses lying on the ground.
Just with that information, the demon immediately reached a conclusion.
"Pathetic humans."
Then, the demon turned and saw the giant black dragon in front of it. An evil grin spread across its face. "It seems I was summoned to kill you. My name is Belzaroth. Belzaroth the Unliving. State your name, O Black Dragon."
"I have no name. I am merely the Nameless Dragon," the black dragon answered.
"A creature like you has no name? Or... no one is capable of giving you a name? Whatever it is, I will complete this soul contract."
Without warning, Belzaroth launched a hellfire ball the size of a house toward the dragon. The purple-red fire shot with lightning speed, but when it hit the dragon's scales, the fire just bounced off and extinguished.
"Magic immunity," Belzaroth muttered. "So the rumor that a dragon is immune to all magic is real."
The dragon attacked with its claws, but Belzaroth had already flown to avoid it. The demon counter-attacked with a fire sword five meters long, slashing toward the dragon's neck. The sword hit its target, but only sparked, not a single wound.
"Damn!" Belzaroth flew backward when the dragon's tail swept toward him with surprising speed. The tip of the tail hit his left wing, tearing the thin membrane and spilling demon blood that flowed like liquid lava.
From outside the village, Nicholas and the others watched this titan battle with a mixture of awe and fear.
Belzaroth landed and raised both hands. "If fire magic doesn't work, how about this!" The ground beneath the dragon suddenly exploded, hell lava gushed out forming a glowing stone prison. But the dragon only needed to shake its head, and the entire structure shattered to pieces.
"Weak," the dragon hissed.
The dragon breathed its fire breath - a column of blue fire as hot as the earth's core, dozens of meters wide. Belzaroth immediately flew to avoid it, but the tip of his right wing caught fire. He rolled on the ground, extinguishing the fire while groaning in pain.
"Hell lightning!" Belzaroth screamed, directing both hands to the sky. Black clouds gathered quickly, and purple lightning as thick as tree trunks struck the dragon repeatedly. However, the lightning just bounced off the dragon's scales, completely harmless.
The dragon stepped forward with heavy steps that made the ground tremble. Each step crushed the remaining buildings beneath it. "You're just a pathetic little demon."
Belzaroth rose with difficulty, his injured wings bleeding profusely. He tried a direct physical attack, charging with both sharp horns. However, those horns also still couldn't penetrate the dragon's scales.
The dragon bit his shoulder with those giant teeth. Belzaroth's bones broke with a horrifying sound, and the dragon lifted the demon high before brutally slamming him to the ground.
Belzaroth spat lava blood. His ribs were broken in several places, and his left arm hung unnaturally. Even so, he still tried to get up.
"Time Stop!" he screamed desperately. The air around the dragon shimmered, and the dragon's movement slowed drastically, until it finally stopped completely.
Time throughout the world had frozen.
Belzaroth used this opportunity to attack with all remaining strength, he jumped high and thrust both hands that transformed into claws toward the dragon's right eye.
However, surprisingly, the dragon suddenly moved and its claws directly struck Belzaroth's body, making him fall to the ground once again.
Belzaroth was thrown against the stone wall, his spine cracked. He coughed blood while trying to stand, but his legs wouldn't support his body anymore.
And the effect of his magic immediately disappeared.
"What?! How can you move in stopped time?!"
In that very short time, just before Belzaroth's attack reached the black dragon during the time stop, the black dragon had completed two evolutions simultaneously.
First, that was immunity to time-stopping effects.
Second, that was movement speed exceeding the speed of light.
The dragon approached Belzaroth. "I don't have much time, little demon. I'll give you a chance to go away from me for three seconds."
Belzaroth who heard this felt very angry. If he could escape from this place, he could use his teleportation magic.
However, the soul contract couldn't be canceled just like that.
Moreover, the other party was already gone.
This made it even more difficult.
In that brief moment approaching his death, he just realized a fact.
'Was the death of the contract maker already planned?'
He immediately shuddered, and his emotions exploded.
"Not yet... not finished," Belzaroth gasped. He gathered his remaining energy for one last attack. "Soul explosion!"
Belzaroth's body shone bright like a star about to explode. This was a suicide technique, he released his entire soul essence in one devastating explosion capable of destroying mountains. The light grew brighter, hotter...
But the dragon just stood still, letting the explosion happen. When smoke and dust billowed, the dragon still stood with only a few additional scratches on its scales. Its magic immunity was indeed perfect.
Belzaroth lay in a small crater from his own explosion, his body almost completely destroyed. Both wings were torn, his horns broken, and lava blood flowed from his entire body.
"Your time is up. Now," said the black dragon with a low, frightening voice, "it's time to eat."
The dragon opened its mouth wide and bit Belzaroth's already dying body. Its sharp teeth penetrated the demon's flesh easily. Belzaroth screamed. A pitiful scream that echoed throughout the plains.
The dragon chewed slowly, Belzaroth's lava blood flowing from between its teeth. Each bite crushed the demon's bones and organs. Belzaroth was still alive when half his body had already entered the dragon's stomach, his dim eyes staring blankly at the sky.
He was a Demon.
He was an immortal being.
However, that immortality meant nothing before a Supreme Being.
"The taste... is disgusting," the dragon commented while swallowing the remains of Belzaroth.