Jin walked through the gilded corridors of Castle Sant'Angelo. Behind him, the sounds of war—explosions, screams, and the clash of steel—echoed from the main gates, muffled by the thick stone walls.
He adjusted his gloves, his knuckles still stained with the blood of the guards he had killed in the lower hallway.
His mind drifted back to the conversation just minutes ago, standing on the precipice of the assault with Elmenhilde.
"I hope the young ones don't stall you," Elmenhilde had said, looking at the massive fortress.
Jin had looked at her, his expression flat. "No," he had corrected her, his voice devoid of arrogance, stating it as a simple fact of nature. "They would be corpses."
"We start now," she had replied, a shiver running down her spine. "Time is of the essence."
Now, Jin stepped over the body of a royal guard and turned the corner toward the Throne Room.
A crowd of vampires had gathered in the antechamber—courtiers, lesser nobles, and servants who had not fled. They parted like the Red Sea as he approached.
He could feel their eyes on him. Some stared with naked fear, trembling at the scent of death that clung to his hoodie. Others, the depraved ones who had lived too long in decadence, looked at him with a twisted, predatory hunger. He heard the whispers of the female vampires, their voices thick with lust. "Look at him... I want a taste... he looks hot..."
But Jin didn't look left or right. He walked through them with the indifference .
He reached the massive, double doors of the Throne Room. He didn't knock.
He channeled Touki into his leg and kicked.
BOOM.
The heavy oak and iron doors were blasted off their hinges, spinning through the air and crashing into the far wall of the sanctum.
The Throne Room was a cavernous hall of black marble and red velvet. At the far end, sitting on a throne raised high above the floor, was Marius Tepes.
The usurper was clad in experimental armor that hummed with a violet lights. Standing beside him was a woman—beautiful, vacant-eyed, and standing with an unnatural stillness.
Marius looked down at Jin, his lip curling in a sneer.
"So," Marius said, his voice echoing in the vast hall. "You are the guy who is causing me problems. And you joined them." He gestured vaguely toward the window, where the Carmilla army was dying. "So much for my expectations. As I thought... weak people tend to group together."
Jin stepped over the debris of the door. "Wow. You really have everything figured out."
Marius narrowed his eyes, detecting the sarcasm. "And I have figured out your death."
"So you aren't interested in why I want to kill you?" Jin asked, stopping in the center of the room.
"Don't care," Marius dismissed him, waving a hand. "You will die. Your body will become test subject."
Jin sighed, slowly pulling his Bone claws . "And how do you plan to do that?"
"My servant will see to it." Marius looked at the woman beside him. "Kill him."
The woman moved. She was fast—High-Class vampire speed. She blurred across the room, a dagger appearing in her hand, aiming for Jin's throat.
It was a good attack. For a normal warrior.
But not for Jin.
He didn't even activate his any ability. He stepped inside her guard, catching her wrist mid-swing. With a sickening snap, he broke her arm. She didn't scream; she just stared blankly. Jin didn't hesitate. His free hand drove forward, his claws tearing through her dress and stomach and burying themselves in her intestines.
He didn't pull back. He lifted his leg and kicked her in the chest, launching her backward. She flew across the hall, crashing into the steps of the throne, sliding to a stop at Marius's feet.
Jin shook the blood from his hand. "Is that all ?"
Marius looked down at his broken servant, then smiled—a cold, scientist's smile. "No. This is the start."
Marius began to chant. It wasn't a spell of healing; it was a spell of mutation.
The woman on the floor convulsed. Her bones cracked audibly, rearranging themselves. Her muscles began to expand, tearing through her skin. Scales, black and shimmering with cursed energy, erupted from her flesh.
Jin stood there, watching curiously. He knew he should stop it, but a part of him want to see the change and challenge himself against what he knew is gonna come.
The woman's scream shifted into a roar. Her jaw unhinged, elongating into a snout filled with serrated fangs. Wings ripped from her back, spanng the width of the throne.
She was no longer a woman. She was a Evil Dragon.
Similarly two dragon also appear in the battlefield outside .
The dragon moved first.
Not with speed—but with crushing weight .
Its forelimb crashed down coming from upside trying to squash , shattering the marble floor where Jin stood a heartbeat ago.
CRASH.
The shockwave travel through the floor and crack the floor there and thus sent stone fragments screaming through the air like shrapnel.
Jin slid low his eyes red , his claws digging into the ground—SNIKT—sparks tearing from the floor as he arrested his momentum and launched himself upward.
He didn't aim for the head. He went for the joint of the elbow.
His claws bit between the scales, carving deep, but the dragon's hide was unnaturally tough. It resisted the bone, the muscle beneath flexing like living armor. The dragon roared—not in pain, but in irritation—and twisted its body violently.
The tail whipped around, catching Jin mid-air.
He was hurled across the hall, smashing through a stone pillar.
The stone collapsed, burying him. Dust bloomed into the air, obscuring the impact site.
"Got him," Marius muttered, leaning forward.
The dust swirled. Jin walked out. His clothes were torn, but his skin was unbroken looking like cuts rugged and jagged, giving him a monstrous appearance .
Before the echoes of the collapse died, Jin was already moving again.
Jin leaped, claws digging into a falling column, using it as a springboard.
Jin start weaving his hand a voice under his breath , barely audible . " Shunshin no Jutsu"
Disappearing from there and appearing at the dragon back .
He ran up the dragon's tail, sprinting along its spine, his claws ripping sparks and some black blood as he climbed toward the neck.
The dragon reared back, its wings half-unfurling—too large to fully spread inside the hall—smashing chandeliers from the ceiling. Chains fell like iron serpents.
The dragon slammed its back into the wall, trying to crush the flea on its spine.
Jin was crushed between scale and stone , A voice of crunch came like a log was crushed . The impact shook the tower.
For a second—silence.
Then the smoke exploded between dragon's back and wall .
The dragon looked around, confused, searching for the body.
"In front!" Marius shouted, pointing.
Jin was suspended in the air, falling toward the dragon's eye, his claws ready to gouge.
The dragon retaliated. Its maw opened, and a light brighter than the sun gathered in its throat.
Jin's Sharingan spun wildy. Too close.
He abandoned the attack. In mid-air, with no leverage, he twisted his body, weaving hand signs with blinding speed. His body replaced by log .
But the dragon didn't stop. It kept the flame going.
It wasn't a single blast—it was a rolling inferno. A river of cursed fire washed through the hall, turning tapestries to ash, melting stone, and warping the iron chandeliers on the floor.
Jin appear on the dragon's flank, unnoticed in the chaos of the fire. He tried to stab his claws into the dragon's hide to anchor himself, but the angle was wrong; his claws skittered off the scales.
He abandoned the claws , seeing no effect.
A white, chaotic glow emitted from his hand. Tremor.
He slammed his palm onto the dragon's spine.
VROOOM.
The vibration traveled through the scales, rattling the dragon's vertebrae. The beast shrieked, thrashing wildly. It turned its head, finally spotting him, and unleashed a torrent of fire directly at him.
The blast hit Jin square in the chest, launching him back into the wall. The dragon intensified the flame, pinning him there, bathing him in continuous, melting heat.
Marius started to smile, giddy with victory. "Burn! Burn to ash!"
The fire died down.
The dragon's breath gave out, its lungs empty.
Marius's smile vanished.
Jin walked out of the wall.
His skin was burned away. His flesh was charred black. But beneath the ruin, his bones glowed red, and pink muscle was already knitting back together, steam hissing from his body as he regenerated in real-time.
"Come on we are just starting" Jin rasped, his voice raw.
Jin started to run.
The dragon lunged, jaws snapping.
Jin met it head-on. He leaped, his claws crossed in an X, aiming for the soft scales of the throat with white energy on them.
They collided in the center of the hall.
BOOM.
The impact didn't just crack the floor. It obliterated it.
A spiderweb of fractures raced from the center of the room to the throne, destabilizing the entire structure. The marble shattered, giving way to the weakened dungeon ceiling beneath.
The entire center of the Great Hall collapsed inward.
Stone, chains, fire, the Dragon, and Jin plunged together into the darkness below.
Marius, realizing the floor was gone, activated his flight magic, hovering above the pit. He looked down into the dust clouds, following.