Chapter 181: Why Do You Call It a Demon Dragon?
"If my cousin isn't joining, then there's absolutely no point in me signing up either."
Ben crossed his arms, leaning back with a smug grin. He was telling the truth, sure, but he was also thoroughly enjoying the chance to mess with Squire. Teasing the Forever Knights was practically a family pastime at this point.
"I've been wandering around Earth for years, and I have yet to see a single 'Demon Dragon' native to this mudball," Klein drawled, his tone dripping with casual amusement. "I've seen plenty on other planets, though. Are you entirely sure this isn't just some random alien dragon that crashed here and got netted by a bunch of spear-wielding primitives a thousand years ago?"
Klein tilted his head, studying Squire with a mocking glint in his eye. "Let's entertain the idea that this so-called Demon Dragon actually exists. Why 'Demon'? What exactly has it done to earn the title? Murder? Arson? Looting? Did it kidnap a princess and hoard a pile of gold?"
The question hit Squire like a physical blow. His jaw worked up and down, but no words came out. How was he supposed to know? The ancient texts didn't exactly cover the creature's criminal record. He stared up at the ceiling, sweating under his armor, managing only a pathetic series of stammers. "Uh... well... ah..."
Heavy, metallic footsteps echoed through the stone corridor.
"No matter what twisted, heretical logic you spout, the beast is evil! And I will be the one to slay it!"
Sir Connor marched into the room, his posture rigid with self-righteous fury. He didn't even spare Klein a glance before turning his wrath on Squire. "Incompetent fool! You have defiled our sacred mission! You brought these... these..."
"Say one more word," Klein interrupted, his voice dropping to a dead, indifferent flatline, "and I will make sure you never speak again."
Connor froze. The sheer casual threat in Klein's voice made the knight grind his teeth. He let out a loud, disdainful scoff, turning on his heel to storm out.
"A scoff counts as a word. Beat him up."
Klein didn't even hesitate. He closed the distance in a blur, driving a swift kick right into the back of Connor's armored knees. The knight crashed to the floor with a heavy clang. Ben and Kevin didn't need to be told twice. They lunged forward, dog-piling the fallen knight. Fists and boots rained down in a chaotic, utterly unheroic flurry of violence.
"Wait! Stop! Cease this at once!"
Squire waved his hands frantically, taking a half-step forward before freezing. He looked at the brutal, synchronized stomping Klein, Ben, and Kevin were delivering. If he intervened, he was absolutely going to end up at the bottom of that pile. Swallowing hard, Squire turned a pleading gaze toward Gwen. Surely the sensible girl would stop this madness.
Instead, Gwen was leaning against a nearby console, a bright smile on her face as she watched the beatdown. She looked like she was half a second away from clapping and cheering them on. Squire clearly did not understand the Tennyson family motto of backing your own blood over basic logic.
After a solid minute of metallic clanging and muffled groans, Klein, Ben, and Kevin finally stepped back. They dusted off their hands in unison, looking entirely too pleased with themselves.
"Watch your mouth from now on, tin can," Kevin sneered, adjusting his jacket.
"Yeah! If you dare to provoke us again, you better watch out for your family!" Ben added, trying to sound as menacing as possible.
The two of them were getting remarkably comfortable with these street-level threats. They had picked up the habit directly from Klein. It was a highly effective method to prevent future retaliation. Not that they were actually afraid of the Forever Knights, but dealing with them was a massive chore. Naturally, none of them would ever stoop so low as to actually harm innocent family members, but the psychological damage of the threat worked wonders.
Connor groaned, clutching his bruised ribs through his dented armor. He stared up at the trio in absolute disbelief. "Wait! Aren't you supposed to be heroes?! You would target women and children?!"
Klein let out a dry, chilling sneer. "Of course not. We don't touch women and children."
"But your wife isn't a child!" Kevin pointed out cheerfully.
"And your son definitely isn't a woman!" Ben chimed in, right on cue.
With that flawless logic established, Ben and Kevin delivered one more synchronized kick to Connor's sides for good measure.
The sheer brutality of the exchange made Squire swallow a heavy lump in his throat. He carefully, silently, took two large steps backward. The internal memos circulating among the Forever Knights explicitly forbidding any direct confrontation with Klein suddenly made terrifying sense.
'Here we go again,' Gwen thought, watching the three boys act less like saviors of the universe and more like a gang of back-alley mobsters. She just offered a helpless shrug.
The tense atmosphere was suddenly broken by a sharp, rhythmic beeping echoing down the hall.
Squire and Connor both reacted as if the heavens had parted to deliver their salvation. Squire practically sprinted toward the source of the alarm, completely abandoning his superior officer.
Connor weakly reached out a gauntleted hand from the floor. "Hey! Help me up! Don't just leave me here! Hey!"
Ignoring the groaning knight, the group followed Squire into a dimly lit communications hub. Banks of monitors lined the walls, casting a pale glow over the room. Squire scrambled into the seat in front of the main terminal, his fingers flying across the keyboard.
"We've been tapping into the local military communication channels," Squire explained breathlessly, pulling up a video feed.
The large central screen flickered to life, displaying grainy, night-vision footage from a military aircraft. Several fighter jets were locked in a high-speed pursuit with a massive, winged silhouette. The jets unleashed a barrage of bullets and heat-seeking missiles, but the heavy ordnance simply sparked and bounced harmlessly off the creature's thick, armored scales. The beast banked sharply, opening its maw. A torrent of blinding, superheated plasma washed over the screen. In seconds, the multi-million dollar jets were reduced to falling scrap metal, consumed by the fiery blast.
"Okay, yeah, that really looks like a Demon Dragon," Ben muttered, his eyes wide as he watched the destruction. The creature on the monitor matched every terrifying illustration in the Forever Knights' ancient texts.
Klein remained completely silent. He stared at the paused frame of the beast, his expression shifting into something incredibly strange. A mix of deadpan realization and deep disappointment. He rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"You idiots," Klein said slowly, the weight of a millennium of stupidity heavy in his voice. "You caught the wrong dragon a thousand years ago. That is just a standard alien dragon. I've literally seen its kin roaming around off-world."
"Wait, the actual 'Demon Dragon' you guys are obsessed with... you mean Diagon, right?" Gwen asked, a sudden chill running down her arms.
Memories from her childhood surfaced unbidden. She and Ben had shared a terrifying, psychic nightmare about Diagon, the cosmic entity that even the most ancient beings feared. The sheer scale of its thousand-meter, tentacled form was something she would never forget.
"I do not care what you call it! It is a Demon Dragon! A foul minion of Diagon!" Connor shouted, having finally dragged himself into the room, leaning heavily against the doorframe. His fanatical warrior belief was entirely immune to logic or alien taxonomy. "I am going to mount its head on a pike!"
Squire, however, was staring blankly at the screen. The absolute certainty in Klein's voice had shattered his worldview. Could it really be true? Did their revered ancestors, the founders of their entire order, genuinely capture the wrong target a thousand years ago? If so... what did that mean for their sacred duty? They had spent ten centuries torturing and imprisoning a random alien animal for absolutely no reason.
"Whatever. Let's just go find the oversized lizard and see for ourselves," Klein sighed, already turning toward the exit.
The group filed out of the damp, stone castle and into the cool night air. Klein, Ben, and Gwen piled into Kevin's muscle car, the engine roaring to life with a deep, satisfying growl. Squire and a heavily bruised Connor opted for a bulky, heavily armored military transport. Tires kicked up dirt and gravel as the two vehicles sped off toward the coordinates pulled from the military feed.
The convoy arrived at a vast, open grassland nestled between rolling hills. Under the pale light of the moon, the massive silhouette of the dragon descended from the clouds. Its leathery wings beat against the air, kicking up a fierce gale that flattened the tall grass as it touched down.
Kevin slammed on the brakes, bringing the car to a halt a safe distance away. The armored transport rumbled to a stop right beside them. As Klein and the others stepped out into the cool wind, the giant beast snapped its massive head in their direction, its reptilian eyes narrowing.
Klein squinted, his enhanced vision locking onto a metallic, circular device clamped tightly around the creature's thick neck. "A Universal Translator?" he murmured, raising an eyebrow.
"A what translator?" Ben asked, staring blankly at the monster.
Klein reached over and flicked the back of Ben's head with an impatient snap. "A Universal Translator, Dweeb. It's a standard piece of tech used to bridge the communication gap between different species across the galaxy. Which proves exactly what I said: it's just an alien."
Ben rubbed the back of his head, blinking. "Oh. Right. Makes sense."
Kevin nodded in sudden understanding. Cracking his knuckles, he stepped forward, waving his arms high in the air. "Hey! Scaly! I know you can talk! Let's hash this out!"
"So what if it originates from the stars?" Connor spat, leaning heavily against the armored vehicle. "A Demon Dragon is a Demon Dragon. Attempting to parley with a beast of pure evil? Utterly ridiculous."
Squire remained silent, his hands gripping the edge of the transport door. The foundation of his entire life was crumbling. If the beast was just a lost traveler with a translation collar... had the Forever Knights been the villains all along?
The dragon lowered its massive head, its jaw unhinging as it tried to respond. But instead of words, only a deafening, guttural roar echoed across the plains, vibrating right through their chests.
"The translator is busted," Klein noted, immediately diagnosing the issue. He cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted over the wind. "Hey! I can fix that collar for you! But you need to calm down and behave!"
Klein took two slow, deliberate steps forward, keeping his hands visible.
The reaction was instantaneous. The dragon's scales flared. It let out a concussive, warning roar, a stream of smoke billowing from its nostrils, demanding he stay back.
Ben frowned, genuinely confused. "Why is it getting so aggressive? We're trying to help."
Gwen slowly turned her head, giving Ben a look usually reserved for the deeply stupid. She pointed a finger directly at Connor and Squire, who were standing right behind them in full knight regalia. "We arrived with them. Do you honestly think it's going to let us just walk up and touch its neck?"
Ben blinked, the gears in his head finally clicking into place. "Oh. Right. The Forever Knights kept it locked in a dungeon for a literal thousand years. It probably hates anyone standing within a ten-mile radius of that armor."
"Well, we have no choice then," Klein sighed dramatically. In reality, he just found the whole diplomatic approach incredibly tedious. He waved a hand at Ben and Kevin. "You two hold it down. I'll get in close and fix the tech."
Without waiting for an argument, Klein raised his left arm. The faceplate of the Another Omnitrix popped up with a sharp mechanical hiss. He slammed his palm down.
"Brainstorm!"
A blinding flash of quiet blue light erupted across the dark grassland, illuminating the hills. In Klein's place stood the massive, hyper-intelligent crustacean, its exposed brain sparking with electrical currents.
"You got it!" Ben grinned, eager for a fight. He activated his own Omnitrix, dialing up a heavy hitter, and slammed the core down.
"Humungousaur!"
An emerald green light exploded outward, washing over the plains. The light faded to reveal the towering, heavily muscled form of the Vaxasaurian, letting out a thunderous roar that challenged the dragon's own.
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