Here's Chapter 6 of Scarlet Dragon King. The heat is rising—Eric is now drawing the attention of goddesses that existed before time itself. In this chapter, we bring in the Creation Goddess and introduce the ominous beauty of Astaroth, the Eldritch Goddess.
---
Scarlet Dragon King – Chapter 6: Creation and Madness
The world shuddered.
It wasn't a quake. It wasn't an explosion.
It was a whisper—one so ancient that even the most timeless entities paused to listen.
In the void beyond the edges of the universe, two eyes opened.
One burned with life.
The other—with madness.
—
In Kuoh, Eric sat beneath a tree in the school courtyard. The branches swayed unnaturally above him, not from wind, but from the currents of power he was unconsciously releasing.
Rias approached quietly, arms folded beneath her chest.
"You haven't slept," she said softly.
"Sleep is... hard when creation starts breathing again," he murmured.
She frowned. "What do you mean?"
Eric looked at her, his gaze distant. "There's a presence stirring. A power older than the cycle itself. She shaped existence with her thoughts. She dreamed galaxies into life."
"The Creation Goddess?"
He nodded. "And she's aware of me now."
Suddenly, the sky bent. The clouds twisted into spirals, and golden strands of light fell like threads onto the earth.
A rift appeared above the field behind the school.
And from it... she descended.
She didn't walk. She glided.
Her form was majestic and maternal—eyes shimmering with stars, skin aglow with the essence of life. Flowers bloomed in her wake. The air itself sang as she arrived.
Eric stood, heart steady. "You've come."
"I remembered you," she said, voice full of sorrow and wonder. "Before time. Before anything. You were always the flame I could not shape."
Rias was speechless. Akeno, standing nearby, could barely breathe.
The Creation Goddess stepped closer to Eric, her presence surrounding him like the embrace of a thousand worlds.
"You walk among broken laws and forgotten truths. You awaken those who should not stir," she whispered. "Why?"
"Because I am the flame that refused to die," he answered. "I exist not by birth... but by will."
She smiled softly. "Then let existence know your name."
She touched his chest—right over his heart—and from that single point, a golden light surged outward. The world shook as Eric's power surged, more stabilized than ever.
In that moment, Eric's form burned with balance—his chaos, his fire, his dragon soul... now anchored by creation itself.
Then—
The sky screamed.
Not howled.
Screamed.
The shadows behind the clouds twisted unnaturally, and the air became cold—not in temperature, but in emotion.
A laugh echoed across the wind. Soft. Sinister. Seductive.
A second rift split reality.
From it oozed tendrils of darkness shaped like ideas. Shapes that shouldn't exist slithered across the sky.
And then she emerged.
Astaroth.
The Eldritch Goddess.
Her form was paradox—both gorgeous and horrifying. Long silver hair, ink-black eyes with swirling galaxies inside them. A dress that flowed like liquid void, shifting and changing shape with every blink.
She hovered above them, upside-down, grinning.
"Oh, my sweet dragon," she purred. "You shine so bright... it hurts."
Eric tensed. "Astaroth."
"You remember me?" she cooed. "I'm flattered."
The Creation Goddess turned, her expression hardening. "You shouldn't be here."
Astaroth twirled mid-air. "And yet... I am. Isn't that what your little flame does? Wake those who were meant to sleep?"
She floated down toward Eric, stopping just above the ground.
"I saw you in the space between sanity and truth," she whispered, reaching toward his face. "And I wanted you."
Eric caught her hand mid-air.
"You'll have to do more than whisper madness to claim me."
Astaroth's eyes glowed with delight. "Oh, darling. I plan to scream."