Hell was pretty much what he was expecting, save for the lack of screaming humans. The world was a massive cavern of red rock that seemed to go on forever. Lava cascaded from the ceiling, slowly and perpetually filling the pools. The only creatures around were the thousands of hellhounds laying around on the stone.
The alpha crashed through the portal behind him, skidding to a stop after it realized where it was.
The sea of hellhounds stood, but didn't attack. They merely watched, obeying an ancient law that they had always followed. The alpha turned around to go back, but found the portal blocked by chains. It whipped back around, facing Yuri with panic in its eyes.
"Pity," Yuri said mockingly, tilting his head to one side. "A monster of your strength reduced to this."
The alpha snarled at him, its eyes darting around, searching for a way out of this fight. The nearby hellhounds snarled at it, the others yipping in excitement.
"What do you want?" the alpha managed to ask.
"I want my world back," Yuri growled. "And that dragon would be nice to have too."
"A dragon slain," the alpha said, as though reciting a pledge. "Is an entire war won."
"But he isn't quite dead yet," Yuri said. "Give it back and you can live."
The other hellhounds howled and barked, the sound pressing in like stone walls.
The alpha dipped its head and dropped the essence onto the ground. Yuri started towards it as the alpha raised his paw and slammed his claws down on the essence. The sound of ice shattering echoed throughout the cavern.
"A dragon slain is an entire war won?" Yuri asked, staring at the ground where the silver dragon's essence had been a moment ago. He looked up slowly, glaring into the black eyes of the alpha. "A king murdered is a kingdom in chaos. An alpha killed is a pack in ruins. I'm about to know both of these from experience."
He launched himself at the alpha, drawing the Dagger of the Singing Viper from its sheath. The alpha jumped backwards, only to be caught by the chains of the portal. Yuri landed on the alpha's head, glaring down at the beast.
"This is called the Dagger of the Singing Viper. Why? Because the sound of your screaming is music to my ears."
Before the alpha could react, Yuri plunged the dagger deep into the demon's eye.
The hellhound made the sound of a mix of human screaming and sliding pieces of metal against each other. The monster jerked its head, desperately trying to throw him off. Yuri dug his claws into the alpha's flesh, holding on while the dagger took effect.
The beast may have been too large for truth viper venom to have been of any use, but the Dagger of the Singing Viper was not simply coated in venom. It was cursed, imbued with the energy of human blood and weaponized by the most deadly of venom.
The monster collapsed in a shaking pile, its drool turning red as the blood flowed into its lungs and was exhaled into its mouth. Blood began trailing from the alpha's ears, turning the grey fur slick and black. Yuri pulled the dagger out as soon as the hellhound's tear ducts began to bleed, looking away and doing his best to ignore the nausea at the sight.
The hellhound alpha stopped shaking, its body entirely drained of energy. The creature twitched for the following several minutes, its paws sliding through the ever-growing bed of its own blood.
The other hellhounds watched Yuri with their pitch-black eyes, waiting for him to do something. After a couple of minutes, the sea of hellhounds began to move into the depths of the caverns, leaving Yuri with the dead alpha and the shattered essence.
He knelt next to the sliver fragments, watching them glint in the light of the lava.
Was he really going to do this? And give up everything that he had worked for?
Yuri took a deep breath, clearing his mind. He knew that this was what he had to do.
He closed his eyes, pulling the phoenix essence from a small pouch on his belt.
He let the crown guide his movements, feeling the life of the immortal firebird spread into the shape that he drew in the air. He thought of the kind person who had seen too much. Yuya knew Yuri's story as if he had written it. He had been sympathetic, but hidden a great secret. The silver dragon had taken care of Copernihiss and had done his best to help Yuto. He had done so much, without any reason.
Good creatures didn't end up here.
Yuri finished drawing the symbol, feeling the crown lighten and disappear, taking the three orbs and the phoenix essence with it. The pieces of frost clicked together, the sphere unblemished again. The dragon's essence rose off of the ground, hovered in front of him for a moment, and then zipped through the portal.
Yuri smiled, knowing that he had made the right decision, and fell to the ground.