Chapter 42: Two Kinds of Devils
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Dante leapt out of the way of the creature's fist as it slammed itself into the earth to crush the immortal. He decided to stay on the ground, letting Ruby hop onto its arm so she can work her way up, leaving Dante to distract the colossal beast as he drew its sight away from the small reaper running up its limb.
It's mouth glowed with bright with blood red energy before it shot out one small burst spherical shot. No room to dodge simply, Dante took up his sword with both hands and lashed out at the orb, sending a white and black Aura Wave out with his slice to meet the orb. The two energies collided, and ripped into each other with intense ferocity before exploding.
The beast opened its mouth, but instead of shooting out an orb, the red energy glowing inside its mouth built and charged up, then as it leaned forward towards Dante, the creature let out a continuous beam of blood red energy that trailed the ground wherever he moved. This wouldn't be an attack he could counter directly, so the teen continued to sprint as fast he could, ducking under and leaping over the beam whenever it came close to touching his body.
By now, Ruby had reached her intended destination, then leapt off the creature's shoulder into the air, readying her weapon. With a swing and pull of Crescent Rose's trigger, Ruby surged forward with intense speed, letting her right foot guide the way as her legs immediately were cloaked in black Aura, allowing her to don her armored leggings once more.
Like a comet streaking through the sky, Ruby was like an intense blast of red as her black armored foot crashed into the side of the beast's head, making it screech out in pain as it's head bobbed side to side. In the next moment, its body leaned forward, and the monster fell into the earth face first.
"Now!" Ruby shouted as she landed on the ground.
Her black armored legs dissolved from her limbs, Ruby used her Semblance to surge forward, and then sliced at the right wrist of the creature to leave a deep slash. The others had rushed in, Jaune transforming his sword and shield into its greatsword form and running past with a slash, deepening the cut as Ren also moved past with a quick slice.
Nora had leapt up, readying Magnhild up above her before smashing atop the creature's hand to keep it in place. Inuba was the last to move, coming in from the opposite direction of where everyone made their cuts and served the hand entirely with a blazing cut that Nora helped keep in place.
The massive monster let out another shrill roar as it reared backwards, waving its stump of an arm around wildly before it looked down on the teens. As quick as its large body allowed it to, the creature repeatedly slammed its injured limb into the ground in an attempt to crush the teens, almost succeeding had Inuba not quickly coated her katana in white flame and unleashed a massive blast of pure white fire that forced it back.
Dante was on his return trip, leaping onto the top of a ruined building and leaping high up into the air. The beast noticed him, and looked up at the teen currently flying towards him, firing off quick blasts of its blood red energy to shoot the immortal out of the sky. The teen dodged everything that came his way, barely dodging one of the blasts as he leaned backwards, the energy almost grazing his chin as he moved past it and flipped in the air once to reorient himself.
It's left hand now made its way towards Dante, palm ready to smack him out of the sky. The teen, confident he could overpower its smack, straight tossed his sword at the creature's palm, his body vanishing in a stream of white and back as that same stream immediately appeared at his sword. The momentum of his thrown sword, along with the blast of white and black Aura that surged out, propelled him with great force.
The two made contact, and after a few brief moments, the creature forced its hand downwards, and sent the immortal crashing into the ground. His body cracked the ground on the first impact, and cracked the ground once more after he bounced, sending him into a roll until his used his sword to stop him.
Dante staggered up unto his feet, slashing his sword outwards of him before sheathing it. The sheath expanded, and transformed Dante's longsword into an Ultra Greatsword, removing it from behind him as he readied it at his side.
The creature's palm crashed down on the teen, but he swung at its hand with a loud roar. Putting some more force after collision, Dante forced away the massive hand, watching the beast ready itself to slam its fist down while the immortal brought his Ultra Greatsword across his body, ready for another counter.
The colossal black and red fist heavily slammed down on the teen, unable to move the hand in spite of his struggle. His arms soon were cloaked in black Aura, forming the twisted black armor of his Shadow Skin around his limbs to give him the extra force he needed to push the arm back.
The teen then moved his sword to his back, attaching it to his back and transforming it back into a sheath as he drew his longsword out, leaping high up onto the hand he had forced back. The beast noticed Dante, and used it's stumped hand to slam it atop its upper arm and quickly drag it down, trying to bush the immortal away.
When the limb was close enough, Dante leapt onto the stump and kicked off it, throwing himself high into the air, but with not enough momentum to carry himself towards the creature's head like he needed.
It was then he heard loud gunshots, looking below him to see a blur of red dart up from the ground, a hand reaching and grabbing hold of his. The blur of white carried the blur of white, and together in unison, spun and spiraled higher up towards the creature's face. The blurs stopped, showing Ruby still holding onto the immortal before she spun around and tossed him towards the creature's face.
A jet of white and black Aura flowed from the tip of the teen's sword as he surged forward with a battle cry, tearing back his blade until he closed in and stabbed the creature in the forehead.
Having a good hold, Dante planted his feet onto the forehead of the creature, then placed his left hand atop the cross guard of his longsword to deliver the finishing blow.
"Devouring Light!"
Calling out his technique, the immortal's blade shot out a massive torrent of his white and black Aura, the tore through the creature's head and exited out the back of its skull in a thunderous howl of screeching energy.
Noting the creature about to fall back into the chasm below, Dante ripped his sword free from its flesh and leapt up into the air, straight tossing his longsword back down to the earth a safe distance away. Dante appeared shortly after in a stream of his white and black Aura, standing back up and exhaling as he took up his sword and watched the colossal body fall back into the abyss.
"We..! We did it!" Jaune exclaimed.
"Yeah! Knocked 'em right out of the park!" Nora yelled victoriously.
Dante flashed them a brief smile before glancing over to Inuba, his smile soon vanishing as his gaze wandered down to the ground before moving towards the distance.
A crackles of bright blue light shone in constrained, jagged rectangular shapes, soon fully filling out and disapatting moments after to reveal glossy, black stone. More crackles appeared one after the other in rapid succession, building a bridge of the shining obsidian stone all the way across to the other side.
"I suppose that means we're able to cross now… It seems you were right Dante." Ren commented.
"Yeah… Seems like it…"
All of RNJR looked at Dante in confusion as he stood ahead of them, overlooking the distance.
His response… wasn't like the usual.
"Let's, uh… Let's keep going ahead. Before anything tries to stop us." The immortal mentioned as he took the first few steps across the small obsidian bridge.
Ruby folded up Crescent Rose and jogged forward until she was close enough behind Dante to continue walking without bumping into him. Jaune, Ren and Nora did the same, catching up to Ruby as they kept watch all around them.
The small reaper glanced back at the kitsune trailing behind them, seeing her crimson eyes that once shone with life, now dull, and trailing the ground as she went, remaining ever silent.
What was wrong with them? They were partners… weren't they?
Why won't they talk to each other?
"Dante-"
The immortal's hand blocked her as she saw him glance around quickly before quickly walking forward, the rest moving up silently with the same speed as they crossed the bridge.
More ruins amidst the black sands, this time larger than the last and… at the very least, somewhat whole.
Suddenly, the ground shifted beneath their feet as a flat, rectangular outcrop of black stone rose from the ground between Ruby and Dante to try and separate them. Had Dante not pushed Ruby back, she surely would have been struck by the stone.
More outcrops rose from where Inuba stood, forcing her forwards towards Dante's position until she was practically at his side. Taking a moment, they both watched as more black walls of stone rose from the ground, forming higher and higher into the red skies. They soon stopped, and a shine of purple energy crackled through the stone walls, coating the wall entirely.
Dante raised up his longsword, quickly charging it with a torrent of his white and black Aura and striking the wall, as hard as his could. Instead of shattering the wall, his blade bounced off of the black stone like rubber, his Aura quickly fading away as he staggered backwards.
The immortal walked forward hurriedly, touching his hand against the wall before smashing the bottom part of his fist against the stone, knocking on it loudly.
Nothing.
"Damn it! They cut us off!" The teen angrily shouted as he slammed his hand against the wall.
He pushed himself off the wall, and walked forward towards the ruins. There'd likely be no way for either side to force their way through, so the only option now was to move forward and defeat the person who put up the wall in the first place.
With Inuba here, it'd be…
…
It would have been easy, but…
"Come on. We have to find whoever set this up and defeat them." Dante spoke up as he quickly moved ahead, only to realize Inuba wasn't following after him.
He turned to look at her, seeing how her gaze was focused on the ground.
"Look, whatever problem you have right now, we can talk about it later." The immortal said as he approached the kitsune and reached out, "Right now, we-"
As soon as he got close enough, she backed away from him, bringing her hands up to her chest as her head tilted further down to the black sands beneath them, making sure their eyes wouldn't meet.
"I… I realize now… there's nothing more to speak about at this point…" she spoke silently.
A painful throb ran through his chest, more terrible than last as he clutched as his chest tightly.
Why… Why did something like that hurt him so much..? Today, since the moment this started, he felt so terribly injured, as I'd a deathly sickness had been plaguing him.
He'd never felt so terrible before in his life…
And all he could do really was let her pass him by as he stared on in awe.
…
…
Why did everything feel so wrong..?
It was all too quiet. The only thing that could be heard as the two walked was their own footsteps making slight crunching noises in the black sand, and the slight breeze that ran through the area.
Dante's entire body had never felt heavier as he traversed the wasteland, slowly moving behind Inuba as she kept a steadier pace ahead.
It wasn't the day his monthly sickness was to kick in, for if that were the case, he would have taken the day to tough it out before coming here.
So then… what was it that was crippling him?
Inuba stopped suddenly, making the immortal halt his own tracks before he took large strides forward to look ahead.
He saw then what exactly she was looking at.
Yards away from them stood a man with a black, purple trimmed, open coat that had long split tails reaching to his ankles, the sleeves were tucked into fancifully plated black gauntlets with numerous wavy patterns spanning the metal, the fingertips clawed and sharp. Underneath that coat, he wore a dark purple shirt with long, tattered lapels that flared outwards. He also wore black dress pants with a silvery colored belt, the pant legs also tucked into a pair of knee high plated greaves sporting the same design and black color as his gauntlets.
He looked young, about their age, and had pale skin and messy black hair that almost reached his shoulders, a few strands of his bangs loosely falling between his eyes. The eyes themselves were of an ultraviolet color, with black slit pupils, just like…
…
Like a Dark Entity…
...
All he hand in his hands was a segmented black rod that he held in his left hand.
"My Mistress bids you welcome, White Swordsman, and his most loyal partner the White Fox. We've been expecting you for some time now. I trust the towers weren't too troublesome to dismantle?"
Dante took steps forward ahead of his partner, "So it was you then… You raised those towers across the continent."
"Technically speaking, we did no such thing. We simply… commanded that they be raised." The teen spoke, waving his hand.
The immortal was doing his best to control his breathing, but the sickness he felt persisted regardless of how he tried to bring it under control.
"And? Who the hell might you be?"
"I am no one of any importance. But if you really must know…" the teen raised a hand to his chest to give a respectful bow, "I am Asher. Attendant to my mistress, Scylix."
Scylix… That sounds like a Dark Entity name sure enough… And here I thought Raum was the only one of his kind here… Did more of them spill out to this World? Or maybe… somebody had just enough hate in them to blacken their body and soul.
"And you, White Swordsman Dante, will grant my mistress's wish."
"Her wish?" Dante questioned.
"Yes. That is the only reason you are here." Asher spoke as he raised up his small black rod that crackled to life with ultraviolet colored Aura, forming a transparent halberd in his hands, "And you will fulfill it."
"Sorry pal, but I'm not here to grant anyone's wishes."
"Who said anything about you specifically granting it? All we need is the power of your soul."
"My soul, huh?"
"Yes. The power of a Rebellious Soul seeped with strength and power beyond imagination. For that reason alone, we will use it's power to grant the wish of my mistress."
"If you drew us all the way here just for something so stupid, then you'll be disappointed." Dante answered as he drew his longsword from the sheath on his back, raising it up and pointing it at the teen, "Besides… I'm not going to let you have your way just because you're asking."
Asher made to move, but a pale hand touching his shoulder stopped him from doing so, immediately forcing him to stand up straight at attention.
"Asher… You should know better than that."
A woman seemingly stepped out of thin air from behind the teen as she glanced to him briefly before her eyes met Dante's.
Black sclerae, blood red irises, and black slit pupils stared back at cautious, bright sky blue eyes.
"We meet at last." Scylix spoke, her lips curling into a smile.
"Preferably never, if Creation was any kinder to me." The immortal bit back coldly.
"Feisty as well… I see your observations weren't wrong, Asher."
"You give me too much praise, mistress."
"I don't give a damn about clowns like you or your observations. You're either letting us out of here or your own accord… or we're beating you into submission until you do. Simple as that."
"Simple, you say…" Scylix spoke with a chuckle as she took a few steps forward, "Your countless victories give you the impression you can simply waltz out of any situation simply because you will it to be so… I will be the first to tell you that this time… this shall not be the case. The only way you will ever leave from this place, is if I and I alone allow it."
"We'll see about that."
Dante glanced to Inuba briefly to see that she had readied herself at least by having her sword drawn, but… he had his doubts that her head was in the right place at moment.
"Very well then. Asher, I will allow you to take the lead for now."
"Understood, my Mistress."
Asher and Dante were the first to move, surging forward as they glided over the black sands before coming to their first clash. Dante's sword struck the shaft of Asher's halberd, and the black haired teen pushed back to force away the immortal. He began his counter with a powerful twirl with the blade edge of his weapon, twirled it again, on the final twirl struck with enough force to send Dante sliding on his heels.
The immortal stopped, looking up to see his enemy already above him to slam his halberd down. Dante sidestepped the powerful downwards swing and gave a spinning slash of his own, which when Asher blocked, it threw him off balance, allowing Dante to transition from his spin directly into a stab. The black haired teen forcefully raised up his halberd to push the stab up, and went for a quick right cross to the immortal, who used his left hand to catch the punch as they head butted one another.
"Not so bad..!" Dante commented in a strained voice.
Shortly after, his longsword was cloaked in a torrent of his white and black Aura, slowly overpowering the Asher until he finally swiped down and unleashed a small wave of Aura to send his opponent back on his heels.
The black haired teen struggled until the wave of Aura exploded, creating a small enough smoke screen to obscure his entire person.
He's keeping up better than I expected…
The immortal looked on towards Scylix behind Asher, who simply stood where she was, waiting patiently.
Either she has no intention of fighting, or she's waiting for the right moment to take advantage of an opening. Either of them could have targeted Inuba as well, but her lackey's been solely focused on me.
Dante looked behind him briefly to take in his partner's status.
Still with that blank stare of hers…
At least she has her guard up…
The immortal looked forward, hearing a whipping noise through the air and seeing three ultraviolet arrows quickly speeding out of of the smoke. Dante cut the first two out of the sky and grabbed the third one out of the air that made to move past him, snapping it in two.
The dust settled, and Asher stood where he was in a stance, an ultraviolet bow now in place of his halberd, right arm raised and ready to draw on the glowing string of Aura.
With incredible speed, Asher tugged on the string of his bow as ultraviolet arrows formed one after another with each rapid tug, Dante moving as quickly as possible to destroy the arrows as they came. The black haired teen glided over the field, bowstring drawn and charging up with a bright burst of ultraviolet Aura, that when released, loosed a massive arrows shaped blast of his Aura.
The immortal raised his sword up to his center to block the arrow, struggling to push it away against the constant propelling force as he noted Asher moving past him towards Inuba.
The black haired teen twirled his bow around to transform it back into its halberd form, and took a swing at the kitsune. She blocked it just in time, but was struggling to push back.
Inuba could have easily overpowered him, surely, but she couldn't. She was strictly on defense.
Dante swung the powershot arrow away from himself, staggering backwards slightly as he turned and rushed forward, towards the black haired teen, seeing him breaking Inuba's guard with an upwards swing. He had almost finished his attack chain with a downward strike, but Dante grabbed hold of the shaft near the blade head of the weapon, stopping him entirely.
The immortal suddenly felt something squeezing his right arm tightly, turning to see three black serrated chains with small bladed points wrapped tightly around his forearm and wrist. As his eyes quickly followed the source of the chains, he saw that they came from within the wide cuff of Scylix's right sleeve, whose hand was extended towards the white haired teen.
Dante looked back to Asher and just barely reared his head back in time to avoid the spike at the tip of his enemy's halberd. The serrated edges began to tear through the sleeve of Dante's coat and began tearing into his flesh, prompting him to pull Asher forward, lift him up in the air and toss the teen away from him and Inuba.
The three chains biting into the immortal unraveled themselves and quickly slithered like snakes back into Scylix's sleeves, as Asher stood near her.
"Come on partner, focus up! This isn't the time to-!"
Dante turned his head back around to block a crushing blow from Asher, watching Scylix surge past him straight for Inuba.
As much as he tried, Dante couldn't force away Asher. He stuck to the immortal as close as he could, and didn't allow him to try and assist Inuba, currently under assault from Scylix. Six of the woman's chains were extended from her back, each one quickly striking at Inuba rapidly from all directions. While the kitsune was blocking most of the whipping chains, a few of them still manage to break past her guard to leave small cuts on her body.
Why wasn't she using her flames?!
"Get out of my way!" Dante shouted.
"You'll have to kill me first if you wish to fight my mistress." Asher stated in a strained voice, doing his best to keep Dante in place.
"SHUT UP! AND MOVE!"
Dante's Aura flared up, slowly pushing Asher closer into the ground until his own ultraviolet Aura flared up as well to give enough of a push back.
The immortal wasn't going to waste time any longer.
Dante spun around Asher and forced him back, causing the black haired teen to force his body backwards. He couldn't see Dante's hand grab hold of the shaft of his halberd, and when he did, he saw it was changed, layered in twisted, black, segmented Armor.
Asher's eyes widened when he saw Dante fully Shadow Skinned, and he struggled to just even free his weapon from Dante's grasp as he let out a hollow, echoing roar.
"Let go!" Asher shouted.
The immortal kept his grip despite Asher's pulling, rearing back his right arm as his longsword flowed with a violent torrent of black and white Aura, tearing into the ground behind him. His Aura grew in mass, seemingly screeching like an angry devil as Asher struggled to reobtain his weapon.
In the next moment, Dante quickly let go of his sword and grabbed it again backhand style, "Devouring..!"
Asher's right hand brimmed with ultraviolet Aura, making to strike at Dante's head, but he was far too late to strike.
"Light!"
Dante swung his sword upwards into Asher with as much force as he could muster, unleashing the contained energy of his Aura as it violently surged outwards with the strike, consuming the black haired teen as the wave quickly traveled across the plane of black sand, Asher's screams growing quieter and quieter the further the colossal wave of Aura traveled.
The immortal immediately spun around and found three chains wrapping around his armored neck, making the transformed teen bring hand up to grasp at the chains. While pressure on Inuba's end was alleviated, she still struggled to defend, much less gain an opportunity to attack.
Dante managed to dig his armored hand underneath the chains covering his throat, and after a few forceful tugs, managed to loosen up the chains as they scraped around his armored neck with sparks. The immortal made sure to have a tight hold of the chains, giving them two quick pulls before the third pull forced Scylix away from Inuba, and flew over the immortals head.
Landing opposite of him, Scylix immediately shot forward, all six of her black, serrated chains present and whipping about rapidly.
The teen raised up his blade to block the first set of chains, unable to block the next set as they wrapped around his body to restrain him. Despite his struggling, The transformed teen couldn't break free of chains, watching Scylix glide forward towards Inuba.
Reaching into her sleeve, Scylix had begun to draw a silvery sword from within her sleeve. It had a silver handle that looked like strands twisted together, a silver colored guard with no branch that sported feather-like embossing in the metal, and a long, black, double edged blade.
Dante's eyes widened when he saw the blade being produced, making him struggle panickedly to get free of the accursed bindings holding him in place.
Inuba, still on her knees recovering from the onslaught, was unaware of the approaching blade about to strike her.
Giving up on simply breaking free, Dante forced his arm back as far as he could in one swift motion, and straight tossed his sword towards the two behind him.
The kitsune looked up in that moment, watching the black inching in closer to stab her as she made to stand up.
The blade however, would never reach her.
Something appeared directly in front of her, crashing into the kitsune to push her away from the oncoming sword as she heard metal being torn through, and flesh being dug into a moment after.
Inuba hesitated a moment, but soon opened her eyes to find herself on her hands and knees, staring at the black sands. She touched her chest briefly, finding no blade had pierced her.
The kitsune's eyes widened as her head shot up, looking to see Dante's armored back facing her.
And piercing him through his stomach, the same black blade Scylix had held.
The twisted black armor surrounding Dante's body had immediately broken down, and blasted away from his entire body like a short storm of black ash, Inuba not so much as blinking as she stared on in shock.
The immortal's hand shot out and grabbed hold of Scylix's wrist, squeezing hard enough to make her let go of the weapon she dug into Dante's body as she retreated. The teen's body crackled with brief sparks of white and black as he took a staggering step forward, hanging his head low as he exhaled.
Inuba remained as she was, silently staring at her Master in awe as she began to quiver.
"So… That's how it is then…" the teen said with a chuckle, slowly turning around to face Inuba.
The kitsune gasped when she saw blood dripping down from the corners of his mouth.
And then, he did the strangest of things.
He gently patted her head, resting it there a moment as Inuba's fox ears instinctively folded against her head.
"It's alright… It's… alright…" he spoke in a quiet voice, struggling to even smile, "Whatever happens after this… Know that it isn't your fault… It'll never be."
Inuba's crimson red eyes narrowed slowly, trying to stop herself from crying. But she didn't even manage a word out before her entire body quickly vanished in a stream of white and black Aura.
Dante's hand fell to his side as he let out another breath, looking down at the sword still piercing his stomach.
Yeah… This is definitely...
The immortal weakly reached a hand for the silvery handle of the sword, and after a few struggling tugs, he managed to remove the blade from his body, now holding it in his hand as he stared at it to confirm his fears.
He then turned around slowly, facing Scylix once more as she sported a big smile on her face.
"You know what that is, don't you?" She asked.
"Yes…" The teen answered, "This… This is the Eos Blade… The one thing in the entire whole of Creation that can undo any force, any powerful magic, regardless of what it is."
"Then you understand what's currently happening to you?"
Dante's eyes trailed the ground for a moment, still coming to grips with the reality he was now facing.
"I'm dying… I'm… actually dying…"
"Yes. What was once impossible, has now become genuine reality."
"Where did you find this?"
"It was certainly difficult, that much I assure you." Scylix spoke as she waved a hand, a darkwood grain chair forming behind her out of her black and purple Aura as she took a seat, "But it was here, all along, surprisingly enough. All that was needed in the end was a little 'foresight'."
Foresight…
"When did you know?" Dante asked, gripping the sword tightly.
"About you? Ever since you stepped foot onto this world. I've been waiting a long time for someone like you to arrive. Just when I thought I'd have to leave this wretched world, lo and behold, you come here."
"Why not come after me from the start if you knew I was here?"
"Surely you must be joking." Scylix scoffed, "Do you honestly believe you'd be of any use to me if you were in such a weakened state? No, I waited and bided my time. Of course, I did send the occasional enemy your way to help you along."
"Then you're saying…"
"Yes… Your growth is partly due to my efforts, all to help build you up to become even stronger for just this moment. Everything else though was all through your own merit. I must say, it has been rather impressive seeing you always brandish triumph out of a hopeless outcome."
"A speciality of mine…" Dante replied.
Scylix chuckled at his comment, "A speciality no longer, I'm afraid. This time... there won't be any chance miracles. No tricks to pull out from your sleeve to save the day because you will it so."
The teen never believed in miracles anyway. Belief in something was a concept he always viewed with contempt as a terrible, wasteful thing.
In all of his battles, the only thing he ever believed in was his own power. His own abilities. His own people.
Nothing else.
"You went through all this trouble to make me mortal… I suppose then, you'll be the lucky person to finally take me down when no one else could?"
Scylix's smile vanished as she sighed, crossing one leg over the other and resting her cheek against her hand.
"Seeing as I have what I want, personally, I'd let you live knowing Death was now a reality for someone like you." She said with a shrug, "But a deal is a deal, afterall. You more than anyone understand how our word as Dark Entities is our bond. Oaths, deals, promises… We keep those far more strictly than any other living being in the whole of Creation."
There was truth to her words. Even with how wretched some Dark Entities were, their deals and oaths were always something they kept to, even if they hated it with a passion.
Scylix brought up her other hand as her black and purple Aura flared around it. A pit of a viscous, black substance formed from beneath the sands near Scylix, and from that pit…
A Beowolf emerged, dragging itself out of the mass as it snarled when glancing at Dante.
The Grimm's head then jolted towards Scylix, slowly walking towards her on all fours before nuzzling it's bone plated head underneath the woman's hand.
"Fascinating creatures these Grimm… With how they're made, one would think of them similar to Lesser Dark Entities, those mindless creatures we create to serve as our foot soldiers."
"Are you-?"
"Their maker? No, far from it. I simply… made a bargain with the original proprietor to share with me her secret of creating these beasts. In exchange, I take care of you, the second biggest problem after that man, Ozpin."
Borrowed power then…
"A shame… And here I thought I was face to face with the maker of the Grimm."
"What? You thought to end the threat of the Grimm once for all?"
"Maybe. Kill the maker, and they might stop being so inumerable." Dante stated.
"Keyword being maybe."
The teen nodded silently at the comment, glancing at the Eos Sword briefly before he raised it up. Black Aura began to consume the blade slowly, struggling to span itself across the metal, but with some more time, the blade was completely engulfed.
Shortly after, it died out with the Aura, disintegrating completely into nothingness.
"A wise decision. Had you not destroyed the Eos Blade, and your siblings decided to take vengeance, I may have very well used it against them too. But I suppose that was the first thought you had once you realized it could wash away your immortality."
Scylix snapped her fingers, and the Beowolf next to her dissolved into black dust and sank back into the black sands.
"No matter. I already achieved my goal. The only thing that remains now…" Scylix spoke, standing from her chair as it vanished in a burst of her Aura, "is keeping my end of the bargain."
As she spoke, her chains chains materialized from behind her, branching overhead of her person as she took slow strides forward.
Dante slowly took steps backwards from the woman, his breathing heavy and unsteady as he clutched the wound on his stomach closing up very slowly.
He never felt cornered in his life. Not like he did now.
His body was weak, and that dreadful feeling still gripped him tightly. He tried to force his Shadow Skin on, but gained nothing but small crackles of his Aura. The same happened when he tried to activate Dakini no Ikari.
...
There was really nothing to be done…
...
It was then Dante felt a small weight in his pocket, realizing what exactly it was once he glanced down to his left hand.
H gave that to me… Said it held the key to everything. If that's so…
Dante reached into his coat pocket, feeling around until he his fingers touched cold steel.
Then there might be a chance after all…
"The world as you know it… will come to a close soon enough in the next few hours. Best to send you off now to spare you the pain of what's to come."
As Scylix spoke, she raised up her hands, her serrated chains ceasing their whipping about and remaining still as their small, dagger-like points locked onto Dante. When she flicked her hand down, the chains shot forward with frightening speed, ready to tear into the now mortal Dante.
The teens hand quickly left his pocket, lifting the item clutched between his fingers up into full view.
Scylix's chains did something odd then.
They stopped short of Dante, and regardless of how hard they pressed, some force kept them at bay from moving any further.
The woman squinted her eyes at the sight of the object, a small sense of shock taking her as she saw what it was that stopped her weapons.
A ring.
It had a rectangular obsidian stone set in the metal band, that had numerous diamond shaped patterns cut into the edges of the stone. In the center of the stone was a small white metal shield crest with a black background that had the letter "A" in white colored metal etched into the black background of the shield crest. The rectangular metal surrounding the ring stone, as well as the metal band, was colored pure black with intricate white colored etchings carved into the band.
What was this ring that it stopped her chains.
"I don't give a damn about the World… Never have, never will… You can do whatever the hell you want with it… Burn it for all I care…" Dante spoke.
Scylix brought her chains back to her, glaring at the teen with caution as he clutched the ring in his palm.
"However… I refuse to let you hurt those I care about most… the people I love the most in this… screwed up Creation..!"
Thoughts of Inuba, Ruby, his siblings, and his friends, both new and old popped into his mind one after the other.
"I made a vow when I came here… I vowed… that I would never let anyone else take from me..! Not my sanity, not my body, not my soul, not the people I cherish most! I will never let people like you take them away from me!" The teen shouted as he began to stand up straight.
It would have been a lie if Scylix said she wasn't taken aback. She expected… an entirely different scenario. Fear, dread, anything at the loss of Dante's immortality. Yet he stood where he was, making his declaration as if nothing happened.
"I don't care if I was immortal..! And I don't care that now I can die! My immortality didn't define who I was or what I could do! Even if I can die now..!" Dante said, grasping his ring tightly, "Even if I'm to turn into some terrible beast..! Even if it now costs me my own life to save what I love..!"
He couldn't possibly…
Scylix took a step back, defensively raising her chains in front of her as she watched Dante raise up the ring in front of him.
"I WILL, pay any price!"
Dante's declaration echoed over the plains of black sand as he slotted the ring on his left index finger, black and white Aura shining like a bright light from the ring.
Pain flared throughout Dante's entire body as he fell to his knees screaming in pain, clutching his head with both hands as his black and white Aura flared around his entire body in a brilliant blaze.
The Aura began forming a cluster on the right side of his head, soon solidifying into a black horn that was a foot and a half tall, moving outwards slightly before curving inwards near the base and straightening out to be completely parallel with the top of his head.
His arms were only partially covered in broken, twisted, segmented black armor up to his forearms.
The teen's hand slowly reached out and grabbed hold of his longsword, using it to prop himself before finally standing on his own two feet again.
When Scylix locked eyes with the teen, she saw the teen's sclerae were a pitch black color, and his irises a glowing white color with a slight blaze shimmering in them.
As the teen rose to his feet fully, he stretched out his arms and let out a hollow, echoing battle cry that made Scylix flinch.
(FFXV, Episode Ignis OST - Fate of the Chosen #1)
The Dark Entity shot her hand forward, and with it, her chains surged forward like bullets. Dante moved his head to the side and grabbed hold of the chains with his hand, wrapping them around in his hand twice as he pulled the woman forward.
Scylix could do nothing as she moved forwards towards the teen, using her three other chains to take the slashing cut meant for her body. Blocking the attack, she countered by whipping her three chains across Dante's body to launch him backwards, letting go of the other chains as he flew backwards.
Spinning his body around, Dante landed on his feet and thrusted his sword forward to shoot out a pointed blast of his black and white Aura, Scylix easily crushing it to pieces with her chains.
The teen quickly lashed his sword outwards in three quick cuts, each time unleashing a thinner wave of his Aura that moved with blinding speed.
The Dark Entity yet again encircled herself with her chains, blocking each small yet powerful wave until the last one broke her guard. She looked off to her side, seeing Dante instantly appear in a stream of his Aura to deliver a heavy two handed strike to her chains. She blocked the attack, but she couldn't push back, and shot forward two chains into his body. They made contact, but only barely pierced into him.
Unfazed, the teen began striking at her repeatedly, giving no pause to his attacks as he kept swinging, each slash accompanied with a trail of his blazing Aura. Dante's onslaught of slashes came to an end when Scylix broke her defensive formation and whipped all six of her chains outwards to just slightly cut Dante, but forcing him back nonetheless.
With enough distance between them, Scylix leapt backwards for good measure, bringing her chains in front of her with both hands as her black and purple Aura charged up at the tips of her chains. The Aura condensed itself into a sphere, and grew larger by the second until it shot forward like a large beam.
Dante raised his longsword up to take the beam head on, parts of it splitting off as soon as it made contact. The teen dug his feet into the earth, pushing back as hard as he could and pushing his shoulder into his blade, slowly moving forward until he sidestepped out of the beam. Avoiding a cross lash from his enemy's chains with a quick back dash, Dante dashed right back in like a powerful gust of wind and lashed out his sword in an upwards slice, letting loose a short torrent of Aura that Scylix blocked.
Bits of the violent Aura broke through her guard and cut up her forearms slightly, but the cuts already healed a moment after. Scylix moved each of her chains individually with varying times and motions, attacking Dante repeatedly in an onslaught of her own, striking with lightning fast speeds until she found the chance to wrap all six of them around the teen.
Dante struggled in spite of the Dark Entity slowly pulling him forward, eventually finding enough strength to forcibly loosen the chains by spreading out his arms. This in turn allowed him to quickly grab hold of them once more, pulling it with enough force to move the woman off her feet and overhead in the air, where the teen made to slam her back down into the ground.
Scylix managed to land on her feet as intended, but that didn't stop Dante from being the one to move her, spinning her around rapidly until her body found itself crashing into the wall of some ruins. Her chains took most of the impact, but she still took some damage from the attack.
Dante made for another pull and slam, but Scylix freed her chains again by sending a shock of her black and purple Aura through them to surge through Dante with a powerful shock, electrocuting the teen as he cried out in pain and let go of the chains. As quick as he looked up, the same chains whipped across his face to bat the teen away and send him crashing into the ground.
(End Song)
Dante found himself on his hands and knees once again, breathing heavily and bleeding from numerous cuts on his body as the partial, broken armor began to slowly chip and fade away.
No… No… It's not enough… I… I need more time…
Scylix slowly walked towards Dante, keeping her guard up in the event it was a ploy. Knowing the teen, feigning injury would definitely be a strategy of his to catch an enemy off guard.
But this was real. His wounds weren't healing nearly as fast they used to, and were still bleeding.
Please… Give me just enough…
(FFXV, Episode Ignis OST - Fate of the Chosen #2)
His Aura that was flickering faintly soon blazed furiously once again, more brilliantly than ever as pain wracked his entire body yet again, making the teen scream in pain.
The armor on his hand reformed, become only slightly more complete and covering his entire arms up to his elbows as various segments of armor covered his wounds to stop the bleeding. Another mass of black formed at the left side of Dante's head, creating another horn similar to the one on the right.
Yet again the teen rose to his feet weakly glaring at Scylix as he let out heavy breathes and raised up his sword.
Go…
At the behest of the voice in his mind, Dante pointed his sword at Scylix as dozens upon dozens of black and white Aura Swords phased into existence around him, pointing towards Scylix. With a downwards swipe of his longsword, all of the Aura Swords floating near Dante shot forward with ear piercing blasts. The Dark Entity's chains took on a spherical shape around her, and began rotating rapidly, constantly shifting positions to account for the numerous swords trying to pierce her.
One after the other, the Aura Swords shattered like glass when they made contact with the woman's chains as she kept them spinning around her. The slightest absence of focus would have given Dante an advantage she certainly didn't want him to have.
All the while, the teen kept walking forward, his left hand leading in front of him as he conjured blazing Aura Swords one after another without pause, wincing as pain burned in his arm. He then leaned forward and blurred out of sight, disappearing and reappearing around Scylix's now fixed position to attack her from all sides, conjuring swords that shot out rapidly with each of his strikes.
Dante phased backwards out of a multidirectional attack from all six chains at once, rearing his sword back as it glazed with his Aura. Once charged, the teen rapidly slashed away at Scylix, discharging wave after wave of his Aura with blindingly fast cuts. Each wave explosively impacted the chains, forcing Scylix to take steps back in order to reposition herself until the onslaught of slicing Aura waves came to a halt.
Dante flicked his longsword downwards as dozens upon dozens of Aura Swords phased into existence all around him within seconds, and shit forward. These did not break when crashing against Sclyix's chains, only scraping by and leaving a trails of sparks before all of them suddenly halted their movement, and began moving around in separate directions to create a tempest of swords, rapidly flying around with intense force.
The swords warped the defensive sphere around Scylix from the constant attacks, so much so that her chains where enclosed in a tighter formation to completely obscure her body. When the storm of swords ended, she peeked out through her chains to look for Dante, but was too late to see him high above her, sword flowing with a violent torrent of his Aura as he bolted downwards and struck at the chains.
White and black Aura worked to devour the black serrated chains that stood in its path. Underneath them, Scylix kept her feet planted in the ground, slowly but surely cracking apart the earth underneath her as the torrent of Aura kept increasing with force. From underneath her chains, all Scylix could see was Dante, roaring behind his blaze of Aura as it spread out in an explosive blast, consuming both Scylix and everything around her for hundreds of yards, eventually reaching high up into the red skies above.
(End Song)
Dante's Aura slowly died down to flickers, slowly vanishing from sight as embers filled the air around him. Given the red skies around him already, the orange glow from the trails of flames where minuscule by comparison.
The armor on his arms began to chip apart and fade away once they fell. His blackened horns too slowly faded away, only, they fell apart slowly like dust, and scattered in the wind until they completely vanished.
The teen stumbled forwards, plunging his sword in the ground to stop him from falling forward as he panted heavily, arms and legs too heavy to move.
It's done…
Dante let out a slow sigh, bowing his head down and closing his eyes as he calmed his breathing down. When he opened his eyes, he caught a glimpse of the ring on his left index finger, seeing a small shine pass through it.
He heard the shifting of stone further ahead, and slowly lifted his head up as a figure rose from beneath the ruble.
"That's not..!"
The billowing smoke shifted, revealing a mostly unscathed Scylix as she dusted down herself. Her hands moved towards the tattered sleeves that now reached up to her elbows, calmly brushing them down with her pale hands.
When she finished, both Dante and the Dark Entity met glances for a few silent moments, the woman flashing him a small smile.
"If I were a few moments too late, I may have actually died… A good effort on your part, regardless of the outcome."
The teen's hands tightened around the handle of his sword, frustration washing over him as his eye trailed the ground once again.
Scylix ceased her smiling, calmly glancing at the teen once more before she spoke.
"I have a question for you, if you don't mind."
"A question..?"
"You may as well answer it before you depart."
Dante chuckled out of spite for the woman as he raised up his head to glare at her.
"Why do this? All this time, all these tragedies you've experienced and invited upon yourself to save others from it… Why do what you've done for so many years now?"
Why..?
Why…
…
…
No lies or jokes this time…
"People like you have asked me that question so many times throughout the years… Now that I think about it, each time I've given a different answer. I think for once… I might just tell the real truth…" Dante spoke, a defiant smile forming on his face, "The reason why I've done what I did for so many years now… The reason is…"
Scylix watched the teen's lips move as he spoke his words, her eyes lighting up in shock as she stood where she was in disbelief.
A reason like that…
Her gaze softened as her own eyes looked down to the ground a few brief moments, soon looking back up at the once immortal across the way with a slightly troubled expression.
"You look so surprised…" Dante said as he kept up his forced smile, "You've been watching me closely this entire time right? Then… you should know from watching me that I'm telling the truth."
"Such a reason…" Scylix stopped herself mid-sentence, letting out a sigh as her gaze shifted from the ground to the teen, "No… If anything, your behavior perfectly correlates with your reason. Even if…"
The woman lowered her hands to her sides, narrowing her eyes at the teen across the desert of black sand.
"You're completely beaten. Surrender your-"
"Beaten?" Dante said laughing as he stood up straight, raising up his sword, "You must have bad eyes then… I'm still standing aren't I?"
This boy…
"You took my immortality away… Something no one has ever been able to do. But like I said before… that doesn't matter. Regardless… I'm determined to see this through to the end. That's why I won't give it up!"
Scylix closed her eyes and took a deep inhale, exhaling moments after whilst opening her eyes, her blood red irises shimmering with a brief blaze of purple Aura as she glared at the teen.
"Have it your way then. I'll be as quick as possible."
Her words spoken, Scylix became a blur of black, surging forward towards the battered and wounded Dante, taking his stance and readying himself to attack.
After what was a few minutes of concentrated fire and strikes at a single point in the wall, Ruby and the others barely managed to make even the slightest.
"Why isn't this working?!" Jaune shouted as he swung at the wall again, his weapon in greatsword form giving the stone wall a small scratch, "We've been putting everything into this thing!"
"It has to have been reinforced with magic." Ren pointed out, reloading his guns as Nora slotted more grenade canisters into her launcher, "Wasn't there a shimmer covering the wall earlier?"
"I think it glowed purple or something…" Nora stated.
One of Ruby's ammo clips fell from Crescent Rose, and when she reached behind her, she could could feel the custom ammo clip containing the very few White Nail bullets Dante made for her.
Maybe they could penetrate the wall. Maybe they couldn't. Either way, she was hesitant to use them on something she wasn't sure was going to work.
Even so, Dante was on the other side, and that was reason enough to make her want to try.
As Ruby tried to grab the clip out of her ammo pouch, she felt a small vibration on her right arm, looking it over to see an Aura Dagger clinging to her arm before it detached itself.
Then, in a flashing stream of white and black Aura, Inuba appeared from thin air and landed on her back, surprising the group as they looked to one in other in awe, Ruby being the only one to keep her eyes on Inuba.
"No no no no!" The kitsune said as she scrambled in the dirt, quickly getting up and running at the wall.
She threw her shoulder into the wall with a shout, a thunderous crack echoing through the planes as dust blew off from the stone. A few more pushes still did nothing to help, so the kitsune backed away and drew her sword, and began striking at the stone wall repeatedly, shouting as she did.
The others just stared on in awe as Inuba kept cracking away at the wall, eventually striking hard enough that her own sword recoiled from the intense shock and flew out of her hands.
Inuba fell to her knees, her breathing quick and heavy, voice quivering before she began sobbing.
Ruby quickly folded up her weapon and placed it in her holster, running over to Inuba
"What happened?!" The reaper asked as she slid in the sand onto her knees, shaking Inuba, "What happened?! Where's Dante?!"
"I failed..!" Inuba spoke softly, tears streaming down her face, "Because I failed, he..! He's all alone now..!"
"Hey!" Ruby said firmly, shaking the kitsune to bring her to her senses, "Hey! What. Happened?!"
Inuba wouldn't even look the girl in the eye as her breathing calmed down.
"I… I just couldn't… This time… I couldn't just sit and… forget about it…"
Forget about it..?
Ruby sat there with the kitsune, trying to discern what she meant.
"I just… can't do it anymore… I've sat and watched each time, thinking it'll be okay… But it's never okay..! It..! It hurts worse and worse each time I see him..!"
He..? Was she talking about Dante..? What did she mean when by..?
Ruby's eyes widened in surprise when she realized what Inuba meant.
"I just couldn't stop thinking about it… I've never stopped thinking about it, but I never let it get in the way… Not like I did today… I just… couldn't take more of it…"
The kitsune quickly covered her eyes, Ruby slowly bringing the girl closer to give her a hug.
"I'm sorry..! I'm so sorry..! I couldn't handle myself, and now he's all alone and..!"
"It's okay." Ruby said, trying to comfort her, "It's ok… If anything, I think I should be the one saying sorry. I… can't imagine how hard it must have been for you all this time…"
The reaper in red moved back, holding Inuba's shoulder as the two locked eyes.
"You… really love him that much, huh?"
Inuba's eyes widened upon hearing those words, raising her hands to her mouth as she quickly looked away and shut her eyes.
"No! It's… okay. Really." Ruby said, trying to reassure the kitsune, "It just… kind of makes sense now that I think about it. He kinda talks about you a lot, like how proud he is to have a partner like you. Though mostly we hear 'My partner can kick anyone's ass easily', or stuff like that from him."
Inuba meekly looked up to Ruby, seeing her smile happily with an understanding look in her eyes.
"A-And you know… The way you were around him kind of made it obvious…"
Shame spelled out Inuba's next expression as she looked off to the side.
"Inuba… I… I want us after all this to sit down and just… talk. Just to figure things out between us and Dante. I want to do at least that much. Do you think you can do the same?"
"I… I think I can manage that much at the least…" Inuba stated, wiping the tears from her eyes.
"Okay. Right now, we need to figure out how to get past this wall and to help Dante."
As Inuba gave the girl a nod, the air suddenly thickened, and began to quake violently under an immense pressure, causing the two to quickly stand up and glance around with their comrades. Everyone kept a tight formation, quickly looking around for the source of the immense pressure.
"Look! Uptop!"
Everyone's eyes shifted up the wall, where Nora pointed out the figure above, standing atop the blackened stone as it shifted back down into the dirt, remaining still a few dozen yards above the group as Scylix looked down upon them all, smile wide across her face.
"I would have imagined the Grimm I had sent here would have been enough to end you, but you humans are seemingly more resilient than I originally gave credit for. I congratulate you for surviving."
"Where's Dante?!" Ruby shouted to the woman up high, the shifting of the black sands beneath their feet dying down with the immense pressure of Aura Scylix gave off.
"Where indeed?"
"Do not play your games with us sorceress! Where is he?!" Inuba shouted, drawing her katana as the others readied their own weapons.
The woman up above gave a sigh, "If you really must know, I left him behind so he won't interfere here. Fighting him alone is trouble enough, but fighting both you and him along with your human friends… That would be far too much trouble than I'd like."
Inuba and Ruby glared daggers at Scylix, and action the woman chuckled at as she took a step forward and gently glided down to the black sands below, her bare feet stepping on the grains of dark sand and leaving footprints behind.
"Instead… the six of us shall our own fun instead. With that… let us draw the curtain back… so that the true main event can begin at last."
Three weeks, I know. It's been... slightly rough. Also why there's no omake or anything extra this week. Kind of been pressed for time. In addition, finals are next week, so I won't be posting anything then. Maybe the monday after next week.
Now, most of you by the end of this will be going "WTF just happened" or "Is this real", and the answer is yes, this is real and genuine. You aren't imagining it. There is no trickery, no fabrication, no curtain to pull back and show "This didn't really happen". This is the way things are now.
You might also be wondering why. Well, to be truthful, this has kind of been the plan from the start, the only things that remained was the exectuion, who, and how. My memory is a bit faulty these days, but I'm fairly certain I introduced the idea of the Eos Blade existing, but never mentioned it in name, therefore it isn't just random addition for the sake of it. In any case, I've waited patiently for what's been two years now to get this point. And finally we're here.
To clarify, no, Dante's immortality is never coming back ever. Now, as of this chapter, it's gone forever and is never returning. Again, this is no trick or trap. I am being 1000% genuine with you all without any sleights or trickery.
As for Dante himself... well... See for yourselves what his fate is to be in the next chapter.
That's all I have to say, so with that...
I highly recommend you all go check out the freaking amazing story XSRA's Flame written by Xera Stark. His story overall is absolutely fantastic and is a must read, so I suggest you seriously read it. You won't want to miss out on this story.
Not only that, but check out his other awesome and highly entertaining story Rogue Huntsmen as I mentioned above. It's just pure awesomeness bundled into one story. Trust me, you'll love it pretty much immediately. And hey! Go check out HydraFLow's story Lost in Binary! It's equally as awesome and entertaining, and more than definitely worth spending the time reading and enjoying!
Questions? Ask them anytime. I will try to answer without spoiling.
Please remember to review, follow and favorite this story if you really enjoyed it and want to continue seeing more of it. And hey, even tell others about this story! Remember that your support is what helps make this story grow even larger and what helps improve it. With that, I bid you all an excellent week/weekend!
Bye-bye now!