Hero of Remnant: Veil of the Aether

by Aetherveil

Following after the events of the Volume 3 Arc, Dante, and his partner Inuba travel across Remnant to make their way to Haven, searching for clues that will lead them to the real mastermind behind the attack on Vale 6 months prior. They will meet allies, both old and new, and face challenging new enemies on their journey. Secrets will be revealed. Continuation of Hero of Remnant.

81. Chapter 81: Icey Delights

Where the hell do I even begin.

Last while, your boy's been helping remodeling sections of the house he's staying in. Which meant lots of early mornings and late nights.

To top it off, your boy has also been job searching again amidst breaks whenever I had them, and it hasn't been all too good. Really damn frustrating.

Essentially, my time's been ate up more than I would have liked amidst incessant bitching and barking.

I'm sorry its been months. It's not like how it was a few years back when I had almost all the time in the world and could write out chapters ahead of time. Until I'm out on my own, I have to deal with it. As I said, most days I only ever have two hours, maybe three max. But as usual, I'll keep trying my best to get these out as quick as possible.

To make up for my stupidly long absence, I've essentially written two chapters worth of material in one, and it's... nice. Hope you all like it.

Also, in case you need reminding:

~Eclypse inner dialogue~

*Navâra inner dialogue*

^Sêrythîl inner dialogue^

+Xīn Huá inner dialogue+

---

Chapter 81: Icey Delights

«»

---

- Nearly two years ago -

"The toughest Lord, you say…" Blanc pondered as he steadily ate his egg salad sandwich on the school rooftop, Dante eating the cinnamon bites he bought from the stall on the street, "Worst of all, we won't be receiving support from The Plane… I have to say, our chances don't look good here."

"Have they ever looked good?" The young devil replied, gaining a slight agreeing nod from the prince, "And who cares about those jackasses anyway? We don't need them. We've got our merry troupe, support from the Eihei Nine, and Anya's faction."

"Perhaps, but can we survive an Invasion Event? Or rather, can we successfully repel them with minimal loss of life?"

"I'm not saying this to be a jerk or anything, but The Plane is obligated to restore massive loss of life in the event our duties grow to cataclysmic proportions. If things turn seriously shit… I suppose we can rely on them to do their job."

"To be fair, you were ordered to place negotiations on hold until they reviewed more information on Anya. They weren't exactly pleased with you pushing the negotiations through without their permission."

"I guess they lied to you, since they told me they weren't willing to negotiate with 'dark entity scum'."

"I-Is that what they said?"

"Come on man, you should know by now that they don't actually care about us. You, me and our crew are just convenient to them, which is why we're allowed to act as their 'agents'." Dante rather callously explained, making air quotes with his fingers, "Thankfully though, with the efforts and behind-the-scenes shenanigans you and I have been pulling, we're getting something in return at the very least."

"Right… I suppose we have gained quite a lot in return, but they haven't been exactly generous with us either, which has forced us to take some rather… extreme measures to be duly compensated… But I don't honestly believe we'll be able to continue like this for all that much longer."

"What do you mean?"

"Aside from us being 'less intelligent beings', as our head representative, your relationship with them is… terrible to say the least."

"Well, at least you're on good terms with them, mr. Golden Boy…"

"That's because I haven't been deliberately trying to antagonize them at every turn, despite deserving it a lot of the time for their… rather abhorrent attitudes…" The young prince sighed as he dusted off his fingers, finishing his sandwich, "I am serious though when I say things haven't been looking good for us."

"Regret signing the treaty?"

"Far from it." Blanc waved off with a light chuckle, "I think this was a good step forward. The less fighting, the better. Of course, there'll be some Dark Entities whose life is only violence, death, and hate, for whom peace was never an option."

Dante chortled a bit.

"Yes yes, I know, memes, ha ha, very funny." Blanc rolled his eyes, "It's still a very accurate description of the situation."

"I know, I know. Anya said as much." The young devil licked his fingers clean of the traces of frosting and cinnamon sauce, "What I know is that everyone else will be relatively safe if the Eihei Nine keep up barriers around the city. All we have to do is rush that asshole down and keep him far enough away, and we'll be all set."

"But of course, it's all so simple." The young prince smiled.

"It pretty much will be with our whole gang. You, me, Inuba and Anya are the heaviest hitters of our team, and while I'm not one to put all his eggs in a basket, it'd be best for the four of us to go in and mow him down."

"Well…" Blanc raised a hand to his chin, "Considering we only have four Lords left, one assumption we can make is that he'll send two out and keep two in his base of operations. Another would be he keeps one and sends the other three, which would be extremely arrogant."

"Which might be what he'll end up doing in the end, since Anya has told me he's a pretty arrogant bastard. Problem is that he's strong, so it's well earned…" Dante replied, "Either way, we can leave the rest to everyone else and attempt to rush down Ogranîx. We can't assume to be all together the whole way through. Considering Anya best amplifies your abilities, it'd be best for the two of you to go on ahead, should we be delayed. Inuba and I can at the very least delay or even the playing field to give you two the opportunity you need to eliminate him."

"Yeah…" Dante leaned on the railing, rapidly tapping his hands on it.

The young prince noticed this rather frantic tapping and quirked a concerned and questioning brow, asking the only question that naturally came to mind.

"Oh no. Did you finally kill someone?"

"No! Not recently anyway…" The devil said in a quieter tone at the end.

"What?"

"Nothing, look…" He raised a hand up before tightly gripping the railing, sighing "I… proposed to Anya."

The prince raised a hand to his mouth with a surprised look before crossing his arms, "Did you now?"

"Yeah."

"And?"

"She said yes."

"Oh! Spectacular!"

"But we're gonna wait until after high school. Responsible young adults and all that."

"Yes, you are indeed the peak that all responsible young adults wish to reach."

"Shut up." Dante quickly waved before grasping the railing again, "Anyway… Wanna be Best Man or whatever?"

"Sure. Would you like a cheesy speech? Or an elegant one?"

"I don't know man, you're gonna be a king one day, do both or something."

"What a riveting response."

"You know, somedays I absolutely love you, then there are times where I regret catching you up to pop culture of the modern era."

"Best not let Anya hear your profession of love to me, otherwise I'm liable to be assaulted and possibly murdered by her."

"Yeah, the fanfics Susan has been making in the literature club has not helped our case."

"T-That actually happened?!"

"Oh yeah. Apparently we're such bros…" The young devil made a few obscene gestures with his hands briefly, "that we're real bros."

"My god…"

"It was a good week for Susan, and she made a slight fortune. And Anya… Good lord was she not happy."

"Understandable, given her… fervent passion for you." Blanc sighed, "How much-?"

"Almost two thousand dollars. Gotta hand it to her, for content that's not true it was really well written work."

"Right… Well… Congratulations on your engagement. Truly a reality shattering moment."

"I know, right? Who would ever want to spend their life with a weirdo-freako like me?"

The two started chuckling before breaking out into heavy laughter, patting each other on the back heartily.

"Things are looking up, my friend." The prince said, "We'll continue to struggle in the future, but… so long as we stick together, we'll always pull through."

"That we will."

The duo engaged in their secret handshake, a few back and forth clasps of hand gestures with rather strange twists and movements that eventually ended with a powerful, firm handshake that made a loud clap and a small gust of wind.

"We leave together…" Blanc started.

"We go back together." Dante finished, "Speaking of… Let's go back. Lunch is just about over."

"One last question though." The prince asked as they walked back together.

"Yeah?"

"Should I arrive in a tuxedo? Possibly a top hat?"

…

"I hate you sometimes…"

"I adore you too, my friend."

---

Breathing. Rhythm. Pace.

Dante was closely following Xīn Huá step by step, matching her completely as she went through movements. Every precise angle, every twist was carefully and closely followed as Dante burned everything in his memory, keepings his eyes in the martial the whole time, not so much as blinking.

It was decided that they would rotate daily in terms of their training. One hour of forms in the morning, one hour in the evening. The next day would more or less be the same, only they would spar for an hour in the morning and an hour at night.

An hour might not seem like much for many, but it was enough for the young devil. Copying the movements of others was always a speciality of his, and a rather cruel gimmick of his when mocking his opponents. Aside from that, it made learning new movements and techniques a lot easier. Of course, it wasn't as simple as seeing it once and that was that; such instances only ever applied to simpler movements without much complexity to them.

Considering Xīn Huá was smaller than him, he had to take rough figures of the angles, and had to force himself to match her flexibility at times. Thankfully, the movements weren't too quick, so it made it simpler to thoroughly analyze her techniques and follow along.

Soon enough, their hour-long session ended, both of them sweating rather profusely, Dante the only one breathing rather heavily. In addition to instructing him to follow her movements, Xīn Huá gave her Wielder very specific examples of how he should breathe when he was doing his forms. He was never one to get too tired during a fight if it was quick enough, but against a tough opponent that took a long while, he would need a few seconds to quickly recuperate. This training session proved as much, since with his Blade's instructions and the hour they spent training, he was already feeling tired and out of breath.

True as it was that without his powers he wasn't a pushover and very much capable of fighting, he was still lacking. That's why Xīn Huá teachings were absolutely crucial to learn. If Dante ever found himself in a situation where he couldn't use his powers, he would still have very high chances of winning. Xīn Huá demonstrated absolutely monstrous ability with her physicality alone, all without using Aura. That's why if he took the time and studied seriously, he'd be able to surprise any enemy in any situation.

"Was my pace good enough to follow, young Master?" The girl approached, handing a bottle of water to the young devil.

"Don't call me 'Master' or anything ridiculous like that. You're an ally, not a slave or whatever."

"Is there another way you would like me to refer to you as?"

"Just use my name, Xīn. I'm not Lord Voldemort or whatever where you shouldn't say my name."

"I apologize, but who-?"

"Nevermind that. That's a whole can of worms I'm not willing to open for any reason in this life or the next." The devil waved off, "Point is, I'm nobody special or fancy enough, and I don't much care for crap like that."

"I… will try my best. Where I came from, you always pay proper respect to your elders, your superiors, or colleagues in a station above yours. Considering you are the Wielder and I am your Blade…"

"I'm not your superior. You're an ally, a partner." Dante clarified further, "If you stick around long enough, we could even be friends."

He suddenly remembered what she said a bit ago.

"What did you mean by 'came from', exactly?"

The martial artist clenched her water bottle tightly, "I only have complete memories of the last two decades. Occasionally, I have moments where I remember an old town, the kind people in it, what I believe to be my family, and… that it all burned down."

"Sorry…"

"Don't be. It's rare I talk about such things, much less have someone discover the subtleties in my phrasing."

"Regardless… You seriously kick ass, you know that? How did you outright destroy my Aura Projections the way you did?"

"With 'Ki' energy."

Ki energy..? I guess that's what it's called here in this World, as opposed to 'chi' or 'qi'. Either way… If I'm right, the concept should more or less be the same.

"Unlike Aura, which is power produced from one's soul, Ki is produced from the energy of one's body by means of thorough self-control of one's muscles and their breath. From what I've determined, your body has a great deal of energy as is, and you have an excellent degree of control. The only things you're lacking in is your breathing and your ability to draw energy from your body. The foundations of Ki energy, essentially." Xīn Huá explained.

"Which is why you gave me such strict examples of how I should breathe when doing the forms."

"Precisely. Once you master your breathing techniques, your Ki will gradually develop, and afterwards, you'll be able to utilize it to greater extents. Should you find yourself ever unable to utilize us Blades or your Aura, I'm certain that teaching you my Arts and refining your Ki energy will be of great benefit to you."

"It definitely will, considering you were kicking my ass…"

"Again, I apologize for that…"

"No worries. You can make it up to me by teaching me the way of the Badass." The devil said, striking some silly kung fu poses he saw in a movie once.

Xīn Huá laughed slightly, "I'll do my best to educate you."

She then traveled to one of the benches where her bag was, pulling out her black framed, rectangular glasses and putting them on.

Dante drank some more of his water as he approached, "So how does Ki work in that it tears through Aura? Is it because it's a more physical energy, or..?"

The two walked out of the training room as the girl explained, "That's part of the answer, but the main reason is that Ki and Aura are fundamentally different energies. The simplest explanation I can offer is that they don't 'mix' well together, thus when the two energies collide, they often repel or destroy each other."

"Which is why it was fairly simple to deflect my Aura Projections, or outright crush them."

"Yes. Ki energy is a powerful resource to combat Aura, but it isn't foolproof. As I stated previously, had you decided in our confrontations to go all out rather than use precise and controlled attacks, I would have been able to block a good deal of it, but still would have emerged seriously injured."

"Either way, it would have been impressive to see." Dante complimented with a slight nod, "The way you phrased it though… It isn't like with me and my Aura, where I can blast an entire area. Ki, while providing flexible defense overall and being effective against Aura, can also be used for devastating precision strikes."

"Correct. Ki is meant to be used more as a rapier, rather than a sledgehammer. When used properly, it can pierce through Aura, like how I did in our previous battles."

Hmmm… If I can learn more about Ki, then I might just be able to…

"May I ask what will be the agenda for today?" Xīn Huá asked.

"Well…" The devil rubbed the back of his head, "Kiana, someone we're taking care of, has been fairly moody as of late because I've been coming home late. So I'm going back to the hotel to take a day off and spend it with her."

"If my impression is correct, Kiana is a young child, correct?"

"Yeah."

"Forgive my impertinence, but I believe I may have a solution."

"Oh? Do tell."

---

"Papa big dummy!" The little dragon girl pointed out before crossing her arms, pouting.

I guess her vocabulary is getting better…

"I'm sorry. I really am. But I told you things were going to be tough for now and that I'd have to work a lot." Dante calmly replied, "Fact of the matter is that I haven't been balancing all of my time appropriately, even if Inuba or my mom is here to take care of you. It's only natural you'd be angry. That's why… I have the whole day off today. So we're gonna hang out today and have fun. That alright with you?"

She opened one of her eyes and peeked an interested glance at the devil before turning away and huffing, pouting some more.

I guess she's also learning how to turn situations in her favor…

Dante let out a heavy sigh.

Despite her being two years old, it looks as though she's physically and mentally growing bigger at an irregular rate compared to a human or Faunus. Inuba's been very consistent in keeping track of her growth and her health, which is why despite her apparent age of two, she looks about four now, and in a short time went from babbling to having a pretty ok vocabulary. She's even going through some books pretty quickly now. Not to mention… from the start, it seemed as though she could understand what we've been saying. Still… She's a kid and somewhat immature.

The devil cleared his throat, and stepped aside to let Xīn Huá, Inuba and Ruby into view, all of who were carrying large plastic bags of ingredients for baking.

"Since we have the day off to have as much fun as we want, I thought the best way to start off was to make all different kinds of your favorite snack."

Her eyes opened quickly as both her body and tail perked up, spinning to face them with a rather excited look on her face.

"Biscies?!"

"Yup! Biscuits and cookies! And who better than the best experts in the whole World?"

"I wouldn't say I'm an expert, but…" Xīn Huá fixed her glasses, approaching Kiana and leaning forward a bit to meet her level and extend her arm, "Hello, ms. Kiana. I am Xīn Huá, a new friend of Dante's. It's a pleasure to meet you."

The little dragon hummed briefly, tilting her head as she looked up at Xīn Huá with a questioning stare before stretching out her hand.

"Chicky!"

The martial artist's eyes widened briefly before she smiled, and shook the little girl's hand.

"Right then… I hope this will be a start to making up for time?"

The young girl hummed again in a contemplative manner before she nodded with a smile and headed to the kitchen table with everyone else, who helped in spreading out the ingredients on the table one by one.

First was making chocolate chip cookies, which Ruby very eagerly explained the simple yet elaborate process to making "the best chocolate chip cookies in the whole wide world". Everyone made their own small batch of batter, the little reaper and the dragon girl working together as a duo to make their own batch, Kiana impressively doing a good deal of the work on her own with Ruby's guidance. Within ten or so minutes, everyone had finished their respective batches, and formed circular shapes on the baking paper of a single tray, placing it in the oven shortly after.

After the chocolate chip cookies came Inuba's recipe, where she was teaching how to make kitsune shaped gingerbread biscuits. This was much tougher to do given the "artsier" design of the biscuits shaped to look like a small, cutesy nine tailed fox, but all present managed well enough. Kiana struggled on her first two biscuits, but afterwards, each one became better and better, regardless of their slight imperfections. This troubled the dragon girl a fair deal since her baked goods weren't exactly on the same level of Inuba's rather spectacular design, but with affirmation from the kitsune that her biscuits were indeed very well made, she cheered up almost immediately. Besides their slightly rough edges and shapes, they actually tasted pretty good.

Next was Xīn Huá's recipe, which she called Phoenix Biscuits. Essentially, they would be soft and fluffy biscuits shaped like phoenix birds with a layer of frosting on top. The dough was simple enough to make, and had some light sweetness to it before everyone used the "cookie cutters" the martial artist prepared beforehand to shape the dough. Though as everyone progressed further in making this rather sacred "treat", the more they realized Xīn Huá's design looked more like a plump, cartoonish chicken whose body was almost egg shaped, and had comically fierce eyes like a martial artist would.

"Chickies!" Kiana excitedly threw her hands up in the air.

"T-They're actually phoenix birds, ms. Kiana..." The bespectacled girl tried to awkwardly correct.

"Chickies!" The little dragon girl excitedly stated yet again.

"Er… Well…"

"Tons chickies!"

All Xīn Huá could do in the face of Kiana's excitement was do her best to smile, faintly laughing awkwardly as her three other peers silently giggled amongst themselves. Within minutes, the biscuits were baked, and the dragon girl hurriedly placed her own baked goods on a huge plate, zooming about the room to give her lovely "giants" one of each of her baked goods from her respective batches. As the young adults eagerly ate the cookies and biscuits Anya made, she anxiously watched everyone's reactions with worried hums, particularly Dante and Inuba's.

To her relief, everyone let out very pleased hums, the little reaper and the devil in particular giving her very encouraging thumbs ups.

"These were very good Kiana! You followed the instructions very thoroughly and it's clear you made these with a great deal of love in mind. They tasted absolutely wonderful!" The kitsune complimented, "We can work on the shapes over time, so don't worry about it too much right now."

"She speaks the truth, ms. Kiana." Xīn Huá added, "It's very rare for someone to recreate my recipe so well on the first try, much less making it taste as good. It was very well done."

She might not have said the words, but she looked between them all with an expression that clearly asked "Really?"

"Yup! They were super good, Kiana! Especially the chocolate chip cookies!"

"Chocos yum yum?"

"Super yum yum!" The devil affirmed, patting his stomach a few times.

The little dragon girl jumped up numerous times in glee, happily giggling as she did so. She then quickly dashed towards the living room, grabbing a pair of small, black, rectangular controllers.

"Super Bash!" She heartily stated as a small tuft of flame emerged from her mouth, a literal fire now in her eyes.

"Ah, I see… You've been looking forward to taking me down in Super Bash Brothers, huh?"

She nodded furiously a few times and then passed him a controller, prompting him to join her at the front of the huge holographic display.

"Alright then… Let's see if you can topple the grandmaster this time."

"In that case, would you allow me to join you?"

A surprised Dante and Kiana spun around to see Xīn Huá standing behind them, arms crossed.

"Er… You know how to play, or..?"

"That I do. Seeing as I have been free for some time, I took the opportunity to acquaint myself with various means of media entertainment whenever I had finished my daily rounds of training." She explained, walking over to the cabinet Kiana was at earlier and grabbing a controller for herself, "As such, I've had plenty of time to play a few games and thus have become fairly experienced with them. Fighting games in particular."

"Oh? So what you're saying is…"

"Yes… I would like to test my skill in games against your skills."

"You should know what you're getting yourself into. I am pretty good, you know?"

"Not to worry. I'm fairly confident in my abilities."

Dante's mouth formed a wide and rather excitable grin, something most people would never see unless he was in battle against an opponent he found "fun". He could feel that Xīn Huá wasn't bluffing to put up a front. She was serious, and that made her proposition all the more entertaining.

"By all means then."

The martial artist nodded and connected her controller to the console wirelessly, and dragged a chair next to Dante to take her seat. Kiana's character was a large, dragon-like creature that had a spikey shell, whereas the young devil chose a 2-in-1 sword wielding character that focused either on raw power or blinding speed whenever he swapped between them. As for Xīn Huá, she selected a character that was pure melee, Captain Hawk. This more or less aligned with what Dante predicted she would choose, given she was a martial artist.

Normally, this character never gave him any trouble whatsoever, but for the short time he had known Xīn Huá, she wasn't the type to lie or bluff. The fact that she showed confidence earlier and didn't hesitate when choosing her character meant she knew how to play the character. As for her level of skill… it remained to be seen.

Still… for all his excitement, he felt faintly uneasy.

With everyone set and ready, they began the match. At first, the eldest two fighters took it slow, testing the waters while keeping Kiana in mind, not that she was terrible. For having only played this game for a week or so, she was actually above average compared to most players, and with her capacity to learn, she would definitely become leagues better if she played more.

Despite her valiant efforts, the little dragon girl was taken out of the running a minute and half into the four minute match, but not without taking a life from both Xīn Huá and Dante. Once it was down to the martial artist and the devil, the true match began, neither holding back. He wasn't expecting an easy win, but he didn't expect this level of skill. She was frankly quite insane.

Her inputs were near flawless, and the timings of her counters were absolutely superb. She wasted no movements, either pressing the attack with intense ferocity or countering with rather frightening timing. To be frank, it was slightly frustrating fighting Xīn Huá, considering she easily swapped from a highly aggressive offense to slippery and solid defense. Even so, it wasn't without give or take.

In this game, when two highly skilled opponents fight each other, they're bound to make one slight mistake that would cost them heavily in an intense moment. And in their case, such events happened that caused them to both lose one life, leaving them on their last lives. After intense exchanges, there was only 30 seconds left in the match, and Dante was focusing fully. Xīn Huá proved herself to be a worthier foe than anticipated, and gained the advantage when the devil fumbled on a counter.

Ten seconds were left, and both fighters were near the edge of the map, the martial artist having launched Dante and chasing after him to "dunk" him to finish the match. A few well placed attacks, and he was out of recoveries to safely grab the ledge, Xīn Huá in a similar situation but with the advantage, intent on not letting up her aggressive attack. This however would prove to be her undoing as well. With five seconds left in the match, rather than outright lose, the devil managed to stay just barely out of range of the martial artist's strike range, making her miss her attack and open her up in return.

With this, Dante made the rational decision to dive bomb both of them off the map, ending the match with a tie.

He let out a sigh of relief, putting down his controller as Kiana cooed in awe at the flashy battle between her guardian and the martial artist.

"Impressive overall, master Dante. Truly." Xīn Huá smiled, quirking an eyebrow, "It's amusing to see even you can be a little childish."

"Cut me some slack… You caught me off guard, alright? And since I'm a bit of a sore loser sometimes, I preferred that we both lose. Not to mention… You're definitely more than 'a little experienced'. Just how much time have you sunk into fighting games?"

"More than enough time."

"How much is-?"

"The amount of time isn't important."

"But-"

"The amount of time isn't important, master Aetherveil." The girl said more forcefully this time, eyes closed as she sported a rather scary smile.

"A-Alright then…"

"Regardless of the outcome, it was indeed a very exciting match. I haven't had that much fun with a game in a long time."

"Glad I was able to entertain you."

"Papa and Chicky, very cool!" The little dragon girl popped up between them.

"Thank you very much, ms. Kiana."

She reached out to pat her head, but stopped almost immediately, thinking she'd be rather uncomfortable with that. Picking up on this, Kiana happily reached out to plop Xīn Huá's hand on her head, giving her the go ahead. Thus far, Kiana has learned to love quite a few things. Food, reading, playing games… and headpats.

And of course, above all else, she loved her goofy "papa" that told her amazing stories before bedtime, and her sweet and really smart "mama" that always made yummy food.

She hummed happily as her small dragon tail whipped about excitedly, the little dragon girl picking up her controller and raising it up like a sword, as if to challenge the devil and Blade once more.

"Man, you're really raring to beat me, huh?"

A few affirming nods and she spun around to face the holoscreen once more, this time looking for another character to play.

"Well then… Shall we go another round?" Xīn Huá asked.

"If you're up for it." Dante said.

"But of course. To be honest, master Aetherveil, I too can be something of a 'sore loser'. Though, that mostly applies to games really."

"Is that so… Well Xīn Huá, considering we're going to be working together from now on, there's one important detail you should know going forward."

"That being..?"

"I might not always win the first fight, but I never lose the second one."

"Bold words. Shall we put them to the test then?" The martial artist smirked.

"My my… You can be pretty cheeky when you want to, huh? Alright then… Prepare yourself."

---

Noland flipped a page in his Grimoire, continuing his studies of "The Secret Histories", which detailed events and happenings in a World that remained hidden from the common public. It spoke of old tales and legends about all sorts of supernatural or magical beings, relics, tools, etc. This time, he was studying a particular topic from the Dark World, the homeworld of all Dark Entities.

Dark Entity Queens.

Throughout the span of time, there have only ever been four Dark Entity Queens, each extremely powerful and capable of rivaling Kings. The first ever documented Queen Class was Zêlana, wife to the First King, Lucifer. High tensions existed two millennia ago between Dark Entities and Angels, and by fault of the Heavenly Hosts, conflict arose. The Queen attempted to cease the fighting, only managing to stop her side from fighting, which led to their inevitable slaughter. This would then lead to a war of cruelty and vengeance that Lucifer headed, a war that lasted a hundred years.

Had Lucifer pursued them further, The Plane of Angels would have likely ceased to exist, and with it, all of Angel-kind. But by some miracle, he decided to be merciful. To this day, no source ever documented what convinced him, only that in the end, he ceased hostilities and agreed to forever remain in the Dark World to preserve the peace, and leaving would be seen as an act of war. For the next one thousand years, he mourned his wife alone in the grand and eternal mausoleum he made for her, where afterwards he began his undertaking to sow the seeds of his ideals of peace amongst his kind.

Very little information was documented on the second and third Queens, only that at some point in time they came into existence. Whether they were still alive or died ages ago was something that was unknown. The Fourth Queen was one that was all too well known, popular, and adored by many who have heard of her.

Anya was the alias she went by living among the people of the Human Realm, but her true name was Satanya. With the combined efforts of her faction and Dante Aetherveil's faction in the Human Realm, she eventually achieved her lifelong dream of integrating Dark Entities into society and establishing an era of peace that was… unprecedented. No one could have ever expected that they would produce such a result, but in the end, it happened.

"Regrettable that she did not live to see her dream accomplished…" Noland sighed, resting the side of his head against the knuckles of his right hand, "I think I'm beginning to understand the motivations that drive him so vigorously… She really did have a significant impact on his life."

Especially if he gave up on everything after her passing for a time…

Do you think it foolish?

Blind love? Yes, I believe that is foolish. But true devotion? Not in the slightest.

Passionate romances aside, she truly was something spectacular. Aside from her excellent leadership that brought unprecedented peace, her powers were truly incredible. Specialization in crystal magic, with her main power being the ability to utilize Corrupted Light, otherwise known as Dark Light. And with her keen intellect, she was able to learn other forms of magic, albeit with a Dark Entities touch.

Are mage-types of their ilk usually so multi-talented?

From what I've studied, no. Generally, mage-types specialize in one specific element and one specific type of magic. Although… There is a possibility that her classification as a Queen allowed her to circumvent this limitation. In fact, it might explain why…

Noland felt a familiar presence approach him, prompting the raven haired young man to put away his Grimoire.

"And how have your excursions been as of late?"

"Oh, the usual. People trying to kill me, me slapping them silly, so forth and so on." Dante answered as he sat with Noland on the terrace balcony of the cafe.

"I see you have obtained another Aegis Blade."

The devil quirked a curious eyebrow, "Bit of peeping tom action on the side?"

"Not quite." The young man smirked, pointing to Dante's chest, "Compared to the standard methods of Aura Sensing, Aegis Blade Wielders are able sense other Wielders and the Blade in their possession. In your case, I can sense all four of them, each with their own unique Signatures. Not to mention, Blades, compared to any other sentient being with Aura, have sharper, more refined Auras."

"Which is why to an ignorant person with fairly good Aura Sensing, they'd at best determine a Blade as another sentient being."

"Correct."

Dante hummed briefly as he crossed his arms, "So? What about your Blade?"

"What do you wish to know?"

"For starters, what's her weapon form look like?"

Noland raised up his right hand, showing the devil the intricate silver bangle on his wrist that had a faint, silvery glow to it.

"Yeah yeah yeah, enough bullshitting." The young devil waved off.

"Cosmos is similar to Eclypse in terms of their weapon forms, and slightly similar as to 'how' they became Blades."

"Oh really?"

In a faint burst of platinum Aura, Eclypse was sitting next to Dante in her casual attire of a black dress, black fur coat, and black boots, elbow on the table and chin resting in her palm.

"In what way am I similar to that blonde bitch?"

"In but two ways really, loathe as I am to admit having any similarities to a mongrel in constant heat."

A silver burst of Aura quickly appeared in the seat next to Noland, Cosmos immediately forming from the burst. Her "casual" attire almost looked like that of a business woman Ceo in formal wear. Black strapped designer heels with a glossy shine to them, black dress designer pants that hugged her long legs and her "perfect" curvaceous figure, otherwise dubbed by her as her "golden-ratio of perfect proportions", a white blouse tucked into her pants that hugged her form almost perfectly to show off her "perfect" bust and some slight cleavage, and a black business casual designer jacket that remained unbuttoned with the sleeves ending just at the center of her forearms.

Of course, she wore some of her silver jewelry as well; a pair of silver earrings shaped like four pointed stars, a silver-string necklace that looped around her neck three times, and a silver bangle on her left wrist with black etchings, exactly matching the bangle on Noland's right wrist.

Her crimson eyes with black slit pupils unflinchingly stared into Eclypse's platinum eyes with black slit pupils, both smirking at each other in a challenging manner. Their respective Wielders however were not smiling, and instead were actually sweating a little, expecting a fight to break out.

"Please, do explain yourself, your Royal Ass-ness." Eclypse asked as she rolled her eyes.

"The first, girl… Is that the two of us uniquely have no 'definitive' weapon form. In your case, you have the unique ability to take on the shape and form of other weapons you or your Wielder have seen, albeit in your style. Not to mention, you can mimic their abilities and functions. You can thank your Wielder for having this ability by drawing upon his Semblance of Aura Manipulation."

"Makes sense, I guess… So? What about you?"

"I have no definitive form because of my Semblance from before I became a Blade, my Void Treasury." Cosmos explained, lifting up her palm as a small, silver portal opened up above her hand and gently floated a silver chalice, "My treasury possesses all sorts of objects in it, from ancient weapons, to tomes, to magical objects and staffs. Everything and anything worth of value in this World is, or will be, one of my treasures. Particularly if those treasures are silver."

"So I've noticed…" Eclypse sighed, "I'm guessing like how my Wielder and I favor my longsword form the most, you favor that bangle form?"

"Ho… For a ravenous mongrel, you have a fairly keen mind." The Silvered Queen haughtily smirked as she dematerialized her chalice and leaned back to cross her arms again, "It is a rather simple and non-threatening form, but it makes it easier to utilize my powers in a concealed manner."

"Hmph. Not bad, I guess… But…" Eclypse leaned in closer, "Can any of those toothpicks of yours compare to a genuine Aegis Blade?"

"But of course. After all, not only do I possess a vast array of weapons, but those weapons are a part of me. In fact, it's better to say they are me." Cosmos smirked, leaning forward, "Care to see for yourself when they obliterate you?"

"Sure. Just don't start crying whenever I break any of your cheap toys." Eclypse replied.

Both Blades smirked menacingly at each other with death glares, quiet giggles escaping them as their Auras began to flare up a little.

"A-Alright alright, take it up in the training hall later…" Dante quickly interrupted, "So aside from the fact both of you uniquely share the similar trait of having no definitive weapon form, you said even the circumstances of your birth were similar. How so?"

"If I'm not mistaken, she was made using a fragment of your soul, was she not?" Cosmos pointed towards Eclypse briefly.

"That's right."

"Hmmm… How to put this in a way you'd understand… When I first came into contact with Noland, I was not 'ready' persay to materialize fully as an Aegis Blade. That aside, I never found anyone of worth until I found this miserable being wandering about. Us coming into contact with one another allowed me to fully materialize earlier than anticipated."

"The way you phrase it… Were you aware of Aegis Blades in the time you were alive before becoming one?"

"But of course. Although very rare, the Old World did indeed have legends of these special beings, so much so that when I heard about them, I dropped everything I was doing at the time to search for one of my own. Alas, I never managed to find any of them."

"So you're from the Old World, huh?"

"Indeed. My Kingdom was the very first to be established in this World, and prospered for a millennia before its fall. The Old World was not as docile as the current Era."

"We're fighting a witch bitch that's lived who knows how many thousands of years that's hellbent on either destroying or enslaving all of humanity and faunus kind, and you call this Current Era docile?"

"The Old World was filled with many terrifying living beings and creatures that no longer walk this World. After all, we lived in an age where we were close to the gods, where magic, ancient artifacts, weapons and creatures used to be more prominent. My death was essentially the close of the Age of the Gods and the end of my Kingdom, where we lived closely with the divine and they freely walked this World. From what I was able to gather, the gods steadily receded into reclusiveness, and became not but legend."

"Then… Do you know what happened after your death?" The devil asked.

"Only a fool wouldn't know. I've heard of this Salem and her ridiculous attempts to circumvent death." Cosmos waved her hand dismissively, "Remember this well, boy. Blatant arrogance without the means to prove your worth is not better than a barking mongrel. The result? Fates some would consider worse than death. Not just for yourself, but likely those around you as well."

This was a lesson he already harshly learned many times by now. Because he understood this lesson so well, it fueled his decision to never lose anything or anyone else, so long as he could help it. It's why he fought harder than ever, and fought more intelligently; it was all for the sake of crushing any opposition he would ever come across, allowing him to greedily protect everything he held dear.

"Noted." The devil said with a quieter tone.

"Origins aside… You certainly seem to have some small amount of talent if you've been able to contract and Wield four Aegis Blades." The Silvered Queen said, leaning back in her seat as she crossed one leg over the other, "Mastering them is another matter altogether. To truly Wield an Aegis Blade to their fullest potential is to truly know them and yourself, to establish a bond of true worth and not some mere faint, frivolous acquaintance. I wonder just how truly capable you are of Wielding those Blades of yours."

"I don't know about capability, but I know we all have our own goals and desires in the end. If I can help them fulfill their wishes and get along with them as we go, that's more than enough for me. Either way… I'll do my best."

"Hmph. We shall see in the coming days, boy."

"If I may…" Noland bravely interjected, "I regretfully report I have not been able to find your query, let alone my own."

"Didn't you say your father was here in Atlas?"

"He indeed was. Unfortunately, I have scoured all the locations previously known to me, and have searched any other potential places of hiding. I'm afraid he may have anticipated my possible return, and has destroyed any previous locations associated with him to cover his trail."

"Awfully convenient…" Eclypse rolled her eyes.

"It's the truth." Noland shut his eyes, resting both hands atop his cane, "The man has always been extremely paranoid. It was at its most extreme when he made his decision to strip me of almost all my power and to cast me into a Hell of his own making."

"Why was he so afraid of you?" The young devil asked.

"He was afraid… of my potential." The young man simply answered, "I was by no means extremely powerful when I was born, but I was not without talent or capability to grow quickly. He never told me the reason, but… I assume that was his main reason. He had, and still likely has, many enemies, and so he likely feared that I may one day be swayed against him."

"Clearly that wasn't the case…"

"Indeed. I… was simply a foolish boy who wished to join his father's side as quickly as possible. That was all." He opened his eyes once again, and leaned back in his chair as he cast his gaze out on the luxurious streets of Atlas from the cafe terrace, "Ironic that a fear that was nonexistent has now become reality by making of his own hands." He chuckled faintly, "It must be fate…"

"I don't know about that, but… I guess your reason is as good as any. If you do manage to find him, call me if you feel like it."

"If I feel like it?"

"You've got her now, right?" Dante nodded his head towards the red eyed queen, "And she's pretty damn tough from what I saw. I doubt that you'll really need me in the end, but hey, you never know."

"I suppose you have a point. Cosmos is indeed vastly powerful and knowledgeable, but you, friend…" Noland paused briefly, making Dante lift his eyes from the table, "You possess a rather remarkable talent for claiming victories from the jaws of defeat, no matter how dire the situation or how terrible your odds are."

"Eh, even I get lucky sometimes…"

"So you say…" The young man sighed, finally picking up the menu off the table, "If our business is concluded, I would think it best we take the time to indulge ourselves for the moment. After all, you may never know when we'll have such a chance once again."

"Yeah yeah, I know." Dante sighed as he handed Eclypse a menu, "You called me here, so you're paying."

"Very well." Noland smiled.

---

"You are… seemingly well prepared, Master Dante." Xīn Huá noted as she walked alongside him through the halls of DarkStar Industries, "To think you established an organization like this at your age…"

"Just Dante, thank you. And the bright side of gambling I suppose." Dante shrugged, "With the vast majority of my winnings, I thought that I might as well contribute it to something worthwhile. So I did what I never could before, and created DarkStar Industries with the mindset of the World I came from."

"That being?"

The devil smirked with a shrug, "Rather than focusing on making things to kill each other, focus on making things to help each other."

"Was it truly that peaceful among the people of that World?"

"Not at first, no… But they eventually pulled their heads out of their asses and brought about a Golden Age of innovation and understanding. There were still lots of guys who did a lot of terrible things, and the occasional end of the World we had to deal with, but it wasn't without its merits or wonders. Not to mention all the journeys our merry group had together."

"That's good." The martial artist smiled with a nod, "I'm very glad you were able to enjoy and experience life and its many journeys, despite the hardships you faced."

"Yeah…" The young devil sighed with a faint smile, "You sure you wanna do this by the way?"

"To be honest… Er…"

"Come on, Xīn Huá, it's not that hard."

"You have to forgive me, it's difficult to be so informal right away." She sighed, "To be honest… D-Dante…" The girl began, getting a highly enthusiastic thumbs up from her new Wielder, "Aside from training, which I now do with you in the mornings and evenings, wandering the streets of Atlas or reading by myself has been rather… bland. Working as your personal secretary will be a new experience that will allow me to learn new things. And if I have a slight grasp of your lifestyle as I believe I do, it won't be without its own form of excitement or fun."

"Awfully eager, huh? Though I guess you do seem the type that's eager to try new things." Dante replied, earning a nod from Xīn Huá.

"It's as you say. When you have a lot of time on your hands, it's natural for some to try new things as they see them."

"Is that how you got into fighting games?"

"Yes. Though it mostly came about from my time spent at the arcades in Atlas."

"Wow, even arcades. You're definitely full of surprises, Xīn Huá."

"Is it… strange?"

"N-No! Not at all! It's just that we've only gotten to know each other, and you seemed like the fairly straight laced type, so…"

"Then I suppose it'll be good that we'll have plenty of time to get to know one another, Dante." She smiled.

"Definitely."

Crap… Terrifying strength aside, she's actually really cute…

Xīn Huá's face went slightly red as she turned her head away, fixing her glasses.

…

…

You heard me, didn't you..?

+I-Indeed… I did…+

I forgot you could read my thoughts.

+I'll do my best to not intrude on your thoughts too often.+

Sorry.

+Don't be. I… I appreciate the compliment.+

"Oh, boss! There you are!"

The instantly recognizable minotaur faunus Naomi suddenly towered over the duo, Xīn Huá taken aback for only a moment before she regained her composure.

"Who's she?"

"Xīn Huá is my new personal assistant." Dante introduced quickly.

"Isn't that kind of my job already?" The very tall woman asked.

"Well, you're off the hook now so you can focus more on your personal projects."

"Look, if I've been slacking, you could at least-"

"No no no no no, look!" Dante raised his hands up in front of his chest, "Xīn Huá is an old friend of mine that's been looking for something new to do, so I offered her the position. That way you can spend more time on your own projects."

"All while working on the Summer Contingency?"

"Yep. That aside, same pay and everything, unless you need a raise. Do you need a raise?"

"Boss, you literally pay everyone better than they normally would be, and I mean everyone, with more than enough to spare. Safe to say no one needs a raise right now." The minotaur faunus pointed out.

"Just saying. In any case, Xīn Huá is going to be working closely with me, but you'll still be overseeing the Summer Contingency on the side."

"I mean, is it necessary? We literally just finished setting up operations in this Kingdom two months ago."

"Trust me, after Vale it is necessary. And if everything we covered on the potential timeline comes to pass, we should be able to trek back to Vale, help the local forces to fully take back the city, and reopen our first Headquarters. I don't think I need to remind you how incredible that would be."

"Not at all…" Naomi huffed, crossing her arms, "Hey newbie."

"Yes?" The significantly smaller martial artist replied.

"I don't know if you knew this, but this guy's a serious weirdo. Even so, he'll take good care of ya, so don't be afraid to make some mistakes and ask for some guidance if you need it. Hell, I needed to do that almost hourly…"

"He is unusual… but with an outstanding heart full of compassion and understanding. I'm more than certain I'll be in good hands." The martial artist nodded.

"Don't work her stupid, boss. Or I'll kick your ass."

"I got it already, just… go do your own thing already." Dante said his goodbye as he quickly walked towards his office, Xīn Huá bowing respectfully before she quickly walked after him.

"You two certainly have a rather unique relationship…"

"She's basically the ass kicking big sister. Emphasis on 'big'." He explained as the doors slid open, locking behind the duo after they entered.

"How did she come into your employ?"

"Don't know how, but her parents were killed by something, essentially leaving her and her two sisters on their own. A less than charitable mobster took advantage of the situation and took her younger sisters into captivity, and forced her into slave labor to make weapons and armor that could match, if not surpass, a lot of the gear Huntsmen and Huntresses used. As a result, he and his group killed most of the competition and any unwitting Huntsman that got too close, all while being discreet enough to remain off the radar."

"To create such armaments and gear… Was her family of great talent?"

"Yep. Naomi's family, and subsequently her clan, have been forging weapons and armor as far as history could be recorded, but they became more prominent and well known in the Great War. This was a problem though, since a lot of people from the Four Kingdoms got really greedy, and didn't like taking no for an answer." Dante explained as he used the coffee machine to brew two cups, "As a result, her clan eventually dwindled greatly because they were killed, or captured and used for slave labor. So they went underground and very rarely popped their heads out."

"How did you come to meet her?"

"There used to be a jackass by the name of Roman Torchwick that was a fairly good menace between Mistral and Vale. Good old Torchy and I ran into each other one too many times than either of us would have liked, and one night in particular we just… Well, we were sick of it, so we went out for a drink." The devil shrugged, adding the finishing touches to the drinks, "Torchy let slip of a secretive mobster, I found him and his outfit, then killed all of them. After that, I found two little minotaur faunus girls, who were actually as tall as you despite their age, that told me about their big sister."

"Which is how you found miss Naomi."

"She was… more than a little bit cooped up, and after a short brawl, I set her free and set her up. She told me about her family lineage, her own story, and we went our separate ways for a short while until I decided to start up DarkStar Industries. I hired her as my first employee, after which she helped me with finding other remarkable talents across the World, two of which are here in Atlas, with one in Vale, and the other four in Vacuo working on a project." Dante finished as he brought Xīn Huá her cup of coffee, "To finish, everyone I've hired is trustworthy and reliable, but I'm a little biased when it comes to Naomi because of our history together, and that's leaving aside the fact that she's never let me down. So when I'm not around, she basically runs things for me."

"Then this… Summer Contingency… What is it exactly?"

"Hmmm… How does that Semblance of yours work? You made very specific illusions from past events that you had to be there to see it for how perfectly on point they were, so I'm guessing you can access a person's mind, or rather view their memories to create those almost perfect illusions."

"It isn't so much one or the other as it is both really, but the extent of my mental manipulation is to immobilize opponents within the inner confines of their mind with hyper realistic illusions. And as you determined in our battle, should any of the illusions kill you, it would be the equivalent of experiencing brain death."

"But that mostly applies to opponents weaker than you, or opponents who haven't realized they're under the effects of an illusion. You could even kill a stronger opponent without too much effort if they don't realize what your Semblance is."

"Perhaps… But I'd prefer not to use my Semblance for such a thing unless absolutely necessary." Xīn Huá firmly told the young devil.

"Not like I was gonna ask you to do it anyway."

"I know. But I thought it best to tell you now rather than later." The girl said, "That being said, why ask about the extent of my ability in response to my question?"

"Well, I was thinking about which would be faster in terms of viewing information from memory; your Semblance? Or the Mind Link between a Blade and their Wielder?"

"Let's attempt to confirm with the Mind Link first."

Blade and Wielder closed their eyes, with Xīn Huá receiving the relevant batch of memories concerning the Summer Contingency. Within a few seconds, she went over the plethora of details, quirking her eyebrow in confusion before she opened her eyes again. Frankly, after seeing all of "that", she didn't know whether to be amazed or a little startled by the immense detail of the plan.

"I-It would certainly seem a Mind Link between us is quicker, though that may be due to the fact that the amount of information was smaller than what I used to create your illusion. That aside…" Xīn Huá fixed her glasses, still perplexed by the brevity of her Wielder's plan, "You've certainly given a great deal of thought to the various paths this Contingency of yours will take."

"I just used all the relative and available information to make as many possible routes in the event certain options are closed off."

"Still… To be able to do something like this… This is no meager feat…"

"I met a guy once that always devised over 2000 plans for just about every battle he's ever involved himself in, and to the younger and impressionable me, that was super impressive." Dante explained as he took another sip of coffee, "So I tried taking after that aspect of him whenever I could for tougher enemies."

"Indeed… The enemy we face truly is no meager opponent if she was able to assault Vale to the extent that she did and almost manage the same result with Mistral." The martial artist said, bringing a hand to her chin, "To bring down Atlas and Mantle would truly be a heavy blow to the morale of the people of Remnant. After all, in terms of military power, Atlas remains relatively unrivaled compared to the other Kingdoms."

"In that regard, Vale comes in second, but we weren't that far behind in terms of military power. Atlas has an advantage with their technology and their numbers concerning their mechanized units, but in terms of pure power, quality and the amount of Huntsmen and Huntresses we had, we definitely overtook them."

"I can't imagine what a battle between the two Kingdoms in the modern era would be like…"

"Like any war really." Dante took another sip of his coffee as he sat as his desk, "Really fucking messy and bloody, where in the end, no one really wins and everyone's more miserable."

"Without doubt…"

"But Vale would have definitely won in the current era. After all, they had me backing them." The devil confidently pointed to himself.

Xīn Huá giggled briefly, "Indeed, you certainly would have made a chaotic mess of their forces."

The young devil shrugged, "In any case, you're now in the know. So keep it secret, alright? We need more wins under our belt, so we need to take whatever comes our way by total surprise if we're to survive, much less win."

"This may seem like a silly question, but would it not be easier to be completely upfront with General Ironwood?"

"Under different circumstances I wouldn't hesitate. Just a while back, we had a Headmaster, who we were supposed to trust unconditionally, compromised and working with the enemy. Ironwood's no traitor, but the intense mental stress he's been under might cause him to slip up and make a wrong decision, so while I am being almost completely upfront, I'm still keeping some cards close to my chest for the time being."

"Is there… another reason?"

"The other reason is that recent events have made it clear that there's someone with highly advanced technological prowess lurking in Atlas that's been manipulating information and certain events." The devil set his mug down, and leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms, "If we pass around information too freely, they might catch on, and then we'll be in trouble. So while I hate keeping things from allies, we really need to be careful and keep a closer knit circle. I don't intend to lose after coming so far."

The last sentence was spoken with a calm intensity behind it that the girl hadn't seen from her Wielder before nowl, showing Xīn Huá just how serious his words were. It was… rather inspiring.

"I suppose we should get started by now?" The martial artist asked, looking towards the holographic clock on the wall.

"Right. We've got some time before Weiss gets here. Just so you know, I'm not like a super hardass or whatever, but I do expect you to do your best. If you've got questions, ask 'em, don't feel embarrassed or reluctant. Got it?"

"I understand. I'll do my best regardless of the situation."

---

Weiss stood at one end of the training hall, Myrtenaster in hand and blade point lowered to the ground, still ready to move at any moment. Dante stood at the other end, raising up his hands as bursts of platinum Aura covered his arms and legs.

His feet emerged first, revealing a pair of plated black greaves that reached up just beneath his knees. The toes were covered with arrowhead shaped plates, the sharp edges glowing vibrantly with a platinum color. On his arms formed a pair of plated black gauntlets that reached to just below his elbows. The forearms had an extra layer of thin plating, the edges glowing a platinum color as the backhands were layered with arrowhead shaped plates with sharp edges that also glowed a similar color. The material covering his hands were also black, but the undersides of his fingers and palms glowed a platinum color as well.

"Aren't we supposed to be testing whether or not you can do that fancy maneuver of yours?" The once heiress asked with a tilt of her head.

"We are, but I need to try this out first and see how it works." The devil explained, taking up a stance as he reared back his left fist to his waist and extended his right hand out, palm facing Weiss as he smiled, "So come at me with your strongest attack, princess."

"Oh, so now it's princess?" The girl let out a proud huff and rotated the chamber of her weapon, clicking on her ice dust round, "Prepare yourself."

+Is upsetting her wise?+

Eh, don't worry about it, Xīn Huá. Weiss might act like a total tsundere, but she's actually pretty sweet and precious at heart.

A huge, massively spikey wave of ice passed by him in the blink of an eye, missing a stunned Dante by just a small margin.

"What's wrong, 'princess'? Already getting distracted?"

+Sweet and precious, you say…+

Um… trust me?

+If you say so… Now then, focus your mind and remember your breathing. We haven't had much time to help you harness your Ki, but we've worked on it enough to allow you to begin utilizing it to an extent. When you use it now… remember the feeling behind it, and steadily amp it up each time you use it.+

Thanks. I'll do my best.

Dante closed his eyes, waiting for Weiss' next attack to come. He could hear the subtle "swish" of her rapier, then the sudden gathering of icy wind that increasingly grew more violent in a short amount of time, the temperature in the room dropping a few degrees. Then, an intense blast of ice, like the last attack, was headed his way, its continuous approach given away by the increasingly focused and cold air.

Just as Xīn Huá instructed, he focused his breathing, and could steadily feel a build up of energy from deep within his body, which had a different feeling entirely compared to Aura. More and more his mind began to comprehend and grasp the "feeling" of Ki.

Then, he punched.

Powerful wave of ice met the gauntleted black fist, and instead of predictable mass destruction, as was the norm with a physical strike from the devil, was incredibly focused, total destruction of the wave of ice. This alone was shocking to Weiss, for Dante was smirking at his first successful usage of Ki. Just as importantly though was the "feeling" he learned from using Ki, which was information that he crucially needed for his next test.

If I'm right about this… then maybe I can…

"That was a rather spectacular sight and all, but we're attempting to see if you've made any progress with your speculated new ability."

"Yeah yeah yeah, I know. But I needed to do this first to get past the mental block I was having. Xīn Huá has been a huge help in getting me there."

The gauntlets and grieves turned into platinum Aura, quickly shifting away from his limbs towards his left side to take on a human shape, then instantly dispersed to reveal Xīn Huá in her casual attire, who respectfully bowed to Weiss briefly.

How is it that every time so far that he's gotten a new Aegis Blade, they're always some girl or woman? It's ludicrous!

The once heiress shook her head, clearing her throat to focus on the task at hand.

"Same strength as before?"

"If you can, that is."

"You know, you're being awfully pushy today."

"Sorry sorry, you're fun to tease sometimes so I couldn't help myself. It kinda reminds me of the old days at Beacon."

The girl sighed, "Focus, alright? Reminisce about nonsense later."

Dante exhaled and closed his eyes once more, clearing his mind and imagining a space in his mind. Instead of the usual white space he normally used to clear his mind, he was now imagining a pitch black void, keeping in mind what he learned from utilizing his Ki. Utilizing this knowledge that was now deeply ingrained within the confines of his mind, along with the theories he previously postulated. Everything was quickly mixing together; gaps were being filled, and new ideas were starting to become reality.

And then… a spark.

The devil extended his left hand, and for a split-second, black and white Aura manifested separately before meshing together, a rather ominous, low tuned, warbling hum emerging from the Aura as the two streams of Aura steadily became one, forming platinum Aura. Then, the Aura took on a shape that steadily began to resemble a sword.

Or rather, the remains of one.

Given the shape of the guard, and the design of the handle as well as its length, it used to be an ōdachi, a katana designed to have a much longer blade and handle to be the equivalent of a greatsword, or claymore. The blade was entirely missing however, leaving only the guard and handle. That was leaving aside that the weapon was pitch black, chipped at certain sections, riddled with scuff marks, and covered with numerous blotches of charcoal colored rust.

Even without a blade, the remainder of the weapon had a rather unique design that was rather intriguing. For starters, there seemed to be two guards meshed together. The inner tsuba was perfectly circular and had numerous indents on the edges to make it look like a sort of flower, where each of the ten "petals" where hollowed out at the center, and their tips meeting together at the center where the blade would have emerged had it been there.

The outer guard surrounding it was what was curious. It resembled a four pointed diamond star, the edges like half-circle arcs joining together to make the shape of a star. The majority of it was hollowed out, perfectly encompassing the inner guard as its center. Four flat and long prongs overlaid the bottom of both guards to form a cross at the center that perfectly fit inside the four tips of the star-shaped guard. The tips though were slightly elongated to an inch each, and would have been fairly pointy if the weapon was in better condition.

The other irregularity was the handle. Instead of having an ito, the cloth braid that usually was wrapped around the rayskin covering the handle, it was just smooth, bare metal absent of either component. Whether this was due to the poor condition of the weapon or simply its make was something unknown to the devil, but… with all the fancy twirls he did, it felt like it would never leave his hand, no matter what. There was an odd sense of familiarity to it, but he never in his life had seen this weapon.

Then again, there were still gaps in his memory, so he couldn't be totally sure of that.

He cast his gaze on the handle once more, seeing that from the pommel the metal curved inwards on both sides of the edges like long arcs, then curved outwards a bit before straightening out completely an entire inch just beneath the guard. The pommel itself was shaped almost like a small hand fan, which was an interesting design choice, but was flat enough to be an fairly effective edge. It'd definitely take someone's eye out if he smacked them in the face with it.

Aside from the rather strange sense of familiarity was… something else. Cold. Emptiness. He wielded many weapons in his life so far, but he never felt anything like he did now holding the broken remains of this unique ōdachi.

"Are you just going to stand there all day? Use your power already!" Weiss shouted from the opposite end of the very large training room.

"I did! And..! Well… It took on this form!"

"Is it supposed to do that?!"

"I don't know, I guess so!"

"Then are you ready?!"

Dante shrugged a little, shaking his head as he twirled the broken ōdachi and positioned himself in a sideways crouch after he swept his left foot behind him. He stretched out his right hand to aim in front of him and reared back his left holding the broken weapon.

"Use your Glyphs! No infusion with Dust or anything like that! Just pure Aura and blast me with it!"

Weiss raised her weapon in front of her as a huge white glyph formed beneath her feet. Eight bulbs of white light with bluish hues formed above her head, then with her specific movements, shot forward a little into each other, forming a huge sphere of Aura. After rearing back her arm and thrusting Myrtenaster forward into the sphere, it shot out like a beam of cold Aura.

Dante quickly took a deep breath, and focused his thoughts on the feeling of the power he held in his left hand. Then, as the beam of Aura was about to hit him, he took a step forward and thrust the broken ōdachi forward. In the split second he could see it, the beam of icy Aura was but an inch away from coming into contact with the weapon.

A slight burst of some invisible force, and the beam of Aura was totally eradicated in but an instant, leaving both the devil and the once heiress in shock for but a moment. Then, joy crept onto their faces as they hurriedly approached one another, Dante intending to give his partner in crime a high five, but was welcomed instead with a hearty hug from the girl to celebrate their success.

After a few seconds of indulgence, Weiss' eyes snapped open as she realized what she was doing and let go, taking a few steps back as she cleared her throat.

"E-Excellent work, D-Dante!" She stuttered at first, gathering herself fully a moment after, "Our experiment has finally become a success. You've officially managed to cancel out Aura using your own Aura, or rather, your Semblance."

"That I did."

He raised up his hand holding the broken ōdachi, and watched it slowly disintegrate like dust that drifted away through his fingers into nothingness. The first time was the most difficult part, but now that he knew exactly what he needed to do it would be simpler to call upon that power.

…

…

Or so he thought.

Dante tried to summon that power once more, but to no success. It wasn't so much that it was completely gone, it was more like it couldn't be used. The "feeling" of it was fainter than what it was on his first attempt.

"Seems like I can't use it more than once. As for how long, I guess we'll see. I'll try hourly to get a sense of the time limit."

"Well regardless, we've established the fact you're capable of nullifying Aura. I suppose the only other test to conduct is whether attacking them directly will nullify a person's Aura for a set time."

"We can test that out in the field some other time, Weiss. Knowing that it works is all we need for now." Dante explained, as he headed towards the door.

"Hold it."

The young devil turned around, and saw Weiss at the opposite side of the room, her hand tightly grasping Myrtenaster.

"Uh…"

"It's been some time, hasn't it?"

He squinted his eyes in a questioning manner for a few moments, then suddenly remembered what the girl was referring to.

"Oh. You mean..?"

"Well, why not? We're in a training hall, and we haven't had the occasion to spar for some time now. Besides…" She lashed her rapier inwards before slashing outwards, then raised it in front of her face, "I'd like to think I've improved significantly since our last match."

~ Beacon Academy, a year and a half ago ~

The Emerald Forest was "booming", explosions riddling the area between the edge of the forest and the mountain terrain. To call it a "dance" would have been more accurate to explain the current situation rather than to call it a fight. Dante was merrily skipping around the field, easily dodging the rays of Aura that Weiss shot at him with her glyphs. Eventually, she dashed in with blinding speed, and swung and stabbed at him with measured strikes. However precise she was, her attacks were either parried or dodged, all while the young man smirked at her or made funny noises whenever she missed. This in turn made her angrier, and her "perfect" composition became sloppier and messier in her frustrating attempts to land a hit on him. She was after all trying to "kill" him, but knowing that he was immortal allowed her to disregard her usual approach to fighting other people.

Weiss eventually got the opening she wanted, and forced Dante backwards with a very strong gravity glyph, but it wasn't a simple pushback. In fact, she pushed him back into a multi-layered glyph trap that she kept hidden, and as soon as he was at the center, he was surrounded by twenty large glyphs. As quickly as they appeared, they rapidly shot out multiple rays of icy blue Aura.

"I got that smirking degenerate for sure this time..!" She said, her glyphs still continuing their explosive assault.

A chill soon ran down her spine once she felt a hand playfully pat her shoulder from behind, but that chill was immediately replaced with hot tempered fury as Myrtenaster glowed with ice blue energy and Weiss slashed upwards, unleashing a dangerous blast wave of jagged and pointed ice. Dante leaned backwards underneath the dangerous wave of ice, the attack missing his cheek by a mere centimeter as he flipped backwards a few feet, putting a great deal of distance between them.

Weiss growled angrily, "Enough fooling around you graceless degenerate! Why can't you just take this seriously for once?!"

"Should I have been doing that from the start?" Dante asked with genuine confusion in his tone.

"YES!" The heiress shouted back at him loudly, making the young man flinch a little, "Don't just clown around like you always do! I can't say that I've beaten you if you haven't even remotely begun to fight seriously!"

"But that's a little…"

"No buts! We are fighting until either you're no longer able to fight or I am!"

The young devil sighed as he crossed his arms, "Are you sure?"

Weiss narrowed her eyes on the young man, noticing his sudden change in tone from being an absolute goof to someone rather serious. He was so serious in fact that it was actually offputting. Even so… She needed to defeat him.

"Yes, so stop acting like an idiot and-!"

Hearing a sharp rush of wind, Weiss' heart sank for a moment when she saw Dante was practically in her face. She took a step back and stabbed at his head, only for him to blur out of sight. The girl's eyes widened in pure shock, slowly turning around to see the devil behind her, his arm reared back and the longsword in his hand raised up in the sky.

She was too stunned to speak, much less dared to move any further when she fully turned around. Weiss didn't know what happened in the next few seconds; her mind must have been playing tricks on her, for the world around her seemingly went pitch black, absent of color and sound. In Dante's place, she saw some colossal, shadowy, monstrous being, and saw a massive sword coming down towards her head to delete her very existence. Every sense except for sight seemingly vanished in the face of her imminent demise, but there was one thing she could explicitly feel in that moment that she would never forget for the rest of her life.

Death.

The heiress helplessly watched the sword come closer, too shocked to even blink. Instead of being annihilated however, the sword stopped an inch away from coming into contact with the top of her head, a small rush of force briefly flowing past the edge of his sword. A second after his complete stop, the girl's senses returned to her as she heard something akin to a booming cannon shot and crumbling buildings, simultaneously accompanied with an unbelievable force sweeping past her for a few seconds. The two students were completely consumed in a thin, conical cloud of dust that died down after a few moments to reveal Weiss, who had the entirety of her front bangs swept back.

Dante safely and quickly moved his sword away, sheathing it on his back as he playfully and gently poked Weiss' cheek, snapping the heiress out of her daze as she let out a sharp gasp.

"I don't know about you, but I can go for some coffee and snacks. My treat, of course." He said, turning around as he began to walk towards the route that would take them back to Beacon.

Weiss' frozen body suddenly untensed itself, regaining a steady rhythm of breathing as she watched Dante walk on further like an absolute goof.

"S-Sure…" The girl forced out meekly.

Weiss had left home to break free from the clutches of her family, or to be more precise, from the clutches of her father. To do that, she needed power, and to prove herself capable without a shadow of a doubt. That's why when she saw Pyrrha Nikos on the transport to Beacon on their first day, not only did she think the Invincible Girl from Argus could be her grandest ally, but that she would serve as another example for her, Weiss' sister being her other source of inspiration. She had a goal to reach, and even surpass with time.

Then, she saw Dante.

Someone who was seemingly an unkillable clown and degenerate that performed feats and displays of power that amazingly surpassed Pyrrha Nikos, and even her seemingly flawless sister, Winter. She always assumed it was some sort of trickery, either by his own skill or through his Semblance. When she turned around, her eyes widened in amazement.

Weiss Schnee was willing to do just about anything and everything in order to become stronger, to prove her worth and capability. But what the heiress saw shook her to her core, the pinnacle that she needed to reach moving even further away now.

The massive wall of stone behind her had been impossibly split cleanly in two, creating a passage entirely through the outcrop of rock from one end to the other that had to be at least thirty feet long and three feet wide. More amazing to Weiss however was that she didn't receive an injury of any kind from that seemingly life ending slash, not even a scrape.

"Hey, come on already!" Weiss heard Dante call out to her, making her spin around to see him waving at her from the distance, "It's six already! We don't have all night!"

Weiss gulped suddenly, looking back at the massive cut in the rock once more. Her despair… seemingly vanished soon after.

Maybe he's not so…

She shook her head, turning around once more as she used her glyphs under her feet to quickly traverse the distance.

What am I saying?! He's a complete idiot! I mean, he irritatingly has the best scores so far amongst the freshman class, but..! He acts like a complete goofball! It just doesn't make any sort of sense!

Then it clicked for her.

Maybe… that's just what it is. An act. But why all the buffoonery? If he was more like Pyrrha or me, then he could have anything he could ever want.

"So, what place do you want to go to?" Dante asked as Weiss stopped next to him, now walking alongside him.

"W-What..?"

"Where do you want to go for coffee snacks? We'll go anywhere you want, no matter how expensive. Just don't buy like twenty things and clean out my wallet…"

"You seem to have confused me with Ruby."

"Well, you never know. Girls apparently can pack away a lot more sweets than normal food, so…"

"It depends on the girl, you fruit loop." Weiss explained as they walked together, "Yes, we generally have more of an appetite for sweets, but it's not as if we have magical voids in our stomachs. Take Ruby for example; she eats more sweets than any of the girls in our group." She paused for a moment, thinking of another orange haired girl, "On second thought, that achievement might belong to Nora… The point is that everyone has their levels of tolerance and willingness. In Ruby and Nora's case, they can typically eat as much as they want without much consequence because of the excessive amount of time they spend moving. In Nora's case, she exercises frequently with weights. In Ruby's case, she zips around with her Semblance much more than necessary."

"Wow, you actually paid attention to all that?"

"Of course. Who do you take me for?" The girl flipped a hand through her hair.

"A bratty princess that acts pretty tsun but is too shy to admit her true feelings?"

"Would you like to die?"

"Try any time you'd like. Not that you'll get anywhere with that though."

"Don't be so sure of yourself." Weiss fixed him a stern, unflinching stare, "One day, I'll defeat you."

"Oh?"

"Be it academics or a real fight, I will one day get the better of you. This I swear."

Dante laughed a few moments, "By all means, take a shot at me anytime you please, Weiss." He said, giving her his best smile, "But for now, let's just go out and enjoy an evening snack, yeah?"

"Hmph. Deflecting because you feel threatened? Where's your usual brazen attitude?"

"I'm being nice, you dork." The young devil flicked her in the forehead, "Contrary to any rumors you might have heard, I like being nice compared to being mean. Remember that."

---

"I don't know Weiss, maybe…"

"Just shut up and stand at the ready." The girl said, fixing the devil a serious stare.

Dante let out a short exhale, recognizing the look on Weiss' face as someone who had no intention to leave without getting what she wanted. She was just as liable to chase him down had he fled. That was how serious she was about these "matches" they occasionally had ever since second semester at Beacon.

Back then they were more frequent when at school, and after their reunion in Mistral, she steadily issued her challenges once more. Needless to say, each time they fought, Weiss became noticeably stronger. She was less worried about landing perfect strikes, her swap outs of Dust cartridges were quicker and more precise to the point they were second nature, and the casting speed of her Glyphs improved with each battle, despite how incremental the improvements may have been.

Indeed, Weiss has come a long way since Beacon and has improved greatly. She had the tenacity and the will to continuously surpass her previous self and ascend to newer heights. Truly, her progress and her desire was astonishing, scary even. That's why…

…

Accepting his fate in this instance, he turned around and walked a few meters forward, summoning Eclypse to his hand. Rather than her usual longsword form, she took on the shape of some sort of white and black hybrid between a rapier and a thin long blade. The handle, the guard, and the hand guard resembled an elegant rapier, and the blade a thin longsword blade that was an inch wide.

Weiss' eyes immediately widened, her mind quickly replaying three previous fights where he used a weapon form of similar shape. She was visibly more nervous now, but steeled herself with a sharp exhale. The once heiress remembered how horribly her fights always went whenever he used this weapon form and the style of fighting, as well as the words he spoke the very first time he did so.

"The longer I fight with this weapon and the style associated with it, the angrier I get. So you'd best hurry and give up as soon as possible, or miraculously defeat me."

True to his word, each battle he used that weapon form, he was more aggressive than usual with each passing minute. Even so, his finesse, his precision, his footwork… They were nothing short of peerless. His movements contained a devilish and dark grace that always bewildered Weiss, unsure of whether or not what she witnessed was something beautiful, or simple, sheer darkness that was undeniably captivating.

…

([RabbitJ] Dream With You! - Punishing: Gray Raven OST)

Now wasn't the time to falter.

"I'll give you a small handicap and restrict my Semblance to Aura Blade projections only. That way it'll be fair enough."

"Is that so? Then I suppose you won't be too upset with me when I knock you down."

Dante let out a brief and hearty laugh, "Damn Weiss, you've gotten cheekier!"

"A certain foul mouthed degenerate is to thank for that!"

(0:16)

Then they charged each other; Weiss glided over with blinding speed using her glyphs while Dante simply used his incredible physicality to burst forward like a lightning bolt. Their blades crossed briefly as they quickly passed each other by, both fighters skidding to a halt briefly. Weiss had the advantage however, apparently double layering her glyphs with explosive blasts underneath her travel glyphs.

The first explosion almost hit Dante, but he moved out of the way in time, only to find a trailing wall of ice spikes heading his way. Had he been on the ground, dodging it wouldn't have been an issue. Currently he was in the air, and didn't build up enough momentum to completely clear himself of any other attack that would have come his way.

Weiss counted on this happening given the devil's ability for acrobatic shenanigans, and thus planned her attack accordingly. Normally, she would have assumed he would charge at her directly despite the risk of blowing himself up if he wasn't quick enough, madman that he was. However, even with his handicap, he was taking this fight seriously, and by that logic, his usual tactics wouldn't be seen for the duration of this duel.

Even so, she had to stay on her toes and continuously think ahead if she was going to win. One minor lapse in judgment, one mistake would mean she would lose. There was no time for doubt.

The devil had no choice but to take the hit and was quickly pushed further back by the continuous trail of ice, coming to a complete halt as soon as Dante's feet touched the ground again. With her distance in advantage, the once heiress was firing off volleys of eight winding rays of Aura with each swipe of Myrtenaster. The devil ran forward and was firing off volleys of eight Aura Swords to counter the rays, though even this was problematic.

The girl eventually started throwing out trails of trap glyphs in the mix that either exploded or changed his vector in an opposite direction to throw him off balance. Gravity restraint glyphs would have been useless on him because of his absurd strength, so direct attacks were her only useful means.

As much as she wanted to celebrate having the devil dance to her tune, Weiss shortly realized this wasn't so much the case. In fact, he was now the one leading the dance rather gracefully, despite the duress he was under. With every step backwards he took, he grew closer with three more steps. Long distance attacking was becoming less and less plausible with his quick approach, regardless of the constant changes in her patterns. With that, she opted for one last volley before she rushed in behind the rays of Aura to get in close.

Then began a rather graceful, and seemingly intimate, dance of swords. Weiss noted he wasn't using the full force of his strength, which made their exchanges fairly drawn out. He wasn't taking it easy on her, but controlling his strength with measured strikes to maintain fluidity. Too much force and he would have left himself wide open for Weiss to stab him, so he was using less force. Other than that…

He was having fun.

Weiss' frustration was starting to build up, seeing as she wasn't landing hits anymore like she did when using long distance tactics. Thus, she needed to swap her tactics once more if she intended to continue their epic "waltz".

Their exchanges were even, with Weiss doing more dodging than blocking. While he was holding back his strength for more refined movements and fluidity, the devil's physicality still outmatched hers. Blocking would either send her flying or send shockwaves throughout her bones so powerful that she'd feel like a house crumbling during an earthquake. That's why she either had to get the hell out of the way of his strikes or deflect them. The problem was that dodging required her to move more than she would have liked, and after five minutes of continuous fighting without pause, she was starting to get tired.

Suddenly, when Dante's strike was deflected yet again by Weiss, his arm was suddenly encased in ice. The devil couldn't retreat since the heiress would immediately run him down, and he didn't have time to "break the ice", so he swung back at the girl. This time, Myrtenaster had a faint red glow adorning it, and Dante narrowed his eyes, realizing what was about to happen. He was already mid swing, and even if he did stop, Weiss would've capitalized on this chance regardless of whatever alternate choices the young devil would have made.

When their blades clashed, a flash of flame collided with the frozen blade, the instant collision of hot and cold creating an explosive chain reaction across the encased ice that sent Dante skidding backwards on his heels a few dozen feet. Now Weiss was on the attack, utilizing her ice Dust and her Semblance in tandem to assault Dante rapidly, and spread more ice around the field as she did so.

Weiss kept attacking him now using various Dust types, combining some of them for greater effect. Plates of rock shot up from beneath Dante to throw him off balance, where he then had his vision clouded with steam. Shards of sharp stone then came flying at him from the mist, making him dodge backwards unknowingly into a sharp, arcing wave of wind. His Threat Tracer neutralized the attack, but a huge ice sword shot out towards him, where he then stepped to the side, grabbed the huge weapon by the handle, spun around and flung it behind him.

Realizing he had been tricked, he turned around to see the mist clearing, Weiss standing at the opposite end of the room as her light blue Aura flared. The air became cold as glittering crystals chunks floated around the once heiress, a huge glyph appearing in front of her.

I only have five seconds with this current iteration of this Summon… But it should be enough!

From the glyph emerged… Dante, or rather, the current iteration of his "armored" form granted to him by The Seeker, which was enough to shock him briefly before he sported a huge smile on his face.

Wasting no time, Weiss immediately sent forth her summon, its sword blazing with light blue Aura. The devil glided forward into a piercing stab as his Aura Blade collided with the torrent of Aura his mimic unleashed. He tore through it with a great deal of effort, using his own piercing torrent of Aura, and then shot through the summon in one blow, quickly dashing past it towards Weiss.

Her Aura went from light blue to a golden color, surprising Dante yet again, if only for a moment, that she brought out her Time Dilation glyph

Dante expected a singular, powerful, and incredibly quick strike, which is why he charged ahead undeterred. Then, he was met with dozens of light blue stabs within an instant, catching him off guard. Of them, he could only deflect or block seven of them, taking hits to his arms, legs and body, which slowed him down enough for Weiss to slip in at his side to give her an opening.

The tip of Myrtenaster grazed his cheek, his Aura blocking the piercing blade as he spun to slash outwards at the once heiress. However, his sword was blocked by a half-orb barrier of light blue, Weiss' hardlight Dust. Her prediction was almost spot on, for an attack from Dante used up almost all of her reserve of Hardlight Dust, but it was enough for one final attack. The girl singularly focused the last of her Hardlight Dust onto one of Myrtenaster's bladed edges and swung.

Then, the unexpected.

Weiss' Dust coated weapon shattered Dante's Aura Sword, and after she swung inwards across her body, her sword was ready to stab him in the chest. A powerful gust of wind swept through the area, shattering the remaining outcrops of ice into glittering powder, the two fighters now perfectly still.

(End)

Dante had grabbed Weiss' wrist holding Myrtenaster, stopping her sword an inch away from his chest. He however was about to topple backwards, Weiss holding him up barely as her hand wrapped around his forearm.

"Geez… You really toughened up Weiss…" The devil said, fingers slowly unfurling from the handle of his shattered Aura Blade in the hand the once heiress caught.

"Don't kid around. It's a draw." The girl narrowed her eyes.

"And yet I'm the one about to fall ass over." Without giving her time to register the action, he quickly interlocked the fingers of his free hand between hers, sporting a rather bashful look on his face, "Honestly… You'll make me feel embarrassed…"

Looking down, she suddenly realized what he had done and her face went red, prompting her to drop him like a sack of potatoes as she stepped back, placing a hand on her chest to still her beating heart.

"Either way…" Dante pushed himself off the ground, dusting himself off, "You won."

"Don't be ridiculous… I won with a handicap…" The girl pouted.

"Look, I know I said 'handicap', but what I meant to say was that I established rules for myself, and set the level of power a good distance above what I believed to be your current level. You not only beat me, you exceeded that level with this fight using everything at your disposal and improved tremendously. That's a win if I've ever seen one, and a rather huge sign of progress." The young devil cleared his throat, "And of course, you get bragging rights for a month."

She shook her head with a slight laugh.

"For real… You did amazing, Weiss." He said, giving her a headpat.

He was expecting the usual punch to his ribs, or maybe even a kick to his shins a few dozen times, but the once heiress was surprisingly docile, seemingly taking in the praise.

"I can still improve."

"Naturally." Dante said as he retracted his hand, "But you don't just become some super uber being at the snap of the fingers or the click of your heels, Dorothy."

She looked at him in confusion, but soon rolled her eyes once she realized he was making another one of his famous pop-culture references.

"If you were one of my old friends, we would have been having a very different and angrier conversation right now about how you don't know about the Wizard of Oz. And potentially stabbing people. But I digress." He held up his hands briefly, "Point is, progress isn't instantaneous, regardless of how much we'd like it to be. Sometimes it goes quickly, sometimes it goes slowly. One person might improve quicker, another will take more time. Everyone's different and has their own pace. You can try to go through things quickly, but don't rush to the point you forget about everything else."

"That Blaire woman really did teach you…"

"She did, but she more or less spoke the truth. And now, I pass that knowledge unto you in my own way." The devil smiled, raising a hand to his chin to pose as some sort of wise, young man.

Then, he dropped his usual silly tone, and spoke his words of caution to Weiss.

"Never pursue power to fill whatever void you feel deep within."

"Because that's how people like Cinder Fall are made…"

"Regardless of how much stronger you get, or how much power you gain or steal from others, it'll never be enough, and that void will only grow ever bigger. The hunger will be greater, whatever fringes of morality you have left will quickly evaporate like mist, and your reasoning will be no greater than a beast, whose all-consuming hunger recklessly threatens others. And a beast like that… needs to be cut down without mercy."

"Then… one should seek power to protect something. A dream. An ideal."

"A person. Or people even." Dante added with a shrug, "Some people will say that they fight just to fight, but that's not always the truth. One way or another, just about everyone has something or someone to protect. And some will do their absolute damndest by any means to become strong enough to protect what matters to them. But what separates them definitively from the animals, is that they never let go of their desire to protect what's important to them."

"So I should protect what matters to me most? Even if others call me selfish or greedy?"

"Especially so. Because what truly matters in the end is what you want. So follow your dreams, your passions, your desires. Just don't try to ruin someone else's life in your pursuit for true strength."

Weiss' eyes trailed the ground briefly, taking in every ounce of his words carefully before she gave him a proper bow.

"Thank you… For always being kind to me, and doing your best to help me." She then stood up straight, having a proud and haughty expression on her face as she started walking towards the exit, "Even if you're absolutely insane and a complete goofball."

"I've got a couple hundred screws loose, but I make it work, alright?" He pointed out.

Weiss stopped in her tracks, her expression softening as she raised a hand to her chest once more.

I know. It's one of the many reasons why I…

She exhaled slowly, "It's about time for lunch, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it is. Let's go chill out in the cafeteria then."

"Loser buys."

"Oh, so now you're eager to say that you won." The devil pointed out as he walked alongside Weiss.

"Naturally."

The devil shook his head as the duo walked the halls together, "You get one slice of cake."

"Two."

A sigh escaped Dante, "Fine."

---

Dawn stepped through the diamond shaped rift of white Aura, letting out a drawn out sigh as Dante followed behind her. They had gone… very long distances for a great amount of time, and had split up for a time. First, she had to gather certain "pieces" together. While a seemingly trivial matter, the pieces, like the other items, were absolutely crucial. The rest were simple enough to gather when they joined up again, but the "pieces" she needed to find while she was alone was… extremely tiresome. Utilizing an analogy her brother once told her, it was as if "she was trying to find Waldo while extremely intoxicated and also wearing beer goggles".

In short, this task was extremely difficult given the circumstances involved.

After picking up her brother when he had finished his meeting with another individual, they went together to meet two others to acquire two more things. It was a simple enough task, but fairly difficult to ask it of them. Regardless, they eventually gathered everything they supposedly needed, and returned after a ten hour long journey.

While Dawn was fairly exhausted with all the "traveling" they did, Dante was rather energetic still, ecstatic even despite how calm he appeared on the surface.

When the younger sister heard his initial plan, she truly thought he was insane. Other instances were playful at best, but this? What he was planning to do was true madness. Theoretically, his logic was sound, and was confirmed as much by their two hosts earlier, but this plan was never before attempted, and they also confirmed as much. The chances were good, but there was still room to fail. It wasn't so much the risk of the action that made Dawn nervous, but the consequences they could entail afterwards.

Now back in Dante's office, the younger sister sat down in the chair at the "roundtable" in the center of the room, which displayed numerous, slowly rotating holographic projections that circled around the center. News feeds from Atlas and Mantle, previously published articles, a few messages here and there, the table displayed everything perfectly as the girl clutched the wrapped "pieces" in her arms, her mind still troubled while her brother made coffee for the both of them hurriedly.

He's far too eager to go through with this plan…

"M-May I speak plainly, brother?"

"Sure. What do you want to talk about?"

"This plan of yours…"

"What about it?"

"Should we really be doing this?"

The coffee machine halted right after she asked her question, the girl awkwardly and cautiously looking up at the back of her brother's head, who remained perfectly still.

"You waited until now to ask?"

My timing really couldn't have been worse… And yet…

"To be fair, you never really told me what we were doing until after we spoke with-"

"I know. I'm sure it was confusing at first with me asking you to gather those 'pieces', but you're smart and know me a little too well, so it was only natural you'd figure me out after speaking with him." Dante said, turning around to walk towards Dawn with her cup of coffee, "I kept you in the dark until after we gathered everything because I had a feeling you'd hesitate."

"That's only because what you're planning to do is dangerous! The consequences-!"

"There are no consequences with what I'm doing." He quickly and firmly stated, "If it were my original idea, then yes, that might've entailed some dangerous complications. But I've given the whole thing some serious thinking and used all the information I had to come up with it. As you saw for yourself, the two of them confirmed it as well."

"They said the logic was sound, but that it has never been attempted before!"

"Good thing we're gonna give it a go then."

"This is serious!" Her voice boomed briefly through an unwanted flare up of her Aura, making the room tremor for a moment.

For once, Dante flinched when Dawn raised her voice at him. Was she mad? Or simply very concerned? He couldn't quite tell at the moment. Regardless, he knew exactly what she was frustrated about, or rather what she was referring to.

"I literally agonized over all the possible theories to formulate this plan, then had it confirmed by two very trustworthy sources. In addition… If at any point I concluded the risk was great enough to rival what happened in the past, then I never would have taken a single step to act out this plan. That is to say…"

"You're entirely confident in this plan."

"That aside, any risk involved doesn't pertain to any of us. It's after we're finished that we need to take some caution."

"Is it right? I mean… Aside from the risks involved afterwards… Would we be doing the right thing?"

"Yes." The devil answered immediately and without any glint of hesitation, "Dawn… When something is broken… do you just leave it broken?"

She narrowed her eyes, staring at the wrapped up pieces in her hands.

"If you had the power and the knowledge to fix something that was unjustly broken, then shouldn't you try to fix it? Shouldn't you right unfair wrongs?"

"I…"

"I have nothing to gain from this in the end. Not a scrap of power, nothing. The only thing I could really gain from this is personal satisfaction, but even so…" His eyes lowered to his coffee cup, staring at himself in the reflection, "I'm doing this because I truly believe it's the right thing to do. Anyone and everyone else can harp on me as much as they please regarding the morality of it… but it won't change my mind whatsoever. So I'm doing it."

He extended his hand out towards Dawn with her cup of coffee.

"If you want to back out, then you can do it right now and I won't complain or be angry about it. But I'm going to be honest with you… I really need your help with this." He said plainly, "You're an extremely talented mage, and a lot more knowledgeable than I am. Which is why I need you to make this go as smoothly as possible. So please, help me out if you can. Or rather, if you want to."

…

…

"And you're absolutely certain there is no risk involved to yourself?" Dawn asked, taking the cup out of his hand.

"One hundred percent certain."

…

…

Her biggest concern by far was whether or not what could happen to him if things went wrong. Sometimes, he would lie to assuage the fears of others, and solely take on any penalties that may have arisen to spare others from any sort of harm. But right now, there were no lies to be told, no intentions to be hidden. He may not have been entirely truthful at the start, but had fair reason not to be. After all, this was something never before attempted, completely uncharted territory. There was enough reason for anyone else but him to be scared.

"Where are we going to do it?" She asked, practically agreeing to help him with that question.

"How much space do you think we need?"

"Uh…" She sighed, mentally going over the notations he made some time ago, "Five meter radius at least. Ten, if we want to be safe."

"Then we'll do it in the lower levels, likely in The Vault since it's more secure and will keep in any energy signatures."

"Time frame?"

"Tonight. Rest up for a while and we'll go down there after most of the staff's gone home for the day."

"And afterwards?"

"Er…" Dante scratched the back of his head, "I have something I'm gonna need to take care of after we finish, so call Ciel when I leave to have her here with you. You two will… monitor and see if there's any abnormalities. If there is, I'm more than confident you two can handle it, what with our little sister's strength and your awesome mage skills."

"Awesome, is it…"

The young devil immediately noted her rather… depressing tone. He didn't know whether it was that or just exhaustion getting to her after so many trips, but… To be safe…

"What's with the tone?"

"T-Tone? What tone?"

"Mopey and shit. Did you bet on horse races and lose or something?"

She laughed faintly, leaning back in her chair as she set the "pieces" on the roundtable, "I've never gambled before, brother."

"So what's the deal then?" He said, sitting next to his sister.

"Even with all the training we've been doing, I just…"

"Pay off doesn't happen when we want it to, Dawn. And isn't instantaneous either. Your sword skills have gotten a lot better, and they'll still get better. Two problems though." Dante said, "First and foremost, your talent is in magic more than melee combat. I mean really, you're really incredible when it comes to magic. But when it comes to combat without magic, or in tandem with it, you've got a lot less experience than the rest of us who have been doing this for years with melee weapons. Simple fact is that you need more training and experience. Which brings me to my second point."

"That being?"

"You need more experience with weaponry. You need to know the shocks that travel through your fingers and hands when steel clashes with steel. You need to familiarize yourself with how it feels to cut flesh, the feeling of blood or whatever liquid substances splatter on your clothes or skin." The devil detailed as precisely as he could, "You've been in life and death situations already, so you're good on that front. What you need to do now is replace those moments with a blade instead of your magic. More than that… you need your 'Hero' moment, or rather, your 'Epic' moment."

"Um… What?"

"You know." Dante cleared his throat, wrapping an arm around his sister as he stuck out another hand, "When the chips are down, and you're the last one standing. The last line of defense of what could be life or death for you and those behind you. Knowing when to run is important, of course, but you leave together. You never leave anyone behind."

"Naturally." The girl said firmly, earning a pat on the shoulder from her brother.

"So you fight. You get knocked down, you get up again, and again, and again. You don't stop, even when you're out cold or close to dying. You fight like hell and give it everything you've got. Believe me when I say that it's a life changing experience." He explained, remembering numerous past battles in the blink of an eye, "You'll have your moment one of these days. And I know you'll shine through. But honestly, you should be more confident in yourself as is."

"But I haven't fought as well as you, or Ciel, or-"

"So what if you haven't been out in front like the rest of us? You've been a huge help as is behind the scenes, Dawn." The devil began counting on his fingers, "You helped out here and there when I was at Beacon. You helped protect everyone when we fought Scylix the first time. You got Eclypse back in my hands. You helped plan a lot of shit and fed us a lot of knowledge when we needed it. You went through a lot of hell to fix my ragged ass when no one else could do it and I'm forever grateful to you. You've done a whole shit ton for everyone and gave everyone invaluable support."

"I don't JUST want to support everyone from the backline anymore, brother! I want to fight alongside the rest of you instead of watching from the sidelines!"

"And you'll get your chance. You just gotta be a bit more patient." He said, standing up as he gulped down his coffee, "Way I see it, you'll get your chance soon enough. Just keep practicing like I showed you. And if you really wanna up your game… get Inuba to train with you in secret. After all, when it comes to pure skill, she outclasses me entirely."

The devil got up from the table, taking his cup to the obsidian sink and washing it quickly as he placed it on a drying mat.

"Don't beat yourself up, Dawn. You've done amazing so far and you'll get your chance to shine. But for now, I need you to focus up. We've got our work cutout for us two geniuses."

The younger sister looked from her brother down to her coffee mug, staring at her reflection before she let out a heavy sigh with closed eyes to gather herself. Once she did, her eyes snapped open with a firmer look of determination, chugging down the rest of her coffee like her brother did before standing up and handing him her mug. With a chuckle and a smile, the devil took her cup and washed it, setting it on the dry mat alongside the one he previously washed.

"Before we go down there… Are you still sure you want to do this?"

"I'm sure. We've… already come this far, so there's no turning back. The only thing we need to do is make sure we do everything as perfectly as possible to avoid any potential side-effects in the future."

"Then let's get to it."

---

Dante sat on a stool in the blacklight-lit room of the massive club, lights flashing about frantically and people wearing colors, lipstick, etc. that shone brightly like neon under the light as they passed him by. He rubbed his stomach slowly, remembering the pain he experienced three hours ago as he took in the sights of the stylish, cubic pillars that slowly swept to other colors constantly, a crystal floor that shone dimly like diamonds, and the pretty ok arrangement of the spotlights and strobe lights on the ceiling. The stage where the dj was playing her tunes looked like a sort of crystal table with numerous outcrops, and quickly went through a spectrum of colors like how a gaming keyboard would.

Rating? 8.5/10.

The music was really good, the whole aesthetic of the club was glamorous and eye-catching, food was also served along with drinks, and the bar was stocked with all types of good liquor. And when he meant 'good', he meant good. The taste wasn't like drinking battery acid, or so strong that one would think they were chugging paint thinner. The quality, as well as the various selections, were top notch in just about every regard. That aside, their "crafted drinks" were not only creative but also delicious, still being 'drinks' without watering it down to the point it was just water, or too strong that you'd puke upon taking in a whiff.

In fact, he instantly became a huge fan of their sweet and sour margaritas, cherry and lime flavored. Not to mention, the glass was really damn huge, like a two liter deep dish, so there was plenty of his yummy drink. After what he just did an hour ago, he needed one. But the devil wasn't only here to indulge in tasty alcohol and really good calamari, as fun as it would be to simply relax.

A few days ago, Dante asked Ray Chroma to give him a rundown of Atlas' security systems, particularly any backdoors in surveillance systems he may have discovered in the time he fished around the network. After a "pleasant" five minute conversation that involved enough swearing to confuse the two as a pair of pleasant Scottsman, the devil was able to patch in secretly and utilize his own software for facial recognition, but over a much larger coverage, to keep an eye out for certain individuals.

When he was roaming about Atlas earlier in the day before meeting up with Dawn, the system had pinged someone, someone he didn't expect to be entering the Kingdom. Knowing who it was and that they didn't use a disguise meant one thing. They deliberately remained exposed very briefly in specific, special spots that were almost out of frame, just enough to catch a glimpse for half a second. A detail that would be missed by just about everyone.

Except for him.

That person knew that. They knew he had a sight and a mind keen enough to spot such a minute detail that no one else would, so they deliberately made their presence known in a way only the devil could see. It was a "silent" message that only he could "hear" and see.

Understanding this person like he did, he narrowed down two types of locations that the person would frequent. The first was too broad and too much ground to cover, and that person likely knew that. Which is why on the surveillance footage, they were mostly spotted on the long strip of road in Atlas purely dedicated to having all sorts of bars and clubs, a street commonly known to Atlesians and tourists as "4th Street".

Knowing their tastes very thoroughly, he narrowed it down further, going to two other locations two hours prior. Even those clubs were a bit of a stretch, which is why now that he was in the most popular and high quality bar in all of Atlas, he was certain they'd show up here around this hour of night. After all, the club had a certain flair to it that he believed would be more than tantalizing to their tastes in locale and quality.

Now it was simply a waiting game, disguised as willful indulgence with no other agenda other than to have a good time.

~Remind me again how this is a good idea? Better yet, why am I not out there in a super sexy dress drinking with you?~

Next time, Eclypse. Right now I'm "working".

~Riiiiight. Working.~

I am. Under other circumstances, you'd be out here drinking and flirting with me, followed by high impact cuddling in a private room, and then more drinking followed by an intense and hour long makeout session. But right now, I need to maintain the impression I'm alone so that I get approached. After that, we catch up, and then we negotiate.

+What happens if negotiations fail?+

We capture and draw out whatever information we can. Though, given the target's abilities, you'd stand a better chance at capturing them, since your agility are leagues above.

~I'm pretty agile too, you know? And flexible.~

Oh, how I know all too well…

The devil shook his head.

Either way, there's a time for all that later. Keep a lookout everyone.

~Sure.~

*As you wish!*

^Got it.^

+Understood.+

Still… It was hard to imagine nothing happened yet. To think they would be a no show was out of the question. After all, why go out of the way to lay some very specific bait that no one else but him would take and not show up? It made no sense.

Then again, nothing made sense concerning this person.

"Excuse me? Sir?"

Realizing his was the one being called on, he spun around to face the bar, seeing a waitress waving at him for his attention.

"Look, I still plan on indulging a bit-"

"Oh, no sir! It's not about your bill."

"Then..?"

"Um, we just received a notification that a private room was reserved twenty minutes ago and is now ready for you."

"I didn't reserve it, so who did?"

"Erm…" The waitress looked down at her Scroll, squinting her eyes to read the receipt information, "The person who made the reservation only signed as 8/8."

August 8th. A week before he started at Beacon.

After he finished building Anvil, his prototype weapon, he had some downtime to explore Vale like he wanted to, making note of all the popular locales as he went about his travels. Cafes, restaurants, stores, depots he could buy supplies, etc. Each place was equally important, whether it was for casual downtime with other people or locales where he could acquire materials.

That aside, he had an interesting… encounter with the person who was baiting him. That encounter then turned into a rather fun and exciting three days and nights, which would then end bitterly after the third night. After that, no contact whatsoever, despite his best efforts at the time. That bitter wound faded quickly enough, but was opened once more when they met again on a certain highway chase. At that point, any bitter feelings he had were immediately erased.

"You got the key then?" Dante asked the waitress.

"Oh, right here." She opened her slim, leather book, pulling a card out of it to hand it to the young devil.

It was a black keycard with the club's insignia on the frontside, and had a silver line on the back.

"Which room?"

"Room 17, sir. Please take the elevator over there to the third floor." She waved her hand towards the elevator bay a few feet to the left side of the bar.

Gotta wonder how "private" this room is… Though I doubt if things go south I'll need to make a quick escape. I'll be able to handle it.

Dante closed his eyes as he exhaled briefly, standing up as he reached into his pocket to hand the waitress a lien card.

"Here's a tip, miss."

"O-Oh, thank you sir!"

The young devil finished his glass and made his way over to the elevator, pushing the button to take him to the third floor. When the doors opened, the area was definitely of different quality from downstairs, the music still booming from the lower level. It looked more like a high class host club with the fanciful white wallpaper with silver embossing that seemingly popped out as he walked the long hall, passing the black sliding doors of the closed rooms as he kept his eyes out.

Then, he stopped in front of room 17, raising up the card and looking at it before his eyes trailed to the door. He then closed them, then quickly snapped his eyes open again, his irises now a platinum color with a slight glow and shimmer to them. He focused his Enhanced Aura Sensing on the room ahead of him, his whole world now a shimmering obsidian black, the edges and corners highlighted in white. This allowed transparency to see through the wall and door into the room. He could see the huge expanse of the room, and noted the television set, the small bar filled with numerous high quality bottles of liquor, the rather big leather couch, and a variety of other fancy furniture and decorations.

Most important however was the fact that no one was inside.

~Shady as hell…~

Dante looked towards his right first then his left, not seeing anyone hiding around corners and not detecting any presences outside the rooms.

Maybe they reserved the room ahead of time? Or while traveling here?

*Such things are possible without sending a messenger?*

+Indeed, they are. People in the modern age usually only used current technology to make reservations at restaurants and hotels, but they branched out to allow reservations at stores for certain items, food pickups, and so forth to make life a little more convenient.+

*Truly, the modern age is to be reckoned with..!*

Dante smirked, looking at the far end of the corridor that led to a balcony area that was far away from the rooms.

Anyone looking in on us, Sêrythîl?

^So far, nothing irregular or out of place, and there's no strange magic being used in the area. We should be safe in that regard. As for surveillance devices, I'm afraid that's more your domain than mine, Master.^

The young devil hummed briefly, blinking once as his eyes returned to normal. He raised his card up and tapped it against the silver pad, the locks clicking briefly as the sliding doors retracted, showing the room inside as soft and slow music filtered out.

It had similar fancy wallpaper like on the outside, but the background was a purplish hue, almost looking like a starry night on the inside. The contents were the same as when he saw through the wall, only the tables were crystal glass with fancifully weaved black metal as supports. The couch was black leather, and the ceiling and wall lights were a soft mix of purple and deep blue, gently shifting through each other like mingling wavelengths for some rather… sensual mood lighting.

The minibar was mostly made of varnished and smooth maple wood, having a few ceiling racks stocked with higher quality liquor. Gold wave patterns were inlaid into the wood for a more fanciful design that was seriously eye-catching. His eyes wandered towards the couch again, seeing that it was rather spacious for just two people. Seeing a certain box on a nightstand next to the couch all but confirmed that the couch was not just there for sitting down.

Guess just about anything goes in these private rooms… Walls are soundproofed enough to not hear anything in the opposite rooms, so…

He took a seat on the couch and exhaled, leaning his back into it fully as he mentally prepared himself for whatever trouble was about to come. Then, the doors slid open, and someone that he didn't recognize, who was dangerously extravagant, stepped inside.

She was young, somewhere in her twenties from the looks of it, and was staggeringly beautiful at 4 feet and 10 inches. The dress she was wearing was nothing short of scandalous, despite how beautiful and sexy it made her look. The entirety of it was pitch black like the night sky, but had numerous shining white specks of various sizes that spanned the entirety of the cloth that glistened like diamonds. It was as if she tore away a piece of the cosmos and shrouded herself with it.

Her top was almost entirely composed of two triangular pieces of fabric, spanning out from a thin string around her neck to cover just enough of the front of her chest, leaving the sides mostly exposed, as well as the center area of her large chest that showed off the entirety of her gorgeous cleavage, and left a fair amount of space beneath her bust. The section beneath her bust resembled a triangular cut, with the tip facing downwards and reaching a good distance beneath her navel.

Each speck adorning her body twinkled in the dim light of the room as the fabric of the dress shifted, alabaster skin revealing itself behind the elegant yet sensual outfit. The dress' midsection only covered her sides, meeting together at the back where a thin string similar to the one around her neck delicately held the dress together at the lowest part of her waist, letting the captivated devil revel in the entirely exposed hips and legs that came with the awestriking girl sashaying into the room.

She knew exactly what she was doing, who she was mesmerizing with every slow and deliberate step. Her eyes immediately fell upon the young devil on the left side of the room as her lips curled into a smile. It was a devious smile for certain, but one that held no sort of hostility whatsoever, rather… It suggested… expectation.

After a short pause and the acknowledgment that she had Dante's full and undivided attention, she gave the young devil a twirl. Her dress lit up, outright sparkling under the limited light as the front and back flaps graciously clinging to the girl's frame fanned out ever so slightly.

Considering the majority of the girl's dress comprised of just two flaps, the slight fan of the dress brought with it a sea of alluring, exposed skin. The front flap barely covered the center of her lower half, cut dangerously low beneath her navel and with enough length to brush her ankles, while the back spanned an equivalent length, covering a decent amount of her rear. The twirl, however, revealed a good deal of her well rounded, curvaceous rear and the dress' completely exposed back as the flap dragged ever so slightly behind her simple but brief spin.

Her movements ended almost as soon as they started, but Dante felt like they lasted an eternity, the girl drawing his eyes downward once again as her dainty feet came to a delicate stop.

She wore glossy, black, thin and long heeled pumps, with single straps stretching across the upper part of her toes and beneath her ankles. Managing to drag his gaze back up, he found the stray accessories she adorned to complement her dress. She had two black strands on her right wrist, and a black choker at the base of her neck, as well as carried a glossy, black leather, rectangular mini-purse that could hold a few essential items at most, like lien, a Scroll, and maybe a few other flat items. As for makeup, she only used smokey, deep purple eyeshadow, and lip gloss that gave her rather gorgeous lips an elegant shine to them. Her hair was an onyx black and neck length, completely straightened out and having a lustrous, glossy shine to it, her front bangs swept towards the right side of her face above her eye. Her eyes were sharp and mystifying, having a cool gray color that glistened under the light.

A faint giggle escaped her lips as she tilted her head with another captivating smile, then steadily moved towards the bar, setting her purse down on the table as she moved around to the other side, giving him a very full view from behind for a few moments.

It was… very difficult to maintain his calm, his right eye twitching a little.

What happened next was an excellent display of dexterous hands as the young woman quickly opened the small fridge and set about mixing drinks at the bar.

She first poured 3 ounces of fresh lime juice into two wide, conical 24 ounce glasses with long necks each, then grabbed a tequila bottle and fancifully twirled it around quickly a few times before pouring 6 ounces into glass. Then, she twirled the bottle again and deftly set it aside, her hands shifting to the cherry liqueur to pour in 3 ounces each.

A slight tap of her finger sent a tablespoon twirling in the air, the woman then snatching it out of the sky as she quickly put 6 tablespoons of maraschino cherry juice into each glass then masterfully stirred the contents to combine them. With a brilliant toss of the utensil into the sink without looking, she grabbed a small and shallow dish, using it to mix half a tablespoon of kosher salt and lime zest together. Then, she wetted both index fingers with water and gently dragged them atop the rims of the glasses in a rather sensual manner before she lined the rims with the salt mix she made.

For the final portion of her "show", she grabbed a small knife from the counter to cut a lime in half, then perfectly cut a centimeter lime wedge from each half. The woman's hands then quickly found themselves around a small jar filled with maraschino cherries, taking out two of them. Then, in a most brilliant display, she grabbed both cherries and lime wedges and tossed them up in the air, quickly flipping over her hand to reveal two wooden skewers between her fingers. Then, with her eyes closed, she effortlessly flung them towards the pair of ingredients reaching their crescendo, perfectly skewering the lime wedges from one end to the other with the cherries at the center.

The skewers fell down and she caught the wooden points between the tips of her slender, elegant fingers, then brought them across the front of her face as she winked at the devil. Lastly, she placed the skewers atop the rims of the glasses at the center, then swiftly grabbed hold of both glasses in each hand, walking over to the couch.

Frankly, Dante was too impressed to speak, keeping an unblinking gaze on the young woman as she approached with their drinks, handing him his glass. He snapped out of his stupor as the glass was gently moved into his hand, the woman making sure her fingers gently brushed against his. She then elegantly spun around him as the front and back flaps of her dress moved to the side slightly, the young woman steadily sitting down and crossing one leg over the other. With the very noticeable difference in height, she looked up at him, still keeping a rather mischievous smile on her face, as if she were silently asking "How was my performance?".

"T-That was… Uh… That was honestly too amazing… I'm beyond impressed."

Another faint giggle escaped her as she raised up her glass, swirling it about with a focused and expecting stare.

"O-Oh… Right. Thanks. And, uh… cheers."

They clinked their glasses together each talking a savoring, drawn out sip of their drinks. The taste was… just too incredible. It was an excellent and practically perfect blend of sweet and sour flavors, a taste that was his all time favorite when it came to food and drinks.

"Wow, this is really good!" Dante complimented whole heartedly, turning to the face the young woman, "You really know-"

Before he could finish his sentence, he found himself being pulled downwards rather forcefully, the woman locking lips with him in a fervent, passionate, sensual kiss. The kiss alone was enough to preemptively stun him, but the ridiculous shocks immediately coursing and tingling through his body truly stopped him dead. One could have easily misconstrued this as some random fling, but the feelings the young woman put into the kiss were anything but that.

They were feelings of intense longing, as if one had been away for far too long.

As the woman slowly pulled away with a flushed and slightly dazed expression on her face, her tongue lulled out of her mouth. She then quickly took in a breath of air, a thin string of drool still connecting them to one another for a few more moments until she licked her lips with an immensely pleased hum, her tongue still sticking out from her lips briefly as she sat up straight again.

"I had…" The devil paused to take a quick breath himself, both mind and body still struggling to recover from the ridiculously pleasant sensations he just felt, "I had my doubts at first… but... That… That kiss just proved it…"

She had a devious smile about her once more, her eyes narrowing as she quirked an eyebrow, as if to silently ask him "Oh? Prove what exactly?"

"The way you kiss has a unique feeling to it, one that's pretty much unforgettable in feeling and technique. That's why I know that it's you… Neo."

Her smile widened as she turned her back towards the armrest of the couch, leaning against it as she brought up her incredible legs and rested them on Dante's lap. Sighing, he took in a large sip of his margarita, then leaned back in the couch as well, watching as the girl's head was briefly covered in what looked to be broken, pink glass shards that glowed faintly.

This signified that she ended her Semblance, her hair now taking on its normal form of being waist length, and half pink and half brown. Although, her hair was noticeably thicker compared to when he last saw her, with a slight wave to it, as well as having shorter bangs. There was also the fact she was no longer sporting the white streaks on the pink side of her hair. Her eyes changed back to normal too, with her right iris a pink color while the left was brown.

Noticing his stare while she too sipped from her drink, she stopped suddenly with a faint giggle, then flipped a hand through her hair to gaudily mimic a model, quirking her eyebrows at him twice.

"Yeah yeah yeah, it looks good."

She raised an eyebrow at him.

"Alright, it looks really good. But that's not the point." Dante set his glass down on the table, leaning forward as he tapped his fingertips together.

Neo pouted at him, lightly tapping the back of her heel on his thigh with playful frustration.

"Well what did you expect? A 'hi, how do you do, by the way, you look stupidly sexy today as well'?"

She nodded very eagerly a few times.

"Try again."

The young woman dropped her smile, furrowing her brows frustratedly as she set her glass down as well, crossing her arms. She then lIfted up her head, making sure to lock eyes with the young devil and gave him a rather apologetic look.

"Nah nah, you're not fooling me this time."

She raised up her hands slowly, and quickly started forming signs.

"No fooling involved. I mean it."

"If you mean it, then tell me the whole story. No bullshit, Neo."

"Well, where to start?" The young woman signed with her hands.

"For starters, how about during my first few days in Vale, why after three awesome and pretty wholesome dates I got stood up and absolutely ghosted? No phone, no messages, nothing." Dante raised up his thumb to count, then his index finger, "Then, why is it when we do see each other again, it's at a highway underpass?"

"I'll backtrack to the first one, but what did you expect me to do then? Just run up, give you a hug and a hot kiss? I mean, I damn well wanted to do that, but… That would've been bad for both of us." Neo shrugged, "That aside, it's not like I could've outright mentioned my line of work after just three dates."

"Right, because I'm oh so sweet and innocent…"

"Innocent? Not even." She giggled, waving off such a ridiculous notion, "But come on, a catch like you is just downright criminal."

"Very funny." The devil rolled his eyes.

"Sweet though? Sinfully so. Like a cake so delicious you can't stop taking bites out of it, even if you're trying to watch your weight."

"W-Well… Ok, maybe that worked in your favor…"

She smiled briefly before giving him another apologetic look and signing with her hands again, "I knew you weren't so oblivious as to not know something was up with me, but think about it. Having the kind of profession like I do? If the person you're going out with found out, would they be so eager to stay with you? The answer by the way is not very likely. They'd be in a rush to leave and forget all about you."

The devil's eyes trailed back to the table, hand reaching out to his glass to further quench his thirst with a quick sip before he leaned back fully into the couch. The back of his head sunk into the leather with a soft "crinkling" noise, and having no choice really since he wanted to place his hands atop his thighs, his palms instead had to rest on top of Neo's shins as he looked back at the smaller woman. He was… unsure of how to feel after hearing that, since he too had been in similar situations in the past and knew how terrible it felt after the fact.

"Even knowing you weren't some goody-two-shoes pushover, I thought we were seriously hitting it off, so… I kinda didn't want to scare you away and kept all that to myself."

"We did hit it off." The devil said firmly, "After what was essentially a shitty month before Vale, I was having the time of my life going out and doing all the crazy shit we did. And… you know… The other… things…"

She giggled in the face of his sudden shyness, but then took on a more serious expression, preparing herself for what would come next.

"Why then? Why just leave like that without saying a word?"

Neo exhaled, raising up her hands again to sign "You honestly won't believe me."

"Try me."

She sighed, thinking of where to start before her hands moved again.

"As you no doubt know, my line of work can obviously get pretty dangerous, even with my abilities. I had a job that came in early in the morning and I really meant what I said in the note I left." She explained, "Unfortunately, the job went south, and we not only had those scumbags chasing us, but also VPD. After shaking off the VPD, I had a lot of 'clean up' to do in order to whittle down the hyenas that weren't so keen on giving up the chase."

"Rivals?"

"Try the top dog at the time before Roman took over. You should know him, since you were the one who chopped his head off." The young woman signed, chopping at the side of her neck.

"Vasile Valencia?!" Dante almost jumped up, now remembering the overconfident mobster he cut down that held Naomi and her sisters captive, "You mean to tell me you and Roman were dealing with him?!"

"Not so much 'dealing', since we were actually preparing to take him down and take over his operations. Part of that was taking on jobs and doing some trades so I could slide in, grab as much info as I could, and report back to Roman to coordinare taking down Valencia." Neo explained their old plan, "Roman finally got word that Vasile had a particular secret that helped keep him afloat for so long, so obviously, we wanted to get our hands on that secret while also burying the bastard. Let's just say he wasn't all too respectful to us, so we had extra motivation."

Secret… She probably means Naomi, since she kept that bastard's empire going with her craft…

"Valencia got paranoid, rightfully so, and decided to whack us that day. We managed to split in time since Roman had a feeling he'd try to off us, and anonymously tipped off VPD. After we ran and dug in where they couldn't find us, we shifted to the final phase of the plan to take Vasile down while he was hunting us. Suffice it to say, I couldn't exactly come back to my apartment and risk them nabbing you and doing some not nice things to you, so I didn't go back."

Neo then reached into her minipurse, pulling out her custom pink and white Scroll and raising it up briefly so the devil could see it.

"Now comes the shitty part, or probably the best part in its own way." She explained briefly before setting her device down on the table, "While I was… 'working' on Vasile's lieutenants, my old Scroll took a hit. I didn't get a new one until after we put Valencia in a chokehold and forced him to go into hiding after the 'party' that lasted three days. We hid out for a week more, I made contact with our usual guy to get us highly encrypted Scrolls, and we discreetly gathered more info for another two weeks to deal the coup de grace."

…

…

Her timeline's solid, since around that time, I took him out.

"Fortunately, you saved us the trouble. Unfortunately, whatever secret Valencia had was long gone." Neo waved her hand as she rolled her eyes, "Roman was pissed for days. But at the very least, we took over all of Vasile's finances to fund our group, which definitely helped us out in the long run."

"Alright, fine. You were being graciously protective of me by taking no chances in getting me involved. I'm fine with that, and even like you more now because of that." Dante raised up his hands briefly to admittingly give her some praise, which the young woman happily nodded to, "Communicating was risky, your old Scroll got busted, and you couldn't make contact. Also understandable. But you didn't think to try and find me? You're… Well, you're you!"

"I did try. Searched the places we went at different hours of the day, even changed up the hours. Asked around about you as discreetly as possible, but you were all over the place. Like you were jumping around from one spot to the other instantly."

That may have been my fault then, since I placed Swords all over Vale to jump to…

"Then, I saw the news. 'Beacon Academy's two new superstars; The Invincible Girl, Pyrrha Nikos, and the promising dark horse that simply goes by the name of Dante'. And so forth." Neo finished signing, reaching out to grab her margarita to take one huge sip before she set the glass down again to continue, "Once I saw you got into Beacon, well… You went somewhere out of reach for me."

"Oh, bullshit. You could have snuck in easily."

"Not with that freak of nature headmaster of yours keeping a close eye on things with good and loyal Professor Bimbo."

Professor Bimbo..?

Almost as if reading his mind, the young woman said, "Blonde, wore glasses, amazing ass and had a really nice and huge rack." She finished, gently fluffing up her own rather large bosom.

"That was ms. Goodwitch." Dante said after taking another huge gulp of his margarita, which was now almost empty.

"Goodbitch? Sounds sluttly…"

"Good-witch." The devil corrected, "And yeah, while being… an extremely gorgeous woman, she's a damn good teacher."

A slight scoff emerged from the small woman as she cupped her right hand and opened her mouth, quirking her eyebrows as she moved her hand up and down slowly.

"Very funny." He said, shaking his head immediately after, "She's smart, and she gave a really good education to those willing to learn. She taught me how to really get in tune with and utilize my Aura, not to mention covering for my dumb ass more than she should have. So I'm really grateful and appreciative."

Neo crossed her arms under bust to give the young devil another eyeful, giving him a blatantly fake, innocent and questioning stare.

"Don't judge me."

"In short, getting in for an extended visit, much less for some highly desired hot and sexy action, wasn't an option. Even with my Semblance, they would've caught on quick enough if I kept 'shifting' with each visit. That's why I don't visit places with high surveillance more than once."

Dante looked down in his lap, any semblance of mild frustration having been steadily melted away in this "conversation".

All fair and reasonable points. I've only known her for three days technically, but… When I think back to those three days… the dates, the things we talked about together, the things we did… I can't help but feel she was doing her best to be genuine with me.

He then looked up, keeping his eyes fixed on Neo as her supple, glossy lips pressed against her margarita glass, steadily sipping away the remaining contents of the large glass.

My rationality is keeping me wary of her, and for a good enough reason. She used to be Roman's partner, who was a high profile criminal that either gave the authorities the slip or miraculously busted out from whatever prison he was in, likely with her help. Profession aside, she's remarkably dangerous, extremely skilled, and an immensely competent fighter. And if I'm being truly honest with myself… that's part of why she's beautiful.

Finishing her drink, the young woman exhaled softly and set her glass down before she leaned back into the sofa's armrest again. Noticing Dante's trademark, pensive gaze, her lips curled into a smile, grabbing his attention as they stared into each other's eyes. He was attempting to perceive truth, and she was inviting him in to see as much as he wanted until he was satisfied, to give him what he was looking for in the hopes of him doing the same.

He saw as much, which made it all the more difficult. Was she trying to trick him in some way by being so open? By baring herself so easily to him? It was aggravating in a sense, but also… strangely exciting trying to understand her, to see the veiled truth of her person. As for Neo, she could very clearly see the gears turning in his head, and saw the cautiously hidden excitement behind his penetrative gaze. It was always fun seeing him try so hard and overthink things, when in reality, the truth was simple and unveiled.

Having a relationship with her line of work was extremely difficult, both because of the nature of her work, and because she kept her feelings close to her chest, never revealing too much. And both instances were fairly painful when they ended bitterly.

Then one evening, Neo saw a handsome young man aimlessly roaming the streets of Vale. He seemingly didn't have any particular destination in mind and was… simply roaming to roam, a bitter emptiness deeply buried within the confines of his being. The outer confines of his person were disguised, suspiciously so. To the normal onlooker, they would never have been able to so much as notice the veil he wrapped around himself.

But she saw him.

She saw through the clever disguise, her eyes piercing through the veil to see something… unique buried deep within. That uniqueness drew her to him, and so when he noticed her following him, and turned into an alley to come face to face with Neo, her heart was for the first time aflutter, now that she saw him up close. As she "spoke" to him in that secluded alleyway, she could see that the disguise he wore was much more delicate than originally thought to be, and wanted to tear it away from all the more. She wanted to see the real him.

Thus, Neo decided to take a risk for once by being genuine with someone. She used her Semblance to be a little less conspicuous to the public, grabbed his hand, and took him around town to have fun. Bit by bit, whatever bitterness the duo buried deep within their hearts had been steadily erased by each other's company, and the devil became captivated by her.

That's why when she seemingly dropped off the face of the earth, it hurt quite a lot.

Seeing her here now still being so sensually playful, Dante couldn't help but think she was here for a reason, which was why he was still being guarded with her, despite being given valid and truthful reasons. Even so, Neo could tell he was dancing with dangerous thoughts within the inner confines of his mind. After all, she was having similarly dangerous thoughts as well. While it was amusing watching the young devil needlessly frying his brain with overly complicated thoughts, they'd be here for longer than either of them would have liked. So she decided to put him out of his misery.

She pulled away her legs so she could sit up straight, then scooted in closer towards Dante, who snapped out of his contemplative state as soon as she wrapped her arms around his, nearly burying the entirety of his upper arm between her cleavage. The young woman looked up at him with expecting eyes that gleamed under the light, no malice or ill intentions hidden within.

Neo's lips moved, but no words escaped them. Even so, he read them perfectly.

"There's no need to wonder why I'm here. The answer is simple."

Her eyelids fluttered a few times, her pupils turning into glowing pink hearts due to the usage of her Semblance for a few seconds until they returned to normal. Again her lips moved quickly, getting the message across as clearly and as quickly as possible, absent of any lie as she also made a heart-shaped sign with both hands on her chest, her fingers sinking into her large bosom.

"I'm here for you, and only you. I'll make sure you totally understand that."

Neo placed a hand on the back of his head and gently pulled him closer to her face, a few centimeters of distance between their lips. An intoxicating, luxuriously sweet smell filled his nostrils, making his grip on the couch tighten to the point he could feel the wooden frame between his fingertips. Doing what he was thinking of doing was a huge risk, for if he wrongly placed his trust in her-

No.

The paranoia of the old Dante was making him question things too intensely and unreasonably. Neo had been genuine with him on those three dates they had in the past, even if she didn't tell the whole truth of who she was. It was real intimacy, not some sensually chaotic fling, or her simply getting something out of it and ditching him. She told the truth, without hesitation or lies.

Her heart now was anything but calm. In fact, the young woman was desperately holding herself back, biting her lip as Neo's mind told every corner of her body to pounce. Even so, she agonizingly waited. As badly as she wanted this, she wanted him to want it too.

Was it a baser desire getting the best of him, now that he had finally gotten more in touch with his emotions? No. It was a memory. A memory of genuine intimacy and comfort that made him forget his previous troubles. A memory of wanting that he buried deep in his mind, now dragged out from depths considering he knew the truth of what happened.

Neo kept eye contact, narrowing her eyes as she tilted her head expectantly, a silent question that didn't require any hand signs or movements of her lips.

"So?"

Hesitancy was abandoned, and the young devil used his hands to quickly lift Neo off the couch and onto his lap, draping her legs over his as he kept one hand around the back of her waist. It was his turn to be somewhat playful, keeping his face close to hers. And with that, it was their cue.

Both of them pulled each other close, easing into a fervent kiss as they stuck together tightly, making sure the other wouldn't escape. Yet, neither had the intention to run away or leave. What was seemingly hours alone in the room being stuck so close together, was actually just a few meager minutes of sensual indulgence, the two finally pulling back as they stared into each other's eyes again. Neo's lips curled into another smile as she shifted one leg over to straddle Dante while still facing him, now sitting on his lap.

Her hands once more formed signs, "Well well… Aside from getting taller, you definitely got better at kissing…"

"I was still a little nervous last time, so I couldn't give it my best."

"Uh-huh."

"This time… I'm going to get serious."

She hummed silently, licking her lips as she tugged at the string holding up the front of her dress before she signed once more.

"I didn't steal this fancy dress just to show off to everyone else here. I dressed like this to impress and perk you up. So…"

Neo raised up both hands to slip them under the elastic-like string around her neck, pulling it over her head as she let her top fall beneath her bust. She then placed her hands on his shoulders, making sure the devil got a full view of everything as she narrowed her eyes with a challenging smirk. He didn't need her to sign or move her lips to understand what she "said". The message was very simple.

"It's your turn to impress me, just like you did back then."

---

Light began to peek through the blinds, stirring the devil from his rest as his eyes slowly opened. He steadily sat up, rubbing his eyes before he took a look around the round, seeing the large and rather expensive bedroom. Fancy dark wallpaper, wardrobe, closet… Hell, even a glance into the bathroom from the corner and he could see the decor was of luxurious design. The dark blue bed-sheets too… They felt really soft, like silk.

He felt breezy down below, then looked off to the side to see his pants and underwear on the white carpet floor. Immediately, he shifted out of bed, quickly putting on said clothes, absent his long sleeved shirt since it was nowhere to be found. As soon as the young devil stepped out of the bedroom, he was greeted by a spectacular view of Atlas through a large glass window, overlooking most, if not all of the Kingdom.

When he walked up further, he got a glimpse of his reflection, finally noticing numerous pink lipstick marks that trailed from his neck all the way down past his navel. He sighed quickly, then looked up to see the massive kitchen in front of him, the tables lined with black marble atop white wood, the cabinets sharing a similar white wood. The silver fridge was huge and had two doors, the sink and oven also of silver metal that shone immaculately.

Looking to his right, he could see the black leather couches facing a fireplace that was still aflame and crackling. A good distance above was a huge white bar with a black line running across the middle, measuring at about 80 inches in length; it was the HoloDisplay from the looks of it. Six meters above the living room was another floor that stuck out from two walla, covering half of the room. A glance above showed a few bookcases, so it had to be a sort of office or work area. Off to the right were stairs of black marble that stuck out from the wall, leading all the way up to the floor above.

Looking out the window again, he finally caught a glimpse of black tile steps that led to an expansive balcony, seeing a huge glass and black metal dining table outside, with a large jacuzzi off to the side.

"Seriously… How the hell did she manage to snag a penthouse like this? Her old apartment was pretty damn fancy too, but… Damn…"

Dante looked around carefully, noticing a certain someone wasn't present.

Right… Should've kn-

A sudden scent of coffee filled his nostrils, and the devil quickly spun around, seeing no one. Even so, the scent still persisted. Dante then heard what sounded like glass shards falling apart and spun around to see Neo behind him, wearing his black, long sleeved shirt and holding two mugs of coffee. Given his more lean and toned physique, the shirt was a little tight on Neo due to the size of her large bosom, and barely draped onto her legs to cover her lower half.

Her lips moved to form the words "Don't worry, I'm still here." as she handed him his mug.

"Right…"

They moved to the small round table between the kitchen and living room, sitting down together as Dante was the first to take a sip, very pleased with the taste. He then looked up from the mug to see Neo staring at him, hand pressed against her cheek to prop her head up as she smiled at him, seemingly holding back a would be laugh.

"What?"

Her hands moved to form signs, "Cover them up, slut." then pointed to his bare chest.

"I'm sorry, who exactly stole my shirt?"

She shrugged, then narrowed her eyes on the lipstick marks she left on him, smiling with a faint giggle. Neo then folded her hands together, quirking her eyebrows a few times.

"It was… It was like last time. Just… not enough words to describe it."

Seemingly very pleased with his answer to her silent question, she gave him another smile and took the first sip of her coffee as well. As she drank, she was pleased with the taste of her coffee, but also had a pleasant thought that accompanied it.

She loved this.

She loved being able to sit down with him after what felt like forever. She loved having a night of intense intimacy that left the both of them with barely any sleep. She loved how they "talked", particularly how she didn't need to use a voice to just converse with him. All it took really was just Neo looking at him a certain way, and he would understand what she wanted to get across.

Either he was really good at charades, good at guessing, or he was just that attentive. Perhaps it was all of the above.

The young woman set her mug down, moving her hands "Either I'm crazy, or you got a hell of a lot taller."

"Freakish growth spurt. Nothing else to say about it really." Dante shrugged, "Why? Don't like guys taller than you?"

"Nope. It's a turn on for me, if anything."

The young devil couldn't help but chortle a little, almost spilling some of his coffee. He then nodded his head a few times before he set down his cup.

"So, what else is new with you? Other than working your way here I mean."

She shrugged before raising her hands to sign, "Not much if I'm being honest… After Vale, it was pretty much just me. So I loaded up on cash and other resources, then bolted. Thought about going to Vacuo, but Mistral was the best place for me to head to for some work opportunities. Turns out you and the merry band of do-gooders were there a few days before I got there, and after checking the registry, I saw you were heading to Argus. Heard that your train got derailed."

"Crazy party was happening in the cars ahead of us."

"I'm sure." She rolled her eyes with a smirk, "Surprise surprise, you had another epic battle in Argus and took off before I could get there. I had to wait a while until they got transports flying again, you know?"

"Uh… Sorry?"

"You're forgiven." She signed before crossing her arms with a pout.

"And then you got here a few days ago."

"Yep. Considering nothing had blown up on an epic scale, I figured you were still here, so I left a few signs and waited for you to come after me."

"What if I didn't pick up on those signs? Or just ignored them?"

She quirked an eyebrow at him, as if to say "Right, as if you would've ignored them."

"Fair point." Dante said, "Then are-?"

"Totally free for the time being."

"If so, then-"

"Sure."

"But I didn't even-"

"You're not the only one with cool tricks, mr. Fancypants. So… lay out your terms."

This was going better than he thought it would.

…

…

Hmmm…

"My ask is simple. Work with us from now on."

Neo seemed surprised, if only for a brief moment before she narrowed her eyes again, contemplating the idea.

"Instead of having to hide your identity just about everywhere you go, wouldn't you prefer to walk about a little more freely without the minor inconvenience of having to use your Semblance? Not to mention, working with reliable people that you don't have to worry about having them stab you in the back?"

"Sounds nice and all, but I don't exactly have the best relationship with your 'friends'." Neo signed with her hands, "It'll be a problem for all involved. I mean, I can deal with it, but your pals might be a huge pain in the ass."

"If that's the case, we'll do some work together first to build up trust prior to you joining up. And if that still doesn't work out to your favor, you can work with me exclusively." The devil pointed to himself briefly, "In simple terms, it's better to have you on our side than on theirs. In a more personal and honest sense… You could seriously help us out. And instead of seeing you used and abused by them to the point they'll leave you for dead just to save their skin, I'd rather you be happy living your life on your terms freely."

"Very much appreciated sweet talking aside, won't me working with you be problematic to your image?"

"Fuck my image. I don't care if I'm a demon or a hero or whatever the hell else in the eyes of people." Dante flicked his hand casually as if he were waving away dust, "What matters to me is that I'm able to protect what I want, whenever I want, however I can. So if I have to use unconventional methods and resources, or bring on unlikely allies, then that's what I'll do."

The young woman smirked before taking on a serious expression once more, "That's fine and all, but getting stopped every time is gonna be a pain."

"Then I'll erase your criminal record."

Her eyes widened, then tilted her head in confusion.

"I can do it. I made a new friend that's become fairly familiar with Atlas' security systems, and has been teaching me a lot of things." Dante explained, then pointed to the black diamond stud on the collar of his shirt that Neo wore, "You've only ever been high profile between Mistral and Vale, but before the CCT went down, all the data was compiled and stored in Atlas' servers in the event that they ever needed to intervene somewhere by discreetly sending out a small strike force. If I delete your Record off the database, and do some tampering here and there whenever you get checked for your identity, there won't be any hits."

"And this is only if I agree to work under you?"

"Not under me. With me. I think much more highly of you than to treat you like that." The young devil said, earning a smile from the small woman before he raised up three fingers, "Three 'jobs' in which we do outstanding work together. I think it'll be enough to start gaining some trust from everyone else. And if things still don't go the way we'd like, you can work exclusively with me. If working with us or just me still doesn't appeal to you after we do our three jobs, alongside a hefty sum of Lien I'll pay you, I'll still erase your record as extra compensation in good faith. Regardless of the outcome or your final decision, you still stand to benefit a great deal."

Neo raised a hand to her chin, thinking over everything she was told. It was a deal that seemed too good to be true, but she knew he wasn't a liar. Or at the very least, she knew he'd keep his word. If he said he was going to pay you what you're owed, he'd do so and then give you extra. If he said he was going to kill you in a certain way, he'd make sure he would do it exactly as he described. Knowing all this, there was but one decision she could make, even if it would be risky.

The young woman smiled, then raised up her hands to sign, "If things get too spicy between me and your pals, then I'm working with you and only you. If you've got other pals that are more open minded, then I'll be open to working with them. And lastly…"

She leaned forward over the table, making sure to keep eye contact with Dante while also making sure he got an eyeful of her chest that stuck out too much. It was a little cute how he thought he was tricking her by only using his peripheral vision, when his face practically said he was looking.

"I don't need any money, I've got enough lien as is. Erasing my criminal record and keeping me off the radar is definitely a sweet addition to the deal, but money isn't what I want."

"Then do you want anything else? Within reason, at the very least."

The woman raised up three fingers, waving them about briefly before she raised up her other hand to sign.

"For three jobs, you can pay me back with three dates."

…

…

"That's all you want?"

Neo nodded rather excitedly three times.

"And if things go well..?"

"Then I'll join up for the foreseeable future. Even if the 'kids' don't like me, I'll be more than happy to work with just you."

This was good.

Securing Neo's cooperation, while not absolutely important above all else, was still a pretty huge deal. As he said previously, having her on his side was infinitely better than having her working against him and everyone else. By all means, Neo was an extremely talented infiltrator, especially with her Semblance. Not to mention, her battle competency and skills were without question remarkable. If she came to Atlas with a mission in mind from Salem's faction, things would have certainly gotten more complicated and messy for Dante and everyone else.

This was truly a stroke of good fortune.

However…

Dante folded his hands together, preparing himself to give the young woman an extra offer. If she wasn't all in before, then he hoped this extra bit would completely win her over. Thus he spoke his words, seeing Neo go rigid for a moment as her eyes widened again due to the information being relayed. Once more he made another promise, one that she knew full well he would keep and not blatantly lie about. Even if…

…

…

"No nonsense?"

"Absolutely none. I just need more time on that front."

The young woman sighed, crossing her arms as she leaned back in her chair.

"You're not one to lie like that, so… I'll trust you in regards to 'that'."

"Glad to hear it." Dante checked the watch on the oven/stove in the kitchen, "I have to go soon."

"Not gonna shower?" Neo signed, eyeing him up and down.

He looked down and suddenly remembered the numerous lipstick marks that marked his body.

"Oh no. Looks like you might need some help 'cleaning up'." She signed, licking her lips, "Guess I have no choice but to help you."

…

…

He knew exactly where this was going, but he didn't want to refuse her.

"W-Well have to be quick…"

A faint giggle escaped the small woman as she quickly sprang out of her chair, grabbing the young devil's hand as she hurriedly dragged him out of his chair towards the bathroom, her pink and brown long hair fluttering. The early morning light seemingly made her hair glitter slightly as he saw a bright and eager smile on her face, captivating the devil once again.

Yeah… This kind of life isn't bad at all…

---

Before you ask or get up in arms, Neo was planned since forever ago, years even. She's just too... spectacular and breathtaking for me. I was hesitant at first, but confirmed it after agonizing thinking, then waited for the right time. I finally found it at last after patient years of waiting.

We'll be seeing more of her as we go. I plan to involve her more.

That aside, next while might be action intense, so stay tuned. Trust me, I'll keep doing my best to get these out quickly. Just wish I could be mostly doing this.

Now that all that is out of the way...

If you have questions, ask them anytime. I will try to answer them without spoiling anything.

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! Your support genuinely matters.

With that, I bid you all an excellent week/weekend, and remember... be kind and excellent to one another, stay safe, and stay healthy.