Hey everyone, not dead or anything, jut been tired and recuperating. Not gonna lie, last month of college really kicked my ass with papers and group presentations, moving my stuff into storage, and then, the all famous 17 hour drive home.
In short, I needed a hell of a long ass break and to take a bunch of long ass naps. I've been better the last three days, so I finished up this chapter. It took me a long while to write for... the reasons that you'll be seeing in this chapter.
Trust me when I say that you could very well enjoy this chapter for different reasons.
In any case, apologies again for the long time. I needed a long break and I got it, so now, without further ado, Chapter 56. Enjoy Everyone.
Chapter 56: Fate of Haven
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"Dante!"
The once immortal looked to his sibling in the crowd, seeing her hold up a crystalline orb that glowed with numerous colors deep within.
She then tossed it his way overhead of Asher, where the young man stuck out his hand to shoot out ultraviolet rays at the crystal to shoot it down. Dante extended his own hand, shooting out Aura sword to crash into the rays as the orb safely made its way into his hand.
"Crush it!"
Following his sister's command, the teen began squeezing as hard his could, cracks forming in the orb as rays of energy began to peek out. Then, moments after, Dante crushed the entire thing in his hand as the energy within the orb burst outward, consuming him entirely as the energy shot up like a column of light into the dark clouds above.
Power… Power was flowing into him. He could feel it spreading through every corner of his body, energizing him from head to toe.
Master! This is..!
Payback time!
The column of light exploded outwards in a bright flash, blinding everyone with its majesty.
Smoke littered the area, slowly filtering out as all eyes went back on the center where Asher stood and the obscured Dante were.
The young man couldn't see anything at all at first, but as the smoke started to drift away, he could see an outline deep within.
But when the smoke finally began to subside, he was startled by what he saw.
Dante remained where he stood, only now, he was very different.
He was wearing an open, dark platinum haori with wide sleeves and long tails that reached down to his ankles, and a black kosode underneath that was tied together with a white obi. The haori had a black imprint emblem of Dante's Shadow Skinned head covering most of his back.
Strangely enough, there was a hood attached to the back collar of the haori, almost looking like Ruby's hood. The ends of the Haori were tattered and colored black, resembling flames almost.
Beneath the wide sleeves of the haori that moved with the gentle breeze were black, hard leather vambraces that covered the entirety of his forearms and the back of his hands. They seemed almost molded to his arms.
Layering the forearms were thin plates of platinum metal shaped like shields that wrapped around his forearms, with the pointed ends reaching to his wrists. From there, a thin plate of platinum metal layered the back of his hands for extra protection.
For bottoms he wore a dark platinum split hakama, with the bottom hems reaching down to the center of his shins. The bottom hems were tucked into a pair of black greaves that resembled the metal shoes Eclypse wore, the only exception was that the metal covered his entire feet and legs up to his shins, and had white wavy patterns embossed across the shins.
The tucked in ends were puffed out a bit, as to not constrict and hinder Dante's leg movement at all.
Eclypse had also changed somewhat, her blade length extending to five feet total so that when Dante rested his hands on the butt of the handle, her total length was up to the base of his neck. Her width in sword form was slightly wider, now 1.5 inches rather a simple inch in width.
Dante lifted his left hand, glancing over his new appearance briefly before squeezing his hands a few times.
He then closed his eyes, focusing his mind as many flickers of Aura appeared. One by one, he made those flickers disappear until he could feel and see his own, and it was burning brighter and hotter than before. But… there was something else he could feel. Something deeper within.
It started raining a little bit with small trickles falling from the sky.
"You…"
Asher's voice drew the teen's attention back to him, glaring at the once immortal in confusion.
"What is that form?"
"Don't know." Dante said as he dropped his hand, slinging Eclypse over his shoulder, "Don't care. But I know for sure now… that your ass is as good as mine."
(The World Ends With You Final Remix OST SHADOW)
"Is that so?" Asher asked as he raised up his twinblade, "You seem to forget who's had you on the ropes for the last few minutes. Don't think a mere change of clothes is enough to scare me, you fool. Regardless of how you look like, I will-"
"Shove it!" Dante spoke as he punched Asher in the face.
(0:14)
The young man flew back into a column, the stone collapsing on top of him. He quickly rose up from the ruble, touching the side of his face where he was struck in awe.
I couldn't see him..! He moved too fast! And..! That force..!
He didn't have time to think any further, Dante was already standing above him and ready to swing his sword down. Asher rolled out of the way and onto his feet, zooming forward into a stab that was parried off to the side by the teen before he kicked Asher in the face with a powerful round kick, sending him rolling once again.
As he rolled, Asher tapped his hand against the ground, mixing ultraviolet lightning with the rising ground to create a lightning charged shockwave of earth heading straight for the once immortal.
"Tch..! More useless crap in the way..!"
As he spoke, he swung Eclypse down with one hand and split the earth finding a trails of ice spears heading his way. He quickly twirled Eclypse into her gun form, a small burst of Aura gathering in Dante's left arm as it flashed three time before he fired off a single shot.
Two bullets shot forward coated in large streams of Aura, breaking through the spears like paper and barely missing Asher's head as he moved out of the way.
He's never used a firearm of any sort until this battle! What changed?! And how did he do it so quickly?!
The young man blocked two more shots from Dante with his weapon, but each shot felt like his weapon would snap with each impact.
You'd expect some who came close to dying would be afraid of fighting! That they'd be afraid of dying again!
Asher and Dante came close together, exchanging a few blows with their weapons, but in Dante's case, he was was the one on the offensive, constantly countering and pushing back Asher's attack with ease.
And he was using one hand no less when he swung his sword.
This man..! He's fighting me completely unafraid! As if him dying never happened! How could he fight and ignore something like that?!
"You think too much."
Dante's voice snapped Asher back to attention, only to have his weapon parried upwards before taking a palm strike to the chest, temporarily knocking the wind out of him as he was sent flying back into another column.
Is he-?
"Reading your mind? Hell no. Who has time for that crap anyway?" Dante waved off dismissively, "You're too obvious. You're thinking about how unafraid I am about fighting after essentially dying twice, aren't you? The answer's simple." The teen said, pointing Eclypse at his opponent, "I don't have time to think about crap like that. The only thing I need to think about is kicking your ass. That's it."
"Nonsense!" Asher said as he stood back up, "That's utter nonsense! There isn't any way a human can think like that!"
"Who said anything about me being human?"
Asher's eyes lit up at the remark, standing there in shock at Dante's words.
"I might be able to die like them now, but that changes nothing. If anything… it fires me up all the more to want to win!" The teen said, wearing a devilish smile on his face that stunned Asher even further.
The young man twirled his twinblade around him, summoning ultraviolet ice, fire, lighting and earth all around him. The four elements then combined and churned with one another, forming a large mass directly in front of him. A palm thrust from him shot the mass forward into a blast of elements, all of them spreading out wide in a cone and rushing with blinding speed at the once immortal.
Dante planted his feet firmly in the ground, and pointed Eclypse directly in front of him, letting the blast of elements hit him head on as it seemingly consumed him.
Asher seemed confident that did the trick, smiling all the while.
But a tear opened up at the center of the continuous blast, making the young man go wide eyed in shock as he watched Dante swing his sword and destroy the entire rush of elements completely in one blow.
He snapped out of his confusion, looking up to see a slicing wave coming right at him. The best he could do was summon some of his elements in front of him and block with his twinblade.
The large wave crashed into everything in its path in an explosive shockwave that rushed through the area like a strong breeze.
The smoke cleared, and Asher remained barely standing, cut across various sections of his body and breathing heavily as smoke streamed from various parts of his body.
(3:48)
"You've gotten significantly stronger from that little trinket, but your Devouring Light was very lackluster Dante! That won't be enough to kill me!"
"That wasn't Devouring Light. And it wasn't Howling Dark either." The once immortal commented.
"W-What..?!"
"You heard me. It wasn't any of those attacks. It was just me putting a little bit more force behind my swing."
He distorted the atmosphere and sent out a slicing sonic wave… just by swinging his sword with more applied force?!
"If you want to see the real deal so badly… then I'll show it to you."
(4:02)
As he spoke, wisps of platinum colored Aura began to emerge from Dante until they grew into a large blast cloaking him entirely, then went even further and transformed into a violent torrent that surged upwards into sky.
Asher managed to open his mouth, struggling to get a few words out until he managed, "What is this..?! WHAT IN THE WORLD IS THAT AURA SIGNATURE?!"
Dante lowered Eclypse across his body, finally grabbing her with both hands as he readied himself, all of his platinum colored Aura shifting to his sword as he swung it a moment after.
"Eclyptic..! Edge!"
As the once immortal shouted the name of his technique, he swung his sword upwards at Asher from a diagonal angle, unleashing the condensed Aura into an arcing stream that shot upwards into the sky, piercing through the clouds.
(4:31)
As the titanic stream of violent Aura shot up continuously into the skies, it finally slipped past the clouds and rain entirely, where moments after, a huge cut appeared in the skies where Dante's strike shot up. Just as quickly as the cut appeared, the clouds instantaneously and forcefully parted entirely in just mere seconds. Not a single cloud could be found in the skies for miles upon miles, leaving the entire kingdom, the whole region, without a single cloud in the sky.
The rain had also ceased, disappearing as quickly as the clouds that were entirely blown away.
(End Song)
Asher remained perfectly still, slack jawed all the while as he didn't even so much as blink. Tufts of hair from his right side were burnt away, leaving smoldering streaks of glowing platinum Aura from where his hair was cut.
He was alive, that much he was certain of.
The young man gulped audibly, working up the courage to slowly look behind him as his eyes went wide once again at the sight of what he saw.
The entire top half of Haven Academy… as well as the mountain behind it… had been erased completely from being diagonally cut.
The only thing that remained uptop were streaks of smoldering platinum Aura, still shimmering and glowing brightly even after the cut had been long made.
"Damn… I guess I was bound to miss going full force with a technique I've never used." Dante commented, rubbing the back of his head as his eyes trailed down from the entirely cleaved building to meet Asher's eyes, "Don't worry. I won't miss next time."
He… missed? He missed because… he swung too hard..?
He was beyond shock and awe at this point. He had no words, no way to describe what he just witnessed, what he just felt.
Except for terror.
Immediately, Asher took off into the sky, needing to get away as quickly as possible.
I still have my back up plan! If I can get away for a few moments to prepare..!
A hand found itself around Asher's ankle, completely halting him as he looked behind to see Dante standing in the air, holding onto the young man.
"Leaving so soon? The party's not over yet!"
The teen forcibly tossed Asher towards the ground, the young man flipping in the air and landing on his feet as he clashed with Dante.
It's not only his Aura that's gotten insanely more powerful! His physical abilities have also increased tremendously to the point where I can't even counter him without fear of being blown back! What the hell was that trinket the wench gave him?!
His thoughts were in such disarray. He couldn't concentrate on the fight entirely with Dante, and was making more mistakes than usual with trying to block or counter. Not even his elemental attacks were of much use, and this was with the pseudo-Gem empowering him. But…
It still wasn't awake fully. He needed more time.
Tried as he did, Asher couldn't keep up with Dante, and was completely overwhelmed by the brutal and blindingly fast strikes the once immortal was dishing out.
One powerful swing batted the young man a few yards away from the teen, putting enough distance between them to unleash his next attack. Ultraviolet Aura gathered around the blades of his twinblade, and when he swung his weapon, Asher discharged two large blasts of Ultraviolet Aura that careened into Eclypse's edge, splitting apart to leave Dante unharmed.
The once immortal then swung his sword outwards to destroy the energy entirely, platinum colored Aura shimmering to life in a violent torrent around his sword as he swung back. A colossal arcing wave of the teen's Aura shot outwards like a bolt of lightning crashing into Ahser's twinblade as he tried to block it.
In spite of his struggling, in spite of his screaming, nothing could stop the destructive blast of Aura from consuming him in a bright explosion of shimmering energy.
Dante let out a sigh of relaxation, lowering Eclypse as he stared out into the distance. He brought up his left hand once more, staring at it intently as he focused his sense to feel his own Aura Signature. It was certainly his own, but… there was more to it. A lot more.
It didn't take long to realize that what he felt wasn't just a simple surge of power… but a massive surge of numerous powers, numerous Auras.
Ruby. Inuba. Eclypse. Blaire. Dawn. Leonard. Ciel. The Lianna Twins. Musashi. His mother Athyra. Lucifer. Jaune. Pyrrha. Ren. Nora. Weiss. Blake. Yang. Penny. Sun. Neptune. Coco. Velvet. Fox. Yatsuhashi. Ozpin. Qrow. Ms. Goodwitch. Professor Port and Oobleck.
And… It couldn't be..!
Filia. Darwin. Akihito. Asahi. Mai. Kareina. Tenma. Anri.
Even hers...
Satannya.
And more. Many many many more.
He could feel them. All of them. Even if they were small trace amounts, he could feel pieces of their Auras, pieces of their souls, within him now, empowering him beyond his previous limits.
But more importantly… he felt whole again.
That big, great, bottomless emptiness that had been in him ever since he came to Remnant… was gone.
He was whole once more. His soul… was whole once more.
"I think I understand it now." Eclypse's voice rang out in a slight electronic tone, "That orb… It collectively gathered chunks of various people's Auras. People you knew. Not only did it gather chunks, but it seems like… people willingly donated chunks of their Aura to the orb you crushed."
"She's right."
Dante spun around at the sound of Dawn's voice, staring at his sister.
"That orb was something I found deep within another dimension on Primordial. Rather, I stole it, but I think uncle let me take it so that I could use it."
"Lucifer?"
"That orb served as proof of a covenant. A proof of a treaty of sorts. But it also served as a vessel, a unifying container." She explained, "When I brought the orb back here with me a year and a half ago, I gave it to Weiss Schnee while all of you were still in your early first semester at Beacon. She carried it around, and as she did, it not only took a small chunk of her Aura, but it did the same for all those around her that were deeply connected to you, such as Ruby and Jaune."
"But… What about-?"
"The others?" Dawn interrupted, "Well… While you came here, I was off visiting different Worlds and Realities in secret, asking the countless people you made connections with and helped over the years to donate a small fraction of their Aura to help you. To not only make you stronger, but to fill the great emptiness in your soul and essentially reboot it."
"Reboot it?"
"Yes. Your soul was in constant fluctuation and chaos, making it impossible for you to truly grow stronger and… well… grow as a person. Eclypse was a part of you that was torn away, and when reconnected to you, aided with making you whole once again. But the connection was still incomplete because of the large gap in your soul."
"And so all those Auras that orb gathered, it filled up that hole and rebooted my soul so that it could be as it once was. As it should be. It… fixed me, but also made me stronger." Dante noted, piecing it together now.
"You work fast, Dawn. Far too quickly to have made it back in time to only now." Eclypse spoke up.
"I split myself and made numerous Aura clones, and then made a lot of jumps. I ignored most of the rules I set for myself. I didn't care all too much about detection this time, but I'm still certain they couldn't trace me as I traveled. What would've taken me a week took me only one hour. Well, an hour and forty six minutes to be precise, but…"
"Thank you, Dawn."
The sister looked up, seeing Dante's hand rest atop her head and pat her gently.
"You did good. Really good. You did something I couldn't do for the longest of times. You… and everyone else." The teen said as he smiled, "I guess having bonds with people really is a powerful thing after all if it could do this much. I'm glad I learned that early on."
But… there was still something bugging him. He didn't want to ask, but…
"How did you get her Aura, Dawn?" Eclypse asked.
"Who's Aura?"
"Satannya's. She's dead. Unless you broke into The Beyond on your little spree, it's impossible for you to have gained a chunk of her Aura to add to the orb."
"I-I didn't even know… Dante, can you really feel a piece of her Aura within you?"
"Yeah… It's there alright…" he confirmed softly, still trying to make sense of it.
"It… could be possible she left a fragment behind within you all this time. Perhaps, you just couldn't sense it until now, or maybe it was locked deeper within until the orb just… piled everything in you."
A final gift from her…
…
I guess she didn't leave this world without leaving one last gift behind for me…
He chuckled lightly, placing his hand on his hip as he slung Eclypse over his shoulder.
"I guess we'll never know." The once immortal said with a smile.
"Dante… He isn't…"
"Dead. I know. He's catching his wind." The teen said as he looked out towards the mountain range he blasted Asher in, "He has a pseudo-Gem Scylix made from various souls and collected essence, just in case her original plan failed."
"What would you like me to do?"
"Treat Ruby and everyone else's injuries. Then, get everyone further back out of the area. Got a feeling that before long, this place is gonna be an even bigger wreck."
"Of course." Dawn nodded, "Be careful, brother."
"Yeah yeah, no need to tell me." Dante waved off before given his sister a playful nudge, "Come back when you're done. I could use someone watching my back."
His sister gave him a quick nod before her body disappeared in a brief flash of white light, allowing Dante to look back at the mountain range as he waited.
"We May need to destroy that Gem first before we can actually kill him. Otherwise he'll keep healing."
"Man… I think I finally understand how all my enemies felt when I kept regenerating after their attacks."
"You can still regenerate, Master. It'll only cost Aura now. The cost will depend on the severity of the injury."
"No need to tell me…"
Ultraviolet light shot up into the sky briefly before Asher landed on the edge of the cliff side, his body smoldering with thick smoke as he let out heavy breaths.
"You're pretty stubborn if you won't die after that. Give me break and just drop dead already." Dante complained.
"Don't get so full of yourself… I told you… that I still have the advantage…" the young man said as he looked up at the teen, "And I meant it. Just because you're stronger now… doesn't change that!"
Asher slammed his fist into the ground as a massive rush of wind blew through the air, a torrent of ultraviolet Aura blazing around the young man's body furiously. The blaze then separated into eight different columns that spread out around Asher, four on each side as they took on human shape.
The blazes died down, revealing a group of ten individuals now standing with Asher, some of them laughing as they stared down the lone Dante.
"Ooh… Eleven on one, huh?"
"We've had worse odds." Eclypse stated.
"Ain't that the truth."
"How can you talk big after seeing this?" Asher asked, "You're completely outnumbered. And each of these individuals has great enough power to fight you. There isn't any chance of you coming out of this victorious, like I've stated dozens of times before!"
Asher extended his palm forward and shot a small bolt of ultraviolet light at Dante, and just as he was ready to cut it, someone else jumped down from above and cut it in two.
Dante stepped back a moment and looked closely at the new arrival. He had black body that was lightly armored in sleek, wavy metal, showing some grey artificial muscles fibers underneath. His helmet covered his entire head, save for the large almost glass-like black face protector that was pyramidal shaped.
It was at that moment the teen recognized exactly who it was as a smile appeared on his face.
The figure turned around, raising his arm as his weapon folded up back into his forearm, his visor splitting apart along with his helmet to expose his whole head. Brown hair that was messy, steel colored eyes… There was no mistake of who it was.
"Unit Darwin, here to assist." He spoke, saluting the once immortal.
Dante chuckled to himself as Darwin smiled, the two raising up one hand each and fist bumping each other.
"This was the last place I'd thought I'd see you! What's good, Darwin?"
"I came here at the request of someone claiming to be your sister." The android explained, "Given her genetic features, namely the white hair and eyes, I made the risky assumption to believe her and came here."
"She ask anyone else to come?"
"Not to my knowledge, no. She came to me specifically because she knew how loyal I was to you. Unfortunately… After Altus… I'm not sure everyone else felt the same as I did."
"Well, that's alright. You're here, and I'm happy about it." The once immortal said as he patted his friend on his back.
"Two vs. Eleven? The odds are still in our favor, little brats." One of the robed figures called out next to Asher.
Darwin and Dante stood looking at the men and women across from them, smiling at their foes all the while.
Before any made a move, golden beams shot out from on high, crashing in front of the group of nine to stop them in their tracks.
"Hahahahaha! If you think the odds are in your favor just because you outnumber them, then you are all truly a foolish bunch of mongrels!"
No way... Even he's here?!
Dante looked up on high, seeing a man slowly float down. He wore nothing except for a pair of golden greaves up to his waist, and a gold and black armored glove. He also had red markings covering his torso and arms, short golden hair, and red eyes.
The King of Heroes Gilgamesh had graced the field with his presence.
"You've gotten sloppier since you were last in Chaldea, Grand Avenger Dante." The golden man said as he floated down next to Dante, "Has time dulled your abilities?"
"Not a chance, King of Heroes." Dante smiled proudly in return, "I was just about to mop the floors with them. Just thought I'd wait in case you decided to grace the field with your presence."
"Hah! You still have your sharp tongue about you, I see. But did you think I was the only one she sent to aid you?"
She sent others? Who else-?
As quickly as he thought this, three more appeared from up above, landing next to the King of Heroes, only making Dante's smile wider.
Who could ever mistake the black armor and proud flag of Jeanne Alter? The beautiful kimono and katana of Lady Ryougi Shiki? Or the tall shoes and extraordinarily long katana of Okita Souji Alter?
"You guys came here too?!" Dante asked, surprised and overjoyed to see old friends from Chaldea.
"Hmph, of course we did." Jeanne Alter spoke up, "We heard there was a fun fight going down from that sister of yours, and seeing as we've been bored lately, she let us go in her stead."
"I'm here because Master asked me to come too." Okita Alter spoke up, "Also, it would've been nice to see a good friend again and offer some help."
Ryougi Shiki giggled silently as Dante looked to her, "They're only saying such things because they want to hide their eagerness in wanting to see you again."
"H-Hey! Don't go saying things as you please!" Jeanne Alter yelled at the cheery Saber, "In any case, we're here to help you kick some ass. If that's the competition, I'm not all that impressed." She said with a wicked smile.
"Hey dumbass! Don't go forgetting us!" A rough voice called out from above.
Three more people jumped down from above, landing next to Darwin one after the other.
The first one was Akihito, Inuba's older brother who still spotted his usual attire of a white kimono with black flame trimmings on the edges of the garment, and a white split hakama of the same design, with black tabi socks and white zori sandals. He wore a sleeveless black haori over his kimono, with a white nine tailed fox emblem on his back. His nine tails flowed freely, slowly swaying back and forth as he kept his hands together, waiting.
The other two, Dante was just as eager to see.
"Daisuke!"
"Yello there! Been a while, huh Dante?" The crow tengu spoke as he waved to Dante.
Daisuke, the older brother of Ayame.
He was similar in age to Akihito, with the appearance of being in his mid twenties. He had chin length messy black hair the gave off a small, glossy shin in the moonlight, bright orange irises that shone like fire with black pupils in the center, and a pale skin tone.
He was slender in build by comparison, but he stood at a good 6'3, the same height as Akihito. For clothing, he wore a sleeveless black kimono with light green trimming that was held together by a light green cloth obi.
In addition, he wore a black split-hakama that rose up to the center of his shins, and wore no tabi socks. For footwear he wore wooden geta sandals that were made of brightly colored wood that seemed nearly pale. His geta sandals each had two "teeth", which were two wooden blocks spread apart from one another beneath the wooden sole of the sandals.
Behind his back on his waist sat his short katana with a golden guard and green handle, along with a guardless wakizashi of the same design directly underneath.
He also sported a black sleeveless haori, only his emblem was that of a green crow.
"Even you're here, Seiji?" Dante said to the tallest one of the bunch.
The man looked as young as his two other yōkai friends, but easily towered over them with his muscular form as he stood at eight feet tall. His most prominent feature however were the two azure blue horns coming from his forehead.
He wore an azure blue kimono with jagged black patterns for trim that he kept open, exposing a little bit of the white sarashi he wore underneath his black kosode. He wore an azure blue split hakama of the same design as his kimono, black tabi socks, and azure blue zori sandals. He too wore a sleeveless black haori, only his emblem was that of an azure blue oni on his back.
His weapon of choice was a jagged, guardless nagamki with an azure blue handle. Though with his size, the nagamaki may as well have been a normal katana for the imposing oni.
"Huh? Why wouldn't I be here you idiot? I'm here to fight. Do I need any other reason to be here?"
"Guess not…" Dante scoffed as he looked to Akihito, "My sister asked you three to be here too?"
"She did indeed." The fox yōkai answered.
"Who knew you had a sister?" Daisuke asked.
"Didn't know myself until about a week ago." Dante answered in returned.
"Hey kid! Don't forget about us!"
An all too familiar cheery voice came from above as two individuals dropped down from on high, one of which was wearing a red coat, had silvery colored haired and dual guns, with a brutally demonic looking sword that looked like part of it was made of stone, and four claws forming the guard that pointed down.
The other was an all too familiar figure. A chill wind of death dressed in black with light blue detailing, and a katana that was said to cut through anything, even space itself.
The aged Sons of Sparda had cut into the fight.
"Even you two are here?!" The younger and very different Dante asked, shocked at their arrival.
"If you don't want our help, we can just as well leave." Vergil noted to the once immortal.
"No, I'm all for it. Just thought you two might be continuing your little deathmatch in the underworld after all this time."
The twins looked between each other briefly chuckling silently.
"Yeah… We kinda took a break for a while, since we weren't getting anywhere." The older and different Dante shrugged.
"Figures..." The teen scoffed with a shake of his head before he looked back to Asher, "So… Ready to give up yet? Cause I gotta tell ya, you're up against some of the most powerful people I've ever known, plus me. Even if the numbers are evened out, your chances are still pretty low."
Asher chuckled to himself, nodding to the robed man next to him as he dude his hands into the earth. Suddenly, everyone on both sides where enshrouded in black cubes that vanished out of sight, leaving only Dante and Asher to eyeball each other before they too were absorbed by black cubes that soon vanished.
"Tch… So they separated us all…" Jeanne Alter complained as she looked around the forest setting she found herself in, "What a pain. They could've ended this sooner if it was just an all out brawl. But I guess they thought of that too."
That just left one question on the Avenger's mind.
Where was her enemy?
Something scraped by the headpiece on her forehead, letting off a small amount of sparks as Jeanne Alter angrily glared about, not able to see her enemy.
"How's my camouflage?" The voice of a man echoed through forest, "You're gonna be spending your time in here for the rest of eternity, unable to find me! All while I whittle you down to nothing but bones!"
The Avenger rolled her eyes, unimpressed with her foe's claim.
Her biggest problem was that he was apparently invisible within this forest. The same thing went for his weapons as well, for Jeanne couldn't see them in the slightest as they kept being lobbed at her from various directions, scraping up her armor all the while.
"Tch!"
She raised up her sword, which lit ablaze with flame as she swung it down, sending out a huge wave of flame out into the forest.
"Ahahaha! You missed little fire girl!" The voice echoed out.
This was really beginning to piss her off…
She couldn't see him or his weapons, all she could do was listen carefully, and she didn't want to waste anymore time on this waste of skin.
But how would she..?
…
An evil smile curled up on Jeanne Alter's face, having thought of a rather simple solution to her small problem.
"What's wrong fire girl? Giving up already?"
"No… I'm just trying to contain my laughter."
"What..?"
"This is a contained space, right? And we're in a forest, aren't we?"
"So what?"
Wherever the man was hiding, he gasped loudly suddenly as the Avenger laughed loudly, fire blazing around her as it spread out into a violent blaze.
"This is the howl of a soul filled with hatred..!"
As Jeanne raised her sword up into the air, the flames grew bigger and dancing to her voice.
"LA GRONDEMENT DU HAINE!"
The flames exploded outwards in a violent blast, spreading out quickly through the forest as a draconic roar howled from the flames.
The man dropped from one of the burning trees, his body ignited with flame as he screamed loudly in pain.
But his cries were deafened by the roar of the flames and Jeanne Alter's laughter, all while the forest burned to ash around her.
A minute or so later, and nothing but ash remained around the impressively powerful Avenger, who looked around cautiously.
"Eh~? Nothing left then? Well, it's to be expected with the kind of power I have." She shrugged, opening her eyes to see the space collapsing around as she was back outside.
Taking a look around, she hummed to herself with an amused expression.
"And I'm the first one done? Hmph, I am the strongest after all." Jeanne Alter said, finding a nice chunk of ruble to sit on.
She could see it now, ten more immensely large cubes spread out through the field in front of her, and...
One immensely large cube up in the sky.
He was in there with the other one.
"Um… hello?"
"Huh?"
The Avenger turned around, glaring at the little reaper in red standing just a few feet away from her.
"Um… hi! I'm Ruby."
"Don't care." Jeanne waved off, making Ruby flinch a little.
"A-Are you a friend of Dante's?"
"Friend? Hah! More like a rival. No… If anything, I'm after his title as a Servant."
"Servant? Like a butler?"
"What?! No you idiot! Servant! As in a Heroic Spirit! Don't you idiots know anything?!"
"I-I'm sorry! I've only heard of you guys like once, and it was a really long time ago, and-"
"Ugh! Just zip it already!" Jeanne commanded, making the little reaper in red fall silent.
"Can I ask just one question?"
The Avenger sighed, "Make it fast, shrimp."
"What do you mean by title?"
"Huh? You don't know what kind of Servant Dante is?"
"N-No…"
"He's an Avenger Class Servant, like me."
"Yeah, I can see that." Ruby nodded with an affirmative smile, "But if he's like you, why do you want his title or whatever?"
"Simple. Unfortunately, he's a tier higher than me and most of the Servants of Chaldea. He was summoned as a Grand Avenger, the best of the best. Especially concerning his Class. Basically, he's the ultimate of Servants."
"Oooh… And you want to be like him?"
"No, I want to be better than him." She said, raising her voice a tad in annoyance, "No matter what… I'll be a Grand Avenger, and become the ultimate Servant."
"Um… Good luck?"
The Avenger let out a loud sigh and rested her chin in her palm, thinking about the annoying next few minutes she'd have to endure with the obnoxious child in the red hood.
"Pocket space arenas with the goal to separate us… How quaint…" Darwin disappointedly commented as he looked around his surroundings.
He was in some sort of field of grass with tall reeds.
"You… You aren't a man, a Faunus, or one of us even. What are you?"
The android turned around to face his foe. He had an eastern clothing style about him, complete with a straw hat and clogs.
And of course, he had a katana with a wooden handle that was guardless.
"The best humanity has to offer." Darwin spoke, his faceplate and helmet quickly covered his head.
He extended his arms, and from the forearms shot out blade handles into his hand, which when activated, sprung out sharp, segmented blades.
"A machine then? Hmph… Simple enough…"
A smiled curled on Darwin's face as he mockingly gestured for the man to come forward. And he did, for with a quick dash, he was already assaulting Darwin with carefully calculated blows. Aiming for vital points and joints, the man moved as fast as lightning, his techniques flowing like water with every move he made.
But Darwin was easily matching his opponent blow for blow, blocking and parrying his every move without making any counters. It was strange to the man as he fought the android. He had the opportunity to counter a few times here and there, nothing that he couldn't handle, but the machine intentionally let those opportunities slip by.
Why?
They darted through the reeds, cutting down the thin blades of grass as the field became more open around them. Sparks and currents of white energy flowed around them and the more the man continued fighting Darwin, the more frustrated the man became. And then it happened.
One block was too much for the straw hat samurai, and once his guard was broken, Darwin took the chance to cut the man's left arm off.
"How?! My reflex Semblance should allow me to see your moves very clearly and counter them accordingly!"
"You said at the beginning of this fight that I was a machine, but I'm beginning to think you only assumed I was part machine. The truth is… I am a full bodied android with my own free will and consciousness."
"An actual machine through and through?!"
"Yes. And my strategy has been working from what it seems. You've gotten significantly slower."
What was he-?
…
He's been exhausting me!
"You may have superb reflexes for a power…" Darwin spoke as he took a stance, readying his blades, "but it means nothing if your body can't keep up."
White energy crackled through Darwin's as he zipped forward with blinding speed, disappearing as soon as the samurai swung his blade down.
Before he could look any further, two blades jutted out from his chest chest, the man's head turning around slowly as he saw Darwin standing behind him.
"Don't feel discouraged. You are only flesh and blood."
He drew out his blades, and the man's body slumped down to the ground as the space began to break down around him.
"Angels and Dark Entities have presented a far better challenge."
"Ho? Now this is quite amusing."
The King of Heroes found himself surrounded in a space filled with… gold and treasures.
"You have the audacity to replicate my treasures so shabbily?"
"Your treasures?"
"That's correct, mongrel. All treasures at one point or another in time were mine, therefore they are my belongings and no one else's." The king proudly proclaimed.
A glint of gold passed by the king's face, his brow furrowing slightly in anger.
"You dare to strike a king with his own treasure? Very well then. Since you demand a grand death, then I shall give you one."
Golden rifts shone around the king in the dozens before an assortment of spears and swords shot out of those rifts, kicking up the gold coins and treasure around in serious storms of money. He kept firing all around him, assuming his attacker was hiding somewhere within the piles of gold and treasure.
Every now and then there'd be a glint coming his way, but after the second miss, the King of Heroes could immediately counter it with one of his weapons he summoned.
It was almost too easy with how cowardly his foe was.
The king surmised that eventually the rat would have to come out of hiding to get in close for a kill, since ranged options weren't the best option of killing him because of his counters.
At this point, it was just a waiting game.
And his patience paid off.
Moments after bringing his golden rifts around him, he shot out weapons in all directions except for behind him. He stopped his onslaught of weapons, glancing around the treasure room of gold with an unimpressed gaze. He then felt a swift breeze moving around him, and he snapped his fingers.
The king could hear blood spattering on the ground with a silenced yelp, and hummed as he turned around to see his attacker.
A rat indeed given the tail that jutted out from behind his robe, along with his disgusting maw of teeth
"How..?" the man managed to barely breath out, given he was skewered by numerous golden weapons.
"Ha! Did you really think I was that naive enough to lower my guard? Fool. I intentionally left my back exposed for you to come and attack me from behind like the treacherous vermin you are."
"That's..! Insane..!"
"Perhaps." The King of Heroes replied as he crossed his arms and looked down at his dying enemy, "But considering you would not face me out in the open, I had no choice but to draw you in. An incredibly minimal risk… but one that was well rewarding."
The man shuddered before he took his last breath and went limp, his body held up by the weapons buried in his flesh.
"Don't fret so much over it. I am the greatest of kings, after all. Be grateful I even used my Gate of Babylon to destroy you so spectacularly."
They were in a train station, or rather, the upper level where one would purchase tickets and the like. It was completely empty inside the rather grand station, save for the two people currently inside.
He was watching his target from on high in the chandelier, glancing at the tan skinned girl with the ridiculously high heels and katana. She hadn't made any sort of move at all the entire time and just… stood there.
What was she doing? Was she thinking? Strategizing?
The man peeked through the scope of twisted, bone-like rifle, zooming the sights in to see…
She's sleeping?! Who the hell sleeps in the middle of a fight?!
No time to complain. At least this would have been easy.
He took aim, squeezed the trigger slowly and fired. Instead of hitting the girl, she moved her head out of the way, opening her eyes at last.
"I think… something almost hit me?"
Almost?! I had you dead to rights! You just woke up at the right time!
This was probably the most shocking experience he had ever born witness to.
"Can you come out please? I'd rather finish this quickly if we can." Okita Alter called out as she looked around the station.
She sighed after waiting a solid minute without a response.
"Alright then. Guess I'll have to find you."
She stepped forward and stopped immediately, feeling something cut her cheek and her arms. Her slender fingers moved up and tugged on the incredibly thin line in front of her, then seeing dozens upon dozens of linear glints from various angles all around the swordswoman.
"Gonna be hard for you to move around in my web without cutting some of your flesh!"
"I see…"
Okita Alter sighed, drawing her sword and lashing it upwards to cut the invisible strings of steel surrounding her.
"Then I just have to cut your webs, spider." She looked around, squinting her eyes as she searched, "Um… Where are you, exactly?"
She talks tough and can't even find me?!
She didn't look like much, especially with those ridiculously tall heels of hers. From what the man could tell… she was a total klutz.
In all honesty, Okita Alter was doing her best to search for her opponent. He was well hidden, perhaps camouflaged or even invisible. That'd be a problem, rather, it'd be annoying to deal with in actuality.
So she listened, attenuating her hearing to make it sharper, more focused. The voice sounded like it came from somewhere above, maybe in the chandeliers. At the very least, it allowed the tan skinned girl to filter out the noises on the ground level and zero in our her target of interest.
"Alright… I think I've got it…"
Okita raised up her sword, resting her left hand underneath the blade as she pointed it up towards the chandeliers.
This stupid girl… She can't find me.
The spider aimed his rifle at the Alter Ego Servant, focusing his lens to take aim at her head.
"Um… How did it go again..? Uh… I forgot!"
Without warning, Okita spun around with frightening speed and thrust her sword forward towards the spider, a cone shaped beam of black and gold energy shooting outwards like a bolt of light.
"Something Something Amazing Beam!"
The entire ceiling of the station had been blown away, exposing an empty void up above that slowly began to break away to reveal the outside.
Okita Alter looked up at the ceiling, lowering her weapon as she sighed, "Oops… I think I may have overdone it a bit…"
He hated it. Dreaded this place even. Seiji wasn't one for "fancy" things or living in what's considered "higher status" despite being the head of his clan.
The Onikami Clan… In the history of both the Human World and Apparition World, their clan was one of the more infamous tribes of oni after Shuten and Ibaraki Douji. They pillaged and killed and stole their way into infamy.
That was until the Kitsukami Clan forcibly had the Onikami join the leadership of the Apparition World after a Wagered Duel. Ayaka Kitsukami, Inuba's grandmother, was the one to successfully unite the nine major clans of yōkai eight hundred years ago and form them into what they are today.
The Eihei Nine.
Ayaka's last task in the unification was to bring in the Onikami to truly make them into nine clans. And so after months of deliberations and negations, the matter was settled when she fought with Seiji's grandfather in a Wagered Duel and won.
Seiji could always remember the slight fear in his grandfather's tone whenever he talked about the fight with Ayaka.
The women of the Kitsukami Clan were indeed truly bold and terrifying.
The oni still didn't like it though, being "royalty" of a sort. He didn't like meetings, he didn't like dressing up fancy, and he sure as hell didn't like paperwork. He left that to one of his retainers, a finicky little human girl with glasses that was always on his case.
At the very least, she handled most of the annoyances of being a kind of royal. That way, he could do what he liked most.
Fight.
But fighting in here? In this place? This golden ballroom? It disgusted him.
"Oho? So you're my target, huh? Just some young, pretty boy punk?"
"Huh?" The Oni said, turning around to see his opponent, "Who you calling a punk, assclow-?"
He stopped mid sentence, looking up at the muscular man that stood taller than him at nine feet and had horns like an ox.
"Well well, you're pretty big." Seiji commented.
"Hah! If you think this is big, then you've seen nothing yet!"
The man growled loudly as his body brimmed with red Aura, his muscles growing bigger as his whole body began to grow larger and darker in skin tone. White plates of bone layered his upper torso, arms, and fists, making him look all the more menacing as he now stood at over fifteen feet tall and was outrageously muscled up.
"Of all of my companions, I am physically the strongest of them all! No one can match up to my power!"
A loud zing of steel, and a crackle of azure flame rang out throughout the room, and gigantic man froze, gurgling loudly as his bloodshot eyes looked down to Seiji. He was holding onto his sword, the blade's azure flames dying down to a faint blue hue.
That was the last thing the man saw before his body split apart perfectly down the middle, his massive body crashing into the ground with a thunderous crack.
"Tch…" The Oni said as he slung his blade over his shoulder, "What a waste of my fucking time…"
"Geez… Been walking for what seems like forever…"
Dante, the Son of Sparda, had been walking through the empty, small town's streets for minutes now, yawning as he stretched his arms.
"He ain't gonna come out? Man… I'm so not up for hide and seek right now…"
Just as he said this, the Son of Sparda stopped in his tracks, turning around slowly to see a man standing behind him clothed in black, wearing… western style clothes.
Scratch that, he was just going full on cowboy.
"There you are! I was beginning to think I'd have to smash my way outta here if you bozos went through the trouble of just trapping me in here."
"Naw… We just needed to keep you all nice and separated so we can pick you off one at a time." The man spoke with a deep southern accent, "The boss figured there'd be some meddlers trying to help the kid out, so he had us made and souped us up."
"Souped you up huh? Sounds nice. What's that guy even want with the kid anyway?"
"Didn't say." The man told Dante, "All he told us is that he may need us to keep others at bay while he gets a shot at the kid. That's it."
"Hmmm… Whatever the case, I can't let you guys kill the kid. Kind of have a soft spot for that little punk, same name and all."
The Devil Hunter extended his hand, thinking to summon his Devil Sword Dante, but stopped, smiling as he lowered his hand.
He knew what kind of fight this was gonna be. So why not oblige his target and have some fun?
The man checked one of the clocks nearby, hovering his hands over his guns that were holstered on hips. Dante raised up his hand, red energy forming in his hand until it formed a white cowboy hat and a long scarf of red energy, lowering his hands near his hips to be ready to draw Ebony and Ivory.
As soon as a tumbleweed finished moving on by, both men drew their dual guns and started firing. The cowboy, who was expecting to get a few shots in right off the bat, was shocked by what he saw, making him roll into cover.
What the hell..?! He was shooting my bullets out of the sky with his own! Who the hell is this freak?!
…
Not entirely up to plan, but it didn't matter. He still had his own tricks.
"Hey, come on! I'll get bored if all you're gonna do is run around and hide all the time!"
Bored? What the hell kind of friends does that Dante kid have?
He needed to gain an advantage, and he had just the trick to do it. A bolt of red energy surged into the barrel of one of his revolvers, making the barrel shimmer before he swung it across his body and pulled the trigger.
The black bullet trailed straight for only a moment before it curved around the corner and went straight for the Son of Sparda, who leaned back behind a wall. The bullet barely grazed his nose, digging into a wooden wall nearby and leaving a hole the size of a large hoop.
"It's like that shit out of Wanted…" Dante commented with a sharp exhale, "So he can curve bullets, huh? That's annoying…"
The Son of Sparda twirled his gun's twice, dark red energy building up in his forearms before they coated his guns.
"Too bad I've got the higher caliber!"
The old devil stepped out from behind cover and pulled the triggers on his guns with inhuman speed, firing his guns of so quickly that it could have been mistaken for machine gun fire. The bullets left bigger holes in the buildings than his opponent, forcing him out of cover as he dodged into different buildings to get the Devil Hunter off his back.
He returned fire as he leapt and weaved through the hail of bullets, but Dante simply walked forward, shifting his body every so slightly to effortlessly dodge the bullets.
All while giving a devilish smile.
Dust kicked up into the air as the buildings were destroyed one after another in the western desert town, obscuring the view of both men. But it wasn't a problem for the Son of Sparda.
He could see where his prey was clearly.
The cowboy was trying to keep his breath under control, fearing the Devil Hunter might hear him. But he didn't have to wait long, for the Son of Sparda came charging out of the dust cloud, Devil Sword Dante in hand as he stabbed at the gunslinger.
The man raised up his guns in a cross formation, raising up the weapon so as to not be stabbed in the head. Somehow, he managed to push back with enough strength and raise up his guns, only to find no one in front of him.
He heard a hum, and the cowboy's eyes shot up to see Dante's sword, perfectly suspended in air as it twirled around continuously at rapid speeds.
Click.
Cold metal touched the back of the cowboy's skull, and his eyes went wide as he stood as still as stone.
"Sorry pal. You're pretty handy with those guns of yours, but you ain't the best in the west like you thought you were."
His face twitched, his body shivering as he let out a yell and shifted his arm behind him.
A gunshot rang out, and both men stood completely still. Only…
The cowboy fell down to the ground with a loud thud, blood pooling into the sand as the Devil Hunter let out a sigh, reaching out to catch his sword and sling it over his shoulder as the world around him began to collapse.
"While you may not have been the best… you were still pretty damn good." Dante said, looking down to his stomach as he dug his fingers into the hole and yanked a bullet out of his wound.
She waited patiently in the city streets, seeing as that was all she could do. Making the first move now would've been too… wasteful. She could feel the woman in the area, but that was just thing.
Ryougi Shiki could feel multiple presences around her, all of them exactly the same.
At first, the Saber thought that this must have been some sort of distraction tactic; assigning the same presence to numerous combatants in order to cause confusion. But then, she realized she had entered into this space with only one person.
Which meant these numerous presences were all meager clones.
But the energies were so evenly spread out… It was almost impossible to tell who the real one was.
"Trying to figure out which one of us might be the real one is a waste of time." A red haired woman spoke as she stepped out, dressed in a suit of black leather and bone.
"That's right. You'd only be wasting what little time you have." Another red haired woman spoke.
"You may as well just give up."
Similar voices were overlapping as more and more clones stepped out, numbering in the tens of dozens.
"Oh dear… There are quite a few of you…" Shiki said as she raised a hand to her mouth to express some surprise.
"That's right. You should give up now." The woman smirked, "There's no way you can kill all of us. Not without losing an arm or a leg."
"You're mistaken."
"Huh?"
"I did say they were quite a few of you, yes… But I didn't say it'd be impossible to defeat you." Shiki calmly proclaimed, counting the clones around her.
Twenty nine.
And hundreds of lines.
"What? You're proclaiming your victory cause you're some kind of master swordswoman?"
"A master?" The Saber giggled silently, "Oh no, I'm nothing of the sort really. Though, if I may boast a bit, I am quite good."
The woman laughed as she and her clones raised up their daggers, the frontline of nine moving in slow to surround Ryougi Shiki.
Taking another quick glance, the Saber smirked as something dropped down from the sleeve of her kimono, and with two swift lashes, the whole frontline vanished into dust. The woman took a step back, shocked briefly. But she quickly regained her composure as she sent the next line of ten in.
They were weak compared to the graceful emissary of death. She moved between them like a smooth current of lightning, making swift, single cuts, two people at a time. Limbs flew around her, bodies turning into black dust and forced outwards into large black clouds. Each clone cut apart filled the air with more dust until there was nothing but a huge cloud, obscuring everything in sight.
The woman thought to send in her clones to surround and attack the Saber, but she held off, waiting to see if maybe one of her clones got lucky.
Something shot out of the cloud, heading straight for them. From within the smokescreen came…
A foot..?
Before she had time to realize it was the foot of one of her clones, Ryougi Shiki had swept through the last ten clones like a chill wind of death, decimating the whole line in an instant.
"Oh my… It seems as though I've broken your toys…" The Saber said, lowering her sword as it's silvery glint gave a brief shine, "Fear not though… Dawn approaches."
The lone woman stepped back, watching Ryougi Shiki lift up her sword and hold it upside down in front of her face, her other hand touching the flat side of the katana.
"All is but a dream…"
As the Saber spoke, the area was filled with a void of golden light for miles on end, the woman panicking as she brought up her arms and summoned more clones of herself to get in the way.
But it wouldn't help her.
Bringing her katana behind her, Shiki bolted forward with incredible speed towards the masses of clones, and with one swift slash, cut through all in her path in one swoop.
"Such are the flowers of departure."
As she lashed her blade outwards, the golden void came apart into pieces, fluttering through the area like golden flower petals as the clones turned to dust one after another, leaving only one body behind.
The woman took her last few breaths before her body fell apart into pieces, the space around them beginning to dissolve.
"So then… Did I meet your expectations?"
"Wah… It's a little hot in here…"
The crow tengu waved his fold in fan that was shaped like an autumn maple leaf, trying to cool himself down from the intense heat blowing through the desert ruins. Luckily there wasn't any sand, and only a brick road as his black geta sandals clacked against the stone path.
"They could've at least taken me to the tropics… Fiji or Costa Rica would've been nice…" Daisuke complained as he let out a sigh, "I'm supposed to be on vacation… Why'd Aki have to pull me into this? Couldn't he get Nami or Mitsuki to help out? They don't even do that much to earn vacation time…"
Daisuke took one more step forward before pausing and swiping his fan above him, completely shattering the boulder above him with a strong gale of wind.
"Hey hey… That wasn't very nice, whoever did that!" The crow called out, "Can't we just… I don't know, not try and kill each other? Maybe have a drink together instead?"
"No we can't, and no, I won't." A voice spoke out as he landed behind Daisuke, "We're here to do battle. Nothing else."
"Aw come on, you sure you don't want a drink?" The crow tengu asked, raising up a large bottle of sake, "Got enough for both of us."
"I already said no. You should be focusing on the fight instead." The man in the black shroud said, taking a pose.
"I'm supposed to be on vacation, so I'm not all too into fighting right now. That's why I'd prefer you and I have a drink instead, and wait all this nonsense out."
"That won't happen."
"Come on now…" The crow tengu urged, "Does everything have to be about fighting or something? Why can't we just have a little diplomacy? You know, not trying to kill each other or anything."
The man let out a deep breath, lowering his hands slightly as he kept his eyes on Daisuke.
"Oh I get it, you don't trust me. Fair fair, I'm a stranger after all." The man said as he lowered himself to the ground to take a seat, "Come on, I won't shank you or anything. Promise. I don't even have any weapons on me, see?"
It was… difficult, but the man finally lowered his guard, taking slow strides forward to sit down a distance away.
"See? That wasn't so hard." The crow said, uncorking the large, porcelain bottle and taking the first swig, "Hah… Haven't had anything good to drink for a while. What about you?"
"I don't drink frequently." The man said, catching the bottle to take a quick chug as well, "But I still appreciate the fine delicacies time to time."
"Good to hear." Daisuke stated, resting his chin in his hand, "So… What's your boss want with Dante?"
The man stopped, glaring at the young man.
"Hey hey, just trying to get a grasp on the situation is all. I mean, if we get called here, I'd like to know what for at least, and why everyone is trying to kill each other."
"We're extras. You, I, and everyone else. We're to keep each other busy until the end of the boss' battle. He anticipated back up for the brat, so he made us and brought us in to draw any of you out. Frankly, it's a miracle that we managed to even out the numbers."
"Okay… I think I get the picture… Your boss wants a solo fight with Dante, simple enough. And he managed to figure out we'd be coming in to help, so good for him thinking ahead. But your boss could've just packed up and left, right? Why come back?"
"Unfinished business, I suppose. He didn't even tell us the reason. All he ever said is that he needed us to keep everyone else at bay so he could fight unhindered and unchallenged. Aside from that, not our place to question him." The man finished as he drank some more, tossing the bottle back to Daisuke.
"Revenge is his deal, if I had to take a guess." The crow pondered, looking up briefly before took another swig, "I mean, why else set all this up if not for that?"
"Don't know, don't care. All I know is that I've got a job to do."
The man made to move quickly from his seat of rest, only to stop suddenly when he felt piercing sensations across his entire body. Looking down, he saw thin streams of clear spikes piercing his arms, legs and body from multiple directions.
Small whistling noises came from the spikes as blood dripped down them, the man looking up to Daisuke to see him pointing his middle and index finger at him.
"See… When you've got such great control of the elements, you don't really need a physical weapon. Still… I've got mine. Just in case." The crow winked, "You know, I really didn't intend to fight or anything. Was actually gonna let you walk away, but… Your loss."
The tengu snapped his fingers and the spikes became engorged, expanding outwards quickly and violently until the man exploded, blood passing right by the young man as he continued drinking his sake.
"Why does no one trust the lazy people? We're at least honest…"
Patience was something he knew well. It was his way, his method compared to his younger brother. But right now…
The eldest Son of Sparda, Vergil, was running short on patience.
His enemy was hiding, wasting his time. He came here to offer assistance and help slay Dante's enemies for him. The other Dante anyway.
The young one he liked more than his brother.
The younger Dante of this World had a more… intelligent and approachable persona that Vergil quite liked. He saw a lot of himself in the young man, but also saw a few differences between them, differences that both Dantes had the right idea about. It irked the Son of Sparda slightly that he was lacking, yes… But it was still an opportunity to learn and to grow.
That, at the very least, was something he could accept.
Vergil stopped midway through his trek in canyon full of monolithic stones, eyes shifting to the left as he raised up the sheathed Yamato to parry an attack. A quick reposting thrust with the end of the scabbard forced up his enemy before they were briefly smacked into the ground in front of the half-devil, who made to stab his enemy in the dirt.
The figure quickly rolled out of the way by the good graces of Vergil, who allowed his enemy to scurry away and recover his stance.
"You made me wait for this? I even allowed you to try and take the first hit."
It was chittering at him, speaking some sort of unknown language in a distorted voice as blue eyes glowed from underneath the hood of the black cloak it wore.
"You seem distressed, if only but a little. Yet here I remain, sorely disappointed that you're my opponent."
It's loud clicking noises grew louder, sounding angrier as blades emerged from the undersides of its scaly black arms, vanishing a small cloud of black dust.
Vergil's head tilted out of the way as his eyes fell upon the blade, parrying the blade as he smacked the humanoid across the face. It tried attacking him, but all the Son of Sparda did was effortlessly block and parry the strikes, his movements smooth, precise and fluid with each swing.
All without drawing his sword.
"Foolishness… Is attacking me blindly without a plan the very best you can do?" The man commented as he continued shutting down his attacks, only getting angry chitters back in reply.
Putting a bit more force into his next attack, the half-devil pushed away his opponent a good distance, letting out a small exhale as he stared the humanoid down.
The chittering became deeper in tone, bulges sprouting out from the sides of the cloak as another pair of scaly black arms shot out, blades emerging from the undersides.
"Two arms, four arms… It won't make a difference in the end. Your power is meager in the presence of my own strength."
The figure crossed all four arms as its muscles expanded and lashed out, sending four large slices of crackling blue energy that homed in on Vergil. The man's body became a blur, vanishing in a flash of blue energy as he dodged the attack.
"Interesting… So you can outwardly project attacks…"
The devil in black smiled as he slid a foot back, taking a stance as he grabbed hold of the Yamato.
"It just so happens I can do something similar."
With a brief flash and blindingly fast draw of his sword, a large orb of dark blue energy filled with dozens of slashes covered Vergil's target, who had the good sense to dodge backward at the last second, losing the two new arms it had created.
"I told you didn't I? You were outmatched from the start."
It was time.
The Son of Sparda drew Yamato from its sheath, holding it in his right hand as he reared back his arm and surged forward like a bolt of blue. The figure swung in front of him, possibly to block the attack, but Vergil had already vanished. A moment after, the humanoid chittered in pain as a silvery blade shot through its chest from behind, the Son of Sparda gripping his katana tightly.
"You aren't worthy enough to be my opponent. Let alone be a threat to me."
Without another word, he drew his sword from the cloaked body as it fell to the ground with a loud thud. The half-devil swiped his sword out to the side to clean it of the black blood before giving it two quick twirls and sheathing it.
"And here I believed I would be given something of challenge. Or perhaps, myself and the others were stuck with the weaker ones? Hmph."
Vergil made to walk off, taking a few steps forward as he kept his eyes forward, looking up to the sky to see it… splitting almost?
…
"Now I see…" he spoke with a smirk, bringing forth eight Summoned Swords behind him to pierce outward.
The humanoid evidently had some life left in it, and from Vergil's comprehension of special magic of this kind, the space wouldn't break down until one person or the other was confirmed to be deceased. Seeing as this wasn't the case for the half-devil, he'd assumed his target was still alive, if only barely.
A sneak attack on the throes of death was too predictable.
Making his swords slash outwards, the blades of projected magic cut apart the body into pieces, Vergil letting out a sigh as he tugged on his collar slightly.
"How boring…"
Moonlight, and a courtyard of black marble with perfectly sculpted monoliths shaped into rectangles.
It wasn't entirely to his taste, but Akihito could still appreciate the architecture to some extent.
"Should you really be staring up at the moon?"
The kitsune turned around, keeping a stern gaze upon the new arrival for a brief moment before looking away back at the moon.
"I was thinking to myself that it was a good thing we were summoned forth to aid Dante, and that we should be the ones fighting the rest of you?"
"Oh? How come?" The cloaked figure asked.
"He understands when exactly there is a need to kill in order to end a conflict or further bloodshed, but he is still soft at heart. Sympathetic even, though he may not directly show it."
"Hmph… So you're saying you're the best person to take me on then?"
Without warning, a black, jagged katana emerged from underneath the man's cloak and swung for Akihito's neck. It was stopped suddenly by a small blaze of white flame, that then expanded outwards into a large blast, charring the man's cloak.
"I really do dislike the way your kind fight. Cowardice, trickery, toying with your would be victims… It's too disgusting to leave it as is. Therefore…"
The kitsune drew a katana out from within the left sleeve of his kimono, it's blade white as snow and the black guard shaped like a hollowed out rectangle, where four prongs met at the center of the handle. The fabric around the handle was simple black cloth wrapped round, the end seemingly woven through a gap at the end of the handle. The cloth was knotted together at the gap, then trailed out into a long, two foot trail of black cloth.
"I will cut you down and burn away the remains like the scum you are."
The cloaked figure hummed in amusement, raising his hand to tear off his cloak. Black scraggly hair, brown eyes with black slit pupils, and a neat, toned build. His clothes were a simple white dress shirt with a black tie, black dress jacket, and black dress pants with black scaly shoes.
He didn't make any moves afterwards, just stood smiling at Akihito.
"What is the matter? Are you afraid to come closer?" The fox asked.
"Not quite. Judging from my interactions with you so far, you seem to be a cautious fellow. The way you keep your eyes on me entirely, the few times you blink… You're keeping yourself entirely aware of your surroundings and your opponent at the same time, which means… I have to take a different approach with you."
The man raised up his twisted blade, swiping it downwards but stopping at the center of his body, pointing his tool at Akihito.
"Did that movement make you want to jump?" The man asked, moving his weapon down to drag a line in the dirt, "What about this one? Make you want to react?"
Akihito narrowed his eyes, and saw the man take a step forward. As soon as he did, the kitsune swiped his blade outwards, loosing an arcing wave of white flame. The figure brought up his blade, blocking the initial impact before turning his body to the side and pushing the flames away from him.
"You'll find that getting close to me will be fairly impossible." The young fox spoke.
"Is that a fact?"
The man's body instantly broke down into small particles and vanished out of site, prompting Akihito to go wide eyed briefly before he moved to swing behind him. His arm was stopped short however, finding the palm of his attacker pressed against the underside of his forearm to stop his swing.
The kitsune immediately pushed back as soon as he saw his opponent moving to swing his sword, and something strange covering his blade, black particles that almost looked like mist. As soon as their blades made contact, Akihito expected a clash between them, but was utterly shocked when he saw the man's sword cut through his own blade easily. With that, the well dressed man was able to get the first to draw blood, if only a little, in thanks of the fox's quick reactions.
The man flashed away in another stream of black particles, reappearing a few meters away from the young fox as he placed a hand on his hip.
"Oh dear, it looks like your sword broke." The man commented with a twisted smile, "Can you not produce your flames without it?"
Akihito only huffed briefly, picking up the half of his blade stuck in the ground and turning around to face the man, holding it up before letting it drop. As soon as the white blade made contact with the ground, it dispersed into a large shroud of white flames that spread out wide and fast. He then upturned his sword so the broken half could face the ground, dropping it too as the blade seemingly disintegrated into white flames when it touched the ground.
The flames quickly surrounded the both of them in a seventy yard radius, then rose up high into the sky before closing inwards, completely trapping the two warriors inside.
"Jigoku no Shūjin (Infernal Prisoner)."
The figure looked surprised, if only briefly, then narrowed his brown eyes on Akihito.
"You're that desperate that you'll trap us both inside an enclosed space? What a ridiculous strategy!"
The man's body broke down into particles yet again as he surged forward in a flash, disappearing and reappearing around the kitsune, trying to get closer while dodging the streams of flame that shot out of the firewall to incinerate him. At this point, the man was starting to get on Akihito's nerves, so he started using his hands.
The flames started coming in quicker, making the man avoid the attacks more frequently in order to avoid being charred to ash.
"So your flames get quicker and more precise if you use your hands to control them! But..!"
As he got closer, the man avoided another attack from the kitsune, moving his hand forward to stop the fox from making his next movement. With that, he smiled as he dodged backwards, letting flames fall down upon the young fox in an explosive blast.
As the smoke cleared, Akihito's left sleeve looked to be completely burned off as the man stood a distance away, laughing briefly.
"If you move too fast and make a sudden stop like that, you'll lose control, even if but for a moment. And losing control is apparently fatal, even to you."
The flesh on the kitsune's arm seemingly popped a few times, like kernels becoming freshly popped popcorn as smoke streamed from his charred skin.
"You basically trapped yourself in an inescapable prison harmful to even you!" He spoke taking steps forward, "If you try to attack me, I'll just keep getting in your face so that you can't use those flames of yours! If your sword can magically repair itself, I'll only break it again!"
The figure stepped forward bringing up his arms mockingly as he stepped forward unchallenged to the seemingly wounded kitsune.
"Come on, try something! If you can that is! Doesn't matter what you do! There's no way for you to win this fight!"
Akihito weakly raised up his injured left hand, curling up all his fingers save for the index finger, which he pointed at the man. Anticipating an attack, the attacker smiled, his body shuddering briefly to use his ability, only to find himself having not moved. Then it happened.
A flash of white, and a bolt of white light phased through the air in an instant, passing through the man's chest and leaving a large hole as he gasped for air.
"W-What did you..?!"
"Your ability wasn't all too difficult to ascertain. Mist, if I'm not mistaken? You can turn your body into mist and project yourself forward, making you almost untouchable. Using a combination of your Aura and solidifying mist-like particles drawn from the atmosphere, you also managed to reinforce your sword, allowing it to even cut through my sword."
"T-That's not..!"
"As for why your ability didn't work, I raised the temperature of my flames in order to cancel out your mist ability, which would evaporate as soon as it formed. Thus, I prevented you from moving about using your ability."
Akihito stood up normally, flames breaking away from his burned left side to show that he wasn't burned or injured at all.
"A-An… illusion..?!"
"To stoke your arrogance and drop your guard. With everything having been prepared, I then used Shūkō (Condensed Light), an ability I can only use three times every twenty four hours to deliver the final blow."
"A-And you mocked my k-kind… for using trickery in a-a fight..!"
"It's only natural I would use deception. Afterall, I am a kitsune. Trickery and deception is within our nature."
The man took his last breath before slumping down to the ground, taking his last breath. The barrier of white flame collapsed inwards, swallowing up Akihito and his enemy as the flames grew smaller and smaller, forming the kitsune's sword in his hand. He then swiped it outwards, sheathing it back within his sleeve as the world around him collapsed, allowing him to go free.
Dante moved his hand from his face, light filtering into his eyes as he looked around to see his surroundings. He was… standing in the air… Above-!
"Like it? I figured you'd like one last look of Vale before you meet your end. It was your new home, after all."
The once immortal turned around, staring at his opponent a distance away. A small gust of wind passed by, making their clothes flutter gently and hair drift in the wind.
"I've had some more time to adjust to this Gem's power. So I've created a little space just for the two of us to finish our fight. And trust me… you won't be leaving here."
"I don't know." Dante sighed with a shrug, slinging Eclypse over his shoulder, "Seems like I handed your ass to you a few times out there. Think that little trinket's actually gonna help you?"
"It'll give me enough power to accomplish my goal."
"Goals…" The teen scoffed, "You keep going on and on about some 'big goal', but it doesn't seem to me like you're gonna get anywhere. Wanna give up now? No shame in throwing in the towel early you know."
"Hmph… I told you, didn't I? I'm not stopping until either I'm dead, or you're dead. And trust me… I plan to be the one walking out of here."
"We'll see." The teen said, lowering his blade.
Pretty exciting huh? And people say Avengers is an ambitious cross over event. But yeah, this is also a reason why it took me a long while. Needed to get into different mindsets and reference a lot of things. Hope you enjoyed it.
And hey, Dante got a new get up! Pretty neat huh? Took me a while to come up with. Not a good artist so a lot of this was mostly mental imaging. The idea was to implement influences to his new appearance through four of the most important people to him, those being Ruby, Inuba, Blaire and Eclypse. The colour scheme was another thing. I like platinum too. Also, instead of Grey, I think of the mixture of white and black as platinum, so there you go, my decision to go platinum for clothes and Dante's Aura.
Other than that, if you've got more questions or just wanna chat, send something my way and I'll get back to you quick as possible. With that...
I highly recommend you all go check out the freaking amazing story Rogue Huntsman written by Xera Stark. The story overall is absolutely fantastic and is a must read, so I suggest you seriously read it. You won't want to miss out on this story. Plus, I'm working on it with him as a co-author, and my characters are in it too. So if you want to see a sort of alternate story and such with my characters in it, go on over and give Rogue Huntsman a read.
And hey! Go check out HydraFLow's story Lost in Binary! It's equally as awesome and entertaining, and tells Rogue Huntsman's story from his characters' perspective, like how Knights of White and Black (my alternate story) tells the tale from my character's perspectives.
Questions? Ask them anytime. I will try to answer without spoiling.
Please remember to review, follow and favorite this story if you really enjoyed it and want to continue seeing more of it. And hey, even tell others about this story! Remember that your support is what helps make this story grow even larger and what helps improve it. With that, I bid you all an excellent week/weekend!
Bye-bye now!