The noise of shattering glass began to reverberate, shards bouncing off the ground as they flew with blood.
"Start talking," Dante said, punching a man's head into the ground where the shards lay.
"Argh!" he screamed in pain, not quite hearing what Dante had said. In truth, like the others, his end was cruel. Dante held his head and forced it into the ground until it exploded, brutally.
"Was that the fifth?" Dante questioned the Succubus who was cutting a man in half with her claws. The weapons she wielded were a pair of dual claws that made her look extremely sensual, with her attire consisting of a leather bodysuit and a pleated skirt.
"It was the sixth boss," Vex replied as she tossed the corpse to the ground. This number, sixth, was the count of suspicious small organizations Dante had eliminated tonight.
"Find anything? Your powers are useful for that," he said, and Vex shook her head. "Despite their strong illusions, I can't recreate moments from his life to make him talk. It's complicated when I don't know their greatest fears. Unlike Ethan, where it's just showing the boss he'd wet his pants, these guys are tough.
They have a strong concentration of anti-brainwashing magic," she concluded, wiping her blades. Vex was on a level above Dante; their strengths were similar, but in a battle, every advantage counted, and Vex with her dream-woven magic was superior to Dante by mere seconds, that is, until his body awakened; then he was stronger.
"Scour the area, see if there are any rats nearby. I'll check these bodies," Dante said, and Vex floated out as he examined some corpses.
"Voralith," he commented, and the White Dragon appeared gliding beside him. "Class 5 Demonic Magic, 'Mirror of Reflected Life'. They're clones of someone," the Dragon said, and Dante gently removed their masks, revealing them all to be the same.
"Do you think there might be more? I doubt this is normal," he questioned as he looked over the corpses' clothing.
"It's not normal indeed. This magic can only be used by elevated clans or people blessed by the ruler of the infernal sector," she said, and Dante looked at her. "Lilith?"
"No, I doubt a Demon Goddess would use something so... disgusting to make soldiers. She has control over billions of souls. She can just summon her demons into the mortal plane whenever she wants, of course, if she had the strength for it. Something extremely difficult even for a God," Voralith explained, and Dante was surprised. He thought about...
meeting Lilith to understand what all of this was and why she caused all these troubles to arise for him, but every time he heard about the Woman, he wondered about her strength and why such an entity wanted to meet him.
The atmosphere seemed to have slightly chilled. Dante looked towards the inn's entrances and felt two presences.
"Careful, the girl's been caught," Voralith said, and Dante's eyes immediately filled with a natural flame.
He began to hear heavy footsteps, with sounds of metals clashing... Dante summoned Valentina's broken spear; it was better than using his new acquisition.
He stood up and united the spear, making it complete again. "Reveal yourself," Dante said, and the pressure in the area shifted, then Vex's injured body flew and hit the wall with full force.
*BOOM*
Creating a crater, the girl was unconscious...
Dante turned, looking at the scene, his eyes furious. "Voralith," he said, and she replied, "She's fine, just unconscious, caught off guard." With the explanation, Dante turned, and from the shadows, a knight emerged.
The knight wore silver armor with hints of red. He wasn't muscular, in fact, he seemed rather slim and delicate, something that caught Dante's attention.
"An assassin?" he questioned, but he didn't have time. Drawing his longsword, the knight pointed it at Dante.
Before Dante could even react, his speed peaked, and he lunged forward!
*Ugh* Dante defended with the spear's handle, but was thrown into the wall. "ARGH!" he shouted in pain as he tried to regain his posture.
"Damn! He's too strong!" he shouted internally as he prepared to strike back, but his eyes faltered.
With a fierce movement, the opponent advanced, his sword cutting through the air with a powerful clang of metals colliding.
*CRACK!*
One of Dante's ribs broke upon impact with the wall as he defended against another of his powerful thrusts, and the sound of metals echoed throughout the entire room. Dante felt fear for the first time; a strong opponent had appeared for the first time.
"What the hell are you!" He yelled as he concentrated his mana throughout his body, creating a barrier around him and starting to get serious.
His hands held firm, and he looked at the helmet, where he could only see two red eyes.
"You made a mistake," he murmured and, with a thrust, the knight was pushed to the other side of the room and used his sword to stop sliding.
*KKIRIIIINNNN*
The deafening sound of the sword being thrust into the ground slowly shook Dante's balance; the sword seemed to be enveloped in some strange magic.
He didn't have time to react. He felt the enemy's sword approaching and managed to narrowly dodge, cutting part of his arm.
"Damn!" He shouted in pain, then bathed his spear in aura and attacked the knight sideways, cutting part of his armor.
*HA* A sigh of pain was heard. Dante soon realized that it wasn't just a simple knight; from the hole he made in the armor, a demonic miasma began to emanate, while the breath and voice of the person inside the armor started whispering.
"Help," the hoarse voice came, and Dante raised his eyebrows to see that even though he was asking, his body refused to stop.
'A curse?'
Before his thoughts could be concluded, he heard the sword make a noise and launch a visible gust of wind towards him.
Dante quickly dodged, this time not being hit, but contrary to what he thought...
The target was someone else.
The unconscious Succubus was the target.
Dante, for a moment, paused and disappeared and reappeared in front of the girl, receiving a devastating attack on his back.
A diagonal cut sliced through his entire back, sinking into his flesh and causing him to stagger for a minute. He stood in a position where he could clearly see Vex's expression, now smeared with his blood.
Dante turned, slowly rising, and looked at the knight, who seemed slightly different. He heard a sound coming from the cut; as the chestplate was a bit larger than the person inside, the slack caused the miasma to seep through the crack.
"Sniff," the cry leaked out, and Dante felt something, the same sensation he felt with Vex in that prison.
Dante looked inside himself and saw something. His demonic body stood there, looking at him.
"Voralith." He called, but nothing heard him. Staring at his body, he questioned, "Who are you?"
"I am you," he replied, in the same tone. "I am your alter-ego," he commented. Alter-Dante was his existence.
"What do you want?" Dante said, moving away. "I only exist to deliver knowledge to you." He responded.
"What knowledge?" Dante said, skeptical. "These foolish things that the humans of this world call Legacy? Well, everyone has their own," Alter-Dante said, and Dante felt something slowly entering his mind.
"We have much to discuss, don't we?" Alter-Dante said, creating a sort of armchair for them to sit. Dante, however, remained suspicious of something, but Alter-Dante wasn't lying.
"What is this feeling?" Dante got straight to the point without waiting for Alter to speak. "Oh, you must be talking about the connection to the inferno. This will happen quite a bit," Alter said, showing a small ball of red and pink light connected to a black ball.
"See this? This is Vex," he said. "Let's see... well, I can't show you that person in the armor. She hasn't given her name yet so we can't search the records," he commented as he shrugged.
"Are you saying this is the connection of the Demon Race to the Inferno?" Dante questioned and Alter looked surprised. "Thank goodness I'm intelligent," he commented. "Yes, exactly. This is her connection to the Inferno."
"And why can I access this? As far as I know, I'm reasonably normal," Dante said and Alter-Dante looked at him with a 'Are you serious?' expression.
Dante fell silent, staring at him, and Alter finally relented. "How about you ask yourself how you had both demonic and holy power at the same time? Creating a demon killer? Corrupting a Holy Sword? Absorbing Demonic Energy normally? Being called Demon King and having the title of Demon King given by a Demon Goddess?
Please, Dante, we know you're nothing but a gigantic pot of gold with the greatest atrocities by your side, so please, you're anything but normal!" He said, really angry. He turned around and spoke.
"There's already a Progenitor for the Demons, we've already met Lilith, that monstrous bitch." Alter-Dante said, and Dante continued to listen.
"However, it doesn't mean there can't be Another Progenitor linked to the infernal dimension. After all, there are several of them. However, in this sector...
Well, she has you as the Progenitor."