Dante prepared himself for battle, his strength reaching its peak once again; he was fully recovered. Unlike ten years ago, Dante now believed he could fight against Valentina...
Or at least he thought he could.
"Ugh!!" He groaned in pain as he felt his stomach brutally kicked, sending him thousands of kilometers away from where he was initially. He was confident at first, but... "She... she's stronger than before, this crazy woman!" He yelled as he floated in the air, recovering from the impact. His senses were confused, but he couldn't waste time on that.
Once again, the red-haired woman appeared before him, holding a golden spear, something he had somewhat forgotten... after all, he had never felt Gungnir piercing his body at its full force; his mother never allowed that... unlike this mad woman in front of him, who was no longer his beloved mother.
"Valentina, snap out of it!" He shouted quickly, but the woman had no time for conversation, and another horizontal attack came towards Dante. "Not this time!" He said, gripping his weapon, which, through fusion, had become a spear.
Tching! The impact of the colliding spears made them both tremble slightly as the sound echoed through space, followed by a wave of wind that pushed them apart.
Dante tried to stand firm, but he knew his defeat was certain, no matter how he fought. Valentina was a war goddess, compared to him, who had only fought to survive... but... he felt something different.
"It's me! Dante! Your husband? Remember me!" He shouted, but nothing resonated in that irrational woman. She advanced again, striking a precise blow to his arm.
"Argh!" He groaned in pain as he felt Gungnir grazing him, quickly placing his hand over the spot. "It feels like acid, is this because of the divine power of this stupid spear?" He wondered, but soon she pierced his abdomen again... another unacceptable mistake, letting his guard down against a woman like Valentina.
As Gungnir impaled him, she grabbed his face and squeezed, the woman's nails piercing his flesh.
"Argh!!" He screamed in pain, unlike ordinary people... He was dealing with an absolute woman, a woman who emanated strength just by breathing. As he began to struggle to escape Valentina's grasp, she lifted him up and stared deeply into his eyes. Both blood-colored eyes met, however...
"Tsk, Trash." Valentina said, hurling Dante towards the ground, causing him to plummet several meters...
Contrary to what Dante thought, that left him saddened. Usually, he didn't care much about things; he was a free spirit who made efforts only to survive. Even in extreme cases, he merely nodded and moved on, but he had never truly felt sad... But to hear something like that from Valentina's mouth tore him apart inside.
He fell with his arms open, was he injured? Well, not physically... In fact, the mental wound was much greater. "I'll kill you, Alice." Dante thought aloud as he stood up... He decided he would face that woman, at least until she regained her senses.
"The most beautiful woman is always the craziest, isn't she?" He questioned himself as he saw the woman hovering in the sky with a sovereign gaze, as if she truly only looked upon trash.
"You're not my Valentina," Dante said, rising from the rubble and facing the woman. "My Valentina isn't this weak." These words angered the woman, who prepared to hurl Gungnir directly at his chest.
As Valentina and Dante faced each other, in the distance, the women were a bit anxious...
"Have you ever seen Valentina fight?" Vex commented, however... "No," they all responded in unison. Even Nagasawa, theoretically the most knowledgeable about Valentina there after Morgana, didn't know about it.
"I have." The voice of the white-haired woman echoed across the field, all eyes turned to her awaiting something. "That woman isn't Valentina Scarlet," she remarked, all looking even more curious. Voralith had already seen Dante's entire life, had witnessed all the man's memories and had also conversed with him for ten years, unlike these women who continued to live...
Voralith is the only one who knows about Dante, about his past, present, and perhaps future selves, the only woman who knows the secret of his reincarnation and the only woman who hasn't yielded to him.
"That woman is the Valentina from thousands of years ago, the woman who didn't become a spear grandmaster, but rather a common vampire," Voralith said, watching the woman's spear be hurled towards Dante.
"That woman is not Valentina Scarlet, she's just a child in an adult's body," Voralith said next. The wind from the impact of the spear hit them all, causing several things to fly.
"Kyaa!!" Vex exclaimed as she was thrown away. "This is why I say not to go flying around," Velryna commented coldly. Women like Sara, Nagasawa, and Mercedes saw it with neutral eyes, while in the distance, Morgana was almost laughing hysterically at the scene.
"Where's Kaalindra?" Elizabeth questioned. For a moment, they had all forgotten she was there, but that didn't matter. "My mother became unconscious, but she's okay," Aaralyn said, emerging from the shadows of a pillar. "It's quite curious that you've created your own method of using the Walk Between Flames, but using elements of shadows," Nagasawa made this observation, and she nodded.
"A hundred years of training," she commented.
"Old lady!" Eldrax said in her dragon form, actually her shrunken form, like Voralith's previously; she fit in Sara's palm. "So cute," Sara said, petting Eldrax's head.
"As I said, she's weak," Voralith said when the dust settled, revealing Dante... Holding Gungnir with one raised hand.
"You're not my Valentina, definitely not," Dante said, as his body grew slightly, his hair spiked backward, while several golden symbols appeared on his arms like tattoos that extended to his back, forming a dragon. His skin darkened, and he looked directly into the woman's eyes.
"I hate it when you tarnish the image of my beautiful wives," Dante said and disappeared, reappearing in front of pseudo-Valentina and landing a punch on her.
"Return soon, my mother!" he said, delivering a punch so terrifying that for a moment Valentina saw a giant Demonic Dragon in front of her. However, she barely had time to respond, as what was to come was something she hadn't felt in centuries...
Fear.
KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
Valentina received a supersonic punch to the face, sending her thousands of meters away, crashing into a mountain, which in turn, was nearly devastated.
"Snap out of it! You're Valentina Scarlet! My wife!" Dante shouted, echoing throughout the area. At the same time... the fallen Valentina rose with blood dripping from every corner, her dress completely stained, her eyes burning with fury, her body wounded in a way that hadn't happened in many years.
She stood up, and all her hair ignited, her dress turned into flames, and she prepared herself, bathing Gungnir in her fury.
"It seems like it's really going to start..." Alice said, while conjuring a barrier around the entire empire to prevent damage.
"I don't think that will be enough," Morgana said and waved her hands, creating a different barrier.
"Hm?" Alice questioned as she observed the magical technology she used.
"What is this?" She asked. "A barrier of regenerative layers. Instead of always having an equal barrier, I use mana to determine where it will be hit and there it will be fully reinforced, it's more effective," Morgana explained. Alice observed closely; after all, since her daughter returned, she had learned a lot, and she was obsessed with knowledge.
"It seems like he got it," Alice commented as she saw Valentina being thrown again for several meters after her blade met with Dante's. "That form..." Morgana murmured, feeling something coming from Dante's tattoo... "Amaterasu," Alice concluded, watching the scene carefully. "Yes, the Power of the Sun, just like..."
"In Light or Darkness, you bow to me," Dante said, and the pressure fell upon Valentina, sinking her into the ground where they fought. A chain of miasma emerged, and Evangeline appeared behind Valentina, holding her fiery wings, which didn't hurt her, after all... she was absorbing.
"Snap out of it!" Dante shouted, but the current Valentina fought against the chains; her whole body roared with pain, but she didn't stop. "Urght!!!" She growled, and the heat began to rise again. She broke free and lunged directly at Dante's neck.
She lunges at Dante's neck to cut it, but before the blade of her spear could hit him, a dark energy erupts around him, forming an impenetrable defense that completely halts her advances.
Valentina recoils, surprised, while Dante stares at her with a defiant smile on his lips. "You're brave, but don't underestimate my strength, Valentina," Dante murmurs, his voice laden with power. "You're not my Valentina, she would have utterly annihilated me."
Valentina was not pleased at all. Unlike her complete self, that woman didn't have the experiences and life experiences of Valentina's current woman. Meanwhile, Dante had all the knowledge Valentina had passed on to him. Basically, the master was becoming the disciple.