Dante was already tracking all the small traces of Sara's scent in the forest when something caught his attention.
He was still transformed into a three-headed dog but felt a slight imbalance... "Another Root," he thought, approaching a tree that was... Contaminated, so to speak. "Consume..." He thought as he began to swallow all the demonic energy, but before finishing, he identified something... an entrance to a cave.
Calmly, he walked, using his keen sense of smell to sniff the area, and finally... "This scent..." He thought.
A mix of different smells filled the cave; initially, he thought there were only two scents, but he detected a third...
"Lyrianna and Sara..." He thought, the scent of both resembling water, a neutral smell but sweet, mainly due to the cherry trees and oriental perfumes they often used. And the third scent...
"Disgusting," Dante said, using even more demonic energy to enhance his senses and finally understanding the scent: a King-level Demon.
Many things raced through Dante's mind now as he used his sharp vision to see in the darkness, identifying several battle marks, mainly... melted shards. "Lyrianna fought here... she pushed him and he hit the wall, but... how was she caught?" He questioned, sensing something sinister in the air. "Even I feel repulsed...
it seems this demon is not ordinary," he thought and left the cave. "They're not far," he said, but before he could return, he heard footsteps and abruptly turned...
"W-what are you doing here?" Dante quickly transformed into his humanoid form and ran to the woman who had fallen to the ground. "H-help me," she whispered. Dante quickly grabbed her...
"World Tree..." Dante murmured, seeing the representation of the World Tree's body completely distorted; it seemed full of cracks, and one of its hands was as red as blood...
"What happened, Fey?" Dante questioned; the woman was still in pain, so he tried something... "Consume." He began to draw in energy from her arm, trying to relieve her pain. Fortunately, her arm started returning to normal. "Tell me what happened," he said seriously as the woman recovered; she said nothing, only placing her hand on her head.
For a second, Dante felt the whole world, seeing things he never wished to see. "They..." He murmured, feeling so much demonic energy. "What is this..." Dante saw with horror as several forests were consumed and lost their lives.
"This happened a few hours ago; I felt nothing, and suddenly the whole world turned like this..." Fey said, now recovered. "They're trying to connect me with my sister... to open a portal to Hell," Fey said. Dante observed the situation closely, and his body filled with even more anger.
Now it wasn't just about little Sara and her mother; now it involved all his wives who were in the human world.
Aaralyn, Aldria, Fey, Linnea, Nagasawa, Voralith, Vex, Velryna... Even Eldrax... Now it had become even more personal, and Fey sensed this quickly as she threw her voluptuous body onto Dante, embracing him tightly.
"Calm down, and listen to me first; then you can unleash your fury on those responsible for all this," Fey's words entered his ears, and quickly his body calmed, like a lullaby for children, Fey immediately stopped Dante's pressure with a few words.
Dante breathed out and pushed the woman away. "I'm sorry," he said, his body trembling with anger, but he waited for her to explain what was happening. "Linnea is already destroying the roots of Qliphoth in the human world, so we just need to stop the main site of all this; otherwise, it will be the end of the planet, and my end," she said. Dante continued to listen.
"I saw that you can absorb demonic power; that will be crucial," Fey said, but before she could continue...
A great earthquake began to happen.
"What the hell is this?!" she exclaimed, looking to the horizon.
Dante felt the tremor reverberate through the ground, as if the earth itself were screaming in agony. In the distance, a terrifying sight was forming. A huge white tree emerged, growing rapidly like a monstrous puppet pulled by invisible strings. Its veins pulsed with evil energy, almost as if the essence of hell itself were being pumped through it.
The sky, which had been cloudy and dark until then, turned red as if bleeding upon the arrival of the profane tree.
"That's... the Qliphoth," Fey murmured, terror evident in her voice. "If it fully emerges, our entire world will be corrupted..." The sight of the tree chilled Dante's blood. Not just because of the threat it posed, but because of the magnitude of the negative energy emanating from it. He felt evil pulsating in the air, so thick it seemed like suffocating mist.
Even he, the Demon King, the Progenitor of Hell, had never seen this. He only knew the Tenth Floor of Hell; he had no contact with this kind of evil. His entire body froze for a moment... "I want to consume that..." He heard from his alter ego, which quickly made him think the same... "If I consume that energy..." Dante thought, beside him, his alter ego was thinking the same.
"We can awaken at least half of the progenitor's memories."
"Damn it, we don't have time," Dante growled. He could feel the aura of his wives, all in different parts of the world, trying to contain the spread of the smaller roots. If the main one wasn't stopped, all their efforts would be in vain.
"They're fighting against these strange roots..." Dante thought. He had placed marks on all his wives, except Sara at the moment, whom he couldn't mark because of her Divine Energy. He felt Aldria and Nagasawa fighting; Velryna was also fighting around the Empire in her Lightning transformation. "I should have turned them all into demons so they could come to my domain..." He muttered to himself.
"It's impossible to do that right now; maybe when I consume that, it will be possible." He finished his internal thoughts and turned back to Fey
"I will destroy this thing," he said, determination unwavering in his voice. "But I need you to tell me how to stop it before it's too late."
Fey looked at the tree, desperation evident on her face. "You need to destroy its core. It's at the top, where all the veins converge. But be careful, the negative energy there is... immeasurable."
"Furthermore... I'm sensing positive energy inside the tree..." Fey murmured. Dante's heart stopped for a moment... Once again, a pillar of negative energy surged from his body, releasing all the pent-up fury. "The forest will suffer a bit, forgive me," Dante said, and Fey didn't have time to nod or respond; Dante wasted no more time. With a roar, he launched himself towards the tree.
He reached the highest speed he could muster, his wings shattered from the impact of leaving the ground, his fury fueling his velocity. As he neared, the air around him seemed to vibrate with the sheer intensity of his rage.
"I'm coming, Sara..." he murmured to himself, his voice a whisper full of promises. "Nothing will stop me from saving you."
The gigantic tree seemed to react to his approach. The veins pulsed more violently, and a rain of red lightning bolts began to descend from the sky, as if hell itself were trying to block his path, but he wouldn't stop. His body began to be struck by numerous bolts, but nothing affected him; he continued flying towards the tree.
"Consume!" he roared, summoning a whirlwind of darkness around him. The negative energy emanating from the bolts began to be sucked into him, as if he were a devouring vortex of demonic power.
The impact was immediate. Dante crashed into the base of the tree, its veins pulsating uncontrollably as they launched attacks at Dante, who hadn't yet recovered from the impact.
"Disappear," Dante said, and the veins recoiled as they were drained away... "Look who we have here... the Demon King has come for a visit?" Dante raised his gaze, seeing a matured demon appear, mounted on a demonic horse.
"Demon on a horse... I find it hard to believe that's the best you can send," Dante replied, his voice dripping with disdain. Even as he spoke, he felt the overwhelming pressure of the new adversary's presence.
This demon wasn't an ordinary opponent; he exuded an aura of power and malevolence that made even the shadows around tremble.
The demon chuckled, a guttural sound that reverberated through the clearing where the tree trunk stood—a considerably large area, about five football fields in size; indeed, it was a large trunk.
"You underestimate my strength, Demon King. I am Valthor, a commander of Lucifer, and you will not pass through me." The demonic horse snorted, its nostrils spewing flames as it took a menacing step forward.
Dante narrowed his eyes, feeling the fury bubble up inside him once more. "Lucifer's under... so it's this damn son of a bitch who ordered my wife's capture?" He questioned, a cold air settling over the area. "My master chose the easiest target, after all.
It would have been difficult to attack Joan of Arc; we only had two virtues we knew, and the beautiful Sara was perfect for it," he said with complete contempt...
"I understand..." Dante murmured... The cold in the air was completely consumed by an aura of black flames that burned everything around him... "So I don't need to hold back..."