"It's been a while since I used this..." Dante murmured as a dark magical circle appeared in his hands. He usually avoided using this magic because he didn't know how to control it. Well, he didn't even try, being too busy and out of practice for a long time. Besides, he felt quite uncomfortable using something he hadn't fully absorbed, but he wanted to test his theory.
"Tsukoyomi." The entire world turned pitch black while he could see everything.
"You know, being a vampire helps a lot," Dante said as his eyes adjusted to the abyssal darkness around him. His night vision in such a place was a huge advantage.
Tsukoyomi works like a night veil; it turns the whole area into pure darkness. Well, at least Dante's does, as he has no control over it. Morgana, when using Tsukoyomi, can maintain her own vision. But of course, she had years and years of studying these magics, while Dante had been enjoying life.
"You!" The heads roared, the entire arena starting to freeze in an explosion. "Stop mocking us!" they roared in unison, launching Dante backward as he defended himself with his sword, the icy cold starting to permeate the entire place.
The ground began to freeze somehow, creating stakes and ice spikes; the area became cold, perhaps below zero. But Dante didn't lose his smile for a single moment.
"Where are you!" Cerberus shouted, his roar making the entire arena tremble. Fortunately, despite the Lava head creating a certain luminosity, Tsukoyomi didn't just affect vision but completely impaired their senses. Completely in total darkness, they were in the position of prey, and Dante was the hunter...
"I think it's time to intensify this," Dante murmured, his eyes glowing with a neon red light. Cerberus tried to look around and saw only those crimson eyes, shining in the dark like a predator ready to attack.
Dante took advantage of the darkness to move, his actions swift and precise like a specter in the night.
"I've always wanted to do this," Dante murmured as his body transformed into a Hunting Hound, a Cerberus of Miasma. With Cerberus's vision affected, he had a crucial advantage; for him, it would be just another hunt.
The lightning head began to charge a purple lightning aura, his entire body turning purple with glowing lights as he tried to gain illumination. Then, in an explosion of aura...
"YOU WON'T ESCAPE!" he roared, launching bolts of lightning in all possible directions. But well... he didn't know where Dante was.
The Hound form was something Dante was gradually perfecting. He wanted to be fast and fierce, a form suited to devastate bestial enemies like Cerberus. Of course, there would come a time when his strength would no longer matter for needing this form, but he was using his muscle memory of how he used the transformation to train his own Cerberus, which he had been developing for some time.
"Let's play," Dante said, and then, his speed began to increase as he dodged the various purple lightning bolts crackling through the air.
Dante's speed suddenly increased in an explosion as he lunged at the fire head.
With a quick spin, he delivered a lateral slash with his claws, slicing through the tough scales, causing blood to gush out in all directions.
The lava blood spewed, momentarily illuminating the darkness with a warm orange glow.
"AHHH!!!! BASTARD!" the fire head roared in pain, launching a new wave of flames.
Dante jumped back, landing on a piece of frozen ground, the ice creaking under his feet.
He used the momentum to attack the lightning head, which was charging a new attack.
His claws struck the neck, once again causing blood to spray everywhere, conducting electricity between the tiny droplets.
"He's sticking to the same strategy—get hit, roar, launch elemental magic... He's not very smart," Dante thought. "Got it." He accepted and calmly reverted to his humanoid form.
"You disappoint me, you know?" Dante taunted, his voice echoing in the darkness. "I thought the guardian of the gates of hell would be someone more threatening."
He didn't reply to Dante, but he turned exactly to where Dante was, well, he could still hear, even though he couldn't see clearly, his hearing was very acute.
He was quite injured, already tired of being beaten in such a pathetic way, Cerberus, now visibly enraged, tried to retaliate with a combined burst of its three elements. Fire, ice, and lightning intertwined in a chaotic storm, a devastating attack meant to destroy everything in its path. Dante, however, just stood there watching with a comical smile on his face.
He focused his energy, his sword glowing intensely with a dark light. "Let's see how you deal with this," he whispered before delivering a powerful strike to the ground. The sword's energy expanded in a circle, a wave of dark energy that absorbed most of Cerberus's attack, dissipating the elements in the air.
"Urgth!" He growled in pain, Cerberus staggered, its heads stunned by the unexpected impact. Dante didn't waste any time.
Seizing the opening, he leaped onto the ice head, in a swift motion he fell onto the head "You go first!" He shouted and his sword cut through the neck with lethal precision.
In microseconds, the ice head fell, the magical connection broken, and Cerberus's body trembled, losing some of its cohesion. His body seemed to be completely out of shape, as if he had lost and his movements became purely inconsistent.
"Sorry, big guy," Dante said, returning to action, he advanced again, his sword in black flames, ready to analyze that huge creature. The fire head launched a stream of lava, but Dante easily dodged it, their movements were really strange, approaching rapidly.
With a decisive blow, he pierced the throat of the fire head at least the place he had cut before, the lava erupted like a volcano falling on the ground and melting the ice.
Only the lightning head remained, which roared with electrified fury.
"You! No mortal should be able to harm us!" She roared, she was so scared that she forgot to keep her body upright, she wasn't the main head, her functions were to attack not to control the body, and so the body fell to the ground.
"You're a joke." Dante said seeing how he was, fallen and defeated in a completely pathetic way. "The mighty hellhound, the guardian of the entrance, what happened to you?" Dante asked seeing that the demon was really on its worst days.
"Well, it doesn't matter." He spoke as he released his body of Miasma on the spot and absorbed the other two heads, "Tell me what really matters." Dante muttered and he began to read the memories of the beast. Trying to access the main celebro Head of Ice, he began to see some interesting things...
"Astaroth." Dante murmured, he saw some interesting things... "Mind Control capable of manipulating Cerberus itself. You're a quite complicated threat to deal with." He murmured as he looked at the remaining head. "Sorry, kid, didn't know you were out of it." He said and began to launch demonic energy towards the huge guardian, which suddenly closed his eyes in fear of death.
Cerberus felt hi shaking his body while the accursed palm of evil energy enters his body, as if he accepts his death, however... it was not about that what was being done, but for the other hand.
He felt a primal heat entering his body while he felt the pain decreasing little by little, then...
"Siblings?" He thought, "H-how did we come back?" The ice head thought then the fire head also said, "He..." murmured, when the Lightning Head opened his eyes, his whole body had changed, he had gotten bigger, stronger, more resistant, more alive.
"What did you do... why did you bring us back?" The ice head said looking at Dante, now... In a completely different form in his eyes, after all... The Cerberus can recognize his owner.
"Progenitor," he said, his eyes looking frightened. Many things crossed his mind... He, the supreme guardian, couldn't even recognize his true master? How? Why? His mind was confused, but the being before him...
"So that's it," Dante said softly, more to himself than to the beast before him. "Do you recognize me now?"
The Guardian didn't exactly see Dante's version before him, but his version of Progenitor.
Long hair red as incandescent flames, black horns, polished and curved, emerged from his head. Bright red eyes, like burning embers. Smooth, pale skin like profane marble, contrasting with the intensity of his presence. And finally, six Demon Black Wings like the abyss.
But what really caught the Guardian's attention was the dense and pulsating aura permeated with pure demonic energy, which seemed to be the very essence of evil in the world.
"M-my Lord..." He bowed before him.
Dante simply watched the scene and smiled, "I hope you work very well to repay me. You've been a very naughty little dog not recognizing your own master." Dante's gaze was... Dark.