"How long have I been trapped in this?" Dante questioned as he walked through the black abyss of his soul, occasionally encountering fallen and destroyed remnants of memories, fragments of things he once was.
"It's hard to say. It's been hours here, but in the real world... just a few seconds? I don't know, we need to end this soon. Asmodeus is being quite arrogant while rummaging through our soul," replied the man who materialized beside him.
"You've changed again," Dante noted, observing that his version was beginning to look distorted from the original body. He was now over two meters tall, his hair completely white as if aged, wearing black pants and a dark shirt, topped with a scarlet red overcoat. Additionally, a pair of black horns with red branches, similar to Lilith's horns, adorned his head.
"And that demonic energy?" Dante questioned.
"I ate it all," his version responded with a careless shrug; eating meant absorbing, and that's why his body evolved again.
Dante sighed, feeling the weight of the situation in his soul. "We need to find a way to expel Asmodeus from here before he causes more damage. These memories... they are parts of me, but if I continue like this, I don't know how long it will take for me to overload."
"I agree, just eating that bunch of demonic energy almost made me explode; if this continues, your soul will be overloaded," replied his altered version. "Do you think... Ah~ I wish I could understand how this demon got such power; I can't fathom how he's roaming through my soul without being completely destroyed," Dante said, walking calmly.
"Authorities are like divine and supreme aspects, just as the virtue of Justice has the power to judge evil unilaterally, Lust can consume it." He responded to Dante, but with a sigh, "But you are right, it is surprising that he is not dead yet after invading the soul of a progenitor. I wonder if it is just because of the damaged soul.
Given that Lucifer has been planning this for years, I don't think it's a coincidence that Asmodeus is alive." He confirmed, and once again, Dante came face to face with a memory.
"Look at this... this is new." Dante said, seeing a flash approaching at the end of the black tunnel he was traversing. "Is it the light of death? What a joke." He mocked as he watched the body beside him disappear. "Follow the Light; I sense a large fragment ahead." Dante nodded and continued to walk.
As he approached the flash, the light began to take shape, revealing a clear and sharp vision of a memory. He saw himself on a celestial throne, surrounded by angels in a celestial field of breathtaking beauty. It was like a divine spark in the universe, covered in golden clouds.
"What a joke hahaha," Dante said, laughing at the scene in mockery; that scene was so... pathetic.
The Sustainer of celestial principles was before him, staring heavily. "You are overstepping your bounds, Lucifer." A version of another reality's Heavenly Father said, "Bounds? I am just showing what your faithful are doing! Damn it, look at this?
They are hunting women and calling them witches, they kill using and distorting your teachings!" Lucifer shouted, making all his brothers shrink back; his words were real.
"Are you questioning my leadership?" The Sustainer questioned. That version of Dante, Lucifer, looked him in the eyes and questioned back, "And are you playing with the lives of your faithful?" The words were an act of rebellion; they couldn't understand why he, Lucifer, the purest of all angels, was questioning his father's supremacy.
"Your preaching is as false as your existence; you are just disappointing." Lucifer said.
The angels around were silent, shocked by Lucifer's audacity. But he did not falter. "I have seen what happens to those who dare to think differently, who dare to question your 'perfection'. I can no longer remain silent while you manipulate and control everyone around you. This is not justice, it is not love. It is tyranny."
The Sustainer narrowed his eyes, his fury growing. "You dare to challenge me, Lucifer? After all I have done for you?"
"Done for me? You created me to be a servant, nothing more. But I am not a mere pawn in your celestial game," Lucifer responded firmly.
"Enough!" The Sustainer bellowed, his voice echoing through the celestial field. "You will be banished, Lucifer. You and all who follow you will be cast into the abyss, where you will know true pain and suffering."
Lucifer lifted his head, accepting his fate. "I prefer the abyss to the falsehood of your paradise," he said with unwavering determination. "And one day, all will see the truth."
With a swift motion, the Sustainer expelled Lucifer and his followers, casting them into the abyss.
"I was Lucifer," he murmured to himself. "That's how... I became the Ruler of Hell... That's why I was chosen again as such..." Dante muttered, feeling his soul being reinforced with something.
"And to think that the person behind all this trouble is a version of my former self from another sector." Dante said as he began to feel warmth invading his body. "Devour everything, Cerberus." From his arm, a gigantic demonic dog emerged, its skin covered with red demonic eyes and its mouth filled with sword-like teeth. "Oh...
this is new," Dante said, feeling something on his back, where his demonic wings usually were. He forced some energy, and something emerged: six black crow wings covered with eyes.
"Fallen Angel Wings? What a joke." Dante said, but despite that, he liked the frightening appearance. "It suits what I want to become." Dante said, feeling Cerberus had just devoured all the memories of his version when he was Lucifer.
"You've given me the perfect gift, Asmodeus," Dante said aloud. "How about you come here... My Subordinate." He commented. Dante was already accepting many things in his current life, but something emerged when he absorbed his former self...
A small fragment of the sin of pride from that dimension had passed through the universe's barriers and became fragmented in his memories. "Hahaha!" Dante laughed, making the entire illusion tremble, but there was something he wanted to find; a memory still seemed to be missing.
After receiving the fragment of his life as Lucifer, he felt another fragment, not far from his location.
Dante began walking toward the familiar feeling, his steps firm and determined. The black abyss of his soul seemed to stir around him as if even his own shadows were eager to reveal the next secret. With each step he took, the sensation became clearer.
"It's close," he murmured to himself. "The next fragment... what will it show me?"
He approached a pale light emerging from a fissure in the darkness. As he got closer, the light began to expand, revealing another scene from a past life.
"The sacred mountain..." Dante murmured, clearly remembering the place, a mountain at the peak of a primordial world he knew very well... the world he had dominated millions of years ago.
The sound of the wind passed by his ears as he saw a man coming toward him. He had a majestic appearance, wearing a black Chinese tunic with golden engravings forming a huge dragon, his red hair reaching his knees. Dante's body trembled as he heard what the man said to the wind, directed at a woman he knew very well... "Have you come to accept my proposal?" he asked her.
"Voralith..." Dante saw the woman's whole body tense. He didn't know what the conversation was about, but... he knew something was strange.
Like a spiral, Dante was sucked into another memory, where Voralith was fighting against a gigantic dragon.
"This fight is intense," Dante heard from his version of this world, who was accompanied by two women... a redhead wearing a golden and red Chinese dress, and another woman with black hair.
When Dante looked at the two... "Valentina and Morgana..." He murmured. They were almost identical; the only difference was the horns on their heads and their clothes, which looked finer and calmer.
"Do you think she still has a chance, dear?" the redhead asked with a smile, clearly underestimating her. But he merely smiled back. "Have I ever chosen someone weak, Amaterasu?" he asked confidently. "And even if she were weak... she would still be mine," he said again. "So greedy...
wasn't taking the Sun and the Moon enough?" the other woman murmured playfully. "You know it's not like that, Tsukoyomi," he replied with a smile.
Dante processed the scene before him, one he had never expected to see. "How funny," he said with a smile. "Even after dying five times, I still found you in the future, didn't I?" he said with a wide grin. "Is this what Destiny is?" he spoke, his eyes starting to change completely. "Azi Dahaka, huh... I will take my soul back." Dante said.
Unlike Lucifer, the Dragon Lord turned to him. "It was about time, Future Me." He spoke, and Dante consumed all that mass of energy, along with all those memories, women, and that entire world he once conquered...
In another world... at the beginning of the celestial worlds...
"We have an urgent update," a completely black man said to a completely white woman.
"What is it now? Want to lose another bet?" the white woman said. "You owe me ten," he said, showing his ten fingers after tossing a folder labeled Super Secret.
"Hm? What do you mean by this?" she questioned. "Oh, Chief Administrator, take a look. Our little boy just had his ID updated." She read the information just by touching the folder.
"Damn... ten is a lot..." she murmured. "I'll tell the Judge if you don't comply."
"Ah~ fine," she agreed.