"If you say so..." Alter said as Dante pointed his hand towards all of Qliphoth ahead of him... it was a fraction of 15% of Qliphoth's real power, yet it could already cause great trouble.
"Devour everything," Dante said, and the mass of black energy began to swallow the tree until nothing remained...
But unfortunately... "This energy is uncontrollable... I think I'll send it back to the filthy fallen angel who dared to lay hands on my wife's forest." Dante said, and a massive portal began to appear before him, etched in black with demonic patterns in runes...
Not only that, but it was like a mouth, with twisted demons gripping its edges as if painted in despair and horror. Dante stared at the opening, the runes glowing in fiery red, while the desperate eyes of the demons gleamed in neon red.
Dante hesitated for a moment, but then, with a determined gesture, he cut his own hand, letting blood flow into the air, slowly transforming into black mist.
"I sacrifice half of my energy and all this demonic energy to open the Gates of Hell. During this period, I will access the Ninth Floor of Hell until my energy is depleted and I am expelled again," Dante proclaimed, his voice echoing into the void.
The gargoyles around the infernal mouth began to tremble violently. With a haunting creak, they rose, their grotesque forms coming to life as they pushed the edges of the portal even wider. The air around them seemed to vibrate with a dark and oppressive energy, filling the atmosphere with a pungent scent of sulfur.
"Contract accepted," resonated a guttural and strident voice, as if billions of souls screamed through the widening opening, revealing a vortex of darkness beyond.
Dante felt a shiver run down his spine as the gargoyles, now fully animated, continued to force open the gates of hell. The sky around began to darken, as if a black storm was forming directly above the mouth of hell.
The air was laden with malignant energy, causing Dante's hairs to stand on end. He could hear distant murmurs, voices whispering indistinct and anguished words, echoing through the newly opened portal.
"So this is how the path to the Ninth Floor opens," Dante muttered to himself, feeling the weight of the responsibility he had just assumed. He looked at the gargoyles, whose eyes gleamed with an intensity that seemed to pierce his soul. They almost seemed to say, "Let's go," to Dante, who, after the initial impact, now seemed to be swept away by the moment.
Without hesitation, he took a step forward, entering the growing darkness emanating from the portal. The ground beneath his feet felt unstable, as if made of living shadows that writhed and moved under his weight.
As Dante advanced, the runes around the portal pulsed with a sinister red light, as if marking his progress through the infernal planes. The sound of distant screams intensified, mixing with the muffled roar of eternal flames that could now be seen dancing beyond the portal's edges.
"So it begins," Dante murmured, the world beyond the Gates of Hell unfolding before him like a living, pulsating nightmare. As he crossed the portal, darkness enveloped him like a chilling cloak, imbued with the acrid scent of sulfur and the distant echo of tortured moans.
Ahead of him stretched a vast desert of black and twisted stone, where sharp spikes emerged from the ground like twisted claws searching for prey. The sky above was a turmoil of distorted colors, where red and green flames danced in infernal chaos, occasionally illuminating shadowy figures moving among the shadows.
Around him, he could hear the sound of chains dragging across the ground and the echo of heavy footsteps slowly approaching. Hooded and deformed figures moved at the edges of his vision, their features hidden by darkness, but their eyes gleaming with ancient malice.
Sinister caverns opened in the distant rocks, emitting groans and laments that seemed to echo from an eternity of torment. Walls of black rocks dripped with a viscous, dark substance that pulsed like a malevolent heart in synchrony with the agonizing moans filling the air.
"What a disgusting world," Dante said as he spread his wings and ascended several meters above the ground, observing everything around him. Dozens of demons fought frenetically against each other for scarce resources, engaged in brutal battles against hunger, misery, bitterness, diseases, and plagues of every imaginable form.
Gigantic infernal towers spiraled upwards, almost piercing the skies, emitting an aura of oppression and despair. Infernal hordes of demons of all strains and forms moved through the twisted and tortuous streets, their presences shrouded in an aura of malice and pain.
Dante still held a small bubble of energy, a compression of all the energy from the Qliphoth demon tree. After surveying the skies, he turned to something that caught his attention: a massive tree, tens, no, hundreds of thousands of times larger than any he had ever seen before.
Not only that, several of them seemed to be dead, their roots completely severed, sprawling across the infernal ground like inert and twisted tentacles. It was a repulsive sight, devoid of hope and, above all, permeated by a strange feeling for Dante: amusement.
Yes, amusement. This was the word Dante felt upon witnessing the state of Hell. He could deduce what had happened: the severance from Qliphoth was so severe that the tree lost much of its vitality when Dante destroyed the portals connecting its roots to the human world.
He could feel all this world, all beings in it, and every little part... "How much power do I have here?" Dante questioned, as if... he wanted to be somewhere and he could, it was like having a supreme view that bordered on omnipotence and omnipresence.
"This isn't even the full power," Alter-Dante said, "we are limited to the ninth floor... if you knew how to control all floors at this moment, you would go mad." These words were true; Dante had sacrificed some things to absorb Qliphoth, and one of them was essentially his presence in the underworld. He could have all that power, but without control...
it would be problematic, so he relinquished half of the authority just to destroy Qliphoth from the human world and seal it in Hell permanently. Now, he had no control over any layer, and he would have to personally deal with them in the future, but that would be when he needed to.
"Where is he..." Dante muttered, his eyes scanning the surroundings, unable to ignore the immense tree with its horrifying eye.
"So you're here..." Dante murmured as he spotted a black castle, rising majestically in the midst of a sea of pure blood. The red liquid stretched endlessly, where afflicted demons drowned incessantly, their voices lost in the groans echoing through the stagnant waters.
The castle itself was a vision of horror that seemed to have emerged from a dark fantasy painting of terror. Its twisted towers rose in sinister spirals, shrouded in shadows that danced like specters across the surface of the blood. Black and red flames danced around the castle, casting a ghostly light over the crimson waters.
Dante looked at it and took the energy in his hand and expanded it, making the whole world tremble, after all, even though it was a small amount, it was still the energy of a world tree.
"Let's see what you do... little rebel," Dante said, materializing in front of the entrance to the black castle, awaiting a reception that did not come. "So it's like this..." He murmured, sensing the sinister silence enveloping the place.
"LUCIFER!" Dante roared, causing the demonic world to tremble with the power of his voice. He would not wait for the Fallen King's courtesy.
"Khalash," Dante pronounced in an ancient language he had never used before, and then he filled his lungs.
"KHALASH KAHEN!" He shouted with such intensity that black flames erupted from his lungs. The castle began to melt around him, the temperature rising to the point where everything started to liquefy under the overwhelming heat.
"Dragon Class Magic... it's a shame I have to use Amaterasu as a source of hot energy... maybe in the future... no, I need a lot of power for that," Dante murmured as he watched the castle burn like hell itself.
"Who are you!" The voice echoed behind Dante, coming from the shrunken figure of a demon who once seemed important, now reduced to ashes by Dante's uncontrollable power.
"Who are you!? I ask. Who dares to speak to your God," Dante said as he began to walk through the castle's entrances. "S-stop!" Death. That's what happened to everyone who appeared, several demons began to appear as Dante walked.
Dante walked, walked, and walked, he wasn't in a hurry, as long as he had energy he was there, so he wanted to enjoy the show well...
"Nice Lucifer." He hummed. "Heaven's puppy." He mocked, "Dare to mess with what's mine." He commented, "Now it's just you and me." He said entering the Throne room with several King Class demons looking at him, ready to attack.
"Look, you're even." Dante said remembering something. "Hello." Dante said looking at Lucifer...
"Scarlet..." He growled with anger as he saw the unconcern of that man. "How dare you~"
"Your owner is in front of you, kneel worms." Dante said cutting off Lucifer's words and all the Demon Kings immediately knelt.
"You've caused me several problems." Dante said looking at his hands that had black gauntlets... "I just came to collect..." Dante said very calmly as his head began to rise...
"You... inferior, disgusting and unloved creature... dared to use dirty claws to try to kill my wife..."
"You're not going to die... not now..." Dante said looking into Lucifer's eyes who simply began to tremble...
"I told you to kneel." Dante said and Lucifer's legs broke as his entire throne was destroyed by the overwhelming pressure of Dante's fury...
He disappeared and appeared in front of Lucifer, holding him by his white hair...
"When your Emperor speaks, you kneel and listen, Child."