"What is this?" Asta said, interrupting Arieta, who had been tasked with furthering the conversation. "Ah, it seems this idiot didn't know until now," Dante remarked, looking at him with no pleasure in revealing this. Dealing with men was... just boring.
"Well, it seems we now have to eliminate him since he didn't know about this..." Dante said, smiling. Now, he was truly interested in something. "Don't joke about that, Demon King," Arieta said, stepping forward again. She had matters to discuss with Dante, especially regarding... "Put him to sleep." She ordered, and Ranni delivered a blow to the vampire's neck, causing him to collapse to the floor.
Boom
"Damn... this guy's muscles are heavy, huh?" Dante said, noticing the man had fallen and caused slight damage to his beautifully carved wooden floor. "You'll pay for this," he said, glaring at Ranni. She shrugged, unbothered. Money wasn't an issue for her.
"Let's get straight to the point. I believe Vlad wouldn't have sent you without a very good reason," Dante said, his eyes piercing through the two women. "I'm sure we have a long conversation ahead." His eyes glowed red as his power began to permeate the entire area. "Anti-communication magic..." Ranni murmured. "Not exactly. It's called Abyssal Silence.
Nothing goes in or out; we're isolated, with no eyes or ears on us," Dante explained with a smile, crossing his legs to listen to what they had to say.
"Ah~ What a difficult man to deal with," Arieta sighed heavily, trying to figure out the simplest and quickest way to handle this. No one deserved the burden of dealing with important people, especially someone who could devastate an entire city, a person considered a genocidal maniac who had killed countless people in a fit of rage... Well, she thought that way until recently...
until she received contact from the King.
"Here." Arieta said, tossing a tube-shaped container to Dante. He quickly caught it and examined the container, which held a red-blue residue that appeared blue to the eye but turned red under light. "And what is this?" Dante questioned, genuinely unable to understand. He had never seen anything like it.
"Several things happened a few years ago when you died. In fact, many things happened and were covered up," Arieta began, but she barely had time to continue before the entire area started trembling from Dante's silent, controlled rage. The ground, the walls, even their very souls felt the devastation in Dante's mind.
Quickly, before anything could happen, Nagasawa moved behind him and hugged him tightly, trying to calm him. "Dear, now is not the time for this. Calm down. No one will hurt us," she said, firmly holding his neck to prevent any outburst. She truly didn't want to know what would happen if he lost control. She had already realized that, for him...
Currently, Dante was already a version of Valentina, a person who, at any moment of explosion... could wipe out several nations. If that happened here...
"Calm down," she repeated, feeling the pressure in the room diminish. The small black flames that had appeared on his body ceased, and he looked forward, rigid.
"Sorry. I don't like that topic," Dante said, raising his hand to heal the women who had been hurt, even Asta, who was on the floor feeling the pressure that had made him sink further.
Arieta and Ranni were panting, but at least they hadn't fallen. "They are strong... very strong..." Dante thought, seeing that despite the ground sinking beneath them, they hadn't collapsed to their knees as most people did in his presence.
"Ah~ Damn, I should have spoken more slowly," Arieta cursed while catching her breath. "Shit." Her class vanished immediately; she was just another ordinary vampire now...
"What is this here?" Dante questioned, shaking the vial. "When that incident happened, we thought it was your fault. But as you may already know, they breached the witches' barrier..." she said with regret, looking at Dante. "There was a traitor," she said, and Dante raised his eyebrows. "But... wasn't it the demon cult's fault?" he asked, unfortunately, having very little information about that time.
"Nightsphere has grown significantly in the past few years. We believe that the stubborn Star Era is the result of this," Arieta said, looking at Dante seriously. "I don't want to draw a direct correlation between you and the current era, but it's a fact that since your death, the world has evolved a lot," she said without hesitation.
Dante's eyebrows remained arched, merely listening to what she wanted to say. In truth, he had already felt this... It was as if his existence had destabilized the balance, and in his absence... the world evolved. At least, that's what he thought; the changes in the world were clear after he disappeared.
"And this leads to?" Dante questioned. "I mean, you're getting tangled up in the conversation," he said, noting how strange her discourse had become—from a vial to his relationship with the current era.
"The Era Change brought many things. After you disappeared, the number of dragons in this world increased exponentially. We know you've encountered dragons; you've admitted it yourself. And this in your hand... is the blood of one of them," Arieta said without reservation.
"The Era Change awakened the dormant dragons that lived in the human world, as well as the ancient dragons that have lived in NightSphere."
"But I thought~" "Speculations are against reality. We're talking about real research that we vampires have conducted. Our race is only behind witches and dwarves in terms of technology. We are doing everything possible for survival," she said, as if...
"Is there a threat?" Dante questioned, and Arieta nodded.
"Initially, our King truly just wanted to talk to you about the Vampire Counts and the delicate situation we face with Valentina's power transition. That would be easy to resolve; it was just about creating the fifth Vampire Count clan and placing you in the fifth position. However..." she said, hesitating a bit.
"For some time now, we've been tracking who attacked you, intending to use this information for an alliance," she was sincere.
"It wasn't just the Demon Cult that wanted to kill Valentina," she said, and Dante's expression changed completely. His eyes filled with an absolute blackness like the abyss, but Arieta remained composed and did not tremble. She knew this was a normal reaction.
"Mary Rose of the Twilight Witches, an organization formed by renegade witches who left Arcano. She was abandoned by her sisters sixty years ago; she was a flower mage who fell into the temptation of dark magic," Arieta said, and Dante leaned forward to listen more closely, taking note of every little name.
"Astael, a vampire with the power of rot who faked his death. He was a member of the Zasdeth clan, which was wiped out two hundred years ago for treason against our King. The King himself exterminated the entire clan, but... he somehow freed himself from the lineage," Arieta said, looking deeply into Dante's eyes before revealing another name.
"We suspect a few more names, but the main one we have in mind is the woman behind the current Werewolf King. Her name isn't confirmed yet, but she calls herself Fenrir," Arieta said, and Dante pondered for a moment. "Fenrir... the Wolf of Ragnarok... The one who kills Odin, and the weapon that damned Odin uses is in my wife's hands," he murmured to himself.
"All these names are connected in some way. We vampires have been gathering every piece of information we've stolen, observed, and obtained over the past ten years, and finally, this in your hand," she pointed to the blood, "When you were attacked, this was what hit you," she said. "So this is the—" "Exactly."
"The poison that turned you into a monster, the blood of an entity only described in books... Tiamat, a five-headed dragon," Arieta said, and Dante's blood boiled. "How are you sure that this..." Dante murmured but saw Ranni, who had been silent all this time, move. The sword in her hand was trembling and writhing, and soon she walked forward and knelt, presenting the sword to him.
"Platinum Dragon," Ranni said. "There is a spirit inside her. Unfortunately, she is fading due to some issues, but... she confirmed it. The blood is indeed from this dragon named Tiamat," Ranni said, and the sword trembled in her hands as if it wanted to go to Dante somehow. "Dragon's blood...
injected directly into me, knowing the properties of Cain's blood..." Dante murmured. "Yes, we presume they stole that information—the blood that absorbs life essence and, depending on the strength, can absorb your power... We thought it was madness, but it seems they wanted Valentina to become the dragon itself, at least a smaller version since..."
"She was compatible. She wouldn't die immediately, and if they could control her mind in the midst of madness..." Dante murmured. "They wanted to make her an eternal slave," Arieta said, and Dante took the sword from Ranni's hands.
"W-wait!" she ordered, but...
"To the one who hears me on the other side, I ask permission to speak with the Platinum Dragon, the Spirit King." Dante said, and a portal shattered in the air... causing everything to be blown back except for Dante, who remained unmoved.
"Come on, I don't have all day, and you owe me for millions of years, you little shit," Dante said. The veil between worlds broke for a moment, and everything stopped; time had completely frozen, and a man emerged from the portal as Dante stood to face him.
"If I had known this boy was you, I would have punished Titania a thousand times over." From the light, the one who always watches everything looked at him, "Damned Reincarnated," he said, looking at Dante. "Ah, don't make that face, my friend. I'm sure we have much to discuss, right? Kazzes."
"Banning me from the spirit world, using me as a stepping stone for your success, sending my lovely Li Mei against her will to become a spirit, and reincarnating me in a female body... Oh yes... We have plenty of time to talk..."