"Understood..." Dante murmured, thinking that there was a sword with such power... Which made him question... "What's in the sword? To seal such a being means that..." He began, but Thalassa shook her head, "It's a blood pact. I gave up my Draconic Speech and my ability to use Runes to create the sword." Thalassa said, making much more sense now to Dante...
"You basically ceased being a dragon to create this sword..." Dante murmured, and the Dragon seemed to just smile, "I love life, Dante, and I would give mine so that others could live theirs. For someone who has lived as long as we have, life is just a passage of time. We can always enjoy it, but there comes a time when it no longer makes sense." Thalassa said, as if her life...
was no longer worth living.
"I hope that day never comes for me.
Those women would kill me just for mentioning sacrificing my life..." Dante murmured, his statement being just a big joke, which made Thalassa only smile at him, "Well, we'll just have to find out, won't we?" She said, smiling, "Sometimes I wonder how my other self managed to be the progenitor of you all, seriously." Dante said, turning away, "I'll be back in a few years to get you out of here.
You're too young to be rotting in this white world. All this brightness isn't good for the eyes." Dante mocked as he walked away, giving a small wave over his shoulder.
Thalassa watched the broad back of the red-haired man. She didn't know Dante, but she felt that this man was truly remarkable, even to her, a Dragon. And despite searching her entire memory, she found no man as interesting as him...
"I hope everything works out... I'd like to get to know you better." She thought, not romantically, she just wanted to understand. She was truly someone who liked to interact with the world around her, and it seemed fate wanted her to live a bit longer...
As for Dante... Well, he simply walked away unconcerned until he finally faced that Spiritual King...
"It seems you've solved your problem." Kazess said, seeing Dante just leaving Thalassa's personal space. Despite his reaction not being the best, as Dante was clearly very serious...
Well, it wasn't hard to understand why. He had come just to deal with a mess that the Vampire King wanted to put in his backyard, but now, he was thrown into an information pit that, to him, was just a big problem to be solved, and not in a year or two, but in many. Tracking these people, using them as bargaining chips... there was a bigger problem than all that...
"Damn Vampire King, old retarded bastard, waited until I was at my most peaceful to drop this bomb on me, right before the rulers' meeting. That son of a bitch has wanted a strong ally from the start. He already knows this will lead to war," Dante murmured, so much information thrown out like this was clearly desperation. If he trusted Dante with all this, something was happening behind the scenes...
"Hey, I'm talking to you, you know?" Kazess called Dante's attention, who was lost in the everyday thoughts of his life. But did Dante care? Of course not, this old man had pissed him off many times.
"Shut up, old man, I'm thinking here!" Dante snapped at him, causing Kazess to back off slightly. "Damn Vampire King, put me in the middle of this whole mess... not that it wouldn't happen, but... AH, FUCK OFF!" Dante had a brief outburst while the Spiritual King looked at him in confusion...
"Azi- Dante, calm down, okay?" Kazess said like a loyal subordinate serving his majestic master. "Oh, stop with this shit, come on, send me back," Dante said, but before... "Don't you want to go see her? That crazy woman must be sensing you right now, you should pay her a visit..." Kazess said, as if something was pressing him to say these words...
"She's here right now, isn't she?" Dante asked, looking at him seriously, his eyes almost boring a hole into Kazess, who only nervously smiled...
"Seriously... sometimes I wonder who the genius is controlling this mess... Is she loose?" Dante murmured, rubbing his eyes as if trying to wake up from a bad dream. He looked down, seeming more frustrated than ever. "Ahhh, damn it! SEND ME BACK!" He shouted, and the ground below them trembled as if a small earthquake had passed through.
Kazess looked at Dante seriously without saying a word. "Does this idiot not realize that in the Spiritual World, strength is dictated by the soul?" He wondered, after all, Dante's surprise was hardly justifiable.
"What the hell?" Dante looked around, seeing that everything was still shaking. "I don't have the power to do this!" He looked at Kazess, who was still paralyzed with a poker face.
Kazess simply stared at Dante, his eyebrows raised in a look that said "Are you serious?"
"What's the matter, damn it?" Dante said, trying to understand the situation. Kazess felt a vein throbbing in his temple, and his patience, already stretched thin, was finally beginning to break.
"Oh, you son of a—" Kazess began, his eyes burning with anger. But before he could finish the sentence, a young girl with clown makeup appeared upside down, floating right in front of him.
Kazess blinked a few times, trying to process what he was seeing. "Oh, fuck it... You know what? Deal with this demon yourself, you big son of a bitch! I'm done with you. Look at what you brought here!" Kazess said, throwing his hands up in surrender before disappearing in a burst of dull sparks.
The clown girl blinked at Dante, who looked at her, then back to where Kazess was, and then back at her. "So, what's the joke?"
Dante stared at the woman for a long moment, trying to decide whether he was more intrigued or scared. She had undeniable beauty, even with that clown makeup which, honestly, looked like it had been applied by someone who lost a bet. Her skin was so pale it almost glowed under the dim light, and the contrast with the bright red nose was, at the very least... curious.
Still, there was something about her that left him mesmerized.
Her purple hair, a faded shade that seemed to have gone through many washes (or interdimensional adventures), cascaded over her shoulders. It was a color that somehow perfectly matched the extravagant look. She wore a white and blue dress, full of details that seemed to have come straight out of a fairy tale, or perhaps from a particularly creative nightmare.
And to complete the look, a crown adorned her head, as if she were a lost queen from a realm where the circus never leaves town.
"Why are you staring at me? Never seen a clown before?" She said, with a mischievous smile and eyes sparkling with malice. Well... Dante knew her in some way...
Dante blinked a few times, "I... have seen a lot of strange things, but you're at the top of the list now. What happened to you?" Dante asked, but it seemed the Clown didn't recognize him... She laughed, a sound that was both cheerful and a little unsettling. "Well, if you think my look is weird, you should see what I do on my days off."
Dante smiled to himself upon realizing she didn't recognize his other self. It was even better this way... He wasn't sure whether to be more concerned about her words or the fact that he was starting to find the whole appearance a bit... charming. "Let me guess, you make balloon animals that come to life, or something like that?"
She shrugged, the crown swaying slightly with the motion. "Only if the balloons are made of distorted reality and the children are nightmares personified. But don't worry, I'm off today."
"Great, so am I," Dante replied, trying not to imagine what those "children" would be like. "Now, tell me... who are you, really? Because I have a feeling this is going to get a lot more interesting." She asked while floating around him, analyzing him.
Dante followed her with his eyes, noting how her dress seemed to shimmer in shades of blue and white as she spun around. "Me? I'm just a guy trying to figure out how life can be so... unpredictable." He replied, maintaining an air of mystery.
She paused for a moment, floating right in front of him, then smiled as if she had just solved a puzzle. "Unpredictable, huh? Well, I'm the queen of unpredictability. You can call me... Chaos!" She said, making a small dramatic bow in the air, the crown swaying gracefully on her head.
"Lady Chaos, huh? It suits you." Dante replied with a mischievous smile. "But you know, I have a thing for chaos... Too bad you're not Chaos." She laughed again, spinning in the air as if gravity were merely a suggestion. "Oh, darling...
You have no idea what you're getting into..." She winked at him, somewhat mischievous, "Are you sure I'm not Chaos?" She questioned, spreading her arms and thousands of worlds appeared to him, each one more destroyed than the last...
Dante merely smiled, "You haven't changed a bit, have you?" Dante asked, finally looking into her eyes, which seemed like two glowing beach balls changing color with the light.
"Changed? I don't even know you!" She said, floating upside down as her crown held her hair in place. "Really? I even feel a little sad..." Dante pouted, teasing her.
"It's so sad to know that my Cherry doesn't remember me." Dante said, wiping the corner of his eyes with an exaggerated movement, as if drying nonexistent tears. It was an imitation of crying worthy of an Oscar for Best Comedy Drama.
She stopped spinning in the air, her eyes narrowing further as she studied him. "How do you know that name?" The entire atmosphere halted, the laughter and jokes abruptly stopping.
Dante shrugged, still with that knowing smile. "Maybe I'm more unpredictable than you think? I mean, you not knowing that I'm the one who gave you that name makes me quite sad, you know? Little Cherry," Dante said, and the Clown's eyes began to tear up...
"M-master?"