Six days had passed, and Dante and Nagasawa had now descended several floors of the dungeon. Each time they descended, it became more difficult; it was as if the mana was getting denser.
"That was the last one," he said, approaching the white-haired woman who observed the scene. Brutally, he tore open the chest of the Lycan beast and took its heart, drinking its blood. "Disgusting," he said, wiping his mouth.
"Here," Dante tossed a small fruit to Nagasawa. That's what she had been eating for the past few days, a kind of fruit that closely resembled an apple, but inside was reasonably soft, yet it tasted good, according to Nagasawa.
"These fruits grow on these strange branches, but they are rich in mana," Dante said as he harvested some more fruits.
Each time they descended, they found more fauna and nature. "Yes." "Don't you want to eat?" she asked, and Dante shook his head. "We have to save, even though we are descending further and further."
"I thought vampires couldn't eat anything other than blood," Nagasawa commented, and Dante quickly explained.
"Valentina and I are pure noble vampires; our progenitor has the purest lineage, unlike Vlad, who had several predecessors. Their traits were passed down, so we don't have this deficiency in taste. Even though we can't eat things like garlic... honestly, I find it ridiculous, but we follow suit.
It's a shame that our emotions are completely chaotic because of this lineage," he commented as he cleaned the carcass of another wolf.
"Why are you removing its skin?" Nagasawa asked curiously. "You can make some expensive clothes out of it when we return. Besides, it's proof that we were truly surviving in this stupid abyss."
"I see... that's why you took those three skeletal bodies with you," she murmured. "You're more mundane than I thought you would be, Valentina's son is greedy for material goods."
Dante stood up and stretched lightly as he looked at Nagasawa. He glanced at the woman's arm, which seemed to be getting worse every day. She no longer felt it, but it was uncomfortable to see. "Your arm," Dante commented and received a slight smile from the older woman. "Soon, you'll have to amputate it," she remarked with a sad smile.
GROOOOOOOOOOOOONNN
They heard a tremor and quickly glanced at each other.
"Damn, that bastard is alive!" Dante shouted, and the entire small cave began to shake. "Damn, we don't have time!" he yelled and jumped over Nagasawa, holding her like a princess. "Hold on to me!"
Everything began to collapse as Dante started to run. Rocks started falling, and loud noises began to occur.
"Damn! Damn! Damn!"
GROOOOOOM!!!!
A rock almost hit Dante's head, but he continued without hesitation. As he ran, he noticed a different entrance from the others, but it was buried under rubble. He decided to run towards it, but at the same time, he smelled something unpleasant.
"What do I do? Curse this fate!" he shouted and began summoning his flames. "BURN IT ALL!" The flames started melting the stones completely.
"Let's go, let's go," Dante said as he looked back and saw everything collapsing.
"Nagasawa, this is going to hurt," he said, and Nagasawa didn't have time to react.
He jumped straight into the fire, using his shoulder to break through the wall in front of him.
"AHRG!" Dante's arm was completely burned; some splashes hit Nagasawa's body, and she grunted in pain, but didn't make it clear that it hurt. They fell into the room that had been opened, and the entire previous room collapsed, closing off the passage.
Cough! Cough!
They coughed as the dust rose. Fortunately, they were saved, for now. "Damn it, all because of those bastards!" Dante shouted, having a slight rage attack as his body began to burn with fury.
"Calm down!" Nagasawa shouted, slapping his head.
"It doesn't matter now, focus on surviving, you idiot," Nagasawa said with a furious face. "When we get out of here, I'm going to poison those sons of bitches. I'll put them all in a bathtub of poison and dunk their heads in ten-star manticore acid. I'll let the insects devour their bodies while they're still alive!
I'll kill them all HAHAHAHAHA," she shouted with a terrifying smile and then fell unconscious.
"Seriously... what do I do with you? You're a child?" Dante said, putting his hands over his face. "Man, you just bring me trouble. You better pay me back for all this with your soul," Dante mocked and picked her up like a princess again, continuing to walk in the new area.
It was like an ancient ruin, with pillars embedded and carvings on the bricks. "The guy who built this was very inspired," he said, seeing the engravings of people walking, strange symbols among various other things.
Dante started walking around the area, but first he leaned Nagasawa against the wall to rest.
"I'll be right back, sleeping beauty," he commented with a smile as Nagasawa slept like an angel. He began to walk around the area; it was an open square-shaped area with four passages. The room was quite large, easily fitting two basketball courts inside.
"I hate these damn old folks who do sinister things like this," he commented as he looked around. The nauseating smell he had sensed increased drastically, so he headed towards the center of the room, where there was some sort of chalice, completely suspicious.
"What the hell is this?" Dante said as he checked the center. There was a pentagram around a golden chalice.
"I hope this crap isn't the Holy Grail," Dante mocked the situation as he looked around. Nothing really remarkable could be seen, except for the paintings on the wall depicting the daily life of some ancient tribe from an unknown era.
Nothing was relevant enough, but he continued to observe the pillars and came across disgusting creatures illustrated, species with horns and tails, which were praised on completely dark nights, emerging from portals and spirals.
"Damn, is this a demonic summoning?" Dante asked as he continued to follow the images.
He followed it to another room, completely dark. He clapped his hands, and the lights lit up through his magic. In front of him, he saw more parts of the paintings.
He began to walk lightly and saw what it really was: a Summoning Ritual.
"Asmodeus, Beelzebub, Mammon, Belphegor, Azazel, Leviathan, and Lucifer," Dante recognized them. How could he not? Seven demons in a ritual sentence, of course it would be them. "The Seven Deadly Sins... What is all this?" Dante questioned aloud, beginning to look more closely at how the ritual was performed.
But before he could finish looking:
WOOFF!
A wolf nearly three meters tall broke through the wall, destroying everything in its path and attacking Dante. "Damn! What a scare, you son of a bitch!" Dante shouted as he blocked the huge wolf.
GRRRRR!
"Hey, mongrel, you son of a bitch, I was reading that," Dante said, pointing Durandal at the wolf, who wasn't intimidated at all; on the contrary, it began to growl at Dante more intensely.
It opened its mouths, revealing steel fangs. It was clearly a mutant wolf. In a few seconds, it lunged at Dante.
'This bastard bypassed my senses, and now he's fighting on par with my speed. This mongrel is truly a mutant beast,' Dante thought.
He didn't know the strength of the strange wolf in front of him, but he couldn't spend too long testing; that place was dangerous.
"Curse it! After getting out of here, remind me to exterminate any wolves! Come on, you bastard!" he called the wolf, pointing his sword at it, and the wolf seemed to understand, as its claws began to emerge.
The wolf's fur was completely red, and its claws were silver. Its eyes turned red, creating a dangerous atmosphere, but compared to his mother... This wolf was nothing but a fly; something like this wouldn't intimidate him even in a million years.
Dante got into position, as if he were going to make a quick draw with the katana, but he wanted to test something. He posed with the long sword and waited for the wolf to move.
The wolf growled, but didn't have time to react. Dante suddenly appeared behind it and struck one of its legs, cutting deeply and damaging it, preventing it from fighting unprepared. The fight continued, but the wolf decided to run into the ruins, towards Nagasawa. He was already desperate because of the loss of mobility, but Dante wouldn't let a limping wolf go after his companion.
"You bastard, your opponent is me!" he shouted and appeared in front of the wolf, hitting it from the side with a kick and sending it flying into the center of the room.
He looked at the deep wound he managed to inflict on the wolf in this moment of desperation. The wolf's bloodied body left no denying that it was nearing the end of its life. Dante held the sword in a new position.
"This is for the scare," Dante said and lunged towards the wolf's head, but it managed to dodge.
"And this is for going after my teacher."
SWIN!
The sword severed the wolf's head, which fell to the ground, spilling a lot of blood everywhere.
"I hope your heart has better blood than those crappy ones earlier. Seriously, I miss my mom," Dante said as he approached the wolf's body, which began to bleed profusely on the ground.
Slowly, the blood began to touch a kind of cavity in the ground, which slowly began to light up in the shape of a pentagram. Dante was distracted looking towards Nagasawa and didn't notice what was about to happen.
WONWU!
He heard the characteristic sound of a magic circle, similar to a spirit summoning. He turned around and saw the wolf's body with its head regenerated levitating.
From the portal, a being emerged. Its skin was completely pale with black eyes and red pupils, two long red horns, and long black hair.
"Human?" it said, but its voice was unrecognizable; it was several types of voices together, creating an indescribable symphony that contained neither feminine nor masculine aspects.
Its face was covered by a mask, and its body was covered by a black robe, making it impossible to discern the demon's gender.
Dante trembled upon hearing the voice; it was as if thousands of different auras were trapped in that place. He couldn't move a single muscle.
"Poor thing, are you so scared?" it said sarcastically. "Humans used to summon demons with more gusto in the old days; you seem like a scared kitten, hahaha," it chuckled lightly.
"W-who are you?" Dante stuttered slightly; he couldn't remember the last time he felt real fear like now.
"Oh, of course, you must have accidentally activated that idiotic ritual..." it said with its hands on its face. 'He's quite cheeky, isn't he?' Dante thought as he watched the demon floating in front of him.
"I have many names; it's not for me to reveal such things to a weak human like you," it said and began to disappear. "Oh, time is running out... I'll leave a present for you if you manage to defeat my little darling," it said, and the wolf's body began to tremble.
GRRR!
It suddenly came back to life, and now...
"Defeat my little pet, and maybe I'll give you something later," it said and disappeared.