Once he was done dealing with Riot and the idiots following him, Dante chose one of the smarter idiots to take charge while the big idiot recovered. Just in case, he left one of Volcan's androids to keep an eye on the place. He didn't know how well that would work out, though, since he planned on moving between his pocket dinsions.
After being out of commission for more than a week, there were a few things he needed to take. He wanted to get them out of the way first before dealing with the Daggers once and forever. In the end, those chores didn't take as long as he thought they would. Only one remained, and it led him to a place he hadn't visited in a while—Hollowstreet.
[It seems the prisoner has gone rampant in your absence.]
The place had always been a ss since Dante had used it as his main training ground, but now it looked like a war zone. More buildings seed to have collapsed, and rubble was piled left and right. The streets barely had two ters of intact asphalt.
'Say, can't we fix this place?' Dante asked while looking at the 3D model of the pocket dinsion. 'If this is just a replica created through Spatial Pocket, shouldn't we be able to, like, reset it every now and then?'
[That is not possible through any of the Type 8 abilities,] Volcan said. [What you can do is delete a pocket dinsion and create a new one in its place.]
'Let guess, I have to scan the original spot first?'
[That is correct.]
'Then what's the point?'
It felt like a waste of ti, so Dante decided not to bother with it. Creating new Pocket dinsions every now and then sounded a lot more efficient.
Instead of finding what he's looking for, Dante saw that it found him and was currently heading in his direction. Dismissing 8-3 with a thought, he stood in the sa spot and waited. A second later, sothing fell from above, its landing quaking the ground and causing the rubble to bounce.
Unaffected, Dante raised his gaze and looked at the giant machine that had just landed.
'Is it just , or have I been fighting a lot of big bastards lately?'
[Your opponents have generally been people of unconventional sizes.] Volcan replied.
The machine was humanoid in shape, reaching a height of over three ters. Its upper half was built like a tank, with a small head sinking into a cavity, and large blocky contraptions rested on its shoulders. The whole thing was encased in a muddy green shell, and though it didn't have a single scratch the last ti he had seen it, the arms seed to have been scraped.
It hunched over like a beast looking down on its prey. Raising his gaze, Dante looked at the part that appeared to be the head, even though he wasn't sure the optic sensors were there. The two had a brief staring contest, and then, the machine slowly raised one of its arms.
"Do anything stupid, and you'll spend another week in here."
As Dante's words echoed in the silence filling the ruins, the giant machine ca to a halt. After a while, it steadily lowered its arm.
[You really think I could keep going for another week?] A gruff voice ca from its head.
"Quit being a bitch." Dante said. "You're an Ascended Cyborg. Surely you could go another week or two."
As an Ascended Cyborg himself, Dante knew they could spend weeks stranded sowhere uninhabited. Their bodies didn't require as much food or water, since their bionics handled storing nutrition and filtering water. Their lungs dealt with the carbon dioxide, so they didn't have to worry about it affecting their brains, either.
If one were to disregard the ntal toll of being trapped in a nightmarish place like Hollowstreet, an Ascended Cyborg could spend months in such a place without any problems.
[I was just thinking of ending it before you showed up.]
"Yeah, right." Dante scoffed.
Pulling back, the giant machine straightened up, and its front split apart, opening up to reveal a naked man. He had no arms and no legs. Only a torso stuck to the inside of the machine, like a plastic piece slotted into a fitting spot inside a toy.
"You should have kept it closed," Dante said with a grimace.
"I might be 70% alloy, but I still need so air from ti to ti," Henry smirked. "So? You gonna say why the hell you're here?"
"Nothing much." Dante shrugged. "I'm gonna go crush the Daggers after this, so I just thought I would drop by and tell you."
His tone was so casual it felt as if he was reporting that he would be going out for a walk. A frown quickly warped Henry's face, but he seed more resigned than upset.
"Mind if I ask sothing?"
"Go ahead," Dante replied.
"What's your beef with us?" Henry asked. "I looked into you, but I don't rember finding anything that said why you're doing this."
"Didn't I tell you already?" Dante raised an eyebrow. "I just needed so cash."
"... You were being serious?" Henry's frown deepened.
"I an, I was going to kill you anyway. What's the point of hiding it?"
Henry kept staring, as if wondering whether to believe him or not. His eyes widened all of a sudden.
"You said soone wants Kent… soone wants Jaguar dead, right?"
"I an, isn't that the case for all your enemies?" Dante asked.
"Who was it?"
"I thought you would have connected the dots by now..."
And that's what Henry did, though he appeared hesitant to confirm.
"The boy from the restaurant… that was really Finn, wasn't he?"
"Yup."
A grimace twisted the hairy giant's face.
"I guess he's holding a grudge, huh?"
"Yup."
The curt replies began to get on Henry's nerves, but there wasn't much he could do about it.
"Seriously, why are you here?"
"Didn't I just tell you?"
"You don't strike as the kind who rubs it in people's faces when you do sothing." Henry snorted. "What do you want?"
Dante didn't answer, remaining as disinterested as he had been since he arrived. Tired of standing in the sa spot, he started walking around, kicking so pebbles as if he had nothing better to do. It was so ti before he said a word.
"You know who I am, right?"
Henry contemplated the question for so ti.
"Ghost." He answered. "A villain wanted for killing at least five heroes."
"That's old news," Dante replied. "The number is seven now."
The number had always been six, but from the looks of it, Aegis's death was still being kept secret, even from those investigating his murder.
The seventh was still alive, but considering what he had planned for him, one might as well count him among the dead.
"Anyway." Dante continued walking around. "Since I have been going around killing those freaks, they called the big one into town. It's a pain, but… I'll probably have to kill him soti in the future."
"The big one?" For a mont there, Henry didn't know who Dante was referring to. His mind refused the obvious answer, even though he already knew about what happened to Red Garden.
"I already finished off the bargain bin version a while back, so I'm preparing for the real deal."
No longer able to deny reality, Henry furrowed his brows.
"And?"
Coming to a stop, Dante turned to look at him.
"Don't tell you wanna get my ass involved in this?"
"I'm still working on the plan, but…" Heaving a sigh, Dante looked up at the dark sky above. "I'm gonna need a few cards to play."
"... what's in it for ?"
"You get to live a little longer. Isn't that enough?"
"Yeah, right."
The invitation Dante extended was for a funeral. They were talking about the most powerful being on the planet, and that thing wasn't going to fight alone. Many have challenged them before, but no one ca close to surviving, let alone winning. It was a losing battle, no matter how he looked at it, and Dante wasn't expecting people to fight it with him.
"If we make it out alive, you'll get to walk away free," Dante said. "There won't be anyone to stop you, so you can do what you want."
"If we make it out alive." Said Henry. "Big quotations around the 'if'."
"Your choice," Dante said. "You get five minutes."
The offer was far from reasonable, and the options were bad and worse. Whatever path he chooses, death waits at the end. It was as if he were being made to choose between the shorter road that would get him there sooner, or the one that extends the trip for a bit longer.
"The Daggers..." Henry said after a while. "You still gonna crush them?"
"I just need the money," Dante replied, catching on to what the giant was saying. "And Jaguar's head."
Frowning at him for a long mont, the giant let out a long sigh. A grin split his face soon after, and he spoke one word.
"Deal."
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