Rin.
The fight with the density monster lasted all of five seconds—and it nearly destroyed what was left of Shaw's Tower.
The spindly, stony creature lowered its center of gravity as its body drowned in a purplish aura. It was on faster than I could blink, claws arcing out.
They skittered off my vibranium armor, but the impact hurled through reinforced concrete walls and out the other side of the building. We plumted together, his claws inches from my eyes, and that's when I detonated—releasing a controlled ray of pure kinetic energy through his midsection.
It sheared him in half and consud a third of the building.
Energy filled to the brim as the demon's life force rged with mine. Two dozen human-sized vitality pools followed it in. I winced as I landed, cracking the concrete like ice.
Shit.
People scrambled away when they saw . I just stood there, numb and a bit afraid, until I heard a roar—closer than the dragon. Demons spilled out onto the street, cutting down humans and warping the city with magic.
I blurred forward, Rose transforming into her sword form.
Jean
I arrived just in ti to end the battle between Yelena, Magneto, and the dragon. Yelena had gumd up the beast with tallic webbing, while Magneto hacked away at its seemingly impenetrable shield with her floating blade, which had long since lost its glow.
Magneto was caught off guard when ten dark-tal knives sprang from a fluctuation in the air. They glowed like mini-stars, blinding both the Avengers and the demons before piercing through the demon and its army.
In thirty seconds or less, most of them were dead.
I left the rest to Rin, who was converging on our location, cutting down enemies carefully with each swipe of his blade.
I touched down to the awe and surprise of those present.
"Quite the entrance," Magneto greeted. "Where's your other half?"
"Busy," I said. "We had to split up. He should be here soon."
Yelena swung down from a web and landed beside us. "Well, you'll have to do. There's soone in there." She gestured to the SHIELD building. "I sent the kid in, along with a few of his teammates, but I haven't heard from them in a while."
"I'll check on them," I said, shutting my eyes.
I found Jessica easily—she and the rest of the Mutant Brotherhood were converging on my position. The rest of her team, however… they were gone. Blind to my senses. In fact, all of HQ was.
"We've got a problem," I announced.
A portal opened beside us, and the X-n began to file through.
"That we do," Scott said. "I think one of Shin's agents is after the Infinity Stone."
Dante POV
Yao opened a portal that led us into an almost sterile cave—angular, spotless. No stalagmites had ford despite the near-constant drip of water from above.
The droplets pooled into stone basins etched with dull blue and red runes.
The entire cave structure was covered in them, alongside several hundred floating constructs that lit the void.
The constructs ford a rough line that led up to a massive temple made of carved stone and infernal tal.
The structure was completely walled off to my senses, but sothing familiar thrumd beneath the protections my parents had erected—sothing even they couldn't completely mask.
Cosmic power. Celestial power.
I shared my thoughts with Yao.
"That's not possible," she said, but her voice trembled. "Your parents were powerful, but even they couldn't shackle a Celestial. It's more likely they co-opted one's power—used it to fuel the guardians and the cage."
"I don't like the sound of that," I muttered. "So what exactly am I up against?"
Yao leaned against a wall. "The Yamato and the Rebellion are just two of your father's creations. The temple contains the rest. Constructs ford from both of their energy sources, encoded with so of their most famous spells and abilities. There are eight of them—all Juggernauts. Supposedly powerful enough to hold back Corvus and Belasco."
"I'm flattered you have that much faith in ," I laughed nervously. "But I'm nowhere near ready for that."
"I'm hoping your parents included so kind of failsafe… just in case their children wandered in."
"Here's to hoping," I said. "But just in case… there are a few things I need to work on. I'll be back shortly."
I blipped out of reality, returning to my personal dinsion.
For the first ti that day, I exhaled deeply and took stock of my skills:
Skills:
(T) Death Symphony – Basic
(T) Prothean Body – Adept
Devil Energy Manipulation – Master
(E) Demonic Burst – Adept
Angelic Energy Manipulation – Master
Gust – Adept
Wind Blade – Adept
Astral Wings – Adept
(L) Dinsion of the Demi God – Basic
(L) Ti Warp – Adept
(E) Telepathy – Adept
(E) Telekinesis – Basic
(E) Advanced Arcane Smithing – Adept
Explosive Mastery – Basic
(T) Anathema Fla – Basic
Class Skills:
(L) Decode and Forge
(E) Arcane Lexicon
(E) Harvest
(E) Enchant
It was a far cry from where I'd started, but still miles from where I needed to be.
I produced two vials of blood from two different Ascendants: Storm and Rin.
Adding even one would give the power I needed. But I hesitated.
Sure, I'd gain strength. But what about control? Alien biology could destabilize —especially before I'd explored the limits of my own powers.
Are you sure you're not just afraid he'll hijack your soul after you gain that much power?
I gritted my teeth and banished the vials.
I had two weeks. Let's see what I can improve and what weapons I can forge.
I started with Wind Blade and Gust—combining them into a single skill:
(Epic) Wind Manipulation – Adept
Generate and control wind using angelic energy.
No more limited gusts or flimsy blades. I was three tis faster than before—and when I stacked Astral Wings on top, the multiplier jumped to 180%.
And so did my attacks.
Wind sheared islands in half. Structures imploded. I even learned to weaponize vacuums.
Next, I moved on to Fire, Density, Dinsional, and Gravity affinities—training each with focus and intensity.
The two weeks flew by. I dipped in and out of the dinsion repeatedly, until I felt sothing deeper than strain—it was my soul.
There's only so much conceptual weight a soul can bear.
By the end of it, my status was unrecognizable:
Na: Axel Warren (Dante Sparda)
Class: Arcane Forgemaster Lv28
HP: 8000/8000
SP: 6000/6000
AE: 7000/7000
DE: 7000/7000
Strength: 520
Dexterity: 680
Endurance: 600
Vitality: 800
Angel Energy: 700
Demon Energy: 700
I reerged, Twilight Sentinel armor gleaming, reactor humming, Kurogiri on my waist, and Rebellion strapped to my back. My wings flared.
Yao looked worse, but not dangerously so.
"It's ti?" she asked.
"I've prepared as much as I can," I said, floating into the air.
"Be careful, then."
I flew toward the temple, using telekinesis to glide. The entrance was marked with ancient text I couldn't read, leading to an archway of liquid darkness dotted with stars.
I glanced back one last ti before stepping through.
I reappeared in a room with no end. The walls, floor, and ceiling were tiled with slabs as wide as a city bus and lit by no visible source.
A chanical voice echoed through the chamber.
"Welco, Son of Sparda. You seek the Seal of Separation."
"I do?"
"Then you must overco the challenges Sparda and Eve set, or perform the ritual to bypass them."
I cracked my neck. "I choose to fight."
"Very well. By virtue of your ancestry, you may face them one at a ti."
"Oh."
"Prepare for battle."
A tal man appeared before —seven feet tall, clad in complex, aggressive armor. Spikes jutted from its limbs, joints sharpened like blades, and a cape of interlinked knives hung from its back, clinking softly with each movent. In its left hand, it carried a massive slab of sharpened tal, barely resembling a sword. In its right, an articulated shield composed of shifting, interlocking plates.
Its hard face glead silver, eyes glowing red and soulless.
It glanced at once—and charged.
One mont, it was several feet away. The next, it stood where I had just been, slamming into the ground with a thunderous impact that cracked the stone beneath. The shockwave roared outward, but I was already gone, boosted clear with a burst of wind manipulation.
Instant acceleration. No lag ti.
I whipped my hand, sending a crescent-shaped vacuum of air slicing through the battlefield. tal Knight blurred forward, tanking the shot. It exploded on contact, carving a deep divot in the stone—yet he erged untouched, unshaken.
He flung his sword like a spear. It scread past as I banked hard to the side, precision runes flickering to life as I retaliated with blade after blade of compressed air. The knight moved with fluid, unnatural speed—juking, weaving, swaying. Then he tugged.
The sword returned, whistling back like a boorang. It nearly cleaved through as it rejoined the knight's waiting hand.
He was already airborne, leaping to et in midair.
I kicked off nothing, amplifying the motion with a mix of telekinesis and wind manipulation. Eryx coiled around my fist just as I struck, driving him back down.
Sohow, his shield t my blow in ti.
But sothing was different. His body was changing.
The tallic cloak unraveled, thousands of knives hovering midair, vibrating with a red, translucent aura. His sword warped, lengthening and fracturing at key points, and his shield cracked open—revealing a burning core at its center.
He swung.
The blade extended, growing impossibly long and wide. I t it head-on, arm drenched in gravity and telekinetic force, and deflected the swing—but it rocked .
Two jets of hyper-compressed air shot from my palms.
A storm of tal surged up to intercept. The blades shattered under pressure but imdiately began to nd themselves. His warped blade swept back.
I raised my hand, threading dinsional energy through the wind. A half-powered dinsional slash cleaved through the mutated tal. I'd practiced enough to perform the technique reliably, even without tapping into Ascension.
And that was just the beginning.
I combined the twin beams of wind I'd been channeling and added a wisp of Netherfire.
The result was explosive.
The blast tore through his tallic cocoon, distorting his oversized shield. Still, he endured.
Then the reaction stabilized, and the temperature spiked in an instant. Black plasma bled into the air.
I slashed—up, down, side to side—and the knight turned to slag.
In his place, two angelic constructs appeared. Featureless. Androgynous. Silver-skinned and glowing with runes.
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