Dante's POV
I accelerated using one of my biological enhancements, Pietro's Superspeed, and practically teleported across the room, appearing behind the woman with the strange vibrational power. I struck her with my palm, branding several Anathema Fire runes onto her body and soul. She combusted from the inside out, barely managing a scream before collapsing.
I sensed the death of her symbiote, as did the rest of the Horde, apparently, because it set off a number of transformations. Their armors, formerly tame and futuristic-looking, flared and bubbled up, pushing out tentacles and empowering their wielders. The sorcerer at the back sprouted six more hands as his body was consumed by darkness. The warhammer user grew an entire foot and unleashed something I could only describe as a cross between a Cloak and a Domain.
It was potent. He had a literal cloak of Density mana wrapped around him, and his body had turned faint, almost see-through. His limbs were longer, but his muscle density remained about the same, giving him a stretched-out, almost unnatural appearance. His symbiote was purple, matching the aura he gave off. His partner underwent a similar transformation, though he wasn't quite as tall. His rune-covered rapier had turned into a silver lance as the symbiote grew to swallow both it and him.
Only Kal-Tar remained unchanged, but he now had a shield in hand. It was covered in runes and glowed in my magical senses like my Arcanite, except it was better. It seemed to hold nearly boundless energy, even if its output didn't feel as robust as mine.
Uru. I recognized the texture of the metal immediately, and I wondered who Kal had to kill to get his hands on genuine Uru forged by the dwarves.
I felt the wards keeping me from teleporting weaken slightly, allowing dozens of Black Horde members to slowly filter into the room. The newcomers were different from their predecessors. Some towered over me, standing more than ten feet tall; others had become more serpentine and predatory, growing claws and massive teeth like Venom from the comics.
They came in every color imaginable: white, silver, chalk, blue, green, and everything in between. It was a bit intimidating, to be honest, but I wasn't overly worried. Dusting off my gauntleted hands, I looked at Kal. Eryx vanished and was replaced by the floating form of Rebellion.
"You know, we never got a chance to talk about why you're in my system. All I got was the impression that Kaecilius hired you?"
"57,608 jobs and 34,405 battles, and Neva survived it all." Kal's voice was quiet but passionate. His pain poured out of him with every syllable.
I tilted my head to the left, reaching out with my senses toward my swords in the void. All the Chitauri ships were dead. Now my blades were going after the Horde's vessels. Two were already gone, though they had contained only support staff and enslaved demons. It seemed the bulk of their forces were aboard the mothership with me.
"I will split your planet in half after I pry the Necroblade from your corpse," he said.
"There it is," I replied. "You know, you could've just asked me instead of firing a mind virus at me on sight. I would've settled for the duel, too. Hell, Neva would still be alive if you'd been brave enough to fight me head-on, Tar. You opened fire knowing full well it wouldn't be enough to stop me. You had to know this would happen if I got even the slightest bit serious."
I looked around the room.
"Before you all charge in and force me to butcher you, know that you can turn around now and head back home. This is your one and only warning."
I didn't expect any takers, of course, but I wasn't about to let a good opportunity for psychological warfare go to waste.
"Give me the blade, and I might only burn half your world," Kal countered predictably.
I shook my head.
"See how cheaply he spends your lives," I tutted.
A large, burly Vanagarian woman scoffed. Her symbiote had taken on the appearance of a medieval knight, with spikes sticking out all over her body. She carried a massive greatsword.
"We've heard enough of your poison, Blacksmith. Ready our blade."
Her sword twisted off her shoulder and pointed straight at me. She, too, radiated that same monstrous aura.
More Vanagarians continued teleporting into the room, filling it until there was barely enough space to fight. Then the sorcerer at the back unleashed a spell that stretched the dimensions of the command center, allowing even more symbiote hosts to pour in. Nearly half of them were psychics, dozens were demons, and the rest practiced some form of magic.
Slowly, the demons fell into formation. Mages gathered at the back, erecting thick shields and preparing siege-style spells powerful enough to rip through entire cities. Rangers and psychics stood side by side, forming a defensive line, while the fighters took their places at the front.
Kal stood at the head of the horde, his hand wrapped tightly around his Khopesh.
"Oh well," I said. "I tried to warn you."
Drawing from my energy reserves, I activated my new Stealth Array, using the Asgardian rune for stealth, Unseen, to vanish completely from their senses. The array layered the most potent elements of my former skill, Angel Evade, with Density and Wind Manipulation, Light, Energy, and finally, the Asgardian runes. So far nobody has been able to penetrate through it.
Time Warp flung me forward, still working in tandem with Superspeed, and I accelerated through the enemy ranks, scattering stealth-protected sentient orbs around the chamber.
"Get those wards down," I ordered.
I reappeared in the backline, slicing through the mages' layered shielding with a Dimensional Slash laced with purple fire. I struck, and twenty Precision and staggered Carnage runes appeared along the length of my blade just before impact.
All the mages died, along with a quarter of the psychics. The surviving psychics instinctively lashed out with their minds, only to find themselves utterly eviscerated by a rapid application of Telepathy and a shit ton of staggered Carnage runes.
The swordswoman was on me in an instant, bringing her blade down with enough force to split open a mountain range. Rebellion rose to meet it, making contact at the precise moment of impact. The force scattered everyone who wasn't firmly rooted, giving me free rein. Rebellion multiplied, then vanished, reappearing in the throats and bodies of the Vanagarians.
The swordswoman roared, and I felt an overwhelming urge to focus solely on her, to the detriment of everything happening around me. The sensation pulled me in deeper the more I tried to resist, so I simply stopped resisting.
Ten stacks of Staggered Carnage burst out of my leg as I lowered my density until I weighed less than a gram, then shot forward, vanishing completely. I restored my weight in an instant, amplifying the gravitational force behind my momentum. Anathema Fire erupted like a volcano as my fist connected with her chest.
The blast eviscerated her, along with half of the ship. Any Vanagarians who survived the initial destruction were quickly picked off by my flying blades, falling like raindrops from the sky.
Kal-Tar charged through the chaos, his enchantments flaring as his own stealth enchantments activated. He vanished from nearly all of my senses, except the soul. I teleported just before he could decapitate me with his glowing blade. Space flashed blinding white as I channeled purple lightning through all fifteen thousand of my flying blades.
He caught the attack on his shield, and, much to my surprise, it nullified the blow. The shield shook like a struck gong afterward, and Kal had finally transformed, calling on both his symbiote and his demonic energy. I saw hairline fractures running the length of the shield, but I was impressed nonetheless.
I'd seen next to nothing about his weapons of choice on the Galactic dark web, but I guessed that was by design.
"Alone at last," I sent to him telepathically.
His entire fleet was gone now, reduced to ash and floating debris. Several generations of mercenaries had vanished in an instant.
It was a shame, really. "You should've taken my offer."
"You!" he—or rather, they—screamed, the symbiote's voice layered over his own. Kal remained roughly the same size, but rows upon rows of shining runes now covered his body. His symbiote was purple and white, lending him an almost regal appearance. It was difficult to tell at a glance whether his suit was entirely biological or partly metal.
"You're going to beg for death when I'm done."
Reality shattered around him as gold runes flared. The fractures swept forward, and then he was gone, dropping into the Mirror Dimension.
Shit!
What do you think of the changes
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