Rin's POV
The dimension burned around me. Red lightning flashed across the cloudy sky, striking down dozens of ships. Sentinels died by the hundreds, torn apart by hordes of black tar monsters continuously spat out by the Necrosword.
The X-Men and the Sentinels rallied against them, burning, cutting, freezing, and splattering thousands upon thousands of monsters and dozens of clones, all for a shot at killing three Ascendants who were nearly as ridiculous as Lauren herself.
Storm could now turn herself into living lightning, regenerate even quicker than Wolverine, and blanket nearly half the dimension in perpetual storms.
The samurai was a whisper in the wind. A blur so fast that even the quickest Sentinels could barely keep up with him, much less touch him. Atom-splitting slashes poured out of him like water, and he had a preternatural sense of danger. Like Peter, he could almost predict when a dangerous attack was coming and dodge preemptively.
It frustrated Yelena to no end.
Finally, there was the teenager. He was a psychokinetic on the level of Jean Grey, and his use of his powers was nothing short of inspired. He generated clones indistinguishable from the original, built shields so thick they rivaled our runic barriers, teleported instantaneously, and applied pinpoint pressure attacks to devastating effect, almost managing to kill Logan with a bolt of energy.
If I had my way, he'd be the first one dead, but I couldn't afford the distraction with Lauren at my throat.
Reality came apart as we clashed.
My fists were a glowing blur as I fired thousands of space, time, mind, and soul-aspected fist constructs from my rune-lined Arcanite gauntlets that had melded into my evolved armor.
They intercepted soul energy blasts and eldritch slashes fired by Lauren in her new form—a lithe kimono-wearing girl with a bone mask and a weapon constructed purely out of soul energy.
She'd pulled it out right about the time I hit her with my first Time-warped energy blast, channeling the full strength of the Soul, Space, and Time Stones together. It had rattled the foundation of the dimension and killed all but one Lauren, who subsequently transformed, summoned more clones, and went on the offensive.
I'd been holding my breath since.
I'd thought she was fast before, but now it was like fighting Dante when he was holding absolutely nothing back—and then some. She was everywhere, crossing space somehow with soul energy, and the slash from her soul blade cut through my Arcanite armor like it was butter, enchantments and all.
My armor had evolved twice, and so had I, but it never seemed to be enough. I straddled the edge constantly, drawing from the stone till I reached my absolute limit and fighting with everything I had, but it was never enough.
Lauren never came that close to dying again—and it seemed no matter what I threw at her, she was able to dodge, parry, block, and, in extreme cases, summon a disposable clone to eat the attack.
She pulled new techniques out of nowhere during our fight—transforming her blade into thousands of needle-sized sentient flowers that tried to shred me with swarm tactics, or unleashing a soul slash that reminded me of Dante's Dimensional Slashes. I only survived the onslaught because of the Mind Stone.
It kept me level-headed, ruthlessly pragmatic, and unafraid to take damage I was certain I could recover from.
Our exchange reached a fever pitch when she pulled out yet another attack I didn't anticipate.
A tentacle burst out from her kimono, wielding her soul weapon, which I'd just parried with a palm fashioned from soul energy. The tentacle swung at me while the psychokinetic held me in place from half a dimension away. It didn't matter that Michael had his fist through the kid's chest or that Sariel had managed to decapitate him.
Lauren's soul blade tore open my chest piece, shattering the containment crystal that housed all four Infinity Stones.
My connection to the ocean of energy suffusing me was momentarily interrupted, and that seemed to be all Lauren needed.
Her smirk was victorious as she crossed the distance between us, reaching out, only for her mask to abruptly shatter and her energy level to dip unexpectedly.
She seemed as confused as I was, but I recovered faster, manifesting a pair of fists. One wrapped around the stones to protect them, and another accelerated with Time Warp directly into her face.
She popped like a balloon—and all of the clones and monsters vanished immediately afterward.
Even the Ascendants were gone, and in their place were cracks with black static spilling out. A familiar eldritch energy accompanied massive tentacles that stretched space like taffy to accommodate their enormous bulk. Thousands of multicolored eyes stared at us, filling me with a deep, uncomfortable dread.
Quellitrax.
He was back.
My eyes burned like the sun as I channeled cosmic energy, pushing past my self-imposed limit and unleashing a beam into the void.
Dante's POV
I barely caught the end of the conversation between the Phoenix and Shin as I blinked awake, but I understood immediately what needed to happen.
I needed to win.
I'd changed again physically. My hair was slightly longer, I'd grown nearly an inch, and I was covered in dozens of multicolored tattoos. They were refined versions of the ones I'd initially created during the battle with Lauren, and they were magnitudes stronger than they had any right to be. It was like wearing a Demon Cloak at all times, alongside several other advanced abilities.
I took a gander at my new status, and it was very different from what I remembered.
Vastly different.
Name: (Dante Sparda) Axel Warren
Class: Nil
HP: 33900/33900
SP: 33200/33200
AE: 62500/62500
DE: 62500/62500
Strength: 2100+300+80+700 (3180)
Dexterity: 1800+200+80+700 (2780)
Endurance: 2200+300+120+700 (3320)
Vitality: 2400+200+90+700 (3390)
Angel Energy: 2900+1000+350+2000 (6250)
Devil Energy: 2900+1000+350+2000 (6250)
"Do you think you're up for it?"
Jean's words pulled me from my thoughts, and I blinked rapidly.
"Yes," I said firmly. "I think I am. But I'm going to need to borrow your armor."
She blinked.
"I'm sorry? What?"
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