A few minutes had passed since the coliseum ended; I didn't go to the holding cell but to the room where I'd slept the day before; there was a bathroom and all that sort of thing. The place was in full swing; I had no idea what it was like; I just wanted to get rid of all the dirt and see if the alchemical fruit was there.
My idea is to give it to one of Sulli's trusted men, maybe with a prosthetic arm or another arm of a similar size, reattach it, and that way I won't be crippled. As for Isis, it's to reconnect the bone nerves that are beyond repair. That's all I want; with that, I'll be ready for this world and I'll be able to leave without worries.
Maybe I'm leaving some things up in the air, like my other children, but if I keep going like this, I'll have 40 children and I'll never be able to leave, so when I can get Sulli and Isis back to how they were before, I'll be able to go. Well, I wouldn't be able to be at peace with myself for the rest of my life.
Once I took a shower, I noticed a guy outside the room waiting. I got dressed and opened the door. It was Hogan, the guy no one knows.
Hogan: "I knocked on the door; I thought no one was there," he said.
Dante: "I was taking a shower."
Hogan: "I can tell," he said, looking at my still-wet hair. "The prizes are ready for me to go get them. Since fourth, third, and second place all died, he can take all four prizes. How lucky is he, right?"
I didn't comment on that.
Dante: "Better lead the way so we can finish this soon."
Hogan: "No problem; after all, that's something everyone wants."
Third-person POV
Hogan wasn't going to admit he was very nervous, since if something went wrong, he and the others would have to face this monster, something whose limits they didn't know, but he was confident they could pull through, that they could get away with it, or with most of their limbs.
And so he walked straight to where Adelina was, along with Edgar, Pricilla, and Franco, standing guard for any incident.
As the two walked, four people had already infiltrated the coliseum celebration.
Two of them looked around with interest, while one ignored everything as if it were air, the last one being the one irritated by all this.
Sommers: "Why do we have to walk next to this garbage?"
Shamrock: "There are people here who can stand up to us, and there's a chance that if we show up, the guys on duty and Dante will form an alliance to kill us," he said matter-of-factly, as if nothing could disturb him.
Sommers: "But we have the power of God on our side."
Shamrock: "The gorosei and the god won't risk showing up in a scenario where they're brutally murdered; in other words, we're alone in this scenario, and we were sent to see Dante's true threat level."
Sommer only gave a snort, but in the face of everything Shamrock said, he decided to stay silent and not follow instructions this time.
Alex and Dianna saw all this as something new, something that only appeared in books written by Dante.
Elsewhere, Ruby was watching the cameras all over the place, watching people celebrate, laugh, and get drunk; it distracted her from the potential disaster that was looming.
A little far away, Balesca stood, his spear ready to strike; he was just waiting for a signal.
Returning to Dante, they were both walking slowly to Adelina's place, one more nervous than the other.
Dante looked around, noticing that the place was different from the others, both in appearance and atmosphere. A more stifling and chaotic atmosphere.
Dante: "A question. Where exactly are we going?" He already had an answer in mind, based on what Balesca had said yesterday, but he was curious what this guy would say.
Hogan: "We're going to the waiting rooms since we've kept the prizes very safe to prevent theft. Right now, one of my colleagues should be with the items, walking to where we're going." Hogan's nervousness was evident as he spoke quickly, but Dante ignored it, thinking his answer was quite good, enough to keep him from turning around and leaving.
After a while, he came to a door; he could sense the devil himself was inside.
Hogan opened the door and signaled for Dante to enter. He did, but first he used Haki to scan the room. More than anything, to see if the moment he entered the room, they would jump on him.
What he saw was a woman sitting next to three men; the odd thing was the other three hiding in a slightly more secluded spot, as if they were spying or waiting for something.
???: "Well, well, we have the tournament winner himself here in our room," the woman said, looking Dante straight in the eyes.
Dante: "And who are you?" he asked when he saw her; he had to say she did look a bit like him.
???: "Ara ara, my sincere apologies. I'm Adelina, one of the bosses of the underworld, dear Dante," she said as she extended her hand as a sign for Dante to kiss the back of it.
Dante looked at her for a few seconds before ignoring her and sitting opposite her. Adeline frowned, but the frown disappeared immediately, as if it had never happened.
Dante: "I thought I was the only winner standing. What are you doing here, ma'am?"
Adelina could be heard grinding her teeth as she listened to Dante. She only smiled and stood up abruptly.
Adelina: "My dear, it turns out that a long time ago, when I saw you for the first time, I felt we had something special, only to realize later that we were family," she said, opening her arms. "My sister was taken as a slave a long time ago in Amry Geoise, where she—"
Dante: "Yes, I already know the rest of the story, and as for your past and what you experienced, I'm not interested." Dante interrupted.
Adeline's smile stopped abruptly as she looked at Dante strangely.
Adeline: "You're not interested in knowing what your mother was like; she was."
Dante: "Forgive me, but I'm not interested in the living, much less the dead. Knowing about her won't change anything. She was a slave and died after giving birth to me, period."
She crossed her arms and glared at Dante.
Adeline: "That's no way to treat your family. You should—"
Dante snapped his fingers, emitting a bit of Conqueror's Haki directed at Adelina, stopping her in her tracks.
Dante: "Stop right there," he looked into the woman's eyes. "I'm not here to listen to you talk about how beautiful life is. I'm here to receive my reward, period. I have no idea what you're doing in the middle of all this, but since you're here, tell me, does the renki renki no mi have any power or not?"
Around the room, Ruby's four elite members could be seen arguing.
Priscilla: "Should we intervene now?"
Edgar: "It can't reverse the situation yet; just wait a bit."
Hogan: "This has to work no matter what, or else we'll all go to hell."
Priscilla: "I just hope they're right."
The last member said nothing, as he was playing with his cards, something that distracted him from the stress and tension of the moment.
Adelina looked at Dante with fear and panic, only to force a smile and speak sweetly.
Adelina: "Of course, in fact, I know where they're kept; you can go ahead and find your prize faster, what do you say?"
Dante looked directly into Adelina's eyes.
Dante: "I see," he said with a sigh, looking at the ground.
For a moment, the tension dissipated from the room. Adelina believed she still had a chance to touch Dante; she just had to close the distance, and as long as there was skin-to-skin contact, Dante would be mine.
While Adelina was celebrating prematurely, a gunshot rang out.
The four guards all tensed and opened their eyes as they realized what had happened.
Adelina looked at Dante in disbelief, only to fall dead from a direct shot to the head.
(Note: Mufasa.)
Dante had shot Adeina directly in the head using Ebony, a weapon he had requested from Trini before coming; it should be noted that he also had Ivory. He had hidden them among his clothes.
Dante: "I see, she doesn't have a Devil Fruit; this was a waste of time."
The three men under the influence of Adelina's Devil Fruit suddenly fainted, falling to the floor.
This would have ended there, but Dante noticed a letter on the table. This was because the letter didn't say anything about a number, a spade, or a sword; it had an explosion, and from one moment to the next, the room exploded.
The door to the room flew open, revealing Dante emerging from the black smoke, only to see Hogan ready to strike with his powered-up arm.
Hogan: "Kagayaki," he said so that all the energy and force was directed at Dante from his fist, generating an explosion and destroying everything in front of him.
Dante emerged from the smoke, holding the Fusion Sword in one hand and Ebony in the other.
Dante was about to attack Dante, only to realize that a target appeared in his face. With quick reflexes, he infused Ebony with Haki and blocked an arrow heading straight for the center of the target.
In the distance, Edgar stood, holding a bow ready to shoot Dante with another arrow.
Hogan wasted no time throwing another punch at Dante, but as if the laws of physics had changed, the punch went straight to the center of the target, as did the arrow.
Dante also blocked the punch, and just as he was about to attack, Franco appeared behind him, his cards flung out, all aimed at his face.
Seeing this, Dante pulled Hogan back and, with a burst of energy, cut the cards, causing them to explode, and in the process, he went straight for Franco.
Franco didn't dodge it; Instead, a knight appeared out of nowhere, using his shield to stop the attack. The knight was severely damaged but gradually regenerated as if the attack had never happened.
Dante noticed that the knight was colorless, almost black and white, especially as if it were a drawing, as it looked somewhat strange, as if it were both real and unreal at the same time.
At that moment, Dante realized this battle wouldn't be easy.
In the distance, in Ruby's room, he saw Adelina's plan shatter as he had thought. If he had believed that plan would work, he wouldn't have sent those four as a means of containment for Dante.
Guy 3: "What do we do, miss?" said the guard near her.
Ruby: "We're leaving," she said without looking at him, taking her gaze from the screens; she wasn't going to stay here and end up in the crossfire.
The moment she opened the door to leave, she was greeted by a spear attack, which sent her flying to the other side of the room. The moment she hit the ground, the spear that struck her was thrown, piercing her chest.
The guards tried to act but were quickly dispatched by her attacker.
Balesca walked slowly toward Ruby; the officers who weren't guards in that room ran for their lives.
Ruby: "It's you, you traitorous son of a bitch," she said, looking at Balesca.
Balesca: "It's been so long since we've seen each other, and you treat me like this; I thought you were my friend," she said with a pitying expression, returning to her ice queen expression, pulling the spear out of Ruby's chest.
Ruby had blood pouring from her chest and mouth. She glared at her furiously, then dropped her head and arms, leaving her dead.
Balesca took one last look at her before turning around. And when she took three steps to leave, she heard someone speaking from behind her.
Ruby: "You thought it would be so easy, bitch."
Balesca opened her eyes in shock, only to turn around and see the head of a snake about to devour her.
She managed to dodge it by the skin of her teeth, but another head popped out of nowhere, ready to bite her.
She used her spear to defend herself from that head, only for another to appear, and more.
Only when she managed to touch the snake did it disappear, leaving Ruby standing in the middle of the room, unharmed, as if the fatal wound she had inflicted had never happened.
Ruby smiled at Balesca as if looking at a toy.
Ruby: "I'm going to have fun torturing you, bitch." He said, pulling a knife from his pants.
Balesca only positioned herself to defend, as she didn't know what her opponent would do and would have to be alert.
Elsewhere, everything was going great at the festival until, a little far away, an explosion was heard, causing everyone to stop and listen for another, and another closer, until it exploded in a corner of the venue, creating smoke and spraying debris everywhere.
Everyone ran away in panic, regardless of who was next to him.
Out of the smoke, Dante emerged with Ebony and Ivory in hand and without the target mark on his face. In the distance, several arrows and faces were seen aimed at Dante, to which he responded by accurately shooting each one. Several explosions were seen in the air.
Suddenly, the bullets in both firearms ran out. Dante simply clicked his tongue and jumped back when he saw that there was still a letter addressed to him.
Dante: "That's why I don't use firearms; infinite bullets are an invention of video game designers and Americans."
The card fell to the ground, but it didn't explode as Dante expected. He looked at it and saw a black and white knight appear on its face, from which a sword suddenly emerged and grazed Dante's head.
He took three more steps back to see another knight emerge from the card. The knight attacked Dante again, being blocked by one of the pistols.
In the distance, Franco and Priscilla could be seen.
Franco: "Draw another picture," he said as he took a card from his lap case.
Priscilla: "I know what to do; I don't need you to tell me," she said as she opened the notebook she had and finished a drawing of a rhinoceros.
At that moment, Priscilla pulled out the notebook page and, touching a specific spot on the drawing, it burst out. An adult black and white rhinoceros appeared in front of them and ran away, pointing its horn at Dante at full speed.
Dante, seeing this, simply braced himself, and when the rhinoceros was a good distance away, he punched it, destroying its head, but it instantly began to regenerate.
Before he could do anything else, two more knights appeared from the air, ready to attack Dante with their swords. Dante kicked the knight in front of him and, with both guns covered in Haki, blocked both attacks.
Only for Hogan to appear in the next second, both arms filled with radiance.
Hogan: "Nijū no kagayaki," he said, punching Dante twice at the same time, generating another column of smoke, sweeping everything away.
Many people had been affected by the cross attack, leaving several seriously injured and some dead.
The two knights who had previously attacked Dante flew away from the smoke.
The other remaining knight ran into the smoke, only to be cut in half, but it didn't regenerate but rather disappeared.
Dante: "I see, he has a weak point; if I cut that sphere on his body, these two will disappear," he said, walking to the now four in front of him.
Priscilla frowned, seeing that she had already realized the weakness of her Devil Fruit.
Priscilla's Devil Fruit is the fruit in the drawing; Anything you draw can become reality, but it will have the same level of power as the artist, or if they are real people, they will only have 25% of their power.
Priscilla: "I didn't think you'd let all these innocent people die. I thought you were a hero," she said, trying to attack Dante's pride.
Dante: "Two things: first of all, there are hardly any innocent people here, and second, I came to this coliseum as a mercenary, not a hero, so you can all die here and I wouldn't care, since technically, I'm on vacation," he said with a smile, making her look annoyed.
Dante looked at the rest, already recognizing what the others' Devil Fruits do.
Hogan's noggin is the Focus Fruit; he can focus things on specific points; like in this case, he focuses his energy and strength into his arms, generating those bursts of energy and power.
Edgar's noggin was the Bull's-eye Fruit; He can generate a target on any surface, smooth or not, just by looking at it, like how he generated a target on Dante's head earlier, but it can disappear if enough Haki is used or if the user loses sight of their target.
And finally, Franco's Devil Fruit is the Card Fruit; he can generate cards, which can be empty to store objects, whether concrete or abstract, such as a drawing of Priscilla or a simple explanation.
In the distance, two people could be seen watching the fight; these were Sommers and Shamrock, who were standing at a safe distance without being easily detected. He knew Dante could sense him, but they were too busy fighting four guys to do so.
They were waiting for Dante to finish his fight to attack him from behind, already tired and off guard.
They had let Alex and Dianna handle other matters; Alex would find the boss of the place, while Dianna would take care of Dante's unclaimed prizes.
What no one expected was a ship that had arrived at the island's shore at that very moment. On the bow of this ship was a burly man with a tattoo on his face, staring at the center of the island with a frown, specifically at two men dressed as knights, a form of attire he had seen long ago when he was still a marine.