Chapter 264: Rebellion
but I think we\'ll have to sacrifice a few things," Alter-Dante said, appearing in front of him.
Alter-Dante had changed again... He now looked even more like when Dante was one of the versions of Lucifer from another Sector... Long golden hair down to the floor, a white tunic, and angelic wings.
"Before I fell? Damn, how much power did I recover?" Dante questioned, letting himself get lost in thought. "A lot... I\'m still figuring out how to reduce the load... It seems Asmodeus was prepared for this; she wanted to overload you, not with power but with desire.
She probably didn\'t expect what was about to happen." He tried to provide context, but the current Dante was still sweating cold, feeling many emotions and things that didn\'t make sense for him to feel; he wasn\'t those people, he hadn\'t lived those lives as Dante.
This was the problem Dante faced: he was Dante, but he had also been so many versions of Lucifer, Aisha, and Azi Dahaka.
Three distinct and different lives, lives where he was not this version of himself, so the problems of those lives were shaping his current mind. Thoughts, experiences, and memories he was reliving in his head were so complicated. "I\'ll erase the experiences," Dante heard coming from his other self.
"You won\'t have the battle experiences. I don\'t think you\'d mind erasing those since we know that would completely break our style. Besides... I think it\'s better to only have the memories. The feelings belong to someone you\'re not anymore. At least remembering things is the best.
And the life when we were the Progenitor Dragon... There\'s no way to know everything; he lived too long... even he could lose memories." Alter-Dante said. Dante couldn\'t argue; he knew it was the best option, and Alter-Dante wouldn\'t act against him. If he said it was the best, he\'d follow that.
"Alright, if it keeps me alive," Dante agreed, feeling his body lighten and many things in his head starting to settle down. "What will you do with those things?" Dante asked. "I\'ll keep them safe in our soul. When we have enough strength, at least comparable to the Progenitor Dragon, we can recover them. I can\'t just erase them.
It would be more like ignoring them," he said, holding a small neon red sphere.
"Is that it? That little thing can destroy my entire mind?" Dante questioned incredulously. "We know size isn\'t debatable; the smallest ones are always the hardest to face," Alter said, as if recalling something. "We have many problems ahead, but how about you return to reality? Someone\'s watching us, and our body is static. I don\'t know if it\'s an enemy, but...
a lot of power," Alter said, and Dante agreed, standing up.
"Oh, it seems there\'s something stuck somewhere... Let me see..." Alter-Dante said, rummaging through the sphere. "Ah, right here," he said, pulling out a red thread and tossing it to Dante.
"It\'s time to stop desecrating this Sacred Sword disguised as Demonic; it\'s time to have the real thing," Alter-Dante said as the thread began to transform into a sword.
"To think that with your current power, you could materialize it... Demonic Sword of the Demon King Lucifer, well, that\'s a pretty big name, don\'t you think?" Alter questioned as a sword formed from the light.
Dante gripped it firmly by the hilt, and slowly the light faded, revealing a demonic weapon, a steel sword that looked ordinary but with a terrifying aura. The hilt Dante held molded to his hand, revealing a skeletal design, with a skull at the center of each side of the hilt, and ribs representing where the blade emerged from.
"Rebellion," Dante said after holding the blade for a mere second. "Forged by demonic metal and my blood in the depths of hell... Ah~ Yes, how could I forget you, my baby, the creator of Rebellions... How could I forget when I had to kill those angels with this beautiful thing," Dante said, smelling the blade that had a slight \'new\' scent.
"Ah~ what a good smell," he said as a demonic smile appeared on his face. "It\'s been a while since I played with my prey, hasn\'t it?" Dante questioned, widening his smile, as if he had done something like this millions of years ago... indeed millions of years...
Standing, Dante made a movement with his arms. It had been a while since he used this, but he wanted to test something...
"Infernal Sanctuary," Dante said as his mental world expanded, transforming everything into his domain. He had many things to do and two women to save; then he would have to erase this world tree while still dealing with the Lucifer of this dimension.
His mental world had reshaped itself; the fields on the plain seemed dead, as if a war had happened, weapons scattered all over the ground, and a demonic sanctuary stood open, like a point of calm in the midst of Dante\'s hell.
"Is this what you become when I\'m in trouble..." Dante murmured, knowing his soul was gradually restructuring. The change was obvious; soon, a new mental world would emerge, a mental world he couldn\'t even imagine. But he would have to wait a bit longer as his soul slowly healed and his memories were processed like a giant movie reel.
"Asmodeus." Dante said, calmly breaking the world of illusions with a loud sigh. He could feel Asmodeus still lurking somewhere within his soul, a sinister presence vibrating with ancient, powerful demonic energy. He quickly identified the exact origin and location of that malevolent presence.
Dante advanced through his mental domain, each step echoing with a strange power that reverberated through his soul. The illusion was now almost collapsing.
Dante began to hum an ancient melody he used to hear when he was the King of Hell in his previous life. The melody was completely distorted, as if spoken backward, an echo of his own infernal existence.
The atmosphere began to change, becoming oppressive and dark. While Dante walked calmly through his mental domain, on the other side, Asmodeus started to run, her fear overflowing, a primal terror that seemed to gnaw at her insides.
"What is this?" She screamed, her legs trembling uncontrollably. It was a fear so deep and primordial it began to consume every fiber of her being, her entire body shaking with the force of her own despair.
"That music..." She murmured, her voice breaking as she desperately tried to escape. The sound of Dante\'s lips, distorted and hypnotic, reverberated throughout the place, filling the air with an uncomfortable presence. Each note seemed to penetrate her skin, a cold current making her gasp in terror.
"Huff!" She couldn\'t walk properly anymore. Stay tuned with m,v le,mpyr
Blerght!
Lyrianna\'s body began to malfunction and vomit, expelling a vile energy that fell to the ground.
"You\'re funny." The man\'s voice approached, seeing the woman collapsed on the floor... He no longer saw Lyrianna, just a rotten, disgusting succubus, old with broken wings, wearing loose and almost torn clothes from age and decay, just a revolting corpse of a woman.
"You\'re really funny." Dante said, looking down at her, "A being as meaningless as you only elicits pity from me." Dante said, his face distorting slightly with that smile.
"You saw who I am, didn\'t you? Come on, I want you to bow." Dante ordered the old, disgusting succubus who did not obey and remained static, too scared to act.
"I find inferior beings like you amusing." Dante said, "But deep down, I\'m like you, aren\'t I?" Dante said as he began to approach while the succubus started to crawl backward, her legs no longer working...
"What is he! What the hell were we provoking!" Regret began to set in, those completely red eyes starting to consume her mind, as if they were penetrating her soul just like Asmodeus did with Dante.
"It\'s a pity." Dante said, the reality around him distorting. Shadows stretched out, whispering forbidden secrets. The walls of her mind began to crack, and she knew, with terrifying certainty, that there was no escape.
"P-please! I-I was just following orders!" She despaired, stammering as she tried to get her legs in order to run, to flee from that man. Terror consumed her, every fiber of her being paralyzed by fear.
But Dante just smiled. A cruel smile that seemed to tear at the very essence of reality. From his arm, a huge beast began to emerge, a Cerberus of infernal proportions. Three heads appeared, each more terrifying than the last, eyes glowing with an infernal fire that reflected Dante\'s soul.
The Cerberus advanced, its claws scratching the ground, its growls reverberating through the space. The air became heavy, saturated with a malevolent and unbearable presence. Asmodeus felt the demonic energy emanating from the creature, an overwhelming force that sucked away any remaining hope.
She tried to run, but her legs wouldn\'t respond. Fear was an unbearable weight, an anchor that kept her in place. Her desperate attempts to escape were futile. The Cerberus was upon her in an instant, its jaws opening with a roar that seemed to echo to the depths of her soul.
"You can\'t escape." Dante\'s voice was a chilling whisper, each word a death sentence. He watched coldly, his eyes gleaming with sadistic pleasure as the beast closed in on its prey.
Asmodeus felt the creature\'s claws touching her skin, a glacial cold that burned. Her breath caught in her throat, absolute terror suffocating her. The three heads of the Cerberus snarled, and she knew she was doomed.