Chapter 372 - 370:“What can I say?”
CRACK!
BOOM!
The sky split open as the creature and I collided in a deafening clash. The moment our strikes met, I confirmed my earlier suspicion, yes, the creature was many times more powerful than the one I had faced back on Terra.
But...
SPLAT!
I was unfathomably more powerful than the version of myself that had fought that monster.
SCREECH!
The beast shrieked as its body reformed. Its aura didn’t just double, it quadrupled as the atmosphere around it grew impossibly heavy. It readied itself, ready to charge once more, but—
"Your powers. Your fusion. Your entire existence. I DENY the foundation upon which they stand."
CRASH!
The creature instantly split back into the two vampires as both crashed unceremoniously into the earth.
"What..."
"What happened?!"
Their confused, panic-stricken voices reached me as I raised my hand.
"I grow weary of boring things, leeches." My voice rang out like that of a god pronouncing final judgment. "For the simple fact that you share no blood ties with these filthy demons, I shall grant you a swift end."
The world stilled as the two vampires’ eyes widened. They could feel it coming.
"By my name..."
Everything.. stopped.
"I DENY your right to exist."
For the first time in a while, I felt a sharp drop in my energy reserves. But it was worth every drop.
"No..." The elder vampire’s pale face drained of what little color it had left as Chaotic denial took effect.
"Grand... Grandfather..." The younger one had it worse, choking on his final words as his body cracked, shattered, and drifted away with the wind.
"Mon... monster..." The elder vampire had just enough time to acknowledge the reality of his situation before his own form cracked, shattered, and dispersed into nothingness.
SHATTER!
The zone they had erected dissolved as the crimson hue faded. The blood-soaked ground returned to normal, and the copper stench evaporated into the air.
But, I wasn’t done, as...
"Time to get rid of you permanently." My cold gaze settled on the sea of blood demons still crawling through the secret realm.
I raised my arm once more.
"By my name..."
I didn’t strictly need to speak the words, but they simply felt right, so...
"I DENY your right to sustenance."
Before the final word fully echoed...
CRACK!
A sharp fracture echoed through the deafening silence...
CRACK!
followed by another
CRACK!
and another.
And before long...
SHATTER!
The entire horde of blood demons collapsed into a massive cloud of crimson dust that dispersed into the stale wind. I looked around, nodding in satisfaction only when my senses confirmed not a single construct remained.
RUMBLE!
The entire realm suddenly trembled.
"What now?" Salazar asked, stabilizing his balance.
I landed silently beside him, turning my gaze toward the horizon in the direction of the tremor.
"It’s coming from over there," I said, wings sprouting from my back as I took to the sky. "Salazar, Shulvan. Let’s move. Time to see what else this place has to offer besides bloody constructs."
With a powerful flap of my wings...
SWISH!
I vanished into the distance.
"Your lord is a very showy person, you realize that, right?" Salazar remarked to Shulvan as he prepped the levitating platform.
"Master’s greatness must not be hidden. It must be displayed for all the world to witness and worship," Shulvan replied, unwavering in his fanatical devotion.
"You know, I’m starting to understand why you two get along so well."
"Hmm? What do you mean?"
"It means one of you is an egotistical maniac, and the other is a devoted lunatic hell-bent on feeding that ego," Salazar sighed as the platform lifted into the air. "Well, let’s get moving before he gets irritated and starts vaporizing the landscape."
The platform beneath his feet buzzed as he cut through the atmosphere, giving chase.
Shulvan merely tilted his head, completely unfazed by the commentary.
"Whatever. I should catch up to Master. Who knows if he might require me to clear away some minor inconvenience?"
He leaped forward. The dormant essence of entropy saturating the realm surged to life, forming a churning trail beneath his feet. Landing perfectly on the wake of energy, he shot forward, hot on the heels of Dante and Salazar.
...
Not long after Dante’s group departed, space glitched as another party materialized within the secret realm.
"Hmm? Well... look at that," the blindfold, wearing youth within the group voiced aloud the moment they appeared within the realm.
"What... happened here?" the youth with the sealed mouth asked, taking in the sheer scope of the destruction.
All around them lay overturned earth and pulverized terrain. In fact, they had materialized directly over a bottomless crater, saved from an embarrassing fall only by their quick reflexes.
"Looks like a pretty wild fight took place before we arrived," the blindfolded youth mused softly. "Prince, what do you think?"
He turned toward the massive griffon beside them.
Leo didn’t answer immediately. His eyes had closed the moment they appeared. He could sense it. He could smell it.
"He was here."
His voice brought an immediate silence over the other two.
"Leo? What are you talking about?"
Leo’s eyes snapped open with a sharp gleam. "That troublesome bastard was here. Very recently, in fact."
"We still do not understand who you mean, Prince," Baron added.
"I’m talking about Dante, that headache crazy bastard. He was just here." Closing his eyes once more, Leo focused his senses in attempt to pick up any traces he would’ve left behind. "There!"
His eyes flashed open as he locked onto the trail.
"Oh? Hahaha!" Aegon, the blindfolded youth, asked cheerfully. "Is this the famous Dante Draven we’re tracking? Is it finally time to meet the star of the show?"
Leo turned a flat, serious gaze onto the overexcited youth, offering one final warning. His voice losing all playfulness.
"I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again just to be clear. Do. Not. Challenge. Dante."
Aegon remained quiet for a moment.
"With the way you operate, if you try to test him... You. Will. Die," Leo concluded grimly.
Aegon paused before a smirk spread across his face. "We’ll only know when we face him, won’t we? Who knows, we might actually get along."
Leo didn’t bother arguing further. He gave Aegon an unimpressed glance before spreading his wings.
"Do as you will. You have been warned."
FLAP!
With a mighty sweep of his wings, He shot into the sky, tracking the path Dante had taken.
"I would listen to him if I were you."Baron advised his companion.
"Hmm..."
"For the Prince himself to deem it necessary to warn you twice..." Baron left the thought hanging.
But Aegon understood...
They both knew Leo well enough to recognize that he rarely cared about anyone outside his immediate circle. For a figure like him to issue a repeated warning meant something serious.
"Alright, fine. I won’t make any reckless moves when we locate him," Aegon sighed, shrugging.
"I don’t believe you."
"Why not?"
"You’ve got that crazy grin on your face again."
Aegon raised a hand to his face, touching the manic smile that had taken hold. "Hahaha... what can I say?" He levitated into the air, laughing softly. "The more cautious you guys get, the more excited I am to meet this so-called monster. I want to see what makes even the Prince tread so carefully."
With that, he pierced through the atmosphere, shooting after Leo.
"Haa... you’ll truly be the death of me," Baron shook his head helplessly before taking to the air himself, pursuing his companions toward the impending collision.
A convergence of prodigies was on the horizon, though what would come of their meeting was up to anyone’s guess.
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A/N: So, anybody wanna guess the outcome? Y’all think Aegon will challenge Dante or not? If yes, what would be the outcome? If no, then why? Let’s see your thoughts, but either ways....
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Thanks for reading...