Chapter 21: Terms of Liberation
’Jeez... I feel so embarrassed I could die.’
Dante dragged his palm down his face. ’I really didn’t need to know you do that that many times a day!’
He sighed.
Ezio began walking toward him again, but Vincenzo stepped in the way, and ordered, "Don’t step any closer."
That caused Ezio to halt in his tracks.
However, Dante took the initiative to step forward himself. He didn’t put away his crimson greatswords, nor did he stop the reinforcement on his body, even though it was burning through his blood reserves.
He still had to be cautious.
When he got close enough, he reached into his coat, taking out a Toscano cigar and a flip-top lighter.
Upon seeing them, Ezio licked his lips, and his eyes suddenly grew wide and feverish. He couldn’t take his eyes off the dark tobacco roll.
"Uh... can I have that?"
Without answering him immediately, Dante flicked the lighter open, lit the tip of the cigar, and just stared at the ember glowing red in the dark space.
Seeing that, Vincenzo couldn’t help but complain. "Signor Dante—"
"It’s Okay," Dante interrupted. "All of this would be for naught if I end up releasing an Apostle that’s already been tainted beyond help."
...Someone once said that the divine power of the gods always came with a price, and mortals were never meant to abuse it.
If an Apostle used their powers without paying their cost, or if they ran out of reserves while using their powers, contamination started setting in after a brief period. If they kept ignoring it even after the symptoms started showing up, they could end up turning into something completely non-human.
So to ease Ezio’s suffering, Dante exhaled and extended his hand, offering him the cigar.
"Oh, God. Thank you!" Without hesitation, Ezio snatched it from Dante’s hand and shoved it straight into his mouth.
He took a deep drag and let out a long, contented sigh as the smoke curled into the air.
After feeling some relief, Ezio asked, "By the way, how do you plan on getting me out of here?"
Dante paused for a beat, then said casually, "You need to die."
"What?" Ezio almost choked on his smoke. "What the byss do you mean by that?!"
"This is Val de Grace Penitentiary," Dante said without batting an eye. "No one gets out of here that easily. Plus, even if we were to pay to buy your freedom, Victor would not stop looking for you."
Ezio paled slightly, but kept quiet and listened.
Dante turned to the side. "Everyone needs to know that you are dead. Vincenzo will pay to have your death faked. Once you are out, he’ll also arrange for you to have a new identity."
Vincenzo, who had been listening in silence, suddenly twitched. He was probably adding up all the crazy shit he was being dragged into because of Dante. The poor man just couldn’t catch a break.
"In the meantime," Dante looked back at Ezio and his voice grew serious. "Mind how you use your powers in the days before you are out."
Ezio sighed and stared at the gray clouds as he took another slow drag.
After a few more seconds of quiet, he asked, "Since I’m going to be working for you, what do I call you?"
Dante, who had rested the head of his blood mace on the ground while holding the haft, replied calmly, "You will know my name when you are out."
Ezio stared at him for a moment before continuing to take drags from the cigar. Once he was done with his fix, he dropped the butt to the ground and stomped on it.
"I apologize for dragging you in here," Ezio said, offering a small nod. "I’m ready to take you back."
Only then did the crimson greatswords dissolve into thick pools of blood that flowed straight back into Dante’s body, and the heavy blood mace also melted back into his skin as well.
Once that happened, the space around them dissolved, and Dante found himself back inside the cell block.
Everything returned to how it was before, with Dante seated on the bench and Vincenzo standing directly across with Ezio.
However, the moment they reappeared, Mara barged forward with her weapon drawn. She grabbed Ezio by the head, shoved him face-first onto the table, and pinned him down to inspect him.
"What happened?" she asked, flicking her questioning eyes to Dante.
Dante simply lowered his head. "Nothing much. We just had a minor... altercation."
He paused. After a few seconds of thought, he looked from Mara to Julian and spoke politely. "Thank you for letting me meet with him."
Without waiting for their response, he turned and began walking out of the cell block.
Not long after, Vincenzo and Julian followed close behind him.
***
Some minutes later, Dante was in the cable car, which was currently on its way back to the coast of Lagico.
At the moment, he was resting with his arms folded across his chest, fast asleep.
Seated opposite him was Vincenzo, who wore a deeply confused and questioning expression as he watched him.
Vincenzo couldn’t believe the events of the past hour that he had just witnessed. Before now, he was entirely sure that the youngest son of the Fioravanti family was not an Apostle.
So what had he just seen?
Even though he had never seen or heard the young master use magic related to his class, he knew very well that what had transpired in the prison cell was not standard spellcraft. There were suppression runes built into the prison walls that prevented even him from casting magic. So that was definitely divine power!
However, more than questioning the fact that Dante had somehow used divine power, he kept questioning which of the eight Gods of the pantheon gave their Apostles the power to manipulate blood.
’Could this be why Signora Isabella requested blood from me?’ Vincenzo thought. ’Come to think of it, I did find it weird that Lucian and Thalia, especially Lucian, died, while Signor Dante somehow survived.’
While he was still pondering this, Dante’s head began to fall sideways. At that exact moment, wisps of crimson smoke gathered beside him, and by the time his head tilted completely, it rested gently on the shoulder of a little boy.
’Who is this boy?’ Vincenzo blinked in disbelief. ’He appeared out of nowhere just like this back in the prison, too.’
As he studied the child, Vincenzo couldn’t help but feel a growing sense of dread. Something about the boy’s mere presence made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.
Maybe it was the fact that there were stains of blood on his face and clothes, or maybe it was the fact that he had a trail of blood from his eye down his cheek as if he were crying blood, or maybe it was the fact that the boy reeked of blood, or maybe it was the fact that the boy looked mad, or maybe... maybe it was all of it.
He really was unnerving.
’I don’t even know what I’m looking at. This isn’t a child. It’s something else.’
Vincenzo decided against looking at the boy any longer, but just as he was about to look away, the boy suddenly smiled.
Then he said in an eerie voice, "Say say, little Vin."
’Little Vin?’ Vincenzo swallowed.
He was a twenty-eight-year-old man for crying out loud. Little Vin?
Before he could process it, the boy tilted his head. "Did you happen to see us do anything back at that prison?"
Upon hearing that, of course, it didn’t take Vincenzo more than five seconds to understand what the creature was trying to say.
After taking a quick breath, Vincenzo shook his head.
"No. You can rest assured that I didn’t see anything."
That response made the boy smile wider. "I see why he let you join us. You are a smart fellow indeed."
With that, he tilted his head and rested it against Dante’s head.
But he didn’t take his eyes off Vincenzo.
And until they reached the city, the tension in the cable car was suffocating.