Nevereth takes a deep breath, inspecting himself.
"I never thought I'd be back, but here I am."
Mother laughs and extends her hand towards his face. Before it gets close, the ground erupts where she's standing. She flips through the air, dodging the hundreds of spikes that shot out from the dirt. She manages to land on one, using the blade of the scythe as a hook.
"Oh-ho, I might've misjudged your control over magic."
"While I was in the system, I learned lots of new tricks. I also found creative ways to use magic."
In an instant, Nevereth splits off into almost one hundred clones, each of which starts casting different spells. Nevereth turns to me while all his clones attack and distract her with spells.
"You did good to survive until I could come back, but even I won't be able to defeat her myself. You still have a fragment of my power within you, I left it there. I hate to say it, but you need to get the others strength, they are useless in their current state. Go."
Without thinking, I streak passes his clones, dashing towards Blankk and Zero. A massive fireball gets launched beside me, but suddenly gets sliced in half. Through the parting flames, she twists and swings her scythe towards me. I barely duck under the swing, but she swings through three of Nevereth's clones. I continue forward, closing in on Blankk and Zero. I suddenly get tripped, seeing she used her scythe to catch my foot. She flips over me and slashes down towards me, but I roll just out of the way. I manage to get to my feet as she slashes her scythe out of the ground. Dirt gets in my eyes, temporarily blinding me. From behind me, I hear the spells stop. I stumble back, falling to my butt, wiping my eyes as hard as I can. I feel a slight fear in me as in the darkness, I hear the whooshing sound of her scythe slashing through the air towards me. I manage to get my eye open right as I hear a ripping and slicing sound.
It's all blurry, but I feel something warm and wet dripping onto my forehead. I wipe my eyes once more, seeing a little more clearly now. Standing in front of me, the scythe piercing their chest, blood dripping from the blade, is Zero. He coughs and wraps his arms around the handle of the scythe.
"NOW!"
Nevereth lunges passed him and swings a sword made of magic towards her. She simply let's go of the scythe and backs away, easily getting out of Nevereth's reach. She smiles, almost laughing softly.
"Alright Dante, go ahead, take his gift. He killed himself stepping in front of my attack, so don't let his gift go to waste."
I look to Zero, who coughs up a little blood and collapses to his knees, still clutching the scythe. He pulls it out of his chest, a large open wound going all the way through him.
"I used to think you loved us. I used to think you believed in us! I BELIEVED IN YOU, THAT YOU WOULD LET ME SEE THE OUTSIDE!"
Zero screams, throwing the scythe towards her. It spins wildly, but she doesn't catch it. It sticks blade first into the dirt near the edge of the clearing.
"I do love you, all of you."
"Then why am I dying, bleeding from a wound you inflicted!?"
She pauses, taken aback from his hostility, then responds.
"I already told you, if you passed the test, you'd be free to do as you wish. But I won't leave my creation in the hands of the incompetent, I needed to know you're ready. If you couldn't hurt me, then you weren't ready. The weak have no right to rule!"
I grit my teeth, remembering my childhood. I speak over her.
"I was weak once, so I'm not fit to rule!"
She rubs her face, sighing deeply.
"No, you weren't. You just weren't ready. That line of thinking is akin to saying that a baby will never be strong, because it hasn't grown yet!"
We all stare at each other for a moment, Zero suddenly collapsing to the dirt. She speaks up once again.
"Hurry, absorb him! You'll grow ever stronger!"
I grit my teeth and reach down towards him, reluctantly agreeing with her.
"I'm only doing this to defeat you. I agree with him, you never loved them."
As my hand touches Zero, I try to concentrate. I try to feel his energy, just like how I did with Grim. Suddenly Zero grabs my wrist and pulls me close, whispering in my ear.
"I always knew my destiny was to die, I just wanted to see the outside. Ensure I see it, if only in fleeting dreams. My champion."
His grip loosens and his eyes lose their light. A slight bit of his strength flows into me, but I can tell this isn't all of it. She speaks up once more.
"See? Now you're even stronger, even harder for me to beat you. The weak can't guard this world, as much as that may hurt for you to hear."
Nevereth looks to me, offering me his hand. I take it, standing back up. We both look to her, seeing her waving her hand to Blankk.
"Would you like to take this child's power as well? The gift of understanding? Or do you feel capable of beating me right now?"
Nevereth and I look to each other, then nod. We ready ourselves. He summons two swords, and my fists get wrapped in purple flames. She sighs and stretches her arms outwards.
"Well, I don't think that you will be victorious without the fifth's power, but I guess we'll see. All right, whenever you're re-"
Her hand suddenly flies off, her scythe planted into the ground beside her. She turns to her side, looking at who managed to hurt her. Nevereth and I both see who sliced her hand off with her own scythe.
"Ah, the companion."
She says as Azeroth draws the scythe back and glares at her.