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Rebellion morphed. Its handle grew as the blade shrunk and twisted into a rugged patchwork of sharp angles and edges. The axe blade was serrated and chunky and weighed triple what the sword did.
Fury's eyes bulged. "The Hell is that?"
"Get your boys in place and be ready to provide cover fire when I ask for it."
"Hey, Ugly!" I yelled at the beast, who was about to corner a frazzled female agent.
"Pick on somebody your own size," I spread my hands out.
The monster paused, and its mishappened head snapped in my direction. It hissed, bucking as it slowly grew long and agile quadruped limbs and lunged at me.
I took off in a flash with Demonic Burst and packed Arbiter with so much energy that the rusty axe head sizzled.
I raised my axe high, the weight damn-near tripling, and came down on the thing's head.
An explosion went off. It jerked the monster's head down, throwing it into the dirt, and I came down with another explosive strike, splitting its head in two.
I heard a screech, and three tentacles lashed out, but I was faster. Arbiter turned to Rebellion and parried two strikes while an explosive arrow diverted the third, opening the beast up for a Stinger strike to the face, followed by two quick licks.
Angel Evade carried me behind it as it swung out with his claws, screeching in pain.
I filled my blade with demonic energy and swiped at the base of a tentacle, cutting it clean off. A shriek and a body check sent me flying. The creature had reacted before its lost tentacle even hit the ground.
I reacted equally fast, switching to Ophion and Angel lifted myself back to the monster's body. I slammed into it with a Stinger and twisted my blade, opening a deep wound.
I summoned a live grenade with my free hand and chucked it inside the open wound.
I used Angel Evade seconds before the retaliatory strike came. Two tentacles packed with stone, adaptive armor, and wood phased through me as I rematerialized on the ground.
The explosion went off a second later, throwing the monster's body to the side, and I ran up to it, Arbiter glowing red, and slammed into its second tentacle, shearing through stone, metal, wood, and ooze.
The body check followed before the tentacle touched the floor, but this time, I was ready, leaning out of reach while I had a demonic energy coat around me.
My clever maneuvering earned me an instance of double damage that was quickly fading. So, I set out to use it with extreme prejudice.
I dashed at it and lopped the third tentacle clean off.
A mess of black tentacles came at me next, but I dodged them all with quick footwork and a demonic burst, earning myself another Demonic Evade bonus.
The Eldritch monster rapidly began to pulse and change, shifting to accommodate the lost biomass.
It tried reaching for its downed tentacle but could not reattach it, the demonic presence of Arbiter still lingering.
While it was still panicking and reacting, I decided to end this fight and jumped into the air using Burst.
I propelled myself into the air a second time before I started filling Arbiter up with energy. I flashed downward, just as the Propagator looked upward, slamming into it with the remainder of my freshly triggered Demon evade bonus stacked on another Burst.
The results were…explosive.
The impact shattered the ground and reduced the monster to putty.
The front half of its body was caved in, and it struggled against my burning demonic energy, wriggling, desperate to pull itself back together.
Even though I was out of breath and disoriented, I noticed all of its movement and energy was coming from one singular bulge at the center of its back.
I summoned Ebony and fired, shattering a huge black gemstone the size of a large apple. The Propagator's body sloughed immediately, losing all form.
It was still a bit startling that the combined Propagators could get that big. It was probably because the hiding Propagator had enough time to gather mass.
Note to self. Never let those slimy fucks hide away.
You've killed a Matured Eldritch Propagator. You've earned 200 Red Orbs. QUELLITRAX is not amused.
Well, I'm not amused either, QUELL. I snorted.
There were a few other notifications, but Fury approached me before I could look at them.
"Is it over?"
"Yeah," I panted, checking my resources.
Name: Dante Sparda
Species: Nephilim
Class: None
HP: 580/620
SP: 230 /610
AE: 306/400
DE: 240/400
Strength: 36
Dexterity: 40
Endurance: 61
Vitality: 62
Angelic Energy: 40
Demonic Energy: 43 + 2
Fury stood at the lip of the crater with Natasha and Clint. They all looked taken aback by the sight.
I saw naked fear in Clint's eyes, and Natasha hid her's so well you almost couldn't tell.
"The Professor sold you short," Fury said.
I chuckled. "That's the understatement of the century. Now, do you believe me when I say I'm here to help?"
"We'd be in deep shit if you're not."
The battle had taken less than 10 minutes, but all New York heard the explosions.
Government vehicles, helicopters, and agents were called on-site to push back the Press and curious New Yorkers.
'Officially,' the noise was caused by a localized weapon testing that got out of hand.
Most didn't buy the story, but Fury left them little choice.
I was led to a private trailer while paramedics attended to the injured.
The fight had been brutal, and I was starting to feel bad about dragging Fury into this.
Sure, I could've handled it alone, but those propagators were nasty.
It wouldn't have come out of the fight without a few bruises.
They would've overwhelmed me regardless of how many bombs and rifles I had in my Weapons vault.
If I was forced to retreat for whatever reason, I had a feeling QUELL wouldn't stop.
It might've been sneaky, but my decision to involve him ultimately benefited everybody.
QUELL's rift closed seconds after the last Propagator died, and so did all traces of them. The black ooze they were made up of practically evaporated, leaving Fury nothing to work with or examine.
Needless to say, that frustrated him quite a bit, almost as much as realizing that he had no real measure of my strength.
Xavier gave him old information, and I've only ever cut loose a few times in the X-men's presence.
Thanks to my training, I was nearly four times as strong as a peak human athlete, putting my effective lifting strength at well over 1000 kilograms on the bench press. My speed was even more impressive, and I was about to reach another stratosphere with my rewards.
Congratulations on completing the 2nd of 5 incursions. You've earned 1 key to Shin's Multidimensional Emporium.
The store was finally open to me, and between all of the killing, I ended up with 402 Red Orbs.
I wanted more, but I didn't get any orbs for that Propagator that Clint killed.
As eager as I was to spend my new Red Orbs, I couldn't help but take a look at Shin's store.
The system interface turned golden when I entered it, and I swore I heard a trumpet sound in the background.
The store was a lot more organized than I expected. Shin's wares were divided into:
Classes
Weapons
Potions
Skills
Artifacts
Tools
Enhancements
Bloodlines
Abilities
Shin's List
I spent hours scrolling through each section, and my brain would've shorted out at the sheer possibilities were it not for how bloody expensive everything was.
Every power, ability, artifact, and weapon you could ever imagine was in the store, even other Systems.
And they were locked behind astronomical Red Orb counts or, worse, world-specific currencies.
A Zanpaktou was 20.3 million Red orbs or 30,000 Kan (Soul Society Currency)
The Yamato was 500 million Red Orbs.
Daylight robbery, I tell you. I shook my head. I shouldn't have expected anything less from someone like Shin.
I would need a world-ending fight like the Battle of New York to afford anything on the list.
Even mutant abilities like Pyrokinesis did not give me much hope. Beta-level abilities were worth 15 million per pop. Alpha-level abilities were 100 million, and Omega-level abilities were 500 million.
The Classes available were cheaper, but just as worrying.
I had a long list available to me, the cheapest being just about 50,000 Red Orb.
It was called Agent of SHIELD, and it came with useful skills like Tech Mastery, Adept Weapon Mastery, and Strategic Thinking.
There was also a Serial Killer Class, Weapons' Master, Dojo Master, bounty hunter, and Eldritch Slayer.
The last one was intriguing because it granted me a flat damage boost of 10% on all Eldritch monsters.
Many other choices were greyed and unreadable with an interesting tag. "Does not Qualify".
Others were even more expensive than the weapons, with price tags reaching the billions.
However, one caught my eye out of the many available classes. It cost 100,000 Red Orbs and was the ticket to the top of Marvel's Earth's power scale.
Dark Knight
Take on the title and mantle of the Legendary Dark Knight Sparda, fully embodying the Demon and becoming an emissary of his will and purpose: Peace between Humans and Demons. Grants 5AGI 5STR, 10DE Per Level
Warning: Changes race to Demon. You can only grow in strength by draining human blood.
Skills
(L) Swordsmanship– Wield the blade with the experience and power of a warrior who has fought a thousand battles.
(L) Dark Knight Devil Arms– Inherit the legendary weapons of the Dark Knight by reaping the lives of demons. (Devil Sword Sparda, Luce & Ombra, Force Edge, Rebellion, Yamato)
(L)Demon form–Unleash your inner Demon, transforming into the Demon, Sparda. 5x to all physical stat and regeneration.
I damn near frothed from the mouth after reading this.
By level 8, I would be twice as strong as I currently was, with enough demonic energy to smother an apartment complex.
Plus, it was not like I was using my Angel energy for much besides healing and the occasional intangible dodge. Both functions could probably be substituted with purchases from the store.
For example, Air Dragon-Slaying Magic cost half a billion Demonic Orbs, would fix the healing problem, and give me elemental manipulation of wind, the primary element my Angel side had dominion over anyway.
Still, the Nephilim Race was a dark horse.
In the store, it cost 2 Trillion Red Orbs, and it was no wonder.
Demons and Angel hybrids were scarcely explored in fiction, but they were THE overpowered race. They were the product of immortal celestial beings and perhaps the only entities to reach true godhood in their lifetimes.
Cutting off half of what made me unique seemed like too much of a sacrifice for power that I would have sooner rather than later.
The Son of Sparda class tempted me, but it was a rainy day choice at best. At worst, it was a downgrade.