Vergil
I stepped out of a shimmering portal cut in space by Yamato and slipped my blade back into its sheathe. The nebulae sky of Knowhere greeted me. Miner drones flew out of the giant eye socket of the Celestial, and personal vehicles zipped across the sky in a sort of organized frenzy that hinted at some quiet rulership.
The collector controlled Knowhere and had a bit of a reputation for being a kleptomaniac, but I knew he wouldn't dare move against me while I was here. More than half of the galaxy's factions wouldn't, at least not without a substantial force behind them. And even then, it'd be a mistake.
The crowd parted as I walked, my trench coat swaying behind me. With a step, I vanished, reappearing in a private apartment several blocks away, where she waited for me.
My Skrull data broker, Nix.
"You sure know how to make an entrance."
Nix took on the appearance of a conventionally attractive brunette, Novan, and greeted me with a sultry smile and suggestive tilt of her body, but I saw her trembling muscles.
I wasn't offended by it. You tend to get that sort of reaction when you split a moon in half. Granted, it was one of Mundus's, and most of the universe despised him and other Demon Lords—the ones that were alive anyway—but the point still stands.
"What have your spies on New Limbo dug up about him?" I asked, stepping out of the view of the window.
She was hesitant to speak. "About Mundus specifically? Nothing—but you'll be glad to know that my spies on Earth bring news of your brother."
My eyes bored into her, and she flinched slightly but maintained her controlled facade. "I don't pay you Five thousand credit a week to spy on my whore brother."
"But you'll want to hear this!" She insisted. "Dante made the international news there in a big way. He's taking on the demons. Rumor has it he put Isha Stormfire in the ground, and he's started a quiet feud with Domina."
I raised a brow. That didn't sound like something he was capable of, nor would he be bothered enough to pursue. The last time I checked on him, he was on a cocaine-fueled bender while he chased down some Predator he'd been hired to dispose of. He gave up halfway through because he was out of breath and too exhausted.
"Doubtful," I said, prompting Nix to hand a tablet.
"Take a look yourself."
It was an enhanced video that showed Dante ripping through a group of enhanced soldiers with a ferocity and competence that I found mildly impressive. Next was an image of him wielding blackish-red Fire, followed by several others of him in armor with several weapons as he faced down Isha.
"He's apparently a contractor for the biggest spy agency on the planet and is spearheading their push against the demons."
I handed her back the tablet and stood there in silence. This changed everything.
"Will you be going back?" Nix asked.
"No," I smiled. "He can handle it." All he had to do was awaken.
"I thought you'd be a lot more eager to help him given how much time you've dedicated to finding your father."
"And whose fault is that?" I demanded. "I've been paying you for how many galactic days now?"
She swallowed.
"My patience is not infinite, Nix."
I teleported out of the room, leaving behind a shivering Skrull.
---
Dante
Ulyetrix's Red and Black eyes glowed in unison as he whipped his tentacles at us. Lumos appeared in front of us in a golden shimmering Cloak and thrust his hand forward, materializing a Telekinetic shield that intercepted the hit with a ground-shaking clash.
"Come on!' I sent it to Rin as I leaped over the shield, channeling Gust and Nether Fire into my blade. I activated all of my impact runes and swung down.
The air whipped up in a frenzy as a pillar of Purple Fire rose into the air.
Rin appeared beside me a moment later, preparing to swing his sword. A tentacle stabbed out of the pillar, aiming directly at Rin.
I Burst mid-air, pushing him out of the way, and tanked the stab to the chest. The impact dented my Twilight Adamantium armor, flinging me far out of the battlefield.
Every bone and muscle below my neck must've shattered and repaired itself.
STOP was my first thought when I was conscious enough to think. A wave of Mind energy flowed out of me, arresting my movement mid-air.
Eyes wide, I spun around in marvel. I'd expected Gravity or Density Magic, but not Mind.
I had the jump in my Telepathy to thank for the recent discovery. It was also a stark reminder that in this mode, I could use the sheer brute strength of my affinity to my advantage.
With a smirk, I called on my Density magic, summoning Arbiter and filling her up with energy. I pushed Density shift as far as I could manage while rocketing back towards the battlefield, aided only by my budding Telekinesis.
It was a mess when I arrived. W. Pietro was zipping around the battlefield, planting bombs and hurling bolts of lightning, which only seemed to piss it off more.
Rin was hurling concussive bursts of Kinetic energy, shredding errant tentacles that stuck out of the inferno targeting him, while Lumos was rapid-firing spears of light as he danced around the battlefield-mid-air.
I started adding Fire energy to Arbiter at some point, ramping up the heat and quantity until it hurt to think and move.
Using three affinities at once threatened to overwhelm me, but not before I hurled the Axe at Ulyetrix with every ounce of energy I had in my body and Mind. Mind worked to accelerate the speed of the Axe to ridiculous degrees, and Gravity warped the laws of physics and made Ulyetrix the new densest object on the planet as far as my Axe was concerned.
I didn't need to warn Rin or Lumos before they cleared out. The space around Arbiter warped and flashed with Red and violet light. Ulyetrix's multicolored eyes flashed just before the impact which washed the battlefield in a searing white light that would've blinded me if I wasn't in Devil Trigger.
The Fire erupted outwards shortly after, slowly, then almost too quickly, in an expanding shockwave of red Fire that quickly turned purple as the five bombs Pietro hid went off simultaneously. The sonic boom came a skip later in an ear-splitting clap that shook the earth and sky.
Every inch of Ulyetrix rippled and heaved as it was beset from above and below by impossible pressures.
The transparent black film covering its body grew so dense that I could barely make out its features, but it ultimately collapsed.
The Axe didn't just cut it into Ulyetrix; it tore him apart, shredding through dense muscles and sinew. Tentacles erupted in chunks, blasted apart from the shockwave that ravaged the monster's form. The ground beneath us shattered like glass as a crater formed underneath his body. The Fire grew more intense as the aftershock faded, swarmed, and twisted into a fiery twister.
I would've sworn he was dead had it not been for the lack of notifications.
"Don't let your guard down," I telepathically sent to Rin in between my pants as my body rapidly repaired itself. "It's not dead yet."
We were nearly a quarter mile away, looking on at the devastation.
A golden dot spiraled into existence, growing to the size of a head, and Mordo spoke through it. The suddenness of it all made it difficult to initially focus on the substance of his words, but they went through soon enough.
"I have to leave. They need me. The numbers of Devourers are higher than we estimated."
"Shit," I said, sending Lumos a dirty look. He'd claimed to have scanned the environment and said it shouldn't be too challenging for our team to clear out the demons.
He was playing some dirty game, but I was ready for him.
"Well if you have to go, you have to go…" I said. Deciding on Mordo as our sub had been hard. Wanda was too valuable to give up, as was Rin, and I wasn't about to leave anyone alone with Lumos. So, it came down to Mordo. We really didn't need portals to win this fight. Though they would've been an exceptional value add.
Rin and Pietro gave their votes of confidence, and soon, I felt Mordo vanish from my perception sphere.
Lumos raised his spear, looking on at the Purple Flame Tornado with an intensity I'd never seen before from the Demon Prince.
"What are you doing?" Rin asked.
"Making sure." The sky swelled with demonic energy before a pillar of light descended. It casually matched and surpassed the intensity of my previous attack, atomizing the Earth and the snow and creating a vacuum of air that should've asphyxiated all of us.
The sight was sobering. That was what I was up against after this ordeal with Ulyetrix was done. He'd managed that with just a Cloak technique.
Five whole seconds passed before a frown emerged on my face.
Something is not—
I twisted to the side, avoiding a punch to the face, and froze mid-air as an alien mind forced itself upon me.
"HaHaHa. DiD You THiNk That WouLD'Ve Been ENOugh!"
Ulyetrix!
Several tentacles slammed into me, sending me flying, but I recovered quickly, zipping forward to rejoin the fight. Ulyetrix was in a radically different form. His twelve sets of eyes had merged into six, spread across his disgustingly humanoid face. The colors were green, red, maroon, pale white, black, and blue—each representing an aspect of his power.
He towered over us at nearly seven and a half feet tall with exaggerated features. His limbs were cartoonishly long, and his body was surprisingly devoid of tentacles.
That changed when ten burst out from his back, surging at Rin, but my apprentice batted them aside with concussive blasts of kinetic energy. The tentacles diverged upon impact but converged around him like a fleshy snare.
Severance shimmered as I sliced down, projecting a line of Nether Fire. The protective barrier around the shield shimmered but remained on their path. Lumos appeared in a flash of light in the midst of the tentacle cage, spear coated in a mix of telekinetic and light energy. He danced in a white flourish, cutting through all the tentacles.
With a maximum Burst further amplified by my armor, I appeared in front of Ulyetrix, Severance, on a downswing, surging with Fire, wind, and several Amplifications.
Ulyetrix's lips stretched into a manic grin as tentacles burst out from his forehand and wrapped around each other in a fleshy braid covered in spurs, throbbing with reddish energy. He swung the meaty maul.
The sky exploded with color as he parried my attack, much to my surprise, and stabbed at my gut. Lumos charged him from behind with a light-covered kick, moving so fast that even I could barely react.
Ulyetrix's maroon and green eyes shone as his entire body somehow stretched and twisted, narrowly avoiding Lumos's attack while his hand still stabbed at me.
My Aegis manifested at the last moment, parrying his attack and leaving him open to a Gravity attack. DOWN. DOWN.
I'd briefly slipped into Cloak before initiating the attack, and it did wonders, driving Ulyetrix down to his knees. I pressed down further with my Mind affinity, keeping him rooted.
Lumos came at his flank with a glowing spear stab, but it barely cracked the coat of darkness that protected his skin. His red eyes flared, and a concussive wave rippled out. My Aegis parried the attack thanks to Moment of the Time Sage, and Lumos folded his arms, raising a Telekinetic shield, but it wasn't enough.
The wave that rippled out sent us both flying.