"Alright," I said, bouncing on my feet. "I need you to try and hit me."

"What?" Pietro blinked owlishly, visibly confused.

"We need to catch up, and I have a unique ability that grants me a substantial boost in power, but only if I dodge an attack. So, are you going to swing at me or keep asking questions?"

"I'm faster than you, and it's a snatch job. Just tell me where he is, and I'll swipe it. In case you haven't noticed, I'm pretty fast," he said with a condescending look. I rolled my eyes.

"And you've not completely healed, or do you think I'm blind?" I asked. "I remember the first two times you blitzed me. You were moving at ridiculous speeds, and now you can't reach Creel before he escapes?"

Pietro winced. "That demon lady's claws must've been laced with something strong because this is the slowest I've recovered from a leg injury. I can't move too fast or risk reopening my wounds."

"How fast can you move?"

"If I'm pushing it, Mach 1.5, but I'd like to stay under that. At top speed, I used to be Mach 5."

I coughed. That was ridiculous. "Why hasn't Magneto conquered all of America if you could move that fast? Nothing is stopping you from stealing the nuclear codes or assassinating the president."

"Because people like you, Jean Grey, and Xavier are out there," he said, "and I don't need the attention taking over the most powerful country in the world would bring. I have a sister to take care of. I couldn't live with myself if something ever happened to Wanda, or I got myself killed and couldn't take care of her."

I raised a brow. "Your sister doesn't strike me as the type that needs saving."

"You don't look like it either, but it doesn't mean you don't need help every once in a while."

I frowned. I couldn't believe I was empathizing with the asshole who nearly sold me into slavery. I pulled out a stim from my shop and handed it to Pietro.

"What's this?"

"Magic healing juice made from a chunk of my soul," I said, and he gave me a dubious look.

"Well, don't get too excited," I huffed. "Chug it down and let the juice do its magic."

Pietro remained understandably suspicious, his eyes further narrowing. "Why are you helping me?"

"Because I can see the future, remember?" I said, flooding my eyes with demonic energy. "Though, I don't need to be able to see it to know going into a fight half-cocked will get you killed. Besides, I'm not sure the world can handle your sister having a meltdown right now."

Pietro blinked, even more confused. "Why would you, of all people, be worried about her?"

"Just drink the damned thing and take a swing at me," I snapped. "We're running out of time. Given our history, do you think I'd pick poison over strangling you with my bare hands?"

Pietro chuckled. "True enough." He threw it back, and his eyes widened as it worked its magic. He sped off with a sudden whoosh before returning just as suddenly.

"Alright," he grinned. "Let's do this. I'm coming at you with Mach 1 speeds."

I barely had the time to send my earpiece, clothes, and armor to the Dimensional Storage before he swung. Gust on max raised my speed over 35%, and it stacked handily on Osiris's new 45% bonus. I was nearly twice as fast, putting me a stone's throw away from Mach 1. I leaned out of the way of his fist while activating Demon Evade. My damage output skyrocketed as a faint cloak of Nether fire covered me.

"Follow me," I instructed as I sped off, spiking Burst and Angel Evade. The combination threw me forward impossibly fast, easily doubling my speed. A second one flung me even further, allowing me to reach nearly Mach 3. By the third Gust, I was moving so fast that everything was a blur. It wasn't until I felt Creel's mental presence that I knew I'd arrived at my destination. It took ejecting Four Fiery Bursts from my chest, deactivating Gust, and switching out Osiris to help me decelerate quickly enough to stop myself. I carved a huge pathway in the concrete.

Pietro was waiting beside me when I finally stopped, slack-jawed.

"You're...fast and naked."

"Thanks for pointing out the obvious." I summoned back my clothes and armor as I scanned the closed-off perimeter of the construction site. An incomplete tower stood at the center of it. Creel was several floors up, rapidly ascending as hundreds of demons emerged from the shadows and the tower structure. Immediately, I was on edge. Domina had one-upped herself again. She was really bringing the demons out of the closet with this one.

There were Dragon Newts with blue blades and mages wielding gnarled staffs that shone with blue lights. Dozens of Garoks, Brutes, and Rages.

However, the figures that made me the most nervous were the two Cambions.

One was closer to me, hunched over, covered in a lithe metallic armor that seemed almost organic. Only her face, the soft of her belly, and her joints seemed somewhat flexible and stuck out as potential weak spots. Her eyes were intense and grey, as was her skin.

If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

The other stood on a bulldozer in the back, closer to the tower. He was a dark-skinned tall man in a suit with white eyes. He had a long metal staff covered in runes, and he sneered at me when we met eyes.

"I can't believe she dragged me from Capetown for this," he said. "Isha isn't worth the trouble."

"But the son of an Arch Demon is," she said in an echoing voice. "You forget the horror of Sparda and Eva. The boy has more potential than his brother. He needs to be taken care of before he becomes a real problem."

"Creel is on the elevator going up the building," I said to Pietro in a low voice. "Get the Serum and get it back to Fury ASAP."

"What?" Pietro frowned. "No, let me help you fight."

"Do you remember what happened last time you tried to fight one of them?"

Pietro shifted uncomfortably on his healed leg. "You didn't come out unscathed either."

"I am twice as strong as I used to be and can heal from most wounds. You can't, and you're faster than me. This is not a debate."

Pietro regarded me for a long moment. "You may have the bedside manners of a starved wolf, but you're not a total asshole, Dante."

"Thanks?"

"Ready whenever you are," Pietro said, striking a pose. I walked forward, summoning Osiris. I dumped 15,000 out of the 20,000 orbs I'd made from the fights so far into Osiris, upgrading it to Grade 4.

The speed boost jumped to 60%. The damage remained at 0.8 times the damage of Rebellion, and Wind manipulation reached Very High, giving my weapon a qualitative damage buff of about 20% when using wind techniques.

Wind started to flow out of me in thick whorls as I activated Gust at full blast, giving me a 35% boost.

The metal demon stretched to its full length, which was easily over 7 feet. She spoke with amusement in her eyes.

"The arrogance of you sons of Sparda is fascinating," the metallic demon smiled.

My eyes burned red as I activated Devil's Eye.

Bastille the Grey Giant

47th Child of Belasco. She is a ferocious hand-to-hand fighter and arms master. Bastille has middling talent in metal manipulation but more than makes up for it with her flexible organic armor, overwhelming brute strength, and speed.

Thabo the Apprentice

31st Child of Belasco and disciple of Corvus. He is an extraordinarily powerful sorcerer who specializes in Blood and Earth Magic. Thabo has a Very-High Earth affinity, a rarity among Cambions, but he's limited by his lackluster physiology.

"Arrogance is not a problem if you can back it up, Bastille," I smirked at the metallic Cambion, whose eyes went wide at the name drop.

"Peculiar," Thabo said, visibly interested. "I thought Isha was delirious because of her injury, but you do really know things you shouldn't."

"You have no idea who you're up against," I said with a confident smirk that did not feel forced. I had enough bombs stashed in my inventory to drop the tower in front of me, a powerful new set of armor, freshly crafted weapons, and a skill that could literally bring me back from the brink of death.

I'd faced and won against worse odds.

I checked my new stats one last time before I gave Pietro the signal to run. We'd already wasted enough time.

Status Name: (Dante Sparda) Axel Warren

Class: Arcane Forgemaster Lv 2

HP: 1860

SP: 1860

AE: 1280/1400

DE: 920/1440

Strength: 120

Dexterity: 122

Endurance: 182

Vitality: 186

Angelic Energy: 140

Demonic Energy: 144

Pietro exploded forward, as did Bastille and I. She stretched her hand, and the armor covering her forearm morphed and stretched, forming a long blade that stuck out of her wrist and stabbed at the speedster. Osiris turned teal blue with wind energy and arced out as I appeared in front of her, parrying her attack. The blowback sent her skidding back in surprise. I charged her as Pietro darted past us and swung my scythe at full force while also sending a wind blade forward.

A sheen of silver suddenly sprang up around her body, and two of the attacks clanged hard against her mid-section, which I previously believed was one of the weakest parts of her anatomy.

I saw her lips spread wide in a self-assured grin as the surface of her bio-armor started to ripple. Standing so close, she must've thought I wasn't nearly fast enough to dodge her attack. She was in for a surprise when a wave of concentrated fire exploded from my mask as it shone with bright red runes.

Bastille's attack poured out of her while the fire flash-cooked her. Hundreds of 5-foot-long metal spikes rushed out of her armor in all directions as she screamed.

Moment of the Sage activated before any of the blades made contact, and the world slowed down as my body, mind, and speed gained a 55% boost. Moment of the Sage only lasted 3 seconds, so I made the most of it, feeding even more energy into my Nether Fire breath.

It was something I'd cooked up when creating my armor. After a few days of practicing, I learned to use Burst without tapping into my Nether fire but also found out I could really milk the Nether fire portion of the skill if I wanted to. So, I installed an impact rune and storage rune with 50 DE in my mask so that I had access to an overpowered fire breath whenever I really needed it.

I switched out to Aquila briefly as I strafed to her left, firing off four Round Trips in total, two from each weapon.

Then I switched over to my newest weapon, Stormlash, all the while my Fire breath was still cooking her. I could feel Burst's skill grow in real time from pushing its limits like that.

Stormlash was made from the bones of the Lightning wolves I killed, their cores, plus bits and pieces of infernal metal running down the side of the link for enchantments, extra barbs, and links.

Stormlash (Grade 1)3000 Red Orbs, 2 Lightning Wolf cores or substitute.

Forged from the tails of a pack of Storm Wolves, it's the first named weapon that the Arcane Forgemaster, Dante Sparda, produced. It possesses the following innate abilities.

Lightning Affinity: Mid

Flexibility

Enchantments

· Accumulation (100 DE)

· Impact

· Protection

I positioned myself far away enough to barely dodge a metal spear to the head and cut off my fire.

Moment of the Sage expired, and the world resumed. I ducked underneath the attack, earning a 2.75x attack boost on my next attack. Stormlash struck before Bastille could even let out a scream.

The air broiled hot from the heat, and black and red Nether fire clung to her even though she was covered in metal. Her armor cracked from the sudden temperature spike, and Stormlash struck with both of its runes activated, shattering her armor completely, but I wasn't done. I pumped 50 DE into the Thunder Affinity of the weapon as the whip wrapped around her, lighting her up like a Christmas tree. The sky was bathed in purple light as Bastille bellowed.

"Help her, you imbeciles!" Thabo choked out in a panicked cry, but it was too late. A knife went into her eye socket, finishing her off before the fastest Rage crossed a quarter of the distance that separated us.

You've killed the Cambion, Bastille—5000 Red Orbs

Thabo let out a startled gasp as he fell back. I grabbed Bastille's falling body. Her face still looked visibly surprised even in death, and as I sent her to my dimensional storage, I whispered, "I did try to warn you."

I turned to Thabo, who had regained his composure somewhat, and pointed his shaky staff at me.

"Come on, then," I taunted. "Take your best shot."