I'd expected a disgusting amount of damage and blowback, but not this. It looked like a scene out of an apocalypse movie. Lumos's psychic presence had vanished, but I had no delusions that I'd somehow managed to kill him.

There hadn't been a notification. I quickly raised my Mind Cloak.

With gust, I guided myself out of the fallout range, which took a hell of a lot more effort than I intended. I was healed by the time I landed. What I hadn't expected was Lumos waiting for me. Half of his shirt was burned off. His hand and part of his obliques spotted second-degree burns that were rapidly healing.

I saw a hint of apprehension in Lumos's eyes. It was like he wasn't staring at a lesser. If I didn't know any better, it was like he almost respected me.

As well, he should.

There had been 12 Arcane amplification runes in my armor and 9 Precision runes coupled with the other 8 runes in my sword. As if that was not enough, my Fire Cloak granted another 80% boost to the already ridiculous attack.

If I'd added wind in, it could've been enough to kill him, but that would've meant sacrificing my revive. I was saving it for the Quellitrax fight, too.

Still, his disheveled state told me I'd come really close. His clothes were covered in burns, and his hand was still healing.

"Satisfied?"

"Very." The Last of Lumos's wounds visibly healed. "You still held back," he stated. "Your purple fire would've done more permanent harm."

"That would've left me facing the squid alone," I said. "You're no doubt an asshole, but you were on the right track. If even you couldn't take him down, then what chances do I have."

"What about your team?" Lumos said, causing me to raise a brow. My face lost its color when I realized my mistake.

"You were in my head," I ground my teeth. Lumos looked unphased.

"Only for three seconds, but it was enough to see flashes of your entrance into the North Pole, and my true target."

I had no means to confirm his search was as limited as he claimed, but there was frankly nothing I could do about it, and he knew that.

We had bigger fish to fry, and he wouldn't risk telling me all this if he didn't think there was no deal to be made.

"What do you propose?"

"I want my sister back," he said, and I scoffed. Mordo was going to fucking lose his shit.

"In exchange for what?"

"The lives of your allies," he said. "I might struggle slightly to put you down, but your allies will fall easily enough."

The respect I saw was imagined, after all. It also confirmed that Lumos's scan was just as brief as he described, as far as the team is concerned.

"Some would," I said. "But you're really underestimating them if you think you can fight them and me at the same time."

"Perhaps it is you who is underestimating me," Lumos said, letting the threat hang in the air.

"Let's say for argument's sake that I handed you back your sister," I said. "It wouldn't save her, you know. She won't survive long while Domina is in New York. I mean, how long did she mourn her before she started scooping up her property and contacts?"

No answer came.

"I mean, don't you find it suspicious that Domina set up this elaborate multi-city plan to kill me for 'hurting Isha,' but couldn't be bothered to finish me off herself?" I raised a brow. "Your sister was weakened and still healing from her injuries, and I'd just wiped out two Cambions, a small army of mercenaries, and demons. What did she think was going to happen? Also, why didn't she just finish me off at research campus when she had the chance?"

"You're not suggesting I trade one sister for another?"

"I'd hardly call that traitorous bitch a sister, but I'd say the decision is up to you. But I'd like to point out that there'd be no point rescuing Isha if you can’t trust Domina."

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"Killing her will only bring chaos to the surface," he pointed out. "Enrique and I will be tasked with hunting you down and crushing what's left of the human resistance. Even that Telepath of yours cannot stop us."

"Wanna bet?" I grinned. "The way I see it, you've got nothing to lose. Domina dies, your sister is safe, and you get an early crack at the earth mightiest heroes. If you're sure you're stronger than you have nothing to worry about."

Lumos remained quiet for a long moment. "You will not win against Enrique and I."

"I'm not hearing a no."

"Survive this ordeal. Then we'll talk."

I clapped my hands. "That's all I wanted to hear."

---

Wanda POV

The demon moved surprisingly fast despite carrying a woman in his arms, and she did her very best to shake me with a sudden snowstorm. The pair shot off in another direction and teleported ahead. Their tactic would've worked if I wasn't a telepath. I kept up with them fairly easily, using my Telekinesis to keep me aloft.

Likely sensing they'd not be able to shake me off, they abruptly stopped, swiveling back, and Val leaped at me with his blade.

A year ago, I was green enough that his plan might've worked. Entering inside his mind, I used my favorite new trick.

SEIZE

Every last muscle in his body froze, and I casually swept him to the side, sending him sprawling in the snow. The woman he'd been carrying looked worried as understanding dawned on her.

"You're a Telepath as well," she said. "We've heard nothing of you."

"I guess that's a good thing for me," I said, stretching my hand forward, but she was faster. The snow underneath me exploded. It blinded me and sent me flying. Before I could orient myself, solidified chunks of Ice closed in all directions, and I shockingly lost track of both the woman and the teleporting demon briefly.

The Ice almost boxed me in before I released a pulse of raw Telekinetic energy. It swept back all of the chunks, the small snowstorm the demon had raised to blind me, and the retreating forms of both demons.

I SEIZED their bodies before mine touched the ground, panting, and I pulled them close. Rin hadn't communicated more with his feelings than words, and I knew he wanted them both dead.

Coming back to life was a really big deal, even with the demons. Over our many phone calls, he'd essentially told me it meant he was some super demon.

His dad was a super powerful mutant, and he refused to tell me anything about it. His mom was some nameless Demon who died a long time ago. He apparently inherited both of his parent's abilities. That was why he was so hard to kill and why the demons wanted him really badly.

Well, they couldn't have him.

My palms slowly shut as I choked the life out of them. I hated killing, but these days, it was the only thing I seemed to do.

The demons and the monsters had to die, and so did the more extreme activists and criminals, both on the human and mutant sides.

These demons were drops in the bucket, but lately, I've been feeling the weight. I couldn't wait for all of this to be over.

Dante's POV

Things moved rapidly after my little altercation with the Cambion, and news flooded in, none of them good.

Lumos was determined to call off our tentative ceasefire when he learned all of his men had died at the hands of my apprentice. He changed his mind when he heard about Rin.

"Let me see him," he demanded.

"No."

I didn't want him getting inside Rin's head.

And while keeping him a secret was a legitimate strategy, I long decided it was the wrong one. We needed him for the final fight, and Lumos was going to find out one way or the other. It could be on my terms.

It was a gamble how he'd react, and I had a feeling I couldn't have hidden him any longer, even if I wanted to.

"I can see why they reacted the way they did," he said over the fresh comms and he was using to connect us to the rest of the party. "They recognize demon royalty when they see it. You are a living, breathing marvel. Generations of history and research, all rendered obsolete in front of biology and natural selection."

"I'm sorry," Tony Stark chimed in. "Are we just going to pretend like we're not talking to the literal prince of darkness?"

"Don't you mean, Light?" Pietro joked. "Haven't you been paying attention?"

"What do you mean he's Royalty?" Magneto asked, giving voice to what the team was all wondering.

"He didn't tell you. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. The creation of Ascendants like him is half the reason why we're invading the surface. Our father desires the advancement and evolution of our race. Surrendering him will likely save thousands of mutants from a horrible fate," he said.

"Are you saying the string bean led us to the slaughter?" hissed Sabertooth. "I ought to rip his throat out."

"Watch yourself, bub," Logan snapped.

"Somehow this doesn't surprise me," Lauren, the sniper said. "After everything you and that uppity girlfriend said about the past and doing what's right. You kept this from us."

"Not all secrets should be given breath," T'Chaka added. "Knowledge of the child's condition would've only sown further division within our ranks."

"For something this important, we should've been read in," Lauren insisted. "We could've saved so many people?"

"No, you wouldn’t have.” I finally spoke up. "For argument's sake, let's say that we believe Lumos, which is a big fucking mistake by the way. The only reason he's even throwing in his lot with us is because of the Alien. He doesn't want them fucking up whatever plans they have for us.

Giving up Rin, who is fourteen years old, by the way, wouldn't have changed much. I found out about Rin's dual nature shortly after the demons stopped taking mutants. They would've taken him and still fucked us over anyways. Feel free to deny it, Lumos."

I spun to Lumos, who was assessing me with inquisitive eyes. There was the slightest tilt of his soft lips as if to say, ‘well played.’

"Our intentions for the human world have never been much of a secret," the demon prince said. "It is our birth right. Our father Belasco ruled hundreds of years ago, and we have risen to the surface to reclaim our birth right."

"That's not ominous at all," Tony commented.

"He's the embodiment of evil," I said in a monotone voice. "I get it. We still have an entire continent of monsters to eradicate.”