"So does this hand win or lose then?", Tiki asked.

"Over mine, I'm afraid it does not. You have lost.", Luna replied.

"Stupid ass game!", Tiki tore up the cards, "If you want to play a real soldiers game, how about we play some good ol' Corostan Roulette! That should get your blood running instead of some half assed poker."

"I...don't think that would be practical.", Luna hesitated.

"Just use some half assed weak bullets if you ain't bullet proof to an extend. Tell you what, a common survival tactic is to blast focus one area with your demon powers and it'll harden up. Hence why survival rates are 95% when playing this game."

"What about the other 5%?", Terna asked.

"Uh...war hero status and a statue.", Tiki sweat a little bit.

"Seems a little redundant.", Yuno said with a straight face.

"You're redundant, you little shi-What the-?!", Tiki gazed up.

"Heaaaaa-", Magi appeared over the horizon, "Ghahak!"

Magi crushed through the remainder of the gates, cracking them all down to the ground, before crashing inside the main hall. She let out a huge grunt before the ground gave in to her fall, shaking the roof that everyone had positioned themselves on to.

Magi coughed, "God...damn!", she slowly got up.

"Holy shit, are you all right?", Tiki asked.

"Never...better.", Magi stood on her feet, "What the hell are you guys doing on the roof?!"

"We were preparing to ambush Dante. What the hell are you doing in a 10 meter crater?", Yuno asked back.

"Shit happens when you fight a newly found god of all destroying powers. And why isn't Yuno down here?! That was your position!"

"Well for one, you guys took your sweet time with this and for two, aren't I glad I didn't, because I'm sick of being crushed by peoples fat asses!", Yuno angrily replied.

"Why the hell did I think that bringing a bunch of kids for this was a good idea...", Magi whispered as she facepalmed.

"Well, I ain't a kid and yet I'm the one with my weapon on me! What happened?!"

Magi summoned a replica of her sword on her hand, "'No kid' my ass. What are you, like 500 years old? Practically a teen, if not a boarder-line adult. Yuno, get down here! He'll be coming shortly."

"So can everyone morph weapons in their hands now? Is that the general theme of how everyone's powers are going to roll from now on?", Yuno said with annoyance in his voice.

"News flash, I have Dante's powers. Periodically, forever, no idea.", Magi shrugged.

"What?!", everyone but Luna yelled in surprise.

"That leverages our advantage state greatly, however.", Luna said.

"Screw that, do you even know what are powers are capable of? This thing can poison you severely! I...I've seen it happen. Shadowers went berserk before...", Yuno paused for a brief moment.

"No kidding, I've seen it myself. On something...other, than a monster. Regrardless, focus on what we are doing now. Dante has far succeeded the level of danger I thought I'd be getting myself into.", Magi looked in the horizon, towards the Temple.

"Before or after you stole and raised him?", Yuno angrily said, descending from the roof.

"Yuno!", Terna scolded him.

"No, he's right. For a midget.", Magi intervened, "What he's not right about is the moment he chose to do this. You up there! Prepare right now!", she yelled at Terna, Tiki and Luna.

"Understood. Follow me.", Luna pointed at everyone's position.

"I'll start, ok? Need to know exactly what we are up against.", Tiki proposed.

"But-", Luna was interrupted.

"No 'buts' here. My demon parts allow way more damage to be taken, so if it really is as heavy as the Sentinel said, I want you to back out. And that's an order. Else I'll be the one killing you both.", Tiki looked at Luna and Terna.

"Got it...but same to you!", Terna bravely said.

Tiki scoffed lightly, "Heh. I'll see."

"Where's Anya in all of this by the way?", Yuno asked.

"Same with Hikari 2.0. Where is she?", Magi asked.

"She's been sitting in the throne room for awhile now. I don't know what she's doing and I don't care. I'm getting 'snap you [REDACTED] neck in half' vibes off her anyway.", Tiki angrily said.

"Good, at least someone stuck to the plan.", Magi said with relief.

"And...Anya?", Yuno asked again.

"What, you love her or something? She was with me a moment ago.", Magi said.

"With you when you got blasted into space by Dante?", Yuno worryingly said.

"Pretty much, yeah. And I only reached the stratosphere, mind you.", Magi looked ahead.

"Then that means-!", Yuno stopped and looked ahead.

In front of the palace's plaza, another loud thud was heart as everyone tightened their positions, Magi moving ahead. Anya had crashed on the plaza alongside Dante, them facing against each other. Bleeding heavily from head to toe, Anya fiercely held on to both Magi's sword and her chainsaw blade, desperately trying to hold off against Dante's easy going attacks, him clearly treating the situation as a non threatening matter.

"Are you done yet?", Dante approached Anya.

"Nah, I'm still in the game.", Anya smirked.

"Tsk. God, I really should have left you for dead back there. Only thing you ever think of is how to humiliate me by fantasizing about all those childish scenarios in your head."

"Beats me. Hikari did admit to you being cute when flustered. Can't even bring yourself to harm lil' ol' me, huh? Tough on the outside and creamy on the inside! Even now!", Anya chuckled.

"How the hell do you find this being a case where I'm now actively trying to kill you? Hmm...perhaps I did go hard on the head this time.", Dante menacingly looked at Anya.

"Nah, softie! You've just been goin' at with your fists! Come on! Draw that sword already! Or is it just for show?! Can't-ghk!", Anya got the air knocked out of her by Dante's powerful fist on her stomach forcing her to bend forwards and support her weight with both her swords.

"Stay out of my way.", Dante grabbed Anya by the throat, "I know exactly why you were here with her. Everyone else is here too, right? Have they betrayed me too? Where's Ikarisa?!", Dante squeezed on Anya's throat.

"Can't-tell-no-breath-", Anya paused between her words, trying desperately to breath.

Magi slammed the ground in front of Dante, clearly announcing her presence to him, trying to get him to ignore Anya.

"Hey! Kid! Over here!", Magi pointed her left hand at him.

"Seriously? I thought you ere on the moon?", Dante softened his grip on Anya.

"Only reached the stratosphere.", Magi said with a cocky voice, "Now come on, give me an actual battle here! No flash fists!", she brought her sword up on her torso.

"Fine.", Dante dropped Anya behind him, her collapsing from her injuries, "You want me to leave Anya, there you go. What's your end goal anyway, to delay me till my abilities kill me? You do realize that's not happening any time soon, right? And even if I get overloaded again, you know I won't stop. Your plan is over. Because I either die or get answers. Ikarisa, where is she?"

"Take a lucky guess, kid. And for your information, name's Hikari."

Dante scoffed, "I'd say I was surprised if her name wasn't the only thing that she lied about. You all convinced me then. I'm going to beat the shit out of every single one of you while I follow your bodies like breadcrumbs back to her.", Dante widened his stance, preparing for an attack.

"Beats me, let's start.", Magi followed after his movements.

"Die."

Dante dashed and suddenly appeared before Magi, swinging his massive sword upwards and shattering her stance, ending the up swing motion by pinning his sword to the ground before slamming the ground with his foot and exploding his power on her from bellow, sending her upwards. He jumped after her as he morphed two knifes, unleashing a multitude of red flash slashes, ending that sequence by morphing a sword and taking her down with him with a plunging attack, before grabbing his sword and elegantly dashing back and forth in a circle formation around Magi, cutting all along the motion and leaving behind a trace for neon red lines the size of his blade's cutting edge. He then brought the sword to the level of his chest on it's flat side, his face reflected in the entirety of the blade's length as he pushed against it with his other arm, preparing to explode the lines left behind.

"Never easier.", he scoffed.

Magi recovered quickly, adrenaline rushing in her veins, "God dammit!"

Magi mustered her strength while suspended in the slashes and threw her sword at Dante, forcing him to break his stance and deflect it. The slashes slowly faded away after not being detonated, Magi taking back over and jumping over Dante, grabbing back her deflected sword and reengaging.

"Now it's for real! Hea!", Magi clashed on Dante's sword.

Dante firmly held his position, "Why are you making this hard?! Just die already!", he pushed Magi away.

Magi scrapped the ground, holding her stance, "Can't die before showing you your surprise! Here!"

Magi morphed a bunch of weapons on top and around Dante, all pointing directly at him. In the brief moment of him realizing how Magi had gotten hold of his powers, Magi snapped her hand forward, tossing every single weapon directly at Dante. Before her pant can turn into victory's laughter, she witnessed the most fearsome thing yet. Dante simply held his position and shifted his stance, welcoming each and every one of those weapons in from their onslaught. The sound of multiple clings and clangs of clashing metal was swiftly heard in a mesh from the sheer speed of Dante's movements. In what seemed like an instant, the surrounding battlefield was completely covered with transparent morphed weapons pinned to the ground, with Dante standing in the middle with a stance that looked as if he had just finished a swing of his sword.

Magi stuttered, "Holy...shit..."

Dante relieved his stance, "Stand. Down.", he threated Magi.

Magi instinctively put her sword in front of her, "Sorry...I can't. I'm doing this for you."

Dante scoffed, "Enough is enough.", he seethed his sword while twisting his waist backwards on it.

In a flash Dante unleashed a massive and devastating frontal slash of neon red, shattering Magi's sword and remaining armor while completely widening his stance at the front. Magi was completely unable to make a move as she was seemingly suspended in place. As if time and space simply froze her in place, Dante turned around and flicked his blade, dispersing the aura gathered around it. The large slash line started to rapidly absorb surrounding air before unleashing a massive explosion that engulfed Magi. What was left was a shattered battlefield with Anya collapsed on one side and Magi on the other, the transparent weapons disappearing and only leaving behind their point of impact to the ground. Dante stood in the middle of the field, dusting off his blade and shoulder from the kicked up dust.

Dante looked around him, realizing briefly what had happened, "So this is how it will be? Hmm...they were right all along. But-", he jolted from a small rush of pain on his chest, "Ghk! Not...before this.", he recovered from the heavy pain.

Completely ignoring the signs his body showed him as an indication of an overload, Dante dashed and pressed forward. He quickly made his way to the main gates, knowing full well that his time was quickly running out time. It wasn't long at all before he found himself standing in front of his own Guardian.

"You senseless piece of shit...I know that I let my guard down briefly. I know you've dipped in my memories. How much of an oxymoron was it that you out of all people would call me numb of feeling when you chose to side with a liar?!", Dante angrily yelled at Yuno.

"Listen to me. It's not that we want to hurt you...I know Dante, I really do. But you need to realize it's not black and white on every side! It's complicated...but just know there are no sides here!", Yuno tried to calm down Dante.

"Then back off. If there are no sides then you know what I'm truly after. Answers. So back off. You and I know how it'll go anyway."

"Friendly reminder that our powers understanding is held by me.", Yuno morphed his sword.

"Friendly reminder that you won't be able to match me in a thousand years. And I know most things about them too...", Dante smiled evily.

"Wait...", Yuno paused.

"You thought I'd be leaving to enter my head without drawbacks? Touché, Yuno."

"How can you enter my head?! It's supposed to be an Guardian exclusive ability!"

"I thought so too. But it's only fair this way, right? Now back off, I won't say this again."

Yuno stuttered, "Dante please...you have to stop already! I told that it's not just black and-"

"Shut up! Just shut up already! I'm more than willing to have these powers drive me to blowing myself up than live in a constant shadow where I only get fed with questions than answers! Either you let me pass and let me get this over with, or completely delay me and I blow up! And we both know that if one of us gets it, we both do...so get back and let me do this, unless you all want this rescue mission to end up the opposite way you want it to.", Dante yelled.

"You get your answers, then what?! What's going to change?! Having clarity?! Some things are best left alone and secret!", Yuno yelled back.

"Yeah...you would definitely be the one to know. And this missing clarity already caused me everything I have. You're not afraid of a monster with infinite power. You're afraid of the fact that I've got nothing to lose!"

Yuno lost his temper, "You past-stuck moron! You have no idea how heavy what you just said is!"

Dante placed his sword on his neck, "Do I?"

Yuno froze momentarily, affected with the events he just witnessed through Dante's memories. To other, it was Dante holding that knife in front of his homelands ruins. To Yuno it was but a small, confused child in front of a tree facing the horizon.

"We both know I'm resilient to damage more than others, Yuno. But I ain't invincible. So come on...show me exactly how much you mean this. Don't even try to stop the blade...you and I are also well aware of my reaction time. One wrong move and I'll place myself right on that spot where I should've died along with Cecilia. Question is weather or not you're willing to place your life on it."

A long moment of silence filled the up and coming battlefield, as Yuno tightened his grasp on his morphed sword, trying to figure out his next move. As his breathing relaxed and his rushing mind came to a calm, Yuno simply let go. His blade fading away and his face pointing to the ground, Dante calmly seethed his sword and moved forward, expressionless and blank in emotion. Coming up to Yuno's side, he uttered a few words to cut right through him.

"Turns out when it comes to your life, you don't question much, huh? Good. You have something left."

Yuno simply stood there and took the words directly to heart, his lips paralyzed over not knowing what to say. Dante moved forward towards the entrance of the destroyed castle, before he paused in an instant.

"Oh, and Tiki.", he said loudly before smashing a nearby pillar.

The pillar caused another part of the rooftop where Tiki was hiding on to collapse, causing her to fall directly next to Dante. Before she could his the ground, Dante broke her fall by firmly placing his hand on her neck, cutting her completely off air.

"I'll be having this back.", Dante grabbed his amulet from Tiki's pocket and put it in his.

"Why-you-", Tiki mustered all her strength and swiped her axe right by Dante's face.

Dante easily grabbed her arm, the axe a few inches away from his face, "No more dragging me down."

He proceeded to ruthlessly and mercilessly drive his other hand on Tiki's neck on to her grabbed hand, with a massive snapping sound echoing throughout the ruins. As air started flowing back in and Tiki gasped deeply, it was followed by a horrific set of screams and yelps. Tears not suiting Tiki's personality started covering up her face with her rough self fading in their reflection. Dante then simply moved forward unfazed of everything he had just done, leaving behind everyone else who was outside to rush to Tiki's aid. Leaving everyone behind with Tiki constantly screaming and yelping, moving quickly throughout meaningless ruins, all the way to what he remembered being the throne room. Inside, he knew that the one who would spout out his answers to the questions was hosted, without realizing exactly what he was about to come across. In the meantime, echoes were constantly dispersing from the room, signifying her readiness. Enemy sat at the throne with her legs crossed and a bored laying of her body back on the seat, talking to Hikari out loud.

"You are slowly losing your mind then. I keep telling you all that you really have no idea what kind of monster he is. Those screams are from his friends. Imagine a passerby. Some poor soldier on the other side. Those who are building themselves are his largest enemies...", Enemy rolled her eyes.

"Why are you constantly so...on edge about Dante? I'm telling you, they're two different things. And besides...you were the one who did the-", Hikari was interrupted.

"Please. I am your other half. His relationship with the 'Old Dante' is simply symbiotic. The shit you are all doing will get you all killed. Case in point, the one who screamed right now is obviously his awakening as his true self. Hence why the other guy inside him obviously decided to reside there. Powers and personality are similar, buildup is similar...really, what more is there to say? Back then, you had my body as well, and even then you were afraid of it. I'm something similar...so that allows me to diverge my path from his and come back to bite him in the ass."

"You aren't realizing many things...you know I'm telling you that because I know you for all this time, right? Our bodies and souls are detached but one, but that doesn't mean you should do all this. I can really protect myself when it comes down to it."

"Back then you didn't. Hikari...it takes more than power and ability to face the world. You simply lack understanding of it. Speaking of which, this Dante isn't like the other one. He is actually able of infinite power. How many warriors and legends from every place, dimension, timeline and outer space would want what he has...challenging him would be their demise without a doubt. And even then, like I told you, if they had this infinite power, what would come off it? Sure, power. Good. I've come to hate the affliction we both have and him who uses it like so. And in the end what does it mat-", Enemy stopped herself.

A sword flew through the door and aimed directly for Enemy's head. In her flawless reactionary moment, she tilted her head on the side and avoided the sword that pinned itself in the middle of the throne's seat.

"Quite rude to interrupt like this.", Enemy said with mere annoyance.

Dante blasted the iron doors wide open to the sides, entering the room with a pompous rhythm. The moment the dust cleared itself and Enemy's face was clearly shown to him, he froze on the spot, not from fear, but a relenting and rapidly building hatred surging from within him.

"What are you doing here?", Dante clenched his fists.

Enemy lifted her bored arm next to the blade and imply flicked her finger, sending the massive sword flying to her side with zero effort, as she was simply flicking away a bug.

"Say that was actually a klutz named Hikari sitting here. What would've happened exactly?", Enemy said with a hint of disgust.

"Answer the god damn question!", Dante yelled.

"Do kindly shut your ass up on that matter, I asked first.", Enemy kept provoking him.

"She would...", Dante briefly paused, "Screw you!", he lashed.

Enemy sighed, "Considering you're looking for answers and went to do this at Hikari, I'd say that your mind is already starting to whistle."

"So where is she?", Dante asked again.

Enemy slowly got up from the throne cracking her neck and preparing for the inevitable, "News flash: me and Hikari are the same. Welcome her alter ego."

Dante simply stood in awe to the information that was just revealed to him, knowing his worst nightmare was before him, without ever thinking that it would ever be one he so surely thought to be powerless.

"What..."

Enemy cracked her knuckles and stretched her arms back, "Come on, let's hear it. You took too long anyway and I'm bored.", enemy did a couple short hops.

"I'll kill you...", Dante menacingly summed his sword again.

"You don't say.", Enemy scoffed.

"You think acting all badass will intimidate me? Then how's this?!"

Dante dashed directly at Enemy, sword firmly thrusted towards her heart, trying to end it in an instant. Enemy quickly summoned her own sword and took a full force upwards swing in front, sending both her and Dante's sword flying and breaking his form. She proceeded to grab his thrusting hand back with he swinging hand, pulling a full reversal of his move.

"Who said anything about 'acting', dickhead?", Enemy looked directly at Dante.

Enemy then proceeded to make a full force thrust of her leg upwards with all her might, aiming her knee directly on Dante's slippery salmon with enough force to counteract his forward momentum. Cutting his trajectory and instead suspending him in the air for a moment, Enemy lightly tossed Dante in front of her and turned her knee strike into a frontal kick that connected with Dante's face. The force of the kick was so severe that Dante was send flying at an angle, directly through three different walls and out the castle's front end.

"Let's do this...", Enemy softly exhaled.

Enemy blasted forward with her power, summoning her lance and going directly after Dante to engage in one of her hardest battles throughout all she had been through.