Once outside, the world had turned into hell. Above their heads, winged mutants scoured the skies.
Some of the creatures—once neighbors, children, or elderly folk—crawled on all fours, gnawing on the still-warm corpses of trapped pedestrians.
Others leapt from rooftop to rooftop, sprouting leathery wings or multiple eyes.
Dante shoved Ginny against a collapsed wall.
— "Flying ? No damn way," he muttered. "Those things have me beat up there."
Ginny nodded again, then pointed a finger and drew a small circle in the dusty ground.
— "You got an idea, don't you ?" Dante asked.
She looked up, locking eyes with him.
— "Now you're speaking my language. And I'm speaking yours."
— "If you think about what I think so you're a fucking genius... I knew you were smart when you wanted to be."
He took a deep breath and activated his technique.
— "Clairvoyance."
His pupils widened, turning gold. Clairvoyant—one of many stolen techniques.
Suddenly he saw her through Jophiel's eyes. A living room. But Lexie was there, Nash too.
Annabelle had a blanket on her lap, and a fourth figure—a cyborg he didn't recognize—was handing her a glass of water. They were... safe.
He was about to close his eyes when—
Rowen's voice.
— "You think about them, aren't you ? That little family that's not even yours. Think you can save them, Dante ? You think I can't reach them ?"
— "You've got no eyes left," Dante muttered, "but you still see, huh ?"
Rowen was amazed, how did Dante know ?
Dante stood up.
— "You wanna know where I am ? Then listen closely..."
And suddenly, a scream :
— "I AM DANTE !"
A voice thundered in the sky.
The mutants looked up. A figure was rising into the air, black wings spread wide, arms open. Dante ?
No. It was Ginny, transformed. An almost flawless illusion.
— "I'm the one you want, Rowen! THEN COME GET ME!" she shouted.
Rowen sensed the trap. It almost amused him.
— "You think that's enough ? You think you can fool me ?"
But the Horde wasn't thinking anymore, they just want to be free after killing Dante. The mutants surged toward Ginny, the sole target.
Even the airborne harpies shifted course, locked on the false Dante.
Rowen tried to warn them—but it was failure.
Ginny flew, weaving and dodging their claws.
Dante gathered his energy.
— "SoulLink..." he whispered, placing a hand over his heart, his breath quickened.
— "Sovereign March's... special Dante."
He pictured Ginny, traced her path.
— "Whether this works or not... we'll see."
The fusion of SoulLink and Sovereign'sMarch.
Two techniques made for different purposes.
Soul Link—to reunite two bonded beings, no matter the distance, so long as the bond was real. A last resort, draining and dangerous.
Sovereign's March, on the other hand, allowed teleportation to familiar ground. Places already walked.
He named his creation : IntersticeStrike.
A leap not toward a place—but toward a soul.
When he opened his eyes, he was behind Rowen.
The demon was reaching toward the skies, still chasing Ginny's illusion—but he realized too late.
Dante was already there. Barely two meters away, silent as mourning.
In his hands, an improvised weapon—a spear-like shape. An arcane construct forged from dark energy : his Harmonized form.
Dante struck without hesitation.
— "INTERSTICE."
The spear whistled through the air with a powerful energy blast and drove straight through Rowen's chest.
— "STRIKE !!!!"
The demon gasped, flesh constricting around the wound.
His heart—or what remained of it—had been pierced.
Rowen staggered.
— "You... caught me off guard... Dante..."
The young man yanked the spear free in a single motion.
— "Surprise, motherfucker."
Rowen collapsed to his knees... then rose again.
The earth cracked beneath them. Rowen growled, his arm twisting grotesquely.
His shoulder exploded into a mass of nerves, forming a bone tentacle that swung at Dante.
He dodged with a quick side leap.
A gust of air followed. Ginny is back.
She resumed her true form just as the illusion in the sky dissolved. Her claws had grown.
— "Take the left, master." she said.
Dante smiled, despite himself. They'd never rehearsed this and yet their bodies moved as one.
Rowen roared.
— "You dare mock me ? You... mortals."
Dante stared into the abyss of his sockets.
— "You're no god, Rowen. And me ? I'm hope—for the ones sick of dying because of scumbags like you who sold their souls to demons."
— "And you're just a withered old freak high on corruption." Ginny added with a mocking smile.
Rowen bellowed. His body twisted, bone spikes jutting from his arms, torn wings sprouting from his back.
He attacked without pattern or purpose—a mindless frenzy.
Ginny flipped through the air, dodging with ease, decapitating his head with her claws.
She spun, forcing Rowen to stumble back despite his missing head.
But Rowen head... laughed.
— "You think this body is all I am ? You... clueless little insects."
As the sky darkened, Ginny paled.
— "Dante... something's wrong is going to happen."
A constant suction drained the ambient energy.
Everything was being pulled inward—toward Rowen, or whatever he had become.
His body no longer really existed. He was a fusion of flesh, limbs, and gaping mouths.
He floated above his own Horde, fused with them, like his soul had nested inside the throat of a monster and let itself be swallowed.
He kept feeding. Devouring every trace of life nearby.
Ginny and Dante backed away, stomachs turning.
The smell, the pull—it was nauseating.
Dante slumped against a wall.
— "He's siphoning everyone... This isn't an attack—it's a goddamn mass suicide. He's eating everything just to stay alive."
Ginny looked at him. Her pupils were dilated.
— "We have to cut him off from the source. But I can't get close while he's absorbing."
— "If we rush in, we get sucked in. And ranged attacks ? He breaks down anything that flies."
Dante looked up, thoughtful.
— "But you... you might reach him. I mean... you're Gluttony. He digests ? You devour."
She stared, then gave a soft smile.
— "I can't eat him whole, It's absolute disgusting even for the demon that I am... but I can align myself. If he thinks I'm one of his, he might open a door."
Dante nodded. He knew it was risky—but not for Ginny.
Ginny said nothing more. She approached a still-living mound of flesh, fused at the edge of Rowen's mass.
A conscious creature. She knelt beside it, blank-eyed, then sank her fangs into the flesh.
The substance burned like acid. She gagged—but held on.
Just long enough to absorb what she needed : An energy print.
Her body shifted. Skin bristled, one eye turned red, the other black. She spat out a dark fluid and stood.
— "Got it. He'll think I'm one of his own."
Dante looked at her, worried—but had no time to respond.
Ginny had already raised her head toward Rowen.
The monster reacted. A growth detached from its mass, snake-like, made of bone.
It struck Ginny in the chest. But she didn't resist, she embraced it.
The connection was made. She smiled.
She'd opened a cavity inside herself—a hidden place : Her second stomach.
Rowen hesitated, confused.
— "Why... why aren't you fighting back ?"
Ginny answered with a childish voice :
— "Because I'm hungry too."
That's when Dante understood what she was doing.
He sprang into action, activating the Sovereign's March.
In an instant, he teleported a few steps away from Rowen—just close enough to draw the dark energy out of the mutants.
Rowen screamed in agony. He felt it—the rupture. The fusion was breaking.
On the other side, Ginny was vomiting blood. Her nose and ears were bleeding, but she held on.
— "He's... falling apart," Dante spat. "Keep going!"
Rowen lost his balance, the mass of flesh began to tremble.
The fused limbs were splitting apart. The voices inside him were screaming in panic. He couldn't control them anymore.
He had craved too much, drained too much. And now, he couldn't contain it.
He raised his arms to the sky in one final spasm.
— "FUCK Y—!"
But the word never came. His body twisted, then imploded.
Ginny collapsed. Dante caught her just in time, cradling her in his arms.
— "You okay litte baby ?"
She nodded slowly, eyes glazed over.
— "It tasted… bitter. Like burned coal."
Dante said nothing. His eyes stayed fixed on where Rowen had once stood.
Where once stood a figure of terror and control, there was now only a rancid puddle of flesh—a viscous mass crawling pitifully in search of shelter.
His body no longer resembled anything human, just a lump of skin.
Every twitch of that mass spoke of a will to survive, to escape. But Dante didn't grant him that luxury.
With slow, deliberate steps, he approached. His gloved hand plunged into the muck, pulled out what was left of Rowen, and, without a hint of hesitation, shoved it into Ginny's slightly open mouth.
— "Sorry, but this'll be the last time. I promise you."
She didn't even have time to react. The flesh melted down her throat, and her face twisted in disgust.
As she writhed with revulsion, instinctively searching for something sweet to kill the taste, her eyes darted around in panic.
That's when she spotted it—a thick-bodied black centipede.
Without missing a beat, Dante lunged and trapped it in a glass jar, sealing it tight.
The creature squirmed, desperate to escape. It would serve a purpose later.
The city—once shackled by fear—had fallen into silence.
The order Rowen had enforced had crumbled, and the horde of civilians no longer knew what they were even doing here.
With his eyes closed, Dante raised his arms. Taking a deep breath, he drew in the lingering corruption of Duraand.
The dark energy flowed into him, feeding his being.
Once, that power would've torn him apart from the inside. Now, he absorbed it with ease.
But he couldn't stay.
To cover his tracks, Dante issued one final command, exploiting the remnants of Rowen's power—copied through Ginny.
He released the prisoners—Lexie and the others—granting them all their freedom.
— "Forget me."
Like a mental fog, the memory of Dante, of what he had done, of what they had witnessed, vanished from their minds.
People looked at one another, uncertain, trying to understand why their hearts were still racing with fear they couldn't explain.
Peace began to return.
But at what cost ?