Corvus POV
"I would've let you ascend in time, son. You could've ruled Limbo after I claimed the Earth."
It was a bold-faced lie if I'd ever heard one. Father would never willingly cede power. Not to me. Not to anyone.
"Have the decency not to lie before you kill me," I spat at him, bucking against the chains. I tugged at the dregs of my demonic energy, trying to gather a spell, but the moment it pooled, it bled away — siphoned by the runes etched into the chains.
I cursed. The draining effect could only be interrupted by overloading the array with energy or physically breaking the chain. I had neither the strength nor the ally to do either.
Father ignored me, nodding to the Second Scientist—a witch like the first. She shuffled forward, offering a bow so low her hair brushed the floor.
"My Lord, we've been awaiting this day. The First Son made most of the arrangements, but it will take time to adapt the procedure for your physiology."
The second scientist was a bit dumpy, overeager, but just as brilliant as the first. It was why I kept around despite her flaws. Her betrayal hadn't been all that surprising. The First had been.
"Excellent," Belasco said. He turned back toward me, raising a hand. A magic circle of violet and magenta flared to life in his palm, humming with layered gravitational runes.
"I wish you could've lived to see it, Son-- your grand opus."
It started softly, echoing from the far corners of the cave, multiplied and distorted by the acoustics until it was everywhere.
Belasco's head snapped toward the pods, his red eyes narrowing as his gravity spell expanded violently, crushing a spot in the chamber with an implosion of gore and stone.
But the laughing didn't stop. If anything, it multiplied—ten voices, then a hundred, until it drowned out everything. Then the shots came.
Belasco flung out defensive spells, countering an avalanche of flame, void, Ice, and gravity bullets.
The air screamed with energy, and two demons were vaporized before Belasco set up a massive kaleidoscopic barrier shielding every equipment and demon in the cave except me.
He purged the cavern with a single flash of blue fire.
I braced for death. The world dissolved into flame and thunder—
And I opened them behind a flickering prism of energy.
A woman stood before me with an impish smile on her face. Beyond us, the room was transformed. The air stank of sulfur, and lava dripped from the ceiling, pooling into a growing lava stream. Unsurprisingly, the equipment and traitors remained untouched, gawking on in horror.
Another copy of the woman floated before Belasco, her expression casual, almost teasing.
"How?" he demanded. "I killed you."
"You're a smart man," she winked. "You can figure it out."
He raised a hand to erase her, but hesitated — curious despite himself.
"You won't teleport out," he said. "I've sealed the space around this cave."
She laughed — a sharp, cutting sound. "You really think that'll stop me?"
"Who are you?" Belasco's red eyes gleamed like molten suns.
"Shin sends his regards."
Space cracked like glass, and the world folded in on itself. I dropped to my side, crashing into a metallic grate in a chamber I didn't recognize. The air was different—no sulfur, no heat. It tasted clean. Artificial.
"Where are we?" I asked, tugging against the chain. The energy siphoning spell still held, but the Bonds of Cytorak were fading fast. I'd be free in minutes. Less, if I could talk my way out of this situation—though that seemed unlikely.
"On a distant rock halfway across the Milky Way," the woman said, standing up and brushing herself off before turning toward me.
"I know your face," I said slowly, memory sparking. "You're one of Nick Fury's recruits."
"We parted ways some time ago," she said, leaning against the wall. "I got a better offer."
"This Shin person?" I asked, eyes narrowing. "What does he want with me?"
"He wants you to continue your work," another voice answered. I turned to find a second copy of her standing behind me. Beside her stood seven tanks filled with living bodies—designs hauntingly similar to mine.
"You've been spying on me?" I growled. Had I truly been that careless?
"Hardly your fault," the first copy replied. "Your senses are strong, but limited. You're a big fish in a small pond—powerful, sure, but in the grand scheme of things… insignificant."
My jaw clenched. "And what does Shin expect in return for supporting insignificant old me?"
"Loyalty," the second clone said, pressing a button on a remote. The chambers around us hissed open, revealing the faces of mutants—some I recognized, others I didn't.
"C-cloning?" I stammered, and she nodded. I've tried for many years, but never managed to successfully clone a mutant.
"They're all Omega-level," she said casually.
My blood ran cold.
"And that's just the beginning," she added. "Shin demands much of his followers, but he gives far more."
"Who is he?" I asked, my voice low.
"A god beyond time and space."
Dante's POV
I stood across from Yelena, who wore a wicked smile on her perfect face. Her black katana gleamed in the artificial sunlight, and beside her stood ten more Widows, each encased in the matte silver of Sentinel II armor.
Nearly five days had passed since my meeting with Tony, and in that time, I had completed my armor, distributed a few more sets, and ensured every member of the team had put theirs through rigorous testing. All that remained was field testing—and luckily, I had a few professional killers on retainer.
"Come on," I said, gesturing to the Widows. "I've got a meeting to get to."
My armor shimmered beneath the mirror dimension's artificial light.
The women exchanged a telepathic pulse through the mind runes I'd carved into their suits. I gave them the courtesy of not listening in as I summoned my Double-sided Spear and Wall, my great shield.
I knew exactly how dangerous those suits were. I'd built them to take down Ascendants and monsters like me. I had to take them seriously.
The first attack came instantly — a synchronized wave of gravity and telekinetic force that tore the ground open. Shards of stone came at me at blistering speeds.
I spun the spear and lashed out, splitting an approaching island-sized fragment in two with an overpowered Wind Cut, then charged through the debris, my shield trailing telekinetically.
Purple clouds gathered above—a warning of a supercharged thunder spell—and I barely registered the change before three Widows blinked in close, blades flashing.
Their black katanas were armed with an offensive stack of abilities meant to overwhelm and disorient, creating just enough chaos for a finishing blow. They were deadly in formation—especially under Yelena's command.
Their suits flared like miniature suns, propelling them at full Ancient Array enhancement speeds.
I swung out with my shield, deflecting a pair of Dimensional Cuts, and nearly lost my grip when Yelena's Telepathic strike came. It plagued me with an almost overwhelming wave of pure fear that I shook off almost instantly.
She must've burned all five Precision and Amplification runes in her blade. She did it again as she brought her blade down on my spear's haft, the impact resonating like a thunderclap.
The blow collided with my spear's haft, the impact resonating like a thunderclap. My armor's absorption runes drank in most of the energy of the blow, and I parried the rest, turning the attack back on her with my parrying subskill.
Before she could recover, I wrapped her in a telekinetic hold and flung her toward her flanking partners. She vanished a split second before impact, reappearing behind me in a blur of light.
The other Widows closed in as well, blade lighting up for another Dimensional Cut.
I pivoted on, slashing out with my spear and channeling the parrying subskill of my Transcendent Symphony of Death skill. The sweep countered all three attacks and released a shockwave that sent the Widows flying backward, right as the lightning fell.
Fifty bolts—each one hitting at light speed.
I raised Wall and activated all five Ancient Aegis Runes. The conversion and stabilization runes kicked in immediately, siphoning raw energy from the lightning and feeding it back into the armor's internal well, which powered my Ancient Aegis Runes.
The cycle continued until the light faded and the rumbling stopped.
I stood untouched, much to the shock of the two Widows supporting Yelena. She, of course, didn't look surprised in the least. Her expression remained sharp, focused, and almost gleeful as she blurred forward in a burst of heat.
A portal shimmered open inches from my throat, and her blade crashed against my barrier.
The hit drained my armor's reserves faster than it charged them, and it gave ground group the opening they needed to unleash another massive spell.
A wave of psychic and telekinetic pressure slammed into me, pinning me down just long enough for the trio to unleash a combined Dimensional Cut.
I smiled.
Channeling Wind Manipulation through six layers of Amplification and Precision Runes, I released it all in one pulse. The air erupted, a shrieking storm of compressed force and debris that tore through the Widows. Not even the ground group was spared.
I spread my wings, shot forward, and struck the group from behind with another explosive wave, launching them into the oncoming tempest.
When the air finally stilled, most of them were sprawled out, groaning.
I scratched the back of my head and chuckled. "Maybe I overdid it."
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