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Dust still danced in the air, swirling over the crater that divided the world into two destinies.
On one side, the king of the past—Dante, shrouded in shadows and power, his eyes black as the absence of everything, power dripping from his pores, the poison whispering in his body like a cruel reminder of decay.
On the other, Mei Nuhay, the blazing empress, whose presence made light hesitate, wrapped in a dress of living energy, her hair like a burning dawn, her eyes with the glow of a thousand furious suns.
They collided.
Again.
But this time, the world felt it.
The impact reverberated for miles. The clouds were torn. The waters of nearby rivers receded.
In the Sif headquarters, screens exploded trying to process the level of spiritual energy.
In other nations, alarms sounded without explanation—sensors, radars, all pointed to a single epicenter: the ruined city where gods clashed.
From atop a destroyed building, Tekio and the others watched in silence.
— I can't… keep up… I've never seen Mei fight like this — Stella murmured, panting.
— You don't need to. — Fenra said, eyes fixed. — Just watch… and remember… In her teens, Mei trained for hours on end to perfect her own power.
She developed her own techniques and uses them masterfully now.
She wanted to be the star that shines and drives away the darkness…
Dan stood with clenched fists.
Aisha, silent, felt the ground tremble beneath her feet.
Akira, with half-closed eyes, saw beyond the movements—studying the flow, the dance of fire and darkness.
Down below, the world exploded.
Dante slid through the air, cutting space with shadow blades that twisted like serpents.
Mei spun between them, leaving trails of heat that melted the very air.
She stopped mid-leap and pointed two fingers at his chest.
— Triple Solar Snap.
Three simultaneous explosions emerged from her fingertips, like concentrated stellar shots.
Dante blocked with a shield of compressed shadows, but the force pushed him dozens of meters back.
She appeared above him.
— Ever heard of stellar magnetism?
She began to conjure with the tip of her index finger.
— So hot it attracts everything… even you, little king.
Dante tried to pull away, but his body trembled and burned with the heat.
The poison.
The spell he was about to cast failed by milliseconds—a tiny break, imperceptible to almost everyone.
But Mei saw it.
— Tsk… what a shame. I'd have loved to see what you were about to unleash.
She descended with a kick that made the ground collapse. The city cracked in a radial pattern, like a flower falling apart.
Dante fell to his knees, bracing himself on the ground.
— Too early to fall — he said. — This… isn't even half of me.
The shadows around him vibrated.
— Veil of Hekath.
A black field swallowed everything around them for an instant. The light vanished. The sounds disappeared.
When it returned—Mei had been thrown back.
Cut on the face.
She wiped the blood with her thumb and licked it.
— So you still know how to play.
Dante rose with difficulty.
— You're faster than I expected…
Mei rolled her neck. The crack of her vertebrae echoed among the ruins.
— You talk too much.
She spread her arms.
And the sky… changed.
The clouds spun like inverted spirals. The heat intensified. The light shifted in tone.
From Mei's chest, a core of incandescent energy began to glow.
— Phase 4: Scarlet Supergiant.
The world seemed to stop.
Dante swallowed dryly.
Mei's skin gleamed like magma. Each step left molten footprints in the ground. The flaming aura now resembled a multiplied solar halo—five times larger than before.
She raised her hand.
— Core Collision.
Three bright points appeared around her, orbiting at absurd speeds—pieces of condensed stars.
She hurled the first one.
Dante created a triple barrier.
The sphere pierced the first layer.
The second.
The third.
Exploded on top of him with gravitational force.
BOOOOOOOOM.
The entire city shook.
From the observers' perspective, it was as if a new star had been born and died in a single instant.
Fenra looked away.
Dan fell to his knees.
Tekio, even with the mark vibrating on his back, couldn't move.
The glare faded.
In the center, Dante still standing… but missing half of his left arm. And bleeding.
— This is… unacceptable — he snarled.
The shadows around him began to pulse with an irregular rhythm.
Dante was forcing something his own body rejected.
Mei just clicked her tongue.
— Tsk, tsk… you shouldn't mess with that now, little king.
— You… don't understand...
— I understand everything.
She advanced.
The two remaining cores orbiting her merged.
And the scenery vanished.
Literally.
The heat became so intense that the light around them collapsed into absolute red.
Everything became the core of a star.
And there they were—dancing in chaos.
Mei, with an insane laugh, her flaming fists spinning like solar hammers.
Dante, with the eyes of a wounded god, conjuring the last layers of absolute darkness.
Each blow now deformed reality.
Buildings crumbled upon contact.
The city became a cosmic field.
What was at stake was no longer just a fight.
It was the title of the world's ultimate strength.
And both wanted to claim it… with their own hands.
The core split.
The living star created by Mei began to vibrate in collapse—not from weakness, but because the two bodies inside refused to yield.
Inside the blazing sphere, where light and sound no longer existed, the two continued exchanging blows.
Dante spun his body and punched Mei's stomach with brutal force.
She spat blood, but laughed.
Countered with a hook to his chin, cracking the red sky around them.
The star vibrated in collapse.
— NOW THIS IS A FIGHT! — Mei screamed with a maddened smile.
— This is madness — Dante retorted, panting.
And then…
Dante raised his missing arm.
The flesh returned.
The bones formed, one by one.
Black veins pulsed in the space between his fingers.
But the heat of that star would destroy him over time.
— Dawn of the Blood Seal… — he murmured.
— Ah, no — Mei said, already understanding.
The arm had been reborn, but it was no ordinary arm.
It burned with dark energy and ancient inscriptions.
Dante attacked.
A punch of dense energy, sealed in layers of ancestral shadow.
BOOOOM.
The blow pierced the star's core.
Shattered it.
The stellar structure fragmented like glass.
Mei was hurled miles away.
Her body carved deep trenches in the ground. She destroyed an entire block before stopping.
Silence.
Flames consumed the rubble.
Dante floated over the remains of the destroyed star.
— The flame has been extinguished.
But… she hadn't.
Mei moved.
Torn. Bloodied. Hair in tatters.
But alive.
Very alive.
She spat a puddle of blood and laughed.
— KHHHHHH—HAHAHAHA!
A drone, damaged by the explosion, fell near her.
Its lights still flickered. The camera was still transmitting.
Mei looked at it. Recognized it.
— …Are we being filmed?
She rose slowly, muscles trembling.
Jumped in place twice.
Snapped her fingers.
Rolled her neck.
Dante watched from afar, confused.
— What are you doing?
Mei pointed to the sky.
Dozens of drones hovered, recording.
— The whole world is watching, little king.
— …And does that matter?
She flashed a dangerous smile.
— It matters to me.
Because I love attention.
The wind shifted.
The temperature rose instantly.
— Get ready.
— Why? — Dante asked, eyes narrowed.
Mei rolled her shoulders, the flames growing around her.
The stellar aura resurfaced, now mixed with something more tribal… more instinctive.
— Because now…
I'm going to put on a show.
She exploded with speed.
Appeared in front of him in a blink.
The punch came with such force that Dante crashed through three buildings.
She appeared above and kicked him back to the ground.
Then dragged his face across the asphalt with her foot.
— YEAH!! — Mei screamed in ecstasy.
His face was being torn apart on the asphalt.
He tried to defend himself, but Mei pursued him like an animal.
A flaming whirlwind spun around her body, like a solar hurricane.
— COMET SHOWER!
Successive blows. Rapid. Brutal.
He could barely raise his arms.
— This is for everyone you hurt, you son of a bitch!
Punch.
Elbow.
Double kick.
— This one for EXISTING!
She grabbed his face with her hands.
— You're gonna feel this one.
She dragged his face across the asphalt for meters.
Sparks burned his skin. Flesh tore. Bones cracked.
When she stopped, half of Dante's face was raw flesh.
The world watched.
Children cried in shelters.
Soldiers watched on trembling screens.
The Twilight Devotees shouted orders in panic.
Entire governments fell silent.
The Reapers watched in shock.
Sifs, in the far corners of the Earth, fell to their knees.
The entire world watched on every possible and visible screen.
Everyone cheered with every blow.
Because whether they were good souls or not, everyone's lives depended on the outcome of that fight.
— Dante, the immortal king who required nations to die, is being destroyed by a single woman. Said one of the world leaders.
But then…
— …Enough. — Dante murmured, his mouth bloodied.
He rose with a tremor.
The shadows around his body began to pulse grotesquely.
— Time to use what you shouldn't have forced out of me.
He whispered something in a tongue not of this world.
The ground split open.
From the center of the Earth…
It rose.
A DRAGON.
But not just any dragon.
It was a Necro-Soul Dragon.
Made from the fusion of demons, curses, corrupted spirits, and sealed beasts.
Its body was a tangle of flesh, bone, shadow, and fused souls.
Eyes of various species screamed from its skin.
Rotting wings beat the air like trumpets of hell.
Its mouth… multiple.
— Essence of the Hundred Hells: The Judgment of Kharazeth.
The dragon roared.
The roar tore through the clouds.
An abyss opened around the city.
The world stopped.
Mei looked at the creature… and smiled.
— Now we're talking…
She snapped her fingers and her body began to change.
The flames became transparent, like solar gas.
Her hair dissolved into particles of fire.
A new form emerged.
— …Time for the Planetary Nebula.
To be continued…