Once everyone was paying attention, the Great Wise Mage spoke:
"We are under attack. From outside, countless condemned souls—and the bounty hunters who were teleported here with you—have forced their way up through the lower circles of Hell. By following the trail Rey left behind, they reached this place's gates, and, to avoid being trapped in Purgatory, they are using the giants to move above the trees… I brought you here because, as your steward, it's my duty to protect you. This mountain is the midpoint and the safest spot in all this land. Silvia will be protecting the house. We must hold out until nightfall."
Everyone's eyes went wide; the news was anything but pleasant and more than justified all the trouble taken to bring this gathering together. Rey was caught off guard when the old man mentioned his name, and strangely enough, the ones who looked at him with disapproval were his two brothers, Katherine, and Miján.
Ehimus, Heroclades, Maryam, and Wulfgang, on the other hand, seemed happy—for their own reasons.
The Great Wise Mage went on:
"This is not the first time an attack like this has happened. With my power, I can regulate the invaders' entry, and the guardians of this place will be able to take care of them until night falls and all foreign bodies are swallowed by the endless cycle of destruction. By wind, fire, snow, water, and mud, the invaders will be devoured and turned into the magnificent fertilizer that keeps this landscape looking so wonderful."
Ehimus, with the bright delight of someone who had been missing a good fight, chimed in:
"Perfect timing, then! A little action. Wooo! And what if we help the guardians so you don't have to strain yourself so much to hold back the invaders' entry?" Her enthusiasm was louder than usual.
The Great Wise Mage widened his eyes and stroked his beard before answering:
"Your help will not go amiss, but my duty is to ensure your safety. If you want to fight, that is your decision."
"Just ignore these two sour faces," Heroclades said. "A good battle makes you forget your problems."
He was referring first to Miján and Katherine; then he pointed at the wolf, the vampire, and the elf.
"We insist—and we need it. Besides, we're the ones who brought those bounty hunters here from the other side in the first place, so it's on us to finish the mess we left half-done."
The Great Wise Mage, yielding to a risky proposition out of trust, nodded:
"Given your insistence, I'll accept your help. Though, once again, I must insist I won't be responsible for the safety of anyone who is not here at this point."
As he spoke, the sky split open in two, and a massive arm pushed through.
All around them, hundreds of thousands of decrepit, naked bodies flooded the heavens and plains with a collective war cry. Wulfgang bared his teeth in a feral grin and said:
"Break formation. From now on, you're authorized to do what you've always done best… Fight, kill, and win—no matter what!"
It was the signal everyone had been waiting for.
Heroclades, Ehimus, Miján, and Katherine vanished from sight in a blink, but Maryam stayed behind. As eager to fight as the others, she still remained because her maternal instinct outweighed everything else. Worried, she said:
"I must protect the little ones! I have to make sure they stay here. This is the only safe place."
Dante, having just spotted another "opportunity," burst out:
"I want to go with my mentor! He might need me!!!"
At his son's outcry, Wulfgang rested a hand on the vampire's shoulder. The wolf wanted his wife to have a little more faith in their son; Dante needed to learn what a real battle felt like. They had already argued about how he needed to "come down from his cloud."
Dante, hungry for attention and a validation of his point, threw his arms wide as if stating the obvious:
"Mother!"
"I won't allow it!" Maryam shouted back, her voice sharp with anger.
For the first time in front of her children and the others, the vampire who always smiled—no matter the situation—had wiped the smile completely off her face. That alone told everyone how serious this moment was.
Rey was the only one among the younger three who truly grasped the magnitude of the problem Dante was creating just by assuming that Father's authority weighed more than Mother's.
"What do you mean you 'won't'?" Dante shot back. "We're allowed to kill with justification! This is my chance to show you, Father, and the entire clan the results of my training. To prove Miján wasn't holding back."
He spoke almost laughing, pleased with his own confidence as a fighter, pleased with his mother's reaction.
A dry sound cracked in the air.
With the back of her right hand, Maryam struck one of her sons across the face—more to wipe that grin away than for his disrespect. Dante froze, stunned. He couldn't believe it. In his mind, it was impossible that his mother had hit him. She had attacked him. Did that mean she was his enemy now? That she no longer loved him?
"This is not a game, Dante," Maryam said, her gaze colder than ice. A chill so intense it snuffed out the glowing embers in her son's wolfish eyes.
Teeth clenched, Dante spoke under his breath, refusing to meet the strict white stare of his brother, who didn't seem inclined to help him, even though the moment would've suited him perfectly:
"It never was. I'm not useless—I'm a fighter… I'm invincible, and I'm the best. Let me prove it to you."
Wulfgang closed his eyes and shook his head at his arrogant son's declaration—the son who resembled him the most.
"Dante… I've tried to teach you values in this life. I've tried so hard, but I haven't managed to do it."
Everyone's attention shifted to the broad-shouldered wolf speaking with such sadness.
"Do you remember when you told Miján you wanted a sword? I made one for you and told Katherine to pass by and pretend she'd lent it to you. It was all so you'd learn to take care of what doesn't belong to you. But…"
"He left it rusting outside the scabbard. Never cleaned the blood, and ended up breaking it against a rock," Jhades cut in, sounding almost proud to point out his brother's mistakes.
Not entirely pleased with his vampire son's attitude, Wulfgang replied:
"Jhades, I showed you that solitude won't help you move forward. But even so, because you don't want to move forward, you chose to stay put in the same place. To the point that, like your brother Dante, you've also let the little Guardian of Paradise that Katherine found for you go hungry, even though it was meant to keep you company…"
Dante couldn't hold himself back anymore. He wasn't listening to his father's words. Distracted by the screams, explosions, and chaos exploding around them, the young wolf's attention belonged to what he thought were unique events he was missing out on. In a moment when he could have been out there, he felt he was wasting time listening to a father who knew nothing.
"What's the point? By now I could have taken down half the enemies. Both of them are forcing their roles as parents… They don't care whether we live or die. Aren't we just defective children anyway? Aren't we…?"
Rey stepped in, placing his hand on his brother's shoulder. The white-eyed boy had seen the frustration building in Maryam's eyes—frustration born from the fact that even with a slap and Wulfgang's lecture, nothing had changed inside Dante's head. That frustration was pushing her toward an ultimatum, one of those lines like: "Either you do as I say, or you're no longer my son."
But Rey also knew she hesitated before speaking, her gaze drifting toward Wulfgang as if weighing her options. Maybe because she knew the temperament of wolves once their eyes lit up and they felt cornered. They instinctively ran the other way, choosing the path that felt most like freedom—even if it led straight into danger.
Rey said:
"Mother, Dante won't back down—and if you keep arguing, all it'll do is push our hearts even further apart. Don't be afraid anymore; this is the moment. Let this be our initiation… I'll do everything I can not to die."
He stepped forward.
"Besides… Father is right. Dante needs to learn for himself what real combat is. And we need a chance to earn your love as the sons we are. If not… then you'll have to let us go."
The wolf pup's eyes widened; he straightened his back and puffed out his chest. He didn't like the idea of that bastard with no last name saying he would take responsibility for him—but it was still better than nothing. A complicity-smirk started to form on Dante's lips as he turned his head, only to meet the furious face of the very brother who had just defended him.
Rey went on:
"Dante, those words were unnecessary. Think carefully about what you're going to say before you open your mouth, or you'll regret it. This time I'll chalk it up to a flaw in your personality, but you'd better change."
Wulfgang knew the younger ones would never develop any real sense of belonging to the group if they weren't allowed to take risks. Still, it was obvious who was most likely to claim the role of leader among the three: his white-eyed son. Rey might not have the contagious enthusiasm of a rabble-rouser, but he stood out like the tip of a spear.
Maryam looked at Rey, and the frustration in her eyes softened. Of the three children, he was the one she could trust the most. He already had solid values, and he'd figured out on his own that this was their initiation, the trial they needed to pass to be accepted into the pack. For some reason, Dante fell silent under Rey's reprimand, and that only made Wulfgang's gaze grow sadder.
"I'm willing to help," Jhades added, as if the entire situation were no more than a minor inconvenience, "but not without a weapon…"
Dante narrowed his eyes and growled under his breath. He wanted to jump the brother who did nothing but find ways to stir up trouble, but he forced himself to hold back because Rey was there. Even so, he understood perfectly well that the vampire just wanted to look good, speak for his own benefit, and complicate everything.
Because of the blue-eyed boy's suggestion, both parents traded a look. Weapons? Where were they supposed to get weapons from? A weapon wasn't something a fighter could just pick up off the ground, nor could it be forged so easily. Sure, they could ask Heroclades to summon some, but he was busy.
The Great Wise Mage stepped in at just the right moment, offering the solution.
"I can provide you with the finest of all…" he said, in his usual playful tone. "I understand you're still very young, and a weapon is something special. An instrument that grows in power with its wielder, earned through hard work and more than a little luck. But in a drastic situation, measures must adapt. Your motive is to defend the place that belongs to you—to protect your training—and I will give you the means."
Maryam could do nothing but pull her children into a tight embrace and cry. She didn't want to let them go. Even as the mountain shook, the sky darkened, and a rain of enemies flooded the area, she refused to release them. The fear inside her was enormous—the fear of watching her children die and being unable to do anything because she hadn't loved them enough. She believed that maybe, with this "reunification," she could strengthen the love she felt. But how was she supposed to love her children when she'd never had enough time to truly be a mother?
The ligers, the site's first line of defense, fought with ferocity beside the other guardians, doing everything they could—but it clearly wasn't enough. A rumbling chain of explosions echoed across the land. The mother realized that maybe letting them go wasn't such a bad idea after all. The situation was so delicate she might not be able to protect her cubs. Letting them go into battle so early in their lives could be another way of losing them. But, as Rey and her husband had said, it was time to release them: "We need a chance for you to love us as your children."
As time seemed to slow and all surrounding sounds faded into a strange hush, Maryam decided to speak:
"Listen carefully… Don't be reckless. Taking a life is easy—and just as easy is losing the one you have. Stay back and wait for us to finish them all. Did you hear me?! You still don't belong to the group, and I do not trust you yet."
The mountain shook and shuddered again until it split in two. Wulfgang finally let the smile he'd been holding slip free. His body ignited, doubling in size and wrapping itself in layers of living fire, and then he vanished, launching himself into battle.
The vampire went on:
"Did you hear me!?" she repeated, shaking Dante by the shoulders, forcing him to answer.
Dante replied grudgingly, looking away:
"Yes."
A gigantic hand, covered in hundreds of limbs and belonging to some horrendous creature, lunged toward the five figures gathered at the mountain's peak. The Great Wise Mage raised a barrier that shattered the flesh and bone trying to crush them into a thousand pieces. In the aftermath, a torrent of blood poured over the sphere, coating it and blocking out the last of the divine light that had illuminated the land during the day.
Maryam unfurled her immense wings and spread them wide as she drew in the surrounding shadows, wrapping herself in black armor. Hovering in the air, her face twisted into the feral snarl of a beast, and she shot through the barrier like a bullet. The vampire raised her left hand to the sky and swallowed all the remaining divine brightness in Heaven, while with her other hand she gathered and solidified the blood of the giant whose severed arm was screaming its absence, until the creature was left dried out. With the giant's blood, she forged a thousand swords and a razor-edged net that stretched out in every direction.
Rey could see that his mother and the others were not fighting to survive, nor merely to protect themselves or out of fear. They were fighting as if this were the only way they knew how to release all the frustrations they'd piled up until now.
Maryam devoured the light and turned darkness into her strength, power, and mobility—but only up to the edge of the raging sea of flames. Within the fire, darting from side to side, was Wulfgang, setting the entire forest ablaze and turning the ground on the far side of the battlefield into molten lava, stopping only at the line of charred trunks.
Among the burned wood, Ehimus sat on the shoulder of one of many "small giants," surrounded by a whirling storm of vines that dragged and tore through the enemy like a living cyclone, though they did not spread farther thanks to bursts of white light.
Where the land, scarred by furrows, began, Katherine cleaved through everything in front of her with the edge of her enormous sword, splitting enemies in half and freezing the sides with black ice—even reaching the distant trees that formed the Ever-Changing Forest.
On the other side of the black ice, Miján riddled everything in his path with holes, explosions, and flashes from the ground to the sky, wielding a massive humanoid floating construct almost as large as a mountain.
At the far end of the circle, between Miján and Maryam, stood Heroclades, flooding the entire area with a raging river of black wolves that devoured, clawed, and detonated everything in their way.
From the little Rey could see, the adults were on a whole different level. So much so that they had to keep their distance from one another just to avoid hurting each other indirectly. Dante trembled with fear at the sight of their overwhelming power, yet he still believed it wasn't enough to pose any real threat to his supposed invincibility. Jhades, on the other hand, watched the elders with wide, fascinated eyes, as if they were holy figures worthy of worship and devotion.
Suddenly, up in the sky, right above the children's heads, the attention of the flying creatures was drawn to the explosion that went off when one of their own was sliced in half by a blade of blood and darkness. The three youngsters watched as a swarm of flying beasts pursued their mother across the battlefield, only to turn into a rain of blood the moment they hit the nearly invisible razor-fine web she had spread out. More and more giants appeared beneath a crumbling sky. Their screams rumbled across the land, making the ground quake, and still the elders refused to fall back.
Dante and Jhades dropped to the ground, crushed by the terror of seeing such monstrous beings for the very first time. Dozens of heads and twice as many arms pushed through the ceiling of that world, peering inside, searching for a way in.
"Aren't you scared?" the wolf pup asked his white-eyed brother.
Rey answered out loud, like someone who had already seen these creatures wandering outside of Hell:
"Why would I be?"
Jhades couldn't hide his unease.
"Even if the elders have a lot of power, the situation doesn't look very good for them. There are hundreds of massive enemies."
With calm confidence, Rey replied:
"Once you reach Royal Rank, the difference in size isn't a problem. You can rise to the level of any giant—if that's what you want."
Dante and Jhades turned toward their brother in disbelief. What did "rise to the level of any giant" even mean? And what was this "rank" he was talking about? Two questions collided in their minds. Before they could ask and clear up their doubts, both boys saw something they never imagined was possible.
Maryam, having drawn in more and more blood and darkness, wrapped her body in those two elements until, after layering them one over another thousands of times, she reached the same size as the giants.
"The Colossus of Blood and Shadow—one of the dominant forms among vampires," Rey said as that towering figure rose, wings spread wide, wielding an immense sword and a long shield. "Hmm. I see several variations on the original art… and it's clearly configured for both close and long-range combat."
The vampire braced herself and leveled her long sword, then unleashed a violent blast from its tip, erasing the head of the giant that was trying to force its way into the realm. Blood and darkness shot out, shaping themselves into whatever she needed, before bursting into flames and detonating like bombs. From deep within the Ever-Changing Forest, a colossal trunk swept across the battlefield at incredible speed, aiming to knock the vampire colossus down. Maryam raised her shield-arm, the layered armor covering it acting as a barrier, and blocked the strike with little effort—then fired again with the tip of her blade. A giant hurled itself down from the sky, hoping to take her by surprise, but met her sword head–on. In her off-hand, the blade shifted into an axe that cleaved the enemy cleanly in two, and its blood became fresh ammunition for her next volley.
Rey turned his head. Out across the infernal plains, wrapped in fire and lava, a giant made entirely of multicolored flames rose, blazing and solid.
"The Fire Rex Colossus," Rey explained, "favored among elemental fire users. Its flames can shine yellow, red, orange, blue, green, black, and white. This variant Father uses has long arms and extended claws, clearly meant to attack like a storm."
Wulfgang's towering bipedal construct moved so fast it slipped from the eyes of anyone trying to follow it, despite its enormous size. Each time it appeared, it struck with its claws—more instinct than technique—as a beast would in the middle of a pack of enemies trying to pin it down. Its elongated, animal-like body, complete with a tail, helped keep its balance as it attacked, and the extra spikes on its shoulders, back, and chest served as battering points when it rammed into its foes. The fiery giant tore one enemy of equal size cleanly in half with its claws, and with a single sweep of its tail, decapitated another that had tried to attack from behind.
Rey continued:
"The God-Rank Wood Colossus can only be used by a wood-element wielder at God Rank. Unlike the Royal-Rank Colossus, this one doesn't require a core—it's formed from every trunk, root, and tree in the vicinity. Summoning it means calling forth a catastrophe that fights violently for its own self-preservation against any calamity, for as long as it needs, without supervision or commands from its creator."
Indeed, as if all the nature in the region shared the elf's purpose, the wooden colossus only had to cross its arms, and massive wooden stakes shot out toward the enemies dropping from the sky. Those lucky enough to dodge the critical strikes of the spears found, the moment they hit the ground, the fury of a great hammer built from roots that wrapped around a huge boulder, which the wooden giant carried over its shoulder with both arms. Any who turned to flee ended up writhing on the ground, as if their bodies had sprouted roots that dug deeper and deeper into their flesh and bones until they burst out through their mouths, eyes, ears, and nose.
The elf, munching calmly on flowers, sat perched on the colossus's shoulder as it walked, slow but unstoppable, toward its victims—forcing them to watch the hammer being lifted over their heads. Then, like an executioner beheading the condemned, the giant brought the weapon down with all its strength. The sickening crunch of skulls collapsing and sinking into the chest cavities beneath them sounded almost as often as the gunshot–like blasts from the vampire's sword.
Rey turned again with the motion of his body.
"Out there, in that shadowed blizzard of frost, you can see the Black-Ice Colossus—Katherine's elemental fusion of ice and darkness. Her version also branches off from the original art."
Imposing and massive, wielding a sword twice its own height, it made its purpose brutally clear: to cut, smash, shove, and freeze everything in its path, no matter the collateral damage. Even from a distance, they could see how the cold shredded the skin of anyone moving across any surface, how chunks of flesh were left stuck to the ground. The black ice that formed the blade looked as solid as any metal, but with each bone it sliced through, the sword dulled and chipped. Once it was no longer usable, Katherine discarded the weapon, hurling it with all her might, and replaced it with one of several spares floating behind her like a shield wall. Just as she reached for a new blade, an enemy got too close—she raised her free hand and fired a shot of solid ice at incredible speed. The second her new sword was in her grip, blades shot out from her feet, and through a flurry of complex legwork, she revealed their true potential—more than ten heads rolled across the frozen ground in a single sequence.
Rey had to squint to make out the helmet of the thing floating in the air. The same machine opened up the front of its chest, and a mass of cables shot out, wrapping around what looked like Miján's body and pulling him inside.
"I have to admit, out of all the Colossi, the one that belongs to the Elf of Technologies is the one with the greatest mobility, maneuverability, destructive power, and defense. Of everyone here, it's the strongest, and it doesn't even require you to master a specific combat art or reach Royal Rank to use it. It reminds me of the mechanical prototypes humans use, only hundreds of thousands of times more advanced. I'd dare to say its name is XWZ."
What Rey described, Jhades and Dante could see clearly with their own eyes. Of all the Colossi, Miján's was the largest and the one floating in the sky without wings or visible physical support. It also seemed to be falling apart… but, up close, those pieces behaved in a very strange way: when they hit the ground, they didn't stop. They crawled and spread, devouring everything around them to generate more material and increase the giant's size.
After the kids had helped him, Miján let himself be surrounded and hammered by enemies, then summoned two swords and sliced everything around him in one blinding flash. Not a single one of the thousands of chunks of flesh or drops of blood managed to fully reach the ground, as if the same force keeping that ever-evolving machine aloft was holding them in suspension.
"And lastly," Rey added, "we have my master, who summoned the 'Hydra God Colossus,' one among the hundreds of thousands of creatures in his book. It's the closest thing to a dragon that actually obeys him."
Heroclades stood with his arms crossed on top of the highest, most imposing head among the countless that crowned the beast. The enormous creature, non-humanoid in form, stood on four legs, covered in white scales from the tip of its single tail to each and every head. All those rasp-tongued mouths spewed something: fire, wind, lightning, water, earth, acid—none of them seemed ornamental or useless.
A sky giant landed right inside the sorcerer's perimeter. The beast didn't even bother to turn its main head. Without so much as a glance of acknowledgment, it let all its extra heads detach from its body, leaving only nine attached, then charged with ferocity at everything within reach. The first giant found his feet coiled and crushed by two massive serpent-bodies that snapped bone and tore flesh with their sharp scales. Two more heads clamped down on the giant's arms, and a third mouth spewed fire that incinerated his head where he stood.
In groups of three, helped by the ninety headless bodies rolling and slithering along the ground, the three main pairs of heads repeated the same brutal combination again and again, while the tail sliced in half anyone who dared to approach from behind.
…
Faced with that overwhelming display of unimaginable destructive power, Dante began to reconsider whether he should really stay behind and obey their mother. The giants weren't a problem if you were small. The invaders weren't that threatening either. The problem was staying with the adults once the battle was over. Given how much Rey clearly knew, Dante figured he had to make him part of his "team"—someone that useful would be a real advantage.
Jhades, meanwhile, thought that if he told the elders Rey knew their secrets, maybe he could get something in return.
The Great Wise Mage spoke, snapping the vampire and the wolf pup out of the hypnotic trance they'd fallen into while watching the elders fight so fiercely and listening to Rey describe their powers.
"Before I forget, here are the instruments of battle I promised you…" he said, as three weapons appeared at the children's feet.
The first was a sword with a curved blade and a long hilt for two-handed use, sheathed in a majestic black scabbard attached to a short belt: a katana. Next to it lay two automatic pistols, with magazines in the grip, a slide, and an ejection port for the spent casings—both identical in appearance. Even inside their holsters, it was clear each pistol had a broad, sharpened blade fused into the frame and trigger guard, a specific adaptation for close-quarters combat. And finally, there were two blades of about sixty-two centimeters in length, double-edged, serrated near the base, with a pronounced curve, pointed at one end and joined at the other to complex bracers that served as dual handles.
With his right hand—his stronger hand—Dante was the first to snatch up the katana the Great Wise Mage had conjured. He had always wanted a sword to make up for the lack of cutting power in his fragile claws. Driven by pure competitiveness, the little wolf lunged forward, clutched his new weapon as if afraid someone would take it away, then strapped it to his waist and strutted around like he already owned the battlefield.
Jhades chose the two pistols. Even though his dominant hand was his left, the vampire had the advantage of having been forced by his teacher to fight right-handed, which now benefitted him for wielding two guns at once. He could shoot accurately with both: the left through natural inclination, the right through harsh training. In any fight, killing an enemy at a distance always seemed better to him than having to run or engage physically. After crossing the holsters over his back, he rolled his shoulders, testing how they felt in motion.
Rey was left with the two heavy blades that could only be worn as forearm weapons. Once attached to the bracers, the curved, double-edged blades extended from the backs of his forearms and rose past the top of his head. With a few mechanisms, he could shift their orientation: forward in offensive mode, backward in defensive mode.
Among the combat manuals he'd read, there was very little information about these weapons—almost nothing about a complete combat style based on them. Even so, Rey knew that in defensive mode they could deflect blows while injuring opponents at the same time, and in offensive mode they became an extension of the user's body, allowing for swift, precise movements with moderate attack power. Since the key to using these blades was fine hand control, Rey had no issue—he was ambidextrous.
"Forearm swords, or Forearm Blades," Rey said, flexing his fingers as he spoke. "At first glance, it's an inefficient and very difficult art to learn. But what really makes a sword style weaker than the others is failing to master it completely. If I don't use these properly, these blades will end up hurting me more than any enemy out there—and I'll be completely exposed. Anyone who uses this style has to show great aptitude for handling blades mounted on their arms, especially with this particular design…"
He clenched his fist, and the mechanism triggered a powerful thrust from the left blade, launching it straight forward.
"The speed of that slash is enough to cut through the trunk of a small tree. It can also rotate a full 180 degrees, and best of all, it's detachable—so I don't have to worry about getting stuck. If I could find a way to make them retractable like my wings, they'd be perfect. I think there are summoning arts in the book that allow for weapon concealment, but that would be more than I need to take on right now."
Jhades and Dante both stared at their brother with strange expressions. He looked ridiculous and totally unconventional. They even felt a mix of secondhand embarrassment and relief—relief that they weren't the ones stuck with those blades that looked like they'd take their heads off the moment they made a wrong move.
The Great Wise Mage said:
"The weapons you're carrying were forged by a powerful blacksmith, and their physical presence will be permanent from now on. You can trust them until you find better ones," he added, half-closing his eyes as he played with his fluffy white beard. "I warn you: no one will have time to take care of you if you step outside my barrier… If anything happens, come back. I will protect you."
A creature wreathed in flames crashed into the barrier and fell to the ground. As soon as it recovered consciousness and spotted prey to devour, it lunged with a roar toward the children—but Maryam, with the edge of her colossal sword, split its body clean in two.
The vampire looked straight at the weapons her three little ones were holding, clenched her fist, and turned her gaze away. "I'm afraid the worst is yet to happen," she told herself, fully aware that in her current size, she couldn't go down and strip those weapons from her children's hands. Calling on an ability inherited through "bloodline," she brought the creature she had just cut back to life. The revived beast, once aggressive, now knelt submissively in reverence, as a sign of respect to its new mistress. Behind that first resurrected body, countless shadows rose from the ground and surrounded the barrier at the feet of the Giant of Darkness and Blood.
Maryam's ghostly voice spoke through one of the revived bodies:
"This place is safe… Stay together and don't go out. Use your weapons only if it's necessary…"
Dante was terrified as he watched bodies of all kinds of creatures stand up again, all of them staring in the same direction: at his hands. They seemed to share his mother's thoughts. Even so, the little wolf hid his new acquisition behind his back. He wanted badly to test how sharp the katana's blade really was, and what better test subject than a real enemy? With his new weapon, Dante felt even more invincible. He was so convinced of it that he ignored the overwhelming power on display from the adults, and believed he couldn't miss this chance to try to escape and avoid their punishment. "At that size, they wouldn't even see me slip away," the wolf pup thought. "If I can do anything with this katana, then the only problem left are the shadows Mother created. They won't let me leave…"
Dante turned and fixed his eyes on the distance. "Between Katherine and Miján, there's a perfect spot. The trees are still intact there, and they stretch all the way to the Ever-Changing Forest… I just need one last chance," he said to himself, mustering up courage and recklessness in equal measure.
As if in answer to his whispered plea to the wind, another gigantic armored creature crashed down on the barrier and tried to claw its way through to crush the old man. More and more beasts appeared—around them, above them, below them—forcing the adults and the guardians to triple their efforts. And the path became visible.
Rey saw his brother's eyes and could tell exactly what came next. Like when you open the door of a birdcage: the bird cannot resist the call of freedom. But could a bird that had always had food, water, and safety really survive the cruel freedom that awaited outside? "The cruelest place in the world is where everyone is free to be what they are," Rey thought.
Dante took a deep breath, as if inhaling courage, clenched his fists, gripped his katana, and bolted forward, calling his feline companion with a shout of "Now or never!" Jhades was forced to follow him, caught off guard by the sudden move. Rey's white eyes were already casting a shadow over Dante's back. The enemies were gathering fast in the only open route, but Jhades managed to slip and jump through the same gap his brothers and the felines had used. From the edge of the cliff, staring out into the void, those blue eyes took in a world ruled completely by chaos.
The Great Wise Mage's smile widened as the armored giant attacked and Maryam's shadows continued to shield the barrier.
…
In free fall, the three kids twisted their bodies in whatever way they could to avoid smashing into the ground. Dante braced with his hands and feet first to soften the landing. Jhades unfolded the tattered wings that had lain dormant on his back and descended with unexpected grace. Rey also unfurled his wings for a brief second, landing on his feet before hiding them again, leaving only a couple of black feathers drifting in the air. Unhurt, the brothers lifted their gaze and sharpened their instincts, searching for threats.
Though nearly a dozen giants battled on either side, the violent, storm-tossed forest at the base of the cliff promised shelter for the children, who listened to a full orchestra of war cries, explosions, and thunder. Not only were there flying beasts turning into rainstorms of blood, but flaming boulders and blocks of ice were raining down everywhere. And yet, despite all the blood, organs, dismembered bodies, fire, ice, and poison, the Paradise did not lose its divine glow.
Afraid of losing his position as leader, the wolf pup—his senses sharper than usual—bit down on the katana's hilt, holding it unsheathed between his teeth. He dug his four claws into the ground to guarantee the traction he needed for an explosive start. Then Dante sprinted on all fours toward the dense cover of the hundreds of trees whipping and slamming against each other under the endless storm of blasts.
Jhades, breathing deep and looking annoyed, followed his brother, already regretting the promise he'd made to their mother to protect Dante, a promise born solely from his wish to make a good impression. Rey waited for White to finish descending. Seeing the poor muscular condition of the other two little ligers, he couldn't leave without first making sure they didn't die from hitting the ground too hard.
On the path of the boy running in front, seeing the world like a predator, several figures appeared—immediately categorized as enemies simply by what they were wearing. Dante's feral eyes stabbed them long before his claws or the sword clamped between his teeth reached them. Furious as a storm, the wolf pup felt, for a moment, what it meant to become an adult: the weight of killing, which led him to think:
"This is war. Death is justified. This is my route of escape… On the other side is the Ever-Changing Forest; I have to reach it. It's not worth trying to tell who's good and who's bad. I don't know their faces. Not their clothes, either—but something else is giving me the answer. They smell like I do now: like blood. They're the same as me. No… I didn't become like them. I'm no longer a child. I'm a predator. Their eyes show murderous intent, like my brother's. They also carry that air of superiority, like Jhades… Now I'm like them, and even though I'm not first or sitting in Mother's lap, I can't help feeling in danger, unable to control it, feeling threatened, feeling fear. Father is wrong…"
Amid screams and rage, the wolf pup kept going:
"The fear running in my veins is the force that drives me! It controls my movements—it makes me faster, more adaptable, more lethal, more… invincible! Father is wrong! The fear in me is the shape of my will to live… to destroy…!"
The clothes Dante wore, made by Miján, protected him from all the cuts of every sharp object that tried to pierce him—and there were many—but not from the blows or the falls. Dante fought people who also adapted to the chaos and were capable of defending themselves or at least delivering one last strike before they died. Just as his speed began to flag under the constant resistance, Dante pushed himself harder:
"I have to hold my ground and keep moving forward. With every hit, let my fury ignite and my pain fade… let me feel more savage. More free… more lethal. Die!"
The agitated wolf pup began to lose his human shape—along with the logic behind the fighting styles of his own species. He was no longer using the katana. With his mouth already stretched and his jaws extended, Dante sank his teeth into the neck of any opponent in reach, tearing their heads off in one bite, then using the corpse as a springboard to leap toward the next.
Given the fight the giants were waging, the trees of that place, whipping wildly in all directions, began to tear free from the ground. Uprooted with violent force, the trunks went flying. Even so, the three youngsters moved forward quickly, ignoring the condition of the forest and killing anyone who crossed their paths. Confusion among the attackers turned into panic, for they were facing a raging beast driven by the fear of the unknown.
Under Rey's cover, growling, biting, or slashing with their massive claws, Dragonidas (Dante's guardian of Paradise), Regres (the feline guardian who accompanied Jhades), and White behaved no differently from the young Lobato heir. They finished off the enemies who, half-dead, were left in the wake of the one leading the charge.
Rey was being cautious; leaving someone alive who could attack them from behind would be the worst mistake anyone could make.
Jhades, who ran in the middle, was forced to slow down and even stop relying on his wings to move forward. The sprays of blood and flying limbs from the people Dante shredded as he passed were more violent than the gusts of wind and bursts of energy caused by the adults. The flesh of torn enemies struck him and, unlike leaves, branches, dirt, and stones, it smeared the clothes he tried so hard to keep clean.
Coldly, the boy who saw the world the same way his eye color expressed it, said:
"Disgusting."
Using his forearm, the vampire wiped his face after tasting the flavor of the red liquid.
"Stooping to such behavior is simply repulsive. If Father fought like this, I'd be ashamed of him. The shape of our bodies serves two purposes: to create and to feel. If you become another organism just to be stronger, you're only showing your weakness—your inability to understand how to create the 'destruction' of something."
Dante's fur and his clothes were no longer enough of a covering against the edges of all the objects trying to hurt him. His rationally deranged behavior carried consequences, and with them, nearly fatal lapses in attention for his own life.
At the rear, Rey set himself to absorb the enemies' blood and tried to imitate his mother's abilities while analyzing the situation. He noticed the enemies were growing stronger the farther they advanced, as if those who went ahead were nothing but cannon fodder, sacrificial pawns. After exchanging a look with his companion, White sprang forward in a leap and, with her front claws, sliced an opponent who was falling toward Dante's blind spot into nine pieces.
Dante, for his part, was even more out of control, to the point he had forgotten how to speak and could only roar every time he was saved. Exhaustion made him sloppier.
"Why don't you order your damned liger to get out of my way?! I don't need help! I've got everything under control!" he growled at Rey, as if desperate to prove he still held the upper hand in the fight.
Jhades couldn't stay quiet and threw his opinion into the air:
"Don't get worked up. Instead of finding safety, we might stumble into greater danger. Something far more powerful than these creatures that only serve to dirty the ground with blood—and to drag your pride through the mud—could be waiting for us ahead."
"Pride? You're wrong… You can't eat pride. That kind of thing lives in your head; it doesn't keep you warm in the cold, and it certainly doesn't help you when you're at the edge of death," Dante barked, angrier than before. "What? Without pride there's only disgrace? Don't make me angrier, fancy boy. Being alive is enough justification to validate the means."
Now almost walking, the boy with white eyes and the strange symbol between them realized he couldn't imitate his mother's skills or create a blood slave. It still wasn't his time, nor did he have the necessary abilities. Letting that go, Rey kept his distance so his brothers wouldn't notice he was only using the situation to make himself stronger.
He shook the blood he'd gathered off his palm and then focused on closely analyzing his brothers' behavior in battle—brothers he hadn't seen in so long that they were practically strangers he'd once known only briefly. They had been trained by different masters, so to have survived this long and passed their training, each had to have at least one decent move. Something simple enough to learn in a short time, a move that could flip the situation.
"I'm half vampire, half werewolf, and I share the affinity of both bloodlines. But where do I start?" Rey wondered as he realized he was up against something he hadn't expected. "With my brothers… From what I've observed so far, the people around me carry a slight mix of traits, each with their own personality. 'Neutral' is the word I'd frankly use to describe the Great Wise Mage; you could also say his demeanor sits between alive and cold—he doesn't seek to feel, but he doesn't reject it either. Silvia, on the other hand, always behaves in a self-interested way, a state of curiosity ready to explore everything. Miján is easily irritated, reacting to everyone with fury. My mother, I always see her smiling—unlike my father, whose gaze seems to hide a huge depression. My master spends most of his time fascinated. Katherine exists in a constant state of displeasure. And finally, fearful Ehimus. I came to believe my brothers would be more like me. We were born the three of us on the same day at the same moment. If they weren't like me, they should at least behave like one of those I just mentioned… but they don't. If I had to describe them: Dante is more like a flame terrified of going out. Jhades is ice afraid of melting."
Before he could get lost entirely in his own thoughts, Rey forced himself to be as self-critical as possible.
"Maybe I'm not so different. I feel the need to be useful to others, to be accepted by those who depend on me… I seek strength with the desire and feeling of protecting. Now that I think about it, Mother is stronger when she's irritated; Father is more violent when he's happy. Hmmm… Dante's fear is what 'makes him stronger,' it makes him change shape; Father doesn't need to get angry to change form. Father controls the art…"
Looking at his arm, Rey understood something basic.
"On the other hand, Jhades's skin is more delicate, but he can regenerate damage quickly without having to drink blood. 'Total body transformation,' 'rapid regeneration'—those two are at Advanced rank in those areas, while I'm at Intermediate rank. But now that I'm watching them, I can get a better idea of how to move up a rank if I use my emotions as a catalyst…"
Rey felt something alarming that forced him to sever his train of thought. Using his control over Black Aura, the boy vanished—but not before leaving a copy of himself in his place. The moment Jhades had foreseen had arrived. Ahead, all three youths could see a clearing they were in no rush to reach, because stepping into the open would mean losing the protection of the forest they knew so well. At the same time, they felt an overwhelming pressure from several hostile presences. To be exact, there were three of them; the rest were just half-dead bodies trying to recover, even though they all wore the same clothes.
In the wide space cluttered with the wounded, three figures stood: tall, intimidating in both gaze and build. The newcomers were beings of flesh and blood holding a disciplined formation. They weren't flaming beasts or rotting corpses like the rest—they were human. They looked a bit tired, but they didn't seem to have any serious injuries despite how far they'd advanced. They were warriors; you could tell they'd fought hard because all around them, at the bases of the trees, lay piles of bodies of guardians of Paradise, one of Heroclades' serpents, and shredded machines from Miján. Those signs alone made them look undeniably dangerous.
The violence of the battle between the colossi and the giants eased a little. Even so, the children cautiously stopped their advance. Dante, like an eager hunter, stared at the target that threatened to block his route. He didn't have to fight or take unnecessary risks; he could very well listen to his mother's words. But he was drunk on violence, and with the adults' movements slowing, he felt his time to escape was running out.
Rey, meanwhile, was aware the elders of the clan had noticed the situation even as they fought. They had never stopped keeping watch over their children. The question, for the nameless boy, was: why weren't they intervening?
Jhades, speaking as someone who didn't want the enemy to hear him, said:
"They won't hurt us if we don't engage them. Let's head the other way; go back to the Great Wise Mage… If not, the hunter might end up hunted," he warned, hoping to steer his brother away from his intentions.
At that precise moment, above the treetops, several dozen attackers leapt down onto the two boys in front, determined not to let them escape. Armed with swords and knives, they were set on achieving their goal: to kill any inhabitant of Paradise out of pure malice. Their eyes were filled with hatred; they weren't dead who'd left life behind—they looked like they envied the good life the children and everyone under the lower circle of the nine heavens enjoyed.
Too late to run, Jhades and Dante screamed with all their strength as they turned their weapons against the attackers. Their cries, the shouts of two children, were swallowed by the roar of fifty ghouls whose bodies were clad in ragged scraps of mismatched clothing.
The three men in the clearing turned their attention toward the commotion caused by the ghouls.