A Marvelous Devil.
Chapter 18: A Fair Devil.
Dante Andromalius.
New York, 2007.
"So, Wong." I stood at the building's highest point, looking out over the city.
It was an acceptable view. There was something charming about all these lights everywhere.
All that life.
There was beauty in the mundane, and I came to realize that now.
Wong approached silently, stopping a few steps behind me.
"What do you make of the Fantastic Four? Your order keeps tabs on them, right?"
"We watch them on the Ancient One's orders," he nodded. "They don't know about us."
"And?" I pressed.
"I don't like Richards," he scowled. "He meddles with forces he can't grasp. He's a day from becoming a monster."
"So, you prefer him or me?" I laughed without turning.
I was trying to follow a strange tail of… dimensional power? Like wisps of darkness appearing, then disappearing.
Teleportation. How intriguing... and vexing. I'll likely need to block that, if only briefly.
"I still pick him," he deadpanned.
I smirked.
"Just because he's human? A bit racist, my friend." I chuckled. "Do you really think I'm worse than him after all this time?"
"You corrupt humans just by being close. I have seen it."
"They are just free not to fall into temptation," I shrugged, "You disappoint me, Wong. You'd think you would have changed your opinion of me by now. I'm not your enemy, nor do I plan to become that. I guess only Yao knows why she decided to put you as my handler."
I didn't say that I preferred it to be this way, despite all his problems, I liked messing with Wong.
Then I jumped off the building, uninterested in Wong's answer. If he really intended to follow me today, he'd have to work for it.
Concealing my magic signature with my clan trait had become effortless. I had kept training with my demonic lineage throughout these three months.
No one should think I was anything other than a normal human.
Well, one that could jump over three stories high and had bat-like wings. But the clan trait worked against technology, too.
My wings flapped behind me, enhancing my speed even more as I left Wong behind.
I wasn't angry. Just disappointed.
I had expected better from him, truthfully. But how could I fault a mortal for fearing beings who defied his beliefs?
It was normal for mortals to fear beings who didn't fit their beliefs. So, even though I was disappointed, I wasn't planning to do anything.
I felt Wong trying to open a portal to follow my direction, but a snap of my fingers activated a ward I left behind just for this.
The scream he made as the ceiling opened was music to my ears. He wouldn't stay there for long; it wasn't meant for that. Just a small, innocent prank.
It took over twenty minutes of flying around the city to find the killer. Teleportation was a bitch, but he hadn't moved in the past ten minutes, so he was probably occupied. Just what I needed.
A shame for his victims. Or not, I didn't care.
Since he moved from place to place, locating the real trail was tiresome, but now that I closed in on the perpetrator, he wouldn't escape from me.
The air felt wrong all over the place, the smell of despair noticeable even to mortals.
Maybe it was the news, or perhaps I was right, and even mortals felt something was wrong around this place because it was empty. Nothing like the usual nighttime activities here.
The southern part of Hell's Kitchen greeted us with silence.
Too much of it. I frowned.
Maybe I should wait for Wong... Nah.
I landed on the edge of an alley, the smell hitting me before the sight did. The smell of rot, pure fear, and despair. And something colder under it.
Yet I couldn't name it. Whatever it was felt like the absence of something, a hollow nothingness that unsettled me. It reminded me of the void.
A strange, dark fog permeated the alley.
Bodies were positioned across the ground like discarded trash. Broken necks and hollow, scared eyes.
I didn't feel any warmth coming out of them.
They were the Kingpin's men.
I muttered slowly. "I don't recognize this."
"There's not a single hint of lifeforce coming out of their bodies," I said absently, stepping forward. "Every recently deceased has at least just a wisp of it until their souls depart."
In the distance, I noticed some movement.
At the far end of the alley, a figure straightened from a crumpled body, letting it fall limply to the concrete. Tall, almost as tall as me, wrapped in tattered clothes and pure shadows.
The air around him rippled, dark wisps curling and snapping like they were alive.
No… they weren't acting as if they were alive. They were conscious.
He turned towards me.
And he didn't hesitate to launch himself in my direction.
The fog surged forward.
I grinned. A humanoid host connected to something.
My hand rose, "Easy now, I just want to talk."
He disappeared from my vision, dropping into the shadow below him.
Power surged around me, a simple push, nothing fancy.
I couldn't tell where he was exactly; the absence of everything inside this place was messing with my senses.
It was like my clan trait.
A wave of demonic power flared around my body.
The fog recoiled under the push, and in that brief moment, I saw beneath all the darkness.
A human mortal. A young one at that, probably my age.
He had seen better times, too. His face was pale despite his dark complexion; his eyes were haunted, with not a single ounce of clarity.
He obviously wasn't acting this way because he wanted to.
I could see it now, barely. And I finally understood why Yao had said he was a tortured soul. He didn't want this. He probably wasn't meant for this.
The figure stumbled back and the shadows tore loose from his body as if they were left free. And my eyes widened as I saw his torso.
It was a portal.
He was a literal pathway to this dimension. I had never seen someone this perfect to host such a force. It was a shame that he went insane.
"You pitiful mortal," I sighed, glancing at the bodies, "You truly couldn't control it, could you? No, I shouldn't blame you that much. This is clearly D'Spayre's doing."
As soon as I muttered the fear lord's name, the fog exploded. It didn't flow out of his chest like before; it burst like a tidal wave.
Dark vapor flew out free from the man's body, so much so that I was sure it would be noticed by anyone. It slammed into the alley walls, the ground, the windows. Everything.
The buildings rattled as some of the windows broke. The temperature dropped instantly, cold enough to affect my devil physiology.
My breath came out in white clouds.
The fog twisted as the man screamed, the vapor coiling back towards its source, the outward.
It was hungry.
The smile vanished. My face set into a hard line.
"What the fuck…"
I took us to the mirror dimension. My demonic power surged outward as a fireball the size of my building formed on top of my head, and I launched it towards the monster.
It… It froze.
The fog continued moving; hundreds of tendrils of pure darkness tried to impale me at once.
It would have worked. If I hadn't used a sliver of my cosmic power to create a shield inside this dimension.
But it only worked for half a second.
Then the fog charged, latching onto the shield and started sucking.
What the actual fuck was this? Which dimension could drain even cosmic power?!
My well of cosmic power dimmed just a bit as the fog sank into it, burrowing inside until I cut the connection off.
This shouldn't be possible.
And it latched onto my arm.
My eyes widened seeing a single tendril that appeared out of nowhere from a tiny portal in my own shadow.
Cold. Cold. Cold.
I tried to pull free, but the tendril didn't bulge. No matter how much of my physical strength I used, it was for nothing.
It was draining me. Not my power, thankfully. But my lifeforce.
I snorted in surprise, creating a lance of ice in my other arm and trying to impale the monster in front of me.
But it couldn't pass through the fog. My knees buckled as my essence drained faster and faster.
If I were a human, I'd probably be dead by now.
If I were anything less than a devil, I would have been on the ground.
The man screamed, clutching his head as he sucked on my lifeforce greedily. The tendrils tethering to us both widened just a tad. His eyes were wide, unfocused.
"Dante! Duck!" A… welcomed presence shouted from the distance.
I didn't wait. The mirror dimension tried to create a distance between us, but it failed. The connection didn't break.
For fuck's sake.
I bit my lip for a moment before nodding. I created another lance, one of fire this time, pumping as much power as I could. Fire wasn't light, but it was the best I could create right now.
The blade shone almost white from the heat… and I brought it low. Not against the human.
I cut off my own arm. And pulled.
I didn't scream even if I wanted to; my blood came out in copious amounts, but I gritted my teeth as I pulled my stump free from this abomination.
Gathering my power, I unleashed another wave, launching the abomination across the dimension.
"Oy, Wong, the fuck is he?" I asked the Asian, "How in the world was it draining cosmic power?!"
"That's the Dark force," he grunted, his eyes sharp as he watched the monster in the distance, "Now that I think about it, the Cosmic Power is the life force of the planets. The Dark Force consumes all life energy from all beings in the universe. You must be the perfect snack for him."
Scowling, I closed my eyes. Another sliver of my cosmic power regenerated my arm. The stump opened; the bone first grew back to its former size, then the nerves followed. Finally, the muscles and skin returned.
Clenching my arm, I nodded in satisfaction.
"Okay, so he'll be attracted to me. Fine, whatever. What's the plan?" I asked irritably.
"You have something holy on hand?" Wong snorted.
I sent him a scathing glare. Fucking bastard.
But I laughed. I honestly needed the absurdity of it.
"I didn't expect to see such a fine specimen here, though," I added as the fog grew enormously, "He's literally the perfect host for that dimension. It's truly a shame to see how it ended."
"Keep him busy," Wong nodded seriously, "I need a single hit. After he consumed some of your lifeforce and your cosmic power, he might be close to regaining clarity. I just need to hit him once with light."
"Fine. Do it fast. I didn't enjoy being his chew toy." I jumped on the soles of my feet.
"He has to die," Wong nodded.
I still have my demonic reserves full. The mirror dimension wasn't that affected by the dark force, and my cosmic power was sitting around eighty percent of my current max. Enough to do what I just thought.
I loved gifts like this.
Then I vanished.
I reappeared above the man, inside all the fog. Even now, I could feel my life force disappearing, albeit slower since we weren't connected. This power was something else.
Something I wanted now.
I wanted to control it. And I wouldn't fail like this mortal.
My wings flared wide, tens of magical circles burning faintly above me. I didn't bother announcing myself; my clan trait was working hard to keep him from noticing my exact location.
It wasn't perfect, but it was what I needed.
"Stay put, kid."
My hand cut through the air, and crimson light erupted from nothingness.
The crimson bands of Cyttorak slammed down like divine chains, wrapping around the fog and the man at its center. The bands constricted instantly, even coiling around the fog as if it were physical. The fog resisted with furious, mindless force.
The man howled in pain, the tendrils of darkforce slammed against the bindings, tearing sparks of red light loose as the mirror dimension trembled.
But they held. Barely. They weren't made of lifeforce; the red bastard didn't have something like that. He was similar to demons like Mephisto, or I was back then.
"Not bad," I muttered, clenching my teeth as I pulled more energy from the red cosmos.
The fog surged, shadows bulging between the bands, trying to slip free, trying to eat the spell itself. The man inside convulsed, screaming, his body arching as the darkness fought to tear him apart from the inside.
I landed hard, my steeled boots cracking the mirrored stone, and drove a knee into the ground, anchoring myself.
More bands appeared around my body, holding me tight to the ground.
I couldn't move. And as long as I didn't move, he wouldn't either.
It lashed out, tendrils opening their own portals as they tried to latch onto my body once more, but Wong's prayers worked as a holy light covered my body.
I couldn't help but scream in pain, but I held. The fucking holy energy was burning my skin as fast as I regenerated.
Fucking conceptual weaknesses. That was going to be the first damn thing I fixed from my own body.
I wasn't winning. I couldn't currently win against this human as I was right now. Not without killing him. And I needed him alive and conscious.
I was merely holding.
"Wong!" I roared, my skin blistering, "If you plan to help, do it fucking now!"
The fog spasmed against the light as much as I did. But it couldn't return to its host as quickly as they would have liked.
Light tore through the dimension.
Pure, unadulterated, holy power from the Vishanti.
In other words, judgment.
A single beam of blinding, concentrated radiance speared through the mirrored sky, slamming directly against the portal inside the man's chest.
And he screamed. No, not only the mortal. The fog did.
In pure pain. And agony.
The crimson bands flared brighter. The darkness recoiled violently, tendrils thrashing and destroying everything in their path before collapsing inward. The tendrils burned as they collided. Then all darkness returned inside.
The man groaned once more… then went still.
From across the fractured dimension, Wong lowered his hands, his eyes sharp as he locked on the unmoving figure at the center of the shattered space.
"Did it work?" He squinted his eyes as he asked quietly.
I stared at the man. My senses were much, much sharper than Wong's.
He was twitching on the ground… but his eyes looked around in confusion and fear.
The shadows cloaked him like before, but controlled.
"Not perfectly," I said softly as I began walking, "But now we can talk."
Later.
Dante's PoV.
Wong and I reached him at the same time.
He was already moving, his hands glowing with holy light that made me shiver, a killing spell half-formed as he advanced on the trembling figure bound on the floor.
I didn't even look at him.
"Don't ruin my fun, Wong."
The Crimson Bands of Cyttorak flared again, this time snapping around Wong's limbs and pinning him hard against the mirrored ground. He grunted in surprise, struggling as the spell locked him in place.
"Dante!" he barked. "What are you doing?!"
"I said I would deal with this," I replied calmly.
I stepped past him and knelt before the man.
Up close, he looked… small. Not physically, but existentially. He was so perfect as a host that even now, without the full connection, he wasn't the same person anymore. He was lessened in every aspect now that it was fed and contained.
The darkness obeyed him. Barely.
I lifted him gently by the collar and forced him to meet my eyes.
"What's your name?" I asked.
His lips trembled. For a moment, I thought he wouldn't answer.
"…Tyrone," he croaked. "…Tyrone Johnson."
Good. He still had a sense of self.
"And what did he want from you?" I continued. "D'Spayre. What did he do?"
Tyrone shook his head weakly, his eyes pained. "I… I don't know. I swear. I just… it hurt. All the time. And then it stopped hurting when I fed it. Just for a little while."
He was telling the truth, but he didn't answer what I asked.
Tears spilled down his face, his shoulders shaking as whatever strength he had left finally broke.
"I didn't want to kill them," he sobbed. "I tried not to. I really did. But the hunger… it felt like it was tearing me apart from the inside. Like I was drowning. I couldn't think. I couldn't stop. I need my light! The demon promised my light if I came here!"
I placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Enough," I said softly.
He froze.
"What if," I said slowly, "we made a deal?"
Wong struggled harder behind me. "Dante, don't do it!"
I ignored him.
I tilted my head, studying Tyrone carefully. "Do you want to be free from this curse?"
His breath hitched. "…Free?"
"Yes," I smiled faintly. "Normal. You could have your life back."
He swallowed hard, eyes darting to the shadows around his body. "You're… you're just like him, aren't you?"
My wings flared behind me as I chuckled. "Does it matter? I can give this to you, no strings attached."
He hesitated only a second before blurting out, "I don't have much. Whatever you want. Just make it stop. Even my soul if you want it."
I felt Wong go completely still.
And I laughed.
What a riot.
"Oh, no," I said, shaking my head. "I don't want your soul."
I extended my hand toward him.
"I'm a fair devil, Tyrone Johnson. Agree, and I will fix you."
His shaking hand met mine.
The moment our palms touched, the full weight of three months of saving cosmic power and making every deal possible exploded out of my body. The mirror dimension tried to contain it, but fractures appeared in the distance.
Darkness tore free from Tyrone's body, violently, rippling like a parasite being dragged from its host. The shadows poured into me in a roaring torrent, flooding my veins, my bones, my very existence.
Tyrone collapsed against me, gasping as color returned to his skin. He was looking at his body in wonder.
He was human again. Fully human.
I released his hand and stepped back.
A small, blank bank card clattered to the ground at his feet.
"Enough to start over," I said lightly. "Anywhere you want. You are free of that idiot."
He stared at it, confused. Almost dazed.
"You did the right thing, my friend," I added gently. "But don't worry. You won't remember any of this."
I snapped my fingers.
Tyrone Johnson crumpled unconscious to the ground.
And then I laughed.
Not quietly. Not humanly.
The darkness erupted from me, black fog pouring from every pore, every breath, every crack in my being. It writhed around me like a living storm. An eager, starving, endless storm.
I staggered, clutching my chest as the fog tore at me from the inside, trying to escape, trying to devour everything it touched. It wanted to return to Tyrone.
"No," I hissed, clenching my teeth in pain. "I am not like him. I. AM. MORE."
I made a choice.
One that I might regret later. I offered it my heart.
The darkness surged inward.
My heartbeat stopped. And the void settled deep inside.
And the world went dark as I collapsed to the ground.
I didn't know how long had passed. I couldn't move. I couldn't open my eyes.
But I was conscious. And I could hear well.
Footsteps… a portal opening.
"Ancient One," Wong exclaimed from the ground.
His voice was tight. Urgent.
But most of all… panicked.
"Wong." Yao's voice was calm, almost amused. "I see you've had an eventful evening."
"He took the power. He planned this from the beginning." Wong's footsteps approached. "The boy is free, yes, but Dante… he's stronger now."
They didn't speak for a moment.
"Should we..." Wong's voice dropped lower. "He's vulnerable. We could end this before…"
"Before what?" Yao interrupted gently. "Before he becomes too powerful? Before he breaks our agreement? He didn't even know about the Dark Force, Wong."
"Were you watching? But I'm right. He's dangerous."
I felt a presence kneel beside me.
"He surpassed my expectations, Wong. The boy lives when he wasn't supposed to. He changed Tyrone's fate. The killings stopped. D'Spayre lost his foothold in this city. He did everything better than even I could have."
"He's a demon, Ancient One. He corrupts everything he touches."
"Does he?" She chuckled amusedly. "Or do humans corrupt themselves and simply blame the evil demon to avoid feeling bad about themselves?"
Wong couldn't answer.
"He gave that boy his life back," Yao continued. "Money. His freedom. A clean slate. Tell me, Wong… could you have done the same?"
"I would have found another way."
"You were about to kill him." She said dryly, her tone wasn't cruel, just like speaking about the weather. "He managed something I didn't think possible."
"So, we do nothing?" Wong's frustration bled through. "Just let him grow stronger? Let him make more deals? Corrupt more people?"
"We watch. We wait. We hold him to our agreement."
"And if he breaks it?"
They fell silent. Then Yao laughed softly.
It was a warm sound. Almost... fond.
"He won't," she said quietly. "Not when I finally found his secret."
What secret? What does she know?
"What secret?" Wong echoed my thoughts.
"That, my dear Wong, is between me and our clever little demon." She stood up, "Now. Clean up the mess and erase the records from the police. Make sure Tyrone Johnson was never here. I'll take Dante back to Kamar-Taj."
"Ancient One…"
"That's an order, Wong."
Her hand touched my hair, gently… and I began to drift.
Then nothing.
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