Rin.
The fight with the density monster lasted all of five seconds—and it nearly destroyed what was left of Shaw's Tower.
The spindly, stony creature lowered its center of gravity as its body drowned in a purplish aura. It was on me faster than I could blink, claws arcing out.
They skittered off my vibranium armor, but the impact hurled me through reinforced concrete walls and out the other side of the building. We plummeted together, his claws inches from my eyes, and that's when I detonated—releasing a controlled ray of pure kinetic energy through his midsection.
It sheared him in half and consumed a third of the building.
Energy filled me to the brim as the demon's life force merged with mine. Two dozen human-sized vitality pools followed it in. I winced as I landed, cracking the concrete like ice.
Shit.
People scrambled away when they saw me. I just stood there, numb and a bit afraid, until I heard a roar—closer than the dragon. Demons spilled out onto the street, cutting down humans and warping the city with magic.
I blurred forward, Rose transforming into her sword form.
Jean
I arrived just in time to end the battle between Yelena, Magneto, and the dragon. Yelena had gummed up the beast with metallic webbing, while Magneto hacked away at its seemingly impenetrable shield with her floating blade, which had long since lost its glow.
Magneto was caught off guard when ten dark-metal knives sprang from a fluctuation in the air. They glowed like mini-stars, blinding both Avengers and demons before piercing through the demon and its army.
In thirty seconds or less, most of them were dead.
I left the rest to Rin, who was converging on our location, cutting down enemies carefully with each swipe of his blade.
I touched down to the awe and surprise of those present.
"Quite the entrance," Magneto greeted. "Where's your other half?"
"Busy," I said. "We had to split up. He should be here soon."
Yelena swung down from a web and landed beside us. "Well, you'll have to do. There's someone in there." She gestured to the SHIELD building. "I sent the kid in, along with a few of his teammates, but I haven't heard from them in a while."
"I'll check on them," I said, shutting my eyes.
I found Jessica easily—she and the rest of the Mutant Brotherhood were converging on my position. The rest of her team, however… they were gone. Blind to my senses. In fact, all of HQ was.
"We've got a problem," I announced.
A portal opened beside us, and the X-Men began to file through.
"That we do," Scott said. "I think one of Shin's agents is after the Infinity Stone."
Yao opened a portal that led us into an almost sterile cave—angular, spotless. No stalagmites had formed despite the near-constant drip of water from above.
The droplets pooled into stone basins etched with dull blue and red runes.
The entire cave structure was covered in them, alongside several hundred floating constructs that lit the void.
The constructs formed a rough line that led up to a massive temple made of carved stone and infernal metal.
The structure was completely walled off to my senses, but something familiar thrummed beneath the protections my parents had erected—something even they couldn't completely mask.
Cosmic power. Celestial power.
I shared my thoughts with Yao.
"That's not possible," she said, but her voice trembled. "Your parents were powerful, but even they couldn't shackle a Celestial. It's more likely they co-opted one's power—used it to fuel the guardians and the cage."
"I don't like the sound of that," I muttered. "So what exactly am I up against?"
Yao leaned against a wall. "The Yamato and the Rebellion are just two of your father's creations. The temple contains the rest. Constructs formed from both of their energy sources, encoded with some of their most famous spells and abilities. There are eight of them—all Juggernauts. Supposedly powerful enough to hold back Corvus and Belasco."
"I'm flattered you have that much faith in me," I laughed nervously. "But I'm nowhere near ready for that."
"I'm hoping your parents included some kind of failsafe… just in case their children wandered in."
"Here's to hoping," I said. "But just in case… there's a few things I need to work on. I'll be back shortly."
I blipped out of reality, returning to my personal dimension.
For the first time that day, I exhaled deeply and took stock of my skills:
Skills:
(T) Death Symphony – Basic
(T) Promethean Body – Adept
Devil Energy Manipulation – Master
(E) Demonic Burst – Adept
Angelic Energy Manipulation – Master
Gust – Adept
Wind Blade – Adept
Astral Wings – Adept
(L) Paradise Simulacrum – Adept
(L) Time Warp – Adept
(E) Telepathy – Adept
(E) Telekinesis – Basic
(E) Advanced Arcane Smithing – Adept
Explosive Mastery – Basic
(T) Anathema Flame – Basic
Class Skills:
(L) Decode and Forge
(E) Arcane Lexicon
(E) Harvest
(E) Enchant
It was a far cry from where I'd started, but still miles from where I needed to be.
I produced two vials of blood—from two different Ascendants: Storm and Rin.
Adding even one would give me the power I needed. But I hesitated.
Sure, I'd gain strength. But what about control? Alien biology could destabilize me—especially before I'd explored the limits of my own powers.
Are you sure you're not just afraid he'll hijack your soul after you gain that much power?
I gritted my teeth and banished the vials.
I had two weeks. Let's see what I can improve and what weapons I can forge.
I started with Wind Blade and Gust—combining them into a single skill:
(Epic) Wind Manipulation – Adept
Generate and control wind using angelic energy.
No more limited gusts or flimsy blades. I was three times faster than before—and when I stacked Astral Wings on top, the multiplier jumped to 180%.
And so did my attacks.
Wind sheared islands in half. Structures imploded. I even learned to weaponize vacuums.
Next, I moved on to Fire, Density, Dimensional, and Gravity affinities—training each with focus and intensity.
The two weeks flew by. I dipped in and out of the dimension repeatedly, until I felt something deeper than strain—it was my soul.
There's only so much conceptual weight a soul can bear.
By the end of it, my status was unrecognizable:
Name: Axel Warren (Dante Sparda)
Class: Arcane Forgemaster Lv28
HP: 8000/8000
SP: 6000/6000
AE: 7000/7000
DE: 7000/7000
Strength: 520
Dexterity: 680
Endurance: 600
Vitality: 800
Angel Energy: 700
Demon Energy: 700
I reemerged, Twilight Sentinel armor gleaming, reactor humming, Kurogiri on my waist, and Rebellion strapped to my back. My wings flared.
Yao looked worse, but not dangerously so.
"It's time?" she asked.
"I've prepared as much as I can," I said, floating into the air.
"Be careful, then."
I flew toward the temple, using telekinesis to glide. The entrance was marked with ancient text I couldn't read, leading to an archway of liquid darkness dotted with stars.
I glanced back one last time before stepping through.
I reappeared in a room with no end. The walls, floor, and ceiling were tiled with slabs as wide as a city bus and lit by no visible source.
A mechanical voice echoed through the chamber.
"Welcome, Son of Sparda. You seek the Seal of Separation."
"I do?"
"Then you must overcome the challenges Sparda and Eve set, or perform the ritual to bypass them."
I cracked my neck. "I choose to fight."
"Very well. By virtue of your ancestry, you may face them one at a time."
"Oh."
"Prepare for battle."
A metal man appeared before me—seven feet tall, clad in complex, aggressive armor. Spikes jutted from its limbs, joints sharpened like blades, and a cape of interlinked knives hung from its back, clinking softly with each movement. In its left hand, it carried a massive slab of sharpened metal, barely resembling a sword. In its right, an articulated shield composed of shifting, interlocking plates.
Its hard face gleamed silver, eyes glowing red and soulless.
It glanced at me once—and charged.
One moment, it was several feet away. The next, it stood where I had just been, slamming into the ground with a thunderous impact that cracked the stone beneath. The shockwave roared outward, but I was already gone, boosted clear with a burst of wind manipulation.
Instant acceleration. No lag time.
I whipped my hand, sending a crescent-shaped vacuum of air slicing through the battlefield. Metal Knight blurred forward, tanking the shot. It exploded on contact, carving a deep divot in the stone—yet he emerged untouched, unshaken.
He flung his sword like a spear. It screamed past me as I banked hard to the side, precision runes flickering to life as I retaliated with blade after blade of compressed air. The knight moved with fluid, unnatural speed—juking, weaving, swaying. Then he tugged.
The sword returned, whistling back like a boomerang. It nearly cleaved through me as it rejoined the knight's waiting hand.
He was already airborne, leaping to meet me in midair.
I kicked off nothing, amplifying the motion with a mix of telekinesis and wind manipulation. Eryx coiled around my fist just as I struck, driving him back down.
Somehow, his shield met my blow in time.
But something was different. His body was changing.
The metallic cloak unraveled, thousands of knives hovering midair, vibrating with a red, translucent aura. His sword warped, lengthening and fracturing at key points, and his shield cracked open—revealing a burning core at its center.
He swung.
The blade extended, growing impossibly long and wide. I met it head-on, arm drenched in gravity and telekinetic force, and deflected the swing—but it rocked me.
Two jets of hyper-compressed air shot from my palms.
A storm of metal surged up to intercept. The blades shattered under pressure but immediately began to mend themselves. His warped blade swept back.
I raised my hand, threading dimensional energy through the wind. A half-powered dimensional slash cleaved through the mutated metal. I'd practiced enough to perform the technique reliably, even without tapping into Ascension.
And that was just the beginning.
I combined the twin beams of wind I'd been channeling and added a wisp of Netherfire.
The result was explosive.
The blast tore through his metallic cocoon, distorting his oversized shield. Still, he endured.
Then the reaction stabilized, and the temperature spiked in an instant. Black plasma bled into the air.
I slashed—up, down, side to side—and the knight turned to slag.
In his place, two angelic constructs appeared. Featureless. Androgynous. Silver-skinned and glowing with runes.