Dante's p.o.v
'hm so END expects me to crawl my way through hell for my freedom... so all this time, the tower was actually'
"ANOTHER DIMENSION ENTIRELY... YES, YOUR RIGHT." The old man completed my initial thought, making me glare straight at him as the old man just chuckled darkly at me but then stopped as he began to rise from his throne. "AND YES, I CAN HEAR YOUR THOUGHTS, DANTE. THOUGH IT'S NOT SURPRISING WHEN TWO BEINGS OF THE SAME ENTITY SHARE A CERTAIN PLANE OF EXISTENCE."
'what do you mean by that?' I questioned through my mind, never taking my gaze off the entity before me, who now stood on both of his feet at a staggering 8 feet, with his form releasing a dark mist that added more to his mysterious persona besides his ominous aura around him. I waited for my question to be answered by the entity, but instead of a vocal reply, I heard his own thoughts.
'WE ARE BOTH EMBODIMENTS OF THE END; WE BOTH SHARE THE SAME ENERGY AS THE END... WE SHARE THE SAME IDEOLOGY. WE EXIST TO DESTROY-.'
'no… I am not like you; I don't seek to destroy...' gripping my fist tightly, I interrupted the grim reaper from making any other comments any further, sending a cold glare at him.
'(DARK CHUCKLING) SO THEN TELL ME DANTE... WHAT DO YOU SEEK, IF NOT FOR DESTRUCTION? IS IT LOVE? IS IT HOPE? OR DO YOU SEEK FOR PEACE.' The grim reaper paused for a while, staring at me so intensely as if staring straight into my soul, 'OR DO YOU SEEK FOR REVENGE?'
'…' I couldn't respond to that question, feeling a sudden bile rise to my throat while turning my gaze towards the ground with an unsure look on my face.
'ANSWER DANTE,' the reaper demanded with an amusing smirk on his face.
'you said we are one of the same kind... then if that's true, you know what my heart wants... you know what I truly seek for.' The reaper's smirk slowly faded away after I mentioned those words.
The reaper then stared closely at me and soon brought his gaze to the ground.
"AH… I SEE, YOU'RE NO DIFFERENT FROM THOSE OF THE OTHER PLANE." The reaper finally spoke out before sitting back on his throne and sending a threatening glare at me, as I felt the whole room suddenly become bone-chilling cold. "YOU SEEK FOR THE IMPOSSIBLE THAT CAN'T BE ACHIEVED; THERE'S NOTHING LIKE TRUE PEACE."
"you don't know that... Who are you to judge when all you seek is chaos and destruction?" I roared out at him, with my body suddenly beginning to get coated in an ominous aura. "You know nothing!"
My voice rang throughout the room as my mana presence began to flare up. My patience was now being tested at this point.
"YOU SAY I KNOW NOTHING... FINE, I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING. BUT I DO KNOW ONE THING... THAT EVEN YOU CANNOT DENY CHILD." The reaper responded to me with a sly grin on his now distorted face, something now felt not right in this very room.
"And what is that?" I asked him to go on with his deduction. But from what I was seeing, I felt myself getting ready to defend myself from anything he wanted to launch at me.
"(DARK CHUCKLING) WE BOTH KNOW WHAT I'M ABOUT TO SAY, CHILD... WHY DON'T YOU LOOK INTO MY HEART SINCE WE SHARE THE SAME BEING AND TELL ME WHAT IT IS?" The reaper's grin increased as his face started to twist in an even more sinister look.
"there's nothing to see... You're just a heartless monster like the rest of them. I fought in the void for 500 years... There's no difference." I said it with a stoic tone now, with my glare unwavering at the very slightest.
"AND FROM WHAT I HAVE BEEN SAYING SINCE THE VERY BEGINNING YOU ARRIVED HERE, WE'RE NOT THAT DIFFERENT FROM EACHOTHER CHILD... AFTER ALL, WHAT KIND OF BEING WOULD CAUSE THE DEATH OF THEIR SO-CALLED LOVED ONES?" I felt an untold wave of anger hit me like a moving train after the reaper made that last sentence. I rushed towards him with a ferocious look on my face, ignoring the crushing pressure that was exerted on my very body as I made my way closer to him. "WHAT IS IT, CHILD? YOU HATE BEING CALLED WHAT YOU TRULY ARE... A HEARTLESS MONSTER LIKE ME."
"DON'T YOU DARE BRING THEM INTO THIS!" I cried out with a loud battle cry, increasing the mana aura around me to the point where it started to look very unstable, but the closer I got towards the reaper, I felt this sudden change in my mana presence as if it were being drained out of me, though I was about 3 feet away from the reaper's throne, ready to deliver a mass attack. The reaper just kept his stare at me until he whispered these very words.
"I AM FAR BEYOND ALL THIS, SO DON'T EVEN BOTHER." the reaper started not even fazed at all… until he finally finished his sentence with his black aura consuming the whole room and his void look flicked to a monstrous skeleton form in some seconds. "…FALL"
With the utterance of that word, I felt my whole body crashing down with a deep feeling of emptiness within my very being. As I came down on my knees, my worldview suddenly changed to a scene. I prayed every day to forget, but alas, here I was on my knees while watching the last scene that was engraved into my very soul—the day I lost not just my life but my family.
"Father Alfred!" a younger me cried out with a dread of both terror and pain in it.
'No, no, please stop this' I cried out from within as I tried to roar out in pain from having to watch this… but I had no strength to move or even blink. All I could do was shed tears and weep internally.
"WHAT IS IT, CHILD? DO YOU STILL THINK I KNOW NOTHING, I AM THE GRIM REAPER DANTE, I ARRIVE BEFORE EVERYONE'S DEATH. AND THAT GAVE ME THE PRIVILEDGE TO HAVE BEEN PRESENT DURING THAT VERY DAY." The reaper spoke from my back, with his gaze above me and half of his face now half of the old man's and the other having a monstrous skeletal figure appearance. "DON'T FEEL BAD, CHILD... IT WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE… This was your fate from the very beginning."
'…is he right? Was this meant to be my fate?' I thought, with my tears now drying off and a very lost look plastered on my face, as I turned my head to my right side to see my young self now staring right towards me with tears in his eyes and his body now disintegrating from the blast that day… But before that, some words left his mouth and were recited to me.
"Please, do something," the younger me said before fading away… but even after that, those two last words he said still replayed in my head over and over again…
'Do something,' I thought... before now finding the strength to turn my head towards the reaper who now stood there ready to flung his gigantic scythe at me, ready to decapacitate me, as my eyes widened to this and everything flicked again, now changing the reaper's appearance to that of the 11th executioner's form, with that twisted smile on his face... that same smile he made just before launching that finishing attack that took them away from me... now feeling a sudden rage erupt from my heart.
"IT'S OVER CHILD… JUST ACCEPT IT, THIS IS YOUR FATE." The reaper swung the scythe directly at me with the tip of the scythe blade heading straight for my left eye, which shook in both rage and anticipation.
Sudden flash back
"IT'S OVER CHILD… Just accept it; this is your fate." The 11th executioner roared out while increasing the grip around my neck until.
Snap!
End of flash back
'do something'
"do… something"
Third-person p.o.v
Everything suddenly froze, and with a distorted effect that seemed to warp the space around them, causing waves of ripples that made glitches appear throughout the scene until it finally shattered, returning them back to the room where they stood before, with Dante now far away from attack, the reaper swung at him, as finally everything began to move, with death still staying in his striking posture and Dante now at his back, facing away from the reaper's back.
"FINALLY, WE'RE GETTING SOMEWHERE!" The reaper roared out while returning its gaze back to Dante, who still had his back facing the reaper, who stood to his full height with a demon grin. The reaper's form began to change as his appearance became bigger and more demonic, with horns protruding from its skull, but at the same time, a very bright set of angelic wings erupted from his back, with about 4 sets of two pairs each, and finally, a halo resembling a crown of flames. His scythe became bigger and more menacing, but its general appearance had a golden color to it and ancient symbols around it. "TELL ME, DANTE... HOW WILL YOU DEFEAT AND PASS THIS GATE WHEN YOU KNOW YOUR OPPONENT FEEDS AND GETS STRONGER ON YOUR DESPAIR (DARK LAUGHING)"
Dante finally faced the reaper, with half of his face now shrouded in a very thick plague of darkness and chains now spiraling around him, glowing in a red astral tone of coloring. But what stood out about his new form was the white and black veins that spilled out of his now glowing forearms, which seem coated in a white mana cloak at the left forearm and black at the other.
"i'lL dO sOmEtHinG"
