Chapter 172

"Double up," I whispered furiously. "You don't want to get caught out in the open when one of those packs finds us." We'd made a lot of sound during our ore harvesting. We'd initially come, ready to dig to carve into the earth and hunker down until we mined enough of what the boss called Anti-metal, but luck had been on our side.

Whatever fucked up changes were happening to Antarctica caused some of the metal chunks to float to the surface and breach the ground. All we had to do was carve it out and transport it—a task that proved impossible considering all of our equipment was made of metal!

We learned why they called it Anti-metal the hard way.

We had to use our blasters to rip apart the Ice. What we hadn't anticipated was just how loud the Vibranium was. It was like sounding a gong with each Blaster fire. Thankfully, the sound faded fairly quickly.

One of the enthusiastic researchers mentioned the anti-metal being extremely energy absorbent and hard. I remember reading both in the information packet.

I let out a short breath, surveying the icy waste through my HUD scanner, my finger thumbing the safety and triggers of my gun. If things went bad, it'd happen fast.

It was every agent's dream to gain Level 7 access and become a Special Agent, but that came with certain risks that seemed downright fictional—mining an exotic mineral in Antarctica in a stealth plane while keeping an eye out for mutated monsters was an example.

Still, I was determined to make something of myself

Fury couldn't beg me to take this mission a month ago. I would've spat in his face…

Well, I wouldn't actually spit in the director's face, but I would've been a hard sell. I had a beautiful girlfriend, a baby on the way, really good pay, and a life I couldn't truly complain about.

All that changed when she left me with a note a week ago after she aborted my kid and vanished.

The experience put a lot of things in perspective. I knew I'd find love again one day, but for that to happen, the free world had to be safe. And there was no greater call to action than a mission to secure a means to protect ourselves against an alien asset.

I've had brief interactions with the 'kid' in question, and I didn't like him one bit. He spoke to officers and agents like they were beneath him, talked to Fury like an equal, and allegedly killed a SHIELD agent.

"All done," I heard somebody yell to me from inside the jet.

"Get us out of here," I said into the comms. "I don't want to be here for one second longer than I have to be."

I backed away from my post carefully as the rest of the soldiers retreated. Just before I climbed up on the ramp, I thought I saw a figure in the snow, but my radar picked up on nothing.

She was only there for a moment before she was gone. I blinked. My first instinct was to raise the alarm, report it in, and have the soldiers scout it out, but it was probably something that was going to get them all killed. The stealth tech made us virtually undetectable by most equipment and human senses.

"Take us up," I said, climbing up the ramp. I just had to hope we put enough distance between us before shit hit the fan.

We got what we came for. No reason to rock the boat.

Dante's POV

The air exploded in a crescendo of steel, red spurs, lightning, and light beams.

Magic-infused energy fire peppered out of my modified blaster as I fired at Ulyetrix. The beast swung, twisted, and dodged all attacks and counterattacked as it blurred across the landscape.

He was stronger than ever, faster than ever. Yet, I wasn't worried.

I was even excited.

The fight showed me just how much I'd been underestimating how powerful Nephilim were. I had been forced to create techniques on the fly, self-immolate, and wrench my sanity back from the brink of death. And I was stronger for it.

Granted, that window of invincibility was rapidly shrinking, but while I had it, I was determined to make the best of it.

My left hand stretched forth, and I sent out two commands instead of one.

FALL. TRIP.

Wild demonic power rushed out of me, my two affinities sounding off each other as they twisted into a wicked spell that tried to latch onto Ulyetrix impossibly fast. It swamped the ground below us, tugging on Gravity and Mind affinity, dragging the alien to his knees. Still, he broke out of it with an activation of the ability of his maroon eyes—reality manipulation.

It had taken a moment to figure it out, but when we did, it became obvious, and we knew we could accurately predict his moves.

Ulyetrix stretched impossibly fast, his eyes jettisoning him mid-air, where Lumos was waiting for him with a Telekinetic bitch slap. He blocked it, playing exactly into our hand. He didn't notice the bomb attached to the attack before it was too late.

The explosion shattered his shield and destroyed several tentacles, opening him up to a barrage from all of us. He wove through the press of energy bolts, using his tentacles to pull and push at impossible speeds, all the while lashing out at us with concussive blasts.

I surged ahead with an earth-shattering stomp, propelled forward by Nether Fire, Telekinesis and Density Shift, and my Mind Cloak.

Juggling all these abilities simultaneously hurt my mind, but the alternative was losing Rin, and we were running out of time. Lumos gave me one minute, half of which was already gone, and I was going to make the best use of it.

I wove through the mind field of concussive blasts with Pietro to my flank and Lumos somewhere behind us. He'd pulled another disappearing act, erasing his physical and mental presence from my perception and, hopefully, Ulyetrix's too.

He'd started using this tactic when our assault began anew.

Pietro fired thick streams of lightning, countering the concussive blasts, and I released waves of Nether fire that battled against and overcame the smaller blasts.

"It's too late," Ulyetrix crooned. "He's mine now. And soon, so will you."

"Shut up," I barked out.

The monster's teeth widened as the spurs on its many-tentacled arms shone, unleashing compressed waves of concentrated kinetic energy. It sheered stone, shook the air, and shattered the left side of my entire body and armor.

Angel Regeneration plus my regular regeneration was quick enough to repair the damage. My armor took care of itself, and my sheer momentum and budding Telekinesis made sure I didn't lag behind.

I was fully healed when I clashed with Quellitrax, or at least tried to. My fully charged slash split the landscape.

Quellitrax's Maroon eyes shone as his body flowed like water and wrapped around my limbs. He spun me around, holding me in front of a confused Pietro before he lashed out. The speedster barely avoided the attack.

Lumos struck a moment later, unleashing a pillar of light that swallowed me and Ulyetrix up.

The pain was unbearable. My armor heated up so quickly and violently that I swore the runes were about to erupt. My flesh and a chunk of muscle vanished within in an instant, flash-fried. By some miracle, all of it didn't break my concentration, allowing me to follow through with the plan.

Nether fire and Wind cojoined in my throat, and all of my strained runes sang in unison.

A pillar of Purple fire surged out at point-blank range and deleted the head of Ulyetrix.

It'd happened so quickly that I'd been surprised that we'd even succeeded.

The monster, predictably, didn't die, but we were counting on that too.

"Now!" I sent to Lumos. One technique seamlessly switched for the other. The second prince of Hell yanked the thrashing alien into the air and swiped his spear at it, splitting his stomach open with a pillar of light.

Tufts of Rin's hair bubbled to the surface in what I assumed must've been a moment of weakness for the Alien monster before it was yanked back into the morass of undulating tentacles. Masses clumped to gather above Ulyetrix's shoulder to try to replace his head, but we didn't give him a chance.

My regeneration took care of the extensive burn damage as I summoned Aquila and charged another Purple fire attack in my chest.

I sent 20 fully charged, glowing, shuriken flying, spending well over 500 AE. I let them all run wild on his central body, cutting it to thin strips and slowly building up Smite. Then, I let another Nephilim fire attack fly. It drew a wicked line down his torso, scorching it.

Lumos spear swung out impossibly fast as he unleashed attack after attack on the squirming monstrosity. In that time, my spectral blades had well exceeded the 200 cut limit of Smite. Pietro lent his help with a brutal lightning arc that further paralyzed it.

I capped things off with a gunshot infused with dimensional affinity.

Ulyetrix practically erupted, shredded apart into a hundred rapidly recovering bits as dimensional energy ripped it apart.

"You think this is enough!" he shrieked, sending all of us reeling. "I did not forge all six of my eyes, and crawl through the fabric of space-time to die to an infant!"

"Yet that's what's about to fucking happen," Pietro said, blurring his hand, building up another electric charge.

His green eyes suddenly sprouted from his rapidly changing body. Lumos was about to torch it before a hand suddenly stuck out. It was Rin's. I launched Ophion. It wrapped around the kid's battered forearm and pulled him free ever so slowly.

Ulyetrix, remaining the stubborn bastard that he was, materialized several tentacles, forcefully growing them with his green eyes, but Lumos came in clutch.

He launched several precise telekinetic blades, shearing off tentacles and entire body parts. At some point, I wrapped my body in my budding Telekinesis and boosted my strength.

And it worked. I pulled Rin out just before Pietro bathed him in a spray of lightning.

Rin was barely conscious when I pulled him free, and Ulyetrix's regeneration surged as Smite wore off, but it was too late.

We already had Rin. Pietro zoomed off with him, leaving Lumos and me behind to hack at the constantly rippling, screaming body of Ulyetrix. We traded earth-shattering blows and blasts.

Ripped apart from his energy source, he was rapidly diminishing, but not so much that he couldn't still put up a modicum of a fight, however futile it was.

"Tell the Wakandans to get ready," I sent to Wanda, who was watching our fight from a peak far away.

"W-What. Of course. Right on it." The anxiety oozed through our connection. A less telepathically inclined me would've written that off as nerves, awe, or fear, but I sensed there was something underneath all of that. A growing distrust.

Ulyetrix recovered quickly after the thrashing. His strength somewhat returned to his initial base form, and he even managed to regrow all six eyes, but it didn't save him.

His warps were too slow and predictable, his kinetic explosions were parried away and easily avoided, and our collective minds rendered all of his mental assaults futile.

After two long minutes of hurling everything at him, he was still healing and morphing at ridiculous speeds, though it was at the expense of his combat strength.

"You should've accepted my offer, Alien," Lumos said, holding a struggling Ulyetrix up in a telekinetic vice grip. My hand stretched upwards, supporting Lumos with Gravity Magic. Even weakened, he was no slouch.

Ulyetrix let out a long and deep laugh. "Should I? Eldritch gods are not the forgiving sort, but neither are demons or humans."

My mind immediately went to Rin.

"What did you do?" I demanded, flexing my budding Telekinesis. I sent an arm flying.

He laughed. "What have I done! What are you going to do? My father and your God are old rivals, you know. He's seen a thousand champion sacrifice their world for power. Some are reluctant, most enjoy it, but all of them eventually do it. You've made it further than most without having to sell most of your soul, but that will change, and I think it's only right that the humans know it."

My heart dropped. "What did you do!"

He cackled. "I told the little witch spying on us, of course. After seeing the state your apprentice is in, She'll no doubt tell her friends, and they will tell the rest of your team. Soon, everyone will know what you are—a predator like your master. You didn't think I'd give up after you ripped the boy away from me. You're a pretender, Dante Sparda, and now everyone knows.

I heard the Wakandan fliers fly overhead. They were in position. Lumos's mental energy fluctuated, and I suddenly felt a wall erected around my mind.

My focus shifted immediately, switching to Mind Cloak and pushing against it with Telepathy. It didn't budge.

"What are you doing!" I yelled at Lumos. I heard the sound of rocket fire and all twenty-five bombs deployed. "Really, are we about to do this now? He's trying to worm his way out of this!"

"I can hold him just fine," Lumos said in a dispassionate voice, but his eyes betrayed his anger. He assumed a fighting stance, leveling his spear against me. "Forgive me Isha. I cannot let him live."

My mind and body kicked into fifth gear as I marshaled every last ounce of energy, preparing for one last tectonic outburst of repulsive Gravity.

It should level Lumos, fling Ulyetrix far, and give me enough time to—

Strength fled my body as I stumbled forward, half of my vision suddenly gone. The pain was sudden, too sudden. Blood poured out of my helmet as my body gave out, and I dropped to my knees.

Did Lumos just kill me with a shot to the eye?

I heard Ulyetrix's booming laugh. The bombs hit a second later, bathing the world in purple fire.

You've killed Ulyetrix. 1,000,000 Red Orbs.