92 Serpent...

Inside a realm of infinite flames in a place far away from the mortal realm, was a throne and on it sat a demonic man. In his eyes was the illusion of a coiling winged devil snake, in front of the man was an Illusionary Dante!

"Lord Asmodeus, matters have become complicated in the last few days....." Dante said as his form became less Illusionary, he looked extremely old and ragged. As though he was on his last breath before falling into the grave.

"What of it? Did I not grant you life?" Asmodeus coldly intoned

"Yes, but someone attacked my true soul and caused me significant damage," Dante said with extreme anger

"And?" Asmodeus said as a women came over to the throne and sat on his lap. She was demonically enchanting and has extremely minimal clothing.

"I need to be in top condition if you want me to do the magic ritual." Dante threatened as he saw Asmodeus fondle the breasts of the women. She started to moan in pleasure, but suddenly Asmodeus ripped her chest open. She started to bleed gallons of blood onto Asmodeus and she fell over dead.

"Do you dare threaten me?" Asmodeus said as the devil snake flashed again, his body started to transform. Elongating and along his body appeared deep scarlet scales, his vertical slit eyes met the gaze of Dante. At this point he was nearly as large as the sky itself, Dante couldn't help but be intimidated.

"I would never do so, but I desperately require help; if you want me to succeed," Dante said for the last time with extreme hesitation

"Return to your realm human, do you think I do not see traces of a clone on you?" Asmodeus said as Dante face darkened to the extreme

"Do not dare disobey me, otherwise you shall find nothing more than eternal torment in death," Asmodeus said as his wings flapped once, destroying Dante's illusion in a single flap.

Back in the mortal world, Dante was in meditation in his room; when he returned to the mortal world. His magical power went berserk and his firepower almost destroyed the room.

He coughed up some blood, and some of his hair fell off. He started to visibly age, and he even had a hard time standing up. It had been almost a half year since Brian had died.

"What did this to me?" Dante said as he looked in the mirror with hatred

It happened months ago, he had been in the middle of meditation. When space cracked in his sea of knowledge, and then a stampede of beasts appeared. An Ouroboros, Kirin, Phoenix, Devil, and a Wolf.

They started to cause mayhem, as they fought against Dante's abilities. They fought away but then from the spatial crack came a terrifying being.

It was a massive Dragon of Devouring! On its forehead was an eye of Chaos and malice, the Phoenix and the wolf fused with the Dragon's left and right eyes...The Ouroboros wrapped as an armor, the Kirin transformed into lightning runes along it, and the devil fused into the eye of chaos giving the dragon a devilish gaze.

Then the Dragon created a massive vortex, and then it devoured massive amounts of his sea of knowledge. Even using his flames and various abilities he was unable to fight back, it was like the dragon was impervious to his fire attacks.

Ultimately, it consumed all that energy created a rotating black Lotus; which remained in his sea of knowledge like a time bomb. Then the dragon disappeared back into the spatial crack, and Dante was completely unable to track it.

"Without that essence my sea of knowledge will continue to collapse....." Dante was on the verge on insanity ever since, he looked for help in every way. But he realized that he would be unable to recover, without massive magic power. Where in the world would he be able to get that?

At that moment inside Dante's bag of holding, shined a transmission charm. It is a way to communicate over huge distances and requires vast wealth and a skilled formation expert. Dante removed the transmission charm, and read it his face distorted into ecstasy. He even started to cackle, even though he started to cough soon after.

"Zayne, Eliza ready the carriage I am going to Dread," Dante said as two people boy and girl walked into the room. They looked extremely similar like they were twins, they bowed in respect and left the room.

These were his other less popular disciples, with the death of Brian; Dante had been treating them better. Of course, Dante was only doing it as a facade, they could never replace Brian. Brian was an actual part of Dante and his entire hope for the future.

"This is just for appearances," Dante mumbled to himself, as they prepared the carriage.

It was a Griffin, that Dante had trained into being his pet. The Griffin showed solemn respect as Dante came, and Zayne went over to the front of carriage with his sister. They sat side by side as they gripped the reins of the Griffin.

"Go!" Zayne yelled out as the Griffin flapped its massive wings. On the bottom of the carriage activated a floating matrix, it let the carriage act mass-less and they flew off into the sky.

"If I could use my magic power this would be so much faster...." Dante couldn't help but feel further anger in his heart at the person responsible for his troubles.

His magic power would go berserk anytime he used it because the lotus would operate and cause cracks to his sea of knowledge. So he couldn't use magic power and instead had to use primitive methods of transportation.

He quietly meditated to fix his mental state and physical state. Although it didn't work for his physical troubles, he was mentally calmer by the end of meditation they reached Dread.

Dante's carriage was in front of a household, it was a massive mansion and on the front was Cambell! Then 3 people walked to out of the household, one of them was Elder Shu.....next to him was Elder Huang. To the center was a young man, his eyes shined like stars, and his brows were like two swords.

"Young Master Shen, how's your father?" Dante asked as he talked to the young man

"Father Cambell has been busy lately but he's been good." The young man said as he spoke to Dante on equal terms.

"I heard that you were able to get some information recently," Dante said as he spoke to Elder Shu

"I have indeed senior, but the circumstances were rather strange...." Elder Shu said as he remembered that conscient

"Just hand it over." Dante coldly intoned, he didn't show the same respect he gave Shen.

Shen filled his palm over and in it was a few pieces of preserved paper. He politely handed it to Dante, whose face looked enamored. He started to read it in a flurry, and couldn't help but start smirking.

"Elder Shu, thank you I will make sure to report this to Asmodeus...." Dante said on the surface but on the inside he was sneering

"Thank you, Senior." Elder Shu said as he awaited his benefits

Dante reached into his bag of holding and removed a vial of blood.

"This is the fey blood of a giant ape, you can use it to aid in your breakthrough," Dante said as he floated the vial over to Elder Shu, Elder Huang looked jealous as he saw the vial approach.

"Dante, I have a proposition," Shen said with a smirk

"Oh, and what would that be young master?" Dante said courteously

"A while back, my father left some info out to lure out our enemies. Silent Swords accidentally got involved, and they received the info. Now, this new piece of information was received and Silent Swords branch #3 was destroyed....." Shen said as he awaited Dante's input

"What's the link, is it the enemies or Silent Swords?" Dante asked as he felt a headache incoming

"We think that the dark hand behind the scenes has been manipulating the board. He has seen all our moves, and implanted spies to be one step ahead of us." Young Master Shen said as he gauged Dante's response

In Dante's mind flashed the image of Lucas, and then he realized the truth. Lucas was the most suspicious, and his medallion just happened to break in that realm with Brian's. Then soon after Dante was assaulted with attacks on his sea of knowledge...

'Lucas isn't a servant of Asmodeus, he serves the dark hand behind the scenes...Then what about me, won't Asmodeus kill me for helping him inadvertently?' Dante couldn't help but get a cold sweat on his back

"Father has asked that I come with you, and monitor things for now. Only so that I may gain some experience in the outside world...." Young Master Shen said as he awaited Dante's response

'So they suspect me it seems, the Cambells have that much sway with Asmodeus....' Dante's heart was bleeding in hatred, but he calmed himself.

"Of course I understand Younger Master, I will make sure to make your stay in Rain is excellent," Dante said with a big ingratiating smile.