Chapter 107

"How was your chat with Strucker?" I asked Natasha over a live Call. Her face wrinkled a bit before she spoke.

"Enlightening," she said. "Between the information we harvested from Pierce's systems and Strucker's intel, we were able to piece it together. Erskine's formula. We can create more supersoldiers now." 

I let out a breath that I'd been holding since the 1980s. Carol Danvers had shown me what true power looked like and just how dangerous the wider universe was. In one afternoon, she had singlehandedly taken out the Kree and Skrull—two advanced alien civilizations—and saved the planet from certain destruction. 

I'd been a grumpy mess ever since she left, working and praying that I'd have an answer when the space monsters came knocking again.

Apparently, I'd been looking in the wrong direction. Who'd have known the real threat would come from down below?

Under my guidance, we'd made great strides in tech, creating jets and bombs powerful enough to wipe out entire cities, lasers that could cut through steel, and sonic bombs loud enough to bring down entire city blocks, but the one thing that has always eluded was superhuman operatives. 

I'd hoped to create the Avenger's protocol one day, but I didn't expect the universe just to deliver them into my lap. Thus, the Prometheus project was born. If the gods wouldn't give us fire, we'd have to make it ourselves.

Recreating the Supersoldier formula was just Phase 1. Banner's formula and the mutants were Phase 2. Charles Xavier and Magneto made it damn near impossible to recruit stable mutant assets. 

Everyone we'd ever bagged and tried to convert went nuclear on us. Some of the files we recovered from Pierce now explained why. He'd been actively sabotaging us for years.

The second hidden reason why I was hesitant to recruit mutants was control. Supersoldiers were easy to understand, restrict, and control if necessary. Mutants, however, were more tricky. A great deal of them had secondary mutations, latent potentials, and ridiculous abilities like teleportation that were damn near impossible to stop.

Until now.

"And the other thing. Did he tell you how he did it? How was he able to create more mutant blood without the Nadia, kid?" 

"Yes… it's one of the mutants, Armando Munoz. Apparently, he adapted to her blood makeup and started producing blood of near-identical genetic makeup."

"That's...remarkable," I muttered. I was skeptical when I read his file, but if his mutation could really reactively adapt to any stimuli, he could be the key to Phase 3: combining multiple serums together to create a being powerful enough to ward off any threat--domestic and alien.

 "Great work as always, Natasha. He could be the key to containing those two," I said. "Get me Kurt."

---

Dante

Effiong's monsters brought the heat as promised. 

After the Blood Spinner came a pack of 4 Storm wolves. Their primary attack was lightning they accumulated over time from swaying their tail, and each one was nearly as strong as the Garok I fought a while back.

Farming lightning experience off them simultaneously forced me to use Gust in coordination with Acrobatics. When I grew truly desperate, I used Angel Evade to dodge an absolute bombardment called down by their Alpha.

Not only did I have to contend with their cunning, I also couldn't use my metal weapons for obvious reasons or risk drawing an unwanted lightning strike.

Thankfully, their lightning was not nearly as strong or fast as natural lightning. After my lightning resistance reached Adept Tier, I went on the offensive and ripped them apart, starting with the Alpha. 

I appeared in front of him with Burst and dug into the base of his neck with a fist charged with Burst strike. It pulverized the bones, killing him immediately.

The pack, who'd been growling at me until now, got quiet after that.

I repeated the process for the next wolf, and the last two bundled together, pooling together their discharge. I faked them out by Bursting in front of them to bait their lightning strike, then turned intangible just before it hit. 

Now that they were out of juice and vulnerable, I summoned Arbiter, brought it down on the neck of the first wolf, pulled Betsy, and deleted the dead of the retreating second.

The Alpha netted me 600 Red Orbs while the remaining three 450 each.

After the wolves came what I could only describe as an overgrown and twisted Porcupine with long clawed limbs and a warped face. At first, I didn't recognize them until it clicked.

Rage

Primarily Pack Hunters, Rage's excel at overwhelming offense, whittling down even the most experienced sorcerers with their relentless claw and spike attacks.

They were one of the most annoying enemy types in the DMC game. And they tripped up even the most experienced fighter.

Luckily, there was only one of them, but the fight still took a ton out of me.

It's speed outpaced mine, even with Gust, but thanks to my Evasion plus the bonus granted by my new acrobatics skill, I parried most of its blows. The worst part of the fight had to be the spikes.

I had to tank them to get whatever resistance I could pry from the feral fuck, so I had the wise idea to let myself be hit by it. Suffice to say, it hurt like a motherfucker. Each shot knocked the air out of me and nearly put me on my ass.

My regen had to push out every last spike every time I was hit.

Torturing myself paid off, eventually netting me Kinetic Energy Resistance. It took about 10 more spikes hit before I got it to adept level and promptly took off the monster's head with a point-blank Thunderer blast just because I was feeling extra petty.

My final opponent for the trip was unexpectedly a one-armed Dreamrunner named Kreal.

When he emerged from his sealing chamber, the sight of him gave me some pause. His sole shoulder was hunched, and he dragged a chipped Odachi behind him. He didn't bother looking up at me even as he zombie-walked into the arena.

"Are you sure about this?" I asked Effiong as I analyzed him.

"Do not underestimate him," she warned. "He fought your brother and lived." 

That caught my attention. "He fought Vergil?"

Kreal's head snapped up and his chipped porcelain mask seemed to bore into me. "You…" a skeletal voice seethed. 

One moment, he was in front of me; the next, he was behind me, swinging his Odachi at my neck. The world slowed as I twisted with Rebellion, parrying the attack with some surprise. I hadn't even seen him teleport.

His blow, I noticed, had some strength behind it but not enough to make me buckle. I swept his blade to the side and threw an Eryx punch at him. He moved again, and this time, I saw what he did. He entered that space bubble that I've seen other Dreamrunners use in the past, and he popped out behind my exposed back.

Throwing the punch had left me completely open, but not so much that Evasion and my Adept tier skills couldn't save me. My hand twirled, and Rebellion cycled around my body and rested against my back. The stab from his Odachi bounced off against Rebellion, and I used the momentum his strike generated to flip backward and lash out with a kick. Kreal leaned out of the way and cartwheeled into a portal.

Tense seconds passed as my eyes surveilled the area around me, waiting for him to pop back out. 

What I hadn't been expecting was a portal opening up directly in front of my throat and a rusted Odachi stabbing through. The blade was coated in a strange translucent but tangible energy. I found out it was demonic space energy when it stabbed through my throat.

My skills warned me just before he pulled his blade outward. Burst threw me back, and my regeneration kicked into high gear as I kicked back further, avoiding a follow-up strike that would've finished the job the slash started.

Another Space strike came, but this time, it went for my Achilles heel, slicing the tendon apart before he materialized in front of me, sword raised, ready to slice me in two.

Gust shoved Kreal off his feet before he could swing his blade down, and I followed with a shot from Betsy that clipped him in the shoulder just before he teleported. His retreat gave me the space I needed to activate Fire Cloak and Gust at 30%. 

"You fight different than before. Less refined.," he spoke in a whisper, looking up at me with a scrutinizing tilt of his head. 

"Fuck you," I snorted, "that's because I'm not Vergil. I'm Dante, his twin brother."

"You must take me for a fool," Kreal said, and I blinked at the absurdity.

"We use different weapons and energy," I said. "And I know you heard me and Effiong speaking."

"Lies and manipulation," he hissed and exploded with energy.

"Oh well," I shrugged. "I tried." 

The attacks came down twice as fast now. Whatever I'd said seemed to have thoroughly pissed off Kreal. However, just because he was less angry didn't mean his technique suffered.

At least one-third of his attacks touched me despite parrying, shifting, repositioning, pirouetting, and leaping. 

It was not long before I reached Adept tier in Space Resistance. By that point, I could've ended things with Devil Trigger or used Angel Evade to trivialize the fight, but I was hesitant to. 

For the first time in a long time, I'd faced a formidable opponent not so far beyond me that I feared for my life and not too below me that fighting was a waste of time. So, we continued our cat-and-mouse game until he eventually ran out of demon energy, and I pulled my infernal Katana for an impromptu Kenjutsu lesson.

Metal rang out as we crossed blades, parried, pirouetted, twisted, and attempted daring techniques. I kept energy use to a minimum and tried not to go for the kill. Even though he was drained of demon energy, emaciated, and down to one hand, Kreal's skill with the blade was masterful. He saw through all of my traps and feints and forced me to adapt to survive. My swordsmanship did not reach Master Tier. In fact, it was a substantial way off, but I felt more powerful than ever. 

Our spar ended when he suddenly leaped back, sweating and grunting.

"Enough of this play," he screamed as he filled his blade with energy. You were a fool to let me recover demonic energy. This is the end."

"Yeah, it is," I sighed. The air shattered as the blade fell. I had no doubt I would've taken considerable damage if it had hit. That was why I dodged it by using Devil Trigger and Devil Evade.

My muscles rippled as I groaned in ecstasy from the layered boosts.

Karel's blade carved a thin diagonal line that sheared through enchanted earth, metal, and the arena floor. To him, it must've looked like I'd teleported. He didn't notice the Infernal dagger charged with Precision before it was too late.

His head exploded like a ripe tomato. I frowned as I watched him topple to the ground.

He deserved better.

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