Reason to live

Now that Dante was aware of the individuals he was currently spying on, he felt an urge to leave, however that all changed when the man on the right spoke.

"You refused to carry out the will of Ren so now your judgement is death."

Looking at the direction these men were heading to, Dante was instantly aware of what they had in mind. The area that were walking to was densely populated by carnivorous plants. It was most likely that they wanted to feed him to the plants.

Now aware of their plans, he contemplated on whether to get involved or not. He pretty much didn't know why know why Ren wanted him dead and he didn't really feel like doing anything at the moment. Though he was convinced to help when he remembered that Cory had lead him here.

Wanting to keep his identity a secret, he made a cloak and a mask designed to cover his nose and mouth. Upon wearing these things, he looked at Cory who was staring at him as if she was anticipating what he would do.

"Please I beg you I don't want to die!"

"Oh shut it! You should have thought about that before you rejected Ren's offer", the man on his left stated.

At that moment, Dante had jumped off the tree landing in front of them and catching the three men off guard.

"What!?", The men by binded man's side exclaimed.

Before they had the time to react, Dante touched the ground creating a sandstorm which blinded the two men. He had made sure to keep the sand away from himself and the man who was restrained. Using the sandstorm around them as a cover, Dante moved closer to them.

"Damn it I can't see a thing!", the men shouted as they unleashed their abilities on the area.

From what Dante could see, he noted that these men had fire based abilities which was terrible for handling the situation they currently found themselves in. Without wasting any more time, he dashed at high speed punching each of these men hard in the gut. The pain from those punches caused the men to crotch down in pain. Seeing this Dante could not help but be surprised. He was unaware of the fact that he had gotten stronger than the average human being as all of the creatures he had faced lately were far stronger than him. The same could be said for his speed and durability as well. This had all happened after he had regained his memories in the cave.

Now that these men were unable to fight anymore, Dante disactivated the sandstorm revealing himself to them.

"Who the hell are you!?", Even though he heard the question, he didn't bother answering it.

Now that the men had a perfect view of him, they could not help but feel an ominous feeling from him. Though they were unable to see his face as it had been covered with a hood and mask.

"What are you?", One of the men asked in fear. "It doesn't matter, I will make sure Ren hears about this.

After saying these words, the two men ran into the woods eventually vanishing from Dante's eyes. Now that these men were gone, he gave a audible sigh before walking to the binded man and releasing him from his restraints.

"What's your name?", Dante asked out of nowhere.

"Uuhh, my name is Eric."

"Well, Eric you are free now. You should be on your way."

Now that he had done his part, Dante decided that he had had enough of conflict for one day, besides he was quite aware that what he did was going to have it's fair share of consequences.

"Wait! Actually, I don't have anywhere I can go too. The one place I could call home is no more my home, all because of Ren."

On hearing this, Dante stopped walking. He didn't want to admit it, however he knew that that may be the case now.

"Why did Ren want you dead?", Dante asked another question out of the blue.

After what seemed like a solid minute, Eric decided to tell him what had happened.

"I had just escaped from a dream world three weeks ago. When I first arrived I thought I was going to be killed by Fractures, though that was not the case. I was saved by Ren who lead me to a base camp. Apparently he was gathering survivors and protecting them from harm. Some days later, I came to a conclusion that Ren was not just saving these people out of good will, he actually wanted to rule them. The behavior from each of the survivors made that quite clear. When I discovered this I confronted Ren, however he left me with only two options....."

"Serve him or die", Dante completed his last sentence.

Eric nodded his head before continuing his explanation. "From what you saw going on I think it is quite obvious what i chose to do. I can't live under a man who wishes to control me."

Looking at Cory who was still on the tree branch, Dante had realized what he was brought here for. He was quite aware of what he was supposed to do for sometime now but he always pushed it away. At that moment he realized that what he was seeing was not Cory. Because of his longing to see her, he had made an image of her in his head. Some how the image in his head had lead him to what he knew he was supposed to do. He had to gather survivors himself and protect them. Presently he was only aware of Ren as the only person gathering them. If this was the case he might as well take responsibility. Besides having other survivors by his side was a great way of defending himself against Ren. If he was to send the survivors he had gathered after Serena and him they would most likely be overwhelmed by the numbers game.

"You could always come and stay with me, that way you would be safer", Dante offered as he still looked at Cory.

"You are gathering survivors too? In that case sure, I don't have any place better to go", Eric accepted his offer rather quickly.

Just as Eric accepted this offer, Cory had vanished from his sights confirming his suspicion. After this whole thing, Dante could not help but feel as if a burden had been lifted from his chest. Now he had yet another reason to live.