Death and Shadows

Listening to the sounds of battle raging on from behind him, a whimsical whistle passed through Grim's lips as he approached the area Dante, Jack and the mysterious new Devil host were battling in.

As for the battle with Vanica and Charlotte, Grim wasn't worried at all. After all, Vanica is stronger now than when she fought him.

(A/N: For those who don't remember, after Grim chastised her about limiting her potential and relying on her devil's power, Vanica started training.)

***

[Slash Magic: Death Scythe: Lunatic Slash]

Manifesting green coloured mana scythes out from his forearms, Jack rushed forward and started swinging his arms wildly.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA DIE DIE DIE!!!" He exclaimed not paying attention to his companion.

Unleashing a devestating flurry of flying slashes, his attacks tore through Dante's fleshly body like it was nothing and collided with the stone wall behind him.

"DIE!!" He shrieked swinging his arms even faster.

*SLASH!!*

*SLASH!!*

*SLASH!!*

Faced with the oncoming slashes, not a ripple of emotion could be seen on Dante's face. Compared to the feeling he had when facing Asta and Yami back on the edges of the Clover Kingdom, Jack's attacks were practically bug bites.

"Pathetic."

Having had enough of this, he raised hand up high.

!!!

Recognizing what he was about to do, Nacht's heart skipped a beat as he yelled out "JACK STOP PLAYING ARO-

Unfortunately for Nacht, before he could finish saying what he wanted, Dante's next sentence had cut him off.

[Gravity Magic: Presence of the Demon King]

Going directly into his 80% devil form, the entire area trembled as a crushing force suddenly descended upon it.

*BOOM!!*

"W-What the hell is this!"

Having never faced such an overwhelming power like Gravity Magic before, Jack's eyes were forced to widen as both he and Nacht were brought down to their knees.

"Nggh dammit!!" He cursed as the ground around him crumbled. Even the stone faced Nacht looked like he was having trouble resisting its effects.

"Haah? Is that it?"

Not knowing if he was expecting too much from them. But the fact that these two were from the same Kingdom as the anti-magic kid and dark magic user that had entertained him so much, their performance was too disappointing.

If he had known that defeating them would have been this easy, he would have gone and challenged that Grim kid that he had heard so much about from Morris and Zenon. 

"Alas, the ritual takes priority."

After having his body messed with by Morris's magic, his regeneration ability had reached a level that nothing short of anti-magic was able to injure him. But from their words, Demon Slaying magic was weird enough that it just might be able to surprise him.

Feeling weighed down by the increased gravity, the gears in Nacht head kept turning.

'It's as I thought, if we're going to win this, I'll have to gamble on Jack's ability to cut that which cannot be cut.'

***

"Oho." A sudden chuckle echoed throughout the area. "Looks like you started the party without me."

Suddenly hearing an unfamiliar voice coming from beside him, Dante's head snapped to the left!

"What are you looking at?"

!!!

'Behind me!'

Spinning around even faster this time, Dante was once again greeted to the sight of empty air.

"Ah ah ah." The voice sounded out again as he felt a sharp pain on his neck and the world turned upside down.

'Oh... I've been decapitated.'

Moments later, his entire body vanished from existence.

"You really are immortal."

Watching as Dante's body reformed from sheer nothingness, Grim was drawn to the black scar going down from his left shoulder to the right side of his waist.

"Damn, Asta really did a number on ya huh... Good for him~"

Having seen enough of Dante back when he was floating around back in the bacta tank, Grim was tired of seeing his face and shifted his focus onto the kneeling Clover knights.

"You!"

"Me~"

Seeing the furious look on Jack's face, Grim couldn't help but grin and kick Jack onto his back.

"HA! Try to get up now you turtle motherfucker!" Seeing that Jack was still glaring at him, the smile on Grim's face grew even wider as he stood over him with a raised foot.

***

Watching Grim brutalize Jack until his boots were no longer their original colour. Nacht was doing anything but grinning.

Staring at the white haired youth, outside of his glowing yellow eyes, the first thing he noticed was-

'He's unaffected by the gravity...'

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA." Dante's voice echoed out from behind. "So you're Gri-

Snapping his fingers, Dante's body was suddenly cut into a million tiny meat cubes.

"Hush, its not your turn to talk."

Reforming again, less than a second later Dante's body was turned into mincemeat.

Watching this happen over and over again, beads of sweat began pouring down Nacht's face as he was hit with the realisation that with Grim here there was no way they'd kill Dante. Despite what he was doing to him, as long as he was necessary for the gates of the underworld opening, Grim wouldn't allow him to die.

His presence here... it was the worse case scenario.

Having secretly watched over everyone from the Black Bulls for the past 2 years, he knew better than anyone else just how far Grim would go to achieve his goal.

Destruction of humanity? End of the world? None of that matter in the face of his desires.

Realising that he had run out of options, he knew that if they were going to stop the dark triad, he'd have to gamble everything on Jack.

[Devil Union Mode: Canis]

Uniting with the dog-masked devil Gimodelo, Nacht's appearance took a drastic turn. Manifesting from their union, a black furry cape and mantle draped over his shoulders, elbow length claw-like gloves covered his arms and a hat with a point brim and the sides folded up like dog ears and two holes for his devil horns sat on his head.

"Oh?" Pausing his actions of bullying Jack and Dante, Grim turned to look at the dripped out Nacht. "Well that's new."

Having seen multiple different types of weg from Asta, Vanica, Zenon and now Dante, seeing this new form of devil power immediately caught his attention.

*Grins*

"And here I was thinking I'd have to wait for the gates of the underworld to open before getting to have some fun."