A small candle flickered as the aged man flipped another page of the reports sitting on his desk. Stroking his beard, he looked down at the four pictures of his personal students smiling as he read over their progress. A small buzz came from one of the crystals that sat on his desk just as a small knock at the wooden door brought his attention from the reports. He slowly rose from his chair, pressing the lone button on the box that held the crystal as he did so.
“Yes?”
“Sir I’ve brought them as you asked,” the voice said through the communication crystal as the door opened and four young faces appeared in the doorway.
“Come in.”
“You called for us sir?” a voice came as the student walked in followed by his three classmates. The voice belonged to Dante, who stood at the front of the group. His mouth was set in a line as his crimson coloured eyes stared at the man in front of him. The flickering light danced off his pale skin and white hair giving him the appearance of a spirit while the pair of horns that stuck out from his head gave testament to his Diablon heritage. Wrapped around his neck was an old and tattered scarf that matched the colour of his eyes and contrasted with the blue and white colours of his school uniform. His attention however fell onto the shorter student who stood beside him.
“What happened to you Coppa?
“A bit of an incident in the alchemy labs sir,” the dwarf said as he rubbed the back of his head with his hand. Patches of singed fur dotted his arms and a fine layer of black soot darkned his otherwise lightish brown fur. His reddish hair was no better off either, smoking at the ends or burnt black where whatever fireball he had managed to conjure up had burnt him. He noticed that the goggles on Coppa's head were charred beyond repair, but had probably been the only thing that saved the student's eyesight.
“Always getting yourself into a new mess…” Feinman sighed to himself as he sat back down. The dwarf gave a pitiable whine as Feinman simply shook his head in disappointment. “I assume I’ll be getting the damage reports later. How bad was it this time?”
“It wasn’t my fault,” Coppa tried to argue before he was silenced by a wave of Feinman’s hand. The elderly principle rubbed the bridge of his nose as he dreaded the estimate’s the school repair crews were writing up. Coppa’s lazy attitude and penchant pranks and sarcasm were starting to wear thin on Feinman’s nerves.
“We were trying to transmute metals into other forms,” the soft voice of the elf standing beside Coppa said. The boy’s emerald eyes glittered in the soft light of the room and his long blonde hair was slightly disheveled, but was far from the mess that was Coppa’s hair. He bore a semi-annoyed expression at his companion, likely due to being dragged on whatever scheme Coppa had brewed up. “Coppa, thought it would be funny to add water to Caesium,” Moe explained with mock enthusiasm. “He managed to blow up half the lab this time.
“Well maybe if someone had explained to me the fact that the stuff was explosive, I wouldn’t have done that!”
“Well maybe if you actually used half a braincell, you would have thought differently! But oh no, you just had to go ahead and dump a full bottle of the stuff into a filled sink.” Moe threw his hands up as he let out an exasperated groan. “Now we’re all in here because of something stupid you did.”
“Moe, please let me explain before you jump to a conclusion,” Feinman said as he sat back in his chair. Coppa’s shoulders relaxed as he let out a sigh of relief while Moe stood still, visibly shaking as he tried to calm himself down and keep himself from throttling the dwarf. Feinman almost pitied the elf. The two may have been friends, but even friendship could only withstand so much bickering.
“I’ve asked for you four because I have received reports of an unknown magical surge in a nearby labyrinth. This is an unprecedented form of energy and we need to locate the source generating it as soon as humanly possible.”Feinman explained as he let his body relax. While normally this would be a job for the security forces. I feel I can trust my four personal students to go and investigate this anomaly.” He paused as his knuckles tapped along the tabletop. “For this task, I want Dante to lead you four and i shall leave Sam acting as the second in command.” He turned to the fourth figure whom had been standing at attention for the entire time. “Sam are you up to the task?”
Sam’s ears twitched as his name was called, he silently nodded as his tail swayed back and forth. Feinman only smiled at the grey haired Felpier who crossed his arms. Sam was the quiet one of the group and Feinman had often found him sitting alone in silence during the break between classes. Whether Sam was silent by accident or choice Feinman was unsure, no one had ever heard the boy speak and it seemed he preferred it that way. Coppa and Moe followed his example and gave their own nods of approval, much to the satisfaction of their teacher.
“Good, you three go back and prepare for the task, I wish to speak to Dante privately.”
“Yes sir,” Coppa and Moe said in unison while Sam bowed and followed them out the door closing it behind them. Feinman waited a minute before turning to back to the lone student.
“You can relax Dante, I only wish to talk.”
“Sorry sir.”
“Please stop calling me sir. I’m no longer a knight.”
“I apologise, it’s a force of habit.”
“Of course Dante. It’s fine,” Feinman said with a wave of his hand. He stared at the report in front of him before taking a breath. “The others instructors have told me you've been avoiding the other students." He paused as he narrowed his eyes. "Is this about the accident?”
Feinman watched as Dante’s expression grew somber and his mouth was set into a grim line. "I don’t want to hurt anybody else and I can't risk losing control again. You saw what I became that day.”
“Dante it’s been five months, what happened wasn’t your fault. Not even I could have done anything.”
“Which is why I need to gain control over my powers. I can’t let it happen again. Besides, the other students are afraid of my kind, so why should I care about making friends with them? I have the others already.”
“It’s been years since the Red Queen was defeated Dante. You are nothing like those Diablons, you have the capacity to change others opinions about your kind, but alienating yourself is not going to help anybody get over their fears.”
“I know, but you know that I prefer a smaller crowd."
“When I took you in all those years ago, I did it because I saw great potential in you,” Feinman said solemnly. “You’re like a son to me Dante. I’ve watched you grow from an energetic young boy to a intelligent young man. You’ve progressed far beyond what even I could have taught you.” Feinman took a few steps forward and embraced his adopted child tenderly. Dante returned the gesture but there was the subtle hint of hesitation, as though he was unacustomed to such a gesture. Feinman didn’t care, he was simply tired of watching Dante wallow in self doubt. “I’m proud of you Dante. It hurts me to see you do this to yourself, I will no longer simply stand by as you beat yourself over something out of your control.”
Dante was the first to break the embrace, a look of apprehension on his face. “I’ve always been thankful sir, You’ve given me more than I could ever ask for. Without you, I wouldn’t have had any of these opportunities.” The boys face hardened as he looked at Feinman defiantly. “But this is something I have to deal with. Only I can do this.”
Feinman sighed, knowing there was no point in arguing any further. “All right, but you and I shall continue this when you get back. Also I have a gift for you.”
“A gift?” Dante said confused. Feinman only smiled as he directed the teenager’s attention to the long object wrapped with a piece of cloth leaning on his bookshelf. “Thank you, but what is the occasion?”
“Consider it something of a passing on of an heirloom ,” Feinman said as he saw the confused expression on his student. “I thought is was about time we got you a new set of tools for your assignments.”
Beneath the cloth was a staff and a sword. The staff, which Feinman had specifically ordered, was crafted out of a combination of magically enhanced metals. It was slightly taller than Dante and was topped with what seemed to be an oversized spearhead. A simplistic piece that that Feinman thought suited the studious Diablon perfectly. He watched as Dante set the staff aside and drew the sword from its sheath. Unlike the staff, the sword was made of almost pure white steel that gleamed in the candlelight. In the centre of the guard sat a small sun with a clear, gleaming crystal. A sweet sound reverberated in the air as Dante twirled the blade that seemed to cut the very air itself. With a soft sound, the blade slid back into its scabbard as Dante admired the golden filigree that lined the handle.
“A wonderful piece, is it not? I used that blade when I was your age,” Feinman said as he smiled at Dante’s expression. He looked at the sword as a multitude of memories trickled through his mind. Pushing thoughts of the past aside, he rose and slowly walked towards the door. “You’ll have all the time to admire them later; we shouldn’t keep your classmates waiting.”
“Okay,” Dante replied as he strode through the door with the rewrapped gifts in his hand. Feinman watched as his student walked down the hallway with a look of worry as he closed the door and sighed. He looked at the reports for what seemed like the thousandth time,silently praying for his students safety.
*****
“Twilight, are you sure this is gonna work?” the small purple dragon asked as he looked past the stack of books at the lavender unicorn who was scanning the pages of a book lying in front of her. A small frown lined her muzzle as she tried to make sense of the ancient words. “For all we know, nobody knows this spell exists!”
“Spike, think about what could be done if I can decipher this spell,” Twilight said as she looked at the small dragon with tired eyes. She looked back down to the black book in front of her. Turning the page, she groaned as she came upon even more ink-spattered pages filled with charts and diagrams. She had spent the entire week going through Starswirl the Bearded’s journal after discovering the beginning of a complicated teleport. Unfortunately, the pages detailing the rest of the spell either had fallen out or were unreadable. She had managed to salvage what little information was left, but most had been written down in ancient equish and needed to be deciphered.
For an entire week, Twilight had forsaken sleep and ate very little as she poured over the ancient pages with her magic. Her unwashed mane had become a rat’s nest, and she knew that she probably smelled worse than the lowest pits of tartarus. She was also fairly sure she had lost a fair amount of weight due to her pursuits. Such was the price she paid for being one of the most neurotic unicorns in existence.
She had received the book in the mail from Celestia and had devoted most her time to learning everything she could from the old tome. What had caught her interest were the last two spells. She had gone over the note written by Celestia about the final spell several times but had been sidetracked by a few pages that had fallen out of the book. They depicted some sort of teleportation spell that could be used on other items or ponies besides the caster. A week of testing had seen her exhaust all possible avenues of approach as well as herself without any results. She had come close, but her magic would give out before she could complete it. It was perhaps one of the more frustrating things she had ever experienced, ranking close in her opinion, to her inability to understand how her friend Pinkie Pie’s seemingly unnatural method of prediction.
She stamped her hoof on the ground and let loose a small bit of magic from her horn in frustration, causing the book to flip over to another diagram. Perhaps it was simply luck or a sign from whatever omniscient being watched over her world, but as her little tantrum ended she noticed another page had fallen loose from the journal. Twilight gasped as she recognised the Elements of Harmony surrounding what appeared to be a large circle, crossed with various lines each leading to smaller circle in which one of the elements sat. Her frown melted away into a large smile as she turned to her assistant who had just gone into the kitchen after stacking the remaining books.
“Spike can you go get the elements while I go get the others?”
“Why?”
“I’ll explain everything when I get back,” Twilight said as she galloped past the stacks of books sending them flying all over the floor.
“Oh come on!” Spike shouted as he returned to the entrance to find his work undone. Grumbling he started picking up the scattered literature as he cast a small glance to the book that held the magical items.
“Oh! Could you also run a bath too? I smell like a wet manticore!
*****
Dante scanned the dark passageway as he raised his new staff above his head. Muttering an incantation, a small orb of light shone from the head of his staff illuminating the dark passageway. They had been following the wispy trails of the magenta magic for the past hour. They had to stop a few times when the trail went dead only to reappear a few moments later. They had encountered relatively few monsters on the way down, only the occasional thunder bat or nasal digger actually dared to try to attack them. Feeling a light tap on his shoulder Dante turned to see Moe who turned away, blinded by the light.
“Dante can you please turn that down just a bit?” Moe said as he shielded his eyes. He lowered his hand as Dante slowed the amount of magic flowing into the staff causing the light to die down a bit.
“Sorry, I’m not exactly used to this staff yet.”
“You’ve totally got to let me take a look at that sword when we get back,” Coppa said excitedly as he looked at the weapon hanging from Dante’s side. If there was one thing Dante knew, it was never let the dwarf near anything that looked remotely expensive or contained a large amount of precious metal. “I can’t believe Feinman gave you his sword!”
Dante looked at his classmates in the dim light as he turned to face them. Sam was positioned at the rear with his katana in hand. The slender curved blade glinted in the light as Sam readjusted his grip on the black handle. The blade suited the silent Felpier who scanned the passage with his dark eyes while his tail flicked whenever he caught an unfamiliar noise.
In front of Sam was Coppa, who had rested his giant axe over his shoulder to relieve some of the weight of the weapon from his tired muscles. His massive hand dwarfed the long handle as he walked slowly, avoiding the snaking trails of the strange magic as though they were poison.
Finally, Dante’s gaze rested on Moe who was busy testing the strength of his bowstring. Moe had constructed the small bow in their alchemy class the year before after a series of failed attempts that nearly destroyed the schools wood supply. It was painted in a mix of rich green and earth colours matching the elf’s emerald eyes. Moe had been using it since then, perfecting his skills until he could accurately hit a target at almost five hundred paces.
Somehow, the presence of his classmates assuaged some of the tension that Dante had felt when they had first picked up the trail. Something didn’t feel right to him, he couldn’t place his finger on it, but this magic seemed distinctly alien. It was almost as if it were coming from some rift, leaking and saturating the catacombs of the labyrinth.
A sudden movement in the corner of his eye caused Dante to spin around and cut all magic that was flowing to his staff, casting the passageway into darkness. The trails of magic seemed to grow brighter as he did this, casting a dim glow as they expanded in size. They hugged the cracks and crevices of the ancient walls, twisting and turning in the passage and forming a sort of arcane web. It continued like this for nearly half a mile, filling the hall with its arcane glow. that was until it suddenly ended, running straight into a layered wall. The four students stared at each other in confusion as their trail and hopes suddenly went cold.
Not one to give up easily, Coppa stepped forward with a confident stride and pressed one of his ears to the wall. He felt the stone, finger teasing each and every crack before he gave the wall a hard knock with a furred digit. A hollow sound echoed in the wall and Coppa stepped back quietly. “It’s a false wall.” He said turning to his friends. Moe rolled his eyes while Dante examined the surrounding walls for a switch or stone out of place. Sam sat back as he scanned the passage behind them.
“I would never have guessed,” Moe deadpanned. The elf stepped forward and took out a torch striking it against the wall. The torch flickered at first before the end burst into flames. “I don’t suppose there’s a switch around here.”
“It’ll be nearby.” Dante said as Coppa stood there with his arms crossed.
“Guys I can handle this.” Coppa said, only for the two to ignore him as they searched. Grumbling, he turned to the wall and knocked on it again before pulling a pair of metal boots from his bag.
“I can’t find anything.” Moe said as he examined the crevices in the ancient walls. “Dante, have you found anything?”
“No, whoever built this hid the switch really well,” Dante replied before giving a small sigh as he stood up. “This is going to take some-“
A sudden crash and the sound of smashing rock broke the calm and silent atmosphere, cutting Dante off. All three classmates turned around with weapons drawn to see Coppa standing in the ruins of the wall dusting off his iron boots. He flashed them a grin as he pulled them off and deposited them back in his bag.
“Told you I had it covered,” he said as he jumped over the pile of rubble. “C’mon, times a wastin.”
“Doesn’t he ever think before he does something stupid?” Dante said as he stepped over the rocks. Moe shrugged as he climbed over a boulder followed by Sam.
“He wouldn’t be Coppa if he did,” Moe said with a small laugh. Dante smiled while Sam remained silent. They followed the trail until they found Coppa crouching by a small opening. Peering through it, the four of them gasped as they saw where the trailing magic ended.
The trails wound into a giant cavern held up by massive spears of stone. Each of the walls were honeycombed with massive caves, all facing towards the centre of the cavern where a massive stone pedestal had been erected. The trails of magic were concentrated in the centre of the monument and were surrounded by four figures who were busy chanting as the magic swirled in front of them. With a slow movement, one of the figures produced an orb and three small stones, then placed them underneath the swirling trails of magenta. The magic trails immediately clung to the orb as if it were a magnet before funneling into the stones. The vortex shrank in size until it reappeared inside the floating orb still forcing the magic into the strange items.
“Do you think we should maybe stop them?” Coppa said as he moved forward but was held back by Sam who pointed at one of the caverns where a hunched figure was busy eating a mess of mashed flesh. “Or maybe not. What should we do?”
“We go back to the academy and alert the security forces. This is their job not ours.” Dante replied as he peered over the edge. The spell that the four figures were using seemed to be drawing on an outside source of magic. Whatever they were doing, it would require a massive amount of time and effort. Just enough time for the everyone to alert Feinman and the security teams that were housed back in Particus. Sam and Moe both nodded and moved back towards the passage entrance. Dante gave Coppa a little nudge to start following, but the Dwarf pointed back towards the figures. Dante looked to where the furred finger was pointing to see two bodies tied to one of the pillars guarded by two horned monsters.
“We’ve got to help them,” Coppa said as he moved to jump down to the floor below. Dante grabbed the dwarf by the collar and spun him around. Coppa gave Dante an annoyed look. “You can’t tell me that you’re just going to let them be sacrifices for some demonic ritual.”
“We don’t know if that’s what it is.”
“Don’t be an idiot! Look at them. Black robes, strange magic, weird curvy knife thing.” Dante peered past the angry dwarf to see that one of the figures had indeed pulled a strange knife and was moving slowly to the struggling captives. “This entire setup practically screams weird demonic magic.”
Dante looked back and saw Sam and Moe waiting for his plan. He looked back to the scene below them and sighed. There was no doubting it, this was some sort of dark ritual. Silently, he wighed his options as he listened to the chanting grow in volume. If they turned back now, the two prisoners would surely die and it would possibly bolster the speed at which the spell was being conjured. If they intervened, there was the likely possibility that they would be slaughtered by whatever creatures the four hooded figures had summoned to guard them. Dante rubbed the bridge of his nose as he stood up and looked at each of his friends. Surely their combined skills would be more than enough?
“Fine, we go down and grab the two and then get out of there.”
“And the four others?” Moe asked as he stepped forward.
“Don’t attack them if you don’t have to. We don’t know what they’re capable of.”
“Okay,” Coppa and Moe said in unison while Sam nodded his head. Dante nodded back to them and took a step off the ledge, dropping down to the floor below, quickly followed by everyone else.
*****
“Twilight, I know you needed us, but this is cutting into my napping time!” Rainbow Dash complained as she fidgeted inside the circle drawn around her.
“It will only take a moment Rainbow!” Twilight said from her own circle. She looked towards each of her friends as they patiently waited. The circle had grown to cover almost the entire floor of the library. Lines of chalk went in every single direction crossing and circling the floor in ancient patterns as Twilight finished tracing the spell circle. Taking their positions as Twilight indicated them, each of the mares took up the space in their respective circles with the familiar gold necklaces of the Elements of Harmony sitting around their necks. Twilight closed her eyes and felt the crown on her head start to vibrate as her magic coursed through it and small lines of magic moved and wisped towards the five other elements. A gasp came from each of the mares as Twilight attached strings of magic between each of the circles, causing their individual areas to glow brightly.
“Oh, lookie lookie!” Pinkie’s voice exclaimed as she bounced inside the circle. “They’re all glowy now!”
“Oh my,” Fluttershy whispered as she took a step back. Fear was evident in her eyes as the arcane runes began to glow brighter and brighter by the second. “Are you sure this is going to work?”
“Calm down Fluttershy, I’m sure Twilight knows what she’s doing!” Rainbow Dash said as she fluffed her wings. A look of impatient determination was plastered on her face, signaling that she was getting more and more interested in the spell by the second. “Besides, when has Twilight ever gotten us into a situation where we were in any real danger?”
“Sugarcube? Do you really want us to answer that?” Applejack questioned as she held her trademark stetson on her head. Wind was beginning to pick up as the spell gained power. Books flipped over and dust began to scatter in the magically guided breeze, blowing around in the fashion of a miniature tornado. Twilight gulped as she tried to ignore the growing howl of the wind. She cracked an eye and regarded the five faces of her best friends as they looked on in both fascination and nervousness.
“Twilight dear, I think something is happening!” rarity chimed prompting Twilight to look. she opened one of her eyes to see that the lines of the of the outer circles had begun to glow. The connecting lines followed suit soon after, beginning to slowly turn blue and emitting a faint glow as they neared the centre of the massive chalk circle. Closer and closer the trail of magic grew to the centre of the room, glowing ever more bright as it did so. A faint smell of burning ozone and the air began to turn staticky, causing the fur of her coat to stand on end. The six covered their eyes as the light grew more intense, blinding them before ending in a sudden flash. Slowly moving her hoof away from her face, Twilight gasped as she saw what was now occupying the centre of the library..
An orb floated in the centre of the room, glowing as it drew energy from the six elements. Every few moments it would switch colours to mirror one of the six. From the top of the orb, a large tendril of energy seemed to float off into the sky before it straightened as if something were pulling on it. Twilight gazed into the arcane energy swirling before her as more tendrils began to appear each attaching to the elements. A small glow enveloped the tendrils, causing tiny and almost invisible lines to begin appearing, leaching something from the six ponies.
Something is wrong… Twilight thought as it became increasingly difficult to remain standing. The crown was beginning to feel as it weighed a ton, forcing her to strain her neck as she attempted to keep her head high.
She felt another tug as more energy was siphoned from her body towards the orb. Gravity seemed to root each of the mares to the floor as they struggled to remain upright. Her friends were doing no better than she was. Fluttershy was on the ground shaking as a pink tendril moved from her necklace and began to draw energy from her body. Pinkie’s hair had lost its poof and drooped as her legs shook. Applejack and Rarity panted as the tendrils sapped their energy causing them to collapse on the floor. Rainbow Dash attempted to try and flap her wings in an effort to break out of the circle but was rooted down as the magic wrapped itself around her.
“Is this supposed to be happening?” Rainbow dash yelled as a wind grew, sending even more pages and books flying. The screams of Fluttershy echoed as the magic raged and spun out of control. Twilight attempted to
“I don’t know!” Twilight gasped as she fell to the ground. She tried to cut off the flow of magic, but an invisible force seemed to keep her from stopping the spell as it drained her friends. “I can’t stop it!” She screamed out in pain as pain flared throughout her body. “Someone help!”
******
Dante’s ears picked up a cry as he cut down another demon. He avoided the spray of its blackened blood as he cast a bolt of electricity that dropped another one as it tried to stab Moe with a rusty sword. He scanned the area for Sam and Coppa as a demon fell in front of him with two arrows sprouting from its chest.
He found Sam fending off a group of the humanoid demons who lunged at him with broken spears and old swords. With a flick of his katana, Sam decapitated the first as he dodged the clumsy spear thrust. A few more stumbled forward with their weapons raised but were quickly dispatched by Sam’s fluid movements. Few could match Sam when it came to his speed and dexterity. The felpier had spent years training and the growing pile of bodies that surrounded him reflected the mastery of his physical condition.
A roar broke Dante’s attention and he turned to see a group of the weak demons soar through the air. Coppa stood amidst a sea of black as he swung his giant axe viciously. It passed through the skinny demons as it completed its arc, throwing severed body parts in all directions. Coppa panted as he eyed the rest of the group that was cautiously approaching him. They stopped as he emitted a harsh growl and dashed at them with his axe raised. Unlike Sam, Coppa was naturally gifted when it came to strength but would often lose himself in the heat of battle. He was never as fast as Sam or Moe, but made up for it in brute strength. His usually calm and joking demeanor was replaced with something more animalistic as his axe smashed into another unfortunate enemy.
“Dante, watch out!” Moe shouted as he drew his bowstring back. Dante barely had any time to duck as the arrow sailed through the air before coming to rest in a nearby demon’s head. Dante took a breath as he looked towards Moe who drew his long knives and cut down another dreg. Every movement seemed expertly coordinated and deadly as the massive amount of low class demons were whittled down by each swipe of his blade or shot from his bow. Dante felt relieved to have such powerful companions as he drew on his own magical reserves and unleashed a wall of flame, incinerating the last of the summoned demons.
“It matters not if you destroy our servant’s child!” The deep voice of the lead figure resounded as he stepped down from the pedestal. “However, you and your companions have impressed me, and for that I offer you a chance to leave this place alive.”
“With those weaklings your friend threw at us, I don’t think we’ll need the offer,” Coppa said as he pointed to the second figure standing at the stairs.
“How dare you insult my creations!” The figure shouted as the hood fell away to reveal the head of a white haired elf. “Dagon, keep to your rituals if you wish, I am going to end them!”
“Fine Ravenn, just be quick about it!” Dagon said as he removed his own hood to reveal an aged Diablon with lank purple hair that fell across his face. Dante backed up as a sudden chill crept up his spine as Dagon waved his hand. A sudden blast of magic sent the four flying in different directions as a large magic circle opened up in the middle of the cavern. A large bulbous hand grasped at the sides of the circle as the monster within pulled itself out. Coppa swore as he saw the monster rise to its full height.
“A Bullywug! This is just goddamn perfect!”
Dante readied a bolt of electricity as the Bullywug croaked and raised one of the cleavers in its bulbous hands. The monster was at least thirteen feet tall and covered in pitted green skin that oozed a slimy substance, poisoning the ground below it. Its small, beady eyes darted around as it stared at the four students. Its large tongue shot out of its mouth and sped towards Moe who darted out of the way as the tongue wrapped around the pillar behind him. The Bullywug croaked as it constricted its tongue and crushed the massive stone pillar.
Dante felt an invisible hand grab him and found himself flying through the air towards the pedestal. He stopped just before he hit the ground and felt the invisible force release him as he dropped to the ground. His attempt to stand was halted as Dagon pressed a foot onto his back. Dante struggled as Dagon pinned him to the ground. He felt a hand grab his neck and felt himself lifted as he was turned to face Dagon.
“Interesting, you have a peculiar magical force in you,” Dagon said as he looked at the struggling student choking in his hand. Dante’s vision began to darken as his lungs screamed for air that was blocked by Dagon’s iron grip. “Yet you suppress your true power. Why is that? Is it because of your friends?”
Dante was turned around as he was forced to look at the scene below. “Or is it because you fear your true nature as a child of the underworld?”His classmates were busy frantically avoiding the gargantuan monster’s clumsy strikes. The Bullywug’s loose skin was covered with a multitude of small cuts that oozed black blood. Coppa barely avoided a blow as he rolled out of the path of the monster’s blade. Moe was busy unleashing a flurry of arrows that bounced of the monster’s back while Sam attempted to hamstring one of the pudgy legs. “Why do you refuse to let your inner desires take over? Perhaps a look into your head might reveal the answer.”
Dante found the ground rush to meet him as the iron grip left his neck. He gasped for air as he picked his sword up and swung it behind him. Dagon easily avoided the blow and twisted Dante’s arm behind him. He cried out in pain as one of Dagon’s fingers, coated in a deep purple miasma, made contact with his head. Dante’s legs weakened as he felt every fibre of his being revealed to his opponent. His greatest triumphs, fears, and regrets were all laid bare as Dagon accessed the deepest recesses of his mind. Dagon smiled as he attempted to breach the final barrier separating him from Dante’s darkest memory.
“NO!” Dante shouted as his last mental barrier broke and he felt a strange power surge from within his core. The connection was interrupted as a black aura seemed to explode from nowhere, sending Dagon flying back. The two other figures that had been standing idly were thrown back as black tendrils slammed into them. Dante felt his consciousness fade as the tendrils snaked across the orb, crushing it as they tried to access the built up energy. A large flash blinded him as he felt his limp body being pulled towards the vortex of energy escaping from the broken orb as a searing pain came from his chest. He heard shouts of anger and fear come from his friends, closely followed by their cries for help as he finally lost consciousness.
“Sleep my puppet, soon all will be right again,” a voice cackled in the depths of his mind as the darkness washed over him. “Our ascension awaits us.”