On the Olympus of the Greek lostbelt, Europa could be seen receiving a book, more specifically, the history of Greek mythology, of panhuman history.
Kiss-shot watched as the woman, with whom she had become very close, began to read the story that should have been, but in this world wasn't.
"Not much about me comes out," the king's consort complained with a pout.
"You don't do much now; you weren't going to do much before," the vampire said mockingly.
Europa said nothing in response, only moving on to Kiss-shot's story and, by extension, Dante's.
"It says here that when Dante was born, you were already with him, as if you chose him to be your life partner," Europa remarked.
"These are stories that some crazy people wrote down based on what they heard in their time, not to mention that the originals were already too destroyed, so the restoration was filled in with human imagination," Kiss-Shot replied, sitting down in the shade and putting his parasol down on the ground.
"So the idea that Dante is a demon is a lie?" Europa asked.
"In his time, yes, but when he was revived by the Hero's Throne, his alignment changed, so right now, any summoning of Dante will be as a demon," the vampire explained.
"Hmm," the heir to Hera's remains continued reading. "It says here that Dante was also a king of the place where the gods could live in peace; in fact, the title of king is a mere formality, since he was their guardian more than anything. So, if Dante is a king, you could say he's a demon king."
"Hahaha, good one," Kiss-shot began to laugh. "A demon king being a hero, seeking the salvation of humanity—isn't that ironic?"
"Why is it ironic?" Europa asked.
At that moment, Kiss-shot, who was familiar with pop culture, was something her friend didn't know, so her definition of a demon king might have been different.
"Here's Dante's appearance in his demon form; it's not very clear. Could you explain it to me?" Europa asked.
...
Before Musashi stood the creature that had terrorized the souls who escaped Hades thousands of years ago.
Red lightning crackled across the landscape, causing trees to bend and tear apart and the ground to tremble despite no tectonic movement beneath.
In the distance, Anastasia and Koyanskaya felt an immediate sense of oppression. Anastasia knelt; she lacked the will of a warrior, but as a Servant, she prevented herself from fainting. Koyanskaya simply knelt, staring into the distance, a hint of panic in her voice.
She was a Beast candidate; she wouldn't fall so easily, but then she remembered that the man she had tried to court was also a Beast.
"Master, don't tell me...?" Anastasia began, looking at the ground.
The fox woman stared at this, not quite understanding what she meant, but she knew that she was somehow speaking to Kadoc.
In the mansion, all the windows were shattered. In one room, Kadoc clutched his chest, struggling to his feet.
"I won't stoop to something so low; I, who was destined to save the world, won't," he told himself, trying to muster his courage. But Anastasia's words were what worried him most, especially the fact that the music had stopped; that could only mean one thing.
In the Sar's room, Mozart lay unconscious, the victim of the Conqueror's Haki that Dante had unleashed. It wasn't meant for him; he had simply fired it indiscriminately throughout the room, hitting him.
As the musician fell, the music stopped, and along with the oppressive feeling in the room, a figure began to move on the bed. It was difficult to tell if it was human or if it ever had been.
Back with her two opponents, Musashi stood firm, ready for any attack her enemy might launch. To say that the pressure, both oppressive and deadly, wouldn't affect her would be a lie, but somehow she managed to withstand it far better than others.
Before her, a humanoid creature with black wings stared at her with icy blue eyes. A faceless being, a skeletal mask that spoke of its natural connection to death, and horns that hinted at its demonic nature. Armor adorned its body, clothing that was a blend of Gothic and Victorian styles, but what truly caught her attention were the dark hands that enveloped its limbs, reminiscent of those used in attacks before.
So focused on the hands and the armor of the being that wore the mask, she reacted a little too late when she saw it summon a crimson sword.
"Πορφυρό φεγγάρι," declared Dante under the sword and creating a cut that began to divide the entire Russian lostbelt.
If it weren't for the Conqueror's increased Haki and the fact that he, perhaps out of habit or necessity, called out the name of the attack, Musashi wouldn't have been able to dodge it so cleanly.
He would have seen it coming; he would have reacted in time, but the mind and body react in a completely different way.
The swordswoman, rolling on the ground, immediately assumed a defensive stance, stopping her enemy's attack.
"Let's see how capable you really are, swordswoman," Dante said, throwing her back.
Now, with Dante's transformation, if the difference in strength wasn't so noticeable before, it certainly was. Dante's strength is now very different from before, since his stats, which are based on his human form, are based on his human form. Now transformed, some stats can change. Some increase, others decrease, but there are changes, and one of these is strength.
And Musashi certainly noticed this. Looking to the side, she saw the precipice Dante had created with his slash, the bottom of which she couldn't see. The attack continued unabated; it wouldn't be unreasonable to think that the attack had split the entire area in two.
She couldn't defeat him in his own arena; that didn't mean she had to fight with mere brute force.
Her internal thoughts didn't last long, as she had to dodge a point-blank slash aimed at Dante's head.
The swordswoman, now in position, attempted to strike the torso of the being before her, but he pointed his palm at her and, in a sudden moment of uncertainty, she was thrown backward as if by a gravitational force.
The demon who controlled darkness had the ability to attract everything around him, as if absorbing it, but if he could expel everything his darkness consumed, then it wasn't unreasonable that he could also repel others of his rank, performing the reverse operation of absorption.
Musashi falls to the ground, thrown awkwardly, but quickly gets back up in less than a second, just as his Nion appears, intercepting Dante's attack.
Since Dante was airborne, it was easy for the Buddhist guardian to throw him back, but Musashi stopped mid-air, glaring at him.
The demon began creating an intricate mouth of fire, using his sorcery and the Yami Yami no Mi to make it more powerful than normal.
The moment he unleashed it, the already prepared Nion aimed two of its swords at Dante, from which fire and wind erupted, merging to intercept the enemy's attack and creating a massive explosion in the distance.
In the midst of all this, Musashi could be seen running at full speed to climb a tree and launch herself at her enemy, but he noticed immediately and, as if teleporting, the guard vanished and reappeared behind the pink-haired woman to support her attack.
Koyanskaya, using her binoculars, carefully observed everything that was happening; she couldn't help but be fascinated by what she believed to be Dante's true appearance, but a murmur beside her made her look at the woman who was still kneeling.
"He's coming," she declared a little louder.
"What are you talking about?" she asked.
"The Sar is coming, my master just told me, and when he encounters these two, I don't know what will happen, but most likely this Lostbelt will be completely destroyed, seeing the level of destruction those two possess," Anastacia stated, staring intently at the woman beside her. "Get them out of here before he arrives, or we're doomed."
Koyanskaya didn't know what this Servant was so afraid of; she knew Ivan might fall, that the fight might damage the Fantasy Tree, that Kadoc might be injured—she wasn't sure, but she knew any of these possibilities weren't good.
Looking behind her, she saw a giant mammoth begin to rise, showing that the King of the Lostbelt was already coming this way.
Clicking her tongue, she could only think that any confrontation between the three of them was bad, so she had no choice but to follow the advice of the Servant beside her.
Three swords clashed simultaneously as Dante dodged the four swords of the Nion guarding Musashi's blades as best he could.
"How annoying," declared the man who came from Greek mythology, using Geppo to position himself in the air.
"I should say that," she replied, somewhat annoyed at the fact that she couldn't fly, which made it difficult for her to attack her opponent.
Dante stopped looking at his opponent and turned his gaze to the gigantic monster slowly approaching.
He immediately knew who was coming and couldn't help but groan.
"Dante!" someone shouted from not far away.
The white-haired boy and the pink-haired girl saw Koyanskaya gesturing to Dante, then making another gesture, as if she were moving something, before finally pointing at the approaching giant mammoth.
Somehow, Dante understood what she meant, so, enveloping his arm with a powerful energy, he began to absorb Musashi, who hadn't expected this, but without thinking, she enveloped her sword in void to counterattack.
The moment the three of them collided, Koyankaya swiftly moved them away without much thought to their destination, disappearing from the Russian Lostbelt. This allowed Anastasia, who was still witnessing everything, to breathe a sigh of relief and prepare herself to try and calm the Sar, one way or another.
...
In the middle of an island, Dante suddenly appeared, roughly throwing Musashi to the ground and bouncing her three times. An arm fell suddenly between them.
The white-haired demon looked at his missing arm before turning back to Musashi.
"Where are we?" the pink-haired demon asked, somewhat shaken by the journey and the unfamiliar location.
The demon didn't answer immediately; he simply looked up at the sky and spoke.
"In the Greek lostbelt," he said, prompting her to look up as well, only to see a flying machine circling the area in a blur.
Musashi looked back at his opponent, then at the severed arm, before finally glancing down at his forehead.
"Surrender. You're missing an arm. You can't defeat me like that," he declared firmly.
"Surrender. You're missing an arm. You can't defeat me like that." "Hmm, maybe I would have given up before," Dante began, walking slowly until he reached his arm. The swordswoman watched his every move. "But losing an arm isn't an impediment for me."
With that, using darkness, he absorbed his arm, only for his right hand to begin enveloping in darkness, becoming a hand made entirely of darkness.
This surprised the pink-haired woman, as her small advantage was easily negated.
The hand of darkness extended, and a katana suddenly appeared, emanating a powerful magic.
"But being here, I can't give up without a fight," he said, and with that, an ether capable of destroying everything in its path was fired from the katana.
Dante felt that the fight was pointless, and he had planned to end it one way or another once they reached the place where Koyansaya had transported them, but since it was in the Greek Lostbelt, his plans were thwarted.
Unlike other places, here there were eyes everywhere, and if it got out that he let a powerful enemy pass by without a second thought, his reputation and his position here would be jeopardized.
But this also gave him the opportunity to demonstrate his full strength and make it clear that no one here should mess with him.
Musashi swiftly leaped to the side, avoiding the compressed ether that was suddenly unleashed, only to look up at the sky and cross his swords to block Dante's attack.
Dante plummeted down at full speed, using his sorcery to increase his body mass, making the force of his fall stronger, shattering the ground, causing pieces to sink and others to rise, warping the landscape.
The swordswoman knelt on one knee, using her head to brace the sword against the weight, causing it to bleed. Fortunately, the Buddhist guardian appeared, using all four of his swords to strike the enemy.
But Dante, summoning his other crimson sword, managed to block the attack, sending it flying backward.
The white-haired man took a few steps back, creating space between them, leaving himself in front, both katanas ready to strike, somewhat mimicking his opponent's earlier stance.
Musashi rose, ignoring the pain in his knee, wiping the blood from his face as he enveloped his weapons with a vacuum, making them incredibly lethal.
In response, Dante's Haki flared, both Conqueror's and Armament Haki, enveloping both weapons.
After about three seconds of staring at each other, they both charged at full speed, their swords clashing—or at least that's what it appeared to be, since Dante used his Haki to avoid touching his opponent's weapons.
The guardian behind them used both swords simultaneously to try and defeat the being in front of him at a single point, but using the other katana, he intervened, bringing the situation to a momentary stalemate.
While this was happening, the Servants, both allies and enemies, realized what was going on, looking in the direction of the combat. Zeus, who was on his throne with his eyes closed, opened them, only to look at Artemis, who was there awaiting an order.
"Go," said the king of the Lostbelt, causing her to nod and leave the office, leaving the god alone. "Let's see what you're capable of, god-slayer."