After destroying the fiend's soul, the trio returned to the intersection and switched paths to the center one, leading to an open area.
When the hallway opened up for them, they found themselves in a large room with a circular platform in the center, surrounded by a deep fall that led to the sewer canal.
Hundreds of pipes t in this room, flowing the sewer water into the underground canal that seed to go around the vicinity.
Malgaroth's ichor corrupted the entire area. Its black flesh covering the walls and floor, palpitating like a heart.
"Woah, I didn't know our sewer system was this complex…" Zac muttered, slightly surprised at the size of the place.
Dante agreed with his friend, saying that it was indeed impressive while scanning his surroundings.
As the trio walked a little more towards the tal bridge that led to the platform in the center, they felt an overwhelming sense of danger as the umbra got denser.
On the platform, Malgaroth's ichor started to move and twirl, making Zac cringe at the disgusting sounds it made, materializing a tall and fat monster atop the grates on the floor.
"That must be him…" Zac muttered, slightly nervous.
When the monster appeared, Zac and gan could barely keep themselves standing as they found the umbra flowing inside the room to be quite unbearable.
The creature that appeared was at least 8 feet tall, with dark gray skin and green glowy eyes. His belly was the biggest part of his body, held by his four legs that gave the monster an uncanny and disturbing appearance.
"Humans… Your curiosity has led you to ," Malgaroth said in a deep tone that was hard to comprehend.
"It wasn't curiosity—more like annoyance…" Dante replied, surprising the demon as no other human had been able to overco their fear of speaking to him.
As the monster gazed at the warlock, his eyes widened slightly. "I've seen you…" he muttered.
"Yeah?" Dante sarcastically asked.
"You… You are that piece of shit's student—Xander!" Malgaroth shouted, his voice making the structure tremble.
'Xander?' gan and Zac thought in unison.
The demon took a deep breath to calm himself, staring at the warlock while he inserted his arm into his own belly, pulling out a curved blade from his inside, covered in blood and ichor.
"I see… I didn't recognize you at first since you are weaker now, even when your eyes changed," said Malgaroth.
'His eyes changed?' gan pondered.
"But this is perfect. Who would have thought that I could get my revenge on Xander in this world!" the demon continued.
The trio stood across the tal bridge that led to the platform where Malgaroth was standing, and as the demon pointed his sword at the group, they felt an ominous amount of umbra gathering around his blade.
"Dante…?" gan asked, expecting the warlock to do sothing about it.
"Don't move. We'll be fine," Dante calmly replied with his hands in his pockets.
At that mont, the umbra that gathered on his sword materialized into a physical substance, resembling trails of blood floating all around it that flew straight at the trio.
Nonetheless, the projectiles dissipated into thin air before reaching their targets, surprising the demon and Dante's companions.
"What…?" Malgaroth pondered aloud, not knowing why his spell had suddenly deactivated.
"Is that truly all the umbra you can control?" Dante loudly asked with a smirk on his face.
Zac and gan turned to look at the warlock, noticing that the umbra that was flowing from his body was at least ten tis the size of the one flowing from Malgaroth re seconds before.
"Dante… wh-what is that?" Zac asked, his body trembling from the energy that the warlock produced.
In his mind, he knew that Dante wouldn't hurt him or gan, but his body reacted intuitively to the ominous aura that oozed with ferocity.
The warlock used that mont to teach his companions a lesson, reminding them of the ti he explained that umbra was the energy that only demons and warlocks could control.
"Now, what would happen if I just simply controlled all the umbra here?" Dante asked.
"You leave the demon powerless?" gan replied with uncertainty.
"They are not entirely powerless, but most of their spells won't really work," he continued his explanation.
"That's impossible!" Malgaroth angrily shouted, pointing his blade back at the group and trying again. Still, he had the sa result as his projectiles dissipated.
'Wait… So, Dante just 'stole' all of the umbra present in this place!?' the redhead wondered.
"Man, I thought after all this ti you were going to be a bit stronger. You ate all those people for what?" Dante asked in a mocking tone.
The demon shouted in frustration, and the warlock turned to look at his friends for a mont. "By the way, there's a weak one behind us…" he said.
gan and Zac quickly turned around and didn't see anything, but they didn't doubt Dante's words and prepared their weapons.
As the duo took a few steps back to look for the missing demon, Dante began slowly walking across the tal bridge toward Malgaroth.
Knowing that his spells wouldn't have an effect on the warlock, Malgaroth used his sword to break the bridge, but Dante simply jumped and got atop the platform without much effort.
Standing before the massive monster, Dante looked up at him unamused, while the demon seed sowhat scared, clenching his sword tightly.
"I see now… You were suppressing your umbra," the demon said.
Dante nodded. "Mhmm, it wasn't sothing I could when I was fourteen—I guess you fell for it," he said.
"No matter. You may be strong, but you are nowhere near Xander… Even if you kill , the new king will just bring back," Malgaroth continued.
"New king? Is that Astaroth?" the warlock inquired, rembering he had heard the fiend ntioning it.
"That's right. One of Satan's right-hand n has taken the lead… You may be Xander's student, but you have no chance," the demon explained.
*Sigh* "It was funny the first ti I heard it, but now it's just sad…" Dante replied, disappointed.
"Hmm?" Malgaroth humd with confusion.
"Let catch you up to date, dumbass.—Black Fla," Dante said, showing his palm lighting up with black fire.
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