Dante felt his body boiling with anger and frustration, which had been growing inside him for so ti since he was attacked in the capital of the Vampire Kingdom when that damn witch tried to kill him.
He had been trying to control his anger for a long ti.
The fact that he found himself once again involved in a hidden sche, being manipulated by forces acting in the shadows, only worsened the situation.
Now, the Nation he intended to dominate had lost all its main soldiers, and the King of this nation, an insolent man he wanted to erase just like his son, was kneeling like a little puppy.
However... he had noticed sothing...
Imdiately, his eyes glowed with a neon red as he sensed a sowhat familiar presence, despite clearly being distorted.
The energy emanating from the mind control spell that kept Velkan and the others subdued was not just powerful; it was complex... and... unmistakable.
Dante knew that magical signature well, but there was sothing different this ti, sothing truly curious.
"Ah... I can't believe it..." he murmured, his breath becoming heavy, the air around him vibrating with a suffocating pressure as his anger intensified.
Morgana, Lilith, Valentina, and Siren felt the surge in Dante's aura and stepped back slightly, recognizing that sothing was about to explode.
Whatever he had discovered was not a simple magic trick.
"Of course..." he murmured, clenching his fists so tightly that the knuckles turned white, his demonic claws slowly erging as his eyes scanned the hall. He could see beyond the illusion and layers of magic, penetrating the depths of the control spell.
And there, at the heart of that nefarious web, he felt the presence of soone he knew very well.
"ASTAROTH!" he roared, his voice reverberating off the palace walls, causing them to tremble as if the building itself feared his wrath. The candle flas flickered violently with the impact of his fury, and the entire room seed on the verge of collapsing under the pressure.
Astaroth, yes, the very sa Astaroth who had been stealing the powers of various demon kings...
He finally understood who was behind that mind control, but not only that; sothing was wrong, sothing distorted about Astaroth's energy.
Astaroth was not working alone; she was a woman of layers. And the mana flowing through the spell was not entirely demonic. It was mixed with sothing... witchcraft.
"Astaroth?" Morgana frowned, her own frustration evident as she tried to process Dante's revelation.
"I don't feel anything demonic... I feel another energy in her. Sothing that doesn't belong to Hell," Morgana murmured...
'Am I... wrong?' she wondered; it had been a while since she had... failed at sothing.
Siren, who had been quiet until then, stepped forward. "Are you saying that one of the Princes of Hell is allying with an external force? I an, is sothing like that possible?" She questioned Dante, who, among everyone in the room, was the only one who could provide anything related to hell; after all... he owned it, right?
Dante nodded slowly, the glow in his eyes showing how serious he was. "Astaroth is a manipulator, but this goes beyond her usual tricks. They are trying to rge magic, and it seems to be working; sothing like this shouldn't even be possible to control, but... my fear is that it's not her. That woman, Mary Rose, the trace of magic is not common magic; it's dark magic."
Lilith approached Velkan, studying him more closely; after all, she was also from hell. "If this magic is a fusion... then there might be a weakness. Magics that are not natural or harmonious tend to have failure points. Although both are negative magics, the disparity in quality is high." She looked at Dante and nodded. "Morgana, can you help for a mont?"
"Sure." She nodded as they both approached the n, but Dante...
Dante, still struggling to control his anger, approached Velkan. Calmly, he bent down and grabbed Velkan by the neck.
"A big man, with nothing but a false sense of power. How pathetic," Dante said, and the heads of the miasma Cerberus began to erge from his arm, consuming and draining what they could from the aura of the mind control spell. It was a terrifying spectacle, yet Dante remained completely calm, his face impassive.
"Wake up, you bum. You need to tell what happened here." He said in a cold tone, but no reaction ca from Velkan's controlled body.
Dante's patience was wearing thin. His gaze intensified, and then, with a roar that made even the walls tremble again, he let out a scream that tore through the silence like a blade: "WAKE UP, YOU FILTHY BITCH!"
The force behind Dante's command was enough to break part of the spell, and Velkan's body finally reacted. His face twisted in pain and confusion, his eyes blinking as he gradually returned to consciousness.
"W-where am I?" Velkan stamred, his gaze still blurry and disoriented. He looked around, his mind trying to grasp what had happened, but his perception was clouded by Dante's presence, which held him firmly by the neck.
Dante, with a cold stare, leaned in closer. "Look at ," he ordered, his voice sounding like a death sentence, "How about this: you will tell what the hell happened here. And you won't die," he said with a smile.
Velkan's eyes, now fully awake, focused on Dante. He tried to move, but the grip on his neck kept him still, like a cornered animal. The forr king, one of the most feared beings in his world, was now reduced to a re shadow of his forr self. Dante's authority was overwhelming.
Velkan struggled to understand the situation, but he knew there was no escape. Feeling the weight of the threat in Dante's words, he began to speak, his voice trembling. "I-I was on my throne... Fenrir struck , but... the magic... the magic took over everything, and I fell asleep?" he choked, struggling to find the words. "I... I could hear so things... a woman appeared... and said sothing like 'The last piece,' and then... I woke up."
"So you were defeated by your own ally... how lovely," Dante mocked, the cruelty in his voice cutting like a sharp blade. "And while you were unconscious, soone, a mysterious woman, completed whatever that 'last piece' was, is that it? Oh, what a waste of ti."
Velkan tried to stamr sothing, but Dante had no ti for further hesitation. He tightened his grip on Velkan's neck for a brief mont, just enough to make him feel the threat of being crushed at any mont.
"You didn't hear anything else? No na? No details about this woman?" Dante demanded, his eyes burning red. Velkan trembled under his gaze, but his mind still seed foggy, as if the mind control had left deep gaps in his mory.
"N-no... just that phrase... and... one na. I think... Mary. I heard that na," Velkan coughed, his voice a fragile thread. "But... the woman... she was strange, more powerful than anyone I've ever encountered."
Dante relaxed his grip for a mont, allowing Velkan to breathe with difficulty as he processed the information.
"That bitch," Dante said, his eyes narrowing. He shot a quick glance at Lilith and Morgana, who were still trying to free them. "Azak Hajri Na." Dante said, and everything shattered as all the advisors broke free, falling with their faces to the ground.
"If you could do this, why didn't you—Ah, never mind." Morgana comnted, giving in. "Sorry, I was too focused on this idiot here," he said as he threw Velkan to the ground.
"Argh!" he roared in pain, and a binding appeared on his arms, like two miasma shackles.
"You're under arrest; we are taking the Wolfn's Kingdom." Dante said, looking at Siren, "Congratulations, you are the Regent Queen." He said and turned to all the other advisors. "And you, war prisoners." He comnted as several black chains erged from his hand, binding them all.
Morgana and Lilith watched in silence, exchanging quick glances. Lilith, with a mischievous smile, seed amused by Dante's relentless way of handling the situation. Morgana, on the other hand, maintained a more serious expression, still worried about what was to co.
"And now?" Valentina, who had been silent, finally managed to speak; she just wanted to see how he would tackle this problem.
"Yes, and now?" Siren asked, a bit concerned. She knew that taking over the Wolfn's Kingdom ant a lot of things; after all, she had been queen for a long ti. The problem was... this bunch of strange people moving toward sothing really big.
Dante looked at her, "Now, you govern," he said with a shrug. "Wait, is that it?" Siren questioned, well, she expected him to want sothing in return...
"What? I don't have ti for that." Dante replied. "I know I could be a king alongside a queen like you, but I have more to worry about, including your safety." Dante said, placing his hands in his pockets while the chains continued to hold everyone in the air.
"But I thought—" "That I would want your kingdom? I don't care about a piece of land. I'm a practical guy; I like things that attract ." He smiled after interrupting her.
"Like you."
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