Lana stood before them. A beautiful disaster leaning on her new staff.
The playful smile never left her lips. Even as the team held her at sword-point.
It was a smile that didn’t reach her wild, athyst eyes.
"I wanted to et you from the start of the trial, Dante," she said. Her voice a lodic purr that was completely at odds with her battered appearance.
"I wanted to join you. To be right by your side. But I had so... business to take care of before that."
She took a limping step forward. Eric instinctively shifted to block her path.
She just giggled.
"You know, Dante, I was a fool," she continued. Her gaze fixed on him. Ignoring everyone else. "I replaced a diamond for so worthless piece of copper."
"What do you an?" he asked. His voice flat. He knew this performance. It was the prelude to a storm.
"I thought I could replace you," she said. A flicker of sothing dark passing through her eyes. "I found soone else. Soone who gave the attention I wanted."
"That was the reason I left. Before all this. Before we ca here."
She then pointed a finger at him. Her playful pout returning.
"But it was your fault, Dante. It was always your fault. You never gave the attention I deserved."
"You treated like a burden. Like a nuisance. So I found soone who wouldn’t."
Dante needed ti to process this. Her twisted logic. Her ability to shift bla. It was all so familiar.
"But now, all is fine," she chirped. Clapping her hands together softly. "Everything is taken care of."
"Before we were summoned, that little toy boy of mine? He cheated on . I saw him. Fucking another girl in his own dorm room."
Her smile widened. But it was a terrifying, razor-sharp thing.
"I was so pissed. I wanted to kill them both, right then and there. But the rules in our old world were so... unfair."
"And then, look! The Goddess gave a chance. A new world with no more rules. And on top of that, we both ended up here."
She spread her arms wide.
"Isn’t it just perfect?"
"What are you talking about?" Dante asked. His voice cold. "If you wanted to join , you could have sought out from day one. Why co now?"
Her smile was blinding.
"Oh, I wanted to! Believe , there was no one more willing to join you than . But there were so circumstances."
"I had to do so cleaning first. So... revenge."
Masha, who had been listening with growing disgust, finally spoke up. "Revenge? What revenge?"
Lana turned to her. Her eyes sparkling with manic glee.
"Yes, darling. Revenge!"
She looked back at Dante.
"I joined that toy boy’s team. It was so easy. He was thrilled to have . And guess what? He added that sa little slut to his team as well. And a few of their other friends."
"It was perfect! All my little problems, all in one convenient place."
She gestured vaguely with her staff toward the dark forest.
"We were fighting so ugly beasties over there. I watched them suffer. They were getting torn apart. Bleeding. Screaming."
"They barely made it out alive. And I was just waiting. Watching. Letting them get weak and desperate."
She twirled her staff.
"And while I was bored, waiting for the right ti, I found this staff! Isn’t it useful?"
She paused. Her eyes dancing with a light that made Dante’s skin crawl.
"Ah, sorry! I forgot to tell you the climax!"
She exclaid it as if she had forgotten a trivial detail.
"When they were all wounded. When they were huddled together, thinking they had survived... I started with her first."
"I used this staff to break her legs, so she couldn’t run."
Crack.
The sound was only in their minds. But the image was horrifyingly clear.
"Then I killed their healer, so no one could help them. I made my dear ex-boyfriend watch as I took them apart. Piece by piece."
"I saved him for last. I wanted him to feel every second of the despair I felt."
She sighed. A sound of pure, blissful contentnt.
"It was so, so satisfying."
"And then I killed him. rcilessly. Brutally. I think I might have overdone it a little, but he deserved it, don’t you think?"
A horrified silence fell over the team.
They stared at Lana as if she were a demon that had just crawled out of the earth.
Even Dante, who knew the depths of her instability, felt a chill.
She had not just killed them. She had savored it. She had turned their suffering into a form of art.
He broke the silence. "So, can you tell your skill?"
Her entire deanor shifted back to that of a pouting child.
"First, you have to add to your team! Pretty please?"
Dante stared at her for a long mont.
She was a chaotic, unpredictable variable. A stick of dynamite with a faulty fuse.
But she was also powerful. Ruthless. And, in a twisted way, utterly loyal to him.
’She is a perfect weapon. As long as I am the one holding her.’
"Fine," he said.
"Yeah!" she squealed. Clapping her hands. "Now we can be together again, Dante!"
"Even if I had said no, you wouldn’t have left alone," he stated flatly.
She giggled. "Umm, you got ."
She then straightened up. A look of pride on her face.
"Oh, right! My skill! It’s called Weapon Master. Whatever weapon I hold, I just... know how to use it. All its techniques. All its secrets. They just flow into my mind."
"Like this staff! I never used one before, but now I feel like I was born with it in my hands!"
’How can one person be so terrifyingly dumb and so terrifyingly dangerous at the sa ti?’
Dante thought about her skill. It was simple. But its potential was limitless.
In her hands, any weapon, even a simple rock, could beco a tool of legendary lethality.
"Alright," he said. Turning back to the map and ignoring the horrified stares of his team.
It was ti to reassert control.
"The teams are as follows."
He pointed to one group of artifacts on the map.
"Team One will hunt for the Ring of the Maelstrom, Viper’s Kiss Daggers, and the Manacore Pendant."
"That team will consist of myself, Jin, Talia, Edgar, and Kael. I will lead."
He then pointed to the other cluster of markings.
"Team Two will hunt for the Grimoire of Hoarfrost, the Reinforced Mage Cloak, and the Buckler of Sparks."
"Eric will lead that team. His team will be Masha, Rina, Erica and..."
He paused. Looking at his cousin.
"Lana."
The mont the words left his mouth, the fragile peace shattered.
"What?!"
Two voices cried out in perfect, furious unison.
One belonged to Lana. The other belonged to Erica.
Erica, who had been silent and brooding this whole ti, stord forward. Her hands clenched into fists. Knuckles white.
The air around her began to shimr with heat.
"No," she said. Her voice a low, dangerous growl. "Absolutely not. I am not leaving your side."
Lana, her playful deanor vanishing in an instant, glared at Erica. Her athyst eyes turning cold and hard.
"Who do you think you are, telling him what to do?"
"He and I are finally reunited. I’m not going anywhere without him."
"He doesn’t need you," Erica spat. Stepping forward until she was almost nose-to-nose with Lana.
"He needs soone who is loyal. Soone who understands him. Not so crazy bitch who just showed up!"
"Crazy?" Lana let out a low, dangerous laugh. "Oh, sweetie, you have no idea."
She hefted her Verdant Iron Staff. Its green-tinged tal seed to hum with malevolent energy.
"At least I’m honest about what I am. You’re just a pathetic little girl standing in our way."
Crackle.
Sparks began to fly from Erica’s fingertips.
"I will burn you to ash where you stand."
"Try it," Lana purred. Spinning her staff with speed and grace that was terrifying to behold.
"I’d love to see you try."
The two of them stood locked in a standoff. A vortex of fire and madness about to erupt in the center of the camp.
The team watched, frozen. The two most powerful and unstable won in their group prepared to tear each other apart.
All for the prize of standing next to Dante.
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