7.
The Hollow
The scar was a dull, shiny pink. It began at the base of her neck and ran down her spine like a fleshy river. Reyna was facing away from Dante with her head bowed to allow him to see her scar.
"It's amazing how this never healed despite Auronmar being the one that treated you," he said.
She thought best not to remind him Mundus also used his healing Magika on her. Instead she said, "Well I did have a soul or whatever ripped out of my body."
He ran a finger on the old wound and traced it as far as he could before hitting her shirt. Her skin was still warm and sticky from their sparing.
"Why does it fascinate you so much?" she asked, turning to face him.
Dante didn't answer, didn't want to say the reason why.
"Well, I have other scars too. Wanna see?" Reyna teased with a smile as she held her open hands to him. Dotted lines streaked the top, fleshy bumps of her palms, and a long, fading mark trailed down her left forefinger.
What Dante held back before rushed out of him. "Even after all that he's done to harm your body, you still want him?"
Reyna remained silent, her grin fading.
Dante closed the gap between them and held her hands, slowly lacing his fingers with her own. She returned the gesture, thinking it was cruel for Dante to ask her what he did, yet perhaps it was crueler she was not stopping his actions. He brought his head down to hers, and they tasted each other's salty lips.
When they parted, they released their hands, and just like that the kiss was forgotten.
"We should just go back. The castle is bound to move again soon," Reyna said as she pulled herself to her feet.
"Yeah," Dante sighed as he also stood up. "Though you'd think Auronmar would just let us practice in the castle."
"The ceiling inside is too low for weapons to be swung and stuff."
"He could manifest us a practice room."
Reyna laughed. "Poor room would get destroyed on a daily basis. Though maybe next time we should spar inside. It'd be funny to see your sword stuck in the ceiling or the wall."
"Yeah, you'd like that," he said. "It's the only way you'd beat me."
She feigned a hurt gasp. "How mean! Especially when I can beat you right now."
Dante rolled his eyes. "Sure. Like you did all those times we sparred earlier?"
"I was going easy on you! We were just practicing my armor thingy. It's what I was focused on." She crossed her arms, irritation real now. "Besides, I have beaten you a few times. Don't lie!"
"Right."
Reyna giggled and playfully punched him, but her smile quickly fell from her lips. Panic, fear, and hurt all waved through her face, one after the other. It then fell into a mask of indifference. Dante was about to ask what was wrong, but he soon felt the answer.
Mundus' essence was rapidly closing in on them. In the swift action it took for Dante to retrieve his stabbed sword from the ground, the moon demon had arrived and was upon the mortal boy.
The gleam of Mundus' blade was like a lightning strike as it penetrated through Dante's stomach. As his body fell to the grassy ground, Mundus and Reyna's eyes met through a beaded curtain of falling blood.
Red-stained sword in hand, Mundus turned towards Reyna. The two were within arm's length of each other yet they might as well have remained worlds apart. Through their silent yet intense stares, violent thoughts and words recoiled: fleeting questions, unacceptable explanations, and spiteful tendencies, all tearing at unseen wounds.
At last something was vocalised. "Shall you not aid him?" Mundus asked in reference to Dante. His voice was eerily calm.
Reyna's stoic expression wrinkled into anger. It was always about him. Always about Mundus. Reyna's hand exploded into a ball of blue, the action matching the ferocity of her eyes; her fist connected with Mundus' jaw.
His head snapped to the side with a cringing crack. Tiny flecks of blood dotted the air. When he turned back to Reyna, his shocked face was a satisfying sight.
"Nice shot, Reyna!" Dante's voice was heard.
Mundus' shock evolved to amazement. The Berserker was on his feet, stomach wound almost completely mended. The only sign of the attack was his torn and bloody shirt framing a pinkish gash.
"He didn't need my help." Reyna's bitter statement answered Mundus' earlier question.
The demon smirked as he wiped the blood off his already healed jaw and lip. "Gahn has accomplished quite a feat in the training sessions he bestowed upon the two of you."
Dante gripped his sword's hilt tighter. "Yes. The two of us."
Mundus caught the meaning of his emphasis and blindly thrust his sword at him. Dante was quick to dodge the attack.
"You know. You don't seem to move as fast now. At least not compared to Gahn. I won't be caught off guard again," Dante said.
Angered, Mundus attacked again only to have Dante parry and arch his gigantic sword up against his chest. Mundus was able to jump back from most of the assault's momentum. Instead of an open wound across his torso, the demon sported a thin, red line that quickly closed.
"No, Master! Master must not attack out of anger!" Lina's worried tone filled Mundus' head.
He snapped at her to be quiet but knew her words were true. Dante was staring at him, his open posture mocking him to attack.
"Please, Master. Leave it to this one," Lina said.
Mundus paused for a second only to agree with her suggestion. He lunged towards Dante and swung his sword. Dante once again ducked, but this time, it was what Mundus wanted him to do. With his free hand, the demon caught and clutched Dante's head in a vicious grip. The touch immobilized the Berserker.
Through his fanned fingers, Dante could see Mundus' red, gleaming eyes. A wisp of white tainted them. It grew until it took the general form of a face. The feminine features of a woman took shape until a white, transparent mask hovered over Mundus' head. It was Lina.
Her torso appeared as well, attached to Mundus like breastplate armor. She stretched out her arm and trailed over Mundus' own: the one that lead to Dante's latched face.
Empowering Mundus with her essence, Lina draped an Illusion onto the mortal. Immediately, Dante felt hot and his skin began to redden. He felt his skin shatter and with it, he was released, but nothing seemed different. In fact, Mundus had an astonished expression on his face.
Dante shook his head, indicating Mundus' Magika no longer affected him as easily as before. The Berserker took Mundus' continued shellshock as an opportunity to attack. He lifted his sword and lunged, but instead of the expected blade slice, Dante swiftly shifted the sword in his hands so the bottom of the hilt pummeled onto Mundus' head.
The demon's neck snapped back. When he reeled it forward, he leered at Dante with one eye. His other was forced shut under the pressure of his falling blood. Mundus grinned.
"Indeed," He said with satisfaction. "Quite gullible."
Reyna, meanwhile, had stepped away from the fight. She had briefly thought about joining Dante but figured she would instead take the opportunity to trigger her armor. Drained from the earlier sparing, it was going to take longer than usual for her to fully activate it. She was past the halfway point when Mundus appeared before her.
"Quite an intriguing concept to have developed," he told her as he observed her. Thousands of blue strings were dancing and weaving around Reyna. They would braid with one another in midair only to come back down and to settle onto her physique.
"You power hasn't increased much," Reyna bluntly said.
Irritation crossed Mundus' features both at the apparent insult and the fact that she could now read Magika essence so well.
Smugness crossed her features. "Didn't have anyone to train with?"
His anger rose to fury.
"No, Master! Remember. Do not let Master's anger get to Master. This one is here for Master to help Master!"
"Silence, Lina," he mentally growled.
"No!" she boldly spoke. "Before coming here, Master ordered this one to make sure Master did not let Master's anger interfere. This one is doing Master's orders!"
Once more, Lina's words gave Mundus' pause. He exhaled and stared at Reyna.
She looked at him curiously, her azure armor having covered almost three fourths of her body.
"Such claims of my Magika's weakness do not seem founded," Mundus spoke to her with collected calmness. "It seems I indeed possess sufficient powers to encase that imprudent mortal in an Illusion that fools his senses into battling a fictitious combatant."
She smiled, the first time since Mundus' arrival. "No, it wasn't."
The utterance of her last word was simultaneous with Dante's quiet, but lethal, attack. A huge, ivory sword exploded out from Mundus' right shoulder, almost completely tearing off his arm. His blood veined over the protruding blade tip and dripped down to the spongy earth. The three stood in a half-second silence.
Dante withdrew his weapon, nicking the top of Mundus' shoulder. With its only support gone, Mundus' right arm collapsed, hanging only by the peeling strip of flesh from his right side.
Reyna's face drained of color. Her hands moved towards Mundus, but she quickly pulled them back to her side. She snuffed the green glow that had coated them over her armor's blue encasing.
Mundus grunted in pain as he reattached his injured arm with his free one. The sliced flesh stretched out to its severed counterpart and began mending through pulses of squirting blood.
I was unable to sense his essence, Mundus pondered, bitter at the thought.
Lina's words confirmed his thinking. "This one...this one did not sense the Berserker either, Master."
"Just go," Dante told Mundus. He had moved next to Reyna who was now completely covered in her azure armor.
Mundus' glared at him, but did not answer, quietly gazing at his blood that was hardening on the Berserker's blade.
Reyna let out a small gasp. "No. We should go. Now. Let's go back to the castle and just disappear with it," she said in alarm to Dante. She tugged on his shirt.
The battle had drawn them away from the castle walls, but not far enough they could not reach them before the other two arrived.
"What? Why?" Dante said. In his confusion, he was allowing Reyna to pull him away.
"Erian and Cerus are on their way here. We can't take on all three—"
A gigantic blue wolf cut off not only her words but the pair's escape. The two had to jump back a few paces to prevent being crushed by the giant paws. A nonchalant Erian jumped off of Cerus' back. The two demons gave Mundus a brief glance. Neither voiced nor showed any concern for his condition.
There was a stare down of mortals and demons.
"Little Reyna," Cerus said in a manner that did not hide his sorrow.
"Don't say that," she quietly answered.
The speech seemed to trigger Dante. He turned around to stare at Mundus with spite. "Can't do it on your own, huh?"
"Do not speak this idiotic nonsense," Erian said, stepping forward. "You thought you had Mundus defeated simply because you were able to injure him like that?"
"Though if you had waited for us to catch up to you, Mundus, maybe that wouldn't have happened to you," Cerus muttered.
Erian sighed. "Quiet down. Idiot."
Dante briefly gazed at Erian only to return his sights to Mundus. "I'll just end this," he grunted and aimed for the almost healed moon demon.
"Sorry about that," Cerus said and was suddenly in front of Dante. "You'll be fighting me this time."
Again Erian sighed. "I believe the mortal girl shall be my opponent then."
Reyna gave a small smile.
"Think again, little man," a new voice spoke. All turned to the source of it and saw a grinning Gahn standing before them.
A grin also crossed Erian's lips.
"Ah. So ya can smile," Gahn said.
"Do not flatter yourself, Teleporter," Erian snickered. "I am merely amused at the thought of Mundus and Reyna battling. You might as well mourn her death now."
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Author's Note: Yay! Update! Took long enough...
I know it is a tad short, but I figured fight scenes should be taken in doses instead of all at once.
Well, as always...hope you're enjoying the story so far, and thanks for all your support! ^.^
Drawing: Dante by the wonderful @midnightmvelvet. I think this one is soooo cool! I love the sword and how Dante is leaning on it.