In the devastated field, with nothing around, Solomon could be seen cautiously eyeing the creature of chaos before him.
It was simply still, doing nothing, as if it were part of the air, but for some reason, that unsettled him more than if it were destroying things.
He would have preferred it to be spouting nonsense, causing chaos, or something like that, because if that were the case, it meant there was still a trace of Dante inside. But apparently, there wasn't, or in fact, very little of Dante.
Within this entity, there was neither Dante nor the Yami Yami no Mi as such; thanks to the laws and rules of the world and the chaotic nature of the Servant, it ended up being a mixture of both. Except this being was 80% darkness and 20% Dante. If it had been another world like One Piece and Dante weren't a Servant, the control of the body would have been reversed.
Right now, fighting wasn't a very good idea, especially since after using his Noble Phantasm, he was almost out of magic reserves.
"Who would have thought," the being in front of Solomon said, drawing his attention. "I hadn't seen it so clearly until now; now it all makes sense."
With that, he walked slowly until he was facing the white-haired man, still kneeling, and with a flick of his wrist, he lifted the entire area, forcing Solomon to his feet, face to face.
"He manipulates gravity with a single flick of his wrist," Solomon thought, watching the movements of the being before him.
"What are you?" Solomon couldn't help but ask, now that he was so close.
"Hmm, good question," the being said, looking up at the sky as he raised a hand, causing a singularity to form there.
The white-haired man immediately felt the gravitational force trying to pull him in.
Suddenly, the being clenched its fist, dispelling the singularity, only to gaze at its hand as a small leak of mana appeared and vanished in the same instant.
"Right now I have a great feeling of unease, of being incomplete; I feel a purpose, a reason for being here," it finished, still staring at its hand.
"And what would that purpose be?" Solomon asked.
"The absorption of all existence into a single point." The moment he said that, he grabbed Solomon by the neck, causing him to wince, and then grabbed his arm, causing him to be slowly absorbed.
"Absorb everything into a single point? You're insane!" Solomon declared, trying to break free, but all the mana he had been accumulating while distracting the being before him began to be absorbed, and any spell he attempted to cast was nullified.
"Insane? You're wrong. I am enlightened. This is the truth, my reason for living, you deluded creature. To absorb all existence into myself, that is what I want, and I will begin with you," the being declared, as Solomon's spiritual body began to be slowly absorbed without him being able to do anything.
Having accepted his fate, he could only shake his head, thinking that the plan he had devised against it hadn't even begun, only to feel someone grab him from behind and roughly pull him away from this being.
Falling to the ground, feeling how he could now use sorcery or magic again, he looked ahead, seeing Arcueid face-to-face with this being of darkness and chaos.
The awakening of this new being seemed to expel a massive amount of energy, shifting the tectonic plates around it, causing everything around it to be brutally destroyed by the splitting of the earth and the energy released.
In one of these places, he passed directly to where the survivors and stragglers from the clock tower were sheltering; among them was Arcueid, since with the death of his adoptive grandfather, Zelretch, he wasn't going to leave here idly.
Several people stayed behind to help the newly wounded from the destruction, which was no longer natural, it seemed, and only a few went to see what was happening; among them was her, the quickest to arrive, driven by a thirst for revenge.
Arcueid shifted her gaze from Solomon to the front of her head. She hadn't noticed who was standing before her, but the moment she looked more closely, she saw the dark flames surrounding him.
Reines had already mentioned that whoever had likely killed Zelretch possessed this kind of power, so she only had to put two and two together to realize that the person before her was his killer.
"You'd better step aside; this one's mine," she declared to Solomon, who, given the circumstances, thought it best to step aside and begin the contingency plans with Marisbury, as had been foreseen if the visions came to pass.
Even with the Tartars' restriction, the Servant turned away, leaving the two of them alone without looking back.
"Don't let yourself touch yourself, or you'll most likely lose," Arcuide heard before Solomon vanished from the scene.
She glared at the being in front of her, furious, but that didn't completely cloud her mind.
"Tell me one thing: why did you kill him?" The being, who was technically still Dante, stared at the woman before him and tilted his head.
"I've killed several people in my life; how would I know which one you're referring to?" he replied, revealing the 20% of Dante that remained within him.
"Don't play dumb, you know I'm talking about Zelretch," she roared at the entity's taunt.
"Ah, you mean that old man; he just happened to cross my path. He wasn't my target, but he practically handed me his second chance on a silver platter, so why wouldn't I?" she finally admitted her true feelings without any filter.
"I see," Arcuied said, his eyes covered only to look her directly in the eyes with fury. "So you don't mind me seeing you as a rock in my path, one I must step over?"
With that, Arcueid swept the old man off his feet, who had only watched her as she did, sending him sprawling. She punched him in the side, sending him flying through the air.
The princess of the true ancestors, powered by the planet, leaped high into the air, spinning and using her combined strength to slam the ground with both hands in fists, shattering the earth and leaving it in a trail of cobwebs.
As if kicking the ground, he landed directly on his opponent, but the latter somersaulted, avoiding the attack.
"I remember who you are now, Archetype," the entity declared, but his opponent didn't care and, with claw-like hands, attacked relentlessly.
The entity didn't dodge the attack; it took the full force of the blow, absorbing as much damage as possible while Arcueid didn't let him strike for a single moment, unleashing all the frustration he had accumulated over the current situation.
With a single blow, he severed the entity's arm, as it could only watch its limb fly away, only to receive a series of stab wounds to its abdomen and chest.
Finally, she spun around and kicked him in the neck, sending him flying through the air and crashing through several of the remaining buildings.
Arcueid walked slowly to where he had landed, only to find he was gone. Looking around, she noticed he was where his arm had fallen, only to absorb it, and the next second it would grow back.
He looked untouched, without a single wound, without any damage, as if she hadn't even touched him.
"Is that all?" the entity asked, frustrated, to Arcueid, lunging again with the intention of tearing him apart to see if he would continue to mock her.
Not far away, Bazett, Archer, and Ruler could be seen arriving at the battle, watching as Arcuied tried to damage the entity, but it seemed to be taking no damage.
The reality wasn't quite like that; it was just shrouded in darkness. The Yami Yami no Mi absorbed a large portion of the damage inflicted upon him, and what it didn't absorb was masked by a cloak of dark flames. However, since Dante's body is quite resilient, combined with his Haki and the modifications he had made to himself, the damage was practically minimal. Of course, this doesn't include the fact that all the pain he felt was ignored by the entity as if it didn't feel it at all.
What the Yami Yami no Mi does is absorb all or almost all of the user's damage so that they can later use it in different ways. But in return, the user does receive pain, and not just normal pain, but double it. At this point, one could say that Dante is somewhat of a masochist.
(Note: This is at least what I've seen and understood about the fruit, but I hope Oda doesn't change this in the future and I have to fix it, since most likely he won't or I'll forget. I get this from Blackbeard vs. Ace, where the former felt he was taking damage, but it wasn't reflected in his body afterward.)
Arcued, intending to slice the entity in two, made the cut, but this time his opponent dodged it, watching as the ground was easily split in two.
"Huh?" the princess wondered, only to clench her fist and deliver a powerful blow, but the being simply twisted its body, dodging the attack by millimeters.
With a flurry of punches and slashes, he attacked relentlessly, but everything he threw was dodged or just grazed, only to take a step back, creating distance.
"Your fighting style is so simple and predictable," he declared, assuming a more offensive stance.
Arcueid, her judgment already clouded by the minimal damage she was inflicting on her opponent and the constant mockery, launched a reckless attack.
The moment she attempted to strike, the entity twisted its body slightly, dodging the attack, only to deliver a powerful punch to Arcuied's jaw. This left her disoriented and scrambling backward, trying to recover.
"Clearly you're stronger, faster, and more resilient than I am, but that's useless if you can't land a blow," the being declared, remaining still, waiting for its opponent to make a move.
The blonde, now back to her senses, glared at the entity in frustration. Drawing on the energy the planet itself was providing, she unleashed three slashes that seemed capable of cutting through space itself, only for her opponent to be swallowed by a singularity and vanish.
Arcueid stared in disbelief, only to realize too late what had happened.
"Back off," a voice called out, only for her to be kicked behind her knee, forcing her to her knees. A punch to the face sent her flying, only to feel a gravitational force stop her dead in her tracks and pull her back toward her enemy.
The entity with its outstretched arm called the vampire back, only to punch her in the stomach, sending her crashing to the ground, shattering the floor, and causing her to cough up mouthfuls of blood.
Taking a step back, the entity allowed Arcuied to recover and rise to continue fighting.
"So much wasted power," the entity declared, watching the princess rise, wiping the blood from her mouth and launching herself into the fight.
Just as she was about to strike the entity, it absorbed itself only to reappear beside her and deliver a punch to her ribs, forcing her to spit blood again.
"Are you so used to defeating your opponent with sheer brute force that you've forgotten how to fight properly?" the being asked, looking down at Arcueid.
Now enraged, she moved with blinding speed, but thanks to her Observation Haki, the entity anticipated her move, dodging the attack, teleporting to another location, and raising its foot to strike her chest.
Arcueid's regeneration was capable of recovering from all the damage the entity inflicted, but thanks to her advanced Armament Haki, the damage, both internal and external, was quite severe.
In a somewhat desperate move, she attempted another sweep, but this time, the entity leaped and, falling heavily to the ground, broke her leg.
"ARGH!" Arcueid exclaimed in pain, but she couldn't say anything more as the entity's outstretched hands stood before her.
"Απόδοση," the being said, only for a burst of energy to erupt from its hands, and in an instant, an energy cannon engulfed Arcueid, pulverizing everything in its path.
Once the attack ended, the vampire could be seen a few meters away, completely destroyed and unconscious.
"I see," the entity said, looking at the defeated Arcuied, and this was only possible because of something her opponent had taken advantage of without her realizing it.
Arcueid has the world's backing, which granted her the ability to always dominate her opponent, but based on a certain logic, it's "always limited to a degree above the opponent."
The attack the entity had just unleashed was all the power and energy it had accumulated throughout the fight against Solomon, including Solomon's Noble Phantasm and all the kinetic energy it had absorbed from his blows.
Essentially, the entity's attack was far beyond the level of either of them, which is why it managed to defeat her, at least momentarily.
Spreading darkness from the ground, it began to surround Arcueid, slowly absorbing her while she was still unconscious, thus eliminating another threat to its purpose.
As the princess of the True Ancestors slowly fell into darkness, several energy arrows struck the entity, exploding and disorienting it, causing it to absorb the blonde.
The entity turned around only to see Archer, in this case Arjuna, with his bow.
"Is that distraction enough?" he asked Ruler, who was kneeling beside him, staring at the entity.
"Enough," she nodded, only for the entity surrounding her to ask, "Let's play in the woods while the wolf isn't here! Is the wolf here?"
At that moment, everything around the entity disintegrated, and in an instant, she appeared in a dark and eerie forest.
The forest felt empty, but there was a palpable sense of threat in the air.
"A Reality Marble?" the entity wondered, only for darkness to begin enveloping the forest. "I don't have time for games."
Outside the Reality Marble, Ruler could be seen running to Arcueid's side, relieved to have been saved in time; otherwise, she couldn't imagine what would have happened if she had been absorbed by the entity.
"Now that we have time to talk, I wonder if you know what that thing was," Arjuna said, appearing beside her.
Ruler stared thoughtfully at Arcueid, only to shift her gaze to the Reality Marble.
"That thing is the other faction's caster, or rather, Dante, or at least that's what it should be," he said, hoisting the vampire onto his shoulder.
"Should be?" Arjuna questioned.
"I'm not entirely sure, but from what I gathered from Solomon when we found him on the road, I suspect he transformed into a beast," he replied.
"A beast?" Bazett exclaimed, trotting urgently over to where they were. "Are you sure?"
"Not really, maybe it's a semi-beast or a breach, but somewhere between those possibilities, like he said, I'm not sure," she answered, tensing up as the reality marble began to crack. "That shouldn't happen."
With that, she ducked, followed by the other two, only for the reality marble to shatter and a shockwave to send them all flying outside, the three of them barely managing to survive.
"What an annoying stray dog," came the voice of the entity now identified as a Beast.
The wolf could be seen without any of its six limbs, only its torso and head, which began to be slowly absorbed until it disappeared from everyone's sight.
"It can't be," Ruler exclaimed silently afterward.
"What's happening?" Bazett asked.
"I can no longer sense Lobo; I can no longer communicate with him or summon him again. I devour everything, even the Saint Graph," he declared, frowning and clenching his teeth.
"That means..." Bazett began.
"That if you're absorbed, you're completely lost," Arjuna finished.
"Well, the show must go on," the Beast declared, and a wave of attraction began to affect everything around it.
Little by little, everything began to be drawn to a single point, more specifically, the Beast.
Small pieces of debris could be seen colliding with it, only to be absorbed and disappear, perhaps forever. Always.
"We can't just stand by and do nothing," Arjuna said, rising and drawing back his bow to fire several spectral arrows. Upon striking the being before them, they exploded in a massive blast, halting the shock wave.
The small victory was short-lived, as the entire explosion was absorbed by the beast's outstretched hand, which then closed it and glared at the three—four if you count Arcueid.
"Do you want to keep playing?" I asked, placing my hands as if I had an invisible handle in front of me. "I'll show you how it's really done."
With that, he turned the invisible handle in front of him, causing the entire place to shake.
The three of us ducked to avoid falling from the sudden tremor.
"Don't tell me he's tampering with the technical plates?" Ruler asked.
"Not exactly," the beast replied, making a sudden movement, and the entire floor began to shake even more than before.
...
Flat was running down the stairs of the large penthouse where he was staying, even though he had become friends with the owner of the place where he had fallen.
He watched as people fell from the top floor of the school to the ground, dying instantly.
"Is it shaking there too?" Flat asked through her phone, trying to avoid falling, as the sea began to flood the streets of Qatar.
"Yes, hey, be careful," Svin replied on the other end.
Meanwhile, she tried to stop a woman from falling into a crack that had opened not far from her, but unfortunately, she couldn't.
And in the background, the temple they had come from was being completely destroyed.
"I hope Gray and the others are okay," she said.
"First the gravity wave, now the ground started moving, what's next?" Flat couldn't help but ask, waiting for a response from her classmate, but there was no word from the other end. "Are you there? Le Chien, is he there? Can you hear me? Hey, Svin, are you okay?" she asked, worried.
Meanwhile, Svin had lowered his phone, watching as a meteorite slowly fell through the city where he was.
...
After a few seconds of violent, violent movements of the planet Earth, everything stopped, only for it to begin raining in the area.
"Is it raining? There shouldn't be any rain for a few weeks," Bazett declared, looking at the sky, only to realize that the moon's position had changed and the sun was peeking over the horizon. But that shouldn't be possible, since it was still about four hours until dawn.
She also saw several objects from space falling to Earth, but they were destroyed by the atmosphere.
"That was for the sector where Great Britain used to be," the beast explained, looking at the only master present.
"Where was it?" Arjuna asked, now standing with his bow drawn before his opponent.
"I think he already did what he did," Ruler said, looking at the sky. "You changed the position of the Earth."
At that statement, the two stared at the beast in disbelief.
"Technically, I tilted the Earth by about 180°; now the South Pole should be the North Pole and vice versa," the beast explained, only to be bombarded by more of Arjuna's projectiles.
"This is bad. Do you have any other plans?" the Hindu hero asked Ruler, who was about to say something, but looked on in horror the next second.
"Behind you," she declared, only for Arjuna to be hurled to the ground, destroying everything he hit.
"Archer!!" Bazett roared, pulling Fragarach out of a suitcase, ready to attack.
"Wait," Ruler tried to warn, but she wasn't quick enough, as the ante teleported to Bazett's side and, with a single movement, severed the arm where she had her mystic code.
Before she could say anything, she was punched in the stomach, sending her flying in the opposite direction, leaving her unconscious and bleeding on the ground.
The beast swiftly deciphered the mystic code, arm and all, just to dodge the ruler's attack from behind.
Swiveling the axe, she hoped to land at least a blow, but the beast wouldn't let her. Dodging her opponent's next attack, the entity turned to deliver an uppercut to her jaw, sending her flying and grabbing her leg to slam her brutally to the ground.
With two of her opponents defeated, she simply aimed her hand at Arjuna, who had already risen with half her face covered in blood, and drew her bow. But the entity was faster, and with all the energy accumulated from the arrows she herself had fired, she unleashed an energy bullet that exploded where she stood, creating a massive ball of explosive energy that destroyed everything in its path as it grew larger and larger, stopping after 5 seconds and vanishing.
At the epicenter of this attack, Arjuna could be seen severely wounded, trying to get up, but the beast appeared beside him only to kick him in the chest, causing him to vomit blood.
"Your time is up." With that, a great amount of darkness began to surround Arjuna; unfortunately for him, there was no one there to save him.
Doing what he could, he tried to break free, but another kick from the beast, which broke almost all of his ribs, stopped him.
And so Arjuna could only accept his fate of being absorbed by the being before him, only to feel the oxygen disappear as he entered the darkness completely, and things gradually became difficult.
Without thinking twice, to prevent his Saint Graph from being absorbed, he stabbed himself in the heart, killing himself. His heart began to fade, but the energy that should have gone to the Holy Grail could not escape, remaining in the darkness, now for the beast's personal use.
The truth was that the beast couldn't absorb the Servant's Saint Graph; the reason Ruler stopped sensing the wolf was that it severed their connection completely.
But it didn't matter much, since Arjuna would die there no matter what, crushed and/or transformed into a battery until he disappeared, which only accelerated the process.
Ruler, now conscious, tried to get up again, but out of nowhere, she received a kick to the face, spinning her around and sending her sprawling to the ground on her back.
"What's going on, have you run out of ideas?" the entity asked, sitting down in front of Ruler while using the goat skull staff for support.
"I have to stop you," Ruler exclaimed, extending her hand toward the beast, only for it to raise the staff and slam her hand into the ground.
Inevitably, she couldn't help but wince at that, staring at the beast. Right now, there was nothing she could do. Likewise, from the beginning she was never very strong, and her greatest offensive capability was the wolf that was still inside the Beast, being slowly consumed by the darkness with no escape.
"I don't know why you refuse the inevitable; I'm far superior to all of you, and yet you still stand against me. Well, after all, that's human nature, isn't it?" the beast remarked, looking at Ruler, who simply stared at him as if he were his worst enemy.
"It doesn't matter; we'll finish this quickly," the beast said as darkness approached Ruler, who simply closed his eyes, awaiting his end, only for it to stop.
The moment he opened his eyes, he saw that the entity was looking in another direction. When he looked where it was staring, he saw it.
A column of pure, sacred light appeared not far away, only for a blast of sacred energy to hurtle toward it.
The beast, stopping immediately, created a column of darkness that collided with the attack of light, creating a stalemate.
The next moment, the entity leaped backward, only for something to fall right where it had been standing.
"I didn't expect you to do something so crazy, Dante," a female voice said.
The Beast simply stared at her, as if unsure how to respond.
Ruler, who had closed his eyes the moment the object hit the ground, opened them only to see a woman with blonde hair and green eyes, wearing rudimentary blue Holy Knight armor and a king's crown.
"You…" Ruler exclaimed in shock; perhaps he didn't recognize the person, but he recognized what she represented. "You are a great Servant."
"Indeed," she said, assuming an offensive stance. "King Arthur, Lord Logres, Grand Saber at your service."
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Well, as you can see, when faced with a Beast or a great threat, a great Servant must be summoned, and who better than Lord Logres? This is for several reasons, such as being in Great Britain, being a counterpoint to darkness, and the ease with which the true Arturia can be in this world. Anyway, in the next chapter, I'll explain how all this happened.
Another thing to mention is that I had planned a shorter rematch between Arcueid and Dante, but to do that I would have had to wake her up, and then I couldn't think of a natural way to remove her from the scene, so I ultimately decided to leave her unconscious.
I also want to mention that yesterday was the World Cup final, and all I can say is that football was saved. I don't know if anyone from Spain reads this; I hope so. congratulations anyway. As for Argentina, I have nothing against them; in fact, I have several relatives there. some friends from there, but we have to be self-critical, and honestly, all I can say is that their attempt to spit in the air backfired because it ended up falling back on their faces.
With nothing more to add, I hope you enjoyed the chapter; see you next time.