In Marvel As Dante

I woke up with a scream, mind racing as demonic energy poured out of every orifice. It mixed with purple fire and bits from my rapidly disintegrating Twilight Sentinel armor.

Bones regenerated; muscles wrapped around them. Blood and skin came next and went quicker than I could process.

My life-saving skill might've triggered, but that did nothing for my condition. Purple fire surged around me, burning thousands of Celsius hot, melting and consuming everything in its path, including me.

I would've screamed if I had the tongue or the mental energy. I went into immediate panic mode, triggering Devil Trigger and spiking my regeneration.

But it all didn't seem to be enough. The surge of vitality my life-saving skill provided was quickly fading. Even though my skin felt more durable than ever, and more strength flowed through my body than the last time I was in Devil Trigger, I knew I had few seconds at best.

So, I shifted strategies and tried to escape the inferno.

Burst exploded out of my right side, sending me flipping deeper into the raging purple fire inferno. Drops of liquid metal sprayed out. I flexed my Telekinesis and Gravity affinities, pulling me up and away, but my luck ran out before I was halfway through.

My mind grew hazy, and my control slipped. It became brutally clear: I was going to die. And there was no one coming for me. Not Shin, Jean, or any other teammates who probably hated me.

The lying, the training, the killing…What was it all for, scrambling every second of every day? Tiptoeing the line between morally grey and utterly reprehensible—all to fail when I came so fucking close!

I should've fused Rin's DNA with my own and amped myself with the formulas as I'd done for the rest. I should've trained harder, pushed my affinity further instead of fucking babysitting. And I should've just given the kid what he wanted. Maybe he would've been quick enough to dodge that grab from Ulyetrix.

And l should've just fucking gone for the infinity stone; consequences be damned.

But it was too late for that now.

I would end up back in the void before I ever got the chance to live.

'Maybe you should try that,' a stray thought suggested. 'What do you have to lose.'

Recently, I came up with a theory on how to awaken my Angel Trigger. A death blow through demon energy triggered the change the first time. Doing the same with Angel Energy might work. The only problem was… I'd been down that road several times before and failed.

Yao and I chalked it up to a true lack of desperation. The cushion of an extra life and a hair trigger for Angel Regeneration made it impossible to truly feel the fear of death without risking it all.

It was no mystery why I was afraid of dying.

I'd stacked skills upon skills and devised a nearly impenetrable armor so that I was never at the mercy of Shin again.

Yet, here I was—about to kill myself with no assurances I wasn't inadvertently giving him what he wanted.

As I banished what was left of Twilight Sentinel Armor, exposing my rapidly deteriorating body to temperatures that exceeded the sun's surface, I summoned the only weapon I was sure wouldn't melt immediately.

Rebellion.

I expelled a ton of wind energy to buy the smallest respite as I filled the blade with dimensional energy. I figured this would be the quickest. My hand shook slightly before the blade went in.

The world fractured and split into a thousand realities. A dozen worlds whizzed past me impossibly fast, realities I could've only dreamed of in my wildest fantasies. I saw mountains split apart by a titanic conflict waged by humanoid figures, a world drowned in dystopian machines and magitech, and fantasy worlds pushed to the edge by eternal conflict.

My body recovered as I underwent this baptism of light and energy, and my understanding bloomed. Dodging attacks with my dimensional affinity was just the beginning. Dimensional travel was its true purpose, and learning to fold space seemed like a nice bonus on top of that.

The shattering stopped, and the world reoriented itself. I found myself floating in the murky demon-energy-infused sky of my simulacrum.

As I scanned the realm with fresh eyes, I realized it wasn't some simulated dimension attached to my mental plane. It was a real place first created by Sparda but now maintained and ruled by me.

I jerked forward, a sudden pain erupting from my back as memories flashed in my mind. It was knowledge I could not possess yet made an astounding amount of sense to me as a half-angel.

The mark between my shoulder blades glowed a blinding white as Wind, dimensional, and pure energy poured out of me.

I reined it in with a flex of my will, and they split into two balls, settling just above my shoulder blades.

A pair of ethereal blue wings formed, and with a flex of them, I sent out a shockwave that shook the dimension.

New Ability Unlocked.

Angelic Ascension.

Tap into your angelic Ancestry and draw on the strength and wisdom of your forbears. The secrets of the Multiverse are yours to unravel. Skills are 200% easier to learn and grow when in Angel Ascension.

Nullifies the cost of Angelic Regeneration and doubles the effectiveness, increases strength, vitality, and endurance by 200%, Increases speed by 500%

Costs 100 AE to activate and 10 AE per second to maintain.

Greater affinity manipulation becomes easier.

You've unlocked a new Epic Skill: Astral Wings.

By drawing your most powerful affinities, you've recreated one of the great magics of your people, the Angels.

Create wings made of pure energy that grant flight, increased defense, control, and speed and greatly boost the effectiveness of all of your Angel Affinities by 100%.

Every subsequent Wing boosts the effectiveness by another 30% until the limit. The current limit is 2.

Each Wing costs 750 AE.

Wings can be destroyed with enough force, stored, and used to channel angel skills.

You've unlocked a Cardinal Affinity. Anathema Flame (Low)

A nascent flame of a Nephilim god, it has the potential to burn through concepts and forge divinities. The flames of Anathema are bound to the will of the Nephilim that created them and will Burn through all they've deemed the enemy.

The Flames can only be resisted and quenched by magic of equivalent power.

You've unlocked Anathema Channel (Transcendent)

Channel the Flames of Anathema by drawing your Wind and Fire affinities simultaneously. 100DE and AE per second.

Congratulations: You've unlocked Telekinesis (Epic)

Through stretching of your Mind Affinity, you've learned to impose your will upon the world to great effect. Limited to low-level feats of manipulation for now.

Congratulations: Cloak has reached Adept Tier.

All passive bonuses receive a flat 30-35 percent increase in all parameters. Combining Cloaks for a greater boost is now possible.

Gravitational Touch has reached Adept Tier

Doubles Gravitational pull when the technique is activated.

Density Shift has reached Adept Tier.

Density Increase now grants a 60% strength buff for a 25% debuff. Density Decrease grants a 60% Speed boost for a 25% debuff.

Congratulations: Dimensional Shift Adept has evolved to Dimensional Jump (Expert)

Designate a target and shift into a dimension you choose before reappearing at your target without delay. To jump and stay in the dimension you're shifting to, release the technique mid-execution.

Cost 50AE.

Name: (Dante Sparda) Axel Warren

Class: Arcane Forgemaster Lv7

HP: 1940--2500

SP: 2190--2500

AE: 2100/2100

DE: 2100/2100

Strength: 178-220

Dexterity: 193--260

Endurance: 211--250

Vitality: 194--250

Angelic Energy: 215- 290

Demonic Energy: 219-280

Reading the notifications was surreal.

The stat bump from learning the new ability, added to the rapid gain triggered by the fight, was unbelievable, but I was most excited by the new skills and information surging through my mind.

I played back the fight in my head. I saw ways I could've better used my affinity and skills. It flooded my mind with potential ideas and theories on using my newly acquired powers. Yet, I didn't let my mind wander for long.

Lumos was still out there with Rin, and as much as I loved Pietro, he didn't stand a chance. I needed to end this fight fast. Everything that was to come after was a complete mystery.

What was left of my Twilight Sentinel Armor wrapped around me. I noted that the sections that had melted off had already begun to repair themselves.

In a few more hours, I expected the armor to be as good as new, but for now, I was locked out of the energy reserves and the many runes etched into the armor.

It could be a major handicap, but another side of me saw this as an opportunity. I was supposed to be dead. If I was smart and vicious enough, the fight could be over before it even started.

Dimensional Jump activated, and my vision split into two. A portal opened before me, and I was in the fire again, but it didn't harm me. Or rather, it couldn't. It was mine.

I looked through the fire, eyes zeroing in on Lumos, who was standing over a half-dead Pietro and Wanda. Rin was on his feet, panting.

I saw Red.