[Realm: Álfheimr]

[Location: Outskirts]

The attack came without warning.

The lightning Cerberus peeled away from the whole in a rupture of sparks, its form snapping. It leapt skyward, body folding inward as it spun, rotation accelerating until its outline blurred. Black lightning burst outward in large bursts, carving black lines through the air as a crescent-shaped slash tore free from its rotation and screamed toward Dante.

Dante saw it the instant it formed.

He moved in an instant, pushing off the ground in a sharp leap. The lightning slash passed where he had been an instant before and slammed into the ground behind him. The impact caused stone to fold inward like wet clay, the ground collapsing and erupting in a plume as black lightning crawled outward from the point of contact. The shockwave followed a breath later, ripping through the area and flattening what little remained upright.

Dante hit the ground in a roll, boots skidding through debris. He came up low, one knee down, already tracking movement and saw fire.

The fire Cerberus was already there.

It did not roar or telegraph its attack. It was simply there, its bulk colliding with him in a flash of black flame. Dante barely had time to bring his right arm up before the impact landed. The collision exploded outward, fire blooming violently around his gauntlet as the heat and force hit him simultaneously.

The force took him.

Dante was hurled upward, body snapping back as the fire Cerberus's momentum carried through him. Flames spiraled around his form as he was launched skyward, coat snapping in the updraft. For the briefest instant, his senses recalibrated from surprise.

He felt no pain. But the force had been immense all the same. Midair, Dante twisted, adjusting his trajectory. His lenses flared as he caught sight of Echidna below.

She was already preparing something.

Her posture had shifted—arms raised, fingers splayed, something gathering around her in a thick pressure. The ground near her tail darkened, ripples spreading outward as though something beneath the plains had begun to stir.

Before he could act on it the howls came.

All three.

The separated Cerberus forms howled in unison, their voices overlapping into a discordant roar. Flames engulfed their bodies simultaneously as they leapt upward, trajectories converging on Dante from three angles.

They merged midair.

Fire folded inward as lightning threaded through it along with the ice flashing as their mass realigned. In the space of a heartbeat, the three became one again—the full Cerberus reconstituted above Dante, all three heads snarling as gravity reclaimed them.

They were directly on top of him.

Cerberus lashed out with its paw, a massive limb wreathed in unstable fire. Dante brought his right arm up, throwing it infront of him just in time to catch the strike. The impact was brutal. The force bled through his guard, sending him hurtling downward like a meteor. The air screamed past him as he fell, coat flaring, hair snapping free beneath his helmet. The ground rushed up and Dante twisted.

He flipped midair, his boots hit the ground in a light landing, knees bending to absorb the impact. Stone cracked beneath him, but he did not stagger.

A moment later, Cerberus landed heavily a few paces away. The impact shook the ground, dust erupting outward. The three-headed hound stood tall, claws digging into the ground, all three heads tracking Dante simultaneously.

Then the left head reared back and roared. The sound was strangely wrong, vibrating through the ground beneath Dante's feet. His instincts flared immediately.

"…Below," he realized.

He looked down.

A large circular sigil had formed beneath him without sound or warning. It was etched in deep red light, patterns swirling and rotating within it. The symbols were unfamiliar—curved and layered in a way that made the eye resist following them too closely.

The sigil pulsed once.

Dante didn't hesitate.

He launched backward in a powerful burst, the ground exploding beneath his feet as he cleared the circle just as the sigil activated.

A massive red, translucent spectral hound head erupted upward from the sigil, jaws snapping shut with terrifying force. The bite closed on empty air, the impact alone sending a shockwave rippling outward. The spectral form lingered for a brief second, snarling silently, before dissipating into drifting red motes.

Dante landed several meters away, boots skidding slightly before he steadied.

Cerberus prowled forward a step, growling low. Internally, Dante's thoughts sharpened.

("If Cerberus keeps splitting and reforming, damage becomes unpredictable. Injuries on separate forms—do they carry over? Do they heal independently? Or do they stack?")

He didn't know. And uncertainty, here, was dangerous.

Cerberus did not give him a breath.

All three heads threw themselves back and howled in unison once more. The ground beneath him answered immediately. Red light bled through the ground, sigils igniting one after another in widening circles until the ground beneath his feet resembled a vast red sea.

Dante's lenses narrowed.

The sigils pulsed, synchronizing with the sound of Cerberus's howl. Dante felt it around him, the air grew heavy and resistant, like it was being primed to betray him.

("They want me airborne,") he realized. ("They know I'm weaker there. Especially like this.")

His left arm still hung useless at his side, damaged enough that even shifting his balance too carelessly would cost him. Cerberus knew. Seems it wasn't just brutish aggression on the beast.

As the thought finished forming, the sigils flared.

From the glowing circles, spectral hound heads burst upward—massive translucent constructs snapping their jaws as they tore free of the ground and lunged skyward. One erupted directly beneath Dante, jaws yawning open to carry him into the air whether he wanted it or not.

He didn't retreat.

Dante twisted his torso and drove his right fist straight down.

The punch landed with an almost obscene force. The spectral head shattered instantly, its form exploding into fragments of red light. But the strike didn't stop there. The force carried through—into the sigil, into the ground beneath it. Stone ruptured outward in a ring, the shockwave tearing through the surrounding sigils and detonating the other spectral heads mid-formation.

The plains convulsed as cracks spiderwebbed outward, chunks of earth lifting and collapsing as if the ground had been struck by a meteor. The remaining spectral heads disintegrated before they could fully manifest, torn apart by the force.

Dante landed in the destruction, boots grinding on the uneven stone. He didn't pause. The world seemed to stutter as he vanished in a burst of speed, the space he had occupied collapsing inward a fraction of a second too late. A thunderous crack followed in his wake as displaced air rushed to fill the void.

Cerberus reacted instantly.

The right head snapped downward, jaws wide, fangs sharp as it lunged to intercept but Dante was already past it. He slipped beneath the bite by inches, the wind of it tugging at his coat as he leaned back, spine arching just enough to let death pass overhead. His boots slid across the ground, balance precise despite the chaos underfoot.

Something hissed behind him.

One of Cerberus's barbed tails lashed out, the serrated tip glinting, a sure sign that venom was still along its length. It sought his torso, aiming to impale and inject in a single motion.

Dante's right hand snapped out.

His fingers closed around the tail mid-strike.

The barbs bit into his gauntlet, alloy screeching as venom splattered uselessly across the filigree. Dante dug his heels in, muscles coiling as he twisted his body sharply.

Cerberus roared in surprise as Dante used the momentum.

With a brutal shift of his weight, he hoisted the massive hound up and over, the tail acting as a lever as he redirected Cerberus's own force against it. The world inverted for it for a split second and then Cerberus was slammed into the ground. The impact shook the plains violently, stone exploding outward as the massive body hit. Cerberus writhed, claws tearing trenches into the earth as it struggled to reorient but Dante didn't let up.

He stepped forward, still gripping the tail, and tore.

The tail ripped free with a wet sound. Dark ichor sprayed across the ground as Cerberus howled, the sound splitting into three discordant cries of fury. Dante hurled the severed tail aside and followed through with a kick. His boot connected with Cerberus's flank in a devastating strike. The force detonated on impact, sending the massive hound hurtling backward through the air.

Cerberus twisted midair, claws scraping as it forced itself to land on all fours. The middle head reared back, eyes blazing.

It roared.

Black fire poured from its jaws in a massive wave, consuming the space between them in an instant. The heat was suffocating even from a distance, the flames eating light as they surged forward. Dante planted his feet as he drew his arm back, the muscles along his shoulder tightening, and punched forward.

The air screamed, a visible wave of force erupted from his fist, tearing through the black flames. The fire split violently around the shockwave, dispersing into ragged plumes that collapsed inward as the force continued on.

It struck Cerberus squarely.

The massive hound skidded backward, claws gouging deep furrows into the ground as it struggled to stay upright. Stone cracked and collapsed beneath its weight as it finally came to a halt. Dante moved to pursue, but at that moment, he noticed something in his peripheral vision.

"That's—"

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