In Marvel As Dante

Dante

With a mental command, I willed the armor to unravel and cover me like I typically did when I summoned it from my inventory.

It fit like a glove thanks to the additional weight reduction rune and the power core. The rush was nothing like I've ever experienced. I could taste the power; my fingers crackled with it. With a brief activation of Burst, I was hundreds of meters in the air. My new gains to demonic energy finally showed its fruits.

It was easy to forget that each bump in stat expanded my demonic reserves and amplified its power. By the time I hit 700 DE, I couldn't imagine how much more devastating a fully charged Burst from me would be.

Speaking of which, I decided to test out my newly upgraded weapons.

Creating a pair of Astral wings, I flew to the edge of my dimension and hovered in front of several ruins.

I started with Eryx first. The metal armor around my hand flowed to other parts of my armor, and smoldering gauntlets replaced them.

I unclasped them and stared in wonder as the joints articulated, each section ending with downward-pointing spurs. I twisted my wrist and flexed my forearms. Eryx's new form looked downright demonic, the inner heat of the gauntlets shining through.

I teleported to a broken-down wall, cocked my fist back, filled it with a smidge of demonic energy, and swung. The wall shattered in a flash of red and black fire. The ruin behind it was bathed in an avalanche of debris and fire. 

A projected blade from Arbiter was enough to destroy what was left.

Switching back to Eryx, I charged my fist until it reached the maximum limit Burst allowed. My hand was blacker than night, and the air around it quivered with a shimmering reddish energy. I brought it down on the island with a cataclysmic crash.

It simply vanished, consumed in a draconian roar of primal heat and magic. The flame flowed like a cascading wave, sweeping other islands and setting distant ruins on fire.

"Okay…these weapons are a tad stronger than I remembered. Or maybe I am."

I cycled through the rest of my original weapons. Osiris's cuts were devastating, slicing through stone like butter, and using Aquila was like standing in the eye of a storm. Each weapon could summon up to 12 blades with a single swing. Using both weapons simultaneously, with my wings active, I could shred through a room of enemies before they even knew what hit them.

Rebellion proved to be the most impressive by a long margin. Fighting with it was a dream. My wind blades were never so crisp, and Gravity Touch was never so smooth.

The real excitement started when I manipulated fire freely in preparation for Anathema's flame.

With Mind and Fire Cloaks active paired with the innate Fire affinity bonus of Eryx, controlling my flames never felt easier.

With a snap of my fingers, I summoned two dozen fireballs as large as my body and sent them hurtling at various Islands. They hit with the force of a C4 blast, eviscerating chunks of the island.

I tried a fiery roar next, breathing out with as much force and power as I could muster. The flame blocked out the horizon, bathing several islands in a black and red firestorm.

Next came concentrated attacks, shrinking human-sized fireballs to the size of my torso. When my control failed me, I pushed further with Telekinesis until it was the size of my head. All hints of red were gone from the ball, and the result was every bit as devastating as I expected. It vaporized an Island like it was nothing.

For a while, I practiced compressing my fireballs and letting them rip. I quickly ran out of islands and eventually settled for just blasting my fire into the ocean below us.

When I had my fill, I finally busted out my Anathema fire. I had nowhere near the control I'd expected, but it was disgustingly potent. A head-sized fireball accomplished what took several full-body-sized orbs, and I didn't even try compressing the flames. I had nowhere near the control.

But what I did enjoy and practice in spades was letting out bursts of fire and setting Rebellion on fire and practicing with it. I didn't need to expend energy to sustain the fire once lit, and Rebellion was the best fit for the fire structurally.

Cutting some poor schmuck with this would mean game over, which was fantastic news for me, considering what we were up against.

My practice lasted for half a day; time I spent exploring the limits of what I could now do.

Density Shift went farther now, and channeling it into Burst produced a hell of an impact, almost on the level of a fully charged Nether Fire punch.

I could say the same for Telekinesis and Gravity. Things started to get truly ridiculous when I combined multiple affinities.

Toward the end of practice, I finally worked up to my amplified attacks using my Sentinel armor.

I was not ready for the jump in sheer destructiveness. The armor had over 20 Amplification runes, each granting a 30% boost in power. The output of a single swing was powerful enough to part the ocean at the bottom of my dimension. I grew worried for the integrity of my dimension when I added a few precision runes to the mix.

I didn't dare touch Devil Trigger or Angel Ascension with this much power. My Angel abilities proved to be just as impressive. A fully charged wind blade could easily split islands, and a fully powered Gust cleared entire ruins.

My power level was beginning to get up there, all without reaching the condensation stage of energy manipulation.

The last thing I did before stepping out of my dimension and back into the real world was raise my class to level 22.

My skills tied to the class underwent a fundamental change, and it was worth burning the 1.5 million Red Orbs it took to elevate the class. I barely had a quarter million orbs left over when it was all said and done.

Reaching the first milestone at level 15 doubled the stat gain per level and the effectiveness bonus I gained from Runesmthing. It was now 80%.

Decode and Forge, the skill that allowed me to copy and enchant artifacts, grew as well. Now, I could get a general feel for what pieces I needed to understand to create something above my current skill level. It was what kept me from making a version of the 10 rings for myself.

Harvest, another class skill, now allowed me to make weapons, armor, and artifacts that granted stats.

The next few days were going to be interesting.

Name: (Dante Sparda) Axel Warren

Class: Arcane Forgemaster Lv22

HP: 2720

SP: 2940

AE: 3390

DE: 3320

Strength: 264

Dexterity: 282

Endurance: 294

Vitality: 272

Angel Energy: 339

Demon Energy: 332

--

Dante

I was there when she woke up the very next day. Rin was out in New York again with Wanda on a date, and I was sitting by Jean's bedside when her eyes fluttered open.

It was like staring at the sun. The warmth blanketed me, cosmic fire rolling off her in multi-colored embers of power. Her iris glowed red, and Predator's Gaze gave me an accurate enough gauge of her strength. It far surpassed my base and rivaled mine in my new Sentinel Armor with Devil Trigger activated.

My face lit up when she saw me.

"Good morning," I smiled and touched her cheek. She held my hand and leaned forward to kiss me. It was warm and enrapturing, and it was like a dam broke. I allowed myself to feel the pull fully.

How much I cared for her, how much I needed her.

"You have no idea how long I've waited to do that," she said.

"I do have some idea," I said. So, what do you want to do first?"

"What do you think?" she smirked.