Multiversal Sin: Rise of the Primal Demon King

⚜️ Saga 0: The Ash Years

📍 Location: Abandoned Safehouse, Slovakia

🕯️ Time: Late 2006 — Midnight Quiet

POV: Dante Sparda

🔮 Sin System Status: Concurrent Split-Bond Stabilizing

🛡 Emotional State: Liminal | Internal Desire Emerging

The snow retreated into silence.

Outside, flurries softened into dust. Night became a breath gently drawn back into the sky. A glass-line of winter wrapped the hills, but the safehouse clung to warmth like a secret not yet confessed.

Inside, the fire crackled low. Not hungry. Not dying. Just steady—like someone had chosen to keep it alive quietly.

Dante sat against the stone hearth, sleeves rolled, collar open.

His coat lay nearby. A silent armament at ease.

He wasn't meditating.

He was watching the embers.

The sword—Ruin Reaver—laid across his knees. His fingers traced grooves not made by demons, but by time. By memory.

By names he never said aloud anymore.

[Sin System — Bond Proximity Report]

Wanda Maximoff: 68.9% → 69.3%

Jean Grey: 42.5% → 43.1%

Rivalry Tier: 3

Emotional Zone Status: Stabilized → Heating

Status Tag: Dual Anchor Affection Loop Active

Threat: None

Burden: Medium / Acceptable

Trigger: Awaiting Physical Sync Threshold

He didn't chase this moment.

But he didn't run from it either.

▫▫▫

She moved like an afterthought the world had finally honored.

Barefoot, wrapped in the hue of faded reds and candlelight, Wanda stepped from the hallway and didn't say a word.

She sat beside him. Not acrossbut right Beside him.

She handed him a cup — simple enamel, still steaming. Stew maybe — broth thick with root, herbs, and memory of firewood.

Then she leaned against him.

No challenge.

No claim.

Just a quiet, human joining.

Her hand brushed his wrist, resting there. Not tracing scars, not stroking tattoos. Just being.

[Sin System — Touch Acknowledged]

Wanda Maximoff Sync: 69.3% → 69.7%

Emotional Vibration: "Safe Like This"

Anchor Equilibrium Registered: Stable | Reaffirmed

"You looked cold," she said.

"Maybe I was," he replied.

It was nothing and everything all at once.

Her shoulder lingered against him. Strong. Present. A woman who had burned worlds but offered warmth only to him.

"Do you see them?" she whispered. "The children?"

Dante was quiet for a beat too long.

"…Yeah."

"And?"

He stared ahead. Voice low.

"Sometimes… makes me want to run."

He turned toward her slightly.

"But other times… I stay."

She smiled softly. That Wanda smile—not mischievous, not saintly. Just true.

"And the names?"

He let the silence last.

Then: "I already gave them names."

She didn't pry as she didn't need to.

[Sin System Update]

Wanda Anchor Status: Enhanced

Obsession Converted to Shared Intimacy

Emotional Charge: Nostalgia / Permission / Belonging

Affection Gain: +0.4%

Wanda Maximoff Total: 69.7%

Rival Trigger: None

▫▫▫

Jean Grey found him later — beneath a sleeping sky edged with blue.

Dante stood at the tree line, the cold kissing his coat, his breath barely visible. He didn't carry the blade this time. Just the weight in his shoulders.

She hovered before him, landing with the grace of a confessor, not a fighter.

"You didn't burn tonight," she said softly.

"Didn't feel fireworthy," he replied.

Jean stepped beside him. Not touching, Just near.

For minutes, nothing passed between them but the crunch of settling snow.

"When I first dreamed of peace," she whispered, "it scared me."

A pause. Her voice cracked only barely.

"I thought the Phoenix burned it out of me."

He waited.

"But it wasn't violence that lit me awake," she said. "It was you."

Dante said nothing.

Because he was listening the way only a man trained by silence knows how.

[Phoenix Thread Responding…]

Jean Grey: Obsession → Stabilizing Emotional Claim

Current Sync: 43.1% → 43.7%

Emotional Status: Soft Reconnect

Trigger Path: Invitation – Accepted

Then, she held out a hand.

He didn't ask what she was offering.

He took it.

They rose.

Not like war gods.

Like people. Broken open. Rising anyway.

▫▫▫

They arced above silver moonscapes, sky curling in auroras.

Her body pressed against his only once—just the shoulder—just enough to say I'm still here if you don't leave first.

Her mind opened gently.

No fire. No fracture. Just a memory.

A courtyard long gone. Jean barefoot post-battle, dancing under torn thunderstorms.

A child giggling with her down endless balconies. A soft humming of psionic light knitting rain into warmth.

And behind every memory?

His face.

But not watching her.

Waiting.

"You've been in everything I'm too proud to admit I want," she said.

"And if I come second—or third—I want it known. That I came for you anyway."

Dante turned. Met her eyes.

Said just one thing:

"…Maybe I'm ready to be seen that way."

[Sin System — Core Identity Mirror Triggered]

Emotional Alignment: Compassion / Longing / Loyalty Pulse Detected

Jean Grey Total Sync: 43.7%

Emotional Weight: Ascending

Dante Resonance Drift: 32.3% → 34.0%

▫▫▫

Back at the safehouse, two chairs were warm but empty.

Jean sat reading in the corner, fingers thoughtfully still.

Wanda adjusted the wick on the lantern. Quiet. Contained flame.

He entered between them.

They did not speak.

But both flicked their eyes toward him like gravity.

Rival queens in silent sovereignty.

Then—

Jean whispered: "I held him when the stars collapsed."

Wanda didn't hesitate: "And I gave him morning when he couldn't remember the night before."

A pause.

Not sharp.

Just honest.

[Sin System Alert]

Rival Thread Pressure ➤ Stable

Shared Anchor Response: Passive Acceptance Logged

Wanda Maximoff – 69.7%

Jean Grey – 43.7%

Dante Emotional Field: Liminal / Magnetized / Unwilling to Sever

Status: Contained Longing Active

Dante paused near the stairs.

And for the first time—

Not as the Devil Hunter.

Not as the myth.

But as Dante Sparda, anchor of their fire and storm—

He felt it:

Something he dared not name.

But it wasn't just longing.

It was hope…

…and that scared him more than any blade ever had.

________