December 7th, 2024 — Late Night — Shibuya District

  The rain continued to fall in sheets across Shibuya, the storm intensifying as if responding to the battle below. Valen finished absorbing what mana she believed she'd need from Jumba, who whimpered softly, tears mixing with the rainwater that streamed down his round face.

  "Just sit tight," she purred, her grotesque mouth stretching impossibly wide to reveal rows of needle-like teeth. "I'll take care of these two."

  Jumba shuffled back, his propeller hat spinning rapidly as he nodded in eager agreement. "GET THEM SISTER! HE HURT JUMBA!" His remaining hand gestured toward his missing appendages, blood still seeping from the wounds despite his rudimentary attempts to bandage them.

  Across the devastated street, Dante and Master Rengo readied their weapons. The swordsman glanced at his partner, noting the blood that stained Rengo's lips and the awkward way he held himself—clear signs of internal injuries.

  "Any idea on how to defeat this bitch?" Dante asked, his usual cool demeanor strained by the unprecedented challenge before them.

  Rengo sighed, adjusting his grip on his weapon. "Zero. I'm definitely getting too old for this."

  Valen's laughter echoed through the night, a sound that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once. With a casual gesture that mimicked Jumba's earlier movements, she summoned her own portal—a perfect replica of the ability she had just absorbed. The spatial rift opened directly beside Master Rengo, who barely had time to register its appearance before Valen's arm shot through, grabbing him by the throat.

  In one fluid motion, she pulled him through the portal and slammed him against the street with bone-crushing force. The concrete beneath them fractured from the impact, water spraying upward from the newly formed crater.

  "Shit!" Rengo coughed, more blood spattering from his lips as he struggled to regain his footing. He swung his tenderizer in a wide arc, aiming for Valen's head.

  The female entity caught the weapon with both hands, her impossible strength bringing it to a dead stop. The shock of the impact traveled up Rengo's arms, nearly causing him to lose his grip.

  Dante rushed forward, his katana leading the way, intending to capitalize on Valen's momentary distraction. But before he could reach her, a barrage of invisible impacts struck him from all directions. The sensation was horrifyingly familiar—yet different. It was Dante's own "Astral Projection" concept being turned against him, but each phantom slash carried the weight and impact of Rengo's tenderizer rather than his katana.

  "Portals and the pretty boy's concept make for a dangerous combination, huh?" Valen taunted, her voice carrying easily over the storm as she kicked Rengo with enough force to send him crashing into a parked car. The vehicle's frame crumpled around him, glass shattering from the windows.

  The barrage against Dante finally ceased, leaving him bloodied but standing. His legendary resilience was being pushed to its limits, but the fire in his eyes remained undiminished. He raised his katana once more, channeling what mana he had left into the ancient blade.

  Jumba began bouncing up and down in jubilation, his massive body jiggling with each movement. "SISTER WINNING! SISTER STRONGEST!"

  Dante ignored the childish taunt, focusing instead on his assessment of the enemy. Each invisible slash he sent toward Valen cut into her skin more easily than they had against her male form. "The female version is less durable than the male version," he thought to himself, "but immensely quicker."

  Valen hissed as the slashes continued to find their mark, her blood mixing with rainwater as it ran down her pale skin. "How long can he keep this up?!" she snarled, her confidence wavering for the first time.

  She vanished suddenly, a portal opening above Dante's head. He sensed rather than saw the attack coming, diving to the side as her fist cratered the spot where he had stood a heartbeat before.

  Before he could regain his balance, Rengo's unique sword—now back in its spiraled form—appeared through another portal, followed immediately by Valen herself. She began blitzing through a mirage of portals, appearing and disappearing across the battlefield with dizzying speed. Each time she emerged, she wielded Dante's "Astral Projection" concept, sending phantom strikes of Rengo's sword that prodded at his nerve clusters and muscle groups with terrifying precision.

  Her manic laughter filled the night as she thoroughly enjoyed the preparation of her meal. Each portal closed with the sound of her delight, each new one opened with a promise of further pain.

  "How do I always catch myself in these situations?" Dante whispered, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth as he struggled to track her movements. The swordsman took a deep breath, centering himself despite the chaos. "No matter. I've never failed a mission, and today won't be the first!"

  With a wordless shout that carried above the storm, Dante embued more lightning into his blade. The energy surged through the ancient metal, transforming it from a weapon into a conductor for his rage. He grabbed the katana with both hands and raised it skyward, calling down thunder across the entire battlefield.

  The night lights of Shibuya paled in comparison to the light show Dante was emitting. Lightning struck repeatedly, turning the flooded street into a crackling grid of electrical energy. Windows for blocks around shattered from the concussive force, car alarms wailing in chaotic symphony.

  When the fury of attacks finally subsided, leaving the air charged with ozone, Valen appeared from a portal directly in front of Dante. The spiraled sword in her hands had transformed back into a tenderizer, its surface still crackling with residual electricity.

  "Say goodbye!" she snarled, swinging the massive weapon downward with devastating force.

  Dante tried to dodge, but his muscles betrayed him, spasming uncontrollably as the accumulated nerve strikes finally took their toll. He could only watch as the tenderizer descended toward his skull, certain that this would be his end.

  The weapon struck the ground with earth-shattering force, cracking the pavement and sending a geyser of water into the air—but Dante was gone.

  Valen's head snapped up, her grotesque mouth contorting in confusion. She looked to where Rengo had been lying unconscious against the ruined car, but he too had vanished.

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  "Jumba, did you put them in a portal and not tell me?" she demanded, frustration evident in her voice.

  "JUMBA DO NO SUCH THING," the massive villain insisted, his childlike honesty impossible to doubt. He glanced around nervously, his single remaining hand fidgeting with his propeller hat. "Teleport man move them away?"

  "Teleport man?" Valen's confusion deepened, her eyes scanning the devastated street for any sign of their opponents or this unexpected third party.

  Unknown Location — Same Time

  "Where the fuck am I? I can't leave my mission yet!" Dante's voice echoed off unfamiliar walls as he found himself in what appeared to be an abandoned apartment. The space was sparsely furnished—a table, a few chairs, a worn couch where Master Rengo now lay unconscious.

  "No need to yell. I've been instructed to save you," came a calm, almost bored-sounding voice from the shadows.

  Dante spun toward the source, his hand instinctively reaching for his katana. "Who the hell are you?" he demanded, his eyes narrowing as he tried to pierce the darkness.

  A figure stepped forward, his unassuming appearance at odds with the casual way he had apparently extracted two 5-star heroes from the middle of a battlefield. "Togi," he replied simply, as if that single word should explain everything.

  "Togi?" Dante repeated, the name carrying no significance to him. He tried to stand but his legs buckled beneath him, refusing to cooperate after Valen's systematic attack on his nervous system.

  "I was instructed by your chairman to save you from the Underworld," Togi elaborated, his tone suggesting he found the explanation tedious.

  "Chairman? Haikito sent you?" Dante's surprise momentarily overwhelmed his frustration. He made another attempt to stand, bracing himself against a nearby wall, but his muscles continued to spasm unpredictably. "Please, send me back. I need to finish them off before they devise a plan!"

  Togi observed him with clinical detachment. "It appears you're in no condition to fight members of the Seven Deadly. You're in your last whim, Mr. Limitless."

  The assessment, delivered with such casual certainty, would have enraged Dante under normal circumstances. But the swordsman recognized the truth in the words—his body was not responding to his commands, the accumulated damage and nerve disruption leaving him dangerously compromised.

  But surrender was not in Dante's nature. With trembling hands, he grasped his katana once more, this time embuing it with earth energy. The blade took on a subtle green glow, the power flowing back into Dante's body, partially restoring function to his damaged nerves and muscles.

  "I only need one swing and half my body," he muttered, his voice strained with effort as he slowly, painfully pushed himself to his feet.

  Togi watched with newfound interest as the legendary swordsman forced his broken body to obey through sheer willpower. There was something almost admirable in such stubborn defiance of physical limitations.

  "Togi," Dante said, his voice cold but dead serious as he finally stood upright. "If the chairman sent you, do this one favor for me."

  Their eyes met across the dimly lit room, an unspoken communication passing between them. Togi recognized the resolve burning in Dante's gaze—the resolve of a top hero who would complete his mission or die in the attempt.

  Shibuya District — Moments Later

  Valen began coughing violently, blood spattering from her grotesque mouth onto the rain-slicked pavement. The female form flickered, like a television with poor reception, the outline becoming unstable.

  "SISTER ENVY, ARE YOU OK? JUMBA SEES YOU SPIT BLOOD!" Jumba cried in alarm, rolling toward her with surprising speed given his injuries.

  Valen's body convulsed, the female form giving way as her frame began to expand. Muscles bulged beneath pale skin, the slender feminine physique replaced by the hulking masculine form they had first encountered. He reached down to retrieve his fallen mask, placing it back over his face to hide the grotesque mouth that both forms shared.

  "You always ask about Sister but never me, Jumba," Valen said, his voice once again deep and tinged with that constant undercurrent of envy and depression. He surveyed the devastated street with weary eyes. "We returned the buildings just like Boss asked. Let's leave before—"

  The sentence was never completed.

  A sound like reality itself being torn apart split the night air. Valen turned just in time to see Dante materialize behind Jumba, Togi holding onto his back, a strange distortion in the air marking their arrival.

  Dante's katana moved with blinding speed, a perfect arc that cleaved through Jumba's neck with surgical precision. The massive villain's head separated from his body with a wet sound barely audible above the storm, toppling forward to splash into a puddle as his massive body collapsed in a heap.

  "JUMBA!" Valen screamed, his voice breaking with genuine grief as he watched his companion fall.

  Dante was relentless, his movements fueled by a combination of battle rage and the knowledge that his body could give out at any moment. He continued his assault on Jumba's lifeless form, his blade carving through flesh and bone, ensuring there would be no possibility of recovery.

  Valen rushed forward, tears streaming from his pupilless eyes, but his movement was too slow—too predictable. Dante pivoted with inhuman grace despite his injuries, driving his katana through Valen's chest with enough force that the tip emerged from his back in a spray of blood.

  Blood seeped from Dante's mouth as he forced his spasming muscles to cooperate, driving the blade deeper, twisting it to maximize the damage. His face was a mask of fury, abandoning his usual coolness in favor of raw, primal vengeance for what the Seven Deadly had done to his partner, to Shibuya, to the innocent civilians caught in their games.

  "Uh-uhhhh, Mr. Limitless. We agreed on one swing," Togi reminded him, grasping Dante's shoulder and activating his teleportation ability before the swordsman could protest.

  The world blurred around them, leaving Valen alone in the rain-soaked battlefield, bleeding profusely from the grievous wound in his chest. He stared down at Jumba's dismembered body, his constant envy momentarily replaced by a different emotion—one he rarely experienced: rage.

  "Am I not good enough to kill?" he whispered, the question directed as much at himself as at the universe that had once again denied him something others received freely—in this case, the dignity of a completed death.

  With trembling hands, he gathered what remained of Jumba's massive form, cradling the headless body with surprising tenderness. From his pocket, he withdrew a small tablet similar to the one Father Ashbourne had used.

  "This isn't over yet, Dante!" Valen screamed into the empty street as he crushed the tablet in his fist. A swirl of arcane energy surrounded him and Jumba's remains, and then they were gone, leaving behind only blood-tinged puddles and the devastating evidence of their battle.

  Unknown Apartment — Moments Later

  Dante collapsed onto the floor of the apartment, his body finally giving up the fight to remain functional. He had managed to grab Rengo's sword before Togi teleported him away, and now the weapon lay beside him, its spiraled blade stained with blood and rainwater.

  "Okay, Togi," Dante gasped between ragged breaths, his vision beginning to blur at the edges. "Just who the fuck are you to save our asses like that?"

  Togi let out a soft chuckle, seemingly amused by the question. "Haikito says I can't say too much." He adjusted his nondescript clothing, revealing for just a moment the Guild insignia hidden beneath. "An assassin will always honor his contract."

  With a wink that seemed bizarrely casual given the circumstances, Togi disappeared, the air distorting briefly where he had stood.

  "An assassin?" Dante whispered, confusion overwhelming the last of his consciousness. "What the fuck is going on? Uhhhh..." He fell back, staring at the ceiling as darkness crept into his vision.

  The implications were too vast, too disturbing to process in his current state. The chairman of the Academy of Arcane, working with the Assassin's Guild? Sending an assassin to rescue two 5-star heroes from certain death?

  As unconsciousness finally claimed him, Dante's last thought was that the world he had served so faithfully for decades was changing into something unrecognizable—and he wasn't sure if he was ready for whatever came next.

  In Shibuya, the rain began to taper off, revealing the first hints of dawn breaking over the devastated district. Emergency vehicles approached cautiously, their lights casting red and blue patterns across the battlefield where gods and monsters had clashed just minutes before.

  The first phase of the war had ended—not with the heroic victory the Academy had hoped for, but with desperate measures and unsettling alliances that would forever change the balance of power in their world.