Ah, shit.
"The inflated power, the subpar energy stores, and his physical appearance? You've seen the signs," she said coolly.
"She's a liar and an asshole," I snapped. "This is what she does. She wants us tearing each other apart so we're too distracted to stop whatever apocalypse-tier nonsense she's planning."
Neither of them looked at me. Vergil's gaze pinned Lauren like a blade.
"I'm inclined to believe my brother," he said. "I've heard enough about you to know you're dangerous."
She laughed. "Brother? That's precious. Did you really think your lazy, alcoholic, junkie brother could surpass you in a year?"
Vergil's face changed subtly—a small shift in his eyes, and I could tell instantly that I was losing him.
She knew Vergil's Achilles heel. His pride.
"I might've forgotten who I was," I said, "but all it took was one bad night to set me straight."
Lauren's laugh became hysterical. "He's beaten ancient demon clans, Ascendants, has a personal dimension, and wears armor that would make the All-Father blush. Don't tell me you're buying this?"
Spatial energy whirled violently around Vergil, and his stormy blue eyes slid toward me.
I had milliseconds before the situation spiraled into—
Lauren exploded into a thousand bloody chunks, her body shredded by a surge of spatial energy. Vergil's blade had never left its sheath.
Holy shit!
My eyes went wide, and my armor lit up like a supernova. I pushed my Enhancement array to the limit and devoted four amplification and precision runes to Time Warp. A nimbus of temporal energy burst from my body, letting me actually see Vergil move.
His blade screamed toward my throat. I caught it on the haft of my spear, drawing from the weapon's energy stores and flooding it with Density magic. I triggered the absorption ability forged into the metal. The weapon weighed several dozen tons now, and even then, I wasn't sure it would be enough.
The impact generated a shockwave of demonic and angelic energy so violent that the hillside beneath us disintegrated. A stray slice of spatial energy clipped my Anathema bomb and triggered it, vaporizing all life in a five-mile radius.
I rose above the inferno, shaken but steady. Vergil hovered there already, wrapped in a thin storm of Spatial energy.
"Don't do this," I said, voice raw. "Millions of people are counting on me. On this plan."
"You don't even speak like him," he roared, swinging Yamato. The hair on my neck screamed a warning, and I teleported aside as the space where I'd been ruptured open. Monochrome nothingness bled through a dozen wounds in reality, each one thin as a finger.
One breath later, he struck again—faster. I blinked away, only to realize I'd already been cut. A massive gash opened across my torso as metal, leather, and even my Vibranium undershirt tore apart. The cut bit several inches into my skin before my Promethean body stopped it.
Pain flared bright and violent.
And I retaliated in anger, igniting every available rune I had. The horizon bloomed purple as Anathema fire surged outward.
Instinct took over. I wrapped the flames around myself and activated Fire and Mind Cloaks, doubling my already inflated stats and then some. Astral wings unfurled behind me in a burst of teal light.
My armor hissed and sealed the gash shut. I devoted two more runes to Time Warp, stretching every second into eternity.
"Maybe you're right," Vergil's voice cut through the stillness—from behind me. "She lied about how you surpassed me. Maybe she lied about you too."
I teleported—this time not within Limbo.
Mercury's blasted surface materialized beneath me, and Vergil followed instantly, appearing in a shimmer of blue demonic energy.
If he wanted to throw down, better it happen somewhere I had every environmental advantage.
The sun fed me endlessly. My weapons drank in the light. My body was immune to the heat. He wasn't.
But if he felt the burn, he hid it flawlessly.
His clothes didn't ignite. His breathing didn't hitch. He didn't even sweat. He stood in the solar inferno like it was a cool spring breeze.
That alone put me on edge.
"You're definitely not my brother," he said. "He had a genuine lust for battle, even as a kid. You don't. You think too much."
"Maybe I just grew up."
I dismissed the spear and summoned Severance, shifting into a practiced sword stance.
Vergil blurred forward, his steps bending space itself. Even with heightened time perception, he was on me in an instant, stabbing.
I unleashed a Fire Ray infused with all eight runes embedded in Severance. The purple beam carved through the horizon, obliterating a distant mountain.
Vergil vanished from my perception, reappearing inside my guard, blade inches from my neck.
I summoned Aquila, spun it, and parried the stab with a screech of metal. I poured pure Angel Energy into the weapon, manifesting a legion of spectral blades aimed straight at him.
They converged—just as he blinked upward and pointed.
"Neat trick," he said mildly. "I know it too."
Thousands of spectral blades materialized above me, descending in a lethal cascade. I matched him blade for blade, rapidly conjuring more to keep up.
The sky erupted in an aurora of blue-white light.
I leapt at Vergil, cratering the ground as I took off with a furious flap of my wings.
He parried my stab and twisted to cut me in the side, but Aquila intercepted him again. The blade never connected—it vanished into a portal that spat it out inches from my eye. I mirrored him, opening one of my own.
He flipped away just in time, twisting mid-air. His blade flicked—a Judgment Cut shredding existence centimeters from my torso. I answered with a dimensional slash from Severance that tore space like paper, cleaving a line toward him.
He blinked again, and I unleashed a storm of Telekinesis and wind, shredding the air for miles. He carved a path through the maelstrom with a single slow swing of his blade, drawing deep from a seemingly endless well of energy, and manifested a thousand spectral swords inches from my skin.
I didn't panic. I knew this trick. I thickened the cloak of Anathema fire hugging my body and summoned every weapon I had, drawing from their runes.
My Dimensional and Mind affinities surged in tandem—the blades vanished, shunted into orbit—and I slammed into him with the full weight of my psyche.
Vergil staggered. Blood streamed from his nose. He glared—and hit back just as hard.
Reality flipped.
Suddenly we were standing in a familiar mental plane—my dimension, but different. Tinged blue with Dimensional energy. This must be Vergil's version of the Simulacrum, the place I'd inherited my father's memories.
"You recognize it," he said, voice frigid and controlled. "How long have you worn my brother's skin?"
A small part of me wanted to lie, but I knew we were well past that now.
"About a year," I said plainly. "He overdosed. Probably thought his angelic healing would save him again. It didn't. He was dead, and I—my soul—needed a body. So I took his."
"You lie." Vergil's finger twitched. "My brother was stronger than that."
"Was he?" I stepped closer. "He spent his entire life in foster care, hit the bottle the moment he got out, and spiraled into pills and merc work. He even sold his weapons. I had to clean up his mess when I woke up."
"A small price," Vergil hissed, circling me. "You stole the body and power of a Nephilim. You took his name. His memories. His life. You aren't worthy of any of it."
"Maybe not," I said, "but I sure as hell put it to good use. Even you admitted it—Earth would be Belasco's playground without me."
Vergil scoffed. "I would have intervened before things became truly dire."
"Would you have?" I shot back. "You were half a galaxy away."
"And yet we jumped dimensions seconds ago," Vergil snapped. "You're not the only one with tricks, imposter."
"We gain far more working together," I insisted. "Belasco and Corvus are more dangerous than ever. They have an army of—"
"Ascendants," he cut in. "I'm aware. But it changes nothing. My brother's blade is mine by birthright—and so is his body."
I exhaled sharply. "You're an even bigger asshole than I thought.
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