[center][b]Dante Fierro – Envy – Aries
Jayden Mathers – Gluttony – Capricornus [/b]
[b]Dark Realm || Angel's Town
MediLab --> Town Center [/b][/center]

Kira saw them first three years ago. She was the one that spotted them amid the rubble, but still, it was her colleague with his unmatched knowledge of regenerative medicine – forbidden in Pandora – who was able to bring them back to life and now he lay against a cratered brick wall – Kira could tell by the impact of the blow that they were dealing with very dangerous people. She whipped out a serum vile and syringe kit. Wasting no time, Kira drove the blue liquid into her mentor’s neck, at the exposed flesh above his collar. The man’s veins protruded and turned a violent, heavily accentuated blue hue. He rose by his own accord and with a nod, expressed the message that he was well. For the moment, no one said anything and all that was heard was the syringe clanking as it fell from Kira’s hand onto the floor. The man glanced down at himself and saw his veins squirm as the blue-liquid surged within his body, repairing all ailments. 

“Yes,” he began, his face revealing nothing of his exhilaration, “you see …”

Dante’s eyes narrowed and the scientist knew he had only seconds to explain before he had another body down his throat. A dark, smoke-like substance began to collect itself in the palm of Dante’s right hand. A pitch-black, stainless-steel, giant sword emblazed in crimson fire took shape from the smoke. 

“Don’t move a single inch,” a deep voice cautioned. “Explain to us what the hell you are,” Dante continued. 

The scientist fixed his sight on the distinctness of Dante’s sword, trailing his eyes along the length of the blade. “No ordinary man should be able to carry that weapon two-handed, much less single handed like that,” the scientist, a peculiar sight himself, rebutted. “I practice regenerative medicine, forbidden outside the Dark Realm but perfectly safe, and necessary, here.” 

Regenerative medicine? Dante thought. He had never heard of such a thing; it involved an obscure magic referenced only in classified text available exclusively in the King’s library. 

“He saved your lives!” Kira finally cried abruptly. “It was the only way to keep you all alive –”

Dante only glared. 

The male scientist silenced her by raising a finger. “You’ve all made it abundantly clear how able you are,” the male scientist said. “Your energy is a consequence of power donned by the Sacred Constellations. My team and I aren’t too familiar with the power as the legends are scarcely recorded in scattered scrolls across the entire planet.”

This didn’t make too much sense to Dante; he was aware of the Sacred Constellations through stories that had been passed down from generation to generation. What can they possibly want with me? He thought, recalling the journey across Black Lake, the giant serpent and the blood-orcs. And then the most painful memory struck him like a sledgehammer straight to the head. The woman he once loved. His gaze betrayed his feelings, his eyes momentarily falling upon the female he had danced with the night of the wreck. “Maybe some of us never wanted this second chance …” He muttered with a solemn fray. 

“Be careful what you wish for,” the scientist whispered. “You were all brought here for a reason, it is best not to convince the fates otherwise. Our King is still amiss and the Divine Council has taken full control. This is worrisome because they are now in possession of the blueprint to a weapon with terrible power that rivals that of the Sacred Constellations – the Dark Sephiroth. The weapon is intended to absorb the soul of virtually every living organism in the entire planet. All in one mighty blow. But they need one key item, the catalyst. Problem is no one knows what that catalyst is only that it is somewhere here in the Dark Realm.”

“How do we fit into all of this?” Dante questioned. He had his mother and apparently a sister as well even if he had tried to kill her. He felt a vague pang of regret for entertaining the thought of letting it all happen but he knew where this talk was going. Then he reminded himself of how long he’d lived in regret and how he wanted peace, and the emotion disappeared. 

“It’s either finding the catalyst before the Divine Council,” the scientist forewarned, “or let the world melt before your eyes’. I, we, cannot afford to venture beyond the town’s magical barrier, we will guide your travel from here and support with our research.” 

At that moment, a younger man, clad in soldier gear, complete with armor and a sword, stumbled into the room from the stairway that lead outside and scurried past the group. The lead scientist met him with a disapproving nod but knew his presence could only mean danger – the kind that would put the entire town’s population of 1,000 at risk. 

Panic was overflowing from the young soldier’s eyes. His trembling legs exerted terror. “100 blood-orcs!” he said, trying desperately to catch his breath as he delivered the news, “they’ve breached the barrier! We’re getting killed left and right!” 

“What!?” The scientist shouted in utter disbelief. Blood-orcs approached the barrier countless times but they couldn’t get in, it was virtually impossible; breaching the magical barrier of Angel’s Town required godlike force. “How!?” He demanded.

The soldier’s face flushed from all color, his face the hollow of a living person. “… It’s…the Executioner, he’s here.” He managed to mutter before collapsing onto his knees. Though he’d skirmished with and beheaded blood-orcs and other creatures, Dante had never gone up against anything remotely close to the Executioner – an immortal entity that guarded the mysterious depths of Black Lake. He knew who the Executioner was, countless had fallen victim to his brutal might. Dante was not about to let anyone die as long as he could do something, he felt the need to redeem himself from his indolent life. Crimson fire and dark shadows engulfed Dante transforming him into a fully armored warrior. This was his Constellation form. Maneuvering with efficiency, Dante bolted to the outside. It was chaos everywhere. Wooden abodes were being burned to the ground by the oversized blood-orcs. The scientist trailed behind Dante and the rest, “I’ll get working on the barrier! Hold them off!” He said before disappearing into the confusion. 

Dante stood unfazed amid the destructive sight until he caught a glimpse of a large silhouette off in the distance. His eyes widened as the heavy, armored man effortlessly killed half a dozen soldiers in one strike. Dante’s mouth went dry in anticipation, a mix of eagerness and adrenaline. He tightened his grasp on Inferno – his great sword – and bolted forward with his weapon held against his right side. As he moved closer, Dante could finally see the Executioner himself. Engulfed in dark armor was a man towering above twelve feet in stature except his face was covered by a mask split into two colors, blue and black. The eye sockets were pitch-black as if completely devoid of organs and a frown was imprinted on the mouth also an empty shell as if the man had no face underneath the horrific mask. Dante took to the sky in a worthy leap and swung his sword down as hard as he could but was parried by an enormous sledgehammer made of dark steel. Dante shot like a bullet through several wooden walls. He felt a momentary surge of vertigo as he steadily raised himself from the rubble. Within seconds he was surrounded by six blood-orcs. He took a deep breath and exhaled a powerful fireball, causing the blood-orcs to flinch, taking advantage of the distraction to roll behind a wall as he prepared for his next attack. 

---

Jayden had found himself rather distracted throughout the entire conversation; he’d met Andre Bellamy but nothing else had stood out. He couldn’t comprehend the severity of what was being said until the moment the soldier had delivered the news. 

Now, he found himself hiding behind a pair of shields that he effortlessly seemed to be able to carry. He was afraid; he couldn’t understand how the black-haired male was able to act so easily. This wasn’t for him. He wanted no part of this. He witnessed in terror as dozens of soldiers and townspeople were being slaughtered like animals. Embarrassed by his cowardice, Jayden hesitantly emerged from his shields and paled when he saw a formation of blood-orcs rushing straight for him. “No!” he yelled, preparing himself for the inevitable blow. Seconds before the leading blood-orc could strike, one of his shields acted by its own will and deflected the hit, sending the orc back a few feet but quickly got back up and charged once more. As second blood-orc attacked but this time, by pure instinct, Jayden managed to hold his right shield up, parrying the blow. For the next few minutes he traded blows with the formation of blood-orcs, taking some and just barely being able to deflect others. He had no offensive will – he didn’t know how to fight back.