Capítulo 16: 16 - power
Dante wanted to ask so many things, how or why had he come.. but; "What is it that you want to trade the core with?" He didn't want to complicate things, finding out who someone was would impact his judgment in a way he didn't know.
The core was something that he had studied for a while, but had no progress on as he couldn't understand the inner workings, only managing to understand what was holding him back from using it…
"I will grant you access to the other forms of magic.. something older, perhaps stronger if you are strong willed enough.."
"How does it differ from the magic that the ancient one offered?"
"Ancient one, a preposterous name as she is only a couple of centuries old, but.. what she offered was a path to use other dimensions to give you energy and seeing as you have been unable to form your own connection why not help each other.."
"So what you are saying is.." Before he could reinstate his meaning the man before Dante pulled out a piece of paper from thin air..
"Its all in here, my good sir.." he handed the paper over, the lack of light would have made it difficult for anyone else to read but Dante could see it clearly
The contract he gave seemed to have been made with sheep's skin, with the letters on the skin being a strange reddish black that was unnatural to Dante..
As he read the contract he found the names of the two participants written on it.. one of the names was his own, luckily it was only the one he had changed it to, not the one he had been given at birth.. he did not know if that would change the contract in some way, but suspected it to matter little in the grand scheme of things..
On the contract was also the name of the one that would be taking the core, that being Mephisto, Dante didn't recognise the name from anywhere, but connected to the internet to find anything about the name…
It seemed as though the man before him was a demon lord, in folklore he was a demon that made deals with people for their souls, but this time was different… he had come here for a trade.. the words of a demon should not be trusted, but what made one a demon…
"Could I ask you Mephisto, why did you come here.." Dante continued reading the contract while the demon before him just smiled innocently.
"I am simply interested in the eternals core.. your soul is simply not needed in this interaction.."
"You posses a reputation… for being untrustworthy.. although I doubt you care.." Dante had finished reading the contract, everything in it seemed agreeable, but that just alerted him even more..
Mephisto just laughed with his warm smile turning cold.. "Yes… but what do you think of the deal? I will be even happy to aid you in learning.. for payment of course.."
"It is a tempting offer, sadly I was thinking of using the core myself."
"What! Why would you want to keep something you don't even know the inner workings of! Are you an.." He stopped himself before continuing..
"I understand, it is a shame I am not interested… maybe in the future when I have more knowledge, but for now I must say no.."
Mephisto Laughed again this time having a maniacal undertone to it.. "You have made your choice.. do know that next time I wont be this generous.."
The sheep's skin parchment disappeared along with Mephisto himself, leaving behind a small dust cloud in his place.. the lights across the street also light up again, making everything seem like a illusion..
While Dante didn't know how to use the eternals core he had found out that the energy coming out from the core was likely to be unlimited if he could find a way to use the energy then he had a infinite source of power, not relying on a demon he didn't trust..
Most of what Dante did was on feeling, he did research and studied, but if he had a bad feeling about a deal then he would trust himself to make the right call even if it seemed fine on the surface…
Getting inside of his clinic Dante moved to the back, looking for the sample that was prepared for him.. the machine had done multiple test even before he arrived, confirming that it was safe to be in his blood.. he had even allowed it to be tested on synthetic skin and flesh to see if it did anything and to his surprise, the x-gene integrated itself into the flesh making it adapt to suit itself and produce more…
Meaning that he could inject it into his body without worrying about a immediate rejection, sadly long term use was still unproven. Walking along the side of the wall to the back of the store, Dante grabbed the vial that was ready for him.
He would need to inject it into himself in a couple different places for the gene to spread evenly, if the injection failed he would need to get a emergency blood transfusion, so he planned on setting himself on the operation chair and preplanning everything to go off without a problem..
Dante pondered on if he would need any anastatic, but resolved himself not to as in the case he was not in control of his body would result in him not being able to respond… further more his immune system was to strong for it to work all the way until the end of the procedure, so it would be useless either way.
Walking over and preparing everything, eventually sitting down. Dante could feel the needles, they were just above his body barley letting him sit comfortably in his own operating chair.. Giving the final commands to the basic ai that he had created to notify him of anything that happened inside of his clinic.. resulted in a small countdown appearing in his mind..
Brazing himself before the needles went inside, Dante took a final breath before feeling them enter trough his synthetic skin.. it didn't feel to strange, but after a moment of silence, with the liquid slowly entering his body.. A feeling of pure excruciating pain overflowed his senses..
Dante only gritted his teeth.. screaming wouldn't help much to sooth the pain.. he just needed to concentrate on staying in the present and maybe forget about the pain that was taunting him with pain like he had never felt before…
Time seemed to have slowed, Dante could see the seconds tick by, but every one of those seconds felt like minutes, the minutes felt like hours and the hours felt like days… when his body didn't hurt anymore he saw that only a part of the day had past..
But he could feel something inside him.. it was draining yet energetic at the same time, as if he was fuelling something inside of him.. the genes had reacted to his blood, even changing some of his cells to reproduce the x-gene.. in all accounts what Dante did was a miracle.. his body recognized the cells as those of his body, resulting in no conflict within himself..
The extend of his power was unknow to him, furthermore would his powers be limited by the cyberware that he himself had installed on his body.. power was something he had a interest in, but only to protect himself.. he didn't see the need in protecting others, as he himself was the only real important person to himself..
Saving lives in the street would just result in him being targeted another time, saving lives through his career as a ripperdoc didn't cause any of that..
The world of cyberpunk was cruel, even more so to those who were kind.. he had learned not to trust others to much, only believing in benefit to himself and to the other party.. as long as their business was profitable and good for both of them, then nothing would come in the way of his life, except even then there were some things that were unavoidable, the most recent example was that with Jackie..
It was normal to not disclose who had been in your clinic even to executives, but that didn't mean they wouldn't try to get it out of you, some even openly cooperated with investigations reporting people that came to their shop… this would of course lead to their deaths at the hand of the gangs in the city if they were not carful in their approach..
In this new world, Dante still believed in the primal principle of profit, that's why he refused the demon that stood before him.. if he was interested in trading for the core of a eternal then it would mean that there was something worth about it that Dante hadn't recognised yet..
Stretching his body a bit, Dante moved to the core, more accurately he wanted to move to his bed to sleep, but the core was along the way still in the machine Dante had placed it in when he retrieved it.
When he walked past he could feel something pulling him towards the machine where the core lay.. it was something akin to a primal feeling of desire, something he hadn't felt in a long time.. opening the machine he saw the core, still giving of that mysterious golden light with infinite energy inside…
He wanted to touch it… he didn't know why, but he wanted it.. something urged him to touch the core which he had only done once before, it had then resulted in his skin burning of his arm, but this time…
His hand hovered over the core and Dante could feel the energy coming from it, as it flowed into his body, being stored near his heart.. it pulsated inside his chest, it wanted to grow… Dante hadn't felt anything like this ever before, something inside of him had grown and it wanted more… His fingers grazed the edge of the core, but this time no burning sensation overwhelmed him… this time the warmth of the core was similar to that of a mothers warm embrace.
He felt the energy course through his body, all settling in the same spot.. Analysing his body to find the culmination point caused him a great deal of shock..
"There is nothing there?" He questioned himself, he clearly felt it in one solid place where he could move it and draw from it, but nothing was there…
In all regards it didn't make sense, nothing did.. he had died, he know he did and after that he was reborn, without any answers.. all coming to an end with a devastating explosion, where he would likely survive transporting him to another plane of existence..
How would he describe that to anyone without making himself out to be crazy.. how would he ever form a true connection with him being possibly thrown around when another explosion would take place.. or when he would die.. would he go to a completely different world again, or would he finally be left to go rest for eternity..
Dante was just tired.. his emotion ran rampant in his head as he laid down on his bed.. not being able to sleep for hours, until the morning sun came up and he still laid there flat on his back looking up at a roof with the colour grey..
Finally murmuring something as he fell asleep "I should.. really. get something to liven up the place.."
He had staired at that roof for hours, just thinking to himself while observing every imperfection the roof had.. imagining it as a stary night with colours and oddities strewn around.. where imperfection was something to look for, as every failure painted the grander sky.. a world with beauty in imperfection..
Status de energia semanal
-- Ranking de
Poder 
-- Pedra de
Poder