His fist comes at me before I get a chance to properly prepare, yet somehow I manage to move out of the way. My balance slips for a moment as I stumble.

"Nice dodge," Aziel says with a respectful tone.

As I turn to face him I’m met with another punch coming right towards me.

WHAM!!!!!

His fist connects with my arms as I manage to block it in time, but the pain immediately jolts through my arms before pushing me back.

"You aren’t going to last if you don’t try to utilize any of your power here," Aziel mentions while continuing to come at me.

I find myself backing up every time he swings his fist towards me, leaving me in a completely defensive position. He has the advantage with this fight since I didn’t expect it to happen so quick.

Each punch also feels insane with the amount of strength he has.

I don’t know how to bring this power out without blood... Yet he is expecting me to do that somehow. What the hell am I supposed to do?

The voices aren’t here to guide me anymore and he isn’t going to give me the answer.

CRACK!!!

CRACK!!!!

The punches are starting to feel like they are going to break the fabric of this so called void, something I need to prevent.

He throws another right hook towards me and I manage to dodge out of the way before throwing a punch back at him. My left hand connecting with his face... Just barely.

This man also towers over me quite a bit so it took a lot for me to get a punch to land across his face.

"It was a good hit but that’s not enough. Do you want me to kill the girls and then finish off the rest of your family?" Aziel asks with a cold tone in his voice. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

The punches immediately begin to pick up, leaving me no opportunity to actually fight back this time. My defense is also starting to get crushed with each moment that goes by.

WHAM!!

BREAK!!!!

My guard finally shatters and one of his fists go right across my face... Sending me across a portion of the void until I hit the ground.

THUD!!!!

Drip. Drip. Drip.

I look towards the ground to see my own blood is dripping all over the place from that one punch. My jaw feels as if it was completely shattered from that punch.

He is fighting me with the intent to kill... Probably to give me a chance to truly use this power. Aziel even threatened to finish off my family but I’m not getting fired up.

Even with the potential threat from him against their lives I can’t force it out of me.

SLAM!! SLAM!!

I slam my fists against the ground out of frustration before I stand back up. The pain still lingering in my face as blood continues to drip down onto the floor.

Step. Step. Step.

His footsteps getting closer to me with each second that goes by, yet I’m finding myself in such a pathetic state.

"I know you have the power inside you Dante, bring it out!" Aziel shouts, anger in his voice.

Everything goes silent around me as I hear the sound of someone different coming towards me from a completely different direction.

There doesn’t appear to be any sort of malicious intent coming from them, but they also feel familiar.

"You don’t want more people to die, do you brother?" A girl’s voice asks softly.

I turn my head slightly to see Astaria standing there next to me, a small smile on her face.

"You are dead though. Along with Mom and maybe even dad," I respond softly.

"That doesn’t mean you aren’t able to save other people’s lives," Astaria says while crouching down next to me.

"Like who?" I question while looking down at the floor.

"The people of the world who are suffering because of Lumiel," Astaria answers while turning my head back to her.

Ba-dum. Ba-dum. Ba-dum.

"Right. I’ll wipe out the hunters of Lumiel," I say with a serious tone.

A strange feeling emerges in my body, unlike anything I felt before. The pain in my face disappears and I start to realize that the scales are forming along my arms once again.

Red radiating from them, stronger than the purple ever did. My whole body feels a lot better than it did initially.

FWOOOSH!!!!!

I rush towards Aziel, winding back my right arm before throwing my fist towards him with as much power behind it as I can. Within a few seconds I find it going across his face.

Air rushes past him as he remains standing there, my fist still up against his face.

"This is the kind of power I’m talking about Dante. You brought it out when you needed it," Aziel says with a respectful tone.

I don’t pay any attention to what he says; instead I end up bringing my fist back and gather the strength to hit him with a flurry of punches.

Left, right, left, right. Each punch getting faster and faster until I hit him one last time, dead center of his chest.

POW!!!!!

It knocks him back quite a bit. Blood spills onto the ground from his mouth before he finally finds the words he wants to say.

"Alright I might’ve taken it a bit far with trying to motivate you. I apologize," Aziel says as he bows his head.

Crack!

I crack my knuckles before walking up to him once again.

"I forgive you, but don’t ever threaten anyone I care about again," I reply while spitting a bit of blood out onto the floor.

Deep down I know this fight would’ve lasted way longer if it was a serious fight but it was to bring out this power. Even if he pissed me off a bit in the process, I don’t see a reason to drag it out any longer.