*Starting Scene*

Inside the forest's confines, an immense quantity of smoke has been created after the blast Ilya released in the attempt to dispose of Garret. It remains for quite some time until starting to disappear, showing Ilya where she had been when implementing the attack while heavily breathing. Unlike Ilya though, numerous trees are no longer present as a result, the grass that once was established in the near fifteen meter area having been replaced by burnt soil. She then lowers her staff in front of herself, freed of Garret's whip, and mutters in between breaths with some annoyance displayed, "Hopefully that took care of him. From what I could tell, he's around a Class C Plus, so coming out of that entirely unscathed is..." The chick is unable to finish her sentence due to seeing a big, dome-shaped, velvet/green structure through the disintegrating smoke where Garret was located before.

That leaves bewilderment upon Ilya's face and maneuvers her hands to opposite sides of her person, holding the golden staff within her right hand, as the two rings continue to hover around its gem. "Where did that come from?" The individual'stars eyes widen out of realization after taking into account that the structure appears to be made out of the same material Garret's whip is, shouting in disbelief, "It couldn't be!"

Garret laughs from in the dome-shaped structure prior to it slowly unwinding, beginning at the top. Eventually, this reveals Garret to be unharmed as it's discovered that the large mass was made by his whip. After that, the man advances via a couple of steps while the plant-like whip shrinks down to its original size and asks with his left eyebrow raised, "Has anyone ever told you that you're very feisty?"

A solemn scowl surfaces as Ilya glares at Garret. "Actually, yes. Ironically enough, it was an Enshin's Disciple that did it. He had a ridiculous hairstyle that matched the color of your obscene outfit."

Garret slants his head with skepticism emitting amidst planting his left hand atop his western pectoral region. "How could you compare MY magnificent apparel to that outrageous brute's ugly hair?!" He closes his eyes and turns his head eastward. "I'm offended!"

Ilya narrows her eyes after slouching her shoulders. "You can't be serious."

Garret removes his left hand from himself to gesture it while keeping it in the air. "Well, of course." The person steers his gaze to Ilya as he gives off another dazzling smile. "I'm perfection. Any insult towards me would easily be considered an unreasonable lie and I can't help be enraged by it."

Ilya's right eye twitches, desperately striving to restrain the anger building within her. "You shouldn't smile like that if you really are offended."

Garret chuckles prior to lowering his left hand and speaks in an over-dramatic tone. "I apologize! I guess my perfect smile couldn't help show itself, even in a situation when my character comes into question!" He reaches behind his back to pull out a red rose, offering it to Ilya with a cool attitude. "Here you go. Take this as a token of apology."

Ilya throws her left hand out to the side with an upset expression. "Are you insane?!" The beautiful teenager brings her appendage forward with the palm towards Garret. "In what way was I questioning your character?! Although, it's plainly out of whack!" She hangs her limb southward before pointing her staff at Garret. "And I don't want anything from the likes of you!"

Garret's sadden as his body sharply jerks for a moment. "Oh, come on!" The pink-haired disciple draws the rose to his nose, takes a whiff of it and says while fronting an over-the-top charm to sway Ilya, "No dame has ever rejected one of my gorgeous roses. They're just as perfect as me, which isn't surprising after all the work I put into making them."

Ilya calms down with her right arm now lowered too and thinks as mild curiosity arises, "Making? So his Spellcaster ability has something to do with plants."

Garret notes Ilya's composition before grinning while unexpectedly tossing the red rose towards the teen. "Here, I insist!"

Ilya becomes dumbfounded, not knowing how to react, and stares at the almost floating rose that continues to soar, however, never totally reaches the female. This is because of the plant suddenly being cut in half via a diagonal cut as Ilya's promptly surprised at the sight of that. Right after, the young lady weaves backwards while luckily managing to avoid the whip's tip, which had rapidly extended outward, from leaving a mark on her left cheek.

Garret starts getting a bit riled up. "Magnificent reflex! Let me check if that was just a fluke!" The suit-wearer quickly launches several whip strikes that come at Ilya from every direction.

Ilya places her left hand onto the golden staff, ducks her head as her weapon's horizontally elevated to be leveled with her face and dashes eastward.

Garret responds by chasing after Ilya with his combat tool. "Don't think I'll let you get away!"

Ilya successfully dodges a good number of the whip's assault while repelling any that were directed to her face via the golden staff, hence why she positioned it there in the first place. As she does that, the Spellcaster peers at Garret with determination invoked. "No need to worry! I plan on defeating you before I even consider leaving this forest!" Precisely when she said that, Ilya hid behind the nearest tree in that area, having not been destroyed by the teen's Burst Explosion, and rests her posterior against it.

Concurrently, the plant-like whip repeatedly slammed into the tree, trying to bring it down to get Ilya, and slowly chips away the interfering object with an amused laughter generated from Garret. "Please, come out, darling! This is just foreplay! I'll be sure to be gentle with you during our consensual union!"

Ilya leans to her right as she peeks behind the tree without removing her back, barely depicts Garret swinging his arm around to continue his relentless onslaught upon the tree and gives off an agitated glare. "No way in heaven or hell will I ever do anything CONSENSUAL with you!" Her eyes dull prior to her mumbling, "And I have no interest in those methods of sexual stimulation at all."

Garret halts his barrage of attacks amidst retracting his whip next to him while commencing to massage his right shoulder via his left hand. Discomfort hurriedly emanates from Garret as he's looking at it. "Goodness! My perfect bones are aching! This is just terrible!" The fellow switches his concentration to Ilya with a faintly pleading smirk. "You mind being a doll and massage it for me. It would be in your best interest to have me at 100% for our joining later."

Ilya veers her gaze away from Garret to drop her head as the fair-skinned chick's bangs shadow her eyes. Silence instantly overcomes the area until a radiance of magic expels from behind the tree, and within a split second, a golden blast smashes through the tree. Not long afterwards, it shoots right at Garret with blinding velocity while a bit larger than the disciple's midsection.

That doesn't deter Garret though since he mainly uttered those previous words to bait Ilya to make a move. Sadly, it wasn't exactly what he was hoping for, however, properly replied either way by hardening his whip to be similar to a velvet/green-colored Kendo stick. After that, Garret uses it to shield the blast through an upward, diagonal swing with only one hand holding the weapon. In the midst of this, the tool begins to deteriorate while not giving way to Ilya's strike and barely diverts it westward. A golden explosion is effortlessly forged as soon as the blast hit the ground Garret had deflected it to, a huge gust of wind expanding from the explosion in conclusion.

Garret, only being two meters away from the explosion, confidently grins with both his hair and clothing fluttering due to the strong wind.

In the meantime, Ilya emerges out of her hiding spot, which really can't be called that anymore considering she destroyed the tree with that last spell, amidst confronting Garret. Astonishment is seen on Ilya, her dress and hair also fluttering, while containing the golden staff's gem aimed at Garret via both hands firmly gripping it as she mutters, "How did he... Counter that?!"

A few seconds later, the powerful gust dissipates with the explosion's disappearance. Then, setting his sights onto the now burnt away whip that's been lowered beside him, Garret mildly laughs before reverting his attention towards Ilya. "You sure did a number on my whip, darling." The weapon suddenly repairs itself after shedding its damage. "It's just your bad luck that it can regenerate."

Ilya recedes a tad with urgency overflowing, thinking in a stressed way, "Wonderful! That's going to complicate things!"

Garret eventually resumes his assault via a sharp snap of the whip in another diagonal angle.

Ilya inhales deeply to ease her mind prior to stating with a smirk, "Thank God I'm fighting someone who's style's straightforward this time. That way, I can use this again." The girl dismounts her left hand from her staff, keeping the weapon pointed at Garret. "Immobilize!"

A hint of confusion overcomes Garret's expression while the end of his whip unexpectedly halts just inches from connecting with Ilya's chest. Right after that, the gentleman torques his body forward, questioning with shock brimming, "It stopped?!"

Ilya directs her focus to the whip's tip, irritation appearing a little since her left breast was going to get hit by that previous attempt. "Where the hell were you aiming anyway?" She lifts her gaze to make eye contact with Garret as anger resurfaces. "You better not have been planning anything perverted!"

Garret ignores Ilya's words amidst trying to return his weapon to his side, however, finds difficulty in doing so as it's stuck in the air and yells via an upset tone, "Why can't I move it?!"

Ilya composes herself, having gently rested the opposite end of her staff onto the soil beneath her feet. "Because of the Immobilization Spell that I used. It constricts the mobility of anything to a certain degree, depending on the amount of magic poured into casting the spell, which can even allow the laws of physics to be thrown out the window for objects with low mass. It's one of the five basic spells Spellcasters can learn through dedicated training or natural talent."

Garret doesn't quit striving to bring back his whip, pulling on its handle by using both hands with all his might while demonstrating frustration. "I know about the Speed Spell and Strengthening Spell, but I didn't know there's such a thing as the Immobilization Spell, or even that there are five basic spells in total!"

Ilya slants her head eastward and talks in a somewhat amazed manner. "Wow... You aren't too bright, then. Have you been living under a rock or something? Any Spellcaster should be aware of their existence, even if they don't wield any. I bet even Yuki knows and she doesn't know much to start with."

Back over at Wukong Village, in the middle of her confrontation with Berk as Sano was having his spill on the icy terrain, Yuki randomly releases a delicate sneeze that caused her head to cock forward a tad amidst bending down. Following that, a bland look overruns her face as Yuki sharply inhales to regain her composure and utters to herself in a grovel while staring at her wand that's planted into the road, "Why do I feel like I was just insulted somewhere? If so, it must have been Miss Know-It-All." She shakes her head, her eyes momentarily shut while displeased. "She can be a real..."

At the same time, Ilya also sneezes while covering her mouth with the crook of her left arm instinctually. Afterwards, the teenager pulls her limb away, views where she sneezed with disgust and softly says, "Eww." Ilya flings her left appendage outward to shake off any saliva on it while deviating her eyes to the right. "Don't know what brought that on so suddenly." She puts her arm down, shifts her vision onto Garret and gawks at him due to witnessing the disciple's continuous effort of freeing his whip from its current state. "Definitely not bright."

Garret abruptly glares at Ilya, intensity resonating, until digging his feet into the ground to help him with both eyes now closed and head tilted back.

Ilya's startled by her opponent's action as she thinks, "For a second there... I believe I saw him when he's serious." The female gathers her strength to prepare another assault while gingerly commenting, "That's a side I'm actually afraid to face." She glances over at where her last strike was repelled towards. "Despite me being a class higher, he can handle my ability fairly well as is. He may be stronger than the Mirror Spellcaster, who's magic was increased by Devil's Circuit to the point of surpassing mine, and I don't think he got any modification from it too."

Garret promptly halts all of his struggling to let go of the whip's handle to stand upright while confronting Ilya. Then, the pink-haired man rests his left hand upon his waist and combs his brow via the other hand. "Well, enough of that." Garret drops his right limb. "That spell's got a tight grip on my whip. There's no use in me continuing to disgrace my perfect image just to retrieve it." He flaunts a dazzling smile again.

Ilya, instead of allowing herself to get enraged by Garret's attitude, simply lifts her staff off the earth to direct it at her adversary once more and declares in a monotone voice, "Immobilize."

Garret's entire body freezes, horror vaguely presented on the individual's face before the spell had completely set in.

Ilya lowers her staff yet again amidst steadily advancing towards Garret. "You should learn not to be so narcissistic and be more serious. It could save you from being placed in such a vulnerable position... Although, I'm glad you weren't. I have no idea how I would have dealt with you in that occasion. I appreciate you giving me such an opportunity." Ilya soon closes the gap to a mere two feet from Garret prior to pulling her right arm back with a firm hold on the golden staff. Afterwards, the young lady takes a mighty step via her left foot, and with as much strength as possible, thrusts her staff into Garret's gut while passionately shouting, "Burst!"

Garret immediately contorts backwards upon receiving the blast dead on, sent flying towards a tree that's multiple meters behind him within an instance as his rear relentlessly smashes into it. Once that transpires, the fellow slumps down thanks to being released from Ilya's Immobilization Spell, inadvertently freeing the disciple's whip of its petrified status while dropping to the soil, and sits as he's seemingly passed out with his back still against the tree.

Ilya makes her staff vanish, feeling that she has won the battle, as she turns to her right since that's the direction she was originally heading prior to getting interrupted by Garret. "Now, onto finding Dante." Just as she's about to motion her right foot to commence leaving, a velvet/green root jets out from beneath the soil and hurriedly wraps around Ilya's ankle. This catches Ilya off guard, invoking panicking while frantically pulling her leg to rid herself of the object. Sadly, the damsel is unable amidst detecting the root's hold slowly tightening. 

Right after, four more roots surface from the ground with haste, each entangling around another limb. Simultaneously, the last one wraps around Ilya's neck, causing the beauty to gag in agony because of its fierce grip.

Garret's eventually heard laughing without any change to where he's stationed, his head currently lowered. "That was well implemented, darling!" He raises his head to reveal a sinister smile as there's a small trail of blood coming out from the left side of his mouth. "It really gave me that butterfly feeling a person gets in their stomach when they meet that special person!"

Having altered her focus to Garret via looking out of the corner of her eyes, and ignoring his remark since she has finally taken into consideration that he'll more than likely persist no matter what, Ilya retorts in a strained speech due to the root constricting her neck as pain reflects on the teen's face. "How are you still conscious?! I put a lot into that blast!"

Garret situates his left hand behind himself to use the tree for leverage, gradually getting to his feet with his eyes glued to Ilya. "I know. It hurt like hell." The suit-wearing man then shows his stomach to Ilya through the opening in his clothing that was created by the golden blast.

Astonishment plagues Ilya while witnessing an inner vest composed of velvet/green roots covering his entire torso and had shielded him from her previous strike. "There's no way..."

Garret chuckles as he removes his left hand from the tree and properly confronts Ilya. "Amazing, isn't it? You must be wondering how such a handsome guy as myself can be so clever, right?" The male briefly brushes his brow again with his right hand. "I told you that I'm perfection, didn't I?"

Ilya exhibits annoyance. "Calling yourself perfect is horribly overestimating your abilities!" She hurriedly shuts her eyes. "Burst!" Her body momentarily glows gold before expelling a mild blast that obliterated the five roots binding her with no real effort. After becoming free, Ilya bends her body forward with both hands on her neck as she gasps for air, her attention set on the landscape. Several seconds later, the white-haired girl fixes her posture to view Garret, relinquishing her right hand's hold of her neck to summon the golden staff within it and says between breaths, "Someone determined as PERFECT would obviously know about the five basic spells' existence."

A solemn behavior engulfs Garret after hanging his right hand beside himself. "I'm starting to get tired of your insults. I've never met somebody who has neglected my perfection so much." He clears his throat a tad. "I think it's about time I make you submit to me." The pink-haired character hoists his left hand forth with magic emitting from his body in the form of a velvet/green essence.

Not much afterwards, the burnt terrain underneath Ilya's feet begins to ferociously shake, compelling concern out of the chick and feverishly scans her surroundings. Then, in the attempt of avoiding what ever Garret has in store for her, Ilya moves a couple of steps backwards.

Observing Ilya's effort, Garret laughs until inquiring via a somewhat stuck-up tone, "Do you really think that's enough to dodge this?!" Multiple insanely overgrown roots of the same color as the ones that bounded Ilya earlier penetrate through the soil, tearing apart the earth. This caused debris to fly all over the place and hurl towards Ilya.

Ilya swiftly crosses both arms ahead of her face while managing to protect it, although allowed many to hit her body. As a result, pain appears on the female amidst stumbling a little. Then, with very little time to react, Ilya leaps westward and eludes all of the immense roots rapidly descending to impale her. A vast amount of smoke expands upon collision with the ground while Ilya coughs because some of it was inhaled into her lungs.

Garret walks towards the fog with his left arm lowered, emanating a condescending demeanor. "Awe... Did my darling breathe in some nasty smoke? I could help you clear that fragile throat of yours if you know what I mean." He chuckles in a devious way, halting his advancement next to where his whip's resting, contorts accordingly to pick it up via his right hand and ultimately straightens his stance.

Inside the fog, Ilya coughs a few times with both arms continually raised to her face prior to harshly replying, despite being unable to depict Garret. "I do and you can shove it down your own mouth, thank you very much! I'll be damned before any part of you touches me!"

Garret happily grins. "I'm really going to enjoy making you my woman! I may even appoint you as my No. 1 out of all the dames I have entangled in my perfection!"

Ilya finally locks eyes with Garret, complements of the smoke commencing to dissipate, as she drops both her arms and fervently yells in anger, "And I'm going to enjoy blasting that mouth of yours away so you don't say anything stupid ever again!" The fair-skinned beauty aims her staff at Garret. "Immobilize!"

Garret doesn't seem threatened by Ilya's third use of the Immobilization Spell. "I won't fall for that anymore." The adversary flicks his left arm to the side without letting Ilya see it since the limb remains lowered.

Just when Ilya's spell would affect Garret, the giant roots quickly swing toward Ilya from her right with alarming speed and forces more debris to soar due to them sliding along the landscape's surface. They then crash right into Ilya after only giving her sufficient time to guard her person via both arms again as she is sent airborne. Soon after, the hazel-eyed Spellcaster smashes through three trees, one at a time, until falling to the grassy terrain that wasn't damaged by her Burst Explosion. Meanwhile, Ilya doesn't let go of her staff thanks to her doing everything she could to retain her grip on it and rolls quite a bit. Eventually, the young lady ceases her mobility not too far from another tree with her eyes shut while her clothing has become tattered, compliments of everything that recently transgressed.

During that, Garret gestures his left arm to order the enormous roots to rise while positioning themselves to point at the sky. "It appears this will be coming to an end now." He faintly laughs with his left arm hanging. "Of course, I mean the fight. I still plan on giving you a delightful experience you surely never will forget." The numerous giant roots abruptly accelerate towards Ilya via a thrusting motion to implement the critical strike to end the battle, inconsiderately breaking through any trees in their path.

With a mere second away from colliding into their target, every single root suddenly blows up into small bits. 

A stunned expression overruns Garret as what remains of the large roots collapse onto the ground. 

After that, Ilya gradually begins maneuvering by pushing herself off the grass, gets to her feet and looks directly at Garret with her left hand favoring her right arm due to it suffering significant harm from attaining the full brunt of her opponent's last attack.

Garret ultimately becomes filled with rage following a period of constant bewilderment. "What did you do to my wonderful plants, you she-demon?!"

Ilya gawks at Garret in confusion. "Wonderful? She-demon? Are you mental?" She sighs with her eyes temporarily closed before giving Garret a firm stare. "Anyhow, what I did to them is what I like to call Burst Infestation. As the name implies, your so-called WONDERFUL plants received my magical power within them, and on my command, they were blasted from the inside." A disappointed conduct instantly establishes itself. "It would be my best means of combat if it wasn't for it taking too much magic to perform. Also, I have to be in direct contact with what I wish to infect. I don't have the necessary speed to do that and evade getting severely hurt. I only did it now because I was going to get hit no matter what. It was my best option, but I wouldn't rely on it a lot."

Garret's wrath doesn't decrease. "Why tell me, then?! It would have been to your benefit to leave me in the dark and make me unnecessarily worry about something you couldn't use again!"

Ilya pauses with shock showing until smacking her forehead through use of her left hand, driving her head rearward, while thinking in an upset manner, "God, he's right! I just pulled a Dante! He normally does that and I let it rub off on me when I shouldn't have!"

Garret swings his right arm back, tightly holding his plant-like whip's handle. "That's a mistake I'll be sure to make you regret!" The man launches his combat tool at Ilya with blinding agility. "I'll even repeat it over and over in the middle of seducing you later!"

Ilya intensely glares at Garret without removing her left hand from her forehead as she utters in an ominous voice, "Immobilize."

Both the whip and Garret freeze in place with horror consuming the disciple.

Ilya drops her left hand amidst slowly journeying towards Garret while uttering with a strict tone, "This is the true end, but I want you to understand a handful of things for the future. First, stop talking to women like that, especially me. It's not as if we'll like guys who speak to us in such a way, although some oddly do respond well." The girl clenches her left hand, trying to control her emotions, as she's passing by the levitating whip. "I'm not one of those, however. Second, I put a lot of effort in learning the Immobilization Spell. I take pride in it, despite the minuscule lag time that occurs when I don't use its maximum output and is secondary to solely my Bursting Magic, so don't undermine it."

Garret panics within his mind, praying that somehow he manages to free himself since he can plainly see the dangerous extent Ilya's personality is rising to.

Ilya reaches Garret, two meters separating them, as she elevates her right hand to point the golden staff at Garret's face and menacingly smile. "And lastly, I'm not the only one who gave too much information about their ability. You could have hid the fact that merely your midsection is protected by your WONDERFUL plants, instead of displaying why my attack on your body didn't finish you. In all, those are the mistakes that cost YOU this fight and will forever regret." A blast radiates from the staff's light blue gem and hits Garret, leaving his face deformed in a comical way.

Then, Garret and his whip are released from the Immobilization Spell as both fall to the landscape.

Ilya promptly investigates Garret's condition by mildly nudging his constitution with her right foot while hanging her eastern appendage to be near her waist and demonstrates a vacant look. Having not witnessed any signs of Garret possibly playing dead like the previous time, the teen confidently claims victory again after hastily lifting her right hand into the air with an upright posture and yells towards the sky, "Yeah! He's finally out!" She brings her right hand down with her sights on Garret once more amidst contentedly smirking. "You were just as bad as that idiot with the weird hair, but considering you didn't use Devil's Circuit, beating you wasn't impossible."

With that said, a depressed demeanor hurriedly forms on Ilya. "It came close either way and you're actually ranked under me... That seriously stinks..." She shifts her gaze eastward. "I have to get stronger. I don't want to be any kind of burden to..." An image of Dante pops into Ilya's mind, invoking a slight blush until frantically shaking her head with both eyes shut. Not long after, the young lady plants her left hand upon the side of her head, her staff having disappeared. "What's the matter with me? Why would I even think that?" Ilya steers her attention to the original direction she was going, which is now left from her perspective, and calmly states, "Alright. Time to get back on track."

At that exact instance, an immense quantity of water and electricity explode from a far distance ahead of Ilya's locating after mixing together. An awestruck attitude immediately envelopes the chick as she wasn't expecting such a thing to transpire.

Following the collision of those two elements dying down, a massive essence of darkness shoots into the sky from farther away as it unites with an enormous, black, circular blot that floats above it.

Ilya's eyes dilate upon abruptly feeling an intense sensation gather in her chest amidst tightly grasping the center via both hands. Her body contorts onward while aggressively trembling as Ilya's plagued with excruciating agony and views the ground. "Oh, no! It's happening again!" The fair-skinned person staggers to her right due to the pain creating swift damage to her. "But... This is much, much worse than any other time!" Ilya plummets to her knees and desperately gasps for air prior to realization setting in as she strains herself to mutter, "No, I remember...! I've felt this before...! This is...!" She almost falls to her right side, but luckily caught herself thanks to the teenager's right hand being mounted on the burnt terrain. Not much later, Ilya snaps her head to the dark essence's vicinity as it's now beginning to fade and profoundly inhales. "It's him..."

*Scene Change*

Going back in time, Dante remains surrounded by darkness with Enshin standing ten meters away. At the same time, the Caucasian's Sealing Glove and both of Enshin's gloves continue to shine from where they're poised. With that, Dante happily smiles as he checks out the area. "Good setting." His concentration deviates to Enshin. "Though, I'm actually more fond of the light, so don't get too comfortable." The blonde chuckles.

Enshin raises his left eyebrow. "That's interesting. It seems we're different in that aspect. I enjoy the darkness. It helps mask how ugly this world is."

Dante earnestly replies. "It masks the beauty too."

Enshin's tone grows cold. "There is no beauty. Everything is simply ugly."

Dante scoffs. "Really? What about that red-head you've been thinking of? Is she also ugly?"

Enshin groans a little from agitation. "You leave her out of this."

Dante veers his head eastward to focus that way, nonchalantly shrugging. "Sure, then let's chat about another girl." The lad draws his gaze to Enshin without moving his head while giving off a stoic personality. "One that you might remember from the past. This is something I would like to discuss before we get really serious."

Enshin's right eye twitches with annoyance dwelling inside him. "I'm not here to chat, Dante. I'm here for verification."

Dante rolls his eyes until closing them while faintly shaking his head. "Do you think I don't know that?" He opens his eyes with a hint of excitement brimming. "It's partially for that reason me and my group aren't back at Velkry yet. I wanted to meet you before that."

Enshin can't help having a bad feeling and then thinks after adjusting to one specific part of it, "Velkry..."

Dante leans forward with a mischievous grin forged. "I see you're bothered by my mentioning of Velkry. You sure you don't wanna' talk about it?"

Enshin takes a deep breath as he attempts to keep his annoyance in check. "If you really are so insisting, I'll tell you..." He slowly commences to blend with the darkness while the shine of his gloves dissipate. "After you are successful in escaping from the darkness I've encased us in one piece." The brown-haired male soon vanishes from the black void consuming his being.

Dante radiates with determination while repairing his stance. "I was planning on doing that at the start! I do favor the light, after all!" The blonde maneuvers his right arm as the Sealing Glove glows even brighter and aims his palm upward with his eyes locked on it. "Scatter Seal!" A black and brown circular etching, almost the same size as Dante, appears an inch away from the his hand. Following that, an array of smaller seals form all over the place, forcing the darkness to commence disappearing into tiny particles with a brilliant shine emitting from all of them.

Concurrently, Enshin's revealed amidst standing to Dante's right with only a couple of inches separating the two. He was getting ready to lay his right hand on the green-eyed fellow's shoulder, despite neither of his gloves shining at the moment. Not even two seconds later, the guy glances at the human-sized seal and can't help being amazed by what it recently accomplished. "Did you really..." Enshin navigates his concentration to Dante with a stern behavior. "Seal the darkness?"

Dante rests his right hand on his waist with every seal he created eventually fading into nothing, his Sealing Glove detaining its incredible ray of light, and watches Enshin out of the corner of his eyes. "It was the quickest way for us to have that conversation you're trying to avoid. You have # 8 Sealing Glove's ability to thank for that. If it wasn't for that, I wouldn't be able to deal too well with intangible objects."

Enshin gradually retracts his left hand as he steps back a little to have some distance and folds both arms together. "You sure are hell-bent on wanting to know, aren't you?"

Dante chuckles. "Come on. I simply want to get things clear before I fight you nonstop with everything I got. It's better to get all questions out of the way." His eyes briefly turn dull, thinking, "Even though I'm ignoring how fast he was in popping up next to me in that short period of time." The gentleman peers downward for a second until hurriedly bringing his vision back to Enshin to issue eye contact and confidently asks, "So, are you going to tell me?"

Enshin rolls his eyes, quite displeased, prior to diverting his attention from Dante by staring off to his right. "What exactly do you want then?"

Dante demonstrates a menacing expression. "Well, I found out when I was in Velkry that someone with a Sealing Glove caused severe damage, more accurately, you killed a person that's very important. It took place around fifteen years ago when Velkry was attacked. It actually compelled them into a treaty from what I gathered. Of course, I'm only aware of that from hearing certain Royal Council members' thoughts in the middle of a discussion." He chuckles again. "People sure do have a lot on their mind when speaking to others about something totally different... Although ironically enough, if I'm right, it held significance in the end."

Enshin's eyes narrow with a scrutinizing demeanor presenting itself. "Fifteen years ago... I was 13 years old." The spiky-haired individual resets his sight on Dante. "It hadn't been long since I earned the name Hired Mercenary. It was at that time I had one of my biggest jobs. I was to terrorize Velkry, kill whoever I saw fit to kill and make the survivors want to align themselves with the family who hired me to do so."

Dante nods in acceptance with a somber look and then faces Enshin. "It was my family, right? My brother, specifically."

Enshin doesn't utter a word for a few seconds until closing his eyes, dropping his head a bit. "I'm curious..." He slowly reopens his eyes without elevating his head as his gaze meets Dante's. "You aren't asking me that, are you? You want me to admit to something else that has nothing to do with your family."

Dante cocks his head back. "I want you to remember. That alone will answer my question, but at the same time, I would very much appreciate hearing you say it too."

Enshin contemplates Dante's request while images of the past flood his mind after the brown-haired man's eyes shift eastward, and with time passing by, recalls a precise memory.

*Start Of Flashback*

A younger version of Enshin is wearing the gloves he had jointly named Eclipse, both soaked in blood, as he's stationed inside Velkry's confines with some fresh scars on his person. This helps represent the many hellish fights Enshin went through that left their mark and is surrounded by numerous dead bodies, being the cause of their existence. Simultaneously, Enshin stands over a Caucasian man dressed in white apparel that matches his hair, who's lying upon his stomach right at the middle of Velkry's main road. Additionally, the downed character is covered in a pool of blood with his left hand extended ahead of himself. 

It doesn't take Enshin long to switch his concentration to who the fellow was reaching out for and sees a two-year-old girl.

The little girl's driven to tears at the sight of the bloodied individual near Enshin's feet, possessing mostly short, white hair while wearing a beige dress and golden accessories, as she cries out with both hands hoisted forward, "DADDY!"

Enshin's set off by the girl's outburst after temporarily reminiscing about his parents, especially how they treated him. Following that, the Sealing Glove with the red number "5" ominously glows prior to its wielder pointing the right hand that wears it at the infant and mutters in a heartless tone, "I hate that word."

A small, black orb appears onto the girl's chest for an instance until abruptly blowing up, forcing a yell of distress from the child, as she is sent her crashing into the ground with an intense wound etched that completely tore through her dress' fabric. 

That having transpired, a seven-year-old, Caucasian boy endowed in a white cloak and has the same color hair like the girl watched with horror portrayed before screaming as he's carrying a Longsword via both hands, "ILYA!" He rushes to the younger Ilya's side, puts the sword down next to his left and gets on his right knee to hold the fragile girl in his arms while restraining himself from crying. "Ilya! Wake up, Ilya!" The boy suddenly notices the bloodied male out of the corner of his hazel-colored eyes, stunned.

Enshin takes the boy's expression into account amidst questioning stoically, "Who are you, kid? And what are these two to you?"

The minor hastily snaps his head towards Enshin with hatred erupting from his conduct. "I'm Cassius Henseka! They're my father and sister, you bastard!"

Enshin contentedly smirks, although his eyes display emptiness, while crossing his arms as he ignores the fact that his gloves continue to be drenched in blood. "You should thank me then. I helped you get a true taste of what this ugly world is all about a lot sooner. Funny enough, I think you're around the age I started letting reality set in."

Cassius carefully rests Ilya on the terrain, who had lost consciousness, as he grabs the Longsword's handle via his right hand while getting ready to lunge at Enshin in anger. "I'm gonna' kill you!" He sprints towards Enshin with both hands currently gripping onto the weapon as it's poised beside the young Cassius' right hip.

Enshin flicks up his left index finger without separating his hand from his right arm, beginning to glow too. With just that gesture, darkness rapidly consumes Cassius entire constitution commencing from beneath his feet.

That causes Cassius to shout in fear, flailing around to free himself, "Ahhh! Let me out!"

Enshin turns away from Cassius and begins walking with his eyes shut. "I'm going to leave you here now. It's best you reflect on how cruel the world is and mature fast. If not, you won't be able to protect anything."

Cassius stops his frantic mobility with panic replacing his wrath, unable to see through the darkness plaguing him, while facing in the wrong direction from Enshin via his back towards his enemy. "Wait! Don't go! I have to avenge them!"

Enshin releases a harsh rebuttal. "Quit dreaming. That seal I performed on you with my # 6 Sealing Glove could be a lot more lethal than it is at the moment. I could end your whole existence within an instance if I really cared enough, but you learning the world's truth and living through it would be a better way to make you suffer. Goodbye, Cassius Henseka."

Cassius' left speechless, dropping his sword onto the landscape due to accepting how hopeless the situation is, as he allows tears to flow down his face. Not long after, the kid turns accordingly to run towards Enshin because of him discerning his opponent's location by where the teen's voice was coming from while passionately exclaiming, "Then kill me! I don't want to live without them!"

Precisely when Cassius was on the verge of reaching him, Enshin swiftly swings his left elbow backwards and hits the child in the jaw with so much impact it hurled him into a wall that was a few meters away. Afterwards, the tanned individual jerks his arm forward to position himself to face forth again with his eyes still closed. "Pathetic. Honestly, grow up." He resumes his departure while folding both arms together yet again.

Cassius stays motionless as the darkness drowning his body steadily dissipates. After that, the seven-year-old is shown knocked out with a bruise on his left cheek since that's where Enshin elbowed him and lies upon his right side while against the wall he collided into.

*End Of Flashback*

Enshin finished recollecting his memory while steering his gaze towards Dante, however, is unexpectedly greeted with a left-footed super kick flying towards him with great velocity. Knowing that wasting time being surprised would cost him, the scarred man slants his head westward and manages to dodge the kick, but wasn't fully safe.

Dante immediately mounted his follow up to that failed strike with intensity resonating, sharply pivoting his right foot to spin so he can implement a hook kick towards Enshin's face via the blonde's left foot. 

That compels Enshin to avoid the second attack by ducking, expelling an aggravated grunt in the process.

With no real change to his attitude, Dante jumps skyward a tad as he throws a bicycle kick at Enshin, complements of his right foot.

Enshin, unable to evade the third kick, releases a right punch aimed at Dante's ankle and parries it away a split second prior to contact was made. "I won't complain about the impulsive attack! I merely didn't think you would do such a thing!"

Dante retorts with seriousness overflowing. "Duh! You don't know what's cooking in my mind, unlike me who can listen to people's thoughts!" The young man plants his feet onto the grassy terrain and then jumps once more to hit Enshin's chin with his right knee. "Do you wanna' know why I'm doing this?!"

Enshin weaves rearward sufficiently to make Dante miss before punching his adversary on the stomach via his left hand. "Why not?!"

Dante's flung away from Enshin because of that strike, although safely lands after doing a back-flip in the air while briefly having his feet slide atop the ground's surface with his posture bent onward a bit as some grass is kicked up. Once he has fully halted with several meters between them, Dante sets his vision onto Enshin while not seeming that fazed by getting hit in the gut. "Because you hurt someone important to me. I don't let that go lightly."

Confusion overcomes Enshin. "What are you talking about? Who did I hurt that's important to you? Keep in mind, I've done a lot in the past as you may have just heard from my mind."

Dante scoffs with a sinister grin joining in and straightens himself. "It's as plain as day who I'm referencing. Why else would I force you to remember that day?" The lad chuckles. "You left a scar on her chest and on her heart. That's why she goes through pain every single time Dark Magic is around making it REAL hard for me to be near her when I want to fight. And I always want to have her by my side."

Enshin's eyes widen as he becomes pale out of realization. "A white-haired girl... How did I not think of it sooner...? The one who's been getting in the way of my guys..."

Dante tenses up while fiercely glaring at Enshin without losing his grin. "You're at the edge, so let me give you the final push! Her name's Ilya Henseka!"

Shock radiates from Enshin, thinking, "Ilya... Henseka...?!" The blue-eyed man promptly shouts from disbelief while the color to his face returns, "But I killed her!"

Dante's Sealing Gloves profoundly shine once more as the human wholeheartedly declares with his left hand pointed at Enshin. "You'll wish that you had! 'Cause if you did, then I wouldn't feel the urge to kill you as much and would actually enjoy fighting you instead!" He releases a short laugh while lowering his left arm with a hint of animosity emitted. "It sure sucks to be you right now."

Enshin's disbelief is hastily accompanied by dismay. "So when you said PARTIALLY... That means your MAIN reason of being here is to..."

Dante casually responds, although a touch of aggression is established. "I believe I recently stated it, but in case you missed it somehow, I'll repeat myself."  His intensity grows. "I'm here to kill you before anything else."

*Scene Cuts To Black*

To Be Continued...