*Starting Scene*

Ilya stares at Cassius and Faulch in surprise as she doesn't really know what to say at first. Ultimately, the white-haired female decides to face her brother without advancing towards Cassius as she questions in a vaguely composed voice, "What are you doing here? Did the Royal Council already determine what they wish to give Dante in exchange for his Sealing Glove?"

Cassius refrains from rebutting while thinking back on the words Miro specifically stated to him and Faulch in the Royal Council's Throne Room prior to arriving at the facility, "Despite that boy's claim to make business with us, we cannot carelessly trust him. We must fully investigate what Dante Einsburn is capable of. Determine whether it will be wise to follow through on the offer we have decided. Of course, that is if he survives."

After quickly remembering that, Cassius shares a brief glance with Faulch, who immediately nods at his comrade before vanishing, and then focuses onto Ilya again as he speaks in a stern tone, "Ilya, whatever is about to transpire, please stay clear and don't interfere."

Ilya shows a confused expression as she almost lets out a retort, however, got distracted by Dante unexpectedly shoving her away from him via his left hand coming in contact with the hazel-eyed teen's shoulder while displaying a hint of urgency. 

Having done that, Dante swiftly leaps rearward while narrowly eluding a right-handed palm strike from Faulch, who had been several meters above Dante's person and plants his hand onto the still damaged ground.

Some dust hurriedly arises from the terrain with a dumbfounded look appearing on Faulch's face amidst him slowly shifting his gaze to his left since that's where Dante's now located.

A few seconds later, Dante mounts his feet onto the landscape while sliding a little due to some remaining momentum until halting approximately ten meters from Faulch and cheerfully locks eyes with the black-haired man. "Did you really think you could get me twice with the same trick? I'm already used to the Speed Spell and can react pretty well."

Faulch straightens his posture without taking his eyes off Dante as he stands sideways. "Indeed, however, you aren't accustomed to a Class S Spellcaster's Speed Spell. There's a vast difference." He instantaneously vanishes again, kicking up dust in the process, and eventually portrays himself behind Dante as he's about to deliver a double palm strike while stating in a cold voice, "Also, don't believe I will waste my time with seals, when my physical attacks are more deadly than them." Faulch follows through with his assault, but misses thanks to Dante successfully maneuvering fast enough to become an after-image.

Having achieved that, Dante confronts Faulch amidst being extremely close to the silver-eyed individual and maintains his attitude throughout. 

Faulch's immediately startled by Dante's positioning as he desperately backs away from Dante while thinking in a bit of a panic, "He sufficiently kept up with me? Impossible. It must have been a fluke?" He then reaches a distance he believes to be enough in terms of separation with his gaze glued to Dante while nearly having his back against the stadium's wall.

In the meantime, Ilya's temporarily baffled until setting her sights onto Cassius with a distressful expression. "What's going on, brother?! Why is Faulch attacking Dante?!"

Cassius responds while keeping his focus upon Dante and Faulch. "No need to concern yourself with that, Ilya. Simply do what I asked you and everything will be fine. Trust me."

Worry rapidly envelopes Ilya's being amidst returning her attention to Dante and murmurs, "If you say so, big brother. I'll trust you like always."

As Ilya continues to watch the blonde, Dante moves his body a bit to eliminate any stiffness he may be experiencing while casually talking. "You really shouldn't be surprised that I kept up, considering you had already showed off your speed to me beforehand. So, obviously, I made the proper changes to deal with it."

Faulch's eyes narrow a little out of seriousness. "I take it you removed the seal I placed on you. However, it doesn't make much sense how you managed to dodge me when I was going faster than I had when I locked down your mind reading."

Dante tilts his head to the right while situating both hands on his waist. "I'm not repeating myself."

Suspicion mixes into Faulch's attitude as he thinks, "That can't be possible. Who could possibly gauge so well what my near full speed would be after such minimal interaction?"

Dante chuckles with his eyes shut. "By the way, just to clarify, I didn't remove that seal you put on me."

Faulch's eyes widen from shock. "Explain yourself!"

Dante removes both hands from his waist and lowers his left limb while raising his right to demonstrate the Sealing Glove to Faulch. "You see, one of the three Forbidden Sealing Gloves that's a part of this fused one was actually the # 9 glove, which happens to be the Anti-Seal Glove. It basically instills a seal within the person that wears it and prevents any additional seals to be placed onto them for the rest of their lives." He navigates his right hand downward while fixing his head's angling. "I've been able to hear everyone's thoughts is what that signifies, even after you tried restricting me."

Cassius promptly brims anger, lightly gritting his teeth while thinking, "That deceitful bastard...!"

Dante peers at Cassius out of the corner of his left eye as he speaks in an amused voice, "I heard that! Say what you want about me, Cassius! I really could care less!" The Caucasian issues Cassius a sincere smirk, forcing Ilya's brother to become greatly enraged.

During that, Faulch regains most of his composure and analyzes Dante as he thinks, "If that is the way it's going to be, my lone hope is to take him down with my most powerful palm strike..." Mild concern overtakes the black-haired man following him checking out the destruction that was inflicted upon the arena by Dante while thinking, "But there is a huge margin of error. The only way of success would be..." Faulch's eyes swiftly meet with Cassius' as the two stare at one another for a small period until sharply nodding. This leads to the Sealing Spellcaster to direct his concentration back toward Dante before suddenly disappearing once again.

Witnessing that, Dante rapidly readies himself with his legs lightly bent prior to accelerating into the air in the form of a blur. Then, right where Faulch had showed himself in the sky, the green-eyed gentleman reaches his adversary as they're face to face for the second time with his right arm pulled rearward and emits a tenacious conduct while the letter "D" on his glove shines profusely. Not long after that, Dante hastily thrusts his prepared appendage at Faulch in the attempt to grab a hold of his the male. Luckily for Faulch though, the human's hand comes up short due to Cassius unexpectedly intervening via catching Dante's wrist with his left hand.

Ilya's immediately overcome by disbelief with her vision set onto Cassius. "Brother!"

Cassius ignores Ilya's outburst while tightening his grip upon Dante's limb so he can't escape and yells in a commanding tone, "Now, Faulch!"

On cue, Faulch pulls both arms backwards as his muscles are clearly heard flexing from how much of his strength he's concentrating for the palm strike and ultimately embeds them onto Dante's stomach, resulting in a loud impact to resound.

Because of that, a pained look surface on Dante's person and is quickly hurled into the stands behind him right after Cassius released his hold of the wavy-haired lad's wrist.

Cali observes Dante hitting the stands amidst her tending to the still downed Soren with high sums of astonishment portrayed and utters under her breath, "This is insane. I've never seen two Class S Spellcasters go so far against one person." The brunette veers her attention to Ilya with scrutiny established. "Who in the hell did you bring here, Ilya?"

Concurrently, Ilya's overflowing with fear while gazing at the smoke that was forged from Dante colliding into the now empty stands since the spectators realized they would be pushing their luck if they stuck around just to watch this fight as the white-haired beauty screams out, "DANTE!" She's then on the verge of running towards the stands with the intention of verifying Dante's condition, however, is detained by Cassius instantaneously arriving in front of Ilya while giving her a firm stare. Afterwards, Ilya locks eyes with her brother as she's perplexed by his actions before clenching both hands while displaying immense discontent. "What are you doing?! You tell me to trust you, however, you're hurting Dante! Why are you-" On the verge of finishing that last question, a slap swiftly goes across dame's face from her left cheek that forcefully deviates her attention to the side. This stuns Ilya for a second until slowly placing her left hand upon the afflicted area and reverts her gaze to Cassius.

Not much after that, Cassius harshly retorts amidst his right hand being elevated near his left shoulder since it was the appendage which struck Ilya. "I mentioned to not get in involved as well!" He then lowers his right arm to his side without taking his eyes off Ilya. "Everything I do is to secure the safety of both you and our Holy Sanctuary! Understand that already and stay out of the way!"

Ilya's unable to deliver a reply to Cassius with Faulch seeing the conflict between siblings after landing several meters away. Then, an unprecedented, ominous feeling shoots up the black-haired man's spine, causing his eyes to widen from alarm, before swinging himself around to confront the stands where Dante's stationed and mumbles, "This is..."

The last bit of smoke covering the seats dissipate and shows Dante steadily advancing to the border while seemingly unfazed by the previous assault, excluding the small quantity of additional damage done to his attire. Once he arrives to the ledge and stands on top of it, the young character utters with a mildly impressed tone as the letter etched onto his Sealing Glove gradually shines, "That really was a good one. I haven't felt pain inflicted on me by another person in a while."

While Faulch stares at Dante, Ilya hurriedly rushes next to Cassius to obtain a decent view of the green-eyed individual with her hand removed from her cheek, revealing a faint bruise as a result of her brother slapping her.

Cassius joins Ilya with a dumbfounded demeanor as he thinks, "He's unharmed, despite that having been Faulch's strongest palm strike without any strength modification!"

Ilya quickly clutches the center of her chest via both hands and emanates a hint of pain while softly uttering, "I can feel it. There's Dark Magic coming from Dante's glove like last time."

Dante soon sets his vision upon Ilya while instantly noticing the bruise on her left cheek and narrows his eyes with hosility resonating. "Ilya... Why are you hurt?"

Ilya's eyes widen before hesitantly glancing at Cassius with sadness establishing itself onto her person.

That invoked an agitated scowl to plague Dante's face as his right hand somewhat twitches and speaks in a menacing manner toward Cassius, "Why would you that? What possible good reason could you have?"That forced an agitated scowl to take shape on Dante's face as his right hand twitches a little and then speaks in a menacing manner towards Ilya's brother, "And why would you hurt your own sister like that, Cassius? What possible good reason could you have?"

Cassius gives Dante a cold glare. "Because of you. You're the one at fault for my dear sister questioning me. She had never done so in the past and it made me violently lay my hand on her her." He abruptly yells out with anger after tightly balling up both hands without lifting them, "I blame you!"

Dante's about to implement a rebuttal, however, Faulch interrupts him as the black-haired individual arrives ahead of the human while in mid-air and attacks with a double palm strike. Unfortunately for Faulch though, the green-eyed lad swiftly caught both incoming limbs by the forearm via his own hands before the attack could make contact, intently stares into the presently bewildered eyes of his opponent and comments with a severe lack of emotion, "This really sucks... I was having so much fun too." Dante promptly elevates his right leg while having it curled up, and after letting go of Faulch's arms, connects with a powerful, thrust kick that sends the Spellcaster soaring.

A few moments after being sent flying, Faulch's posterior rams into the border's edge that resides at the other region of the stadium with a great amount of agony displayed and harshly falls face first upon the ground below. 

Having witnessed that, concern can be seen on Cassius' person while briefly watching Faulch's immobile body until reverting his attention to Dante, who recently dropped his right leg without any change to his composure. 

In Ilya's case, the white-haired teen frantically does a double-take between Faulch and Dante as she's unable to verbally express how unbelievable it is that the blonde Caucasian just defeated a Class S Spellcaster.

Then, without warning, Dante lightly squats with his posture slouched forth amidst mounting his focus on Cassius. Not even a second later, the individual accelerates from the stands' border, forcing a bad reaction out of Cassius, and reaches the sword-wielder within two seconds as Dante's prepared to instill his right hand upon Cassius, however, stops short from the adversary's chest. For a small moment, Dante retains an emotionless expression while gazing into Cassius' eyes until smiling as he scans his surroundings in three specific directions and utters in amusement, "Whoa... That was close."

It's immediately revealed that the reason Dante made that remark was because three people had instantly appeared, wearing the same white cloak as Cassius and Faulch, while each aiming a blade at the green-eyed gentleman, which all are in contact with Dante's neck from multiple sides.

Cassius calmly checks out the two light-skinned men, who seem to be near Cassius' age while containing a similar appearance to a Chinese Monk with one being more muscular than the other as both of them are carrying a short sword toward Dante's neck from the front and back. "Carlile, Kinu."

Both guys, owning orchid-colored eyes, sharply nod at Cassius once they heard him say their name as Dante is the one to notice the third person, who's holding a halberd that's pointed to the left section of the blonde's neck, and gets a tad excited without putting his right arm down. "Oh, it's you. So that means you're a Class S Spellcaster too, huh? I didn't expect that... Celty."

Celty firmly stares at Dante with her hood currently not on and keeps her weapon onto the young man.

In the meantime, Ilya's overcome with an awestruck demeanor while inquiring in a hesitant tone, "C-Celty... W-What are you doing?"

Celty hurriedly cuts Ilya off with an upset voice as she shifts her attention to the left to gain view of the white-haired dame. "What am I doing?! I should be the one asking you that! How could you bring an Einsburn into Velkry and act like it was nothing?! That he was someone who wouldn't cause any problems!"

Ilya replies in a distraught method, navigating her hands from the center of her chest. "I promised him I would! He said he wouldn't do anything to endanger our city!"

Celty retorts with anger joining in. "Are you blind?!" She removes her left hand from her halberd so she can direct it at the arena. "Look around you! Do you see what he's done to the training facility alone?! Did you feel the tremor earlier?! A lot of people outside sure did! That's why us three are even here! We know that was him because no one who trains in here are capable of such a thing without it being concealed by the barrier!" The redhead drops her hand. "Simply imagine what he could do to Velkry! Are you seriously willing to risk the lives of our citizens only to maintain a lousy promise?!"

Ilya's eyes widen out of shock and takes a step back while mumbling, "Celty..."

Cassius injects himself into the conversation while changing the topic as he's concentrating on his fellow Spellcasters. "Well, I do appreciate you three coming to my aid and all, however..." He shuts his eyes and emits a cool composition. "I had everything under control." Cassius motions his head downward after opening his eyes as the rest of them withness the hazel-eyed man's Longsword almost digging into Dante's abdomen.

Dante can't help being dumbfounded as he thinks, "Holy crap! That was even closer!" The lad then eagerly grins while glimpsing at the trio who haven't retracted their weapons yet and thinks, "I actually owe my life to these three now. If they hadn't interfered, I'd be done for." Dante sets his sights upon Cassius and continues to think with a content smile. "You're in a complete different league, aren't you? To have responded without putting any thought into it, just goes to show how good you are."

Having keyed onto Dante's expression, Cassius becomes a bit annoyed with his eyes narrowed and questions in a serious tone, "Why are you smiling?"

Determination resonates within Dante's eyes during his rebuttal. "I'm starting to enjoy myself again. That's all." He switches his vision from Cassius to Ilya with a mild apologetic behavior surfacing. "Sorry, Ilya. I put you in a really tough spot. I hope you'll forgive me for it and for what I'm about to do."

While Ilya merely observes Dante with bewilderment, Cassius and his companions, who persist their tool's placement on the Caucasian at bay, issue Dante a fierce glare thanks to not taking light of his recent words.

Dante digs his left foot into the ground's distorted dirt as he speaks to the quartet surrounding him with a carefree attitude. "Now, let's we resume."

With that declared, urgency consume the four Spellcasters while depicting Dante disappearing from the spot he was held. As a result, they all hastily search for Dante prior to seeing that the male's at a considerable distance behind Celty, provoking the orange-eyed chick to frantically spin around to face him while Ilya and Celty's comrades intently watch Dante.

Not long after escaping that predicament, Dante peers down to his shirt with a new tear crafted where Cassius' blade was touching and thinks as he smirks, "Yup, he really is good. Right when I accelerated, Cassius tried to thrust his sword and nearly cut my skin." The wavy-haired person veers his focus to Cassius while faintly talking to himself.

"I'm still not happy about him hurting Ilya, but I gotta' accept that he'll be tough to beat if I'm not a little more serious." Dante quickly takes into account the other three Class S Spellcasters before joyfully grinning as his right hand twitches again. "And there's them. They aren't like Faulch, who was automatically at a disadvantage since his seals wouldn't do anything to me." The red letter on his Sealing Glove suddenly commences to shine one more time, although brighter than before, as excitement emits from the individual. "I'll simply bring you out then." A huge, black pentagram rapidly forms beneath Dante's feet as it almost extends to Cassius and the rest with an immense quantity of Dark Magic expelling from it.

Because of the fact there is Dark Magic, Ilya tightly clenches onto the middle of her chest again via both hands as she nearly collapses from the excruciating pain and thinks in a panic, "Oh, no! Is he going to use Hell's Gate?! But he said that he couldn't!" The teenager then notices something while focusing upon the positioning of the pentagram prior to thinking, "Hold on... Why is it under him?" Ilya immediately recalls when Dante used Hell's Gate Seal against Gunta and continues her thoughts. "It wasn't like that though."

Concurrently, Cassius realizes that Dark Magic is flowing from the pentagram, hurriedly sets his attention onto Ilya, sees that she's being affected by it and shouts with fear in his voice, "Ilya, get out of here! You know what happens to you whenever there's a Dark Magic user!"

Dante instantly registers the information residing in Cassius' mind after hearing his warning to his sister and depicts an image of a little Ilya wearing beige clothing as she received a severe injury to her chest in front of her brother, who was younger too. A split second later, the blonde's slightly taken aback until shutting his eyes and inhales deeply before looking at Ilya with a somber expression while thinking, "I'll be sure to remember that for the future, although that won't force me to turn back on this." A sinister smirk then arises prior to Dante hoisting his right arm to the side with his Sealing Glove continually shining and says out loud, "Come forth! Hellfire Fiend!" The entire pentagram circle brilliantly glows in accordance to the green-eyed character's command with an array of dark, ominous colors masking the area both Dante and etching are poised.

As that occurs, Cassius, Ilya and the trio of cloaked Spellcasters shield themselves from the emitting colors with their arms while breathing for the white-haired girl becomes very difficult, compliments of the massive Dark Magic that's expanding. Meanwhile, Cassius shows a lot of agitation while barely witnessing what's transpiring and thinks, "He called out for something! That must be a Summoning Port!"

Not even a couple of seconds after, the multiple colors displayed commence to fade while Dante replies to Cassius' thoughts in a laid back voice. "Close, but the proper word for what I created is a Summoning Seal. After all, it's the specialty of the # 7 glove I have." He's promptly revealed to everybody remaining within the stadium, which isn't much due to the majority of the spectators having evacuated at the sheer existence of Dark Magic, and grins while locating both hands behind his head once the letter "D" on Dante's Sealing Glove ceased its radiance as he stands sideways via his right foot towards the Spellcasters.

Cassius' the first to see Dante and is immediately baffled by the presence of an unknown being who's a few inches taller than the wavy-haired gentleman as it's lightly leaning its posterior against Dante's since the entity's also stationed sideways. With further inspection, the mysterious individual is dressed in what resembles a pitch black jester's outfit as it has a big, white, round-shaped, head mask with an evil-like face that's commonly seen from the theater mask of joy while wielding a large Death-Scythe inside its hands that are lowered ahead of the ominous being.

Ilya also witnesses the appearance of the unknown being standing near Dante, her consciousness starting to fade, as she gasps for air with her hands kept upon her chest and faintly utters, "That creature... Why would... Something like that... Be with you...?" She closes her eyes and begins to fall forward. "Dante..."

Cassius hastily snaps his head to Ilya with concern returning. "Ilya!" 

Just as Cassius was on the verge of reaching out to Ilya so he could prevent her from falling, Dante moves fast enough to make himself vanish, and within a second, Ilya disappears in front of white-haired man's eyes. 

After that, Cassius frantically searches for his sister with an upright posture. "Where did she-?!"

Celty suddenly interrupts Cassius' speech via shouting in a firm voice while pointing towards the entrance way that's located behind the hazel-eyed guy and the other two Spellcasters with her left arm extended, "Over there!"

The three men hurriedly confront the entrance way as they immediately witness Dante gently resting Ilya against the path's right side wall while crouching accordingly. Having done that, the green-eyed individual lightly caresses Ilya's hair with the back of his right hand, so her face can be depicted during the beauty's unconscious state. Afterwards, Dante maneuvers his limb to place it over his right lap and simply stares at Ilya while whispering in a caring tone, "You'll be safe here. Plus, you don't need to sweat over your brother and friend... I won't kill them." He properly stands before veering himself away from Ilya to face the four Spellcasters awaiting him and speaks with determination. "Though, there's no guarantee they won't get hurt."

Carlile, the bigger of the two Monk-looking characters poised to Cassius' right side, calmly asks without diverting his gaze from Dante amidst preparing himself for whatever may come, "How should we go about this, Cassius?" The bald man glances rearward and takes into account that the unknown individual continues to stand where it was summoned and says with minor worry forming, "That isn't any ordinary Demonic Creature. It's oozing with Dark Magic that knocked out your sister within a few seconds."

Celty joins into the conversation and sets her vision onto Cassius out of the corner of her left eye as she stands a bit behind Carlile. "He's right. Even though Ilya's sensitive to Dark Magic, she passed out way too fast." She shifts her attention to the ominous being without turning around and gulps. "And this is the most Dark Magic I've ever experienced."

Kinu adds as he's watching Dante to ensure that the blonde doesn't do anything while remaining next to Carlile, "This is the most Dark Magic ANY of us have dealt with, I bet."

Cassius shakes his head while momentarily shutting his eyes until focusing on the mysterious entity without turning away from Dante's direction and remarks in an emotionless manner. "No... There's actually one person I met who possibly equaled that creature."

All three Spellcasters portray disbelief upon mounting their gaze onto Cassius, and at that exact instance, Dante notices an opening while becoming a blur once again. About a second later, the young man situates himself in front of the pendant-endowed guy with his left arm pulled backwards, hand curled into a fist, as he's angled sideways and has a partially lowered stance. "You really shouldn't take your eyes off your opponent." He vaguely chuckles.

In response, Cassius' quite baffled as his eyes lock with Dante's while Kinu yells in a panic after moving somewhat to see past Carlile, "Cassius!"

Having heard Kinu's outburst, Dante uses it for a signal to throw out a swift punch aimed at Cassius' torso.

Fortunately for the white-haired male, Cassius' able to react sufficiently to bring up his sword with it pressed upon the adult's constitution while shielding himself from Dante's appendage. As a result, the cloaked Caucasian doesn't receive a direct hit, however, is hurled rearward while gritting his teeth since the hazel-eyed man felt pain from his Longsword ramming into his person. After that, Cassius' posterior collides into the same wall Faulch currently lies nearby while managing to stay on his feet and slouches forward, compliments of suffering considerable damage from the impact.

Dante's eyes widen out of surprise, retaining his left arm stretched onward with his sights on Cassius, and thinks, "His sword didn't break and reduced half of my glove's power... It must be an Enchanted."

Anger rapidly takes shape on both of the monk-like men following them witnessing Cassius getting overwhelmed before shifting their attention toward Dante as they talk in unison, "Why you...!" They then lunge at Dante's back with their short swords pulled to their sides to mirror each other so they could simultaneously attack the green-eyed lad from opposing sectors of his body.

Dante cheerfully smirks while dropping his arm as the two adversaries are closing in and softly utters with his head lowered, "It's time... My Fiend."

With those words spoken, the duo hastily swing their swords at Dante, but are unexpectedly interrupted by a large blade blocking Carlile's sword, which was advancing from Dante's left,

and the end of a staff blocking Kinu's sword that was directed toward the opposing region. Soon after, the unknown individual Dante had summoned is demonstrated as the reason for the two men's assault failing while confronting both of them with the Death-Scythe keeping Carlile and Kinu at bay.

Dante casually veers his head to the left so he can have a good view of the monk-looking males behind him and lackadaisically states, "Allow me to introduce you to my Hellfire Fiend." He gingerly laughs. "I'd watch myself if I were you... 'Cause in no way is he a push-over."

After the two men received Dante's warning, leaving them a little concerned, Hellfire Fiend unpredictably repels both of their tools, commandeers its own weapon in a horizontal angle to the right and swings the bladed-end with a great amount of speed.

Carlile hastily responds to the attack by ducking down as the blade narrowly missed the top of his head while Kinu makes an attempt to block the scythe with his short sword, although unsuccessful due to how strong the swing was and effortless destroys the gentleman's sword. Lucky for Kinu, his weapon permitted the monk-like fighter to evade the rest of the incoming blade while maneuvering rearward as he's clearly bewildered by the tool's destruction.

At the same time, Celty's instantly worried about her companion while trying to head over, although is stopped thanks to Dante elevating himself towards the orange-eyed chick with his right shin almost hitting her in the left temple. This profoundly startles the redhead as she acts without thinking, draws her halberd skyward and barely manages to fend off the kick while stumbling back a little. After that, Celty strives to regain her footing and is fairly shocked by Dante's sneak attack. "You?!"

Dante nonchalantly stands several meters away from Celty in an upright posture with his right hand planted onto his waist. "What? Did you think I wasn't gonna' battle you just because I know you and Ilya are close friends?" He deviates his concentration to the right to observe Cassius, who has recently established his composure again. "I comprehend the current situation, hence I can't entirely afford to let anyone off the hook for that." Dante tenaciously grins. "Isn't that right, Cassius?"

Cassius' eyes widen from realization and stays near the wall he crashed into as he mumbles, "So he read my mind." The Spellcaster glances to his left to instill his gaze upon Faulch unconsciously lying on the ground not too far from him. "He must've done it when fighting Faulch." Cassius presses his lips together with mild annoyance emanating while thinking, "That would explain why he's so determined to fight."

Dante immediately commences laughing hysterically with his left hand placed over his face, forcing the quartet to watch Dante out of confusion, while Hellfire Fiend intently stares at the green-eyed individual. Not long after, the gloved Caucasian puts his left hand down amidst tilting his head to the left as he makes eye contact with Cassius. "You've got it totally wrong. I'm not acting the way I am due to that tiny secret residing in your head." He swiftly accelerates to position his being a few inches away from Cassius and declares in a delighted voice, "I act like this 'cause I love to fight!"

Cassius' stunned by both Dante's appearance in front of him and the unprecedented statement.

Concurrently, Hellfire Fiend assaults Carlile and Kinu again as it rapidly delivers a couple of swings at them while between the duo, forcing the orchid-eyed men to frantically avoid the ominous being's efforts. This leads to the pair creating some distance while readying themselves to properly fight it as Kinu can't help feeling intense pressure from Hellfire Fiend, who had just locked its attention onto the two males, and quietly speaks to Carlile with his vision glued to the adversary, "That thing's fast!"

Carlile replies with seriousness brimming as he sets his sights onto Hellfire Fiend. "It sure is... And that scythe is dangerous. It managed to break your short sword that is made of fortified steel. Not an easy feat to attain."

Kinu shifts his concentration to Carlile. "We only have one choice now, huh?"

Carlile sharply nods while putting away his short sword in a holster that's on his right sector. "Indeed. Let's go for it."

Both men promptly cross their fingers, keeping them down, as their clothing commences to lightly flutter since a semi-powerful gust of wind is expelling out of them.

Dante hurriedly turns his head to the right, having felt the gale that's produced mildly striking his backside and wishes to investigate the reason, as he displays a bland expression while continually situated ahead of Cassius.

Then, the two monk-looking men simultaneously utter in a firm tone while magic emits from the duo, "Shadow Animation!" Their shadows abruptly fluctuate beneath their feet prior to stretching towards Hellfire Fiend from opposite regions with impressive agility. After that, the two black masses arise from the terrain in a human form that resembles the owners as they firmly restrain Hellfire Fiend's arms via a bear-hug. Upon achieving that, Kinu and Carlile happily nod as they declare in unison, "We got it!"

In the meantime, a faint laugh escapes Dante's mouth as he maintains his focus on the Spellcaster pair and Hellfire Fiend while murmuring, "So, that's their magical ability... That leaves-"

Celty instantly exhibits herself behind Dante, not allowing him to conclude his sentence, while their eyes meet and shouts with her halberd pulled to the left, "Out of the way, Cassius!"

Cassius finally snaps out of his paralyzed state before dashing to his left in avoidance of the incoming blade, permitting Celty to follow through with the swing that she positioned herself in and tightens her hand's grip on the weapon during that action.

A split second later, the woman's halberd nails the wall in front of her as the tool penetrates it without much effort while releasing a lot of smoke.

Afterwards, Cassius confronts the cloud that was forged while stationed several meters from the blotted area as he searches for any signs of Dante with both arms lowered, carrying the Longsword only inside his right hand, amidst muttering, "Did she get him?"

Celty brings her weapon's blade closer to herself, enters into a defensive position and gently says, "Darn... I barely saw him do it." She briefly recalls that the moment her previous attack came within a couple of inches from Dante's midsection, which was her initial aim, he dodged by simply leaping with the help of his Accelerator. Once she finished remembering that, Celty gingerly bites her tongue due to feeling irritated at her failed attempt as the vanishing smoke reveals a five meter gap where there used to be a concrete wall with rubble on the landscape.

Not long after, an extensive whistle is heard by Cassius and Celty as they steer their focus to its origin with substantial urgency portrayed. Soon enough, the duo witness Dante standing atop the wall that's on the right section of the big hole with his arms folded together as the blonde comments while staring at it, "That was amazing. Now I know what I'm dealing with." He directs his sights onto Carlile and Kinu. "Those two over there are Shadow Manipulators..." Dante deviates his concentration to Celty with a confident smirk. "You're an Impact Spellcaster. You add an EXTRA kick into the stuff you wield..." The young individual veers his gaze to Cassius with no alteration to his behavior. "And you... I know what you are too..."

Cassius' eyes widen from anger until making an unpredictable move via darting towards Dante's location with great speed.

In reaction to Cassius' advancement, Dante's excitement once again becomes apparent prior to accelerating to meet the hazel-eyed male halfway and stands upon the ground while awaiting for whatever Cassius will throw at him, however, is caught off guard by a sudden diagonal slash coming in from nowhere. This causes the human to find his t-shirt with a huge tear, exposing a decent sum of his skin, while slowly glancing at it with bewilderment established. After doing that, Dante takes into account that Cassius has his blade's tip pointed at the gloved gentleman's neck via the white-haired guy's right hand and thinks, "He did that instinctively. Not a single thought went through his mind, like earlier." His eyes then locks onto Cassius' with a shocked conduct while thinking, "I was right. He's something else."

Cassius gives Dante a cold look. "I can tell by your expression that you're starting to understand your predicament. If it was up to me, you wouldn't be alive anymore."

Dante gleefully smiles. "That's good to hear. In that case, we ought to wrap this up before you choose to ignore the orders you were given."

A vast amount of Dark Magic abruptly explodes from behind Cassius as the cloaked man frantically checks what's going on, immediately discovering the two shadows that were holding Hellfire Fiend disintegrate while the unknown entity is engulfed by Dark Magic with its attire fluttering in a wild manner. Meanwhile, Carlile and Kinu are doing their best to keep their ground as they're overwhelmed by the Hellfire Fiend's prowess.

While suffering from the unbelievable pressure of the Dark Magic, Kinu shouts in dismay with his arms shielding him as his eyes are glued onto what is ahead, "Impossible! It eliminated both of our shadows as if they were nothing!"

Carlile promptly includes while containing a similar pose to Kinu's, "And it managed that with merely its magic!"

Dante joins the conversation, having grasped Cassius' sword suddenly via his left hand so he can move it to the side and faintly plants his right index finger onto the center of the hazel-eyed character's chest. "Of course... My Hellfire Fiend isn't your run of the mill Demonic Creature. He's in a category all by himself."

Cassius snaps his attention to Dante with astonishment emanating prior to noticing that the red "D" on the wavy-haired lad's Sealing Glove brightly glows as that profoundly threatens him and thinks, "No! He took advantage of my distraction! Did he plan on that happening?!" He hastily strives to create separation, although can't thanks to not being able to free his sword from Dante's strong grip.

Dante slants his head to the left while somewhat arrogantly remarking, "You lose."

A distraught demeanor rapidly overtakes Celty after concentrating towards Cassius and Dante.

At the same time, Cassius braces himself, feeling that he has no chance to escape from the present situation, but is promptly dumbfounded by Dante letting go of his sword to lower both hands with the Sealing Glove ceasing its glowing. After that, the Spellcaster depicts that Dante's casually staring towards the entrance way, which is to his left, and joins the green-eyed individual once he puts the hand possessing his sword down while surprise hastily envelopes his person with a small gasp released.

Celty's temporarily confused by why Cassius acted that way until shifting her gaze to what her companion is focused on and is instantly caught off guard. 

Concurrently, Hellfire Fiend's Dark Magic dissipates with its clothing no longer fluttering as it seems like the ominous being is also witnessing what's located at the entrance way. 

Kinu and Carlile reciprocate Hellfire Fiend's observation as they're quickly baffled. 

Eventually, Dante speaks with a carefree tone. "It's nice of you to join us... Lady Adalia."

That said, Adalia's revealed while crouched down where Ilya's resting, containing both hands placed on the unconscious girl's cheeks, as she responds with her eyes locked onto Ilya. "Why thank you, Dante." Her hands begin to emit a vague, pink light as the teenager gradually awakens while the councilwoman diverts her vision to Dante. "Sorry for interrupting your fun, however."

Dante properly confronts Adalia before kindly shaking his head with his eyes shut. "No need to worry." He glimpses at his left hand as it came out unharmed from holding the blade of Cassius' Longsword, compliments of the great durability the item wields, and soon resets his attention onto the beautiful woman that's several meters away. "The fight was over anyway."

Cassius grits his teeth out of irritation, comprehending the implication of that last statement, as he briefly glares at Dante until recalling something and reverts his concentration to Adalia while fairly concerned. "Milady! What are you doing out?! It isn't safe!"

A slight scowl establishes itself amidst Adalia having her eyes meet with Cassius' and waves her right hand,which had stopped radiating magic, at the pendant-endowed guy in the attempt to ease his stress. "Oh, hush now. I never agreed to that silly notion of us council members constantly remaining in the mansion for protection." The brown-haired woman drops her elevated appendage to place it back onto Ilya while expelling a small light again as she refocuses her sight to the teen. "That was Miro and Slate's ridiculous idea. I'm actually always sneaking out with neither of them noticing." Adalia glances at Dante and the four Spellcasters with an amused grin. "Don't tell them about that."

Dante restrains himself from laughing while thinking, "She kinda' reminds me of..."

Ilya abruptly commences to open her eyes, leading to her peering at Adalia with a vacant expression. "Lady Adalia."

Adalia cheerfully smirks at Ilya as she keeps her hands on the white-haired female, despite not glowing anymore. "Good, you're awake." She detaches her hands from Ilya to grab a hold of the dame's hands while the two ladies rise to stand upright. Afterwards, Adalia releases Ilya's appendages and starts walking towards Dante while motioning at the hazel-eyed beauty via her left hand. "Come on, Ilya."

Ilya's unable to comply for a few seconds thanks to continually being a little out of it, but eventually manages to follow Adalia in her journey towards Dante.

Simultaneously, Dante leisurely swings his right arm partly out to the side so he wouldn't accidentally hit Cassius since the sword-wielder's next to him and instills his eyes upon Hellfire Fiend, who's located at the right corner behind the young man, while uttering with a light smile, "I'll be seeing you later, my dear Fiend."

Hellfire Fiend nods in acknowledgement prior to gradually fading into nothing, shocking Carlile and Kinu due to the creature's subtle exit.

After that, Dante lowers his arm while directing himself according to face Adalia and Ilya.

Adalia promptly gazes into Dante's eyes with sincerity overflowing. "You understand why I'm here."

Dante cocks his head to the right, shutting his eyes in the process. "Yup. You're gonna' make me an offer."

Adalia grins with no reduction to her current demeanor. "Correct."

Cassius' quite dumbfounded as he intervenes after taking a step forth. "But I was to be the one to tell him the Royal Council's decision, Lady Adalia!"

Adalia closes her eyes too and calmly replies with her head down a tad. "Indeed, however if left up to you, I believe death may have resulted before our proposal was even discussed." She reverts her concentration to Dante as a caring look is displayed. "Allow me to tell you our proposition, although, you already must know considering you've had plenty of time to obtain the answer through your gift."

Dante nods while exhibitng a lackadaisical attitude and has his focus upon Adalia. "It's fine. Either way, I rather hear you officially deliver the offer to me out loud."

Adalia responds in a composed manner with her right hand gently placed between her breasts. "Alright. Here is the council's proposition. Instead of you giving us your Sealing Glove..." The woman extends her right hand towards Dante and wholeheartedly questions, "Why don't you join us?"

Ilya's greatly surprised as she's stationed to Adalia's left. "Huh?!"

Cassius grinds his teeth out of frustration with his comrades profoundly stunned, compliments of not expecting that there were dealings to be made between the Royal Council and Dante.

Meanwhile, Faulch had finally regained consciousness while struggling to reach the area spot everyone's situated since he possesses substantial injuries and awaits Dante's answer.

Silence hurriedly plagues the stadium during Dante's contemplation of the offer with his arms entwined as his eyes are shut again. "Hmm... What precisely would I gain from that?"

Adalia talks in an optimistic way once she puts her right hand down. "Well, first off, you'll have a place to call home."

The onlookers are instantly rendered awestruck, with Dante simply nodding and persists his internal debate for a bit more prior to viewing Adalia while emitting a solemn personality. "Anything else?"

Adalia's mildly bewildered, having suspected her initial rebuttal to be enough in winning Dante over, and soon says with nervousness noted, "Well... If it means something whatsoever, the mission Ilya was on when you two met would be accomplished. " She shifts her attention to Ilya. "After all, his capabilities are at the level to keep up with a couple of our Class S Spellcasters, right?"

Ilya temporarily hesitates before stating with minor confidence. "Yeah." She deviates her gaze from Adalia as worry overtakes her while scanning the vicinity and thinks, "Though I did miss the last part."

Dante quickly changes his attitude and expresses in a hyperactive method, "Good enough for me!"

Ilya and Adalia snap their heads to Dante with disbelief showing as they yell in unison, "Really?!"

Dante bursts out laughing, enjoying the pair's reaction a lot, while holding his stomach via both hands and shuts his eyes yet again. "Yeah, why not?!" He sets his sights upon Adalia with with arms hanging at their respective sectors as he relaxes himself. "On one condition."

Adalia becomes a little confused as she faintly adjusts her head to the side with her eyes still fixed onto Dante. "And what would that be?"

Dante smiles and veers his attention to Ilya. "That she's always by my side for every mission the Royal Council give me."

Ilya immediately blushes while emitting a stunned demeanor as Cassius rapidly interjects with an upset voice. "Not a chance! What did I tell you earlier?!"

Dante calmly looks at Cassius out of the corner of his eyes. "I don't care. Ilya's my friend. It's only natural that I want to be with her at all times to make sure she's okay. Not like you, letting her face dangerous missions alone."

Cassius' anger begins to boil. "You dare to repeat that?!!"

Adalia suddenly interrupts through focusing on Ilya with curiosity presented. "What do you say, Ilya?"

Ilya's awestruck by Adalia's question as she points at herself via her left hand's index finger. "Me?"

Adalia nods with a sincere behavior portrayed. "Of course... If you don't want to accept Dante's condition, it's fine. No one wants to force you into something you're against. Don't feel obligated to agree because of what the council may want either. All that matters is what you desire."

Ilya gawks at Adalia for a few seconds until switching her concentration to Dante, who's watching her and sharply nods to assure the hazel-eyed chick that the choice is up to her. After that, the attractive Spellcaster registers Cassius' enraged attitude as he waits for his sister's response. Having put some more thought into it with her eyes closed while dropping her head mildly, the Ilya takes in a deep breath as everybody's anxious to hear her verdict and soon utters to the group gathered around the dame via reopening her eyes, "Okay. My decision is..."

*Scene Cuts To Black*

To Be Continued...