5 seconds later(future timeline)

I spawned like a ghost behind the backwards flying figure of black robes, intent on ending this swiftly..

"Hellish forge..." the moment the words left my lips, the entire area was engulfed in an inferno of dark golden flames that burned with an intensity so high, one could feel it in their soul...

My form having already transformed into the living embodiment of fire, hair, eyes, lower body, all engulfed in dark golden flames, leaving my torso bare and cracked like scorched earth...

"Barrage..." at my command, an assortment of weapons, axes, staves, swords, all materialized...

Swooosh....

Swooosh....

Swoosh...

The air split apart as the weapons landed with catastrophic impact...

BOOOOM!!!!!

BOOOOMMMM!!!!

The entire peak of the statue shook violently as tremors traveled through its surface...

"IMPOSSIBLE!!!!!!!!!"

A defiant roar sounded out from the flaming barrage, my brow raising in surprise...

"This power... Time... only the young master should have it...."

"SHADOW VEIL!!!" A pitch black darkness suddenly engulfed the flaming barrage, snuffing them out, as the figure of black robes was finally revealed...

His entire body was worse for wear, his right arm was dangling by a literal thread of shadow that kept it from falling clean off...

"You... how.. how can you control such a force.." the future iteration of black robes seemed actually aware that I’d traveled across time to attack...

"Interesting... seems you’re not so useless after all..." I smiled, genuinely intrigued, "it would seem someone powerful enough can still interact with their iterations, very interesting..." it truly was, but, "unfortunately, I have no time to waste.."

"Timeless series...." I’d already exhausted my first activation on baseless chatter, so, I used the skill again...

....

5 seconds earlier(previous instant).....

"You... how.. how can you control such a force.."

"Wait... what? How?" Before black robes’ past iteration could begin to understand what was happening....

"Barrage..." a barrage of flaming weapons flooded the entire area...

"SHADOW VEIL!!!" The same move from before was activated once more..

"Useless..." the weapons vanished from their descent,

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A painful wail sounding out from the shadowy dome soon after as explosions rocked the inside of the so called defensive ability...

"In my presence, all forms of defense are futile..." I muttered quietly....

ROOOOOOOOARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!

A horrifying roar blasted out the shadowy cocoon as a figure burst through the hellish barrage, its form growing and twisting.

It was a black as night eastern dragon, but it’s transformation hadn’t completed yet, black robes’ face was still visible...

"YOU SHALL PAY FOR THAT!!!!" The creature roared as its aura pressed down on the entire plains, suffocating and oppressing...

Undoubtedly an aura dwarfing that of the goat headed demon, but then again, so what?

"GROW!"

Was my only response.

Roooooarrrrrrr!!!!!!

As Elira materialized within my grasp, her form elongating and expanding until it was twice the size of the now over sixty foot long dragon...

FWOOOOSHHHHHH!!!!!!

Her massive blade was instantly engulfed in dark golden soul purging flames as I brought her down in a devastating,

"CLEAVE!"

SCHLIIICKKKKK!!!!

The body of the massive creature was split cleanly in two.

ROOOOOARRRRRRRR!!!!!

A painful roar tearing out the creature’s throat as the attack hadn’t just cut its physical form, it had cut into its very soul, but time was of the essence so,

"BARRAGE....."

The innumerable assortment of weapons reappeared, raining hellish punishment on the unfortunate black robed figure....

......

Elsewhere under frozen time....

Dante’s clone looked at the frozen figure of the Elowyn woman before him in disappointment...

"Tut. Tut. Tut. And here I thought you’d be something special too, Haa, so disappointed..."

FWOOOOOSHHHHHH!!!!!

The entire plain caught a blazing dark gold, as hellish flames engulfed the whole area..

"Looks like I’m getting excited, heh." The clone looked into the distance, feeling the waves of power being released and the shockwaves from the clash going on.

"Well, I guess I’ve got no time to waste." He whispered, just in time for time to glitch once again and bring him back to the point of the flames appearing..

"Damn, I should’ve gone for black robes.." the clone sighed as his figure began bloating, crimson red fur sprouted out of his body as his face elongated into that of a crimson furred ape..

ROOOOOOOARRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!

A deafening roar tore through the area as what reappeared was no longer Dante, but a twenty foot tall crimson furred, crimson eyed ape..

"MAD BERSERKER APE.."

"Hohoho... I like this.. I like this a lot." Ooou ooou ahhh ahhh ahahahahahahahaha.....

The ape laughed as its claws caught on dark golden flames, a single step bringing it right before the frozen figure of the Elowyn girl..

"I told you I’d rip your head off your shoulders, so don’t blame me for keeping my word.." the ape smiled savagely.

"Hellish soulscape..." placing its burning claws on the girl’s figure, her face, even in frozen time, contorted from the hellish torment her soul was going through, and then.

Kah!

Kah!

Kah!

The unmistakable sound of bones breaking echoed as the ape lifted up the girl’s frozen figure, pulling apart her torso from her head, bones and tendons snapping continuously until eventually,

RIPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!

It tore out the entire head, spine attached.

Blood poured like flood from the heavens as the ape just, "HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!" Laughed manically....

.....

Back to the present...

My grin only widened further as I looked around.

"Let’s make space for the king, shall we?" I grinned, before whispering in the wind...

"Timeless Series...."

And the world, once again, Froze.

Before.

BLINK!

Reality corrected itself...

FWOOOOOOOOOSHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

The entire plains terraformed instantly as one moment everyone was standing on a statue’s surface, the next, hell on earth...

"What... what’s happening...."

"Protect yourself..."

"These flames.... AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!"

Instantly many collapsed from the searing pain that went beyond just the physical...

The eyes of Conan, Ferrus, Raikor, Liana, and the others that had swiftly put up defenses narrowed into pin pricks the moment they saw the harrowing scene before them...

Two figures had appeared.

Both releasing waves of power so horrifying they couldn’t help but gulp in fear..

One was an ape, a crimson furred, crimson eyed ape that made Malachi’s eyes widen in pure shock.

It was currently holding in its burning claws, two pieces of what they all recognized to be the body of Cassandra, the same Cassandra that everyone had just seen but an instant ago.

Yet the other, perhaps the other was the most terrifying thing many had ever witnessed till date.

It wasn’t a man.

It wasn’t anything they could even call mortal.

It looked like a being that had stepped out of the deepest layers of hell itself.

Burning dark golden flames on its head, twin pools of liquid flames for its wrathful gaze, its lower half was nothing but a burning haze, and its body looked like scorched earth with lava like cracks running through it.

In its grasp was a piece of writhing coal, the figure burnt so thoroughly the only reason they knew who it was being that they knew who the figure had been facing.

Wherever the creature’s eyes passed, people recoiled instinctively, Conan took half a step back the moment the creature set its sights on him, his face contorting violently at the thought of what he’d just done..

"Am I.. afraid?" He couldn’t help the absurd thought, a burning feeling of rage tearing through his body..

"Me? Afraid? Of.. him??" His eyes bled crimson as he set his gaze on the source of such a foreign feeling....

A solemn and terrifying silence fell upon the plains as all the crowd could do was watch in mounting dread..

.....

The moment reality righted itself, I paused..

This was perhaps an even more jarring scenario than the last time, considering I’d used the art within the art, so I had to take a moment to catch up with reality as well, although even then, it didn’t take more than an instant, as I instinctively just did..

So, I scanned my surroundings, taking in the sights..

The burning lands.

The suffocating apes.

The grim expressions on the faces of those struggling to withstand the hellish forge.

My eyes paused briefly on the figure of the red furred ape, the one called Conan, as I saw a bleeding killing intent and rage in his eyes.

I ignored him.

"Malachi would deal with that one"

Oouhhh ooouhhh ahhh ahhh ahhh "More more more!!!! Hahahahaha!!!!" My clone’s deranged laughter successfully attracted my attention as I turned towards the clone that had decided to take on the form of Malachi’s Mad Berserker Ape. A gift from Chaotic Comprehension.

"Not now, buddy, the stage this time, isn’t ours." My harrowing voice, akin to the crackling of flames, shut down the overexcited fellow..

"Awww... too bad.. too bad... haaa..." the clone sighed in regret..

"Alright.. enough playing around, let’s end this.."

I ordered, then in perfect synchronization.

DEVOUR!!!

The black miasma drifted out of both our figures as they went on to engulf the bodies of... well, whatever it is we were both holding, since calling them people at this point felt generous, their figures disappearing not long after as both the monkey and I just stood there, savoring the moment, at least until...

"It’s you!!" A disbelieving voice broke our train of thought..

************

A/N: yea, Dante is pretty unfair, bros got cheats within cheats, wtf??

************

Thanks for reading....