"Take a look, Juniper. A treasure amongst treasures, is it not?"
"Yes, Saint Harloss. Very impressive."
In a large, overly decorated room with smooth marble floors and a huge golden chandelier hanging from the ceiling, the luxury was impossible to miss.
The walls were painted with scenes of Celestial Nobles in big battles and victories, with shiny stones outlining each painting.
Two figures stood in the centre of the room before a tall podium. Off to the side, a dark wooden table held bright fruits, sweet snacks, and pitchers of wine prepared for later.
The only way in or out was through a pair of tall matching doors made from silver and ivory, each marked with the symbol of the World Nobles. Guards stood at attention nearby.
At the centre, the ice sculpture stood like a prize, glowing from lights above and below, making it look like the most important thing in the room.
And based on the prideful and piggish stares it was currently getting from the two figures in the room, it was obvious that it was.
Soft classical music played in the background from strange devices tucked in the corners.
The ice sculpture showed a strange, lifelike person frozen in place. Its mouth was open a little, fingers curled like it was seemingly in pain or in the process of something else, and its face looked oddly aware.
The ice reflected light from the chandelier, sending colours dancing across the floor.
The man who had spoken, dressed in huge robes with the clear bubble helmet his kind always wore, looked at the statue with pride.
Saint Harloss, full of himself and pleased, stepped closer, his boots clicking against the floor.
"For over two thousand years, this piece has been passed around by emperors, pirate leaders, and kings. A sign of power. Of being important. Of being better."
He placed his hands behind his back. "And now, after that fun little auction in Sabaody...it's mine."
Juniper, his thin assistant with slicked-back hair and a sneaky look on his face, nodded with a small grin.
"A fine addition to your collection, sire. Oh, and just a reminder, the slave shipment you planned as a gift for the royal Neferataris will leave in about thirty minutes."
"Ah, yes," Harloss said with a dramatic sigh, waving his hand. "Can you believe I have to force them to take slaves? Royals without slaves are like ships without sails. It doesn't even make sense."
CRACK
They both stopped, Harloss raising an eyebrow and pausing as if he were trying to catch something.
CRACK
He turned as his eyes widened, witnessing his prized Ice piece begin to shake.
Before either of them could say a thing, spiderweb-like cracks began spreading through the statue.
"What..."
Then, with a loud SHATTER, it exploded, sending chunks of ice and a blast of steam everywhere. Harloss and Juniper raised their arms to protect themselves.
When the air cleared, the two looked back, only to witness someone standing where the statue used to be...
"Man, that hurt! I do not remember dying to Magma being that bad."
Harloss and Juniper jumped a little at the sudden yell, coming from a soaked figure, barely dressed with just a rag covering his waist.
He looked pale and weak, like he could fall at any moment. He breathed heavily, and his emerald eyes were...furious?
"Alright, that path is clearly a no-go. This time I'll do something different." The man, or rather Dante, raised his eyebrows as he witnessed Harloss before him, slowly raising his hand, a golden gun in his grip.
Dante stared with a deadpan expression, soon kicking an ice block at his feet as it hit Harloss straight in the face.
His kick was weak so the piece of ice didn't do much, but considering the fat weak man was...well, fat and weak, it was enough to cause him to stumble, becoming dizzy.
Enough for Dante to drop down and snatch the golden gun.
"Gimme my gun, bastard. Oh Belle, how I've missed you for the 20 seconds you were away from my grip."
He spoke, caressing the weapon, long having named it, turning back to Harloss with an unamused glare.
BANG!
"GAHHHH!!!"
A bullet passed straight through Harloss's knee.
Harloss dropped to the ground, and amongst the screams, and the distant classical music, Dante spoke.
"I haven't forgotten about you. I still feel the atrophy in my muscles, now even more so since I just got out!"
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
Dante continued to shoot, watching as Harloss' body jumped a little with every bullet, growing more silent with each one as he soon fell completely silent.
"W-Wha...ARE YOU CRAZY?! YOU'VE DOOMED US ALL! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU'VE JUST DONE? BECAUSE OF YOU..."
BANG!
CLICK
CLICK
Dante shot another bullet, this time killing Juniper in the same way as before, the latter dropping as a pool of blood quickly formed.
"Huh..."
Dante stared at his gun, turning it as he scanned it, pulling the trigger only to be met with consecutive clicks.
"Did this crap just break? No. It probably runs on some sort of ammunition. I'm out of those pellets that it was shooting. So where do I get more? Am I supposed to reuse them?"
He asked himself, looking around finding the bullet in Harloss' body.
With a single glance, he was able to tell that this wasn't the case, seeing that the pellets were no longer in a usable state.
Despite his young age, he was proficient in not only the use of almost all weaponry, but also the making and theory behind them.
How couldn't he be?
After so many "Loops" as he called them, it wasn't the only skill he'd picked up.
It had gotten to the point where he'd given himself the name "Lupin", as it sounded like "Looping", because in his deranged mind, it was as though he was telling the world his secret, only spelling it a little differently so that it would always be on their nose, yet conspicuous.
A sick joke, to mock all those who were bested by him.
A joke he forever stood by.
Yet, despite all that, he still couldn't quite decipher the workings of the gun. Well, not from the few seconds of glances he gave it.
But considering his expertise he prided himself on, that meant a lot.
"Alright..."
Dante looked back, at the transparent green clock that hovered over where he was once frozen, a clock with hands that ticked backwards.
He turned away, walking toward the entrance of the room, walking toward it as he stopped before reaching the door.
And in the next moment, as if he timed it, the door opened as a figure stepped in.
"I heard some commotion and wanted to check if everything was..."
CRACK!
A loud CRACK rang out as Dante cracked the butt of his golden pistol on the side of the servant's face, knocking him out as he dropped onto the ground with a THUD.
"You know what snitches get? A Belle to the face." Without another word, he dragged the unconscious servant into the room.
Taking a moment to grab a few treats from the table, he stuffed himself.
"Unless I wanna meet those two again, I'll have to take another route."
Brainstorming for a few seconds as he stuffed his mouth with as much as he could, he leapt off from where he sat, moving toward the door, peeking out before quietly closing it again and sprinting down the hallway.
Well, more like what a normal person would know as jogging, since his body wasn't at its best performance at the moment.
Despite that, though one would assume this might be a heavy disadvantage since he currently needs to be sneaky and quick...
A pair of guards turned a corner toward him, chatting casually, only for Dante's figure to glitch with a VTZZ and vanish, reappearing behind them and sidestepping around the corner they'd just come out from.
One of the guards paused, glancing behind him.
"Something wrong?" the other asked.
"...No. Thought I felt something."
They continued walking as if nothing had happened. Because of this, Dante easily manoeuvred through the castle.
Elsewhere, Sirena entered the castle through its obnoxiously large doors, flanked by a squad of guards.
VTZZ!
As it did and she prepared to walk through, her hair brushed to the side as though by a passing breeze, causing her to pause and scan the surroundings.
"I-Is everything alright, Captain?" A soldier asked, looking around to make sure he wasn't missing anything.
She said nothing at first, then gave a calm order upon turning back.
"Keep moving."
***
Dante breathed heavily as he sprinted toward the outskirts of Marie Geoise, slipping into the dense mist that surrounded it.
Every two seconds, his figure glitched, reappearing a considerable distance ahead. Huffing, he muttered between breaths.
"Damn... this body's still a shell of its former glory. But I made it. Finally, I can..."
Deep into the mist, his words abruptly stopped short as his leading foot met empty air. His smile faded as he looked down...
"Huh..."
The ground had disappeared.
"Shit!"
He yelped as he slowly began to drift into what he could see to be a long descent.
However, before that, he swung his body around with all his strength, barely grabbing the edge of the cliff with one hand.
He sighed as he looked down, dangling off the side of the cliff.
The mist shrouded what lay further than a few dozen feet, however, he could tell...it was a long way down.
"Just where is this place?" The more he learnt the more confused it made him.
It took all his strength to pull himself back up. Perhaps adrenaline was a large factor in doing so considering he could barely run, let alone pull himself up like so.
And as he finally did, wiping the sweat from his chin as he prepared to roll on his back from exhaustion, he paused as he slowly looked upward.
He witnessed a figure now standing before him a few feet away.
He was tall, broad-shouldered, and radiated the type of authority that didn't need to be announced.
His long crimson hair fluttered slightly in the breeze, and his eyes carried a sharpness that made it difficult to look away, an intensity that demanded attention.
He wore a deep maroon military coat with golden designs that caught the faint misty light. A dark green sash ran across his chest, and a fur-lined cloak trailed behind him, showing signs of old battles. His boots, though polished, were marked with wear.
But most notably, his hand rested on a holstered long saber.
Dante stared for a few seconds, soon sighing as he made it to his feet.
"How exactly is it that you people keep finding me?"
The red-haired man gave no reply, his eyes instead scrutinising the youth.
"You...I know you." He muttered as Dante soon grinned.
"Ah, I see." Dante's face lit up as he quickly regained his composure, clearing his throat.
"Yes, that is correct. Feast your eyes, as this will most likely be the first and last time you'll see me with this little clothing and still manage to look this damn majestic."
"It is I, Dante Bond, Lupin!"
"Lupin? Never heard of him." The figure, expression remaining neutral, spoke in a deadpan tone, leaving Dante frozen.
"You're the boy in the ice, aren't you?"
Dante paused, raising his eyebrows.
"I could tell it was simply a human frozen over in there, but to think you were still alive...all this time."
Dante didn't say anything. Instead, he couldn't help but continue listening, his heart freezing.
"You...nothing short of a boy...in that ice since before the Void Century..."
"H-Hey...what's the Void Century...what exactly are you trying to say..."
Dante muttered, loud enough for the man to hear as the youth's eyes slowly began to widen.
The red-haired man stared for a second, continuing.
"You don't know? Figures. Boy...you have been inside that ice for around 2000 years."
Dante's heart finally dropped with a THUMP as he widened his eyes.
"Two thousand...years?"
A few seconds of silence passed.
"The Saints were right about you being a treasure. Not as decoration or an art piece, no, I find that insipid."
"Instead, you stand here as the single most valuable historic piece...one that carries an insurmountable amount of knowledge of this world's past..."
CRUNCH
The red-haired man paused, his cold and stoic demeanour faltering for a second.
He stared at Dante, the youth's eyes still wide, pupils dilated...and a river of blood just now escaping his lips.
"...I see." The red-haired man muttered. "What a waste..."
Dante said nothing, or maybe he wasn't paying attention, currently in his own world.
Either way, his vision slowly began to fade to black as the world before him spun.