The boxed cake mix tasted like pure sugar and wet cardboard, but Dante ate the whole slice without complaining.
Kayla had stuck a single candle in the center, which melted blue wax over the cheap frosting before Maicon managed to find the box of matches. They sang a dragging happy birthday, stripped of any rhythm, while the television in the background broadcast the lottery drawing. Maicon gave Dante an awkward pat on the back, muttered something about how ten was the age a boy should start thinking about helping with household chores, and headed to bed before nine-thirty. Kayla gathered the plates, put the rest of the cake in the fridge, and followed right behind her husband.
...How touching... I almost cried from all that family warmth. Dante thought as he watched his parents head to their room. Better this way, regardless.
At 11:59 p.m., Dante sat on the edge of his twin bed, bare feet resting against the cold parquet floor.
His eyes were locked on the upper corner of his vision, where the glowing digits ticked through the final countdown.
00:00:05.
00:00:04.
00:00:03.
00:00:02.
00:00:01.
A dull click echoed through the core of his mind, as if a heavy iron bolt had been drawn back inside a hollow chamber.
[Biological Core Maturation complete.]
[10-Year Milestone reached.]
[Updating System Tree...]
A sudden wave of heat surged from the back of his neck down to the base of his spine. It was not excruciating pain, but rather the sensation of hundreds of needles piercing his dormant energy channels. Dante gritted his teeth, gripping the edges of the mattress as air seeped slowly between his lips.
[Three new tabs unlocked:]
[Tab 02: Arcane Grimoire & Soul Binding.]
[Tab 03: Primary Class Selection.]
[Tab 04: Planar Transit (Earth/Infernal Rift).]
[Notice: Primary Class choice pending. Select one of the fundamental paths to shape your Mana distribution and initial skills.]
The screen before him expanded, presenting three archetypal paths in gray lettering:
[Option 1: Elemental Caster (Focus on direct destruction and manipulation of primal forces).]
[Option 2: Pact Summoner (Focus on entity binding, indirect manipulation, and battlefield control).]
[Option 3: Arcane Theurge (Focus on mystical support, barriers, and complex rituals).]
Dante didn't even hesitate before his options. The idea of slinging blasts of fire seemed tempting to any ten-year-old boy, but he knew the numbers on his own sheet. With four Constitution, if an enemy survived a fireball and charged at him, he'd be crushed like a bug before casting a second.
I need meat shields. I need something standing between me and the claws of whatever lives out there.
Maybe that was fighting dirty? Maybe. Cowardice? Possibly. But Dante couldn't say he cared about any of that.
He locked his mind onto the second option.
Pact Summoner.
[Primary Class confirmed: Pact Summoner (Level 1).]
[Recalculated attributes:]
[Intelligence +2 (Total: 16)]
[Wisdom +1 (Total: 13)]
[Mana Points increased to 45/45.]
[Initial Skill Acquired: [Lesser Creation Bond] - Allows materializing and maintaining a rudimentary soul construct based on your Mana reserve.]
[Initial Skill Acquired: [Aether Dart] - Converts a fraction of Mana into a long-range projectile of concentrated force.]
Dante raised his right hand in the dark bedroom. He focused his mind, feeling the invisible current flowing through his arms for the very first time. A tiny bead of bluish light sprouted at the tip of his index finger, buzzing like an angry bee. The surrounding air smelled faintly of ozone.
He clenched his fist, dispersing the energy before any light could bleed under the bedroom door.
It works. Not an illusion. This is real.
A broad, sharp smile formed on his face, breaking the neutral expression he kept up all day in front of his parents. The sensation of power, however slight, was like a breath of pure oxygen to someone who had spent a decade suffocated by physical frailty.
He opened the fourth tab.
[Tab 04: Planar Transit.]
[Destination: Outer Edge of the 4th Minor Continent (Ash Wastes).]
[Required anchoring time: 3 seconds of uninterrupted focus.]
[Risk Warning: The destination environment presents lethal danger levels for Tier Zero entities. Do you wish to initiate transit?]
Dante looked toward the closed bedroom door. He knew the sensible move was to wait. Train his two new spells in the bedroom, gather water, food, maybe find a thicker jacket. But the curiosity that had been festering in his head for ten full years was not easily contained. He wanted to see the other side. He needed to know what was waiting for him.
Just a quick peek. I drop in, scout the ground for five seconds, and trigger the return.
He slipped on his worn sneakers, pulled a hooded jacket over his t-shirt, and slid a small kitchen knife he had hidden under his mattress into a side pocket.
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Initiate transit.
The world did not dissolve gently. It was torn away.
The sensation was identical to taking a sledgehammer blow to the gut while hurtling off an invisible cliff. The air was ripped from his lungs instantly. The sound of the light suburban rain vanished, replaced by a low, continuous roar, like a colossal turbine churning deep beneath the earth.
Dante hit his knees with a dull thud.
The first thing that hit him was the stench. It was a vile blend of concentrated sulfur, oxidized copper, and rotting meat left out in the sun.
"Cough... argh!"
He coughed violently, clawing at his throat. The air felt three times denser than on Earth, scorching his airways as if he were inhaling the smoke of burning tires.
[Warning: Hostile atmospheric conditions.]
[Congenital Physical Frailty activated: Gradual Stamina loss increased by 50%.]
[Health Points: 11/12.]
What a hellhole... literally.
He forced his body upright, bracing his hands against trembling knees. The ground was made of brittle, black soil mixed with volcanic gravel that crunched under his soles. The sky had no stars, no moon, and no sun. It was an immense vault of heavy clouds in dark purple and gray hues, sliced periodically by reddish flashes of lightning that produced no thunder.
In the distance, jagged spires of black stone thrust upward like titanic bones stabbing into the horizon.
Dante looked around, his heart hammering against his ribs so hard he could hear the pounding in his own ears.
Alright. I saw it. It's horrible, the air is complete shit, and I'll choke to death if I stay here. Time to go back.
He closed his eyes, calling up the interface to trigger the return anchor.
[Initiating Earth return sequence: 3... 2...]
A snap of cracking bone echoed less than thirty feet to his left.
Dante snapped his eyes open, breaking his concentration.
From behind a jagged basalt formation, something crept out of the shadows.
It was not a classic horned humanoid demon. It was a four-legged abomination, the size of a large wolf, but completely skinned. Exposed muscle tissue gleamed a dark crimson, coated in an oily, iridescent slime. The skull lacked eyes. In their place sat a three-part vertical maw lined with fine, serrated needles dripping thick, grayish drool.
The creature lifted its blind head toward Dante, sniffing the air with rapid jerks.
[Entity detected: Ash Crawler (Tier 1 - Lesser Infernal Beast).]
[Estimated Level: 3.]
What the fuck is that?!
Panic iced Dante's stomach, but his brain, pre-forged by the system to process data under stress, kicked into high gear. He didn't try to run. With four Strength and six Dexterity, the thing would overtake him in three strides.
The creature released a shrill hiss and lunged at him, iron-hard talons tearing through the black gravel.
Lesser Creation Bond!
Dante thrust out his open palm. Forty points of his Mana drained away in a single second, driving a sharp spike through his temples.
The air between him and the beast rippled. A translucent mass of blue energy, vaguely shaped like a featureless guard dog, materialized at the very last fraction of a second.
The Ash Crawler collided head-on into the construct. The impact rang out with a hollow crunch, like thick glass shattering. Dante's construct weathered the opening blow, digging etheric paws into the earth and sinking glowing jaws into the creature's muscular neck.
The infernal beast howled, thrashing its body with absurd violence. In less than two seconds, the monster's foreclaws ripped across the construct's flank, scattering blue energy in bursting sparks.
[Construct Integrity: 30%.]
[Current Mana Pool: 5/45.]
It's going to tear my summon apart in half a second!
Dante didn't wait around for the fight to end. He pivoted on his heels and bolted in the opposite direction, stumbling over loose stones. Every stride felt like it was tearing chunks from his lungs. His congenital frailty demanded its toll. His legs felt like blocks of cement, and his peripheral vision began tunneling into darkness.
Behind him, the hiss of unraveling energy was followed by the sharp crack of talons striking stone. The construct was gone.
Dante looked over his shoulder and saw the Crawler leap atop a rock ledge, landing barely twelve feet away. Its three-pronged maw was wide open, poised to crush his spine.
Aether Dart!
He snapped his torso around, leveling his index finger with the final five points of Mana he had left.
The blue bolt buzzed through the air, too weak to kill, but on target. The dart slammed into the left side of the creature's jaw, blasting apart raw muscle in a burst of dark blood and smoke.
The creature shrieked in pain, the impact knocking its trajectory mid-air just enough to make its primary pounce miss.
Yet its hind claw still caught him.
The blow raked across the side of his torso. The fabric of his jacket and t-shirt shredded like wet paper, and three deep trenches of blood opened immediately along his ribs.
Dante rolled across the sharp gravel, shouting from the searing agony tearing through his flank.
[Health Points: 4/12.]
[Status: Minor Bleeding, Severe Exhaustion.]
The creature shook off the tumble, wheeling its blind body around with fresh fury, sniffing the hot scent of blood soaking through the boy's clothes. It bunched its hind legs for the kill shot.
Dante slammed his bloody palm against his own chest.
RETURN! RIGHT FUCKING NOW!
[Emergency sequence forced!]
[Warning: Coordinate destabilization due to loss of focus.]
[Planar Transit initiated!]
The beast's three-part maw snapped shut millimeters from his nose at the exact millisecond spatial vacuum swallowed his body.
The cold, clean Earth air struck his face like a bucket of ice water.
Dante did not land on his feet. He dropped from two feet in the air, slamming hard on his side against rough concrete and tumbling over dry leaves and wet dirt. The impact made the gashes across his ribs flare with agony, leaving him gasping for air for nearly ten seconds.
He coughed, spitting a glob of phlegm mixed with black soot onto the ground.
I... I made it out of that hellhole.
His hands trembled uncontrollably. The gray jacket was drenched in dark blood around his waist, the t-shirt hung in tatters, and the skin along his arms was covered in scratches and volcanic soot. He reeked of burnt meat and sulfur.
Dante tried propping himself up on his elbows to figure out where he had landed.
It wasn't his bedroom. It wasn't the worn parquet floor of the Miller apartment.
He was in a narrow alley, dimly lit by a yellowish streetlamp a few yards away. Dented metal trash cans stood to his right, and a torn chain-link fence ran along his left. His panic had distorted the return coordinates, he had to be several blocks from home.
A faint plastic thud broke the night silence.
Plop.
Dante froze.
He lifted his head slowly, every neck muscle protesting the strain.
Standing at the mouth of the alley, less than four steps from where he lay on the bloodstained ground, was a little girl. She wore a red dress with a floral pattern, knee-high white socks, and two long braids draped over her shoulders. Her right hand remained frozen in mid-air, empty, pointing toward the pavement where a fallen juice box leaked yellowish liquid over the sidewalk.
The girl's round brown eyes were wide with pure shock. She looked from the empty air above Dante, where the last traces of black, sulfur-scented smoke still dissipated, down to the boy coated in ash and bleeding out on the concrete.
Dante blinked, tasting the metallic tang of blood in his mouth.
They stayed silent for three seconds that felt like an eternity. The girl parted her lips to draw in air, her chest puffing up to release what would surely be the loudest scream of her life.
Dante clamped a hand over his torn ribs, feeling weakness drag his consciousness downward.
"Shit.”