Chapter 182: Heart of Eternal Darkness
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The next day.
Nothing hectic happened from morning to afternoon. But for Dante, it felt like the calm before the storm. That was why he continued to make preparations.
After lunch, Dante could be seen lounging on the wide couch in Laura’s room, holding a controller. Laura, the buttonmasher, was beating the crap out of him in Street Fighter. She had claimed his lap as her personal pillow, lying comfortably on her side with her head resting on his thigh, legs stretched out on the couch. Every now and then she’d celebrate after landing a combo or sulk when he returned the favor.
The door abruptly opened without a knock, then Ororo stepped inside. Her cascading white hair swayed over the shoulders of her elegant jacket. She paused at the sight of Laura casually sprawled across Dante’s lap, then continued forward with a small smile.
Dante paused the game and greeted Ororo with a smile. "Getting used to the new place?"
"It’s been great so far. I see you two are getting along well."
"Yup! You wanna join?" Laura asked without looking away from the screen. "I really don’t mind sharing him."
"I’m not good with games."
Dante patted Laura’s thighs, making her fold her legs. He gestured to Ororo to sit.
Ororo smiled and sat down without ceremony. She reached into her jacket and took out a small, elegant presentation box, and held it out to him. "The gem I mentioned."
"Ah." He accepted the box and pressed the decorated button, which made it flip open with a click.
The ruby inside was egg-shaped, about the size of a large grape. The stunning gem looked almost alive with the flames inside it. To an ordinary eye, it was simply a magnificent jewel. But a sorcerer like him could easily sense the enormous energy inside the jewel.
The gem reminded him of the story he had nearly forgotten, but reliving Jean’s life had reminded him of it.
He turned it slowly in his fingers. "Ororo. Is it from Egypt?"
She nodded slowly. Her gaze flicked to Laura before returning to him. Laura’s presence made it hard for her to explain. She didn’t want Laura to learn about that period of her life.
He smiled. "Laura won’t judge you if that’s what you’re worried about. This knucklehead believes the strong can take anything."
Ororo couldn’t suppress an awkward smile. "I stole this ruby from a private estate in Kasime."
Laura grinned. "Does he have a couple more? I wanna write his name with these."
"Unfortunately, it was the only one."
"Well, that’s too bad."
He flipped the box close. "Ororo, life has been rough for you."
"I thought my teacher would be proud. Instead, he scolded me and kept the gem locked away until I decided to leave Cairo." She showed a wry smile as she reminisced of her days in Egypt. Shaking her head, she continued, "I’ve held onto it since. I believe you’ll be able to make something beautiful from it. A ring, perhaps?"
"I think your teacher knew its history. This is the Heart of Eternal Darkness."
The Heart of Eternal Darkness was linked with the biological mother of his body—Candra. The gem had the majority of her power, which she had split off to keep one External from devouring her completely. This was her way to ensure she could always return and stop Externals from completely dying off.
Without this gem, Candra was quite weak.
’How thoughtful of my mother to leave such a generous gift.’
Ororo furrowed her brows. "Heart of Eternal Darkness?"
Even Laura lifted her head slightly, curiosity piqued by the dramatic name. "What is that?"
"In its current form, it’s a power amplifier," he said. "Let’s say my telepathy range is two hundred meters. If I’m using this gem, my range will increase to double, triple, or maybe more, depending on how much energy I can draw out."
Ororo’s wide eyes flicked to the gem. She never thought the gem in her possession was this powerful. The only way she could have realized its true nature was by holding the gem and using her weather manipulation powers.
Laura plucked the box out of his hand and held the ruby up to the light. She examined it from several angles, then sniffed it. "I feel stronger."
He snorted. "No, you don’t. It’s not activated."
She stared at him, cheeks faintly pink. After a moment, she put the ruby in the box and passed it back to him. "Really? I could’ve sworn... Was it the power of our love?"
He shook his head and pushed the box toward Ororo. "You should keep it."
Ororo was working for him, anyway. Any boost to her power would benefit him the most.
She pushed it right back. "Dante, it’s dead weight in my hands. I can’t use it or unlock it. It’ll make me pointlessly worry."
"But it’s yours."
"It never was... If you’re so stubborn, consider this payment for fixing my powers. Don’t say no now, or I’ll walk out of here."
He let out a sigh and nodded. "Alright. I’ll keep it."
"Good." She stood, straightened her jacket, and gave him a warm smile. "Safe travels."
"Wait." He grabbed his pouch with telekinesis and withdrew a necklace from it. "It’ll protect you. Just in case something happens here."
She accepted it without hesitation and wore it around her neck. "I’ll keep it until my powers return."
Laura watched the door close, then nudged him with her elbow. "You want to fuck Ororo?"
"No normal guy will say no to that question."
Ororo seemed humble and down-to-earth, but she also had a pride comparable to Emma Frost.
She chuckled. "She has lost her powers. Take her ring away and use telepathy for mind control. Easy work."
He stared at her. "Are you serious?"
"...No." She turned back to the screen. "Let’s play!"
He threw the gem box into the pouch and picked up his controller.
Before they could start, another knock hit the door. Emma Frost appeared in the doorway with a confident grin. She was dressed in another impeccable charcoal pantsuit with a white blouse underneath.
The moment her eyes landed on Laura using Dante’s lap as a pillow, her expression turned colder than ice. It seemed like she was considering taking out Laura to take her place on his lap.
Laura sensed the obvious bloodlust and grinned lazily. "Hi, Emma."
"Hi, Laura," Emma replied warmly. "Having fun playing games?"
Laura nuzzled her face a little closer against Dante’s stomach. "Everything’s fun with him. Not lying for the sake of it. He beat the crap out of me in training yesterday and I still had a blast."
Emma showed a charming smile, which didn’t quite reach her eyes. "You should thank me. He wouldn’t have saved you without me."
It was technically true since her Telepathy had tamed Laura back at Oscorp Island.
"I’m very grateful to you, Emma." Laura took his hand and guided it to her cheek, rubbing against it like a cat. "I never would’ve met my soulmate otherwise."
Emma’s smile twitched at the corner. "You’re welcome."
He cleared his throat, stopping this from devolving into an outright battle between the two. "Emma, isn’t it stupid to wear new designer outfits everyday?"
"She does it to impress you, thickhead."
He shook his head at Laura’s attempt to point out Emma’s feelings as though he didn’t know. "She was like this before we met."
Laura glanced at Emma, reconsidering her stance on the blonde businesswoman. "All rich people are weirdo."
Emma crossed her arms. "He is quite wealthy at the moment."
"Don’t bring my soulmate into this. He is an exception to everything."
Emma looked at Dante like she was silently asking why he allowed Laura to get away with so much. He patted Laura’s thigh, signaling to the door with his eyes. She pouted for a moment, then hopped off his lap.
She straightened her shirt. "Bring me something from Egypt. Or we can also go on our first date there."
"Sure, sure. Don’t forget to train with Illyana."
"I won’t. I love beating the shit out of that Russian demon. Oh, it was nice seeing you again, Emma." She shot Emma one last grin and left, closing the door on her way out.
The moment Laura was gone, Emma sat down beside him and rested her head on his lap without asking for permission. "Wasn’t she quiet and somber? What the hell happened to her?"
"She found people she could open up with." He sighed. "And internet access."
"You messed up with that."
"I know."
"And for the record, I don’t throw my clothes away after one wear. That would be wasteful."
"I figured as much. You might be a show-off, but you have your limits."
She sighed. "If it was up to me, I’d wear comfy clothes and mind-project myself wearing something fancy. Unfortunately, that trick won’t work on anyone here. Blast you and your anti-telepathy propaganda."
"Sucks for you," he said with a grin. "While we’re on this topic, do you have a costume designer in your contacts?"
He pulled out his phone and showed her a sketch he had done in the morning. "Jean’s costume. I want to surprise her."
The deal was for them to design it together, but he knew Jean wouldn’t mind this version since the costume was very much in line with her Phoenix costume in comics with an added mask to hide her identity.
Emma scanned the sketch and swiped around to study it from different angles. "She’ll love it. But what about yours? Sticking with your current one?"
"Something wrong with that?"
"No, I mean it’s not really a costume."
"Doesn’t matter. I love the demon aesthetics. Besides, Death chose it for me. I’ll respect her wishes." He glanced down at her with a smirk. "You could say I’m... dead serious about it."
She locked the phone and shoved it back into his chest. "Then go ask Death about the tailor."
"Emma, let’s not argue over nothing." He brought his hand to the side of her neck and gently caressed it. "You and Death both matter to me."
"Typical playboy answer."
Even though she was complaining, she made no move to leave his lap. This was just another one of her tantrums she threw when she wasn’t getting what she wanted.
"Emma, are you here to take me?"
She raised an eyebrow. "Sure. As long as we’re each other’s exclusives."
"I meant Egypt. Why are you so desperate?"
"Desperate for a certain someone’s love." She reached up and touched his hand, smiling softly. "But this isn’t bad for a start."
He shook his head and continued stroking her cheek. He enjoyed getting lap pillows, but it wasn’t bad to give it to someone else and watch them feel comfort in his presence.
’Null, let’s talk about the limit. How do I lift the restriction?’
[Administrator must complete Resonance Links with certain Characters.]
’Which ones?’
[Administrator must figure it out on his own. Naming specific characters would guide Administrator down a certain path, which conflicts with Null Repository’s core purpose.]
’Which is?’
[Providing Administrator with complete autonomy. Null Repository cannot, under any circumstance, influence Administrator’s decisions regarding Characters.]
’Even if I want to know?’
He couldn’t care less about semantics as long as he could lift the restriction. After all, absolute strength could earn absolute freedom.
Not another prompt showed up. Null wasn’t going to change its stance. After all, it was a system built upon logic and reasoning.
’Null, rules are meant to be broken. I’m the Admin. I order you to release the list!’
[...]
[...]
[...]
Blank system prompts rose everywhere in his vision. It was as if Null was having a system breakdown at its core. He waited and waited for the system to process and resolve the issue on its own, but the prompts kept piling up. He couldn’t catch a single glimpse of Emma.
’Null, initiate the recovery process.’
He wasn’t certain Null had a recovery function or if he could even recover Null from this breakdown. But seeing the prompts disappear one by one, he realized his order had gone through.
When the prompts completely cleared, he was no longer in his room. Null had brought him back to the starry void, where he had performed Nexus with Taskmaster.
[Override success. Following Administrator’s demand, limited hints can be provided.]
"I’ll take that."
[Hint: To lift the restriction, Administrator must resonate with Character types. Administrator’s current path satisfies five of these categories.]
[Returning Administrator’s consciousness now.]
Dante felt something wet and warm fall on his face as soon as he returned from the void. His eyes opened to Emma looming over him, shaking his shoulder. Her eyes were red at the edges, glistening with tears.
Holding onto her thighs, he sat back up on the bed and cupped her face. Using his thumbs, he swipes away the tears at the corner of her eyes. "Why are you crying?"
She squeezed his hand as though trying to feel his warmth. Then the dam broke. She crashed into him with a choked sob, her arms squeezing him as she pressed her face into his shoulder. Her shoulders shook as she cried it out, almost as loud as she had when the Hellions had died.
He hugged her back, waiting for her to stop at her own pace. When she did, she pushed back and shifted to sit on the edge of the bed.
"What happened to you?" Her voice came out hoarse as she sat there wiping her face with the back of her hand. "I was so scared."
He moved to sit beside her. "How long was I out?"
"Fifteen minutes." She let out a shaky breath. "Fifteen minutes of you just... sitting there and staring at me with this empty look in your eyes like I wasn’t here. I tried to shake you, but you just... fell over like a puppet."
She had pushed him away and made him lie on the bed. However, he continued to stare at the ceiling without light in his eyes.
"It was like I was looking at a corpse," she whispered. "I tried to call out to Death, but she didn’t answer me either. I tried to use my telepathy, but it didn’t help either."
She let out a bitter laugh. "You gonna tell me what happened or keep staring at me?"
He moved his face closer and pecked her cheek. "I can’t help it. You’re so cute sometimes."
She stared at him with wide eyes, mouth hanging open. A flush spread across her face and down her neck. She was both furious and embarrassed by his response.
"In ten years," she said, raising her voice. "I have cried two times. Both times in front of you. And this—this is what you do?!"
He kissed her again. "This better?"
"What is wrong with you?!"
"It means I’ll do better." He kissed her cheek again. "Want me to take responsibility?"
She glared at him even though her entire face was red at this point. "You won’t even tell me what happened to you, and you want me to be in a relationship with you? Do you have any idea how insane that sounds?"
"Well, someone transferred my consciousness elsewhere. We had a conversation about my powers. If things go right, I might become a lot more powerful."
Emma stared at him like she couldn’t believe his words. "You’re like the most powerful person in this world, but you aren’t satisfied. Just how powerful do you want to be?"
He leaned back and sprawled on the bed, using his arms as a pillow. "Untouchable. I won’t stop until I reach that level."
Emma was quiet for a long moment, then she sprawled beside him. She folded her arms loosely over her stomach and joined him in staring at the ceiling. "The desire to become something no one can break... I was tortured by my father to be like this."
She turned to him. "What about you?"
"Let’s just say I’ve lost people. I don’t want to lose anymore."
Emma placed a hand over her own chest, right above her heart. "I don’t want to go through it again either. It’s horrible."
"It sure is."
***
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