Chapter 720: Not an Official Investigation

A shame. Truly a shame.

Dante would have loved to get his hands on those power suit, but alas, those cultist bastards had decided to test his patience when he had so little nowadays.

This time it was his turn to use their strategy against them. With 5-4’s Module equipped on both his arms and legs, he went in close, cutting through the one after the other. Volcan provided him with fire cover, using the tanks they stole during their trip to Riovanta.

What should have been a nice ride to clear his mind turn ended in a disaster, and to make things worse, he had placed himself in quite the precarious position.

’Maybe I should have equipped an armor instead.’

It wouldn’t have felt right if the secret boss came running whenever one of his followers was in trouble, so Dante had to make it appear as if he had to defeat the cultist with minimal assistance. When he was done with the last of them, he turned his sights to the City Center. As his eyes refocused, he caught sight of a woman sitting on the roof, wind playing with her long green hair. Their eyes seemed to meet just then, and a moment later, she raised her hand and gave him the finger.

A vein bulged on Dante’s forehead, and he began considering whether to go crush the self proclaimed heroes. What was the point of their existence if not to protect innocent civilians like him from insane villains like the Gear Cult?

Sighing, Dante vanished from the old highways. Halfway through, he vanished into the shadow of a tall building, having equipped his oni mask and activated Silent Breath.

’What a pain...’

-You’re making it more difficult than it should.-

-Just use the goddamn armor.-

-It’s not like anything would change if they found out.-

-I mean, it’s only a matter of time.’

Things would have been a lot easier if he could equip armors on top of his mask, but apparently, Sorcery doesn’t work from under them. It’s for that reason why he was advised to not use Type 9 as Modules.

After portaling away the tanks and the cultists, he observed the battlefield for a while. The heroes arrived three minutes too late, and Paragon wasn’t even among them. The police took their sweet time, and Dante didn’t wait for them.

’There goes my road...’

No more long, undisturbed ride. Lamenting the lose of one of his favorite pastimes, Dante teleported to Hollowstreet. After his fight with Kaiser, he had to delete the pocket dimension and create a new one, which took some time.

To his disappointment, every last one of the cultist was dead by the time he got to inspecting them. He hadn’t exactly tried to keep them alive, but seeing that they had fried their brains along with the data banks of their suits was a bit frustrating.

’Guess they learned something from last time...’

At the very least, there were some implants that could be harvested. He would have to get them to Larry later.

’Larry, huh?’

Soon after returning to his office, Dante sent a message to his Doctor. He asked him to get in touch with his contact in the cult and demand an explanation for what happened, otherwise, he would consider them an enemy going forward.

The attack had left him a little confused. After his meeting with Victoria, he had been under the impression that their relationship wasn’t too bad, even if he chose not to join them. They shouldn’t have had a reason to attack him, unless they really, really wanted to have his bionics.

-That’s not the only thing they want.-

’God fucking damn it...’

As if he didn’t have enough trouble as is.

~[ ]~

"Dante!"

First thing in the morning after the attack, Merry came running into the Red Oni Club. Dante was in the middle of checking on some of his underlings when her call startled him, and in that moment, she sounded more annoying than cute.

"Are you okay!? You aren’t hurt, are you?"

She started patting his arms and looking him up and down as if searching for any injuries. The worry on her face seemed genuine, but unfortunately, it was unwarranted.

"C’mon, Sunshine." Dante said. "You know I don’t get injured like nomal people."

A cyborg would be fine as long a he has spare parts, and in his case, all he has to do is give it some time for his implants to repair.

"Sorry I couldn’t come earlier." Said Merry, her gaze wandering to the floor. "I’m technically still on standby, and a lot of crime happens during the night."

"You have nothing to apologize for."

Dante gave her a pat on the head, wondering why she was acting as if what happens to him had anything to do with her.

"But seriously, the cult?" Wolf, having arrived soon after the radiant hero, spoke in a casual tone. "How in the world did you get entangled with them?"

"They probably didn’t like it that people gave me that stupid name."

"You mean the Cyberpunk?" Merry asked, and she shouldn’t have, seeing as she still had an alloy hand on her head. "Ow ow ow ow!"

"So," Letting go and watching as she retreated away, pouting as she glared at him, Dante faced the white haired hero. "Did they tell you to interrogate me or something?"

"We were told to ask questions." Wold shrugged. "But you don’t have to answer, if you don’t want to. It’s not an official investigation."

"How about we do this, then," Dante smirked. "For each match you win today, I will answer one of your questions. Any question, and I will be completely truthful."

As he spoke the last few words, Dante watched a the werewolf’s eyes gradually widened, his expression turning to that of shock. In that moment, he couldn’t help but feel that he made a mistake by presenting him with that offer.

-You can always just kill him.-

Dante had yet to lose in any of their sparring sessions, so he wasn’t too worried about the hero pushing him into a corner by asking the right question. Even if he does, it wouldn’t be much of a problem, since he could easily dispose of him.