A strange feeling rose from the depths of Dante’s heart as soon as he decided to kill the three heroes; a mix of excitement and eagerness, making the prospect of ending their lives fuel his resolve and ignite a desire that had remained dormant following the events at the city hall.
Every single hero was a product of Eidolon, after all.
’They’re going back to the fire escape...’
That was to be expected, seeing as it was the closest way to climb the floors. Now that he knew they were able to track his location, Dante was no longer in a hurry to escape. He opened his Storage and went straight to the weapons section, silently thanking Volcan for adding a way to organize the items he kept in it. What he took out wasn’t a gun, however.
[They’re destroying the cameras before any footage of them is captured.]
’Of course they did.’ Dante thought. ’Focus on the one facing the fire escape.’
Right now, he needed hints on how the bastards in black were bypassing the thick alloy doors blocking the entrance to the emergency stairs. Volcan didn’t waste time executing his orders. Two new screens appeared right away, both showing a different angle of the same exit. The first one captured the side of the emergency stairs while the second was in the corridor inside the twenty-sixth floor.
Not a second after the screens appeared, the one showing the emergency stairs suddenly went black. Dante closed it with a thought and focused on the one still functioning.
The red dots kept moving on the 3D model and soon reached the door to the twenty-sixth. The surveillance camera facing it was destroyed a second later, but before that happened, Dante got to see how they were doing it.
’The fuckers...’ He felt the corners of his mouth rise. ’They can go through walls...’
It happened in less than a second. Dante was sure that he saw an arm appear on the gray surface of the heavy metallic door, swiping swiftly before the footage was cut. Not only was his opponent capable of phasing through solid material, but they were also pretty good shots, being capable of hitting a target without having to see it with their eyes.
Though he wanted to look through the footage once more, the 3D model showed that the three dots had already entered the floor, which meant it was time for him to move.
Activating Rift Creation once again, he placed the entrance in front of him and the exit on the roof of the room next to the one above him. Instead of jumping into the portal right away, he waited until the very last moment, just as the three red dots reached the door to the room he was hiding in.
A loud bang followed the door being kicked off its hinges, but by the time the three in black entered the room, the only thing they saw was a small cylinder floating in the air.
By the time he heard the sound of his little gift, Dante was already jumping through another portal, arriving at a room on the twenty-eighth floor. This time, however, he didn’t have the option of an empty room, which is why he equipped his pistol the instant his feet touched the floor.
Blood splattered across the pristine floor and walls, staining everything in the vicinity. Two people lost their lives in that moment, the first one being a man dressed in an expensive-looking blue suit, while the second was clearly his bodyguard, as indicated by his simple attire and the way he reached for something inside his jacket, likely a gun.
Dante paid no mind to the two and returned his focus to the 3D model. The three red dots were still on the twenty-sixth, having barely moved from the room they were in.
’C’mon, don’t you want to catch me?’
He doubted that the grenade he tossed dealt much damage to them so it confused him that they had slowed down to this extent. Not that he didn’t welcome the change of pace.
Having used Rift Creation three times already, not to mention keeping Spatial Awareness active the entire time, he had burned more than half of Type 8-3’s energy, so he planned on changing to a different armor while it recharged.
The dark blue suit of armor disintegrated into threads of light, some of which retreated into the circle on his chest while the rest moved around, causing his silhouette to change. Not a second later, Dante was wearing a different suit of armor.
Though it shared some design elements of its higher version, Type 8-2 was undoubtedly lacking in comparison. For one, it was much slimmer, with a simpler outer shell and many fewer mechanical components. Some parts were made from the same flexible material as Type 5-1, which granted a lot more freedom of movement, but came with a clear reduction in durability.
Dante glanced at the updated status screen before dismissing it, noting the overall drop in stats and the disappearance of both Rift Creation and Spatial Severing. The range of Spatial Awareness decreased as well, so the highest floors of the hotel turned gray, much like the thirty-seventh floor, showing that data was being collected from them through the hotel’s security system alone instead of the armor’s ability.
Thankfully, the range of Type 8-2’s Spatial Awareness could still reach his pursuers, but if he were to move to the other side of the building or climb a few more floors, he was bound to lose track of their location.
The chase so far had taught Dante a few things about the enemy, including that only one of them was capable of phasing through obstacles. They likely can extend that ability to others, but because of that, their team couldn’t afford to split up.
The extent of that ability made it difficult to go up, too. Dante concluded as much after seeing the three rush back to the emergency stairs once again instead of trying to pass through the room’s ceiling. At the very least, whoever is pulling them through the walls can’t do so if the wall is under him.
’A full body effect, maybe?’
Exiting the room, Dante took off running through the corridor until he reached one of the stairs leading to the next floor. He had already commanded Volcan to open the gate sealing the stairs to the twenty-ninth floor, and as soon as he passed through, the blast doors closed once more.
’This should be a good place...’ He thought while eyeing the unnecessarily fancy stairs. ’Time to lay some traps.’