Valentina and Dante walked hand in hand through the bustling streets of the human city, immersed in a blend of anonymity and irony. To any onlooker, they would be just two more faces in the crowd, with no inkling of the true identity behind those seemingly ordinary figures. The situation was so unusual that it bordered on the comical.
Dante could hardly believe he was there, hand in hand with Valentina, on a date. After all, the relationship between them had always been... complicated, to say the least. Valentina and Dante were like distorted mirrors of each other, similar in some aspects and completely different in others.
"What would you like to do?" Dante asked, breaking the silence as their steps carried them through the bustle of the streets. "I don't know much about this world... You've only brought me to the human world once," he added, letting out a murmur. Valentina gave him a thoughtful, attentive look for a moment. Memories of moments shared with Dante since childhood flashed through her mind.
"I'm sorry," Dante heard, and he was genuinely surprised, turning quickly to face her, with an expression of disbelief on his face. It was as if he had never heard such a thing from her before. After all, who was this woman? None other than the Strongest Woman! Why was she apologizing to him? It was truly unnerving!
"Sorry?" he replied, confused, watching his "mother's" expression with surprise. Valentina couldn't help but let out a light laugh, covering her lips with her hands to muffle it as if she wanted to hide her smile. Dante couldn't help but be annoyed by this. "Don't hide your smile," he reproached, with seriousness. Valentina looked up at him, surprised.
"Since when do you have this power over me to demand something like that?" she teased, keeping her lips sealed, hiding a full smile.
Dante stared at her seriously, huffing. "Humph! Acting as if you didn't know?" he asked, letting go of her hand and turning away as if to abandon her there. "Tsk, he's learned to deal with me," she commented to herself, before hurrying to catch up with him and hold his hand again, lightly wrapping her arm around his.
They continued to walk in silence; however, the doubt of what Valentina had apologized for lingered in his mind, and he questioned her. "Why did you apologize?" he asked, actually, Dante still felt quite guilty for everything that had happened before... well, him dying.
"For being too protective," she said as they continued to walk, without pausing for a more detailed conversation, she was... just wanting to experience the real world with Dante for a bit, after all, she had spent a hundred years trapped in hell reliving various memories she didn't want to relive. "And that's a reason to apologize?
How silly," Dante laughed as he squeezed her hand tighter; in truth, it didn't matter much to him what had happened in the past, he just wanted the present and the future.
Holding his hand firmly, Dante simply remarked, "What's gone is past. I just want to keep living the present and building a future, with you and my other dear ones." He said, Did Valentina find it beautiful? Well, it depends, actually, she was a bit nervous since Dante still mentioned the other women, but at least she had decided she would do something different today, she would be his.
She just held back mentally, something really hard coming from the woman who kills armies and would love to flay all those strange women Dante gathered, but obviously, that would upset Dante, and that wasn't what she wanted, so despite that, she followed her path with him, walking through the small streets of the imperial city.
Dante lightly smiled at her and nodded. "Dante's Inferno," he said with a crooked smile. "Currently... well, I'm immortal." Dante said, finally revealing something that... "Impossible," she commented quickly, not even Vlad, who was the strongest person she knew and recognized as such, could be immortal.
"Even with some restrictions... Being a progenitor of a dimension is different from being the progenitor of a race." Dante commented with a crooked smile again, he had decided to hide this from everyone, especially from his weaker wives, because knowing about it could cause him problems, and if they caused problems for him... Well, they would deal with a monster like him.
"I barely have post-powers of a progenitor yet; I'm slowly absorbing through some kind of legacy. It gives me information every moment I evolve, the stronger I get and the more understanding about being a progenitor I receive." He explained. "So in the future you..." She commented. "I could become infinite if this hell dimension continues to exist." He commented.
Valentina fell silent for a moment, trying to analyze the situation, but a question came to her mind: "Can you create demons?" It was a basic question, but it was important for her to know.
"I can." Dante said, and with a wave of his hand, a static woman appeared in front of him. It was Evangeline appearing, but well... "It's not her real self, just a representation of her, or rather... Her soul." Dante said, and Valentina continued thoughtful, she wanted to talk more, but... They heard a bell ringing; it was a small ice cream stand right at the park entrance.
Dante saw it for a moment and felt Valentina's gaze hitting the spot, slightly curious.
"How about some ice cream to cool off? Want one?" he suggested with his typical mischievous smile. Valentina was slightly embarrassed; after all, she had never... well, gone through something like that, so her mind ended up being cleared of worries, and Dante didn't even wait for her to answer; when she realized it, he was already talking to the ice cream vendor.
"This man," She murmured as she watched from afar, her eyes slightly loving... "Thank goodness you're back... otherwise, I would have turned back into a monster."
Dante quickly returned with two similar ice creams; they were wrapped in a cone with something on top that Valentina didn't know what it was. "Here, this is yours," Dante gave it to her; it was a chocolate ice cream with strawberry syrup.
... She stared at it fixedly; usually, she avoided eating things... well, she was a vampire, but recently, she had overcome all total palate limitations.
"Wow, this is delicious!" Dante said quickly and turned to Valentina, holding the small plastic spoon full of ice cream. "Try it, you'll love it," he encouraged her, offering her a generous spoonful of ice cream. Valentina hesitated for a moment, but then accepted the offer, bringing the spoon to her mouth cautiously.
Her eyes lit up with surprise and pleasure as she tasted the ice cream for the first time. The sweet and cold flavor exploded in her mouth, causing her to let out a small sigh of contentment. Dante smiled, satisfied to see her reaction.