377 A way out of the first circle -part one-

"Wait nya" Lei stopped Dante from talking.

Alfonso's surroundings became black and, in a second, a dark world appeared before him.

The only thing visible to Alfonso was Deko, who was still in front of him.

"[Dark world] is what I call this" Said Deko.

"Where are we?" Asked Alfonso.

"A world made of my death soul aura" Said Deko.

Alfonso didn't argue, he could feel the aura of Deko in the darkness, this, however, made Alfonso realized the difference between a champion on earth and a 'champion' on hell.

"Even brother Fernando didn't have this amount of soul aura on him" Thought Alfonso.

"I will give you one more chance" Said Deko.

"Give me that cane and I will forgive your rude behavior, I might even consider give you the information you want" Said Deko.

"This cane is not in negotiation" Said Alfonso.

"Then…"

"Die"

Deko lifted his arm and red claws appeared on his hands. With a swift motion, the mark of a claw appeared in front of Deko, and in an instant, the mark appeared in front of Alfonso.

"Shit" 

He jumped to one side and evaded the claw.

However, he didn't have time to relax as he saw another mark of claw approaching him.

Alfonso evaded once more but one of the claws scratched him.

"Ugh!" 

Alfonso looked at his arm and saw a clean cut.

"It only scratched me but… It did this damage" Thought Alfonso.

Alfonso knew that close combat was his only option so he advanced towards Deko at full speed.

"Oh?" 

Alfonso lifted his cane and pushed towards Deko who put his arm between him and the cane.

The cane collided with the claws.

Soul power exploded while Alfonso's will and Deko's death soul power tried to overpass the other one. 

Deko backed up a bit.

"Interesting" He murmured.

His black eyes turned red and he made a round kick towards Alfonso's ribs!

"*Cough*" Alfonso coughed blood but he didn't let go of his cane.

"Tsk" 

Deko lifted his leg once more and kicked Alfonso's ribs once more!

However, this time, Alfonso was prepared.

He jumped backward and the Deko's leg kicked the air.

But Deko didn't want to let go of the initiative, he ran towards Alfonso at incredible speed. 

In an instant, he was in front of Alfonso!

He extended his claws and aimed at Alfonso's chest!

As if Alfonso had predicted this, he countered the claws with his cane once more!

"Little rat!" Said Deko with anger.

Alfonso didn't say anything and use the cane to make Deko lose balance!

Immediately, he focused all of his power on his arm and punched hard on Deko's chin!

But, the punch didn't hit as Deko jumped back.

"You… are improving" Said Deko.

Alfonso spat a bit of blood while looking at Deko.

"No… improving is not the word…"

"Is like you are… predicting my movements"

"But… your physic and your battle techniques tell me that you haven't fought that much to be able to predict my moves"

"So there are two possible answers"

"Either you are a genius in combat"

"Or… you have something else assisting you" Said Deko.

He bent and his two wings spread.

"Either option is problematic" Said Deko.

Deko propelled himself with his wings towards Alfonso. 

Alfonso used [Nostradamus's record] to anticipated Deko.

However, his body couldn't move as fast as the speed of Deko!

*PUM*!

Alfonso received a full punch in the stomach and he kneeled on the ground.

"*Cough*" This time, Alfonso coughed a huge amount of blood.

Deko turned to look at Alfonso who was grabbing his stomach.

"I will be taking the cane" Said Deko.

His eyes turned to normal as he grabbed the cane.

"Indeed, there is a trace of that red gas in the cane" Thought Deko.

Red began to appear in his palm while he tried to absorb the soul trace in the cane

However, just as he was about to do that… the cane shook.

"What?" 

Deko looked back at the cane and saw that the red gas in his palm was being absorbed by the cane!

"What!?" Said Deko.

The cane sucked all the red gas and began to brighten with a green light.

"Shit" Though Deko.

However, he realized that the cane was glued to his hand!

"You… what did you do!?" Said Deko.

Alfonso looked back at Deko and the cane and was confused as well.

"What… is going on?" Though Alfonso.

[Ding! 

Dear host, you call me!?]

"No, I didn't"

[The system has the answer you are looking for!]

"No thanks"

[Use me more! You are too cold towards your system! If you use me more, Leitol would be yours by now!]

"I don't want to, you are too dangerous"

[Why would you say that!? Your system only wants the best for their host!]

"Would you trust a voice that only sounds in his head and demands you to do things without a proper explanation?"

"Only children and people with 8th-grade syndrome would do that" Answered Alfonso.

[You are broking the heart of your system, dear host]

"…" 

Alfonso didn't bother with the system anymore and saw back at Deko, whose wings had retreated and his eye returned to normal.

However, his expression was different.

Instead of his usual smile, he was making a desperate expression.

"Make…it…make it stop…" Said Deko with a low voice.

Alfonso stood up and saw that the hand of Deko had withered!

"What…" Though Alfonso.

"It's… It's eating my soul…" Said Deko.

Alfonso looked closely and saw that a huge amount of red gas was concentrating in the cane.

In fact, the red gas was so concentrated that the gas had transformed into liquid estate.

"…"

Alfonso looked at Deko and, after a few seconds, he grabbed the cane.

The cane struggled a little, like a kid who didn't want to let go of his chocolate.

In the end, Alfonso had to use a little bit of force so the cane finally let go of Deko's hand.

[Ding!

Cane of time 

Reparation percentage has increased by 5%

Cane of time (95% recovered)]