The road to redemption is a long and arduous path, paved with the pain and sacrifice of those who traverse it. Today, I am featuring two warriors who endured the harshest trials imaginable in their bloody quests to atone for their sins. They faced extraordinary pain and confronted the very embodiments of mankind's darkest impulses, ultimately seizing their own absolution. These warriors are Dante Alighieri, the crusader who waded knee-deep into Hell itself to save his love in Dante's Inferno, and the Penitent One, the silent warrior who endured the twisted paths of the Miracle from Blasphemous! Who is DEADLIEST?
Dante Alighieri[]
| “ | Death cannot stop me. Hell itself cannot impede my course. If any evil dares cast its shadow over my beloved, it shall know my wrath!
— Dante Alighieri
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” |
Before leaving to join the Crusades, Dante Alighieri promised faithfulness to his fiancée, Beatrice. In the Holy Land, Dante committed numerous sins; the worst was murdering a host of prisoners. Only one woman and her husband were spared; the former slept with Dante in exchange for freedom. The husband killed Dante. Death arrived to claim Dante, but Dante defeated Death and returned home, where he found Beatrice murdered. The soul of Beatrice, who was tricked into wagering with Lucifer on Dante's faithfulness, was taken to Hell. To save her, Dante entered Hell, where he admitted he deserved damnation and prayed for Beatrice's salvation. Beatrice's soul was saved and entered Heaven. At Hell's nadir, Lucifer revealed he plotted Beatrice's abduction. While traversing Hell, Dante had unintentionally freed Lucifer. The souls Dante absolved on his journey empowered him to defeat Lucifer. He escaped to Purgatory, continuing his journey to Beatrice in Paradise.
Equipment:
- Death's Scythe: Dante killed Death himself and claimed his scythe, a supernaturally sharp weapon capable of chopping through Lucifer's massive chains or Cerberus's heads. The weapon's shaft, fashioned from an enlarged human spine, is extendable and flexible, allowing it to work like a grappling hook or snag individual foes. Additionally, Dante can reorient the blade at will, transforming it into a spear-like war scythe. Dante seamlessly combines the scythe's various settings into a graceful yet unrelenting fighting style.
- Beatrice's Cross: Dante carries a silver cross containing part of Jesus Christ's crown of thorns, a gift from his fiancée. By brandishing the cross, Dante can unleash cruciform blasts - one at a time or in clusters of three or five - of holy magic. The cross can be charged to unleash more forceful blasts that knock enemies back, launch them into the air, or even pull them closer.
Powers and Abilities:
- Holy Magic: By absolving the damned souls he encountered, Dante gained Heaven's holy magic. Using this magic drains Dante's mana, which can be restored by destroying enemies with his scythe. Holy magic cannot be active simultaneously with unholy magic.
- Righteous Path: As a gift from the poet Virgil, Dante gained the ability to shield himself with holy ice while surging forward for a brief distance, leaving a trail of icy spikes behind him.
- Divine Armor: Dante can surround himself with an aura of holy light, blinding all enemies in his vicinity. The aura will remain for a few seconds, protecting Dante from any and all attacks and steadily healing his wounds.
- Martyrdom: By impaling himself on Beatrice's cross, Dante can sacrifice a portion of his own life force in order to release a powerful burst of holy magic, knocking nearby enemies into the air and keeping them suspended for several seconds, leaving them at the mercy of Dante's scythe.
- Unholy Magic: By punishing the demons he encountered, Dante gained Hell's unholy magic. Using this magic drains Dante's mana. Unholy magic cannot be active simultaneously with holy magic.
- Lust Storm: After defeating Cleopatra's shade, Dante gained the power to briefly summon a fragment of the violent storms that eternally buffet the denizens of the Circle of Lust. Doing so surrounds Dante with a vortex of wind and lightning that damages anything close to him and destroys incoming projectiles.
- Sins of the Father: After overcoming his father's shade, Dante gained the power to create ethereal copies of the golden cross used by his father's murderer. He can summon up to three gyrating crosses at a time that home in on nearby enemies and violently hurtle into them.
- Suicide Fruit: After absolving his mother, Dante gained the power to summon the fruit of the trees in the Wood of the Suicides to his hand. Slamming this rotting fruit into the ground causes a small explosion, knocking back all nearby enemies. Contact with the fruit's essence induces suicidal thoughts, leaving those affected in mental anguish and vulnerability.
- Redemption: Powered by an energy that builds within Dante as he fights, Redemption can be activated to temporarily and dramatically increase the strength of Dante's attacks, his attack speed, and his resistance to incoming damage.
- Superhuman Physicality: As an undead soul sustained solely by his own willpower, Dante possesses superhuman physical prowess. His sheer strength allows him to effortlessly wield Death's colossal scythe and overpower archdemons, tearing them asunder with his bare hands. His dexterity is equally remarkable, enabling him to execute gravity-defying double jumps, navigate Hell's surreal architecture, and skillfully deflect oncoming projectiles with his scythe. He can endure blows and unholy magic from towering demons, such as Lucifer's giant incarnation. Notably, he demonstrated his resilience by tanking a hundreds-foot fall to Cocytus. He traveled through all nine circles almost non-stop, stopping only for brief talks with Virgil.
The Penitent One[]
| “ | I could see that your will is greater than any pain in your body and in your deaths, and that they will not hold you back in the journey ahead.
— Perpetva
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” |
Cvstodia, an intensely religious land with a population obsessed with penance, was ravaged by an event called the Miracle. It gave form to the Cvstodians' desire for punishment. Many became monsters and others were inflicted with curses. Some worshipped the Miracle, led by Escribar, the head of the Cvstodian Church. However, one religious order, the Brotherhood of the Silent Sorrow, discovered the Miracle was the work of a false god known as the High Wills. For opposing him, Escribar had the Brotherhood slaughtered. However, a lone member was resurrected through the Miracle's mysterious ways. Known as the Penitent One, he set out to complete the Brotherhood's mission. The Penitent One traveled Cvstodia, aiding the Miracle's enemies and destroying its servants. Finally, the Penitent One crossed into the afterlife and destroyed Escribar and the High Wills, freeing Cvstodia from their wrath. With the Miracle gone, the Penitent One returned to death.
Equipment:
- Mea Culpa: The Penitent One's weapon is Mea Culpa, a holy arming sword destined to end the Miracle. Its thorned grip inflicts agony on the wielder, drawing strength from their pain and guilt. The blade is supernaturally sharp and cuts cleanly through gold and stone, not to mention human bodies. It is equipped with the Apodictic Heart, which strengthens its cutting power.
- Wrath of the Twisted One: The Penitent One can charge Mea Culpa, concentrating its sacred power on the blade's edge. Releasing it sends forth a crescentic blade of energy that damages everything in its path.
- Sacred Blood: By cutting his own flesh with Mea Culpa, the Penitent One can consecrate some of his blood, turning it into a damaging ring that can be hurled at enemies. The ring travels a short distance before returning and dissipating.
- Consecration: While in freefall, the Penitent One can perform a plunging attack that harnesses the power within Mea Culpa to create a column of sacred energy upon impact, burning his surroundings with divine light.
- Rosary Beads: The Penitent One carries a rosary adorned with various enchanted trinkets and relics, each with a unique effect. These include increasing his movement speed, reducing the time needed to activate prayers, hastening his attacks when he is close to death, quickening the rate at which he gains fervor, and making him more durable when his biliary flasks are depleted.
- Biliary Flasks: The Penitent One carries five glass vessels containing holy bile. When he shatters one of these flasks against his helmet, the bile flows over his wounds, miraculously healing his body to near-perfect condition.
Powers and Abilities:
- Prayers: The Penitent One can meditate briefly on one of his many known prayers to unleash a powerful magical attack. These prayers are powered by the Penitent One's fervor, which grows as he deals damage to enemies. He can also wound himself with Mea Culpa for a boost of fervor in a pinch.
- Cante Jondo of the Three Sisters: The Cante Jondo summons the power of the Tres Angustias, a trio of sisters that became one in death. It releases a soundwave so painful and inhuman that it can rupture organs and shatter bone, dealing massive damage to whoever hears it.
- Cantiña of the Blue Rose: The Penitent One was granted the Cantiña after helping a heroine from another world, Miriam, return home - and ogling her thighs. The prayer creates a crystalline portal that hovers above the Penitent One. When he attacks, Miriam will leap through the portal and use her magical blade to cause sharpened crystals to emerge from the ground. The Penitent One will then weep as he watches Miriam's beautiful legs teleport away.
- Taranto to My Sister: A prayer written in eulogy of a legionnaire's sister, the Taranto summons six bolts of lightning from the sky that strike enemies in the Penitent One's immediate vicinity.
- Tiento to your Thorned Hairs: The Tiento is a prayer created in memory of Tentudia, a young woman murdered out of fear of her thorny hair. For several seconds after casting, the spirit of Tentudia will appear to protect the Penitent One from any and all harm.
- Verdiales of the Forsaken Hamlet: The Verdiales create waves of holy fire at the Penitent One's feet that spread outward, burning anything in their path.
- Zarabanda of the Safe Haven: The Zarabanda was a gift from a healer who aided the Penitent One in his battles. This prayer creates two ethereal shields that rotate around the Penitent One for several seconds, damaging enemies and destroying projectiles.
- Superhuman Physicality: Because of his miraculous resurrection, the Penitent One is far physically superior to normal men. He can rip off heads, crush bodies, and even tear his way through a colossal serpent's carcass with raw strength alone. His reflexes are so sharp that he can use his blade to deflect hurled spears and even lightning-fast lunges from Isidora, Voice of the Dead, whose swift movements border on teleportation. Remarkably agile, he gracefully evades swinging censers within crumbling cathedrals and scales windswept peaks easily. His body can withstand magical attacks and blows from towering beasts, all while maintaining his vow of silence and not uttering a peep.
X-Factors[]
Experience
Dante journeyed through all nine infernal circles of Hell. Along the way, he engaged in relentless combat against the hordes of demons and tormented souls that inhabited this nightmarish realm. These latter ranged from magic-wielding heretics to the specters of his former crusader comrades. Dante also slew several colossal guardians of Hell, including King Minos, Cleopatra, and Cerberus. He overcame the ten trials of the Malebolge, each demanding the mastery of specific combat techniques or the accomplishment of precise objectives. In the climactic confrontation in the final circle, Dante engaged in a one-on-one battle against Lucifer himself. Through unwavering determination and the strength derived from the liberated souls he had set free, Dante triumphed over the Prince of Lies.
The Penitent One's quest saw him crossing back and forth across the land of Cvstodia and dying and resurrecting countless times. Because of the Miracle, the realm teemed with the Punished, former humans twisted into violent monstrosities. These grotesque beings took various forms, from flagellants who attacked with torture instruments to ghosts, animated statues, and even giants wielding deer corpses as bludgeoning weapons. Within the Cvstodia's archcathedral, the Penitent One battled the Anointed Legion, penitent warriors whose abilities closely mirrored his own. Additionally, he slew the guardians of holy relics which included a colossal pyrokinetic woman, a monstrous serpent, a towering wicker effigy, and several others of unique forms and powers.
Tactics
As he was often outnumbered in his battles against Hell's denizens, Dante favors wide, sweeping attacks that damage multiple enemies at once. He prefers to attack at medium or long range, where he can either attack with graceful cuts of his scythe or bombard targets with his cross's blasts. Dante's magic abilities, holy and unholy, suit his purposes well by helping him maintain optimal distance or escape from tight spots. However, he uses them sparingly, as he must kill enemies to replenish his mana. Dante is no stranger to fighting at a disadvantage, such as his fight with Lucifer, who could nullify his cross's power.
To defeat supernaturally resilient beings with vast magical abilities, the Penitent One uses a nimble and strategic combat style. He prioritizes constant repositioning, agile movements, and furiously attacking with Mea Culpa whenever openings appear. He excels at anticipating his opponents' attack patterns, skillfully evading harm and parrying when possible. Meanwhile, he steadily accumulates the necessary fervor to unleash his prayers. This mastery extends to battlefields saturated with projectiles and encounters with opponents of equal physical prowess. For example, he defeated Crisanta of the Wrapped Agony, a swordswoman with equal physical abilities to the Penitent One and the advantage of teleportation.
Notes[]
- The battle takes place within a cathedral.
- The Penitent One is as he was at the conclusion of Blasphemous. Thus, the events of Blasphemous II are not relevant.
- Voting ends whenever.