Dante Alighieri vs. Alex Mercer : An explanation & Warrior Bios

   The warriors in this next match up  is a little out of the box in comparison to some of my other ones. On one side we have Dante, a crusader turned holy warrior who carved a path through all nine circles of hell in order to save his beloved. Using the Scythe of Death, a holy cross and his own combat prowess he even managed to defeat the devil himself. Alex Mercer, his opponent, is separated from the crusader by 800 years, making this technically a modern vs. ancient match up. Normally the time gap would make this unfair, however there are two factors which make this doable in my view. 1. Alex prefers not to use firearms, instead relying on his biologically enhanced abilities to tear through those who do rely on firearms.  2. Dante's magical cross carries spells that can protect him from any projectile, such as the divine shield.

 Now  lets dive into the intros and meet two of the most unstoppable warriors to ever grace our consoles.

Dante Alighieri

   Dante Alighieri was born to Alighiero and Bella Alighieri. The future crusader was cursed with a horrible childhood . His father Alighiero was greedy, gluttonous and lecherous , as well as abusive to both young Dante and his mother.  He would frequently hit both him and his mother for little to no reason, and frequently when he was drunk. While Dante was able to take this  his kind and feeble mother was not. She hung herself when Dante was just a young boy, though Dante's father told him she died of a fever. As a result of the loss of his mother  Dante grew up to be much like his father in temperament, which would show during the crusades. 

      Shortly before the crusades Dante got betrothed to his true love, Beatrice. Shortly before the wedding Dante was called upon to serve in the crusades, which he did so gladly. Although not proper given the social norms of the time, Beatrice gave herself to Dante in return for the promise to be faithful and to protect Francesco( Beatrice's younger brother who was also going on the crusades-albeit reluctantly)  . Beatrice would stay with his father while Dante was gone. 

 As they were leaving a bishop gave them preemptive absolution for all of their sins, which Dante eagerly accepted. In those three years on the crusades he would commit so many sins  that King Minos, the judge of hell, was later unable to decide where to put him.  He immediately broke one of his promises to Beatrice  sleeping with a "slave girl" in return for her and her "brother's" freedom. When in a blind rage he slaughtered most of the prisoners of Acre he broke his second promise as well. King Richard, who had wanted to use those prisoners as a bargaining chip with Saladin , was furious and demanded the one responsible step forward. Francesco took the fall for his soon to be brother and was sent to be hanged. 

    Soon after a attempted prisoner escape occurred in Acre. Dante brutally and efficiently killed every single last one of them but an assassin, who had presumably heard about Dante's atrocities, stabbed him in the back in the middle of the confusion, killing him. This should have been the end of Dante's tale for the Grim Reaper  then appeared to take his soul to hell,but the distraught Dante would have none of that. Claiming that his sins had been absolved he fought and killed the Angel of Death, taking his Scythe. Finally after three years he rushed back home to see Beatrice only to come across a most gruesome sight; his father's body with his trademark jeweled cross in his eye and even worse, a dying Beatrice in the backyard. The slave girl's "brother" , who was actually her husband, had tracked down Dante's family and slaughtered them in revenge. 

        As he held her in his arms a dark shade  materialized. Revealing himself to be none other then Lucifer, aka the devil , he claimed Beatrice's soul as his own citing a bet between the two. While Dante was fighting in the crusades, Beatrice made a bet with Lucifer, if Dante kept his innocence during the Crusades, Lucifer would ensure that he return home safely, but if Dante does sleep with another women she will marry Lucifer. With that the Devil dragged her down to hell with Dante chasing after them. 

  With only the ghost of the Roman poet Virgil as a guide he made his dark descent into the depths of hell. In the first circle Limbo  he fought King Minos, the judge of the dammed, and impaled the serpentine king on his own torture wheel . Entering the Lust the brave crusader took on both the seductress queen Cleopatra and her lover Marc Anthony, who fought as a demonic version of a Roman centurion, killing both of them. Next he entered Gluttony and sliced off the three heads of Cerberus. Entering Greed he comes across a familiar face, that of his father Alighiero who had now been mutated into a morbidly obese demon. After a a duel he defeats and absolves his father, finally ending his influence over him. Descending into Anger he hijacks the demon Phlegyas, and uses him to break through the gates of Dis and into the sixth circle of Heresy. Fighting his way through that he forces his way into violence and comes across two heart wrenching sights. In the forest of suicides he finally learns of how his mother died and absolves her after a brief talk. On the very outskirts of Violence he meets and fights Francesco and his army of crusaders, who blamed Dante for damning them to hell. With great regret he defeats his old friend and comrades and continues on.

  In the next circle, Fraud , he finally meets the now demonic and corrupted Beatrice. The now enraged Beatrice makes him go through 10 tests . After the trials, Beatrice yells at Dante even more for trying to save her and for also getting her brother killed aswell. Dante then says "I give up on this journey. I belong here... in Hell". He asks for her forgiveness once more and presents Beatrice her cross. Beatrice surprised by this is then absolved by it making Gabriel the Angel appear. Gabriel tells Dante he has almost redeemed himself and he will see Beatrice again soon, before disappearing.

  Now entering the final realm of Treachery, Dante duels the devil and finally defeats him in his winged form. However he then pops out of the belly of the winged beast and duels him in his non winged form. Just as the battle is almost won in the Devil's favor Dante calls upon all the souls of those who he had absolved to help him one last time. Together they seal the devil back into his tomb, preventing him from reaching Heaven again. Dante closed his eyes expecting to be sealed in with the devil, only to find himself in Purgatorio. This is where Dante's story leaves off.

Alex Mercer

 Born in poverty, Alex Mercer had an equally rough childhood as Dante. His parents were crooks, and Alex was raised in foster care for the first nine years of his life until his mom, who had been in prison, took him back in. It would have been better for Alex to have stayed in foster care. Growing up to be a friendless,  he trusted no one, and only found solace in work.

 After getting a doctorate in genetics at Columbia University he was hired by the top secret Gentek in New York. Alex was described as being years ahead of anyone else, and helped create the Blacklight virus, which was the most virulent disease ever created.  However once Gentek came under Congressional scrutiny, the shadowy figures set about destroying all key personnel in order to keep the project a secret. The paranoid Alex soon found out about the plan through his investigative sister Dana.  Terrified he attempted to flee the city but was unfortunately caught at Penn Station by Blackwatch, an elite army created just to combat Biological threats . However Alex had bought some insurance before leaving; he had mailed secret documents to Dana and had brought with his a vial of Blacklight. In a fit of rage upon seeing his death at hand he smashed the vial on the floor, starting the infection even as the agents opened fire on him. Alex Mercer was dead...

.....But he didn't stay that way. As he fell to the ground dead , the sentient virus entered him. As Blackwatch was taking him to morgue, the virus was hard at work reconstructing his body; cell by cell.  He wakes up quite literally under the scalpel and discovers that the virus had given him near supernatural abilities, but had robbed him of any previous memory. Alex soon finds a way around this by way of a new power called consume, whereupon he absorbs someone and gains the memory, skills and appearance of that person. Through this ability he slowly finds out more and more about his past life and who he truly is, all the while dealing with both the zombie-like infection that he had created and the ever persistent Blackwatch. Led by General Randall, this organization is obsessed with destroying the virus in  Manhattan, even calling in the marines to be both their minions and to take the Fallout if the New York infection becomes proves un-containable . Elizabeth Greene escapes from the Gentek facility and becomes the hive mother of the infection, assuming control over it and helping it spread.  Once Alex had consumed enough people to surmise how he died, he went on a warpath of revenge. He cornered the director of the Gentek project, who had informed Blackwatch that Alex was going to flee, but the director committed suicide before Alex could absorb him.  Through the aid of an informant, later revealed to be Blackwatch special agent Cross, he then chased after Elizabeth Greene, wanting to absorb her as well. He seemingly killed  the supreme hunter and then, after some brief cooperation with the military, he forced Greene out of the sewer system after flooding it with Bloodtox, a counter-virus engineered solely to kill the hosts of Blacklight. After an epic battle he absorbed the infected leader, gaining her powers and memories.

      It was now time to get revenge on the final two people who had ruined Alex's old life. Karen Parker, his ex-girlfriend who betrayed him to Blackwatch, was cornered and presumably absorbed in a elevator. Now it was Randall's turn. After successfully ruining military operations in Manhattan, he succeeded in consuming a  military colonel named Taggart. Together with Cross, he then confronted Randall in his disguise on the Aircraft career U.S.S. Reagan. His vengeance complete there was only one more foe for him to face....Cross, who as it turned out was really the Supreme Hunter who had absorbed agent Cross. After a furious battle he decapitated it. Now he had but one more task to complete...dealing with the Nuclear bomb that the military was going to use on New York. Alex swam it out to see, being within a mere mile of it when it finally detonated.

      Though nearly every cell in his body was destroyed by the blast, he was still strong enough to feast on a raven attempting to consume his remains. His reign of terror was not yet over....

Closing Statement:
While both of these men lived in different time periods and chose different pasts, both have numerous similarities. Both had rough childhoods, both did monstrous things, both had pretty much everything around them seeking to kill them at once, and both had an unrelenting drive to succeed . How will the similarities factor in the battle? How can science and magic be factored in? Who is Deadliest!?!? I cant not yet tell. But this match is going to be both close and fun doing.

I'll end this post with a preview for this battle that I hope you'll enjoy

6. Dante Alighieri vs. Alex Mercer:  Date Alighieri, a war criminal turned holy warrior who transversed all of hell in order to save his beloved vs. Alex Mercer, a borderline sociopath who caused a biological apocalypse that killed millions. In this fight opposite concepts go head to head. A man of faith vs. a man of sceince.  The magical powers of the cross vs. the most pertent biological virus ever created. In my first mano-e-mano fight holy relics, extendable fists, human blades, crusader weaponry, regenerative powers and Death's own Scythe go head to head in an awesome deathmatch.