Devil May Cry—Interference
Chapter 1
After such a long trip from school on the bus, Ellynore had just headed towards her home and unlocked the front door. Once she turned to enter her bedroom, she dropped her satchel and took off her school blazer as it was too warm to wear it any longer, and it was school policy to wear the marked blazer at school and one a student's journey to their home from there.
Ellynore hated the fact that she had to wear a blazer as part of the uniform; she hated the fact that the fleecy material inside always made her sweat, whether it was cold or hot, and if she was moving or not. Luckily, this was the last time she would have to wear it for the next five months.
When she was clean and had a fresh set of clothes, she immediately got herself comfortable at the computer and went to play one of her most favourite games she's known in her life: Devil May Cry. It was a game that inspired her to kill demons and learn what it was like to be an unstoppable hero who fought his enemies with style and class. The main character in this game, Devil May Cry 4, was not played at the beginning, but a new protagonist was introduced, Nero, and was played at the beginning while the more recognisable hero, Dante, could only be played once the player had reached the eleventh mission out of twenty.
Ellynore put the game disc into the CD drive and clicked on "Play" and waited for the main menu to pop up. Once the game title had appeared—having skipping through the software logos and opening trailer—she selected "Start," "Load Game" and selected the first save game that displayed the statistics.
"Mission 1: Legendary Dark Knight. Time: 000:00:00
"Hmm," Ellynore wondered. "I guess I might try out the harder level. I have beaten it on 'Human' and 'Devil Hunter'." She selected the file and began watching the opening scene.
However, when the opening scene plays, the company logo appears. But this time, that logo never appeared, and the opening credits hadn't appeared as the scene progressed to view the game's minor characters.
"Huh, that weird," Ellynore said as she kept watching and listening carefully for an extra couple of seconds. For some peculiar reason, no music was playing and there were sound effects playing as the character shown on the screen, Nero, had encountered a group of weak demons. Nero fought the demons, and the sounds of his shouts and grunts were heard, whereas they should have been muted where the song "Out of Darkness" should be heard.
"Looks like the game needs a system check-up," Ellynore said as she was about to press the 'Esc' button, until… "ARGH!" she screamed as the button she pressed had sent an electric shock to her left index finger. "WHAT THE HELL?" she screamed in agony and frustration.
Soon, the screen had turned black and soon shined an extremely bright light that it had almost blinded Ellynore. Her eyes had become heavy and her head became dizzy. And soon, her head fell forward on the keyboard and lost consciousness.
Ellynore groaned as she tried to open her eyes. Her vision was blurry at first but soon started to clear up as she got back on her feet, groaning from the shock she had from her computer some time ago. "How did this happen..?" she asked herself quietly.
She examined the area surrounding her. The hallways were slightly dark with fired torches lit, like she was in a medieval castle. She could hear echoes along the hallway, and as she followed it slowly—while looking around her in every direction—the echoes became louder and clearer, now defined as sword slashes and gunshots. There were also yells and shouts from possibly two men. The amount of noises made seemed fast paced, and possibly fierce too.
"Looks like someone's been caught up in a big fight," Ellynore said, examining a bit more of the area. "Those voices... They sound a lot like Dante and Nero..." Suddenly, she gasped as if she had an epiphany, her eyes wide and her mouth agape. "I've been sent into the Devil May Cry 4 game..! But, how is that even possible?"
As she thought about this, she kept going through the hallways and spotted the two main characters of the game in a battle. Halting, she quickly thought about how she was going to approach in this rather dangerous scene, and how she would explain about herself if either them or anyone else started to ask questions like, "Who are you?" and "Where did you come from?" Ellynore pushed that thought to the back of her mind and focused hard on the present: the first fight between Dante and Nero.
Nero had just flung Dante over across the room and into a few knocked over benches, but Dante was able to regain balance quickly and look back at Nero. "So, you're looking to play, huh?" he said in wonder, raising his longsword Rebellion. "Alright, I think I've got some time to kill." He emphasised the word "kill" as if this cliché was a message, or warning.
Nero just huffed at his opponent's remark and picked up his sword Red Queen. "Tough guy, huh?" he commented as he turned around and waited for a moment. He then saw a shadow from across the hallway to the Opera House's exit, spotting a girl in a purple top under a grey T-shirt with black slacks and boots.
Ellynore noticed that she'd been seen by Nero, and started to back away until he was calling out to her, "Hey, you need to get out of here! It's not safe!"
She froze from the calling and suddenly saw Dante about to jump and attack Nero from behind. "Nero, behind you!" she shouted automatically. She saw Nero quickly deflect the attack with Red Queen colliding with Rebellion. The two fighters backed away and stood at a long distance from each other, both of them staring at Ellynore in awe.
"Let me guess," Dante said, slightly deep in thought. "This girl here is your team cheerleader, right? I don't see how she could even hold a sword properly."
Exasperated, Ellynore took an Order of the Sword blade and threw it across the room as if she used a javelin, or spear. The blade threw at a perfect angle but missed Dante by a few inches. "You're thinking of the wrong kind of girl," she responded seriously. "Cheerleaders go for nothing but their own sport-flawed looks and images; I only care about what balances out the world!" She then took a few steps forward.
Dante twitched his head upward in approval. "Well, you missed, but it was a good throw. But let's see how you are at a game called dodgeball." At an instant, he charged with sword in hand, holding the point on Rebellion at Ellynore.
Damn, I'm gonna get hit! The thought entered her mind, making her feel tense, but her vision had a different view on the matter—when Dante was about to hit her, his right black glove glowed in a fluorescent red colour, signalling her to evade the attack. Thank God for Mirror's Edge she thought as she realised that she had Runner vision. Her hands quickly got a hold of Dante's arm and threw him over to the opposite side, making him slide back across the floor.
"Wow," Nero said in utter amazement. His eyes were wide with shock and his mouth hanging open. "How did you do that?"
Ellynore noticed how Nero looked at her and replied with a small smile, pleased by her reaction time. "I don't know," she said. "I guess I was just good with my timing." This had also surprised her as her only physical skills were walking and tossing tennis balls as well as playing video games with near perfect co-ordination, but she never realised that she had good reflexes and throw seventy kilograms of weight over a distance of at least two metres.
All that could really cross her mind now was the thought that everything in this new reality was different to her other, regular view on the world's laws of physics.
"My turn now," Nero said as he charged against Dante, leaving Ellynore to her own business. Without turning his head to distract himself, he called out to her, "You just get yourself to safety—this knight in red's going down to Hell."
"No, I want to help out," she responded without thinking accountably. "I don't want you to get injured." Although she saw that Nero used his right arm as a weapon, the Devil Bringer, Ellynore still wanted to test her other new skills, if there were more to be revealed sooner than later. Also, she knew what Nero was capable of alone, even with Red Queen, Blue Rose and his Devil Bringer as his only weapons; those were what he started out with in the City of Fortuna, the main assets of the game that Ellynore played back from her home.
Nonetheless, she had a feeling that she wasn't supposed to leave the Opera House and let the battle continue as it should have from the game. Ellynore took a few steps back slowly and looked at how Nero was going to take down Dante, hoping that he'd win even though she was on both sides of the battle.
Nero ran to attack Dante with Red Queen, swinging a four-hit combo and sweeping him up in the air to make an airborne four-hit combo. Dante was sent back down to the floor, sliding his feet back to regain balance and quickly getting out Rebellion. He then started to toss his sword at Nero like a boomerang.
Ellynore watched every attack, recalling what they were when she performed those moves on a computer keyboard. Seeing Dante's attack about to hit Nero, she called out, "Nero, duck!"
Nero heard her and quickly rolled to the side to avoid Rebellion's sharp blade. New thoughts came to his head, but decided to focus on the battle until it was finished. He then prepared his Devil Bringer to draw his opponent in and give him a bloody comeback.
"Hey, kid! I'm over here!" Dante taunted Nero; he had inconspicuously walked over to the other side of the hall, standing on top of the altar with Rebellion weighed on his right shoulder. Nero swung over before Dante could perform a slam attack on Nero. Nero had just enough time to grab Rebellion with his Devil Bringer and pushed hard to send Dante to the back of the altar, quickly charging at him and sending a flurry of punches to his head along with several quick uppercuts at his stomach, making him drop his sword.
Believing that Dante was giving in, Nero threw him up and over to the Sparda statue and threw Rebellion to his heart with great speed and perfect co-ordination. Once Dante was pinned to the statue by his own sword and felt useless, his body became limb.
Nero turned back to leave, relieved that the battle was over. "How was that?" he asked to himself on the way out.
"Getting better," said an all too familiar voice from behind. Nero turned and noticed that Dante had been playing dead, lifting his head and pushing himself off the statue along with his sword. "I would even go as far as to say that I've underestimated your...abilities." He then landed on the ground, standing as if he'd forgotten about Rebellion being stuck out through his body.
Nero stared at him in shock and confusion. "You aren't human, are you?" he said to Dante. He quickly turned over to where Ellynore was watching and then back to his opponent. Ellynore was watching, but tried to look as shocked as Nero was, but she couldn't help the feeling that she'd already seen this when playing the game at home. Instead of shock and confusion flooding her mind, there was nostalgia and eagerness; she wanted to see if there were any differences to this scene.
Dante was remarked by Nero's question, and then saw his own sword through his body. "We're the same," he replied absently, holding the flat sides of his sword and pulling it out from his heart. "You and..." he began saying as the sword was out of his body and in its proper position, finishing off his sentence while pointing to the dead Order of the Sword soldiers, "...and them."
Nero was again confused and followed Dante's gaze and saw that the Order of the Sword soldiers shows charred faces with horror.
"Though I suspect you carry something different from the others," Dante said from a distance. Nero looked up and saw him sitting on the edge of a broken window.
"What are you talking about?"
"You'll come to learn the meaning soon enough. But, business beckons." Dante got up and started to leave from the window.
Nero was still curious about what Dante had shown him and fired Blue Rose to get his attention while shouting out, "Hey!" The way that he left had irritated Nero by the way he showed off his multitude of skills and swiftness.
Dante was out of sight when the bullets were fired, but came back and calling out, "Adios, kid!" before leaving more politely.
Ellynore watched the scene, but became bored as it was the same as what she saw from before. Soon, several of the Order of the Sword guards came in the Opera House along with their leader Credo at the front of the band. Ellynore quickly moved out of the way to avoid contact, but she knew that they were going to ask some questions to her and Nero, and she wasn't feeling very comfortable about it.
Soon after Credo and the rest of the Order of the Sword guards had finished up on their investigation in the city's Opera House, Nero went up to Ellynore, some questions on his mind he thought may need answers as soon as possible.
"Hey," Nero said to her. "What you did back there—that move you made. Who taught you that? And who are you? Where did you come from?" Though he was very curious, his tone was calm.
Ellynore felt heat coming over her as Nero asked her those questions. With a silent sigh, she answered with honesty, "Actually, no one taught me anything involving sport. I guess I just reacted when that guy"—she didn't say Dante's name to keep her cover—"went to attack me. My name is Ellynore Moonwood—Ellyn for short—and I come from a far-off country called Australia," she said, not noting that she was in a completely different world. "Really, I'm just a teenager who struggles with school and sport; the only thing I was really good at was writing and playing the guitar. Oh, and no, I can't explain how I threw him over twenty feet of distance."
"Oh, I see," Nero said. "Just another girl being caught up in action when there's nothing else around here that excites her. You're one of them, aren't you?"
"Well, I guess you could say that—usually I'm the kind who keeps herself locked up at home and… reading lots of books. I can be a bit of a bookworm. I hope I wasn't in your way when you two were fighting."
Strange, Nero thought to himself, referring to Ellynore. She didn't even ask about my right arm or anything. Nero turned and noticed Kyrie, his girlfriend, dragging a huge, dark-coloured case with the Order of the Sword emblem engraved on the top. He went over to her and helped her with the case. "You brought this from me?"
"Credo requested it," Kyrie said, her voice high and soft with youth and beauty. "She yearns for your touch."
"Thanks," Nero thanked her, taking the case and throwing flat on the floor. "This is the best gift a swordsman could ever ask for!" He then got himself busy by setting up the latest model of his sword Red Queen.
Ellyn was in thought herself, and even watched out for anyone who came near her. So everything in the game is real here, like a second-hand reality. Well, I somehow managed to stop Dante's attack. But, why is it that I've got Runner Vision and high-level strength? Mirror's Edge can't crossover with Devil May Cry, can it? Soon, an Order of the Sword guard came to her, no doubt wanting to ask questions about what she'd seen.
"What happened when you were in here?" the guard said. "Did the assassin get to you when you came here?"
Ellynore answered, "Well, I was inside and saw two guys fighting, one of them Nero. I was playing a minor role in it and then the…man in red escaped." She still didn't want to act like he knew Dante's name, and saying it in front of an Order of the Sword guard would have a larger possibility of having her knowledge of the Devil May Cry games exposed. "I'm unharmed, if that's what you came to ask me for."
"I see," the guard replied. "It's good that you weren't hurt. You must be very lucky to be alive, then."
"Yeah, I really am," Ellynore exaggerated. She had lots of luck back at her home in Australia, but it seems to her that the game is testing her luck along with her abilities. There were going to be lots of surprises outside, and she was going to have to figure out how to fight lesser demons once she gets outside the Opera House.
Suddenly, there was an earthquake and everyone wondered about what was happening. Nero, Kyrie, her brother Credo, and Ellyn went out of the Opera House to see what was going on. Ellynore knew that there were going to be demons around the city of Fortuna; she just had to stay alive for as long as she could, and show all her bravery at the same time.
"What's happening?" Kyrie asked Nero as they were heading outside through the main corridor and down the stairs.
"I don't know," Nero answered. "But whatever it is, it can't be good." He then turned to Ellynore. "Ellynore, can you fight any demons?"
"I don't know; I've never faced any," Ellynore lied slightly. She had faced them, but only in a video game—although, from what she predicted, fighting monsters like demons and possessed knights were going to be harder than it first appeared to be in her point of view.