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Nero walked through the door to Dante's office. The shady bastard never actually explained why Nero needed to come all the way here from Fortuna, just that it was important. Dante didn't sound worried or upset, but then again, he rarely does.
"If this is another crap job that you are too damn lazy to do yourself, I'm gonna toss you off of the tallest building I can find, old man." Nero shouted in his uncle's general direction. Dante only looked up from his desk and gave his usual smirk. Well, almost usual. Was that sadness in his eyes, or was was Nero just imagining things?
"Relax, I actually need help with this one." So it was a job after all. But why the secrecy? Dante leaned back in his chair. "Tell me kid, how much do you know about the demon known as Mundus?"
"Too damn much." Nero never paid attention to the little sermons he had to sit through during his in the Order, but the story of how Sparda vanquished the demon emperor was told far too often. Eventually, most of it stuck.
"Well, there was one thing that little cult you were in might not have told you." Dante paused to sigh. "Kid, I should have told you this earlier, but I thought I could deal with it without bothering you."
"Then out with it already!" The younger devil hunter was too impatient to deal with Dante's supposed guilt. If Dante really wronged him, then the Nero would just have to kick his ass. Apologizing won't make him less likely to get pissed.
"Mundus isn't dead, kid." Dante did as he was told. He was trying to play it cool, but he still became visibly morose. "My old man put him away, but he survived. He came back a few years ago, and I dealt with him, but barely. He'll come back again, maybe soon."
"Then let's kick his ass!" Nero lit up, oblivious to the gravity of the situation. "Kyrie's brother taught me this trick to ambushing demons too powerful to take on alone. Just get those chicks you hang out with, and I'll see if any surviving members of the Holy Knights don't want me dead. Mundus will never know what hit him."
Dante chuckled bitterly. If he was just a bit more naive, he would take up Nero on his offer. Dante wanted another showdown more than anything. In an ideal world, everyone would tear Mundus's minions down, and the two of them would deliver the Coup De Gras.
But this isn't some comic book. It's not that they couldn't easily win that fight. Dante has surpassed his father, Trish had both Sparda's power and her own, Nero had a new trick up his sleeve every time Dante saw him, and Lady was smart and skilled enough to hold her own without any powers at all.
But just lying in wait until Mundus comes back and then pouncing won't accomplish anything. Mundus would just come back again, and history would repeat itself until the world ends or Mundus finally wins. And every time, innocents would die.
"That's one hell of a plan, kid. It's a shame it wouldn't work." Dante tried to keep his best poker face on. "But don't worry, I have a plan too."
Nero was listening, though he barely looked like he was. But that was good enough for Dante.
"My old man literally wrote the book on sealing spells." Dante gestured to a dusty tome sitting on his desk. "There's a nice, simple spell that's powerful enough to hold the son of a bitch for centuries, if we're lucky."
Nero nodded. He could think of a few more fun alternatives to a sealing ritual, but it was a good plan, at least compared to most of the older Devil's bright ideas.
"The ritual is pretty simple, just a bit tricky. You set a demon down near whatever you need sealed, and carve a few symbols into them with a devil arm. That demon's soul becomes trapped there with whatever you wanted to seal. The stronger the demon, the stronger the spell. " He reached over to the book and opened it to the relevant page. Nero studied them carefully.
"You're pretty good at this kind of stuff, you know. I was nearly blown away when Kyrie told me that you carved those patterns on your gun yourself. You could probably do something like this with Yamato in your sleep." Dante was laying the flattery on a bit too thick for Nero's liking.
"Carving with a sword's a new one for me, but I'll give it a go." Nero started to smirk with confidence. "So, who's the bastard we're cutting up and have you caught them yet?"
No answer. It took Nero a few seconds to realize what Dante was planning.
He should have figured it out much sooner. Dante was always a bit secretive, but he had been off the whole time. Dante was too serious. Where was the teasing? The laziness? The way his attention would slowly drift to a dirty magazine as you spoke to him?
"You can't." Nero finally spoke up. He was too emotional to keep a straight face like Dante was doing. Nero cared too much, even if he was a bratty punk.
"I've got no choice. " Dante kept it together and tried to respond in his usual way. He cared too, but he had lost too much to break down at every tragedy. He had the kind of spine that he hoped Nero would never have to grow.
"We can fight him. We both know we can." Nero begged.
"In the meantime, everyone around us might die." Dante finally cracked. "Kid, I'm going to tell you a bit of a story."
"When I was a little kid, I had a nice happy family. There was mom, dad, and my brother. We all lived happily, until dad just up and disappeared."
Dante let that sink in first. Dante's father was worshipped as a god in Nero's hometown, so this should have been enough to drive the point home. But Dante keep going.
"And then mom. I got to see that one. She hid me while she fought off Mundus's lackeys, and then she couldn't anymore. I had to watch her get torn apart, and there wasn't a thing I could do."
Dante still remembered that day as though it was yesterday. And it still hurt every time he thought about it.
"If he comes back, he'll go after everyone who wronged him and everyone they care about. You never met the guy, but you're related to my old man, and despite the fact that you're a pain in the ass, I kind of like having you around. That's probably a good enough reason for Mundus to start gunning for you. So what do you say kid? Do you think you can stand to watch your girl die in front of you? "
No response. Nero was frozen in place, other than the fact that he was shaking.
" There aren't very many powerful demons in our world anymore. Guess we should have thought about that, but hindsight is twenty - twenty." Dante keep injecting levity into the situation. He had to, or else he might break down too. "I'm powerful enough to keep Mundus down for a damn long time. Long enough to keep everyone the two of us care about safe, and hopefully enough time for humanity to learn to kill him without the help of devils like us."
Dante stood up and offered his hand to Nero. "So what do you say, kid?"
Nero tried to collect himself, and took Dante's hand." Let's get this over with before I change my mind."