Near the top of the tower, Vergil suddenly looked up from his view of the city below him. "Looks like we have a few uninvited guests." He said.
"Is that so?" Arkham asked, flipping through his book.
"A human. A woman. And another demon. Male." He confirmed.
"I'm afraid I should ask the uninvited ones to leave." Arkham said, getting up. "That is what you want." He said.
"The woman, but leave the demon. Something about his presence is... familiar." Vergil said, focusing more on this new demon.
"Very well. Actually, I happen to be acquainted with that woman." He said, before walking away. "A storm is approaching." He said as he continued to walk away, the strange burn on the side of his face moving as he walked. (Yeah, that's infected...)
Meanwhile...
Dante and I continued to the main hall of the castle, looking around. I looked to the side to see a door that was blocked off by Hellfire. "Well we're not going there any time soon." I said.
"Well, then, go to the next closest door. Less effort is the best option in my opinion." Dante said, walking towards the door.
"You'd get along with my brother Kinshiro." I said, following him.
Back to my family...
Kinshiro shot a demon in the head with his eye laser, before sneezing. "Someone's talking about me." He said.
Not too far away, Nightshade and my dad were fighting back to back. "So, Dad, why did you send Sai to do this job? He is powerful, but a situation this dangerous should be handled by someone stronger than him." Nightshade said.
My dad looked back at him and sighed. "Because Sai is the most merciful out of all of us. Sparda and I made a promise, on the grounds neither of us turned evil, of course, that if something happened to one of us, the other would watch out for and protect their family. And now, his son is trying to undo the seal and all the hard work we did to seal the demons away from the human world. I feared any of you would judge him too harshly and kill him. And I don't even trust myself that if I saw Vergil committing this unspeakable horror that I could stop myself from destroying him. Sai is the only one I believe will not destroy Vergil for this." He said, but then chuckled a bit. "Besides, Sai's neglected his training for quite a while and in that giant tower, he's bound to get QUITE the workout." He said.
Back to us...
I smashed a demon's head into a wall, panting heavily as we continued up the... "OH MY GODS! SO MANY STAIRS!" I said breathlessly. "I'd like to find whoever invented the stairs and push him down these stairs! Then his legs would be broken and he would no longer be able to climb stairs! It would be ironic! And then his wife would leave him and go be with the man who invented the elevator! Because everyone knows elevators are better than stairs!" I said as we continued to ascend the stairs, looking up to see. "And oh, my gods, we're not even close to the top yet, WHY ARE THERE SO MANY STAIRS?!" I demanded.
"You don't got a lot in the way of stamina, do you?" Dante asked.
"It's always been an unfortunate drawback." I said, looking to my Xenoverse health bar, which extended almost halfway across the screen with 9 ki bars, but only 4 stamina bars. (That's lower than normal, right? When I perfectly balance my characters, I usually end up with 6 ki bars and 6 stamina bars).
We entered the next room to see a shining object covered by a cage in the center of the room on a platform on the second level. Meanwhile, in the center of the first level were a number of statues... That suddenly began moving, as well as statues all long the sides on the second level. Eventually, these statues broke their original form to become strange spider demons that combined their arms into some kind of bow and arrow, charging up an energy arrow, which they aimed at us. "Draw their fire!" Dante said, running to the left, whipping out Ebony and Ivory.
"Got it!" I said, flying off to the right, spinning and throwing energy sais, injuring and angering the demons, causing them to aim at me. Dante eventually got to the stairs on the left side and sliced one of the demons in half, blasting the other two with a shotgun, before jumping to the next level, slicing through two more and stabbing the other one dozens of times at the speed of a blur.
"My turn!" I said, flying in and driving Blazeguard through one of the demons and ripping it in half, before throwing each ring to the sides, slicing the other two in half before they flew back to me.
"Not bad." Dante said as we met in the middle of the room, looking to the cage, then to the mechanism that powered it. "There's something written on it." I said, going to one knee to get close and read it. "To the being with the will of the thunderstorm, I bestow the will of steel." I read, before noticing three holes in it. "There's three holes here for some form of lever, I'm guessing." I said.
"Well, something moves this thing, but whatever it is, we don't have it." He said.
"Then let's go look for it. Judging by the layout of this place, if there's something important, it will probably be on a pedestal or something like that, standing out from everything else." I said.
"Yeah, that is how people's minds worked in the old times." He said as we moved towards the door on the far side of the room.
We entered the room, noticing a number of statues that resembled chess pieces. And in the middle of the room. "Hey, finally, an elevator!" I said, looking to the side and noticing some wheel mechanism. "And that must be what activates it." I said.
"Yeah, but it won't go with the weight of all those statues, plus us on it." He said.
"Leave it to me." I said, flinging Blazeguard in a wide-spread pincher motion, cutting through the statues off to the sides and coming together to smash through the last one, before coming back to me.
"Nice. You take a break, I'll hit the switch." He said. I nodded and got onto the elevator as he moved to the mechanism, hitting it and lighting a number of small fires until they were all light, the elevator starting to rock. He quickly jogged over onto it and it took off, lifting us to the next room, where more of the scythe demons ambushed us. "These guys again." He said.
"They're persistent, but they lose points for being weak as glass." I said as we rushed in. He attacked the ones closest to us as I jumped towards the ones in the back, guarding the next door. I landed in the center of the monsters and created a huger, fiery explosion. Dante looked back after dealing with his demons, shocked to see that mine were now still glass statues. "And now they ARE weak as glass. Fun fact: Super-heating sand makes ice." I said, tipping over the statues and shattering the demons.
Dante chuckled at this as he walked up. "Now that's style." He said.
"Style?" I asked.
"Yeah. You gotta be flashy every so often in the fight, do something crazy your enemy won't expect." He explained.
"Huh. My sisters always taught me to put effectiveness over flashy and stylish." I said.
He shook his head at this. "Well, they taught you wrong. Stick with me, kid. You'll learn style by the mile." He said, walking through the door.
I slightly deadpanned at this. "If that involves a lot of rhyming, then no thank you." I said, following him.
We re-entered the main hall, now facing across from a yellow door on the next level on the other side of the room. "So, we're heading there, I guess?" I asked.
"You guessed right." He said. We walked around to the start of the next level, but the path was broken. Luckily, we're both experienced in parkour and awesomeness. He jumped to the wall above the broken path and jumped off, landing right in front of the yellow door while I jumped to and ran along the wall, landing like a gymnast after they land their jump. "Alright, no one likes a show-off." He said, going through the door.
I followed him through the door, but as soon as we entered, the door we came through, as well as the door to our right, were sealed with demonic barriers. "Oh, great. How are we gonna get back now?" I asked.
"We'll have to just keep moving forward." He said, gesturing to the very thin set of stair, full of cracks, in between the platform we were now on, to another platform with a statue with flames and a door that had a gate in front of it.
"Besides the numerous other problems, that staircase doesn't seem stable AT ALL." I said.
"You got a better idea?" He asked, starting to take the stairs.
"Hey, what's this?" I asked, walking over to a glowing text on the wall. "Steel thy soul! the future knows no bounds for those who deftly march forth and meet it!" I read, confused. "Huh. Wonder what that means. I wonder if it had anything to do with that Soul of Steel back in that other room?" I asked. At this very moment, the stairs collapsed and Dante was sent falling into the abyss below. "Dante!" I said, running to the edge. I shot a fireball down after him, counting for 20 seconds before it hit the ground and dispersed. "This is not gonna be fun." I said, jumping down after him.
We landed in a small room and were immediately ambushed by demons, no exit of any sort visible. "Guess we were supposed to do that! Now we're supposed to take these guys out!" He said, attacking.
I deadpanned at this straightforward and narrow thinking. "What incredible logic you have." I said sarcastically, blocking an overhead scythe attack from a demon with one ring, then slicing it in half with the other. "But, I don't have any better ideas." I said, jumping at a larger demon and spinning with both of Blazeguard's rings extended, becoming a tornado of dismemberment, slicing the demon to pieces, before flinging them at and shredding another demon.
Eventually, we destroyed all of the demons and a portal of light appeared in the center of the room. Stepping through it, we were brought back to the doors we were at previously, the seals breaking. "See? Supposed to do that." He confirmed, going through the bigger doors.
We walked through the doors and they were sealed once again, as well as a giant, flying centipede demon flying at us. "Really should've expected THAT one." I said, annoyed. I was usually pretty good at spotting traps.
Dante just chuckled again at this. "Come on, kid! Lighten up a little! Crack a joke, have fun!" Dante said, diving down on and impaling the demon with Rebellion, then quickly and repeatedly striking it with Cerberus.
"To see the world through his eyes." I said with a sigh, before jumping and flinging one ring into the Centipede's back, ripping into it, before diving and stabbing the other ring into it, drawing them both and spinning again to slash it several times. However, it suddenly began letting off sparks and quickly rolled, sending us to the ground, going through a hole and disappearing. After a few moments, it reappeared, firing several purple energy balls at us. "Incoming!" I said, flipping the hood of my coat up and turning my back, the energy shots hitting me, but doing no damage through the indestructible coat. This would be my defensive Style: Wall of Defense.
"Feisty one!" Dante said, easily dodging the energy balls coming at him with his Trickster dodges.
Back to now...
"Oh, by the way, this is why the Devil May Sai version of the game is better, because it's like Devil May Cry 4 and Dante and I can change our Styles, mid-fight, not having to wait for the statues. And you can cycle between ALL the weapons, not just 2 at a time." I explained.
"Yeah, but it's hard to beat a game where I'M the star instead of an unlockable character." Dante said.
"Ohh, they throwing shade!" Draco said. Something then occured to him. "Hey, wait, this is a boss fight, where's the BGM, man?!" He demanded.
"It's barely a boss fight! It's a distraction at best, there's a reason they didn't give them health bars inside the leviathan." I explained.
"Can we please get back to the story?" Damion asked.
"Fine." We both said.
Back to then...
"Hope that's not all you got, big guy!" Dante said, jumping on its back and attacking again.
"See how you like this!" I said, going Super Sai-yan and firing a barrage of ki blasts on it from below while dodging its attacks.
It kept flying in and out of the holes and throwing us off its back when we attacked, but eventually, we still managed to beat it with relative ease. "No need to call the exterminators, right?" Dante said.
"I guess not." I said as we headed to the other end of the room from where we came in and going through the door. On the other side, we then found another glowing object. "What's this?" I asked, picking up the astronomical board.
"It's an astronomical device. Said to display the endless void of space. They say it's powered by time. Certainly not a 3-pronged lever, though." He said.
"No, but there was another pedestal in the main hall. There's a chance this is its key." I explained.
"Let's hit it, then." He said. We walked to the door we came from, Dante pushing on it, but it wouldn't budge. He sighed and took a few steps away, gesturing for me to back up. I did so as he turned around and rushed forward, spinning and hitting the door with a powerful back kick, shaking it, but not opening it. He looked back in shock, nodding in admittance that the door was resistant. "Okay, then. I've still got a few tricks." He said, reaching for his guns.
"Why don't I give it a try." I said, moving in front of the door, pulling my hands back, a blue and white energy forming in them. "Kamehame-!" I started.
"Yoohoo!" A voice suddenly called, to which I cancelled the attack, looking behind us to see an old time-y jester dressed in purple. "There's no need to use violence, devil boys." He said.
"The last time a clown said that, he'd just thrown a pie in my face. Didn't save him." I said, starting to charge the attack again.
He quickly moved in front of me after this. "Wait, wait, wait! Better listen to what others say, lad." He said.
"Then say it quick. You're already annoying me." Dante said, picking his ear.
"This tower here is VERY sturdy." He said, knocking on it with his "scepter". I put that in quotes because technically, that's what it's called, but when I think of scepter, I think of a big staff with a scary glowing crystal ball or gem at the end, not a tiny little baton. "You see? Your tricks will do you no good. No good!" He said, leaning in.
"Well, I'm pretty sure meteors and planets are sturdier than that door and that does the trick for them." I said.
"I kinda wanna see where this is going." Dante said, sticking Ivory in the clowns face enough to bend the jester's long, pointed nose. "Now zip it, or I'll pierce that big nose." He said.
"That could be a problem." He said, moving beside Dante. "Just hear me out! You've got nothing to lose, right?" He asked, circling around us, before bowing. "My name is Jester. And I know a thing or two about this place." He said, pointing to the slab next to the door with his "scepter". "That THING there is a power generator for this entire sector. In order to open the door, you need to apply a little SOMETHING to it, first. Do you know what THAT is, kids? Or is that too difficult for you?!" He demanded, before laughing crazily.
I conjured a sai and put the point up to his throat. "I REALLY hate it when people skip around the riddles and dance around the question..." I warned him.
"So, give us the answer, or you can dance all day for real!" Dante said, firing at the clown's feet after I quickly jumped back. "Get to the point, or do you want to keep on dancing?!" Dante demanded as he continued to fire and Jester LITERALLY danced to avoid the bullets.
Dante stopped and allowed the clown to catch his breath, fanning himself with his "scepter" before looking at Rebellion strapped to Dante's back. "Actually, I prefer a sword to be my partner." He said, bowing again. "May I have this dance, my lady?" He asked. Dante swung the sword, but suddenly, the clown disappeared, causing Dante to hit the power generator, kicking it to life and opening the door. "BINGO! THAT is WHAT the SOMETHING is!" He explained, now on the ceiling. "Remember that kids! Write it down on your hands if you don't trust your heads!" He said, laughing, but that quickly stopped when Dante and I both unleashed an onslaught of our unique projectiles at his feet, causing him to hurriedly dance away.
"I see. Thanks." Dante said as we started to walk away.
"You still piss me off, though." We said, together.
We retraced our steps back to the hall we fought the centipede in, to find a giant fountain filling up with blood in the middle of the room. "That was NOT there before." I said, cautiously.
"Thanks for destroying the lock for me, devil boys! Please accept my gift!" He said.
"I don't think I want it." I said, disturbed.
"I'm with your there." Dante agreed.
"Oh, come now! Don't be humble! Just take it! After all, we're buddies, aren't we?" He asked.
Suddenly, the demonic birds etched into the fountain began glowing, turning to blood and springing to life. "That's not a gift!" I snapped, preparing to fight.
Dante however, simply smirked, tossing Rebellion into the air and slashing two of the birds to drive them away, before hitting another one, slicing its wing off and sending it crashing into a wall. "Well, isn't that special? To be honest, I was expecting something a little bit better than this." Dante said, lunging into the fray.
"Let's find out what temperature blood boils at!" I said, lighting Blazeguard with hellfire and spinning, creating a small tornado of hellfire, catching several blood birds in it and evaporating them, while Dante trapped a small group in a corner, blasting them with his shotgun and turning them to stone, before pulling out Cerberus, spinning and slamming the weapon down on the birds, shattering them easily.
"Come on, clown! Is that the best you can do! I could keep this up all night!" Dante taunted.
Suddenly, a circle appeared in the middle of the room, sparking with lightning. "I guess that means 'challenge accepted'." I said as we walked into the circle. We were then teleported to a strange arena, which Jester suddenly appeared in the middle of.
Background Music: "Land of Confusion" by Disturbed
"Welcome to HELL!" He laughed, taking a bow.
"If it means I get to take you down, then hell isn't so bad!" I said, rushing in and swiping at him, but he suddenly vanished, appearing to the edge of the arena on the left.
"Dodge this!" Dante said, firing at him with Ebony and Ivory as he struggled to dodge, the bullets still hitting and catching his feet. He suddenly appeared to the far end of the arena, panting and fanning himself with his "scepter". "Sai, now!" Dante said.
"Got it!" I said, rushing in and spinning, slashing through him several times as he stood there, taking the hits. It visibly hurt him, but he was still able to take them.
I swung once more, but he suddenly disappeared and reappeared in the center of the arena. "Well done, everyone! Well done!" He said, clapping along with his words. We both rushed in and attacked, but he was suddenly surrounded by a barrier. Our attacks still hit him, but now didn't even seem to bother him. Suddenly, three portals appeared in between us. "~Joker's gonna spank your butt, spank you on the buuutt~!" He sang, jumping in circles in his bubble, when strange bubbles started coming out of the portals. (Yes, in these fights, he says "Joker", not Jester. Somebody dropped the ball in recording)
I was so busy hitting him, I didn't notice when the balls suddenly bounced off the ground and bumped into me, unleashing a sudden, unexpected force that sent me flying. "Oh, gods!" I said as I skidded to a stop, looking at Dante. "Dante, look out!" I called.
Too late. Dante also didn't consider the bubbles and was sent flying as well. "Damn. Those bubbles have quite the pop!" He said, jumping back up and rushing in again. We both re-engaged and attacked, but he eventually disappeared, causing Dante and I to lock blades where he was once standing.
"Slippery bastard!" Dante said.
"You forgot annoying!" I said, flinging one of the wheels at Jester as he reappeared, only for him to dodge again.
"Rinse and repeat!" Dante said, firing at his feet again until he teleported away to rest.
"And I'll dry him off!" I said, rushing in and doing a triple front flip with the wheels in front of me, slashing him three times, landing in a kneeling position after the final slash.
End Music
He then teleported into the center of the room, holding his chest dramatically, before looking up at us. "Oops!" He said, before creating a circle beneath himself, laughing waving and smacking his ass to taunt us before we reappeared in the center of the room we'd just been in.
"You got that right. Top 3 most annoying people I've ever met." Dante said.
"I wouldn't mind never seeing him again as long as I live." I agreed, before looking to the door we'd first entered the room through. "Look, the seal's broken." I said.
We headed back out of the room into the hall, then back through the yellow door into the main hall, heading up to the top where the pedestal was and inserting the Astronomical Board. Then, the walls in the middle of the room that blocked out path to a shiny object in the middle of the room sunk back into the rest of the wall, as well as a demonic spring glyph appearing in the middle of the room. We dropped down to the lower floors to the pedestal that was previously blocked and I piked up the trident-like ornament. "What's that, a trident or something?" Dante asked.
"It's a Vajura. A replica of the trident, but I doubt it could be used as a weapon." I said, giving it a small test swing. "Yeah, it's too weak. It'd break as soon as it hit a demon." I said, before looking at it. "Wait, this has 3 prongs. It has to be what we're looking for." I said.
"Then let's go." He said.
We retraced our steps to the room with the cage, reaching the mechanism. I pulled the Vajura out of my coat and stabbed it into the machine, but nothing happened. I shrugged at Dante, who shrugged back before kicking the mechanism, causing it to move into place and lift the cage. "Wow. Kicking solves everything." I said.
"Yes, it does." Dante said, walking over and grabbing the Soul of Steel.
Suddenly, the doors were sealed again and a number of demons appeared. "Well, let's see if it solves this problem!" I said, going Super Sai-yan again and flying around the room, delivering kicks powerful enough to shatter the metal demons and decapitate the sand ones. In less than a minute, the demons were dead and the seals were destroyed.
"Apparently, it did." Dante said as we returned to the main hall. We quickly re-retraced our steps (the WONDERS of backtracking), going back through the yellow door and looking across the chasm to the sealed door, then to the chasm below it. Dante tossed the Soul of Steel into the air a few times, before catching it. "Hope this works!" He said, running across the chasm, the air rippling at his feet, making it look like he was running on water as he made his way to the previously unreachable platform. "Your turn!" He said, tossing me the soul.
"Got it!" I said, catching it and running across. I then noticed the gate in front of the door and the hole in the middle of it. "Hm... I bet I know what goes here." I said, placing the Soul of Steel in it, lifting it out of the way. "Smooth sailing." I said as we walked through. We reached the center of the room and, to my relief, there was another elevator. "Thank the gods, my feet felt like they were about to fall off." I said, pulling a lawn chair for each of us out of my coat (I guess Popobawa had his lazy moments) and setting it up as Dante activated the switch again, quickly running back and jumping into his seat.
Suddenly, as we reached about 10 feet in the air, a number of demons dropped down on us. "Damn! They'll overload the elevator!" Dante said, blasting them off with his shotgun while I assisted with Evil Explosion. With this technique, we easily limited the number of demons to 2 (us) until the elevator reached its final stop. We rounded the outside of the tower to a set of red doors.
"Get ready. I'm sensing two demons, significantly stronger than the ones we faced so far. About on par with Popobawa and Cerberus." I warned him.
"Two-on-two, huh? Sounds fair." He said, pushing open the doors.
We entered the middle of the room, at which point, the demons finally noticed us. "Look, brother! It's been ages, but we finally have company!" One voice rang out.
"I can see that!" The other said.
"We must entertain our guests!" The first said.
"You're right! We must be gracious hosts!" The second said.
"For real?" I said in annoyance, looking to Dante as he put his hands on his hips.
"Right?" He said, annoyed.
There was a short pause before... "What should we do?" The first asked.
"How should I know, we have to come up with something!" The second said.
"Oh, come on!" I groaned as Dante sighed.
"Brother, our guests are sighing." The first said.
"SIGH? What is SIGH?" The second asked.
"That's me." I said with a chuckle, raising my hand.
Dante chuckled as well. "That's more entertaining that these guys." He said.
"Well, a sigh is when..." The first started.
"Enough already!" Dante shouted. "How long are you two going to keep carrying on like this?! In case you didn't get the hint, I'll spell it: Your 'guests' want to go through! Got it?!" He snapped.
The suddenly started moving and getting up after this. "Our job is to guard this door!" The first explained.
"That's right, we cannot let you pass!" The second said. We could now see they were different colors, the first red and the second blue, each wielding a scimitar that matched their body color, with a tiny head at the bottom of the hilt, which must control their body, since their bodies lacked heads. They then jumped down after us.
"The red one's mine!" I said, rushing in, swinging at its chest, but it leaned back, Matrixing my swing and swinging its own sword, hitting me in the side and launching me into the air, where the other one already was, executing a twist in midair and slamming its sword down into me, knocking me down into and through the floor, as well as several other floors, even below the main hall we had entered, into some strange room that almost looked like a dueling room, where two people would fight to the death
"Sai!" Dante called down, before growling as he had to dodge an attack from the blue one.
I looked back up, noticing the number of floors I'd been knocked down through. "Man, it's gonna take me a while to get back through all those floors." I said, about to jump back up to the main hall, which was only a floor or two above me, but then a chilling voice rang out.
"RYU BLADE!" It roared. Suddenly, a monstrous creature charged at me from nowhere. I quickly rolled to the side, before looking up to see a Minotaur, standing easily over twice my size, with thick, powerful legs with hooves bigger than a Clydesdale's and a muscular body built like two gorillas, arms as big as tree trunks with fists the size of a pig's head. Speaking of his, when you think of a Minotaur, you think of a dude with a bull's head, right? Well, this guy's was like two bull's heads ungodly fused together into one super bull hed, with horns big enough to gore 5 people. He then looked at me, first in confusion that I wasn't my father, but then he pretty quickly put two and two together. "You are the spawn of Ryu Blade!" He roared.
"I'm guessing you weren't his biggest fan." I said nervously, backing away.
"That bastard betrayed us in our moment of glory! We fought together as comrades! And he turned his back on us, sealing us in this tower with help from that wretched Sparda! He defeated me! HUMILIATED me! And he wouldn't even give me the honor of death!" He roared, charging at me again.
"So, you're mad he DIDN'T kill you? That's a first." I said.
"I failed! Only death would restore my honor! And he refused to give it to me! But I now, I will grant that honor to you!" He roared, charging again.
Background Music: "This is Gonna Hurt" by Sixx AM
"I don't want it!" I said, diving to the side.
He roared and turned around rushing in again, but this time he reared back and slammed his fists into the ground, shaking the floor and causing me to struggle to keep my balance, at which point he rushed in and threw an uppercut, sending me flying. I slammed into a pillar and he charged again, I did a backflip, planting my feet on the pillar and launching off it, causing him to slam into the pillar, as well as getting his horns stuck. "Damn you! Dirty trickery! Just as I would expect from the spawn of Ryu Blade!" He growled as he struggled to free himself.
"In the words of Sun Tzu, the first rule of combat is all warfare is based on deception." I said, drawing Blazeguard and striking rapidly. I landed several more hits before he completely ripped out a 5 foot chunk of the pillar. "What the?!" I said in shock.
He chuckled at this. "Next rule: Catch your enemy by surprise and attack!" He said, punching the pillar and shattering it into dozens of tiny, bullet-sized rocks, then clapping to create a shock wave powerful enough to send the rocks flying at me.
"Balls!" I said, blocking with my trench coat, but I pulled the hood down to protect my face, so I could no longer see the monster, leaving me open for him to charge in and slam his fist into me, sending me into a wall again, but I spun in mid-air, planting my feet on it and launching myself back at him, barrel rolling to avoid another punch and using the opening from the punch to land a deep slash to his side, turning around and doing my Fire Saw front flip attack I did earlier, before jumping and backflipping away as he recovered and swung back at me.
"I shall erase Ryu Blade and all of his lineage from this world!" He roared, smashing his fists into the ground repeatedlty, causing more tremors and raising more rocks into the air, launching them at me and charging forward. I managed to dodge the rocks, but not the charging bull man who slammed his head into me, then slammed into the wall.
Unfortunately for him, he made one crucial error. Much like the pillar, his horns were stuck in the wall again. And my hands were free, one of Blazeguard's rings in each. "Okay... How about we try something different... instead of you being a dick right now." I said, repeatedly stabbing and slashing at his head, causing him to roar in pain and repeatedly push his head forward, repeatedly crushing me between his skull and the wall. "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!" I said, before finally freeing myself as he pulled back again further than the last few times, putting enough space between him and the wall for me to escape. "Okay, going over here now!" I said, jumping to the other side of the room.
"There is no escape for you, spawn of Ryu Blade! You will die here! By my hand! You have no hope! Perhaps if your surrender, I will grant you a quick death!" He said, charging again.
"Huh. That's quite the offer... But how about fuck you, anyway?!" I said, flinging Blazeguard at him, lit with hellfire, but he ducked the two demonic rings, still charging. "OH, shit! I missed!" I said, running and diving out of the way, rolling to my feet and quickly reclaiming my weapons. I turned around to see him charging again, flinging the rings once more, only for them to miss again. "Oh, my dear gods, no." I said in horror. He leapt towards me, ready to smash his fists down on me, but I slid under him, dodging the massive fists and called my weapons back once again.
He laughed triumphantly at this. "I suppose it is as you humans say: you mess with the bull, you get the horns!" He said, charging.
I smirked at this, remembering a big tradition in certain parts of the world. "And I guess you've never seen a bull fight... Because 9 times out of 10, THE BULL DIES!" I said, swinging my blades upwards as he was about to reach me, uppercutting him with the blades and stunning him, before repeatedly stabbing him with the with the bladed rings, 3 blades of each ring stabbing into him with each attack. "My father didn't grant you the release of death, but that's not a mistake I will make!" I said, spinning once more and slashing through his chest with both blades, sending him crashing to the ground on his back, defeated.
End Music
He appeared to contemplate all that happened as he lay dying on the ground. "Once again, I am defeated by someone of the Blade's lineage." He said.
"I hope you know, it was never anything personal. You said you and my father were comrades once. And I suspect, deep down, he still considers you a friend. It wasn't the demons themselves that my father wanted to put a stop to, it was simply your goals, trying to enslave the humans, something he couldn't let stand." I explained.
He chuckled at this. "That is my fondest memory of your father... He always stood by his convictions, even if that meant disobeying Mundus or going against something many other demons agreed with. He was a man of determination. And I suspect you are the same." He said.
"Yeah. One of Sparda's sons is trying to undo the seal, destroying all the hard work our father's put in to protect this world from the demons. In one fell swoop, he'll doom the human world and destroy both of our family's legacies. I can't allow him to do it." I said.
He closed his eyes in understanding at this. "You honor your family legacy and stand by your convictions, as well. Noble qualities. Then, to that end, I will assist you. The only honorable act I am able to do any longer. Take my soul and go forth. May the opposition crumble in the way of your convictions and the strength of my soul." He said, his body shattering and becoming an orb of light that flew into my hand. Suddenly, I was now holding a massive bearded (double-sided) axe. At the bottom of the weapon was a ruby in the shape of a fist, followed by a strong, black pole with red thorny vines twisting around it like a helix, the Minotaur's face taking up the other end of the weapon, obsidian horns branching from his head into the blades of the weapons.
"Now we're talking." I said as demons started showing up, giving a few powerful test swings, easily cleaving them in half or decapitating them, holding it behind my neck and spinning a few times and knocking several more away, before grabbing the pole and swinging in a wide arc, slicing through another 5 demons. I don't know why, but I suddenly decided throw the weapon at a group of demons in front of me, at which point, it reformed into a transparent of the Minotaur, who swung his arm and knocked another half dozen demons away, before stomping and sending the rest of that group flying, before moving like a blur and appearing behind me with his arms crossed (Thanks to Insieme Per La Vittoria for helping me come up with this, as well as several other weapons in this story) . "I thought you just died!" I said in shock.
"My spirit is still strong. My soul resides in the weapon. I can be your blade or fight alongside you in battle." He explained.
"Awesome. Kind of like a stand." I said.
"I have never heard of such a power or ability? Where did you hear about this?" He asked.
"Wikipedia." I explained, the page quickly appearing on screen with the definition.
-Stands-
A Stand is a Supernatural ability that kicks all kinds of ass.
-How to Summon-
Step 1: Will self to do so
Step 2: ?
Step 3: PROFIT!
Back to now...
"I haven't seen Stardust Crusaders yet." I explained.
Back to then...
coming back from the wiki page, I raised my hand into the air and the demons circled us a leapt into the air towards us, the Minotaur's spirit turning back into the axe, which I swung at the ground, and made a huge shockwave, tearing up several chunks of the ground, sending them up and into the demons, shattering them.
Meanwhile...
Several floors above, Dante had defeated the red demon, but the blue demon now wielded both swords and began overpowering the young Devil Hunter, knocking him onto his back and preparing for one final attack that would likely finish him. However, at that moment, the ground began to shake and the demon lost its footing, sinking the blades into the ground to keep from losing its balance. Even several more floors above, at the very top of the tower, Vergil braced himself against the sudden trembling as my final strike to the ground shook the entire tower (Someone math that feat, please. Insieme?). Dante used this crucial opening to rush forward and slash the demon in half, sending the swords into the air.
Back with me...
I smiled in satisfaction before putting the weapons away. "Alright, adding to the arsenal always helps. Now, I should catch back up with Dante, let's see, there should be a way back..." I said, before noticing that a giant staircase now went up through the main hall and several other floors, possibly even to the one Dante was now on. I was relieved at first, but then I realized just how many stairs that was. "Fffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuu..." I dragged out the word to match my annoyance.
Meanwhile, with Lady...
The human Devil Huntress was making her way through the tower incredibly well for a teenage human girl, when she suddenly heard an echoing deep through the tower. "Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuu..." The echo continued to resound.
"What is that? Are my ears ringing?" She asked, wiggling her finger in one of them
Back with Dante...
He started to walk off, when the swords called out to him. "Wait!" The first said.
"Yes, wait! We have been waiting for a long time!" The second said.
"Yes! A very long time!" The first said.
"For someone stronger than us!" The second explained.
"Someone who can control us!" The first added.
"My name is Agni!" The red one said.
"And my name is Rudra!" The blue one said "You shall take us with you!" He ordered, despite not having any position to do so.
"We could be of great help to you!" They said together.
Dante thought about this for a second, before nodding. "Alright, but on one condition." He said.
"What is it?" Agni asked.
"Name it!" Rudra agreed.
"No. Talking!" He said, pointing in one's face, then the other.
"Fair enough!" Agni said.
"As you wish." Rudra agreed. With that, Dante grabbed them from the ground and began swinging them around stylishly, sending bursts of fire and gusts of wind in every direction, before finishing in a badass pose. "Impressive." Rudra said.
However, despite the compliment, this earned the swords getting their heads clanged together. "No. Talking!" Dante said to one, then the other. They remained silent after that. "Good." He said, before looking down the hole. "I hope Sai's okay after all that." He said, before shaking his head. "Nah. I'm half a demon and I could shake that off. The real deal's gotta be able to deal with it just as well." He said. "You better hurry, Sai! Before you miss all the action!" He called down after me,before continuing on.
Back to me...
"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!" I finished.
