According to legend, 2000 years ago, when snow was falling on a clear, freezing night on earth, a fierce devil prince was born deep in the darkest pit of the netherworld…
He grew rapidly. Within a short time he gained his full powers and took over the devil throne. His first act as ruler of all devils was to declare himself emperor of the devil kingdom. His next feat was an invasion of the human world. His plan was to conquer it and rule over both the upper and lower realms.
But a powerful devil-knight known as Sparda took pity on humans for their brief, transient lives. In fierce battles he defeated all the Devil ruler's armies and finally imprisoned the emperor himself in a sealed vault.
Having achieved his victory, Sparda abandoned the Devil Kingdom to live in the human world. He eventually married a human woman and soon after fathered two sons – half devil, half human. Sparda ruled the human world quietly until his death.
After 2000 years, the cursed Devil Emperor will again be strong enough to break free from his prison and will no doubt return to invade the human world once more. With the Legendary Knight Sparda gone, there will be no one to stop his terror...
All humanity shall fall, for the power is too great for a mortal mind and strength to overcome.
– From Devil World History (age unknown)
housed in the Library of Forbidden Books
Devil May Cry
Path of the Damned
Prologue
The apartment building was quiet tonight. The hallways were empty and dark, the full moon casting the only light on the shabby interior. Enzo Ferino pushed the button that would take him to the fifth floor, silently wondering what he was really doing living in a run-down place like this. Honestly, if his father's car dealership hadn't gone under, there was no way in hell he'd be living like this – in a trashy "castle" subject to slum lord rule on the wrong side of town. Still, he saw plenty of interesting things around these parts and kept a close ear on the inside stories. In his business, such information was an advantage.
The elevator with the three burnt out floor numbers came to a halt in the shaft before him and the doors slid open easily. He stepped inside, cradling the bottle of Jack Daniels he'd been out to get on this clear night. Enveloped in a paper bag, Enzo could still feel the temperature of the glass bottle on his skin, for it had been chilled by the night air. It gave him a sort of eerie feeling – in fact, he'd felt this way all night.
His feelings were never wrong. Something was afoot
Whether or not it would involve him, he was unsure, but there was something in the air – something wicked. He sighed as the elevator began to move. Being a mercenary, one had to watch out for himself – train himself to keep an eye on everything and anything that could possibly happen. The business was dangerous, especially when on a job, and one false move could mean bloody death. He'd learned all this in the past two years that he'd been working these miscellaneous jobs, yet tonight all he could feel was something in the air – something he couldn't put his finger on.
He leaned against the elevator wall as it came to a halt at the second floor. It seemed that someone else wished to join him for the pleasant ride.
Right. Pleasant my ass.
It seemed like it was taking forever to get to his room on the fifth floor, as though the elevator was moving two or three times slower than ever before. Now someone else was boarding. At this rate, it would be even longer before he could lock his apartment door and indulge in his liquor.
Ding.
The doors of the elevator shaft slid open once more to allow entrance to another passenger besides himself. Enzo barely lifted his eyes at first, uninterested in who would be joining him, but he became curious quite quickly when he saw her.
The woman stepped forward into the elevator beside him, smelling of a spicy scent that filled his nostrils and intoxicated his senses. He was curious, yet feeling cautious. He'd never seen this woman here before –
– and he would have remembered if he had
The woman was lovely to behold with long blond hair past her waist and a slender body to match the prototype of the perfect woman. Her body was shapely and clad in leather, though not enough to keep him from peering across her pale skin of cream and wishing suddenly that he'd shaved before he left his apartment. Across her perfect nose, a pair of dark sunglasses sat to cover her eyes. The woman was beautiful; she was just as or perhaps more perfect than any pin-up that graced his wall and now he found himself curious about her beyond turning. Where had this woman come from? He swallowed his particular feeling of malice for this night as he searched his mind for anything he could say to get some information about her.
"You from around here?" he asked dumbly, trying to take in information with common chit-chat.
"No," she said in a smooth voice that was firm in tone.
She didn't bother turning her shaded eyes to him, simply staring at the front door of the elevator as though she was interesting in leaping out as soon as it stopped. Dark shadows passed across her face in the dimly lit shaft, giving her an almost inhuman look of perfection. Enzo had almost decided to not venture further, but his curiosity led him on, pulling him into territory that he wondered if he would regret.
"So, where are ya' from?"
Her face was expressionless as she turned towards him, the yellow light above reflecting off her black lens as she parted her red lips.
"From hell," she said simply, turning back away.
A nervous laugh escaped his lips and he had to admit that it sounded strange in his own ears, but the woman's humor had taken him by surprise. Her voice was dry, and the comment wasn't too funny, but the spontaneous nature of her words struck him enough to conjure a laugh.
"Amen to that," he said, thinking of the shit-town that he called his home, but he supposed there could be worse places – at least according to her there was.
He felt the elevator slowing again, coming close to the fifth floor. He felt relief come over him as he knew that soon he would be at his door, out of the strangeness of the night. Enzo was no chicken, but he knew when to be cautious.
The woman beside him glanced up at the numbers over the door as they lit up, and she watched as the forth floor was passed and the elevator slowed to stop on the fifth.
"This your floor?" she asked.
"Yeah," he said, finding that his voice almost sounded grateful to be back home, but still wondering about this woman and regretting that he hadn't gotten to spend more time in her mysterious company.
He directed his attention away from her for a moment and looked down at his hands to get a better grip on the bottle there. He tugged on his coat collar and prepared to hear the sound overhead that summoned the door to open, but instead, he heard a different noise… It sounded like a machine shutting down; then he finally realized that it was the elevator that had stopped, yet the doors were not opening.
He cast his eyes to the strange woman and saw that she had her finger on the emergency button that locked down the elevator.
Shit, and I didn't even see it coming. She's after me? Great, and I don't even have a gun on me…
"Are you Ferino?" she asked, turning abruptly to face him.
He raised a defensive eyebrow, his blue eyes tracing for a possible escape.
"Who wants to know?" he asked.
The woman laughed – the sound was a cold hiss in his ears. She ran a hand over her shoulder to knock her light hair back from her face.
"Relax," she said. "None of this concerns you – unless, of course, you refuse to cooperate and give me the wrong answers."
He was silent a moment, considering his options, which appeared to be very few. He decided quickly that cooperation would be in his best interest – for now at least.
"I'm Enzo Ferino," he confirmed.
"You are a mercenary, correct?" she asked, leaning back against the closed elevator doors.
"Yeah."
The woman crossed her arms in front of her ample breast, a small smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.
"Ever heard of a man named Dante? I believe he's in your business."
Enzo's stomach tightened at the mention of this name. Yeah, he knew a man named Dante, but was it the Dante she was looking for? The Dante he knew was dangerous. No man in his right mind would fuck with him. He found himself torn. This woman might kill him, but if he gave out information about Dante that wasn't supposed to be said, he was as good as dead anyway.
"There are a lot of guys in my business," he said, veering from the direction of her questioning.
The woman smiled more at him, though he got a bad feeling from it. Something wasn't right…
In an instant, the woman was on his side of the elevator, grabbing his throat with a firm hand and the back of his head hit the wall harshly from the force of her sudden grip.
"Jesus!" he yelled, feeling the awesome strength in her fingers alone.
She pulled her face closer to his, bringing her voice low and menacing.
"Don't try this shit with me!" she threatened, pinching his throat slightly. "You know him, don't you?"
Enzo tried to suck in breath, but she saw his efforts and squeezed his wind pipe shut quickly, allowing him only an ounce of air at once. He was going to die if she kept this up! He supposed he had no choice; he was going to have to tell her what she wanted to know. He nodded in cooperation and she released the pipe, but not his throat entirely. After sucking in a deep breath, he was ready to talk.
"Yeah, I know him. He's tough, that's for damn sure. I seen him take on a dozen guys at once one time. He took them all out and walked away without a scratch."
"So, he's good?' she asked.
"He don't raise an eyebrow for nothin' – not even when a bullet grazes his nose." He took a pause to look her up and down. "Maybe for you though, honey."
Her face bore no expression at his words, but Enzo was telling the honest truth. Maybe he just wasn't telling her what she was looking for. He searched for what it could be, but without view of her eyes he was at loss.
"What else can you tell me?" she asked suddenly, releasing her death grip on his jugular.
"He's always been distant," Enzo said, massaging his sore neck. "Nobody really knows him, only been acquainted. Nobody knows anything about his past – or even that much about his present. One thing's for sure: he's a weird one."
"And what does that mean?" she inquired.
"He's into demon hunting," Enzo paused to laugh. "He won't take a job if he doesn't like it – not even for a pile of C notes up to the ceiling. But you show him a ghost hunt or devil purification and he's on it like a snake on a mouse. He'll take the job even if it's a rumor – and he'll take it whether or not there's a reward."
"Why do you think he does it?"
This question threw him off briefly, sounding more like a personal curiosity than a demand for vital information. He figured he may as well answer the lady.
"No idea. Some say for the challenge. Some others say…"
Enzo trailed off then, wondering if the theory was even too stupid to mention. He wasn't sure if he believed it, but there were others that were completely convinced.
"What do they say?" the woman asked.
He sighed before speaking.
"Well, rumor says blue blood may be runnin' through that guy's veins, if ya know what I mean."
"Devil blood?" she asked, seeming to ponder it herself.
"That's what they say."
"Hmmm," she said thoughtfully after a pause. "He sounds like the man I'm looking for. Tell me, where can I find him?"
"Hey, I'm not lookin' to get the guy screwed!" Enzo said, holding up his hands in protest. "He never loses… never! And he'd kill me after he finished you."
"You have my word that those things will not happen," she assured him.
That wasn't good enough for Enzo.
"How can you promise that? I know Dante better than I know you, and personally I think rattin' the guy out is the wrong choice."
He couldn't tell, but the woman's eyes seemed to light up in fury behind her glasses. He remembered how fast she had clenched his throat the first time, and he swore that when she jerked her hand towards him again it was even faster. Before the thought of a counter attack could register in his mind, he found himself clenched at the throat once more, struggling to suck in breath past her supernatural grip.
"Alright, lady, shit!" he exclaimed, wrenching away from her, but only at her consent.
Enzo was ready to get away. Anything he could do to get out of here and away from this woman… He pointed a finger at the elevator door.
"You leave here and head straight down the street in front of the building. You can't miss the place. His place of business – calls it Devil May Cry."
The woman released him once more, pushing a slender finger into the elevator button, completely ignoring the mercenary now; she was done with him. He sighed in relief as the elevator again began to move, hoping for the sanctity of his room once more. Something bad would happen tonight and he didn't want to have any part of it.
The doors slid open and the woman stepped out in front of him and into the long hallway. Enzo fumbled with his keys, letting the moonlight from the window at the end of the hallway aid him, though it didn't do too much good. The woman took a few steps down the hall, and then turned back to the shuffling man beside his door.
"Thanks," she said, then turned away again. "I hope you aren't a liar."
Enzo tried to find the correct key to fit the lock, but soon heard a pounding sound against the hall floor that stole his attention away. Lifting his eyes, he was surprised to see the woman, barreling down the hallway as fast as she could go. What was she doing? She would run into the wall! He watched her in curiosity, picking up speed as she ran, finally getting to the open window. Before he could protest, the woman pushed herself up into the frame and jumped straight out of the fifth story window.
Enzo dropped his keys in astonishment. What? In frozen curiosity he walked to the window. He hadn't heard the woman's body hit the ground. He had to know if she made it. But how could she have? There was no way; not by simply leaping as she did.
Peering out the open window into the cool night air, Enzo stared down at the street and saw nothing. There was no woman, and no evidence that she had even been there. He stared in disbelief at the pavement below. Where had she gone? She had just been there… or had she been there at all? Surely he had not just imagined it… right?
He glanced down at the bottle in the brown sack in his hand. Opening his fingers, he let the bottle hit the floor and roll away only slightly through the friction of the bag. He shook his head. That was it, he decided. No more liquor for Enzo Ferino.