Chapter 2: Where Is This?
Dante slipped on his shirt and signature red coat before he plopped back down behind his desk. Both men stayed calm and silent as Lady and Trish made their way to the headquarters, but they were both very excited on the inside. Hell, who wouldn't be excited earning a hundred million dollars? Nero, though, was excited that he'd get paid a nice amount of money to do something special for Kyrie. He wasn't sure what, though, but he wanted to do something for her.
Dante began to get impatient, checking the time on the clock every 2 to 3 minutes. He started shifting his feet on the desk and sighing every once in awhile. Nero spotted a magazine on Dante's desk and snatched it.
"Hey! Ever heard of asking first, kid?" Dante yelled.
Nero ignored him and sat on the couch, flipping through the pages.
"I take that as a 'no,' then."
Dante took out another magazine and started reading. Nero scanned through, looking for something Kyrie might like. It suddenly came to him when he turned the page. The item on that page was just perfect. He NEEDED to get it for her. Without asking permission again, he ripped the entire page out of the magazine, folded it up, and stuffed it in his pocket.
"Hey! What the fuck, kid? I paid for that magazine!" Dante yelled again, slamming his magazine on the desk.
Nero chuckled. "Don't worry. I don't think you'll miss the page anyway…"
Dante was about to open his mouth again until he heard the door open. Finally, twenty-three minutes after the phone call, the two ladies walked in through the door making both the men's faces light up with joy and enthusiasm.
Nero tossed the magazine on the couch as Dante stood up, doing this as a silent greeting to them, and nearly smiled from ear to ear. "We gotta job. I think you'll love it."
Lady crossed her arms in doubt and half sat on the pool table in the room. "How much?"
"A hundred million dollars, babe." Dante's smile grew even more. He absolutely loved the sound of that. A hundred million dollars. Every time he heard it, it was like music to his ears. Both of the women's eyes widened in utter shock.
"That's-" Trish gasped before she was interrupted.
"Enough to pay off the debt, yeah." Dante repeated, still smiling like the Cheshire cat.
"About time…" Nero mumbled to himself, trying not to laugh but smiling instead.
"Shut up, kid." Dante chuckled.
"What's the job?" Lady asked, trying not to sound as excited as she was.
Dante walked over to them in silence just to cause a suspenseful effect. Oh god, he loved this so much. The job was just so perfect, too. He never got to slay any demons that were a lot of trouble… Well, only a few, but none that were able to shape-shift and teleport. "It's a difficult one, but it sounds fun. Gotta track down and slay a demon named Saccularius, a guy who shape-shifts and teleports."
Trish smiled in a sinister manner. "Sounds like this job is up your alley."
Dante mirrored her smile right back at her. "HELL YEAHH, it is!"
The group of demon hunters laughed for a while, savoring the happy moment they had together. Trish and Lady just kind of giggled, but Nero caught onto Dante's loud, infectious laugh. Although they were having a good time, the laughing subsided into an awkward silence as reality hit them…
How will they ever find this demon?
The hunters fell into a train of thought; the girls elaborated more in their heads, though, since they researched many topics and spent hours in the library, therefore having more knowledge than their male partners. Anything they could remember about demons came to mind, but they mostly thought of their attraction to certain scents. As they thought, silence began to consume even the low hum of the ceiling fan until Dante shattered it with his booming, yet soothing voice.
"Well, how would we ever find this bastard? With a scent? A strong amulet?" He looked into Trish's demon eyes, knowing she would have some great knowledge on this subject.
After sighing, she answered, "We could use the scent of blood to lure him in, but –"
"It might attract too many demons?" Nero interjected.
As Trish nodded and opened her mouth to speak, Dante interrupted her by chuckling. "So the kid actually knows a bit about demons?"
Nero just chuckled back. "Says the jackass who's half-demon himself and is asking how to catch this guy."
The older man smirked. "Oooh! Y'know, that actually almost hurt!"
Right before the two were about to go for one another's throats with smart-aleck comments, Trish cleared her throat loudly, almost sounding like a car engine. The two men noticed and kept their mouths shut.
"As I was about to say –," Trish glared at the two, making sure their mouths were closed. "– if we use the smell of blood to attract him but we attract too many demons, we may be able to hold off the demons together, but we don't know if the smell will affect him or not… After all, we don't know how strong he is."
Dante and Nero nodded in understanding. It was common knowledge to any demon hunter that only a weak-minded demon would be lured in by the smell of blood. Lady gazed away for a moment, as if trying to remember something. She had one hand supporting the other that touched her face, glancing from the empty spots on the walls to the weapons. Sensing everyone's eyes on her, she met their gaze with a very puzzled and curious look.
"Isn't there some old remedy that only attracts strong demons?" she admitted.
Even before Trish placed a hand on her hip, Lady knew what her question would be; apparently so did the male hunters, judging by the looks on their faces. A split-second after Trish parted her lips, Lady answered her unasked question. "If the demon ends up being weak, then we'll just figure something else out. But since we don't know for now, we can test anything that can attract demons, either weak or strong. Saccularius could actually be strong, but at the same time his powers could just be covering up his weaknesses."
Dante raised an eyebrow at Lady's insight while Nero hid a smile. Lady caught Trish's smile-and-slanted-eyes signal and continued. "I have a few tricks up my sleeve that could lure in either strong or weak. But if the trick lures in too many demons, that'll just be our way of getting exercise."
Trish placed a hand on her hip. "What kind of trick do you have in mind?"
Lady glanced at each hunter, trying to read their emotions on the subject. She couldn't quite remember what went into the remedies, but she remembered the effects. For a few moments, she let her worriedness show through as she desperately racked her brain for anything that might lead her to the remedies.
A little uneasy with the silence, Dante spoke out. "Lady?"
Dante's voice triggered a memory in Lady's mind and her eyes grew wide and she gasped at her realization. Almost in a panic, she muttered, "Hold on a minute!" and flew up the flight of stairs next to her.
The gang waited patiently for her, though immediately after her leave Dante ran his smart mouth. "Geez, just gotta go that badly, huh?"
Nero chuckled a little, but Trish rolled her eyes. Dante caught the cold stare that Trish's icy eyes gave him and admitted, "What? Is there any problem in laughing some more?"
She sighed, also feeling the weight of this new mission. "I guess you're right."
She shifted her weight onto the other foot while waiting for Lady to come back. Nero took notice of his surroundings out of boredom. The office was a large, roughly square-shaped room with stairs leading to a second story, where Lady ran, to the left of the entrance and a bathroom across from it. Above the bathroom door on the wall adjacent to it, there's a miniature copy of the pink neon sign out front stating the shop's name. The office's furniture consisted of an antique jukebox, a billiard table with snooker cues, a sofa, and Dante's personal desk and chair. Instruments such as a drum set accompanied by an electric guitar were also present. Other pieces of clutter-such as boxes, a potted plant, a small refrigerator, a dart board, a trash can, and a coat tree-filled in the space of the large room though it still looked rather empty. The place looked like it hasn't been cleaned in a while, but it somehow always looked the same. The desk had a framed picture of a woman who looks like Trish and an old-fashioned, rotary dial, black telephone on it.
Nero noticed how some places of the walls looked fairly new while the rest was dusty in a shadow-like way, as if something had spent a good amount of time hanging in those places. "What used to be hanging up here?"
Dante noticed Nero pointing his finger towards the wall near the stairs and replied, "Demon trophies. I took 'em down 'cause they scared the ladies away."
Nero chuckled. "Those trophies were keeping you from getting laid?"
Dante chuckled back. "I guess so. There's nothing worse than ruining the moment by looking up and seeing a demon head with a sword stuffed down its throat!"
The laughter continued until Nero glanced from the jukebox to the old telephone. Those two were vintage items and were considered a lot of money, though Nero stuck his nose up to it. He walked over to the jukebox and looked at the songs. "Why do you have all this old junk?"
Dante, all of a sudden bored with the new mission, plopped down in his seat, stomped his feet onto his desk, and pulled out a magazine. "'Cause I like it! Gotta problem with that, kid?"
Nero just muttered non-understandable words under his breath and plopped down on the couch, also bored with the assignment.
All waited for a few more minutes until they heard the rushed thumping of foot steps coming down the stairs, then Nero stood up once more and Dante put away his magazine. Lady came into the room with a rather large, leather-bound book that looked like it could knock someone out. It had these intricate designs on the spine as well as the front and back cover, but what was most interesting was the look on Lady's face. She looked at it with great appreciation yet she wore a somewhat angry and sad expression.
"This is actually a book that my late father gave me when I was younger," Lady explained. "Although I hated him, I couldn't bring myself to destroy this because it had so many useful spells and remedies that I thought I might need it one day. I guess this mission is fulfilling its purpose."
Dante cocked his head to the side and smirked. "And how did that get in the room upstairs?"
Lady ignored him by rolling her eyes and randomly flipped through the pages inside the heavy book. Dante smirked at this and threw his hands behind his head.
"Let's see…" Lady mumbled as she scanned each page. She caught a glimpse of what she wanted, but accidentally passed it and flipped back through the pages again until she marked her spot. "Here we go! Luring spells! Let's start with the basics…"
The brunette heard a knock on her door as she was combing her hair in the bathroom. Her sparkling brown eyes widened and her head turned swiftly as she heard the loud noise, eager to see who the knock belonged to. She carefully placed her comb down on the sink's counter and made her way to the door, making sure to cover up her tank-top-and-shorts pajamas with a long sweater before opening the door. Her eyes brightened up when she saw a familiar white-headed boy with blue eyes and a smile crossed her lips.
"Hey, Kyrie," Nero whispered, a light shade of pink appearing on his cheeks.
"Nero," her voice was hushed, but clearly full of delight, "please come in."
Kyrie rushed back inside to turn down her radio, which played orchestra and symphony music. She loved it, but Nero wasn't so fond of the type so she always made a point to either turn it down really low or turn it off whenever he came around. He smirked watching her run after the radio and closed the door as he came in.
Kyrie pointed to the light beige loveseat across from the earthy end table where the radio sat. "Please, sit."
Nero cautiously sat down, it being one of the few times he stayed inside her apartment, and scratched his nose nervously as she sat next to him on his right. As her sweater swayed about, he accidentally caught a glance of her cleavage before she automatically covered up again, making him blush a deeper pink.
"So, how's life?" she asked, a slight curiosity in her eyes mostly filled with adoration.
"Um… it's ok," Nero mumbled, squirming uneasily in his seat. "How about you?"
He watched as her long eyelashes fluttered in slow motion and her eyes seemed to light up even more when he spoke. Her smile even widened a little. "It's ok."
He looked away, a little embarrassed by the fact she always seemed to make him blush. "Ah, that's good."
Kyrie let out a small giggle, closing her eyes in delight. The smile on her plump lips ceased to fade. She reached a hand out to his devil bringer, his glowing blue arm incased in red, and he jumped a little. She gasped, almost frightened for half a second, but she remained smiling and just lied her hand on his. He looked at her in confusion and embarrassment, feeling his cheeks heat up. "So how's work?"
"It's, um…" He scratched his nose once more. "It's difficult."
Her eyes traced his features, looking for a hint of anything. Her smile widened when she saw the dark pink on his cheeks. "How so?"
"Well…" Nero had to think back to a long week before, which seemed like months. It was hard to remember what came first, or how it was done, but within a few minutes he gathered his knowledge and told the story.
"We were assigned to hunt down a demon named Saccularius, a guy who teleports and shape-shifts. Lady found this book of spells and remedies for us to try and lure him towards us; make the job easier… First it started out with a trail of Dante's blood. He, um…" Nero looked for any trace of disgust in Kyrie's face and continued when he found none, "He used his sword to cut through his hand to make a trail, and since he's half demon we were able to make a pretty long one. The only problem was that by the time demons came, Dante was kind of worn out and our guy was not found in the millions of demons we had to fight off."
"Then we tried using an herb that attracts demons to it because of its smell," Nero pinched his nose in an unpleasant way. "We didn't know it also made demons weak, so Dante, Trish, and I were affected by it while having to fight hordes of demons again."
"And then…" Nero looked up to the ceiling, trying to remember every method. Kyrie just held his hand, nodding her head and mumbling "mmhmm" every time he paused. As she listened, she noticed the dark circles under his eyes and frowned a little. "We tried a few different amulets… A summoning spell that ended terribly…"
His brow wrinkled in disgust as he scratched his nose, seeing Kyrie watching him, then looked away. "One of the spells said to call forth a succubus…"
Kyrie cocked her head to the side in curiosity. "You called forth a succubus?"
Nero felt the heat he'd forgotten about while talking return to his cheeks as he scratched his nose again. "Yeah, but it was very awkward to watch. Nothing really happened with that one and Dante was having too much fun with her…"
Kyrie let out another small giggle. "That sounds like him."
Nero glanced at her, shear affection in his eyes as he heard her laugh, then his eyes went back to the ceiling as his hand ruffled his hair. "Yeah…"
She gazed at his face, paying attention to each of his features and loving each one of them. She shut her eyes with delight once more, smiling with sincere affection at her boyfriend. Her fingers re-curled around his devil bringer as she opened her eyes, his gaze on her, and said, "Do you think this mission will send you far away?"
A light gasp escaped his lips at the thought of those words. "I don't know. Maybe…"
Kyrie made sure her sweater was closed as she got up from her seat. "I'll be back," she whispered.
She then pranced into her bedroom, where Nero watched her through the doorway as she picked up some sort of string from her dresser and skipped back his way. She plopped back down on the couch before nudging him in the arm with her hand stuck out and said, "Here!"
She opened her hand to reveal a thick, long, black threaded necklace which held a black stone partly incased in gold. He held his hand open as she carefully placed it there. "What is it?"
"A black onyx necklace," she said with joy. "It's supposed to protect you from anything negative. In fact, it's black to show absence of light, which is supposedly what makes you invisible to negative things."
He stared into her eyes, impressed with how serious she spoke about the knowledge she had of the stone and reflected in his face his love for her caring heart. A small smile crossed his lips as he pulled it over his head, whispering, "That's really thoughtful of you. Thanks."
"No need," she muttered, her smile widening.
Staring into her eyes hypnotized Nero to move in closer, his face inching towards hers, desiring their lips to meet. As their kiss was only centimeters apart from happening, Nero felt a vibration in his pocket and pulled away to answer his phone.
"What?" He spoke with a gruff, irritated voice.
Kyrie just smiled, realizing what they were just about to do. She felt herself imitate Nero as her cheeks got hot and earned a shade of pink.
Nero sighed. "I guess. I'll be there in a minute."
He clicked the phone shut then stood, Kyrie following his lead. "I have to go," he told her, "They're going to try something else and don't want me to miss anything."
A slight hint of sorrow filled her eyes, but she tried to hide it. "Well, good luck."
"Yeah…" Realizing he didn't get to finish what he started, Nero gave her a quick peck on the lips and ran for the door. "Thanks for the necklace, Kyrie. I owe you."
Without another word between them, Nero flew outside, closing the door behind him, and Kyrie finally let her guard down once he had left. Her eyes started to tear up though the pink heat remained on her cheeks.
Dante had his legs kicked up on his desk as he read a magazine yet again. As of a week ago, he looked like his younger self, smooth skin, eyes bright and full of energy, but now it seemed as though he'd aged past his present year. His eyes were dark and bags were clearly present underneath. The energy just seemed drained from him completely. He sighed and slammed the magazine on his desk when he heard footsteps coming down the stairs, heavy and filled with doubt.
Lady appeared, also sighing. She was about to plop down on the couch until she caught a glimpse of Dante, pinching the bridge of his nose with a face full of stress. She placed a hand on his shoulder and whispered, "Hey, you ok?"
He didn't even look up at her. He just stared at his desk, eyes drooping, and replied, "Yeah, just tired of this mission already."
She sighed, rubbing his shoulder slightly before she retreated to the couch while saying, "I think we ALL are, Dante. This is the reason why that client offered us so much money."
Dante sighed once more. "Well, you got any new ideas?"
Lady nodded. "I found one that might seem effective, but it's no easy task."
Dante grunted and picked up the magazine again, this time tilting back and opening the magazine to a random page to use it as a blindfold. "Wake me up when Trish and Nero get here then and tell all of us at the same time."
Lady laid back, her slender spine touching the back of the couch. "That's what I was planning anyway," she sighed.
Trish shortly strolled in and planted her behind on the corner of Dante's desk, facing Lady. She glanced back at Dante for a few seconds, then back at her female co-worker. "We're waiting for Nero now?"
Lady nodded, folding her hands and placing them under her chin. When Trish prepared to kick back for a while, the old-fashioned phone rang and shook the hunters out of their tired state.
"Don't answer it," Dante commanded from underneath the magazine, "We need to focus on finishing this pain-in-the-ass mission before starting a new one."
"But what if it's Nero?" Trish asked, giving her usual slanted-eyes stare which, to most, came off as a glare.
Dante sighed as he readjusted the magazine. "Fine."
Trish slowly picked up the phone and answered, sounding like a concierge, "Devil May Cry?"
The hunters waited in silence as the person on the other end discussed something with her, but all were disappointed when she answered, "Sorry, sir. We're not open for business right now."
Lady watched as the phone was placed back in its cradle, hearing her hopes get crushed. Another job came and went all because Dante wanted to focus only on the current mission. It was understandable, but even more frustrating. They had nothing to take their minds off of their mega-millions gig which was causing them much more grief than any previous mission. In previous missions, they were given a location in which their prey was at, then they would just get it over with and kill them, but that's all different now.
There's no easy route on this mission.
Nero walked through the front door minutes later and asked of the assignment. Dante heard, but proceeded to keep his eyes shut with the magazine over them. "Ok, shoot Lady," he grunted, the magazine nearly falling off his face.
Lady found her way to the opposite end of Dante's desk, where she kept the heavy book in plain sight in case anyone else wanted to look through it. She placed her elbow on the desk and leaned on it while she flipped through the pages. Nero found himself staring at her figure, despite how faithful he is to Kyrie. Then again, Lady always dressed provocatively with her white pinstriped booty shorts and white pinstriped vest that she kept unbuttoned so you can see plenty of her cleavage. As she shifted her weight, Nero looked away scratching his nose, a slight shade of pink on his cheeks.
When she reached her bookmark, she straightened herself up and took the book in her arms. "Ok, this spell is said to specifically lure in a demon that uses trust as its tool, which I'm guessing is for shape-shifters…"
She trailed off a bit, reading ahead as Dante finally removed the magazine from his eyes and stared at her, eyeing her figure much more than Nero did and more obviously. She sat down on the desk, making Dante smirk as she did so. Nero noticed and rolled his eyes at him. Trish smacked him over the head silently.
"We have to go to a specific town named Galguirda, where on the outskirts there is a barren land which the residents have nicknamed 'The Circle of Wrath.' There we have to take the heart of a dragon named Morrigan and return to use its abilities to unlock our fear. It's then when we'll have our trickster at last."
"I hope so," Dante sighed, glancing from Trish's eyes to Lady's bottom.
Nero pinched the bridge of his nose while squeezing his eyes shut in disgust at Dante, then proceeded to ask Lady, "Shall I call Morisson?"
The group of demon hunters arrived at the desolate-looking town of Galguirda, Dante and Nero riding in Morisson's car and Trish riding shotgun on Lady's motorcycle. The girls put the motorcycle in park and slid off the bike while the men opened their car doors.
As Dante passed by the driver's seat window, Morisson rolled down the piece of glass and said, "I know you'll get this over with pretty quick, so I'll just wait for you guys."
Dante slid his sword, Rebellion, into its holster on his back. "Got it."
Morisson whispered something about never getting a thank you as the demon hunters took off.
Galguirda was a gloomy town. The clouds always hung about in a grey, depressing fashion and the buildings were either both grey and rundown or they were turned to rubble. The hunters walked around for a while, searching for signs of life, until they caught sight of a solitary old woman. She almost looked lifeless as if she were just a walking skeleton, until the hunters approached her. They didn't even notice she had skin until they noticed wrinkles on her face being hidden by a thick, black scarf.
A chill passed over them as they approached her. Lady was the first to talk. "Miss?" she lightly touched the old woman's shoulder, afraid she would turn to dust if she pressed too hard. "Do you know where The Circle of Wrath might be?"
The old woman stood there in silence, looking up at the young lady with black, shrouded eyes. She took Lady by the arms, as if she was about to fall, and looked straight up into her face. Her eyes began to glow a bright red as they widened, and her mouth seemed to grow as fangs tore out of her gums, the skin on her face tearing off as she did so.
Out of instinct, Dante quickly grabbed Rebellion and sliced the woman in half, who soon disappeared in a fog of dust. Lady stood there, her eyes wide with fright.
As Dante reached Rebellion back to its holster, he took Lady by the shoulders and looked into her eyes, shaking her slightly as he said, "Lady? You ok?"
Lady blinked again, snapping out of her fearful state, and glanced at Nero and Trish. Nero wrinkled his nose in disgust and Trish had her attention elsewhere.
She pushed Dante away, suddenly angry and embarrassed as her face turned red. "It was just a demon! I could've handled it myself."
As she walked away, Trish followed her but whispered something about pride to Dante, which he didn't quite catch. He stood there and watched the two walk away with his arms folded, then snorted and looked back at Nero, his nose still wrinkled. "C'mon, kid. Let's catch up to them."
Nero slowly followed behind, but after a few feet of walking, his hand found his nose and closed it shut.
Dante looked back, confusion crossing his face. "What's wrong, kid?"
The two stopped in their tracks as Nero tried not to breathe. "Can't you smell it? That scent of burning flesh?"
Dante curiously sniffed the air with his head stuck up like a dog's. "Now that you mention it, only faintly. How come it comes off so strong to you? Are you pregnant or something?"
Dante smirked, but Nero shoved him aside with his head down growling, "Shut up!"
Dante followed the younger male as they caught up to Trish and Lady, but found an unpleasant sight. Lady was leaning on the side of a torn down building, one hand clutching her stomach and another over her mouth. Trish was patting her on the shoulder, glancing every once in a while at her surroundings. A pool of vomit was found at their feet.
Nero wasn't the only one who was disgusted by the scent. He had to look away as he held a hand up to his mouth, the smell becoming even more nauseating. Dante walked up to Trish. "Can you smell it?"
Trish nodded. "Only a little bit. Nero can smell it, too?"
The two looked back and saw Nero in a similar pose to Lady, leaning with his devil bringer up against a wall with his other hand covering his mouth.
Dante looked back to Trish. "Yeah, but he probably hasn't eaten this morning."
Trish didn't laugh at his slight attempt at a joke, and Lady didn't appreciate it. She swung her arm backwards, her fingers curled into a fist, and hit Dante square in the chest. The only reason why he stepped back was because he was surprised by her defense.
Trish patted Lady on the shoulder, trying to calm her down. "Hey, how about you and Nero go back to Morisson and watch over each other, ok?"
Lady shook her head. "No, I worked just as hard as you guys. I deserve to be a part of it."
Dante walked away to check on Nero, who had managed to stand and was trying to endure the smell without pinching his nose. He failed, though, and ended up throwing his hand back to his nostrils yelling, "Dammit! Where the hell is that coming from?!"
"Hey, kid, you sure you wanna go through with this?" Dante placed a caring hand on his shoulder.
Nero shook it off. "I've gotten this far haven't I?" He started to walk ahead of everyone towards the smell. "Besides, if that jackass of a dragon is creating this smell, I'm going to tear her limb from limb."
With those words, Nero left the group behind and proceeded to walk in a prideful stride, doing his best to withstand the wretched scent. Dante stood back and watched him, folding his arms and smirking. Trish accompanied him with a sick Lady still covering her mouth.
"Kid's got guts," Dante told them, a slight joy in his voice.
Trish simply nodded and walked ahead, leaving Lady to lean on Dante. "I think you two should make up."
Lady grunted, and tried to walk away, but ended up heaving nothing but spit by the side of a building. Dante stood behind her and took her by the stomach, brushing some of her hair behind her ears. She coughed a little, trying to keep herself from vomiting, and Dante calmly held her in his arms.
"It's ok, babe. It's ok," he whispered calmly.
"What do you mean it's ok, idiot? I'm the only one puking from the smell!"
Dante turned her around and held her close to him. "You'll be fine, babe. I know you will," He kissed her on the forehead and continued, "You're one tough lady. I know you'll get through this."
Lady suddenly forgot the scent as she melted in her boyfriend's arms. Her forehead remained warm from his kiss and began to make her cheeks turn pink, but she wasn't about to let him see that. It was way too fun to play around with him.
She pushed him back and said, "Well, I think I'm better now, so now you can get off me."
Dante smirked as he saw a playful smile form on her lips. "Damn, and here I thought I was about to get lucky."
Lady chuckled as they walked toward their next battle. "You're not getting it that easily."
The hunters approached what looked like a hot spring with many bubbling cauldrons that spewed fluorescent green, blue, and purple liquids. The ground they walked on was dark and hot, stilling the air around them and thickening their tension. It was here where the smell was strongest, and Nero and Lady were starting to lose it. Even Trish and Dante were starting to get a little sick.
As they approached the center of the lava bed, a woman rose from one of the bubbling craters, her figure splattered the liquid over all sides and turning a blinding pink before her form was shown. She was completely naked, except for the fact that she wore a skimpy, long black skirt that barely hugged her waist as it exposed her legs. Her eyes glowed a bright orange, and her skin had an eerie tinge of blue-gray as her black hair reminded the hunters of melting chocolate.
She walked over to them, mostly eyeing the men, and said with a harmonious, yet raspy voice, "Welcome to The Circle of Wrath! My name is Morrigan. Please enjoy your stay here, for it most likely will be forever."
Dante chuckled. "You'll promise to be nice to us, right?"
Morrigan walked over to Dante, placing a hand on his face, caressing it. "Of coarse, as long as you agree to stay."
She then made her way to Nero, completely ignoring the red faced Lady. "You'll stay with me, honey, right?"
She pressed her breasts against Nero's chest, making him completely nervous and embarrassed as he thought about Kyrie. He had to make her believe he was falling for her, though. "Maybe, if that's what you really want."
As he reached for his gun, Blue Rose, Lady was a step ahead of him. As his fingers brushed the handle of his weapon, Morrigan stepped back screaming in pain. All heads turned to see a smoking gun in Lady's hand.
"Get her!" She yelled. That was when all the hunters reached for their weapons on the aim of dispatching Morrigan quickly.
"You bastards! You'll pay for this!" The same blue, green, and purple fluids surrounding them started to spew from her pores as she chanted, "Wrath, give me power!"
At those last words, her body was engulfed in fire and the flames grew to be several feet tall, glowing a bright orange. Her body grew along with the flames, and only in the shadows did the hunters see her grow a snout and sprout wings. When the fire died down, all that remained standing was a fierce, blue and black dragon.
At the sight, the hunters began their attack. Trish and Lady fired their guns as Dante and Nero grabbed their swords and charged forward. Morrigan's claws had descended where Lady had been standing, but she back flipped out of the way and threw a grenade down, causing flesh to peel off of Morrigan's claws.
She screeched in pain until Nero had climbed up her side and gave her a roundhouse kick to the side of her face. Dante followed suit by running up on the opposite side and unhinging her jaw with the tip of his sword, tearing through her flesh. In distress, Morrigan spat fire towards Nero, but only caught the tail of his coat.
Trish began running back and forth, shooting the dragon from all sides until Nero fell on his side. With him out of the way, Trish threw one of her guns in the air so she could unleash the lightning on her fingertips at the beast. Morrigan screeched once more and brought her claws down toward her, but she jumped in time to slip through one of her fingers and grabbed her gun, shooting her in her right eye.
Lady's cue had come, so she ran up the dragon's belly and met her left eye with a bullet. When she back flipped toward the ground, though, Morrigan sent her claws after her and gave her bleeding streaks of flesh on her back.
"Lady!" Dante was suddenly caught between the dragon's foot and the ground as it came down on him.
Nero summoned the power of his devil bringer, sending forth an enlarged phantom of his arm towards Morrigan's head. "Why don't you just go to hell already?!"
He grabbed her head, and with all his strength, snapped it to the side. At that, Dante used his strength to push her off of him, and rushed to Lady's side.
Lady lifted herself from the ground, pushing Dante away once again. "Dante, it's nothing! Go defeat that demon!"
When she stood on her feet and had her guns in hand, that was proof enough that she was ok. Dante nodded and headed back toward the dragon.
Morrigan squirmed on her back, now spouting the eerie, colorful liquid out of her mouth in a fountain-like effect. Dante took a risk in finding out what the liquid was by climbing onto Morrigan's stomach to reach her chest. The liquid had splashed him on the neck and for once he was yelping in pain. The liquid was trying to tear away his flesh before it dissolved, but his demonic powers were healing it just as fast as it was burning through it.
Though the vile liquid rained on him when he reached the dragon's chest, he ignored the pain as he took his sword and pierced her chest as deep as he could. Morrigan screamed and stopped the fountain as the half-demon tore open her flesh and ripped her beating heart out of her rib cage.
And the rest was silence.
Morrigan remained lifeless on the ground until her body began to light up. Dante jumped to his fellow devil hunters before her body turned to dust.
Morrigan's heart was an odd one. It glowed a fluorescent purple and smelled of a bouquet of roses instead of blood, but that didn't ease the hunters' tension. There was something about the heart that made it terrifying, maybe even more fearsome than Morrigan herself.
That was when Dante fell to the ground as if the heart weighed him down, yelling in agony as he did so. He was brought back to a moment he hated most… His mother's death.
He remembered it so distinctly, even though it was so long ago. He was about seven years old when the demon Mundus summoned all his strength to leave the demon world to go after his family. His mother, who shared a very similar resemblance to Trish, was running, carrying both him and his twin brother, Vergil, in her arms while the rain poured down on them. She quickly ran inside their home, running into her bedroom and hiding the boys in a large basket in the closet.
"Whatever you do, don't say a thing and don't come out until the morning!" His troubled mother told them before shutting them into the darkness.
Moments later, the boys heard a loud crack. Maybe it was thunder? Mundus's powerful voice was present in the room, though. "Where are your sons?"
"I must've dropped them."
A painful gasp came from their mother, as if she were losing air. "You wretched woman! You'll tell me where they are or you'll die!"
Little Dante felt so scared surrounded by the darkness and hearing the threat of death, but what was even more terrifying was when he heard a heart-wrenching splash of liquid and a scream of agony coming from his mother.
Dante opened his eyes. He was back in the barren, lava-like land, but now it was Lady who held the heart. It was Lady who was crouching to the ground, tears streaming from her eyes as she screamed, "NO, MOTHER, NOO! You can't die like THIS!"
Seeing what it was doing to her, he slapped the heart out of her hands and watched as it rolled over to the feet of a shadow. A certain stranger.
As Dante helped Lady to her feet, the man looked at them with bright red eyes, adjusting his black tie as he did so and smoothing out his black suit. He was rather pale and boney, his fleshless face showing no emotion whatsoever. He slid a piece of his long, ebony hair behind his ear and spoke…
"Good Lord. How art thou? Thou mustn't be hurt?"
The hunters' eyes all widened in unison at the man in front of them. It couldn't be. It seemed they'd finally found their golden ticket, they'd finally hit the jackpot. They found their target.
"Saccularius," Nero muttered under his breath in a hateful tone.
Saccularius slanted his eyes at him in disgust. He picked up the heart with no effort and was unaffected by it. He smelled its sweet aroma, a sinister smile crossing his lips. "Yes, I am known by that name. But for now, thou mustn't call me such a thing. For now, thou must call me 'Dante,' for he is the character I take on at such a moment as this."
The red coated Dante smirked, the unpleasantness heard in his voice. "What if this Dante wants to kick your ass?"
Saccularius's smile grew. Before their very eyes, his figure shaped into another Morrigan, his voice mimicking her raspy, sweet voice. "Wouldn't thou like this vision more?"
He danced around, showing off his powers, then stopped in front of Dante and transformed into another familiar, more motherly form, speaking in a sweet, maternal voice. "Or this?"
Dante took Rebellion in his hand, disgusted that this man would dare copy his dead mother, and attempted to slice him in half, but he back flipped into a swirling vortex that appeared behind him.
"Catch this demon if thou can, devil boy!"
Out of fury, Dante leaped into the vortex, though the others briefly warned him not to, and chased after Saccularius. It was only then when the other hunters followed him, all wanting to finish the job together.
When the hunters came to, they were under what seemed like a concrete dome with buildings turned to rubble all around them. It seemed all that could be found was scrap metal, bits and pieces of building, and rats. Only a little sunlight streamed in from the sides, but otherwise all was gloomy.
Someone with dirt-stained clothes had lightly kicked Dante in his side. He looked up to see a little kid. A boy. "Hey, Mister? You ok?"
Dante got on his knees and looked around, completely unfamiliar with the place. It didn't look the same, and it didn't feel the same. Something in his heart told him they were far from home. The area around them had a different scent, a different identity, a different aura. He just had a gut feeling that this mission had not only just begun, but might end badly.
Without even looking at the kid, he muttered, "Where the hell are we?"