UPDATE: 23/06/11 - Chapter revamped as part of my attempt to clean the story up and make it more readable.

DMC: End of the Line SE

PART III

"HEELLLOOOO!"

HELLO

Hello

'llo

"Is there an echo in here?"

An echo in here

Echo in here

Here

"Dante, cut it out."

Dante smirked and slung the Rebellion over his back once more. "Nice place," he observed, "Bet its costs a bunch to heat."

"That would be why they didn't bother then," said Lady through chattering teeth. For some inexplicable reason it was actually colder in here than it was outside. "Come on, lets start searching."

Dante spun around, checking the vast and empty stone hall for any clues. There were magnificent pillars and statues made in the likeness of the Time God (albeit the regular, non-commercial variety) but nothing that looked like what they were after.

"Eeny meeny miny ... moe!" He stabbed a finger randomly in one direction and proceeded to march off in it, Lady shivering along beside him.

"Aren't you cold at all?"

Dante shook his head. "Must be my natural hotness."

"Ha!"

After a few minutes they came upon a nondescript and unremarkable double door set into the glossy smooth stone. Dante walked right up to them and planted a kick between them, blasting them open.

"You really like wrecking things don't you?" said Lady. Dante shrugged.

"What can I say? I'm an impulsive kinda guy."

The room they found themselves in now was long and rectangular, the walls bearing carved decorations, though of what they couldn't tell. On the left and right hand walls were two enormous brass gongs, seemingly fixed into the walls themselves.

"Hey, is that?" Dante asked, pointing at the far wall opposite the door they had entered. Resting upon an enormous pedestal was a great golden statue of-

"It's a Sphinx," Lady observed, stepping further into the room. Beneath the statue, imbedded within the pedestal, was a glowing silver key resting inside a recess.

"Oh, here we go." Dante muttered, striding up to it. He reached out to grasp it, but a field of shimmering light materialised before the recess, preventing him from getting the key. Suddenly, the eyes of the Sphinx statue flared like twin suns above them and a deep booming voice reverberated around the chamber.

"My daughter has many sisters, as many sisters as she has brothers, but each of her brothers has twice as many sisters as brothers. So answer me this, how many sons and daughters do I have?"

The voice died away, echoes continuing to sound for some time after. Dante and Lady turned to each other, eyebrows raised.

"A riddle, obviously," said Lady. Dante groaned.

"Screw that!" He pulled Ivory, one of his twin handguns, and levelled it at the force field.

"Wait!" Lady exclaimed, whirling to stand in front of him, "That won't do any good!"

"Won't know until I try," he reasoned.

"But I can figure this out! It'll be easy!"

"So will this!" he insisted, waving Ivory in front of her. She rolled her eyes and held both hands before him.

"Just let me try, please?"

Now it was Dante who rolled his eyes. Sighing, he replaced Ivory and stepped back. Lady let out a deep breath and turned to the Sphinx.

"My daughter has many sisters, as many sisters as she has brothers …" she started to repeat the riddle, eyes darting about as she did quick calculations. Behind her, Dante was tapping his feet. "But each of her brothers has twice as many sisters as brothers …"

"Times up," he said, swiftly drawing his sword and slashing at the shielded recess.

"Dante, no!" Lady cried out, dodging out of the way. The Rebellion sword slammed into the hazy energy field, creating a shower of sparks. It rebounded, and to his disappointment the force field remained unaffected.

"I told you that wouldn't work," Lady snapped, irritated by how impatient he was. Dante just shrugged and slung his sword across his back holster. Suddenly the ground began to shake beneath their feet. They heard a loud whining noise, almost like an aircraft engine starting up from behind the walls either side of them. As the tremors built in strength, Lady looked down at the ground and then up at Dante. She opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted by Dante.

"Don't," he said, "Just don't."

They were yanked off their feet and found themselves sailing back through the air. They came to a stop with a deafening clang as they struck the gongs mounted on the walls, Dante on the left wall and Lady on the right. Rather than slide down and onto the floor however, they remained fixed in place, stuck to the large brass circles.

"Magnets!" Lady shouted over the din, "There must be some kind of generator behind the walls powering giant magnets!" Which went some way to explain why they found themselves unable to struggle free. Dante was stuck to the gong by the magnetic pull from the sword on his back, and Lady likewise with her rocket launcher. They both dangled half a dozen feet from the ground, struggling back and forth like overturned turtles.

"Ok, definitely not cool," Dante grumbled. But of course, things had to get worse. As the last of the echoes from the gongs faded away, the eyes on the great Sphinx statue flared a deep red. An even deeper tremor shot through the chamber as the gold around the Sphinx shattered and scattered away. A real life and decidedly pissed looking Sphinx sprang off the pedestal and shook the last of the gold casing from its body. Still attached to the gongs on the walls, Lady and Dante watched on helpless as it barred rows of sharp teeth and flexed its razor claws.

The demonic Sphinx prowled across the floor, turning its great head this way and that, examining its prey. It fixed its glowing red eyes on Lady and calmly padded over towards her. She struggled with the strap holding the Kalina-Ann to her back as the beast drew closer.

"Hey you!" Dante shouted, cupping his hands around his mouth for added volume, "Yeah, you! Dumb cat! Look at me when I'm trash talking to you!"

The Sphinx stopped and turned its head back, narrowing its eyes at Dante. Its snout curled up in a twisted snarl and it let out a deep growl.

"Yeah, that's right! Come get me you stupid animal! Time for your Felix!"

The Sphinx turned and sprang in one swift motion, covering the distance between them in a heartbeat, teeth barred and ready to clamp down over his throat, claws extended and ready to rake his flesh. Dante could smell the fetid stench of rotten meat from its breath as it sailed through the air …

… and straight into his fist. He drove it right into the beast's snout with all the force of a jackhammer, sending the magnificent creature sprawling onto the ground below him.

"BAD KITTY!" he scolded, unlatching the strap for his sword and dropping lightly to his feet. The Sphinx snarled and flipped onto its paws, letting out a roar of fury at the puny human. It lashed out with one long claw, determined to knock his legs out from under him. Dante leapt up and drove the ball of his right foot into its face with a satisfying crunch.

The Sphinx recoiled, darting away. It circled back around, warily eyeing him. Lady watched on open mouthed as they leapt on each other in a tangled blur of fists and claws. A second later they separated again, the Sphinx skidding across the polished stone on all fours, Dante somersaulting backwards and landing on his feet. He was uninjured, but raised his left arm and stared at a score of tears in his jacket sleeve that had been the result of a close call.

A low growl filled the air, building up in intensity and rage. It took a moment for Lady to realise that it was coming not from the demon Sphinx, but from Dante. His face a mask of angry disbelief, he stared at the cuts in his sleeve that the beast had raked, and then slowly raised his furious gaze and fixed it on the creature …

Two minutes later Dante silently retrieved his sword and guns. As Lady came up along side him, he tossed her the key and strolled past.

A/N: This chapter shows the first of several traps that protect the temple. I think I used an old D&D traps book for most of them, and the riddle I got from an old game book. To this day I still have no clue what the heck the answer to that riddle is. I used an actual riddle contest between Dante's mother Eva and a dragon of all things in one of my other fics, Nightwalkers, which actually does include the answers to each of the riddles posed. The riddle battle in that is one of the few bits I actually still like about that fic.