A.N. I do not own DMC, yada yada yada.
Chapter 3: Judge of Death
In one of the burning lava pits of the Fire Hell, one of the most horrifying areas of the Underworld, where the souls of the dead were eternally burned alive for their evil deeds. The left hand of Emperor Mundus, the great Phantom, was nested, devouring the bodies of Kyklops minions. He tore apart a wall of the cave with his powerful stinger, and crawled out, suddenly being confronted by the three red eyes of his master.
"Phantom… it is your duty to destroy my enemies, and so I fit you with a task. You must go to the human world and destroy an intruder at the castle's hellgate who is becoming a growing nuisance and a hindrance to my plans. He is powerful so show no mercy." The dark emperor said in his booming voice.
"Yes my master… he will be disposed of, and I will bring you his head. I hope it is not too unsatisfactory that I will eat the rest of him…" The massive spider said.
"I hope you know what awaits you should you fail. GO!!" Boomed Mundus. The Phantom crawled deep underground… he was going to enjoy devouring the intestines of this nuisance…
Dante stepped into a long hallway. Columns stood on all edges of the long walkway, Various paintings adorning the walls. A door stood right before Dante. He entered it, only to encounter a group of decimated puppets. "Trish must've been in here before me… looks like I got my work cut out for me!", the hunter said, before turning and exiting.
As he made his way up the hall, he noticed more puppets hanging from the ceiling. They didn't move, so he continued on. Once he reached the end of the corridor, he took notice of something very… peculiar. An impression was made in the wall in front of him, of a woman in agony with a massive sword, decorated with a metal dragon wing cross guard, impaling her through the chest. All of a sudden, Dante could hear a strange voice in his head.
"I am Alastor. Those who wake me must prove themselves worthy with a test of pure will, and a blood sacrifice."
Dante looked up at the sword, a frown growing on his face. "This better not be another Agni & Rudra thing…"
The impression changed to a skeletal form in a robe, its hands open, the sword in its grasp.
Suddenly, the sword came zipping out of the impression, impaling Dante through the chest and splattering blood everywhere. Dante tried moving, but the sword suddenly crackled with electricity, shocking Dante's body enough to knock him unconscious.
Dante suddenly opened his eyes wide. A slight twitch came from his hand as his body started pulsating, and he rose up, blood spurting violently from his chest. He made his way all the way up the demonic blade, until he reached the razor sharp wings adorning the hilt. With one last heave, the hunter's body pushed upwards, the sword slicing through his body, dark red blood spraying everywhere, and he finally made it back to his feet.
Breathing heavily, he staggered forward, and slowly reached his hand out. With a whip, he spun in a quick 180, grabbing the blade. Lightning coursed all over his body as he lifted the surprisingly light sword up towards the chandelier. Then, with a boom of lightning, Dante, in his devil triggered state, blasted the chandelier to pieces.
His Alastor devil trigger form looked very sharp. Horns sprouted backwards from his head, and his usual metallic look was kept, though, instead of his body colour being its usual red, it was a black colour with an electric blue aura. His coattail and wings were still intact, and he felt almost weightless.
As the glass fell from around Dante, he swung the sword, lightning fast movements making him feel like everything else moved in slow motion. Then, with a flash, he reverted back to his human form, threw the sword up into the air, kicked it and caught it, sheathing it across his back. Everything went back into normal speed as the glass bounced off of the ground.
A door to Dante's immediate right opened as the hunter stepped into a library. As he looked in the room, he moved back in fake shock. "Now that's freaky…. Books… everywhere.." He chuckled to himself. He had a look around the library, once again taking note of things. It seemed that a wall of the library had broken off, and a large tree had grown into some of the shelves through the hole.
Dante went searching around for things that might help him. He took note of a painting upon the wall, a dim background with a grim reaper-like figure painted on it. To his right, he noticed a table. An old key and… "Yoink!", Dante said, as he snatched a nasty looking shotgun from the table. There were cases of ammunition left over, go he grabbed them as well as the key, to which he remembered seeing a locked door on his way through the hall.
The hunter searched through a few of the books to see if there might be anything that would help him in his mission. He noticed a few strange books. One was a word left by a notable prophet who visited the castle. It read:
"Pluto will come on the promised date and separate Heaven and Earth. One with black wings of treachery will come and stand in Pluto's way."
Another book Dante took particular notice of had a page torn out. The page lied on the table where he found the key and the shotgun. It told of a strange occurrence that happened in the castle. This page read:
"It happened on a hot, humid night. The column twisted and the statue of a god disappeared. We quickly sealed the cathedral in hopes that someone righteous with a strong heart would come and save us."
Dante stopped and thought to himself. "I could've sworn I heard that story before… jeez… why am I reading this?" The hunter put the note down, turned, and made his way out the door he came through. He noticed at least twenty puppets stumbling about when he came into the corridor. "Okay… so it's not such a crap job after all! I'd still like something with a bit more bite…" Dante said out loud. He removed the shotgun from his coat and opened fire. The hot bullets tore the puppets apart like paper!
He continued blasting them down with his newly acquired boomstick, until a thought came to mind. "Alastor!" Dante said. He unsheathed the great sword from his back, and used its lightning capabilities to fry the puppets as he slashed them up. Only five remained at this point, and he whipped Alastor back like a tail, and slammed it forward into the ground like a drive attack. What surprised him, however, was that instead of a shockwave biting into the enemies, a massive stream of lightning sailed straight at the unfortunate puppets, both slicing them frying them like bacon.
"Now that's what I'm talking about!!" Dante yelled out. With that, he made his way to the locked door, and inserted the key, turning it. For some reason, the door didn't budge. Dante sighed, and turned around. As he walked off, he quickly turned again, sped back up to the door, and slammed his leather-booted foot into it, tearing the door clean off its hinges.
The ruined door sailed across the open courtyard, smashing into a column on the opposite side. This caused a platform to buckle and fall down, creating an opening for Dante to enter the door above. As he walked through the second-story door, he noticed some things in this new corridor.
One was the smashed masks and discarded pairs of enormous scissors lying around the room, most likely Trish's handiwork, and a heavy statue blocking what seemed to be an opening to a downstairs room. Using his inhuman strength, the devil hunter pushed the large statue back easily. He opened up the floor compartment and dropped down.
A splash came from the flooded floor as Dante landed on the ground, soaking the bottom of his boots. "Well, at least I can get rid of these bloodstains", he said, Reaching down to get some water. He recoiled, however, when he got a smell of the water. It had gone stagnant long ago.
He looked to his right, taking notice of a staff, shining with a bright light. He yanked it off of the structure it was bound to, and a revolving door turned behind him, opening up a passage. He turned around and entered the door, re-entering the library. He headed towards the door of the library, when a loud, high-pitched evil cackle resounded out of nowhere.
Dante slowly turned his head to acknowledge it. The grim reaper in the old painting on the wall disappeared, and in its place, a ghostly looking entity, wearing a greenish mask and wielding a massive rusty pair of shear-like scissors, akin to those in the upstairs corridor, in its hands. Two more appeared in the room, coming right out of the walls.
Dante had seen these things before… Lady had fought them a while ago. Sins. Low grade demons, about an E grade in Lady's books, but they shouldn't be left around for too long. They always wore a mask, as that was its only physical body. The black robes it wore were only an illusion, and could not be affected at all. Always aim for the mask, Dante thought.
One Sin Scissor came swiping down at Dante. At the same time, the hunter knocked the scissors out of the demon's hand, sending it reeling back. The shotgun was removed from its holster at that second and erupted in fire, blowing the mask apart. The Sin screamed as its body was torn apart.
Dante advanced on the other two Sins, using the same strategy. After they fell, Dante holstered his shotgun. "Wow… that was really hard. I don't know if I'll be able to go on!" He said sarcastically. "Damn small fry…" He said as he left the room.
As he stepped out into the corridor, something interesting caught his attention. A large number of small black & red spiders were running under the new impression on the wall. It seemed the tiny bugs were on fire. Dante quickly grabbed a spider and examined it. It looked like veins of molten lava ran through its arachnid body. It exploded in his hand, causing his to pull his hand back. It was unscathed.
He looked towards the statue. Its hands were open. That gave Dante an idea. He pulling the shining staff out from under his coat, and jammed it between the skeleton's hands. The impression broke in half and slid into the wall, revealing a new door. Dante opened it and stepped inside.
Meanwhile, Trish was standing atop the tower of the castle, holstering her guns. She had no idea why the demons were after her as well. Mundus was truly a bastard to deal with. She leapt off the tower, disappearing below.
End of chapter 3! Chapter 4 is coming up soon! Read & Review!