This accursed desert was really starting to tax Vergil's nerves! He had to have been walking for at least half-an-hour and the scenery had barely changed at all!

On top of that, he quickly discovered that the windstorm was actually a sandstorm. So even if there was shelter nearby he would have to walk into it just to be aware of it's presence.

The worst part was that nothing had shown up.

Being frustrated and having nothing to destroy was bearable when he was rested, but in this weary condition he had actually considered running towards a rock and slicing it into pieces with Yamato at one point.

After a few more minutes of walking in what must have been the eye of the sandstorm, Vergil collided with something.

Because he had been walking slowly he just stepped back quickly and dropped into a stance to pull Yamato out of it's sheathe as opposed to falling backwards into the sand. But the sand was whipping at it and the whole thing seemed to be completely lifeless.

Vergil allowed himself to ease out of the combat stance but still kept his guard up. While something like this would probably mean safety in the human world this wasn't the human world. Flowers could turn out to be acid-spilling demon-pods, rabbits could end up being a colossal insect-like demon simply disguising itself and all the other things that humans would find "cute" undoubtedly had a very un-cute demon variety here.

But though he was still skeptical Vergil admitted that it seemed like the thing he had collided with was truly not alive. After feeling the thing with his fingertips he was able to determine that it was a stone of some kind. Or at least it felt like it.

The sandstorm seemed to follow him as he walked along the length of the thing. It appeared to be a wall of some kind. But with all this blasted sand flying around the place he couldn't accurately tell!

Then, as if on queue, the sandstorm resided. The winds ceased circling him and all of the sand that had been dancing around fell to the ground.

While his brother would probably say something along the lines of "About damn time" Vergil instead just examined the length of the revealed-to-be wall that he had been walking along.

It was a very tall wall. It obviously was not of natural origin, or at least not without some manner of influence from a higher demon. After taking a few steps back and looking up at it he could see parapets on the top. They were battlemented as well. The spiked protrusions that were spread evenly along the lengths of the wall were apparently the demon-equivalent of the rectangular blocks that humans used to put on their castles back in the medieval times.

Though the human versions were designed to actually be of practical use demon castles were more often simply a sign of power and status, as there were many demons that could simply fly over, dig under or simply crash through walls. Most likely, the spikes on the wall were meant more of something to impale your enemy on as opposed to something to keep you from falling off the wall.

His examination of the walls was brought to an end when he noticed the massive gate that was further down the wall. From what he could tell, the castle was simply a square-shaped wall encasing some kind of building; which meant that the demon who'd had it built was most likely not a high level demon.

He started walking towards the gate as he thought about how little it mattered. Even if it was Mundus himself he didn't care. Vergil hated being tired; it made him feel so weak and human.

The gate was closed but not unlocked. With an effort, Vergil managed to pull them apart, and then walked inside. But as he did so he noticed a strange sound. It sounded like an hourglass, but in reverse.

A quick glance behind him revealed that it was very much the case.

The sand outside the door was rising up and forming into shapes. At first there wasn't any particular feature that he noticed but the figures quickly filled out as more sand came up. At the end, when all the sand had formed, the shapes resembled worms of some kind.

The sand flashed and then the worms had actual slick, rubbery skin and a mouth full of needle-like teeth. Black beady eyes were inset deep in the thing's "face" and it even seemed to have small ears of some kind which resembled the flat side of bat ears, but pressed against their heads. The dozens of tiny legs on their bottom side made them seem more like centipedes than true worms.

One of them convulsed and then spat something at him. Vergil unsheathed Yamato and slashed downward while turning to face them.

The green spit was cut in half by his lightning-quick attack and flew past him. He heard it land with a sound similar to when someone's intestines fell out but heard a sizzling sound afterwards.

A quick glance behind him revealed that the stone floor of the castle was being dissolved by the acidic spit of the worm demons. He supposed that if it melted through rock it would probably melt through him as well, but there was no point in contemplating that any further as he would never allow himself be touched by such a low level demon's attacks.

He closed his eyes and sheathed Yamato and waited for their next attack. When he heard the things convulse again his wrist snapped Yamato out of it's sheath and slashed a horizontal path in the air, then turned away from the things.

Vergil cut the air with the blade to remove any spit that might still be on it, then dragged it along the sheathe and slid it in, snapping it in at the end. He heard the worm demons burst apart in a brief explosion of sand and then opened his eyes.

"I'm tired. Don't bother me again." He told them as if they could listen. However it seemed that his words angered something, because he heard the area outside the gate start shaking.

After looking back in the direction of the gate he realized that the sand was what was shaking. In fact, all of the sand that he could see outside the gate was trembling. Like when the worm demons were created. The piles of sand which the previous worm demons had become after dying formed together and once again shapes stated being filled in a reverse-hour-glass fashion. But this time the figures were being formed as far as he could see.

"I see. So that's how things as weak as you managed to survive. How pathetic." Their bodies were made of sand, so as long as sand was around they could regenerate.

As much as it upset Vergil to admit it, this was a problem. Killing the things was no problem. But if they kept coming back that meant he would never get the chance to rest.

He walked towards the gate and unsheathed Yamato again, dragging the tip along the rock inside the castle as he did so.

Now he knew why it was so important to have walls as tall as they were and to have a stone floor. The tall walls would keep the things from crawling inside, while the rock floor of the castle would keep them from forming inside the castle itself.

In any case, he would keep them from getting inside the castle until he could come up with a plan to stop them from coming inside. One of the things scuttled into the gateway; into death's doorway.

Yamato flicked upwards, separating the thing's "head" from the rest of it's disgusting body, then waved at it to blow it's now sand-like body back out into the horde of other demons. They all made a clicking sound, apparently upset that he'd "killed" one of their brethren.

"Be silent. You have many siblings left." Yamato switched to face down towards the stone.

"For now." They all attacked at the same time. A dozen of them scuttled into the gateway while the twenty-some others behind them spat their acidic spit at him.

He whipped Yamato in their direction, cutting the air and sending it in crescents through first the spit, then the dozen demons in the doorway, and then finally into the ones who had spat the acid.

Vergil continued to walk through the gateway while the hundreds of other worm demons made their way through the area that had been occupied by their fellow kind until recently. He slashed at anything that came into the gateway itself and created what was basically a shield of sword slashes which would kill, slice and then dismember anything that came even close to the gate.

However, with each slash he moved forward just a bit. It wasn't even a distance that could be measured in inches, but with how many slashes he kept performing Vergil was soon outside the gateway itself and fighting the hundreds of worm demons on three sides at once while trying to keep them from getting inside the fortress. Vergil had, he realized, made a mistake. The weariness must be affecting him more than he'd thought. Still, it wasn't a significant problem.

The demons on his side spat their acid at him and he hopped backwards into the gateway to avoid the damaging liquid. It all collided and remained in the air for a second before falling down. But the steam which had come off of it blocked his vision long enough for the demons that were in front of him to spit their own acid at him. He just barely managed to whip the disgusting liquid away before it reached him, but he had to spin in order to assure nothing got him.

While he was spinning though he noticed that the gate doors were still completely intact. The worm demons had definitely already spat acid past him in that direction before, and yet they didn't even show signs of erosion. That's when it hit him. Even if the walls were tall and the gates were closed, the demons should have just been able to dissolve them and then pass through.

"Unless the walls and the gate are made of a special material which is unaffected by the acidic qualities of the spit." He thought in conclusion.

On this note he turned away from the demons, swiping the sword while doing so to kill the ones that were attempting to come into the gateway. He sheathed Yamato as he reached for the gate doors and started to pull them closed. They were almost completely closed when Vergil saw the acid heading for his face.

Just barely managing to duck underneath it he quickly realized that these demons, though weak, were obviously working in an organized fashion. This was apparent when one of the worm demons, who had used the spit from another as cover, came through the doorway and tackled him with it's head.

He was tired, and the position that he had ducked into was an unstable one, so they both flew back away from the gate and landed on the stone. He pulled Yamato out and slashed through the thing's mouth and then the rest of it's "head", but didn't even have enough time to stand up before another ten of them landed on him and started biting him. In his current state there were too many of them to simply push off, and he couldn't raise Yamato as one of them was biting his arm.

His vision started to fade and he wondered if this was actually how it was going to end; being killed by a bunch of worms after having fought and survived against Dante. However, his body did not feel the way he did. Even as the things bit into his neck and chest it started to change. The skin turned blue, fusing with the coat, and became more solid. His face became more flat and his hair turned into a kind of crown. Then, he glared with yellow eyes which no longer had pupils or any other color in them. His analyzing and calculations were gone and his thinking was reduced to one word.

"Crash"

I know I didn't do a very good job at showing the transition from his human way of thinking to his demon way but I thought it would be kind of interesting if his demon form had a kind of different way of thinking. Reviews are, as before appreciated.(asked for. heh)