Welcome to the second chapter of my fanfiction! Enjoy and leave comments!

The Son of Sparda trekked forth from the stronghold of New Limbo, excitement in his chest as he gazed around at the ruins of Limbo City. He gazed at fallen buildings and destroyed roads and thoroughfares—all a result of his duel with Mundus two years ago. He silently clenched his fists at the thought of what had happened that day. The day he fought his twin, the person he'd trusted with his life for the first time.

His footsteps echoed out along the cityscape of which he traversed, as though he were the only person who existed in the fallen metropolis of Limbo City. But he knew better. He knew that around next to every corner he passed were even more demons, all watching him. All waiting to attack. That was the risk that the hunter took every time he exited the stronghold, and soon he would traverse beyond even the limits of New Limbo.

Even as he physically traversed the silent, lonely streets, his mind was elsewhere. His mind was in a loop of his fight with Mundus, his battle with Vergil, and his victory over both. He remembered the betrayed look on his twin's face, he remembered every clash of their blades, Rebellion and Yamato, and he remembered the malevolent, angered look in Vergil's eyes. He grimaced at the thought as he moved forward, each step slowed as though he were wading through a lake.

He looked up at last, at the road before him. The city had been destroyed pretty damn well in his duel against the Demon King, no place was more evident of this than where the battle itself occurred—a giant crater where the Silver Sacks Tower used to be. One lone pillar of the building still stood, and though Dante had wondered why it had not fallen, he was incapable of answering. He paused for a moment, gazing down at the pit before him, where Mundus had summoned as much of his might as he could muster.

The devil hunter looked around at his environment again; the carnage still seemed so fresh, as though the battle had only happened yesterday. As though he had fought against his two greatest foes naught but a few hours ago. He shuddered to think about how revealing demonkind to humanity had actually affected, how easily he had been manipulated by Vergil into bringing about this apocalypse.

He looked up at the tower. It was needed, though. The people needed to be free of the demon's grasp, to be released from their influence. While for Vergil the whole effort was so that he could be free of the oppression of Mundus, Dante's own freedom from being hunted by demons was just a convenient side effect of his efforts. He smiled as he gazed up at the tower. What he did, he did for humanity. His last words to Vergil rang true in his mind.

"Humanity is under my protection now."

He chuckled to himself while he considered the implications of his words. Humanity was under his protection, and he had a dark feeling that Vergil would test the sincerity of his words soon. He hoped, however, his twin would come to his senses, however the more likely outcome would be his twin trying to force his mindset upon Dante. The hunter shook his head and turned to face the road that led outside of the city.

The walk was silent as he looked around at the graffiti that decorated the walls. Humanity did not immediately retreat into strongholds upon the demon's revelation. They took up arms against the monstrosities, and fought against them. Dante himself was one of the people who took up a bulk of the battles waged against the demons in Limbo, which is partially the reason that they did not attack him as avidly as they would have anyone else who strayed into the ruins.

The artwork upon the walls depicted the demons striking down at humanity, and humanity striking back. However much that Dante, and a few other well-trained humans, were able to do battle with these monsters, the fact remained that even with the military's arsenal and might, the demonic armies were simply too much for the unified human government to take on. More people died every day that the people remained on the offensive against the demonic hordes.

An old blood was painted on the walls, though it was not painted of the variety spilt by humans or demons. The paint depicted the blood on both sides of the battle, the people who'd given their lives in an effort to purge the demon plague from the world. As further evidence along the walls the hunter walked along depicted, however, the people were unprepared for such an event. Demons were too deeply intertwined with the human's society for them to stand much of an actual chance in the war. While some stood up, many fell within the first few days.

The united armies called a fullscale retreat, abandoning Limbo City to focus on their own countries. Dante could only imagine that they had declared the city to be a forbidden zone, as it was undoubtedly the place on Earth most infested with demons; being the seat of the throne for the King of Demons can cause demons to flock like mindless birds.

The hunter gritted his teeth at this latest mural. Dante and Kat decided to remain in Limbo City to assist with the people who could not escape when the army retreated. The artwork depicted the silver haired warrior clawing his way through many demons with his demonic blade, a hooded girl behind him directing the people to flee into the stronghold. He ran a hand through his hair instinctively, remembering that day.

He must have killed a thousand demons that day, when they all attacked the small human encampment in town. The army managed to evacuate some of the people, but their escape was hastened when the hordes came down upon them. The hunter recalled fighting off the monsters so the rich and well off could make it on the escape shuttles and flee, and then he remembered battling for hours on end so the rest could make it to a makeshift encampment.

This event is known by the people of New Limbo as the day that they were betrayed by the world. They sealed themselves off, and tried to be as standalone as possible, however even with Dante there, that would not always be a possibility. They knew this. This was why he now wandered the abandoned streets of the city, why he journeyed forth from his new home in search of aid for the city. Some communication.

He had finally approached the city limits of Limbo, however something caught his eye. Like a faint glimmer of metal, except this wasn't any kind of metal he would have expected to see, and it was now gone. He turned from the city limits, walking back along the road some ways to try and find exactly what it was that he had seen just then. He found nothing upon closer examination, and shrugged, thinking it was just his mind playing tricks on him.

Then, the ground began to crack under him. At first it was hardly noticeable, however when the whole ground shifted beneath him, the hunter reacted instinctively. He leaped backward, landing on his feet after flipping backwards, seeing the rocks fall some distance below. All his years here in Limbo City, and he never knew that the city had catacombs. Maybe it was because he spent so much time in the alternate reality of Limbo he never had time to explore the physical world of Earth. He knelt down, cautiously looking down and seeing nothing but darkness in the pit below him.

The ground began to crack again. The hunter looked back to the city limits, considering the idea of descending into the catacombs and investigating what was down here. The ground continued to crack, and Dante grew a mischievous grin. New Limbo had some time. They were protected by their steel shell that they erected as soon as the retreat happened. Dante relaxed and stood at the edge of the hole, watching the ground continue to crack before him, and fell backwards.

As he fell through the air, taking on the shape of a spire with his arms to his sides and legs together, he looked at the debris that fell along with him. He looked down, trying to get an idea of what exactly he was falling into. Before he'd fallen too far, however, he flexed his body so his feet met with some of the rubble, and kicked off of it, propelling himself further downward. He let out a cry of excitement as he kicked off of another small piece of rubble, propelling himself downward at a breakneck speed.

Finally he kicked off of a piece of the rubble in the opposite direction, skyward, and landed safely on his feet, casually sidestepping the rest of the rubble as it impacted with the ground. His coat swayed as he looked around whatever dark cavern he had found himself in, and wondered how exactly someplace like this had ended up here. Maybe these were some old tunnels Mundus used for smuggling operations? If so there could be some amount of riches, or power, in these old tunnels.

He walked along in the darkness, his eyes having trouble adjusting. It was as though the darkness wanted to be there, as though it were sentient, his eyes refused to allow him any vision into the pitch black before him. The hunter closed his eyes, listening to his footsteps. Echolocation was something bats were good at, maybe the hunter could find some skill in the art as well?

After nearly tripping over a boulder, he decided against trying to echolocate, and continued feeling around in the emptiness that the pitch black provided for Dante. When he finally reached some sort of incline, he nearly tripped over his own feet, but he paused for a moment and composed himself. While he was no expert at finding directions based on sound, he could tell when he walked into a huge room as opposed to the tunnels he had been walking through.

He carefully descended further, before he saw a dark red light before him. It was in the shape of texts, written in the demonic tongue; the hunter could not understand what they said. However, he had a pretty good guess that whatever it was that the text depicted some sort of weapon that Mundus hid down here. He wasn't much of a power hungry nut, but he wouldn't turn his nose up at powerful weapons just laying around for the taking.

He reached out for the glowing red text, when the word "Stop" rang through his head in a deep, monstrous voice. He looked around, recognizing that voice from Limbo. He looked back at the text, realizing that it was on some sort of altar. Below it was some more text, this time it was in the human written language. Dante was about to read it when he looked up at what was behind the altar; a giant coffin-like structure. Upon it read the phrase, "He Who Comes Before The Fall".

The devil hunter stood back a bit, admiring the coffin. It was chained shut, heavy locks made of some form of demonic steel keeping the tomb bound. He folded his arms, wondering what exactly Mundus might have sealed up down here…then he looked around, and as he started to understand that he was in a coliseum, he also realized…the lights were on. He spun to face the altar, looking at the dark red text. Then he looked at the human text below it. "Sealed here is a great evil."

A great evil? Could Mundus have locked up a demon down here? Then he started thinking for a moment, remembering that his father, Sparda, was still alive. His mind drifted back to the day he reclaimed his memories at his old home; how he was a Nephilim, the son of an Angel and a Demon, an abomination of all creation. He remembered that his parent's love was one of the greatest affronts to creation imaginable, and for it, his mother was killed, and his father was imprisoned for all eternity.

That might be what Mundus considered a great evil. Dante took a step forward, smiling. Mundus was dead now, gone. He had no control over what the devil hunter would do, no hold over the demon Sparda any longer. He touched the altar, looking at the coffin as it began to pulse with dark energy. This was a foul sort of darkness, beyond anything even Mundus seemed to emit.

The hunter stood back as the chains grew deep red cracks. The locks began to shatter, and the coffin's lid flew off, Dante only just sidestepping the huge stone slab's trajectory. His coat swayed with the wind caused by the launching of the coffin lid, as did his hair. He looked over to the coffin, noting that there seemed to be nothing but darkness in it. His heart beat rapidly, not out of fear of what might come out, but out of some sort of hope. Hope that, maybe he had found his father, and maybe he would know how to defeat these demons, rid the world of them once and for all.

A claw reached forth from the coffin, followed by a second claw. Dante raised a brow, not recalling Sparda having any claws exactly, but kept an open mind as whatever was inside slowly came out. Maybe Sparda underwent some form of transformation, similar to the hunter's own ability? The hunter's breath became labored as the rest of the imprisoned creature crawled out.

It was like a grotesque oni that he now stared down. It gazed at him, and he felt somewhat insulted by its mask's smile. Like it was making fun of him. "Are you Sparda?" The hunter called out, though the demon did not respond verbally. It stared him down even still, standing easily at three times Dante's height. In truth, the hunter was starting to get pissed off by the lack of response from this demon. "I'm talking to you, you tall sack of shit!"

With that comment, the demon sent a balled up fist straight for Dante, who leaped to the side to avoid it. He landed on his shoulder and rolled back to his feet, but the tremor caused by the demon's hand impacting the ground caused the devil hunter to stumble slightly. The demon turned its head slowly to look at him, its mask hiding whatever anger it might have been feeling.

The hunter summoned his signature sword, Rebellion, to his back as he continued to look at the demon. "Alright, 'dad'…" he muttered as he grabbed the hilt of the weapon, "…looks like you want to play." He ran towards the demon, somersaulting beneath a sweeping attack of the demon's arm, and lunged blade-first into the demon's chest. The monster screamed in pain and stood up, pulling its fist from the ground, Dante clamped hard to his sword as the creature pulled Rebellion out of its chest.

It held Rebellion's blade between its forefinger and thumb, holding the hunter close to its face. The hunter took this opportunity to swing back, bringing his full weight into a kick straight to the demon's mask. While the face itself was shielded from the attack, the devil hunter knew that the sheer blunt force of his kick would at least stagger his opponent.

Reeling from the kick to the face, the demon let go of Rebellion's blade, sending Dante soaring through the air. Not skipping a beat, the hunter spun through the air, landing on his feet just in time to see the oni demon recover. He pulled out his pistol, Ebony, firing a few bullets at the demon. In retaliation, the oni spun and smashed the stadium where Dante stood, though the hunter had leapt atop its arm and ran along its thick, muscly flesh.

Once again he lunged blade-first into the creature, this time directly into the mask. Not only did the object add to his anger, but if this really was Sparda that he fought, the mask might have been some sort of control device Mundus had put upon him long ago.

The blade impacted with the mask with a thunderous metallic crack—the oni seemed to scream in pain while Dante continued pressing down on the mask with Rebellion, using the blade as a wedge against the crack his attack caused. The demon grasped and groped for him, however the hunter did a fine job of keeping a hold of his blade and evading capture.

A final groan came from the mask, before finally half of it broke off. With all the force Dante had been putting behind Rebellion, the piece flew across the room, faster than a bullet, and the hunter found himself launched in turn. He landed on his ass, quickly rolling to his feet to avoid any possible recourse that the oni might have tried. Instead, it grabbed at its own face, crying out in pain.

"Yeah yeah," Dante called out, shooting its exposed flesh twice with Ebony. "That hurt, I get it. Don't be a bitch about it." The demon shifted its gaze to him, its exposed eye a deep crimson. "Do I have your attention now, or are you gonna keep ignoring the question? Are you Sparda?" The oni seemed to scoff at the question. It raised a fist, but before it could do anything another bullet hit its exposed face. It recoiled, grabbing its face while Dante casually took a few steps forward. "Cause if you aren't, Mundus sealed away some pathetic demons."

The creature let out a guttural roar and charged at the devil hunter, who flinched and leaped over the monster. While he was in the air, he was grabbed by the creature's hand, where he immediately felt pain from the creature crushing him. Ebony and Rebellion fell to the ground uselessly, and Ivory was inaccessible to him now. He grabbed the finger and pulled on it, desperately trying to break the demon's grip.

The creature leaned in to stare at Dante. Its exposed flesh was covered in red cracks and mutated flesh; exactly what could be expected of a demon. Its eye was bloodshot, although what should have been white was a deep black, and its iris was the color of blood. Its mouth was sewn shut, and the hunter winced as it roared in his ear.

The demon was crushing him slowly and steadily; he felt his waist compact more and more as time went by, screaming pain filling his entire body. He would need his entire lower body amputated at this point, were he a normal human. He opened one eye to gaze directly into the oni's, raised a fist, and collided it with the monster's face as hard as he could.

The oni immediately let go, reeling in pain; if one thing could be said, it was that the devil hunter had one hell of a right hook. Dante landed on his feet though fell to the ground quickly, his bones still recovering from being ground to dust. He pushed himself up, feeling the bones regenerating and setting themselves within him. Grabbing Ebony off of the ground and pulling Ivory from her holster, Dante began firing a storm of lead in the direction of the oni, each bullet hitting its exposed flesh and exploiting the weak point to keep the demon off-balance.

Finally he holstered his pistols and grabbed Rebellion, charging forth at the oni and leaping at its face. He landed on the oni's chest, smashing his fist straight into the mask to cause the unsteady demon and sending it to the ground. "Alright, time to see who the ass under the mask is." The devil hunter muttered, violently slamming Rebellion between the mask and the demon's face, using it to pull the rest of the mask off.

The demon's face looked even more grotesque with the mask completely off—as though the thing were actually a part of the demon's face. The skin was destroyed and torn, and the eyes stared desperately at the demon hunter who looked at him with a look of disdain. "Well, if you are Sparda, then I guess you and Vergil have something in common. Wearing a mask to hide your ugly goddamn face."

The oni made a move to grab Dante, although the hunter gracefully avoided the attack this time, leaping upon the demon's crown and launching himself through the air to gain some distance. The demon turned to look at him, and let out a low chuckle; dark energy began pulsing from it once more, its mere movements were causing tremors. The wind blew fiercely from the oni, as though it were the center of a gale.

The unmasked oni looked Dante straight in the eyes, and laughed a deep, unnerving laugh. "The fuck are you laughing at?" The hunter pulled out Ebony and began shooting the demon in the face, although the bullets were repelled by the fierce winds around the demon, and wound up flying around it and back to Dante, who sidestepped the bullets gracefully. The demon continued laughing at Dante. "I said, what the fuck are you laughing at?!" Holstering Ebony and drawing Rebellion, he flew at the oni who merely swatted him aside.

He landed hard on his side, and heard Rebellion slide across the floor alongside him. He rolled back and grabbed his blade, ending up on his feet before he could be taken advantage of. The oni faced him, chuckling at the hunter. Dante frowned as he looked at it, his knuckles whitening around Rebellion's hilt. Had he made the demon more powerful by removing its mask? Perhaps this was why Mundus sealed it up. "Okay, fucker…" he muttered and pointed his sword at the oni demon, "…last chance. Are you Sparda?"

The oni lunged once more at the hunter, who leaped to the side. His evasion tactic did not work as well as he'd hoped, and his leg was grabbed by the demon's powerful arm. Rebellion flew from his hands in his shock at being grabbed, and he was held close to the oni's unmasked face once more. Dante pulled his fist back and planted an upside down haymaker straight to the oni's nose, however this attack did not send the demon reeling. Rather, Dante's fist got stuck inside the demon's nose, while the demon continued to chuckle. He grabbed his arm and started trying to pull it free of the demon's nose, with no luck.

The dark waves of energy continued to pulse forth from the demon who held him, its chuckling filled his ears as he continued in vain to pull his hand free. "Let…me…go!" He released his arm and grabbed Ebony, shooting two bullets into the monster's head before it finally released him, throwing him across the room. By chance he landed beside Rebellion, looking up as the oni turned around, a thick black smoke enveloping it.

Dante stood up, grabbing Rebellion off of the ground and pointing Ebony at the smoke. He gritted his teeth as the smoke began to clear at last, a demon quite unlike the oni stepping out from it. It laughed in a dark, smooth voice, and it wore many cloaks. "I admit, I am quite surprised that Mundus has seen fit to allow people down here. To see…me." It said.

"So you can talk now? That's great." Dante stepped forward angrily, keeping his gun pointed forward.

"And you never seem to stop." The being replied, and laughed. "I was wondering what a human was doing in these catacombs, and to my surprise manages to take me on in straight combat. Albeit, in my sealed form."

"The mask."

"Not as stupid as you look."

"And you're every bit as much of a dick as you look."

"Put down the gun, fool." The being stated, though Dante did not comply.

"I take it you aren't Sparda."

"Sparda, Sparda, Sparda. Is he all you talk about when you aren't trying to be funny?"

"No, sometimes I whisper sweet nothings into the ears of ugly fucking demons like yours." He fired a bullet which the demon easily avoided. "My name is Dante."

"Dante…? The Dante?" The demon asked, to which Dante raised an eyebrow. "The fact you are standing after taking an attack from me answers that question. So that explains why you keep asking about the damned traitor, Sparda. Well he isn't here, nor does he exist on this plane." There was a hint of anger in his voice.

"So who the fuck are you?"

"Me? I am just a 'humble servant of Mundus'. Leader of his elite team." Dante chuckled.

"Your boss is dead."

"Oh?"

"I killed him, and now, I'm going to kill you."

"So confident, and yet, I can't believe even Sparda would be capable of defeating our glorious leader," there was a hint of sarcasm in his voice, "let alone some mixed-blood whelp that cur called a son."

"Were you always this much of an asshole? Is that why Mundus had you locked up in here?" The demon chuckled.

"No, he had me locked in here because I was more powerful than him."

"More powerful than Mundus?" Dante laughed.

"You claim to be."

"Cause I killed him."

"And I am clearly overpowering you. Get the picture?"

"Overpowering me?" Dante scoffed at the absurd statement, however he felt another malevolent pulse of energy around him, before being thrust backwards onto his ass. He scrambled back to his feet, looking at the demon.

"I am the personification of one of the Seven Cardinal Sins. No mere demon." He chuckled at the devil hunter who even now struggled to keep fighting. "Some know me as the worst of the Sins, the one that leads the rest. I am the personification of Pride." He walked toward Dante, who raised Ebony and began firing bullet after bullet at the demon who calmly walked toward him. "And there is such pride coming from you, Son of Sparda."

"Fuck you." Dante started backing up, firing his gun. However, Pride moved faster than Dante, and before long, they were within a foot of each other. Dante moved to leap backward, but a wave of malevolent energy surged from the demon, forcing the hunter to remain where he was. The Sin's fist was then rammed straight through his heart. The hunter let out a scream of pain, and heard Pride whispering in his ear as he began to pass out.

"You are weak, Son of Sparda, but you hold much power within you. When you decide to use that power, you and I might be on the same level." Dante's vision began to fade as he gasped for air, his heart desperately beating in Pride's closed hand. "Until then, know that I am not the only horror you've awakened with that nephilim blood of yours. The Seven Sins will be hunting you, and all humanity, until demons reign supreme once more. You have my word."

With that, he released Dante's heard and tossed him backwards with such force that he broke through the wall he collided with. The hunter's eyes closed and his vision faded, hearing nothing but Pride's laughter as he fell unconscious at last.