I HOLD NO CLAIM TO ANY OF THE ORIGINAL Devil May Cry CHARACTERS! NOTHING! :(
Chapter Three
Destroyer of the Black Knight
The path led them to the cathedral where more of Ryona's friends decided to block off all exits.
"You know, I'm starting to think that they're following your scent," Michael commented with a frown. "Are you on your period or something?"
Ryona glared at him, her face growing dark red. "Shut up, you jerk!"
Dante gave a laugh and walked towards the front of the room. "You two are still such children."
Michael laughed and followed him but Ryona froze with a frown on her face. She didn't really act like a child, did she? After all, she saw herself more of the adult than Dante was.
"The Pride of the Lion," Michael's voice grabbed her attention and she hurried up to the floating block the two men were looking at. "Is granted only to those who choose the path of trials.' Huh, what does that mean?" As his answer the block began to glow and floated higher and higher over their heads just to shoot a beam of bluish-purple light at the door behind them, shattering the hand and making a path for them. Michael wore a frown. "Really? It's totally leading us into a trap."
"If so," Dante replied walking towards the door. "We can get out of it."
"Whoa, you're not seriously thinking about going through there, are you?"
"You got any better ideas?" Ryona asked him, following after the other man.
"No, but-"
"Don't be scared, Michael," Dante called over his shoulder as he moved through the door. "You got your sword, right? You'll be fine."
Michael kicked at the ground before hurrying after them. They found themselves outside on a bridge. They walked across to the center structure that was sitting in the claw-like design at the end.
"It's the staff of Hermes," Ryona commented at the carving as Michael stared at the one with the lion head.
"'Go back the path and thou shalt return from the abyss with thy lionheart, and thou shalt receive the Pride of the Lion.'" He frowned again. "What the hell? I think this place is crazier than that damn tower of your brother's, Dante."
"You can say that again." The silver-haired man sighed as he led the way back across the bridge.
Ryona went to walk after them but something caught her sight. She lifted her head and stared at the tower closest to the cathedral. The figure had been moving but the moment her eyes landed on it, it paused. She realized that it was a man, dressed in some kind of black armor with a large, velvet cape. He seemed human but even from this distance Ryona knew that he was…strange. He had stopped moving for a moment before turning his head to where their eyes locked.
Goosebumps crawled over her skin as a strange feeling settled in her stomach. She didn't know why but she felt like she had seen those eyes before. But they were glowing a strange orange but the fierce gaze that they gaze her…it felt familiar to her, but how?
"Hey," Ryona jumped as the hand landed on her shoulder. Dante was standing behind her now. "You all right?"
She turned her gaze back to the tower but found that the Knight had disappeared. The strange feeling she had was still there, though. "Yeah," She nodded. "I'm-" Her gaze landed on the bridge and found out that it had been smashed to pieces and Michael was on the other side by the large doors they had come through earlier. She tilted her head to the side. "What the hell happened?"
"Well," Dante smiled. "While you were busy daydreaming, the bridge shattered apart and Michael and I took a swim."
She frowned in confusion. "Really? But…" Had she really been staring at that Knight for that long?
"Are you sure that you're okay? You seem a little out of it right now." Dante's grip was firm on her shoulder. "Do you need to rest."
She waved his hand off. "No, I'm fine. Let's just get through this." She shrugged the feeling off of her and gave him a grin. "Really, Dante, I'm fine."
Back inside the cathedral they received that Pride of the Lion Tablet.
"So, what exactly are we supposed to do with th-" Michael's voice was cut off with the sound of glass breaking from behind them. All three turned in time to see this huge, ugly ass white and orange spider landing behind them in the middle of the cathedral.
"What the hell!?" Was ripped out of all three mouth and the Goosebumps returned to Ryona's skin as it stepped closer to them.
"Bah! More small ones!" the spider's voice was deep. "I sensed something a little bigger. What a disappointing catch. Though the woman does have a little something more." His eyes crawled over her; Ryona slipped behind the men.
"What a big surprise," Dante smirked. "I hope for your sake you've got something besides that big body of yours." He tapped his knuckles against one of its legs.
"You puny pathetic thing. I'll step on you like an ant!" Phantom raised a foot back as he gave a horrid laugh and went to stop on them. Dante jumped over his back, Michael dodged to the left, and Ryona rolled under its large body, coming to a stop behind it as Dante landed beside her.
"Three to one?" Michael grinned, whipping Alastor out. "This should be easy as pie."
It was easy, but it took so freakin; long and that tail of his hurt like a bitch! But when you have a demon and a half-breed that can jump pretty high and an inhuman dude that can fly you're pretty much safe for that entire battle.
Phantom's white skin grew into a red as he gave a roar of pain. He then seemed to melt into the ground, disappearing.
"Ah, what a scared piece of-" Ryona rolled her eyes as Michael continued to grumble at the running enemy.
"Don't worry about it, Mikey," Dante smiled. "He'll be back!"
"Well, when he is, he's mine!" Michael told them. "No on burns my clothes in lava and then runs away!" Ryona turned to see what her friend was talking about and found the bottom right of his pants were burned, showing off a bright white calf.
"I swear, sometimes you think he's a woman." She told herself quietly.
They found themselves back in the hall and made their way back to the room with the large fountain and lion structure about halfway through the hall. Phantom, the spider, decided to drop down on them but they quickly made it to the room as Michael cried out slurs that wouldn't be suitable for little children's ears.
"Are you sure that this is something that we needed?" Ryona asked, looking at the Tablet in Dante's hand.
"Well, there was nothing else for us to do, right? It has to have something to do with this lion or else it wouldn't have been there."
"I guess you're right. Not much else that we can go on, huh?"
"No, he agreed. "Not really." He went to step forward but then glanced back at the woman. "Step back."
Ryona smiled at the sign of his concern and backed away like he had asked. As he did this thing, Ryona settle herself into thinking what she was going to say to her grandfather when she finally got to meet him. Many things passed through her mind but perhaps the biggest question that she was wanting the answer to what was her mother like…
As the lion statue was shattered, Ryona watched as the dark shadow cat jumped out in an attack; Dante slashed that in seconds flat but Michael just had to get his word in on it.
"Dante, you need to keep your pussy from getting wild."
"Do you HAVE to talk like that? It makes you sound immature." Ryona shot Dante a look as he laughed at the comment.
"Come on, hun," Dante grinned. "He's just trying to make jokes."
"Well, let's keep them from being sexual, yeah?"
"But where's the fun in that?" Michael grinned as he opened the door to their next destination. "Come on, Ryona, you know just as well as I did that you made sexual puns when you were my age too." He shot her a wink and disappeared through the next door.
She hung her head as she moved after him. "Michael…I AM you're age."
There was another switch they had to hit in the bottom of the room and it turned into an elevator like object like the one from earlier had. The entire room was covered in dust and some kind of icky web that instantly made Ryona think back to Phantom; kind of hard not to when he just chased you down the freakin' hall! Michael and Dante ran up the stairs as Ryona took the easy way up on the elevator. There were marionettes here and there but Dante and Michael had to deal with those a few flights down. Ryona wore a huge smile as she moved ahead through the doors that the elevator had stopped her in front of.
It was a bedroom, old but grand at the same time. There was a bed in the back left corner by the windows and right beside it was a baby cradle. She frowned. There was a strange feeling in this room. Glancing around again, she found a mirror and then some kind of statue and a sun figure on the wall but what really caught her attention was the painting on the wall across from the bed. Instantly, Ryona grabbed the locket hanging around her neck and opened it, holding it up beside the painting. A small smile spread across her lips. This was her mother's room. And if this was her mother's room then that meant that that cradle…had been her's.
Modeus, Baul, and Aowin were all in the painting, a small child in Aowin's arms; her. Ryona had been right. Her mother had been torn between the two demon brothers…just like she had been. Modeus, the younger brother, had won her heart though, just like Dante had done her's. And she could see why. It's not that Uncle Baul looked bad but damn her father was HOT!
Aowin wore a smile on her face as she held the child in her arms lovingly. Her gown was a dark violet with black lacing as her long red hair was twirled together, being brought over her right shoulder as her blue eyes seemed to shine.
Standing behind her was Modeus. This was the first time that she had seen a picture of her father and she could tell right off that she was his daughter; he had her yellow-green eyes and the smile he wore was completely the won she would wear when she looked or through about Dante. His long black hair was brushed back on his left side with his bangs hung over the right side with pointed ears. He was dressed completely in black. As Ryona had said before; a capital H-O-T!
That left the third member of the painting, standing on her mother's other side. Baul had the same eyes as his younger brother but his hair was short and grey as he was dressed in silver and blue.
All of them wore brilliant smiles, telling Ryona that this was painted before everything bad had happened. Before she was taken. The very thought of being with her parents, if even for a little while, made tears spring into her eyes. She had feared that they had never held her; once.
"I can give you three guesses on who that is." Dante's voice made Ryona turn a bit to find him standing beside her, gazing over the picture himself.
She wiped her eyes. "Oh? And who is it?"
"The mother, father, and uncle of one hell of a gorgeous woman." He grinned at her. "She even outshines her mother."
She gave a laugh. "I wouldn't go that far," She set the locket back around her neck. "Dante…before we leave…can we come back here?"
"Come back to the room?"
"Yeah," She nodded. "I'm gonna hang this painting in my room."
Dante wrapped an arm around her shoulders and kissed the top of her head. "In OUR room."
She closed her eyes. "I'll hold you to that." She then opened her eyes again. "Where's Michael?"
As her answer, the man she was looking for gave off a girlish scream from behind and they both turned to find the man jumping back from the mirror. He had shoved the Death sentence Sword into the chest of the woman statue and retrieved the Melancholy Soul from her mouth but also seemed to have freed a knight out of the mirror. Ryona jumped.
"You!" She pointed at the Knight. It was the man that she had been staring at in the tower not even an hour ago!
"You know this guy?" Dante asked.
He didn't receive an answer. She found herself caught in those extreme eyes again. The familiar feel of them made the Goosebumps reappear. She knew this guy, she had to, but who could it be? How could she have known him?
Of course both of the men noticed the Knight's stare and Dante stepped forward as Michael placed himself between the woman and their new 'friend'.
"This stinkin' hole was the last place that I'd find anyone with some stinkin' guts. Especially guts to look at my woman like that!" Dante growled.
The Knight stared at him for a moment before snapping his fingers. The doors to the balcony opened up and with a wave of his hand to Dante, the Knight jumped out.
"Well, would you look at that?" Michael grinned. "A man who DOESN'T like to fight in the bedroom." Ryona smacked him in the head.
"Ryona, Michael," Dante moved towards the doors. "I want you two to stay up here."
"What?" She was surprised as she followed out onto the balcony after him. "But why?"
"It's a guy-thing, Ryona. Let him do what he's gonna do." Michael gave the other man a thumbs-up. "Go get 'em, Dante." The half-breed gave Michael an appreciative grin and jumped down into the courtyard below. The man dropped his hand and lowered his face into a frown. "That Knight…do you know him?"
Ryona shook her head. "I don't think so. There's just something about him that seems familiar though." They watched as the said Knight dropped down from the top of the castle and began to battle with Dante.
"Well, he definitely seems interested in you. Maybe it's the black knight come to steal the princess."
"Please, I'm not a princess." Ryona frowned.
"On the contrary," Michael informed her. "Your grandfather is Mundus. The Prince of Darkness. The Dark Emperor. The Devil King, whatever you want to call him. Your mother was the Princess, just as you are. Perhaps the Knight was sent here to take you back to your grandfather…or something like that."
For some reason, at that, Ryona's mind traveled back to the voice that she had heard all those years ago during the events with Vergil. The voice that called to her on the banks of the Underworld while the brothers had fought.
"You have finally returned. After all this time you have come back to me. Don't be frightened. You're safe here, Ryona Kurrin." The laugh made her shiver. "I know more than just your name, Ryona. I've kept my eye on you since the moment you came out of your mother's womb."
It could have been Mundus, yes, but Ryona just didn't know. She was silent for a moment, watching as Dante and the Knight's fight drew to a close.
"I just…I just don't know." She sighed. "Let's not talk about this unless we have to."
"Well, if your grandfather is behind all of this like that woman told you he was then you'll have to face him sooner or later and I'm sure that that'll be one of the first things out of Mundus' mouth when he sees yo-"
"DANTE!"
Michael lifted his head to find that the Knight had knocked Dante's sword from his hand and now had the man pinned against the side of the castle with one hand around his neck, his feet a good couple of feet hanging above the ground. Ryona had dove off of the balcony and hurried over, her own swords drawn. The knight jumped back from her, dropping Dante to the ground behind her, coughing. A laugh erupted from the Knight's throat and he wagged a finger side to side, as it telling her she was naughty for interfering. Her throat caught. There was only one person that she remembered doing that to her.
"Get back, Ryona," Dante had pushed himself to his feet and placed himself between the Knight and the woman again. The Knight seemed like he was going to make a move until he froze. Dante looked confused for a moment before noticing that his half of his mother's amulet was pulled out into view during the fight.
~it couldn't be that, could it?~
A blue static covered the knights body and he began to moan, holding his head as he tried to shake the pain away. They all watched in confusion as he then disappeared into a strange ball of light, flying off from the courtyard.
"What the hell just happened?" Michael asked.
"I don't know, but," Dante shook his head as he stared down at the amulet around his neck. "I'm not sure that I like it."
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