Phase 3 – The Proud Fallen Angel, Hubris
Disclaimer – I'm sure everyone knows the Disclaimer by this point, uh.
12:00pm; Italy: Fortuna Island, Lamina Peak: Fortuna Castle, East Wing: Nero's Private Chambers, Bedroom
Nero was surprised as he sat up in a fluffy bed after being poked and prodded all week and looked around the room, the room or rather the massive halls that made up these Private Chambers and glowered when he saw Lilith sitting in an armchair outside a shield wall, the smirk on her face was ticking Nero off but he knew that trying to storm her through that barrier would be wasting energy he could use on her later.
"Lord Mysticus sent me to make sure that you were somewhat unharmed, we need to alive to witness the Ritual later today" sneered Lilith as she looked at a book "rumours are we're expecting guests in the Castle, of the Demon Hunting kind but no matter, they won't get far"
"You seem to always underestimate your enemies" countered Nero and Lilith glared at him.
"Only those who are irrelevant to the present plan" answered a slick voice and a man with long blond hair walked in carrying a double sided staff in his right hand, something about him seemed familiar as the spiked haired man glanced at him.
"Don't alarmed, this is still Lord Mysticus, he has simply shown his true form – his Transient High Angel form" announced Lilith and Nero froze, true the armour that the man was wearing was demonic despite being Golden and the same coldness seen from Mysticus glowered from his eyes, but Nero still found it hard to believe that the man before him was Mysticus.
"Why be so surprised, I am a Fallen Angel, after all" dismissed Mysticus with a bored expression.
"I'll go revert to my true form also" announced Lilith as she stood and with a wave left the room.
"What is she, a Fallen Angel too?" scowled Nero with a raised eyebrow.
"She is the literal first Demon however not the metaphorical, the original 'Demons' were actually a more Beastly persona that we Angels have, our desire to mate and fight – to claim what is predetermined as ours and to win victories, to gain allies and power" answered Mysticus calmly as he sat down the seat that Lilith had vacated "like you we Angels have a de facto Demon Side but the calmness of a Sensible Being – originally 'Demon Sides' were designated as our power, our desire and our…instinct, hmm how I could sum all that up?"
"What is surprising is people think that Angels are supposed to be 'Greater and thou' beings" prodded Nero with a smirk.
"You say that yet God demanded that we 'bow down to humans' and look how that turned out in the end" countered Mysticus with a shrug "regardless, you are required at the Ritual tonight, I have foreseen it"
"Do you follow everything that you see?" sneered Nero and Mysticus shrugged uncaringly.
"Djibril will soon arrive on Earth and Hubris will rise, then there will be a clash of High Ranked Angels whom are often mistaken for two Pagan Gods, the Gods of Harmony and Discord" laughed Mysticus as he stood and glanced at his staff "by merely being on this world, Hubris will start the End War even without the other Pieces being on the board, Discord will rule all!"
"But I'm sure Dante will slay your Devil before he becomes a problem" dismissed Nero cockily and Mysticus smirked cruelly.
"No Demon can stand up to an Original Devil, Lord Hubris will destroy him and anyone else before they can try" countered Mysticus as he stepped towards the doorway with a resolute look on his face "even a Fallen Angel is powerful enough to destroy a Demon with ease, Lord Hubris is roughly equivalent of Archangel Rank, Archangels were God's most effective weapons"
6:30pm; Italy: Fortuna Island, Lamina Peak: Fortuna Castle, East Wing: Gardens
Dante completely hated this Castle and the grandness that had been taken in building the bloody thing, how in Yehovah and Lucifer's names had his father lived in this place while at the same time Dante sure saw the luxuries of such a beautiful place, or rather what he assumed would be beautiful if the Hell Gate wasn't causing a unnatural winter to spread across these lands. So far, Dante and his companions had run into very few High ranked Demons with only Demons strong enough to slow them down even making an effort, Dante felt that the past groups of Blitz and Frosts were stalling for something which Michael confirmed – time was running out. The Demons were well on their way with their preparations and every now and then Dante witnesses a powerful aura sweeping through Castle, someone was transferring a lot of their energy and effort into the Grand Hall where Dante assumed the summoning was being carried out, the only reason that Dante was over in the East Wing at all was because Nero was here – in that part of the Castle.
"Dante, get down" demanded Michael as he dragged the Demon Hunter to his knees just as Javelins of Ice soared over his head, a Frost dropped down however before Dante could even draw Rebellion, Michael had intercepted the Demon and stabbed it on his Archangel Blade causing a chain of light to skim up and down the Demon's insides before it collapsed dead.
"Thanks Mike, been a little distracted" grunted Dante as he got to his feet while Michael glared at the Demon Hunter as the sound of shattering glass echoed throughout the area.
"We're running out of time, Dante" complained Michael as the Dagger-like Archangel Blade slipped back up his sleeve "the last weaves of the Veil are shattering one after the other, once the Veil has weakened enough they'll proceed to the final stages of the Ritual, we can't let that happen"
"We need to pick someone up first, got what Nero left behind?" asked Dante as he turned to Credo who held up an Order of the Sword Case "good"
7:30pm; Italy: Fortuna Island, Lamina Peak: Fortuna Castle, Near Castle Entrance: Entrance Hall, Lower Level
"It's time, begin the Original Devil Ritual, it is time we awaken an Original Devil from Hell" smirked Lilith, her original form seemed to be of a middle aged woman with black Angelic wings.
"Yes, now all of you…" turned Mysticus as he faced the gathered ten Pride Demons and countless other types of Demons "repeat after me"
"I hereby invoke the Prince of Darkness,
The great Dragon of the bottomless pit
Who is the Bringer of Light
And Lord of the Earth.
Hear me, o mighty God of Hell!
Come forth from the black Abyss,
Come forth from the ends of the Earth,
Come forth from the night-time sky!
Great Tiamat, Apophis, Ahriman, Typhon!
Leviathan, Azazel, Belial, Samael!
Satan, Lucifer, SET!
My Lord and Master, come forth from Hell
And greet me as Your servant and friend.
Join me as I conduct this service in Your honour
Out of love and thankfulness for You.
Amen!"
The effects of this Magical Chant was instantaneous as the candles in the room suddenly flickered out only for a Purple Flame to appear in their places while Kyrie's blood leapt out of a Jar to form into a demonic magic circle which dried as suddenly as it took form, Mysticus smirked lightly as he paced to the back of the room and lifted the blood covered Yamato while muttering words in ancient Enochian causing Angelic runes to appear down the blade, he paced over to a specific rune on the Magic Circle and stabbed down, the blade getting stuck in the rune which only then did the frozen blood replicate and flow off the blade…
7:40pm; Italy: Fortuna Island, Lamina Peak: Fortuna Castle, East Wing: Nero's Private Chambers, Bedroom
Nero groaned as he stood off the bed and crossed over to the window from where he looked down at the hurricane of Demons swarming through the gaps in the Veil, Demons could now enter this world in mass without requiring special trinkets like the Temen-ni-gru or the Hell Gates, the Fake Hell Gate in this area had been specially customised it seemed to be elusive to its true purpose; it summoned Demons from Hell to hide the fact that it could shatter the Veil and cause Demons to flood onto the Earth with ease. Nero's Human body was tense and fearful for the Human race at this point however his Demon Half was…excited, whatever was being summoned in the Castle's Grand Hall was not only familiar to Nero's Demonic Instincts but also exciting, Nero was tempted to question his Demon Side's Sanity since the thing that was being summoned had no love for Humans whatsoever.
"Nero!" shouted a familiar Voice and Nero moved to the opposite side of the wall quickly as his door was kicked off its hinges, Nero was more shocked by the fact that Dante was the one who had kicked the door.
"Dante, don't!" shouted Nero and Dante stopped when he got the message, looking down he noticed the Magic Lines that were caging the Demon Hunter, Michael snatched Rebellion off Dante's back and sliced through the lines calmly with a bored frown.
"An Enochian Devil Trap, usually it's used for Powerful Devils, Fallen Angels or Original Devils" commented Michael as he read the surviving runes "not a bad piece of work, either"
"I'm flattered, Shorty" sneered Nero and Michael's eyes glowed darkly.
Before Nero could even raise a finger he was punched so hard by Michael he went clean through the wall and into the bathroom, Michael went after him where he grabbed Nero's leg and slammed him against the undamaged part of the wall sending Nero clean through the wall again, finally Michael caught Nero with a punch to the jaw sending him flying onto the bed. Nero rolled off the four poster bed with a yell as the four posts collapsed down on him, Michael moved to continue his hunt however Dante stretched out his hand to stop the Archangel from continuing after the Demon Hunter, the Archangel obliging as he came to a stop before we went past the Devil Hunter's arm.
"I think an introduction is in order, this is Michael – Fire Archangel of the Lord and Leader of the Heavenly Hosts, he doesn't like people talking about his size" commented Dante while nudging his head for Credo to approach.
"Credo…" started Nero surprised to see his adopted Brother alive.
"Kyrie is here, Nero, Michael thinks she is being held in the Main Hall where the Ritual is taking place however there are thousands of Demons between us and her, we need your help getting in there" announced Credo as he undid the latches on the Order of the Sword Case before sending it spinning in Nero's direction, it opened to reveal the parts of the Red Queen and Blue Rose.
"I don't have Yamato anymore, Vergil took it" commented Nero however he did pull the open Order of the Sword Case to get to work on preparing his weapons.
"So, Vergil isn't only alive but he's here" pondered Dante while glancing at Trish out of the corner of his eye who had winced "I assume you knew all along, yet you forget to tell me that bit of information, Trish?"
"We thought the knowledge would lower your combat capabilities" dismissed Michael with a serious expression "now if you would all hurry up, we have a Ritual to stop"
"The Ringleaders that I know of are Mysticus and Lilith" announced Nero and Michael frowned.
"Great, good old sibling showdown, I bet he's as pleased as the rest of them about me having them kicked out of Heaven – Mysticus is the type to plot a Fucking Apocalypse" groaned Michael as he looked out the window "we're just about to run out of time, business is beckoning, if Hubris rises then the dominoes will really start falling"
"Are you sure you can kill Hubris if it comes to that?" questioned Credo and Michael frowned at the Order Knight "you seemed rather emotional when talking about him"
"He was the only little brother who treated me as the younger, not because of my size, but because he was the closest genetic relative other than Lucifer willing to give a crap" growled Michael as he glared at Credo "it wasn't because he was an older Angel since I was older than him, its just that I never had a proper older brother despite having one, I'm sure you can understand that better than anyone Dante"
8:00pm; Italy: Fortuna Island, Lamina Peak: Fortuna Castle, Near Castle Entrance: Entrance Hall, Lower Level
Mysticus waited with a smile on his face as the blood from the sword curled inwards until it ended in the shape of a roof doorway belonging to Ancient Hanging Jail Cells, Mysticus looked at his staff as he awaited his guests arrival with pride blossoming in his chest or rather maybe that was the side effect of Hubris' Astral Energy slipping through the Veil to this place, the summoning was too far ahead now and so Mysticus doubted that anyone would be able to stop him now. Michael was too deprived of his twin to have much effectiveness and that gave Mysticus the advantage, Mysticus never had the experience of an Angelic Twin which meant that he never needed to rely on anyone, Michael however had always relied on Lucifer and without the Archangel Leader it came down to Michael starving himself of restoration.
Everything was set up for the grand finale and Mysticus smiled as the guests of honour entered the room, with a flick of his wrist he sent Michael and his pawns onto Church Benches that had been laid out especially for spectators, Lilith stood on the Balcony above while enforcing Mysticus' hold on them as he turned his attention back to the Ritual. If Mysticus didn't deliver soon then the Pride Demons would start killing Virgins in Demonic Sacrifice again, as though that get them any closer to raising their Dark God and Hubris got nothing out of Human Sacrifices since he wasn't here to observe participation, buttering ones love for their father was one thing but doing so without the father watching was wasteful of one's efforts and resources.
"Now, lets get underway, I want you all to see this" smirked Mysticus as he looked at the gathered loyal Demons "now repeat after me. We offer up our lives, blood, souls…"
"We offer up our lives, blood, souls…" repeated the Gathered Loyal Demons.
"To complete this tribute" finished Mysticus as he pointed his staff at the gathered Demons with a smirk.
"To complete this tribute" finished the Gathered Loyal Demons, a sudden golden glow skimmed their insides as though they were stabbed by an Archangel Blade, Trish glared at Mysticus from the cruel misuse of her own kind.
"What? They're just Demons" countered Mysticus with a shrug "since the Countdown to Hubris' rising has started I think we have time for Question Time"
"Where are the people that you have kidnapped!" questioned Credo and Mysticus smirked at the Artificial Half-breed.
"Your sister is sitting over there, as for the kidnapped Fortuna Citizens, well…" shrugged Mysticus as he indicated towards a pile of bones with an uncaring smile on his face "I know, it's awful, but the Seals placed on these Satans are so demanding. So it was women and children first. I know what you must think of me, Dante. But I have to do this. I have to. You of all people should understand"
"Oh, how do you plot that course?" growled Dante and Mysticus smirked.
"Like you, I had a father who pretended to care about his own sons but really he was a self centred jerk that caused the oldest Members of my Family to turn dark side including myself, sound familiar? Yehovah and Sparda are two similar individuals, the only difference is there power bandwidth and the size of their Egos, as I'm sure your learning" sneered Mysticus and with a flick of his finger he sent Dante flying against a wall "note the power difference between Demons and Angels, between Fallen Angels and scummy human half-breeds like you, what does that tell you!"
Suddenly and explosion occurred sending Dante to the floor as Mysticus turned to face the Ritual Circle with a smile, the blood was pulling the floor apart and in the sinkhole that appeared was a pillar of light that was raising into the Heavens – burning through anything in its path, Michael and Mysticus seemed unaffected however everyone else were either covering their eyes and/or holding their ears, trying to ward off the bright light or the intense sound of static that was growing as the light also intensified. Suddenly the light and the high pitched noise became all consuming and nothing could be seen or heard, in the Light a shadow had taken form and it was from the part of that shadow that looked like a chest where the light was located at, suddenly all the Light retracted into the being leaving a young man floating over a lava filled hole.
The Young Man's hair was long and black, he wore Middle Age shirt and boots probably from sea farers from a long time ago, his clothing was different shades of grey – lighter the lower that one looked. The Man opened his eyes to reveal brown-red eyes that glowed light purple in the light, the flames from the candles gave a shine to his hair making it look white from where the ebony hair shined while reflecting the light, held in his left hand was a sheathed Katana which seemed kind of off out of the man's look. As if sensing Nero's awe and wonder, the being turned and looked at him before carefully landing on the now solid ground where he looked over at Credo's Demon Hunters with a look of disgust and distain, Fallen Angels didn't fall from Heaven without sinning in Pride and as the Satan of Pride then the one before him must have despised humanity as much as Lucifer.
"Lord Hubris" bowed Mysticus with a smirk and the man turned to look at the blond haired minion before him as Demons swarmed onto the balconies of the Hall.
"Mysticus, it is a wonderful day that you have allowed me to come to Earth, but now we must move onto Stage Two of the plan" announced Hubris and Mysticus paled.
"Yes well, uh…" started Mysticus with a confused frown "we only had enough resources and power to raise you, my Lord, we don't have enough strength for another summoning"
"Regardless, we must evacuate this area before Djibril catches wind that I have risen, my powers are…exhausted" complained Hubris with a frown "they were not used to the travel, Inter-Dimensional Jetlag, we'll call it"
"Forgive me, since you never became one of the Seven Archangels you had no leave to come and go from Earth more often, the only time otherwise since you travelled to another Level of Existence is when Sparda had you sealed away from Assiah" commented Mysticus as he looked at his staff "also, we have Sparda's son here, as well as a Divine Maiden"
"Do you now?" questioned Hubris with a smile, he lazily walked past the chair that Kyrie was sitting on before emotionlessly lashing out and grabbing her upper face with his hand, a purple light blazed out of his palm before Kyrie went limp.
Before Hubris could move to leave however a massive light shined down from above which then took the form of a female in showing armour and long blue hair, she had crimson eyes and glowered at Hubris who gave a tired sigh of annoyance, it seemed that the Demi-Goddess of Harmony had finally arrived. An Archangel Blade appeared on the right lower arm armour of the Female Archangel who charged at Hubris, Hubris deflected her strike on the Satan Blade that had appeared from literally up his sleeve and he kicked her in the stomach sending her flying across the room with a grunt, Hubris flew up into the air and evaded the next attack that she launched at the Fallen Archangel Initiate who groaned in annoyance but winced when the Archangel Blade sliced across his arm.
Nero gave a yell as he grabbed the same arm that the Archangel had also had sliced on and Hubris frowned down at the youth, a glowing line of gold similar to the slash crossed across his arm at the same location on Hubris' arm, with a sudden growl Hubris flipped his hand sending a bench on the floor slamming into the side of Djibril which the Archangel landed on her feet with a frown on her face. Hubris wondered what she was staring at and noticed that her Archangel Blade was stabbed into his right chest – looks like this time God and Luck was both on his side for once, with a growl he drew out the Archangel Blade and glanced at Nero who had fainted from the replicated shadow injury, but why was that happening at all?
"My Lord" shouted Mysticus as he raised his staff, a portal of dark energy appeared and despite Hubris' attempts, he was pulled into it.
"Return him" growled Djibril as he glowered at Mysticus "or I will purge your sinful existence from this world, Mysticus. No one screws over an Archangel ranked Angel but another Archangel!"
"Sorry, Lady Djibril, but I've put your dear brother in a place in which he can recover" announced Mysticus as he opened a portal behind himself "I will allow you to fight your brother, Older Sister, but only on a fair and equal battlefield – when Lord Hubris gets used to being in Assiah then I will allow the two of you to beat on each other as much as you like"
Djibril sent a wave of white energy out in an attempt to destroy Mysticus' portal to safety and succeeded, however this was a ruse as Mysticus then teleported away and with Djibril distracted she couldn't track his target location, with a growl she turned her eyes on the remaining gathered Demons in the room however they had fled the building with Lilith the moment that Hubris had been forced through that portal. She turned to look at Dante and Michael to see Raphael kneeling beside an injured Nero, she frowned when she remembered what happened earlier and sensed Nero's aura for what could have been the cause, Nero couldn't be a doppelganger since his aura was slightly different to Hubris' which made her think up other possible outcomes as she descended towards the group.
"You know, Ralph, you could have intervened sooner" complained Michael as he glowered at his sibling Archangel.
"You have no idea what juggling I've been doing in Heaven, the Politicians are not happy that you came down here for no evident reason, if Mysticus was a Archangel then your reason would be understandable but he wasn't so you technically broke the rules by getting involved" countered Raphael calmly "they are only giving you a loophole now because Hubris had risen, if you had stopped his rising or if it hadn't occurred, you would have been cast into Hell as a Fallen Angel – a traitor disobeying High Ranked Orders"
"But…" started Michael however Djibril cut him off.
"Ever since Sparda sealed away the Fallen Angels from Assiah, we agreed to not release any Angel to Earth unless on a mission for the risk that they would 'like what they saw' and fell, because of their own Sins" added Djibril suddenly "you are just unlucky Mysticus succeeded, otherwise you'd be screwing your twin brother in Hell and getting on with Hubris again like old friends"
"Djibril!" snarled Raphael however before he could finish Michael had teleported away "you know about Angelic Twins, especially Seraphita Project Twins!"
"Adam Kadamon was the first Seraphita and the First Angel designed after God's True Form, he was cloned and his clones were taken apart to become the First Generation of Angels, however among them were those born from God's pet project – the Splitting the Seraphita Project. It created twins: Alexiel and Rosiel, Yahweh and Samael – a unique pair of Eight Winged God-type Angels born from dividing a combination of a God Doppelganger and two Adam Kadamon Clones, Lucifer and Michael" pondered Djibril aloud with a coy smile "then there was the Quadruple Project that created Hubris, Humilis, Privo and Venia. The only Project where two twins did not becoming humping bunnies but instead the oldest twins of each participating births instead got involved, the Splitting of the Seraphita's Quadruple Project that created the four was unique because it included the fusing of two Seraphita clones that were blended together and divided into two genetic primordial essence, then those two were divided into two pairs of twins. The next Project was…"
"Beside the point. The main point is that the paired individuals from the Splitting Project, even in that one case that they are not twins – are psychotically, irrationally, erotically co-dependent on each other. Michael and Lucifer or Hubris and Privo for example. You can't bring that up with our brother, Michael may pretend to hate Lucifer into the very Abyss itself, but really he loves and respects his brother more than anyone can understand" announced Raphael as he turned to his Archangel Sister and jabbed his index finger at her "so on that subject, you are to drop it, especially when you yourself cannot understand"
"Whatever, hurry and get them out of here while I watch your retreat" demanded Djibril as she prepared her Archangel Blade, Dante wordlessly picked up the unconscious Nero before making his way towards the entrance.
Author's Note - And that is the end of the Pride Rising Arc, it also shows a hint about what this Season is about, it isn't about a single Satan but Two – care to guess what the second is? I guess if you want to find out your going to have to review.