A horde of wicked laughter rung throughout the demons, and their bodies would've been spasming in a farcical matter had their faces not appear so horrid. The first demon, with its body as large as a troll, but a face as withered and cracked like charcoal, laughed. "I smell it. Demon blood…and human blood! A hybrid! All the more to enjoy a full meal, hahaha!"
Dante smirked. "Wow, looks like I'm the main course," he said, turning his back on the thickening crowd for a second, putting his fingers to his forehead. "Naturally, I'm flattered to not be treated like side dish. Except…" He suddenly whipped out both his guns at once, spinning them before aiming them towards the horde: "I couldn't care less to be flattered by the likes of you!"
The demons shrieked, laughing as they lunged. Dante knocked the first wave back with an intense flood of bullet rain; then he jumped upwards, averting the head-butt brought on by a demon shrouded in black fog and its six long legs sputtering like spiders'. Yet before he could land, several more of those also jumped towards him while Dante was in mid-somersault. Smiling sadistically again, Dante enjoyed the brief moment of breeze passing through his hair before one of them began to close its claws over his body—and then, as if in slow motion, he reached out his hand, grabbed the creature's underside, and lassoed it over his head in full circles; the creature writhed its legs but was utterly helpless in the strong grasp of a son of Sparda, and its uncontrollable body knocked back the other ambushers before it was thrown out by Dante again with a yell—head-butting and piercing through what appeared to be a black cluster of demonic essence behind him. Before Dante landed again, he unleashed the hell of Ebony and Ivory once more for a quick moment ere he stepped on the head of one demon, shot him in the head, and took up Rebellion in his right hand.
"How long has it been, do you think," he said, in a more casual manner than ever, "when you had food that fought back?"
The great demon in the centre seemed enraged; it lowered its head, its eyes filled with the worst kind of hatred before it cried out to the skies; more and more demons began to gather. "Listen to this mortal! You dare make mockery of me?! I will not forgive you!"
Hundreds of demons charged towards Dante at once, and the mere sight of it would've made a normal human faint with dread. But Dante simply stayed still, never wiping the smirk off his face. Drawing out Ebony, he shot out a column of bullets so quickly they sounded like a single spasming thunderbolt, and when the column got long enough, with an exasperated cry Dante sent down Rebellion on them in one clean swipe; the bullets shot out and split the oncoming demon horde in half, forming a brief rift in their crowded formation. Dante slid right through that rift like a trickster and eluded them all in one quick flash, making it through the huge row of demons literally unscathed. He smiled at the even more enraged demons behind who dived down towards him; but these lesser demons were so easy to dodge when infuriated. Thus, cool as a cucumber, Dante turned and let one pass him, slicing it into two when it hit the ground; then he just as easily averted the other, and grabbing it as it zipped past him, he spun around before chucking it right back to the great big demon. As usual the projectile hit him in the jaws, and the sheer force of the throw sent it tumbling to the ground in heaps.
"Urrrrgh…"
It shook its head to get rid of the stars dancing in its eyes, but when his vision cleared, he saw the human hop onto its chest and casually walked towards his face with an arrogant grin.
"One main dish, Dante, comin' right up!"
The tense silence did not leave those words ringing for long. The beast roared, and helped itself up. Paying no attention to the inclining footing he was standing on, Dante did not move a muscle until the demon nearly stood up, and then he dashed up the demon's grotesque torso as he would a wall.
"Hyah!"
Dante struck the creature's head, and again and again his sword slashed through its demonic skull. Wounded but not yet defenceless, the angry demon grabbed Dante and, though he was still slashing away, swallowed him.
The other demons which had begun to charge again at the mysterious devil hunter slowed down, and gazed at the huge demon. He surely would've passed into the esophagus by now; there was no sign that the young man was still alive and ready to fight at this point. The silence was not very tense, but muffled and confusing.
The great demon let out a sigh, and all the wrinkles on his face seemed to open, like a piece of cracking earth. It took one step forward. Then another step.
Every demon relaxed.
Suddenly there was a gurgle from the demon's belly. It stopped and raised its arms involuntarily. It was shaking on its feet, and the demons could almost hear the quickening pulse of its black and demon heart. It clutched its temples, making noises in its throat, like it was about to throw up, and then vomit-green blood began spewing out from pores at every corner of its disgusting, hairy body. It wavered more and more intensely by the second before its head dislodged from its neck in a fountain of blood, the head still wearing an expression of utter pain and shock, when all the demons were blinded by the flash of Rebellion, triumphantly rising out from the demon's neck.
Dante, his face and red coat matted with a mixture of blood and stomach acid, grinned as he hopped out from its neck; and spinning Rebellion, charging it with power, he cut cleanly right through the devil's entire body.
"OOOOOHHHHHHHHH!"
The head cried out as it landed on the pavement; its body, still trying to move, stopped, and its two halves dismembered from one another, falling open, revealing a mixture of gross demon insides. Dante landed, got up, and took a few steps forward, raising Rebellion as high as his slightly panting chest.
"Anyone else grabbing some of this?"
For a few seconds, no demon seemed to move. Then, they began to scream in quivers, and propelled into the sky. Dante's eyes followed them upwards; they began filing into what could be called a 'hole', but the elusive hell gate it was invisible to most eyes. The demons almost looked as if they were simply vanishing.
Dante shrugged. "Huh."
But the street was not completely silent.
Suddenly catching the sound of some muffled chewing, Dante spun back to see a headless demon grabbing the carriage that crashed into this street a few minutes ago. There were smudges of demons all over the street, but next to that carriage there were particularly many. The demon shook the carriage, and the already lopsided vehicle was bending even more to its side.
Could it be a human carriage?
Regardless, Dante walked up to the demon, who seemed unsuspecting of his presence. With a clean cut, as usual, Dante ended it with a shriek. Leaving its twitching body to disintegrate, he reached for the opening of the carriage.
He opened it.
The first thing he thought, was that this had to be a fashion cart, because fabrics of every colour and what appeared to be like wigs shot into his eyes. They seemed to be dressed on a collection of mannequins. Dante groaned and rolled his eyes, putting his arm casually on the carriage door.
"Just what the hell is that supposed to be…?"
Suddenly, one of the "fabrics" moved, and the wig raised itself to reveal a pale face under it. It was a human woman, and as she raised her head, she locked gazes with Dante whose face was not a few inches before hers; the miserable state she appears to be in did not seem to affect her good looks, yet in her pretty eyes, there was nothing but all-around fear.
Dante slammed the door in her face.
"Dammit…!"
He examined the tattered robes he was wearing, and his body, though undamaged, was covered in oozes of demon fluid. He shook his head, and his bangs, wet with green substance, were matted to his brows.
"Great job, demons. I forgot I was not fit to be seen. How am I supposed to make her believe I'm not one of those things? But…what's a human doing here in the first place?"
And, with that question, Dante then gazed up into the sky at the hell gate, rippling with demonic aura, which did not seem to close with the flee of the last of the Unnamable.