Disclaimer: I don't own Devil May Cry.

A little warning first: It has been a long time since I've updated or written anything and I had no one recheck this chapter for grammatical mistakes. Read at your own risk.

Chapter 7

A loud shock ricochet across the vast marble halls and explosions shook the foundations of the castle. Dante rushed out into the garrets where troops were amassing. Spotting his father on top of one of the observation towers he leapt to him in one huge bound. Sparda finished giving out his orders and dismissed his men before turning to his youngest son.

"Yo, pops! What's going on?"

Suddenly multiple explosions rang out on the south side of the castle.

"We're being attacked." Sparda answered while walking to one of the observation decks in order to better see the enemy.

"I know that, I've got eyes and ears," Dante retorted following the elder to also gaze out. "What I meant is who's attacking us?"

A thick fog unusual for this place had descended across the sky and around the castle making visibility difficult and making identifying their aggressors impossible.

Sparda scanned the sky for a few moments searching for something in the thick miasma before suddenly drawing one of his firearms out, pointing it directly up and firing. A loud shriek was heard and a second later a yellow body fell from sky right in the middle of the yard. Soldiers quickly amassed around the dead body anxious to see who their enemy was.

"Dragon riders," Sparda said as he studied the large yellow reptilian body and the smaller crushed blue reptilian rider protruding beneath it from his high vantage point. "And where there is one there are sure many others to follow."

As if on cue the castle suddenly shook as numerous explosions were heard all over the place.

"Dante take some men and go defend the east side of the castle." Sparda commanded as he suddenly triggered into his winged demonic form.

"If you see your brother tell him to head to the western roof, " He instructed in a deep gravelly voice as he motioned some of his men to take on their own demonic personas and take to the sky while others pulled out their guns and projection weapons. "Tell him that the enemy is only an aerial assault type, a ground assault on the castle is virtually impossible, so he's to keep his eyes at the sky."

With that Sparda spread his large leathery wings and took to the skies.

Dante didn't bother to nod; he just turned around ready to collect a group of men and convey his orders when he heard another explosion, but this time it came from the north side of the castle: Where Nero's room was.

A small sense of urgency gripped the hybrid. Nero was trapped in his cell with no way out. Sure the spell around the room would protect him but that still didn't mean that his pet was alright.

Taking a second to think Dante turned to a unit of armored demons waiting for his command.

"Go to the eastern quadrant of the palace. Take the short route." He said. "I'll take the long way around and meat with you there to make sure had gotten through any other way."

The moment the unit left Dante turned and hurried toward Nero's hall.

/

Nero had been lying on his back on the bed staring up at the ceiling in sheer boredom when he heard the first explosion.

"What was that?"

He had sat up and moved over to the window just as he heard another explosion somewhere else close by.

The young hybrid looked out of the window at the foggy horizon straining his eyes and ears for the source. As he peered out over at the gray clouds over the black abyss a shadow sped by outside his room.

"The hell was that?" the young man wondered as he leaned forward on the window sill in order to get a better look.

A moment later there was glaring light in his eyes before he saw a fire ball speeding towards him.

Instinctively the young man leapt back despite the fact that he knew that the magical barrier surrounding his prison would repeal the attack. As expected the fireball erupted on the thin blue magical barrier before diffusing completely, leaving his room and himself unscathed.

"What's going out there?" Nero asked loudly.

As though to answer his question a large body suddenly emerged from the clouds to hover several dozen yards outside his cell window. The yellow dragon spotted Nero, and seeing him unhurt opened its jaw and released another fiery projectile towards the young man.

This time Nero didn't budge, but simply stood motionless watching the pyrokinetics bash uselessly against his prison.

Seeing the young man standing unhurt the dragon rider stared in confusion.

Nero however smirked. This could prove useful in helping him escape he thought. He moved closer to the window and leaned against the marble aperture.

"Is that the best you got, firefly?" the young hybrid taunted as he crossed his arms in a leisurely display of arrogance. "I've had sunburns worse than your little game of acidic phlegm."

The blue rider growled, his carapace like countenance shifted in anger, and he tightened his hands on his dragon's reins.

"Did I hurt your feelings princess?" Nero continued. "Why don't you get off your high bizarre looking horse and come and fight me. Don't worry; I'll try to be gentle with you."

With that the blue rider growled menacingly before savagely kicking heels into his dragon's flanks. The beast gave a terrific roar before launching forward heading right for Nero's cell window.

The creature and its host were huge and as such their combined girth added to their speed and magnitude struck the magical barrier of Nero's room with such force that the spell gave one little flicker of power before erupting into a dull blast.

Nero, who had been leaning against the opposite wall, was completely unharmed and unfazed while the dragon rider and his beast dropped down into the huge crevice surrounding the castle.

The hybrid watched the other disappear over the horizon before turning and moving towards the door. He kicked the wooden aperture and the double doors swung open without resistance and without the young man being blasted back.

He smirked.

"Thanks for the help scales." He chuckled over his shoulder before stepping out and heading out running.

/

Down a lone corridor a thump was heard as large head hit the floor and rolled down leaving behind a long bloody trail before another thump was heard and another smaller head was seen rolling behind it.

"Curse these creatures." Vergil growled as he flicked his sword with a one quick gesture of his wrist to clean Yamato from his foe's blood. "They attack in hordes and bring their filthy beasts into battle with them."

He re-sheathed his weapon before continuing down his path towards where the sounds of battle were raging.

At the end of the bridge spanning between the towers of the castle separate buildings he saw a group of soldiers hurrying down towards the southern vector of the castle where no doubt the initial fighting had started. He was just about to join them when he caught a glimpse of something blue and red disappearing around the corner of another bridge linking the same building he was in just a second ago.

He froze and tilted his head curiously.

"Ah!" was his only thought before a smile broke out on his face.

/

Nero ran down the empty passageways delighted and unbelieving his good luck. Whomever it was that was attacking the place had not only allowed him to escape his godforsaken room, but it had also rendered all the servants of the place preoccupied with the enemy thus leaving most of the place empty and allowing him to move freely without trouble. Another thing was that Nero had also stumbled across the outer chambers which meant that the main gate out of Sparda Castle had to be close by. Nero was almost as good as free, if he only he could find the main gates of the place.

He figured that escaping now was out of the question especially if there's a battle raging on, but if he could lie low until the battle ended he could wait until the gates were reopened later to admit supplies to sneak out.

The boy snuck from room to room until he saw green shrubs poking through one of the window. He dashed down to the other side and sprung open the doors. He found himself outside (finally!) in some tucked away garden in a corner of the palace bordering the massive walls that encircled the entire place.

Perfect! Now all he had to do was walk alongside the stone barrier till he arrived at the main gates.

The poor boy had barely taken a step out on to the stone path when he was suddenly seized from behind and slammed into a nearby wall.

Surprised but not defeated Nero struggled and tried to break free from the hand locking his arms behind his back. But his assailant merely twisted his trapped arms painfully upwards wrenching a pained sound from the boy's lips before pinning him to the wall with his own larger girth.

"Well, well." A familiar voice breathed in the young hybrid's ear.

"What do we have here?" Vergil mused as he pushed up behind his captive a wrapped an arm around his neck.

TBC