STIGMA
Chapter 9: Ashes to Ashes
"Remember if you're on the ground, your survival depends on how fast you can move."
Carmen had her blade at my throat. She had flawlessly kicked my ass again. I gritted my teeth. This was my apparently my seventeenth birthday gift; more training. It wasn't that she had beaten me. She had been training for years, if anything I expected that.
"You never smile when you send me flying to the ground."
"I don't enjoy this, Alex. There's no satisfaction is defeating an opponent whose skills aren't on par with yours." She paused and cleared her throat. "Now as I was saying, if you're still conscious when you hit the ground you need to start moving. If you can't get up yet keep moving never stop. They can't kill you if they can't touch you."
I rolled to the right quickly before the creature could plunge its claws into my back. I landed onto my front and slammed my hands into the ground to use as leverage to get to my feet.
"Well I picked a fine time to leave my sword inside." I immediately drew Diabolique and started shooting. But the bullets had little effect other than pissing the creature off. It then shimmered into black mist.
"Fuck." I muttered. Not knowing what the mist would do to me if it touched my skin, I moved in a circular pattern dodging it. A solid arm formed from the mist and swiped at my midsection. I jumped backwards down the hill but ended up slipping.
"OOF"!!!
But instead of landing flat on my back something had caught me by the shoulders. I looked behind me. The superior grin from Adrian made me both want to smile with relief and punch him at the same time.
"A bit of a klutz aren't we?" He then pushed me aside and threw a red orb at the mist. It exploded in a ball of orange flames and a cloud of thick red smog covered it. A scream emanated from it and it retreated backwards.
"Not to sound clichéd or anything but what took you so long?"
"Oh you know, sorting through demonic weapons, books on the underworld, and everything in between."
"Hey Alex, catch!" I turned just in time to catch my sword. Dante and Vergil were running towards us fully armed.
"What did you find?" I demanded.
"My father called it a Ravenetta." Dante answered. "They can be summoned from points in our reality where others have returned from the dead."
"How do we kill it?"
"You can't." Vergil answered. "But we can send it back to where it came from."
"We need to weaken it down enough so when the twins open a portal to the underworld we can just send it flying through." Adrian cocked his shotgun at the mist which was starting to form a shape. "We need to hurry. The blind bomb I threw at it is starting to wear off."
"So what you're saying,"I took first position and held my sword in front of me. "Is that we need to unleash the fury of God on this thing."
The Sparda twins went from human to devil in the blink of an eye. I flinched as I gazed upon Dante's devil form. His skin was black and cracked in places. Through those cracks, light or perhaps his own power shone through. His eyes were orange and yellow in contrast to the glowing green light that emanated from the eye sockets of his twin brother.
Dante must have seen the slightly terrified expression on my face because he flashed a grin and I could see long sharp fangs protruding from his mouth. "Don't worry babe, it's still me." His voice was harsh and it sounded as if two beings were speaking through him; Dante himself and the devil within.
"Sorry." I then refocused my attention on the Ravenetta. "Let's get this over with."
The Ravenetta then reformed into a solid being. For the most part it was truly a giant bird. It had wings, the head of a raven, the sharp beak and obsidian eyes. But the torso and legs were human and it had a set of human arms and hands. It was truly disturbing to look at.
It took flight and stopped about fifteen meters above us. It waited patiently as we stood below watching, waiting for it to move.
"Everybody, stand still," Adrian's hands glowed light blue. "I'm going to cast a barrier."
"We won't need one." Vergil drew a broad sword, but he looked extremely uncomfortable with that type of weapon.
"Well I will. " Blue light flowed over me. "I won't be relying on you to save my ass this time, Vergil."
"Nothing will happen to you. I don't have much of a choice about that. It's quite possible that if you die then I die."
I couldn't keep the smirk off my face. "Well devil boy, I guess neither of us had better die. It probably works in reverse too, in which case we're both fucked."
"I don't mean to interrupt but INCOMING!" Adrian shouted. The Ravenetta swooped down, wings at full span to try to encompass the four of us. Time once again seemed to slow down. I was frozen and couldn't move.
So this is how you almost killed me last time; a time spell
I was knocked out of the way and onto the ground. I looked up to see Adrian. I pushed him off me.
"Bastard," I retaliated with Diabolique and swung my sword to collide with its wing. Black blood splattered onto my face. I grimaced.
"Nice going sis," Adrian fired his shotgun at the creature's head. Its head was knocked backwards with a sickening crack.
"Now that's gotta hurt!" I didn't have to even look at him to know he was smirking at me.
"Yeah, yeah Mr Cleaner," I jumped to my feet and lunged back into an offensive position.
"I suggest you two move out of the way." Adrian and I barely managed to clear a path as the Sparda twins rushed towards the Ravenetta in a blur of blue and red. As it was knocked to the ground Dante pinned it down, he lifted his head
"Verge, open the portal!"
Vergil held out his left hand and sliced it open with his right claws. Blood flowed freely down his arm. He looked at me with those awful glowing green eyes and extended his right arm.
"I need your assistance."
"But I'm human."
"Well yes but when I was brought back I was not quite whole. It seems that a part of me flows into you. I need to access that."
I took two steps backwards. "Why can't Dante help?"
"Kinda busy down here babe." I glared at him.
Vergil moved closer, carefully circling around his brother, never taking his eyes off me, blood still dripping from his hand.
"Please?"
"Come on just do it." Dante punched the Ravenettta to keep it down. "I can't remember the last time the word please left his mouth."
With hesitation, I stepped forward and offered him my right hand which he enclosed in his own. The scaly skin felt strange underneath my human flesh but it was not entirely unpleasant. It was cool to the touch.
He opened his right hand and raised his left claw over my hand. "This will hurt a little bit. May I?"
I nodded and grimaced with mild pain as a razor sharp claw slit open my palm.
"Le Immenta, Lariska, shika spa morme e' tuste apah! He closed his left over my bleeding right hand.
"Le Immenta, Lariska, shika spa morme e' couska schefa schalise." The air was filled with electricity. It crackled off our bloody hands. I closed my eyes and let the feeling of power well up inside me.
A haunted voice whispered in my ear, "Le Immenta Lariska, spa tolos ven pute schanto!"
The power exploded inside me, a flash of light and sound followed. A gray portal opened three metres away from us.
"DANTE NOW!" That voice sounded like me but I didn't remember shouting those words.
Dante effortlessly scooped up the Ravenetta and hurled it towards the portal, however it appeared that it would not go quietly. It remained transfixed in the opening, its eyes watching all of us.
"Dante, what's going on?"
"Its about to give us a clue to who summoned it."
"What?"
He changed back to his human form. "You'll see."
I watched in a mix of fascination and horror as the Ravenetta dug its own claws into its chest and started digging into its chest cavity. Eventually it pulled out a lump of something covered in black blood. The portal seemed to swallow it. It then closed and collapsed into black ashes.
I ran to the object that the creature had left behind and reached out to it.
"Don't touch it! It could be dangerous." Adrian warned. I looked over at the twins.
"He's right. It's been buried in its heart tissue. It could be poisonous." Vergil answered.
"What it is then?" I asked.
Vergil walked over to me and crouched down to pick up the object. The blood dried and turned to dust at his touch. It was revealed to be a key.
"Is it some kind of relic?" Vergil shook his head.
"No this was just an ordinary key but when coated in Sphinx's tears it becomes a key to the underworld. When you take something like to a place where someone returned from the dead, it can open a portal to hell."
I stood up and thought for a minute. The sun was now shining again. The breeze played havoc with loose strands of my hair. My ponytail had fallen out in the heat of the battle.
"That thing was probably after all of us. It conveniently appeared after you returned from the dead." I looked at Vergil. "There was someone who knew where to summon, probably from inside STIGMA."
"Then it summons lesser demons which came after us at Devil May Cry," Adrian breathed. "Both of us were nearly killed. There were only three people who knew where we were going at STIGMA. This mission was classified as top secret."
"But who knew we were here?" I demanded. "I haven't had any contact with my superiors since we left headquarters. Adrian?"
He shook his head. "No. I've spoken to no one."
"Sphinx's tears are pretty hard to come by." Dante seemed to be playing with his sword. "Think Alex, who in your organisation could get this?"
I shrugged. "This is pretty high level stuff. I would assume department heads would have access. But even then, it wouldn't be used outside of the covens. Even Yvanna would have to give a reason why she wanted it.
"So that still leaves us with three suspects," Adrian looked at me. "Mr Giovanni, Yvanna and Carmen."
My heart was filled with worry in an instant. I did not want to consider Carmen a suspect. My own feelings would not allow me to. But still, Adrian did have a point.
"We have to go back there, to STIGMA. I have to know who is behind this."
"It'll be dark in a few hours, sis. We're not going anywhere now."
"I can't just sit here, Adrian!" I snapped. "People I love might be in danger!"
"So you think that you're the only one who has friends and loved ones at STIGMA?" He shouted. "We can't get there tonight!"
"There might still be a way." I jumped. Vergil was standing right behind me. I stifled the urge to hit him.
"Does it involve the phrase, 'It will require your trust,'?
He hesitated. "Something like that."
The deepest of sighs exited my lungs. "Why do I get the feeling I am not going to like this?"
Author's note: Many apologies for taking so long with this chapter. It wasn't writers block. I knew exactly what I wanted to write but every paragraph was excruciatingly hard to word….ah the joys of writing fanfiction.
At this point I will not be translating the three phases of demon language used by Vergil. That will be kept secret for now.
I have been tossing around an idea of writing a few chapters from Adrian's point of view. This would be a side project or perhaps an extra to this story after the final chapter.
Comments, reviews & criticisms are always welcome. Thanks for everyone's feedback so far.
Next chapter: Betrayals & Revelations.
