A/N: Hey everyone! It's been a little longer than I would have liked for updating this story! Sorry about that for those of you keeping track. Things have been busy and I couldn't get to it sooner! :-P

I want to thank everyone who's commented and reviewed. It's really a big help to hear what you think about the story! So far, it seems you all are enjoying! I'm trying! Thanks so much. Again, I encourage you to drop me a review! ;-)

A HUGE thanks to Shyanon for beta reading my chapters! Shy's devilish DMC mind is akin to my own. A BIG thanks to you for your proofing and suggestions! :-D

Well now, last chapter we left off with Nika waiting around at Vergil's for Dante to come back. Let's find out what happened to Dante on his trip to Outland.

Yours Truly,

N.

Chapter 10

Bringer of Light

Dante saw up ahead the road sign graffitied with pentagrams and obscene words and knew he had reached his destination. Outland. He pulled the car off the highway at the next exit and headed into the forsaken town.

He cruised down main street and drove past its row of seedy establishments of bars and night clubs. Demons liked to partake in sadistic pleasure and they made no effort to hide that fact. Dante chuckled at the multi-colored neon signs above the entrance doors, as the likes of 'Hell's Gate XXX', 'Thunderpussy', and 'Drink 'til 2, Pistol Noon' all flashed in their sleazy glory. The front windows of one club were aglow in pink neon. Behind the glass, demonic humanoids clad in skimpy vinyl garments and black zippered face masks were bound in chained cuffs to the back wall. They writhed and grinded their bodies to a thumping beat echoing from the establishment. All the while their dark eyes seemed to follow Dante's car as he slowly drove by. Another building front had sickening, green florescent light flickering inside of it as large chunks of meat, dripping with fresh blood, hung in the windows. The sign above simply flashed 'Eat 24hrs.' in red neon. Dante scrunched his face at the macabre sight.

"Seriously, what's a man got to do to get a pizza in this town?" Dante said to himself as more of the same dismal and demented scenes played out store front after store front as Dante drove on by.

As he slowed down at the upcoming intersection, two scantily clad women approached his car. Dante raised an eyebrow as he eyed the two saunter up to his vehicle.

"Now that's more like it. Baby, yeah!" Dante called out his window as he nodded his head in approval and whistled.

Then as they got closer, he noticed one of the vixens lick out a long, grotesque, forked tongue. She turned to her partner, and in turn, they began to seductively lick each other with their demonic appendages. They smirked and giggled, beckoning him to come to them.

"Ooh, maybe some other time, babes," Dante said squinting his face with disinterest as he drove past the two demonic streetwalkers who hissed at his rejection.

Other demonic bystanders and passer-bys all eyed and turned their heads at Dante as he rode by. He knew they could sense him just like he sensed all of them. But Dante was certain they would keep their distance. The demonic citizens knew all too well the demon hunter was here for only one reason – business. And for that, they knew better than to get in his way.

Dante continued on downtown and parked just up ahead at the next side street. It was a quite and desolate street that Dante figured made for a good spot as to not draw attention. He got out of the car, took Rebellion from the trunk and hitched it to his back. He walked just ahead of where he parked and took a right at the next alleyway. It was dark and ominous, littered with trash, and steam from the sewer grates on the ground billowed up creating a low foggy mist. He knew he had arrived at the right place. Just up ahead in the alley, out of the darkness and mist, was a small crooked lamp above a dingy door on the side of an obscure, old brick building. Over the door hung a simple sign. It contained no words but an old ancient symbol of sorts. Dante smirked at seeing the sign, walked up to the old door and turned the handle.

As he entered inside the establishment, it's dark patrons slowly turned their heads toward the entrance almost in unison to see who had entered their domain. Dante showed no interest in the eyes that were upon him and continued his slow confident stride into the room. It was a bar of sorts, a kind of club for demons. It had been around for ages and had it's regulars. A short, hunchbacked, old man tending the bar, wiped a glass as he eyed Dante with one, rather large bulging eye as he walked in. Some droning trance music played in the background as Dante surveyed the room. Demons, in their best human forms, sat scattered around the room at various tables and booths. A group of three, two in female form and one in male form, sat in a corner booth necking and groping on each other. Others sat at tables drinking and quietly conversing among themselves about the stranger that had just entered.

As Dante walked past the bar, he took notice of a sultry long haired blonde that sat at the bar. Her long pale locks poured down her back past her bare shoulders. And her thin, well angled frame was clad in a tight black dress. Nice. He suddenly had thoughts about Trish. But as Dante got closer he could tell this blonde was no Trish. She turned and glanced at the demon hunter as he passed by, making eyes at him as if he were to be her next meal. As she coyly smiled, she bared a grotesque set of sharp pointed teeth of various lengths from under her ruby red lips.

"Sorry, babe, you're not my type," Dante coolly stated as he smirked at the demoness and kept walking by.

The demon curled her lip up and hissed at his remark. She turned back around facing the bar and took a gulp from her blood red drink.

As Dante continued past the bar, he headed to a beaded entrance way in the back that led to a long hall. He pulled the beads aside and entered the dim hallway. Just as Dante did this, a figure who had been seated at a table in a far dark corner of the room, slowly leaned forward as if silently materializing out of the darkness. He had shorter jet black hair and dark eyes that eerily glistened the reflective light of the table votives around the room. It was the same man that had visited Nika's rehearsal earlier. As he leaned forward, he slowly took his drink from the table and put it to his lips. He took a sip of his dark concoction, then grinned with a large toothy smile as he watched Dante head to the back room. The strange man then slowly slipped back into the darkness.

Dante walked down the long dimly lit hallway and approached a rather large steel door. Standing next to the door was an overly large man. He towered over Dante and was as broad as he was tall. On him, he wore a cheap casual suit that appeared a size to short for him through the arms. The giant was bald and his front teeth stuck out a bit over his bottom lip. Though focused forward, his right eye was slightly askew and looked off to the right a bit. Dante stopped at the door and the large man.

"Hey big fella, how's it goin'?" Dante greeted the behemoth in a jovial manor.

The man did not answer nor did he move.

"Riiight," Dante said.

With that, he banged loudly on the steel door with his gloved fist. It echoed a cold metallic ring down the hallway. Dante stood there with his arms folded, waiting for a response to his knock while eyeing the giant up and down as if to size him up. All was silent, then a muffled voice was heard from behind the door.

"What's the password," the voice stated.

To which Dante replied, "Egg – Salad – Sandwich," emphasizing each word. Proud of his answer, Dante then smirked at the ogre standing next to him. The giant didn't respond, and Dante shrugged.

"Is that on white or wheat?" the voice retorted.

Dante scrunched his face at the question and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Dammit! I always forget this part," he grumbled quietly.

The big man now shuffled in his stance and grumbled as he cast a crooked gaze down at Dante. Dante looked up at the giant, raised an eyebrow and cleared his throat.

"White," Dante said, gritting his teeth and wincing as if expecting it to be the wrong choice.

Suddenly there was the sound of gears starting to move and the large steel door screeched open.

"Yesss!" Dante said exuberantly, thrusting his fist back in agreement. With a chuckle, he grinned and saluted the big man who let out a deep groan and went back to his usual stance as Dante walked through the door.

"Dante, my man!" exclaimed a small, slender, older man as he held out his hands at Dante's presence.

"The Edgar-man, how's it goin'?" Dante replied and gave the man's out stretched hands a smack with his own.

"Groovy as always man. And you?"

"Well, you know, I just don't show up for idle chit-chat," Dante playfully said.

"As usual, you break my heart man," Edgar replied as he jokingly clenched his hand to his chest. "Hey, and if you see that brother of yours, tell him he owes me some books he borrowed a while back," he said eyeing Dante over his small round spectacles.

Dante thew up his hands. "Whoa, look that's between you two," Dante stated.

"Well, look man, I don't want to have to send 'ol Gort out there to collect them from him, you dig?" Edgar flatly stated as he thumbed toward where the large man was standing just outside the door.

"Well ... I'll pass it on," Dante said with a smirk. Although really he thought better of mentioning it to Vergil and found it amusing if he'd actually have to deal with 'ol Gort.

Edgar was a demon. He had come from a long line of demons who were the record keepers. For countless millenniums his heritage recorded events and important data about demonic history. Like Dante's own father Sparda, Edgar was one of few demons who choose not to follow the Dark Lord's ways. Edgar had defected to the human world years ago. But he had a hard time adjusting to human society and eventually settled at Outland with others of his kind. He kept the bar as a front and set up shop in the back, continuing his job as the record keeper to the demonic world. Over the years Dante got to know him by chance, ironically through Vergil, and would call upon Edgar now and then if he needed information about something complicated he was investigating.

Edgar was much older than his outward appearance suggested. He appeared as a short and rather thin man who wore his grey thinning hair in a long stringy manor. He had a large bushy mustache that covered his upper lip and he wore a tiny pair of round spectacles that sat just at the tip of his pointy nose all the time. Dante thought he must have defected to the human world during the 60's for Edgar could usually be caught wearing a bandanna, cruddy old tie-dyed shirt, and an old pair of jeans with flip flops on. Like he was today.

Edgar rounded his large layout of a desk he called his 'command center' and sat in an old office chair of sorts. The room was filled floor to ceiling with shelves of books and documents to which most were covered under glass. Surrounding his desk were several computer monitors and keyboards. CPUs were stacked side by side along the back of the desk in an array of tangled cords.

"So, to what do I owe your dubious appearance?" Edgar said as he keyed up something on the monitor directly in front of him.

Dante strolled around the room eyeing the various volumes stored behind the glass shelves. Most of the titles on the spines were written in languages he didn't understand, and the ones that he could were words he didn't recognize.

"Well, I need you to look something up for me," Dante responded.

"Right on," Edgar said and typed a few keys on his keyboard.

"I need information about a sword," Dante started.

Edgar quickly started typing in words on his keyboard as Dante continued.

As Dante told his story, Edgar typed in more information and searched the records in his demonic data base. Dante came around behind him and watched as the demonic man breezed through documents that flashed up on his screen. Dante didn't understand how Edgar could read over what they were about so fast. To him, he just saw blurs of images and scripting.

The documents whizzed by as Edgar searched for some time, typing a few more things on his keyboard. Nothing of note came to the screen.

"You got a tricky one there, Dante," Edgar said as he rounded in his seat to look at him.

Dante folded his arms and furrowed his eyebrows. "You mean in all that crap you got recorded you have nothing that fits the description? C' mon."

Edgar squinted at Dante. He liked the challenge.

"Well, it's worth a shot, but let me try one more thing," Edgar said with a slight grin and spun around back to his keyboard.

As he keyed up a different screen on his monitor, it showed a 'restricted access' panel in the middle of the screen. Edgar entered a few characters from the keyboard and the program accepted. He began to quickly key in a few words and hit 'enter'. The screen began to cycle rapidly through various documents. Again, so fast that Dante couldn't make heads or tails out of it.

Suddenly, Edgar struck a button on the keyboard and the cycling documents stopped. "Bingo!"

Dante came forward to have a better look at the screen. At the top of the page was an image of a primitive drawing of seven men in battle armor, each wielding a slender long sword. "What's it say?" he asked, for the entire entry was written in some foreign characters.

"Well, if this is what indeed your sword is, you've discovered some really classified stuff here, my man," Edgar said.

Dante squinted in thought as he stared at the monitor. "Classified, huh?"

"Yeah, this is the heavy stuff that is filed away no one talks about," Edgar said seriously.

"Thrill me," Dante glanced at him with a smirk.

"Looks like the story starts around the 1600s, it's sketchy, but about there. Seems there was this order of human knights, seven of them," Edgar translated. He took a moment and slowly deciphered the name in the script. "They seem to have been known as the Knights of the Definitive End, or more specifically, the Apocalypse."

"Apocalypse?" Dante questioningly repeated.

"Yeah, says they were some secret order formed to protect from the expected coming of the Dark Lord." Edgar suddenly started chuckling then read on, "Sparda's name comes up in here, looks like they may have been appointed by your daddy himself."

"Well, that doesn't surprise me," Dante said flatly.

Edgar continued his reading, "According to this, it states that during one of their righteous missions, these seven knights came across a great demon who called itself Erebus. Huh. That's far out."

"What?" Dante asked.

"Well, says here it turns out this demon wasn't really a demon," Edgar added.

"How's that?" Dante asked questioningly.

"Says that the knights fought bravely for three days but couldn't defeat the beast. On the third night the leader of the order, named Aurelius, prayed for help against this demon," Edgar continued. "Then it says something about a great 'being of light' presented itself before Aurelius upon his praying. The being called itself Gavril and said he was of the high Celestial Order, more or less as we'd know it an 'angel', if you will. He called themselves the 'protectors of the physical world' – guarding against the invasion of evil, preventing it from taking over the world and keeping the Universe in balance."

"Really," Dante said disbelievingly.

Edgar continued the translation, "So Aurelius was informed by Gavril that the demon they'd been fighting is not a demon but rather another great celestial inhabiting the body of the demon. Turns out Erebus desired power and fell from his celestial brethren. He wanted to rule over both physical planes – human and demon alike."

"Why is there always one bad apple," Dante casually added.

Edgar continued, "It says here, apparently these celestials can't exist on the physical planes on their own, so Erebus chose to inhabit the body of a powerful demon to rule with. Along with his treachery, it states it is absolutely forbidden for celestials to inhabit physical beings. So Erebus was forever banished from the Celestial Order never to return."

"So get to the good part. How did they stop him?" Dante added.

"Chill out, Mr. Impatient," Edgar scolded Dante. "In the mean time, Erebus was building up an army of followers, demon and human alike, to assist him in his plan of domination. Well, apparently Gavril told the knight, Aurelius, the only way Erebus could be stopped was by celestial power. With that said, Gavril then offered to bestow upon Aurelius and his knights his own celestial power by inhabiting their bodies and also enchanting their weapons with the power. Thus giving up his own ability to ever return again to the celestial realm."

"That's heavy," Dante added.

Edgar continued the translation. "So Aurelius and his knights accepted this offer, it being the only way to stop Erebus from coming into power and destroying the world. So it says, Gavril divided his power among the seven knights and with the new celestial power inside of them, they fought and defeated Erebus. With his demonic host destroyed, it states they sealed Erebus away in a nether realm for all eternity. Gavril, now unable to return to the celestial realm, vowed to stay within the knights as they would live in secrecy and be the protectors from Erebus should he ever escape or be set free. And Gavril's power then would be passed on to their sons after them and so on, so that they may continue their sworn duty, blah, blah, blah. That's about it," Edgar finished.

"Boy, that's some fairy tale," Dante chuckled.

"Wait, there's a little more," Edgar noticed as he clicked another page on the screen. "Looks like just about fifty or sixty years ago one of the knights descendants, some cat by the name of Feliks Tessler, got greedy and turned on his fellow crusaders and began killing them off one by one. It says here as our boy began killing off his fellow knights, the power of Gavril transferred over into him alone, the last final descendant of the knights."

"Wait a sec," Dante said as he leaned forward to look at the page Edgar was reading from. On it was an old photograph of a man holding a sword. He was bald and had a long dark beard. But as Dante closer examined the sword in the photo, he noticed it to be an identical design to the sword he had seen with the masked figure. "That's it! That looks just like the sword," Dante stated.

Edgar smirked at Dante then continued, "So it says here, Feliks had made a deal with Erebus that if he set him free, Erebus would let him rule along side him as a dark lord. But looks like somehow he never completed the ritual to set Erebus free and he just disappeared. That's where the entry ends. That's it, my man, that's all I've got," Edgar said as he spun around in his chair to face Dante.

"Well, like I said, some fairy tale," Dante chuckled and leaned back on the surrounding desk.

Edgar leaned back in his chair and suddenly put aside his casual demeanor for a moment. "Look, Dante, I'm not one to preach but I got to tell you man, for this to be filed away in the restricted entries means it's serious stuff. You know our kind has believed in the existence of the Celestial ones for ages. Demons won't speak of it, but we all fear it. It's believed that the slightest touch from a great celestial power could destroy even the most powerful of demons. An old saying goes, the kingdom of heaven will weep and the pillars of hell will tremble if the Bringers of Light appear."

Dante just scoffed and rolled his eyes at Edgar's comment. "Oh, what ... angels? You want me to believe all that crap? That's just a story all demon mommies tell their little demon kids before they put them to bed," Dante jokingly stated.

"So did your mommy tell you that story then?" Edgar mockingly retorted.

Dante shot Edgar a glance that suggested he had stepped too far with his words.

"Look, man, I'm just telling you to be careful. Hey, I know you can take a beating, but watch out for that sword. If it's been infused with celestial power, you won't be getting back up if it runs you through," Edgar seriously stated.

"Funny, you don't say," Dante drifted off saying.

"What's that mean?" Edgar questioned.

"Don't ask," Dante shortly replied and shot him a glance. "So then who's the guy I keep seeing in the masked suit? I mean, it can't be 'ol baldy there can it?" Dante said as he nodded at the image of Feliks on Edgar's monitor. "That doesn't seem right, does it. If he was killin' off his buddies and planning on going to the dark side, why all of the sudden is he running around killing demons?"

Edgar grinned at Dante's remarks then added, "Could it be Feliks might not have been the last heir to the knights?"

Dante shot Edgar a piercing glance in thought. He suddenly remembered what the demon had said to him earlier at the construction site. Master is coming.

"What is it, my man, you got that look," Edgar slyly questioned.

"So the secret order of knights was formed to 'protect from the expected coming of the Dark Lord'," Dante stated, then sighed. "I think we're gonna have company – soon."

Dante then pushed off from the desk he was leaning on and smacked his hands together. "Well, I best be goin', dude. I got a babe back in town waiting for my return to save her from the clutches of evil," he slyly stated, briefly having a thought of how Nika was surviving at Vergil's. He headed for the large steel door from where he entered. "As usual, thanks for the info."

"Alright, my man, good to see you again. Don't be a stranger next time," Edgar cordially remarked.

Dante just acknowledged with a single wave of his hand as the steel door slid open.

"Peace out man," Edgar stated as Dante walked out the door.

Dante walked back out through the bar without incident, and headed for the exit. He strolled outside into the murky alleyway and headed back to where he'd parked the car. He stopped in his stride a few feet from the bar and turned to look down a dark adjoining alleyway.

Casually leaning against the wall to the alley's entrance, Dante noticed a shadowed figure of a man. The glow of his lighter illuminated his pale face as the shadowed man lit the cigarette he held between his lips. The man inhaled deep on his cigarette and let out a long plume of smoke. Dante stood facing him now with his arms folded, as the man leaned off the wall and slowly walked out of the darkness to where Dante was standing. He was dressed in a smart, dark suit with the top of his shirt collar unbuttoned. His jet black hair was quite a contrast to his overly pale complexion.

"You should mind your own business, devil hunter," the man rudely stated as he strolled up to where Dante was standing.

"I thought I was," Dante smartly replied.

The man stopped just a few feet from Dante and took another hit from his cigarette. He bared a wide toothy grin and let the smoke trickle out from between his teeth and nose. "You don't know what you're getting into," the man stated as his dark black eyes stared through Dante.

"Really. Would you like to fill me in?" Dante casually shot back.

The man slightly chuckled then flicked his cigarette of ashes. "It would be in your best interest if you let her be," he flatly stated.

Dante dropped his arms to his side and squinted at the man. "And 'her' being ..."

The man inhaled on his cigarette again then flicked it to the ground. He looked to his side down the alley and grinned as he blew smoke through his pursed lips. "He wants the girl."

Dante assumed 'the girl' this dark eyed man was referring to was Nika. But as to who wants her was another question.

"Well, that's just too bad now isn't it. Cause I'm not gonna let him have her," Dante coolly informed him.

"I thought you might say that," the dark eyed man replied with a grin. Then suddenly without warning, he lunged at an inhuman speed for Dante. But to the dark eyed man's surprise, Dante had suddenly vanished.

"Hey, better luck next time."

The man looked up at the echoing sound of Dante's voice and saw him leaning over the roof edge of the brick building he was facing. The man angrily furrowed his brow and bared his teeth as Dante waved once and pulled back from his view.

Dante smirked to himself as he stepped back from the edge of the roof. Too easy. But just as he turned, the dark haired man stood in front of him and grabbed his coat lapels.

Dante regrettably realized he had underestimated the man's abilities. For this man, who Dante had sensed was a demon, now had him locked in a deep gaze with his dark black orbs. The man's eyes had turned completely black; his sinister stare paralyzed Dante's entire body and he was unable to move. Tiny blue veins began to appear and pulsated around Dante's own eye sockets and temples as the man intently gazed into Dante's wide blue eyes.

"Consider this a warning, devil hunter," the man spat at Dante in a deep growling voice.

Although he couldn't move or react, Dante was aware of his surroundings and heard what he had said.

With that final statement the dark eyed man gnashed his teeth together, and in one fluid motion, flung Dante over the side of the building. He fell four stories down and landed with the sound of a loud metallic 'boom' into one of the dumpsters that lined the alley below.

A/N: Poor Dante, huh? ;-)

Next chapter, we'll find out how Nika's 'sleepover' went at Vergil's.

Stay tuned!