CHAPTER 11

MISSION 8

Dante returned to the main hall. He looked up at he topmost floor to seek any other route to the main chamber of the great mansion's owner.

"This is getting on my nerve." he thought. If that Besieged Valkyrie was not enough to kill him earlier, then there would be more coming after him later.

"Better not waste my time." he sped up the stairs to the next floor. There were four floors altogether there, and of course, the best way was to get to the highest one. Dante ran on along the corridor of the 2nd floor going to the stairs to the next floor.

He just ran on and on. As he ran up the stairs to the 4th floor, he noticed part of the stairs had crumbled. No choice. He just performed a long jump over the broken stairs and continued running up till he finally reached the 4th floor. The 4th floor was darker than the rest of the floors, since none of the torches there were lit on. Dante scanned through the surroundings. Nothing unusual. He started running along the hallway until the other end. There was a hole in the middle somewhere there. Dante performed another long jump across the hole on the floor and ran on to the other end of the hallway.

Suddenly he came to a halt. It was a dead end in front of him. He looked a the wall obstructing his path. There was a torch stuck on the handler near the ceiling, and on his left was a large wheel with flame holders there. Yes, that was the usual wheel that he had to hit non stop to lit up the fires on it in order to advance.

"This is bothersome." thought Dante, as he drew out Rebellion. He was thinking of other alternatives at the same time. He noticed there were a few doors on each floors as he sped up just now. If he was to explore each room to get to the other end, then by the next morning, he wouldn't even be able to leave the mansion.

"Here goes nothing." he started hacking the wheel non stop as usual, using his Rapid Pierce attack in succession. Blue flames lit the wheel and spanned together as a single flame. When the flames were all together, Dante stopped. He heard a click from then somewhere near the dead end wall. He turned back and looked. The torch above it had been lit with a white flame; Branctorche. The area around him was brighter than before, and he could see the wall clearer.

"So, what next?" Dante withdrew Rebellion and stood close to the wall. Soon part of the wall gave way, moving upwards, revealing a secret passage far within. But the passageway was quite dim, and it was unclear what awaited him from within. Dante entered the passageway, and after some hesitation, sped on along the highway.

It was a very long passageway, with nothing on both sides. Basically it was more like a passage way which led all the way to the dungeons and torture chamber. But so far there was nothing there, and the lights were quite dim. Only a few torches were lit on far from each other.

Dante was not sure how long and how far he had run all along, for then he came upon a stairs that led him further down.

"Going down." Dante gestured as he sped down the stairs. He was not sure how far he was going below. But since he started from the 4th floor earlier, so he might ended up at the ground floor again, yet at a different location. He reached the so thought ground floor, and ahead of him was again another straight passageway. Dante kept on running, for it was getting late, it was already nightfall, and the moon was rising up in the sky. Not far from him the Scarecrows appeared up ahead of him again.

"Not again." Dante just smiled. He didn't stop running as he drew out Rebellion once more. The Scarecrows scattered around the passageway trying to block his escape. But Dante didn't care. As soon as he was right in from of them , they started attacking him with their blades and sickles.

"Hiiaaahhh!!!" Dante took one big swipe at them, sending most of them flying behind. As most of them fell back, making way for him to run by, he took out his shotgun as he ran on. When he ran pass by those who were close enough for him, he just fired the shotgun at their head and continued running. Most of the unlucky Scarecrows were killed by Dante in a 'Hit and Run' scheme.

"Pity you guys." Dante just ran on to the other end. The remaining Scarecrows gave chase after him, but they were no match against his speed, and in the shortest time they lost sight of him.

After running a little longer, Dante saw an iron door ahead of him. He leaped forward and kicked the door open. Light shone past him. There were quite a number of torches being lit up in that area.

He was in a tower full of mechanical gears and machines. But it didn't look like a clock tower to him. The machines were quite outdated, but they were still functioning. The small and large gears rotated here and there.

"Since when this mansion had a clock tower? I didn't even see one when in entered the mansion earlier." said Dante. He looked up to the top. The top most floor was at least nine floors above him. There were also gears and wheels up there. But he couldn't predict what might be hiding up there.

Suddenly he heard weird cries from in front of him. Out of at the darker parts of the room, five green Gremlins with unicorn-like horns leaped out of nowhere towards him.

"What a harsh welcome." exclaimed Dante. The Gremlins pounced onto him.

"Ho ho." Dante dodged them all, and then drew out Rebellion. He gave a kick to the nearest one to him. The Gremlin was thrown far back to the corner, where two of the largest gears were rotating against each other vertically. Sadly, the Gremlin fell exactly onto the centre part, then got pulled into between the two gears. It struggled to free itself, yelling in pain, but no use. It was crushed in the middle of the gears that kept on rotating in opposite directions. Blood spluttered out of the gears, yet they were still rotating. ( I leave that for you to imaging how the gears worked. A little too freaky to tell here.)

"Ewwww, gross. Yuck!" exclaimed Dante. Seeing what happened to their mate, the other Gremlins yelled in anger. They crept around him.

"Man, if you know what just happen here, then hurry up and get lost already. You don't want to suffer the same fate don't you?" Dante said that, as he held Rebellion on his shoulder. Of course, his words fell on deaf ears. The Gremlins were ready to attack him again.

"Looks like it's time to charge the Devil Trigger." he added as he held down Rebellion, ready for the counter-strike.

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It was not even 5 minutes, and all the Gremlins were killed by Dante. A large Vital Star appeared in front of him. He proceeded to pick it up.

Obtained Vital Star(L).

He was about to withdrew Rebellion back behind him when he heard another type of freaking yelling sound from above him. He looked to the ceiling. There were two Harpies soaring above him, both of them seemed to have been arose by the earlier fight down there. One of them let out a very shrieking cry, the sound of a battle cry.

"Asses like that. Fully loaded." he said. The Harpies flew down towards him, aiming their wings at him.

"Hmmmphh?"

They shot out their pointed feathers at him. Dante startled, but quickly rolled over to the side. The Harpies swooped over him. He quickly took out his long gun and fired at them. They separated into two directions. Dante got up and started running towards them. One of them flew towards them, and aimed its leg claws at him. Dante ducked, the Harpy flew past him, missing its initial target. Dante ran towards the stairs, and continued firing as he ran upstairs.

The lower Harpy gave a cry and swoop downwards to the floor before flying straight back up. But Dante saw his chance. Before it could fly above him again., he quickly leaped from the stairs down towards it He landed on its back. It panicked, gave a loud shrieking cry and flew unstably trying to get rid of him. Dante grabbed hold of its feathers tightly and with Rebellion still in his grasp, he pierced it straight into its back through its chest. It gave out another extreme yelled and crashed onto the floor. Dante leaped aside before the crash occurred. The other Harpy took the chance to swoop at him. Dante noticed a piece of a broken gear laid next to him. He grabbed it and threw straight at it, hitting its face. It swayed past him in confusion and pain. Dante quickly got back up and with all his strength, aimed Rebellion at it, and threw it straight at the swaying Harpy like a spear. Bull's eye! It pierced through its chests again. It slammed against the wall, and crashed down to the floor. But not before it knocked one of the torches onto the floor as well. The Harpy was also dead, but its body instantly caught fire from the torch. The whole ground floor was burning. The nearby machines also caught fire. It soon turned into an inferno.

Dante ran towards the stairs before it was engulfed in flames. He raced up to the 4th floor. He could see how great was the burning flames and the scorching heat below him. But just then, he heard the same shrieking sound from above again. He looked up in surprise. There was another Harpy up at the ceiling!!! And this time its looked bigger than the other two. It must be the Queen Harpy. Dante then noticed some hay dangling from the side of the 6th floor, where the Queen Harpy was.

"That must've been a Harpy nest after all. No wonder." he gave a thoughtful look, and a silly looking smile. ( Stop acting stupid, will he?)

The Harpy swooped down towards him with its claws targeted at him. Dante ran on towards the next stairs aiming to quickly reach the top. The Harpy circled around him and shot its pointed feathers at him. Dante ran on. As he passed by one of the torches, he grabbed one of it and threw at the Queen Harpy. It missed, brushing the side of its wings. Dante ran on, as it tried to attack him again.

Dante reached the top floor. He saw how wide was the Harpy's nest. A big bundle of hay being scattered out and arranged like a bird's nest. Not far behind him was the window. He went near it, and noticed another building not far from across the tower. It must be the other half of the mansion. Then he got an idea. He ran to the side and grabbed another torch and threw it onto the nest. The nest caught fire.

The Queen Harpy startled, and gave out another exhilarating cry and swoop towards him. Dante dodged it. The Harpy flew near the burning nest, apparently trying to put the flames out with its gust of wind from its wings. The fire started engulfing the other part of the 6th floor. Dante took out a bullet from somewhere in his pocket and threw it into the burning nest. The Harpy shrieked, and flew higher.

"So long!" Dante aimed his shot gun at the Harpy. It spread its wings out immediately, trying to create a sonic boom towards him. But Dante then pointed down towards the nest, and fired at it.

BOOOOMMM!!!!!!!

The nest exploded, and so did the ground around it. The wooden floor gave way, with the remaining pieces of the nest fell down to the burning ground floor. The Queen Harpy was engulfed in flames as well. It kept on yelling in pain as it struggled to put off the fire on its body. But it couldn't do much. The fire kept spreading across its feathers, burning its entire body. Finally the burning body also slowly fell back down all the way from the 6th floor down to the ground floor, and vanished in the blazing fire below. (Imagine this yourself as well, maybe I didn't know how to explain better, but you might've seen such similar scene elsewhere before.)

The entire floor began to give way. Dante quickly kept his weapons and dashed towards the window.

"Here we go!!!" He leaped out of the window, performing a very extreme long jump across the tower towards the other building. The other window was opened just exactly in front of him. He passed through it, fell onto the ground and rolled over until he hit against the wall and stopped.

"Owww !" he laid on the floor fro a while. "I need some rest."

And he laid there for quite some while…………

Finally he got up. He held onto the handrails as he tried to stand back up with his might. It was getting late at night. He walked back up to the window and looked out. He could see the burning tower from there, and when he looked down, he noticed a very wide grassy field below him. There were forests on both sides.

"Just why did the owner separated the mansion into two parts?" Dante rubbed his head in confusion. "And a clock tower in the middle on the other side? Rubbish!" (Stop thinking all the stupid theories, ok?)

He turned back into the building and looked around. He was standing on another hallway. And it darker there, with lesser lit torches around. He realized that this part of the mansion looked older than the earlier one, more like part of a castle instead.

"You know what you have to do next." he rubbed his neck, and then walked down the hallway. There were some portraits hanging on the wall along him, but he couldn't make up who they were. It was a creepy for ordinary people, but not Dante. He walked on.

MISSION 8 CLEAR…………..