Author's Note: Finally able to update with a chapter that I'm pleased with. I'll not repeat my usual apologies for tardiness. I hope you understand that I'm trying to deliver as good a story as I can manage. I'd like to say something though. I understand I can never possibly please everybody with this story, but I would like to answer to people who say that I'm not keeping the spirit of DMC, or the type of story DMC had in this fic. That may well be true, but I'd like you to understand something. While I love DMC as a series to pieces, I want to see it evolve. Not the way Capcom thinks it should evolve, and certainly not Ninja Theory's idea (although I'll still give it a fighting chance). The point here is, I can't write this story the same way the games are written. It's an inevitability, because I'm a writer and not a game script developer. So I give Dante a more human, emotionally varied and slightly flawed side in this story. Sue me for wanting to bring more to this character than dry power and lack of faults. Or not, and just enjoy the story, for christsake.

Oh yeah, and one more thing... I got some pretty weird comments a while back that make me wonder. Where the eff do you people see evidence that I'm claiming Vergil's got a thing for Tess? No, seriously-where the hell did I ever say something like that? I'm honestly confused. Please stop seeing shipping at every turn, it's getting creepy.

Chapter XIII

Selene

Abraxas panted through flaring nostrils as electricity crackled over his hide, sizzling small sores already scorched into his skin from his quarry. Semyazas, once a djinn that was the very embodiment of the power of thunderstorms, turned to evil's champion out of selfishness, was in his grasp. Semyazas was thrashing under his paws, shrieking and flailing its claws, striking Abraxas with its tail and discharging electrical shocks but the leonine sandstorm lord would not relent. His hold on Semyazas was just tightening, his jaws closing harder around the long serpent's neck, crushing bone, tissue, blood vessels and air pipes alike, squeezing the life out of the evil familiar. He kept it pinned down with his front paws, his hind legs latched on the serpent's back. The serpent's claws were cutting air, as Abraxas had taken care to grip the serpent's body from above before they fell and tumbled into their current position, pinning it on its side to avoid its claws.

Semyazas shrieked again, trying to escape by turning into a cloud-like form but Abraxas held it fast, while enveloping them both in a sandstorm that trapped both creatures. It acted like a barrier, keeping their cosmic battle separate from the world and Semyazas from escaping. The evil creature was forced back into a solid form and shrieked.

Semyazas' thrashing suddenly got stronger and it actually succeeded in making Abraxas very nearly lose his grip. The djinn tensed his claws, digging them deeper into the scales of the serpent as the abrupt weight shift dragged them both to the side briefly. Like a hunting cat on prey, Abraxas growled and stubbornly bit down harder as the shrieks got louder and then suddenly the serpent started to choke and get rasp. Finally there was a dull cracking sound and Semyazas' last screech was more of an ugly croak.

Abraxas held down fast even as Semyazas' body relaxed and slumped. He let go slowly and watched approvingly as the body of the serpent started to erode rapidly into loose energy and dissipating into the air just as Abraxas' sandstorm died down. The rain coming down from the storm overhead was not stopping. He exhaled harshly, still breathing deeply; he was quite badly hurt and grunted every time he tried to put weight on his left hind leg. Electrocution burns, bites and claw marks riddled his body and every breath brought a wheezing that might mean a punctured lung; nothing an old warrior like him couldn't handle.

He eyed up the dissolving body and bared his teeth again. "Bastard…" he grunted, limping closer to the manor.

He suddenly stopped and as he looked straight up at the upper floor of the building his ears pricked up. He ruffled up his mane suddenly and winced in realization. "Good God…It can't be!"

He rushed forward, as fast as he could and as he closed in, he shrank down to human form in a flurry of dissipating sand and bolted through the gapping entrance as fast as his limping leg allowed. The inside of the building was a grandiose mess: Having obviously enjoyed careful restoration and preservation up till now, the interior was now littered with blood and disintegrating bodies of demons, bits of plaster crumbling off the ceiling and bits of larger debris strewn on the floor. The whole building was shaking.

"What are they doing?" Roy thought. "This isn't right; this isn't how the Rite is supposed to be!"

He raced up the same stairs that Dante had only minutes earlier passed and came to the same double doors, driven by the same sensation like a dog following a scent. Like Dante, he too stopped in awe at the condition of the room, though his experience had prepared him for a worst case scenario.

"Oh no…"

A gate to the Underworld had been opened on the back wall of the large hall, in such a way that it was spanning both vertical and horizontal planes. It was giving off a nauseating amount of demonic energy. And yet, paradoxically there were the signs of a wiccan circle around the unstable gate and suddenly it all made sense: The dozens of smaller gates around the city had been powering this ritual, which produced the gate.

He was most unsettled by the sight of two women standing at the very edge of the gate, though he had anticipated it. He recognized Sasha, the black sheep and greatest scourge of the Templar family, a devil witch shriveled to a largely powerless husk by the will of her sister. She was crawling on the floor, overcome by the woman towering over her; it had to be Selene, the mother of the Templar line, standing over her sister with the same ruthless determination that had left her mark in the history of the family. Roy bit his lip nervously, feeling his hair standing on end. She was back from the grave, possessing Tess somehow and channeling all this mismatched power in a dangerous way.

The stories of her madness had to be real.

He glanced at Dante, standing at a distance from the scene of the two witches' battle of wills. Dante met his eye and the djinn felt amazement at the question in Dante's eyes, 'what now?' Roy shook his head at him briskly, telling him to stay put. Dante quietly directed Roy's gaze towards whom the djinn could safely assume was Vergil, who was only just getting back to his feet, evidently in pain but still looking pleased. Roy looked back at Dante and shook his head again.

"Wait, Dante…have patience. Beaten up as I am, I can't do anything now, so it's your call. Just wait…" the djinn thought and gulped.

"It's over Sasha," Selene said calmly, as the contest of curses and spells came to a stop.

"What are you doing!" Sasha howled angrily, eying the gate to the Underworld with uncertainty.

"This ritual is drawing at an end," the other replied with a malevolent sweetness. "I will unbind what I have placed on you…but you will have to find the power you want elsewhere. I now wash my hands of you, sister."

She held up her arms. "Ancient gods! Forces of the Underworld! You bear witness to these rites; rites meant to shatter the boundaries of time and space, reshape what you have decreed to be! What you have set to be unchanging and decided will be changed as you converge," she declared loudly.

That comment suddenly made an idea click in Dante's head. He looked at the circles on the floor again and back at the Gate. The circles on the floor must act like Gates—but to powers far different than demonic ones. That was probably why Selene needed to open a Gate in the first place. He wondered just how bad it would get with that crazy woman bringing together so much demonic and wiccan power.

"Steady now…" he heard Roy mutter at last, closely behind him. "Any interruption in this phase could be catastrophic! We're too late! We have to wait and watch. If we just crash the rite right now…neither of us may be able to stop the consequences!"

The room shuddered again and bits of plaster and dust trickled down from the support beams above. Dante felt that waiting now was next to agonizing; he hadn't felt this powerless and unable to interfere in many years.

The symbols directly under Selene's feet lit up brighter and she laughed. "Ah yes, I was almost distracted. This needs to go before I can complete the ritual," she said, stroking her neck softly, fingers passing over the choker that was still visible on her as it had been on Tess. She glanced at Vergil who glared knives at her and grit his teeth, still forced to kneel.

"No matter, I can take it off. You won't be needing it anymore," Selene said in a tone that made Dante's stomach clench in a knot; he really didn't like that crazed look on her face.

Selene grazed the choker with her finger and hissed when it quite visibly tightened around her neck like a noose, resisting the removal. She persisted and with a frustrated grimace dug her finger between the material and her skin. She grunted as the choker tightened more but she managed to hook two fingers into the choker, then another, until she had a good grip on it. The choker was now showing to be more than a simple piece of cloth; it glistened with red iridescence and crackled with energy.

Selene winced evidently and grunted while Tess screamed; it was such an obvious difference that they seemed to separate briefly as Tess' agonizing shriek of pain was clearly audible as her own rather than Selene's, and the extreme tension of her body seemed to split them apart before Selene regained control. Dante gritted his teeth at Roy's gentle but steady hand grasping his arm to prevent him from trying to stop her.

Dante felt his skin crawl and tightened his fist when Selene simply tore the choker off her neck with a hair-rising, fleshy sound and spurts of blood. Roy groaned behind him and Dante could actually picture the anguished look on the old man's face. Selene was holding the choker in her hand and Dante shuddered a little to notice chunks of skin still attached to it, dripping blood. Selene looked at the blood streaming from her neck to the floor with a cold, unfeeling look. Then she dropped the choker onto the floor like it was a piece of garbage.

"Now we may begin," she said coldly and Sasha, pinned to the floor by the circles glowered at her viciously.

Without further ceremony, Selene outstretched her arms and all hell broke loose at her command. The circles on the floor went wild with energy, letting out vicious light and energy bursts; the Gate started spewing even more demonic essence. The concentrated energies began converging on Selene in a hurricane of light and Dante felt the friction of air being pulled towards her as well, dragged along by the power. For all the impressive light work, it was evident to Dante that what was happening was anything but an innocent unbinding ritual. The room kept shaking and the walls and ceiling started showing cracks; bits of debris started tumbling down walls and from the ceiling as the energies at work were no longer possible to contain. The glass windows all shattered in a crescendo of cracks, exploding outwards from the force.

In fact, it got so bad that both Dante and Roy were overwhelmed and had to drop to their knees—and it just served to make Dante really pissed off. Helplessness really irritated him, especially knowing that he mustn't fight it.

"We offer the blood, the life to conduct this ritual. We enter a contract with thee, powers here converging," Selene recited in a solemn manner, her voice booming over the chaos unnaturally, as the energy billowing together caused her hair and robes to flutter. "A contract to unravel the binds of these present. A contract to unwind the world."

Even so, Dante could see that Vergil grunted as an invisible forced seized his arm and despite his determined resistance, yanked him forward on his face, with his arm outstretched, his hand facing up. Sasha shrieked more curses as she was subjected to the same ordeal. Selene solemnly pointed an outstretched index finger at each of them in turn and by yet another invisible force, their wrists were cut, making blood spurt up onto the respective circles that Selene's ritual was tracing beneath them. The circles were connecting to another series of circles at the center of which Selene stood. The blood of all three soaked into the lines and suddenly, the entire complex of circles, symbols and runes were burned deeply onto the floor by dark, flame-like energy.

She faced Vergil first. "You, bound by dishonor and arrogance to serve another; I command the forces here gathered to unbind thee, by offering of blood, to release thee of your bonds. No longer will you serve another, but tread the world by your own free will. No longer will you bear the marks of your servitude, but carve a new existence of yourself, she said dryly. "You are now released of your bonds!"

Dante watched as the circles around Vergil trembled as power surged and concentrated. Still pinned to the floor face down, Vergil suddenly tensed and shuddered in pain. His clenched fists were white at the knuckles and Dante could plainly see Vergil was in agony but unable or unwilling to unclamp his jaw and shout. He just lay there, tense and barely moving, drawing deep breaths until he finally rolled on his back and his back arched up from the painful tension while he shouted in agony. His demonic form, clear of any influence of his Nelo Angelo past erupted into view faintly before disappearing, to show up again for a split second and then vanish once more.

With a sudden rush of voices, a sort of faint projection of him, made of dull-colored energy was wrenched out of him by an invisible force and dissipated into nothing as he relaxed. Vergil panted, covered in sweat, and let a surprised gasp. From his expression, Dante figured he'd been prepared for an intense experience, but not quite so painful. His face remained tensed in an expression that Dante could only interpret as aching, but his skin was now free of any marks that would indicate he had once been Nelo Angelo.

He watched Vergil exhale softly, as if life was rushing through him again after years. He looked dazed and he must've been amazingly sore, but he seemed strangely relieved. Dante saw him tighten his fist confidently and grip at his sword, still on the floor by his side. It seemed to react to him, alive and responsive to his power and Dante knew that look on his face: He felt strong again. But at the same time, he was still pinned to the floor by some force. The ritual was not over.

Selene turned around to face Sasha, who was struggling on the floor, swearing and cursing her sister. They exchanged a long look of intense dislike and malevolence.

"You brought this upon yourself, Sasha," Selene said suddenly.

"I made a choice!" the other hissed. "You were too weak and scared to choose. You took the offer when it suited you, but when you had your revenge you thought that the power of demons was not meant for you. Is that where your hypocrisy will go? You deny that you too have given in to the powers of the Underworld!"

Dante raised an eyebrow. Sasha was implying that Selene had also been dabbling with demons. On their way there, Roy had time to give him an idea of who Sasha was and why she wanted the ritual done. From what he was told it had sounded pretty clear cut that Sasha was the only one to indulge in making deals with demons and acquiring their power. He looked back on to when he and Tess were kids; she had very adamantly stated her family had never been involved with demons. She couldn't have been lying about that and Roy seemed as genuinely shocked at the revelation as he was to see Roy look that flabbergasted.

Selene just stared back at her sister coldly. "No," she said dryly. "I will not deny it."

The powers amassed in the room seemed to settle briefly, as if Selene herself had come to her senses and gained proper control over them. "I will not deny that I too was at the verge of your choice, sister," she said. "Father had to be punished for his abominable actions, mother had to be avenged. And I would not sully the powers we were trusted with for such a base desire as revenge."

Sasha laughed sarcastically. "You always liked your little 'holier than thou' excuses…" she scoffed. "You were too weak to accept this power!"

"I was strong enough to see what it would turn me into and resist. I allowed myself to fall once, for revenge. I ruined myself for the satisfaction of vengeance. I was mistaken. We both were," Selene countered calmly.

Sasha laughed again, this time almost hysterically. "How amusing. And which of us is dead, dear sister? Which of us is forced to drag herself out of the grave and possess another to just be able to talk!"

Selene smiled sinisterly. "At least I can still conduct a ritual even in this state. Had it been you, you would have trouble even speaking, you old, maggot-riddled wreck."

A scoff escaped Dante at the sisterly banter. And he thought that he and Vergil were bad.

"You talk of resisting, you whore, but you would deny me my power—the power I had earned. How did it feel to render your sister a powerless husk, tossed about the tides in the Underworld? How did it feel to curse your own sister into misery?" Sasha hissed at her.

Selene laughed at the accusations. "Why don't you tell me how it felt to take advantage of your sister's weakness after preventing you from running wild? What was it like to hand your sister over to butchering, persecuting dogs?" she countered with a vicious delight. "Did you laugh while I screamed and begged them to stop? Did you triumph when they finally showed some mercy and hanged me, broken as I was?"

Their angry exchanges told their story more elaborately than any narrator could. Dante eyed Roy; the djinn had hunched over and shook his head sadly, bringing one hand to his graying head. He looked very surprised. He seemed to catch Dante's glance at him and looked up. His eye was peeled wide and wild and he shook his head at Dante's silent question.

"I didn't know anything of this. Poor, deluded fools; both of them," he said simply.

Sasha was cackling sarcastically. "You were perfectly entertaining sister. Perfectly entertaining," she said. "Now get it over with! Finish the ritual so that we can face each other again, properly this time, and I'll show you just how stupid you've always been!"

Selene bore with the cursing silently and shook her head with a teasing smirk. "Very well, sister. I shall indulge you."

She raised her arms in a twisted parody of a prayer. "You, bound by disgrace and greed, your powers sealed by mine own will; I command the forces here gathered to unbind thee, by offering of blood, to release thee of your bonds. I release you of my wrath, sister; to give you leave of your powers as you please. You are released."

No sooner had she completed the sentence, the circles traced round Sasha by her sister's ritual crackled to life with power, making the room shudder once again, with a force that made the previous outbursts pale in comparison. The room shuddered once again, so hard that Dante could hear the cracks creeping up the walls and eyed the ceiling, expecting it to come crashing down at any moment. Then he looked at the open Gate, still expelling copious amounts of demonic power—but oddly no demon had so much as peeped through.

Roy caught him looking. "It's Selene. She's holding them back," he groused. "She keeps using Tess to channel all this power, it's not going to be good for her!"

Dante cringed. "If I knew it'd help, I'd get in there and yank her out…"

"You'll get your chance…but not yet. Better not to get in the face of a mad and dead witch. This is all we can do—it's a waiting game, I know it's driving you crazy, but wait a little longer!"

Dante found that very hard to believe and he practically shivered from anxiety to get in there and do something. Sasha, still prone on the ground, was trapped by the circles, thrashing and screaming as tension gripped her form. She howled like a wounded animal, sounding unnervingly like a giant reptile in its last throes of life. Selene was observing her calmly as she braced against the floor slowly, expelling what could only be described as corrupt energy in large, red swaths. Spasms ripped through her form and she buckled backwards onto her knees, clutching her head as the hood flung back, fully revealing a gaunt and close to skeletal face with sunken, amber eyes and blackened, shriveled gums that made her teeth look doglike.

Dante shuddered and eyed Roy for an explanation, just to see the old man look more afraid than he'd ever seen him before and taking a hesitant step backwards.

"That's the face of a witch who's totally given herself away to demonic influence," Roy said, looking on warily. "My God, she is hardly human anymore."

"They never are, old man," Dante muttered.

Sasha, still being jolted by all that energy being released, wailed and wriggled her way towards the open Gate. The portal to the Underworld still gave off large amounts of energy but the witch was desperately trying to get to it. Selene followed her with a determined, angry pace.

"Are you satisfied, my sister?" she asked. "You can pay a visit to your wretched masters now. Is that not what you wanted?"

Sasha just snarled back in a choked way. Selene walked Sasha all the way to the edge of the portal and with a sudden abrupt move she seized Sasha by the edge of the robe and dragged her right to the edge of the portal.

"Then go, hag. I will join you and end this madness of yours. You and I will never see the human world again," she hissed and shoved Sasha into the portal.

The Gate darkened abruptly, sinking into itself to form an abysmal hole. Selene stood at its edge, watching her sister fall into the Gate with a terrible scream and…she smiled, in an angry, vindictive way.

"Dante!" Roy blurted with an alarmed look just as the demon hunter himself rushed ahead with an actually anxious look on his face.

Finally, the 'right moment' that Roy and Dante had been waiting for happened as they watched Selene let a satisfied laugh and lean forward in complete disregard for herself, to fall into the Gate. Roy didn't even need to spell it out for Dante that she was planning to use herself—and Tess—to seal Sasha up in the Underworld for good.

But Dante got to her first and reaching out grabbed her arm. He felt a surge of something like rogue energy shooting through him painfully and he even saw it crackling against his skin and clothes. The raw hellish energy coming off the Gate and from Selene caused him to see his arm flash between his human form and demon form for just a split-second, as if he'd seen it through glass. He could feel his hand gripping Tess' ice cold arm but also gripping the arm of something a lot more ancient…and not alive. He almost gasped. An amazing force seemed to be trying to rip her out of his grip and he gritted his teeth as he resisted it. He wasn't certain whether it was Selene stubbornly fighting against him or the Gate's power trying to suck them in.

He pulled back and managed to get his other arm around her waist, seeing his limb pass through the voluminous spectral robes, even though he could've sworn he felt the tattered cloth under his fingers. As he struggled to pull her back, Selene actually turned and looked at him. Up close he could see the gaunt, bony face and recognized eerily familiar features and eyes. She was pale with sunken eyes, her skin riddled by bruise-like tattoos and scars, her lips torn by self-mutilation. Every moment of her obviously lengthy torture before the release of death was evident in her hard, merciless face.

"Don't interfere. I must end this, even at the cost of this girl's life. Sasha will return to full power if I do not seal her in the Underworld. You, of all people, should understand," she said to him and Dante needed all his self-control because as Selene looked at him with harsh eyes, he could see Tess' completely blank and dazed face faintly below.

"Sorry, didn't come all the way here to leave without getting her outta this mess," he grunted back as he still had to fight against the force that was trying to pry her off his hands. "Better let go of her, now!"

She glared at him but then smirked. "You will take responsibility for the consequences of your actions? You might fail and then all your effort will be for nothing."

Dante was getting frustrated and what she said just sent him over the edge. He frowned and although he tried to restrain himself, he knew that his demonic aura was most probably starting to show due to his agitation. Fine, he'd deal with this crazy witch's deranged demon sister, even though he still owed Vergil a sound ass-kicking as well.

"Yeah, fine. I'll clean up this frickin' mess. Do your worst, lady, just let Tess out of it," he said sternly.

Selene just laughed maddeningly and Dante felt the tension trying to pry Tess away from him relaxing softly and he was able to pull her away from the edge of the Gate, which was actually starting to pull them both in. At the same time, Selene's form slid off Tess, much like a glove being pulled off a hand. Selene hovered back and down towards the Gate before dissipating with a last laugh while Tess let a shocked gasp and slumped forward.

Dante pulled her in and saw she was still in shock, likely from the combination of such a lengthy and aggressive possession and the sizable wound on her neck. Dante finally saw just how bad that was: A jagged, uneven strip of skin had been ripped off from all around her neck where that choker had been. It was still bleeding but Dante was relieved to find that neither of the major veins and arteries was injured. She still had a shocked and dazed expression and didn't seem to realize what was happening. Dante had to pick her up in his arms and retreat from the Gate, which now seemed to be going out of control and trying to suck in everything around it.

Dante carried her away from the visibly unstable Gate. She was still in shock, breathing in short, rasp gasps and staring blankly ahead of her, but there seemed to be some awareness of what was going on in her look. She directed her gaze right at him and for a moment their sights crossed and Dante thought he distinguished relief in her face. The magic circle traced on the ground and around the Gate, presumably to restrain it, was failing and the entire building now shook violently as the shape of the Gate warped a little, then more strongly while the circles failed.

Roy was by him almost immediately and took Tess from him, in his own arms. Dante thought the old man looked like he was on the verge of tears.

"Good job!" the old man grunted. "She's in shock but I think I can bring her round."

"You better, I didn't come all the way out here to save her ass for her to go on me!" Dante replied, then jabbed his thumb towards the Gate. "I gotta take care of that thing…and some family issues!"

"I'll tell Trish to come with me. When I'm done with Tess, we'll start dismantling as many of the Gate network as we can. It should help slow this mess down and buy you time to deal with it! And Dante-" he said, with a cautionary tone. "Whatever comes through that Gate…It'll be older and deadlier than anything we've seen. Don't let it through!"

Dante nodded sharply and the two parted ways. Roy carried the stunned witch out of the shaking room and Dante turned just to see Vergil getting up from the floor, stand straight and look right at him. He was breathing heavily, but looked far healthier and able than ever before. They stood like that, facing each other for a long moment silently, while the raging Gate spewed out more and more demonic essence everywhere around them.

"So…it comes to this, yet again," Vergil said, his very voice having returned to its original state of calm pride and power.

Dante scoffed, folding his arms and disregarding the impossible din clamoring around them and the increasing shaking of the room. "You know, we can't keep meeting like this every time, bro. What say we go for drinks next time, huh? 'Cuz right now, I'm a little upset for that."

Vergil palmed the hilt of Yamato calmly, without the slightest hint of agitation, his grip stronger and steadier than before, making Dante feel almost nostalgic. "I'm not surprised. You have never been good at controlling your emotions."

A chunk of ceiling suddenly crashed down between them, raising dust yet neither of the two flinched as the building now seemed to groan and rock with the weight of the Gate running rampant. The room or even the entire building might not last for long. Neither of them looked concerned, although both dared quick, unsettled glances towards the Gate, wary of its behavior. The Gate was still shock full of wiccan power, reacting with the demonic influence, turning into a veritable ticking bomb and neither of the twins were in any way able to predict how it might behave. For now though, both were maintaining their respective composures.

"Well, you're the one always pissing me off," Dante replied, flexing his sword hand very slowly. "And while I'm at it—you know I ain't gonna let you keep the Amulet, right? Why don't you hand it over now before I have to beat you up for it again?"

Vergil's expression turned sarcastic and a smirk graced his features. "Let us see then, if you have learned anything these years."

As the Gate now rampaged out of control, spewing unstable amounts of demonic energy and made the building shake to its foundations, the two of them suddenly went for each other. They covered the short distance between them in an explosive burst of speed that brought them face to face, swords drawn, in seconds. The blades clashed with a loud din and after the initial jolt of the sudden stop, they began exchanging a rapid flurry of sword strikes.

Reaching for his guns was no use; previous experience had taught Dante that just shooting Vergil in the face was useless. Vergil's reflexes were always sharp enough to deal with bullets and something told Dante that now Vergil was as able as back when they fought on Temen-Ni-Gru—even more so, possibly. He saved his guns for when he could find some opening to catch him by surprise.

After several seconds of violent blows where neither could find or break an opening in each other's defenses, they were forced to back off after a particularly strong strike that forced Dante to parry and then push Vergil away. As they stared each other down while more rubble started falling from the ceiling and the walls started to crack violently, Dante couldn't help himself and asked:

"Surprised you had the stamina to beat up the kid and take your sword back…considering you were supposed to be dead," he said as they started to move in slow semi-circles, still facing each other.

"That child was capable of nothing more than immature lack of reason that even you couldn't rival," Vergil said sharply with a frown. "Even if I was dead, I expected you to at least have the decency to retrieve and safeguard it. You had no right to leave my sword—my heritage—with that disgrace to our father's memory," he went on coldly.

Dante scoffed. "Yeah well, I thought he handled himself well enough to look after it in case you weren't dead after all. Though I probably could've overlooked that if you would, for once, keep our issues between us instead of pulling other people into it!"

It was Vergil's turn to scoff. "As I said, the witch was nothing more than convenient to my end. I have no more interest in 'pissing you off' than I have in human weaknesses; namely your own, Dante. She's served her purpose and I have no more use for her. This folly of wiccan arrogance is none of my concern."

Dante grit his teeth and felt his hand tighten harder around the hilt of Rebellion. He was aware he had to deal with that Gate too but he had an overwhelming desire to just break Vergil's face—somehow. Instead he suddenly attacked Vergil with a very fast step and a faked straight approach. The moment Vergil struck out to counter with Yamato, releasing a large, barely visible arc from a slash of his sword that travelled across the room like a wave of energy that traveled across the room, Dante dodged to the side and almost immediately swung his sword in a wide arch. Vergil was able to parry but the force was such that he was pushed back and instead of countering the next two swings, he just back stepped away from their reach calmly.

"That's probably your new all time low, bro," Dante said with a less than amused tone, although he was trying to keep his head cool for this fight.

He dodged a series of blue summoned blades—a move he thought he'd never see again since Nelo Angelo seemed to bite the dust. It brought up in him a mixed feeling of nostalgia and distaste. He drew Ivory and shot one right on the tip as it was about to hit him, shattering it to pieces, as the charge of demonic power in the bullets countered Vergil's.

"But now I'd say we're pretty evenly matched, don't you think?" he sarcastically remarked as Vergil already closed the distance with a frigid stare and Yamato sheathed, ready to be drawn at incredible speeds.

Dante barely blocked the incoming blade and a clang of metal reverberated through the room, even louder than the roaring of the uncontrollable Gate going into full swing and starting to rip the room apart. They kept going at each other, swords swinging wildly and Dante occasionally finding openings to fire his guns just for the bullets to be dodged or deflected. In the course of the fight Dante got the shrewd impression that Vergil was sort of…getting back into his game.

From the way he moved to the way their blades came in contact, Dante felt like Vergil may have recovered his power after that ritual—a power more than likely comparable to his own—but he still hadn't adjusted to it. Dante found it ironic; for someone craving power, Vergil almost seemed to be grappling with it now that he had it again. But that wouldn't last for long, judging by how aggressive their fight was getting. Any moment now, Dante expected they'd start releasing their demonic powers and really go for each other's throats.

To top things off, he was getting more concerned about the Gate by the minute. It wasn't looking good.

His attention though could hardly be diverted over to it, because his tussle with Vergil was escalating—to the point where one of Vergil's lightning-fast attacks got him and he winced to feel a cutting sensation on his left arm, the sinews and ligaments of muscle and tendon being severed by the all too familiar sensation of the Yamato carving through his skin and muscles.

He didn't give Vergil a chance to relish that, since almost simultaneously, he fired a charged shot straight into Vergil's thigh, nearly at point-blank and was glad to hear a suppressed grunt of surprise from his twin as they both pulled away from each other once more. Neither of them seemed to care for the building really starting to come down around them and the floor caving in. But Dante lunged ahead suddenly and though Vergil attempted to block him, struck Vergil with a stinger that propelled them both backwards and through the crumbling front wall of the hall with the loud crack of breaking masonry as the floor caved in behind them and the roof and walls followed right away.

Vergil grabbed Dante's neck midair and instantly triggering his demonic powers, swung them over and literally tossed Dante away from him, cratering his twin into the paved courtyard in front of where the castle-like fort had stood before landing smoothly on two feet himself, relaxing his power once again. That instant though was enough for Dante to gauge his brother's demonic powers all over again. With the influences of his Nelo Angelo life gone, the demon form was roughly the same stature as his own, but sleeker and more streamlined. Even the demon form could not dampen Vergil's coldly calculative and severe expression, despite the hard scowl of the demon and the menacing but oddly fitting horns that curved forward from the sides and the second, smaller and sleeker pair that curved back over the barely visible white hair, sleeked back. The predominately black and deep blue skin displayed layered, wide scales that overlapped to ensure minimal friction, there was very little, if any sign of the wings tightly folded against the body, with almost white glowing eyes and a perfectly streamlined sheath for the Yamato growing out of his left arm.

"Yep, whatever it was Tess—or Selene did, it worked alright," Dante thought sarcastically, getting up swiftly and shaking his arm a bit.

The ruins of the manor, before the dust even settled, were disintegrating fast from the power of the Gate, which spewed potent amounts of demonic essence, and yet Dante noted that its destructive power was starting to slow down a little. Perhaps Roy and Trish had really gotten underway with destroying the smaller Gates and it was working. However, it was still just buying time.

Dante glowered as Vergil drew the Yamato again and swung it, sending another cutting arc towards him. He dodged it easily and held back a smirk as he countered with a barrage of gunfire that forced Vergil to ricochet them away, stopping him from unleashing any more long range attacks. In the meantime though, Dante had closed in rapidly and they found themselves in another rapid flurry of exchanged sword blows, with one parrying the other's strikes and countering faster than they could register. Both were running more on savage instincts than rational thought and it was starting to show in the way they moved, getting faster and more abrupt, but at the same time pushing more force into their exchange of blows. Every now and then one of them would get a hit in but it was never something that would've adequately tipped the scales in favor of either.

Several times, one or the other would suddenly trigger their demonic side and push the other to do the same just so they could hold their ground and not give in to retreat. It was a ferocious back and forth and Dante felt a sinister smirk spreading on his face. Vergil on the other hand maintained his stone cold neutral expression, that spoke volumes about how little he was actually affected by this bout…yet there was something in his eyes that showed that he was getting some kind of odd enjoyment from this contest.

Meanwhile the building had already begun its collapse; the once steadfast walls that had been the subject of great admiration and fondness by successive owners and passing visitors started to crumble under their own weight. The haywire Gate aided them on, seeming to absorb any materials that came close to it and expanding dangerously in size and power. Suddenly the Gate gave a stronger tremor that shook the ground, and a deafening roar that made the twins pause their fight for just an instant and glance at it.

"It's out of control now," Vergil observed matter-of-factly.

"Guess that's just what you and your witch girlfriend wanted then," Dante said coldly.

"This gate is none of my concern," Vergil replied nonchalantly.

Dante scoffed at that. "You're lying, bro. It's something that ruins dad's work and you really hate that stuff."

That observation had a result that Dante was expecting: Vergil frowned visibly and seemed affected. His grip around his sword's hilt tightened but he didn't resume his attack because of the state of the Gate. It suddenly let out a loud screeching noise, like rusty metal parts grinding against each other forcefully and caused such a tremor that both twins needed to brace themselves for balance. Then came the cold; it felt like just another breeze of wind at first but its coldness grew sharply into a feeling of razors raking the skin with sheer frost. The ground underfoot started to crackle with the sound of ice particles forming over it.

"Sasha," Vergil blurted with an angry, dry tone as the creature responsible for the frost emerged.

She looked like some giant, glittering moth or butterfly with gossamer-like wings that reflected the hues of ice, run with little reddish veins that wove intricate patterns along the frozen surface. Her body was mostly human-formed, layered with a sheet of crystalline ice that made her look as if made from opaque glass. But her lower half, instead of legs, had a bulbous tail, much like a scorpion's, with a prominent, darker stinger. Her rope-like hair now had a glassy look to it and a crest of ice crowned her head, extending like elegant antennae. She laughed softly as she approached, having come through the Gate. The Gate itself seemed to stabilize a little after she appeared, but it was still roaring and quivering while particles of matter were sucked into it.

"You both have my gratitude, children," she said with a voice that sounded fractured, like several women were speaking together. "Had it not been for your decision to meddle with the ritual, my sister would have succeeded."

She embraced herself in a narcissistic, seductive manner. "I am finally free of my shackles, returned to the form and power I was intended for!"

Dante smirked as he stared up the demon witch. "You went through all the trouble to look like a frosty butterfly? Hah! Man, you got shafted pretty hard, lady," he laughed sarcastically. "I bet you're just gonna try and bump us off now, aren't you?"

Vergil narrowed his eyes and frowned apprehensively. Though Dante expressed himself in ways that made Vergil want to palm his face in embarrassment or annoyance, he did agree with his brother's observations. Sasha did seem to have done this ritual for little more than just freedom to use her powers…and he too expected her to turn on them. But he was surprised.

"You? Why would I have any interest in wasting time with you two?" the moth witch scoffed, her pearly eyes staring them down from her floating position overhead. "I have a different quarry to catch, that witch you wasted time saving—AAAARGH!"

Her gloating was cut short with a loud shriek when a bright flare of searing flame burst from her chest with a roaring hiss and she was flung backwards and down onto some rubble that still remained from the chateaux, where she thrashed and screamed for a short moment. Dante grinned a bit; he knew it had to be her and he wasn't at all surprised to look over his shoulder and see Tess making her way—marching almost—towards them. She was wide awake, her neck wrapped in bandage, and she looked angry. Her green eyes were practically flashing with anger and even as she obviously saw both him and Vergil, she didn't stop or even hesitate.

She walked right past them, giving them both but a cold, steely glance. "Carry on with your fight, boys," she told them icily. "If she wants me so badly, I'm right here."

Sasha stopped thrashing long enough to glare at Tess with a hungry, sadistic grin full of pointed teeth and stretching her wings, flew up and back, towards the ruins of the building while Tess followed with a calm step. Dante and Vergil exchanged a glance; silently, they agreed to that demand of hers but at the same time they were both taken aback by her attitude and her boldness.

"Roy sure works fast," Dante thought for a moment. "Tess… watch yourself with that bitch."

But as much as he would've liked to go with her, he still had Vergil to contend with. They still needed to settle their differences…