Sympathy For The Devil

Ch. 14 Bring The Pain

Mundus stood in front of Sparda and Eva with his army at his back. Sparda glared at Mundus. He wasn't going down that easily. With his rejuvenated strength, Sparda was as ready as he'd ever be. Hatred and anger blazed in Mundus's eyes with something akin to…betrayal. Nevertheless, Sparda didn't shy away from his gaze. He met it head on, unblinkingly. Eva worriedly looked from Sparda to Mundus to his army behind him. She'd been expecting a fight of some sort, but figured that it would be against maybe twenty of them. Not hundreds! But Sparda didn't seem to be concerned. In fact, he showed little to no emotion.

"This feels a bit like déjà vu, wouldn't you say? You about to leave, me catching you at the last minute, us fighting? Only this time I'm going to kill you…and you're little human bitch." Mundus said, his eyes flicking over to Eva angrily.

Eva shifted uneasily and the barest flicker of fear licked through her. She really really didn't feel like dying. Eva looked at Sparda, who stood his ground stoically like a marble statue. Sparda said nothing, and did nothing to betray what he was thinking or feeling. He wasn't about to let Mundus get the better of him. After all, he'd spent centuries in the presence of Mundus, a tyrant, a conqueror, and also…a long lost friend.

Mundus's bright blue eyes darkened with fury as Sparda stood motionless with no expression on his face whatsoever. He pulled a sword from the scabbard of the nearest solider and advanced on Sparda angrily. "I'll kill you myself, right now!" Mundus roared, striking the first blow.

Sparda jumped in the air and twisted around to face Mundus, again when he landed on his feet. Mundus was now between him and Eva. Eva's eyes widened in fear, and she knew she didn't stand a chance against the Emperor of the Underworld.

And as though fate itself had intervened, there was a tremendous detonation in which a good portion of Mundus's army was caught in the blast. Mundus turned, distracted by the sudden explosion.

"No!!" He shouted, agony flaring up in his chest. It had taken Mundus years to assemble his new military and just like that, half of it was destroyed. While his army was in disarray, Mundus noticed three people on the balconies. Two more humans and a half-demon!

Eva's heart swelled with relief. Maria, Vincent, and Chester had come on time as planned and even caught Mundus and his army unawares.

Mundus roared, turning on Sparda his eyes blazing red. All his work, all his planning was for nothing. If Mundus did nothing else, than he would kill Sparda and his little human friends. Mundus charged at Sparda in pure hatred. Sparda however wasn't finished.

In the blink of an eye he had transformed himself into his devil form and rushed Mundus. As Sparda tackled Mundus, Eva seized her chance to attack the enemy. She raised her hands and a blue glow began to take form around them. As she swung her hands down, a bolt of electricity crashed down on the devils and demons standing in front of her. They all convulsed and fell to the floor either gasping, or twitching.

--:--

Maria and Vincent were fighting back to back as Chester danced around the demons in front of him trading blows with his two ornately crafted daggers. He spun around in midair catching the demons off guard as he slashed and hacked downwards, separating their heads from their bodies.

Maria focused as much magic into her hands and threw flaming grenades that promptly exploded on impact at the demons, scattering their ranks. She was good with magic, but not as skilled as Eva.

Vincent cracked his whip at the demons keeping them back while shooting them at his leisure with a colt python .357 magnum revolvers with specially made sliver hollow point acid drenched bullets. The demons he shot with his gun went down screaming, consumed by the acid on the bullets.

As Vincent cracked his whip, a demon grabbed it and yanked Vincent forward. Before Vincent could react, the demon pulled him close and tore his throat out. Vincent's eyes bugged as the demon continued to rip and tear until his head was barely attached to his shoulders.

Maria turned as soon as she no longer heard Vincent's whip cracking in all directions behind her. She screamed, as cold dread wound its way up her spine. She was exposed now from all sides, and the demons took advantage of it. They began to slowly close in on her, and Maria shook with fear.

Chester was busy taking care of the demons that advanced on him. Eva was all the way on the other side of the chamber, the only indication that she was still alive was the sporadic burst of lightening that showered the room, and there was no hope of being saved from Sparda. He was off battling the Demon King himself.

Maria was on her own. She was going to die. 'If my fate is to end here than the only thing I can do is choose how it ends.' Pulling all the pins of her grenades she had left on her bandolier, Maria focused all her energy into her entire being.

A moment later, an explosion rocked the castle.

--:--

Mundus roared in fury as the rest of his forces were demolished in the last explosion. Both being powerful devils, the blast didn't even faze Mundus or Sparda. Sparda was still unarmed as Mundus continued to stab at him with his stolen sword. Sparda dodged, his back hitting a wall that was still intact. Mundus struck out aiming for Sparda's center, but missed as he ducked under the blade and slide beneath Mundus only to come up from the other side. Sparda spun away from Mundus as fast as he could, his eyes scanning the room. Chester emerged from a pile of debris, groaning as his bruised body stretched. He saw Sparda ducking away from Mundus, and reached behind him to unsheathe the sword he'd been carrying around until now.

"Sparda!" Chester shouted, trying to get Sparda's attention.

Sparda turned at the sound of his name being called and saw Chester frantically waving his sword about. Sparda almost tripped over himself with relief as he saw Chester with his sword. The feeling didn't last long, however, as a demon pierced Chester's chest from behind with a curved blade. Blood spewed from his mouth as his eyes bulged. Chester gritted his teeth and with as much strength as he could muster, threw Sparda's sword at him.

Force Edge tumbled through the air end over end until Sparda caught it brandishing it with a flourish. Mundus glared, his lips pulled back in an ugly snarl. Sparda faced Mundus with renewed vigor. His mind was a blank slate as he didn't allow himself to feel anything during battle.

Mundus glared at Sparda and charged. Sparda feinted to the left, and stabbed at Mundus. At the last minute, Mundus stopped short and blocked Sparda's sword from slicing into his ribs. Sparda drew his sword back and sliced downward only to be blocked again by Mundus. Mundus drew his own sword back and brought it down with such force that when Sparda blocked he stumbled back. Mundus sliced sideways attempting to cut Sparda's head off, but Sparda saw the blade coming closer and rolled away from it.

--:--

Eva groaned as she extracted herself from all the rubble around her. She was covered in cuts and bruises and her head throbbed with an impending headache, possibly from all the stone that fell on her. Eva could hear the clash of metal on metal, and turned to see Sparda and Mundus fighting. They were so fast; they were only a blur to her. Eva looked away from them, looking for the others. She remembered hearing Maria scream, and then the explosion…

'Maria was carrying grenades.' Eva remembered. 'She must've gotten cornered and triggered the explosion.'

She looked around some more for Vincent and Chester, but only found Vincent's corpse along with his guns buried under debris. Eva turned sharply as she heard the scrap of something behind her. It was Chester. He was bloody and beaten…and stuck between forms. Too shocked to even be scared, Eva said nothing. Chester smiled weakly.

"Is it that bad?" He joked, weakly as he dragged himself over to Eva.

The sound of his voice broke Eva from her spell. She hurried over to him and helped him sit down on a cleared patch of ground next to Vincent's remains.

"What—are you okay?" Eva asked.

Chester smiled. "No, but then I'm already dead. My godmother always told me that I should practice between switching forms. I guess she was right." Eva looked rather worriedly at him.

"You know, when I was a kid…I was so ashamed for being what I was. I hated every single demon for the mere fact, that they were the same race as the one that sired me. My father…raped my mother. She didn't even want to look at me because I looked like him. And so she took her own life. I was ten, I think.

From that day on my godmother raised me. And then the most amazing thing happened to me. I learned about him." Chester said, a genuine smile creasing his face. He watched Sparda battle Mundus and his heart swelled with pride. His body was more relaxed now and he slowly began to switch back to his human form.

"Right when I thought all hope was gone, when I thought I would drown in my own hatred…Matier, my godmother, spoke to me about the Legendary Dark Knight Sparda. She spoke of his strength and valor and how he fought for the humans that couldn't protect themselves. She told me of his rebellion against the Demon King himself. How he sacrificed everything he had for humans.

When I heard all this, I dared to hope that maybe…just maybe I could aspire to be like him. Selfless…virtuous…strong…and kind. I-I had thought that I was doomed to only do bad things. But I realized that only you can decide anything in your life. Only…you can decide…your own destiny." Chester said as he switched back to his human form. Under the strain of the battle, stab wound, and his switching forms, Chester gave his last sigh of breath.

Eva swallowed the growing lump in her throat as tears sprang to her eyes. He was just a kid after all, and yet it didn't seem like he regretted coming here. Eva sniffed and stood. It was just her and Sparda, now. Everyone else was dead.

--:--

Mundus and Sparda panted, both tired but unwilling to give in. "Why don't you just die, already!!!" Mundus growled, hatred spilling from every word.

Sparda continued to say nothing, only defending against Mundus's attacks.

"Say something, you bastard!" Mundus shouted, charging again.

This time Sparda, slapped Mundus's sword away and feinted behind him slicing down with his sword. Mundus cried out as Sparda's blade pierced his skin in a straight line downwards. "And what exactly would you like me to say?" Sparda said, patiently.

"Something! Anything! Say you hate me! Say you want to kill me! I don't care!!" Mundus shouted.

Sparda lowered his blade, a look of deep regret on his face. He closed his eyes and solemnly whispered, "I'm sorry."

Mundus's face drew together in anger. "I don't need your fucking pity!!!" Mundus shrieked, as he picked up his sword and swung at Sparda.

Sparda dodged and brought his sword up. He cut clean into Mundus's side, his blade coming out almost clean steel. Mundus gasped as he clutched his side. His wound wasn't particularly life threatening, but he wouldn't be able to fight any longer. He was beat and he knew it.

Sparda had his back to Mundus and wouldn't look at him to see how badly hurt he was. He could, however, hear Mundus crying out in pain and rage as he lay on the floor unable to fight.

"I'm—''

"Just shut up."

Not long after, their fight had ended Eva had quietly walked over. "We should go. We have what we came for…also, there are other's coming."

Sparda didn't want to leave. He couldn't explain it, but he knew didn't want to go. He felt that if he left, things would be irreversibly changed. And he wouldn't be able to fix any of it. "Sparda…" Eva called again.

Sparda took a deep breath and began walking. When he was a fair distance away from Mundus, he opened a portal into the human world. Ushering Eva in, he walked in after her and closed the portal behind him. Without meaning too, he caught one last glimpse at Mundus as he glared at Sparda's back, his eyes completely crimson.

Author's Note:

So yeah, this is the 14th Chapter of Sympathy For The Devil.

I think this chapter actually came out pretty well, but I was a little worried that I was giving Mundus too much of a human side.

I plan to make a squeal of this story and I was actually thinking about that while I was writing this chapter, so I guess that was why Mundus's attitude came out the way it did. Also, I sort of see Mundus and Sparda with a deeper relationship rather than just plain old friends, but maybe that's just the yaoi fangirl in me! At any rate I don't plan on exploring that until the squeal and for those you guys that stick with me, than there will be a surprise twist in the story. Also, I plan to have the Dante and Vergil in that one, so it should be long running.

Also, I'm sorry for killing off Vincent, Maria, and Chester if any of you guys really liked them. Actually, I had planned to kill off Vincent, but I wasn't so sure about Maria and Chester. I was actually undecided about what to do about Chester, but then I decided to give him a sob story and kill him off! Speaking of which, tell me what you guys think on who else should die and who should survive, and what you thought of the character deaths so far.

R&R, Plz!