Chapter XX: Purging Demons
Tess stabbed hard into Dante's chest, digging the silver blade in as hard as she could through the tough demonic hide, just as he was about to lock his hands around her neck. She pushed the blade hard, almost to the hilt, gritting her teeth. Dante stopped dead in his tracks with a hoarse, choked sound. Tess winced; the blade was almost burning, she could feel it hot through the bogwood hilt. He snarled, tensed and shuddered, while his skin began to crack and seem like it was trying to detach itself from the muscles.
Dante blurted an ear-piercing and painful screech like nails on a chalkboard. He stumbled and seemed to fall forward, grabbing on to Tess and catching her in a suffocating embrace, as if he wanted to crush her and at the same time hold himself upright. The hilt dug into her side and the air was almost forcefully crushed from her lungs and she yelped in pain. He gasped, as if surprised then screeched again, his very form contorting and convulsing. He seemed to be fighting the madness again. She could see his aura suddenly bursting up and to the sides, flickering violently.
She felt almost like being crushed, but didn't relent. She dug the blade deeper into his chest, making him scream again. He snarled in her face, his poison-green eyes glaring at her hungrily and angry that he was unable to move. He was suffocating her.
"Listen to me!" she managed, while he almost crushed her ribcage. "I know it hurts! But you have to stop!" she said, struggling to keep him from forcing her to the ground. "Fight it, you idiot! You're stronger than this! This wouldn't work if I thought otherwise. I can only do this much, give you a way to get this…this thing out of you. And that's your job," she said and paused, trying to take a breath.
They wrestled around like that for a moment, with Tess feeling like was getting weaker while that flimsy blade was in his chest. "I want my friend-I want YOU back. I need you…to help me do this, remember? Come on, dammit!" she said with a choke as he growled at her.
She looked up at the contorted face while her eyes were watering from the pressure and the anxiety of seeing him like that.
"Come on, you're the cockiest dipshit I know, are you gonna let yourself be controlled? I won't let you do that. You're going to fight. Stop acting like an idiot!" she panted as she felt the intense demonic aura about to suffocate her. "You ARE stronger than this. When I take out this knife, you're going to fight it and push it out. You are what you are. Accept it, because it's you and-and every bit of you, every face you've shown me, is very important to me. I want…I want you back. I need you back."
Although she was getting dizzy from the crushing grip he had on her, she didn't do anything to stop him.
"Whatever happens, what I see in you won't change. I'll forgive you."
She shoved against him and pulled out the blade to find it covered in blood and a vile-looking, black substance that was stringy and seemed to resist coming out of him. The wound let a squishy sound, didn't heal and suddenly a little bit of blood spurted out, followed by a stronger gush of the same black substance. Dante threw his head back with a malevolent screech as she pulled the knife out.
He let go of her, shoving her off him with a violent swipe of his hand and thrashed about, howling in pain. That vile-looking substance kept spurting out of the gash on his chest and his dark, rough hide continued cracking and crumbling like an exoskeleton. At the same time, he started to switch between his human and demon form again. His ear-piercing screech slowly turned into a human scream of pain and suffering as he thrashed.
Tess kept holding the athame, with the black liquid trickling off it as if something had wiped it off. She watched him thrash and frowned, worried she might have done something wrong. He jerked his head from side to side violently and bringing a hand to his face he tore away at it, peeling off chunks of the dark-colored skin. The rest of the dark skin cracked away like dust. He staggered around, almost drunkenly and Tess went straight up to him, not wanting to leave him on his own.
His chest convulsed as the last of the vile black substance spurted out, along with some blood. He got hold of her arm, his hand almost normal again. Tess groaned a bit as she helped him stay upright, passing his arm over her shoulders. The whole ordeal lasted for just over a minute and he was clearly exhausted when it was over. He stood on his own two, very shaky feet.
Dante's eyes were closed and he was breathing heavily, trying to suppress the fading pain. He slowly opened his eyes again, revealing the normal, pale blue hues and panted, just staring at her.
"Hey Twig," he said weakly with a stiff smile. "Thanks for the help."
With his vision focusing, he saw her looking right at him, crying and laughing at the same time. She let the knife fall between them and hugged him tight, pressing her face in his shoulder, relieved that he was himself again, managing a low giggle, choked in a sob.
"You…you idiot. You scared me," she stammered. "I knew you could do it. You had to scare a decade off me first. I thought you were a goner," she went on. "I'm so glad you're back. I was scared it wouldn't work."
Coming out of that ordeal felt like being pulled out of the lake all over again, but it was far worse and a far greater relief. He shivered to find that he had very little recollection of what he'd been doing but by the smell of him, he knew he'd been tearing people apart and otherwise shedding blood. His head had been on fire and in excruciating pain, while his chest was aching with the swelling of rage. He'd also experienced mental pain that he couldn't quite pin down or describe other than a terrifying, vague sense of being absent from his own mind. But he hadn't quite realized just how bad it all was until it was gone. The feeling that he had control over himself was indeed the sweetest relief he'd ever felt.
He remembered attacking Tess and was incredibly ashamed of himself. He felt pressure at his temples as shame filled him with anger at the demon that caused this mess.
"I'm sorry, Tess. I never thought I'd lose it that badly," he blurted, giving her a light squeeze quickly, which she returned. "What'd I miss?"
He hurriedly looked around, Chax and that massive creature he'd vaguely seen fighting it out with the most hair-raising snarls, growls and roars; the sound of large bodies slamming against each other signaled just how brutal their fighting had gotten. Dante squinted his eyes a little and it clicked to him that the creature was Roy.
"Yeah, it's Roy alright," Tess confirmed, reading his expression correctly. "Although he'd rather you call him Abraxas when he's in full form. But we've got bigger fish to fry now!"
And sure enough, a few remaining Madmen were shuffling towards them, possibly attracted to where their brethren had been slaughtered earlier. The ground shook softly again as Chax and Abraxas' fight carried on, with the two creatures sporting few wounds each. They were locked in a death-grip, Chax nearly strangling the massive djinn with his arms around his neck, while Abraxas had his paws all over Chax's head and it was a wonder how the demon's skull hadn't been crushed yet.
Suddenly Chax let a loud, angry scream and shoved Abraxas off him, then slammed both tails against his body and the djinn tumbled backwards with a rumbling sound, hitting the back wall of the underground hall, shaking it. The leonine djinn lay there, dazed, uttering a pained grunt. Chax hesitated a bit, as if torn about whether to finish him but cast a look over his shoulder at the two teenagers, just to see that Dante was no longer under his influence. He snarled, anger contorting his features and strode back towards them, shuffling his pitiful wings and then the stride turned into a lunge, accompanied by a furious roar.
Dante pulled Tess out of the demon's way, pulling her close and turning his back at him to shield her as Chax roared, barely missing them and skidding along the ground to come to a sudden stop, snarling.
When the roar extinguished itself, Dante slowly released Tess and turned to face his opponent. "Dude. Two words: Tic-Tac," he said, making Tess smirk. He turned to her briefly. "Can I convince you to stay out of this? Things are gonna get messy," he muttered.
She chuckled then shook her head. "Stay out? I don't know, I don't think he's going to let me," she said, gesturing to Chax. "Besides, what are you going to do to stop me?"
Saying so, she flicked her arm without even looking at the demon and caused a blast of fire on the ceiling, making a chunk of rock break off and fall directly on Chax, who took it on the head and let a painful snarl as his middle horn let a snapping sound and its tip broke off.
"GO!" She told Dante, pointing him towards the Rebellion while she dashed for one of the two handguns.
Dante didn't argue, though the fact she got herself involved didn't agree with him. He darted across the ground, coming up to his trusty Rebellion. He dropped to a roll to dodge the swing of one of Chax's tails, as the demon shook himself violently to recover from the rock to the head. As he rolled, he grabbed the hilt of the sword and when he came to his feet again he twirled it around. He gripped it tightly and grunted as he approached Chax who dove at him as well.
The demon had raised his arm as he approached and four spectral swords of glowing gray hovered beside him in two pairs. He flicked his wrist and hurled two of them at the slayer, who brought his sword up and diagonal, throwing such force behind his sword that, hit or miss, it dragged him into the air some six or seven feet and the blades missed. Dante's blade, however, did hit Chax, striking his chest and head with a strong blow under the chin, making his head swing back and he growled painfully.
Tess was dodging and incapacitating Madmen on her way to one of the handguns. She spotted Ivory lying on the ground among some Madmen and made a mad dash towards it, dodging demons all the way. She jumped over one of them, step-kicked off his head to pass over another one and slammed her foot into the face of a third, knocking him on his back and stepping down on the floor again. She ducked and slid right between the legs of a Madman. The demon let a curious growl and bent over to watch her go, unaware of one of its brothers raising a hatchet overhead, intended for her. The hatchet hit the other demon's head and Tess used blasts of fire to clear a bit of space around her as she stopped in a crouch then dove forward in a dodge-roll to avoid others, grabbing the gun as she did.
She launched a kick up at the crotch of a Madman, making him squeal like swine and fall onto the floor, curling in a ball. Holding the heavy gun, she didn't dare to use it with one hand, unless she wanted to break her wrist, only jerked her free arm and made lashes of fire burn the Madmen around her.
As soon as she was sure he was in the clear, Tess threw the gun at him. "Dante!"
Dante's attention turned to Tess as she called out his name, but a second too late. Ivory twirled through the air and right past the hand he held up to catch it and smacked the slayer in the face, knocking his head back. Tess watched him and grimaced a little as he reeled back and stared at her, catching the gun before it fell to the ground.
What the hell was that, Tess! He thought. That was…awkward.
The sound of Chax coming again made Dante turn quickly, sword and gun in hand. He wound back his arm and deflected another pair of those floating gray swords that Chax hurled his way before lumbering in. Dante then rushed him and Chax let a high-pitched growl as the sword impaled itself into his lower torso, the force making the demon stagger and begin to bend a little from the impact. The next second a bullet from Dante's gun hit him in the head, straight in the middle of the base of his forehead's horn. Chax's head whipped back with a cracking sound and when the demon brought his head down again, the bullet had lodged into the horn, splitting it some ways up, and blood was trickling down his face from the split base. Chax breathed harshly for a moment, his narrow nostrils flaring angrily as his crazy grin widened to expose his fangs.
Chax turned his head a bit and cast a tentative look over at Tess, who was still dispatching most of the Madmen around them, using swift kicks and strong fire lashes. Dante fired another bullet into Chax's chest, making the demon snap back towards him angrily.
"Don't get distracted!" the teenager chuckled, feeling confident.
A soft rumble made him glance aside; back across the hall some Madmen were surrounding Abraxas' still form hesitantly and curiously. The large cat suddenly let a throaty snarl and shook, stirring and rising to feet, growling. He glared down at the Madmen that were backing away from him and with an angry growl swiped at them with his paw, sending many of them flying in every possible direction. His claws gutted half of them and others were broken and maimed by the sheer force of the swipe. Abraxas let a throaty growl as he started down the long hall to reach the main fight.
Dante smirked. "Back off old man, this guy's mine! We got some unfinished business! But thanks for softening him up for me! You wanna try talking the Twig into getting outta here with you?"
"I'd be happy to try," was the djinn's cool reply. Dante was happy to hear him tired, yet unflappable as ever. "Mind yourself now, Dante!"
He'd strode over to Ebony now and easily tipped the handgun over his foot, kicking it up and catching it effortlessly, then charged back at Chax, both guns now in hand, aimed forward at Chax's grin and opened fire as rapidly as his fingers could click off shots.
Striding closer to the demon all the while, he grunted: "You wanna see me go crazy, I'll show you crazy, dipshit!"
Chax snarled. "You think you're safe just because you've got your senses, brat?" he laughed. "Nobody will leave this place alive, let alone you!"
The demon let another arrogant laugh and lunged ahead and swung his arm to intercept the halfling's charge. Dante's eyes glowed red as he approached the beast and he jumped. His jump came up short, fooling Chax so that his swing missed. The slayer rolled the rest of the way to his opponent, holstering his guns and quickly rising with an uppercut to Chax's jaw as he shouted, "Chew on THIS!"
The force of the hit made Chax's head snap back with an angry crack and the demon growled in fury, staggering back and cursed profusely as he spat out a tooth. Dante cringed at the missed opportunity to nail the demon harder with his sword.
"Tess! Are you alright?" Abraxas called over the din of combat.
A very large Madman seemed to leap out of nowhere and landed onto the beast's back. Abraxas snarled, rearing onto his hind legs, twisting his head around and snapping up the gargantuan Madman in his jaws and then throwing him towards a wall. The large body of the demon crashed onto the stone with a loud crack and then slumped to the ground.
Tess high-kicked one of the last Madmen near her and grabbed the arm of another that was barrelling her way to tackle her. With an adept move, reminiscent of aikido, she tripped him and with a move of the arm, used the Madman's own momentum to throw him, sending him directly towards Dante, just in time for the lug to become impaled from a sword flung by Chax, to get his attention.
"I'm fine, will you both stop treating me like a damsel in distress! For pity's sake! I'm not going anywhere!" she shouted at both.
Dante heard Abraxas nearly chuckle and he stood a fair distance from them, making sure no more Madmen got near them. He caught the maddened demons like a cat among mice, swatting them about with his paws or sweeping them across the hall with his muscular tail. The djinn bled from cuts and gashes over his body but seemed to be in no danger.
Tess was still pretty angry though and yelled at Dante again. "Quit worrying about me, I'm a big girl! If I go, that maniac's gonna bloody rape you! He hasn't had any for centuries and you're like a magnet for that stuff!"
Dante met that comment with a small jaw-drop as she half turned and hurled a flame ball at Chax's direction, deflecting two of the floating swords that were hurling their way.
"Foolish children!" Chax growled, as the swords all returned to him. "Why must you make things so irritatingly complicated?" he went on, trudging towards Dante again and hurling all four of his floating swords at him.
After dodging the Madman who came stumbling his way and took the strike meant for him, Dante came quickly to his feet from the roll. He turned back to Chax just in time to see the swords heading his way. With no time to dodge fully, he braced himself and very muscle in his body tensed. He dodged, moving to the side fast, evading two of the blades but getting hit by the other two. The force was such that his sword was knocked out of his hand.
The large blades pierced him in the chest and shoulder and Dante shouted in pain. They were vastly different than the scythes of the lesser demons, so they definitely hurt a whole lot more. Within seconds his body went numb from shock and he dropped to one knee but his eyes never changed. He slowly raised his head, anger and pain both contorting his face.
From the corner of his vision he saw Tess making her way over to him to help, but Chax got in the way, stomping towards Dante himself and swung his arm in an attempt to grab her. She yelped and dodged, jumping back and avoiding his arm easily but she was hit by the swing of one of his two tails. The sharp prongs on them barely missed her as the scaly limb slammed into her waist, knocking the wind out of her and sent her flat on her back, dragging her back along the floor for a couple of feet. She lay there dizzy in a stun, although she was virtually unharmed.
Chax now towered over Dante, glaring down at him from empty, bleeding eye-sockets and his grin warped into an angry snarl.
"Stupid kid. If you'd just back off and let me have my way, you'd spare yourself all this idiocy. Humanity is dead for you, Dante. You were born a demon and that's what you'll be, forever. No matter what you do for them, what sacrifices you make, what pain you endure for their sake-they will never see you as anything better than a devil, a monster. Its no use pretending to be a human," he snarled, slamming his other tail into Dante's chest, knocking him off his feet and onto the ground.
Dante let out a deep bellow as the wind was forced from his lungs. He landed on his back, gasping for air.
He tried to snake away from Chax, but the demon dropped his foot over the boy's chest, pushing his weight down on him, while drawing out the swords, two in each hand and they hovered beside him again. The action made Dante shout in pain and he thrashed, trying to get away. Chax then bent over and leered down at Dante, reaching out and pinning down one of his arms with his hand, the other ready to gesture the swords for the finishing blow.
"You may look like a human, but you're only deluding yourself. If you'd just been honest with yourself, you would have-"
The great demon stopped suddenly and seemed to just stare. He hesitated. His wings shuffled, uneasily and his tails curled. He reared his head back a little bit. Dante glared back with clenched teeth, before his look span around trying to find a way out of this mess.
"What is this?" he muttered, sounding surprised. He inhaled through the nose, sniffing tentatively. He grimaced with a snarl.
"It can't be-?" he went on, lowering his free hand to Dante's face, his index finger pointing at Dante's cheekbone.
One of the swords had gone through his shoulder, and on its way in the edge had grazed his cheek, cutting a small wound there which still bled. Chax poked it with his index finger, sinking his claw into the flesh. Dante howled in pain at the sharp act of the claw digging into his face and his legs kicked spontaneously, never quite hitting a mark. Chax pulled his claw out, covered in blood. The teenager could see his sword lying just a few feet away but still painfully out of reach. It was his only ticket out as Chax had stopped every attempt to attack him, puzzling over his discovery.
Of course, he didn't need to be a rocket scientist to guess what was coming and although he smirked, he braced himself for the inevitable reaction from Chax. The demon brought the blood to his face, sniffed it and licked it off his finger. He froze for a moment, seeming surprised-shocked even. Dante glanced around to see Tess coming round form her daze, propping herself up on her elbow while pressing her side with her free hand; her look said that she too was anticipating the same thing. Dante looked to Abraxas and his reaction was similar, he'd stopped bothering with the Madmen, took a step closer and stood with one paw off the ground, tense and staring as if he knew what was coming.
Surely enough Chax let an appalled scream and pulled off Dante, literally leaping back as if the halfling were something impossibly disgusting.
"IT CAN'T BE!" he howled, pulling himself away and shrugging his wings angrily. "SPARDA? IMPOSSIBLE! Sparda is dead! This can't be! A halfling?" he ranted and raged, his tails whipping against the floor so hard they formed cracks where they struck. "The filthy traitor had a son? WITH A HUMAN? IMPOSSIBLE!" he roared.
Chax brought his hands to his head, throwing it back and broke into a hysteric laugh, somewhat like the laugh of a paranoid person. "IT'S TRUE, DAMN IT! OH SWEET UNDERWORLD, THE SHAME! The Dark Knight, the human-lover-that half-wit Sparda fathered a bastard-with a human!" he laughed, hysterically. There was, however, a tinge of fear in his laugh. "SPARDA'S LEGACY OF DISGRACE LIVES! In a fucking halfling!"
Dante winced a little, although he didn't lose his smirk. That reaction was interesting. Chax hadn't realized earlier, making him think that this demon was probably cooped up for far too long. It made him wonder though, whether the rest of the Underworld would know. He finally staggered to his feet, feeling his strength returning. As the demon started to recover from his prolonged laugh, Dante drew up Ebony and shot for Chax's horn to get his attention again. The bullet struck with a loud crack whipping the demon's head back again.
Dante felt incredibly angry but also weirdly cool-headed and in control of himself. He felt like he could play around with this big demon and not care about the consequences. His eyes were still tinged with red and he felt his blood racing hot with determination.
"You got some nerve talking about my old man like that. Maybe I don't care much about him, but I'm proud of what he stood for. I know what I'm stickin' up for. I know I'm not human, I'll never be. But this is their world and the likes of you want to fuck it over. My father's gone, but I'm here to put an end to this shit. And the end starts-"
He took a stance, poised to attack. "With you son of a bitch."
The next thing he knew, he hurled his sword ahead like a spear; it twirled edge over edge once and cleaved a path through Chax's abdomen, very nearly going right through him. The force made the demon staged backwards and before he stood straight, he seized the blade and yanked it out of his chest before Dante could fire a shot to push it through him like he wanted. However, before the gaping hole in the demon's chest could close, a torrent of fire collided with his back, making the blood and the flesh sizzle, stopping it from regenerating all the way.
Chax howled in pain, throwing the sword away from him and glared over his shoulder at the witch, who was now standing behind him, in an aggressive stance, with her arms to her sides. Blazes were hovering over her hands and her green eyes were hard as steel.
"You'll have to kill me before you get anything from me, freak," she said with an angry smile. "I'll make you regret crawling out of your seal, bucket-head."
Dante caught his blade with a relatively carefree jump. He grinned at Tess as he landed, knowing this was probably going to herald a pretty interesting fight. And not once did he pause to think that he wasn't fighting some small-time demon like he had most of the time so far, but rather a powerful and extremely skilled great demon. It just sailed clean over his head.
When he charged at the demon again, he felt something breaking through him and that familiar tug at the back of his mind got stronger. He felt his hands swelling at the joints as his nails elongated to claws and his teeth grew sharp. His aura surged into view, almost liquid and flaring viciously, flowing in streaks over his skin as dark veins ran over it. His eyes flushed red against black and he felt a snarl rumbling in his throat. That was likely the closest he'd ever been to changing into the real demon still dormant within him. He felt strength and speed surging in him and as he charged Chax again and dodged the swing of Chax's massive tails.
"Tess, gimmie some light!" he shouted.
Tess seemed to have expecting that request and with a simple move of the wrist, almost like a dance move, nearly white blazes of fire trailed along the ground like a snake, right up to Dante. They dove into his aura, giving it a somewhat white sheen for a moment, before flaring up and engulfing the sword, lighting the blade with a condensed, searing flame. Before he could follow into his next move, Chax ducked to avoid a Madman that came flying overhead to crash into the wall behind them, accompanied by the throaty, leonine growls of Abraxas.
"Keep calling your minions, demon, see if I care! They're mice to me!" the djinn scoffed.
Madmen occasionally swarmed into the hall but the enormous lion beast took care of them quickly enough.
Dante took advantage of Chax's momentary distraction and rushed in with his sword poised to strike. Chax didn't seem to care to guard against the assault; he hunched over, his craggy wings pulling towards his back and as Dante came in, he flailed both tails, sending them straight down on the boy. They struck with the blades straight at him and at the same time the demon jerked both his arms to make all four swords hurl down on the boy as well.
"Hah! Now you're a little more of an actual challenge, son of Sparda--AAAAUGH!" he screeched.
He arched his back up as a searing whip of red flames licked his hide, burning part of the thin skin of the wing clean off its supporting limbs, with a foul stench of burning flesh.
Tess pulled the whip back, bits of charred skin falling off Chax. "I don't think you've got any right to mention that name, dipshit. Besides, you'd do better to remember the names of the people that are taking you down!" she snapped.
Dante had dodged the tails, but the swords got him again; he still hadn't gotten his eye in properly to evade them, no matter how hard he backpedalled and twisted. He arched his back and grunted in pain as each sword hit. They sank deep in his flesh and dropped him to his knee. Fortunately, Tess was there to keep Chax from following up with his attack with another wave of fire right to his face this time. It must've hit his eyesockets because the demon reeled back with a tremendous roar of pain.
He smirked a little bit, despite the trickle of blood coming from his mouth, watching her look so determined and fierce in a way that made her look...downright beautiful, actually. He forced himself to stand, starting to draw the swords out of him one by one. Blood came pouring from the wounds, but they still healed almost instantly.
"It'll take more than that to stop me," he said in a relatively cheerful tone.
He suddenly sheathed Rebellion, pulled out his guns with the same fluid motion and twirling them once, took aim and fired a few times before the shots became charged with flashes of red energy. Each shot knocked Chax back a little bit and then was met with a powerful, fiery blast from Tess that staggered him. He pulled himself up, thrashing a little erratically, before abruptly turning around and heading straight for Tess. He appeared to be overcome by fury and intent on getting her, either because she was weaker, or because he wanted his eyes back. The swords flung themselves up and followed him, darting ahead towards her.
"You little BITCH!" he snarled.
Dante hurried after him in an attempt to intercept the demon, but Tess braced herself. She looked confident. The swords outdid Chax in speed, but she had already noticed the pattern of movement. She abruptly moved to the side as one by one the swords deviated slightly from their starting course and hurled towards her. She ran along the wall that once held that hellish painting.
One of the swords passed right behind her and crashed into the wall. Another headed directly for her but she dodged it with a graceful sort of twirling motion, allowing the blade to pass behind her and hit the wall too and she did not have to reduce her running speed. The next two blades came close together and she was almost grazing the wall as she ran.
She kicked off the ground and hit her foot on the wall, pushing herself upwards, allowing both swords to impale into the wall below her. She came down as Chax came within striking range from her, his arm reared to either grab or crush her. She just used the swords as a footing to push herself further up and hit her foot against the wall to push herself away from it as Chax skid into it, turning at the last moment, so that his shoulder hit the wall with a loud thud. Tess turned in mid-air and landed on her feet in a crouch and a roll then stood remarkably fast.
She faced Chax again, with a small, confident sort of smile, as if the remarkably fast sequence of moves she had pulled off had simply been to her amusement. Chax shook his head in a bit of surprise. He clearly had not expected that kind of escape from Tess. Dante gave a throaty, amused laugh as he watched his Twig give Chax a run for his money, with that look of perfect contempt.
If she keeps this stuff up I might just have to start properly dating her... he thought, chuckling.
He then shot three rounds in Chax's direction, into the wall, mere centimetres from the demon's face. They were warning shots to get Chax's attention once again. The demon lord couldn't help but notice them, not because of the noise or their threat...but the bullets were a bright red blur, almost like a flair, that passed by his face.
Dante called out mockingly, "Hey! Spike! C'mere, boy! Leave the girl alone, we're not done playing yet!" he said, smacking his thigh as if inviting a dog to come over.
Tess chuckled at Dante's comment and he felt a tinge of delight to know that his smack-talk amused her.
Chax pulled himself and his swords off the wall shortly after the bullets hit. He said nothing, only snarled and trudged at them, his floating swords pulling closer to his sides. He frowned and stretching both arms as he hurled all four swords again, this time making sure they would fly continuously in a random pattern of straight lines, heading for or passing by them in order to slash, pierce or cut them.
Dante knew in the back of his mind that an attack like this was coming. The demon's been struck over and over; he was getting desperate. Dante dashed towards Tess, unsheathing his sword on the way, still aflame. He quickly spun around to deflect one of the swords coming his way. It all seemed so slow to him now and he barely registered the enemy sword bounce back. He grabbed Tess in his left arm, pulled her against him and at the same time turned again, to knock back another blade.
As soon as she was safely up against him with her arm over his shoulders, they began what seemed to be a mad version of a dance. With incredibly fast speed and amazing precision, Dante began deflecting the repetitive passes of the blades, turning round and round and moving all the while, keeping one arm around her waist and Tess moved along with him,. The clangs of metal on metal were so close together, it sounded like someone quickly sharpening a butcher's knife. One after the other, each blade was deflected or dodged with a graceful dash that really did make this stunt display look like a waltz from Hell.
He was relieved to find that she was more than able to keep up and instead of dragging her along she was easily keeping up with the twirls and using her fire blasts to deflect other swords.
"Haha, faster!" she even laughed and Dante chuckled.
The demonic swords bounced back or flipped over sometimes but always began zooming back towards them in a repetitive assault from almost every conceivable angle. She had grabbed onto his shoulder for a better hold as they moved dizzyingly. She seemed to be perfectly fine, even in close contact with his surging aura.
Eventually the whole thing ended when one of Chax's blades collided directly with the flaming Rebellion. A large part of the demonic blade broke off from the force of the impact and the two pieces clattered on the ground. The other three stopped their dizzying zooming, and returned by Chax, who snarled angrily. He panted with deep breaths, showing that he was getting weary. Dante calculated that even decades of feeding upon the despair and madness of the incarcerated had not been enough to sate his need for rejuvenation. And his frustration at lacking his eyes was probably mounting by the minute, especially with Tess right in front of him, dangled like a carrot.
As soon as they'd stopped, the redhead looked up at Dante with a smirk. "Nice dancing. Are we treating this as a date?"
Dante chuckled at her response, but before he could come back at her with a witty remark of his own, Chax let a furious roar.
"Oh, I think we've pissed him off," Dante scoffed. "What's up big guy, getting irked you can't scare us? A little vain, aren't you?"
Just as he'd expected, Chax was getting increasingly irritated at their lackadaisical impudence. He flung another of the three remaining swords at them, more out of rage than tactical choice.
Dante saw the sword coming at him and as it came closer, he drew Ebony, turned and stretching his arm out, aimed at the sword. By the time the charged shot fired off, the tip of the sword had gotten in the way. The bullet hit the sword on the tip, making the blade flip over and with a serene smirk, Dante pulled away from Tess and kicked it on the pommel. The sword hurled back at the attacker with great force. Chax growled, watching the boy's impressive way of repelling the attack. As the sword came hurtling at him, Chax jerked his arm in front of him, diagonally, making the two remaining swords come up and forced them into an opposite strike that broke the sword Dante had kicked back towards him. The broken pieces fell on the ground and Chax was left with two blades alone.
He glared at them, ignoring the blood trickling out of his empty sockets. "Impudent humans," he grunted.
Before he could unleash another assault on them, Tess raised her arms and with the strange grace as before, she quickly began firing off bursts of fire towards Chax, so condensed they were almost solid. She was almost dancing; every move, every twirl making the tongues of fire move differently, coming in from different angles, with the same flawless precision, circling Chax like predators. They collided onto the demon's face, chest, arms and wings with enough force to make him back-step a couple of times as he couldn't find a way to stop them. Her fire bolts became faster and faster, till it was almost as though she were firing off a gun at him. Already worn down, Chax felt the fires hurt him, searing his skin and exposing flesh below. One of the bursts hurtled at him and tore through the thinner skin of his already abused wings, and he howled in pain and thrashed.
Dante took advantage of the demon's distraction, with a grin; watching Tess become this aggressive was really impressive and it suited her too, especially since she pulled it off with that much style.
"Tch-tch-tch. See, Spikey? You play with fire, you get burned!" he chuckled.
With Chax trying to guard against Tess' barrage, Dante got in close with a brisk step, his burning sword at ready and an almost mean grin graced by fangs. Chax, covered in hideous burns from head to toe, snarled at him as another blast of fire staggered his form and lurched towards the teenager. He took one remaining sword in each hand and as he carried his bulk into Dante, he swung them both in front of him in opposite directions, like the blades of a scissor. Dante dodged the swing almost effortlessly.
"Tess!"
The girl tore her eyes off the battle commencing in front of her to Abraxas, calling her name. The djinn stood on the main portion of the hall below, now littered with dozens upon dozens of Madman bodies, reeking of blood. He was tired and panting with his jaws hanging agape from effort and his injuries. He nodded at the floor below him and Tess saw a large crack running along the floor from the raised platform and heading for the rear. Squinting to barely distinguish it, she saw the traced outline of the seal she had seen in a premonition earlier.
The crack was running from the circumference towards the pentacle in the very centre and as she watched, the crack inched closer to it. She didn't care exactly to know what was still sealed up behind that seal but her instinct told her that if the seal broke, it would be the end of them all.
"Dante!" she cried. "We're running out of time! He's gotta go down, now! Before his bonds completely go!"
She was not confident at all about the idea of trying to re-establish a seal that evidently had taken a full coven of wiccans to successfully place.
Dante heard her and cringed. He didn't like being rushed but the urgency of the situation had occurred to him for some time now. As Chax rushed him again, Dante stood firm, planting himself into a solid stance and tilted his sword before him. The moment the demon came in, Dante deflected his swing and thrust his sword through the demon's gut while pressing his free hand against his chest. With almost zero effort, he launched the demon over and behind him. He completed the same fluid motion by spinning round and drawing his guns, charging up his shots and then firing a barrage of them at the demon.
Chax fell ahead heavily, barely missing falling on his face; he hit the ground on his knees, dragging along the ground. He stood on a knee, panting wildly, exhaustion beginning to settle in, judging by the way he breathed short and deep and how his wounds were healing no more. The hectic tremble of the wings further betrayed that the great demon was at his limits. Apparently by killing off the Madmen as they came, Abraxas had managed to stem off his source of power, leaving the demon to waste what vitality he had regained by fighting the young slayer.
"Sparda's son..." he sneered lowly and Dante tensed. "And the filthy breed of wiccans. You think you're going to bring an end to the Underworld?"
Dante frowned. "Won't stop me from trying," he said with an angry smirk.
Chax panted as his empty sockets flowed with blood; it foaming from his mouth as he panted and gurgled out of wounds that now gapped open for longer and longer. The demon cackled.
"You really think you're the winner, boy," he spat. "Whether you live or not won't really make any difference. If you survive you're still going to eventually succumb to your blood's heritage."
Chax made another effort to stand but just staggered, weak.
He snarled, "You'll never be able to let go of the power, you'll feel its sweet stupor and become like us. Fight it all you like. It's going to tear through your soul eventually. And then you'll just be as I showed you. That IS you, Dante. That demon is within you, hold a mirror up to your soul and that's what you'll see. So get off that high horse of yours and face reality. Whether I find myself defeated here, you will never win against yourself."
He glared at Tess too. "Wretched girl. Stupid girl. I know your decisions-the sacrifice you made. It's going to be for nothing. Your kind will have the fate you deserve, bitches. Spiralling yourselves to your own doom, narrow-minded creatures. Run all you like, dear Tess, others will find you. They all will know. That sight of yours...they're all going to want it for themselves. You'll never rest!" he laughed hysterically, ignoring the blood streaming out of his mouth as he laughed.
Dante gritted his teeth quietly. "Shut up," he growled. "Fine, maybe I'll end up as that creature you made me into tonight and maybe I'll end up like every other bloodthirsty demon. But that'll have to get past me first. Maybe Tess too, if it has to," he sneered. "You keep telling me to look into my soul and that's just it, Spike; the difference between us. I have one!"
Like they'd made some silent agreement, the demon and the slayer both attacked. Dante rushed forward, holding his sword so the blade lined up with his coat as it flailed behind him. The slayer's speed was incredible. Chax had sprang up, on the last ounces of his power and stomped towards Dante with thudding footsteps and flailing whips of his tails, with one sword overhead and the other swung back. It took the two opponents less than a couple of seconds to reach each other.
As soon as Dante was in reach, he swung with all his might, blurting an angry shout as he did so. This last rush felt like a vindication of everything he understood about himself, fuelled by those that motivated his resolution. He had been tested this entire time and this night he had emerged victorious. The fire from his blade, fuelled by his overflowing aura, trailed behind his swing with the brightness of a star.
Tess watched them go and had to force herself not to interfere. Besides, she was thinking over what the demon had said. 'You will never rest' and 'They will all know'.
I've known for a while. Because I can see the past and the future and things that are beyond human or even demon perception…I know what it means, the doors it can open, the power and the knowledge. Only I don't want it. Power is too unstable, too fickle and I'm not strong enough to bear this burden. It's not a gift, it's a curse. And I know they'll never leave me alone, she thought.
Chax let a drawn out roar to match Dante's shout and trudged rapidly towards the boy, rearing back one arm holding a blade and swinging it overhead, to bring it down on Dante as he approached. The blade swung down but missed. Dante had dodged it cleanly with a twirl and struck first, the blade swinging sideways and hacking a great cut along the chest of the demon lord, almost slicing his torso in two. The fire burned through the wound with a loud hissing sound. One of his wings was caught in the momentum of the blade and ripped off, flung aside in a gushing fountain of dark coloured blood.
Chax collapsed to his knees with a throaty grunt drowned in the gurgle of blood. He trembled and trying to stand, supported his weight on one sword with its tip on the ground. Pain shook him as blood kept gushing from his torn chest and the hole left by his sheared wing. He gazed down at the seal, still intact despite crack formed by all the despair of the victims as they died and the twisted souls he had created. The crack had stopped growing and the seal had stayed strong. Then he glared over at Tess, just out of his reach. She stood unafraid and stared back. Even with empty sockets, he looked full of envy and frustration.
He grunted. "Ah...all these centuries...all this patience-for nothing."
Tess stared him down with an icy gaze very fit for a witch that had grown into her power at last and would keep developing into a formidable mistress of her kind's arts.
"Tough luck, bastard," she replied dryly, unable to resist a cruel smile, fit for a witch.
She looked vindicated; this was her revenge on the demon, for Magda, her parents, the suffering he put her friend through-it was her vindication as a witch, as a survivor. She no longer drifted on the tides of fate, but had made a conscious decision to face her foe and got through it.
Dante strode up to her, panting a little bit. "You wanna finish him off, Twig? He put you through hell; you deserve to take him out. He can't lift a finger now."
Tess seemed to ponder over it a bit and sighed. She ignored the demon and looked right at Dante; the half-demon that tossed her life over. Something that had to be done or she might've never escaped the prison she'd built around herself. He knew he'd never decide on her feelings, they'd always be out there, lacking description and as evasive as her smiles.
"Thank you but...No. I don't want to go near him." She shook her head. "Besides, it doesn't matter who finishes him. We fought him together. He almost drove you crazy. You suffered all this because I couldn't see this chain of madness soon enough and stop it."
She took a deep breath. "You're the winner here, Dante. I'm just keeping up as best I can. You deserve to finish the bastard."
Dante smiled wide at her, despite his still persistent fangs. He was still riding the adrenaline of the battle, but he may as well shown a little red on the face.
"This one's for you then, Twig," he said merrily.
He tightened his grip on the sword, stepped closer to Chax and swung it hard. He didn't hesitate for even a moment to bury the blade straight through Chax's cold, demonic heart. The sword went in with a resounding crack and the fierce tearing of flesh. Chax let a drawn out roar, rearing back as Dante let go of the sword and draw his guns with a flourish and a twirl. He lingered for a moment and stared right at the demon's empty sockets.
"So long, you son-of-a-bitch…" he muttered as he pulled the triggers.
Two powerful charged shots fired off the guns, jerking Dante's arms back and struck the demon right in the empty eyes, nearly blowing the head apart. Fountains of blood gushed out from the sockets as Chax let a last, hysteric laugh and toppled over, falling on his side with a thud. His tails writhed and twitched for a while before they grew still.
Just like that, the nearly-rejuvenated Mad God was dead and Dante laughed in triumph; Tess let out a breath she'd been holding and Abraxas uttered a prideful roar of delight.
Of course, Dante knew it in his gut that their troubles weren't quite over yet.