Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own any of the Devil May Cry characters in this fiction, if I did, Kyrie would have died in the first ten minutes of the game, very brutally and with lots of blood, Dante and Nero would be together...and Vergil would be shirtless in the third game...and Arkham would wear a frilly princess dress for my entertainment.
Rated Mature for Blood, Gore, Language, Angst, Future Hot Man Sex, Really Hurting Nero, and Really Hurting Dante.
Chapter Twenty-one: Crimson Winter
The blue demon pushed open the large doors with ease, his claws scrapping quietly along the thick marble as he entered the vast throne hall that sat behind the heavy twin doors. Vergil paused upon walking through the archway of the entrance, glancing over his shoulder to see the doors closing behind him quickly without so much as a breeze brushing against the heavy marble. He ignored the loud thud and clink of the doors locking, turning back to the hall and walking into it further without any hesitation.
Nero looked through his demonic eyes, staying silent even as the question as to where Mundus was plagued him. The chalk white hall was empty, lit only by what could have been an artificial light source through the strange openings that resembled windows in the ceiling overhead. The young hunter nearly broke the silence as he spotted an odd leafless tree sitting in the middle of the room, small cuts in the stone below it letting a still black water flow into the base of the nearly dead tree, killing it slowly and painfully. Small black buds sat on the graying branches, dying along with their host before they could even bloom to their fullest and a few skulls, some demonic and others human, sat under its roots undisturbed, making Nero wonder why they were there when the tree looked so innocent and tortured.
The temperature grew colder, soft clouds of the bitter air leaving Vergil's lips as he drew closer to the decaying tree. Nero kept himself quiet as the cold bit into him, shivering but not letting it distract himself or Vergil from the area surrounding them. The demon stopped walking when he reached the tree resting between the frozen white stone covering the floor, looking over the tree for a moment before scanning the area again. The anticipation of what was going to happen was starting to get to the younger man as he waited for something to happen other than Vergil standing next to the dead tree in silence.
Where-?
A loud crash rang out overhead the second Nero had started to speak. He went silent as Vergil looked up immediately to see long strips of tendrils spewing out from the large windows above them, shattering the glass and shooting down to the ground with great speed. The demon quickly tried to dodge the brightly glowing tendrils, leaping back and twisting his body out if the way as fast as he could. He attempted to teleport in a flash of blue but there were too many. Vergil heard a gasp from Nero as one of the burning tendrils sliced down, cutting his left shoulder deeply as he tried to dodge another one. A splash of blood hit the floor as the demon searched for a way out of the tendrils while trying to prevent others from injuring him. He drew Yamato from the sheath in his left arm, slashing at the sources of the room's light as they shot down in an attempt to impale him. The room started to dim as a few of the sliced tendrils flickered, spilling their glowing contents onto the stone floor and staining the floor in a light yellow light.
Vergil sheathed Yamato as soon as the tendrils stopped moving, glancing around the darkened hall. Only the glowing blood of the tendrils lit the room now, leaving everything apart from him and the dying tree in a blanket of darkness. The devil heard Nero hiss softly, knowing that the burning contents of the tendrils had dripped into the wound through the natural armor of his demonic skin. He ignored it, choosing to focus on the darkness surrounding him instead of his bleeding shoulder.
A flare of red appeared in the corner of his eye, growing closer at a rapid rate. Vergil quickly moved out of the way of the ball of flame, the heat nearly hitting him as it shot past him. His foot landed in the stream of black water, distracting him as another burst of flames flew towards him. He looked up from the black water in time to see the fire, drawing Yamato as fast as he could and slicing the flames apart so only the wave of heat could clash against his body. Nero suppressed a hiss of pain as Vergil sliced through five waves of the flames, the heat burning him with each flame Yamato carved through.
The waves of fire stopped suddenly, leaving Vergil standing in the stream of black water with Yamato drawn and ready for a fight. He scanned the blackness for any other sign of an attack, narrowing his eyes when he saw nothing. Straightening himself, Vergil tightened his grip on his sword and kept his eyes on the darkness of the hall around him. The demon's eyes snapped to the corner of the hall when a flicker of movement caught his attention. He summoned a sword of blue energy, shooting it as soon as it was formed only for it to break against the stone wall.
Nero looked away from where Vergil was staring, the demon still trying to catch the source of the movement and summoning his swords at any sign of movement in the darkness. The younger man furrowed his brow when he felt the black water under Vergil's feet move, swirling under the demonic talons on his feet before flowing towards the tree rapidly. Nero could see his own blood tainting the surface of the water, the trees roots pulsing and drinking up the new source of life greedily. He opened his mouth, wanting to question Vergil until he froze from the sudden overpowering presence behind him.
Vergil!
The blue demon spun around the second he felt the demonic power radiating behind him, bringing Yamato up just in time to block another blast of flames. The force of the impact knocked Vergil backwards, making him slam into the dying tree roughly and forcing a wince out of Nero as his back protested the action. The demon growled, moving to stand and attack Mundus as the demon lord finally came into view. He soon found himself held back, restrained as the roots of the very tree he had slammed into wrapped around his limbs tightly. Vergil snarled at the demonic plant, struggling against it and attempting to slice it into firewood with Yamato until the blade was yanked from his hand by the dying tree.
A deep chuckle came from the demon lord as he watched Vergil tear the roots off himself savagely, glaring and snarling at Mundus even when the tree was the thing tying him down. Mundus turned his back on the struggling demon after a few moments of watching the display, walking away with heavy footsteps. Vergil growled loudly, knowing the demon lord's intentions.
"Come back here, Mundus! Finish our fight! I won't let you kill me like some pathetic weakling! Get back here and fight me!" He yelled, ripping the roots off of him and screaming threats at Mundus for running away like a coward.
Nero cried out when one of the roots suddenly stabbed him in the side, piercing through the demonic hide and worming its way inside of him. He clenched his teeth when he heard a sickening sucking sound from the tree, shutting his eyes tightly and gaining enough control from Vergil to move his left arm. He grabbed the root in a crushing grip, pulling on the root in an attempt to get it out of his body.
Get it out. Get it out, Vergil!
"I told you to stay quiet!" Vergil yanked the root out of his side, still struggling to get out of the tree's grasp and snarling at Nero for taking away some of his control. He growled loud enough for it to echo against the white stone as the thud of the halls doors closing sounded from across the room. The demon yanked and tore at the roots in a blind fury but the tree just kept sprouting more, stabbing Vergil in any place it could reach and attempting to drink from him before it was interrupted. "Forget this. You're useless to me now! I may not survive long as only half a soul but I refuse to die without taking Mundus with me!"
Nero felt as if the air in his lungs was forcefully ripped from him as he regained control of his body quickly, detriggering into his human state. He breathed heavily, panting as his right arm burned fiercely and what felt like claws scratched at the back of his mind. Only seconds later did a burst of blue light force its way out of his right shoulder, ripping a chunk of flesh from Nero's demonic arm as it left him. The young hunter gasped and tried to grab at the large wound, the tree forcing his arms to its trunk and diving its long roots into the bloody shoulder. Nero screamed and trashed against the tree, his devil bringer too weak to tear through the thick roots. He opened his eyes slightly, seeing a silver haired figure form in front of his burring vision.
"Vergil!" Nero shouted at the demon, gritting his teeth as the gray tree fed on his blood. He struggled against the hold it had on him but could not make the roots budge even an inch, his movements only making them dig deeper inside of him in order to insure that their hold would not loosen.
"If you live long enough, I will come back for you. Even though you are no longer part of myself, I will never let Mundus have a victory over me." Vergil said, watching the younger man for a moment before turning and leaving Nero pinned to the starving tree.
The sound of the heavy marble doors closing again made panic grow inside Nero's chest or perhaps that was one of the tree's roots attempting to feed directly from his heart, he was not sure and felt sick when he felt the wriggling appendage move under his skin to confirm the latter. He panted to the point where he was hyperventilating, a small part in the back of his mind feeling empty as the rest ached from the lack of blood and oxygen. He glanced over at his devil bringer as the tree continued the disgusting suction inside of him, noticing that the normal light blue glow between the red hide was now a lifeless gray. One of the roots sunk into the demonic skin as if it were as flimsy as a piece of paper, sucking more blood out until darkness rimmed the edges of Nero's vision.
"F-Fucking...bastard..." Nero muttered under his desperate panting. He tried to keep his eyes open with every ounce of his strength, knowing and fearing that if he closed them, he might never open them again. The screaming pain in his body was gone, his nerves too damaged and overwhelmed to continue sending the consuming pain to his brain. Nero panicked when his eyes started to fall closed without his consent, the roots digging deeper inside of him as they neared sucking him dry. "Vergil." Nero spat out the name in anger before his eyes shut and a few tears fell down his paling cheeks, one of the tree's roots moving up to suck the salty water away. "Da..."
Dante ran through the bowels of the underworld hastily, having found the small portal to the demon world that Vergil had used after two hours of searching and reopening it forcefully. He tore through the demons waiting for him on the other side of the portal viciously, leaving a bloody trail behind him as he quickly moved deeper into the demon world. How he had found the marble doors in front of him was a burr as his stronger devil side triggered while he was tearing the demons apart with Rebellion. His devil side taking over when the mere thought that his brother could have already led Nero to his death crossed his mind.
The devil hunter's heart began to race as he smelt the potent odor of blood behind the tall doors, knowing the younger man's scent anywhere. He placed a hand onto the door hesitantly, images of seeing Nero nearly dead in the past flashing across his eyes as he rested his forehead against the cool white marble as if it would make his younger lover be perfectly fine on the other side of the door despite the heavy scent of blood in the air. He swallowed thickly before straightening himself and shoving the door open enough for him to enter the dark and nearly endless hall.
Dante wandered inside, glancing around the darkness but finding no movement or demons in the large area. He sighed, thinking that his devil side had been led astray by a demon wandering this way until he caught a faint yellow glow in the center of the hall. The light was slowly dying but he could still see it fairly well through the thick darkness. He managed to make his way over to it, slowly being able to make out an obscure figure by the glowing liquid and raising a silver eyebrow at it. His eyes widened, his breath catching in his throat as he got close enough to see the tree holding someone within its roots. His throat tightened as he hoped to hell that it was just some stupid demon that had wandered too close to the tree.
It felt like his heart and time stopped simultaneously when he caught sight of familiar silver hair mingling with the gray of the tree. Dante could feel his breathing stop as he saw the normally fair skin turn into an almost ghostly pale, motionless except for a few twitches under the skin from what looked to be spreading roots. The soft lips the elder knew so well were parted slightly and tinted a dark enough blue for the color to be visible even in the fading yellow light on the ground below. Azure orbs were concealed by lightly closed eyelids, the small lashes very visible against the paling skin of the younger man's face. The tree clinging to him looked dead except for the thriving crimson roses practically glowing in the darkness near the top of the tree, the devil hunter not wanting to know where the flowers had gained their color as he saw small spurts of blood travel up the roots and into the tree's trunk.
"Nero?" Dante breathed as soon as his lungs would except the thick air of the room again, taking a few steps closer and feeling his throat tighten as he reached a hand out to touch the younger hunter's cheek. It was cold. Colder than the room around them. The tree's roots under his hand squirmed away from his touch and made Dante cringe softly at the unnatural feeling. He could not get his mind to wrap around what was happening, his brain practically shutting itself down without any consent from the mere sight of his naked mate bound to the demonic tree. He called out the other man's name again, trying a bit louder but his voice would barely rise to a whisper, as if it knew something his mind just would not figure out. "Kid. Come on, Nero. Open your eyes for me. I'm here now."
Dante cupped the younger man's cheek softly as he called out his name even as his brain avoided all reasoning, some part of him refusing to come to the only conclusion it could find. He let go of Nero's cheek, moving his hand down and resting it over the younger man's heart gently so he could shake the other male like he had slept in too long on a mission day. The second he touched his pale skin, the second he felt the same roots writhing under his touch by Nero's heart, Dante froze, not in fear or shock but anger. An overwhelming unnatural wrath that he had never felt before consuming him like no other emotion he had ever felt. Nero had been dead, not for seconds, not for minutes, but hours and Dante was not by his side, not even close to him. He died alone.
In seconds, the tree was smashed, ripped, and beaten into an almost mush-like state.
In seconds, he held Nero in his arms, holding the younger man so closely that even his own bones were protesting the tight embrace.
In seconds, Dante felt himself break.