Hey you guys. I hope you're all feeling alright. I've certainly felt a string of stress and anxiety all linked to a terrible sleeping disorder. I hope I can one day get my sleep pattern back though so that I won't have to deal with this weirdness going on in me.

So there's not much to talk about with DmC or DOA at the moment so sorry if this comes off as a bit of a short introduction. I'm wondering if they'll release a DOA6 in the future. Who knows, maybe it will come out around the apparent DMC5 will. Which makes me wonder if there will be someone who will continue this string of Devil May Cry/Dead or Alive crossovers. Damon Black did DOA4/DMC, I'm doing DOA5/DmC. Maybe someone will come around for the next entries. Who knows.

Anyway, let's do this.

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Chapter 29:
Deathly Forest


MILA'S CELL
UNKNOWN LOCATION
12:23 am

The pit of loneliness that she currently crouched herself into sat deep into the corner of her imprisonment with her head buried into her knees and her arms wrapped around them. She didn't make a sound, nor did she even bother to move. What was the point? She wasn't going to get out , she wasn't going to be able to sleep, and she didn't even feel like wasting time in trying to find some sort of rational explanation for all that's transpired around her.

To think she was just at the usual training gym working on her form...now Mila was a prisoner; incarcerated by her own...no. She didn't even want to call him that anymore. As far as Mila was concerned, that man was a stranger who threw her into prison right after slaughtering 100's of innocent people in a small village, including women and children.

Yes, as far as she was concerned, Mila's father died years ago.

She was startled by a sudden knock on the black bars from the outside. She looked up from her knees to see that man standing there. This only infuriated her even more to see him just standing there without a shred of guilt at seeing his own daughter in a dirty old jail cell. As she convinced herself already; her father died a long time ago.

"What do you want...?" She said in Spanish.

"I figured you must be turning into bones in there..." He said in the most cordial way he could behind his raspy voice. He always had a raspy voice when he spoke Spanish.

He held a bowl up for Mila to see. Just by its scent, she could immediately detect the fresh aroma of yellow, steamed vegetables, and the delectable smell of cooked fish. The memories quickly came flooding in.

"That's...Seafood paella..." Mila whispered in realization.

"Sí, your favorite." Victor reminded her with a warm smile. "Heh, I wasn't sure which kind of fish you wanted so I used shrimp since you liked those as a kid...I remember you and I use to take rides down to the ocean and rent a boat to catch—"

"Stop."

There was a dreadful silence that followed with tension as thick as a morning fog. The little of hospitality he could muster up within him had slowly diluted from him. He wasn't too surprised about his daughter's reaction. After everything that had transpired, along with the leaving her alone for years, it was only natural that his daughter wouldn't even want to look at him anymore. Hell, he began to feel foolish for bringing her favorite dish as if he didn't even care about the villagers who were killed against his orders. He offered one of his men to hold the bowl for him.

"Mila...please listen to me, cariño," Victor explained, "I did not order them to kill those villagers. I gave them specific orders to evacuate the villagers first, then burn it down, but...situations arose and altered my plans a bit."

"Yeah, a big bit. Those people were slaughtered—men, women, children, the elderly, event the animals; You and your platoon destroyed their lives either way! I saw dead limbs out there!"

"I didn't want that!" He argued, "I didn't intend for things to escalate like this, I—" He stopped himself before he became too heated. He breathed deeply and spoke in a more calmer voice. "Please...I know this is all hitting you hard, but...but you just gotta trust me, baby...give me some time..."

"I did...and you never came back..."

Once again, silence had filled the air. The only small sounds to be heard was the orders being given from outside the cemented walls of her jail cell, and the small whispers from the guards behind Victor. She could see one of them smiling a toothy grin to his companion as if a joke was being shared. Those bastards were enjoying her anger like the sadistic creeps they were. She had a hunch they were the ones going all gun-ho on the villagers. She wished they were the ones slaughtered by the Mugen Tenshin ninjas along with the rest of them.

"I'll leave your dinner here..." Victor said, taking the bowl and leaving it on the ground outside the bars. There was a small hole where the bowl was for her to get it. He also left a fork inside it for her. "When you're ready, at least try to eat it...that's all I'm asking."

With no more words left to say, Victor simply ended the conversation by storming away from the cell, leaving Mila in the hands of two of the guards ordered to look after her.

She peered over towards the hot meal waiting for her. She did feel her stomach growling to the smell of cooked fish and yellow rice just waiting for her...at least, that's what she was hoping for. Instead, she saw the two guards share twisted grins as they both got off the wall and walked up to the bars. Both looked down and snorted their noses as if to hack something up from their throats. Finally, they spit their disgusting snot into the bowl simultaneously and ruined her food.

They chuckled to one another as they stood back onto the walls.

Suddenly, Mila didn't feel that hungry anymore. Her seething rage had filled her enough. But with no way to escape on her own and being held against her will by her own father, she had no choice but to endure.

For how long was a thought she wasn't prepared to think about.

MUGEN TENSHIN VILLAGE
OUTSIDE TOKYO

12:33 a.m.

Silence had overtaken the destroyed village. Not even the barking of a single dog's howl to the moon, or the late kindling of a warm fire made by old men who would stay up and have a laugh could be heard. All was far too quiet. The only sounds left were the natural calls of nature beyond the village that filled the silence. Every now and then there came the loud shrills of a mother whose children were found in the burnt remains of her old home, or the swearing of old friends who had bitter hatred in each other's hearts for one another for not doing more to prevent the catastrophe. The one strong Mugen Tenshin Village, had fallen in on itself, and its recovery so distant.

It was just too much on Kasumi's heart to just leave such a quiet village so soon. It made her feel like she was leaving out of selfishness; as if she couldn't even bother to stay and morn every single lost soul. And so she could only stand there—looking at the cracked and ruined walls of the village from the outside without a single attempt to continue on.

She was brought from her funk by a supportive hand on her shoulder. She looked back to see that hand belonged to Dante, who seemed to have shared in her sorrow.

"Kasumi, we gotta move it." Dante reminded her. "Kat's already made our way back to her hideout."

Kasumi cast her eyes from Dante and looked down in deeper sorrow. "I know..."

Dante could see that it wasn't going to be easy to get her to move. Instead he sighed and walked up in front of her.

His shadow made her finally look up at Dante. Suddenly her face quickly jolted to the right with a harsh pain stinging her cheek. Coupled with her own emotional pain, she almost felt tears weld up into her eyes along with her anger.

She looked back at Dante bitterly as she exclaimed; "What the hell was that for?-!"

"To wake you up." Dante said firmly. "You cried your tears. Don't shit on these people by standin' here and doin' nothing."

"But...I can't..." Kasumi could barely say anything. It was true she cried all her tears, but the guilt wouldn't let her move. It was as if it weighed her down and prevented her from making a single step.

Kasumi then felt Dante's hand once again grasp her shoulder. She was captured by his furrowed gaze as it pierced into her eyes and felt as though he was looking into her very soul.

"I get it, alright?" Dante said, "I've seen this type of stuff too. First time I saw this much death, I cried all day and night. I wanted to cry some more and just stay there cryin', but you know what? That didn't stop the demons from comin' after me, and the world of Limbo kept on turnin'. I had to stop the water works, and get off my ass, because no one was gonna feel bad for me."

He let go of Kasumi's shoulder and continued to look her face-to-face.

"The guilt's hard, I know. Life sucks for everyone." The black haired Nephilim said harshly. "But you gotta let that go now, because the world's gonna be hell on Earth. It needs us right now; It needs you! Right fuckin' now! And if the world says you need to take a beatin', get out there, fight, take a beatin', come back and ask it 'do you need me to do it again'!"

There was silence in the moon lite night as birds flapped from trees at the sound of Dante's thunderous voice. Kasumi was left speechless. She could only think what kind of past could this man have had to form him into what he was now? For him to speak so passionately about the deaths he's seen and how many times he's had to get up and face it all over again was an experience she, herself, trained for in the Hayabusa village, but actually wasn't ready to face right away.

But deep down, she knew he was right; sitting there and crying about it, letting the guilt hold her down into the ground—this was not what she spent all that training for.

Her doubt had left her almost instantly. Her eyes of welded tears and guilt were replaced with a burning fire of determination in her eyes that wanted to make the memory of the lost lives proud. She wanted to storm Donovan's tower, beat down every single military man who pointed a gun at the villagers, and carve every dead man, woman, child, and even pet's names in to each and every one of their bear chests.

Kasumi's fist clenched as her fiery eyes was proof enough that she wanted to do what needed to be done.

"You're right." She nodded. "This is all I can do for the villagers now...I swear to each and every one of them, I will bring justice to them." She pulled out her sword and stabbed it into the ground hard. "And I will hack through every last demon who gets in my way."

Kasumi was suddenly brought down from her burning declaration from a finger placed into her chest. For a moment, she thought it was Dante's excuse to cop a feel (to which she would slap him for it) but instead, she was pushed an inch off from where she stood. At first, it hurt from how hard Dante jabbed his finger into her chest, but...at the same time, she began to feel lighter. As if all that guilt that weighed her down was slowly being lessened.

"There, I helped you move a lil..." Dante smirked. "...Now get to steppin'."

Kasumi nodded with a grateful smile on her face. "Yes!"

OUTSIDE THE MUGEN TENSHIN VILLAGE

FOREST

12:45 a.m.

A yawn escaped Tina's lips with a drowsy groan that followed. Of course, that could be expected when having to trudge through a thick forest where the sounds of nature practically screamed in your ears. It reminded her of the time she once went camping with her girl scout club. True, they didn't really go that far into a forest...in fact, they really just camped in the backyard of a country home. At first she thought the reason they never went into a forest was of some sexist agenda of how 'only men could survive in a forest.' Now she didn't mind sending stupid boys into this towering trees of hell.

At least someone was leading her, Dante, Kasumi, and Kat through the forest. If not for Ryu knowing his way through the dark trees, they'd be out of luck. That, and Dante did forget where he last appeared since Vergil basically teleported him towards where the burning village could have been, and Dante just followed the smoke cloud above. Again; thank goodness for Ryu.

But something else was still bothering the blond Texan; that damned white streak on Dante's black hair. What was it? Was it always there? No, she'd remember it. She wanted to ask, but she didn't wanna be rude.

"Here." Ryu announced.

Ryu and the group stopped once they reached a wide and open space of the forest that could be the perfect camping site where the night sky could be gazed upon with all its glorious stars.

In fact, Kasumi remembered her, Hayate, and Ayane coming out to the very spot to look up at the stars, and talk about what great ninjas they'll all be when they grow up. I guess it would be fitting that this would be the place where her 'grown up' dream will have to begin.

Ryu ran his foot across a pile of well placed grass to reveal a round sigil with unrecognizable words edged around it, on a slab of concrete.

"I've already informed Vergil of your arrivals. He'll be expecting you." Ryu called. "Kat."

"On it." The hooded girl nodded.

She hurried to the slab and pulled out her spray can and her wrapped up stencil with the shape of a prepared cut out for the sigil. She placed the stencil over it, and shook her spray can to go across it.

Dante, Kasumi, and Tina were on-lookers to just what kind of strangeness was going on in front of them. She seemed so enthralled in her own artwork by how she checks it thoroughly for perniciousness. All three still stood there, wondering what any of this had to do with them getting anywhere. So it was Dante who spoke up first to it.

"Uhh...What're you doin'?"

"I'm preparing a gateway through glyph's." Kat explained, "Our world and Limbo are very Super positioned. They collide By doing this, we'll be able to send ourselves through a colliding rift that can act as a sort of instant teleportation from one area to the next."

"Hold on now; ya'll mean t' say that you can actually teleport 'round the world?-!" Tina with an astonished gaze. "Damn! And people said science was the answer..."

"It sort of is science. But it's a little less impressive then that." Kat humbly said, "I don't have enough training to create sigils that travel very far. Most I can do is only send you at least a mile away."

"Still, this is an impressive feat on its own." Kasumi praised.

Dante, on the other hand, simply crouched down towards her and got a closer look at the glyph she was painting into the concrete. He let curiosity get the best of him, and attempted to scrap a dab of the spray paint with his finger.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you..." Kat advised. "It's not a pretty smell."

"Oh, come on, how bad could it—Ugh!" Dante's nose felt like it was violated by the sheer stench of the spray paint. He'd smelled some rotten scents before, but that was literal 'mountains of waste' kind of bad. "Jesus, what's in that thing?-! It smells like skunk's asshole exploded!"

"You don't wanna know..." Kat said. In actuality she always had a fancy for explaining her magical items and mixtures to give people an in-depth explanation on how so many ingredients, when coming together, can create a magical property to use. But she figured they probably wouldn't care and kept it to herself like the wiccan nerd girl she was. "One day I'll tell you..."

Finally, Kat had finished her work, and removed the stencil to wrap up in her cylinder carrying bag. What was added to the sigil were a few glyph's and highly detailed scribbles within the circle that looked like a professional's work. It was still no bigger then a manhole so most likely it would need to be one person at a time.

"Alright, just step in the sigil and you will be sent to The Order." Ryu disclosed with the group. "Once all of you are there, I will destroy the sigil here."

"You're not coming with us, Ryu-sama?" Kasumi asked.

"No, I can't. I have my own matters to attend to." Ryu declined, "In the meantime, You all will be briefed on what the next plan of attack against the demons are."

"Yeeeah, about that..." The blond Texan interjected. "I still need t' get back into Tokyo. Knowin' daddy, he's tearin' up the city lookin' for me. I'd hate to have 'em worried like that."

"Understood." Ryu nodded.

"A-ha, no ya don't understand." Tina warned, "The last time I went missin' from 'em, he sent not only top forensics teams out n' about, but he also hired the entire SWAT force t' knock over every club, wrestling stadium, n' bar as far as the eyes can see. And this was durin' the time when I jus' went over t' the neighbor's house for a while and forgot to tell 'em."

"That's...um...some old man you got there..." Dante commented.

"I know! It's embaressin'! So I'd rather avoid puttin' that kinda stress on daddy...even though it was kinda my fault I went missin' in the first place..." Tina said bashfully, remembering how she pretty much jumped out of the tour bus that started her strange decent into all of this madness.

"Of course. We'll be sure to send you back to Tokyo as quickly as possible." Ryu assured her. "For now, it's time to go. Whose first?"

There was a small awkward silence all around them as one of them waited to speak up first. Kasumi wasn't 100% sure about doing this with the butterflies in her stomach. Tina was the same in that regard.

With no one to speak up, Dante shrugged his shoulders and was the first to proceed. He took a step onto the sigil and stood over it. Without warning, a bright light formed around Dante as it circled him in a perfect tube of light. He could feel a strange tingling sensation overcome him as he began to lose his sight to the light. Despite this and the feeling of wind hitting his face, he didn't feel his body move at all.

He kept his eyes closed tightly for fear of burning his corneas out until he could feel no more wind. Instead, he now heard the sounds of an echoing cave all around him, and a brisk breeze.

"Dante. Welcome back."

The black-haired Nephilim recognized that voice, and opened his eyes to the sight of his twin brother standing before him in, what appeared to be, a dimly lit take off air space, or plane garage shut off from the outside world. There even a few planes that were sitting around.

Dante stepped off the sigil for the others to follow behind when they arrived. Dante got a good look at his brother, who had cleaned himself up from the time spent in Hell.

His snow-white hair was a well-groomed business cut, while his outfit consisted of a white dress shirt, metallic blue tie, and a grey suit with a dark, multicolored scarf over his shoulders. All the accented with a very dark blue trench coat. Wrapped around the arm was a lighter blue band of The Order. And of course, right by his side was his black katana, Yamato.

Dante gave a praising whistle; "Daaamn, Vergil. Back at it aga—"

"NO...Not. Here." Vergil shut down. "Anyway, where are the others? Ryu said more were with you."

"On their way...You sure you okay with them bein' here?" Dante asked. "I mean Ryu once told me you prefer no one know you exist."

"I did. But at this point, I need all the help I can get, and in order to keep friends, I should at least attempt to be honest with them." Vergil said, "Besides, any friend of yours is a friend of mine."

Dante appreciated hearing that from Vergil. He seems like a guy Dante could finally get to know and possibly trust. Then again, maybe the reason he's so lenient on trusting Vergil was because he was the only family Dante had. He only hoped it wouldn't bite him in the ass further down the road. That was the last thing he needed.

Suddenly, from the glowing sigil came another body in it's light. It was Kasumi, who quickly opened her eyes, and looked all about The Order's base in astonishment. It took her a few seconds to finally step out of the sigil, and notice Dante and Vergil standing in front of her.

"This is amazing, Dante...and...Dante?" Kasumi quickly eyed the white haired male and almost thought Dante had actually cloned himself from ninjitsu. But this Dante was dressed different from the one she knew with black hair. "D-Dante...who's that?"

"Oh yeah, this is the first time meetin' him." Dante said, "This is Vergil. He's my twin brother."

"Twin?-!" Kasumi said with wide eyes. This was certainly skipped in Ryu's rare letters. He must have been keeping it a secret from her. Does that mean he kept it a secret from Hayate as well?

Vergil stepped forward and introduced himself with a welcoming smile. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Kasumi-san." He said in perfect Japanese. Dante could only roll his eyes at his show off of a brother.

"O-Oh, you know me?" Kasumi asked in her native tongue.

"I do." Vergil nodded, choosing English again. "I've also been informed about what happened to your vil—"

"Vergil!" Dante hissed while cutting his hand across his throat.

"No, no, it's alright..." Kasumi assured Dante. She then nodded to Vergil. "Thank you very much for your concern. In light of the recent attack to my village, I want to do something about it."

"Good. That's just the type of people The Order needs." Vergil nodded.

"The...Order?" Kasumi said, head tilted to the side a bit.

"It's the name of our lil Honeycomb hideout." Dante answered.

"But I'm afraid there isn't much time for a proper introduction." Vergil said, "There's a lot we need to discuss once everyone gets here."

"Yeah...lots..." Dante muttered as he rubbed his collarbone and slowly moved it to the tattoo on his back.

Suddenly, the light shined on the pentagram, and within it stood both Kat, and an uncoordinated Tina, who was absolutely dizzy from the bright light. She even began to stumble towards them, but was quickly caught into the arms of Vergil.

"A-Are you alright, miss?" Vergil asked.

"Ugh...yeah...I think I'm—"

Tina's words were cut off once she looked up at her savior who held her tight in his firm arms. His aroma was an arousing cologne that had the scent of wealth. She had only smelt such a delectable scent from the most expensive malls. But that did not hold a candle to this well-groomed man's shimmering, stern blue eyes that stared into her own. She was lost in them like a blistering sea that she desperately wanted to surf on...and sit on.

"Well, thank you~" Tina said with a seductive grin as she slowly moved in closer to a confused Vergil. "Names Tina; Tina Armstrong. But you probably already knew that. So, uh, yer pretty good with them hands there. Wouldn't mind seein' 'em in private.~"

"W-Wha...?" Vergil said with a flustering stutter in his voice. "Ahem, I-I don't think that's—"

Vergil was vexingly interrupted by the flirty wolf whistle of his brother, matched with the insufferable cooing of the Mugen Tenshin Ninja. Kat just stood there blushing with her hands to her mouth like a child who just heard a dirty word.

"Wow, Vergie. Didn't know you had it like that." Dante joked.

"Maybe we should give you two some alone time, then?" Kasumi giggled.

"A-Alright, that's enough." Vergil said, pushing a flirtatious Tina off of him.

Tina the pouted as she turned back to Dante and Kasumi. As she looked at Dante, she couldn't help but keep her eyes on him for a moment. Why did seeing his face suddenly make her think that she's seen it somewhere else before? It was so familiar to her. She squinted her eyes and even put a hand in front of the upper half of Dante's face to see the lower half. After a moment, she turned back to Vergil to do the same in putting her hand in front of him.

A few seconds passed before Tina had finally begun to realize a startling revelation;

"HOLY SHIT!-! YER TWINS!-!"

"By jove, I think she's got it, Holmes!" Dante mocked.

Tina quickly turned to Dante with inquisitive finger pointed right at him. "Dude! Why didn't ya tell me you had a twin?-!"

"Since when does my personal bullshit become your personal bullshit?" Dante said.

"Okay, first off: can you not refer to me as personal bullshit, that'd be really appreciated." Vergil commented. "Second: we can speak more about why you're all here tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Dante said with a raised brow. "We're not gonna talk get right down to it now?"

"I'd rather have all of us gathered to discuss our next plan of attack." Vergil said, obviously referring to the sleeping French blond. "Besides, it is late. We should all get some rest."

"Sounds good t' me. Dibs on yours, pretty boy.~" Tina winked.

"That won't be necessary..."Vergil quickly answered, "I've prepared rooms for each of you two. Dante, you'll have to wait a moment before I find a room for you. Ms. Kasumi, Ms. Tina, please follow me and I'll escort you to them."

Both Kasumi and Tina agreed and began to follow Vergil across the underground plane garage to the only door on the far end. As they did, Kasumi was awestruck by the many planes that sat in the garage. She'd only seen planes like this in movies, or the toys that ninja who go on missions would bring back. To be able to actually be so close to one was an experience for her.

Meanwhile Tina's only experience was checking out the blue Nephilim from behind while biting her lip sensually. Compared to his brother, Vergil was the real bull she wanted to ride in her rodeo. Then again, she had a feeling a preppy man like him probably wouldn't know what to do with a girl like Tina Armstrong...not many men do. But she did love the way he blushed.

As they went on their way through the door, Dante was left to standing there in the quiet garage with an otherwise silent girl who kept her hood down over her eyes, making it difficult to see what she looked like. Dante always did hate quiet people; it only made it more awkward for him to stay in the same room. He had to strike some kind of conversation while the two waited.

"So...you've been workin' with my brother, huh?" Dante said with a fake smile, while on the inside, he was calling himself an idiot for asking such an obvious question.

"Yes...for a while now." Kat answered, also calling herself an idiot for giving such a small, brief answer. "A-And...I hope you and I can work well with one another." Kat said with her nicest smile and a hand offered to shake.

"Yeah, for sure." Dante smiled back while shaking her hand. "Any interesting dirt on your boss I should know about?"

Kat giggled. "You have no idea."

MUGEN TENSHIN VILLAGE

IN THE MOUNTAINS OF JAPAN

12:58 am

Finally, all the people had gone through the portal to The Order's hideout. Now all Ryu had to do was destroy the slab. He wished Kasumi and Dante the best of luck on their battle, and hoped to assist them soon. As it stood, Mugen Tenshin Village still needed support from the Hayabusa clan.

But most of all, Hayate was the one who needed more help.

For a while now, Ryu has become doubtful of Hayte's position as the successor to the Mugen Tenshin Village; preferably from his actions, and some of his orders to his clan.

There's been many instances in which he's seen Hayate lose himself to his emotions and, judging from what Shiden has told Ryu about what had happened yesterday afternoon, he even allow his grudge to enrage him into attacking Mila because of her father. Shiden has also been wary on the subject of Hayate continuing as leader, but unfortunately tradition must stand firm, and tradition stated that Shiden had no choice but to retire and pass the torch to his oldest male child...but was it for the best?

Ryu was Hayate's most closest friends; almost like a brother to him through and through. However if need be, Ryu had to be honest with him on whether or not his merits deserved to be recognized for the title of Mugen Tenshin leader.

For instance, Hayate did not have ninjas posted within the forest in case another attack were to come. If he did, then Ryu wouldn't have had to look over his shoulder towards the dark, rustling trees behind him.

"Show yourself!" Ryu demanded. Nothing appeared as all was quiet, save the natural songs of nature. "I said show yourself! I won't tell you a third time."

Suddenly sound of a silenced gun had echoed into Ryu's ears, and he immediately raised his hand up at lightning speed to catch a single lead bullet between his fingers before he hit him.

Following that was the sound of something sharp sinking deep into one of the tree branches. From the top of the tree slid down a long rope that reached the ground. Sliding down it was a woman with familiar, short, white hair, and a familiar spandex black suit with a lot of revealing cleavage. Even more memorable was the unique .300 Winchester Magnum sniper she had in her hand.

Once she touched the ground, she proceeded to stroll towards the super ninja with that devilish smirk on her red lips.

"As cool and alpha male as can be." Christie said, "No wonder the female assassins go weak in the knees when they're contracted to try and kill you."

"And all have failed just as you will." Ryu proclaimed as he held his katana, ready to draw. This at least stopped Christie dead in her tracks. "Now what is your business here, Christie? Because if you truly intend on trying to kill me, then you're as ignorant as Donovan."

"Then I'm glad I'm not so bloody stupid to try and assassinate the most deadliest ninja to ever live." Christie said, "well...not without help anyway. Do have fun, will you?"

Christie snapped her fingers and out of no where, a heavy rumbling began to quickly rise from under his feet. He was stood with caution as the world around him began to break apart into a strange, miasma of malice and destruction had shattered the normality of the forest he had once been familiar with, and had now become withering forest that resembled something of a Gothic painting. Aesthetic of decay had surrounded Hayabusa.

The sky began to shift above, while the ground bellow him broke apart into platforms that all ended up leading towards the ensnaring, spiral path of trees that resembled a gaping hole into oblivion, and Ryu staring right into it.

The air around him was almost straining for Ryu to breath in but not enough to stop him. He had been told of this odd happening before by Vergil, though seeing it was a different story. It was nothing like the many earth-shattering situations he's been in before. This was more pervasive and threatening not just to him, but possibly the rest of the world where this ever to pierce through the vales of reality.

"This is it..." Ryu was still in awe at all the world-shifting going on around him. "This is Limbo...okay...so how do I get out?"

Ryu looked into the pit of the spiraling tree path, and in its center from afar looked to be the slab of land with the sigil/pentagram on it.

"I wonder...destroying that might be the key." Ryu figured.

Ryu looked towards one of the platforms to see a mass of black ink rise from the ground and from it, appeared a strange puppet-like creature with a spiked blade attached to it's arm and a doll-like face with spikes coming from its head. It grinned with dirtied teeth as it looked towards Hayabusa with a sinister growl.

"So you want to challenge me it seems? A foolish mistake, demon..." Ryu threatened as he unsheathed his sword, and assumed his signature stance with his sword held close to the side of his face. "...And your last."

The demon lunged off the platform, but was immediately hacked in two at an almost super-sonic speed across its belly.

Hayabusa had landed on the platform of land that the demon once stood on. He looked back and watched its corpse fall into the dark abyss below that let to the eternal oblivion.

Suddenly, Ryu was surrounded by the same appearances of strange demons with blades on their arms as each one growled and hissed at the black-claded super ninja. There were at least six of them all slowly edging in close to him.

"I kill one of you, and you all start gathering." Ryu said, gripping his sword tightly and once again assuming his Hayabusa-styled sword stance. "You bastards better bring more then this."

The demons all ran in at him with a foolish attempt to all strike at once with bladed-arms raised high. Their blades all slammed down hard and sunk into the ground. They all growled in confusion. Where was the ninja?

They got their answer as one of the demons found their entire body become heavier with the weight of the black-claded ninja flipping over it and landing behind it. What followed was the sight of a long katana sinking into the demon's armored chest like a knife through butter.

Ryu's blood was stained with the black ink of the demons insides as he hacked through the demon instantly with a swift release of his blade from its side.

Once the demon fell and vanished, Ryu swung the black blood off his blade and prepared for the rest of them to strike.

"So the Ryuken can kill them in Limbo. Good to know..." Ryu thought.

Another demon came lunging at him with a raised blade, but, like its twin, was cut to cut to ribbons by a deadly flurry of swordsmanship that was difficult for any mortal eyes to follow. He continued this deadly barrage of sword strikes and had a free for all against each and every one of the demons that were stupid enough to keep trying to fight him.

It really was no different then killing mercenaries, other ninja, or even some of the demons he had faced in the past. If anything, slashing through them was actually easier. He wondered just how the Nephilim twins didn't get bored fighting these monstrosities 24/7.

With one last downward slash the split the demon in two, Ryu stood alone amonst foundations of left over demon body parts, and the dead leaves of the ground being painted black with their blood. Ryu sheathed his katana and looked forward towards the slab that was quite a ways away—barely a speck in his sight.

Nonetheless, he had no choice but to leap from platform to platform to get to the end of this nightmare.

of course things weren't going to be that easy.

Suddenly, a thick gathering of smoke had appeared miraculously out of no where with no warning. It didn't seem to be toxic, nor did it appear to do any damage to his skin. For the most part, it appeared to be a smoke used to hide someone within the shadows.

Ryu was cautious as he looked around for a trace of suspicious activity, wherever it may come from. All it took was a simple matter of clearing of his mind and only focusing on the smallest sounds to ring in his ear. A moment of silence had passed him and all had grown quiet in such a hellish world. Not a single noise could be heard but the sound of his own heart beat.

All was still.

All was serine.

All...except the sound of thick, flapping wings, and the sound of a gleaming blade being prepared to be thrown.

Ryu acted fast, and reached for his kunai on his thigh. He swiftly threw it into the thick mist with the screeching of some hideous creature being echoed through out the fog.

He thought that had stopped this nonsense, but was dissapointed to discover that he began to hear even more wings flapping all around him within the heavy mist; all screeching harshly. There had to be at least a dozen of whatever they were surrounding him, with gleaming blades about to attack.

Ryu quickly formed hand signs before lifting his hand in the air.

"Hayabusa ichimon no Ryu: Art of Flying Firewheel."

Suddenly from Ryu's raised hand gathered a ball of flame that balanced on the tip of his fingers. That ball of fire exploded into multiple balls of flames that soared into the the thick fog in multiple directions towards the targets they were set to hit. And hit they did, as he heard the agonizing screeching of those horrid beast.

Slowly, he could begin to see the demons who dared to attack him in such a cowardice manner; they revealed to be humanoid demons with doll/clockwork appearances with big, red wings. Their wings began to burn along with their entire bodies, as they all fell out of the air and deep into the abyss bellow.

After their deaths, the mist that blocked his vision suddenly began to clear out, and reveal to Ryu the strangest thing—The giant portal of a tree path had suddenly began to reform on its own and sink in closer to ensnaring him into its spiral whirlwind. Ryu was prepared to leap off the platform and escape it's enclosing, however, he quickly took notice that once the trees had stopped moving, that the slab pentagram ahead suddenly grew closer to him. Now it was at least more clearer to see the pattern of the pentagram from where he stood, but was still far away.

"I see..." Ryu understood. "With every enemy I defeat, I get closer to the slab." Ryu unsheathed his katana and once again stood in his clan's signature sword stance. "Come on then. I'll make this quick."