It's been a while since my last update. A thousand pardons begged. SPoM, Mundus is an asshole. He will get himself thrashed. Now more so. And since most of my other reviews were about updating the next chapter, here you go.

An Unleashing

No one spoke. The six had been returned to their dungeon after Mundus had finished with them; presently they were chained once more to the walls. Finally Dante broke the silence.

"What the hell?"

That pretty much summed it up for everyone. What Mundus had announced had frightened them all more than they cared to admit.

"Ah…" Vergil had decided to broach the subject, "You recall that speech about your duties being encoded into your DNA…"

"Once the critical point is reached we will go into what we call our "Endbringer" status and open the gates of Paradise onto Earth, in the process bringing the Underworld and the Overworld into physical being."

Ty looked at his brother. "Do you honestly have to sound like your giving a science lecture Ian?"

Ian tried to shrug, but the only result was the chains linked around him bit deeper into his flesh. He winced. "It's a quirk."

Nero looked at the last member of the group who was deep in thought."Justin. Is there a way to stop Mundus?"

The Eldest Hand shook his head slightly, still not looking up. "Not that I know of."

"So basically," Dante interrupted, "we're screwed."

"In a nutshell, yes. And we haven't got much time left either."

Everyone looked at him with dread. Justin looked up. "What? Come on. Ty, Ian, you can sense it, can't you? Good and Evil drawing the lines in the sand for their fight. Even as we speak, several Angel Knights and Powers are turning on their human charges, while Devil Knights and several others are switching sides to stop their mad king. This domain is splitting in two. The hour is almost upon us and our true purpose is about to be called."

******

Silence once more fell on the dungeon.

"You know," Ty started, "I didn't want to charge that army head on back there. I really had a bad feeling about it and all, but you insisted on it Justin and look where we are now!"

"I really think blaming me for all of this is completely irrelevant…"

"I think we should blame Vergil for resurrecting the Temen ni Gru in the first place…" began Ian, only to have Nero cut across him

"Or we could just blame the Order of the Sword for forging a cult in the first place."

Dante added his two cents. "Or you three for not doing your jobs properly."
"What!"

"You cannot be serious."

"Yeah this wouldn't have started at all without your mess ups."

"What do you know?"

"Enough!" stated Vergil loud enough to be heard over the noise. "You're giving me a headache. It doesn't matter whose fault it was, the point is it happened. Now we have to try and deal with the problem, so focus on that for a change."

There was a grunt from outside the chamber which sounded like a "Shut up in there." From the guards, but the six ignored them.

******

Then the screams started, faint at first, but getting louder and more terrified. Following them came the muffled dulcet tones of gunshots, which were interspersed with the screams and disjointed. Whatever was the cause, it was tearing swathes through the armies of the Underworld. Thunder sounded as all around the chamber the sounds of fleeing feet raced and whooshed. The screams increased in volume. Whatever it was it was headed straight for the chamber. The crash of something huge collapsing echoed through the chamber. Quick glances exchanged by the six were speculative.
"What the hell is that?"

"Whatever it is, it's headed this way."

"I think we'd all figured that out already kid."

"It feels somewhat familiar."

Everyone looked at Ian in a weird fashion.

"What?" he asked.

******

They were interrupted by the guards from outside, all twenty of them, crowded into the chamber.

"Barricade the doors, keep that thing out!"

There was an unmistakable trace of fear in the voice of the Knight as he also threw several of the torture rods across the door.

Then everyone felt it, the new presence had halted outside the door. The guards all stepped away from the barred entryway. A resounding boom sounded through the chamber. Gaping, the prisoners watched as the massive iron and ironwood door shook and threw a cloud of dust into the room. Swords came into view, along with axes and scythe blades and whatever else the guards were armed with, as they prepared themselves to face whatever came through the doors. Another boom as a massive forces struck the door as second time. On the third blow, one of the guards whimpered as the door cracked. Straining off its hinges, the door couldn't take much more of this.

******

Then it stopped. Silence reigned. All of them could still feel the presence outside the door, but it was not coming on. Tense moments passed. But the presence seemed to give up and moved off. There was an audible sigh of relief from the guards as they relaxed.

"Thank the Gods!" Judicar moaned as he dropped his sword on the ground.

"What was that thing?" One of the other guards asked. His fellow answered him.

"Whatever it was, it wasn't anything I've ever faced before."

"Was it a God?"

The question stunned everyone into silence, before Judicar gave a bitter laugh.

"No kid, if it had been a God, we wouldn't have even gotten warning. They'd have passed through here without making a sound and we'd all be ash right now."

The silence continued.

"Are you sure it isn't coming back?"

"At the moment, we still don't know what it's after so we'll try and prevent it getting to the prisoners."

******

At that moment the ceiling exploded. Lumps of stone and iron, enchanted or not, rained down on the occupants. One huge lump of granite slammed into the head of one of the Berserkers in the room and it crushed it like a watermelon. In the midst of it all this noise and confusion It landed in the room. Obscured by smoke for a moment, Judicar whirled, his sword being drawn from its scabbard in a moment, but he found a barrel being shoved under his nose. The blast removed most of his head. From the cloud of dust came the rattling double clack of a shotgun being pumped. As soon as the first devil moved that blast blew him several feet backwards, then the next was quickly loaded and fired. This shot managed to send another to his knees. But by that stage the guards had worked out that if they charged en mass, then they had a better chance of tackling the attacker. It seemed to notice this and slid the short, sawn off shotgun back over Its shoulder and pulled out two pistols which had been strapped to Its thighs. There was something vaguely familiar about that action that was trying to grab Dante's brain, but he was too much in awe of the way that It targeted each one of the guards and put a single shot through each of their heads. Those silver revolvers never missed, but however fast It was, a couple of demons got through. Like lightning, It holstered the revolvers and drew a long sabre. Said blade flashed once, twice, three times and there was a sudden silence. It turned to the captives.

******

Now that Dante had a good look at It, it was plainly female, but dangerously so. Atop the head was a ceratopsian frill, the face was golden eyed with the nose and mouth covered with armour. Curling over her torso was vine-like armour, twisting in such a way that it followed the natural shape of her body and bound over her shoulders while plating down her thighs. From the centre of the chest a powerful golden light glowed, offsetting the silver colouring of the rest of her appearance. Out of her back came six wings, one set avian, one set chiropteran and the last set insectoid. Her fingers were clawed and she bore ridged gauntlets and pauldrons. One her feet were armoured boots and greaves covered her legs. A short shotgun was slung on her back, hanging between her wings and a pair of pistols, engraved and silver coloured hung at her sides. In her hand was a silver glowing sabre. The nose and mouth armour vanished and a fanged mouth smiled at them. With that smile, there was a sudden outpouring of silver light, getting at one point so bright that it nearly blinded the prisoners. As the Hand finished wrapping her power away, the men strapped up to the pillars gaped at her. Or at least, the men with Sparda's blood gaped.

"Been a long time," Liv Sylvase said, "hasn't it, brothers?"

******

Liv was wearing a long silver tailed coat that was buttoned across her chest, tall black boots that came up to her knees and grey trousers. Her brown hair, which had changed from her ceratopsian frill, hung down across her shoulders easily. Her eyes, however, remained golden orbs of fire.

"Don't tell me you've forgotten me?" she asked.

"Don't even joke about things like that sis, why didn't you ever call?" Ty burst out.

Liv shook her head and walked over. "Didn't know what to say."

Ian struggled fruitlessly for moment. "A simple 'hello, I'm alright' would have sufficed."

"I was highly strung at the time Vespasian."

By this stage the Sons were still gaping.

Liv stepped forward and sliced through the Ian's and Ty's bonds. The Hands sword made easy work of the chains, cutting through them with an ease born of years of practice.

"Sis, you showed up at just the right time." Ty bounded up and hugged her, swinging her around in the air.

Ian seconded that motion. "Although, you didn't have to use my full name." he pointed out.

Liv turned to her older brother and silence fell. Justin looked at her for a moment before she cut his bonds. Noiselessly Justin dropped to his feet and his wounds closed up. The tension in the air was palpable. The two of them just looked at one another. That argument had been between the two of them, the split had been between them and it all came down to whether or not they were willing to apologise to one another. Finally tears started to run from the corners of Liv's eyes.

"I'm sorry Justin." She bent her head as a century's worth of pain began to pour out of her. "I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have questioned you like that, I shouldn't have run off and never come back. This is all my fault!"

Justin shook his head and reached out to her. "No, it's mine." He murmured as he pulled her to him and let her cry on his chest. "Whatever happens, you're my sister and my responsibility. I should have listened to you." As she sobbed harder he said, "You were right all along you know. I didn't realise it at the time, but what you'd said made perfect sense."

"About understanding humans?" Liv tried to laugh through her tears, "That made little to no sense. I was just being rebellious."

Justin smiled. "It made perfect sense to me. I've done my best, but it looks like it wasn't enough."

******

"Hey," Ty interrupted with a grin, "remember you've got two other siblings apart from this lunkhead here."

Liv laughed and threw her arms around him, then dragged Ian, or Vespasian as his full name was, into the grip.

As all this was happening, Dante turned to his twin and said, in a quiet voice, "So they're related?"

"It would seem that way, yes." Replied his blue clad twin.

"What're the odds?"

"It does make sense the more you think about it. She knew so much about them, the bitterness in her voice when she talked about them, those pistols and her age."

"Plus the fact that she looks like him." Nero threw in.

"We can see that now Nero." Dante ground out, slightly annoyed that the dork was right after all.

Vergil smirked at the exchange. "To be honest I never noticed that either Nero. Hindsight is amazing after all."

Justin seemed to notice that the Sons of Sparda at that point. "Hey Liv, we'd best get those three down."

Liv smirked and began to walk forward, drawing her sabre as she did so. "Hey Justin, did you know that Dante once made a pass at me?"

Justin glared at Dante who tried to shrink back into the stone. "Did he now? Well I'll be having a word with him after this is over."

"Hey," Dante spluttered, "it was harmless!"

"I'll be the judge of that you cheating ba…."

******

All four of the Hands froze. There was dead silence as their eyes widened.

"Guys?" Nero asked.

There was an explosion of power. The force of it was so strong that it nearly tore the pillars from their foundations. Inside the epicentre of the blast, four Hands began to change. Liv dropped her human form and her war armour and visage sprang back into place. Ian and Ty had identical changes due to their twin nature, though one was black and the other green. From their heads sprouted two separate horns, curling up and back until they finished pointing up. Six wings, the same as Liv's sprouted from their backs. Heavy plate armour appeared on their torsos, legs and arms, but they lacked both the vinework finish and the ridges that marked Liv's. These were machines of war bred for speed and power. The armour finished off with the golden glow that sprang from their breastplates and the Sons could see now that it came from a set of runes that marked them as the Weapons of Fate. All four had their eyes turn golden, but Justin's transformation was the most marked of all. Two horns sprang up, five down, seven in total. His chest armoured scales were segmented in five parts over his stomach, allowing for a greater level of movement. Over his shoulders were segmented shoulder guard pauldrons that also sloped up over his back, covering the six wings from overhead attacks. His upper arms were protected by rerebraces, unadorned, but the vambrace-guantlet pieces had six ridged edges on it that could double as bladed weapons. His legs were protected by a set of cuisse and greaves which melded into a sort of boot that covered his feet. They were tipped with razor sharp edges. The entire ensemble, save for this golden marking in the centre, was blue. White highlights and tracing decorated the armour, as it did with the other three. But whereas Liv was designed for speed and the twins were designed for utilising their reflexes, Justin was designed for power and might. All of his strength was finally released and it was nearly overwhelming.

******

Drawing his sidearm, which melted into his armour, elongating into a cannon, Justin pointed it straight up. The blast it produced, a solid beam of energy, cut through the walls like paper. The way out was clear. Looking back down, the Hands faced one another.

"This is the End of all struggles. Paradise is coming!"

Four sets of six wings beat, and the four were gone, gone to bring on the Apocalypse.

Bet you never saw that reveal coming. If you did, then congrats.