Terrence's demeanor hadn't changed, even though it was obvious to everyone involved now that he was the one who had orchestrated the current chaos. He still bore no anger or joy, no cockiness or pity; it was as if he were playing some boring videogame. However, the effects of his actions were very real to the rest of them. As wary of the situation as Vergil was, he was more concerned about how Diva and Dante would react than Terrence's pure combat capability. Then there remained the matter of where Anthony was and how he fit into all of this.

"It's true, then; Ritorno was right when he said you were directing all of this." Vergil spoke, simply trying to drag the moment on long enough for the others to regain their heads; as much as they could, anyway. Terrence gave him no direct answer.

"I'm almost starting to think that big, dramatic plans are a waste of time, to be honest. All that time put into distracting you, getting the devil's arms, manipulating Enzeru over to my side… just to kill a couple of throwaway members of your group."

His eyes went to Dante, and he gave a quick shrug of his head.

"Well, I guess it did something. Maybe a horde of the augmented beasts would have been more appropriate. I'll keep that in mind for next time."

"Next time?" Vergil asked him.

"You can't be the only people with powerful abilities in the human world."

"Keeping strategies in mind for unforeseen threats. From a practical perspective, this would be a lot easier if he would get arrogant and let his guard down."

"I understand why you decided to kill Haji and Saya." Vergil admitted, getting a reaction from both Dante and Diva.

"You knew that Saya's blood was once lethal to Diva, and that you were descended from her side of the bloodline. It makes strategic sense to remove that possibility of a threat. But even from that perspective, why decide to kill them as soon as the possibility of a threat emerged? You could have just as easily found a way to get some of Saya's blood and then check its effect on your own. Or was it just not worth the effort to you?"

Terrence's gaze continued to be fixed on Vergil's, and for a moment he wondered if the battle was about to start due to the boy's boredom.

"It's like a yellow-jacket in your house; even if it has no reason to attack any of you, you still kill it. It doesn't matter if you're not allergic, who wants to risk getting stung?"

"You little punk! They weren't insects! And they never gave you any trouble! You're just a psychopath!" Dante shouted. Vergil imagined his battle sense was the only thing keeping him from just leaping at the young man.

"Humans have so many words for things they don't like… but it doesn't matter…" Terrence began while drawing out his katana.

"You're weaker than I am, and you obviously want to hurt me and stop what I'm trying to do…" He continued as his free hand pulled a short sword from its sheath.

"If that isn't enough reason to kill someone, then call me insane. I would rather be insane than illogical."

"You're about to be nothing, you little punk!" Dante growled as his body changed into its demon form. Vergil scowled, understanding just how upset his brother must be to bother devil-triggering.

"Dante, wait!"

"Hyah!"

He darted through space and swung Rebellion at the young man who back-stepped it and dashed forward to clash swords with Dante. The short sword came away and swept at the half-demon's knee, but instead of taking the wound or backing off, he kicked off the ground to spin in the air. Now upside down, he kicked out with the same leg Terrence had tried to sever. The young demon king weaved out of the way, and Dante landed, thrusting out with his range advantage.

"Even with his devil-triggered state, the virus in Dante's body might be draining his strength too much to take someone like Terrence on. Not to mention he's too angry to be thinking straight." Vergil reasoned out in his head. He wanted to help his brother, but he had to make sure Diva would be alright as well.

"Diva; our best bet of taking Terrence alive is for all of us to attack him at the same time. If it's just Dante and I we'll have to fight to kill."

He didn't like manipulating Diva's feelings to get her involved in the battle, and even if it worked, she probably wouldn't give it her all, but he needed her to at least get moving. With the kind of battle they would be going through, nothing in the area was safe from harm. That went double for once Terrence unleashed his true strength.

Diva looked at him, and his own will to fight was shaken for a moment. The lack of will in her eyes was paralyzing, and he knew that asking her to take part in the battle at all was just too much.

"Alright… why don't you go somewhere safe? We'll do the best we can."

"Vergil… please don't…"

"I won't kill him unless there's no other way to keep us alive; I'll promise you that much."

There wasn't anything else she could ask of him, and it was obvious if she didn't leave now she would probably just sink down to the ground. Vergil pulled her head to his chest for an instant and told her to stay safe, then they turned away and she was gone.

"Of course… given the kind of person he is and Dante's weakened condition, the possibility of that not being necessary is pretty small. I wish I didn't have to put you through anything else today, Diva; but it doesn't look like it can be avoided."

Vergil rushed into the combat, striking the blunt edge of Yamato against Rebellion to knock Terrence's swords away. The demon king hopped a few steps back and looked down at his weapons; though he might not be having difficulty fighting Dante, his blades couldn't quite hold up against Rebellion. The blades had climbing vines of ivy-looking cracks across their expanse. Vergil imagined the only reason they had lasted this long was because Terrence was putting his energy through them somehow.

"Dante, if we can destroy all of his weapons we'll reduce his combat efficiency. For now, let's start with that."

It was obvious all Dante wanted to do was cut the young man into a multitude of pieces, but after a moment he quietly agreed to the plan.

The twins stood side by side, and Vergil devil-triggered. Their raging blue and red forms lit up the otherwise dark night, and they began walking towards their target.

"Let's do this."


Though Diva had done her best to get as far away as possible, she had actually only made it to the other side of the property before breaking down. As she landed, her leg gave out, and she crashed down into the ground. Her body felt like it was too light to resist gravity, or maybe too heavy. Either way, she couldn't think of a reason to try and push up anyway. The situation was too much to even think of at once, let alone deal with. She knew what she ought to do, but helping Dante and Vergil fight Terrence was too difficult. No matter what he'd done, now that Diva knew Terrence was hers, she couldn't imagine killing him. Even fighting him was asking too much.

"But Saya…"

Knowing Saya was Ritorno's target had concerned Diva somewhat, given his near-success at killing all of them in the past. However, she still hadn't considered Saya to be in too great of danger because of how durable their bodies were. To have her be there and then just gone was almost unreal. Even Enzeru had buckled under the pressure of protecting Lady, and it spoke as to how effective such ties could be, despite the fact he hadn't known Lady very long. A few hours ago she was thinking about where they were all going to go once their vacation had started, and now most of the people she was going to share that experience with were either dead or trying to kill the other half of those who still survived.

"It's just too much."

Diva blinked and looked up at who had spoken. The sunken form of her other son was standing a few yards off. Anthony's usual energy and demeanor looked like it had been torn from him like the clothing off of a rape victim.

"I tried to do something about it; he killed them both before I could even react. But I could have at least fought him or something."

He walked over to her and helped her at least sit up, then sat in the grass himself.

"It's Terrence, though; he always showed me what to do and where we were going to go. I just followed his lead. I know that I would have lost if I fought him, and that I should have at least done something, but what would I even do?"

Diva looked up from the ground and saw Anthony swallowing back whatever feeling he had been grappling with since he'd realized what Terrence was. His face was shining with sweat, and it looked like he was about to break out into tears.

"What would I even do?" She thought, repeating his words in her head.

She did what she could, and pulled Anthony's head down to her shoulder.

"I understand, Anthony. I know… whatever Terrence has done doesn't change who he is to you, or what he's done for you. It doesn't undo the time you've spent together, or the fact that he's your brother. I know that feeling well. It reminds me of…"

Saya's face flashed through her mind, and she hugged Anthony tighter.

"The only thing you and I can do is stay away and let Dante and Vergil do what they can. If anyone can stop him, it's them."

Anthony's grip on her loosened ever so slightly, and he took in a breath.

"'stop him'?"