Mission 19
Until Universe
"All of you really should leave the room now. Even though she's over the worst, she needs a lot of rest and sleep to recover fully. After all, that was a pretty tight thing!" The doctor of the organization says.
"Okay ... If you need somethin', just lemme know", Tyron says as he first looks at Kyrie and then at the man dressed in white.
Kyrie nods tiredly and smiles gently. She lets her head sink further into the pillow of the hospital bed. The doctor also nods once for understanding.
A few hours have passed since Kyrie had to undergo the blood transfusion.
Tyron secludes himself and steps through the door. Trish, sitting on Kyrie's bed, taps briefly and gently on Kyrie's right hand on which a cable from the patient monitor is attached.
"Get well soon."
Then she, too, moves away from her.
"Yeah, get well soon. And don't forget: Dante will work it out."
It is Lady who is speaking, raising her hand for a quick goodbye.
The demon huntresses get another peaceful grin from Kyrie before they both leave the room together.
In the corridor of the infirmary and next to Tyron stands the fighter who carried Kyrie to this place inside the headquarters.
Balthimo's strong appearance is remembered, but the brightly lit corridor makes his muscles seem even more gigantic. His upper body is protected only by a midnight blue muscle armor. His arms are completely uncovered. So it looks like as if his shoulders matched the size of bowling balls and that the muscle armor were about to burst open in the next few seconds. Black cargo pants and black classic boots cover his lower body.
He is armed according to his strength. A massive iron ball attached to an iron bar is partially peeking out to his left side. In order to carry this heavy weapon on his body, he probably needs the many straps that are tied around his muscle armor.
He is about half a head smaller than Tyron, has dark brown stubble hair, and dark brown eyes.
"Your weapons", Balthimo says and hands Lady her rocket launcher and Trish her twin pistols which resemble those of Dante.
Tyron has already received his combat equipment back in the meantime.
"It's totally exaggerated that you have to hand off your weapons for a short visit", Lady complains and snatches her rocket launcher with both hands from Balthimo's. "Now I can clean my baby again. It's full of fingerprints from your big paws!"
"Oh, my apologies ..." Balthimo replies ironically. His deep, smoky voice sounds particularly intense.
"That's just how our good doctor is. For him, weapons have no place in a hospital room", Tyron explains and immediately draws his attention to Balthimo. "Oh ... Did someone heard anything from Prince Charming yet?"
Balthimo laughs cautiously because of the nickname Tyron has chosen for Raul and says:
"He has only communicated that we're supposed to monitor the situation and stand by, just in case that those strange white things would succumb to the demons, because then it would be us to be on the spot again."
"That's all? No clear instructions to the numbers and distribution of our troops? Where is he, anyway?"
"No, that's all. Every connection fails. Nobody knows where he is. He must've been in the castle recently, but he's not there anymore. Otherwise a colleague had let us know ..."
"He can't be serious with that?! Just because some critters are helping out doesn't mean that everything's cool now and he can fuck off! And before that, he just mixed up all the troops so that nobody has a clue with whom he should work with now! ... Perfect!"
"Well, Raul saw fit to adjust every troop because of the strong demon horde ... So everyone stays at his position and in the team which Raul decided last. There must be a reason for all this ..."
"Are you one of those people who still trust him after all what happened? You must've heard over grapevine what he did, right?! I experienced the situation and I can tell you everything more detailed if you like!"
"Calm down and be quiet! We're in an infirmary", Balthimo reminds Tyron.
He groans, but then he nods in understanding.
"I know what happened, but he's still our leader, Tyron ... And we've got other problems right now. We've got to stick together ..."
"... When do all of you finally start to think?" Tyron says in a much softer tone, but no less forceful.
"Tyron ..."
Balthimo wants to place his hands onto his colleague's shoulders but Tyron refuses, slapping his hands away and taking a big step back.
"Do you wanna tell me that it had been okay to kill a colleague just because of the current situation? Moreover, our real leader? We're a team and we hafta stick together, yes, but what Raul's doin' is the exact opposite!"
"No one endorses what happened. Me neither. But on the other hand, I can understand Raul. He wasn't specifically interested in killing Nero, but the demon inside him. In the end, Raul's the current head of Golden Fortuna. We finally know why Nero had withdrawn - unfortunately. Raul's first priority is the population's safety. None of us have ever experienced demon possession stuff like this."
"Then I think it's best if you call a priest! He's brainwashed ya all! Don't you understand, Balthimo? We're supposed to believe that it had been the only way to kill the demon inside of Nero at that time. He wants Nero to disappear from scene to take full control of this joint. That has nothing to do with saving the crowd like 'What does it matter if I take one life to save that of all the others'. Even if, explain that to Kyrie!"
"Kyrie needs to rest. It's good that she hasn't heard of it yet, and it should stay like this. Where do you get those allegations from? What makes you think like that? Why do you think so badly of Raul?"
"C'mon! Ain't that obvious?! But as brainwashed as you are I do understand that you can't notice!"
"I wonder who of us actually got brainwashed. I better go and make myself useful before this escalates ..."
"That's a brilliant idea!"
Balthimo was about to turn around when he looks back briefly.
"Oh, by the way. When you were with Kyrie, Ion came limping by. He wanted to apologize for what happened the other day. Maybe you pay him a visit sometime. He's also here in the infirmary. His ribs and his right leg are broken. I guess he didn't get off as easy as you did ..."
With this, the colossal man moves away and walks through the empty corridor of the infirmary to leave it thereafter.
"Pshaw!" Is the only thing Tyron can utter. He turns his body and notices the questioning and confused looks of the demon huntresses. "Sorry for that, ladies ..."
"We better clear off, too ..." Lady replies.
"Yep", Trish agrees.
"But you ain't disturbing! ... I mean, it wouldn't be a problem for us if you both stayed here ..."
"No, it's alright ..." Lady says and passes Tyron.
"You hold the fort here in case anything happens? ... Because of Kyrie?"
"Yeah ... Sure ... I'll take care of her", Tyron nods.
Nervousness seems to be building up inside him.
"Cool", Trish says casually and, according to her verbal expression, walks past Tyron with a slight grin on her face.
"Cool ..." Tyron murmurs and positions himself in front of Kyrie's - temporary - sick chamber.
A somber place, covered by a grey haze. Nothing new for Dante since this is not the only place in the demon world that seems to be soaked in sadness and depression. The only color that is so intense and that gains in luminosity from the grey surroundings is given off by the red-hot lava which, like a sea, flows to both sides. One could even suspect that the lava comes from the volcano in the Slave Garden, as that can be seen far away.
In the foreground but still several meters of Dante away, there is a black gigantic castle with a large tower on each side. Its walls are rather smooth and there are no adornments. In the end, that castle was not built for fairy tales or any other fantasy stuff as this is the home of all evil.
Who knows, however, how many castles Mundus does inhabit and how multifaceted the demon world must be since Dante entered another castle that was connected to the demon world through Mallet Island to confront Mundus many years ago.
A connoisseur of the various architectural styles would describe this castle as built in the Romanesque style, although the castle must have existed since the beginning of life.
A mountain path leads to the building, which Dante is already walking along. It is particularly narrow so that Dante must be extremely careful not to slip. After all, if he was to fall down, he would melt with the glowing mass.
The path before him splits abruptly into several pieces. Dante's quick reactions, however, allow him to become immediately aware of the change and maintain his hasty pace of movement by jumping from chunk to chunk. The closer he gets to the castle, the more treacherous the obstacles become as the floating rocks begin to move back and forth. However, Dante is well versed in that as well, and with a final long jump, he finally manages to land close to the huge gate of the dark castle.
Standing in front of the colossal iron gate, the entire castle seems to him as if the demon world consisted only of this building and thus created a world of its own within the underworld.
He does not even have to touch the gate to make it open inwards. This happens completely automatically, as if he was already expected.
Although the halls, that Dante enters one after the other, leave more than enough empty space for him, each of them have an oppressive atmosphere. The further he makes his way through the castle, the more he has the impression that the building is a spacious labyrinth. One room leads to the next, all of them presenting nothing more than arches and columns, and, of course, a lot of space. Space which Mundus would fill only with his existence and thus could barely move through the castle if he mused about going for a walk.
The only thing that takes a bit of Dante's freedom of movement are the demons that get in his way about every thirtieth yard he has run, and where he now has to slaughter his way through again. That does not bother him, however. After all, he had been in more unfavorable situations in the past, and also in terms of patience, he had challenging trainings, lastly that one on the beach of Fortuna because of the enormous group of demons that stormed through the open hell gate.
With time, however, this castle also runs out of rooms and Dante reaches a corridor that leads him up circularly. Here, too, various demon attacks set in which Dante can overcome in order to afterwards follow another passage on which long end opens up an unfavorable image for him.
He passes the last yards and finally reaches the huge semicircular hall, which turns out to be the place for an encounter with several characters known to him.
Most of the hall is filled by the stony version of Mundus with a ripped, heartless chest area. He is kneeling down. Behind him and on a lofty gallery, it is him standing there, grinning joyfully because of Dante's arrival.
"Vergil ..."
"Welcome to my party! I'm glad you're here! We were all waiting just for you! This time, everything's even prepared! Not like the years before! Look what great guests we have! Our good friend here, Mundus, has taken extra time for us! Hera and Nero have also joined the party! Well, at least they're present physically ...!"
On the wall above and a bit further away from Vergil, Hera is hanging in a position as if she were nailed to a cross. She does not have any body tension and her head is tilted down.
Vergil points with his head down to the left to draw attention to Nero lying on the ground next to the gallery. The Devil Bringer seems to be without energy, as well as its bearer.
"I was about to kill him! All honorable in a sword fight of course! It's just quite inconvenient if you can't control the demon powers that you have only available on loan ...! Then all of a sudden, Hera showed up like someone who wanted to run amok! She was seriously planning to seal my soul in her blade after my physical death! ... So that I wouldn't be able to cause any more trouble ...!" This gives Vergil a short moment of amusement. "As if she could ever defeat me ...!"
So this is what Hera meant by her 'plan b'.
"You had given her a lot of false self-awareness with your false claims about her life task and all that other Blood Angel stuff! But we both know that nothing remarkable will happen with her in the end!"
"Oh, you seem to be very good informed!"
"At least I am better than before! The demon world really does have some helpful informants ...! I wouldn't have thought so back then! Just like I once thought that you had always been the honest one of us who didn't need to tell any tales!"
Vergil keeps his grin up all the time. It widens even further after what Dante said.
"You were with Futuras! Excellent! Then you're finally up to date after all these years as well! Without me, you had probably never known all this! You're welcome!" He supports himself on his sword, which he keeps in its scabbard, and continues speaking: "But now tell me, Dante! Are you as excited as I am because of our reunion?!"
"I'm absolutely bubbling over with joy! But you really didn't have to trouble yourself on my account ...! A reunion in private had been totally enough for me!"
"Nah! Only the best for you! Or have you already passed the party age?! You look old ...!"
"But you look even fresher with your baby face! Seems like the little break did you a lot of good ...!"
Even from such a distance, Dante can recognize Vergil's smooth and youthful facial features thanks to his supernaturally sharp vision. It is as if his twin brother, who is now easier to distinguish from him because of the visible difference in age, had never fallen victim to Mundus and had entered a time machine and travelled here immediately after the event with Arkham in his young adulthood.
"So it's time to get back on track! ... What's actually up with you, Mundus?! I've never seen you this dumb! Don't you wanna say hello to our special guest?!"
The former ruler of the underworld is merely snarling with discontent.
Vergil just wants to pull his katana out of its scabbard when Mundus gradually rises, his skull almost touching the ceiling which is about 110 yards high.
Satisfied, the new king of the underworld lowers his weapon. Mundus apparently now wants to obey.
"I've been saving him just for you! But he shouldn't be a problem for you! After all, you already defeated Mundus once, and now he lacks the powers of a ruler! So you can do it a second time, which will be also the last ...!"
Mundus spreads out his arms and suddenly the room gets filled with white, bright light. As the light fades to change to a darker color contrast, everything around Dante and Mundus has disappeared; even those persons who were present a moment ago.
For Dante, the environment appears as if he was drawn into the depths of the universe - with corresponding darkness and an infinite number of stars, planets, moons, asteroids and meteoroids. It is that environment which revealed in his first battle against Mundus.
Dante is standing on one of the countless planets. Mundus is far away from him, just like then. His gaze is focused on Dante.
"I'm tired of seeing your damn mugs! Far too long now I have to deal with you pests! This time it was carried to extremes! He took my throne! Now I'm under his control! What a disgrace! But I will get my throne back! I will make you all suffer for this! I am the only true ruler of the underworld! Me and no one else!" Mundus roars. "He's already expecting that you're going to prevail over me! He can't wait for your fight! He has that much brotherly love left for you! But what am I seeing?! Daddy can't protect you this time! Vergil has his sword, and with it, his power! Poor Dante is all alone now ...!"
"Don't worry about me! I'm a big boy and I can take care of myself! But I understand, you just want to distract from your fear! You're scared shitless of turnin' into nothin' more than a sole two thousand year old memory after goin' west! 'Cuz in the end, you wouldn't die as Mundus, the demon king, but as Vergil's minion!"
"I will shut up your sordid mouth!"
Mundus immediately shoots several glaring balls of energy in Dante's direction and also lets lightning bolts appear above Dante. Agile as Dante is, he can escape these attacks. Some attacks are even intercepted by the components of the universe and forwarded accordingly, until the energy streams and lightning disappear into nothingness. Also, some moons, stars, and planets have shifted which Dante can now use to approach Mundus.
Indeed, the situation was easier for him back then. If only from the point of view that he could reduce the distance between Mundus and him by using Sparda's demon form which allowed him to fly. Now he has to cover the distance on foot.
He jumps from star to star, from moon to moon, from planet to planet, and from asteroid to asteroid, so as not to be swallowed by the black nothing of the universe and hit by Mundus' distance attacks. That this cannot be the real universe is made clear by the size of the individual components of the cosmos. Those planets, stars, etc. are much too small and much too close together to allow a journey through space of several light years. However, the feeling that approaching Mundus would take light years, remains for Dante.
Every now and then he makes use of his Devil Trigger to shorten the galaxy hopping as much as possible. Basically, he wants to save his energy for the actual fight, so that he does not stay in his stronger form for too long.
Abruptly, his cudgel, which he had won through Abylum, comes to his mind. There is no better opportunity than this to finally test the weapon. While running and jumping, he strikes out with it. He can easily beat away the asteroids that are in his way as well as the lightning and energy balls created by Mundus. In the moment when he wonders what else the weapon is capable of, the thick, bulging layer of the weapon loosens and lets four long tentacles emerge which Dante can steer and whip in any direction at will. This reflects the special attack of Abylum, who was able to steal or deprive abilities with his tentacles, but Dante is skeptical if he could do the same with this weapon. After all, the function of the tentacle allows him to stop Mundus' attacks even better, and he now has a considerable advantage in terms of movement. Due to the long range of the tentacles and the suction cups attached to them, the tentacles adhere to the respective components of the universe, and so he can move planets and co. accordingly, and completely adjust his path towards Mundus.
To Dante's surprise, Mundus pulls the sun towards himself by means of a suction out of sheer destructive fury, grabs it with both hands despite its burning heat, brings it behind his head and lets the bright yellow star rush in Dante's direction with great momentum. The demon hunter makes an unwanted and reflex-like movement with his arm, in whose hand he holds the cudgel, and already, by mistake, four tentacles shoot towards the sun and adhere on it. Dante has no more time to think about combat tactics, so he lets his instinct guide him which ultimately leads him to hold the cudgel's stick with both hands and to pull the weapon far back to his right side as if he were powerfully swinging his bat in baseball. The glowing sun moves with him and the tentacles pull the star past Dante on the side. The only thing that bothers him is the burning heat as he pushes the cudgel forwards with momentum to make the tentacles let go of the sun and send it straight back to Mundus.
A white light shines on Mundus' forehead and when a bright beam is shot out, the sun shatters into a thousand glowing pieces that fly through the entire universe. Dante fends off the burning chunks with his tentacles, or even with a simple blow of his cudgel.
Dante then uses his weapon to once again smooth his way towards his opponent which has been disrupted by Mundus' attack with the sun. Having covered the last bit of distance and dodged further energy balls and lightning, Dante finally enters an area of the universe that could represent the Milky Way in whose middle Mundus can be found. The Milky Way as a round disk seems to give Dante foothold, so that he no longer has to play the game with the planets to not to fall into nothingness.
Here, too, Mundus lets obstacles arise to keep Dante away from him. Be it balls of energy which, on the one hand, appear randomly on the Milky Way - in Mundus' hope that Dante will step into them - and, on the other hand, are built up as a protective barrier, so that Dante has to destroy them with blows if he wants to continue to approach Mundus, or lightning attacks; Dante is in any case well occupied. Especially the attacks in which Mundus discharges electrical power on Dante are particularly annoying this time, because the lightning take different forms. He has to avoid them like on an obstacle course. On top of that, Mundus uses fisticuffs. Though these vigorous hits, the Milky Way remains stable. Then he lets his red laser power, which previously appeared in the form of three red dots, always represented as a triangle, take effect.
Because of the many obstructions, Dante has chosen Rebellion as his primary weapon. This destroys the barriers in an instant, and so he is able to damage Mundus' body, although he is not allowed to let his wave of attacks last long as the former demon king drives him back with fisticuffs, only to create another protective barrier. When Dante breaks Mundus' barricade once more, he finds use for the cudgel again. To prevent Mundus from using his fists, the devil hunter lets the tentacles of the cudgel shoot in the direction of Mundus' hands. These get fixed on the ground, and as Dante pulls the cudgel back, Mundus' upper body comes closer to him. Holding the cudgel in his left hand, he brings out Rebellion again with his right, jumps into the air, activates his devil mode, and hits the head of the colossal demon several times.
Mundus has to deal with a lot of harm, but he finally puts an end to these wave of attacks when he can free his hands from the tentacles' fetters with his laser beams and flail around wildly with his fists and energy balls. Thanks to his still active Devil Trigger the Son of Sparda manages to flash through the air several times in different directions and thus escape the attacks. As long as he can use the power of his higher form, he tries to fix Mundus' body once more with the tentacles of his cudgel or even to do a different attack, which the weapon might offer aside of all the assaults he used so far, but Mundus interrupts all plans of the devil hunter.
He snatches Dante and lets him thunder against the ground of the Milky Way. This makes Dante's devilish mode dissolve, and he loses his weapons. Both Rebellion and his cudgel fly through empty space, only to finally float, without any gravity, through the universe and near the Milky Way. Mundus then pulls his head back a little bit. His forehead glows white and from that energy, a glaring ray of light shoots at Dante. He can only just roll aside, but because of the immense strength of this attack, the round platform of the Milky Way turns, so that it now is upside down. The demon hunter does not find foothold and so he falls down, deeper into the black nothing as the force of weightlessness sets in, preventing him from falling down even further. Without any control, he now floats around. There is nothing to push himself off and to get back to the area of the Milky Way in doing so where the law of gravity seems to apply.
Mundus laughs and flaps his wings joyfully. He seems to enjoy the sight of a helpless Dante. Due to the gust of wind that Mundus causes with his fluttering wings, Dante is pushed further and further away from the area of the Milky Way. So his weapons also move with him. Practically, the cudgel drifts right in Dante's vicinity, as if a higher power wanted to help him out with this weapon. He flips over as best as he can to bring his upper body even closer to the weapon, and stretches his right hand far towards the cudgel. Finally, he can grab it. Rebellion floats through space not far away from him and so he takes a big swing with his cudgel and lets the tentacles extend, with that bringing his favorite weapon back to him. He puts his broadsword away and takes another big swing with his cudgel. The tentacles shoot towards the Milky Way, stick to the round platform, and so Dante can quickly return to this area.
As he touches the platform of the Milky Way with his boots, Mundus' laughter reduces. The giant demon pulls his head back again. He seems to have planned another round with a weightless Dante, but the moment Mundus' forehead lights up, Dante switches from his cudgel to Rebellion without wasting any time for thinking, uses the remaining energy of his devil mode, and throws his sword with full force in the direction of Mundus' forehead. The sword's trajectory draws a red, glowing ray, resulting from Dante's devilish power. The sword gets further propelled by the bullets of his pistols which he releases to increase the speed and thrust of his broadsword. The bright light on Mundus' forehead increases, and the point of the sword stabs in right there.
A cry, echoing through the entire universe, is elicited by Mundus. The red and white light have merged and shattered Mundus' forehead. The giant seem to be trying to balance his weight, but his body tilts forward far too much, so that his hands land massively on the platform of the Milky Way. Dante, who now presents himself in his human form again, does not have to move an inch, because Mundus' body stops sinking down. The former demon king's head hangs just above Dante. What an advantageous position.
Because of Mundus' partially broken head, Dante can locate his sword which sticks in the back area of the skull.
Dante jumps onto it and extracts his sword to immediately making further sword blows. The skull of the former demon king gets more and more destroyed, so that gradually Mundus' true core, consisting of lumpy magma, crystallizes.
"There you are, Mr. Ugly! Looking okay on the outside, but shitty on the inside!" Dante teases.
One of the three eyeballs that are probably responsible for Mundus' most dangerous attacks behind the scenes, such as the red laser beams and the devastating white ray, stares at Dante.
"It's not over yet! Keep talking big as long as you can! When I'm through with you, no one will recognize you as Dante, because your rotten remains will be scattered all over my kingdom!"
"Hah! I let you stay in your fantasy world! Taking that from you as a goner would really be too much!"
"DIIIIIIEEEEE!"
The magma in Mundus' stony body begins to overflow and swell out of it. Dante is forced to desist from Mundus' skull. The red-hot mass flows over the stony body. Despite the incredible heat, Mundus' outer form does not dissolve; it is only steaming. The mass flows down to the Milky Way, and then gushes into the universe like a waterfall - a lava fall, so to say.
From a distance and standing behind Mundus, Dante has already started concentrated firepower with his twin pistols. Finally, he feels the temperature rising beneath his feet. He rolls to the side and from the platform of the Milky Way, a huge and wide jet of lava is shooting out. Its force lasts for quite a while when it suddenly rushes back down; as if the nothingness had first welcomed the lava but then repelled it after a short time so that it came shooting through the Milky Way platform.
After his short evasive maneuver, Dante has resumed the distance attack. Now, however, he has to give way again for another lava flow. Apprehending that this state of fight is going to continue, Dante jumps into the air and hits Mundus with his broadsword, damaging his stony back and also his glowing true core as the hard outer form begins to crumble more and more due to Dante's attacks. Eventually, Dante notices that the magma from the lava fall on the Milky Way platform is expanding. In addition to the lava jets that is suddenly shooting out from the ground, Dante gets thus also considerably restricted in his space on the Milky Way by the spreading lava. The embers is spreading further and further, and this is the moment for Dante where time play begins. He cannot keep himself in the air forever despite his highly developed dexterity - and Mundus' lava-covered body is no longer a good choice for a short stopover.
"I see! You wanna light fire under my ass! Well, I don't mind speed! Then I'll be done with you sooner!" Dante shouts to Mundus, jumps back to one little free area of the Milky Way for a split second of pause, only to return immediately to the air and attack him.
He repeats that several times, and when the Milky Way is finally completely engulfed by lava, he activates his devil mode, which has since recharged, and uses its power to stay in the air for a longer time. Mundus' back side has been so badly affected in the meantime that it no longer exists, except for the back part of his legs, so that Mundus' magma core spreads on the Milky Way even more. In this manner, however, the real Mundus - or the red lump to express it differently - suffers damage all the more. To make everything even worse for Mundus, Dante manages to switch sides as he pushes himself through the air and close to the demon's eye balls.
The three eyes of Mundus' true form squint in different directions, although they still get attacked by Dante. The right eye looks to the right, the left eye to the left and the upper one in the middle looks ahead where Dante is. The lava on the Milky Way begins to bubble and splash more and more as it finally begins to rise as a unified mass; like a wave trying to crash onto Dante. The demon hunter does not stop swinging Rebellion around at rapid speed and as massive as he can. Eventually, the eyes lose their power of resistance and weaken, so that Dante succeeds in stabbing Rebellion into every pupil of the three eyes, which lastly destroys them.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" Mundus yells with a distorted voice.
Dante scurries upwards, risking to lose his body control outside the Milky Way region due to weightlessness, and the lava wave breaks. The lava spills over Mundus' remaining stony body, leaving a lake of lava in the universe together with Mundus' red core, and also silence.
Dante's vision gets distorted and the dark universe dissolves into brightness, so that he eventually finds himself back in the Castle of the Master, with Vergil but without Mundus.