Chapter Thirty One: Hypothesis

Note: Thanks for all the positivity and kindness, everyone! I don't know if I ever say how much that means to me, but even the smallest acts go a long way towards making my day better! Never stop bring the legends you are :D

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The atmosphere between them grew tense as a hesitant silence settled over the small room, drawing everyone present into the conversation. Without a single word spoken as to the circumstances that had led to this moment, everyone knew that whatever was about to be spoken into existence wasn't positive, and neither was the outcome, more than likely. The botanist spared a worried glance over at V, inching towards him slightly in an effort to lend some level of support to him. She somehow knew that this was about him, and the idea that something else could be plaguing him deeply wounded her. Why did the universe seem to have it out for him? He was such a lovely person!

Vergil gave his younger twin a curious look, his brow furrowing slightly as he folded his arms across his chest. He spared a glance over at V as if asking if it was about him, earning him a subtle but confirming nod from his younger brother. While he was admittedly not too keen on the fact that Trish was present once again, he was willing to force himself to tolerate her, at least for a few minutes. It was beyond him how his twin managed to have such a healthy relationship with her. But then again, they hadn't had the kind of interactions that he and her had had on Malet island. Or he was willing to guess that, at least.

"... This is about me, isn't it?" V said quietly. He was still reclined against the wall, tired and somewhat taken aback as to how quickly things had gone downhill since he'd woken up. He just couldn't catch a break, could he? Was it too late to go back to sleep and just pretend he didn't hear anything going on around him?

Sparing his son something akin to an understanding look, Vergil turned his attention back to Dante. At least somewhat. Visually, he was keeping a close eye on V, somewhat curious as to how he'd come to that conclusion so quickly." What is this about?"

Working off of the assumption that Vergil was talking to him and not to V, Dante stepped forward slightly. This was one of those situations that required him to simply spit it out and explain later, lest he run the risk of his older twin possibly not taking him as seriously as the situation at hand demanded. "Trish has a hunch I think you should listen to. It's about the cult and why they might want V."

Although the concept of having to talk to the blond devil that so closely resembled his tragically deceased mother made him physically ill and undeniably furious all at once, Vergil hesitantly nodded. It was best to simply get this over with and here what she had to say. Then he could go back to more pressing matters like trying to forget that she was around and how uncomfortable that constantly made him. "What is it then?"

Shaking her head slightly with an inaudible sigh, Trish stepped forward slightly. She knew from the get-go that this wasn't going to be easy, and was more than certain that Vergil was only tolerating the concept of this conversation for the sake of his son, especially considering their past with one another, but a part of her was actually somewhat relieved that he was willing to do that much. There's had been a checkered past filled with unspeakable trauma and torment, most of which had been at the hands of her former master. And while she knew that and she was somewhat certain that he understood that as well, it didn't make anything about the situation at hand any less uncomfortable and unfortunate.

"It occurred to me that Dante said that the inhabitants of Vie De Marli, these guardians that Dante told me the Arcana belonged to… your father helped create it and together they sealed away a powerful demon." Trish paused for a moment to confirm that Vergil was actually still listening to her before continuing, still hesitant but aware of the fact that she needed to say what was on her mind regardless." I think that this cult might be after V because he is a descendant of Sparda. They might be trying to create a new Hellgate. Why try to break the seals your father put in place when you can just start from scratch?
For a moment, Vergil fell silent, considering the possible negative ramifications of such an action. While he was unsure as to if that was possible, it seemed plausible considering their previous actions. But that raised so many questions. To what end would they be opening this gate? What had drawn them out of hiding in the first place? And most importantly, why had they picked V? What made him such an alluring prize? Something about this entire situation seemed personal on Belial's behalf, and the Darkslayer couldn't place what it was. Regardless, he wasn't going to let that happen. Not for the sake of the human world. That was the least of his concerns. No. He needed to protect his sons. He was now strong enough to do so, and he wasn't going to let anything stand between him and his own children ever again.

With an annoyed sigh, Vergil ran his hands down his face, totally unsure as to how all of this happened and why. There was simply nothing to be done about it, was there? "... And how do you suppose we should amend this situation? Visiting this secret order of yours seems like it might be a good place to start."

Both Dante and Trish nodded in agreement. Yes, visiting the isle of the guardians did seem like a somewhat sensible idea despite the vast distance between them and the amount of time that had passed since Dante had paid the place a visit. The only issue at hand was the total lack of usable information at hand, and the fact that V was in no condition to travel. Oh, that was two things. V seemed to key into this, seemingly thinking quietly as Magnolia sat down next to him, seemingly pondering her merits of dragging him back out into the elements so soon.

"The cult has been destroyed, has it not? It should take a considerable amount of time for Belial to regain a foothold in the human realm, especially one with the kind of numbers he previously possessed." She gave V's forearm a gentle squeeze as if to reassure him, smiling softly when he glanced over at him."... I think for the moment you should all look into things and all this one to rest and fully recover. I don't think he will ever fully regain his strength if he continues to show up at my door in the state that he was in a few days ago. Keep your feelers out, but don't overdo it?"

To say that Vergil was uncomfortable with all of his options would be an understatement. In all honesty, he felt the need to do both of those things, but he didn't know how to compartmentalize them. For the moment, he would take her advice and turn his attention to other matters. Investigating things on his own might not be a bad idea, at least until V was capable of making the trek to… wherever this place was. "We came down here for something, Magnolia. What was it"

She looked at him strangely for a moment before a look of realization crossed her face. How could she forget so quickly? Perhaps her concern that they would ask V to leave before he was ready to in an understandable attempt to seek out answers had distracted her. For a moment, she had to remind herself that everyone in the room was an adult and as such, was capable of making their own decisions. Even if she didn't like the decisions they could make, she was willing to accept them.

"Ah yes… I was going to show you this." She said as she stood up and walked over to the bedside table on the opposite side of the bed. She opened the door and produced a familiar black book, drawing V's attention as he blinked away to confusion that he felt upon seeing it once again. He'd forgotten that he even grabbed that. Everything from the moment he'd triggered to waking up in the bed that he now found himself in seemed like a surreal fever dream from his current viewpoint. Although he wasn't in any sort of pain, he was somewhat sore and extremely tired, despite his several day long slumber. It was a feeling that he was starting to become accustomed to, and he hated that.

"I forgot about that book… The cultist I fought, Agreus. He dropped that sometime before falling into the conduit." V paused for a moment to catch his breath, suddenly feeling somewhat weaker than he had previously." He was reading some sort of incantation out of it in between the stabbings he inflicted upon me. I didn't understand enough of it to relay anything beneficial."

The twins glanced between one another momentarily, contemplating the implications of what V had just said. The fact that he might be able to understand even a little bit of what was being said by those deranged idiots was fascinating to them, and they couldn't help but wonder how that was possible. Had V taken up dead languages in school or something? Hell, had he even been to school? It was impossible to tell for sure, but they were willing to bet on that possibility, especially considering his linguistic capabilities. You couldn't pick up old English without being able to read first

Could you?

"It actually might be a good thing that you found that, V. I'll see if I can read any of it." Trish said with a nod as she glanced over at Magnolia, waiting for her to hand her the book. She was surprised when the botanist shook her head, recoiling her hand with a disturbed look on her face.

"Sorry, dear. I wish I could, but this book is… challenging to read to say the least. It seems to have some sort of hex on it that keeps it from being read by an inexperienced reader. Simply mispronouncing something by accident could have nasty consequences." Magnolia placed the book down on the bedside table, stepping away from it as if it contained a strain of some sort of infectious, flesh eating disease." I'm working on a solution, however. Give me some time. I'd hate to see you hurt, or worse. You seem like a nice girl."

Trish had to actually remind herself that Magnolia was probably older than her for a moment, simply folding her arms around her waist loosely and nodding in agreement. The blond devil had seen such cursed books before in her line of work, and she'd seen what happened when amateurs ventured beyond their realm of expertise. Sometimes the best way to seal your own doom was to meddle with magical artifacts that you had no business going anywhere in the vicinity of in the first place, and a cursed book that had been in the possession of a powerful cultist who had served a one of the most volatile demon princes certainly qualified as far as she was concerned. All she could do was hope that Magnolia's lead panned out and go from there, but she wasn't used to feeling so utterly useless. While it was true that she might have cracked the code in regards to the cult, that didn't change the fact that she still felt the need to do something more substantial. It wasn't in her nature to simply sit and wait for others to do things that she could do herself, but the problem was that she had no idea where to start.

"If we cannot read the book, and V cannot travel, then what do you propose we do in the meantime?" Vergil said, somewhat miffed but concealing it relatively well. He didn't like all this sitting around and doing nothing while their enemies gained power and numbers, possibly preparing themselves for a retaliatory attack. But if they couldn't leave town, and they couldn't read the book, Vergil would have to find something to do with his time to keep himself from falling back on his old, self destructive habits.

Magnolia shrugged her head ambiguous. "I wish I possessed a satisfactory answer to that question, Vergil. For now, all I can tell you is that you should probably keep an eye on that conduit, and that V need to take the proper time to rest and recover from his injuries. I don't think I need to explain that it can talk quite a long time to recover from these sorts of wounds, even after they have healed, and adjusting to new abilities is much the same as that. Pushing him too far will only make things worse in the long run."

Dante nodded and turned towards the door, intent on leaving the room to go and do other things. If that was all that could be done for the moment, then he would have to work with it. He'd done more with less in the past. All he could hope for was the best while preparing for the worst. It was the same as it had always been, just with a different threat that he knew considerably less about. Perhaps the best course of action was to study their enemy and learn everything they could in the interim. "Seems about right. I'm going to head back to the office. Morrison should be around sometime soon with another job for me to do that won't make me any money."

Vergil spared his twin brother a glance, half agreeing and half wondering how he could possibly be doing work for this middleman and not be making anything. Was he withholding payment? Did he owe him in some way. He had been wanting to look into Dante's financial reports for some time now. One could only hope they were not anything like the state of his kitchen utensils, because if they were, he'd have his work cut out for him. How his brother had survived this long without him around to micromanage things was beyond him and, frankly, he found himself morbidly impressed when it came to this aspect of his twin brother's fortitude. He'd killed countless demon cockroaches that were less resilient than Dante, and none of them had managed to dig themselves as far into a hole as his hapless younger twin had. It was astounding to say the least how different they were from one another in that regard.

"Since he is awake, I will accompany you. I shall return later." Vergil said as he turned towards his oldest son, giving him a calm look as if to run this decision by him. He wasn't looking for approval, but he was expecting recognition in regards to his spoken statement. V nodded slightly, sitting up to watch the trio leave the room. Dante waived over his shoulder as Trish said her goodbyes, dashing out of the room behind them.

As soon as they left, Magnolia let out a pained sigh, turning her attention back towards V. He slumped over slightly, debating the merits of simply going back to bed for the time being. There was a certain level of discomfort that he operated at at all times, but this surpassed that threshold by a staggering degree. It was as if something had sucked all the energy out of his body and replaced blood with molasses. He simply felt… dreary and slow, as if he were encompassed in a fog that he couldn't cut through. But he was sure that with time he would overcome it like he always did. Simply laying down and accepting his fate wasn't something he was accustomed to, and he had no plans of doing so anytime soon.

"How are you fairing, love? You seem tired. Incredible considering how long you've been asleep." Magnolia said with a soft smile. Seeing him awake put her heart at ease. It was her sincere hope to never see him hurt in the way that he had been when he'd arrived at her door a few nights prior. She'd left her clan years ago to avoid the type of senseless bloodshed she's witnessed that day. To see someone so young with such talent and potential mortally wounded with nowhere else to turn for help… it made her fearful for the day that she knew she would no longer be able to assist her companions and sad for anyone else in his situation with no one like her in their lives. It was a harsh world that they lived in, and it was her life's work to try and nullify that suffering, even if only by a small margin. She'd grown quite fond of both Nero and V, so keeping an eye on them both seemed like a good idea. After all, their father was nothing but trouble.

To be fair, that was part of why she was friends with Vergil in the first place… but still.

V stretched his back slightly, moaning in a mixture of discomfort and relief as his back popped, relieving the pressure that he felt in his body. It was pleasant in the same way that scratching a bruise might be, but only for a moment. "I'll survive, I suppose. Thank you for asking. I appreciate your compassion."

She smiled brightly, resisting the urge to fluff his hair like an especially naughty puppy. Magnolia sometimes had to remind herself that he didn't enjoy being touched by other people. If only she'd been around when he was a child to show him the care and attention he clearly lacked. She knew what a survivor of a miserable childhood looked like, and she didn't need to hear more about what he'd been through to read the signs. Part of her loathed the fact that she couldn't do more to help him in that regard. The past could be an especially painful place. "I think I might head into the kitchen and bake something. Care for some tea?"

A pleasantly surprised look passed over the young summoner's face as he nodded in agreement, turning towards the edge of the bed. "Better yet, I think I shall join you. My only other option is to sit here and go back to sleep, and I'm quite sure I've done enough of that, at least for the next few hours."

There was a part of her that wanted to protest him standing up, but she knew that he needed to. There was no use in him laying there and locking up when he could be helping her out. Yes, she would help him by allowing him to help her and she would keep an eye on him while doing so. And in return, she would get to see if he was any good at baking. The afternoon was looking more interesting after all!

"Very well then, love. Follow me. And try not to lose your footing on the way. I can't imagine that sleeping for nearly three days has improved your center of balance."

He stopped dead in his tracks and balanced.

Three days?

For heaven's sake…

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I have two things to say. One, this is the first chapter I've written on my new PC! I think I'm in love with this mechanical keyboard! I've never used one before, but omg, the sound is satisfying! Oh, and two. I just realized that V has yet to copiously quote William Blake. I need to get on that. Maybe he just hasn't been in the right headspace! I have some fun stuff planned for the next chapter. Sorry if this one was slow. Writing the dialogue chapters is super fun for me! See you all on Wednesday!