While Nero had been preoccupied with Lauda's reserve force, Vergil had made a considerable dent in the larger pool of enemies in the orphanage courtyard; there were no more than ten Alto Angelos remaining now. Overhead, Lauda remained shielded and kept his distance, apparently having recognized the serious threat that Vergil posed. Dante was stationed off to one side, sniping gaps in the Angelos' armor with Blue Rose. At least he was following Nero's orders to stay out of direct physical combat, though Nero wasn't sure how long that would last. He was certain that if there had been a spare sword available, Dante would already be in the thick of it, fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with Vergil.

But that was Nero's place right now. As he charged into the fight to claim it, Vergil saw him coming and knocked an enemy aside to make space for Nero at his back. "Did you enjoy your rest break?"

"I would have, if not for all those armored killjoys that kept interrupting nap time." Nero grinned as he laid into the nearest construct with Red Queen. "How about you, old man? You feeling your age today? I thought you'd have this whole place cleared out by now."

"It seemed selfish to eliminate everything before you returned." Vergil slashed through an Angelo's shield arm and shoved the weakened enemy in Nero's direction. "I didn't want to deprive you of targets."

Nero blasted the now-shieldless Angelo into pieces with the Overture. "Aw, for me? You shouldn't have."

"Having seen how weak the demons that populate this island are, I thought you could use the exercise." Vergil hurled his spectral broadsword into the chest of a nearby Angelo while countering another's attack with the Yamato.

"You're all heart." Nero activated the Overture again and palm-slammed the spectral blade completely through the Angelo's torso and into another enemy behind it. "You gonna save some scraps for Dante, too? He's been begging me to join the fight ever since we got here."

Vergil snorted. "If we actually let him finish something off, you know we'll never hear the end of it."

"Yeah, but that bridge has been on fire ever since I handed him a gun. I suspect he's gonna be impossible to live with after this no matter what."

"You are not mistaken." Vergil recalled his spectral blade and finished another enemy with a flourishing two-sword slash that quartered its body. "Though it's debatable if Dante has ever been possible to live with."

Nero was about to reply when the Angelo he was fighting lurched back abruptly with a bullet-dented helmet. He glanced back to see Dante reloading Blue Rose and scowling in Vergil's direction. "I heard that," Dante called. "See if I help you any more."

"I am perfectly capable of fighting without your assistance," Vergil replied. He glanced up at Lauda, hovering near the orphanage roof, and casually launched a round of spectral blades toward him. They crashed harmlessly into his shield, their energy dispersed in ripples across a plane slightly wider and taller than Lauda himself. "That barrier is a problem," he murmured.

Dante hadn't heard the latter comment, and wasn't finished arguing about the former. "Do you know how many of those things I've hit so far? If I hadn't softened 'em up for you, you wouldn't have been able to kill so many."

With a low growl, Vergil rammed his imitation Force Edge through the neck of the next Angelo that stepped up to face him. The armor collapsed, and he allowed the sword's ice-blue energy to disperse. "Fine," he shot over his shoulder. "If you think killing these creatures is so easily accomplished, I'll let you try. Feel free to 'soften it up' first, if you wish." He sheathed the Yamato and held it out to one side.

"I don't need to," Dante bragged. He tucked Blue Rose into the back of his waistband and hurried forward to take the sword before Vergil could change his mind.

Nero looked back in alarm, but almost instantly had to return his attention to the two constructs that were attempting to stab him. "Uh, Vergil, I don't think that's a good idea…"

"It's fine," Vergil said icily, stepping well back. He shot Dante a look. "It will be a vital learning experience."

Nero was preoccupied with his own fight, but from the corner of his eye he could see the Angelo moving in on Dante, who clutched the still-sheathed Yamato close to his chest, his hunched posture broadcasting uncertainty. Just as Nero blasted one of his opponents away with the Overture, the other struck his outstretched arm, wedging his sword into the Devil Breaker's surface. Nero struggled against it for only a second before phasing his arm to an incorporeal state to free himself, but by the time he turned to intervene, it was too late.

Lauda had seen his opportunity.

Diving with folded wings like some otherworldly raptor, Lauda seized Dante in his arms and held him fast as he banked back up to the height of the roof. He hovered there, maintaining his position with demonic power and occasional flaps of his leathery wings, and released a long, shrill laugh. "Fools!" he crowed. "I knew your arrogance would be your undoing. This child—so precious to you, Nero, I know—shall be the first sacrifice to the new order."

Without a second's hesitation, Nero sprang into the air, kicking off the Angelo's shield for extra height. His spectral arm stretched toward Dante, but Lauda spun and slapped the ethereal hand away with his barbed tail. Nero channeled that force into a spin, concentrated power beneath his feet for a second mid-air leap, and swung Red Queen at Lauda's lower limbs. This time the talon at the end of Lauda's devil leg caught the blade and nearly twisted it out of Nero's grasp. Nero wrenched the sword free, but with his momentum spent, he could only tumble back to earth. He made one final desperate gambit as he fell, hurling Red Queen straight at Lauda's face—but the sword halted abruptly in mid-air as Lauda again raised his arcane shield. Red Queen's ricochet followed the arc of Nero's fall, and he snatched it from the air just after his feet touched the ground.

The few remaining Angelos in the courtyard had stopped moving, but Nero scarcely noticed their sudden immobility. Rage and fear swept through him, tingeing his vision red. "Let him go, Lauda."

"From this height? My, what risks you are willing to take with his safety." Lauda tipped his head lower and purred near Dante's ear, though his words were pitched loud enough to reach the men on the ground. "You see how little they care for you, child? They would rather see you dead than lay down their weapons and submit to their new god. You mean less to them than their own foolish pride. But you are no longer their concern. Rest assured, I will put your life to a more glorious use."

Dante squirmed in Lauda's grip, fingers clutching the Yamato like a lifeline even though his arms were pinned to his sides. "Put me down!" His voice rose high, cracking on the last word. "Put me down right now, or else!"

"Or else what? They'll come to save you? I think not. They cannot so much as touch me." Lauda laughed again, and his gaze returned to the courtyard below. "You've lost, Nero. Whether you surrender or not, as long as I hold this child's life in my hands, victory is mine. You have failed to protect him."

Before Lauda had even finished speaking, Vergil let fly another set of spectral swords. As before, they crashed uselessly into the shield. The ripples of energy distorted Nero's view of Dante's frightened face.

"Do you not see that your continued resistance is meaningless?" Lauda adjusted his hold on Dante, supporting the boy more easily with one arm looped around his waist, and moved the other hand to grip his skull as though he would crush it. "Now, you will both lay down your weapons, or you will watch this boy die here and now!"

Nero had scarcely begun to lower Red Queen when he heard that little scoffing laugh from Vergil. "No."

The flat refusal clearly startled Lauda, who blinked at Vergil several times as though he couldn't believe what he'd heard. "You refuse to surrender?"

"That, too," Vergil said mildly.

Nero stared at his father in disbelief, then looked to Lauda again and performed a few disbelieving blinks of his own.

Dante was grinning.

Lauda had no warning. He couldn't see the boy's face from the angle at which he was holding him, and Dante's arms—now freed from Lauda's pinning hold—were so fast that even Nero could scarcely follow their movement. In a flash Dante drew the Yamato, twirled it in his hand to aim the blade downward, and slammed the sword into Lauda's demon-flesh thigh up to the hilt. Demonic power erupted from the wound, jetting out in clouds of oily black.

Lauda's scream shook the windows of the surrounding buildings. His wings faltered, and after a few unsteady flaps he plummeted toward the ground. Just before he struck the pavement, Dante twisted free and rolled safely to his feet, Yamato in hand.

Vergil wasted no time. He raised his fists and dropped into a boxer's stance, and a set of vicious-looking gauntlets and clawed greaves manifested on his limbs. He drove expertly into the nearest Angelo, chaining punches and kicks with the fluidity of long practice. The construct fell almost before it could raise its shield to defend itself, and Vergil moved onto the two remaining enemies. After several powerful, well-placed punches, he finished with a spinning kick that struck both and shattered their armor into pieces. The entire extermination process had taken no more than a few seconds. "There," Vergil said, falling into an easy stance when the last Angelo had begun flaking to ash. "I believe that concludes the matter."

Dante, looking immensely pleased with himself, sheathed the Yamato and ran over to Vergil. "Jackpot!" he shouted, holding up a hand.

Vergil stared at his brother for several seconds. "No."

"Aw, c'mon." Dante raised his eyebrows, then scowled when Vergil didn't respond. "Come on." His outstretched fingers gave an insistent wiggle.

After another lengthy pause, Vergil capitulated with a sigh. He slapped Dante's palm halfheartedly with his own. "Jackpot," he muttered, scarcely audible.

That seemed to satisfy Dante, whose grin returned. "We did it!" he crowed, turning to Nero. "We won, yeah?"

"Um." Nero was still swinging his gaze between the three other figures in the courtyard, trying to make sense of what had just happened. "Yeah. I, uh, I guess we did." Nero pointed to Lauda, who was crumpled on the ground near the orphanage wall, clutching his leg and wailing. He appeared more pathetic than threatening, now. "You planned that?"

Vergil, looking entirely too cool and collected for someone who had just battled two dozen fierce demonic constructs, canted his head in a near-shrug. "He was too cautious to lower his shield, and any attack capable of breaking through it would have dealt more damage to the building. The obvious solution was to position someone with a Devil Arm behind it."

"I see. And you explained this to Dante… when?"

"There was no need," Vergil replied. "Dante's behavior is eminently predictable."

Dante glared at him. "Liar. I knew what you meant by 'vital.' Besides, you probably got the whole idea from when I faked out that demon armor earlier. I saw you watching."

"I was," Vergil conceded. "But that doesn't make you any less predictable." He reached over and removed the Yamato from Dante's hands. As he touched the sword, the devil power coursing through the seams of his gauntlets shimmered more brightly in response.

After such intense fighting, the moment of relaxed conversation was disorienting. Nero stared at Vergil's gauntlets, mostly to have something concrete to focus on. "So… Uh, those are new."

"Not at all," Vergil replied. "They predate you, in fact."

"Oh. Devil Arms?"

Vergil's lips twitched up at the corners, and he extended one claw-greaved boot. "And legs."

Dante's face twisted, and Nero groaned aloud. "Oh, that was awful. That was, like, Dante levels of awful."

"Hey!" Dante protested. "My jokes aren't that bad." He elbowed Vergil. "Besides, that joke isn't even yours."

Nero snorted. "Let him have it. I don't think anyone else would want to claim it."

Unexpectedly, Dante's expression dimmed a little. "Yeah, it was pretty dumb when Father used to tell it, too."

That statement completely derailed whatever response Nero was about to contribute to the exchange, and his brain stuttered to a halt as he tried to reconcile the grim-faced idol he'd been taught to fear as a child with someone who could deliver the lamest of dad jokes to his young sons. Even though he'd known for years that Sparda had lived quietly among mankind—even though he'd seen the remains of Sparda's residence with his own eyes—he still couldn't picture the great behorned savior of humanity sitting at home with his family, doing ordinary parent things.

Nero was trying to frame this cognitive dissonance in the form of a coherent question when he was distracted again—this time by the sound of his own name, drawn out and rasping. He turned to find that Lauda, who had not stopped gasping and cursing since he'd fallen from the sky, had finally managed to struggle to his knees—or knee, rather, as he only seemed capable of putting weight on one of them. The powerful claw-tipped leg Dante had stabbed with the Yamato had withered to little more than bone, and corrupted flesh sagged unevenly from the rest of his limbs. The wings and tail remained, though they merely dragged behind Lauda's body; he no longer seemed capable of moving them.

"Nero!" Lauda shrieked again, this time with a bit more air behind it. "You will…" He choked and broke off in a rattling wheeze. The remaining tendrils of power-infused flesh crept upward from his throat, clouding his eyes as they progressed toward the top of his skull. "You will pay… for this…" He pitched forward onto his elbows and coughed. Black fluid spattered the ground. "When I regain… my strength…"

As Nero watched, Lauda's drooping wings began to shrivel and retract into his withered body, their glistening power bolstering the luminous reticule of veins that covered Lauda's skin. He twisted and groaned at the detransformation.

Reluctantly, Nero reached for Red Queen. "I guess there's just one last thing left to wrap up." Despite Lauda's offenses, Nero balked at the idea of killing another human—especially a weaker, wounded one—but he couldn't leave Lauda as he was. Arguably, there more demon than human left of his former commanding officer anyway; what remained of his original form seemed to be on the verge of collapse, and he'd probably die even without Nero's interference.

Still, Nero couldn't take the risk of Lauda's demon half surviving. Enemies left alive tended to come back for revenge.

Before Nero could take more than a step forward, Vergil extended an arm to stop him. "I'll do it."

Nero searched his face, but Vergil's expression was inscrutable as ever. "Why?"

Vergil jerked his chin toward the orphanage. A short distance beyond Lauda was the van, in the shelter of which crouched Kyrie, Nico, and Gianna. Lying flat beneath the undercarriage and peeking around a tire was Julio, who had evidently watched the entire encounter. "That child shouldn't see his father kill someone."

Nero turned and stared at Vergil in wonder. He didn't know which was more astonishing: That Vergil had recognized the magnitude of the bond between Nero and Julio, or that he'd stopped to consider the effect Nero's actions might have on a boy who idolized him.

But there was another layer of meaning to unpack, and Nero didn't like the direction that took. "But if you're the one doing the killing, it somehow doesn't matter?"

Vergil looked away. "You're well aware of my history. One death more or less to my account hardly bears mentioning."

"I don't mean me," Nero said quietly. "I'm talking about Julio. Whose life you saved. Who has looked up to you ever since. Who, by your own logic, is basically your grandkid. And who, if you do this, is about to witness you putting a man down." Nero swallowed the boulder in his throat. "Are you planning on cutting out when this is over and never seeing him again? 'Cause I think he'd take that kinda hard."

Vergil's mask cracked just enough to let a glimmer of surprise through, though whether it was the question that had caught him off guard, or the connection Nero had drawn between him and Julio, or something else entirely, Nero wasn't sure. Inexplicably, Vergil glanced back at Dante and huffed a faint laugh.

"What's funny?" Nero demanded.

"Nothing. Just something Dante said to me, once." Vergil shook his head. "In any case, there's a simple solution. Dante."

Dante tried to look as though he hadn't been eavesdropping, but it was clear he hadn't missed a word. "What?"

"Escort the humans to the far side of the building, and keep them there until one of us comes to collect you."

"Oh, is that all?" Dante's face fell. "I thought you were gonna let me finish him off."

Nero rolled his eyes. "Get going." He shooed Dante toward the building and waited until the boy was beyond hearing range before turning back to Vergil. "Thanks, though." Vergil gave him a questioning look, and Nero added, "For offering."

Vergil didn't reply. For the merest instant, his vision went distant, the way it had just before the attack on the house.

Nero had learned to fear that look. "What's—"

Vergil's eyes snapped toward the orphanage, and his hand flew to the Yamato. "It's here!"

Even before he could turn around, Nero heard the first scream. He whirled toward the building, Red Queen in hand, and his blood chilled at the sight: There, beside the van, not ten paces from Julio and the others, loomed the Nilepoch.

Vergil flickered and vanished, and Nero took off at top speed. He had no particular plan; his only thought was to get to the monster and distract it from the nearby humans before it could attack. He slammed his naked right arm into a Devil Breaker without looking, lunged forward, and activated the mechanism. Instantly the arm launched itself forward—it was a Punch Line, he realized belatedly—and detonated beside the Nilepoch. The demon roared and lumbered away from the smoking crater left by the missile, which had narrowly missed the van.

Well—not entirely missed, Nero saw when the smoke cleared. One of the van's back doors was now stained black and hanging by a single hinge. He'd be hearing about that for a while.

There was also a lump of flaking ash on the ground nearby, precisely where the duct taped Frost had fallen. Nero swore as he realized he'd just destroyed the Nilepoch's prey, which had likely drawn it here in the first place. Now it would have to find something else to devour before it could move forward in time—and they'd just eliminated all the Angelos and de-powered Lauda, leaving only humans and demihumans on the menu.

Thankfully, Nico kept her wits about her. She lunged up from cover and braced her arms on the van's hood like a firing bench. "Aim for its mouth!" she shouted. "That ball o'light is its weak spot!"

Kyrie took a position beside her, her face blanched but determined. Gianna leaned around the van's bumper, aiming her borrowed .45 with trembling hands. Dante, who had scarcely reached them when the Nilepoch appeared, whipped Blue Rose out of his waistband and took off for a better angle. The four of them fired rounds into the Nilepoch's maw as fast as they could reload, and the demon roared and thrashed under the barrage. A few times it attempted to counterattack with its light beam, but that attack required it to open its mouth wide, rendering it more vulnerable. Each time it tried to charge up an attack, it was forced to recoil and shake its head.

Many of the bullets went wide or plopped harmlessly into the Nilepoch's sticky flesh, but enough struck their target that fine cracks began to appear in the crystalline surface of the power-storing organ in its mouth. Light bled from each of these flaws, and soon tiny fragments began to chip off, making the ground around the Nilepoch's head sparkle as though scattered with iridescent confetti. The demon backed away from the gunfire until it was positioned far enough behind the van that only Dante's wider-angle shots could reach it. Realizing that all the attacks were now coming from a single source, the Nilepoch swiveled its head toward Dante and opened its mouth.

Nero swore. "Kid's gonna get himself killed," he hissed, cramming his arm into the final Devil Breaker on his hip. This one was a Rawhide, and Nero lashed out with the whip attachment to sting the Nilepoch across the back. The cable stuck to the demon's tacky skin, and it took most of Nero's strength to pull it free. Still, the lash had successfully distracted the Nilepoch from Dante long enough for the boy to roll back behind the van with the others.

Nero had lost sight of Vergil when he'd warped out of space earlier, but just as he was preparing to make a frontal charge at the Nilepoch, he was jerked to a halt by a hand on his shoulder. He glanced back to see Vergil holding something long and flat beneath one arm. "Where have you been?" Nero demanded.

"Buying us time, hopefully." Vergil summoned the spectral Force Edge to hand and slammed the blade into the ground just behind Nero. "Whistle."

Nero blinked. "What?"

"Whistle. That loud whistle you use with the children."

Nero didn't understand why, but he put his fingers to his mouth and blew a sharp tone. Instantly, the Nilepoch oriented on the sound and spotted the two of them standing in the open. It opened its mouth, displaying the fractured sphere. "Uh… was part of your plan getting us zapped back to infancy?"

"Not exactly." Vergil finished whatever preparations he was making and gripped Nero's shoulder. "We're going left."

The sphere in the Nilepoch's mouth was gathering light. "When?"

"Now!" Vergil flung them to the side just as the Nilepoch fired its deadly beam. Nero struck the ground hard and rolled. He scrabbled around to look for the Nilepoch, expecting it to be on them again in seconds, but to his surprise the enormous demon just seemed to be staring into space, swaying faintly. As he watched, it staggered away on unsteady limbs, wandering toward the deserted back half of the courtyard.

Beside him, Vergil got to his feet and dusted off his coat. "That worked as well as could be expected. It probably won't last long, but it should be enough time to get the noncombatants clear of the area." He glanced at the empty Devil Breaker rig on Nero's hip. "And you'll likely want to restock your equipment before we engage it."

"How did you…" Nero shook his head. "What did you do?"

"You once mentioned that you stunned it by reflecting its own attack." Vergil pointed to the crumbling remains of the flat thing he'd propped up against the spectral sword. A few shards of silver glass were visible in the debris. "I recalled that there was a full-length mirror on the back of the bathroom door in the van." He offered Nero a hand.

Nero clasped it and was pulled to his feet. "You ripped the whole bathroom door off?"

"It was the only mirror I knew where to find on short notice."

"Well, that's two doors down," Nero sighed as they turned back toward the van. "Nico's gonna kill us both."

Vergil snorted. "She can get in line behind Lauda and the Nilepoch."

"Oh, crap. Lauda." Nero spun to look for him, but the place he'd fallen was empty, save for a few ominous spots of black fluid. "Shit! Where'd he go?"

"He might have crawled away to heal his wounds, as he said he would."

"Do you think he can? He was in terrible shape."

"With the unstable power he absorbed, it's impossible to predict what his body is capable of. He did seem to be able to reconfigure his physical form, which doesn't bode well." Vergil spread his hands. "If he's successful, I suppose we'll find out."

"I don't like 'ifs' where maniacs with delusions of godhood are concerned." Nero shook his head. "Never mind; we can look for him later. Let's get Kyrie and the others out of here first."

"You take care of them. I'll return presently." As he spoke, Vergil slashed the air with the Yamato. The unsettling pull of the underworld tugged faintly at Nero's senses, and four corners formed of the courtyard's atmosphere bent outward to allow Vergil to pass into interstitial space.

Nero didn't bother to ask where he was heading. Vergil was the best strategist of all of them, and he could only assume that he had some plan. He turned and dashed to the van.

Nico had taken advantage of the Nilepoch's temporary disorientation to retrieve two boxes of ammunition from her mobile workshop. While Gianna reloaded the revolvers, Nico hastily crammed nine-millimeter rounds into Kyrie's spare magazine. She scarcely glanced up at Nero as he approached. "If this is gonna be a regular thing, you're gonna need to spring for more'n two mags," she chided. "She should'a had four, at least. With that semi-auto, Kyrie's blowin' through way more ammo than the rest of us."

Kyrie gave a weak laugh. "I don't think anyone plans for this to be a recurring event, Nico."

"You can say that again." Nero crouched to pull Julio out from bbeneath the vehicle. "Is everybody okay?"

Julio nodded as he scrambled to his feet. "We're all fine," Kyrie confirmed.

"Good. All of you get inside before that thing gets back in the fight."

"Uh… how?" Nico jerked a thumb at the orphanage's side door, which had been barricaded from the inside with the storm shutters Nero himself had insisted on installing to help protect the building against potential demon attacks. "We're locked out, an' the front o' the building's caved in."

"Then just… get clear of here, anyway! Go behind a building or something. Just find someplace to hide where that thing can't get to you." Nero cast an anxious glance over his shoulder. Though it was far away, the Nilepoch had stopped staggering and was beginning to look around. It would fully recover in moments. "Hurry. Shoot anything that gets in your way."

"Are you sure you don't want us here to help?" Kyrie asked. "It looked as though we were doing some damage to it. Maybe if we all fight it together—"

Nero laid his hand atop hers on the van's hood. "Kyrie, if that thing gets even one blast off, it could kill all of you in a single hit. You guys did good, and I am damn proud of you for taking it on, but you need to get out of here while you have the chance."

"You don't have to tell me twice." Nico handed Kyrie the refilled magazine and grabbed the boxes of ammunition. "Let's make tracks, and leave the people with actual devil powers to fight the big nasty."

Gianna blinked. "The people with… what?"

From behind, Nero felt the distortion of space as Vergil returned. It was accompanied by the sound of furious squealing, and he turned to see Vergil dragging a small Pyrobat by the tail. It thrashed against his grip and coughed a ball of fire at Vergil's ankle before he planted a boot in its back to keep it still.

Nero stared. "What the hell is that for?"

"Insurance." Vergil frowned at the group by the van. "Weren't you getting them to safety?"

"Working on it."

"We're goin', we're goin." Nico shooed the others toward the front corner of the building. "Hey, Kyrie, let's head over to—shit!"

Nero spun in time to see Kyrie reel backward, shoving Julio behind her, as a figure he scarcely recognized lurched around the corner toward them. "What—Lauda?"

Scarcely any of Lauda's human characteristics remained. His skin was discolored by the veins of demonic energy that had crawled up his face, rendering his exposed flesh in stripes of sickly charcoal and luminous violet. His features, too, were deformed by the creeping malignance, and the demonic tendrils had burst from his scalp and twisted themselves into the shape of horns. His wings were gone, evidently reabsorbed to heal his wounds. The barbed tail had migrated to replace one of his arms. It writhed below his shoulder like a spiny whip.

"I told you, Nero—" Lauda's voice had been distorted into an ugly hiss. "—you will witness my complete victory before you die." He lashed out with superhuman speed and seized Kyrie with his remaining hand. "I will rid this world of every last trace of you and your infernal corruption!"

Nero's hand flew to Red Queen's hilt. "Let her go, Lauda."

Lauda's clawed fingers tightened. "One step, and you'll watch her die."

Kyrie, to her eternal credit, remained calm. "Lieutenant Lauda, I always regarded you as a close friend of the family. I know you held Credo in the highest regard, and he often spoke well of you. So I know that these actions are not your own—you weren't the kind of man who would harm the innocent. I know you must have been affected by the Order's meddling, like Credo and so many others were." She met his gaze, unflinching. "Please let us help you. It's not too late to return to the path of the true sword."

There was a beat of silence before Lauda's blackened lips split in a grimace. "So nearly convincing," he hissed. "Credo's little angel, always pure, always aloof, always correct. And yet in the end, you gave yourself over to sacrilege and depravity. To him." He fixed his eyes on Nero. "That is why I cannot spare you, even for Credo's sake."

Kyrie's face fell. "You don't know how sorry I am to hear that, Lieutenant Lauda. I really didn't want to have to do this."

Lauda looked puzzled for an instant—and then the expression was replaced with one of shock and rage as a gunshot cracked across the courtyard. He flung Kyrie away and staggered back, clutching at the fresh wound near his hip. "Is this the only way you people know how to fight?" he shrieked. A shield shimmered into space before him, though it wavered at the edges like a heat mirage.

Kyrie adjusted her grip on the pistol, looking more sad than afraid. "I'm sorry, Lauda. You left me no choice."

Lauda's eyes burned with an unholy light as he glared at her. "Such… dishonorable tactics…"

"You know, if you didn't go around grabbing people, maybe you wouldn't get sucker-punched so often." Dante twirled Blue Rose suggestively. "Just saying."

Nico didn't bother with subtle threats; she brought her revolver up to point straight at Lauda's chest. "Just to be clear, I ain't like Kyrie. You an' me got no history o' friendship or nothin', so I got no problem at all with shootin' you right where you stand."

"I have history," Gianna said, likewise raising her weapon. "I know what you have done, and I will help them stop you."

Though he'd ignored Nico, Lauda's lip curled at Gianna's speech. "You think you can harm me, worthless wretch? You have neither the strength nor the skill. Without me, you would still be begging in the street."

"Without you, I would have a family." Her knuckles whitened on the revolver's grip. "You took that from me once. I won't let you do it again."

A sudden flare in Nero's peripheral vision announced the Nilepoch's recovery. He whirled to see the fractured sphere in the demon's mouth beginning to gather light. Sparks of stray energy coruscated around the larger cracks. "Shit. Guys, we've got a bigger problem than Lauda. Get behind the van, now!"

The group bolted for cover without another word, Nero at their heels. Behind him, Nero heard Lauda sputter in outrage as his audience abandoned him. "A bigger—? How dare you!"

"I'll handle this." Vergil remained where he was and watched the Nilepoch for a second or two more, twisting his body in preparation. Just as the Nilepoch snapped its jaws wide to attack, Vergil uncoiled with his full strength behind one arm. The Pyrobat went flying, trailing flame and a receding shriek as it sailed directly into the line of the Nilepoch's beam. With a blinding flash, the Nilepoch vanished. The shriveled gray husk of the Pyrobat tumbled to the ground and lay still.

Vergil calmly dusted his hand off on his coat. "As I said: Insurance."

Nero leaned around the charred rear door of the van and blinked at the now-empty courtyard. "I guess that's one way to hit the snooze button."

"It won't buy us much time, especially in its weakened state." Vergil walked over and prodded the Pyrobat with one toe. It crumbled instantly into ash. "Interesting. Whatever damage all those bullets dealt to it must have altered the nature of its abilities somehow. Instead of merely draining its victim's power, it absorbed its life force as well."

"Huh. Maybe it's trying to heal itself by—"

Pain lanced abruptly through Nero's torso, severing the words between his lungs and throat. Distantly he heard voices shouting his name, but a rushing wind rose in his ears to drown out the sound. The courtyard swirled around him as he lowered his gaze to his own chest, where the barbs of Lauda's whip-arm protruded from the front of his shirt in a fountain of sparkling blood.

NOTES:

When Nero challenges Vergil about killing in front of Julio, what Vergil is remembering is Dante's line from the ending of DMC5SE: "With an attitude like that, you're never gonna meet your grandkids!"

(And I'm pretty sure Vergil telling awful dad jokes is the ultimate form of Dadgil, so I couldn't resist… #sorrynotsorry)