Okay, so here's my first attempt at an omake for The Silver Raven, made for Halloween this year. The idea was inspired by an idea given by Soberan 123 about the Boiling Isles having a week where spirits from lower circles of Hell invade the isles and cause general mayhem. It's ultimately a short one and I think it could have been more action-y, but by then it may as well have been a full-blown chapter and it was getting a bit too close to Halloween by the time I finished and I couldn't add anything else, so I hope you all find this enjoyable.
As far as timeline goes, this takes place back when Nero was just ten years old, and I tried my best to make sure that things here lined up with canon, so this side-jaunt is canon compliant. You don't need to read this at all to understand the main plot in the slightest, it's just a fun little trip to the past.
Thanks and shout-out to FoxOnPie, Quantum01, and Darthkvzn for Beta Reading the chapter.
The Devil May Cry series is owned by Capcom and The Owl House is owned by Dana Terrace and Disney. Please support the official release.
Hallows Eve Havoc
"GIVE ME YOUR CANDY!"
"For the last time, I DON'T HAVE ANY CANDY!" Lilith crushed the pumpkin creature's head under her boot, leaving a smear of orange gunk as a ghoulish entity flew out of it. "Ugh, why did I have to lose track of time today of all days?" she grumbled.
It was that time of year again. The week of Samhayne, a title coined by a witch Emperor Belos had ancestral ties to, came to the isles on an annual basis during the last month of October. It was a time of pure lunacy, as the restless souls of the damned made their way to Limbo to harass the people of the isles, often possessing much of the local crops, ranging from pumpkins, to carrots, to pretty much anything you could grow in fertile soil. A lot of it was admittedly juvenile, as no one ever got killed even before the Emperor's reign brought about an end to the chaos of the Savage Era.
But it was annoying. So very, very, very annoying. It was basically Edalyn's pranks multiplied by a hundred fold, but that was besides the point. Right now, she needed to get her ten-year-old son home where the wards would keep him safe.
"Alright Nero, stay cl-" she stopped as she darted her head left and right, realizing her son was missing, "Nero? NERO!?"
"Right here!" she calmed down just a tad when she heard her son's voice around the corner. Running as fast as she could, she rounded the corner and panicked at the sight. Her son was surrounded from all corners by possessed pumpkins and carrots. Not even thinking twice, she summoned a vine to lift her son out of the circle and bring him straight into her arms, following that up by pointing the end of her staff at the monsters and unleashing a torrent of azure flames, burning them all to cinders as more spirits flew out of the remains.
"Mom, I wanted to fight them," Nero whined, to which she gave a mortified look in response. She didn't want her baby boy anywhere near these annoying cretins, let alone fighting them.
"Nero, you can't fight. It's too dangerous."
"But they didn't even hit me! They just kept sticking their tongues out and did this," he then put his fingers into the sides of his mouth and stretched his cheeks, making a rather mocking face. Suddenly, Lilith felt like she should have given them a more cold-blooded death than what she already did.
"COME FORTH FELLOW SPIRITS!" a loud, booming voice came in from where she just was. Poking her head around the corner, her eyes widened when she saw an enormous mass of splattered fruit and vegetable taking form into a giant mockery of the Great Titan, now standing taller than nearby buildings. It only grew bigger as more and more spirits flew into it, "FOR TONIGHT, THE CANDY SHOPS ARE OURS!"
"And we are leaving!" Lilith immediately sat on her staff and stuck her son in front of her, flying as fast and as high as she could to get out of there. While she would return to fight that thing, she needed to see to her son's safety first.
"Wow! That thing was huge!" Nero exclaimed, Lilith finding his excited look concerning, "You're not gonna fight it?"
Lilith shook her head, "I will, but first I need to get you home."
"But I want to watch the fight!"
"Nero, no," Lilith put on her most stern voice. The disappointed look in her son's eyes made her feel like dirt, especially as he turned his head and faced forward, going silent for a while. They flew for what felt like an hour when only a mere minute passed, Lilith wondering if she should say something, but her son beat her to the punch.
"Mom, what was this like for you?" he asked, "Samhayne week, I mean."
"I...they're usually not very good," Lilith replied, briefly being floored by the question, "Why do you ask?"
Nero shrugged, leaving Lilith to think over her past woes with Samhayne week over the years. For as long as she could remember, the end of October had always been a frustrating and humiliating time for her. The spirits that came to the isles never ceased in finding new ways to leave her clenching her teeth in anger at their antics, but three particular ones stood out to her the most.
The first one was back when she was the same age as her son. She was getting picked on at the time and didn't want to cause trouble, but thankfully, her little sister teamed up with a bunch of spirits to pellet the bully with every scrap of food they could find in the cafeteria. Or she would say that, if she wasn't caught in the crossfire and got equally pelleted. It's not every day that someone can cause so much of a ruckus during Samhayne week that they not only get a month long suspension from Hexside, but they also end up causing it to close down each year during said week for 'safety reasons'. Even after getting into the Potion Track ahead of schedule, Edalyn still considered that her greatest accomplishment.
The second one was the first after she was brought into the Emperor's Coven, where she and some fellow coven members tracked down some spirits that harassed one of the upper-class families to the Night Market. She chased one into a tent and got strung up in several nets before having several dozen apple blood filled balloons thrown at her. One of the guards freed her, but not before taking a few pictures and sending them to Kikimora. That hand-headed bitch wouldn't let her live it down for years. The worst part was that her first coven cloak was ruined beyond repair, and she was the only one who attended its funeral!
The third was when she was around twenty three years old and just getting back home from forcing many of those spirits out of Bonesborough. The whole ordeal left her covered in muck and grime, so she immediately left to wash it all off. Unfortunately, some of the spirits followed her home and tried to scare her while she was taking a shower. Needless to say, there was a lot of screaming from both parties for obvious reasons. On the plus side, she regained her bearings and spent the next ten minutes beating those spirits up within an inch of their unlives.
"Uh, you okay Mom? You're smiling all weird." Her son's voice shook her out of her musings. She reached up to her mouth and found that she was indeed smiling, but it wasn't a pleasant smile. It was one that reflected the shamefully crude joy she felt from beating up those spirits. Doing her best to hide it, she gave her son a more normal smile that she hoped wasn't too forced.
"It's nothing. Just reminiscing," she said. Nero gave her a confused look, but thankfully didn't ask anymore questions after that.
"Alright, I need to go and take care of that monster now," his mom told him as she put him down on the living room sofa, "I don't know how long that will take, and I don't have time to call in Matilda to babysit, so I need you to behave yourself while I'm gone."
"Okay," Nero nodded.
"That means don't open the doors for anyone. No going leaving anything open because the spirits could bypass the wards, and no sugar or junk food."
"Aw man," he grumbled at the last two, "But can't I just get a little?"
"No Nero," Mom said in her super stern voice before kneeling down and speaking more gently, "Now, hopefully I'll see you soon. So just stay out of trouble. Could you do that for me?"
Nero looked into his mom's eyes and could only nod. She gave him a kind smile before gently pecking his forehead and walking out the front door, but not before sticking her head through the doorway and saying, "OH! Almost forgot that I left some dinner in the fridge from yesterday that you could eat for lunch. It's already set up, so you just need to heat it for exactly 35 seconds. Not too long or it will overheat, but not to-"
"Mom, I get it. You can go now," Nero grumbled just loud enough for her to hear as he reached for the remote and turned on the Crystal Ball. He knew how to heat food and didn't need a step-by-step of every single minor detail of the process, thank you very much.
"Right, sorry," she apologized before closing the door. Nero spent a good few minutes waiting for her to open it again and give more instructions, but thankfully that didn't happen...this time anyway.
Let's see what's on, Nero started channel searching, flipping past a few channels before finally leaning forward to watch a show that just popped up. Apparently it was a re-run of an old show called 'Dragon Claw Z'. He had no idea what was going on since he didn't have any context, but the fights were awesome, so he didn't really care.
About two episodes into the show, his stomach started growling. Seeing as the next episode was about to start, he didn't want to miss out on anything either, and he couldn't just pause the episode whenever he wanted. After a bit of thinking, he snapped his fingers and turned up the volume to its highest setting and walked to the kitchen. Now he could at least hear all the cool fighting that was happening as he got his food.
As he entered the kitchen, he opened the fridge to find the dinner mom mentioned, but saw that it was just the spinach with diced Snaggleback he didn't eat last time. He still really didn't want to eat it, so he looked around to see if there was anything else. Seeing nothing in the fridge, he grunted and closed it shut, noticing a large bowl at the top. Curious, he summoned an ethereal arm and grabbed the bowl, bringing it down to see that it was filled with an assortment of treats; chocolate, taffy, lollipops, bubblegum, and more.
"So this is where mom hides all the sweets," Nero said, wondering if he should have some. After all, Mom said that he couldn't have anything sugar or junk food based, but at the same time...
"Eh, what she doesn't know won't hurt her," he shrugged as he walked back to the living room just in time for a major fight between the main character and a lizard looking monster.
He unwrapped one of the candies and tossed it into the air, opening his mouth for it to land inside, but nothing happened. Opening his eyes, he saw that the candy was missing. Shrugging and figuring that he missed, he unwrapped another candy and tossed it, only for the same thing to happen.
"Oh come on!" he grunted before just throwing a candy into his mouth with no fancy tricks. Unfortunately...
Okay, something's going on, Nero looked left and right. There didn't seem to be anyone else in the house and the only noise being the 'To be continued' that signified the end of the episode he was watching.
He decided that the best way to find out was to do a test. Nero placed the bowl of sweets right next to the Crystal Ball before walking down the hall, stopping just at the corner and pressing his back to the wall. Peaking his head out just a tad, he saw a small blue spirit float out of its hiding place and reach for the candy. How it got in with all the wards was something Nero didn't really understand.
That can wait, Nero thought before he ran out of the corner and launched an ethereal fist at the spirit, EAT FIST!
The spirit could only look surprised for a split second before it was sent flying into the wall, splattering in a bright blue goop. Nero's victory didn't last very long though, as the spirit reformed itself and started speaking in some weird language.
"Uh, what?"
The spirit only gave him a mute stare before slapping its own face and raising its other hand, curling all its fingers save for its middle most one. Nero had no idea what that gesture meant, but he was pretty sure it was something very rude and insulting. Not taking it down, he raised his right arm and returned the gesture before shouting, "Fuck off ghost face, that's MY candy, not yours!"
"MY candy, not yours!" the spirit mimicked Nero in a shrill voice that made him even angrier. In rage, Nero lunged right for the spirit and proceeded to wrestle with it. He didn't want to admit it, but the blue ghost was a bit stronger than he thought it was, since the whole thing started moving around. Where it went, Nero didn't know since they were surrounded by a large dust cloud. About the only think he was sure on was that he was repeatedly punching the blue spirit in its bitch face.
Eventually, the spirit kneed him in the stomach...somehow, and knocked him off. The cloud faded out and he saw that he was now in his mom's bedroom. Seeing that the spirit was dazed, Nero pointed his left hand at it and formed a ball of flame. "Last chance ghoulie. Get out of my house or I'll see if ghosts can fry!" Nero said as he prepared to shoot the spirit. Said spirit freaked out and flew right into his mother's closet, with Nero giving chase.
Everything was dark and quiet inside the closet, the only light being the flame on his left fingertip as he looked for the intruder. Suddenly, one of his mom's dresses shook and Nero turned, aiming the fire as he saw the spirit peak its head out from behind the garment. Nero almost fired a blast at it before he realized that doing so would set the dress and closet on fire, neither of which his mom would be happy about.
Unfortunately, the spirit saw him hesitate and cackled before going inside the dress, making it glow an ominous blue. Before Nero knew it, the dress slapped him in the face and flew out of the closet with an annoying laugh. Nero growled and gave chase after the possessed clothing, running after it all around the house for Titan knew how long. "Stop flying and get out of my mom's dress!" Nero yelled.
"Make me!" the spirit taunted back. Nero was now really tempted to just incinerate the dress and be done with it. Before he could even think about doing that, he suddenly found himself slammed into an invisible wall alongside the possessed dress.
"Sorry my little raven, I was trying to stop the spirit," Nero removed himself from the unseen wall and saw that his mom had returned, looking at him apologetically before furiously glaring at the shaking garment.
"Hah! Now you're in for it you stupid ghost!" Nero said as he gave the spirit the same finger gesture from earlier. Beside him, he heard his mother gasp.
"Nero! Where did you learn that?" in response to her question, he shrugged and just pointed at the still shaking dress. His mom's face went livid as she incinerated the dress, leaving the ghost behind as she grabbed it by the...throat?
Wait, do spirits even have throats? Nero wondered as he watched his mother throw the ghost out of the house.
"AND STAY OUT!" she yelled before running her hands through her hair and kneeling down towards her son, giving him an apologetic smile, "Sorry you had to see that, but I needed to vent a little bit. Just...don't ever make that gesture again, okay?"
Nero didn't really understand why the hand gesture was so bad. Sure, he at least knew it was an insult, but was it really that bad? It didn't seem so. Still, not wanting to upset his mother, he nodded and said, "Okay, by the way, how was the monster fight?"
"Oh! It actually went pretty swimmingly. We were able to subdue it without too much property damage and I didn't suffer any humiliations this time," she beamed as she walked towards the kitchen, "Now then, if you haven't eaten yet, I think now would be a good time to prepare some lunch."
Nero smiled as he went back to the couch, watching whatever was left of the 'Dragon Claw Z' rerun. The whole spirit fight was unexpected, but it turned out to be pretty fun punching that annoying blue bitch in the face, and even his mom got to have a good start to Samhayne week for a change.
Looks like this week's starting off pretty grea-
"Nero? Have you seen a large bowl? It was on top of the refrigerator, but it seems to be missing."
Nero froze and looked at the living room table to see that the candy bowl was still right next to the Crystal Ball, and he had no way to sneak it back to where it was without Mom noticing.
"Shit," he cursed. And the worst part was that he didn't even get to have a single piece of candy.
And that's the end of my first attempt at an official omake. Let me know how it reads and if it's any good. If I decide to make more, I could use the feedback to improve.
Kinda wish I was able to include the Lilith vs. Spirit monster fight, but I didn't exactly have time to come up with anything by the time I got the idea. Sorry about that.
Anyway, Happy Halloween everyone!