Went to see No Way Home fairly recently (Dec. 19th, to be precise)… and it was A.S.S.-

Amazing! Sensational! Spectacular!

Was it pure fanservice for the most part? Oh yes, definitely. Was it nonetheless an extremely enjoyable film that actually had surprising stakes and consequences? YES. Seriously, even for me, who is usually not too surprised by anything that a story throws at me and others no matter what format it's in, NWH managed to genuinely surprise me during its 2nd act and with its ending. I can say (strictly in my opinion, of course) that this was by far the best MCU film to date and left me wondering what the fuck the long term consequences would be in future films featuring Spidey because holy hell, it was just amazing.

All in all, it felt sort of like a vastly better done version of the One More Day storyline and if you are even remotely aware of what I mean by that, then good on you. And by all means, if you enjoy MCU films at all, please go and give this movie a watch or two because it's genuinely worth it!

Ha, but enough of my gushing. Hope this final third of the year has treated you guys well. And man, I know I spoke of 2021 in the last chapter's AN, but it's an almost surreal feeling to know that a whole year had once again gone by. Time really seems to just go by faster the older we all get, scary as that may feel at times.

Hard to believe as well that here we are, now 14 chapters deep into this fic. Reflecting on my path up to this point so far… yeah, looking back at this fic already, I can see some parts that could've probably been altered somewhat, but all in all, I can say I'm feeling pretty satisfied with how Village of Darkness is turning out so far.

I hope you all are also continuing to enjoy this fic as well. Even now, I'm still feeling kind of rusty from being away from fanfiction for so long so I'm still steadily getting back into the groove of things even now. But I'm certain that as long as I stay committed, this fic will eventually reach its climax with an explosive bang to accompany it.

Until such a time, however, well, please do continue to stick around, everyone!

Onto the chapter!

P.S. Merry Christmas, everyone, and please have a Happy New Year!

Chapter 14

"I swear, it feels like large environmental puzzles and shit make up way too much of this region," Nero spoke to Ethan.

"No kidding," the other man grumbled back. His tone, clearly annoyed by all this bullshit was enough to make the devil hunter snicker.

It's been just several minutes since the two of them had finished making their final preparations and had moved on with the large chalice in hands, literally so in Nero's case. During that time, they'd followed the only path forward until they'd reached what looked and felt to them both like some kind of ceremonial site, what with the huge old-ass statues that were overlooking some ancient mechanical slot in the center of the whole area.

Having instantly put two and two together, Nero had placed the chalice into the slot and upon it locking into place, some snow had shifted away to reveal they were standing on a platform, at which point it had begun to slowly descend. Immediately thereafter, some contraption had kicked into gear, covering up the entryway and leaving the two men stuck on the slowly descending ancient elevator.

Nero remained unfazed, but Ethan served as a contrast to him, the latter looking a little concerned by the admittedly creepy and dimly-lit stone shaft they were traveling down. Nonetheless, the father was doing his damnedest to ignore his mild claustrophobia and Nero could only nod his head marginally in acknowledgement of this.

As they waited for their descent to end, the devil hunter did a quick mental check.

Given that they were about to go and deal with the last of these four lords in a run down factory of all things, he'd opted to stash away most of the Devil Breakers he'd still had on hand by the time he beat the fish/toad freak, going for an almost totally fresh lineup. From the right side of his waist hung one copy of Overture and Gerbera each while carrying two copies of Helter Skelter. Call it gut feeling, but he had the feeling he'd need to do some slight drilling, hence the two copies as a precaution. Smashing and cutting through shit may have worked wonders most of the time but some other times, a far more precise usage of force was needed.

"You sure you good to go?" Nero then asked of Ethan after completing his mental check.

"As good as I'm ever gonna be," Ethan replied. "If you're worried about me selling back most of the medicine, don't sweat it – I like to think I know what I'm doing by now."

Nero just shrugged. "Alright, just wanted to make sure. Not like we're going to find much in that place anyways – I mean, it's pretty damn small as far as factories go, don't ya think?"

By this point, the platform had finally come to a stop and the two began to walk through the dewy cave path. But even from the platform, the path was just open enough for them to clearly make out the sight of the factory from here.

Now it was Ethan who shrugged. "I guess. But after all the shit I've been through, I'm not about to hold my breath here."

"Fair enough."

The two picked up their pace slightly – though not before Ethan briefly glanced back at the platform, where the chalice remained, which Nero didn't miss the sight of. Nero then heard Ethan sigh quietly before the man picked up his pace a little more.

And then, just as they neared an old bridge-.

"Well, well, if it isn't the village's visiting troublemakers. Guess I shouldn't be too surprised to see you both here so early."

-A voice called out to them through some very loud speakers somewhere.

Nero and Ethan both grimaced, clearly recognizing the voice.

That asshole Heisenberg.

"Oh, come on now, don't just stand there! Come on up and see what's in store." Heisenberg continued without a care. "If you're worried about the kid, then don't – I won't be doing anything naughty. But if you take too long crossing one fucking bridge… well…"

The two now gritted their teeth in unison, their dislike for this bastard growing considerably from just those few lines. Nonetheless, they sped up considerably as they now traversed freely over the stone bridge.

After just a moment, they finally finished crossing the bridge and were rapidly approaching the rickety gate entrance to the factory. Due to how quickly they'd gone about their respective business, not too much time had passed since their arrivals in this village. It was perhaps no later than some time just past noon. The naturally cloudy weather in this region of the world had abated for the time being to allow sunlight to pierce through and shine on the factory, exposing to both men just how rusty and well-worn the whole place was.

"Ah, Ethan Winters and Nero… welcome," continued Heisenberg as they walked on. "You know, Ethan, I honestly didn't think you'd make it past Donna or Ms. Supersized bitch herself, but I suppose you've survived worse back in America. And as for you, Nero, I'd thought you to be some punkass brat that wandered into the village for kicks, but now I know much better." The man guffawed, causing a lot of feedback in the speakers that got the two 'guests' to wince in discomfort, Nero more so than Ethan.

"I like you two. Now don't just dawdle – come on in. I'd very much like to meet you both and show off some things… ha ha."

The gate sprung open noisily as they neared and the two pressed on, sizing up the factory now that they were up close and personal with it.

"Now that's a trap if I've heard one," Nero snarked. "Might as well have told us to watch out for some trap doors while he was at it."

Ethan huffed. "Well, whatever he's got planned, we're not going to just wait for him to spring it. Let's just go in there, clean that bastard's clock then get back to Rose… I don't want to leave her be for too long."

Nero nodded and pulled out Blue Rose as a precaution. One this Heisenberg guy is taken care of, that should take care of most of the immediate threats to their main objective.

At this point, Nero turned back slightly and looked back the way they came. Despite his quips about how typical and overused ceremonial alters and the like are, cliches such as them existed for a reason. There wasn't a doubt in his mind that the spot he'd placed the chalice in was meant to serve as the revival point for Rose.

So with that in mind, why didn't it activate? Was there something else needed to trigger the revival process? Is that why the platform had been triggered instead? Why they were now here heading to the factory?

No, Nero realized, couldn't be just that. Dealing with Heisenberg aside, there was just no way there was something out here that could be so relevant to their objective.

For one thing, as old as this factory clearly is, Nero was pretty sure it couldn't have been around for more than a century tops. The alter and platform, however… he was no archeologist, but he knew for a fact that those mechanisms have existed for hundreds of years, perhaps even longer. In other words, whatever connection the ceremonial site held with the factory was very likely to be minimal if not flat out nonexistent, unless Heisenberg had somehow repurposed this shit.

But if that was the case, then wouldn't the fucker had advertised that fact? Maybe as a way to entice them into at least hearing out whatever bullshit he was clearly planning on spouting?

Things just weren't adding up at all still.

Reaching the front of the factory, the thick gate to it rolled open as they approached and the two of them walked right in without a care. Nero grimaced slightly as they proceeded to head for an open doorway that was off to the far back left of the room they'd now walked into, not liking how cramped the hallways were. Not that such small corridors would prevent him from maneuvering Red Queen as needed, much less prevent him from doing his usual acrobatics, but it would still be a mild inconvenience depending on circumstances.

Down and down they went, Nero taking point before finally following the path until they seemed to reach a dead end.

Said dead end took the form of a much roomier, well, room with surprisingly little clutter despite this being a factory.

Nero couldn't help but feel a little disappointed, having been expecting something after all the build up to this point.

Stashing away Blue Rose into its holster, he glanced around, looking for anything that might be worth his attention.

After a few seconds, his eyes locked onto a latch in the corner of the room. It was quite large, easily big enough to dump full grown people through, assuming that it was meant to cover up a chut of some sort. And it wasn't quite as rusty as the rest of the place either… meaning it was something that saw some usage fairly often…

"Nero," Ethan called out, grabbing his attention. "Check this out – the bastard must not have been a big fan of the others."

The young devil hunter looked away from the latch momentarily and focused on what had grabbed his ally's attention. Ethan had stepped forward to look at what lied behind a cloth and now the man had pulled it far enough back to expose a, for lack of a better term, a hit list from the looks of it.

On the board were numerous pictures, with several in particular being extra large in size. The one picture that seemed to dominate the center of the board was that of a woman wearing a mask, the word 'mother' just barely legible below her visage. Presumably, this was the Mother Miranda that Nero has been hearing of this whole time.

To either side of said picture were those of the lords save for Heisenberg himself, 'x's scrawled onto each one that were clearly meant to mark their elimination. To the farther right of the board were pictures of individuals that Nero didn't know at all… though the picture of the baby in the upper right was certainly that of Rose, a notion confirmed by the way Ethan's gaze locked onto it for a moment.

But then Ethan's gaze shifted slightly downwards and Nero followed his gaze until he was now staring at the picture of a slender smiling woman with black hair.

"Mia…?" Ethan mumbled, just loud enough for Nero to hear.

"What's up?" the devil hunter asked, hearing the confusion in the guy's voice.

"Why does this bastard have photos of my wife and daughter?" Ethan continued, motioning to the photos in question. "What is all this?"

"What can I say? I like knowing my potential killer."

Both Nero and Ethan whirled around at the sound of a now familiar voice.

Where there had once been no one behind them now stood a man that Nero had sure as shit never seen before. Around Ethan's height, grungy looking as all hell, sunglasses and an old ass hat to boot, this guy looked just as much of an asshole as Nero had envisioned him to be when he'd first heard the fucker's voice.

"You-!" Ethan snarled out as he took aim with his handgun. However, before he could continue, he froze.

Not that Nero could blame him for doing so.

The devil hunter himself was somewhat tensed up as well, clearly able to now detect the demonic power this man wielded… and it was certainly something worth taking note of. While not quite as high as the likes of the two lords he's slain, it was still at a comparable level. And considering that this guy – Heisenberg – was still in his human form as opposed to the transformed states of the other lords, that was saying something.

Nero, as usual, was fully confident he could take this guy here and now, but with Ethan so damn close by, starting a fight out of the blue wasn't an option just yet. Ethan may be considerably tougher now than before, but his safety was still something he couldn't just put at risk so casually.

"So you're Heisenberg, huh? Damn, all you gotta do is shave your head, maybe trim that beard of yours a little and you'll be right at home on the show you got your name from," Nero chose to quip. As tense as this situation now was, that didn't mean he wasn't going to act like he normally did, albeit with Blue Rose drawn and cocked at the man.

The man, the fourth and final lord, just puffed on a cigar, a smirk appearing on his face. "Ha, just as much of a little punk in person as I'd thought. Real funny." Heisenberg then took one more drag of his cigar before flicking it away into the corner. "But as if you're one to talk, you goth band reject."

"And proud of it," Nero drawled in pure sarcasm. "Anyways, let's not go around tooting our own horns too much here – we got errands to do, after all. What the hell did you mean by that comment?"

Heisenberg 's smirk dropped and he began to pace slightly. "Think I can offer you guys a seat? Only got the one chair though, so I guess one of you is going to have to settle for standing."

"Not interested," Ethan said, now regaining his wits. He gestured slightly to the board behind him. "Just explain this shit."

Heisenberg sighed. "Come on, I knew you weren't all that bright, Ethan, but even it should be obvious to you by now." His smirk returned, but it wasn't the same. Instead, it was cold and savage as the man eyed the photos posted up, specifically the ones of the other lords and this Mother Miranda lady. He raised his right hand and a knife suddenly floated out from within the folds of his dirty brown coat. "First, your precious kid gets stolen, then you just so happen to crash near the village and wander on over here. Then you just so happen to have to fight your way through this shithole for the flasks that contain your little Rose… flasks that have just so conveniently been handed to us lords…"

The knife, levitating higher, suddenly thrust out and stabbed the picture of that tall lord, Dimitrescu. "Ms. Supersized bitch-." The knife responded to Heisenberg rearing back his right hand and it then thrust forth into another picture as Heisenberg waved his hand again. "Ugly-ass psycho doll-." He repeated the gesture and the knife now stabbed the third and final picture that surrounded the Mother Miranda one. "-And that moronic freak."

Heisenberg snorted as he approached, not so much as paying the guns trained on him any bit of attention. "Do I gotta spell it out to you two any more clearly? That bitch Miranda has been running you both around, having her do her dirty work."

Nero scoffed. "Guess that phrase 'no honor among thieves' oughta apply to more assholes than just thieves."

Heisenberg shook his head. He whirled around and faced Nero. "Me and the other lords… we're supposed to be 'siblings,' with Miranda as our 'mother.' But let's be real, we're as far from a real family as we can get. Those three shitheads might not have fully caught onto that, but I saw through Miranda's bullshit from the very start. And Miranda? Ha, the old bitch may call us her children, but we were never anything more than playthings to her. Now that she Rose though, her interest in us, little as it was, is now fully gone. Now we're just fucking liabilities at best. So… obviously, liabilities have to be dealt with. And what better way to do that then by having some other poor bastard or two do it for her?"

"Cry me a fucking river," Ethan snarled. "Why the fuck does she want Rose?!"

Heisenberg 's expression crinkled into something twisted. "To bring back her own child, of course."

That got both men to genuinely pause. "Say what now?" Nero asked.

The man shrugged. "Don't go asking me for specifics. All I know is that she needs her oh so 'great and powerful' Megamycete to pull off whatever stupid ritual it is that she wants… and your daughter as a vessel."

…Megamycete? Nero tilted his head. The hell is that supposed to be? Well, that aside, this shit was starting to sound like some pretty bog-standard BS from occult films.

"But you know what? That's beside the point," Heisenberg growled out, turning around to face the board again. "She fucks up our lives to play out some stupid little fantasy of hers… and then when something else comes along to give her what she wants, she just gets to toss us aside? Well, fuck that!"

Heisenberg made a sweeping motion with his right arm and the knife, having still been embedded in the picture, suddenly tore through the whole board at an angle that followed the path of his arm. Even though it'd been but a standard blade, the sheer ferocity behind whatever telekinetic power Heisenberg wielded had been enough for the blade to cut through the board and part of the wall it had been attached to as well.

"So you got dealt a rough hand," Ethan said. "Big whup. Why the hell does that give you a right to do all this shit?! You and those other fuckers cut up my daughter. You've done who knows what to this village for years. Now you… you… what? You want us to just cut and run after hearing bits of your sob story."

Ethan's words, tinged with rage, did little more than make Heisenberg laugh, as if he'd just heard a pretty decent joke. "Ha, please, Ethan. This village? This place ain't worth shit. Never was, never would be. The other lords, they were doing nothing more than just lording over their own respective slices of this shit pie, but I at least was trying to put this place to some fucking use."

"And what would that be?" Nero questioned as he adjusted his aim with Blue Rose. Before he'd been aiming for Heisenberg's face but now in light of whatever power this man wielded, he was paying a bit more attention to the guy's torso, just in case he had any more weapons hidden in there to use with that power of his.

"To build myself an army," Heisenberg responded immediately. "One powerful enough to finally bring that cunt down and free myself for good from this place. But even with all that's happened, I don't think it's enough."

The man took off his sunglasses and glanced right at Ethan, then at Nero. "That's why I've been watching you two so intently this whole time – to see if you were both up to snuff. And to see if you'd be willing to help me bring Miranda down."

The fourth lord then flashed a grin. "And to do that… well, just as some insurance, it wouldn't hurt to have your daughter as well, Ethan."

This entire explanation got both men reeling a bit, but Ethan more so than Nero in this moment. "W-What? What are you-?"

"Your kid… don't know how or why, but from the moment I ever even saw her, I could tell she was something special," he replied. "She could be the final key to killing Miranda – the penultimate weapon!"

There was a brief period of silence, both men utterly stunned by this entire turn of events. There were plenty of questions that they – well, Nero, at least – wanted to ask of this guy. But after words like that? The devil hunter was feeling pretty fine with just finding out the answers to his questions another way once this bastard is put down.

"Use my daughter as weapon? Like hell!" Ethan cried out as he raised his handgun a bit more. "As for your own 'family spat,' you just leave the rest of us the fuck out of it!"

Nero smirked viciously as he started to pump a little of his own power into Blue Rose, charging up a shot that should blow Heisenberg's head clean off his shoulder. "Couldn't have said it better myself, really. But seriously, you're just as screwed up in the head as the others if you think that's something we'd ever agree to. Go fight off your mommy by yourself, grungy."

Heisenberg simply stared at the two of them, his expression utterly blank. Then after a second, his expression twisted into a repulsed grin. "Ha, I knew you two sonsabitches would act like this. Still, just thought I should try before doing things the fun way."

"How about you have fun in hell-!" Ethan began, just about to fire-.

-Only for Heisenberg to act much more quickly than what should've been possible.

The man stomped the floor hard enough to make the whole room shake. This one simple act was enough to throw both men off balance and in that single instant, Heisenberg used that power of his to pull back the latch nearby and punt Ethan down it.

The now stunned father scarcely got a change to scream out in surprise before Nero, already recovering from the brief instance of imbalance, tried to step in.

He raised his gun and fired at Heisenberg. But to his surprise, the man actually managed to react even when the distance between them was so brief, pulling back so that the shot intended to blow off his head instead clipped part of his left bicep, blowing off a chunk of it.

Rather than react in pain, Heisenberg just bellowed raucously as demonic power started to overflow from within him. And unlike everyone and everything else Nero has encountered so far, where the power simply burst out with reckless abandon, this demonic power within Heisenberg, overflowing as it is, instead pulsed and flowed throughout the man's entire body, like electricity through an intricately crafted power grid, circulating throughout his very being.

The result? Despite having less demonic power than the likes of the mutated Dimitrescu and the toad guy, Heisenberg was putting it to use much more effectively and it showed as he promptly leapt away, moving from his previous spot to the other end of the room so seamlessly that if Nero hadn't been paying attention, it would've looked as if the bastard had teleported instantly.

But Nero remained undeterred and fired thrice more. Unfortunately, his shots, charged as they were, were blocked by a bunch of the objects in the room suddenly being called forth to serve as a multi-layered shield in front of Heisenberg, who still laughed madly.

"I gotta say, I was never much of a believer in more supernatural bullshit," the man called out. "But ever since that weird-ass tree popped up in Red Grave, this mysterious new power that's popped up in us has been a fucking blast to have! Wouldn't you agree, kid? I know you have something similar in you too now!"

Nero simply holstered Blue Rose and pulled out Red Queen even as he filed away that very interesting commentary Heisenberg had provided.

"Yeah? Well, if you're a believer now, then start praying to whatever higher power you think it exists! Cause you're gonna need it-!"

He charged at the man with a great deal of speed, much greater than what he's demonstrated so far against anything else in this fucked up region. Revving up his blade, he effortlessly cut through the now moving shield of metal debris Heisenberg had up.

Alas, just as he was about to swing Red Queen at the man himself, the fucker pulled out yet another trick.

Heisenberg raised his hand and exerted that same power of his – and in response, Nero could feel it work over Red Queen.

"…!" He'd thought it to be telekinetic in nature and limited in potency based off what he could sense so far. But now he understood – it was actually ferrokinesis… and it was much more potent than he'd been expecting as it proved enough to slow Red Queen and divert the swing to the right.

Nero was more than strong enough to physically fight against the man's sudden hold and readjust his attack trajectory – but it also meant that he was yet again on the backfoot, which the man took advantage of.

"No!" Nero cried out as he felt that same power exert itself over the Devil Breakers at his waist. They were ruthlessly yanked free from their placements and levitated over to Heisenberg's side in the middle of said attack readjustment.

"Nice trinkets you got here, Nero," Heisenberg said with a smirk. Demonic power continued to pulse out and greatly strengthen his ferrokinesis, enough to make the metal in the floor beneath them and even further below that suddenly rise up and wrap around Nero's feet. "Hope you don't mind if I give 'em a good once-over. But tell you what – in exchange for these, let me show off some creations of my own!"

Just as Nero was about to break free, he was yanked down into the floor and far below that. As he continued to be pulled and slammed through all manner of concrete and steel, the last thing he heard from the grungy haired bastard was an all too cheery 'Enjoy!'

Nero could only grunt as for the first time since coming to this village, he was well and truly blindsided by something.

After mere seconds, his impromptu travel finally came to an end, the devil hunter being ejected violently through a wall and into what looked like a combination of a scrapyard and engine room.

"Nero!"

The devil hunter, sticking the landing, glanced to his right to see Ethan getting up from the floor. Looks like Heisenberg at least had had the courtesy of putting them together.

"Don't tell Nico about this, alright?" Nero grumbled. "Can't believe I just got surprised by a guy that looks like he should be on an episode of Junkyard Wars…"

Mere minutes have passed since the start of the conversation, if it could becalled that, with Heisenberg and only twenty seconds or so at most since the scuffle had broken out – a testament to just how quickly things had gone tits up.

Nero looked up and glared at the hole he'd come from, already debating with himself on what their next move should be.

"Gonna have to find a way back up now…" he grumbled.

He was more than tempted to just cut up the ceiling above and make this whole damn factory, which was already looking to be bigger than he'd thought, down… but ultimately decided against it; once again, that'd only put Ethan at needless risk.

"We have to be fast about it," Ethan said angrily. "If that asshole was serious about what he said, he's going to try and use my daughter against Miranda!"

Nero grunted in agreement.

He was considering his options here, but just as he was reevaluating the other changes in their circumstances, all the loud machinery in the room they were now in suddenly began to sputter.

Nero immediately began to look around, feeling something amiss.

It didn't take long to see what was up as a nearby fan suddenly began to move of its own accord, breaking free from behind the panel over it…

…Revealing that it wasn't just a fan.

"The fuck…?" Ethan began in confusion.

The new figure was humanoid in shape… and that was about it, really. Its entire form was almost completely covered in an armor-like shell crafted from scrap metal, black for the most part but a rusty brown in some areas. It had once had arms from the looks of it, but now it had only stumps where the arms should have been. Nero had a feeling its lack of proper arms was due to the fucking propeller made of chainsaws that was directly attached to the front of its torso.

Just as this new figure stumbled down from its previous spot, hissing could then be heard from up above, where other openings were now appearing, where scrap metal was likely deposited from other places into this room. The sounds of multiple people – no, not people, BOWs – could be heard and in mere seconds, some bodies fell out of the openings and onto the surrounding floor.

These bodies showed clear signs of decay, with pale skin and dehydration that could only be associated with corpses – only these weren't corpses any longer but rather something else, powered by something that vaguely felt demonic in nature to Nero. Each and every one of these new creatures, seemingly male in appearance, all seemed to wear raggedy black pants and boots. And moreover, parts of their bodies had been replaced with other things – weapons, ranging from… are those drills?... to what looks like an outright pile bunker. Some of them only appeared to have one arm replaced with a drill, but others had both arms turned into some horrific mass of jagged metal clearly meant to rend asunder flesh as messily as possible. The only commonality that all of these things seemed to have, however, was a metallic visor over their eyes, an ominous red light visibly radiating from them.

They fell one after another, landing on their feet with a surprising level of coordination. Despite being seemingly undead, they clearly possessed some level of intelligence.

And moreover, these things were rapidly moving into place around the two man, surrounding them while the big one – propeller man, Nero will call him – began to walk more steadily… and it seemed by the way the thing's legs began to shift that it was about to break into a run.

Nero stabbed Red Queen into the floor. Ethan moved a little further away to avoid potential friendly fire and brought out his WCX.

"Right. First thing first – let's go ahead and break these Heisenberg's 'toys' here," Nero snarled out. No way these things could've been made so recently, especially not with such a level of refinement to them, sick as it was to say that. Heisenberg must have been learning how to mass produce these things for quite some time now, well before this village had fully gone to shit. "The less of them he has around, the less trouble to deal with later on."

Ethan cocked his assault rifle, the demonic power he held within him practically begging to be unleashed from what Nero could tell. "Let's get this over with."

Nero revved up Red Queen – and that was all it took to spark their new foes into action.

Karl retreated deep within his factory through the lift nearby, his nerves a little frayed.

Now that he's learning how to better use this mysterious power of his, he'd become able to sense it in others, such as in Ethan… and in Nero.

Based solely off what he could sense, Ethan was still very much a small fry, but an interesting small fry nonetheless. As for Nero, however, the young man was leagues beyond anything else Karl had ever thought possible.

If it came down to a genuine fight, he was certain that Nero would win, hands down. Only reason he'd been able to pull the rug from under him just moments ago is because he'd had the advantage of surprise, an advantage he wouldn't have again as things now stood.

Oh, not that Karl intended to go down easily if – when – the two of them fought it out, but even as he is now, he wasn't sure he'd be able to do much lasting damage to the punk. So much for showing those bastards what's what for the time being.

However… that didn't mean this would remain the case for much longer.

Karl grinned as he used his ferrokinesis to lift up the objects he'd taken from Nero. Despite looking like rather intricately made prosthetics, there was no denying the power each one of them contained, power that was all too much like the power he now contained within him.

Inspecting them closely with his eyes and using his newly expanded senses to get a better feel for the makeup of these weapons – for that is clearly what they were – Karl could already envision the ways he could go about melding these things with himself.

But it wasn't as if he could just press these things against himself and just merge with them – this wasn't like one of those stupid cartoon shows where the characters could pull off whatever bullshit maneuver they came up with. It would take just a bit of study and dissection to make it happen.

However, Karl was more than certain that it wouldn't take too much time at all to learn how to make the most of his new toys.

They will be most useful in disposing of both Ethan and Nero whenever those cockroaches made their way to him again… then, once they're disposed of, he could go and claim whatever power it is that Rosemary Winters has and use that to further bolster himself and his metal army before finally sticking it to Miranda.

"Just you wait, you moldy bitch," Karl muttered in a mixture of anger and excitement. "I'm going to show you real soon what I can really do."

As the lift descended further and further down into the factory, Karl began to laugh, already enjoying the future that he envisioned was to come.

Chris paused in his current actions as he felt a light shaking. "Looks like something is going on up there…"

While he'd very much hoped otherwise, he'd known it'd only be a matter of time until Ethan and the mysterious Nero ended up here. And once again, it seemed like they were already throwing down with whatever this hellhole had to offer.

And he would know, considering the corpses behind him that were currently dissipating.

Karl Heisenberg really was a twisted one. While using the corpses of others as parts of some 'grand experiment' was rather standard fair among the bastards he's gone up against in his Bioterrorism career, Heisenberg still stood out when compared to the other lords in this village. To think too that he could make such modifications with what amounts to pieces of scrap and whatever other shit he could scrounge up around these parts.

"He really is too dangerous," he murmured as he finished arming the next batch of explosives to the support beam he was right in front of. Upon finishing this task, he wasted no time pivoting about and jogging off to his next location.

Heisenberg, bastard that he is, was nonetheless small fry compared to what he's gone up against in the past. However, that was really only due to the fact he was more obsessed with turning on Miranda than anything else. If he should succeed in his goal and then turn his attention out to the rest of the world… if he should try to get his hands on some better 'materials' to work with, then there'd be no telling how much more damage the fourth lord could cause before being brought down. It didn't help either that this unknown power was steadily running rampant in this village.

Case in point…

"…! You things never did have good timing," Chris grumbled, his attuned senses allowing him to detect some movement from down an upcoming turn. Readying his Dragoon and slowing his pace, he waited.

Sure enough, from around the corner came two more of the things that Heisenberg had been cooking up here. Both of them sported very emaciated frames for walking corpses, their skin insanely pale and dirty from all the soot around here, covered in messy blue rags. Wielding well-worn pickaxes as weapons and with strange metallic visors clamped tightly over their eyes, the things' senses seemed a bit better than most run of the mill BOWs, for they practically homed in on his location as soon as they even passed the corner.

As they hissed and quietly screeched, some ominous feeling suddenly came over the BOW fighting veteran, a sensation of nearly all-consuming terror and surrealness filling him. It was only thanks to his many years of training and experience, plus just his naturally stubborn nature, that kept him from being rattled even as a dark aura began to radiate from these things.

Their awkward gaits picked up considerably in speed. One of them swung at nothing and smashed a decent sized hole into the wall next to them, all of sudden demonstrating increasing strength and speed that they clearly wouldn't have otherwise.

Chris was unmoved and simply opened fire. First, he let loose a controlled burst that caught the first one directly in its visor, the bullets destroying it almost instantly. But the thing itself barely even flinched when other ones had gone stumbling back in the past. Yet another sign that whatever was going on here was enhancing these things in all sorts of ways. It merely hissed again and tried to speed up.

The leader of Hound-Wolf simply remained calm and let loose another controlled burst to break the visor of the other one nearby. This time, the thing staggered and bumped into the first one, throwing it just slightly off balance enough to get in close with his karambit knife and swiftly stab it right through the off balanced creature's eye. He shoved in the curved short blade as far as he could, his own strength backed by the momentum from his brief jog up being enough to reach the thing's brain. Chris then twisted the blade and cut to the left, tearing through the side of the thing's head and splattering some bits of its brain and skull over the floor and railing nearby.

That was when the other one, having finally recovered, tried to swing his way, but he simply backed off and kicked the one he had just attacked harshly in the chest. It went sailing into the other one and went down. As the one he'd kicked began to swiftly disintegrate, Chris went in on the downed one and repeated his initial knife attack, downwards momentum allowing him to cut into its neck so fiercely that he essentially decapitated just as it had even tried to get back up.

The man let out a mild sigh as he stood back up and put away his karambit knife. Although he'd come here prepared with plenty of ammo, he'd much rather conserve his bullets as much as he could. He knew that the time would come for him and his squad to really go out there and mop up the whole village, a task that would already require considerable resources to accomplish, more so now that these things are clearly getting tougher thanks to this unknown source of power.

Thankfully, he's more than enough experience tangoing with BOWs many times his superior in terms of physical ability and those times have in turn pushed him well beyond his limits each and every time. Compared to those BOWs from the past, these things, even with this unknown power up, were scarcely even considered a warm up.

Still, the very fact that they could even receive such strange boosts made it worrying, considering what else he's seen in this village up until now.

Yeah, this place for sure had to be brought down as quickly as possible… a task that may not quite be as easy as what could've been. On the surface, Heisenberg's factory was no bigger than any other average factory he's ever seen, but down here, it was clear that the fucker has been spending a majority of his life expanding his nightmarish home downwards and outwards, with far more open space in places that really shouldn't have been possible.

That there was enough open space for the veteran to look out and see a literal assembly line of those BOWs being outfitted with those visors and having their limbs be tinkered with was honestly a little mindboggling.

A good thing that he's also had plenty of experience traversing such sprawling areas. It helped too that it wasn't as if he had to plant explosives in every single nook and cranny this place had, merely where the most structurally important spots were at and only some of them as opposed to all of them. That was perhaps the one good thing about having to deal with such vast fucking veritable fortresses – once you take out enough of the supports, the whole thing will collapse in on itself. This place would be no different.

Humming lightly as he looked about and reevaluated his intended traveling route, Chris finally began to get a move on again.

As he proceeded to move onto his next intended location, he considered how much longer exactly it would take him until he could blow this place to hell. He'd say about maybe a half hour or so, depending on some factors.

That meant that both Ethan and Nero had roughly that long to get the hell out of here before then.

He could only hope that the two men would be able to do so before he's left with no choice but to push the trigger.

The Megamycete continued to writhe about – or rather, the one on the other side of it continued to do so.

It's been a long time coming, but its – his – patience was finally beginning to bear some fruit here. More than two thousand years of growth and evolution had led this sad remnant of a tree to develop in its own way, into the so-called Megamycete that it seemed so many humans were fond of labelling it.

Ha, what fools. They've no idea at all of what this 'Megamycete' truly is.

The being couldn't help but think that in a mixture of amusement and pure derision, once again demonstrating a severe lack of respect for humanity in general, something that hadn't changed at all even after all this time. His defeat two thousand years ago and almost two decades ago had done very little to truly soften his ego in the slightest.

But while his ego remained unaffected, that didn't mean the being was not aware of how and why things turned out this way. He was plenty aware of the sheer luck he had in discovering this remnant. Using it was something of a roundabout method, admittedly, but its benefits far outweighed whatever trouble he had in using it by leaps and bounds. Had he not, then it could've been who knows how many more thousands of years or even tens of thousands of years before he could finally break free of his seal. Additionally, the power it was providing him… oh, how he's missed this feeling. While the quantity of power at any given time was vastly inferior to how much it had provided him back then, this remnant has had all that time since its emergence thousands of years ago to grow and amass the life essence of countless beings, primarily humans, all for him to capitalize on.

And now, all too soon, it would finally be time for him to break free. But until then, he would have to wait until the foolish Miranda began her little 'ritual' in earnest. Only then, when he finally has such a proper tether on this side will he be able to properly emerge into the human world.

Soon, he shall finally be able to achieve the goal he's long sought to accomplish ever since he first deposed of Pluto.

And after that, he will relish the look of horror and despair that bastard son of Sparda will undoubtedly have once he becomes aware of what's happening.

If that last section doesn't give away what else lies in store, then I genuinely don't know what will.

That said, don't expect that to be the last surprise this fic will have to offer – for there is still plenty more to be had! I can only hope I'll be able to adequately reveal these surprises in a way that will blow all your socks off, you guys, lol.

Ah, but before ending this chapter – the encounter with Heisenberg in this chapter. Yeah, before any of you start getting annoyed by how he was able to chuck Nero around even if only for a brief second, please keep in mind that – as pointed out in Heisenberg's section – he'd only managed to do that because Nero hadn't been expecting that at all and thus had been blindsided. Even as Heisenberg is now, in a direct confrontation with Nero, he'll end up getting his shit wrecked even with his amped ferrokinesis and other abilities. Nero may not quite be as strong as Dante and Vergil are by the end of DMC5, but he's damn close by this point and that fact alone makes him superior to just about 99% of everything else in the DMCverse and triply so for anything in the Reverse.

But again, this is one of those things that I'm addressing in order to ensure the plot here doesn't get snapped over someone's knee here. Balancing such a frankly ridiculous power gap without actually worfing Nero is tough as hell, but it's a challenge I knew I'd meet when starting this fic and one I'm eager to overcome. But in due time, Nero will finally be able to really show off what he's truly capable of. Until such a time, however, he will continue having to hold back in addition to new changes in circumstances blindsiding him to his own detriment, which this chapter itself sort of demonstrated.

That said, in spite of how you guys may feel about the power balancing, hope the interaction Nero and Ethan had with Heisenberg was nonetheless enjoyable. There will be plenty more sassing to come between the three of them in upcoming chapters.

Now then, with all that said, this marks the final chapter of 2021, crazy as that sounds. Man, hard to believe I started this back in… September, I think? How the time flies!

Alrighty then, people. Please have a merry holiday and a safe and Happy New Year! See you guys in 2022!