Chapter 14
Mid-afternoon, a week exactly since Vergil had left with Dante. Lady sighed. Where had they gone to? What were they doing? She didn't know. Was Vergil on the level? Had he really gone with Dante to the Demon Realm to destroy Mundus once and for all? Or was this just another attempt by Vergil to get rid of his brother, humanity's strongest defender?
Eve said Vergil was following in his father's footsteps. Quite possible. The question was which footsteps. For all Sparda had done for mankind the last 2000 years of his life, what about the time before that? He'd probably been a devil like all the others. An enemy of mankind.
Lady got up from the chair she'd been sitting on, left the veranda and started running. Around the house, around the garage, around the outer rim of the yard. She ran so she would stop thinking about Vergil and Dante. She ran to stop thinking about the invasion that had started. She ran to stop feeling useless at being stuck in this place with Trish and Eve. She wanted to fight, she wanted to kill. Devils, demons, anything to protect innocent lives. Instead she was stuck because of a promise made in her name by Dante, and because – as Trish reminded her all the time – they couldn't leave a pregnant woman on her own, especially one who was wanted by the most sadistic demon bitch imaginable.
Her roar of rage and frustration could be heard inside where Eve was sitting with her feet up and Trish was reading one of Vergil's tomes on demon lore.
"Right! She exploded again," Eve said.
"You can't blame her, Eve. She's not used to this. She lives for action and now she can't do a thing while there's a war with the Demon Realm. That's the woman who once vowed to kill every devil and demon," Trish answered, half-distracted by the book she was perusing.
"Why did she start working with you and Dante, then? No demon-issues there?"
Trish stopped reading to answer Eve.
"It wasn't instant trust. Dante said she shot him in the head when they met." Trish smiled. "Actually, she still does when she gets annoyed with him. Anyway, she ended up trusting him and realising not all devils are evil."
"And how did you become friends?"
"We were on the same quest from opposite sides. I was hunting a demon, and the creature, who could very convincingly pretend to be human, had hired Lady to kill me. We were fighting each other when Dante appeared and introduced us. We killed the demon together. That's how it started, and now we're a good team."
"Glad to hear she can accept that she's not always right," Eve said with some sarcasm to her voice.
Trish understood what Eve meant.
"You mean her distrust of Vergil. She blames him for what her father became and has only known him as power-hungry," she said.
It wasn't just Lady. She too still had doubts.
She told Eve, "You say he's changed, but to us he still acts cold and unfeeling. We don't see a change in his behaviour. So- "
"So you think the little country girl is a wide-eyed innocent. Vergil's been part of my life for four years now, and you still don't believe I know him."
Just then Lady came in and dropped into the sofa that creaked in protest.
"How long are we supposed to sit around in this godforsaken place," she cried out. "The world is filled with demons and we're sitting on our asses all day."
Eve got up and left the room. Shortly after the backdoor clattered shut.
"What's gotten into her?" Lady asked.
"I suppose she didn't want to hear you laying into Vergil again," Trish answered.
She put a bookmark in the book she was still holding open with her finger and put it to the side. No chance of finishing that chapter now.
"Not my fault if she can't bear to hear the truth about her Prince Charming," Lady said.
"What if she does know the truth? What if we are wrong and she is right when she claims Vergil has changed? Shouldn't we at least ask her why she thinks he's changed?" Trish asked.
Since the first day she'd been stuck between Lady and Eve. She'd been able to stop the two from getting into a physical confrontation, but that was more due to Eve's pregnancy than her negotiating skills. And now Eve had avoided confrontation by leaving the room.
"I don't think I want to hear her gushing how he's a perfect husband. I'd be forced to slap the silly girl."
"She doesn't strike me as a silly girl," Trish said. "Aren't you prejudiced because she married Vergil?"
"How stupid do you have to be to marry a man like that?" Lady cried out. "He's a violent devil."
"Half-devil," Trish corrected automatically, then added, "Sorry, that's what Dante always says."
Lady shrugged.
"Half or full, he's violent and only interested in getting more power. I don't trust him, and it will take more than a woman blinded by love to make me change my mind."
"You're wrong, Lady. She knows exactly what he is and that makes me wonder sometimes if we are wrong about Vergil."
"This whole thing is driving me nuts. I might believe her if something happened. If I could do something. Make a difference."
The backdoor clattered again. Eve came into the room.
"Lady, you've been wishing for demons since you got here. Well, they're coming this way."
"How do you know it's demons?" Lady asked.
Eve held up a small pair of binoculars.
"I've made it a habit to take these with me whenever I go outside. I saw something approaching in the distance and used them. There is no doubt. Go check for yourself."
Lady was up and out of the door in a shot.
"She doesn't trick, does she?" Eve asked.
"Of course not. She's just an extremely fast human," Trish said.
"I just wondered. Vergil told me her dad had turned himself into a demon. I thought he might have used her as a guinea pig. I wouldn't put it past a man who kills his wife to become demonic. Would you?"
"You're right, he would be capable of doing that, but I never noticed a demonic scent on Lady," Trish said as she walked towards the back door.
She wasn't going to continue this conversation. The idea alone. Lady was human through and through.
"You do know that neither Vergil, nor Dante detected anything on Lady' dad, and he was a deceitful, shapeshifting demon. Just saying," Eve said.
Trish halted the tiniest of moments, then she opened the backdoor and waited for Eve to go out. They joined Lady who was standing near the edge of the yard looking at an approaching mass.
"Something is coming, but they're still too far to see what it is," Lady muttered.
"Here." Eve handed the pocketsize binoculars to the devil-hunter.
"Wow! It is a demon horde." Lady handed the binoculars back. "I'm going to check my weapons, get my ammo ready. Finally we'll get some action."
"Fighting mad, that one," Eve said watching Lady run back inside. "Let's hope the wards hold. I'm not that keen on meeting a demon mob face to face."
"We'll soon know. Either we'll be overrun, or we'll have a nice demon-target shooting gallery. We'll better get prepared as well."
They went back to the house to get their weapons and ammunition for the approaching fight.
When Trish and Eve returned to the yard, Lady was already there.
"She looks like a walking arsenal," Eve whispered to Trish. "And what's that thing she's carrying?"
"If I were you I wouldn't call it 'that thing' when she can hear it. It's her rocket launcher and she's extremely fond of it. It's called Kalina Ann, after her mother."
"I've never seen her use it."
"Lack of ammo. We could only bring a limited supply, and she hasn't been able to contact her supplier. Every shot has to count now," Trish explained.
Eve looked at the approaching demons. They were no longer just a black shape. Features couldn't be discerned, but the bulk of a larger demon, extreme appendices like horns, and the shape of the scythes some carried became increasingly clearer.
"I think we will run out of ammo," Eve said, awestruck. "Look at them. That's not some demons; that's and army. A large one at that."
"It looks as if Solaris hates you even more than I thought possible," Trish said.
"Great! That makes me feel a lot better!" Eve snarked.
Trish looked at the woman next to her. She couldn't detect the faintest smell of fear on her; just anger that blazed out of her eyes. Was that why Vergil had become attracted to this female? Or did she become fearless through living with Vergil?
Of course, Trish recalled, Eve had lived on the farm on her own for years, keeping unwanted attention off her property. Obviously, she was fearless before Vergil, and the strange thing was that Vergil hadn't caused her to become fearful.
"Trish, I'm going to sit down," Eve interrupted Trish's thoughts.
The she-devil saw Eve was holding her very pregnant belly.
"These little devils are kicking up a storm here. Do you think they can sense the demons coming?" she asked.
"Honestly, I've no idea," Trish answered. "But even diluted, they are of Sparda's bloodline, so I wouldn't put it past them. Go sit down. I'll call you when they're close enough to hit."
She joined Lady. Before the latter could make some snide remark about Eve taking things easy she explained why Eve wasn't there.
"It seems Vergil's unborn babes are ready to come flying out and attack the nearest demon. Eve will join our fight as soon as that horde is close enough to make every bullet count."
"I wonder how much help she will be."
"As much as she possibly can, Lady." Trish answered curtly.
Lady cast a quick glance at her friend, and said, "Yes, you're right."
They continued watching the approaching army in silence.
ooOOoo
From the top of a comfortable litter, carried by four golems, Solaris looked out over her army of demons. Finally her own goal was in sight. Near enough seven days she had lost in that accursed little city waiting until one of her scouts had managed to sniff out Vergil's lair.
The fancy Fanshaah-run gambling place had traces of his scent, but not enough to be his residence. Solaris had ordered her demons to leave the place unmolested. She figured that Vergil had won it by killing the previous owner. Once Vergil was hers, so would this place be. A source of desperate souls like it used to be. And the Fanshaah? They always accepted the person who commanded them, cowardly vermin. No need to waste time subduing them. They were born defeated.
To her annoyance the city had been well defended by too many demon-hunters. Some of them had been different as well. Fiercer, with near-demonic strength and speed. She had done all she could to keep the bulk of her army out of trouble, but demons are demons. Some had forgotten the careful training they had had and had just attacked without thinking, paying the ultimate price.
She had no time to worry about such deadbeats. The real soldiers were the demons she was driving towards her target: Vergil's mate. One of her scouts had sniffed out Vergil's scent in some lonely farm outside the city. She knew that was the place and had immediately set off on the march towards Vergil's home.
Had too few demons been left behind to take the city? What did she care. Her target was the human who had stolen Vergil from her and her revenge on the woman who dared to bear Vergil's children. Ruling this world? That was her brother's goal. If he wanted this world he should get it himself.
As the demon horde got closer to the lonely farm Solaris saw two figures looking out at them. She expected them to run away as they got closer, but they didn't move. One of her scouts, who were leading the troop, came towards the back and started walking alongside the golems.
Solaris looked down at him.
"What?" she snapped.
"Mistress Solaris, I have recognised the two that are standing guard," the scout said.
"Well? Spit it out, man. Or do you want me to read the answer from your entrails?" Solaris asked.
She was irritated by the long walk which wasn't as comfortable as it should have been. Those damned golems didn't know how to walk in pace and made her litter rock up and down, left to right like a boat on a stormy sea. It made her feel queasy which did nothing to improve her temper.
"One is a human demon-hunter who works with the younger son of Sparda. The other one is the treacherous she-devil, Trish. The one who aided the son of Sparda to defeat our Lord Mundus."
"Good," Solaris said. "It will be a pleasure to kill them. If that's the only threat that stands between us and our goal, we've as good as won."
"Of course, Mistress," the scout answered.
Suddenly there was an explosion up the front. The squadron that headed the demon army was all but destroyed.
"Spread out!" Solaris shouted. "They can't protect every side of this place. Surround the enemy and attack from all sides. Kill the huntress and the traitor but bring me Vergil's mate alive. Do you hear? I want the human who took Vergil from me alive!"
ooOOoo
Lady and Trish saw the demon troops disperse, surrounding the property. While she could hit clusters of demons Lady kept shooting her rocket launcher, killing several demons with each shot. To save the little ammo she had for Kalina Ann, she stopped when too few enemies could be killed with each shot. She changed to her guns and waited until the demons came within firing range.
Eve had suddenly felt a surge of energy and had joined the two devil-hunters. In the past week she had practiced with her guns whenever she could. She had wanted to be as accurate as Trish and Lady even if she couldn't be as fast and Lady insinuating that she was just a useless love-smitten airhead had made her more determined.
True, since Vergil's arrival Eve had neglected her daily practice sessions, especially once he had voiced his disdain for guns. No more though. If they came out of this war alive she would make sure she became as good as the devil hunters.
When the demons had come close enough the three women started to shoot. The enemy tried to get into the yard but failed utterly. The weakest were blasted by the wards Vergil had put in place, or at the very least seriously harmed. Nothing penetrated the protective shell from the outside, but the bullets fired by the women found their marks. It was exactly like a shooting gallery with moving targets.
"Are they really that stupid?" Eve asked when they kept trying to enter the yard despite the numbers that had fallen to the women's marksmanship.
"I don't think Solaris is the best tactician," Trish answered. "But even she will eventually realise she can't keep losing her soldiers."
Trish proved to be right, even if it did take until late the following day before the demons withdrew to a safe distance.
ooOOoo
Solaris was pacing back and forth like a caged animal. Her soldiers kept well away from her. Any who came within reach got a kick from the infuriated demoness.
"Where are the idiots who should have broken those wards by now?" she shouted.
"Still busy trying, Mistress," one demon said.
He didn't dare to add that only a few were left, the others having been used for target practice by the women inside.
"Three days we've been here. I can smell the puny human who stole Vergil from me. She should be squirming on the ground at my feet by now; crying from the pain I caused her; shivering in abject fear. Instead she's still safe inside those wards. Why are they still in place?" Solaris fumed.
There was no answer this time. Solaris just kept pacing, snarling, and shouting out her anger at everybody and everything but mainly at Vergil and the human he had married.
A puny little devil approached the she-devil, staying at a safe distance.
"Mistress Solaris?" it squeaked trying to catch her attention.
"WHAT?"
She swirled around facing the creature that had dared interrupt her latest tirade.
"Hmm … I … I've examined the ward, and … well … I believe I know … what kind … it … is," he stammered, his voice trailing off to noting as he stared into her blazing eyes.
"Out with it, or I'll beat the words out of you, you worm!"
The little devil pulled all his courage together from the deepest reaches of his body and said, "There are multiple layers, but the main ward is an ancient Fanshaah blood-ward. I didn't know anybody still knew how to work those. Certainly the Fanshaah don't know anymore. It's a thing of beauty, really, and- "
"Can you break it?" Solaris interrupted.
"If you had the blood, yes, there might be a way," the devilkin said. "I detect Sparda blood, demon blood - Trish's presumably - and two types of human blood."
"AND WHERE AM I GOING TO GET THAT BLOOD!" Solaris was beside herself with anger.
The stupidity of the little runt. The traitor and the humans were safe behind the ward and the only sources of Sparda's blood were out of reach.
She was lunging at the useless creature when it said, as loud as it could, "There may be a source."
Solaris stopped, lifting the scrawny devil by the scruff of the neck.
"Explain!"
"In the Lab in the Demon Realm. A sample of the blood of Sparda's mate, mother of his sons, and source of the demoness Trish. Not an exact match but it could be close enough to weaken the ward. Cause it to tear in places."
Solaris put the little devil down.
"I need four volunteers to go to the Demon Realm. One at least needs to know how to open a portal. There will be a reward for the brave soldiers who take on the task," Solaris said loud enough for her entire army to hear.
By now the entire troupe knew that the sons of Sparda had gone to face Mundus. None volunteered, preferring not to be anywhere near Sparda's offspring if they could help it.
Solaris continued, "I need four brave men to go to the Laboratory where Trish was created. To break to ward we need a vial of blood from Sparda's human bitch."
Six demons came forward.
"Which one of you can create a portal?" Solaris asked.
One of the six stepped forward.
"Good! You'll be the leader of this expedition. Now choose three of these men to accompany you," Solaris said.
The newly appointed commander selected the three that were least likely to stab him in the back. Not that he would trust them. Devils and demons could not be totally trusted. That was a given. Two were as close to friends as a devil could have. The third one? Well, accidents happened, didn't they?
"These are the companions I chose, Mistress," the commander said.
Solaris looked at the four devils.
"Go, my brave soldiers," she said. "Bring back the blood that will give us access to our goal, and you will feast on the flesh of the traitor and the human devil-hunter."
The four bowed, smiling in anticipation of the feast that would be their reward. Then they set off. It was impossible to open a portal this close to the warded property. And the further away they were the more accurate the destination of the portal would be.
Solaris now had to wait for the return of her soldiers with the precious blood. Her impatience still got the better of her at times. She would vent all her anger in pointless attacks on the wards – from a safe distance, of course. At least it gave her some relief and didn't cost her any men.
ooOOoo