[DANTE]
The burnt down little mining town – the rubble was hours hold, same with the scent of that little devil child – was reduced to practically nothing by the time Dante and Lady were done here, and normally, Dante would feel bad, but.
Eh.
Then again, the moment they stepped foot in this place earlier, a Devil came flying out of nowhere – actually from the fake, little Hellgate – and attacked them, and like the good Devil Hunters they were, they of course removed the problematic, pyromaniac Devil. Who was yelling about 'Berial' and 'father' and 'His Darkness will hear about this'.
Weird stuff.
Anyway, fast forward from that little scuffle leads them to the current situation; the little mining town that's already gone is practically non-existent now, the fake Hellgate destroyed – Lady and her trigger-happy self – and Dante in possession of a new Devil Arm, which was powering the Hellgate until Dante took the Devil Arm for his own.
Lucifer would make a nice addition to his collection. A pity that the new fire Devil didn't produce a Devil Arm, but oh well. He can't complain too much, and most likely that Devil was still too weak to manifest its Devil Arm form.
"So, what now?" Lady asks, reloading Kalina Ann's explosive rounds, having used quite a bit when she blasted the Hellgate to kingdom come. "We're going to go ahead and head up to the castle?"
Dante walks around the place for a bit, humming low in his throat. The demonic energies around the Hellgate is far more warped, a concentrated spot of erratic energy signatures that he didn't notice until he's standing next to it. Considering Yamato's energy is far stronger and far more familiar to Dante, he's not surprised he accidentally overlooked this thing. Besides, compared to The Hell Gate in the main city, this fake wasn't all that threatening. Relatively speaking, of course.
Hmm, what to do, what to do. Ideally, he wants to wait for Trish for further updates, but considering she went into radio silence hours prior, he has to play the waiting game for her, and hope they run into each other somewhere in this blasted island. Lady's suggestion – and their earlier plan – to head up to the castle is sound. For one, it sticks out like a sore thumb – and Dante has experience with lonely castles found on islands – and with the sheer size of it, coupled with the strategic location, they're both confident that the place hides so many interesting things.
So many interesting, demonic things, most likely. Dante feels a headache brewing inside his noggin.
Ah, what to do…
"Babe, could you hand me your phone for a bit?" Dante brings a hand up, easily snatching said phone when Lady tosses it at his head. He swipes it open, thumbing through menus and scrolling through Lady's extensive contact lists.
He wonders why Lady keeps milking him for money when she apparently has… 20…. No, 30 more people to shake down? Tsk, the fairer sex really is crazier, huh?
Dante grins when he finally finds the contact simply named with a cat emoji, and he taps on it, pressing call and bringing the phone to his ear. He motions for Lady to go ahead, to climb the hill, but as expected, the stubborn woman merely stabs Kalina Ann into the ground, and leans against it, crossing her arms for good measure. Lady even has the gall to whistle.
Dante laughs quietly, shaking his head, before walking over to a sturdy piece of rock, whipping his coat out before taking a seat, one ankle resting over his knee. The phone in his hand is still ringing.
"Hello?"
Until it isn't. Dante perks up, a grin brightening up his face as the call finally connects, a very familiar voice reaching his ear through the phone's speakers.
"Lucy! Hey, it's been a while, yeah?" Dante exclaims, feeling warm. It's true. It's been a while since he talked with one of his oldest friends. Besides, this particular friend was a no show for the past… couple years, busy with one thing or another, always in another country, always so far away. "Did I disturb you?"
The one on the other end of the call laughs, quiet and fond. "No, Dante, I'm not busy." There's a thoughtful pause. "At least, not yet. Anyway, I feel like this isn't a simple call, Dante. Do you need something?"
Ack. That obvious, huh? Then again, Dante wasn't quite social lately… Didn't call his close peers for the past few months, aside from Lady and Trish… Then again, those two go to him, and not the other way around…
Anyway.
"Uh, yeah. Sort of." Dante clears his throat. "You heard of Fortuna, right? Fortuna Island."
The silence is…. Worrying. "Dante, what did you do this time." Not even the decency to phrase it like a question, really! His friends are a bunch of traitors, so happy to throw him under the bus, leave him hanging-
Dante chuckled, shaking his head even though it can't be seen by his old friend. "For once, it wasn't me!" The silence was sceptical. He didn't know silence can even do that. "Really! Look, I'm here on Fortuna Island because Lady got some really good intel. Not to mention first-hand account. There's… there's a group here that's obviously up to no good, and since my Dearest Father is involved – can you believe that Lucy, the audacity of these idiots – I gotta go and clean up. Right?"
"Mhm." Ah, still so disbelieving. Then again, Dante doesn't blame his old friend. "Continue."
"Fortuna is home to a cult that worships Sparda of all things. Would've let it go, but they've been muddying up waters a little bit, especially in the hunter community. Butting in on jobs, nabbing Devil Arms left and right, making a nuisance of themselves, when they've secluded themselves for so long." Centuries long, Dante doesn't say out loud. "To make things worse, we found even more red flags than expected. Oh, I'm here with Lady and Trish, just to clarify."
There's a hiss, and shuffling of cloth. "What red flags?"
Dante hums. "Human to demon transformation."
There's another hiss this time, but much more agitated. "Damn."
"Yeah…" Dante sighs, bracing an elbow on his knee. "They have an entire organization of corrupted humans, and with what I've seen so far, their fighting force is made up entirely of corrupted humans, some of them on the brink of total transformation. I don't know about the desk-workers of the group, and the civilians are clean, but considering this cult runs the whole island, it's a bomb waiting to go off."
"You really landed on something this time, huh?" A sigh. "What's up with your luck?"
Dante grins unrepentantly. "Luck? I don't know her."
Another sigh, this time fond and exasperated in equal measures. "Give the phone to Lady. I want the full thing." Dante pouts, but obediently gets up and hands Lady the phone, who gives him a raised eyebrow. Dante merely pushes the phone into her hand, before pacing away, whistling to himself while Lady gives the whole story, far more detailed and specific than Dante's shoddy attempt.
He knows Lady will be regurgitating everything she said weeks before, and then retelling their current shenanigans, so Dante feels safe in letting his mind wander, staring in the distance, not really seeing anything, but his senses attuned to Yamato's energy blanketing the whole place. Here, right around where the Hell Gate used to be, the energy is fluctuating too erratically, a little on the weak side.
Probably because the Hell Gate was used, was opened, and portals leading to the Underworld always leave disturbances, leaves evidences of its usage, especially obvious to those who know what to look for. Know what to feel for.
Like Dante, for example.
Dante regards the fake portal – what was left of it, anyways – as he brings a hand up to his chin, rubbing at the stubble there, absent-minded and contemplative. There were a lot of questions running in his head, and very few he can question with surety. Questions like, 'why make false Hell Gates?', 'if there's a Hell Gate here, are there others?', 'what is the purpose of these Hell Gates?' have no answers, at least, not yet, and Dante already resigns himself to getting to the bottom of the truth about these honestly alarming man-made Hell Gates.
For being made by humans… These Hell Gates are worryingly powerful. It leaves ash in his mouth, but Dante has to admit their creator is a genius. A madman, yes, but then again, sanity was the price to pay for such gifts.
He needs to be put down, whoever this mad genius is.
Dante is interrupted from his thoughts by Lady, and he turns to her, smiling. Silently, she holds out the phone back to him, and her expression is carefully neutral, giving nothing away. Dante sighs, the smile sliding of his face. He has a clue about what's going to happen next.
"Lucy?" At the nickname, Lady's smile twitched upwards briefly, before she looks away, busying herself with her guns, checking over them obsessively once more. "Still there?"
"Dante…" There was a sigh, and Dante breathes softly. He's right. "I'd… I'd help, but…"
"That's cool, that's cool," Dante hurries to assure, because really? It's fine. Sure he would've liked it if he was able to solve this problem with another friend, but, he out of all people knows that sometimes, you really just… Can't leave. "It's no problem. Really!"
"I'm sorry-"
"Look, how about this?" Dante tries, cutting in. "Next trouble I find myself in, I'm calling you, or get the girls to call you, yeah?"
There was a bit of silence. "… Dante, I don't think that's how it works." But there was amusement this time, so Dante does a fist pump in self-congratulations. Sad friend cancelled; crisis-averted! A victory for Dante, yeah!
"Well, I'm deciding that's how it works so, anyway, duty calls, Lucy!" Sputtering on the other end, and Dante allows himself to grin, pleased. "Gotta go, bye!"
"Wait, Dante-!" Dante presses the end button, and turns off the phone for good measure, before tossing the phone to Lady, who catches it with ease and a look of fond exasperation on her face. Dante just grins at her, shooting her finger guns as he starts walking.
"Must you really act like this Dante?" She asks rhetorically, shouldering Kalina Ann and following easily, out of the mining village, and up the path carved into the cliff, leading into the base of the mountain.
Dante shoots an innocent look over his shoulder at her. Well, as innocent as someone like him could be. "I'm not acting though." Big lie, and from Lady's eye roll, she's thinking the same thing.
Lady opens her mouth to retort, keep up the banter, their game, but there's a violent crash, somewhere deeper within the mines itself, and two Hunters exchanged wary glances, before moving as one. Dante in the lead, and Lady in the back, switching to smaller firearms, already cocked and loaded. The sight that greets them had their eyes going wide in alarm, and Lady darts forward faster than even Dante.
"Trish!" Lady calls out, panic in her voice, and she drops to her knees beside Trish's disguised form, who is on her knees, a hand on her stomach-
"You're bleeding!" Lady snarls, and she pulls out a small, star-shaped glass from her pocket of wonders, and Trish – her face different, her hair different, her form different, but the same eyes, same voice, same attitude – just gives the lone human a grin, far too sultry for her injured state.
"Aw, are you worried about lil' old me?" She winces when her shifting made her wound open, gushing blood, and the water pooling at the bottom of this broken mining shaft is starting to darken, starting to become red, stained with Trish's blood- "Don't worry- Dante!"
Dante has scooped up Trish, not caring about her outfit, her looks, only caring that Trish is injured and those who did it better be ready. He's not feeling particularly forgiving at the moment. Not feeling…. Nice.
He sets down Trish on the base of the conveniently located Divinity Statue, and Lady descends upon Trish again, snarling lowly, practically shoving a Vital Star down the blonde's throat, before whipping out a thick roll of bandage and dressing the wound, despite it unnecessary for a demon who can heal herself. Yet Trish allows her, more for Lady's peace of mind than anything else, and Trish turns her ice blue eyes to Dante instead, who watches on quietly, stonily.
She sobers, and her fanciful disguise melts away, like mist dropping, and Trish's true face is revealed once more. Her expression is tight, unsettled. "They found me out, Dante." Is what she says, and Dante sucks a hissing breath in.
Damn.
"How?" He almost snaps, because without Trish working from the inside of the Order, they're going to go in blind. Nothing new, but still troublesome.
Trish shakes her head, drinks more Vital Star when Lady growls at her again. "I don't know. I was bound to report our latest mission, when I was escorted, then attacked. Older batch of Knights, all corrupted. One of them isn't a soul encased in an armour; he turned into a full Artificial Demon. I took him out, but the rest got the drop on me." She says, she gestures to her stomach. "Whatever they're doing to those kids Dante, it's inhuman. It's sick."
Lady stands up with an angry grunt, pacing, pacing, her hands itching towards her guns in agitation. Dante understands, wouldn't blame her if she suddenly starts shooting at the walls of the mine. "Well, we could stop them if we knew where the hell they are!" She growls.
Silence from Trish, and Dante and Lady turns to her, their eyes narrowed, lips pressed into thin lines. Trish smiles at the humourlessly. She speaks.
"I know where they are."