AN: please read the Author's Notes below I have an important announcement


"They're sparring again?" Nero inquired, watching as his parents locked blades outside his home.

"Well, I did catch them playing a game of Karuta earlier" Dante - who was also watching the two - replied, "I tried to join in, but Vergil lovingly jammed the Yamato through my chest"

"Okay... so who's winning?"

"Usually it's very close, and then it ends with your deadbeat dad winning" the older devil hunter explained, "kinda got bored with that usual gimmick, so I gave your mother a helping hand without her knowing"

"What the hell did you do, Dante?" Nero deadpanned, but the older half-demon waved it off.

"When they're about to transform, you'll see" Dante smirked, "but until then, why not sit down and enjoy a slice of pizza I brought with me?"


Ei dodged an incoming phantom blade as she began close the distance in the blink of an eye: in each spar, she kept note of her progression as it improved little by little. But the moment she saw his demonic half taking over his form, she knew she had to follow suit.

But unlike all the times whenever she ascends to her baleful shadowlord form, this time felt... different... as in she felt faster, even stronger than before. And if she thought she had complete mastery over storms, she somehow felt even more in tune with it than usual.

She suddenly moved with frightening speed, causing the cambion to block immediately as the massive sword nearly came down on his head: as she watched him block her attack, she had noticed he was staggering, even moreso than usual.

This was it: after all those sparring matches, has she finally caught up with his level? For the moment of truth, the two doll-like hands below her began burrowing deep underground, chasing after the half devil above as he created distance between himself and her.

"This is the end" he declared, before moving at time-breaking speeds. Before the dark-forged blade managed to strike, the hands that had burrowed underground managed to catch him off guard as it struck him from below and had clasped themselves onto him like in one of their previous duels.

"Indeed" Ei said, placing the massive blade near his neck to prevent him from performing any attempt to escape: "it's over"

She watches as the half demon reverted to his human form, then she followed suit as she returned to her normal state.

"I swore that I would best you in our duels one day..." she muttered aloud, "now I've finally done it"

As she walked towards the half demon before her, a suddenly clink! was heard. The two turned to the direction of the sound to see a round object beside Ei's feet, all with what seems to be some sort of loose tape attached to it.

"This is... curious..." both muttered aloud, before Ei picked up the strange object.


"So you're telling me you had that thing ever since Dumary Island?" Nero asked.

"Yep, didn't feel like pawning it like most of the devil arms" the older hunter replied, eating another slice of pizza from the box next to him: as he turned back to the younger devil hunter, he noticed the annoyed look on Nero's face.

And then he got grabbed by the collar by Nero's phantom arms...

"Are you fucking kidding me right now?" The young devil hunter snarled, "you're telling me that all this time, you've been selling demonic WEAPONS... to a pawnshop?!"

"Relax, my guy doesn't exactly sell them per se" Dante attempted to soothe, but ultimately fails: "made sure of that. Although Trish seems to be borrowing some of those weapons since Sparda's no longer available to wield, given I once saw her using Alastor in one of our jobs."

"Every moment, your face begins to look more and more punchable" Nero sighed, letting go of Dante's collar: "alright, how many did you pawned?"

"How many games do we have in our series?" The older devil hunter asked.

"What was that?"

"Nevermind, you wouldn't understand"


A day later...

"Dante, can we not do this?" Nero asked, watching as his pizza-addicted uncle rummaged through his father's coat.

"Why not? He's bound to be hiding something in these pockets" Dante said, still thoroughly checking his brother's coat. Upon placing his hand in one last pocket, he felt a round object brush his fingertips: "aha! There is something in here!"

The older devil pulled out the mysterious item in an exaggerated fashion, but in doing so, his eyes widened at the sight: a purple, oval-shaped gem was in the palm of his hand, its ominous glow flickering in the young devil hunter's sight.

"The hell is that?" Nero asked, while Dante's surprised expression turned sour.

"That dumbass kept it after all this time?!" The older devil hunter roared suddenly, startling Nero in the process.

"Can you tell me what's going on? I'm kinda lost" Nero asked, before a familiar blade impaled Dante's arm that was holding the mysterious gem.

"It is called a 'power stone'" Vergil explained, grabbing the stone while simultaneously pulling the Yamato's blade off of Dante: "as for how I got it..."


Vergil swung an overhead blow, only to be blocked by the rebellion's blade as Dante flung him towards the ground: he was so close, so close! To finally achieving the ultimate power that the world him and his brother were pulled into had to offer. And yet?

"Come on, get up!" His brother goaded, "you can do better than that!"

Easy for him to say, seeing as he held a purple stone in his hand. Vergil then pulled out another sword, its bright red blade shined dangerously.

"The Muramasa... how the hell did you- wait..." Dante realized, before a scowl came to his face: "What happened to Logan, Vergil?!"

"None of your concern" Vergil replied, before charging head on: with The Yamato in his hand and The Muramasa in the other, each hit would be far too risky. Damte jumped aside as Vergil came crashing down with both blades, seemingly intent on-

"He's trying to cut my hand" Dante muttered, blocking a strike as Vergil attempted to close the distance again: he ended up receiving a gash on his chest by the Muramasa, not realizing he had accidentally left a part of himself susceptible to attacks. The Muramasa's ability went into effect as his wound was inflamed and refused to heal, he ended up dropping the stone after the Yamato impaled his arm.

Grabbing the purple stone, Vergil finally felt it: power... pure, unfiltered power coursing through his veins.

He was complete


"And it took a lot of us - even Banner - to wriggle those two things out of your grasp" Dante muttered, feeling the spot where the Muramasa blade wound once was: "how did you even get it back?"

"I have my ways" Vergil answered, "unfortunately the stone doesn't even work anymore"

"What? Surely you must be pulling my leg" Dante chuckled, before snatching the stone from his brother's hand: he lightly punched Nero in the shoulder, but nothing happened.

"Huh, you're right" Dante said, "that alone would've sent Nero through a building's worth of walls..."

"A building's worth of walls, you say?" Nero said, his voice sounding irritated: Dante looked to see a sinister grin appearing on his nephew's face, all the while his winged arms materialized, cracking its knuckles. "Let me try"


"Nero!" Kyrie barged in, "I heard a scream, did something happen?!"

She looked to see a busted hole in their ceiling right above Nero, alongside his father wearing a proud expression on his face.

"Oh uh, about that..." the young devil said, scratching the back of his head sheepishly: "I'll fix it later..."


AN: SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG'S A BITCH ASS MOTHERFUCKER! HE PISSED ON MY FUCKING WIFE!

Lmao okay, jokes aside, I do have something important to talk about.

I am having difficulty on the siblings of Nero, given because there's a lot of factors needed to be considered and some of them make it difficult.

There were five choices I had, and most of them were Genshin. I say most because there was one choice I was going for the most and it was a character in honkai impact: Raiden Mei

Raiden Mei was by far originally my favored choice due to the following factors:

- Ei is mentioned to be loosely based off of her (share some similarity in appearance, can wield the element of lightning, transformation involves an extra set of arms)

- Vergil moveset (has combo A, C, rising star, JC)

However - much to my chagrin - it was difficult to explain how (early chapters explained Vergil didn't fully understand the Yamato's space-time ability and it took until Nero to return home) and why Vergil decided to punt her into another world entirely, so I had decided to not include her.

So the last ones that could be chosen on the list are the following:

- The Kamisato siblings (Ayato and Ayaka, they're a two in one package if one of them is chosen)

- Keqing and Razor

I'm pretty sure after mentioning Razor, y'all are probably wondering why considering his moveset is more akin to Nero's: the mystery behind his biological family makes things easier for me to do, and because the concept of Vergil having two feral children is funny as hell despite realizing that Razor was pretty much implied that he was left to die until Andrius took him in. So yeah, I need your help with this.

Despite the intention of the siblings originally being a surprise, I'm keeping secret on how Nero will meet them.

Still genuinely upset about the difficulty explaining Raiden Mei without having to contradict aspects of my story, because I would've automatically picked Razor and make a stupid joke about this family's belief in arms = more power (yes, Vergil counts because he stole Deadweight's arm)

Oh by the way, the item that helped Ei win against Vergil was the amulet in DMC2: primarily it equipe the quick, offence, and electro hearts.