It had been a week since Sensui's attack. A long week of testing his mettle against lesser demons, practicing his aim with his summoned swords, and testing the limits of his devil form. And yet, Vergil had made a sum total of zero progress towards his goal of reclaiming his blade.
None whatsoever.
Vergil was starting to get frustrated. What piece of the puzzle was he missing? What knowledge did he lack? Why wasn't any of his training and research unlocking his innate demonic potential?
Sure, he could shift into his devil form at any time he wished to. But he preferred to only use said form as a last resort. It was his truest self, and he wished to reserve showing it to only the best opponents, so that they had the honor of knowing the true nature of the being who beat them: a demon tainted by human blood, but still able to overpower them despite its limitations.
He knew instinctively that his devil form wasn't the farthest he could go. But he didn't know how to unlock any further form. Stabbing himself hadn't done a thing, and neither did letting any opponent harm him enough to make him shift.
He growled, frustrated.
And then, he sensed a horde of lesser demons approaching him, and he smiled.
It was time to prove his skills once again.
There were more than he had expected: at few common Japanese Ogres, joined by a small army of the usual furies and empusae that chased him. He was honestly surprised at Mundus's dedication to his death, and simultaneously honored that he thought he was a threat worth chasing halfway across the world.
"A half-breed," One of the Ogres jeered. "Your blood will be a great appetizer for our first feast in the human world!"
The other ogres jeered, and raised their weapons.
"Spare me the theatrics, scum," Vergil growled, summoning a volley of glowing swords around him. "Die."
He summoned another sword into his hand, and leapt into the fray as the demons charged at him.
He mowed most of them down one by one, slicing and dodging and sending summoned swords towards his opponents with precision. But soon, he began to lose track of his opponents, unused to fighting without the Yamato at his side.
He snarled, and, out of sheer desperation, he shifted into his demonic form, speeding up the fight by a good margin and leaving the corpses of his attackers in his wake.
He shifted back to his usual form…only to sense an even more powerful demon appear in the trees by the clearing as soon as he did.
The demon flitted over to Vergil, casually showing off speed that even he would only attempt during battle. Vergil sensed the sheer amount of energy the demon had at his disposal, despite the fact that the demon only came up to his shoulder at best.
"Hn," the demon snarled, ruby red eyes locking onto Vergil. "A group of full-blooded demons, beaten by a half demon with barely any effort. Perhaps the human race isn't completely doomed."
Vergil straightened up, and summoned more swords around him. His instincts screamed that this spiky-haired demon was dangerous, and he wasn't foolish enough to believe that a full-blooded demon would ever avoid an opportunity to wipe out half-breed filth. Especially one as powerful as the small demon in front of him.
"Then consider it a favor that I'm putting you out of your misery now," he retorted.
The demon smirked, and threw off the dark dress-like cloak that covered him, unveiling a strangely shaped Katana.
"Full demon or not, you're not even worth my time," the demon replied. "I assure you, I've beaten demons that could make beating you look like swatting a particularly bothersome fly."
The bandanna around his forehead dissolved from the energy emanating from the third eye it revealed. A troublesome ability, but something Vergil would be able to handle as long as he didn't look too deeply into the third eye and did his best to block its line of sight as soon as possible.
So, instead of replying to the demon's taunts and standing around, he decided to send a summoned sword to the demon's gut and get the fight over with.
The demon merely evaded the blow, as Vergil expected, and reappeared behind him, katana drawn and ready to strike. So, in turn, Vergil reappeared above him, sending a horde of summoned swords down upon him.
The demon merely decided to switch to a full frontal assault, only for Vergil to block his every strike blow for blow, and dodge for dodge.
He smirked. Finally, after a week of testing his mettle against weaklings, he had found a demon who might actually pose a challenge for him to beat.
The chase was on.
Vergil is doing the whole "Why isn't this working?" bit here lmao. "I NEED MORE POWER!" Uh... okay dude. Calm down.
Enter everyone's favorite short and abrasive demon, stage right! We're finally going to meet the main 4 soon! Yay! The Hiei vs Vergil confrontation ended up being so long I split it into two chapters (this one and the next.) Once I get done with the chapter after that, I'll post part 2.
Enjoy!
