Chapter Nine - Arson, The One and Only
"This is so gross," Alca said as we truged through the so-called underworld. Otherwise called the "Big, nasty, icky-thing maze". It was practically the same as being in the stomach of some kind of wierd monster... or a demon perhaps. I wondered why anything would actually want to dwell here.
"Home sweet home," I said as we traveled the wet, slobbery hallways.
"Yeah, for demons," Alca said impatiently.
"Well, what do you suppose we are in this world?"
"Good point,"
"I'm glad that's understood. Now stop whining and pick up the pace,"
As we continued walking through the underworld's hallways - intially one would immediately think intestines - we reached a door of some kind. It look like a thin sheet of red, pulsating flesh. Being the oh-so-violent person I am, I sliced the door open without a second thought.
Talk about shocking. Behind door #1 was a place I had never seen before. It looked like a prison, dank and deep.
"Ooooooooo crap!" I nearly yelled, getting more mad by the second.
"What?" Alca said, worry deep in her voice. "What's wrong?"
"I have no clue where we are! This wasn't in the game.... or anything else I've read about Devil May Cry."
"So.... no more guide?"
I nodded. "No more guide."
She shrugged. "Well... we better make the best of it. This looks like a prison.... maybe Mundus keeps prisoners here. Maria might be here!"
"True, very true," I said as we got on the road again, passing the jail cells one by one, looking in each to see something, anything, that looked alive or familiar.
"Woah!" I finally yelled out, "It's getting really hot in here, and its heating up very quickly."
"Yeah," I saw Alca holding her nose. "And it reeks!"
"Smells like...sulfur?"
"And how would you know?"
"I've been to a volcano before, Mrs. Wise-Ass."
"Whatever. Hey - " she said, pointing to one of the cells, "what's that?"
We looked in only to wish we hadn't.
"That would be a corpse I believe," I said, holding my nose also.
It looked somewhat like a human's body, but its skin was a deep black, and it had a charred texture. I could see the body was also steaming. It's mouth was wide open, as if in protest of being killed.
"Ugh!" Alca yelled, jumping back.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" I turned around quickly at the voice, obviously male. It had a gravelly voice, and sounded like two people speaking at once. What my eyes met up with was also very shocking. A little ways from us, stood some kind of... creature. It looked like a boy, around my age, with brown hair. The eyes are what caught my attention though. They were red. Glowing red. His face had an innocent, boyish apperance and he also looked like he was covered in something. It looked sort of like roots, but with the color of a polished bone. Right in the middle of his chest was a giant eye, staring straight at me. It was red also, but it didn't glow, and parts were yellow. He walked towards us akwardly, like he was trying to run in both directions.
"What do you mean beautiful?! It certainly isn't!" Alca started releasing some of her disgustedness onto him. "I hope your not about to tell me this is your handy work?"
"Oh.... but it is. And you'll soon be just like him. Or should I say it? Humans are such low-level creatures, they're not even worth noticing." he responded, with a harsh edge to his voice.
"Geez, someone got on the wrong side of Hell today." I grumbled to myself. "But that thing on his chest.... it looks like an Infestant!" (By the way, and Infestant is a demon who infests things, objects and people mostly, and bends them to it's will.)
From where I was near the cell with the smoking corpse, I saw the guy lift up two swords, which were on fire, and watched as he got ready to lunge towards Alca. "Alca!" I cried, seeing that she wasn't ready for the hit, "Go for his eye with your sword, but be quick!" She immediately responded by throwing herself to the left as the boy soared over her right shoulder, finally landing on the ground and turning around swiftly. He was VERY quick for someone who stumbled so much when they walked. I rolled into the brawl, my winged sword held outright, lunging towards him as his back was towards me. Without moving a muscle, he shot out a sword for my left rib when I was inches away from slicing his spine. I felt warm blood gush out of my side, spraying the floor in think droplets. I fell to the ground with a clatter, my sword sliding several feet away from my range of grasp. I held my side, trying to keep the blinding hot pain in my side, to keep it from spreading so much that I couldn't move. But I saw I hadn't the need. With my slowly darkening vision, I saw Alca reach into her side pocket and hold something above her head. She threw it at the ground - hard - and I heard the silence-breaking sound of crackling glass. A blue wave arched its way through the room, passing over everything without a change, except the boy. I saw it obviously pained him when it touched, the signs - his face in pain, the eyes bunched up, the swords falling to the ground with him beside them, the smell and sound of something boiling - were numerous. As I watched, amazed, I saw the root-like bindings sizzle, gush black, oily liquids onto the floor, and retreat from the body of a boy around my age. They made a sound, oddly like a screech, and disappeared into the dankness of the ground. My intelligent friend, a quick-thinker, had used a Holy Water.
Alcapacien ran over to my side swiftly, ignoring the form of our attacker for now. "Geeez! That's a bad gash! Are you alright?!" she said, turning me over gently to take a look.
"Don't worry, it'll heal soon. It just might hurt like Hell for a while..." I said as she helped me get onto my feet. I pointed over to the still downed form of the boy who attacked us. "Should we look and see if he's alright?" I asked quietly.
"Alright?! Who cares? He just tried to kill us, and almost did you in!" she shouted at me excitedly. "Your lucky you bought those earlier... or you would've been dead."
"Come on... it's not his fault. Didya see that white thing on him before? It was an Infestant. It was controlling him... besides, leaving him here wouldn't be a good idea either. Someone might find him and figure an intruder was taking a stroll through the Underworld."
"Well... if you say so." She helped me steadily to my feet and we made our way over to him. I could tel he was still alive, his chest lifted and fell with hard, ragged breaths. That Holy Water musta hurt like crazy compared to what he did to me. "Hey? You alright?" Alca said over his head, poking him. Standing this close, I couldn't help noticing how handsome he was. I blushed slightly as Alca pushed him harder.
"Geez.... don't do that again." he groaned, coughing up a little sputter of blood. "It hurts..."
"Well," Alca announced to me, "I think he's alive still."
"Naw, really? When didya figure that out?" I responded to her sarcastically. I turned back to him. "You okay? You look a bit beat up..."
"Oooo! Idea!" Alca took a green orb out of her pouch. She held it over him, and we watched it turn into a hazy green mist and flow into his body.
He immediately started healing, all visible wounds practically evaporating. He sat up quickly.
"You okay?" I asked again.
"I think I'll be all right... thanks by the way." he turned to look at us and shock hit his face at once. "Who are you?! And what might you be doing in a place like this?"
"Well... your welcome first of all. This is Alcapacien, and I'm Xyphos. We're here searching for our friend." I immediately answered. He nodded in acknowledgement. I could tell he was somehow, at least, part demon, I just didn't know how exactly. I guess... to put it in simple terms.. I just felt it. I answered truthfully because I could feel that we could trust him. He looked at least trustworthy. "So... now that I've answered your questions, what's your name and why are you here?"
"Well.... to be truthful, I don't know. I don't even remember what happened before I woke up. And my name..." he hesistated at this, me and Alca could tell he didn't feel very comfortable giving out his name, "it's..... Arson."
"Well, that's a very cool name I must say." he smiled a little at this, I guess he was ashamed of his name, "Since now we're all aquainted an' stuff, and we're probably going the same way, mind if you come with us?" I asked as sweet as I could. I knew we were going to need more manpower to get through here. "Two girls in the Underworld alone... who knows what could happen!" Alca added on.
He cracked his neck several times and stood up before he answered. "Well.... since I don't remember anything, and you guys seem nice enough, sure, I guess I will. Plus, I owe you a favor since you healed me."
Alca sighed impatiently. "Ok! Good! Let's get going already... please? We need to find Maria soon!" she whined miserably.
We started off again, Arson leading in front with us following. "Before I woke up.." he suddenly asked, out of the blue, "what was I doing?"
"Well.... you were attacking us, y'see. You were being controlled by an Infestant." he nodded at this new slab of news. "We... er... Alca here, got rid of it, and then she healed you."
"Oh..." he muttered shyly, and I could see from my point-of-view that he was also blushing. "I hope I didn't hurt you..."
"Don't worry, " I said, massaging my ribs as we spoke, "You only gave me a little cut, but it's healed by now."
"Come on!" Alca said, from her new position in front of us. She had at sometime got in front as we were talking. "Let's GO!"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Yay! Another new character! ^_^ Thankies a ton to Bustahead, a.k.a. Myst, who let me use her OC Arson. Arson is featured in all, or most, of her fanfics. I suggest you go read them. Well actually, I DEMAND that you do! ^_^ They're the best DMC fanfics I've seen for a loooong time, and she knows it too. ;) She's also done a big favour for me and used Xyphos in some of her fanfics! *Hug* Thanks a lot! Thanks a lot to all of those reviewers too! I love ya guys! ^_^
"This is so gross," Alca said as we truged through the so-called underworld. Otherwise called the "Big, nasty, icky-thing maze". It was practically the same as being in the stomach of some kind of wierd monster... or a demon perhaps. I wondered why anything would actually want to dwell here.
"Home sweet home," I said as we traveled the wet, slobbery hallways.
"Yeah, for demons," Alca said impatiently.
"Well, what do you suppose we are in this world?"
"Good point,"
"I'm glad that's understood. Now stop whining and pick up the pace,"
As we continued walking through the underworld's hallways - intially one would immediately think intestines - we reached a door of some kind. It look like a thin sheet of red, pulsating flesh. Being the oh-so-violent person I am, I sliced the door open without a second thought.
Talk about shocking. Behind door #1 was a place I had never seen before. It looked like a prison, dank and deep.
"Ooooooooo crap!" I nearly yelled, getting more mad by the second.
"What?" Alca said, worry deep in her voice. "What's wrong?"
"I have no clue where we are! This wasn't in the game.... or anything else I've read about Devil May Cry."
"So.... no more guide?"
I nodded. "No more guide."
She shrugged. "Well... we better make the best of it. This looks like a prison.... maybe Mundus keeps prisoners here. Maria might be here!"
"True, very true," I said as we got on the road again, passing the jail cells one by one, looking in each to see something, anything, that looked alive or familiar.
"Woah!" I finally yelled out, "It's getting really hot in here, and its heating up very quickly."
"Yeah," I saw Alca holding her nose. "And it reeks!"
"Smells like...sulfur?"
"And how would you know?"
"I've been to a volcano before, Mrs. Wise-Ass."
"Whatever. Hey - " she said, pointing to one of the cells, "what's that?"
We looked in only to wish we hadn't.
"That would be a corpse I believe," I said, holding my nose also.
It looked somewhat like a human's body, but its skin was a deep black, and it had a charred texture. I could see the body was also steaming. It's mouth was wide open, as if in protest of being killed.
"Ugh!" Alca yelled, jumping back.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" I turned around quickly at the voice, obviously male. It had a gravelly voice, and sounded like two people speaking at once. What my eyes met up with was also very shocking. A little ways from us, stood some kind of... creature. It looked like a boy, around my age, with brown hair. The eyes are what caught my attention though. They were red. Glowing red. His face had an innocent, boyish apperance and he also looked like he was covered in something. It looked sort of like roots, but with the color of a polished bone. Right in the middle of his chest was a giant eye, staring straight at me. It was red also, but it didn't glow, and parts were yellow. He walked towards us akwardly, like he was trying to run in both directions.
"What do you mean beautiful?! It certainly isn't!" Alca started releasing some of her disgustedness onto him. "I hope your not about to tell me this is your handy work?"
"Oh.... but it is. And you'll soon be just like him. Or should I say it? Humans are such low-level creatures, they're not even worth noticing." he responded, with a harsh edge to his voice.
"Geez, someone got on the wrong side of Hell today." I grumbled to myself. "But that thing on his chest.... it looks like an Infestant!" (By the way, and Infestant is a demon who infests things, objects and people mostly, and bends them to it's will.)
From where I was near the cell with the smoking corpse, I saw the guy lift up two swords, which were on fire, and watched as he got ready to lunge towards Alca. "Alca!" I cried, seeing that she wasn't ready for the hit, "Go for his eye with your sword, but be quick!" She immediately responded by throwing herself to the left as the boy soared over her right shoulder, finally landing on the ground and turning around swiftly. He was VERY quick for someone who stumbled so much when they walked. I rolled into the brawl, my winged sword held outright, lunging towards him as his back was towards me. Without moving a muscle, he shot out a sword for my left rib when I was inches away from slicing his spine. I felt warm blood gush out of my side, spraying the floor in think droplets. I fell to the ground with a clatter, my sword sliding several feet away from my range of grasp. I held my side, trying to keep the blinding hot pain in my side, to keep it from spreading so much that I couldn't move. But I saw I hadn't the need. With my slowly darkening vision, I saw Alca reach into her side pocket and hold something above her head. She threw it at the ground - hard - and I heard the silence-breaking sound of crackling glass. A blue wave arched its way through the room, passing over everything without a change, except the boy. I saw it obviously pained him when it touched, the signs - his face in pain, the eyes bunched up, the swords falling to the ground with him beside them, the smell and sound of something boiling - were numerous. As I watched, amazed, I saw the root-like bindings sizzle, gush black, oily liquids onto the floor, and retreat from the body of a boy around my age. They made a sound, oddly like a screech, and disappeared into the dankness of the ground. My intelligent friend, a quick-thinker, had used a Holy Water.
Alcapacien ran over to my side swiftly, ignoring the form of our attacker for now. "Geeez! That's a bad gash! Are you alright?!" she said, turning me over gently to take a look.
"Don't worry, it'll heal soon. It just might hurt like Hell for a while..." I said as she helped me get onto my feet. I pointed over to the still downed form of the boy who attacked us. "Should we look and see if he's alright?" I asked quietly.
"Alright?! Who cares? He just tried to kill us, and almost did you in!" she shouted at me excitedly. "Your lucky you bought those earlier... or you would've been dead."
"Come on... it's not his fault. Didya see that white thing on him before? It was an Infestant. It was controlling him... besides, leaving him here wouldn't be a good idea either. Someone might find him and figure an intruder was taking a stroll through the Underworld."
"Well... if you say so." She helped me steadily to my feet and we made our way over to him. I could tel he was still alive, his chest lifted and fell with hard, ragged breaths. That Holy Water musta hurt like crazy compared to what he did to me. "Hey? You alright?" Alca said over his head, poking him. Standing this close, I couldn't help noticing how handsome he was. I blushed slightly as Alca pushed him harder.
"Geez.... don't do that again." he groaned, coughing up a little sputter of blood. "It hurts..."
"Well," Alca announced to me, "I think he's alive still."
"Naw, really? When didya figure that out?" I responded to her sarcastically. I turned back to him. "You okay? You look a bit beat up..."
"Oooo! Idea!" Alca took a green orb out of her pouch. She held it over him, and we watched it turn into a hazy green mist and flow into his body.
He immediately started healing, all visible wounds practically evaporating. He sat up quickly.
"You okay?" I asked again.
"I think I'll be all right... thanks by the way." he turned to look at us and shock hit his face at once. "Who are you?! And what might you be doing in a place like this?"
"Well... your welcome first of all. This is Alcapacien, and I'm Xyphos. We're here searching for our friend." I immediately answered. He nodded in acknowledgement. I could tell he was somehow, at least, part demon, I just didn't know how exactly. I guess... to put it in simple terms.. I just felt it. I answered truthfully because I could feel that we could trust him. He looked at least trustworthy. "So... now that I've answered your questions, what's your name and why are you here?"
"Well.... to be truthful, I don't know. I don't even remember what happened before I woke up. And my name..." he hesistated at this, me and Alca could tell he didn't feel very comfortable giving out his name, "it's..... Arson."
"Well, that's a very cool name I must say." he smiled a little at this, I guess he was ashamed of his name, "Since now we're all aquainted an' stuff, and we're probably going the same way, mind if you come with us?" I asked as sweet as I could. I knew we were going to need more manpower to get through here. "Two girls in the Underworld alone... who knows what could happen!" Alca added on.
He cracked his neck several times and stood up before he answered. "Well.... since I don't remember anything, and you guys seem nice enough, sure, I guess I will. Plus, I owe you a favor since you healed me."
Alca sighed impatiently. "Ok! Good! Let's get going already... please? We need to find Maria soon!" she whined miserably.
We started off again, Arson leading in front with us following. "Before I woke up.." he suddenly asked, out of the blue, "what was I doing?"
"Well.... you were attacking us, y'see. You were being controlled by an Infestant." he nodded at this new slab of news. "We... er... Alca here, got rid of it, and then she healed you."
"Oh..." he muttered shyly, and I could see from my point-of-view that he was also blushing. "I hope I didn't hurt you..."
"Don't worry, " I said, massaging my ribs as we spoke, "You only gave me a little cut, but it's healed by now."
"Come on!" Alca said, from her new position in front of us. She had at sometime got in front as we were talking. "Let's GO!"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Yay! Another new character! ^_^ Thankies a ton to Bustahead, a.k.a. Myst, who let me use her OC Arson. Arson is featured in all, or most, of her fanfics. I suggest you go read them. Well actually, I DEMAND that you do! ^_^ They're the best DMC fanfics I've seen for a loooong time, and she knows it too. ;) She's also done a big favour for me and used Xyphos in some of her fanfics! *Hug* Thanks a lot! Thanks a lot to all of those reviewers too! I love ya guys! ^_^