Chapter Four: Attainment of Power
Vergil stood there, dancing his fingers on the back part of his amulet. The metal part which had a few inscriptions on it. A few seconds later, three doors appeared at the end of the circular room. A blue door, a red door, and a green door. Vergil removed his hand from the amulet and returned it to his side. He looked at the first door, the one to his right, the blue one. He approached it, frowning in concentration. He was still trying to figure out Jester's riddles. In fact, he still wasn't even sure why Jester was alive. After all Arkham was supposed to be dead. It was all mind numbing at the time.
"Let's see, what is this?" He asked himself under his breath.
The doors each said something different on them. Vergil read each one of them. The blue one said Path of Wisdom, the red one said Path of Attack, and the green one said Path of Power. Obviously Vergil chose the green one. He kicked the door open and entered it. Behind him, the door vanished once he went through, and he was trapped in the bizarre room.
"What the..."
In this room, were perfectly aligned stone pillars and a shiny, clean marble floor. The pathway between each side's pillars led to a blue light floating in mid-air at the far end of the room. Vergil walked towards the light, and when he reached it he extended his arm to hold it. But as soon as the tip of his fingers made contact with it, the light transformed into his greatest fear. He was shocked, and for the first time it could be seen on his face. He took a few steps backwards in awe and never ceased to stare at what was right in front of him.
"No..." Vergil mumbled.
He continued to step back as he saw a faint image of the battle he had with his brother earlier on, he couldn't tell how much time had passed since then because Hell seemed to have no time. He saw as he they clashed swords fiercely and transformed into their devil triggers slashing at each other furiously. The image then disappeared. He could hear now only voices recorded in his memory echoing in his mind.
'No matter how hard you try, you're never gonna be like father.'
'Might controls everything. Without strength you cannot protect anything. Let alone yourself.'
'Why do you refuse to attain power? The power of our father Sparda?'
'Father? I don't have a father.'
'I've come to retrieve my power, you can't handle it!'
Vergil opened his eyes. He was kneeling down on the floor, with his hands covering his ears and screaming as in some sort of emotional agony.
"STOP! STOP IT! PLEASE!"
When he returned to reality, he was in cold sweat, panting and gasping for breath. But it was far from over yet. The image of his recent fight with his brother returned, and it continued to play from a third person view. Meaning that he could see himself fail.
"No... I refuse to watch anymore!"
But he couldn't resist, the illusion in front of him had a strange hypnotizing effect. Even though he was conscious of what he was doing and didn't want to, he couldn't resist looking at the image of his worst failure.
Vergil held his free hand on his ribs. After a few word exchange with his brother, they both charged at each other and ran fiercely to clash swords once again. But Dante swiftly slashed him right on the torso and he dropped his amulet and the Force Edge. He took weak steps forward and grabbed his amulet. He turned around to look at his brother.
'No one can have this, Dante. It's mine, it belongs to a son of Sparda!'
Dante pleaded Vergil not to do anything foolish, but Vergil refused. He kept talking while he made his way to the edge of the watery cliff.
'After all, this was our father's home.'
He then dropped himself back as Dante ran up to him. He tried to grab Vergil but Vergil slashed his hand with Yamato. Vergil continued to fall into the abyss until no spot of him could be seen.
The actual Vergil suffered a lot from seeing this. That battle, that failure, that emotional exchange with his brother was his worst fear. He never wanted to see that again. Ever. He then suffered more as he saw Dante grab the Force Edge; not acknowledging the power it bestowed. Before he realized it, a tear fell down Vergil's cheek, and the illusion finally disappeared once more. It turned back into the blue light at the end of the room. Vergil, on his knees, sniffed once and dried his tear as he stood up.
"Devils never cry..." He quietly told himself.
Then, one last quote from his memory echoed in his head. One that he had said himself.
'No wonder your attainment of power is incomplete.'
He walked away as the green door reappeared. Before opening the green door, he looked back, and took a glimpse of the blue light one last time. He realized these three doors had trials for the person who entered them as nothing was what it seemed in the Underworld. That light never was power, but a punishment to those who picked that door to attain power...like he did. He had to suffer by reliving his worst fear, his worst memory.
"I am...incomplete..." Vergil told himself as he exited through the green door.
He was sad to learn that attaining power through another medium other than getting the Force Edge with the perfect amulet wasn't going to be easy. Especially attaining it in Hell. But he was determined to achieve power. Determined to erase that memory from his mind once he achieved what he failed to achieve then which made that memory his worst fear.
