The Skyline was impressively fast. Whatever Erika had done under the hood, it paid off. They reached the office in no time at all. Dante had gotten the formal introductions out of the way but other than that Erika wasn't in a talkative mood. Under normal circumstances this would have suited Dante just fine but with that cult involved it would have been nice to have some more info. So far the only person who knew anything and seemed willing to talk was Wilson and Dante couldn't exactly beat it out of him, as much as he wanted to. As they got out of the car Dante felt uneasy. He looked around. Out of the shadows stepped a man in a black robe. The same man from the racers party. His robes were torn now but he seemed to be wrapped in some sort of leathery material. He was bleeding from his left eye.

"On behalf of my master, Brajin, I order you to surrender the girl" the man intoned.

"Is that the best you could come up with?" Dante laughed.

The man came forward. What Dante had assumed was leather uncurled and stretched out to its full length. He had sprouted wings. Dante grabbed his guns and fired, catching his opponent off guard. The winged creature roared with fury and took to the air. It raised its arms and blue lightning like energy pulsated between them. Then it threw the lightning at Dante and Erika. It threw them in the air. Erika landed badly and was knocked unconscious. The creature laughed.

"The mighty Son of Sparda" it began, but was cut off by a barrage of golden lightning that tore through it like wildfire

"That's right" said Dante as he drew Ebony and Ivory. The bullets finished it off.

"I wasn't expecting you back so soon" Dante said out loud. A woman's voice answered

"And miss all the fun? I thought you knew me better than that".

Trish was back.

-

Dante's office wasn't exactly the most inviting kind of place. The walls were covered with various demon heads pinned to the wall with swords the way a child's butterfly collection would be with pins. The pool table in the centre of the room could easily date back to the Victorian era, if they had pool tables back then. The drum kit was modern, or it had been back in the 80's when it was in one piece. Recent additions included an old PC that Dante hated; its sole purpose was now to gather dust, and a sofa for when one felt too lazy to drag oneself upstairs to lie down. Add to that the various pizza boxes and empty beer bottles that always seemed to litter the place. This was Dante's place on a good day. Dante carried Erika inside; she hadn't woken up yet, and filled Trish in on the details. He lay the kid down on the old sofa before noticing that they still had an unwelcome guest. To the untrained eye, Wilson was sat by the computer resting his hands on the keyboard. He was in fact levitating a few inches above the chair. The PC hummed with electric life determined to show just what it could do.

"How is this possible?" Dante asked

"I know! If this thing was any slower... have you people never heard of broadband" Wilson ranted

"That's not what I meant"

"Oh, this! Its like this, you see, a ghost that knows he's a ghost is supposed to say goodbye to his loved ones then pass on, which I'm obviously not doing so..."

"Get to the point" Dante interrupted him

"I'm haunting your office"

Trish glanced at Dante as if to say "I leave you alone and look what happens". Wilson carried on, in full geek mode.

"I kept a record of just about everything on my computer. I've managed to hack in from here, which was no mean feat considering that your computer is ancient. I've got all my files here so there should be something useful"

"Can it tell us how she survived getting shot in the chest?" Trish asked

"She's got devil's blood in her, it's the only explanation" Dante said "And if you're gonna stick around at least make yourself useful. What can you tell me?"

"The ego has landed" said Wilson

"What was that?"

"Nothing, check this out" Wilson showed them a picture on the screen. "Brajin's sword, Herikarras. The Seer who foresaw Sparda's coming forged it. She made it for him, like a peace offering. When Brajin found out he stole it and cut the Seer's eyes out. Had 'em crystallized and set into the hilt" Wilson rambled

"I know this story; Brajin used it to fight Sparda. He thought he beat him too, but Sparda was just hurt. He slayed Brajin while he was celebrating his 'victory'". said Trish

"They say the blade is still stained with Sparda's blood" Wilson had never sounded more like a geek than he did now.

"Well, it makes sense to me that Erika is part devil. It would explain why they singled her out" mused Trish

"Part which devil, not Brajin?" said Dante

"Sacrifice his own child? Is that what you mean? For all we know it could be the Seer's blood they need" argued Trish

"I have no idea what you are talking about. I'll see if I can pull up the prophecy itself" said Wilson.

On the couch, unnoticed by anyone, Erika was awake. And she had heard everything.

-

Marcus gazed up at the sword, Herikarras, where it was hung on his wall. It was a beautiful item. The blade was sheathed but the hilt was the main focus of attention. Made of bronze with a single crystal orb set in each side. The orbs looked eerily like eyes, and they gazed around in their sockets of their own accord, blinking occasionally. Giselle watched him. She had changed her clothes from the demure business suit to a tight fitting leather outfit with stiletto heels that wouldn't look out of place at an S and M club. She hated that sword.

"You know it has a curse on it" she said aloud

"Whoever wields it in battle shall see only what he wants to see and not what is real, I know. That's not exactly a problem for me" he tapped his walking stick on the ground.

The sword closed its glassy eyes and a single tear fell from it. Marcus caught it and watched as it solidified in his hand.

"Besides, the swords true power has nothing to do with battle" he said.

"Your man failed. He should have been back by now" Giselle remarked

"And you could do better? The girl is truly her mother's daughter; she has eluded us for nineteen years. And need I remind you that it was your lack of judgement that got the Son of Sparda involved?"

"You approved it"

"I approved of investigating the possibilities that Sparda's heir presented and I decided that he posed too big a threat. I did not give permission for you to inform him of our dealings"

"I did nothing of the sort!"

"You failed to deal with the scholar in a suitable manner and his ghost informed the Son of Sparda of my plans! I hold you personally responsible for this mess"

Giselle stormed out of the room.

-

"You're assuming a lot here" Wilson began, "First off; there are a lot of ways that a person can survive being shot. It doesn't automatically qualify you for... whatever it was you were talking about".

"Full recovery after less than an hour does"

"Point taken, but if she is part devil how could she be part Brajin or Seer. They're both dead".

"That hasn't stopped you, has it?" Asked Dante

"That's different".

"You find a lot of devils that won't let little things like their own death put them off".

"Then there's the problem of our friend outside, not to mention the shape shifter you told me about" Trish commented "Who knows how many lower class devils are in this cult if they think they'll get more powers out of it"

"Wait a second. More powers?" Wilson was confused

"Don't you know this already? You translated it after all" Trish was confused

"Parts of it. It's been in the family since my Grandpa's time"

"OK. Its part of the Herikarras story. The eyes release crystals that look like tears. Put one in your own eye and you get a power boost" Trish explained, reading from one of Wilson's printouts.

"I don't like it. What do you think Dante? Dante?" Wilson and Trish looked around the office. Dante was gone. He came back in a minute later, carrying... Wilson forgot his concentration and fell through the chair.

"Oh, you didn't... That's sick"

"You got any better ideas? This way I can find out if the cultists do have that sword or not" Dante set the severed head of the demon on the desk.

"But did you have to bring it in here?" Wilson protested

"Swords too big for what I have in mind" Dante said in an offhand kind of way, searching among the rubbish on the desk. He settled for an old bottle opener.

"No... I can not watch this" Wilson moaned as Dante went to work. Trish watched for a moment. She had seen Dante do far worse than this, yet Wilson was acting like this was the worst thing he had ever seen. It probably was, but that wasn't important. Nobody had checked on Erika for a while. Trish decided to see how she was doing. Dante had left her on the couch...

"Guys, we've got a problem". Erika was gone.

-

Giselle had screwed up. There was no other way to put it. Marcus didn't know the real reason she had gone to Dante and she was keen to see that it stayed that way, but now he had taken the manuscripts she had taken from that fool Greene. Without them her plans would be ruined. She had to come up with something quick if she were to salvage what was left of her scheme. And if the Son of Sparda figured it out... She didn't even want to think of what would happen then. Things were bad and hanging around here wasn't going to fix it. Giselle had to do something. Looking in a nearby mirror she decided that no one would notice a lowly cleaner leaving. She put on a large overcoat and then placed her hands over her face. It rippled and distorted before it morphed into that of an elderly woman and then she headed towards the elevator.

-

"Erika's gone! Why the hell was nobody watching her?" Dante was furious.

"She can't have gone far. Dante, you were just outside, did you see anything?" said Trish.

"No, nothing. DAMMIT!" He kicked the chair. Wilson went over to a window, passing through the pool table on his way

"Her car's still here" He said

"She'd have known it'd make too much noise"

"Your right Trish, She can't have got far" said Dante as he headed towards the door

"Hey! Where are you going now!" Wilson cried out

"After her". And with that he was gone.