First Mission

Chapter 5: The Trespassing

Rune was alone in the Cathedral, looking into a round pound that allowed him to see wherever he wanted. There was no artificial light. The place was lit by millions of candles. His intruders were having a hard time against the door guard. Although he needed them to enter Domain, it amused him to watch them from a distance.

"Rune!" The door opened. All the candles' flame flickered like the breeze from the outside invited them to dance. A woman in dark blue entered and joined Rune in front of the pound. She didn't seem pleased to find Rune where he was.

"Niji," Rune greeted her cheerfully. "What brought you here?"

"You know what," Niji said with her arms crossed, frowning at the same time. "You know the other girl is here. Why aren't you doing anything?"

"Patience, Niji," Rune said. "We have Mia already. We'll get Rei in no time. Besides, our powers are stronger here than outside. It's better for us to wait for them to come in."

"We don't have time. If by midday today we still don't have her, we have to wait another century to unseal Prince Mundus," Niji said.

"Don't worry," Rune said in a carefree tone. "If we are lucky, I might've gotten one of them thinking. By the way, where is Zorlin?"

"Why ask me? He's probably checking on the seal's condition," Niji answered. "Anyhow, as soon as the kids come in, I'll take care of them."

"As you like," Rune watched as Niji left the room, closing the door behind her.

Wiping off the blood on his face, Dante watched every moves of his enemy. He had been spending the last fifteen minutes or so studying the giant reptile. However, most of the time was actually spent on jumping and rolling out of the snake's way. Dante was able to avoid the major attacks so far but got a fair amount of minor cuts here and there. The only weakness he found was the cobra's eyes and its mouth when it's not releasing its killer beam. Ebony and Ivory were almost no use because they dealt very little damage.

The cobra executed another body slam on Dante. This time, it predicted where he would evade. Not planning on missing its chance, the reptile bit Dante on the leg and threw him towards Vergil and Rei's direction. The force sent him crashing on the ground, stirring up dust in the air.

"Dante!" Rei cried and hurried to his side. Vergil followed right behind her. "What are you doing? Help him!" Rei said to Vergil desperately. Though still conscious, Dante's left leg was bleeding badly.

"He'll throw a fit if I try to help him," Vergil replied. He wanted to help Dante as well but he knew his brother wouldn't like it.

"This is not the time to say that!" Rei said.

"He's right," Dante used Rebellion to help him get to his feet. "Just watch." After saying that, Dante ran back to where the cobra was, picking up speed as he did so. Just before reaching his enemy, Dante dashed quickly to the side and air hiked, placing himself behind the cobra's head. Using a broken steel pipe that was sticking out from the wall as a stepping-stone, Dante was able to jumped onto the cobra's head. He didn't waste a second to strike the cobra's gold eyes with Rebellion.

The cobra screeched in pain. It threw Dante on the ground but he landed on his feet firmly. Green blood was gashing out of the creature's eyes. Rei winced at the gruesome sight. She went to Dante's side to see how he was. She ripped off one of her t-shirt's sleeves. "Stand still," She told him.

"You don't really have to do this, the bleeding will stop soon," Dante said. He was referring to the fact that he was part demon.

"But you're human too, right?" Rei said. "Sorry, I can only do this much," she said softly. Sometimes Rei just wished she had healing powers instead of summoning powers. It would make her feel less useless in situations like this. Dante said nothing and let her take care of his wound. He turned to face the fallen cobra, which is now resting its head on the ground. "I think you have something to tell me, don't you?"

"I have witnessed your strength, son of Sparda. You may enter Domain. The girl you are looking for is kept a room called Eighth Floor. Once you are in there, keep going until you reached the end. The room is near there," The injured cobra said. "If you want to save her, you better hurry. Otherwise she won't live past today."

"What do you mean?" Rei asked. She had finished with Dante.

"Zorlin is planning on using the Priestesses to open up the seal of Mundus and the Underworld. Knowing him, her chances of surviving afterwards is slim," said the cobra.

Rei checked her watch and her heart almost stopped. "There's only eight hours left!" She told the twins.

"That doesn't sound good," Dante commented.

"Who is Zorlin?" Vergil asked.

"Zorlin is Mundus minion. He was regarded as the right hand of Mundus," The guardian replied. The way it spoke gave them the feeling it was telling the truth.

The three went past the cobra and opened the door of Domain. The seal on the door was automatically disabled after defeating its guardian. Dante went in first, followed by Vergil and Rei. "Thank you," Rei said to the cobra before closing the door. She was grateful of it. It didn't need to inform them about their enemies anything at all yet it did.

The inside of Domain was nothing like any of them expected. They were standing at the beginning of a long corridor. The interior was finely polished with tiled floor and high ceiling. On both side of the wall of the corridor hang a number of oil paintings. It was like an underground mansion.

"Why would there be a place like this here?" Rei glanced upwards to examine the crystal lamps that hang from the ceiling as they made their way to the other end.

"They sure know how to live life," Dante said while he looked at the each of the paintings they walk pass. All paintings depicted the suffering of sinners in the underworld. Mysterious powers seemed to want to suck the viewers into the paintings if looked at for too long. He found walking carefully so that his injury would hurt less was too much of a bother, so he just walked normally.

Vergil's attention was more on the lack of demons' presence in the enemy's territory. Back in skyscraper, he could feel demons where lurking even if he couldn't see they physically. However, he couldn't feel anything in Domain.

To the others' surprise, Vergil spoke. "Rei, how come the demons were able to get Mia but not you?"

"That's right, I almost forgot to mention that," Rei realised. "Ever since we were born, we had to wear protection charms to hide our presence from demons." She took out a silver locket that she wore around her neck to show Dante and Vergil. "Yesterday, Mia forgot to wear hers so I went home to get it for her while she waited for me. But when I got back, I was only in time to see her being taken away. I couldn't do anything." Her expression darkened.

"How lucky for the demon was that?" Dante said. "Your sister lost her locket the day before the demons want to use you two to unseal the gate to the demon world?"

"We found it strange too," Rei admitted. "Since we always wear it, even when we sleep. By the way, the locket not only erase our presence, it suppresses our power too. I can't use my summoning powers when I'm wearing it."

"Well, we want to give them a surprise when they find us. So you better leave it on," Dante said. Rei nodded.

By that time they had reached the end of the corridor. Further in front was a narrow pathway, slightly wider than the one Dante fought on before but not as long, which led to with a decagonal platform in the middle of bottomless pitch. There were nine different paths they could take. Including the one they came from, there were ten altogether. All the pathways looked exactly the same and joint from the platform to a doorway each. What laid beyond the doorways would only be known to those who chose to walk them.

Before moving on, Vergil made a mark on top of the doorway they came from with Yamato. Dante looked down to the hole after they all walked down onto the platform. "This looks like it'll make a longer fall then the last one. Man, people here just love to dig holes." Even though he knew the underworld was in another dimension, the deepness and the daunting atmosphere gave him a feeling like they were getting closer to it.

Rei gasped when she saw a few demons appear from the doorway closest to her. Soon, demons began to flood in from the rest of the doors except one. All the demons were part the seven sins – Hell-Pride, Hell-Lust, Hell-Gluttony, Hell-Envy, Hell-Wrath, Hell-Greed and Hell-Sloth. "The host is good at giving us directions don't you think?" Dante said sarcastically. They were backing off to the only path without demons with their own weapons on their hands.

Dante aimed for the ones closest to them with Ebony and Ivory. "You two move on, I'll take care of this," Vergil said to his companions. Dante wasn't in perfect shape so it would be better if he stay out of battles. Rei, who had little combat power, should do the same.

"But…" Rei didn't like the idea at all. The place was packed with demons and more were on their way. Several Hell-Greed were summoning more demons with their coffins. More than fifty pairs of blood-red eyes were staring at them.

Dante looked at Vergil. His brother was determined; there was nothing could change his mind. Vergil stood on the pathway, blocking the way of the demons. "Come on!" Dante said to Rei, who was still reluctant to leave. Rei took a last glance at Vergil before following Dante. "He can handle them," Dante reassured her, although he hadn't quite convinced himself. Rei silently hoped he was right.

Author's note: I don't think I had been writing the author's note with appropriate content. Argh, what the heck, I'll just write what I like. For those who are wondering how old the characters are (anyone?), Dante and Vergil are eighteen years old and Rei is a year younger.

I beat DMC3 two days ago. To not spoil those who haven't finished it, I would just say I found the ending quite sad. Let's keep our fingers crossed and hope there will be a DMC4. Please take a few moments review for me.

Date written: 12-03-2005