Devil May Cry: Zero
Chapter 12: The Kekkai
As quick as a rabbit, Mia dodged another dozen of ice throwers. She watched in amazement as a medium-length sword made out of solidified liquid formed in Niji's hand. The time she was given to watch was not long because her enemy immediately released a set of combo with her new weapon as soon as it complete formation. Mia watched the combination attack carefully for the second time while evading it with swift actions. On the third time, she timed the strikes accurately and placed her tied hands forward. As she hoped, the last strike cut off the ropes thus freed her hands.
"Thanks!" Mia rubbed her wrists in triumph. The next moment, she saw her twin being hit against the wall involuntarily and landed on the ground. From the distance, Mia could see a small pool of blood forming beneath Rei's head. At first she was very scared but it was quickly replaced by anger. "How dare you hurt Sis!" Mia stared at Zorlin with only hatred in her eyes. She placed her hands on the ground without thinking. Approaching sound from behind reminded Mia of Niji's presence. She rolled away before the blue-haired demon could slice her back. Never did Mia expect Niji to be so quick. The ice sword plunged into the spot in between Mia's arm and chest. It missed her heart by an inch. She screamed in pain but her spirit was not weakened. In response, Mia constructed a thunder barrier as fast as she possibly could to obstruct Niji before she could attack again.
Vergil was about to take a direct hit from Zorlin. There was no time to move away. If only his physical movements were as fast as his senses. Suddenly, the shadow, still in Rei's form, suffered the hit for him. The moment Aura touched the shadow, it turned back into its black original form and shattered into pieces. The pieces dispersed and disappeared into thin air. Vergil was a little stunned by what just happened but only for a second. He focused on Zorlin once again. He was feeling better. His demonic blood was winning against the venom, not quite as fast as he hoped though. Over his shoulder he saw Mia being injured by Niji. The situation was as bad as it could get: with Rei unconscious, possibly dead, Mia wounded and Dante missing.
Mia pressed on her wound with her opposite hand. She was loosing blood fast. Her current state was probably not much better than her sister. That instant Mia knew she couldn't save her sister, just like she couldn't save Dante. Vergil was getting back to the rhythm but was still loosing against Zorlin. At this rate, she would not be able to save Rei but it was within her power to help Vergil. He was the only hope she had. If she could hinder Zorlin, perhaps Vergil would save her sister – that was what Mia hoped. She didn't know for sure whether he would or not. She could only gamble on the slim chances base on the fact Vergil didn't kill Rei when he could. Her hands touched the rough ground and she searched in her memory on how the ancient barrier was supposed to be built. Mia had to bite her tongue to prevent herself from fainting. The first part of the construction came into her mind. She immediately made a start on it.
At that stage, not only was he wielding his s-shaped double-sided blade, Zorlin had also added crystal elements on it. Each time he swang Aura, small pieces of crystals flied straight towards Vergil like darts. Besides the first time, Vergil was able to evade them hastily. Still he was unable to release any combination attacks on Zorlin. All he had time for was avoiding being hit.
"Want to know why Zorlin wants you and your brother's amulets and not the Priestesses now?" A voice came from behind Vergil. The sudden occurrence distracted him slightly, causing a piece of crystal fragment to leave a long cut on his cheek. Without looking, the half-demon knew it was Rune.
Vergil didn't answer him but Rune was sure he was listening to him. "There is more than one way to open the pathway to the Underworld. You see, Sparda used the amulet he gave your mother to create the seal. In reverse, the amulet can break the seal as well." He vanished once again and continued to watch the event that could change the two worlds. Did his mother know about this? Vergil thought to himself. Did she choose to not tell them or was she going to tell them? There were so many questions but no answers.
After being electrocuted a few times within the thunder barrier, Niji made it out alive. However, she was furious. With the ice sword in her hand, she stormed towards Mia. Her pace quickened and soon she was running. Mia could hear Niji coming up from behind, but if she paused now all her effort would be wasted. Rei didn't have time nor did Vergil. She must finish the barrier or everything would be too late.
Just before the semi-transparent ice sword pierced through Mia's chest from her back, something unexpected happened. Two bullets hit the body of Niji's sword so hard that they sent it flying out of her hand. Another couple of bullets followed and hurt her hands. Before she could see who it was, a shower of bullets chased her away from where Mia was. Quite remarkably, none of the bullets hit the Priestess. Mia lifted her head to see who saved her.
Standing near the entrance of the area, which wasn't too far away, was the younger one of the two half-demon devil hunters. Breeze from the direction he came blew his red coat gently like a flag. He was carrying two identical guns of different colours and a sword on his back. Smoke was still coming out of the hose of his guns.
"Can't believe you guys started without me," Dante grinned. "Anyone mind filling me in as to what happened?"
"Dante!" Mia exclaimed. She finished the special barrier at the same time. A silver rectangular shape appeared on the ground under Zorlin's feet. The outline of the shape glowed brightly. Faster than anyone could see, four silver coloured transparent walls rose from the shape and trapped Zorlin inside. Zorlin withdrew his hand after touching the wall's surface. The moment he felt it, it was like touching high voltage electricity current, only a thousand or so times stronger. It was not possible for him to break out by force. Zorlin dug into a pocket hidden in his silver coat and took out a small glass bottle. The size of it was smaller than a pepper shaker. Dante couldn't see it very well but the bottle seemed to contain something inside.
Zorlin throw it on the ground, the same manner as someone would throw a dice on their turn of a board game. The glass bottle shattered into pieces but what's inside didn't. Two black slugs, each about two centimetres long a first grew bigger and bigger until it was the size of a large dog. They dived into the earth within the barrier and came back out on the other side. Without warning, they rushed towards Vergil. Being prepared, Vergil sliced the first one that came from directly in front. He knew the other one went behind him but the first one was stuck on his sword. The huge slug was heavy and he could hardly lift up Yamato. Dante swung Rebellion and knock back the second giant slug. At the same moment, Vergil got rid of the one on his katana. The twin brothers stood back to back to each other in their fighting stance.
"You're late," Vergil said with his back against his younger twin.
"Better late than never," Dante shrugged. They didn't see it but they knew they both smiled for a second that moment.
The slugs appeared to be attracted to blood therefore went for Vergil most of the time. Those slimy creatures were fast and their bodies were acidic. Even fine swords such as Rebellion and Yamato could not withstand the acid for long. Dante saw Niji after Mia with her ice weapons once again. Mia looked very pale and her movements were slowing down gradually.
"Go help them. I'll take care of these," Vergil said, referring to the monstrous slugs. Dante had the same thing in mind. "You can't lose to anyone," He looked at the slugs and continued. "Or anything but me, got it?"
"Who do you think I am?" Vergil answered him. He concentrated on his fight after Dante left his side.
Mia kept away from Niji as far as she could. Niji was so furious that her throwers were thrown at a much higher frequency than previously. Mia tripped over a small crystal sticking out from the ground and landed solidly. The cut between her left chest and shoulder felt like it was splitting apart wider. She wanted to get up but couldn't gather up enough strength to do so.
Intending to end the Priestess' life once and for all, Niji ran towards Mia. Rebellion flied towards her like a boomerang and knocked her unconscious before she knew what happened. Dante put his sword back on his back. He stepped forward to see how Mia was. She was trying to get up on her feet with one hand whilst the other was pressed on her bleeding wound.
"Take it easy, babe. The main dish isn't going anywhere," Dante picked her up. She was lighter than he thought. Mia felt a pair of strong arms went under her knee joints and shoulder and scooped her up effortlessly.
"Who are you calling babe…How's Sis…Rei?" Mia asked. Dante put her down where she could support herself against the wall before going to check on Rei. Red blood stained his hands after he carried Mia. Rei was in bad shape. Dante guessed she must've hit her head pretty severely. Blood was in her hair and streaked over her face. Her green eyes were shut tight. He couldn't wait to see if her chest was raising or not, so he checked her pulse.
"How's Rei?" Mia asked Dante when he came back to her. The demon hunter had to suppress his urge to crack a joke or else he might get the fist-in-the-face treatment. "She's fine, just knocked out cold." There were things he didn't say as well. By the looks of Rei, he couldn't tell when she'll wake up. The internal bleeding from her head had stopped but her condition was terrible enough to be treated first in the emergency room. Dante didn't want to move her in case it might hurt her more.
When Mia was about to ask Dante to take her over to look at Rei, she saw something come their way. "Behind you!" She warned him desperately. Dante didn't even look behind. He tilted his head to avoid a block of sharp ice that soon crushed into pieces after hitting the wall. Dante stood up to face Niji, drawing out Ebony and Ivory as he did so.
"Had a nice dream?" He grinned at her.
"You're so going to regret this," Niji snapped. She dropped thousands of small cone-shaped ice on Dante from above.
"What's the hurry? I'm not going anywhere soon," Dante dodged them all. He open fired in return as though he was accepting an invitation. "But hey, since I'm going to be working overtime, don't blame me if my client comes to you when she has to pay me more because of you, ok?"
Since Niji was not near water, her variety of attacks was limited to her ice throwers and sword. Fighting Mia was more tiring than she thought. Even a demon has her limits; she knew the next strike will decide who wins. Dante seemed to know that as well.
At the same time, they ran towards each other. With one hand, Niji threw a dozen or so of ice cones at Dante, who countered them with his bullets. Niji charged at Dante with her sword while manipulating more throwers that aimed at his back. The second they meet each other, Dante dived below and avoided both. The ice cones hit Niji herself instead of their intended target. In his quickest speed, he turned around and shot her legs.
Rei opened her eyes. She could hear a lot of noises around her, and voices of people she knew. Her visions were a little hazy at first but her pupils gradually adjusted themselves. Further away from the Gate were Dante, who was battling Niji the water demon. Mia leant against the wall and appeared to be unconscious due to her blood loss. Closer to the Gate was Vergil, who was fighting against two hideous looking slug demons. Closest to the Gate was Zorlin, who was trapped in a barrier. Rei blinked to make sure she wasn't seeing things. What constrained the demon leader was an ancient barrier called the Kekkai. It was the most powerful constriction barrier. If Mia chose to use the Kekkai, Rei could guess how bad their circumstances were. However, its light was fading probably because Mia didn't have sufficient strength left to maintain it.
Flipping backwards, Vergil made some distance between himself and the two giant slugs. He had already suffered a few burns from their acid. It was tough when the two attacked tactically. He returned Yamato to sheath but left his hand on the hilt. Three dark spheres appeared next to the slugs and made a flameless explosion. Vergil's didn't use his dimension-cutting technique until now because he had to use it at the expense of his power. Using it often consumed too much energy therefore he only used it when really needed.
Dimension-cutting was effective against the slugs at first but they quickly learned its nature. The slugs moved quickly enough so the spheres couldn't touch them thus didn't trigger any explosions. One of them leaped at Vergil, who blocked it with Yamato even faster. Dante threw Rebellion at the other and knocked it back on the ground before it touched his brother.
"Don't tell me these suckers are giving you a hard time," Dante went to Vergil's side. They stood back to back once again.
"Not at all. Just waiting for you to join in." Vergil glanced over to the two Priestesses. Mia had fainted but Rei was awake. She was sitting still. Her head hang down slightly and her hands were clasped in a praying gesture.
It didn't take a genius to figure out that they were loosing. Rei could see it clearly. Although it seemed like the demon hunters were handling the slugs well, they were showing signs of fatigue whereas the slugs were not. On top of that, the Kekkai was fading and the outcome of this battle was obvious once Zorlin could interfere. Rei knew what she must do. She shut her eyes and began a summon. Even though her power recovered slightly while she was unconscious, it was still insufficient to summon up what she wanted. The only way to get more power was to extract from the energy that kept her body running.
This particular summon took a lot of effort but it was not complex. About half way through it, Rei felt something was stuck in her air pipe. She coughed it out and it was a clot of blood. Breathing was getting difficult because her lungs were not inhaling air fast enough. Her body was weakening but she couldn't stop. She had to summon it; she wouldn't allow either of the brothers die.
The silver walls of Kekkai fell and out stepped Zorlin. He walked straight towards the Gate. Instead of holding them separately with both hands, he brought together the two halves of the amulet that belonged to Sparda's sons. The glowing halves joined together in mid air to form one complete amulet. Following that, it floated upwards and halted at a certain height. As though it could sense itself was near the net-like seal, the amulet began to undo it. The strands of the seal on the edge started to dissolve and the process was slowly working towards the centre.
Rei coughed up some more blood. The metal taste of her own blood filled her mouth. She collapsed on the ground with a thud. The summon was complete. Did the beast respond to her call? She wondered. She wanted to look but her heart felt like someone hammered on it that instant. It beat in such inconsistent rate that it was unbearable.
Vergil and Dante turned around and saw Rei fell. What the hell is she doing? Dante thought, angry and worried at the same time. A blur of movement moved towards her. The next moment, they saw Zorlin had Rei pinned on the ground. Pressing her down with one hand, he swang Aura towards her throat.
Authors note: This chapter took a while because all the characters are doing a lot of things in a short time. Sorting out the events was the most time-consuming. I hope I didn't leave out anything. Dante's back too, woo-hoo! And yes, I love cliffhangers. Anyway, please review and tell me what you think of it!
Date written: 9-5-05