Author's notes: Yep, it took me real long to update for those that still remember me. Hope I've improved some from before. Enjoy.

After ten thousand years of waiting, Valafar seemed to have found himself a worthy challenger in Dante's extraordinary abilities. The demon hunter showed full confidence in himself and no signs of backing down. His penetrating eyes stayed glued to Valafar's brawny, scaled body, not showing any worries or doubts that he couldn't win.

He hoisted his long sword from its shiny hilt and jumped straight towards his demonic adversary. With a swing of his blade, Dante whooshed his body around and smiled as the tip of his sword came in contact with Valfar's beefy chest. But it didn't do any significant damage to the demon, nor did it hurt in anyway. Figuring it was now his turn to make a move, Valafar now went on the offensive. He grabbed hold of Dante's weapon and yanked him up into the air. The demon hunter dangled as he kept his grip firm and tight on the sword, in effort to not let go. With a harsh blow to the gut by Valafar, Dante fell to the ground letting go of the hilt of his weapon.

The sword was no longer in his hands, but in the hands of his immortal enemy, but Valafar wanted to do the fighting his way and chucked Dante's sword to the side, refusing to use it against him in battle. He signaled for a hand-to-hand fight over the top of the bridge. Whosoever was to lose this close combat brawl would fall into the pit of boiling flames below and die an incinerating death. Of course Dante willingly accepted the challenge with a slight nod and attacked with the first blow.

Dante struck harder than any human Valafar had ever faced. The hulking monster didn't have the slightest clue that his opponent contained powers inherited from an actual full-fledged demon. His blows were hard hitting, but not enough to knock Valafar down into the pit. Charging himself with his unearthly power, Dante triggered his devil abilities and brought them to the surface for his enemy to witness. The body of the demon hunter changed shape and formed into a saliva drooling monster. Valafar was overjoyed to see that wasn't fighting any ordinary human.

"For some reason, I knew there was more to you than what was shown. So your actually part demon? That's glad to know, because I was starting to feel bad that I would crush yet another human."

"Heh, you haven't seen what I can do yet," Dante uttered, while striking Valafar with a crippling blow to the head.

The beast stumbled back a little but returned and came back swinging his fist in every direction until Dante was finally hit. After taking some bruising damage, Dante patted the dirt off his legs and rose up from the ground with his fist held high. He performed a rapid head butt that sent Valafar down on his back.

Before the monster recovered, Dante spun around and kicked the demon off the bridge. He thought the fight was over, but it wasn't quite yet. Valafar was gripped to the bridge, barely being able to hang on due to his massive weight. Dante stepped closer and drove his boot into the demon's hand.

"Now, tell me, why did you refer to Akina as a half-breed?" Dante said.

Valafar, in no position to do anything, filled in the details.

"Akina is really our master's daughter. She is like you, a half-breed. Her mother was a human and her father is a demon. She also used to be a demon hunter, but due to the memory loss that our master had given her, she has forgotten everything, about herself and her family."

His grip suddenly slipped and he began to fall down into the fiery pit of flames. Dante watched as his powerful adversary was incinerated.

Taking hold of his sword, the demon hunter walked across the bridge and continued on with his search for Akina. It was a long journey through the fiery pits of the underworld, but Dante was up for it. He had made a promise to Akina and was going to keep it. He wasn't going to abandon the woman and let her die in this horrible place she didn't want to be in. Scouting ahead, he found a large, flapping door that began to open once he stood in front of its handles. He gladly invited himself inside and discovered some sort of chamber where the bodies of dead skeletons hung from their necks. He saw an unconscious Akina chained to the wall, unable to feel the rush of the hot lava that had been boiling beneath her feet. He stepped closer, but was stopped by monstrous sound. A gigantic demon stood over him from behind. Dante's attention was soon caught by the monster's rapid breathing while he turned to see the creature face to face.

"So, you are Dante. The proud son of the legendary demon, Sparda," grunted the beast.

"That's me," Dante confirmed.

"You have a lot of guts coming down here. Have you come to perhaps rescue my daughter?"

"Daughter? So, your Akina's dear old dad Valafar was talking about. Heh, and I thought I was the only one with a dysfunctional family."

"Yes, I am here father, that is true. But Akina is really nothing but a disgrace to the demon realm. When she discovered she was part demon, it terrified her to near death. Her mother didn't want her to be anything like me, so I did the only thing reasonable and killed the worthless witch. I tried to teach her the ways of her race, but she wasn't interested.

"Ha, I don't blame her. I wouldn't listen to some psycho like you anyway," Dante interrupted.

"When she saw the vile acts of our people and how we wanted to exterminate all humans, she swore to kill every last one of us and put an end to our supposed madness. In short, she became a demon hunter…like you. I became so sick of her efforts to kill her own kind that I tried to eliminate her myself."

"And let me guess, you failed?"

"The only thing I succeeded in was removing her memory. With that, she would become weak and helpless, unable to defend herself and use her powers against my loyal minions."

"That's pretty ridiculous how you have to force your own daughter into doing something she doesn't want. I now see why she doesn't like you," Dante stated.

"Doesn't matter. She'll be dead soon, as will you."

Dante tossed his sword into the air and caught it on the way back down. He shared Akina's disgust for the demon that stood in front of him. He could feel his powers burning with rage inside him. As he powered up, Akina's eyes opened up to see her father and friend subdued in conflict.

"Dante…" she whispered.

Akina struggled to break her restraints to assist her demon slaying comrade, but they were too tight and too strong for her to break. She tried to use her powers, but was still inexperienced on how to summon them at will. Her memories were still blank and full of emptiness. There was no telling how long this spell her father had placed over her would last.

Suddenly, a sharp instrument crashed into Akina's binding chains and cut her loose. She was unaware as to how she got free, but now was not the time to worry over that. Even though she was free, there wasn't much the Asian woman could do to help. The chamber shook tremendously from the rising energy of both her father and Dante. The winner of this beginning battle was going to be tough to decipher. Both sides showed great power and only one was going to emerge as the victor.

"Be careful, Dante," murmured Akina.