Five
The blade struck quick and painlessly. What stung was the irony of the cosmic joke. Soon Lady and Dante were overrun by the haunting marionettes.
"Hack and slash 'em."
"Easy for you to say!" Lady bashed demons around the room while Dante swung his long sword violently. The puppets were easy enough to kill. The only difficulty was that they appeared in large numbers. One marionette had the power to suspend Lady in air by strings. She screamed, and while the bloody puppets prepared to slice her with their knives, Dante cut her loose.
Once the room began to clear, Lady could safely fire her missiles. This easily finished off the remaining demons. Walking back down the staircase, Dante used his key to open the locked door. When he turned the key to lock it, the giant red hand emerged, spasmed in a manner that suggested pain, and shattered.
The two stepped through into a new room. There were a few weapons stashed in the corners, propped up against the light blue stone wall. But the room's main attraction was a small plane. Its red paint job was beginning to erode, but it appeared to still be in a good working condition.
"I'm not so good with my history, but did they even have planes in this castle's time?"
"I'm not sure either, Dante… It may have been brought here by the enemy."
"Blow it up."
"What is with you and using me to destroy things? Anyway, I won't. I think it's a bad idea and we may need it later. This time, you should think things thr…"
She was interrupted by Dante, who had reached over her arm and fired Kalina Ann anyway.
…As fate would have it, a bloody puppet, suspended by strings, dropped down into the rocket's path and made it explode before making contact. Now, observing the ceiling, they could see that nearly thirty of the possessed marionettes were hanging. Lady shot them down one by one, and they each exploded into flying pieces of wood. It was the most one-sided battle that Dante had ever been a part of.
They approached an "elevator" in the corner of the room and rode it to the bottom; a dead end. Suddenly, the elevator rose back up, stranding them there, and a voice called out to them.
"This room was used as a sort of…warming up area. For the massacres at the coliseum, I mean. The castle's master often punished people here, and forced them to fight to the death."
Ramos spoke in a deep, harsh voice that just barely gave him away. The dark tones were not typical of him, and Dante could tell that he had undergone some change; into what, he did not know.
"Fight for me, Dante. Fight for the castle's king and guardian, who even now watch you. Criticizing. Learning. Planning. Believe it; you have no hope of leaving this island alive!"
The words poured out in a scream and four gates in the circular room opened in response. Marionettes spilled out interminably until the room was full.
"You think this will stop us, Ramos? I'll admit, it's damn near ridiculous how many puppets want a piece of me, but it doesn't matter. I've been saving thing for such an occasion."
Dante reached into his new coat pocket and pulled out a shining blue orb. It appeared to be a glowing crystal, but when Lady examined it further, she could see it was a small glass container with a sky blue liquid force resting inside.
"……My best party favor."
He jumped off a puppet's head and leapt high above the crowd. Then he slammed the glass ball hard, down onto the ground below him, and it imploded with a blinding flash. Lady quickly regained her vision, and found that everyone in the room had perished. But Dante snuck up behind her and scared her off her feet.
"Asshole! Don't make me worry like that!"
"Oh? Of all people, you thought I would do something that could kill myself? Hahahaha…."
"Well, how am I supposed to know you wouldn't pull something crazy and heroic to sacrifice yourself for me?"
"I wouldn't press your luck on that one lady. Besides, this stuff's just holy water. Kills all surrounding demons. Even stings me a little bit, but it's worth it when I'm in a bind. Got two more."
"You couldn't survive my Hell if you had fifty, half-breed!"
"Ramos! Hey buddy! You gonna come down here and whoop my ass, or just send us more pathetic wooden pieces of shit?"
"Oh, we'll meet soon enough. But that's only if you survive the wrath of Lionheart and his men. You've made him quite angry Dante…"
"Me? What the hell did I do?"
"You're killing off the people he swore to protect for eternity! I mean, whose souls did you think were in these marionettes? And you've already destroyed so many… all those innocent people. Congratulations, Dante. You've dug your own grave."
"Ramos!" Dante screamed after him, but his only feedback was an insane laughter that echoed long before fading into nothingness.
The future seemed darker than the night sky, beyond the castle walls, and the infinite rain.