I've got a new job, so my writing time has become limited. Grr...oh well, need the money. I'll try to update more often though. (Thanks for continuing to read despite the lateness! This chapter is longer to make up for it.)
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Chapter 11: City of Hunters
Dante was brooding. It was something he did not do often or enjoy very much. He wasn't the broody type; he preferred action and adventure to the boring sit and think idea. Unfortunately he had some free time as he and Ray tried to find this City of Hunters place. So as he lay on the back bed of the Ray's trailer as it bounced along the Kansanian country roads to where it was suppose to be, he watched the ceiling fan above swirl lazily around and poked through his thoughts.
The fact that Mundus was his uncle was a surprise certainly, but it wasn't traumatizing or something. True, he didn't really see any family resemblance or anything but his dad had recently seemed to be full of surprises. He wondered if his mother had known though...that her husband had been a Prince of the Realm. That is what Catullus said the Emperor's siblings had been known as. Dante sighed, wishing Sarah had come along. But everyone had agreed that she was more a pacifist than a fighter, and that with the devil refuges pouring in she would be needed to stay. So it was only him, Ray, and Catullus.
He had brought along both Alastor and Ifrit as well as the gun collection. He had been unsure about the Staff. "This thing just craps my style," he had complained to Catullus. "Besides I already carry Alastor on my back. There's no room for it." Catullus had sighed. "Alright," the listen dragon had said, "I might as well teach you this. To make the Staff more carry compatible, hold it out vertically in your fist and then let it go while concentrating on it disappearing." Dante had done so doubtfully, and was surprised to see it vanish. He had been even more surprised to find a small gold hoop earring in his ear. "What the?..." he asked. Catullus nodded. "Yup, that's it. Nice little carry form for you. To pull it out again it just do the reverse and imagine it appearing." Dante had practiced a few times until it felt normal, although the earring still felt weird to him even now.
A particularly strong bump in the road knocked Dante's head hard against the rickety bed, throwing off his thoughts . "Damn it Ray!" he muttered aloud and getting up wandered unsteadily through the shifting trailer to where Ray was driving. "What, are you falling asleep at the wheel or something?"
Ray gave him an annoyed look. "It is NOT my fault they haven't paved these roads in a few decades," he said peevishly while his glasses bounced around on his nose. "We should be there soon anyways."
Dante snorted. "Right. Considering we don't even know what we're looking for." According to Ray's research, the Cities of Hunters were all concealed from the outside world so that average humans couldn't see them or accidentally stumble upon them. Unfortunately his research didn't say anything about how all this was done or if there were signs to look for. All they knew was a set of latitude and longitude coordinates that apparently set them dead in the middle of Kansas. "I HATE Kansas," Dante said as he watched the same mind-numbing landscape of grasses sweep by. This sort of scenery could try a guy nuts. He hoped they really did find this place soon.
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In an area of darkness which warped time and space, a devil materialized and gave a bow to the shadow covered throne. "They are nearing the City, my lord," it said. The devil disappeared as quickly as it had come. The figure on the throne let out a deep breath and leaned forward slightly, revealing handsome hands with meticulously kept nails. "We should not make this too easy for him," the hidden voice mused aloud. The figure appeared to turn its head. "Would you care to play with the halfbreed and his pet, My Lady? I do not doubt you could easily dispatch of him, yet I ask if you would only entertain him for a bit."
The figure of a woman stepped out of the darkness. "I would love to play cat and mouse with the Son of Sparda, my dear Occasus." she purred as she raised a razor like finger to her tongue.
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If the country wasn't going to kill Dante, the country music certainly was. There was only so much a guy could take, and Ray apparently had brought every cd he owned. "No, now listen! It's my trailer, so we listen to my music!" Ray said stubbornly. Dante wandered around in the trailer restlessly, seeking an outlet for his pent up energy. Suddenly the trailer came screeching to a halt and he was flung sideways into the wall of the trailer. "Ray!" he yelled grabbing hold of something to stay on his feet.
"Dante, get up here! We may have a problem. Or..."
Dante headed up to the drivers area. "Or what?"
Ray gestured with one hand out the windshield. "Do you think maybe that's part of the City or something?" Dante looked out and saw a strange black vertical rip in the air about twenty feet in front of them, hovering above the road. It seemed to waver slightly like a heat mirage.
"Huh," Dante said. "No clue." He jumped out of the truck. "All the more reason to investigate." Ray yelled a warning about being more cautious, but Dante continued to wander towards it. He was tired of being cooped up all day. Any excitement would be welcome. Quite unexpectedly, as Dante came with ten feet of it, the rip bulged and swirled into a large whirling black vortex. Dante was reminded of the swirling orange sky he had seen on Mallet Island. Out of this darkness leapt four small devils, the stereotypical low class ones that looked like a cross between a dog and a chimp. Behind them, however, materialized a tall woman wearing all black. Her black hair, decorated with black feathers, fell around a humanoid face that had an exotic demonic beauty that was almost elvish. She cocked her head at him and he noticed the deadly, six inch long steel like fingernails that she rubbed together. "You must be Dante...I had not expected you to look quite so much like your father. Pity you must die, I have always liked the pretty boys."
Catullus suddenly landed on Dante's shoulder. "Dante! That's Emena! She's one of The Ten, the ones who served as the right hands to the ruling family! She's a very powerful general."
She gave the dragon a cold, lazy look. "Shoo you little thing. Occasus did mention you were still around, a nusaince as always." Catullus bristled and hissed at her. She smiled slowly, then gave a way of her hand. As one of the lower devils jumped at Dante, he was surprised to hear a shot and see the devil spasm in the air. Turning back to the trailer he saw Ray, who had been momentarily forgotten, standing with his shotgun.
"Dante you've got to stop dragging me into this sort of thing, you know."
Dante ducked under another devil as it came at him. "Give me a break Ray. You're the one who wanted a little excitement in your life. Somebody had to drag you away from those computers."
As one of the devils dodged past Dante towards Ray, Ray reloaded the shotgun and emptied into the devil's chest. "I try to avoid the demons and gunfights when I can. I've heard they're hazardous to your health." Catullus winged in front of another creature and flamed it in the face, blinding it, before attacking with claws and teeth.
Dante whipped Alastor off his back (having brought the whole arsenal with him for the trip) and sliced completely through another one. "Nah, it gets the blood pumping!" As he finished the slice and the comment he looked up just in time to see Emena's deadly hand slashing down towards his face. He jerked back his face and proceeded into a backwards roll, but not quickly enough as he felt strips of fire burn into his cheek. As he rolled back to his feet he swore mentally. Those nails had gone all the way through, he thought as he gingerly poked the inside of the cheek with his tongue. They also stung like shit. He tried to ignore the pain as he felt his healing factor come in.
Emena smiled coyly. "And apparently it also gets the blood spilled." She licked his blood on one of her nails. "There is no blood so sweet as that of royalty." She wrinkled her nose in disgust. "Even if it is tainted with human." Ray, having taken down the other lesser devils, fired off a shot at her. She almost lazily moved her head and avoid the bullet.
Dante's hackles raised. Her asset was not her strength, but her speed. Going fast enough, those nails of hers didn't need to have a lot of force behind them. "Ray, stay out of this one," he called behind him as he readied Alastor. Ray would be way out of his league in this fight. Dante made hard eye contact for a long second with her, neither making a move, until she lashed out first. Dante whipped around and sliced at her, only to swing through open air and feel the sting of claws across his back. She's playing with me, he realized. If she wanted to she could have seriously wounded me that time. In that moment Dante made a decision and as he saw claws streaking towards him, he Devil Triggered and Alastor met her nails with a clash of crackling purple energy.
Emena's eyes widened and she jumped back, admiring his demonic form. "Ooo, interesting." As she smiled and attacking again, Dante used Alastor's heighted speed powers to dodge her attack and make his own, spinning around her and lashing out at her back with a mix of sword and dark energy. She bared her teeth in pain as it hit her, then surprised him as she managed to force up a barrier and bounced it back at him. He grunted as he was hit by part of his own force, although the demon heighted healing kicked in immediately. Emena gave a nimble flip backwards and gave a mocking curtsy. "Well this certainly has been amusing. We must do this again sometime. However, my little toy, I have other places to be." As she took a step backwards the dark rip appeared again and she disappeared into it.
Dante let go of the Devil Trigger and the demonic powers slid away back into Alastor. Catullus flew up and perched on his shoulder. "Nasty lady, that one. We'll have to watch out for her later on," commented the dragon.
Ray wandered up with the shotgun over his shoulder. He gave Dante a flat look. "Gets the blood pumping my ass." He looked at the dark blood that covered the both of them. "We need to clean up. We can head over to that farmhouse a ways off. It looks pretty abandoned."
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A short drive later brought them to the farmhouse which Ray had glanced. "Helllloo?" he called, cupping his hands to his mouth. After a minute of no response and a knock on the door, they went into the old wooden building. Wandering into the kitchen in hopes a sink with running water, Dante were surprised to find
"Lannister?!" Dante gaped. "What the HELL are you doing here?"
The green clad man, feet propped up on the table, wagged a finger at them. "Tsk, such an accusatory tone. I'm just giving you a friendly little helping hand, a pointer in the right direction. After all, you DO want to get to the City of Hunters, don't you?"
Ray stepped forward eagerly to ask about it, but Dante held him back. This Lannister guy was starting to really piss him off with his cryptic talk and random appearances in both strange places and his dreams. "That's our business. And I don't recall having you involved in it. Unless you've been holding something back."
Lannister got to his feet. "My dear little dark blooded friend, whatever gave you that idea? And after all I've done to help you, I'm quite hurt. I think I might just leave. Try using the outhouse by the way, you'll find it's quite an experience." He suddenly winked and fizzled out of room as if he had never been."
Dante growled in the back of his throat. "I do not like that guy. Or is attitude. And I still don't like his clothes."
Ray and Catullus raised an eyebrow at him. "You've run into him before?" Ray asked. Catullus growled, "He smells of demon to me."
Dante flopped into a chair. "Yeah, creepy snot nosed guy. Reminds me too much of the stereotypical mystery character in a bad anime." He sighed. "However...he is usually right and helpful. So I guess we should go investigate the outhouse...joy of joys."
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The outhouse was a small, wooden, phone booth shaped building complete with a comical moon carved on the door. "Classy," Catullus commented. "Why are we here again?"
Dante sighed. "There's got to be something here…" He walked around then opened the door. It looked like the average wooden port-a-potty to him, but with no toilet paper. He stepped inside. Nothing. He sighed and pulled the door shut, then opened it………to find himself in a outhouse in the middle of a small clearing in an open field of tall corn, with no farmhouse in sight. He stepped out, blinking, and the door closed behind him. "Weird…" Twenty seconds later, he was only half surprised to see Ray and Catullus stumble out.
Ray blinked as well. "What just happened? After you went in, the door opened and you were gone."
Dante shrugged. "Must have transported us somewhere by shutting the door and opening it again. Although I'd guess we're still in Kansas. And these," he said pointing to a small chain of arrows drawn into the ground which led off and stopped twenty feet later, "must be like our yellow brick road." Catullus rolled his eyes.
They walked forward cautiously to where the arrows ended then as the continued on a few feet, they suddenly felt a strange cool shimmer wash over and around them, distorting everything like water. It abruptly stopped and the three looked up to have all their jaws drop.
Ten feet away, a tall stone wall rose into the air and stretched in a great circle in either direction. A large gate opened before them through which they could see people wandering the streets which stretched out before them. But perhaps most impressive of all were the futuristic metal building that arched and bent with an architecture usually found in art museums, and the flying hovercraft like machines that soared between them.
"Holy shit," said Dante.
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Yay, another chapter up! Well, the crew has made it to the City, and now we'll have to see what happens next!
Next chapter: Eye for an Eye
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Chapter 11: City of Hunters
Dante was brooding. It was something he did not do often or enjoy very much. He wasn't the broody type; he preferred action and adventure to the boring sit and think idea. Unfortunately he had some free time as he and Ray tried to find this City of Hunters place. So as he lay on the back bed of the Ray's trailer as it bounced along the Kansanian country roads to where it was suppose to be, he watched the ceiling fan above swirl lazily around and poked through his thoughts.
The fact that Mundus was his uncle was a surprise certainly, but it wasn't traumatizing or something. True, he didn't really see any family resemblance or anything but his dad had recently seemed to be full of surprises. He wondered if his mother had known though...that her husband had been a Prince of the Realm. That is what Catullus said the Emperor's siblings had been known as. Dante sighed, wishing Sarah had come along. But everyone had agreed that she was more a pacifist than a fighter, and that with the devil refuges pouring in she would be needed to stay. So it was only him, Ray, and Catullus.
He had brought along both Alastor and Ifrit as well as the gun collection. He had been unsure about the Staff. "This thing just craps my style," he had complained to Catullus. "Besides I already carry Alastor on my back. There's no room for it." Catullus had sighed. "Alright," the listen dragon had said, "I might as well teach you this. To make the Staff more carry compatible, hold it out vertically in your fist and then let it go while concentrating on it disappearing." Dante had done so doubtfully, and was surprised to see it vanish. He had been even more surprised to find a small gold hoop earring in his ear. "What the?..." he asked. Catullus nodded. "Yup, that's it. Nice little carry form for you. To pull it out again it just do the reverse and imagine it appearing." Dante had practiced a few times until it felt normal, although the earring still felt weird to him even now.
A particularly strong bump in the road knocked Dante's head hard against the rickety bed, throwing off his thoughts . "Damn it Ray!" he muttered aloud and getting up wandered unsteadily through the shifting trailer to where Ray was driving. "What, are you falling asleep at the wheel or something?"
Ray gave him an annoyed look. "It is NOT my fault they haven't paved these roads in a few decades," he said peevishly while his glasses bounced around on his nose. "We should be there soon anyways."
Dante snorted. "Right. Considering we don't even know what we're looking for." According to Ray's research, the Cities of Hunters were all concealed from the outside world so that average humans couldn't see them or accidentally stumble upon them. Unfortunately his research didn't say anything about how all this was done or if there were signs to look for. All they knew was a set of latitude and longitude coordinates that apparently set them dead in the middle of Kansas. "I HATE Kansas," Dante said as he watched the same mind-numbing landscape of grasses sweep by. This sort of scenery could try a guy nuts. He hoped they really did find this place soon.
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In an area of darkness which warped time and space, a devil materialized and gave a bow to the shadow covered throne. "They are nearing the City, my lord," it said. The devil disappeared as quickly as it had come. The figure on the throne let out a deep breath and leaned forward slightly, revealing handsome hands with meticulously kept nails. "We should not make this too easy for him," the hidden voice mused aloud. The figure appeared to turn its head. "Would you care to play with the halfbreed and his pet, My Lady? I do not doubt you could easily dispatch of him, yet I ask if you would only entertain him for a bit."
The figure of a woman stepped out of the darkness. "I would love to play cat and mouse with the Son of Sparda, my dear Occasus." she purred as she raised a razor like finger to her tongue.
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If the country wasn't going to kill Dante, the country music certainly was. There was only so much a guy could take, and Ray apparently had brought every cd he owned. "No, now listen! It's my trailer, so we listen to my music!" Ray said stubbornly. Dante wandered around in the trailer restlessly, seeking an outlet for his pent up energy. Suddenly the trailer came screeching to a halt and he was flung sideways into the wall of the trailer. "Ray!" he yelled grabbing hold of something to stay on his feet.
"Dante, get up here! We may have a problem. Or..."
Dante headed up to the drivers area. "Or what?"
Ray gestured with one hand out the windshield. "Do you think maybe that's part of the City or something?" Dante looked out and saw a strange black vertical rip in the air about twenty feet in front of them, hovering above the road. It seemed to waver slightly like a heat mirage.
"Huh," Dante said. "No clue." He jumped out of the truck. "All the more reason to investigate." Ray yelled a warning about being more cautious, but Dante continued to wander towards it. He was tired of being cooped up all day. Any excitement would be welcome. Quite unexpectedly, as Dante came with ten feet of it, the rip bulged and swirled into a large whirling black vortex. Dante was reminded of the swirling orange sky he had seen on Mallet Island. Out of this darkness leapt four small devils, the stereotypical low class ones that looked like a cross between a dog and a chimp. Behind them, however, materialized a tall woman wearing all black. Her black hair, decorated with black feathers, fell around a humanoid face that had an exotic demonic beauty that was almost elvish. She cocked her head at him and he noticed the deadly, six inch long steel like fingernails that she rubbed together. "You must be Dante...I had not expected you to look quite so much like your father. Pity you must die, I have always liked the pretty boys."
Catullus suddenly landed on Dante's shoulder. "Dante! That's Emena! She's one of The Ten, the ones who served as the right hands to the ruling family! She's a very powerful general."
She gave the dragon a cold, lazy look. "Shoo you little thing. Occasus did mention you were still around, a nusaince as always." Catullus bristled and hissed at her. She smiled slowly, then gave a way of her hand. As one of the lower devils jumped at Dante, he was surprised to hear a shot and see the devil spasm in the air. Turning back to the trailer he saw Ray, who had been momentarily forgotten, standing with his shotgun.
"Dante you've got to stop dragging me into this sort of thing, you know."
Dante ducked under another devil as it came at him. "Give me a break Ray. You're the one who wanted a little excitement in your life. Somebody had to drag you away from those computers."
As one of the devils dodged past Dante towards Ray, Ray reloaded the shotgun and emptied into the devil's chest. "I try to avoid the demons and gunfights when I can. I've heard they're hazardous to your health." Catullus winged in front of another creature and flamed it in the face, blinding it, before attacking with claws and teeth.
Dante whipped Alastor off his back (having brought the whole arsenal with him for the trip) and sliced completely through another one. "Nah, it gets the blood pumping!" As he finished the slice and the comment he looked up just in time to see Emena's deadly hand slashing down towards his face. He jerked back his face and proceeded into a backwards roll, but not quickly enough as he felt strips of fire burn into his cheek. As he rolled back to his feet he swore mentally. Those nails had gone all the way through, he thought as he gingerly poked the inside of the cheek with his tongue. They also stung like shit. He tried to ignore the pain as he felt his healing factor come in.
Emena smiled coyly. "And apparently it also gets the blood spilled." She licked his blood on one of her nails. "There is no blood so sweet as that of royalty." She wrinkled her nose in disgust. "Even if it is tainted with human." Ray, having taken down the other lesser devils, fired off a shot at her. She almost lazily moved her head and avoid the bullet.
Dante's hackles raised. Her asset was not her strength, but her speed. Going fast enough, those nails of hers didn't need to have a lot of force behind them. "Ray, stay out of this one," he called behind him as he readied Alastor. Ray would be way out of his league in this fight. Dante made hard eye contact for a long second with her, neither making a move, until she lashed out first. Dante whipped around and sliced at her, only to swing through open air and feel the sting of claws across his back. She's playing with me, he realized. If she wanted to she could have seriously wounded me that time. In that moment Dante made a decision and as he saw claws streaking towards him, he Devil Triggered and Alastor met her nails with a clash of crackling purple energy.
Emena's eyes widened and she jumped back, admiring his demonic form. "Ooo, interesting." As she smiled and attacking again, Dante used Alastor's heighted speed powers to dodge her attack and make his own, spinning around her and lashing out at her back with a mix of sword and dark energy. She bared her teeth in pain as it hit her, then surprised him as she managed to force up a barrier and bounced it back at him. He grunted as he was hit by part of his own force, although the demon heighted healing kicked in immediately. Emena gave a nimble flip backwards and gave a mocking curtsy. "Well this certainly has been amusing. We must do this again sometime. However, my little toy, I have other places to be." As she took a step backwards the dark rip appeared again and she disappeared into it.
Dante let go of the Devil Trigger and the demonic powers slid away back into Alastor. Catullus flew up and perched on his shoulder. "Nasty lady, that one. We'll have to watch out for her later on," commented the dragon.
Ray wandered up with the shotgun over his shoulder. He gave Dante a flat look. "Gets the blood pumping my ass." He looked at the dark blood that covered the both of them. "We need to clean up. We can head over to that farmhouse a ways off. It looks pretty abandoned."
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A short drive later brought them to the farmhouse which Ray had glanced. "Helllloo?" he called, cupping his hands to his mouth. After a minute of no response and a knock on the door, they went into the old wooden building. Wandering into the kitchen in hopes a sink with running water, Dante were surprised to find
"Lannister?!" Dante gaped. "What the HELL are you doing here?"
The green clad man, feet propped up on the table, wagged a finger at them. "Tsk, such an accusatory tone. I'm just giving you a friendly little helping hand, a pointer in the right direction. After all, you DO want to get to the City of Hunters, don't you?"
Ray stepped forward eagerly to ask about it, but Dante held him back. This Lannister guy was starting to really piss him off with his cryptic talk and random appearances in both strange places and his dreams. "That's our business. And I don't recall having you involved in it. Unless you've been holding something back."
Lannister got to his feet. "My dear little dark blooded friend, whatever gave you that idea? And after all I've done to help you, I'm quite hurt. I think I might just leave. Try using the outhouse by the way, you'll find it's quite an experience." He suddenly winked and fizzled out of room as if he had never been."
Dante growled in the back of his throat. "I do not like that guy. Or is attitude. And I still don't like his clothes."
Ray and Catullus raised an eyebrow at him. "You've run into him before?" Ray asked. Catullus growled, "He smells of demon to me."
Dante flopped into a chair. "Yeah, creepy snot nosed guy. Reminds me too much of the stereotypical mystery character in a bad anime." He sighed. "However...he is usually right and helpful. So I guess we should go investigate the outhouse...joy of joys."
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The outhouse was a small, wooden, phone booth shaped building complete with a comical moon carved on the door. "Classy," Catullus commented. "Why are we here again?"
Dante sighed. "There's got to be something here…" He walked around then opened the door. It looked like the average wooden port-a-potty to him, but with no toilet paper. He stepped inside. Nothing. He sighed and pulled the door shut, then opened it………to find himself in a outhouse in the middle of a small clearing in an open field of tall corn, with no farmhouse in sight. He stepped out, blinking, and the door closed behind him. "Weird…" Twenty seconds later, he was only half surprised to see Ray and Catullus stumble out.
Ray blinked as well. "What just happened? After you went in, the door opened and you were gone."
Dante shrugged. "Must have transported us somewhere by shutting the door and opening it again. Although I'd guess we're still in Kansas. And these," he said pointing to a small chain of arrows drawn into the ground which led off and stopped twenty feet later, "must be like our yellow brick road." Catullus rolled his eyes.
They walked forward cautiously to where the arrows ended then as the continued on a few feet, they suddenly felt a strange cool shimmer wash over and around them, distorting everything like water. It abruptly stopped and the three looked up to have all their jaws drop.
Ten feet away, a tall stone wall rose into the air and stretched in a great circle in either direction. A large gate opened before them through which they could see people wandering the streets which stretched out before them. But perhaps most impressive of all were the futuristic metal building that arched and bent with an architecture usually found in art museums, and the flying hovercraft like machines that soared between them.
"Holy shit," said Dante.
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Yay, another chapter up! Well, the crew has made it to the City, and now we'll have to see what happens next!
Next chapter: Eye for an Eye