I'm in a happy mood (just finished presenting my universe thesis), so I wrote this chapter sooner than it should be.

Nothing much to say. Enjoy the chapter everyone!


With his last scream, Nero punches through the floor, accidentally touches the root of the demon vines. The Sephirothic Fruit inside the Devil Bringer reacts, and the demon vines are withered, and due to the weight of the bridge, they break and fall down, letting the bridge land on Nero's side of floor.

"Welp, we have a way now." Ruby comments. "Let's chase after them!"

"Not after upgrading ourselves, Ruby." Yang jokes, though she does want to find Kyrie soon. "But, I don't believe it's going to be THAT easy. There would be more tougher enemies, right?"

"Considering this is a game, yes." Blake shakes her head. "There must be more plot twists somewhere before Nero could actually save her."

"Do you think they might use Kyrie as the hostage against Nero?" Pyrrha asks, a little fear in her voice.

"Since that religious old man has turned into demon..." Ren answers. "The chance is high."

"So we have to fight him while trying not to hit her?" Nora sounds sad.

"Um, I think they would just lock her in somewhere Nora." Jaune doesn't believe the chance of that situation being high.

...

Mission 10: Wrapped In Glory

End the ambitions of His Holiness!

"That... doesn't look good." Qrow sweatdrops as he sees what Nero's facing in the background. "A room full of lasers firing through the room... oh, never mind. That thing is there." Though, his concern dismisses when he notices the Time Slow device next to the Hunter.

"Yep, not a problem!" Ruby declares. She then opens the Power Up and immediately buys both Charged Shot 2 and 3. "I need more power!"

That one innocent comment causes everyone to try to hold their laughs back.

"Aw, just a little more Souls..." She whines a bit, then changes to Item list... and notices everyone's funny faces. "What?"

"Nothing, Rub." Yang tries to grin without laughing. "Just keep playing."

"Okay..." Ruby doesn't understand, yet, but decides to just continue. After a few considers, she decides to pick the last Blue Orb in the store. "Alright, let's get into it!"


Returning to the elevator, Nero notices the whole cage fall into darkness. The two flying demons from before appear before him, and each shoots their nails towards him, who easily moves his body to dodge the attacks. Then, while he couldn't see clearly, he can feel another of the demons before him floating up through the floor... and multiple nails at once fire at him, causing him to dodge to the side. One of them aims perfectly to his face, only for him to grab it instantly. After the attack barrage, the demon retracts the nails except for three of them on its right 'hand', as it emerges from darkness. While this new one looks similar to the red scorpions, its skin is white like bone, and it has hand-like features unlike single-nail of the others. The camera then zooms up close to the demon's face, to see it slightly move its hat up with one finger...

"Okay, one point for being cool." Yang grins. "Even if it's a demon, doing something like that, I like."

"Even when fighting to the death, you just have to leave some good impressions." Qrow adds, earning nods of approval from the others.

After the new demon retracts its remaining nails, Nero goes into a 'ready' position, preparing to fight the demons...

"That moment looks cool..." Ruby comments as the new demon 'poses', with the red ones floating near him. "Too bad I have to kill them."

"Do you think the Geist could do that?"

"If Salem plans to evolve them, Nora, then maybe." Ren answers. "Though, I'm NOT looking forward to it."

Having Charged Shot 3 ready, Ruby releases it on the red demon's face, that immediately destroys the cloak of the red demon as it falls on the floor, waiting for her to unleash her combo on it. "Wait, that's enough to deal with the cloak?" And even more shocking, after a normal Buster, an explosion occurs and kills the demon instantly. "WAIT! That's just overpowered!" To show that Charged Shot is seemingly too strong for a small price, the rank meter goes immediately to C after the explosion. "We should have bought this earlier!"

"We definitely should have!" Yang puts both her hands on the back of her head in surprise. "I know that one is powerful, but I didn't think it could raise up the rank meter!"

"...I won't say anything, for now." Blake decides not to comment yet.

"Though, do you think you could break the armors' shields with that shot?" Weiss then asks.

"Well, obviously we will test it. But for now..." Ruby aims her gun and shoots at the other red demon, however, it's outside of the elevator so she couldn't get the clear shot. Though, after Snatching the cloak out, she's able to shoot it with Charged Shot 1, although that pushes the demon even further away from her. Leaving it be for a while, she shifts her focus to the white demon, who declares its attack by circling once around her. It then attacks by firing nails on each of its hands alternatively towards her, forcing her to jump up to avoid getting hit. Then, she releases Charged Shot 3 on the demon, knocking it back away. A few seconds later the bullet explodes and fully destroys the cloak, revealing a white scorpion. After smashing combos on its vulnerable state, she blasts another Charged Shot 3 to it before it recovers the cloak. She notices its health already too low, so she decides to taunt and waits for the explosion... and watches the meter going to S-rank as the demon's killed. "That's so overpowered..."

"Don't complain. If it was me, I would immediately mass-product those to deal with Grimm." Weiss shakes her head at her leader complaining about something so small.

"I know..." Ruby replies. She then basically annihilates the last demon with Charged Shots and Exceed Combos... with a cheap shot from the demon. "How did that hit me? I was behind it!"

"It's an AOE attack, Ruby." Jaune answers that for her.

Though, that doesn't matter anymore because the demon is done for. After that, she just has to pass through the barriers of lasers with Time Slow device and activates the device that breaks the blue barrier so she could reach to the first floor. Sounds easy, except that the places to stand on between the lasers are too narrow. It does damage to her a couple of times before she could pass the puzzle.

Returning to the Key Chamber, the armors reappear. However, with the Time Slow device and Charged Shot 3, Ruby is able to deal with them easily. Also, she finds out that the skill is being blocked by the shield. Although, if the bullet hits, it stuns armors and makes them fall if they're flying.

...

Passing the bridge and entering the Security Corridor...

"Oh that speed..." Blake comments about the lasers moving in the way. "If it's you, Ruby, maybe just activating your Semblance would be enough."

"Or just trying to jump over the lasers, or walking on the ceiling..."

"I'm pretty sure Nero doesn't know how to properly use Glyph, Ruby." The expert of the matter is not on the same side.

Of course, with the Time Slow device, it's not a big deal, considering that the laser seems to have a pattern.

After passing the lasers, Ruby finds a secret mission hidden behind a pillar (at camera's view)...

...

Secret Mission 06: Vermifuge

Eliminate all the Chimera before the Scarecrow is taken over!

"Um... wouldn't just killing the Scarecrow do the work?" Nora is slightly confused.

"I believe we have to protect that demon... somehow." Ren is uncertain on how to do that, despite the plan sounds solid.

"Well, let's just try killing it first. It should be easy right?" Oh how wrong Ruby is, because after killing it instantly, it's a FAILED. "Welp. So we can't kill it. Let's see..."

At the second time, she waits to see what happens, and see ALL Chimeras spearing at the Scarecrow, and her too if she's on the way. Another fail.

She then remembers the skill she obtained from Credo. She decides to use it, and sees that the Spectral Arm holds the demon on the air without killing it... though she's a little careless and gets speared. Fail again.

She tries to Snatch the demon up... that only works for a few seconds. Not working.

"Ruby, is this area limited?" Pyrrha asks.

"What do you mean by 'limited'?"

"How about you bring that Scarecrow to the cliff? These Chimeras seem to only stick on the floor."

"...I see. Thanks!"

Using Credo's skill, this time Ruby jumps constantly to avoid getting hit by the weed demons, then gets to the upper ground. She then throws the Scarecrow off and goes down, killing the Chimeras in quick progress. "This is way easier with the Scarecrow out of the way!" After the weed demons are gone, the Blue Orb Fragment appears... and she takes it, AFTER killing the annoying the Scarecrow.

"You would do a poor job 'protecting the escort' if you plan to do one, Ruby." Qrow jokes.

"Hey, you're not anywhere better." Weiss scolds the Huntsman. "My sister is still pissed off at how you two first met."

"Hey, to you Ice Queens, I need some ways to talk back."

...

After returning to Security Corridor, Ruby enters deeper into the building, and falls down into an area with a huge turbine in the middle of the room. The Slow Time device is also blocked with the Red Strings, and the ghost demons appear. These demons are basically cannon-fodders for Ruby to take Red Orbs now.

After dealing with the demons, she activates the Slow Time device, then jumps on the slowed blades of the turbine and reaches the other platform in the area.

Entering the Experiment Disposal, Ruby encounters another set of Bianco Angelos... She takes the Red Orbs from them, and from the big crystal hidden in the corner of the room. Passing through the cage-like elevator, which surprisingly doesn't work, she reaches to the other end of the place and plans to interact with the pillar in the middle, before noticing the Devil Bringer shining up. Running around to see the light not shining brighter, she decides to jump up and receives the positive result...

After a LOT of struggles, from trying to Double Jump to Wall Jump, only when Ruby uses the Exceed High Roller to reach to the first obstacle, she aims for the Blue Orb Fragment and Double Jump correctly in first try, gaining herself another Blue Orb which is equal for a health bar.

"That position is a little challenging, huh?" Qrow comments.

"Not everyone can turn into a bird, Uncle."

Reaching the second floor, Ruby tries to retake the Wing Talisman to no success. Leaving it be, she heads to the next room, which is the Meeting Room where the Order's members have discussed about Yamato. Then, two Alto Angelos appear and stop her from advancing forward. Using Devil Trigger from the beginning, Ruby starts slashing on the armors without a care, adding the Charged Shots and Summoned Swords occasionally. When one of the armors' shield is broken...

Nero grabs the armor from behind and flips it backward, TWICE, before lifting both of them up to the air, and sky-diving the armor to the ground, killing it instantly in the explosion of the Charged Shot as well.

"Another point of cool goes to Nero!" Yang shouts again.

"Hey, if Hazel and Nero goes for a fist fight, do you think the latter would do a move like that?" Nora asks.

"Anything is possible. And Hazel is a perfect example to use that move." Blake replies. "Going to feel bad for him, though."

"Yeah, having the 'youngling' doing that move on you is a little embarrassing." Qrow chuckles.

After killing the other armor with an explosion and a taunt, Ruby heads to the end of the room... and turns to the secret mission.

...

Secret Mission 07: Free Running

Reach the goal without falling through the vanishing floor!

"Oh god, this one?" Ruby groans.

"I will deal with that, if you want."

"Thanks Weiss. I'm not dealing with this."

Receiving the controller, Weiss then starts the mission:

After activating the platform, she runs for a few steps before the ghost demons appear, thankfully there is no white ones. Though, it's extremely hard to keep yourself on the floor while trying to kill the demons, and Charged Shot is actually backfiring on her if she uses it on the air, because it could push her off the platform, thus failing the mission.

After a few tries, Weiss starts the mission again, but doesn't activate the platform yet. "Okay, Charged Shot is not good to use here. These demons are too annoying, combining with the constant disappearing platforms..."

"How about you bait them towards you while you're still on the good ground?" Jaune suggests. "I mean, this is not timed, and the platform could be re-activated, right?"

"...Maybe?" Weiss decides to follow the plan. After activating the platform, she walks on it to bait the demons, then returns back immediately. With the solid ground now, she easily kills the demons with all the skills. After that she then waits for the platforms to work... then they all disappear. And the wheel returns back to its inactive form. "Looks like you're correct, Jaune. Thanks."

"You're welcome."

Now it's free of demons, she now has a good time to calculate her moves to get pass the mission. Although it's a little harder than expected. Still, she's still able to get it with Calibur and Air Hike.

After the secret mission, Weiss returns the controller to Ruby, and the latter enters the next room.


"What took you so long?" Entering the room, Nero is surprised to see Dante already waiting for him.

"You. What are you doing here?" He plans to ask more, but he decides to just dismiss the opponent and pushes him aside. "Forget it, I don't have time for this."

"And neither do I." Dante immediately grabs Nero's shoulder, stopping him from the track. The young Hunter immediately spins around and plans to throw his punch towards Dante's face, but the man-in-red dodges instantly. Nero throws another punch, and Dante grabs it with no problems. "So I will cut to the chase." Feeling the young man trying to pull the arm back to throw another hit, Dante just releases it and lets Nero pull himself collide towards the wall behind him, creating a huge crack on it.

"How much power did Nero put on that pull?" Pyrrha asks in surprise. "And how strong is Dante to hold his arm like nothing?"

"He survived a sword to the torso, Pyrrha. If he actually goes toe-to-toe against a Grimm Dragon with his fists only, I'm not surprised." Yang reminds the girl of what happened to the man in the first mission.

"I'm here for the sword." Dante reveals his intention to his opponent.

"Your point being?" A little angered, Nero calls out the sword and the phantom figure, which causes a small gale around him, making Dante raising his left arm to block it for a moment.

Observing Nero and his spectrum figure for a moment, Dante replies: "It was originally my brother's." He then draws his own sword out and warns: "Return it to me, and I will let you go, kid."

"Oh that's gonna trigger him." Yang grins ear-to-ear. "Time for a rematch!"

"Kid? Well..." Nero is obviously not pleased hearing that. "If that's how you see me I think you will blush a pretty pink when I kick your ASS!" Moving Yamato down, Nero sends a slash wave towards Dante, who just casually jumps out and lands on top of the area where His Holiness got revived.

When he's comfortable in his place, Dante looks at the result of the attack. He then looks down towards Nero and says: "Ah, helpful hint, take a tip from your elders..." Seeing that Nero doesn't care and walks away, Dante jumps down and stops him on track. With that, the two engage...

And the two miraculously stand a few meters away from the others. "While I'm appreciated that Dante is not directly in front of us, it doesn't make sense storywise." Ruby says, both relieved and a little disappointing.

"Beggars can't be choosers, sis."

Ruby starts first by unleashing Charged Shots towards Dante, but he just jumps up in the air to avoid them. She closes in while firing normal shots, and Dante responds the same with his dual pistols. Once they're close enough, Ruby plans to use Streak, but Dante is one move ahead and uses his own version and pushes her back. Standing up, Ruby rolls on the side to avoid a Split from the boss, she uses her Exceed Streak, only for Dante to stop it by a simple 3-hit combo that also pushes her away. A little irritated, Ruby decides to use normal Streak... and Dante just has to roll to the side and uses his own on her again. Though, she has enough of that and activates Devil Trigger which stuns Dante for a moment. That small moment is enough for her to release Combo C and Charged Shot 3 before the last hit is out. Combined with the explosion and the six Summoned Swords, Dante's health loses 4 bars.

"Okay, that first mission is DEFINITELY Dante playing around." Ruby concludes. "He's getting serious now..."

'Unfortunate for you, he is STILL playing around.'

"Oh come on!"

She then sees Dante flicking his fingers, and some sorts of yellow Aura bursts out of him. She Streak to him, just in time that he dashes towards her, though that gives her a free hit on him. Both of them then try to Split each other for a few times (and fail all), before Dante changes tactic and slashes her from behind, though she DT again and uses a full Combo C on Dante. After the opponent regains his posture, both Streak each other and their swords clash. She doesn't recover in time, and her DT gauge is down, so Dante has a free three-hit on her.

Jumping to the air, Ruby baits Dante to follow, and Snatch him to her before throwing him to the ground with a normal Buster. After that, Dante dashes away, and before she shoots him, a light blue Aura bursts, and Dante raises his right arm up to block the bullet. Landing on the ground, she then starts attacking him, only to see him blocking them thus reducing the damages. And when she's about to finish Combo D, Dante thrusts his arm towards, dealing 2 health bar worth of her HP.

"What... was that?" Weiss exclaims in shock. "Is that a Counter move? Well, we have seen T.O doing that before, but that's actually from the game, not the cutscene?"

'Realistically, he would use that to disrespect you.'

Though, Dante's health is already to low, so Ruby activates DT one last time...


Dante is being knocked back, but he regains focus quickly and starts deflecting Nero's slashes, though the younger man manages to knock the sword out of its owner's hand. He then thrusts forward, only for his opponent to swiftly dodge aside and pushes Nero's head down with his left hand. Combining with the momentum, Nero falls on the floor, hard. He tries to turn back and continue fighting, only for Dante to use his foot to stomp on his right hand, and put his sword right next to Nero's neck.

"Yep, Nero's no match for Dante." Yang concludes, which earns her nods of agreement.

Nero, seeing the blade next to his neck, looks up to see Dante lightly panting while asking: "You cooled off yet, kid?" Knowing that he's not able to do anything, Nero can only turn his head away in annoyance. "What's the matter? Why the glare?" Dante does notice his eyes sending a glance to him, though.

"You look as if you're just being playing me from the beginning." Nero speaks out his mind.

"He is." Jaune agrees.

Seeing that Nero's not going to fight him further, Dante walks away while speaking: "That sword... was used to separate our world from the demons. I can't have something of that kinda power floating around now can I?" After standing up and hearing Dante's reason, Nero looks down at Yamato, and Dante concludes: "It's got to stay in the family."

His grip on the sword hardens, as Nero replies: "I need this..."

"Come on, Dante. He's trying to save his girl. Just let him borrow for a moment."

"Ruby, didn't you hear what Dante just said?" The Heiress scolds her leader.

"Then keep it."

"Really Dante?" Weiss immediately glares the person, while Ruby now has a big grin on her face.

Even Nero is shocked hearing that, and he turns his surprised face to the person to confirm it. "Now that you're calm and cool... Get going."

"Wait, what could change his mind that easily?" Even Pyrrha is confused.

"Maybe he sees something in Nero... Like how Sir Ozpin found in Ruby." Ren analyzes.

Slightly hesitant, Nero checks if Dante is to be trust or not. Though, after a few seconds, he throws the thought aside and walks to the direction he needs to go. When he passes Dante, both their coats fly up like a wind passing through, even more epic with the time slowing down.

"Hey!" Dante calls Nero back one last time. "What's your name?"

"...Nero." The young swordsman replies. "You're Dante, right? Not a bad name..."

"Neither is yours."

"Aw, bromance..." That earns Nora chuckles.

Then suddenly Gloria stands between the two...

"Why does the camera zoom like that?"

'Fanservice, Blake.'

After a few seconds, Dante bursts out his laugh while saying: "That regal look suits you."

"Wait, Dante knows Gloria? How?" Jaune asks in surprise. "Aren't they enemies?"

Gloria replies: "I dress to impress." She then throws something up... and replacing Gloria, a dark-skinned girl, is a white girl with yellow hair..

"Really? Another Neo?" Yang rubs her eyes in annoyance.

"I don't think so." Blake theorizes. "This looks like she's wearing a camouflage... a perfect camouflage, to be fair. Also, maybe magic?"

"...Yeah, I will accept that."

"Are you sure you want to let him go?" Gloria? asks Dante as she walks to him before turning her head to Nero.

"Yeah, I figure he can bear the burden." Dante replies.

"I know it's not my business, but this could get ugly." Gloria? warns about... something.

"So she's like a double-agent?" Ruby wonders.

'What do you really expect from a gun-for-hire?'

"Well, if the kid screws up, then I will just have to kick his ass." That's Dante's response.

"Oh for real? That's Qrow's irresponsibility there."

"Hey, knock it off Ice Queen."

...

As the screen shows the result, Ruby puts down the controller and stretches. "Alright, maybe one more mission and..."

'Actually, I want you to replay this mission.'

"Why?" Ren asks.

'That's a reviewer's request. He wants you to... well, this is not his direct quote, but I understand it this way. He wants you to take the fight a little slower, so Dante could show you how actually dangerous he could be, even in Normal difficulty."

"I lost NINE health bar, and you're saying that it could be worse?" Ruby shouts back in surprise.

'Yep.'

"Let Nora have a turn this time."

"Yay! Thanks Yang!"

'Um, can you all close your eyes for a second?'

"Why?" Qrow asks.

'Well, you have to go to the menu. On the menu, there is a little spoiler, so...'

"Okay!" Ruby replies with no hesitation. With that, everyone closes their eyes...

After a few seconds, T.O replies: 'Alright, it's okay now.' When they look at the screen, it returns back to the start menu of the mission. 'I suggest not to buy yet. Also, in Dante's fight, try not to use too many times of DT. And also Charged Shots.'

"Well, fine by me!" Nora is not annoyed by that.

The mission restarts, and Nora starts fighting the ghost demons...

'Hey, read this Qrow.' A piece of paper appears in front of the Huntsman.

"Well that doesn't take long." Qrow chuckles, then reads the content... "Nero is the son... okay, Dante... twin brother... Can anyone translate this for me?"

"Let me see." Weiss leans in and reads it... "Wait... wait wait wait... Okay, I'm sorry but he really needs to check what he's writing before sending this out."

"What is it?" Ruby is curious.

"Well... if I connect the words right... Nero is Dante's nephew."

"WHAT?" Everyone shouts up. Nora then follows up with a question while keeping playing: "Then why did Dante keep attacking Nero?"

"...Oh, no wonder. They didn't even know that they're related." Weiss continues reading. "So Dante has a twin brother. Kinda like Kuro and T.O's relationship, huh?"

"They're two sides of the same coin to be correct." Blake answers. "Both sides are good, though."


After a while, Nora reaches Dante again. She starts walking to him while rapidly shooting her revolver, which Dante replies the same. Then, when Dante jumps back, Nora follows the same, and luckily avoid an air-shooting barrage from her opponent when she lands on the floor. Though, her Streak doesn't fool her opponent, as he jumps up and Split, but she also has rolled out to the side. She then shoots once to bait Dante, before slashing him with Combo C. She Streak to Dante, but the man dodges aside and uses his quicker version to knock her back.

After some exchanges, with Nora now having 3 empty bars of health, Dante uses his guard again, but she decides not to attack and instead backs away. Because of that, Dante also stops guarding and heads in for the sword clashings. Then, in one moment, he bursts out a red Aura...

"Okay, how many Auras does he have, seriously?" Weiss is questioning the change of styles. "Four? A dark blue, a light blue, a yellow and now red."

While Nora is in the air, Dante slashes one time in the air, then suddenly has the same attack before moving the sword to his back... and rolls when Nora Calibur in the air.

"Faking his moves as well. Comparing him to the other bosses, this is a different level." Pyrrha speaks her mind out.

A few seconds later, Nora is hit by Dante's first two hits of the three-hit combo, then suddenly he changes the last one to a quick slash before releasing a shockwave from his sword, though Nora manages to dodge that. That doesn't stop Dante from giving her another Streak-like hit.

A few more exchanges, and replacing the third hit, Dante spins his sword vertically, but Nora has DT turned on and attacks him back.

Then, he uses his guard again. Nora decides to check how many healths she loses with the deflection counter. And when that happens, she counts two.

When his Red Aura is up, Nora unluckily gets hit by his combo: Two attacks, the vertically spin that sends Nora to the air, followed up with a High Roller, and a four-hit air combo.

"Um... that looks like..." Yang starts.

"Dante moves just like us!" Ruby finishes. "I mean, like how we play as Nero!"

"Okay, I think it's enough, Nora. Finish the fight." Ren says, as he notices that she has just over three bars of health left.

"Okay-dokay!"


"Well, now we know why Dante is no push-over." Ruby concludes. "And that's just on a Normal difficulty. It's going to be hard on higher level."

"The trouble here is that Dante has skill sets just like us. More if those Auras could say something about it." Weiss adds.

"At least he's on the good side... I think." Blake says.

"Or he's just waiting to get the kill." Yang theorizes.

"Sitting around won't do anything." Qrow then grabs the controller this time. "Let's see if Lady Luck would be on my side this time."


Chapter 10 end!

Skill added:

Charge Shot 2 and 3

My plan is to have our guests here finishing mission 11 then rest, and the chapter after that would be the next morning, about their thoughts about the game so far. And maybe inviting more people to the group.

That's it, for now. See you guys in the future!