Devil May Cry Zero: Past Ties
Chapter 3
Following the movement of their prey, four marionettes crashed into the dance hall one after the other. The size of the dance hall was large enough to hold a few hundred guests easily. On one side of the hall were twin staircases that lead upwards to the floor above. Through their dull red eyes, the marionettes searched for something. The only sound that could be heard was the noise made by the movement of their wooden joints.
Breathing as lightly as she could, Mia stood very still on the balcony outside the same dance hall. Not long after parting with Vergil, a bunch of marionettes sensed her presence and started chasing her around the castle. The size of the ancient architecture was enough to get one lost. Having demons chasing after her at the same time didn't help. Mia didn't have the slightest idea which part of the castle she was in. Slowly turning her head around, she took a peak inside the hall and let out a sigh of relief. It looked like the marionettes decided to look elsewhere for her.
Mia looked behind her and was fascinated by the scenery she failed to notice before. If it was during the day a beautiful sight of the ocean could be clearly viewed from the balcony she was on. Nothing blocked her vision since that side of the castle stood on a cliff.
The moment she was going to go back inside the dance hall, they attacked At first, they looked like birds. Without any warning, a flock of what looked like a red, large, nondescript shape flew at her and started pecking and scratching aggressively with their peaks and talons. Frantically, Mia used her arms to knock them away. It didn't help at all. Blood ran down her arms, dropping on the old balcony. The smell of blood attracted more of them. Some began to slam themselves against her. One knocked her back with such great force that for a moment she lost her balance. When she realised she was cornered to the edge of the balcony, she was falling. Behind her was nothing but a sheer cliff.
Someone sprang open the glass door that separated the dance hall and balcony. That person grabbed Mia's wrist and dragged her all the way back inside the hall, closing the doors behind to lock out the ferocious Blood-Goyles. While she was trying to catch her breath, Mia looked up to see who rescued her. It was Vergil.
"Why?" Mia asked. Her heart was beating so hard she was afraid he would hear it. Her legs felt weak. "You're not just here to invite me to a dance, are you?" she added sarcastically. The tiled floor felt cold beneath her
"I asked you to leave before and you're still here," Vergil said. It took him a while to find out where she was because she made little noise when fighting off the Blood-Goyles. She just survived death moments ago but was staring at him steadily with her green eyes.
"I suppose you're here to escort me out then?" Mia asked. She breathed in, held her breath and stood up straight.
Disregarding the girl's sarcasm, Vergil began to walk towards the other exit of the hall, one opposite to the one Mia and the marionettes entered by. Just as he expected, he heard footsteps behind him moments later. The younger of the twin sisters might be stubborn but she wasn't stupid. It would be risky for her to go the direction the marionettes went. It'd be even more senseless if she took the stairs that lead up when she needed to be heading down.
After exiting the dance hallthere was another corridor. Only this one had no windows. "You can laugh at me if you want. You don't have to hold back," Vergil heard her say from the back. He stopped and turned to face her.
Mia was angry at herself. She must look so pitiful in her current state. Her badly scratched arms had just stopped bleeding and were covered in her own dried blood. Her face had a few scratches too. Her straight black hair was messy. Her black blouse was half shredded.
Vergil laughed three times mockingly. "Are you satisfied now?"he asked her. Not waiting a response from Mia, he continued his way down the corridor. What Vergil failed to see was the stunned look on her face.
Dante put on the break and the bike immediately came to a halt. Rei got off the bike to take a good look at a sign in front of them. Opposite of the sign was an unoccupied phone booth. "This is it," she said to Dante when she returned to the bike. The place matched the description Mia mentioned to her before. They decided to go further down the road to see if anything would give them clues as to where Vergil and Mia went.
The sky was now covered by clouds for as far as Dante could see. A thunder storm was gradually approaching the region. Spectacular lightning showed off its greatness by threatening to rip open the night sky. The sounds of thunder were no nocturne; and they were getting more frequent.
"Dante, look up there!" Dante looked towards the direction where Rei pointed. As though the sky wanted him to see it too, a strong lightning struck, allowing him to see an old castle on a hill. It didn't look very far away.
"Let's hope there are a few sexy vampires up there," he said light-heartedly and accelerated.
Rain began to fall when they found Trish's truck next to the path that lead to the castle entrance. They quickened their pace as the rain got heavier. Soon they were in front of the large wooden door. Before Rei could say anything, Dante pushed it open as if he were naturally at home. Rei was unpleasantly surprised by his boldness.
"Hah, this is definitely the right place," Dante said, raising his guard. "Is there something?" Rei asked. She didn't see anything that looked unusual.
"Whoever owns this place has lots of demon friends it seems," Dante said.
"Wait a minute," Rei said, seeing he was going to take the spiral stairs up to the lit corridor on the floor above.
"We shouldn't go up from here. This place looks pretty big so there should be another way up," Rei said.
"Why do we need to find another way up when there's a way right in front us?" Dante was dumbfounded.
"Doesn't it look like we'll attract just a little attention if we take that route?" Rei couldn't believe how much common sense wasn't in him. However, it wasn't a good time to argue with him either. "Please, Dante?"
Dante sighed. If Mia was there she probably would've asked if he was stupid or something. It didn't matter to him at all whether he got noticed or not. He took out the coin he always kept in his pocket. It was a very useful item whenever he and Vergil didn't agree with something, which was basically all the time. "Let do it this way," Dante showed her the coin. "Are we both cool?" Rei nodded. "I'll take heads then," Dante said. He flipped the coin in the air. It landed on tails.
"Let's take this way," Rei lead the way, happy that she won.
"I'm not having much luck with this coin lately," Dante mumbled. He followed the girl while examining the coin to see if there were any defects on it.
After a while of searching, they came across a pure white set of straight stairs. It stood out from the rest of the features in the castle because it just didn't seem to belong. On the first step craved: "up leads to the future".
They both froze on their spot after taking a couple of steps. What the hell? Dante thought and took another step upward. He was seeing things. Each step he took, he was looking at a scene he had not seen before. It was gone as fast as it came to him. One moment he was seeing a seemingly fainted twin. It was too fast for him to tell which one it was, Rei or Mia. The next moment he saw Vergil face-off with him with Yamato in his hand. He took another step. An image of a woman who looked exactlylike his mother smiled wickedly at him.
"Dante…" Rei's voice trailed off. Dante foundtraces of fear in her captivating green eyes. Even without saying anything, he knew what she was thinking. The stairs were letting them look into the future. He suspect what they saw was different because he saw it through his perspective.
"Come on," Dante turned around. This time, he whistled as he started going up once again. With his best effort he ignored the scenes in his head. Rei summoned up her courage and followed behind. The strangeness of the place made her more worried about Mia. She knew it was probably a trick trying to wear them down mentally. Only it was far too real to ignore. The "future" she was being shown was grim and depressing. She didn't want to take another step. Dante stopped too when she did. He was a few steps from the first floor. She was around half-way up. The stairs were longer than the usual length of one floor. At the time the castle was constructed, high ceilings were popular.
"Just think about pizza," Dante cupped his hand around his mouth and called down to her.
"Pizza?" Rei was clueless. What was he talking about?
"Tell me one thing you can put on a pizza as a topping each step you take," Dante grinned. Rei considered it for a moment. It might sound childish but it might just do the trick. While heading up, she said out aloud, naming each ingredient as he suggested.
In another part of the castle, Vergil and Mia arrived at another set of stairs. Stern as always, Vergil walked a little ahead in silence. Mia didn't say anything more after he gave her the laughing response. The downward stairs didn't look like a part of the castle for the reason it was built with ink black stone from steps to hand rail. On the first step downward, words were engraved: "down leads to the past". They both felt the strange atmosphere emanating from it. However, neither of them intended to sound awkward by saying they are worried about a mere set of stairs.
The instant Vergil stepped onto the eerie stairway, it happened. He could see the remains of his mother right in front of his eyes, exactly the same as eight years ago. It was a horrific sight. As though she was brutally torn apart by a beast, parts of her body scattered around the room. The image disappeared as quickly as it appeared. He glanced over to Mia but she didn't seem to see it. Thinking he must have imagined it, Vergil continued his way down. He quickly knew it was not his own imagination when he took the next step. He saw a young Dante holding his head with his hands, screaming out aloud though he couldn't hear. It was gone in a flash too.
Vergil saw Mia beside him froze on a step. It appeared that she was not seeing the same thing as him. She was staring at the black steps ahead in disbelief, but was not as shocked as she would be if she hadseen a gruesome death. Despite their silence, they both knew the stairs were invoking their memories from the past. They were looking back at an important time of their past each step they took.
In a steady pace, Vergil began walking down the steps. Fragments of his past were played out to him like a slide show. Eva gave him and Dante half an amulet each on their birthday. It rained on the day they attended their mother's funeral. He was a little surprised to find Mia following quite closely behind. He thought she would be more hesitant. The time he spent with Mia was short so he hardly knew her. Unlike her more subtle twin, Mia was direct as she always spoke what was on her mind.
Almost at the same time, they heard Dante and Rei's voices nearby. Mia found Vergil glaring at her. He didn't look very happy at all. In fact, Mia found his expression a little scary. She only remembered she hadn't hold Vergil about Dante and Rei coming. Pretending not to notice, she hurried towards the source of the voices. Vergil followed her.
"Rei!" Mia found her twin near the top of a pure white set of stairs. "Pineapple, mushroom…Mia!" Rei looked at her in surprise. She didn't expect to find Mia so soon. "What are you talking about, mushroom?" Mia chuckled, interested to find out what was going on. Moments ago she was still regretting calling Rei to this place.
"Hey, dear brother," Dante greeted his twin. "I hope you got us a good video, since you took a whole night choosing it." Behind him he heard Rei asking Mia about the wounds on her face and arms.
"My apologies for keeping you waiting," Vergil replied in his emotionless tone. "Give it to me," he referred to Yamato. Apparently, Dante brought it along with him. He was carrying on his back along with his own sword, the Rebellion. Behind him, he could hear Mia lying about how she got hurt.
"Before that, mind telling me what you're up to at a place like this?" Dante asked.
"It's none of your – "
"Business. I know, I know, you always say that," Dante interrupted him with a bored face. "Can you tell me something I don't know? Such as, who is that blonde haired woman who brought you here?"
"You are not supposed to be here, Dante. Same goes for those two over there," Vergil said. "If you don't leave quickly, you won't be able to do so soon."
Dante was a little surprised to find slight anxiety coming from his calm and collected twin. There were two ways to get information from Vergil: either wait for him to say it willingly or force it out of him. The latter option never worked though. Suddenly the ground shook. A loud sound could be heard. It was getting louder by the second.
"An earthquake?" Mia asked. Thin cracks appeared in the ceiling and streaks of sand-like building material rained down on them.
"No," Rei listened to the approaching sound. "Something's coming." She turned around in time to see an Arachne rushing towards her. Its menacing front legs were sharp, crescent-shaped blades. In a flash, Dante got between the two. With Rebellion, he struck the spider-shape demon and sent it flying back to a large crowd of its relatives behind it.
Vergil could see more than twenty Arachnes. More seemed to be coming from the floor above as well as the floor they were on. "Dante!" he called to his twin with a louder voice than usual.
"Alright, alright," Dante reached behind his back for Yamato. "I'll let you borrow it for now. I'm not done with you yet," he said and threw the katana to Vergil.
The elder twin caught his sword in the air. Three unfortunate Arachnes nearby became the newest victims of the deadly Yamato. Fighting back to back, Dante and Vergil killed more of those huge spider demons. The more they killed, the more came at them.
The numberof Arachnes that were approachingwas shocking. Rei didn't understand what triggered their sudden assault. They were coming from everywhere except below. Mia was not as calm as her sister. She disliked spiders, especially ones so huge. Hundreds of small red eyes glowed in the dark, staring at them with intent.
Gracefully, Vergil evaded a rush attack from another Arachne. He finished it off without even blinking. There wasn't time for him to brush off the green body liquid from the demon before he had to handle two more heading towards him. "Come on, let's get out of here!" he heard Mia say.
"I know you won't like it, Verg, but I really do think now is a good time to head home." Dante cut off the legs of an Arachne that tried to sneak up from behind.
"Running away from enemies? Never," Vergil replied simply.
"I knew you'd say that," Dante grumbled. "Sorry, Vergil is just too proud to run away from spiders," he yelled over the Rei and Mia.
Vergil looked over to Rei and found her looking at him too. She was calm and tranquil in the middle of such chaos. Her expression was soft but questioning. Why? He could see it written on her face. Vergil closed his eyes and sheathed his katana.
"Changed your mind?" Dante raised an eyebrow.
"This is called retreating," Vergil said.
"Retreating?" Dante laughed, "I'll keep that in mind."
When the four of them reached the ground floor, they found it filled with Arachnes as well. There were so many of them the carpet was not longer visible. They were forced to go down to the basement. Oddly, the spider demons ceased their pursuit and remained on the ground floor.
The first room they found themselves in appeared to be a dungeon guard room. There was no light in the basement but their eyes have adjusted to the darkness. In the room, there was a desk, chair, as well as a cupboard full of numbered keys. All those look like they haven't been touched for years. A rather strange feature was the presence of four large round holes around the size of a soccer ball located on the upper corners of the room.
Whilst the others were busy checking out the room, Dante noticed a leaver sticking out from the wall. Curious of what it is, he pulled it. Nothing happened.
A few seconds later, the door that lead back up to the ground floor slammed shut. Then, water began pouring into the room.
Author's note: I'd like to thank the two wonderful friends who check this fic for me. You know who you are I won't be able to present this fic with so few writing errors without your help.
