The Stone helped him through once the Elixir opened the way into the Demon World, he descending further down into the depths of flesh and darkness as he gaped to the next chamber, runes surged through all of it which struck him as unsettling before he heard a voice call out to him. "Dante!" He glanced to find Trish and she pleaded, like she was really wounded. "Dante! Help me!"
"Trish!" He didn't help to rush forward, but that was perhaps the trap itself as a barrier formed around him and he found himself facing the monster blob again as he exclaimed. "Trish, stay back!" He knew that he shouldn't drop his guard, he knew it, but Trish... whether he liked it or not, was a friend and an ally in this, despite her origins and her appearance, she might have lured him in, but here he found his brother, freed him, and set back some of Mundus's dark plans as he readied for the monster. he clashed with its number of attacks and survived its attempts to overwhelm him with past foes again before he got free and he stood ready and the air surged.
He quickly turned with Alastor in hand and slashed, the ambush failing with Alastor overpowering the attack that came from Trish as she laughed all the same, completely uninjured as she spoke. "You fool, you're so easy."
"Trish... you?" Dante didn't want to argue that she was a demon and they often took all chances to obtain power, but it was more damning to face the betrayal from the face of family, Lady swore vengeance for that and it nearly destroyed her to fire that gun at her father, Trish shared his mother's face and that would have destroyed him just as well as he made to stance up with the Nightmare blob reforming from his attacks.
Trish chuckled as she answered. "Humans... what sweets. You should know better than to trust a stranger." She focused on him as she exclaimed her betrayal to him. "Your presence has become a hindrance to my master's bloody scheme." Electricity formed around her as she made to fire the bolts off at him. "Now die!" He had to dodge the bolts and destroy the Nightmare, its core going out with a light show as the cave died out and Nightmare unleashed a flurry of lasers that shredded through the stone before disappearing, Dante gasping as the attack had stunned Trish and set a rock formation to fall on her and, without a care, he charged, she attempting to attack, but quickly realized the situation and screamed in freezing up and about to get crushed, just as Dante leapt, tackling her out of the way and saving her, but that was the only kindness she would get as he got up and dusted himself off with heading off, just as Trish called out for an answer. "Dante!"
He stopped, willing to let her say her piece as she inquired. "Dante... why did you save my life?" He glanced behind to her and his features softened... He faced forward as he gave his answer.
"Because you look like my mother." Nothing more needed to be said as he scoffed. "Now get out of my sight. The next time we meet, it won't be like this." He marched on, even as she got up to give chase, only for him to whip about with Ebony out as he shouted. "Don't come any closer, you devil!" Rage filled him as he exclaimed to stopping Trish in her tracks. "You may look like my mother, but you're nowhere close to her. You have no soul. You have the face, but you'll never have her fire!" He could not shoot as he strode away, dismissing her and parting ways for good...
However, as he continued his march, he started to slow down and ran a hand down his face. "...I knew... but I still blew up..." He heaved as he continued. "Whatever the case, I should be fine, so what is she was a tool for Mundus, she lured me here and stabbed me in the back for her master..." He stopped in the fleshy tunnels and passages that groaned and pulsated. "She failed... and I get the feeling that there should have been a lot of fireworks in counter of such a thing... but nothing..." He narrowed his brow and walked on. "She still has a part to play then, a part to make me drop my guard, to assume a demon's heartless nature and spite over human emotion." He shook his head as he continued on, solving the passages and tunnels before he entered into the next chamber and found... a different setting, the build being that of an older time and sitting on a throne of stone was a angelic figure, but his face possessed a third eye on his forehead.
"Mundus..." Dante breathed as in marching and standing before the stone figure as a gruff and demonic voice spoke, Dante feeling the power and... found it to be great, but it was shamed by how much Alexander carried on his own.
"Again, I must face a Sparda... Strange fate, isn't it?"
"Strange and ironic that it will end the same way." Dante retorted as Mundus just chuckled, the statue unmoving to the voice.
"Irony has favored you this time." White light glowed from the chest as Mundus continued. "Look there." Dante slowly followed the light and his eyes widened at the sight.
Bound up and hanging high up was Trish, unharmed, but it proved that Mundus still had a purpose for her as Dante couldn't help but call out. "Trish!"
"Don't even think about it. Blink, she dies."
"You!" Dante quickly found his body pierced with a trio of energy bolts when he turned to face the demon emperor, it was painful and agonizing that he missed Trish's exclaim for him, somehow Mundus was destroying his body, but he was healing just as, if not faster, than the damages being given to him, but he had to remove the bolts, else he would be a sitting duck as Mundus rumbled.
"Fool! So sad that humans will always be humans, no more." White glowed form the third eye in a killing blow, Dante could sense it as Mundus laughed. "Has the Sparda blood been spoiled over the ages?" Mundus laughed before he fired. "Now die!"
Dante waited for that moment to pass, to move against the Emperor, even with his body seizing up, but he didn't expect his kindness to be repaid as, no sooner had the shot been fire that he was shoved to the side and his rescuer getting pierced through the throat, the wound fatal, as Trish crumbled to the ground in 'death' as Dante got up with the bolts dissolving with Mundus releasing them on thinking that Dante was going to die. "Trish... No!" He stumbled over to her body as Mundus gloated.
"Useless scum... Failure is one thing, but taking an odd behavior like that..." Dante was silent to the gloating demon as he charged another shot. "What is the matter? It is time to end your pitiful life now." He fired, but with a glance, Dante bounced the shot right off as his power blazed to life, the Sparda supercharging it as he growled at the vile creature before him.
"How much longer are you going to keep zapping? Come out! And show yourself, Mundus!" With that, Mundus accepted, shedding off the old statue to show an older form of the statue, flesh and stone melding together with feathered wings unfurling from his back, a gaping hole in his chest as he turned the world into space, a darkness that seemed everywhere, but Dante's unleashed power kept him strong as he continued to glare, Mundus taking note of that.
"Those eyes... deep in them, I see the same light as in Sparda's eyes." He lowered his hand as Dante asked a important question, a reason for all of it.
"Why my mother?"
"That useless being?" Mundus answered in a slight point and gesture to himself. "If you need a mother, I can create it as many as you want. Just like, I created Trish." Fury filled Dante as he roared.
"SILENCE!" Soon, the battle began, Dante donning the power of Sparda as his own to fight the Emperor as thunder shattered the quiet, lightning surged across the realm as both battled, Dante in unleashing his fury and Mundus with the elements at his call as they fought, stone and armor cracking and shattering before reforming, slower after each hit, Dante getting the upper hand before Mundus surprised him with a pair of energy bolts before calling down a firestorm on him, dropping Dante on a piece of molten island and Mundus landing to continuing the fight, but Dante was unstopped in destroying the orbs and molten dragons that Mundus summoned to kill him, even evading mighty punches before he shattered the Emperor and the realm returned to the temple.
Dante caught his breath before he turned to Trish, walking over to her and lifting her up a bit as he stared, this... this was just as heart-retching, if not greater, than Eva giving her life for them, he had watched her died right in front of him, but he would not mourn, not here, as this was no place to mourn, but he did honor her in some way as he spoke, her wound sealing shut with some small portion of his power, but the flickering embers of her being were just that, flickering. "My mother risked her life for me... and now you too..."
He lowered his head as he spoke on. "I should have saved you..." He finally screamed with remorse for the being that was before him, she may have been a foe... but she was a good, decent person, she felt awe of him, she felt his anger and his sorrow, she had seen him in many ways, but for him... it was a friend that she had came to be. "I should have been the one to fill your dark soul with light!" His tears flowed with a spray, some falling onto her cheek before he rested her back down and took off his amulet, resting it on her chest as he spoke. "This was my mother's and now I'm giving it to you."
Funny, how the now-empty amulet was now being given to a demon when it was a demon who had given it to a human as a symbol of love, that she herself had passed on to her sons as Dante took a few steps back and drew the Sparda, planting it in the stone for good measure as he spoke, a type of closure for Dante. "My father's also here now. Rest... in Peace." Suddenly, the place shuddered and Dante grimaced with drawing Alastor as his main. "Great, without that three-eyes prick, this island is giving out... I guess this will be just a grave than someplace I can visit."
Dante quickly hurried his way to get out of there, quickly getting out of the demon world and back to Mallet island proper, the demons going wild and crazed with trying to stop him, but he was merely inches from getting out before the ground crumble in the hanger and he dropped into the catacombs, the rubble blocking the way before he felt it, the surge of power that belonged to that monster as sigils surged across the roof of the stone before it was torn open by the stone face himself, Dante stumbling back a bit in getting out of the way of the frenzied swipe as the stone was now crumbling away to reveal molten skin as Mundus spoke with rage. "The gate has been opened. Dante, you're not getting away. This is where you will die."
"I'm not going anywhere." Dante exclaimed as he made the score clear. "Besides, there's not place to go. Look around!" He thrusted his fist forward as he finished. "This will be your burial ground as well!" But Dante, alone with only his tool at his grasps, could only shattered the stone away, the flesh and revealing eyes were of a hard tone than what he could do to Mundus as the Emperor laughed.
"What is the matter? Here, your powers are weak, HUMAN!" Dante panted as he couldn't deny it, Mundus was much stronger and, without the Sparda, he was merely a boy against a thug as he grumbled under his voice before he heard it.
"Dante, you will be okay. You can do it." He was speechless and mumbled under his voice in disbelief.
"Wha?!... mo... Mother!" A flurry erupted behind him and he turned to Trish emerging into the catacombs as well, her wound gone and she was raring with power as she exclaimed with electricity surging across her body once she landed.
"Dante, use my power!" Dante didn't get much said before he coursed with the power and got ready to use it through Ebony and Ivory as Mundus roared.
"You will not win, you are feeble to my power." Dante grimaced to the hand coming down to crush him before there was a flash and then came the sound, Mundus screaming in utter pain as left and top eyes were slashed and Trish paled to what just appeared before Dante before the devil hunter spoke in surprise.
"You...!?"
"Humans are feeble in one way or another, Mundus..." The figure, draped in a flowing black cloak with hand gripping a grand scythe that dipped with the crimson of blood, looked up with azure and abyss staring back as he continued to speak. "But that is because humans have left the history of the past behind, we live for the future and you, Demon Emperor Mundus, titled 'The Darkness', you have no place in this world... ever!" He slashed and Mundus screamed in losing the right arm as the figure slid back with pushing off from the slash and spoke. "Dante, strike!" Dante beamed as he aimed with speaking, taking the shot.
"Looks like we got a winner. Jackpot!" He fired and the fused blast slammed into Mundus, shoving him right back into the seal as a purple fume in the form of the demon's spirit made his threat with only one eye remaining.
"Dante, I will return. And I will rule this world!" But he was shoved through as Dante called out.
"Goodbye, and when you do come back, give my regards to my son, will ya!" The figure coldly turned to Dante with a deadpan look, but he was dismissed as Trish recovered enough to join Dante in a embrace before Trish tried to speak with them parting some.
"Dante... I... I..." Dante assure her otherwise as he spoke.
"Trish, devils never cry. These tears... tears are a gift only humans have." The island rumbled and the figure looked about as Trish moaned on their luck.
"We're too late." Dante looked about, at all of the rubble and debris falling and peered about to Trish as he spoke.
"No, Trish. It's never too late..." The island rumbled once more with their silence before the ceiling gave out and they watched as the bi-plane that once was held up fell and landing nicely in the waters as Dante continued. "And we humans never give up. Are you ready?" Trish agreed as the figure just blinked to the plane starting up and shredding through the stone with a pair of nose guns, to the outside, before he sighed and shook his head in amuse.
"Never a dull moment with Dante, is there?" The island crumbled, but the figure didn't linger, instead wisping away like the wraith it appeared as and disappeared while Trish and Dante blasted their way through the island's interior stone and formations before bursting through into the light as Mallet Island erupted and the demonic influence breaking down as both of the members in the plane headed back to civilization with the remains of the island just smoke and fire that started to die out in return, what none of the members were aware of was a shard of Mundus getting pulled from the waters and suddenly purified in the bony hand of a great deity, it looking from across the waters to the fading bi-plane before the skeletal jaw moved in speaking.
"Alexander... my gift for your service will not be small, you deserve this." The stone changed and turned white before he sorted it in the robe before pulling out a book, the same book held by Arkham and running a hand over it. "Indeed... this is twice now that the world was imperiled and you had a hand in its salvation... If this Mundus had tried, it would have cracked the lines of dimensions and I will not abide to that..." A chilling laugh shook from the bony figure as he finished with slipping to the smoke and disappearing. "After all, from the Emperor, you cleaved his power right off and did so in a way that he would be feeling it for a long while, he will not miss those eyes... even when I purifier them enough to stabilize the transfer..."
Alexander Helmsmith smiled as, no sooner had Dante returned, with Trish in tow, then they got off on being partners in the business of hunting down demons and Alexander could catalogue the new weapons of Dante's before moving on.
Sure, the find of a Grenade launcher, a Needle Gun, and another shotgun was a interesting time, but human weapons converted to handle Dante's energy was not as interesting to the Devil Arms he had brought to him before Alexander shelfed them for his friend. Alastor was a good example of how much demonic power could be stored as the blade was swift, powerful with the lightning, and influenced Dante's power into projecting strong electric blasts and flight itself.
Ifrit was just the same, intense fire power that surged out with Dante's own with also granting him the power to hurl fireballs and ignite so many demons to cinders.
Now, the Nightmare Beta was an interesting find, a weapon modeled after the Nightmare Demon which was not a demon in the standard case, more like a biological weapon to be directed to its master's foes. He dropped it to a frown as he thought about something else, it was... about Dante...
He carried on and smiled, joked even, but Alexander could tell that Dante... was hurting, that he was in pain and it had everything to do on Mallet Island, even Optic was shut-lipped of the full details, but considering Vergil and what he suspected of Nelo Angelo... Dante was forced to kill his own brother, banishing him back into the demon world and he didn't know if the Ahriman he sent had made it to Vergil or not, if it was intercepted or had faltered out at the last second as his door opened and he looked up to Dante coming in as he closed the door in speaking. "Sorry for the drop-in, Al, I just wanted to get this out of the way."
"It's okay, Dante, I understand your reasons, even if they can be a bit on the playful side." No chuckle and Alexander huffed in gesturing to the seat across form him. "Take a seat." He did so and, respectfully, didn't slam his boots on the table as Alexander started it off. "I know that you faced Vergil, you said as much, and I know that Trish hurt you in some way, what with playing turncoat on Mallet, but you forgave her and even gave her some room to develop as a person, not as Eva."
"Yeah, she can take care of herself and, while we are at odds with my lifestyle, she is learning about the human world a lot more through the pair of us... She said that she would consider seeing you if it meant that she would be stronger and better, without the loom of Mundus's leash on her collar." Alexander nodded as Dante continued with a rub of his temples. "Enzo wants us to help him out with a job up in some ruins, demon relics from the near-sound of it, but I'm starting to think I might need to switch up contacts, he is not a great guy to work with, he roomed in the strip club, I need someone more respectable."
"Understandable." Alexander answered with thinking through the various contacts they had and who could be more able to give them solid details on demons and others relics of the caliber. "I can look through the contacts among the joints and dives, but it could take-" Both stopped to a static sound and Alexander extended out a hand, Vision landing on his palm with the Ahriman the source of the static sound. "Vision...?"
"Vergil... transmitting from Celica to Vision..." Dante bolted right up in surprise as Alex's jaw dropped in surprise at the mature voice of Vergil connecting through the link as the older twin spoke. "Sorry it took... a while for my senses to calm enough to... make this and see what Celica can do while... I am stuck in the Demon World for a bit." He breathed with a crack before he spoke again. "I felt Beowulf's power surge into me when she found me... I guess, for his foul behavior, he did respect my skill with him in hand... Thanks to that, I feel my body stabilize a bit more, even better with... losing Mundus's control over the shreds of armor that still clung... to my being."
"Vergil..." Dante breathed as he shakily reached over to the table and Vision acknowledge in hopping off of Alex's hand and landing on the table as Dante continued. "Vergil... is it... really you?"
"Dante..." Silence filled the room before Vergil spoke again. "I was angry with my friend: I told my wrath, my wrath did end. I was angry with my foe: I told it not, my wrath did grow." Dante blinked before he snorted in speaking.
"William Blake...? You decided to quote William Blake in my face..." He started to laugh, it a great roar of muse before it devolved into sobbing as he spoke with a hand to his face, hiding his eyes, but not the falling tears. "I thought... I thought I killed you, Verg... you were screaming with all of that power and all of that crazy control, I just..."
"I know, believe me... it wasn't a grand time for me either..." Vergil answered as he spoke on. "But now... I don't know, Mundus is still a power here in the Demon World, but... he is severely weakened and I don't think that any trace of that lost power has been able to return to the Demon World at all, it's... mentally clearing for me, but also disturbing, what has the power to do that to a powerful demon like Mundus?" Alex looked away as Dante deadpanned before he shook his head in speaking.
"Wait, if the power didn't return, then it is still in the Human World."
"My thoughts exactly, Dante, just keep a look out and I will find my way out of here... after I settle the growling of my stomach and kept up with some sleep for once in three years, Sparda, I need a cheeseburger..." Dante snorted at the statement, a bit more human, but that did show that Vergil was getting himself together and that was good before Dante poked at something.
"Hey, Verg..." The hum that came made it clear that Vergil was listening for what Dante was going to ask as he spoke. "Why Celica, Alexander's and my Ahriman are called Vision and Optic, why did you go with that name, instead of Iris or some other eye-related name, to keep it straight." The silence filled in before Vergil cleared his throat and spoke.
"She was... someone I met and someone I cared for very much, I don't know how she is now or if she would forgive me... but I loved her." Dante nodded as Vergil continued... with a playful tone. "Also... Judgement Nut." Dante jumped up in surprise as the connection cut.
"Wha...!?" Dante gaped as Alexander had a crooked smile to his face at the clear gesture before Dante's face blazed in fury. "OH HELL NO! HE CAN'T DO THAT TO ME! NOW I NEED TO FIND THIS GIRL OF HIS, HE CAN"T-!" Dante roared with stomping out and tapping Optic as he exclaimed. "OPTIC, MY BROTHER HAS A WIFE, I NEED YOU TO ROUTE OUT-" Alexander chuckled as Dante left and relaxed as he just shook his head.
"Vergil was clear on that, I thought he was going to keep that away from Dante..." His smile slipped with a concerned look before he tapped on Vision and the Ahriman chirped to the action as he spoke. "I need you to inform the Wallman for any details on Fortuna and a woman named Celica, that kid was NOT just dropped on the island out of concern, hate, or will." A wing salute and Vision faded away like a mist and Alexander peered up as he mused.
"I got one hell of a story to follow up on..."