AN: I seem to be having problems with writing in my other fic, so might as well continue here

Was this paradise? Nico thought, in awe of what the room beheld:

Racks upon racks were weapons galore, strong enough to make military weapons look like toys: the blazing infernos of Ifrit, the versatile might of Pandora...

And - probably much to everyone's chagrin - the rather talkative nature of Agni and Rudra.

"Brother, look! Our host has come back with friends!" Rudra exclaimed upon finally spotting Dante and the group.

"You're right brother! Perhaps this time, he needs us on his journey!" Agni replied, ever so eager to be used again.

"We have to be good weapons in order for him to choose us"

"Yes, we have to be the greatest weapons!"

"And... that's a couple of minutes of my life I'll never get back..." Dante muttered, before inspecting one of the many walls filled with devil arms. "Now where are... aha!"

The craftswoman watches as the devil hunter picked up what seemed to be... a demonic guitar off of one of the walls: she then watches as he began playing a simple riff on its lightning-like strings, before bat-like entities suddenly appeared as he began playing his makeshift melody much more intensely.

The area around him crackled with electricity, and with one last strum, the final note suddenly boomed like thunder.

"Oh baby, how I missed you..." the devil hunter... purred? Enzo did say he sold his devil arms to him for collateral, was his debt really that bad to the point he had to sell even his favorite arms?

What caught Nico off-gaurd was that the demonic guitar suddenly began glowing, its silhouette slowly shifted from a guitar to a woman. And as the light finally faded, the woman that swapped places with the guitar now was in Dante's arms: the garbs that covered her lower waist and wrists were as if they were made from shadowy materials, and her upper torso was concealed by nothing but her fiery-red hair that left little to the imagination.

Nico's conclusion? She has a smoking bod.

"My, my..." the woman spoke in a sultry voice, her hand moving to gently stroke the half-demon's cheek. "After all these years, you still have quite a tongue, handsome. Have you been neglecting me for those other girls?"

"So what if I am?" He challenged as he suddenly twirled her, with the woman following suit as they performed a dip. "I never pegged you for the jealous type"

"How rude! You're as handsome as your father, and yet you're both quite the heartbreakers!" She sighed dramatically, mockingly placing her hand over her forehead. Her mock anger soon eventually softened, going into dangerous territory as she pushed her face closer to his. "I hope I get compensated for your mischief, good sir" she continued, her sultry tone returning. "Otherwise, I may get a little angry..."

"And how do I do that exactly?" The hunter feigned ignorance. Her breath was electrifying as it came into contact with his skin, any more would've been enough to kill a normal man.

"Well, you could always just-"

"Brother, our host is flirting with one of the others" a voice spoke up, the group forgetting about the two talking swords in the room.

"Flirting?" Agni asked, puzzled. "What is 'flirting?'"

"Well, flirting is when-" Rudra was about to answer, before two bullets flew past him and caused a hole in a wall. As the group shifted to the direction of where the bullets were fired from, they see an annoyed Dante, Ebony in hand.

"I forget that the only one who can put up with Dante's flirting and match him blow for blow would be Nevan" Trish commented, watching as the aforementioned devil hunter resumed his flirtish banter with the demoness after returning Ebony to her holster.

"You should consider yourselves lucky you only saw that version" Enzo muttered, straightening his cap. "I ended up walking into their antics while she was still a guitar..."

"Even as a guitar?" Nico asked, flabbergasted. "How the hell did you come across that?"

"Well..." The shopkeeper laughed sheepishly, "while I was still his broker at that time, I was heading to his office when..."

"Dante!" Enzo called out from outside of the building, "I finally found you another job! One that's enough to settle your debt and feed us both for years!"

If only that were easy, considering Dante was a difficult person to work with for the chubby man: he'd often deny most of the jobs that Enzo would find him, and even if he does accept these jobs, the most expensive ones were often done without any reward.

An envelope in hand and sweat on his brow, Enzo had to find a way to get the cambion in red to accept the job and take the payment. With the highest-paying task that involves Dante's area of expertise, he cannot afford to lose the job now.

Taking a large gulp of air, Enzo opened the door and-

"~do you like it when I strum your little strings, baby~?"

Speak of the devil, quite literally. Enzo found the private detective on couch, flirting - yes, flirting - with a demonic guitar: his fingers teased at the lightning-like strings at the base, brushing them gently as they create the faintest of sounds.

"My oh my" the devil hunter purred, "it seems you really do like it when I- huh?"

The mood was immediately cut short as Dante's gaze met the broker's, who stood there, dumbstruck from the scene. Wanting to eradicate any moment of awkwardness, the information broker cleared his throat.

"Dante?" He coughed, "I found us a client, and the job's the unusual kind you'd prefer dealing with..."

"Right..." Dante muttered, picking up Nevan before walking to his desk to retrieve the claymore personally known as The Rebellion.

"You're... you're bringing the guitar too?" Enzo asked.

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Nothing, nothing. Just get in the car, the client's pretty far away..."

"I take it he didn't get the money?" Nico guessed, after the former broker finished regaling his story.

"Miss if he did, I would probably still have my other arm" Enzo groaned, before shifting his gaze to the aforementioned devil hunter and demoness. "And it seems they're about done now."

True to his words, the flirtatious banter had grown silent, ending with Nevan parting her lips from the half-demon's as she uttered out something that only the two could hear. As soon as she returned to the form of a guitar, Dante placed her on his back as he then picked up two particular devil arms - the ever-versatile Pandora and the electrifyingly tenacious Alastor - and gave it to Trish.

"You're better off with using Pandora" he explained to her, "also if memory serves, you're scary with Alastor in hand"

"Um, thanks?" Trish responded, rather confused with the cambion's plan as he returned the wall of arms.

"As for Lady..." he muttered, examining the walls displayed on the walls. "Given you're full human, safe to say most of these are useless lest you turn to dust... can't even give you Vendetta or Merciless, even though non-demonic, useless either way..."

He then picked up what seemed to be a large caliber rifle off of the wall, and handed it to the full-human demon hunter. "Guess you can settle with Spiral for now" he concluded, "and as for me..."

"Brother! Brother, wake up! He might pick us next!" Rudra excitedly exclaimed.

"We're going to be needed at last!" Agni replied.

But much to their dismay, Dante went past their wall and picked up a strange weapon: a device made of unearthly materials not from their realm, reminiscent of an old enemy the devil hunter had fought long ago. As he placed it on his left forearm, six claw-like appendages suddenly clutched tightly on his arm, followed by clacking sounds as its front section shifted to reveal a barrel that pulsated with demonic energy.

"Alright, I think that's everything" Dante grinned, "now let's us begin with-"

"Wait, please! Take us with you!" Agni pleaded.

"Yes! Reconsider taking us!" Rudra chimed in

"The fires shall aid you"

"And the winds will follow"

"We will be of great help to you!" They both proclaimed loudly in unison. The devil hunter thought for a moment, which he emphasized by stroking the stubble on his chin.

"Alright, but same rules as last time: no talking" Dante instructed, pulling the twin swords off of the wall. The devil hunter then places himself in the center of the room, all the eyes are now on him. "Okay! If anyone else has something to say, hold it for now because there's more important things on our hands"

He waits to see if anyone would say anything, once nothing happened, he continued: "as most of us here know, Mundus came back with a bitchslap that would make Nero's look like deadweight in comparison. And by the time I'm done speaking, the entire city would probably be under his control by now so here's what we're gonna do: Enzo, the map please"

"Sorry to burst your bubble, Dante, but I don't have a map" Enzo said, scratching the back of his head.

"Oh uh... hopefully you guys have a perfect layout of the city in your minds" Dante coughed, before continuing. "When Mundus first appeared, me, deadweight, and deadbeat encountered him in the heart of the city, so it's most likely that he'll be there. And like we all know and-not-from-a-book-I-stole-from-Verg-when-he-was-not-looking that the closer we are to the heart, the more dangerous it gets, so going unprepared will most likely get us killed."

"So, what's the plan?" Lady asked, only to receive a triumphant grin from the devil in red.

"The simplest plan would be to fight through to get to the heart" Dante said, and then his smirk faded as he went into deep thought. "But I just realized now we might go into areas inaccessible for Nico's van. So in protect Nico and the van, I may need to bring her..."

"Her? Who are you talking about, Dante?" Trish inquired

"I'm guessing Nico didn't inform you both?" The half-demon, only of the ladies to shake their heads in response. "Alright, so this may come as a surprise for you both, but apparently we found Nero's mom: quiet like my brother, and is also as frightening with the blade."

"If she is as frightening as Vergil in terms of swordsmanship, why didn't you just swap one of us with her?" Lady perked up.

"Well, knowing Mundus, he'd probably have a couple of Nightmares waiting for us near the center" Dante explained, "and Nero won't exactly be too happy that I got his mother killed..."

"And you're okay with us joining you in the charge?" Trish asked

"Cut me some slack, Nero got reunited with his parents" Dante groaned, before continuing. "Anyways, once we get to the heart, we kill Mundus. And without a leader, the demons under his control will fall apart. Any questions? No? Good, let's go!"

Now armed to the teeth and his friends by his side, Dante bid farewell to Enzo and made his way out of the pawnshop. As he felt something nudge at his shoulder, he turned to see the young Goldstein right beside him.

"Nico? Got something on your mind?" He asked

"Well, I was kinda curious 'bout something" she admitted, "your demon lady friend said something none of us could hear, what was that about?"

"Sorry kid, but that's just something between us." Dante answered, before opening the side door of the van and entering it. As Nico made her way to the driver's seat, she wondered: other than Trish for obvious reasons, what is it with the Sons of Sparda being so infatuated with chicks that could control lightning?

AN: so far this fic has mostly been:

10% Agni and Rudra cameo (one of my favorite devil arms, fight me)

20% actual planning to take down Mundus

And 70% of Dante and Nevan flirting with each other

if anyone has read "Before The Nightmare" they would remember that Balrog stated that "he would grow stronger as Dante's devil arm and would later on fight him when he's strong enough" which means that demons who willingly became devil arms can just revert back to their original forms.

Also, Dante x Nevan is by far, one of the rarest ships I ever found in DMC. I decided to add that ship not because I found it fun, also because for the last line you saw in this chapter.

I don't want to be "that guy" but despite the community endlessly mememing Dante being a virgin and and not know what sex, but I can technically say that those are false: given Lucifer's moveset named after BDSM, and apparently from what I heard, Vergil had a line that was changed because his VA - Dan - complained that it was out of character for Vergil to enjoy one night stands.

Last thing: despite his terrible luck with women, the only two that would most likely try to get in his pants would be Lucia and Nevan, who both are coincidentally redheaded full demons.

Hmmmmmm... also now I'm tempted to write a oneshot about DMC:LU!Nero encountering a quarter human hybrid in the future.