Four months for this chapter? OOPS. Sorry guys, got lost to time.
I believe I have said it many times already, but I will repeat again that I won't make any schedules for any of my stories. I will write whatever and post whenever I want to. If this offends you, I'm sorry, but forcing myself to write a story without a motivation isn't my liking.
June 15, 07:27 AM
M05 The Devil Sword Sparda
The demons at V's command made short work of the great demon parasitizing the roots of the Qliphoth, but the arrival of a colossal demonic monstrosity destroyed the road ahead, plunging V underground.
"The great demon? What a joke." Weiss exclaims. "I bet even Jaune can solo him if not for those annoying snake-like roots attacking suddenly."
"Totally! Nidhogg is like a bully like Cardin without a brain!" Nora adds in, earning a sheepish laugh from her leader.
"Still, what's the thing that attacked him after the boss fight?" Ren questions. "It's likely that we're going to fight it soon."
"That's… Gilgamesh."
"...The one from the previous game?" Yang earns herself a nod of confirmation. "How? That big thing can't…"
"The weapon is just a small metal part of the actual demon."
"Ohh… Gotcha."
"...Can I control it with my Semblance?"
"You can try, Pyrrha." Blake answers instead. "But I doubt the demon would be that easy to be manipulated."
"I think controlling a small part would still help a lot."
After landing down on the sewer's floor, V raises his left arm up in an attempt to block any debris from hitting his face. He looks up and sees Griffon floating near the hole with the future boss crawling over his head.
"We're alive, we made it!" The bird says with an excited tone. "It's our lucky day, V! Let's go find a game of cards."
"That's Yang right there." Blake notes, the person in question laughs at how true it is.
V turns around and notices black tendrils with thorns spreading around. "These Qliphoth roots… they are everywhere."
"Well, we ARE underground." Griffon corrects with a sarcastic tone.
V finally stands up and looks into the deeper part of the sewer. "Then I guess we have some clearing up to do."
"And me without my garden shears." V lets out a smirky chuckle at the bird's remark.
"Ruby, permission to make jokes during missions?"
"Jokes, yes. Puns, no."
Heading in further, Weiss' stopped for a brief moment due to some Hell Cainas standing in her way. She decides to stick with her current skills and not abuse Nightmare, making the fight last a bit longer for entertainment. Though she finds it a bit annoying that Shadow and Griffon sometimes just change their positions without her 'attacking commands' to do so, causing some attacks like Griffon's Round Robin to miss due to not having an enemy in V's area. "Is there a way to keep the familiars in the place where I want to?"
"That depends on your movement input, I think. If my observation is correct, when V walks forward then they will teleport to the enemies, but when he backs away then they return to his side."
The heiress nods and continues her way after beating up the demons. Due to the roots blocking an entrance, she backtracks to its core and destroys the blots, returns and finds herself inside a sort of building that's in the middle of construction with Qliphoth roots spreading around the area. It unintentionally reminds Winter of an operation she just did a few days ago against the bad side of White Fang. "If some demons pop out from a corner I would not be surprised."
"Technically they can't." Weiss counters. "Well, in this game anyway."
There's a loud crashing sound somewhere, and Griffon warns: "Ahhhh, he's throwing a tantrum up there! Watch the ceiling, V!"
"A tantrum…"
"Come on now, Blake. At this point we should expect him to joke constantly."
"Yang, you have no rights to defend him."
"If that's a joke…" Willow is a bit intimidated by the noise the devil made. "Then that thing can cause much more problems than the previous attacks, yes?"
"Time will tell, madam."
Following the roots, and the Red-Orb trail, she reaches one of the blots on the upper floor. However, before she can do anything, one of Gilgamesh's legs pierces through the roof of the building and starts swinging around, trying to hit V. Miraculously, the leg hits the blot and destroys the roots in the process before getting out, ignoring her attacks. Though, a free way is a free way. "Uh… thanks?"
"If fighting Grimm is this convenient."
"Then we would lose our job, Ruby. Besides, they are controlled by…"
Blake quickly elbows Weiss' arm before she could say anymore. The heiress glares at the Faunus, who just shakes her head lightly. She plans to ask why, but the eyes of the ninja tell her to look at something, and when she turns, Weiss sees her mother looking with curious expression. Weiss slowly turns her head back to the TV screen, which causes her mother's curiosity to run deeper.
Jumping over the containers, another demon pack appears to stop her, and this time the leg returns. Though, it has the same movement pattern, and any lesser demons within its grasp would be killed in one shot.
"Jeez, he almost turned us to paste… What say we break a leg?"
That instantly makes everyone groan, except Yang and Nora who laugh loudly. "Yes! Drink buddy!"
"Please don't bring him here, T.O."
"That depends on him, Jaune, not me."
Though, the last execution from V shows that he's not actually very weak, considering he could swing the bat from the air down to the ground and kill it with his own force. Willow does have a question: "Is the cane a normal one, or is it also a Devil Arm?"
"Based on lore, it's made with materials from the realm of demons, so it does have some demonic power in it."
"This ship is awfully big." Said Griffon.
"You don't say." Yang says back. "But a ship, huh? Thought it's just another factory."
"I think he's talking about one outside, not the place V's in Sis."
After destroying another root and the instant spawned demons, Weiss finds another Red Orb Tree and starts attacking it, just in time the leg reappears though its attack doesn't affect the tree. And because of its existence, the target system is messed up, causing the attacks to hit it multiple times instead of the Red Orb tree, causing it to expire. "...Now I wish it's gone forever."
"Considering its size, we're going to meet it a few more times." Ruby replies. "I hope that there are no more demons its size."
…
Reaching another clear ground, V sees a couple of Empusas sucking on a blood puddle. Then another bigger ant approaches, causing him to prepare himself. The smaller ones notice him and plan to approach, but the bigger demon jumps up and slams down on the smalls, killing them instantly. It then sucks on the blood puddle, and multiple parts of its body start glowing red with blood and it starts screeching to V.
Vermin empress: Empusa Queen
"So… a quick reminder please." Yang questions. "Do demons even care for each other?"
"No. They care for power only. There are indeed exceptions, like the Grimm, but they're very few."
"Exceptions?"
"Some of them are wise enough to not attack humans, madam. Or they don't see a reason to do so, yet."
While being a 'newish' demon, the so-called Queen's attacks resemble the little ones, just wider and more damaging behind the hits. It also has a sort of continuous slashes skill, but as long as she's far enough or behind it, the attacks can't do anything. In the end, Nightmare basically does the tanking and he hits hard back as well, staggering the demon in no time. She goes for a stab on the demon's lower body like its smaller versions, but it takes a few more seconds to fully damage it, given how strong it is.
It doesn't leave much impression, so she continues on her way. At one point of time Gilgamesh 'throws another tantrum'. "Seriously, if it's effective, then I don't really have reasons to complain. But it just swings wildly…"
"If you can't really see anything inside, Weiss, that's the only option." Ren counters. "Like when you're trying to pull a lucky prize from a box."
"...When you put it that way, it's true."
After destroying another root, it opens up to a hole that leads V to another underground sewer. Another Queen appears to stop him, after a pack of Hell Cainas being dispatched and killed by V's familiars, and it also suffers the same fate as its previous individual. A few lesser Empusas try to stop V but they're no longer a match for him.
Eventually he manages to return to the surface, and Griffon exclaims: "Woohoo! Finally outside! And look at that, a phone."
"Take a guess, guys." Yang laughs at the bird's remarks and asks her teammates.
"From behind him."
"Above him."
"In front of him."
After making the phone call to a certain gunsmith, V uses the waiting time to take a quick nap 'before the boss fight'. An unknown duration later, a quake of sorts wakes him up…
"She arrived."
"Sounds like she bumped into something." The two sisters comment.
V knocks his cane on the phone booth to wake Shadow up, and he stands up and looks around to check where the van could be… and the thing breaches the road from below and shoots straight up, with the driver shouting in excitement, then lands on the road on its wheels like nothing happened.
The serious ones in the group sigh in disapproval at how the driver is so 'careless' in driving her van. The others laugh at how absurd the situation is, with Willow hiding her laugh behind her hand. Even the man who already knows what will happen chuckles every time it happens.
"How it's still able to surprise me surprises me." Weiss rubs her eyes as she starts buying more skills. "Even going through Ruby's absurd plans sounds like a better deal now."
"What if my plans involve riding the van?"
"I… I hate you."
"Love you too!"
V plans to enter the new area but he immediately hides himself when he sees what's currently standing there.
On the high ground stands a huge, featherless black bird looking down on something. On its back, some sorts of figures…
"Malphas… Of course, more trouble." Griffon speaks up behind V.
The camera then spans down and looks at a black-armored knight riding a horse with a purple-ish blade being held in his right hand.
"Not sure about that one, though. Never seen him before NOT IN THE UNDERWORLD ANYWAY!?" V uses the handle of the cane and hooks the bird right on his neck and pushes him on the wall, causing him to spill out the last words in surprise. V then puts his finger on his lips to signal the bird to be quiet, as he peeks out again.
"Search for the Devil Sword Sparda. You know where it is…"
"Is the bird talking, or someone's on its back?" Willow asks curiously.
"I'm more concerned about how ugly that thing is." Winter groans. "Even burnt chicken doesn't look that bad. I think I might lose my appetite after this."
"I don't even think that 'chicken' was previously a chicken at all." Jaune manages to hold his mouth. "I swear, if Nightmare can shaft himself into that, I think we won't be able to see a difference."
"He told me to leave it be, but I'm afraid it still concerns me." That statement gives V a plan, and the next one solidifies it. "As long as there is a blood descendant of Sparda, I cannot take any chances. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?"
The camera now zooms in to Malphas' 'human' figure, revealing a 'woman' with three heads and three arms who possibly has the ugliest design so far, with different numbers of stripes on their faces.
Diabolical amalgam: Malphas
"...Do the designers want her to be hated the most in the series? Because I really hate her designs. And can I even call Malphas 'her'?" Blake's cat ears twitch to show her disdain.
"We can… at least, for the 'human' parts." Weiss tries to put out some not-to-be-impolite words. "The chicken, however…"
"We can stop talking about that." Pyrrha decides to cut in. "Might just think of it as a hideous Grimm or something, that might be better."
"...It might be worse for us." Ren sighs.
"Find it, and destroy it! Only then will his reign be truly realized!" After the speech, Malphas opens herself a portal and the chicken enters, teleporting to somewhere else.
V then finally lets his appearance be known by standing out in the open and drops the tip of his cane to the ground, emitting a *CLANG* that draws the knight's attention. The horse turns so both can face him. The knight makes a move with his hand that makes the blade extend a bit, and the horse releases a neigh as it stands on its hind legs.
Abyssal calvary: Elder Geryon Knight
"I see. I know what you are." V seems to recognize something, as he pats his cane on his hand before pointing it at the boss. "Don't worry, I'll be gentle."
"So we're fighting both at the same time." Weiss says as she instantly calls down Nightmare to reduce some of the boss' health. The horse doesn't attack her instantly and just runs around for a few seconds. She tries using Gambit to get closer, but it doesn't help much as the horse keeps moving.
The knight then goes for a wide swipe with his blade, but Weiss is already standing on Nightmare's back so she's temporarily invincible. He goes for a thrust after backing away for a second, but the result ends up the same.
"Weak, powerless creatures."
"Oh ho ho! So? You got a comeback for that?" Griffon mocks the knight's insult.
"Technically… they are." Pyrrha comments. "I mean, compared to Dante and Nero."
"And even they can't beat Urizen." Jaune adds. "But it seems V has a solution to fight him."
"Sparda's Sword." Ruby follows. "And Nero is, well, a Sparda's descendant. But his Devil Bringer is gone, right?"
"I'm sure his normal arm could still carry that. Or he could use the Buster Arm." Yang guesses.
"One thought fills immensity…"
"This is not the time for poetry! Wait, what does that even mean?"
"Where there's a will, there's a way… Now let's go!" Somehow in the middle of the fight between hitting the boss and dodging the attacks, V and Griffon are still able to hold a conversation which sounds more like banter.
"They aren't even shocked by the boss' attacks, heh?" A few seconds after that line, the knight's left hand glows purple with lightning and he shoots lightning balls to Weiss who dodges sideways. And then everyone groans when they register her pun, causing her to laugh.
"And at one point I think the puns stop."
"You won't be able to while she's still with us, Weiss."
The horse then teleports into the middle of the field and starts shaking up, ignoring the familiars hitting it. It then lets out a loud neigh, and something emits from its body, causing the whole area to turn grey. Then, to everyone's surprise, the knight and the horse move much faster than before, and the knight also attacks at a much higher frequency. Even his thrusting attack now has a trail of lightning behind the strike.
"The power to control time… That's quite a horse." V instantly finds out the creature's power as it slowly depletes, making it and the knight move at a 'normal-ish' speed.
"That's the horse doing, not the knight?" Willow exclaims in shock.
"They are demons, madam. But sure, time-control is rare among them."
"But that would mean it's Geryon! I thought Dante killed it already!"
"A rare species, but apparently not quite extinct. Until today, that is."
"Aw, can't we give the horse to Weiss?" Ruby fake-pouts, not liking to see a horse like it disappear.
"I would like a normal horse, thank you very much. Still, having a horse like this Geryon sounds nice."
"I mean, I want to see how excited and innocent you look riding him."
That causes Weiss to pause the game and the Schnee family turn to the Red Reaper in confusion. The Heiress questions: "What do you mean by 'innocent'?"
She regrets asking that, because Ruby starts curving her own cheek up and her eyes turn sparkles and she starts: "Aw Rosy, you don't have to spoil me like that! The little pony is so cute that…"
The moment she recognizes who her leader is mimicking, Weiss' face blazes up in embarrassment. Yang and Blake also catch on what Ruby is implying and the former starts laughing to the point of almost choking, while the latter turns her face away to hide her smile which causes the heiress to lower her head down and curl her knees up to hide her face.
After a while, Winter manages to connect the dots, and she tries her best to keep her straight face, but in the end she still lets out a small giggle. Seeing that her mother is still out of the loop, she whispers: "Just imagine her now using her child voice…"
"Don't tell her!"
"Well, I'm sure Weiss in her childhood would act the same." Willow doesn't understand the reference, though she can see the girl in her younger age doing what Ruby is implying.
"It's… a different story, madam." Team JNPR also tries to not laugh as Ren tries to answer.
After everyone calms down, Weiss continues after giving Ruby a pouty glare. The leader just tucks her tongue out, not sorry at all. She summons Nightmare again so the knight changes the focus on the familiar while commanding Griffon and Nightmare to attack. The bird and the summoner then joke about horsepower and physics, causing the watchers to groan again.
And it seems that the horse has a miniature version of the time-slow that only affects a small area around it, so when it's further away, only the familiars who are attacking in there are slowed while V staying outside is untouched. However, the horse can also 'sneeze' out the time-slow orb, similar to how Urizen did it.
Though, maybe the main boss is the horse instead of the knight, so there are not more attacks that are unique, other than some lightning area attacks surrounding the boss. The uniqueness is from the time-slow that could happen anytime, and it's easily countered. In the end, they stagger…
"The hours of folly are measured by the clock, but of wisdom: no clock can measure." V quotes again as he stabs his cane through the horse's neck, ending its life.
…
The last push somehow throws the knight off the horse's back hard enough to slam him into the steel gate which causes it to open. He looks up to see V standing before him with the horse dissolving away. The knight quickly stands up and runs away, V tries to follow but he's exhausted after the fight.
"V!"
"I'm fine." The man answers the call from the bird. "I must chase him. If the Devil Sword Sparda still exists, it may very well be our only hope." He says between his gasps for air.
"V, uhh… think about it for a minute now. What will you do IF you find it? You gotta be strong in mind and body to wield the Sparda, and you, sir, are neither. Hate to break it to you, but the Sparda will just be too much for ya."
"And he's not a Sparda's, so he might not be able to…"
"What about Trish, Nora?"
"Ah… right, sorry, forgot."
"For me, yes." V admits, a bit of shame in his voice. "But what of the boy… Nero?"
"Really, 'the boy'?" Winter raises an eyebrow. "That's the best you can call him behind his back?"
"I don't think he doesn't like talking rudely about others." Willow counters.
"Maybe, but if that's the case, just call his name. Why is 'the boy' the first to come out?"
Griffon knows what V is implying, and says nothing about it.
V measures his plans then notices a piece of Geryon left on the ground, so he picks it up and turns his attention back to Nico's van. "Let's go. Once we're near the Sparda, even I should be able to sense its presence."
So uh... I deleted my own gameplay without backing it up, so I will use the ones on Youtube to make it as 'beginners' as possible. But I still hold my own writing policy above, so expect me to completely ignore the 'pls update soon' or similar reviews/PMs.