[[Prologus: DANTE]]


"The Order of the Sword, huh?" Even the name sounds a little too pretentious for his taste, Dante has to admit. "They worship my old man?"

"From what my research has turned up, yes." Lady sighs, sounding very much aggravated and ready to blow up the nearest available target. Hopefully not him, Dante thinks as he eye Kalina Ann leaning against his desk. "The Order is a religious military organization that possesses the highest authority over the entirety of Fortuna, with its Vicar being the head of the whole shebang. Normally, they keep to themselves and their island, since the place is like, several miles off the shore of Italy, but lately they've been sending their Knights - yes, Dante, they call their hunters as Knights - abroad."

Dante blinks. "Maybe they're looking for more game...?" He offers with a winsome smile, and judging from Trish's absolutely devastating eye-roll, it didn't quite hit the mark. Lady's unimpressed stare only backs up that assumption, which is, boo. These two can't take a joke, tsk tsk.

"I wouldn't have minded more hunters out here in the mainland, but my beef with them comes from the fact that they're only pursuing after Devil Arms. They even have butted into my jobs and snatched the odd Devil Arm here and there." Lady thumps the desk with her fist, pretty face twisted in fury, and Dante could only whistle. One thing he's learnt early on in his friendship with Lady, is one should not ever come between her and her livelihood. That's asking for a Kalina Ann missile to the face, and Dante knows for a fact at how much pain Lady's trademark rocket launcher can inflict. "Germany, Russia, Japan, South Africa- almost everywhere, you could spot those hoity-toity religious bag of dicks and they're nabbing Devil Arms they shouldn't nab."

Normally, Dante wouldn't care. He has his own personal collection, his accumulated trophies built up over the years. And while he can't exactly use all of them all the time, he still knows the value and power of these Devil Arms, and so makes a point to take pieces of his collection out every now and then for a spin. Make sure he's still in tip-top shape. Dante absolutely doesn't blame Lady for being pissed at her trophies being snatched - honestly anyone would be offended - but he also understands that human greed and fascination can be powerful things that would motivate them into doing stunts like these. He was prepared to soothe the gunslinging huntress, unruffle her ruffled feathers, however-

There is a bit of a problem that Dante discovered as he listened to Lady's pissed off rant earlier, and it's the fact that these Order folks are specifically going after Devil Arms.

Okay, so, going after them to collect them isn't a sin (although snatching them from a hunter is in very, very poor taste, Dante has to say) but the thing is... The way Lady described it, it's not just a simple collection of demonic artifacts that these Order people are going for, no. In fact, it sounds like they're going after Devil Arms for a specific reason. A specific reason that has nothing to do with collecting them for the sake of flexing rights, at all.

Moreover, Devil Arms might be weapons, yeah, leftovers one could say, but they're still very much demonic artifacts. And demons, above all, love to snack on humans. Devil Arms are no exception, and Dante has sadly - unfortunately - seen way too many egotistic human be devoured by Devil Arms they foolishly thought they could tame. It's either their flesh or blood or their soul that's sucked into the deceptively dormant-looking weapons, and it's a death that's... pretty gruesome, even by Dante's standards. There's a reason why Lady and Trish - despite all their playful cat fights - have partnered up and even shared a home; Lady might not be able to use the Devil Arms herself, but Trish can. And more often than not, Lady and Trish go on hunts together, so it wasn't really as if the Devil Arms that they get their pretty paws on are go to waste.

So, with that said, the idea of this... Order of the Sword collecting Devil Arms is very much a red flag, Dante thinks.

And nothing ever good comes out of a demon-related red flag.

Leaning on his desk with a curious hum, Dante addresses his oldest companion. "You think they're not just collecting Devil Arms." Dante doesn't bother phrasing it as a question. Doesn't have to.

Even Trish is paying obvious attention this time, green eyes fixed on Lady as the other huntress sighs in pure aggravation. Uh-oh, not a good sound.

"Yeah. I was in Tuscany a couple weeks back, and I took the liberty of poking around and asking about the Fortuna Island amongst the locals. It was worrying enough that they warned me to stay away from that place - calling it 'land frozen in time' in the local language - but coupled with what they've been doing the past few months..." Lady shakes her head. "I don't have a good feel about this, Dante. Not one bit."

And Lady has a thing, you see, with her intuition. Maybe it's a little something left behind from her own bloodline - descendant of the priestess that aided his own Father in sealing off Temen-Ni-Gru - but either way, when Lady says some bad shit is going down, it's definitely going down. Her intuition when it comes to things that has the possibility of going negative is something Dante's has come to keep an eye on over the years, and so for her to say that she doesn't have a good feel about this Order thing...

"Hm, maybe a little overseas work doesn't sound too bad." Dante muses, trying to snatch the last slice of pizza only to lose it to Trish. He pouts at her - which she returns with a grin and a wink - before sighing and looking at Lady again. "So I'm guessing we'll look into this Order of the Sword and Fortuna as a whole, then? See if they're doing anything funny."

Lady nods. "Yep," She pops the 'p', peering at him over her shades, her mismatched eyes shrouded in shadows. "You'll get paid, of course. Depending on how well you do."

Dante scoffs. Leave it to Lady to still question his skills time and time again! Such a lame friend, this Lady! "Just for that comment, I'm going to pass this job with flying colors, just you wait!" Dante replies, wagging a finger in Lady's face, which she absently swats away. "Fortuna, was it? Off the coast of Italy?"

"Way off the coast of Italy." Lady confirms with a nod, crossing her arms as she regards Dante. "Shall we meet in Fortuna or do you wanna come with us?"

Dante shakes his head. "You girls go ahead, gotta lock the place down while we're off. While I'm at it, might as well call Morrison and tell him to divert my usual jobs to the rest of the company. The demons here won't die by themselves, which is a pity." Dante sighs, straightening up. Over his shoulder, he calls out, "Trish, babe, come on! We've got a flight to catch!"

Silence.

Lady snorts all of the sudden, grinning impishly at Dante, and the white-haired hunter cocks an eyebrow at her. "What are you laughing at?" He grouses, which makes Lady just snicker some more.

She nods at the spot behind Dante. "Look behind you." Is all she says, before she sashays away, taking Kalina Ann with her. "See you in Italy, Dante~ Don't be late now, yeah?"

Dante watches his oldest friend leave the shop for a moment, puzzled, before he turns and-

'See You There' was scrawled across the pillar where Devil Sword Sparda is supposed to be located. Supposed to be.

Because Trish has gone and ran away with it, that blonde, electrical imp.

Dante could only sigh, head in his hands.

"Oh boy."

'Oh boy', indeed.


Welp, might as well kick off the rewrite party with some short intro chapters for the main cast! And yes, I will be once again rotating POVs between Nero, Novena and then lastly Dante, just so we could so what's going on with wherever these guys are during the story. Some times their paths would cross, more often than not it won't, so this ought to be fun.

Going to be using a lot of headcanons and sort-of made up lore for DMC4 here, just to add more flavor to the story. Hope you guys would like.

This might be my last author's note for this story - barring responses to reviews which I'll put at ever end of chapters if I do get comments on the previous chaps - so here are some parting words!

"I do not own DMC, nor do I gain financially from it. All rights go to Capcom. I only own Novena and the plot divergence I'll be hitting the OG DMC4 with."