Hazbin Devils
Chapter 8 (Dante)
Aside from that one time they did an impromptu errand for Charlie, Dante had never actually properly explored the city, especially the city at night. The place and atmosphere reminded him a lot of the newer sections of Red Grave City where the nightlife was happening but with more public displays of sex and wanton destruction. Even the demons themselves were dressed in a variety of fashions ranging from goth punks to what looked like Victorian-era clothing. Such mishmash of objects from different time periods made Dante wonder if he was trapped in time or people here just had weird tastes.
Street battles seemed common enough that other demons would just run aside for safety and resume walking when everything was safe as if nothing had happened. A couple of times, Angel had pulled out his gun as a precaution while assuring Dante that everything was alright. He never ended up using it and fortunately, he also never went rushing to a fight. The spider demon did attract attention however, especially from other male demons who seemed to be fans of his. Some offered him money for sex but he turned down most of them stating that he had a 'date' with Dante, something that seemed to earn the demon hunter their ire and jealousy.
Somewhere near the town centre, Dante's gaze eventually averted towards a looming clocktower with a pentagram for the clockface and Roman numerals for numbers. Below it was a number counter with the words 'Next Cleanse' above it and the counter itself showed 310. Must be a countdown for the next purge, Dante thought grimly as he followed Angel across the street. He imagined himself living in a society where there was a constant countdown timer reminding everyone about the next impending doom and shook his head. Deep down, he finally understood why Charlie was so adamant in trying to help redeem the demons. Yet, deep down, the feeling of doubt still lingered as his prejudice against demons fought against the idea. The latter thought only seemed to be vindicated by the presence of a plate at the base of the clocktower that read 'You Deserve This'.
Did they though?
"Hey, Dante, you home?" he heard Angel ask while a hand turned his head back towards the spider demon.
"O-oh, I'm just thinking about something," he said quickly. "Where're we headed?"
Angel pointed a finger at a building in front of them. It reminded Dante of one of those flashy 1920s entertainment establishments with lights so bright that it stood like a bright beacon among other bright lights. There was a line of patrons waiting for entry where two tall and muscular demons stood guard by the entrance and checking them for weapons. Luckily for Dante, his sword would only appear if he summoned it and he could simply pass Ebony and Ivory and his shotgun to Angel Dust for the time being.
"Hellfire Club," Dante read the sign out aloud. "How original."
"Well, Valentino tries his best," Angel said with a chuckle.
Dante waved a hand as they walked past a smoking demon. "I've heard you mention about him before. Who's he anyway?"
"He's my employer," Angel replied monotonously. His mouth was opened as if he wanted to continue but ended up thinking against it instead.
"That's it?"
"Yep, that's about it. Nothing much to say about him basically. He pays me and provides me a place to stay," Angel answered. He pulled Dante aside and led him to the back alley. "Let's use the VIP entrance."
While he was being dragged to the back of the building, Dante had handed the spider demon his beloved pistols and shotgun for safekeeping. Just as they rounded the corner, he saw a burly bull-like demon guarding a well-lit backdoor. He was reading something on his phone when he heard the click-clacking sounds of Angel's high heels approaching. The demon looked up and noticed Angel before he noticed the other person he was dragging along.
"You know the boss's rule, Angel. No backdoor entrances for strangers," the demon said in a plain baritone voice. He eyed Dante before adding, "Especially not chumps like this guy."
Dante frowned and took a step forward but Angel held out a hand and gently pushed him back. "David, you know me. I don't bring chumps here. He's special, see, saved me from trouble a few days ago," he said sweetly.
"This chump?" David asked in an incredulous tone. "You're telling me this guy saved you?"
Angel nodded his head. "The very one. He's cool in my books. If you let 'em pass, I'll give you my 'weekly special'," he said seductively while touching his chest.
David huffed and grumbled. "Hmph, fine, I'll let 'em pass." Turning to Dante, he said gruffly, "Regular rules still apply, pal. Gonna have to search ya."
"Hey, search away, beefcake," Dante remarked casually while holding his arms up.
While the demon patted Dante down, Angel winked at the demon hunter furtively. After several repeated pat downs and pocket-emptying, David found nothing but a dried pizza slice and a bandage in one of his pockets. Satisfied yet reluctant, the bull demon stepped aside and opened the door for them to enter. Once they were inside, the door behind them slammed shut. The corridor that led to the backstage rooms had dozens of smear marks, graffiti, and chewing gum plastered all over with trash piles gathering at some of the corners. Most of the lights were too dim to light the corridor properly while some even flickered and died.
In contrast, however, the backstage area was well-kept and well-lit. There was a dozen or so performers rushing around as they got ready for the next event, some of them bumping into each other and starting petty fights. Many of them greeted Angel but stopped to ogle at Dante. He did his best to put up as cool an expression as he could but the problem was that more often than not, the demon hunter only managed to elicit awkward grins and giggles. It did not matter much to him anyway because genuinely liked the attention.
Devil form holding so far, he thought.
Angel's dressing room was one of the more well-decorated ones and there was even a guard standing outside the door too. However, unlike the one standing outside the alleyway, this one did not even bother to search them. He merely made some gruff noise and went back to listening to his music. Once they were in the room, Angel locked the door and handed back Dante his guns.
"Quite an arsenal you keep there, ace. Maybe you should teach me how to fight one day," Angel said. He went to the dressing table and started putting on some makeup.
"So…what should I do now?" asked an unsure Dante.
Angel chuckled and turned his head to look at him. "I'm performing tonight, the centrepiece you see. We can have drinks after that."
"I'm guessing you want me to watch?"
"It'll be the best performance of your fucking life; I can guarantee that."
"Well, alright then I suppose," Dante said with a shrug. He saw Angel reaching for the wardrobe and picking through what looked like an assortment of feminine clothing. "I'll just uh, head on outside and find a seat or something."
"Yeah, you do that," Angel remarked while taking out a burlesque dancer's outfit.
Dante opened the door and he thought he heard the spider demon mutter something about 'getting paid hopefully'. Shaking his head, the demon hunter closed the door behind him and fumbled his way through another corridor that led to the main area of the club.
To call it a typical club was a severe understatement. The interior was way too glamourous that features carpets of velvet, polished oakwood wall panels, expensive-looking paintings, and even an ice sculpture of some tall demon with a pimp hat. It reminded Dante of one of those old grand ballrooms he saw in pictures, but hints of a club still littered the place such as a modern-looking stage with a rather state-of-the-art stereo system. An imp deejay was busy testing out the sound mixer and shouting orders at other imps. There was a pole at the centre of the stage, and Dante could not help but smile. Now that brings back some memories back at Love Planet, he thought to himself.
The crowd was still scarce at that point and the demon hunter found himself a seat by the bar. It offered a good view of the stage from where he was seated. There was a drug vending machine nearby that stood by the entrance to the kitchen. It sounded like someone was shouting behind the doors, most likely the head chef at someone who bungled judging by some of the expletives and kitchen jargon Dante heard coming from it. The bartender at the same time asked Dante if he wanted a drink, but he just shook his head.
As the crowd slowly trickled in, the demon hunter drummed his fingers on the counter out of boredom. He looked at the second-hand of his watch tick by bit by bit, his mind wandering back to his brother and his old home. Vergil. Dante had put his hand in his pocket to retrieve his phone when he heard the familiar sounds of approaching high heels. He took a much longer pause than he realised when he saw Angel Dust approach him looking rather unrecognisable. For a second, he thought it was some random lady demon until he took a closer look.
"Damn, almost didn't recognise you there, Angel," Dante said coolly.
"I'm guessing you like the looks, sweetheart?" Angel purred while taking a seat next to him. "If there's one thing I'm good at, it's beating the ladies at their game," he added proudly.
"Why the long-haired wig though?" Dante asked while pointing at it.
"Valentino's orders. He wants me to look my best and get a rise out of the crowd. I'm pretty sure there're more things that're gonna be rising," Angel laughed. He took a drag of the cigarette and puffed out a cloud of smoke. "Anyway, come closer for a bit."
The spider demon disposed of the cigarette butt in a nearby ashtray and pulled Dante close while one of his hands reached for his mobile phone. Before the demon hunter could ask what he was doing, he heard a click and looked at the phone. Confused, he looked at Angel and saw him making what Dante could best describe as looking sexy. After that was done, Angel let go of him and inspected the photo he took.
"What's the pic for?"
"Gotta update my Instagram account once in a while. I'm sure Husker will have something to say about it," Angel answered. His expression softened at the mention of Husk's name but Dante did not seem to notice it.
"Husker? You mean Husk? Huh, you must be pretty close with him to be giving him nicknames."
"Alastor gave him that, but I think it suits him," Angel said.
Dante stole a glance at Angel's phone and noticed he was browsing through some pictures with quite a number of them featuring activities with the winged cat demon. Inwardly, Dante smirked at the sight of it but he kept quiet as the spider demon kept the phone back into his pocket. After that, he stood up and patted Dante's chest twice.
"Gotta get ready and rehearse my song. You'll like it," Angel said with a wink. "Don't go getting into trouble now, handsome."
"That's supposed to be my line, minus the 'handsome' part," Dante said while Angel merely chuckled and went off.
The show did not start for another half an hour. By then, the club was already packed with patrons of all shapes and sizes. He had seen a lot of demons in his lifetime, but Dante had never seen such a seemingly colourful collection of demons that ranged from animal-looking to everyday objects and humanoids. None of them looked overly grotesque or even screamed of a typical demon build that he was used to. It felt too disorienting which manifested as a bit of a headache near the front of his head. The bartender slid him a glass of wine which Dante took with a nod of thanks.
The songs were standard fare, no different from the ones he heard playing loudly at the Love Planet. Strippers acted as singers as well, serenading the crowd with lyrics while they removed their clothing bit by bit. As time went on, the beat of the music seemed to drown and muffle out into a sort of booming drone in his ear. It was irritating but Dante reasoned to himself that he faced worse. He began to suspect the bartender had slid something into his drink and a couple of times, the demon hunter wanted to ask for more. Yet again, he willed himself to act like nothing has happened.
Through somewhat increasingly blurry vision, Dante caught sight of three figures striding into the premise like they owned the place. The other demons moved out of their way and those who did not move away in time were roughly shoved aside. The one in the middle looked like a typical pimp and he certainly resembled the ice statue, what with the hat, cane, and lavish-looking coat and all. When his vision cleared a little, Dante could not help but snigger at the sight of the stupid heart-shaped glasses the demon wore. His companions comprised of some TV-headed guy and a lady demon that looked like an unhinged doll, not something a typical demon hunter would find intimidating.
"What'd I give to fight them though," Dante muttered, his words slurring slightly. He shook his head and blinked his eyes hard. "Strong stuff that guy gave," he said while taking notice of the bartender from the corner of his eye.
The singing and music started to become clearer again and at that point, he vowed not to take another sip. It was this time around that the deejay announced the main event of the night: Angel Dust. The rest of the strippers stepped aside neatly and the stage curtains opened slowly to reveal the spider demon in full costume, no doubt waiting for the cue to take them off bit by bit to please the roaring crowd. Glancing at the demon trio, Dante saw that the pimp demon seemed to be grinning in anticipation with smoke from his cigarette wafting slowly over his face.
Turning his attention back to the stage, Dante managed to hear the deejay announce the title of the song as 'Addict'. How very fitting, the demon hunter taught wistfully. He had to admit to himself that the song was indeed rather catchy and his finger was drumming on the counter along with the beats, but Dante decided to not look at Angel stripping and pole dancing. It just felt wrong to him. Not often he would thank the urge to go to the toilet, but at least he would not have to constantly avert his gaze.
For a club, the toilet was surprisingly clean and well-maintained. The stalls were mostly empty so Dante had little trouble picking a stall. As he was about to do what he needed to do, he heard the toilet door opened in a rather aggressive and rough manner. There were two voices, one sounded calm and intelligent while the other was equally calm and somewhat dominating. He paid little attention to it as the two voices talked about some rather mundane stuff like collecting protection money and attempting to deal with one Cherri Bomb.
That was until the dominating voice mentioned something that made Dante hold his breath unconsciously. "I still don't understand anything about this Yamato-thing that Azazel mentioned."
"What I don't understand is how you can open dimensional portals with some silly toy bell. Me thinks this Azazel fellow is lying," the other voice said. Yamato, Azazel? How interesting, Dante thought. He shifted his body slowly to make himself more comfortable.
"I haven't tried it yet. I suppose there's no harm in doing that later. After all, if it really is what Azazel claimed it to be, then imagine what we can do here. If it isn't, we can always just dispose of the fucking thing."
"And where do you plan to summon them, Valentino? Remember the last time those things showed up at the studio?"
"I'm not an idiot, shit-for-brains. Of course I'm not about to do it here." There was a pause that lasted way too long for Dante's liking. "Let's get outta here, don't need any eavesdroppers catching wind of this."
"Yeah, I agree."
With the, the conversation ended rather abruptly. Dante let out a deep sigh as he let go of a breath that he held for what seemed like an hour. So, Azazel had been in Pentagram City and was talking to this Valentino guy. Could it be the same Valentino that was Angel's boss? It sure seemed like it, but what would his boss want with summoning demons from his dimension? He wanted to call Vergil but there was no signal. On top of that, he heard the toilet doors opening again and this time, it sounded like heavy boots and weapon bolts being charged.
They wanted no witnesses.
"This just keeps getting better and better," Dante said and chuckled aloud. He unholstered Ebony and Ivory and gave the two a kiss each. "Time to work your magic."
With a mighty kick, Dante sent the stall door flying towards a demon that happened to be right in front of it. The force knocked him flat on his back and rendered him unconscious. The rest opened fire at him with silenced weapons, each a thuggish-looking demon that looked more in common with street criminals. Dante shot back with Ebony and Ivory, his supernatural precision allowing him to shoot down incoming bullets. He moved like a red blur and closed the distance almost instantly.
The rest of the group had little time to react before the demon hunter summoned his sword and cut the nearest one down. He went for the next closest one with a dash stab that made him drop his submachine gun. Dante snatched it out of mid-air and pulled the trigger, firing at the third and final demon who only had time to turn around before bullets peppered his back. The demon fell forward onto the floor with a thump, motionless and with blood starting to pool around him by the chest area.
"Well, I was hoping for a bit more challenge, but it's a start," Dante said. He tossed the submachine gun onto the floor and quickly left the toilet before anyone else came in.
Angel had almost just finished his song when Dante returned to the main area. Unfortunately, by then, his seat had been taken by someone else. Not that it mattered because he wanted to stand up for a bit anyway. He stood by the bar and watched as the last piece of clothing fell and the crowd going wild while throwing money at the stage. Angel was smiling but Dante thought it looked rather superficial. The crowd was shouting for an encore performance, some reaching their hands out in an attempt to touch the spider demon but he batted their hands away in a teasing manner while also flashing himself.
Dante told himself that he had seen enough. Averting his gaze, he checked his phone again. There was still no signal. "Just my luck."
There were several other performances after Angel's but none of them seemed as well-received. Sure, there were more cheers and money-throwing but it all seemed rather muted in comparison. While Dante waited for his spider demon companion to come meet him, he caught sight of him coming out from the backstage corridor with Valentino. The guy seemed to be unhappy about something and Angel looked rather sullen and dared not look up at him. That was until Valentino forcibly made the spider demon look at him. More words followed and the unknown conversation ended with Valentino ruffling Angel's hair before leaving.
Valentino happened to walk past Dante and for a brief moment, both sides locked eyes at each other. The demon hunter felt that he was trying to scrutinise him but gestured back as if inviting Valentino to challenge him. However, the moth demon merely growled and shook his head before going on his way. Dante's gaze followed him for a bit until he was out of sight. Turning around, he saw Angel Dust approaching him slowly with a smile on his face, again one that seemed forced.
"What'd ya think?" he asked with a grin.
"About what, your performance or the drinks?" Dante glared at the barkeeper.
Angel sighed and chuckled. "Guess you really are dense, huh."
"That guy you were talking to, that's Valentino, your boss, right?"
"Yeah, what about 'em?"
"What'd he say to you?"
"I don't wanna talk about it. Personal stuff," Angel said flatly.
"You sure? He looked like –"
"Dante, personal stuff," Angel said with a frown while stabbing a finger at his chest.
"Alright, alright," Dante conceded while holding his hands up. "Just curious, is all. Anyway, I hate the drinks here. We should just go eat at a pizza joint or something."
Angel perked up and beamed at him. "Oh, I know a place where we can get good pizza! None of that bullshit you call pineapple pizza; true Italian ones, baby."
"What's wrong with pineapple pizza?"
"Sweetheart, I'm Italian and that shit offends me," Angel joked.
"Alright, but no olives on my pizza, capiche? Dante joked back while giving him the finger gun.
"Now you're just pushing it, halfie."
The pizza joint was not too far from where the club was. It was neither big nor flashy; it was just a simple corner lot with boarded up windows and a simple glass door with a 'open' sign hung on it. The door greeted their entry with the sound of a bell tinkling softly. There was no other customer that night and the only living – or unliving – person there was a goat-like demon behind the counter. Had he been human, Dante would have no doubt imagined him to be one of those portly pizza parlour owners. He certainly acted like one when he came to greet Angel warmly like he was part of the family.
As the two greeted each other in Italian and conversed about something, Dante wandered off to the menu to see what was being served. He liked the choices and most of the pizzas looked exactly like what one could find in the human world. However, Dante was not sure if he had ever seen 'demon blood pizza' before but he was definitely in no hurry to try it. When he heard Angel call his name, he looked around to see what was going on.
"I'd like you to meet Papalardo. Known him for a while and he'll never cheat you on the pizza quality," Angel said with a grin.
"Sì my boy, I heard from Angel you like pizza. Well, you come to the right place," he said with opened arms and in a rather heavy accent.
"He's not wrong," Dante replied. "What'd you recommend?"
Papalardo held up a finger. "I know just the pizza for you, ragazzo. Have a seat, I'll be right back."
While the pizza was being prepared, the two sat at a table that was next to the counter. Looking around and making sure he was out of sight, Dante reverted back to his human form and kicked back to relax. Angel on the other hand was making a call to Husk to remind to help take care of his pet pig Fat Nuggets.
"Fat Nuggets?" Dante asked after Angel finished his call.
"Yeah, my pet pig," Angel answered. His eyes widened and he snapped his fingers. "That's right, I haven't shown him to you yet."
Dante wanted to comment about pigs being in hell, but his thoughts were cut short when he felt the air around him become cold. Angel looked clearly uncomfortable as his breath started to condense and he was shuddering from the sudden drop in temperature. Quick as lightning and without blinking an eye, Dante summoned his sword and leapt over the table just in time to cut apart a fireball that was headed for Angel's head. The spider demon barely had time to register what happened when he saw the demon hunter swing his sword at some creature that resembled a bat on fire. It went down easily enough but several more seemed to appear out of thin air around them.
Angel gritted his teeth and pulled out his own guns and fired in self-defence. The bats were wily, flying about erratically to avoid getting hit. One dove at him and knocked him to the ground but Angel Dust pistol whipped it before leaping back onto his feet. With the hellbat disoriented, the spider demon planted three shots into its chest and killed it. He kicked a table onto its side and leapt behind it for cover.
He waited for another attack to come at him, but none came. Instead, he peeked from behind the table and saw Dante dealing with them like a whirlwind of destruction. He flailed his shotgun around like nunchucks, hitting each bat that surrounded him with empty shells clattering on the floor. Whipping out his pistols, Dante aimed and fired at individual bats with apparent ease even if they were behind him. With his sword, he leapt into the air and brought the blade down on the bats like a hammer that split them into two. Angel's jaw dropped when he saw that he was even capable of blocking incoming fireballs with his arms.
"Just…who is this guy?" Angel whispered in awe.
There was one bat left and it seemed hesitant to attack Dante. The latter had no such issues however. There was an empty tray on the table next to him, so the demon hunter kicked it into the air and fired at it with Ivory. The shots ricocheted off it and struck the hellbat head on while the tray flew aside and landed noisily nearby. Once that was over, there was only silence that was temporarily broken by the noise of a flickering light bulb.
"Well, that confirms it, even if they're only bats," Dante muttered. He saw Papalardo slowly poking his head from the kitchen. "It's safe now."
Angel had helped straightened the table while the demon hunter was busy gathering up some fallen red orbs that were dropped by the creatures. Once he was done, he joined the spider demon back at the table while the chef came just in time with their food still hot and smelling quite delicious. Dante rubbed his hands and licked his lips in anticipation.
"Oh yeah, now we're talking," Dante said with a grin he was barely able to suppress. He took a slice and inspected it. "Look at that, no olives too," he said and took a big bite out of it.
"Glad you like it, ragazzo, but what the hell was that about?" Papalardo asked. He took a chair and sat beside Dante. "And how're you a human?"
"Half human, half demon," Dante corrected. "As for that, that was a sign of trouble. Which means I need to find out more about Valentino's activities."
Angel spat out his drink at Dante's shirt while Papalardo shuddered at the name. The demon hunter did not so much as flinch but merely dusted his shirt in a casual manner. "Dante, you can't be serious," said the demon chef.
"Yeah, what the fuck are you thinking, man?" Angel chided. "It's one thing to piss him off, but to spy on him?"
"You seem oddly defensive of him, despite how he treated you," Dante said.
Angel growled and gritted his teeth. "Hey, he's my boss, alright? I'm under his pay in case you've forgotten about it."
"Look, I heard your boss in the toilet back at the club. He was talking to someone else and I remembered very clearly that they were talking about two things that are of interest to me," Dante said to Angel while holding up two fingers. "Yamato and Azazel. You already know that Yamato is my brother's sword and Azazel is the one who trapped me and Vergil here."
"Are you implying that Valentino is behind those creatures?" Papalardo asked in a low and thoughtful voice.
"Yes, but I dunno how. I remembered hearing something about a toy bell, but I need to see it for myself," Dante answered. He took another pizza slice and ate it while Angel's expression seemed to soften slightly. "In the meantime, Vergil needs to hear about this."
"This is Tom Trench with the midnight 666 Radio News. More of these mysterious creatures have been sighted near the city centre with reports coming in as far as Imp City and even some of the lower levels of hell. Despite that, all reported cases have been rather sporadic with Pentagram City being the worst hit. As of now, nobody has an answer as to who or what these uglies are, not even Lucifer himself. When asked to comment about the matter, he only said that these things are to be shot on sight. So, if you fancy yourself a hunter, this is your chance to get yourself a gun from one of our sponsors, Hellreigel. Hellreigel, if it ain't hellish enough, use more gun. Call now at 666-25-08-AMMOPACK in the next 3 days and you can get yourself a free 50 calibre pistol. The company is not liable for accidental or intentional dismemberment, negligent discharge, lawsuits, dead puppies, murdered spouses, bad HellTube videos, and school shootings."
This chapter's been more action-oriented as Dante takes his first true step into Pentagram City. The next chapter will focus on Vergil on his way to Imp City but I have not decided what encounter he would be facing. If you have any suggestions, you're free to PM me. If I like the idea, I'll be more than happy to implement it. Until then, happy reading!