Hazbin Devils

Chapter 10 (Dante)

"Hey Dante, Cherri here. Since you've been nice to Angel, I'm helping him return the favour. And yes, he did give me your number. You may want to set aside investigating Valentino's place for a bit cos I found a cache of those red orbs you showed me last night. Not just a small cache; we're talking about a warehouse full of 'em. It so happened to belong to Sir Pentious. Meet me at Angel's place later and I'll explain more. I'm sending you the address."

"Where're you three going?" Dante asked as he saw Alastor, Charlie, and a very heavily disguised Angel Dust headed for the hotel's entrance.

Charlie turned around and smiled at him. "Oh, we're trying out some charity work today! To get Angel on the right path to redemption, I thought we'd try out one of the most basic forms of good works."

"Well, sounds like a good start," Dante agreed. He pointed at Angel. "What's with the coat and hat? And what's with the glasses?"

Angel muttered something too soft for Dante to understand what he was saying, but he knew that the spider demon was not exactly happy about doing some fieldwork. Given that he was recognisable, the disguise was understandable but it made him look too much of a try-hard that – in a worst-case scenario – made him even more noticeable. It reminded Dante of someone in a cartoon attempting to disguise themselves.

Turning to Alastor, he asked. "What 'bout you? I thought you didn't believe in redemption."

"I still don't, dear boy," Alastor replied lightly. "But I'm just there to entertain myself. Wouldn't want to turn down the opportunity to see demons stumble and struggle to understand the concept of altruism and charity."

"Yes, yes, we get it already," Charlie remarked hastily and pushed the two out of the door. Turning around, she asked, "Are you going anywhere later, Dante?"

"Well, I still need to do my thing, no?"

"Great!" Charlie exclaimed happily. She approached him and handed him a list and a purse. "If you don't mind, I could use some help with the groceries while you're at it."

"Wha, again?"

"Pretty please with flowers on top?" Charlie asked sweetly while fluttering her eyes quickly.

Groaning, Dante agreed and received a quick hug from her before she slammed the door shut behind her. He looked at the list and at the coin purse. Sighing, he kept them both in his coat's inner pocket. At least there was something to do after that, he thought. Looking at the divinity statue, Dante approached it and summoned his sword. Holding it in front of the statue, the demon hunter saw the hourglass glow a little before he felt a force grab hold of his sword.

Letting go of it, Dante watched as an invisible power from the statue kept his weapon levitated in mid-air while it spun around slowly like a jewellery on a turntable. If he was not sure before, whatever doubts he had earlier were all dispelled. The statue reacted exactly as he remembered it and while he had some red orbs on him, it was not enough to make anything worthwhile. Besides, he felt that his sword was already as powerful as it could be, unless the statue had something new to offer him.

He thought he heard a voice from the statue offering to unlock the power of self and time in exchange for demon blood. "Self and time," he muttered. "Is that what I really think it is?"

Dante pulled the sword away from the invisible force and nodded slowly. He felt someone staring at him so he looked over his shoulder to see Vaggie looking at him in interest. Her arms were crossed but her expression was one of curiosity. She walked past him and placed a hand on the statue, but the thing did not seem to react to her touch as Dante's did.

"I've always wondered what this thing does. I thought I heard voices from it but the statue never did anything," said Vaggie.

"Not sure if you'd like hearing this, but the statue offers powers in exchange for demon blood," Dante explained as carefully as he could.

Vaggie frowned. "Are you gonna kill us to get stronger then?"

"Uh no, I'm not that kind of person. I know, hard to believe, right?" Dante remarked with a shrug and a smile. However, he decided to omit the fact that killing the demons in this hell did not yield red orbs anyway.

She sighed. "Alright, gramps, I get ya." Vaggie stood up and crossed her arms again. "Since you're running errands later, please stick to the list, would you? The last time you and your brother went on an errand, we've got no more place in the fridge for anything else."

"Which means?"

"No. More. Pizza," Vaggie said slowly while jabbing his chest.

"Alright, boss, wasn't planning on it but good to know," Dante grinned. He sauntered his way over to the door and opened it. "I've got stuff to do so, catch you later, eh," he said and shut it.

Vaggie chuckled and shook her head. "Can't believe a grown-ass man can be such a dork."

Dante found it hard to believe that the address Cherri provided him led him to a dump of an apartment in the middle of town. It was definitely the kind of place where the worst of the worst came to congregate and do whatever the hell they wanted with the place. Aside from the usual trash, graffiti, and inconspicuous public sex that went on in the premise, crimes were plenty there as well. More than once, Dante had to give a couple of muggers and would-be serial killers a proper beatdown with his fists and threatened some with his sword. Those who did not get the idea were swiftly cut down and none of the other demons seemed to care too much.

With no one else attempting to mess with him, the demon hunter entered the apartment and walked past a rather uncaring and bored receptionist. She merely looked at him for a few seconds before returning to her phone. Dante called for the elevator and pressed the button to the 5th floor. When the doors opened, he expected a less-than-decent corridor greeting him. However, it was rather clean all things considered even though the paint was peeling from the walls and ceiling.

Room 500 was just next to the elevator and he noticed a pile of flowers and fan letters stacked by the side of the door. There was even a framed picture of Angel along with some stains from an unidentified liquid. Dante knocked on the door twice and waited. A few seconds later, it swung open and at the doorway stood a one-eyed demon.

"Dante, didn't think you'd show up this early," she said with a grin.

"Had to run some errands later," he replied. He transformed back to his human form and took a seat on the sofa. "So, what've you got for me?"

Cherri was rummaging through Angel's fridge and took two bottles of beer. She tossed one at Dante and popped open the cap of the one she held with a nearby bottle opener. "Been sleuthing around, trying to cause some mayhem here and there."

"That's when you found the cache," Dante concluded for her. He used his thumb to pop the cap and took a swig. "Did you see where they got 'em from?"

"Haven't," Cherri answered after she stopped drinking. "Which is why I wanna tag along for this little trip of ours. Sir Pentious's been fielding some rather…different weapons lately."

Dante smacked his lips and looked at her. "What sort of weapons are we talking about?"

She walked over to him and showed him some pictures she had on her phone. There were pictures of a serpent demon welding some objects together to make a launcher-like weapon, but what piqued Dante's curiosity was the fact that he had infused the weapon with red orbs. Not only that, some of his minions were seen carrying crates of red orbs. One picture even showed Sir Pentious squeezing out a liquid-like substance from a purple orb.

Perhaps the most damning picture that Cherri had showed him was one where Sir Pentious was talking with someone whose face was coincidentally hidden by a passing crate being held up by a crane. It was not hard to tell who it was judging by the outfit though. Something did not add up. Dante was sure that it had only been a few days since the first sightings of demons from his dimension.

"I don't get it," Dante muttered. He tapped the phone's screen thoughtfully. "How the hell did he manage to acquire so many orbs in just a few days?"

"How much do the demons drop?"

"It depends on size but judging by the number of big crates and containers I've seen, the number of orbs could easily equal to about two thousand or so lesser demons. Just a guess by the way."

"Well, the overlords control a vast network of affiliates," Cherri said. "It's possible that Valentino's affiliates sent the orbs to him and he delivered it to grandpa. Either that, or the demons have invaded more frequently than reported."

"Do the overlords work with each other?"

"Very rarely," Cherri replied. She frowned and bit her lower lip. "More often than not, they hate each other's guts. They only do that if they have something they have a common goal. You also do know that Alastor is one of the overlords, right?"

Dante felt his heart sink slightly. "Well, that I didn't know." He finished the beer and placed the bottle on the coffee table. "He doesn't seem like he has anything to do with it though."

"For now," added the one-eyed demon. "I'll be keeping an eye on that creep too."

"You do you," Dante said. He placed his legs on the coffee table. "So, you know where the warehouse is at?"

Cherri grinned at Dante. "Like the back of my hand. I knew that wrecking property would eventually pay off."

The warehouse itself was nestled somewhere in the industrial district of Pentagram City. It was quite a distance away that the two had to take a taxi there. The front of the warehouse looked relatively normal with a nicely-kept parking lot and some trucks out front where workers were busy offloading and loading goods. There was no sign showing the name of the company, however, and it seemed like the only workers on the premise were sentient egg demons.

Dante and Cherri found themselves looking down at the warehouse from the rooftop of a nearby factory that allowed them a surprisingly comprehensive view of the warehouse's surrounding. Security was rather tight for a seemingly ordinary place, a tell-tale sign of something quite important being within its walls. The walls were topped with barbed wires and guard dogs patrolled the perimeter.

"The hell is this, a warehouse or a prison?" Dante asked in an incredulous tone.

"May's well be a prison." Cherri blew and popped her bubble gum. "The old man is rather fond of showing off his latest security tech," she added. Reaching into her backpack, the one-eyed demon took out a hand grenade and a machine-pistol. "Want me to run distraction?"

"If it's what you do best, go as loud as you like," Dante replied as he stood up from his crouching stance.

Cherri laughed and smiled. "I think I'm starting to like you. Alright, I'll draw the guards away and you go to the back entrance. Tell me everything about it later."

They leapt off the roof and approached the warehouse via a dirt path that led to the back of some rusty cargo containers. Dante and his companion looked at each other and nodded their heads. The demon hunter mouthed a silent 'go' and Cherri took off into the open. She threw taunts at the egg boi guards and a grenade into the compound while strafing them with her gun. The grenade did not hit anyone but it caught the attention of security. Klaxons blared as the loud speaker came to life with who Dante assumed to be Sir Pentious's voice coming through.

"What now, can't you see I'm busy with something?! Is it that bitch again?!" He paused, most likely talking to someone that was with him. "Well, kill her or you lot will be lunch for the guard dogs!"

Dante peeked around the corner and noticed a group of egg boi guards running from the back of warehouse armed with guns. Without hesitation, the moment they rounded the corner to chase down Cherri, Dante made his move and sprinted towards the warehouse's walls. He almost tripped in an attempt to stop himself when he noticed there was actually a security camera at the corner. He unholstered Ivory and shot up the camera.

"Wha? Who did that?!" Sir Pentious exclaimed angrily. "Whoever that was, kill them too!"

"So much for a silent entry," Dante muttered to himself.

More egg boi guards streamed from the back entrance and when they saw Dante running towards them, they hesitated slightly. The boss always showed them pictures of the two thorns in his side that they should always look out for: the one-eyed cyclopean demon and the feminine spider demon. The one charging at them DID NOT look like the spider demon they were expecting to find.

With the moment of hesitation, Dante was allowed the slice through them. Given that they were basically sentient egg demons, they cracked like regular ones just as easily. Even a simple shotgun blast obliterated their bodies into nothingness and showered the demon hunter with egg white and yolk. They were easy to rout and Dante made short work of them, making them scatter in all directions. One egg boi decided to take a pot-shot at him from around the corner. The ray gun blast did make the intruder stumble but he never lost balance and immediately responded by flinging his sword at the shooter, cracking the gun and egg boi at the same time.

There was a truck at the backside of the warehouse where egg bois were busy offloading crates and were guarded by two burly hellhounds armed with assault rifles. The commotion made them raise their guns and the pair growled in anticipation. When Dante was in sight, the two hellhounds immediately opened fire at him, forcing the demon hunter to dodge and weave through the bullets. Unlike the egg boi guards, the hellhounds were not deterred by his speed and continued to retrain their aim until their magazines ran out. The egg boi workers dropped what they were doing and ran for safety inside the warehouse.

Dante closed in on them and swung his sword. His intended target pulled out a knife and deflected the swing. The second hellhound threw a punch at Dante's face and knocked him back. While he was regaining his balance, they reloaded their guns and fired again. Thinking quickly, Dante shot back with his pistols and intercepted the bullets while he ran towards them again. One of them decided to hit him with the butt of his rifle but the demon hunter blocked it just in time and unleashed a blast of energy at the hellhound, pushing and slamming him into the side of the truck.

With one of the hellhounds temporarily out of the fight, the other hellhound snarled and charged. Dante's back was facing him and it seemed to make him an easy target. However, he pulled out his shotgun and fired behind him. The pellets peppered the hellhound's chest and made it fall backwards. With both hellhounds wounded and unable to do anything to stop Dante, he made his way into the warehouse.

There were a lot of boxes and crates in the storage area but that was par for the course. He decided to open some of them but instead of the orbs he was expecting to find, he instead found nothing but food supplies, weapon parts, and the occasional complete weapon. Dante scratched his head in confusion as he muttered something to himself. Looking up at the ceiling, he spotted a ceiling crane with claws that looked exactly like the one in the photo Cherri took, right down to the identification number painted on its side. Looking around, he also spotted a window high up, possibly the same window which she had used to look through to take the photo.

But where were the crates of orbs? He opened a few more boxes but none of them yielded any results. All of these seemed like hardly the reason for such intense security measures, something definitely did not add up. Dante saw an office on the second that gave a good vantage point over the warehouse storage area. Climbing up the stairs, he opened the office door and found it unoccupied for whatever reason. There was a lone security camera located at a corner that gave it view of the entire rom.

A monitor nearby had a number of displays from security cameras located around the warehouse, but Dante had noticed that none of them showed the camera display that was in the office itself. Frowning, he wondered to if that specific camera was controlled from some other place. Tapping his feet slowly, a thought came to him. The demon hunter knelt down and checked under the main desk and funnily enough, there was a hidden button underneath it.

He smiled slyly. "Jackpot."

Hissing sounds came from the storage area and Dante went out of the office to see what it did. The seemingly unassuming concrete floor began to slide open, revealing a large metal door that slid open as well and gave way to a large platform that was big enough to support a truck. What was more interesting was the fact that on the platform itself, there was a stray small red orb. It looked like someone had accidentally dropped it.

"Persistent fellow, aren't you?" Dante heard Sir Pentious's angry voice sound over a speaker that was in the office. "I don't know who you are, stranger, but trespassers will be executed."

"Well, if you're so mad about it, maybe you shouldn't have made buttons so easy to find," Dante shot back while looking around for the speaker. Unable to find it, he turned his attention to the camera. "Since you're talking to me, how 'bout I ask you something. Where'd you get the orbs from?"

"I don't know what you're talking about. What I do know is that you're trespassing on private property! Since I'm too busy to deal with you right now, I'm gonna be generous. You have 10 seconds to get out of here before I activate the sentry ray guns. Believe me, boy, you wouldn't like it."

"Ray guns huh, I guess now I know why she called you 'old man'," Dante chuckled.

"Grah! That's it, I'll kill you here and now! Shoulda known you were working with that whore Cherri."

The alarm was triggered and the office room was drowned in strobing orange lights. Some of the ceiling panels popped open and 10 turrets slid down from hidden compartments. Immediately, Dante's body was lit up with laser sights pointing at his abdomen and head. Perhaps this was a good time to reawaken an old power, he thought. Taking a deep breath and concentrating hard, he closed his eyes.

"What're you doing?" asked a confused Sir Pentious but he quickly dismissed the confusion. "No matter, you're just making it easy for me."

The order to fire was given but Dante opened his eyes and snapped his fingers. The sound of blaring klaxons stopped along with the hum of charging ray guns. Nothing seemed to move at that point, and when Dante stepped aside, the guns did not track his movement. Perfect, his old time-controlling power still worked but he felt himself getting fatigued very quickly. The demon hunter went outside and leapt over the safety rail and landed on the platform. There was a control panel on it and he quickly pressed the down button before snapping his finger again and resuming time.

An explosion reverberated from upstairs followed by a surprised and angry exclamation from Sir Pentious over the loudspeakers. He noticed too late that Dante had already taken the platform down to the hidden base below. A short trip down a dark shaft later, the demon hunter found himself facing a laboratory-like environment. There were welding stations, machining tables, and assembly lines where the egg demons were busy manufacturing weapons and equipment. Dante stepped off the platform and kicked open one of the nearby crates. Just as he had suspected, it was full of red orbs.

"Someone's been busy," Dante said to himself. He reached for one of the larger orbs and examined it as if he had never seen it before. "Can't imagine how many demons they killed just to harvest them. Some things never change."

A screen unfolded from the ceiling and blocked the path before him, revealing the face behind the voice that tried to get him killed earlier. The serpent's face was twisted with anger and he was baring his fangs. Even his hat had followed his expression but Dante could not help but point and laugh at it, which only served to anger Sir Pentious more. He jabbed a finger at the screen as if he was poking at Dante himself.

"You!" he cried out angrily. "How'd you get past my sentries?"

Dante shrugged and leaned on a crate casually. "Demon magic I suppose," he replied coolly. "Hey, where'd you get that hat from? Is it Halloween already?"

"I finally figured out who you are," Sir Pentious said while ignoring Dante's mockery. "You know, I've heard from some…colleagues about a human in hell. I admit, your demon disguise fooled everyone, but I'm on to you, son of Sparda."

Dante clapped his hands in a mocking congratulatory manner. "Well, took you folks long enough. I'm guessing Azazel told that, right?"

"No, but you see, son of Sparda, I've been blessed with the power of deduction and being smart overall," Sir Pentious replied smugly. "Val came to me stating he wants to know the whereabouts of this 'son of Sparda' and said that the last time a white-haired human was spotted was at that blasted hotel Alastor is protecting. Using a surveillance picture of you in human form from a nearby camera and comparing it with your demon one, the similarities are goddamn clear to me. Your garish outfit combined with the fact that not many demons in hell look as distinct as you made it rather clear to me quite quickly."

"So, you figured out my identity, but you probably don't even have the decency to know my name," Dante said with a yawn.

"I don't need to know the name of a dead man walking. Once you're out of the picture, the way forward for us shall be clear."

What did he mean by way forward? Dante did not manage to ask what he meant by it as the screen was turned off and retracted back into the ceiling. The loudspeakers turned on and he heard instructions to capture him. Why capture? He did not like where this was going but he still had a task to do. After seeing all the weapon parts and orbs, the demon hunter had an idea what Sir Pentious wanted to do with them. Dante could not allow it to happen.

What would it take to level an underground facility along with the warehouse?

Dante pushed further into the facility as more of the egg boi guards were sent to stop him. This time, they came with stun batons and non-lethal weapons rather than guns and it only made it easier for him. Since they decided to not kill him, Dante also decided to return the favour by knocking them out cold by the dozens. For demons, they were unusually fragile and could easily be cracked with a well-aimed punch. That also meant that he inadvertently killed half of them.

The centre of the facility housed an array of guns and launchers arranged neatly into weapon racks and cabinets. Most of the demons had cleared out of the area the moment they heard that Dante was coming. Some of the things they left behind piqued Dante's curiosity, especially the weapon that was being worked on. It was a pair of pneumatic-powered gauntlets and a pair of clawed greaves, and they sat on an altar surrounded by an orb of each kind. It had a red and orange glow to it with white lines of power running through them.

"Hello, beautiful," Dante said with a toothy smile. "Let's see if this works."

He reached out his hand slowly and interestingly enough, the gauntlets and greaves reacted like any other Devil Arm would. They coalesced into a ball of light which floated towards Dante and engulfed him in a blinding flash of light. Once it died down, the gauntlets were on his hands and his feet were in the greaves. At the same time, a group of reaper-like demons burst into the centre of facility and surrounded him. They swung their scythes menacingly, but Dante hit his knuckles together and stretched one arm out.

The pneumatic gauntlet extended towards one of the demons like a grappling hook and impaled it with a hidden retractable claw. Dante pulled it towards him and did a high kick that cracked the chin of demon. More demons followed up with the attack and swung at him wildly. His crescent kick created a barrier of solid earth that followed the movement of the kick, adding more damage to the attack and slamming the demons so hard that they disintegrated into dust. Dante threw a flurry of punches at a group of them followed by multiple flying kicks which ended with a ground stomp that caused a fiery blast around the impact point.

The impact blast was large enough that it struck a nearby ammunition storage and caused a massive explosion. That in turn caused other volatile chemicals to explode in a chain reaction. Looks like I don't need to get more TNT after all, Dante thought to himself as he escaped to the platform while the whole place started collapsing. The orbs would definitely not survive given how fragile they were, and that was all he needed to know.

Upon reaching the surface, the warehouse itself was also on fire and any egg bois that remained in the facility quickly evacuated the premise. Dante exited through the front gate where Cherri was there waiting for him. Her left arm was bandaged and the cloth stained red with blood. Other than that, she did not seem worse for wear. The demon hunter slowed down as he approached Cherri and turned around to see his handiwork.

There was an airship hovering above the warehouse with a screen on its side. It turned on and showed Sir Pentious shaking his head. "You just had to make it hard, don't you, son of Sparda?"

"It's Dante, old man!" he shouted, wondering if he could even hear him from the air.

"Like I said, I don't need to know the name of a dead man walking. You may escape this time, but the next time we meet, you won't be so lucky. I'm going to take pleasure in seeing you tortured!"

With that, the airship began to turn and fly away from the industrial district and towards the city. Dante thought it odd that he would give up just like that despite the fact that the airship had enough firepower to make a fight tough. Maybe he still wanted to have him captured but did not have any non-lethal way of doing it. It still begged the question: why would he want him captured?

"So," Cherri said rubbing her sore arm. "You find anything interesting down there?"

"Tons of orbs and weapon parts. And also, this." He flexed the gauntlet's fingers and balled them into a fist. "It reacts exactly like a Devil Arm, but there's no sentience in this; just an amalgam of life force and magic."

"Wait, what'd you mean by that?"

"Devil Arms are the souls of subjugated demons taking the form of a weapon. If you've handled them as long as I did, you'll know when there's a sentience in it. This doesn't have the same feeling. To me, it just feels like a thing that is alive but with no purpose or thought. It's artificial," Dante explained.

"So…if I remember correctly, you told me yesterday during dinner that the orbs have special properties about them, right?" Dante nodded his head. "When you said there were weapon parts and orbs in that warehouse, and now this thing you're wearing, sounds to me like Sir Pentious is trying to create a new type of demonic weapon," Cherri said thoughtfully while the two of them hailed an oncoming taxi.

"That's what I thought too and it certainly does feel the part. Regardless, I'm taking this with me. It's too dangerous to be left around unsupervised."

"Now it begs the question, where did the old man get so many of these orbs?"

"And why he's so interested in having me captured."

He took out his phone and saw that his brother had sent a message to him while he was still underground fighting the demons. The message consisted of a single picture of a rather dilapidated building with large protrusions that resembled the horns of a demon. A single message accompanied the picture.

"Made it to Imp City."

That evening, Dante returned to the hotel just in time for dinner. The food was already prepared and the smell of roast beef put a smile on his face and a growl in his stomach. He reverted back to his human and gave silent thanks. Any longer outside in his demon form and he'd probably change back in the middle of a busy street. Dante hated to remind himself that he was getting older and his energy reserves were not as it used to be. He handed Niffty the groceries and took a seat at the dinner table. Angel, upon seeing him, leaned close to him.

"So, how did it go?" he asked with a grin.

"About as well as it should be," Dante answered nonchalantly. "Didn't Cherri tell you about it?"

"Nah, I want to hear from you first. How'd you find her, she cool or what eh?"

Dante leaned back and stretched his arms. "She's definitely got spunk," he said. Looking at Vaggie, he added, "Oh, Vaggie, you wouldn't need to worry about excessive pizzas."

"Well shit, and here I thought I'd have to kick your ass to remind you," Vaggie remarked jokingly.

"Vag, you don't know Dante like I do," Angel said with a smug smile. "He'd beat you five ways to heaven and back to hell. You'd embarrass yourself."

"Speaking of embarrassment, how'd charity work go? Had your credibility destroyed yet?" she shot back with an almost sadistic grin while pointing a fork at him.

The mention of charity not only made Angel frown and grumble angrily, Charlie was seen rubbing the back of her head and looking away while Alastor gave a low chuckle. "It went as well as expected. Truly it was a spectacle. Why, I haven't been this entertained since the last extermination!"

"Yeah, I prefer not to talk about it," Charlie said with a sheepish grin.

"Count me in, sister," Angel mumbled.

It must've been really bad, Dante thought. He decided not to ask about it and instead decided to get everyone's attention (and changing the topic) by summoning his sword. Not even Alastor had enough time to register what he was trying to do when he clicked his fingers and stopped time. With what little energy he had left, he used his sword to cut up the huge slab or roast beef that Niffty just took out of the oven. When it was done, he snapped his finger again and resumed time.

"Wait, what just happened? I thought I felt something earlier," Charlie said while looking around.

"Mm, certainly our friend might have something to do with it. Enlighten us on what you did, dear boy," Alastor said with an unusually inquisitive tone.

With a smug smile, Dante said, "It's easy, I just stopped time."

The girls gave him a dumbfounded expression while Angel's eyes were wide with an almost childish awe. Dante wiggled his eyebrows and snapped his finger again. He took a fork and placed it in Alastor's hand before returning to his seat and resuming time. However, that last time stop made him a lot more tired than it should.

"This is certainly most peculiar," Alastor said softly while looking at the fork that just mysteriously appeared in his hand that he did not remember rolling up into a fist. "You are quite the character, Dante. I think I'd be careful about messing with you." He said that, but his expression seemed slightly twisted.

"Yeah…you do that," Dante replied weakly. "Damn, I need to eat."

He only managed to take one big bite out of a slab of roast beef when they heard a knock on the front door. Fortunately, Husk was at the bar so he was close enough to go and see who it was. A few short moments later, the winged demon led to the dining hall a female goat demon with glasses. Dante stood up quickly when he noticed that she was wearing his brother's coat.

"You're Mayberry, right?" he asked.

"Yeah…you must be Dante," Mayberry replied. She held out a hand and smiled at him. Dante took and shook her hand. "Your brother sends his regards."

"Heh, first time he's actually bothered to send me any sort of regards without trying to kill me," the demon hunter joked.

"Uh, what?" asked a confused Mayberry.

Before Dante could answer, Charlie came to greet her and quickly invited her for dinner. She also asked Husk to join them, which he did since he was also feeling a bit hungry. For the rest of the night, things were uneventful at the hotel.

Valentino stood on the rooftop of his studio with a cigarette in his mouth. Vox was there too, seated on the edge while chowing down on an extra-large burger. He was about to finish his meal when a strong gust of wind made him lose his grip on the remaining burger. The TV-headed demon did not seem all that upset as he was rather full at that point anyway. His mate helped him up and the two turned around. A few feet behind them stood Azazel with sword in hand.

"I heard something had happened," said Azazel.

"Yes, one son of Sparda is in Pentagram City," Valentino said menacingly. "The other has left, on the way to Imp City by the looks of things. The weapon project has to be delayed on top of me losing more than a few million dollars-worth of property damage and loss of high-end drugs."

"Minor setbacks assuredly," Azazel said in an uncaring tone.

"Minor setback my fucking ass," Valentino spat. "When I invest my time and money in something, I expect guarantees of returns. "Your little vendetta against the sons of Sparda is costing me valuable resources, and no, you giving me a stupid summoning bell and a whole bunch of orbs isn't gonna cut it. The demons that are coming through are painfully weak." He stormed towards Azazel, grabbed him by the collar, and lifted him up. "Just what do you plan to do about it, huh? Now you know where they are, aren't you going to do something about it? You either start pulling your weight or I'm calling our working relations off."

Azazel chuckled and teleported from his grasp. He landed a few feet away beside Vox. "You care surprisingly a lot about rather mundane matters, don't you, Valentino? Should you not be worrying about the bigger picture? Your colleague Sir Pentious has the right idea at least."

"Pentious is just a tool," Vox said while waving a hand dismissively. "Besides, Vox has a rather large stake in the criminal enterprise. His power is on the line, Azazel. Didn't you tell us before that power means everything to a demon?"

"Perhaps your view on power differs from mine, but I'm willing to accept whatever it is that you understand. At the end of the day, it all works out for me."

"Alright, wise guy, what're you playing at? I'm seriously starting to hate your scheming," Valentino said.

Azazel walked up to Vox and placed a hand on his shoulder while looking at him to Valentino. "Keep doing what you do, Valentino, eventually the balance will swing and we'll all benefit from it. The visitors will arrive to do the dirty work for us," he said cryptically while staring up at heaven.

Well, here's an early new chapter with Dante acquiring a new weapon. I haven't thought of a name for the weapon yet, so feel free to suggest. The reason I wrote this chapter quickly is because 1. I had and idea and 2. the new Helluva Boss episode was great! With the next chapter, Vergil will officially meet the cast of HB. Will he get the grimoire easily? Let's find out.