Hazbin Devils
Chapter 16
"Vergil, they've offed Azazel and one of the overlords has Yamato's power. No more games this time. I'm heading over to his place to get it back. Don't worry 'bout me, I only need to get my ass kicked once. Also, whatever you do, keep away from the hotel if at all possible. I don't want to risk giving the hotel any unwanted attention. Call me later, we've got much to talk."
A shapeless demon looked at the screen of his phone and up again. There was no mistake, the humanoid demon in red was here. Not too long ago, there were messages being sent out by some mysterious number telling them to keep an eye out for this demon named Dante. Even some websites, television, and radio channels had began broadcasting some sort of public service announcement warning the public of this 'dangerous' criminal. As weird as the message was, it did not matter to those who heard or read the message.
What they were after was the monetary reward.
Dante came prepared however; he received the same message as well. It made him ponder what his next move would be as he made his way down a quiet street that would lead to Vox's mansion a few blocks away. Fighting demons was a non-issue for him, but getting jumped at every corner would be annoying. Perhaps that was the idea, slow him down enough so that Vox could do whatever he wanted to do with Yamato's power. Charlie had told him that only angelic weapons could permanently kill demons, at least that meant he could just cut them down with impunity. They would just reform elsewhere later.
Funnily enough, that also meant he had already made a lot of enemies all this point in time.
He could feel gazes on him coming from almost all the demons he passed. Once or twice, he even saw a gleam of steel as they drew knives in an attempt to stab him. Yet Dante's pace was steady and deliberate and he kept his head held high with confidence and bravado. It seemed to be keeping some of the demons at bay as they hesitated to approach him, but the same could not be said for some of the more fool-hardy of the bunch.
As he made a left turn by a junction which put him directly in view of the mansion, a shapeless blob lunged at him from behind with a knife held in one of its tentacles. Dante immediately summoned his gauntlets and greaves and spun-kicked around. The impact smashed the demon's face so hard that it mangled and sent the whole body flying sideways into a wall, cratering it in the process. That had set off an attack where even some demons had leapt off from roofs of nearby buildings to get him.
All at once, they tried to cut, stab, and shoot him, but the devil hunter moved faster than even they could react. He forced them into a one-on-one fight by teleporting right up to each demon. Most reacted to slow and were cut down piecemeal. Those who reacted fast enough made it as far as deflecting his sword attacks and punches, but their attempts to follow-up were met with faster reaction from Dante. Even snipers in nearby buildings had a hard time getting a bead on him, much to their dismay and awe. Their target not only moved faster than lightning, he even casually shot their bullets out of mid-air with his pistols. Dante in turn shot them from their perch with charged shots that punched through whatever barriers that they hid behind.
One of the demons had managed to land a hit on him and stabbed Dante in his side, but instead of falling over in pain and making himself an easy prey, he instead grabbed the hand of the demon that stabbed him and twisted his entire arm before kicking him into two other demons and knocking them over. He continued fighting with the knife still in his side, seemingly oblivious to it. Those who had thought about joining in quietly turned their backs and walked away while those that survived the attack took off in all directions.
With most of the attacking group either dead or have fled, there was one left who was just standing there with a revolver in his hand. His teeth were chattering and his hand trembled so much he could not aim straight. Dante turned to look at him, causing him to take a step back and trip over his fallen friend. The devil hunter approached him but the demon raised his gun in defence. He wanted to pull the trigger but his finger had frozen at the sight of this red demon looming over him.
"Don't hurt me," the demon whimpered while trying to shield his face from an impending attack.
"There're better ways to earn money, kid. Trust me, I'm not worth it," Dante said. When he moved and felt something in his side, he looked down and saw the knife. He nonchalantly pulled it out and dropped it onto the road without so much as spilling a drop of blood. "Best you get out of here," the devil hunter added.
After the demon ran away while leaving his gun behind, Dante surveyed the carnage and shook his head. Going places would be annoying if he was to be attacked at every corner. He would find a solution later, he thought. Given that the mansion was just in sight, the devil hunter broke into a full sprint towards the main gate. The guards saw him coming and opened fire, but their shots either missed or did little to slow him down. They were easy enough to dispatch with one punch each and Dante wasted no time breaking into the mansion with a kick to the door, breaking them off its hinges and knocking out a guard that happened to be behind it.
The mansion's maids were quick to run for shelter while more security guards streamed into the lobby from another hall and from the stairs that led to the first floor. To Dante, they looked more like soldiers instead with body armour and helmets better suited for warfare. All guns were trained on him and there was a cacophony of magazines being inserted and charging handles being pulled. The devil hunter looked to his left and right slowly as if to assess the situation and placed his hands on his hips.
"Your boss around? I got a message for him," Dante said coolly.
"Mr. Vox isn't seeing anyone, Dante. Fuck off," one of the guards to his right said.
Dante gave him a crooked smile and said, "I wasn't giving him a choice. Tell you what, you tell me where he is, and I won't have to beat all of you up. What'd ya say?"
The guards looked at each other warily. They were aware of the stories, of how this demon managed to fight one of the most powerful overlords in hell and lived. Numbers were on their side and they were convinced their firepower would overwhelm him. However, his confidence sapped them of theirs and none could find bluff in his eyes. Dante had already reached for his sword and was leaning against it like he was taunting them, forcing them to make a difficult decision.
Both sides stared at each other without reaching an answer. Dante had opted to wait and see what they would do while the guards continued glancing about as if they were lost. Some began lowering their weapons while others started whispering discussions with one another. The devil hunter's stance had relaxed somewhat, and by that point, he imitated his brother by summoning a red-coloured ethereal sword of his own and spinning it on his finger before dispersing it.
"What now?" one of the guards asked another after a period of silence.
"What now? He ain't the one paying you, Idiot McStupid. We can take 'em," the guard he was talking to responded with a hiss. "Right?"
"Speak for yourself," another guard said. "You saw how he iced those chumps out on the street? Vox ain't paying me enough to deal with this asshole."
"I can deal with goons, but this is beyond my paygrade," one of the security guards said angrily. He dropped his rifle and slithered past Dante. "Fuck ya'll, I'm going home," he said before exiting the building.
Dante's gaze followed the demon for a bit before turning back to the group. He shrugged and opened his arms. "You can be like him, I'm not gonna stop ya."
Before any of the guards could answer, a nearby wall panel had flipped over to reveal a television screen showing the face of an annoyed Vox. The first thing he did was look at the guards. "I had a feeling you were either going to be dead or being plain useless. Let's cut to the chase: you idiots are fired. I've found something better to replace you lot and best of all, I wouldn't even need to pay them." Turning to Dante, he said, "As for you, son of Sparda, I hope you enjoy your stay in hell because I'll make sure everyone is out to skin you alive. Not even Lucifer can save you from this one."
The screen broke into static and the wall panel flipped to reveal the wooden side again. Some of the guards were shouting with outrage while Dante was unconcerned. However, he raised his sword when felt the air around the lobby drop to bone-chilling temperatures. Multiple portals opened at the same time and bestial demons and Grim Reaper-like creatures exited the portals in droves like a mob of chattering and angry animals.
"Looks like they're taking away your jobs," Dante said to the guards jokingly. "Luckily for you, I know exactly how to deal with them," he added while tapping his sword on his shoulder.
"The fuck are these uglies?!" one of the guards exclaimed as he cocked his rifle.
"Demons of another kind," the devil hunter said simply.
The portals started disappearing with one last portal remaining in front of him. A Proto Angelo walked out from it menacingly, dragging behind it a sword that emitted purplish demonic energy. As the guards started backing away, Dante stood his ground with a knowing smile on his face. The demon thrusted its sword at him, but Dante blocked the attack with his arm and immediately followed up with a blast of energy that knocked the Angelo backwards. It did not fall over however, but it did crack its armour.
"Alright, Dante, we'll cut you a deal. Help us kill these assholes and we'll let you know where Vox is," a spider demon security guard said despite some weak protests from some of his colleagues.
"I think that can be arranged," Dante remarked while pointing his sword at the Proto Angelo. "Watch and learn, boys."
Dante made his first move by swinging his sword at the humanoid demon. Predictably, it blocked his attack and attempted to follow up with a counter-attack. The devil hunter sides-stepped the thrust and lunged forward, throwing the Proto Angelo off balance. Without letting up, Dante leapt into the air and continuously switched between his gauntlets and sword while hitting the demon without ever planting his feet on the ground. The Proto Angelo brought up its sword again to block and managed to push Dante side.
While the fight between the two was going on, the other demons decided to attack the security guards instead. They fought off the hoard using whatever they had in their disposal including knives or any other furniture they could get their hands. Much to their chagrin, most of their guns did little to harm the foreign demons, but the guards found out that shotguns seemed to work marginally better. A few of them were cut down in the process but they continued to fight while helping cover Dante's back whenever they could.
The Proto Angelo had taken quite a beating at that point with cracks running through its armour and sword. It was bleeding but the demon still walked tall and straight, its gaze of hatred focused on the eternal enemy that was the son of Sparda. Yet, no amount of hate-filled sword swings and desperate attempts to run him down could stop Dante from running rings around it. The devil hunter had his shotgun knocked out of his hand but he managed to pick up a lever-action shotgun from the floor and started firing at point blank while rapidly spin-cocking the weapon.
One last close-range blast broke Proto Angelo's sword in half when he tried to block, causing the demon to throw it at Dante like a throwing knife. He shot it out of mid-air and cocked his arm back, his gauntlets beginning to glow demonic red. The large humanoid demon ran at the devil hunter with his own fist raised, but before he could swing, Dante threw an uppercut punch that caused a fiery explosion upon impact that also knocked down several other nearby demons. Proto Angelo disintegrated into glowing dust that dissipated after a few seconds.
After landing on his feet, Dante dropped the shotgun and rolled just in time to avoid a slash by a Riot. He rolled right into his double-barrelled shotgun and picked it up. By that time, the reptilian demon was right behind him and without looking behind, Dante quickly fired the gun behind him and staggered it. He swung his sword around to hit it, but the creature had leapt backwards towards the stairs and growled at him.
"This party's just getting crazy," Dante said with a determined grin.
The last demon standing disintegrated into dust when a shockwave sliced it in half down the middle. Dante gave his sword a swing to dissipate the leftover energy and let out a loud and satisfied sigh. Turning around, he saw that the group of guards was only half the size it once was with many of them left as a bloody mess on the floor. The spider demon that offered to tell Dante everything was sat on the floor with a gash on his right arm. Other than that, he was still alive and breathing.
Dante went to the spider demon and knelt next to him while the other guards backed away slightly. "You good to talk?" the devil hunter asked.
"It's just a flesh wound," the spider demon said dismissively while waving Dante away. "Gotta say, dude, your fighting style ain't something I've seen before. You gotta teach me, ya know."
"Maybe some other time," Dante said. "Now, about Vox's whereabouts?"
The spider demon pointed at an unassuming oaken door near the grand staircase and looked at Dante. "Vox's been spending a lot of time in that secret lab of his. Not too long ago, he even invited Sir Pentious over."
"Sir Pentious eh," Dante muttered while rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "I think I know what they're trying to do here." Looking at the spider demon, he asked, "Any passwords or keys I should know about?"
"No keys or passwords," the spider demon replied while shaking his head. "Vox's got one hell of a locking system on it though. Believe it or not, he's got some soul shard of an angel creating a forcefield around the second door. It's gonna burn any demon that touches it…and I have no goddamn idea how he opens that door without burning himself."
Dante looked at the door and raised an eyebrow. He stood up and walked towards it as he unsummoned his weapon to free his hand. Opening the oaken door, the devil hunter found a white shimmering forcefield covering a steel door with a slot in the middle where a pearl-like object sat. He tried to touch soul shard but Dante quickly pulled back his hand as he felt a sharp pain shoot through his fingers. Looking at them, he noticed that the tips of his fingers were slightly charred and smoking.
"Face it, man, nobody's gonna get that door open except Vox," one of the security guards said. "You're better off trying to dig through the concrete and marble than forcing that thing out."
"It repels demons," Dante said to himself. Then, his eyes perked up and he nodded his head slowly. He turned back into his human form and cracked his knuckles. "This may just work."
"Dude, human disguises don't do shit. You're still a demon and the thing knows," the spider demon called out.
"Disguise? Never said anything about a disguise," Dante said, causing the demons to look at each other in confusion.
He reached out again to grab the soul shard and much to the surprise of everyone else present, the soul shard slipped out from the slot easily and sat in Dante's palm without even reacting in any negative way. Their jaws dropped even further when the shard started to glow brightly which blinded the guards momentarily. After the light died down, they saw that Dante was holding a chain whip with a weighted head that emitted a holy white aura about it. The devil hunter was visibly smiling and he looked at the now vulnerable steel door.
Swinging the whip at it in several different ways, Dante dented and cracked the door with several blows. After the seventh blow, the door had been mangled quite badly but it still hung on the hinges. He decided to finish it off by throwing a rose at it, causing the door to fall backwards and land on the floor with a thunderous clang. Dante pulled back the whip and it rolled up neatly into his hand.
"Now I see why they placed a bounty on you," one of the guards muttered. "Too dangerous."
"But how?!" another guard exclaimed incredulously. "Aren't you a demon?!"
"Half-demon," Dante corrected. He held up the whip and said, "Uriel resonates with my human side, but trust me when I say he's just as confused as the rest of you."
"Half-demon and half-human? Is that even possible?" one guard asked another.
"I dunno anymore, man. Things have been weird lately and now this? I really need to get home and get myself a drink and rethink my life a bit," someone said.
"Hey, since you guys aren't needed here anymore, why don't you get outta here? There's not telling what's gonna happen later," Dante said.
The demon security guards murmured in agreement and started to leave the mansion. Those who were wounded had by then regenerated enough to walk on their own and they followed the crowd out. With nothing else standing between him and his objective, Dante entered the dark hallway that led to Vox's lab. He tried activating his Devil Trigger but for some reason, nothing happened. The angelic whip in his hand had at the same time rose in temperature whenever he attempted to transform, leading Dante to assume the angelic soul was preventing him from doing it. He shrugged and stowed the whip away, thus allowing him to transform again.
As the hallway ended and opened up to a circular lab-like chamber, the devil hunter found himself standing by a glass observation dome located at the centre of the chamber. He looked into it and saw Vox talking to Sir Pentious at the bottom floor. Both were standing in front of a table with a clamp on it and the clamp was holding the dark electric blue orb that was Yamato's dimensional-cutting power. Dante pressed his right hand on the glass for a few second before bringing out his gauntlets.
With one mighty downward punch, he shattered the entire glass dome into a rain of shards and leapt into the opening. Sir Pentious yelped with surprise but Vox remained silent and his expression dark and annoyed as glass rained on and around him. Dante landed some distance away from them, cratering the floor as his boots made contact with it. The TV demon turned around and dusted off some small glass shards that had landed on his suit. His shoes crunched on the shards that were strewn across the floor.
"You're full of surprises, Dante," Vox said, his voice sounding somewhat annoyed.
"And the next surprise is gonna be the end of you, Vox," Dante said grimly. He stretched out his hand and waved his fingers at Vox. "Gimme that orb, I'm not gonna ask twice."
Vox shook his head. "No, I don't think I will. I'm not about to let you ruin my progress."
"Um, do you not mean 'our progress'?" Sir Pentious interjected.
"Don't argue with me. Without me, you wouldn't even know about this thing," Vox growled at the snake overlord, causing him to recoil slightly. Turning back to Dante, he said, "If only you were as easy to dispose of as Azazel…I suppose life's nothing without a challenge."
Dante saw Vox turn into something that resembled pure energy and leaping into a nearby monitor. The screen broke into static before showing Vox's face while surgery saws and tools came to life under his command. At the same time, Sir Pentious took out a ray gun and aimed at Dante. The devil hunter hit his fists together, his gauntlets clanging loudly as he did so. After that, he did a double-arm beckon and smiled.
"Come and get me."
A surgical saw lunged at him first and Dante dodged it by leaping into the air and started slashing at the metal arm. Sir Pentious tried to shoot his back but the devil hunter created a doppelganger to distract the snake overlord. It stabbed at Sir Pentious multiple times but he deftly moved his body left and right equally fast and avoided the attacks. After Dante took out one of the saws, two more were deployed.
With Sir Pentious currently battling the doppelganger, Dante dashed at the orb to grab it but a surgical robot arm equipped with a needle dropped in front of him and attempted to stab him. A saw dropped close to the floor at the same time and came at him with the intent of cutting off his legs. Dante saw the surgical saw coming and stomped it into the floor, breaking it into pieces. He parried the giant needle with his sword and broke the robot arm in half with a karate chop.
Seeing that Vox's face was eyeing his every move, the devil hunter flung his sword at the screen and shattered it. He heard Vox curse loudly over some unseen speakers in the chamber and smiled. Attempting to reach the orb again, Dante had to back away as portals opened in front of him and released more demons that originated from his dimension. He wasted no time engaging them with his gauntlets while waiting for his sword to return, unleashing flurries of punches and kicks coupled with a few dive kicks that quickly whittled away at their numbers.
Sir Pentious managed to dispatch Dante's doppelganger after swiping at its legs and causing it to fall onto the floor and finishing it off with a shot to the head. He swiped the orb off of the clamp and turned around to slither for the exit when Dante shot it off his grip with Ivory. The orb fell on the floor and rolled to a nearby tool cabinet. He quickly cut down a Fury that was had snuck up behind him and ran for the orb. For a moment, Dante was elated to have managed to grab the orb, but the snake overlord had recovered quickly enough to rush at Dante and coiled around the devil hunter with fangs bared.
He attempted to squeeze the life out of Dante while trying to inject venom into him. His fangs managed to prick his skin just in time for Dante to free a hand and choked Sir Pentious. Gasping for air, he released the devil hunter quickly but a quick tail whip knocked the orb out of Dante's hand. Momentarily distracted, he looked away while letting go of the snake overlord. Sir Pentious quickly drew a ray pistol and fired three shots at Dante's back. However, he did not fall over as Sir Pentious had hoped.
Vox deployed several more robotic arms and even some prototype robot soldiers which he took control of. More demons appeared to stop Dante but he failed to slow down, determination and fury burning in his blood and kept him going. By that point, Sir Pentious was starting to look worried and Vox gritted his teeth angrily at the devil hunter's persistence. No matter how many things he threw at him, Dante always shrugged them off despite being visibly wounded. Furthermore, no matter how many times he switched to a new screen, Dante would always blind him by shooting at the screens. Soon, the last functional screen in the chamber was reduced to pieces by a well-placed shotgun blast.
Angrily, Vox emerged again and drew a handgun loaded with angelic bullets. Dante felt a tug deep in him and heard Uriel warning him about the angelic ammunition that the TV demon had. Thinking quickly, Dante unsummoned his demon weapons and reverted to human form just as Vox fired the first shot. He pulled out the chain whip at the same time the bullets struck his head and chest.
Vox grinned, thinking Dante was trying to save himself by using a human disguise. Much to his surprise and horror a few seconds later, the devil hunter merely flinched from the pain instead of falling over as all other demons should. The angelic bullets passed through his body and hit several of the foreign demons instead, and they instantly disintegrated as a result. Dante swung his whip at Vox with the TV demon gasping and dodging sideways as he saw the angelic weapon coming at him.
Sir Pentious took the opportunity to slither to the orb and picked it up. Wasting no time, he again slithered quickly towards the exit. Dante turned around quickly and swung the whip at his back. The whip made contact, causing a violent explosion that threw Sir Pentious into a wall. The snake overlord heaved and coughed up a stream of blood, but much to Dante's puzzlement, he did not immediately die. Sir Pentious was still alive but he laid in a pool of his own blood.
Dante grabbed the orb and this time, he wanted to put it in his pocket so nobody could knock it out from his hand again. Out of desperation, Vox fired a bullet at the orb, causing it to react violently and exploding in Dante's hand and emitting a blinding burst of blue light. The explosion threw the devil hunter onto his back and the shockwave disintegrated the portals and all the other lesser demons in the room. Being the furthest away from the explosion, Vox stumbled but ultimately maintained his balance. Once the light died down, the TV demon heard nothing but silence. A part of his screen face was cracked but he was thankful his vision was not impaired.
The devil hunter was motionless, knocked out cold from the explosion. Sir Pentious was also motionless but Vox checked on him and noticed that he was still barely alive. What disturbed him the most was that the orb that held the dimension-cutting powers was shattered into several large shards. Glaring at Dante, Vox limped to a nearby control panel and activated the lab's self-destruct sequence. With 2 minutes on the timer, he quickly picked up the orb shards and Sir Pentious. He still had need for his expertise. He jogged to the exit and escaped via elevator to the surface.
The blaring alarms did little to wake the unconscious devil hunter, but the angelic whip sent a surge of energy through his body. Dante's eyes shot open and he quickly leapt onto his feet, expecting the fight to still be ongoing. However, the klaxons and the loudspeakers announcing there was only 10 seconds until destruction made Dante rethink. There was no way he would get out of here in time. He looked at the remaining orb shard in his hand and took a deep breath. It transformed into a short sword which he used to slice the air with. Much to his relief, a portal opened but it opened to somewhere unfamiliar instead of his intended destination.
"Well, gotta go fast!" Dante exclaimed and leapt into the portal just as the chamber started exploding around him.
Dante found himself standing on a stage facing a group of oddball creatures. Next to him was a confused blonde young woman along with a young anthropomorphic jackal with patches of fur missing. The devil hunter himself looked dumbfounded as he silently stared at the crowd and the two persons next to him.
"Um, Cameron, who's that?" the jackal asked.
"I…have no idea, Jackson," the young woman muttered while her eyes were still locked onto Dante.
Dante gave an awkward laugh and said, "Sorry, got the wrong room. Carry on."
He sliced the air again with the short sword and leapt into the opened portal, barely missing the loud gasps that came from the crowd in that odd place. This time, it took him back to hell and dumped him just outside Vox's mansion. Looking behind, he saw that the mansion was in ruins with muffled secondary explosions rocking the ground beneath him. Dante shook his head, disappointed that they got away again. Worst of all, the TV demon broke Yamato's power.
Looking at the short sword, Dante reverted it back into the orb shard form and kept it in his pocket. "At least it's not a total loss. Next on the agenda: find Angel Dust for now," he said to himself. He stowed away his whip and unleashed his devil form. Taking out his phone, Dante dialled Cherri's number and almost immediately, the cyclops demon answered. "Cherri, you got a beat on Angel's exact location?"
There was a click from the lighter and a part of Striker's face was lit up by the light of the flame as he lit up his cigarette. The imp skilfully rolled the lighter across his fingers before slipping it into his breast pocket. He managed to take a drag before his phone rang. After puffing out the smoke and staring his phone and letting it ring for a bit, he placed the cigarette on the ashtray and answered the call.
"Striker here," the imp croaked and cleared his throat.
"He's left for Pentagram City with that merry bunch of lowborn imps. I assume you're aware of what's going on?"
Striker looked at the newspaper on the coffee table and smiled darkly. "Yes ma'am, I'm well aware of it. In fact, I say I've got a little surprise set up for them," he said while walking to his weapons bag and taking out a box of ammo and some empty pistol magazines.
"Good, I will not tolerate failures again. Consider yourself lucky that I still bother to pay you for a job."
"Truly I'm grateful for that," Striker said through gritted teeth while trying to suppress himself from sounding sarcastic.
"You should be. Do whatever it takes to kill Stolas. I don't care if you stab him, shoot him, or drown him in acid, I WANT him dead. In fact, I'll throw in a little bonus if you kill that imp he's been fucking."
"Oh, don't worry, I have plans for him too," the imp said as he loaded bullets into the magazines. "I've got some business to finish."
"There's also a stranger riding with them, a blue demon. He's been in the local news, looks dangerous. You'd do well to be careful as you're no use to me dead."
"Nothing I can't handle, ma'am, I'll kill him just the same when he gets in my way," Striker assured before ending the call and putting his phone on the table.
Striker stopped to look at some photos he had pinned on the walls of his room. He grinned as he took out a marker from his pocket and went to circle the photos of Loona and Octavia with it. "You know, Blitzy, for all that big talk and bravado you have, you make the same mistake as anyone who bothers to have a kid," he said to himself. He went to a long metal case that was leaning against his bed and opened it. "The perfect weapon to kill both royalty and lowborn. I'll kill you first, Blitzy, and I'll watch Stolas despair before I end him too."
He took out an ethereal sword that glowed white with angelic energies. "But that'll be too easy," Striker muttered while running his finger on the flat side of the sword. "No…I'm gonna break you too. Perhaps I'll pay that bitch daughter of yours a visit later."
A/N: Hey guys, I really want to thank you guys for commenting on my work. Some of you have raised interesting questions and suggestions, and honestly, it has helped me formulate ideas. I wouldn't be writing this without your support, honestly. I can't answer all of your question, but I hope to answer at least most of it.