Chapter Twenty Six: Formidable

Notes: Hahaha.. Haha.. *Cries*. It's bad. It's really bad. And my job is reopening soon! That doesn't cause me massive amounts of anxiety at all! Like, working in a tiny store that tons of kids touch everything in when schools are open and never cleaned correctly in the first place totally won't end badly for me. We didn't even get a pandemic raise…

I'm scared guys. Help.

(-~-)

The train station had been a bust.

From the very second that they had stepped into the building, things had descended into chaos. It seemed that one of the few consistent traits that the cult possessed was their total lack of interest in concealing their presence in a public space, because the second that they had made eye contact in the terminal, they hooded summoners had descended upon them. Bystanders ran every which way, screaming and dropping their bags in a desperate attempt to find cover and safety as demons plunged through the glass roof of the station and landed on the tracks and walkways.

The only saving grace was the fact that the train was still in the station.

"Ok so is it a fair guess to assume that these guys are tougher than the ones Dante told us about?" Lady said as she emptied another round of hot lead from her machine guns into a nearby Riot, jumping backwards to avoid it's vicious swipes and gnashing teeth." Because these aren't some garden variety demons, and they don't seem to be struggling to keep them under control!"

Trish sighed and nodded, finishing off another demon near her. The Pyrobat fell to the ground and exploded, taking a nearby vending machine with it. Melted cans rained down from the sky and pelted terrified onlookers as they wisely stopped watching and ran for their lives. A Chaos blasted through the wall, cutting a swath through the ground as it tore through benches and a structural pillar in an attempt to hit the blond devil. She cartwheeled out of the way, stealthily hitting it with a powerful blast of lighting via her twin pistols.

"You're probably not wrong. They don't seem as inexperienced. There are only two of them, and they are holding their own pretty well." Trish dodged another riot as Lady fired off a volley of rounds from Kalina Ann, shattering the spikes on the back spiraling demon and sending it skidding to a stop on the ground. A second riot made the mistake of trying to take advantage of the situation, earning it an electrically charged blast shot from Trish, ending it once and for all. Lady then used the bayonet on the end of her trusty missile launcher to impale the Chaos, sending it to the floor in a messy pile of melting demon meat. As soon as it slumped over, they both took a moment to breathe, keeping an eye on the summoners and they attempted to flank them. It was going to take them a moment to recover from the loss of their summons, but the girls couldn't help but notice something about them.

Unlike the summoners that Dante and Vergil had helped to dispatch, these ones had two summons each. From what they understood, only the summoner that V had battled at Fortuna Castle had possessed two. These had to be higher ranking members of the cult, and the fact that they were coordinated enough to have a hierarchy based on skill made them slightly apprehensive as to their ability to actually be dispatched easily. For all they knew, this might not actually be all of them, but they could only hope that wasn't the case. Because if the people they were currently going up against were the actual ground soldiers and the others before had just been trainees, things had just become a fair bit more hazardous.

"Nico, when we get back, I need a new gun." Trish said as she kicked the dissolving corpse of the first riot, putting another round it to make sure that it wasn't just playing dead. It then wailed and flopped back down, dissolving. Nico nodded, watching their backs as they considered their next plan of action.

"You're gonna have to fill me in on the details later, Trish. We need to get outa here!" Nico said as she gestured towards the train. She had a feeling that it wasn't going to stay in the station much longer. The only reason that it was probably still there was that the conductor probably didn't feel very confident pulling out a possible terrorist attack going on. Or whatever they thought this was. The cult was widely known about where they'd come from, but none of them knew how in the know the town they were in was.

Lady nodded in agreement, sharing a glance between the group, the blond devil, and the train." She's not wrong. So, what's the plan? I don't have one besides killing these stupid cultists. But we should probably get the rest of them out of here first."

Trish spared a glance at the rest of the group. The children were scared out of their minds, probably totally confused as to what was going on and why. Kyrie wasn't much better off, but at least she was calmer than they were and she wasn't screaming or anything. Nico and Patty honestly just seemed mildly inconvenienced and annoyed. They'd both been around the block too many times to have a mental breakdown over this, though to say that they were not concerned about this turn of events would be a massive lie. They were just more accustomed to it, although it had been a while since Patty had been directly involved in any of this. Dante had made sure of that himself when he'd asked her to go with her mother after Abigail's attack all those years ago. But she'd seen her fair share of trouble since then during friendly visits to scold Dante for his sloppiness and just to check and make sure he was still around. After all, he was no good at answering the phone.

With a self confirming nod, Trish gestured towards the train. She'd had enough of this cult for one lifetime, but they couldn't just board it and leave with them around. That fact aside, keeping the rest of them there was a recipe for disaster. The train station could collapse at any moment from the damage that had been done to it by the attack. Aside from the glass that continued to fall in large sections from the roof, the entire building was making an unpleasant metal creaking sound. The demons weren't getting past them, but they couldn't stop the building from collapsing and cruising them.

"You go with them. Keep an eye out for trouble on the train. I'll take care of these troublemakers. I think Dante's going to need some help after all."

Lady looked at Trish for a moment as if she'd lost her mind, the idea of leaving her behind unfathomable to her. She didn't doubt that she could handle them by herself. She'd been through far worse by herself on many occasions. But the idea of leaving without her just felt so wrong. Lady knew that the plan made sense and that she didn't really have time to argue with her, but that didn't change the fact that she wanted to with every fiber of her being. "... Look, if you don't come back in one piece, I'm gonna kill you. You know that right?"

Trish laughed to herself slightly, charging another blast of energy and feeding it into her guns in preparation for her next move. She had a feeling they weren't going to like this one." I'm sure you will. No go! I'll cover you. Keep them safe, you hear me?"

Lady nodded begrudgingly as she hoisted her heavy missile launcher onto her back, shaking her head in disbelief as she gestured towards the train. Kyrie and Patty grabbed the two smaller children and their bags and bolted towards the boarding platform. They could take a hint. Nico stopped for a moment to nod in appreciation before joining them, Lady following closely behind her. "Do you even need to ask?"

Trish gave her a final sarcastic waive as she turned her back to them and aimed her guns at the two pillars that the cultists were hiding behind before squeezing the triggers and letting loose powerful blasts of golden electricity. They pierced the pillars and sent them crumbling to pieces from the bottom up, the roof above them buckling with a loud metal scream as glass, stone, and pieces of jagged steel rained down from above and crushed them. They had time to let out one final startled cry before being buried below the rubble, a steel beam impaling one and hitting the other in the head with an amount of impact force that would be enough to crush a car.

With a sigh, she put her guns back in their rightful place and glanced over at the train. They'd made it onboard and it was pulling out without a second to spare. The entire building was probably going to come down. Good thing they'd left when they had. All that shooting was probably going to draw some unwanted attention. Just great.

Forget the new gun. She needed a new sword.

(-~-)

"Ok, so do you know what that shit in the middle of the water over there is? Is that even water?" Asked quietly as they reached the bottom of the staircase." I know you said this area was a conduit. Is that it over there?"

Vergil nodded once, his mid still on the task at hand. They were growing closer to the light, and would need to be very quiet soon if they hoped to keep the element of surprise. "Conduits form around tears between the human world and other plains of reality. This one is clearly a thin spot between our reality and the Demon World. The water around them normally only turns that color when…"

"When what, Vergil?" Dante asked, seemingly clueing into the darker undertones of that statement. The youngest Son of Sparda got the impression that none of them were going to like that idea, and that it just might have to do with V.

The devil slayer in blue suddenly stopped for a moment, seemingly noticing something. He glanced around for a moment as if searching for something. Just then, the entire cavern suddenly began to shake, rattling the very foundations of the open structure as water poured in from the stone above them. To say that whatever had just caused that was capable of caving in the entire cavern was a pretty fair assessment.

A moment later, the conduit began to glow brightly, pulsating as it shuttered, the waves of energy that cascaded off of it and into the thick black water below vibrating the ground as they went. It suddenly gained momentum before seemingly building up energy and then it let out an ear splitting screech. A sonic boom erupted from it, bending back the trees and cutting through the stalagmites that littered the ground between them, dislodging several of large stalactites that hung precariously from the ceiling and sending them crashing to the ground below. Cries of what had to be terror at the realization that they had more than likely just sealed their own fate erupted from ahead of them as a group of about fifteen hapless cultists took off running towards the exit. They stopped dead in their tracks as they ran afoul of Dante, Vergil, and Nero, the trio looking less than accommodating. Although it was impossible to see their faces, the three of them were somewhat sure that the cultists were scared shitless, their body language doing all the talking for them.

"Please, you have to let us pass. This place is collapse-"

"I care very little for the dangers any of you currently face. You brought them on yourselves." Vergil said as he reached around and slowly began to withdraw Yamato from it's sheath. He hadn't been playing games before, and he sure as hell wasn't going to start doing so now. "You're going to tell me where he is now, and then I'm going to kill all of you. But I'll consider doing it quickly if you don't waste my time."

Dante spared his brother a glance, somewhat astounded by his ruthless efficiency.

But he didn't exactly disagree with it.

When he'd agreed to be more honest about what he was thinking, Dante hand thought that this was what he'd meant. Still, he couldn't say he objected to it. Unlike the people they'd battled outside of the cave, everyone here seemed complicit in their action and fully aware of what was going on. And for that reason alone, Dante felt much less conflicted about what he knew his older twin brother was going to do next. He didn't doubt a single word of what he'd said. He'd been in much the same mood the day that Patty had been kidnapped as a child and the day he'd stood between his brother to stop him from killing Nero in Redgrave City. The youngest Son of Sparda couldn't imagine what Vergil was thinking, especially considering the fact that he had a relatively good idea that whatever was going on at the moment had something to do with V. He knew that Vergil was going to do whatever he considered necessary to rescue him.

But what if they had already…

The cultists seemed to hesitate for a moment, clearly displeased with the options they'd been presented. Their intention had been to escape, not die in the bottomless abyss that they currently found themselves in. They glanced between one another, disregarding the fact that they were wearing masks as if to assess if the clearly unhinged man in the blue coat with a goddamned Katana was somehow shooting the shit. But despite this, one of them stepped forward, sighing in resignation. It seemed that there was no running from what they'd done after all. Maybe he hoped Vergil would spare him, or perhaps he wasn't willing to die for the cause?

"... I guess that's fair. He's you son, isn't he? I see the family resemblance between the four of you. He's over there with Master Agreus, but I don't think you'll make it in time. The Darkness itself approaches. Your opposition is futile."

Nero groaned in irritation, just about ready to shoot them all himself." What the fuck is all this bullshit you people keep spewing about that shit, and what does it have to do with V?! You bastards keep showing up like we asked to a part of whatever the fuck your doing, and I'm pretty sick of it!"

Dante glanced over at Nero before gesturing towards the cultists. Nero made a good point. What did this dark lord or whatever want with V? What kind of crazy crap was going on? Clearly this involved a demon, but he couldn't think of anyone that could want V specifically. Last time he'd checked, most of the underworld had no idea that he or Nero existed, and he liked it that way. It was what allowed them to have some semblance of normality in their lives. But after all of this was over, he had the feeling that V was going to have to reevaluate that aspect of his day to day life.

"Well, you heard him. Start talking, or you're going to find an extra blade in you." Dante said passively as he manifested his own blade, the accompanying summoned blades twirling around him, eager to find a place inside of his opponents to embed themselves." Well, besides the one that he's gonna put there. I have nothing to do with that. Gave up talking him down from this kind of thing sometime last week when he threatened to kill me over the lack of dishes in my house!"

Vergil's glare could've melted diamonds.

Somehow he was even more pissed off now than he had been just a moment before. How dare Dante remind him of that atrocity of a dish situation. And at a time like this? When this was over, he was absolutely going to stab him for that.

The cultist they'd been speaking to went silent for a moment, more than likely questioning what choices in life he'd made to get him into such a situation. Everything about this situation was as insane as it was frightening to him, and he didn't see a way out of it anywhere in sight. "Our Master Agreus serves a higher being. A mighty demon far beyond the likes of the ones we summon. We are simply tools at this disposal, happy to do his bidding. Though I must admit that this situation is a bit… extreme."

Dante exchanged a glance with Nero, Vergil till only seconds from ending them all in a flurry of enraged blade slashes. To say that his older twin looked like he might trigger and stab them all to death in that very instant from his bloodlust alone wasn't an understatement of any kind. Nero wasn't too far off, and neither was Dante for that matter. He couldn't pretend that he and V were very close. They barely talked to one another, and he'd never really had the opportunity to get to know him as well as he would have liked, but he was absolutely ready and willing to stab a cave full of deranged cultists to death if they'd so much as messed up his hair. At the end of the day, they were still family. And as much as he hated to admit it, V had grown on him. Sure he was a little odd at times, ever by their family's very low standards, but Dante had a soft spot for his nephews, and had no plans to let some cult kill one of them.

"Yea, sure. And does this demon of your have a name?" Dante said dryly, not at all amused by any of this reverse "holier than thou" bullcrap. Yea, he was absolutely going to stab another cultist today. Screw these guys. He'd met his fair share of good demons and awful humans in his lifetime, but they all paled in comparison to this cult as far as personal damage went. At this point, he was honestly worried about what had happened to V.

The cultist looked up at the rapidly caving in roof and shook his head, seemingly sure that nothing about this situation was going to end well. "He is Belial, one of the Dark Princes of the Underworld. We serve his will through our lord Agreus. And he will have his Absolution."

Vergil's posture visibly drooped as a look of genuine surprise crossed his face. In that instant, the Darkslayer was relatively sure his skin had just lost all color as his blood ceased to circulate. With a flurry of movement too rapid for any of the cultists to follow, the entire area around them suddenly seemed to slow as blue slices surrounded them and seemed to cover everything around them within a certain perimeter. Vergil then returned to the precise spot he'd previously been standing in and placed Yamato back into its scabbard with a deliberate click, felling the entire group in a single movement.

Nero and Dante stared at him in silence, feeling somewhat taken aback by the abrupt and extreme way he'd gone about doing that. Something was very VERY wrong here, and they could easily see that. Everything about the way Vergil was in that moment spoke volumes and they were honestly worried about what that could mean.

"... Vergil?" Dante asked hesitantly. A part of him genuinely didn't want to know.

Nero watched quietly as Vergil closed his eyes for a moment, clearly trying to find a way to articulate what he wanted to say. After a moment, he reopened them and made a bewildered expression akin to that of a person who was asking themselves and the universe simultaneously what they had ever done to deserve such a fate.

"... Oh. I see. Well then that... changes everything."

(-~-)

And just like that, they're all fucked. I mean, they were before, but still. Tune in on Friday of the next edition of "holy fuck, what did Vergil do while he was down there" that I like to call "how did things go so wrong?! We were just having a nice time at the beach yesterday!" the abridged edition. Stay safe out there! See you in hell the comments!