A/N: Hello everyone, hope everyone is doing okay in amongst all of this. Things on my end haven't changed much, D&D's more online but working for a med device company means that I'm still working, it's just at home sometimes. I've also discovered that my cat is the type of cat who will sit on laptop keyboards :/ Which is cute but… also Repo, I need to work on that…
Disclaimer: I own the cat mentioned above, not either of these properties.
How Can it Be?
Nero was quiet as they continued their journey through this nightmare, he'd been aware of his actions this time, which somehow, just made the whole thing worse… He certainly hadn't liked coming to and having to find the horrors he'd committed. But… being in the moment, enjoying it the way he had… somehow that was so much worse. At least Katherine seemed to understand, she certainly didn't like when he'd killed her but she hadn't blamed him for it. If anything, she seemed to blame herself. Nero rubbed a thumb over the small trinket that Julio had made for him last time he'd been home with Kyrie. It was little more than some mismatching beads strung together but he'd smiled and accepted it when the boy had excitedly offered it. Now he was happy that he'd done so, it was a reminder of home in this backwards nightmare that he'd found himself in. He wondered briefly if this was what Dante had felt like during one of his forays into hell but the mental train of thought was cut off as the elevator that he and Katherine had been riding stopped at the bottom of a large cave. Dozens of the fishy snail-like villagers lay prostrate in a pathway ahead of them.
"What… are they doing?" Nero whispered, not wanting to attract the attention of so many at once.
"I think they're praying…" Katherine whispered back, just as softly. She fumbled in her pockets for a moment before lifting out a pebble and tossing it near them. None of them so much as flinched. The duo started forward cautiously but none of the creatures moved beyond breathing, it was eerily silent, Nero perked up when he heard the gentle sound of lapping water ahead of them, had they come to the beach? The answer seemed to be yes but… something lay just off the shore, at first glance Nero assumed it was a whale that had beached itself, but he should've known that a beached whale was far too innocent a thing for this nightmare. It was… something that neither of the pair had ever seen before, though Katherine let out a whispered
"Kos…" as they splashed their way forward in the shallow water. Nero glanced at her but then caught sight of something moving beneath the thing's skin. He suppressed a shiver but continued to watch in curious horror as something started to drag its way out from within the thing on the shore. Wet slurping sounds reached them as they paused to watch the process as another creature ripped and squelched its way from the remains. A meaty pop sounded and the creature began to stand, appearing to be humanoid in nature, though overly tall and far too gangly to stand on its own in Nero's opinion.
"How can it be…?" Katherine whispered next to him and he glanced at her as the creature just stood there, staring at the bizarre sun that had watched over their horrific journey through the hamlet.
"What?" Nero whispered back, Katherine's eyes flicked to him and then back to the creature.
"The child of Kos… it shouldn't be alive… and yet… here it stands." they both flinched when the sound of sobbing reached their ears and it took Nero a moment to realize that it was coming from the creature.
"Shit…" the devil hunter muttered "this is all sorts of messed up." but he pulled Red Queen from his back all the same. The creature made no notice of them until they were practically upon the body of the thing Katherine had called Kos, close enough that Nero had to wrestle down his gag reflex. Whatever this thing was, it had been dead a long while and was rotting just like any other sea creature. The child turned to view them, dead milky eyes staring out from an old man's face, and screamed, leaping in the air and screaming as it did. Nero darted to the side, the… thing that the child threw splashing into the shallow water with a slam, Katherine rolled underneath its leap, narrowly dodging the thrown object. It started thrashing before either of them had time to analyze it further, shrieking and screaming as it did with the massive bladed… thing. Why had there been a blade inside another creature?! Nero thought briefly to himself as it charged again, this time whipping this thing around itself in circles. The devil hunter leapt into the air, concentrating his energy beneath his feet to leap again, and using a push from Gerbera to launch himself over the creature to follow up with an attack. Katherine wasn't so lucky… The blade slammed into her, seeming to be more of a blunt force than an actual cut but Nero's relief was short lived as it swung again. It was easy for the partial devil to duck under the cord as it swung but the path brought it into direct contact with the Hunter, who cried out painfully. Nero growled a curse under his breath and swung Red Queen at the creature, revving her as he did. It screamed at him, leaping backward and tossing its… wait was that still attached to it? The devil hunter didn't have more time to consider as he hastily brought his sword up, the monster's blade glancing off, pushing both of them off balance. A quick glance to the side informed Nero that Katherine was getting to her feet, thank goodness, this fight was not off to a great start.
A/N: Man this boss fight… I struggled with it for sooooo long, about two months of on again off again fighting it and far, far too many attempts. Though I think I fared better than my boyfriend who rage quit the game for a year because of it haha.
Till next time,
-Winged Element