A/N: Getting used to this not switching perspective as often with longer chapters, haven't decided if I like it or not…

Disclaimer: Even though there's more words, doesn't mean I own any of it.

Is Sanity the Price to Pay

Nero was more than a little concerned for Katherine's sanity, one moment she'd been shouting to get the creepy little squirmy thing off of her and the next she was laughing hysterically and speaking nearly complete gibberish before pulling out another one of the creepy things and intentionally fusing it into herself. The devil hunter flexed his hand a couple of times, he'd never been comfortable with the fact that his Devil Bringer had absorbed random arcane bits and bobs but he wasn't overly surprised to find out that it was something that was going to continue after the Bringer was no longer a part of him. But Katherine? She didn't seem to have any reason for that… thing to have fused with her, it made him extremely uncomfortable that she now had two of them inside of her, let alone that there was one in him. Was he going to start spewing gibberish too? Seeing things that weren't there? The stuff that Katherine had described sounded like the awful shit that he always saw between the worlds but it sounded like she was seeing and hearing it here now too.

Hunter

The wordshapesound echoed through his head as they passed between one world and the next, the transition occurring through a doorway. The partial devil wasn't thrilled that they were going through it to begin with, the horrors between realities whispering to him in clearer shapes now. Being able to better understand them didn't seem like a good thing to the devil hunter but it seemed that neither of them had much choice in the matter. He shook his head as he stood on solid ground once more, as though the motion was going to remove the imagesound from his mind. It didn't. He looked over at his compatriot who merely stared up at the sky as though it suddenly held all the answers. When he'd first run into the Hunter she'd been just as mentally shaken, mind stirred into a slurry, then after some time together she'd started to improve, seeming more and more human when the bloodlust didn't have her in it's thralls. Now it felt like she'd regressed back to that mad creature that had fought him in the streets outside that clinic.

"Katherine?" he asked, reaching a hand out tentatively to touch her. She took a deep breath when his hand connected with the fabric of her jacket and turned to look at him, red eyes alight in a way that seemed different from the bloodlust.

"We've come to the edge of the Nightmare." she said, as if that made any sense. Nero didn't want to encourage the ramblings however and just nodded.

"Yeah, where to next?" he asked, actually looking around and taking in their surroundings now that he was sure that the Hunter wasn't going to just start shrieking at the sky. Granted that never seemed to be completely off the table but the chances were low right now. There was a lantern before them and he knelt to light it, the same feeling of frustration overtaking him as it always did when he saw one of these lanterns, damn things had gotten him into so much trouble, if only he hadn't touched that one in the warehouse… he stood, dusting his knees as much as he could and looked around.

The sky was far brighter than most of the nightmares that they'd been through, covered with a thick layer of clouds but almost assuredly daytime rather than the ominous, ever present night that he'd become accustomed to. Stones and… the partial devil wasn't sure if they were gravestones or just happened to look like them dotted the stony landscape. Hardy bits of flowers and grasses stuck up now and again and… his fist clenched when he noticed the beast that was sitting and looking out toward the distant horizon. Katherine followed his gaze, seeming to have shaken the awe from before and shifted her grip on her cleaver. He nodded at her, plan already forming between the pair of them as they stalked forward toward their prey.

Two strong strikes later and the beast lay dead at their feet, unable to have even made a sound as they overpowered it in seconds. The corpse was mangled and Nero was unable to tell if it was because of the cleaver and his sword or if it was a twisted thing to begin with.

"Well, where to next?" he asked, looking over the cliff that the creature had been staring off. The fog was accumulated thickly off in the distance and Nero briefly wondered if there was land or water down below until he noticed the ship masts in the distance.

"There seems to be a path this way." Katherine pointed just off to his side, she was right, in a way. It wasn't much of an actual path and just that the ground happened to slope downward. He shrugged and followed after her.

-Devil's Hunt-

They made their way through many of the strange twisted creatures. Nero was off put by their sideways heads but they weren't that much worse than many demons that he'd put down before his nightmare place. They'd just made their way back up to another ledge and Katherine touched his shoulder.

"Look." she pointed at something that caught the sun and glinted, it appeared to be metal perhaps? She went forward and picked it up, revealing a golden coin in the sun, she looked it over before tossing it to the devil hunter who caught it reflexively as she continued forward.

"There's another one…" she muttered as Nero took a look at the coin in his hands. It seemed to be currency, though not one he was familiar with… There was the barest sound of a shuffle and Nero looked up in time to see that thrice damned man-spider thing charging out of the bushes toward Katherine. The creepy crawly was too fast for the devil hunter as he dropped the coin and charged forward, sword already drawn and ready for action. Katherine only gave a single curse as the beast pushed her, her balance failing her as she went tumbling over the edge of the cliff and down. It was laughing maniacally even as Red Queen bit into cartilaginous flesh, tearing unsympathetically through and spilling whitish guts upon the ground in a pile. Nero revved Red Queen one more time, just for good measure, the creature in its death throes beneath his blade.

"That was uncharitably done dear friend…" it managed to get out before the light faded from its eyes and it went limp, horrible hairy legs curling in toward its body.

"I'm not your friend." Nero grumbled, pulling Red Queen from the smoking wound in its body and whipping it through the air once to clear some of the muck before looking over the edge cautiously, afraid he was about to see Katherine's broken body upon the rocks. Instead he saw her moving, if a bit slower than usual. He vaulted over the cliff and landed lightly on his feet, not fearing insane heights was one benefit of his demonic blood that he didn't often consider or thank. He did now.

"You okay?" he asked, holding out a hand so she could get to her feet.

"Yes- look out!" she pushed him down and her shotgun was out in the blink of an eye, blasting away a strange crawling tentacled creature that was making its way toward them. He grabbed it with his Breaker while it was still recovering from the spray of the gunshot and yanked it toward them, right onto the blade that the Hunter had produced from somewhere in her coat. She shook the blood from the blade as it squirmed, dying on the ground.

"There's likely more." she said, glancing warily from side to side of the small canyon they'd found themselves in. Nero was about to spit back a retort when a hissing sound met his ears and his gaze quickly located the source. The grimy brackish water that they were standing in was more than just water as it slowly continued to eat through their clothes and boots.

"Oh, screw this." Nero grumbled, hooking an arm around Katherine and grabbed one of the high rocks with his Breaker, vaulting them back up to the top in a matter of seconds.

"That's useful." Katherine said, stepping back away from him and inspecting the damage to her pant legs and boots with a fair bit of annoyance in her gaze.

"Yeah," Nero was irritated to see that his own boots hadn't fared much better than the Hunter's the leather well and truly destroyed. "Damn… didn't want to have to replace these so soon." he grumbled, shaking his head.

"Perhaps the messengers will repair them when we transport back to the Dream." Katherine said hopefully, ripping the damaged section of her pants away and adjusting the leather guard she had strapped to her shin.

"I doubt it, this is probably too much for them." Nero said, glancing at the new undershirt he'd had to dig through one of the musty chests in the dream to find after Maria had… he shook his head, probably shouldn't be considering that for too long right now…

"Well, should we head back? Or rough it along until the next lantern rears its head?" he asked, the Hunter paused, mulling his words over.

"We've made a lot of progress, I would hate to have to find our way this far again." she said steadily, stowing the blade back in her coat and standing, cleaver once again at the ready. The partial devil nodded once in agreement, mentally preparing himself and looking for the next bit of pathway that would lead to revelation or beasts… likely both.

-Devil's Hunt-

When the large spider-like thing vaulted off of the wall and down in front of the two of them, making a noise that no living creature should be able to make, Nero just laughed, pulling his sword from his back.

"I knew you spider wannabe's couldn't be trusted!" he revved Red Queen in the stony ground, the rumble of the blade like a soothing balm over his nerves and the excitement that pulsed in his blood. Katherine shot him a sideways glance, probably wondering what the heck he was doing. He paid her no mind, instead watching the monster before them, it made him feel better to taunt his enemies, whether they were capable of responding or not. They'd seen things like this hanging off the walls in Yahar'gul, one of which had fired white hot lasers at them while they bolted down the stairway. It would be nice to finally be able to take out his frustrations on one.

It raised its arms over its head, the pair of them easily dodging out of the way as they came slamming back down, kicking up dust and dirt all around. As it did Nero reached forward with his Breaker and pulled himself toward the head that had way more eyes than it had any right to have. It flinched, white goo trailing from its head as Nero slashed at it, clearly not appreciating the attention that the half devil was giving it.

The devil hunter was just starting to submit to gravity again when it tensed, leaping backward like some thin, oversized frog; it's landing shook the arena they'd found themselves in and it cried out again, eyes bulging from the sporadically placed sockets as it fired off another laser. Nero cursed and rolled, the heat from it singing the hair on the back of his neck as the creature swung its head, and subsequently, the laser, in all directions. Katherine also rolled around the laser, Nero hadn't noticed up until now that her own fighting style had started to change over time to be more like his own, incorporating more verticality into it rather than simple strikes and dodges. She was starting to make use of the strange strength lended to her by the blood. He didn't think that she'd ever end up in the air like the partial devil did for practically minutes at a time but it was interesting to see how she adapted with another's fighting style influences. Dashing forward to grab at the creepy head with his Bringer and shove one of his wings brutally into the fleshy eye; he wondered if his own style was being influenced by the Hunter's.

The creature shrieked and flailed, shaking the devil hunter from its skull and he rolled as he struck the ground, breaking his fall.

"Nero!" he heard Katherine shout, he looked up just in time to see one of the spindly hands grab hold of him and he was flung, the walls of the ornate building coming up a bit quicker than he'd like. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, it was not the first time he'd been tossed like an oversized baseball and he flipped, absorbing the momentum through his feet and knees, Breaker digging into the wall to keep him there. The Hunter had turned back to the fight, unable to justify wasting time worrying over him, good. She landed a great shot on its head, also tearing out bits of eyes and whatever else she could reach, the monster reeling back just as Nero launched himself forward, Red Queen leading the charge as he slammed into it at high velocity, knocking it from it's stubby back legs and onto it back. Katherine and Nero both got in as many hits as they felt they could as the monster got to its feet, reaching behind itself to yank its own arms from its body, blood and fluid spurting from the newly created stumps.

"Look out!" Nero shouted "It's armed!" he couldn't help the pun as it slipped from his lips, adrenaline and the blood was burning hot in the fight and he was feeling a bit more like his old self, fighting and making quips as easily as breathing. He wondered if his compatriot appreciated the joke. He doubted it when Katherine, having impressively caught one of the falling arms with crossed blades over her head, shoved the limb toward him to deal with. He did, laughing as he took several vicious swipes at the bony arm and backed away. Between the wounds on its back and the unrelenting force of the pair of them the creature was soon defeated, collapsing onto the ground in a tangled pile of limbs and oozing wounds.

Katherine, as unperturbed by the grime as ever, seemed to notice something within the massive skull and reached in, yanking out what looked at first like a large cup but upon closer inspection appeared to be a skull fashioned into a cup. Nero raised a brow and pointed at the bizarre artifact.

"Think it was all angry cause that was stuck in its head?" he asked. The only response he received was a frustrated side eye. He sighed, kneeling to light the lantern as some of the battle high started to fade. "C'mon, you can't be mad about that pun forever." he said, rising again as purple light flickered into existence around the lamppost and messengers began springing from the ground. "So what is that?" he pointed at the skull. Katherine seemed to pause, deciding if he was worth answering now.

"It's a chalice." she said, shaking some of the blood from within the skull and inspecting it deeper.

"I can see that." Nero said flatly, only to see the smirk reach her eyes from behind her mask, she was just returning the favor of being difficult.

"It allows us to enter the tombs of the gods from the Dream." she said "If you have the right sacrifice materials."

"You know that made absolutely no sense."

"I keep wondering if sanity is the price to pay for answers here." she shrugged "It almost makes as much sense as shouting out a cheesy pun at your partner while fighting a giant monster."

"You're not going to let that go are you?" Nero rolled his eyes and gestured to the lamp before them "Are we going to go back to the Dream or not?" Katherine kneeling before the lantern while taking his hand gently was answer enough.

-Devil's Hunt-

After Katherine had done the strange ritual with the Doll that she always insisted on doing whenever they were in there and they both had done the usual work on their respective weapons and felt that their clothes and gear were up to snuff they found themselves standing at the branching point in the small path outside the workshop, the two paths of gravestones lining each direction.

"Now what?" Nero asked. "I think there's another door in the creepy lecture building, but you also picked up that weird chalice that you said can take us somewhere."

"I also have this letter." she said, holding out an ornate, if roughed up piece of parchment. The wax seal had been broken but it was addressed to Katherine.

"How long has that been in your pocket?" Nero asked, taking it and scanning the contents. It was an invitation to a place called 'Cainhurst' and the folded corner was heavily stained with blood that had long since dried to a crusty brown. Katherine seemed to think about his question heavily, not that Nero could blame her, time had been… strange since they'd gotten here. "Nevermind, it probably doesn't matter." he waved her off. "So we can go back to the creepy school, wherever the creepy skull chalice is going to take us, or follow up on this mysterious letter addressed to you that is probably going to be a trap."

"The letter is an invitation." Katherine said quietly "Perhaps they won't attack us on sight."

Nero scoffed and shook his head "I really, really hope you're right… as unlikely as that is."

A/N: Finally making progress! Also I couldn't help the pun… sorry not sorry. I'm still up in the air if they'll really delve the chalice dungeons. I personally love them but I know not everyone's a big fan.

Till next time,

-Winged Element