DVYL May Cry
Dante stood directly across from the recently transformed Mercury. He had to admit, out of all the demons and devils he knew of, he wasn't expecting a Bone Devil. They were among the faster variety of devils. Along with their bones that could easily be used defensively or offensively. They were tough opponents to deal with but one could kill them once you figured out their attack patterns. But that would be difficult if Mercury's skills were mixed into it.
Dante quickly returned Eryx to his mark before he drew Ebony and Ivory. He leveled them at the hybrid and started to fire a hail of bullets. Mercury took off in a full sprint at that moment. He was dodging the bullets easily as he circled the clearing they were in. He stopped for a quick second to jump into the top half of a nearby tree before launching himself at Dante. Dante holstered Ivory before reaching for Rebellion as it manifested on his back. His blade met the bladed, bone gauntlet and he slid back a few feet.
Dante raised Ebony for a pointblank shot at the same time Mercury's bone stinger was aimed at his eye. Dante quickly jerked to the side so it just slashed his cheek and quickly fired his shot at Mercury. The bullet impacted the bone facemask and cracked it, but that was all. Mercury used his new tail as leverage and spun to deliver a kick to Dante's ribs, making him fly back twenty feet. He used his sword to slow himself down by plunging it into the ground. Once he came to a halt, he looked up to glare at the assassin as his cheek healed but not his cracked ribs.
Mercury landed on his one foot and raised his other leg to kick the air repeatedly. As he did, bone fragments would break off and fly at Dante like bullets. He quickly used his sword to defend himself from the salvo but several got past and buried themselves into his stomach and chest. He grew tired of this and flipped Rebellion into a reverse grip and channeled his energy into the blade. He swung it upwards and sent an energy blade at his attacker. The attack destroyed the flying bone fragments and Mercury quickly crossed his arms in front of himself. The energy blade bit into his gauntlets, breaking the blades and leaving deep cuts in them. Mercury was pushed all the way back into the tree behind him before the attack dissipated. But he was still no worse for wear besides the bone protrusions on his back breaking off.
He lowered his arms just in time to see Dante already on top of him with Eryx pulled back to unleash a devastating right hook. Mercury managed to jump up into the tree before the gauntlet could burrow into his face. Dante smashed through the tree and looked up to see what Mercury would do now as it fell.
Mercury jumped from the tree and flipped to fire more bone fragments into Dante. He just used Eryx as a makeshift shield before shooting off towards the devil. Mercury landed and sent his tail at the Demon Hunter. Imitating Yang, he got into a boxer stance and sidestepped the attack before slamming his gauntlet into the tail itself. An explosion was released and shattered the tail at the half way point before Dante spun to deliver a second fist to Mercury himself.
Mercury didn't even flinch. The distraction gave him enough time to fix his bladed gauntlets. More bone protrusions sprouted from the gauntlets to repair the blades and more grew from his back, giving them a more savage and serrated appearance. With them, he hooked the gauntlet that was going to hit him with the serrations and moved it to the side before he quickly slashed upwards with his other one. The serrations tore into Dante's chest, causing him to scream in pain.
Before any more damage could be caused to the Demon Hunter, two red explosions slammed into Mercury's side. Causing him to jump back before two more were send at him, forcing him to retreat further. Dante was using Rebellion to keep him steady as he looked to the side to see who it was. He was shocked to see that it was Yang that was firing at him with and angry look in her eyes, "You get away from my boyfriend, you bastard!" she shouted.
Mercury eventually jumped into a tree at the very edge of the clearing, sinking his blades and claws into it to keep him there. He glared down at them with his burning red eyes as Yang ran up to Dante. She quickly put his arm around her to help support him, "Dante, are you alright?"
He nodded as his wound was already closing and his ribs slowly mending, "Yeah, just needed a second. What the hell are you doing here?"
She gave him a heated glare, "I saw you leave, so I decided to follow you. Why the hell did you think taking that thing on alone would be a good idea?"
"Because I'm the only one that can fight this thing." He told her with a slight edge to his words. "He works for Mundus and if I didn't show up here, Mundus would've sent demons into Beacon. I couldn't let that happen, especially to the people I care about. It would've been a slaughter." He pulled himself together and off Yang, "You need to get out of here."
"Not happening." She said, her words filled with finality. "You've been fighting by yourself for too long, Dante. You told me that you wanted to protect me. Well I want to do the same for you." She stood beside him and raised her fists up into her fighting stance. "We'll protect each other." She looked over to him with a smile.
He just looked over at her, ready to argue, but he stopped when Mercury fired more bone fragments at Yang. He put his gauntlet up to guard her and he glared over at the assassin. "Looks like we don't have a choice. I doubt he'd let you walk away now." With a flash of light blue, he was holding Osiris again, he needed speed more than anything right now. "You need to do everything I tell you to."
She just chuckled and gave him a cocky smile, "I love it when you take charge."
He rolled his eyes but smirked slightly, "For now, keep your distance and give me some covering fire." She nodded and he took off with his scythe in hand. Mercury launched off from the tree he was positioned in. The two clashed in the air and a series of flashes were seen from the scythe meeting the bone gauntlets. They got into a deadlock when Mercury hooked his serrations onto the scythe but he couldn't capitalize when several more buckshots hit him, curtesy of Yang.
Dante used that opportunity to jump over him and hook his scythe blade around his chest before he threw him across the clearing and left a cut across his chest as well. Mercury flipped himself and landed on all fours. He growled at Dante before his tail pointed at him and more bone protrusions erupted from the end. Now instead of a stinger, the now fixed tail looked more barbed with several bone spike. He pulled the tail back and whipped it forward, sending out the foot long bone spikes. They flew directly at Dante but he quickly spun Osiris to deflect them but he stopped when he heard Yang scream.
He turned and she had a large cut on her shoulder from one of the bone spikes that flew past him. "Yang!?" he shouted but Mercury closed the space between them and kicked Dante towards her. Dante tumbled along the ground until he stopped in front of Yang. He managed to sit up and he saw that Yang was still firing at the Bone Devil with her still good arm, her aura was trying to stop her bleeding from the other one.
Dante stood up and placed his weapon across his back and he fired as well with the Twins. Mercury guarded himself before he jumped into the tree and started to jump from one to the other to be a harder target. Dante made sure to keep his eyes on him, "Are you okay, Yang?" he asked but couldn't afford to turn to her.
He heard her hiss in pain as she tried to move her arm. "Somewhat. The bleeding stopped but my left arm isn't going to be in fighting condition for a while."
He nodded, "We need to cut off his retreat. His maneuverability is making things difficult. Plus, if we damage any of his bone armor, he'll just repair them. We need to hit him hard enough to put him down."
"My Semblance could help but I need more kinetic energy." Yang said as she stood back beside him again. "Let's worry about slowing him down first. Any ideas?"
He nodded, "Yeah but it's really stupid." He raised his guns as he sent more energy into them. "You fire at the trees around the clearing, I'll handle the rest."
She raised her eyebrow in confusion before nodding, "Alright." She pulled her right fist back and cocked her gauntlet at the same time. She started to swing and fire off her projectiles. Before they would hit the trees, one of Dante's bullets would hit it. His demonic energies would trigger the Dust and multiply the effects. The tree she was aiming at and the ones around it would be engulfed in flames. Soon the entire perimeter around the clearing was a raging inferno. Yang was just staring at the flames. "Okay. Yeah, I can see how this would be stupid."
Dante nodded and holstered his guns. He pulled Osiris off his back, "Let's be back to back. He won't be able to sneak up on us then." He felt Yang's back briefly touch his own before they kept a few inches between them. The two kept a close eye on the flames around them, waiting for the Demonic assassin to charge at them.
He eventually did from Dante's left and Yang's right. Yang quickly fired a few shots at him which he tanked with his bone tail. When he was close, Dante swung at him with his trusty scythe but he ducked at the last second. He used his tail like a springboard and kicked them both in the stomach, one with each leg. Dante was sent backwards but Yang managed to grab a hold of the bone leg with her left arm, even as her arm screamed in pain. She yelled and tried to hit him with a right but he managed to guard himself with his left arm. But the close range shot from Ember Celica cracked it and broke off the blade.
With a growl of frustration, Mercury delivered a savage backhand with his other arm, sending her flying backwards and the serrated blade doing serious damage to her aura. She crashed into the ground hard and kicked up a lot of dust. Mercury just glared as he aimed his tail at her to shoot more bone spikes and finish her.
Seeing this, Dante resorted to another risky and stupid maneuver. He pulled Osiris back and shouted as he threw the entire thing at the assassin. It spun viciously towards the target but Mercury saw this and managed to smack it into the fire with his tail. He then saw that Dante was running at him at his top speed unarmed. Knowing he couldn't match his speed, Mercury prepared to attack the Demon Hunter when he was close enough. But to his shock, he threw his right arm to the side and with a flash of light blue, Osiris was once again in his hand.
Mercury's eyes widened but he couldn't do anything as Dante swung upwards and stabbed him through the stomach. He kept going and managed to lift the Bone Devil into the air before throwing him off his blade and across the clearing. With Mercury recovering from his new injury, Dante ran over to Yang. As she was doubled over, he placed his hand on her back, "Yang, you okay?"
She slowly nodded and started to stand with Dante right there next to her. When she was back on her feet, her hair started to shine gold and her eyes were blood red. She turned to Dante with a smirk, "Ready to end this?"
He raised an eyebrow and smirked at her. He decided right there to not take any more chances and activated his Devil Trigger. When the red energy erupted from his body, the world around them turned grey, white and black but the oppressive feeling wasn't affecting Yang because of Dante's influence. His hair turned white as his eyes turned red and white, glowing with energy again. The red cracks covered his body as the bone fragments that were still in him were pushed out of his body so his wounds could heal instantly. "Let's do this."
Dante shifted Osiris into Ophion as its Demon Pull variant. Dante took several steps towards the slowly moving Mercury as he whipped it forwards. It grabbed him painfully by his unbroken gauntlet and Dante pulled him towards them. Dante stepped to the side and Yang stepped forward, using the full power of her Semblance to hit him as hard as she could in the face. His face mask shattered instantly and he was sent flying backwards with Ophion ripping his gauntlet apart.
As he was flying across the clearing again, Dante shifted Ophion into its Angel Lift and whipped it at Mercury again so it latched onto his shoulder. Dante was pulled to him and when he was even with the assassin, he summoned Eryx once again. He channeled as much energy into it as he could and slammed it into his chest with a shout. Mercury was instantly rocketed down into the ground and displaced enough air to snuff out the fire around them.
Dante landed beside him but didn't dismiss his Devil Trigger yet. He looked down at the broken Mercury. When he impacted the ground, the bone tail and protrusions on his back shattered. His bone legs had severe cracks along them, he wouldn't be able to even stand on them now. The only bone plating he still had was on his right hand. He was breathing raggedly and he had coughed up a lot of blood which covered his mouth and chin.
He was in no condition to fight, so Dante dismissed his Devil Trigger and more locks of hair on the back of his head stayed white. He looked over to Yang, her Semblance was gone and she was resting her hands on her knees as she tried to calm her breathing. With that, he walked over to Mercury and Eryx transformed back into Rebellion on his back. He stood at his side and that caused Mercury to open his eyes, showing they were grey again. He started to chuckle before he started to cough up more blood. "Now that was one hell of a fight."
"Was this really all you cared about? A fight?" Dante asked.
Mercury shrugged as he looked up to the sky, "Why not? All my life I was raised to be an assassin. Comes with having one as your father."
"So, are you going to blame him for all your mistakes now?" Dante asked him with an edge.
"No." Mercury shook his head. "The bastard trained me, beat me more like it, and never held back. And when I did unlock my Semblance, he stole it with his own. But when I killed him, I never got it back. But that was when Cinder came looking for him and I had all the skills she needed. Was almost perfect." Mercury explained tiredly.
"And when she joined Mundus, you did as well. Why?" Dante asked in genuine curiosity.
"He offered me power." He said simply. "I always thought that I was better than most people because I gained my strength without having to rely on a Semblance and I was even with many other Huntsmen out there. But when Mundus offered me a power that no one else on this planet could have or take away…I just couldn't help myself. And all he asked was for me to listen to his orders, just like Cinder." He chuckled weakly again. "Guess the bastard knew exactly how to play me."
Dante just looked down on him. Some pity was rising up inside of him but he quickly snuffed it out, "What is Mundus planning?"
He shrugged, "Don't know. Never asked."
Dante glared down at him, "Don't lie to me."
"Or what? You'll kill me?" Mercury challenged. "I'm already there. Not much that you can do."
"You really that loyal to that demon?" Dante asked.
"You could call it that." Mercury smirked. "Besides, I can still make it so you lose."
Dante was confused until he felt numerous lesser demons come from Limbo. He turned to Yang and saw a half dozen of them grab her and start to slowly drag her to the portal to Limbo. She tried to fight against them, killing them each with a punch but more just came from Limbo. "Get off me!" she shouted in desperation and anger.
"Yang!" Dante shouted and went to run to her. That was before he screamed in pain. He looked down at his right leg to see that a bone spike was sticking out the front of his shin. He looked behind to see that Mercury had formed it with the remaining bone plating on his right hand and stabbed him with it. He smirked and let go as he collapsed back to the ground. But when he did, the bone started growing and more bone spikes erupted up and down his right leg. Dante screamed and as he tried to step forward, he collapsed onto the ground.
He looked back up and saw Yang was nearly in the portal with a dozen demons pulling her in. "Yang!" he shouted in desperation and reached his hand out in vain to her.
Yang kept struggling and looked over to Dante with panic in her eyes. She reached her own hand out in the same desperation. "Dante!"
He couldn't stand up so he reached for Rebellion and shifted it into Ophion's Demon Pull he whipped it towards her, hoping that it'd reach. The world seemed to move in slow motion. His grappler kept moving closer to her as she was being pulled further into the portal. As it was about to grab a hold of her, she slipped completely into the portal and it closed. The grappler kept going and sunk into the tree ten feet behind where she was standing.
Dante just stared in disbelief. 'That didn't just happen. It couldn't.' he thought to himself. But soon the reality started to sink in and Ophion fell from his hand. Tears started to gather in his eyes and he pulled himself onto his hands and knees before he gave a heartbreaking scream.
He stayed like that for a while before he slowly started to pull himself to his feet. He sent a tremendous amount of energy into his leg and it shattered the bone spikes stuck in it and healed his wounds instantly. He turned to where Mercury was still lying and started to walk towards him. He opened his right hand and Ophion flew into his hand before transforming back into Rebellion. When he was beside him, he planted his foot onto his chest and placed the point of his blade at his Adam's apple. He glared down at him with anger and hatred as tears still traveled down his cheeks, "Where. Is. She?" he hissed at him.
Mercury just smirked up at him, "Where do you think?" he asked and that made dread swell in Dante's chest. "She'll soon be with the Demon King."
Dante grit his teeth in rage before he pulled his sword from his neck and impaled the silver assassin through the chest with a scream. Mercury gave on final gasp before he went limp. Dante was resting on his sword as he was breathing raggedly.
That was until energy started to get pulled into him from Mercury's dead body. He stood tall in confusion before Rebellion disappeared from his hand and into his mark. Blue energy, almost like smoke, started to flow down his arms and to his hands. Red lightning shot across his arms and with a flash of light blue, he was wielding two new weapons. They were a pair of large, three-pointed cyclone blades. They had curved edges and he held one in each hand. The base of the blades were black with silver engravings and the blades themselves were silver with a light blue tint. They were his new angelic weapons, Aquila.
He looked down in confusion but his anger, hatred and fear were still rampant in his heart. He heard growling and he looked to see more Grimm coming into the clearing, attracted by his negative emotions. He narrowed his eyes and Aquila started to spin in his open hands like sawblades. He threw his hands toward and the two blades flew through the air and beheading all the Grimm in front of them. They came back to his hands and he quickly did the same with the Grimm behind him. This lasted for a few minutes until all the Grimm were dead and he was holding Aquila in his hands again. They were definitely his fastest weapons. They vanished with a flash of light blue.
He stood there for a few more minutes. Trying to process what just happened. He had lost Yang. The person he loved most was gone and she was in Mundus' hands now. His fists clenched tight enough that if he wasn't wearing gloves, his hands would be bleeding. His eyes gained a determined glint and his eyes briefly started to glow with power. "Don't worry, Yang. I'm coming for you." With that he started to run to the bullhead he took to get here. He needed to get back to Beacon.
Several hours later, Roman was walking through and observing his White Fang puppets preparing the bombs they needed for his plans. As he did that, the ones that weren't doing anything would turn and bow to him. He just kept walking, not even looking at them.
When he felt Mercury being killed by Dante, he was angry for a brief second. That thorn in his side was starting to be more of a nuisance than he had anticipated. But when Neo came out of Limbo shortly after with an unconscious Yang Xiao Long, he couldn't help but smile. Dante may have killed another of his pieces but he gained so much more from that encounter.
He walked to one of the many abandoned building in Mountain Glenn. This one had Neo standing in front of it. She bowed to him as soon as she saw him. He looked at her, "Leave us." He said simply. She nodded before walking through a portal to Limbo.
Roman walked into the building and at the back sat the Huntress-in- training. She was chained to the wall behind her with an aura collar around her neck to prevent her from using her aura and Semblance. She still had her weapons but they had taken all her ammo from her. She could do nothing. She slowly stirred as he walked over to her. She opened her eyes before she glared at him. He just smirked, "Do you know who I am?" he asked smugly.
"Roman Torchwick. The thief that has been terrorizing Vale and attacked my sister. And apparently the Demon King's bitch." She spot heatedly.
He just chuckled, "Almost right." He closed his green eyes before they opened to reveal his grey ones with the one missing its pupil. They started to glow with power and Yang felt her whole body go on edge. "I am the Demon King."
She just stared as her eyes widened, "You're …Mundus?" She asked quietly.
He titled his head and smirked, "Yes I am. So, I guess you know of me from Dante, huh?"
"He's going to kill you." She said with a glare.
That just made him laugh, "He'll try. And he'll fail, just like his treacherous father." He walked closer to her. "And you'll die, just like his whore of a mother."
She glared at him with more fury and if not for the collar, they would've been red. "He's coming for me. And if you do anything to me, he'll make you suffer all the more."
He grabbed her chin and made her look him in the eyes, "That's what I want him to do. That way I can break him. Make him suffer for what he's done. Especially, for the same mistake Sparda made."
Yang looked confused and he smirked maliciously. "He fell in love with someone he shouldn't. You." Her eyes widened in realization. "I could do many things to break him. Physically and mentally. But because of you, I can break him emotionally. Imagine what it will do to him when I kill you the same way I killed his mother." She went rigid and he laughed at her. He let her go and started to walk away. "Don't worry. You won't die yet." He turned back to her with the same malicious smirk on his face. "I want him to see you die. I want to see him break with my own eyes."
With those words, he left her to her solitude. When she was sure he was gone, her body finally relaxed and she looked down. She started to shake and tears slowly slid down her face. She had never been this afraid of anything in her life and finally understood why so many people feared him. That's when she brokenly spoke out loud, "Dante, please. Save me."