I recapped the events of Enzo's explanation in my mind during the nap Bayonetta and I took on the train, still in Purgatorio to avoid suspicion...
"So, I asked around and some whale in Europe is trying to fence a huge rock on the black market. He calls it the "Right Eye", saying it's part of some set called the "The Eyes of the world." Fits the bill of what you're after, don't it. Now, here's the funny bit: the stone passes around the halls of power for hundreds of years, vanishes and then the black market goes white hot for the thing. But the seller wanted an arm and a leg for it, to the point no one could stomach the price. So back goes the stone, but not before everyone figures out where the guy is." He informed us, before chuckling. "You're gonna enjoy doing this one, I bet. I love sticking it to the rich-" He started.
"I'm rich, you asshole." I said.
He jumped back a bit nervously at this. "You being the rare exception, of course! But when you get this guy, don't forget that your buddy Enzo stuck his neck out for you on this one. Slide me a few fazoles out of the rich guy's pocket for my troubles, right?!" He asked.
"Don't worry, Enzo, I'm sure we can get you a nice present for your services." Bayonetta said.
"Greedy motherfucker." I said.
"Anyway, you better get going before the trail goes could. Off to the middle of nowhere. The paradise of Europe. Vigrid." He explained...
Suddenly, my dreams pulled away from the story and changed to several visions and images of a strange demon obtaining incredible power and using it to easily finish me off when I confronted him. I snapped awake at the same time as Bayonetta, who looked at me. "Bad dreams, little one?" She asked.
I sighed in annoyance that she still calls me that from time to time, but I nodded. "Yeah. Looks like something startled you as well." I said.
"Perhaps... Amnesia can be a scary thing..." She said.
We suddenly heard and announcement on the speakers. "Welcome to Vigrid, our final stop. Entry Visas are required for all passengers. Please submit your Vigrid issued Entry Visa for inspection upon disembarking. Please make sure you take all valuable belongings with you." The woman on the overhead informed.
"I don't think we'll be needing any Visas in Purgatorio." I said.
"No, we won't. And should we run into any problems, we have our universal ticket punchers right here." She said, pulling out her Scarborough Fair and tapping them against my Last Regrets.
We got up and made our way down the isle, passing through any other passengers in our way, before we both stopped, hearing voices in our heads. "So, you have arrived at last, my dear. The time has come to awaken the Eyes of The World. Fear not, my child, such a beautiful woman you've become. I shall always see to it that no harm comes to you." The voice in Bayonetta's head rang out.
"So good to see you, Sai... It's been far too long for my account. You've grown much stronger than the last time we met, I see. I'm eager to see your power first-hand. And test it against my own." A familiar voice rang through my own head.
The two of us turned around to look for anyone suspicious, but found no one out of the ordinary. "This city must be messing with us. I don't know why, but this place doesn't feel right." I said, a strange skin-crawling feeling suddenly coming over me.
"Yes, something does seem off about this place. I'm sure we'll find out soon enough." Bayonetta said, getting off the train and looking around. "So, this is supposed to be paradise?" She asked.
"With that in mind, I was expecting something more like Hawaii, or the Bahamas. Not this." I said, that feeling still present and showing no signs of going away any time soon. Shrugging it off for now, I followed Bayonetta as we made our way through the station, walking through a metal detector and causing it to go off, triggering the security systems and forcing a lockdown. "We just messed up someone's day." I said.
"Yes. unfortunately, those detectors exist in Purgatorio as well, so it still detected our guns. We might have to do this the hard way." She said, as we continued down the path, seeing the corridor in front of us blocked. She prepared to shoot it, before noticing something strange about the wall beside her. "Hello. What have we here?" She wondered.
"Yeah, this doesn't seem like it belongs here." I said, noticing its strange designs, as well as some form of energy apparently running through it.
"I wonder what would happen if I did THIS!" She wondered striking the wall and firing bullets into it, causing a glow to cover the door. Once it spread completely, the door broke apart, the pieces floating in the air down the path it previously blocked. "Come along now, Sai." She said, heading down the path.
I was slightly shocked at this, but shook it off and followed. Good thing I did, because the second I went through the pathway, the pieces of the wall moved back into place to create the wall and block the path once more. We followed the path to a large gap, with a small area below it and across the gap was an iron door with a large keyhole in the way. "That's a big keyhole." I said.
"Yes and a large key must be needed to unlock it. But I see no such key nearby. Perhaps down there..." Bayonetta said, dropping into the small room below. Inside, we found a strange chest, which she quickly busted open to reveal a massive key. "I believe this fits the bill of what we're after, wouldn't you?" She asked.
"I'd say so." I agreed.
We jumped back up onto the side we'd already been on, but a couple of angels suddenly appeared to stop us. "Sai, deary, deal with this for me, won't you? I have my hands full for the moment." She said, heading towards the iron door.
"Fine by me." I said, turning back to the angels and spinning the guns in my hands. "~I got a pocketful of, pocketful of sunshine~" I sang, approaching the angels as they prepared to swing their weapons at me. "Angels talk shit, I'mma hit 'em with that gunfire!" I snapped, shooting them in the face and killing them.
Bayonetta unlocked the gate and kicked it open, waiting for me as I jumped across, sprouting my raven wings and flapping them for a double jump. "Not much a fan of the rapping, but you handled the angels quite nicely." She said.
"Naturally." I said with a nod, following her into the next room, where there was a statue across from a broken one on either side of the path we had to go, which was a canal of some sorts, meaning Bayonetta would have to run on water in order to make it across, while I could make it with my multiple means of flight.
"This might be a bit tricky..." She said, before a seal suddenly appeared and angels came shortly after. We looked at each other and nodded before splitting off to take on a different group of angels. She landed a few punches, before throwing an axe kick and creating a wicked weave kick to slam down on her to angels, before creating a wicked weave punch to slam into and splatter them.
"Break dancing!" I exclaimed, doing a handstand and spinning with my legs out to repeatedly kick the angels around me in the head and hit them with a few bullets, before I did a handspring to clear some distance, landing in a handstand again and pulling my legs forward in front of me, before driving them back and creating my own Demonic Finishers in the form of two feet shooting out in a drop kick to slam into the angels with the same effectiveness as Bayonetta's punch, splattering them as well.
With the threat gone, Bayonetta then blew a kiss at the barrier, her demonic witch powers overtaking the holy angel energy and destroying the barrier, sending the angelic energy to hell. As this happened, the broken statue reformed into a statue of an Umbran Witch to be a counterpart for the Lumen Sage statue to its right. With both statues restored, they then displayed a message written in Enochian, the language of angels... that Bayonetta also uses to summon her demons, for some reason. "I believe this is my specialty. You can't read Enochian." She said, stepping forward, reading the message it displayed. "'Lumen Sage and Umbran Witch, when their powers meet in a test of strength, the lightning released shall be your test. If you wish to walk upon water, prove your mettle by dodging the lightning within a hair's breadth.'" She recited, apparently understanding the riddle. "Very well." She said, creating a pair of Wicked Arms to raise the statues, then drop them, initiating some sequence to activate a lightning strike, the two of us dodging a bolt of lightning at the last second, activating Witch/Bullet Time as a result, bringing everything to barely a crawl, even the water standing still to the point it was solid enough to walk on.
"That works." I said as the two of us quickly ran across the canal. We ran across to the other side and noticed another one of the strange walls. "I got this one." I said, landing several hits and bullets to the wall until it broke apart, turning into a lift, allowing us to ride to an upper level.
We made our way down the hallway ahead of us into a lobby of some sorts, before noticing a demonic portal to our left Rodin emerged from. "I knew it. This town is teeming with heaven's little helpers. It's making my buddies downstairs awfully nervous." He said.
"From what I've seen, they're not that hard to shake up in the first place." I said.
"And your point is?" Bayonetta asked.
"Some places in this world are closer to Paradiso or Inferno. That rathole of a town you and I live in is close to both, while that mountain Sai calls home is closer to Inferno." He explained.
"Home, sweet home." I said gingerly.
"But the Vigridians got a special air about 'em. They're closer to Paradiso than anyone should ever be. That shit just plain creeps me out." He said.
"That must be that skin-crawling feeling I'm getting." I said in slight annoyance of the scaly feeling that refused to leave me.
"Yeah. Demons ain't supposed to be near Paradiso. It ain't gonna kill ya, but it's definitely no stay at the Ritz." He explained.
"Never been, my aunt runs a chain of hotels all over I usually stay at." I explained.
"Which are closer to Inferno, I've noticed. Very nice. But in the mean time, I guess I'm gonna have to set up shop here and score me some halos. These stupid rings are worth a fortune back home. Since it seems you two are spoiling for a fight, if you come across any of these, bring 'em to me and I'll hook you up." He said.
Bayonetta sighed at this. "Another who's looking to line his pockets." She said, before letting out a chuckle. "I'm beginning to see why Enzo is so fond of you." She said.
The sound of hitting the brakes could be heard as I looked at her with a "WTF" face. "Were you not hearing the shit he was talking at the funeral?" I asked.
"Real cute, but let's get one thing straight: your fights are yours alone. I'm only here to watch my handiwork in action, so don't get any bright ideas about coming to me for help." He warned.
"I'm all the help she needs." I said.
She nodded as I said this, before looking back at Rodin. "No, you get one thing straight: I'm not the slightest bit interested in the fact you made my guns, or the little one's." She started, to which I growled. "If you get in our way, I will... how do the Americans put it?" She asked, to which I whispered the answer in her ear. "Oh, yes: Bust a cap in you ass." She said, aiming one of the guns at Rodin.
"Right on, baby! Right on!" He said, laughing demonically as he retreated into the portal he came from.
"That guy always gives me the creeps." I said.
"A bit of a shady fellow, yes. But he does make some wonderful toys." She said, kissing one of her guns.
"Yeah, those Elven Knight rip-offs can't hold a candle to these." I agreed, spinning the guns in my hands.
We then headed down the path in front of us to what looked like some kind of park. We were about to proceed to the building in front of us, but stopped when we saw flowers blooming all around us, followed by the familiar golden light of the angels descending towards us and their doom, with a slightly larger angel with a blue robe landing in front of them, known as an Applaud. It screeched loudly, destroying some of the flowers around us and signaling the other angels to attack soon. Bayonetta simply smirked at this, pulling out her guns and adjusting her glasses with them, releasing a burst of demonic energy that destroyed the rest of the flowers as we prepared to fight as well.
Background Music: "Monster" by Skillet
We split off to take on smaller groups again, Bayonetta swiftly beating down a number of angels, including the Applaud, while I landed between two angels with saxophones for weapons, tricking them into firing at me, at which point I dodged the attacks and caused their sound wave... bubble.. things, to hit each other and kill them, allowing me to roll into a group of 6 angels and with a single spin, fired and shot all of them in the head, killing them. Four more flew in at me, but I backflipped out of the way and crushed them with a Demonic Finisher First to smash down on all of them.
Back with Bayonetta, after she beat the first couple of angels, more appeared and swung at her, but she dodged, kicking one of the small flying angels at one of the others, killing them both instantly and allowing Bayonetta to grab its fallen staff, swinging it and dealing great damage to nearby demons, before stabbing the staff into the ground and spinning on it like a stripper pole, while laying down a 360 of gunfire, killing the rest of her angels and even some of mine while I had to dodge her bullets. "Hey, watch it!" I said.
Suddenly, a huge angelic portal opened up from the ground and a massive angel clawed its way out of the portal, brandishing an equally massive axe it had held on its back a moment before. "Well, now. That's more like it. It looks like they're finally willing to challenge us." She said, rushing in.
"Don't think you're gonna hog all the fun!" I said, rushing in along with her. We both fired as we rushed in at the angel, dodging its axe. "It's time to stop!" I said as I activated Bullet Time,the two of us rushing in, Bayonetta landing painful hits to its legs and lower body, breaking away the stone-like skn, revealing and damaging the flesh underneath while I landed some devastating hits to the glowing orb on the monster's back, dealing major damagfrom hitting its weak spot.
"It's time we brought this big boy down to size!" Bayonetta said, landing crushing blows with her wicked weaves and using two hands to bring it to its knees.
"Let's see if he can fly!" I said, creating a Finisher Fist to uppercut the angel into the air about 20 feet and causing it to crash down on its back hard.
"Well done, little one. I suppose we can put it out of its misery now." She said, looking at the angel as it struggled to get up, supporting itself with its axe. She prepared to summon a demon, but I stopped her.
"I got this one." I said, doing some hand signs. "Zuuru, Onara!" I announced in Japanese. A portal behind the massive angel then opened. Translation to my summon: "Zuul, mothafucka, ZUUL!" A massive dragon-like dog roared as it leapt from the portal, tackling the angel to the ground and tearing massive chunks from the angel, grabbing it by the head an flinging it 20 feet up in the air, jumping as it started to fall back down and chomping down on it as it fell into its mouth, breaking off all the limbs and body parts that weren't in its mouth, leaving mere scraps of the massive angel left as it roared and retreated back into the portal.
End Music
With the angel destroyed, the light faded and everything returned to normal, with the exception of two golden records appearing from nowhere. "What are these?" I asked, walking over and picking up one, handing the other to Bayonetta.
"Not sure, to be honest. Perhaps Rodin might have an idea. Let's hope he has another one of those gates close by." She said as we proceeded ahead. We went into the building ahead, were a couple of angels broke through the windows on the right-had side, but they were easily dealt with by a couple of bullets.
We encountered another one of the strange walls and she destroyed it, but shortly after we went through she stopped, looking as if sh was seeing something familiar. "Something wrong?" I asked, but she suddenly took off, shooting into the air as if trying to shoot some bird only she saw. "Bayonetta, wait!" I said, about to run after her, but then a figure dropped down in front of me.
"Not so fast there, boy." A familiar voice rang out. Then, a familiar figure dropped down in front of me. He was 6'6", with short red hair and black horns coming from his head, pointing backwards. He wore what looked and fit like a leather ninja suit, but it was metallic, with red-eyed dragon spaulders (shoulder armor), he wore a red scarf covering the lower half of his face and another red cloth crossed over his left eye, leaving only his red right eye to look at me. He then pulled down the scarf to completely reveal his face. He was Zeidan, known as Crimsoncrash for charging into his foes and reducing them to bloody corpses in an instant. He's also one of my uncles on my mother's side and unlike the rest of our clan, he believed the demons should be ruling over the humans, so he rebelled and was exiled. He shall be voiced by Willem Dafoe.
"You! What are you doing here?! And why are you stopping me from reaching her?!" I demanded, aiming my guns at him.
"Hey, now, that's no way to greet your uncle! Besides, that girl's got a little remembering to do. You see, me and a friend of mine have some big plans for her, but she's got some remembering to do first. But as for you, you're just in the way. However, like I said, you've gotten much stronger since the last time I've seen you. And I kinda want that power for myself. So I was thinking of taking it. And your life." He said, readying a pair of Jagkommando Tri-Daggers, the deadliest human-made knives EVER, look it up.
"Try it, you son of a bitch!" I snapped, firing at him.
Background Music: "Traitor" by Daughtry
He dodged the bullets and slashed at me, but I blocked with the gun in my right hand and raised it over my head, forcing his arm into the air as well, allowing me to shoot him in the chest and blast him back, but not before he got a vicious slash on my stomach. I hissed in pain at the wound while he growled at his own, but both of them sealed in an instant and we re-engaged, him rushing at me while I zipped up my trench coat for protection and flipping the hood, but my face was still vulnerable. He thrust both knives at my chest, but I jumped over him, getting my feet on the back of his head, before firing and launching myself off of him and shooting him in the head, taking him to the ground, face-first while I landed safely and spun around to face him once more. But he still managed to get up from that, turning and facing me. "I gotta admit, you are good." He said.
"Probably because I never learned from you." I countered.
"That's a shame, because you still have a lot to learn." He said, throwing his knives into the air. I looked up as he threw them, not realizing as he drew a second pair with paper bombs attached to them and threw them at my feet, detonating as soon as they hit the ground and launching me back, causing me to hit the wall behind me. I looked up and he was upon me in an instant, slamming into me and repeatedly trying to stab me with the knives. They couldn't get through my trench coat, but I was still feeling the points jab into me. "What?" He demanded, looking up as I used this moment of recovery to headbutt him, breaking his nose and forcing him back. "Impressive coat. I guess if I can't get through it, I'll just go for your head!" He snapped, rushing in again, but I had a trick for this.
I used instant transmission to teleport to where he was, appearing behind him as he rushed forward, striking where I once was, but finding nothing there. "Guess I'm a fast learner." I said, firing at him and filling him with bullets, finishing by hitting him with a Finisher Fist, slamming him against a wall, then having a Finisher Foot smash down on him.
He looked up and growled at this. "Then here's your final lesson. How can you hit what isn't there?" He demanded, suddenly vanishing.
"Damn!" I said worriedly, looking all around. To be safe, I lit myself on fire to ensure he couldn't get me without burning himself. But then, the flames were blown out and not even a second later, one of his knives was jammed into my throat, causing me to cough up blood. Like Serena, he has control over wind. He'd been using the wind to move move water vapors around him, refracting the light and almost making himself invisible. He then dragged the knife down, cutting through me and unzipping my trench coat, leaving me vulnerable. He then kicked me to the ground and slammed a knee down on my stomach, kneeling over me and repeatedly stabbing me.
"Looks like you failed, kid. Don't worry, I'll let your Mom know... as I'm choking the life out of her." He said, readying the knives to decapitate me.
"Choke this!" I said, shooting a fireball from my mouth and staggering him, allowing me to get up, put both guns to his face and fire, blasting him back.
End Music
He got up and glared at me again. "Damn you!" He said, preparing to attack again, but a Wicked Kick suddenly launched him over the cliff. "This isn't the end, Sai! When all is said and done, the Blades will be cowering before me alongside the rest of humanity!" He shouted as he flew away after sprouting his vulture wings.
"Thanks." I said, walking up to Bayonetta.
"Honestly, you are too much of a handful. I can't even have an out-of-body experience without you getting into trouble." She said.
"I think there will just be more trouble if we keep going like this." I warned her.
"Well, we've already come all the way to Europe, it'd be a total waste if we just went home now. Perhaps Rodin has something that can make our journey a bit easier." She said, gesturing to the portal off to our side.
"If you say so." I said, following her down.
We arrived in the Gates of Hell and walked up to the counter. "Hey, check this out: 'Whaddya buyin?!' Heh heh. Heard that in a game once." He said.
"Resident Evil 4. Classic." I said, fist-bumping the fallen angel.
"I'd hate to interrupt your little bonding session, but by chance, do you know what these are?" Bayonetta asked, the two of us producing the golden records we'd retrieved earlier.
"Well, well, an Angelic Hymns Gold LP. Got yourselves on something awfully rare, haven't ya?" He asked.
"We don't know, that's why we're asking you." I said.
"And it certainly sounds like you know what it is." Bayonetta added.
"Those things are the perfect bait to coax out some of Hell's uglies. One note hits their ears and a damn who's who of Inferno comes pouring out of the inner circles. Then I can use them to breathe life into what I make best... weapons of mass destruction." He explained.
"I already love these things." I said, looking at the records.
"Yep. So tell ya what, you give me those records and I'll whip up something so fiendish, angels will cry at the sight of it." He explained.
"They're yours." She said as we handed them over.
"I'll just have to pop down to the tropics for a bit, so take a load off." He said, creating a portal and diving into Inferno. We sat down and waited, but sure enough, MAYBE five minutes later, he emerged from the portal, bloodied and battered, but victorious. "All done... They sure were a handful. If there's one thing you can say about the folks in Inferno, they're pretty rude. They make up for it with charm, though. So be nice to 'em, okay?" He asked, putting a couple of shotguns on the table in front of Bayonetta. And in front of me, he set a pair of assassin's swords, similar to cutlasses with blades the curve backwards, then upwards with holes in the bottom of the blades just before the black hilts. The handles are blue while small blades are attached onto the guards.
Ghostshade: A vicious, greedy demon of the shadows who would attack anything around him as soon as he heard a sound, leaving anything unfortunate enough to be around at the time horribly wounded and stripped of any valuables they had at the time. These blades are perfect reflections of him, letting the user move like shadows and strike like a monster.
"Oh, I can have some fun with these!" I said, eagerly taking the blades, wielding them backhand.
"Excellent work, Rodin. I'm sure these will wipe the smirk right off an angel's face... along with its face." Bayonetta said as we left. "Well, I'm feeling much better now." She said as we emerged back in Vigrid.
"I guess." I said as we went down the bridge, only to be stopped as another massive angel climbed up the wall behind the bridge, grabbed it, ripped it from its proper place and smashed it into a wall, trying to shake us off. "Well, now we get the perfect chance to use these!" I said, striking at the hand holding the bridge, clouds of darkness coming from the blades after each slash and the angel's hand starting to corrode away.
"Indeed. Let's see if they're as charming as Rodin says!" She agreed, blasting at the angel's face with the shotguns. It eventually roared in pain and threw the bridge away. "Jump!" She ordered, the two of us leaping to a large ledge not too far away, the only possible place we could've jumped to. We both jumped, me landing in a badass 3-point landing while Bayonetta landed in a sexy cat pose, a picture being taken from nowhere for some reason. We headed down the stairs to reach the door to the next area, but just before we reached the platform in front of the door, the staircase began to crumble as the giant angel somehow made its way from where it threw the bridge to where we were now, climbing up the staircase and breaking it with every step. We quickly retreated to the main platform, shooting at the angel as he chased after us until he completely broke the stairs, holding onto the platform for dear life with half his body on it, half hanging over the edge.
I then noticed the platform began to break. "He's too heavy! If we don't get him off quick, he'll send this whole platform down to cliff!" I said urgently, rushing in and punching at the angels chest, using the small blades on Ghostshade's guards to fill him with holes.
"Then it's time to ditch the DEAD weight." Bayonetta said, blasting away at the monster with the shotgun, blowing off chunks of stone skin and flesh. In a matter of moments, the angel was on the brink of death, yet somehow refused to let go of the platform, holding on with an unbreakable grip. "I believe it's my turn this time..." Bayonetta said, stepping forward and doing her summoning dance. "AVAVAGO!" Bayonetta cast the incantation (translation: Thunders), hear hair removing itself from her body as her clothes, a few strands still spiraling around her to hide her naughty bits, the rest going into a portal behind her and coming out of the way behind the angel, Gomorrah's massive head and neck coming from the portal, at which point the angel began screeching like a monkey in fear while trying to scramble away from the demon, even trying to grab Bayonetta while it believed her to be distracted but to no avail as she easily smacked its hand away, at which point Gomorrah snatched it in hs jaws and began chomping down on it, repeatedly crushing its body in his massive jaws, before smashing it head-first into the wall, destroying its head, before scarfing down the rest of its body and letting out a triumphant, elephant-like roar, before retreating back into the portal, Bayonetta's hair redressing her as we stepped to the edge of the platform.
It is SO much more fun being on this side of the summon and not the side getting eaten." I said, remembering back to when I myself was almost crushed by those jaws.