We prepared to move on, but before we could, we noticed a motorcycle flying towards us, covered in angels. It lands in front of us and the driver is revealed to be Jeanne. Suddenly, Damion jumped off the back and shooting several demons in the air while Jeanne beats the shit out of them with the motorcycle. Bayonetta and I are forced to dodge her once and shoot a couple angels that had been trying to chase her that turned their attention to us. "Fancy seeing you here. Out to find some answers about your past, are we?" Jeanne asked while somehow staying on the wall with her motorcycle.
"You've quite the familiar face. And using the same powers... But you'll have to forgive me, do we know each other?" Bayonetta asked.
Damion landed a few feet in front of me. "So, how are you liking this city?" He asked.
"Eh. Not my kinda place. Too angelic for me." I said.
"I can relate to that. This place is sickeningly close to Paradiso. I'll be happy when I can leave. But I won't be able to do that until I get rid of you." He said.
"Yeah, good luck with that." I smirked.
"Same powers? Don't make me laugh. Your little dip in that lake has left you a bit rusty." Jeanne taunted, placing her feet up on the front of the bike.
"I've been high and dry for 20 years. The only rust on me is from the lack of any real challenge. Perhaps you're up for the task?" Bayonetta asked.
Jeanne chuckled at this. "You've already disappointed me." She said, revealing she had Bayonetta's Umbran Watch. Bayonetta was shocked as she looked down, indeed noticing her watch was gone.
"How the hell-!?" I demanded, about to go after her, but Damion shot at my feet.
"Ah, ah, ah. This is between them." He said, blocking my way.
With that, Bayonetta lunged for her watch as Jeanne threw it into the air and wheeled around her bike, the two shooting at each other while they tried to claim the item they fought over, Jeanne snatching it from the air and landing on the platform Damion and I still stood on, Bayonetta landing nearby shortly after. "This is a moment I've long desired, but you've forgotten your destiny and wasted the past 20 years." Jeanne said, tossing the watch back to Bayonetta.
"You're right. I do seem to be having trouble remembering things as of late. Would you be so kind as to take it from the top?" Bayonetta asked.
"Two overseers. The eyes of the world. They are the power behind everything. But perhaps a few hits to the head will better jog your memory." Jeanne said, driving towards Bayonetta, drawing her guns. Bayonetta jumped out of the way and managed to shoot the back tire, forcing Jeanne to jump off as the bike came off the ground and flew over the cliff, the two doing battle on the ground.
"Bayonetta!" I called, trying to go over to her, but Damion once more blocked my way, kicking me in the stomach and blasting me back with the revolver connected to his shoe.
"What did I tell you? This is between them. You and me have our own business to take care of." He said.
"I don't like mixing business and pleasure, but I'm going to enjoy this far more than I should." I said, getting up and taking a stance.
"You ready for this?" Damion asked.
"I'm always ready. I'm a brave boy." I said, pulling out Ghostshade.
"Is that so?" He asked, pulling out an unbelievable weapon. It was a MASSIVE greatsword that could put the Dragon Slayer to shame. It's got a 3 foot wooden handle and a foot wide, 7 foot long blade. "Say hello to Fissure. This baby's strong enough to make a mountain grumble with one swing." He boasted.
I looked at the weapon in shock, my body becoming a silhouette and a chibi version of myself appearing in my head. "Not a brave enough boy for this!" It said, tossing his chibi versions of Ghostshade aside and running for its life.
Background Music: "I Will Not Bow" by Breakin Benjamin
He swung the massive sword at me from the left while I blocked with both swords, getting pushed back a bit, but managing to hold the blade back, at which point I ran towards him while still pushing against the sword, sparks flying from both weapons. I got right up to the edge of the blade before the handle, then swung as fast as I could before the blade could hit me, slashing his stomach, forcing him to jump back. "A giant sword like that could do major damage, but not if its too slow to hit an opponent... or if they have enough time to block." I said.
"You're not bad. But I'm just getting started." He said, tossing the massive weapon into the air and catching it backhand, before rushing in. I slashed at his head, but he ducked and jabbed the hilt of the weapon into my stomach, doubling me over and allowing him to bring the handle upwards and hit me in the chin, forcing me to stagger. before he swung the full weapon around and slashed me deep across the chest and throwing me back, my heart nearly slipping out of the massive opening in my chest.
"No! My organs! Stay in there! Stay in your home! Daddy needs you!" I said, before sighing in relief as the wound sealed. "Oh, that's better. I probably don't need those organs, though. I'd just regenerate them and move on. But there'd be about a half a minute there when I'd just be inconsolable." I said to myself, before looking up in time to see Damion running in and slashing at me with his sword. I quickly jumped into the air to avoid it and did a triple flip in the air as I landed behind Damion, before spinning around and slashing his back, then punching and stabbing him several times with the guard blades.
"Enough!" He shouted, throwing his elbow back into me and sending me flying, almost over the edge of the platform, but I stopped myself with Ghostshade.
"Had enough?" I asked him.
"I'm just getting started." He said, suddenly disappearing. He reappeared behind me, but I activated Bullet Time and stopped him when the blade was mere inches from me. I moved under it and around to his open side and landed a few hits of my own, before he managed to dodge an attack and activated his own Bullet Time, slamming his sword into me and flinging me back into a wall, which he then rushed in and impaled me against.
I coughed up some blood, blinding him and using the moment to stab him in both sides of the neck where they connect to the shoulder, then kicked him and blasted him back with the guns on my feet, ripping the blades out of his shoulders for a little extra damage in the process, knocking him back into Jeanne, who Bayonetta had just kicked away as well. They recovered from the initial attack well enough, but stumbled a bit when they crashed into each other, taking them off balance, leaving them open. "You forgot something!" I told him, flinging the sword at him, this time impaling him while Bayonetta rushed in and hit Jeanne with a flying kick, sending them both flying and coming to a stop just before going over the platform.
End music
They both got up and glared at us, Damion looking like he still wanted to fight, but Jeanne calmed down and put a hand on his shoulder. "Not bad, but still not enough. We'll let you go this time. But we will meet again and you shall not be so lucky." Jeanne said, the two of them getting on her bike and driving over the edge, disappearing.
"Not bad, yeah right. We totally won." I said, earning a smack upside the head from Bayonetta. "Ow, what?" I asked.
"You still have much to learn, little one. They were holding back. If they had fought us at full power, we would've been defeated." She said, before smirking and looking down at her now glowing feet. "Still, I can't say the event wasn't... enlightening." She said, jumping to a wall and sticking to it.
"Nice! You're learning new tricks by the day. Or night, rather." I said, jumping onto the wall with her. We then continued on our way, dealing with a handful of the tiny flying head angels halfway to our goal, but we dealt with them easily, only needing a few bullets to put them down. We then got onto the wall above the path the big angel had previously destroyed, before the moon vanished behind the clouds, causing Bayonetta to drop. "So, it's not perfect, but still cool." I said, dropping down after her.
"I'm sure I'll have more opportunities to use it." She said as we continued.
We proceeded ahead and encountered one of those magic walls that disappear when you beat them, but after I beat them, it instantly replaced itself before we had the chance to go through. "What the?! There's no way to make it through that!" I said.
"Not under normal circumstances." Bayonetta said, walking back down the path we came from, looking at the statues of a Lumen sage and Umbran witch I didn't notice before. She snapped her fingers and created two Wicked Weave hands to hold up the statues, before we headed to the wall. Once we were there, she snapped her fingers again, dodging the lightning bolt and activating Witch Time, beating on the wall and knocking it back, the two of us quickly heading through before Witch Time ended and the wall put itself back in place.
We proceeded onward into the town square, but then heard a commotion. Looking down the street, we saw a guy in a their ceremonial hoods or cloaks or whatever over his suit, making him look like he was ripped from Assassin's Creed, running away from a police officer. "Stop!" The cop demanded.
However, he continued to evade arrest, plowing through several people in the way and even jumping off one guy's shoulders, the world slowing down for a moment as doves flew past him and the sun illuminated the scene as if to prove how epic it was. "LIFE FINDS A WAY!" A gruff voice rang out from nowhere. (Sarge from Red vs. Blue)
He hit the ground and kept running, ducking into a side street, rushing down it and making a left while the cop kept running straight. Despite having lost the cop chasing him, the man continued to run, shocking a woman on the street. He came to a sudden stop after passing her, before turning walking backwards back to her. He adjusted his coat and flipped back his hood revealing his wavy bangs and ponytail. "Do you believe in fate?" He asked, flipping his scarf out of the way. He pushed her back and leapt back himself as the cop came from nowhere and tried to charge him, but missed and fell to the ground. "Fate brought us here together and it will never tear us apart." He told her, taking a few steps closer to her, then stepping to the right and walking backwards, tripping over a table with flowers all over it, leaving her looking slightly concerned. He quickly recovered, however, standing up with a rose, which he kissed before tossing it to her.
He then gave her a salute before taking off as the cop got back up, having to round a motorcycle in between them before he could continue his pursuit. "Dammit! I said stop! I'm authorized to use deadly force!" He snapped (then why do you only have a baton?). The man reached the middle of the square and used a grappling hook to vanish from the scene, leaving the cop confused and bewildered. "Blast it! Where'd that bugger go!?" He demanded. (For the uninitiated: Vigrid is in Norway... so why the hell does this guy have a British accent? I've heard Norwegian accents and that wasn't it.)
Once the coast was clear, the man dropped down, retracting his grappling hook. "Sayonara." He said, waving to the retreating officer, starting to go on his way, then stopped when he caught a familiar scent in the wind. "Fleur de Cirey, Eau du Parfum. What a lovely floral bouquet, with its subtle hints of rosemary." He deduced as Bayonetta circled him, although still in Purgatorio. "You know, in the language of flowers, rosemary equates to remembrance." He said, looking at Bayonetta as she stood in front of him, almost as if he could see her. "Which doesn't quite equate to you now does it? Bayonetta!" He said, throwing off his cloak and wheeling around with a camera, looking in a window, allowing him to see her reflection behind him in Purgatorio.
But before he could get the shot, she got her own, shooting straight up into the air to scare him. "Shit!" He screamed, then gasped when he realized he'd lost his camera.
"Not bad, stalker boy, but you gotta be a little quicker than that." I told him, waving his camera in front of him, before smashing it. (the italics are because our voices are distorted, hearing them in the human world from Purgatorio.)
"Dammit! Those are expensive!" He said, before sighing. "Ahh, yes... And how could I forget: Blade Clan #2: Indulgence. A powerful, yet light cologne, with elements of Lavender, Dark Cherry and Black Roses. Some, however, call it an evil fragrance, as Lavender and dark cherries are both well known sleep inducers and black roses are often used as symbols of death." He said.
"Well, one thing you forgot about the cherries, smart-ass, they help fight cancer, so there." I said, before turning to the 4th wall. "That's true, they help fight cancer and other diseases, look it up." I said, firing at his feet, causing him to jump back again.
"Will you stop that?!" He snapped.
"That little bug on Enzo was a nice touch. Seeing you here, I suppose it wasn't the only one. You've certainly bloomed, haven't you, my little Cheshire puss?" She teased him.
"I'm not your pet. The name is Luka. A name you better remember." He said, taking a few steps back, unaware of Bayonetta right behind him, a little to his right.
"I've already forgotten it." I said as she tripped him. She scoffed and started to walk away. "By the way watch out." I said, taking a few steps back as well as he looked up and noticed the falling cafe' sign or whatever it was.
"Shit!" He said, rolling out of its way. "Dammit, wait! You can't just run away from me like that!" He snapped.
"Said every stalker ever." I taunted.
"Shut up, dammit! I'm not a stalker! I'm a journalist who wants the truth and justice! I know what I saw that day!" He snapped, the camera zooming in on his eyes as we got a flashback to his childhood 20 years ago.
He waited on the shore while his father, Antonio Redgrave, dove under the lake to discover and open Bayonetta's casket. However, it went horribly wrong in an instant. In a bright flash and an explosion of magic and water, Bayonetta and Antonio were floating in the air while Bayonetta resonated powerful magical energy and Antonio was spread out as far as he could stretch, which slowly and painfully increased as he screamed in pain until he was drawn and quartered (ripped apart). "FATHER!" He cried out, reaching for his dad, but it was too late.
Back to now, Luka strutted down the street, trying to pick up traces of us again. "I know all about your kind. Sure, my colleagues laugh at me for chasing fairy tales..." He said, before muttering under his breath. "...amongst other things..." He muttered, before speaking up again. "But I know they're real! I know the truth!" He said as angels appeared behind him.
"And the truth might just get you killed." I said.
"And you: you were even easier to dig up info on then she was. You're part of the Blade clan. Demons that SUPPOSEDLY protect humans and vanquish evil!" He snapped.
"Motherfucker, SUPPOSEDLY?!" I demanded.
"But where were you when she killed my father?! And why do you work with her when she's a cold-hearted killer!?" He demanded.
"Okay, first of all, that was 20 years ago. Where was I? Not even born yet. Second of all, we can't be there to stop every crime that ever happens in the world, we have our own agenda with more serious stuff. There's too much evil in this world and surprisingly, not enough of us. Third, we're fighting the things that actually killed your dad." I told him.
"Liar!" He snapped, turning and walking back and forth in front of the angels. "This smell... It's the same smell that clung to the air the day my father was murdered. Which means I'm right on your doorstep... Bayonetta!" He said, pointing to an angel as it lunged at him, but Bayonetta stepped in and shot it, startling him again.
"The consider that the beware of dog sign... No, wait. This is." I said, summoning...
"Zuul, little mothafucka's, ZUUL!" Zuul roared as he lunged out of the portal I created and slammed his paws down on two of the angels, snapping his jaws down on another one in mid-air and scarfing it down.
"In other words, get the hell off my doorstep." I said, rushing in and jumping onto Zuul's back, then jumping into the air, spinning and shooting several more angels, then sending the dog/dragon back to hell.
"I'll let you in on a little secret, Cheshire..." Bayonetta said, walking past him.
"The name is Luka!" He said, ducking and staggering around as the ground shook and he saw bullets impacting everywhere. He looked to the window to see what was going on, but Bayonetta shot and shattered it before he got the chance.
"You need to hone your sense of smell, my dear... There's no rosemary in the perfume. After all, rosemary is a demon repellent." She said.
"Hate the stuff!" I confirmed from the air as I rode on an angel's back, repeatedly stabbing it until it crashed.
Bayonetta dodge an angel's attack, activating Witch Time, attacking and killing a few of its friends behind it, before kicking it to the ground, straddling it and repeatedly pistol whipping its junk before crushing it under a Wicked Kick, then kicking another one into an Iron Maiden. Meanwhlle, I did a low spinning move to slice the legs off a number of angels and kill them when they hit the ground, then stopping and stabbing another one whose legs I sliced, but didn't kill, pulling myself up and doing a handstand on the swords, using my feet guns to shoot the demons. Bayonetta picked up the flail of the angel she threw in the Iron Maiden and masterfully used it to kill two more angels. I jumped up and fought the larger angel in mid-air, dodging his attacks before landing several of my own, knocking him to the ground and summoning a bunch of Gremlins to rip him apart.
Another, larger group with two bigger angels then appeared, Bayonetta jumping up and creating a pulley and chain to kill the first one in mid-air while I made the Gremlins somehow turn a car into a table saw, which I dragged the angel two before pushing it headfirst into the blade, splitting it in half down to the waist, before I sent the Gremlins back to hell, who dragged the angel and saw with them. "Sai!" Bayonetta called, nodding her head. I understood, nodded back and rushed in, throwing a flying kick to an angel's face and sending it flying, then Bayonetta grabbed the ankle of the leg I kicked with, spinning while holding me outwards to shoot the angels with my 3 other guns, laying down a deadly 360 of fire, easily killing the group of angels.
But then, another of the giant angels appeared, jumping out of its portal on the ground and swinging its axe, the two of us easily dodging, Bayonneta attacking its feet and the smaller angels around them while I attacked the orb on its back. We were doing good and almost managed to kill it, before it suddenly climbed up the building behind us and retreated. "Aww, you pansy!" I taunted him.
"Let him go. He's bound to show up again and cause more trouble." She said.
"Then we'll get him." I agreed, the two of us doing back to back handstands and laying down another 360 of fire on the rest of the angels, killing them and allowing Bayonetta to break the seal.
Luka walked back into the middle of the square, confused at what just happened, but took the sign that he could no longer smell her as the sign she'd run away. "You only run away so fast because you know you've got something to run from... Me! But you can't escape me forever!" He shouted, unaware of Bayonetta standing behind him with her eyes closed as he grappled away.
I walked up to her, noticing the sad look on her face. "You know, you should at least tell him you didn't do it." I told her.
"I know... But that wouldn't change the fact his father died and I couldn't stop it." She said, walking ahead.
We continued down the path we were on and almost reached the left turn to lead us to our destination, when suddenly, we heard an explosion and saw a street train on its side skidding towards us. "Holy crap!" I said as we both jumped high above it to avoid it. "That was close." I said.
"And I'm assuming it wasn't an accident." She said, glaring at the train. Sure enough, a trio of Enchants, fiery wheel angels, jumped out of the train and attacked us, but they were easy to handle. Bayonetta grabbed one while I grabbed the other two and we flung the three of them into each other and destroyed them. We then continued on our way, but was once again blocked off by another group of angels, 5 more enchants to be precise. Bayonetta masterfully trapped 3 of them in a deadly combo and finished them with a Wicked Kick, while I blocked the 4th one's attacks and grabbed it, spinning and flinging it into the 5th one, killing them off. We expected this to be the end, but then the giant angel who ran off before came back, roaring and charging at us for revenge. "There now, what did I tell you?" She said.
"You showed me." I said as we rushed in, Bayonetta jumping up to avoid its axe while I rushed past and slid under the angel, getting up behind it. Bayonetta then backflip-kicked the angel's chin, snapping its head back and dazing it, allowing me to come in and hit it with another powerful strike to its back orb. It then roared in pain and raised its axe to the sky, calling for help, which another giant angel answered. "Two on two... I guess that's fair." I said.
"Indeed. You take care of our new friend. I'll put our old, tired one to bed." She said.
"Of course she gets the easy, weakened one." I mumbled.
"What was that?" She asked.
"Nothing!" I said, rushing at the healthier angel. Bayonetta quickly landed a powerful combo to weaken her angel to the point of total exhaustion, before summoning Gomorrah and having him chomp the poor bastard to death. Meanwhile, I dodged a strike from its axe, getting behind it and landing several slashes and shot on its back, before dodging again as it reached back for me. I then went for its face, slashing it with my left blade, turning and shooting it with my left foot gun, then my right, then finishing the 360 and slashing it in the face with my right blade. It grabbed me and attempted to crush me, but I pushed its hands back with a blast of demonic energy, before blasting it in the face with a large fireball from my mouth. It dropped down in exhaustion as well, at which point I summoned Zuul once again, but the angel was more prepared this time and tried to run.
"Zuul mothafuck- Ey!" He snapped as the angel dodged his jaws and tried to run, but it was all in vain as Zuul easily chased after him and tackled him to the ground. "ZUUL, YOU COCKSUCKING MOTHAFUCKA! ZUUL!" He roared as he tore the angel to shreds, letting out a proud howl before returning to hell.
"You know, we never see the full bodies of your demons... at least Gomorrah. I wonder what the rest of his body looks like." I wondered.
"Hopefully, there will never be a reason to find out, little one. Come along." She said as we continued down the path. (Epic Foreshadowing)
We continued ahead, noticing a broken statue of an Umbran Witch across from a Lumen sage one. Ignoring it for now, we went down the nearby stairs to where there was a small cliff with another changing wall nearby. I threw a fireball at it, breaking it in one shot and turning it into a bridge, but it almost immediately changed back into a wall. Suddenly, two Applauds appeared and attacked, but we finished them off pretty easily, me by quickly stabbing and circling around mine to slice it in half, Bayonetta by slamming hers back and forth over her shoulder and into the ground. "With them out of the way, the Umbran statue should be fixed." I said.
"Only one way to find out." She said, hurrying up the stairs and up to the two now fully intact statues and doing the ritual to bring down the lightning bolt and slow down time. With that, she quickly hurried back and turned the wall into a bridge, the two of us hurrying across.
From there, we continued into a small church, walking in and discovering nothing, but then we heard some footsteps behind us. We turned around, but saw nothing. "We're not alone..." I said dramatically.
"You're right. Who's there?" She wondered, stepping to the side and aiming her gun at what looked like a little girl running down towards her, but she just went straight through her due to us being in Purgatorio. "Of course..." She said, rolling her eyes, making a portal to return to the human world.
"Try not to aim your gun at the kid this time. That's frowned upon." I said, repeating the action.
We reappeared in the human world and Bayonetta this time managed to get the girl to stop... by pointing the gun at her. "You've played enough hide and seek, my scurrying little friend." She said, the girl hiding her face in her stuffed kitty.
"Or... you could totally point a gun at the kid. Whatever works. I guess I never have the right answer." I said sarcastically.
"Just a child... What are you doing running around Vigrid? You're certainly not dressed in your Sunday best." She said, the girl looking up at her. She looked back, almost fondly, before having another flashback.
"Bayonetta? Hello?" I asked, shaking her a bit. Nothing. "Okay, kid. Here, you can have this box of cookies and pretend she didn't point a gun at you." I said, giving her a package of double stuff Oreo's, before she ran off.
She left right when Bayonetta snapped out of her daydream. She looked around a little bit, but suddenly, a dragon-headed angel burst through the window behind us, ripping the church from where it was and flying into the sky. It thrashed around as we attacked it, attempting to bite us or hit us with giant fireballs, but we managed to evade the attacks. We were doing quite well until a second head burst through the side, revealing it to be a two-headed angel dragon. We dodged its attacks and looked at each other, nodding. "Be careful, Sai." She said.
"Always." I said, jumping over the edge, flying towards the second head and firing ki blasts at it. Between the two of us attacking both heads, the creature seemed to wanted to withdraw from the fight, the red head somehow swinging in a way to get me back in the church with Bayonetta, before throwing it off its head, higher into the air, before each head shot a fireball that combined into a large one, coming straight towards us. "Got a plan for that?" I asked. I'd be fine, but she wouldn't.
"Hang on!" She said as she grabbed the remains of the church and spun at high speeds in mid-air, flinging it at the fireballs in the last possible second, destroying the church and fireballs, the two of us diving down towards the burning city below.
Zuul: The gatekeeper of Hell, who prevents the dead from escaping and the living from entering... until he eats them and makes them dead. Because of his close proximity to hell compared to other demons, Zuul is the easiest for Sai to summon, requiring little concentration and the only demon that allows Sai to move and fight while the demon is summoned.