Beringoro: A monstrous demon living in the burning forests of Hell, argued to be strong enough to punch its way into the human world. It is one of the most aggressive and territorial demons in all versions of Hell, attacking anything foolish enough to enter its domain. Sai's grandparents use the beast as a punishment, throwing any unruly souls into the creatures territory to be quickly, yet painfully destroyed.
"So... You absorbed your cousin's soul?" Bayonetta asked.
"No. It's more like he combined his soul to mine, so I got some of his powers added to my own." I explained as we looked into the distance, seeing the massive bridge we'd have to cross to reach our destination. "I am NOT walking that." I said.
[Oh, come on, you could use the exercise] Shuya's voice rang out in my head.
"I'm a fire demon, I already burn though calories like a hummingbird. And do you have ANY idea how many calories swinging my weapons around burns?" I countered.
"That bridge in these heels? I don't suppose I can call a cab to get me to the island." She said.
"Not likely. And I don't think you can call an Uber in the middle of a busy highway." I said.
Suddenly, we noticed soldiers deploying at the gate in the bridge ahead. "Look alive, people! We have an unidentified vehicle approaching! Close the gate!" One of them ordered.
Turning to the side, we saw Luka and Cereza in a huge armorer car as they sped by us. "Like always, he's causing problems for us." I said before the two of us rushed after the car. I reached it easily, but Bayonetta was indeed rushing past a number of other cars, wasn't going to reach it any time soon. "Huh. And I thought I was supposed to be learning from you!" I teased.
[Something tells me she'll make you eat those words.]
"Doubtful." I dismissed.
However, she soon slid under a truck, turning into her panther form and easily outrunning the truck, getting past the gate before it closed and slamming into and firing a heart-shape into the gate, which Luka slammed the car into, leaving a heart-shaped hole int it, before driving up the car Bayonetta had stomped into and positioned like a ramp, sending us into the air, Bayonetta landing beside me. "Learn something just now, did you?" She teased, to which I slumped in annoyance.
"Show-off." I said.
[You really did walk right into that one.]
"Woohoo! Did you see that!? I told you there was nothing to worry about!" Luka cheered.
"Mummy! Mummy saved us!" Cereza said.
"What!?" Luka asked.
Suddenly, the hatch for the tank-like vehicle opened and Bayonetta popped her head in. "Hello there, Cheshire." She greeted.
"Shit!" Luka said in shock, swerving a bit.
I stumbled a bit as I lost balance from the swerving, stabbing Ghostshade into the car to hold myself in place. "Dammit, Luka, you better not be texting and driving up there!" I snapped.
"Mummy!" Cereza said happily.
"It seems your driving is on par with your journalism." Bayonetta teased.
"I figured I'd beat you to the island! But the guards had another idea, didn't they? Not really my best plan, huh?" Luka said with a chuckle.
"Noo, ya think!?" I shouted.
"You think you've got me figured out, don't you?" Bayonetta asked.
"We journalists have to have some detective skills, you know? You're after a gem stone. And that stone has the be in the Ithavoll Group Building. I'm headed there too." Luka explained.
"How odd. You seem to know where I'm going before I do. Yet you don't seem to know how to drive a car in a straight line." Bayonetta teased again.
"What am I, a chauffeur!?" He snapped.
"Essentially, yes. You're driving the car. That basically makes you the chauffeur." I said.
"Cheshire, do you have any idea what prolonged walking in this salty air will do to my hair?" Bayonetta asked.
"Oh, here we go." I said, shaking my head.
"Well, I tend to use some product when I go to the beach." Luka bantered, running a hand through his own hair.
Suddenly, the army began shooting at us, bullets whizzing past us and missiles just barely missing us. "You need a head to have hair, so duck if you don't want your head blown off." I said.
A missile was coming straight at us with no chance of missing. "Little one! Get down!" Bayonetta ordered, shooting the missile, causing it to explode at a harmless distance from us.
Suddenly, a portal appeared next to us and Rodin rose from it. "Well, seems you guys are having quite the time." He said.
"Rodin?! What are you doing here?!" I asked.
"Well, thanks to all those halos you've been bringing me, I'm racking up quite a fortune back home and getting in good with my partners downstairs. Thought I'd pay you back for it. I've been working on these for a while. Figured now's a good of time as any to give 'em to you." He said, handing Bayonetta a set of gun nunchaku. "I call 'em Sai Fun." He said.
"Oh, really? Well, then, Sai, you'd best start upping your game, or else I may have a new favorite Sai." Bayonetta teased, admiring the weapon she was handed.
I rolled my eyes at this. "Oh, ha ha. And what's my new weapon?" I asked.
Rodin chuckled. "I really think you'll like these. You always have been a gambling boy." He said, tossing me a stack of demonic-looking playing cards. I grabbed a handful and they suddenly glowed an intimidating black and red in my hand.
Asmodeus: A king of demons and master gambler, Asmodeus was known to be unbeatable whenever his hand was drawn... because his hand was always rigged for victory, until he made the mistake of trying to cheat Rodin. Now with the soul of a gambler locked within these demonic cards, more power coming from better hands, the wielder will always find a thrill in battle... if they're willing to gamble their lives.
"Ohoho, this is gonna be fun. I've always had a knack for playing the right hand at the right time." I said, looking at the hand I currently held: 4 of a kind with 4 eights and the 9 of Clubs. (Before anyone says it in the comments, I know you won't ever just draw some of these hands straight from the deck, that's just how the weapon works, you draw a random hand instead of random set of cards you can't just throw down on the table)
[I'd say playing cards aren't the best option, but I sense something special about these. Plus, the Gambit fans must be going wild about right now. That's a step in the right direction.]
"How generous of you, Rodin. But now I'm assuming you're expecting more halos than ever?" Bayonetta asked.
"Hey, you said it, not me. Just put my babies to good work." He said, disappearing down the hole he came from.
"Jeez, even when he's being nice, he's being greedy." I said.
Bayonetta rolled her eyes as well, but decided not to dwell on it. "Put your foot down, Cheshire. I'll take care of our pest problem." Bayonetta ordered.
"Wonderful..." Luka groaned.
"I'm getting the distinct impression I'm not wanted on that island!? But I love it when people play hard to get!" Bayonetta said.
"Alright! Time to test these babies out!" I said, readying my new weapon.
Background Music: "Ace of Spades" by Motorhead
We jumped from Luka's car to the trailer of tow truck where an Applaud and Ardor already awaited us. We moved in to fight, but had to dodge strange energy spheres being shot at us by3 other angels with tubas or some brass instrument, 2 on smaller cars to the front and to the right of the rig we were on and another on an oil tanker a good distance away. "Sai!" Bayonetta called to me.
"I'm on it!" I already said, knowing what to do. I jumped to the small car with the angel on the hood and threw the hand I'd drawn at the angel, getting caught off-guard along with the angel when the cards grew to about my height and where at least 2 feet wide, now laying flat and circling around me protectively, slicing up the angel all the while. It was defeated almost before I figured out what was going on. I was both shocked and impressed, but shook it off, knowing there was still another angel shooting at Bayonetta. It prepared to play another note and launch another energy ball, but I grabbed the 9 of clubs, returning it to the size of a regular playing card, but filling it with demonic energy, at which point I threw it at the instrument, causing it to explode in the angel's face, staggering and stunning it, giving me enough time to jump up and shoot my hand outward towards the angel, the remaining cards surrounding me returning to their normal size, but shooting out like a spear towards the angel, knocking it off the tanker and right in front of it, causing it to get ran over.
With me dealing with her distractions, Bayonetta was free to smack away at the Applaud with her new nunchaku, easily pulverizing it while she loaded it up with bullets. The angel was dispatched in a matter of seconds, allowing her to move onto the Ardor. She was slightly annoyed by the angel's shield, but managed to use the nunchaku to fire downward, bouncing off the trailer they stood on and hit the Ardor in the wrist, forcing it to drop its shield. She then batted at it a few more times before finishing with a powerful kick to the chest, a devastating stomp accompanied with an icy Wicked Kick and another powerful side kicked joined by a Wicked Kick to send the angel flying a few feet before it died in the usual flash of light and scattering of halos. With them out of the way, she leapt to the car in front of the rig where the final instrument-wielding angel was, sending it flying into an exit sign above them and snagging its instrument, jumping back on the rig and onto one of the three armored cars chasing Luka's, each of which had an angel on them shooting at Luka, She jumped to the one right behind the rig and farthest to the right, killing the angel on top with a devastating axe kick, before turning to the left and breathing into the instrument, firing a powerful energy beam that easily killed the angel on the next car, before jumping onto it and then to the last car with the final angel, easily beating it to death with a wild flurry from Sai Fung as well.
We regrouped on Luka's car, but were forced to jump off once again as a number of grid-like lasers were fired at us. "Oh, god, it's RE4 all over again!" I said as we dodged, landing on the road where we faced off against a trio of Joys.
"Another bunch of jealous angels wishing they were as gorgeous as me. We'll have to show you just how far apart you are from the real thing!" Bayonetta said, rushing in at two of them as one vanished and appeared beside me, striking at me with a lunging attack. I did a back handspring to avoid it and jumped towards it, doing a barrel roll towards it with the cards spinning around me, slashing it a good number of times before I raised my hand with my index finger up, spinning it in a circle while lowering my arm, the cards spiraling down around the angel, cutting it all the while, before the 9 of Clubs flew back into my hand, the 4 eights becoming large again and forming a tight box around the angel, glowing with demonic energy as they closed in, starting to crush the angel while burning it with the energy, before I threw the 9 at the improvised crushing chamber, causing it to explode.
I looked at the deck in my hand, flipping it over and checking the cards on the bottom, revealing them to be the cards I just used, recycling my spent hand to the bottom of the deck. "So THAT's how it works." I realized. With Bayonetta, she easily closed the gap between her and the other two Joys, dodging one of their attacks and activating Witch Time, easily dispatching it with a deadly cutting combo with both Shuraba and Odette. With its death, time restarted and the final Joy attempted to strike at Bayonetta with its own whip-like weapon but she easily dodged it, switching back to Sai Fung and landing some painful smacks to the angel with it, before suddenly summoning the wooden horse, bringing out a chain and wrapping up the unfortunate angel, using her feet to push it further down into the spikes and finishing it off with a gruesome kick that forced the spikes even further in.
End Music
Suddenly, a tanker about 20 yards away exploded, thanks to a CAR angel known as an Irenic, causing the tanker to roll towards us. Bayonetta and I both jumped out of the way, the Umbran witch managing to grab an airborne motorcycle and position herself on it. "Time to go vroom!" She said, starting the bike and taking off as I landed back on the road.
[Weren't you supposed to, you know, get ON the bike with her?!] Shuya demanded.
"I'm not getting on the back of the bike like a bitch. Besides, I got something else planned." I said, whistling. Suddenly, a demonic sigil appeared and out leapt a beautiful black horse with a flaming mane and tail, with cracks along his smooth, stone-like bodyfrom which more flames seemed to escape from, as well as its feet which were on fire. And yes, that was feet, not hooves, 3 toed feet that looked like a mix between bird and reptile feet that matched the head of the magnificent creature. It still looked like a horse, but with fiercer features, such as a mouth full of exposed, razor sharp teeth and a horn at the tip of the nose. It trotted up to me and lowered its head as I put my hands up to it, nuzzling me as I stroked its face. "Hey there, Brimstone. It's been a while, huh, boy?" I asked, pulling out a piece of charcoal and the great steed taking it and eating it like a sugar cube as I climbed up on his back, taking a hold of his flaming mane. "Let's see if you've still got it, boy. Hyah!" I said, giving him a small kick in the sides, to which he reared up on his back legs with a might whinny, before galloping after Bayonetta, catching up in less than a minute.
Bayonetta was a bit surprised at this, but soon smiled. "Just when I thought you'd run out of ways to surprise me." She said.
"And I'm riding bareback, so that's pretty impressive, too." I added.
Background Music: "Danger Zone" by Kenny Loggins
We blazed down the road, firing at the angels and armored cars ahead of us with Scarborough Fair and Last Regrets while Brimstone even shot fireballs from his mouth powerful enough to take the heads off the angels. "I've always been a fan of ponies as a girl, but I might actually think about getting one if I could find one like that." Bayonetta said.
"I'd advise against that if you don't mind paying a visit to Hell. That's where I got him." I said.
The angels began to fire back, forcing Bayonetta to occasionally swerve or lean the back damn near on its side to evade some of the attacks while Brimstone dodged their attacks like a champ, firing back some devastating fireballs for good measure. We headed into the tunnels, which the military began to seal off with heavy gates, but Bayonetta managed to slide under while Brimstone and I blitzed through by going mach 20 for split seconds at a time, looking like a massive ball of fire each time.
Joys then began to ride on the Irenics, firing their laser grids again, but we dodged them with matrix level skill, which was even more impressive, considering we were going a couple hundred miles per hour. We kept going, obliterating angels in our paths while dodging any hazards they created or threw at us. We approached a narrower section of the bridge where a Beloved was causing absolute mayhem, picking up and throwing cars and even trying to smash the bridge. "They certainly aren't being subtle anymore." Bayonetta said.
"Now. They're being insane! We're putting a stop to this, buddy!" I said to Brimstone, who grunted in agreement. The beloved ripped the trailer off a tow truck and flung it at us, Bayonetta swerving to the right to get out of the way while Brimstone jumped onto the trailer and ran up at incredible speeds, leaping towards the Beloved, who attempted to swat us between both hands like a fly. "Careful. We're a little too hot to handle." I said as we caught of white hot fire and the hands closed in on us, but we burnt our way through without even slowing down, heading towards the Beloved's head and going completely through like a red hot knife through a stick of butter, landing on the road and continuing without breaking stride.
"For a horse like that? I might just pay a visit to Hell. I got the short end of the stick with the motorcycle." Bayonetta said, a tic mark appearing on her face, clearly annoyed we were showing her up.
"I only wish I could use him more. Can't really ride a horse through a city. Especially when it looks like a terrifying demon dragon horse." I said.
We continued to press on, evading lasers and giant gates while killing the angels in our path, riding through the next tunnel into a massive storm, but even that didn't slow us down. The angels even succeeded and started destroying sections of the road to stop us or slow us down, but we still managed to press on, bringing down a few Beloveds with drive-by slices from Shuraba, Masamune & Murasama and Brimstone's horn, filled with demonic energy to make it more blade-like. We drove through the next tunnel and finally reached the end of the storm, powering through several more miles, angels and tunnels. Things actually started calming down and I was almost tempted to drop my guard. "Get ready! Something could still happen at any moment!" Bayonetta said.
Suddenly, a huge part of the road in front of us was destroyed, forcing us to go down an unfinished roadway. "Dammit! I hate it when you're right. But I hate even more that these angels think this is okay! I'm gonna roast them for that!" I snapped as we made a massive jump from one section of the bridge to another. We kept going, outrunning the sections of the bridge as they kept breaking off and dropping into the water below. We smashed through the roadblocks to stop people from going down the unfinished section and powered forward until we saw Luka's car in the far distance, just across one more bridge we had to pass in the nearer distance, but a Beloved suddenly dropped from the sky and bulldozed the bridge, leaving only the suspensions standing. "Dammit! This is it! Make or break time, Brimstone!" I told him as he grunted in confirmation.
"Give it everything you've got!" Bayonetta, putting as much pressure into the throttle as she could, getting the bike to its absolute maximum, Brimstone and I riding right beside her, defying gravity as we rode completely upside down on the suspension, but managed to stay on all the way, clearing the bridge.
End Music
Finally, we reached the road Luka and Cereza were on, but a Beloved flung another oil tanker at us, which Bayonetta used With Time to drive the bike up and launch into the air, jumping off the bike and twisting to land on Luka's car while Brimstone shot a fireball from his mouth, blowing up the tanker, creating a massive, fiery explosion the demonic horse and I rode through, catching up to the car and riding beside it. "Whoo! Now that's what I call a wild ride!" I shouted excitedly.
[The only thing cooler than riding a motorcycle is riding a demon dragon horse.]
But sadly, our troubles weren't over yet as the angels decided to stop playing around and destroyed a giant section of the bridge in front of us. "Holy crap! For fuck's sake, that's overdoing it!" Luka screamed.
"Right! Turn Right! Get off the road!" Bayonetta ordered. Luka did as she ordered, at which point she jumped into the air and activated Witch Time, freezing the Beloved in mid-air and coming down on him with a devastating Dynamic Entry-like kick, sending him crashing to the bridge below, landing a safe distance away as 6 smaller Beloveds, known as Braves, appeared to fight. "I know you don't want me here, but you really could have been more subtle about it." She said as Brimstone and I trotted up, at which point I jumped off the horse's back.
"Okay, buddy, you did a good job out here today. You go on and get some rest, now." I said, feeding the horse another piece of charcoal before another portal appeared and he jumped through and vanished with another whinny. "You're interfering with the human world now, angels. Before, you were just annoying, but now you're actually turning into a threat. And I'm more than willing to deal with that threat." I said, shuffling Asmodeus as the angels split into 2 groups of 3 and approached us. When the closest Brave was in range with his axe, he swung down at me as I drew a hand from the deck: 2 pair, with twin aces, Hearts and Spades, a pair of 4's, Clubs and Diamonds with the Queen of Diamonds to round out the hand.
Background Music: "Gambler" by Fate
I sidestepped to the right as the axe and threw the cards forward as a spinning wheel of death, slicing up the angel before the cards returned, before launching at the beast again as I shot my hand forward in a spear-like motion, returning once more in a neat stack in my hand. I grabbed the card on top, the Queen of Diamonds and threw it as hard as I could into the angel's head, surrounded by demonic energy, causing it to explode and stun the Brave, at which point I tossed the other 4 cards into the air, letting them expand to a foot long, grabbing the aces as the 4's floated behind me as I rushed in with my arms crossed in front of me. "Two!" I started, swinging outward and cross-slashing the Brave's neck, at which point the aces disappeared and I grabbed the 4's. "Pair!" I finished, delivering a second cross slash to the angel's chest and killing it.
Meanwhile, Bayonetta easily avoided an axe swing from one of the Braves, before kicking and slicing away at the beast with Odette, as well as skillfully smacking away at them with her newly acquired Sai Fung "gun-chucks", cutting beating and shooting the angel all at once to quickly and almost effortlessly putting down the first of her braves. The next one suffered a similar fate, although this time, in the middle of the combo, Bayonetta had swept the Brave's feet from under him, using a Wicked Fist to launch him into the air, beating him even more while wildly exclaiming with each hit as if she was mimicking Bruce Lee, but sounded more like she was making the ridiculous noises from "What does The Fox Say?", finishing it with another Wicked Fist.
Back with me, I drew a Full House with the Kings of Diamonds, Hearts and Spades as well as the Jacks of Hearts and Diamonds. I walked towards the next Brave, waving my hand in front of me in a figure 8 motion the cards followed, slashing the angel in front of me, before I opened my hand, the cards flying around the Brave at the same degrees my fingers were pointed, before closing in and stabbing into the monster multiple times as I bent my fingers inward and extending them out repeatedly. "Full House!" I shouted as the 3 kings circled the angel and shot out fire, lightning and ice from them, hitting the angel with 3 of the most deadly elements while the two jacks rained down bowling ball-sized orbs of magic and demonic energy from them until the angel was finally vanquished.
Returning to Bayonetta, she was now teasing her remaining Brave, not even attacking, simply skating circles around him and dodging all of his attacks, giving the occasional whack or two to its back with Sai Fung. However, after dodging one more attack, she finally seemed to have gotten bored and hit the angel with some devastating kicks and finished it with a powerful Wicked Kick. It seemed to be over, until a Beloved suddenly appeared and attacked her. However, much like the Braves, she dodged the attack with ease, picking up the last Braves fallen axe and rushed towards the monster, easily outrunning his hand as he grabbed at her, running between the monsters legs and doing a 180, now behind the massive beast, jumping at its glowing back jewel and slashing it with immense strength behind the heavy axe, doing massive damage and bringing the beast down in only a few strikes.
Once more with me, I drew my final hand for the battle, a massive smirk growing on my face as I saw the hand, a Royal Straight Flush, a King, Queen, Jack, Ace and 10, all Clubs. I put the cards in between my fingers like Wolverine's claws, only with 2 on the right hand and rushed in, slashing away at the brave and easily staggering him from there, I did a double uppercut combined with a flip kick to daze the angel. before throwing the rest of the deck besides my hand into the air, scattering around the angel and releasing magic lightning to fry the beast and keep it stunned as I landed on the ground and rushed in. "Royal!" I started, plunging the Ace and 10 into the angel's chest where its lungs should be. "Straight!" I continued, stabbing the Jack and Queen into the angel's heart and spleen, readying the king. "Flush!" I finished, stabbing the remaining card into the angel's brain, disappearing and reappearing in a 3-point landing as all of the cards exploded at once, vaporizing the angel. I then raised one hand and the deck reappeared in my hand.
End Music
We finished off the angels and saved Luka and Cereza, but we were trapped on the pieces of the falling bridge, plummeting towards the water below, before an angelic portal opened up and the two of us fell through, the portal instantly vanishing behind us.
Brimstone: Technically, not a summon, but one of Sai's loyal pets that can be magically called to Sai's location at any time with a whistle. Capable of reaching the same temperatures as Sai himself and as fast and strong to Sai as a regular horse to a regular human, capable of running across an entire continent before needing to stop. Sai unfortunately doesn't find many chances to ride his valiant steed, but when he does, they make an unstoppable team.