I'm back

Chapter 27 ~ Dream Evil

The devil stood slack-jawed, the red hunter before him standing tall and proud. It was as though he'd been ripped through time somehow, brought back by an inexplicable power.
His blue eyes were so cold, morose and numb, they were the eyes of pure hatred staring him down, come to reap his soul and kill the vessel in which he colonized.
Mundus, the prince of darkness, felt a tingling spread across the base of his spine and infect his arms and legs, a kind of paralytic sensation that froze his physical form.

"You dare crawl back from the depths of Gehenna to face me? I thought one death was enough." The Dark Lord bitterly spat at him.

Cool and collected, his enemy kept Ivory trained on his forehead.

"What can I say? I'm a glutton for punishment, and besides, there's no more room in Hell. Ain't you ever seen Dawn Of The Dead?" Dante replied.

"If the dead are what you seek, I can take you closer to home!" Mundus said.

Those reanimated that still walked the earth turned their heads and lumbered on at the man, flailing their hoarse voices at him with strange calls and empty recollections.
Stoic, the red hunter stood in place and let the heathens come to him before striking, firing effortlessly into the pack and blowing out their rotting brains one by one.

In the end, none remained, each slovenly corpse given it's final resting grounds by the man in red.
He stood unmoved. There the horned beast flew back down to confront the master's nemesis.
Ulmarag the war-giant came for the white-haired head like rapturous flames to a discordant fuel tank.

The Devil growled and sent his minions to deal with this new nuisance as he dealt with the persistent Manah, a renewed source of aggression come crushing down on his back.

The Sandman swept its claw so perfectly, leaving behind a trail of purple toxicity through the air for each finger, and it grazed his left shoulder.
And Dante felt something stab him, a big black blade attached to an emptied bazooka. Lady's Kalina Ann. Turning, he saw Jester standing off by his daughter, staring him down.
He'd taken the weapon from her and knocked the already-beaten maiden unconscious. That lit a fire inside him, and the devil hunter went off. Lifting one hand, he caught the beast's fist in his own.
Ulmarag stopped instantly mid-air, as though all it's momentum had just hit a monumental brick wall. Slowly, the devil hunter turned his head back at the beast.

He shook it in disappointment, then lifted his pistol for a charged shot, blasting evil straight in the head.
It rocked backwards, bellyflopping into a backflipped face-plant, bouncing off the ground clutching it's horrid face.

"Hey, I remember you, you're that priest-guy with the long speeches." Dante said as he returned to the crooked clown, "That show ended a while ago man, you sure you're at the right circus?"

A loose bone pierced the skin of his palm, driving itself forward and grinding through the skin, then propelling itself like a macabre slingshot, intent to impale Dante.
It struck him, wedging itself in his abdomen. He clutched the bone-spur in his stomach and remarked this was a new trick, but the Sandman returned in full-force now.

It swung at the back of his chest and drove the bazooka further through his body.

The brute force of the beast's arm then swung downward, aiming for his head, but the hunter shifted forward. Avoiding the maneuver, he swung around his blade and gashed open it's throat.
Rolling the weapon back in his hand, he plunged it into the twisted flesh of it's bound chest, then clenched to the right, ripping it out sidewards from the Sandman, then drove his boot through it's side.
It fell away, feeling gutted as it began pulling on shadows to aid itself.

The turn had been so violent that Lady's firearm had been shook loose from him, but it still clung to his new body, catching on a few tendons.
Through his whole body, a kind of energy surged towards the perforation and wired the entire thing shut, then sowed together his classic clothes.

Another of Jester's projectile's had pierced his upper back, and so he twisted himself back the other way, walking forward like an old soldier into fate-less battle.

Resting the blade on his back, mystically held there despite there being no sling on his back, he trudged on and ripped out the spike from his gut.

The clown launched another jagged-edged projectile but the man caught the bone inches from his face.
Without any change in position or posture, his body blurred to the right, and another spike sailed on past him.
One more came, and again he shifted to the left, the demonic harlequin firing again out of frustration.
The ground rustled beneath the hunter, and suddenly his whole figure rushed forward, leaving behind a shockwave as he streaked across the battleground.
Another spike cut his cheek but he did not stop, and with the clown's figure in sight, he drove the shank through its stomach with as much force as possible.

After all, one good turn deserves another.

It spat acid blood, but the man tilted his head off to the side before it could burn him, and the substance flew off behind him. The man seized Jester's neck with his free hand.

Then, he drove the spike he'd caught through Arkham's nose sideways.

The demonic clown screamed horribly as Dante pierced the appendage.

In retaliation, the clown grabbed the merc's throat.

"Time to dance again buddy." The devil hunter said as he grabbed the priest's hand and twisted it behind Jester's underweight body, it's joint's popping and cracking as he twisted.
Ripping the spike out from his upper back, Dante thrust it downwards through the pale hand and into the clown's right leg, pinning it in place to the sound of the Jester's guttural singing.

The Kalina Ann finally dislodged itself and fell out of his back, but the hunter placed his foot beneath it and kicked up the weapon into his own hands.
In one smooth motion, he twisted it vertically, slicing downward across the back of Jester's neck down through to his lower back. A puddle of blood formed beneath.

Instantly, the purple clown began prancing around madly, jumping from the pain, one of his hands utterly destroyed by Lady, the other impaled onto his ass.

He truly was dancing now as the hunter looked on with a smirk.

Lady came to, the knockout only temporary as she saw the man standing confidently before her, bazooka in-hand.

"Hey, babe." He said, impaling the bayonet through the soaked ground, "I missed this."

He picked up Ebony near her.

"I'm gonna have to take this back for a while," he commented.

"I-" She started, but there wasn't anytime, not here and not now.

The man ducked forward as a hulking figure tried to arm bar him, and the winged creature ground it's heels into the mud as it turned and swung back around with a coiled fist.
It connected to the devil hunter's chest and sent the man off his feet, sailing in a tailspin. With one hand outstretched, he caught himself and flipped backwards, facing the Sandman once again.
As he did so, the beast came for him once more, a bulbous monster of twisted flesh. A loud boom cracked through the air and shotgun shells exploded into the beast's back.

Lady stood behind it as it tumbled below and flipped about-face while the hunter twisted himself midair and landed relatively smooth.

They were facing each other now.

Time to face off.

Ulmarag saw fit to launch a dive-bomb punch, swooping around from the right side to get a good vantage on him. The man swung around his left hand and the two crashed their fists together.
A burst of energy rung out as they collided their knuckles, and then came a knee towards Dante's gut as it tried to catch him off guard. The man flexed his shoulder and met the blow with an elbow.
From this new position, Dante struck out with a right hook and caught the beast's ribcage, and a shockwave of red power cracked out through it's other side.
He followed the punch with a soaring uppercut into Ulmarag's jaw, and blood flowed out from the sides of it's mouth as the center was compressed closed by his fist.

Catching his arm with both hands, it wrenched him around to the side and threw the hunter off to the side as it stumbled forward than launched a drastic blow laced with power.

Easily catching himself onto his feet, the man gracefully darted past the beast's arm as it unleashed a giant three-ringed shockwave behind his head.

Drawing both guns, Dante plucked his fingers and shot infinite bullets into it's stomach, charging it's basic cartridge to the point of maximum power.

It recoiled backwards in horrid pain, but it did not cease it's desire to kill, clawing at the hunter's face whenever it could but never reaching.
And when he tired of this, the dark knight's son began to trick-shot at the beast's horned vision, shooting behind his back and sideways.

The beast felt multiple parts of it's flesh rip apart, torn asunder by so many shells at once it was hard for it believe the kind of pain it was truly under.

It was at this stage that Lady sought to enter the fight as well. Running close by, she shot out numerous bucks with the shotgun, blitzing the side and back of this unholy monster.
Dante charged up one shot and pointed the barrel at the ghoul's open mouth, then he fired. The blast silenced it's horrible screams, and sent blood flowing forth behind it's head.
Sheathing both guns, the hunter held out his left hand, with Dante propping his arm for Lady. She leapt up and her foot landed on his palm, so he sent her flying through the air.
The beast's wrangled body flinched and it came forward with a blood-drenched fist, but it only met the hunter's open grasp as he moved in and clasped his arms around the backside of the beast.
Beneath it's wings, and over it's neck, he gripped tightly and held it in place as Lady soared through the air, falling straight down down with the bayonet of her rocket launcher.

The weapon came down through the left side of it's collar bone and tore through to it's already damaged pectoral.

She flipped forward over it's wings and landed rather roughly, falling forward and stumbling quite a fair degree as Ulmarag instantly broke Dante's hold with a scream.
Electric sparks raged around both of it's hands and then a giant wave of crimson energy exploding from the Sandman's body. Indeed it was strong, so strong it knocked back it's mortal foe.
The devil hunter and Lady were forced back quite a fair margin, Dante maintaining his same balance while Lady was knocked fully off her balance. The Kalina Ann remained lodged.

Dirt rocketed up off the ground and spilled everywhere as Dante stood his ground and pushed past the raging energy.

Grabbing the protruding end of the bazooka, he wrenched it down and the Sandman widened it's eyes.
Glaring down, it fired off a spectral beam of green plasma from it's left eye into his chest and the two parted ways.

Turning out of pain, the Sandman tried what it could to pry the machinery from it's chest. It struggled seemingly for an eternity, but Lady grabbed the shotgun once more.

She doubled back around and shot another round into it's chest, forcing the Kalina Ann further into it's broken form. It let out an inhuman wail, "Aaah-ah-Ourh!"

It grasped at the resilient weapon in vain, trying anything to just wrestle itself free. Dante followed that method with a vicious dropkick at the launcher's butt, digging it deeper into the hellish monster.

Once the creature lost its balance, it was ready to topple over, and Lady wasn't sure what to do next. It growled and thrashed violently, blindly.
The Sandman slammed it's fists together and threw wild punches all around as unfocused nightmares grew to reality, and the world around them shifted.
Lady was thrown forward far away, rolling on her back then out of control as she ended up on her stomach again . . .

"God damn it! You'll pay for that!" The beast screamed in agony disappearing behind smog slowly rising.

Soon they were engulfed in the swirling world of the demon's dark business, and figments of destructive imagination emerged, twisted out of their dreams.

A twisted version of Sparda rose from the ground made of black mist and it moved towards it's 'son' Dante. It thrust forward a pulsating red limb sprouting from it's shoulder.

The hunter grabbed Force Edge off his back and darted around the lancing limb, bashing the handle into the jewel on his 'father's' forehead.
It shattered and the manifestation ceased as it broke apart into dust once more. More figments rose, made of dust and ensouled to his end.

He didn't honestly have time for this.

Dante's eyes glittered red as he chanted to himself, "Dyr fra havene: kom frem . . ." and he spoke a mental thanks to Modeus, his body preserving those same exorcist powers.

He placed one hand forward and a separated fog erupted outward from it. Creating a tall silhouette twenty-feet-high, in mere seconds a new demon appeared.
It had almost a humanoid torso, and only the bottom half of a face, the top was covered with a dark blue crystal, a frozen flame made of basic carbon somehow.

It bore armor as well, itself a war giant of old also. Dante dropped his hands and it seemed as though the ginormous beast was about to bring the sea upon them within seconds.

The monster opened it's mouth and brought a tsunami-like wave, it crashed louder than the explosions in the quarry and the water washed down upon the cathedral.
It was as thought the entire place was no more substantial than an architect's scale model abandoned on the sands of time, left to sink into the doomed surf.

Mundus and Manah broke from their conflict and saw the oncoming storm.

Overwhelmed with disbelief, the devil stated to himself flatly, "What's this."

Lady saw the approaching waters and closed her eyes, covering her head with her arms. But the force never came. She opened her eyes and saw Dante standing in front of her.

With his back turned, he held out his hand and forced the water to divide itself around them effortlessly. He turned his head back and smirked, "Music to my ears."

The waves were incredible, it was the extinguishing of a dream, of a way of life, easier than wet fingers on a candle flame.
Ulmarag was suffering just to keep himself held together, he needed a way to restore himself somehow. The still-suffering Jester was washed away with the seismic floods.

And the flood swelled with the rains unto the blackened earth, filling the city ever so slowly.

The heathen then went to war with the Sandman, and the Jester was lost from this desecrated gravesite, burnt and torn cadavers spilling onto the streets.

The waters ran red with human, demon, and wolven blood still spilt by the forces of darkness, the hordes unleashed by the Devil carried on their way.

And when the brief oceans had cleared their existence, all that was left were the few remains of a burnt church and some tree stumps.

Mundus washed across the dirt, and he quickly stood up to find himself beyond the cemetery gates. Walking back inside, the dark lord stumbled upon his dry 'twin.'

And here they came to stand opposite one another. Dante was a cruel one, and Mundus would know.
They stood in opposition of one another again for the second time now, a bizarrely twisted world.

"How much longer are you going to prove yourself a nuisance in my view?" The Devil spoke haggard.

"Bout the same amount of time you spend talking. Which, in my estimation, is gonna be . . . Ooh-" Dante looked to his wrist where that was no watch, "About forever and always."

'Vergil's' face twitched and he let out a giant roar as he charged forward. Dante didn't stop to think either.

He drew the fallen sword in his right hand and lunged off from his feet toward the demon king.

They came together in a violent clash. Force Edge flicked out and found the gap between Vergil's midsection, drawing an insignificant cut through clothes and across the skin.
It was just a surface cut, but it was enough to make Mundus divert the flow of Vergil's judgment cut to parry Dante's brute force thrust aside. The blades clanged off one another.

Dante snarled, his face suddenly suffused with scarlet anger, making an old scar stand out white against his cheek.

Recoiled, they slammed their weapon's back again. The demon king felt the jolt of it in his shoulders and chest, and his arm went numb in a tingling wash of sensation, from fingertip to elbow.
Slicing across a dramatic field, the Devil sprung his appropriated weapon as fast as he could, yet Dante matched him blow for blow, the singularity of the rivalry taking it's absolute toll.

Striking downward, the hunter merely met him with an upward swipe, and then a crushing strike in the opposite direction that loosened Mundus's hold.

Raw power flowed from their bodies and the darkness that flowed forth from the devil infected the bloody soil, and when their blades clashed again, a giant shockwave rung out.

Lady sat up and observed the fight wordlessly.

Dante was amazing even in death, and the way he swung his blade around so gracefully reminded her of old times again.
How the world has changed . . . This world was wrong, changed by something, an indomitable will guiding the course of events skewered off-track somehow.

Slashing and colliding three times from side to side then up and down, Dante twisted around in a circle and guided his furious blade at the Yamato's edge, this time bringing an added friend.

He drew Ivory and fired off a solid slug into the Devil's shoulder, staggering Mundus backwards as he fired again and struck his brother's blade.

The katana flew off somewhere behind him.

Summoning swords, the ethereal blue erupted outward in a scourge, flying at Dante with such rage as to slaughter all humans, creating distance enough to at least breathe.
The hunter dashed back and employed the use of his royal guard to cover himself, the blades striking an invisible shield of mania like rough glass as they contact with him.

The demon king claimed the Katana once more and struck with straight-forward slash. The hunter met the slayer's downward motion, holding the blade over his shoulder for momentum.

Sparks flew on this one, and the identical men parted striking different poses before they moved back into fluid motions.

Feeling a thrill at the contest, Dante adopted an overhand approach, trying to hit the top of Vergil's crown.

Mundus feinted with Yamato, letting the Force Edge cleave through open air as he planned his next attack, maneuvering his way around his enemy's offense to seek an opening.

Dante charged forward as reckless as ever, his brutish combat style accentuated by the Force Edge's raw power, and red foggy light erupted from his strikes with each precise movement.

Mundus gathered himself, playing the defense game till he saw his opportunity, then leapt into the air, pushing himself through the hunter's onslaught of ruthless slashes.
Bringing Yamato diagonally at Dante's shoulder proved ill-advised. The metal clanged off the barrel of the crimson merc's pistol, and he subsequently felt a stabbing pain overcome his chest.
Flying backwards off his feet, the prince of darkness felt lacerated across his entire front from Dante's upward slice.

He fell so silently, this beholden rage burning up his flesh, Mundus couldn't bare this any longer.

A metallic blue light emerged around them both as the dark prince sheathed Yamato within it's quiver once more.

Charging with cruel intention, the Devil released a massive field of cyan-colored destruction, raining luminous pillars at all angles cutting through the dimension itself like it were a fractured mirror.

The seismic gashes through reality broke through the fabric of space time and distorted Dante's perception as he found himself impaled and gutted through by the cosmic beams.

Mundus pushed back with all his might and succeeded on harming the insistent hunter.
The devil screamed as he began to release massive bursts of purple spheres after his vessel's brother.
Dante's ragged body sailed through the air almost majestically as he intuitively dodged.

With every attack missing, a bloodshot Mundus grew more and more frustrated, and he sought to close this newfound power gap somehow.
His demonic powers flashed out of him, clothing changing as he triggered Vergil's inner demon and utter gruesome growls for the flesh of his fallen enemies.

Teaming with a strange vivaciousness, Dante only matched the man's strength, but remained human to do so.

Rocketing around, the hunter launched himself in too many directions too quickly and Mundus had lost track, making it difficult to land any fatal blow on him.

This bastard was stubborn and strong-willed, and Mundus expected no less from the son of his dreaded betrayer. In a blur, the silver-haired man's boot crunched into the dark prince's jaw.

Instantly, he felt air pass by and then his back hit the ground.

So much speed and power, Mundus didn't even see it coming.

His demonic visage fell away as soon as it appeared.

The melding of a soul as strong as Dante's turned even Modeus's weak body into an insufferable powerhouse, yet Mundus, whose vessel was his own general, had failed to become godly.
If only he had the Qliphoth's fully grown fruit's once more, he could consume it's contents and regain what power he left behind in the demon realm. His fists clenched at the memory.
How far he had fallen, how mighty he once was, now fading to become a dying god come into human flesh. The fragment's of what used to be were supposed to build his new empire, not burn him.

He stumbled back to his feet, Yamato shining. Judgment cut would end his doubt.

Dante predicted the shots easily, driving forward his blade the Force Edge as it became apparent that Mundus was too slow for him, another great disturbance.
How much time had he wasted on this plan? How many grueling hours, days, months, years had he spent plotting this to the minute detail? Nothing was left to chance.

Mundus swung upward with his katana, slicing a fallen gargoyle in place of Dante, it's stone pieces falling unto the ground.

Every time he'd come close to overtaking his enemies, the ones he hated most, this dreaded lineage would always come back to haunt him. Sparda and his children.
The anger that broiled away in the pit of his stomach wasn't even close to the wrath he could inflict if he could just still wield the Force Edge itself, now cursed from his grasp.
If only there were some way he could turn the tables again, a manner through which he would in fact destroy this mongrel . . .

Once he turned, his face met with a gloved-fist, and his head rocked back. Dante bashed his father's handle against the dark prince's temple and knocked him around senseless.

The devil found it humiliating as the small of his back met with the devil hunter's knee, and he lurched forward onto his knees.
Out of spite, he turned round slashed at Dante's knees, but the exorcist simply switched sides, disappearing in a blur from one place to the next.

Emerging right behind him Dante redrew Ivory and shot a bullet into his throat.

Choking, the dark prince grasped at the wound and fell on his left hand to prop himself up.

The rain continually poured and the thunderous winds howled evermore.

A bone spur flew through the air and struck Dante in his chest. The blue-eyed hunter looked up and saw Jester once more, beaten and sore but still capable.
Arkham snapped his fingers and a gigantic ball slammed down from the sky, materialized through dust and human remains. A sickening face like his own adorned the giant object.
Smiling crudely, the object pulsed and bulldozed forward, flattening both the master and the hunter like bowling pins in a desecrated alley.

'Vergil's' face flattened itself into the ground as the clown came to his side, the object buying perhaps a few seconds of relief from the looming Dante.

"Come master, we must fallback, they have the advantage!" He said, shifting back into his scarred priestly visage.

Mundus glared back up at him, his sclera turning black and his iris scorching themselves blood red.

Stepping back, Arkham felt fear drip down his back, and without warning the Devil attacked him, tearing apart at his body and consuming the meat of his sinful vehicle.
Ifrit made it easy to rip away, and the consuming of his body transferred necessary power and nutrients. The insolence of an interventionist attack that also crushed him into the ground earned ire.
Lady watched terrified, her father used for food as Mundus regained visible strength and turned his fury upon those that surrounded him, an insane look on his face.

Dante sliced through the ball cleanly, and it soon withered back into nothingness.
He held a unique reaction to witnessing this cannibalistic feast.

"Jesus Christ!" Dante said, "Aren't you the hungry hippo."

The devil king merely roared at him, yelling obscenities in a dark language unknown to most.

"Yeah, yeah, I hear ya." The hunter said, "Ich Glocma to you too, pal."

And he launched immediately into a stinger, receiving a flurry of summoned swords and a forward slashing-dash attack towards his mid. The explosiveness of his foe's new energy was unforeseen.

They battled hard, and with the absorbed energy of Arkham, the dark lord now cleared a level of strength close to Dante's.
A blinding display of rapid slashes and clashing blue and reds created a hellish temperature through the coldness of the night sky.

Still this devil couldn't hack the hunter to bits, falling at every step and wrangling lead feet to cooperate with his demands. Forsaken from his own power, Mundus was forced to make due.

There within the rain, their blades splashed water in waves and shook the ground beneath their weight.

And still it wasn't enough. Dante dodged backwards from an impaling jab, placing one hand on the ground and lifting up the rest of his body for a kick to the stomach.
He placed all his weight behind it. Leaving the ground, Mundus bounced up and landed roughly, struggling to maintain any kind of semblance of superiority over his blinding anger,

The master struck left and was met with a crashing blow rightward that nearly ripped the blade from his hand, which was followed by a lightning-quick roundhouse to the face.

Spinning around off his feet, he fell on his knees again, Yamato serving as a crutch as he pushed off quickly to his feet, facing away from the hunter.

But, as he turned, Mundus was suddenly staring down the twin barrels of a very crude shotgun.

The gun shouted in his ears and spit fire at his chest. Staggering back, he clutched his chest as Lady broke the gun open, reloaded, and snapped it back shut.

"Vile creature!" Mundus bellowed, eyes cold he addressed Dante, "I will kill you again."

"Make my day." The man replied.

Lady unloaded again, this time missing as Mundus twisted himself out of the way, spinning on his heels.
He came forward and tried to stab her through the gut, but a well-placed bullet from the side sent the blade past her side safely.

"Grr- Damn you!" The dark prince yelled, strengthening his grip on the blade as Dante lifted his leg up and placed a timed heel-kick downwards into the side of 'Vergil's' face.

The Devil staggered off further to the side and away from Lady, whom Dante shoulder behind him.

"Stay back." He addressed his old friend, cool and collected.

Dante parried and deflected a two-strike fence from his enemy, stabbing Mundus in his upper abdomen, the pain stinging him deeply.
The devil let out a beastly growl and batted away a series of followup sword swings from him, growing visibly more insane each time.

"So, I piss you off this much huh?" Dante laughed, his voice a bit hoarse. "It's like you were never possessed to begin with!"

Mundus regained his composure.

"Tell me, boy! Are you willing to live with the guilt of killing your brother?" Mundus growled. "There's no victory here."

Dante ran his hand back through his hair.

"Ah, but that's not why I'm here, old man!" He paced slowly towards the big-bad, "I'm just gonna kick your ass out. It's like a cleanse but you wake up in hell."

Mundus walked backward and felt himself touch another toppled gargoyle.

But the Sandman returned, bringing with itself the renewal of energy stolen from the summoned sea giant.
Ulmarag was in much better shape than it had been, expressing an intact sense of vengeance and healed countenance."
With the beast came a horde of wolves.

"I bring you the gift of pain." The Sandman said through gritted teeth.

"I bring you the gift of eviction." Dante replied.

Dante practically skated across the slippery mud to the nearest dog, bringing Force Edge around like a scythe as it's head soon rolled.
With his weapon flashing reflective light, the man released forth chaotic crimson destruction. They were such elegant, wide swings.

Three of them, one after another.

A majority menagerie of wolves dropped like a bunch of dolls, spurting thick torrents of red blood that crystallized as it touched the ground.

He launched himself at the second group, driving the barbed point of his blade like an insect stinger into human flesh. There wasn't a single thing he didn't flatten.

He spun and cocked his sword back on his shoulder.

"Ha! Showtime." He chuckled, releasing his relaxed blade on an encroaching wulver, letting it dice like a propeller's blade.

It spun there for a few seconds, then he casually strode closer and came sailing forward across the ground bringing more chaos.

He cut his way through the forces of darkness till he reached that which he sought to destroy, the beast Ulmarag.

. . . The darkened place, life spinning away, flying away, floating and falling . . .

Time passing. Darkness, and fragments of a thousand memories, circling the drain, balling into focus for a brief glimpse through a cracked lens.
He was a child at the beach with his mother, the taste of salt on the cool wind. He was a cold and calculating teenager, in love for the first time with the idea of gaining power.

A strong devil lord he would make, becoming that which other demons feared as Mundus had forced him to become;

A new and renewed person, meeting Patty and forming an unlikely bond with her, a small girl of all people.

Meeting Lady and getting closer to her, growing feelings toward the insane mercenary, growing to enjoy her . . . perhaps a little too much.

Darker now. The day he was taken from this realm by force and not a soul was there to save him.

Darker still. The day Dante died and he was a lost boy again, all over Fortuna trying to reclaim his body.

A one-sided Lover he had used and betrayed, for his own personal gains. People who died, because he wanted to move forward with his plans inside Temen-ni-gru

Feelings of loneliness and abandonment eating him alive very slowly.

There was no doubt that his very soul was torn apart. Insanity.

"Forgive me . . ."

And he heard it, a muffled voice that seemed like a ray of light in the middle of this madness.

"I'm just gonna kick your ass out. It's like a cleanse but you wake up in hell."

Dante

Dante's voice

He couldn't hear anything again . . . Left to madness. Rotting.

What was real anymore? This shadowy realm in where he was none, no one, nobody at all, it destroyed his mind and brought him misery upon misery.
His complete soul was crumbling, agonizingly slow.

"Just . . . Just let me die." He spoke coldly.

. . . Those things that should never be were now all that they beheld, and the truth held only lies for them all . . .

An explosion of power and the flowing energy from within the Sandman, Ulmarag, leeched itself through Modeus's brand, now claimed by Mundus the dark king.
And all that he'd given and all that Ulmarag had acquired soon became his own and merged into his power, the hand of darkness absorbing power not his own.
It was a shame that the Sandman had let itself believe the master was still on it's side, as it too soon became a sacrifice to the master's desire for more power.

Though it still lived, it's wing's vanished, and from Vergil's body's back sprouted black wings of a raven, before a massive burst of crimson energy engulfed him, and soon he had triggered his devil.

The beast's power merged into the devil's body, it flew far away in the sky and made way for the city once more, seeking to reunite with the giant he'd summoned and end this war once and for all.

Silence dominated the area, yet he could see Dante's dead-serious face screaming.

"Get back here!" The devil's hunter boomed, "You haven't suffered enough."

He saw the demonic cycle nearby the entrance, the one used by Lady to return here, and he ran for it.

Dante jumped on the motorcycle, the hum of it's power emanating throughout it's powerful engine.
Immortalized, the mercenary swung his leg over the pillion, and with a pane-shattering roar, the powerful machine zoomed to life, pushing him forward ahead to his goal.

He sped through the streets, yelling after the mad devil king for his blood, the one subject he was always serious over.

Now it was time to purge the darkness from the back of his borrowed mind, calling upon a spell of night so that he could see demonic trails.

The resurrected Cambion rode Cavaliere out to the bitter end of this war no man was safe from, intent to reclaim his brother.

To Be Continued

Hey everyone, I know it's been a while, but here it is.
Definitely think you guys will enjoy this one, it was quite a bit of fun to write :)

Alright, so you can probably tell that we're near the end of this story arc, very much a well earned wait, I think.
Took long enough but we're here, this is kind of the penultimate battle, just before the big boss.

Over all the experience on working through this entire plot arc through this second season's been incredibly challenging but in a good way. We've both grown as writers!

To answer some guest questions, Trish is out for good. Definitely not going to see her again, I wanted an encapsulated story for her.
Yes, Dante was planned as returning, whether it'll last or not . . . eh, just wait and see guys ;) it's all part of the fun.
And to go along with that theory you mentioned StableGenius TR, here's a hint as far back as chapter 16, the quote by the old man:

"They say it isn't even about where they died, nor even where they lived. It's much simpler than that. They simply stay near what they loved."

Dante's kinda been here since that chapter, ever since Vergil felt his presence and came to no injury when he fell from the sky, he's been lookin' out in spirit.
Of course, there was also Mundus, he was the other passenger there since the very first chapter, but yeah, that's the whole point. Vergil's not alone in this.
Modeus already had the will of Sparda, and since Dante weilded the Force Edge for so long, a part of his soul was more than likely retained within the blade.
Vergil holding it would have strengthened this bond, so Dante emerged through Modeus back into the human world, or at least what's left of Dante.

Mundus is my favorite character to have written so far, he's the perfect blend of creep and dark humor, I'm very happy about how he turned out.

Thanks for reading, guys. Hope more people will come around to this too.