Chapter 108: The Mouth of Strife
As Adrian lay bleeding in the Silver Side of the Mirror, Damon had just barely pulled the Red Queen and Green Knight out of his lungs, landing on the floor of the mausoleum and coughing out blood as blood continuously filled his lungs.
"...YOU BASTARD...!" He croaked, "...I WILL FUCKING KILL YOU...!"
"Oh shut it Damon!" Shouted Nero, "You and Blair didn't stand a chance! Neither did Trish, neither did Lady, nor Bayonetta, nor that useless dumbshit Luka...or even dear old Kyrie..." Damon began to crawl towards Yamato, the tip of the blade still stuck into the floor of the mausoleum,
"So what...you're just going to keep killing everyone that tries to stop you?!" Asked Damon.
"'Everyone that tries?' No. Only the ones who try to keep my from fulfilling my true mission..." Damon peeked back at his father, "...kill Zeus...then take over his little Olympus." Damon shook his head, turned back to Yamato, and began to crawl some more. "Think about it...son..." Damon froze, hearing the tone in his fathers voice change, "...there is always going to be more devils. You know the saying, 'if you can't beat them, join them?' Well, I got a new one; 'join them, then take them over.'" Nero then noticed what Damon was crawling towards, and used hid Devil Bringer to snatch up Yamato and toss it to his normal hand.
"...Shit."
"Believe it or not Damon, I really don't want to kill you," said Nero, with the elder Devil Hunter being sincere. "I wanted to kill Zeus with you by my side...as my son." Damon slowly stood up, turnsd to his father, spitting more blood onto the floor,
"You're telling me you want me to be the Luke to your Vader?" Nero shrugged,
"In a sense, minus the Star Wars crap." Nero then walked to his son, resting the hand of his Devil Bringer arm on his sons shoulder, "Remember what I said a while back ago? Before you went to fight Credo?" Damon looked down at Neros' hand, then remade eye contact with his father as he slowly reached one hand into his ragged pockets,
"'Ninety two percent of rape starts with a hand on the shoulder?'" Nero took his hand back, raising an eyebrow at his son,
"No."
"'Always leave a good tip in the restaurant?'"
"No, but that's good too."
"'Never eat a girls ass after she just got done using the bathroom?'"
"That was Dante who told you that," Nero said, breifly growing annoyed with his son before regaining his composure, "I said 'you can always rely on your family.' That's what I said." Damon nodded,
"You know, you're right..." he said, discreetly withdrawing his hand from his pocket, "...I can rely on my family..." Nero smiled at his son, not noticing the needle in his sons hand, "...the family that isn't blood!" Damon sent his hand forward, stabbing Nero right in his adams apple with the syringe, emptying the contents into his fathers blood stream. Nero shoved his son back, dropping Yamato and clutching his throat with both hands, pulling the needle out in the process,
"What...was that...WHAT WAS THAT?!" Nero screamed, trying to keep control of his convulsing body,
"That was Whitelight," said Damon, drawing out his sawed off lever action shotgun from before, the Old Faithful, out of his coat, "the cure for the Blacklight!" He cocked Old Faithful, and shot Nero in his left shoulder, igniteing it in a firey blaze. Nero screamed as Damon continued, "That was fire of a hellhound!" Neros arm fell off his body completely as he aimed his Devil Bringer at Damon, his fury clear as day on his face, but that kfury turned to shock as Damon cocked Old Faithful once again, shooting the Devil Bringer arm, and feeezing it solid, "That is frost from a frostgiant!" Damon spun Old Faithful around, holding it backwards, and with a powerful swing he brought the gun down on his fathers frozen arm, shattering it. Nero screamed even louder than before, stumbling back from the force, and Damon spun his gun back around, cocking it in the process, "This is thunder..." Damon took the shot, nailing Nero in the crotch, destroying his fathers genetils while sending jolts of violet electricity throughout his body, making his eyes grow wide, ceasing his screaming, and causing him to fall to his knees, "...from 'you don't want to fucking know.'" He then dropped his gun, approaching his father and grabbing Yamato with his own Devil Bringer in the process, standing by Neros' side and lining the sword with his fathers neck, "...and this...is for mom, for aunt Trish, aunt Lady, Bayonetta, Luka, and Blair!!" Damon then felt a new power surge through him, causing his eyes to turn red and green flames to roll off his body, the blue devil-like spirit who once followed Nero now residing behind Damon, and with a ferocious battle cry, he brought the sword back, up through the air, and down with a whish
Meanwhile...
Adrian was lifted up by his throat by his twisted reflection, who still had the Balance Breaker armor, and a smiling Bloody Mary behind him,
"It's almost a shame that Zeus isn't here to witness this himself," she said to Adrian, who was gasping for air as the mirror creature reared back a supercharged fist, ready to punch through the Devil Virus' chest...
"Are you seriously just going to let that imposter prick kill you?" Adrian opened his eyes, seeing his was no longer in the mirror world, and instead he found himself in a pitch black world, no visible features or landmarks of any sort.
"What the hell...?" Wondered Adrian.
"We're more or less inside your head," said the voice, "we began to exist when you turned your back on Rias...when you left your master for a selfish reason..."
"Avenging my friend and mom is a selfish reason?!" Roared Adrian, attempting to form his claws, but to no avial, "M-my powers!"
"Look Adrian, you can keep fighting me, and lose your life to the fuckers that killed the people you cared for..." The voice paused, and Adrian saw what at first he thought was a candle, but as it moved towards him, he saw it was a pair of firey orange eyes, "...or you can be a little selfish, and gain a power you didn't think possible! What do you say?" Out of the darkness appeared a hand, covered in a white bone-like shell, offering a handshake to Adrian. He was no doubt hesitant,
"If I accept this power, can I deactivate it whenever I need to?"
"Of course," said the voice reassuringly, ableit too reassuringly. Adrian glared at the orange eyes, but with little option, he relunctantly stuck his hand out, accepting the handshake...
Adrian caught the punch of the Mirror Adrian, shocking both his dopplegänger and Bloody Mary, and with his eyes shadowed by his hood, he ripped the arm of the mirror creature out of its socket, forming his blade with zero warning and sliced the other arm from Mirror Adrian, then he decapitated the monster, bisected him at the waist, followed with slashing him down the middle, and the creature shattered into oblivion. Bloody Mary took a step back, clearly afraid,
"No...no that's...that's not possible!" Adrian then lifted his blade up, and the blade shifted into a mass of tendrils that shot at the vampire, piercing into her chest and bursting from her back, causing more tendrils to shoot from her body, as well as making her shriek in pain and fear. Adrian pulled Mary to himself, removing his hood, and to her horror, the last thing she saw was two firey orange eyes! Adrian then opened his mouth, his jaw hyperextending, revealing rows and rows of razor teeth, ready to bite, until he caught a glimpse of himself in one of mirrors, seeing the monster that was supposed to be himself, and the orange vanished from his eyes, his jaw reverting to normal as he withdrew his tendrils from the dead Bloody Mary, turning away and vomiting onto the floor out of disgust; disgust at what he saw, and disgust at what he had done,
"What was that?" He asked himself. "What's happening to me?" A portal then opened behind himself, and with no other option, he stepped on through...
Adrian found himself back in the mausoleum, but now he saw the giant lavender bloodstain on the floor, the utterly destroyed carcass of Nero, and finally he saw Damon, the broken Rebellion by his side, the body of Blair in his arms, and tears still staining his cheeks.
"Damon...what...?"
"It was a setup," he answered. "Zeus...he got here before us, and gave my dad the Blacklight." Adrian gasped, and realization hit him,
"He's the one that...!"
"Killed my family? Yeah." He then stood up, still craddling Blairs body, "Grab the pieces of Rebellion. We're going to give Blair a proper funeral." He was about to leave until Adrian stopped him, reached into the coat of the Devil Hunter, and drew out Damons' flask, and a lighter. He walked to Neros' body, dumped the contents of the flask out, lit the lighter, and dropped it on Nero, lighting the body ablaze.
"Now we can go," said Adrian. Damon shook his head as he walked back towards the stairs and out of sight, Adrian trailing him not far behind with the broken Rebellion. Once they were gone however, that was when there was a flash of red and violet lightning, and in the mausoleum appeared Zeus, Vaas and Salem.
"Well...that didn't end like it should," said Vaas nervously, hoping Zeus wouldn't be furious. But the mutated devil simply strode across the room, knowint exactly what he was looking for,
"It didn't...but it wasn't a complete loss," he said, kneeling down and picking up exactly what he was after; that being Damons' missing tooth, "for we have gained the Mouth of Strife!"
"I don't want to burst your bubble Zeus," said Salem, "but that's a fucking tooth. First a finger instead of a hand, now a tooth instead of a mouth. The only thing I know we have plenty of for your ritual is the Blood of Fury, that being your blood."
"Have some damn faith Salem," said Zeus with a sigh, "just have a little faith." He then drew a glass talisman out from his coat; a glass circle with an X through it, and began to speak a latin chant, summoning a new creature before the three villains, with Vaas and Salem falling to the floor, screaming and clutching their ears as the new creature came into full view. Zeus stared up at the tall figure; it was tall, pale, dressed in a black suit, red tie, and shockingly enough, no visible face. Zeus simply smiled at the creature,
"Hello Slender. I could use a little assistance..."
