Chapter 10: The Red Door

Disclaimer: I do not own Devil May Cry.

Behind the red door was a long stairs case that was filled with many Pride Hells, all walking down to meet the son of Sparda as he walked up with a rather bored look. Dime a dozen enemies were too easy when it came to killing and the one thing that Dante wanted was a challenge to quench his thirst for a good fight. Hopefully they'd make it up to him by having the better fighters up top, but then again he might just come across some other pushover that he could beat easily. He raised Ebony and Ivory at the demons, for the first time deciding to stop fighting it stylishly and just mow past them to skip ahead to the good fight. The only problem was that it was incredibly long with just these simple enemies, maybe going so far as to get a Wrath Hell, but it was basically these crummy little Prides. If there was one thing that Dante couldn't stand it was the lack of creativity in these cults started by guys who just woke up one morning and thought, 'hey how about I start worshipping Satan and trying to bring about an Apocalypse.'

"Can't you get anything better than this," shouted Dante as he pulled his sword off from the slips on the back of his coat and brought it down to cut down the two Prides in front of him. "I've been going through here blasting things that seemed creative for the first twenty, but after time it just got repetitive. Now you send me something that I've fought before and already got tired of like ages ago!"

Right as soon as Dante said this there came a whistle from the top of the stair case and Dante moved his head slightly to dodge a bullet that was fired at him. The person who fired the bullet was dressed in a clean black suit with shades, leather gloves, and a sword that looked similar to Red Queen except it had a katana type guard over the handle. Dane smirked as he looked at the shooter and knew exactly what he was saying, 'step on up and have the fight of your life.' He didn't look like he'd disappoint Dante either so Dante started to use his sword and guns as he ran up the stairs, gunning and slashing every single demon that got in his way with ease. An hour later he had reached the top of the stairs to find the stranger sitting in a throne like chair with a glass of wine in his hands, sitting like some type of royalty. The fiery red hair was tied back into a loose pony tail that just hung down without sticking out at all.

"Well it took you long enough, Dante," said the stranger as he drank his wine and just sat there smirking at Dante. "I was beginning to think that you wouldn't show, but then again you never disappoint me now do you. The name is Beelzebub, call me Beelz though, and basically I was made into a dark knight with the sole purpose of fighting you."

"I've heard about you from others, some people warning me about you," said Dante as he started to walk towards the throne. "You aren't the type of person to do this or go along with a scheme like this and you're not your other self or else you would have identified yourself as that. So I have to ask purely out of curiosity, why are you helping them?"

"My client is paying me good money to stop this whole plot," replied Beelz as he looked at his glass with a very casual glance and then he threw the wine behind him to assume a more lively posture. "But I've always wondered how I'd stack up next to you, after all I was kidnapped as a child and transformed specifically to fight Sparda and his offspring. This is just to answer a question that's been plaguing me in my mind for so long that now I find that regardless of which personality is in control I feel that I must fight you. I want to know if everything I suffered was enough to do the job."

"Well then, this seems like an interesting fight, sure why not," said Dante as he pulled out Ivory and fired at Beelz.

Beelz pulled out his own gun, a machine pistol, and deflected the bullets by firing counter bullets that collided with the offending bullets. Both men smirked as their hands went for their swords and on a slight movement, both were lunging at each other with a slash. Beelz did a vertical cut that was deflected by Dante's horizontal cut, but Beelz could easily counter with another quick slash at a vertical angle. Dante, instead of blocking the blade, simply moved himself away from it and hacked at Beelz, who replied by doing the same. Right now they were both just testing each other to see how good they were and soon they would be cutting loose. Just as they were about to really cut loose the top of the tower blew open.

"Damn, he must have already started," cursed Beelz as he started to run, but was stopped by Dante's blade.

"What's going on that's putting you in such a hurry," asked Dante as he looked at the dark and stormy sky.

"He's starting the ceremony right now so he'll be moving off to another place than this castle," replied Beelz in a hurried manner as he started to walk off before being interrupted by the appearance of Nero and Vergil.

"And just who are you," asked Nero as he pointed his gun at Beelz, only to have Beelz grab the gun by the barrel and pull Nero forward to knee him in the stomach. "Right now your most important concern is at the Temple of Ragnarok so if you wish to partake in the fun and fulfill your contract you'll go there."

"Where is Lady," asked Dante as he looked over his shoulder at the other demon hunter.

"She'll be in the bed room past the throne," replied Beelz as he moved his hand to brush away a stray strand of hair. "She's alright, I've made sure that no harm befalls her after all, I and she go way back."

Dante walked over to the room to find that she was in fact in perfect condition lying on a very comfortable looking bed in a very luxurious room that was probably used by the Lord of the castle. He couldn't help but note how cute she looked when she wasn't pointing a gun at his head and took a moment to caress her cheek a bit. Slowly, so as not to wake her up immediately since there was always the chance that it would result in a shot to the head or some failed attempt on his life. This was a futile effort as she was awoken by the slightest touch from Dante, a touch that was so distinctive to her that she could feel it no matter how gentle he tried to be. As soon as Dante tried to pick her up she was pulling a gun out and firing it point blank into his chest. It was far from being enough to kill Dante, but damn did it hurt.

"I see you've been napping on the job," said Dante in a teasing voice. "And here I am doing all the hard work while you're here napping in a comfortable bed with a most generous host."

"Yeah that's because that double crossing bastard Nicholas knocked me out," spat Lady as she pistol whipped him in the face. "Then I woke up to find Beelz watching over me while claiming that I'm bait for you, which pissed me off and made me want to beat his ass again like the first time we met. When I first met him he was crazy and being controlled by his other half calling himself by his full name, Beelzebub-

"Yeah I think you mentioned that once when I asked you why you had a bullet made of gold," interrupted Dante, a bit bored by the repetition of the tale. "You said he would have killed you had he not won out against his other half in the end. There is no need to tell the same story again, just because I was asleep the first time, doesn't mean I didn't look up the notes taken the second time."

"Dante, I've only told this story one time."

"I'm sorry if I'm interrupting your lover's quarrel here, but right now we have other matters to think about," said Vergil in his usual monotone voice with maybe a slight air of something akin to a mixture of annoyance and amusement. "The area he is talking about is a rather long distance so I believe we should be going now."

"Well I guess we have to cut out the make-up sex and we have such a good bed to do it on it really is a shame," said Dante with a casual shrug before being hit on the back of the head with Lady's Kali Anna.

"Pig," she said as she walked on with a blush creeping up on her face.

The area that the Ragnarok was in was mountainous with a winter landscape that had an eerie chill to it that probably resulted from the wind blowing through the hollowed caverns of the Temple. Luckily Beelz was often quick to keep himself warm blooded through his mastery over the element of fire, a gift that he was given for being the favorite of Mundus's little play toys. As he looked at the temple standing in its serene state there in the cradle of the mountains, he couldn't believe that such a temple would be used for the most demonic of intentions. His motorcycle had run out of gas due to his neglect of filling up the tank, instead deciding that he was going to leave it as it is. Now he was walking around in the cold snow, having to continuously circulate heat through his body and clothes to keep himself warm and dry. Halfway to the Temple of Ragnarok, Beelz was blocked in his path by a man holding a large sword with a wide bladed edge instead of a tip.

"Don't worry I have my pass," said Beelz as he held up his case.

"I'm here to punish you for your failure at not killing Dante," said the man as he hefted the sword and transformed into a demonic form that transfused the white robes to its body into skin with a horned face that was adorned by a knight helmet that stuck out into a beak nose.

"Does this mean it's about to be a boring fight," asked Beelz as he pulled out his gun and pointed it at the man-demon transfusion. "I guess you're the welcome wagon of a different sort."

"You fool, you've jeopardized out entire operation with your little games," shouted the man as he lashed out with his large heavy sword that came down in an arc that made a loud sound of sucking wind. Beelz seemed unfazed as he blocked the attack with his own sword being used in one hand and brought up his gun arm to point at the man.

"Chao."