2015, October 12th, 3:23 PM

Earthquakes, sirens, people fleeing in a panic. It seemed the universe itself tired of Gendo and the twins's game, as it sent Zeruel, the Angel of might, alongside Sandalphon, the Angel of Embryos upon Tokyo-3. Vergil was the first to notice, assuming his Devil Trigger and blazing across the Tokyo-3 skyline in a blue beam of flame. One beam turned into two as a Doppelganger split off from Vergil to intercept Sandalphon, while Vergil himself flew forward to challenge Zeruel. Zeruel sent his paper-like metal arms forward, striking first. The demon quickly raised the Yamato in defence, catching the angelic attack. Vergil and Zeruel clashed in the air, the ground shaking beneath them as the two powerful beings locked weapons. Vergil's blue flames clashed against Zeruel's powerful AT-field, creating a light show that lit up the entire city. They exchanged blows, each one more powerful than the last, sending shockwaves that knocked buildings to the ground.

Zeruel was powerful, but Vergil was relentless. He was relentless, quick, and precise. He unleashed the full extent of his power, sending a barrage of sword strikes and judgement cuts at Zeruel, who was caught off guard by Vergil's ferocity.

The Angel of Might soon found himself overwhelmed by Vergil's mastery of the blade, and with a final strike from the Devil Sword, Zeruel was sent spiraling down to the ground in defeat.

Meanwhile, Doppelganger had engaged in a deadly dance with Sandalphon. The Angel of Embryos was a formidable opponent, wielding the fiery power of the volcano it was spawned from. But Doppelganger was no ordinary demon. He was a shadow of Vergil, born from the Son of Sparda's soul and wielding all of his power. Doppelganger was quick and agile, weaving in and out of Sandalphon's strikes as he taunted the Angel with his superior combat skills. Sandalphon was furious, but Doppelganger was in control, dodging and weaving with ease as he unleashed a storm of sword strikes at his opponent. In the end, Doppelganger emerged victorious, landing the final blow and sending Sandalphon hurtling down to the ground in defeat. Vergil's emerged victorious, through his Sin Devil Trigger and Lilith's blood, Two angels were felled by his power.

3:27 PM

Dante hurried through the dark halls of NERV-HQ, using his demonic senses rather than his sight to navigate. Eventually, he picked up two other demonic presences, he recognized them as Trish and Nero, and one human presence, Lady. Tracking these presences to their source, he found himself faced with three cells, each containing one of his allies. Naturally, he tried using his demonic powers to break the cells and retrieve them. But as soon as Dante tried to smash his way through, he was met with a searing pain. He recoiled, clutching his hand in agony as he looked at the doors. The entire structure of the cell block was specially designed to hold demons. Using bricks infused with holy water, warding him off and preventing him from breaking in.

"What the hell?"

Dante muttered, shaking his hand to try and rid himself of the pain. He had never encountered such a unique defense before. He tried again, but the result was the same. The holy water continued to burn, leaving him no choice but to abandon his attempts to break in. Frustrated, Dante paced back and forth, trying to think of a solution. He knew that he couldn't retrieve his allies without breaking through the cells, but the holy water was making that impossible. He could try to find another way in, but NERV-HQ was heavily guarded and that could take hours. He was running out of time. Soon, the power would be back online and Gendo would be hot on his tail.

Dante took a deep breath and closed his eyes, reaching out with his demonic senses to search for any weaknesses in the cell's defenses. To his surprise, he found one. The holy water was concentrated on the walls, but the floor and roof of the cell were unprotected. Dante smirked as he realized that this was his chance. With a flick of his wrist, Dante summoned his sword and sliced through the ceiling above him, jumping up and crashing in from the roof of the cell. Nero looked up in surprise as the roof caved in, and Dante leapt down, landing gracefully next to the figure on the floor. Dante immediately slung the younger man over his shoulder, being careful as to not hurt him further.

"D-Dante?..."

Nero questioned his saviour, blood spilling out of his mouth.

"Save your strength, kid. I'm getting us out of here."

A short while later, Dante had broken through Trish and Lady's cells and was making his way out, Trish following behind him and supporting Lady as she was injured.

Suddenly, the shadows on front of them constricted and coalesced, and from them came Doppelganger in his true form.

"Don't worry, he's on our side."

Dante stated to his startled allies.

"Get us out of here."

He told the shadowy demon. Doppelganger only gave a nod before the shadows around them swirled and brought them back to the Qliphoth.

"You okay, kid?"

Dante asked, setting Nero down on his feet.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

Nero responded, clutching at his head where his "horns" remained.

"We're missing somebody. Where's Nico?"

Nero questioned the devil hunter. Concern overriding the pain on his face.

"She's fine, kid. I think. Last I checked, The Supreme Bastard didn't have her, and the van wasn't anywhere we could find... Speaking of which, we gotta get you and the girls outta here. You three are in no shape to fight, especially considering what we're up against."

Dante told Nero. Raising his hand to silence any protests coming from the mirror of Nelo Angelo.

At that point, Vergil had landed beside them and shed his devil form. Looking upon Nero, he couldn't help but feel a tinge of guilt for what Urizen did to him. So, with an order to the Qliphoth, Nero's transformation was reversed, earning Vergil a grateful nod from Dante.

"Verge, send em' to the van lady. We need them out of harm's way. What's about to go down is a little too much for them to handle."

Dante ordered his brother, the elder nodding before opening a void and sending their allies into it... Rather forcefully.

3:58 PM

Nico impatiently tapped her foot on the floor of the van as she dialed Kyrie. She had made her way outside Tokyo-3 when those people wearing shades started following her. Everyone else, on the other hand... She wasn't sure about.

"Hello?"

Came a soft voice from the other end of the line. Okay, how to word this?

"Hey, Kyrie. Look, uh, there's something I wanted to talk to you about. It's a-about Nero?"

She said tentatively, gauging Kyrie's response so she would know how much she needed to sugarcoat it.

"Oh, did something happen? Is he alright?"

Okay, so not off to a great start, but-

There was suddenly a rift in Nico's van, and from said lift her friends dropped in like a pile of rocks. From the looks of it, they were all varying degrees of not good. Trish was good enough, Lady was slightly pained, and Nero looked like a corpse on the floor. Yep, there needed to be copious amounts of sugarcoating

"Yeahhh, he's perfectly fine. We're actually, uh, heading home now, believe it or not. See ya there, bye!"

She said the final sentence hurriedly before closing the line quickly and turning to her dazed allies, questioning them about the obvious.

"Right, so. What happened?"

Only Trish seemed to answer her question, as the other two had been unceremoniously dumped by the demoness onto separate couches.

"It's a long story..."

4:03 PM

The power had finally been restored to NERV-HQ. Gendo finally announced that the Children had been taking hostage, withholding anything that would paint him in a bad light while laying the blame entirely on Dante. He also revealed the existence of Vergil and blamed the entire Qliphoth situation on him, using all the ammunition he had to turn all of NERV without exception against the Sparda twins.

Though, there was one person who couldn't care less about who Vergil was, about the Qliphoth or Dante. They only cared about the fact the Children were in danger, and that person was Misato Katsuragi.

Without waiting for orders, Misato deployed NERV ground troops, enlisting help of the JSDF and calling in every last favour she could. No matter what, she was getting the pilots back.

Vergil sent out his hordes from the Underworld, but he made sure that none of them killed any of the humans. They were being manipulated by Gendo, they did not know the full story, they should not suffer. Vergil kept watch over the top of the Qliphoth. However, Dante was preoccupied with setting the Second and Third Children free and informing them of all of Gendo's plans. Rei could not be trusted, she was created to serve Gendo, and right now she was the biggest leverage Vergil had. Looking down, the Darkslayer took a deep breath and jumped down, preparing to participate in the battle. His plan was to capture the combined NERV and JSDF army alive, have Dante inform the Children of the truth, and later everyone in NERV. From there, all of Gendo's forces would be inaccessible and his empire of lies would crumble around him.

The concrete cracked underneath the Son of Sparda's feet and his demonic servants looked to him reverently as he stepped forward to lead the charge. In front of him stood the Lilim army, all of their armaments brought out for this occasion, the buildings being lowered into the ground. Vergil made sure every last one of them had disappeared before giving any orders, he couldn't afford any lives being lost in the crossfire.

The date was:

2015, October 12th

The time was:

4:28 PM

And the War between NERV and the Underworld had begun...

Author's note: We've officially crossed the halfway point in the story. I hope all of you are prepared for what comes next. I'm sure none of you are gonna the plot twist coming.