Sorry for the long wait. I got caught up in planning a few things out for college and all. Man, feels strange now that I've chosen my classes and am now officially a college student. Looks like it's time to enter the real world now.

Anyways, here is the next chapter and I hope you enjoy.

NOTE: RIGHT AFTER THIS CHAPTER, I WILL BE WORKING ON THE NEXT CHAPTER TO MY OTHER MAIN FIC (TO FIGHT A GOD), BUT ONCE THAT CHAPTER IS DONE, I WILL BE WORKING ON THIS FIC UNTIL IT IS COMPLETED SO EXPECT ME TO UPDATE DEVIL APOCALYPSE MORE OFTEN AFTERWARDS.

Chapter 12

Dante sighed as he surveyed the mall. There really wasn't much else for him to do as Takashi and the others have taken to keeping to themselves for now, looking through the stores to stock up on supplies.

"Is this still good, Saya-san?" Kohta asked, holding up a pack of meat up to Saya.

"The power failure occurred yesterday! Just check the expiration date and make sure it doesn't smell," Saya answered.

Dante eyed the two with amusement. He may have to wait until they all explored the mall a bit so that he could talk to Takashi for a while, but at least he had some entertainment in the form of these two to keep him occupied.

"Hey, hold it right there!" They all turned to see a middle aged man pushing a cart, dozens of items in it. He was one of several survivors that Dante and the others have run into at the mall. Seeing as they have been there before Dante and the others showed up, they have already come up with some rules to abide by, something that the man made obvious now. "We already decided to dry or smoke all of the raw meat and fish. Don't keep all of that to yourself."

Before the man could continue with his lecture, someone else showed up. "Wait just a minute, Shimada-san!"

The man, Shimada, turned to see a short, petite policewoman pointing at him. "Oh, it's you," he said gruffly.

"Those kids got here yesterday! They don't know about the rules that Asa - I mean, this officer and the others have set!" The policewoman tried to glare at him to solidify her point, but seemed to fail at that. Then, much to Dante's amusement, the policewoman began to flail her arms about like a little kid. Dante had to wonder if she was fresh out of the police academy or something. "Besides, um, you need to finish gathering the food quickly. It will be a lot harder without the help of the skylights."

Shimada looked ready to argue her point, but he held his tongue and went off to complete the task.

Kohta rubbed his head sheepishly. "Thanks."

The policewoman smiled. "Tokonosu Higashi Police Station's Traffic Department, patrol-woman Nakoaka Asami, at your service!" the policewoman, Asami, introduced herself.

Kohta got a strange look on his face that didn't sit well with Dante, who was surprisingly quiet at the moment.

Saya on the other hand, wasn't one to be affected by Asami's cheerful intro or Kohta's face. "So? With everything that happened yesterday I forgot what you told us, but are you the one who organized everyone here?"

Asami flinched nervously. "No, um, it wasn't Asami. It was Matsushima-senpai who guided everyone here."

Saya took several seconds to dwell on that bit of information. "And where is that person now?"

"Oh, it was safe here so she went back to headquarters to get support..." Asami said, gesturing for no apparent reason. "That was yesterday afternoon."

At those last words, Dante, Kohta, and Saya all shared a look with each other. Asami noticed their expressions. "Don't worry! Matsushima-senpai is different from Asa - I mean the police officer standing here now. This one's still in training, but senpai's gotten a lot of honors and is a real veteran! She'll definitely come back with support!"

Just then, another one of the survivors came by. "Hey police girl! Let's start today's meeting!"

Asami, flustered, began to break out into a jog. "Ah right, right, right! She's coming!"

Saya stared intently at Asami's retreating form. "Something's fishy about this whole thing, ain't it kid?" Dante whispered to her.

Saya nodded. "She's hiding something..." she whispered back.

She would've said more, but Takashi and Alice took that particular moment to appear. Alice rushed over to Kohta and gave him a high five as a way of greeting. Takashi, who had a carefree expression a moment ago when Alice was with him, now had a more serious expression. "The entrance was securely blocked off."

"With a veteran police officer around like they had before, it makes sense for them to have a good barricade set up," Saya responded, having figured as much from the get go.

"By the way, about the guns we hid, well most of them..." Takashi commented, him and Kohta having stashed away the guns in some hiding spots to avoid making the survivors panic. This was an action undertaken by them that Dante and Lady didn't take part in, something that originally annoyed Saya as she knew it wouldn't end well. So far though, the survivors didn't seem to be too nervous around the duo.

"The people aren't as settled as my papa's subordinates were," Saya commented, "it's actually a bit of luck on our part that they haven't begun to lose the little calm they have with this guy around," she said, pointing at Dante. She glared at him, but the devil hunter simply shrugged it off.

"Well, we don't want the guns to be stolen," Takashi pointed out. He looked at Dante and then remembered the fight. 'Then again, with him and that girl around, I doubt they'd try anything," he muttered.

Dante heard him and snickered. "Yeah, kid, I'm sure those people would be all over me trying to get to my babies," he remarked with a roll of the eyes as he patted the spots in his coat where his guns were.

Saya copied his roll of the eyes gesture, proving that she can still be easily annoyed by Dante. She shifted her attention onto Kohta, who was talking to Alice. Noticing that he hadn't been paying attention to what they had been talking about, she was quick to remedy that by pinching his ear tightly.

Kohta yelped in pain before turning around to face Saya. "D-did I do something wrong?"

"Don't let some little kid distract you," Saya said to him.

Letting go of Kohta's ear, she motioned for Takashi, Dante, and Kohta to get closer together. "Anyway, this place isn't going to last long."

"What do you mean? They have plenty of food and water," Takashi said.

"The foundations holding the group together have fallen apart. This healthy environment they have is going to sour fast. The fresh food they do have is already starting to go bad." She paused for a brief moment. "And," she started to say reluctantly, "if those... demons decide to attack, given what we've seen of them so far, they'll have no problem getting through the barricade and into here," Saya explained, feeling weird to have to say the word demon.

"Well if we move the toilets to the roof and go to the bathroom as though we're camping, we might be able to make do with using vinyl sheets or something to collect water into..." Takashi began to say before drifting off, trying to think of what to say next.

Alice chose this time to speak her mind. "But there are a lot of people here, right? I know from experience that if water isn't running, we won't be able to use the showers and we'll get dirty and get sick!" she said matter of factly.

The group gave her odd looks except Dante who chuckled at their expressions; they had just been schooled by a kid and that cracked him up.

"Why is this kid trying to get involved?" Saya yelled to no one in particular.

"Saya-chan, your voice is so loud that I could hear everything anyway," Alice retorted with a laugh. Zeke seemed to find the situation funny too by barking.

"Don't call me Saya-chan! It's Saya onee-sama to you, brat!" Saya furiously exclaimed to Alice, pinching her cheeks with as much strength as she could muster.

Dante laughed. "You know for someone that's supposed to be the next Einstein, you sure are dumb, kid, to be schooled by her," he said in between short bouts of laughing.

Saya whirled on him. "You shut up!" she yelled comically, which only served to make him laugh more; Dante couldn't help but wonder what it was about her that made him enjoy moments like these so much.

Saya growled in frustration, knowing that it was pointless to get Dante to stop. "Anyway, you guys go find some stuff we can use! And make sure it's stuff we really need because we don't want to get that other group all riled up!" she shouted at Takashi and Kohta.

Both boys nodded and made their way towards the escalator. As soon as they were about to make their way up, Dante remembered something. "Oi, ki- Takashi," he called out, deciding that it was time for him to get a little serious and actually use Takashi's name. When Takashi turned to face him, Dante spoke again. "When you're done looking, come to the roof. We gotta talk about something."

Takashi looked interested at what Dante had to say. Besides, this had to be the first time he's ever sounded so serious, so whatever it was that he wanted to talk about, it must be important. He nodded to Dante and turned back to go up the escalator.

As soon as they got to the top and rounded the corner, Kohta moved a bit closer to Takashi. "What do you think he wants to talk about, Komuro?" he whispered.

"Don't know," Takashi replied. His eyes narrowed as he noticed that Kohta seemed to strongly dislike Dante judging by how he had said 'him'. He was tempted to ask Kohta why he seemed to be so against Dante, but decided that he could ask him about that later. "So what should we do first?" he asked, changing the subject.

"Should we try talking to that police woman?" Kohta suggested. "She seems unreliable, but it looks like she knows all of the stores here."

Thinking of Asami, Takashi sighed in relief. "I'm glad we hid the guns." Looking at Kohta's confused expression, he continued on. "I just don't think it'd be a good idea to carry around weapons with her around. Dante and Lady seem to be an exception, but then again they're adults so maybe she just trusts them since they're older than us."

Kohta took in this bit of information. "There's only so much we can do without them though," he said before getting a sheepish look on his face, "well, at least for me and the others. You can do much more than us since you're much stronger and faster than you were before your... little change," he said, not knowing exactly how to word it.

"Yeah," Takashi said, rubbing his chin in contemplation. He was amazed at how fast he had come to adjust to his new situation. His change, the demons, meeting Dante and Lady, his apparent relation to Dante, it was all a lot to take in and in such a short amount of time too. Takashi was astounded at how well he seemed to be handling. There was no doubt in his mind that if anyone else had been in his position, that person may have just lost it.

He was caught up in his thoughts so much that he didn't pay attention to where he and Kohta were going until he heard Rei calling him. Looking up, he saw a rather stern expression on her face. "Oh, this should be wonderful," he muttered, not liking the look one bit. It didn't exactly help his mood when he saw Saeko standing next to her with a similar expression. He prayed that if they were going to yell at him or something, they'd let him get some ear plugs first; his hearing was so good now that certain noises can really make him wince in pain.

Rei pointed to the store she was standing outside of. "Oh," Takashi breathed out, taking note of the bikes in the store.

"We can use bikes from here on. This store already has a bunch of them assemble," Rei pointed out, walking into the store.

"Yeah, this would really..." Takashi started, but trailed off, knowing that Rei was about to say something.

She didn't disappoint. "Guess what I figured out." Takashi looked at her and was rewarded with one very angry look on Rei's face. "I know. I know what's going on!" She said to him coldly before stomping off.

Takashi put his head down, not quite sure if he should say anything lest she do yell at him. Kohta and Saeko merely stood to the side. "Is she jealous?" Takashi asked aloud once Rei was out of sight.

Saeko didn't say anything, just sighed and left too. Takashi now felt really nervous; what if she ended up getting angry at him now too? He noticed the tension between the two girls earlier and he'd be lying to himself if he said that it didn't worry him. Takashi hoped that the girls didn't get into a fight or anything because that was the last thing the group needed right now.

"Oh hey, I forgot to tell you this earlier, but that other group are having a meeting right now, Komuro," Kohta said, opting to change the mood.

"Is that so? Wonder what they plan to talk about. From what I've seen of the other survivors, they don't exactly look calm right now. Not that I blame them," Takashi said, muttering out that last sentence.

Kohta nodded and led Takashi to where the meeting was supposed to be held. It didn't take them long to get there as the survivors' voices were rather loud. One look at the group from a distance was all it took for Takashi to and Kohta tell the obvious: they were losing it. An elderly lady seemed to be feeling pretty weak at the moment - she apparently needed a blood transfusion from what Takashi heard - and there were two young men with black hair that currently seemed to be in the middle of a breakdown of sorts. One of them was holding a knife, something that didn't sit well with Takashi or Kohta.

"Looks like they're causing some trouble," Kohta pointed out, noting that all of them were yelling at Asami, who looked like she was crying.

"Seems like they're falling apart," Takashi said.

"If that was it then it wouldn't be much of a problem. However, right now they're clinging to the authority of the police," Kohta replied.

"But they're all blaming her," Takashi said, pointing to Asami, now sitting on a couch, surrounded by several survivors.

"They've realized that the police are useless now," Kohta responded, answering Takashi's unasked question. He looked sadly at Asami, who was obviously trying to defend herself, but to no avail. "They've realized that the police aren't the saviors they thought they were and now they're blaming her for it all."

Both of them looked on at the sight. "Komuro," Kohta said after a moment of silence between them.

"Yeah?" Takashi said quietly.

"I know we don't have to come to the rescue of every single person we meet who's in trouble," Kohta said back, earning him a nod from Takashi. A smirk formed on both of their faces. "But that's boring! So let's make thing a bit more interesting."

Takashi chuckled; Kohta is a cool guy to be around sometimes. "What do you have in mind?"

Kohta reached into his back pocket and produced a pistol. "Why, I just plan to give her back her gun. After all, this is a police issued weapon and she is a police officer." Kohta grinned.

Takashi took the gun from Kohta to look it over before handing it back to him. "You sure? It will help her keeping those people in line, but it could also put more responsibility on her shoulders than she can handle."

"True, but it's for the sake of group unity. Trust me, it's better this way," Kohta replied.

Takashi thought over the situation and eventually nodded. "Alright then. Go to her rescue," Takashi said with a grin.

Kohta nodded and turned to do so, but stopped. "Oh Komuro, since we're pretty much done looking around for now, don't you have to be somewhere?"

Takashi raised an eyebrow at first, but then remembered what Dante said. He had been so caught up just now that it had slipped his mind. "Right, thanks."

Takashi left without another word, heading straight for the roof. It took a bit of time for him to find te stairs up as there was a lot of ground to cover in the rather large mall, but eventually Takashi was heading up the steps, only pausing for a moment when he heard something out of the ordinary on the way up. "Was that... thunder?" he thought aloud, hearing a loud boom coming from outside.

He walked faster up the steps and when he finally reached the roof, he saw Dante sitting on the ledge of the roof, looking into the distance. Lady was also nearby, standing near the edge, her hand unconsciously moving towards one of her guns when she seemed to spot something. Just when her hand was about to touch the gun, she drew it away, apparently whatever was bugging her gone now.

"Took you a while, kid," Dante commented, getting up from his spot.

Takashi didn't pay attention to what he said at first, opting to look at the sky. It was cloudy and in the far off distance, he could've sworn that he saw lightning. Thunder once again boomed, taking him aback as he hadn't expected it again so soon. "A thunder storm?" he asked.

"Yes. Must be a result of the nuclear fallout," Lady reasoned, remembering the mansion event from just the other day.

Takashi blinked as he suddenly remembered that particular fact. "Ah, yeah... forgot that," he said.

"Uh huh," Dante said, sounding bored, "I didn't say for you to come up here and admire the sky, kid. We have something to talk about."

Takashi now focused his attention on Dante. "And that would be... what?"

Dante sighed. "Alright, you know already that more and more demons are gonna start showing up now for the party known as apocalypse and I'll be honest here kid, you really need to get better at fighting them," he said.

"But can't you two take just take care of the more powerful ones while I deal with those scarecrow looking ones?" Takashi asked, thinking back to how he was barely able to go up against the Assault.

"Better to have three power players than just two," Dante replied, "besides, like your parents must have told ya, you just gotta grow up." Dante cursed to himself; he sounded a little old when he said that.

"You sounded old when you said that," Lady shot out. Dante twitched in annoyance at her voicing what he had thought while Takashi let out a chuckle. Lady herself had a small smile on her face; it's been a while since she's messed with Dante in any way.

"Ha ha, laugh it up. Anyways, I'm gonna make this real short kid because I hate long talks: you're gonna have to get better at fighting demons soon because I'm not always gonna play the savior for you and your pals."

Takashi stopped chuckling at that. "And how am I supposed to do that if more demons are going to be appearing soon?"

Dante smirked. "Easy kid: devil arms."

Takashi raised an eyebrow. "Devil arms?" he asked, curious about it.

"Devil arms are weapons that are made from the souls of powerful demons," Dante explained very simply.

Takashi nodded his head at the short explanation. "Alright. And... what about it? I'm supposed to get one?"

"I'm gonna give you one," Dante said, "I got a whole bunch and it's not like I brought them all with me here. Hell, I don't use that many anyways."

Takashi looked at him with a curious expression. "And just how many do you have on you?"

Dante chuckled. "Five. I'm only giving you one though. I don't see a point in giving you more unless you can actually handle it."

"You going to give the rest to the others? Like Rei and Kohta?" Takashi asked, figuring that there were enough for most of them to use.

Dante shook his head. "Can't do that, kid."

"What? Why?" Takashi asked.

"Because in order to use a devil arm, one has to wrestle with its soul. Only those with a strong will can do that sort of thing," Lady answered, moving away from the edge and closer to them.

"Yeah, what she said. And no offense to your buddies, but they really don't know how to handle demons," Dante pointed out also.

Takashi's shoulders slumped when he heard that; he really had hoped that maybe they could use them to stand a better chance in case the zombies or demons find a way into the mall. "Fine," he said.

Standing straighter, he now had to ask Dante something. "So just what kind of devil arms do you have?"

Dante mulled over Takashi's words. The kid was basically asking him which one would be a good one for him to use. The devil arms Dante had now were Pandora, Gilgamesh, Nevan, Agni and Rudra, and Alastor. Going over each and every one of them in his mind, Dante quickly dismissed the idea of giving Alastor and Pandora to Takashi. Alastor would stab him through the heart in a test to see if he can withstand the attack and then Takashi would have to subdue it, something that Dante didn't think he was ready for yet. Pandora was simply too destructive for the kid to use effectively; there was a good chance that he'd end up accidently hurting himself or the others with it.

Nevan seemed like a good choice to give to him, but Nevan's personality may be a bit much for Takishi to handle. The way he seemed to interact around the girls from earlier sort of confirmed it. And then there were Agni and Rudra... "Yeah, right," Dante thought. Those damned swords would give away their position to the zombies as soon as they were pulled out. It seemed that the simple two words Dante spoke to them back at Temen-ni-gru weren't taken to heart afterwards by the twin swords.

That only left Gilgamesh. "I have just the one for you, kid." Dante then closed his eyes for a brief second to summon to Gilgamesh, the gauntlets and grieves appearing in the form of bright blood red flash.

Takashi blinked in surprise; that sure wasn't something that he saw every day. Granted, he wasn't as surprised as he would've been if he had seen this much sooner before the demons first appeared, but nevertheless, he was surprised.

"What's that?" he asked, looking over Gilgamesh as Dante was quick to take it off and hand it to him in something of a pile, the gauntlets laying on top of the grieves and something else that appeared to have been on Dante's back.

"It's called Gilgamesh. As you can see here, it's a set of gauntlets and grieves. It makes you faster and hit harder than usual and there's a few other little things about it too, but you can find that shit out for yourself later," Dante explained.

As Takashi reached out to take Gilgamesh from Dante, the pile glowed. Takashi pulled his hands away from it in shock, having not expected that. Dante laughed at his reaction while Lady went back to looking out towards the city, noting that the lightning seemed to be closer than before. "Odd..." she thought.

Before he could pull back too far, the pile seemed to turn itself into a ball of light that then shot out of Dante's hands and straight at Takashi, who didn't have the time to react. When the light slammed into him, it broke into several pieces that then formed on his hands, feet, and back. When the light died down, Takashi was shocked to see that he now wore Gilgamesh.

He was even more shocked when he realized that the gauntlets and grieves were a perfect fit on him, not loose or tight, something that he found strange as Dante was taller and a bit more muscular than him and as a result Gilgamesh seemed a bit too big when Takashi first looked at them.

"Whoa," he said breathlessly. He blinked in surprise when he heard his voice as it now seemed to have some sort of metallic tone to it. Moving a hand to his mouth, he came into contact with some sort of mask that covered his mouth.

Dante snickered as Takashi then examined his grieves. "Why don't you throw a few punches? Get a feel for it."

Takashi took a minute to look over the weapon before nodding. Getting into a stance, he quickly threw out a punch at the air. He was amazed as his fist seemed to move faster than when he didn't have the gauntlets on, proving that it did indeed make him faster and hit harder. Takashi did a few more punches before lashing out with a roundhouse kick.

"Wow," he said under his breath.

"Yeah, sweet, isn't it?" Dante remarked.

Lady heard thunder once more and turned to face the two. "If two are done, I think it's time we head back inside. I have a bad feeling about this," she said. Something about the lightning seemed odd to her and she really didn't want to find out just why that is.

Dante looked at her and seemed ready to argue something, but the look Lady shot him also shot down whatever he was going to say. Dante sighed. "Alright, you heard the boss lady," Dante said with some emphasize on the words boss lady to tick Lady off a bit, "time to head back inside, kid."

Takashi nodded and began to make his way towards the stairs when he stopped. "Hey wait, how am I supposed to put this away?" he asked.

"All you have to do is think it. Just think that you want it gone for now and it'll go away until you need it, kid," Dante responded, not bothering to wait for him, making his way down the stairs.

Takashi stood still and closed his eyes. Concentrating hard, he did what Dante said and thought for Gilgamesh to disappear for now. He was surprised when it seemed to respond, fading out of view in a brief flash of light.

As soon as the light died down and he was sure it was gone, Takashi walked quickly to catch up with Dante. As soon as he caught up, they both continued to walk silently down the stairs, Takashi figuring out how Gilgamesh could really help and also on what other things it could do, while Dante merely stayed silent because he knew Takashi would be thinking.

However, when they finally reached the bottom of the stairs, they were both startled by a sudden cry. "Shizuka-sensei!" Kohta cried out.

Both Dante and Takashi were quick to respond and head towards Kohta, who sounded nearby. However, they didn't have to rush so much as Kohta rounded the corner.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Takashi asked.

"Shizuka-sensei is missing and so is that one guy I ran into at the food store. Some of the people at the meeting commented about him, saying that he's been giving a few of the woman here some odd looks," Kohta said, worried.

Takashi swore. "Alright, we gotta find her then. Does anyone know where exactly Shizuka sensei went? The last store she went to or something?" he asked, immediately taking charge.

If it wasn't for the situation right now, Kohta would've laughed at how much like a leader Takashi was acting like despite how he was back in school. However, laughing at Takashi's expense was something that could wait for later.

He was about to answer when they heard a scream. They recognized it as Shizuka's voice. Takashi and Dante rushed towards the source of the scream, a place that wasn't too hard to find as it was surprisingly close by. The point of origin turned out to be a large bed store.

Heading straight in, the duo quickly scanned the part of the store they could see, but there was no sign of her. Then Dante heard voices coming from somewhere in the back of the store. "This way, kid," he said before rushing off.

Rounding around the corner in the store, he was met with the sight of Shizuka lying upon a bed with Shimada, the man Kohta met earlier, right in front of her with a knife in hand. Both didn't seem to notice his presence, Shizuka not noticing due to fear while Shimada was too occupied with his lust.

"Just let me fuck you once, okay? With the monsters roaming around now, I'm not gonna be seeing any women like you with such nice buddies," he said, a sneer on his face. He moved the knife closer to Shizuka. "If I'm not being clear enough the-," he began to say, but was cut off when Dante moved right behind him and grabbed him by the shoulders. Without so much as a grunt, Dante threw Shimada across the store as though he was a rag doll. Shimada had been thrown so fast that Takashi, who just saw it happen, swore that it was a miracle the guy didn't get motion sickness when he hit the floor hard.

"You alright?" Dante asked, turning to face Shizuka after watching Shimada land.

Shizuka nodded slowly, amazed at how easily Dante had thrown her would be rapist. Dante stretched out his hand for her to grab so he could help her get off the bed.

While he did that, Saya and the others appeared right outside the store, having heard Shimada crash into the floor. "What the hell just happened?" one of the survivors from the meeting earlier yelled.

While that was going on, Lady was still up on the roof. She had pulled out a rifle and looked through the scope at the area directly in front of the mall, taking note of the undead that were around. "Good. It doesn't seem as if they're heading here," she thought.

Thunder boomed once more. Lady looked up at the sky. The thunder and lightning were really beginning to bug her now, although it was the lightning that made her feel a bit uneasy. For a while now, it's seemed as if the lightning has been getting closer and closer with every passing minute. At first, it far off in the distance, but now it couldn't have been more then just a few blocks away from the mall and was just getting closer.

"Just what is going on? It can't be because of the nuke. It's almost as if-," Lady began to think before realizing something. "Oh shit!" she yelled. She turned to run towards the stairs, but before she could make it halfway across the roof, a lightning bolt shot out of the sky and directly towards the mall.

The lightning bolt slammed into and through the roof as if it wasn't even there, the sudden action knocking Lady on her butt for a brief moment. "God damn it, I hate it when I'm right sometimes," she yelled in frustration, quickly getting back up and running down the stairs as more of the roof seemed to give way a bit.

Back down in the mall, Takashi and Kohta were able to find some rope to tie Shimada in while Dante had just finished explaining what Shimada had tried to do.

The group leveled glares at said man, who now flinched nervously from their gazes, moreso from Dante as he was thrown by the devil hunter after all. "Alright time to move him somewhere," Takashi said as he finished tying the rope.

Kohta turned towards Asami. "Do you know a good place where-," he nearly said when the roof seemed to explode, pieces of it flying all over the place.

The suddenness of this as well as the danger the debris posed naturally elicited cries of fear from most of the survivors, who were quick to go for cover. Kohta shielded Alice, who was close to him, while Takashi merely threw Shimada to the side so that he wouldn't get crushed.

Dante just stood where he was, stunned by what had come next. The others were equally shocked when a bolt of lightning came through the hole and slammed into the floor. As soon as it struck, it actually took shape, forming some sort of huge, muscled, and armored lizard of sorts. It stood to its full height and began to slowly move its head as if to look around for something worth attacking.

"What the hell is that?" Takashi cried out.

"A Blitz," Dante said, saying almost too quietly to hear, but everyone was able to hear just fine. Dante was trying to figure out why it was here. "How the hell did it get here? It couldn't just be because of the damned thunder storm right?" he thought.

While he was thinking that out, everyone was deathly quiet, not daring to move much at all. However, Shimada, so terrified by the Blitz's appearance that he struggled to get free from the rope, accidently bumped into the wall.

Dante swore as this action had caught the Blitz's attention. The Blitz turned towards the source of the sound, which just so happened to be where Dante and Takashi were also standing, and with a loud, terrifying roar, lunged right at them.

Somewhere else in the city, a group of four Scarecrows were occupied with killing. However, their targets were not humans, but rather many of Them. Moments ago, the Scarecrows were simply shambling down the streets, looking for something living to kill. They had moved right past Them, not attracting any sort of attention at all. In fact, the zombies seemed to have been unconsciously avoiding the demons too as there was always a wide berth for the demons to travel down.

However, as more time past by, it seemed that the undead were starving, so much so that they turned to face the Scarecrows as there weren't many people still alive in the area. The Scarecrows, as dumb as they are, were still able to recognize the walking corpses as threats and had took to cutting them down, blood spattering, limbs flying, and bones being smashed in the process.

That was then when there weren't many of Them around, but more and more were attracted by the noise and now the Scarecrows faced a large crowd of Them that easily took up all of the space of the street. The zombies were slow and were just as frail as normal people compared to the demons, but the Scarecrows were beginning to move slower now, losing stamina at a fast pace due to the sheer number of Them swarming them.

The Scarecrows continued to fight though despite their exhausted state. One of them spun around and cut down several of the zombies with its arms blade while another sliced a zombie clean in two with a swift swipe. Another Scarecrow, one that had a blade on its foot, leapt into the air brought down its blade in a wicked axe kick of sorts, its blade cutting a zombie's head in two before its weight crashed into its body, squashing it underfoot. Blood and cut down bodies littered the streets, with pieces of bone here and there.

However, when the Scarecrow jumped into the air again and performed the same move, as soon as it landed, a zombie that had been cut in two from the waist, had been able to grab its foot. The Scarecrow hadn't seen that coming and so it lost some of its balance long enough for it to be overwhelmed by Them. Its brethren followed shortly as the zombies grabbed the other ones from the side that didn't have a blade attached.

The Scarecrows, while stronger than a human, couldn't handle all of the weight now on top of them and fell to the ground. This left them helpless as the zombies piled on top and began to bite into the sacks that made up their bodies, their black liquid that was supposed to be their blood spurting out as quickly as air out of a balloon.

Some of the Scarecrows still tried to fight back, taking swipes at the zombies on top. Several zombies lost their heads or at least parts of their heads, blood and brains falling out. However, the Scarecrows were quickly losing strength and it was only a matter of seconds before they finally died.

As their bodies began to deflate, more and more zombies began to take more and more bites out of its sack like flesh. However, after a few bites, the zombies slowly but surely began to stand back up before falling backwards, hitting the ground with sick thuds as their weakened skulls cracked from the force.

The zombies then began to shake violently as though they were having seizures before moments later they all stopped moving. Another moment past before all of the ones on the ground suddenly had a small smile on their faces.

Whew, that had taken a while. Thankfully it didn't take as long as the previous chapter for me to do (I think).

This is easily the longest chapter I've done so far! Chances are that they'll be getting even longer too depending on where exactly I decided to end the chapters. What with the zombies and the Blitz demons now making their debut, it most likely that chapters will be longer.

Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter and I do hope that you're looking forward to the battle with the Blitz in the next chapter! I'm going to make it as good as I can.

Anyways, thanks for reading and please be sure to leave a review!