Alice, by the by, actually was a character from the DMC manga, which is quite good, I recommend it for more chaotic shenanigans featuring everyone's favorite half demon twins.

Alice.

Dante hears Lady pull in a sharp breath.

Of course, who was a better tool to use than Alice?

One of his first assignments after opening Devil May Cry. What he thought was a rescue mission: save a little girl from demons. But Alice hadn't wanted to be saved. Had traded her purity in order to grow up faster.

And boy, had she ever. By his estimation, she couldn't have been more than twenty or so.

Poor kid. He'd warned her.

Her mouth opens and closes wordlessly and she stares at him. She brandishes the book at him as if it will ward him off. "No name!"

"I remember you, kid. Didn't like your end of the bargain, so you decided to take it out on the world?"

"You bitch, you set all this off..." Lady's voice has gone deadly and Dante knows it'll only be a matter of time before she can't hold herself back.

Alice shrieks and leaps at him as the world explodes around them again.

Fara can hear Dante and Lady moving, fighting together. She ignores the sick sound and voices pressing inside her head, seizing on one hopeful idea.

No way to stop it, that was right. But if she could find where Alice had come through, had started using the book and set everything in motion...

She's not up for a major spell, she's useless in a fight right now. But she has enough for one small one...

She hopes it will be enough.

There's no possible way Alice's body can shift and change that way without killing her, but it does anyway. It contorts with a hideous cracking sound, spouting extra arms, legs, limbs that were physically impossible

Lady's shot knocks her off balance enough Dante and bring his sword down. It slices through her with sickening ease, but she only pulls one half of her back toward the other, reforming into an even more twisted figure.

So Dante slices her in half again. And again.

Lady backs away as she hears someone calling to her. Fara has collapsed further down the street and spikes of stone are digging into her even as Lady moves toward her. While Alice is after Dante, the street seems to be focused on the other half demon. Lady pulls her away from the ground and winces as the movement causes the ground to shear away parts of the skin on Fara's legs. Fara leans against her and points, gasping, to a tiny cemetery closed in between several buildings.

It takes Lady a moment to figure out what she's done, then her eyes widen. "What the hell..."

"Very apt," Fara gasps.

Whatever portal Alice crawled out of, Fara has reopened it.

Lady can see the swirls of unholy mist beyond, and dark shapes gathering. Can hear eager shrieks as demons beyond it take notice.

It's obviously taken whatever strength Fara has left. She can barely hold herself upright. She grips Lady hard. "The book. And the girl. In. Quick!"

Lady lets go of her and runs back to Dante. Fara struggles to hold herself upright, clutching her head, actually feeling her mind start to come loose from its moors.

There's a discharge of wild energy as Dante shifts form. Alice screeches.

There's a sweep of shadowy wings and Dante is in front of the portal, Alice in one hand, dragging her by the hair, and the book in the other.

He plunges through.

Lady rushes in after him before she thinks. There aren't any major demons gathering yet but plenty of minor ones are lurching through the rapidly clearing mist. Dante tears the book in half, sending the pages scattering around in a shower of paper. He throws the Alice-thing toward the demons.

Outside, struggling to keep the doorway from opening further, Fara holds her breath.

It started off feeding on Alice when she freed it here, demon touched. It gathered strength feeding on Dante, then Fara, then Lady, all demon touched in varying degrees. It's only had humans to feed on for the past hours.

Outside, the human city goes still.

Inside the doorway, in the demon world, the demons hesitate. So many at once, it's too tempting. Dante and Lady feel that chaos...sickness...whatever, sweep past them, something cold and hungry and so outside what they can stand just the mere brush of it is enough to make them flinch.

Dante grabs her and hauls her back through the doorway. He sees clearly what she only gets a glimpse of. The Alice-thing screams and tries to scramble towards them as the demons, hundreds of them, explode into violence. Madness.

When it comes to inventive ways to destroy each other, humans have nothing on demons. Even Dante has to look away.

As soon as their through, the doorway slams shut.

It's just the three of them in her apartment at night. Dante, Fara, and Lady. Outside it's eerily quiet. The city is in a state of shock. Not for the first time. And probably not for the last.

They're all trying not to think about what the demons unleashed and if it would come back to their world.

Lady winces as Dante tapes up the last of her wounds. Fara is slumped in a chair, resting. Lady's not sure she's awake as she speaks: "It's not completely gone, is it?"

"Probably not," Fara says. "But enough of it."

"It'll be interesting if Mundus ends up coming face to face with that shit," Dante says thoughtfully.

Lady looks at him. She can't believe he's so calm about it all. "Or maybe it'll take over everything and we'll have worse than demons breaking through."

"I doubt it," Fara leans back in her seat.

Dante finishes with the wound on her hand and leans back. He smirks tiredly. "Anyway, after all this, normal demon hunting will seem very boring."