I've got absolutely no excuse for this, I left this for a whole year out of nowhere due to a stupid block, I apologize if the quality changed in some way, and... I'm sorry. So at least have this long one.
Mission 4: Welcome to Hell
"Your mission is going to be an incredibly dangerous one, you must enter that hell once more, and deep within..."
Trish's words resonated in Dante's head as he jumped off the barely glowing yellow portal that was made just for him, stepping on a glowing red surface.
All around him, it looks like a burnt down city, extensive floating platforms of hot rock, and above them were ruins, molten iron and buildings, rocks crumbling and falling to the abyss below.
"We don't know the exact demon magic or whatever they're pulling, but our spies gathered that they're making a connection, connecting Limbo and your world even further, and through there... to our Paradise."
"You must break the connection from Limbo's side."
They had talked while finally having some food for a while, Nero was staring the whole time and Dante knew the kid was worried, can't blame him, Dante did nearly completely die the day before.
"What, no welcome party? I guess they're still fixing things up after I killed their committee last time." Dante said snarky to the air, holding Sparda on hand as he began to walk forward.
He had lost Ophion, that was a massive blow to his mobility though... the lance he had been given, maybe he could do something with it.
He approached the edge of this platform, the next big chunk of rock was quite above him so he tried something out: he morphed Sparda into D'Angelo and aimed the lance up, charging up golden energy... and after not long he released it, the lance going up with a trail of light and Dante going with it, soon after he moves forward a little and lands on the high up rock.
"Quite bright." He simply commented to himself as he steps forward... and now there is some fun.
Poenas with their vein whips, a few Pathos and a couple Stygians, they looked at Dante for some moments then they raised their weapons.
"You can come closer, I bite." Dante said to them, aiming his lance at the demons, time to give this a go.
D'Angelo: This fine weapon is standard Angel weaponry. It's range and powerful jabs allows to keep distance from foes, it is able to cast Light and give the wielder amazing mobility that may be hard to control at first.
D'Angelo: Rocket.
Charging energy allows the Lance to carry its wielder in and outside combat, the flight trajectory can be aimed, or one can plunge straight down for an attack that gets stronger with more height. Shooting while riding the lance works too.
A bold Stygian approached Dante to try smacking him, but Dante needed to take just one step back and thrust forward with the lance to already outpace him, he jabs two more times, then did a fourth thrust with a bit more charge and force behind it accompanied with a very small light burst at the tip of the weapon that send the lesser demon staggering backwards.
A Poena had approached during that, and attacked with surprisingly fast whipping, the demon hunter barely rolled to a side and while he was at some distance, charged some light at the tip of the lance, then fired a straight beam that pierced through the Poena and did damage, and also killed the Stygian from before.
Two Bathos threw explosives at Dante, but he morphed the lance back to Sparda and threw the sword in a spinning motion, hitting the bombs mid air back to the duo and making them explode, he then recalled the sword and transformed it again before doing a quick attack forward, scraping the ground with the lance as he goes towards a Poena, and then proceeding to do a quick upwards motion with the lance and launching up the demon, he then charged up the lance... and flew right through his foe at great speed as it bursts.
Dante held on with one hand as he fired many quick bullets from Ivory at the last Stygian while flying, and then he dives down and straight to where the demon is, the lance making a small pillar of light upon crashing and destroying the demon.
"How'd the angels manage to get their asses kicked when they all use stuff like this is beyond me." Dante said looking at his angelic weapon, and then makes it vanish for now as he proceeds forward.
There were several charred rock platforms onward, Dante jumped over some, and launched himself up a few others with D'Angelo, at one point he heard some familiar sounds and saw a Lost Soul on the underside of a platform, Dante promptly ended its pain with a few well aimed Lasers.
More fun it's coming this way, Dante heard the also familiar sounds of chainsaws, and then some flaps of wings as some Ravagers and a group of bloody wings Lotus now appeared, this could be a bit more of an issue as the Ravagers could be harder to stop now.
The tall flying demons moved back as one began to throw consecutive knives at Dante, who quickly moved farther away with an Angelic dodge, and then a Ravager began to run at him with its chainsaw which Dante barely manages to jump over then does a Helm Splitter on the demon running past him, though that barely moved it on this stage.
One of the flying demons descended towards him to do swift and fast cuts with its knives, the Nephilim dodged a few slashes then hit the fourth, parrying and staggering the Lotus as he uses the lance once more and jabs twice, but this time stopped half a second and did a spinning blender attack over his head with a step forward, then one big cleave, the Lotus got destroyed.
Dante hears the chainsaw charging up, he thinks and turned as he charged the tip of his weapon fully for two seconds and fired a more wide laser that when it pierced, it actually stopped the Ravager, the half demon smirked and threw Sparda at it and inmediately beats it to a pulp with his own hands.
The other Lotus tried to approach Dante, but he saw it coming and used a Stinger to launch it backwards when it reached close to the ground, and finished it off with a running attack, and then the last Lotus threw three knives at once which Dante hits back, one hits its body and the other two, a wing each which makes it fall quite more defenseless, the devil hunter takes that as a good time to jump over it and plunge down with the lance, piercing the demon and the ground and destroying the first, then he pulls the weapon off the ground.
There was just one more Ravager left, and Dante simply used a charged Ricoshot with his guns to stagger it several times, then pestered it with a few lasers... and it's dead.
After a while, there was a bit of an interesting spot, the center of the burnt down city, which had three very tall pillars at the middle, and there was a figure atop each one.
"Looooook... it's Daaaante, oh how long have I waited for a chance to meet him..." The first one said in a slow and slightly, lustful tone.
"Keep your head clear! The king clearly weakened the enemy a massive amount, but Dante still defeated our former king." Another said with a serious and dry tone.
"Oh who cares! I want to kill this asshole already! Death! Muerte! Mors!" The third exclaimed angrily and shaking a fist.
"Okay now, who are you three? Are you actually the welcome party that I've been waiting for?" Dante asked stepping closer.
The three figures jump down, they were all about half the size of Dante and honestly quite chubby, one was red, the other crimson, and the last was orange, the first was missing its left eye and wielded a spiky sword, the second was missing its right eye and was wielding a stone staff, and the third was missing a right arm and wielded a bright red and black shield on its only hand, they all also seemed to have stone parts.
"I am Legion!"
"I am Legion!"
"I am Legion!"
"You will not venture any further inside, Dante..."
"Yes, we will not let you reach the rune crystals, bastard!"
"Fool! Why would you even say that?"
"Hold your horses, rune crystals? It's that what hell is bent on protecting?" Dante questioned, now knowing what he's actually searching for.
"Oh you better hope that the King is on a good mood when we kill Dante, or you're done for..." The first one said to the second, who shakes his head and stares angrily at Dante.
"Enough talking, let's just kill him!" He exclaimed as the three short demons jump back.
Legion.
The demon with the rock staff began to shake it wildly as burning rocks were lifted up from the ground and were now in the air, then they were launched towards Dante, who did several quick swings with Sparda to strike the rocks and hit them back to the demon trio, doing some damage as the shield one grunts in anger and ran towards the Nephilim and charged with his shield, Dante jumped over while charging his guns, then bounced on his head, then fired down a charged shot that made him stumble.
The Sword Legion did several big jumps circling Dante, before finally doing a big leap forward to perform a descending slash, which Dante dodges before retaliating with an upwards sword slash that launched him, and then he threw him further back with a quick light laser.
The staff demon aimed it to right below Dante's feet, he could feel the ground suddenly break down a little before a pillar of flame erupts, he moved but it did hit his side.
"Not too shabby, kids, but I think I am still better." The hunter replied as he went towards the staff demon with a running attack of his spear to bring him up, then did a circular throw with Sparda which hits it several times and not quite letting him fall, as he proceeds to do a bare-handed uppercut before retrieving Sparda, and shooting down that demon, who hits the ground.
The shielded demon from a distance throws the shield to the sword one, who actually hits it hard and sends it flying fast towards Dante, he attacks with an upwards swing of his sword... and after a moment sends it right back to the sword wielder's face who jumps in pain, as the third one retrieves his shield.
"Hm, I think we will really need something else to take him down." The serious sword one said.
"Okay... let's do this..." The first one said with glee and excitement.
"Legion Formation, now!" The angry one exclaims.
The three demons ran towards each other and jumped, ending engulfed in fire and inside it, a figure began to grow taller as Dante observes...
Then, landing loudly on the ground there was a demon twice the height of Dante, a bright red stone body adorned with sharp rocks and a few streaks of lava, 4 eyes and 3 arms, the right ones wielding the weapons, and the left wielding a now bigger shield.
"Observe and fear, our true power!" The demon exclaimed, raising its hands.
"Oh I guess I must be proud of you? You were little shits and now you're big shits." Dante replied, looking up to the taller demon.
"Oh this is it, you are dying, right now!" The demon angrily replied, raising its weapons.
First thing it did was step closer and began to do some slashes with its big sword, before bringing forth the staff to cause a small explosion in front of it, then the shield got raised and they tried to hit Dante, but he had been dodging and the shield hits the ground, the demon began to dislodge it, but not before Dante poked at it several times with his lance until Legion did a sword slash to make him get away for a moment.
The rock staff gets raised very high up, and now quite big burning rocks floated mid-air and fell down like small meteors, causing some explosions too. Dante jumped over and around the rocks but a few booms did hit him as he lands on the ground and fired a few shots at Legion, but he blocked it with the shield which now glows red and fired a circular projectile at his foe, who rolls out of the way.
Dante thinks, and he began to charge up on his lance, Legion got on a blocking stance with the shield covering a lot forward, Dante began to fly on the lance but when he was approaching the demon he flew up and jumped to behind him, Legion was slow to turn and Dante threw his sword straight at it, making it stick on his back, then the hybrid began to punch down on its back and also by the sword to make it hurt more with extra piercing.
Legion screams in anguish and did a circular slash, the hunter jumps over and fired a Light beam which gets blocked and another projectile is sent back in retaliation, he does a short teleport with his Angel dodge and lands by his side, as the demon began to turn... Dante flies up on his lance and right through his head.
The demon screams and staggers back, half of his head destroyed, he crashed on the three central pillars, which made him drop his shield, and then fell off the platform, the body starting to evaporate.
"Danteeee!" Three voices screamed at him before they get disintegrated.
"Thank you for such warm welcome." He just said as he turned, but before walking off he approached the shield that Legion lost, he touched it with his hand... and then the shield melted, lava rising over his arm until it reached his tattoo, it was a quite burning sensation and Dante gasped a bit but then he felt fine, he looked at Sparda and then began to catalyze his demonic energy... and now the sword turned into a demonic red stone shield akin to that of Legion, Dante looks at it and spins it on his hand before throwing it at some walls, making the shield bounce and then return back to his hand.
Obtained molten Shield Legion.
Mission Clear.