Here we go, must be nearing the end of the story now…
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In answer to Clinton's question at the end of the last chapter, Dante was closely following Thompson-Nightmare. Nobodies roared and attacked the Nightmare, but he just grabbed there shoulders, said something to them in their growl-like language, and the Nobodies slunk off whimpering. Dante had too keep a fair distance from Thomson as he now had enhanced senses, like infallible hearing.
Thompson-Nightmare went round a sharp bend, and when Dante rounded the corner He saw a 2-way junction. "Eeney Meeney Miny Mo." Dante said, picking the left path. Soon he caught up with Thompson-Nightmare in a large chamber. Dante realised this was the room where he had slain the original Nightmare.
Thompson growled some demon words and a pedestal with a slot in the top came up. "I have the pedestal of Alastor." Thompson gargled. "Now I need the sword." He turned around and looked directly at Dante. "I believe you have it?"
"Oh, and I thought I was following you so quietly." Dante said.
"You'll need to learn Eeney Meeney Miny Mo quieter than that." Thompson grinned, and leapt at Dante.
Dante rolled to one side, and equipped Ifrit. He didn't want to use Alastor in case Thompson-Nightmare yanked it out of his hands.
Dante smashed the fiery fists across the Nightmare, to little damage. "Don't you remember the old Nightmare?" Thompson gargled. "You had to hit the orb. Now, I'm too sensible to let you at mine." Thompson smashed his palm into Dante's face, causing Dante to reel backwards. Dante dragged himself to his feet, a trickle of blood coming from his mouth.
"Try harder next time." Dante said. He grabbed the Alastor pedestal and legged it out the way they had entered. Thompson-Nightmare followed closely.
Dante didn't know what he was doing, where he was going. He was surrounded by Nobodies in the room with the giant heart and the doors leading to the helicopter room. Dante had to stop and fight the Nobodies to unlock the ahead door. He made short work of them, but Thompson had caught up.
Dante only had to get up to that door, and maybe he could fly off in the helicopter some distance and drop the pedestal into the sea, that would foil Thompson's plans…
Dante tripped up on the heart. The pedestal fell to the ground below. Thompson-Nightmare picked Dante up and beat the hell out of him, while claiming the sword.
Thompson clicked the Alastor sword into the pedestal.
"The power!" He yelled, a grey light consuming him. He was an all new form. His face was a skull; he had large spike-like bones coming from his dark robes; the Staff of Judgement was in his bony hand; he was the Judge of Death. The real Judge of Death. And his judgement was Dante's Death…
The Judge slowly walked over to the limp form of Dante. "I am the very death of all, the most evil form in all of existence…"
His speech was cut short by another voice. "The more evil they are, the harder they fall!" And with that, Clinton shoved Grace into the Judge's skeletal structure.
The transformation was gruesome as the Nightmare slime folded over the Judge's structure and melted away to show Thompson's body, which shattered into fragments of energy. The Alastor pedestal rolled off the giant heart to the bottom of the cave, while the Alastor sword landed straight in the heart.
Clinton was accompanied by Trish, Barder and Jay. "We need to get back to the helicopter." Barder said.
"Hang on…" Dante said. "My head… Ah, no hurry I suppose." The cave creaked. The walls rippled and wrinkled, and the chamber seemed to be getting smaller. "OK, hurry." Dante decided.
"Alastor stabbed the heart, and the cave is dying!" Clinton said as He and Barder helped Dante get to the big double doors to the bright hall. Trish followed them closely.
Jay looked back at the Alastor sword. "That could really be interesting for some experiments." He said. So Jay ran back onto the bleeding heart and tried to pull the sword free, but the more he tried to pull out the sword the more the heart sucked it in. The heart completely enveloped the sword and as Jay was holding onto it, his arm was stuck in up to the elbow. "HELP!" He shouted, but he was trapped as the cave closed around him.
Clinton leapt into the helicopters driving seat and Trish, Barder and an unconscious Dante sat in the back. Three of the four soldiers Dante had earlier knocked out cold had come round, and had been practically rammed into the helicopter's storage compartment. They took off as Mallet Island sunk for the second time.
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Barder and the soldiers were dropped off at a military establishment. Clinton was dropped off as he requested in Russia.
Trish and Dante went back to Devils Never Cry. "Oh god." Dante said, freezing on the spot as he entered the shop. They had left for Mallet Island without fixing the windows, and some thieves had ransacked the place. The till was gone, the laptop was gone, most of Dante's decorative demon skulls were gone… In fact, the desk and the floorboards were gone. "Typical." Trish sighed.
"Ah." Dante said. "I don't even have Alastor!"
"I just had a thought." Trish said. "The Marionettes must have come back and attacked on their own free will."
"What are you thinking?" Dante asked. "A book called The Secret Lives of the Marionettes?"
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A month later, the shop was back to normal. Trish was writing page 48 of her new comedy book The Secret Lives of the Marionettes, and Dante was reading the newspaper. "Trish, look at this." Dante said. He pointed out an article with Clinton on the picture.
Shoot 'Em Up
The annual Shoot 'Em up shooting competition held in Russia was won this year by Sir Clinton Westford. He has entered the competition every time it has happened over the 12 years it had been running, but this was his 1st gold. We asked him what he thought about his luck, and stated this:
"I got in a bit of extra practice."
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Well, that's all from Devil May Have Vengeance! Hope you enjoyed it!