Author's Note: I realized after I put this chapter up that some things needed editting that I'd missed to begin with x.x! But they've all been fixed now!!
Chapter 6 - Phantoms
As the snow had started picking up outside, Evelyn had fallen asleep again. She'd been sitting on the edge of the bed, watching the flakes outside falling from the viewpoint of the window, and once she'd fallen asleep, Regan pushed herself up slowly so she could move her. Moving toward the little girl, she pulled Evelyn slowly up to the pillows. She knew Doc had told her to be on bed rest, but she really couldn't sleep anymore, she'd slept enough, and felt that just a little moving around was in order so she could at least test her limits and use the bathroom.
Turning to the window, Regan went to look outside, and her green eyes slanted slightly with a solemn expression painted upon her face. Why had it been snowing so much lately? It was only late September after all, but maybe they were just in for a bad winter. Not that Regan minded it, she really loved the snow, but she also wanted there to be a longer fall season so they could pick up more business for the autumn pack rides, since the leaves in the forests surrounding the river were one of the bigger tourist attractions around the area, especially for photographers.
But right now, she had better things to worry about besides her own financial situations. Her green eyes turned, spied the young girl sleeping on her bed, and she noted to herself that that was one of them. Who was this Evelyn kid, and why had demons been chasing her? Without answers to that question, Regan had, of course, felt uneasy. She'd been in the dark all evening long, and she was starting to get tired of it. She looked over at the clock next to the bed and noticed it was around one in the morning. She sighed, turned her head back to the window, and then shut the curtains without another thought, tentatively reaching up to touch the butterfly on her forehead that Doc had put there earlier when she'd been asleep.
Things were still spinning to her a bit because of her dizziness, but she was managing, wondering though if it actually came from the wound on her head or the drugs she'd been given. With a grumble, she slowly turned to the door, thinking to go to the bathroom and relieve herself, then get a cup of hot chocolate with some marshmellows in it. Maybe she'd make some extra and bring it up for Evelyn if the little girl woke up and wanted some.
Ten minutes passed and Regan had yet to leave the bathroom. She'd decided to take a nearly scalding hot bath and when she got out, her skin bright pink from the warmth of the water, she wiped her hand across the mirror to get the steam off of it and then looked at herself. The wound on her forehead wasn't very big, but it was deep, and the areas surrounding it were black and purple. Regan folded the towel she held around her hands and then reached up, gently dabbing at it so that it would dry a bit, and she cringed slightly when even that hurt her slightly, "Son of a bitch," she whispered, sighing out a soft breath.
But considering the events of the day, she knew it was a wonder her entire body wasn't black and blue, though she knew she had several bruises on her back from being knocked around so much. Ignoring the thought for the moment however, she got dressed again in a white t shirt and a pair of warm cotton pants that were also white with blue vertical stripes on them, and she slipped her feet into some bedroom slippers before leaving the bathroom to go get her hot chocolate.
The entire time she did all of this, she kept questioning what Dante had told her earlier, kept wondering about his entire explanation of demons. Could it be real, or should she even attempt to trust the man? True, all of the things he could do apparently told her that he was telling the complete and honest truth, but somehow, she still didn't want to believe him. Believe that demons existed? That people could be half human, half demon? Regan guessed it would just take her a long time to get used to the idea.
The bathroom door opened, allowing light into the hallway for just a moment before Regan flipped it out, and then she moved from the door and shut it behind her. The place had been quiet all evening from what she could tell, and in those few moments after she'd left the bathroom, she wondered where the hell Dante was. Maybe he'd found something and that's why he'd been gone for so long, or then again, maybe he was lost, she considered, thinking of his guidance help. Evelyn couldn't have been more than four years old after all, and there was no telling where she'd led him to.
Making it to the steps, Regan narrowed her brows when she heard someone slamming the front door to the lodge below and coming toward the bottom landing. Seeing him, she lifted her brows, "Jack? What's all the fuss about?"
Jack looked up when he saw Regan standing there, and told her, "There's some guys sneaking around the place." He started moving up the steps and as he got closer, Regan could see that his head was bleeding. Her eyes went wide and her mouth opened, but before she could say anything, he told her, "I don't know where they went, but they're all wearing these cloaks and hoods, carrying jagged swords. One of them hit me and when I snapped outta my stupor, he was gone."
Regan's eyes remained wide. Oh no, she thought, they'd come back. "Oh God, Evelyn," she whispered out, turning to go see if the little girl was alright.
Jack grabbed her arm before she could leave and he asked her, "What? What's going on, Regan?"
Regan just shook her head in response to Jack's question, knowing that now wasn't the time to explain it to him, "I don't know, but that little girl needs to be protected."
Simply nodding slowly, trusting Regan completely, Jack let go of her arm and told her, "Haul up in your office, I'm gonna call the cops."
Regan nodded, deciding that was the best choice of action at this point. Before Jack could go back downstairs though, she told him, "Just, whatever you do, if you see one of them, don't let them see you, okay? I don't know what they'll do to you, but I'll explain it later, I promise." With that, she moved as fast as her aching body would let her back to her bedroom, Jack watching her the entire way to make sure she didn't fall in her weakened state. While he'd been confused by her words, he decided that now wasn't the time, and he should just listen to her. Then he turned and ran back down the stairs to use the phone at the front desk.
Making it to his destination, Jack bent down and grabbed the phone, pulling it up before lifting the receiver to his ear, then he put his hand on the hanger. He hit the thing several times when he didn't get a dial tone and urged the thing aloud, "Come on, come on you piece of shit!" Then he groaned and slammed it down. "Fuck, storm must've knocked down a line somewhere," he muttered as a wisp of wind outside blew past the building and made an eery rasping sound.
Jack decided then to move to the front door slowly and take a look outside, see if he could find anything going on by peering from the front door. As his blue eyes scanned the grounds just outside of the lodge, he sighed in relief to see Dante's car pulling up in the slight distance, thinking the guy could probably help out with what the hell was going on. Reaching down to the doorknob to turn it and then open the door, he didn't notice a figure coming up behind him, but he did feel the sting of pain as he was hit on the head for a second time and then, as he went unconscious, grabbed and pulled away from the door.
Upstairs, Regan had awoken Evelyn and taken her to her office, finding out immediately just as Jack had that the phones weren't working currently. After that, Regan told Evelyn to go sit in the corner, and then she went to her file cabinet and started pushing it in front of the door, looking back for anything else that she could move to barricade them both inside. There was a chair, so she grabbed it and set it with the back up under the knob, then she stepped away and looked at the walls. Evelyn had also done that, noticing Regan's massive collection of guns in the room, probably why she'd chosen to haul up here, and Regan started pulling them down and she opened the bottom drawer of her file cabinet with a key, then pulled out the ammunition she had in there to load her weapons with.
Having seen Dante fighting one of those hooded things that Jack had said he'd just seen wandering around the ranch earlier, and having learned that they were demons, Regan took no chances. Dante had gone after the damned things with two guns and a sword, and his confession to her earlier of being half demon only reinsured her belief that he made everything he'd done look much easier than it actually had been. With that knowledge in her mind, she loaded every single gun she had a clip or some bullets for and set them out on her desk in front of the window, then grabbed the two with the most ammo and power and moved over in front of Evelyn on the floor. Regan got down onto her knees, shoving her dizziness aside and she reached out with a gentle smile to the little girls face and rubbed her cheek, "Hey Evelyn, don't worry, I'm not going to let them come back and get you."
Evelyn already knew they were back, Regan had to tell her, after all, what was she supposed to say, that Santa Clause was coming early so Regan wanted to hide from him in her office and load all of her guns incase the bastard decided to walk in? Somehow she didn't think that would be too believable, and as she told Evelyn that, the little girl nodded her head as if she completely trusted Regan to stand by her word, sucking her thumb into her mouth nervously.
Regan turned then to face the little girl, and she added, "Just stay behind me sweety, until Jack comes up here, okay?" Getting the little girls nod of agreement, Regan turned back to face the door again. She sighed inwardly, knowing Jack had no idea what was going on, and that she'd have to explain everything to him whenever she got the chance to. After all, he probably just thought that these guys running around were nothing more than hoodlums trying to cause problems. He didn't realize they were all demons and much more powerful than humans. She had to question herself in that moment as well; why hadn't she just told Jack to come along with her and stay in her office? But then again, Jack wasn't a guy who liked to hide, and if he had have gone in there with them, who would have called the police? Hopefully the phone downstairs actually was working.
Regan continued to sit there, regretting all of her fast movements in the moment, because now she was aching slightly, and she wondered how much longer her last dose of medicine was going to last before her head started really throbbing and pounding. It was already doing that, telling her she needed to go lay down, but she'd be damned if she did anything of the sort. Instead, she continued to sit, to wait, to listen to the wind outside blowing across the windows, making those awful sounds they were sometimes known for. With the way the situation was going, Regan wished the wind would shut its mouth for a few minutes.
Time went on, and silence besides the howling wind played. Where was he, Regan asked herself. She didn't care who 'he' referred to either, Jack, Dante, even Doc, either one of them would do right now. Her guns remained fixed on the door in her hands, and Regan could still feel Evelyn standing behind her back, ready to duck at the slightest movement. The situation became tense and full of anticipation, and Regan took a deep breath in order to calm her raging thoughts and feelings in that moment. She needed a clear head in order to be able to think things through, but even still, she wasn't used to dealing with this, not at all.
Footsteps were heard then. They were heavy and slow, and because of that, Regan could tell that they weren't friendly. If they'd been friendly, unless someone was sneaking down the hallway in which case they wouldn't be stepping so heavily, then they would have probably been walking at either a much more normal rate of pace or a much quicker one, depending on the situation outside of the room. As Regan had that thought, she looked down and spied a shadow looming just outside of the door below the crack and coming to a stop. When that moment came, Regan felt her heartbeat increase, and a slight bit of sweat break out on her forehead despite how cold it was outside. She hoped to god one of those things hadn't just found them.
"Regan, I'm scared," she heard a soft whisper coming from behind her.
Nodding slightly, Regan parted her lips, taking a deep breath, and she admitted in a soft whisper, "Me too." She hated admitting something like that to the child, but she really couldn't comfort her in that moment. The child had already seen too many horrors, and more than likely wouldn't believe some lie or weak attempt at reassurance by saying everything would be okay because of it. Even still, Regan had a fierce maternal instinct, she'd always taken to kids very well, and she'd be damned if she let anything happen to this one. She just wouldn't lie to her, that was all, not in this case.
The doorknob started to turn, but became stuck on the back of the chair that Regan had placed against it. Knowing what was probably coming, Regan whispered to Evelyn again, "Cover your ears, sweety," thinking the guns might make her ears ring, "and when I say so, I want you to run and hide in the closet down the hallway, I'll be right behind you, okay?"
"Okay," Evelyn whispered back, then she covered her ears like Regan had asked her to, and watched the door start shaking as the being on the other side of it tried to push it in.
Suddenly, the shaking stopped. Everything went quiet, and after a moment of silence, the top of the door suddenly busted in without warning as a fist was shoved through it. Regan held her fire, squinting a bit at the pieces of wood flew through the air incase any of it came her way, and then she looked back. The arm that had busted through the door reached down and jerked the chair out of the way.
Not yet.
It grabbed the handle of the door and turned it.
Wait for it.
The door violently began opening as the file cabinet was shoved out of the way and then the hooded figure walked into the room.
Smile you son of a bitch.
Regan began pulling the triggers with the guns aimed at his head, one after the other, and she stood up slowly, pushing herself up against the wall on her legs, while she did so. The bullets whizzed through the air, blowing holes into the demons head, even though it continued to step toward her. Somehow, it seemed to keep closing its own wounds back up, but the more that hit, the harder it was to do so, and it finally reeled back when Regan realized she only had two shots left in the gun. Breathing heavily because of how long it'd taken to simply get the demon to reel back like that, she almost forgot to tell Evelyn to run, and she yelled, "Now, Evelyn!"
Turning at the same time that Evelyn went running to the door and passed the currently reeling demon quickly, Regan grabbed two more guns from her desk and turned around to start shooting once again. She spotted Evelyn disappearing from sight around the corner, giving her a slight bit of relief. But the demon had stood up straight again, about seven feet away from her near the door, and she couldn't concentrate on anything else. She'd have to wait for it to reel back again before she could make it out of there herself.
She only hoped she'd done the right thing by having told Evelyn to run.
The demon continued toward her, apparently having not noticed the little girl was gone now, either that, or he just didn't care, and that only told Regan there may be more of them around somewhere else to grab her. Regan started backing away as the towering figure slowly neared her, hoping to god he stumbled before she ran out of bullets so that she'd have a chance. But instead, she pulled the triggers again and just heard a click. Empty.
Having backed into the corner without a choice, Regan glanced at her guns for a split second and saw that they were now out of reach, beyond the demon bearing in on her. She took a deep breath, then threw one of her empty weapons at the demons head just as it reached out for her throat at a sudden, tremendous pace and jerked her toward itself. Regan dropped the other gun with a loud grunt and grabbed the large wrist, felt her feet leaving the floor as she was lifted up. Then she saw the demons other hand raising, the jagged blade it held looming at her threateningly. Regan's eyes went wide as she watched it, felt her body going cold with fear, then looked back at the face of the demon which, with the holes she'd blown in the masks they usually wore, could see a black skinned, skeletal face beneath it, no eyes, and a centipede slithering through its one exposed eye socket, maggots and spiders in other places, creating a grotesque visage of its master, whether or not Regan realized it in that moment.
The demon brought its arm down to take Regan's life, the blade being swung swiftly with a slice of air, when its arm suddenly stopped, the blade coming to a halt only a few mere inches from her throat. Regan had squeezed her eyes shut, her face going a bit purple from the lack of air as she dangled from the demons arm, and as it stopped, she slowly let her green eyes open back up.
Why wasn't it moving? Killing her? She couldn't only wonder that, bringing her green eyes to its face, desiring air more and more as each second passed. But before she could figure anything out, the demon stumbled a slight bit as a baseball bat was brought down to its back with the angrily yelled words, "Let her go, faggot!"
Jack drew the bat back quickly, having just woken up from being knocked unconscious a few moments before, and he swung the bat once again, hitting the demon a second time. It let go of Regan after that, and while Jack had a gun on him, he hadn't shot at the thing for fear of hitting Regan accidentally. Once it's grip loosened, Regan fell to the floor coughing and hacking, trying to crawl away, and she told Jack, "My guns are loaded, use them!" She didn't know he had his own.
Jack looked at her desk, then he turned and grabbed one of them just as the demon he'd hit swiped it's blade around quickly, dragging the sharp edge through his arm, slicing his flesh open. "Fuck!," Jack yelled at the searing pain in his arm, falling back onto the desk, and as the demon came at him, he kicked his leg up into its chest and pushed at it as hard as he could. "Get the fuck out of here, Regan! Go find that kid!" He managed to send the demon stumbling backwards despite its heavy size, stronger than Regan was and completely pissed off about having been hit on the head twice that night.
Regan had been working her way back to her feet by the door when Jack told her that, and she was torn between helping him and going after Evelyn, but she knew she didn't have a choice. Jack could take care of himself, and Evelyn couldn't except to run and hide, and Regan didn't want to lose track of her like that. So she ignored her pains the best she could and ran off down the hallway to the closet where she'd told Evelyn to go hide before.
As Jack pushed the demon off of him and Regan ran from the room, he pulled up his own gun and one of Regan's from the desk behind him, then started shooting at the damned thing viciously, the light from the flashes of gunshots reflecting off his stubble lined face and wavy black hair as he yelled, "Who wants swiss cheese?!"
But the demon wasn't going down very easily, and it turned again, pulling its blade across Jack's abdomen with a string strike. Blood began to flow down his already ripped button up shirt, and grunting as he turned to the side with the blow, Jack cringed, his fire stopping for the moment. But being in the fight mode he was now, he knew he couldn't give this asshole an inch, so he pushed himself forward as hard as he fucking could and rammed his shoulder into the demons chest to knock the damned thing over and hopefully out of his way.
His tackle got the demon back several feet, but only until he felt the piercing pain of a blade being stabbed down into him, through his shoulder. Jack immediately fell to the floor, unable to move for several moments now, yelling with the ripping pain of the blade being jerked out of his shoulder again once he'd fallen. Taking deep, heavy breaths, Jack pushed himself over to lay on his back and immediately grunted as a heavy booted foot was placed on his stomach hard to keep him where he was. He looked up as the demon stood over him, its back facing the door now, and with both hands, he held up his blade to stab it down into Jack's chest. The tip of the jagged sword glinted, and Jack sneered, "Fuck you, what the fuck are you waiting for!? Do it you limp dicked pussy!"
But the demon didn't stab him, and instead made a sickening sound that was far from human. Jack could suddenly see the tip of a silver blade protruding through its chest as it stood there, ready to impale him. Then the blade was jerked up and through the demons body hard and quickly, causing its black blood to spill everywhere, even onto Jack, who didn't seem to care and only watched as the now dead demon fell to the side limply revealing Dante slinging the now blood covered Rebellion around and up onto his shoulder, "Did ya miss me?" Dante asked coyly.
Jack, despite the pain he was feeling, smirked up at the white haired hardass, and he shook his head slowly, "If you were a woman, I'd probably kiss ya."
"Good thing I'm not," Dante told him with a grin, then reached down to help Jack stand back up, slapping their hands together. Pulling the man up, Jack leaned against the door, and Dante said, "You should stay in here, cowboy, you don't look too good."
"Maybe," Jack agreed with him softly, "go find Regan and that kid, don't worry about me, I've done worse to myself shaving," he smirked.
"That's fucked up, Jack," Dante told him with an amused shake of his white head of hair, then adding as he moved away, "If I see Doc, I'll let him know where ya are." Dante then moved down the hallway, and Jack limped away from the door slowly to go find somewhere that he could take care of himself, muttering curses the entire time.
--
Evelyn had run down the hallway and toward the closet Regan had told her too when she'd come to a sudden stop, her feet sliding across the floor as she did so, making her fall onto her butt. Another of those hooded demons had turned the corner, coming toward her now, and it reached out its hand. Gasping, Evelyn pushed herself into the opposite direction and starting making her way down the hallway quickly, getting to the stairs once she'd passed the office again, holding onto the rail tightly as she took them as quickly as possible.
Evelyn didn't know if the thing was still right behind her or not, but she didn't want to look back either. Instead, she just ran from the house and into the snowy front yards, her socks becoming soaked and frozen with the snow. Peering ahead of herself, she saw a car parked on the side of the dirt road passing the front of the ranch, and she made her way to it as quickly as her frozen feet would allow her. Pulling the back seat door open to Cherry, she threw herself inside and shut and locked the doors one by one, ducking down once she'd completed that task so that no one would see her before slowly peering over the edge and out of the window. She was breathing heavily now, but thankfully, to her four year old mind, she didn't see anyone about.
In those quiet moments, an odd undulation of smoke seemed to form in the air. Slowly wafting about, it finally took the shape of a man in a black robe with long black hair, his back facing the car, and he looked around the area, tilting his head to the side. Evelyn gasped and ducked beneath the door again so that if he turned around he wouldn't see her.
Turning around completely, Arias looked over the car parked out front, and he lifted his brows, stepping toward it. "Nice," he commented judgementally, "definitely Dante's. Figures he'd have something so damned flashy. What is it with kids nowadays." He stepped up to the side of the car and looked it over, "Leather bucket seats, probably a v8 engine," he looked into the back, saw a pair of eyes coming over the edge and then ducking back down quickly, "and a kid in the backseat." He did a double take over that and then shivered. Arias seriously loathed kids almost as much as he loathed his own father. "So that's where she went to," he muttered. "Alas my little youth, I'm not the one you need to worry about," he added dryly, then turned back to the lodge.
Stepping forward, Arias listened quietly to the heavily falling snow, and then he heard a yell. "Ah, chaos and mayhem. I must be in the right place." At about that same moment, the front doors to the lodge swung open hard and Regan came running through the doors, looking back and forth. She called the name Evelyn, and then went down the steps, stopping on the bottom one suddenly when she saw the tall, slender figure dressed in black standing amongst the falling snow. Looking him over, narrowing her brows, she wondered who the hell he was. Not another one, she hoped desperately.
But he seemed to know her, "Regan," he smiled, looked her over. One of his slender brows raised, "Nice pajama's."
Regan looked down at her white and blue sleep wear, then glanced back at the man, "Who the hell are you?"
"The hell," he started, turning to look back at the car, "would be an appropriate term to use in this situation, especially to dear, sweet Evelyn back there." Arias glanced back at the lovely young woman again, and lifted his brows, "She's hiding in the car, completely fine, though I'd gather a bit frightened and with good reason."
Regan narrowed her brows angrily at the person before her, "You're with those hooded things, aren't you? Well, you might as well pack up and leave, you're not getting her!"
Arias said nothing, moved to the side and held his hand out to let Regan pass as he knew she wanted to. She stared at him quietly for a moment, then she took off toward the car to get the little girl. As she passed Arias, he spoke to her again urgently, "Wait, wait, I forgot something."
He sounded completely earnest, and the mere sound of his voice alone despite the way he'd stated his request of her caused her to spin around if for nothing more than defense alone. But as soon as she did, and came to face him, she felt a piercing pain streaking up through her stomach. Her lips parted with the choked groan she'd made at the initial pain, Arias standing right in front of her now as her head jerked forth beside of his arm.
Arias held the hilt of the blade he had wedged into Regan's stomach without a single look of remorse or caring on his face, didn't seem to mind that the force of the dagger being thrust into her body had caused her to fall somewhat against him. He glanced down and to the side at the top of her head, reaching up to place his hand on it almost comfortingly. "I forgot a gift I have to give you." At the words, he pulled the blade out and then stabbed it into her again for good measure. Regan grunted a second time, her pupils contracting in her eyes. To her, words could not describe that type of pain as it was worse than she'd ever felt before, even when she'd had a horse fall on her and break her arm when she was younger. Arias let go of the blade and she took it herself in her own hands. The power in her legs began draining as she stumbled back away from him and she could no longer stand on her own two frozen feet as the snow came down and became trapped in her blood red hair.
Evelyn was screaming from the car behind them, scared to death over what she'd just seen. Arias watched Regan falling to her knees, then over onto her side in a slump. "Hmpf," he drew out pointedly, then turned around and looked up to see Dante standing on the steps. A slight smile lit his lips. "I do believe that once again, you're a bit too late, Dante."
Dante looked down at the snow, saw Regan laying there, the blood she was bleeding staining the white frost she lay in. There was no steam being expelled from her mouth or nose, telling Dante that she was probably already dead. Questions began playing through his head in that moment, why Regan, what was Arias up to, what did he or his father truly want, and along with those questions came a good surge of anger. Dante wasn't one to take any kind of defeat lightly, and he pulled his weapon off of his back. "And I do believe I'm about to kick your ass, Arias," he told the demon before he took off toward him, swinging his blade around, which met another one that was completely black, named Venom.
Arias held his own sword up against Rebellion with both hands. The swords crossed between the two enemies, their faces in close proximity, Arias sighed, "I'm not entirely sure you want to do this right now, after all, you've still got other trash to clean up, don't you?" He motioned to the two large demons in cloaks and hoods coming up on either side of him. "Phantoms aren't completely useless, and they're persistent."
Dante continued to glare at Arias as if he knew this wasn't over yet. No way in hell he was just going to let Arias get away with this. "Next time then, we'll tango."
Arias just smirked, "It's a date," he told Dante sarcastically, then disappeared in a puff of black smoke as Dante turned around and knocked one of the jagged blades of the monsters to the side that had been swung in attack at him, followed by jabbing Rebellion at the other one in a stinger before knocking it through the air with his foot, sending the demon careening into the wall of the lodge behind it. The first Phantom as they were apparently called had come back, attacking Dante in quick succession with his own blade, and Dante returned all of hells fury to him, apparently pissed a great deal at these assholes.
As the fighting continued, Dante managed to get in several good hits on the two Phantoms swiping their swords at him, talking his shit to them the entire time, and he turned Rebellion to his back to stop one blade, then aimed ahead of himself with Ivory and took several shots before whipping Rebellion around hard and through the air by his head in an arch, cutting the same Phantom's throat while it reeled from the blast of the powerful gun.
As soon as he'd managed to do that, he felt a powerful burst of energy ramming into his back from the Phantom behind him, surging over his body in black waves, which caused him to fly forward and through the snow, leaving a trail in his wake. Shaking his head as he came to a stop, Dante heard a loud gunshot behind him, and he turned to look back quickly, seeing Jack wielding a sawed off shotgun which he cocked again as he stepped closer, having apparently bandaged himself up before he'd come out there, and he pulled the trigger again. The Phantom who'd just thrown Dante squealed, near death now, and fell to its knees.
As this happened, the sword the Phantom held began to glow black slightly. This one seemed to be a bit bigger than the other Phantoms, and had a differing sword. He was the same one on horseback which had initially attacked Regan and told her to hand over Evelyn. The long sword it held which had a black hilt and a silver blade seemed to be coming into use now, and though Dante wasn't sure what that use was, he couldn't wait to find out, he thought dryly.
Jack didn't know about the second Phantom though, who'd held his hand up, pointing it in Jack's direction, and a burst of black energy built, the same kind that had just hit Dante. Turning, Dante yelled, "Jack, duck!" and he slung Rebellion as hard as he could, causing the blade to go flying at the Phantom until its tip wedged into its torso, then through its spine, and knocked it back toward the wall of the lodge, impaling it. While the blade had done the trick and knocked the Phantom away from Jack, pinning its target to the wall, the Phantom had still managed to get his blast completely charged, but the aim was a bit off. Jack had ducked and the energy had hit him in the side instead of full on, which knocked Jack off of his feet and across the yard, into the snow himself. He didn't get back up nor move, however, blood dripping from his mouth and nose.
At the same time, with the one remaining Phantom left, vortexes began to open again, an effect of his sword coming to use more than likely as it apparently had the ability to summon demons. Instead of Quietuses this time came demons that were shaped like bugs, eight slender legs that were bent in upside down V's with black splotched red bodies and antennas that were moving swiftly about. Groaning, Dante muttered over the new development in the plot, "Where's the Terminix guy when you need him?" Then he pushed himself up.
As the first one landed, it jumped into the air, coming toward Dante who shot at it without even thinking about it, knocking it backwards and away from him. Having not forgotten Pegasus, Dante unstrapped the boomerang from his back and turned, throwing the silver weapon through the air at the other spiders which had formed, spinning rapidly and cutting them down like butter in succession, giving Dante the chance he needed to grab Rebellion again.
Evelyn continuously watched the fighting from the car door, and she suddenly screamed when one of the spiders landed on the side of Cherry, covering the window she'd been looking from. It's bottom side opened up like a mouth with razor sharp teeth that started snapping at her. Realizing it couldn't get into the car, Evelyn's brows narrowed angrily at the spider, and she crawled up into the front seat and started laying in on the horn, which actually seemed to startle the spider into jumping away.
Hearing his car horn, Dante looked up to see Evelyn beeping it at a spider that had been bothering her, and he caught Pegasus again as it came back to him before something landed on his back. Turning, he was then hit in the face by the web a spider had just spit onto him, and he cut away at it with Pegasus before he turned around and sliced down another spider with the same weapon. But the webbing still on his body was making it a bit difficult to move. This was getting ridiculous. "Heh, sticky situation." The comment made him roll his blue eyes upwards.
The spider that had spit the web onto him jumped off of the wall and onto Dante's back when he'd turned around to swipe at the one attacking him, and it tried to clamp its legs around his torso and tear into him with its teeth from behind. Grunting, Dante grabbed its leg and jerked it off, throwing the appendage to the side before grabbing the next one, which made the creature let him go. They seemed to be easy enough to take out, but there was a good number of them, which made things a bit more difficult. Not that he couldn't handle the situation.
The final Phantom had pushed itself back up, completely hood less now, its skull leering a constant grin at whomever it peered toward, and pulling its sword up, it turned to face Dante, ready to finish this off. Dante, pulling the rest of the webbing from his body, turned to face off with the demon for a final showdown, pulling Rebellion from his back again and lifting the sword. "Hope you brought a spare body, cause you're gonna need one when I'm done with you."
A bright light flashed from behind them all almost as soon as he'd said that. It caused Dante to become blinded for a moment, and the shock of it even knocked the Phantom forward a bit. The origination of the light which was white in color seemed to be coming from where Regan lay, and as it started dying down, her body began to shift in form, sparking as it did so, her fingers becoming clawed, her skin turning a dark blue that almost looked black, her body seeming to create a set of clothing all for itself as her glowing red eyes suddenly opened.
She didn't even push herself up, instead, simply moved at lightening speed toward the demon with a shrill cry that sounded like something a banshee would make, instilling fear into the spider demons around them which became still. A trail of red and dark blue was left in her wake and she turned low against the ground and knocked the Phantoms feet from under him, causing him to go spiraling into the air. As he did, she turned and grabbed his ankle tightly, slinging him around and into a set of spiders, destroying them before she let go. The Phantom went flying in Dante's direction, and Dante grinned, unknowing what the hell was going on with Regan, but knowing opportunity when it knocked.
Hence his nicely timed phrase, "Knock, knock."
As the Phantom had nearly reached him, Dante ducked and thrust his legs up as he jumped from the ground, crashing into the Phantom, both of them going flying into the air. Rebellion pierced the demons torso before it was pulled out, then swiped at his body again and again with angrily hard strikes. They went spinning out of control seemingly, rotating around one another, before Dante, now above the demon in the sky, turned and struck the Phantom with Rebellion so hard that his body went flying back to the Earth and landed in the snow, blowing the white material up into the air, forming a crater.
The Phantoms sword spun through the air after it did and went down, right into its owners torso as the body started dissolving into nothing but a mass of bugs and blood. Dante landed just a moment later as if he were on a large pillow, and looked over at the carnage, then in Regan's direction.
The now quiet area, aside from the blowing wind and snow, gave a resolution to the scene, and Dante watched the woman whose body reverted back to normal before she fell over again and passed out, the dagger still dug into her stomach. Before she could completely fall over, however, Dante had caught up to her and put his arm out to catch her. "Regan," he spoke to get her attention, but he didn't get a response. Still, she was breathing, so he turned her in his arms and then grabbed the blade that was wedged in her torso, pulling it out. Opening the shirt she wore via the newly made slice in it, he watched the cut beneath it slowly closing up as if she might've been a half demon like himself, if not a whole demon.
Before he could have any thoughts on what he'd just seen though, he heard a car door slamming shut and looked up to see Evelyn running toward them. She slid to a stop, having apparently found her clothing in the car as she was wearing boots and a coat now, and she looked at Jack when she heard him groaning. Evelyn glanced at Dante, and Dante thought for just a moment. Jack was near death, Regan had just been killed and then gone devil trigger, and the newly made attack on the ranch had been the most powerful yet.
No matter what happened in the future, Dante knew this shit wasn't going to get any easier, and that his decision to come here had been well founded. Pushing himself up, he told Evelyn to go open the door, and started the task of getting both unconscious people into the lodge. But with his suspicions, he decided to get Jack inside first, as he was apparently much worse off than Regan was at the moment.
No, Regan's true struggle would come whenever she woke up.
Outside once again a short while later after getting a few things taken care of, Dante moved toward the crater in the snow where the blade rested, jutting up from the ground like something out of The Sword in the Stone almost. Grabbing the hilt, he lifted the sword up and looked it over. It had a relatively plain design, the guard being silver and nicely etched, shaped like two seven's facing each other, spikes on the bent tips like a bats or a demons wings, and on the very edge of the black hilt was a silver demons face.
"It's called Demon Caller," came the voice of Arias, and Dante only turned his head slightly when he heard the comment, uncaring to face the bastard completely. "I think however that you may find it useless considering your current arsenal, that is, unless, you have some slithering of Democrities blood flowing through your veins that would allow you to summon from his army."
Dante grumbled and turned around finally, still holding the sword in his hand, "Then why don't you take it?"
Arias scoffed, "I have a better weapon, and besides, I believe Regan will be needing something to defend herself with. Give it to her. After all, she has his blood in her now."
"What did you do to her?"
"Oh," Arias sighed, turning a slight bit and looking across the ranch as if to take in the snowy scenery. "I'm sure you'll find that out in time yourself. After all, you're a Sparda, and Sparda was known for his wisdom. Stands to reason you've got some of that kicking around somewhere in your head."
As Arias started walking away, Dante lifted the weapon he held, his head tilted to the side in annoyance, and started, "Now you're just gonna leave? You're not even going to try and get Evelyn?"
"Well, I hate children," Arias stopped and glanced back at him, smirking a slight bit, "you can babysit her for a while. But I do owe you a fulfillment of a promise made earlier. Deceitful as I may be, I'll finish my story, that is, if you're willing to hear more of Vergil."
Dante had started heading back out of the crater, and he looked over at Arias, standing a good five feet away from him. He held up his hand, "It better be good."
"Oh, it's tremendously pleasing. Why," Arias turned slightly, "ever since your brother arrived in hell, he's been causing a gigantic distraction. We're rejoicing, and parties are being thrown. Too bad I'm stuck in this place, not that I'm a partier myself. But," he glanced his black eyes back at Dante as his form began to slowly shimmer into smoke and waft away from his feet up, "his distraction has allowed many a demon to get a greater foothold where before they had none. This would include my father. So perhaps now, you can thank your brother for all of your increasing business I foresee coming to you in the future. With that said, I bid you adieu, Dante, and wish Vergil luck with all of the minions he's been facing, as I fear what could be awaiting him should he fail to emerge victorious."
Arias disappeared. Dante sighed a deep breath, then shrugged his shoulders in indifference. The only thing he could think was that Vergil had chosen his own path, and whatever awaited him, if Arias was, in fact, telling the truth, would be his to deal with, and not Dante's problem.
Still, Dante couldn't help but hope he defeated his enemies.