Chapter 8 - Devil Triggers
"So, You've made it in one piece... good for you. However, when you leave, it'll be in pieces!" Vergil yelled and darted toward Alex.
"Vergil, you don't know what you're doing. Stop this madness!" Alex said and blocked Vergil's punch with the Rebellion, and slashed him with the Red Queen blade, and sent him skidding back several feet.
"Hmph. So you've grown stronger Alex... Unfortunately for you, I have too!" Vergil shuffled his feet, then bolted at Aex with speed that the group had only seen from Zell. Alex was prepared and ducked to avoid the fast kick that Vergil threw, and countered with a slash of the Red Queen blade and sent Vergil airborne.
"Good, but not good enough!" Vergil yelled and as Alex jumped to chase after him, he planted a powerful axe kick to her head, and she dented the top of the Temen-Ni-Gru.
"No, Alex!" Trish, Sam, Clover, and Britney yelled in concern for their friend, and Zell remained silent as the battle carried on, and the rain grew heavier.
"..." Zell sniffed the air and his eyes grew wide, Sam and Britney noticed this, but said nothing.
Vergil landed on his feet and Alex lay facefirst on the ground. Vergil walked toward Alex with a dark smirk on his face. Alex struggled to get up, and placed her demonic hand over her face and stood up slowly and stumbled several steps backward before she regained her balance. Vergil han in his hand the Yamato and held it as he would when doing the Blade Orb technique. Alex braced herself for the attack but was distracted when the attack wasn't aimed at her, but at the other girls. Zell slowed time down just enough to protect the girls from the Blade Orbs. Sam caught a glimpse of Zell as he deflected the attacks, which was rare thay anyone could see Zell when he was in Hypertime. Vergil heard the swords clash and saw the fire and wind bursting from Zell's weapons as he defended the girls. Alex bolted at Vergil again, a bit faster than before with the Cerberus in hand this time and Vergil was using the Beowulf. Alex swung the Cerberus and Vergil blocked with his fist, then countered with a kick that Alex blocked with her devil bringer arm, which absorbed the white energy the the beowulf emitted. Then Alex knocked Vergil upward with an acrobatic backflip, then spun the Cerberus around and unloaded a salve of ice shards upon Vergil, then shot him with the Blue Rose, then with the Ebony and Ivory handguns. The bullets were deflected by Vergil as he landed on one of the pillars nearby and smiled again, as if he knew he was going to win. Just at that moment Alex's devil bringer began to take over. She moved with speed to rival Zell's, and strength to tear a hole in the dimension. She lunged at Vergil and at the same time, they both attack each other. Vergil land, and Alex is now airborne. Both combatants clutch thier wounds, Vergil holds his left arm, and Alex holds her side, which is gushing blood like a waterfall. When Alex lands, she hits a pillar with sharp jagged edges on it and deepens her injury, causing her to land sideways, and seemingly unable to move.
"Hm,hm,hm..." Vergil began to laugh, the rain began to pour furiously.
"I-I... won't... be the one... to fall... here..." Alex grunted and struggled to get up with one side of her body functioning.
"Alex, you can still win without our help..." Zell growled in wolf, no one was able to understand him except Sam and Trish. They agreed and cheered Alex on.
"I can't let my friends down. This soul, no, this being sceams that it wants to stop you Vergil!" Alex yelled and unleashed her devil trigger state.
"Hmmm... so we begin anew." Vergil retoted in his cool and calm tone then went into his devil trigger state as well. Vergil's Devil trigger was a blue tinted version of Sparda, with a version of Yamato that resembled a greatsword, then the two jumped back away, fully healed, then charged at each other with blades in hand. The two were clashing blades with the speed of light, or faster.
The two slashed and clanged weapons so quickly that they were cutting through the rainfall. Vergil began to gain the upper hand and forced Alex to go onto the defensive and left no room for counter attacks, as his attacks possessed even more delayed reactions than in his normal state. Vergil swung his blade so strongly that it made Alex stagger, then he took the opprotunity to pierce her with his demonic Yamato katana. Just as the blade entered her flesh, her Rebellion had clanged to the ground right next to her friends' feet.
"Looks like it's game over for you." Vergil laughed then pulled his blade out of Alex's body and she fell onto the wet floor, her eyes staring blankly into the raining sky.
"NO!" Trish screamed then she flung the Sparda at Vergil, who had his back turned, and pierced his back, Clover and Mary ran to Alex's side, Sam followed Zell to help Trish.
Vergil, still in his devil trigger state, was shocked that anybody could damage his devil trigger state, and as a result he was ambushed by three allies of Alex. Trish jumped over Vergil, and Sam kicked the Sparda through him to Trish, and she and Zell jumped into the air and sliced through Vergil, causing him to revert and drop down to one knee. He faked the gesture, and launched Trish into the air, and jumped after her, but Zell grabbed his leg and threw him into a pillar on the other side of the tower. Sam threw her S saber into his body and pinned him to the pillar, and Trish landed and caught the Sparda blade then rammed it full speed into his body. Thunder crashed and lighteing struck, then in that flash of light, Alex stood in front of the pinned Vergil with a dark orange aura about her. She took Sam's S saber and it transformed into a snake-like blade, and wrapped it around Vergil's neck. He gripped the blade and freed himself after a hard struggle, and suffered wounds to his hands and shattered some pieces of the weapon, but not fully destroying it. He kicked Alex backward with the Beowulf greaves, and had his Yamato in hand and surrounded himself with four rows of summoned swords, each rotating in the opposite direction of the previous row. Alex stopped and looked at her friends, Mary, Sam, Clover, Britney, Trish, and Zell. She motioned for them all to follow her single file and each person passed through Vergil with a slash of a blade, of shot from a rocket, and appeared on the other side of him, and he dropped again, this time coughing blood, Alex did the same. Zell held the rest of the team back as they were growing more worried as the fight proceeded, but he managed to hold them all back. Alex stood up first, then Vergil. Alex broke into a run and dropped the Rebellion blade, and clawed through Vergil with her now pure white devil bringer hand, and he burst into a bright light and disentigrated. After that attack Alex collapsed and dropped facefirst. Zell let Trish got to her aid alone. Alex was out cold, but Vergil was dead, and th moon was large and growing larger, then if finally engulfed the team in a red light.
Vergil stood there waiting, and he began to laugh evilly. The team was now in a cavern and standing in a river of blood, Alex seemed to be drinking from the river silently.
"Well, well. Looks like she bet my copy, but now she hasn't the strength to face me for real." Vergil smiled with a dark satisfaction.
"Well devil boy, you still have us to worry about." Britney yelled
"As long as we're here, you'll be going down!" Clover stood up and readied herself.
"There's no way I'm going to forgive you for that." Trish spoke in a demonic voice and began to glow yellow like a super saiyan and electricity surged throughout her body.
"Hmph. I just wanna get this over with." Zell said then bolted toward Vergil first, tearing a gap in the rushing waters in the process.
Zell's speed gave Vergil little time to recover, and Zell warped behind Vergil and kicked him toward Trish. She buried the Sparda into his abdomen, then spun around and he flew toward Clover. Clover electrocuted Vergil using the S saber, then hurled him to Britney, who darted around him slicing various parts of his body and Mary was behind her firing salvos of Kalina Ann missiles. Sam jumped into the air and plummeted Vergil using an axe kick and her S saber simultaneously. Vergil cratered the watery area and didn't move for a while, so the group went to tend Alex wounds, while Zell remained to watch Vergil's body. Alex struggled to stand, as she didn't get any practice with her demonic half, but apparently hers healed faster with the prescence of blood somewhere nearby, and when Alex told the girls this, there was lillte doubt that she would lose the next round. Vergil's body began to stir again.
"He's coming back. Are you all ready?" Zell asked with no concern whatsoever.
"Yeah. Alex and I will take him on." Trish replied with a smile.
"Heh, then that means the protection is my job." Zell smirked and walked over to the girls.
"Wasn't it always?" Sam spoke in Zell's ear as he reached her.
"..." Zell smiled at both Sam and Britney, but they said nothing as the two girls walked to face Vergil for the final time.
Vergil stood up slowly and stared down Trish and Alex, they did the same. The tension was rising slowly but surely. Vergil ran towards the two and they ran at him, blades in hand, Alex with the Alastor in hand blocked Vergil's attack then Trish countered with a kick, sending him skidding across the river and hitting the wall. Trish pushed Alex toward Vergil. Alex jumped after several running steps and slashed Vergil across the face, but he stabbed her in the chest at the same time. They kicked off one another and Trish immediately ran and caught Vergil off guard, but he still managed to connect an attack. Vergil had his back against the wall, and Trish skidded backward across the river. Alex ran at Vergil and he ran at her with Yamato in hand, the two clashed blades, jumped back, ran at each other slashing at the other with great vigor. Vergil and Alex were movig so fast that they were creating a typhoon from the blood river and rising higher with every attack. Trish decided to stand back for this part, and Alex looked to realize how hih they were in the air an decided to end it here. She devil triggered and flew higher into the air, then Vergil did the same but his devil trigger didn't last as long. Alex flipped several times then slashe Vergil with the Alastor, then kicked him with the force of a meteor, then he plummetted to the ground wnd put a hole in the river again. Then Alex landed smoothly, and Veril used the last of his strength to run at Alex, she did the same. Alex landed the final blow first by slashing Vergil's body in half from the waist. Vergil stumbled, dropped the Yamato and fell over the waterfall at the end of the cavern. Certain that Vergil was gone, Alex had taken his blade from the spot where if fell and held in high in her ams triumphantly for a moment, then she dropped the blade and fell to one knee. She struggled yet again to keep her powers under control, and Trish noticed this and went to help her. Alex, either out of anger or confusion, devil triggered and screamed for a long time, then reverted back to her normal state, then Dante appeared before her and Trish one final time.
"You did it, Alex. But now I have one question for you..." Dante stated
"Yeah, what's the question?" Alex sighed, and stood up with the help of Trish.
"Do you want to keep your demon powers or should I lock them away?" Dante asked with a smirk, as he already knew what the answer was going to be.
"What!" Trish blared in shock of what she had heard.
"So they were temporary..." Zell mumbled with his arms folded.
"So what's going to happen?" Clover asked wildly.
"Are we going to forget what we've done here?" Britney asked.
"I was hoping to spend a little more time with you girls..." Mary sighed softly.
"We already completed the mission, Alex take your time and think carefully." Sam reminded kindly.
"So what are you going to do Alex?" Trish asked tears in her eyes became visible.
"...What's going to happen to my hand and memories if I want to give the powers back?" Alex asked clenching the devil bringer hand in her other hand.
"You'll get your hand back, or you'll forget the whole thing. I'm just a part of you now, I can't seperate from you. I can keep you're, I mean MY powers dormant from you, bbut only until the next catastrophe occurs." Dante replied.
"So the transformation was a warning?" Alex, Sam, Clover, and Britney asked bewildered.
"Yeah. but Your mission isn't complete just yet." Dante explained
"Huh? What do you mean?" Alex asked.
"Answer my question. then I'll tell you." Dante replied
"I'll keep the powers active. This way I can learn how to use them." Alex stated in moderate thought.
"Good answer girlie. Now go into this portal and face the final enemy. But first take this." Dante stated and handed alex a green orb.
"Hmmmm, just what I needed. Thank you, Dante." Alex said, enjoying the healing item.
"Your welcome, now choose three allies to go through with you - this is the final battle, but it's better to take a limited number of people." Dante explained.
"I'm going." Trish said heroically.
"I'm the leader, so you won't even get into that place unless I go with you, I have to keep my team safe, don't I?" Zell smirked and placed a wolf hand on Alex's shoulder.
"Sam, will you come too?" Alex asked
"M-me! Why me?" Sam asked, shocked at the request.
"You're like my older sister. You've helped me with so much... I just figured that I'd ask this of you as a sister, and as a best friend." Alex replied solemnly.
"Well, I'll go. after all, you still need me." Sam smiled and directed the last comment toward Zell.
"So, here you go. used this when you kill that bastard." Dante gave Alex his mother's pendant.
"D-dante! But, that was your mother's pendant!" Trish said, almost yelling.
"Yeah, but it won't do any good if it's hidden from sight when the world needs it the most." Dante proved his point, then walked over to Trish.
"Thanks for keeping me, I mean US safe, Trish. I appreciate this." Dante said, then hugged Trish and kissed he for the final time as a male.
"I-I... You're welcome, Dante." Trish stated then kissed Dante as well, with tears streaming down her face.
"Farewell babe. It's been fun, believe me when I say THAT." Dante said, then went back to face Alex.
"So who's our final opponent?" Alex asked as she grabbed Dante's hand.
"You'll see, and Trish knows him, because technically he's her father." Dante stated then took off his gloves.
"What're these for? And we have to kill another father?" Alex asked in bewilderment.
"The gloves not only help you look badass, but they will also allow you to regulate the demonic energy from me to you." Dante replied then leaned forward to Alex's face.
"Cool. Thanks. I'll put these to good use." Alex repied, then leaned into Dante and gave him a brief Thenk You kiss, then he faded into her body again, for the final time.`
The groups split into two: Zell, Alex, Trish, and Sam; and Mary, Clover, Britney. Mary's team reappeared at the Temen-Ni-Gru's top and decided to go down, and Alex's group walked into the portal, and the final battle was about to take place.