Mission 3: A Safe Haven.
Finding himself in a silver and gold bedroom was the last thing that Dante expected to see after his soul returned from goddamn hell, he stands up, and suddenly feels something itching him on the back, he placed his hand over his tattoo, and suddenly he was holding a sword.
It was the sword he took from hell, his father's blade.
"Sparda..." Dante said, giving another look at the regal looking sword, and suddenly the door opened.
He instantly looked towards that direction, ready to fight if needed, but instantly calmed down, the ones that entered were his family.
"Kat? Nero? Are you two okay?" He asked as he made the sword vanish, and hugged them.
"Yes, we are fine, we managed to hide in a room and I placed another barrier, and no demons came that way." Kat assured.
"And where in the world are we?" Dante now asked, looking around the fancy room again.
"I know it's hard to believe, but..." Kat began.
"The Angels brought us all here." Nero suddenly spoke, just saying it bluntly.
Dante looked at his son in confusion, and then looked at Kat.
"Angels? Like my mom...?" He asked, wanting to confirm this is true.
"Yes, and Dante, talking about your mom..." Kat tried to say... then was interrupted, for the second time.
Since Dante's mom stepped into the room.
Or at least she was so exactly similar, it'd be nearly impossible to tell them apart from each other.
"Now who are you?" Dante asked, taking a step back since this can only be a trick.
Wearing golden armor with a silver chest and a blue emblem of wings, a pair of actual long white wings in each side, some light golden gauntlets and blue leggings, a white helm with small wings on each side below an arm, and an affectionate gaze below a stream of red hair... this person looked like Eva if she went to some war.
"Dante, it's amazing to meet you, I've only heard stories and, despite all the controversies regarding you... I'm very proud." The woman said, at least Dante could see a difference now, the tone was caring, but the voice was not even close to the great and calming voice of his mother.
"I will ask one more time, who are you?" Dante said a bit louder now.
"Of course, sorry, I'm Trish Angelo, a general of the Angels, I welcome you to Paradise." She presented herself.
"Angelo... of the Angels, you guys seem to be terrible at names." Dante pointed out.
Nero laughed at that, Kat approached Dante.
"Dante, try to be respectful around here, I just can feel all the peace from being here, like a dream where is impossible to have nightmares, and they saved us despite there being some controversies." She told him.
"Fine, I might try... but why do you look so much like my mother? Are you some aunt we never knew about?" He questioned.
Trish laughed sadly.
"I was sure that would be one of the first things you'd ask, Eva... she was just such a role model for me and others before her betrayal." She started.
"Eva was not a warrior, yet an angel of renown here, always the most inspiring, and ready to improve our morale when the demons managed to get some edge, she cared for every single one of us and was great in the arts of healing, she even managed to cure some wounds that would have killed or best case, crippled me for life, and here I am now."
"Then Mundus found a way to increase his power tenfold, and your mother took a weapon and joined us directly when our hopes were all times low, there she meet Sparda... and you can imagine the rest." Trish stopped the tale.
"You looked up to Eva a lot." Kat mentioned.
"Yes, so when she went to have a family with a demon, I changed my appearance, to try being the next Eva, I can't do as well, but I do my best." Trish agreed, softly moving her hand over her red hair.
Dante would just nod after hearing the tale, he was now learning more about his mother, and by his expression it was obvious to tell what he was thinking, wished she still was here.
"Anyway, so you saved me from Vergil, right when he was about to kill me, couldn't you birds come sooner or at least even tell me about you being around?" Dante questioned, remembering that detail.
"I'm sorry for not appearing earlier, as a Nephilim, both you and your brother are not seen under the best light, and after Limbo and human world fused from the Hellgate being destroyed, some angels honestly wanted to bring war to the two of you." Trish explained.
"Oh yes? Where, I could have some chicken wings for dinner today." He said in a challenging tone.
"Don't worry, me and some others managed to convince them your intentions were good, you only wanted to kill Mundus and that was needed, and besides, Paradise was always farther from the human world than Limbo and hell, and the entrances well shut, so we can't just come and go, especially now with demons constantly releasing their energy." Trish calmed Dante down.
"And for coming against Vergil? Was I some bait?" Then he finally asks.
"I guess in short terms... you could say that, we knew that with how things are, the demon king would try to fight you himself, so we kept most of our energy until that moment... sadly he escaped right away." She admitted.
Dante just made an annoyed sound.
"Well, presentations done, I invite you to explore Paradise, it's completely safe in here, or at least for the moment, and then we can meet by the gates so I can tell you more." Trish proposed, as she gives a smile to everyone once again, and leaves the room.
"Exploring around huh? I guess I could do that." Dante said, looking at his family.
"I've already walked around some time and talked to some angels, some were interested on my powers, so maybe they could help me control them better." Kat said.
"Okay, but please be safe, I don't want the angels to do anything to you due to being angry with me." Dante said with a nod, as he leaves too.
He saw he had stayed in a quite nice house, though it was nothing compared to the incredibly big houses he saw in Paradise, many so big, they should be called mansions, and all with the usual blue, silver and gold, and Dante felt quite light too, and found himself able to perform much better jumps here.
Looking around better, he saw the sun shine brightly above with no clouds covering it, and he seems to be on some central floating island, with more floating islands with different biomas above, below and by the sides of the main one.
Not caring about what the owners might think, Dante started to jump and move over the rooftops of many houses to look from a better height, then he thought he saw something shining behind one of the houses, he approached it, and saw a ghostly figure stuck to behind a house, it was like the Lost Souls that Dante freed by attacking them years ago, though this one was blue and didn't move.
"Curious, anyway, different color, same fate." He said as he could test swinging his new sword a bit by jumping and slashing at the Soul, destroying it after some slices, and from where the Soul once was, a fragment of a Blue Orb appeared, which the Nephilim picked up.
Proud Souls defeated: 1/12
Then Dante walked next to the edge of this main island, and looked at the horizon, his eyes caught something, a very small island quite far away with just... a black door standing there.
"That is weird, but I can't really get there right now." Dante said, missing his whips.
Then he decided to reunite with Trish, and walked towards another edge of the floating island, where great silver gates were standing tall... with nothing behind, Trish was next to them.
"What is the point of a door leading to nothing?" Dante asked.
"It looks like that, doesn't it? But don't worry, is not that pointless." Trish answered.
"What do you want to tell me?" Dante questioned, walking closer.
"It's about your brother..." She began and Dante sighed tired.
"We have managed to send someone to hell to learn what the demon king is planning, and he told us that Vergil is planning... to bring Paradise into the Human world and Limbo." She explained.
"What? He wants to bring this place with all the angels down there? Is he stupid?" Dante said looking at her.
"I think I get what he is planning, despite all the fighting against the demons over thousands of years, Paradise remained quite shut and nearly impossible to just casually access to attack or invade, making a way through would require incredible energy and power."
"So by having the realms fused, nothing would stop him from doing a massive scale invasions and wiping out all of us." She finished explaining.
"So let me guess, you want me to beat Vergil and stop whatever thing he is doing so that fusion can't happen." Dante said.
Trish nodded sadly.
"Yes, I hate asking this to you since you just came hours ago, but angels are unable to go through Hell without massive protections, but you can, and you are better at fighting than most of us." She confessed.
"Most? With the way things look, it seems like you are all unable to beat demons, did nothing for six years, and let Vergil escape." Dante pointed out annoyed.
"Allow me to correct you on that, you know, I admire you, but for that same reason, I would like to test you too and see how you fare, myself." Trish suddenly said, putting on her helm.
"You want to pick a fight? Sure thing, I have to blow out some steam from everything, and you might be good training to test this." The Nephilim said, summoning his father's sword.
"I can recognize that, Sparda's blade... though it looks, different. No matter, that is a surprise but I'm not a general for nothing."
A golden lance suddenly appeared on Trish's hand in a flash, as she spins it around at incredible speed before getting in position.
Trish.
The angel would very quickly show the wings are not just to show, and leaped into the air, hovering several feet above, before preparing her lance and flying towards Dante, who rolled out of the way, Trish made a sharp turn and charged again, but instead of dodging, this time Dante slashed with his new sword, clashing with the angel and the lance and getting her off guard with the parry, as she was forced to land.
Trish did a long jump backwards, as her weapon glows, and she proceeds to fire some Light projectiles towards Dante in a straight line, but he thought fast and used a Stinger attack to do a big stab while moving forward, hitting the line of projectiles and sending them back to the angel, which was hurt by her own attacks.
Trish decided to actually engage head on, and she disappeared in a flash of light with some falling feathers, Dante looked around, and two seconds later, Trish appeared in front of him and quickly pokes several times with her lance, Dante got out of the way of the first ones, though he was hit a few times on the side.
Dante quickly went for keeping her away, pulling out Ebony and Ivory and firing a shot charged slightly, it pushed Trish back slightly, then Dante grabbed Sparda... and threw it straight to the angel, the impact making her step back as the sword sticks through the armor and Dante is barehanded.
Trish attacked with her lance but Dante jumped above, put his fists together, and slammed on the helmet, when he landed he did a succession of quick punches that weren't that damaging but still kept the angel on her toes, then he grabbed back the sword and did an upwards slash, throwing Trish to the air, he jumped after and slammed the sword downwards now, though in a showing of skill, he bounced from the angel's armor right while slamming and used a second Helm Breaker right away, this time slamming both angel and ground.
Trish teleported away soon after and appeared hovering a few feet above the ground, her lance shines and she raises it, stabbing the ground, and then several pillars of light began to erupt from the ground, going after Dante, he quickly jumped to slide in the air for a head start, and then began to run around, escaping the chasing light, he suddenly turned and ran to Trish and used Stinger on her, knocking her back, jumped to behind her and used a 3 hits attack to send the angel flying towards the pillars, as one sent her up above and then she crashed and the attack stopped.
Trish stood up and ran towards Dante, and poked once with her lance, teleported behind him and attacked him, then teleported another time, appeared above him, and one second later crashed the lance on the ground, but Dante had managed to roll away from the last hit, and when she's bringing her weapon off the ground, Dante started to slash normally, and then mid combo added several spinning attacks, sending Trish back, and still while she's being knocked back he throws his sword once again, sticking it to the armor and dealing more damage, and then ran and threw a decently strong right hook, Trish's helmet fell off.
"I think... the winner of this duel is very clear, I surrender." The Angelo claimed raising a hand as her weapon vanishes.
"Fine, I must admit that you are not half bad at fighting." Dante said after that.
Suddenly they hear running, and see Kat and Nero approaching.
"Dante, were those light explosions and crashes your work?" Kat asked, looking at both him and Trish.
"Sorry for making you worry, it's my fault, I wanted to challenge Dante to a small duel just to see how he fights, as apology, I will give him something worth of his time." Trish stated.
Then she walked closer to Dante, who did stand still to let her handle the reward, and the angel moved her hand to Dante's back, touching the symbol there and making it glow.
Suddenly, Sparda got a light blue glow as it started to change form, and it turned into an elegant golden and purple lance similar to Trish's.
Obtained Winged Lance D'Angelo.
"Huh, cool." Dante said looking at his new weapon, then he looked at Nero and smiled, he could give a bit of a show to the kid.
He started to expertly spin the lance on his hands while it began to glow, and then he fires 3 light orbs to the sky several times and proceeds to jump, spinning the lance below him like a saw, Dante then stood still as energy accumulated on D'Angelo, and suddenly he is soaring wildly through the sky holding onto the lance in front of that was acting like some rocket, the movement stopped and he brings the tip of the lance downwards as he began to fall, and pierced through the ground and four light pillars, each in a direction, erupted around Dante.
His son clapped and Kat looked at him smiling.
"Pretty impressive showcase, how are you just able to do whatever with something you just got?" Trish asked impressed.
"What can I say? It's on my blood, now tell me about what I have to do. Kat, Nero, I got some explaining." Dante said smiling.
Mission Clear.