Chapter 6: The Ascendant One

One month ago…

The wind howled inside the Qliphoth, shrieking with the screams of the souls it was consuming. Great arteries of blood pumped up and into the throne where their foe was sitting.

Damien reflected that foe was putting it very generously; Urizen had very much destroyed them all with ease.

He was there, that afternoon. He was discussing Umbran sword techniques with Nero when Kyrie had asked him for help with dinner. The singer had then teased him mercilessly about his apparently 'hopeless' love life, despite him desperately trying to convince her that there was no life to tease. Nico then, without skipping a beat, joined in on the fun and everything was as normal. About five seconds later an ear-splitting scream of pain erupted from the garage and they all ran to investigate.

What they discovered was a hooded man holding the Yamato walking through a portal and Nero lying in a pool of blood, his demonic arm severed from the elbow down.

A few days later, the four got an urgent message from Dante; he had discovered the name of the Demon that was responsible and someone had paid him very handsomely to deal with it. Damien rejoined his friends instantly and Dante, Lady, Trish and himself embarked to find the Demon that the benefactor had named Urizen.

They did not need to search for long. A tree erupted from the depths of Inferno into and through Red Grave City and grew into the mortal realm, consuming all it touched. Dante somehow knew this was the work of this Urizen and guided them all into the depths of what he dubbed the Qliphoth. The girls shared his suspicion in a mental conversation; something was clearly bothering the half-devil and it was definitely impairing his judgement.

Lady then told him that her partner had never acted this way before. Trish recalled that Dante had acted in a similar fashion once; however, that was a long time ago during some event at a place called Mallet Island. The Demoness did not elaborate, saying it was a tale for another time.

It didn't take all that long until the team met Urizen; a large being, albeit small for a Demon, who was sat upon a throne of corpses and connected to the tree. Dante charged in without forming any sort of plan or strategy, forcing the rest to join him in his fruitless endeavour.

It was a complete decimation. Dante was not prepared for the power that a chairbound Demon could expel and the four of them were pummelled by an onslaught of spells that not even he was half familiar with. The three had turned to him for a counter, being the magic-based combatant that he was. If Khepri was available to give him some advice, then maybe he could have made a difference. Damien then promptly decided that if he didn't know what was happening, then he could use magic that this Urizen would definitely have no idea of. He envisioned utilising the sorcery he was taught a few months prior and surprising everyone with his ingenuity and power.

So what actually happened was he tried to cast Comet Azur and was instantly squashed by a dozen fireballs, annihilating him out of the battle. Trish tried to blindside the Demon with the same 'charge in and hit them really hard' strategy that Dante used and was promptly tossed aside by pillars of blue fire. Dante had called out for Lady to run, but the entrance had grown over and the gunslinger was not going to flee. She charged up Kalina Ann, but even she had to know that it was pointless. The launcher was ripped from her hands by a series of lasers, and then she pulled out a strange gun that radiated Demonic energy.

That too was ripped out of her grip and then she was battered by an onslaught of tentacles that grew from the floor itself.

And here they were now, back in the present. All four were at the Demon's mercy and awaited their fates with pained groans.

"Dante!"

Damien managed to roll over to see Nero and Dante's benefactor looking at the carnage before them. His friend had abandoned his normal attire for a short sleeve leather black jacket that only came up to his elbows. One hand rested on the Red Queen on his back, whereas the other half arm was held limply by his side.

"And so, the prodigal son finally arrives…" Urizen droned, lifting his leaning head off his palm with disinterest. "Have you come to join in on the fate of your friends?"

"I've come to fucking kill you, you big bastard." Nero pulled his sword out and slammed it into the ground, point first. Twisting his wrist a few times, the weapon revved up and began to glow a soft red, a hard contrast against the purple tree. "You took my arm."

"A small price to pay for the ultimate power." The Demon answered. "You have no understanding what is occurring here, child."

"Kid… Get away…" Damien heard Dante whisper out. "It's not worth it."

"The hell with whether it's not worth it or not! I'm finishing what you started, old man." Nero shouted. "I'm taking him down!"

He could see Lady and Trish lying comatose in between him and the newcomer. Damien reached out mentally to Nero and pleaded desperately: "Nero, don't! If we couldn't do it, what makes you think you by yourself can?"

"Are you calling me weak!?" The response was very explosive and unfortunately very predictable.

"Nero, you're just dead weight." A shuffling sound echoed from behind him caused Damien to roll over. Dante was back to his feet, leaning on the Rebellion for support. "Go! Leave and find some help!"

"I'm not fucking leaving! I'm not dead weight! I'm going to help-"

"Nero! Go!" The hunter turned around slowly and raised Ebony up. "I started this fight; it's time to finish it with round two."

And he charged in, transforming into his Devil within. Two leathery wings extended out from his back, flapping hard and launching the man into the sky. The handgun blazed and Rebellion was held aloft, ready to strike down upon Urizen with what Damien assumed would be a devastating blow.

Only it never came. The Demon lazily held a hand out and a rippling barrier of energy formed in front of them, colliding with Dante's strike with a boom. The half-devil threw his gun to the ground and focussed on piercing through the ward. A scream erupted form his throat, inhumane and raw, from the exertion.

"Dante!"

"We must go." The benefactor spoke, his voice a velvet silver. "Nero, observe; we are of no use here. Not now."

"Grab the girls!" Damien desperately reached out, flopping onto his back. His shattered limbs spiked with agony, but he gritted his teeth and expanded his mind. Telekinetically grabbing Lady and Trish, he began to levitate them towards the entrance of the-

Urizen's barrier exploded. He lost concentration and everyone went flying towards the outer walls of the throne room. Damien felt his body ragdoll into the wall with a sickening crunch and he almost fell unconscious from the pain.

"Imbeciles. You still continue this pointless struggle." Urizen spoke, and then Damien heard Dante struggling. "We have already broken your body, your mind and your soul."

"Fuck you, Ve-"

"We will break your spirit, son of Sparda!"

The sounds of metal snapping echoed through the room and Damien finally glanced over to see Dante flung into the walls, shattering through it and out of sight completely.

"No!"

The sounds of a scuffle made Damien want to turn and look at the entrance, but the protests from his body forced him to abandon that idea. "Nero! Stop! We must go! We need to find the Umbra Witch or anyone else who can-"

"Fuck that! We need to save them!"

"Do not throw your life away so carelessly, Nero! If you fail, there will be no one left to stop Urizen!" The benefactor hissed and Damien assumed that he was dragging Nero back. "He has won this round."

Echoing and fading footsteps heralded their retreat and Damien sighed in relief. At least they weren't going to die today.

His throat constricted and tears began to form in his eyes, blurring his vision. He was going to die. He was going to die and he had not even told Bayonetta where he was, not told Jeanne-

He was panicking. He was scared! Taking in a few, painful deep breaths Damien tried to calm himself down. His sister probably didn't even know that he was about to die. Or even that he was in trouble. Him going radio silent for weeks on end was a normality that they were all probably used to.

And now they were going to discover his dead body again, if they ever found it.

"Hmmm… Even though we broke you all, you all are strong. You will have uses."

Lady was the first. Urizen pulled the human towards them, then the Demonic gun followed. "Your will and drive make you relentless. You will be the hand that hunts."

A bright light concealed the pair, and then a strange butterfly-like creature hovered in the air. A soft, melodic cry erupted from its throat and then it burst upwards and out of sight.

Trish was second. "Your strength, your independence; you are the traitor that spurned the Prince of Darkness long ago. You will be the hand that leads."

The Demoness floated into the sky, then another white light encompassed the area. It receded to show an armoured hulk of a demon. "Cavaliere Angelo. Gather from Inferno what Demons you can and bring them for additional… security."

"As you wish, lord Urizen. But I require a steed." The Demon housing Trish snarled the statement. "Covering that much ground of the Underworld on foot is an exercise in folly, especially with your demands."

Damien felt himself fly up into the air, held aloft by an outstretched arm from Urizen. "Hmmm… You confuse me. We can sense potential, grafted upon thee by unnatural forces. Yet…"

White light began to flare up at the edges of his vision. "Your affinity with time is something we have never seen before. You will be of use to me."

His body began to transform and Damien mentally sighed with relief. He wasn't going to die, yet.

But the panicked feeling returned as he realised that his sister may yet be the one to kill him, especially if the transformation was anything like the ones he had just seen.

His last thought was of hoping that they all may still get out of this one.

Alive.

Several hours ago…

Damien slowly awoke when the van came to a rumbling stop. Faint voices could be heard in the background, one agitated and another calm.

Van? Voices? Where was he?

His eyes opened to a blurry ceiling of metal and paint. Details slowly made themselves clearer as he blinked away the excess water out of them; he wasn't under a ceiling.

He was under a table.

A coarse blanket had been placed over his nude body and he shifted stiffly underneath it. His wing had been folded awkwardly to the side, and he could feel the light pulses of a cramp beginning to form. Fortunately, whatever Urizen had done to him had healed his body in addition to everything else that had happened.

He sarcastically thanked the Demon for sparing him of the pain.

Turning his head slowly, he found that the reason he was on the floor and shoved under the shared table was because the couch was already taken. An exhausted Lady lay there, her face worn and twisted in discomfort. Another wave of relief passed through him and he thanked Sheba that at she had survived.

Was Trish here? A rushed mental scan showed him nothing of the Demoness and a cold feeling replaced the relief. Jeanne would not like to hear that her partner was possibly dead, if she wasn't already hunting down the whatever-Urizen-referred-to-her-as (Angelo? His memories were still quite fuzzy). And that was assuming his Umbran family was involved in the current situation. He assumed they would be; he had come to Jeanne's 'rescue' before. It made sense she would do the same for him.

Moving slowly again, he managed to pull the blanket off him and then himself out from under the table. Groaning with exertion, he sat up and began to lift his body off the ground. Using the table for support, he stumbled over to the 'fresher and gripped the sink with both hands for support. Raising his head, he looked upon his tired reflection for the first time.

The dark circles under his eyes stood out even more against his pale skin. His hair now sat upon his head as loose strings of sickly silver, almost translucent under the florescent light. A hand reached up and touched his chin gingerly, noting just how sharp and underfed his features looked. His stomach growled in response, as if it were trying to tell him that 'Yes, you need food. Now go and get some.'

To his relief, his features were still freshly shaven. Everyone had gotten confused shortly after he settled into a 'normal' life over his lack of shaving. Damien and Jeanne then explained that a side effect of the experiments that created him was that his facial hair minus his eyebrows was removed. He didn't know, Jeanne also didn't know; but it was a fact and his sister and the rest of his friends accepted easily. Bayonetta had a theory it was a subconscious use of Umbran abilities to mould his hair to his preferences, but Damien reminded her that his Umbran abilities were still non-existent.

A wave of nausea rolled through him, interrupting his musings with a harsh drag back to reality, and he leaned down and vomited straight into the sink. Black sludge erupted from his throat like pus from a wound, burning and ripping through everything in its path. Coughing and hacking up some more, Damien just stood there, gripping the sink tighter and begged for the wave to pass over.

He wanted to talk to Khepri. His patron could always be counted on to help him out in these situations, even offer him a word of advice or the exact solution for the problem. But for two months, she had been completely silent. Both of his other inhabitants could not offer him any advice where the Madama had gone or why. She just never answered one day and that was the extent of it.

No warning or even a heads up. And now he suffered alone, in a van he vaguely recognised while Lady slept on the couch while he was shoved onto the floor.

Speaking of which, he turned his head to see his wing drooping over. Clumps of feathers were barely holding onto the sickly flesh of his extra limbs, whereas the others were bent at odd angles. Damien grimaced; that was going to take a lot of effort to get right, even if it could become 'right' again after fixing it by hand.

He looked terrible, he felt terrible; Damien hoped that Lady was at least spared most of this.

A low whistle interrupted his agony. "Man, if you had some more meat on your bones? That would be one fine ass. Might even turn me bi."

"Shut up." He barely managed to form the words, but they didn't grate on his throat. That must've just been from misuse and was definitely fixable with enough time and water.

Almost like a prayer answered, a cup of water appeared underneath him. Reaching it with one shaky hand, he tried to lift it to his lips to soothe his parched throat. Instead of the relief, another wave tore through him and more black sludge was expelled from his body.

"Jesus Christ… Lady wasn't this bad, but then again she wasn't stupid enough to try walking around once she woke up." The glass of water was saved by the same hand that offered it. Nico's concerned face replaced it once the second wave of vomit had stopped, staring up at him with worry. "You all done ruining my plumbing?"

"Yes." Damien did not trust himself to nod. Nico did and disappeared from sight once more. He could see her in the mirror lifting the cup up an against his lips. He accepted it and let the cold, wondrous liquid flow down his throat.

The effects weren't immediate, but he did feel a lot better.

"Well, do you want the good news or the bad news first?" The woman asked, refilling the cup with a jug. She continued before he could answer, gently shoving the cup against his lips. "The bad news is that we haven't found Trish and it has also been a full month since you became Mr Horsey. The good news is that we found you and Lady and now Nero is kicking some serious butt. All thanks to me."

Typical Nico. Taking credit for everything. Damien could not fault her line of thinking; the vast majority of sticky situations the Devil May Cry crew had found themselves in had generally been solved with her inventions.

But at the same time, she was the theory and Nero was the practical. It took two to tango and win, not just one with another cheering them on from the sidelines.

"Anyway, can you have a shower? You stink of Demon, horse, goop and God-knows what else." Nico raised an eyebrow at him when he frowned in response. "What? You think I can't wash you? I've seen you naked plenty of times after missions. None of this," she gestured at his scar-ridden body with the jug. "Is that impressive anymore. I just think that you can wash yourself, that's all."

"What do you mean 'plenty of times?' What are you not telling me?" He growled, feeling a little uncomfortable with that declaration.

"Heh. Remember that mission with the succubus? And the one with the incubus? You were practically fucking the damn thing-"

His eyes widened and he practically fell into the shower. "Go away! I'm having a shower now! And never speak of that again, you hear me!"

Nico's teals of laughter followed him. "Alright, alright! Calm down! I'll go and let Nero know you're awake and then we'll start discussing our next move. Clothes will be on my armchair."

After a very difficult shower that his pride would not allow him to ask for help with, Damien slowly walked out to see Nero standing there, arms crossed.

Arms?

"I am fucking glad to see you." The man had the same concerned look on his face that Nico did. "We found Lady early on, the day before yesterday, and that gave us a lot of hope that you and Trish could be found."

"What happened?" The information was useful, but the young hunter was forgetting that he still had no context to this whole situation.

"You want the long version or the short version?" Nico piped up from outside. He could lightly smell the scent of smoke on the air. "Because the short version is that everything is kinda fucked."

"Nico's right. The Qliphoth erupted a month ago and you four went in. Me and V went-"

"V?" Damien asked out of reflex.

"He's the guy who hired Dante. Anyway, we went in after you and found that you were all annihilated. We retreated and watched as the Qliphoth consumed practically all of Red Grave City." Nero explained. "Nico decided to make me a new arm and we planned out a rescue mission."

He held up a metal attachment on his right arm. It was… a mixture of cooking utensils attached to metal pole that ended with a drill chuck containing a fork. Damien just stared at it with confusion.

"That's a weapon?" He asked. Nero glanced at it and his eyes widened. A sheepish grin formed on his face as he returned his eyes to him.

"Well, not this one specifically. But you interrupted me during my meal and so I came running to make sure you weren't going to die on me or something. Didn't have a chance to show off one of the more battle-ready ones."

Nico walked in and leaned over the bench opposite the van's entry. Damien averted his eyes on reflex, only for an item to slam into his head. The gunslinger called out after it with a large amount of mirth in his voice: "Honestly, I've met both you and Jeanne and I still haven't figured out who the bigger prude is."

He leaned down and grabbed the strange object. It was a blue cannon, shaped like a bulbous egg with one end resembling a plug. Turning it over and examining the charge display briefly, he raised his head back and stared holes into the gunsmith.

"That is a Mega Buster Devil Arm." She announced with a devious smirk on her face. "Nero can use it to shoot if he doesn't want to use Blue Rose."

"…" Damien wordlessly tossed it back and turned to Nero. "Are Bayonetta and Jeanne around?"

"We… didn't want them involved." Nero shook his head.

"What!?"

The young man curled his human hand into a tight ball. "Look, I need to do this myself. Dante called me a deadweight, and I don't want to prove him right!"

"Asking for help doesn't make you a deadweight." Damien glanced to the armchair to see a set of mismatched clothes. Reaching out to them, he started with underwear and then the pair of black pants. They all hung loosely off his frame. "If anything, it means you have recognised your limitations, which is why we didn't want you there."

"I'm not changing my mind, Damien." Nero began to pace, walking three steps between the table and the driver's seat in a short cycle. "Besides, me and V got this far without any help. We can go the rest of the distance easily."

A loud cry, similar to an eagle, pierced through the conversation. Exactly six seconds later, a small purple bird swooped in and landed on top of the table. Damien stared at in in confusion as it shook itself dry, unruffling a few of its own feathers.

"What?" It asked, the jaw splitting open as it spoke. "You look like you got something to say, birdman."

"Nero?"

Nico was the one to step forward, leaning over and regarded the bird with a glare. "Mr Chicken returns, huh? Where's your master then?"

"V? He's on his way. He also sent me onwards to say that he has caught a scent of Dante and the Devil Sword Sparda." It flapped its wings and jumped onto the refrigerator. "And it seems one of our sleeping beauties woke up- hey!"

A pillow went flying into the bird, knocking it over. It screeched a few times, then the pillow went flying down to the ground. "That was rude! Who threw that?"

"One of your sleeping beauties." An extremely annoyed and tired voice called out. Damien and Nero both moved to see Lady awake. "You are so fucking loud, Demon."

Nero was the first to react. "Lady! You're awa-"

Another pillow flew into his face. "The same goes for you, Nero! About the only decent people who have any memory of being quiet in the presence of sleeping people is Nico and Damien."

Nico swooned in the background, the back of one hand resting on her forehead dramatically. "She called me decent! Be steady, my heart…"

"You alright?" Damien glanced around to see no sign of the jug. Taking a few steps over, he opened up the fridge and found both it and a spare glass.

"Well, be glad that you are half-demon for once. I feel like someone dropped a city block on me!" The bite and energy in her words, as dulled as it was, put a smile on his face. "They found you after me and yet you are already walking around and you have clothes on!"

"To be fair, Lady, you did tell us not to dress you."

"Wrong. I told Nico not to dress me and you are still too pious to even look at another nude woman that isn't Kyrie." Lady refuted, then sighed at the hunters indignant expression. "Don't give me that look!"

"Kyrie would kill me-" Nero tried to explain.

"If you let me tell the tale she would." Nico folded her arms and shifted her weight onto her right foot. "Just sayin'."

"And that's why you aren't allowed back at my place until I get one day, alone, with her to explain everything."

Nico poked her tongue out. "I knew I should've taken pictures."

Damien ignored the pair and offered the filled cup to Lady. She accepted and adjusted herself until she was somewhat more upright. One arm slipped out of the blanket and very gingerly took the cup. A small sound of happiness squeaked out from her and she raised the cup to her lips. "At least I've got enough strength back to do that."

He could still hear Nico and Nero in the background. "Taken pictures? What, so you could perve on Lady later?"

"I perve on her to her face, thank you very much. I have class-"

"You have class? Remind me, who's the person here who is constantly called crass by their dates?"

"At least I can look at people without blushing every five seconds. How about you remind me who couldn't look anyone in the eye when we found Lady?"

"I had to keep you basically off of her! And I did not blush every five seconds, it was only every ten! Or something like that!"

Damien sighed to himself. "Does it bother you?"

Lady rolled her eyes and gave him a weak smile. "If they weren't arguing, then we would have a problem. And besides, I know Nico never means half of the things she says."

"I timed it, Nero. Your record was two seconds when Lady's leg slipped out from the blanket."

"E-either way, why can't you keep your mouth shut?"

"Because beautiful women shouldn't be deprived of such beautiful wit."

"Beautiful wit?" The bird had adjusted itself back upright and was staring down at the four with unamused eyes. "Your version of 'beautiful wit' always ends with a joke about eating me! And that ain't funny!"

"Well, Bayonetta laughed at one of my jokes once." Nico placed her hands on her hips and shifted her weight to her other foot. "That's a huge win!"

"Only because she felt sorry in the silence that followed." Nero chided under his breath. The gunsmith turned to him and glared.

"What did you say?"

"Nothing!"

"Good." She turned to him and tilted her head. "That reminds me; how the hell did you surround yourself with all the beauties in the world? Of the two groups I know, Lady, Trish and Kyrie are hot gal but holy shit Bayonetta is a bombshell! And my god, Trish is the luckiest woman I swear."

"That's my sister you are talking about." Damien angrily replied. "And don't talk about Jeanne like that."

"Hey, your sister once tried to seduce you." Nico shrugged. "Not exactly grounds to deny that you can call her hot. And besides, you're the one who constantly gets weird whenever we bring her up, not us!"

"That was a long time ago when we both didn't know any better." The winged man stood up and frowned. "How the hell do you know about that?"

"She once told me after we were finished, late at night."

Damien gave her a hard and flat stare that he was sure was reminiscent of Jeanne's disappointed looks after a failed training session in Umbran prowess. Nico's fast reaction gave him confirmation it worked.

"Hey! I'm kidding! She once told me because you were acting a little weird at the time and thought you were focussing on that for some reason. Turns out it was a lingering issue because you went to Kathreftis and… yeah. Don't think I need to explain further."

The mention of the other universe sent a pang of sadness through Damien. His expression crumpled and he tried not to react further than that.

He was vaguely successful.

Nero had noticed and started covering for him, trying to draw the conversation away and onto himself. "Why did you have to bring that up? You know he doesn't like talking about that."

"He doesn't like talking about any of it. We only learned the names of the universes because Rodin or Bayonetta told us. One day he's gonna talk about i-"

"And it won't be today." Nero said firmly.

Damien remembered everything that had happened in the last five months, now six, vividly, as much as he did not want to. He had been asked by Rodin at the celebration party after Balder's defeat for a favour in order to renumerate being gifted the Sharuba. That favour ended up being travelling to other worlds, which in of itself was something amazing and beyond his wildest imagination. Bayonetta and Jeanne were also as enthused as him; they were very much in agreeance with him going on a literal adventure to the complete unknown.

If he had known how much it would hurt then he would've said no.

The first time Rodin used his so-called 'Dimensionator' it had exploded upon activation, despite. And in the first universe he had sent him to, Kathreftis Sympan, he had broken the first rule that Rodin had told him; do not get attached.

He met the Primordius of the world first; an anxious and suspicious man who instantly stripped him of his powers and memory in order to 'test a few things.' And those things were essentially enslaving children in order to save his world from his darker half because he was a Primordius who refused to get involved. Damien, despite the limitations, had befriended this group of teenagers who literally were superheroes in every sense of the word. Hell, he had even fallen in love at one point with someone, a sister of a member of the team, and she had returned the feelings.

It all went wrong when he was blamed for the murder of a man, and post for a string of murders known as 'mental shutdowns.' Combined with the onset belief that he wasn't actually real due to his abilities and appearance being far beyond what was considered normal in that universe, he walked away from it all and tried to make sense of everything. The resultant realisation manifested what was known as a palace and a shadow to rule it.

Half of the teenagers had not believed the initial accusations and managed to convince the other half once they had discovered proof of a traitor. They dealt with them and turned their attention to him, entering his palace to try and rescue him from the grips of despair and mania. They were a lot less than successful and he watched with powerless horror as his shadow revealed his true nature and power, toying with each person until one of the daughters of the Primordius stepped in to defeat the shadow. She then broke the magical bindings on him and his real memories and powers returned.

Everything he had thought was completely wrong; his existence, his strength and even his feelings. The woman he thought he loved was but a façade and was simply a replacement for… someone else. Fearing losing everyone, he tried to figure out what to do and then was promptly whisked off back to his home universe without a chance to ever explain. The Primordius had explained that it was 'better' that he wasn't involved, even though it was the assholes' fault for putting him in that position in the first place.

He arrived back hurt, confused and extremely distressed. It had taken a full week before he could tell Jeanne and Bayonetta an extremely abridged version of events that essentially was: 'I got there, I made friends, I was forced to leave before explaining why.' They did not get any other details and thankfully they did not ask further.

Rodin had been very patient and accepting of his predicament, even going as far to tell him that it was expected of that Primordius. The gunsmith apologised for what happened and then requested he continue on with his task.

"This time, I would like you to take someone along with you." He said, staring at Bayonetta. "Someone to keep you on track on what you are meant to do, not to go gallivanting through another world for a year and getting attached to everyone and everything."

Damien agreed with this logic. He didn't want to be an angst-bomb, but the pain of separation was very much fresh and he wanted to go in and out with no problems.

The second world, Tamriel, was much better. Even though the pair were ambushed instantly by a member of the only people aware of the multiverse, there was no open hostility like in Kathreftis. The man, who introduced himself as Quaranir, had guided them to an ancient brotherhood that lived atop a mountain and left them there, apparently to consult the Primordius on what was supposed to happen next. The leader of this brotherhood, Arngeir, allowed them to practice their abilities and Bayonetta began to finally teach him the true power of the Umbra. They didn't make any headway before the previous man returned and gave them a quest of sorts in order for them to meet the Primordius.

In short, they saved the world from a vampire apocalypse.

According to Quaranir, the person who was destined to do… well, everything had been born far too late. The mage explained that their appearance had shifted a lot of predetermined events to occur well before they were ever supposed to. Actual, real-life dragons had arrived and an ancient clan of vampires started to make their move to simply wipe out the sun and begin world domination. The dragon problem persisted, as neither of them could actually kill them permanently, but the vampires were something they got themselves entangled with.

It started with finding a vampire in a crypt who didn't immediately bite his neck for a meal and it spiralled into a web of politics, a world ending catastrophe, finding and hoarding several objects with the same power as the Eyes of the World and, of all things, being shrunk to the size of a mouse.

Bayonetta stilled teased him mercilessly about it to this day. Well, a month ago, but he expected her to make a joke about it once they were reunited.

Once the Vampires, formerly known as the Volkihar Clan, were dealt with, the pair had to say goodbye to a few good friends and found themselves in the court of Akatosh. The Primordius accepted their message and told the pair to give Rodin a warning;

They were missing. Both Bayonetta and himself were completely confused by this statement, but the God merely waved his hand to send them on their way.

The siblings relayed the message once they returned and even the gunsmith was utterly confused. Shaking his head, Rodin sent them out to the next world; Drakenguard.

The world was dead. Machines loitered upon the landscape, wandering aimlessly for seemingly eternity. Further investigation had revealed that there was an alien invasion that forced all of humanity to flee to the Moon. In their place, they designed analogues called Androids that were meant to fight forever to rid the world of these machines. It was very quickly determined that there was no Primordius to find and Bayonetta left. Damien, however, noticed something strange and stayed back to investigate further.

There was a cycle. Two specific Androids seemed to be stuck in a loop of sorts and he wanted to know why. Jeanne was close to the portal, and he dragged her in to help him. What the pair discovered made both of them sick.

The Androids fought for nothing. The Androids and the machines were related and were created from the same factory, essentially. The remnants of a previous Primordius, recreated into an AI known as the Red Girls, desired nothing more than to escape this world and was trying to construct the perfect humanoid form, using this permanent cycle as a way to gather data.

Jeanne and himself were horrified at these revelations and tried to conjure up a plan that would stop this plan and free the Androids to live their own life.

It backfired horribly. Everyone died and now the haunted, dead world was nothing more than a corpse. Jeanne had taken this failure much better than he had, despite her mood and overall self-esteem falling into a dark spiral. They returned back to Rodin and Damien swore to never leave this universe again. Everywhere he went seemed to only serve to hurt him, or be destroyed by him.

Bayonetta was never told of this and he kept it all inside. Damien did not want to burden anyone, especially since he was the leech that suckered off of both his sister and his friend. He kept his head low and continued as normal, failing to notice the dark cloud that was forming between him and the former heiress.

His and Jeanne's ailing relationship came to a head when he found her passed out from drinking for the seventh day in a row. A heated argument then broke out, and he pushed her buttons to the point she finally lashed out. Every venomous word she said was correct; he had tried to murder children. He had wanted to murder millions. And now all he did was sulk and feel sorry for himself while Jeanne was practically wasting her life away because of her far more relevant Demons that haunted her every step.

(Bayonetta had reassured him that her actions were not acceptable and that he did not need to apologise at all for his own. But he knew she didn't have the full picture.)

Like always, he ran away from his problems and tried to bury them with something else. Damien returned to Rodin and went to the fifth and final universe; the Lands Between. He swore he would not get involved. He swore that he was only there to find the Primordius and leave. That was it.

It was almost like he could not help himself. Odd jobs began popping up for those who seemingly still had their sanity left; return an heirloom here, find a missing person there and Damien couldn't refuse to help. Eventually his combat prowess attracted the attention of a few sorcerers and he was asked to partake in a festival in the country of Caelid.

That was when he met Torwyn, an apprentice sorcerer who was undertaking the ultimate quest of them all; to reclaim and reforge another item he learned was as powerful, if not slightly weaker, than the Eyes of the World. And, just like everywhere else, he couldn't help himself but lend his aid.

Damien did take steps to prevent himself from getting himself too involved. The only time he was part of the party the man had accumulated was during a mission to break him free from a deal with a rogue sorcerer that wished to control Demigods as puppets. Every other time they crossed paths, Damien tried to act like everyone else in the world; he offered cryptic advice and sometimes helped out with a particularly tough enemy.

The problem was that he was still nowhere near the Primordius. There were several powerful beings that he could sense, but nothing like Akatosh, Rodin or even Philemon. He didn't want to resign himself to there being no Primordius, like Drakenguard, because the sheer number of beings that lived in the world; one of them had to be the being he was looking for.

Torwyn found them first. According to him, the Primordius Placidusax had taken residence in a pocket dimension that was also inside of a realm outside of time and that was inside of a time paradox.

No wonder he couldn't find them.

The apprentice sorcerer relayed to him that Placidusax already knew of his existence and was making preparations for the message he was supposed to give. Surprised at this turn of events, he left the world not long after, but not before he gave Torwyn one more pep talk.

Damien returned to his universe and made his way back to Jeanne. He profusely apologised to her and she did the same for him, albeit with less enthusiasm. Their relationship survived, but there was always an underlying tension. One that grew tenfold when she began a relationship with Trish, but that was because of very unrelated reasons that he definitely did not want to talk about.

And yes, returning to the original reason for this tangent, Nico was correct. He refused to talk about his experiences in the other worlds and both Jeanne and Bayonetta respected his decision for silence. Kathreftis and Drakenguard were painful enough as memories; Tamriel and the Lands Between were their own can of worms that he did not want to open.

"Nero is right. We have other things to focus on." Damien stood up and re-entered the conversation. "Do we know where Dante and Trish are?"

"The Demoness was the being that rode you." A soft, unfamiliar voice spoke. "I have been pursuing her while you were having your nap."

Dante's benefactor then stepped into the van, his cane clicking on every second step. He was a tall, thin man whose pale skin was covered in swirling tattoos. A simply black vest sat upon his upper body, exposing a lot more than it covered. Long black pants actually covered his lower body, whereas open sandals were his footwear as opposed to boots. Medium length black hair swirled around his head, hiding and teasing an arrogant smirk that constantly played on his lips.

"V! You're back!" The bird Demon cawed and flapped its wings with excitement. "Although your phrasing needs a lot of work."

"I was gonna say…" Nero rubbed the back of his head. "Griffon said you found Dante?"

"He's close by. I can sense him." V's green eyes swept across the inside of the van, scrutinising everyone. "Ah, Lady. It is good to see you awake again."

"Yeah, thanks for nothing. Asshole." Her voice piped up from behind. "Where's Trish?"

"I have been unable to locate your friend. She escaped my vigilance when we made sure to rescue your feathery friend from Geryon." He answered, almost in an annoyed tone. Damien wasn't too sure how to react to that. It was almost as if he was blaming him for losing the woman-

Well, he was right. If he had never been captured in the first place-

"You specifically asked for the big guns, essentially, when you hired Dante in the first place." Nico raised an eyebrow and walked behind her tinkering bench. "Damien here is the best magician on the planet. Well, maybe not magician but you get my point. There is no one stronger than him at the arcane side of things."

V chuckled. "Well, if he was so strong, then how was he defeated by a novice magic wielder?"

A low growl escaped his throat and Damien made to step forward. A weak grip on his wrist turned him back briefly to see Lady shaking her head at him.

It's not worth it, her eyes said. Just let it go.

"Alright, let's not fight. At least we kinda know that Dante is still within Red Grave city. Trish shouldn't be too hard to find; not that many places for her to be in." Nero held his hand and fork up placatingly. "Unfortunately, Damien, we don't really have that much time to waste and you're kinda… well… You're stronger than Lady is right now, but you're currently much weaker than your full potential. Even you have to admit that."

"I can fight. I want to help!" He burst out to the others surprise. "I was there when you lost your arm, Nero. I was there when we lost everyone! And what did I do? Sweet fuck all."

"Don't get too far into the blame game, Bird Boy." Nico commented, wiping away some dust and filaments. "None of us did anything because none of us could."

"She's right." Lady spoke up. "Dante was struggling hard against Urizen and then lost, and he is the strongest of us all. There's no shame in losing to a much superior foe."

"And that's why I need to help. Trish is still out there and I need to find her and make sure she is-"

"Woah! Slow down there, cowboy." Nico laughed nervously. "We all want to find her. Just because she's dating your friend and you want to keep your friend happy doesn't mean you need to kill yourself to do so."

"She's right!" The Demon, that he now knew as Griffon, squawked. "If ya wanna kill yourself, do it much later! I'll help!"

They all gave the bird a weird glance. It snickered in response and began to prune its feathers.

"Nico's right. Chicken here isn't so much." Nero reached up and flicked the bird on the beak, bringing out an indignant squawk. "We know you care about Jeanne and we do care about her too."

"Have you even told her?" Damien asked. Both Nero and Nico looked away awkwardly, causing him to frown. "Have you?"

V was the one to answer. "We decided not to ask for aid or inform any others of what happened here."

"What!?" He yelled out. "Why?"

No one answered. V smirked and leaned against the wall of the van while folding his arms. Nico muttered an excuse and grabbed a cigarette whilst leaving the room. Nero just stood there, not meeting his eyes.

"Nero." Damien slowly walked over to him and grabbed both of his shoulders. "Are you telling me that I have been missing for a month and you didn't tell them?"

The man did not back down, to his credit. But he did make a strange, strangled sound that echoed through the van.

Damien really wanted to punch him. In all honesty he wanted to a lot more than punch someone or something and let out his frustration at this fucking ridiculous situation. Even when he ran away, he at least told everyone where he was going. Coming to his senses, he released Nero, grabbed the red and blue jacket strewn across the armchair and stormed outside.

The ruined city of Red Grave greeted him. Broken stone and mortar prickled into the soles of his feet, forcing a grimace out and over the fury. The Qliphoth Tree stood amongst the broken buildings in the background, looming and dominating everything. It had grown since he had last seen it- Damien shook his head. Of course, it had grown. He had been out of action for a month.

Telekinetically shoving a nearby piece of rubble underneath him, Damien took a seat and opened up the jacket and stared at it. From memory this was Nero's old coat and completely unfit for him to wear.

Sighing with annoyance, he held his hand out and concentrated for a second. A flash of white light heralded the Sharuba and he stared at the katana for another second.

Don't be an idiot, Damien. You want a nice slice, not a destroyed coat.

Huffing, he tossed it back into Inferno and choked back a sob. Covering his eyes with one hand, he leaned himself against his knee and tried to calm himself down.

Don't panic. Everything will be fine.

"It wasn't my idea, you know?" Nico tossed her cigarette and grounded into dust with one boot. She walked over and stood next to his rock. "Nero was dead-set on keeping himself alone for this. Yeah, he might go on about Dante calling him a 'deadweight' and all that, but it really got to him."

"That doesn't excuse anything." Damien muttered, lowering his hand. "I was a fucking horse-"

The gunsmith snorted.

"-and a servant of a Demonlord-to-be that defeated Dante without breaking a sweat. Why the fuck wouldn't you tell Bayonetta, at the very least? She's stronger than Dante and she would want to know that her brother is in trouble!"

Nico sighed and folded her arms, kicking at a loose piece of rubble. "You know how Nero is. He wants to prove, more than anything else, that he is an equal to Dante. Losing his arm to a person who just marched in and stole it? That hit his pride more than anything. And then told by the man he looks up to the most, the one man he thinks of as his Daddy, that he is useless?"

The winged man grunted. Shaking his head, he glanced up to see her lower lip trembling. "He won't ever admit it, you know? He's scared and hurt, and nothing will make him admit it. He wants to prove that he's not weak or scared, despite being an idiot and not getting any help for this."

Damien sat there, letting the words sink in. He completely understood Nero's position. Bayonetta's opinion of him was something he valued highly, but not once had she ever implied or outright said he wasn't ready for something. It was her that pushed for him to be the one to traverse the universes, despite his mental state not being ready to handle it. But if she were to turn around and tell him that he could not do something; that he was not ready or strong enough?

He would fight with all of his being to prove that he was strong enough.

At the same time, reason was beginning to break through his frustration. His body was beginning to readjust itself to its current conditioning and he felt weaker. A lethargic cloud was settling into his bones, like his being was either succumbing to fatigue or waking from it. That made sense, considering what had just happened about ten minutes ago, and he knew that he wasn't going to recover any time soon.

Accepting his position for now, Damien turned to the woman and gave her a grave look. He had to know how Nero's quest was progressing: "Is it really that bad?"

"Well, Nero and V are doing gardening pretty well. It's not necessarily a lost cause, but…" Nico swallowed. "We haven't gotten close to big Boss Man yet."

He changed the conversation before it got more awkward. "Did my phone survive? I want to give someone a heads up on what's happening here."

Nico chuckled and walked back to the van. "I'll getcha a knife too while I'm at it. Your damn phone is indestructible, I swear."

"Forget the knife." Damien called after her and grabbed the jacket again. "I can use something better."

A new item fell from Inferno; a simple silver staff with a blue, octahedral gemstone embedded at the head. Gripping the staff midway, Damien brought it down and tapped it on the red coat.

"I'm not certain of your full strength," the sorceress turned and walked over to a small rack. "So I believe that you should start with a basic catalyst for the glintstone arts."

Damien watched her pick up a small, wooden stick and she handed it to him. "This is what they taught me with at the academy. It should suit your training."

He held the catalyst with a loose grip, letting it roll in his hand. "Uhhh… Sellen?"

"What is it, pupil?"

"How do I use this?"

The sorceress tilted her expressionless head. "How do you manifest your sorcery?"

"I don't know… I just cast spells. I have a mentor from my home that simply tells me spells and I cast them." He admitted, scratching the back of his head. "I don't exactly know how or if there's anything special that I do."

"Hmm…" Sellen walked over and placed a hand on her chin, giving him an observant ponder. "It seems you are attuned to the flow of sorcery a lot differently than I am. That should not matter; the way we communicate with the Primeval Current will not change regardless of our manifest."

She reached out and lifted his arm holding the catalyst. "Your will determines your connection. To begin this lesson, focus on the Current. Let it flow within you, through you, and pinpoint what you want it to do."

Damien nodded and gestured for her to continue.

"But, pupil, you must not fight the Current. Just accept the flow and focus it into what you desire it to do so." She warned. "That is your goal when channelling the art of glintstone."

A small, translucent blue blade appeared at the end of Damien's staff, softly illuminating both himself and the coat in his hand. Giving it a smile, he pulled the staff back until his hand was practically holding it by the crystal and then reversed his grip on it. Twirling the jacket around, he sliced an insert besides the left shoulder. The coat instantly slackened and opened up the new hole, spilling various layers out like a cascade of lollies from a pinata. Frowning to himself, he desummoned the staff and concentrated on his now-free fist.

Fire burned through his fingers, but did not appear on them. Keeping the coat afloat with telekinesis Damien gripped the cloth and began to melt each layer into each other. The acridid smell of burning plastic and wool filled the air, but he soldiered through.

After a few seconds, he released the coat and caught it with his rapidly cooling hands. Satisfied with the slot for his wing, he turned around to see Nico walking back with a t-shirt in one hand and a black phone in her other.

"So ya didn't need a knife after all that…" She tossed the shirt at him and he caught it with a frown. "Good thing I didn't bother with one."

"I did say I didn't need one." He tossed the shirt back. "That won't fit."

"Huh… Well, that's the largest shirt we had. Everything else is a little more… feminine. And way too small." She failed the catch and the shirt flopped to the ground. "I'll let you talk and I'll fetch you some shoes. Think Nero has a spare pair somewhere."

Damien turned his phone on and a gradual smile spread across his face. The enchantment that he had placed upon it was still working; the battery level had not changed in five months.

A few messages greeted him, but they were mostly reminders from his sister about the upcoming, well, ongoing Christmas get-together. He answered one with a small message to let her know he was okay and was working on getting back as soon as possible. Quickly opening the contacts and dialling Jeanne's number, he held the phone up to his ear and listened to it dial.

"Good day, you have tried to reach Jeanne De'arc. I am currently unavailable, but if you want to you can leave a message after the tone or call me back after 6PM EST. Thank you for your patience."

The tone played and Damien cancelled the call. He checked the date with a deeper frown.

Twenty-fifth of December. Christmas day.

There was absolutely no reason he could think of for why Jeanne wouldn't be near her phone. School had finished up a week ago, if he remembered correctly, and there was a plan for them all to get together for a celebration. If anything, she would be on her phone, waiting for some acknowledgement from Trish or himself.

Their relationship was strained, at least from his point of view. But he didn't think it was strained to the point where she would 'ghost' him, so to speak. He rang her twice more, each going straight to the voicemail. Damien stared at the screen with unease.

"Here ya go. I guess your new wardrobe is our Christmas present for ya." A pair of plain, black boots were shoved into his face. "But they should fit. Along with these socks."

Letting the phone float in the air along with the coat, Damien began to systematically place on the footwear until his lower body was covered completely. Gabbing the coat, he slipped his wing through the new hole and then his arms though the sleeves. An appreciative whistle rippled through the air and he turned to see Nico nodding.

"Those never really suited Nero anyway. Red is more Dante's thing and black is a much better colour."

"They suit me better?" Damien asked.

"Hell no. The colours yes, but you kinda look like a boy trying on adult clothing. You're definitely not as wide as Nero." Nico smirked, brushing a bang out of her eyes. "But some people do like their partners lithe."

He didn't bother responding to her and glanced over her shoulder to see Nero walking out of the van, an annoyed expression on his face. It lightened up the second his eyes found him and the man snorted: "You look ridiculous."

The winged man 'humphed' and tightened his lips. "Not my fault. Besides, these are your clothes, not mine."

"My clothes suited me. They look like a giant bag on you."

Damien just shook his head. "We can't all be winners. Is everything alright in there?"

"I like the guy, but V can be a little frustrating." Nero sighed. "He's fixated on you, for some reason."

"Me?"

Nico stepped back over with a glance at the hunter. "What's emo boy up to now?"

"Goldstein, 'Emo Boy' is trying to design our next step of our plan." The aforementioned man walked through the door, Griffon flying out to land on his outstretched left arm. Nico gulped and turned away, hiding her embarrassment by fiddling with another cigarette. "Luegray; are you ready to fight?"

"V, I already told you. He's not ready." Nero rebutted, answering before Damien had a chance. "Lady is still out of action and we found Damien literally three hours ago. Yes, he's recovering a lot better, but it's still way too early to know whether or not he's fine or close to ready. I ain't risking it."

"Are you saying this because you believe it?" V's eyes trailed from Nero to him, full of mirth and mischief. "Or because you still believe that you need to finish Dante's journey?"

The group went silent. The only sounds that could be heard was the howl of the wind and the clicks of Nico's lighter.

"V, I told you not to-"

"It doesn't matter, okay?" Damien interjected. "If I have to sit on the sidelines for a little longer, that's fine with me. What Nero believes doesn't really matter because I might not be ready yet."

"Do ya feel ready?" Nico took a drag and held the cigarette with two fingers.

Damien hesitated. His body didn't feel out of the ordinary, but he wasn't an idiot. He hoped. Bayonetta had chastised him once for rushing headlong into problems and he knew that it was very much up in the air whether or not his body was actually fine. He could almost hear her voice when he considered saying that he was ready;

"In your state? Darling, please. The only person how will be doing any saving is me when I inevitably clean up your mess again."

"As much as I want to say yes," he shook his head. "No. I shouldn't do anything until we know for one hundred percent that I am fine. It's just too risky."

Nico tilted her head with an impressed expression. "Not what I thought you were gonna say, but I agree."

"See?" Nero gestured to V. "No Damien. We gotta plan without him."

The man slowly looked at Griffon, who performed a shrug-like maneuverer. "Well, V? We tried. Looks like it's just the two of us, and not the abomina-"

Rage clouded his vision and Damien found himself being restrained by Nero. The two men grappled for a few seconds until he calmed down considerably. "Tell that fucking bird to watch its mouth!"

"Well, he's right. I can watch my mouth. And I can do it too!" Griffon's eyes crossed to settle on its beak. "Such a great looking mouth too, right V?"

"Please, don't antagonise our allies." The man irritably tapped the beak lightly with his cane.

"Hey! Well, you're right here. We do still need them." The bird jumped up and began to circle around the area, gliding on sleek wings of navy blue. Its head snapped around and it landed on a nearby piece of rubble, settling into a puzzled position. "Uhh, V? Are we expecting anyone else to come?"

V tilted his head, then looked up. "Someone is coming."

Damien heard it before he saw it; the roar of a motor and the whir of blades cutting through the air. He turned and followed V's lead to gaze up at the sky. From behind him a string of curses was almost drowned out by the increasing volume of the arriving machinery.

"Fucking bullshit motherfuckering idiots!" Nero hissed. "I told them not to come back!"

A black helicopter flew into view, weaving between the buildings. It barrelled towards them and pulled itself into a landing position with reckless ease, bringing out a roll of Damien's eyes.

Nero was right; these people were idiots through and through.

They've been here before?

Nero jumped and then let out a huge sigh of frustration. 'Fucking hell, give me some warning before doing that!'

Apologies. But my question still stands.

'It's that agent friend of yours. She started trying to get here a week ago and its almost a daily occurrence. Guess we can finally give her what she wants.'

What does she want?

'You'll see.'

The helicopter landed and the door burst open. Several men clad in black armour filed out and began to secure the area, checking and clearing each step they took. Nero sighed again and folded his arms.

"They do this every fucking time they get here. Same old checks, nothing changes."

"It's protocol for them." Damien had seen this before. It was when they were all leading an infiltration of Umbrella Corporation's main headquarters, about two months ago. "And if she's involved, she's definitely following protocol. Guaranteed."

A slim woman stepped out of the helicopter. Her normal red cocktail dress was encased in a beige coat that stretched down from her neck to her knees. Her legs were encased in black, see-through leggings and her shoes were still black heels. Damien wanted to shake his head, but both Jeanne and Bayonetta practically lived in their heels. It would be very hypocritical of him to call her out on that.

She stopped about ten metres from the group. Her eyes were covered by large sunglasses and hid her gaze, but it was obvious from where her head turned who was being scrutinized by her.

Damien decided to make the first move. "Ada."

"Where did you find him?" She ignored his greeting and addressed Nero instead. "Or have you been hiding him this whole time?"

"We found him three hours ago. And considering you never really tell anyone how to contact you, how were we?" Nero pushed past him and stared down the agent.

Ada briefly smiled, but returned to her stoney face. "If I recall, Nero, your last words to me were 'fuck off and stop trying to kill yourself.' I am here to find Luegray and you have procured him. Now you can 'fuck off and start trying to kill yourself', if you would so please."

Nero spluttered and Damien dragged him back before anything could occur. He replaced the young hunter's position and tried to match Ada's demeanour. "Okay, if it's me you are looking for, I'm here. What do you want?"

"You look terrible." She commented before turning around. "We need to go back, now."

Three seconds passed as each member of Devil May Cry and Damien absorbed this knowledge. Then it exploded into an uproar.

"Woah, wait! He's not finished here yet!" Nico started. "I mean, I would go with you but we have a Demon to kill! And a hot girl in distress to save!"

"You can't make demands like that!" Nero continued, waving his hand and fork into the air. "He's not ready to do a whole lot; he's still in recovery!"

"Recovery from what?" Ada reached up with a gloved hand and pulled her sunglasses off to reveal narrowed eyes. "Where has Luegray been?"

"He was captured by our Urizen and recreated into an image of the Geryon." V quietly said in the background. Ada turned to him and marched over, her eyes tracing him up and down. Analysing. Learning.

"What are you talking about?"

V smirked and Damien was glad for once it wasn't directed at him. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

"What our friend is talking about, Ada," Nero loudly stated. "Is that Damien was turned into a horse for a month. We only just got him out and we don't know if there are lasting effects."

The agent very slowly turned around and stared a hole through him. "Is this true, Luegray?"

"Yes."

Ada's lips twitched. Damien felt his heart sink when he realised that she was finding this funny.

"And I thought you were supposed to be the strongest person in the arcane arts." She walked back over to him and folded her arms. "Apparently there exists beings stronger than you."

Damien didn't answer, not taking the obvious bait. Ada took the opportunity and gestured her hand at him. "We need to go. Your friends here can handle this situation-"

"Why do we need to go? What is going on?" He asked, his confusion bleeding into anger. "Ada-"

"New York was attacked. Jeanne died."

Time seemed to slow down. Damien laughed nervously, then shook his head. "I'm sorry. I think I just mis-heard you."

Ada's eyes softened. "My condolences, Damien. But a week ago several Angels attacked New York while both of your Umbra friends were out and about. She perished in the ensuing skirmish."

Hot tears burned at his eyes and he tried to blink them away. Shaking his head, he took in a long, deep breath. "You're lying."

"Why would I come out all this way to lie? I thought you knew me better than that." The agent folded her arms and seemed to be waiting for something. The statement itself wasn't accusatory, like he expected. If anything, it was just simple and to the point. "I don't what else to say."

Damien was struggling to breathe. He stumbled away from the woman, wrapping his arms around himself, then his wing followed.

She couldn't be dead.

Jeanne was the paragon of the Umbra! No Angel could come close to killing her, regardless of how powerful or strong it was. She was the strongest Umbra! She was-

He whipped out his phone and redialled her number once again. Each ring was agonising and he begged for her to pick up. She wasn't dead.

"Good day, you have-"

Damien instantly changed to dialling Bayonetta. Her tone drummed through his ears, grating and pulling him into a despairing state.

"It's working? Cheshire, these mortal devices are far too complex and technical for my liking. Oh! Well, you have tried to reach me and guess what! I'm not at the phone. So fuck yo- I can say what I want, Cheshire! Who is going to get offended?"

Ripping the phone away from his ear, Damien turned to the members of Devil May Cry and hoped they were laughing along at some elaborately cruel prank that was being played out.

Nero was lowering his own personal phone from his ear, his face as pale as a sheet of paper. He shared a grave look with the others, then slowly turned back to face him. The hunter swallowed and couldn't meet his eyes. "I just got a call from Kyrie… Damien… She's…"

"No…" He was crying. "No… Please…"

Nico wordlessly walked up to him, tossing her cigarette before she got too close. Slipping her arms around him, she pulled him close and began to pat his back.

A subdued sob escaped him before he could stop it. "I…"

"Don't say a thing. Ain't your fault."

"The woman is correct." Ada quietly spoke up. "You were missing for three weeks before this incident occurred. There was nothing you could have done, especially given the suddenness of the attack. As far as we know, everything supernatural has been quiet for three straight months, correct?"

The words nearly went through his mind and out the other side, but Damien nodded. There had been nothing ever since Madama Khepri disappeared; no Demons, no Angels, nothing.

"I got in touch with Redgrave once the city was in a relatively calm state. He reported the same as you and what we have been observing; however, he could not tell us the whereabouts of Bayonetta."

His heart froze over and he could feel himself begin to shake. "No, no, no-"

"We don't believe she is dead."

"How do you know?" Damien gasped out, his throat tightening with every word.

"We saw Jeanne's body being extracted by Rodin. There was no sign of your sister and Redgrave theorised later that she was dealing with her grief in her own way." She explained, keeping each sentence concise and to the point. "We have reason to believe that the two have reconciled."

"What makes you think that?" Nero stared at the agent with suspicion, colour returning to his cheeks.

"He's stopped talking to us. The only reason we had contact was in our conjoined search for Bayonetta." Ada gave him a long stare in return. "Ergo, he found her."

"What do you want me for?"

The Agent then turned to him, her expression completely neutral. "If they've found each other, they're plotting revenge. You should be with them."

Revenge was an option. Damien did like the sound of that. The problem with this 'solution' was that his revenge was very much 'walk into Paradiso and murder everything' and not actually productive towards actually getting vengeance for Jeanne. Especially if both Luka and Bayonetta were planning out something.

Sometimes he hated how reckless and impulsive he was. But in this moment, reckless and impulsive felt good; it was very much paramount that he wasn't allowed to act on these impulses or he could ruin anything his friends had designed.

Detaching Nico from him, Damien slowly walked over to Nero. "Look… I'm so-"

"There's no need to apologise." He shook his head and rested one hand on the winged man's shoulder. "If you need to go, you should. We're in good hands here and you're obviously needed elsewhere."

"I don't want to leave with the job half done." He argued, looking away in shame. "Dante would-"

"Dante would want you to go," V waved his arm out wide and Griffon swooped into a landing. "To bring both honour to your friend's memory and vengeance upon her name."

"Goth man is right." Nico's voice was a little emotional, but she still smirked with confidence and flicked her hair back with one hand. "We got this and you need to help your friends. And family."

Damien looked between the three people, not trusting his emotions to speak. Some movement at the van caught his eye and he focussed his attention at Lady, who was now peeking out of the open door.

He could see her red eyes and tear-stained face as clear as day. She nodded once, reached up with one hand and wiped her cheek. The gunslinger then disappeared back inside with a rush. Damien did not blame her; Lady did not like showing emotions and that was the most she would be willing to reveal.

"We don't have much time, Luegray." Ada's voice spoke up from behind. "We have to go. Now."

A shaky exhale heralded his next words. "Thank you all. For rescuing me."

"S'okay. You would've done the same." Nero smiled and rubbed the back of his neck. "Now you should get going before spy lady here really gets pissed."

Turning around, Damien found Ada standing there with her arms crossed. Her normally sharp eyes were very soft by the normal comparison. She stiffened when his own met hers and nodded once.

"I'll take you back to Redgrave, directly. The people of New York don't exactly have the highest opinion of you from the latest events, so it would be best to avoid them if possible."

He swallowed and returned her nod. "It's not like they had the highest opinion in the first place, but understood."

Walking towards the helicopter, Damien spared one last glance back towards the Devil May Cry crew and his heart tore in two. He knew he should stay behind. He had to rescue Trish and Dante and save the rest of Red Grave city-

Jeanne was now dead. The statement now hit him harder than it had when he was told it. A strange hollow feeling spread from his stomach and each breathe he took was becoming more erratic. Panicked. Desperate.

"Luegray?" Ada lightly touched his forearm.

Damien closed his eyes and nodded, trying to calm himself. He couldn't break. Not yet. "I'm okay. I'm going to be okay."

Khepri, please… I need you.

As it had been for the last three months, she did not reply. Despite being around so many people…

He had never felt so alone.

My First Journal!

Enemy Data:

No updates… :(

Jukebox

No updates… :(

Character Data

Nicoletta Goldstein

So… How do I describe Nico? Aunty J thinks she's a crass woman with no class, Uncle D thinks she's quite friendly (and he always makes those two finger closing motions with his hands that I'm still not really sure of) and Mummy says she's a riot? Whatever that means.

Either way, she's Nero's self-professed best friend and our go-to human smith for all things Demonic and not. Dante had a few weapons made by her, Aunty J and Mummy go to her for jobs when Rodin is empty and sometimes I think Uncle D goes to her to hang out or something? My other Aunty J is fine with it and Nico is the thirstiest lesbian I've ever laid my eyes on, so it can't be that problematic.

Daddy does warn me that she is a bad influence. I don't see it; we are really kinda similar, if you think about it. But she does have a few bad habits, like smoking and not really turning off her constant horniness (I carry around a wooden bat specifically for this LOL) and I do try to avoid her when she's all in on those modes. But again, she's cool! Like one of the cool cousins I've read about in Daddy's stories. So I don't think she's a bad influence at all.

First appearance: Devil May Cry 5 (2019)

Theme: Any Special Orders? (Devil May Cry 5)

Ada Wong (?)

Ada is a weird woman, but hey! That's what we all like about her. She's one of the top agents at STARS (Supernatural Threats and Activity Regulators Subdivision – I really think they made up the name before the acronym lmao) and she's either helping us or working to help us. Her first case that involved us was when Aunty J discovered someone replicating Sigurd's experiments in creating Homunculi. Ada too was investigating and the pair decided to team up to solve the case; they were more than successful and stopped any more Homunculi from ever being created. According to Aunty J, the beings described by Sigurd and the minorly more successful variants that were created were both nothing like the real things.

I have her name in brackets because none of us really know whether or not that's her name. Daddy thinks it's a codename, but Uncle D isn't so sure. She pops in every now and then to keep tabs on us; I think she's just lonely and uses it as an excuse to hang out with people who aren't STARS or government officials.

She'll never admit that though. Her pride is somehow greater than Mummy's, especially when it involves people she's trying to make an impression on. Again, she's a weird lady, but a fun one.

First appearance: Resident Evil 2 (1998)

Theme: Ada's Theme (Resident Evil 4)

V/Vergil/Urizen

Oh boy… This one is a little complicated. At one point before this all went down, a half-demon named Vergil (Who is the brother of Dante) decided that the best course of action was to stab himself with his own sword to sever his soul into two halves. V and Urizen, a human and Demon respectably, were created from this. Urizen caused a disaster that consumed an entire city. V tried to stop him, but according to everyone he was a giant asshole about it.

Anyway, I never met two of these three and honestly I don't think I would ever have wanted to. Vergil is a giant asshole and I do kinda wish I had never met him.

First appearance: Devil May Cry (2001)