She gazes at her Uncle and Nero thoughtfully, "I don't disagree that we need to do something about Urizen, and it's true that me, Kazuto, and Nero have all gotten stronger given the sheer number of Great Demons we've had to kill recently, but… Do we really have any chance against Urizen? Especially given that Grandpa and Grandma are… rather tied up keeping the sheer number of Great Demons away from the local major magical shopping center come refuge and its Teleport Gate. Since while the wards keep them out there's no guarantee of them overwhelming it, and that's without taking into account that so many of them around practically makes it suicide for anyone trying to get there."

Nero looks away with furrowed brows, "We have to try. Especially since it's not like we can wait and the numbers will lower. They're only increasing by the day in fact, and the longer we wait, the closer the Qliphoth Fruit will be to maturity which will only make Urizen more powerful."

She nods, "I get that, I do, just… well, no offense to you Nero, because you are strong, but you aren't as strong as Dad or Grandpa and stuff, and with Uncle Vergil currently weakened as well… I'm sorry, but this feels an awful lot like the B team trying desperately to make a Hail Mary…"

Nero gives a bit of a sardonic smile, "I… can't really argue with that…" He shakes himself out, "We have to try though. As I said, things are only going to get worse, especially if Urizen manages to get the Qliphoth Fruit, since then he'll likely turn his attention to other things, whereas right at the moment with his focus on that…" He shrugs, "Well, we've all seen for ourselves how disorganized the Demons are. With him distracted, they aren't capable of nearly the amount of chaos and destruction as they will be when Urizen shifts his focus if he gets the Qliphoth Fruit."

Vergil nods, "Then we'll make for the base of the Qliphoth. But we'll need to take care of those miniature Qliphoth looking things that are actually particularly massive roots as much as possible, so we should do that on the way."

Nero hums in agreement, then glances over, "Split up, cover more ground to try and take as many of them out along the way?"

Vergil nods, and she hesitates briefly given how strange it feels even to her given how strong he usually is, but…, "I'm going with Uncle Vergil." They both turn to her in mild surprise, and she lifts her chin stubbornly as she continues, "He may not be weak exactly, but even if he's recovered enough from his rush over here that he doesn't necessarily need the cane to walk, Uncle Vergil still isn't in the best shape right now and he isn't as strong as he usually is. It's better if he has backup in the more possible than usual event that he gets in a situation he can't handle at the moment."

Nero's expression turns thoughtful for a brief second before he seems to agree and turns to his dad. Uncle Vergil doesn't protest surprisingly, he just gives her a mildly tired but soft smile, "It isn't entirely unwarranted."

Nero looks a bit relieved, then glances towards her, or rather, off to her side at Kazuto, "You coming with me or going with them?"

Vergil snorts before Kazuto can respond, "Please. He's hardly left her side since this all started. He's not going to leave her side now of all times."

Kazuto smiles a little tensely, "Precisely."

Vergil nods, and if nothing else, there was another silver lining to this absolute mess, barring the fact that the magical world can finally release their medicine and the like, regardless of the protests of those who were anti non-magical and to the relief of those who have been waiting for the chance. Anyway, second silver lining, seeing Kazuto's loyalty and devotion seems to have finally gotten Uncle Vergil to warm up to her husband a bit, rather than just constantly giving him vaguely dirty looks for being in a relationship with the 'precious baby' of the family.

That seems to be the end of the conversation, and Nero slaps his hands on his knees and quickly shoves himself up, "Right! Well then, no time to waste, now is there?"

Vergil hums, "Indeed."

All four of them head out, and she hesitates outside, "Be careful though Nero. This is more akin to being in Hell, with its endless amounts of Demons around that anything."

Her cousin flashes her a smile, "You too kid." He glances over at Kazuto, "You take care of her, ya hear?" Her mate nods firmly with a determined expression, so Nero flashes another smile before he glances between them, "And make sure you two take care of Dad. He may not exactly be fragile but he's not in a good place for all these Demons around."

She nods, and he claps her on the shoulder before he turns and leaves. As they make their way through town, Griffon(1), the chatty bird nightmare Uncle Vergil has a bond with, comes out as they head into an underpass, "So Vergil, you really think these kids and Nero can beat Urizen?"

She snorts, "Given this is IRL and not VR, I'm more likely to be more of a support than anything."

Vergil glances at her, "We'll just have to do our best."

The entrance collapses behind them, and she turns with surprise. Shaking her head, she pulls her wand out, and quickly casts a Reparo on it. Uncle Vergil raises an eyebrow at her as she puts her wand back into its holster, and she shakes her head again, "Most of these streets in particular are still in good enough repair that there's a possibility of survivors coming through here. I would hate for them to be fleeing this way from Demons only to get cornered by the blockage."

He nods in vague agreement and they begin to head out. As they do, she quickly steps back up to her Uncle's side and tilts her head at him, "Here's a question I've been wondering about. If your body is literally tearing itself apart because the balance between your Demonic and Angelic powers has been destroyed, then… how come that's never happened to any of us when we absorb power with our Devil abilities from slain Demons?"

Vergil pauses and cocks his own head thoughtfully, "That… is an excellent question."

Kazuto hesitantly leans forward, "Well, maybe our body naturally maintains the balance automatically?" They both turn to him and he blushes as he glances away, "I mean, Vergil's problem is that he had his Devil heritage, the main cornerstone of his Demonic power ripped out entirely, right? So. Maybe when we kill strong Demons and absorb power with our Devil blood, our Nephilim bodies just… naturally split the power boost between our Demonic and Angelic powers?"

Vergil straightens his head, gazing up at the sky thoughtfully, "Thereby increasing our Angelic power proportionally with the increase in Demonic power…"

He gets cut off by a group of Demons appearing before them causing her mate to step up to her side as he pulls his swords as he eyes the bug like Demons, and Shadow, the panther Nightmare growls before Griffon begins practically rambling as he circles around to land on Vergil's outstretched arm, "Oooh, genius says 'be careful'. Yeah, no shit, Shirley! Ain't that right Vergil? I mean, you are fragile at the moment! Wouldn't take much to wipe you out in a sticky situation. Whole reason these kids are following you, and they ain't exactly super strong. I'm just saying, running away is okay. It's always okay to run away, if you're not up for it!"

Uncle Vergil huffs out a small chuckle, "He who desires but act not, breeds pestilence. So it is written."

Griffon flaps his wings almost agitated, "Ok Shakespeare. Just remember this. You and I like to exist. So get rid of those Demons quick, 'cause killin' them ain't my shtick!" He takes off again, "I got your back, 'cause dying is whack!"

Shadow lets out a bit of a growling roar, even as that happens her mate darts forward to start cutting into the Demons. She hangs back, because the bug like Demons didn't seem particularly strong, so it's probably better against them to let her mate handle things unless he wants to switch while one of them hangs back with Vergil.

That being said, while she's never really seen these particular kind of bug Demons before, they don't seem particularly strong. She was still a bit weary of them, given other than the past month, they were entirely unknown to her, and there was always a possibility they were hiding a rarely used ability, like the harpies and their feather launch, so she wasn't quite willing to relax more with them yet. That being said, it doesn't take Kazuto long at all to kill the five who had appeared, and he never even calls, verbally or mentally, for a switch, even if he knows full well he can.

After they're taken care of and they're moving on, she glances back towards where the bugs had been and shakes her head. Even after a full month she still finds it so strange, and can't help but comment on it to her Uncle as they cut into and through a factory of some sort since it's the only way forward, "I mean, in a way it makes sense that they exist since Hell does have an entire food chain and biosphere of its own, but the Demon bugs are still so weird. Haven't seen them specifically, though I have seen a few other bug types, for my entire life and then suddenly they're among the most common kinds of Demons we've been seeing."

Her Uncle glances over at her, "...I suppose I should have realized that given the seal, no one has seen any reason up until now to teach you about the Demons more closely linked to the Qliphoth." He shakes his head, "Anyway, that is because all of these bug type Demons are specifically native to around the Qliphoth."

She tilts her head, "Oh? I guess that explains why I've never seen them then."

He nods, "Indeed, those are Empusas. They have something of a symbiotic relationship with Qliphoth Trees, those ones that we just saw, and that you've likely seen a lot of this past month, are the most standard kind, though there are also Red Empusas, which have sucked up so much blood that it crystallizes on their abdomen, Green Empusa, whose abdomens contain a sort of healing nectar they scavenge from the Qliphoth that heals Demons and flies around spitting poison, and finally Queen Empusas, which have some armor plating, and can go on a rampage if they suck up enough blood." He glances over at her thoughtfully, then continues, "You can likely relax as much as you normally would against weaker Demons with them. Unless they've developed new tricks in the time since Dad last saw them, they don't have anything up the proverbial sleeves. And given that their relationship with Qliphoth Trees, which is practically a need for anything more than basic survival, and that no Qliphoth have sprouted in over five thousand years since they have to grow between Hell and Earth, it's highly unlikely that they've even had a chance to develop any new tricks. And if they haven't, then other than the Queen, none of them are stronger than Pride Demons."

She hums in understanding. She looks up as some Pyrobats show up, tapping her mate on his shoulder and smiling at him as he glances over, "My turn. These may not be too difficult, but I'm better at flying types, so you stick with Uncle Vergil."

He hums in agreement and she quickly pulls out Shuraba and switches it to Aquila as she steps forward so there's a bit of a space between her and her mate and Uncle, then immediately tosses them so they'll arc through the body of one from either side, slicing deeply into it. Though while she knows they're more based on speed than strength, it still mildly surprises her that it manages to twist out of the way enough that deep as the wounds may be, Aquila doesn't just straight up cut it in half as had been her original intention.

As Aquila arcs back towards her, she quickly pulls one of her guns, and with its injuries messing up its ability to fly right, it only takes one shot to finish it off. She quickly reholsters her gun before catching Aquila, though it's almost immediately tossed back out, and while they arc again, this time they're both going through the same arc, one above the other. However, right before it reaches the second of the three bats who had shifted its flight a bit forward to be right out of their arc, she switches them to Arbiter, letting the heavy ax cleave straight through it before switching back and summoning them back to her hands. She cartwheels out of the way of the last one's torrent of flame as she switches to Nephthys, launching a spike of sand as she lands that stabs straight into it, skewering it leaving it desperately flapping its wings, though slower and less energetically as it swiftly dies.

Once it is, she returns Nephthys to Shuraba and tucks it back into her Devil Bringer. With the bats dead, Uncle Vergil steps up and points past the chain link fence towards the direction the tracks that disappear under where they are standing comes from, "We need to head that way."

She looks over then follows the fence with her eyes. To the right, she points, "There's an opening over there. It'd be easy to cut through the fence, but why bother?"

Uncle Vergil nods, and they all head that way without hesitation. As it turns out, the opening isn't just from the Qliphoth tearing through it, given the ladder says there is supposed to be one, though it has been ripped open further by it, and the root growing up the side of the wall has destroyed the ladder. She feels a flicker of sorrow at the possibility of someone trying to flee and getting stopped by that as they quickly drop down to the gravel and tracks. The thought is quickly shoved away given that pretty much as soon as they drop down, a bunch of Demons appear, enough that though he's generally been leaving things to them so as to not strain himself, from the way Uncle Vergil immediately summons Griffon back out as well as calling Shadow, very obviously having made the decision that the group was large enough that he wasn't comfortable with leaving it to them. That being said, between the three of them it doesn't take much work to clear them out, even with a few Caina, a Demon related to the Pride Demon and surprisingly enough Ravagers, mixed in with the Empusas.

Once they're dealt with, they head for the bridge, which isn't in great condition, mostly due to Qliphoth roots as far as she can tell, though there's of course always a possibility that something else did damage that she isn't aware of. However, about halfway across, a root is going over the bridge, with one of those large red sacks her Uncle says are called blood clots, disgustingly enough. It isn't too in the way though, so she glances at her Uncle, "Should we just go over?"

But he shakes his head, "No. Destroying the Qliphoth blood clots causes the roots to disintegrate, which in turn weaken the Qliphoth on a whole. It's better to destroy as many as possible, and if it's going to be kind enough to put one right in our path…"

She blinks quickly at him, then glances around, "This bridge is awfully unstable though."

Her Uncle glances around as well, "So it is. If push comes to shove, Griffon has enough strength to lift me for a short time. And if the situation is particularly desperate, I can always summon my Angel wings."

She snorts as she crosses her arms and gives him a deadpan look, "Unless neither of us is with you, Kazuto and I would undoubtedly grab you, since even with you suppressing your Angelic power as much as possible it's still slowly killing you, and it'd only do more damage quicker if you actively tapped into it, even briefly for something as simple as the wings." She scowls a little, "And given Kazuto and I still haven't figured out a way to block the signal to stop Angel or Demon wings from being pulled out, unfortunately we still don't have a wing device you can use instead." She shakes herself out as she uncrosses her arms, "Look, let's go over it and get to more stable ground and I'll destroy it from a distance." She eyes it, then summons Lucifer to her back, "Preferably with one of these, since I won't have to get that blood clot nastiness on my weapon, and we can duck behind one of those containers so we don't get splattered, even if I just shot at it."

Vergil gives it a thoughtful look, then nods, "A good plan I suppose. Alright then, let's get over this and away."

It doesn't take long at all for Kazuto and Uncle Vegil to get over it as she quickly gets to the other side herself and pushes one of the train segments on the tracks away from it. Once they're both over, she stabs one of the needles into it, but doesn't detonate it yet as they all swiftly make for more stable ground. When they're far enough away and behind the back of the compartment hooked to the train segment she'd pushed as the two segments seem to be stretched between both sides of the stable and unstable ground, she sends a pulse of Demonic energy to the needle to get it to detonate. A beat later, after the blood is done splattering, they all come back out from behind the train, just in time to see the white stained root turn to dust, and that section of the bridge collapses practically immediately, taking the train segment they'd hidden behind as well as one that had been on the other side of the root from them with it.

Kazuto winces, "Guess you were right about that. It was unstable. And apparently only being held up by the Qliphoth."

Uncle Vergil nods, "Indeed. It seems it was the correct call to make after all."

She sighs, "So it seems." Then she shakes herself, "Come on, let's get going."

As they make their way towards the building on the other side, she blinks at the strange, almost infected looking Qliphoth root sticking up from the ground and oozing what she swears looks like some sort of yellow puss. She wrinkles her nose, "I've seen a few of those, but what on earth is that?"

Uncle Vergil looks up from where he'd been gazing towards his feet in thought, "Ah. That's a Nidhogg Hatchling."

Kazuto gives it an equally grossed out look, "And… what exactly is a Nidhogg Hatchling?"

Uncle Vergil snorts as he approaches the oozing cut off section of the Qliphoth, "Well, other than a Hatchling, obviously, the Nidhogg is a parasitic life form that attaches itself and feeds on the life force the Qliphoth is gathering. Hatchlings, specifically attach to damaged sections of the Qliphoth and feeds directly on it, since they aren't mature enough to siphon off the life force without devouring a section itself. The process harms the internal structure of that section, and it does so alarmingly fast, which causes that section to die and be destroyed, much like if you destroy a blood clot." He doesn't directly touch it, but traces out the outline of the broken section, "This is broken off because it's what's left of the larger section after the rest breaks apart, which the Nidhogg Hatchling retreats to as it's destroyed from its feeding. The ooze is because when it retreats there and basically bunks down to rest after its meal, the section essentially gets infected."

Her nose scrunches further, "So that is some sort of puss?"

He huffs a small laugh, "Basically."

Then he reaches out and picks up the Nidhogg Hatchling, causing the broken off section of the Qliphoth to disintegrate before tucking it into a pocket.

Before she can ask about it, some of the needle-like trendles of the Qliphoth burst out of the ground, and the noise seems to call a couple of Pyrobats over, though the roots are even easier to deal with then Empusas, so with Kazuto taking care of those swiftly and her dealing with the bats, it's only a matter of moments before they're gone.

She eyes him when they're done cleaning them up, "Why? That thing is gross."

He chuckles, but seems to know exactly what she's referring to, "Given their ability to break down sections of the Qliphoth, it may come in handy."

Her lips pull back in further disgust, since her nose can't really scrunch any further, "Fine." She points a finger at him, "But I'm not touching that thing."

He chuckles again, then twirls his cane as he turns towards the door to the right of the blocked off train tracks that become impassable to normal foot traffic under a metal scaffolding of some sort stretched between the buildings on both sides.

She tilts her head as they start cutting through what looks to be a warehouse, "Although... Given that one can absorb abilities by absorbing certain things into a Devil Bringer, it does make me wonder what would happen if a Nidhogg Hatchling was absorbed? Would one just... gain the ability to get rid of roots?"

Uncle Vergil tilts his head thoughtfully, "You could try absorbing this one and we could find out."

She grimaces, "I really don't want to touch that thing, and anyway, we've never tried absorbing something that's alive but I doubt it would stay living. So considering we may need it, it's better to leave it for now."

Uncle Vergil nods, "An excellent point. Perhaps later."

Given that it doesn't take long for them to cut through the building, they exit right about then, ending up in what seems to be mostly a tangle of side streets for the various warehouses and factories in the area.

As they make their way through, Kazuto and Uncle Vergil's phones buzz with a notification, but since they haven't been separated, only hers has the volume on, letting them hear Nero through the radio app, "Aunt Lily, I'm activating the locator on my ring, do you have a moment to Apparate over here?"

They pause, and a moment later her mom replies, "Yeah, give me a moment to finish this up, but why?"

Nero huffs an incredulous laugh, "Because I found Lady. Or, well, I fought Lady. Those bastards shoved her inside some sort of artificial Demon using the Artemis Devil Arm as a Demonic power source. Though she's unconscious and she would never have attacked me on her own without a damn good reason, I think they put her inside to use her brain as the operating system, so to speak."

There's a pregnant pause, then her mom's shaky voice comes back, "Understood. I'll be there shortly."

"Um. Bring clothes with you please. I don't know if they took hers off of her or if being inside somehow ruined hers, but she's," He pauses momentarily, "Kinda naked."

Her mom huffs incredulously, "Ok. That'll add a smidgen of time so I can swing by the house for some, but I will."

Nero laughs, somewhat strained, "Appreciate it."

With that, the line goes dead. They share looks before continuing, and it isn't long before they're in some sort of market with the remnants of stalls and tables around and a glass ceiling, scattered around are the fragile husks that the Qliphoth leaves behind after those needle like segments stab into them and drain them dry.

There's some sort of large root tangle at the end. As they approach it, some sort of blue and purple scaly… thing with almost petal looking tufts around a wide mouth that splits the vaguely snake like head in half and goes back more than a few feet with rows of sharp teeth bursts out of the large pale greenish blue bulb hanging from the ceiling and lunges towards them.

They all dodge, since it's actually fairly slow. When they do, another trendle pops out, though the blue and purple scales quickly turn orange as it reaches a vaguely humanoid torso and up, though the arms end in needles similar to the Qliphoth's, and the head lacks any human features other then its placement and vaguely its shape, since other than the needles coming off of its it's entirely covered in scales, no eyes, no ears, and no nose.

It doesn't even have a mouth so other than the vague hint of its head pulsing in time with its words, she's not entirely sure how it's angry, and rather unintelligent voice(2) snaps out, "You dodg-dodged me! Di-id yo-ou do-odge me?!"

Griffon flutters down to Uncle Vergil's arm, "Ugh. Nidhogg, I never liked this guy."

Nidhogg angrily snaps back, "You-ou p-peest. Do-o I kn-now you?"

Basically ignoring Nidhogg, Griffon continues, "Dumb as a box of rocks. Let's not even mess with this guy, Vergil." Uncle Vergil chuckles lowly at the insult, and Griffon continues, "He can't even leave the Qliphoth anyway. Just a Qliphoth parasite."

Nidhogg's voice seems to turn even more outraged, "Di-did you insu-ult me?"

Griffon flutters his wings nervously, "Uh oh. I think he heard me."

Nidhogg all but roars, "You ins-sulted me!"

Then he lets out a wordless sort of roar as the snake-like head lunges at them again. Griffon takes off in a small panic, "And he's angry!"

They dodge again, and Nidhogg shouts in rage, "I'm go-ing to k-kill you!"

Uncle Vergil tilts his head, and idly comments, "Not in this lifetime." He spins his cane over his hand, "As the air to a bird, or the sea to a fish, so it contempt," He lifts his cane to point the end at Nidhogg, "to the contemptible."

As Vergil summons Shadow as well for the upcoming fight, and two more of the snake-like trendles come out, Nidhogg's voice gains a bit of confusion alongside the anger, "You use… de-de-Demon? But you… human? Huh?"

She and Kazuto pull out their weapons quickly as Shadow lunges towards one of the heads, and Uncle Vergil chuckles again, "If the fool would persist in his folly, he would become wise."

As she and Kazuto head for the other two heads, Nidhogg makes unintelligible noises of confusion and Griffon quips, "Meaning don't try to think too much, shithead."

He laughs at the end as they start tearing into the heads.

She flips over another lunge, landing on it as she switches to Osiris, and a few quick spins of it over her hand nearly slice the head off, and dropping it so she's holding on closer to the end and hooking Osiris under it and yanking up is enough to finish the job.

As it flops down lifelessly, she hops off and glances over at the other two, seeing Kazuto also done with his head, and only a beat later watching as Vergil stabs the sharpened end of his cane into the head of the third. The three dead heads are pulled back up into the weird bulby thing, and Nidhogg lowers itself to the ground, "I'm heeeere!"

Griffon scoffs as she and Kazuto both go for it, slicing into him with wild abandon, as does Shadow, "This dimwit wants to be all high and mighty! Strike 'em down, Vergil!"

Nidhogg's voice turns angry again, "D-d-dimwi-it? M-me? I… c-c-c-crush you!"

Griffon laughs, "Even the big bad kitty knows you got shit for brains!"

"Qu-qu-qu-quiet! You… you … bird and cat!"

As Shadow lashes at it with its tail, which it has made sort of whip like, she brings her sword up above her head before switching to Arbiter as she starts to swing it down, slicing deeply into it. It roars and three new heads come out, or perhaps they're the same, now regenerated. Nidhogg tries to retreat up, but with an annoyed twitch she pulls out Lucifer and starts tossing needles at where it's trying to burrow into the bulb, setting them off as they impact. Nidhogg roars in pain, and it only takes a few before it's dead, though surprisingly the two snake-like heads left are still alive. Maybe the humanoid form was only the primary body, but as the others were a part of it, it wouldn't truly die until they were all dead?

She can't help but mutter, "That was easier than I thought? Maybe I have gotten a bit stronger after all this nonsense…" She nods her head to the side as she raises her eyebrows, "Or Nidhogg is way weaker than I was thinking he'd be. One or the other."

Before she can even move forward towards the two heads left, Kazuto and Uncle Vergil finish them off. As soon as they're dead, the entire large root tangle and bulb start disintegrating, Uncle Vergil glances over, and clearly having heard the mutter says back, "Nidhogg isn't particulates weak. You've definitely gotten stronger."

Right then, the ground shakes. Looking up, she can just see through the glass ceiling, or what's left of it anyway, as one of the mini-Qliphoth mega roots dotted around is directly above them and starting to turn to ash and falling apart.

Following a hazardously close falling section down, she's relieved when it lands a few feet away rather than on them. As the last of the large tangle at the bottom of the root Nidhogg had been inhabiting disappears, a large beast, looking almost like a machine with its metallic looking limbs and armor is revealed and starts turning to look at them, shuffling its legs as it does.

Griffon flaps back over to Uncle Vergil, "Ummm. Okay, um, all right that's not good at all. That's not good."

Vergil takes a step back, "Ah."

Then he turns and starts back the other way and she and Kazuto hesitantly follow, drawing Griffon's attention, "W-wait, where- where are you going? Are you running away? That- that's not a good sign."

Uncle Vergil pauses to halfway turn back to Griffon again, "I'm afraid that…" He quickly points the handle of his cane at it, "that's a little bit more than I can likely take on right now, even with these two with me."

Without another word, he turns away again and starts to walk, but they only get a couple steps before a blast of blue energy lands just behind them. They start to run, and more energy blasts go off behind them, but it only takes a few before one not only lands close, but also blows the ground under them, causing them to fall.

As they do, she quickly snaps out her Angel wings and catches Uncle Vergil though given the danger above, she only slows his descent so he won't get hurt before she touches down with him, Kazuto at her side, having also yanked out his wings.

She can hear the stomping above them, and when she looks up the fairly short shaft, it isn't long before she sees the strange creature stomps over the hole. It must be a Demon, for obvious reasons, but it's one of the strangest Demons she's ever seen. Nevertheless, either it didn't really care or it wasn't smart enough to continue pursuit after they fell, because it just ambles over the hole before disappearing.

Griffon breathes out a sighs of relief, "We're alive, we made it! It's our lucky day, Vergil! Let's go find a game of cards."

Uncle Vergil, who had been looking around after it disappeared, comments, "These Qliphoth roots… They're everywhere."

Griffon's tone turns sarcastic, "Well, we are underground."

Uncle Vergil idly replies, "Then I guess we have some clearing up to do."

Griffon doesn't miss a beat, "And me without my gardening shears."

Uncle Vergil huffs out a laugh, and with that they head down the passageway. It actually kind of smells down here, but it doesn't look like a sewer exactly, so she's not entirely sure what it is.

It isn't long as they make their way through before they reach another of those gross blood clots. Sharing a look with the other two, she nods at the corner, not far away, "I'll set another needle and we can duck behind the corner to avoid the splatter."

The other two nod, and they do just that. As the Qliphoth root turns to ash, they watch as the ashy annihilation of the roots spreads down the path before emptying out a tunnel entrance. They make their way down, and Kazuto leans towards the wall the entrance is in, "I suppose we're in luck there was a clot nearby that killed off these roots, since I'm pretty sure that's a dead end."

She hums back, "So it seems. Well, lucky or not, let's go."

The entrance tunnel isn't long at all, the length of their shop is bigger than it is, and it swiftly opens into a much larger area that appears to have been under construction(3) when the Qliphoth showed up and ruined things. Large banging comes from the roof, which looking up confirms to be some sort of metal like the sound had suggested.

Griffon sounds a bit worried as he calls out, "Ah! He's throwing a tantrum up there! Watch the ceiling, Vergil!"

She narrows her eyes at the ceiling as they are forced to climb, or given they're increased physical capabilities it's technically just a jump, up some pallets due to more roots blocking the way, "I think it's less of a tantrum and more of a fight." Seeing Uncle Vergil tilting his head towards her as he pauses, she continues, "I know your Devil side getting ripped out has screwed with your ability to sense, and the Qliphoth roots only worsen the issue, but I'm pretty sure I can sense Nero up there. So-"

She's cut off by the ceiling suddenly denting in, before with the shriek of tearing metal one of its surprisingly narrow legs bursts through. Seeing a glowing bulb shaped thing on what looks like the back of it, she doesn't hesitate to whip out Shuraba and switch it to Nephthys, using its power to shred a loose metal panel and whip it up into a small controlled tornado of metal sand.

It starts shredding into the bulb, though it does do damage to the leg itself, and it isn't long before the glow peters out and the leg flails, smashing through a clot in the process before it's withdrawn back through the ceiling. As she looks up, a beat later Nero's head pops over the edge of the tear in the metal with a confused look, which quickly turns to one of understanding, he calls down, "Wondering how that leg got so torn up! Guess that explains it!" He suddenly looks up and disappears to the side seconds before a ball of blue energy shoots through the space he'd just been. A moment later, he pops back up, but only to call out, "I gotta go, but be careful!"

He vanishes again, likely to deal with the Demon. With the blood clot having gotten rid of the root in the way, they drop back down, though it's rather brief since they almost immediately have to climb back up a couple of shipping containers stacked on top of one another. Practically as soon as they're up, a couple of Caina appear. She takes one while Kazuto takes the other, but they aren't exactly a challenge, so it isn't long before Kazuto has dealt with his. Almost as soon as he does, from where she's standing with the Caina technically between her and Uncle Vergil having moved behind it during the fight, she sees an Antenora, a Demon that was technically a Caina, but one that had been tortured to insanity to unlock a dormant ability they have that's similar to the Ravager Berserk Style, slip out of whatever place had been hiding it in the folds of the world, a skill the vast majority of all lesser Demons have to hide from Great Demons, practically right behind Uncle Vergil, requiring a rather quick dodge on his part from the two massive cleavers in its hands.

Uncle Vergil immediately has Griffon start blasting at it with balls of energy, though with his attention immediately whipped around from the sound of it, Kazuto quickly hurries over. She finishes her Caina off, but strange timing has another leg from the Demon above breaking through the ceiling again around the same time. Since it had worked fine last time, she just shifts Shuraba to Nephthys to repeat the metal sand tornado. Apparently even that isn't enough action for the Demons, as a trio of Pyrobats appears while she and Kazuto are busy, though thankfully that's well within what Uncle Vergil can handle without really straining himself.

When all of the chaos has subsided, at least for the moment. Kazuto hums as they drop down at the other end of the shipping containers, "I've been wondering something lately." He glances back up at where the leg had come through, even as with a quick sweep she realizes there's another clot and brings out Lucifer again, "The Great Demons we've been seeing aren't exactly weak but I know for a fact there are ones way stronger, and they aren't precisely rare, since these guys are lower mid-tier strength wise in general. So where are the stronger ones? I mean, don't get me wrong, I don't exactly want stronger ones running around my home country, but it… makes me a bit nervous as to what could be going on."

Uncle Vergil shakes his head, "You probably don't need to worry. Though I have no guarantee, it's likely that they're either focusing on trying to snatch the Qliphoth Fruit, or they're using a more 'wait and see' sort of approach. If they come through and we manage to reflip the seal, they'll be stuck here with nowhere to retreat to if things go south for them. And on top of that, Urizen is strong enough that the smarter ones know they have less than a snowball's chance in their backyard to beat him and claim the throne, but with his focus on that right from the get go, they don't know what sort of Monarch Urizen will be and whether they should support him or quietly slink away."

Kazuto tilts his head, "Oh. That… makes a lot of sense actually."

As they'd been talking, they had gone down the sort of passageway made by the stuff stacked off to either side and climbed up onto another set of containers. She sighs as yet another leg comes back. If anything this whole detour down here was more of a hassle. Though Nero was undoubtedly benefiting from her tearing into the legs, it was generally a nuisance to deal with the twisted areas and the enemies popping up every now and then. There weren't a whole lot in general since there really weren't people left in the areas of the city heading towards the Qliphoth, so there wasn't much reason for them to hang around. If nothing else, at least after she deals with that one and they drop down, heading through a more open area and fighting a lone Queen Empusa, it only takes them going through the hallway and into another open area for another leg to almost immediately show up. Since she recalls it being quadrupedal, that's all of them, so if it was in any way necessary to deal with those glowing bulbs on the legs, it was done.

And either it was good timing or it had been necessary, because not long after she deals with it Nero's head pops over the opening again, "It's dead! So you guys don't have to worry about it stomping around collapsing the ceiling or whatever."

She calls back in acknowledgment, and Nero pretty much immediately disappears. She turns back to the open area, quickly using another needle and cover to deal with another clot which leads down a hole it tore into the ground. Jumping down it leads them to another tunnel area, but it isn't long before they're coming across a section where it looks like a root dove into the ground from the way all the rubble is shoved into a ramp. Likely the very same one she'd destroyed in that area where the hole had led down into the tunnels that brought them here, since it certainly didn't look like the collapse of the road had any other reason, and they hadn't come across any additional clots down in the tunnels on their way there.

When they reach the top of the ramp, a quick look around and a glance behind her let's her take in the road behind them as being mostly blocked off by a root that had grown close enough to the surface to shove the ground and concrete up into a pile, and directly across from where they came out is a 'Y' of two streets meeting before running towards the road behind them. Off to their left was another opening connected to the 'Y' and the road behind them with stretches of road. But it wasn't another road, in front of it was sort of a parking area and the opening itself is a footpath. It creates a triangle between the three openings for the road in the surrounding buildings, and inside the triangle is a statue.

With no other way to go unless they want to climb the rubble, which isn't yet necessary since it's not completely blocked off, they head for the footpath. It's fairly short before it opens up into another larger area, but before they can get there, Uncle Vergil suddenly uses his cane to shove both her and Kazuto into a fairly wide rectangular pillar off to the left.

Before they can ask, Griffon hisses out, "Malphas."

Beside her, Kazuto twitches, then frowns as he glances at her in confusion before quietly asking, "Wasn't that the name of the Demon who Mundus beat in claiming the throne?"

She nods, then murmurs back, "Yeah. This Malphas is actually a descendant who made the bold move of taking his name to shake off the lingering side effects of being a descendant of Mundus' old opponent by using the name and becoming one of Mundus' most loyal followers."

Before he can respond, Malphas' voice rings out, "Search for the Devil Sword Sparda. You know where it is… He told me to leave it be, but I'm afraid it still concerns me. As long as there is a blood descendant of Sparda… I cannot take any chances. Do you understand?! Find it, and destroy it! Only then will his reign be truly realized!"

Malphas opens a portal and disappears through it, and they pull away from the pillar. With him gone, all that's left is a Geryon steed being ridden by a large Demon wielding a large electrified lance. Seeming to have heard them moving, it turns to them. She tilts her head, something about the rider nagging at her before her eyes blow wide as she realizes that while the energy was twisted and warped, she does recognize it. Somehow, someway, the rider was Aunt Trish.

She chokes on a sharp intake of breath as tears blurr her vision at the knowledge that at least one of the three was OK, sort of, and right in front of her, "That's-!"

She can't even continue, but Uncle Vergil just nods, "So it is." He eyes the large, and for some reason male, Demon on the Geryon's back, "Given the layers of energy, and how they get more warped the further from the core they're originating from, which is about the size of Trish herself, I think she's quite literally inside it."

Before either she or Kazuto can say anything, the Geryon suddenly rears up with a neigh before charging towards them, and the three of them scatter. As she does, she switches to the Quicksilver Style she'd gotten from her dad, who had actually acquired it from another Geryon all the way back in Temen-ni-gru.

The Geryon itself doesn't do much, it seems to have just been charging them to get the Demon using Trish as it's core close enough to slam its lance into the ground, which sends out a wave of electricity crackling across the ground, the edge of which catches her and tosses her back, before it cooly calls out, "Weak, powerless creatures."

Griffon laughs, then calls out to Vergil, "So? You got a comeback for that?"

She tosses Aquila at it, specifically its head since she can't sense any of Aunt Trish's regular, untwisted energy up there, as she climbs back to her feet. Even as she does, Uncle Vergil briefly calls out to her, "Aim for the Geryon." Then quips back to Griffon, "One thought fills immensity."

Aquila comes back and she switches to Osiris as she briefly switches Styles and goes for a Trickster rush even as Griffon chastises Uncle Vergil, "This is not the time for poetry! Wait, what does that even mean?"

Just as she passes the Geryon, she switches her style back as she kicks off a wall nearby into a backflip and as she goes over its head switches to Arbiter and swings at its neck. Its scales are thick enough that she can't take its head off, but she cuts fairly deeply into it. Even as it happens Uncle Vergil responds to Griffon, "Where there's a will, there's a way… Now let's go!"

The Geryon lets out a rather aggressive sound as it turns its attention to her, and a ball of energy launches towards her, as soon as it does, she turns on Quicksilver, and darts away. It was the whole reason she had switched, as the way the Style manifests is a little… different depending on how mature the Geryon in question is. This one is clearly younger, if all it can do is slow down a small localized area instead of speeding up its own time entirely, which of course, in prospective makes the entire world slower and is significantly more difficult. The point being, while moving while using it is rather energy draining, she had switched specifically to be able to counter. So even if the edge of the ball's impact and subsequent expansion catches her, it'll just slow her down to more regular speeds. Or, regular Nephilim speeds anyway.

That being said, it doesn't, and once she knows she's clear she immediately turns it back off to conserve energy, then switches to Nephthys. Normally she wouldn't do this given she doesn't want to cause damage other people will have to pay to fix, but with the ruin that's been done, it wouldn't make a big difference. So without hesitation, she stabs Nephthys into the ground and turns the entire courtyard's brickwork paths into sand, which will undoubtedly screw with Geryon especially given how deep it goes, considering their species is not good with sand, unlike some normal Earth horses. It doesn't really affect them as much, between their significantly lower weights and their Nephilim abilities, the sand hardly matters to her and Kazuto, and while she doubts it'll affect Uncle Vergil, even if it does he has Griffon to pull him out.

Geryon, having been charging in circles around Kazuto and Uncle Vergil as the artificial Demon using Trish swings at them with its lance, immediately stumbles in the sand, catching itself from falling completely but ending up on its knees, which is not something either of the boys is inclined to not take advantage of.

Even as the other two tear into it, she concentrates, having to be more careful than usual about the trajectory. Once she's satisfied though, she launches spikes of the sand up and into Geryon from all angles, though she's pleased to see that not a single one even touches the artificial Demon riding it. The Geryon's movements become erratic as it tries to pull itself off the spikes, unintentionally tossing the artificial Demon, but it's swiftly stopped by Kazuto driving his Nephilim Blade Elucidator into its skull.

Almost immediately it goes slack and starts burning up. As it does, Kazuto starts absorbing energy from it. The artificial Demon, having been thrown to the ground near a set of metal gates, quickly turns and hurries away. They all move to follow from their scattered positions, but Uncle Vergil suddenly stumbles and falls to a knee, even as the artificial Demon slams a fist into a pillar and makes that entrance collapse behind him. She hurries over to him, "Uncle Vergil?! I'm sorry, did the sand mess with you? I just thought-"

He waves his hand vaguely though, cutting her off, "No, I just used more energy than I realized so I had a bout of weakness. We must go after him. If the Devil Sword Sparda still exists, then with Dad being tied up right now with protecting a significant amount of people from endless streams of Demons and Great Demons and with the fact he put the vast majority of his power from five thousand years ago into it, and it isn't significantly weaker than him, seeing as its power that he recovered only a handful of centuries ago, given that before the Statute, he tended to leave the Demons still around or that managed to come through to the Angels and isn't really that much stronger than the sword… it may well be our only hope of stopping Urizen before he eats the fruit."

She helps Uncle Vergil to his feet as Griffon begins hesitantly, "Vergil, uhhh, think about this for a minute now. What will you do if you find it? You gotta be strong in mind and body to wield the Sparda, and you, sir, are neither. Hate to break it to you, but the Sparda will just be too much for ya. Don't think these kids could handle it either."

Uncle Vergil nods, "For me, undoubted, for these two, probably. But what of Nero?" He stares into the distance for a moment, then shakes his head, and turns away from the collapsed entrance, "Let's go. Once we're near the Sparda, these two should be able to sense it. Well, when we're close enough, even I could, but they would before me."

She eyes the blocked opening, "Well, we could just go up and over to try to follow that artificial Demon, but given he was ordered to find the Sparda, I doubt it's particularly close by, since even with the Qliphoth tree messing with things for us it just shortens the range, not shuts it off entirely, and not only can I not sense it, but if it was close enough Malphas wouldn't have ordered someone else to do it. Malphas would've just gone to it herself instead of entrusting the task to someone else."

Uncle Vergil nods absently, "That is rather a good point…"

She suddenly jerks, "Oh yeah!" Then she fishes out her phone and pulls up the radio app, "Just wanted to let you guys know, it got away, but there's a big artificial Demon with an electric lance, and from the energy signature, we're certain Aunt Trish is inside it. So, if you see it, be careful about how you attack it."

A beat later, Nero's voice responds, "Understood. And hey! That's the girls found. If luck holds, maybe we'll find Uncle Dante soon!"

She lets out a shuddering breath as she clicks the talk button, "With any luck, yeah."

Her grandpa's voice suddenly cuts in, a tiny smudge out of breath, "Didn't have time to ask earlier, because there was a huge wave, but there's enough of a lull right at the moment to leave it to Eva, but how exactly are they held inside? Need a general idea since I wouldn't want to end up accidentally killing one of them."

Nero responds immediately, "Mine was pure luck to be honest. I'd slashed at its abdomen, and I didn't initially get much of a hit in, but it cut just deep enough not to hit Lady but still cut into the cavity in the abdomen she was being held in, which let me see her face inside."

She presses the talk button when he's done, "We didn't manage to get a look at Aunt Trish, but unlike Aunt Lady, as a Demon she has her own energy signature. It was warped and twisted more and more as the layers went towards the surface, but from where the unaltered core of energy that not only exactly matched her signature, but also the shape of her body, so we think she was in the abdomen as well."

Her grandpa comes back briefly, though having clearly caught his breath in the meantime, "Understood. Should be pretty easy to locate them inside if you can sense their energy underneath the twisted layers of what it's been turned into, but it's still good to have a heads-up that both were in the abdomen." There's a second pause, then he comes back quickly, "It's getting busy again, I have to go, but just because I don't respond doesn't mean I'm not here."

She hesitates, then presses the talk button again, "Yui, are you there?"

There isn't a moment's hesitation, "Yes, Mama!"

She glances towards where the artificial Demon had disappeared to, "Listen, we just heard Malphas, the descendant of the one the Devils supported not the original, talking to the artificial Demon Aunt Trish is inside of before we fought Malphas left and we fought with it. Can you take Grandpa off the ignore list and see if anything but he himself pops up? She was trying to dispatch it to find and destroy the Devil Sword Sparda, which means it's neither destroyed nor in Urizen's hands, and with Grandpa and Grandma tied up, it's our best bet."

There's a sharp intake of breath, and then her daughter's voice comes back, filled with determination, "Give me a moment!" They wait briefly, then she comes back, voice excited, "I've got its signature! The Qliphoth is warping the energy to much to get a precise location, but I have at least a direction, and since you're all carrying smaller Demon Detectors to help with the system as much as possible, if you start heading that way, I should be able to narrow in on it as you get closer, at least enough to get you in range for you to sense it!"

She smiles, "Great! Pop it on our Augma minimaps please."

She gets an affirmative, then the line goes dead again, but her minimap updates with a vague outline of the area the signature was in.

She smiles vaguely in amusement, "We may not be able to follow it, but that artificial Demon collapsing the exit doesn't do anything else, since the Sparda isn't even in that direction."

Uncle Vergil huffs, "Indeed. We should head out."

She murmurs in agreement, and they turn around to leave.

(1): Just a note, but no, I did not misspell Griffin. Griffon is how Devil May Cry 5 canonically spells it.

(2): For the record, I am not saying that stuttering, as Nidhogg speaks, is in and of itself unintelligent or a sign of a lack of intelligence. The way the game creators wrote Nidhogg, he's not too bright and struggles to speak as a result of that. Though I sincerely doubt the creators are trying to equate stuttering with a lack of intelligence either. The reasoning is the other way around, the lack of intelligence causes it to stutter as it struggles to hold even basic conversion. Two different causes between Nidhogg's stuttering and someone who just has a stutter that ends up superficially having the same end result. The point being, I'm not trying to insult people who have stutters or cause offense, hence why I went out of the way to make a note. And I sincerely doubt the game creators were either.

(3): I am purposely being a little vague because in the game it's actually the underbelly of a shipyard. Like, big metal freighter shipyard. Given that Saitama is not a coastal city it does not have shipyards. Hell, I even tried to look up "Saitama Shipyeard" just to double check.