Numbered Days.
"…So, it is him, after all…"
"The blade certainly indicates so. Well, that, and the demon-slaying records he's been breaking…"
He felt unstoppable.
No.
He was unstoppable.
There was a twisted rush each time his blade tore through the flesh of an unholy beast from the depths of the underworld. The definite stroke to his ego, his power, the proof he excelled at what he was meant for.
And he was meant to kill.
"The Proto-District demons don't stand much more of a chance than the demons from the slums."
"That I can see. He is far too skilled for what mindless beasts can handle."
This area was less crude to the eye and the nose than the slums were, by far. Perhaps the pyramid-like shape of this city did have a purpose, after all.
The lower part was the dump, and what was above it was the actual Honno City…with Honnoji Academy at the top.
But the demons residing here could have belonged to the dump all the same.
The corpulent, humanoid white lizard — a Riot specimen, full-grown — leaped at him with a snarl, curved claws ready to tear.
He leaped at it, too.
"Trash."
"We shall send a pair of students after him. I wish to see how he performs against the members of Honnoji Academy."
"...Isn't it too late for that? I think sleepiness may hinder their performance."
"A member of Honnoji Academy must be prepared for battle at all times. Wake the strongest Proto-student, along with the strongest Cavaliere, inform them of our visitor, and send them after him."
"Yes, my Lady."
His lethal hand enclosed around the bright wing of the massive bat burning red — a Hellbat, a very old one — and tore it from the creature's body, provoking the creature to release a shrill cry, all as the smaller, younger members of its kind — pitch-black demons called Pyrobats — flew around in panic, at their leader being defeated.
"You are all next."
He tossed the Yamato at them, spinning as if it were a boomerang.
None survived, and when the Yamato returned to his hand, bloodied and full of lava-like blood, he buried it deep within the Hellbat's back.
"The order is to make him submit, and bring him to me."
"What if they fail?"
"…Vergil will be allowed to come to Honnoji Academy, then."
He stared down the tall, monstrous armored reptile — a Chaos, a subspecies of Riot…although very young — and the creature roared at him before rolling forward, sparks scattering everywhere as the sharp scutes of its spine raced through the paved road.
They were sharp, yes, but far from mature. The Chaos was but a youngling.
He stopped the Chaos on its tracks with the flat side of his Yamato, breaking the scutes instantly.
He then dashed at it and stabbed up the creature's lower jaw.
The Yamato's tip emerged atop the head, stained red.
"I've gathered the two students, my Lady."
"Excellent. I am certain this will be…
…enlightening."
…
…The crimson droplets fell from the wet, but otherwise, intact cloak encompassing him as he marched forward. The rainfall prodded them down, and it had been so unexpected it made him wonder…
(The heavens were clear when he arrived. Neither stars nor the moon was hidden from his sight. Those dark furious clouds came from nowhere. The more he advanced…)
He shouldn't have been surprised. The winter-like temperature at a time when every place in the country should have been basking in the summer warmth of early July was the crystal-clear, undeniable indication that the mysterious Honno City's weather was not playing by the rules.
That the asphalt filling these streets was showered by violent water drops only solidified this fact. He had no wish to imagine what this was like in the smelly slums he left behind, where no road was paved and the excrement of dogs and cats alike waited for the opportunity to converge with the mud born from dirt and downpour.
The slums…
He dedicated some time to exploring them, but as it turned out, beyond the presence of a variety of demons and forcefields to keep them all away — which too surrounded the better-looking, better-built constructions here — they were quite dull, and not worth staying at for the sake of precious time.
Precious, precious time that would be better spent heading to the apex of this city, all the while familiarizing himself with the upper areas he had to walk through to get there.
(If he looked up, he would be able to see it, slowly growing closer with every step he took. The darkness intensified by the pitch-black sky did little to hide it from his sharp view, the tower atop the pyramid-like city.)
His journey was, of course, interrupted occasionally by the appearance of a demon, or group of demons, emerging from somewhere in this particular area and eager to hunt him, for he seemed to be the only living creature roaming it that night, the only creature they could feed on.
Which was unfortunate.
For them.
He didn't mind. He would lie if he said he didn't take satisfaction in destroying demons or destroying any opponent for that matter. The self-assurance, the knowledge that he was incomparably stronger than them and they were all so utterly hopeless, that he dominated where they perished…
He lived for it.
…Which was the main reason why he was here in the first place, and the reason why he smirked when he, from the corner of his eye, noticed the glowing stare watching him from over a small grassy park beside the avenue he moved through, covered in ominous shadows.
(How unusual. Any other demon belonging to the lesser class would be zeroing in on him the moment they noticed him. They were that foolish and single-minded; kill and kill, if it moves, breathes, and has a pulse, then it was imperative to kill it, devour it… Not necessarily in that order.)
He halted his pace, foot stepping on a newly formed puddle near a lamppost — one of many in the street — that cut through the night's veil of black. He, then, realized why this creature wasn't charging at him from the get-go the moment he lay eyes on it properly.
"What a sight to behold."
This was no lesser demon.
On the grass, silent and still, stood a creature with extreme resemblance to a canine. It had to be, at least, the same size as a full-grown English Mastiff, if not somewhat bigger, more corpulent.
It can't be but a cub, he realized, as the hellhound approached slowly, warily even, until it stopped halfway from him, clawed paws set on the sidewalk. It's the first time he saw one in the flesh.
(So, it was true that they only had one head at this stage of their life…)
Although light was not particularly required to see it, the lamppost did allow for a more detailed view of things such as those pointy ears, and the long open snout full of yellow teeth.
It let him see navy blue skin, a tail frozen at the end… A long-reaching dagger birthed from congelation. It let him, above all, see those fiendish, viridian eyes, gazing at him, shining with curiosity for the odd as nostrils breathed his scent in and out.
(He was surprised that it didn't attack him as he observed all this. Vergil was poised for it, but it didn't happen, even though this species was supposed to be among the most aggressive and temperamental in the underworld.)
"And what would your kin be doing in a place such as this, whelp?"
Either the hellhound ignored the question he ventured to make, or failed to understand him, perhaps because it probably hadn't developed the ability to speak yet. Besides, it seemed more focused on smelling him as much as possible, rather than on any attempt at communication.
"Hmph."
Whatever the reason, this tiny beast — compared to the colossal adults of the species it belonged to, anyway — showed no intention of harming him. He was yet to see and hear it snarl, and the aura it exuded was all but hostile; it felt almost, dare he say, tame.
He, admittedly, saw little reason to exterminate it.
For the moment.
But the hold on his Yamato was far from wavering.
"Be a good boy, will you?"
With these simple, calm words, Vergil resumed his march forward and walked past the hellhound.
And for two seconds, all was fine.
As soon as they elapsed and the third second began, Vergil felt it, heard it.
He kicked himself off the asphalt and into the air, leaped right in time to avoid the ice rushing from behind through the road, meant to encase his feet.
"How predictable…"
Vergil spun in the air, Yamato unsheathed, intent on performing a rapidly descending downward slash that would cleave the shameless beast in two.
The hellhound was prepared for it, however.
His eyes widened when he saw the beast, right under him, closing lethal maws on the Yamato's edge, and tossing him aside by it with a sharp jerk of the neck.
Vergil performed a somersault and then landed on the wet grass of the darkened park. He landed right at the same time as the hellhound landed on the asphalt.
It looked at him.
And he looked back, scowling.
The beast released a primal snarl that rumbled in his ears and resounded within his mind. Then, it sprinted toward him, so he brought his sword forth to meet swiping claws eager to rip apart.
The brutal clash knocked the creature back, whereas Vergil was unaffected by the pushback, and found it easy to stand his ground.
He twirled the Yamato once and rushed forward to stab at the hellhound's stomach before it recovered… Before it even touched the grass. He expected to hear flesh pierced, drawn blood, all accompanied by an agony-stricken howl.
Vergil realized he wouldn't hear, nor see any of that when his sword didn't stab, but collided with something extremely hard, and his ears caught the cracks of ice instead of all the noises that would mark his approaching victory — not that he doubted he would attain it.
But the sudden glacier armor that burst from the hellhound's skin to shield the area he tried to impale would complicate matters a bit.
Vergil slid backward, and so did the hellhound. The fragment of ice armor fractured until it fell apart, and the pieces dropped to the grass, grass that froze the very instant it was touched by it.
"You…"
The voice was distorted and inside his head.
He knew it to be coming from the hellhound. It couldn't belong to anything else. As he heard it snarl and bark, his mind listened to it speak, "Your scent is most strange. You are not like the others."
"And by others, you refer to humans or demons?" Vergil inquired.
"I am not certain. You appear human, and my nose is picking up two scents… The scent of Hell… The scent of weakness... They are—"
Vergil moved, though it would be more accurate to say he straight-up teleported beside the hellhound's face and slashed downward at the creature's neck.
The hellhound couldn't react in time to dodge, but the armor burst quickly enough to prevent a merciless decapitation and the swift demise that would follow. The impact between the shield and weapon was so brutal that the provoked shockwave halted the rain, for a moment.
But there was a problem.
"You smell weakness in me, pup? Don't make me laugh."
There was too much strength behind the slash, and the limbs of the hellhound buckled under it, allowing the demon to be pushed down in the process until the neck was caught between the soft grass and the sharpest of swords.
"If I am weak, then what are you? I'll tell you what," Vergil affirmed venomously, as the armor fragment covering the neck cracked up at an alarming speed. "Scum. You are scum meant to kneel before me and kiss the heel of my boot as I bring your pitiful existence to an end!"
"Please…"
One moment, Vergil was pressing down on the creature's neck with his sword.
The next moment, Vergil was backing away from the hellhound, avoiding the dense glacial spikes that sprouted from the creature's side. As he stopped many meters away from it, the demon rose again, lips curled up in a contemptuous snarl.
"…kneel before you, freak?"
The temperature dropped so fast, so suddenly, and so low that the sting of the cold weather went from harmless and nigh unnoticed to actually uncomfortable. Vergil's eyes widened with surprise, but he made sure to control the instinct to gasp, for the air would no doubt feel like claws in his throat.
"You have not proven yourself worthy of it."
The wind became aggressive, so much he had to spread his feet a bit more than shoulder width apart to remain still. Vergil watched the grass as it went from green to white, watched as the trees in the park were stripped of every leaf by the cold and intensified waves of air.
(Even as one-headed younglings, they possessed the power to change the environment like this in a terrifying span of seconds?! How very splendid!)
Finally, the hellhound's eyes switched from soul-piercing green to burning blue. The waves of wind — no, demonic power — gathered around the hellish imitation of an earthly animal and entered the demon's body.
The demon tensed, head low while it breathed in and out as if it were exhausted, as if containing all that power within, for even a fleeting moment, was too taxing.
"Hmph. This might prove entertaining…" Vergil mused out loud, sword pointed forward. "Let's begin, Cerberus!"
"Yes…!"
And the little Cerberus looked at him, eyes filled with demented glee, the flawless mixture between childish elation and murderous intent.
"BEGIN! BEGIN! BEGIN!"
Cerberus's head snapped up, to the moon, and an ear-splitting, earth-shaking howl was released.
A command, Vergil realized right when he dashed forward, both to avoid the sudden fall of ice shards over him, once harmless droplets, and to begin his attack.
The Cerberus reacted quickly, throwing the head back with growl included, and breathing a wide torrent of ice at him. Vergil immediately planted a foot on the grass and leaped over and past the freezing gust.
He descended with the Yamato held by his two hands, spinning as if he were a circular saw, but much faster and, of course, sharper than these human tools, both that had been and were still to come, could ever hope to be.
He would have cleaved the hellhound in half, if not for the tail dagger swinging upward to clash with the Yamato. The knockback pushed Vergil various meters above the ground, and Cerberus's eyes snapped up and at him. "You are mine!"
The frozen droplets that lingered in heaven were all pointed at Vergil and rushed to him like bullets. "Hmph! You wish!"
He effortlessly twirled the Yamato all around himself, deflecting every shard of ice coming for him as gravity pulled him down. No matter how many, or how vast they were, they ended up cut down by his blade.
Even when the Cerberus leaped after him with teeth ready to pierce through his clothes and sink into his skin, Vergil performed a vicious backflip kick, sending the beast back to the grass, bouncing off it twice before collapsing.
That's when he landed, too, facing away from the hell cub.
"The same trick won't work twice," Vergil said and looked back with a triumphant smirk.
"That I can see," the Cerberus responded, rising back up with a short hop, and spitting a tooth…at him. "You kicked me so hard I almost feel like crying to my mother."
Vergil caught the tooth between his index finger and thumb, right before it reached his eye. Then, he closed his entire hand and crushed it. "Hmph. Do you still believe I am weak, then?"
The tooth remains slid to the grass as soon as Vergil opened his hand.
"No. You are certainly not," the hellhound said and slammed a paw into the ground.
Vergil performed what appeared to be a single downward slash. The frozen spike emerging from below and heading to his chin was reduced to pieces.
"But you are still confusing, I have to say," the hellhound continued. "I do not think you are human, but yet I smell it in you, the very essence of one. What are you?"
(The Cerberus kind possessed the greatest sense of smell in all of Hell. Their keen noses could discover countless things about something by scent and scent alone. Even the little ones whose senses weren't as sharp could easily track anything down.)
Vergil parried the claws swiped at him. "It matters not."
"Oh, but it does!" Cerberus copied his past backflip. Vergil stepped back and narrowly evaded the rising tail, the dagger at the end of it. "I have not met anyone like you here! They are either all demons or all humans, but never both."
The tree roots underground burst out, now frozen, and tried to wrap around Vergil. He cut them down in the blink of an eye, but within the span of such a blink, Cerberus disappeared from the spot it stood on.
"Over here!"
Rapidly, Vergil spun to the side and performed a rising slash, meant to destroy the now airborne Cerberus attempting to bite his shoulder.
The Cerberus immediately closed its mouth and did another backflip mid-air. The tail dagger knocked the Yamato aside and off his hand.
How is that tail so strong?!
But Vergil had no time to spare and think of the reason.
Cerberus was too close now. The creature's mouth opened again, ready to let those teeth sink into his skin. There was no time for a kick or even a decent punch.
In that split-second, Vergil realized what he had to do.
I could teleport, but…
His two gloved hands caught the Cerberus's lethal snout and forced it closed. Vergil spun once and hurled the creature at a leafless tree. Cerberus crashed, breaking the tree in two, giving Vergil time to look around for his sword.
When he saw it, he straight-up teleported to it. This will not repeat.
He picked up the Yamato and looked over to where Cerberus was, already recovered from being tossed around and ready to continue, walking to him.
"I cannot believe you did that. And just when I was about to have a taste of you!" the demon half-whined, half-growled.
"I'm not your food, voracious little beast," Vergil retorted, bent forward slightly at the hips, spreading his feet beyond shoulder width, and flexing the knees, Yamato sheathed, gripped in his two hands. The stance was perfect, threatening. "But do come closer. I shall let your tongue savor my blade."
"How tenacious. I like that," the creature said, and navy-blue paws tensed until the veins underneath bulged.
It appeared like it was going to attack.
But then the paws relaxed, and the creature let out a frustrated growl. All the frozen droplets that remained hit the ground, and the rain resumed.
"But as much as I want to continue our fight, it will not happen."
Huh?
"Are you perhaps giving up, pooch?" Vergil inquired, both as a taunt and a genuine question. "You aren't afraid, are you?"
"It is not that…" the Cerberus said. "Can you not hear it?"
Uncertain but curious, Vergil slid out of the stance and concentrated on the noises of the nightscape. Demons were roaming around, people were sleeping inside the departmental complexes, crickets were singing, the rain was falling…and…
…and…
…and it was then that Vergil heard the tires rolling on the asphalt, somewhere in the city.
But the sound was getting closer.
"A vehicle." A human toy.
"Yes."
Vergil looked at Cerberus. "What is the meaning of this?"
"You can ask them," the hellhound responded, nodding to something behind itself. Vergil glanced over the beast's head, and his eyes meet distant blue headlights outside the park, growing closer and brighter at an alarming rate.
No machine designed by man should have that speed, he reflected; he could see the asphalt burning as what he recognized as a van rushed forward, to the park, and left a trail of fire behind, extinguished only by the rain.
…could it be?
Vergil recalled the letter sent to him, and the grip over his katana tightened. "I see."
The gray van entered the park, burned through the frozen grass, and drove up a somewhat high hill. Cerberus leaped out of the airborne van's way, while Vergil stood still, waiting, impassive.
The van doors all opened, and two figures cloaked in shadows hopped from the vehicle. Hmph, so that's their plan…
When the van was about to land on him, he lifted the Yamato, still sheathed, and slammed the tip against the machine, right between the headlights.
The strike shattered the headlights, and the windshield, caving the van's entire frontal section in. The inhuman strength applied pushed the van various meters away, and the machine exploded while in the air, the brutal kaboom ringing in Vergil's ears.
What landed on the grass was nothing but a blackened, burning carcass, lacking the tires that brought forth the purpose it was created for; these were separated, spread across the park, and scorched as much as the broken shell they once belonged to.
They illuminated the park, bonfires born of destruction and metal. He couldn't say it lasted, for the rain tamed the flames shortly after.
Then, footsteps, something getting closer to him.
"So, he is our target."
Vergil's gaze darted to the source of the unknown voice. It resonated, as if inside…
…inside a helmet, he discovered.
"He ain't too bad, I guess."
A human?
Vergil thought so. The body, though rather large and taller than him, suggested it, and the male voice was neither distorted nor monstrous enough to qualify as that of a demon.
But if so…
Why was he sensing this amount of demonic energy coursing through him?
"Who are you?" Vergil questioned, eyes scanning the individual halfway from him. From head to toe, he was clad in jade-colored armor, an armor full of pulsating streaks that glowed violet.
The same color as the lights that were the eyes of the humanoid mask on the helmet.
"You could say I'm part of yer welcome, yer welcome to Honno City."
"…Is that so?" Dense horns protruded from the helmet. They reminded him of those of a bull, though wider. They were also colored black, with azure lines running across them. "What a warm welcome."
His dry wit reached the armored individual, who chuckled a bit. The sound clashed with the metallic, humanoid mask on the helmet, emotionless.
"Yep! That's what we intended for!"
The other one.
This new voice was less deep, but still, that of a man, and resonating too. Vergil glanced to the side.
What he saw was a way smaller and slimmer person than the one he looked at first, donning a near identical armor, but with many key differences.
"A warm welcome, be sure of it!"
The color of this armor was as white as the moon, to start with. Whereas the pulsating streaks were many in the other armor, and ran throughout the entirety of it, this armor had but two bright lines, running from the top of the helmet to the center of the gloved hands, where they spiraled. These lines also exuded a golden light, rather than violet.
The horns were, by far, the most noticeable distinction. They curled around the mask, reminiscent of those possessed by bighorn sheep, and these horns, although still black, had crimson stripes.
"I trust my Cerberus here treated you nicely."
"…my?" Vergil echoed, disbelieving.
The human — or what he assumed was a human beneath the armor — nodded, and whistled in a particular direction, clapping his hands. "C'mere, boy!"
Vergil glanced over there, right at the same moment Cerberus leaped past him, very close to his face. Their eyes met for a fraction of a second, and then the hellhound landed beside the human.
"I see you're okay. Were you having fun with him?"
Vergil watched how the lips of Cerberus curled up, showing its teeth as it looked at the one who called him. "I was. I could have played with him some more if you and that sack of worthless human blood refrained from coming—"
Cerberus could not finish his sentence.
The silvery boot that stomped brutally on the top of his head ensured that. The legs of Cerberus buckled immediately, and the snout of the creature hit the ground.
"Watch what you say, doggie. That's no way to refer to your superiors, is it?" the individual in the white armor questioned. "You, after all, answer to one of those worthless sacks of human blood, remember? You answer to me."
Cerberus growled and then whined as the spiked boot was rubbed on the head. The sight was pitiful to Vergil, who could only wonder… Why was the creature allowing this to happen, why wasn't it using any of the abilities it showed before to defend itself?
If the words of that human — and Cerberus had confirmed him to be one — were true, then it brought a whole new set of questions to mind. How could a Cerberus specimen yield to a human being?
Was it possible for a human to surpass the strength of even the cubs, and make them submit to his will? No! The very notion was ludicrous!
And yet…
"So please, don't do this again… Don't make me punish you. Do you like to be humiliated in front of your kind?"
The Cerberus was silent, still.
"That's what I thought…"
The human stepped off the little hellbeast. Cerberus rose again, shaking the head a few times. Green eyes landed on Vergil, and though the hellhound showed him the teeth, it did so with the head hanging low, ashamed.
Vergil did not let his gaze linger on the creature. He glanced at the human in the white armor, and his eyes found two golden lights, the eyes of the mask.
"All right, then!" he said, clapping hands together, nonchalantly. "Where were we?"
"The welcome," Vergil reminded. "Before you hurt your pet, you were talking about my welcome."
"Ah, yes. The welcome."
Vergil released the Yamato and aimed it swiftly at the human. His features under the hood went from indifferent to stern. "Yes. I wish to know who sent you here, and how you knew I was here."
The other human had stepped back when he saw the katana. The one he pointed it at did not move a single inch.
"Right! We don't wanna waste time, do we?" he said, arms folded, and index finger held up, as he shook it from side to side for added emphasis, and began to walk around Vergil as he continued, "If you wanna know so much… The student council of Honnoji Academy is responsible for our presence here, at this late hour."
"Yeah," the other human said, still wary of his sword, but gazing at Vergil intently. "Wasn't very nice of 'em to wake their students in the middle of midnight so we could go run an errand for 'em."
"No, no it wasn't…" The human — the student in the white armor yawned. Perhaps that was what made him fearless of his Yamato; the sleepiness a person woken in the middle of the night was bound to have.
(Or perhaps it was the dense, fiendish energy swirling inside that armor, much vaster than that of the other human.)
What kind of students were they?
"But we're here, aren't we? No point in complaining."
"Who is in charge of this student council?" Vergil questioned.
"The student council president, of course!" the human answered, as if it were obvious, and even spread his arms for added effect. "Who else would it be?"
"Hmph. You must be the class jester," Vergil sneered. He didn't like jesters. "Well done. Now tell me the name of this person, lest I cut your tongue with my sword."
The student in the white armor mock trembled, hands held up. "Uh, scary! Okay, okay, no need to be so aggressive… But really, I thought you would be more interested in knowing what that person ordered us to do once we found ya."
Vergil raised a brow. "Hmm?"
"You see, she's taken quite an interest in you. I dunno if it's because of your freaky nature, your freaky sword, your freaky demon-killing skills, or because she just has a freaky crush on ya and doesn't know how to express it nicely. It might be all four for all I know, or care," the student said, shrugging his shoulders. "But she wants us to take you to Honnoji Academy, in chains."
Vergil scoffed, pushing his chest out and tilting his head back, the perfect image of arrogance in the purest of forms.
"How preposterous. I refuse to be chained by anyone, let alone a pair of miserable humans at the service of a cowardly woman who does not come after me herself."
There was silence, for a moment.
Then…
"Ouch." The human in the jade armor winced, rubbing his shoulder as if in pain. "I felt that."
"How commendable, half-breed…" Cerberus praised, though begrudgingly so.
The human in the white armor snickered, and as he ceased circling Vergil, he spoke, "Well, the thing is, she knew you'd probably say something like that…"
The attack was sudden.
The attack was swift.
But still, Vergil intercepted it, and the hot bright specks that burst from the collision between his Yamato and the purple blade shone in front of his face.
"…which is why she sent us," the student in the white armor ended. "Have fun with him, Proto! I'll sit down and relax for a bit."
The student in the jade-colored armor, for his part, had moved toward Vergil in far less than the span of a blink. The energy blade colored purple had emerged from a cavity in the armor's left forearm section, and with it, he had slashed at him.
"So, you fools are my enemies." Vergil looked at those violet lights from the mask, while his hand kept a firm grip on the Yamato, blocking the path of the purple blade toward his face. "Do you truly believe you have what is required to face me, human?"
"I'm doin' it now, aren't I?"
Vergil only offered him a smirk.
The two swordsmen hopped away from each other the next second, swords pointed at each other, fearless of the battle to come.
"Proto, is it?" Vergil asked.
"That's my rank, the name of my armor, not my name. But ya can call me that if ya want."
When Vergil sent a sideways look to the one in the white armor, sitting on the grass beside Cerberus, Proto spoke again, "He's a Cavaliere, and he won't fight ya unless ya beat me first."
(Cavaliere, 'knight' in Italian. How strange, weren't they supposed to be Japanese? And Proto… Prototype, perhaps?)
"Are you sure you wish that?" Vergil was confident. "I care little if you have the advantage in numbers. The result will not be different, I assure you."
"…That's not how we fight." The Proto's right forearm released a second energy blade. "We wanna play fair and all that, ya know."
"Hmph. Suit yourself." Honorable, certainly.
He held his Yamato forward and held the scabbard to the side.
To be honest, Vergil was intrigued and eager. He had many unanswered questions, but at the very least, he would be able to find the answer to one of them, right here, right now…
(How proficient were those armors in battle?)
"Shall we begin?"
The Proto dashed toward him, blades put together in an x.
And from afar, the Cavaliere student watched as the combat officially began, beside Cerberus, who had a bored gleam in his eyes.
"Who do you think will win, pup?" he asked the hellhound, who merely looked away. "Don't care, eh? That's fine. At least you aren't forced to watch. I wouldn't mind taking a nap…"
The Cavaliere brought a finger to the right side of his helmet and clicked a tiny button there. The lights his mask had for eyes flickered twice, and then…
"It's me. We've found him."
Cerberus looked at the Cavaliere. "The council?"
The Cavaliere nodded.
"I'll share my view."
The Cavaliere pressed a button on the forehead, between his horns. The lights brightened, and he kept them set on the battle between Vergil and the Proto student.
"There. Enjoy."
The combat was nothing short of turbulent.
The Proto advanced toward Vergil using a downward slash, an attack that was effortlessly parried away with the Yamato's edge, and brutally enough to lift the Proto off the ground as the force behind the parry pushed him back.
He wasn't willing to relent. As soon as one of his feet touched the cold, wet grass again, he hopped at Vergil, blades ready for a stab. This was only a feint, however, for he spun mid-air at the last moment, performing a flipping overhead kick.
A kick that Vergil intercepted with the scabbard.
"Nice reflexes!" the Proto praised, using the scabbard as a platform to leap over and past Vergil. He landed behind him on a crouch and slashed at his legs.
A glimpse of Vergil's true speed was showcased when he hopped over the blade, performing a backflip. It was mid-flip that he stabbed down with the Yamato, inserting the tip of the katana into the ground.
And by doing that, bringing the slash performed by the Proto to a sudden stop, right under him.
Then, his boots were lit a purple color when he landed over the energy blade, used it…
…as a platform.
It all happened in less than a second.
The Proto locked eyes with Vergil, for a silent, tense moment, and got to see the gleaming blue under that hood of his, a message sent through the window to the soul.
Is that all?
The Proto pulled back the left arm, the one with the blade Vergil stood over, retracting the blade, and performed a one-handed handstand kick headed to Vergil's chin.
The latter kept himself above by holding onto the Yamato's handle, supporting his full body weight with one hand. He lifted a knee close to the chest and blocked the kick with the heel of his boot.
Dammit, the Proto cursed, inward. Thought I had him…
The Proto pushed himself off Vergil's boot, rolling away from him. Vergil pulled the Yamato out from where he placed it and landed on his feet at about the same moment the Proto rose back to his full height.
And even though the Proto was a tad bit taller, Vergil still looked at him over the shoulder.
"He is performing too well. Are you certain you sent the best Proto student available?"
"Yes, my Lady. This Proto student is the one with the most kills in the academy, with a total count of two hundred ninety-eight demons slain by him and him alone."
"…Very well."
The Proto sprinted after Vergil.
He pretended to stab a forward with the blade of his right forearm, and when Vergil parried the thrust, he used the pushback in the parry to spin forward with a backhand punch using his left hand.
Vergil stopped the punch with the scabbard, but as soon as he did, the Proto released the blade again, and it stretched to Vergil's shoulder, too fast, too close.
And yet, when the Proto spared less than a second to blink, he opened his eyes to see Vergil had stepped to the side and was still unharmed.
No way.
The speed at which the energy blades were drawn out and in, was so much it took only a nanosecond for them to do so.
The blade should have been unavoidable at such close range.
The Proto saw Vergil move the hand with the Yamato, a slight, near unperceivable moment. But it was enough to send alarms inside his mind, and he found himself skipping away from him.
In the end, Vergil did not attack.
He sheathed his sword, freeing his right hand from the Yamato. He, then, beckoned at the Proto to come at him.
"Why are you putting it away?" the Proto questioned, pointing at his katana.
"…I was testing the waters," Vergil said, coolly, while burying the Yamato's tip into the ground again. "I realized the edge of my sword was not needed."
Something snapped inside the Proto's head.
It made him dash forward to Vergil, jump at the last moment, and attack him overhead, falling with a slash of his two blades.
Vergil hopped backward, and as soon as the Proto landed, the latter kicked his Yamato away, back at him. "Don't get so cocky! You've seen nothin' of what I can do!"
"I have seen enough."
Vergil caught the Yamato, twirled it around his hand, and tossed it high to the sky, spinning, reaching the darkened clouds above and piercing through them.
The Proto rushed in a zigzag to him and thrust from the right. Vergil avoided the blade by moving the head to the side, and caught it in his hand, his fingerless glove.
He shoved the Proto away, but this did not deter him from continuing the attack.
"He is at ease…"
The Cavaliere chuckled. "Look at that Proto. He's getting mad already, and the demon boy hasn't even attacked yet."
"One."
The Cavaliere looked at Cerberus, who kept his eyes on the rapid stabs performed by the Proto student, all easily dodged by Vergil. "What do ya mean?"
"One attack from your demon boy, and this sorry excuse of a fight will be over," Cerberus affirmed. "I can smell it."
The Cavaliere blinked, eyes returning to the battle.
The Proto stepped away from Vergil and performed a horizontal slash. A massive crescent-shaped wave erupted from the energy blade, right as he performed a vertical slash, releasing another wave.
Vergil stood still as the waves approached him.
The Proto did not.
He sprinted, so fast that he faded in and out of view as he did, gathering energy for his blades. He appeared in front of the initial wave, absorbed it into his right blade, and then moved behind Vergil, who looked back, unfazed.
The Proto did a diagonal twin slash, releasing a vast burst of purple demonic power that threatened to engulf Vergil. The latter stepped away.
But the second wave, the one the Proto did not absorb, was still heading to him.
Vergil was caught between the wide release of energy and the vertical crescent wave made of this same energy.
Or so it appeared.
"So that's what you want…"
Vergil leaped above both attacks, whirled in the air, and caught the Proto — who had leaped after him — mid-stab, with his hand.
"I easily lay fingers on your blade again."
Vergil spun in the air, spinning the Proto along with him. He tossed the Proto away, back to the soil.
"Not done yet!" the Proto shouted as he fell and released another wave of demonic power.
What Vergil did was a simple scissor kick.
A scissor kick that deflected the wave to the sky, cutting through droplets.
The wave exploded into smaller waves, all of which descended toward the falling Vergil.
Vergil would not have it.
He clapped his hands together, hard. This produced a violent shockwave that reached all the crescents in the sky and devoured them, along with the raindrops in the area, momentarily stopping the rain.
He landed gracefully, while the Proto could only stare. "…This guy…"
Vergil rose from his crouch.
"Is that how you wield the demonic power inside that armor?" he questioned. "You have disappointed me, human."
"Disappointed…?" The Proto growled upon hearing his fighting skill be insulted. His legs tensed, preparing for another dash. "Don't underestimate me—"
Vergil vanished from view.
"I'm afraid you make that utterly impossible."
The voice came from behind.
The Proto spun around.
…and he fell to his knees as he did so.
From afar, the two lights the Cavaliere had for eyes narrowed. "What the…?"
Cerberus scoffed. "As I predicted."
The Proto grunted.
His mask cracked, and the entirety of his armor followed.
What's happenin' to me?
Then, the sound of fractures reached everyone's ears.
"SHIT!" the Proto hissed, feeling the bones in his legs, his arms, and his chest shatter, a piercing sensation that brought the urge to scream his lungs out. "What the hell…?! What happened?!"
And Vergil, for his part, smirked.
"So, you didn't see."
"See?!"
"That is the difference between you and me, the gap that separates us as warriors. Where I can see all your moves and react accordingly…" Vergil paused.
The right horn on the Proto's helmet was torn apart. The pieces hit the wet soil, along with an azure substance that stained it.
"…I remain unseen by you. Therefore, you are hopelessly vulnerable to me as soon as I go on the offensive."
As he said this, Vergil held a hand forward, palm facing the ground, and opened it. A fragment of the broken horn fell from it and joined the other pieces in the wet grass.
The Proto could only stare at it.
Vergil turned away from him. "I have had enough of you. Do not try to stand up. You won't be able to. Your two tibia bones are pulverized, and the femur bones are no better."
"Dammit…!" the Proto shouted, finding himself paralyzed by the intense pain. "Dammit, dammit…!"
"And even if you somehow forced yourself up, your two humerus bones were split in two, and your sternum is damaged. You cannot strike me," Vergil added. "And should I strike you the way you are now, you would not survive."
The Proto tried to bring a hand to his chest, right as he collapsed, the pain in his upper legs too much to bear his weight any longer. He bit back a scream, but it still came out choked.
"You provided me with a little entertainment, human, but it's over now. You have lost."
"…Damn you…" was all the Proto could muster.
Then, he chuckled a resigned, pained chuckle. "A little entertainment, eh…? Yeah, right… You were toyin' with me all this time… I never had a chance, did I…?"
Vergil was direct and blunt.
"No."
"…Welp, nothin' to do about it now…" the Proto breathed, slowly falling out of consciousness. "Ya are somethin' else…"
And with that, the intense pain finally made him pass out, right at the same time the raindrops started to fall again.
At that moment, the Yamato fell from the sky, drenched in water. Vergil caught it with one hand and looked at it, then at his defeated opponent.
Hmph. He is already beaten. I doubt he will survive the internal bleeding, anyway…
Vergil glanced away from him, glanced at the Cavaliere, and aimed his katana at him.
This time, he saw the Cavaliere tense, unlike the last time he threatened him with the Yamato.
"Your companion is finished. Will you step in and attempt to avenge his defeat, or will you stay still as I make my way to the top of this island, unchained and unharmed?" Vergil questioned in an open provocation.
The Cavaliere snorted in return.
"Not happening, pal."
The Cavaliere snapped his fingers.
Vergil's eyes burst open when he saw the sudden storm of ice approach from behind the Cavaliere and Cerberus, engulfing the park at a frightening pace.
His natural resistance to cold temperatures was what made him avoid the fate the entire park suffered in less than five seconds, a total congelation. The cold, however, was still uncomfortable, and the storm pushed him back somewhat.
When the storm was over…
"A dome…" Vergil said, and the cold cloud that formed as he spoke was clearer and denser than ever.
The Cavaliere sniggered, "Just like Pingu's house, ain't it?"
The park was covered by a round ice barrier, which started at the sidewalks and reached the supreme apex at the center. Inside, the soil was fully overtaken by the relentless cold, leaving a polar desert where green grass and trees once existed.
Vergil glanced to the side, noticing the body of the Proto below. The ice had crawled up his legs and arms but somehow did not reach the center of his body or his face.
The ice, too, failed to reach Vergil's boots.
"Well, what'd you think about it, demon boy?"
Vergil's attention returned to the Cavaliere.
"The ability to change the environment like this, and it's all thanks to man's best friend here!" the Cavaliere affirmed, crouching to pet Cerberus on the head, pinching his ears. A snarl crossed the snout of the hellhound, but it refrained from uttering anything.
"He used it against me before, but weaker," Vergil said, more to himself than to the Cavaliere. Was the little beast holding back with me?
"He can't release his full potential without me around."
The Cavaliere tapped his armor.
"He belongs to me."
The hellhound growled, but again, did not say anything.
Vergil did not waste this opportunity to taunt it, "You must be ashamed, creature. To belong to the potent Cerberus tribe, and yield to a mere human being…"
The green eyes of Cerberus burned with murderous intent. The creature leaped after Vergil, roaring, "I WILL END YOU!"
But Cerberus was stopped in its tracks by the sudden manifestation of an ice leash around its neck and fell on its back as a result.
This leash was connected to the chains coming from the right forearm of the Cavaliere, and as if the hellhound had not been humiliated enough, punished, and reduced to a weapon someone owned, the Cavaliere dragged Cerberus back to him.
"Easy! Easy!"
Vergil thought Cerberus would struggle with the chains, but the beast remained still instead, clearly resigned. Either it lacked the will to fight for its life and dignity, or it had tried too many times before and failed to escape, and so did not bother to try again.
"You've gotta be at ease, Cerberus! There's no need to rush forward alone…" the Cavaliere said, trying to sound soothing, but with clear mockery behind it. "You saw what he did to the Proto. You want him to do that to you too?"
The Cavaliere dragged Cerberus to his feet and held it up by the tail, shaking it around.
"Well, do you want that?"
"…Will you cease this humiliating display and do something of value, human?" Cerberus questioned, looking at the one who owned it in the eye. "You accomplish little. You have an order from the higher-ups, who, I remind you, are currently watching all of this, so why are you not carrying your task out?"
The taunt was there, subtle, and showered in what would appear to be a merely cold remark.
"What are you even talking about, mutt? I was gonna—
But Cerberus was on a roll. "Has demon boy's short showcase of power and skill inspired so much fear within your heart that you resort to avoiding the duty that you shoulder, setting the attention upon me and my shame? I can only wonder… With how cowardly your kind tends to be—"
"All right, that's it."
Vergil smiled a little, amused smile when the Cavaliere struck Cerberus in the stomach with a hook, sending the beast to the frozen soil, and making it crack a bit.
It seems this Cerberus youngling has not been fully tamed…
The Cavaliere grabbed the Cerberus by the snout, holding the hellhound at face height. There was no repressed venom in the words he uttered next, "You wanna fight him that bad, eh?"
As soon as he was done saying this, the Cavaliere closed his right hand into a fist.
He proceeded to punch through Cerberus.
This, genuinely, caught Vergil off-guard. He narrowed his eyes as he observed the bloodstained hand coming out the back of Cerberus, and watched as the creature coughed its own blood out.
"Then we'll fight him!" the Cavaliere exclaimed.
The blood staining the armor's glove began to seep into the streaks of glowing gold running across the right arm of the Cavaliere, filling it with crimson.
The Cavaliere introduced his other hand in the hole he punched through the chest of Cerberus.
Then he ripped the hellhound in two and let the blood shower his armor.
"About time…" Vergil heard faintly inside his head.
The two Cerberus halves became writhing masses of flesh, red flesh that adhered to the Cavaliere's arms, rapidly absorbed by the golden streaks, flowing into them, filling them until they reached the helmet.
When the armor was done sucking the biomass in, the Cavaliere stood still, for a moment.
He stared at Vergil.
"You ready, demon boy?"
The streaks filled with crimson pulsated, once.
Various parts of the armor cracked at the same time, such as the gloves, the boots, the kneepads, and the helmet.
And when they broke down, the pieces faded to dust, rather than hitting the ground.
A burst of fiendish power produced a shine brighter than that of the sun, a light that engulfed the Cavaliere for a total of five seconds.
Once the seconds elapsed, this light faded immediately, and what Vergil saw could only be described as a humanoid, canid hellbeast.
"Because I know I AM!"
Vergil stared at the monster, befuddled.
The first thing that stood out to him was the deathly pale skin it had, full of blue veins.
The second things that stood out to him were those scarlet eyes devoid of pupils that it had.
"What…"
He looked at the sharp ice shards the monster had for hair, for teeth, for nails — or claws. He looked at the bent, naked feet of the creature, the feet of a dog. He looked at the pointy ears it had, resembling those of Cerberus.
"…what form of power is this?" Vergil questioned, greatly surprised, and intrigued. He could sense so much more demonic energy coming from this opponent than he sensed in the Cavaliere and the Proto, or even Cerberus.
"This…?"
The abnormal creature looked at its hand, opening it and closing it, turning it to look at the streaks running through its arm, now pulsating blue.
It closed its hand in the end, grinning like a kid eager to play with his favorite toy.
"This is the power of a Cavaliere armor, pal!"
The ice beast punched the ground.
And Vergil leaped, right before the entire park was filled with massive ice spikes coming from under.
He unsheathed the Yamato, stabbed the dome's ceiling, and held on to the inserted katana. His gaze roamed below, and the spike-infested area looked back at him.
He recalled Cerberus using such a move, too, though far weaker; the hellhound had only summoned one spike against him.
But now? Now the only spot that didn't have a spike rising from below was the spot where the ice beast stood, looking at him with folded arms and a confident smirk. Vergil's eyes drifted, momentarily, to the Proto student, and the bloodied spike coming out his back.
They didn't linger long on that corpse, however.
The ice beast roared and launched itself toward him. Vergil readied his scabbard to block any attack.
But then…
The hands of the ice beast gathered energy from the extremely cold environment, and the creature brought these hands together, wide open, and aimed them at Vergil.
"ABSOLUTE ZERO!"
A cerulean beam erupted from the hands.
Vergil tried to deflect it with his scabbard.
His eyes were filled with shock when he saw the ice beam bypass the tip of his scabbard, freezing. The sheath!
Vergil did not waste time. He pulled himself up and jumped off the dome's ceiling, taking the Yamato with him. He landed on the dome's wall and inserted the Yamato firmly into it, holding onto the katana.
He spared a second to look at his scabbard.
(Under normal circumstances, extreme temperatures did not hurt him, and since his demonic aura subconsciously enveloped his tools and clothes, it did not affect them either…)
But absolute zero temperatures were not normal, and if he had remained on the ceiling, he had no doubts about it; he would have been frozen by the beam.
The ice beast laughed from above. Vergil looked at it, as it walked with a lazy gait over the ceiling, upside down. "Well, look at that! You did well in dodging that at the last possible moment!"
"I need not your praise, unusual creature. Are you Cavaliere, Cerberus, or a new entity altogether?" he questioned, and the beast laughed.
"That ugly, huh? Not my best look, I know," it said, nodding its head in acceptance. "But believe me, I'm the same Cavaliere student you saw before."
The beast — no, Cavaliere leaped at him.
Vergil tossed the scabbard to his opponent, and the speed at which the tool was thrown was so high it produced a sonic boom.
But the Cavaliere caught it between his two beastly hands, whirled mid-air, and tossed it back at him. "THINK THIS IS YOURS!"
(As expected, Cerberus could already react to his basic moves; this Cavaliere, who was stronger, should have no problem doing it either.)
Perhaps he could try a bit harder.
Time seemed to slow down as Vergil pulled the Yamato from the wall, and thrust it at the scabbard, letting the Yamato enter the sheath. The force behind the toss pushed Vergil to the wall, but he used this to his advantage, touching the wall with his two feet, and bringing his hand to the sheathed Yamato.
He drew the sword with inhuman strength.
The Cavaliere's ice claws headed to his throat and met his sword instead. The Cavaliere was knocked away by the clash, and Vergil jumped after it.
"You wanna play follow the leader now? And here I thought you'd be passively dodging and blocking all my attacks!" the Cavaliere shouted, falling, and yet aiming a hand at him, in a knife-hand pose. "But I won't make it easy for you!"
The five claws on the hand were fired at Vergil, no longer claws but sharp ice projectiles. These projectiles were each divided in three and homed in on him like heat-seeking missiles. "Have fun with those!"
Oh, I will.
Vergil twirled the Yamato around his index finger.
His katana could have very well been called an ice crusher at that moment, for it reduced the projectiles to nothing but minuscule, useless fragments.
"Well, I'll be damned," the Cavaliere said, flatly. "Ah, whatever, I have bigger ones down here!"
In a sharp movement, the Cavaliere aimed a hand at Vergil, who was falling to him.
And as soon as he did so, all the spikes under them arose from the ground and soared to Vergil, spinning like drills.
The Cavaliere looked at him with maniacal glee inside his eyes, as spikes passed him by, and he landed on the frozen ground. "DESTROY THOSE IF YOU CAN, GAHAHAHA!"
The Cavaliere lost the gleam in his eyes as soon as he saw Vergil sheath his Yamato, take a deep breath, and…
...Judgement Cut.
"BEGONE!"
The spikes were all shrouded by dark blue, spherical distortions, one after another.
These distortions were filled by countless cuts, in the span of a heartbeat.
The Cavaliere watched as Vergil landed on a crouch, followed by an avalanche of harmless ice specks, what remained of once colossal spikes.
"What the actual living fuck was—"
Vergil teleported right in front of him.
The Cavaliere raised an arm on instinct.
SLASH!
"…This Cavaliere student is the strongest there is at the moment, am I correct?"
"Yes. My Lady. He has four hundred-two kills and has been able to wield the power of the Cerberus Cavaliere without noteworthy side effects. Among the Cavaliere ranks—"
"He has lost a limb."
The Cavaliere stepped back, clutching his right side with his left hand.
Vergil shook the blood off the Yamato, at about the same time a semi-armored arm fell not too far from them, bouncing once.
"Perhaps I moved too fast even for you," Vergil mused, recalling how Cerberus had reacted in time to his moves and used a type of ice armor to defend from him. "Or perhaps you and your pet do not share reaction speed."
The blood spilled out of the severed arm, staining the ice floor.
The blood spilled out of the Cavaliere's right side, as he fought against the urge to scream.
"Perhaps, you simply did not have the idea to use that, too startled to do anything but raise your arm like a total fool," Vergil added, while ice armor formed around the area where the arm had once been, covering it to stop the intense bleeding.
"Shut up…"
The Cavaliere's eyes were filled with pain, but more than that, hate.
The ice armor gathered to form a new arm, a copy of the original.
The Cavaliere stood on all fours and lunged at Vergil. "SHUT UP!"
Vergil leaped over and past the Cavaliere, who had attempted to bite him.
A tail burst suddenly from the back part of the Cavaliere's armor, a tail with an ice dagger that swiped at Vergil, who…
…who caught the tail in his hand and pulled the Cavaliere up.
The Cavaliere whirled, brought open hands together, and roared. This time he did not even bother to say the name of the Absolute Zero beam that erupted from his hands.
Vergil teleported down, speed increasing as he focused more and more, as the urge to kill increased within. Doing that Judgement Cut had made him realize how nice it felt to cut loose a bit.
He teleported under Cavaliere and slashed upward.
This time, the Cavaliere utilized the ice armor as he was supposed to, protecting his back as he moved to bite Vergil. "YOU'RE MINE—"
But Vergil vanished from the ice floor.
The Cavaliere's arms, both the ice one and the one made of flesh, were torn to pieces. This time, the Cavaliere released a horrible howl.
"The demonic power inside him is fluctuating…"
"Hmm…"
"NO! NO!"
The Cavaliere brought forth two arms made of ice, ignoring the messy, sliced mass of armor and flesh below.
The Cavaliere's eyes darted around frantically. "Where are you?!"
"Here."
The Cavaliere was struck on the top of his head with the Yamato's scabbard. The attack shattered all the ice shards he had for hair and caused his face to slam against the ice floor, cracking it.
And Vergil stood on the Cavaliere's back.
"Is this even a fight anymore?"
"ENOUGH!"
Ice shards burst out the Cavaliere's skin, but they failed to reach Vergil. As soon as the Cavaliere stood up, Vergil teleported in front of him, sheathed his sword, grabbed him by the head, and tossed him high.
The Cavaliere's body pierced through the ceiling of the dome, and the raindrops washed over his skin as the storm outside raged on.
The Cavaliere looked down, and when he saw Vergil ascending toward him, he snarled and closed his hands.
The raindrops all froze, transformed into projectiles, and were aimed at Vergil. "I SAID, ENO—"
All the raindrops exploded into pieces.
Vergil sheathed his Yamato, and with his free hand, grabbed the Cavaliere from the face, whirled mid-air, and descended headfirst.
They entered the dome through the same hole they exited, and Vergil slammed the Cavaliere's head against the ice floor.
The impact was so brutal the ice floor was broken, and the ice dome crumbled over the park.
"…Is it over?"
"…Not yet."
"…It's over."
Vergil rose to his full height, amidst the ruins of the ice dome. He looked around to see the results of his actions, the ice shattered everywhere, and the frozen floor destroyed, the place where a park once existed, where nothing remained of it, a shattered landscape.
Did he truly believe I would be caged by that igloo…?
He smiled.
Vergil spared a glance to the Cavaliere, who lay on broken ice, armless, and defeated.
"I supposed you would be able to contest my skills somewhat, but as soon as I tried harder, you broke the same way your companion did. You require more than raw power to overcome me."
He turned around.
"At least you proved to be a decent punchbag."
With that said, Vergil walked away.
Or at least, intended to.
"This isn't over…"
As it turned out, Vergil had an idea.
The Cavaliere created an ice arm, trying to stand up.
"I'm not…done…I—"
Vergil spun on his heel, sword unsheathed, and lunged at the Cavaliere.
He stabbed him in the chest.
"GAH!"
The Cavaliere brought his ice hand to the katana piercing his body, choking in his blood. The ice arm, then, crumbled.
The next thing that happened was the division, between the demon and the human.
The lines running through the arms of the armor turned crimson, and blood spilled out of them rapidly. Vergil retired his sword, sheathed it, and observed the show.
The blood stained the ground, and gathered up in a particular spot, forming an unrecognizable mass of swirling flesh.
This mass soon took the shape of a corpulent canid. The semi-solid snout opened, revealing yellow teeth, sharp and eager to rip apart. It was when bright eyes colored green opened behind the snout that the mass became fully solid.
Cerberus shook the blood covering its body and looked around.
"What in the burning blazes of Hell…?"
The hellhound's eyes landed on Vergil, and the creature barked, "You! I shall kill…"
Cerberus noticed something, from the corner of the eye.
"…you?"
When Cerberus looked at what it noticed, it was struck by both recognition and confusion.
"C-Cerberus…"
A human lay on the ground, a brown-haired human, with human skin, human hands, human feet, human everything. The being that Vergil destroyed was no more, and his injuries had healed when he was separated from the hell beast.
The only thing that remained of such a warrior was the Cavaliere armor this trembling human wore, but the golden shine it had in the arms was gone, completely.
"H-Help me, Cerberus!" the human ordered, though it came out more like a plea. "I-I'm freezing here…! T-Take me to Honnoji Academy!"
Cerberus blinked.
Then, it glanced at Vergil, face unreadable.
"You are responsible for this?"
"I merely wished to see the Cavaliere for what he truly is," Vergil stated, coolly. "And continue my fight with the only semblance of a competent warrior here, of course."
"Continue?" Cerberus echoed.
At that moment, an intense sensation coursed through Cerberus, who closed its eyes as monstrous ice waves gathered around him.
"M-My power…"
And then…
Cerberus laughed.
"My power!" it roared, exhilarated, as the temperatures dropped brutally. "It comes back to me! All of it! I can feel it!"
"Cerberus! Stop! It's too c-cold!"
The human held out a hand towards the hellhound; an ice leash formed around the neck of Cerberus, connected with chains to the forearm of the Cavaliere armor…
…only to shatter.
"W-What?!" the human cried.
"I AM FREE! FREE AT LAST!" Cerberus howled, and rays of ice erupted from its snout, reaching, and piercing the heavens, illuminating the clouds as if they were lightning. "I AM WHOLE!"
While the human watched fear-stricken how the Cerberus cub celebrated, Vergil did so with anticipation.
The hellhound's eyes darted to the latter.
"I do not know how you did it, and I am not certain if I care. But you have released me from my shackles. Do you know what that means?"
Vergil raised a brow, interested. "Enlighten me."
"It means I am free to do as I want now, to use my abilities for my purposes, without having to submit to the will of anyone!"
Cerberus roared again.
Vergil drew his sword out. "I remind you, Cerberus, I did not do this for free."
The hellhound looked at him, then at the human, then at the Proto student, whose lower body was crushed by a colossal piece of ice… And laughed.
"I suppose these humans were an immense letdown if you freed me so we could resume our battle."
"Precisely."
Cerberus took a step forward...
"Very well."
…but not towards Vergil.
"But first…"
The hellhound looked at the human on the ground, eyes burning with murderous intent.
"…a warm-up."
"N-No… NO!"
Vergil sheathed his sword. "I will not wait for long. Be done with this as soon as possible."
The human tried to stand up.
But his feet were encased in ice and kept him glued to the ground.
"Wait, Cerberus!" the human shouted, shaking both from the cold and the fear, pleas growing more desperate. "STOP THIS! HEAR ME!"
"And just what could you say that would be of interest to me?" Cerberus inquired, amused. "Look at you, unable to be in my presence without shaking. There is no reason for me to hear your words. I would rather…"
Cerberus leaped and landed on top of the human. His heavy paw broke the ribs of the human, who let out a bloodcurdling cry.
"CERBERUS! PL—
"I WOULD RATHER HEAR YOUR SCREAMS!"
And voracious, Cerberus sunk the snout into the stomach of the human, biting and biting and biting non-stop, through the armor, through the flesh. His paws crushed the legs of the human, who shrieked, who screamed, who wailed in pain and horror and futilely attempted to push away the hellhound that devoured his flesh, devoured his intestines, his liver, pancreas…
Cerberus made a banquet with his stomach, but that was not enough. As soon as it was finished with it, the hellhound went after the chest and continued with what was its dinner.
It did not stop, not even when the man was reduced to a convulsing, squirming mass, that coughed out blood helplessly as the hellhound swallowed his lungs, as it toyed with the bones of his ribcage, and bit them off, as it chewed on the heart.
The execution, dinner, whatever one could call it, ended after two minutes or so, and Cerberus stepped off the prey who had once owned it, proud and sated, at least where revenge was concerned.
The hellhound looked at the lifeless eyes of the human, who died staring into space, an eternal look of horror on his face.
Cerberus rejoiced at the sight, but it rejoiced, even more, when it crushed the head with the paw, with cranium and brains.
"You will not be missed, lowly creature."
And then, Cerberus looked at Vergil, with red staining its mouth. The murderous gleam in its green eyes disappeared, replaced by one Vergil remembered from when they had first seen each other.
Curiosity.
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Vergil questioned, clutching the handle of his katana.
The ears of Cerberus lowered.
"I will not fight you."
Vergil narrowed his eyes. "What?"
"Now, I did not say I will never do so, half-breed," the hellhound clarified, noticing the fire of anger show in Vergil's shadowed face. "I will come back for you, someday, and we will finish what we started. You have somewhere else to be right now, do you not?"
As it said this, Cerberus gestured above, to the top of the city.
"You have my sincerest gratitude for freeing me, and I wish to enjoy that freedom for a while. Besides, the ones who are up there are far stronger than me," the hellhound affirmed, sounding rather ashamed.
"How do I know you are not lying so you can escape from me?" Vergil questioned, provoking Cerberus to spin around and snarl at him.
"You think me a coward?!" the hellhound growled. "The ones who are up there are the ones who captured me, who bound me to the armor of this — this weakling!"
It looked at the dead human as it said this, and then at Vergil.
"As I said, I will fight you. But not today."
Vergil stared the creature down.
And the creature was not intimidated.
After a bit of considering it, Vergil let go of his Yamato.
"You will return to me, and we will end what we started," he said, sternly.
"That is exactly what I said."
Cerberus turned around and began to walk away.
"Until then…"
But Vergil spoke again.
"Cerberus."
The hellhound looked back at him.
"Those humans who wielded demon power…" Vergil started. "How did they know I was here?"
Cerberus blinked.
"Follow me."
"…My Lady?"
"…He has exceeded my expectations…"
Vergil looked at the apartment complex without understanding what was so interesting about it.
When Cerberus sent a small ice ray at it, and something fell to the ground, he realized why.
A device, once invisible, became visible as soon as it hit the concrete sidewalk.
"That is a sensor. It senses demonic presences within the confines of this city. It aids the council in keeping track of the demons they release every night and lets them know if one enters from outside."
"I never thought human technology could be used for that…" Vergil said, bringing a hand to his chin, frowning as he looked at the ball-shaped, black-colored device, and the red light it had in the middle.
"It should not be. This was not built by a human, and they have them all over the city."
"…Inumuta."
"Yes, my Lady?"
"Wake the other three elites."
"That is a surveillance camera, and they only have them in this district and the one above it."
"I know what it is, and I know what it works for," Vergil said, looking at the broken lenses of the device, once invisible too. "What I don't understand is why are these found only in the upper areas as you say."
"The slums are beneath the notice of the higher-ups, or so I have heard. There are no cameras down there because the ones who are there do not deserve to be watched," Cerberus stated, walking past the damaged camera. "They are irrelevant."
"Do you intend to…"
"Yes."
"…I see."
Cerberus looked at Vergil, one last time.
"You might have been unchallenged here, but you better not lower your guard up there, half-breed," the hellhound stated. "Do not underestimate the humans who are at the top."
Vergil scoffed. "Humans will not defeat me. It is impossible. Whether they wield demon power or not, a human is…"
"…still a human. Yes. That is what I thought, right before they caged me," Cerberus replied.
"Your fate will not be mine; I assure you," Vergil countered, confident.
And Cerberus smiled, smiled a frightening smile no dog should have been able to perform.
"That is yet to be seen."
…
…Cerberus left, and to where, Vergil did not know. The navy-blue hellhound who controlled ice disappeared into the cold night.
But the beast was not the focus of Vergil's mind now, not after it left. It would return, he knew, for the Cerberus tribe was among the proudest in all of Hell, and if they hated something, it was to leave a fight unfinished.
So, he kept rising.
He had abandoned the district where his fight with the Proto and Cavaliere students took place. He had left the memories of battles fought behind, and looked forward to those that were to come.
So, he kept rising.
He passed through the district above the one where he fought the members of Honnoji Academy, though he did not let his gaze linger on it, on the ridiculously luxurious houses and rich neighborhoods there. Contrary to what he expected, however, there were no demons in this part of the city.
He kept rising and rising.
And by the time he reached the top of the city, the rain had stopped, and the night sky had begun to clear.
He stood in front of a massive entrance, the entrance to Honnoji Academy.
Let me see.
And stepped forward, ready to confront whoever had challenged him.
Author's Note:
Phew! The longest chapter by far!
Quick question: Which is better, "Roar, Roar, Roar!" or "Suffer"?
Happy Christmas, everyone! It's been a while, but I'm back. To those who have been following this story and waiting for an update, this is my gift to you. Thanks for reading! And to my reviewers…
-Gwynx: Your praise is appreciated! I'll try to keep it up.
-Monstrr: You make a good point there! The strength of the canon Kill la Kill verse is below that of the Devil May Cry characters, especially the Sons of Sparda. So, I made some changes to the former series, kinda went through the AU route rather than the conventional crossover, and what I got was… This. Don't worry! Dante and Vergil will have more than enough competition in this story.
-spookyfool: I try not to think of what I write as well-written. I usually just go with what my gut tells me is right. This is the first story I had the guts to post though, so your opinion means a lot to me. And relax! I won't abandon this fic! We are only getting started.
-Null: Your extensive comment about chapter three made me happy, and you have my sincerest gratitude for it. I count exactly 458 words in your last review and believe me when I say I couldn't believe it at first. Can my amateur story draw someone in so well to make them write an extensive comment almost as long as the first chapter, and fill the review box with expectations, theories, and praise altogether, all in the name of telling me that they want more? Ha! As if! And yet you proved me wrong.
Well, that's all for today! The next chapter "Devil Trigger" is in the works and should be finished soon. With some luck, it'll be posted on New Year's Eve. Until next time!