Author's note: We're back. Couple of things: this is a shortish chapter. As you've all noticed, we're actually running multiple story threads at once. While the most obvious thing in the story has been Dante doing Dante things, I've been setting up a bunch of other character relationships, progression and storylines at the same time. And I'm not even done setting them all up. This chapter will be setting another one of them up. It is sort of cool to be able to write DMC characters other than Dante, even if they are OCs. I have a general idea for the backstory and lore of each member of the Council of Five, and getting to expand on one of them here was fun. It's also cool to be able to write RWBY characters in situations that didn't/won't happen in RWBY. Anyway, I'm rambling. I'll get right to the chapter.

Chapter 21: The Violent Queen and Her Squire

Hoperow, Vale:

Valkyrie arched back slightly, working off some of the stiffness that had settled in. She uttered a noise somewhere between a sigh and a grunt. She was bored beyond comprehension. The natural consequence of boredom for any intelligent organism is to search for a way to dispel it. For demons, this meant embracing their natural instincts. In other words, to seek out prey, slay them, and assert dominance over a territory. Once no one in that territory remained to challenge their power, boredom would come again, and the cycle would repeat. As a named demon, Valkyrie had been the leader of her kind. It was not she who had been named after them, rather, it was the other way around.

Ten thousand years ago, in a tribe of exclusively female warriors, an individual had been born with outstanding strength and combat prowess. While none of the other members of the tribe had ever possessed the will or power to obtain names for themselves, it was clear that this individual was not like them. Quickly defeating her peers, she ventured out into the vast wilderness of the Demon World, seeking stronger opponents. Soon, word spread of a ferocious warrior with four arms, wielding a massive sword that cut through metal and flesh alike with absurd ease. Leading the rest of her tribe, she went on a warpath, conquering land after land. With each foe she cut down, each drop of blood her blade drank, her infamy grew. Yet, she knew no peace. The yearning in her soul remained, for something she did not even know. Eventually, her path led her to the Frozen Hell, Cocytus. As they passed through the lake of ice, cold death claimed her followers one by one.

In the mountains beyond Cocytus, she encountered the one-eyed god who ruled that land. And for the first time in her existence, she knew she was outmatched. Though resembling an old man, every inch of the ancient god radiated power beyond anything she had imagined possible, enough to rival even a Demon King. While her instincts had urged her to turn her back and run, she had refused, and stood her ground. She fought bravely, her zweihander cleaving through many wolves and shaking the very mountains themselves. Yet, against the one-eyed god, no victory was to be had. When she swung, he was never in the path of her blade, as though he knew every move she would ever make. When he thrust, his spear never missed, piercing flesh and bone alike with unerring and terrifying accuracy. Eventually, even her demonic regeneration reached its limit, and she was brought to the brink of death in the most excruciating way possible: a million stabs.

"Kill me now, and be done with it. I will never bow."

To her surprise, the old man had refused to finish her.

"The time of your death has not yet come. You will live, and many a battlefield will know your terror. Mad queen of war, Valkyrie I name you. The circle of killing and death will not end for you, not until you have found your purpose."

A Demon's true power lay in its name. Most never gained one, and thus, they would forever remain mindless beasts, even if they had intelligence. But she had been given one. In time, that name came to be shared by all who followed her.

All of that had been a long time ago. Countless generations of humans and demons alike had lived and died in that time.

Valkyrie scowled. Thinking of the past was something she was not fond of. It indicated an idle mind, unbefitting of a warrior. Once more, she grunted. This entire situation was unbefitting of a warrior. Mere days ago, she had partaken in glorious battle and destroyed hordes of those soulless unliving cretins. Her soul yearned for more: to bathe in the blood of enemies, to cut and be cut by noble and worthy opponents. Instead, she was here… sitting on a rock in the middle of a village.

Where exactly did I go wrong in life?

The battle with the Grimm had been a few days ago. She and her colleagues in the Council of Five had destroyed the creatures. However, after they had been done, Nevan had insisted that they stay behind and assist with the reconstruction work. Needless to say, Valkyrie hadn't been thrilled about that.

"Help out the human worms with rebuilding their little nest? How absurd."

"Absurd or not, you had better do it."

Valkyrie tolerated a lot of Nevan's indirect and not-so-indirect insults for the sake of their larger cause, but there were limits even to her patience. Before the succubus could react, a gold-gauntleted fist had shot out, grabbing her throat with an iron grip. All four of Valkyries's eyes narrowed, even as they glowed ominously red.

"You forget who you're speaking to, succubus. I am not one of your man-slaves."

Nevan, ever sharp-tongued, somehow managed to squeeze out an insult even as her trachea was close to being crushed.

"You could do with a man or two yourself. Maybe they would finally make you loosen up a little."

Valkyrie's fingers tightened even further.

Nevan's voice was barely a whisper, but she somehow managed to get the next words out.

"If you kill me… Dante will come for you."

Valkyrie paused slightly. Odin had been an undefeatable foe. Years later, she had met another two she could not have defeated. The Legendary Dark Knight, Sparda, whose skills with a sword surpassed even her own. And the Prince of Darkness, Mundus. But then, she had felt Dante's power, and she knew for certain: he was stronger than all three of them.

But then again, glorious death in battle, against a stronger opponent. What better thing could there be? Perhaps she should end Nevan's life, just to make Dante face her. The muscles in her arm tensed, even as her heart sped up with excitement.

Nevan sensed the change in her energy, and her eyes widened. She had been gathering her own power for a while. If she lashed out with all of it at once, it might be enough to force Valkyrie to release her grip. After that, she would have to run for it. She was a succubus, her true power lay elsewhere. On the other hand, Valkyrie was born for battle. Direct combat with her was suicide.

Just as she was about to release a burst of lightning, the fingers constricting her throat let go. Immediately, Nevan backed away, coughing as she tried to catch her breath.

"Why spare me?" she asked.

In truth, Valkyrie herself wasn't fully sure why she had done so. She had lived for eons now, fighting more battles than she could even remember. Yet, in all that time, she hadn't found it yet. A purpose. The reason for all her battles. The closest she had come to it was a stirring in her heart when she had met Sparda. Perhaps if she had been able to go with him when he took on Mundus… she shook her head. The past was gone. Thinking of it now was pointless. Sparda was gone now, beyond anybody's reach. But his son was right here. All these millennia of fighting had not brought her peace, nor had it changed anything for the better of demonkind. What Nevan suggested was anathema to the demon way. Yet, it was new…

"... Curiosity," the berserker queen answered. "What is humanity anyway?" She clenched her fist. "Dante is only half demon. Yet, he is leagues more powerful than us, pure blooded though we are. Humans are frail. Cowardly. But above all, they are disloyal and weak. They run at the first sight of danger, and forsake each other to save themselves. Supposed lovers and siblings, abandoning each other when it suits them. How can the presence of humanity possibly give any kind of strength?"

Nevan, whose accelerated healing had repaired her damaged flesh, rubbed her throat slightly. Valkyrie's words had struck a raw nerve for her. An image flashed in her head of Dante with… that wretched, accursed whore. She should be the one next to him, not Goodwitch. Yet, her attempts to break the two of them apart had failed. Not only that, Goodwitch had seen right through them, seen past Dante's Demonic exterior, to who he truly was. And… there was the fact that Dante had chosen her.

Just like Sparda had chosen a human, long ago.

Nevan did not understand why. But she recognised that there was something in humans that she had not been able to grasp.

"... If you're so keen to find out," she said, "then observe them. Talk to them. Live among them."

The violent queen's eyes widened in curiosity.

"Oh? And what will I find if I do so?"

Nevan shrugged. "Who knows? If you find the answer to your question, do let me know. I'm curious too. But in the meantime, do not hurt them. It will undo all the work we have done thus far."

Valkyrie came out of her reverie. As unpleasant as it was, she was stuck here for now. With her and the other members of the Council helping out, reconstruction had taken only two days. Things were more or less back to normal for the humans, so far as she could tell. Or as normal as they could be with five demons living in their settlement with them, at any rate. Glancing over, she saw a group of townsfolk passing by on their business. They bowed as they walked by hurriedly. Valkyrie rolled her eyes. While they were being treated more or less as saviours, most of the humans were still scared of them. As a rule, they gave the five of them a wide berth, in particular Malevar and herself. She could at least sympathise with them on avoiding the former: Malevar the Serpent was famously cunning. Under normal circumstances, she would cut him down as soon as their paths crossed. But for now, they were allies, reluctantly. Which actually brought her back to the reason she felt mildly irritated when the townsfolk avoided her: were they really placing her on the same level as that damned snake? In the first place, she had no interest in killing them: they were far too weak to put up a good fight. Unsurprisingly, Nevan was quite popular, especially among the men. For no particular reason, Valkyrie tapped the stone she was sitting on with one finger, a little harder than she wanted to, causing a crack to appear in it. She definitely wasn't jealous of the attention the succubus was getting. That would be absurd.

Iris was the least intimidating of the five of them physically, meaning at least a few of the humans occasionally conversed with her as well. Strangely, it was the towering giant, Atlas, who was actually most often approached. For whatever reason, the humans were not scared of him, and their children often played with him by climbing up to his shoulders. Atlas himself did not seem to mind any of this.

Which meant… Valkyrie was actually the least popular member of the Five, barring Malevar.

A-absurd. Had I done things the regular way, this would not have happened.

The regular way being conquering the place and having everyone acknowledge her as the leader. Warriors were respected because of their feats in battle! Had the townsfolk seen her fight firsthand, they would known to treat her with the proper deference.

Wait, hold on a second.

Hadn't they been recording everything?

The townsfolk had seen her fight, on their screens.

Did that… did that mean that the other members of the cabal had outshined her on the battlefield?

Impossible!

It simply couldn't be.

But maybe… had she been holding back subconsciously?

She had, hadn't she?

As her mind began to enter overthinking mode, replaying every single move she had made during the fight and analysing what she could have done better, she remained unaware that a certain human was looking at her. Said human happened to be peering around the corner of a barn he was hiding behind. He gulped slightly, nervous. On screen was one thing, or from the safety of a crowd. But seeing her in person this was completely different.

Still, he was quite some distance away.

Not only that, he could barely see her at all, since he was behind her, and her wings, even while folded, were covering most of her from this angle. His eyes darted to another building a few yards away. If he could get behind cover of that, he would be able to get a better view of her from the side. Once more, he gulped. Could he actually get there without being spotted? She hadn't moved in a while. Maybe she was lost in thought?

No, no.

He shook his head.

He'd seen the footage of her. To call her impossibly skilled would be an understatement. The pro-hunters who sometimes came to Hoperow were able to hear people approaching them from behind even from yards away. And she was on a whole different level even compared to them. There was no way he would avoid detection.

But still… he wanted to at least see her face.

And… she was on their side, right?

Before he could talk himself out of it, she dashed out from his hiding place, and got behind the other building.

Made it!

Just as he was congratulating himself, he peered around from behind the corner to see that she was no longer there.

"Wha-?"

"You have some nerve trying to approach me from behind, human."

His heart nearly jumped into his mouth.

Wheeling around, he found the demoness standing right behind him.

"Whoaaaa!"

Stumbling, he fell backwards in shock. Heart pounding like a kick drum, he looked up at the demon. It was true: this was indeed a better look. In fact, it was better than he could have dreamed of: she was right in front of him. Not on a screen, but in person, and closer than he would have dared to get to her.

All of a sudden, he realised just how imposing she was.

She must have been seven or even eight feet tall, towering over any human he'd ever seen. Her frame was unmistakably feminine, with its smooth curves and lithe grace. Yet, it was far from delicate. Her powerful muscles were on clear display: all four of her arms were lean and corded, while her thighs were thick enough to crush stone. Most of her torso, along with her forearms, hands, shins and feet were covered by golden armour which miraculously seemed fused into her flesh, as if it had grown out of it. Her hair, likewise gold, actually burned slightly, occasional sparks leaping off it. Folded at her back were four wings. The fact that she had two pairs of eyes was unnerving at first, but despite this, he found himself thinking it wasn't unpleasant at all. The one called Nevan was alluring, but Valkyrie he would describe as beautiful.

Once more, he swallowed. Frozen in place, he couldn't bring himself to move.

The demoness' eyes narrowed slightly. At first, he feared it was in annoyance, but a moment later, he realised it was in confusion: the fact that she had four eyes made it hard to read her expressions.

"You remain silent, human, yet I can hear your heart." She stared at him for a while, as though he were a puzzle she was trying to figure out.

"You approached me from behind… could it possibly be that you planned to attack?"

The boy's face paled right away. Somehow, he found his voice, frantically shaking his head while holding up his hands to show he meant no harm.

"No! N-not at all! I just wanted to see you, that's all," he blurted out. It was only after he had spoken that he realised what he had just said.

The demoness looked on as the boy's tanned cheeks grew red, his eyes widening as he struggled to maintain eye contact with her. It was hard for her to estimate the ages of humans, not being one herself. This was compounded by the fact that she was old enough that even the oldest of humans was but a stripling to her. She had a general idea that this one was older than a child by the reckoning of humans, but not quite a grown man.

So out of all the humans, the one who dared approach her was this youngling?

"Why?" she asked.

"W-what do you mean?"

"Why did you wish to see me?"

For her, it was a perfectly normal question, to be interpreted no other way than its literal sense. However, she was unaware of human emotions, and the meaning her words might have to the boy. Thus, she was surprised to see that his face grew even more red. Despite this, he tried his best to answer as honestly as he dared.

"I… I saw the videos of the battle. You're incredibly strong! I haven't seen any hunters or Grimm who could do the kind of things you did! So… I guess, I just wanted to see you up close, at least once."

Fittingly enough, his answer ended up being something that got through to the demon warrior. Understanding entered her eyes, and she nodded slightly.

"I see. You wished to pay proper respects to the strongest warrior. There might be hope for your species yet."

"Wha- I…", the boy was about to correct her, but stopped. She had slightly misunderstood his meaning, but perhaps that was for the best. He didn't have long to dwell on it, however.

"What is your name?"

Remembering his manners, the boy climbed to his feet and bowed his head.

"Oh, I'm Oscar. Oscar Pine. I work as a farmhand here."

"The cultivation of food…" The demoness seemed to mull this over for a while. "... For a human, that's as noble a profession as any, I suppose."

Oscar struggled a little, but managed to speak out his next few words.

"W-what's your name?"

The demoness gave him a regal stare.

"I am Valkyrie, ruler of the Hall of the Dead."

"Hall of the Dead…", Oscar repeated, even as he looked at her with awe. Being unfamiliar with demons or their tales and history, he assumed it was a figurative title given to some elite order of Demons, perhaps in some way an equivalent of what a special order of huntsmen might be like on Remnant. But again, he had no time to dwell on it. Valkyrie had already turned around and begun to walk away. After taking a few steps, she paused and turned, an annoyed look on her face.

"Well? What are you just standing there for?"

"W-w-what do you mean?"

Valkyrie stared at him as though gazing at a child who did not understand the most basic thing (which to be fair, she was, given her point of view).

"You came forward to offer your services as a squire, did you not?"

In the Demon World, it was customary for the vanquished residents of a territory to come forward of their own accord and offer their loyalty to the conqueror. While they had obviously done things a little differently here, it seemed perfectly logical to Valkyrie that given that she was the strongest of the Five on the battlefield, the humans would willingly come forward to serve her.

Oscar blinked a few times, rapidly.

He hadn't planned to become her squire.

That being said, he was terrified of explaining that to her.

That golden sword of hers was taller than his whole body, and looked like it weighed at least ten times as much. In other words, he had no intention of being on the receiving end of a swing from it.

But what was even more terrifying was that a part of him wasn't scared at all, but exhilarated.

From the very beginning, the violent queen of the battlefield had captivated him when he had seen the footage. To be sure, all of the Five were incredibly powerful, and their feats in combat were as mesmerising as they were scary. But out of them, for whatever reason, she had stood out. At first, seeing these alien beings slaughter the Grimm, he had had no idea what to expect.

But when they had stated that they were here to protect them, he had become curious.

All of these thoughts took less than a second to flash through Oscar's head, but somehow, it felt like an eternity. Valkyrie's eyes seemed on the verge of narrowing in annoyance.

"Y-yes, I did," the boy said aloud. The moment he said those words, his heart sped up. He had absolutely no idea what he had just gotten himself into, but it was too late to back out now.

"Well, hurry up then. I will not tolerate sloth."

"Y-yes!"

Oscar rushed to keep pace with her, even as she began to walk with long strides. Together, the two of them walked further into the town.

"So where is it that your village serves the best food?"

"Oh, you mean an inn? I know just the place."