Worms May Cry
Adjustment – Chapter 2.3: Making Revelry
[Dante]
Driving down the highway once more, Dante thought back to yesterday and his meeting with Orange Dawn. He snickered at how easy she was to fluster. Thankfully, it seemed that Orange Dawn meant it when she said that he'd be left alone and his 'minor' illegal actions ignored. It's what allowed him to cruise over a 140 miles per hour on the highway without being pulled over.
The Legendary Devil Hunter could only assume that it was because the cops were being informed about his presence ahead of time. That meant that they were able to guess his route or, more likely, he was being monitored. Possibly by the Orange lady herself, as he had noticed a dot in the sky that seemed to be following him.
That made the man joke to himself that he had a superhero stalker. Not something one expected to have happen in their life. He wasn't fully concerned with being watched at the moment. If it became an issue, he would look into taking care of it. Until then, it would be a fun little game to spot who was tailing him.
Passing by a sign to his next destination, it said 'Welcome to Hugoton'. Yet, he already could spot a major problem as he neared the city. Namely, the section of the city he was entering that was completely frozen, alongside the unnatural covering the area, Dante could also sense the large amount of demonic energy coming from deeper within.
"Hey, Toto, looks like we're not in Kansas anymore." Dante said to himself as Cavaliere slid to a halt before the icy terrain that covered this entire portion of the city. The street and sidewalk were a pure sheet of ice, broken up by groupings of snow and formations of ice.
Some of these formations took the shape of large spikes that stabbed through multiple vehicles, some of which were vans that had PRT on the side in addition to a few cop cars and civilian vehicles. Others were brutally impaled through people, their bodies frozen solid, not even having the chance to bleed out. Then, there were the statues of people frozen solid as they were about to run away from something that had utterly terrified them, their expressions of fear were permanently frozen into the ice.
This demon was one that really didn't care if its actions got noticed by humans or not. That told Dante one of two things. Either this demon was a cocky son of a bitch that innately thought that it didn't need to worry about humans just because it thought they were weak…
Or, the most likely reason, it was so powerful that it didn't need to worry about any retaliation by the humans it was attacking. Considering how much ice and snow this monster had conjured, Dante was more inclined to believe the latter.
"Seems like I've got my work cut out for me." Dante remarked to himself as he rode Cavaliere forwards. The demonic vehicle had little issue with getting traction on the street due to its bladed wheels cutting into the ice before the heat it emitted quickly melted through the rest.
All the while, Dante kept his senses out for the two large demonic presences. One was the Qliphoth, the other was for Mr. 100 Below.
That was, until he heard the screams of people around a building. With a roar of Cavaliere's engine, the Legendary Devil Hunter drove down the street and made a sharp turn, slamming his foot through the concrete of the street as he did so to gain traction as Cavaliere skidded a few feet, then shot forwards.
What Dante saw was a family of four cowering on the ground, with the mother and father covering a pair of girls with their bodies as a demon that seemed to be made completely of ice raised its arm that had formed into a blade in preparation to strike. It seemed almost skeletal, due to how thin it was, with an oblong sphere for a head that divided in the middle to reveal icy jaws filled with a ghostly blue light. The only other feature on its head with a pair of glowing blue dots for eyes.
"Hey, Frosty!" Dante shouted, pulling the creature's attention from the family and delaying its strike. It didn't get much time to even decide its next move as Dante flipped off Cavaliere and let the demonic vehicle ram into the ice demon, which impaled its sharp frontal prongs into the demon's body.
A few moments later, and the demon's body was scraping against the ground and Cavaliere's front wheel until it broke apart into fragments of ice with a ghastly wail. Then, the demonic motorcycle disappeared in a burst of flames.
"CRAZY!" Balrog announced.
"You guys alright?" Dante asked as he already felt the tell-tale energy that let him know that more demons were coming.
The mother, a woman with dark features and braided hair, nodded. "Yes, thank you for saving us." She replied with gratitude.
"Are all of you able to walk?" As Dante said this, he pulled Ebony and Ivory from his coat, frightening the family for a moment. "I'll need to get you folks out of here since more demons are coming."
Almost like they were awaiting an introduction, more ice demons started pulling themselves out of the icy ground.
"Yeah, I think so. It's just difficult due to the ice." The father, a man with short dark hair and olive skin answered as he received a nod from his family. Dante looked over his shoulder to a non-iced section of the street less than 20 yards away.
"Good to know. All of you try and get to that non-iced street and keep running to safety. I'll keep the anorexic snowmen occupied." Dante told them while firing his guns into the growing crowd of demonic snowmen.
As the family got to their feet, one of the two daughters asked in concern, "What about you?"
Dante smiled at the girl replied, "I'll be fine. I'm right in my element." Ebony and Ivory began glowing red as demonic power was beginning to be charged into them.
"BADASS!" Balrog announced as a bullet pierced through the heads of two of the demonic snowmen.
"Stay safe, Mr. Hero." The girl's sister said. Dante nodded in agreement as he slowly escorted the family to safety while putting down any snowman that got too close. When he felt that they were safe enough to make it the rest of the way on their own, he stopped following the group and moved to the crowd of demons that were now giving angry screeches as they charged him.
"Come to Dante!" The Legendary Devil Hunter shouted in excitement as he charged the growing horde and punted a snowman away with a demonically enhanced kick. This launched it through the crowd, knocking a few other snowmen down before the demon finally slammed into one of the police cars, turning it on as the siren blared and its radio turned on with music going at full volume.
"APOCALYPTIC!"
-OU CANNOT KILL ME! I AM OMEGA!
Dante jumped into the air upside-down and spun like a dervish and fired his guns repeatedly into the crowd, raining bullets down upon those below him like a whirlwind of guns, bursting the heads of each demonic snowman unlucky enough to be around him. This happened for a few seconds until he swapped out Ebony and Ivory for Balrog and fell back to the earth once again while the demonic greaves and gauntlets charged with crimson energy and flames.
YOU CANNOT KILL ME! I AM SUBHUMAN!
Then, he slammed into the ground with a burst of fire, knocking the demons away from him. With a flurry of punches and kicks, the demon slayer began bursting their bodies apart, not letting a single demonic snowman touch him even when amidst the massive crowd of them.
YOU CANNOT KILL ME! I CANNOT ERUPT!
Swapping out of Balrog and to Grenadier, Dante spun the demonic greataxe around his body, slicing more of the demons to pieces as he sensed that the wave of them was ending.
I AM OMEGA! I MUST CONTROL!
He smirked at this while charging the weapon with a large amount of demonic power, turning it a glowing red while the crimson flames coating the axe seemed to barely be restrained.
YOU CANNOT KILL ME! I CANNOT ERUPT!
"Party's over! I'm kicking you all out!" Dante shouted as he jumped up into the air with a flip and quickly slammed Grenadier into the ground. A massive wave of fire and power emitted from the demonic greataxe, rapidly spreading out from Dante and slamming into all the demons. Any hit by the initial impact were vaporized. Those further away were slammed into buildings, the ground, or vehicles which shattered the rest.
I MUST EXPLODE!
"SAVAGE!" Balrog roared over the noise.
"Come on, that's got to earn a better rank than that?!" Dante complained to the devil arm.
Said devil arm gave no reply in return.
Sadly, a few demons slammed into the police car, killing the siren and radio which ended the music that Dante had been jamming with. "Wow, even when they die, these demons end up just killing the mood." The Legendary Devil Hunter remarked as he slung Grenadier over his shoulder and made his way towards where he sensed the greater demonic presence.
He didn't have to worry about 'slipping' on ice for at least 50 feet since the demonic greataxe had melted all of the ice in the surrounding area. Unfortunately, the red-clad man had to climb out of the crater he made in the middle of the street.
"Really hope that they don't end up billing me for damages." Dante almost prayed considering his track record for the jobs he took losing him money because of damages that he had to pay for. Hopefully, they'd understand that a little property destruction can happen when killing demons.
After climbing out of the crater and making his way down the street, the man could hear the growing sounds of fighting alongside the noise of demonic roaring. "Sounds like this ice-maker is having a fun time." Dante said to himself as he summoned up Cavaliere and sped off down the multiple icy blocks until he saw a man skidding backwards into the middle of the street.
Dante could tell that it was another one of those superheroes, considering that the man was wearing an outfit that had multiple black dots strategically place upon it over a white background. A moment later, a large shard of ice flew straight at the man until two portals appeared in front of him. One took the shard of ice into itself while the other launched the shard back at the unknown assailant. This cape was known as Space Tunneler.
A roar of frustration was heard and a massive demon was punched forwards into view before slamming into a building. From around the corner of the building, a man dressed in loose plates of silver with a red bodysuit under it. On both of his arms were massive orange ethereal arms. He called himself Hollow-Fist.
"You want some more of that?" Hollow-Fist shouted at the demon as it pulled itself from the wall of the building it had impacted, causing the roof and walls that were still standing to finally collapse.
"No. I'm done playing this game with you, human. I wanted to see what you could do, and all you did was disappoint." The demon replied as he brushed the remnants of building rubble off of his body. This demon looked humanoid to a point. His body was a pure white, with armor of ice stretching across his skin.
His hands were made of multiple knives of ice that emitted waves of cold, while his digitigrade legs ended in sharp blades that curled back, almost like a pair of organic ice-skates. As for the demon's head, it was narrow and pointed forwards, with a pair of glowing blue slits that denoted eyes in the middle of it. This demon seemed like it had been built for speed and aerodynamics in mind.
"Is that what you call the beating we've been giving you?" The portal-maker said as he moved over to his ally.
"It's called pity. I thought that you humans may have changed in the millennia since I last came here, especially with these abilities of yours. But…" The demon moved in the blink of an eye and was on top of the pair, the only sign that he had moved and not just teleported was the trail of ice his bladed feet left behind.
"Millennia? What the hel-" Hollow-Fist didn't even have time to finish his question when, with a downward axe kick, the demon was about to chop the pair in half if Space Tunneler hadn't put a portal in the way of the kick.
Yet, instead of falling for the trick, the demon's leg instantly halted its momentum while blades of ice shot out from his hand at the pair. "Predictable, human." The demon stated with a chastising tone.
Hollow-Fist jumped in the way of his undefended ally and put his arms in the path of the blades of ice. Even though he was blocking them, the force the ice blades generated pushed the man back into his ally who tried to hold him steady.
Before the demon was about to swing his other leg at the pair, Dante finally intervened by shooting the blade of the demon's leg off target. At the same time, he rushed in with Cavaliere and jumped off the demonic motorcycle as Balrog covered his arms and legs. Keeping with the momentum, Dante launched a flaming punch forwards, forcing the demon to stop focusing on the two heroes for the demon hunter.
"CRAZY!"
The demon blocked the punch with his free hand as a burst of flames burst from the gauntlet, slightly melting his icy armor. Yet, Dante didn't let up as he continued landing punches and kicks at the monster while still mid-air, breaking any known law of gravity in the process.
Humorously enough, the demon over 14 yards high was forced to block each flaming attack with great urgency against an opponent that he utterly dwarfed in size. Finally, the demon broke contact with the Legendary Devil Hunter and flipped back 30 yards to get some space.
"SAVAGE!"
As Dante landed on the ground, he looked back to the pair of heroes that quickly recovered after the short break of fighting from the demon. "Thanks for the save." Hollow-Fist said while focusing on the demon past Dante.
"No problem. You two good? Didn't lose any body parts to frostbite?" Dante replied humorously.
The spotted hero shook his head with a chuckle, "Still got everything important. Just wish I wasn't freezing my balls off in the spring."
"Could be worse." The ethereal-armed hero replied, "Guess you're the Wacky Woohoo Pizza Man we were briefed about this morning."
A laugh came from Dante as he heard this, "You're getting briefed on me? Didn't know I was that important." Dante then turned to look back at the frost-covered demon as the monster studied the red-clad man. Every moment, a growing familiarity grew within the icy demon until it finally was able to put a name to this recognition. A name that filled it with utter rage.
"Well, when a person who can shoot lasers is in the area, it's a good idea to kn-" Hollow-Fist was quickly cut off by a roar from the frost demon.
"SPARDA!" That name being said made Dante roll his shoulders at the hassle that this demon was going to be. Balrog swapped out for Dante's devil sword which he rested on his shoulder as he approached the enraged demon.
"You seem a little pissy, Frosty. Something the matter?" Dante teased with a smirk, earning more growls of anger from the demon.
"Your existence. The traitor, Sparda, along with his entire bloodline, should be eradicated! I will gladly help to ensure that comes to pass, son of Sparda!" The frost demon promised as he got into a running stance.
Dante gave a raised brow at the demon and continued his leisurely pace, "Here's the thing, Frosty, I've been told that for years now by demons a lot more intimidating than you." Then, the Legendary Devil Hunter stopped where he was and holstered his sword onto his back.
Following this, and to the surprise of everyone there, he slightly bent over and began clapping
his hands at the demon as if he were coaxing a dog over to him, "C'mon, Frosty. Don't be shy."
"Insolent half-breed! I am JUDECCA! And I will ensure that you painfully remember it before you die!" The now-named Judecca promised as he entered into a crouching stance before bursting forward on his skated feet. For most humans, all they'd have seen was a blur of white, followed by a spinning kick. Most would've ended up decapitated from the strike.
With Dante though? He had fought Vergil at his twin's fastest before, and this was nowhere close to the speed Vergil could reach.
Instead, Dante entered into a defensive guard in the blink of an eye as he aimed a concentrated burst of demonic power into his royal guard at the same time that Judecca's bladed foot would've impacted. A loud clanging noise rang out, as if metal striking metal, and Judecca's attack was deflected away.
"C'mon, gotta be faster than that!" Dante taunted, earning a growling hiss from the ice demon.
"SICK SKILLS!"
As soon as Balrog announced this, a new flurry of kicks came from Judecca as the blades of his feet became even colder, now trailing frost with each slice.
"Was that supposed to be you attacking me or is it just a love tap?" Dante asked. Judecca's eyes glowed a brighter blue as a spike of ice jutted up from the ground to impale Dante from behind. At least, it tried to do so until the spotted hero standing behind the two combatants opened a portal in front of the spike just as another opened above the demon's head. The ice spike was unable to even pierce Judecca's armor, but it did knock the demon off-balance.
Dante grinned in turn as he pulled out his sword and jumped into the air, making multiple slashes to Judecca's face. "Thanks, portal guy!"
While Dante went about fighting Judecca, said cape prepared to try and assist Dante in his battle as much as he could. Either by opening portals in front of Judecca's attacks, or dumping debris and such on the demon to distract him.
At the same time, Hollow-Fist looked around to see more demonic snowmen pulling themselves out of the ground before charging the pair of superhumans. "ST, I'll keep the creatures off you. Keep helping out Mr. Wacky."
"Don't need to tell me twice, amigo!" Space Tunneler replied as he put one of the two portals he could make under a wrecked car, allowing it to then appear out of the other one on top of Judecca's head, just as Dante landed a flaming uppercut with Balrog being newly-equipped.
That launched Judecca up into the car, impacting it heavily with a bang before Dante appeared at the ice demon's face with an aerial round-house kick, charged with demonic energy, knocking him back down the street as the wrecked vehicle hit the ground with the red-clad man and miraculously turning on with the radio blaring out heavy guitar riffs.
Dante took notice that his secondary target was also now visible as he could see a bundle of Qliphoth roots ahead. Though, it was completely covered in ice, along with any of the murderous, spiked roots that had grown near it.
"Weirdest Goddamn day of my life." Hollow-Fist remarked as he punched a demonic snowman in the face, completely pasting it as the headless body slammed into another two demons, knocking them back and away.
"Tell me about it!" Space Tunneler said as he put a portal in front of a charging snowman before letting it slam into the face of Judecca as another portal opened.
AS I STARE INTO THE EYES OF THE COMING!
"How the hell is that junker of a car still working?" Hollow-Fist questioned as he ducked under a snowman's slash before sweeping its feet out from under it with a kick. As the demon fell, Hollow-Fist quickly punched it in the head, exploding said head and creating a hole in the ground.
"Beats me! Maybe the wiring and battery aren't as broken as expected." Space Tunneler replied back.
APOCALYPSE I SEE THEM REACHING FOR MY SOUL!
With Dante, he pulled out King Cerberus and appeared at Judecca's head once again while spinning sideways, repeatedly slapping the demon with the nunchaku as it sparked with purple electricity. Amusingly enough, the Legendary Devil Hunter was making noises that one might expect to hear from a kung-fu movie while doing so.
And, whereas Dante was still as sprightly looking as he had been at the start of the fight, Judecca was looking worse for wear as his ice armor was cracked apart while blue blood dripped from numerous wounds across his body. Interestingly enough, Judecca's blood seemed similar in property to liquid nitrogen as it dripped onto the ground, creating a cold hiss wherever it landed.
"I think for you, old-timer-" Dante said as both Kalina Anns' appeared in his hands while he was still mid-air, "-it's time for you to take a permanent nap in the retirement home!" Pulling the triggers, rockets fired out of both barrels, impacting against the demon's injured head, while also temporarily blinding him.
I CANNOT ERUPT! I MUST CONTROL!
The moment Dante's feet touched the ground, he disappeared into another blur until appearing in the air at the back of Judecca's head. "Nighty-night!" He then punched the back of the ice demon's head and unleashed all the stored energy of his royal guard at one point.
"FILTHY HALF-BR-" Judecca didn't get to finish as his head exploded.
I CANNOT ERUPT! I MUST EXPLODE!
"SMOKIN' SEXY STYLE!" Balrog announced as Judecca's body fell to its knees and Dante landed next to the corpse with a smirk. As this happened, multiple events occurred at once.
The demonic snowmen that Hollow-Fist and Space Tunneler had been surrounded by quickly collapsed to the ground, like puppets with their strings cut, and burst apart into clouds of snow and ice as the music of the car turned off. At the same time, Judecca's body compressed into an icy blue glow before flying at Dante and impacting his body.
Upon the glow dying down, Dante's legs were now covered in a set of white-colored greaves with glowing blue energy seeping between each segment. As for the demon slayer's feet, they appeared normal for a moment before Dante was quickly elevated as curved bladed skates grew out from the soles of the greaves that were two feet long and emitting cold mist. The ground that was touched by these skates instantly became covered in ice.
"Sweet!" Dante remarked as he tested his newest devil arm out by performing numerous acrobatic feats that one would normally see coming from an Olympian athlete. Each move he made would shoot ice from the blades of the skates.
Then, he entered into a sit-spin and became a red blur of movement as bladed arcs shot out from him towards the frozen Qliphoth bundle and impacted it, breaking the ice covering it. Following this, Dante broke out from his spin and used the momentum to shoot towards the bundle.
Once close enough, he shifted onto his hands and broke out into an extremely deadly version of breakdancing as he performed a windmill, surrounding himself in a dome of frost as icy spears shot out from the dome and stabbed into the root bundle, completely freezing it.
Shifting back onto his feet, Dante halted his spin so that he faced the Qliphoth bundle. A crimson rose of demonic energy appeared in his hand while a grin filled his face, "And you're set free!" Dante stated.
He followed this up by flinging the rose at the root bundle, stem first. And, amazingly, the rose pierced the ice of the frozen root bundle before it, and the bundle, exploded in a shower of red petals that dispersed into the air.
Storing Judecca away, Dante summoned Cavaliere once again and was about to hop on and drive away until Hollow-Fist and Space Tunneler arrived next to him and called out, "Wait!"
Dante stopped what he was doing and turned to the two capes. "Good to see you two still in one piece. Anything I can help you with?" Normally, Dante would've just started driving off by now, but these two had been helpful, along with being ballsy enough to try and fight off a demon like Judecca who was way out of their league. He'd give them a few minutes at the very least.
"Could we talk with you for a bit? We've got a few questions that we'd like to ask, if you'd be okay with it?" Hollow-Fist requested. Dante was about to answer when Space Tunneler piped up.
"We'll throw in boxes of free pizza for it."
Dante blinked owlishly for a moment, then grinned. "Gentlemen, get me to a pizzeria and you'll have my undivided attention for a while."