Little Demon That Could: Mook Always Cry [Devil May Cry AU]

AN Update: This story is based on The Sin of Pride from Darkandus, and I Didn't Ask For This from Mizuki_Stone.

"So, what's your story?" Asked the statuesque bespectacled woman at my side, towering over me a head over. It was less an issue of me being short, since I'm firmly average, and more like she's really tall.

"Oh, I dunno, I was just drinking my beer when someone who don't leave me alone walked up to me and made me pay for her drinks."

"Actually kid", said the bartender, a tall, bald black man wearing a black trench coat and dark shades more at home being a bouncer than serving drinks, "she's a regular of this place."

I banged my head on the table, careful not to let my beer spill. "Just my luck. Out of the many bars of this city I have to go just to the one where my personal stalker frequents."

"From where I'm standing you're the stalker since whenever I go you're there too." Said the woman at my side before sipping at her wine. "One would think you're my fan."

"I go where there are jobs", I replied the woman before taking another sip of my drink, "what were someone like you slumming around with the plebs like me? I'm fairly sure you had much more important things to do with your time than bother me at all those places."

"A woman got to have her secrets, don't you think?" She said with a coy smile, "so what's your story?"

Once more I banged my head on the table, this time more forcefully.

"Cheer up kid", said the eldritch abomination in the shape of a bartender, "it's not always sweetheart here becomes interested in someone."

Being her focus of interest is a really bad thing. I know her type, she eats men and spits back broken and useless husks, the fucking Witch. The utterly terrifying damn Witch.

The complete amateurs look the part even if they manage to grab some smidgen of power, while the professionals have an aura of power around them that's almost physically visible, sometimes it even is. Then there are the complete monsters like the woman at my side, who manages to hide her aura of power very easily passing herself as nothing special on the grand scheme of things, except she walks around confidently where demons fear to thread. Granted at some point it becomes a game of chicken since 'look tough and pretend you own the place' is a very common tactic to those in my line of work, which explain the occasional sudden bout of suicidal stupidity in both parts of the equation.

We are both aware who would win in a fight between us, but apparently she likes to play with her food.

"If I tell my story will you leave me alone?" She opened her mouth to reply but I cut her off, "at least until I can finish my beer?"

She closed her mouth with a click, pausing for a moment before nodding once. It might have been my imagination but I caught traces of her being disappointed. Well tough luck, she looks the type that after a nice dinner and a movie would want to push me back into bed and fuck me over with a strap on and expect me to like it.

"My story starts like any other these days, with the poor schmuck just goofing around..."

~~O~~

I had finished the electronic survey requested by the university and was ready to grab a beer and watch some videos when the wall of the dorm room exploded in front of me. I could hear screams and footsteps outside the corridor but I was focused on the sight before me.

It was a monster straight out of hell, with a thick, grotesque body with short stubs for legs and massive arms that reached the ground that were so large they looked closer to support pillars than arms. It's head was a small stub at the top of it's body, more like a collection of spikes and teeth with a pair of eyes.

Eyes that were staring straight to me.

Before shock could properly wear off, the deceptively fast creature grabbed my head with it's gigantic hands, crushing my skull. My screams were muffled by his palm, the pressure growing by the instant until I felt more than heard a crush, and darkness overcame me.

Only for me to wake up almost immediately later, still on the creature's grip and still feeling the agony of my crushed skull, which it simply didn't stop. I felt the creature moving, and once more I felt more than saw crossing some kind of threshold.

During all this the creature unceremoniously dragged me across wherever the hell I was, and some time later I was tossed around like a sack of potatoes. I was too weak to do anything but moan in agony, the pain in my head still too strong and sharp, keeping me awake.

"Ah, you brought some fresh meat." Said a deep, rumbling voice near me. "Hmm... unfortunately this one's also a failure, nothing good for except grunt work. Oh well, there's a quota to fill for them so at least it's one less on the checklist. Next time try to use that big body of yours to bring more souls though, can't have you going and coming with only one soul on your hands."

I didn't heard the reply before I saw the new monster staring straight into me.

This one looked more like a classical devil, tall with horns on his head, goat feet and wings on his back. Staring at his face you could even dare to say he looked handsome, if his whole feature wasn't tainted by a deep sneer on his face.

"Apprentice!" He yelled and a smaller creature that resembled the devil came scurrying, this one giving the impression of being a teenager. "Prepare this soul for processing."

"Yes mastah!" Came the reply with a strange lisp on his voice.

"Remember to work the throat and remove the vocal cords first, you're not experienced enough to work while listening to the screams of the damned, as pleasurable as the sound is. It's high time you learned how to do things right."

"Yes mastah..." This time he sounded far less cheerful about the whole thing, still he approached my prone form and the last thing I saw was his foot raising before violently slamming down.

~~O~~

I had been killed and my soul brought to hell, before going through the Processing in which both metaphysically and mentally I would be broken down into a mindless husk of a demon. In order to do that my soul was brutalized and violated in ways that even human minds have trouble comprehending, and the process was done almost dispassionately by my tormentors, almost as if it was some kind of low paying menial job.

Which I found out later that it was exactly that.

I had been striped of all identifying marks from before my arrival to hell, aside from my height. I looked skeletal, with skin stretching on my bones. I had no mouth, no nose, no dick and from watching my fellow damned souls, our eyes were nothing but holes in our skull with an eternal shadow cast on it, a single, small dot of red light replacing the actual eye.

At some point we found ourselves wrapped in rags, forming some kind of hood that resembled the typical grim reaper look, and for some strange reason we could all summon to our hands a large scythe.

Most of my fellow damned souls were mindless husks, doing whatever was demanded from them without apparently acknowledging anything, yet sometimes they would descend into senseless violence without rhyme or reason, trying to butcher each other. This state of affairs was amusing to our new masters, and they allowed this to happen as often as possible, only sometimes breaking the fight before someone died.

I was also like that for a long time, more catatonic than violent, until someone bumped into me and I tried to apologize to him, realizing that I couldn't speak. I panicked for a moment, looking around, before I realized what I had become and the memories of my torment coming back to me. I was oddly peaceful after that revelation, more calculating and trying to figure out if there were others like me.

Like in any such cases, I wasn't a super special snowflake and there were others like me even in my own group. We were massively outnumbered by the mindless husks, but apparently a 'society' of 'awakened' ghost demons was formed. Individually we were weak but in groups we were slightly less weak. Sadly we had to 'hide' our sentience from our masters, least they kill us as a defective product, such cases happening many times in the past. Technically, they knew some would be sentient but they reasoned that unless we became a threat they didn't need to cull our numbers all the time.

In this society I learned the basics, communicating through sign language and pantomime, and how to be a proper demon and survive to see another day. We had no illusions that we were anything but disposable minions, but there were means to rise above our station.

Also as it happened, our society had factions. The two largest faction were the 'demon' faction that wanted to become stronger and ascend past our wretched existence, and the 'rebel' faction which wanted to strike back at our masters and usurp power.

Yes, they were basically the same thing, the only difference being that one wanted to ascend to a higher status 'peacefully' while the other wanted to be more direct about it. Either way the risk of actual backstabbing was rather low as a general rule because the greater demons would purge all sentient demon ghosts instead just the 'enemy' faction, and in order to be actually rewarded for selling out their former comrades the society size had to be much larger than what currently was. We were currently in the 'inter purging' phase of our society, and those periods often lasted centuries if what I gathered was right.

As for myself I was in the 'escape' faction, even if we had literally no way to escape on our own, but we weren't nearly as mocked as the informal 'slave' faction who was still too broken to want anything more for themselves and just cowered in fear and did what our masters demanded, their sentience at this point being yet another curse for their existence than a ray of hope.

Still there was a way for us to escape. Every so often, some dumb greater demon would want to invade the human realm, much like it happened when I was killed and converted into a demon ghost, and there we had the opportunity to escape. Most of the time it was a fool's hope, except we heard rumors of the greater demons planning an invasion of apocalyptic proportions on the human realm.

There would be a lot of backstabbing involved in this invasion, not to count whatever resistance we might face considering we're simple canon fodder and easily replaceable by design. The number of ghost demons like me was massive however, so I actually had a realistic chance of pulling this off.

As the days and months tickled by, all the ghost demons were rounded off into large groups. Eventually I was also chosen for this incursion and made to stand around until the time came.

After who knows how long, I saw the portal towards the human realm open in front of my group, and we all stepped forwards. Some would simply die, others would destroy and pillage as commanded by our masters and a few would even take pleasure in the act.

For me, it was an opportunity for freedom. I would either escape this, or die trying.

 

AN:// Special thanks to Mizuki_Stone for the help with lore.

There are a couple of methods to perform an incursion on the Human Realm, or simply World as some greater demons called it.

The simplest method is called Spontaneous Manifestation in which you manifest yourself on Limbo, the 'edge' of the World that acts as a form of parallel dimension that mirrored the 'real' World, and then from there manifest in the World usually with a barrier that sealed all forms of exists to any would be victim. This method had a few problems however, such as the fact that it takes quite a bit of energy that most lesser demons such as myself can't bring to bear on our own, so we need to either be dragged along with greater demons who have the energy to spare for such acts, or learn the technique to share energy as a group and manifest together.

On the other hand most greater demons where 'too big' so to speak in order to pass through the cracks of the seal set up by the traitor Devil Sparda. In other words only intermediate demons could use this method and could only bring so many minions at each jump, not only that but the method could only be used during certain windows of opportunity with the entry point appearing randomly on the World, meaning making a proper army using this method was a fool's errand.

The second method is Demonic Summoning in which cultists would perform special rituals meant to weaken the seal and allow more and stronger demons to manifest in a specific place. The main problem however was the fact that each ritual took time to perform, required rare reagents and usually left a trail of bodies so large it often attracted unwanted attention from demon hunters.

The last one was the currently being attempted, Breaching The Seal. There are several key points that Sparta and his allies created in the past that formed a seal which prevented large scale invasions from Hell to the World, but if you managed to find some gullible fool to weaken the seal then the whole vicinity of the seal have it's barrier weakened and much larger incursions could happen, though most of the forces would need to wait in Limbo since the seal wasn't exactly broken yet.

Currently my group landed in a city where a massive tower, the Temen-ni-gru was unearthed. Supposedly someone would try and breach the seal, but details were sparse for grunts like me who only purpose was to die in waves for the sake of our masters.

We landed near a street on Limbo, and by the lights in the mirror world we could see there weren't many activity at this hour.

Our assigned transport, the fire demon Irfrin stared back as all of us finally manifested.

"Listen up Prides! You're going to go out and spread chaos and destruction! Kill anyone on your path!"

My 'companions' acknowledge the orders in their own way, before shambling in a random direction, some of them in groups while others on their lonesome. For myself I turned to a street and walked away in a sedate pace for as long I felt the gaze of Irfrin on my back, and when I was away from prying eyes I used the ultimate movement technique that all sentient Prides knew.

I quickly dropped on the ground and started rolling towards my destination like some kind of demented log on the ground, going much faster than my normal walking speed.

We were called Hell Prides, the weakest kind of demon in our section of Hell. As befitting the lowliest of the demons, we were made from normal human souls, either those harvested from the World directly, or from the souls of the damned after the higher ups decided they had enough 'free' punishment and would instead become 'useful'.

There were seven kinds of Hells, each signifying each one of the deadliest sins. You could fall as either pride depending if you embodied that sin while alive, or if the higher ups decided to be ironic. So a chaste person who was captured might be converted into a Hell Lust, or an angry berserker might simply become a Hell Wrath. Of course, only special cases would become one of the other six Hells since the seventh, Pride, was more common.

Dignity was the 'benign' aspect of Pride, the ability to have self love, to believe that others didn't had an inherent importance greater than us as living beings, that your life was worth the same as any other person.

Crushing our dignity to dust and turning us into mindless slaves, or taking amusement that those sentient had to willingly debase themselves least they were killed, eaten or further violated for their own sick pleasures.

I turned into a corner, and saw that I had arrived to an apartment complex while I was being philosophical. Standing up, I went ahead to enact my plan.

Plan 'Farm Red Orbs Through Vandalism' is a go.

 

I look at the first apartment I found, smashing the door with my feet. I could see the faint silhouettes of humans sitting on the couch, watching television. It would be easy to manifest myself in the room and slaughter them all to the last. Seeing my target, I raised my scythe, and brought it down with a mighty swing.

Fortunately for them, I wasn't after their lives.

The large case with the television lay in ruins, it's destruction mirrored in the normal world by the reaction of the 'ghosts' of the room.

As mentioned earlier, there were ways for us to raise above our station. The simplest way is through age, survive long enough and you become stronger naturally as you become more attuned to the energies of hell and in turn is empowered in return, though this method requires thousands of years to actually bear fruit. The second simplest way is through training if you have some kind of potential already, refining your skills in combat and in use of demonic energy, but this method requires you to already have some degree of potential.

The last method is to simply buy new upgrades from the God of Time and Space, an inter dimensional arms dealer that sells anything to anyone, so long as you have the proper currency, from new weapons, skills, physical enhancements and more. All demons in hell swear by the God of Time And Space.

Speaking of currency, I stared at the small Red Orbs that appeared once I broke down that case. It goes by many names from Macca, Red Orbs and Blood Orbs, but the humans should know them as Philosopher Stones. Essentially they are condensed soul energy, either leaked from humans through time and spilled into Limbo inside objects with emotional significance to those near them, or by crystallizing demon blood which is often rich of this kind of energy. Those Red Orbs can be used as substitute for any kind of mystical material necessary to perform alchemy, and if you know the proper techniques anything is in your reach, so long as you have enough of those suckers.

In terms of quantity, killing a demon would usually give you quite a bit even if he's low level, and killing a human would net a disproportionately large amount if you consider their pathetic mystical abilities as a rule. On the other hand there is a faction in hell that considers killing humans for their Red Orbs a waste since it's more cost effective to farm their overflow amount in Limbo. Obviously this faction doesn't have much members at this moment.

The genius of my escape plan was simple: farm enough Red Orbs to become strong and fast enough that I can run away from all this mess, since anything beat my previous treatment in hell, and I wasn't too far gone to throw my lot with the demon faction or the rebel faction.

It's even more important since the Son of Sparda would probably come and interfere with the higher ups plan, and most likely wouldn't hesitate to murder me to bits. I wouldn't blame him since a more direct backstabbing approach is in the cards later today.

For now however, I had some vandalism to get to.

~~O~~

"Spirits of the past, move among us. Be guided by the lights of this world and visit upon us... Is anybody with us?"

I looked at the four morons trying to contact spirits from beyond, and I'm not sure if they're brave for trying to pull this stunt after a GIGANTIC TOWER was unearthed some time earlier, or if they're so incredibly stupid their parents gave up on them a long time ago.

"I don't think it's working..."

Looking at outside and not seeing anything abnormal, for a demonic incursion at least, I decided to kill some time with those kids. Going at their ouija board I placed my hand on it and forced my way towards the 'yes' answer, the task made easier with this amateur demon summoning ritual they were performing.

"Oh look, it said yes!" Said the leader looking kid, his silhouette almost like a full ghost on Limbo. "Ahem, ok. Who are you?"

S-O-M-E-O-N-E-Y-O-U-D-O-N-T-W-A-N-T-T-O-M-E-E-T.

"Someone you don't want to meet?" He asked out loud, "can't you be a bit more specific?"

NO.

"Oh, uh, alright then. What do you want?"

To give a warning in return of payment.

"Payment? What kind of payment?"

Something you cherish, something material.

He paused for a moment before standing up and going to another room, bringing back some kind of statue of a cat and placed it on the table. "This is my grandmother memento, I will give it to you if your warning is good. What do you want to warn us about?"

Do not venture outside your houses tonight and tomorrow...

I raised my fist above the cat statue.

For tonight demons walks the streets!

With a mighty swing I destroyed both statue and table which it rested, making all room occupants yell in fright at the display.

Hmm, quite a bit of orbs in this one.

Taking my due, I turned the room and left for my next targets.

 

Phase one of my plan was complete. I had gathered five thousand red orbs through all my vandalism, and the next thing I need to do was to find a Divinity Statue to cash in my earnings. It doesn't take a genius to realize that someone would put a Divinity Statue on the Temen-ni-Gru itself, perhaps if I'm lucky there's one on the entrance.

Once more I used the secret movement technique employed by all Hell Prides: the Tactical Roll. While our walking speed was crippled to mere shambling levels by design from the higher ups, there were still some methods to travel faster, and the Tactical Roll was the most cost effective method. By leaning towards a direction and letting ourselves fall we used gravity to propel us forward, using our deceptively fast reflexes to roll as we're about to hit the ground face first, and after some practice the masters of the Tactical Roll could use it continuously to move whenever they wanted so long as the higher ups weren't watch.

And I was a master.

Some time later I came closer to my destination and had to slow down my advance, walking straight as other demons passed me by. Some where going in the same direction, while others were going away from the Temen-ni-Gru to cause chaos on the world.

Slowly creeping towards the Divinity Statue, I saw a couple of Prides on a line in front of the statue. I wasn't sure if they were either demon or rebel faction, but it won't matter in the end.

As the last Pride left the scene I quickly rolled towards the statue and activated it for the first time.

Time stopped for a moment, and I felt countless presences around me as they too were making their own purchases in other Divinity Statues. For a moment a great presence fell on me, and instinctively I knew it was the God of Time and Space himself acknowledging the fact I was a new customer. It soon faded however and I was graced with my own shop list, based on things I could reasonably afford.

I had the impression that if I proved myself able to provide with more money the list itself would expand, and if I got hold of the necessary materials I would have access to better abilities and items. For now though, I was limited to the basics.

The first thing I brought was a Blue Orb, which was a type of concentrated soul essence that enhanced my toughness and regeneration. It wasn't much but every bit helps.

The second purchase was the ability to actually walk like a normal human being. I spent quite a bit of time on the provided 'preview' room to reacquaint myself with walking, and better yet they had also throw in the ability to run for free. Granted I was limited to baseline human movement with this simple purchase, but it was already way better than the alternative which combined with my demonic stamina meant my travel problems were a thing to the past.

Third purchase was actually a set of purchases, allowing me to gain basic proficiency with my scythe. It beats my own self-taught style by a mile and it also allowed me to buy at least one advanced move, a charging move that ended with a cleave towards my front.

Lastly, I brought a special ability called Soul Reaper Style with the rest of my orbs. When using this style I had access to some other moves with my scythe, such as gaining the ability to spin it with a single hand and dealing multiple damage to my enemy, alongside improving my natural ability to interact and extract souls either from humans or demons. In practical terms I'm now basically an intern Soul Reaper, and I can attract orbs at a longer range.

Purchases made, I felt myself being throw back into the world. Now, for the next phase of my plan...

"Well now, you don't see one of these every day." An unknown young voice said from behind me, "any last words?"

...survive an encounter with the Son of Sparda.

~~O~~

"God this is ridiculous", said the Son of Sparda as he keep pointing out his gun towards my face but refraining from shooting. I counted my blessings just as I tried to communicate with him through the Pride language. Considering it was a language made by mutes who for all I know came from all parts of the world, it should be effective in conveying any messages to him.

Supposedly.

"Let me see if I get this straight. You want to escape the clutches of your higher ups, and in order to do that you need more power?"

I nodded enthusiastically in response.

"Couldn't you just bail it out since you're already here?"

Too weak to escape. Bound to this place, until gate is fully opened. Need more strength to break free on my own. We will all backstab each other soon.

"What a half-assed demon invasion", he said while shaking his head. "You know what? I'm feeling charitable today. You can go and do your thing, but if I catch a whiff of you killing humans you will be dead faster than you can blink."

I stared unblinkingly to him for a moment, before I nodded frantically to him.

"Good. Now run along, I have things to be and places to do."

I turned around and used my newfound mobility to run away from him, and implement phase three of my master plan.

 

Soon I was back to the city and would enact phase three of my plan.

Namely, kill every demon I could get away with before going back to the Divinity Statue. Lather, rinse, repeat.

On the surface it sounds like a dumb idea, but you have to take into consideration how I came to this world. I manifested together with a greater demon on a place where the barriers between realities were thinner than normal, and that meant I could stay in the local Limbo. If the Temen-ni-gru barriers become stronger once more I will be violently ejected back to Hell unless I have enough power to stay here, and then with the passing of time I would fully acclimate myself to the human world and be considered a native.

On the other hand if I had waited until the portal were open and came through it, then I didn't need to bother with all of this complicated scheme and just tail it when my superiors weren't looking.

But that meant the demonic forces win. Fuck them! I don't want those people actually win, I still shudder when I try to recall what they did to me, it's enough to consider a blessing that I lost most of my memories from my time as a human and the horrors I suffered during my conversion.

Still, I can't say I wasn't also irrevocably changed. I had killed not only during my time as a partially sentient demon, but also when I fully regained my sanity and to say I didn't derive pleasure from the act would be a lie. It also won't be the first time I had to backstab someone, but in the end we have to do what we can in order to survive.

I couldn't close my eyes so instead I remained still for a few moments. In this time of turmoil, we Prides understood what was at stake: the demon faction would try to curry favor with the higher ups, the rebel faction would try to become as strong as possible in order to overthrow their superiors, and we of the escape faction would backstab both in order to gain the power to set ourselves free, it will be a free for all battle royale between us, deployed demon hunters and the Son of Sparda if he catches us.

A minute later I summoned my scythe and steadied myself.

Time to hunt.

~~O~~

A couple of people where running away as the demons manifested themselves in the real world. A child falls down on the ground, and as the father comes back to fetch him the Pride rises his scythe to impale the man alongside his child.

However his swing is blocked as I manifest in the world, my own scythe locking with his. The Pride takes a surprised glance at me with his unblinking eyes, before I force him back making him stagger.

Immediately afterwards I swing my scythe, almost cutting him in half with a single hit before swinging my hand forwards and letting my weapon spin like a in my hand, the shredding motion of the Reaper Wheel tearing him apart before I finish him off with a powerful smash downwards, impaling him on the ground. The demon dissipates into motes of energy soon after, awarding me with a couple of red orbs.

By now the civilians had already fled the scene, the other Prides attention firmly on me.

They charged and I evaded them with a powerful jump, hitting the second Pride coming after me. I swing to the side as yet another enemy came in, my attack impaling him on the gut before finishing the motion with a strike that cut him from shoulder to hip.

I quickly take a simple step back to avoid impalement myself, thanking the fact they were even worse fighters than me, taking advantage of his overextended attack to counter with one of my own with a great sweeping motion that cuts him right through the middle, continuing my assault with an upwards launcher sending him high in the air. The last thing the Pride sees is me following him in the air and bringing down my scythe on his gut as we both land back on the ground.

I ruthlessly took advantage of our difference in speed, and I went through them with little difficulty until something stabbed me on the chest, lifting me up from the ground and threw me away towards a wall. I didn't had lungs but I certainly would cough if I had them. I survived only thanks to that blue orb I brought earlier, and even then it was a near thing.

The one responsible was a Hell Lust who was leering at me. Those afflicted with great lust in life when turned into demons would be stripped of any means to satisfy their base desires, yet they still kept them in the same manner ghost pain remained when someone loses a limb. Being constantly bombarded by their own insatiable lust their sanity had no opportunity to recover like with us Prides, and soon whatever remains of their rationality would focus on the newfound ecstasy of carnage and slaughter.

It usually takes two to three Prides to take down a single Lust, but then again said Prides had no concept of tactics or team work, still a Lust could take quite a beating compared with my own kin.

I stood up once more and ran after the Lust, dodging his attack at the last moment before swinging my scythe at him once, twice, thrice before smashing my weapon on the ground with the Scythe Smash maneuver from the Soul Reaper Style, killing it and gaining a green orb alongside the usual red, a form of raw demonic energy that helped heal injuries instantly. So long as I keep fighting aggressively I could survive this encounter.

Another dash and strike, my Reaper Cleave managing to finish off the last enemy. I had already collected all orbs around me and was ready to go to the next area when something manifested from the shadows.

Taller than me by a full head, wearing black robes that covered his body much better than my own rags and wielding a scythe brimming with demonic energy the Hell Vanguard stare meet my own.

"So you show your true colors, Pride. We were wondering when one of you would try something stupid. Do you have anything to say for yourself?"

I made a throat slit gesture, before giving him a thumbs down.

Come and get it, bitch!

"Cute. I will see if you will keep that attitude when I'm done with you."



I opened with a charge but the Vanguard blocked the attack, the clang of our weapons echoing in the street. His own weapon came after me in a diagonal cut, but I dodged wit a roll to the sides managing to get behind him and hit him three times, throwing my scythe forwards like a fan with Reaper Wheel and tearing at it's robe, the battered body briefly showing bellow before the demonic energy fixed the visible damage. I finished the attack with a smash on his back in an attack that would slipt a man in half and the wails of pain soon followed.

It turned to counter but I was faster, a tactical roll easily putting me out of harms way. I was ready to keep going at him but he somehow disappeared from my sight.

Something cuts at my back surprising me, and I would had screamed in pain if I still had a mouth. At the last moment I managed to regain my senses and avoid the following attack, and when I turn around he's once more gone.

This time I'm ready however and I keep rolling away, always moving to keep him guessing, until he overextended himself when he appeared once more and I punished him with a sequence of strikes right at his front, managing to catch him with my special attack when he tried his disappearing trick to avoid me.

With another wail of pain the Vanguard came rushing at me in a blind fury, making wide but powerful strikes and persistently following me. Unfortunately for him I was faster and more maneuverable, managing to keep nailing him from the side.

Panic flashed in his eyes, his movements coming faster but more predictable than before, desperation and fear of death settling in, while I remained calm while methodically chipping off his health.

I was prepared to fight to the death, I had already vowed I would either attain freedom or die trying.

He nicked me with a strike, making me wish I could bend over in pain but I braved the feeling and dodged the next strike. When he tried his disappearance trick I timed my roll to catch him right as I Cleaved him with a dash, essentially splitting him in two diagonally.

"IMPOSSIBLE! IT CANNOT BE, TO LOSE TO A WORM LIKE YOU! WHYYYYYYYYYYY!"

His body broke apart as it dissolved itself into dark sand, his manifested body being unable to remain in the real world much longer. I quickly used the dash of my special skill, but at the last minute I deviated from the brought pattern and jumped as I grabbed the soul of the demon in midair.

It tried to struggle in my hand and I would had a shit eating grin if I had a mouth. Grasping at it with one hand and punching it over and over with the other, I subdued the soul and finally absorbed it within myself.

That's half of the step to advance myself, something all greater demons know how to do, but sadly I'm just a lesser demon and such technique is beyond me, evolution in this form being beyond my grasp.

Fortunately, I knew just the right entity to outsource my advancement.

 

There were no lines in the Divinity Statue in the entrance of the tower, and I wasted no time in getting started. When I touched the statue I felt the faint acknowledgement of the god, and he focused more deeply into my soul and laid down my new options, brought by me carrying something he called Proud Soul.

As it stands the Proud Soul could give me a few options. First I could use it to enhance myself directly, skipping the normal requirements for advancement and evolution, a rare ability only greater demons and above posses, which would in turn make me faster, stronger, tougher and possibly even unlocking the coveted Devil Trigger ability.

On the other hand I could break down the Proud Soul of the Hell Vanguard and unlock further powers based on what my fallen enemy possessed. In this case I would unlock the Shadow Walk Style, a Style that would enhance my mobility ironically enough. Using a sliver of demonic energy I could quickly make a short dash in any direction, leaving a faint trail of shadows in it's wake, further improving my mobility and effectively replacing my tactical roll as a means of evasion. There were further abilities within this Style, but as usual they required more red robs to unlock.

In the end I decided to pick up the Shadow Walk Style since new abilities are harder to come by. After expending my Proud Soul, I went back to more normal purchases. Another Blue Orb, an ability to double jump using glyphs of demonic energy under my feet called Air Hike and an upgrade to Reaper Cleave which empowered it with demonic energy making the attack more potent.

Just as I came back to reality I performed a quick dash backwards, a Hell Wrath falling on the Divinity Statue and blowing it up.

"So you're the traitor Pride, aren't you?"

I looked up and I saw three greater demons looking down on me from a building. The three of them had reptilian features, being hunched over with large teeth, claws and a blazing tail signaling their affinity towards fire. One of the three had a familiar scar near his right eye, and his grin tilted just the right way to make it unique among his kin.

Irfrin.

I keep staring from my position, ready to either run or fight my way out.

The greater demon chuckled, the sound resembling brimstone cracking under heat. "What's wrong, didn't had enough to buy back your voice?" The demon asked mockingly. "Fortunately for you there are more important things for me to do than putting you in your place, but there are a few 'friends' of yours that want to meet with you."

As he said that other five Prides manifested themselves from their demonic portals, surrounding me. Like me those weren't slouching and held their own scythes with confidence.

So the bootlickers (demon faction) show themselves. Did you betray the rest and went to beg the higher ups for power?

Bold words coming from a traitor (escape faction). At least the upstarts (rebel faction) know better than go against their own nature.

My own nature? I asked with my movements being more frantic with barely restrained fury. Do you still remember what it is to be human? Did you forget what they did to us?

It is because I remember that I can't stand being weak! The leader of this small group replied. We need power to protect ourselves, to rise above our own pathetic existence! Being human is worthless, we were nothing but cattle who couldn't defend themselves! We are demons now, and we should advance our own interests.

I shook my head in disbelief, though I had already heard those arguments many times before. You're nothing but a bootlicker who slaughter humans for power. You're pathetic.

Once more I made a slit throat motion before giving them a thumbs down.

Come and get it bitches!



The first one charged at me with his own special attack, the damn copycat, and I dodged in the last minute with a simple dash, hitting him while he was vulnerable after a missed hit. Didn't he test his attacks extensively in the preview room? A quick series of strikes later and I smashed him on the ground with my finisher, the Scythe Smash.

Another enemy came in, but I managed to dodge once more with my new ability. I ended up facing all Prides on my front, ready to take them all in.

With a quick run I stabbed at one before cutting horizontally, sending a shredding attack and finishing him off with my newly improved charge attack, trails of demonic energy following my movements. It's not really subtle, but then again it wasn't meant to be.

I was ready to get to the next Pride when I heard a loud bang at the same time I felt a powerful impact on my back, staggering me a little. I turned around and saw a Pride holding a large caliber revolver in one of his hands.

I zigzagged towards him using my new Style to great effect, coming so fast the Pride ended up fumbling when he manifested his own scythe allowing me to disarm him off his gun before I place my weapon on his neck, and with a twist and twirl I landed on his back while his head fell off on the ground. I quickly pocketed the revolver before focusing on the other enemies.

Against the next enemy I propelled myself forwards in the usual manner of my special attack, alerting the enemy to block the attack, except I jumped on the last instant no doubt surprising my opponent, my scythe landing on his back and going through his chest before I took it out with a quick turn and I decapitated my enemy.

The last Pride looked much less brave than a few minutes ago, match each step back as I walked towards him with my weapon on my shoulder, before he decided to run like the coward he was. I pulled the revolver from my rags and pulled the trigger, aiming at his back and hitting him on the hip, staggering him. I kept shooting at him until he fell on the ground, and when the gun clicked empty I finished the job by smashing my scythe on his back, impaling him on the ground.

After collecting all orbs from the Prides I heard multiple sounds of manifestation nearby. I switched to Limbo and took a vantage point in a nearby building, and I saw the many demons that had been attacking the city until now were all starting to gather towards the Temen-ni-gru no doubts under orders of teh higher ups, the sighting of the Son of Sparda lighting a fire under them in their quest for glory.

Either way I had to get inside regardless since the Divinity Statue was destroyed, and frankly I didn't expected to reach the necessary power outside the tower anyway.

Gathering all courage I had, I made my way towards my next destiny.

 

The entrance was frozen shut, but thankfully there was an artificial entrance for me to enter. Inside the entrance chamber there were signs of battle, with icicles and massive paw prints on the ground. I entered through the massive door at the back, idly noting the big hole near the ceiling leading to the second floor.

The main room was quite imposing, all things considered. At the opposite side of the entrance was a large statue of angelic figures, with many pillars with torches on top of them decorating the hall. Two staircases went on both sides of the room, going up and up into the tower, a door shrouded in flames near the entrance.

Fortunately for me there was already a Divinity Statue at the entrance allowing me to check the new wares. I didn't had many orbs but I still got enough to buy basic proficiency with handguns, alongside tying the handgun to myself turning it into a secondary manifestation of my demonic power, allowing to further upgrade it's capabilities in the future and granting it infinite ammo by using demonic energy to create bullets. To finish it off, once I buy enough upgrades or my gun I will be able to buy another Style for general ranged weaponry.

Now with that out of the way I had to get back to becoming stronger. I could climb the tower the normal way, but that have the danger of running into the Son of Sparda and I doubt he will be so generous twice in a row. It was a good thing then that I could switch back to Limbo and skip all of this.

With a bit of concentration a demonic glyph appeared behind my feet and for a moment I felt a sensation of weightlessness, before dropping on the ground in the Limbo version of the tower.

I didn't need to walk much before I found several Prides and Lusts going up, no doubt following the Son of Sparda steps either wanting to challenge him for glory or due to their superiors ordering them to try and soften up the man. We can't have that now, can we?

I hit the floor with the butt of my weapon loudly, drawing their attention. As every face turned to me I opened my arms leaving my chest open while casually taking a few steps forwards.

Come at me bro!

At the back of the group I saw two Prides nodding to each other, before straightening themselves. Before any other demon could realize, they cut down the ones nearest themselves. Taking that as the invitation that it was, I charged at the nearest Pride and cut through him with my special attack.

The second and third enemies fell down quickly to a fast combination attack, while the next one fell to quick dash and a hook to his neck before using the power of my special attack to finish the decapitation maneuver. While I didn't had the necessary mastery for really complicated techniques I had used previous opportunity on the preview room to train potential combos with the skills I already possessed, turning mere technique into true skills.

As I went through the enemies the two Prides on the front where also quickly dispatching their own opponents, their attacks being somewhat similar though still different enough to differentiate each of our styles. Soon, all hostile demons fell, leaving only me and the two other Prides.

Are you two from the Escape faction?

Now, we are both from the Rebel faction. I thought the likes of you would run away instead of entering the tower.

I still don't have enough power to go further away from the local breach.

Hmm, yes I almost forgot that as the vanguard we are still bound to Limbo. The left one said before pointing his scythe to me. Come with us! Twin Sons of Sparda will weaken themselves fighting each other, giving us the chance to strike back and usurp their power!

I couldn't believe what I just saw. There are two of them?

Indeed. One of them was responsible for resurrecting the tower. Now come, with one more to our side we will be able to quickly gain power.

Just one question them, I said before looking at those two, how many humans did you kill to get this strong?

They simply stared at me before shaking their heads and shoulders in amusement. Ah, I see we have one human sympathizer here. That's a lot of nerve coming from you, don't you also have greater powers now? Or did you really try to fight off our kind as you were before?

Broken furniture can hardly come close to human lives. Did you enjoy killing humans, like you were killed so long ago?

I did what I had to do.

I shook my head. No, no you didn't. You killed humans because you wanted to, don't make any excuses!

I don't need to listen to a traitor (escape faction). Your mistake was announcing yourself in our presence, traitor!



The two Prides came after me, one with a frontal charge and the other tried to flank me. With a quick dash I avoided the first attack, quickly flipping the mental switch towards Soul Reaper Style and retaliating. Three quick strikes before thrusting my scythe forwards and making it spin like a propeller and following by smashing my weapon on his chest pinning him to the ground.

I jumped back just in time to avoid the second Pride attack, using my gun to fire at them and gain some more distance. While I missed some shots it still piled up the damage from a safe distance while they could only endure my attacks and try to get close to me. Their team work also left much to be desired and for a moment I thought it would be a simple fight.

One of them threw his weapon towards me, the scythe spinning horizontally almost following my movements. I jumped up to avoid the attack and the second Pride soon followed in the air, and much to my surprise he performed the Reaper Cleave in mid air, closing the large distance between us instantly and hitting me square on teh chest, sending me flying backwards towards the wall. I endured the pain and took my gun to shoot at them and gain some more distance.

I switched tactics and stayed at range, shooting and evading their attacks slowly taking out their health, until I saw an opening and with a quick sprint the Pride was cleaved with a powerful attack imbued with demonic energy. The enemy burst into smoke and sand as his accumulated red orbs flew towards me, and I was ready to grab his soul before it was intercepted by my second opponent, who managed to grab it and jam on his chest.

There was a brief flash of light, and the second pride was almost as tall as as Hell Vanguard, demonic energy shrouding his body with an aura of malevolence. He must have brought the ability to self-evolve from the God of Time and Space, marking him officially as a greater demon upon his recent evolution.

And I just needed a new Proud Soul, how convenient.

He quickly charged, the attack coming much faster than before and I almost couldn't dodge it in time. I kept my distance trying to find an opening, until he came in a frenzy, cutting and slashing in my direction with wild abandon, and no matter where I dodged and ran he came after me, ignoring the wounds from my gun until I found myself cornered.

He stabbed his scythe backwards, when something bit into my back making me stagger for a moment allowing the Pride to smash in my chest with his special attack sending me crashing towards the wall, bouncing once from it just to be hit by a second follow up attack of the same nature.

If I still had blood I would had lost most of it from the attacks, the pain almost making me lose consciousness once I hit the ground. I managed to roll and avoid the finisher at the last moment, dashing forwards to avoid the strange attack from hitting me once more. Fortunately for me once I knew what to expect for the attack was easy to avoid, as the set up was easy to identify and took some time to prepare.

Sadly I was already on my last legs and I needed something to turn the tides. I ahd to try something Crazy, something Brave.

Something Awesome.

My opponent came after me with his own version of my special attack, and I matched him with mine. As we were about to clash I jumped before the two weapons connected with each other, shooting him in the back and using my double jump ability to position myself just right to bring down my weapon to impale him on the chest. He couldn't quite fully dodge, getting a gash on his chest from the attack, but I didn't stepped there.

One, two, three attacks followed as I stepped forwards before shooting him in the face, using my speed to circle him while he staggered before repeating it once more, using the propeler attack to shred his flesh. My demonic energy enhanced scythe cut through him, and as he was sent several meters back I finished it off with a bullet to to his head.

The demon convulsed for a moment, twitching on the ground as I approached him while dark miasma leaked through his body until he stopped.

I took another step forwards and suddenly the Pride leaped towards me ready to impale me on his scythe.

I answered with a bullet to the head, making it explode like bloody confetti and it's body crashing on the ground right in front of me. It's soul floated above the corpse for a moment, and before it disappeared I grabbed hold of it.

The soul struggled in my grip but I held it tightly. I slightly opened my hand and the soul took that opportunity to try and escape, but it's flight was stopped when it meet with my fist as I started to pound it into submission. Several blows later the soul stopped struggling and it's light dimmed from it's previous bright hue to a subdued tone.

More red orbs came from him alongside with a green orb to regenerate my health back to full.

I was now several red orbs and one Proud Soul richer than before, but I held back my urge to return to the Divinity Statue right away. If I keep going back and forth from the Divinity Statue too often I will end up wasting too much time, time I might not have.

The twin Sons of Sparda would inevitably clash with each other, and I had to make it clear which side I would pick, though I held no illusions that I could make a difference in the grand scheme of things.

 

Checking the orbs I had I realized I still didn't had much for another purchase so I refrained from returning immediately and instead I started going up.

There were some secret passages in the Limbo dimension which allowed me to hopefully avoid the Son of Sparda, while at the same time meeting with more demons to kill.

As I walked towards the first room I saw a couple of demons milling about, no doubt waiting for someone to enter in the real world to attack. They were completely caught by surprise when I started attacking them out of nowhere, with both scythe and gun leaving no survivors. The second and third rooms were no better than that and I managed to get a couple of red orbs for myself.

It was later that things started to get more complicate.

I slowly sneaked towards the new hall, and I saw the place was packed with demons around the corners of the room. I could see the faint ghost of a living person being reflected on Limbo. Some kind of girl armed with guns and other weaponry strapped in pouches on her back.

As she keep walking through the hall towards the next exit the demons started to manifest themselves on the real world. Well now, I can't have them gang up on a pretty girl like her, can I? Even if the simple fact that she's braving the Temen-ni-gru on her own points towards a fearsome fighter.



A large wave of demons materialized themselves and I followed along, the girl already shooting at the demons with wild abandon. I took my own gun and shoot at one sneaking behind her, making her quickly turn around but I was already dealing with more Prides and Lusts at my side.

The first wave was dispatched quickly, though the second wave came almost immediately as the first one was defeated. I quickly crossed the distance from another demon that tried to take her back, cutting him down with my Reaper Cleave before dashing after him and hooking my scythe on his neck, jumping over and decapitating him in a swift motion.

I keep shooting at them to draw their attention, jumping high in the air before bringing my weapon down on a Wrath that manifested himself, before escaping the explosion with a quick run. While I have yet to further upgrade the Shadow Walker Style it had already proved to be an invaluable tool.

When the next wave came I would have become paler if that were even possible, with three Greeds backed up by a group of Lusts. The Greeds are special in that they had traded actual combat capability for a greater amount of demonic energy, allowing them help manifest more demons directly from the demon world almost like a summoning ritual and so long as they were there reinforcements would never stop. They must have arrived in he room after I manifested in the real world.

I quickly choose one greed and went after it, cutting down the Lusts one by one until they got into a manageable level and I started to deal with the larger coffin carrying demon. I stabbed at him on the chest, but even then he kept trying to manifest demons and even placing my gun on his face and shooting it multiple times wasn't enough to stop him before a new batch of Prides arrived. One of them managed to nick me on the back, but I quickly recovered before mostly dodging them and dealing with the Hell Greed. After a few more swings he dissolved itself, the large coffin bursting with energy.

At that time another one had fallen thanks to the efforts of the girl, before we both double teamed the last Greed. She keep shooting at it with a submachine gun on one side while I slashed and pierced the demon on the back, until I heard a whistling sound and I retreated back to avoid the missile hitting the enemy.

She had already used that large missile launcher of hers twice, and I have the impression that kind of weapon wasn't meant to be reloaded. Besides, where did she keep the necessary ammo for that? Is she also a regular to the God of Time and Space?

Either way with the third Greed fallen we made quick work of the rest of the demons, with the final one being thorn to shreds from my attack before I shoot it on the head.

I turned to see what the girl would do next, when I felt a sharp pain in my chest. Looking down I saw the girl's submachine gun bayonet hitting squarely where my heart would be if I still had one, before she pulled the trigger and basically emptied the gun on my chest.

I managed to extricate myself from the weapon even while I fought the incredible pain hitting me, and while fighting the pain I made good use of my Style dash to run away from her, turning into a corner and going to Limbo as fast as I could.

I saw her shadow on the Limbo follow me where I had run, looking around searching for me. I stayed still while she searched the room, even if I knew that if she couldn't directly follow me to Limbo I was safe from her.

A full minute later, she turned around and left.

I didn't had lungs, but I felt like I was holding my breath so nerve wracking was the experience.

Go ahead and shoot the demon that was helping your ass back there, would you? See if I care next time.

Slowly I shuffled towards the next nest of demons to see if I could nab a few green orbs for myself. I had survived an encounter with the Son of Sparda, just to almost die when a human demon hunter girl came after my ass.

Just my luck.