Devil Bring It On!
Chapter 1
One hell of a tutorial
Waking up with no clue where you...
Chapter 1
One hell of a tutorial
Waking up with no clue where you...
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Devil Bring It On! (Multicross OC Insert, Devil May Cry Start)
- Thread starter Gray Walker
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Chapter 1
Gray Walker
Demi Fiend
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2021
- Messages
- 552
- Likes received
- 2,535
Devil Bring It On!
Chapter 1
One hell of a tutorial
Waking up with no clue where you were tended to suck. That was a no brainer.
You know what else tended to suck? Having the first thing you meet be a pack of murderous demons.
I really should rewind a bit.
The name's Will Walters. Before this situation I was a fairly average dude.
The day before was normal as always. Wake up, drag myself through the workday, relax what little I could when I get home and go to sleep to get ready for the next day of more of the same.
When I came to, I was no longer in my bed. Instead I found myself sprawled on the ground.
The first thing I noticed as I struggled to my feet was my right arm. Or rather the new arm that took its place.
Instead of pink squishy flesh my arm was now covered in hardened reptilian scales of red and blue, with lines along my forearm that went to my palms and now clawed fingers glowing a radiant electric blue. The scales made a pattern that resembled fingerless gloves around the glowing flesh, a funny thing really.
Of course the next detail I noticed were the clothes I was wearing and changes to my body in general.
I was wearing a dark blue long coat, black pants and long brown combat boots. Under the long coats was a red hoodie and underneath that was a black t-shirt. My skin was paler, my body was longer and as I felt around it I could see strong wiry muscles all over.
Seems like the arm wasn't the only thing that was replaced, if my hunch was correct the rest of my body was a match for the original owner's.
The thing about my new body was that I recognized it. It was a replica of the Nero's from Devil May Cry 4. And that demonic right arm was known as the Devil Bringer.
The third thing that caught my attention was the surroundings.
I looked around to see myself in a wasteland, of red worn down stone with a crimson sky. The consistency of the colour was one thing but what really caught one's eye was the sun, which looked to be in an endless eclipse.
I did what one normally does, when confronted with the impossible. Try to deny it. I went the usual route, asked myself if this was a dream, tested my pain response, tried to alter the surroundings with my imagination, a routine you've probably heard a thousand times. Deep down I already knew the answer.
This was as real as life itself.
When confronted with such a substantial revelation I did the next natural thing one does when in an overwhelming situation, plead to a higher power.
"Hello! Anyone up there? As much as I appreciate the blessings, a little direction would be nice," I said to the sky. "Isn't there supposed to be an info dump? Some sort of choice where to go?"
I waited and received no response
"Okay Will, on the upside you got some cool powers and an awesome bod," I said to myself. "On the downside you seem stranded in who the hell knows where with no idea how to get out or survive."
So I did the only thing I really could do at such a point, wander around and search for anything to improve my situation. At least with a body like this it seemed a stroll wouldn't wear me down.
As I walked I took another look at my new body. While the clothes had the holsters for the sword and gun I knew he wielded, it seems whoever put me here wasn't so kind as to provide me with them. What stood out though to me was the addition of a pendant to the ensemble, a locket to be precise.
"Everything else is Nero's, and this sure as hell ain't mine. Any hints before I spoil the surprise?" I said to the sky. "Hope you're being entertained, whoever you are."
Again silence was my only companion.
"Fine, guess I'll have to see it for myself," I said, opening the locket.
What I saw inside was two shards of metal, both the size of finger nails.
'I.. I feel a bit ripped off,' I thought.
Then my right arm started to glow brighter, emitting a low hum.
"Okay Will, you know what that means. Either demons are nearby or these pieces of metal are special."
I looked around to see no one around.
I examined the shards again, holding the locket up to the light of the eclipse. Both were shining steel, the left one had some darker swirling lines running through it. I heard that's a sign of Damascus steel. The right one instead was of two tones one brighter and the other darker, with a wavy line separating the two. That seemed to be a hamon, so this was likely a piece of a katana.
"Wait, you're kidding me, these can't be?," I said. "But what if they are?"
While it was a bit of a stretch, I had a decent guess as to what those shards were taking into account my current accommodations.
I reached out to them with my right arm almost touching them, the glow intensified, and in turn the shards glowed too. The left red and the right blue.
That settled it. I knew what those shards were now. The one that glowed blue was a piece of The Yamato, the sword of Sparda that Vergil inherited. The other was a shard of The Rebellion, the sword of Sparda inherited by Dante. Both held great abilities within them and were manifestations of their owner's demonic power. Both blades were broken at some point in time, the Yamato by the Demon Emperor Mundus some time after DMC 3 and the Rebellion by Urizen during DMC 5.
"Wait, this is Nero's DMC 4 body, and the Rebellion was shattered years later. How can both coexist?"
I took another look inside the locket, this time more closely.
Engraved on its inner surface was the head of a lion with a symbol of an hour glass above it.
'Oh, real subtle there,' I thought 'So it seems the God of Time and Space is related to all this. Or do they prefer Goddess? Are they my sponsor? Or is someone else just using their powers or symbology? Still, no wonder I'm getting stuff from across time if they're involved in this.'
I was about to continue my wandering when the reality of the situation truly set in. If I had a Yamato shard… wouldn't that mean I could use it to get out of wherever I was?
I was about to open the locket again when I heard some footsteps.
Well to call them footsteps was a bit generous. What shambled in the distance was a group of six creatures that looked like crosses between mannequins and corpses. They had mask like faces, flesh like tendons connecting smooth dull plates all over their bodies and with long misshapen cleaver like blades coming out of their wrists and folding back along their arms.
Given my situation it was pretty easy to figure out they were demons. The question then was what to do with them.
'Should I fight them? Should I lay low?,' I thought. 'Wait, if those are demons and I have all this DMC stuff then that must mean I'm in the demon realm. Why the hell am I in this hell? What am I-'
*SKREEE*
My thoughts were interrupted by the inhuman screech of one of the demons. During my ruminations over my situation it seemed they noticed me. Now the sluggishness of their shambling was gone and they came running at me.
As the leader of the pack approached me with a running slash I blocked with my right arm. It caught the attack mid swing and stopped it dead. I pushed back against it and wound up knocking the first into the second one that approached. Seems I wasn't used to the new strength yet.
I tried to force something, some level of power through my right arm. This would normally be the point where a large spectral copy of said arm would manifest so I could use its massive strength, but it seemed that wasn't in the cards for me yet.
I was granted power but no instructions. What a joke. Anyways back to the fight.
While two were on the ground there were still four coming at me. As the next two came to rush me in a pincer attack I simply dodged backwards. It was funny it seemed like their attacks were in slow motion to me as I continued to dodge their assault. While I didn't have a clue how to use its more advanced powers it seems this body's parameters were still top notch. Still, there was no point in dodging forever, I had to counter attack somehow.
So after dodging another blow I tried a punch with the Devil Bringer. While I wasn't able to project a spectral arm, a very durable arm with greater super strength than the rest of my already powerful body was still a good option in a fight.
The area of impact was the centre mass on the right most assailant. The demon, while far more durable than a man's, had the porcelain like plate shattered and the flesh below was pulped. Regardless, like a puppet on strings the creature kept coming.
So I continued to dodge and give an occasional jab with the right arm. As time persisted I downed two of them into bloody messes, with blades shattered and armor broken, they were corpses on the ground.
This was taking too long. So it was time to switch it up. As the last four continued to attack me, I got into a stance. Not to dodge but to catch an attack once again.
This time it was a simple matter. I caught the blade with my right arm and then gave a tug. The demon was sent careening behind me while I still held their cleaver like blade in my arm.
With a weapon, however improvised it was, the last fell much easier.
Before I knew it I was alone again wandering the wasteland.
'Maybe next time I could try talking to them?,' I thought. 'Ah who am I kidding? it'll only be blood and death in this realm'
"I really need to figure out how to use those shards," I said to myself.
Author's Note:
So yeah. If you read the snippets I posted earlier that this is based on welcome back. If you're a new reader thanks for giving it a look.
Changed some things up a bit from the original snippets and tried to give things an edit.
Still looking for a beta reader or an alpha reader and don't be shy to comment.
Chapter 1
One hell of a tutorial
Waking up with no clue where you were tended to suck. That was a no brainer.
You know what else tended to suck? Having the first thing you meet be a pack of murderous demons.
I really should rewind a bit.
The name's Will Walters. Before this situation I was a fairly average dude.
The day before was normal as always. Wake up, drag myself through the workday, relax what little I could when I get home and go to sleep to get ready for the next day of more of the same.
When I came to, I was no longer in my bed. Instead I found myself sprawled on the ground.
The first thing I noticed as I struggled to my feet was my right arm. Or rather the new arm that took its place.
Instead of pink squishy flesh my arm was now covered in hardened reptilian scales of red and blue, with lines along my forearm that went to my palms and now clawed fingers glowing a radiant electric blue. The scales made a pattern that resembled fingerless gloves around the glowing flesh, a funny thing really.
Of course the next detail I noticed were the clothes I was wearing and changes to my body in general.
I was wearing a dark blue long coat, black pants and long brown combat boots. Under the long coats was a red hoodie and underneath that was a black t-shirt. My skin was paler, my body was longer and as I felt around it I could see strong wiry muscles all over.
Seems like the arm wasn't the only thing that was replaced, if my hunch was correct the rest of my body was a match for the original owner's.
The thing about my new body was that I recognized it. It was a replica of the Nero's from Devil May Cry 4. And that demonic right arm was known as the Devil Bringer.
The third thing that caught my attention was the surroundings.
I looked around to see myself in a wasteland, of red worn down stone with a crimson sky. The consistency of the colour was one thing but what really caught one's eye was the sun, which looked to be in an endless eclipse.
I did what one normally does, when confronted with the impossible. Try to deny it. I went the usual route, asked myself if this was a dream, tested my pain response, tried to alter the surroundings with my imagination, a routine you've probably heard a thousand times. Deep down I already knew the answer.
This was as real as life itself.
When confronted with such a substantial revelation I did the next natural thing one does when in an overwhelming situation, plead to a higher power.
"Hello! Anyone up there? As much as I appreciate the blessings, a little direction would be nice," I said to the sky. "Isn't there supposed to be an info dump? Some sort of choice where to go?"
I waited and received no response
"Okay Will, on the upside you got some cool powers and an awesome bod," I said to myself. "On the downside you seem stranded in who the hell knows where with no idea how to get out or survive."
So I did the only thing I really could do at such a point, wander around and search for anything to improve my situation. At least with a body like this it seemed a stroll wouldn't wear me down.
As I walked I took another look at my new body. While the clothes had the holsters for the sword and gun I knew he wielded, it seems whoever put me here wasn't so kind as to provide me with them. What stood out though to me was the addition of a pendant to the ensemble, a locket to be precise.
"Everything else is Nero's, and this sure as hell ain't mine. Any hints before I spoil the surprise?" I said to the sky. "Hope you're being entertained, whoever you are."
Again silence was my only companion.
"Fine, guess I'll have to see it for myself," I said, opening the locket.
What I saw inside was two shards of metal, both the size of finger nails.
'I.. I feel a bit ripped off,' I thought.
Then my right arm started to glow brighter, emitting a low hum.
"Okay Will, you know what that means. Either demons are nearby or these pieces of metal are special."
I looked around to see no one around.
I examined the shards again, holding the locket up to the light of the eclipse. Both were shining steel, the left one had some darker swirling lines running through it. I heard that's a sign of Damascus steel. The right one instead was of two tones one brighter and the other darker, with a wavy line separating the two. That seemed to be a hamon, so this was likely a piece of a katana.
"Wait, you're kidding me, these can't be?," I said. "But what if they are?"
While it was a bit of a stretch, I had a decent guess as to what those shards were taking into account my current accommodations.
I reached out to them with my right arm almost touching them, the glow intensified, and in turn the shards glowed too. The left red and the right blue.
That settled it. I knew what those shards were now. The one that glowed blue was a piece of The Yamato, the sword of Sparda that Vergil inherited. The other was a shard of The Rebellion, the sword of Sparda inherited by Dante. Both held great abilities within them and were manifestations of their owner's demonic power. Both blades were broken at some point in time, the Yamato by the Demon Emperor Mundus some time after DMC 3 and the Rebellion by Urizen during DMC 5.
"Wait, this is Nero's DMC 4 body, and the Rebellion was shattered years later. How can both coexist?"
I took another look inside the locket, this time more closely.
Engraved on its inner surface was the head of a lion with a symbol of an hour glass above it.
'Oh, real subtle there,' I thought 'So it seems the God of Time and Space is related to all this. Or do they prefer Goddess? Are they my sponsor? Or is someone else just using their powers or symbology? Still, no wonder I'm getting stuff from across time if they're involved in this.'
I was about to continue my wandering when the reality of the situation truly set in. If I had a Yamato shard… wouldn't that mean I could use it to get out of wherever I was?
I was about to open the locket again when I heard some footsteps.
Well to call them footsteps was a bit generous. What shambled in the distance was a group of six creatures that looked like crosses between mannequins and corpses. They had mask like faces, flesh like tendons connecting smooth dull plates all over their bodies and with long misshapen cleaver like blades coming out of their wrists and folding back along their arms.
Given my situation it was pretty easy to figure out they were demons. The question then was what to do with them.
'Should I fight them? Should I lay low?,' I thought. 'Wait, if those are demons and I have all this DMC stuff then that must mean I'm in the demon realm. Why the hell am I in this hell? What am I-'
*SKREEE*
My thoughts were interrupted by the inhuman screech of one of the demons. During my ruminations over my situation it seemed they noticed me. Now the sluggishness of their shambling was gone and they came running at me.
As the leader of the pack approached me with a running slash I blocked with my right arm. It caught the attack mid swing and stopped it dead. I pushed back against it and wound up knocking the first into the second one that approached. Seems I wasn't used to the new strength yet.
I tried to force something, some level of power through my right arm. This would normally be the point where a large spectral copy of said arm would manifest so I could use its massive strength, but it seemed that wasn't in the cards for me yet.
I was granted power but no instructions. What a joke. Anyways back to the fight.
While two were on the ground there were still four coming at me. As the next two came to rush me in a pincer attack I simply dodged backwards. It was funny it seemed like their attacks were in slow motion to me as I continued to dodge their assault. While I didn't have a clue how to use its more advanced powers it seems this body's parameters were still top notch. Still, there was no point in dodging forever, I had to counter attack somehow.
So after dodging another blow I tried a punch with the Devil Bringer. While I wasn't able to project a spectral arm, a very durable arm with greater super strength than the rest of my already powerful body was still a good option in a fight.
The area of impact was the centre mass on the right most assailant. The demon, while far more durable than a man's, had the porcelain like plate shattered and the flesh below was pulped. Regardless, like a puppet on strings the creature kept coming.
So I continued to dodge and give an occasional jab with the right arm. As time persisted I downed two of them into bloody messes, with blades shattered and armor broken, they were corpses on the ground.
This was taking too long. So it was time to switch it up. As the last four continued to attack me, I got into a stance. Not to dodge but to catch an attack once again.
This time it was a simple matter. I caught the blade with my right arm and then gave a tug. The demon was sent careening behind me while I still held their cleaver like blade in my arm.
With a weapon, however improvised it was, the last fell much easier.
Before I knew it I was alone again wandering the wasteland.
'Maybe next time I could try talking to them?,' I thought. 'Ah who am I kidding? it'll only be blood and death in this realm'
"I really need to figure out how to use those shards," I said to myself.
Author's Note:
So yeah. If you read the snippets I posted earlier that this is based on welcome back. If you're a new reader thanks for giving it a look.
Changed some things up a bit from the original snippets and tried to give things an edit.
Still looking for a beta reader or an alpha reader and don't be shy to comment.
Last edited:
Chapter 2
Gray Walker
Demi Fiend
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2021
- Messages
- 552
- Likes received
- 2,535
Devil Bring It On!
Chapter 2
Wake Up Call
You ever wonder how people activated their supernatural abilities?
Well that was the question I was grappling with at that moment.
It's hard to describe really, gaining demonic power. It's like gaining a new muscle that you'd never used before. There was a mix of intent and automatic processes at work. Trying to shift the scales to the former instead of the latter was turning out to be quite the ordeal.
"Come on, come on out…" I said pausing for a few seconds. "Damn it! Nero made it look so natural. I wind up touching this stupid shard with the Devil Bringer and my arm decides the best course of action is to eat it."
Well it was kind of obvious that's what it would do in retrospect, given the Devil Bringer absorbed the full Yamato but I still wasn't used to having it. At the very least it didn't absorb the Rebellion shard when it brushed against it.
I just didn't get it. Did the shards have a will of their own? I knew the swords they were once part of probably possessed something resembling that but for the pieces themselves to carry it? That was something else.
Don't get me wrong, absorbing the shard felt good, like really good. Made me feel energized in a way that was almost intoxicating and it felt like a piece of me I never knew was missing was found. But I needed to be able to call upon its powers consciously, and having it stuck in my arm wasn't very conducive to that.
'Maybe I need to get into a fight to get used to it?' I thought. 'At the very least it'll help me blow off some steam. Hopefully it's just a bunch of small fry again.'
Perhaps it was overconfidence from the new body or just the frustration at making such a stupid mistake that was driving me to do so. Either way for the first time in my life I was wandering to look for a fight.
Okay, this was ridiculous, for once I want to fight a bunch of demons and instead I get nothing.
I'd almost given up and decided to try to force the Yamato shard out when I heard it in the distance. A thunderclap, then I heard it again, and again and again in rapid succession.
I looked to the source and saw the clear red sky was muddied by clouds to my west? Or was it my east? I couldn't tell really since the eclipsed sun stayed in place at high noon position the whole time I was here.
Well that was beside the point, a storm was approaching. Not just any storm, it seemed that the thundercloud was going crazy. Lightning jumped around inside it like it was alive.
I tried looking for shelter, but the barren wasteland I was in provided none. For all I knew that thundercloud could be raining acid or something worse with how weird this realm operated. Maybe that's why it was so hard to find other demons? They were fleeing from this?
Well as it approached I braced myself for the worst. Even with this new body I doubt I could outrun it for long. Might as well confront it head on.
To my relief the thundercloud didn't rain acid, in fact it delivered what I was asking for, more demons to fight.
Two bolts of lightning fell to the ground and where they impacted stood two blitzes. Large vaguely humanoid horned beetle like demons that could control and transform into lightning. They were a pain to fight in the games with their saving grace being they were blind. And there I was fighting two of them at once.
'I really should have ran when I had the chance, shouldn't I?,' I thought.
I pulled the cleaver I procured from the last group of demons and prepared myself for what was coming next.
The blitzes both launched streams of electricity at me, well focused beams to be more precise, and swept them across the ground. I jumped in the air each time they passed but every time I landed they heard the impact of my boots on the ground and re aimed their shots at me. It was like a lethal game of jump rope. We all couldn't keep this going forever, but it'd just take one slip up on my end for them to land a terrible hit. Didn't help that I didn't have a ranged weapon to whittle down their lightning armor, that would have shocked me as I approached or flat out deflected my blows.
If I was kept on the back foot like this I was going to lose, going to die. And that was not an option.
'Come on, if there was a time for you to start working it'd be now,' I thought, trying to surge power into the Devil Bringer. 'No? Fine, let's do it this way.'
I jumped between the two of them and got lucky. They both launched their beams at me and wound up hitting each other after I jumped again. Their armor of lightning seemed to weaken from that a fair bit. Friendly fire was on the cards, that was good to know. It also seems they weren't very smart, but still, that doesn't mean I should underestimate them.
I wound up throwing the cleaver as hard as I could with the Devil Bringer at the one to my right. It seemed that was enough to break through the barrier at the cost of my melee weapon. I rushed to try to take advantage of the stunned blitz and pummeled it with jabs from my right arm. I aimed for the head and grabbed its horn, breaking it off, but that wasn't enough to keep it down.
And even worse, in my excitement I forgot about the other opponent.
While I heard the slash coming from behind dodging it was another story. These things were fast and though I tried my best the claw left a gash on my left shoulder as I tried to get out of the way.
"Argh!," I screamed, unused to the pain. As I felt my left arm go numb, I jumped away from the next blow more successfully.
The next thing I knew I heard an enraged shriek to snap me out of the haze of pain. The hornless Blitz' enveloped itself in lightning once more, this time it was red lightning.
Uh oh.
I knew what that meant. The demon was in its death throes and would try to take me with it if need be. The enraged blitz turned to lightning and struck the ground, where I was standing a second ago while the more healthy switched back to shooting beams of lightning and sweeping the ground with them.
Again I was stuck dodging. Jumping around again and again. But this time I was bleeding, and slowing down. If another set of demons showed up I was done for.
'Damn it all! Where the hell's the red one,' I thought. 'Can't go on the attack as long as it's still hanging around.'
My thought was soon answered as a surge of lightning appeared from under me just as I landed from my latest jump. I tried to jump again, but it was like dodging lightning, it swiftly caught me in a bear hug. Seems like they weren't as dumb as I thought, it must have felt me jumping around from under ground and waited for me to land. The pain of the lightning surging off its skin was unbearable.
Time slowed down for me. Well not literally, as can happen in this universe with the right powers, but that moment felt like an eternity.
It was now or never, I had to break free. I had to live!
I struggled with the devil bringer, pouring all my will into it.
And it responded. There was a brief burst of energy almost like an explosion around my right arm. It was enough to loosen the demon's death grip ever so minutely.
A spectral arm rose out of my right one grabbed onto the demon's arm and tore it off. Freed from the grasp I dove to the side and ducked to the ground, I felt heat on my back and a pressure wave from the explosion of the lightning demon.
I got up surprised to see the other demon didn't capitalize on my vulnerability.
It seemed the remaining demon was stunned by the effects of its partner's suicide attack. Perhaps the creature's hearing was overwhelmed? It was blind after all. It didn't matter the reason I just thanked whatever god watched over me for the easy kill.
Now that demonic power was properly flowing through my veins, I was able to use the Devil Bringer. Now I had something with better range than my fists.
It took two punches with my spectral arm to break through the beast's lightning armor and one grasp to crush its head and bypass the chance of it going berserk and exploding entirely.
"Ha.. ha ha!" I half laughed, half panted as I collapsed to the ground, lying on my back. As I gazed at the sky I saw the storm cloud had vanished.
That didn't matter to me then. The adrenaline had faded and I felt like shit. I could still smell the ozone and burning from my singed clothes and skin.
But at least I figured out the start of how to use my abilities.
Author's Note: Well here's chapter 2. Hope it's as good as or better than the first one.
Was the fight scene okay? Not used to writing those yet.
Anything in the chapter you particularly liked?
Anything in the chapter you find off?
Let me know in the comments.
Chapter 2
Wake Up Call
You ever wonder how people activated their supernatural abilities?
Well that was the question I was grappling with at that moment.
It's hard to describe really, gaining demonic power. It's like gaining a new muscle that you'd never used before. There was a mix of intent and automatic processes at work. Trying to shift the scales to the former instead of the latter was turning out to be quite the ordeal.
"Come on, come on out…" I said pausing for a few seconds. "Damn it! Nero made it look so natural. I wind up touching this stupid shard with the Devil Bringer and my arm decides the best course of action is to eat it."
Well it was kind of obvious that's what it would do in retrospect, given the Devil Bringer absorbed the full Yamato but I still wasn't used to having it. At the very least it didn't absorb the Rebellion shard when it brushed against it.
I just didn't get it. Did the shards have a will of their own? I knew the swords they were once part of probably possessed something resembling that but for the pieces themselves to carry it? That was something else.
Don't get me wrong, absorbing the shard felt good, like really good. Made me feel energized in a way that was almost intoxicating and it felt like a piece of me I never knew was missing was found. But I needed to be able to call upon its powers consciously, and having it stuck in my arm wasn't very conducive to that.
'Maybe I need to get into a fight to get used to it?' I thought. 'At the very least it'll help me blow off some steam. Hopefully it's just a bunch of small fry again.'
Perhaps it was overconfidence from the new body or just the frustration at making such a stupid mistake that was driving me to do so. Either way for the first time in my life I was wandering to look for a fight.
Okay, this was ridiculous, for once I want to fight a bunch of demons and instead I get nothing.
I'd almost given up and decided to try to force the Yamato shard out when I heard it in the distance. A thunderclap, then I heard it again, and again and again in rapid succession.
I looked to the source and saw the clear red sky was muddied by clouds to my west? Or was it my east? I couldn't tell really since the eclipsed sun stayed in place at high noon position the whole time I was here.
Well that was beside the point, a storm was approaching. Not just any storm, it seemed that the thundercloud was going crazy. Lightning jumped around inside it like it was alive.
I tried looking for shelter, but the barren wasteland I was in provided none. For all I knew that thundercloud could be raining acid or something worse with how weird this realm operated. Maybe that's why it was so hard to find other demons? They were fleeing from this?
Well as it approached I braced myself for the worst. Even with this new body I doubt I could outrun it for long. Might as well confront it head on.
To my relief the thundercloud didn't rain acid, in fact it delivered what I was asking for, more demons to fight.
Two bolts of lightning fell to the ground and where they impacted stood two blitzes. Large vaguely humanoid horned beetle like demons that could control and transform into lightning. They were a pain to fight in the games with their saving grace being they were blind. And there I was fighting two of them at once.
'I really should have ran when I had the chance, shouldn't I?,' I thought.
I pulled the cleaver I procured from the last group of demons and prepared myself for what was coming next.
The blitzes both launched streams of electricity at me, well focused beams to be more precise, and swept them across the ground. I jumped in the air each time they passed but every time I landed they heard the impact of my boots on the ground and re aimed their shots at me. It was like a lethal game of jump rope. We all couldn't keep this going forever, but it'd just take one slip up on my end for them to land a terrible hit. Didn't help that I didn't have a ranged weapon to whittle down their lightning armor, that would have shocked me as I approached or flat out deflected my blows.
If I was kept on the back foot like this I was going to lose, going to die. And that was not an option.
'Come on, if there was a time for you to start working it'd be now,' I thought, trying to surge power into the Devil Bringer. 'No? Fine, let's do it this way.'
I jumped between the two of them and got lucky. They both launched their beams at me and wound up hitting each other after I jumped again. Their armor of lightning seemed to weaken from that a fair bit. Friendly fire was on the cards, that was good to know. It also seems they weren't very smart, but still, that doesn't mean I should underestimate them.
I wound up throwing the cleaver as hard as I could with the Devil Bringer at the one to my right. It seemed that was enough to break through the barrier at the cost of my melee weapon. I rushed to try to take advantage of the stunned blitz and pummeled it with jabs from my right arm. I aimed for the head and grabbed its horn, breaking it off, but that wasn't enough to keep it down.
And even worse, in my excitement I forgot about the other opponent.
While I heard the slash coming from behind dodging it was another story. These things were fast and though I tried my best the claw left a gash on my left shoulder as I tried to get out of the way.
"Argh!," I screamed, unused to the pain. As I felt my left arm go numb, I jumped away from the next blow more successfully.
The next thing I knew I heard an enraged shriek to snap me out of the haze of pain. The hornless Blitz' enveloped itself in lightning once more, this time it was red lightning.
Uh oh.
I knew what that meant. The demon was in its death throes and would try to take me with it if need be. The enraged blitz turned to lightning and struck the ground, where I was standing a second ago while the more healthy switched back to shooting beams of lightning and sweeping the ground with them.
Again I was stuck dodging. Jumping around again and again. But this time I was bleeding, and slowing down. If another set of demons showed up I was done for.
'Damn it all! Where the hell's the red one,' I thought. 'Can't go on the attack as long as it's still hanging around.'
My thought was soon answered as a surge of lightning appeared from under me just as I landed from my latest jump. I tried to jump again, but it was like dodging lightning, it swiftly caught me in a bear hug. Seems like they weren't as dumb as I thought, it must have felt me jumping around from under ground and waited for me to land. The pain of the lightning surging off its skin was unbearable.
Time slowed down for me. Well not literally, as can happen in this universe with the right powers, but that moment felt like an eternity.
It was now or never, I had to break free. I had to live!
I struggled with the devil bringer, pouring all my will into it.
And it responded. There was a brief burst of energy almost like an explosion around my right arm. It was enough to loosen the demon's death grip ever so minutely.
A spectral arm rose out of my right one grabbed onto the demon's arm and tore it off. Freed from the grasp I dove to the side and ducked to the ground, I felt heat on my back and a pressure wave from the explosion of the lightning demon.
I got up surprised to see the other demon didn't capitalize on my vulnerability.
It seemed the remaining demon was stunned by the effects of its partner's suicide attack. Perhaps the creature's hearing was overwhelmed? It was blind after all. It didn't matter the reason I just thanked whatever god watched over me for the easy kill.
Now that demonic power was properly flowing through my veins, I was able to use the Devil Bringer. Now I had something with better range than my fists.
It took two punches with my spectral arm to break through the beast's lightning armor and one grasp to crush its head and bypass the chance of it going berserk and exploding entirely.
"Ha.. ha ha!" I half laughed, half panted as I collapsed to the ground, lying on my back. As I gazed at the sky I saw the storm cloud had vanished.
That didn't matter to me then. The adrenaline had faded and I felt like shit. I could still smell the ozone and burning from my singed clothes and skin.
But at least I figured out the start of how to use my abilities.
Author's Note: Well here's chapter 2. Hope it's as good as or better than the first one.
Was the fight scene okay? Not used to writing those yet.
Anything in the chapter you particularly liked?
Anything in the chapter you find off?
Let me know in the comments.
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Chapter 3
Gray Walker
Demi Fiend
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2021
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Devil Bring It On!
Chapter 3
Double or Nothing
After a little rest and a practice run on some more small fry I started to get a proper gauge of my limits. And as a bonus, I got a cool scythe out of the deal to replace my cleaver. It was the standard fair used by the hell caina, low-level skeletal undead demons (there were a lot of different demons of that type in hell for some reason) but it was better than nothing.
I could only bring out the spectral arm for a few seconds at a time, with a short cooldown between uses. Seems I couldn't just use it constantly. Not yet at least, probably needed more practice with it.
Still awakening the Devil Bringer properly allowed me to finally get the Yamato shard out of my arm. Maybe my drive to live in that last fight made it see me as worthy? Something to inquire into later.
So I held the shard in my right hand like a razor blade or guitar pick and swung it through the air a couple of times, changing my stance each time. Never saw Nero cut space with it but I knew this body had the potential to pull it off. If Balrog could use a Yamato shard to get out of the Demon Realm, then one with the body of Sparda's grandson, Vergil's son definitely could.
"Well technique seems to be out of the question as to how to pull it off," I said to no one in particular. "Perhaps I just need to put in more power? It's only a shard after all, might need some more out of me to match the full package."
And put in more power I did. I poured every drop of demonic power I could muster into the fragment, which drank it up like a man dying of thirst. I focused my thoughts on imitating Vergil's ability to make portals with the blade, keeping those scenes in my mind's eye. And then I slashed with all my might. Once vertically and another horizontally.
There was a noise as if metal was grinding against metal and I felt the resistance from space itself as I tore at it but I pushed on through. I did it!
It was murky at the edges and all I could see was blackness on the other side but I made a portal!
I hurriedly reabsorbed the shard for safekeeping and stepped into the portal.
Only to find myself still in Hell on the other side. Well, to be exact it seems I was still in hell but another section of it of it.
Instead of a red rocky wasteland, I found myself in an obsidian desert with volcanoes and lava flows strewn all over. The temperature was unbearable. Instead of a sun in eternal eclipse, I saw several moons peak out of a cloudy sky all in different phases. And as a cherry on top of it all my nose was assaulted by the smell of rotten eggs.
Seems like the first try won't cut it. I'd need to do a bit of practice to get it done right. Though first things first I needed to sit down for a bit, the shard might have drunk too deep into my reserves to pull that off so I needed a breather.
As I sat on a nearby jutting rock like a bench, I found something peculiar. The portal wasn't closed yet, which was strange as I recall Vergil's portals closed quite shortly after he made them. Maybe because my cut wasn't as "clean" so to speak, the fabric of space needed more time to heal? Or maybe it's just portals lasted longer while in the Demon Realm? I could theorize to the reason all day.
I entered the portal again to find myself back on the other side in the same place I entered it initially, back on the rocky plateau. Well better here than in that oven of a new hell.
I looked back at the portal and then decided to try something different. As I stood in front of the portal, I brought out the Yamato shard again poured power into it once more and tried to visualize the portal closing in my mind. And nothing happened.
'Well if the Yamato shard won't be able to close it maybe the Rebellion could?' I thought. 'It seems to have the opposite powers, unifying and binding instead of dividing and cutting. At least that's what Dante implied before he awakened his Sin Devil Trigger.'
So I reabsorbed the Yamato shard and pulled out my locket from under my hoodie. I opened it up and took out the Rebellion shard.
I imitated the stance I took when making the portal with the Yamato shard and poured power into it, again this shard drank deeply of my reserves. This time I placed it at the edge of the portal and pulled.
There was a similar resistance to when I opened the portal but just like that time I pushed on through. And like that the shard acted like a zipper pull and slider mending the hole in space.
"Okay, that's good to know," I said. "I won't be accidentally leaving a bunch of portals for demons to jump through now."
As I placed the shard back in the locket, my mind drifted back to thinking about said locket and what put me here.
That locket was the only clue I had about how I got here, so I had to ask myself why I was given it. Sure it contained the shards of two very useful swords in it and was even able to hide their presence but there had to be more to it than that. If they wanted to just give me the shards they could have just had them pre-absorbed into my Devil Bringer or given me a letter or something with them in a box. Was it all part of some test to see if I was worthy of what they gave me?
I looked over it a few times since I got here and all I saw was that emblem of the lion and the hourglass and that it was a smooth golden oval with a golden chain. It felt like it could have been placed on a Divinity statue and it wouldn't be out of place.
This was the first time I examined it since the fight with the blitzes.
"So Deity of Time and Space, huh, at least I think you're the one that put me here" I said to the sky. "Does anything carrying your symbol act as a divinity statue? I remember Nico had a small one in her van that seemed to function like the big ones. Is this necklace meant to be a portable one?"
Wait, that could just be it.
'How did they activate divinity statues if they weren't just gameplay abstractions for the ability and item shop?,' I thought. 'Tried praying already, however half-heartedly. Maybe it needs some demonic power put into it?'
Seems like infusing things with demonic power was the veritable hammer that made all my problems look like nails. Can you blame me though? If you got superpowers wouldn't you want to try them out at every opportunity?
Still given how variable demonic power proved to be it was worth a shot.
So I held the locket in my right arm and gave a push of power into it. The locket started to glow golden, going ever brighter and brighter as I pumped more power into it. Even the Devil Bringer started to glow golden as it resonated with the locket. Shit, it'd act as a beacon for a bunch of demons to find out where I am. I tried to cut the feed, tried to let go but the locket kept on draining me of my power and forced my arm into a death grip.
I fell to my knees and blacked out. The last thing I noticed was a storm was approaching.
I don't know how long I was out for. A few minutes? A few hours? What I did know was two things. I didn't wake up where I fainted and I was by some miracle still alive.
The locket that drained me dry was still around my neck and my right hand was still clasped around it. The glow had faded and I could move my arm again it seems, well I would have had I not been held down by a couple of demons.
Surprise surprise turns out blacking out in the demon realm wasn't a good idea after all. The storm cloud delivered demons to me again, and it wasn't just blitzes again this time. Instead of was a group of plasmas. Large one eyed bats made out of electricity that could shapeshift in electric doppelgangers of their opponents and rapidly replicate themselves, oh yeah they could shoot lasers from their eyes too. There were four of them and they currently took on a form imitating my body having electric copies of the scythe I held each pointed at me ready to tear me apart.
What really caught my eye however was the woman in front of me. Well she was a demon obviously but the form she took was very human. She sat on a jade throne surrounded by mist that hovered a foot above the ground, she had black hair, pale skin and piercing green eyes that looked like they almost glowed in their intensity. She wore a green toga with silver trim and had I been in another situation I probably would have noticed her almost ethereal beauty more. The only thing that made her stand out as something more than human were the large silver wings she had tucked behind her back.
"Ah, so you've awoken. So my subjects did not deceive me. A human in the demon realm, and such a handsome one at that. Truly fortune smiles upon me," I heard her speak.
I found my throat dry and my voice horse but I was able to struggle out these words.
"Yeah, and who are you lady?," I said
"Oh, how rude of me. Introductions are in order. My name is Talaria, known far and wide as the Witch of the Winds. And it seems you, my little struggling morsel, are my ticket out of this drab realm."
"If I knew how to get out of here lady, I'd have been gone a long time ago," I said.
I had no clue where the confidence was coming from given my situation but maybe it was a coping mechanism, maybe it was anger at being captured like that. Either way, I wasn't feeling the most cooperative with this demon.
"You're a human within in the demon realm and you're saying you don't have a way out? Please, child, I wasn't born yesterday," Talaria said. "How did you get in then little one? I saw you make that portal young man, every demon within a great distance was able to sense you make such a thing. The light show you provided afterward didn't exactly help either, it was like you wanted to be found. You're lucky it was I that found you first or else you'd have ended up as a snack for my more… uncivilized brethren."
'Don't really feel all that lucky,' I thought to myself, though I knew on some level she was right. 'Still gotta think fast or else she might decide to act like those aforementioned brethren.'
"You may be right miss… Talaria was it? But I probably can't help as long as I'm restrained like this," I said head gesturing to the plasmas that were holding me at scythe point.
"Oh that was just a bit of insurance, I saw what you did to the blitzes I sent at you earlier. I don't want any more of that behavior." She said.
She snapped her fingers and her honor guard stepped back, their scythes still ready for combat but I now had a little breathing room.
"See, I can be reasonable. Now, chop chop, get to making an opening to the human realm. I did save your life after all." she continued.
"Oh yeah, and what do you plan on doing there?" I asked. "Gonna gobble up a bunch of people like candy"
"Perhaps, perhaps not. I know my subjects would partake in such festivities but I have a more refined palette than them."
I was afraid of something like this happening, it was only a matter of time before I bit off more than I could chew while stuck in this realm. Guess it was time to use that, despite how little I wanted to. And letting this demon out into the human realm guaranteed people would die, die because I wasn't strong enough.
"Okay, okay I give. I don't know how to break out of here yet but I'll give it a try for you," I said.
I got on my feet and dusted myself off and took a look around again.
Seems we were at the precipice between different kinds of hell. The same red rocky plateau I was used to was meeting up with what seemed like a beach of green waters and purple sand.
I opened my locket, and took out the Rebellion shard again, I put it in my right arm. Gathered all the will I could, charged it with demonic power and then…
I stabbed it into my left palm.
Why'd I do this you ask?
Well, it was because of a few things I knew. Getting stabbed by the Rebellion helped Dante unlock his demon form. Getting injured in his right arm helped Nero awaken the Devil Bringer. And demonic power followed one's intent.
My circumstances were very different and I didn't have the full thing on me, I knew that but it was worth a shot anyways.
There was a soft red glow at first in my closed fist, then a swell of blinding blue light enveloped it.
Of course, my audience wasn't exactly cooperative with my little show.
"You stop that this instant!," Talaria screeched batting me with hurricane force winds knocking me on my back.
The plasmas each embedded a scythe into my body and flooded it with electricity.
I should have been dead several times over but with what was going on inside my soul, I barely noticed.
As the surge of electricity stopped and the light faded, I raised from the ground as if lifted by invisible strings.
The shard was still in my left hand, but the hand itself was now changed.
My left arm had become a mirror to my right arm, my gambit worked, I'd awakened another Devil Bringer. The left arm glowed a red while the right arm glowed blue.
I summoned two spectral arms out and batted away the plasmas. I looked Talaria directly in the eyes and then smiled.
"Alright lady, change of plans. You guys either leave me alone or get to meet the fate of the last demons that decided I was an easy meal," I said.
"A pity, I would have liked to have had your co-operation. You'd have made an excellent consort," Talaria replied. "But if you won't obey then it seems I'll need to discipline you myself."
She got off her throne, standing a good 8 feet tall she looked down at me.
But that didn't matter, I felt on top of the world.
"Let's Dance!," I said, beckoning her to come at me
Author's Note: Well here's chapter 3.
Did the ending make sense to you?
Or was it too sudden?
I hope things are okay.
Honestly every chapter I'm worried I've jumped the shark so to speak.
Please air out your concerns or hopes in the comments.
Had the image of Double Devil Bringers stuck in my head since I first played DMC4 and wanted to see them realized in some way outside of how DMC5 did it and how this mod did it.
Chapter 3
Double or Nothing
After a little rest and a practice run on some more small fry I started to get a proper gauge of my limits. And as a bonus, I got a cool scythe out of the deal to replace my cleaver. It was the standard fair used by the hell caina, low-level skeletal undead demons (there were a lot of different demons of that type in hell for some reason) but it was better than nothing.
I could only bring out the spectral arm for a few seconds at a time, with a short cooldown between uses. Seems I couldn't just use it constantly. Not yet at least, probably needed more practice with it.
Still awakening the Devil Bringer properly allowed me to finally get the Yamato shard out of my arm. Maybe my drive to live in that last fight made it see me as worthy? Something to inquire into later.
So I held the shard in my right hand like a razor blade or guitar pick and swung it through the air a couple of times, changing my stance each time. Never saw Nero cut space with it but I knew this body had the potential to pull it off. If Balrog could use a Yamato shard to get out of the Demon Realm, then one with the body of Sparda's grandson, Vergil's son definitely could.
"Well technique seems to be out of the question as to how to pull it off," I said to no one in particular. "Perhaps I just need to put in more power? It's only a shard after all, might need some more out of me to match the full package."
And put in more power I did. I poured every drop of demonic power I could muster into the fragment, which drank it up like a man dying of thirst. I focused my thoughts on imitating Vergil's ability to make portals with the blade, keeping those scenes in my mind's eye. And then I slashed with all my might. Once vertically and another horizontally.
There was a noise as if metal was grinding against metal and I felt the resistance from space itself as I tore at it but I pushed on through. I did it!
It was murky at the edges and all I could see was blackness on the other side but I made a portal!
I hurriedly reabsorbed the shard for safekeeping and stepped into the portal.
Only to find myself still in Hell on the other side. Well, to be exact it seems I was still in hell but another section of it of it.
Instead of a red rocky wasteland, I found myself in an obsidian desert with volcanoes and lava flows strewn all over. The temperature was unbearable. Instead of a sun in eternal eclipse, I saw several moons peak out of a cloudy sky all in different phases. And as a cherry on top of it all my nose was assaulted by the smell of rotten eggs.
Seems like the first try won't cut it. I'd need to do a bit of practice to get it done right. Though first things first I needed to sit down for a bit, the shard might have drunk too deep into my reserves to pull that off so I needed a breather.
As I sat on a nearby jutting rock like a bench, I found something peculiar. The portal wasn't closed yet, which was strange as I recall Vergil's portals closed quite shortly after he made them. Maybe because my cut wasn't as "clean" so to speak, the fabric of space needed more time to heal? Or maybe it's just portals lasted longer while in the Demon Realm? I could theorize to the reason all day.
I entered the portal again to find myself back on the other side in the same place I entered it initially, back on the rocky plateau. Well better here than in that oven of a new hell.
I looked back at the portal and then decided to try something different. As I stood in front of the portal, I brought out the Yamato shard again poured power into it once more and tried to visualize the portal closing in my mind. And nothing happened.
'Well if the Yamato shard won't be able to close it maybe the Rebellion could?' I thought. 'It seems to have the opposite powers, unifying and binding instead of dividing and cutting. At least that's what Dante implied before he awakened his Sin Devil Trigger.'
So I reabsorbed the Yamato shard and pulled out my locket from under my hoodie. I opened it up and took out the Rebellion shard.
I imitated the stance I took when making the portal with the Yamato shard and poured power into it, again this shard drank deeply of my reserves. This time I placed it at the edge of the portal and pulled.
There was a similar resistance to when I opened the portal but just like that time I pushed on through. And like that the shard acted like a zipper pull and slider mending the hole in space.
"Okay, that's good to know," I said. "I won't be accidentally leaving a bunch of portals for demons to jump through now."
As I placed the shard back in the locket, my mind drifted back to thinking about said locket and what put me here.
That locket was the only clue I had about how I got here, so I had to ask myself why I was given it. Sure it contained the shards of two very useful swords in it and was even able to hide their presence but there had to be more to it than that. If they wanted to just give me the shards they could have just had them pre-absorbed into my Devil Bringer or given me a letter or something with them in a box. Was it all part of some test to see if I was worthy of what they gave me?
I looked over it a few times since I got here and all I saw was that emblem of the lion and the hourglass and that it was a smooth golden oval with a golden chain. It felt like it could have been placed on a Divinity statue and it wouldn't be out of place.
This was the first time I examined it since the fight with the blitzes.
"So Deity of Time and Space, huh, at least I think you're the one that put me here" I said to the sky. "Does anything carrying your symbol act as a divinity statue? I remember Nico had a small one in her van that seemed to function like the big ones. Is this necklace meant to be a portable one?"
Wait, that could just be it.
'How did they activate divinity statues if they weren't just gameplay abstractions for the ability and item shop?,' I thought. 'Tried praying already, however half-heartedly. Maybe it needs some demonic power put into it?'
Seems like infusing things with demonic power was the veritable hammer that made all my problems look like nails. Can you blame me though? If you got superpowers wouldn't you want to try them out at every opportunity?
Still given how variable demonic power proved to be it was worth a shot.
So I held the locket in my right arm and gave a push of power into it. The locket started to glow golden, going ever brighter and brighter as I pumped more power into it. Even the Devil Bringer started to glow golden as it resonated with the locket. Shit, it'd act as a beacon for a bunch of demons to find out where I am. I tried to cut the feed, tried to let go but the locket kept on draining me of my power and forced my arm into a death grip.
I fell to my knees and blacked out. The last thing I noticed was a storm was approaching.
I don't know how long I was out for. A few minutes? A few hours? What I did know was two things. I didn't wake up where I fainted and I was by some miracle still alive.
The locket that drained me dry was still around my neck and my right hand was still clasped around it. The glow had faded and I could move my arm again it seems, well I would have had I not been held down by a couple of demons.
Surprise surprise turns out blacking out in the demon realm wasn't a good idea after all. The storm cloud delivered demons to me again, and it wasn't just blitzes again this time. Instead of was a group of plasmas. Large one eyed bats made out of electricity that could shapeshift in electric doppelgangers of their opponents and rapidly replicate themselves, oh yeah they could shoot lasers from their eyes too. There were four of them and they currently took on a form imitating my body having electric copies of the scythe I held each pointed at me ready to tear me apart.
What really caught my eye however was the woman in front of me. Well she was a demon obviously but the form she took was very human. She sat on a jade throne surrounded by mist that hovered a foot above the ground, she had black hair, pale skin and piercing green eyes that looked like they almost glowed in their intensity. She wore a green toga with silver trim and had I been in another situation I probably would have noticed her almost ethereal beauty more. The only thing that made her stand out as something more than human were the large silver wings she had tucked behind her back.
"Ah, so you've awoken. So my subjects did not deceive me. A human in the demon realm, and such a handsome one at that. Truly fortune smiles upon me," I heard her speak.
I found my throat dry and my voice horse but I was able to struggle out these words.
"Yeah, and who are you lady?," I said
"Oh, how rude of me. Introductions are in order. My name is Talaria, known far and wide as the Witch of the Winds. And it seems you, my little struggling morsel, are my ticket out of this drab realm."
"If I knew how to get out of here lady, I'd have been gone a long time ago," I said.
I had no clue where the confidence was coming from given my situation but maybe it was a coping mechanism, maybe it was anger at being captured like that. Either way, I wasn't feeling the most cooperative with this demon.
"You're a human within in the demon realm and you're saying you don't have a way out? Please, child, I wasn't born yesterday," Talaria said. "How did you get in then little one? I saw you make that portal young man, every demon within a great distance was able to sense you make such a thing. The light show you provided afterward didn't exactly help either, it was like you wanted to be found. You're lucky it was I that found you first or else you'd have ended up as a snack for my more… uncivilized brethren."
'Don't really feel all that lucky,' I thought to myself, though I knew on some level she was right. 'Still gotta think fast or else she might decide to act like those aforementioned brethren.'
"You may be right miss… Talaria was it? But I probably can't help as long as I'm restrained like this," I said head gesturing to the plasmas that were holding me at scythe point.
"Oh that was just a bit of insurance, I saw what you did to the blitzes I sent at you earlier. I don't want any more of that behavior." She said.
She snapped her fingers and her honor guard stepped back, their scythes still ready for combat but I now had a little breathing room.
"See, I can be reasonable. Now, chop chop, get to making an opening to the human realm. I did save your life after all." she continued.
"Oh yeah, and what do you plan on doing there?" I asked. "Gonna gobble up a bunch of people like candy"
"Perhaps, perhaps not. I know my subjects would partake in such festivities but I have a more refined palette than them."
I was afraid of something like this happening, it was only a matter of time before I bit off more than I could chew while stuck in this realm. Guess it was time to use that, despite how little I wanted to. And letting this demon out into the human realm guaranteed people would die, die because I wasn't strong enough.
"Okay, okay I give. I don't know how to break out of here yet but I'll give it a try for you," I said.
I got on my feet and dusted myself off and took a look around again.
Seems we were at the precipice between different kinds of hell. The same red rocky plateau I was used to was meeting up with what seemed like a beach of green waters and purple sand.
I opened my locket, and took out the Rebellion shard again, I put it in my right arm. Gathered all the will I could, charged it with demonic power and then…
I stabbed it into my left palm.
Why'd I do this you ask?
Well, it was because of a few things I knew. Getting stabbed by the Rebellion helped Dante unlock his demon form. Getting injured in his right arm helped Nero awaken the Devil Bringer. And demonic power followed one's intent.
My circumstances were very different and I didn't have the full thing on me, I knew that but it was worth a shot anyways.
There was a soft red glow at first in my closed fist, then a swell of blinding blue light enveloped it.
Of course, my audience wasn't exactly cooperative with my little show.
"You stop that this instant!," Talaria screeched batting me with hurricane force winds knocking me on my back.
The plasmas each embedded a scythe into my body and flooded it with electricity.
I should have been dead several times over but with what was going on inside my soul, I barely noticed.
As the surge of electricity stopped and the light faded, I raised from the ground as if lifted by invisible strings.
The shard was still in my left hand, but the hand itself was now changed.
My left arm had become a mirror to my right arm, my gambit worked, I'd awakened another Devil Bringer. The left arm glowed a red while the right arm glowed blue.
I summoned two spectral arms out and batted away the plasmas. I looked Talaria directly in the eyes and then smiled.
"Alright lady, change of plans. You guys either leave me alone or get to meet the fate of the last demons that decided I was an easy meal," I said.
"A pity, I would have liked to have had your co-operation. You'd have made an excellent consort," Talaria replied. "But if you won't obey then it seems I'll need to discipline you myself."
She got off her throne, standing a good 8 feet tall she looked down at me.
But that didn't matter, I felt on top of the world.
"Let's Dance!," I said, beckoning her to come at me
Author's Note: Well here's chapter 3.
Did the ending make sense to you?
Or was it too sudden?
I hope things are okay.
Honestly every chapter I'm worried I've jumped the shark so to speak.
Please air out your concerns or hopes in the comments.
Had the image of Double Devil Bringers stuck in my head since I first played DMC4 and wanted to see them realized in some way outside of how DMC5 did it and how this mod did it.
Last edited:
Chapter 4
Gray Walker
Demi Fiend
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2021
- Messages
- 552
- Likes received
- 2,535
Devil Bring It On!
Chapter 4
Getting a Leg Up
The first thing I did as the fight got going was store the Rebellion shard in my left arm. It seemed that synchronizing with it allowed it to be absorbed by my Devil Bringers now.
It was another fight where I was outnumbered, but given what I'd just awakened I felt far from outgunned.
She came at me so fast that even with my enhanced reflexes I had trouble following her.
Her leg was locked mid kick against my left arm.
I then summoned a spectral right arm to beat her back.
She tried blocking by crossing her arms but the strength was too much for her.
I gave another cocky grin.
Man, it felt good to have another Devil Bringer, couldn't have done that a few moments before.
I could hear the charging of energy by the Plasmas from behind, I leaped backward into the air and backflipped behind them, narrowly dodging the lasers they shot at my position.
Talaria to her credit flapped her wings and was in the air to dodge the lasers from her subordinates.
"Don't shoot me you idiots!" she said. "Shoot him!"
Now that got a chuckle out of me.
If the fight kept going this way, it'd be a piece of cake.
"Come back down here lady!," I called out to Talaria. "Where'd all that talk go? No wonder you can fly, seems you're full of hot air."
"You!," Talaria said. "You'll pay for that!"
She flapped her wings and released a dozen feathers that came at me like silver bullets.
I swatted them away with one large swipe of my left spectral arm.
"What are you doing just standing there? Get him!," Talaria commanded her subordinates.
The plasmas rushed at me with their scythes. Alternatingly swinging at my position while Talaria continued to bombard me with feathers from a distance.
I dodged the slashes and blocked the feathers with my spectral arms to the best of my ability.
Her aim was surprisingly good, it appeared I couldn't rely on friendly fire this time.
'Huh, still using scythes, eh? Seems like they couldn't copy the power of my Devil Bringers,' I mentally noted to myself.
"I can do this all day lady," I called out to her. "You going to face me or just hide behind your minions all day?"
I probably couldn't in fact do it all day, but I had to throw her off balance somehow
'She has the range advantage and right now I am specialized in melee,' I thought. 'If I could lure her in close I could end it quickly.'
Surprisingly she didn't take the bait.
My trash talk was probably too weak, didn't get much practice in it back home.
"Well, if you won't bring the fight to me, I'll bring it to you.
I focused on my arms and summoned their spectral counterparts. I needed size this time.
Beside me appeared two spectral arms both big enough to hold grown men in their grasps. I grabbed onto the nearest plasmas mid swing and threw them at her.
She dodged deftly and the plasmas shifted back to bat form mid-flight.
'Okay not the brightest idea there, Will,' I thought slightly embarrassed. 'I really need to get a ranged weapon.'
"To me my subjects!" Talaria shouted.
In a moment all the plasmas were around her in bat form.
And then they divided themselves. Four plasmas became twelve and Talaria was in the center of the array of electric bats.
All the bats shot their lasers from their cycloptic eyes, not at me but at a sphere of demonic power Talaria had created in front of her. They seemed to be pooling all their energy together to finish me off.
'Oh great they can do the Angelo trick,' I thought 'Hopefully it has the same counter.'
I ran to Talaria's throne and picked it up and tossed it at the sphere.
The resulting explosion was deafening, but satisfying all the same.
Talaria herself fell from the sky with a dull thud.
The plasmas seemed to have been disintegrated entirely.
I rushed her ready to whale at her with my spectral fists. She in turn forced winds back by flapping her tattered wings at me trying to push me away.
I clawed into the ground with my spectral arms and climbed my way to her against the winds.
Once I got close enough I extended an arm, grabbed her by the wing, and tossed her to the waters.
Might as well leave her to the demon fish if there were any in there.
I turned to walk away, checking for any stragglers but I just as I was about to declare the job done I heard a splash followed by an intense screech.
I looked back to see where I had thrown her only to see her body rise out of the waters.
Just as she fully surfaced, there was an explosion of power around her. From her tattered wings, plumes of green energy poured out like jets. She was surrounded by a green aura and her eyes were fully enveloped in a silver light.
In other words, she Devil Triggered.
She ran on the water itself to get at me, her new jets boosting her forward like a rocket.
It was one thing to jump around in the form of lightning like the blitzes but Talaria, she was pure speed at this point.
She ran circles around me and delivered glancing blows each time. Maybe it was the speed up or maybe it was the increase in demonic power output but her attacks finally started to hurt, there was actually some backlash from blocking with my spectral arms.
Each hit did very little damage but at this rate, she'd break through my defenses.
Couldn't keep up the spectral arms for much longer.
Well, only one thing to do.
I dismissed my spectral arms and got into a stance to counter.
I saw her coming at me in a blur. I tried to punch her only to miss.
Then I tried again, and again.
We were stuck in a rhythm now, of me trying to counter and her dodging, while I was getting bruised up. I could occasionally land a glancing blow myself but she just powered on through.
It'd be a war of attrition at this rate, to see which would last longer. My body or her Devil Trigger.
It seemed like it would be the final exchange. I charged up my energy into my right fist and readied my arm to deliver a hit…
And then jumped to my right and materialized my left spectral arm.
Indeed we were stuck in a rhythm, and reading that rhythm let me predict the timing of her next assault.
I caught her in a clothesline. At the speed she was going and with the size of my spectral arm she careened to the ground.
Wasting no time I followed up with the right hook I charged earlier and cratered her into the ground.
The light around her faded and it seemed the fight was over.
She looked so human as I observed her downed form.
Was I really going through with this?
Killing those other demons was one thing but doing it to someone you spoke with?
I approached her and was about to reach out to lift her up when I heard her speak.
"Wait, you don't have to do this. We can come to an accord!" she said. "I'll… I'll serve you if I must. I'll command subjects for you. Please, just don't kill me."
"I'm not gonna kill you. I just wanted you to leave me alone," I said.
"You do this to me and won't even take responsibility? At least take me with you, everyone else in this realm would just hunt me down in this state," Talaria said.
"Oh yeah, how do I know you won't stab me in the back at the first chance?" I responded. "Need some insurance on my end. Or else I'll just have to change my mind"
It was just hollow bravado. I didn't think I could end her then and there, not with how vulnerable she looked. I'd just let her go, she wouldn't be my problem anymore.
"Just try not to think about what comes after that, Will," I thought.
I turned my back on her and was about to walk away when I heard her voice again.
"Okay… Okay. I'll give you my soul. I'll become your Devil Arm, would that be better?" Talaria said. "Just take me with you, so I can get out of here!"
"Wait what?," I said. "You must be really des-"
Before I could finish my sentence Talaria's body started to glow a brilliant green and transformed into a shining orb of light. The light raced around my body looking for a place to settle until it reached my legs and stopped there.
There was a bright flash and in the light's place were now a pair of silver armored boots adorning my person that went up to my knees. They had a pair of small wings at the ankles and there was a long pair of wings that reached the top of the boots. There were glowing green lines going through the pair pulsing in energy.
"That was… fast," I said to the boots. "You must have really wanted a ticket out of this place.'
"Indeed," I heard her voice almost as if she was speaking next to my ear.
"Oh… you can talk too?," I said. "That… that's a bit of a surprise. I remember most Devil Arms being silent. Then again Balrog was pretty talkative."
"Talking is basically the only thing I can do by myself in this form. But enough about that. Balrog? You mean Argosax's lieutenant?," she asked. "How do you know what he'd be like as a Devil Arm?"
"Long story. Let's just say I've had visions of this world for a long time and leave it at that," I replied.
There was an awkward silence for a few moments after that.
Saying I knew it all from video games would probably cause her to think I'm crazy. Though claiming to be a prophet of some kind also would probably do that. Still at least the latter was less embarrassing to say out loud.
"Anyways, you said you wanted to get out of here too. Any clue where to start?" I said. "Still trying to figure out how on my end"
"You could make portals through the realm but you can't make one that reaches outside of it?" She asked incredulously. "I called you child before but did I really lose to such an inexperienced fool?"
"Well too late to change things now," I replied. "I don't know do you know any places where it's easy for demons to get out to the human world? I know that islands are demon hotspots in the human realm but I'm not sure where the nearest one correlates spatially with the demon realm."
"As a matter of fact I do," she replied confidently. "The tears that open were too small for me to go through but it should be a start. It's a fair ways from here but with my help, it shouldn't take too long."
"Wait, your help? Your minions are gone and your flying chair is busted," I said.
"It's just instinct at this point but I know you can use me to help traversal," She said. "You can use my new form to speed up just as I had at the end of our fight and even walk on the air itself."
"That's… that's incredibly useful," I said. "Let's get going then,"
I started to walk towards the rocky wasteland.
"It's actually the other way, across this lake," Talaria chimed in.
"Oh seems I'll need to figure out how to use you already," I said.
Author's Note:
And here's Chapter 4
Fun fact: Named Talaria off of Hermes' sandals thus the winged boots form.
If you're having trouble imagining what they look like think of them something like this but with the kind of energy lines that Beowulf had as a Devil Arm and an additional tiny pair of wings at the bottom.
Hopefully, it's believable for Will to get a Devil Arm at this point.
She doesn't grant full flight but it should be fairly useful for traversal.
As a side note. For a long time, I thought about what devil arm to give Nero and came to the conclusion that a pair of boots would fit right in with and complement the rest of his existing kit.
Anyways, saw the results of the poll so the next chapter will be longer, just felt natural to end this one where I did.
Chapter 4
Getting a Leg Up
The first thing I did as the fight got going was store the Rebellion shard in my left arm. It seemed that synchronizing with it allowed it to be absorbed by my Devil Bringers now.
It was another fight where I was outnumbered, but given what I'd just awakened I felt far from outgunned.
She came at me so fast that even with my enhanced reflexes I had trouble following her.
Her leg was locked mid kick against my left arm.
I then summoned a spectral right arm to beat her back.
She tried blocking by crossing her arms but the strength was too much for her.
I gave another cocky grin.
Man, it felt good to have another Devil Bringer, couldn't have done that a few moments before.
I could hear the charging of energy by the Plasmas from behind, I leaped backward into the air and backflipped behind them, narrowly dodging the lasers they shot at my position.
Talaria to her credit flapped her wings and was in the air to dodge the lasers from her subordinates.
"Don't shoot me you idiots!" she said. "Shoot him!"
Now that got a chuckle out of me.
If the fight kept going this way, it'd be a piece of cake.
"Come back down here lady!," I called out to Talaria. "Where'd all that talk go? No wonder you can fly, seems you're full of hot air."
"You!," Talaria said. "You'll pay for that!"
She flapped her wings and released a dozen feathers that came at me like silver bullets.
I swatted them away with one large swipe of my left spectral arm.
"What are you doing just standing there? Get him!," Talaria commanded her subordinates.
The plasmas rushed at me with their scythes. Alternatingly swinging at my position while Talaria continued to bombard me with feathers from a distance.
I dodged the slashes and blocked the feathers with my spectral arms to the best of my ability.
Her aim was surprisingly good, it appeared I couldn't rely on friendly fire this time.
'Huh, still using scythes, eh? Seems like they couldn't copy the power of my Devil Bringers,' I mentally noted to myself.
"I can do this all day lady," I called out to her. "You going to face me or just hide behind your minions all day?"
I probably couldn't in fact do it all day, but I had to throw her off balance somehow
'She has the range advantage and right now I am specialized in melee,' I thought. 'If I could lure her in close I could end it quickly.'
Surprisingly she didn't take the bait.
My trash talk was probably too weak, didn't get much practice in it back home.
"Well, if you won't bring the fight to me, I'll bring it to you.
I focused on my arms and summoned their spectral counterparts. I needed size this time.
Beside me appeared two spectral arms both big enough to hold grown men in their grasps. I grabbed onto the nearest plasmas mid swing and threw them at her.
She dodged deftly and the plasmas shifted back to bat form mid-flight.
'Okay not the brightest idea there, Will,' I thought slightly embarrassed. 'I really need to get a ranged weapon.'
"To me my subjects!" Talaria shouted.
In a moment all the plasmas were around her in bat form.
And then they divided themselves. Four plasmas became twelve and Talaria was in the center of the array of electric bats.
All the bats shot their lasers from their cycloptic eyes, not at me but at a sphere of demonic power Talaria had created in front of her. They seemed to be pooling all their energy together to finish me off.
'Oh great they can do the Angelo trick,' I thought 'Hopefully it has the same counter.'
I ran to Talaria's throne and picked it up and tossed it at the sphere.
The resulting explosion was deafening, but satisfying all the same.
Talaria herself fell from the sky with a dull thud.
The plasmas seemed to have been disintegrated entirely.
I rushed her ready to whale at her with my spectral fists. She in turn forced winds back by flapping her tattered wings at me trying to push me away.
I clawed into the ground with my spectral arms and climbed my way to her against the winds.
Once I got close enough I extended an arm, grabbed her by the wing, and tossed her to the waters.
Might as well leave her to the demon fish if there were any in there.
I turned to walk away, checking for any stragglers but I just as I was about to declare the job done I heard a splash followed by an intense screech.
I looked back to see where I had thrown her only to see her body rise out of the waters.
Just as she fully surfaced, there was an explosion of power around her. From her tattered wings, plumes of green energy poured out like jets. She was surrounded by a green aura and her eyes were fully enveloped in a silver light.
In other words, she Devil Triggered.
She ran on the water itself to get at me, her new jets boosting her forward like a rocket.
It was one thing to jump around in the form of lightning like the blitzes but Talaria, she was pure speed at this point.
She ran circles around me and delivered glancing blows each time. Maybe it was the speed up or maybe it was the increase in demonic power output but her attacks finally started to hurt, there was actually some backlash from blocking with my spectral arms.
Each hit did very little damage but at this rate, she'd break through my defenses.
Couldn't keep up the spectral arms for much longer.
Well, only one thing to do.
I dismissed my spectral arms and got into a stance to counter.
I saw her coming at me in a blur. I tried to punch her only to miss.
Then I tried again, and again.
We were stuck in a rhythm now, of me trying to counter and her dodging, while I was getting bruised up. I could occasionally land a glancing blow myself but she just powered on through.
It'd be a war of attrition at this rate, to see which would last longer. My body or her Devil Trigger.
It seemed like it would be the final exchange. I charged up my energy into my right fist and readied my arm to deliver a hit…
And then jumped to my right and materialized my left spectral arm.
Indeed we were stuck in a rhythm, and reading that rhythm let me predict the timing of her next assault.
I caught her in a clothesline. At the speed she was going and with the size of my spectral arm she careened to the ground.
Wasting no time I followed up with the right hook I charged earlier and cratered her into the ground.
The light around her faded and it seemed the fight was over.
She looked so human as I observed her downed form.
Was I really going through with this?
Killing those other demons was one thing but doing it to someone you spoke with?
I approached her and was about to reach out to lift her up when I heard her speak.
"Wait, you don't have to do this. We can come to an accord!" she said. "I'll… I'll serve you if I must. I'll command subjects for you. Please, just don't kill me."
"I'm not gonna kill you. I just wanted you to leave me alone," I said.
"You do this to me and won't even take responsibility? At least take me with you, everyone else in this realm would just hunt me down in this state," Talaria said.
"Oh yeah, how do I know you won't stab me in the back at the first chance?" I responded. "Need some insurance on my end. Or else I'll just have to change my mind"
It was just hollow bravado. I didn't think I could end her then and there, not with how vulnerable she looked. I'd just let her go, she wouldn't be my problem anymore.
"Just try not to think about what comes after that, Will," I thought.
I turned my back on her and was about to walk away when I heard her voice again.
"Okay… Okay. I'll give you my soul. I'll become your Devil Arm, would that be better?" Talaria said. "Just take me with you, so I can get out of here!"
"Wait what?," I said. "You must be really des-"
Before I could finish my sentence Talaria's body started to glow a brilliant green and transformed into a shining orb of light. The light raced around my body looking for a place to settle until it reached my legs and stopped there.
There was a bright flash and in the light's place were now a pair of silver armored boots adorning my person that went up to my knees. They had a pair of small wings at the ankles and there was a long pair of wings that reached the top of the boots. There were glowing green lines going through the pair pulsing in energy.
"That was… fast," I said to the boots. "You must have really wanted a ticket out of this place.'
"Indeed," I heard her voice almost as if she was speaking next to my ear.
"Oh… you can talk too?," I said. "That… that's a bit of a surprise. I remember most Devil Arms being silent. Then again Balrog was pretty talkative."
"Talking is basically the only thing I can do by myself in this form. But enough about that. Balrog? You mean Argosax's lieutenant?," she asked. "How do you know what he'd be like as a Devil Arm?"
"Long story. Let's just say I've had visions of this world for a long time and leave it at that," I replied.
There was an awkward silence for a few moments after that.
Saying I knew it all from video games would probably cause her to think I'm crazy. Though claiming to be a prophet of some kind also would probably do that. Still at least the latter was less embarrassing to say out loud.
"Anyways, you said you wanted to get out of here too. Any clue where to start?" I said. "Still trying to figure out how on my end"
"You could make portals through the realm but you can't make one that reaches outside of it?" She asked incredulously. "I called you child before but did I really lose to such an inexperienced fool?"
"Well too late to change things now," I replied. "I don't know do you know any places where it's easy for demons to get out to the human world? I know that islands are demon hotspots in the human realm but I'm not sure where the nearest one correlates spatially with the demon realm."
"As a matter of fact I do," she replied confidently. "The tears that open were too small for me to go through but it should be a start. It's a fair ways from here but with my help, it shouldn't take too long."
"Wait, your help? Your minions are gone and your flying chair is busted," I said.
"It's just instinct at this point but I know you can use me to help traversal," She said. "You can use my new form to speed up just as I had at the end of our fight and even walk on the air itself."
"That's… that's incredibly useful," I said. "Let's get going then,"
I started to walk towards the rocky wasteland.
"It's actually the other way, across this lake," Talaria chimed in.
"Oh seems I'll need to figure out how to use you already," I said.
Author's Note:
And here's Chapter 4
Fun fact: Named Talaria off of Hermes' sandals thus the winged boots form.
If you're having trouble imagining what they look like think of them something like this but with the kind of energy lines that Beowulf had as a Devil Arm and an additional tiny pair of wings at the bottom.
Hopefully, it's believable for Will to get a Devil Arm at this point.
She doesn't grant full flight but it should be fairly useful for traversal.
As a side note. For a long time, I thought about what devil arm to give Nero and came to the conclusion that a pair of boots would fit right in with and complement the rest of his existing kit.
Anyways, saw the results of the poll so the next chapter will be longer, just felt natural to end this one where I did.
Last edited:
Chapter 5
Gray Walker
Demi Fiend
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2021
- Messages
- 552
- Likes received
- 2,535
Devil Bring It On!
Chapter 5
Ragnarok Revised
"Okay, just push some demonic power into me and visualize yourself stepping into the sky," Talaria said. "It should be that simple. Flying came to me naturally, merely sky walking should be much easier for even a novice such as you."
"Oh, I just have to pour demonic power into you? Oh, wait I have to pour demonic power into you. I, um… how do I put this?" I said. "Don't exactly know how to do that. The only thing I can really pump power into is my arms."
"You've gotta be kidding me!," Talaria said exasperated. "If you know how to push it through your arms you should know how to push it through the rest of your body."
"Don't know what to tell you Talaria," I said. I'm pretty new at all this. It's only been a few hours or had it been days? I don't know how time works here yet either. "
"That's, that's beside the point. You know what, ugh fine. You can just pump power into me with your arms every once in a while before we try to teach you how to use your power properly," she replied.
It felt pretty awkward crouching down and grabbing the boots with my Devil Bringers but as Talaria started to grow a brilliant green and I started to hover a foot off the ground I felt it working.
So began a cycle of me running for a few minutes at blistering speeds across the lake in my path, and crouching down while hovering in the air to pour some power into Talaria from my arms when she'd tell me I was about to run out.
Talaria ran out of power again just as we finished crossing the lake. I really needed to figure out how to pump power into her more directly soon or else this would get old really fast. Still, I crouched down on the beach to take in my surroundings.
We seemed to have reached a new region of the demon world. A dark forest of trees with grey bark and black leaves, each of which glowed with flowing veins of azure demonic power. Despite their unusual appearance the forest itself smelled very.. Earth-like, as if I was in a forest in the human realm.
At the edge of the horizon, I could see a gigantic tree towering over the rest of the forest brushing against the cloudtops, and while that would usually be a bad omen considering what I knew of demon trees like the blood-harvesting Qliphoth this one seemed to be of a different make. It looked like a massively overgrown version of the trees surrounding it.
"Eh, got any idea what's with those trees?" I asked Talaria. "It ain't a Qliphoth is it?"
"No, it's not a Qliphoth, you'd see a lot more demons fighting over control of the territory if it were that," Talaria replied. "This is Mimameidr forest, the hunting ground of Bolverk."
"Wait Bolverk? The same guy that fought Sparda in the past? Giant black skeleton wielding a spear with two pet wolves? That guy?," I asked.
"While I've heard he's fought Sparda before I do not know his appearance as he's stuck to his forest for a long time. My, my for someone so new at this you seem to know a lot of stuff you shouldn't."
"It's the visions, don't worry about it," I responded.
"Very well. He normally doesn't get out of his base in the trees from what I was taught by Father," she said. "We should be able to make safe passage past the forest from above. That should be enough energy to take us past it."
I climbed up into the air using the boots and was about to sprint past the forest when I saw a pale blue light coming from the top of the largest tree, it got bigger second by second, until I realized it was coming at me.
I dove to the side, and found myself falling for a few seconds before correcting myself to have Talaria under me.
"What the hell was that?," I said. "Shit, here comes another one."
Again the blue light came at me like a laser and again I dodged to the side.
"That was Bolverk," Talaria answered. "It seems he hasn't taken too kindly to us coming onto his territory"
I needed to get to cover instead of being out in the open in the sky like this.
It was a choice between going above the clouds or diving into the forest itself. Given how I needed to periodically recharge Talaria I took my chances in the forest.
There were guaranteed to be demons there but it was better than falling out of the sky while being sniped from that giant tree.
I shot down into the forest with a diving kick to accelerate my fall.
Once I got past the canopy I hit the ground running and sprinted past the trees I could.
Jump, jump, slide, slide. I zipped to and fro to get past the gnarled roots and the occasional fallen tree.
I didn't even bother floating anymore focusing purely on speed. I kept going full blast burning through the demonic power by the second.
Eventually, Talaria ran out of juice and my pace dropped considerably.
It was only then that the static cleared and I was aware that Talaria was trying to say something.
"Stop running you idiot!" She chastised me. "He stopped firing once we got past the treetops."
I stopped and leaned on a nearby tree and panted catching my breath.
I looked around and all I could see was black and grey with only azure light from the trees and the red and blue from my arms illuminating the area.
"Why'd you tell me to stop," I said. "I want us to get out of this place fast."
"This is Bolverk's hunting ground, can't you tell what he's done to it? He's folded the space around itself so we can't leave," Talaria explained. "Besides, running around like a scared and confused animal is exactly what he wants."
"Folding Space on itself?" I said confused. "How the hell did he manage to do that, I don't remember him having that trick in the game. Thought that was Echidna's thing."
"Game? Never mind," Talaria said. "He is a demon who, despite his preference for direct confrontation, has a great talent for sorcery. It took me some time to recognize it but this forest, it's all one giant sorcerous working by him. The trees gather ambient demonic power from the earth and air and feed it all to the great tree in the center, and in turn Bolverk himself. It's all one giant artificial leyline."
"How'd you figure all that out while I was running?," I asked. "
"Only thing I can do like this is to observe the surroundings and talk to you," Talaria said. "Besides, we demons can naturally detect the flow of demonic power and distortions in space. Bolverk didn't even seem to hide what he'd done from us."
'Must really want a good fight,' I thought. 'Then again considering my situation maybe he really wanted to fight a descendant of Sparda'
"Okay, well if he's folded space around itself, then I'll just cut it," I said bringing out the Yamato shard from my right arm.
I infused power into it and got into the stance to make a tear.
I dragged the blade against the resisting fabric of space, but it was different this time.
It seemed harder to do here for some reason, perhaps due to the folded space?
Then I saw it coming at me again.
The blue light from before this time from the canopy came lancing down at me.
In the split second I dodged it I finally got a good look at what it was.
Was that a glowing spear?
Seemed like being in that tree was amping up Bolverk more than I thought if he could toss and retrieve his spear this far now.
I absorbed the Yamato shard and started running through the foliage again trying to get away from his target range again.
'Seems like making a portal is just a path to giving away our location,' I thought.
"Damn it all," I said. "What do we do now?"
"Only thing we can do is confront him head on," Talaria added in.
"While he's amped up by that tree?" I asked incredulously. "You're crazy."
"It's either that or wait it out and get weaker over time," Talaria said. "We're in the palm of his hand, might as well stab it."
I stopped running for a moment, caught in indecision. Wracking my brain for options.
Skywalking would just get us pierced by the spear, we can't walk out due to the folded space, portaling out with the Yamato shard would just get me stabbed while I focused on making it, and waiting around would get us nowhere.
I sighed.
"Seems you're right," I said. "We saw the trajectory of his spear, so we know where he is, we might as well get it over with."
I started walking towards the tree slowly looking around for anything to get my mind off the coming fight.
When my eyes fell on the locket again.
'This stupid thing nearly killed me last time I tried using it,' I thought. 'But I need any edge I can get in the upcoming fight.'
I opened the locket and was surprised to see a light shining from inside it.
The inner face of the locket was like the lens of a projector, and out came a hologram.
There were several things that were apparent looking at what was projected.
One a translucent sphere with an arrow on the inside that seemed to be a three dimensional compass?
The second was a series of numbers that were constantly shifting. It took me a second to realize it was a countdown timer.
37:18:56:25
These were the numbers I saw. The question was what was it counting down to? Was it an indicator of how much time I had left here?
'Of course, they could never just be straightforward couldn't they?' I thought.
What really caught my eye though was the glint of red among all the golden letters.
The symbol of a red orb was there and beside it was a number.
A little under 6000. That's all I managed to scrounge up in my time here.
Still it answered the question of why I didn't see any drop from the demons I'd slain. The locket absorbed them all from a distance.
What kind of video gamey bullshit was this?
I knew the answer already, but I was perplexed at the way it was presented.
It was a way to trade red orbs with the Deity of Time and Space for access to abilities.
Seems pumping in all that demonic power before Talaria snatched me up had awakened the locket's true functions.
I focused in on the red orb indicator and spoke my wish to my benefactor.
"Yo, Watcher of Time, can you answer me this time?" I said.
I waited for a few moments to no avail.
'Wait, let's try the formal route now, Will,' I thought, trying to suppress my annoyance. 'Maybe that'll work instead of the more crude route.'
"Oh Deity of Time and Space, what can I be granted in exchange for this meager offering?," I spoke to the god hoping they would answer my prayers for once.
I heard two voices in my head resonate together. A soft female voice and a harsh bestial male voice.
"Knowledge and Power," said the voices in unison.
As soon as I heard those words, images of different actions or items flashed before my eyes all at once.
Different orbs of demonic material, the weapons and fragments I had on my person, and what looked like myself doing a few different attacks with my weapons and more.
It took a minute for me to reorient myself after receiving those visions, but I now knew what I had to work with.
While I couldn't do much with my budget, I could at least increase my odds against Bolverk ever so slightly.
I chose to purchase the ability to double jump also known as Air Hike. It would allow me to generate a magical glyph under my feet which would serve as a platform to jump off of. While it seemed useless now that I had Talaria it was more for the fact that it would grant me the knowledge of how to infuse demonic power through my legs so I could better use Talaria. I chose to invest the rest of the orbs into the shards in my arms. Incomplete as they were it seemed the two had a chance to grow according to the Deity.
Resolute in my fate I continued my march onwards.
"You've been quiet for a while now Talaria," I said to my companion.
"I was just taken aback by what I just saw you do with that necklace," she said. "The mentions of visions, the golden light, and finally your prayer being answered. Had I known you'd been favored by the Watcher of Time, I'd never have fought you in the first place."
"Huh, why so? Scared of lions?" I teased.
"Nothing as simple as mere fear of those feline fiends," she said. "The Watcher of Time has been known as a patron god to many warriors and demon hunters alike throughout history and in a time long past was herself known as a great warrior that could rival the power of the greatest demon kings. No one knows why she disappeared but in the time since those that received her blessing have been known to change the very course of the world itself. And now it appears you have been granted said blessing."
'And to think I thought she was only a gameplay thing,' I thought. 'Wonder why she chose me of all people.'
"Sounds like a lot of pressure," I said. "Could have at least asked before making me commit."
"You've been granted the opportunity to grow to rival the strongest of demons and you wish that they took it back?" Talaria asked. "I think I'll never understand humans if this is how they act when granted such a blessing."
"When you put it like that now I just feel like an ungrateful jerk," I said. "Just wish I got a bit more of a hea-"
Suddenly as I walked through the forest the azure lights through all the trees that had guided our way went out like someone cut the power.
Just what was going on?
I looked through the dark forest for a few moments only guided by the lights of my arms.
A few minutes went by, and we heard the rustling of leaves and the rattling of chains.
As far as I knew this forest only had trees and Bolverk himself inside.
And chains, I remembered Bolverk's wolves, Freki and Geri had chains on them. If I was right we were about to have some very unfriendly company.
I infused power into Talaria, ready to run at a moment's notice.
That's when it came.
A large black wolf the size of a school bus was rushing forward like a freight train, knocking trees aside and paying no heed for what was in front of it.
I ran to the side and focused power into my arms, ready for it to come at me.
Only for it to run past and completely ignore me.
"Okay then?" I said. "What was that even about?"
"Oh never mind that creature, probably a beast that Bolverk hunts for sport. You need to stay sharp, we're about to reach the central tree," Talaria said.
I snapped to alertness at that. She was right. I could handle the wolf later, right now I had to focus on Bolverk.
We were approaching a clearing in the forest. The canopy gave way to clear skies and I looked up and up and saw the giant tree.
Just like the rest of the forest, the blue glow it had earlier had faded entirely leaving dull grey bark.
However there was something I saw I didn't expect. Damage at the base of the tree like something tore itself free from a cage of branches and roots.
It clicked for me when I saw the glint of metal on the ground.
Broken chains.
'This must be where he kept that giant wolf,' I thought. 'Was it related to why the forest stopped glowing?'
"You can admire that stuff later," Talaria said. "We've got a demon to fight."
And as if on cue a familiar blue light came rushing towards me.
The spear descended and I dodged as I could toward the large tree.
When I saw the spear land I expected it to fade, or fly back towards the top of the tree. Instead there was a flash of light and now holding the spear was a large black demonic horned skeleton that glowed yellow from the inside. He wore rocky armor that matched his bones, his left eye socket had large cracks above it and instead of feet his legs ended on to pointed spikes that hovered above the ground. He was accompanied by two large white wolves, whom I knew as Freki and Geri, with chains on their bodies. All three were wreathed in a blue aura of demonic power.
'Damn, he really wants me dead if he decided to Devil Trigger immediately,' I thought. 'Or maybe that's how he's using the forest's power? Doesn't matter either way, gotta take him down.'
He wasted no time to go on the offensive.
He lunged at me with his spear. I jumped straight up to dodge and stood in the air above him.
I summoned my two spectral arms and tried to hammer him with them.
The white wolves intercepted the blow, and were knocked aside by my arms.
I tried to dive kick their master but he already shifted position.
He stabbed at me with his spear but I blocked by crossing my Devil Bringers. That wasn't enough though, the force was too great and I was sent flying.
My body hit a tree at the edge of the clearing and careened through a bunch of branches. It took a moment for me to reorient myself.
Freki and Geri jumped at me to capitalize on that moment.
They both caught onto a Devil Bringer each with their jaws.
While the arms remained undamaged I could feel the pressure on my limbs. If they kept it up they might pierce the flesh.
They both tried to pull me in opposite directions.
How the hell were they so strong? I should be able to throw them across the entire forest with the strength in my arms. Did the boost from the tree really make them that powerful?
Bolverk himself meanwhile focused power into his spear. A large blue blade of energy sprouted from it increasing its length by a factor of ten.
He then slashed down at me with the blade.
I did the only thing I could do.
Kick as hard as I could with Talaria.
A massive gust met the blue light head-on.
And it sadly lost the struggle.
It wasn't until the energy blade met my armored leg was the blade deterred.
While he had a massive leverage advantage it was just enough to deflect the blow.
The blade receded and Bolverk readied himself for another slash.
'Nope, not letting you get another chance,' I thought
I started to climb up the air dragging the two wolves off the ground.
Now that they lost their footing they were much easier to toss around.
Bolverk on his part didn't miss a beat. He readied to throw his spear at me.
It was only the fact that I bent my arms and used the wolves as a shield that caused him to hesitate.
They must have realized what their master was doing and let go of my arms falling to the ground.
Bolverk as if on cue tossed the spear at me full force.
It was right on target, I was too close to dodge. On reflex, I summoned and crossed my spectral arms to block the attack.
And the spear soared right on through them like they were paper mache.
I felt a backlash from getting both spectral limbs shattered, a phantom pain in my arms that left me in a daze.
A split second later the spear impacted my actual arms.
Blood flew.
A gash was made in my right Devil Bringer, which had the spear embedded in it an inch deep.
The force of the impact sent me sliding backward in the air.
A moment later Bolverk was next to the spear, he pulled the spear out, spun vertically in the air and performed an axe kick that had enough force to shatter the platform of air I stood on and send me crashing towards the ground.
This wasn't good. Not only was this guy ridiculously strong, while he was slower than Talaria was when she Devil Triggered, he was relentless, his fighting style gave me no time to think. No wonder this guy survived fighting Sparda.
Bolverk soon descended to the ground as well, focused power into his spear and-
Got charged by a giant black wolf.
The very same that passed us earlier in the forest.
It seemed to have shed its chains and it appeared they were waiting for an opportunity while Bolverk was distracted to make their move.
Or perhaps they did it to save my life.
Either way Bolverk was stuck in the beast's jaws, struggling against them while his bones were slowly being encased in ice.
Oh, the black wolf had some cryokinesis among its abilities.
Freki and Geri ignored me trying to aid their master.
Finally, I got some room to breathe. I got up and looked at my right arm.
There was a small scar but blue energy was in there soon mending it.
I focused power into Talaria and ran towards Freki and Geri.
Those two wouldn't stop my savior, damn it!
As soon as I caught up with them, I summoned my spectral arms again and grabbed them both with them.
I smashed them onto the ground rapidly before my arms could fade away.
I followed up with a series of spinning kicks with Talaria that a gust strong enough around me I looked like a mini tornado.
I just kept hammering at them, alternating between attacks with the Devil Bringers and Talaria until they stopped moving.
The two were either unconscious or dead by that point. The difference didn't mean much as I needed to check on Bolverk and the Black Wolf.
The two were fighting against each other at the side of the giant tree. Bolverk seemed to have gotten free somehow while I was distracted and there were shards of ice everywhere.
But things weren't looking good.
The wolf was heavily wounded, and while Bolverk showed new cracks on his armor and body he seemed to have the advantage.
The Black Wolf slashed at him with his claws only to be parried by Bolverk's spear.
Bolverk jumped backward further up into the tree and impaled his spear into it.
There was a spread of blue lines of energy from the point of contact into the tree and soon the branches and roots themselves came to life.
They tried to ensnare the Black Wolf as it summoned more ice to try to repel them.
It was a valiant effort but even when encased in ice the branches continued to encroach upon the wolf.
If things continued like this the wolf would die soon.
I had to do something.
I ran at full blast towards where Bolverk was, the roots tried to reach me as well but I was too fast at that point.
I charged power into my left arm and delivered as strong a blow as I could toward Bolverk.
He was knocked up to the great tree's canopy with the strength of the hit.
I looked back to see the Black Wolf again, only to find that it was completely encased in branches.
We locked eyes for a moment that conveyed the situation. We both knew they didn't have much time left.
"My name is Fenris," the wolf spoke in a pained voice. "That demon trapped me in this forest for a long time. Take my soul and avenge me."
That was all that was said, but it was enough to get the message across.
The light faded from the wolf's eyes and its body remained trapped in the branches as the orb of light that was its soul left it and entered my hands.
In an instant, I was holding two blades that were held together by a long chain and felt a surge of power in my body, and a fury enveloping my soul.
Fenris had truly given me everything he had left.
I looked up to the top of the tree to see Bolverk once again had his spear in hand.
He'd extended it with energy immensely and slashed at my side.
I focused power into the blades in my hands and they responded naturally.
Ice sprouted from them to make the blades grow by a factor of five.
I parried the spear with my blades, driving its point into the ground.
I ran up the energy blade itself and slashed at Bolverk.
My blades hit true and managed to slash his arms, breaking them and disarming him of his spear.
He was a skeleton held together purely by demonic will, so such a wound didn't mean much but the follow-up of freezing his entire body did.
I summoned my spectral arms and smashed them downward, cracking the ice and more of his body.
Each hit ate away at his power, tearing away at his reserves like a piece of meat.
I was seeing red, filled with anger that was not my own. I repeatedly froze and smashed him lost to the bloodlust of the blades.
By the time I regained my senses the only things that remained were ash and his spear.
I looked around to see the damage I'd done.
"Are you finished?" Talaria asked.
I looked down at the blades in my arms and felt nothing.
It seems they'd spent all their power and fury up.
"Yeah, I'm done," I said. "Let's get out of here."
"Space is still folded," Talaria said. "It seems killing him wasn't enough to undo that."
"I think I have the solution to that," I said.
I absorbed the blades into my left arm and walked up to Bolverk's spear.
"If I saw it right, he could control the tree branches with this spear," I said. "Maybe it holds authority over his other spells? If that doesn't work we can just cut our way out."
"Why was he so intent on killing you anyways?" Talaria asked.
"That's a bit out of the left field," I said. "But no point in hiding it from you I guess. This body carries the blood of Sparda."
"What!?" Talaria practically screeched. "Everyone in the demon world will want you dead for that fact and now you decide to tell me?"
"Hey, I don't think it's everyone," I said.
'Even if all the ones I met so far have tried,' I thought.
"We need to get out of this realm this instant," Talaria said in a panicked voice. " If Mundus finds us we'll both suffer fates worse than anything you can imagine.
"Wait Mundus?," I asked.
"The current Demon King," Talaria said "He broke his seal fifteen years ago and has been on a campaign to reconquer the demon realm ever since. Why do you think I was so desperate to escape this realm, he slayed my father when he resisted the conquering of his land and wished to finish the job by claiming my head."
"Okay, okay explain it to me while we run to the exit," I said. "We need to get to that convergence point between realms fast."
I grabbed Bolverk's spear and started running to the edge of the forest.
As I reached the edge I saw the warping in space like curved glass. I slashed at it with the spear and the distortion shattered.
If what she said was true I had all the reason in the world to waste no time on getting out.
Author's note:
I still have no idea how to write fight scenes.
The dual blades from Fenris look somewhat like this except they are black and connected by a chain at their base.
I was inspired to write this part while playing DMC2 after seeing the cool design that was Bolverk wasted in it. This is what he and his wolves looked like. Fenris was identical to Freki and Geri but much larger and black. The idea being that Bolverk stole a portion of Fenris' power to transform two of his loyal warriors into wolves modeled after him, but I wasn't sure how to add that piece of exposition to the chapter.
The chapter had some very loose surface level references to Norse Myth since Bolverk was based on Odin. The forest and large tree based on Yggdrasil and Fenris after Fenrir the wolf prophesized to eat Odin during Ragnarok.
I hope this chapter length is sufficient for those that wanted longer chapters, if it isn't feel free to tell me in the comments. Trying to strike a balance between increased length and post frequency since the results were relatively close.
Chapter 5
Ragnarok Revised
"Okay, just push some demonic power into me and visualize yourself stepping into the sky," Talaria said. "It should be that simple. Flying came to me naturally, merely sky walking should be much easier for even a novice such as you."
"Oh, I just have to pour demonic power into you? Oh, wait I have to pour demonic power into you. I, um… how do I put this?" I said. "Don't exactly know how to do that. The only thing I can really pump power into is my arms."
"You've gotta be kidding me!," Talaria said exasperated. "If you know how to push it through your arms you should know how to push it through the rest of your body."
"Don't know what to tell you Talaria," I said. I'm pretty new at all this. It's only been a few hours or had it been days? I don't know how time works here yet either. "
"That's, that's beside the point. You know what, ugh fine. You can just pump power into me with your arms every once in a while before we try to teach you how to use your power properly," she replied.
It felt pretty awkward crouching down and grabbing the boots with my Devil Bringers but as Talaria started to grow a brilliant green and I started to hover a foot off the ground I felt it working.
So began a cycle of me running for a few minutes at blistering speeds across the lake in my path, and crouching down while hovering in the air to pour some power into Talaria from my arms when she'd tell me I was about to run out.
Talaria ran out of power again just as we finished crossing the lake. I really needed to figure out how to pump power into her more directly soon or else this would get old really fast. Still, I crouched down on the beach to take in my surroundings.
We seemed to have reached a new region of the demon world. A dark forest of trees with grey bark and black leaves, each of which glowed with flowing veins of azure demonic power. Despite their unusual appearance the forest itself smelled very.. Earth-like, as if I was in a forest in the human realm.
At the edge of the horizon, I could see a gigantic tree towering over the rest of the forest brushing against the cloudtops, and while that would usually be a bad omen considering what I knew of demon trees like the blood-harvesting Qliphoth this one seemed to be of a different make. It looked like a massively overgrown version of the trees surrounding it.
"Eh, got any idea what's with those trees?" I asked Talaria. "It ain't a Qliphoth is it?"
"No, it's not a Qliphoth, you'd see a lot more demons fighting over control of the territory if it were that," Talaria replied. "This is Mimameidr forest, the hunting ground of Bolverk."
"Wait Bolverk? The same guy that fought Sparda in the past? Giant black skeleton wielding a spear with two pet wolves? That guy?," I asked.
"While I've heard he's fought Sparda before I do not know his appearance as he's stuck to his forest for a long time. My, my for someone so new at this you seem to know a lot of stuff you shouldn't."
"It's the visions, don't worry about it," I responded.
"Very well. He normally doesn't get out of his base in the trees from what I was taught by Father," she said. "We should be able to make safe passage past the forest from above. That should be enough energy to take us past it."
I climbed up into the air using the boots and was about to sprint past the forest when I saw a pale blue light coming from the top of the largest tree, it got bigger second by second, until I realized it was coming at me.
I dove to the side, and found myself falling for a few seconds before correcting myself to have Talaria under me.
"What the hell was that?," I said. "Shit, here comes another one."
Again the blue light came at me like a laser and again I dodged to the side.
"That was Bolverk," Talaria answered. "It seems he hasn't taken too kindly to us coming onto his territory"
I needed to get to cover instead of being out in the open in the sky like this.
It was a choice between going above the clouds or diving into the forest itself. Given how I needed to periodically recharge Talaria I took my chances in the forest.
There were guaranteed to be demons there but it was better than falling out of the sky while being sniped from that giant tree.
I shot down into the forest with a diving kick to accelerate my fall.
Once I got past the canopy I hit the ground running and sprinted past the trees I could.
Jump, jump, slide, slide. I zipped to and fro to get past the gnarled roots and the occasional fallen tree.
I didn't even bother floating anymore focusing purely on speed. I kept going full blast burning through the demonic power by the second.
Eventually, Talaria ran out of juice and my pace dropped considerably.
It was only then that the static cleared and I was aware that Talaria was trying to say something.
"Stop running you idiot!" She chastised me. "He stopped firing once we got past the treetops."
I stopped and leaned on a nearby tree and panted catching my breath.
I looked around and all I could see was black and grey with only azure light from the trees and the red and blue from my arms illuminating the area.
"Why'd you tell me to stop," I said. "I want us to get out of this place fast."
"This is Bolverk's hunting ground, can't you tell what he's done to it? He's folded the space around itself so we can't leave," Talaria explained. "Besides, running around like a scared and confused animal is exactly what he wants."
"Folding Space on itself?" I said confused. "How the hell did he manage to do that, I don't remember him having that trick in the game. Thought that was Echidna's thing."
"Game? Never mind," Talaria said. "He is a demon who, despite his preference for direct confrontation, has a great talent for sorcery. It took me some time to recognize it but this forest, it's all one giant sorcerous working by him. The trees gather ambient demonic power from the earth and air and feed it all to the great tree in the center, and in turn Bolverk himself. It's all one giant artificial leyline."
"How'd you figure all that out while I was running?," I asked. "
"Only thing I can do like this is to observe the surroundings and talk to you," Talaria said. "Besides, we demons can naturally detect the flow of demonic power and distortions in space. Bolverk didn't even seem to hide what he'd done from us."
'Must really want a good fight,' I thought. 'Then again considering my situation maybe he really wanted to fight a descendant of Sparda'
"Okay, well if he's folded space around itself, then I'll just cut it," I said bringing out the Yamato shard from my right arm.
I infused power into it and got into the stance to make a tear.
I dragged the blade against the resisting fabric of space, but it was different this time.
It seemed harder to do here for some reason, perhaps due to the folded space?
Then I saw it coming at me again.
The blue light from before this time from the canopy came lancing down at me.
In the split second I dodged it I finally got a good look at what it was.
Was that a glowing spear?
Seemed like being in that tree was amping up Bolverk more than I thought if he could toss and retrieve his spear this far now.
I absorbed the Yamato shard and started running through the foliage again trying to get away from his target range again.
'Seems like making a portal is just a path to giving away our location,' I thought.
"Damn it all," I said. "What do we do now?"
"Only thing we can do is confront him head on," Talaria added in.
"While he's amped up by that tree?" I asked incredulously. "You're crazy."
"It's either that or wait it out and get weaker over time," Talaria said. "We're in the palm of his hand, might as well stab it."
I stopped running for a moment, caught in indecision. Wracking my brain for options.
Skywalking would just get us pierced by the spear, we can't walk out due to the folded space, portaling out with the Yamato shard would just get me stabbed while I focused on making it, and waiting around would get us nowhere.
I sighed.
"Seems you're right," I said. "We saw the trajectory of his spear, so we know where he is, we might as well get it over with."
I started walking towards the tree slowly looking around for anything to get my mind off the coming fight.
When my eyes fell on the locket again.
'This stupid thing nearly killed me last time I tried using it,' I thought. 'But I need any edge I can get in the upcoming fight.'
I opened the locket and was surprised to see a light shining from inside it.
The inner face of the locket was like the lens of a projector, and out came a hologram.
There were several things that were apparent looking at what was projected.
One a translucent sphere with an arrow on the inside that seemed to be a three dimensional compass?
The second was a series of numbers that were constantly shifting. It took me a second to realize it was a countdown timer.
37:18:56:25
These were the numbers I saw. The question was what was it counting down to? Was it an indicator of how much time I had left here?
'Of course, they could never just be straightforward couldn't they?' I thought.
What really caught my eye though was the glint of red among all the golden letters.
The symbol of a red orb was there and beside it was a number.
A little under 6000. That's all I managed to scrounge up in my time here.
Still it answered the question of why I didn't see any drop from the demons I'd slain. The locket absorbed them all from a distance.
What kind of video gamey bullshit was this?
I knew the answer already, but I was perplexed at the way it was presented.
It was a way to trade red orbs with the Deity of Time and Space for access to abilities.
Seems pumping in all that demonic power before Talaria snatched me up had awakened the locket's true functions.
I focused in on the red orb indicator and spoke my wish to my benefactor.
"Yo, Watcher of Time, can you answer me this time?" I said.
I waited for a few moments to no avail.
'Wait, let's try the formal route now, Will,' I thought, trying to suppress my annoyance. 'Maybe that'll work instead of the more crude route.'
"Oh Deity of Time and Space, what can I be granted in exchange for this meager offering?," I spoke to the god hoping they would answer my prayers for once.
I heard two voices in my head resonate together. A soft female voice and a harsh bestial male voice.
"Knowledge and Power," said the voices in unison.
As soon as I heard those words, images of different actions or items flashed before my eyes all at once.
Different orbs of demonic material, the weapons and fragments I had on my person, and what looked like myself doing a few different attacks with my weapons and more.
It took a minute for me to reorient myself after receiving those visions, but I now knew what I had to work with.
While I couldn't do much with my budget, I could at least increase my odds against Bolverk ever so slightly.
I chose to purchase the ability to double jump also known as Air Hike. It would allow me to generate a magical glyph under my feet which would serve as a platform to jump off of. While it seemed useless now that I had Talaria it was more for the fact that it would grant me the knowledge of how to infuse demonic power through my legs so I could better use Talaria. I chose to invest the rest of the orbs into the shards in my arms. Incomplete as they were it seemed the two had a chance to grow according to the Deity.
Resolute in my fate I continued my march onwards.
"You've been quiet for a while now Talaria," I said to my companion.
"I was just taken aback by what I just saw you do with that necklace," she said. "The mentions of visions, the golden light, and finally your prayer being answered. Had I known you'd been favored by the Watcher of Time, I'd never have fought you in the first place."
"Huh, why so? Scared of lions?" I teased.
"Nothing as simple as mere fear of those feline fiends," she said. "The Watcher of Time has been known as a patron god to many warriors and demon hunters alike throughout history and in a time long past was herself known as a great warrior that could rival the power of the greatest demon kings. No one knows why she disappeared but in the time since those that received her blessing have been known to change the very course of the world itself. And now it appears you have been granted said blessing."
'And to think I thought she was only a gameplay thing,' I thought. 'Wonder why she chose me of all people.'
"Sounds like a lot of pressure," I said. "Could have at least asked before making me commit."
"You've been granted the opportunity to grow to rival the strongest of demons and you wish that they took it back?" Talaria asked. "I think I'll never understand humans if this is how they act when granted such a blessing."
"When you put it like that now I just feel like an ungrateful jerk," I said. "Just wish I got a bit more of a hea-"
Suddenly as I walked through the forest the azure lights through all the trees that had guided our way went out like someone cut the power.
Just what was going on?
I looked through the dark forest for a few moments only guided by the lights of my arms.
A few minutes went by, and we heard the rustling of leaves and the rattling of chains.
As far as I knew this forest only had trees and Bolverk himself inside.
And chains, I remembered Bolverk's wolves, Freki and Geri had chains on them. If I was right we were about to have some very unfriendly company.
I infused power into Talaria, ready to run at a moment's notice.
That's when it came.
A large black wolf the size of a school bus was rushing forward like a freight train, knocking trees aside and paying no heed for what was in front of it.
I ran to the side and focused power into my arms, ready for it to come at me.
Only for it to run past and completely ignore me.
"Okay then?" I said. "What was that even about?"
"Oh never mind that creature, probably a beast that Bolverk hunts for sport. You need to stay sharp, we're about to reach the central tree," Talaria said.
I snapped to alertness at that. She was right. I could handle the wolf later, right now I had to focus on Bolverk.
We were approaching a clearing in the forest. The canopy gave way to clear skies and I looked up and up and saw the giant tree.
Just like the rest of the forest, the blue glow it had earlier had faded entirely leaving dull grey bark.
However there was something I saw I didn't expect. Damage at the base of the tree like something tore itself free from a cage of branches and roots.
It clicked for me when I saw the glint of metal on the ground.
Broken chains.
'This must be where he kept that giant wolf,' I thought. 'Was it related to why the forest stopped glowing?'
"You can admire that stuff later," Talaria said. "We've got a demon to fight."
And as if on cue a familiar blue light came rushing towards me.
The spear descended and I dodged as I could toward the large tree.
When I saw the spear land I expected it to fade, or fly back towards the top of the tree. Instead there was a flash of light and now holding the spear was a large black demonic horned skeleton that glowed yellow from the inside. He wore rocky armor that matched his bones, his left eye socket had large cracks above it and instead of feet his legs ended on to pointed spikes that hovered above the ground. He was accompanied by two large white wolves, whom I knew as Freki and Geri, with chains on their bodies. All three were wreathed in a blue aura of demonic power.
'Damn, he really wants me dead if he decided to Devil Trigger immediately,' I thought. 'Or maybe that's how he's using the forest's power? Doesn't matter either way, gotta take him down.'
He wasted no time to go on the offensive.
He lunged at me with his spear. I jumped straight up to dodge and stood in the air above him.
I summoned my two spectral arms and tried to hammer him with them.
The white wolves intercepted the blow, and were knocked aside by my arms.
I tried to dive kick their master but he already shifted position.
He stabbed at me with his spear but I blocked by crossing my Devil Bringers. That wasn't enough though, the force was too great and I was sent flying.
My body hit a tree at the edge of the clearing and careened through a bunch of branches. It took a moment for me to reorient myself.
Freki and Geri jumped at me to capitalize on that moment.
They both caught onto a Devil Bringer each with their jaws.
While the arms remained undamaged I could feel the pressure on my limbs. If they kept it up they might pierce the flesh.
They both tried to pull me in opposite directions.
How the hell were they so strong? I should be able to throw them across the entire forest with the strength in my arms. Did the boost from the tree really make them that powerful?
Bolverk himself meanwhile focused power into his spear. A large blue blade of energy sprouted from it increasing its length by a factor of ten.
He then slashed down at me with the blade.
I did the only thing I could do.
Kick as hard as I could with Talaria.
A massive gust met the blue light head-on.
And it sadly lost the struggle.
It wasn't until the energy blade met my armored leg was the blade deterred.
While he had a massive leverage advantage it was just enough to deflect the blow.
The blade receded and Bolverk readied himself for another slash.
'Nope, not letting you get another chance,' I thought
I started to climb up the air dragging the two wolves off the ground.
Now that they lost their footing they were much easier to toss around.
Bolverk on his part didn't miss a beat. He readied to throw his spear at me.
It was only the fact that I bent my arms and used the wolves as a shield that caused him to hesitate.
They must have realized what their master was doing and let go of my arms falling to the ground.
Bolverk as if on cue tossed the spear at me full force.
It was right on target, I was too close to dodge. On reflex, I summoned and crossed my spectral arms to block the attack.
And the spear soared right on through them like they were paper mache.
I felt a backlash from getting both spectral limbs shattered, a phantom pain in my arms that left me in a daze.
A split second later the spear impacted my actual arms.
Blood flew.
A gash was made in my right Devil Bringer, which had the spear embedded in it an inch deep.
The force of the impact sent me sliding backward in the air.
A moment later Bolverk was next to the spear, he pulled the spear out, spun vertically in the air and performed an axe kick that had enough force to shatter the platform of air I stood on and send me crashing towards the ground.
This wasn't good. Not only was this guy ridiculously strong, while he was slower than Talaria was when she Devil Triggered, he was relentless, his fighting style gave me no time to think. No wonder this guy survived fighting Sparda.
Bolverk soon descended to the ground as well, focused power into his spear and-
Got charged by a giant black wolf.
The very same that passed us earlier in the forest.
It seemed to have shed its chains and it appeared they were waiting for an opportunity while Bolverk was distracted to make their move.
Or perhaps they did it to save my life.
Either way Bolverk was stuck in the beast's jaws, struggling against them while his bones were slowly being encased in ice.
Oh, the black wolf had some cryokinesis among its abilities.
Freki and Geri ignored me trying to aid their master.
Finally, I got some room to breathe. I got up and looked at my right arm.
There was a small scar but blue energy was in there soon mending it.
I focused power into Talaria and ran towards Freki and Geri.
Those two wouldn't stop my savior, damn it!
As soon as I caught up with them, I summoned my spectral arms again and grabbed them both with them.
I smashed them onto the ground rapidly before my arms could fade away.
I followed up with a series of spinning kicks with Talaria that a gust strong enough around me I looked like a mini tornado.
I just kept hammering at them, alternating between attacks with the Devil Bringers and Talaria until they stopped moving.
The two were either unconscious or dead by that point. The difference didn't mean much as I needed to check on Bolverk and the Black Wolf.
The two were fighting against each other at the side of the giant tree. Bolverk seemed to have gotten free somehow while I was distracted and there were shards of ice everywhere.
But things weren't looking good.
The wolf was heavily wounded, and while Bolverk showed new cracks on his armor and body he seemed to have the advantage.
The Black Wolf slashed at him with his claws only to be parried by Bolverk's spear.
Bolverk jumped backward further up into the tree and impaled his spear into it.
There was a spread of blue lines of energy from the point of contact into the tree and soon the branches and roots themselves came to life.
They tried to ensnare the Black Wolf as it summoned more ice to try to repel them.
It was a valiant effort but even when encased in ice the branches continued to encroach upon the wolf.
If things continued like this the wolf would die soon.
I had to do something.
I ran at full blast towards where Bolverk was, the roots tried to reach me as well but I was too fast at that point.
I charged power into my left arm and delivered as strong a blow as I could toward Bolverk.
He was knocked up to the great tree's canopy with the strength of the hit.
I looked back to see the Black Wolf again, only to find that it was completely encased in branches.
We locked eyes for a moment that conveyed the situation. We both knew they didn't have much time left.
"My name is Fenris," the wolf spoke in a pained voice. "That demon trapped me in this forest for a long time. Take my soul and avenge me."
That was all that was said, but it was enough to get the message across.
The light faded from the wolf's eyes and its body remained trapped in the branches as the orb of light that was its soul left it and entered my hands.
In an instant, I was holding two blades that were held together by a long chain and felt a surge of power in my body, and a fury enveloping my soul.
Fenris had truly given me everything he had left.
I looked up to the top of the tree to see Bolverk once again had his spear in hand.
He'd extended it with energy immensely and slashed at my side.
I focused power into the blades in my hands and they responded naturally.
Ice sprouted from them to make the blades grow by a factor of five.
I parried the spear with my blades, driving its point into the ground.
I ran up the energy blade itself and slashed at Bolverk.
My blades hit true and managed to slash his arms, breaking them and disarming him of his spear.
He was a skeleton held together purely by demonic will, so such a wound didn't mean much but the follow-up of freezing his entire body did.
I summoned my spectral arms and smashed them downward, cracking the ice and more of his body.
Each hit ate away at his power, tearing away at his reserves like a piece of meat.
I was seeing red, filled with anger that was not my own. I repeatedly froze and smashed him lost to the bloodlust of the blades.
By the time I regained my senses the only things that remained were ash and his spear.
I looked around to see the damage I'd done.
"Are you finished?" Talaria asked.
I looked down at the blades in my arms and felt nothing.
It seems they'd spent all their power and fury up.
"Yeah, I'm done," I said. "Let's get out of here."
"Space is still folded," Talaria said. "It seems killing him wasn't enough to undo that."
"I think I have the solution to that," I said.
I absorbed the blades into my left arm and walked up to Bolverk's spear.
"If I saw it right, he could control the tree branches with this spear," I said. "Maybe it holds authority over his other spells? If that doesn't work we can just cut our way out."
"Why was he so intent on killing you anyways?" Talaria asked.
"That's a bit out of the left field," I said. "But no point in hiding it from you I guess. This body carries the blood of Sparda."
"What!?" Talaria practically screeched. "Everyone in the demon world will want you dead for that fact and now you decide to tell me?"
"Hey, I don't think it's everyone," I said.
'Even if all the ones I met so far have tried,' I thought.
"We need to get out of this realm this instant," Talaria said in a panicked voice. " If Mundus finds us we'll both suffer fates worse than anything you can imagine.
"Wait Mundus?," I asked.
"The current Demon King," Talaria said "He broke his seal fifteen years ago and has been on a campaign to reconquer the demon realm ever since. Why do you think I was so desperate to escape this realm, he slayed my father when he resisted the conquering of his land and wished to finish the job by claiming my head."
"Okay, okay explain it to me while we run to the exit," I said. "We need to get to that convergence point between realms fast."
I grabbed Bolverk's spear and started running to the edge of the forest.
As I reached the edge I saw the warping in space like curved glass. I slashed at it with the spear and the distortion shattered.
If what she said was true I had all the reason in the world to waste no time on getting out.
Author's note:
I still have no idea how to write fight scenes.
The dual blades from Fenris look somewhat like this except they are black and connected by a chain at their base.
I was inspired to write this part while playing DMC2 after seeing the cool design that was Bolverk wasted in it. This is what he and his wolves looked like. Fenris was identical to Freki and Geri but much larger and black. The idea being that Bolverk stole a portion of Fenris' power to transform two of his loyal warriors into wolves modeled after him, but I wasn't sure how to add that piece of exposition to the chapter.
The chapter had some very loose surface level references to Norse Myth since Bolverk was based on Odin. The forest and large tree based on Yggdrasil and Fenris after Fenrir the wolf prophesized to eat Odin during Ragnarok.
I hope this chapter length is sufficient for those that wanted longer chapters, if it isn't feel free to tell me in the comments. Trying to strike a balance between increased length and post frequency since the results were relatively close.
Chapter 6
Gray Walker
Demi Fiend
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Devil Bring It On!
Chapter 6
Burning Up
As I ran towards the convergence point, I slowed down.
While I was still going far faster than a normal human could go, I slowed down a fair bit, to my equivalent of a jog.
This body still had limits and you never knew when a demon would show up.
Talaria meanwhile painted a picture. Of a time long before she was born, of a fragmented Underworld with different warlords taking territory in place of a central demon emperor.
A struggle that went back and forth fiercely for the first few centuries after the demon world was sealed and the loss of their ruler via Sparda's efforts.
As many creatures here were very very long lived, time passing meant little for how the underworld changed. The intelligent ones played their games of power while the more animalistic continued with their simple existences or were used as pawns by these stronger creatures.
Talaria herself was, as she mentioned, a daughter to one of these warlords. Her father built a fortress over a convergence point and had those demons who wished to use it pay tribute to him, siphoning some of their demonic blood in hopes it would make him stronger. Why he never tried to force it further open and venture to the human world himself and even forbade her from journeying there was a mystery to Talaria.
She lived a comfortable if boring life as a stronger intelligent demon would in the underworld.
Uninterested in her father's extortion scheme, she passed the years idly by until it all changed.
15 years ago the Demon Emperor Mundus had launched a campaign of terror across the underworld conquering territory one by one until they reached her father's lands.
While he gathered a fair amount of strength from his scheme, he stood no match for the Demon Emperor and he knew it. He sent Talaria off with some subjects, and she's been wandering the underworld ever since. Every once in a while checking to see what had become of her father's land.
By the time she finished her tale he noticed the surroundings change once more.
While he was at a rocky wasteland once more, there was lightning of various colors in the sky, rocks floating in the air, the occasional tornado in the distance.
"We should be there soon," Talaria said.
"Finally, that felt like it took an eternity," I replied.
As I (or was it we at this point?) ran through this storm hell, Talaria became quiet. Only the crackling of lightning and the roar of the winds accompanied our journey.
Understandable, considering we were heading to her former home.
I soon saw it. On the ground in a patch of calm air, the eye of the storm so to speak, was a gothic castle that looked like it was pulled straight from medieval times.
There however were some things that marked it as a demon castle. The moat of lava for one, that was around the outer walls, and the great pyres of flame that came from the turrets and spires.
"I'm guessing a fire demon took it over," I said.
"Indeed, it was the work of Berial," Talaria said. "He'll pay for his transgressions ."
"Oh, that guy," I said. "This shouldn't be too hard then."
'He was the intro boss for Nero after all,' I thought. 'Then again, game power levels might not match reality.'
"Don't underestimate him, he was granted some gifts by his master that should prove a great challenge to overcome for you at your current level."
"What kind of gifts?," I asked.
That seemed out of character for him, then again rejecting a gift from Mundus, his creator, would probably spell his doom.
"A set of soldiers, Angelos he called them and a grand champion called Cavaliere," Talaria said.
I paused for a moment to digest that information.
'Wait shouldn't those be at the Qlithoph?," I thought. 'Hm, maybe Mundus only moved them there, once he was confident in his grip on the demon world? That just brings up more questions. Still if V could survive fighting them then I should be able to as well.'
I shook my head and tried to clear my mind.
"So how close do we have to be to cut a way out?," I asked Talaria.
"Father when he constructed this fortress made it so that the entrance hall served as the place it was easiest to cross the gap," Talaria replied. "Unfortunately for us however, the master of this castle would also know whenever anyone entered the hall."
"Seems like a fight is unavoidable then," I noted. "We might as well scout out of the exterior to see what we're up against."
I climbed upwards into the air using Talaria's skywalking, and saw the castle exterior was … surprisingly barren?
No demons were on patrol, no signs of life beyond the fires.
I ran around the perimeter of the castle before finding myself back in front of the entrance.
"Either no one's home, or they're just waiting for visitors to fight off," I told her. "God, I hope it's the former."
"Aren't you forgetting something?," Talaria said.
"Oh yeah… I forgot to prepare properly," I said.
I pulled out the Deity of Time and Spaces' locket, and prayed once more.
I invested what I got from Bolverk into Fenris and a bit into his spear.
With that done I walked over the moat of lava, and approached the castle doors.
The were huge to say the least, which if Berial was within the castle made sense.
'I know this body can handle it, but could they turn down the heat a little?,' I thought to myself. 'Nero was right, he does burn easily.'
The heat was rather unpleasant, so I pulled out Fenris from within my arms and used them to cool myself off a bit.
As my arms were full I summoned my spectral arms and gave a hard push to open the giant gates, which slammed to the sides of the entrance.
And in the entrance hall, sitting like a sphinx was Berial.
To describe him would be to call him something of a centaur if the head and lower body were that of a demonic horned lion, with the whole body wreathed in flames with volcanic obsidian skin. At his side was a large greatsword as fiery as he was with a stone like texture. There was also the matter of him being 10 meters tall.
The demon stared me down, taking in the intruder.
"Who dares?," the beast said. "A human? No… those arms are those of a demon. But the scent of humanity lingers with your presence… I have yet to see a demon such as you."
The demon stood up fully, and started stepping towards me, deliberate in his pace.
While I'd already seen a giant demon in the form of Fenris, seeing one filled with murderous intent directed solely at you felt a bit different than seeing it aimed at someone else.
Still I had to keep a cool head even in this heat.
I walked forwards into the hall.
"I suppose you won't just let me waltz into the human world will you?" I asked.
"Curious indeed, you remind me of him," Berial continued, ignoring my words. "But what would he or his kin be doing here?"
"Yeah, I don't know myself, to be honest," I said.
"Still if you are related to him, you should provide an entertaining fight," The demon mused. "I am Berial, General of Mundus and I shall be your end!"
As soon as he said there was a wall of flame behind me and the torches at the edges of the hall glowed even brighter.
This would be our arena.
He jumped at me with an overhead strike of his blade.
I slid to the side to dodge it, but the explosion of flames at the impact point blew me further away from the blade.
'Well that's going to be annoying,' I thought. 'Though I really should have seen it coming.'
He approached me again with his calm measured steps.
Fire flared in his left hand and then there was a telltale glow below me.
I sidestepped again this time staying far clear of the blast radius.
Where I was once standing the ground had erupted in flames.
He'd really burn this whole place down just to kill me huh?
I infused power into Fenris to cool off and jumped up to his eye level and stood there in the air.
His response to that was to smolder and gather flames within himself, ready to dash towards me
'Oh, we're doing that already?,' I thought. 'Well two can play at that game.'
I surged power into Fenris and in an instant the blades were encased in ice that grew them to the size of greatswords. A frosty aura surrounded my body.
He lunged with a thrust of his blade to split me in two.
While it dwarfed me in size I simply crossed my blades to intercept it.
The crash of the swords against each other echoed through the hall.
The ice cracked just a little but held firm. A surge of demonic power fixed that damage soon enough.
We were locked in place like that.
Well he was struggling to push the blade through my guard, and I was just standing there taking in the situation.
He might have been a hulking giant but this body was strong.
A pulse of flames traveled down his blade.
'Oh no you don't,' I thought.
I sent power into the blades and ice traveled up them and through his own to meet the flames.
The pulses canceled each other out.
I pushed back and forced Berial's blade away from me, setting him off balance, and dashed forward myself.
I slashed at at his body with my blades and left a large gash across his chest.
Despite this though the wound was already healing, when I finished the cut.
He slashed away at me, trying to bat me away with the sword, but I had already kicked off of his body to retreat once more.
"It'll take much more than that to take him down," Talaria said.
"Ah, he can heal, because of course he can," I said in reply.
I threw one of Fenris' blades at the demon, the chain that connected the two blades extending by the magic that gave it form, he deflected it with his sword.
I pulled back on the chain and threw the blade again.
And again he readied to deflect it.
This time however was different, there was a burst of ice at the point of impact locking his blade together with my own.
Before he could melt them apart, I pulled summoned a spectral arm and hard, and resultingly disarmed him of his sword.
This was where the fun part started.
I heaved with my spectral arms the locked together blades and then swung them back at him, a giant makeshift flail.
Oh he tried to dodge but the each blow left a burst of ice that grazed him whenever he attempted to, and for the ones that managed to hit.
Well the less details said about the damage he received the better.
It felt good to be on offensive, and be winning from the get go for a change.
By the time I finished my barrage the leonine centaur like demon was a wounded wreck. He was on his knees, barely capable of staying upright.
"So are you ready to stand aside?," I asked. "I just want to get to the human world, and you've been camping out on my route to get there."
"Finish him," Talaria said, venom dripping from her voice.
"I will not yield," Berial replied. "My master will not stand failure, and neither shall I."
He transformed into pure flames and melted a hole through the ceiling. All the flames around grew dim without his presence.
"All that talk and you aren't ready to finish the fight?," I yelled out.
Then above me a hot purple glow from the stone came, I jumped back, as a pillar of purple flames descended upon me.
Emerging from the pillar was a familiar black knight, roughly three times as tall as I was, with bat-like wings over his shoulders and a flowing purple cape.
There it was, Cavaliere Angelo.
An attempt by the great demon smith Machiavelli to create a living armor demon based off of Sparda's data. A failure that as far as I knew should have been discarded, but there it was.
It seemed Berial decided to inhabit the demon, and power it rather than die by my hands, thus the change from the electricity I knew it wielded when the lightning demoness Trish was its core to flame.
There was no conversation, no quips, not even a growl of intent. Before I knew it, in a burst of flames the knight was upon me.
Slashing away with their four pronged blade he rapidly melted away Berial's sword from Fenris, and the blades of ice that I had extended from the devil arm.
We exchanged a dozen blows, and Fenris was reduced to it's base state.
I was on the defensive again.
How the hell did Dante make parrying him look so easy and how the hell did V survive against this guy?
'Well, if ice won't work, I guess I'll have to change things up,' I thought.
I jumped away, continuously dodging his advance and kept Fenris on my back, as I needed it to keep me cool in this blaze. In an instant however I had already taken out Bolverk's Spear from one of my arms.
I infused power into it, extending it just like I did with Fenris, but this time it was pure demonic power that condensed into a a blade of light that grew from the spear, matching the opponent's blade in size.
I let him approach me, ready for him to continue his assault. This time the clash proved far more favourable, no melted energy blade in the end.
But he was still really fast.
The pressure gave me little room to counter, if I maintained my current strategy.
'So let's kick things up a a notch,' I thought.
I again made distance between me and my foe. This time by summoning a spectral arm and just punching at his blade.
It had little effect but it bought me time to reposition myself.
I summoned both my spectral arms again and grabbed Bolverk's blade with them alongside my real ones.
I needed more power to take him on directly and that was the answer as simple as it was.
At least I hoped that was the answer.
The next exchange of of blades was a bit more favourable, every blow didn't knock me back in fact the ones that I parried were almost deflected easily, but there was still the matter of a speed difference to address.
'If only I could access devil trigger or even just some of Talaria's speed then I could easily tip the scales in my favour,' I thought.
Alas such a thing was not in the cards at the moment.
So I did the next best thing.
I simply poured power into my arms and the spear and delivered the strongest blow I could.
And it was enough, with the strength of al my arms and the spear it simply shattered whatever offense he dared to bring upon me. His sword was deflected and the energy blade from the spear struck true.
There was a gash in Cavaliere's armor as a result, a chink that leaked out pure flames.
Good. I could build momentum from that.
As I expected the dark knight to deliver a viscous counter attack instead.
The dark knight backed away instead,
It lifted it's arm at me and let out a stream of flames from it, like a flame thrower, or a dragon's breath.
I ran around the hall, in the air and on the walls to dodge the streak of flame as it trailed me.
Seemed he was pouring everything he had into this. Like a wounded animal striking back.
After a few seconds the stream of fire ended, but it felt much longer than that. The entire hall was covered in flames and filled with melted slag that used to be stone.
Were I more aware, I'd be worried about the structural integrity of the place, but it was probably held together by demonic magic or something to have not collapsed at that point.
The knight panted, holding it's side.
It seemed that such an attack took a lot out of it.
'Well, let's take advantage of that," I thought.
I was a blur. A bullet moving through the air, ready to strike down my assailant.
I kept Bolverk's spear in one arm this time and lifted Fenris from my back in a smooth motion.
Following my will the chains and the blades wrapped around the spear to make something of a makeshift trident.
The power of bitter enemies united to take down the foe infront of me.
A blade of demonic power and ice sprung from the combination of arms and speared through the Cavalierre and in turn the flame beast within.
They collapsed onto the floor as I pulled out the spear.
I had won the fight.
I stood there panting.
It was a short two fights but it still took a lot out of me to survive.
The barrier of flames dropped down, in fact all the flames in the hall died down, as if their master falling cut power from them.
"You survived.. You actually survived," Talaria said. "You do seem to possess the blood of Sparda to have withstood that."
"No reason… to lie to… you lady," I said in reply between pants. "Well might as well cut our way out now."
"I… I must thank you for avenging my father," Talaria said her voice quiet. "If the circumstances were different I'd reward you greatly for what you had done and we'd look over this fortress to see the extent of damages they had done to my father's land, but alas we must be going now."
It was then that I heard it.
A low clinking and clanging as the remains of the armor started to shake. A flame within once more grew alive.
Pieces of the armor flew off from the corpse, they flew towards me.
I tried my best to deflect them but in my exhausted state, it was proving difficult.
The pieces were relentless, desperate to merge with something.
Then a thought occurred to me, well if they were desperate to be part of something? Why not let them?
I held out my devil bringers and caught the next armor piece that flew towards me and absorbed it within my right arm.
I continuously did that until most of the armor had simply been assimilated into my arms.
Instead of being caught inside the armor, the armor was now trapped inside me.
'Well let's see what we got now?' I thought.
I willed the armor out of my arms.
And soon in a burst of flame kneeling before me was a black knight the size of me with glowing purple flames in it's eyes.
A miniature of the knight I'd just fought, but with features from the leonine centaur that was slain alongside it.
It seemed I'd earned a combined devil arm from my victory, one that embodied the strength of Cavalierre Angelo and Berial at once.
Now this, this could prove useful.
I dismissed the flaming knight, reabsorbing it into my arms, and brought out the Yamato shard.
I tried to sense where the tear was located, the veil between worlds was at its weakest and in time found it seated in front of where the throne had once been.
With one hand on the Deity of Time and Space's Locket and the other with Yamato shard, I got ready to finally get out of here.
I focused power into the blade shard and forced all my will and concentration into one thought.
'Take me to the human world'
Making the tear was much easier this time. As I cut a path into the next realm.
As the fabric of space and possibly reality itself formed a frayed an murky edge around where the shard cut I could see through the opening a city at night. With dark buildings, and light on but strangely not many people around. I was near some docks, next to the ocean, perhaps it was an island, or the coastline. I honestly couldn't care less at that moment.
I walked to the other side of the portal without a care for who saw me, taking out the Rebellion shard ready to close it.
Big mistake.
Perhaps it was the sudden opening to the demon realm, maybe it was the commotion caused by my fight, but the next thing I saw was an honest to god dragon flying at me through the entrance of the hall I was just in.
I dodged out of the way just in time as it barreled through the portal, widening it greatly by the presence of the creature.
As saw the creature fly away, I saw on its back a black and gold figure waving at me jovially.
"Thanks for the ticket out of there!~," it said jovially at me.
'Fuck, what the hell did I just do?' I thought.
Author's Note:
Uses a Gold Orb
Well here's a chapter after so long.
Writer's block hit me like a truck and whatever I wrote just felt terrible for a while so it was hard to put something out there.
A few things occured to me in the wait between chapters. I'm probably not comfortable writing porn in this and it would probably be terrible if I tried, so changed this story to the SFW subforum.
If people would prefer it in the NSFW subforum I'm willing to move it back, just don't expect me to write smut anytime soon.
The next thing was that Will's personality had drifted to be a lot more confident and competent than my own so I relabled it as an OC insert rather than a self insert. There's still part of me there but it just felt wrong to label it as a SI.
Going for longer chapters just seems to be out of my ability to do consistently, so I'll probably stick to short ones.
I'll leave that poll up though as a monument to all my sins though.
Anyways. If you got any critique or stuff of that variety that would be appreciated.
Chapter 6
Burning Up
As I ran towards the convergence point, I slowed down.
While I was still going far faster than a normal human could go, I slowed down a fair bit, to my equivalent of a jog.
This body still had limits and you never knew when a demon would show up.
Talaria meanwhile painted a picture. Of a time long before she was born, of a fragmented Underworld with different warlords taking territory in place of a central demon emperor.
A struggle that went back and forth fiercely for the first few centuries after the demon world was sealed and the loss of their ruler via Sparda's efforts.
As many creatures here were very very long lived, time passing meant little for how the underworld changed. The intelligent ones played their games of power while the more animalistic continued with their simple existences or were used as pawns by these stronger creatures.
Talaria herself was, as she mentioned, a daughter to one of these warlords. Her father built a fortress over a convergence point and had those demons who wished to use it pay tribute to him, siphoning some of their demonic blood in hopes it would make him stronger. Why he never tried to force it further open and venture to the human world himself and even forbade her from journeying there was a mystery to Talaria.
She lived a comfortable if boring life as a stronger intelligent demon would in the underworld.
Uninterested in her father's extortion scheme, she passed the years idly by until it all changed.
15 years ago the Demon Emperor Mundus had launched a campaign of terror across the underworld conquering territory one by one until they reached her father's lands.
While he gathered a fair amount of strength from his scheme, he stood no match for the Demon Emperor and he knew it. He sent Talaria off with some subjects, and she's been wandering the underworld ever since. Every once in a while checking to see what had become of her father's land.
By the time she finished her tale he noticed the surroundings change once more.
While he was at a rocky wasteland once more, there was lightning of various colors in the sky, rocks floating in the air, the occasional tornado in the distance.
"We should be there soon," Talaria said.
"Finally, that felt like it took an eternity," I replied.
As I (or was it we at this point?) ran through this storm hell, Talaria became quiet. Only the crackling of lightning and the roar of the winds accompanied our journey.
Understandable, considering we were heading to her former home.
I soon saw it. On the ground in a patch of calm air, the eye of the storm so to speak, was a gothic castle that looked like it was pulled straight from medieval times.
There however were some things that marked it as a demon castle. The moat of lava for one, that was around the outer walls, and the great pyres of flame that came from the turrets and spires.
"I'm guessing a fire demon took it over," I said.
"Indeed, it was the work of Berial," Talaria said. "He'll pay for his transgressions ."
"Oh, that guy," I said. "This shouldn't be too hard then."
'He was the intro boss for Nero after all,' I thought. 'Then again, game power levels might not match reality.'
"Don't underestimate him, he was granted some gifts by his master that should prove a great challenge to overcome for you at your current level."
"What kind of gifts?," I asked.
That seemed out of character for him, then again rejecting a gift from Mundus, his creator, would probably spell his doom.
"A set of soldiers, Angelos he called them and a grand champion called Cavaliere," Talaria said.
I paused for a moment to digest that information.
'Wait shouldn't those be at the Qlithoph?," I thought. 'Hm, maybe Mundus only moved them there, once he was confident in his grip on the demon world? That just brings up more questions. Still if V could survive fighting them then I should be able to as well.'
I shook my head and tried to clear my mind.
"So how close do we have to be to cut a way out?," I asked Talaria.
"Father when he constructed this fortress made it so that the entrance hall served as the place it was easiest to cross the gap," Talaria replied. "Unfortunately for us however, the master of this castle would also know whenever anyone entered the hall."
"Seems like a fight is unavoidable then," I noted. "We might as well scout out of the exterior to see what we're up against."
I climbed upwards into the air using Talaria's skywalking, and saw the castle exterior was … surprisingly barren?
No demons were on patrol, no signs of life beyond the fires.
I ran around the perimeter of the castle before finding myself back in front of the entrance.
"Either no one's home, or they're just waiting for visitors to fight off," I told her. "God, I hope it's the former."
"Aren't you forgetting something?," Talaria said.
"Oh yeah… I forgot to prepare properly," I said.
I pulled out the Deity of Time and Spaces' locket, and prayed once more.
I invested what I got from Bolverk into Fenris and a bit into his spear.
With that done I walked over the moat of lava, and approached the castle doors.
The were huge to say the least, which if Berial was within the castle made sense.
'I know this body can handle it, but could they turn down the heat a little?,' I thought to myself. 'Nero was right, he does burn easily.'
The heat was rather unpleasant, so I pulled out Fenris from within my arms and used them to cool myself off a bit.
As my arms were full I summoned my spectral arms and gave a hard push to open the giant gates, which slammed to the sides of the entrance.
And in the entrance hall, sitting like a sphinx was Berial.
To describe him would be to call him something of a centaur if the head and lower body were that of a demonic horned lion, with the whole body wreathed in flames with volcanic obsidian skin. At his side was a large greatsword as fiery as he was with a stone like texture. There was also the matter of him being 10 meters tall.
The demon stared me down, taking in the intruder.
"Who dares?," the beast said. "A human? No… those arms are those of a demon. But the scent of humanity lingers with your presence… I have yet to see a demon such as you."
The demon stood up fully, and started stepping towards me, deliberate in his pace.
While I'd already seen a giant demon in the form of Fenris, seeing one filled with murderous intent directed solely at you felt a bit different than seeing it aimed at someone else.
Still I had to keep a cool head even in this heat.
I walked forwards into the hall.
"I suppose you won't just let me waltz into the human world will you?" I asked.
"Curious indeed, you remind me of him," Berial continued, ignoring my words. "But what would he or his kin be doing here?"
"Yeah, I don't know myself, to be honest," I said.
"Still if you are related to him, you should provide an entertaining fight," The demon mused. "I am Berial, General of Mundus and I shall be your end!"
As soon as he said there was a wall of flame behind me and the torches at the edges of the hall glowed even brighter.
This would be our arena.
He jumped at me with an overhead strike of his blade.
I slid to the side to dodge it, but the explosion of flames at the impact point blew me further away from the blade.
'Well that's going to be annoying,' I thought. 'Though I really should have seen it coming.'
He approached me again with his calm measured steps.
Fire flared in his left hand and then there was a telltale glow below me.
I sidestepped again this time staying far clear of the blast radius.
Where I was once standing the ground had erupted in flames.
He'd really burn this whole place down just to kill me huh?
I infused power into Fenris to cool off and jumped up to his eye level and stood there in the air.
His response to that was to smolder and gather flames within himself, ready to dash towards me
'Oh, we're doing that already?,' I thought. 'Well two can play at that game.'
I surged power into Fenris and in an instant the blades were encased in ice that grew them to the size of greatswords. A frosty aura surrounded my body.
He lunged with a thrust of his blade to split me in two.
While it dwarfed me in size I simply crossed my blades to intercept it.
The crash of the swords against each other echoed through the hall.
The ice cracked just a little but held firm. A surge of demonic power fixed that damage soon enough.
We were locked in place like that.
Well he was struggling to push the blade through my guard, and I was just standing there taking in the situation.
He might have been a hulking giant but this body was strong.
A pulse of flames traveled down his blade.
'Oh no you don't,' I thought.
I sent power into the blades and ice traveled up them and through his own to meet the flames.
The pulses canceled each other out.
I pushed back and forced Berial's blade away from me, setting him off balance, and dashed forward myself.
I slashed at at his body with my blades and left a large gash across his chest.
Despite this though the wound was already healing, when I finished the cut.
He slashed away at me, trying to bat me away with the sword, but I had already kicked off of his body to retreat once more.
"It'll take much more than that to take him down," Talaria said.
"Ah, he can heal, because of course he can," I said in reply.
I threw one of Fenris' blades at the demon, the chain that connected the two blades extending by the magic that gave it form, he deflected it with his sword.
I pulled back on the chain and threw the blade again.
And again he readied to deflect it.
This time however was different, there was a burst of ice at the point of impact locking his blade together with my own.
Before he could melt them apart, I pulled summoned a spectral arm and hard, and resultingly disarmed him of his sword.
This was where the fun part started.
I heaved with my spectral arms the locked together blades and then swung them back at him, a giant makeshift flail.
Oh he tried to dodge but the each blow left a burst of ice that grazed him whenever he attempted to, and for the ones that managed to hit.
Well the less details said about the damage he received the better.
It felt good to be on offensive, and be winning from the get go for a change.
By the time I finished my barrage the leonine centaur like demon was a wounded wreck. He was on his knees, barely capable of staying upright.
"So are you ready to stand aside?," I asked. "I just want to get to the human world, and you've been camping out on my route to get there."
"Finish him," Talaria said, venom dripping from her voice.
"I will not yield," Berial replied. "My master will not stand failure, and neither shall I."
He transformed into pure flames and melted a hole through the ceiling. All the flames around grew dim without his presence.
"All that talk and you aren't ready to finish the fight?," I yelled out.
Then above me a hot purple glow from the stone came, I jumped back, as a pillar of purple flames descended upon me.
Emerging from the pillar was a familiar black knight, roughly three times as tall as I was, with bat-like wings over his shoulders and a flowing purple cape.
There it was, Cavaliere Angelo.
An attempt by the great demon smith Machiavelli to create a living armor demon based off of Sparda's data. A failure that as far as I knew should have been discarded, but there it was.
It seemed Berial decided to inhabit the demon, and power it rather than die by my hands, thus the change from the electricity I knew it wielded when the lightning demoness Trish was its core to flame.
There was no conversation, no quips, not even a growl of intent. Before I knew it, in a burst of flames the knight was upon me.
Slashing away with their four pronged blade he rapidly melted away Berial's sword from Fenris, and the blades of ice that I had extended from the devil arm.
We exchanged a dozen blows, and Fenris was reduced to it's base state.
I was on the defensive again.
How the hell did Dante make parrying him look so easy and how the hell did V survive against this guy?
'Well, if ice won't work, I guess I'll have to change things up,' I thought.
I jumped away, continuously dodging his advance and kept Fenris on my back, as I needed it to keep me cool in this blaze. In an instant however I had already taken out Bolverk's Spear from one of my arms.
I infused power into it, extending it just like I did with Fenris, but this time it was pure demonic power that condensed into a a blade of light that grew from the spear, matching the opponent's blade in size.
I let him approach me, ready for him to continue his assault. This time the clash proved far more favourable, no melted energy blade in the end.
But he was still really fast.
The pressure gave me little room to counter, if I maintained my current strategy.
'So let's kick things up a a notch,' I thought.
I again made distance between me and my foe. This time by summoning a spectral arm and just punching at his blade.
It had little effect but it bought me time to reposition myself.
I summoned both my spectral arms again and grabbed Bolverk's blade with them alongside my real ones.
I needed more power to take him on directly and that was the answer as simple as it was.
At least I hoped that was the answer.
The next exchange of of blades was a bit more favourable, every blow didn't knock me back in fact the ones that I parried were almost deflected easily, but there was still the matter of a speed difference to address.
'If only I could access devil trigger or even just some of Talaria's speed then I could easily tip the scales in my favour,' I thought.
Alas such a thing was not in the cards at the moment.
So I did the next best thing.
I simply poured power into my arms and the spear and delivered the strongest blow I could.
And it was enough, with the strength of al my arms and the spear it simply shattered whatever offense he dared to bring upon me. His sword was deflected and the energy blade from the spear struck true.
There was a gash in Cavaliere's armor as a result, a chink that leaked out pure flames.
Good. I could build momentum from that.
As I expected the dark knight to deliver a viscous counter attack instead.
The dark knight backed away instead,
It lifted it's arm at me and let out a stream of flames from it, like a flame thrower, or a dragon's breath.
I ran around the hall, in the air and on the walls to dodge the streak of flame as it trailed me.
Seemed he was pouring everything he had into this. Like a wounded animal striking back.
After a few seconds the stream of fire ended, but it felt much longer than that. The entire hall was covered in flames and filled with melted slag that used to be stone.
Were I more aware, I'd be worried about the structural integrity of the place, but it was probably held together by demonic magic or something to have not collapsed at that point.
The knight panted, holding it's side.
It seemed that such an attack took a lot out of it.
'Well, let's take advantage of that," I thought.
I was a blur. A bullet moving through the air, ready to strike down my assailant.
I kept Bolverk's spear in one arm this time and lifted Fenris from my back in a smooth motion.
Following my will the chains and the blades wrapped around the spear to make something of a makeshift trident.
The power of bitter enemies united to take down the foe infront of me.
A blade of demonic power and ice sprung from the combination of arms and speared through the Cavalierre and in turn the flame beast within.
They collapsed onto the floor as I pulled out the spear.
I had won the fight.
I stood there panting.
It was a short two fights but it still took a lot out of me to survive.
The barrier of flames dropped down, in fact all the flames in the hall died down, as if their master falling cut power from them.
"You survived.. You actually survived," Talaria said. "You do seem to possess the blood of Sparda to have withstood that."
"No reason… to lie to… you lady," I said in reply between pants. "Well might as well cut our way out now."
"I… I must thank you for avenging my father," Talaria said her voice quiet. "If the circumstances were different I'd reward you greatly for what you had done and we'd look over this fortress to see the extent of damages they had done to my father's land, but alas we must be going now."
It was then that I heard it.
A low clinking and clanging as the remains of the armor started to shake. A flame within once more grew alive.
Pieces of the armor flew off from the corpse, they flew towards me.
I tried my best to deflect them but in my exhausted state, it was proving difficult.
The pieces were relentless, desperate to merge with something.
Then a thought occurred to me, well if they were desperate to be part of something? Why not let them?
I held out my devil bringers and caught the next armor piece that flew towards me and absorbed it within my right arm.
I continuously did that until most of the armor had simply been assimilated into my arms.
Instead of being caught inside the armor, the armor was now trapped inside me.
'Well let's see what we got now?' I thought.
I willed the armor out of my arms.
And soon in a burst of flame kneeling before me was a black knight the size of me with glowing purple flames in it's eyes.
A miniature of the knight I'd just fought, but with features from the leonine centaur that was slain alongside it.
It seemed I'd earned a combined devil arm from my victory, one that embodied the strength of Cavalierre Angelo and Berial at once.
Now this, this could prove useful.
I dismissed the flaming knight, reabsorbing it into my arms, and brought out the Yamato shard.
I tried to sense where the tear was located, the veil between worlds was at its weakest and in time found it seated in front of where the throne had once been.
With one hand on the Deity of Time and Space's Locket and the other with Yamato shard, I got ready to finally get out of here.
I focused power into the blade shard and forced all my will and concentration into one thought.
'Take me to the human world'
Making the tear was much easier this time. As I cut a path into the next realm.
As the fabric of space and possibly reality itself formed a frayed an murky edge around where the shard cut I could see through the opening a city at night. With dark buildings, and light on but strangely not many people around. I was near some docks, next to the ocean, perhaps it was an island, or the coastline. I honestly couldn't care less at that moment.
I walked to the other side of the portal without a care for who saw me, taking out the Rebellion shard ready to close it.
Big mistake.
Perhaps it was the sudden opening to the demon realm, maybe it was the commotion caused by my fight, but the next thing I saw was an honest to god dragon flying at me through the entrance of the hall I was just in.
I dodged out of the way just in time as it barreled through the portal, widening it greatly by the presence of the creature.
As saw the creature fly away, I saw on its back a black and gold figure waving at me jovially.
"Thanks for the ticket out of there!~," it said jovially at me.
'Fuck, what the hell did I just do?' I thought.
Author's Note:
Uses a Gold Orb
Well here's a chapter after so long.
Writer's block hit me like a truck and whatever I wrote just felt terrible for a while so it was hard to put something out there.
A few things occured to me in the wait between chapters. I'm probably not comfortable writing porn in this and it would probably be terrible if I tried, so changed this story to the SFW subforum.
If people would prefer it in the NSFW subforum I'm willing to move it back, just don't expect me to write smut anytime soon.
The next thing was that Will's personality had drifted to be a lot more confident and competent than my own so I relabled it as an OC insert rather than a self insert. There's still part of me there but it just felt wrong to label it as a SI.
Going for longer chapters just seems to be out of my ability to do consistently, so I'll probably stick to short ones.
I'll leave that poll up though as a monument to all my sins though.
Anyways. If you got any critique or stuff of that variety that would be appreciated.
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