Devil May Cry - Volume 2 - Chapter 3.4

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Phase 3
Part 4

It's said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Beryl reckoned it was also paved with well-maintained asphalt.

The journey was much smoother than she had anticipated, both literally and metaphorically.

The deadly swamps and ravenous monsters describes by stories were nowhere to be found on the way to the King of the Underworld's keep.

Which was just as well, because the rebel forces were in no shape to overcome such obstacles.

The battle with the golden-haired warrior women had left four men in five dead or seriously wounded.

The clash had even claimed one of the five demon generals; Frost lay dead and the surviving demon lords were so drained of magical energy that they barely clung to life.

Nevertheless, Blade and Griffon had agreed to accompany Dante and Beryl to Mundus' kingdom.

Eventually, the ragged militia found themselves standing at the gaping granite maw that burrowed deep into the earth all the way to hell itself.

Dante stepped into the Underworld for a second time.

The sepulchral kingdom was subtly different from the last one he had entered, but Dante was glad to have at least some prior knowledge at his disposal.

The uncanny sixth sense that all humans experienced in the presence of demons tickled the back of his skull.

Dante knew that it would only increase as the party journeyed deeper into the Underworld.

Most humans felt the sensation as a primal dread that frequently led to insanity.

Dante hadn't expected to march into an abyss with a demon army at his side.

His newfound allies found their magical energies replenished the nearer they got to the heart of the Underworld.

The demon realms proved a psychic balm for the soldiers, and their spirits rose with each step.

Dante hated working in groups, but for once he was glad for the backup.

Nevertheless, readying to fight the demon kind with Blade and Griffon at his side was unsettling at best.

Dante looked over to his human companion.

Beryl struggled to avoid succumbing to the atmosphere of despair that characterized the Underworld.

She wasn't the first human to enter the Underworld, but part of him hoped she would be the last.

After a while, the monsters attacked.

The sorties didn't stop Dante and the other warriors, who pressed farther into the Underworld despite coming under fire from time to time.

Each skirmish decreased their numbers, but the rebels pushed on nonetheless.

The demonic energy was so pervasive now that Griffon and the other unholy allies easily dealt with their attackers.

The energy grew stronger as the party neared Mundus' keep.

Eventually it proved too overwhelming for the rebel demons.

One by one, they fell to their knees, rendered immobile by an overload of mystical undercurrent.

Even Blade and Griffon succumbed at last.

They collapsed just as the remainder of the party entered an empty granite hall.

"This place," Griffon muttered through clenched teeth.

"This place is the king's keep..."
"I understand." Dante placed a hand on Griffon's shoulder.

The demon lord's face was creased with pain.

Dante knew they must be near the nexus of the Underworld's mystical energy.

He sheathed Rebellion and walked toward a door on the far end of the chamber.

"Wait!" Beryl ran after him.

"You can't just leave me here!"
Dante didn't acknowledge her.

Beryl dashed to his side.

"Stop joking around! I came this far too, you know!"
Dante said nothing.

"I won't get in your way," Beryl implored.

"I'm not some weak little girl who's going to run away and cry at the first sign of danger.

I'm a Devil Hunter like you!"
Dante paused mid-step and looked Beryl in the eye.

"Do what you like," he said simply.

The two warriors continued the rest of the way across the gargantuan antechamber.

The silence was punctuated by the echo of their footfalls and the tense whimpers that came from the demons left behind at the entrance.

The door opened of its own accord as they got closer.

The portal revealed an almost palpable darkness.

Beryl imagined she could feel hot breath all around her.

At least, she hoped she imagined it.

Dante regarded the void with a cynical grin.

"Last time, you came out of a dog statue.

What are you going to throw at me this time?"
Something rumbled an answer from the darkness.

Dante and Beryl stepped inside the void and vanished.

Chen hadn't moved from his perch for nearly an hour.

He didn't even appear to breathe, he saw so still.

He was nestled deep in a lush velvet chair, eyes locked on a glass cabinet before him.

The box was roughly the size of a man, which was so convenient because it currently housed one.

This particular man was currently made of stone.

He rested in the glass box like an exhibition in a museum.

The statue's mouth howled in silent anguish, and its clothes were ragged and torn.

The figure was none other than Ducas the Rat.

"Three days," Chen squealed to himself.

Three days since the black clouds had formed above the yacht and spat out the Beastheads.

Three days since Ducas had fought Dante and Beryl on the cliff.

Three days since he had turned to stone and been recovered by Chen's men.

Chen had become obsessed with the stone man in that span.

The mystical transformation had awakened a part of him long thought extinct.

Ducas was somehow still alive.

Stone, yes, but alive all the same.

Chen's demon contacts had confirmed that Ducas was alive despite the metamorphosis, while his human scientists swore that the stone was real stone.

"How can you be alive, Mister Ducas?" Chen playfully waved a hand in front of the statue's terrified eyes.

"I imagine you would fetch a considerable sum on the open market in your present state.

But that would be dull."
Chen hauled himself out of the chair and waddled toward a large window.

"Things from the demon world are certainly marvelous, Mister Ducas.

There are treasures from there worth having.

Worth using."
Chen gazed at the world outside the window, lost in thought.

After a moment, he threw his shoulders back and laughed violently.

It was an absurd giggle unbecoming of a man of his stature.

It was a repulsive mockery of innocence, a twisted quality that would have unwittingly chilled the soul of anyone who hear it.

It was no longer the laughter of a human being.

Beryl heard it.

The laughter echoed through the void, a sound so dark that it couldn't be human.

The staccato rhythm grated on her nerves.

Beryl gritted her teeth and fought to keep the despair at bay.

Dante had vanished the moment they stepped through the portal.

At least, Beryl assumed he had.

The blackness was so thick that it seemed to devour light; even Beryl's hand remained imperceptible when held in front of her face.

The void left her useless; it was all she could do to keep herself together.

Occasionally she would catch an intuitive flash.

Somehow she knew that Dante was out there in the void, fighting the King of the Underworld himself in a desperate battle.

Waves of power radiated from the coagulated darkness...Dante and Mundus clashing for the first time-in this world.

Beryl was bitterly ashamed of bragging about her abilities.

Her imprudence had cost Dante an ally and opened her up to attack from all sides.

It was almost as if the chamber was unwilling to countenance any trespasser not worthy of the demon king.

And it had found her worth lacking.

Beryl gripped her beloved rifle, but she didn't have the strength to pull the trigger.

She wasn't even sure it would work in this strange place.

Her weapon had seen Beryl through many adventures, but it was now no more than a dead twig.

She felt another intuitive flash from the unseen battle.

Beryl was standing on the sidelines of the legend.

The battle was reaching its climax.

Dante faced the King of the Underworld without the slightest hesitation.

"It's lights out, Mundus!"
Dante winced as the words slipped out.

Sometimes it's hard to come up with a pithy one-liner during battle, he reflected.

It seems so easy in the movies.

Rebellion roared through the darkness, stabbing at the void.

It had taken Dante a moment to realize that the void wasn't empty.

The void was the king himself.

Somehow he knew how to fight it, slashing at the darkness and instinctively avoiding attack.

"That's right.

Scream louder!"
Dante whipped Ebony and Ivory from their holsters and spat out a fierce torrent.

The bullets sang through the air like tiny silver bells before punching through the king.

The void convulsed, even as Mundus hurled all manner of death at Dante from innumerable arms formed from the darkness.

Swords, arrows, and lightning clattered through the silver-haired warrior.

"I didn't think it would be this easy." Dante laughed.

He nimbly danced around the most lethal attacks and then made another play for the demon king.

Attacking Mundus in his own keep had proven a masterstroke.

The creature could scarcely comprehend the assault.

His supremacy was supposed to be absolute; the sole ruler of creation for timeless eternity.

Yet here was an arrogant trespasser-human no less-who had power equal to his own.

Always attack when they're sitting on the pot, Dante thought.

Mundus raged coldly, lashing out in idiotic response as Dante rushed in and out to hack and slash his way to victory.

The once-mighty King of the Underworld never understood what was happening to him, not even when Dante growled out his parting words and ended the king's life forever.

"Goodbye.

All the little demons in hell want to play with you."
Dante drove home the penultimate blow, slicing a gash in the void that shone with brilliant light.

A moment later, twin bullets shot out of Ebony and Ivory and disappeared into the crack.

The void shuddered, heaved...and finally exploded.

The legendary fight was over.

Dante holstered his pistols as the darkness crumbled into light.

He recalled defeating Mundus in his own world.

That harrowing experience had given him an advantage here.

Last time he had help.

Had he gotten stronger? Or was his destiny to go on alone?
"Dante!"
Beryl's voice snapped Dante out of his thoughts.

She ran toward him with delight.

"You were amazing!" she gushed.

She quickly explained how she had witnessed the battle through intuitive flashes and the glow of light at the end.

"Amazing!"
"We've got to get out of here," Dante said sternly.