Devil May Cry - Volume 2 - Chapter 4.3

Phase 4 
Part 3 

Chen was furious, despite his jovial demeanor.

He hadn't considered the possibility that Dante and Beryl would have taken out the Ghost Knights.

But he knew it was only a matter of time until his plans came to fruition.

The power of the Beastheads had told him when to flee.

He'd activated the escape hatch the moment he saw his earlier vision come to pass.

Noe he understood how to use the Beastheads.

The escape chute returned Chen to his living room.

He crossed over to a giant mahogany desk.

Ancient manuscripts papered its surface, recording demon history from more than two millennia past.

Suddenly, a telephone rang.

"Master Chen.

The Uroboros Corporation is on the other line.

Regarding the Ghost Knights, sir.

They have a question about selling our patents covering the production of homunculi.

What would you like me to do?" 
Chen wiped a tear from his eye.

Demonic tremors and the slaughter of the Ghost Knights couldn't keep his receptionist from doing her duties.

Good staff was priceless."What perfect timing, Miss Hansborough.

Transfer our entire Ghost Knights research department to them.

I am no longer interested in continuing that product line." 
Chen replaced the handset in its cradle and returned his attention to the ancient writings.

If the Ghost Knights could be defeated by Beryl's magic bullets, he had no use for them.

Selling the department would at least prove a small victory.

The money couldn't hurt, either.

His eyes became glued to a certain page spelling out the epic battle between the King of the Underworld and forces led by the Dark Knight Sparda.

Although the story was legendary among the criminal element, this particular page contained a detail he'd never encountered elsewhere.

"During the battle between Sparda and Demon King Mundus, the King of the Underworld's forces devised the following strategies," he read aloud.

Chen clutched the Beastheads in his right hand.

He had read the book so many times over the years that he was almost sick of it.

He had tasked a team of occult experts to comb the documents for hidden knowledge and memorized every last fragment, not letting a single world slip from his memory.

But he had never actually understood it before now.

Chen had thought that the Beastheads would make him Sparda's equal.

He'd envisioned harnessing the statue's power to become immortal and to assume complete mastery of the demon world.

He had even tapped poor Mister Ducas to seek out and demonstrate the operation of the Beastheads.

Chen watched as the statue assimilated Ducas and used its power to banish Dante and Beryl to another world.

If I were an ordinary man, that power would be enough, he thought.

But he knew his prodigious curiosity would never be satiated by that limited knowledge.

He no longer thought in terms of application and ambition.

He simply wanted to know.

Why didn't the Beastheads try to assimilate Mundus and his demons? Were there being capable of resisting its power? What was the difference its victims and the others? 
Those thoughts had plagued him for years.

Chen looked back at the document he had just read.

"The demon form is generally immune to the power of the Beastheads." The creature that had brought the statue to the annihilated temple had not been absorbed as Chen previously believed.

Even now, it roamed free.

Still, he needed confirmation.

Chen knew something of Dante's origins.

If an ordinary human such as himself could resist and control the Beastheads, what would happen if someone with demon blood tried? An experiment is necessary, he reckoned.

When Chen had used the Beastheads to predict the future, he had seen a brief glimpse of Dante submitting to him.

He recalled Dante flinching slightly when Beryl fired off her enchanted bullets.

Chen laughed rapturously at the plan formulating in his mind.

The noise was pure and untainted by malice.

It sounded like the laugh of the King of the Underworld.

 
Dante and Beryl had jumped into the escape chute without thinking things through.

The tunnel was connected to a warren of passageways, and Chen could have headed down any of them.

So they decided to use Beryl's wound as a sort of divining rod.

"This way, I think.

It aches the most." Beryl pointed down one of the tunnels.

"Well if it doesn't pan out, we can always just blow up the whole building." 
Every so often the tunnels would exit into another research lab where scientists hurriedly packed up their equipment.

The reaction was the same each time Dante or Beryl poked their head into the room.

The scientists would freeze in terror and the run away.

Neither warrior could understand why they hadn't stumbled into a fight.

"I've got a bad feeling about this, Dante.

We're being toyed with." 
"Yeah, we probably are.

It's always easier when the other side sticks to the script," he grumbled.

"Squaring off with Chen is strange.

I can't figure him out." 
"There's nothing to figure out.

He's a mob boss and he's got the Beastheads." 
"But he's so cheery." 
"Maybe he always remembers to eat breakfast." Beryl grimaced and stroked her scar.

"I think we're almost there.

Through those doors." 
The doors opened to a wide foyer.

It was simple yet refined.

Several elegant sculptures lined either side of a sturdy black door at the far end.

Both warriors knew Chen would be on the other side.

There were no signs of any other people.

"It's obviously a trap," Dante pointed out.

Beryl dropped to her knees.

The pain radiating from her scar was almost unbearable.

The Beastheads was close.

"You wait here.

I'm gonna have a look," Dante said.

He casually strolled across the foyer.

Dante had only reached the halfway point when the floor opened up beneath his feet to reveal a hissing pool of some liquid or other.

Dante leapt high into the air just before his feet lost purchase.

The second trap sprang into play almost immediately.

A volley of spears shot out of the wall.

Dante managed to dodge them and find a place to land.

As soon as his feet hit the ground, the marble ceiling above him broke away and crashed to the floor.

Dante spun out of the way at the last possible moment.

Something's wrong.

My reflexes are slowing.

 
 
Dante knew these traps should have been child's play for him.

But as each second passed, his body grew heavier.

Or maybe it was the air getting thicker.

Each trap was that much more difficult to avoid than the one before it.

Dante's mind raced furiously.

Was he sick? Was it poison? 
He couldn't recall anything.

It's the room itself.

"Interesting plan, Chen!" He saw my reaction to Beryl's enchanted bullets! He must have a machine capable of draining magic.

"It doesn't do much to these!" 
Dante whipped out Ebony and Ivory and blasted the door into splinters.

He avoided one final trap and slid into the room like a baseball player grabbing home plate.

Which had been Chen's plan all along? 
Dante plunged into a cool, gelatinous prison.

The form completely enveloped him.

Dante floated lamely in the mass, unable to control his body.

The goop forced itself into his mouth and nostrils and trickled sickeningly down his throat.

"Ho ho! Now we can finally have some alone time." 
Chen came into view.

The jelly gave everything a sparkling blue sheen.

"I don't really need to tell you this, but the magical power of the Beastheads is so mighty that it exceeds all common sense.

I imagine your lady friend is so afflicted by her scar that she's unable to get any closer on her own." Chen fiddled with the tiny statue in his hands.

The gel descended into Dante's stomach and began writhing violently.

The sensation made him sick, but he was unable to vomit.

Dante had been faced with helplessness before, but nothing this humiliating.

"I've caught myself a devil! Nullifying magical powers is my special trick, you know.

I've spent years examining demons; I know how to handle them.

This gel functions as a preservative for my specimens." Chen was now standing so close that his nose practically touched the jelly.

He had the feverish eyes of a virgin discovering true love.

Dante had never known anyone so creepy.

For a moment, he hankered for an epic smackdown between himself and the armies of the King of the Underworld.

Anything would be better than listening to this smiling freak while suspended in gel.

Chen opened his eyes wide and whispered theatrically.

"And now I shall offer you the Beastheads.

Will it devour you like a human? Or will you resist like a demon? I look forward to this grand experiment!" 
Dante didn't know how to respond to this, so he just grimaced.

Chen plunged the Beastheads through the gel and into Dante's side.

Each of the statue's three heads came to life and bit deep into his body.

He convulsed in pain.

Dante saw visions of a very young King of the Underworld, his body raging with pulsating magical energy.

He saw flashes of Mundus commanding an infinite army of demon troops to overwhelm the human world without challenge.

It was a mental snapshot of a war two thousand years ago, one that Dante had heard through stories and legend.

He didn't understand why the Beastheads shared this memory.

Did it belong to someone who was there all those centuries ago? 
Ducas had peered into the future and had his existence drained away in response.

Chen had seen the agonized faces of thousands of people who had shared the same fate as Ducas after he revived the occult statue.

But something different was happening to Dante.

Searing heat welled up inside him, but the omnipresent gel acted as a counterbalance against it.

Dante's body was recovering its lost strength, fueled by the dark power of the Beastheads interacting with his demonic nature.

He recalled Beryl's story about the temple; she had fired at the demon holding the Beastheads to no effect.

"This!" Chen cried.

"This is the glory of the Beastheads!" 
Dante realized what was happening.

His powers restored in full, the Beastheads retracted its fangs and reverted to stone.

I don't think you understand, Chen.

Dante watched Chen's jaw drop as he unsheathed Rebellion while still inside the jelly.

He used the sword to carve a path through the blob.

Suddenly, Chen drew himself up.

"I see." 
And in that moment, he and Dante both understood the reason why the Beastheads had never assimilated any of the demons that had carried it.

It was the same reason Dante was able to carve his way through the gel coffin and stand in front of Chen.

"The Beastheads eats us humans and replenishes you demons.

It's like a power transformer for souls!" 
"Probably." Dante shrugged.

The power that now imbued him felt neither good nor evil.

It simply was.

Whoever wielded it could reshape reality to its own design, for better or for worse.

"Ho ho! A fascinating conclusion.

I should patent this.

A process for transforming humans into a basic magical energy.

My company has some hard work ahead of it." Chen's eyes were moist with tears.

Dante thought that Chen was a horrifying specimen of humanity.

Even now, faced with certain death at Dante's hands, Chen could only focus on his own intellectual lust.

"How grand! I shall start the research immediately!" Chen toddled off in excitement."Hey! Wait!" Dante was confused.

"I don't know if you're normally this crazy or if this is just a trick.

But we both know I'm not going to let you walk out of here with the Beastheads." 
Chen stopped.

He turned his head, smiling evilly.

"You mean to take it from me?" 
"Yeah." 
"By force, I imagine." 
"Yeah." 
Chen giggled.

Dante found the entire scene disconcerting.

Chen had no weapons or protection, while Dante wielded the tremendous power restored by the Beastheads.

"You know," Chen finally said.

"I had almost decided to let you live." 
The comment flummoxed Dante.

Chen appeared utterly powerless, but took on the tone of someone supremely confident of his position.

Chen turned around to face Dante completely.

He raised the Beastheads in one hand.

"I'm afraid you left me with no choice." 
Dante wasn't sure what he was expecting to happen, but his adversary's next move certainly wasn't it.Chen opened his mouth wide and tossed the Beastheads into it.

He chomped down vigorously and began grinding it into powder with his impeccable teeth.

"What's that supposed to do?" Dante asked.

Chen munched on the statue.

"Ever since I was a young boy, I pushed myself beyond my limits.

My body has endured unimaginable trials.

I am now seventy percent demon.

Did you think I would let my research go to waste? And now you've proven to me how to harness the power of the Beastheads.

It doesn't hurt those with demon blood." 
Chen gulped, and the last of the statue disappeared into his stomach.

"Young Mister Ducas demonstrated that he who devours the Beastheads inherits its power." 
"Are you crazy?" 
"I wanted to run some more experiments, of course.

But I suppose we'll have to do with testing the effects of my hypothesis right here." 
Chen smiled maniacally.

The edges of his mouth rose to his ears.

All of the lights in the room blew out and the temperature plunged rapidly, creating violent wind.

An uncanny collection of human emotions whirled through the darkness.

The blackness became a storm that assaulted Dante.