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Devil May Cry- The Hidden Essence Ch.4

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Just the Beginning

By the time Dante had made it out of town, the sun was beginning to lower in the sky, but there was still some clear daylight. It wasn’t long until he came upon the abandoned warehouse. It looked like it hadn’t been touched for years. It was all boarded up and didn’t seem to show any signs of an entry.

“Heh, no entrance huh?”

He casually walked up to what appeared to be a boarded up doorway as he pulled out his Rebellion and slashed a big X into the hardwood that covered the door. Seconds later the wood caved in, allowing access to the inside. He strolled inside with his sword resting on his shoulder, ready to use just in case an unexpected attack occurs. He gazed around as there were cobwebs everywhere, silence surrounding him, the stench of stale air and the only light beaming was from the entrance. However, the silence gave him a lead to where the real entrance to the lab could be found. With each step he took it sounded quite odd. He took a couple of more steps that sounded deeper than the other steps he took previously. Curious, he kneeled down and put his ear to the floor then knocked a couple of times with one hand on one board and knocked a couple of more times on another.

“Knock, knock, doc,” he sarcastically remarked.

One board sounded more hollow than the other. Satisfied with his findings, he stood above the hollow sounding boards, swung out his guns and held them at the ground.

“Jackpot.”

The silence was quickly broken with an array of gunshots as he fired Ebony and Ivory in a circular motion and once all was done and quiet again the circular board broke beneath him as he fell into the darkness. It was only a mere few seconds before he hit rock bottom inside a rather large tunnel that was barely lit with lanterns that hung in mid air at the top, circling around down a path.

“Hmm, well this looks familiar. You’d think he’d be more original,” Dante said to himself, finding the moment reeking a hint of déjà vu of some of the tunnel paths he took to get to Agnus’ chamber. Nevertheless he had no choice but to keep wandering down the path as he put his guns away and rested Rebellion across his shoulders. The tunnel was huge, long and empty as his footsteps echoed upon the metal ground. It was quiet, almost too quiet as he started curving along with the path until the tunnel was straight again only to find that the straight path was filled with entrances to other tunnels that interconnected with the walling.

There was no indication whatsoever to show which side tunnel would be best to take since the main middle pathway itself seemed to go on for miles in one straight path. Dante couldn’t help but get the feeling that either this was an illusion of some kind, or Arkainius had an insane amount of free time to build such a place.

Sigh

“If Vincent were here, she could probably feel some type of path of energy that leads to the main room,” the devil hunter thought out loud.

He began to walk by each side entrance. The atmosphere alone was bad enough to deal with considering the lack of color, incredible amounts of rust, stale air and most of all a dank odor, but at least the pathway itself was lit. There’s nothing more annoying than wondering around in pitch dark. Annoyed, Dante was still in the midst of choosing which path to take since they all looked identical, until he stopped, swearing he felt a hint of a lingering essence. Before taking another step the devil hunter looked over his shoulder for a moment and it seemed just in time as he caught a glimpse of some apparition in the corner of his eye. He only saw it for a second without the chance to zero in on the details of the ghostly image, but it was seen long enough to bring his attention to one of the tunnel entrances he had passed a few feet back.

“Something’s better than nothing,” he openly admitted as he decided to follow where the apparition went.

Venturing down this side tunnel, he quickly realized how much smaller it was in comparison to the main pathway not to mention a lot darker. And of course the apparition was nowhere to be seen, but his gut feeling told him this was the right way to go. Despite the much smaller size of this tunnel, he could at least still stand comfortably. The passageway didn’t last long however as he quickly came upon a thick chamber door. It bore no latch or handle to open it, simply an inscription engraved into the metal that was in the demonic tongue. Taking a moment to decipher the message, Dante placed his hand upon the door, surging a bit of his demonic power into it. Within seconds the entrance suddenly turned translucent, disappearing entirely as Dante’s body was sucked into the room behind it with some strange force, the door reappearing behind him.

Upon gaining his footing back he quickly turned to see that the door had not only reappeared, but it was quickly merging together with the wall that connected to it, becoming the wall itself as the chamber entrance was now simply a flat surface showing no crease or sign that it was a door to begin with.

“Talk about your forced entry,” he remarked in sarcasm again while placing Rebellion on his back for the time being. With it still and quiet again, Dante took the moment to peer around him as he realized he was in a rather large chamber that was clearly visible all the way around, giving him an easy glimpse into the actual room the chamber was built in. He seemed to be in a giant laboratory that was all on the same level, but far and wide in size. There were test tubes, strange contraptions, bubbling chemicals and anything else you could imagine that would exist in such a location, but upon all the sights that Dante was taking in, his eyes suddenly caught glimpse of a glowing image all the way on the other side of the room. Wanting to get a better look, the devil hunter walked up to the wall that was nearest without actually touching the glass like surface.

In the distance he spotted Nero laying mostly naked upon a steel table, unconscious under the gelatinous glob that laid on top of him, sucking the life out of him. And there, standing next to the boy was the apparition he saw earlier out of the corner of his eye. The figure itself wasn’t quite detailed or formed, but it had enough definition for Dante to see that it was indeed some type of male figure. Looking upon the form for some reason brought about the strangest familiarity, something the devil hunter couldn’t quite put his finger on. At the last second the figure looked up and stared Dante straight in the eyes with a piercing gaze…

a gaze from the past.

A name rattled around in Dante’s head…a name he was almost brought to utter from his lips out of pure impulsive thought, but then the crimson hunter blinked and the figure…gone.

The moment itself lasted for only a matter of seconds, but sometimes the shortest moments feel like the longest. What was this figure? Why did it help lead him down the right path? But most importantly, why was it standing next to Nero so fervently?  Before the crimson hunter had a chance to reflect upon this moment, this strange familiar feeling, a light suddenly turned on inside the chamber as all became clearly visible. Arkainius finally came into the room as he gazed upon the subject that was inside his testing chamber.

“You found me rather quick…Dante…Son…of Sparda.

The devil hunter stood silently, sighing lightly as he looked around the room some more in a casual nonchalant fashion, waiting for the doc to make his move.

“Impressive…yet curious as to how you made it here with such ease.

“Eh, educated guess. The tunnels seemed a bit unoriginal. Maybe if you didn’t copy so much of Anus’ lab work, you would have actually succeeded at keeping me away.”

“How dare you mock Agnus! He was a genius!”

“More like an ingenious moron who surrendered his humanity…and lost.

Arkainius could only laugh in reply, “Ah yes…your precious humanity…the same humanity that Vincent gave up, yet you took her in. I can’t help but wonder why a son of Sparda would care so much. Your father didn’t give a damn for nearly 2,000 years, only to fall in love with a human and look where that got him?!”

Dante was unfazed by the doc’s attempt at refuting his casual approach to philosophy.

“She’s your weakness, Dante, and will end up getting you killed in the end. Not that I have any complaints about that.

The crimson hunter shook his head and folded his arms as he replied, “Weakness huh? If she’s such a weakness then why did you purposely set her up with all those powers to try to kill me?”

Arkainius frowned at the rhetorical irrefutable question that the devil hunter laid before him.

“Your boss must have been pretty confident in her abilities to take me down.”

Arkainius curled a lip, not at all keen in knowing that Dante was aware of Valkin’s existence, but no matter.

“What purpose we originally had for her, is irrelevant. Because she left prematurely, she will never know what she truly is and that…will be her undoing. She will forever be a pawn, just like this boy.”

Dante stayed silent, a bit taken back by the doc’s words. What did he mean that Vincent will never know what she truly is? The thought didn’t sit well with him as his eyes fell back upon the lifeless silver haired boy who carried his same bloodline. Placing his hands down by his sides, the devil hunter took in a deepened breath as he then yelled out, “Nero!”

Just like before, the piercing voice shot through the thick glass of the chamber and into Nero’s mind as he suddenly woke up, letting the familiar voice sink in. Upon awakening, his devil bringer began to glow as his heart raced. Was it really him? Was it really Dante? He turned his head towards the direction of the voice and there in the distance stood the memorable man in red.

“Heh, still sleeping on the job huh?”

The boy tried to speak, but Dante was quick to interrupt, “Save your breath kid, this will be over soon.”

“So says the guinea pig in the glass chamber,” Arkainius interrupted as he crept around the steel table like a cockroach.

“Chamber? Heh, reminds me of a badly designed bathroom.”

“Kh, mock me all you want, but that room you conveniently got pulled into is my main testing room. It’s a wonder you even managed to get inside it, but I guess that’s to be expected from a son of—“

“—yah, yah, save it. You’re a pain in the ass you know that? We gonna dance or what?”

Not in the least bit amused by Dante’s attitude, Arkainius flipped a switch as laser like lights appeared in the room, crisscrossing each other in consecutive alignment  like a three dimensional grid. It was then the devil hunter noticed the walls were completely filled with consecutive holes in a similar fashion. Without hesitation or warning Dante swung out Ebony as quick as lightning at the glass in front of him, but to his dismay it did not break, only ricocheted the bullet back at himself. He quickly dodged as the bullet flew into one of the holes in the wall.

“Ahhh, nice trick you got there. These aren’t any ordinary bullets.”

Arkainius laughed as he replied, “Underestimating me will be your demise.

Dante chuckled in retort, “That’s kinda harsh for someone you just met, don’t you think?”

Ignoring Dante, Arkainius shuffled about as he went over to a panel and pulled a lever as he remarked in a sarcastic manner, “I hope the entertainment is efficient enough for you.”

Dante quickly glanced around as dripping black ooze coming out of all the holes in the chamber caught his attention.

“You guys again?”

“They’re quite lovely pets aren’t they? They’re hard to manage however considering they’re always hungry.

Still nonchalant about the situation Dante replied calmly, “Yeah, I gathered that much from our previous lunch in.”

Irritated that it seemed Dante couldn’t be intimidated Arkainius retorted, “Well let’s see you get out of this one!”

Without a moment’s notice Dante began shooting at all the holes in the walls to keep the ooze from coming, but that only proved pointless as the ooze was never ending, making its way over to Dante. From the looks of it, his best shot was to break the glass. He quickly swung out his sword and lunge it at the chamber walling and still it did not break. He had no choice but to keep attacking the ooze directly, finding it only futile as the chamber began to quickly fill up like a pitcher with too much water. With the devil hunter nearly knee deep in ooze, it began to suck his energy as Nero watched helplessly behind the scenes. Was there nothing he could do?

“D…D-D….DANTE!” The boy began to squirm and tug at the cuffs holding him down, his devil bringer glowing once more, but despite his efforts, despite his will to fight, the cuffs would not budge and his strength had withered away long ago.

“Ha, ha, ha, what will the mighty son of Sparda do now?” the scientist laughed in mockery.

The situation may have appeared dire, but Dante was anything but worried as he simply snapped his devil trigger, glowing a bright red in demon form. He let out a mighty roar as the ooze around him evaporated from his power and began to sizzle away like water droplets on too hot of a surface and once more he took up his sword and lunge it through the glass effortlessly as it broke to pieces, shattering upon the floor. From the shock of the wave, Arkainius fell to the floor as Dante flashed over to his location and loomed above him. It was like staring into the eyes of the devil himself.

“N-No! This can’t be!” Arkainius fret as he tried to scoot away.

Seeing how it wasn’t necessary any longer, the devil hunter let his devil trigger go.

“Well that was a nice little warm up, but I think it’s time to wrap things up, doc.

BANG

With no given warning or hesitation, Dante shot a bullet into the mad doc’s head. Then there was silence. His body fell back to the floor as he lay lifeless upon the ground. Not wanting to take a chance, Dante shot off a couple of more rounds. He waited a moment to see if Arkainius would get up again, but the scientist was silent. When he was sure all was clear, he went over to where Nero laid across the table. He stood above the lad as the boy gazed into his eyes, his devil bringer barely glowing.

“So tell me, what’s it like being food to a giant leech?”

Nero lightly smiled at Dante’s attempt to lighten the mood, but then the lad looked over upon Kyrie. Taking note of where Nero was looking, Dante looked over to see the gentle maiden locked up in silence.

“Ladies first.”

He went over, took his sword and sliced the metal bars in half that held Kyrie captive. He then quickly removed the mask that was keeping her incapacitated as he gently picked her up and laid her down upon a nearby countertop.

“Now, to get that leech off you.”

Dante reached out his hand to try to grab the ooze, but to his surprise touching it let out an energy shock that electrocuted both him and Nero as the boy let out a cry of agony. The crimson hunter tensed from sensation, only imagining what it did to Nero.

“Wo! Wasn’t expecting that. Sorry kid.”

He glanced around the room to see if he could use something to pry off the demon without hurting Nero further, but before he had a chance to proceed, he was suddenly thrown back against the wall by a gigantic oozing arm that was attached to a very much alive Arkainius.

“Nngh, bout time you got up. I knew it wouldn’t be that easy to take you down.”

Dante’s voice had morphed again as he triggered his devil form. It gave him the strength to push back the enormous hand that held his body to the wall, grabbed it and swung it violently to the right as it slammed Arkainius into the wall. Before you knew it, he was being swung side to side, ceiling to floor, and with one final move, Dante pulled him in towards himself and threw a punch so hard it launched Arkainius into the back chamber that Dante had originally entered in. He then dashed over to the scientist and began to throw an onslaught of punches into his body, Arkainius becoming an instant punching bag until he was beaten back into his non demon form. Satisfied, Dante transformed back once more as he stood above the little cockroach that now lay limp upon the ground.

“You! I’ll kill youarurarr—“

He quickly found himself with a gun in his mouth as the scientist squirmed, but he had one more trick up his sleeve. He began to laugh, muffled by the gun in his mouth, but loud and vocal as he lifted up one hand and merely snapped his fingers. Within seconds, screaming echoed within the laboratory. The demon that was sucking Nero dry of his life was not electrocuting him. The pain was agonizing as it tore at his insides. This quickly got Dante’s attention as he only looked at the boy for a mere second, giving Arkainius the one second shot he needed to get one last attack in as his arms turned into gigantic oozing blobs, launching them at Dante.

BANG

Dante’s focus darted back to the scientist, only to find him completely splattered on the ground and all over the walls, painting the hardened surfaces with red. There was nothing left of him. Even though the explosion didn’t come from Dante’s gun, he wasn’t surprised in the least.

“For a second I didn’t think you’d ever show up. You took your time.”

“Well the lab isn’t exactly a hop, skip, and a jump away. Beside’s that bastard’s life was mine to take.

It only took a moment before Vincent’s attention was taken by the ongoing screaming on the other side of the lab. Quickly she went over to Nero to get a closer look upon the situation. Despite the pain he was in, the silver haired lad looked up to see a familiar brown haired huntress standing by his side.

“Ahhh…nnngh…V-Vincent?”

“Shh, s-save your energy…” she stammered, nervous on what she needed to do “…gotta get this thing off you somehow.”

Everything is made of energy, even electricity, so not being able to think of anything else she simply grabbed the demon with her leather gloves and got an instant shocking reaction. She cried out from holding the demon for only a matter of seconds before she let go with jolting recoil and nearly flew into the countertops behind her before Dante caught her from behind.

“Nngh…Dante?” she questioned out loud as she looked over her shoulder at him.

He nearly smiled as she regained her footing and approached the table once more. She couldn’t stand watching someone suffer as she was now determined to get the thing off him. With Dante standing behind her to make sure she was able to stand firmly, she put out her hands once more and grabbed the demon. Electrical shocks flew out as both her and Nero let out yelps, but the longer she held on the more Vincent was able to feel the energy like pulses of the demon’s mass as she began to make a connection. Within a minute’s time she started to manipulate the demon’s body so that its pure energy like substance was getting transferred and diluted into the table itself. It wasn’t long before the creature’s mass began to shrink, the electrical shocks dieing out and the pain subsiding rather quickly until it felt nothing more than simple tingling.

“Dante, I need your coat.”

The devil hunter cocked an eyebrow in playful retort as he began to strip himself of his leather red garment, “Why not your coat?”

“Because I’m the one working here,” she replied back playfully.

“Hey, I’m the one that got here first.”

Coming around to the other side of the table, Dante draped his coat over Nero’s nearly exposed body as Vincent got rid of the remainder of the demon, the creature no longer with any form or substance. The lad painted and trembled lightly, looking rather faint as Dante moved over a little to take a look at his arm. It wasn’t until now that Dante got to see Nero’s devil bringer up close; it’s design strangely beautiful, but familiarly demonic. He could only wonder how the boy obtained such an arm to begin with.

“You get the needles out. I’ll heal him,” Vincent lightly commanded as she placed her hands upon Nero’s abdomen.

“Heh, you sure that’s a good idea?”

It was obvious that Vincent was a bit weathered, not just from removing the demon but from still needing to rest a bit from her previous ordeal. Energy manipulation was one thing, but healing through the same technique took an entirely different amount of stamina.

“According to you, that healing technique you tried out on me was the first time you ever did it and look at the shape it’s put you in. It’s been what…3-4 hours and you’re still tired?”

Vincent continued to stare at Dante blankly knowing he was right. She then lowered her eyes and laid them back upon Nero as she replied, “I’m just going to heal him enough so that he can get himself and Kyrie home.”

Vincent…” he stated her name more sternly as she hesitated to look him in the eyes again “…heal him enough so that he can at least stand on his feet. He and Kyrie can then rest up at the shop for a while. We’ll worry about getting them home later. Just make sure you can help me with these two back to the car. That’s how you got here right?”

“Yeah…okay. That does sound like a sounder plan.”

Finally being able to focus once more, Vincent began to concentrate on trying to heal Nero as Dante began to take the needles out one by one. Nero winced and moaned a little since the needles were rather large and deeply embedded in his arm, but as each one were removed the luminosity of his devil bringer began to glow more brilliantly as he felt his energy returning at a creeping slow speed.

“D-Dante,” the lad muttered the devil hunter’s name.

Dante caught the lad’s gaze as he chuckled lightly, “Kid, I think it’s about time you got a new arm.”

Nero chuckled back between coughs as he retorted in playful banter, “And I-I think you need a s-shave old man.”

“Hey, the beard stays.”

The two continued to chuckle lightly as Dante was nearly done removing the needles.

“I think it’s sexy,” Vincent lightly commented as the two looked over at her, Dante cocking an eyebrow with a near smirk, “Is that right? Hmm, maybe I should grow it out longer—“

“—don’t even think about it. Keep it trimmed or not at all.”

“Oh you my personal barber now?”

“Damn straight.”

The peaceful moment took a drastic halt as Vincent began to tunnel vision, immediately stopping her newly discovered healing technique. Gripping her hands upon the edge of the table she balanced herself, giving it a moment until her vision cleared again.

“You alright?” Dante asked, naturally concerned, but not necessarily worried. He trusted Vincent enough to know what she was doing.

“Yeah I’ll…I’ll be okay…after I have some pizza…” she chuckled with a faint smile as Dante bantered back “…solve everything with pizza huh? You’re practically my doppelganger.”

“K-Kyrie,” Nero muttered his lover’s name as he slowly sat up by himself and looked upon her on the countertop nearby. She was laying peacefully and unharmed. Although she was unharmed, Nero couldn’t help but to look at her with feeling of guilt. Once again he had entered another situation where he was nothing more than a helpless young man without the power to protect her let alone himself. Once again someone had to intervene and save him. He was grateful no doubt, but he was ashamed. The feeling dug at him as the growing for more power took seed…in his heart.

“Nero?”

Suddenly the boy’s thoughts were interrupted by Vincent’s voice as he looked over at her. He knew next to nothing about her and yet this is the second time she had come along with the devil hunter and got him out. She gave off an aura that was strong and intimidating yet inviting and warm. It wasn’t like any woman he had ever met before, but it was nice.

“You okay?”

He paused for a moment before answering, “Yeah, I…I could ask you the same thing. You look exhausted. And how did you heal me? I mean…what are you?”

The question came out of nowhere, but Vincent wasn’t surprised. They didn’t exactly have a lot of interaction upon first meeting during the fiasco in Fortuna with Sanctus so this was the first time he personally saw her display any true form of power.

“I’m…” she hesitated “…I’m…going to take…a very long nap.”

He cocked an eyebrow, seeing how she deliberately circled around his question, but it was to be expected. This exactly wasn’t the time to have one of those kinds of chats.

“That…sounds like a sound plan,” Nero agreed as he slowly brought his legs over the edge of the table. “I think…that crack pot actually kept my clothes. Might be in that big bin over there.”

Dante looked over to the nearest side of the laboratory as he went over to a large silver bin container, lifting up the lid to find the lad’s clothes in there as well as Red Queen and Blue Rose.

“Heh, we’ll I’ll be. Guess the doc took a fancy to your fashion choice.

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean? I’m not the one wearing a cowboy getup. All you’re missing is the hat.”

As Dante closed the lid with the lad’s clothing, boots, and weapons in his arms as he merely cocked a silent eyebrow at Nero. Vincent chuckled to herself, finding the banter between the two delightfully amusing.

“Here, get yourself dressed while I attend to your girlfriend.”

Nero blushed at the label drop. He couldn’t necessarily deny the fact that Kyrie was pretty much his girlfriend. While Dante had his back turned while walking over to Kyrie, Vincent turned her back as well so Nero to get himself dressed. When he was finally back in his clothes he carefully put his feet upon the floor, still feeling rather oozy from the loss of so much stamina.

“Shall we make our way back?” Dante asked playfully with Kyrie in his arms.

“That would be great,” Vincent answered as she got up beside Nero, taking his arm and placing it around her neck without really giving him a choice about it. It was obvious he was nearly exhausted as she was.

“Sure those weapons aren’t going to weigh you down? Dante could easily carry them,” she asked Nero noticing how rather large his sword and revolver were.

“Nah, it’s fine as long as it doesn’t weigh you down.”

“I’m good.”

“What about the other sword?” Dante chimed in, catching Nero’s attention as the boy looked over at him into those icy blue eyes. He knew exactly what Dante was referring to.

“It’s still with me.”

“Good.”

“Other sword?” Vincent questioned in tired wondering.

“Yamato,” Dante answered as they began to walk out of the lab.

“Oh…that’s right. I nearly forgot you gave it to Nero,” she stated in a near sad tone. It was strange to think about Yamato even though Vincent knew so little about Vergil other than what Dante told her about back in the day when the sons of Sparda fought and then ultimately separated.

Vincent led everyone out the easier path she found until they had made it to the outside. As they were approaching the car Dante noticed Vincent had an uncomfortable expression on her face.

“Something on your mind?” he asked.

Vincent looked over at him, a bit surprised that he could read her so easily as she answered, “Well…I don’t know about you, but that was too easy, even for Arkainius. I’ve known the man for a while and nothing is ever what it seems when he’s involved. There’s always something much deeper going on behind the scenes. He’s under Valkin’s watch and wants you dead.”

“Heh, I’m not surprised. When these guys are taken out only another rises.”

“Valkin?” Nero questioned out loud.

“A demon lord that Arkainius works for. When we get back to the shop I’ll explain the rest of the story to you about Valkin and how I came to possess demon powers. That aside…I don’t think this is over.”

“Yeah, well that may be, but a fight every now and then always makes life a bit more interesting, don’t cha’ think?”

The group chuckled as they made their way back to the Devil May Cry shop. A small hideous laugh echoed through the now empty, destroyed laboratory.
Fanfiction © DragonKeeper333
Devil May Cry © Capcom

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Story Chapters

Ch.1 Negotiation [link]
Ch.2 Onslaught [link]
Ch.3 Voice in the Darkness [link]
-Ch.4 Just the Beginning-
Ch.5 Of Things to Come [link]
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After completely re-doing this chapter, it came out a lot longer than I thought it would, but that's okay.
Came out a hell of a lot better than it was before and Vergy is lurking in the background 8D
© 2008 - 2024 DragonKeeper333
Comments29
IningBatong's avatar
Vincent: “Yeah. Oh and btw, the sheets are washed and I put plastic on the couch.”
Dante: “Thanks…wait what?”

that part made me laugh!
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