Deal with the Devil

"I want to make a deal with you. I hear you have been suffering from nightmares. I could get rid of them and your impending doom if you do as I say. So, what do you think?"

"You can't do that. You can't interfere so easily in the mortal world. Ursus told me you would be approaching me soon, but I never thought it would be this soon," Beatrice said condescendingly.

"Who did you just mention? Ursus? That sanctimonious and hypocritical little shit. Hahahahaha..." Memnon laughed at the mention of Ursus, finding it funny.

"I thought you were clever, trying to squeeze information out of me, but you've proved how inferior you mortals truly are. Let me guess... Ursus told you that he's an angel who's trying to help you and that demons are your enemies. He said you have to fight back when they approach, but he can't fight for you due to divine restrictions. He's a sanctimonious little shit who can't interfere. Am I right? Hahahahaha!" Memnon criticized her and laughed in between his words.

"The so-called angels who came to find you are nothing more than exiled demons from the underworld. Even the actual angels aren't worth trusting. Ursus has been pulling the same stunt for centuries, trying to get back at us. Did you not think for yourself that if he was so powerful and righteous, why he couldn't just help you out of your situation?"

"You're lying. Ursus told me that he could not come again and again due to the huge effort it took to interfere in the mortal world from the divine world," Beatrice said, not wanting to believe that the angel she had trusted was actually a demon who had been leading her towards hell.

"Hahahahah... What divine world? Even that broken and razed graveyard can be called a divine world. As for the non-interference restriction, that only applies to weaker demons like Ursus. I am not bound by it, and I can come and go as I please.

So, little human, you have been duped. There is no angelic savior to help you out. You are doomed unless you make a deal with me."

Suddenly, everything clicked into place for her. No wonder she never saw Ursus again. He had been pushing her towards hell from the start.

Beatrice was crestfallen, realizing that she had been used as a pawn. Ursus never had any intention of helping her.

Beatrice came to understand that only she could help herself. No one could understand and help her bear the burden.

Even Dante seemed to think that she had gone mad from delusions and nightmares. There were no saviors or angels waiting to rescue her.

Since no one was going to help her, she might as well save herself by making a deal with the demons.

"What do I have to do?"

Seeing that Beatrice had agreed to make a deal with him, Memnon couldn't help but reveal a cruel smile.

...

The days were passing slowly for Dante and he was slowly getting used to this lazy life accompanied with some horrible nightmares and some careful cajoling and fire fighting to calm Beatrice after her episodes.

It had been a normal day for Dante until the night fell and Beatrice's first episode took place.

Something was wrong with her.

She seemed unusually calm after her episode. There was no trembling and hesitation in her voice and no fear could be seen in her eyes. The screaming and shouting had still been there but the aftershocks were not the same.

There was something different in her gaze that caused even Dante's heart to palpitate with fear. Her eyes seemed focused and determined like she had a purpose in mind.

She was indifferently looking at Dante but he instinctually felt malicious intent from her.

Dante was taken aback for a moment but then immediately dismissed it as an illusion created by his idle mind.

What he was not aware of, was that Beatrice's bloodshot eyes had never left him for even a moment after she woke up. There was that manic look in the depth of her eyes, the same look that she had tried to hide from Vergil on the day she had first met him.

...

Beatrice woke up and found that Dante was sitting beside her, his eyes that used to have endless sympathy no longer held that warmth.

In place of that usual sympathy, she could sense a little amusement; Dante had truly begun to think of it as his daily horror show. She was disappointed and her gaze turned icy.

She kept staring at him while she tried to make up her mind. She had to choose between Dante and her child; and the choice was obvious to her.

She decided that she would not put the fate of her child in the hands of an outsider. She was going to save her child by herself no matter the price she had to pay even if she had to shake hands with the Devil himself, she was willing.

Seeing that Dante seemed alarmed by her gaze, she hid the malice that was evident in her eyes but kept looking at him.

After a while Dante's worries eased up and he continued to cajole her back to reality from her nightmares like he did every day.

What Dante did not know was that the woman he had taken care of all this while was preparing to harm who knew how many lives.

The condition for the deal with Memnon was the sacrifice of 7 newborn babies to complete a cursing ritual; a ritual to curse the seven generations of Dante to come.

All this had been a demonic scheme to eliminate the bloodline of Sparda from the human world and unknowingly Dante had walked headfirst into the net that was about to be laid down by the very woman he had come to save.

Even more unbelievable was the fact that she had been duped by Memnon and Beatrice being the cunning woman that she had been, was unable to figure out that her son was also from the bloodline of Sparda.

How could the demons be so kind as to leave her child alone knowing that he had Sparda's bloodline? But love sometimes made us blind, especially parental love.