Dante's Awakening

On one of the higher floors of the Temen-ni-gru, Vergil is questioning Arkham about their other new arrival.

"Who is that woman?" Vergil asked, clearly unhappy with the unknown variable.

"I'm sure she's nothing to worry about." Arkham said while thinking, 'She's nothing for you to worry about, but she's the last piece of my plan.'

"I want you to get rid of her." Vergil ordered.

"I think it would be best to let her be, Vergil." Arkham said in an advisory tone. "We wouldn't want to expose ourselves to Dante too early, would we?"

"Fine." Vergil said. "But if she becomes a nuisance, I'll get rid of her myself."

"Understood." replied Arkham.

Meanwhile, Dante had just entered the tower. Looking around he concluded that it was a maze-like structure filled with puzzles to open many of the doors. Continuing through the halls of the Temen-ni-gru, Dante had to fight off hoards of the undead from the land of the dead, solving puzzles along the way.

Watching from a safe distance was James. One of the many things he learned while training under Scathach was presence concealment. Although as a warrior, Scathach did not favor sneak attacks over frontal battle, she did know the importance of remaining unseen in enemy territory. Combined with Scathach's teachings, James Flash Step made him difficult to keep track of if he did not wish to be.

"Dante must be more intelligent than I gave him credit for." James muttered to himself as he shadowed Dante through the Temen-ni-gru. "I mean, in the games he always seemed like a cocky meathead. A very cool one, mind you. But a cocky meathead none the less. I mean, I thought he only solved those puzzles because the player was controlling his actions. But these puzzles are definitely more difficult than anything in those games from my memories."

Continuing to shadow Dante through the halls, Dante's impression continuously grew in James' eyes. Eventually, they came across a massive hall containing a centipede that was at least 1000 feet (approx. 305 m) long and sparking with electricity. Detecting the intruders, the gigantic centipede attacked the visible one, Dante.

At the same time, James quickly made his way to a corner with an unobstructed view of the entire hall. He then jumped up near the ceiling and plunged Ochiru Sakura into a wall. Hanging from the sword's hilt, he made himself comfortable, and watched Dante tango with the big centipede.

"Man, seeing this in real life, Dante can get really acrobatic when he wants to, huh?" James said, continuously remarking on Dante's movements. "Master Scathach would beat that fighting style right out of him, though"

At that moment, Dante shuddered, causing him to miss a foothold on the centipede's back. As a result, Dante fell to the floor.

"Damn it!" Dante exclaimed in annoyance. "What the hell was that cold feeling just now? I spent all that effort getting on that thing's back. Now I have to start from scratch."

"Huh, I guess anyone with strong enough intuition would know that Master Scathach's training is no joke. Even if they just find themselves in someone's thoughts." James mused with a smirk, after seeing Dante lose concentration.

After another twenty minutes of acrobatic aerial combat that involved Dante launching himself into the air from atop the centipede's back, to keeping himself afloat with the recoil from his pistols alone. Dante finally defeated the centipede. Then he made his way to the next room. Before entering, though, James appeared next to him and asked a question that was on his mind.

"Yo." James said as he appeared next to Dante from out of nowhere.

"*Sigh* We really need to put a bell on you." Dante said in exasperation.

"Nah, I'm good." James said dismissively before asking the question he came for. "Why didn't you turn that thing into a [Devil Arm]?"

Pointing to the defeated centipede, James could see it dissolving into a green acidic soup.

"Because centipedes are gross." Dante replied nonchalantly, then kept moving forward.

Left alone in the enormous hall that served as a battlefield, James thought to himself, 'But it would have made a cool insect staff or something, with a built-in stun baton,' before concealing his presence once again and following Dante.

After fighting through a few more corridors and large halls filled with the undead, Dante made his way to another sealed door with two skull motifs carved into the walls beside it. This one, however, could speak. Or rather, the seal itself could speak.

"Good evening." Two voices greeted Dante as he approached the sealed door.

Looking around in confusion, Dante replied, "Who and where are you?"

"Oh my, it seems we have forgotten our manners." One of the two previous voices said in response. "Allow me to do the introductions, I am Agni, and this is my younger brother, Rudra."

"The hell?" Dante said, still confused about whom he was talking to.

"Brother, would it not have been more prudent to show our bodies before introducing ourselves?" Rudra asked.

"Hmm, perhaps you may be correct, my younger brother." Agni hummed in agreement.

After a few more minutes of the brothers' back and forth, which was beginning to give Dante a migraine, the brothers asked in unison.

"Would you mind if we began our introduction once again?"

Having finally reached his breaking point, Dante responded in irritation.

You're damn right I mind!" Dante said aggressively. "Look, I'm going through that door, and you're gonna let me pass one way or another."

For a moment, the room fell silent.

"This guest really is quite rude, younger brother." Agni said calmly, yet just as politely as he had always spoken.

"Indeed." Rudra replied. "Then, I do believe it should fall to us to teach him proper decorum."

As their voices fell, the skulls carved next to the door began to glow. Once the glow diminished, two ogre-like monsters stepped out of the wall where the motifs once were. Taking a battle stance, Dante observed his new opponents. The one on the left, Agni, emitted high temperature embers from time to time. While Dante could feel the wind stirring around the one on the right, Rudra.

"This is gonna be a pain in the ass." Dante said to no one in particular.

Rudra, however, answered Dante's annoyed mutterings.

"It seems we'll have to do something about that foul language while we are at it."

And with that, the battle began. Switching between weapons, Dante used his trusty greatsword, Rebellion when engaging with Rudra and would switch seamlessly to the icy nunchucks, Cerberus, to deal with Agni. And with a healthy dose of gunfire split between the two, Dante defeated the two guardians simultaneously after twenty-seven minutes of intense battle.

Once the two guardians fell, they turned into a pair of short swords impaled in the ground.

"So, they were just a pair of sentient swords, huh?" Dante said with a bit of intrigue as he walked past the swords and made it to the formerly sealed door.

Before reaching the door, Dante heard Agni's voice once again.

"Wait, please take us with you."

"Yes." Rudra said in agreement with his brother. "We would aid you greatly in your ascent of the Temen-ni-gru."

And for the next six minutes, Agni and Rudra tried to appeal just how useful they would be to Dante. Eventually, Dante made his way over to the swords in annoyance and spoke.

"Fine, I'll take you with me." Dante said while pulling the swords from the ground. "With the condition that neither of you can talk."

In unison, Agni and Rudra began to thank Dante profusely. In annoyance, Dante knocked the two swords' hilts together and said, "No talking!" in a very annoyed tone.

Then Dante made his way through the formerly sealed door, coming face to face with yet another blocked pathway. After thoroughly searching the room, Dante found a device that would obviously open the road ahead. Unfortunately, he could not figure out the device's mechanisms, and was thus unable to open the next door.

While examining the device, Dante thought to himself, 'So far, James would pop out after I defeat one of those damn guardians. I wonder what he's doing?'

Just as that thought finished, a strange man in a clown mask who introduced himself as "Jester" appeared in the room. Noticing the new arrival, Dante turned to him with his guns drawn. After some back and forth with a lot of gunfire and Jester's teasing, Dante was eventually angered into swinging Rebellion. Missing his target, Jester, Dante struck the device that would open the door. Thinking he had damaged his only way forward; Dante was surprised when the sealed door opened instead. With that, Dante ignored Jester's cliché villain lines and proceeded through the door.

While Dante made his way up the tower with James Shadowing him, the young woman they met earlier was also making her way through the tower. Dispatching any undead creatures she came across in the process. Eventually she made it to the top of the tower, where she encountered Arkham. Flying into a rage immediately after meeting him, she drew her pistol.

"I finally found you." The young woman said with hatred saturating her tone.

"You would aim your weapon at me?" Arkham said, mock sadness in his tone. "To see you pointing that thing at me, your only remaining family. Oh, how it hurts me."

"You bastard!" Roared the young woman in response. "The only family I had left was my mother. And you killed her."

With that, the young woman let loose a barrage of gunfire. Dodging the onslaught effortlessly, Arkam spoke once again.

"To think you would speak to me, your dear papa, like that." Arkham said, once again feigning sadness.

This only served to anger the young woman even further. However, not losing herself completely to her anger, she decided to retreat for now, seeing that her attacks were ineffective. And with that resolution, she ran toward the edge of the tower... And jumped.

Seeing this, Arkham narrowed his eyes, then returned to the tower's interior.

Meanwhile, Dante was still making his way to the top of the tower. While walking along a path that wound around the outside of the tower, he noticed something falling from above. Swiftly reaching out, Dante caught the falling object, which turned out to be the young woman who had just jumped from the top of the tower.

"It's raining hot chicks." Dante said with a smile. "I like this kinda rain. Is that why the sky looks so weird?"

Instead of responding to Dante's buffoonery, the young woman drew her pistol and shot him in the forehead, without hesitation. This caused Dante's head to snap back, but his grip did not loosen in the slightest. Using the immense demonic energy he inherited from his father, Dante instinctively used it to protect himself and regenerate the injury caused by the bullet.

'A damn devil.' The young woman thought to herself, before shouting. "Let me go!"

"But I'd rather not see you turned into just a pretty stain."

In response, the young woman pulled the trigger again, snapping Dante's head back once again. This time however, Dante released his grip. He was not a fan of being shot in the head, after all.

Without Dante holding her in place, the young woman began free falling once again. Pulling the multipurpose weapon off her back, she used the blade on its end to impale the wall, which slowed her to an eventual stop

Looking over the edge to see how the young woman wound up, Dante clicked his tongue and looked away when he made eye contact with the glaring woman.

At that moment, James appeared next to Dante.

"You sure have a way with women." James said in a mocking tone.

"Would you shut up." Dante responded in irritation.

"Jokes aside, you'd better get your head back in the game." James said, dropping his smile. "Vergil is waiting for you up ahead."

Hearing that, Dante's annoyance disappeared from his expression. He then rushed toward the top of the tower to meet his brother.

"Well damn, not even a thank you." James said with a smirk, then Flash Stepped after Dante to witness the brothers' encounter.

Dante, once making his way to the top of the tower, immediately noticed his brother, Vergil, and began to speak.

"You really suck at throwing a party, you know. Dante said nonchalantly. "There are no drinks, no food, and the only chick just left."

"My apologies," Vergil said, playing along with his brother's sarcasm. "I was just so excited to see you again, I neglected the preparations for the bash."

After a bit more back and forth, the brothers drew their weapons and began their battle. After three or four minutes of a very impressive display of sword skills, the two separated. Dante then drew one of his pistols and fired several bullets. Vergil, displaying his swordsman ship to an even higher level, spun the blade and somehow managed to catch all the bullets with the katana's blade. Once Dante stopped firing, Vergil returned the bullets from whence they came by swinging his sword. Dante countered the bullets with his own sword swing and then the brothers charged and clashed swords once again. This time resulting in a sword locking contest.

"Why do you oppose me, little brother. Ss his sons, why shouldn't Sparda's power be ours?" Vergil asked while trying to gain control of their contest of swords.

"You're insane." Dante replied.

"Oh, my foolish little brother." Vergil said in a lecturing tone. "You don't understand the necessity of power. Power is the only thing that matters in this world. And without power, you can't protect anything."

With that, Vergil adjusted the angle of his sword. And with a precise application of strength, Dante was disarmed and then stabbed through the abdomen. And with Vergil's demonic energy coursing through the blade, Dante's regeneration was stalled. As Vergil pulled his sword from Dante's abdomen and was about to deliver the killing blow, he pulled an amulet from underneath Dante's shirt and took it away from him.

With his sword raised to decapitate his younger brother, Vergil was stopped by Arkham.

Looking around cautiously Arkham urged. "That is enough Vergil, we have everything we need. Let's go."

Agreeing with Arkham's words, Vergil felt it was unnecessary to finish off Dante. He then turned and walked to the edge of the tower. As he was walking away, Dante began to stand, slowly. Vergil, however, never looked back. If he had, he would have noticed that Dante's usually icy blue eyes were now glowing red. Once Vergil and Arkham had departed from the top of the tower, Dante's demonic power exploded. With glowing red eyes and cracks forming on his arms and legs. After a moment, Dante's wound was healed, then his spike in power ended. Although, his base power had received a boost. After everything was back to normal, Dante face planted, unconscious.

James decided to show up at that moment. In fact, as Vergil was about to kill Dante, James began to release his blood lust unconsciously. Arkham sensing the danger then stopped Vergil from delivering the killing blow.

Looking down at Dante, James spoke to no one in particular.

"So, the near-death experience pushed him to awaken his [Devil Trigger], huh?"