![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The Devils Cry Chapter 2-20
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Devil May Cry and it’s characters and situations are the sole property of Capcom. I am making no money or profit off of this fanfiction and no copyright infringement is intended. On the other hand all original characters and situations are mine so please don’t run off with them without my knowledge or consent.
Summary: A year after the events in “The Devils Cry”, things in the Sparda family have calmed down, well, as much as possible with them at any rate. But when strange things start happening, including a reappearance of Alastair's dreams of the unknown castle, they realized that they still have a long way to go.
SPOILER WARNING!!!: Spoilers for all three Devil May Cry games.
20.
Terln Ximorn broke the seal and unrolled the letter that his sister had just handed to him. He scanned the contents quickly before turning back to his sister and telling her to send Silien up. Three patriarchs received similar letters with similar instructions. They had not planned to move so soon, but now they had no choice. Elsec Bolverk and the three Valters had in all likelihood acted on their own, but their actions, the attack on N’mir’kus, and the ambush of Kastor and Nestor showed quite plainly that Mundus was aware of what was going on to a certain extent. They had to act now.
*****
“Not to look a gift horse in the mouth or anything,” Alastair said, causing Kastor to look at her, confused at the human expression “But where in the hell is everybody? This place is even more deserted than it was when we came down here.”
“I don’t know.” Kastor replied “But I’m glad for it. Its making things much easier.”
“As long as it don’t come back and bite us on the ass later.”
Kastor shook his head slightly, thinking that sometime he would have to ask her about some of the things that she said, and what they meant.
“Let’s worry about it later,” he said “We have to get these two out of here and get these collars off of them.” Before they die, was left unsaid. Nestor had not stirred in the slightest and Rithas was trying to hide it, but he still let slip little gasps of pain everytime he took a step. Rithas’s injury was crippling, but not immediately life threatening. It might already have been too late for Nestor. The collar had rendered him human, and a human would have already died from such an injury. Kastor could feel Nestor’s heartbeat faltering and his breathing slowing.
The two emerged out of the tunnel onto the plain where the towers were and gasped in shock to see N’mir’kus under attack. They heard Rithas let out a low moan at seeing his home. They stared for a few moments before Kastor nudged Alastair.
“Let’s go.” he said quietly “We don’t have much time.”
*****
Vergil sat up, going from sound asleep to completely awake in an instant. It was something that he hadn’t done in years, ever since his power had been locked away. He looked around the room; it was his senses alerting him to the presence of someone else in the room that had woke him.
Three people were in the room actually, his father, his brother, and his son were gathered around a small table, looking to be playing cards. The demonic version of poker, he supposed.
“How are you feeling, Father?” the younger Vergil asked kindly.
“Better than I have in a while.” he replied, getting out of bed. He stood up and stretched, feeling the newly rebuilt muscle. He was not as strong as he once had been, he could tell immediately, but he was still strong enough to function normally again. He looked down at himself and smiled. With the return of his memories and the missing half of his soul and the restoration of his power, he felt complete, whole, something that he had not felt in forty-five years.
It felt wonderful.
A tiny bit of his soul was still missing, but it didn’t matter. He could sense its location and knew that it was residing quietly in the sword hanging from his son’s hip. It was the part of himself that he had put in the Yamato all those years ago, before the Temen-ni-gru. He had read up on the process in the library - reading was the only pursuit that Luxian would allow him unsupervised - and had tried it on the Yamato. And it had worked, to his everlasting amazement.
He wasn’t sure how his son had come by the Yamato. He had faced Mundus with it, and when he had lost and had been imprisoned, it had been taken from him. He didn’t know how it had gotten to the human world, or how Dante had come by it. Even before he had Ensouled it, the sword had possessed a sentience of sorts. Who’s to say that it didn’t move itself? Stranger things had happened when demonic weaponry was involved.
“You slept less than I thought you would.” Sparda said when Vergil joined them at the table. “How long have I been asleep?” he asked, watching the game in progress.
“Only an hour or so.” Dante replied, throwing a card on the table. The younger Vergil picked it up and added it to his hand.
“I’m surprised that you’re still here, Dante, considering the report that we recently received.”
“Well,” Dante glared at Sparda “Dad threatened to spell me if I tried to leave the tower, and he’s been following me around ever since. Besides,” He shrugged. “Nothing that I can do for now. We’re letting the patriarchs gather their families and such before we make a move.”
“Sound reasoning.” Vergil replied with a smirk “I can tell that you didn’t think of it.”
“Alright, smartass.” Dante growled. Vergil smirked again and gestured that he was joining in the next hand.
There was a polite knock at the door and Talthos stepped in.
“The others are ready.” he said “Shall we begin?”
Sparda stood up from the table and looked at his father. “Yes,” he said “Get everyone downstairs for a quick briefing, then we’ll go.”
*****
Thenal swung his Ensouled like a club, decapitating one lesser demon, who promptly dissolved into sand, before blocking one of the glowing spears fired by an Enigma and darting forward and impaling it of the blade of his lance. He dashed it into a few of its fellows before flinging it off the blade, which sent it crashing into several Lusts. Before they could regain their feet, Thenal charged them again, swinging crazily, but accurately, reducing them to nothing. He took a quick glance around him to see his family, fighting for their lives. He knew right away that it was a losing battle. For every lesser demon they killed, three more took its place. If help didn’t arrive soon, they were going to be overwhelmed.
*****
Sparda and Zenedris looked out over the assembled Sparda and Sarcesti families, gathered in Lar'cincel’s main room. The large room had to be magically expanded to make room for everyone. Sparda nodded when he saw that everyone was present, and opened his mouth to begin speaking when he felt a tingling from the wards and heard the front doors bang open. Everyone reached for their weapons, but he gestured for them to be still and stepped down off the dais he was standing on and gestured for Dante to follow him. They walked to the entrance corridor to see Kastor, with an unconscious Nestor in his arms, and Alastair, assisting a badly wounded Rithas, coming through the doors. Dante hurried forward to help with Rithas while Sparda stepped forward to speak to Kastor.
“The Forgotten Levels are deserted.” he heard Alastair say to Dante “No one is down there. All the guards are gone.”
“They must all be at N’mir’kus.” Sparda said as he carefully cut the collar away from Nestor’s neck “Mundus is taking this seriously.” He felt Nestor’s power rush free, but he did not show signs of healing or regaining consciousness.
“You may put him to rest in the main room. Some of the Sarcesti family will be staying behind to keep an eye on the children, and they can guard him as well.” Kastor looked momentarily torn with indecision before he acquiesced with a sigh and walked on into the main room. Sparda moved over to Rithas and Alastair and cut that collar away as well, and Rithas moaned in relief as the large wound running through his chest and back began to close.
“If you wish to join us,” Sparda said quietly “You may take a few moments to rest.”
“Thank you, Lord Sparda.” Rithas replied, taking his weight off of Alastair and stepping away “I will do that.” He walked past them into the main room, and the doors had barely had a chance to shut before Kastor came back through.
“As much as I want to stay with him,” he said quietly “I have to lead my family. I will meet you at N’mir’kus.” With that he moved at a brisk walk out of Lar’cincel and continued on to Kei’serse.
“Are we going to help the Bolverks?” Alastair asked “Cause it looks like it might be fun.” Sparda smiled at her.
“I’m sure it will be. Now let’s get back to the briefing.”
*****
Kastor stepped through the doors of Kei’serse, and was mobbed by his mother and brother.
“Are you alright?” Liris demanded, looking him over “Why did you go off on your own like that. You should have told me that you were leaving! How could you do something so dangerous! And you let your niece into it too! What were you thinking!”
“Mother, please!” Kastor pushed her away from him to gain some breathing room. “Now is not the time to be second guessing me. Father is at Lar’cincel, badly injured. I think that it would be best if you were to go to him.”
“What are you going to do, Kastor?” Hital asked.
“We’re going to help the Bolverk family. They’re under siege now.”
Hital’s eyes widened. “Are you serious?”
“Very serious. It is what Father and I planned at Lar’cincel. This useless feud between us ends now.” Kastor turned back to Liris. “Mother if you wish to go to Lar’cincel, I want you to round up the children and take them with you. Take a few others with you to help you guard them during the walk.”
“Not me.” Hital said “I wanna fight.”
“Yes, you. You’re too young. Now help Mother round up the other children, and go to Lar’cincel with her. And stay there.” He pushed a little bit of the patriarchal magic into his words, knowing that Hital might get ideas about helping out later. Kastor knew why his father seldom used the patriarchal power, it didn’t feel right, forcing people to obey, potentially against their will, but he admitted that it did have its uses.
Once his mother and brother went off to do their task, he went in search of his Uncles Lestor and Vector, to see what they had done with Himal, Mesim, and Exis. He found them down in the dungeon levels of the tower, standing guard over a trio of cells with the three demons in question.
“Any trouble?” he asked.
“No.” Lestor asked “Did you find Nestor?”
Kastor nodded grimly. “I did. His head was dashed in, and his neck was broken, and they had put a collar on him. He’s a Lar’cincel now.” He paused. “I don’t know if he’ll survive.”
Lestor and Vector winced. “So what are we going to do now?” Vector asked.
“I need you to find guards for these three, unless you would like to... entertain them for a while before their execution, but otherwise, I would like you two to accompany me to N’mir’kus, and later, to the throne room where the families will confront Mundus. I think that you would like to get a few licks in on the one who was mostly responsible for the death of Hector.”
Lestor and Vector looked at each other and shared nearly identical grins. They knew that Nestor had fought hard to keep baby Hector alive after their parents died, and since Nestor couldn’t get revenge on Mundus for ordering the attack that cost Hector his life, then they might as well do it for him. “We’ll find more guards for these three and join you in a few minutes, Kastor.” Lestor said easily “We can always... entertain them later.” Vector nodded in agreement, grinning wickedly.
“Then I’ll meet you upstairs.” Kastor said, grinning himself at the thought of the four responsible for giving the Valters family so much trouble getting what they deserved, as he turned away and returned to the upper floors.
In the large circular room that the front doors opened up into, he found the rest of the family gathered there, dressed in their battle robes, with their swords and staves in their hands and with bags of spell components and spellbooks slung over their shoulders. He waved his hands and whispered a few words, causing his regular clothes to turn into his battle robes, then he stepped to the front and addressed them all.
“Less than 24 hours ago,” he began “The Heads of the Seven gathered together to decide our future and the future of our families. We decided that we would band together to remove the Imperial family once and for all from power. In the spirit of our cooperation, Rithas Bolverk and I decided that it was time to end the feud between our families.” To his surprise, no one objected. “Now the Bolverk Tower is under assault. We will go to their aid, then we will march on Mundus. Tonight, for better or for worse, things will end.” He turned to his mother and brother. “Mother, if you and your companions would lead the children to Lar’cincel, the rest of us will continue on to N’mir’kus.”
Kastor swept his gaze over them once more, hoping to whomever may be listening that they would all come back alive. He then turned towards Kei’serse’s main doors and opened then with a gesture. Taking a deep breath, he lead his family out onto the plain. Even from Kei’serse, they all could see the fierce battle taking place at N’mir’kus, and they could also see the other families moving towards it. Taking a quick look count of the other families to see that all five were there, he nodded once and led his family on.
The six demon families marched steadily towards the home of the seventh, stopping at the invisible line left behind by the wards that surrounded N’mir’kus. Sparda, Zenedris, Kastor, Terln, Lian, and Sri looked at one another before giving a single gesture as one, and more than three hundred demons surged forward.
*****
Thenal impaled a Savage Golem that had gotten too close to his sister as he wondered what the child was doing up in the midst of the fighting. She and the rest of the children should have been safely hidden in the lower levels of the tower, guarded by most of the women. The answer to that question came when he saw several of the children surge up out of the stairway to the lower levels, followed closely by hundreds of lesser demons. Only a few of the female adults followed them up, and Thenal felt sick when he did not see his mother among those few. They must have been attacked and overwhelmed, and they told the children to run.
Thenal heard a snarl to his left and he ducked to avoid the claws of a second Savage Golem that was quite unhappy at the destruction of its partner. He dashed the creature’s head in with the butt end of his lance and kicked it in the chest, shoving it away from him and giving time to position himself between it and his sister. The golem snarled again and lumbered back towards him, and he shouted back over his shoulder to his sister:
“Where’s your spear?” She seemed to shake herself before holding out her hand, causing her own weapon to appear in her palm. She turned to stand back to back with her brother and assumed a defensive stance. If they could avoid getting cornered, then they would stand a chance.
*****
Rithas charged straight into the tower, unmindful of the lesser demons that attempted to swarm him and ran straight for where he could sense his children. He saw his son and daughter fighting back to back and saw that while Thenal was facing a large group, he was still holding his own. Misi, however, was rapidly becoming overwhelmed, but Thenal was too busy to be able to render aid of any kind. Snarling in rage, Rithas charged the group crowding his daughter, smashing into them and scattering them.
“Nice to have you with us again, Father.” Thenal called out without turning around.
“I’m sure.” Rithas replied, swinging his spear to clear some breathing room and he and Misi “So what’s this I hear about you killing your uncle and becoming patriarch?”
Thenal chuckled darkly. “I did what was expected. I found out that he had tried to kill you, so I went and killed him. Then I took the ring.”
“Be careful, because I just might want it back, you know.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything less from you, Father.”
“I was hoping that I wouldn’t become predictable.”
“Ah, well that is life, as the humans say.”
“Where in the nine levels did you hear a human saying?”
Thenal grinned, baring his teeth. “I have my ways.”
Rithas snorted. “Fair enough.” Sandwiching Misi between them, father and son stood back to back, determined to clear their home and save their family.
*****
The younger Vergil charged into the fray, screaming incoherently as he smashed into a large knot of lesser demons and beheaded three of them with a single swing. His lips pulled back in a snarl as his inner demon reveled in the feeling of battle, of killing. He had only been away from it for a few short days, but oh, how he had missed it! He drew Tiamat and opened fire on what looked like a Sin Scythe, forcing it to release its hold on it’s weapon. He kept up the rate of fire as he strode purposely up to it, holding Yamato with one hand, preventing the creature from bring its scythe back up. When he was close enough, he lowered the gun and stabbed the Yamato directly into the floating mask. The mask shattered instantly, and Vergil moved on to the next one before the discarded scythe had a chance to hit the floor. To his left, he could hear Alastair going on with her commentary, and he smiled, loving the feel of familiarity, even in the depths of hell so to speak. He chuckled at his own thoughts, as his father appeared beside him.
“Does she always do that?” the elder Vergil asked, dipping his head in Alastair’s direction.
“And now we have Vergil kicking ass with some.. well folks, I don’t know WHAT the hell they are, but he sure is wiping the floor with them!” Alastair called out cheerfully.
“Yeah, that’s normal for her.” the younger Vergil replied with a chuckle “Quite entertaining actually.”
“Yeah,” Dante said, joining them “She does that everytime we are in a battle together, no matter how small.”
The elder Vergil grinned. “How well does she keep up with the action?”
Dante grinned back. “Pretty well. What have you got in mind?”
“Shall we see if she can keep up with the two of us?”
“You’re on.”
*****
Kastor shoved a group of Bolverk children between himself and the wall, and lightning crackled from his free hand as he targeted the pair of Frosts that were stalking towards him. Damnit, lightning would slow the Frosts down, but he really needed some nice demonic fire - which he did not have. Wonderful. Hmmm maybe if...
Summoning his water power, Kastor flooded the part of the floor on which the Frosts stood. Instantly the water froze, holding the Frosts in place where they stood. Kastor knew that it wouldn’t hold forever, but it would buy him some time. Urging the children on, he moved them to where the fighting was thinner, where it would hopefully be easier to protect them. Before they could get very far, however, he heard the sound of more Frosts coming after him, and snarled in frustration. Only a Ximorn would have a chance of destroying them, and all of them were occupied.
“And now we have Alastair charging some Frosts who were getting a little to close for comfort to her uncle.” Kastor looked around wildly for Alastair before she came crashing down to the floor in front of him, fist first. The floor around her erupted into flames, and the Frosts shrieked and backed away.
“How did you do that?” Kastor asked, yelling to be heard over the sounds of the battle. She smirked and raised her arms, where the Hellfire Gauntlets rested comfortably, burning with their own fire. He nodded in understanding, a small smile playing at his lips as she turned back to the Frosts.
“Would you be so kind to keep the rest off of my back, dear uncle?” she called over her shoulder as she stalked up to two Frosts that were apart from the rest of the group.
“I would love to.” he replied with a grin, putting his sword away - it would be of no help against Frosts - and summoning his magic.
*****
Terln Ximorn felt the familiar feel of one of his family’s power and glanced over to his left to see who it was. He was surprised to see Sparda’s granddaughter breaking Frosts apart with the Hellfire Gauntlets, her body bursting into flames every times she rolled and jumped. He had to admire the way she harnessed Ifrit’s power, even if it was not hers by right, at least that is how he saw it. By the demon laws, they were hers, her father HAD overpowered them and handed them down to her after all, but that didn’t lessen the sting of seeing a family heirloom in someone else’s hands...
He felt Sparda’s presence appear suddenly beside him, and the elder demon growled in his ear.
“I would advise you to drop your gaze from my granddaughter. If you want to make yourself useful, then try removing some of these damnable Frosts from the picture.”
Sighing, part in annoyance and part in resignation, Terln moved over towards Alastair and Kastor, summoning his fire to attack the Frosts.
*****
Thenal and Rithas paused in mid swing when they felt the aura of the lesser demons begin to recede. They looked at each other for a brief second before looking around them.
“This is not good.” Thenal said quietly “Not good at all.” Rithas nodded absently, seeing identical expressions on the faces of everyone around him.
“We need to get out of here.” Rithas said suddenly, repressing a wince at the loudness of his voice in the suddenly silent room “Mundus is planning something, and we have to be out of here by the time he does.”
Sparda nodded in agreement. He called out to his family, and they joined him in one corner of the room. Zenedris, Kastor, Terln, Liam, and Sri also called their families to them. Thenal called the rest of the Bolverks, and Rithas was disheartened to see that a fourth of them, mostly the females, did not respond to the call. There was no time to search for them; they had to be out of the unwarded tower by the time Mundus made his next move.
The six families filed out, and by some unspoken agreement, moved quickly towards Lar’cincel. No one looked up, but they could all feel the eye of Mundus on them the entire way.
Chapter 19 -- Chapter 21
Back to the Archive