The others careened towards Lady and the other bloated berserker she was fighting, threatening to impale her and it all the same.

Blue mirage blades shot from above both shoulders, a few deft ones altering the trajectory of the spikes threatening her, to ensure she could keep fighting.

body expanding and convulsing, before it exploded.

Onyx spikes were shot out like cannonballs in all directions, but the wall of spikes headed his way were the most concerning. He leapt through them, body twisting and turning as he deftly avoided the projectiles as they continued on past him.

+

have been faster, but these things were durable to withstand multiple strikes from his blade.

"Out of my way!"

Yamato was replaced by gauntlets spewing blue hellflame as he slammed his fist into one hard enough to send it careening back into the far wall, cratering it.

It stumbled forward, it's +

The grunts and groans it released through some unknown means told her that it was being harmed, but it still soaked up her bullets in an effort to chase her down.

Vergil, meanwhile, was being accosted by the other, its body spinning and twisting as it tried to skewer him on its spikes. He might+

nostrils as he instinctively groaned in disgust.

"They're strong. Try not to die."

homunculi that even Vergil found hard to look at straight on.

"Those aren't..."

No, they weren't anything he had ever seen before. They were something different yet still distinctly familiar. Like the slow first steps of a budding evolution. And the miasma of an Aura they gave off filled his +

had instead been replaced with bulbous, pussy biomass that pulsed at odd intervals. Onyx spikes adorned the disgusting, bloated torsos, glinting in the light to accentuate their sharp edges. They had no mouths or eyes, no arms, from the waist up that was all they were. Bulbous, disgusting +

cascaded in through large, ominous windows. He drew his attention to bubbling pools of black matter on the floor.

"Here they come."

He sighed— as if this was nothing more than a chore. He watched as two hulking figures rose from the ground. They resembled Berserkers, but their muscular frames +

bad. A humiliating defeat, one in a great many he had experienced. Yet he never let go. He couldn't.

"This won't be the same."

He said, if only to relieve his own mind,

"Not in the slightest."

His boots tapped against the blood red marble flooring of the first level, where rays of sunset +

He glanced at the lighting when she made note of it, and the grip on his sword grew ever tighter as she expressed her familiarity with their surroundings.

"You mean the Temen-ni-gru."

He nearly hissed the words, controlling his tone through nearly clenched teeth. Memories yes, some good, most +

leaving her with a thought to chew on as they descended into the first level,

"When we're two sides of the same coin."

The darkness consumed them, their path lit by the dim low light of torches. What was the true answer to their lifelong question? He supposed he would find out for himself...

the same fated star, only separated due to circumstance. He had asked himself once— if their paths had been mirrored, would they have both become reflections of one another? And if it was so, what did that make them? How different could they truly be?

Turning back around, he started back again, +

monstrosities. But they'll crumble the same as the others."

He started back on, heading deeper into the depths of the tower, before coming to a stop to look over his shoulder at her,

"You think Dante and I are night and day."

But she couldn't see the forest for the trees. Two beings born under +

chose once again to speak,

"Mutants."

The word was like poison, he spat it out as if it were actually so. Disgusting mutts, created by their foe. If demons and humans were contemptible, then these 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 were loathsome.

"It does always seem like someone is coming up with new, uglier +

"It's good that you know where you stand with me."

He mocked, moving along the floor with a dancer's grace, splitting beasts from shoulder to flank. He stayed silent for the remainder, until the last had been destroyed and they were left in the eerie quiet of the maw.

Sword sheathing, he +

that awaited him, he gave her one last look before changing in, carving a swath through the crowd without care.

haphazardly, empusas with hell caina, fury's with chaos', turning them into mutated monstrosities that hardly resembled anything at all. An amalgamation of twisted ligaments and misshapen body parts, cursing and growling in an illegible tongue.

Undeterred by the grotesque forms of the monsters →

problem to solve and his alone.

He didn't wait for her to make a decision, drawing Yamato to split the gate in twain in a fraction of a second.

What waited for them was an army of fiends and devils, but these were different from those on the bridge. Their forms seemed sewn together →

of stone and marble, gleaming in the light of the sun as it cast down on its uppermost spire.

The gate, drawn and locked. But not for long.

"I won't think less of you for turning back now. You should stay out of this."

He once more gave her the opportunity to leave, resolute that this was his →