Of Demonic Firepower

Thud!

Enter the Dark Slayer. With a faint grunt, Vergil hammered upon the ground, causing thick layers of crust to jut slightly upwards around him. He kneeled in that position for just a moment, regaining his senses, for he knew he was uncoordinated from the absurdly long fall. He stood up as slowly as he dared, making sure his balance was reliable.

Once he was completely reassured, he took a second to take in his surroundings. What he saw left him even more confused. He wasn't exactly sure what to expect from a dark abyss, but this sure wasn't it. Anything but brightly-colored, inconsistent... Vergil wanted to call it "background," but it was right in front of him. He could interact with it all. Nothing seemed real, but his senses screamed otherwise.

It was like being in a kid's coloring book or something.

"Where am I?" Vergil asked nobody in particular, "What is this place?"

Vergil shook his head briefly, attempting to clear it just a bit more. Shortly after, his unhuman sense started to kick in. The Devil. Bringing his grip to Yamato, Vergil immediately swung around, tracing a very vague trail of demons. His eyes locked on the patch of dirt now in front of him. It was different from the other patches, both in thickness and color value. There was also a stab going clean through the middle of said patch. Seeing this, Vergil remembered how he had kicked Dante off the edge of the bridge, and it all made sense.

"Dante."

He threw his vision behind him once more. It wasn't beaten, but there was a visible path going through the shrubs and trees, into the murky darkness of the forest. Vergil smirked as he took his first step forward.

Something was bothering him, however. Amongst the demon scent, Vergil picked up more than just Dante. It got him curious as to whether or not those clumsy demons would actually jump down into the abyss purposefully, or if there are demons down here in general. Regardless, he treaded carefully as he braced himself for any possible demon encounters along the way...

"Damn it!" Dante yelled as another wave of demons appeared in front of him, "I'm wasting time! These demons are SO persistent when you DON'T need them to be!"

It's been 10 minutes since Dante was dismissed at the magic barrier. At the rate they got here in the first place, Dante should've been at Fluttershy's already. But, wave after wave, the underworldly pests stood in his way! Dante felt as he had earlier with Jester: The same thing over and over was starting to sit in his stomach, and he really needed to burn some calories right now.

"I hate to cut the party short, fellas," Dante said to no particular demon by itself, "but I'm running a little late! And I'm NOT gonna keep my fare waiting because there's a whole bunch of traffic jams in my way!"

Quickly, Dante pulled out the twin blades, Agni & Rudra, and jumped into a dash. Every demon that stood in his way was either burned to a crisp or whipped apart by the air. As he sliced, he recalled the battle he had with these swords. Agni & Rudra were two more guardians of Temen-Ni-Gru, who blocked Dante's path forward. They were more skilled than Cerberus, but then again they weren't dogs, either. In fact, they were their own swords! Their heads are at the bottom of the hilt of each blade. It was a little tricky, but Dante defeated their bodies and took their blades as spoils of victory, but mostly because they requested it of him.

Agni is the blade of fire, and Rudra the blade of wind. And together, with Dante's guidance, they shot dancing flames and bullets of air at their enemies. Thus, he continued a steady advance unto the crowd of demons, killing every one he could. Quickly growing bored, Dante allowed Agni & Rudra to power up to their max and spiraled into the sky. Then, looking back, he dragged the two blades together and swung them apart, unleashing a fierce, fiery whirlwind of destruction upon the infested streets below.

When his feet met the ground, the was not one demon in sight.

Dante continued forward.

The trail led Vergil out of the forest. Despite still in persuit of Dante, the Dark Slayer couldn't help but feel that things were proceeding too smoothly. There wasn't a single demon anywhere. There may have been a couple weird-looking animals who initially threatened him, but turned tail and ran when Yamato threatened back.

Then suddenly...

Vergil furrowed his brow and observed around him. There was another essence somewhere nearby, and it was relatively fresh.

"A new trail."

Letting Yamato relax from his grip, Vergil strayed off his current path and got on the new one.

The one that led to a colorful cottage.

Fluttershy's house wasn't too far away now. Dante only had to turn one more corner, and...

"Fuck!"

Dante's Devil sense quickly went haywire! It wasn't like usual: The waves of the weaklings he had cleaned up altogether didn't come close to scraping the strength of this signal. Putting the back of his hand to his head, Dante tried to narrow the signal...

"Wait, there's more than one!?"

No sooner had he finished the sentence did three Hell Vanguards materialize around him.

The Vanguards of Hell are very much unlike common demons. They are about two times bigger than them, and they also carry scythes made of pure darkness. Hell Vanguards can be very quick and very powerful. However, even these three Vanguards didn't match Dante. The young Devil Hunter knew he could defeat them all, but something was nagging at him...

"Three?" Dante looked confused. "There's only three? But I could swear I felt four -"

He cut himself off. Something relatively close just spiked. A Devil. Not just a demon. A Devil.

Completely disregarding his new guests, Dante bolted in the direction of the Devil.

In the direction of Fluttershy's cottage.