NOVPUBVergil appeared like an invisible blade next to Kaori, interrupting Lucian's next blow before it could even be delivered.
The change in atmosphere was so abrupt that the air around them shook. The heat of battle ceased for a brief second, as if the whole world was holding its breath. Kaori, in the middle of her elegant spin, felt the weight of Vergil's presence and instinctively jumped back, her eyes wide with alarm.
Lucian froze. The predatory gleam he had carried until then disappeared from his golden eyes, replaced by momentary confusion - he didn't understand what had happened. He only realized that, suddenly, someone more lethal than anything he had faced on that battlefield was standing in front of him.
Vergil stared at him. Not with anger or excitement.
But with a cold calm, like an executioner looking at an already condemned head.
Vergil's first step was so light that it seemed more like an illusion.
But in the next instant, he disappeared in an explosion of displaced air.
Lucian tried to react - his silver spear vibrated in his hand - but Vergil was already inside his guard.
The first blow was so fast that Lucian didn't even see Yamato move.
He only heard the sharp sound of metal breaking - his spear exploded into silver pieces that floated around like dead petals.
Lucian opened his eyes wide, instinctively backing away, but the second blow grazed him in the left shoulder. The flesh was torn open like wet paper, blood spurting out in short jets.
The third blow came from above, and Lucian raised his arms to block, conjuring up a golden barrier with all the strength he could muster
The impact was monstrous.
Lucian was thrown backwards, crashing into one of the floating columns that decorated the scene of destruction. The structure cracked under the shock, cracks spreading like cobwebs.
Coughing blood, Lucian forced himself up, his black wings opening in a burst of dark energy.
"You bastard-" he tried to summon a beam of dark magic, but Vergil was already there.
The fourth blow cut through the air with a deadly hiss, ripping Lucian's right arm off at shoulder height. The limb flew off, spinning grotesquely in the air, before dissolving into spectral smoke - further revealing the farce of its existence.
Lucian screamed - but the sound was swallowed up by the silent roar of the Yamato moving again.
The fifth blow was the final one.
Vergil ran his sword through Lucian's chest without hesitation, without a single wasted movement.
Lucian's body froze, his mouth opening in a final gasp.
A spectral light exploded inside him, leaking over the edges of his body like steam coming out of a cracked vase.
He looked down at the blade embedded in his chest, then at Vergil.
He tried to say something - a curse, perhaps, or a plea - but only managed to emit a hoarse sound, like the wind scratching at an old window.
Vergil pushed him away with a dry kick.
Lucian fell to his knees, trembling, and then began to melt.
Not like a living being dying.
But like a mask shattered by the revelation of its own lie.
The skin, the wings, the armor - everything turned into a viscous substance, dripping to the ground and disappearing in white smoke.
All that remained were the broken weapons and a bitter feeling of shattered illusion.
Vergil wiped Yamato's blade clean with a dry motion, without even looking at what was left.
Kaori, who had watched everything without intervening, was breathing hard. 𝖓𝔬𝔳𝔭𝖚𝖇.𝔠𝔬𝖒
Not from exhaustion - but from the impact of seeing someone so powerful reduced to nothing in a matter of seconds.
Vergil took a few steps back, his eyes burning with the clarity of someone who knew that this was only a prelude.
If even Lucian - someone who had previously been able to take on entire troops single-handedly - was now just a puppet...
It meant that whoever was behind all this was far more dangerous than anyone there had imagined.
Without saying a word, he turned his back on the spot where Lucian had disappeared, his attention already turning to his next objective: Dante.
The real work hadn't even begun yet.
"Are you all right?" Vergil asked, his voice as sharp and cold as the blade he still held.
Kaori, still panting, nodded quickly. "Y-yes..." she stammered, but Vergil's clinical gaze wasn't fooled.
His eyes landed on her arm - where a thin black mark was spreading, like a living crack in the skin.
Without hesitation, he lifted Yamato up.
"Wait, what-"
SHLACK!
With a single, clean, brutal movement, Vergil cut off her arm at shoulder height.
Kaori grunted in pain, falling to her knees, clutching the throbbing shoulder from which blood should have gushed - but there was no blood. Only a dark energy dissipated into the air, like toxic smoke.
Vergil ignored her moans.
He raised his free hand and ordered, his voice filled with power:
"Cure."
A red light enveloped Kaori's shoulder, like a field of furious particles, weaving new flesh, tendons and bones with supernatural precision. In a few seconds, a new arm took shape, as perfect as the previous one.
Kaori, still trembling, stared in astonishment at her newly formed hand.
Vergil bent down and picked up the severed arm from the ground, holding it like a piece of dirty cloth.
The limb immediately began to disintegrate between his fingers, dissolving into silver dust that was carried away by the wind.
"It was just magic," Vergil said, examining the last traces of the curse in the air. "A parasitic summoning. That's why you survived."
He let the dust slip through his fingers and stared at Kaori as coldly as ever.
"But remember..." his voice now sounded like steel dragging on marble.
"Don't let yourself get hit again."
Kaori could only nod in silence, the shock of the pain and revelation paralyzing her.
Vergil stood up, the Yamato shimmering in his hand like a sharp fragment of reality.
Without another word, he disappeared in a burst of wind, flying towards Kraggor and the battle that was still roaring.
Kaori remained behind, motionless.
She looked down at her new arm, still flexing its newly formed fingers.
Her chest heaved, not just from the pain, but from the brutal awareness of what had just happened.
'...I was going to die...'
The truth hit her like an invisible blow.
Had it not been for Vergil - she would be dead now. Consumed by the curse without even realizing it.
Kraggor was still kicking Dante like someone trying to put out a fire with punches. Each blow echoed between the broken columns and the floating floor, a dry sound of flesh being crushed and bones trying in vain to resist.
The demon, covered in cracks and crevices, regenerated pieces of its body by leaps and bounds, like a broken machine trying to work. Slower and slower. Weaker and weaker.
Vergil appeared before them like a sharp shadow.
He raised a hand calmly - a simple gesture.
Kraggor immediately stopped, lowering his still raised fist into the air and looking around, confused, like a trained animal waiting for the next command.
Dante tried to get up, staggering like a broken marionette.
But before he could react, Vergil grabbed him by the throat with cold ease, lifting him off the ground like a piece of firewood.
"No more theater." His voice sounded low, controlled - but in it vibrated something ancient, heavy like the thunder contained within a mountain before it collapses.
Dante tried to gather energy in desperation. His eyes glowed, his skin ripped open revealing black runes - but Vergil was already sealing his fate.
A red circle was born under his feet, drawn in streaks of light that seemed to cut through reality itself.
With his other free hand, Vergil traced symbols in the air, each gesture as precise as a surgical blade, sealing Dante's essence layer by layer.
"AHHHHHHHHH!!!!" The demon screamed - or tried to. No sound came out.
It was as if his soul had been locked inside a stone coffin, thrown into a bottomless pit.
The red seal glowed brightly and, in a deafening flash, etched itself into Dante's chest like hot iron marking leather.
"Looks like it worked, hahaha" Vergil let go of his throat.
Dante fell to his knees with a dry thud, without strength or energy, not even the mercy of dying. He was now little more than an empty vessel - a perfect prisoner.
Vergil looked down at him as if observing an insect nailed to a shop window.
"You're going to tell me where the originals are." Every word was as cold as steel touching his spine. "Not even if I have to tear your mind apart to get the answer."
Dante tried to growl, tried to curse him with his gaze - but he couldn't even do that.
He just breathed, humiliated and reduced to less than dust.
Vergil turned slowly to Gwen, who was already watching everything with a smile at the corner of her mouth and her arms crossed.
"Arrest him," he ordered, his voice still emotionless. "But be careful. He might try to fragment his mind to prevent us from finding out anything."
Gwen nodded, and shadows snaked around her feet. Black chains emerged from the crumbling ground, slithering like serpents and enveloping Dante with a silent, unavoidable force.
Vergil didn't wait to see.
"We're going to the Underworld, take this guy and deliver him into the hands of Archon Paimon. She'll find a way to track this guy down. Take care of that for me," he said, walking past Gwen and patting her on the head.
