The Countess and The Demon (Resident Evil X Devil May Cry)

Chapter 8: Well, that happened.

That night, Dante had a nightmare. For some reason, he'd seen all the lords dying in front of him, and it was troubling him. To his suprise, he found himself faring about them. They were all quite friendly to him, sure, but between not hearing anything about this Mother Miranda person and fighting Nelo Angelo, he was perplexed. He decided to get up, he couldn't sleep anymore. Looking at the grandfather clock in the corner, he saw it was 3:04 AM. Shrugging, he relit the fire in the fireplace and started cleaning his guns. They'd been covered in mud, guts, and gore since the moment he'd arrived, and he didn't want them to jam or break. He started by cleaning Ebony and Ivory, oiling the parts and clearing away the gunk that had built up. When they were finally clean, he took extra time to wipe the faces on the handles until they shined like gold. Content, he moved onto Lupo. He emptied the tubes under the barrels and started disassembling it to clean its inner components. He did the same to the Spiral MK2, which, for some reason, he kept forgetting in his room.

Once again, as before, he felt as if somebody was watching him. Faster than the mortal eye could follow, he did a full 180°, aiming Ebony at the window. This time, he caught a glimpse of movement. He rushed to the open window, jumping through it and landing on the scaffolding. As he looked around, he saw crow feathers about 20 feet above him in the scaffolding. Whatever it was, it was fast. He quickly jumped up, placing Ebony in his teeth before grabbing ahold of the wall and started climbing it. Within seconds, he'd scaled almost 30 feet and was on a balcony. He found himself facing the woman known as Mother Miranda once more. Her eyes glowed an alternating black and red, and her normal black crow wings were different, almost demonic. "Alright, lady, what gives? You've been stalking me for almost a week now, and I'm getting kinda bored," he said before leveling Ebony, aiming at her head. She merely laughed. "Oh, insolent mortal, your puny gun wo-." She didn't get a chance to finish her statement before he blasted 3 holes in her head the size of dimes. She merely shook her head in a daze, the rounds falling out and hitting the frozen stones. He stared in shock. Nothing, not even his own brother, had ever shrugged off hits like that. He hesitated, for the first time in 11 years, before opening fire, advancing all the while. As soon as he got close enough, he started throwing punches, dealing a new gash with every blow, shattering a new bone with every connection. About a minute later, after the slaughter, he walked away huffing. "Well, that was easy," he said. Before he took another step, however, he felt something go clean through his stomach. Looking down, he saw her hand, with a cluster of his organs in it, sticking out his front. Eyes wide with surprise, he felt her tear everything in her hand out his back. He was used to being impaled, but this? This was a new torture for him. He'd just had a great deal of vital organs shredded, with a part of his spine missing. Unable to stand, he collapsed, puking up blood. As he slowly blacked out due to the pain, he asked, a hint of his fear in his voice: "What the fuck did you do??" She leaned down, smirking. "Scorched earth. Let's just say that there's more powerful forces than you and I at stake, and I will do anything to bring my daughter back." With this said, she grabbed Dante by the leg and threw him off the castle, where he landed in the front yard, creating a small crater. The denizens of the castle heard, and Bela was the first to tell her mother of the noise she'd heard. As Alcina went to check the front yard with the wind gardens, she saw Dante, in a pool of blood, starting to sit up. Then, out of nowhere, Mother Miranda landed on him, stomping his head into the ground and, with her free hand, summoned the power of the Megamycyte, generating a glowing ball of mold out of thin air practically, which she then slammed into Dante, causing him to bounce, causing blood to go everywhere. He'd live, but these kinds of wounds wouldn't heal as fast as the rest. This was easily the worst beating he'd ever received. Not even his own brother had shown him this level of brutality. Alcina watched, horrified, as Dante was beaten to a pulp. After a split second of thought, she extended her nails into claws and lunged, slicing Miranda's hand off at the wrist, causing her to howl in pain before backhanding Alcina into the wall and flying away. As she watched her fly away, her thoughts drifted to Dante, broken and beaten on the ground. Most of his wounds had healed, but the one dealt by the glowing yellow orb was healing slower. Not sure what to do, she scooped him up in her arms and made her way to his room. Along the way, her daughters joined her, wide-eyed and terrified at the sheer amount of punishment Dante had been dealt.