DMC4: The-Devil's Arm

Resurrection

Nero continued to explore the hidden basement he found. Unlike the castle, it wasn't too hard to navigate. Basically, there was only one path to take. It led to a large staircase, which took him even lower into the earth. Spanning like a spiral, it circled down. Like the hallway before, it was veined by pipes and wires far to high tech to have anything to do with the castle above. There was only one door at the bottom.

The large, round, tubular tunnel was closed off by a thick metal door, much to Nero's dismay. Not wanting to give up so easily, he ran and kicked at it, hearing only a solid metal thunk. He flipped and landed on his feet. The door was pure metal, and there was no way he was going to get through it, not even with his equipment.

"Dammit!" he swore, then began to storm back the way he came.

He stopped when he heard that familiar sound of metal on metal, the kind made when two swords collided. He stopped, then looked behind him. The door was collapsing into five different parts. From between the pieces, three separate dorsal fins were gliding through the ground. The entire pipe was made of metal, but that didn't even slow down the fins. They looked like they were thin blades gliding through water, but were patched with glowing red flesh.

The three fins began to circle around him. Nero reached up and gave Red Queen's throttle a few tweaks. It seemed that even this place had an infestation.

The fins scattered as Nero lunged for one. They were quick. As soon as they scattered, one doubled back, then disappeared. Something burst out of the ground in front of him, arcing into the air. It was the owner of the fin, some kind of demonic fish. It had a sleek, aerodynamic body, with four clawed flippers and a pointy tail. It's bullet-like snout was aimed at Nero, looking to pass through him like it did the ground.

He rolled to the side, the cutlass fin slicing through the air then into the ground again. A second cutlass demon swam to the top of the tunnel, then dove out from above Nero's head. Blue Rose was up in less than a second. Nero fired and two thorns slammed into the rounded head. It jerked in midair and hit the ground flopping. He buried two more rounds into it for good measure.

Another one hurtled towards him in a burst of speed, looking to slice his legs with its curved blade. Nero shuffled to side, then brought Red Queen down on the fin. It quivered, but only slowed. He brought it down again and again, working off of the rebound as he pummeled the demon. Its body held just as well as a regular blade. With a grunt of effort, he thrusted her blade into the ground, hearing a squeal of pain. He wrenched her back up, forcibly pulling the demon out of the ground. Once it was helpless above the floor, he took hold of it with Devil Bringer, then leaped into the air, whirling it around a few times before slamming it into the ground.

The remaining cutlass demon tried to come up from below Nero. He flipped back and up, traveling with it. He let out with three quick slashes, the third of which spliced the demon down the middle. It fell spurting blood from its partially severed body.

Nothing else attacked him in the tunnel. It turned once, then ended in another door. It lead to a mainly empty room. With the exception of some colorful circles on the floor, Nero didn't see anything of any purpose or interest. There was a single door in the northern wall. Nero passed through it.

He was in some kind of viewing room that was dimly lit by a few naked bulbs. It was circular, with a large thick window set a few feet above the ground. A video monitor was embedded in the wall near it. All around the room hung ancient Order gladii, the thick, over-sized weapons that were discontinued decades ago.

There was nothing of merit inside the room. The only noise he heard was a rhythmic pulsing echoing from further inside the complex. Nero was just about to turn back when Devil Bringer interjected, glowing brighter and tingling. It seemed to be drawing his attention to the window.