[Part 2]

Dante’s P.O.V.

I hoped whoever who made Monday an official working day died horribly. I was more than 100% confirmed that I would die –if I ever will–on a Monday, the most hated day of the week.

The feeling is reciprocated around as my sigh was echoed by two others. I was having this extremely bad craving for strawberry sundaes, but Vergil is going to kill me if I step out for a break again. I have no doubt that Daniel would soon get news of my defeat from his niece and nephew. I groaned.

I would never live this down.

“Are you still thinking about how we beat your ass upside down, Uncle Dante?” Damien asked with the innocent tone of a 10 year old, but the mischievous glint in his eyes says otherwise. That son of a bitch; he just doing it all to rub salt in my wound, wasn’t he?

“I’m thinking about how to rip you to shreds when you’re asleep tonight.” I grinned back toothily, trying to scare him. Apparently 10 years with them was enough for them to understand that I usually didn’t carry out my threats, for neither Damien nor Wynter looked relatively affected at my words at all.

“Yeah, well good luck getting past Aunt Lady, then Uncle Vergil, then Aunt Marcy, then Mum. Then let’s not forget, we have Daddy with us now. Lay a finger on us, and you’re dead, Uncle Dante.” Wynter replies equally sweetly with the air of the perfect 10 year old girl, smiling the perfect smile that made her seem like she’d just asked for a candy instead.

I cracked my knuckles. Honestly, they were begging for it. I swear, I’m going to do something about this annoying habit that they’ve picked up from their uncle Daniel. Then again, they probably picked it up from me too…

The door opens without a warning, and all three of us turns to the door to find my fiancé’s head poking in. Before love can fill my heart, dread takes over as she looked at our inaction –Damien and Wynter lounging lazily on the couch, and me sitting two-legged on the chair, leaning back.

“I swear to god, Dante, if you’re not doing anything now, I’m going to collect every piece of money you ever owe me.” She threatens heavily, and Damien hid his giggle not very successfully. I turned to glare at him, but he only glittered innocent blue eyes at me. One day, I’m going to put my hands around that delicate throat, and squeeze…

“Dante Sparda! Are you even listening to me?” Lady raised her voice, and I winced. There is only one woman who can make me listen, and I’ve been cursed to be with her for the rest of my life –evidenced by the band of slavery I had on my third finger. I tried to remember exactly how drunk I had been when I went down to one knee before her, but couldn’t come up with a definitely answer.

“What do you want me to do?” I asked in reply, passing a warning glare to Damien who couldn’t stop mocking me behind his hand that was covered over his mouth. “Maybe we should get Vergil.”

At the name of my brother, the smirks on the children’s faces wipes off quickly, and it’s my turn to grin at them while Damien tries to bully me into saying otherwise with a threatening glare –but he forgot that I am Dante Sparda, possibly the best demon hunter in the industry. Wynter’s calculative look reminded me very much of her father, and I spared a moment of hesitation, wondering what she was coming up in her mind to punish me for throwing them towards my brother.

There was no one better in the world who could deal with these two devils better than Vergil.

Daniel and I have been betting on how obedient the two of them are when Vergil is around, but my no-nonsense twin doesn’t even give us a single moment to spare when it comes to training our niece and nephew.

Exasperation flickers past Lady’s face, but she knows better than to force me to work.

“What a coincidence.” My lover said, opening the door wider. “Vergil and Marcy’s just arrived home.”

Damien made a strangled sound of dismay, but Wynter shut him up quickly with a stern look and a hand over his mouth as if to push back physically any more signs of protest, seemingly to know that they shouldn’t reveal their weaknesses to me. Despite the obvious dismay flashing in her eyes at the news of Vergil’s arrival, Wynter smiled her sweet young-girl smile again at both my fiancée and me.

“We’d just love to see them again.” She said brightly, fighting her brother’s strength as Damien began to struggle for his right to speak. Lady shared a knowing grin with me, as I stood up and made for the door –my training session officially done for the day. I was supposed to help the two devils train their stamina when it came to sword-fighting, but after letting them win –and allowing them to think that they’d ‘trashed’ me –I really felt like going back home  for a rest. And probably never come back for a few months while I slept in DMC.

Even as I walked out of the room past my lovely woman, I could hear Wynter and Damien making plans on how to escape my brother’s tyranny. Oh, they were going to have such a hard time that I was actually going to enjoy my brother’s torturous trainings.

“Dante, you’re just in time.” Vergil greeted in the most non-brotherly way ever existed, beckoning me over as if I was simply a puppy than his twin. “We’re having a talk.”

Any potential protests that I might have had died away at the serious look in his eyes. Vergil never showed much emotions on his face –at least not to us –but I knew enough when I saw a slight frown hanging at the corner of his lips. It had barely been gone when Damon came back safe on his own, but it wasn’t surprising to see it back again. Vergil was always like this; worrying about this, worrying about that. Someday, I swear I’m going to pair up with his wife and make him just enjoy his life for a day.

My so-sociable brother didn’t say anything else as he led me down the stairs to the meeting room that Damon had in the mansion. Don’t even get me asking why the Kries Mansion has a meeting room when no businessmen associates have ever appeared within its walls before. I don’t know if it’s a surprise to see Damon and Daniel both waiting for us, but I took that information with caution. Ever since Damon came back a week ago, it’s like he’s someone else.

He is still Damon, still that bastard brother I had for that one year, but ten years in Hell definitely changed him like how Hell changed Vergil so long ago too. It was almost like he had lost his humanity –or part of it –and seemed to be trying his best to look for it again. The sooner he realized that the humane side of him could be created again with his family; the faster he would return to be the Damon Kries I once knew –only more powerful.

“What’s up? This isn’t exactly a party if there aren’t half-naked girls around.” I commented, glad that Lady had stayed behind to entertain the kids, or else I would already have had bullet holes within me. That was assuming she wouldn’t attempt to pull Kalina Ann on me.

“You’re going to get married soon.” Damon replied in the same leveled tone that my brother had. Honestly, they were so alike that I wondered why I was Vergil’s twin instead of him. “Do you honestly want a rocket launcher blasting the place apart as you get a lap dance?”

“They can give me a lap dance anytime.” Daniel put in with a grin. “And Dante can watch, pretending it’s him.”

“Pretend? There’s no need to.” I retorted quickly, though it was kind of a sore point knowing that Daniel was the only man in the room who could make such comments without consequences, considering he was the only single person around. “They’ll flock to me first, flash me their boobs even before they notice you in the room.”

“Oh yeah? When they see me, they won’t even know you exist anymore. Besides, I don’t have to be the one afraid of a rocket-launcher-wielding woman when I pull the panties right off their sweet flower.” My doppelganger challenged, and even though what he said was mostly true, I couldn’t stand being challenged like that.

“Don’t be jealous; Lady would only join in for a three-way.” I snapped back, taking a seat opposite him so we could have a glare-fight. Daniel often pretended that he wasn’t sore about being single, but it wasn’t my fault that Lady loved me.

“Enough.” Vergil’s and Damon’s synchronized power of seriousness jerk both Daniel and I in silence, as the two of them looked strangely at each other, as if they were surprised at all that they were doppelgangers.

The moment was lost quickly, and Damon turned to look at all of us.

“We need to talk.” He said in the same tone that Vergil had done. I swear, even if Vergil died one day, Damon would just fill in his space easily. That was pretty much how Damon spent his one year, so I guess it wasn’t really my fault that I mistook him for my real brother –considering the likeness to each other. Maybe it was just a ‘staying in Hell for years’ kind of thing that Daniel and I weren’t privy to.

“We need to discuss on how to take down Mundus.”

The next moment of silence was spent in me admiring how Vergil stared at Damon as if the man had somehow grown horns on his forehead.

“Mundus? Just go down with guns blazing, swords flashing. You’ve got your sick powers and abilities; what else do we have to plan for?” Daniel recovered quickly, an excited grin hanging on his face at the thought of ending Mundus’s life.

“You don’t understand.” Vergil rushed to say, seriousness in every bit of his voice. “Killing Mundus is another league entirely.”

This time, I couldn’t help but be serious too –much as I didn’t like to be. But some things really had to be said.

“Yeah,” I agreed –one of the rare few times at all –with Vergil. “Killing Mundus isn’t exactly a casual conversation topic.”

Damon’s eyes lit in soft surprise at the tone of my voice, but blinked slowly at both my brother and I, seemingly ready to ignore his bullshit twin brother.

“I have killed 7 Princes of Hell alone. I have the abilities and information of Mundus. Once where it wasn’t possible, now we have the power to end his control. He’s been ruining my life with his presence, I’m ending it once and for all.” Damon explained, a slightly challenging look behind his blue eyes that were freakishly beginning to look more like a demon than human.

“This isn’t about the ability.” Vergil explained plainly, exchanging a look with me, knowing that I was thinking the same things as him. Either it was a twin connection thing that I wasn’t aware of, or Vergil had somehow gotten mind-reading skills on the sly, because I had no idea whether he was thinking the same thing as me. “This is about the possible consequence when it comes to killing Mundus.”

“The only consequences I can come up is a life free of demons, that’s what.” Daniel interjected, a proud grin as if he had already killed Mundus.

“Life free of demons in your world and my world, Daniel.” Vergil explained in an evened tone that I would never be able to leave. It seemed as if only Vergil and I understood the severity of the idea of killing Mundus, and though I had sent him back to Hell once, it never meant that I would kill the Demon King willingly. “But only for a short time –perhaps only months or a year.”

“What do you mean?” Damon asked, looking between Vergil and me as if he knew somehow that it was some secret that only both of us were privy to. Was it some sort of doppelganger-connection this time around that I didn’t know of, for it was obvious that Daniel and I weren’t exchanging mental telepathic information.

“Living with Sparda when we were young; he told us the story of how Mundus became King of Demons.” Vergil explained, giving me a look as if he was asking if I remembered our childhood bedtime story. Of course; it was one of the little things I remembered about the father who had disappeared again after Damon came back. The last we knew was the fact that he had gone down in Hell again looking for Mom.

We couldn’t really blame him for being desperate to be with his lover, but it didn’t really help that Daddy Sparda wasn’t very interested in our lives when it became clear that Damon was back to take care of us in his place.

“Mundus basically got where he was because there was no leadership in Hell, and it was all just disorganized chaos. He got pissed off when the humans he haunted were killed by other low-leveled demons. So he killed them in retaliation. Over time, he gained name, and the lower-level demons bowed down to him. Those unhappy fought and lost. Eventually he gained power over Hell, and began to control all the demons left. He organized the chaos, and he let the demons plague our worlds instead of each other. You take that away; you take away the ruling force of Hell.” Vergil explained, and Damon nodded his head to show that he followed while Daniel’s face only grew confused like how I had been when we were younger, when Sparda was telling us the same story.

“But isn’t that good? No demons plaguing our worlds.”

“No demons, no job.” I interjected, and Vergil turned in surprise, as if he hadn’t expected me to say anything at all. I shrugged at his questioning gaze, then gestured for him to continue answering Daniel’s all-too-innocent question.

“It’s good for us for perhaps a few months, maybe even a year. But by then, the demons would have filled up Hell. There will come a point where the demons will overrun Hell. Someone will cut tears between our worlds and Hell. Demons come spilling in as groups and hoards. It will be Apocalypse, the total wipeout of our worlds when demons come in. Not even Damon’s power can extend over such a large scale –not between our two worlds.”

“So Mundus is the force that keeps Hell from unleashing on our worlds? Why then is he not able to send demons directly into my world, but only yours?” Damon questioned, as Daniel looked like someone had taken his favorite candy away. The forlorn look would be comical if not for the fact that it was made on my face, on a man who was in his early thirties.

“Mundus releases the demons from Hell occasionally to our world. Your world have been protected because of the divergence of the moon cycle. How you first came to our world, us back home –it was all natural convergence of the moon cycle. The demons found their way in here, but they couldn’t return to Hell. They eventually died in your world –hence the many unconfirmed myths. But if we are to kill Mundus, Hell is going to break loose in my world. When the moon cycle converges again, demons are going to flood the place. There isn’t going to be much of your world left when the moon cycle diverges again.”

For a man who grew up in his own world, Damon seemed totally cool with the fact that he could possibly do something to damn his entire world to Hell.

“So it’s like Apocalypse, but in demon-form? No 4 Horsemen? No meteor-colliding? No planet-eater?” Daniel asked, in an enquiring tone of voice, as if he wasn’t discovering the end of the world. Granted, it wouldn’t have mattered to me if Hell broke loose in my world, so it made sense that it didn’t matter to Daniel either.

“Yes.” Vergil’s reply was surprisingly short, as silence descended over us after his reply. Damon simply sat, looking faraway and thinking while Daniel only looked slightly unhappy at the circumstance. I got the idea that the unhappiness was borne out of the absence of a permission to go charging in to kill the Demon King of Hell.

“But if I were to let Mundus live,” Damon picked up the conversation quickly again, “I’m putting Damien, Wynter and Trish in danger of being hunted forever by his minions.”

Daniel mumbled something about himself being insignificant in his brother’s life, but received no attention.

“We could watch over them. Given your powers, Daniel’s authority over your world, Dante and my abilities as sons of Sparda, we could watch over them.” Vergil offered, but Damon shook his head.

“You each have your own lives. Marcy and Lady both need protection. We can’t be looking after so many between ourselves. After the death of his princes, Mundus will no doubt send another demon our way –another more powerful than the princes. I don’t want my children caught up in that.” Damon argued, and though I would have liked to challenge him back, he –like always –made sense. We could argue that Lady, Trish and Marcy had learnt to take care of themselves, but nothing changed the fact that while they were still in this world, they were only humans. Even if they went down back into my world, my fiancé was only still a human, while Marcy and Trish were still weaker than us. Even if we wanted to factor Damien and Wynter’s abilities to fight low-leveled demons, we were obviously no match for anything that Mundus could send for us.

“The problem of killing Mundus, as you say,” Damon started again, as if he had found some sort of revelation, “is the fact that if we kill him, there will be no one powerful enough to rule over Hell.”

Vergil and I nodded in sync, in one of those twins moment.

“Then we simply have to find someone who can match Mundus’s strength to take over Hell.”

“It is easier said than done, Damon. We are talking about someone who may be able to rival Mundus’s skills, and able to destroy everything he made out of Hell.”

“What about your father? Sparda seems a capable soul enough. Given Mundus’s death, Eva will be freed, and Sparda will be free to be with his wife and rule over Hell. It proves a win-win for us.”

“Yeah,” I interjected again, “if only Daddy Sparda was so easy-going. IN case you haven’t noticed, we don’t exactly mix well with Papa Sparda. We saved him, but he isn’t exactly the Great Daddy we had when we were younger. Growing up and old, he’s just an old geezer right now.”

“An old geezer with the ability to trounce you, Dante.” Vergil replied in a reprimanding tone, and for a single flash of moment, I discovered the Vergil was actually more a father to me than Sparda ever was. That was an extremely sad thought –for Vergil had never really treated me perfectly well anyway.

What a pathetic family.

“You might make some sense out of this. I concur; we must do something about Mundus before he comes knocking on our door. Given that you’ve destroyed 7 Princes of Hell, he isn’t going to take his chances with us anymore. He’s out to kill this time, there isn’t going to be a doubt about it. Considering that both Dante and I have been in and out of his sights between times too, there is no doubt that he now wishes nothing more than to have us all dead.” Vergil analyzed, turning back to Damon.

I wondered what the hell Daniel and I both were doing here –considering our comments hadn’t been really well-received anyway.

“Then we will look for a way to kill him, and reinstate a leader in Hell that is familiar to us all.” Damon concluded.

“Easier said than done.” I yawned, stretching and watching Daniel copy me. Damon looked ready to say something, but was interrupted by the sound of knocks on the door, followed by giggles that could only belong to the wretched kids that were somehow declared my niece and nephew.

“Uncle Dante, Uncle Daniel!” Damien yelled from the other side of the door. “Aunt Lady and Marcy made us strawberry sundaes, and you’re not getting any!”

Vergil and Damon shared a look of exasperation while Daniel and I shared a look in uncoordinated synchronization.

“Oh by the way,” Wynter added with the hint of a grin in her voice. “Daddy, Uncle Vergil, do you guys want some strawberry sundaes? They left some specifically for you guys.”

The insult was taken twice-fold, and despite the interruption, I finally saw Damon smile and chuckle. In a quick moment, the serious Damon that I had been seeing all this while was missing, and in his place was the father Damon was supposed to be.

“Sure, I’ll take a cup.” Damon replied with a grin to his brother and me, standing up from where he sat at the head of the table.

“Don’t you dare!” Daniel threatened, jumping to block his brother’s path even as Vergil sighed and stood himself. My brother wasn’t as avid a fan of strawberry sundaes, but there was nothing Vergil would say no to if it was specially prepared by his wife.

“They made it especially for us.” Damon replied in a tone that was supposed to be helpless, as if he couldn’t control his situation like how adept he was now in controlling his powers. “I can’t say no to our sister, can we? Besides, I don’t want a rocket launcher in my face if I say no.”

The grin on Damon’s face meant that he was totally at ease watching Daniel and I share a horrified expression. Vergil didn’t say anything, already making for the door by himself.

And then, finally, that moment of doppelganger connection struck Daniel and I.

We both burst for the door, me elbowing Vergil aside, and left our brothers in the room to protest. Well, Damon protested, Vergil simply remained silent.

“I’m still more powerful than you, Daniel!” Damon yelled, but we were outside already, the sight of two happy kids with their strawberry sundaes in their hands. The innocence on their faces were betrayed by the happy enjoyment of watching their uncles suffer.

“You two are so grounded!” Daniel pointed a serious finger to the innocent children standing nonchalantly in the doorway, spoons in their mouth.

“Oh yeah? You can’t do that anymore!” Damien challenged, sticking his tongue out but by then Daniel and I had charged down the hallway, tearing for the kitchen. We’d barely reached the base of the stairs before the strangest sensation of immobility hit me. Confused, and frozen in half-step, I saw out of my peripheral vision that Daniel was frozen alongside me too.

Then I felt Damon’s power in the air, along with the slow, measured steps from a powerful human-now-turned-half-devil.

“Excuse me, gentlemen.” He said pleasantly, as if we were simply just blocking his path. “I have a strawberry sundae to attend to.”

My curses would have taught the children a whole new language, but my mouth wouldn’t open.

Vergil slipped by us without a second word, and the children ran to stand before us. Damien stuck his tongue out at us again, and I was willing to bet the amount of my debt that Daniel would have wrapped his hands around the boy’s throat if we were still able to move.

“Damien.” Damon said, in a half-stern, half-amused voice. “Don’t make rude faces at your uncles.”

“Sorry, Daddy.” Damien said quickly, but quickly scrunched up his face in a disgusting expression before he turned and ran down the stairs after his father. Wynter only grinned widely at us, purposefully took a taste from her strawberry sundae with the expression of pure enjoyment, before she ran off after her brother and father.

It wasn’t until we heard Damon enter the kitchen that we were left out of the immobility spell, but there was no point for us to rush anymore.

“I swear to the high heavens,” Daniel grumbled, brushing the imaginary dust off his shirt, “one day I’m going to die and he’s going to cry for me and regret all the shit he’s put me through.”

I laughed, and rushed down the stairs, leaving him behind.

“I don’t think that’s possible. No one’s going to be bothered enough to kill you.”