Y/N POV

The headaches finally had died down, the purple flashes in my vision had faded away. Most importantly though, the conflict in my mind had been quelled, the two sides had stopped fighting and now were focussed on my common goal. Finding Dante and assimilating him!

I had multiple chances to do the same to Nero however the first time I'd allowed him to escape and the second time I was interrupted by V and later Lady. The latter of which triggered my earlier psychological episode.

The mere fact that she was alive caught me off guard. A part of me believe she had died following the fight with Urizen which initially drove me into an enraged frenzy. However I soon diverted said rage to targeting all the lesser demons that littered the Qliphoth.

Of course the voice in the back of my mind constantly instructed me to sever my concerns for her, yet that proved harder than it seems. Just thinking about her made the headaches return always making me stop. So instead I just had to focus on my goal.

I had no idea what happened to Dante following the fateful battle that turned me into this. However if Lady had turned out to be alive so it was safe to assume both Dante and Trish would also be alive.

I cared little for the latter. Assimilating her wouldn't be worth the effort of searching for her. I wouldn't get as much satisfaction as I would have from Nero. Dante on the other hand, now THAT would be enough to sate Eclipse and provide me with great power at the same time.

All that was needed was for me to locate him. And I would soon pick-up my first breadcrumb compliments of an old friend beating me too him.

Timeskip...

V POV

It didn't take long for me and Nero to split up. We had our own paths to go on, not only that, but going in separate directions reduced our chances of coming across Y/N again. I had no idea where he was, but it was essential that we avoid him for the time being. At least until Dante was found.

Seeing how Y/N reacted upon seeing Lady, it seemed that her presence was enough to motivate his old self to try and break through. However he flew away before anything could happen. I believe Dante would have a similar effect.

They were half brothers after all and given how they'd stuck together all this time there had to be some form of closeness between them. And unlike Lady, Dante would be able to prevent Y/N from fleeing, allowing the opportunity to perhaps get through to him.

One thing was certain, as long as Y/N was like this, stopping Urizen was near impossible. Y/N would just keep popping up and I'd learned from before that even my Nightmare familiar was no match for him.

Another important matter was locating the Demon sword Sparda which had been lost along with Dante and the others a month ago. It was clear Yamato resided with Urizen while Y/N still held Eclipse, Sparda's whereabouts remained unknown.

After exploring for a while, looking for anything particularly notable, I'd sent Griffon off to scout ahead, he returned saying he'd come across some demons 'dancing' and I figured that it would be worth paying them a little visit and after even more of a trek, I found their location.

Sure enough, just as Griffon had described a band of demons clustered around growling and it did somewhat resemble dancing in a crazed manner. These demons were nameless in fact you could argue their name was simply Nobody.

Image of Nobody:

Looking up, a faint grin spread across my face as just as I'd hoped, I saw the demonic sword Sparda impaled into a nearby wall high above us. In fact, now that I think about it, it seemed these demons were in fact worshipping the blade.

My Griffon familiar flew past me commenting "Whoa, this is some kind of ritual shindig isn't it? You buys got the dance fever for Sparda don't you?" The demons all turned to us, revealed gold-plated masks covering their grotesque fleshy faces they began making light screeching sounds.

Griffon ducked back and said "Whoa, easy on the dance floor there partner." I didn't care much for the exchange and instead pointed my cane towards Sparda, saying "I'll be taking that back." I turned to the demons and added "You know your endless worshipping isn't making Sparda any happier." My grin remained as the demons lunged forward, beginning their assault.

I instantly manifested my Shadow familiar to fight alongside Griffon. While the former lunged forward with a snarl and instantly swiped at one of the demons, the latter flew back and fired out a stream of lightning that hit another, electrocuting it instantly.

Even I got involved in the battle which I seldom did. However against weak foes such as this, it didn't hurt to exercise myself a bit. I moved forward and wedged the tip of my cane directly into the forehead of the mask, impaling the demon through the head. 

I withdrew the cane as the demon collapsed to the ground, disintegrating quickly as my two main familiars continued to fight their way through the demon horde, Griffon rained down lightning on them while Shadow carved his way through them and between the three of us, it didn't take long to fight our way through them.

As I raced forward, impaling my cane into another demon's neck before performing a quick slash that decapitated it. I came to a quick stop as the final demon's remains disappeared. I caught my breath for a moment before turning to look at Sparda once again.

I sighed, there was no obvious way of getting to it however looking around I came up with an idea. Nearby was one of the many large chutes of the Qliphoth. I approached it and upon finding the core I stabbed my cane right into it just as I had done with the demons.

With the core destroyed, the chute began to solidify and turn a bone-white before crumbling away. The pieces of it collided with the wall Sparda was impaled in and caused it to fall to the ground.

I grinned once again and slowly approached the blade. Kneeling down, I placed my cane aside and reached out, grasping the weapon in both hands. Getting to my feet, I grunted as I attempted to lift the weapon. 

Unfortunately, it was pointless, I only got it a few inches off the ground before it just clunked back down. I muttered to myself "It seems this sword is still too strong for me..." Griffon flew by and said "So close though, so close. You got a lot of heart kid, you really do, but you're a bit of a sissy in the strength department."

Ignoring the comment, my mind was focused on something else as I stated "That kid Nero, he has the strength." My attention was suddenly brought away as Shadow ran over to a cliff-ledge and began growling while Griffon muttered "It speaks..."

I dragged Sparda over to where he was stood and that's when I saw him. Far below us, partially shrouded in a light fog, I saw DANTE, collapsed and unconscious against a demonic growth on the ground, his silver hair stained red.

I wasted no time getting down there and laid Dante down on the ground. I could feel his pulse so clearly he wasn't dead. Griffon exclaimed in shock "I don't even have the words, he's alive, he's ALIVE!"

I glanced towards Sparda and deduced "The devil sword Sparda was concealing Dante's presence. Would explain why Y/N couldn't find him." Griffon asked "How does one friggin' guy have so much luck huh?!"

In a snap, a rage filled me. I forgot about my reasoning for wanting to find Dante, I forgot about Y/N and how Dante would be the only way around him. My mind entered a single track, one that only made me angrier the further I went down it.

I stepped forward, dragging Sparda with me, muttering "If only you could defeat Urizen..." Griffon warned "Uh, V? No no no, get a grip of yourself now. C'mon!" I didn't listen, I was fully driven as I continued to drag the devil sword towards Dante's body.

"If only... No. If only you never EXISTED... Then I-!" I brought Sparda down right towards Dante before suddenly his eyes snapped open...

Y/N POV

I flew aimlessly, with no clues to my search when suddenly I felt a strange energy filling the air. At first I was confused however it didn't take me long to realise where this was coming from. My eyes widened in shock at the realization.

The devil sword Sparda had spoken. That alone was something BIG, I could feel where it resonated from. However the implications behind this were what really got me. The last time I'd seen Sparda, it was being used by Dante right before he was sent flying, it was quite possible wherever that sword was, Dante would be as well and perhaps the sword had somehow kept his location hidden the past month.

With a psychotic laugh, I took off into the air heading where Sparda's call seemingly resonated from. I muttered to myself "It's time for the main event to finally begin..."

Author's Note: And that's it for this chapter, now I should tell you, we still have quite a few chapters before the Y/N vs Dante battle since I want Dante to have Sin Devil Trigger at that point since their battle along with something else will lead to Y/N unlocking his own Sin Devil Trigger. I'm sorry for the late upload, I started this yesterday but was too tired to finish it. I really do hope you liked it though and as always, thank you for reading.