(Before we begin, I forgot to include an image and description of Y/N's new outfit for this segment. Basically he wears another purple trench coat however this one is slightly different from the last one, I've included an image of what this outfit looks like below. I hope you like it)

Image of Y/N's new attire:

Y/N POV

Just as Trish had told us, both me and Dante travelled to this Mallet Island. Upon our arrival we were instantly met with a large door which Dante swiftly cut through with ease. This revealed a long pathway which curved around the mountain we were on.

Trish stepped forward, looking up as she explained "The castle is above this cliff. Come on, let's go." In an instant, she managed to propel herself up the nearby cliff-face, leaving both me and Dante staring up at her.

I turned to Dante and said "I guess we should go the long way then?" Dante shrugged and replied "Sure seems that way." With that, both of us began making our way around the side of the cliff-face.

Eventually, we arrived at what seemed to be a secret back entrance into the castle. Both me and Dante walked right on through it. Once both of us were inside, the doorway sealed shut, preventing us from leaving.

Looking around, we both found ourselves in some kind of large room. A staircase was leading upwards and turned both left and right. However the left route had broken away leaving a gaping hole and preventing us going up that way.

There was a large door on the other side of the room which was the most obvious route forward. However, unfortunately, it was protected by a magical red wall almost identical to those that I discovered in the Temen-Ni-Gru however unlike before there were no enemies around.

Dante stepped forward and analysed the door before turning back to me and saying, look around and see if we can find some red orbs like this one." He held up an object that I had also seen a lot of in the Temen-Ni-Gru however I had never payed them any mind.

Image of a Red Orb:

I nodded before spreading out and searching the large room for these red orbs. Dante did the same, we split up and while he covered the downstairs level, I went up the stairs and began searching. 

In the end we ended up with a total of 45 of these red orbs between the two of us. We went over to the magical barrier. As we offered the orbs, a red hand extended outwards from the door as the barrier shattered.

With the door now accessible, we walked on through it, arriving on another large room with a big gate that we couldn't open once again. Though luckily there was another door just off to the left.

This lead us into another smaller room with a spiral staircase that we ascended. On this floor we found a hole in the ceiling that I leapt through first with Dante close behind. I looked around at the strange architecture of the castle.

My eyes landed on what seemed like some sort of puppet, propped up against the wall, in its hand was a key which I instantly muttered "Score." Before Dante picked it up out of the puppet's open hand. 

As I turned to leave though, Dante narrowly dodged a knife being thrown at him by an initially unknown assailant. Though turning around we saw the puppet now fully reanimated, standing there in a throwing stance.

Image of the Marionettes:

Another one dropped behind us as me and Dante stood back to back, staring down the two seemingly sentient puppets before us. One of the puppets held two knives while the other had two crescent shaped blades.

I focused on the one with the two knives and rushed forward, holding Eclipse in my hand as Dante rushed towards the second one as well, using Force Edge. And with that, our battle began.

I instantly dodged an attack from the puppet before stabbing at it. I easily pierced through its body and quickly followed up with a slashing attack that cut down the puppet, I finished by decapitating the puppet.

Dante also made short work of the one he faced and with the key in hand, we backtracked through the castle, making our way back to that large room which we entered into initially. This time though we went over to a blue door off to the side.

Going through here we found ourselves in what seemed to be a garage? I think that's what it was meant to be. Or just a storage space as we found what seemed to be a plane parked up as well as more marionettes that we dealt with just as quickly as the last batch.

It was here where I finally turned to Dante and suggested "I say we go separate routes, see what we can find of use. If anything happens, we can meet up in that large room back there. Sound good?"

Dante nodded and shrugged before saying "Sure, why not." I then went off to a door to the side as Dante went over to an elevator. It was time for my hunt to begin. Little did I know, this was only the start of things to come...

Author's Note: That's it for this chapter and again, I apologize if it was underwhelming. This book is much harder to write than I had first thought, though I still like it and due to the popularity of previous chapters, I want to keep going. I am sorry if you found this chapter bad, though I still do hope you liked it and as always, thank you for reading.