The pendant and the necklace

But the timing didn't seem to add up.

He had awakened seven years ago. Although he hadn't come face to face with that guy, [Demon], as the other half that had been separated from him, they should have arrived in this world at the same time.

The history of Cain and Qliphoth could be traced back three hundred years, so even if there was a connection, it should have been in the upheaval seven years ago.

Could it really have been a simple coincidence? Yuri pondered, but ultimately let the matter drop.

There was nothing he could do. There were simply too few clues, and even with his boundless imagination, he couldn't deduce the truth.

Although he hadn't found any useful clues, the Demon Heart, which had fused the powers of Qliphoth and Cain, was a good thing for him.

Yuri took the "core" from his pocket. His right hand flickered with a faint light and transformed into the ferocious Devil Bringer.

The Devil Bringer grasped the Demon Heart and absorbed it in an instant... Yuri felt the demonic power within him surge, and its dazzling, brilliant blue seemed to deepen a few shades.

If he fought Cain again now, he should be able to end the battle quickly, without even needing the Yamato.

This thing was just as he had thought: it was practically a Fruit of Power weakened countless times over. It contained exceptionally pure demonic power, precisely what Yuri, who currently lacked strength, needed most.

"Not bad luck." Yuri's gloomy mood immediately lifted considerably.

But that pendant... was rather unusual.

If he wasn't mistaken, Cain's awakening hadn't been caused by Qliphoth's aura, but by the pendant Sonia had carried.

According to Sonia, the pendant was a keepsake from her mother, who had been clutching it tightly in her hand.

Sonia knew the pendant could help her become a demon because her mother had told her so in a dream.

It wasn't that she had never doubted whether it was true. After all, what normal person would readily believe a dream?

But at the time, she had been grieving the loss of her mother, and there had also seemed to be a faint, indistinct voice in the pendant, constantly calling out to her and coaxing her.

Before she knew it, her resolve to avenge her mother had grown stronger and stronger.

Yuri held the pendant in his hand, but no matter how he looked at it, it seemed to be nothing more than an ordinary pendant, not at all as strange as Sonia had described.

Yuri thought for a while, and his eyes suddenly lit up.

He recalled sensing fluctuations of residual demonic power in it before. Although that power had now vanished, it didn't mean he couldn't infuse it with new demonic power.

Acting on the thought, Yuri began slowly infusing it with demonic power. Sure enough, the pendant began drawing on the demonic power within him.

Seen that way, perhaps demonic power had always been what the pendant lacked.

But the demonic power within Sonia had been far too thin, so the pendant could only use her obsession to lure her into killing Qliphoth, because only then could it obtain a vast amount of demonic power.

Now that Yuri was willingly infusing it with demonic power, the pendant soon changed, just as expected.

After absorbing Yuri's demonic power, the once-unremarkable pendant glowed blue all over, outlining ancient patterns.

A dazzling ruby even appeared in the spot where the photograph had been kept. It looked exactly like the necklace hanging around Yuri's neck...

"?"

"???"

"?????"

Yuri was utterly baffled, unable to make sense of it.

"That thing doesn't look like a replica, buddy," Griffon said, having poked his head out of Yuri's chest at some point.

"Yeah, I can see that. It's the real deal." Yuri frowned and raised a hand to push him back in.

They had just been worried about the other side coming to seize the key they possessed, but who would have thought the key would fall into their hands in the blink of an eye?

That was right. After Yuri infused it with his demonic power, the pendant Sonia had given him became identical to the necklace he wore around his neck.

In other words, he now possessed the complete key.

But why? Why would [Demon] leave something so important in Caro Town so casually?

"No! Maybe he didn't discard it casually." As Yuri spoke, he seemed to grasp the key to the matter.

"That's right. He must have lost it by accident." Griffon nodded solemnly.

Yuri rolled his eyes at Griffon, ignored his lame joke, and continued, "If I'm not mistaken, what happened in Caro Town was an experiment by that guy!"

"Both Cain and Qliphoth were test subjects he carefully selected. His goal was to replicate the Demon World Tree's cultivation of the Fruit of Power."

"That's the only way to explain why [Demon] left such an important key there."

"Because he needed to use this key to break Qliphoth's seal and awaken Cain at the same time, then quietly set off this battle to the death after three hundred years, without either side noticing, and finally reap the benefits himself."

In the story of "Devil May Cry," the two necklaces were merely birthday gifts from a mother to her two sons, but they were filled with a mother's love for her children. That was also why it had been able to awaken Sonia later.

The necklaces could also undo the seal on the Force Edge, enough to show that they were no ordinary objects. Naturally, breaking Qliphoth's seal and awakening a remnant soul would be no trouble for them.

As for why the key hadn't been retrieved in the end, Yuri had no way of knowing... perhaps, as Griffon had said, it had truly been forgotten by accident?

Still, that guy had been cautious enough to put a safeguard on it.

Unless someone had Sparda's demon bloodline, no matter who they were, they couldn't unlock the pendant's true form.

They would even be bewitched by the magic placed on it, just like Sonia, and ultimately become a puppet controlled by the key.

But now, all of it had fallen into his hands.

But... it seemed they had returned to the previous question: where should Yuri, carrying such a precious treasure, go from here?

"All right, buddy, don't overthink it."

Just as Yuri was about to lose his way again, Griffon jumped out and comforted him. "Your priority right now isn't letting your thoughts run wild all day. It's getting stronger as quickly as possible."

"Then, no matter what that guy wants to do, we'll be able to handle it calmly."

"Remember? We're the strongest! That was the promise we made when we formed our contract."

"You're not going to give up halfway, are you? Otherwise, I'll have to give some serious thought to finding a new partner..."

The incessant chatter echoing in his ears made Yuri forget his troubles for a moment.

He suddenly chuckled, stood up, and leaped down from the roof. He gazed at the clouds gathering and dispersing on the horizon, then turned back toward the guild.

In a voice only he could hear, he whispered, "Griffon, I'm glad you've always been by my side."

"What did you say!" Griffon shouted as he followed beside him. "I didn't catch that. Say it again!"

"I said you're a dumbass!!!" Yuri shouted just as loudly.

"Hey! That's not what you said..."