Mission:011 Lingering Echoes

Mission:01-1 Afterecho

Two months had passed since "That Incident," and the scars left on the island by the Order's experiments had almost completely vanished. The demons that had wandered through the Order's interior, the Snow Mountain, and the forest after entering this world through the Gate of the Demon World were gradually swept clean, and the frequency of demon attacks had also fallen back to the level it had been at before the Gate of the Demon World opened.

Former Pope Sanctus's evil experiments were made public, but thanks to Credo and Kyrie's efforts, the Order's reputation was almost entirely undamaged.

The price, however, was that Credo himself had been forced to shoulder the reputation of "slaying the former Pope who had fallen and become a demon," and his approval remained high. At this rate, it probably would not be long before he succeeded the position and became the new Pope.

The Festival of the Blade had been held successfully a month ago, though Nero had not gone onstage in the end, for many reasons. But she had not been idle during these two months either. Nero chose to go deep into places permeated by Demonic Power, handling tasks that ordinary Order Knights either could not manage or were not suited to know about. Credo was getting busier and busier now, so this at least lightened his burden somewhat.

In any case, it would only last until all these filthy things were cleaned up.

The branch signboard for the "Devil May Cry" agency that Dante had sent had arrived a month ago. And just as he had guessed, Nero did indeed have thoughts of leaving this small island and developing herself in the outside world. This signboard, which had no value whatsoever in Fortuna, was exactly what she needed.

Kyrie was very reluctant to part with her over her decision, but after a silence, Credo expressed his understanding.

To meet the needs of battle, Nero went against Fortuna's dress requirements for women. Not only did she wear fitted trousers, she also deliberately chose clothes with a deep neckline—though this was an unavoidable choice for the sake of conveniently retrieving her Demonic Tools, it remained a fact that she drew cold looks from others because of it.

Because of this, and because of the demonized skin on Nero's chest, the Nero who had once been, alongside Kyrie, a model believer in the eyes of the people of Fortuna disappeared. People speculated one after another that Nero had been possessed by a demon, and the once-welcomed "Little Saintess" was shunned from then on.

But in truth, that Nero had never existed either. Dante's eye could be said to be quite sharp; Nero had never truly accepted the Order's faith. All this time, she had merely been playing the part of a qualified believer.

Now, she simply no longer needed to keep doing so.

Returning to Credo, he had actually always had quite a few criticisms about Nero dressing this way, but he could not persuade Nero to give up fighting, or to stop hunting demons. When Nero said that since she had inherited the Bloodline of Sparda, she ought to do her part for the people of the world, he truly could not find an argument to refute her.

Who told Nero to memorize the Order's Scripture even better than he had, just to play the qualified believer in her own mind?

But just as the cloak of a devout believer was Nero's disguise, this excuse to Credo was also Nero's disguise. She truly did not mind going beyond the island to help those Unlucky Eggs troubled by demons, but not to the point that she would take the initiative to leave for that reason.

She was doing this to respond to the crisis that would arrive in the future.

To prevent the Old Man, who would win the revival match years later, from really coming to snatch Yamato, Nero did not dare spend her days idly. She needed to become stronger.

She also did not know how strong she needed to be, but in any case, getting a little stronger was never wrong. She had to defeat demons and collect all kinds of Demonic Tools, work hard to improve her Devil Trigger, gradually reduce her reliance on Yamato... There were many, many things she had to do.

However, those things had not yet reached the point where Nero needed to start on them. Right now, she was pursuing a few demons that had slipped through the net in a deep valley of Mitis Forest.

"Mephisto" and "Faust." Nero had already seen quite a few Mephistos, while the latter was quite similar to the former. They likewise had weak main bodies resembling insects, wrapped within highly poisonous black mist of demonic power, and could silently pass through walls to appear behind their prey, launching surprise attacks with claw tips that could extend.

By comparison, Faust was not only larger, its head was closer to a human shape, and it even wore a soft hat formed from demonic power on its head, making it look mysterious and dangerous.

These near-ghostly demons, wrapped in Magic Cloaks, could not be harmed by attacks without demonic power added. For Order Knights who, under the demands of doctrine, could not be equipped with guns and could not use Demon-Breaking Bullets, they were complete natural enemies; once encountered, precious Holy Water had to be used. If there were only Mephistos, Order Knights who had undergone the Ascension Ritual could still fight them, but adding Faust made things entirely different.

This demon was best left to Nero and Credo.

The troublesome part, however, was that these demons, which had originally occupied the area near the abandoned church, seemed to have sensed Nero's strength and voluntarily fled toward the bottom of the valley behind the church. In order to hunt them down, Nero could only step into this sunless deep valley.

This valley seemed originally to have been a river valley, continuously cut deeper underground by the erosion of the river. But later the riverbed changed course, the water dried up, and it became what it was now. Nero leapt back and forth among the jagged rocks on the riverbed. Whenever she neared a demon, she used a short sword condensed from demonic power to cut open the pitch-black cloak, drag out the insect-like main body, and then stomp it flat, sending juices splattering.

Fortunately, once a demon died completely, these traces would quickly disappear. Under Nero's pursuit, the six Mephistos were soon reduced to only two, so this time Nero set her sights on the leading Faust.

She stepped on a protruding rock and leapt up, aiming at the demon that was almost melting into the shadows, then threw three Demonic Power Daggers.

The Azure Blue short swords vanished into the dense black demonic power. Faust twisted its body and stopped fleeing, turned around, and with its sharp claws flickering with dangerous red light crossed before it, suddenly pounced toward Nero.

It knew it could no longer run and had finally made up its mind to fight to the death.

"You should've done that from the start!"

Nero laughed flamboyantly, condensing a long, slender rapier of demonic power in each hand as she met it head-on.

What was there to run from? It would be killed by her in the end anyway. It might as well make it quick and save her the trouble.

Faust's sharp claws swiftly extended, sweeping left and right in crisscrossing arcs, carving ten crimson streaks of light into the dark valley floor. Nero jumped in midair over Faust's head, and the two rapiers slashed toward Faust's back.

But Faust strangely shifted forward a distance, dodging Nero's strike. So the moment Nero landed on the rock, she spun her body at once and, borrowing the momentum, threw both rapiers out, accurately stabbing them into Faust's body.

Then came a snap of her fingers. The Azure Blue rapiers shattered, tearing two large holes in the pitch-black cloak.

Nero did not let this fleeting opportunity pass. The Serpent Sword unfolded in midair, wrapped around the main body exposed from the Black Mist, and yanked hard.

The soft worm that looked like a Lamb Spine was so vulnerable after losing the protection of its cloak. In an instant, its lower half was cut off by Echidna and fell to the ground.