Mission:012 Gate of Hell

Mission:01-2 Gate of Hell

"Screeeee!"

Faust, having lost nearly half its body, shrank back into its cloak and let out a piercing wail. The grating sound was exactly like claws scraping across glass, making Nero's brows twist into a knot.

"Shut up!"

Nero gripped Echidna, unfolded five Azure Flying Swords behind her, and charged at Faust again.

Its main body was too frail, which instead meant Echidna had no way to drag it out of the cloak and kill it in one blow. It had to be said, there was a certain black humor to it.

The Demonic Power Flying Swords shot out in an instant, stabbing into Faust's Magic Cloak and tearing it to shreds. Nero flung out the Serpent Sword once more, caught Faust as it lost its ability to hover, and only after wrapping it tightly round after round did she abruptly pull it taut.

And so the demon turned into countless sticky chunks of flesh in midair, scattering all over the ground. Nero withdrew Echidna and turned to look behind her. Sure enough, the remaining two Mephistos had already run far away.

Unfortunately, with their speed, the distance they had opened was nothing more than a drop in the bucket. Nero continued the chase.

The two Mephistos wove through the valley, now fast, now slow, then suddenly accelerated and vanished from Nero's sight. But while they could fool ordinary people, they could not fool Nero. Nero saw very clearly that the two had suddenly veered right just now, hiding behind the rock wall and only then creating the illusion that they had disappeared.

Were they planning an ambush? Or was there some hidden passage there?

Nero slowed her steps slightly and, between rises and falls, arrived at the place where the demons had vanished. She turned her head and looked. As expected, there was a pitch-black opening in the mountain wall.

No wind, no sound, no light. A cave so deep it seemed bottomless, like the Gate of Naraka.

But if weak demons like Mephisto dared go in, Nero naturally had no reason to be afraid. Even if what lay beyond the entrance really was the demon world, to her it would only make coming back a little troublesome.

She jumped into the cave, condensed a glowing Azure Rose in her hand, and landed on the damp ground.

By the faint light in her hand, Nero could vaguely make out the interior of the cave. It was a very typical karst cavern. Within the broad space, stalagmites and stalactites grew toward each other, their moist, smooth surfaces reflecting the light so that everything around Nero was filled with an azure glow.

Nero did not see the Mephistos that had entered, but they had the ability to travel through the inside of objects, so it would not be strange if they were hiding somewhere behind a thinner rock wall. Nero merely kept her curiosity toward this unknown area and continued walking downward.

Gradually, Nero felt something was strange. It was not only the Mephistos; she did not see any other demons here either. Demons did not need to eat or rest. As long as they had enough demonic power, they could survive indefinitely. This remote cave should have become their harbor. Yet Nero saw no living demons at all, which meant two possibilities.

First, deep within the cave, there existed an especially powerful demon with an extremely strong sense of territory. It had driven away the other demons that entered this place.

Second, deep within the cave—there existed a place connected to the demon world, allowing demons to come and go directly.

Both were good news for Nero. Unless the Old Man Vergil and the Demon Emperor Mundus suddenly won their resurrection match, there should not be any demon in the world capable of threatening Nero single-handedly. Conversely, from Nero's perspective, this discovery would probably remove a huge hidden danger for Fortuna.

Just then, two ghostly shadows suddenly emerged from behind the wall ahead and plunged headfirst into the deeper darkness. Nero knew they had to be the demons she was hunting.

And those two seemed... to be trying to lure Nero into the depths of the cave.

"Interesting."

The corner of Nero's lips curved up, and she chased after them.

As Nero went deeper and deeper into the cave, the Demonic Aura from the depths underground also grew increasingly dense. The two Mephistos ahead, relying on their ability to pass through walls, held every advantage in this chase, and it was as if they were deliberately waiting for Nero so that she would not lose them.

And in the end, what awaited Nero at the end of the cavern was, sure enough, a pitch-black stone monument.

The Gate of the Demon World, exactly like the one towering in Fortuna's urban district. This tall stone monument pierced through the ceiling of the cavern and merged with the growing stalagmites, looking simply like the Wall of Lamentation from myth.

The Mephistos arrived before the Gate of the Demon World and circled twice in the air, as if mocking Nero, who had chased them all this way. Then they plunged headfirst into the stone monument and disappeared into a tiny Space Rift.

Seeing this scene, Nero showed a complicated expression. With her arms folded, she pinched a lock of hair by her cheek and rubbed it, somewhat speechless.

No, my grandfather whom I've never met, why did you leave two Gates of the Demon World on one small island?

If you wanted a passage to go back to your old home, leaving one would have been enough. What exactly was the point of these two doors?

And from the looks of it, the seal on this underground gate was not as effective as the one aboveground. Now fish were already starting to slip through the net.

Nero sighed and, recalling the scene in her memories of Dante using Yamato to sever the true Gate of the Demon World, slowly reached toward her chest.

Originally, because Dante had not obtained Yamato, he found it troublesome, and at the same time was afraid of frightening the city's residents, so he had not destroyed that sealed Gate of the Demon World. But now, it seemed it could not be left alone.

Once she went back, she would take out that gate too.

In an instant, Yamato left its sheath, and Nero's long hair turned silver white.

"Through me, walk into the City of Woe—"

A flash of blade-light swept past.

"Through me, walk into the Abyss of Sin!"

Another flash of blade-light swept past, crossing with the previous one into a cross.

"You who walk in, leave all hope behind you!"

Nero used this as the conclusion to the Anthem. Her clear, unaccompanied song echoed layer upon layer through the cavern, weaving into a massive resonance. Amid this grand hymn like a choir's chant, three more flashes of blade-light swept past.

The Gate of the Demon World slowly collapsed. Nero let out a breath, put away Yamato, and prepared to leave.

But Yamato was not withdrawn.

"Huh?" Nero looked at Yamato in her hand in surprise as it gave off a shrill blade-cry, then immediately followed her intuition and looked back.

On the ruins of the Gate of the Demon World, a rift slowly opened. Its edges trembled with distorted space, and within lay a deep, dark void.

"No, wai—"

Before Nero could finish speaking, the Space Rift instantly swelled, swallowed her in, then vanished without a trace.

Layer upon layer of echoes slowly dispersed, and the only light also disappeared from the cavern. This uninhabited land returned to the silence it had known for thousands upon thousands of years.

No one knew what had happened here.

We're entering a new volume! Just as the volume title suggests, Nero is about to head to the Type-Moon World. Tomorrow, the first Heroic Spirit will make an appearance, and the class is Ruler. As for the specific True Name, I won't spoil it here.