Mission:015 Choice

Mission:01-5 Choice

Changing clothes in front of other people still made Nero feel awkward, even if she was now female, just like Gloria.

Nero reached behind her neck and pulled out her cool, long hair, then looked at Gloria. "...I'm changed."

Gloria looked at Nero, the corner of her mouth curving into a satisfied smile. "Looks good. Let me take a picture."

God knew where she had gotten a camera from this time. Gloria held it up, the lens aimed straight at Nero, and directed her to stand near the cave entrance.

Moonlight shone through the waterfall and into the cave. Nero leaned against the rock wall, her damp blond hair shimmering in the swaying light. She kept both hands clasped in front of her and forced out a smile as best she could.

The dress did not fit all that well. For Nero, it was a little too long. On the other hand, while the dress itself was a fairly loose style, the deep neckline really could not be filled out on Nero.

Below her collarbone, large patches of demonic flesh and blood were exposed. Whether Gloria had done it deliberately or not, those golden feather-like "lashes" actually matched the clothes quite well. Nero wanted to cover this part up, but she was too embarrassed to say she wanted to change into something else, so she could only make do.

The light flashed. Gloria tossed the camera up, and when she caught it again, it had vanished without a trace. She reached toward the side of her leg once more, took out something else, and threw it to Nero.

Nero hurriedly caught it, then looked closely and saw that it was actually a pair of pitch-black handguns. The barrels were engraved with the golden words "Luce & Ombra," and on the wooden grips were paired reliefs depicting a certain woman's profile.

She looked up at Gloria. "These are..."

"Lending them to you. Remember to give them back." Gloria waved a hand with flair, then tossed over several spare magazines. "See you, Little Beauty."

Gloria started the mechanism again, and the sluice gate dropped, cutting off the waterfall. She stood on the constantly extending bridge and left without looking back.

"Thank you!" Nero thanked her retreating figure softly, then lowered her voice again and murmured, "That really helps."

Considering what Nero intended to do next, she truly would not be able to get anywhere without weapons.

She crouched behind the waterfall after it fell again, set the Twin Guns and magazines she had received on the ground, thought for a moment, then fixed them to the garter on her right thigh beneath the long skirt. After that, she broke off a sharp piece of iron from a rusty railing nearby and cut the long skirt open from the right side, manually making a high slit so she could access her weapons more easily.

She had considered whether it was bad to casually damage a gift someone had given her, but in the end, her sense of mission to save her family overcame her guilt. She just did not know whether Gloria—no, Trish, who had been willing to lend her weapons—had sensed that wish in Nero's heart.

If Gloria's identity had still held some suspense before she took out the Twin Guns, there were no other possibilities after this. "Light and Shadow," this pair of Twin Guns named in Italian Language, had once been weapons belonging to Sparda the Demonic Swordsman. Apart from Nero's uncle Dante and a few of his "female friends," no one else could possibly possess such a weapon.

Nero checked everything again, and after confirming there were no loose ends, she nodded. "All right, let's go."

According to the records in Devil May Cry 4, after leaving this cave, there would be a forest connected to the Order of the Sword's testing grounds. And Nero's Sworn Brother Credo should, at this moment... be in the Order Headquarters hidden beyond the forest.

"Right, what should I do to change the ending... I'll have to think carefully about this."

Nero stopped. She realized that if she wanted to change Credo's fate of dying, she could not act on impulse. Recklessly going straight to confront them would only make the plot follow the same path as before.

"Then what I need to do now is find the key point that led to Credo's death."

Following the plot in her memory, Nero began working backward while talking to herself. "The direct cause of death was—launching an attack on the Pope alone while completely isolated. The reason that happened was because Nero... because Kyrie and I were both captured by the Pope and stuffed into the Savior."

As it happened, this was exactly what Nero had planned to avoid from the beginning.

"The key is right here... Kyrie is in the Pope's hands right now. She could be stuffed into the Savior at any time as a hostage to threaten us."

To save Credo, Nero first had to find a way to rescue Kyrie. But Nero knew her own limits. It was unlikely she could accomplish that alone, which meant she had to find a way to turn Credo to her side first.

The good news was that the Nero of this world was not a younger brother who liked stirring up trouble, but an obedient, well-behaved younger sister. With that change, perhaps Credo would trust Nero a little more than he had in the original plot.

"There's another way, too."

Nero thought of another person. Her uncle, Dante.

After all, this man was the son of Sparda the Demonic Swordsman, the strongest devil hunter in the world today. He had the ability to transform into a demon, as well as more devil-hunting weapons than could be counted.

"If I can find Dante, he should be able to help." Nero raised her head, her gaze turning toward the other end of the cave. "He should already be here, right? But how do I find him?"

The answer was: she did not know. In the early part of the plot, this man came and went like a ghost, and because the threat level of the entire incident was not high, he had always acted like a total layabout. It would probably be very difficult to find him.

"And bringing That Guy to meet Credo feels like it would be really bad instead."

Thinking of that white-haired uncle's devil-may-care attitude, and the fact that he never showed mercy to demons, Nero could not help sighing.

For now, Credo was still a member of the Order. If he met Dante, they would one hundred percent start fighting, and at that point it might become a little troublesome for Nero to explain. Credo had already obtained Demonic Power through the Ascension Ritual, and Dante would one hundred percent not hold back against him. The problem was that this Sworn Brother of hers also had that stubborn-as-a-mule temper—

"As expected, I'll still choose the first option. I hope he'll listen to me properly."

Nero slipped out of the cave.

As if sensing something, Gloria looked back at the cave, kicked aside the scattered demon remains around her, and, walking with the same catwalk stride as before, arrived in front of Agnus.

"This really is awful."

She swept a glance around. The inside of the laboratory was truly a complete mess. It was impossible to imagine that this had been caused by that timid-looking little girl.

Agnus, who had been slumped on the ground, immediately sprang up and asked, dumbfounded, "It's you! Wh-wh-wh-why are you here?"

"By His Holiness the Pope's orders, of course. As for what happened here... I'll have to ask you to explain it properly."

Gloria covered her lips and gazed with a bright smile at Agnus, who was both angry and panicked.

Then the man's next words made her eyes widen.

"Yamato is g-g-g-gone!" Agnus pointed into the distance and shouted loudly, "That little girl, sh-sh-sh-she absorbed Yamato!"

Gloria followed the direction of his finger and looked toward the dense forest Nero had entered, the corner of her mouth lifting.