Mission:023 Approaching

Mission: Closing In

After clearing out all the demons, Nero reloaded Twin Guns in the church, which had fallen quiet again. During that time, she faintly heard a roar from far away. Could that be the demon that ruled this forest?

She had no idea what had suddenly driven it mad. But Nero knew one thing: she absolutely did not want to run into it.

Before she could take out Yamato and use it, the bullets in Light and Shadow without any magic poured into them... honestly, to a huge thing like that, they would be no different from scratching an itch.

After sorting out her weapons, Nero found the Stairs and climbed up to the second floor of the church. Following her memory, she pushed open a door set into the mountain wall, and sure enough, she saw the hidden passage that cut across the valley.

Then, just as she remembered, two demons floating in midair appeared in the depths of the valley.

"Mephisto." In her previous life, Nero had called this kind of demon a "Little Grim Reaper." They wore pitch-black Magic Cloaks and could ignore gravity and pass through walls.

When the earth had already been occupied by those demons that belonged to the forest, the sky became the only refuge left for other demons. That said, Nero did not really think those demonic flowers, which could hardly survive without hosts, would be able to catch ghostlike Mephistos.

Nero ran along the plank road between the cliffs, with the two demons hot on her heels. They were not very fast, and Nero, fleeing at full speed, pulled farther and farther away from them.

One thing had to be made clear: this did not mean Nero could not beat these two demons. Even without infusing magic, enough silver-laced Exorcism Bullets would definitely tear open their pitch-black Magic Cloaks and expose the Mephistos' Main Bodies. And a Mephisto without its Magic Cloak could be said to be extremely weak. It could neither fly nor pass through walls, and any human with a weapon could take it apart.

The only reason Nero chose to run instead of fight here was that it was not worth it.

Spending a large number of bullets to kill these two demons here would be a terrible waste for Nero.

The "clang, clang, clang" of her footsteps bounced back and forth off the mountain walls, turning into layers of echoes that fell into Nero's ears. After running for quite a while, Nero glanced back and found that she could no longer see the demons. Only then did she slowly stop, changing from a run to a walk.

"Sigh..."

She sighed, pressing a hand to her chest as it rose and fell with her breathing, gently stroking the scar that had become the core of her Demonic Power.

Then she sighed again and said with a self-mocking smile, "It's times like this that I realize how good the Devil Bringer was."

Of course, she meant the Demonic Right Arm held by the original Nero in the game. That right hand possessed immense strength, could perform all kinds of throws on demons, and when used, it would naturally draw out magic.

It was something the current Nero could not have.

If she had such a right hand, Nero would have had no need to run just now. A right fist carrying Demonic Power would be the best weapon as long as it swung, and it could easily tear apart a Mephisto's Magic Cloak. However, because the location of Nero's injury was different, the part of her that had demonized had changed from her right arm to her chest.

"What can a chest even do? Fire a Light Cannon?"

Nero gloomily knocked on that part of herself and struck a few poses. Then, just as expected, no laser came out.

Without such a powerful weapon, there was no helping the fact that Nero's Combat Power was so low.

"Sigh."

And if she thought about it carefully, if a "mysterious person" who would seize Yamato also appeared in this world's future, then Nero would go from losing a hand to losing a heart. Whether she could be saved by then might be a serious problem.

The more she thought about it, the more irritated she became. Nero frantically ruffled the hair on top of her head, and then, while smoothing it back down, suddenly remembered that this feeling had been with her ever since she learned the Festival of the Blade was about to begin.

Anxiety born from knowing that something bad was going to happen in the future.

She gave a bitter laugh and thought of what Kyrie had said to her before.

Only at that time, Nero had not yet known that this so-called "bad thing that was about to come" was actually not the same as what she imagined.

Or perhaps, at that time, Nero had already vaguely sensed that the plot was about to begin. She simply could not remember it.

"Sigh!"

She had already lost count of how many times she had sighed. It seemed that ever since Nero recalled the memories of her previous life, she had not stopped.

That also meant the situation really was that bad. If she could not rescue Kyrie from the Pope's hands, then Credo would probably die in this incident no matter what, even with Dante as a safety net.

As family who had lived together for ten years, Nero could not abandon him. The thought could not even arise.

So Nero's own weakness only worsened that anxiety. Even though the current Nero had already far surpassed ordinary people, with only these two pistols and her physical abilities, trying to intervene in a battle between true demons could only be called impossible.

"Why haven't you reacted yet? Yamato," Nero asked in a low voice.

Was it because she had awakened too late? Or was there something missing from Nero?

As she thought and thought, a bright crack appeared not far ahead. Nero was about to step out of the valley. She shook her head, steadied her mood, checked her weapons again, rubbed her face, and told herself:

"It's time to get serious."

There were demons in the area ahead too. This abandoned West Forest seemed to have already become their playground, and Nero had not seen a single living animal along the way.

They had probably all been eaten by demons.

Nero stepped onto solid ground again. This was a winding, narrow path through a grove of palm trees, leading to a stone bridge covered in Vines.

Those evil Demon Seeds had once again spread everywhere. Nero looked around and found no other demons. It seemed they were the source of the Demonic Power. Perhaps some of them had already finished hatching and were about to be born.

To be safe, Nero once again drew her pistols in advance and slowly walked forward. One step, another step, and another...

The forest was dead silent. There were no animals, no chirping insects. There was only the lonely sea breeze and the fallen leaves Nero crushed underfoot.

Until a shriek shattered it all.

Amid that shriek from far away, seeds all over the forest burst open one after another, and Plant Demons waving their tentacles leapt out. Nero had no time to count them and immediately broke into a run.

With a rough glance, she saw that no fewer than ten demons had been born in that instant!

Logically speaking, these parasitic plants could barely move on their own, but two had already swiftly blocked Nero's path. She looked closely and realized that what they had parasitized were the animals that had vanished from the forest.

The ones blocking Nero were two canine creatures. Their bodies were wrapped in Vines, and their original shapes could no longer be made out. The little exposed fur they had left was badly torn, making it seem they had been parasitized for a very long time.

They had been devoured by Demon Seeds.

Nero slid under the stabbing tentacles and delivered two bullets to each of the demonic flowers.