DMC5 AU (For @whollyconsumed)

[superstylishsquid]

[It's not often that Alastor lingers outside of Movieland after paying a visit to his friends on this side of the silver screen, but this time...this time something's wrong. A deeply unnerving type of wrong that's far too familiar. The demon bugs, Empousae, only enter this world to feed a Qlipoth sprout. Checking the news confirms his fears, and gives him a location at that.

Joe, Silvia, and Jet are doing their best to protect people from the wandering demons, but Alastor knows enough to head for the source. He doesn't bring them with him, not for this. Anything else, maybe...but he knows what he's going to see when he gets there, and it's not a sight he wants to inflict on them. Not one he's sure they could handle, spared the horrors of truly gruesome deaths as they have been.

What he sees is what he'd expected. It's a scene from a nightmare. Last time, he'd held back and tried to stay out of things. That had resulted in Mundus, to say nothing of countless innocent lives lost that he might have saved. This time will be different. This time, he'll tear this infernal plant up by the roots if he has a chance, even if it risks all of Hell knowing he's escaped his prison.

The first step to that is loosening those roots. Flying above the carnage of the city, it's easy to spot their weak spots. He's surprised to also see something human shaped moving down there, but the root is the first priority. Calling a replica sword to his hand, he takes a plunging dive down, blade point first, to tear open the straining membrane of the root. It's messy, the boil-like protrusion bursting open in a shower of blood, but it's efficient...and he rather thinks the image it results in, of him kneeling with his sword buried in Qlipoth flesh and surrounded in blood splatters is a striking one. Even if he is going to have to wipe the bloodstains off his armor and clothes.]

Comments

[wholelyconsumed]

...it's a very, very heavy sword.

[superstylishsquid]

...Oh.

[Sometimes he forgets how hard carrying things is for humans. It's not as much of an issue in Movieland.]

Well, that won't be a problem for me, at least.

[wholelyconsumed]

[ Soon enough, they come to a clearing where there's a bunch of devils dancing around. They seem to be performing some of ritual, aimed at worshipping the sword that's in the wall high above them. ]

Also, them.

[superstylishsquid]

Eugh, those things. Stand back, their bodies are poisonous enough that even most devils want nothing to do with their corpses.

[wholelyconsumed]

...what do devils usually do with other devil corpses?

[ V takes a step back as ordered. ]

[superstylishsquid]

Eat them, what else? What, you think it's only human blood that's valuable to us?

[He holds out his hand to conjure up a sword, but instead of charging in, he hurls it...aimed straight for one of the Nobodies' masks. Normally, he'd announce himself before attacking...but there's no point favoring honor over practicality when your enemy is too dumb to even understand a challenge to battle.]

[wholelyconsumed]

I've ate them. They're disgusting.

Should I call Griffon back to help, or is he too much to tolerate?

[superstylishsquid]

Yeah well, unless your mouth waters when you smell blood, I kinda suspect your palate is different from a demon's.

And...wait, your bird's name is Griffon? Huh...well, he's fine. Might find himself bored, though.

[He grins and calls another sword into his hand. The Nobodies are moving in their direction, and he launches himself forward to meet them with a crackling of electricity and swish of metal cutting through air.]

[wholelyconsumed]

...

[ V crouches down on the ground, settling in to watch. It is quite a show. ]

[superstylishsquid]

[His confidence is not misplaced. His movements have a grace to them that's absent from those of lesser demons, along with a clearly deliberate dramatic flair. He doesn't rely on raw force the way Dante does, but rather on speed and keeping his enemies off balance. The Nobodies' own speed means he doesn't come through completely unscathed, but he recovers quickly from impacts, and it's not long before the monstrosities are reduced to puddles of acrid sludge.]

And there goes my appetite for the next week...

[wholelyconsumed]

You fight well.

[ But V really feels like he's stating the obvious, here. ]

[superstylishsquid]

Just wait 'til you see me up against a worthy opponent.

[He's...not even going to bother trying to clean the sword he used. Just making it vanish into raw magical energy.]

[wholelyconsumed]

Urizen, then.

Can you get the sword now?

[superstylishsquid]

...Yeah.

[And this is what he sounds nervous about. He knows the Sparda is likely to be picky about who it allows to wield it. What will it think of him? Only one way to find out...

He spreads his wings and floats up to hover in front of the sword. There's a moment's hesitation as he reaches out, then takes a deep breath and grabs the hilt to pull it free of the concrete it's embedded in. The blade thus freed, he holds it level in front of him to look it over.]

I know...this tree is something neither of us ever wanted to see again, huh?

[wholelyconsumed]

...does it talk back?

[ V's heard of stranger things, really. Much stranger. ]

[superstylishsquid]

Not quite. He doesn't seem conscious enough for actual words, but I am getting emotions from it. A lot of them, honestly, but I think the general sense is that he's worried.

[wholelyconsumed]

Is he worried enough to help us?

[superstylishsquid]

He's definitely on board with dealing with the tree problem, yeah. Something about confronting Urizen, though...I'm not sure. Something about the whole situation...I think the best way to describe it would be that it would leave a bad taste in his mouth, if he had one right now.

[wholelyconsumed]

....ah.

[ V is not going to explain. Not until he's studied this demon a little more. ]

Come back down here?

[superstylishsquid]

[He lands, surprisingly softly for his height and the fact that he's holding such a heavy object. What's surprising to him, however, is how comfortable the blade feels in his hand. Does this mean Sparda actually approves of him?]

Not like either of us have a chance if we want to avoid the fruit being used against the human world again, though. I somehow doubt our local gardener will just let us cut down his prized tree.

[wholelyconsumed]

If we can find it before he can...

[ Maybe someone else should eat it first? That wasn't something that V would have considered before, but everything has changed. ]

[superstylishsquid]

Our best bet is to hope we can find it before it ripens. I doubt it'll take him long to get to it once that happens.

[wholelyconsumed]

And where does the fruit typically grow with these things?

[superstylishsquid]

Underground. The Qlipoth is...basically upside down, from this world. What you see up there...

[He gestures at the massive root system reaching above the city.]

Is the taproot, while the branches are beneath the city and actually relatively small.

[wholelyconsumed]

I knew that, at least. I just don't know how to zero in on the fruit.

I suppose now we're going underground.