It's been several weeks since the whole Qliphoth incident happened in Red Grave. Cities are getting rebuilt with the help of neighboring cities like Vestros and Heppin, but it doesn't help that it's still pretty bad. Streets are closed due to the amount of construction needing to take place after the Roots and demons pretty much wrecked all of the city. Then there's mourning families, who lost family members, friends, and so on after what happened with Urizen. I didn't know many people in Red Grave beyond the Devil May Cry office, but Kyrie and I still attended to some funerals to help with the orphaned children if any. The sky was clear of red clouds, no weird ass trees that suck on human blood, or any demons lately. There's an occasional hell portal and it'll spawn a few Empusas or Hell Cainas, but nothing like before. Everything was slowly getting back to normal; Trish, Lady, and Morrison are keeping the Devil May Cry location in Red Grave still alive and well, despite Dante being gone. Nico and I have been taking care of any location that needs urgent attention or when Trish and Lady are out on their missions. I looked out to the window, recalling the last time I saw Dante and Vergil. Hopping down into the portal into Hell, leaving me here alone again. First I find out I have family, and it's a shitty father who ripped off my arm just for power. Kyrie is glad I didn't go down with them out of fear of losing me, which I wouldn't want to worry her. Especially after the last phone call I made to her I left her worrying about my safety. Then the two assholes leave me here… am I not ready to help them? Am I still deadweight to Dante?

I sighed as I leaned against the window of the Devil May Cry van, our traveling side agency. People were barely using their cars, mostly walking since cars also got beaten to pieces with the whole thing.

"Hey sourpuss, you holding it together?" I looked over to Nico, who just pulled out a cigarette while waiting for the stop light to go green, and lit the butt of the cigg.

"Yeah, just tired," I replied, turning my attention back out onto the streets. Sparsely spaced people zipped by us as we drove at a steady speed of 40 mph on a 30 mph. It's better than 50 mph or 60 mph back in June. My head was still a mess after what's happened over the past month. First my arm gets ripped off, Vergil splits himself in two to make V and Urizen, then I'm thrown into a family mess… where I not only lose one person, but two and one I still want to beat the living shit out of…

"We gotta mission down in sector 2 of Red Grave" Nico spoke with the cigarette between her teeth, breathing out toxic fumes.

"Jeez you have to smoke that shit now?" I frustratedly said, rolling down the passenger window. I stuck my head out of the window to breath in fresh air, avoiding the horrid smell of her cigarettes.

"Hey that's what you get for working with me buddy!" she replied, waving her hand a bit. A trail of smoke dissipated as her hand waved in the middle of it. "Without me you wouldn't be here."

"That is true…" I muttered, remembering the day she fitted me my first Devil Breaker prosthetic, Overture. It was strange to be able to grab things again with that arm. It wasn't that long before I had an arm again, but to see it robotic made it different There was a lot of tweaking on the arm, and annoying malfunctions whenever I got "too rough" when trying it out. I'm happy to see you smile again, Nero… Kyrie's words echoed in my head, making me smile to see her happy. With my arm fully healed, I still miss using the Devil Breakers. I can't activate my Devil Trigger as often as I'd like to, so I still rely on the Breakers to get the jobs done Thankfully, Nico has been working on them to where I just slip them on like a glove. I still don't understand how my arm came back still, though it seems that Dante and Vergil never have trouble recovering impalements. Maybe it was similar to them, though why it didn't heal when I got my arm became infected, is beyond me. As we got to where the hell portal was, I walked to the back of the van and began stocking up on some breakers. They were your typical Empusas with a Hell Antenora bunch, nothing truly problematic other than annoying.

"We are heeere!" Nico shouted from the front, screeching the van to a stop. The whole van swayed from side to side as she placed it in park. I slammed against the table, unable to get back up until the van stopped.

"Could you not drive like a lunatic?!" I yelled at her, regaining my balance. Nico looked back to me with a teasing look across her face.

"Could you not expect A+ driving from me? God you sound like a mother, Nero…" She joked as she slinked into her seat, beginning her second smoke break of the day. I rolled my eyes at her, even though she can't see me. Though I wish she did see me, but she'd probably give me a goofy look or a middle finger. Grabbing Blue Rose and Red Queen off from the racks next to the doorway, I opened up the van doors leaped out.

"Later!" I wave off to her, knocking on the van doors. She rolled down her window and rested her arms onto the edge of the door.

"Later gator" Nico replied back with a big grin. The demons roared with a guttural screech, clacking their pinchers and forming into a battle stance. The thrill of being on the battlefield, man do I miss it. Reaching over to my sword, I grabbed the handle and began revving its motor. It growled with intensity, heating the blade up in return. As the first Empusa ran over to me to attack, I striked down upon it. The creature stumbled backwards, while the others began to gang up against me. Unfortunately for them, I pummeled them with a string of combos. Their blood stained my sword a bit, but I didn't mind. The pulsing adrenaline of the battle got me excited to pull off finishing blows onto the enemies. As soon as the first Empusa got up on its legs again, it charged toward me and took a hit onto my arm.

"Dammit!" I grunted, taken aback a bit. The Hell Antenora found the opportunity to try to hit me as well, but I blocked the attack, stunning the demon. Right when the opportunity hit me, I finished off the Hell Antenora and Empusa out with a final blow with a Roulette Spin. Turning my attention to the last hell spawn, I pulled out Blue Rose and shot it a few times. The bullets hit the chest of the bug-like creature, stunning it long enough for me to use Gebera to fire a laser at it. The Empusa shriveled into ashes, spawning Red Orbs everywhere. It is so good to be fighting again. While it was a longer break than I wanted it to be, it was much needed to check on Kyrie and get things back in order. I picked up some of the health recovery items that were dropped by the enemies, then started to make my way back to the van

"Don't forget to pick up some of the left overs Nero!" Nico shouted from the van. I looked down to my feet to see a piece of metal from the Antenora's blades and a piece of the leg from the Empusa from earlier. I didn't mind paying her like this for every Breaker I break. Though I question half of the time how any of this functions for my Breakers. Maybe she sells them off of the black market and makes a quick buck that way? If she does, I'm not wanting to be the meat shield when a fight breaks out. Picking up the salvaged demon parts and Red Orbs, I returned back to the van with my findings.

"Soooo? How was it?" Nico smirked, resting her head on the window of the van.

"Fun" I say out of breath with a smile. I rested on the hilt of my sword, punctured into the ground to keep me standing.

"Your arm says otherwise," Nico pointed out to the graze on my upper arm. It was bleeding, of course. The tear in my clothing made it look even worse in my opinion, since it barely hurt at all leaning against it.

"It'll be fine" I reassured her, shrugging it off. She gave me a strange look, then motioned for me to come inside. I opened up the van doors, breathing in the smell of oil and a smoker. The smell died down which was good, rather be smelling of oil than smoke. Though if we ever go back to Fortuna, she'll have to sober up enough to where Kyrie doesn't suspect me of smoking. I went over to the lounge area, into the cabinet where all of the medicine was stored. It was a hot mess, with over the counter painkillers piled into one area while bandaids are scattered everywhere. Neither of us have the time to organize any of this, or want to. I grabbed the bigger bandages and the anti-septic bottle, then sat down at the small booth across from the cabinets. Out of everything in the van, the booth remained the most clean. No left over food, plates, or tools left by either me or Nico were there. The seats were still comfortable and soft, table was clear of oil and other mysterious stickiness. Maybe V decided to take a shot at cleaning it cause it'd be so messy. It'd make sense since he'd always sit there waiting for the next stop. Hopefully now V will knock some sense into Vergil to make him clean up after himself… I wish I knew why he did any of this in the first place.

I took off my blue jacket, revealing the wound better. I started pouring anti-septic over the gash, which was deeper than I thought it was, but I've had worse situations. Like having a weird ass demonic arm after some corrupted Order of the Sword knight decides to try to kill me and Kyrie. Seeing Kyrie in a hospital bed in the infirmary made me so relieved, even if I wound up with a horrific arm at least she made it out okay. I still remember her and Credo throwing buckets full of anti-biotics on the gash to try to make the infection go away. Though nothing ever worked, and it kept on spreading through out my arm. Eventually I just wrapped it up until I could utilize it against the demons, which was a nice plus when I had it. Once my arm was bandaged up, I patched up my coat and slipped it right back on.

"Ready to head back to the main office?" Nico walked over to me, leaning against the wall of the van.

Grinning, I said "Yeah. And if there's any demons, I can handle it." Nico smiled, cheek to cheek. She excitedly hopped into the driver's seat and revved up the car. I put my findings into the "donations" labeled box on Nico's work bench, which was usually scraps of metal, demon parts and some loose wires. Never have I seen it filled unless if I found a lot during a mission or me and V picked up a bunch over the mission.

"Hey Nero" she called from the front. "Have you thought about driving?"

"After seeing yours, hell no" I half joked. "Besides I got you to drive me around and walking is enough whenever needed."

"Are you scaaared?" Nico teased, trying to keep herself from giggling.

"Hell no!" I exclaimed, coming around to the front. "I just… don't wanna…" I trailed off. I wasn't scared of driving, rather I preferred to walk. Plus with the amount of portals that would appear around these parts, there'd be no point in getting a car or anything unless if I had time to fix it every time it got banged up. Plus, I deal with less people with walking and less idiots attempting to scrape by my car because they're late. And… Kyrie wouldn't be more worried than she already probably is about me. Which how she trusts Nico to drive the Devil May Cry van is a stroke of God blessing her or something. Putting my head out of the window, I breathed in the fresh air, free of hell spawns and now of actual trees. Sometimes I wonder how the hobo and the bastard are doing down in the Underworld. Probably fine, kicking demon ass and all… though something about them leaving really bothered me.

—

"Doo do dooo… Hell is no fuun," Dante yawned, stretching his arms out toward the sky. The rugged silver haired man cracked a few joints as he outstretched his arms behind his back. It's been several weeks since we left Nero, and it's been closing in on verging of murdering my foolish brother again. Though I should've known the repercussions of following him, if anything I'd try to have him stay back. But since he went ahead of me, I was ultimately screwed either way. The fact he uttered the words "jackpot" was the realization that this was going to be a long, tremendous journey. Gripping the handle of my father's sword, the Yamato, I sped ahead of Dante.

"We need to reach the Qliphoth root before it can reach the human world again," I urgently spoke, frustrated. Dante grabbed my collar, pulling me back into a stop.

"Wooahhh slow down mi compadre" Dante said, completely relaxed about the entire situation. "No need to rush exactly, mon frère. It's going to take us days to reach the Qliphoth."

"That doesn't mean we can slow down, Dante" I spat out my words in an icily tone. I shrugged off Dante and continued forth. How can he think we have all of the time in the world? We don't even know how many days up there it has been. Could have been years, or a few hours. The time in the Underworld is completely different than it is in the human world. There's no telling when you will have come back a minute later, or a century later. Which, for me was years later.

"Yeah yeah…" Dante waved me off, scratching the back of his head. The pale white grass brushed up against my boots as we traversed through the plain fields. Specks of the crimson soil peaked from the ground whenever the oddly colored long grass was swept from the wind. The skies had a light crimson hue, reflecting off of the ground. Nothing here was like on the human world. You won't find anything but varying colors or red or purple or black. If my coat wasn't so dirty and as black, it'd make me stick out more. In the far distance, our goal lies at the central root of the Qliphoth tree. A pulsating tree that illuminated like a beacon, beckoning lowly scums of the demon world to gravitate. Along the way, there was several roots uprooted from the bloody soil, reaching up towards the skies. Several groups of demons began to swarm next to the one we were most closest to.

"Guessing that's our next stop?" Dante inquired me. I looked over to Dante to see him grabbing his sword Dante, which was very different from what our father once gave him. He looked ready to go finally rest.

"Let's head over" I curtly replied, then we both broke into a run and dived straight into battle. Several creatures snapped their heads towards us, then gave a howling screech before coming towards us in retaliation. Unsheathing our swords, we began to slash through the hords of enemies that spawned around the root. I summoned my holographic swords and began to plunge them into enemies. In their staggered state, I teleported towards them and drove my sword up through them. We would finish each others enemies as we moved on to fresher targets. Dante eventually pulled out Cavaliere and began to grind the enemies to pieces. As I finished up on one of the last remaining creatures, more began to spawn in. Quickly I shouted over to Dante's roaring weapon "Dante! The root!"

"HAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!" Dante maniacally laughed as he drove in figure 8s over the enemies, unable to hear me. Frustrated, I threw one of my blue swords at Dante's head, intending to shatter upon impact. The thick skulled brother finally took notice and looked over to me.

"The root! Now!" I shouted then immediately went on guard before the enemy could take advantage of my opening.

"Ooooh got'cha!" he shouted back at me, braking the weapon. He switched gears as I prepared a clearing for both me and him to finish off the root. When it was accomplished, we both headed towards the root and with my precision with Dante's brute force, we took down the root. We finished off the remains of the enemies, which were pretty weakened by the impact of the root collapsing into ashes. My heart pounded against my chest, raising a commotion inside of me. I put away my sword back into its embroidered sheath, completely out of breath. Meanwhile Dante was just about to collapse from exhaustion.

"We can rest here for a bit to catch our breaths" I suggested, and immediately Dante flopped onto the ground. This man… I rolled my eyes at him as I got down onto the ground nearby him and got comfortable. I pulled out my black leather bound book and opened it up. It was discolored from the many battles I've endured from it, some pages even being ripped from the demons. Focusing in on the book, I began to relax myself a bit. After a long journey of fighting and walking, it's nice to sit down and read just for a little bit. My mind finally began to leave the world—

"I thought you gave Nero that book?" Dante interrupted my immersion from the book. Like usual.

"This is a different book," I said, trying to get back into the book. "Though, when I am finished, I may give it to Nero."

"But what about me?" he cried out, sitting up. "Why you no share?"

He pulled out his big puppy eyes, though it was more like an old dog wishing for one last treat before it was put down. With a smirk, I replied snidely "I can't recall the last time you read a book, let alone a piece of paper."

"I CAN read for your information!" Dante argued, very childishly so. "How else did I get the license to the Devil May Cry office in Red Grave?"

Ohhh the satisfaction of his easy temper was so delightful. This idiot will fall for anything, I do swear. "Didn't Trish help you with spelling?" I smugly said, waiting for the explosion.

"Do you really want to go right now?!" he yelled, hopping up onto his feet. And just like that he fell for it. "I bet you couldn't read that book until you were 20!"

"Are you serious right now?" I cocked my eyebrow at him, putting down the book. Dante smirked as if he just insulted me.

"Yeah you were just pretending!" he pulled out a sword. "Like how you pretended to forget that you had a kid!"

My blood boiled the minute the words came out of his mouth. I teleported towards him and launched an attack. We clashed swords, barely hitting each other until I took the chance to hit him with the blunt of my blade. He got up quickly onto his feet, as if it was nothing that I did to him. He whipped out King Cerebus as volted over to me with a high kick. Quickly I dodged out of the way, nearly getting grazed. He whipped out Ebony and Ivory and began to shoot at my feet. Every bullet went past my boots as I teleported to dodge every one of them. Eventually we both charged at each other, with a sword in our hands, and charged towards each other. Once again we were out of breath, though it was worse since we just got out of a fight. If my chest wasn't screaming in agony, I'd finish off the scum to prove to the idiot I'm better. Though before I could even suggest that, Dante fell to the ground once more. I staggered over to my twin to see the fool laugh in exhaustion.

"That was fun…" Dante wheezed. His sword laid beyond reach from him. I dropped down to his level, keeping my sword nearby me.

"Heh… sure it was" I chuckled. I lightly punched Dante in the leg, before pulling out my book to read again. Once more, with Dante passed out, I delved into my own world with my book teleporting me there. Free for me to explore and ponder with no worries of the present or future for the time being.