All in all, the intel on Shoko Toyokawa only confirmed how dangerous Ace really was. If its true goal was the corpse of the demon Nanna, then this little schemer was playing a seriously long game.
That realization also cleared up one nagging question for Nero: why the hell was Ace making those girls wield demonic gear to hunt demons? It's likely Nanna's power was so overwhelming that even its corpse was too much for Ace to handle directly. The solution? Offer up some "sacrifices" first.
Enter the demon-hunting girls. Ace was deliberately pitting them against demons, watching them fall, all to serve them up to Nanna. Each death chipped away at Nanna's resistance, paving the way for Ace to eventually consume it.
Now, just one question remained unanswered: was Shoko Toyokawa's successful fusion with Nanna's power part of Ace's plan? Depending on the answer, Ace's next move could shift dramatically, and Nero would need to adjust her strategy to draw the snake out of its hole.
Storming the Demon World to take out Nanna might be a one-and-done solution, but it wasn't on the table—not yet. Things hadn't gotten bad enough for Nero and Dante to gamble on a "charge into the Demon World with no guarantee of coming back" kind of stunt.
For now, Shoko Toyokawa's consciousness had been snuffed out, and it'd probably be a while before she woke up. That meant a brief window of calm. So—
After dinner, Dante and Nero found themselves in an abandoned factory.
—Dante decided it was time for a little fun.
"No need to hold back, kid. I can take it," Dante said, hefting his massive sword Rebellion over his shoulder. He spread his arms wide, facing Nero with that cocky grin of his. "Come at me with everything you've got."
Side note: tonight's dinner was a rare pizza-free affair for Dante, and he had to admit Nero's cooking wasn't half bad. That meal might've been why he offered to give her a few pointers in the first place.
"Alright, Uncle, let's start with a warm-up," Nero said, drawing her weapon. She gave a polite nod to signal she was ready, then lunged forward, swinging Echidna with deadly precision.
"Now we're talking!" Dante's eyes lit up.
Sure, Dante had once called the serpent-blade Echidna "kinda weak," but it was still forged from a demon lord. As one of Nero's first demonic weapons, it was the one she wielded with the most finesse. The whip-like sword couldn't pierce tough hides, but its unpredictable, multi-angle attacks from a distance made it a nightmare in one-on-one fights.
Nero kept her distance, about ten feet, controlling Echidna's whip form to pressure Dante. The blade-scaled whip hissed through the air like a venomous snake, its greenish glint slashing from every direction to box Dante in.
In Dante's view, the bladed whip came first from the upper left. He casually raised Rebellion to block, but the whip didn't linger. It grazed the sword, sparking as it slithered back like a cunning serpent.
Nero spun, pulling back, and the whip struck again, this time from the right.
Dante stepped forward, swinging Rebellion to meet it. But the flexible whip coiled around the blade, darting toward his neck.
That's why he'd said, "Now we're talking."
In a flash, Dante twisted Rebellion, trying to tangle Echidna and pin it down. But the whip retreated again, its accelerated blade slicing past as Dante tilted his head, cutting a few strands of his silver hair.
Realizing a bulky greatsword like Rebellion was just gonna get toyed with by the nimble Echidna, Dante hooked the whip's tail with his blade, then hurled Rebellion, throwing Echidna off its path. In the same motion, he unfurled two bone-like wings from his back, drawing a pair of straight swords wreathed in blazing red demonic energy.
Rebellion was flung aside by Nero's maneuver, crashing through a nearby wall with a clang and embedding itself in the concrete.
Echidna struck again. This time, Dante ducked, transforming into a streak of crimson light to dodge the whip's fastest snap. He reappeared at the whip's midsection, his twin swords—glowing with demonic power—flanking it like chopsticks grabbing noodles. Nero tried to redirect Echidna's tip to strike Dante from behind, but he'd already dropped the swords, flipping upward to evade.
Echidna dragged the twin swords back. Knowing Dante could detonate them, Nero flicked the whip upward to shake them off. Then she retracted Echidna, swapping it for her staff, Samyaza, which morphed into a scythe slung across her back.
A crescent blade gleamed at her left hand, casting light on her stocking-clad legs.
"Scythe this time, huh?" Dante smirked.
He hurled the two new swords in his hands toward the ground, detonating them along with the earlier pair that had flown skyward. Amid the smoke, a brilliant flash of electricity crackled.
The distorted wail of an electric guitar roared alongside thunder, bolts of lightning piercing the dust in all directions. Nero dodged with lightning-fast reflexes, her soul-reaping scythe plunging into the heart of the smoke.
Dante swung his electric guitar, slamming it into the scythe's tip. The impact forced Nero's weapon upward, and she had to backflip to keep her balance.
As the smoke cleared, Dante spun, gripping the guitar by its neck and pulling it close. His fingers danced across the strings, strumming a chord before unleashing a wild flurry of arpeggios.
With each rising note, flickering lightning enveloped Dante, growing fiercer. He capped the riff with a high-pitched, distorted harmonic, and as the electricity exploded outward, a figure darted through the lightning's gaps. The gleaming scythe blade reappeared at Dante's shoulder.
"Damn, that's some fancy footwork!" Dante shouted, grinning. In an instant, he unfolded his guitar into a war scythe of its own, using the flat of the blade to block Nero's strike.
After a brief stalemate, Dante shoved Nero's scythe back, spinning his weapon in a circle. He slammed the guitar's head into Nero's scythe handle, then used the recoil to hook his blade toward her waist. Nero retracted her scythe, morphing it back into a staff to block behind her, parrying Dante's attack.
Pressing the electrified scythe down with her staff, Nero used the momentum to backflip, swapping to Gilgamesh. Her spiked boots aimed a kick at Dante's chin.
Her skirt flared, her Gilgamesh-clad legs a deadly bloom of thorns. Dante, switching to the Ifrit gauntlets he'd dug out of storage, met her kick with a flaming fist, the collision sparking a fiery burst.