#how to make me like a character: either teal. wind powers. dragon. or all of them at once.

[alchemiclee]

he finally came home 🥹 now that he's mine, I can take 57475738 screenshots

[buns-with-a-book]

Summons in the Shadows

For Day Two of DMCWeek2020, the prompt filled this time is Demon!

WARNING! This fic contains the following trigger warnings: implied animal cruelty, animal sacrifice, and blood! If you are not comfortable with any of it, do not read!

Fandom: Devil May Cry Characters: Vergil/OC, OC, Mundus Tags: @furyeclipse @nimnox @astral-space-dragon @i-write-fanfics-to-procrastinate @harlot-of-oblivion @queenmuzz

Summary: While Cassandra slumbers with Vergil, Vergil gets a sense that something...wrong is happening. Meanwhile, far away, Draco Kinniaird makes a pact with the echo of Mundus for the power he desires to force Cassandra to bend the knee to him.

It was a warm spring night in Red Grave City. A perfect night, all things considered. A half-moon hung high in the sky, it’s moonlight gently illuminating the bedroom Vergil shared with Cassandra. Tomorrow was going to have warm weather, perfect for an afternoon outing with his beloved rose, Cassandra. Dante wasn’t going to bother him tomorrow with an inane request for pizza or sundaes, he was snuggled up to Cassandra, and he was...happy. Happier than he had been in a very long time.

But, for Vergil, something still kept him awake. Something nagged at him in the back of his mind. The memories of Nelo Angelo had long faded, lost with his familiars that were now inked into Cassandra’s skin. Were they regrets? Perhaps. There were many things he regretted in his life, chief among them missing out on Nero’s childhood. If he had not fallen, if he had just set aside his pride, perhaps he would have found the son he never knew he had.

But this sense of unease inside him, it did not come from his dark thoughts. It seemed to be something external, as if he could sense an old enemy rising again. There was only one such enemy, one demon that he could think of, that he didn’t want to think of: Mundus, the Prince of Darkness.

No, impossible. Dante defeated him and Mallet Island was sunk into the sea. He couldn’t come back. His arms squeezed tighter around Cassandra, earning a soft noise from her.

“Vergil?”

“Go back to sleep.” He murmured. Cassandra rolled over, coming face to face with him.

“Something’s bothering you, isn’t it?” Vergil let out a low hum, lowering his head. “Vergil…”

“My thoughts are prone to wander, Cassandra.” He admitted. “And they wander to the possibilities of a life where I knew about Nero.” It was a lie, she needn’t worry about a demon he knew was dead. Cassandra seemed to accept this lie.

“Don’t worry about what could’ve happened. You should worry about the here and now.” She leaned up to peck his lips. “And right now, you should get some sleep.” He hummed quietly. “Would tea help you?”

“I would like that.” Vergil murmured, slowly sitting up. Cassandra followed him up before sliding out of bed. He watched as she left the bedroom, wearing an old t-shirt that he presumed Dante had given her as a sort of gag gift. Perhaps he was just overthinking this unease deep in his soul.

---

Meanwhile...

Eternis Brillia was bathed in starlight. The moon was hidden by the clouds gathered in the distance. The grounds of the Cathedral of Saint Deirdre were empty, kept perfectly immaculate. The cathedral was the image of serenity, the city peacefully asleep in the midnight dark.

Except for one man, his blond hair fluttering with the wind as he walked with purpose to the cathedral. In his blue eyes were brimming hatred, a hunger for a certain type of power that the Maidens, the long revered protectors of Eternis Brillia, could not give. In his bag were old grimoires and large bottles of animal blood. In his hands was a box, containing the heart of a horse. Who knew that Cassandra’s old Clydesdale, Alasdair, had so much to give?

Well, the horse was his now, since she ran away all those years ago. Key word being was. It was inevitable that the horse was going to die (although he wasn’t sure if he would have it killed for this purpose back then. What would his younger self think of him now?).

Pushing open the grand doors, a serene quiet greeted him. The cathedral was empty, unguarded. Nobody in Eternis Brillia would, in their right mind, dare try and rob the cathedral. Not even him, although that was not his intention right now. No, he was doing something far worse to the cathedral. Golden idols of the Earthfaith could be replaced, reforged by the goldsmiths and silversmiths. Defiling the cathedral, on the other hand, was a far more heinous crime.

A crime that was worth it. Cassandra had to bow to him, at any costs. His heart still burned with hatred for her just leaving the city. He never found out how she did it but the fact that, by morning light, she was just gone, still made his blood boil. How dare she abandon him, abandon her duty as an heiress to the legacy of House Sagefire, abandon everything about the city!?

He could not handle it.

Walking up to the altar, he set his bag down on one of the nearby pews. He opened the bag, pulling out the grimoire. It was old, perhaps as old as the Earthfaith itself, but kept in perfect condition by the very fell magic he was going to use to do something no noble of Eternis Brillia had ever done. No one in their right mind would ever attempt this.

No one except him.

He opened the grimoire to the summoning circle he was going to use. Pulling out the bottles of animal blood, he carefully began to draw the circle. It had to be perfect for whom he was going to summon, a demon so powerful it felled the Dark Knight Sparda years before his birth: the Prince of Darkness, Mundus.

He murmured the ancient words on the grimoire, continuing his careful drawing of the circle. He could feel something stare at him, perhaps the demon prince himself? He couldn’t tell, he only had to do the final act: cementing the circle by stabbing the heart of the sacrifice (Alasdair’s heart, the best he could do). As the final bit of the circle was drawn on the stone ground, he could feel demonic power emanate from the circle. He smiled at the sensation, reaching over to the box and pulling out Alasdair’s heart. It was still cold (a side effect of preserving the animal’s heart) but still tender, still perfect for stabbing. He took the dagger he had taped to the underside of the lid of the box into his hand, taking a deep breath. He set the horse heart in the center of the circle.

“By innocent heart and innocent blood, I call upon you, prince of darkness.” Draco breathed, holding the dagger aloft. “Answer my summons, give me what I seek!” He slammed the dagger through the horse’s heart, blood splattering all over his front. For a moment, nothing happened. Then the circle bloomed with purple and gold light. Draco stepped back, watching as the light coalesced into three red eyes. He could feel the gaze of something powerful rest on him.

“Why have you called upon me, pitiful human?” The Prince of Darkness growled. The eyes looked around, as if assessing the place that the demon prince had been summoned to, before returning his gaze onto Draco. “I see…”

“I demand power, O prince of darkness! The power to make a woman bend the knee to me, as she rightfully should.” Draco said clearly.

“And you would defile the holiest place of the Earthfaith?” Mundus mused, the sound of a king mulling over the benefits and costs of this information. “Your commitment to this...woman is impressive…” Draco knew that it wasn’t a compliment.

“She is Deirdre’s direct ancestor, O prince.” The eyes shuddered visibly with wrath.

“Very well.” The demon prince growled. The dagger suddenly lifted into the air, glowing brightly. After a few minutes, it warped into something more wicked. “When the time comes, offer your blood to me. I will give you the power you seek.” He paused. Draco could feel his gaze was intense on his form. “Do not fail me. And make her suffer.”

“Of course not, O prince.” With that, the demonic presence disappeared. Draco stared at the dagger, still faintly glowing with the blessing of the demon prince. Draco immediately began to put everything away, leaving the circle and bloodied stabbed heart remaining there. Once he had everything, he ran as fast as he could out of the cathedral.

He did not notice the woman who was standing behind the pillar, the woman who had watched him summon the Prince of Darkness and defile the cathedral of the Earthfaith. She stepped out of the shadows, cold teal eyes watching as he fled the cathedral into the night. She looked to the circle, to the stabbed horse heart, and then to the defiled altar.

“Idiotic fool.” She huffed, summoning her javelin and shield. Tapping the circle, she had it slowly burned and sealed the crack between the demon world and the human world. She sent the horse's heart to the spirit world, leaving him to wander alone in a strange land (not that she particularly cared for the former steed of a traitor). Slamming down the pole end of the weapon into the stone floor, the cathedral purified itself with the clear pure ringing of bells. "No matter, the plan is running smoothly. If they do not bow to the light, they will fall to my weapon instead. Then this...stain of demonic blasphemy will finally be removed off Eternis Brillia's beautiful tapestry." Taking out her pocket watch she checked the time. "Oh, it’s time for tea with the Minister of Medicine." With that she turned on her heel, leaving the cathedral to move forward with her next step: did the child of darkness live and had it allied itself with the line of Sparda? Either way, both would fall to her javelin. As for Cassandra...she would make her personally suffer for betraying the Earthfaith and her heritage.

[darkgreiga]

Wishes, Dreams, and Memories Chapter 34

Fandom: Rune Factory 4 Rating: T (to be safe) Genre(s): Adventure, Hurt/Comfort Characters: Lest, Dolce, Pico, Amber, Dylas, Leon, Frey, Arthur, Margaret, Forte Summary:  She had a wish to see him again. He had a dream of her last moments. They had their memories of having only each other. The amnesiac Earthmate never knew that by bringing his best friend back wouldn’t make his daily life go back to normal. Nor did he know she was the key to his and his ancestors’ past. Chapters: list Navigation: <<prev   |   next>> Author’s notes: Not an update as late as yesterday, but it’s still over midnight here... Anyways, enjoy the final showdown!

Chapter 34 – The Final Struggle

“Eat this!” Frey swung her hammer around, knocking any types of monsters coming her way.

Lest managed to send the monsters surrounding him with his dual blades, but the number of monsters around the Earthmates hadn’t reduced much. The monsters more powerful than their regular counterpart as the dark aura surrounded them and the dark forest they were all in. The dragons launched their elemental breath along with the fairies attacking the Earthmates using their magic, pitting them to a corner.

“There are too many of them!” Lest said quickly as he raised his shield to block incoming fireballs from the red dragons, “And they’re just too strong!”

“You don’t,” Frey caught one of the fairies and threw it against the pack of silver wolves, “need to tell me that again!”

Lest blocked a rider orc’s club as it rode on a wolf, only to have more orc riders storming towards him with their own wolves. The male Earthmate could only block the orc riders and wolves by his shield, though a pair managed to find a way to hit and bite him in the end. Before more of the monster armies came to him, a wave of stone spikes came out from the ground and pushed them back to give Lest some space.

Frey, in her tired state, ran to Lest side, “Cure All!”

The healing spell managed to heal their wounds, but it couldn’t erase the fatigue they had after battling monsters over and over again. It hadn’t been long since the two of the arrived, but the monsters there had already been waiting for them since their arrival. The regular sight of white nothingness with colorful leaves flying around had already been replaced by the view of a forest filled with dead trees and monsters.

“The runes…” Frey looked around as the monsters slowly approached them once more, “It’s starting to corrupt everything… He is… corrupting everything…”

“Then we have to find him, and fast!” Lest replied as he stood ready with his short sword and shield, “We can’t beat all the monsters here at once, but we might be able to make a way through them, don’t you think?”

“It’s not going to be easy either way,” Frey curled her fist while holding her hammer on her left hand, “But making a way out of these guys is definitely a lot easier than beating them all.”

The twins switched places, with Lest on the left side to block the incoming attacks with his shield while Frey used her hammer to push the monster to the right and make a way. Little by little the strategy managed to lead them out of the monster crowd with little damage as they sped away from the rampaging monsters.

The maze-like forest managed to help their escape, but also make them lost their way as well. Lest and Frey looked at the trees around them, which looked completely identical in every direction. It was getting harder for them to tell where they had come from to reach the spacious clearing they were in.

“Not good,” Frey turned to Lest with serious look, “There’s no way out of this place. The corrupted runes are blocking my Escape magic.”

Lest closed his eyes for a moment, trying to activate the spell as well, “Yeah, I can’t use it either…”

“Oh, are you leaving so soon?” a voice echoed throughout the forest, surprising the two.

“I haven’t forgotten that voice…” Lest commented in a whisper as he held on to his sword and shield, “We’ve found who we’re looking for.”

“Yeah, I can sense those corrupted runes of his,” Frey replied as she held on to her hammer, “Ethelberd is here to greet us… from above!”

The two Earthmates quickly split as something hard had fallen on the ground they had been standing on. Once the dust had cleared, the figure revealed himself as the missing young emperor with his long hair a mix of the original teal color and light blue. His green eyes were glowing red as he turned to look at Lest and Frey with a wicked smile.

“Long time no see, my dear children,” the smile turned into a frown as he glared at them, “No, I refuse to acknowledge my great blood to run in your bodies with that cursed Earthmate’s blood!”

“You don’t have any right to talk bad about our mother!” Frey yelled in anger, “We don’t have a father like you! We never had any!”

“I don’t want to call you as my father too,” Lest spoke up as he glared at the emperor, “I don’t remember my own past, but I remember you and your empire trying to destroy Selphia! I remember you trying to take Venti away!”

“Huh? That sad excuse of a wind dragon?” Ethelberd looked at him in an amused look, “Well, at least that dragon still had some strength left that I could borrow…” Ethelberd’s form turned its color into pitch black before morphing into the familiar wind dragon, “Like this!”

Ethelberd flapped the strong wings he now had and a powerful gust managed to knock the Earthmates off the ground and towards the trees behind them. The emperor transformed back to his human form with dark aura around his body. The two Earthmates slowly got back to their feet, looking at Ethelberd in complete disbelief.

“That… that was Venti’s… power…” Lest spoke up as he winced from the pain on his back.

“H-How…?” Frey asked as she used her hammer for support, “You… you’re already a dead man!”

“Hah! Nonsense!” Ethelberd swung his arm to throw a dark ball towards Frey, pinning her against the tree, “I live on in that wretched place! I can fuse myself with any kinds of runes I want! I can be any god I want! I AM GREATER THAN ANY GOD!”

“You… greedy… monster… ugh…” the dark ball pinning her turned into wooden spikes coming from the dead tree, choking her.

“S-Stop it!” Lest cried out angrily, “I already beat you once, I can just easily beat you again!”

“Do you study about the Native Dragons, Earthmate?” Ethelberd turned his attention to Lest before he transformed into a big black dragon with burning wings, “Like the dragon god of destruction?!”

Lest quickly rolled out of the way as Ethelberd unleashed a big fireball at him, only to have the burning fireball curved in its path and hit Lest, “GAH!!!”

“I… I won’t let you… hurt him!” Frey pushed the spikes away before burning them with her fire magic to free herself.

“You cannot defeat me, Earthmates!” Ethelberd transformed into a big snake-like dragon, shooting water laser around the area to hit both Lest and Frey.

Frey fell on her stomach, barely conscious from all the strain and damage she had taken. As if her pain wasn’t enough, Ethelberd approached her as Lest laid helplessly to watch the emperor stomped his foot on his twin’s head. Her face was battered, but not a single drop of blood was spilled as Ethelberd stomped and kicked her around on the face.

“Huh, I guess there’s another like me in this world after all,” Ethelberd stopped his act as he looked at Frey’s motionless body in disgust, “An Earthmate version of myself… what a disgusting-”

A ball of light hit Ethelberd square in the face, but not with enough force to knock him away far enough. Frey slowly stood with her wounds slowly healing from the use of another healing spell, before she turned around to look at him with a cold stare. As Ethelberd was about to transform once more, Lest had come from behind him to strike him with a long slash on his back, stopping his transformation process.

“You…!” Ethelberd sent out a barrage of fireballs at Lest, slightly knocking him back, before he followed up with a small ball of light thrown at him.

“Get back!” Frey pushed Lest out of the way before escaping herself as the ball of light grew larger in size, creating a crater of blue light in the middle of the area.

With the huge crater dividing the area between the two Earthmates and Ethelberd, the three of them were only left with magic attacks which brought a disadvantage to Lest and Frey. Ethelberd soon transformed into Aquaticus and used his long body to reach and knock the Earthmates towards the trees helplessly.

The barrage of fireballs Lest and Frey had sent out to counterattack was absorbed as Ethelberd transformed into Fiersome, who then pulled them closer along with the burning branches around them. Just as they were getting closer to him, the transformed emperor spun around to knock them back once more.

Frey was thrown towards the tree once more, but the stinging pain all over her body had prevented her from getting up. Lest was thrown to the ground, but the fatigue from the battles against the monsters had caught up to him once more to prevent him from using any healing spell on the two of them. Frey let out a desperate and pained sigh as she reached out for her pocket, taking the rune sphere shard in her hand.

‘Please… make it work…’ Frey thought as she forced herself to crawl towards Lest, who noticed her coming, “Lest… It’s time…”

“The purification… huh…” Lest reached for his own pocket, taking out the white-fish like charm, “Our last… resort…”

“Resist all you can, but it won’t matter anymore,” Ethelberd spoke up as the twins slowly rose to their feet while leaning on each other for support, “Today… today will be the day I can annihilate all Earthmates left in this world! I will finally have my revenge!”

“Lest, listen to me,” Frey spoke up as she and Lest held the charm together, “You can just focus on giving me your purification energy. I’ll handle the rest.”

“I’ll try…” Lest’s hesitance in his voice got Frey’s attention, “But I don’t know how I can do it…”

“Just focus the way you usually do when you’re casting magic,” Frey replied, “That purification spell is also a type of magic.”

Lest nodded in understanding, “Got it.”

The two Earthmates closed their eyes as a ball of light formed around the charm, quickly swallowing anything in the area. Ethelberd looked at the Earthmates swallowed by the light before it soon covered the crater he had created as well. He tried running in panic, but the light grew faster before he could escape his fate. All of the dead trees, monsters, and the corrupted runes quickly disappeared into the light, restoring the forest into its original state.

Sensing the familiar surroundings, Lest opened his eyes to see that he was back into the empty space of the forest, but without the flying leaves. He was on his own as Frey was nowhere to be seen, but he found something unexpected as he looked around for her. It was something he never dreamed of actually seeing.

The black soul of Ethelberd, slowly being eaten by the light, was floating in the middle of the white space. The parts which had been eaten slowly turned into smaller leaves, flying towards a vortex of other colorful leaves behind Ethelberd. It was the same place Lest saw Frey, who looked at him with a sad smile as she approached him.

“The process is going to take a lot of time here, but not if I take him into the Forest of Beginnings through this gate,” Frey said as she looked at Ethelberd, “He did what he shouldn’t and his punishment will be having his soul perish in the forest.”

“Then let’s take him there,” Lest suggested, but was confused when Frey shook her head, “Why? You said that it’ll be faster-”

“I did,” Frey cut in, “But that’s not the reason why we shouldn’t take him there. Or to be exact, that’s not the reason why you shouldn’t take him to the Forest of Beginnings.”

“If it’s because the forest isn’t a place for living beings, doesn’t that apply to you too?” Lest asked in response.

Frey looked at him for a moment before she closed her eyes and smiled once more, “I see that those two their promises after all, if you know nothing about my condition.”

“Your… condition…?” Lest looked at her in confusion.

“Lest,” Frey opened her eyes and looked at him, “I… am no longer alive…”

“W… What…?”