#nero's curious torments

[checkers-dance]

i come with more unfortunate enceetee updates. the same friend w the lucas hallucinations had a literal nightmare about it. to summarize it, she received this really weird cryptic message from one of her friends and when she tried to solve it, it said "when we jumping and popping we jopping." a lot of other really creepy shit happens, like her discord starts to act weird. she then goes downstairs and sees her mom talking to someone, and it sounds like she's making a deal of sorts. she hears her say the word enceetee at some point. but when she gets closer she realizes her mom isnt holding a phone at all, she was just pretending to lure her. then her mom grabs her and says "you're going." and my poor poor confused friend is so scared and asking her what she means. and her mom tells her "down there" AND DRAGS HER INTO THE BASEMENT.

imagine how i felt waking up to this. i feel so bad for her because that sounds genuinely scary but its so fucking funny, i laughed so hard when i read it the first time 😭 absolutely insane that a boy band could have this impact on people, it's fascinating what they've done to our brains.

HELP??? Ur poor friend....but the lucas lore does kind of veer into creepypasta territory at times even if it's also humorous in nature, so I can see why she would have that dream

[skvaderarts]

Petrichor Chapter 47: Renaissance

Chapter 47: Renaissance

(-~-)

Note: Hey, everyone! I hope you enjoy the chapter! I’m curious to see what you think…

Not my forgetful ass not realizing that it was Wednesday! So this is going up at 4:50 in the morning on Thursday. Sorry everyone! The chapter was done on Monday, but I just didn't realize what day of the week it was.

Within five minutes time, the small striped trolly rounded the corner, pulling to a stop in front of the duo. They boarded and thanked the driver with a set of silent nods, making their way towards the back where they could potentially find more privacy in the form of fewer eyes upon them. There had been a few glances as they’d boarded, but not a single word spoken between any of them. Still, it was their prerogative to maintain as much privacy as possible.

The trolley didn’t require payment, a perk of the local area that neither of them had considered before deciding to take this little trip. Sirrus was already privy to this fact despite not bringing it up at any point. But it wasn’t something he was concerned with edgewise. One way or another they would have reached their destination.

They settled into their seats just as the vehicle started to pull away from the curb and back onto the road. And within a minute the trolly had reached the main road, turning and beginning its slightly steep descent down towards its intended destination.

Looking out of the window as they headed down towards the shoreline, V leaned his head against the cool glass, settling in for the rest of the ride. He was as comfortable as he could possibly be considering that he was riding on public transportation. Sirrus glanced over at him as they both sat there quietly, still amused by his companion’s silent excitement. He had calmed down a bit now, and neither of them were currently dying of laughter any longer, but he could still feel the optimism pouring off of him in waves. And that brought a soft, slight smile to his face.

He was glad they were doing this.

(-~-)

The light that filtered through the trees above them was ever so lightly warm, the breeze cool. There were barely any leaves left now, most of them fallen to the ground, now having settled wherever they possibly could. The grass was damp and dry moisture hung in the air, the low humidity just enough to hold it there.

The little ones had wanted to go to the park. They didn’t care about the rain. In fact, as far as they were concerned, it was a bonus. Plenty of puddles to splash in and large piles of wet leaves to dive into.

They had been enjoying their time in the neighborhood for the last few days. It had been a welcome change of pace after departing from the Ludwig Estate once things had calmed down. And as Kyle, Carlo, and Julio all ran and bumbled about, climbing all over every available surface of the playground equipment, Kyrie sat on a nearby bench, simply enjoying the fresh air and the sound of chirping birds, the crisp air on her skin. This was nice. No responsibilities or commitments for once. Just genuine, quality family time. She wished that it could always be like this.

Just then, Nero came to a stop in front of her, half jogging as he was chased away from the play equipment by the two oldest additions to their little adopted family. The two boys then grabbed their little brother and ran back towards the slide, their conversation overlapping as they yelled back and forth at one another about… something. Who was to say? Did anyone ever truly know what children were talking about to one another? It was doubtful that even they knew, and they were the ones speaking to one another.

“Hey, Kyrie. That book any good?” He asked, flopping down next to her on the bench. It was one of those metal park benches designed to torment you via the medium of hundreds of tiny little holes that made sure you couldn’t sit on it comfortably at all.

She glanced up from the book in question, putting a piece of paper in it to mark the page before putting it back into her shoulder bag. She then turned to Nero, her full attention on him as she smiled, giggling at his playfully silly demeanor as he pretended to not look at her, feining an aloof personality.

“Oh, yes! It was, but I think I’ll put it away. I don’t want the moisture in the air to ruin the pages.”

“What’s it about?” He inquired, not having caught anything other than a glimpse at the cover. She’d been skimming through it for the last few days when she had a few quiet minutes to herself. It had to be pretty interesting, if only by virtue of the fact that she kept going back to it. Or perhaps she was just morbidly curious? She looked as though she were unsure as to how to answer that question the longer she considered it.

“I… can’t really describe it just yet. I don’t think I’ve read enough of it to understand. It’s very interesting, though. Once I’ve finished a few more chapters I think I’ll be able to explain it a bit better.” She blushed slightly, shrugging. It was the truth. She just wished that she did have more she could say. It wasn’t much of an answer, as far as she was concerned.

Nero nodded in both consideration and confirmation. He’d read books like that before. Books with a great feel to them that you couldn’t really describe; something nearly impossible to put into words than to say that it was good and a worthwhile usage of your spare time. But as far as he was concerned, if she liked it, then it was a good book. “Sounds good to me.”

The two of them sat there next to one another, watching the children play and enjoying the atmosphere they currently occupied. And as Nero glanced between the little ones and the love of his life, he caught the slightest glimpse of something in her face that he couldn’t place, but he noticed it nonetheless.

“Something on your mind? You look kinda worried.” Nero couldn’t help but say something. It mattered to him what she thought and how she felt. He couldn’t always do something about it, but he always wanted her to know that he cared, not that he ever doubted that she knew that.

“Not worried…” She trailed off, her mind distant and her eyes staring off at something so far in the distance that it might have only been there in her mind. Her demeanor didn’t seem troubled in the sense that she was worried or upset, but she did seem ever so slightly tense, almost as though she was considering something strongly. He hoped that if she was, she would tell him. Nero wasn’t even sure he could ever be upset with Kyrie. “It’s just something that’s been on my mind for the last day or so. I don’t want to trouble you.”

“You could never bother me, Kyrie. You can tell me anything. What’s on your mind?”

“I… I like it here. On the mainland, I mean. It’s so different from Fortuna. But maybe that’s a good thing.” She seemed at a loss as to how to explain what she was thinking and feeling, so she just spoke, trying her best to communicate it. “I know I must sound crazy, and you probably think I’m running a fever or that I’ve been out in the cold for too long, but… “

Nero stared at her, his eyes slightly wider than they had been previously and a quiet look of absolute disbelief on his face. He got the impression that he knew where she was going with this, but he needed to actually hear those words come out of her mouth. They’d both grown up in Fortuna. Their whole lives had been there up until the last handful of years. To even suggest that; to even consider that… Could she really be thinking…

“Could you ever see us here? That we could start over someplace else? Somewhere like this?” She spread out her arms, gesturing towards everything around them, indicating nothing in particular, but he understood either way. Her intentions were very clear, and she wore her heart on her sleeve.

I just… maybe there are parts of our lives that we would be happier without? Maybe things that we can’t forget but we can leave behind? They will always be with us because they are a part of who we are now, but maybe…” She became quiet for a moment, looking down at the ground as she trembled just a bit, her voice still as soft as ever but carrying a conviction Nero had heard before, but never quite like this. “Maybe the people that we love who we’ve lost would want us to be happy.”

Nero instantly understood now. He couldn’t help but understand. A part of his heart clenched at the very thought. Yes. He knew exactly what and who she was talking about. And that was significant. Kyrie liked nothing less than talking about what had happened to her brother. He was still glad that she hadn’t had to see that. It still tore him apart that he hadn’t been able to do more; to do something at all. He knew that she thought about it. She tried to hide it, but he knew it had wounded her deeply to lose him, especially after what had happened to their parents. Credo had been her hero. Her protector. Her savior.

And now he was just… gone.

He would never meet Kyle, Calro, and Julio. They would never spend time together again. She would never speak to him and squeeze him tightly as she threw her arms around him in a tight, loving embrace again. There wasn’t even a body in his grave. Dante had told him that he’d just turned into golden dust and drifted away, his sacrifice perhaps granting him the peace he’d more than earned after everything he’d given to protect them. He’d forsake himself, his faith, and even his very soul, but even with that ambition there was a line he wouldn’t cross. There were people he loved too much to throw away because the world wasn’t worth saving without them. No matter how hard of a time he gave Nero, he’d loved him. He’d died for him. And his final wish had been to save them, a task he’d entrusted to Dante in much the same way that protecting his sister and Nero had once been passed to him by his parents when they’d been killed in a demon attack. And a torch that Nero had taken up without being asked or any hint of hesitation.

Nero would always protect and cherish her. And he would go wherever she needed him to go. Not because he owed her, but because it was just who he was. She was his everything. And she could be his everything anywhere.

“I’ll go anywhere you go, Kyrie. I think I understand what you mean.” Nero said, giving her a sincere and understanding look. He felt a similar pain in his heart. He could never truly understand how she felt since they both processed their grief differently and she had known Credo longer, but he did understand her desire to start anew. She was right. They couldn’t forget their past, and a part of him would never even think to try and do so, but they could bring it with them somewhere new. The good and the bad. It would always be a part of them, but they didn’t have to linger in its sorrowful shadow forever.

“Do… you really mean that, Nero.” She looked both shocked and touched. She wasn’t quite tearing up, but her tone of voice betrayed the flood of emotion that she was barely holding back.

He placed his hand on her shoulder gently, looking her in the eyes as he pulled her into a gentle hug. The sky was starting to darken a bit and the wind had grown colder and stronger. A storm was clearly rolling in. “Of course I do, Kyrie. Let’s get out of here before it storms. The sky is getting pretty dark. I think we have a lot to talk about.”

(-~-)

Kyrie deserves to be bold and brave and to express what she wants to do for once, I think. Maybe shooting that demon helped her realize that! I’m curious to see what you all think! Let me know in the comments, and I’ll see you next Friday! Also, I have something fun planned for the next chapter. I just wanted to check back in with Nero first. I just realized that It’s been FOREVER… I wonder what everyone else is up to. Thanks for your answers to the aquarium question! They were fun hehe! Take care and I’ll see you soon! And thanks as always for reading! Sorry for any mistakes. My editing brain isn’t working! I’ll try to catch them, but if you see anything big, please let me know! Bye bye!

[clickonmedotexe]

"I'll be right back, kiddo." Rex promises Coda, leaning down to ruffle their hair. He's exhausted, but happy. Actually, genuinely happy. He stops to look over his little family, at Coda and Seven and his newly wedded husband, all curled up together after a long night of wedding festivities and celebrations.

Maybe things could calm down for a while. His constant itch to hurt and torment is fading, replaced by a new want. To be around his kids a bit more, see them happy. To get into more fights with Raphael that will eventually end up with them having to stitch their mutually inflicted wounds or falling asleep in the Lounge together. He is growing fond of that angel as much as he hates to admit it.

He steps out of the Lounge and makes his way down the hallway, his feet bare on the carpeted floor after an entire night of running around in heels. He can't wait to curl up with the others and finally get some sleep-

"Hello, Townsend." A familiar voice stops him dead in his tracks.

Rex turns, a mocking grin is already on his face, out of habit.

"Nero."

"Congratulations on your wedding. I heard it was wild." Alice is standing in the hallway where he had just come from, blocking his way back to the Lounge. Her posture is relaxed, and that worries Rex even more. She's got something up her sleeve and she's ready for him to give her a chance to use it.

"Thanks." He said, his own posture tensing. "What do you want?"

"Well, isn't it obvious? Your time has come, I'm afraid. I would've come for you sooner but it was amusing watching you for a while. Adopting Seven, losing your arm, fucking up in Aperture, developing a hate-love relationship with an angel. So on, so forth. It's time for you to go, however. This is where your fun ends." She's not moving to get him even as she speaks, simply watching him with a curious smile.

Rex thinks he still has time. He can feel his sheathed knife pressing up against his hip. He could stab her before she touched him. Or even better...

He smirks a cold, cruel smile, laughing at her threats as if they don't cause a bolt of ice cold fear to stab through him.

"You can't keep me anywhere, Alice. I'll escape, sooner or later. And when I do, I guarantee I'll fucking make you suffer. You and your girlfriend - Melissa, right? You seem very protective of her. You want her to end up in the same position as Joule? Tied up, tortured, broken. For me-"

Alice just chuckles. "Interesting you should threaten her. You'll be seeing her around a lot in the next few weeks. Feel free to repeat your threats back to her, I think she'll find them amusing while she's digging through your brain."

Rex falters. Takes a step back. The knife is in his hand now but he's uncertain if he can win. He's hoping he can. He wants her to step out of the way so he can return back to the Lounge and sit with his kids. A half formed plea is already on his tongue.

You don't have to do this. Just let me go back to my family. I lied, I won't touch you or your girlfriend if you leave us alone.

But he doesn't plea, he doesnt stoop so low. He just snarls.

"She won't be laughing when I make her beg for mercy-"

"It's over, Rex." Alice interrupts him. "Save what's left of your dignity and come quietly."

"Never-" Dark sigils appear on Rex's skin, burning into it as the man drops his knife and hisses in pain. He's rubbing at them, scratching himself bloody to try and get rid of them. They sink into his flesh, disappear without a trace and Rex falls forward, hitting the ground like a sack of bricks. He's paralyzed, barely conscious, just enough to make out the woman standing over him with an amused look.

Something soft brushes against his shoulder and he hears a low purr, like a cat but...wrong. A black feline materializes out of thin air, like its been there this whole time lurking in the shadows. It sits next to his head and Rex swears it is grinning.

"Sorry, 'darling'." Alice taunts, crouching down next to Rex. "You're coming with me. But don't you worry. I'll make sure your family is alright."

"D o- n t-" Rex tries to rasp out. Don't touch my family. Don't you dare touch them.

Alice simply snaps her fingers and glowing silver coils appear around Rex, dematerializing him out of the hallway and into his own personal holding cell, inside the grimdark Office.

[dmcfsstory]

Also available on Ao3: [link]

Proofreaded a bit by @wikimb​

Partner Artist: @wikimb​

Word count: 13143

Trigger Warning: Graphic depictions of heavy violence/gore, depression cases, PTSD breakdowns(abandoment/bullying/death), severe illness, physical torture(due illness) and emotinal breakdown.

Note: I’m not a native english speaker, fell free to point out via DM any mistakes.

Void Realm(aka Human World) - Same Day 11:30 PM

Victor decided to tell his three visitors everything he knew about the Sparda's twins; Sparda's story, the day Eva was killed, the mess of Temen-ni-gru, and at the end what happened in Mallet Island.

During dinner, Nero, among Kyrie and Nico, told Victor all what they knew and remembered about the Fortuna Incident and the Qliphoth Event.

"And now they're probably stuck in Hell", Nero finished.

"I see…" Victor said, quite thoughtful. "The problem is… the Qliphoth fruit helped Vergil to recover his heavily wounded magic and not make him overpowered like he thought it would happen. But I can't be sure if it also helped with his synchronization. Either way, you two doing Sync will be of great benefit for both."

Nero didn't say a thing. Just the slight idea of having to interact with Vergil, his so called blood father, again was making his nerves itch.

"But…" Victor kept saying. "How could you live this long? Without one of your parents to sync with, you should have died at a very young age, like… two years old."

Nero continued quiet, trying to understand why Victor was insisting so much about that.

Initially, he thought about the day he met Shooting Star Man; he was two years old, the "death age" Victor mentioned. But he’d rather not talk about that with a new person just like that, not even Nico knew about it yet.

"Don't you remember Sync with some woman?" Victor tried to help Nero recall some memory.

"I don't even know how's the sensation of being in Sync, dude." Nero contested, a bit annoyed.

Before continuing to speak, Victor had to adjust his glasses. "Well… as what my mother could briefly study about the twins, Sync in hybrids have some sort of 'bonuses'. Both parts can somehow connect mentally; they can feel what the other is feeling and as well share memories and theoretical knowledge. As for the magic, the twins described it as something very relaxing and peaceful - they didn't know it was a demon magic thing back then, but you got it."

"The peace thing makes sense since the magic energy is calming down," Nico added to Victor's explanation.

After the brief explanation, Nero couldn't hold but make a surprised face.

"Oh. Have you just remembered something?" Victor asked when he noticed Nero's reaction.

Nero was able to recall something, but just the fact of having to tell them that was making him sweat cold. He had a feeling it wasn't a good idea.

Hell - “Same moment”

Vergil and Dante were able to find a shelter to protect themselves from the fire rain: in the middle of the decaying remains of the Qliphoth tree they both sat inside a small cavern inside a massive root.

Dante was quite relaxed, he was laying his back in a small root, calmly waiting for the end of the rain.

Vergil sat a bit in front of his brother, he seemed to be tense for no apparent reason; he was tapping his feet nervously and rubbing his hands as if they were itching or something.

Once Dante couldn't stand his brother's silence anymore he got out of his place walking on his knees, when he got closer he said, "Bro, relax a little. You're too tense" and he gave a small tap on Vergil's right shoulder, unexpectedly making him do a little hop like a cat.

"Geez! Chill it." Dante said, quite surprised. "I'm not gonna attack you." and he moved a few steps backwards when his brother stared at him with eyes wide open scared.

Vergil couldn't think of something to reply to his brother, he was too surprised by how calm he was at that hostile place, such behavior didn't make sense to him; they could be attacked at any moment by some wild demon, but even so Dante was very chill.

Vergil then returned his gaze to outside, leaving his brother in an awkward silence.

The atmosphere was starting to make Dante feel uncomfortable; he recently had made up with his brother, thus regaining their brotherly rivalry, but that was the first time since their childhood they weren't fighting or discussing, instead, they were just in silence sitting close to each other.

Vergil could feel Dante's restless energy coming from behind him, but he had no idea what to say either.

Deep down their hearts, both had a lot of questions to ask each other, but none of them had a single clue in how to start a conversation that wasn't about who's with the highest score.

After long minutes of watching a literal fire rain, Dante was the one who finally took courage to break the ice: "Soooooo… Brother… Who was that 'Baby' you whispered about earlier? I swore you were talking about Nero's mom… Also! How was sh-?"

Vergil quickly interrupted him, rolling his eyes in annoyance, "I told you already, you will learn more about her when I tell Nero about it, he deserves to know that first."

Dante got annoyed by his brother's supposed etiquette, but regardless, he continued in his attempt to create a conversation: "Okay… but, what about the 'Baby'... person…? I guess? You got me curious, man! Especially about the part: 'this wouldn't be happening' thing," he said as he was getting a bit closer to Vergil again.

Vergil's normally stoic expression drastically changed to an uncomfortable one, he looked at the sky, took a deep breath, and let out a very sad sigh,"'Baby' was… a child… That wasn't his name, just how I used to call him. I never knew his name or how he truly looked like…"

Dante highly doubted Vergil's words. "What?! How? That doesn't make any sense yet. You gotta work on those explanations, bro"

"You remember what happened on Mallet Island? After you… -sigh- beat me?" Vergil replied with a bit of annoyance in the end.

"Uhh… yeah, you disappeared in a light…" Dante said a bit confused.

Vergil took a few seconds of silence, mentally gathering all the information he felt necessary to tell his brother before starting his explanation: "I honestly don't know how I did that… probably had something to do with Mundus' magic… I got teleported to somewhere else."

Surprisingly, Dante got quiet and Vergil had his full attention. Vergil didn't look behind him, but he could tell that Dante was staring at him like a curious child waiting for a new bedtime story.

Vergil cleaned his throat before continuing - "Thanks to you, I started to be able to have myself under my control again. I then began to try to fight Mundus' corruption over me, although the more I tried, the more it tormented me. Until I had an idea that would cost much more than I expected…"

Dante's eyes wide opened with curiosity but also of worry about the incoming words.

"Under all that pain...I truly panicked… and tried to Devil Trigger in an attempt to fight the corruption… " Vergil said low, recalling the pain of the said moment.

Dante gasped silently, even not knowing what happened, he was sure that terrible things had happened.

Vergil's voice started to get low and crumbling as those memories were like a living nightmare. "I could feel all my muscles and bones being crushed and twisted by the fight of the magic energies inside me. I couldn't scream, I could barely breathe and move either… I have no idea how much time has passed too."

Dante noticed that his brother started to feel apprehensive about that subject; Vergil was slightly sweating cold and pressing his hands against each other strongly.

But before Dante thought of something to say, Vergi continued to tell the story: "I can remember some very random and quick things that happened… I fought other demons… even humans and perhaps Devil Hunters too? I don't know, but I swore I was destined to feel that pain for eternity, until…"

Void Realm - “at the same moment”

“So, Nero” Victor called his attention. “Have you just remembered something?”

But Nero didn't respond, he was being reluctant to speak, they couldn't tell if it was because of his health state or something else. Kyrie tried to call him back to the conversation, “It’s about Monster, dear?” she said in a soft voice.

He raised his head a bit to look at her, with a visible sad face he replied low and insecure: “Yeah... “

He stayed quiet once again, staring at the void for a few seconds and avoiding eye-contact; Nico was getting anxious to know what was passing through Nero's mind, but Victor kept patiently waiting.

Finally, he looked at Victor and said, "I think… there was someone I connected with this way… but… he was a human that turned into a demon."

Victor raised his eyebrows in surprise, that didn't make much sense but he decided to not question, Nero was already emotionally unstable, it was better not provoke.

"Let's see then. If you don't mind telling the story," he asked politely.

Nero took a deep breath before starting, that subject wasn't that comfortable for him to talk about freely: "I was around six to seven years old, the de-sync started to happen with a higher frequency day by day… The other kids from the orphanage, especially the older ones, never liked me, and one day they were chasing me down in the woods on the outskirts of the city. Even not wanting to fight they still kept hunting me, they weren't satisfied until I passed out." Nero explained.

"Why?" Nico asked confused.

A bit uncomfortable with the subject, he tried to avoid, "I'd rather not talk about…"

He then continued, without making eye contact with Victor, he just continued to look at his own hands and sometimes to the void or away. "I couldn't run anymore, that's when they got me. The oldest was ready to punch me, but suddenly, a horrendous deformed… giant demon appeared from behind the trees. He was like what? four meters(13ft) high? He didn't need much to scare the shit out of them and send them back to the city, just a roar was enough."

Kyrie was the only one that already knew the story and how Nero would feel about it. She honestly wanted to speak in his place, but she felt better letting him put his feelings out by himself.

"I was the only one that didn't run. I was too tired already… and I didn’t want to return to the orphanage either." Nero said in a depressing tone.

(Hell)

"Have you attacked?" Dante asked curiously, yet worried.

"No" Vergil responded. "The others fled away very quickly and the one that left didn't do anything either. I wasn't going to waste my energy and feel more pain for no danger at all."

(Void)

"But the motherfucker didn't do shit", Nero added. "He left me hanging and just turned away!"

"When I saw him turning away, I yelled: "What are you doing?" But he completely ignored me"

"I yelled again, 'What's wrong with you?'."

(Hell)

"The kid came after me, but I didn't want to waste my energy. When I felt him touching my arm and yelling something - that I can't remember - I instinctively just waved my arm and threw him away."

(Void)

"I flew into a tree and all the stuff I was carrying in my small backpack got scattered around," Nero continued, his voice slowing down.

"You will need more than that to get rid of me!' I shouted to provoke him… but…"

He made a pause.

"But when I looked at him…"

"He was staring at one of the books I borrowed from the public library. He simply stayed there, kinda hypnotized by the thing, you know?"

"With the only hand he had entirely -the right one- he tried to pick up the book. His hand was huge and he knew that… but I think… he had terrible eyesight. The first few times he tried to hold the book, he let it fall because he didn't want to… 'hurt' it."

"He tried, over and over again. That scene was pitiful, to be honest. At a certain point, he started to wimp… kinda like a dog's painful crying: 'wimp wimp wimp'."

"and he tried... again and again, and again... the more he tried the louder the wimps we're getting."

"He was clearly in a panic… until then… he let out a very long and painful scream. It was when I noticed… he wasn't supposed to be like that...."

Victor interrupts, "why? What made you think that?"

Nero responded with sadness in his voice as he looked at Victor, "He was crying… Only through the right eye, but he was truly crying."

"'Do Devils cry?' I asked myself."

"During the screeching, he suddenly lost support on his left arm - the most severe and disproportionate one - and fell to the ground. The arm started to bleed around.. where I think it was the pulse… I couldn't tell, but the broken bone pierced through his skin. I noticed that the rest of his body he had various open wounds, that shit surely was hurting him badly. He then started to wimp uncontrollably while he was spitting blood out of the month, he was insanely trying to get up again but he barely could move his body."

"I don't know what the hell happened with me at that moment, but seeing and hearing all that suffering from him was starting to hurt me. I could feel my heart being pressed. My body moved by itself, I took off my jacket and went to try to... somehow help with the wound on his left pulse."

(Hell)

"I don't clearly remember how I got into that situation," Vergil continued. "I only remember very blurry images and immeasurable pain all over my body, especially at my left arm."

"In the middle of all that pain, I somehow could notice the kid getting closer to me. I tried to move away from him but that only was making the pain worse… I was unable to move."

"I couldn't see him clearly, but I heard: 'you weren't supposed to be like that, right?' from him."

"I remember… my heart and breath stopped when I heard he saying: 'Let me help you, stay quiet.'"

Vergil started to get visibly shaken from that point in front.

"Why? He could just have run away… but instead… he came to help me?! Why?! WHY?!"

"I guess... he did some bandages on my left hand… I couldn't move or see it anyway…"

Dante, a bit shocked by his brother's confusion, asked "Why are you so incredulous?"

Vergil turned at him quickly, his face of both anger and sadness. "WHY?! Because never in my entire life someone had lent a hand to me like that! Not even if I asked!"

Vergil recalled for a moment the difficult time he had after his mother's death; food shop owners didn't want to spare not even the smallest thing for him, some even shout him out, with the excuse he was acting. He couldn't find a good place to sleep and winter was a pain. He had to fight demons all alone. He had to manage to steal sustenance and clothes or get from the trash as the last resort.

"I didn't have the same luck as you, brother…" Vergil said harshly.

(Void)

All those memories were starting to make Nero more emotional, recall the monster's pain was very hurtful even to himself.

"I never discovered what turned him into that… but he was destroyed…" he added.

Victor then questioned, "And you just decided to help him? Just like that?"

"Yes… something told me he needed help… a feeling of he didn't deserve that…" Nero said quite sad.

But even being visibly shaken, he continued the story either way, "through the next days I decided to start stealing everything I thought could be the use of help with his open wounds."

Nico interrupted, "steal, man? why?"

"Who would believe in a six years old saying it needs help with a dying demon?!" Nero replied annoyed. "I had to do that myself. Blankets, towels, curtains, all those kinds of stuff I could get around the city, not just in the orphanage…"

-a pause-

"Also food… and the medicine I knew helped with such changes wounds, the one I remember the caretakers using on me."

Nero's tone slowly began to sound grievous, "He didn't leave the place I first saw him… he just waited for me there every day…"

“He couldn’t move, every time he tried he had to do so much strength. He was also… so cold... I tried to cover him the most I could… but even so… he couldn’t stop shivering. I could see that even those smallest moves hurt a lot… even breathing...”

“His wounds weren’t fresh. It was very difficult for me to make some bandages and mostly use the medicine… because whenever I tried he would start panicking and wimping all over again.”

“I used to say things like: ‘Stop, please! I can’t help you like this!’ or ‘collaborate, please!’ to try to keep him calm, but his pain also made me nervous as well.”

“The food was most difficult, the merchants got sharp eyes. The ones that knew me even got so mad that they started to throw stones at me."

Nico quickly stopped Nero's talk, "What the hell?! Fucking stones?!"

He stared at her, his eyes were blank, and then he said, with a low and grievous voice, everyone could sense the pain in the words, "When you are the... 'bastard, son of a whore, demon magnetic child' people just don't care about you…"

Nico didn't expect that, her face was of utter shock, which made her dead silent.

“I didn’t care about my wounds, tho… I just wanted to bring him food and water too. He needed help to eat and drink nonetheless. He used to eat and drink desperately, getting himself dirtier than he already was… he was definitely on his limit…”

Nero let out a desolate sigh while his eyes were getting teary.

(Hell)

Vergil's voice started to sound more painful the more he talked about the child: "The kid kept bringing new things everyday… cover sheets, bandages, food… even water and… medicine...I think? I barely could move anymore either way… I could only stay in the same place and watch…"

Dante started to feel his brother slowly getting more emotional with the subject; Vergil’s voice got low and he was also starting to discreetly sniff, his body was tense and his expression was of sadness: "He… he wasn't bringing all that stuff for himself… he brought blankets for covering me, to help me not suffer that much from the cold nights in the woods…“

“His voice… I’m sure I was hearing every pitch wrongly… but he sounded so… soft anyway: ‘here’s some food’, ‘come on, try to drink this’, ‘I hope you don’t feel so cold now’... and some many others.”

“My vision was a total mess, the colors were switched, the forms were distorted, I never got to know how he truly was or how he sounded… or even if the scent I remember was his true smell…” Vergil vented, as he remembered every single sensation of the kid taking care of him; the way the child had to hold his huge head up for him to drink water, how he had to pick every single food into tiny pieces because Vergil couldn’t chew. The child trying to cover his gigantic deformed body with small cover sheets or even towels.

Breaking Vergil's recall to the past, Dante asked him, “So… you never actually got to ‘know him for real’?”

“I think…” - a pause - “yeah… you’re right…” Vergil told him but looking away to the dark sky and the raining fire in Hell.

"I don't know how he did that… but there were times he used to hug me, or even just touch, and the pain almost got away completely… it was when I was able to breathe without pain for a few minutes..."

He closed his eyes, deep recalling those moments of calm and inner peace. Those were some of the memories he holded dearest, the sensation of being hugged by the child, or at least he thought it was. The kid stroking his head and singing lullabies to calm him down. Such gentle touch from his tiny hands on his wounded head and skin was something he could never forget, even if that used to hurt as well.

Before opening his eyes, Vergil let out a deep sigh, that made Dante get an idea of how much that unknown kid meant to his brother and he was starting to connect the dots with what Vergil said earlier.

"Why?" Vergil said in an indignant tone. "Why did he do all that to me?!"

He turned to Dante, he was very confused and incredulous, "What I did to that kid?! Why did he help me not wanting anything in return?! He never requested something back!"

Dante's eyes wide-opened surprised about his brother's confusion and he asked himself: 'He didn't understand what happened?'

Vergil's voice became louder as he was letting out old thoughts of painful memories, "Why, brother?! WHY!? There were even some days he appeared with wounds; he said it was the people that didn't like him, they hurt him to push him away because they didn't want to give the stuff to him. I could smell the blood, his wounds...he…-inhales- Why was he sacrificing himself?! He was doing all that to me… TO MEEEE! A PITIFUL WEAK USELESS THING I WAS!"

Dante even leaned back scared after Vergil's last scream, that behavior was quite unexpected coming from such a person that is always composed.

"I was weak! I was dying! No one cares for a weakened demon, they just let them die! He could have called hunters to finish me… BUT NO! He did the total opposite!" Vergil kept yelling extremely confused.

"I remember the stories he told me… and sometimes, during moments of physical contact, I saw some of his...memories? -I guess they were - he was an orphan! No one wanted him, everyone else hated him for no reason and the older kids used to hurt him for fun! HE WAS JUST A LITTLE KID! Why didn't he request me to pay back those people in return for the favors he was doing to me?! That's not how it was supposed to work?!” Vergil yelled while huffing out of breath.

Dante gently touched Vergil's shoulder and just gave a calm look at him, like telling him to take easy on his nerves; Understanding his brother's signals, Vergil took an incredibly deep breath in an attempt to calm down, but his disturbed face and stiff body remained.

"That's called empathy, bro…" Dante said softly.

Vergil took a moment to process what Dante said, but he kept looking at him confused. "What?!" he yelled.

Dante hardly believed that his brother never experienced an act of empathy before and stared at him confused as well.

"Empathy. You know… that thing of being able to understand what the other is feeling? To put yourself in the place of the other?" Dante tried to explain, but that only made Vergil more confused. His silence and as well doubtful face made the situation more awkward for Dante - making him visibly worried.

"Well… it's a human heart thing… Empathy generates compassion and that's what moved the kid to help you. He understood your suffering and decided to help you out. He didn't see you like what you described, he saw you as a living being." Dante tried again.

Vergil was slowly starting to understand; it didn't need much for him to recall Nero helping him when he was V and also the people himself helped when he was V during the Qliphoth roots' rampage.

"That's what moves humans to help others? That's how it's called?" Vergil asked confused.

"Yes!" Dante replied happily and a bit relieved. "Such strong empathy like that kid is incredibly rare to be witnessed, especially nowadays. People like that must be protected at all costs, not just because of their kind heart, but also because they can kill themselves because of it. Humans like that are worth fighting for."

Dante's words made Vergil a bit uneasy as if he did something wrong with the kid during a part of the story he hasn't told yet.

And Dante kept talking: "That's what is amazing about humans. But... demons think that's a weakness… well, that's, in fact, a weakness, it's incredibly dangerous but it's also their strongest point! For demons, self-preservation is more important than anything, meanwhile, some humans don't give a shit about that if it's necessary to protect what is important. They rather die sacrificing themselves, and for demons that's a shame, especially coming from a species that's magically and physically inferior…"

*Unfortunately…" Dante's enthusiasm vanished away very quickly. "The own mankind created such a society through the past decades where that kind of stuff is being suppressed...by themselves! And apathy is going apeshit everywhere… This is another reason why that kind of person should be safeguarded… otherwise, mankind will only keep hurting itself."

"I think… 'Apathy' should be considered a Deadly Sin… since the current seven are all based on it…" he said scratching his head.

They stayed in silence for a few seconds, hence Vergil had no idea about what Dante said at the end. They both returned to gaze at the fire raining (supposedly)night sky for a few minutes until Vergil broke the silence: "These kind people you said… It's pretty much like Baby and… Nero…"

"Yeah, you're right…" Dante said calmly without looking at Vergil.

"This thing of sacrifice itself…" Vergil then continued the story, but talking at a more slow pace, "There was one day… Baby didn't come… I was like 'I was abandoned again?'

"Aah…About that..." Dante interrupted a bit unnerved.

But Vergil responded quickly "I know! But back then I didn't! -ahem- I was finally able to get up a bit and worried something may have happened, I decided to pursue his scent…"

(Void)

Nero continued his side of the story, even with the feeling of his throat closing because of the incoming subject: "It was very difficult to take care of him… He didn't have the strength to lift his head or to chew some food… gosh… he smelled so bad, such a strong scent of dry blood and… other disgusting stuff -if you know what I mean- but eventually, I learned how to ignore that awful scent. He used to shiver so much… his extremity members were cold like ice…"

-a pause for a deep breath-

He then continued: "every little movement he tried to do he whimpered in pain… he barely could leave the place we first met. I was getting used to calming him down with some gentle physical contact like strokes on his head… but even so…"

-sigh-

"There were some moments I hugged or when I just touched him and I could feel what he was feeling… it was an immeasurable pain… Other moments… -It's very confusing, to be honest- But I think I was able to see his memories? I guess...?"

"How did they look?" Victor asked, interrupting Nero.

"Aah… well… a huge old man, long-ass beard and with feathery wings… hmmm.. aaaaand... aaaa... red third eye…? He was all white as if he was a statue and had a huge hole in his chest. He always appeared to be torturing him…" Nero said a bit uneasy, he remembered that as if it was his memories.

Victor closed his eyes and let out a concerned sigh, he knew Nero was talking about Mundus, but that wasn't the moment to tell him.

Nero looked at him worried, not understanding what was going on, although he suspected it wasn't something good.

"Just… keep going," Victor said apprehensively.

"The ones that most scared me was when the old man was taking off his members, like, literally. He used them to create monsters…" Nero shivered just with the slightly recalling his eyes even got teary from thinking about that.

He quickly passed his hand on his eyes to clean up the tears, before someone could notice them, "that always made me jump off the place, those images and some others were always storming his thoughts… I guess it was his thoughts… He cried every time I saw them…"

"Considering his reactions about those images and the state he was… I think he didn't deserve to be like that… he wasn't like that because he wanted… I think that old man did that to him…  -sigh- ...he was so needy… he hanged his head in my lap every time I used to sit closer..."

Nero's eyes got more watery than before, he tried once again to hold his emotions and clean his eyes.

Before continuing, he took a deep breath to focus back and keep posture. "Well… there was one day I was trying to stealthily leave the orphanage… but the older kids got me. They were so pissed at me because they discovered it was me that had stolen some of their things… Pfft! They used to destroy and also steal my stuff… so fuck them. But I couldn't escape that time… and I was missing the hour to go meet with Monster…"

(Hell)

"I followed his trail with a bit of difficulty, mostly because of the pain all over my body, but I could find him," Vergil continued.

"Somehow I could hear more people around… so, I stayed behind some trees… or was it a wall? well..." but he hesitated to continue.

"What was happening?" Dante asked curiously.

"Some other kids… I guess… they were not so taller than him and were apparently fighting him. They had the advantage in numbers, he couldn't handle them all." Vergil said low.

"How did you know who he was?" Dante questioned.

"I learned how to recognize him… somehow… his shape and colors we're different from the others and as well his scent…" Vergil answered.

"I remember the other ones saying 'you freak! you're not just the son of a whore but also a thief?', 'what are you doing with our stuff?' I could feel his tiredness of the fight, he then replied: 'I needed them for a…" Vergil suddenly paused as if something got stuck on his throat.

"I needed them for a…?" Dante repeated, anxious for the end of the phrase.

Vergil kept quiet for almost a minute, holding back his next word. He was visibly tense, but Dante attempted to incentive him to continue with the story: "Brother? What happened then?"

No answers, although Vergil had closed his eyes and was biting his lips in tension, he was holding his emotions the maximum he could.

"Bro… listen…" Dante said softly while he put his hand on Vergil's shoulder. "Don't hold back your feelings like this… Put it out, let then go…"

But his brother continued immobile.

"I'm not gonna judge or mock you… I promise." Dante continued to try to convince Vergil. "Look, you can even stab me as much as your heart desires if I do something I shouldn't."

Vergil let out air since he was also holding his breath a little and something Dante never expected happened, not even when they were kids: Vergil's eyes started to become teary.

Yes, tears. Dante couldn't believe what he was witnessing.

"Friend," Vergil said low and with grief.

"He said… 'I needed them for a friend' -sniff- 'I have a friend that needs help, but you wouldn't help me anyway," Vergil said with agony in his voice.

"Friend… friend… friend...FRIEND!" He then looked at Dante with a quick turn and shouted in pain, "HE CALLED ME HIS FRIEND!" and a few tears rolled out in his face.

"WHAT DID I DO?! BROTHER, PLEASE! TELL ME!" Vergil screamed in panic and confusion. "WHAT HAVE I DONE?! WHY HE WAS DOING ALL THAT TO ME?! I CAN'T UNDERSTAND!"

"Why do you think you didn't deserve that?" Dante nearly broke Vergil's sanity with that question.

Vergil suddenly got an empty look, as he never thought about that, he could only stutter trying to come up with an answer.

"T-T-That's not how it works… That never happened before… Y-Yo-you got to do something to receive such a thing… right?! RIGHT?!" Vergil was on the edge of freaking out.

Dante took a long breath, to not absorb his brother's messed up aura. He kept his voice calm and low for don't provoke him more: "No, bro… Kindness is not an award, it is a gift. The kid saw something in you and thought you deserved that… What was it? I don't know."

Vergil's face turned blank, he'd never thought like that before… the way he lived didn't let it anyway, he had no idea about why and how that happened with him.

"So… what did you do to help the child?" Dante asked rather calmly.

(Void)

"The kids were beating the shit out of me… but I didn't give up on trying to flee from them. I didn't want to fight, I just wanted to return to my… friend." Nero continued, his voice getting low while sadness was taking over him.

"I even tried to explain to them that I was doing that for someone that needed more than them, but that only made them madder…"

-a pause-

"I don't know where he came from, but Monster just suddenly jumped off in the middle of the orphanage's backyard. He roared so loud that he even let a huge blue fire column go out of his mouth. He came straight to the bullies and swinging only his right hand he tossed all of them away in a single move! POF! ...He then stayed over me as if he was trying to shield me or something."

"His wounds were bleeding all over again, he must have made a shit ton of strength to reach the orphanage."

"The other kids recognized him from that day… the oldest even shouted: 'I knew it you were a freak, but this is too much!' That only made Monster angrier, he wanted to go for the kill."

"He started to prepare another fire breath, but I couldn't let him do that. I jumped in front of him and shouted 'NO! Don't kill them! It will only make it worse for you!' hoping that he would understand me…"

"And that worked?" Nico asked nervously with the story.

"Yes," Nero responded. "He stopped at the same moment and looked at me very confused. I also could hear the adults screaming to call the Order's knights at the same moment."

"'You have to get out of here' I yelled. 'They will kill you!'"

"I don't think he understood what I meant at first because he suddenly grabbed me by my shirt's collar using his mouth and threw me on his back. He got away from the place very quickly into the woods, I don't know how he was able to stand the pain… he was going relatively fast… and when already far from the orphanage, he tripped on his own legs and arms."

"I was launched out of his back and surprisingly I didn't blacken out when I crashed over a tree. I got up in a rush and the moment I spotted him I saw he was all bleeding… all again, he was back to zero. He was whimpering in pain again, but even so, he was trying to get up."

"I ran to help him out, I didn't know how I would help him, but I went to try anyway."

(Hell)

"I don't remember exactly what happened… The next thing that's more clear in my memory is both of us in the woods. I was trying to get up, but my weakened body and the extreme pain weren't letting me." Vergil explained with a bit of confusion on his face.

"'You have to go! The Order's Knights will kill you!' he yelled at me"

"Hold up!" Dante interrupted. "’Order’? The Order of the Sword?!”

"Yes…" Vergil replied low and slow.

"You were in Fortuna?!” Dante yelled at him quite stunned.

"Yes… Don't ask me how…" Vergil said with a bit of embarrassment.

(Void)

"I was trying to make him get up… but like… he was countless times bigger than me," Nero said with a sarcastic smile.

"I was starting to hear the Knights' yelling and running around the woods looking for him. That only made me more nervous… The only thing I had in mind was: 'they will kill him'."

"Out of nowhere, blue light strips appeared around us and I could make one hell of strength to make him get up. And when I looked at my arms and hands… there were my spectral arms, helping him to stand and move away, they were rather proportional to his size."

"I thought out loud: 'What is this? Your magic?! Thanks! That's gonna help a lot!'"

"Wait!" Victor stopped the story. "Through years you thought your demon magic was a gift from him?"

Nero kept staring at Victor with a surprised, yet embarrassed face. "Oh, well… -scratches his head- I could only use my spectral arms while in contact with him…so..."

"Hmm… makes sense...I would also expect such thoughts from a six years old that grew up thinking it was a human… well, part human in this case." Victor said calmly.

"Sorry for interrupting, continue, please." He asked politely.

Already thinking about what was coming along the story, Nero was already getting nervous and more shaken once more.

The sadness in his voice we're getting apparently the more he spoke: "We ran… and ran… and ran… and like everything can get worse, it started to rain, at least it helped clean his wounds a little. It was so dark, but my 'magical arms' could illuminate the way. At some point, we were able to find a small cave. Monster's absurd size and disproportion nearly didn't let him get in, but he could lay down to rest."

"I could make my spectral arms disappear, but there were the blue strings there yet...They weren't making any illumination tho." Nero said it was a bit uncertain.

"That's because isn't something 'material', it's like...infrared and ultraviolet rays, and only demons and half-demons can see it," Victor explained. "although, it can be seen with special cameras," he added.

Immediately, Kyrie made a worrisome face and Nico looked at her scared as well. The lights that only she could see and apparently, Trish as well, was an actual demon thing and not demon-magic related. That would also explain why Nico couldn't see them. What could that mean? Haven't Kyrie only obtained demon magic but it also turned into one… or she was still turning? After Nero's case, she was the next one to talk with Victor but the feeling of uncertainty we're only making her anxious.

"Ah… that would explain how they didn't find us…" Nero continued, without noticing the girls' reaction. Unfortunately, Victor did and he was already preparing questions for them.

"When the rain stopped I went back to the first place I was taking care of him and got our stuff back. Monster had fainted from tiredness and only woke up the next day."

"I haven't returned to the orphanage either."

(Hell)

"I don't remember too much of how we got in that cave, but the kid didn't return to the city, it was the first time he passed the night with me," Vergil said.

"That night was also the first time I had dreams in a long time… but I don't think they were mine, they were memories from the kid…" Vergil then made a pause, he remembered the child's memories as if they were his.

Dante was getting nervous since he discovered that little kid was from Fortuna; he had a feeling that 'Baby' could actually be 'Nero' since he was aware about the Sync's traits and many of what his brother described matched with.

Vergil had let out a depressing sigh before continuing to speak: "I could see more clearly than before how his life was… It also reminded me of mine… loneliness, pain, and sorrow… But that child didn't have a special sword or demonic powers to take care of himself alone… he was dependent on people that didn't care about him."

(Void)

"When Monster woke up I was outside the cave, wondering what I would do about my little life… the people from the orphanage definitely wouldn't want me back and I was one hundred percent sure I wouldn't be adopted after what happened. I had nowhere to go." Nero said quite sad, his eyes were getting teary again.

(Hell)

"He was just sitting right in front of the cave entrance." Vergil continued. "The pain on my body had returned, I could barely move again."

"'What I will do?' he asked me. 'No one will ever adopt me now… not after they discovered I have a demon friend…' and he started to cry… it was a quiet cry."

"…and ...I still can't understand what happened to me... His painful crying made my heart hurt… psychologically hurt… not literally. I didn't want to see him like that… I knew how much that was painful…"

Dante made an embarrassed smile without his brother noticing; Vergil just had described a moment of empathy, a thing that a few minutes ago he had no idea even how it was called.

Dante then thought: "You have so much to learn about your humanity, bro…"

"He then turned to me and said, 'I don't want to come back…' his voice was more trembling than before." Vergil continued with sadness in his voice. "His face was a big distorted blur to me, but somehow I could identify his tears dripping down his face."

"I honestly didn't think rationally at that moment, I just wanted his welfare. That child… he's been doing so much for me without me saying a thing and for nothing in exchange… I couldn't leave him hanging in the wind like that."

Dante, even having an idea about what was coming, became so hyped to know what would happen next that he got very close to his brother, nearly starting to invade his personal space. Vergil didn't like all that proximity, but he hasn't complained… yet.

"I extended my right hand to him, inviting him to get closer to me, hoping that he would understand what I meant with that."

"He did?" Dante asked curiously.

"He hasn't understood the first few times I made the signal, he kept staring at me for a brief moment, until he said 'Do you want to adopt me?'" Vergil explained.

(Void)

Nero was already in tears without even finishing to tell that part of the story. He was sobbing and crying as if he was living that moment all again. He began to desperately try to stop crying and to clean his tears, Kyrie even got closer and handed a soft tissue to him.

"It's okay to cry, Nero. No need to be ashamed of your tears." Victor said in an attempt to tranquilize Nero.

"Yeah, man," Nico said worriedly. "No one will judge you, I promise."

Nero tried to take his breath back between many hiccups and sobbings in an attempt to regain his posture, but that was impossible, that moment was too shocking for him.

"H-He.. he.. -sob- He wanted me -sniff- he was the only o-one… tha-that… -sniff-  aaa-accepted me… that didn't see me as a… -sob sob- freak… a-a-a problem…-sniff sob sob-"

(Hell)

"I just waved my head confirming what he asked and he suddenly broke. He began to cry out loud like a newborn baby."

"sniff"

That "sniff" totally surprised Dante; Vergil was unexpectedly once again shaken and teary with the story. That kid surely meant a lot to him after everything they passed together.

"He came at me running for a hug… and kept crying like that for so long that he nearly lost his voice. He hugged me tight around my neck -sniff- as if I just had saved him from. death..."

Vergil stopped to take a breath and, surprisingly, he tried to clean a few tears. "And then... -sniff-...after that we began to live together… but I have no idea for how long… I just remember that he grew up a lot."

(Void)

"We then lived together for… six years…" Nero said between sobbings.

"He was my best friend… almost like a father… still… -sniff-... we had to take care of each other. But through the years his condition was getting better -sob- his body was getting more proportional and looking 'human-ish', he didn't have more pain like before… almost none to be more exact -sob- the pieces of the some short of armor he had started to fall off his body too."

"What do you mean?" Nico asked. "He was like… 'healing' or something?"

"I think?" Nero replied a bit confused as he scratched his head.

"Most of the time his actions weren't like a demon's, he mostly looked like a human in a demon body." Nero tried to explain.

"One day I asked him if he was a human once, he took a long time to answer, like five minutes almost, but he said 'yes'. Although… It took him hours to explain to me that he was half-human. He tried to explain other things but he couldn't because of his condition; he couldn't write or draw and much less speak. He gave up on the explanation and we never talked about it again."

"So, you never asked him how he was when human?" Victor asked with a bit of suspicion.

"No…I was waiting for him to speak and move better..." Nero answered quickly. "But I would be lying if I say I never tried to imagine…"

-a brief pause-

Nero giggled when he remembered about a silly thing.

"We.. we made up a 'special handshake' if he returned to be human when I wasn't looking…" he said with an embarrassed smile. "I never forgot how it was -sigh"

(Hell)

"It was very difficult to live around a demon-infested forest with a dependent child, a debilitated body and the Order of the Sword hunting us down," Vergil said sadly.

His face became sadder and more tears started to form as he continued to speak

"But he was someone I swore to myself I would protect", he said fiercely but still with a sad tone in the voice.

Vergil quickly cleaned his tears, expecting that his brother hadn't noticed them. But even sitting a bit behind him, Dante could tell by his movements what was happening.

"I tried to teach him what I knew of sword and fist fighting, fortunately whenever we touched each other and some kind of...lights...? I guess, appeared around us, I only had to think about the theory and he would learn right away, he just had to practice."

"While the time was passing I could feel Mundus' magic fading away veeeeeery slowly... as if I was being purified somehow. My body was getting back to normal, I wasn't feeling that much pain anymore, sometimes I even felt nothing wrong… but I was still a mess."

Dante dry swallowed a bit audible; that was more proof of Sync, a Parent and Child or Siblings of same parents exclusive stuff. A little brother of them the kid couldn't be, so the only possible conclusion was a child from Vergil.

Confused, Vergil turned back after hearing his brother's nervous noises. Dante couldn't hide his anxious face, that gave to Vergil a very suspicious feeling.

Dante then giggled nervously, "sorry, keep going…"

Vergil stared at him with skepticism, but he continued the story either way. "There were some moments I… I just wanted to hold him closer… comfort him with gentle strokes and give him kisses in the head."

He then wrapped his arms around his chest, like demonstrating a hug, while he made a face of joy and he said with a tender voice: "I wanted to tickle him to make him laugh… Play silly children activities like hide-and-seek…I wanted to read bed-time stories for him, cooking him food… and so many other things…sigh..."

His face was of pure happiness, that kid was very precious to him; thinking about the good times they passed together was one of the few ways for Vergil to be able to smile, a discreet but honest and pure smile of happiness.

Dante finally came to a concrete realization and interrupted Vergil: "You mean… The things mom used to do for us?" he asked, expecting a certain reaction.

Vergil stopped to think for a brief moment; his brother was right. Everything he wished to be able to do was everything he remembered what their mother did for them.

He turned to look at Dante, his face was of surprise, he never related the things like that before. It was when Dante knew that his brother had some parenting instincts and love hidden somewhere inside him. He just needed a chance to put them into practice.

But the problem was: what if Baby is Nero? Vergil had hurt the most precious person in his life for his "more-power-quest"? And how both parts would react when they discover they already knew each other?

Should he tell Vergil his thoughts? Tell him the deep details about Sync, since he seemed to not know them? Dante saw himself in a very complicated and delicate crossroads.

"I think...I understood why you called him 'baby'" Dante said calmly, trying to keep his anxiety away.

"Ahn?" Vergil blurted. "That was a misunderstanding, to be honest: a few days after I invited him to stay with me, he asked if I would give him a name. My debilitated mouth and tongue didn't let me speak a single comprehensive word. I tried to say 'maybe', but he understood 'baby', and no matter what I tried there was no way I could either speak or he understood me. So, we stuck with 'Baby'".

Dante surely wasn't expecting that; the disappointment had hit him like a truck, he was expecting something cute, something special… but no, it was just a misunderstanding.

"But… Why… "wanted"? You weren't able to do a single thing of that?" Dante asked, even already knowing the answer.

Vergil's joy quickly vanished, as if Dante just had stabbed him on his back. "How could I? In that state?! Even after all that time, we passed together, in the end, I could not even speak or see him clearly. The maximum I could do was hold him closer and nothing else."

They passed a few seconds in silence until Dante came with the worst question he could have done about that subject: "Well… what happened with the kid then?”

Vergil's soul left his body at that moment. Only to think about it made him visibly depressed. He started to stare at the void, his eyes had no shine anymore as if he just died that moment.

(Void)

"He used to teach me how to sword fight and also how to fight bare hands. I learned all the basics with him… although… I don't know how, but when that lights appeared, I used to instantly know about whatever he wanted to teach me." Nero explained, with a bit of confusion on his tone.

“Sometimes I had those… ‘de-sync breakdowns’… but being with him helped me endure the pain… I don’t know how that happened…but somehow it hurt him a bit as well. With time that stopped to happen and only came back a few weeks ago nowadays."

Now even Nico and Kyrie were with the feeling that Monster was in fact, Vergil. Everything Nero was describing matched with the description of Sync Victor gave to then early.

Nero giggled remembering every good moment he passed with his best friend. "When he was feeling good, we used to go to the city late at night and steal stuff. Clothes for me, food, cover sheets, and so on. Hehe. When he was in a good mood, rare times, we used to steal food from delivery guys, especially the ones from pizzerias. Or even watch TV from the windows of some houses… I could watch something, I don't know about him. I remember he loved to hear me reading books to him too… He always wanted to try to read them too, but he definitely couldn't because of his wounded eyes… - sigh."

"Why did you call him Monster?" Nico questioned, quite curious about.

"I don't know exactly, I just started to call him like that… Nowadays I think it's quite an ironic name… he only looked like a monster… but he was more human with me than every actual human I ever met…"

"He was so affectionate…" he said with a smile. "Not at the very beginning, he turned with time. He liked to hold me closer, especially during bedtime. He tried to do some gentle moves like… stroke or pat my head, but his size and lack of better control of his moments didn't let him do that so well…"

"... he even made up a clicking noise to pretend it was a kiss… sigh…"

"But… what happened to him?" Victor asked, taking off Nero's happiness from his face. That was the worst question someone could make about the monster.

Then, both Nero(at Void) and Vergil(at Hell) started to recall and talk about that fateful day:

Fortuna - back to 13 years ago - 04:00 AM

Baby and Monster were sneaking their way through the city, going in the direction of the port area.

Monster was wearing a dirty cloak, he was almost the size of a tall human by that time, although his large horns made a weird shape on the cloak’s hood. Since his body was almost proportional now, he was able to walk on his legs, only needing an improvised cane Baby made using hardwood to support himself standing.

Baby was at the end of his childhood, around twelve years old. He was wearing some humble clothing that he stole from a shop and on his backpack, also stolen, he was carrying the few material things they had. On his waist, it had a badly forged iron sword, a failed attempt to recreate a katana that he made among Monster.

When the Port got on sight, Baby whispered, "Finally! We need to get into one of those big commercial ships and we will finally get out of this hell.

They both went slow and silent through the darker areas of the place, contouring every lamp post and the one or two workers they spotted. Until they reached a medium-sized cargo ship; an uncommon kind of commerce ship that docks on Fortuna's Port bringing special products from the continent.

"Now we just need to get in thought the anchor" Baby whispered excitedly.

But before he gave the next step, Monster gently touched his shoulder calling his attention to him. Baby turned at him visibly confused but when he saw the gesture Monster was doing he understood what it was: he was calling him for a hug.

Baby could tell that his friend was trying to smile, Monster had to kneel to look at him eye to eye and his arms were stretched toward him, calling him closer.

Nero didn't get why that right now, but he didn't question, he went straight to the hug. They hugged tightly and tenderly and the time seemed to have stopped, they were enjoying every second of that comforting hug. Monster felt his heart warming, that feeling of seeing Baby happy was indescribable. While Baby was immeasurable happy about how much his friend got better.

They didn't want that moment to end, it was the first time they were able to do a decent hug, even if Monster's arms weren't totally recovered. Monster was even purring like a big cat for much of Baby's fun.

"Thank you...I love you Monster, you're my hero." Baby said from the bottom of his heart.

Those words were going to get stuck on Monster's mind forever, but it was him that wanted to say that most.

'No… you that saved me, my baby… I love you too' Monster thought. But he was so desperate to say such words that he tried to talk, unfortunately his vocal cords and tongue haven't healed enough and he could only mumble mostly random demonic noises and a syllable or two.

"it's okay…" Baby said when he noticed his friend's despair. "I can't wait for your mouth and neck to get better so we can have actual talks" he giggled.

"Let's go" he called him, gesturing for them to keep walking.

Once they were side by side with the anchor's huge chains, Baby said quite confidently:  "Are you rea-?" he suddenly was interrupted by a loud painful screaming from Monster.

When he turned, he couldn't believe his eyes, Monster got stabbed on his back by a silver sword that pierced through his chest. It wasn't the same sword type the Order's Knights used.

The sword slightly opened its blade in the middle like a jaw and quickly drained Monster's energy, making him scream in pain again.

"MONSTER!" Baby shouted with all his strength.

He sprinted to help his friend, but twenty or more Order's Knights jumped out from inside the crates that were closer to the ship.  

"The Order?! How?!" Baby yelled in panic. All those years living hidden from them, how they finally found the double?

The silver sword got out of Monster's body quickly; the fatigue caused by the energy drain made his -already unstable- body fall to the ground. Behind him, it had a woman in the Order's Knight uniform, the hood and low light were hiding her face and she was holding another sword, of the same look, on her other hand.

"Finally found you, you brainless beast," she muttered. "What's your problem in dying?"

Baby ran towards his friend's body on the cold metal floor of the dock, he was bleeding tremendously. He didn't have time to think about what that sword did to him. The moment he got closer Monster was still conscious, but he was weak once again.

Baby was on the edge of freak out: "No. No. No. No. No! You just got so much better! Why?!"

He tried to help him get up, but two Knights rapidly dragged him away from Monster. They quickly turned his hands to his back and wrapped his pulses together with a silver rope that had some strange runes written on it - immediately he felt his strength being drained and he kneeled tired as if he had just trained for the entire day.

"NO! Monster!" He shouted, feeling even his breath getting heavier.

Monster was feeling weak because of the energy drain, he felt the same tiredness he had years ago. But this time there wasn't pain aside from the stabbing on his chest, he could do that, he MUST and he WILL protect his child.

He started to concentrate strength on his arms to get up, his almost fully regenerated wings opened wide to intimidate the Knights, revealing his demonic body under the cloak, they also now had a blue glow inside that helped to illuminate just a little the place.

The woman with the pair of odd swords rolled her eyes before going straight to stab Monster's left hand against the floor. He didn’t scream but his face was of real pain.

She stabbed his hand so strong that the sword got stuck on the metal floor, with the strength he had left he couldn’t take his hand out of the place so quick and easy, dragging him into the beginning of insanity.

He roared scared, kinda telling Baby to run away.

Baby tried to untangle from the Knights' tight grips: He jumps and shakes his body, fighting to get free… But the ropes had cut off all of his strength and the Knights were being able to hold him like a normal kid. All that effort only made him more breathlessly.

Under all that stress he could only think: "What's going on with me?! If I don't do something they will kill him! He's not one hundred percent yet!”

Monster realized that Baby wouldn't get out on his own, he tried to get his hand out of the sword trapping, with no results. The only way would let the sword cut its way through his hand for he can get out, leaving his left hand useless for the moment.

"Spare me of this shit…" the woman said, annoyed by the attempts of the double to get out of that situation through the last minute.

"Listen, you piece of shit!" She called Monster's attention. "If you come with us in peace, we won't do anything with the kid."

She gets very close to him and whispers, for only him to hear it: "I know you can understand me… Nelo Angelo."

Her last two words made his blood boil.

Hear that name again triggered nightmares and traumas that he already had suppressed years ago thanks to his life with Baby.

Monster roared loudly and in despair, just for the fact that the woman had that information, she was surely dangerous and probably somehow knew Mundus.

He goes fully charged with his right arm at her, his claws ready to slaughter, but she could easily dodge by kneeling.

Monster barely could move his chest to turn around because of his stuck hand.

He threw his body forward, his mouth was wide open to get her.

Unfortunately, the woman was countless times faster than him.

He got close enough to take a piece out of her, but he had bitten the air. She did a high jump over his head and landed on his back, going down with everything she got and smacking his chest against the metal floor.

For some reason, she hated Monster and that could easily be seen in her vicious eyes.

With the other sword she had in her hands, she began a quick yet cruel multiple stabbing on his back.

The sword had not just pierced him, but it also drained his energy and magic at every stab.

Baby screamed in pain so loud that he almost lost his voice. Monster could do nothing either except shout in pain.

"STOP! STOOOOOOOP!" Baby screamed in panic and started to cry uncontrollably, that was the only thing he could do in that situation.

The woman jumped off from Monster's back, her sword dripping his blood as well her leggings and cape dirty with it as well. She took off the sword from his left hand and stabbed in his right hand, but he couldn't move anymore, he returned to zero all over again.

"WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?! YOU ARE THE MONSTER HERE, YOU SCUM!" Baby shouted with his most honest anger and panic towards the unknown woman.

Baby couldn't see her face but could feel her stare at him. The pressure was immeasurable, but it hasn't shaken him anyway.

She made a hand signal to one of the Knights to let the kid go. At the moment they had taken off the rope from his pulses, he ran away towards his friend - his face was completely wet with his desperate tears.

"Monster! Monster please… no… you have to get out of here!" Baby cried in panic, trying to help him get up.

But he was so weak… again. He tried to give his arms some strength the maximum he could, but the energy-draining made that an impossible task.

The woman pulled Baby, holding on the neck collar of his jacket, with ease away from Monster.

Very close to losing his conscience, Monster kept trying to get up and even charge some magic to help Baby. Unfortunately, all of his efforts were useless, he was already out of battle.

Baby couldn't speak, he only could stare at the image of his best friend dying in front of him and he couldn't do a thing about it.

Mentally, Monster was in a total panic, his body and magic weren't responding to his commands anymore, but he kept trying to get up anyway.

"AAAAAH!"

Monster had a bad vision, but he could see and understand what happened right in front of him: Baby was stabbed in the chest by the woman and a few blood drops had fallen on Monster's face.

The sword then electrocuted him with a deadly high voltage: "AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"

Monster's heart and soul slowly started to die together with Baby.

"You two can't stay together, that's not how it's supposed to work," she told him drily and dreadfully while she threw Baby's dead body in the ocean.

Monster died inside together with the sound of the “splash” of Baby’s body in the water.

The Knights could easily chain him up and take him to a big vehicle, transporting him to the Order's Headquarters after that.

Through a few years, the Order used him and the pieces they found of his armor to create their Angelos. They thought they were draining his magic, although, somehow he managed to hold the most he could his own magic and he made them drain all of Mundus' corruption out of him.

That nearly had the cost of his life, but he was able to regain his full consciousness and "original form" at a high cost.

One day we faked his death and was able to flee from the facility in a killing spree. That happened a few weeks before the Fortuna incident.

Through the next years, he lived that moment of Baby's death over and over, corrupting him from inside out; making him realize once again how weak he was, that he didn't deserve a human life or either love. His human side was only responsible for his and his loved ones suffering and that he had to return for his search of power because of his weakness and this time… no matter what, even if that meant discarding a part of himself.

Meanwhile, Baby survived the stab of that day and found himself on a shore later, still at Fortuna.

He went to live around the outskirts of Fortuna for a long time, attacking and sometimes even killing by accident every Knight he spotted on the path between the city and the Order's headquarters. He questioned every single one of them about Monster, but none of them knew what he was talking about.

Until he attacked Credo, that had an idea about what he was looking for.

Credo and Kyrie's parents accepted Baby to live among them since he had white hair and some connection with demons, very similar to the description of the figure they worshipped: Sparda.

Unfortunately, a few weeks later they got killed by a demon, thus, bringing the "demon magnet curse" back to haunt Baby.

He then joined the Order with the only intention of getting good equipment and to get inside the HQ to look for Monster.

A few weeks before the incident with the Savior, Credo was able to bring for Baby, in secret, a copy of documents talking about Monster… only for him to discover that his best friend had died.

Void Realm - Pitch Black City: Back to the present

Kyrie had to finish the story from Nero's "death" in front since she knew it as well, all because Nero was sobbing and sniffing uncontrollably, his tears were too much for he could clean it and he was too shaken to be able to speak.

Nico never expected to feel so sorry for Nero, she was aware he had a tough life, but not that much… Victor was also feeling bad for him, but he had to tell him the truth, the only possible truth. What he didn’t expect was the reaction that was about to come.

They waited in silence nearly an hour for Nero to calm down, it was already very late in the night.

“Nero...” Victor started slowly, breaking the silence. “I don’t think Monster really died…”

Nero raised his head to look at him, he couldn’t understand how Victor got to that conclusion.

“Have you payed attention… on the things you described?” Victor continued calmly. “Be able to feel what the other is feeling… see memories… receive the knowledge from the other…”

Victor’s words weren’t clicking Nero’s memory, he was still a bit shaken with the story.

Noticing that, he decided to be more direct: “You described every characteristic of Sync”

Nero’s brain gears began to work again, Sync was a recent subject Victor explained to him: an exclusive ability of Siblings of the same parents and… Parent and Children exclusive thing.

“No! Wait!” Nero blurted confused. “Ar-Are you… Are you trying to tell me that Monster… - a pause- was Vergil?!”

“I’m sure about that,” Victor said quite seriously, staring at Nero’s eyes.

Nero immediately got up from the seat, scaring Kyrie that was closer to him. His face had changed so quickly as if someone had pressed a switch. He began to yell angrily at Victor for no apparent reason: “VERGIL ISN’T MONSTER! No way that cold-blooded motherfucker is Monster!” he screamed between tears, but this time tears of anger.

“Dude! Chill! What’s up?!” Nico yelled scared with his reaction.

“Why are you in denial?!” Victor questioned, keeping his calm and serious posture. “Can’t you see that everything you said described Sync perfectly?”

“NO!” Nero shouted angrily.

Kyrie could see some sparks starting to blink around Nero, but before she was able to say anything Victor went first: “Why then?!” he yelled confused.

Nero took a deep breath and concentrated all his anger and depression on his next words and tears: “I’M NOT THE BASTARD CHILD OF A DEMON!”

And immediately after those words of sorrow, he started to bleed through his eyes, nose and mount at an alarming quantity. He lost control of his body and fell off the ground, shaking so much as if he was having a convulsion.

Only Kyrie could see the mess of blue and red bolts circling around Nero: “Oh my God! He’s desyncing again!” she shouted scared and instinctively rushed to help him out.

“Kyrie! Wait!” Nico shouted, but it was too late.

The moment she touched him, purple and white energy strings came out of her and touched his energy streams. At exactly the same moment, his energies repealed hers away, sending Kyrie a few steps backward.

“Are you a demon?!” Victor shouted quite surprised. “Or a half demon?! - he quickly turned to Nico - “You said she was human!”

Hell - at same moment

The situation got quite awkward between Dante and Vergil.

Vergil was holding his feelings the maximum he could, he was even holding his breath to do so, his body was shaking of so much tension and a tear or other was going down his cheeks, his face was red of stress.

“Ah… That’s why you did that then…” Date said low, finally understanding what initially motivated his brother to go after the Qliporth and throw away his human half.

There was no way Vergil’s uneasy and tension could pass unnoticed. Dante started to feel sorry for his brother like he never thought he would; Vergil lost the most precious person in his entire life. Baby was his savior and he barely could do something to help him in return.

The way Vergil was holding himself made Dante recall how he felt that day; Yeah, that fateful day he couldn't hold Vergil to destroy his own life. That killing sensation of feeling useless and powerless. The thought of 'everything could be different IF...'

“Bro…” Dante said soft and low, trying to call Vergil’s attention. “Listen… even a Devil may cry when they lose a loved one.”

When Dante thought he couldn’t see his brother more shaken, the inevitable happened: Vergil couldn’t hold anymore, not after his brother’s last words; he started to sobbing and crying in grief. Baby's death was too painful for him: he hugged himself trying to endure the pain and he stuttered uncontrollably many incomprehensive words, he brought his legs closer and assumed a fetal position.

Dante got closer and in an attempt to comfort the desolated man he laid his left hand on his left shoulder. Vergil couldn’t resist and laid his head on his brother’s shoulder; he was crying and sobbing as if Baby just had died that moment and even being a silent crying, he was in pure pain. His chest and shoulders were giving small jumps because of his strong sobbing and hiccups, his lips and jaw were trembling as if he was shivering and his nose was very runny.

“I-I-It-t-t w-as just like… just like that day… - sob- just like… -sob sob- just like that day…! -hic hic!” Vergil cried. “I-I-I I couldn’t protect him! I WAS WEAK! t-t-THE SA-ME SHIiiiT-T! ALL OVER AGAIN! -sob sob... hic- aaaaahh...!”

Dante tried to stroke Vergil’s shoulder to comfort him more, it wasn’t helping that much, but he was trying. He had no idea what to do, he’d never been in a situation like that before. Now… should he tell his thoughts to him? He was more than certain now that Baby is Nero. But how would his brother react? That would help? Would it make it worse? There was only one way to know.

Dante waited for a long time in silence, for his brother to catch his breath back before he could say something again.

For several minutes, if not an hour, Vergil's crying was the only sound around, echoing in their hideout.

“Vergil… Do you remember… that thing… we used to be able to do it when we were kids?” Dante tried to start slow, touching the wound with a bit of care.

“Sob - W-What… - hic - thi-thing…?” Vergil asked, very lost.

Dante got a bit nervous, he didn’t want to go to the point so quick. “You know… that when we touched… we could see each other’s memories, learn what the other learned… and so on…”

“Sob- Th-That thi-ing... -hic- Rose was studying about us - sob - ?” Vergil tried to remember but it was a bit blurry at that moment. “Sob sob - that later I dis-dis-covered -hic- with Vi-Victor that it was… -sob- a demon thing?”

“Yeeeeaaaah…” Dante said a bit awkwardly.

There’s a moment of silence before Dante gets the courage to continue: “Sooo… Have Victor told you everything about that?”

“No -sob- why?” Vergil replied as he raised his head to look at his brother.

Dante let go of him and gave a small distance, afraid of his reaction.  “Well then… Victor explained to me… that’s a demon thing like you said… BUT it’s a thing… exclusive to siblings of the same parents… and...”

“And?!” Vergil started to notice Dante’s reluctancy on the subject.

“And a parent and children thing too… and a lot of you described about what used to happen between you and Baby matches with what Victor explained to me....” we said very slowly. “So… I’m afraid that… maybe... Baby…”

“NO!” Vergil understood very fast. “No no no no no no no no no no no! NO!”

“I’m afraid that maybe… Baby was your child all this time… He’s...Nero.” Dante finally said.

Vergil’s soul left his body and returned for a brief moment. Had he hurt Baby for real? Someone that only deserved love and care met his worst? His face became full of total despair and panic, he brought his hands to his head, pressing his fingers against his scalp. The more and more he recalled what he did wrong with Nero the thoughts started to storm his mind like a hurricane. Until he let all the panic concentrated on his gut explode away in a loud despair scream, that even called the attention of nearby demons.

Vergil began to freak out in tears, he was insanely crying in pain that he started to hurt his head with his nails, digging them on his scalp. Dante quickly grabbed him by his arms to hold him still, for he didn't get himself hurt in the middle of his panic.

“Bro! BROTHER!” Dante tried to call. “Easy Vergil!”

Between the heavy sobbing, he could split out a few words. “No no no! -sob sob-  I would ne-never -sob- hu-hu-hurt him! - Sob sob”

“You can’t blame yourself for that, man!” Dante attempted to help him get in control. “You thought he was dead, you saw him being killed in front of you and you didn’t know he was a hybrid like us!”

Vergil looked at him, a desperate face and eyes red of so much crying, but he was listening to his brother.

“If you explain to him what really happened I think he will understand.” Dante said, very worried with Vergil.

It was very hard for Vergil to believe that he would be forgiven for such doing, especially the arm literal take off. He couldn’t think clearly about that now, he was too worried that it was very likely he had hurt the most important person of his life.

By now, he laid his head on Dante’s shoulder once more and let go all the tears as possible.

Inside Vergil (figuratively)

The place was close to being dead for real, the sun was hidden behind very heavy dark clouds, the ground was totally dry and crackly and there was a small pool of water at the center of the place. A loud painful crying was echoing very high around that infinite desolated place.

It was V, crying uncontrollably as he stared at a very small dying flower, smaller than his fingers, with another one starting to blooming at the side. He got his arms, legs and neck chained to a dead tree stump in front of the pool that had scorched marks at the roots. Although the chains were heavy, he could move his members. He was wearing the same clothes as Vergil and his hair and facial hair was purely white now.

Urizen was sitting behind the stump, he was quiet, only listening to V’s painful crying.

V kneeled to the little flowers that were at his side, with the point of his fingers he gently touched the dying flower, and raised it a little.

“My little one.. -sob- my little little one…. - sob - I’m so sorry… -sob sob- I’m so sorry for having hurt you… - sob - my baby…!”

To be continued...

[devilbring]

CHALLENGE: A barren island has sprung up near the Swirling Gulf, hosting a dormant gate to hell. Mundus is trying to use it to reach Spirale itself.  ████ ████ ████, ████ decides ████ ████ ████████ ████ ████████ host ████ unleash ████████ ████ ████ island, ████████ suppresses ████ ████ ████████ ████ ████ ████ ████████.  ████████ ████ ████████ overcome ████████ █████, ████████ ████ ███████ ████ ████ ████ ████ ████████ ████ ████.  ████ ████ ████████ ████ opens, ████ ████ ████████ ████ ████ painfully ████ ████ abyss ████████ ████████ ████ ████████.  ████ ████ ████ thread ████████ drabble.

PROLOGUE - 12:00 AM - NOVEMBER 12TH

Off the coast of the island, a smaller isle appears at the stroke of midnight. Immediately, a powerful miasma of demonic energy surges across Radial Island, a dark omen that makes those attuned to the supernatural feel deeply uncomfortable. A being reaches out-- and those of Sparda's bloodline feel it claw at the back of their minds like nails against a chalkboard. Vergil, V and Sparda know precisely what assaults their psyche, and the name comes to their tongues without hesitation. The demon king is coming, and his name is Mundus.

MISSION 1 - 4:32 AM - NOVEMBER 12TH

Vergil wastes no time in pursuing the source of this demonic aura-- and neither does Sparda. Father and son arrive at the hell gate within hours of sensing Mundus, and though neither can destroy the gate, they decide time is of the essence to track down and investigate sudden surges of his power across the island. Neither realizing that these surges are quite intentional, and meant to draw their prying eyes away from something…

MISSION 2 - 9:09 AM - NOVEMBER 12TH

Though technically not the man once subjected to Mundus' torment, V remains incredibly sensitive to his presence-- and as someone still haunted by Vergil's nightmares and insecurities, feels that it's prudent to take action in his own ways. There is someone close to him that he needs to check in on before he does anything, however, and he's about to learn that no son of Sparda is immune to Mundus' wrath...

MISSION 3 - 1:48 PM - NOVEMBER 12TH

Sparda and his kin are not the only ones drawn in by the appearance of this new isle. A white-haired man arrives at the hell gate not too long after Vergil and Sparda depart, and the demon king, strongest at the source, decides to strike him a deal.

MISSION 4 - 6:31 PM - NOVEMBER 12TH

As more curious souls arrive at the hell gate, so does a certain Lilith Clawthorne. Her cursed blood sets her apart, and Mundus deems her fit to communicate with. However, things do not go according to his plans…

MISSION 5 - 7:41 PM - NOVEMBER 12TH

An unexpected arrival upon the island is greeted by the perpetual whine of Mundus’ tormenting aura, but also by a demon flying overhead in pursuit of a solid lead on Mundus’ plot. Amid the chaos, a reunion between father and son is had.

MISSION 6 - 5:27 AM - NOVEMBER 13TH

Though Hansol cannot sense Mundus in particular, she has sensed the demonic aura in the air and her investigation leads her to Nero as the source. She too tries to find a way to halt the corruption, but neither she nor V can find a way to stave off the suppressing force within his soul...

MISSION 7 - 2:01 AM - NOVEMBER 14TH

In the middle of the night, Nero rises, his lapses in memory growing longer and more intense. Pain giving way to numbness. Zero attempts to offer some form of support, but is met only with absentminded mutterings-- and a sudden outburst as Mundus goes on the offensive to dominate Nero’s mind. He fights, and in growing desperation, asks Zero to call upon other allies.

& MORE TO COME.

[rexcoatlarchive]

The in-laws part 3

A/N: quick warning before we get started there will be some suggestive language in this one, letting you know if that makes you uncomfortable. Nothing too bad, just implied stuff

Also this story is kind of two separate ones taking place simultaneously.

After the incident with Tezcalipoca Quetz and Rex decided to separate from the rest of the group for the time being, while the twins and mash came in to help guide them through the place.

*At Rex and Quetz's room*

Rex: is everything OK Quetz?

Quetz: not really. It's just... seeing that bastard near the girls... scared me a bit. What would he have done if we didn't show up in time? What if we lost them?

Rex: *hugging Quetz* there's no use thinking of "what if's" dear. You're only going to stress yourself out.

Quetz: but he could've...

Rex: he could've done a lot of things but he was stopped. Just be happy with how things did turn out.

Quetz: *hugging back tightly* I know... it's just that bastard always wants to ruin my life. For thousands of years we've had this rivalry.

Quetz hugged so tight while thinking of the rivalry she had with her brother she unknowingly left marks on Rex's back. But he didn't mind, he knew she was getting emotional

Quetz: ...now I have a family he can hurt. Just thinking of him being here made me imagine all the terrible things he could've done.

Rex: we won't let that happen. Everyone here will make sure of it. He won't be able to get away with anything. Believe me, if he's still here we'll make sure to kick him out hard! OK?

Quetz: *finally relaxing her grip, somewhat teary eyed* ...ok

Now more calm Quetz noticed what she did to Rex's back

Quetz: aye mi amor! I accidentally left marks on your back!

Rex: it's ok... you were emotional. And besides it matches with the ones you left this morning.

Quetz: *blushing at the memory* you didn't need to bring that up

A knocking is heard at the door of the room

???: hey master! I need you to come see this!

Rex: what is it?

Rex asks as he opens the door to see Cu Chulainn.

Cu: there's something wrong with Medb

Rex: what do you mean?

Cu: she died her hair purple and green for some reason and started asking for you guys

Quetz understood what this meant, another of her relatives was here and was possessing Medb

Quetz: I understand what's going on, let's go to her and I'll explain there

Cu: alright

Eventually the 3 meet up with Medb

Medb?: oh there you are!

Quetz: is that you Tlazolteotl?

Tlaz: guilty as charged! When I heard you were going to tie the knot I got excited since that meant you finally found someone to get it on with!

Cu: so she's one of your siblings? What happened to Medb?

Rex: I guess she's just sitting in there while her body is moved around by someone else like a puppet.

Tlaz: I mean when you put it like that it sounds a bit harsh. But yeah that's about right

Quetz: also could you relax with the personal questions. I know your the goddess of lust but still.

Tlaz: no can do big sis I have just got to know all the juicy details

Tlazolteotl says as she gets close to Quetz's ear to whisper a question

Tlaz: *whispering* so how is he in the bedroom?

Quetz: *pushing her back* that is none of your business!

Tlaz: boo! You're no fun!

Rex: also why die Medb's hair?

Tlaz: so big sis could tell who I was

Quetz: not necessary, no one else did something so extreme.

Tlaz: oh you know me I like to put my own lil spin on things

Tlazolteotl now went up to Rex to ask him Questions instead

Tlaz: so how's big sis in bed? I've always wondered how she'd get since she never had a lover before

Rex: neither of us are comfortable discussing that

Tlaz: boo! You're both boring!

Quetz: that's a really personal question Tlaz! We don't have to answer if we don't want to!

Tlaz: fine whatever. Guess I'll have to be more direct

As Tlazolteotl says this she goes behind Rex and lifts up his hoodie and shirt

Tlaz: ah ha!

Rex: hey!

Quetz: HEY!

Tlaz: scratch marks all over! And bite marks on the shoulders! I knew you'd be a wild one in bed big sis!

Cu: there's something wrong with your sister

Quetz: I noticed

As Quetz says this she prepares to punish her younger sibling, but then stops when she sees something interesting.

Tlaz: oooh, some of these are pretty fresh too! Like this morn-

But before she could finish that thought she was attacked by another figure

BONK!

Tlaz: ow! What the hell!

???: get the hell out of my body!

Tlaz: what the hell?!

There appeared Queen Medb, but in her Saber form

Tlaz: how are you here?!

Medb: I forced a summon in my saber form to get my original body back!

Cu: you could do that!?

Medb: of course dear Cu! Also why would you just die my hair those colors!? I look ridiculous now!

Tlaz: you already looked ridiculous

Medb: bitch!

Medb: and why were you lifting master's shirt up anyway?

Tlaz: I needed to find out how my big sis would be in bed, and I saw she left many "love marks" on him

Medb, now curious: oh lemme see

Bonk!

Medb: of!

Quetz: that's enough! You know he hates showing so much in public!

Medb: sorry! I got curious!

Quetz: and you! We're going to have a nice long talk when we're back with the rest of the family

Tlaz: yeah... whatever

But as this was happening, another came in rushing for there was an emergency at hand. MHXX came in looking for Quetzalcoatl

XX: Quetz! There's an emergency!

Quetz: what is it?!

On the other group's side of things

Rikko: so do you all have any idea who else we could find visiting?

Huitz: we may need to find Xochiquetzal, as she is Tezcalipoca's wife. It may help find him again

Xolotl: and we need to have a talk with her anyways

As this discussion goes on they see two figures further in the hall, Ishtar and Nero. But something seemed off about Nero

Ishtar: so you're looking for Quetzalcoatl?

Nero?: yes! I want to talk with my dear sister since just like me she's finally found true love!

Xipe: Xochiquetzal! Is that you?!

Xochi: oh hey everyone! I was just getting along with my fellow love goddess here! Have you all see-

All the brothers: PENDEJA!

Xochi: eeeehhh!?

Xolotl: why the hell did you bring Tezcalipoca here with you!?

Huitz: you know him and Quetzalcoatl can never get along!

Xochi: well we tell each other everything! And he would've found me anyways so what's the problem?

Xipe: he was ready to slaughter people just to fuck with her.

Xolotl: and she has children now, so this shitshow is so much worse then anything in the past.

Xochi: oh! Children!? How wonderful!

Brothers: Focus!

Ishtar couldn't help but notice how familiar this scenario was

Rikko: they're really giving it to her

Rikka: well she did fuck up big time

Ishtar: I don't think yelling at her is going to help!

Xolotl: she has to realize how bad this is!

Mash: ok everyone that's enough! Fighting won't help! Xochiquetzal, have you seen your husband anywhere? We saw him possess a servant earlier but he left afterwards but threatened to come back

Xochi: no, I haven't seen him all day

Mash: how unfortunate

As this was going on a slow clapping could be heard coming down the hall.

Two figures came about, one of which seemed to enjoy the sight of Xochi's torment

Lancelot?: oh how I enjoy seeing my ex wife get yelled at

Xochi: ...oh hey there Tlaloc.

Tlaloc: long time no see Xochiquetzal. How's the husband?

Xochi: he's great!

Xolotl: did you forget about the attempted slaughter bit already!?

Xochi: maybe great is a strong word

Martha?: now dear, there's no need to try to shove it in her face about it. That was thousands of years ago

Rikko: I know it's not really Martha saying it but seeing Martha call Lancelot "dear" still feels wrong

Huitz: that would be Chalchiuhtlicue, Tlaloc's second and current wife.

Chal: so good to see you all! I hope you've all been good to Quetzalcoatl!

Mash: of course! She's been an amazing part of our team. And we're happy senpai and her are getting together.

Chal: wonderful! Do you all know where she might be?

Xolotl: last we saw her was in her room, but we're focused on preventing Tezcalipoca from causing trouble again

But as the conversation goes on a sound is heard throughout the halls. Two words are heard, the sound of these two words sent a chill up everyone's spine. Those who were visitors did not understand why they felt fear all of a sudden. But those who were familiar knew exactly why. This meant that a specific person was going to make their entrance to make things far worse then they were already

BB Channeru!

To be continued.

@panyum

@hasereshdoneanythingwrong

@haspaulbunyandoneanythingwrong @grievouslyxorvia @gxymlky @hasishtardoneanythingwrong

[daemongal]

Hello, I love your writing! I was also wondering if you could write something NSFW with prompt 9. “Quit it or I’ll bite.” with Nero?

Hoo boy, I hope you’re ready for some spice. So, this was only meant to be half as long but I couldn’t find a comfortable point to cut it off so I… just kept on going :P So enjoy 2.5k words of Dom!Nero x reader smut!

Prompt is from this post! 

_______

9- “Quit or I’ll bite 

“Is that comfortable? Not too tight?” Nero asked gently, as you tested the restraints around your wrists.

“No, they’re fine baby. Are you sure you’re ok doing this? I mean, I kind of asked you out of the blue and I know this isn’t your usual thing.” You’d been thinking about him doing this for weeks, fantasising whenever you had a quiet moment alone. Ever since he showed that sliver of domineering behaviour that night, when his hand hovered over your throat before receding quickly, the want latent in his eyes. You kicked yourself mentally for waiting so long to test the waters considering how happy he had been to oblige.

“I mean, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t… curious.” He rubbed the back of his neck with his hand, avoiding your gaze bashfully. “Besides, I can tell you really wanna try this, and if it’s gonna make you happy, I’m sure I’ll have fun too.” A smile crept up his cheeks as he looked down at your prone form, naked as the day you were born, your legs crossed slightly to cover yourself.  

Nero leaned down to place a chaste kiss on your lips before leaning his forehead against your own. “You’re so goddamn beautiful you know, no need to go shy on me. ”His lips moved to the shell of your ear. “Especially not with what I’m about to do to you.” He ran his tongue along the outside of your ear, goosflesh rising across your skin in response. “You remember your safeword right?” You nodded, eyes already lidded, body already hot from what little stimulation you’d received, your mind running on overdrive at the current situation.

He moved back from you and sat upright, a scowl forming on his brows. “I asked you a question, are you gonna answer me?” Your breath hitched at the sudden assertiveness in his tone.

“Y-yes.”

“Yes what?” You swallowed audibly.

“Yes… sir.”

“Good girl.” Lord, it sounded better coming from his mouth than your mind could have ever imagined it. “Now you better stay being good for me. Remember, you were the one who asked for this.” He ran his hand down your chest, over the curve of your breast, his fingers grazing your nipple before travelling down to run along the inside of your thigh.  

“I-I will, sir. W-will I be rewarded if I’m good?” Your normally tough bravado was being brushed aside by his confident behaviour, his teasing touches and his tormenting words.

“Of course. Now, open your legs for me princess.” You obeyed him, spreading your legs slowly as he leered down at you. He ran a single finger between your folds, from your wetness up and over your clit, already swollen from your arousal. You gasped at the sudden touch, arching your back in response before the hand gripped your thigh tightly. “Misbehave for me though, and I’ll have to punish you; got it?”  

“Yes sir.” You spoke through already heavy breaths as he smirked devilishly. He moved himself in response to hover his body over yours, hands either side of your head, placing one of his legs between yours, pressing his thigh into your heat. You groaned at the contact, pressing yourself further into him, accepting any friction you could get.

His hand pushed your hips down into the mattress as he tutted. “Behave princess, no moving.” You groaned as your hips were forced still, the pressure from his leg not letting up. He moved his face to your breast, taking one of your nipples hungrily into his mouth, teasing it between his lips and flicking it with his tongue. He carefully kneaded the other breast with his hand, tugging at you with his fingers. You moaned at his ministrations, wrists straining against the restraints as the need to run your hands through his hair was tormenting you.  

He moved his lips upwards, kissing you torturously light against your collarbone and across your shoulder. Once he reached your neck, his lips became harsher, sucking on the skin with each open mouthed kiss he placed, catching each and every spot he knew you loved, heavy breaths leaving your lips as you twisted your head to the side giving him better access.  

He sucked on a spot next to your pulse point and you couldn’t help yourself, as you rolled your hips against his leg, moaning at the friction but getting an annoyed huff in response.  

“Quit it…” Nero started, lips still pressed against your neck, “or I’ll bite.” You wanted to be good for him, you craved his praising words more than you knew; but the temptation of such punishment was too great as a smirk formed on your face, your hips rolling again in defiance. He all but growled against your skin, causing your hair to stand on end.

“I warned you, princess.” You felt his teeth graze the skin on your neck, in the curve where it met your shoulder, before he bit down; hard. Your mouth hung open as heat flooded through your body. His fingers tugged at your nipple, leg pressing further against your heat as you shamelessly bucked against his leg, overtaken by the sensation of teeth on skin. It was a rush unlike any you’d felt before. He continued his assault on your neck, moving up to the more sensitive skin and repeating his actions, marking you over and over.

“Ahh- Nero!” You felt the heat wash over you once more, building in your core and releasing as quickly as it had appeared. Your sudden climax took you by surprise as your hips jerked erratically, a hoarse moan leaving your throat before lips left your skin and your tense body flopped to the mattress. Your breaths were quick and heavy as the leg was removed from between yours, a disgruntled Nero shaking his head as he looked down on you in apparent shame.

“Here I thought I was punishing you, then you go and get yourself off like that. I didn’t know you had it in you to be such a brat. Whatever will I do with you?” You mentally kicked yourself for getting carried away. You asked for this yet you still couldn’t slip into the role as easily as he had. The last thing you wanted was to discourage him.

“S-sorry!” You blurted out. “I-I shouldn’t have done that, it wasn’t my place!” You couldn’t look at him, too worried to see his reaction. You saw his arm reach up to begin undoing the restraints and your heart sunk. Once fully undone, he threw them to the side, your arms dropping to the bed as you started moving them back to your body, upset that you had ended it so quickly.  

As quick as a flash, you were flipped onto your stomach, a new pressure applied to your arms as they were pinned in place above your head. You gasped, eyes widening as the recognition set in; blue spectral claws wrapped around your lower arms, making you immobile once more as a hand slapped against your rear. You yelped in shock ass his hand barrelled down a second time, hitting you harshly.  

“Looks like I’m gonna have to bring out the big guns to keep you under wraps, princess.” He suddenly paused, opting to thrust two fingers harshly into your over sensitive core making you writhe, your legs pinned beneath his own, rendering you immobile. He slapped you again with his free hand, causing you to clench around his fingers, body shuddering at the sensations.

“Ahh- Nero! P-please, gods please!” You didn’t know what you were begging for, only that you needed it quickly. He massaged your inner sweet spot roughly, hand crashing against your ass once more. The pressure on your wrists lightened ever so slightly as a spectral claw ran itself down your back, grazing you lightly with its talons, the sensation making your jaw drop once more.  

As quick as it started, all movements stopped. He removed his fingers from you, gently stroking your burning rear, spectral hand resting lightly against your hip. You body ached for more, dying for more contact, for anything he would give.  

“Seems like I was too lenient with you.” A finger trained down your spine, from the base of your neck to the cleft of your ass. “I’m gonna have you begging for me princess, and then I’m gonna make you beg some more.” You turned your head to the side, face pressed against the mattress to look into his eyes. His pupils were dilated, irises glowing with the faintest of gold hues, very much the look of a predator looking down at its prey. The sight would have filled you with fear if it weren’t for the smug grin on his face, and the reassuring wink he sent you. The sight warmed you in both arousal and reassurance, before fingers entered you suddenly once more, rough and unforgiving.  

You smiled through the moans as the spectral claw on your hip lifted them into the air, forcing you onto your knees before resting against the back of your neck, applying just enough pressure to pin your upper body in place. Your eyes rolled back in your head as his fingers caressed you from the new angle.  

“Now princess, tell me how much you want my cock and I just might let you have it.” His fingers in you slowed to a torturous pace as he began to languidly stroke himself in time with his movements.  You breathed heavily, nerves overtaking you from being in such a precarious position, only managing a whine in response. It gained you another slap to each of your ass cheeks.

“Ahh- gods Nero; please, please I want it!” Your face was burning, his fingers no longer moving, just massaging that same spot over and over causing your hips to jerk involuntarily.

“What do you want? Gonna have to be clearer than that.” You could hear the smirk in his voice. You’d never imagined he would enjoy it this much, slip into this role so easily, but every word he uttered made between your legs throb more than you thought possible.

“Y-your cock. I want your cock Nero. Please!” He hummed in approval as he removed his fingers, leaving you empty again. He pressed the head against your entrance, rubbing up and down your slit making you groan. His mouth hung open, taking heavy breaths as he struggled to keep his eyes open.

“Once more. Tell me once more.” The blue claw around your wrists gripped tighter.  

“Please Nero. Please give me your cock! I need it, I need yo- ahh.” With that, he pushed himself into you in one firm movement, his hips flush against you, filling you completely as you both moaned in unison.  

“Shit, you’re so tight princess.” You could feel him throbbing inside of you, a spark of pride shooting through you knowing he was just as wound up as you were. A smile spread up your cheeks at the though, not going unnoticed by the devil hunter. “Oh, I’m gonna wipe that smile of your pretty little face.” He said with a smirk before pulling almost completely out of you and slamming back in. Your whole body shook on the impact as he repeated the action once, twice, three times, before settling into a quicker, harsher pace, both hands settling on your hips, gripping you bruisingly tight.  

He pounded into you, moans and curses spilling from both of your lips, his hands all but holding you up as your legs begin to go weak. “N-Nero… I’m gonna- I’m  so close!” He pulled out of you almost instantly, blue claws letting go of you before flipping you on your back again.  

“Grab the headboard, don’t let go; you got that?” He growled his demand and you obeyed, gripping the wooden slats tightly as your head spun in a haze. “Good girl.” His claws moved from resting on his shoulders to your hips, lifting then off the bed to line you back up with him as he stayed kneeling at the base of the bed. His hands gripped your waist as he pulled you towards him and slowly pushed back into you, spectral arms hoisting your hips in the air. You threw your head back, the new position making you see starts behind your eyelids.

“Shit, Nero! Please, don’t stop, please!” He continued his rough pace, scraping his cock against your walls.  

“Don’t worry princess; even if- ahh, even if I could, I wouldn’t want to. You feel… you feel too damn good.” Your knuckles were white from gripping the bed for dear life, throat hoarse as you were reduced to dry pants and groans. Sweat was dripping fro Nero’s brow, the gold in his eyes more prominent as his thrusts became more erratic. A hand moved to toy with your clit, rubbing circles as spectral hands moved your hips back and forth in time with his thrusts.

“Fuck! Like that! Just like that, oh gods Nero!” Your entire body tensed and your climax came over you, hard and intense, flowing through your body as waves of pleasure hit you as you screamed his name. Your name flowed off Nero’s tongue, over and over like a mantra as he pushed himself in you to the hilt, coming hard inside you, coating your walls, his body spasming against yours.

After a few moments, he slowly lowered your hips, slipping himself out of you as he dropped his body next to yours, lifting your hands from the bed frame and taking them in his own, rubbing his thumbs over them gently as you both lay there breathing through the afterglow.  

“Well fuck.” Nero broke the silence, a smile gracing his features as he turned on his side. You followed suit, turning and smiling back. Nero’s cheeks were tinted red as his eyes darted from yours, a sudden bout of bashful ness overcoming him.  

“I err… I hope I wasn’t too rough with you. Do you need me to get you anyth-“ You cut him off with a gentle kiss to his lips as you both melted at the contact.  

“That was more amazing that I ever imagined it would be. Trust me baby, you did amazingly.” His cheeks flushed a darker red as you chuckled, kissing his forehead. “I think I’ll have my soppy Nero back next time though otherwise I won’t be able to sit comfortably for a week.” He mumbled something incoherent in response with a pout. “I love you.” You said as you brushed his cheek softly with your hand. He placed his own over it, pressing it further into his cheek.

“I love you too.” His eyes met yours again as he smiled softly, before stretching his limbs and sighing. “Right, how about I run us a bath and then we find some crappy horror movie to watch?”  

“Sounds like a plan! As long as there’s zombies! And not the scary ones, but the ones that look like they’ve got ham stapled to their faces!” You face lit up at the thought as Nero rose from the bed. You cheekily slapped his ass as he was walking away and winked as he turned around.

“Your turn next time, big boy.”

_______

Thank you for the request, I had too much fun writing this! God bless Nero’s 4 arms, amirite?!

(Masterlist can be found here)

[imagethat]

Kitsune | Vergil x Reader

Small story/drabble where the reader is a fox demon. Vergil x Reader.

(Writers note: Writing for Vergil is a bit of a challenge for me because I feel like Vergil is the kind of person who admires someone for their skill then gets to know them and fall in love. So my stories for Vergil are really long. I'm working on improving my writing, and if anyone has any tips or ideas for Vergil/writing Vergil better they'd be greatly appreciated!)

Fox demons are said to be cunning and elusive spirits. With playful intentions, even at the expense of others well being. You were no different. Red Grave was a bastion of unfortunate souls, all for you to toy with. You could visit them in their dreams, manipulate reality to their poor unfortunate brains. Trickery is what gave you power, it fed your abilities and each night you were growing stronger. As the disappearance number started to reach the double digits our favorite devil hunters took notice of your presence. Trish was the first to realize a tricky fox was running amuck through the town, simply because she herself was a full demon and she had a special connection to the pits of hell. Soon after though, Dante, Vergil, and Nero followed behind her. Only Trish knew of your true form though, while you still remained a mystery to the other three. A monsterous foe lurking in the cover of night. Morrision did his best to get information on you but the poor guy came up empty handed. It make you laugh. Each night your lavish dreams promising Eden lured in more souls every one of them coming to the same horrible realization that there was no leaving once you entered. This dream was a snare, a never ending labyrinth that consumed all. Dante was foolish enough to take the bait though. Vergil on the other hand saw the clear warning signs, and offered a plan of luring you out of your realm. They came to a consensus on that plan and thus it began. Always one step ahead, you thwarted whatever plan they came up with. If you were honest, you were starting to grow incredibly bored. So you decide to have some fun of your own. The human world made you weaker to a certain extent and that thought excited you. Never had you left your realm, your parents warning you against it when you were young. But above all, they warned you to never fall in love with someone from outside your realm. You were fine with that rule, it never bothered your cold coloused heart. Foxes carry a lot of karma you see, and for every life you've ruined. Every person you've tormented. That energy is said to come back at you ten times as hard. Many from your realm used that as reasoning for being so manipulative. See, karma can't cut you down if you slay it first. You sat perched on a tree branch, one leg pulled to your chest as you waited. In the human world your presence would be noticeable, uncloaked from your realm. Your tail flicked back and forth, ears perked. Listening for a sign of your soon to be 'captors'. A small smirk rose to your face as you heard an all but annoying tune getting ever closer. It was the Devil May Cry van. How Nico managed to jump it was beyond you. She tried her best to hit you but you were faster, aiming a precise strike to the middle of the van to catapult it into the earth. You could hear very loud cursing from both the vans passengers as you returned to your sitting position, in the same exact spot to tease them. "How nice of you to join me. The moon is lovely tonight." You hummed as a white haired punk jumped out of the passenger's seat. He shot at you and you just tilted your head to the side, bullet missing you by centimeters. "Now please don't be so rude, let's talk this out. Please~" You purred while making a soft pout. "Hell no! I've got a wage to earn." Nero yelled, thrusting his grappling hook at you. You allowed it to grab you, only so you'd be brought in close enough to trip him. He made a failed attempt to kick you from his spot on the ground. "God, I'm bored already." You hissed in an annoyed tone. "You're too predictable! Send someone interesting next time!" You demanded as a portal opened behind you. Nero placed both of his hands over his ears, trying to keep the soft delicate tunes from your realm out of his head. He yelled something at your back but you paid him no mind as you returned home. Nico quickly got out of the van after she was sure you were gone only to find Nero passed out. "Oh fuck no way!" She exclaimed while quickly kneeling besides nero. "Nero! Nero!!" She yelled, trying to wake him but he was like a sandbag in her arms. Nero was promptly returned to Devil May Cry. Nico doing her best to find any notes about your breed of demon while Lady tucked Nero in on the couch. Vergil seemed… vexed to say the least. He wouldn't admit it but he cared for his son. Dante tapped his finger on his desk impatiently. "Well, did it say anything to you?" Dante questioned, trying is best to figure out what happened. "Send someone interesting was all I caught. I was in the van so all I could really hear was the jukebox!" She exclaimed from her pile of papers. She didn't know how truly lucky she was. "Allow me to go next time." Vergil said, finally speaking up. "Let me go with you then." Trish added and Vergil nodded no. "We don't need two of us going down at once, if it should manage to best me…" Vergil replied. He had a point.

The next night, Vergil found himself in the same park Nero had fought you in. The ground still hadn't recovered from Nico's van tracks. The sky was clouded. The wind rustling through the trees, causing an eerie sound to creak from them. Every now and then, when a gust of wind came by, you'd shake a tree. Vergil couldn't be sure if it was you, but kept his composure. After an hour of toying with the environment with no avail to Vergil's mental state you decide he was fit for your presence. Worthy of having company with you. All at once the forest became a never ending expanse even though that shouldn't be possible. The park was in the middle of a dense city. Animals out of sight ran through the tall grass. The trees seemed to be ever shifting as you emerged from them. "What's your name?" You asked the tall white haired man. He didn't respond, but did not make a move to get into the proper stance to defend himself. Curious. "You know, I only do this to survive. I never asked to be born the way I was." You said, expressing sadness through your motions and eyes. "I know you've been consuming far more than you need to." He finally spoke. His voice surprised you, it wasn't what you expected him to sound like. Nonetheless, you continued on with your charades. "Oh well that is true, but to be weak is such a pitiful thing. Would you not agree?" You mused curiously, having already peaked into his mind. He seemed to contemplate his answer for a good deal of time before speaking. "That you are right, holding power feels good. But what is power without something to protect? In your endless pursuit, you will never feel satisfaction for you have no measure of what true strength is." He commented of your mentality. For some reason, it bothered you deeply. "You do not know what I seek or who I am to become." You snarled. He grimaced at your aggressive response. That's when the fighting began. If you weren't so angry, you would've been impressed with his skill. But your might was just as tempered and well trained. Through the battle, scattered back and forth conversation happened. "This world is mine! It shall taste of your blood! Feed on your innermost fears!" You yelled while swinging your blade. Vergil only ever seemed to parry your attacks. "I will not falter. Nor will I yield." A well timed attack from the calm man landed you off balance, causing you to retreat momentarily. "If you know not of what you search for, allow me to offer you something to strive for." He said, to which you bared your teeth at. Beginning your relentless assault again. "Quiet! You are part mortal! You are beneath me!" You demanded. He struck your side, you barely had time to realize it had happened. His incision was precise and wasn't deep enough to kill you, unless you left it untreated. "How? What are you mortal!" You demanded. You should've been untouchable in this world. He cleaned off his blade before sliding it into its case. "Your anger blinds you. What is it you fear that drives you to such extremes?" He questioned. "Fear of the unknown? Fear of failure?" He continued to question, taking slow steps towards you. You hissed loudly, hand cusping your side. "Leave! Never step foot here again!" You yelled before retreating into the grass. You didn't make it far, knees weak as you stumbled along. Still losing blood. Vergil's mental state was returned to normality as the trees faded and the familiar cityscape emerged before his eyes. He saw himself in you, but knew you would no longer bother Red Grave. By morning, all the people who had gone missing were returned. That included Nero, who woke up with the sun rising. Dante questioned his brother about what happened, but Vergil only let out sparse details.

Your breathing was ragged. Slow and shallow as you did your best to patch your wound. Never much of a medic since your wounds were always limited. You followed your familiar trail back to your home. It was grand and traditional. As you entered through the front door and staggered to your bed you collapsed onto the floor in the entryway. "Fate has found me, I wonder if my brothers and sisters will sing of this tale. Of how childish mothers eldest was. How my emotions got the best of me and made me vulnerable." You mused with a broken voice as you faded in and out of consciousness. You felt like you could hear them laughing at you. You came to a week later, sunlight leaking in through the windows. You were…. In your room? Maybe I am now trapped here, to feed another demon you thought as you slowly rose up onto your elbows. It felt like something one of your conniving siblings would do. Gingerly, you rested a hand on your side. Amazed to find it was completely covered with gauze. A kind you'd only find in the human world. Carefully you got onto your feet, warily searching the house while holding a blade close to your chest. The last place you check was your backside porch, which faced the gardens. You made a face of disgust as you found the white haired man sitting there, watching the cherry blossom trees sway in the wind. "What are you doing here? I told you never to return!" You said, clearly upset by his presence in your home. "Not feeling appreciative are we? I suppose I wouldn't be any kinder to someone who bested me in battle either." He remarked. Your skin boiled. "How long have you been here?" You demanded, feeling disturbed by knowing he had found your house so easily. "A week" he replied. "And what of your companions?" You questioned. "They know nothing." His answer made you feel a little better. You bit your lip before opening the door. "Come in." You begrudgingly said. Vergil got up and followed you to a library, stocked high with books. You sat him at a little table in the corner and told him to wait while you fetched some tea and snacks. You were too weak to fight, and he did save you after all. All you wanted to do at this point was convince him to leave. He accepted your offer for tea before complimenting you on the impressive amount of books you had. You replied with a sour thanks before taking your seat. Carefully, you traced the rim of your tea cup, trying to figure out how the hell you'll convince him to leave. "Your world is losing its strength." Vergil spoke out loud. "Your point?" You asked, unamused by his comment. "Well, if this world is to cave in on itself, I know of a place you could stay." He offered. Even the mere thought of it offended you. "I respect your…" You had to force out your next words. "Kindness, but I don't need help. Not from you. If this world is to falter, then so be it. I would die for it before dishonoring my lineage." You said, a certain air of dignity clinging to the words you spoke. He seemed displeased with your answer. "I'm surprised you would so willingly fall into deaths hands." He mused before taking a sip of his tea. "What does it matter to you?" You questioned, actually curious what the answer would be. "It doesn't." You were disappointed by his reply. "You can fib if you'd like, but if it didn't matter then why come here at all? Why patch my wounds? Or wait for me to awaken?" You questioned him more. He placed his teacup down. "If I may be honest, I'm bored myself. Your cunning ways has my interest piqued. Beyond that, I think you would make a great addition to Devil May Cry." He admitted. You were in no place to make demands. "If I returned with you, would you promise to provide me with the energy needed to sustain this world?" You asked. He nodded softly, but that wasn't enough reassurance. "Promise me my world will be safe…. This place… it means more to me than my own life. It has fostered and raised every generation of my family, my father left it to me. I will not see it perish." You said, your head tilted up slightly. You have always been proud and dignified. As the heir to a family should be. It was how you were raised. "I can assure you, you will be provided with enough energy to keep this world alive. But no more than needed." He said, his gaze piercing yours. He already knew well of your ways and desires. But you were both keepers of your word. "Then I will return with you." You finally gave in. He was satisfied with that, and after that you both made your way to Devil May Cry. You're lucky Nero isn't there when you arrive. It saves some hassle as you and Vergil explain the specifics of the situation to Dante. In true fashion, he seems unbothered by your presence. Trusting his brother to know who's good and who's not. That was the start of your devil hunting days. It's possible your family had hid it from you, that your kind held a deep seated grudge against humans, but ensnaring and killing demons provided you with the same energy as humans did. Your power began to rise again, but only time would tell if you returned to your tricky ways.

[tummyteeth]

“Can I stroke your shaft?”

Devil May Cry 5 fanfic (maybe spoiler??) Characters: Nico, V, (Nico x V??? Nicovita???????????) rating: Mature Warnings: mentions of phone sex, dumb euphemisms, no actual smut, how many bad names can you use for one phallic object Synopses: Nico and V talk about his stick AO3 link: here it be

----------------

Nico extinguished the cigarette stub on the dashboard ashtray, her arms stretched high over her head, yawning, waiting. 

Nero had been on the phone with Kirye for over thirty minutes now, and he’d taken to hiding not-so-subtly behind the phone booth. Their conversation looked like it was about to get longer and a heck of a lot more private. 

Deciding she didn’t want front-row seats to her friend’s phone sex, Nico rolled out of the driver’s seat and sauntered down the single step to the seating area, where one emaciated goth languished on the worn leather couch. He looked like a marionette with no strings, all limbs and fabric strewn haphazardly into a pile of something resembling a person.

This was the first time she’d seen him sleep all week, his little chicken friend was nowhere to be found. Finally the mystery of where his demonic pets went when he was unconscious was finally solved: they were hiding in his mystifying tattoos, exactly like he said when she asked twenty days ago and then didn’t believe him!

She considered getting her notebook from the workstation and writing this science down, as daddy always told her to do, but that would mean stepping over the long legs and waking him, or worse: tripping face first into the pile of busted devil breakers Nero discarded on the floor all over the van.

The only other mystery she wanted to study, other than entire man himself, was his demonic cane.

It was caught between his slack knees, held in place by a subconscious pinky. The grooves and ridges on it begged to be touched, studied; she wanted to get a chip of it under the magnifying glass. Maybe dip it in a vat of vinegar, too, just to see how it reacts. And maybe stick it in some dead Empusa slime as a control experiment. 

His eyes were on her when she looked up, heavy with fatigue but sharp with accusation at being observed at his most vulnerable.

“Did I wake you?” 

“I wasn’t sleeping,” He lied, “Simply resting my eyes.”

“Sure... Hey so... You mind if I touch that?” She gestured to his crotch with elaborately painted nails, “The uhhh rod. Stick? The pole between yer legs right there?”

His eyebrows curved up, the glaze over his eyes began to clear. “Wuh?”

“Your club?” She tried again, not at all hiding the grin, “Or is it a knob?”  

V’s lips stretched in a tired smirk, he couldn't believe his hard-earned nap was being interrupted for this. “It’s a walking cane, Nico.” His spine popped as he shifted in the squeaky leather seat. 

It was a relief to drop all pretenses now that he decided they were on a first-name basis. “I knew that! Nero tells me you deliver the finishing blow on them demons, big and small, through that. Gotta be something special about it, right?” 

“Perhaps.” He yawned.

“Perhaps?” She grabbed a half-empty bottle of pop off the pizza station and dropped into the vacant spot next to him, drawing a long swig of it and then grimacing at the stale taste. “You don’t know how it works?” 

V shifted in his seat to allow her more room, as if his lithe body was taking up too much space. His gloved hand followed the familiar slope of the handle and gripped. “I wasn’t much aware of my surroundings when I came upon it, one day it was just… There.” He offered it to her handle-first. “If you’re that curious, here.” 

“Aww, you givin me consent to touch your wood?” she snort laughed at her own poorly veiled euphemism.  

The tired draw of his brows relaxed, his attempt at holding back a laugh descended into fighting a coughing fit. A swig of artificially flavored pop relieved the dryness in his throat enough for him to speak again, even if the flavor put the wrinkles back in his brow. “It’s not made of actual wood, sadly.” 

“Oh yeah? Then what’s it made of?” 

“I hardly know. Some kind of Metal.”

“Mind if i take a piece of it to put it under the microscope?” Her hand shot up in the air to defend the question before he even started to respond. “Just a teeensy bit! Nothin to compromise the hardness of the shaft!” She could see the hesitation in his eyes, but he wasn’t saying no. “For science!”

He sighed. “Is that what you call your road trip album?” He motioned with the bottle to the work-in-progress photo album under the empty pizza box.

“There’s actual science reports that go with it, i’m just not done with those yet!” Nico huffed, mock-offended. “Keep questioning my integrity as a researcher and the report on you will be nothing but dick jokes!”

“You’d think with a name like V you’d be associating me with jokes of another kind.” His eyes twinkled at her scandalized silence, as if she hadn’t considered it until now. “You’re writing a report on me?”

“Yeah, I’m writing a report for everyone, and you’re a fascinating guy, V.”

The liquid at the bottom of the bottle sloshed with a flick of his wrist. Words escaped him for the longest moment. “Do you have anything stronger than this?” 

Nico clucked her tongue and resumed her experiments on the cane, aiming it like a gun to see if anything shoots out. “You think I’d be drinking this piss water if i had a jack danials?”

A lull in the conversation draped over them like a silky veil, the silence of the night a pleasant respite from the constant howling of tormented demon souls. “The bottles all broke while you did cartwheels with the van, didn’t they?” His focus was on the broken karaoke machine but her flustered indignation was practically telepathic. “Where is Nero?”

“Jackin’ off to phone sex with his girlfriend.” She rubbed a back and forth motion on the stiff length in her hands, the disapproving look she received in return made her snap back to scientist mode.

If V was confused about the logistics of sex over the phone, he didn’t show it. He watched the curious artisan scratch and flick at the cane, she set it on the floor, looked at it this way and that, even licked it when she thought he wasn’t looking.

It was still nothing but a simple walking cane.

Her hand landed on his arm and rolled it over to inspect the sprawl of tattoos. “The grain and the tattoo have the same pattern.” her mumbled discoveries seemed more to herself than the audience. “Maybe they work like an extension of each other...?” There were more words coming out of her mouth, all intangible and complicated.

The temporary safety of companionship was sucking him back into the worn leather, V found himself sinking into the bolted-down couch with a pleasant warmth against his arm and a comforting voice explaining to him the intricate details of a cursed inanimate object.

Nico turned to him when he didn’t answer a question, the man breathed deep and slow into his own cleavage with a ghost of a smirk on his face. With an impish smile, she reached over to her camera to snap a rare picture of a sleeping V. 

She scribbled on it with white marker and slipped it into the album with the rest.

“Fell asleep with his rod in my hands!”

[checkers-dance]

hello bestie... i had a dream abt mx the other night but i forgot to tell you, probably because i literally cannot remember anything... i just know jooheon was there and i think he told me he was bi???? why did he do that. i have no idea how i reacted but i imagine it was something like this

GFJSKDKSKDKSKD I love that for him. U know how sometimes ppl complain abt rpf w the reason that the idols aren't actually gay so it's silly to write slash? If that ever happens to u, u can just use this dream as proof (which is of course 1000% reliable and real)

[skvaderarts]

Epilogue:

You can check out the Masterlist Here for more links to places to read!

Epilogue:

Note: All notes will be at the end of this chapter besides this note because that’s just how I feel today. Thank you all for tolerating my eccentricities and for reading this story. The end notes will be very important though, so please read them. You guys are the best!

-~-

The next morning around 7 am…

The storm’s intensity had seemingly faded during the night. Though rain still fell in an unending torrent, the barbaric winds that had once rattled the windows of the streets of Fortuna had subsided and the lightning had ceiced. While thunder was still an occasional occurrence, it was much less disruptive and nowhere near as powerful as it had once been. The roads remained flooded for the time being, but people could once again be seen taking to the streets to perform basic tasks such as shopping and maintenance. All in all, things were starting to look up slightly, the metaphorical and literal dark cloud that had been lowered over the region finally letting up a little.

V was awakened by the unfamiliar sensation of sunlight making contact with his body. When they had returned home the night before, he had been utterly exhausted and remembering to close the curtains had been very low on his list of priorities. A low rumbling purr pulled at the edges of his consciousness, inviting him to fully regain his senses. The young summoner turned his head away from the sunlight slightly, fully aware that Shadow was taking a snooze on the floor beside him. 

He sat up and stretched his arms over his head, cursing himself silently as a dull throb crawled through his lower abdomen. He hadn’t been awake enough at that moment in time to remember his injuries from the night before. V winced slightly and clambered to his feet, keying into the sound of several voices coming from the other side of the door. Things had been relatively quiet a moment ago. What had changed that so suddenly? V carefully tiptoed over Shadow, not wanting to awaken his feline companion. She and Griffon both deserved their rest. They had done admirably the night before. He glanced down at arms, noting that Griffon had chosen to stay in his tattoo form for now. That was probably a plus for V, considering his beloved bird’s mouthy nature.

Upon opening the door, he was greeted with the sight of none other than Magnolia. The middle aged woman was leaned against the doorway, engaged in a conversation with Kyrie that he had only caught the end of. The young brunette looked thrilled and worried to see her new companion all at once.

“It’s wonderful to see you, Magnolia but… shouldn’t you be…” Kyrie didn’t seem to know the polite way to ask her about her medical status. She had been horrified to find out that the kindly Alchemist she had just met had ended up in the emergency room an hour or so afterwards.

Magnolia patted her on the shoulder gently, clearly happy to see her, but also quite worn out. Much to her dismay, she wasn’t as young as she once was. “Oh, don’t trouble yourself, dear,” She said with a kind smile,” I won’t be here long. I’m off to the docks. If I’m going to have to languish away in a bed for a couple of days, it’s going to be in my own flat, yea?”

Kyrie nodded, seemingly still concerned but aware that there was nothing she could do about this. The young woman had come to the conclusion that Nero’s friends were all slightly insane and it was best to let them do as they pleased in most cases. Magnolia turned her attention to V, noticing for the first time that he was standing there. She gave him a mischievous smirk, clearly as glad to see that he was alright as he was to see her. He had no idea where to begin trying to thank her for her selfless actions the night before. In saving his life, she had nearly lost hers, and they didn’t even know one another.

“... I’d like to thank you for saving me last night… I-”

The alchemist held up her hand, gently shushing him with a waive of her finger and a shake of her head. “Hush now, Love. This isn’t my first fight. I didn’t go through the trouble of bringing you back from Purgatorio just to let a Faust send you right back,” She reached into her pocket, pulling a small piece of cardstock paper from within and handing it to him,” Once we all get settled in, give me a call. I’d like to see if I can help you. I hear you're a summoner. Perhaps I can show you a trick or two.”

V nodded, looking the small piece of paper over. He would consider her offer. After all, he was in her debt. She’d saved his life. It was a small favor to ask, and it could prove to be beneficial down the road. After a moment he nodded quietly, moreso to himself than to her but she got the message regardless.

Before they could finish their conversation, Vergil and Dante rounded the corner from the living room, seemingly embroiled in some other topic of conversation. Nero shadowed them, though he seemed to be uninvolved in whstervet they were talking about. Upon seeing Magnolia, Vergil craned his neck to the side, clearly inquiring in silence as to what the hell she was doing out of the hospital. “I see they were unable to keep you.”

Magnolia schoffed, folding her arms gently around her torso so as to not aggravate her wounds. “If I didn’t know better, Vergil Sparda, I’d say you were worried about me,” The smug smile on her face spoke volumes,” Is that why you're still in town?”

Vergil blanched, horrified by the statement. “Absolutely not. In fact, I was just leaving.”

“Yes, I’m sure,” She said with a small giggle,” Now that I’m here.”

The subtle yet totally flabbergasted look on Vergil’s face was enough to nearly send Dante into a laughing fit. It wasn’t every day that he found someone so adept to getting under his twin brother’s skin. The youngest Son of Sparda clapped his brother on the shoulder, gesturing towards her. “You’ve gotta tell me how you two met sometime. There has to be some history between you two.”

Magnolia smirked, waving goodbye to the group as she turned and carefully headed down the stairs. “You're quite right, Dante. Since we're all going in the same direction, we might as well travel together. I can regale you with tales from your brother’s youth on the way.”

No one present could tell if the face Vergil made at the prospect was anguish, anger, or pure unadulterated terror, but he followed her out of the door, more than likely eager to ask her to reconsider. Dante followed her as well, more than curious as to what dirt she had on his frigid twin. Nero joined V at his side, shaking his head as they all hurried out of the door. 

“Yea, next time we run into each other, you’ve gotta fill me on on some of that, too,” Nero said, not even trying to hide his amusement at the concept of being able to relentlessly torment his father with all of his embarrassing secret,” I bet it’s pretty funny.”

Both Nero and V could practically feel their father screaming on the inside as the front door closed. V smirked, suppressing a snicker. Yes, it looked like he did need to pay her a visit. Anyone that good at driving their father insane was worth his time. He turned to Nero, feeling the need to say something but not entirely sure what. Nero seemed to share that sensation, contributing to the awkward silence that settled over them. Thankfully Kyrie, who had gone into the kitchen during all of this to give them space, seemed to feel their discomfort and called to them from the next room, informing them that breakfast would be ready in a few minutes. Nero thanked her and headed towards the stairs, seemingly planning to wake the children.

“... Wait…” V called after him, now more sure of what he wanted to say. A lot had happened between them in the last few days.”... Thank you… for everything…”

Nero stopped and gave him a surprised look before scratching the back of his neck, unsure of how to take the comment. On the rare occasion that V tried to open up to him, he was never sure what to say. Every genuine moment between them seemed to come without notice, but he didn’t really loathe that. In fact, it almost made him happy. Maybe.

“... You too, I guess,” Nero said quietly, glancing towards the stairs,”... I’m gonna go wake up the kids. See you at breakfast?”

V nodded in agreement. They shared a moment of silence (one that was significantly less uncomfortable than the last) and then Nero made good on his word, heading upstairs to go wake up the boys. V turned and went back into his room, opting to take a moment to reflect. Upon entering the room and closing the door, he decided that it would be best to change his clothes before heading to breakfast. Upon sitting down on the bed and pulling the comfortably loose shirt over his head, it occurred to him that what he had just done should have hurt considerably more than it had. He placed the shirt down on the bed and turned his attention to the bandage that covered the laceration he’d received from the Cutlass the night before, carefully peeling it back to check on the injury.

And to his utter disbelief, he was met with nothing more than a bloody bandage. There was no wound to speak of, only the slight soreness that it had left in its wake. V traced the spot where the wound had been, unsure of how to take this sudden revelation. He had never recovered from an injury that quickly in his entire life. What was going on? Had his recent resurrection awakened something within him? Was this some sort of biological fluke? Whatever it was, he was grateful for it for the time being. V wasn’t the type to look a gift horse in the mouth.

As he grabbed a spare shirt and laid it down on the bed, he decided to take a quick shower. So many things had happened to him in the last three days. So many things were still left unanswered. And as soon as he felt up to it, he was going to pay Magnolia a visit. Perhaps she and his father could help him locate the answers he so longed for. But all of that would have to come at a later date. For now, he was going to take a hot shower and relax. And then he was going to fight his young nephews for the waffles he could smell from the kitchen. They had lost already, they just didn’t know it yet.

-~-

I finally did it. I finished a fic. For once, my ADD didn’t get the better of me. I don’t think I quite believe it yet. Wow. And on my mother’s birthday, too! Thank you so dang much for reading this entire story. You're the reason I kept writing it. Part two is coming shortly! I just have to work out the plot. If you’d like to help me out with that, you can go to the link I’ve left below and answer a couple of quick questions. It will take less than five minutes, and it would be very helpful since I’ll be using the feedback to shape some of the events of the next book. But regardless, thank you again for taking the time out of your life for two months to humor me and my writing. I look forward to seeing you all again on Friday July 17th, 2020 for the start of the second book, Apocrypha. And again, you're all amazing. I couldn’t have done this without your support. If you haven’t already, check out my Tumblr (Skvader’s Epos) since I update there very often. Now time to buy a new chromebook and get to work on part two! But first, a little DMC5 and Animal Crossing.

If you’d like to help me out with the next book, go to this link. I’m not collecting any personal info or anything like that, I just want to pitch some nonsense ideas and get a feel for what you’d like to have answered in the next book. It will only take like five minutes, and it would be massively helpful. Thank you all again for your time. You're incredible.

Link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1dUCZ-SoJTw8NRxVz0-eM3vMcOu9bAGsVxGEgw8nDrYU/edit?usp=drivesdk

This fic is dedicated to:

BeansWithBones, Random Reader, Nothing Special, SkylarMorgan1899, Rarbox, HunterJamie, RubixaSeraph, Aureux, Likethecatiam, That_Random_Kid, He Who Wanders, Mallovarwen, Nephilim-Girl and everyone else on Ao3, FF.N, Tumblr, and Wattpad who read this fic all the way through to completion and left kudos. You're astounding! Sorry if I forgot to name anyone. I was going off of comments!

Part two “Apocrypha” starts on July 17th, 2020!

[myrecompense]

@exxxceed x

“That isn’t going to happen.”

Because isolation was always great idea. No. He’d spent long enough on his own. And since finding out about his family, he had a rather curious fascination about Nero. The sounds he was heard... So he was like the others. Tormented.

“Is there anything I can I get you anything?”

[pamphletstoinspire]

THE HOLY GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST, - THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, FROM THE LATIN VULGATE BIBLE

Chapter 19

PREFACE.

St. Luke, who had published his gospel, wrote also a second volume, which, from the first ages, hath been called the Acts of the Apostles. Not that we can look upon this work, as a history of what was done by all the apostles, who were dispersed in different nations; but we have here a short view of the first establishment of the Christian Church, a small part of St. Peter's preaching and actions, set down in the first twelve chapters, and a more particular account of St. Paul's apostolical labours, in the following chapters, for about thirty years, till the year 63, and the 4th year of Nero, where these acts end.

The additional Notes in this Edition of the New Testament will be marked with the letter A. Such as are taken from various Interpreters and Commentators, will be marked as in the Old Testament. B. Bristow, C. Calmet, Ch. Challoner, D. Du Hamel, E. Estius, J. Jansenius, M. Menochius, Po. Polus, P. Pastorini, T. Tirinus, V. Bible de Vence, W. Worthington, Wi. Witham. — The names of other authors, who may be occasionally consulted, will be given at full length.

Chapter 19

Paul establishes the church at Ephesus. The tumult of the silversmiths.

1 And (about the year A.D. 54) it came to pass, while Apollo was at Corinth, that Paul having passed through the upper parts, came to Ephesus, and found certain disciples:

Notes & Commentary:

Ver. 1. Disciples. These were apparently disciples of St. John the Baptist, who believed in Christ from his testimony, and had received no farther instruction, nor any baptism but John's. (Calmet)

2 And he said to them: Have you received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? But they said to him: We have not so much as heard whether there be a Holy Ghost.

Ver. 2. S. Paul first inquires of them, if they have received the Holy Ghost by confirmation. Their answer is probably not to be interpreted with rigour; since they must have heard something of the holy Spirit, so often mentioned in the Old Testament, by whom the prophets are said to speak, &c. They meant, they did not know there was in the Church, any means of communicating this Spirit to the faithful. Idem.

3 And he said: In what then were you baptized? Who said: In John's baptism.

Ver. 3. No explanation given.

4 Then Paul said: John baptized the people with the baptism of penance, saying; That they should believe in him who was to come after him, that is to say, in Jesus.

Ver. 4. No explanation given.

5 Having heard these things, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Ver. 5. Baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, so called to distinguish it from the baptism of John; and that of Christ was given in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, according to the command of Christ himself. Wi.

6 And when Paul had imposed his hands on them, the Holy Ghost came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.

Ver. 6. Imposed his hands on them, by which imposition of hands, was given the Holy Ghost in the sacrament of confirmation. Wi.

7 And all the men were about twelve.

Ver. 7. No explanation given.

8 And entering into the synagogue, he spoke boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading concerning the kingdom of God.

Ver. 8. No explanation given.

9 But when some were hardened, and believed not, but spoke evil of the way of the Lord before the multitude, departing from them, he separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus (about the year A.D. 55).

Ver. 9. No explanation given.

10 And this continued for two years, so that all that dwelt in Asia, heard the word of the Lord, Jews and Gentiles.

Ver. 10. No explanation given.

11 And God wrought by the hand of Paul more than common miracles:

Ver. 11. No explanation given.

12 So that even there were brought from his body to the sick handkerchiefs and aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the wicked spirits went out of them.

Ver. 12. Aprons. It is likely such as he used in working, cured diseases, and cast out devils. What wonder, then, if God work miracles by the relics of martyrs and saints, to testify the sanctity of his servants, and to encourage others both to give them a reasonable honour, and to imitate their lives? Wi. — Thus was fulfilled the promise which Christ had made his disciples, viz. that they should perform greater miracles than he himself had done. S. Chrysostom repeats more than once, that these clothes raised the dead, and that the apostles' shadow chased away all maladies, and triumphed over death. Perhaps the unprejudiced reader may observe in this verse some reason for paying due regard to the relics, or whatever has belonged to the saints.

13 Now (about the year A.D. 56) some also of the Jewish exorcists, who went about, attempted to invoke over them, that had evil spirits, the name of the Lord Jesus, saying: I conjure you by Jesus, whom Paul preacheth.

Ver. 13. The Jewish exorcists. Among the Jews were some, who by calling upon the name of the true God, sometimes cast out evil spirits. But these sons of Sceva seeing S. Paul cast out devils, by calling upon the name of Jesus, thought fit to do the same, though they did not believe in Jesus Christ. And God punished them in this manner, as it is here related, at least two of them. Wi. — It is uncertain whether the Jews really possessed the power of exorcising demoniacs. From the 12th chapter of S. Matthew, one would be inclined to the affirmative opinion, as our Saviour seems to mention it as a thing well attested. The Jews pretended they received their exorcisms from Solomon. On the other hand, neither the Old nor New Testament ever approve of this power in them nor is it any where mentioned in Scripture that Solomon was the author of any such things. The old law was particularly severe in condemning every kind of enchantment. It is certain, that they, in the time here spoken of, added much superstition and magic to these rites. Tirinus et alii. — Josephus mentions remarkable instances of their power in exorcisms performed in his own presence, and in that of the emperor Vespasian, and his whole army. Lib. ii. c. 25. De Bello. — Extraordinary things might possibly be performed by magic and collusion between these impostors and the demons. That this power of expelling devils, resides in the Church, every page of primitive ecclesiastical history, testifies. Scripture is also equally explicit on this subject. The exorcisms, says S. Cyprian, are the spiritual torments and scourges of the demons. Ep. ad Demetrium. — It was for this reason the Jews, on this occasion, used the name of Jesus; a name terrible to the infernal spirits, to add power to their imprecations. Tertullian urges facts of this power in the Christians, with much energy and eloquence, in his Apology. Prudentius has recorded the same, with equal elegance, in his verse —

———Torquetur Apollo

Nomine percussus Christi, nec fulmina verbi

Ferre potest. Agitant miserum verbera linguæ.

14 And there were certain men, seven sons of Sceva, a Jew, a chief priest, who did this.

Ver. 14. No explanation given.

15 But the evil spirit answering, said to them: Jesus I know, and Paul I know: but who are you?

Ver. 15. No explanation given.

16 And the man, in whom the evil spirit was, leaping upon them, and mastering them both, prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

Ver. 16. No explanation given.

17 And this became known to all the Jews and the Gentiles who dwelt at Ephesus: and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.

Ver. 17. No explanation given.

18 And many of those who believed, came confessing and declaring their deeds.

Ver. 18. Confessing and declaring their deeds, as penitents do in the sacrament of penance, and not only in general declaring or confessing themselves sinners. See Matt. iii. 6. Wi.

19 And many of those who had followed curious arts, brought their books together, and burnt them before all: and computing the price of them, they found the money to be fifty thousand pieces of silver.

Ver. 19. Curious arts. By which are here meant books of divination and magic art, to which study the Ephesians were much addicted. The price of the books burnt, amounting to a great sum, even computing the 50,000 denarii, each of them at sevenpence half-penny English money. Wi. — The value of the books here destroyed might have amounted to £1000 sterling. The Christian emperors, Constantine the Great, Valentinian, Theodosius, Marcian, and Justinian, have made laws not less strict for destroying, than those of the Church for proscribing, the use of wicked books, where danger is likely to ensue. The danger of reading them is set forth by Eusebius, l. vii. c. 6; by S. Austin, l. iii. de bap. c. 14; by S. Gregory, l. v. ep. 64. — Such baneful productions should be destroyed; for although they may possibly produce no bad effect during the life of the present possessors, no one can pretend to say into what hands they will afterwards fall, nor what evil they may hereafter occasion.

20 So mightily increased the word of God, and was confirmed.

Ver. 20. No explanation given.

21 Now these things being ended, Paul purposed in the spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying: After I have been there, I must also see Rome.

Ver. 21. I must also see Rome. It is what S. Paul earnestly desired, and what the Spirit now revealed to him. See Rom. i. Wi.

22 So sending into Macedonia two of those that ministered to him, Timothy and Erastus, he himself remained for a time in Asia.

Ver. 22. No explanation given.

23 Now at that time there arose no small disturbance about the way of the Lord (about the year A.D. 57).

Ver. 23. About the way of the Lord; that is, about Christian faith, and religion. Wi. — A great source of these troubles that ensued, was the preaching of the gospel.

24 For a certain man, named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver temples for Diana, brought no small gain to the craftsmen:

Ver. 24. Who made silver temples for Diana. Perhaps figures of Diana's temple in silver; or boxes and shrines, in which was the statue or figure of Diana. Wi.

Note:

V. 24. Ædes argenteas, naouV argurouV.

25 Whom calling together, with the workmen of like occupation, he said: Ye men, know that our gain is by this trade:

Ver. 25. No explanation given.

26 Now you see, and hear, that this Paul, by persuasion hath drawn away a great multitude, not only at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, saying: That they are no gods which are made with hands.

Ver. 26. No explanation given.

27 So that not only this our craft is in danger of being vilified, but also the temple of great Diana shall be thought nothing of, yea, and her majesty shall begin to be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshippeth.

Ver. 27. In danger of being vilified, and Diana of losing her reputation. They ought to have reflected, says S. Chrys. (hom. xlii.) that if such a poor man, as Paul, could destroy the worship, and the majesty of this great goddess, whom, as they say, all the world adored, how much greater and worthy of adoration must the God be, by whose power Paul could do this? Wi.

28 Having heard these things, they were full of anger, and cried out, saying: Great is Diana of the Ephesians.

Ver. 28. Great is Diana of the Ephesians. This they shouted out without intermission for about two hours, though the greatest part knew not why they had met together. A true representation of an unthinking rash mob. Wi.

29 And the whole city was filled with confusion, and they rushed with one accord into the theatre, having caught Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia, companions of Paul.

Ver. 29. No explanation given.

30 And when Paul would have entered in unto the people, the disciples suffered him not.

Ver. 30. No explanation given.

31 And some also of the rulers of Asia, who were his friends, sent unto him, desiring that he would not venture himself into the theatre.

Ver. 31. Some also of the rulers of Asia. They are called friends to S. Paul, but it is uncertain whether they were Christians, or others, who favoured him, and wished him well. Wi.

Ver. 31. No explanation given.

32 Now some cried out one thing, some another. For the assembly was confused, and the greater part knew not for what cause they were come together.

Ver. 32. No explanation given.

33 And they drew forth Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews thrusting him forward. And Alexander, beckoning with his hand for silence, would have given the people satisfaction.

Ver. 33. No explanation given.

34 But as soon as they perceived him to be a Jew, all with one voice, for the space of about two hours, cried out: Great is Diana of the Ephesians.

Ver. 34. No explanation given.

35 And when the town-clerk had appeased the multitudes, he said: Ye men of Ephesus, what man is there that knoweth not that the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the great Diana, and of Jupiter's offspring?

Ver. 35. The town-clerk, &c. Lit. the scribe, or the recorder of the city. — Jupiter's offspring. His daughter, according to the poets. The Greek text seems to signify a statue, or figure of Diana, which was pretended to have fallen from heaven, and from Jupiter. Wi. — Is a worshipper. Newkoron ousan; the word NewkoroV is found in this sense in the Arundelian marbles, and more frequently on ancient coins and inscriptions. Its derivation is from newV, a temple, and korh, a virgin, or rather korein, to cleanse and decorate; as if this city were especially destined to ornament the Diana of Ephesus, which the people supposed came to them not by the work of man, but a present from heaven.

Note:

V. 35. Jovisque prolis, kai tou diopetouV. Simulachri a cælo dilapsi. See Suidas.

36 Since, therefore, these things cannot be contradicted, you ought to be quiet, and do nothing rashly.

Ver. 36. No explanation given.

37 For you have brought hither these men, who are neither guilty of sacrilege, nor of blasphemy against your goddess.

Ver. 37. Nor of blasphemy against your goddess. S. Chrys. takes notice, that to calm the people, he says more than was true. Wi.

38 But if Demetrius, and the craftsmen who are with him, have a cause against any man, the courts of justice are open, and there are proconsuls: let them accuse one another.

Ver. 38. No explanation given.

39 And if you inquire after any other matter, it may be decided in a lawful assembly.

Ver. 39. No explanation given.

40 For we are in danger of being arraigned for this day's uproar: there being no man guilty (of whom we can give an account) of this concourse. And when he had said these things, he dismissed the assembly.

Ver. 40. No explanation given.

[delwray-blog]

THE PLOT AGAINST GOD’S CHURCH

THE PLOT AGAINST GOD’S CHURCH

The Plot against the body of Jesus Christ, His visible Church still here on earth today, that has been going on down thru the ages. It is an eye-opening conspiracy of epic proportion and danger to the visible assembly even at present.

By Pastor Del Wray

How the Jews crucified Jesus Christ and killed the 1st Century Apostles? And have ever since been responsible for the murder of the followers of Jesus Christ down thru the ages and their plan to slaughter all Christians wiping Christianity from the face of the earth that they may become the One World superpower themselves under a one world leader, antichrist, without Jesus Christ. They being their own messiah bringing in the future kingdom as their Talmud instructs.

The same forces which crucified Christ two thousand years ago are today trying to crucify His Church.

My motive in this writing is to expose the real enemies of the true Church that Jesus founded!

It is not my purpose in this document to downgrade the Jewish people or stir up resentment against them. My purpose is to expose the Jews and the Talmud’s contents and the Jewish opinions of we Gentiles, and to explain, often in their own words, how they feel about you, the "goyim" (a Yiddish word meaning "non-Jew animal"), and about your religion, Christianity. It is written as a means of protecting ourselves from the greatest threat to ever face Christianity in our two thousand years of history. We cannot, we dare not, overlook this threat if we are to survive as a free people.

Many Christian leaders have not yet realized it, but Christianity is in the grip of a life and death struggle at the present time. International Jewish Communism, which has already undermined all nations, firmly expects to exterminate all Christians. What the Cause of Christ has endured in Russia the past one hundred years surpasses its suffering at the hands of bloody Nero. Unless the Christian Churches in America and of the western nations comes under a new baptism of old-time Spiritual power, the Church will go down and Soviet Atheism will come up. The Russian Empire was destroyed by the Red hordes, a hundred years ago, because it did not possess sufficient spiritual vitality to resist the onslaught.

If the Church of America continues to lose its spiritual moorings, it requires no prophet to determine what the future will bring forth.

An old philosopher once said, to know a thing well one must understand its first cause. It is unpleasant to realize that a certain element of apostate Jewry is behind the turmoil of this dark hour and the present Soviet persecution through which the Church of Jesus Christ is passing. Hear what Jesus had to say about this sect of Jewry:

Speaking to the sect known as the Pharisees, Jesus said: "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh his own: for he is a liar and the father of it."

The Pharisees wielded a satanic influence over their nation. They represented a system of occultism mingled with Jewish doctrines and beliefs. They poured a constant stream of poison into the thinking of Jewry which twisted and perverted the minds of the rank and file of people.

In the language of the street, the Jew is sometimes called a "Christ hater." The spirit of Judaism is one of direct antagonism to the principles of Christianity.

It is not difficult to understand why an apostate people, who have rejected their Messiah, should continue in spiritual darkness and despise everything that bears His name. No sooner had the tomb of Christ been sealed than the tormenters set out to destroy His followers. This assault has continued straight through the centuries until now it has come into fruition in the form of international Jewish Communism.

Let Christians remember that the international Jewish Communists and Capitalists expect to eventually destroy all Gentile governments, rule the world, and establish throughout the earth the kind of conditions they have introduced in Soviet Russia. They expect to murder all Christian believers and blot Christianity out of existence. The struggle is between the philosophy of the Jew Karl Marx and the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In the first twelve chapters of the book of Acts, five specific persecutions, sponsored by Jews against the infant Christian Church, are recorded. Failing to blot the new religious conception from the face of the earth by putting its Leader to death, they invented every conceivable scheme for torturing and murdering those who pledged allegiance to His plan for redeeming the world from the curse of sin. The Jews regarded Christianity as being an illegitimate child of Judaism. Therefore, in their hatred, they believed it to be their solemn duty to stamp it out. After the divine visitation at Pentecost, so many thousands of Jews were converted that the leaders became alarmed. One thing stood in their way—the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Had His body remained in the tomb, they would have found it easy to combat the new Faith which had suddenly sprung into existence. But with the resurrection being discussed on every side, they found themselves confronted with an insurmountable difficulty. When first faced with the fact of the empty tomb they did not hesitate to resort to deliberate falsehoods. "And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers, Saying, say ye, His disciples came by night and stole him away while we slept. And if this comes to the governor's ears, we will persuade him, and secure you. So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day." The first few months of the Church's history witnessed five distinct persecutions. What the Cause of Christ has endured at the hands of Jews, through the centuries, far surpasses anything the Jewish people have suffered from Christians. The attitude of the Jews toward the early Church reminds us that there would be no Christianity in the world today had Paul and others not taken the Gospel message to the Gentiles. First persecution: Acts 4:1-22. A pitiful beggar, a man born a cripple, was placed near the gates of the Jerusalem temple every day to beg for alms. On a certain occasion, as Peter and John were about to enter, the poor, helpless creature stretched forth a dirty, bony arm and pleaded for a coin. "Silver and gold have I none," said Peter, "but such as I have to give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk." Instantly the resurrection life of Christ smote the recipient of divine mercy and he jumped to his feet "walking, and leaping, and praising God." The man was more than forty years of age and had therefore been a familiar object on the streets of Jerusalem for years. This miracle caused a great stir throughout the city. Large crowds of curious people gathered around the apostles and the healed beggar. Peter was quick to take advantage of the opportunity and turned the occasion into a sermon. "Why marvel ye at this?" he asked, and then explained that a far more wonderful miracle had occurred a short time before in Jerusalem—namely the resurrection of Christ from the grave. When the report of this healing reached the treacherous Jews, their minds got busier than ever. They began devising new plans for putting an end to everything that was being done in the name of Christ. Their first thought was to deny that the miracle had been performed. Then they realized that this was useless because the man was so well known. At that moment he was rejoicing, praising God, testifying to his deliverance and telling everybody what had happened. "And we cannot deny it," mourned the Jews who would have lied to discredit the story if it would have advanced their selfish purposes. The members of the Sanhedrin came together and the little band of Christians were forced to appear before them. A torrent of abuse was turned loose upon the trembling group until finally Peter, "filled with the Holy Ghost," became bold. As spokesman for the group, he made it clear that the Christians proposed to obey God rather than man. Had it not been that the mobs were at that time favorable toward the apostles because of the miracle which had been performed, the Jewish leaders would have no doubt put the entire body of believers to death. Second persecution: Acts 5:17-42. "Many signs and wonders" were wrought among the people by the apostles. All manner of diseases were healed. But the Jews could see no good in any of this relief of human suffering because it did not come through the narrow, selfish channels of their bigoted nationalism. The leaders agreed to the use of physical weapons in their attempt to destroy spiritual power, the same as Communists are doing today in trying to exterminate Christianity by killing Christians. Repeated acts of supernatural intervention preserved the early Church. Without divine assistance, it would have perished. These early miracles confirmed the words of the Founder that the gates of hell would not be able to prevail against the Church. The Jews "laid hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison. But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors, and brought them forth." Next morning when the Jewish senate convened and messengers were sent to bring the apostles for trial, it was discovered that unknown to the jailors, they had escaped and were at that very hour preaching in the area of the temple. Jerusalem was in turmoil by this time. Had the officials dared, they would have killed the Christians without a legal trial. When the saints appeared before the tribunal they were told that they had been previously warned not to teach in the name of Jesus. "Ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man's blood upon us," said the high priest. From this, it is evident that the apostles had been denouncing the Jews and charging them with the responsibility for Christ's death. Here we find the leaders complaining about His blood being upon them, forgetting apparently their previous utterance: "His blood be on us, and on our children." It is to the credit of our spiritual ancestors that they were able to fill a whole city with the doctrines of Christianity in the face of such defiant opposition. Peter finally dared to shout: "The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree." Next, he called upon his persecutors to repent of their sins. We read that this "cut them to the heart." Who was this upstart that he should have the audacity to rebuke them! When they were almost ready to demand the lives of the apostles, Gamaliel, a tolerant member of the Sanhedrin, lifted a warning voice. If the new cult was not of God, he declared that it would come to naught and fall by its own weight. "But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God." At length, this line of common sense reasoning prevailed, and the passions of the leaders cooled a bit. The result was, instead of killing the apostles they were given another warning and a severe flogging. This form of punishment was cruel, brutal, cowardly and unjust. But even though bitter and painful to the flesh, it caused rejoicing to the spirits of the faithful few. As the wounds healed they "rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name." The only way the Jews had of striking at the Christ Whom they hated was to injure His followers; they availed themselves of this opportunity. Boldly and properly disregarding their illegal judges, the Christians kept on preaching Christ and reminding the Jews of their crimes against the government of God. Third persecution: Acts 7: 54-60. The blood of martyrs began flowing in the same year that the Lord ascended into heaven. The Jews' first victim after Christ was a man named Stephen, whose primary crime was a belief in the deity of the Son of God. This was regarded as blasphemy. The story of the murder of Stephen is one of the saddest in all the history of the Church. It is significant that a Hellenist, rather than an apostle, should have become the first Christian martyr. Stephen was accused of three things: blaspheming God, setting aside the Old Testament, and belittling the Temple. Each of these charges was untrue. Even while lying witnesses were being introduced against him, the members of the Jewish counsel saw his countenance light up with a spiritual glow like "the face of an angel." After listening to the charges, the priests asked their helpless victim: "Are these things so?" But instead of devoting himself to an answer of questions which everyone knew to be based upon falsehoods, Stephen entered into a discussion of the Israelitish history and closed by rebuking his judges for their hypocrisy. He declared that their devotion to God, the Law, and the Temple, was hypocritical. Here are his words: "Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers." Thus Stephen laid bare the full measure of their guilt. The blood of the Son of God was upon their heads; they had ignored the miracles which testified of His deity; they had rejected the Pentecostal program of the new Church; they had also spurned the wooings of the Holy Spirit. Before God, they stood condemned, and judgment was sure to overtake them! Taking no thought of his own safety, Stephen shot his words of truth, like barbed arrows, into the hard hearts of his merciless tormentors. As he spoke, the Jewish leaders yelled and screamed to drown his words. They stopped their ears with their fingers to avoid hearing the truth about themselves. Like serpents, they hissed their poison at the courageous Christian. They rushed upon him with one accord. In their madness they dragged him outside the city, removing their outer garments as they ran. With stones, they pelted the body of the first Christian martyr until his life ebbed away. This execution was illegal because the matter was not submitted to the Roman Governor. Emulating the blessed Saviour, Stephen cried with a loud voice: "Lord lay not this sin at their charge." "And when he had said this, he fell asleep." Fourth persecution: Acts 8:1-3. The first three persecutions were spontaneous and did not result from deliberate planning. There had been no coordination of effort. Events had transpired so rapidly that there had been no time to sit down and quietly work out a concerted plan of attack. But the spilling of Stephen's blood seemed to whet the Jewish appetite for more Christian suffering. From that hour, nothing but a terrible pogrom could possibly satisfy them. The sight of blood, the appearance of the first deadly wound in the flesh of a believer, seemed to stir all their criminal instincts. They came to the conclusion that an organized effort was imperative if the new Faith was to be put down. Up until that time, their attempts to suppress the truth had proved ineffective. In searching for a persecutor who would be both cunning and brutal they selected a brilliant young rabbi by the name of Saul from the city of Tarsus. It will be recalled that this was the young man who had guarded the coats of those who stoned Stephen. Saul stood grinning at the contortions of the martyr squirming and writhing in death agonies, under the barrage of rocks which were heaped upon him. Jesus told his followers to go everywhere proclaiming the glad tidings. This was done following the Pentecostal harvest feast which brought Jews to Jerusalem from all parts of the civilized world. Those who accepted the Gospel message, on that great occasion, returned to their various communities to kindle spiritual fires. Unwittingly, in the fourth persecution, the Jews contributed to the success of this very plan of evangelizing because when Saul began scattering believers, driving them from their homes, forcing them into exile, "persecuting them from city to city," every such Christian became an evangelist. Until this time, the activities of the Christians had been confined for the most part, to the city of Jerusalem and its immediate environs, although a skeleton of Church organization was set up reaching into other areas, resulting from the embers which blew in all directions after the experience Pentecost. "As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women, committed them to prison. Therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word." The very name Saul became a terror to the early Christians because of the heartless methods which he used. He and his helpers were happiest when they could rush into a house and catch a little group of believers in the act of worshipping—they would kill and wound some, banish others, and torture still others in ways too numerous and terrible for words. The irony of this organized attempt on the part of the Jews to blot the cause of Christ out of existence was the fact that their own ringleader got gloriously converted on the road to Damascus and became the greatest missionary and evangelist the world has ever known. But, in later years, Paul never forgave himself, nor was he ever able to erase the memories of his early attacks upon the little Church, which he came to love so dearly and for which he finally sacrificed his life. Fifth persecution: Acts 12:1-19. The next spasm of Jewish terror, mentioned in the early part of the book of Acts, was directed against Peter. This persecution is of particular importance because it introduces a new element in the Jewish plan of destroying Christianity. It reveals the scheme, which was continued for hundreds of years, influencing Gentile rulers to do their dirty work for them. During the first few centuries of Church history, when the pagans slaughtered Christians by the tens of thousands, a careful study will show that time and again the pogroms were precipitated by powerful Jews who were able to maneuver things from behind the scenes. They simply used pagans to carry out their crimes against Christians in the same manner that the player moves chessmen on the board. St. Justin said in the middle of the second century: "The Jews were behind all the persecutions of the Christians. They wandered through the country, everywhere hating and undermining the Christian faith." Tertullian said about the same time: "The Jews formed the breeding ground of all anti-Christian action." A plain example of Jews causing unbelieving Gentiles to destroy Christians is to be seen in this, the fifth persecution. We read that Herod the king has James put to death by the sword because of Jewish influences being brought to bear upon his throne. This ruler was the grandson of Herod the Great who murdered the babes of Bethlehem after the birth of Christ. James was one of the three, with Peter and John, who enjoyed the sweetest possible fellowship with the Lord. No details are given in the Scriptures about the killing of James. And yet underneath the simple statement, a deep anguish and sympathy may be felt. Then the next verse shows that the wicked king had planned to make away with Peter in the same way. "And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. And when he apprehended him, he put him in prison ... Peter, therefore, was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him." The Jews desired a public execution of Peter. They wanted his death to be viewed by all because he was one of the principal leaders of the despised Christians. This would give them a chance to gloat over their ability to wrap Gentile monarchs around their fingers. It was quite an achievement, in their estimation, to get a Roman king such as Herod, to do their bidding. But a strange thing happened during the night proceeding the day when Peter was to be put to death. Another miracle occurred. Although execution awaited him, the faithful apostle who spent the night chained between two soldiers, slept as sound as a babe. Suddenly a shaft of light shot into the darkened cell like a bolt of lightning and an angel smote Peter on the side. He dressed quickly and followed the heavenly visitor to the outer court, through the gate, and down the street. Not until then did he realize that his deliverance was real and not merely a dream. Making his way to the home of Mary, the mother of John Mark, Peter found that an all-night prayer meeting was being held in his behalf. He came into the presence of the saints rejoicing "that the Lord hath sent his angel, and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod, and from all the expectation of the Jews." The angel smote Peter and the result was life and liberty. A short time later the same angel smote Herod and the result was disease, death, and worms devouring his flesh. And this king was not the last to be cursed for allowing himself to come under the domination of Jews. So Herod having consented to an ignominious death for Peter, himself suffered one much more ignominious. Another Perspective:

Since the origin of the Church, Jewry has declared a war of life and death upon Christianity without any grounds, without provocation, and without the Church in the first three centuries answering violence with violence; The Jews abused in cruel form the gentleness of the first Christians, who restricted themselves to combating their deadly enemies simply with well-founded discussions, in return for which they had to suffer the degrading slanders of the Jews, their imprisonments, their murders and every kind of persecution. These begin with the unjust and cruel murder of Christ Our Lord; there follows the killing of Stephen, which is related to us by the Holy Bible in the Acts of the Apostles, in all its horror, from the planning of the crime in the bosom of the Synagogue, passing to the use of bribery, so that some slandered and cast poisonous accusations against him, up to the use of false witnesses to confirm these accusations, and finally the murder of Stephen by the Jews, which was completed by stoning in a cruel manner, without Stephen having committed any misdeed other than to preach the true gospel. He was the first martyr of Christianity, and the Israelites had the honor of being the first to have shed Christian blood after the murder of Jesus.

The Bible itself, in the Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 12 reveals, how the Jewish King Herod stretched forth his hands...

“… To vex certain of the church. And he killed James the brother of John with the sword. And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also".

However, the Hebrews, not satisfied with their having begun the murder of the leaders of Christianity, fell upon the carrying out of cruel persecutions, which degenerated into terrible bloodbaths, as the Bible relates to us in the Acts of the Apostles, and which gave Heaven its first martyrs. In these persecutions, Saul, the future Paul, took part before his conversion, and in fact with a zeal which he himself describes in his letter to the Galatians in the following manner:

Acts 1: 13: "For ye have heard of my conversation in times past in the Jews' religion how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God and wasted it."

The Jews do not accept God, asserts Paul. The Hebrews persecuted with particular tenacity, as is natural, the Apostles and the first leaders of the Church, of which Paul lays witness in his First Letter to the Thessalonians, and in which he categorically asserts that the Jews do not accept God. He says literally: 1 Thess. 1:14: “For, ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things for your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews;” 1 Thess. 1: 15. “Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us, and they please not God, and are contrary to all men".

It is therefore false to say that the Jews, who have denied Christ as the Messiah, are pleasing to God, as those clergies assert who work together with them for the purpose of crippling the defense of the Church of Christ, people against the Jewish striving for power and its revolutionary activity. How can it be possible that these Jew-friendly priests lay claim to be right, and that Paul lied when he assured us that the Jews are not pleasing to God? Nevertheless, one sees completely clear that the powers of evil, the children of the Devil as Christ called them and an integral part of the "Synagogue of Satan", could not be acceptable to God. The Jews frequently imprisoned the Apostles. In the Acts of the Apostles it is, confirmed that the Jewish priests, the Sadducees and the officials of the temple laid hands on Peter and John and threw them into prison.

In Acts 5, the following is related: vs. 17. “Then the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him (which is the seed of the Sadducees), and were filled with indignation, vs. 18.

And laid their hands on the apostles, and put them in a common prison." Among the persecutions unleashed by the Jews against the first leaders of the Church stand out those on account of their mercilessness which was directed against Paul. It is remarked in the Acts of the Apostles Chapter 9: 22. But Saul increased the more in strength and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is the very Christ. In vs. 23. And after that many days were fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill him." Afterward when Paul and Barnabas had discussed religious questions with the Jews in Antioch, the latter ended the discussion with their usual fanaticism and their intolerance and used the argument of violence. The Acts of the Apostles quotes this Chapter 13: 50. “But the Jews stirred up the devout and honorable women, and the chief men of the city, and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them out of their coasts".

Afterward, in Acts the 14th chapter of the Bible book mentioned, it is confirmed what occurred in the city of Iconium after a further theological discussion by Paul and Barnabas with the Hebrews:

Acts 14: 4 “But the multitude of the city was divided: and part held with the Jews, and part with the Apostles” vs. 5 “And when there was an assault made both of the Gentiles, and also of the Jews with their rulers, to use them despitefully, and to stone them, vs. 6. They were aware of it and fled unto Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and unto the region that lieth round about vs. 19. And there came thither certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded the people, and, having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead."

One thus sees that even in those days the division was very clear: on the one side the supporters of the Apostles, the Christians, and on the other, the Jews.

The New Testament already makes use of the word "Jews" in order to describe the members of the ancient people who murdered God's Son and fought against His Church; for those who had converted to the faith of Christ were not Jews, but Christians. The Jews, who in our days persecute the Church still further and threaten to rule and enslave mankind, are in fact the descendants of these Jews, who are described by the New Testament as the worst enemies of Christ and His Church. They have nothing in common spiritually with the old Jewish people of Biblical times. The chosen people were loved by God. However, the Jews who denied their Messiah, who murdered Him and who fought against Christianity and continue to fight against it, and who stiff-necked grant support to their criminal organizations in our days are as Paul said, not acceptable to God.

In Chapter 17:5 of the aforementioned book of the New Testament, it is said that Paul and Silas came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. "But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city in an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people, Chapter 17: 6. And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, 'these that have turned the world upside down have come hither also vs. 7. Whom Jason hath received: and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus' vs. 8. And they troubled the people and the rulers of the city when they heard these things vs. 9. And when they had taken the security of Jason, and of the other, they let them go".

The passages quoted from Holy Scripture prove clearly that the Jews were the only enemies of Christianity and that everywhere they not only directly persecuted the Christians, but attempted with slanders to stir up the Gentile peoples against them, and what is still more weighty, the authorities of the Roman Empire. In the preceding passage of the Acts of the Apostles it is evident how they used slanders, in order with criminal intent to thrust the whole power of the then invincible Roman Empire against the Church of God, by their more or less accusing the Christians of recognizing another king in place of Caesar, an outrage which infuriated the Roman emperors and their collaborators to the extreme; for this form of treachery to Caesar invited immediate punishment of death upon them. Thus it is beyond doubt what the Israelites strove for, who for many years afterward applied the whole poison of their slanders and intrigues. However, they were not successful in letting loose the Roman Empire against the Christians. Only on the basis of much pressure did they attain this with Nero. An attempt also took place to stir up the rulers of Rome against Paul, as the following passage of the New Testament Proves:

Acts 18: 12 “And when Gallio was the deputy of Achaia, the Jews made insurrection with one accord against Paul and brought him to the judgment seat, vs. 13. Saying, 'This fellow persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the law” vs. 14. “And when Paul was now about to open his mouth, Gallio said unto the Jews, 'If it were a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness, ye Jews, reason would that I should bear with you:” vs. 15. “But if it is a question of words and names, and of your law, look ye to it; for I will be no judge of such matters” vs. 16. And he drove them from the judgment seat vs. 17. Then all the Greeks took Sostheness, the chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. And Gallio cared for none of those things." This passage of the Bible allows us to recognize: On the one side the religious tolerance of the Roman authorities and the absolute lack of interest in attacking Christians; on the other side it was the Hebrews who constantly sought for means in order to repeatedly unleash, even if unsuccessfully, the rulers of the Roman Empire against the Christians. In conclusion, when such an infamous attempt had failed, the Jews as madmen ended the affair with a general and furious free fight. Here Sosthenes, the superintendent of the Synagogue, became the unlucky object of Hebrew rage and madness. Naturally, we cannot doubt the truthfulness of these facts, for it is a matter of a literal passage from the New Testament.

It is therefore certainly explicable that, when this mob of wolves, in addition to all full powers, was unchained with the victory of the Communist revolution, it carried out unbelievable bloodbaths and caused Christian and Gentile blood to flow in torrents, until in the end both in the Soviet Union, as also in the Satellite States, they cut one another to pieces, without respect for anything, not even of Rabbinical dignity, as in the case of that poor Sosthenes who is mentioned in the preceding passage of the Bible. It is completely beyond doubt that they are and remain always the same.

In Acts, the disciple Luke tells us of further persecutions undertaken by the Jews against Paul. In his description of the behavior of the Jews in those times, one could say that he might be writing to us in the present day. Nothing seems to have altered in nearly two thousand years. He relates of the stay of Paul in Jerusalem: Chapter 21: 27. And when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews which were of Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people and laid hands on him and vs. 28. Crying out, “Men of Israel, help! This is the man, that teacheth all men everywhere against the people, and the law, and this place; and further, brought Greeks also into the temple and hath polluted this holy place” vs. 30 and all the city was moved, and the people ran together: and they took Paul, and drew him out of the temple and forthwith the doors were shut vs. 31. And as they went about to kill him, tidings came unto the chief captain of the band, that all Jerusalem was in an uproar vs. 32. Who immediately took soldiers and centurions, and ran down unto them; and when they saw the chief captain and the soldiers, they left beating of Paul".

This passage of the New Testament shows us how the Jews accused Paul of "teaching all men everywhere against the people", they caused him in slanderous manner to appear as an enemy of the people, in order to justify his killing. More than nineteen centuries afterward, when the Jews in the Soviet Union and other Communist lands wished to kill someone, they accused him of being an enemy of the people and an enemy of the working classes; their methods have not changed and still remain the same today. They have not altered in approximately two thousand years, they also slanderously accused Paul of preaching against the temple, just as in the mock trials of Communist lands they accuse the future victims of having carried out a conspiracy against the Soviet Union or the proletarian state. Finally, they also accused Paul of having brought Gentiles into the temple and thus defiled the holy place; for in those days the Jews regarded the temple as closed to Gentiles, just as they now regard Jewry as closed to men of other races. Then they only allowed new converts as far as the door of the temple, thus only to the outside door. Now they accept, so they say Gentiles and Christians in some lands into Jewry, but also only to the outside door, in that by deceit they only allow the latter into the peripheral organizations and never to enter the real synagogues and communities of the Jewish people. In this, their methods have also remained the same. The Holy Scripture mentioned further relates that, when the captain allowed Paul to address his words to the angry Jews, in order to calm them, this occurred (Acts 22: 22. “And they gave him audience unto this word, and then lifted up their voices, and said, 'Away with such a fellow from the earth: for it is not fit that he should live vs. 23. And as they cried out, and cast off their clothes, and threw dust into the air..."

We see here the veritably possessed Jews, who, centuries later, in the midst of the Jewish Communist terror, were to cut their unfortunate victims into pieces with all their application of cruelty.

This passage from the New Testament goes further Acts 22: 30. On the morrow, because he (the Roman captain) would have known the certainty wherefore he was accused of the Jews he loosed him from his bands, and commanded the chief priests and all their council to appear, and brought Paul down, and set him before them."

Acts 23: 6 “But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees, and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, 'Men and Brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee: of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question vs. 7. And when he had so said, there arose a discussion between the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the multitude was divided vs. 8. For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel nor spirit: but the Pharisees confess both vs. 9. And there arose a great cry and the scribes that were of the Pharisees' part arose, and strove, saying, 'We find no evil in this man: but if a spirit or angel hath spoken to him, let us not fight against God.” A magnificent lesson in how, for the cause of Good, the internal differences of opinion of the Jewish parties and sects could be used. One can do this in an effective form, if one knows the secret interior of Jewry, which permits deception through false combat maneuvers, which are frequently pretended among one another, in order to attain definite political goals.

After the violent struggle that was inflamed between the Jewish leaders mentioned and which compelled the Roman captain to use his soldiers, the Apostle continues his report Acts 23: 12.

“And when it was day, certain of the Jews banded together, and bound themselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul” vs. 13. “And they were more than forty which had made this conspiracy” vs. 14. “And they came to the chief priests and elders and said: We have bound ourselves under a great curse that we will eat nothing until we have slain Paul” vs. 15. “Now, therefore, ye with the council, signify to the chief captain that he brings him down unto you tomorrow, as though ye would inquire something more perfectly concerning him: and we, or ever he come near, are ready to kill him".

It is the Jews that are killers.

The foresight of the captain, who knew the Jews only too well, frustrated their criminal plans. Therefore he sent Paul away under the guard of two hundred soldiers and two officers. Verse 25 explains that the Roman captain did this because he feared that the Jews could snatch away Paul with force and kill him. Also, he feared that afterward, they would slander him by saying that he had accepted their money.

This enlightening passage of the New Testament clearly explains that the Jews as swindlers and inventors of the "hunger strike" already put into practice in the times of Paul, when they swore neither to eat nor to drink until they had succeeded in killing him.

The Acts of the Apostles does not explain whether, after the salvation of Paul through the caution of the Roman captain, the fasting Jews kept their oath until death. However, the silence of the Apostle allows us to assume that with the Jews then as with the "hunger strikes" of our days, the Jewish comedians, as soon as they could not achieve their goal, found a suitable excuse to halt the strike.

On the other side, one sees that, even in those distant times, they applied the system of murdering a prisoner on the road, when the latter was brought from one place to another.

One further observes that even the Romans had anxiety before the slanders of the Jews, whom they doubtless knew as masters of this disastrous art.

In order to gain knowledge of the wicked activity of Jewry and its mode of action, one scarcely needs to read the famed "Protocols of the Elders of Zion". The teachings of the Bible, as well as other reliable and undisputed documents, suffice, which often originated from the most unhoped-for Hebrew sources.

After Paul was led before the deputy (governor), Acts continues in Chapter 25: 2. Then the high priest and the chief of the Jews informed him against Paul, and besought him and desired favor against him that he would send for him to Jerusalem, laying wait on the way to kill him. But Festus answered, that Paul should be kept at Caesarea and that he himself would depart shortly thither. Let them, therefore, said he, which are able, go down with me, and accuse this man if there be any wickedness in him. And when he has come, the Jews which came down from Jerusalem stood round about and laid many and grievous complaints against Paul, which they could not prove. While he answered for himself, neither against the law of the Jews, neither against the temple nor yet against Caesar, have I offended anything at all" Acts 25:2-8.

In order to understand this terrible tragedy, one must bear in mind that Paul was a devout man and illuminated by the grace of God, to such an extent that he is worthy of being regarded as one of the greatest saints of Christianity. Nevertheless, the Jews, with their natural falsity and their insane tenacity, fell into a fury with him in the manner described in the preceding passages of the Holy Bible. The problem was sharpened still more as a result that not only the Jews from Palestine, but also those from the most different parts of the world, exposed their murderous and godless instincts, and that not only the sect of the Pharisees but also the Sadducees, who were opponents of the former. It was not individuals, isolated and without representation, who oozed such maliciousness, but the high priests, the scribes, the leading personages and most illustrious men of Israel; all cut from the same cloth.

These passages of the New Testament teach us to recognize the enemy and the danger that modern Jewry represents for mankind, whose infamy exceeds the boundaries of everything in which any people could possibly imagine. Therefore they are "perfidious Jews", which words, together with other eloquent expressions figure in the monstrous perversity of our two-thousand-year-old enemies and in order to awake us to be more aware of the danger Judaism present to America and the world today. Before we can defeat an enemy we must know who the enemy is!

The most significant point here is that, in the description of the falsehood of this generation of vipers, as Christ Our Lord called them, the New Testament of the Holy Bible coincides perfectly with the writings that were composed hundreds of years later by our Forefathers with the trials of the Spanish Inquisition, and with the opinion of Martin Luther, as well as with the accusations that have been made in different countries by savants of the enemy, and in fact by, Protestants, Catholics, Russian Orthodox, Mohammedans, and even by unbelievers like Voltaire and Rosenberg.

All these have, without previous agreement, agreed during the last two thousand years to denounce the high degree of falsehood and malice among the Jews. This proves that unfortunately this wickedness and falsehood, to be very dangerous for the remaining humanity and correspond to a confirmed and undisputed reality.

The Apostle Matthew spread the Word of God far and wide, at first in Macedonia and afterward in Judaea and converted many to believe in Jesus Christ through his sermons and his miracles. It is said, that the Jews could not suffer this, therefore they laid hands upon him, stoned him to the point of almost killing him, and finally, he was decapitated the 24th day of February.

[checkers-dance]

also i had a dream abt mx last night which is rlly odd. i think i usually dream of them when im rlly thinking of them but tbh they haven't been that much on my mind these days. i also don't remember almost anything other than that they released a music video? and i very clearly remember it having this kind of pink/orange lighting. i do not remember what the song sounded like or how i felt about it. very boring dream compared to some of the others i've had but i still have to document it.

Fhsjfkskdsk ur brain is drip feeding u mx bc we won't be getting any mvs from them anytime soon 😭😭

[checkers-dance]

i joked with a friend abt doing a ppt presentation on the entirety of m*nsta x's career. well its not a fucking joke anymore. i've been doing extensive research for like 5 hours at this point and i need to stop but also i cant... this is going to take me literal weeks but i am fucking dedicated. BUT WHATEVER. the reason i'm here is because i'm doing a lot of digging into old internet posts talking about the group, and i found a reddit thread in r/kpop from when the fandom name was announced and people are being SO MEAN VNFJNVJFVN. APPARENTLY EVERYONE THOUGHT IT FUCKING SUCKED. please i think m*nbebe is such a cute name... LIKE ITS SWEET. ITS A TERM OF ENDEARMENT AND IT STARTS WITH MON... THATS A LITTLE BIT CLEVER.. like yes its fucking cheesy but so what, its so sweet. i hate it here, fuck reddit. nobody gets the vision like i do.

but also so many of the comments are like "well the fandom name had to be as bad as the group name lol" NOOOO I LOVE THEIR GROUP NAME 😭 ITS SO FUN TO SAY. LIKE I GET IT. IT DOES SOUND LIKE THE EDGY USERNAME YOUR 12 YEAR OLD COUSIN WOULD USE ON INSTAGRAM. BUT SO FUCKING WHAT.

but also i had a dream abt mx last night LOL. it wasn't very interesting, but i did find it sweet. so w*nho and mx were just like very publicly hanging out, which was super weird because its kind of implicit that they arent supposed to even look in each other's direction. but based on this it was safe to say that likely wasn't the case anymore for whatever reason, and i was sooo happy for them, friendship wins. i remember having like a tumblr breakdown about this because OT7 CRUMBS AFTER TEN THOUSAND YEARS, and you saw those posts and sent me an ask basically going "wtf is going on, what is wrong with you" 😭

HELLO???? Nooooooo I love their name and the name of the fandom.....I even love how everyone tends to mispronounce mx as "monster x" at first, it makes for rlly funny interactions like that one time they refused to go on stage until the right name was called. Also re ur dream if we got ot7 crumbs like that again I would be losing my mind alongside u