04-10-2016, 04:58 PM
"So, uh..."
Dante looked over his shoulder to acknowledge Jak, all while they were both moving through a tangle of sickly brush and dead woods. The foreign mercenary hesitated to continue, not wishing to speak any offense to the powerful devil hunter ahead of him. "You do know where we're going, right?"
The white-haired man turned back, ruminating the question for several seconds but still not stopping. "Roughly. I'll admit, I never really got a good map of this place."
Under his facade, Jak's disdain over Dante's choice of path grew. How were they supposed to go through any sort of business if they couldn't even figure out where exactly they were headed? Hints of regret started to seep in, but Jak didn't let that on, pressing through the drab plantlife to keep pace with Dante again. "Sorry. I hate to doubt you, but it's just that-"
"I get it," the Son of Sparda interjected, adopting a softer tone to settle the fellow mercenary. "Hard to find a place if you don't know where to find it, right? But really, most of my time spent here the first time was either fighting demons or running from them. The one time we rested, it was a bit late to try and figure where anything was." Recalling the events, it really had been a series of battles all the way down, from the ambush in the forest to the attacks on the road, and topped off with a holdout against one of the most brutal things Dante had yet encountered in the Omniverse.
"Sounds hectic," Jak said, and Dante confirmed the idea with a nod. "Whatever you were doing, I hope you managed to get it done."
"So do I," the devil hunter replied, unintentionally creating another shred of doubt in Jak's heart.
The eco warrior hesitated, "Wait- what do you mean by that?"
Dante finally halted in his tracks, turning back to explain briefly, "I was trying to hold out for the sake of buying an Exorcist enough time to summon a base, but I got pulled away by Teucer in the last minute. I don't know if he succeeded."
"Oh." Jak allowed the both of them to resume, now fully understand what Dante's 'business' here entailed. Considering the half-devil's inherent power and his presence of only a dark side, he really did seem to have a noble intent in what he did- most of the time, anyways, from what Jak knew of the man. He found himself echoing Dante's concern over his uncertain fate of the Exorcists, and quietly bashed himself for his mental accusations of the devil hunter.
Time passed, and scenery along with it, until the pair of mercenaries emerged from the gloomy forest into a sort of transition between two environments. Bridging a temperate wood on one side and a marshy wildland on the other side was a certain clear gap- not a beaten road, but open enough to serve just as well. The sight of this area set Dante beaming with new confidence as Jak came aside.
"Now- this is looking familiar," the hunter grinned, and his companion softly nodded in recognition. If this was a path to be followed, then the two of them would certainly be on the right track from here.
They had hardly spent a minute more walking when Jak suddenly piped up, "Do you hear that?"
Dante whirled around, trying to scope out Jak's concern. It took a moment, but that looming echo of air seemed too familiar to be mistaken. The shadows seemed to move and twist ominously, first behind Jak, but then surrounding both him and Dante. It didn't take the Son of Sparda any more time to figure out what was happening.
"Get ready," he announced to the eco warrior, and they went back-to-back. Without question, Jak drew his blaster while Dante pulled his pistols out. The darkness quickly focused into swirling holes than spat out columns of shadowy smoke tendrils. From each portal, creatures started to emerge; hands and heads fitting for withered corpses, deathly humanoid cloaked in reaper's robe gaining purchase on the earthen floor and pulling themselves free of their gateways. Each of the demons brandished a large scythe- a harvester's tool for anyone else and a wicked weapon in the hands of an agent of hell.
"What's going on?" Jak finally couldn't help but ask as he trained his firearm on one of the creature's heads. More black portals began to open to replace the ones that disappeared as the reapers crawled out from them, allowing the ranks of the dead to gradually grow around them- but Dante didn't open fire yet, even as they seethed and moaned and began to approach.
"I just remembered," Dante began, twirling the handguns on his index fingers before snapping them both to aim at one of the Hell Prides, "There's a certain someone out here that would like me dead."
Dante looked over his shoulder to acknowledge Jak, all while they were both moving through a tangle of sickly brush and dead woods. The foreign mercenary hesitated to continue, not wishing to speak any offense to the powerful devil hunter ahead of him. "You do know where we're going, right?"
The white-haired man turned back, ruminating the question for several seconds but still not stopping. "Roughly. I'll admit, I never really got a good map of this place."
Under his facade, Jak's disdain over Dante's choice of path grew. How were they supposed to go through any sort of business if they couldn't even figure out where exactly they were headed? Hints of regret started to seep in, but Jak didn't let that on, pressing through the drab plantlife to keep pace with Dante again. "Sorry. I hate to doubt you, but it's just that-"
"I get it," the Son of Sparda interjected, adopting a softer tone to settle the fellow mercenary. "Hard to find a place if you don't know where to find it, right? But really, most of my time spent here the first time was either fighting demons or running from them. The one time we rested, it was a bit late to try and figure where anything was." Recalling the events, it really had been a series of battles all the way down, from the ambush in the forest to the attacks on the road, and topped off with a holdout against one of the most brutal things Dante had yet encountered in the Omniverse.
"Sounds hectic," Jak said, and Dante confirmed the idea with a nod. "Whatever you were doing, I hope you managed to get it done."
"So do I," the devil hunter replied, unintentionally creating another shred of doubt in Jak's heart.
The eco warrior hesitated, "Wait- what do you mean by that?"
Dante finally halted in his tracks, turning back to explain briefly, "I was trying to hold out for the sake of buying an Exorcist enough time to summon a base, but I got pulled away by Teucer in the last minute. I don't know if he succeeded."
"Oh." Jak allowed the both of them to resume, now fully understand what Dante's 'business' here entailed. Considering the half-devil's inherent power and his presence of only a dark side, he really did seem to have a noble intent in what he did- most of the time, anyways, from what Jak knew of the man. He found himself echoing Dante's concern over his uncertain fate of the Exorcists, and quietly bashed himself for his mental accusations of the devil hunter.
Time passed, and scenery along with it, until the pair of mercenaries emerged from the gloomy forest into a sort of transition between two environments. Bridging a temperate wood on one side and a marshy wildland on the other side was a certain clear gap- not a beaten road, but open enough to serve just as well. The sight of this area set Dante beaming with new confidence as Jak came aside.
"Now- this is looking familiar," the hunter grinned, and his companion softly nodded in recognition. If this was a path to be followed, then the two of them would certainly be on the right track from here.
They had hardly spent a minute more walking when Jak suddenly piped up, "Do you hear that?"
Dante whirled around, trying to scope out Jak's concern. It took a moment, but that looming echo of air seemed too familiar to be mistaken. The shadows seemed to move and twist ominously, first behind Jak, but then surrounding both him and Dante. It didn't take the Son of Sparda any more time to figure out what was happening.
"Get ready," he announced to the eco warrior, and they went back-to-back. Without question, Jak drew his blaster while Dante pulled his pistols out. The darkness quickly focused into swirling holes than spat out columns of shadowy smoke tendrils. From each portal, creatures started to emerge; hands and heads fitting for withered corpses, deathly humanoid cloaked in reaper's robe gaining purchase on the earthen floor and pulling themselves free of their gateways. Each of the demons brandished a large scythe- a harvester's tool for anyone else and a wicked weapon in the hands of an agent of hell.
"What's going on?" Jak finally couldn't help but ask as he trained his firearm on one of the creature's heads. More black portals began to open to replace the ones that disappeared as the reapers crawled out from them, allowing the ranks of the dead to gradually grow around them- but Dante didn't open fire yet, even as they seethed and moaned and began to approach.
"I just remembered," Dante began, twirling the handguns on his index fingers before snapping them both to aim at one of the Hell Prides, "There's a certain someone out here that would like me dead."