Mr. Brandon Payne's DMC Story
Mr. Brandon Payne's Devil May Cry Story
~*~
The rain had been steadily picking up, and the gate guard was quickly tiring of the cold. From the open window of his guard post a light in the distance became visible, soon followed by a high pitched roar. As the light drew closer he saw that the evenings expected company was arriving as promised.
“Good evening, Sir,” the guard forced from his throat as the man on the motorcycle pulled up. His appearance took the guard by surprise, he wore dark red leather riding pants with a similar red coat draped over his muscular frame. This was the least of the guards concerns as his eyes moved back and forth between the large sword held to his back and the twin automatic pistols holstered to either leg. Instinctively, he rested his hand on his own .40 caliber Glock in its hip holster.
“I’m here for Madison. Tell him the exterminator is here,” spoke the rain soaked figure.
“Y-yes, he’s expecting you.” The guard stammered, partly because of the man’s intimidating presence, but he’d rather blame it on the bitter cold. The guard was miserable enough in the relative shelter of his post, how this man could stand the freezing rain on a motorcycle was beyond him. He turned the key in the console and pushed the button to retract the gate. As he watched man and bike disappear up the cobblestone driveway, he clicked on the radio to announce that their guest was here.
“You say he had what? No, it’s okay. Look, we don’t really have a choice and I think he’s our last chance.” Arnold Madison paced the foyer listening to the gate guard’s concerns about their hired mercenary. “There’s…. there’s nobody who would even help with this sort of problem. Just go home and get some rest.” He set the radio down in time to hear a pounding on the solid oak front door. Moving to answer it, he was unprepared for who was on the other side.
Arnold paused a second to take in everything about the man. Rainwater poured from his white hair over a blood red leather trench coat. Slung over his back was a broadsword and the way his muscles filled out the leather clothing suggested he had the strength to swing it properly. Holstered on each thigh were rather large automatic pistols, Colt 1911s as he recalled. However these were heavily modified, counter-balanced with recoil compensators. Realizing he hadn’t greeted the man, he was spoken to first.
“Are you Madison?”
“Yes, do please come in.” He said while leading him into the foyer. “We hate to trouble you but we are desper--”
“No problem,” he interrupted. “You had the password.”
“Well, we were told that you are the only one who could help us with this situation. I’m sorry, I don’t believe I’ve caught your name.”
“It’s Dante. Tell me, what is this problem?”
“I’m here for Madison. Tell him the exterminator is here,” spoke the rain soaked figure.
“I suppose we should get down to business. There have been disturbances in the corridors leading to the underground part of the mansion. This place was an addition to a castle built by my family’s earliest relatives. You see, many of these tunnels have only been recently uncovered. To fund the restoration of this manor we have decided to open the underground holds and catacombs as a tourist attraction. But with all the tunnels, security had become a problem when people started wandering away from the group. Two teenagers had made their way back to the crypt after a tour group had passed and removed jewels placed in the most extravagant headstones. Several other items were taken from the library. The jewels had been recovered, but something down there had been disturbed. Something that has killed six people already and we are afraid to unseal the entrance. We are under investigation by the local police and the victim’s families are threatening to sue. This must be stopped now!”
“Don’t worry, I’ve taken care of worse.” Dante could hear the overwhelming distress of the old man’s voice and wanted to get to work.
“Thank you, Mr. Dante.”
“Just Dante.”
“Of course. Perhaps my Granddaughter could be of some help to you. She’s spent months mapping out the catacombs and documenting everything we’ve uncovered.” Madison motioned to a woman in her late twenties, attractive, and visibly nervous. She joined the three of them and introduced herself.
“My name’s Lisa.” Her eyes met Dante’s and after a few seconds she shyly looked away. Despite the intimidating appearance the man’s weapons made, there was something soothing about his eyes. If you’ll come with me I’ll show you the entrance. We keep it sealed now and I’m afraid I cannot go with you.”
“It’s okay, I work better alone.”
“We had fluorescent lighting installed throughout most of the hallways. We had to shut off several due to damage from… those things.” Her voice trailed off upon reflection of what she had seen attack the tourists. “There should still be more than enough light but you may want to grab one of the flashlights from a charging station. There are still a few areas we have yet to explore, and the library…”
“What’s so special about this library?”
“Well, most of the books were fairly common of the time period and now reside in this manor’s own library. But the ritual room behind it contained others as well as strange artifacts. We kept this section closed off from the tour because of the disturbing nature of the room.”
“Disturbing, you say?” He asked with a sly smile on his face.
“Yes, the books were in various languages and we don’t know what everything means. Most were in ancient Sumerian and I’m working on translating them. It appears to be a collection of information on various deities and worshipping rituals. My guess is that was the purpose of the bone shrines and sculptures adorning the south wall. The puzzling thing is that none of this seems characteristic of what we know--”
”Look, I hate to be rude and interrupt. As much as I’m appreciating this lesson in culture I should probably be putting an end to this mess.”
“Oh yes, of course. I’ll take you to the entrance.”
They walked to the door and he lifted the thick steel bar holding the door closed. They both peered into the dimly lit stone hallway before Lisa spoke up again.
“The catacombs can be kind of a maze, if you need help we’ve mapped out the tour route on souvenir brochures in the next chamber.” He began to walk through the doorway when she grabbed his forearm to stop him. “I can’t thank you enough for helping my Grandfather. Will you be all right doing this alone?”
“Don’t worry, babe.” With this he pulled his coat back to draw out something strapped to his lower back. “I won’t be alone, I’ve brought a few friends along.” In his hand he held up a G36C assault rifle with the stock collapsed. Before his coat covered his belt again, she briefly saw the shape of what appeared to be fragmentation grenades. Her jaw dropped in surprise, and without another word Dante flashed a sly smile before disappearing into the cold stone corridor.
Dante calmly moved down the hallway. His vision was far superior than any normal mans so he had little problem adjusting to the darkness. One row of fluorescent lights flickered overhead.
In the first chamber was a polished wood desk with various brochures and literature about the former castle’s strange design. He picked up one of the maps to note where he was. Although this castle’s architecture was familiar, much of it was layered inversely due to it being built mostly underground. Apparently defense wasn’t an issue with the castle design. He was now in the central courtyard that would have been the roof at ground level. He grabbed one of the small clip-on flashlights from the nearby charging stations and hooked it on his belt before descending one of the spiral staircases.
He was now in a large hallway decorated with tapestries all but rotted away. The walls had large gaps where stones had broken out. What remained of the woven rug muffled his footsteps enough for him to hear a faint shuffling sound from around the corner. As the creature shuffled closer, he began to make out the details of what this grotesque thing was.
It appeared to be human, although badly decomposed. The thing walked unevenly and slumped to the side as if its spine had been broken. Incapable of speech, it only emitted low gurgling sounds as thick blackened slime poured from its twisted mouth. Dante raised the compact rifle, centered its head in the open sights, and squeezed the trigger three times. The first round shattered the jaw and exploded out the back of its neck. The next two tore through the hollow eyes and exited in a spray of gray matter and bone fragments. The former human slumped motionless against the wall with a thud.
“Too easy,” He said as he lowered his rifle. Dante hardly took two steps forward before three more closed in. He flipped the fire select lever above the trigger and, without aiming, let a three round burst fly. Each round tore through the soft, decomposed chest and fragmented the bones in its spine. The zombie fell backward from the impact and hit the stone floor hard. It growled and flung its arms around wildly.
The remaining two continued to charge, these moved much faster than the one he had first encountered.
“Okay, let’s go.” Setting the assault rifle down, he drew the sword from his back. As the first one charged closer, Dante spun his body around while swinging the sword in a circle. The heavy forged steel blade sliced clean through the abdomen of the first zombie. The body fell in two although still not dead. The next zombie leapt at him, but before it could land Dante brought his fist up into its chest, shattering the ribs and sending it flying on a new trajectory towards the wall. It made a futile attempt at taking a bite of him, chomping its jaws together so forcefully that many of its broken and bloody teeth fell out onto the floor.
What had possessed these grotesque things, and what kept them alive? No, not alive. They only knew one thing; to feed. Dante brought his sword down over one of the fallen, rotting corpses. Although it was too crippled to move, it chomped pathetically at the air, spitting blood and bits of teeth. The sunken, expressionless face stopped moving as his blade pushed through the neck and into the base of its skull. He finished off the other in a similar manner and picked up his rifle to continue down the great hall. The other zombie with the shattered spine was slowly crawling its way toward him. He watched as it clawed at the stone floor, snapping its decomposed fingers off on the ground as it moved. Most were only hanging by rotting flesh. He swiftly let his blade ensure its final rest and moved deeper into the castle.
Moving through more hallways, Dante passed the kitchen, food storage, and what he assumed to be servants quarters. Pushing open a heavy wooden doorway, he entered what must have been the main dining hall. It was enormous, and a thick wooden table ran almost the entire length of the room. Even more extravagant decorations hung from the walls, although these possessed a mere shadow of their former beauty. The walls in here hadn’t held up as well as some of the other chambers. Stone blocks seemed deliberately broken out.
He paused briefly as a scraping sound emanated from the side of the dining hall.
Carefully sidestepping along the wall, Dante held the rifle up and ready to fire. The sound seemed to move further up and he moved along with it, peering into the darkness of each open hole as he passed.
“How about we save each other a lot of time and you just show yourself?” Dante lacked patience for games and would much rather have a straight fight. Holding the rifle in one hand he leaned closer to the stone surface to try and pick up the sound again. Suddenly, a large set of jaws sprang out of a gap in the wall and clamped down hard on the assault rifle. Dante pulled his hand back as the jaws snapped shut on it, splintering the reinforced polymers of the gun. The clear plastic magazines stacked together were shattered, ejecting a hailstorm of unspent rounds onto the floor.
The creature’s head was still sticking through the hole in the wall, its jaws now bleeding heavily from the jagged pieces of the gun casing. Its head was similar to that of a wolf, although hairless and larger than a full grown Lion. Dark gray skin covered its body. Although smooth, the skins surface was marred by scars and gouges. Apparently this thing had seen its share of action. Its head turned to orient on Dante and the glowing red eyes burned with rage. It let out an angry roar, spitting blood as it thrashed against the confines of the stone wall.
Dante drew his trusted handguns from their leg holsters and trained both barrels on the demon. It flexed powerful muscles in its neck, and the stone began to crack and fall away. Slamming its enormous claws against the wall, it burst through and charged towards Dante’s position. He quickly squeezed off four rounds, all hitting their mark. Despite the fact that these powerful .45 caliber rounds could have incapacitated even the largest of men, the beast hardly took notice and continued its charge. Dante leapt out of the way as it snapped at him, springing over the heavy wooden table to temporary safety. Skidding to a stop, the snarling beast turned to find where its prey had run to.
Dante drew his sword, ready to fight the thing head on when a second demon beast sprung from the hole in the wall to land on the long rectangular dining table.
“I see you’ve brought a date for dinner, you two make such a nice couple.”
As if responding to his taunts, both let out an angry roar so loud the floor seemed to shake. Charging along the tabletop, the second beast bounded toward him, splintering the wood surface as it ran.
Keeping his cool, Dante waited until it was committed to the attack. As it sprang forward, he jumped up and kicked off its head, sending the jaws slamming into the table top. The monster was briefly stunned as Dante landed beside it, plunging his sword into its side behind the ribs. It cried out with rage but could not move as it only drove the blade deeper. Dante needed to quickly dispose of it, and he pushed the hilt forward with incredible strength, snapping each rib along the way to its shoulders. Blood flowed from the length of its body and blackened organs spilled out onto the table.
Dante stepped off the table and turned to face the remaining demon, angrier than ever before, it charged the length of the dining hall to attack. The demon hunter held his sword out to the side but did not move. The floor shook, and a mist of blood sprayed from its gaping jaws with every breath. Dante rolled to the side to avoid its attack, and as it passed he extended his sword out, severing a tendon in the left foreleg.
Surprised and in pain, the suddenly useless foreleg sent it crashing on its side where it slid into a wall from the momentum. It stood up and made a futile attempt to run, but the leg was unusable. Dante kicked the snapping jaws away and let his blade come crashing down upon the demons neck.
“It’s been a lovely dinner party, but I’ve had about all I can take of the entertainment.” He said as he wiped the blood on a tattered tapestry. Replacing it on his back he made his way to the great library.
To Be Continued...
