I had 1330 Red Orbs after I was done upgrading, and I made it a point to store the two pieces of the Demon's Club to make sure that I had some materials to experiment with at a later point.

I was convinced that if I purchased a blacksmithing skill, I could speed up my Devil Arm creation journey, but I did not go looking for now. Instead, I focused on the next fight ahead of me. It was in some rural town in Bolivia, where fleswarped police officers carried firearms and firebreathing lizards patrolled the streets.

Jean located their leader, and he was some strange Drake-human hybrid that I pulled to the outskirts of town through one of Mordo's portals.

Obarion, Lesser Fire Newt

A lesser Fire Demon born from the fiery pits of Limbo. They're rumored to descend from one of the Seven Arch Demons that entered this universe thousands of years ago.

"A dragon ancestor, really?" I scoffed before shrugging. "If that's not the biggest cliche I've ever seen. I don't know what is?"

"Cambion," the Demon declared with a sniff of its snout. "What is the meaning of this?"

"Proud," I observed as I circled him. Jean had disappeared into town, along with most of the squad, to rescue the prisoners. I'd begged her and the other sorcerers to save as many of the demons as they could for me. The rest of the sorcerers watched me fight from afar.

The Newt's eyes flashed a scarlet red to match the rest of his black-skinned reptilian body. He wore a cloak that hid most of his body, from which he produced two curved short swords from

Something about you is tainted," he hissed. "You're him, aren't you? The Dark Knight's Son."

"That I am," I smirked, "but between you and me, I'm trying to escape his shadow."

I summoned a weapon set of my own. Aquila. They were a set of curved Shurikens with a central pale stone and engraved blades.

"You will not find me to be such an easy Prey."

Obarion lit up his blades, bathing them in a coat of fire, and leaped at me. I stepped back, easily avoiding him, and swung out, feeding Aquila a bit of energy. Three sets of spectral shuriken blades erupted from Aquila, fanning out. They were barely visible but dangerous enough to elicit a startled yelp from Obarion, who'd been cut by them.

I saw a thin line run up the side of his arm, and he glared at me with a hate I was intimately familiar with.

The attack cost had me only a fraction of Angel Energy, and I was excited to see how much potential lay within these unassuming weapons.

I activated my AE manipulation skill, settling deeper into the weapons.

I moved first, this time instead of him, pushing my body forward with aggressive footwork and swinging out. Three blades fanned out, cutting a scar along the floor where the Newt formerly was. He stepped to the side and breathed a potent streak of fire at me.

I considered simply phasing through it with Angel Evade, but then I decided to test my other skills. Cloak snapped on, and Osiris materialized in front of me. I spun it, activating Parry.

The fire slammed into the wall and rebounded, causing the Newt to panic some and leap out of the way of the returning fire.

I did not escape unscathed, though. Parry was powerful, but some damage did leak through, most of which was neutralized by Cloak.

"It seemed I might've underestimated you," Obarion said slowly.

Stolen story; please report.

"And I might've Overestimated you, Obarion," I smiled, causing the Newt's eyes to widen a bit apprehensively. "Come on Newt, give me your best shot."

I laughed, tapping my chin.

Obarion's cloak gained a crimson coat as energy poured out of him. They coalesced around his hind legs, and he leaped at me. Fire streaks emerged from his legs as his body reached speeds comparable to Burst, but I swung out with Aquila. The spectral blades between both weapons became a wall of spinning death. Obarion, surprisingly, parried two of the six blades, his body blurring impressively before fire erupted from the back of his Cloak, propelling him straight into the floor below the metaphorical blender, and he swung out.

An arc of fire burst from his blade, lancing at me at considerable speeds. I flipped to the side to easily dodge it and twisted mid-air, spinning like a top as Obarion lunged for my hopefully compromised body. My body gained a wicked purple tint as the red of my fire cloak mixed with the blue tint of angel energy as I briefly transformed into the epicenter of a spectral blade storm.

The Newt tried backpedaling with his fire boost trick again, but it was too late. The blades hit him, shredding through his cloak and marking his forearm, knuckles, and some of his abdomen in cut marks. The Newt was trembling by this point.

"You're much less durable than I thought you'd be."

"I am no one's plaything," Obarion declared as he reached into his Cloak and jumped back with his fire-assisted leap. He produced a familiar orb that immediately set me on edge.

He was about to jam it into his chest when I decided to put an end to the farce. I switched to Ophion, and Demon pulled the Orb. He refused to let go of it at first, but it was too late when he realized how stupid it was.

When it arrived, I tossed the Orb in a jacket pocket and phased through the torrent of fire that inundated me as the Newt leaped at me. Fire flowed from his blades and maw until he couldn't continue any longer and coughed in exhausted pain and satisfaction as he landed where I formerly stood.

He wiped his mouth defiantly when he was done. "Weak," he spat.

"Really now?" I asked, standing behind him, and he spun around, just in time to get his chest caved in from a Demon energy-charge Eryx punch. A base, it already did 2.5 times the damage of an upgraded Rebellion. Adding DE was probably overkill.

I heard it wheezing and coughing. The blow had not been enough to kill it, but if I'd aimed for his head instead of stomach, it would've been a different conversation entirely.

"I can't say I'm not disappointed," I said, squatting down to his level. "I hoped for more."

"Abomination," it wheezed, staring up at me in complete terror. "Monster."

"Right back at you, fuck face," I smirked and stomped on his face, knocking him clean out.

---

I called Jean back to my location and had her scan Obarion's mind for information and practice her domination before I put a bullet in his head. He was brain-dead within five minutes, but that was substantially longer than she'd managed up until that point, so that was fantastic news.

He gave me 400 Red Orbs and new fire daggers that only worked with demons with dragon's blood, putting him on the level of that Mesmer that Jean took out in the former town. I joined the rest of the rescue mission soon after and took great pleasure in ripping the monsters apart with every resource in my tool belt.

With over 50 strength, a fast punch was powerful enough to brain most, and with Burst and Eryx, I was a menace. My myriad martial mastery came to the forefront. My favorite combo was quickly becoming the leap into a Superman punch. It was devastating enough to insta-kill damn near every monster I went up against, and only the sturdiest Fleshwarped could withstand a fully empowered combo.

I'd also taken pain to recreate and test as many of the original DMC combos as I could remember. Trinity Smash with the Arbiter had taken more time than I'd care to admit, but it was fucking worth it. All it'd taken was a delayed release of three Bursts, and my Axehead came down.

And yes, it was as complicated as it sounds. Tremor and Drop (or Helm Splitter) had become easier to manage with less energy.

Pulling off combos with Osiris was still touch and go, but I had the basics like Shredder—which was just spinning the scythe really fast—down. I couldn't maintain aerial combos, but my improved strength made launching demons into the air trivial.

Aquila was the most testing of them all. I'd forgone the traditional moves I remembered Dante doing in the game for more diagonal and snappy moves, moving the spectral blades in unpredictable patterns like an uppercut, a quick slash and pull back, and all manner of interesting ways.

The ability I most desired from the weapon, however, Round Trip, was difficult to pull off. I wasn't just there yet and did not have enough practice with Shurikens leading up to the purchase.

After cleaning out the entire town, I walked away with 3600 Red Orbs. It was not quite as bountiful as the village outside Wakanda, but it gave me enough energy to upgrade Rebellion a third time.

I had only 30 Red Orbs banked after my latest upgrade

The Third Grade upgrade increased the low-tier energy affinity to high and the durability to very high.

The Fourth Grade Upgrade had me doing a double-take. It cost 15,000 Red Orbs.