AN: Hey, guys… Sorry for keeping you waiting so long, but I'm in high school, and I haven't had the time to update! Now, for all of you people that were worrying about Duncan, relax! I couldn't have one of my main characters dying at the ninth chapter! That'd be so lame. Now, here's chapter 10!

Disclaimer: Nope; still don't own it. TDI, Leon, the gunblade, Diablos: none of it belongs to me.

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Ch 10: The Dream

Darkness. That was all Duncan could see once he woke up. Pulling himself to his feet, he found it very obvious that he was no longer in Dante's Freezer. He looked deeply into the darkness, hoping to see something other than black.

"Guys?! Malefor?! …Hello?!" Duncan called out into the darkness, but he got no response. Glancing around warily, he crossed his arms.

"…Man, if that Leon guy did this, I'm so gonna kill him…" he growled to himself.

"Relax. The boy from Garden had nothing to do with your coming here, Duncan." a loud booming voice said, though it was clear that Duncan was the only one around. The punk's eyes darted back and forth wildly as he drew his sword.

"Who said that?! Show yourself!" Duncan called out defiantly. The voice responded with a low, deep chuckle that made Duncan's blood run cold. The voice didn't sound human. It sounded…demonic.

"Alright. If that is what you wish…" the demonic voice trailed off and the owner of the voice appeared before Duncan's eyes…and it was far from human.

The figure was a large, yet slim demon-like creature. Its basic body structure was human, although with some differences. It was blood red and black, with two huge bat wings sticking out of its back. Whipping behind it was a long, thin devil tail, ending in a triangle. Sticking out of the top of its head were two black horns. Duncan gulped slightly, all feelings of confidence gone at the sight of the large bat demon. His grip on his sword loosened and it clattered as it felt to the ground.

"Who…who're you…?" Duncan asked barely above a whisper, fear coursing through his body. The demon grinned wickedly, showing off its white bat-like fangs.

"Diablos, demon of shadows and the true essence of darkness…at your service." the demon said, his yellow eyes glinting evilly. Duncan paused, letting these words sink in.

"…Wait. You were the one who helped me defeat the Chimera…right?" he asked slowly. Diablos smirked.

"Hmmm…maybe you aren't as stupid as I thought…" he muttered. Duncan glared at the large demon.

"H-hey! What's that supposed to mean?!" he asked angrily, but one glance from Diablos quickly snuffed out the rage he felt and replaced it with fear. For some reason, the demon's eyes seemed to strike fear into Duncan's very core. Diablos's burning yellow eyes locked with Duncan's blue ones before the demon laughed loudly. Normally, Duncan would've questioned what was so funny, but Diablos's gaze made him stay frozen with fear.

"You're scared me, boy. Are you not?" the bat demon questioned. Duncan's eyes quickly glanced down to his feet. He couldn't reply. He wasn't about to admit he was actually scared, but he couldn't lie to Diablos either. After a moment of silence, a wide smirk spread across Diablos's face.

"Hmph. I knew it. You are scared. It was a wise idea to bring you here then, Duncan." Diablos said. Duncan's gaze snapped up and he looked at Diablos with wide eyes.

"Wait. You brought me here? What for?" the punk asked, except this time there was no edge to his voice.

"If you are going to become a master of Shadow Magic, you need to learn to cast off your fears and embrace the true essence of darkness." Diablos explained. Duncan nodded slowly.

"…Alright. And just how am I supposed to do that?" he asked. Another wicked grin spread across Diablos's face.

"First, you prove your worth to me. To do that, don't die." the demon said. Duncan's brow furrowed in confusion.

"'Don't die'? What's that supposed to mean?" he asked. Diablos responded with a quick snap of his claws. The sound echoed slightly before yellow lights started to surround Duncan. He watched them carefully, quickly picking up his blade that he had dropped. The glowing yellow lights came in pairs, and it didn't take long for him to realize that they were eyes. The eyes belonged to little insect-like imp creatures that appeared to made of pure darkness. Their antennae twitched curiously as they began to hobble towards Duncan like little zombies.

"Diablos, what are these things?!" he called out, but when he turned towards the bat demon, he noted that he was alone, save for the little shadow creatures. Diablos had abandoned him. Duncan grit his teeth in frustration.

"Oh, this is just great…" he growled under his breath angrily. One of the shadows leapt at him but Duncan brought up his sword, easily slicing it in half.

"Huh…so they're not all that hard to kill…" Duncan muttered, watching as the shadow dissolved into black smoke. He grinned slightly. "…Then this'll be easy!"

Duncan continued to hack and slash through the small creatures. As he had said before, it only took one swipe of his blade to kill one of them, making the battle extremely easy for Duncan. Cutting the last shadow in half, he brought his sword to rest upon his shoulder.

"Is that all you got, Diablos?!" Duncan called out into the darkness, all traces of fear in his body gone. It was as if fighting the shadow creatures had increased his bravery tenfold.

"Heh. Congratulations, young warrior. You've made it past the preliminaries." Diablos's voice echoed through the darkness, though he didn't show himself. Duncan frowned.

"'Preliminaries'? What's that supposed to mean?!" he asked angrily. The ground rumbled and Duncan whipped around, holding his sword ready. However his eyes widened at the beast he was apparently supposed to fight next.

Standing before Duncan was a large, bulky purple monster that was roughly 2-and-a-half times his height. It stood on all fours, each one of it's "paws" armed with three sharp, black claws. It had three horns: two curved white ones that were attached to its lower jaw, and one black one that stuck out of the beast's forehead like a unicorn's horn. Its small, yellow eyes narrowed on Duncan and it let out a loud, inhuman roar of anger. Duncan stared at it a while longer before glaring back at it, tightening his grip on his sword.

"Alright, Barney. Let's dance." he said. The large monster charged forward, but Duncan dodged out of the way of its paws. It roared again, but this time, silver lightning bolts shot out of the sky. Duncan winced, squeezing his eyes shut as he prepared for the shock, but instead, he felt nothing. Cracking one of his eyes a slit, he noticed the lightning bolt stopped in mid-air. Upon closer inspection, he found that the bolt had seemed to have hit something, like a force field.

"Hey…what the…?" Duncan murmured before reaching up towards the silver bolt. Before his fingers could touch it, they met an invisible barrier.

"Huh?" he questioned, running his hand along the unseen surface. Slowly, realization dawned on him. It was a force field! As the lightning bolt disappeared, so did the barrier. Duncan gazed at the hand that had touched the force field.

…Did I do that?, he thought curiously. However, he was broken out of his thoughts as the large purple monster roared again. Duncan snapped his gaze over at the angry creature.

"Oh, right. I gotta take care of you first before I can get out of here." He sighed irritably before bringing his sword in front of him. "…Well, might as well get this over with quick."

Duncan rushed forward with his sword and the huge creature stomped its feet, the ground rumbling slightly as it tried to crush Duncan. The teen managed to dash underneath the monster, dodging its heavy paws as he slashed at the beast's legs. However, his attacks had no effect, shown by the fact the creature continued to attempt to kill Duncan under its feet. Avoiding one of the creature's hind legs, he started to realize just how dangerous his position was.

Under here, it's only a matter of time before I get crushed like a bug. I gotta get to higher ground. Now, if only there was any "higher ground" around here…, he thought. Running out from underneath the creature, Duncan noticed its legs weren't all that long. They were short enough for him to climb up onto the monster's back. He smirked.

Bingo!, he thought, strapping his sword onto his back. Rushing up to the creature, Duncan latched on to one its hind legs. The beast voiced its irritation by roaring loudly and stomping its feet in an attempt to get him off. He only tightened his grip on it. Slowly shimmying up its leg, Duncan eventually managed to pull himself up onto the creature's back. Drawing his sword again, he slashed at the monster, but his attack had little effect, only creating tiny scratches on the beast's back that didn't even break the skin.

Dang it! This thing's got some rough skin…, Duncan thought irritably. Maybe if I climbed up to the head…

Careful not to fall off, he stumbled up the creature's back, its constant moving making the task difficult. Once upon its head, Duncan attempted to drive his sword through the monster's skull, but the tip of his sword couldn't even pierce its purple skin. Duncan growled.

"Oh, come on…What's it take to beat this thing?" he asked himself in frustration. In that one moment Duncan was distracted, the large beast shook its head angrily in an attempt to knock Duncan off of its head. He was caught off guard and he faltered, almost falling backwards off of the creature. In a desperate attempt to keep his balance, Duncan's arm shot out and he grabbed one of the monster's white, curved horns.

Gulping slightly, he pulled himself back up onto the creature. As he did, he stumbled forward slightly, his sword accidentally striking the monster's straight, black horn on its forehead. The beast cried out in pain and Duncan froze.

What the…? That…hurt it?, Duncan thought in confusion before grinning. Looks like Tall, Purple, and Ugly has itself a weakness!

Duncan got into a battle position before attacking the creature's black horn in a flurry of blade strikes, the monster roaring in pain the entire time. It desperately tried to shake Duncan off, but every time he would almost fall off, he would grab onto the beast's white horns to pull himself back up onto its head. Finally, the creature couldn't take anymore of Duncan's attack and it collapsed, defeated. Duncan, seeing that his opponent was finally finished, jumped off of the monster's back and onto the ground and smirked.

"Well done, young warrior. You managed to fight the imps of darkness and overcome them." Diablos said, reappearing with a fanged grin. Duncan crossed his arms.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Back up. Imp? That giant purple thing was an imp?!" he asked in disbelief.

"Compared to other beings of shadows you will fight, yes. That was an imp." the bat demon replied, speaking about the huge monster as if it were an insignificant insect.

"…There's more things I gotta fight?" Duncan asked, about to redraw his sword for battle. Diablos smirked.

"Your courage against the darkness is rising already…good. And you have already started to embrace the shadow magic lying dormant with in you." he said. Duncan blinked slowly.

"…Shadow magic? You mean the force field?" he asked, thinking back to when the invisible shield had stopped the silver lightning bolt from hitting him.

"Correct. That was a Dark Shield. A weak defensive shadow spell, but one of the basics that is essential for you to learn." Diablos explained.

"So I did do that!" Duncan said.

"Exactly. Now this is all the time for training we have…for now. I will bring you back here. You still have much to learn about the power of dark magic." Diablos said, and with a wave of his hand, the darkness surrounding them started to engulf everything and Diablos faded away.

"Wha-wait! I'm not finished! I still have more things I need to ask you!" Duncan shouted, trying to fight off the shadows that were trying to drag him under into the pool of darkness below.

"All in due time. Now…do not shun the darkness. Embrace it." Diablos's voice echoed in Duncan's head, and even though he didn't want to be thrust back into the outside world, he obeyed, allowing the shadows to overtake him.

And then everything faded into darkness.

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AN: So there you go! The plot thickens even more! Soooo…yeah! On to…

Trivia Time! (It's back, guys!)

This chapter contain multiple references to a certain video game series that was made by the same man who made the Final Fantasy series! What video game is it? Extra props to whoever can point out all of the references (Hint: There are three of them.)

R&R!!!