A/N: Here it is~! I'm alive! :D. Wohoo, now you understand why 'aggiornamento' was the title of the previous chapter, eh? Oh, not only because the final battle had been adjourned, but also because I knew I would have to adjourn this story for a while ;A;. Again, thank you very much for all the feedback you've been giving me so far~. Reviewers and lurkers alike and those who put this on their alert and/or fav list get lots of virtual hugs and a plate full of cookies :3 (what can I say? I'm poor and I can only afford that ;A;). Thanks for reading this humble little fic, even with such lame updates ;A;.

Benifuku: Hey, at least you don't hate me that much for it~! And isn't it sad? He wasn't even real in the strict sense of the word, but just a bunch of memories... Changing of subject, Lady and Dante will be the main protagonists of the last chapters -I just have to set some things right and that's all (or else, the plot (?) will go to waste), like for example, Trish's whereabouts: Trish, like Dante and Lady, will have a catfight, too. Aaah, *fangirl squee* my OCs are decent! :D Yes, yes, yes~! It's so hard to write OCs and make people like them (or at least, tolerate them). Thank you~! I'm doing my very best at writing them (and writing this).
Oh no, you're not a moron. DMC (the first one) is pretty hard to complete. I've been watching walkthroughs, too, when I couldn't advance on hard mode ;A; (I'm so lame...). Yeah, I based the fight on some moves and fights from the first DMC (more or less...). About how Dante and Trish's fight ended...? It is explained here~. And once more, 'cause I like to repeat myself (sometimes)... Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you! For still being here and encouraging me to keep on going~! =w= *glomps* Hope you haven't forgotten about this little one after all this time *sob*

And again, I must thank my beta, bitbyboth. Without her, all of you readers would have read a lot of random things and misspelled words ;A;

The Chessboard

Chapter 10: Finale

The exceptions to the rule always unnerved Trish's demonic and womanly ego. Usually, she didn't like to be wrong. Failure was not -it still wasn't- accepted in the netherworld, she couldn't have the luxury of not being right.

And old habits die hard.

Being wrong or oblivious only brought problems, and it complicated it all. And that was why she hated exceptions so much.

They just complicated it all. And sometimes, they hurt.

She couldn't see it. She, used to the calm, just couldn't withstand the true nature of what was before her. And she should have.

Trish, once she wasn't interrupted by coughs and ragged breath, had sighed, the sound echoing through the chamber.

She had felt annoyed with herself. Damn, she should have seen it coming. If she had, things wouldn't be the way they were now. All in all, she spent that small time she had for herself to curse and imagine 'what if' scenarios.

...

Damn it.

After an hour of auto-insulting herself, Trish knew that enough was enough and stopped. When there was nothing left other than ash and blood, she just stopped and vowed not to be wrong ever again -for today at least?- and stood up.

What was done, was done, after all. Trish thought it would be better to drop that subject once and for all, if it only brought unpleasant thoughts. There's no way she could stop. Act now, think later.

Morning came in the end, but nothing was settled. At all. At least, the demonic island stopped being demonic, and now that Mundus had to retreat, Fortuna shouldn't be having any more problems than the usual, and the portal should have disappeared. That's something, at least, but it's not a complete win. It wasn't even a 'win' at all.

"I'm a methodical person." Yawn. "All this adventure doesn't suit me if there's no win at all.*"

Yawn.

But first things first: that didn't mean the demon lord couldn't create another portal. Mundus received help from the exterior, which meant someone could put more runes again, and everything would start again and all they'd done would be for naught.

"...Fuck."

And she wanted to sleep, even for two or three hours -creatures of the night don't really need much sleep.

Her body felt numb and her mouth tasted like ash.

Ash and blood. Drinking some water would be very much appreciated, but she hadn't any with her.

Would it go away if she slept? Or if she took a shower? The smell of death on her clothes?

This is really disgusting. Guess the netherworld still hasn't heard of etiquette, huh?

She scratched the back of her neck and forced herself to stand up. She hadn't been training during night and day for more than ten years for nothing.

Trish knew she should be looking for Dante before he was turned into a grilled chicken, so there was no time to waste. And he must be around here, but she wasn't sure where -dumb devil. Why did he have to jump?

Urgh.

She had to think.

Think.

What happened when the first barrier broke?

She remembered clutching her rotting arm tightly, wounded by a purple flash with the shape of an arrow -Oray's arrows.

Yes, that was how it went.

Meanwhile, Dante was laughing his ass off as he dodged Mundus' blows with impossible acrobatics.

She wasn't not sure how many minutes passed before all hell broke loose, but it began with their third party member being in trouble. She caught a glimpse of him, laying on the floor in a pool of his own blood and both he and the poser were yelling at each other.

However, she couldn't keep on leering at the scene at her right and had to return her focus on her current foe -until a startling noise of breaking glass sounded, minutes after.

It had been quick.

The barrier had faded, he'd faded whilst his twin collapsed because of blood loss and both emperor and servant lost their focus and looked at their right.

Before Dante and she could take advantage, the devil howled and the second barrier broke and finally the first, and the ground trembled beneath them.

Trish had tried to dash at Oray and smash his head in, but the latter dodged and hurried himself towards his master while trying to dodge bullets and ignoring those that managed to hit him. Dante had also dashed towards him and then there was a flash of black and white.

"Not so fast!" He'd said.

"Moron." She thought aloud, shaking her head.

The monochromatic flash became a huge portal engulfing Mundus and when its shape started to resemble that of a portal, letting them see a blurry black and red scenario within it that disappeared in a matter of seconds, taking Dante with it -because he had been stupid enough to run after him, even though he had the odds against him and Trish wasn't fast enough.

She did run, too, but instead of getting inside with Dante, her form collided against the wall, just on the spot where Mundus and his servant had been standing. And she had been useless. And she had seen him bleeding to death, and had been there in his last moments.

And that was all that happened.

Now, the question was 'where is he?'

"Where to go~?" She chanted as she surveyed the place she was in.

If she went back to the path she came, getting inside the grey door made of stone, it would be useless. Not because she didn't remember which way to go (she memorized the whole trajectory whilst the black-clad man tried to retain what little dignity was left of him by guiding her), but because she would end up in a place far away from the devil lord. Going back meant she would be on a different part of hell -when she was teleported, they ended up in some kind of a white theatre. There were stairs going up, but when she'd asked he'd said: they will get you nowhere.

Keep on forward, until your feet can't take it anymore.

Something along those lines was what he'd said.

Which, more or less, made her think this was just some kind of place located in between two kingdoms? It wouldn't be so stupid of Mundus to try to gather energy in a place where he could recollect it from two places at the same time while not being bothered. Actually, the devil lord had a lot of armies and territories conquered...

She remembered, though, that his lair was somewhere located in a red and black place. With watery floor. If she went forward, would she end up in such a place? Or would it be better to go backwards? Perhaps Angelo had been lying...

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Forward.

Yes.

Better to leave the door behind alone and focus on what was before her. While she was fighting, she didn't have a moment to stop and look -neither when she made her dramatic entrance, so now was, definitely, the time.

He better not have been lying.

The room was circular and grey -everything made of grey stone, and then there were those statues made of white marble, all of them shattered. Everything was as she remembered -save from the doors before her.

There were doors. Five doors with vivid colours, and Trish wondered what kind of structure the place she was in had. It looked strange.

The she-devil came closer to the doors to further inspect them.

Starting from the left, there was a blue door, then a red one next to the blue, then a green one, then a yellow one and, finally, a purple one. Their colours were not the most peculiar thing, even though they were the only spec of colour the cell had. Trish focused more on the signs that had been drawn on them.

She was sure she had seen them before somewhere.

*On the red door there was a sigil of a eight-pointed star encircled by two circles. In the inner circle, between the points of the star, are written some Hebrew letters and ancient markings she didn't know the meaning of. There was also a star of David at the top of the circles and some kind of name in Hebrew at the middle of the star, too. The seal glowed bright crimson, and when Trish touched it with her hand, it didn't burn her as she thought it would.

Not thinking much about it, she moved towards the next door and inspected it.

*The green door had a seal with a glowing green circle surrounding a double-bordered square on top of another shape -a figure Trish couldn't quite describe. In the centre of said shape is a symmetrical cross and various Hebrew letters engraved at different positions inside the geometrical shapes.

Since she didn't have a clue about the meaning of that seal, she moved to the next door.

This time, it was a blue door*. The round sigil engraved on it was some kind of undefined shape encircled by a double circle. Inside the double circle there was something written -again, the she-devil did not know what it meant-, and at the top of the circle, a star was drawn.

Again, she didn't quite know what that seal meant -other than it was magic and it would probably cause some kind of effect that would get her in trouble or that would mess everything up. Better for her not to touch it yet and inspect the other two doors before deciding on doing something.

*The yellow door, next to the blue one, had a complicated pattern. Just like the other ones, it was a circle, a double-boarded circle. Inside the circle, in the middle, there was some kind of an eight-pointed cross with strange symbols. Inside the inner circle, there were some words in that foreign language.

…

Still no clue about what they meant and still no clue about which one she should go inside.

Reluctantly, Trish covered her eyes with one hand and began to chant a random song to herself whilst her other hand's index finger pointed one door and then another and so on with every word she said:

"Eeeny meeny, miney moe, catch a baby by the toe, if he hollers let him gom eeny meeny, miney moe~"

When the song ended, her index finger was pointing the red door.

That was it, then.

She first opened one eye, then the other.

Then she started to blink -with some difficulty because of the sleep in her eyes- as she turned around in her sleep, until she started to feel more and more conscious.

Grunting slightly, Kyrie stretched out in an attempt to wake up. She, being more or less a morning person, didn't have to struggle much, but yesterday wasn't an easy day for her at all. Her aching muscles and the numbness in her body proved her so. The grunting soon became yawns and the stretching out ceased, and she sat up on the mattress -if she stayed in the bed for long, she wouldn't have the strength to leave.

She looked at her left, where there was an small table with a clock on top of it.

Half-past eleven. Not really that bad of a hour.

Sighing softly, she stepped inside the bathroom and made her routine ritual as she always did and, once she finished, she went to the very small closet of her room to grab some clean clothes. The pajamas she was wearing weren't dirty and she was sure it could survive for at least two more days, so when she took it off, she folded it and put it inside one of the cupboards of the bottom. Kyrie didn't need much time to get dressed, so she was ready in two minutes or so.

Would he be awake now? He said some weird stuff yesterday... Hm.

The fact of Nero being in such a pitiful state unnerved the chestnut-haired woman.

Nero had never been sick. Never. And he wasn't the delirious type, if he were to get hurt. Yes, every now and then, the albino teen got himself hurt, but it had never come to that point -and the thought of him having fever was just stupid. ...And … … and then, the... … his arm, it usually never glowed in such an ominous way...

The room where the -at the time- semi-unconscious Nero was resting wasn't far from hers, just in case. Back when Fortuna was the embodiment of peace -a fake embodiment that did a very good job at deceiving-, their family distributed the rooms like that, too, just in case someone got sick, meaning that Credo's room had always been very next to hers, and then it had been also very nearby from Nero's. …But Nero... The boy never got sick.

Since she was very little she had been taught that, to be next to the people she loved -especially if they were vulnerable-, and Nero's cellular immortality (if that had another name, she didn't know), didn't stop her from doing the same to him.

So once in front of the door, she tried to make no sound as she opened it slowly, and with the same speed, she stepped inside, hoping she wouldn't disturb him.

But she, disposed to check out on Nero, found something else than the sleeping form of the teen she expected to see. And her heart started to beat faster and her pupils dilated.

An empty bed, that was.

Her heart did a small flip and her hands began to sweat, but she was cold, oh so cold.

What? ...What...?

Why is it empty? It shouldn't be.

She shook her head and tried to think about something comforting. With the wounds in his body, she was sure he hadn't been able to go too far -though the real question was why he left and where? …And she shouldn't be worrying too much. As she had been previously thinking, Nero was very tough and he was very resistant. Surely, he just woke up and headed downstairs?

Kyrie hurried up and made it downstairs, sometimes stopping to peek inside some rooms she thought he would be in, but there was no sight of him -Not upstairs and not downstairs. She even went outside, but it was as if earth had swallowed him. The clothes she wore did very little to cover her from the cold, so when she made sure he wasn't around, she got inside the building again, taking the warmth from inside as some sort of comfort for her frozen yet sweating body.

And then, it was right then when she started to feel light-headed.

"Missy, are you alright?"

One of the men that was watching the girl look frantically for something -or someone- decided that enough was enough. Kyrie, being the oh-so-famous friend (no, more than just a friend?) of that boy, looked distressed and he was sure it wouldn't be anything good for them.

The people around them started to become conscious of the situation, seeing the white-haired ex-knight was nowhere to be found -and he usually was with that girl.

The stares of the women and men around Kyrie were worse than any concert she ever had. And for some sick reason, she had the feeling this wasn't good. Nero getting hurt, Nero not recovering, Nero being sick.

Nero disappearing...?

"He's not here, is he?" She asked in a mumble.

For some reason she still didn't know, Dante was like a magnet for extravagant customers. Well, probably this time it was her fault, but still... It was a good thing she was already used to this kind of stuff (to deal with strange, dysfunctional people), though she still had a hard time to tolerating rich people's bullshit when they (miraculously) hired her. Just to think how much money those vases would cost made her feel sick.

Just... to even think that one of those vases cost the same as one (only one) of her customized weapons... or that it was much more valuable than her usual income...

She heard the wavering candle's flickering; the whole place smelled of incense and the woman's paintings really looked as though they were alive. Even if it was only 18:12 pm, daylight didn't last too long, and the arrival of darkness gave them a strange, ethereal quality. The walls seemed to be closing in on her, trying to suffocate her as the painted canvas and the persons' eyes in the paintings watched her every move as she passed and roamed through the halls.

This was strange, too, very strange, and she wasn't, by any means, dumb.

The servants she saw working on their duties when she first went there were nowhere to be seen. She remembered that that had been a lively day even though the place still retained a sense of pleasant serenity. Now, it was completely the opposite, but that feeling was also probably fueled by that sense of 'misfortune' surrounding her since she grabbed and read the letter that lay on top of Dante's desk. 'Are you a moron? You must have noticed, right?'. The doors that lead to the dinning room made a horribly loud noise when they were opened, cutting through the ominous silence. She stepped inside and closed the doors behind her.

"Welcome to my humble home again, dearest Lady~."

Dearest Lady didn't like the honey-coated voice of the blonde, or the wide-eyed stare. It was unsettling even for her.

This ain't good.

Valeria the customer was sitting in the same fancy chair where she was sitting when they first met her. Her long legs were crossed and she was wearing a long -and odd- scarlet gown. The black make up in her eyes and the red lipstick was striking and hurt her eyes.

"You have some business with us, I heard."

"And isn't he with you?" Mock perplexity seeped from her mouth, until Lady was left thinking that Valeria thought she was stupid.

"Unfortunately, he's on his way to become a grilled chicken and couldn't make it here." Lady snorted, not quite able to mask her annoyance when remembering he left her aside this without saying anything (and it was her job! The cocky half-devil was going to pay for it).

To hell with Dante and his whereabouts. She didn't give a rats' ass if he was being sodomized and couldn't make it here.

Either way, Kalinna Ann wanted to have some words with him.

She, the blue-eyed one, laughed. "It's not that bad, eh? Actually, there's no need for him to be there; it makes it more beautiful, the worry and distrust in your face. You alone will be more than enough."

Lady narrowed her eyes and growled loud enough for the blonde to hear her. "What do you mean by that?" She said speaking of the ominous letter, which she was now swaying back and forth in front of the blonde's face.

"My, you're so much fun. Please, don't get angry. That," she said pointing to the letter, "was meant to be for you, but I didn't have your address nor your number, so I thought it would be better if it was left in his shop for him to read and tell you. A good idea it was, in the end, as you have it now in your hands."

"I didn't mean that."

"Oh. Then, you mean the contents, right?

Lady nodded, keeping her little glare.

"… … … It's true, all the things I wrote. Certainly. There's no need for any of you to look for that demon." She laughed lightly again. "I found it myself. Your services are not needed anymore."

Lady scowled and snarled:

"You what?"

Did I sacrifice my arm for nothing?

"With a copy of my research. I went to find him all by myself... And it wasn't hard to trap him."

There was something in the woman she didn't like -ever since she stepped inside the room-, but she wasn't sure if it was the crooked smile, the fiery, eager eyes or the fact she was moving too much in the chair, crossing one leg against the other and then the other again and again. Or perhaps it was just that letter. It might probably be the first time someone tried to contact her that way, and furthermore, that woman even knew she would be harassing Dante so she would find it there... Because she said she left it there, which means Dante didn't know about that at all (and it didn't have any marks that would show that it had been opened).

The job. She found that job first, but Valeria stated that she wanted to meet the infamous devil hunter Dante back then, before handing it to her. He came and accepted it, both of them, but in the letter, she only speaks about one person; Lady.

Odd. It's like she isn't taking Dante into consideration after all the pain she had to endure to find him to avenge the daughter she lost (or find someone who might be connected to him).

But didn't she say she needed them? That she couldn't do that all on her own?

"Are you serious?" She asked, still scowling, still glaring, and starting to fail at masking her annoyance. Lady didn't like to be tricked with a job.

"I'll still pay you, sugar; don't fret."

"..."

The corners of Lady's mouth twitched a bit in anticipation; not in a sincere smile or an amused smirk -they just twitched, along with her eyebrows, forming a bewildering expression that had a mix of confusion and distrust. A part of her didn't believe that woman much. How could you when she was eyeing her and smiling at her like that? Call it intuition, but a lot of people had told her over the years that they would eventually pay her, and that was a lie. A big, fat lie.

"Mhm. It would be unchivalrous of me, would it not? After all, it was thanks to you that I found him: the devilspawn."

"...?"

"The ever so loyal dog of his, the one who brough him to us since the very beginning..."

...What...?

Lady's more or less calm expression wore off and was replaced by an ugly one as an invisible dark aura hovered around her. Bowing her head, her straight-across bangs obscured her vision and casted dark circles under her eyes as she thought about her next move, fingers twitching.

Lady thought she knew where the woman was going with this.

"...Ended up in being you~."

…

"...Who are you?" The words didn't come out the way she wanted them to, making her sound a bit... odd.

Just who are you?

The blond paid no mind to her question.

"...And this was all the proof I needed, to know that you really were the dog I was looking for... Maria."

The raven-haired woman started to sweat lightly at first.

No, fuck... This really can't be over blood again... not again...

Then, it got worse.

Despite the riot of unpleasant feelings, she forces herself to smile knowingly a little bit, pushing the ugly face she had been making away, though it came a bit strange -again, like her voice- and didn't really match with her red face, caused by the anger starting to build up and the reappearance of things she thought she would never think about again, ever.

But now... ...

The white lady snorted, eyes gleaming a bit in mischief, and humored the other woman in red, even though cold sweat was starting to form in her forehead and gloved hands. "Of course, go ahead; after all, I don't often find people stupid enough as to try to threat and talk shit to a woman with a rocket launcher strapped to her back. I'm more than willing to let you see just how much fourth degree burns can hurt."

It's a bad thing the sorceress wouldn't be fooled that easily.

"You don't have a rocket launcher on your back." She smirks a bit.

"..."

Oh.

"...That doesn't change the fact that I'm still able to bust a hole on your pretty face." Her scowl hardened. "So cut the shit before I decide it's too late."

"You don't even remember at all, huh. That makes this easy. ...Yes" she chuckled, "you're so much fun~. Even with everything against you, in such a position, you still wanna fight. I think having you will be more fun than I though it would be." Valeria stood up from the chair, chin raised upwards in self-pride and arms folded in self-defense, denoting superiority. The smirk didn't wear off.

"I'm afraid you aren't my type, missy." She mocked as she prepared herself for the other woman to wreak havoc -as per usual whenever a psycho got a liking to her, which seemed to happen so frequently it was starting to be scary. "What makes you think I'm gonna let you?"

The slightly wide-eyed woman approached the lithe huntress who was very nearby the door for her liking.

"You're still here after all, and even before you even reached my chamber, you already suspected something, huh? That means I have at least one try for your recklessness."

Lady instinctively brought one arm towards the machine-gun strapped to her belt slowly, whilst the other one was slowly making its way to the door's knob. Once her gloved hand managed to touch it without (apparently) being noticed, she found out that-

"Try all you want; the front door is closed, sweetie~."

Perplexed and knowing that the older woman had 'danger' written all over her, the hand reaching for the machine-gun twitched a second and then grabbed it faster than she thought she was capable of. At the same time she pointed it to her, an ominous, glowing mist twisted in the air around Valeria. The woman smiled in cocky pride as the mist turned into two magic circles, each of them positioned next to her, left and right respectively, all of it happening in a rapid speed before the other woman with black hair could even react.

Lady had the machine-gun already pointing to her, but she wasn't able to say anything or start shooting as the other woman was faster than her;

"History is not painted with oils, but with blood!"

Lady almost had no time to dodge the barrage of red and orange glowing bullets that were fired at a rapid speed by the magic runes at either side of Valeria. The magic projectiles left burned marks in the places they hit, and some managed to burn a bit of the fabric of Lady's clothing as she ran and tried to avoid them.

The woman didn't seem to mind the property damages as she kept looking for the elusive lady who dashed towards another door she hadn't noticed earlier, behind the ornate table. She quickly opened it and stepped inside the room it led, which happened to be a fairly big kitchen.

"It may look big, this mansion, but you won't have many places to hide if I turn this place into mush, riiiight~?"

Lady cursed under her breath as she took a glimpse of a burn in her cast. Ignoring the not-so-good state of the material and the pain, she dashed trough the kitchen, firing relentlessly to her back and dodging furniture that was instantaneously burned down by the missing bullets of her pursuer. Valeria didn't look like she was in a hurry as it seemed she was going to chase Lady around the psycho-killer way. The aforementioned huntress opened the door out of the kitchen with a kick of her boot, and stormed inside before she got shot in a vital area.

Lady tried to suppress the pain as she tried to stop limping so much and run as fast as she could, but it wasn't really working, and amidst the dull sound of the bullet-storm along with the other woman's cackles and taunts, one single coherent thought crossed Lady's mind as opposed to her subconscious' mess of death-threats and loud yells;

Why all the psycho people come at me?

But it was short lived, and when one of the glowing spheres missed her head by a hair's breadth, her mind dispelled the thought and started thinking about fifty easy and cheap ways of killing bitches and half-devils. And that was why, right now, she was regretting having left her precious rocket launcher home. The voice of her inner self was creating quite the chaos as she tried to aim her shots to the woman's head -tried! She had to try.

Lady suddenly had to stop running for a second as she arrived to a bifurcation. Since she had to think quickly about which way she should take, she didn't have in mind where those ways would get her. Perhaps, even if she took the wrong path, she could use it to confuse the other woman behind her.

Without really thinking much over it, the brunette took the right path and kept on running forward. The blond, seeing that she was starting to lose her, started to walk faster. Still, Lady had already disappeared from her sight.

Valeria growled in annoyance and glowered. She had to run.

When she arrived to the corridor, she didn't have to think much about if she should take the left or the right path. Both sorceress and huntress knew that the latter mentioned was wounded. There were small splatters of blood on the once-immaculate floor from the right path.

Too bad.

Said corridor had cupboards and whatnot, where stuff like brooms and mops were stored. There was a bathroom at almost the very end, and then another door that connected the corridor with another one. The other one had some other rooms -bedrooms for guests and a small study full of books and encyclopedias.

On her left, at the end, there was a staircase.

However, if she kept twisting and going forward, maybe she would find a way out. Valeria went forward, following the trail of blood until she arrived to an opened door.

And on the distance, very, very far away, her target -a small smudge of white and black.

Valeria's aim probably wasn't the best, as she was stupid enough as to almost get shot, but...-

"Let's hope this doesn't hit you in a place it shouldn't~."

The glowing glyphs formed again and fired, wreaking havoc

One of the bolts of magic energy that flew out from both of the floating sigils managed to strike the fleeing woman in the ankle. The force instantly snapped the bone.

Lady instantaneously cried out in agony and, with one of her legs no longer able to support her weight anymore, she fell.

Valeria hurried to the fallen woman, being careful not to trip over because of the length of the gown.

"Got you now~!" She gasped for air, and looked at her intently, but Lady didn't seem to have any kind of reaction. She just gasped as she tried to stand up -to no avail, but it is said that hope is the last thing you lose.

It was a bit sad and pitiable.

"Hmmmmm? Why aren't you saying anything?" The sorceress thought aloud mockingly. "Could it be that you don't care about getting caught? Do you? Hm?"

And if the woman in white wanted to say anything, that mattered very little because she was knocked in the head with the handle of one of her own guns by Valeria, who stole it from her when she fell down and the grip on the weapon faltered.

"It seems you don't."

Reapers, Hell Wraths, Hell Wraths, even more reapers, more reapers... … Dante definitely owes me some drinks. She moaned. And two-hundred bucks for a massage, too... Then she downed her gaze to look at herself. And new clothes. Trish added to her mental rant as she looked at the mess that had been made out of her beloved black leather outfit.

Covered in demon gore -as per usual- and some second degree burns that would eventually heal, Trish found the exit of the endless maze that Mundus' chamber was -or whatever the place was. She had forgotten how many times she had changed of direction, how many times she had been trapped in a dead end and how many times she had to undo her path to take another one or to go back to the circular room.

It wasn't fair. That magician had made it seem so easy when he showed her the way, when he created that portal with those runs, inside the cathedral. She thought she had memorized the path, but she was wrong -she couldn't even remember which door they crossed to get inside that improvised battlefield that was now surrounded by debris and blood.

In the end, none of the four doors seemed to connect to an immediate exit. At first, Trish opened the red door and embarked a long path of at least an hour and half of duration for nothing. The worse was to go back where she started. The feeling of dissatisfaction obtained because of her female intuition's fail hurt her ego. Trish had vowed not to be wrong again -but that was a lie. The yellow door consisted in being a long, almost endless, corridor with grey walls that seemed to get longer and longer the more Trish ventured into it. Moreover, it was plagued with the same demons from the previous corridor.

In the end it was nothing more than a stupid dead end.

Again, she had to go back and, once she was on the starting point for the second time, she took the blue door. And said choice was the worst.

The floor beneath her trembled whenever she made a step forward -oh, and the very best of it was that aside from those stupid bomb-demons, there was also a reaper that was followed her like a filthy stalker. The difference was that the stalker wouldn't have killed her. Sooo, forgetting about that pain of a demon, Trish had calculated that her trip would take her at least another hour or so, half of it destined to get rid of those demonic nuisances around her. Then, she found herself in front of a bifurcation. She first took the right path -and for nothing, because there was only one door that led to a bloody room where two filthy, bizarre dolls -anorexic, without eyes and very tall, both of them holding a pair of gigantic scissors lay. And of course, when Trish facepalmed and tried to get out of the room, they came to life. Of course they would. Everything comes to life in the netherworld-. And they obviously tried to kill her.

My, how unoriginal. Is there someone down here who doesn't want to kill her, anyway?

Aside of being annoying, they had nothing of interest. Trish supposed they were guardians, but she was not sure what they were guarding, so she left bloodied corpses of the demons there -wouldn't take long for them to turn into dust or be replaced or something- and start moving again, stepping outside the bloody room. The left path proved to be another big shit. She crossed a door that was at the end of the passage of that path, she kept on walking forward -it was the only disponible path- and found even more demons that appeared constantly out of the nothing. Obviously, she had to make it to the chamber again -but there was a twist when she ignored the demons and turned around and made her way to the door she'd crossed. When she stepped inside the first corridor, all of it was changed.

Completely.

In front of her, there wasn't a path that lead to a bloody room, that room with the strange doll guardians -meaning that the right path had disappeared, and at that moment, there had only been a straight path whose end was unknown to Trish. Right then, Trish's body had tensed up as bolts of electricity had swirled around her. Said bolts of lightning ended up by manifesting in the form of a powerful bolt once she ended up in the same place again -the circular room with angelic statues that had been destroyed.

All in all, all the story ended with Trish having to undo her path and go back and then start all over again from the starting point -the chamber, again, the fucking chamber, repeating said action so many times she had forgotten. Moreover, that didn't end there, for Trish also got lost -several times, too many for her to remember, again, crossing doors and doors and more doors only to end up in an unknown corridor she hadn't seen before -this corridor being the one from another door. Like when she got inside the red door again and ended up -unknowingly- in Mundus' chamber again by crossing the green door. And that happened all the time, of her getting inside by using a door only to end up in a different place and get out from there by using a door she hadn't crossed -and her wishfully thinking she figured out where the exit was. In a desperate attempt, she tried to use the grey door behind her -and to no avail because when she found the end of the corridor, the door at the end of it brought her back to the fucking chamber she was starting to hate with a passion.

Truth be told, she still wasn't sure how she managed to get out.

She said in a growl:

"I fucking hate this place."

It was a miracle that she was out. Trial and error, it seemed. Either that or that someone or something had taken pity of the stressed, pissed off and desperate devil. Finally, after having got inside one of the doors -she didn't remember which one- and slaughtered more demons in her wake, she had been able to see a faint red light at the end.

And she was out. Finally, now she was out. Now, covered in blood and burns, she let herself rest a bit and turned around to give the maze one last glance. Apparently, she had been inside a baleful looking palace. A big one, too, but not as big as to have such a confusing structure. It must be some kind of restricted place or something , for Trish didn't remember having been there ever in her days as a servant.

Well.

That place was now history and it would be better for her if she resumed her journey. So she did, turning around again, but not before taking a look at her surroundings.

The view in front of her was of the same color the blurry portal had shown her. Red, red, red with smudges of black and orange. The soil under her covered feet was gritty and it was not pleasant to walk -if anything, it could be tedious to walk through it when the heels of her boots got stuck into it, which happened every now and then. Behind her, the palace stood unmoving and, in front of her, the expanse of red looked endless.

Red. Her former masters' domain was placed in a sea of red.

This better has not to be another labyrinth.

There were some rotten trees on her right and left, silent guardians of that isolated, lonely plain. Short, black, leafless trees that she supposed were the black smudges she saw in the distance. There were no alternative paths to her left and right -just trees and red eyes that watched her every move, not sure from where, though-; Trish had no choice but to keep on forward, having very little idea about where she would end up.

A/N: Finale: endgame – The last moves.
1* A line from Yukari Yakumo, demon of dimensions from Touhou. She said it on the ending of Imperishable Night.
2* 7th pentacle of Mars – it is said to have the power to confuse the enemy.

3* 4th pentacle of Venus -any person the owner desires will come to them.
4* 5th pentacle of Jupiter -it makes people see visions
5* 2nd pentacle of Sun -represses the arrogance and pride of those who oppose to the wishes and plans of the owner.

I haven't forgotten about Nero. See? Someone noticed he wasn't there~ :3. And no. no, it wasn't laziness the emotion that drove me not to make Kyrie look out for Nero in this chapter ;A;. I'm keeping that for later.

Next chapter's contents: Trish reaching a sore and meeting an interesting demon and having a nice conversation with him that will answer some questions. Lady waking up and wreaking havoc -or trying so, at least. Some pages dedicated to Valeria (two or three?), Trish on a motherfucking boat and Dante trying to figure out where he is and where he must go~.