Seeing Evan standing alone at the summit of the ominous demon tower beneath the pouring rain, the group could not help but feel a little uneasy, because the entire scene looked wrong in a way that was difficult to explain. The storm clouds churned overhead while thunder rolled across the sky in the distance, and rain poured endlessly from above, soaking the ancient stone beneath their feet and turning the summit into a battlefield of slick black rock and flowing water. And standing at the very center of it all was Evan.
His long light-blue coat fluttered behind him in the powerful wind, while his snow-white hair shifted with every gust and the moonlight reflected faintly off the black scabbard resting at his side. The image was so absurdly dramatic that it almost felt staged, like he had deliberately climbed to the highest point of the giant demon tower and waited there specifically because it looked cool. Well, technically, he did.
Even Ben found himself hesitating slightly. It was hard not to when Evan looked less like their cousin and more like the final boss waiting for the heroes to arrive.
Yet while the others felt unease, Orfevre felt something else entirely.
Irritation. A very familiar irritation.
Seeing him standing there so calmly in the rain, acting mysterious and important while waiting for them to climb all the way up here, caused a vein to twitch slightly on her forehead.
"What's with this final boss act?" she asked in an annoyed tone, glaring up at him as though he had personally offended her by making the entire moment this dramatic.
Evan's eyes shifted toward her.
Then he paused.
For a moment, his expression remained completely unchanged, which somehow made him even more annoying to look at.
"...Put on a shirt." The response was immediate, flat, and absolutely without mercy.
Orfevre stared at him for a second before scoffing. "Oh, shut up."
Her irritation somehow increased even further. "It's your fault I'm dressed like this. I didn't exactly have time to stop and go shopping."
Then she spread one arm toward herself in emphasis.
"I'm literally wearing whatever this game decided Dante wears."
Evan glanced at the red coat. Then at the complete lack of a shirt underneath. Then back at her.
His expression somehow became even more disappointed.
Orfevre immediately looked offended. "Don't give me that look."
"I'm not giving you a look," he replied, sounding calm enough to be infuriating.
She instantly shot back, "I'm literally standing right in front of you, ya know!"
Ben looked between them, then back toward Gwen and Lady, clearly trying to understand why the atmosphere had somehow shifted from ominous boss confrontation to sibling bickering in under ten seconds.
"...Am I the only one who feels like this conversation got derailed really fast?"
"Nope," Gwen said, shaking her head.
Lady looked equally unimpressed, though she said nothing.
Neither twin paid them any attention.
Orfevre folded her arms. "So what's all of this about?"
Seeing that she clearly had no intention of finding a shirt anytime soon, Evan simply let out a quiet sigh before deciding to move on.
"Well, since we're here, I might as well explain the story behind our current identities."
His voice remained calm as he turned fully toward the group, and the rain continued falling around them as if the tower itself was listening.
"We are the sons of Sparda."
The atmosphere shifted slightly.
"You guys are what now?" Ben echoed under his breath, though he did not interrupt further.
Evan continued ignoring him.
"He was a powerful demon swordsman known throughout legend as the Legendary Dark Knight." The group listened quietly while Evan spoke, the storm above them seeming almost fitting as his voice carried through the open summit. "Two thousand years ago, he awakened to justice and stood against Mundus, the Demon King of this world. Alone, he fought the armies of the Demon World and defeated them."
Rain slid from the edge of the tower in long cold streams while the wind tugged at their clothes.
"He sealed the passage connecting the human world and the demon world and trapped the demonic legions on the other side."
Then Evan slowly gestured toward the enormous structure surrounding them.
"This tower." His voice echoed slightly through the rain. "The Temen-ni-gru. The true gateway between the Human World and the Demon World."
His gaze lifted back toward his sister. "And the place where our father's power remains sealed."
The group fell silent as the weight of those words settled heavily across the summit. Everyone stared at Evan with a serious expression, and even Ben looked like he had finally stopped joking around long enough to realize this was not the sort of story that ended with a simple victory screen. If everything Evan was saying was true, then opening that gateway would mean releasing countless demons back into the world.
Before anyone else could respond, Orfevre spoke first.
"Are you really planning to release them?"
Her voice had become noticeably colder. The playful irritation from earlier was gone, replaced by something much sharper, and after everything they had experienced inside the tower, after fighting countless demons on the way up, the very idea sounded insane.
"After what they did to us?" Her fists tightened. "After what they did to Mother?"
For a brief moment, even Orfevre herself was not entirely certain where those emotions were coming from.
Part of them belonged to her.
Part of them belonged to Dante.
The longer they remained inside this world, the more their identities seemed to overlap, until the line between who they were and who they were becoming had started to blur in ways that neither of them could fully ignore. Much like how Vergil's obsession with power had begun mixing with Evan's own desire for power, Dante's emotions and memories had started blending into Orfevre's thoughts as well.
Unlike Ben and Gwen, who were using avatars based on themselves from their simple game, the twins had inherited the roles of established characters. And little by little, those roles were beginning to influence them.
"This is a sacrifice I'm willing to make, Oru."
Evan's response came without hesitation. His tone was calm, steady, almost detached, which only made it harder to tell whether he was speaking as himself or as the role he had taken on.
The answer only made her angrier.
"You're really out of your mind, Ever." Rain dripped from her hair as she stared directly at him. "We don't see each other for one year and this is what happens? One year and suddenly you're trying to unleash hell."
Ben leaned slightly toward Gwen, looking baffled.
"What are they talking about?"
Gwen frowned. "I'm honestly just as confused as you are."
"This doesn't seem like them," Lady said from the side, though her voice now carried a far more mature tone than before, even sounding male.
Orfevre slowly reached behind her back and drew Ebony and Ivory.
"How about a kiss from your little sister instead?" The grin that appeared on her face looked dangerous.
"Or better yet..."
The twin pistols spun once before settling into her hands, and then she raised them, pointing both directly toward Evan. The hammers clicked back.
"How about a kiss from THESE?"
"ORFEVRE!" Ben, Gwen, and Lady shouted almost simultaneously.
The sight of her aiming guns at her own brother was alarming no matter how many times they had seen the twins fight, and yet neither sibling acknowledged them in the slightest. Their eyes remained locked on each other while the storm continued raging around them, rain running down their faces and wind pulling at their coats.
For a moment, the summit felt completely isolated from the rest of the world.
Just the two of them standing there.
"So this is what they call a heartwarming family reunion, huh?" Orfevre said disdainfully.
Evan's expression remained calm. "I suppose you're right."
Slowly, his left thumb pushed against the guard of the Yamato. The blade slid a fraction of an inch from its scabbard, and the small metallic sound that followed was somehow louder than the thunder overhead.
At this point, words had become almost meaningless between the two of them.
Neither Orfevre nor Evan seemed interested in talking this out anymore, and the only thing left between them was the sound of gunfire, steel, and the storm raging around the summit of the tower.
Orfevre was the first to move, raising Ebony and Ivory and opening rapid fire toward her brother, while Evan stood calmly with the still-sheathed Yamato in hand and parried each bullet as though they were nothing more than raindrops caught in a passing wind.
He made it look effortless.
The bullets sparked against the blade, splitting apart in flashes of light as Evan shifted his stance and dashed forward. Orfevre immediately leapt back to avoid the slash that followed, her coat whipping behind her as the strike carved through the space where she had been standing only a second before.
She clicked her tongue, shoved the pistols away, and reached behind her back for the Rebellion.
The massive sword came free in one smooth motion, and without giving him a second to recover, she rushed forward again and brought the blade down with enough force to make the air shudder. Evan answered by drawing the Yamato from its sheath and meeting the strike head-on, the two swords colliding with a sharp metallic crack that sent sparks scattering through the rain.
Their clashes and moves were so fast that the two created an air pocket around them where even the rain couldn't touch them. For a brief moment, neither of them gave ground, their weapons locked together under the storm, letting the air pocket created by them fall down, before they both disengaged at almost the exact same time.
Orfevre did not give him a chance to breathe. She switched again, this time drawing out Cerberus and spinning the tripartite nunchaku in her hands before charging straight at him. Evan responded by pulling out his alien metal staff and rushing forward to meet her, and the two weapons clashed once more, the tripartite nunchaku smashing against the metal staff as freezing ice burst outward from the impact.
In the next instant, the alien weapon shifted, its form changing as the end split and extended into an energy spear tip, forcing Orfevre to brace herself as the fight became even more violent.
"What are you two doing!? Stop!" Gwen shouted in alarm, her voice cutting through the rain as she watched the twins actively trying to kill each other.
Neither of them listened. A stray burst of ice and several energy slashes flew toward her, forcing her to throw herself to the side in a desperate roll. She barely managed to avoid the worst of it, but the movement nearly sent her tumbling off the edge of the tower before Ben and Lady both lunged forward and grabbed her in time, yanking her back before she could fall.
"Thanks," Gwen gasped, though she was still too shaken to sound fully grateful.
Above her, the two siblings paid no attention whatsoever.
Their thoughts and actions had begun to merge too deeply with the identities they were currently wearing, and whatever hesitation or restraint they might have had before was gone now. The only thing left was the battle itself.
"Ben! Do something!" Gwen said, looking up toward her cousin with clear panic in her voice. "They are going to kill each other!"
"I'm on it!" Ben shouted back, already activating his Omnitrix and twisting the dial with urgency.
Ever since arriving in the game, he had picked up several Omnitrix icons, which meant he now had multiple aliens available to choose from, and after only a moment of searching he found the one he wanted. Without hesitation, he slammed the Omnitrix down and sent a burst of green light exploding outward across the tower summit.
When the light faded, Wildvine stood in Ben's place.
The plant-based alien immediately dug his roots and fingers into the ground, and thick vines erupted from the stone around the twins, twisting upward as they lunged toward Orfevre and Evan in an attempt to restrain them both.
The vines wrapped and coiled through the rain, forcing the two of them to shift just enough to keep from being completely surrounded. Orfevre switched back to the Rebellion while Evan returned to the Yamato, and together they carved through the roots trying to bind them.
"Hey! That hurts!" Wildvine shouted, feeling the vines being cut down faster than he could reinforce them, but he still pushed forward with everything he had.
Even after the wave of vines was cleared, the two siblings turned right back to each other as if nothing had interrupted them at all. Their blades met once more, sparks flashing between them, and when Evan moved to strike, Orfevre threw a quick kick toward his weapon and knocked it out of his hand. The Yamato spun through the rain, but Evan reacted immediately, catching it before it could fly too far. He gripped it in reverse and thrust the hilt toward her with enough force to drive her backward, sending her crashing into one of the vine pillars Wildvine had created moments earlier.
Orfevre gritted her teeth, ignored the pain, and raised Ebony again. The pistol barked in rapid succession.
Evan spun the Yamato in his hand, catching the bullets in a blur of motion before turning the blade and lining them up in front of him as though he had somehow arranged them on an invisible string. Then, with a clean slash of his sword, he sent the bullets flying back toward her in a redirected barrage.
Orfevre responded instantly, lifting the Rebellion and bringing it down hard across the incoming fire. The sword cut clean through the bullets before they could touch her, scattering the fragments across the rain-soaked summit.
"Okay, you two, stop this! This has gone on long enough!" Wildvine shouted again, stepping forward with clear frustration and trying one more time to intervene.
This time, more thick green vines surged up around them, circling both Orfevre and Evan and binding their limbs in place before they could fully break away.
Evan barely even looked at the vines. Instead, he stared directly at his sister across the space between them.
"Why do you refuse to gain power, sister?"
Orfevre struggled against the bindings, but she still managed to glare back at him.
"Nah, I don't mind power," she snapped. "I just don't like you, that's all."
Evan's expression hardened.
"Foolishness, Oru. Foolishness."
The words came out cold and final, and then, with a sudden burst of demonic power, azure blue flames erupted from his body. The vines binding him were burned away in an instant, and Wildvine screamed in pain as the heat tore through the plant-based restraints and forced him backward.
Black feathers burst into the raining sky as a massive pair of feathered wings unfurled from Evan's back.
His body shifted in an instant, becoming taller and more imposing as the Devil Trigger form took shape around him. A very tall top hat appeared, followed by a long-horned demonic mask, a cropped red eighteenth-century-style suit worn open with the collar popped, stitched heart designs on the shoulders, a white ruffle tie, and a black tailed corset running down his torso. His legs were covered in black clawed coverings that resembled pants and boots with blade-like heels, and the golden Omnitrix dial was now much more visible on the back of his left hand.
Then, just as quickly as it had appeared, the azure-blue flame faded away.
Evan returned to his human self and stepped forward, picking up the Rebellion. He approached the still-bound Orfevre, rain streaming down both of them as the tower summit grew even more silent than before.
"Without strength, you cannot protect what you hold dear," he said before swinging the Rebellion and cutting her free from the vines.
The moment she was released, he moved again. In one swift motion, he thrust the Rebellion into her stomach and pinned her to the ground.
The others watching from behind widened their eyes in shock. Evan ignored all of it. His free hand reached out, snatching the amulet hanging around her neck.
"I'll be taking this," he said calmly. "If you want it back, meet me at the center of this tower."
Then he drew the Yamato once more and cut the air itself, opening a rift in space with a sharp tearing sound that seemed to split the storm in half. Without hesitating, he sheathed the blade and walked into the opening, disappearing into the light.
A red flash lit the summit. Wildvine vanished and returned to human form.
Only then, once the shock started to wear off, did Gwen, Lady, and Ben finally rush toward Orfevre, who was lying in the rain with the Rebellion still stuck through her body as cold water poured over her and crimson blood spread across the wet stone below.
For a moment, none of them seemed to know what to say, because the sight of their cousin being stabbed by her own brother had been enough to freeze all three of them in place.
Their expressions were a mix of fear, confusion, and disbelief. Lady looked especially conflicted, as though she was unsure how to feel about any of this at all.
Then the Rebellion suddenly lit up. The bone-like guards opened up, and the blade was launched free from Orfevre's body, spinning through the air before slamming back into the ground beside her.
Orfevre pushed herself up from the stone. Blood clung to her clothes, but the wound had already healed.
She gasped and touched her stomach where she had been stabbed, then snarled under her breath, "That sick bastard..."
"Orfevre!!" the three shouted, rushing toward her to check whether she was truly alright.
When they saw that she was somehow still standing, and that she was in fact perfectly fine despite everything, all three of them let out a collective breath of relief. They still did not understand exactly how she had survived, but at least she was not dying on the tower floor, which was enough for the moment.
Orfevre pushed herself upright and walked forward through the rain. With a sudden burst of demonic power, she entered her Devil Trigger form before instantly switching back to her human form.
Gasping for air, she continued walking forward, then bent down and picked up the Rebellion.
"Wait, where are you going?" Gwen called out, still worried for her cousin's safety.
Orfevre tilted her head back just enough to look at her.
"What does it look like?" she said flatly. "I'm gonna go after him and stab him in the guts."
And without another word, she jumped down from the top of the tower, ignoring the shocked voices behind her as she disappeared into the storm below.