Orfevre descended straight down the side of the Temen-ni-gru, throwing herself off the summit and into the open air without the slightest hesitation.
The storm still raged around her, rain striking her coat and hair as she fell, but the moment her feet touched the sheer stone wall, she planted them against the surface and ran downward along it with impossible momentum.
Below her, the bat-like demons erupted from the darkness in swarming waves, shrieking as they rushed her from every direction. Orfevre answered by drawing Ebony and Ivory with a sharp motion, opening fire while still running down the side of the tower. The twin pistols barked through the rain, bullets streaking through the air in rapid bursts as she cut through the first wave of demons before they could even close in.
The moment one of the creatures lunged too close, she shifted her grip, holstered the guns, and pulled the Rebellion from her back, the massive blade flashing in the stormlight as she began cutting a path straight through the swarm.
She moved through them like a blazing meteor, spinning and charging through the air with enough force to make the entire descent feel like a battle scene torn straight out of a legend.
Every strike was fast, sharp, and precise, and every movement carried the same dangerous elegance, as though she was not simply fighting to survive but performing a dance only she knew the steps to. She drove the blade downward through one demon, used its body as a springboard, and launched herself toward another before firing point-blank into its skull and kicking off again before the corpse had even fallen away.
While she was airborne, she fired into the next target with Ebony before kicking away from the corpse, twisting her body mid-fall so she could drive the Rebellion through the one that had been behind her a moment earlier. The whole descent became a chain of motion, each kill flowing into the next, every landing used as a weapon, every demon forced to become part of her path downward.
The bat swarm reacted by tightening around her. One moment, the air was full of scattered enemies, and the next they were all closing in together, circling her from every side until they formed a living, shrieking sphere of flapping wings and snapping jaws. The entire mass of them piled inward as if trying to bury her beneath their bodies, and for a split second, it looked as though they might actually succeed.
Then the swarm exploded outward. Orfevre burst through the center of it in a spinning rush, Rebellion in one hand and Ebony in the other, unleashing a storm of gunfire and slashes that ripped the formation apart from within. Demons scattered in every direction as bullets tore through them and the sword followed up with brutal precision, cutting open the gaps they tried to escape through.
Switching fluidly without ever breaking momentum, she called upon Cerberus next, the tripartite nunchaku spinning in her hand as she smashed her way through the remaining bats with crushing force.
The weapon cracked against demon skulls and wings alike, sending bodies flying from the tower wall and scattering them into the rain below. The impact of each swing had the same sharp, icy violence as a hammer strike, and even the demons that tried to circle behind her only found themselves caught in the chain of her movement and ripped apart before they could make contact.
Then, with barely a pause, she switched again. Agni & Rudra appeared in her hands, one in each grip, the twin swords flashing red as she brought them into the fight with a style that was almost theatrical in how naturally it fit the chaos around her.
She carved through the remaining bat demons with quick, relentless cuts, then turned and drove both blades deep into the stone side of the tower, using the metal and rock to halt her descent for just a moment as sparks flared outward in the rain.
Her momentum slowed only slightly. With a sharp twist of her body, she kicked off the tower wall and flipped through the air, her coat snapping behind her as she rotated above the open drop, her gaze darting across the vast structure until she finally spotted a lower opening where she could land.
Without losing rhythm, she switched back to Cerberus and thrust one of the chain segments outward, letting it whip around one of the tower's pillars. The chain locked in place, and with a hard pull, she swung herself toward it, the motion carrying her cleanly toward the next platform.
Orfevre crashed down onto the open balcony below. The impact was brutal enough that it should have shattered bones and driven the breath out of anyone else, but her half-devil body took the landing without so much as a flinch.
Her human heart kept beating steadily even as the demonic power inside her surged through her frame, taking the strain of the fall and turning it into something her body could endure. The blood in her veins remained warm and alive, and the devil half within her immediately adjusted, healing the impact before it could do any real damage.
For a brief moment, she stood still, rain running down her face and coat as she looked ahead through the open balcony and toward the path leading back into the tower.
Orfevre straightened up and began walking back into the Temen-ni-gru, her steps steady and unhurried as she had made up her mind on her reason to continue moving forward.
...
Back at the top of the tower, Ben, Gwen, and Lady were making their way downward once again, moving through the twisting interior while keeping their eyes open for any sign of the two twins they had been separated from. The climb up had already been bad enough, but now the tower felt even more hostile than before, as if it were actively trying to make sure no one came or went without a fight.
"What's up with both of them?" Ben asked at last, unable to keep the question to himself any longer as he ducked beneath a crumbling section of stone and glanced toward the others.
The way Evan and Orfevre had been acting was far too off to ignore. Normally, Evan would be the first one trying to find some practical way out of a place like this, and Orfevre would at least hold herself back a little instead of throwing herself into a dangerous fight with her brother in the middle of a tower full of demons.
Yet now both of them seemed to have thrown caution completely out the window, as if every sensible instinct they usually had had been replaced by a single-minded urge to tear each other apart even more violently than before.
"How am I supposed to know?" Gwen snapped back, her voice carrying just enough irritation to make it clear she was still blaming Ben for part of this mess. "None of this would have happened if you hadn't Upgraded us here!"
"Hey!" Ben protested immediately, sounding offended more than guilty. "How was I supposed to know that would happen?"
Lady, who had been moving beside them with far less panic than either of the Tennysons, suddenly spoke up as though the answer had been obvious to her for a while already.
"I believe this has something to do with their current identity," she said, her attention still on the demons ahead of them as she raised her pistols and fired, clearing the path while never breaking stride. "In this world, their current identities are the two sons of Sparda, Vergil and Dante."
Ben and Gwen both turned toward her at once, though they were still half-distracted by the demonic creatures rushing them from the walls and ceiling.
"Is that... the game lore?" Ben repeated, sounding even more confused than before.
Lady nodded as she kept moving, lowering one gun only long enough to reload before opening fire again. "I read the character descriptions in the game bios. Vergil and Dante are also twins, and the two of them do not hate each other in the original story. They fight because they have different views on life."
She stepped back just in time to avoid a hidden trap that snapped open in the floor beneath her boots, and when she continued, her tone was steady enough to make the explanation sound simple even though the situation itself was anything but.
"Different views in life?" Gwen repeated, swinging her spear to cut down another demon that lunged in from the side. "What does that have to do with them trying to kill each other?"
"Ugh!" Ben muttered, slashing through another demon before it could get close. "Why does his game have to be so complicated? Couldn't it just be a simple hack and slash like Sumo Slammer Smackdown?"
Lady barely spared that complaint a glance before continuing her explanation, this time switching from her pistols to a rocket launcher and sending a larger demon crashing backward in a burst of smoke and debris.
"According to their story," she said, "both Vergil and Dante once lived peacefully with their mother until the day demons attacked their home and burned it to the ground. Dante was saved, but only at the cost of their mother's life, while Vergil fought his way back through the demons only to find the home destroyed and no sign of his brother or mother anywhere."
She paused just long enough to roll to the side and avoid another hidden trap before continuing.
"That caused him to believe he had been abandoned, and from there he developed the mindset that power is everything. Without power, they cannot protect anything. We all saw a version of that in the twins' fight just now. Evan didn't kill Orfevre. He took her amulet, the one given to her by their mother."
Ben frowned, still clearly trying to follow the logic through all the noise and chaos.
"So what does all of this have to do with Evan and Orfevre trying to kill each other?"
Gwen let out a groan and shot him an exasperated look.
"Couldn't you use your brain for once, doofus?" she said, rolling her eyes before adjusting her grip on her spear. "Think about it. That is Vergil and Dante's backstory, and right now Evan and Orfevre are in those roles. The Gold twins are now the two sons of Sparda. And even so, Evan did not really kill Orfevre when he had the chance, which meant part of them is still there."
...
Continuing his search through the tower, Evan still could not find Upgrade's DNA icon anywhere, and after checking enough of the surrounding halls to be certain it was not simply hiding in some forgotten corner, he eventually made his way toward the center of the structure, where a massive altar sat waiting like the final piece of a ritual that had been building itself up around him the entire time.
What drew his attention was the fact that he had crossed paths with an injured Beowulf along the way, the demon having been blinded after fleeing from Orfevre and stumbling through the tower in a badly weakened state.
Even so, losing its sight had not entirely robbed it of its other senses, and its smell had still been sharp enough to lead it astray when it mistook Evan for Orfevre, which ended exactly the way it probably should have for something that had chosen the wrong target. In the end, the demon fell, and Evan obtained the Devil Arm Beowulf, a set of gauntlets and greaves that now belonged to him after the slaughter was over.
Now standing at the center of the tower with the great altar looming beneath him, Evan waited calmly for the final pieces needed to unlock the Demon World to come together, his gaze fixed ahead as if he had already accepted that the next confrontation was inevitable.
"So this is where you've been the entire time?" Orfevre's voice suddenly cut in from the side, and when Evan shifted his gaze back toward her, he found her standing there with a look that was far less patient than before. "You got some balls stabbing your sister like that."
"My apologies," Evan replied calmly, his expression barely changing at all. "Seeing your face, I just couldn't help myself."
"Tch!" Orfevre clicked her tongue in annoyance, though her grip on the Rebellion tightened all the same. "Well, since I came all this way..."
She drew the sword fully from her back and pointed it directly at her brother.
"I'm sure you've got time for one more game, right?"
"Why not?" Evan answered without hesitation, lifting the Yamato in his hand as though this was simply the next step in a conversation they had already been having for far too long. "We share the same blood. I can use yours to unlock daddy's little spell."
The two of them moved at once.
Evan swung the Yamato in a swift arc, the blade slicing through the air with a clean, decisive motion. Orfevre narrowly avoided the strike by dashing backward at the last possible second, her coat snapping behind her before she surged forward again and thrust the Rebellion straight at her brother with a speed that left no room to breathe.
Evan parried the thrust effortlessly, using the still-sheathed Yamato to deflect the attack, the collision of the two demonic blades sent a shower of sparks scattering through the air as the sound of metal meeting metal rang out across the chamber like the opening strike of some ancient war hymn.
Orfevre gripped the Rebellion tightly and swung the massive sword with both precision and force, pressing Evan back and forcing him to dash away just long enough to create a little distance between them.
"I'll cut you in half!" Evan declared, and a split second later he unleashed a Judgment Cut, sending a wave of razor-sharp slashes tearing through the air toward her.
Orfevre's eyes sharpened instantly as her body reacted before her thoughts could catch up. She flipped forward in a smooth front roll, narrowly avoiding the devastating attack, and when she landed she was already moving again, switching to Agni & Rudra in a single motion.
"Try again," she taunted, swinging the two blades horizontally and releasing a burst of flame boosted by a powerful gust of wind toward her brother.
Evan let himself fall backward just enough to avoid the first edge of the attack, then dashed to his left, barely slipping away from the elemental blast before it could catch him fully.
Gripping Yamato tightly, he answered by surging forward with a burst of speed, closing the gap in an instant and driving straight toward Orfevre.
She met his charge head-on with the Rebellion.
Their swords crashed together in a violent shower of sparks, the sound of metal grinding against metal echoing through the chamber as both of them strained against the other for a brief moment of deadlock.
Neither one gave an inch, and neither seemed particularly interested in backing down first, which only made the tension between them feel sharper.
Eventually, finding the stalemate unacceptable, they both disengaged and dashing backward once more, each one creating just enough breathing room to prepare for the next exchange.
Orfevre was the first to move again. She shot forward with ferocious speed, thrusting the Rebellion directly at Evan's torso. He reacted just in time, parrying the blow with Yamato, and the force of the impact sent another burst of sparks across the battlefield.
"Is rushing in blind all you can do?" Evan asked, his tone carrying a thin layer of irritation.
"Yeah!" Orfevre replied with a cocky grin before spinning around and switching to Cerberus. She swung the tripartite nunchaku at his head, and the heavy impact knocked him back just enough to break his rhythm.
She followed immediately with a string of kicks and spinning strikes, blending brutal footwork with the icy force of the weapon as she forced her brother backward one step at a time.
Rolling across the ground after the exchange, Evan quickly got back to his feet and brushed off the nonexistent dust from his coat before raising his right hand and unleashing a swarm of bats toward her.
Seeing the swarm approach, Orfevre switched to Ebony and Ivory and opened fire with rapid bullets, shredding the bats out of the air before they could reach her.
In a blur of motion, Evan dashed forward again, spinning as he swung Yamato once more. The blade struck true this time, cutting into Orfevre and leaving her momentarily stunned. Evan immediately took advantage of the opening, unleashing a flurry of precise slashes in rapid succession, each one sending shockwaves through the air as Orfevre was driven back under the relentless assault.
With one final slash, Evan threw her backward before resheathing Yamato once again.
Orfevre grinned through the pain as she glared at him with a mixture of frustration and excitement.
"Not bad," she said, and despite the tension in her voice, there was still confidence there too.
The two rushed at each other again.
Orfevre tilted her body just enough to avoid Evan's next slash before countering with a powerful uppercut that sent him flying skyward, the force of the blow rippling through the air as his body flew through the air.
Not willing to let the moment slip, Orfevre leapt after him. Her movements in the air were a violent kind of grace, a sharp dance of violence that let her keep up with him long enough to deliver a barrage of punches and kicks midair. Each hit landed hard enough to send him crashing back toward the ground, and when his body struck the arena floor with a loud thud, she landed a short distance away with complete balance.
She drew back one fist and smirked. "Having fun yet?"
Evan barely had time to get back up before Orfevre delivered a devastating punch that sent him skidding across the arena, the impact forcing him to regain his footing all over again.
Despite the brutality of the hit, he recovered quickly and dashing to the side before unleashing another Judgment Cut. The precise energy slashes tore through the air, but Orfevre dodged them with uncanny agility, sidestepping the attack as if she could feel the pattern before it even reached her.
"Too slow!" she taunted, her heart pounding loudly in her chest as the thrill of battle began pushing her excitement higher and higher.
Evan charged again, swinging Yamato in another attempt to close the distance. Orfevre responded with a quick side roll, slipping past the blade before retaliating with a series of punches and kicks that forced him onto the defensive.
Her onslaught culminated in a spinning kick that landed squarely across Evan's face, sending him stumbling back just enough for her to smirk at him with obvious satisfaction.
"Come on," she sneered, her tone dripping with playful arrogance. "You can do better than that."
Unfazed, Evan pushed himself back up and looked across at his sister, a smirk slowly forming on his lips.
"Fine..." he said, his voice calm and measured as he resheathed Yamato, letting the demonic sword disappear and shifting into a new stance. Beowulf appeared on his hands and feet, the gauntlets and greaves settling around him as he stared across the arena with cold confidence. "I suppose this is how you wish to die."