“Had I known this mission would be so taxing, I would have brought more jerky.” A rattle of a pill bottle echoed through the spacious gallery. “And more iron supplements.” The redhead sighed as he placed the bottle back into his coat pocket. This trip to Fortuna had put quite the strain on him and his supplies, but he wouldn't say he regretted coming along. Not entirely. Being a defender of the public, specifically of children, as well as a victim of a cult, Ryu found himself compelled to help rid the city of whatever was plaguing it. This could have been one and done, Dante had been close to finishing their target off, but that kid just had to come along and play hero. He couldn't entirely blame him for attacking him on sight...Dante did 'assassinate' him during a sermon of all things. He was always one for theatrics, it wasn't out of character at all, but he wished he at least thought this through before committing. Now they were split up and this citadel was nothing short of a giant maze. At least he found himself in a somewhat familiar setting of an art gallery. No doubts it was an accumulation of the city's history and culture through the ages, something any church would want to keep on display. There were both massive and normal sized paintings, mostly of Sparda(or, rather their interpretation of Sparda) while some drew emphasis to a goat with pure white fur. Sometimes, the goat would be replaced with a winged man, while other paintings seemed to try to mix the two together. It was clear that this character was important in their pantheon, but who it was, he couldn't entirely tell. Regardless, the paintings were wonderful quality and very well taken care of. There was nary a crack or any signs of warping on any of them, which was an amazing feat in and of itself. “It is a shame that we can't take any of these with us. That one there is a particularly fine looking goat man, if I do say so myself. What do you think, Azazel?” He hummed, stopping to admire one of the portraits of this strange character, only to frown as he felt what he could only describe as a distaste for everything in this room. Azazel often couldn't use words, so He just let Ryu feel what He thought instead. “You hate it...Do you know this character?” The demon residing within him was centuries, if not millennia old, so surely He knew who this was especially if He held such a large amount of disgust towards these paintings. He remained silent, however, and urged the man to keep moving. The redhead tilted his head in wonder before shrugging it off and continued on walking down the grey hall. If He wanted to tell him, He would tell him. There was no need to pry when he shouldn't. As he walked down the hall, a large pair of doors came into view. There was no placard to tell visitors or observers what was in this room, so it was a complete memory what lay beyond here. “Curious...” He looked to the side and saw a Lion Headed Goddess statue. “Curiouser.” He decided to entertain the statue and presented a hefty amount of red orbs to Her. “You have anything good for me? Jerky or Iron pills perhaps?” He joked, of course he wasn't expecting a response at all from the lovely Goddess, however, the orbs disappeared from his hand and in their place appeared three green stars. Not exactly what he was looking for, but they were helpful nonetheless. “Loaʻa iā ʻoe kaʻu Mahalo.” He bowed his head to Her before placing the stars in his pocket, then placed his hands on the large double doors. With a heave, the doors creaked open and the sounds of flames could be heard almost immediately. Looking up, Ryu saw a large room with pillars standing symmetrically on each side. And at the far end stood a stone tablet as well as an incredibly large statue of what looked like a dragon with a goat's face and large angelic wings. The anger and disgust Azazel fed him grew more intense, causing the man to nearly wretch at the feeling. He didn't understand, but he soon would as he walked closer to the tablet. 'Azazel, Sparda's first Apostle Thrown from the Heavens above for daring to aid us meager Humans in our time of need, Azazel swore himself to Our Heavenly Father, Sparda. He adored us Humans as if we were His own and died to liberate us from our enslavement. A mighty Wyrm in battle, yet gentle as a Lamb to His flock. May He ever watch over us as Our Heavenly Father does and protect us in our time of need.' “They...think you're an apostle of Sparda? Did you ever meet Sparda?” 'Viscous Mockery...Sparda...was a comrade...I...Never fought alongside him, but...I did help humans. Before I was trapped...Taught humans...as a way to help his efforts.' Ryu had to admit, he never thought he'd see the day that Azazel was so talkative. Usually He gave him one worded responses or just gave him His emotions. This must have really riled Him up and he could understand why now. Having your memory disgraced and the truth stretched so thin was insulting at best. “So you were a teacher of sorts. And being thrown out of heaven?” 'Sin...Fell...in love.' “I don't think it's a sin to fall in love. Sounds to me you were more human than your superiors would have liked.” There was a faint chuckle echoing in his head, another first for his demon companion. Then a resounding 'Dimwits' entered his mind and it was Ryu's turn to chuckle. Little did the two notice that the statues bright red eyes had begun to move, watching the redhead as he talked. It could sense the blood within him, something it wanted so desperately in order to be whole. There was a faint rumbling by the massive statue, cracks appearing in the wall as it began it's full awakening. It's tail whipped free first, leaving behind the imprint in the wall in order to slam down onto the platform before it. Ryu jumped out of the way of the hulking stone, dusting off his suit as he landed on his feet again. “I was wondering when you would wake up. My blood was boiling the moment I stepped foot in here. What is with churches and statues, anyway? It's like they're trying to impress an ex or something.” He joked as a stream of blood pooled into his hand and turned into a rapier. With a loud growl, the statue broke completely free of it's confines against the wall, leaving a perfect indent behind. “You...will be what completes me. I...will reign with Our Savior.” It's two front claws dug deep into the marble platform, it's six eyes staring intently at the meager human before it. “And none...will stop me!!” It reeled it's head back as a bright white orb charged up in it's mouth. The redhead dodged out of the way as a beam of pure light hit the ground. He hid behind one of the many pillars as the statue craned it's neck upward to try and catch him. “So what's the weakness? I assume it has something to do with all those spears sticking out of it. Or how about that big blue crack on it's chest?” Peaking from behind the pillar, Ryu tried to give Azazel the best look at the creature before either made any attack plans. It would just lead to an early death if they dashed into battle all willy-nilly, after all. 'Crack...source of power...sense...concentrated energy...from there. Weapons...should help...' “Attack it with it's own design...how poetic.” “You cannot hide from me!!” Swiping it's massive claw across the arena, Ryu again dashed out of his hiding spot to get somewhere safer, though at the rate this thing was raging, he wouldn't have much place else to go soon. He ran towards it, keeping an eye on it's other claw and head as he did, and lifted his sword into a stabbing position. “Let's see what this does for you, hm?” Before he could reach the crack, however, the other claw came down on him. Thinking quickly, Ryu jabbed his blood sword into one of the seams on the statue's hand, causing something to drip out of it and trickle onto his face. “Blood?” 'Not...demon...' It was such a sickly orange and black color, like it was an amalgamation of man made and something rotted. Azazel couldn't feed from this and if He tried, who knew what it would do to Him and His host. With the decision made to not experiment with this fluid, the redhead sliced through the seam with ease, severing whatever connective tissue lay beneath the stone facade. The creature screamed as it's claw fell limp and lost strength, causing it to tumble as it tried to catch itself with it's other hand. “It even smells rotten.” He coughed out as he tried to clean his face of the fluid to no avail. The creature's wings stretched open and with a powerful flap it was able to keep itself steady in the air while a gust kicked up around the room. The man kept himself steady on his feet as he tried to keep an eye on it's movements, but there was a lot more dust in this arena than he expected there to be. “How...dare you harm me!!” The creature roared once more before rearing it's tail up and spun, causing it to sweep across the room with breakneck speed. Azazel tried to warn His companion, but even He was too late on the draw. The stone slammed into Ryu's body, knocking him into the nearby wall. He coughed violently as he landed, blood sputtering from his lips as he did. His own blood. He cursed his body, but thanked his companion for at least cushioning the blow with His own blood just above all the sensitive bits and bobs. The attack could have easily shattered his ribcage and even broke his spine without His aid. It still hurt, though. Pulling out one of the green stars, Ryu crushed it in his hand and immediately he could feel himself able to breathe easily again. “Alright...okay...New strategy.” He coughed again and stumbled slightly as he stood back up, only to glare confidently back at the dragon-goat creature. “It's not so fair that you're able to fly, now is it? What say we level the playing field?” There was a low growl rumbling in his throat as blood seeped across his body, only to suddenly harden into crystalline plate armor. On his back, two large demonic wings stretched out, while large horns appeared at his hairline and smaller horns dotted beneath his eyes. With a powerful pump of his blood wings, he was airborne and flew to the statue with ease. “You aren't allowed to use this anymore.” Making a sharp turn, he dug his sword into a seam on the creature's one good arm and sliced through with ease. It screamed once more and tried to follow him upward only to wince and roar as it felt the spears and swords embedded into it's stony flesh be ripped out. Another scream echoed into the arena as Ryu plunged the plundered weapons into the large blue crack in it's chest and with a spin and a pump of his wings, he moved out of the way before it could bring it's maw down upon him. “Get it out! Get it out!!” The creature was panicking as it tried to clear the stuck weapons away from it's weak spot with it's useless hands, only for it to scream again as it felt more of the weapons being torn from it's back and neck. It flailed it's head around, charging another beam of light and just letting the stream go wherever it desired in it's panic. “I will not be undone! I cannot be undone! I am Azazel, the first Apostle! You will bow to me!” It's voice stopped short as another sword was plunged into the large blue crystal, it's body hovering for but a moment in the silence of the air. “You are not Azazel. The Azazel I know was wronged in more ways than I can count. His love of humans far outmatches your own. So be quiet and die peacefully.” Ryu kicked back away from the statue, letting it fall unceremoniously to the ground. It's wings fell limp and it's mouth hung open as if it were truly alive once. Landing back on the ground, the redhead couldn't contain another round of coughing. His lungs hurt and he felt even more tired than he had before. But the fight was over and another demon was kept from wreaking havoc upon Fortuna. He was at least grateful for that. The armor that adorned him shattered and turned to dust in the wind. The fight was done, it was no longer needed. He pulled out his bottle of iron supplements and quickly downed a pill or two the best he could without a drink. The recoil from this fight wasn't going to be pretty and he knew he needed to try and ease it as much as he could. “I...will not be...undone...” A woman's feeble voice echoed in the now deathly silent room, a squelching noise following after. The redhead froze up as did his blood. The voice was all too familiar. “I will rise...I will reign with Our Savior...” Walking quickly, Ryu leapt over the large stone arm and beheld what was coming out of the blue crystal. “We will be all powerful...we will rule this feeble world...lead it...to salvation...” The figure was near unrecognizable, her skin was so slimy, so unnaturally colored, and her body was so thin. How long had she been in this statue? Since he was a child? Since his escape? “Himari!” The woman stopped trying to crawl and looked towards the boy that she once ruled over. Her eyes, in all their unnatural appearance, still caused his blood to boil and his arms to ache. All the agony, all the screaming, all the pain...Even after 27 years, it was still so fresh in his mind. He didn't know how she escaped his rampage, perhaps she had hid like she normally would if anything dangerous seemed to be happening, perhaps she ran before the final experiment, he didn't know. But it was clear now what had become of her, this sorry excuse for a human turned horrifying experiment herself. All for what? Power? Fame? Glory? He didn't know. He didn't want to know. He stepped closer to her, her eyes following him with something akin to fear...or possible hatred. “You...have all this...you...should thank--” She was unable to finish her sentence as he plunged his rapier straight into her forehead. “Rest. Heal. E ʻae i ka honua e hoʻihoʻi iā ʻoe.” He could only offer a short prayer to the woman before ripping his blade from her. There was a long silence as he made his exit of the gallery and found his way back towards the city. Azazel could feel all the conflicting feelings within His host, and while He could say for certain He was glad the final string to his past was cut, He did not know if He could say the same for him. 'Heal...Happy...' “It's so weird...isn't it? That I pity that woman instead of feel immense satisfaction of her fate?” The demon hummed in thought before the feeling of His blood squeezing in certain places came over the man. Ryu smiled if only slightly. It was His form of a hug, the best He could give to him. He patted his own shoulder and nodded. 'Normal...Normal...' “Thank you, my friend.” Stumbling again, Ryu could feel the affects of the battle starting to take it's toll on his body. The Vitality Stars could only do so much, they were more like a cup of coffee than anything. What he needed was actual meat or even blood to replenish him. Something he had neither of. Before he felt himself hit the ground, a hand grabbed his arm to keep him upright and steady. “Whoa there, what happened to you? You're paler than a sheet.” Looking back, the redhead smiled at the familiar presence of his business partner. “What of you? You look like you went a few rounds with a rose bush.” “Long story. Here.” “Hey...there's no need.” Dante lifted Ryu up into his arms with ease. He always seemed to handle him like he was lighter than a feather. And he supposed he was to him, he did have inhuman strength, after all. But still, this was on the more embarrassing side, being carried around like a fragile flower, which he insisted he wasn't. “How's the kid doing?” He conceded at least, and instead put the focus on Nero, the one anomaly in this city. “Oh you know, bein' cocky, got himself trapped in a statue, gettin' cozy with that demon hand of his. But he made it farther than I expected him to. Might just even let him keep the Yamato.” He raised a brow when he heard Ryu chuckling. “You must have a lot of confidence in him to let him keep it. Didn't think you had a soft spot for kids.” “Ehh just this one. If you could see him fight, you'd understand. This looks like a good spot.” Walking over to an alley, nicely tucked away from the hubbub going on around them, the man set Ryu down to rest and regain his strength. “You stay here, got that? Don't even think about following after me until you're done being exhausted.” He dug into his pocket and pulled out a bag of jerky which immediately made the redhead perk up. “Just have the whole bag. Don't fall too far behind, Ryu.” He ran his thumb over his cheek before standing straight up again and walking off. Ryu wasted no time getting to his jerky, chewing and gulping like an animal the entire time. 'Sin...Do you...love him...?' Ryu stopped chewing for a moment to process what Azazel had asked him before a gentle smile adorned his face. “I probably have since the first time we met. Why do you ask?” 'You are...Happy...Warm...With him.' “Does it feel familiar? Like with the one you loved?” 'Yes...Very...'
