Chapter 406: Special Chapter Opens, Vergil's Downfall

Perhaps Proprietor Fang's prowess was sufficient to control Dante against common fiends and passing bosses, or even display a bit of flair, yet confronting a rival of Vergil's caliber remained somewhat arduous, even with many of Dante's skills honed to the highest tier.

"Whew..." Proprietor Fang breathed a faint sigh of relief, having expended immense effort to complete the game.

Fortunately, upon unlocking the branch establishment quest, the system granted three days of access to the cultivation chamber, where he spent his post-broadcast hours locked in combat, mastering Dante's techniques through long hours of practice until they became second nature.

What was combat? To many, the answer was merely slaughter, a demonstration of might, or the defense of something precious.

Yet within Devil May Cry, it was endowed with a meaning far grander than that.

Perhaps only from this era onward did the true art of combat manifest before the eyes of all!

A terrifying velocity left a phantom trail across the screen, Vergil's speed as spectral as his blade; Yamato returned to its sheath as he gripped the Force Edge with a single hand, and suddenly, a faint silhouette flashed through Dante's form like lightning.

Proprietor Fang's Dante blurred, and in the blink of an eye, he had already landed elsewhere, only then did the vacancy he once occupied erupt in a tempest of sword gales, revealing to the spectating crowd that in that split second of crossing paths, Vergil had already delivered countless slashes!

"The boss is so calm!"

"A fraction of a second slower and he'd be minced meat!"

The brandishing of the blade was simply too swift, and only now did everyone realize what had occurred within that flash of lightning!

With the strike missing its mark, a blue shadow flickered where Vergil stood, and his entire being vanished.

Within the portal to the Demon World, demonic energy surged violently, and spatial fissures triggered one terrifying bolt of lightning after another.

In the next instant, a gleam of the blade cleaved down from the heavens like a thunderclap!

A crisp, sharp clash of blades immediately echoed.

Vergil vanished once more.

Following closely, the second slash, the third...

Successive strikes fell like repeated lightning bolts, each angling from a treacherous trajectory, and the moment the blade fell, the figure vanished again as if teleporting!

Demonic aura hung heavy all around, and the crowd gathered before the grand screen could only witness the lightning-like flashes of the blade raining down, completely unable to discern a human figure!

"Look at the boss!"

Amidst the exclamations of surprise, Fang Qi's Dante moved as if strolling leisurely through a courtyard, wandering through this tempest of lightning; with each falling blade, a counter-gleam of a sword would rise, weaving together into a continuous shower of sparks within the split second, yet Dante himself remained entirely unscathed!

"My goodness!"

"Even if Dante himself were here, this would be the limit of his execution!"

"Damn, that's too elegant!"

"When did this kid learn to employ the Dark Knight's combat style with such consummate mastery?!" Nalan Hongwu watched, somewhat dazed.

"Watching these two duel is like witnessing a clash between celestial beings." Jiang Xuan, who originally intended to play a session himself, was now glued to the sofa, unable to move a single step.

"Magnificent!" Ning Bi's eyes gleamed with a faint radiance, feeling a surge of pride that she might employ such a dazzling style of combat in the future.

At that moment, Vergil's final blade crashed down, and he evidently began to alter his tactics; the instant their weapons clashed, a halo of blue sword light suddenly ignited around Vergil's form!

Summoned Swords!

A circular sword formation manifested, and over a dozen blue phantom blades rotated rapidly around him like spinning razors, as though intent on shredding everything in the vicinity to pieces!

Almost no one could react to this abrupt transformation!

Yet on the other side, Proprietor Fang had already assumed a boxing stance.

"He changed to fist techniques?! What does this mean?!" Moreover, judging by the stance, it clearly required charging; under such circumstances, let alone hitting anyone, the opponent's Summoned Swords were already flying inward, yet he was still charging?!

"A blunder?!" Everyone was thoroughly mystified.

The Beowulf gauntlets and greaves were formed from a powerful demon who held a blood feud against the Dark Knight Sparda, possessing terrifying inherent power; before a punch was even thrown, the stance alone coalesced an immensely potent demonic energy before him.

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

"Holy crap! Predicting the sword formation with a rising dragon punch?!"

"It wasn't a blunder! That was absolutely not a mistake!"

"What do you mean?!" Many players who had just started Devil May Cry 3 were even more bewildered, "Why is the boss suddenly taking no damage?!"

"Among these fist techniques, there are a few heavy, forceful moves that, due to the immense gathered power, can incidentally parry surrounding attacks," those familiar with the game, like Nalan Hongwu and Song Qingfeng, explained. "But such moves are generally slow to execute; for the boss to block like this, it is absolute anticipation!"

Proprietor Fang's punch was not swift and had no intention of striking Vergil, yet it precisely forced him back, allowing Fang to leap out of the engagement using the momentum of the strike.

Vergil seemed entirely unsurprised; with a flash of the Summoned Swords, the blades of the circular formation flew out in unison, rearranging into a formation once more, but this time, instead of rotating around Vergil, they converged upon Fang Qi's Dante!

"Vergil can actually manipulate a sword formation?!"

Yet at that moment, Proprietor Fang seemed to teleport through midair, descending in an instant to trample toward Vergil.

"Look at Proprietor Fang!"

Controlling Dante like a demon god ruling over the void, Fang stamped down countless times in midair, the phantom blades of his dual ice and fire swords flying as he changed directions in the sky; despite lacking the ability to fly, he remained as agile as a swallow in the air, and within the blink of an eye, Vergil had been struck over a dozen times, causing the circular sword formation to instantly dissipate!

Of course, a dozen slashes could never slay Vergil with his demonic physiology; a shield of blue demonic energy suddenly coalesced around him, and Dante's slashes immediately sounded like steel striking iron!

The figure suddenly vanished, and none could see where Vergil had gone, but within the entire space, a tempest of Judgment Cuts suddenly erupted!

The Judgment Cuts, capable of traversing space, filled the entire demonic portal in an instant; nothing else could be seen around except the flashes of the blade, and even the lightning in the sky paled in comparison!

"A full-screen Judgment Cut?!" Everyone saw that the flashes of the Judgment Cut had completely covered the screen!

Just as Jiang Xuan had said, such a battle was, to everyone, a clash of celestial beings—instantaneous movements and phantom reflections—the entire process yielding barely a glimpse of a human figure save for the moments when blades clashed, not to mention Vergil's strikes, which were fast to a terrifying degree.

Laws? In the face of attacks whose speed approached the absolute limit, most laws were likely a jest, and with Vergil attacking from unknown coordinates, Dante's rudimentary time manipulation was hardly of any use against a Judgment Cut that materialized directly before its target.

Not only did the Judgment Cuts blanket every area, but everyone also discovered that the attacks around Dante followed him like a shadow; let alone dodging, it seemed even teleportation could not evade such an assault!

Clang! Clang! Clang!...

A succession of metallic rings echoed as Proprietor Fang controlled Dante to methodically deflect the onslaught.

After parrying the assault, he casually threw out a taunt.

The audience watched Dante on the grand screen mocking Vergil: "You're actually taunting your brother?!"

"Royal Guard?!"

"Perfect Guard?!"

"What kind of divine execution is this?!"

They felt compelled to watch on bended knees.

Never had they imagined that playing a game could be so incredibly magnificent!

Under Proprietor Fang's manipulation, combined with Dante's increasingly formidable strength at this moment, Vergil clearly began to appear overmatched.

Wounds multiplied across his body, and at this time, the gate connecting the Demon World to the human realm was on the verge of closing.

The battle finally reached its conclusion; Vergil, dragging his wounded frame, resembled an injured wolf king, solitary and proud amidst desolation.

Leaping down from the precipice of the demonic portal, he declined his brother's reaching hand, plunging directly into the abyss.

All conspiracies and ambitions fell along with him into that bottomless chasm of the Demon World.

Leaving behind only their father's legacy—the Force Edge that stored his power and had once sealed the Demon World—Vergil had pursued power all his life, yet he left the object of that lifelong pursuit by Dante's side.

Vergil had once witnessed his mother's death with his own eyes, and thus, lacking power at that time, he yearned for formidable strength throughout his life.

Yet for twin sons, if one could inherit this power, it was already enough.

Perhaps this formidable warlord, who spent his entire life thirsting for power, had always buried this brotherly affection in the deepest recesses of his heart, revealing a mere glimpse of it only at this very moment.

After weathering this battle, the Dante agency, which had not yet been granted a proper name, finally acquired its title: Devil May Cry.

"Ding! Congratulations to the player for clearing Devil May Cry 3. Unlocked character: Vergil. Special chapter 'Vergil's Downfall' is now open, requiring 25 Soul Crystals to activate."

Indeed, upon clearing the game, players could choose to complete the journey once more from Vergil's perspective.

What this truly implied did not register with the crowd of players at first, but the moment they realized, they erupted into pure frenzy!

Did this not mean that Vergil's Judgement Cut, Spiral Swords, and all his other techniques could finally be learned as well?!

As for "Vergil's Downfall," it chronicled Vergil's experiences after falling into the Demon Realm (for demons do not perish so easily), where he encountered his father's ancient nemesis, the newly recovered Emperor of the Demon Realm, fighting to his ultimate downfall with a broken body yet the unyielding pride of a noble demon.

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PS: Classmates who have played it should roughly understand why so much ink was spent describing Vergil earlier; yes, as the secondary protagonist, all of Vergil's techniques can be learned, so I won't spend too much ink introducing them later, as everyone should be familiar with Vergil's moves after reading this.

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