BlueDevil
Super Penguin Number 2
The Prologue
It's been a long damn time since I've done this...or anything really. I haven't held this sword...carried this gun...smelled a demon...anything since Fortuna went half way to hell and back. I've just been with Kyrie. That's been enough for me. Until about a month ago anyway.
This damn arm...I'm never going to be able to tell if it's a curse or a blessing. I just know that it's annoying, especially now that more of my body seems to be...morphing into whatever my arm has become. It's reached my shoulder blade and the tip of my neck. Let me tell ya...that's not fun. Especially when it comes to some of the stuck up snobs back at Fortuna. They look at me like I'm the plague or something.
But that's why I'm here now. I'm going to find out why this has happened to me. I mean...it's a permanent feature. Dante doesn't have to go through this crap, and I know damn well he's probably been beat and cut to hell way more than me.
Yup. This...weird ass demon-puberty or whatever...it's exclusive to me. At least it doesn't make my voice crack...
The clouds were dense and gray. The ground was covered in a thick blanket of snow, and more of the tiny, white puffs were falling from the sky. Every breath of Nero's left a small cloud in the air that soon faded away, vanishing in thin air. Nero's throat was chilled, and even his body could barely resist the cool of the night. He kept his hood pulled over his head, trying to at least make sure his ears wouldn't freeze off.
"Damn it's cold." Nero muttered to himself.
The surrounding trees all lightly danced as wind picked up and sifted through all of the iced branches. Nero wondered why anyone...or anything would want to be in as remote of a place as this. It was so isolated. Nero hadn't even heard of the Forest's name before. The Woods of Temptation. What a name, Nero thought.
However, he had struck the jackpot, as the eerie red glow illuminating the darkness a ways off could only be one thing. Nero had been tracking a cult down in these woods for the past day and a half, and from the looks of things, he'd finally found them. Why, exactly, he was tracking them down, he had no clue. They had something to do with the answer to his arm, or so he was told by some crazy ass kook back in one of Fortuna's neighbouring, island towns.
Nero normally wouldn't have trusted some filthy, old guy to tell him something important after only talking for five minutes, but it was simply a risk he had to take...just in case. If this was all just a crock of crap, Nero could always go back and give the old guy a good throttling around the neck.
After staring at the glow for a long minute, Nero slowly lifted his foot, taking a soft step into the snow. The ground crunched under his foot, as it did with every step after that, until Nero could finally see a small camp of sorts from behind a few of the thin trees. He hid down low behind a fallen tree trunk and watched the camp site. The glow was coming from inside one of the wooden buildings.
There were about four buildings total. One of them was a pretty large stone structure with two windows. Outside, placed in the centre of the tiny community, was a crackling fire, surrounded by piles of rotting meat and bone. No sooner did Nero lay eyes on the massive heaps of flesh, the smell hit his nostrils with such force, it was an epic battle to simply not even fall back on his ass.
Nero won though, his spine shivering from the aftermath of the smell drifting over to him. He continued looking around, and finally, someone...someone?...yeah, someone came out of one of the buildings. They were nude. Completely. And it was a large male. Nero raised a brow, "Uhm...okaaay."
Soon after the man emerged, dozens more people started trickling out of the buildings, and then, from the stone structure came a small group of three people carrying a young woman who was tied to a pole. Most everyone was nude, just like the first guy. Looking closer, Nero saw that some of the people, both men and women, had began to grow other appendages on their bodies. Some even had two faces, or an odd amount of facial features. One guy even had a maw in his chest. Finally, the biggest mutant of them all stepped up, at least eight feet in height. And that was one big ass knife he had too.
Shouting something incomprehensible, at least to Nero, that big guy motioned for the other three to bring the girl over next to the fire. She was squirming against the pole, a muffled scream escaping from behind the cloth gag shoved in her mouth. The three men lifted the pole up and stabbed the tip of it into the ground, and then joined the rest of the crows as the bigger one waltzed over to the damsel. He began muttering some kind of nonsense, staring back and forth between the crowd of heathens and the young girl, gently sliding the tip of the knife down her exposed belly.
Nero stared back at the crowd. They all seemed to be dancing. Then some of them started falling over as a light, blue haze began to drift through the air. Many of the freaks started moaning, some babbled. Others flailed about in fairly angry manners. Others cackled maniacally while some squirmed and slithered against each other like snakes on the ground.
Nero even saw several of the women commence to murdering one of the men in an extremely violent way, literally tearing him limb from limb like savage beasts. He seemed to be enjoying it though, a sick look of pleasure swallowing his face as he was plunged into the ever growing fire.
Nero had no idea what was going on, but he definitely didn't want to watch any more of it. Besides, the thought of saving a young girl was appealing to him. He'd done it before. Why not again? After all, he really didn't want to see some innocent, defenceless person get turned into a pile of meat on the ground.
It's been a long damn time since I've done this...or anything really. I haven't held this sword...carried this gun...smelled a demon...anything since Fortuna went half way to hell and back. I've just been with Kyrie. That's been enough for me. Until about a month ago anyway.
This damn arm...I'm never going to be able to tell if it's a curse or a blessing. I just know that it's annoying, especially now that more of my body seems to be...morphing into whatever my arm has become. It's reached my shoulder blade and the tip of my neck. Let me tell ya...that's not fun. Especially when it comes to some of the stuck up snobs back at Fortuna. They look at me like I'm the plague or something.
But that's why I'm here now. I'm going to find out why this has happened to me. I mean...it's a permanent feature. Dante doesn't have to go through this crap, and I know damn well he's probably been beat and cut to hell way more than me.
Yup. This...weird ass demon-puberty or whatever...it's exclusive to me. At least it doesn't make my voice crack...
The clouds were dense and gray. The ground was covered in a thick blanket of snow, and more of the tiny, white puffs were falling from the sky. Every breath of Nero's left a small cloud in the air that soon faded away, vanishing in thin air. Nero's throat was chilled, and even his body could barely resist the cool of the night. He kept his hood pulled over his head, trying to at least make sure his ears wouldn't freeze off.
"Damn it's cold." Nero muttered to himself.
The surrounding trees all lightly danced as wind picked up and sifted through all of the iced branches. Nero wondered why anyone...or anything would want to be in as remote of a place as this. It was so isolated. Nero hadn't even heard of the Forest's name before. The Woods of Temptation. What a name, Nero thought.
However, he had struck the jackpot, as the eerie red glow illuminating the darkness a ways off could only be one thing. Nero had been tracking a cult down in these woods for the past day and a half, and from the looks of things, he'd finally found them. Why, exactly, he was tracking them down, he had no clue. They had something to do with the answer to his arm, or so he was told by some crazy ass kook back in one of Fortuna's neighbouring, island towns.
Nero normally wouldn't have trusted some filthy, old guy to tell him something important after only talking for five minutes, but it was simply a risk he had to take...just in case. If this was all just a crock of crap, Nero could always go back and give the old guy a good throttling around the neck.
After staring at the glow for a long minute, Nero slowly lifted his foot, taking a soft step into the snow. The ground crunched under his foot, as it did with every step after that, until Nero could finally see a small camp of sorts from behind a few of the thin trees. He hid down low behind a fallen tree trunk and watched the camp site. The glow was coming from inside one of the wooden buildings.
There were about four buildings total. One of them was a pretty large stone structure with two windows. Outside, placed in the centre of the tiny community, was a crackling fire, surrounded by piles of rotting meat and bone. No sooner did Nero lay eyes on the massive heaps of flesh, the smell hit his nostrils with such force, it was an epic battle to simply not even fall back on his ass.
Nero won though, his spine shivering from the aftermath of the smell drifting over to him. He continued looking around, and finally, someone...someone?...yeah, someone came out of one of the buildings. They were nude. Completely. And it was a large male. Nero raised a brow, "Uhm...okaaay."
Soon after the man emerged, dozens more people started trickling out of the buildings, and then, from the stone structure came a small group of three people carrying a young woman who was tied to a pole. Most everyone was nude, just like the first guy. Looking closer, Nero saw that some of the people, both men and women, had began to grow other appendages on their bodies. Some even had two faces, or an odd amount of facial features. One guy even had a maw in his chest. Finally, the biggest mutant of them all stepped up, at least eight feet in height. And that was one big ass knife he had too.
Shouting something incomprehensible, at least to Nero, that big guy motioned for the other three to bring the girl over next to the fire. She was squirming against the pole, a muffled scream escaping from behind the cloth gag shoved in her mouth. The three men lifted the pole up and stabbed the tip of it into the ground, and then joined the rest of the crows as the bigger one waltzed over to the damsel. He began muttering some kind of nonsense, staring back and forth between the crowd of heathens and the young girl, gently sliding the tip of the knife down her exposed belly.
Nero stared back at the crowd. They all seemed to be dancing. Then some of them started falling over as a light, blue haze began to drift through the air. Many of the freaks started moaning, some babbled. Others flailed about in fairly angry manners. Others cackled maniacally while some squirmed and slithered against each other like snakes on the ground.
Nero even saw several of the women commence to murdering one of the men in an extremely violent way, literally tearing him limb from limb like savage beasts. He seemed to be enjoying it though, a sick look of pleasure swallowing his face as he was plunged into the ever growing fire.
Nero had no idea what was going on, but he definitely didn't want to watch any more of it. Besides, the thought of saving a young girl was appealing to him. He'd done it before. Why not again? After all, he really didn't want to see some innocent, defenceless person get turned into a pile of meat on the ground.
