After catching their breathes they Stepped onto the magic circle on the floor and proceeded to the next area.
The portal reappears back in the top level of the guard rooms, and this time the portal on the right is active.
Dante didn't think twice before Jumping through the portal with Naruto in tow.
Naruto frowned when the portal they passed through teleported them into a cell in a submerged prison area.
He had unknowingly inhaled a small amount of water.
'There should be a heads up for this kind of situation!'
Naruto cursed inwardly when he saw Dante casting him a side glance without saying anything but the expression on his face was pretty much mocking him.
Dante gestured for him to follow before swimming away.
Naruto wanted to say something but because he didn't have the ability to talk underwater he could only begrudgingly follow dante through the hole in the wall to their left leading to another cell. This cell was identical with the one they left with bent-open bars which they swim through leading into the hallway.
They spent sometime swimming around the underwater prison without encountering any demons before eventually finding a path that leads to a large square underwater chamber where they were suddenly jumped by three sin scissors.
'Shit!' Naruto narrowly avoided a scissor that was aimed at his head. He dodged the follow up attack before swimming backwards away from the sin scissors. Since he was powerless underwater all he could do was dodge the attacks aimed at him while Dante dealt the sin scissors using the needle gun.
'I should really find a way to counter my underwater situations' An unpleasant look appeared on Naruto's face after dodging a fatal strike from a sin scissors. The sin scissors seeing that it missed it intended target moved in for a second attack but Dante stopped it in it tracks with a needle gun to the head.
Once all the sin were defeated, a section of the wall between the two horse statues in the chamber slid open displaying a new path way for them to follow.
Naruto and Dante exchanged looks when they saw the new path open before swimming towards it. Immediately they swim through it rather than water Naruto felt cold wind hit his face as he landed on solid ground with a stunned look
"What the?" Naruto looked back at the opening they passed through with shock. Unbelieving, he reached his right hand out the opening and when he pulled it back it was wet.
"It must have been a portal" Dante theorized after witnessing this. It was a first for him too though no matter how surprising it was it still couldn't beat some of the crazy things he had seen.
Naruto nodded. After all, this wasn't the most shocking thing he had seen all day. This demon castle seemed to be intent on completely shattering his rational way of thinking.
"Come on. There's a door ahead"
Hm
They walked through the door at the end of the narrow path only to appear inside of a castle tower with a wheel device. the wall at the end of the room.
"Is it me or does this castle look familiar?"
"Looks like we are back in the castle or maybe alternate version of the castle"
Naruto turned to look incredulously at Dante who had a nonchalant look on his face and said, "You don't seem surprised"
"Of course. You'll witness a lot of things when you've been in this line of work for as long as I have." After all, the demons used to pull him into an alternate dimension a lot when he was a teenager, so he was familiar with this sort of things.
"Is that so?"
"Alright. Let's not dwindle"
Dante walked towards the wheel device at the other end and began a merciless perform deadly combo on it with Alastor. The symbols on the wheel device lights up in after the other. When the last symbol on the wheel lit up water suddenly pushed into the room from nowhere flooding the tower floor-to-ceiling.
'Water again!' Naruto nearly lost it when he found submerged under water with warning for a second time
Dante however wasn't paying him any attention as he sensed a presence somewhere at the top of the building. He had sensed it when they first entered the building but he ignored it. However the presence was stronger now. Not wasting any time Dante quickly swim to the ceiling toward the source.
Dante walked towards the wheel device at the other end and began a merciless perform deadly combo on it with Alastor. The symbols on the wheel device lights up in after the other. When the last symbol on the wheel lit up water suddenly pushed into the room from nowhere flooding the tower floor-to-ceiling.
Naruto wanted to call out when Dante swimming upward all of a sudden, but alas he didn't have the ability to talk under water so he could only hurriedly swim after him.
'Slow down you crazy bastard' Naruto cursed at Dante who was ahead of him. No matter how how he swim he still couldn't close the gap between them.
He had only made it halfway up the tower when the water suddenly disappeared just as it had appeared leaving him airborne.
'Oh shit'
Naruto's heart skipped a beat when he slowly started to fall back down to the ground but his quick thinking saved him as he grabbed onto the railing on the last floor and pulled himself over the railing.
'Shit. I swear if Dante pulls anymore of those stunts again I will kill him!' Naruto gritted his teeth as he glared at the back of Dante's head ready to put a bullet through it. However, when he saw the golden egg on the pedestal his anger was snuffed out.
"Wait, is that a golden egg?" Naruto stammered as he gaze upon the philosopher's egg. There is a saying that finding a golden egg means that you are set for life. Thinking of this he smiled happily as stared hopefully at Dante's back.
"Dante, I think maybe we can...
"-No we are not going to sell it" Dante quickly cut him off with a deadpan look before he could complete his sentence. After all, he could understand how the kid brain works. Whenever it comes to money he acts more like lady than anything else. Which is scary.
Before Naruto could retort the philosopher's egg on the pedestal suddenly vanished from his eyes, which signifies that it had entered Dante's pocket dimension.
"Why?"
Dante nearly slapped his forehead when he heard that. Somethings he feels like he raised a money grubber. Resisting the urge to tear him a new one Dante said.
"Because we probably won't get the chance to leave this place with the egg anyway. So what's the point"
Naruto sighed in defeat. He had already guessed that but he was still reluctant to part with the golden egg.
Demons really don't do anything for free, do they?
"And here I thought this one was gonna be different"
Dante smirked when he saw the long look Naruto was pulling. How could he blame him, he had also thought of the same thing when he was younger.
However he did find out one important detail. It's not that you can't take anything. It just a matter of what you are taking.
As much as he wanted to say those words he knew that he would just be asking for trouble. Who knows what else lady might have secretly taught him. With that in mind, he decided to keep his mouth shut.
"Don't dwell on it. Who knows, your luck might shine through" Dante's comment caused Naruto to sigh again before he suddenly remembered something important and turned to Dante, saying.
"By the way Dante, what was that sword that appeared when those two amulets combined with force edge?"
"You mean this sword?" Dante asked as the demon sword sparda appeared in his hands. Now that Naruto got a better look at the sword he was completely shocked by it demonic look and the power it gave off.
The Devil Sword Sparda keeps the grip and crossguard from force edge, but the spike on the skulls is split in half, with the frontward, more elaborate half forming a small blade that curves around the bottom of Sparda's blade. Force Edge's blade is replaced with a spine-like structure attached to two curved blades via an organic looking substance. Together the blades form one long blade. The top portion has a large glowing red gem-like object in the center. The other side has two significantly smaller gems, glowing orange and pink.
Dante twirled the sparda with a smile saying. "This old thing belongs to my old man. It was once used to separate the human world and the demon world and is said to contain the power of sparda himself"
"The power of sparda itself!" Naruto exclaimed in shock. According to what Dante had told him before, sparda was said to be the most powerful demon ever created rivaling the demon king Mundus in power. If this sword contains even a portion of that power then just how powerful will the sword itself be.
Dante nodded with a small smile, saying."Yeah. It wasn't long after I stopped a crazy dude from stealing that same power that I met you in that alley"
Naruto smiled fondly as memories of that night resurfaced. The night when his entire world changed for the better.
"I guess it must be fate we met then"
"Yeah you can say that" Dante shrugged nonchalantly as he stored sparda back in his pocket dimension however he had a small smile on his face unbeknownst to Naruto.
"Well enough of that. We've still got a job to do" He reminded Naruto before jumping over the railing down to the floor below.
Naruto didn't waste anytime either, quickly jumping after him. By the time he landed Dante had already walked through the door. Walking through the door Naruto appeared in the fountain courtyard from before.
'The fountain courtyard is here'
Like the tall tower, the fountain courtyard is mirrored and altered. The courtyard was dark but the burning torches on the pillars barely light up the courtyard.
The fountain was no longer present. The presence of the restraining circles on the floor and wheel devices on the walls left little doubt as to what is waiting for them here.
Dante stood a few steps in front of him but Naruto ignored him in favor of glaring at the magic circle on the ground. "I don't like this"
"Neither do I" Dante shook his head before walking up to the device in the alcove where the Lion statue was before. But contrary to what he said he had an excited smile on his face. After all, the nightmare was the only demon so far that could be considered a challenge. After reading the words written on the alcove he realized that this was where the philosopher's egg was supposed to go.
"Sorry kid" Dante whispered before placing the philosopher's egg on the alcove and watched as it slowly start to heat it.
After a few seconds a soft sloshing sound echoed around the courtyard.
'So it begins' Naruto turned around to look at the small magic circle that had appeared in the middle of the courtyard. His eyes stared fixedly at the nightmare slowly emerging from the magic circle.
"I don't need you to tell me that." Naruto tightened his grip on purgatory's handle as he watched with batted breathe at the emerging form of nightmare. Immediately the nightmare fully emerged all hell broke loose. Naruto was still recovering his demonic chakra so he couldn't use his cloak form. He had to rely on his quick reflexes and fast thinking to dodge the nightmare's deadly attack while also attacking. However Dante had no problem at all fighting the nightmare in a one on one battle talk less of a two on one.
Purgatory and Alastor ditched out one combo after another. The two weapons were like meat grinders. Dante used the grenade launcher from time to time to attack the nightmare whenever it exposed it core. It was only after a long winded battle that they managed to defeat the nightmare. The fight took a huge toil on him since he couldn't use his demonic chakra at the moment. However throughout the battle Dante ha never once used The Demon sword Sparda.
Since his arrival in this castle, Naruto could proudly say that the nightmare was the most frightening demon he had fought. Even the phantom paled in comparison.
Naruto looked at his own fist and frowned. The power he had now was still not enough. If it wasn't for Dante fighting along side him he doubted that he could have defeated the nightmare on his own.
A light tap on his shoulder snapped him out of his thoughts. He looked up to see Dante standing before him with Alastor on his shoulder.
"You okay kid"
Naruto shook his head before saying with a small smile on his face. "Yeah. Why do you ask?"
"Because you had that whole "I am powerless and I hate myself for it look" on your face again"
"That's not it!" Naruto unconsciously blurted out but Dante merely shrugged not asking further but inwardly he was concerned. "If you say so. Come on, we have no time to lose"
"Okay"
'You really remind me a lot of Vergil. I just hope you don't end up like him'
Dante cast a concerned look at Naruto before heading towards the teleportation seal in the middle of the room.
Clang
Naruto was about to walk out of the room when he heard something hit the ground. He turned towards the sound to see an ethereal blue object with pointed sides on the ground next to the alcove.
His curiosity got the best of him so he went and pick it up to get a better look at it.
"Kid, you coming?"
"Coming" Naruto pockets the elixir before running after Dante.
The two of them stepped onto the seal which teleports them back to the seal in the guard rooms.
"It's this place again. Is it like a check point or something?" Naruto glanced around the room trying to find what made it so special. After all, they have been to this same spot more than three times.
"If we keep coming back here it must mean that this old castle still holds a lot of secrets."
"I just hope it's not the demons playing a trick on us" Naruto grumbled.