Nero sprinted through the barren garden, past the dried-up pond, dodging demons lunging from behind and firing back with her dwindling bullets. The demons were thinning out, but so was her ammo.
The parasitic flowers latched onto animals moved way faster than the scarecrows, fast enough to keep up with Nero's sprint. That speed came at a cost, shredding their already long-dead hosts. They'd hit their limit soon, so as long as Nero kept this up, she could take them all down.
Another flower demon lashed its tendrils at her—the fifth one to catch up. Nero hit a button on her grip, ejecting the empty magazine, and leaped to dodge its charge.
But just like when she faced Mephisto, the problem was the same: her bullets were burning out too fast.
From the moment the screeching started, in less than a minute, Nero had already blown through two full magazines. She'd started with just fifty-one rounds, and now nearly half were gone. The enemies weren't even finished yet—would she have enough to make it to the church headquarters?
Nero yanked out a fresh magazine, slammed it into her right gun, and fired two shots at the demon below. After landing, she pulled another clip from her thigh and reloaded her left gun.
No choice, though—the enemies kept coming. If they wouldn't back off, Nero had to keep shooting.
Another demon caught up. This time, Nero used a wall for a running leap, twisting mid-air to take out multiple enemies at once and buy herself some breathing room.
One, two, three, four.
She calmly counted the closest enemies, firing at their weak points.
Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.
Six shots rang out, and three demons dropped. As Nero neared the ground, she swung her arm, ready to aim at the fourth.
Then, bad news hit—worse than running out of bullets.
The sound of snapping branches and crunching leaves closed in, but Nero, caught up in the gunfire, didn't notice. Not until her heart jolted.
In that instant, the enemy stopped hiding. It flattened a swath of trees and launched into the air, appearing right at Nero's side.
A massive serpent, over ten meters long, thicker than a person, covered in azure scales.
This was Echidna, the demon lord ruling this forest. She'd noticed Nero's fight and followed the sound of gunfire to the scene.
Before Nero could turn, a colossal force slammed into her, sending her tumbling across the ground. The remaining parasitic flowers swarmed in, ready to kick her while she was down.
"Damn it!"
Nero snapped her head up, cursing under her breath. She raised her guns and unloaded all eight remaining bullets—not to kill, but to force the demons back.
Ammo gone, Nero didn't look back. She bolted, not along the path, but into the forest, chasing the snake's tail.
Since she'd been spotted, sticking to the road would only give Echidna more chances to ambush her. Better to take the fight to the demon.
The giant serpent, weaving through the trees, noticed Nero's pursuit. Echidna, originally planning to circle back, shifted her course, leading Nero toward a specific destination.
Things got worse. Echidna wasn't just fleeing—she was awakening dormant seeds along the way. Parasitic flowers burst from their shells, launching surprise attacks on Nero.
At the same time, Echidna kept dropping new seeds, lobbing them like cannonballs to shrink Nero's dodging space.
After swapping out her empty magazines, Nero was down to her last twelve bullets. Those wouldn't even be enough for the demons she'd pushed back, let alone anything else. Darting through the forest, following the snake's trail, dodging seed bombs, and leaping over broken trees, Nero fired a single shot to repel any demon that got too close. By the time Echidna finally stopped—
Nero had no bullets left.
The demon lord halted in the center of a plaza, in front of a massive black stone monument. Her hissing serpent head locked onto Nero, then bloomed like a flower, revealing the upper body of what looked like a human woman.
The demon shrieked in a piercing voice, "Filthy human! It's time you paid for my children's lives!"
With her ammo gone, Nero felt oddly lighter. The worst-case scenario was here. If she couldn't awaken Yamato, she wasn't leaving this forest alive. Bullets? Didn't matter anymore.
Light and Shadow had done their job, getting her face-to-face with a demon lord.
So, in front of the enraged demon, Nero gracefully curtsied, skirt lifted in a perfect gesture. She had Credo and Kyrie to thank for that—they'd drilled years of etiquette into a scrappy orphanage tomboy, turning her into a proper lady.
At least on the surface.
Her actions were polite, but her mouth was anything but. "Your kids deserved to die, and so do you, demon lady."
"Save that nonsense for hell!"
Echidna hurled a barrage of seed bombs. Nero dodged with nimble steps, her heart pounding fiercely.
Yamato still hadn't awakened.
Seeing her attack miss, Echidna let out another roar. She spun, kicking up a cloud of dirt, then charged at Nero, only to slam to a stop. Her tail whipped out like a lash, packing all her strength.
A move like that was no threat to Nero head-on. She leaped sideways, grabbed the top of an archway at the entrance, and flipped onto it.
Echidna's tail whip shattered two stone pillars into rubble. She paused, thinking, then roared again, "Once I smash everything, let's see where you hide!"
She wasn't wrong—without cover, Nero wouldn't last long. But Nero wasn't listening. She was diving deep into her mind, searching for how to awaken Yamato.
Awakened or not, repaired or not—what was missing?
Time? That was a death sentence. Nero had no way to make up for the month needed to fully awaken her bloodline.
Will? She'd sound cocky saying it, but Nero knew she had that in spades. Her drive to save others was second to none.
It couldn't be gender, could it? Did Yamato only pass to men? That'd be absurd. What year was it, still stuck on patriarchal nonsense? Even as a Sparda, Nero would throw hands over that.
Amid her silent thoughts and the heavy crashes of breaking stone, a figure flashed through Nero's mind.