Facing the second Silver Knight charging her way, Nero crouched low, her hands bracing against the ground as she readied to jam her spear into the earth. With a swift flip, she executed a perfect somersault kick, her boot slamming into the tip of the knight's lance. Just like with Credo before, the Silver Knight's thrust was thrown off, its lance forced upward in a useless arc. Unlike Credo, though, this conical lance couldn't switch from a thrust to a downward slash.
At that moment, the third Silver Knight was already barreling toward her. Pinned near the edge of the bridge, Nero had no room to backpedal for breathing space like before. So, she let her long legs trace a flawless circle above her head, delivering a brutal kick to the Silver Knight's gut.
Now, considering Nero was rocking a skirt, this kind of move wasn't exactly… ideal. But thankfully, the Gilgamesh leg armor provided enough coverage to keep things from getting awkward. No harm, no foul.
As for Nero herself? She was already thinking pants might be the smarter choice for future fights. Gilgamesh was probably going back to its owner anyway.
The demon she kicked went flying, crashing right into the third Silver Knight's lance.
The two demons collided in a heap, and Nero used the momentum from her kick to spring backward. Mid-air, she grabbed the grounded lance, pulling off a slick backflip and landing with a stylish flourish.
The third Silver Knight's charge screeched to a halt thanks to the demonic pile-up. It frantically shook off its impaled comrade, launching into the air. But the fourth knight was already closing in.
Nero yanked the lance free from the ground and hurled it at the incoming knight. The projectile hit like a truck, sending the demon crashing in a spectacular wreck.
The third Silver Knight, somehow still kicking despite the gaping hole in its chest, took flight again, aiming to regroup with its two remaining buddies.
Nero wasn't having it. She unleashed Echidna, soaring into the sky alongside it. The two surviving Silver Knights rallied in front of the Golden Knight, raising their weapons and conjuring a swirling black energy orb above their heads.
Oh, hell no. Nero knew that move was bad news. She tugged Echidna's serpentine blade, launching herself upward. She stomped hard on one Silver Knight, sending it crashing to the ground, then used the momentum to rocket toward the Golden Knight, the highest flier of the bunch. A spinning kick wouldn't get enough power without the ground to push off, so Nero opted for a vicious elbow strike, smashing into the Golden Knight's frame.
The Golden Knight went flying, embedding itself into the pristine white wall. The black energy orb, now out of control, plummeted straight down, swallowing the hole-riddled Silver Knight and scorching a massive black crater into the stone tiles.
Before the Golden Knight could recover, Nero whipped out Echidna again, closing in on the last Silver Knight in mid-air. She pummeled its head with a fist, hammering it like a power drill. The knight cratered into the ground, and Nero—rarely using Echidna's sword form—plummeted after it, driving the blade straight through its body. The serpentine weapon tore through the demon's insides, shredding everything in its path.
To yank the blade free, Nero had to widen the gash into a jagged, blackened hole.
Only the Golden Knight remained. After its final ally bit the dust, it pried itself from the wall, landing heavily on the ground. It folded its wings into a shield, striking a pose eerily similar to Credo's. If you ignored how this thing was made, it could've passed for a model knight.
Too bad for it, even Credo couldn't beat Nero. This knockoff didn't stand a chance.
The Golden Knight's sword, just like the Order's knights, began spewing superheated gas. Its body surged forward, propelled by the blade in a long-range slashing charge.
Nero didn't flinch. She lashed Echidna forward, then snapped it back just before it hit its max range. The serpentine blade whipped through a sharp ninety-degree turn, slicing across the Golden Knight's helmet with a shower of sparks.
Echidna had been underperforming in these last two fights. The flexible snake-sword just wasn't built to punch through armored foes, so Nero had been using it more like a grappling hook. This first strike at the helmet wasn't meant to kill—it was to mess with the knight's vision. With Echidna retracted, she couldn't follow up immediately, but that didn't matter. Nero had already vanished from the Golden Knight's line of sight.
She'd jumped. The second the knight's vision was compromised, she vaulted over it, landing behind its back.
Then she swung Echidna again, this time aiming for the Golden Knight's ankle.
The snake-sword arced perfectly, wrapping around the knight's leg. Nero, already braced, yanked hard.
The Golden Knight toppled forward, eating pavement in a glorious faceplant.
As Echidna coiled back, it dragged the knight toward Nero. The demon flipped over, gripping its sword and swinging wildly in a desperate counterattack. When it got close, Nero stomped down, snapping its knee with a sickening crunch. She then whipped Echidna—still tangled around the knight's half-broken leg—and smashed it into the knight's head, binding its sword arm in the process.
That's right—when Echidna couldn't cut through armor, it made one hell of a meteor hammer. Nero hoisted the now-legless, grounded Golden Knight and swung it in a wide arc.
The knight crashed into the bridge, cracking the tightly packed stone tiles in a jagged web.
Then she swung it again, in a different direction.
And again.
After nearly ten brutal slams, Nero finally drove her fist through the knight's helmet, ending the demon's miserable existence.
She stood tall, retracting Echidna and Gilgamesh back into her core. Stretching lazily, she muttered, "Man, not going Devil Trigger makes this a bit of a pain."
Problem solved, though. Nero strode forward, shoving open the heavy iron doors and stepping into the Order's headquarters' antechamber.
Crossing the long hall, she eyed the raised drawbridge on the far side, blocked by crimson demonic vines that kept it from lowering. She sighed, "Why can't I just fly?"
Most of the Order's big shots could fly in their demon forms—makes sense, since they were all about becoming "angels," complete with wings. Dante's Devil Trigger had wings, so he could fly whenever. Vergil? Depended on the plot—sometimes he had wings, sometimes not.
And yet, in the cutscenes, those fancy fliers could barely manage a double jump.
If Nero could go full Devil Trigger, she'd probably have wings too. Too bad that wasn't an option.
So, she turned to Echidna directly. "Hey, can you control those plants over there? Maybe make 'em grow into a bridge or something."