As he spoke, the white-haired uncle exaggeratedly sniffed the air in front of Luca, as if he could actually smell something.
Even though the man's demeanor was carefree and completely devoid of hostility, Luca stiffened. He took a half-step back, and then...
He obediently raised both hands high in the classic surrender pose.
"Uh, well... Lord Dante, I'm just an ordinary, powerless researcher. I haven't participated in any evil plans, nor do I worship any cults."
"If you're looking to fight evil, well..."
Luca didn't even lower his hands; he just curled a finger to point toward the cathedral behind him.
"...The Pope, the high-ranking officials of the Order—they're all over there holding an event today. Why don't you go check that out?"
Looking at the kid sweating bullets in front of him, the middle-aged white-haired man—Dante—stopped sniffing. His eyes twinkled with amusement as he asked casually.
"Oh? You actually know who I am?"
Hearing this, Luca fought the urge to twitch his lip and nodded awkwardly.
Although he was no longer a high-ranking member of the Order, he certainly knew who this man was.
Dante. Son of the legendary Dark Knight Sparda. The legendary Devil Hunter. The badass who fought his way through Hell alone and slew countless Demon Lords.
Luca didn't know him because he was a devout believer who knew what Sparda's son looked like.
In reality, the Order's higher-ups had originally planned to capture Dante, intending to use his Sparda bloodline to power the "Savior"—a colossal artificial demon—to achieve their so-called "Salvation Plan."
However, those higher-ups were terrified of Dante's terrifying combat prowess.
So, the plan shifted from "forceful capture" to "entrapment," and finally to "talking about capturing him but never actually doing anything."
Against a legendary Devil Hunter who could single-handedly deter the entire arrogance of the Order's idiot leadership, a small fry like Luca obviously didn't want to provoke him.
Fortunately, sensing the overwhelming "I'm a coward, please don't hit me" aura radiating from Luca, Dante didn't give him a hard time.
He just smiled, stepped forward, patted Luca on the shoulder, and left a parting remark.
"True, you don't have the stench of a demon. But kid, Pandora isn't a toy."
As soon as he finished speaking, Luca felt a gust of wind.
When he turned around, he saw the red-coated figure leaping back onto the rooftops, continuing toward the cathedral.
Only when Dante was completely gone did Luca, who still had his hands raised, finally let out a sigh of relief and lower his arms.
"I knew those guys' messing around would bring trouble to our doorstep eventually!"
"Careless. I should have brought Zero Haro with me!"
After saying this, Luca paused, then shook his head with a bitter smile.
"Against a monster like that, Zero Haro probably wouldn't last more than a few hits anyway..."
"Whatever. I'm just a researcher. Why am I worrying about this?"
Pushing those thoughts aside, Luca clasped his hands behind his head again, hummed a little tune, and leisurely walked back toward his workshop.
---
RUMBLE...
A massive vibration echoed through the heavens and earth. The roaring of demons outside and the continuous fire of the automated turrets were temporarily drowned out by this deafening noise.
Even inside Luca's workshop, the intense tremors caused everything to shake slightly.
His hand slipped, and the carving knife he was holding gouged the demonic machine gun part he was working on, ruining it instantly.
Luca rolled his eyes, tossed the knife and the scrapped part onto the workbench, and walked to the window with a look of utter helplessness.
"Seriously? They're still fighting?"
He peered out through the observation slit in the window shutters.
Ignoring the Scarecrow demons that were shambling toward his workshop only to be shredded by his defensive perimeter, his gaze locked onto the scene in the distance.
Floating in the sky was a colossal, holy statue towering hundreds of meters high.
And from the giant monolith in Fortuna, a demon army was pouring out like a tidal wave.
For real? The old man actually activated the Savior statue? Dante, are you slacking off or what?!
But then a thought struck him, and Luca started to doubt.
"With Dante's strength, surely he wouldn't be caught by that old geezer to serve as the Savior's core, right? But the necessary Sparda bloodline...?"
An image of a certain white-haired kid who had recently sprouted a demon arm flashed through his mind.
...Don't tell me that idiot Nero got caught and turned into a battery?
Sigh... should I go help?
Thinking of his childhood friend, Luca rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on.
"That stupid kid has all that strength, but didn't know to grab Kyrie and run while he had the chance!"
Resigned, Luca turned to the "wardrobe" in the corner. He tapped a rhythm on it, then entered a password on the panel that popped up.
Beep-beep.
The cabinet doors slid open.
Standing inside was a pure white mecha, nearly two meters tall.
Calling it a "mecha" wasn't quite accurate.
Its design resembled the heavy plate armor of a medieval knight. While it had a distinct mechanical style, the key external components featured muscle-like textures that looked biologically engineered.
It was a fusion of classical and sci-fi, mechanism and biotechnology. It possessed an angelic holiness, yet vaguely revealed a ferocity that belonged only to demons.
If one had to compare, this mecha looked seventy or eighty percent similar to the "Bianco Angelos"—the Silver Knights who called themselves angels after undergoing the Ascension Ceremony.
This was Luca's trump card.
A bio-mechanical battle armor that had successfully undergone the Ascension Ceremony.
"I didn't dare undergo that modification ritual with its ninety percent death rate myself, but in this world, you can't survive without some firepower up your sleeve."
Luca's lips curled into a slight smile. He placed his palm on the chest of the bio-mecha and whispered.
"Zero Haro, activate!"
As the words fell, the bio-armor dissolved into countless scattering particles of light, rapidly covering Luca's entire body.
In the blink of an eye, the suit was fully equipped.
Yes, originally Luca had planned to build a piloted mecha. But during the manufacturing process, a miserable image had popped into his head: the mecha flying through the sky while carrying him in its arms, leaving him exposed to the biting wind. So, he decided to spend extra effort miniaturizing the structure and converting it into a wearable suit.
He clenched his fist slightly, feeling the violent power surging from within.
The visor of the bio-armor glinted, and a slightly distorted, raspy voice came from within.
"Let's go, Haro. Time to see if our little brother Nero can still be saved!"
---