DMC: Being a demon hunter in Japan is not easy

"Figured it wouldn't be that easy…"

He turned around as he felt an overwhelming surge of demonic energy—so immense it was impossible to ignore.

With an ironic smile, Desmon narrowed his eyes at the sudden explosion of black smoke engulfing the entire area.

Just as he was about to leave, the scattered fragments in the air converged once more, expanding before detonating with the force of a massive bomb.

"Feels like home… I guess it's because Dante's place is always dark."

In the blink of an eye, everything around him was swallowed by darkness, as if the smoke had consumed him entirely.

-Lost my sight… how annoying. Tch.

The air had thickened, making visibility impossible—he couldn't even see his own hands. To Desmon, it was as if he had suddenly gone completely blind.

"THIS… IS MY DOMAIN… YOU… WON'T… ESCAPE!!!"

A deep, terrifying voice echoed from all directions.

"If you can talk, this might be more interesting." Desmon stretched, preparing for round two. "So, what's your name, strange mass of smoke…? Wait, does smoke even have mass?" He pondered for a moment.

This creature was once a yōkai, known as Enenra, but that name was now nothing more than a whisper of the past.

"KAGENRA!!!"

The name was roared with such fury and intensity that even the surrounding darkness seemed to tremble.

The monstrous entity that had trapped Desmon was a demon born of smoke and shadow—a nightmare of ash and ember.

Its body, an amalgamation of volcanic rock and hellfire.

Its face, a demonic mask fused with its very flesh, glowing with an eerie crimson light, as if its soul itself burned with unrelenting hatred. Blazing eyes pierced through the void, witnesses to countless victims consumed by its smoke.

Its grotesquely muscular limbs ended in razor-sharp claws, primed to tear through a single, unfortunate target.

The tattered remnants of clothing still clinging to its form were nothing more than relics of a past existence, now devoured by decay and flame.

Kagenra was the embodiment of terror—a demon forged from chaos, advancing inexorably, consuming everything in its path in a vortex of destruction and despair.

A being this terrifying, this destructive, had but one mission: to exterminate the demon hunter.

But was it really necessary to go through so much trouble to kill Desmon?

Wouldn't it have been more practical for the demon that imprisoned Enenra to finish him off instead?

Unfortunately, in any scenario, if they fought, the young demon hunter would emerge victorious.

He may be an idiot, but he should never be underestimated. After all, he's a demon too.

…Though, the longer this drags on, there's no guarantee that outcome will remain the same.

The most terrifying thing about demons is that, given time, they only grow stronger.

"A great name. Mine's Desmon. Pretty common, not as fancy, but it's what I got." He spoke into the darkness, unable to pinpoint exactly where his opponent was.

"DIE!!!"

From the ground, hundreds of spikes erupted in an instant. Desmon only managed to react when he felt them stab into his feet, leaping away as quickly as possible.

"It's too dark to see your attacks!" He complained. "Stupid smoke demon, come fight like a man… wait, but you're a demon… does that even apply?" He tilted his head.

"DIE!!!"

Still midair, Desmon was suddenly paralyzed—as if the surrounding smoke had condensed around him, trapping him in place. Then, it began to constrict, squeezing with such force that his bones started to buckle under the pressure.

-Didn't… see that coming…

That's when Desmon realized—everything around him was a weapon the demon could wield at will. And worst of all, he still hadn't even seen his opponent… Not that he could see anything right now.

-Tch… bastard…

A sickening crack echoed as his bones fractured under the relentless force. Blood leaked from his mouth, ears, and eyes, his organs crushed by his own broken ribs, triggering massive internal hemorrhaging.

Yet, his immense regenerative ability ensured that even as his body was torn apart, it rapidly healed at an unnatural speed.

But at this rate, he was trapped in an endless loop of destruction and regeneration.

It was only a matter of time before the damage outpaced his healing… and he was crushed like an insect.

Desmon isn't immortal—he can heal quickly, but if pushed to the limit, he's nothing more than an ordinary human...

-I've had enough of this...

Desmon isn't foolish enough to let the situation drag on until his inevitable death..

"Let's play... by my rules!" He said with a sinister grin.

Demonic energy surged through Desmon's body, resisting the immense pressure weighing him down. After a few more seconds, he managed to shatter the strange force restraining him on his own.

Who says brute force isn't the answer to overcoming the impossible?

"Well, I can't play with you—you're more dangerous than I thought." This time, his expression turned serious.

-Kurox.

With an idea on how to deal with the demon, Desmon attempted to summon his Devil Arm, but all it did was slightly distort the space around him—nothing more.

-Can a motorcycle even get pissed off?

Maybe Kurox was still holding a grudge for being thrown like that.

-...That was my only plan.

He was deep in enemy territory. Everything around him was a potential threat, and he was completely alone. No matter how he looked at it, the odds weren't in his favor.

"DIE!"

"Is that the only thing you know how to say?"

Desmon shut his eyes to focus. In an instant, he rolled to the side, followed by a backflip, then leaped away.

Inside the thick smoke, he couldn't see or hear the incoming attacks. Instead, he relied solely on his instincts to survive.

And thanks to that, he dodged the smoke prisons that formed exactly where he had just been. All of this happened in a fraction of a second.

-That was close.

When deprived of one sense, the others sharpen. In Desmon's case, his ability to sense demonic energy heightened.

The most terrifying thing about Desmon... is his ability to adapt.

"ALL YOU DO IS RUN!"

"I think I speak better Japanese than you." He raised an eyebrow as he twisted in midair and landed.

Before he could ask the judges for his landing score, he instantly propelled himself backward, covering a great distance in the blink of an eye. Mid-motion, he flipped, using his hands to launch himself higher into the air. Once airborne, he kicked at the smoke, using it as a platform to gain more ground.

The demon's attacks took mere fractions of a second to form, but because Desmon could sense them, he dodged at the exact moment they manifested—something he wouldn't have been able to do if the demon had attacked like this from the start.

But dodging meant nothing. He was just delaying the inevitable. If he didn't find a way out, it was only a matter of time before he was finished.

-I'll have to take my chances.

With no other choice, he ran at full speed, weaving through the onslaught of attacks. It wasn't easy when everything around him was trying to kill him.

Rolling sideways, leaping high into the air, even dodging like he was up against the final boss of a certain game—he did everything he could to buy time.

-That thing has to be somewhere...

He focused on sensing Kagenra's presence.

After all, the only way out of this place was to find the demon and take it down.

Of course, that plan would be useless if, say, Kagenra had fused with the very space around them—making it practically immortal. But that was impossible... right?

As Desmon sprinted through the darkness, he suddenly froze.

"You've gotta be kidding me..."

After running through this abyss for minutes, he finally realized—this wasn't just the demon's domain.

It was the demon.

"Son of a bitch, who gave you the right to keep me inside you? At least take me out for dinner first!" He complained, sounding like a girl offended on a first date.

"DIE!"

"Not happening, you damn smoke demon!" He snarled.

Desmon had been wandering aimlessly for what felt like an eternity, looking like a complete idiot—more than he already was—without ever finding his enemy. No matter how hard he tried, he'd never find him.

-This is pissing me off!

Suddenly, one of the smoke prisons materialized beneath his feet. Without hesitation, he channeled an immense surge of demonic energy into his fist and slammed it into the ground. The two forces clashed, sending a violent shockwave rippling outward.

It was an act of frustration—childish, even—but in that burst of rage, something ignited in his mind.

-If I'm inside this thing... that means Kurox can't appear. Their energies would cancel each other out...

A smug grin spread across his face. He understood. He finally knew how to get out of there... and, in the process, how to finish off the demon.

With a deranged expression and his body covered in blood, he roared with everything he had:

"Come on, Kurox!!!"

The space around him trembled. It was as if two invisible forces were clashing with such violence that reality itself threatened to collapse. The answer was right in front of him: force Kurox's energy and the demon's to interfere with each other until they destabilized. To do that, Desmon had to unleash all his demonic energy and summon his Devil Arm.

"Let's see which is stronger... your body or mine? Let's settle this, cloud-born bastard!"

He poured every last drop of his power into summoning Kurox, making both energies collide violently. Instability began to consume the demon's body, but the price was steep. He couldn't keep his mind focused on two things at once. So he made the only choice possible.

Sacrificing his own integrity to win.

"DIE, DIE, DIE!!!"

Desmon's body was pierced. Black stakes tore through his organs, the surrounding smoke compressed his flesh, his bones cracked, and his blood splattered in every direction. An inhuman pain ripped through every fiber of his being.

With each passing second, the agony only intensified. His regeneration couldn't keep up with the destruction, and his demonic energy was draining at a terrifying rate.

By any measure, his plan was suicide.

And yet...

His face remained unchanged. That same smug, irritating, infuriating grin.

Even as his skull fractured and his face warped under the pressure, he refused to give in.

"Come on, we're not done yet!!!" He roared with fury.

Both demons screamed, pouring every ounce of their rage into the battle. Neither would back down. It was a fight to the death, and only one would walk away alive.

The tremors in the air escalated into a full-blown earthquake. Two demonic forces clashed with everything they had, each trying to prove its superiority.

But nothing lasts forever.

A few seconds later, the ground stopped shaking. Silence fell over everything.

And with it, Desmon's body stopped moving.

As a result of the battle, his arrogant smile faded from his face.

He had reached his limit. His organs had stopped regenerating, his bones were shattered, and the only thing keeping him upright was the same pressure that was tearing him apart from the inside.

"Bad luck..." He muttered, his voice weak, almost lifeless.

His body had failed to keep up with the damage while trying to heal. Even for him, this level of endurance was too much. Standing still and enduring all that punishment had been madness.

"...But the victory is mine."

Like a shattered crystal, the space around them fractured into countless pieces, returning them to the road where it all began just minutes ago.

"Not yet..."

Desmon staggered, on the verge of collapsing, but summoned the last of his strength, planted his right foot firmly on the ground, and refused to fall.

His eyes burned with determination. This wasn't the time to rest. He still had one last job to finish.

Beside him lay Kurox, his trusted Devil Arm, ready for the final strike against Kagenra.

So far, his plan had worked—he had escaped the demon's body by forcing its collapse, and as a result, Kagenra's true form had manifested.

Desmon climbed onto Kurox and, for the first time, laid eyes on Kagenra's real body. The creature was dazed, feeling its very existence unravel from within. And yet, its nature remained the same: a demon made of smoke. No matter how one looked at it, there was no way to land a hit on it.

Or at least, that's what Desmon would have thought before.

The memory of what had happened earlier was the key to his plan—the demon's reaction when it was struck by a flying motorcycle.

A confident grin spread across his face.

"After all, you're just smoke!!!" He declared with certainty.

Without hesitation, Desmon twisted the throttle. Kurox roared to life, accelerating at an inhuman speed in the blink of an eye, crashing straight into Kagenra.

But, as expected, the motorcycle passed right through the demon's intangible body without leaving a scratch.

Had Desmon forgotten that detail?

"Enjoy the breeze and go to hell!"

Kurox skidded after slicing through the demon, accelerating again and beginning to circle around it. Desmon had no intention of stopping.

"It's time to break the limits!!!"

Kagenra tried to recover, but it was already too late.

"...IMPOSSIBLE!!!"

Kurox spun faster and faster around the demon. The wind began to swirl, and soon, a furious spiral formed, growing into a colossal tornado.

But Desmon didn't stop there. He poured every last drop of his demonic energy into Kurox, pushing his devil arm beyond its limit.

-Not yet... Faster.

The tornado became a beast of its own, swallowing Kagenra as if the storm itself had come alive to devour the demon. Just as Desmon had said: in the end, it was nothing but smoke.

"DIE!!"

Kagenra tried to fight back, but the whirlwind consumed it completely. Its attacks vanished into the raging winds, its form dispersed, and its essence was caught in the storm's fury. The tornado twisted into something monstrous, writhing with the demon's trapped figure inside.

"See you never, you piece of shit cloud!!!"

The moment Kagenra's entire body was absorbed and shredded by the violent gusts, Kurox came to a halt, and with it, the tornado collapsed, scattering the demon's remains across the area, dissolving them into nothingness. Only a final, agonized roar echoed before vanishing forever.

"I guess asking for clear skies is too much…"

Above him, the sky was still covered in black smudges, like a spreading plague.

-That's an environmentalist problem now…

His skin was pale, his body screamed in agony, and he could feel his own bones stabbing into his organs—an experience no one would ever wish to endure. But the good thing was that, little by little, he began to regenerate. Much slower than usual, but enough to last until he made it home.

That demon had pushed Desmon to his absolute limit, leaving him dangerously exposed.

-I just want to go home and sleep…

As if responding to his thoughts, Kurox began to accelerate.

After a battle like that, the least Desmon could expect was hours of rest and recovery…

But life is never fair—especially when you're up against a demon designed specifically to kill you.

-Huh!?

Without warning, Desmon's body slammed into the asphalt with a brutal impact, rolling several times before coming to a stop. The ground cracked beneath him, and a dark trail of blood spread under his motionless form.

Kurox had disappeared, abandoning him to his fate in the middle of the road.

-I... must be... exhausted…

He tried to get up, but barely managed to move an arm before a violent spasm ripped through him. A hot, thick vomit forced its way out of his mouth—a mix of saliva and blood… but this time, the blood was different. A black, viscous liquid oozed from him, pouring out endlessly, as if his body was draining something far worse than mere wounds.

Desmon didn't know it yet, but Kagenra wasn't just a smoke demon—it was an entity of pure corruption and venom, a toxic shadow that tainted the flesh and soul of everything it touched.

Why hadn't it affected him before? Desmon had spent too much time inside the demon without any consequences… but the answer was simple. His regeneration and demonic energy had protected him.

Until now.

But what would happen if his demonic energy ran out completely? If his body was left defenseless against the poison now festering inside him?

There was only one answer.

DEATH.

His body convulsed as if something inside was tearing him apart. Another vomit erupted from his mouth with a sickening sound, but this time, it wasn't just blood. Something denser, chunkier—pieces of something that should never be outside his body—mixed with the dark liquid splattering onto the asphalt.

An unbearable burning spread through him, as if his blood had been replaced with acid. There wasn't a single inch of his body that wasn't on fire, ripping apart, rotting alive.

-…!

He couldn't scream. His throat was filled with blood, with poison—with himself.

He tried to inhale, but all he managed was a choking gurgle. He was drowning. A river of black blood poured from his mouth, his nose, his ears, and his wide, staring eyes. His body was rejecting him, spitting him out—like it no longer wanted him.

His veins burst like balloons filled with acid, letting the poison surge uncontrollably. His muscles clenched, convulsed—every fiber of his flesh twisting as if trying to tear itself from his bones. The pain was so fucking intense that his brain could no longer process it properly.

This was suffering beyond human limits—something no one should ever experience.

Yet he was living it.

EVERY FUCKING SECOND.

And then, he felt something even worse.

His head exploded with pain.

Not on the outside… but from within. His brain was rotting.

An unbearable pressure filled his skull, as if something thick was seeping into every crevice of his mind. His thoughts shattered, reduced to a whirlwind of senseless agony. He couldn't see, couldn't hear. There was only pain, pulsing through every inch of his existence.

His skin began to crack. Black blood oozed from his pores, drenching him as if his own body was trying to purge the corruption. His flesh bubbled, split apart, only to mend itself and rupture again in an endless cycle.

Until suddenly…

Everything stopped.

The blood ceased to flow. His body went still. At last, he found the relief he had longed for.

And so, on a deserted road in Japan…

Desmon, the demon hunter… DIED.

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