Devil May Cry Before the Nightmare Novel Translation

Version 1.0 (4th March 2019)

What is Devil May Cry Before the Nightmare?
Devil May Cry Before the Nightmare is the official prequel novel to Devil May Cry 5. It
was published on March 1st 2019 by Kadokawa.

This novel is in Japanese only, and there are currently ​no announced plans to translate
it​. This means that only Japanese audiences get the full story behind Devil May Cry 5.

With this in mind, Platinum, ​DMC5Info​’s translator/co-admin, worked tirelessly to

translate this 260 page book before Devil May Cry 5’s release.

It was no easy task and required a lot of coffee. If you would like to help replenish her
coffee supply, Plat’s Ko-Fi account can be found at ​https://ko-fi.com/platinumparagon​ .

Any spelling mistakes or errors will be corrected ASAP and will be reflected in the
version number. If you are reading this via PDF, please consider checking ​DMC5Info​ for
any issued corrections or updates.

Please note that everything before Nico Chapter 2 is safe to read regarding spoilers for
Devil May Cry 5. After this chapter, some scenes from the game’s prologue begin to be
retold and we are granted access to inner monologues. We particularly recommend
skipping the second last chapter, V Chapter 3, if you do not want spoilers or hints for
Devil May Cry 5.

Thank you and we hope you enjoy!

Prologue Chapter
● Nico is meeting an occult journalist named Jeffrey Turner in a bar. Jeffrey works
for the ‘Occult Times’ magazine.
● Nico’s drink of choice is a boiler maker with beer and bourbon.
● Nico tells Jeffrey to call her Miss Goldstein and produces a copy of ‘Occult
Times’ from five years ago. Jeffrey gets nostalgic about this issue as it contains
the first feature that he ever wrote – how The Saviour attacked Fortuna. Nico
bluntly tells him she doesn’t care about his nostalgia.
● Jeffrey is curious about how she knows about Fortuna as it is one of the most
secluded regions of the world and its citizens are quite antiquated. He tells Nico
that he didn’t witness the event for himself, but he heard that the city was
destroyed by a white giant.
● Nico tells Jeffrey that while the magazine may exaggerate the truth or mix in a
few falsehoods, those events did happen.
● Jeffrey tried to investigate The Order of the Sword as best as he could, but the
locals would not speak to outsiders and it seemed that all key members of The
Order (the leader, high members etc.) had disappeared. While general members
remained, they became sceptical of the Order’s creed. Jeffrey speculates that the
white giant was a result of some sort of failed summoning ritual that destroyed
the city.
● Nico says she tried to investigate Fortuna herself, but most places have a ‘No
Entry’ sign and she stood out among the citizens as an outsider.
● Jeffrey tries to make a toast with Nico and picks up his glass, but she ignores him
and goes back to the magazine. He sighs and puts his glass down.
● Nico goes back to the magazine where she shows Jeffrey a picture of Fortuna
covered in rubble. In this picture is a young man whose face is concealed. Nico
asks about the young man and Jeffrey says that this is ‘N’. He was like a point of
contact with Jeffrey about the story, but he didn’t give a lot of helpful information.
Nico asks if N seemed like a member of The Order and Jeffrey said he did, but
he had departed from them.
● Nico wants to know N’s name, but Jeffrey is apprehensive. He asks why she
wants to know N’s name, and Nico immediately replies that she wants to meet N.
Jeffrey would usually forget people's names, but this case was special to him as
it was his first overseas reporting and he was so enthusiastic. Now his career his
dwindling, so he outright tells her that his name is Nero. Nico also asks if he has
a surname, but Jeffrey says he doesn’t know.
● Jeffrey asks Nico why she’s going to Fortuna. She replies – “I’m aiming high” (as
in aiming for the stars). She drops her bourbon in her beer glass, sinks it in one
 drink, gives a big smile and leaves. She leaves behind her copy of Occult Times
and tells Jeffrey to keep it as a memento.
● Jeffrey wonders if he’s heard the name Goldstein before, but he’s too drunk to
remember.

Nero Chapter 1
● The chapter begins with Nero working in his garage as he struggles to get Red
Queen to rev properly. Nero playfully speaks to the sword and asks if it’s pouting.
● While tidying in the garage, Julio, an orphan that Nero helps Kyrie take care of,
says that there is a strange woman outside. Nero asks what makes her so
strange – does she have three eyes and no nose? Julio replies that it’s not her
appearance that’s weird, it’s the fact that she says she’s searching for Nero.
● After the Order of the Sword incident, Nero is wary of strangers as occult
reporters, novelists etc. come to the city for details, but he can’t tell them the
truth.
● Julio says that the woman has dark skin and glasses. Believing this woman to be
Gloria, Nero asks Julio if her hair is white. Julio says that her hair is black and
frizzy. Overhearing this, Nico yells “Who has black frizzy hair, you stupid brat!?”
and barges to the front of the garage. Julio then points to her and Nico says, “It’s
rude to point, brat”.
● Julio would normally retort, but Nero tells him to go to Kyrie with a serious face,
so he listens.
● Nero asks what business Nico has while making sure to hide his Devil Bringer
from her. He feels that the Devil Bringer bestowed him with great demonic power
and he uses it to protect the person that he loves. While he used to be sick of its
ugly appearance, he is now grateful for it.
● It is stated that Nero uses his arm to judge whether someone is a demon or not.
If they are a demon, his arm has some sort of reaction. As his arm does not
react, he believes she is either a human or a demon with minimal powers.
● Nico asks him if he’s Nero. Nero insists that she stop smoking before asking any
more questions as he hates smoking and the garage is filled with combustible
items.
● Nico basically tells him that he should save the lectures for the bratty kid from
earlier. Nero starts to get irritated by her rudeness and tells her to put the
cigarette out or get out. She drops the cigarette on the floor, squashes it with her
boot and says “Is this okay, No Smoking Boy?”. Nero thinks she’s an unpleasant
woman.
● Nero estimates that they are the same age, maybe she’s a little younger, but she
acts like she’s older than him (a senpai).
● As Nico enters the garage, she keeps both arms in the air. She teases him by
saying “Are you going to hit me, a frail woman?”. As she approaches him, she
sees the Devil Bringer. Nero is afraid of what might happen from her seeing it.
However, she sits on a box in the corner and says “What, have a complex about
it? Don’t worry, it’s part of who you are.” She then introduces herself as Nicoletta
Goldstein and says that she has a favour to ask Nero.
● Nico is looking for missing Order of the Sword demonic research documents.
She says that she has no choice but to ask surviving members of The Order for
help finding them. While talking to Nico, Nero notes that there is no ill will in her
eyes, more like child-like curiosity.
● Nero asks how Nico knew about The Order researching demons as this wasn’t
public knowledge. She says that she researched this information from a range of
people, from demon hunters to a chain-smoking, gossip-loving old lady.
● As Nico shows knowledge of demons and demon hunters, Nero reflects that this
is the first time that someone with a genuine connection to demons (besides
cheesy occult magazines) has found him. Because of this, he rejects her request
to help her find Order documents.
● After being told no, Nico doesn’t leave. Instead, she asks how Agnus is now. This
shocks Nero and he tells Nico that he was killed. Nico, with an air of loneliness,
says that she’d heard about that rumour. Nero asks how she knows ‘that asshole’
and Nico says that he’s her biological father.
● Nero is in disbelief and can’t stop questioning Nico about it. Her response is
simply “Yeah, what bad luck”.
● During the ‘You’re his daughter!?’ exchange, Nico notices Red Queen and
instantly picks it up. Nero scolds her for touching his stuff without permission.
● Nico begins examining Red Queen and gets so excited at its design that she
begins to stutter. Nero keeps trying to snatch it from her, but eventually stops and
watches in awe as she quickly identifies what’s wrong with Red Queen and
begins to repair it.
● ·As she fixes it, she scolds Nero and calls him an idiot for not keeping up with
Red Queen’s regular maintenance. He then begins to accept that this is Agnus’s
daughter as they both share the same love of research and even have a similar
skin colour.
● Nico repairs Red Queen and says to it “Baby, how’re you doing?”. She tests it out
by revving it, but its power knocks her to the floor. While Nero thought she’d get
angry, she smiles and dusts herself off. She says that Red Queen is ‘very rowdy,
but a cutie’.
● After repairing Red Queen, Nero is indebted to Nico. He decides to show her The
Order’s documents, and this makes her smile from ear to ear. She tells him that
 from now on, he’s allowed to call her Nico. The chapter ends with Nero thinking
about the man who killed her father – Dante.

Dante Chapter 1
● The chapter begins with Dante reaching Dumary Island and speaking with Matier
on the harbour. He struggles to recall her name and asks if her name is Matia,
which she then corrects to Matier. She says that Sparda would forget her and
other women’s names as well.
● Sparda is described as Mundus’s right-hand man who betrayed him due to
feeling compassion towards humans. Before meeting Eva, Sparda would travel
the world and that is how he met Matier.
● Dante doesn’t have many memories of Sparda, but recalls receiving
sword-fighting lessons with Vergil. At this time, he had no idea that his father was
a demon and didn’t know about the legend of Sparda.
● Matier calls Dante cruel for not returning to the island after the incident around
ten years ago. Dante says he couldn’t help it because he was stuck in ‘a garbage
dump’ (hell) and travelling between the human world and demon world isn’t easy.
● Matier asks how he was able to escape hell and he says that a hole
unexpectedly opened up and he travelled through it. Sometimes holes
connecting to the demon world will suddenly appear. These holes seem to be
why Dumary Island requires guardians to protect it.
● It seems that ‘small port cities’ have a higher likelihood of holes appearing, which
is used to explain why Dumary Island and Fortuna have demons appearing.
● The novel states that when demons enter the human world, they only project
their consciousness into another physical entity. If a demon wants to enter with
its physical body, the hole has to be massive. Dante feels like it wasn’t a
coincidence that there was a hole large enough for him to pass through. When
he went to Fortuna and saw the Hell Gate, he suddenly understood that perhaps
his escape from hell was related to Yamato.
● Dante describes Yamato as a memento from their father that has the ability to cut
away the boundary between the human world and the demon world.
● Matier says that Lucia objected to calling Dante back to Dumary Island, but there
aren’t many ‘young men’ left on the island. Dante says that he’s not exactly a
young man anymore. He contemplates his own lifespan in relation to Sparda’s
and wonders when he’ll be considered an old man.
● Lucia waited for Dante to return from hell and made several round trips to the
office and back to see if he returned. When Dante did return, they hugged and
she cried. However, Dante had to leave shortly after as he received a call with
the password.
 ● Dante has a rule where he tries to keep his focus solely on a job. Matier scolds
him and says that it’s not like she’s asking Dante to marry Lucia for life, he just
wants him to give her one happy memory. He says, “My bad, I have my reasons”,
then Matier scolds him again for his subpar apology and says that Sparda had a
better way with words. Dante says that he likes to think he’s a better man than
his father, causing Matier to jab him with her cane. She says if that’s the case, he
needs to stop being rude to Lucia. Tired of getting lectured, Dante changes the
subject to why Matier asked him to come.
● Matier asks him if he remembers the demon that brought him to the island last
time. Dante says that he killed things like a big monkey (Orangguerra), but Matier
has to remind him that he killed Argosax. Dante considers remembering the
names of all the demons he’s defeated a waste of his brain. However, there’s
one name he always remembers – Mundus, the demon who brought harm to his
mother.
● Matier says that the demon that has appeared was Argosax’s right-hand man.
Dante jokes that he dealt with the number one guy, now he has to deal with the
number two guy. Dante starts to remember Argosax, but also remembers that he
wasn’t much of a threat to him.
● According to Matier, around half of hell have rallied around this right-hand man
and he has been saving his strength for the past decade to come through to the
human world. Because of this demon’s size, Matier doesn’t think it could just slip
through a hole. Instead, she reckons that a human is summoning it through a
ritual, but she doesn’t think that would happen easily on the island with her and
Lucia protecting it.
● Dante asks if she knows who is summoning the demon, but she can’t find any
evidence of who it is, particularly as Arius is no longer alive. Dante asks the
name of the demon and Matier laughs, saying, “Aren’t you going to forget it
tomorrow? The demon’s name is Balrog. According to legend, he’s a ferocious
fire demon. Be careful.”. Hearing this warning makes Dante smile.

Nero Chapter 2
● The chapter begins with Nico and Nero in the basement of Fortuna Castle, the
location of Agnus’s research facility. Nico is elated by the modern equipment in
the facility, looking at and touching everything. She strokes the round cylinders
that once housed demons and once again stutters with excitement.
● Nero asks Nico what she plans to do with Agnus’s research documents. He fears
that Agnus’s daughter will continue his malicious work and once again bring
demons to the world. While he asks this question, he keeps a concealed hand on
Blue Rose as he may have to kill her depending on her answer.
● Nico tells him that she wants to be an artist. Nero becomes confused by her
answer and takes his finger away from Blue Rose’s trigger. He asks if she wants
to draw pictures of demons and this makes her burst into laughter. She says
she’s not interested in pictures, she wants to become a first-class weapons/arms
artist. Nero recalls how skilfully she disassembled Red Queen.
● Nico asks if Nero’s heard of her grandmother, the .45 Calibre Artist. Nero shakes
his head, and this infuriates Nico as she makes a gesture with her head like she
is spitting. She yells at him, “You don’t know anything, boy!”. Nero manages to
keep his cool despite being insulted. He attributes this to spending time taking
care of orphans, building his patience and resistance to insults from younger
people.
● Nero explains that he probably hasn’t heard of her because guns aren’t very
popular in Fortuna. He says that in his past, people looked down on him for using
a gun. This raises Nico’s interest, asking him if he has a gun. Nero hesitates for a
bit and then takes his concealed Blue Rose from his pocket. Nico runs up to it
and fixates her gaze on it, once again stuttering with excitement. Her
mannerisms remind him of Agnus.
● Nico asks if she can touch the gun and Nero allows it. Nico geeks out over the
gun and Blue Rose’s design is explained: a double-barrel revolver that shoots
two bullets with a slight time delay on each shot. One bullet penetrates while the
other explodes.
● Nero’s impressed that she can identify the two different types of bullets from
looking at them as they are nearly identical. Nico says, “Who do you think I
am!?”.
● Nico says that Blue Rose’s concept could be thought of, but it would be difficult to
execute and would require someone who’s very skilled. Because of a language
pun in Japanese, Nero reflects on how Agnus certainly was the crazy type.
● Nero then reflects on his own life circumstances. While he feels his morality is
questionable, he was raised in a home with honesty and integrity. He looked up
to Credo, the person who was like an older brother to him. But now, he had Kyrie
as his lover.
● Nico talks about how her grandmother’s guns were simple and beautiful. She
says the final pair of guns that she made were very, very beautiful. Nico talks on
and on about them which Nero is not interested in. However, she says, “They’re
called ‘Ebony and Ivory’, one’s black and one’s white. Appropriate names for
such fine art!”. The names raise Nero’s interest and she continues to describe
the guns, detailing how one is for rapid fire and one is for destructive power. The
guns were designed with demon hunting in mind, and she believes that the guns
 are currently being used by a demon hunter. While trying to remember the name,
Nero says it instead – “Dante”.
● Nico says that he is correct and asks if he is a celebrity in the demon hunting
world. However, Nero is too dumbfounded to reply as he realises the connection
– Nico’s grandmother designed the guns that shot her father in the head.
● Nico demands an answer from Nero. “I want to know what type of guy is using
my grandmother’s best work. Wait, don’t tell me he’s a piece of shit!?”. Nero asks
her to be patient while he processes all of this information.
● Nero thinks about how Dante is an important person to him. Dante saved him
from the chaos ensuing in Fortuna, but in the process he killed Agnus. Now
Agnus’s daughter is in front of him asking what he’s like. Nero says aloud “Shit,
how am I gonna explain this?”, causing Nico to raise her eyebrows.

Dante Chapter 2
● The chapter begins with Dante killing monkey-looking demons on the way to fight
Balrog. While killing them, he reflects on how great Ebony and Ivory are and how
they were Nell Goldstein’s magnum opus.
● While disposing of the demons, Dante hears a heavy French accent behind him
say “As usual, your guns are wonderful”. He turns his head and replies with,
“Long time no see, Lucia”. Lucia asks him if he’s aged a little and he gives her a
bitter smile, telling her she’s just imagining it. Dante tells her she hasn’t changed
at all, and Lucia reminds him that she can’t change no matter how much time
passes.
● Dante tries to comfort Lucia by telling her that women pay large amounts of
money to try to look youthful, but this isn’t a comfort to her.
● Lucia’s origin story as an artificial demon is repeated. Dante notes that she has a
lonely face.
● Dante starts cracking wise with Lucia and says that compared to the horror
around them, he’s like something that came from heaven. This gets a faint smile
from Lucia and she thanks him for coming while putting out her hand to him.
● This is a surprise to Dante as he heard from Matier that Lucia wasn’t happy with
him coming. Lucia says that Balrog is a bit too difficult for one person, so she
would appreciate help dealing with him to finish it quicker. Dante smiles as he
thinks this is a thinly-veiled ‘I can’t do this on my own’, but he’s fine with it as she
appears more confident.
● Dante and Lucia walk shoulder to shoulder to go fight Balrog. He reflects that it’s
been a long time since they’ve been together, but they walked together like old
partners. There is a mutual trust between the pair.
 ● The pair fight their way to Balrog, and Balrog simply looks at them. Dante asks if
he’s shy and Balrog replies with “So you finally came”. Dante asks if he was
waiting for them to appear, and Balrog indeed says that he believed that if he
waited here, eventually a person of strength would come to him. Balrog takes a
step towards them which is enough to shake the ground. During this
conversation, Dante experiences a familiar sensation nearby.
● Balrog says that after losing his partner Argosax, he has grown bored. But now,
he has a new power. Dante sees something glimmering in his fist and he
recognises it – it is a shard of Yamato. It seems that when parts of Yamato
scattered, a part remained in hell. It seems that Balrog used a shard of Yamato
to enter the human world.
● Dante deduces that Balrog had been using the shard to travel to the human
world. Dante was able to escape hell using one of these holes left by Balrog,
believing his escape to be a coincidence.
● Dante says “Yamato…” out loud. Yamato was once used to seal demons away,
now it is helping demons escape from it. The Order of the Sword collected
fragments of Yamato to fuel their ambitions, and that is how the Fortuna incident
occurred.
● In response, Dante grabs Rebellion and readies himself for battle. Balrog lets out
a massive yell, but Dante is unphased by it. He tells Lucia that this is his job and
jumps at Balrog, attacking him in his fist.

Nico Chapter 1
● The chapter opens with Nico meeting Kyrie for the first time. As Agnus amassed
a lot of research documents, Nico must stay for a little while in Fortuna with Nero
and Kyrie.
● Nico doesn’t really consider people to be beautiful, she thinks well-made guns
and swords are beautiful. However, she believes that Kyrie is so beautiful that it’s
a rare sight. The way that Kyrie looks at Nico reminds her of her mother Alyssa
who died when she was very young.
● Kyrie asks if it’s okay to call her Nico. Nico immediately nods and says “You can
call me whatever you want! ‘Nico’, ‘Nicoletta’, even ‘Bitch’!”. In response, Nero
stomps on her foot under the table, points at her and yells “Hey! Don’t use dirty
words in front of Kyrie!”.
● Nico heard that Kyrie was Nero’s girlfriend, but she couldn’t imagine just how
special Kyrie was to Nero. Nico apologises to Kyrie for her foul mouth and says
that her father is to blame; Nero lets out a small sigh. Kyrie smiles at them like
she’s watching two children bicker, which puts Nico at ease.
 ● Kyrie invites Nico to eat with them as there’s plenty to go around. Kyrie asks Nico
if there’s any food that she doesn’t like and Nico responds with, “If you cooked a
tyre then I’d eat it!”, making Kyrie laugh.
● When Kyrie goes to the kitchen, Nico tries to get a rise from Nero by saying
“Lovely woman, she’s too good for you”. Instead of a snarky rebuttal, Nero says
“Yeah, I think so too”.
● As Agnus abandoned Nico and her mother when she was very young, she has
complex feelings regarding him. While reflecting on this, Nico takes out a box of
cigarettes which Nero promptly snatches away from her. He tells her that she
can’t smoke in the house, and Nico asks if she can at least smoke in the garage
as she can’t work if she doesn’t smoke. In the garage, kids won’t see her and she
won’t be chased out of town for being an outsider.
● Nico was told by her mother that Fortuna was her father’s home town. She read
about the town’s feature in Folklore Times, resulting in her starting to collect
information concerning demons.
● After this segue, Nero still orders her to smoke outside. As she stands up to go
smoke, she asks Nero if she wants any of her technology. He neither nodded nor
objected, but Nico felt that there was an implicit acceptance of the offer. Nico
says, “It’s fine, it’s give-and-take. I get to make fine art and you get to use it to kill
demons. We’ll be like business partners”.
● Nero asks if this is really okay as he was an accomplice in her father’s murder.
Nico reflects on the story Nero told her about how the man who wields her
grandmother’s masterpiece used them to kill her father. Even Nico with her vivid
imagination would struggle to think of something like that. However, she
concludes that she has no emotional attachment to her father. As he abandoned
her when she was around two or three, she didn’t even have memories of him.
● Nico tells him that the incident is in the past, then asks to make a phone call
when she’s done smoking. Nero asks who she’s calling, and she says, “My dad, I
want him to send me a package”. Realising how confusing her words were, she
corrects herself and says “Not Agnus, my current dad. He’s a blood relative – my
uncle”. Nero heard this explanation with his mouth wide open.

Lucia Chapter
● Lucia is watching Balrog and Dante fight. Balrog seems to be enjoying himself
and doesn’t even get angry when Dante dodges his attacks.
● While watching Dante fight, Lucia clenches her fist. She committed herself to her
studies and to getting stronger not only so she would never have to rely on Dante
again, but so that she could one day repay the favour to him. While watching
Dante fight, she felt powerless.
● Lucia wonders if his battle prowess is due to his experience, or whether it is
simply because he has the blood of Sparda.
● The fight between Dante and Balrog heats up (literally) as Balrog’s fire causes
trees and abandoned houses to catch on fire. Dante asks why Balrog likes fire so
much since it’s so commonly used. Balrog says that his fire is unprecedented
and goes to punch Dante with a burning hot fist.
● The punch collides with the ground and causes a cloud of dust to appear. Lucia
reflexively calls out Dante’s name, but as the cloud of dust disappears, she sees
that he is protected by a transparent wall. Lucia sees him holding a
three-pronged nunchaku.
● “It’s been a long time since I’ve used these, I’m not good with heat”, says Dante
as the wall of ice shatters. This tactic infuriates Balrog and he readies his fist
once more. In response, Dante makes an exaggerated pose with Cerberus like a
protagonist in a kung-fu movie.
● During the pose, Cerberus starts emitting cool air. Dante comments that he
hasn’t used it in a while, so he thinks it’s pouting with him. Upon seeing it, Balrog
says “That shape, that ability…did you tame Cerberus?”
● Lucia remembers what Matier taught her about Devil Arms. She says that there
are two ways for Devil Arms to be created. A demon will turn into a weapon of
overwhelming power if it has been defeated and becomes submissive, or a
demon will change into a weapon if there is a strong emotional bond present.
● Dante talks to Cerberus again, saying “C’mon puppy, it’s not like I got rid of you”.
Dante and Balrog resume fighting, with Dante throwing some mad shapes with
Cerberus.
● Dante lands a big blow against Balrog and he staggers, but it turns out Balrog’s
stagger was a bait for Dante to lower his guard. He fires up his right hand (the
one with the Yamato fragment) and goes to attack Dante. Dante surrounds
himself with Cerberus’s ice, but Balrog punches him so hard that Cerberus itself
shatters.
● However, this was a bait from Dante. The force of the dual attack shattered the
Yamato fragment that Balrog had. Both the Yamato fragment and Cerberus
fragments are said to be granular-sized and they dissipate. After Cerberus
breaks, Dante takes out Rebellion.
● Upon seeing Rebellion, Balrog asks if he is Sparda’s son. Dante replies “What’re
you gonna do if I am?”. Balrog says that he heard the rumours of him defeating
Mundus and Argosax. At this point, Balrog has either used up most of his
strength or is losing his will to fight.
● Balrog says he understands the difference in their strength and accepts that
Dante won. Dante is suddenly surrounded by a whirlwind of flame.
 ● Balrog says that he will allow Dante to use him as a Devil Arm. He says that
fighting with Dante will allow him to power up, and then one day they can have a
rematch. This seems to be the lore explanation for Balrog’s Ignition mechanic.
● The whirlwind disappears and Dante is standing with Balrog equipped. He
replies, “Jeez, what a selfish guy. Didn’t even wait for my reply”. Lucia asks if
he’s okay, he shrugs and says, “These things happen to me”.
● Balrog starts talking which immediately annoys Dante. Dante tells him that it’s
one thing to hitch a ride with him, but if he keeps talking then it’s going to drive
him mad. Lucia can’t help but smile at the exchange.
● Lucia becomes lonely at the thought of the job ending. She realises that Matier
saw through her all along. The reason why she didn’t want to see Dante again
was because her heart longed for him. Lucia calls Matier a meddler out loud.
Dante replies that she’s a good mother irrespective of there being no blood link.
● Dante says Lucia’s name out loud and she becomes excited, but he begins
talking about the fragment of Yamato in Balrog’s hand which disappoints her.
● Dante explains how the fragment allowed demons to travel through. He tells her
that if an incident like this happens again, she can call him. Lucia tries not to read
too deeply into it and nods. She recognises that the fragment Dante destroyed
must have been important to him.
● She tells Dante that he is a cruel man and he gives her a puzzled look. She says
that they should return separately and she bids him farewell. Dante tells Lucia to
take care of herself.

Intermission Chapter
● Please note that there is a lot of reminiscing in this scene, so that is why it can
jump from scene to scene.
● Rock Goldstein is taking a collect call from Nico in his gun shop, Rock’s Guns
and Ammo. As she is staying in Fortuna for a while, she wants him to send her
clothes, tools, and an issue of Folklore Times from her bedroom. Rock calls it a
third-rate magazine and Nico yells at him to just send it, then hangs up. Rock
rubs his hair which is covering the eyepatch on his right eye.
● Rock Goldstein is the son of Nell Goldstein and Roy Martin, a wealthy man. He
wasn’t sure what sparked their romance, but he thinks it may have been guns
due to Roy’s love of hunting.
● Rock was brought up in a gun-loving home, but he was never allowed near them
unsupervised and wasn’t allowed into Nell’s workshop without permission. When
Rock was seven, he snuck into Nell’s workshop and played with a gun that she
was building. His carelessness resulted in him losing most of the sight in his right
eye.
● Roy blamed Nell for Rock’s incident and the two argued more. Eventually, Roy
told Nell that she needed to stop making guns. To Nell, that was like a death
sentence.
● That night, Rock goes to Nell’s workshop and apologises as he blames himself
for what happened. Nell is moved to tears and she soothes him, telling him it’s
her fault.
● Rock slips her a piece of paper. He has drawn her a medal to recognise her
greatness as a .45 calibre artist. Due to Rock’s age, it is misspelled – ‘.45 ART
WARKS’. Nell begins to sob and hugs Rock tightly, saying “sorry” and “thank
you” repeatedly. Rock says, “Mommy, please don’t stop making guns – I’m
okay”. Nell decides to continue making guns, resulting in the end of her
relationship with Roy.
● While Rock wanted to go with his mother, she didn’t have anywhere to go or
anyone to rely on. In contrast, Roy was wealthy and had property. Rock was
forbidden from seeing his mother and had to run up to his bedroom window to
see her leave. While she didn’t look back, Rock saw that she was walking with
his medal in her hand.
● After divorcing Nell, it didn’t take long for Roy to re-marry. Rock couldn’t accept
Roy’s new wife and became rebellious. When Alyssa was born, Roy focused his
attention on her, leaving Rock to become more estranged from the family.
● Rock got a job at Uroboros in the weapons development department. He learned
of his mother’s whereabouts, but due to the company’s strict working conditions,
he wasn’t able to get a day off for a year. By the time he went to see her, she had
been dead for six months.
● From that day, Rock abandoned his father’s surname of Martin and became
Rock Goldstein. He quit Uroboros and opened a small gun shop named Rock’s
Guns and Ammo in an attempt to be Nell’s successor.
● Rock’s father was furious that he quit his job at Uroboros as he helped him get
that job. In response, Rock says that he is proud to be Nell Goldstein’s son.
● While looking for the key to Nico’s bedroom, Rock comes across failed and
abandoned creations of his. He reflects that while he wanted to be Nell’s
successor, he didn’t have her abilities. He wonders what he would be capable of
if he was trained by her.
● Rock remembers a time he was made fun of by a woman who spent the night
with him. “I thought you were a tough guy, but it looks like you have an Oedipus
complex. You kept saying ‘Mommy! Mommy!’ in your sleep”.
● Shortly after Rock started his business, his father and step-mother died. Rock
suspects that it was due to suicide as Roy accrued a considerable amount of
debt after a failed investment. The mansion was repossessed and they had no
 savings left, so Alyssa was left with nothing. Although Rock’s business wasn’t
doing too well, he couldn’t stand to see a blood relative left out in the cold, so he
brought her to the shop and let her live there.
● Alyssa got an office job at Uroboros. They could live more comfortably thanks to
Alyssa’s income, and Rock’s shop got more trade thanks to his improving skills.
● One day, Alyssa asks if it is okay to bring someone home. When Rock asks who
it is, Alyssa blushes. Rock says, “Huh, a lover? Where did you two meet?”.
Alyssa tells him it’s a company employee, and he replies, “What does he work
as? Don’t tell me it’s a researcher. Uroboros researchers are beyond weird”.
Alyssa clears her throat and tells him it’s a researcher.
● Rock couldn’t understand what Alyssa saw in Agnus. When he asked, she’d just
say “He’s cute!!”. Rock thought she was too lovesick to understand what cute
meant.
● Rock reflects on how Agnus didn’t look like other researchers as he was large
and burly. Rock says to Agnus, “Nice monocle, a lil’ antiquated”, to which Agnus
proudly replies, “It’s c-custom-made”. Rock smiles at Agnus not understanding
sarcasm.
● Alyssa became pregnant and she left her job at Uroboros​. ​Rock feels that the
following two years were the happiest of his life. He got to see little Nicoletta
grow and eat Alyssa’s delicious food.
● After these two years, Agnus tells Alyssa that he needs to return to Fortuna on
his own due to His Holiness’s orders. They knew that he belonged to a religious
organisation known as The Order of the Sword, but they didn’t mind as he didn’t
do anything weird like sacrifice pigs.
● Alyssa asks why she can’t go to Fortuna with him, and Agnus says that only
believers can live there. She says that she can become a believer, but Agnus
says it’s impossible as she’d never understand their creed. A few days later,
Agnus disappeared.
● Alyssa planned to follow Agnus to Fortuna, but she collapsed and went to
hospital. She was diagnosed with an incurable disease, but her focus always
remained on going to Fortuna. A few years later, Alyssa died without being able
to go.
● After Alyssa’s death, Rock legally adopted Nico and raised her into adulthood.
He didn’t intentionally raise her to become a gunsmith – she became interested
herself.
● One day in the shop, Nico exclaimed, “W-w-what’s this!? It’s so b-beautiful!”. She
was holding a photograph of two guns that were brought to Rock’s shop several
months ago. He replies, “Momm- my mother made those, we took a photo of
them”. Nico responds, “Your mother? My g-granny? She’s awesome!”.
 ● These guns were Ebony and Ivory. A man named Dante brought them to Rock,
and he found it suspicious that the engraving read ‘Tony Redgrave’. Dante
explains that it is the name that he told the old woman who made them. It was
common for people to give excuses like that if they robbed a gun from someone,
but Rock didn’t suspect Dante. He could tell from examining the guns that they
were designed to hunt the occult, and he could tell there was something
abnormal about Dante.
● While in the shop, Dante points to the engraving on the gun barrel and asks Rock
to fix it. Rock gasps at seeing ‘.45 ART WARKS’ on the gun and says “Mommy”
out loud.
● Dante explains that he eventually wanted the spelling mistake corrected, but he
didn’t want any old garbage gunsmith to touch the old lady’s masterpiece. “If
anyone should correct it then it should be you. Don’t you think, Rock Goldstein?”.
● While fighting back tears, Rock replies, “Guns this beautiful shouldn’t have a
spelling mistake on them”. After fixing the mistake, he gets the feeling that he’ll
never see Dante again.
● Rock packs a box to send to Nico. Rock feels that Nico didn’t choose to stay in
Fortuna simply because of Agnus, she must be doing something else there.
● Before leaving on her travels, Nico told Rock that she is giving up on becoming a
gunsmith – she doesn’t think she can surpass Nell just by making guns. This
surprises Rock, and he asks her what she plans to make instead. Nico replies, “I
don’t know what weapons I’m gonna make yet, but I know they’re gonna be art”.
● Rock and Nico are connected through blood by his half-sister Alyssa, but there is
no blood connection between Nico and Nell. Despite this, Nico always calls Nell
‘Grandmother’. When she speaks to Rock, she doesn’t even call him ‘Dad’.
● Before Nico leaves, Rock says, “Do your best Nico. I know you’ll surpass
Momm…Mother”. He knows that one day Nico will be an artisan of arms, and
when that day comes, he’ll get to say ‘My daughter made that!’. The thought
makes him smile.

Nico Chapter 2
● The chapter begins with Nico and Nero in the garage as she installs the Devil
May Cry neon sign that Dante sent in the previous novel. Nico says she finds a
name about devils crying weird, but Nero didn’t think much of it since Dante told
him it was the name of his business.
● Nico jokes that it should be ‘Devils May Cry’ since Nero is working with him. Nero
says he thought about it, but it doesn’t sound cool.
● At this point, Nico has been living in Fortuna for around a year.
● The conception of the Devil May Cry van is explained. Basically, Kyrie and Nero
don’t have a lot of money and there’s not a lot of work in Fortuna. Kyrie asks
Nero to help the locals which he struggles to say no to, but when it comes to
payment she usually refuses. If they do get paid, it’s in meat and vegetables and
other items. Kyrie wears the same clothes, but she makes clothes for Nero and
the orphans. With a work van, Nero can travel outside Fortuna and make money
for Kyrie and the orphans.
● Because they don’t have a lot of money, the van they purchased was near the
end of its life and they are working together to refurbish it. Due to always helping
out, Nico hasn’t been able to advance any of her research in the time she’s been
in Fortuna. Just as she’s about to air her grievances, Kyrie says it’s time for
dinner. Nero tells Nico to go on ahead while he finishes up.
● Nico is eating dinner with Kyrie and three orphans: Julio, Kyle and Carlo. The
orphanage in Fortuna hasn’t been rebuilt after the incident, so it’s up to people
like Kyrie and Nero to take care of orphans for now. Nico calls Kyrie’s cooking
unprecedented and ponders how Nero was able to have such a goddess as his
girlfriend.
● Kyrie wonders what’s keeping Nero. She places the youngest orphan Carlo on
Nico’s lap and goes to check on Nero. She calls to Nero that his dinner’s getting
cold, but Nero yells at her from the garage not to come. She stands there
stunned.
● Sensing danger, Nico passes Carlo off to Julio. After hearing an anguished cry
from the garage, Kyrie runs towards it and Nico chases after her.
● The scene in the garage sends shivers down Nico’s spine. The garage is
covered in blood and Kyrie is screaming Nero’s name while holding him. Nico
then notices that Nero’s right arm is severed. She yells at him that she only left
him alone for a few minutes, but he didn’t reply. The man who usually returned
her insults was staring at her with vacant eyes.
● Nico tells Kyrie to call a doctor. Realising that the culprit could still be around,
Nico pulls Blue Rose from Nero to protect them. Nico takes a wire from the
toolbox and wraps it around Nero’s stump to try to stop the bleeding. While doing
this, she threatens whoever did this out loud, saying she’ll crack their skull like a
walnut.
● Nico thinks about who could have done this. She wonders if it’s possible for a
human to sever Nero’s arm as quickly as it was. She struggles to imagine why
someone would quickly enter, sever Nero’s arm and disappear again, particularly
if they had no intention to kill Nero.
● Suddenly, Nico recalls reading about Yamato in Agnus’s research documents.
Agnus recovered fragments of Yamato on a coast on the outskirts of Fortuna.
 She recalls talking about Yamato with Nero and Nero tells her it belonged to
Dante’s older brother. She asks where it is now since it must be powerful – she’d
love to research it.
● Nero asks her if she’d like to see a magic trick and makes Yamato appear from
his arm. Seeing Yamato makes her stutter with excitement. Nico asks how he did
that, and he says he doesn’t really understand, but it’s stored in his arm. He tells
her that she can’t research it because it’s too dangerous.
● Nico deduces that the aim of the person who attacked Nero was to take Yamato
rather than kill him. The chapter ends with the doctor arriving at the garage.

Morrison Chapter 1
● Morrison is walking down a street holding a bouquet of gerberas. He walks to
Bobby’s Cellar, the bar from the very first Devil May Cry novel. Morrison hasn’t
been in the bar for more than ten years; he used it to get information on jobs.
● He sees that the bar has been renamed to Grue’s Cellar, the same Grue from the
first novel. Inside the bar is Grue’s surviving daughters, Tiki and Nesty.
● Morrison shares a warm greeting with the sisters and gives them flowers to
congratulate them for taking over the bar. The three of them, plus a woman
named Sally, make a champagne toast.
● Morrison and Sally apparently watched over the sisters after their father’s death.
Morrison reflects on the events of the first Devil May Cry novel, including the
deaths in Bobby’s Cellar, Nell Goldstein’s death, and the demon invasion of the
hospital where Grue’s now deceased daughter Jessica was a patient.
● Nesty asks Morrison how Tony (Dante) is doing and what he’s up to. Sally
replies, “Hopefully he’s dead. If he’s alive, I’d love to stick a shotgun up his ass”.
The sisters defend Dante as he sent them money many times. Sally doesn’t
budge on her hatred of Dante, considering him to be an ill omen. As a note,
former patrons of Bobby’s Cellar and those in the mercenary world dislike Dante
as they blame him for the deaths in Bobby’s Cellar, Grue’s death, and the
hospital massacre.
● While the four of them celebrate, a man enters the bar. He is covered in tattoos,
uses a cane, and is described as having a pale and lifeless face. He is holding a
discoloured book with the letter V on it. Morrison considers the possibility that he
may not even be human.
● The party try to explain to the man that it is a private celebration, but he ignores
this and asks, “Are you Morrison?”. Morrison nods and asks what he wants. The
man says, “Let me meet Dante”. Morrison asks if it is a ‘special request’ and V
nods. Morrison accepts this to mean that this client needs help with demons.
 Morrison apologises to the sisters and tells them that he has some business to
take care of.
● Morrison and V leave the bar and talk outside. He asks V if he has any money.
While Dante will take jobs regarding demons even with no payment, having
money would be beneficial as business hasn’t been booming. In response, V
casually hands him dozens of paper bills. Some of the bills appear to have blood
stains on them.
● Morrison hears a groan behind him. He turns around and sees a man lying in an
alleyway surrounded by blood. It appears that he has been attacked by a large
bird.
● V stretches out his right arm and the bird rests on it. Morrison asks V if that’s his
bird, and the bird itself replies that he’s his own bird. Morrison notices that this
isn’t like a parrot repeating speech, the bird appears to be able to talk on its own.
● The bird jokes with Morrison that money is money, but if he’s a clean-freak then
they’ll go to the bank and swap them for cleaner notes.
● V tells Morrison that if he’s dissatisfied with the amount, they can collect more.
Morrison has a feeling that more people would need to be hurt to get the money,
so he says this amount is fine. After all, it’s enough to help his friend living in
poverty.
● Morrison, V and Griffon make their way to Dante’s office, but Morrison has two or
three places to go first.

Dante Chapter 3
● The Devil May Cry office has no water, gas, electricity or phone connection due
to a lack of work in the past few months. In comes Morrison, who Dante is happy
to see as he has a history of providing jobs when Dante needs it.
● Morrison asks him if he wants to hear good news or bad news. Dante says
whichever, and Morrison gives him the bad news – Miss Patty, the girl Dante
took care of ten years ago, is very angry: she wants to invite him to her birthday
party, but his phone line isn’t working. While Dante doesn’t hate Patty, he
shudders at the idea of spending time at a party with people even more ‘normal’
than she is.
● Morrison’s good news is that he has a big job for him, cash up front. Morrison
used this money to pay Dante’s bills, which Dante is a little sad at as he wanted
to treat himself to a strawberry sundae.
● As he’s mourning his lost sundae, the lights come on and the telephone rings.
Patty is on the phone inviting him to her party – he hangs up. She won’t stop
calling him, so he pulls out the telephone cord.
 ● Morrison tells Dante to speak to the client while he goes to talk to Lady and Trish.
Dante says “Hey, I can do this myself”, but Morrison reminds him that he said it
was a ‘big job’.
● Dante eyes up the client leaning against the wall. He thinks he is a strange man.
Dante asks his name and V replies with, “I have no name, I am but two days old”.
V closes his book and smiles at Dante. “Just kidding. You can call me V”. While
it’s clearly an alias, Dante doesn’t mind as he’s used to people using
pseudonyms in his shop.
● V approaches him while walking with the cane, but Dante thinks his way of
walking might be an act. Either way, he doesn’t look like a normal person.
● V tells Dante that a powerful demon is about to resurrect and he needs Dante’s
help. Dante doubts the strength of this demon as people approach him about the
‘strongest demon’ and ‘worst demon’, but they turn out to be disappointments.
Dante begins to think that termite extermination might be more challenging. Still,
Dante feels that he has no choice but to hunt demons as he doesn’t want them
throwing their weight around in the human world.
● V tells Dante that this time is different as this demon is his reason for fighting.
Dante stares at V and his intuition tells him that V is not a demon. But if he’s not,
how does he know this?
● Dante asks the name of the demon, but if it truly is his reason for fighting, he
already knows the name. V says the demon’s name, but the chapter ends
without stating it.

Lady Chapter
● Morrison visits Lady in her motel room. Together, they watch a television
broadcast about a large tree appearing in a city. Lady speculates that while it
looks like a tree, it could be an enormous living being.
● Morrison tells Lady that if they defeat the ‘boss’, the tree should disappear.
● Lady asks Morrison why he’s contacting her about it. Dante alone should be able
to handle it, and even partnering with Trish should be more than enough.
Morrison admits that he has a bad feeling about this job. Lady believes he is
serious as it’s rare for him to meet with her so suddenly. Usually to get in touch
with Lady, you need to schedule an exact time and meeting place in advance.
● Lady asks what makes the job so dangerous, is it a self-proclaimed demon
emperor? Morrison tells her that the job relates to the demon emperor trying to
resurrect. Lady replies, “If it’s the actual demon emperor then Dante already beat
him once before”. Lady recalls Trish telling her that Mundus’s army killed Dante’s
mother and he was barely able to escape the attack. Twenty years later, he
avenged her death.
 ● Morrison says that he’s aware of Dante’s previous success, but he’s taking
precautionary measures. Lady asks why Morrison’s so anxious, and he leaves
while saying “The city’s name”.
● Lady turns to the television and sees ‘The Mysterious Phenomenon in Red Grave
City’ on the news broadcast. The same name as on Dante’s guns.
● Lady recalls asking Dante if Nell Goldstein made his guns. The reason she asked
is because the name ‘Goldstein’ is on her own guns. But this is from Rock
Goldstein, Nico’s uncle. Dante asks about Rock’s skills and she says he’s not
bad. Lady reflects on how his ‘daughter’ Nico might be more skilled than him.
Lately, she has been going to Nico with her requests instead.
● Dante takes out Ebony and Ivory and asks Lady to tell him where Rock’s shop is.
This is when she notices the ‘Redgrave’ name on his gun. She ponders whether
the name on the guns and the name of the city are connected to Dante’s past.

V Chapter 1
● V feels that Morrison is an excellent man for recruiting Dante, Lady and Trish
along with a helicopter to take them to Red Grave City. Thanks to Morrison’s
quick work, V, Lady, Trish and Dante are now inside the tree. Inside the tree is
said to have a disgusting smell.
● While in the tree, they hear an ominous roar and the ground begins to shake. V
believes this to be the aftermath of the demon emperor resurrecting. V’s original
plan was for the four of them to attack before he had awoken, now this plan
seemed overly optimistic.
● Dante tells V to escape as V is dead weight. V reflects on how his former self
would have been irritated by those words, but he does as Dante says and begins
to leave.
● Griffon flies after him in shock and asks if he’s seriously leaving. V’s demon
familiars don’t always share his demeanour at a given time as V is described as
extremely calm. V is said to no longer have the excessive pride that he once had.
● V tells Griffon he is going to get the youngster (Nero) as insurance. Griffon
replies, “Youngster? You mean that brat Nero? Don’t be ridiculous! That guy
stole his right arm, how’s he going to fight?”. V replies that it’s better than
nothing. He feels that getting a blood descendent of Sparda could help improve
their odds of defeating the demon emperor even by a single hair. As V is quite
familiar with the demon emperor, he isn’t prepared to take any chances.
● V emerges from the tree and uses the helicopter to travel to Fortuna.
Uncharacteristically nervous, Griffon asks V if he gets the feeling that this is risky.
V silently nods in response.
Trish Chapter
● Trish reflects on being a creation of Mundus’s in the image of Sparda’s wife.
Mundus sent his army to kill Sparda’s wife and sons. While they killed Eva, Dante
and Vergil escaped. This unsettled Mundus as they would naturally grow up and
want to take revenge.
● Mundus found Vergil first as Vergil didn’t assume a fake identity like Dante did.
However, Vergil had inherited Yamato from an early age and was able to defeat
the minions Mundus sent to kill him.
● Ten years after Eva’s death, Mundus found Dante assuming the identity of Tony
Redgrave. Mundus sent demons to Tony and he dealt with them easily,
confirming to him that it was Dante.
● Mundus decided to create a demon for the sake of revenge. Mundus created
black knights using battle data from Sparda, Dante and Vergil. These knights
were clad in strong black armour made by Machiavelli, a craftsman from hell.
Mundus experimented with black knight prototypes, but their imperfect nature
and the power limit of artificial demons meant that they were not enough to kill
Dante and Vergil.
● It was around this time that Dante and Vergil began to fight. While travelling
around the world, Vergil learned about Sparda’s seal and wanted that power for
himself. Dante had a strong disdain for Vergil’s lust for power.
● When Mundus was told of the fighting, he decided to sit back and watch - the
brothers’ in-fighting would only benefit him. Vergil’s defeated and wounded state
was indeed a benefit to Mundus. As Mundus had not been fully revived yet, he
felt that Vergil in perfect condition would have been able to beat him. However,
Mundus was able to overpower Vergil in his weakened state.
● Mundus captured Vergil and used him in his black knight experiments. This
resulted in a knight so powerful that it was incomparable with the others. Mundus
named this knight Nelo Angelo, but Mundus did not yet have perfect control over
this knight. Mundus was able to win Vergil’s obedience by returning his amulet to
him, a symbol of the power that he so desired.
● Mundus had the perfect revenge demon, but he wanted to bring Dante to the
demon world rather than send Nelo Angelo to the human world. For this purpose,
he created Trish. She was deliberately made in his mother’s image to take
advantage of Dante’s strong affection for his mother and bring him to Mallet
Island.
● While thinking of the first time she met Dante, Trish wakes up in the demon tree.
While breathing heavily, Lady asks her if she’s just woken up. Trish apologises
for her carelessness and stands up. Lady asks if she can still fight and Trish
replies with “Just about”.
 ● Despite thinking this would be an easy job, they are struggling in their fight with
Urizen. Urizen barely acknowledges them and remains sitting on what appears to
be a throne.
● Trish and Lady begin to attack Urizen, but it is useless – a strange object floating
beside Urizen is blocking the attacks. Trish begins strategizing how to land a
blow with the Sparda sword, but before she can, Urizen unleashes a wave that
sends the ladies backwards.
● Trish concentrates on her right arm and summons Artemis, Dante’s former Devil
Arm and a creation of Machiavelli’s. Trish scatters multiple shots in the air,
hoping that the multi-direction attack will catch Urizen. However, Urizen
summons a wave to blow them away. Trish says out loud, “This is
impossible…such power”.
● Trish thinks about how she has heard many rumours about demons. Even if
she’s never seen or fought a demon, she has typically heard of them. When it
comes to Urizen however, she has never heard anything about him.
● Trish says “Dante…” out loud and passes out while contemplating Urizen’s
identity.

Nero Chapter 3
● Nero wakes up after being in a coma for several days. When he does, V is
standing beside him. Nero immediately raises his guard after what happened to
him, but V smiles at him. V admits that he came in through the windows and tells
him that his name is V.
● Nero would usually rely on the Devil Bringer to tell whether someone was a
demon or not, but what remained of his arm was wrapped in bandages. Still
trying to process what happened, Nero scowls at V and asks who he is.
● V tells Nero that he knows the demon who stole his arm. The demon acquired
the power of Yamato from stealing Nero’s arm and now Dante is on his way to
face him.
● Nero asks how V knows this, and he says that he is pursuing the same demon as
Dante – the one who stole Nero’s arm. V says he can’t possibly beat this demon
alone, so he enlisted Dante’s help. V then invites Nero to come with him as he
doesn’t think Dante can beat this enemy alone.
● Nero is incredibly doubtful that there is an enemy alive that Dante can’t beat.
Nero sticks out his bandaged arm as if to say ‘What am I supposed to do?’.
Suddenly, the tattoos on V’s arm begin to wriggle and a bird emerges from them.
● Griffon calls him a slowpoke and tells him to hurry up and get a move on as
there’s not much time left. Nero thinks that this is coming from V, but V chimes in
 with his own words. He asks Nero if he doesn’t feel confident that he can beat
the demon that stole his pride and his right arm.
● In response, Nero grinds his teeth. He acknowledges that V looks suspicious, but
he wants to take back what was stolen from him. Following V and the trail of this
demon may be his only opportunity to do so.
● He notes that he has experience fighting one-handed as he used to hide the
Devil Bringer. The only problem was Kyrie – he didn’t think she would permit him
to go demon hunting in his current condition.
● Nero asks V if he can wait a little while so that he can retrieve Blue Rose and
Red Queen; he plans to sneak into the garage and retrieve them so as not to
alert Kyrie and Nico. Griffon and V tell Nero to hurry at the same time.

Dante Chapter 4
● Note: So far, I have been referring to Mundus as ‘the demon emperor’ in
accordance with the kanji (​魔界の帝王​). In this chapter, Urizen is referred to
using separate kanji – ‘the demon king’ (​魔王​). If I say ‘demon king’ from this
point onwards, it is due to this kanji.
● The chapter begins with Dante asking Urizen if he’s the king of the garbage
dump. Dante has arrived at the location of Urizen’s throne and notices that Lady
and Trish are unconscious. He tells Urizen that he’s surprised as they are the two
most terrifying women on the planet.
● Dante aims Ebony and Ivory at Urizen and says that it seems like he’s hit the
jackpot. Dante had his doubts about the legitimacy of V’s words, but after seeing
Trish and Lady defeated, it was enough evidence for Dante for who this was –
and he wasn’t going to let him resurrect.
● Urizen finally speaks and says “Dante…”. This is further evidence for Dante that
this is the demon that V described as ‘your reason for fighting’.
● Dante says it’s a pity that he didn’t die and that he’ll send him back to hell. He
begins firing Ebony and Ivory, but the strange object near Urizen stops the
bullets from reaching him. Instead, he pulls out Rebellion and swings at Urizen.
However, the object prevents even this attack.
● Dante reflects on how it is hard to tell who it is from the muffled voice, but there is
only one person who could deflect his blows. Dante asks the demon if he’s
tougher than last time. In response, the demon lets out a faint laugh.
● Dante says it’s been a while since he’s gone all out and then devil triggers. He
tells Urizen to make it quick as, while he’s a day late, he has someone’s birthday
that he wants to celebrate.

Morrison Chapter 2
 ● Morrison is observing the tree from Red Grave City’s central plaza. It has been a
few days since the tree appeared, and citizens are doing things like taking
pictures and praying to it.
● It has been three hours since Dante, Lady and Trish entered the tree, and it has
been 30 minutes since V returned with the young man Nero.
● Morrison thinks about how the name Red Grave City and Dante’s alias Tony
Redgrave can’t be a coincidence. Morrison thinks about Dante’s/Tony’s ill omen
reputation from the first Morrison chapter. Other mercenaries would refuse to
work with him because those who did died.
● Morrison theorises that because Dante is a son of Sparda, he is the natural
enemy of demons. For his safety, he adopted the Tony Redgrave persona to
hide from demons. Tony’s ill omen reputation began when demons found him
and began to attack him. While this is his speculation, it is strengthened by the
appearance of the demon king in Red Grave City.
● Dante is usually able to finish his jobs in a few minutes, an hour at most. With
Dante gone for three hours, Morrison begins to worry.
● “We’ve known each other a long time. You’ve never had this much trouble, you
gonna make it through this?”

Nero Chapter 4
● Nero and V are inside the demon tree, and Nero sees Dante fighting Urizen in
the distance. Seeing Dante alive and fighting, Nero questions why he’s even
here. V tells him not to underestimate the demon: he stole Nero’s right arm and
gained a mighty power.
● V tells Nero that he will go on ahead and not to be late. With this, V floats off
using Shadow’s ability. Nero says out loud how V is undoubtedly suspicious.
● Nero mentally rhymes off the reasons why V is suspicious: clearly using a
pseudonym, looks suspicious, never says more than what’s necessary, and
possesses strange abilities. However, he wants to believe that V is telling the
truth. Whether it’s V’s voice, his gaze or even his appearance, there’s something
about him that makes Nero want to follow him without reason.
● Nero says he’ll do as V says, then holds his right shoulder. “I’ve got a score to
settle with that son of a bitch”.
● He thinks about the idea of an enemy even Dante can’t beat. Despite knowing
that he’d have no prospect of winning, he marches forward. He can’t forgive the
demon who stole his arm and wants to retrieve Yamato with his own hand.
● Nero thinks about how he was given Yamato. Dante originally made it his
mission to retrieve Yamato, then he let Nero have it like he was just giving candy
to a child. He didn’t understand why, but the fact that Yamato was so powerful
 meant that Dante really trusted Nero. Losing Yamato felt like a betrayal of
Dante’s trust which Nero felt guilty about.
● Fly and mantis-like demons block Nero’s path to Urizen. Nero says, “What,
feeling motivated? Let’s go” and revs up Red Queen.

V Chapter 2
● V went ahead to deal with some demons for Nero, making things easier for him
to reach Urizen as quickly as possible. As the demon tree Qliphoth served as a
hole to the demon world, countless demons were breaking through in search of
human blood.
● Despite clearing obstacles for him, Nero still hasn’t arrived. Griffon remarks that
he’s late, and Shadow gives a small howl at V’s feet. Griffon translates for
Shadow – “The kitty thinks so too”.
● V returns Shadow to its quick movement form and goes to find Nero. He reflects
on how Shadow helps him to move beyond his current capabilities. At that
moment, V is said to only have a little power as he is on the verge of death.
● V finds Nero fighting demons. Nero insists that he doesn’t need help, but a large
number of demons appear which Griffon begins to attack. Griffon says to Nero,
“Don’t you get it, hero? Get a move on, we’ll handle these guys”. Griffon then
yells at V to hurry up and finish off the enemies as they are unable to.
● A description is given for why V must be the one to deliver the finishing blow. V
describes Shadow and Griffon’s abilities as ‘dream-like’. He explains that while
things can suffer because of their dreams, their dreams cannot kill them. In the
same way, the beasts can inflict pain, but they cannot kill. It is V’s duty to kill
demons that have been afflicted by the dream. V finishes off the demons while
calling them trash.

Nico Chapter 3
● Kyrie is distraught after hearing the news that Nero has escaped from hospital.
She shakily asks Nico what they should do, and Nico fights back the urge to hug
Kyrie. She tells Kyrie that they can’t do anything but wait, but Nero will return
soon.
● Nico notices that Blue Rose and Red Queen are missing from the garage. Nico
believes that he has gone to fight the person who stole his arm.
● She feels that it’s not like Nero to make Kyrie worry so much, but it’s
understandable – there’s no way she would be happy with him going in his
current state. She also wonders how Nero knew who to pursue and how to find
them.
 ● Julio enters the garage. Nico tries to dismiss him as it’s not time to eat yet.
However, he tells the ladies that he saw a helicopter last night.
● Nico begins quizzing Julio about the helicopter. He says that it landed in the
outskirts of the city and then took off again. As it is rare for helicopters to be cited
in Fortuna, Nico believes the helicopter and Nero’s disappearance are linked.
● Kyrie is worried by this, and Nico tries to comfort her. “Like I said, we can’t do
anything but wait. Don’t worry, Nero’s a tough guy – he won’t kick the bucket
easily”. Kyrie nods in agreement.
● Nico determines that Kyrie can’t leave because she needs to look after the
orphans, but it would be reckless for her to leave as she had no clue where Nero
was.
● Nico tells Kyrie that she won’t be eating for a while and to keep the orphans away
from the garage. Kyrie asks her why, and Nico replies that she will be designing
all night and wants to concentrate as much as possible.
● She wants to make Nero a prosthetic arm. But she didn’t want to make just a
regular prosthesis, she wanted to create one that was imbued with power to help
Nero. She could use Agnus’s research to create powerful and demon-infused
artificial arms.
● While smoking outside, Nico blows smoke into the air and hopes that Nero
returns safely.

Nero Chapter 5
● Nero arrives at the Urizen battle as Dante is blown back. He calls out to Dante,
but Dante is lying limp. Nero also sees Trish and Lady knocked unconscious.
● A tentacle reaches for Dante, but Nero fires Blue Rose at it and it retracts itself.
Nero smiles at saving Dante as Dante was his own lifesaver; it’s because of him
that Fortuna’s citizens and Kyrie are safe. Nero always wanted to repay Dante’s
help, and he is determined to protect Dante in this fight.
● Nero says to the demon, “Hey asshole, didn’t your mother tell you it’s not nice to
steal?”. Urizen does not respond. Nero takes out Red Queen and revs it while
saying “Sorry Dante, I’m bagging this bitch”.
● Nero swings at him with Red Queen, but the strange floating object is preventing
his attacks from landing. He tries to break the barrier by revving Red Queen
more. While doing this, a tentacle attacks him. He is unable to fire Blue Rose at it
due to only having one arm, so the tentacle knocks him back. Afterwards, the
ground shakes ominously.
● Nero hears Griffon behind him yelling “It’s no good! This is the end!”. Griffon and
V are approaching behind him.
 ● Nero theorises that if he keeps attacking the object, he should be able to destroy
it. However, he doesn’t feel he has the strength to execute his theory as he is
struggling to regain his breath.
● Urizen raises his hand. Nero believes that this is to deliver the finishing blow, but
he doesn’t have the energy to move. Suddenly, a gunshot is fired at Urizen’s
hand that stops it moving.
● Dante, while aiming Ebony and Ivory at Urizen, says “Round 2”. Dante devil
triggers and rushes towards Urizen, but Urizen is easily able to stop the blow.
After this, the ground shakes again.
● Dante tells V to take Nero and run. In response, Nero yells “You gotta be shitting
me! I can still fight!” as he feels he hasn’t received any mortal wounds. Dante
turns his head to Nero and yells back, “Nero, go! You’re just dead weight”.
● Nero stops in shock as he never imagined Dante would say something like that
to him. He came to help Dante as he was told that there was a chance Dante
couldn’t do this on his own. Knowing this, he didn’t want to leave. V grabs his
shoulder and tells him that he needs to leave, but Nero shrugs him off and tries
to rush to Urizen.
● Afterwards, debris falls from the ceiling and the ground shakes. Nero stumbles
backwards and debris lands on the ground, blocking the path to Urizen.
● Nero tries to climb over the debris to get to Dante, but V holds him back. V tells
him that he needs to escape as the demon’s power is beyond imagination. Nero
eventually stops trying to push V back, but he yells out to Dante. “You think I’m
dead weight!? Don’t bullshit me!”. Nero reflects on how he came here to save
Dante, but he didn’t expect to be treated like worthless trash.
● V tells him that if he is frustrated, he should think of ways to get stronger – if
Dante loses, it’s up to Nero to beat Urizen. Nero asks if that is the demon’s name
and V nods. V reiterates that Urizen is the demon that stole Nero’s arm. Nero
tries to look at Urizen, but their line of sight is completely blocked by debris.
● V tells Nero to hurry up and escape, to which Nero complies.

Morrison Chapter 3
● Outside the tree, someone points to a part of the tree and says “Huh, what’s
that?”. Part of the tree starts to wriggle, then Nero and V burst forth from it. They
immediately head for Morrison.
● Morrison asks them what happened and what’s happened to Dante. V tells him
that Dante’s buying them time and they don’t have much time left. At this point,
tentacles begin breaking through the road. These tentacles begin to pierce
people, causing mass hysteria.
 ● Morrison replies, “No way, Dante lost?”. Nero goes to attack the tentacles, but V
stops him and tells him that he needs to retreat.
● Morrison asks V if they have a plan. V says while they don’t necessarily have a
plan, they know that they need one thing – power. Morrison asks if that will be
easy, and V says that they have no choice. V says that they have about a month
left, but the world will end after that.
● Morrison sighs. There have been world-ending prophecies before, and Dante has
always dealt with them. With his voice trembling, Morrison asks, “Hey, did Dante
really lose?”. In response, V says “It is likely”.
● Morrison says, “What the hell!” out loud. He feels useless as there is no one else
to recruit who could help. V replies with, “Don’t give up. Humans don’t give up,
that is their saving grace”.
● Nero, who was silent until now, asks if there really is a month until the world
ends. V tells him to obtain as much power as possible as he is their only hope,
besides Dante, to defeat Urizen.
● Nero asks Morrison to take him back to Fortuna and he will return in a month.
Morrison respects Nero’s tenacity and notes that it is probably because he is
young, but great power can be born from youth.
● Several years ago, Dante told Morrison about an interesting young man that lived
in Fortuna. He had demonic power similar to Dante’s, and Dante seemed to take
a liking to his brash nature. This was evidenced by Dante asking Morrison to
order and send a Devil May Cry neon sign to him.
● V tells them that he will stay in Red Grave City. As he cannot gain power, he will
stay and collect information. Nero says that he will see him a month; V nods and
walks away.

Nico Chapter 4
● When Nero returns to Fortuna, he asks Nico to make him a prosthetic arm. Nico,
being one step ahead of him, discusses her idea with him. Her initial idea was an
enhanced prosthesis with a creation time of six months. Nero tells her that he
needs a new powerful arm without one month. She finds this time frame absurd.
● After pulling a second all-nighter, Nero asks if she’s started making it yet and she
snaps at him – it’s not like she’s just making a plastic model.
● Nero volunteers to ask Morrison for help and Nico rejects it. She regrets not
being able to meet Morrison as she’s sure that he’d have great stories to tell
about Dante.
● It’s said that she was too busy working in the garage to even notice that Nero
was home.
 ● Nero asks how work is proceeding and she tells them that she has ideas floating
around. He says to her, “You’ve worked two all-nighters and have nothing to
show for it?”.
● This irritates Nico. “Amateur! The most important part is the planning stage! Do
you want to end up with an arm like a pirate hook?”. Nero looks at her
apologetically and admits that he’s getting impatient as they don’t have much
time.
● Nico says she’s getting impatient too because she wants to go help Dante, see
Ebony and Ivory, and hear stories about her grandmother. She jokes about
making him a shitty arm that’ll help him eat pasta.
● Nero apologises and says he’ll wait a bit longer. Nico thinks about how her brain
can’t produce the best ideas when the fate of the world might rest on her.
● Julio runs to them and tells them that demons have appeared in Mitis Forest.
Nero asks if there are any injured people, and Julio says he doesn’t think so as
people are hiding at home. Nero pats Julio on the head and says he did a good
job telling him.
● While Nero is heading out, he asks Nico if she wants to come. Although there
have been a number of demon sightings during her time in Fortuna, she was too
busy reading over her father’s research material to accompany Nero. This time,
she thinks she could benefit from watching Nero and demons fight.
● Nero gives her a bunch of instructions to keep her safe (e.g. don’t get too close
to demons). Nico says she’s not too interested in demons themselves anyway,
so he doesn’t need to worry.

Nero Chapter 6
● Nero enters Mitis Forest, but he can’t see anything. He wonders if people may
have simply seen a bear. Nico says that she doubts the residents of Fortuna
would confuse a bear with a demon.
● Nero reflects on how Mitis Forest was mainly used as a training ground for The
Order. People rarely use it now except for things like obtaining timber.
● Nero deduces that if a demon is here, it’s probably hiding at the back of the
forest. Nico gets exhausted easily as desk work is her speciality and she’s just
worked two consecutive all-nighters. Instead of leaving her behind or telling her
to go home alone, Nero leads her by the hand through the forest.
● Nero suddenly gets covered in shadow, and he determines that it’s an overhead
attack. Nero kicks Nico out of danger and begins fighting the demon – a Blitz.
● During the fight, Nero takes a quick glance at Nico. While looking petrified, she
stands absolutely still. He realises that she knows from Agnus’s research
 documents that Blitzes cannot see, so she’s making sure not to make any noise
to alert it to her presence.
● Nero tries to distract Blitz enough to give Nico an opportunity to escape. Nero
executes a perfect bait to let Nico escape. However, instead of escaping, Nico
scribbles something on a memo pad. She then shows it to Nero – “I got one! I got
one! I got an idea! I’m a genius!”. Nero yells “Are you serious!?” at her.
● As Nico didn’t use her opportunity to escape, Nero feels he has no choice but to
start attacking using Red Queen as its revs create more noise for distraction.
Nero attacks Blitz with Red Queen and electricity surges through his body. He
groans in pain but continues attacking, and it is enough to kill the Blitz.
● As Nero goes to return home, Nico points to Blitz’s corpse and says that she
needs to take it home. She came up with a special design for an arm, but she
needs a demon organ capable of producing electricity.
● While picking up the Blitz corpse, Nero asks if she plans to use parts from it to
create an arm. Nico says that the Blitz parts aren’t going to feature in the arms,
they are simply for reference. Instead, she wants to research how Blitz is able to
generate electricity, and she will use those findings to create an arm.
● Nero says that it’ll be a good idea for her to come on future hunts so that she can
get inspiration. She pulls out a cigarette and says, “Roger that”.

V Chapter 3
● In Red Grave City, the Qliphoth continues to grow and the hole allowing passage
between the human and demon world grows larger.
● Griffon asks V if the situation would be better if they evacuated people from the
city in advance. If people and their blood were kept away from the Qliphoth, it
would not have grown so quickly.
● V replies that nobody would believe him if he tried to warn them. It was also not
possible for him to negotiate with politicians as he didn’t have that type of
authority or that much time. V tried his best with what he could do, but his heart
was still dominated by indescribable regret.
● Griffon asks V if he’s worried, and he says he is. It won’t be long until armies are
despatched to Red Grave City, but it’s useless as they too will become sacrifices
to the Qliphoth.
● Griffon asks if he thinks Nero will return. V replies, “He’ll come back. He’s not the
type of guy to accept a losing streak”. Griffon laughs and says, “And who does he
get that from?”. V simply replies, “No idea”.
● V looks at the book in his hands, an old collection of poems. V treasured this
book when he was a young boy. When you turn the page, each psalm is
eye-catching.
 ● ‘And it grew both day and night till it bore an apple bright’. The title of the psalm
this line originates from is ‘Poison Tree’ – the psalm that predicted the Qliphoth.
Remembering the delusions of his former self, V grimaces and closes the book.
● V begins to move and Griffon asks where he is going. V says he is going to help
the humans who are being attacked by the Qliphoth. In response, Griffon says,
“Help!? You!? The humans!? Seriously? Did you hit your head or something?”.
● V told Nero that he was staying in Red Grave City to gather information, but that
was a lie. V already knew everything. He knew why the tragedy was unfolding in
this city. He knew Urizen’s identity. He knew everything down to its very origin.
● While remaining in this town, he wanted to avoid too much movement as his
body was eroding away. But still, V wanted to help the people of the city.
● Griffon flies after him while saying, “Hey V, wait! Are you seriously doing this?
You don’t have to, but I’ll help!”.
● V knew that saving one or two people wouldn’t stop the Qliphoth, but if it bought
one or two seconds more, he was still willing to do it. V’s soul told him he was
obligated to do it.
● V says out loud, “I’ll do what I can”. He vows to minimise the damage in the city
until Nero returns in a month.

Epilogue
● Nero is preparing to return to Red Grave City. Kyrie tells him that she will stay
inside taking care of the orphans. Nero says Morrison may bring people to
Fortuna to help protect it.
● Nico beeps the horn and tells Nero to get a move on. Nero replies, “I got it, shut
up”.
● Nico gets out of the van and tells Kyrie not to worry, Nero won’t die while using
the work of the ‘heavenly artist’. Instead of continuing the banter, they decide it’s
best to get a move on as Nero made a promise to meet V.
● Nico and Nero drive off together. Nero chides Nico for her rough driving, but Nico
insists she’s trying to tame the van.
● Nico looks at Nero’s artificial arm and the arm holster she designed. She reflects
on how it was necessary to prepare a holster because, while the arm she
designed is incredibly powerful, a problem it has is that it breaks easily. She
believes this is a result of concentrating so much power in such a small thing.
● Nico asks Nero if he likes the Devil Breaker, and Nero replies “Devil Breaker?”.
She tells him that is the name that she came up with. Her reasoning is that it is a
powerful tool to break demons, and Nero replies, “Is it not because it breaks
easily?”.
● Nico pouts and reiterates that it’s because so much power is in such a small and
light thing. However, it means that several can be carried at once to offset this.
● Nero decides to go easy on Nico and says, “Well, you did your best. I didn’t think
you’d be able to design two different arms in the time limit”.
● Nico created Overture several days after Nero fought the Blitz. While watching
Nero fight demons, she was inspired to make Gerbera after looking at some
gerbera flowers. Nero wasn’t sure if this was true, but he supposed it was
possible that Nico likes flowers.
● Nico says she had a few more ideas for Devil Breakers, but she wasn’t able to
make them due to time and resources. Nero says that he can source things
locally for her. She says that if he brings her back demon corpses, even
fragments, she can make him new Devil Breakers.
● Nero reflects on how he never imagined he and Nico would be work partners as
she was the daughter of his former enemy. He wondered what Dante would think
of this.
● He hadn’t heard any news about Dante during the month. He murmurs “Dante,
wait for me…”.
● For Nero, the upcoming battle isn’t just to save Dante and it’s not just to save the
world. For him, it’s a battle of pride.