"Rainbow, Nero, wait up!" Twilight called ahead once again for the two to stop and let them catch up. Another reason for them to stop was that whatever produced the roar was now producing several crashes and smashes like it was throwing itself around. Who knew what was happening beyond what they could see from where they were.
Before long the end of the forest came into view and light shone through the shadows, illuminating the darkness. She saw the silhouettes of Nero and Rainbow stop at the edge, and when the rest of them caught up they soon understood why. Before her was a large open space that's main feature was the giant creature that stood almost dead center. Her jaw fell agape as she saw the sheer size of the beast.
She made a quick mental calculation and judged it's height at somewhere around 40-50 feet height at the tips of the fiery wings. Whatever it was, it was standing perfectly still, tilting it's head up slightly like it was looking at the sky. On the and of it's snout stood a figure that was almost entirely covered in a long red coat. They appeared to be staring right through each other in some sort of a stand-off. Suddenly they heard Rainbow Dash mutter something along the lines of 'Now that's awesome'.
"Nero. What in Tartarus IS that?" Apple Jack pointed her hoof at the monster that stood in the middle of the clearing.
"That's a demon, Apple Jack. This one is called Berial."
"And you hunt these things?" Twilight sounded surprised.
"Not these ones specifically. I've got into hunting the smaller ones as a part time thing, but Dante up there does stuff like this for a living." Nero pointed to the figure atop the demons snout.
"What now, Dante?" A deep and powerful voice filled the area. "Are we just going to sit here and wait for one-another to make a move?"
"I don't think we should be here. It doesn't seem safe, and I don't want to be at the center of any more harm." Fluttershy stated shakily. The other mares nodded in agreement but Rainbow Dash shook her head.
"If this Dante is as cool as you say he is, then I wanna' stay and watch!" She stopped flying and landed gracefully next to Nero.
"Not a good idea, Dash." Nero said as he flexed his arm and rotated Red Queen around in a circle. "Wouldn't want you to get burned alive under the wrath of Berial. You're only mortal and no matter how awesome you claim to be, there's no way you can stand up to a castle sized 1000 ton sword wielding demon unless you can take being hit by a sword that's nearly a quarter of that weight, AND on fire."
"Sounds like a good enough reason for me. Let's be on our way then." Rarity turned and started to walk back into the forest, and all of the mares followed suit... except Rainbow Dash, who stood stubbornly against the warning.
"Dash..." Nero started firmly but the pegasus folded her forelegs and smiled a challenge to him. "...Dash, I'm warning you! Go with your friends!" He pointed the giant sword at her, the blade shining with a silver sheen.
"Fine!" She gave in and threw her forelegs in frustration and took off toward the other retreating mares. Nero kept his eyes on her until she disappeared from view, and when and only when he was sure that she was gone did he look back.
And right on queue the bodies of Trish and Lady fell to the floor ahead of him. Trish hit the floor heavily but managed to stay on her feet. Unlike Lady who bounced off the floor and rolled towards him, his legs ceasing her movement. She groaned and rolled over onto her back, where she opened her eyes and saw Nero looming over her.
"Nero?" She rubbed her eyes as he grabbed her arms and pulled her to her feet. "Where were you when we needed you?"
"Drinking tea with the locals."
"Seriously?" She cocked an eyebrow at him. Nero just shrugged and rested Red Queen on his shoulder.
"Don't ask. It's hard to explain unless you see it yourself."
"Whatever." She vigorously dusted herself down and leaned on one leg. She looked a little aggravated, like she was close to exploding.
"What's got you so worked up? Struggling against our big fiery friend here?"
"Easy for you to say when you can just punch him in the face and walk away! It's not like everybody has a right arm like you do." Nero just smiled and nodded along with her irritation. They all returned their attention to Berial and Dante.
"What now, Dante?" Boomed the powerful voice of Berial as Dante scratched his stubble and smiled. "-Oh, so many things I could do now. Just you wait, Berial.-" "Are we just going to sit here and wait for one-another to make a move?" Dante covered his ears in mock deafening.
"Dude, jeez'. You gotta' calm down with the voice, you're going to kill my ears." Berial let out a low growl and his neck contorted, twisting in preparation to throw him away. Dante leaped forward and over his head, free falling through the air. He turned upside-down to see his target and drew Ebony and Ivory and began to fire at his spine, blasting away the armour down his neck with each gun crossed over in style.
Dante landed on Berial's back just in time to see the demon's hands flying towards him in an attempt to swipe him away. He jumped backwards to avoid them, landing further down the spine. Dante stood up and held his arms in position to hold a guitar, followed by an amber flash. Nevan appeared within his hands and he grew a devilish smile, slamming the strings on the demonic instrument to release a large bolt of lightning that flew from the head of the guitar and struck the new weakness on Berials neck.
Berial roared in pain and lurched forward, forcing Dante to widen his stance in order to avoid being thrown off. Dante's right arm began whirling around in a circle, striking the strings of the guitar at a steady tempo. Each rip releasing another arc of lightning that landed on different points along the spine of Berial, every 10 feet or so. Once he was satisfied he span round and threw his arms out, the parts of the guitar unlocked and extended into a menacing scythe.
He struck hard at the first point and Nevan's blade was jammed from tip to base into the hard armour of Berial's back. By this time, Berial had recovered from his pain and gave a powerful flap of his fiery wings to launch him into the air with more grace than one would expect from something about his size. Dante realised it was time to go, and he turned tail and ran all the way down his spine while dragging Nevan with him to tear apart Berial's armour.
Once he reached the base of the tail he tore the curved blade from the thick blade rock and went into a slide while using Nevan as a grater to peel away the skin of Berial's tail as he slide down it's long length. The flaming tail whipped around at the end, allowing the devil hunter to use it as a ramp and gain huge air from the jump. While he was free falling he slashed the air with the scythe and sent a multiple bolts of lightning at the weakened points of armour.
The pieces of armour shattered with the sound of thunder echoing throughout the valley, sending chunks of rock and lava speeding through the air behind the falling Dante. He landed trailing his arms behind him, and Nevan disappeared from the air with another amber blow only to be replaced by Cerberus. The icy triple nun-chucks span quickly in his right hand, ready to be used at the best moment.
Berial stopped in the air clutching his newly exposed areas of molten flesh awkwardly and in pain. He turned around to face Dante, magma falling from his body and onto the floor. The ground melted around Dante, trapping him a fiery circle of death. In response Dante twirled around with Cerberus to let out an ice cold ring of power that doused the flames and cooled the magma enough for him to be able to dash across it without setting himself on fire and travel into a more un-affected area.
The single combatant was given some backup by the arrival of three more demon hunters. A red and black blur whizzed by as Nero slashed at the air with Yamato to send a wave of razor sharp energy Berial's way. The demon blocked with his sword but growled in anger when he saw that the attack had sliced his sword into two pieces, and the end had already started falling to the floor.
Dante turned to ask him where he had been all that time but was stopped by a hand being raised to him.
"Don't ask. I'll explain later. Besides, I have a few things I'd like to ask you later on anyways." The black clad man never once took his gaze from Berial's furious expression.
"Well... Okay." Dante shook his head and sighed. Nero looked over to Dante's back and saw the lack of metal with a confused expression.
"Where's your sword?"
"Up there." Dante nodded to the hovering and half torn apart Berial in the sky. "Lodged in that guy's chest."
"Ain't' you gonna' get it back?" Dante looked at him skeptically.
"You wanna' try and make that jump?" This caused Nero to huff and nod slowly in agreement.
"I wouldn't have believed it before, but my luck must be coming down. Both of you showing up at the same time? This was never supposed to happen! She never said you two would be here!"
Berial let out his rage and threw what was left of his sword at the group. "RAAAAARR"
The chunk of fiery rock barreled toward them with tremendous force, enough to crush the four of them out of existence. When it got close, Nero grabbed it with Devil Bringer and caught it mid flight before throwing it back at Berial. Berial simply threw a punch at it and smashed it into millions of tiny little pieces.
The demon hunters sheltered themselves from the storm of stone by raising their arms to block any incoming projectiles. Once the hail had stopped they looked up to see him flying backwards, into the forest. The trailing magma fell onto the trees, setting them alight and starting a forest-fire.
"I will come back for you!" Berial stated as his flight path carried him further into the forest. "I will come back and you will burn for this!" The forest was now heavily alight and the flames burned fiercely around the clearing. Through the haze they could just see Berial turn around and make his way toward his next destination, wherever that was.
"Well that was anti-climactic." Trish rolled her eyes as she holstered her pistols. "Now we're gonna' have to chase him down, aren't we?"
"I just want my sword back." Dante flipped off the shrinking figure of Berial in the distance. "But first we gotta' get through all this fire." The 3 half-demons started walking towards the burning tree-line, leaving the human behind wondering how she was going to get through the inferno.
"H-hey you guys! Wait up!..."
"...and I believe that the overall revenue generated from our produce is going to un-deserving causes." The noble on the red carpet finished his 'evaluation' of the current Equestrian deficit. Celestia of course had to sit and pay attention through it all for the fifth time in 3 hours, lest the nobles think she didn't care. Which she did. Although the direction that the typical noble-pony's attitude was going seemed to give her a continuing decreasing cause for care.
At first she thought that the nobles genuinely cared about the state of the country's monetary debts, but then she realised that the only reason she was being nagged about it was that while Equestria owed money, the general tax rate was raised for the richer ponies more that it was raised for the poorer ones. And that to them was an un-fathomable concept.
'The poor and dirty paying less then the rich and honorable? Preposterous!' Was the common thought process among Equestria's social elite. And it was something the sun monarch hoped would die out eventually, for it was an anomalous blemish on the values that the ponies prided themselves upon.
"Sir Gray Mane, might I assure you that all income is going to the right places and for the best causes. National debts can't just be paid off immediately and there are several places where money must go before I can pay off the deficit. Now if you'll excuse me, there are ponies with more interesting matters that may require my attention." The noble gave a half-hearted bow and walked away, Celestia kept her gaze on him until he had left the palace before turning to the next pony in queue.
"Now what is your name, my little pony?" She asked with a warm smile. The tan earth pony with a brown mane stepped fourth and bowed before giving her name.
"My name is Fair Barter, your majesty." The pony smiled with un-ease, like it was the first time she had ever stepped before her. "I am an auctioneer from Ponyville." Fair Barter introduced herself with a nervous hoof to the chest.
"And what issues do you wish to press?"
"Well over the past few weeks I have noticed that-" *SLAM* A pony slammed open the unopened double door to avoid crashing through the long queue that extended all the way to the porch outside, making everypony inside jump. He was breathing heavily and there was an element of panic in his posture as two of the guards blocked his path to her, spears raised and ready to move. Celestia noticed that it was the same noble from before.
"Confound you, Gray Mane! Can you not see I am trying to speak with one of my subjects? What is the meaning of this!?" She spoke with more irritation than she had used in a long while.
"Sorry you highness, but the Everfree is burning!" He spoke with enough urgency for it to seem legitimate. Everypony in the queue looked around and murmured to each-other as the princess rose from her throne and began walking to the door.
"I swear to my ancestors that if you're telling me lies..." Celestia walked past the frightened noble and straight out of the door onto the porch beyond. And to her surprise, she was greeting by ponies running up the stairs in a blind panic. This caught her attention and she hurried to the edge of the porch, her head leaning over the banister to peer in the direction of the Everfree forest.
Celestia's jaw almost un-hinged and dropped to the floor. The once dark and mysterious forest was now partially ablaze with so much fire that the smoke trails were rising higher than the mountains themselves and through the entirety of the cloud layer. Flames burned fiercely and consumed the trees with an almost sun-like blaze. She instantly saw the danger and turned around to order some guards over to the porch. Three guards approached and bowed before her, ready to hear the orders she was to give.
"Assemble all your best mages and fire fighters in the courtyard, they are needed immediately!" The guards saluted and ran away in different directions to gather their magic users. With the guards gone, she turned back to the banister and again started to watch the forest fire burn out of control. After a few second it hit her...
"-The tree.-" She gasped heavily and ordered one of the door guards over to her. He bowed and listened closely to her words.
"Fetch my sister and tell her I requested her presence immediately!" The guard saluted and ran way into the castle to find Luna.
"This is bad..." She murmured to herself and turned back to the fire in the distance. Even more of the forest was alight now, and it was spreading quickly. I was a good thing that it had started at the far end of the forest, that meant more time until the flames reached the Tree of Harmony, or until it consumed the forest completely. "...What could start such a fire?"
The trotting of hooves could be heard as metal clanged around as three groups of unicorn guards and pegasus fire-fighters assembled in the court-yard ahead and below the stairs. All 30 or so of them lined up and quickly readied themselves to listen to the princess. Just at that moment, the air was thrown in all directions as the dark blue figure of her sister Luna landed beside her on the porch.
"Sister, we have a problem-"
"Yes, we know. I saw the flames from above as thine presence was requested." Luna cut off her big sister and turned to the assembling of guards in the court-yard. "Is this all we have?"
"I'm afraid so, the guard count has decreased significantly with the past couple of decades." Celestia stood at her side and gestured to the guards as she spoke. She nodded to the sergeant at the head of the group.
"At attention!! The princess is about to issue our orders, so listen closely!"
"Thank you!" Celestia dismissed the sergeant and he joined the rest of them. This was going to be a long day.