Post Ending VIII: The Wedding
The invitation arrived three months in advance.
Not because Nero thought Dante and Vergil needed more time to prepare.
“They deserve proper notice.”
Nero looked at the envelope.
Looked at the words formal attire requested.
Then quietly wondered whether Hell had ever produced a suit.
Fortuna had never looked so peaceful.
Flowers lined the chapel.
Music drifted through the square.
Guests chatted quietly while waiting for the ceremony to begin.
Kyrie took one look toward the entrance.
“…Do you think they’ll make it?”
A blue portal opened in the middle of the courtyard.
One elderly lady calmly crossed herself.
Holding three pizza boxes.
“You are exactly twenty-two minutes late.”
Vergil followed behind him, adjusting one glove as though dimensional travel had merely been a mild inconvenience.
“I told him to leave earlier.”
Nero pinched the bridge of his nose.
“…Could you two please behave?”
Dante looked genuinely offended.
“When have I ever not behaved?”
Before Nero could answer—
Griffon landed on the church roof.
Shadow silently slipped into the shade beneath the pews.
The chapel doors, unfortunately…
Nightmare looked at the entrance.
Then quietly sat down outside the building.
Like an extremely patient mountain.
Several children immediately wandered over.
Someone had tied flowers around one of his enormous stone arms.
He remained perfectly still.
Vergil glanced through the doorway.
“…He doesn’t want to scare them.”
“We’re keeping it light.”
Vergil, somehow already standing twenty feet away, didn’t even look guilty.
Applause filled the chapel.
Dante whistled loudly enough to startle half the audience.
Griffon echoed him from the roof.
“YOU ARE LITERALLY CRYING.”
Nightmare let out one soft rumble.
Several little children looked up.
Vergil stood beside him for a moment, listening.
One little girl reached up and tucked another flower between the cracks of Nightmare’s shoulder.
Dante discovered the dessert table.
Three teenagers had challenged him to an eating contest.
“I underestimated wedding cake.”
“You underestimated sixteen-year-olds.”
Someone eventually convinced Vergil to dance.
He stood frozen in the middle of the floor with the expression of a man facing an unknowable cosmic horror.
Dante shoved him gently toward the music.
Nero looked across the room.
His father wasn’t smiling.
He wasn’t trying to leave anymore, either.
After the guests had gone home…
After the lights had dimmed…
Nightmare was still sitting beneath the stars.
The flowers the children had woven into his arms remained exactly where they’d left them.
He leaned back against the stone giant’s arm.
Vergil emerged from the chapel a few moments later.
He stopped when he saw the two of them.
Then he walked over without a word.
Sat down on the other side.
Three generations of the Sparda family sitting together beneath the night sky.
A few minutes later, the chapel doors burst open.
Dante appeared carrying an entire leftover wedding cake.
Behind him, Kyrie laughed.
“I knew somebody liked me.”
Vergil closed his eyes for the briefest moment.
Dante cut the cake into four uneven slices.
Then looked toward Nightmare.
Placed the biggest slice carefully on it.
Set it down beside the giant demon.
Nightmare looked at the cake.
Then, almost ceremonially…
Gently nudged the plate a little closer.
“I told you he likes dessert.”
Griffon landed beside the cake and immediately stole a strawberry.
“I still don’t trust you.”
Even Vergil’s shoulders seemed just a little lighter.
There were no demons to fight.
And far too much wedding cake.
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