-And the rest is silence.-

These words echoed throughout the hall now deprived of any kind of life form. What was a symphony of unnatural roars, firearms shots and sword blows were replaced by just silence, in which the still warm bodies of horrible beasts would have soon become cold. The blood on the walls and on the sword. The guns smoking and empty.

This was his own personal pleasure. Everyone had one, a motivation to keep moving on with life. It usually is the hope for a better future, which brings many people to say something like "let's hope everything will be fine". Hard to understand those guys. Hope is inactivity. If you're inactive you let chaos flow, with many opportunities to be hit by it with all the demons that it brings. Other times this motivation is the passion towards what you do. For the man in red it was the relationship between noise and silence.

Noise is always positive. It brings disorder, problems, filthy creatures. It means that something is happening and that he is part of it, that he’s doing what he loves more than anything else in the world. Noise is the announcement to be able to be alive again.

When the noise ends, the silence comes in, the quiet after the tempest.

After a job, silence always leaves a feeling of satisfaction, and the more noise the more it is satisfactory. Sometimes it all ends within a few of seconds, a couple of bullets, some sword blow and nothing makes any sound, leaving the one who shot and kicked really disappointed. Little noise was equal to little difficulty, which brings little challenge and everything ends with boredom. Not that time.

The scarlet blood was dripping from the point of the sword soiling the floor recently mopped. Unhuman meat on tables, chairs and other furniture of the room, and on one of these was the guy with white hair. He was looking at his work while holding by a horn the head of a creature he beheaded. Almost non existing skin, red skull and an expression of terror imprintend for the sudden death. He looked at it for a few seconds, thinking about that monster and the adverse fate that put it against him, and lowering his arm while he was watching at his work on the borders of art, his expression changed. A smile appeared on his face.

-Dante! Where are you? Are… are you still alive?-

-More alive than the others, sure enough.-

Dante, son of a woman called Eva and of a unknown father, had chosen the hard path of the mercenary specialized in paranormal activities, in particular in hunting demons, as a profession. His interlocutor was called Enzo Ferino, his friend and contact inside the mercenary world.

Enzo was walking through the hall trying not to step on any of the blood puddle caused by the fight and with the terror of bringing the attention of any other being still alive that Dante had, possibly, forgot or avoided to kill.

-They’re all dead, don’t be a coward like you usually do.-

-Hey! I’m not heavily armed and I do not survive if my heart gets hit!- Dante laughed. -You know, you could have avoided all this mess. I’m afraid to know what our client will say when he’ll discover he needs to restructure the hall even before the opening of the hotel!-

-They should have called someone else, then. Maybe someone who would have got killed immediately, or someone who would have risked to compromise the rest of the building as well. Shut up and go get paid.-

-Unless he doesn’t change his mind after you caused this much damage to the building.- said Enzo going to the exit of the room in the same way he came in, but was stopped by the devil hunter.

-Hey! Catch!- said Dante throwing the demon head he was holding, and Enzo, after realizing what he was holding, threw it away with fear, causing his friend to laugh loudly. Enzo said no more, he knew it would have been useless, confining himself to leave Dante to what was left of his work worthy of a splatter movie. I remained there a few more seconds before standing and heading to the exit, before someone walked in accusing of destroying the room with the sole aim of doing it. He managed to walk away from the hotel without getting seen, laughing as soon as he saw Enzo trying to convince the owners not to denounce them and still paying them, making Dante’s fight nothing special, in comparison.

Being up at 5 a.m allowed the devil hunter to enjoy the cold of the morning and he was able to come back to his shop without the risk of being seen fully armed and stained with blood. Demons’ attacks were increasingly frequent and as time passed the minor demons would have to let the major demons to show up, allowing Dante to get better challenges. Dante couldn’t wait. He simply hoped civilians would have ran in time.

About his activity, he still needed a name for it. True, it was Enzo that dealt with the clients, but “Dante and Enzo” meant nothing, only that there were two guys named Dante and Enzo. They needed a good name, a catchy one that could express perfectly what they offered.

-I’ll never find a name for this place.- he said while going in.

He removed his sword from his back throwing it to his left as it was a common rag, he left his guns on the desk and threw the jacket on the hanger. Then he sit on the chair behind the desk putting his feet on it, the hands behind his head. The action of earlier got him hungry, so he pick up the phone and dialed the number of his trusty pizzeria, which was open 24/7.

-It’s me. The usual. Put it on my account. Leave it on the table.-

Dante stayed on that chair for a few minutes, then the phone ringed. Dante answered hitting the table with his foot and launching the receiver in the air. It was Enzo.

-You have no idea of the problems I had to face to persuade that guy not only to pay us, but also not to denounce us.-

-You’re right, I have not, but I know you succeeded.-

-Yes, but there is something I need to tell you, it’s important.-

-Can’t it wait? I was going to have a shower.-

-No.- Enzo seemed troubled, somehow. They often had their differences of opinion, but with their business going so well, with all the jobs well done and well paid, they always managed to overcome any contradiction. It seemed that that time was… more serious.

-I think we should have business separately.-

-You want to slay demons on your own? So you’re not the chicken you’ve always shown to be.-

-Have you any idea what it’s like to face a furious client who complains about the damage your personal touch causes every time? Do you know how many times we were close to stop this activity because you cannot put a stop to your weapons? I don’t know for how long I will be able to do it… there are rumors, you know? There are those who think that paying money to restructure the building is not worth it and they’d rather keep the demon! They even hired lots of newbies until the problem was fixed, and then they got them slayed. And I’m not sure it’s just a rumor!- Enzo was on the verge of a meltdown. It was clear that seeing so many demon spawns was not therapeutic for someone like him, who wasn’t the personification of courage and wasn’t even capable with weapons.

-I made my decision. Please respect it.-

A few seconds of silence passed from the half demon. When he talked he didn’t even use many words.

-If that’s what you want, as you wish. You still owe me a pizza. You know how I want it.-

-So… are we still friends?

-You said “have business separately”, haven’t you?- Enzo laughed lightly.

-Yes, you’re right.

-I’m going to have a shower, now. I’ve already called the pizzeria, stop by and pay them.- Dante hanged and went to the shower.

That news wasn’t a big deal. He had always imagined that Enzo wasn’t happy at the end of every job, he had always something to say on how Dante used to create more mess than before. He couldn’t, however, say that he was wrong. The only thing Dante cared about was to complete the job while having fun, and it was true that often some chandelier fell, the walls became full of holes and the place stinked like blood for days, but at least he ended the job. To reduce the number of demons on the loose, even by one, they could risk to do some damage, in his opinion. It had happened that Dante restricted the damage, but it was because the clients had not a lot of money, therefore they did not deserve more problems.

At some point, while the hot water was coming out the pipes, an endless sound echoed for Dante’s office.

The incessant sound of the phone.