Vergil (Devil May Cry)

"Might controls everything, and without strength you cannot protect anything, let alone yourself."

- Vergil to Dante.

Vergil, later also known as Nelo Angelo, is one of the main characters in Devil May Cry series, acting as one of two main antagonists of Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening (alongside Arkham) and the main antagonist of Devil May Cry 5. He is the twin brother and father of the protagonists, Dante and Nero respectively, and seems designed to be their opposites. Despite being the antagonist, Vergil has on rare occasions acted with Dante.

He was voiced by Hiroaki Hirata in Japanese dub and Daniel Southworth in English verson.

Personality
Vergil is the complete opposite of his hotheaded and sarcastic twin and son; he is cold, collected, manipulative and cynical. He seeks to obtain power by any means, with no regard for what may happen to others. Vergil also embraces his demonic side and hates his human half. He seems to want power, so as to make up for his failure to protect his mother, as evidenced by his statement "Might controls everything, and without strength you cannot protect anything, let alone yourself". Vergil also seems to desire to be like his father, so much so that he tries to look like him and seeks to have his powers.

Past
Vergil was the son of the Demon known as; Sparda, and a woman named Eva, as well as being the older twin brother of Dante. Very little is known about Vergil's young life, but is implied that he and Dante were close, as well as being close towards their mother. Some time before their 8th birthday, Vergil and Dante were each given half of the Perfect Amulet by their mother. Around the same time however, Sparda disappeared, leaving Eva to take care of their sons. When the twin's turned eight years old, Vergil, Dante, and their mother were attacked by demons, who were hoping to harm Sparda's loved ones for revenge. In the progress, Eva was killed by demons and the brothers were separated from each other, resulting in Dante believing that Vergil was dead. Because he failed to save his mother as well as witnessed his mother getting killed during the demonic assault, Vergil eventually became corrupted and power hungry.

Investigating the Order of the Sword
As he got older, Vergil traveled the world, looking for information about his father. Eventually, Vergil visited the city of Fortuna, where he decided to investigate the local religious society of men and women known as the Order of the Sword. He discovered that the Order was worshipping his father like a god with great reverence. As he was pondering why these humans were worshipping his father who is a demon as a deity, a horde of Scarecrows ambushed him, but were quickly dispatched by Vergil with little to no effort. Shortly after killing the Scarecrows, Vergil then continued deeper into Fortuna, intending to learn more about the Order and what their intentions were.

Vergil continued his investigation, as he went to the Fortuna Castle, the lab hidden underneath the Fortuna Castle, and even the Mitis Forest, then finally the Orders’ headquarter.

Most of the boss fight are non-canon (however, it is unconfirmed):
 * While he was traversing in the Mitis Forest, he came in contact with the demon; Echidna. Echidna proceeded to attack Vergil, but Vergil managed to escape.
 * When reaching The Order’s Headquarters, he came across Sanctus, who was merging himself with The Savior. The two battled each other, with an unknown outcome, though Vergil, Sanctus, as well as The Savior managed to survive the fight.

After learning what the Order was planning, Vergil made his way back to the city of Fortuna. He began to ponder on whether or not one can call the people misguided for worshipping Sparda, a mere demon. As he walks away, Vergil vows that one day the Order will know the true power of the son of Sparda.

Meeting Arkham
At least one year before the events of Devil May Cry 3, while looking for a book in a library, he met Arkham, who told Vergil about the Temen-ni-gru, a demonic tower that acted as the gateway between the demon world and human world. It was sealed by Sparda after he turned on his demon brethren, using 7 seals, represented by fallen angels, that had to be given their names for them to be undone. Vergil stayed in his mansion, while Arkham sought out the names of the seals, also managing to find out that Dante was in town.

Unsealing the Temen-ni-gru
They eventually managed to undo the first seven seals and while Arkham was sent to draw Dante to the tower, Vergil proceeded to the top. There he waited for Dante to arrive, sending Arkham out at one point to deal with Lady, Arkham's daughter and now a demon hunter.

Dante eventually arrived and he and Vergil dueled one another, in an epic battle between brothers.

Vergil won that battle and took Dante's half of an amulet given to them by their mother and given to her by Sparda, to join it with his own to make the Perfect Amulet, which he needed to unseal the Temen-ni-gru. As he was walking away, Dante's Devil Trigger activated, but Vergil left without finishing their fight, after Arkham stated they had all they needed. They found their way into an area below the tower called the Forbidden Land, until they reached the last door to the sacrifical chamber called the Lair of Judgment, where they would perform the unsealing ritual. However when Arkham unlocked the door, Vergil revealed he knew Arkham planned to betray him and cut him down.

The half-demon proceeded to the Lair of Judgment and commenced with the ritual, after being attacked by the blinded Beowulf, a demon Dante had faced earlier. Since Beowulf could no longer see, he had used his sense of smell to find Sparda's blood and thought he had found Dante.

However Vergil easily vivisected the demon and took his soul to use as a Devil Arm. Then the half-demon united the two halves of the Perfect Amulet and added his own blood, which he thought was all he needed to unseal the Temen-ni-gru. However when Dante came across him later, Vergil had had no luck in breaking the seal and the two fought again. They were interrupted by Lady and their battle ended in a tie, only for Jester to show up and say that everyone had played their part well. Jester began switching between Arkham and Jester as he explained that he had used them all for his own ends. He then completed the ritual and activated the Temen-ni-gru, knocking the trio off the rising tower, sending Vergil into an abyss.

Showdown with Dante
Dante followed Arkham into the demonic world, with Vergil following him in secret. Eventually he showed up as Dante battled Arkham, after he claimed Sparda's power, and the half-demon brothers defeated him, finishing him off with a combined shot from Dante's handguns. However, Vergil had not given up his goal of obtaining Force Edge, Sparda's sword, and the two ended up in the underworld. Realizing that the fate of the world is determined on who wins, the two battled over the blade. The two battled on equal terms, and in the end Vergil was defeated. Despite Dante wanting his brother to come with him, Vergil refused to return to the human world, and instead went deeper into the demonic world. Dante tried to grab his brother from falling off the edge, but Vergil responded by slicing open Dante's palm.

In an epilogue, Vergil was seen in the demonic world, confronting three glowing orbs, which he recognized as Mundus, the main antagonist of Devil May Cry. Thinking it would be fun to fight the demon emperor, Vergil stated that, "If my father could do it, I should be able to do it too.", before attacking Mundus. However he was defeated and brought under Mundus' control, after being corrupted into a new Devil Trigger; Nelo Angelo.

Serving Mundus
During Devil May Cry, Mundus used Nelo Angelo to fight Dante on Mallet Island. He first appeared in the mirror inside the castle's bedroom, as a reflection of Dante. After Dante placed the Death Sentence in a statue bust, and received the Melancholy Soul, Dante's reflection emerged from the mirror. The reflection then took on it's true form; the dark knight Nelo Angelo. Instead on fighting Dante in the cramped bedroom, Nelo Angelo told his brother to meet him outside in the castle garden, where there was more space to fight. When Dante reached the Castle Gardens, the two fought each other. During the fight, Nelo Angelo managed to pin Dante against a wall, but when he saw Dante's half of the Perfect Amulet, it caused him pain upon remembering his past life, and he fled.

Some time later, Dante encountered Nelo Angelo in the garden near the Coliseum. The two fought each other again, and Dante emerged victorious.

Some time later, Dante encountered Nelo Angelo for one final time. This time at in a hall in the warped castle. Before the two fought each other, Dante questioned his loyalty to Mundus. Nelo Angelo removed his helmet, revealing his true face. However, Dante did not realize who he was. Nelo Angelo challenged Dante one final time, with new abilities. But despite his new powers, Nelo Angelo was still defeated. Upon his defeat at Dante's hands, the dark knight burst into blue flames and disappeared, leaving his half of the Perfect Amulet behind. Upon seeing this, Dante realized who Nelo Angelo was. It is unknown if he is dead or if he was simply teleported away by Mundus.

Legacy
Some time after Nelo Angelo's defeat, his remains were used by the Order of the Sword to create the Bianco and Alto Angelos, alongside Vergil’s signature weapon Yamato had been retrieved there. Eventually, Vergil’s Yamato reacts when Nero’s presences is approached. It was during Nero’s encounter, Dante finally confirms that Nero is Vergil’s son, but want to keep it secret from him for a time being on not to involve with his conflict against Vergil. The Order uses Yamato for their own selfish gain, using the Hell Gate to summon and kill demons, proclaiming themselves as gods, until Dante manage to retrieve it and return it to its current heir, Nero.

Resurrection
Many years later, Vergil is somehow resurrected, but dying. He soon track Nero and rips his Devil Bringer, taking away from him and regaining his Yamato, leaving Nero to hunt him down a score to settle while fighting off the demons’ wide invasion sometimes later. After returning to his old mansion at Red Glove City, Vergil splits himself into two entities, one is a dying humanity self known as V, and another is his giant demon half known as Urizen.

DmC
In this reboot, Vergil is more an anti-hero and sides with Dante to save mankind from Mundus, but was later revealed that he wanted to kill Mundus so he could take over the humans to guide them.

Project X Zone 2
Vergil makes an appearance in Project X Zone 2. He is a playable character with his partner Dante. Nelo Angelo makes an appearance as a non-playable boss character in the crossover video game; Project X Zone 2.

This eventually revealed that Vergil which player used is actually a time-displaced version of himself.

Crosspedia Entry
Dante's twin older brother and, like him, a demon-human hybrid. Having witnessed his mother's murder at the hands of a demon and experienced the bitter torment of powerlessness, he now dedicates himself exclusively to the pursuit of pure power. Cruel and inhumane, he will stop at nothing to achieve his goals.

In his search for power, he climbed to the top of Temen-ni-gru and unsealed the door to the Demon World. There he fought many times against Dante, who seeks to destroy all demons. Since he was chosen to live as a demon, he eschews mortal weapons and refuses to use human-made guns.

A master of the art of iaido, his sword and unarmed skills are greater than Dante's and in one instant, he can close with his foe and unleash lethal damage.

Powers and Abilities

 * Supernatural Powers: Vergil has similar powers to his biological father Sparda and twin brother Dante. It is believed that Dante’s immense supernatural powers comes not just from his demonic blood, but due to his will to never be weak again and protect the ones he cares about. He implies when he is speaking with Dante, that without power you cannot protect anything, let alone yourself. This may mean demons can reach their full potential by having the ability to protect and care for another, but this may only be for his brother Dante and his biological son Nero due to their being part human as well as part demon. After devouring the fruit of the Qlipoth tree, Vergil gained even more power, equivalent if not greater than the power possessed by Mundus himself. So far he has shown;
 * Supernatural Strength: Vergil has incredible superhuman strength, due to his demonic heritage. He possesses supernatural strength to the point where he can punch through stone with little effort and overpower demons much larger than him without much difficulty. Even in a severely weakened state, he was able to tear off Nero's nigh-invulnerable demonic arm to regain Yamato.
 * Supernatural Mobility: His superhuman speed is so great that he can move faster than the eye can see and his agility is at a superhuman level, allowing him to perform feats such as running so fast that he appears to be teleporting. This was seen when in Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition's opening, how he instantly dashes from one opponent to the other. His agility was seen seen he sliced up Beowulf's head into four pieces. His reflexes are also similarly enhanced as well. He is able to combat dante in terms of reflexes as well.
 * Supernatural Stamina: Even after he was extremely tired by battling Dante, he was able to regenerate his vitality and stamina within a few minutes after Arkham tossed him. After gaining moe power via the Qlipoth Fruit, Vergil's stamina was enhanced tot he point where he and Dante fought each other for weeks in Hell without tiring, or slowing down for long.
 * Supernatural Durability: While not bulletproof, his physical constitution can withstand high levels of physical trauma. Even after being extremely tired by fighting Dante, when Jester overpowered him and attacked him, Vergil showed no signs of fatigue or injury.
 * Regenerative Healing Factor: Due to his demonic heritage, Vergil possess an astonishing regenerative healing factor. His regenerative abilities are seen while he is fighting Dante for the second time. Even after Jester caused a massive amounts of physical trauma to him, he was able to recover and go just in time for the final battles. Even after Dante dealed a fatal blow to him during their final battle, he was still limbering and not dead.
 * Immortality: Due to his demonic heritage, he is immune to the passage of time. It has even been revealed that he is still alive, severely weakened, and trying to get over his trauma of his servitude of Mundus by splitting his human and demon halves with the Yamato.
 * Supernatural Senses: He is able to sense oncoming attacks from miles away. His enemies always have an extremely hard time evading him or even sneaking up on him.
 * Devil Trigger: Vergil’s half-demon nature allows him to release his demonic powers fully through his Devil Trigger, which increases his speed and increases the potency of his healing factor and even grants him several new abilities. After eating the Qlipoth fruit and regaining his human and demon halves back, he gained a new Majin demon form, which is far more powerful than his original devil trigger.
 * Demonic Magic: Vergil is already the son of an extremely powerful ascended demon. As such he possess a great deal of demonic mystical energies. Vergil can channel his demon energies into objects, such as his weapons or even the air itself. He uses these energies to create his Summoned Swords as long range weapons, which are energy swords resembling the Force Edge.
 * Supreme Combatant: The half-demon has also used a number of demon fighting styles, emphasizing mastery of Devil-Arms and their elemental powers. He uses a demonic fighting style known as Dark Slayer style, which lets him teleport & utilize a lot of dark force energy inside Yamato mixed with his skills.
 * Swordsmanship: Vergil is a master swordsman with extreme and incredible skill, talent, precision, accuracy and technique. He's a master of Iaido (or Iaijutsu due to their great similarity). Iaido is a Japanese martial art that emphasizes being aware and capable of quickly drawing the sword and responding to a sudden attack (a quick yet precised counter-attack) then sheathing the sword immediately. His opponents often not realizing they're dead until he sheathes Yamato. His sword fighting skills and feats are considered to be "legendary" and even leading many people to believe they're superior to Dante's or on par with him at least. Combined with his Superhuman strength and speed Vergil is nearly-unmatched in a swordfight perhaps only surpassed by his father, Sparda.
 * Hand-to-Hand Combat / Martial Arts: Due to the nature of series (which its primary fighting weapons are swords) Vergil is not shown frequently in fist fights or utilizing unarmed forms of martial arts. However while using Beowulf as a melee weapon for combat, Vergil demonstrated some of his proficiency and skills on martial arts (those demonstrations may be a small part of his skillset), using multiple forms and techniques of punches, spinning kicks, roundhouse kicks, back hand punches, knee strikes and counter attacks which many of these belongs to (but not limited to) : Boxing, Taekwondo, Karate, Kickboxing, Muay Thai and Krav Maga (Remember he uses such techniques which strongly resembles these mentioned martial arts techniques and he necessarily doesn't need to possess master-level skills or/and being familiar with these forms) thus proving he's a master of a large number of fighting and martial techniques/style. Interestingly enough his movesets with Beowulf are smaller than Dante's however they're far more efficent and powerful. Even stranger the reason behind this has never been explained.
 * Devil Arms: His primary weapons are Yamato, Force Edge & the Summoned Swords. He wields a katana called Yamato that he inherited from his father, which is a Devil Arm, a weapon made from demonic power. He later gained another Devil Arm, Beowulf, named after the demon he gained it from. It was a set of gauntlets and greaves with light powers, but Vergil lost these after falling into a void, and they were claimed by Dante. Beowulf also gave him a different Devil Trigger, a fact that is true for most Devil Arms.

Trivia

 * Vergil is named after Publius Vergilius Maro, a famous Roman poet of the Augustan period. In the Divine Comedy, the namesake of Vergil's brother, Dante, makes Publius his guide to hell.
 * Vergil is the first Devil May Cry boss to have a playable role in the games. He is also the most recurring boss character in the series, with six total boss battles.
 * Vergil is voiced by Daniel Southworth, who previously played Eric Myers, the Quantum Ranger in Power Rangers Time Force.
 * Vergil's outfit is a costume for Stylish Alastor in Viewtiful Joe Red Hot Rumble for the PSP.
 * Vergil appears as a playable character in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. If one completes the storymode with Vergil, his ending has him defeating Wolverine to claim his Muramasa Blade, and declaring that both his and the sword's soul cry out for more power.
 * His other name, Nelo Angelo, is a misspelling of Nero Angelo, Italian for Black Angel. In UMVC3, this is the name of his Level 3 Hyper Combo.