Gilver

VERGIL

Gilver was introduced into this story by calling into "Bobby's Cellar" looking for work. He was described as a tall figure, oddly androgynous, slim like a woman yet extremely muscular. Wearing a dark green suit, unusually stylish for a mercanary, his head was odder still, wrapped entirely in bandages, eyes peered out through gaps in the cloths and concealed his features. His very presence chilled the costumers of the bar into silence and he proceeded further into the bar. A man actually said people say he's a guy, but how could one possibly tell with all of those bandages. He gave a curt bow with the precision of a gentleman, and finally spoke which was "I ask one thing". And everyone jumped. Amazing, I tell you.

Gilver began wanting to test out the strength of the "strongest mercenary" in the bar, he looked at all of them, but looked over towards Tony Redgrave (Dante), who at the time wasn't aware or even caring about the presence of Gilver and was still eating his usual strawberry sundae. Gilver picked Tony, as he said he looks like the strongest here, the two had a duel, putting up a near inhuman fight, but it was more like a display of each other's strength and agility, Tony insisted on calling Gilver "Newbie" throughout. At the end, their fellow mercenaries wanted to drinking contest from the two. Tony was known to be able to take his drink and Gilver seemed a little wary. For the contest, he made a slit where his mouth was through the bandages and began drinking. But soon after felt the need to vomit. Gilver wasn't a drinker but didn't want to show it.

Before Gilver realised what was happening, a gaggle of mercenaries forced a funnel into his mouth and began to pour endless waves of vodka into his mouth. His conciousness didn't hold out for long, he fell backward and passsed out, the mercenaries kept going anyway, and vodka began pouring out of his mouth and spreading across the floor. Tony, seeing he was victorious, asked the newbie how it was. No reply, and when the mercenaries tried to lift Gilver, he was lifeless like a puppet with severed strings.

With the whole bar excited in a drunken mass, they decided to rob Gilver, taking a jewel encrusted watch and saw that his wallet was jam packed with cash notes, and they decided it might be a great idea to pawn his sword, too, to pay for the drinks and bar repairs from the earlier brawl with Tony. -- It was HILARIOUS reading all of this.

Tony and Gilver, as mercenaries, we're put together as partners, and together they proved to be an unstoppable force, however, Gilver got most praise, Tony just said it was boring being topman all the time and needed a break. On their first mission, Gilver actually said he's not sure about going on it, because he still has a headache from the previous night due to all the drinking.

Tony get's his weapons from Nell Goldstein, an old woman who he was close to and they exchanged insults. She tried to warn him about Gilver, because someone had tried to find information about the bandaged fiend, but ended up sliced in half by Gilver, telling Tony that Gilver was dangerous and that he should stop hanging around with him. Of course, Dante didn't mind anything that Nell had told him and left. Moments later, Gilver turned up, wishing to place an order for a gun. He was looking for a gun that could take out several targets at once, and set his heart out on a massive double barrelled shotgun. Nell tried to explain that it is meant for shooting guns, not people, and you'd have to press the barrell against the target to get a hit. He just told her that would be just fine and asked her how much she wanted. She tried explaining it wasn't for sale, but he just threw all his money at her. As he left, Nell bravely asked who or WHAT he was going to be shooting. He stopped in his tracks and said "Something that takes the shape of a man but isn't one". And left. His shadow absolutly terrified Nell, as it wasn't human -- it was of a demon (Nelo Angelo).

Towards the end of the book, Gilver and Dante have a powerful showdown, with Dante explaining Tony's gone, and Gilver revealing that he's wearing Nelo Angelo's armour. Gilver, however, was the stronger fighter and gained the upper hand in the fight very often, and eventually shot out Dante's legs with the shotgun he purchased. And as Dante writhed on the floor in agony, Gilver shot his chest. Kneeling down towards Dante, Gilver pulled out his sword, and slowly attempted to drive it through Dante's heart, explaining that even though he's shot him to pieces, he'll recover, but if he takes out his heart he won't -- but something stopped the blade in it's tracks. Something hard. It was Dante's memento of his mother. She was protecting him even from the grave. Gilver was shocked and was distracted, with this distraction, Dante used it to shower Gilver with bullets and defeated Gilver. Even though he was weak, he watched as his opponent slowly melted away. His bandages around his face fell away from his face revealing a strand of white hair and a noble, yet familiar face. The opponent was also wearing an amulet that matched his own. Gilver looked back at Dante with his face twisting in hatred for Dante. Dante begged Gilver to tell him who he was, Gilver could do nothing but spit out blood and he finally disappeared. Gilver was Dante's twin brother, Vergil.

Does the story fit?

Even though I thoroughly enjoyed this book, it didn't fit in with the games. This book was created awhile before the creation of Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening, so Capcom totally ignored everything this novel mentioned. Here is a list of things that are different to the games. So sadly, the novel is out of date compared to the official storyline. A few examples are with what was done with Force Edge -- Dante just had it. There was no mention of a battle he had with his brother in Devil May Cry 3. In the novel -- Ebony & Ivory -- Dante didn't have these, they were created towards the end. He'd been using normal firearms for his entire life which he ended up destroying due to how he used them. However, in the third game, teenage Dante had them already. In the novel, Gilver has a katana, no mention of it's name, was it even Yamato?

Quotes

Gilver: [Pinning Dante to the floor and whispers in his ear] I've learned two things in the time I've worked as a mercenary. The first was to secure a complete victory, you must overwhelm your enemy with brute force.
Dante: Fuck you.

Trivia

Gilver is an anagram (a word formed from another by rearranging its letters) of Vergil. (Many thanks to the ever so pwnsome Dari for bringing this to my attention.)