Nero (Devil May Cry)

This character, Nero (Devil May Cry), is 31 years old in 2022, based on his/hers birthday, which is 1991.

## Personal Info

### Age

19 (2010)27 (2018)
30 (2021)
31 (2022)

## Relations

### Family

Sparda (grandfather)
Eva (grandmother; deceased)
Vergil (father)
Nero's mother (mother)
Dante (uncle)
Kyrie (adopted sister)
Credo (adopted brother)

## Details

### Powers/Skills

Firearms
Demonic powers
Swordsmanship

### Type of Hero

Misanthropic Anti-Hero

“
**Nero:** Let me guess, I'm dead weight? You can shove that--

**Dante:** That's not it, Nero.

**Nero:** What is it, then?!

**Dante:** He's your father!
”
—Dante and Nero in *Devil May Cry 5*.

**Nero** is one of the main protagonists of the *Devil May Cry* series. He first appeared as a playable character in *Devil May Cry 4*, and later in *Devil May Cry 5*. He is the son of Vergil, nephew of Legendary Devil Hunter Dante, and grandson of Legendary Dark Knight Sparda. He was raised in Fortuna and served as a Holy Knight in the Order of the Sword, a religious group that worships Sparda and fights to protect the world from demons.

In *Devil May Cry 4*, however, he is forced to fight against the Order after encountering Dante and uncovering a conspiracy to conquer the world using The Savior. In *Devil May Cry 5*, Nero is a more seasoned demon hunter who has since changed his operation to being a mobile Devil May Cry branch. He finds himself fending off a demonic invasion as he chases a mysterious figure (later revealed to be his own biological father Vergil at the end) that severed the Devil Bringer.

Nero firstly appears in Chapter 13 of Unity Force: Stories and is a Class 4 student in the Unity Force Academy.

## Appearance

Back in his initial appearance, Nero wore a long, dark blue coat with a red inner lining with The Order of the Sword's insignia sewn into both shoulders. The coat has a brown harness. Under the coat he wears a red zip-up hoodie/vest with two zippers under his coat, a black shirt beneath that. On his left wrist, he has a red wristband held in place with a small brown belt. Nero's legwear consists of a pair of blue pants held up by a belt with a rose buckle. Over his pants, he wears brown thigh straps with small belts in them. Nero wears brown boots that go halfway up his shins.

In addition, he wears two rings on his left hand: one on his index finger that has the emblem of The Order of the Sword on its face and another on his ring finger which bears a rose design, identical to the designs on his belt buckle, coat clasp, and coat buttons. He has white hair brushed down and blue eyes, similar to Dante and Vergil.

His prototype outfit is based on the Order's uniform, but black. Along with a scarf wrapped around his neck.

In *Devil May Cry 5*, Nero shortens his hair to a faux-hawk like style, and now wears a more casual punkish attire, consisting of a dark blue hooded jacket, a tattered dark crimson shirt and black pants with military-style combat boots. He also uses a cybernetic arm in place of his Devil Bringer. Although at the end of the game, he regrows his human arm, he also uses a prototype power gauntlet made by Nico to substitute his Devil Breakers. While in his recently awakened full-powered Devil Trigger, Nero appears as a grey-skinned reptilian humanoid creature with long white hair, demonic yellow eyes, white curving horns, and blue veins covering its arms and abdomen. His arms are identical to the Devil Bringer, indicating that this is the full manifestation of that arm's nature. His appearance is very similar to the demon that floats behind him during his Devil Trigger in *Devil May Cry 4*.

## Personality

In contrast with Dante's laid-back and occasionally flirtatious attitude, Nero is a more serious, sardonic and somewhat antisocial person. He is a choleric character whose emotions can get the better of him, especially when his loved ones are involved. Nero also has a short-temper and prone to be impulsive, although by *Devil May Cry 5* he has notably mellowed out somewhat, which Nero attributed to caring for the orphans that lives with him and Kyrie.

However, he is also like Dante in that he has a rebellious nature: he wields a gun, despite the Order's general prohibition against them; he doesn't really believe in the Order's religion; and cares little for the legend of Sparda. His rebellious nature leads to the Order having him work alone on "special jobs." In fact, Nero actually prefers to act as a lone wolf. However, Nero shows great loyalty to people he cares about, especially to Kyrie and Credo whom he grew up with. Even though he doesn't care for the Order of the Sword's religion, Nero still participates in some of their activities out of respect for Credo and Kyrie. Nero's softer side comes out around his loved ones, especially around his lover Kyrie. Nero is very gentle and thoughtful towards Kyrie and considers himself to be very lucky to have her in his life.

Like Dante, Nero is a somewhat arrogant and cocky person. He shares Dante's habit of casually mouthing off to even the most powerful of his enemies, making taunts and sarcastic jokes on the battlefield. Nero also taunts in a similar, sarcastic fashion to Dante: one taunt involves him bowing mockingly and asking, "Shall we dance?"; another has him aiming the Blue Rose at his enemies and saying "Bang!" instead of shooting; and another has him applaud his enemies. Despite that, Nero shows an underlying insecurity about his own ability to protect those he loves, a fear aggravated by his inability to save Credo. Therefore, he takes comments about his own abilities to heart, which is seen when he holds a resentment of the term 'dead weight' after Dante called him that. He eventually comes to terms with his insecurity when he resolves not to let Dante and Vergil kill each other, which allows him to tap into his own demonic abilities.

Nero was initially disgusted by his demonic abilities. When he first received the Devil Bringer, he considered it a curse and covered it with a medical sling to hide it out of shame. However, over time he began to train with the Devil Bringer until he finally embraces it as his power.

Nero is one of the few characters in the *Devil May Cry* series to actually swear and showcase offensive and crude behavior to others. Such instances include: him calling Agnus a *"jackass"* and his laboratory a *"hellhole"*. He also almost calls Agnus a *"son of a bitch"* later, but is cut short. Before fighting Dante, he tells him *"Kid? Well, if that's how you see me, I think you'll blush a pretty pink when I kick your ass"*. Later on, he tells Sanctus *"Go blow yourself"* and could say *"I'm not interested in your bullshit!"* when using a Buster in the first battle with the vicar. Lastly, he gives Dante the middle finger before being absorbed by The Savior. In *Devil May Cry 5*, during the final battle between him and his father Vergil, he says *"Fuck you!"* while giving him a middle finger during his transformation into his demonic form via Devil Trigger. He further calls Vergil a *"Fucking Asshole!"*.

## Abilities

**Demonic hybrid physiology**: Nero possesses both the blood of a demon and human due to his heritage from Vergil. As such, he is granted a far more powerful physiology.

* **Superhuman strength**: Nero possesses great strength, able to easily block an attack from Berial's large sword using his left hand and the Red Queen. He is also capable of easily overpowering the Scarecrow physically and is capable of stopping two Bianco Angelo's in the middle of their thrust and throw them aside. He is capable of contending against Dante in battle despite his own extreme strength and wielding his Devil Bringer, can even overpower him, able to easily throw him away.
* **Superhuman speed**: He is also remarkably fast, capable of running on Echidna's back faster than the effect of gravity.
* **Accelerated healing**: While in Devil Trigger Nero displayed a healing factor capable enough to have given him vitality even after being stabbed by various Bianco Angelos. When Vergil tore off Nero's arm, Nero used Devil Breakers as substitutes. By the time he stopped Vergil and Dante's fighting, his true power had awoken and Nero regenerated his entire human right arm within a matter of seconds.
* **Superhuman endurance**: Nero can endure high amounts of physical damage, displaying such endurance when he was ran through by a Bianco Angelo's lance at full speed and survived. He was also able to survive for a short amount of time with a Gladius stabbed into his chest.
* **Devil Bringer**: Nero's right arm and the manifestation of his demonic power, the Devil Bringer allows Nero to create a spectral arm capable of being controlled by Nero's movements on his right arm. It is durable enough to withstand punishment from the likes of Rebellion.
	+ **Artifact absorption**: The Devil Bringer can absorb items and use their powers or absorb items into it for storage.
* **Demonic power manipulation**: Nero has shown the ability to channel his demonic energy into his gun from his Devil Bringer or in the air to perform Charged Shots and Air Hike. He's also able to convert his regenerated right arm back into its spectral form so he can fit in a Devil Breaker when needed, which Nico joked as "Raw Demonic Power knows a good thing"

**Combat proficiency**: Nero's combat abilities are great enough that the Order sometimes assigns him missions to carry out on his own and he has earned certain respect among his peers. Of some additional interest is his ability to fight proficiently using only one hand.

* **Swordsmanship**: Nero is particularly proficient with a sword, it being his main form of combat. He is skilled enough that he was able to take on Dante in their first fight for a time and even gained the upper hand and disarmed him in their second fight.
* **Unarmed combat**: While there aren't many cases where Nero is shown to fight unarmed, he has demonstrated decent proficiency with it. He once managed to easily take on several Scarecrows with only one arm, using punches and kicks while evading and even catching a Scarecrow's leg mid-swing. In addition, many of his Buster moves implement wrestling moves, which while enhanced by his demonic power, show that he is familiar with those techniques.

**Engineering**: Nero upgraded his Red Queen to bypass the limiter placed on the revving feature as well as to spray a flammable accelerant on the blade. He also designed and built Blue Rose himself.