| “ | It is true that might means everything. You must crave power to protect yourself, your friends, and especially your family. But the one thing I despise more than weakness, is one who would use that might, that beautiful gift of power, to make the weak suffer. It can't be helped that the strong live and the weak die, but those that are weak deserve to choose their own fate. Do they accept frailty and die? Or do they rise above by means of power? Who are you to decide their fate for them? If the weak are to suffer and die then it will be by their own hands, not someone else's. | „ |
| ~ Vergil |
Vergil is the son of the demon knight Sparda and a human woman named Eva. He is also the elder twin brother of Dante. In stark contrast to his younger brother, Vergil is Dante's polar opposite as he is more stoic, reserved, and cold but is nonetheless powerful and legendary in terms of his might and skills, on par with Dante himself. He is now the co-owner of the Devil May Cry agency with his brother.
Overview
Following the death of their mother as children, Vergil and Dante go their separate ways, with Vergil rejecting his humanity and embracing his demonic heritage, in contrast with his younger brother's embrace of humanity and initial rejection of the demonic. Stoic and reserved, Vergil displays a willingness to do anything in his quest to obtain power. Vergil's unwavering determination to obtain power was mainly due to the fact that he was weak in protecting his mother and brother which has traumatized and scarred him for years and thus vowed to never again be weak in the face of a strong adversary.
After Vergil's return from Hell, it took a great amount of effort for he and Dante to reconcile and make amends. While Vergil was antisocial and would even do things that warrant Dante and others to engage in arguments and conflicts with him, he would slowly begin to mellow down overtime due to not only his brother's influence but also from being around his odd yet strangely magnetic friends, especially his son Nero. Much like Dante, Vergil is also infamous in the supernatural world, possibly more-so as many would be shocked enough at the fact that Sparda had an heir thus proving his existence as fact but would be flabbergasted that he had two sons. Much like Dante, Vergil prefers his privacy but does hold his title as the Son of Sparda with great pride and honor and will not hesitate to demonstrate why that is on those who would disregard that fact.
As time went on, Vergil, even though doing questionable actions such as having his own posse of demons, cutting off his own son's arm for his own personal benefits and even at one point feigned cooperation with the Illuminati (though this was a ploy by him to gain information regarding their plans), became a powerful and reliable ally and also something of a friend to certain individuals. In fact, while Vergil would not see it, he indirectly touched the lives of others with his growing development as a person.
Appearance
In terms of physical appearance, Vergil has fair, yet pale skin, and white, swept back hair, which puts emphasis on the fierce, yet stoic expression on his face; however, when his hair is brushed down or becomes wet, his appearance is physically indistinguishable from his younger twin brother, Dante. Just like his brother, he also has the same, blue-colored eyes.
In terms of apparel, Vergil commonly wears a long, silver buttoned blue coat with three separated coattails. A white, serpentine pattern runs around the collar, with a snakes head hanging over the coat's left shoulder, and its tail slinking down the right, all the way to the bottom of the coat. A gold lining runs across the edges of the coat, and a silky, golden flower blossom pattern decorates the inner lining. Each cuff of the coat also possesses five, gold buttoned straps with gold lining. Underneath the coat, Vergil wears a navy blue ascot wrapped around his neck, which hangs over a black, sleeveless vest that reveals his well-toned arms and shoulders. He wears tan, fingerless gloves, a brown, snakeskin belt with a silver buckle, dark green pants with a scale pattern running across its surface, and tall, brown boots with two golden buckled straps at the top.
After his return from Hell, his clothing appears to be predominately darker shades of blue. His coat is now black with light neon blue serpentine patterns and three separated coattails with slightly tattered edges. Vergil is no longer wearing an ascot tie as he was seen wearing a black sleeveless zippered-turtleneck beneath his midnight blue formal vest. He now wears charcoal gray fingerless gloves, black pants and dark boots covered by teal gaiters with several straps.
Personality
In contrast to his twin brother Dante's boisterous, outgoing, and extroverted personality, Vergil is calm, cool, collected, and introverted, constantly maintaining an aura of fearlessness. He is ruthless and merciless when fighting. In the beginning, Vergil cared little for the well-being of those around him, and is unflinching in his pursuit of power; however, in spite of his cold and ruthless demeanor, he is an honorable warrior who maintains his own set of morals and disciplines. Vergil is also antisocial and is not too keen on interacting with people. In fact, he only judges a person's character based on how strong they are for whenever he meets new people, he makes an evaluation of their abilities: those he perceives to be weaker than himself he arrogantly disregards, giving them little attention so that they won't hold him back; those he perceives as strong he would acknowledge.
Much like Dante, Vergil also enjoys fighting though he is reserved about the fact than Dante is. But nonetheless, when the opportunity presents itself, Vergil does not turn down a duel and his stoic demeanor cracks, showing an ecstatic and excited side to himself but less so than people such as Dante and Alucard. Despite their bickering, Vergil would also engage in an exchange of witty remarks with Dante to the point where the two would even comically fight each other as if they were children again. While in the beginning Dante and Vergil were not on good terms, the latter began to grow more caring and protective over Dante as his instincts of being the oldest brother would resurface especially when he would remember his mother and father telling him that even though Dante can be unbearable, he is still his little brother and must always watch out for him. Dante's influence over Vergil is evident in where Vergil would on rare occasions display a sense of humour but maintains his aloof exterior and taunts his adversaries in his own way.
However, in dire situations, he is not above actions that would seem desperate or those that would contradict his views. Vergil would even go so far as to cut off Nero's arm for his own personal gain while also signifying it as a warning to him if he or anyone else should dare oppose him during his quest. If Dante's fighting something he's also opposing, he'll team up, even though he has reservations. He won't hesitate to take drastic measures such as punishing traitors too, evidenced in when he killed Ornias for not only relaying information to the Illuminati's forces but also because he was weak as he coldly stated to Ornias that the weak are to be culled from the strong. This also ties to his immense hatred towards weakness as he views anyone with weakness with nothing but contempt to the point where Vergil was initially unwilling to work alongside organizations run by humans. But what he hates even more than that is the strong using their power to make the weak suffer. Vergil's philosophy is that the strong survive and the weak die, but if the weak are to die then they must die naturally and not at the hands of the strong. Vergil would also acknowledge power and strength through character as he would overtime begin to show respect towards the likes of Integra Hellsing, Klaus Von Reinherz, Ivan Romanov, William Blazkowicz, or Trevor Bruttenholm for their indomitable willpower, fearlessness in the face of insurmountable odds, and their unwavering determination to overcome any obstacle.
Unlike Dante, Vergil is willing to embrace his demonic heritage, and seeks to increase his power. While Dante seeks to protect humanity from the demons, Vergil wants more demonic power, regardless of the consequences for those around him. In fact, Vergil seeks power as compensation for failing to protect those around him, his mother more specially. His failure may also have made him forsake close human relationships, due to his perceived fragility of humanity. Vergil is not a team player and does not work well with others for his loner personality coupled with his cold and dismissive attitude incites conflicts with others. After his return from Hell, however, as an on-and-off member of Devil May Cry while also begrudgingly collaborating with other organizations he is repeatedly exposed to the philosophy of strength within teamwork. For a time, Vergil accepts this, experiencing it first-hand on several missions. He even becomes somewhat attached to his teammates and started to forget his quest of achieving power, achieving after so many years a measure of happiness, especially with his brother and son. Ironically, Vergil's character and aura would draw people to him and unintentionally strike the most unlikeliest of friendships, like with Isaac Dian and Miria Harvent, and even romantic interests such as Giovanna and much later Luciana Estevez. Moreover, whereas Dante has a rivalry with Alucard, Vergil's rivalry is with the alpha werewolf Miguel of the Order of the Silver Cross.
However, between both the manipulations of the Shepherd of the Illuminati and his utter mental defeat when he revealed that Vergil's escape from Hell set off a chain of events that led to Lucifer's rise thus making Vergil realize that he unintentionally damned the world, Vergil decides to sever all ties to his friends and family in a single-minded pursuit of power, making enemies of them instead. Dante tried to help Vergil realize the contradiction in his viewpoint: he is driven to gain power because he lost his family, yet sacrifices the family he still has in order to gain that power, which did have a profound impact on Vergil and would have turned him away from the path of darkness had he not been influenced by the Malebranche. Immanuel describes Vergil as "One who lost everything", and that the defeats and torments he suffered in Hell only caused him to sink lower. During his final duel with Dante, Vergil recognizes the gravity of crimes he committed and how important the things he threw away in the endless pursuit of power really were, such as his humanity and younger brother. He feels that his crimes and imperfections outweigh anything heroic he has ever done later in the series. Vergil reveals to Nero that only wanted to be protected and loved, but since he was alone his only option was to survive.
After his extraction from Hell by Immanuel, Vergil began exhibiting noticeable anxiety and experienced chronic, abominable nightmares of his experience there. He initially lied to Dante that he remembered nothing of his time in Hell, but eventually confessed and told him he remembered every detail. The fact that he tortured by being defeated and brought back numerous times heavily traumatized Vergil, leaving him visibly depressed and broken. Due to this, he believed he was unworthy of rescue. He also explained to his brother and Nero that he wished he couldn't feel anything, as the sorrow he felt is so overwhelming. His time with his allies and family made him focus on increasing his own natural power to protect them and those that cannot defend themselves. Despite being the more ruthless of the bunch, Vergil has developed more faith in monsters managing to recover their humanity, as shown with him willing to let Ennis go, presumably developed from his time with his son Nero. While still not very open with his emotions, Vergil gradually became more committed to make connections with people. While not very affectionate with his family nor does he outwardly display it, he is indeed happy about having them and cherishes it.
Powers and Abilities
Being the son of the Dark Knight, Sparda, Vergil naturally outclasses humans, monsters, and most angels and demons. As Dante's twin, he is every bit as powerful as his brother although in the beginning Vergil was stronger than Dante since Vergil embraced his demonic power while Dante rejected his. After his return from Hell, and the restoration of his soul, Vergil's performance showed no signs of impediment though at times he would be hindered by the horrific memories of his time in Hell but managed to overcome it. Much like Dante, several demons noted Vergil's prowess to rival his own father and soon after was able to surpass him and rival his twin brother. He was compared to Sparda by Dantalion, which is demonstrated when he overwhelmed Mundus' forces as they were trying to stop him from leaving Hell. Ultimately, Vergil is regarded as legendary in his own right that like Dante is referred to as the most powerful swordsman on the planet, with the pair's combined might being thought to be able to destroy the world.
Similarly to Dante, Vergil has shown to at times surpass his own father's legendary feats, evidenced in him slaying the mightiest of demons that his father originally defeated and imprisoned. He has defeated and killed several members of the Malebranche, including their founder Alastor who was reputed to be stronger than all of them combined, fought and defeated some of the Princes of Hell, and defeated Andras who was one of the most powerful and savage members of the Ars Goetia which not only earned him Andras's respect but also his loyalty. Vergil was capable of not only competing against the werewolf Miguel but also overwhelming him; Miguel himself is noted by his pack, including his master Ivan Romanov, to be one of the most massively powerful werewolves on Earth. He was able to defeat several powerful members of the Illuminati, several mighty demons of the Ars Goetia, effortlessly defeated his son Nero, and was able to hold his own against the incredible might of the Salvatore Brothers. He also could compete against if not defeat world-threatening opponents, such as Lucifer, Satan, Abaddon, and the Ogdru Hem; although in case of the two archangels, Vergil required the aid of the Rebis to defeat them. After consuming the Rebis, Vergil's power increased to such orders of magnitude that Ivan Romanov likened him and his brother to being "demonic gods", housing overwhelming demonic power. With the combined might of Dante, noted as the only person to rival him, they are said to be practically unstoppable.
Like his brother, Vergil is a master swordsman of unparalleled skill that he initially surpassed Dante during their first confrontation. His skill with the sword surpasses many and rivals few in the world. Vergil is an incredibly dangerous master swordsman wielding a sword (preferably a katana) with unrivaled precision and versatility; his technique is based on Iaijutsu, a style of samurai swordsmanship which involves quick, precise draws from the sheathe, striking the opponent, and removing blood from the sword before resheathing. His Iaijutsu is made more powerful by incorporating his own demonic powers, developing a personalized style called "Dark Slayer". Vergil's combat prowess made him more than capable of fighting and defeating some of the most skilled swordsmen in the series. During his fight against Miguel, the werewolf was not only impressed with Vergil's talent but admitted that it may exceed his own swordplay. Vergil's skill with a weapon is so proficient that he is able to effortlessly switch to any combat style that suit his needs. At one point, Vergil was not only able to dual-wield the Yamato and the Sparda, but also combine and use their style of combat simultaneously. Like Dante, he is also an excellent hand-to-hand combatant, rivaling his brother, and is also capable of displaying mastery over a weapon he just picked up. Vergil is known to be very methodical and analytical in battle, analyzing his opponent that he can almost perfectly predict their next movement. This allows Vergil to be in control of the fight and unlike Dante is quick to end the fight if his opponent is not worth his time.
Due to his half-demon physiology, Vergil is able to unleash his demonic power through his Devil Trigger. Not being purely cosmetic, Vergil's already superior physical capabilities are amplified significantly. Vergil only accesses his Devil Trigger when he is faced with an opponent that is able to test his prowess and uses it to quickly crush and dismantle his opponent. Despite a significant increase in his powers when in Devil Trigger, it does not always determine a victory for Vergil when faced with opponents that are more powerful than he is. Nonetheless, when in Devil Trigger, Vergil could also gain access to his latent demonic powers and has been shown flying in the state with immense speeds. After consuming the Rebis, it allowed Vergil to unlock his true and full hidden potential in the form of the Sin Devil Trigger. The Sin Devil Trigger allowed Vergil to not only compete with Lucifer and Satan, who both returned to their full divine state, but actually make the two struggle in battle against him. His powers increased to such orders of magnitudes that Vergil's fight against Dante threatened to destroy a continent.