|| HELLFIRE, SHADOW||

All of these are my interpretations of the familiars and how they behave. Even in the manga, we don't see much outside of Griffon's personality so I tend to fill in the blanks with tons of head cannons. This is just so you know each one's powers and such.



~Shadow~

A nightmare that takes the shape of a massive panther who's fur glows a deep red that appears almost black in various swirls and patterns along it's fur. She sports the ability to alter her shape, using inky black tendrils like spikes to impale to lash at her enemies. In addition to this she can also fight much like a panther normally would. In terms of personality she's extremely motherly towards V. Fussing over him and tending to him where the others will not. It's because of this that she will act as a form of transportation for V by turning into a shadowy wisp of a form that glides along the ground allowing him to get from one place to another easily.

Shadow is a silent observer, and represents an anger inside of Vergil that he can't quite come to grasps with. She's bitter and angry at the world, while also protective of what's hers.



~Griffon~

Griffon is a loud mouthed bird, with glowing blue feathers lined through blue black ones. He's a constant companion to V, taking up the least amount of strength to maintain and who supports him through aerial means. He sports the ability to summon forth blue lightning and does so with much enthusiasm. He's able to assist V via flight by carrying the poet down from high places or carrying him up to higher ledges he wouldn't be able to reach on his own.

In terms of the three, Griffon is the weakest. Willing to bargain in order to prolong his life just a little bit at a time. It's because of this that he represents the hopelessness Vergil felt, his desire to live and protect himself at all costs.



~Nightmare~

The most imposing of the three. Nightmare is the strongest of the bunch and as such takes the most energy to keep out. At best he can only be kept out for a short amount of time, generally only a few seconds before V requires rest. He offers a natural strength given his sheer size, but he is also able to fire off an energy beam from the single eye set into his body and is able to change parts of his body into a liquid in order to reform it into weapons much like Shadow can. Generally, Nightmare will be kept for dire situations due to the strain he puts onto V's body.

Out of the three, Nightmare is the most personal to Vergil and V. The greatest suffering was endured in Vergil being molded into a weapon for Mundus' use. Because of this, Nightmare represents the combined feelings of rage, fear, hopelessness and helplessness Vergil felt at that period of time.