Fanfic / The Silver Raven

A loving mother and her sweet child (artwork by Cowboy-Alchemist)

The Silver Raven is a Fusion Fic between The Owl House and Devil May Cry by MetropolisMCU/ssjSega, who is also the writer of BlazBlue Alternative: Remnant, in which, rather than being born to some random woman in the Order of the Sword, Nero's mother is none other than the leader of the Emperor's Coven, Lilith Clawthorne.

The story can be found on SpaceBattles.com here.

Also found on FanFiction.Net here.

And on Sufficient Velocity here.

And on Archive of Our Own here.

The fic also has a Halloween one-shot, Silver Raven: Hallows' Eve Havoc, that can also be found here.

There's also a supplementary story, Luz's Magical Training Notes, which is a compilation of notes written by Luz that give her In-Universe perspective on aspects of the Boiling Isles in The Silver Raven, with the notes being written by both the author and readers of the main fic.

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The Silver Raven provides examples of:

• Actually Pretty Funny: When Emira and Edric call him after he's been grounded by Lilith, Nero admits he's started to miss Hexside. Emira snarks they are truly in the end times, which prompts a chuckle from her brother and Nero.
• Adaptational Early Appearance:
  • Hunter/The Golden Guard makes his first appearance during Chapter 14, set during the events of "The First Day", well before his first canonical appearance, which was a brief cameo in "Agony of a Witch".
  • The rest of the Coven heads appear during Chapter 14, which is set in the Season 1 timeframe. In the series, they originally wouldn't appear until Season 2.
  • The Collector, in the main series, didn't appear until about mid-way into Season 2. By contrast, they first appear during the events of the Season 1 finale in this story.
• Adaptational Expansion: Brief, but Willow and Amity's trip to Lake Lacuna is elaborated upon, apparently being one of the factors that led to Odalia deciding to cut their friendship short when a powerful demon attacked and forced their parents to flee.
• Adaptational Superpower Change:
  • In the games, Exceed was more technology based given that it was built into Red Queen. In this story it's magic based via Nero casting a specialized spell circle on the hilt.
  • In the games, absorbing the Rusalka corpse gave Nero the ability to track hidden orbs and secret missions. Here, it allows him to detect high concentrations of demonic energy, such as when he picked up on Echidna's presence in Chapter 13, and Phantom's in Chapter 20.
• Adaptation Origin Connection: In Devil May Cry, nothing's really known about Phantom's background beyond him being a General for Mundus. Chapter 20 establishes that he's a demon from the Fire Hell and specifically served under Berial.
• Adaptation Species Change: Nero in this story is half-witch, one-quarter human, and one-quarter demon. This contrasts canon, where he was three-quarters human and one-quarter demon.
• Adapted Out: Both Credo and Kyrie are absent due to Nero being on the Boiling Isles and not growing up on Earth in the Order of the Sword.
• Always Someone Better: During their fight, Phantom remarks that despite also being a Sparda, Nero isn't in the same league as Dante.
• Age Lift: Dante and Vergil are slightly aged up, with their encounter during Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening having them at 22 rather than 19 like they were canonically.
• Armor-Piercing Question: While King denies Nero’s assessment that Eda is his mum, he's notably stumped when asked to define how he sees her.
• Ascended Extra:
  • Edric and Emira, due to having been Nero's friends (of the tsundere variety) since childhood, are given more presence than they had in the main show. They even help Nero rescue Amity and Luz from Otabin whereas in the canon episode, they had already left the library beforehand.
  • Eda's living graffiti was just a one-time joke in canon. Here, they're named Graff and end up becoming friends with Nero.
• Big Bad Wannabe: The Rogues are this, as while they are dangerous and willing to sacrifice anyone to get the power needed to combat Belos, they never really get anywhere. Whenever they summon a Demon Lord, its quickly taken out as soon as it arrives, with Lilith, Nero, Luz, and Eda having all stopped their efforts before they could get off the ground. Word of God even comments that their ultimate purpose in the story is to serve as a means to get Devil May Cry bosses to the isles.
• Both Sides Have a Point: Eda and Lilith's argument over the latter's parenting of Nero has both sides making valid points regarding her protectiveness. On the one hand, Eda is correct in that her smothering tendencies can be stifling, hence why he has an easier time opening up to his more hands-off aunt, and explicitly states that failing to acknowledge him as an independent young man while she locks him away will eventually lead to him resenting her. For her part, Lilith brings up how dangerous the Boiling Isles can be, though she withholds her other concerns regarding Belos' thinly veiled threats should Nero not join a coven, as well as the fact that Demon Lords have expressed an interest in offing him based on his relation to Sparda.
• Broken Faceplate: In Chapter 14, Lilith attacks Hunter/The Golden Guard in retaliation for him attacking Nero, resulting in her braking part of his mask and revealing one of his eyes.
• Bullying a Dragon:
  • Tibbles attempts to swindle Nero and Lilith when they arrive to collect the massive bounty on the monster of Lake Lacuna, insisting the proof they brought was fake and insulting their abilities in the process. Already fed up from the fight, Nero threatens to fling him into the boiling sea, Lilith not so much as protesting, and tosses him over the horizon when they learn he was posing as a receptionist.
  • Averted by the actual receptionist, who recognises the proof as legitimate, and wisely decides not to piss off the people who killed the thing that claimed the lives of dozens of witches.
• Call-Forward:
  • When talking about Lilith's Incredibly Lame Fun, Eda mentioned a history of balusters. In canon, she tried to make an exposition of it when she started working at the museum.
  • Steve mentions to Nero and Lilith that he knows a guy who knows a therapist, who is implied to have helped him through many of his issues in Season 2.
  • Edric and Emira's argument has the former comment on doing better than her on Beast Keeping questions during a pop quiz, a nod to his talent for the subject which comes up in Season 2.
  • "Skirmish on the Boiling Seas" reveals that Lilith taught Nero how to budget, a nod to his greater financial success with the Devil May Cry business than Dante.
• Casting Gag: In Chapter 12, when Nero, Luz, and Eda watch episodes of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, Luz and Eda comment on how the black ranger, Adam Park, sounds a lot like Nero. Both characters are voiced, and in Adam's case, played, by Johnny Yong Bosch.
• Conflicting Loyalty: Lilith is often torn between her loyalty and devotion to the Emperor's Coven and her love for her son and desire for him to be happy. She would like for Nero to join a coven so that he won't be branded a wild witch, but at the same time, she doesn't want to risk alienating him from her by forcing him, which gives her a lot of grief. It gets worse when Belos himself gives Lilith an ultimatum for her to get Nero to join the Emperor's Coven before the Day of Unity or else he'll be petrified. In the end, she chooses her family and turns against the Emperor's Coven.
• Continuity Nod: King mentions having written Ruler's Reach during the fight with the Leviathan.
• Crossover Relatives: Lilith gives birth to Nero, making her his mother. This also means that Eda is his aunt and Gwendolyn and Dell are his grandparents.
• Curse Cut Short: After seeing that his fire didn't remotely damage the book maintaining Otabin's corporeal form, Nero manages a "What the fu-" before Otabin throws Edric and Emira at him.
• Darker and Edgier: It's a crossover with Devil May Cry, what did you expect? Characters (even from The Owl House) use a lot of swearing and profanity, red blood is prominent, Witch Sacrifices occur for summoning Demon Lords, etc. The fanfic starts with a Surprise Pregnancy and it's revealed that the Boiling Isles are in Limbo, meaning they're part of Hell itself.
• Death by Adaptation: In Chapter 18, the Selkidomus is sacrificed by the Rogues to summon the Leviathan.
• Demographic-Dissonant Crossover: The Owl House, a series that, despite being a Horror Comedy, is still very much intended for younger audiences, is fused with the Devil May Cry series, which is aimed at older audiences and has far more visceral action, language, and blood.
• Description Cut: In Chapter 10, after she has to leave Nero home alone while she goes to a coven meeting, Lilith assures herself that it'll be alright since their house is magically protected and it isn't like Nero to sneak out by himself. The next scene is Nero sneaking out of the house to go fight demons by himself.
• Didn't Think This Through: A group of common criminals try to steal the sacks of snails Nero and Lilith got from bringing in a massive bounty, failing to consider the strength two people would need to earn said bounty. Lilith promptly (and easily) sends them packing.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Luz and Eda pull this off in Chapter 18, where they succeed in destroying the Leviathan's heart cores, effectively killing it.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • In Chapter 10, Lilith notes to herself that it isn't like Nero to sneak out of the house alone—unaware that Nero has done so many times before (and in fact was planning on doing it again after she left the house).
  • In Chapter 13, Lilith believes that Eda gave Nero the Red Queen as a present and is a bad influence on him. In truth, Nero made the sword himself and Eda is actually a good influence on him.
  • When Eda leaves with Nero and Luz for the Knee, she briefly sees a familiar white raven and assumes it to be Coronis, but she brushes it off alongside the idea that Lilith sent him to spy on Nero, musing that not even Gwendolyn was that overprotective. Of course, as was shown previously, Lilith did send her Palisman to watch over her son and she really is that overprotective of him.
• Enemy Mine: When the Leviathan first appears, Hunter and Nero are forced to team up to defeat it. Both of them even lampshade the situation and skip over any speeches about uniting, noting that they'll just go back to hating/trying to kill each other when it's over.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Among the cultists Luz and Eda fight, one is disturbed at his companion's stated intentions to use the human's head as a new bowling ball.
• Everyone Has Standards: Discussed, but Eda brings up that, despite how overprotective Gwendolyn could be, she never resorted to spying on her own children. When she learns that Lilith went that far, she even points this out to her.
• Exact Words:
  • Odalia orders Edric and Emira to try and befriend Nero in order advance the Blight's status. When he blows off their initial attempt, Emira worries at her reaction, but Edric points out she only said to try and befriend him, meaning they can honestly say they're doing as she asked.
  • Part of the reason Lilith justifies taking Luz hostage to force Eda to come to her was because her agreement with her was that Lilith wouldn't go near the Owl House for a month. Getting her sister to come to her technically honors the agreement.
• Flipping the Bird:
  • During Hallows' Eve Havoc, a spirit that breaks into Lilith's house flips off the then ten-year-old Nero, who in turn does it back without knowing what it meant.
  • Eda does this to Nero in Chapter 13 after he helps remove Graff from the wall she had to clean, though it's done as an affectionate goodbye more than anything else.
• Foil:
  • Luz and Nero. Both are young teens under the care of a Clawthorne sister who greatly enjoy learning magic, the various adventures they can find on the Isles, and have a prominent relationship with some of the Blight family. But whereas Nero has lived on the Isles his whole life and considered the top student at Hexside, Luz is a Naïve Newcomer who is looked down upon for being human and lacking innate magic. Nero enjoys encounters with the various dangerous demons and monsters on the Isles that can give him a good fight, while Luz is more into the adventure and exploration aspect of the new realm she finds herself in. As for the Blights, Nero and Luz initially got off to a rocky start with the twins and Amity respectively before both grew closer over time. Nero knew Edric and Emira for most of his life and slowly warmed up to them, eventually becoming good friends despite trading insults, whereas Luz met Amity recently and overcame the bad first impression through several shared life-and-death experiences. Lastly, while Nero's relationship with the twins is strictly a platonic friendship, Luz and Amity get a lot of Ship Tease.
  • Nero and Hunter/The Golden Guard. Both are teenage magical prodigies from an early age, and both are related to the highest authority figures on the isles (Lilith for Nero, Belos for Hunter). However, their first meeting highlights all their differences as well, with Nero being a rebel against authority while Hunter is unquestioningly loyal to the very same authority. Nero is very cavalier about swearing and is notoriously foul-mouthed, whereas Hunter hates cursing, even being unable to finish a quote if it has a swear in it. While Nero possesses more magical power than he can properly manage, Hunter doesn't have any natural magic and relies on his artificial staff to generate it. Lastly, Nero's preferred clothing features dark colors, making him Dark Is Not Evil, contrasting Hunter's white and gold Light Is Not Good aesthetic.
• Fusion Fic: The Boiling Isles are located in the same Hell as where demons from the Devil May Cry series are from, specifically in the circle of Limbo. Not to mention Sparda is responsible for killing all the Titans that now form the many isles of the Boiling Sea, though Chapter 20 reveals this to be false.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: This is something touched up on the Author's Note of Chapter 10 on why Nero won't be absorbing things like the Evil Legacy or Aegis Shield to use certain abilities, as the abilities granted came across as things Nero could just naturally learn on his own if gameplay mechanics weren't involved.
• Hell: The Boiling Isles are explicitly located in Hell, the circle of Limbo to be exact.
• Homage: In Chapter 9, Belos recounts to Lilith a past encounter he had with Vergil in his personal library, similar to how Arkham encountered him in Devil May Cry 3.
• Human Sacrifice: Well, "Witch Sacrifice" is more accurate since the populace of the isles are witches. Summoning Demon Lords or communicating with them requires sacrificing people. Rogue witches and demons do so to summon Echidna and Berial to the Boiling Isles.
• I Know What You Fear: Like in canon, this is Grom’s shtick, with it using Nero's fear of Lilith learning of his nightly devil hunting against him.
• Irony:
  • While initially elated to hear that his mother took him out of school for the day, Nero is disappointed to hear it's to shadow her at the Emperor's Coven. He still goes along with it, commenting that nothing interesting happens at Hexside...Gilligan Cut to Luz running from the Basilisk.
  • After having to deal with the Blight twins bickering next to him on their way home, Nero comments he is glad he's an only child and doesn't have to deal with Sibling Rivalry. Even leaving out how his mother's issues with his aunt caused a lot of the plot of The Owl House, unbeknownst to him, his father and uncle have an even worse relationship than any of the aforementioned siblings.
• Knows a Guy Who Knows a Guy: Steve recommending a therapist he heard about to Nero goes like this.
  Steve: If you want, I know a guy who knows a guy who knows someone's cousin who's a therapist's secretary. Maybe they can recommend some breathing exercises if you need them.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Tibbles poses as the receptionist at the bounty hunters guild and tries to swindle Nero and Lilith out of the massive reward they arrived to collect. Already tired from the fight to get said bounty, Lilith raises no protest to Nero hurling him over the horizon, especially once the ruse is revealed.
• Moving the Goalposts: Belos initially orders Lilith to get Nero to join a coven by the Day of Unity or else he'll be branded a wild witch. Then in Chapter 17, Belos then says that Nero and Lilith will both be cast out as wild witches if she doesn't bring in Eda by the end of the day.
• Mythology Gag:
  • When coming up with a name for his sword, Nero cycles through Rebellion and Force Edge (the respective names of Dante and Sparda's blades) as potential options.
  • During Lilith and Eda's fight after Luz and Amity's duel, Nero gets between them and pushes them back to stop the fight, echoing to when he would do the same thing for his uncle and father's battle in Devil May Cry 5.
• Named by the Adaptation:
  • In the games, Nero only had one name to go by due to being an orphan. Here, due to being Lilith's son, he's given a full name: Nero Claudius Clawthorne.
  • The bile sacs attached to witch hearts don't have a name in the show. Here, they're called valknuts.
  • At the time the story was being written, Lilith's Palisman had yet to be given a name. Here, his name is Coronis.
  • Nero calls Eda's living graffiti Graff.
• Noodle Incident:
  • Luz, Eda, and King mention they found out the hard way that humans can’t digest most food on the Boiling Isles, though they avoid giving details.
  • King apparently worked as a party mascot before and has a traumatic flashback involving a kid with a baseball bat.
  • According to Emira in Chapter 19, Edric was almost devoured by his own locker. Edric's POV states that this was somehow only the second most embarrassing moment of his life.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: The Rogues want to see an end to Belos' reign, but it's clear that they're more driven by revenge than any actual altruism. They also have zero qualms about killing off countless innocent people if it means they'll have the support of Demon Lords from the lower circles.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • When Echidna smells Vergil, and by proxy, Sparda's scent on Lilith, she freaks out and tunnels away as fast as she possibly can.
  • Lilith has this reaction in Chapter 8 when she sees that Nero has met Eda (something she's been dreading would happen).
• One-Man Army: Sparda, naturally. He was even the one to kill ALL of the great titans, whose corpses now make up the different islands in the Boiling Sea, including the Boiling Isles where the plot takes place in. However, Chapter 20 reveals this to have not been the case.
• The Password Is Always "Swordfish": When trying to figure out the keypads to Katya and Tiny Nose's cells, Nero sees that only the '1' button is worn out and chipped for Katya's cell while the '2' button is for Tiny Nose's cell. He quickly puts the passwords together after that.
  Katya: You mean to tell me the passcode was just one button this whole time!?
• Perspective Reversal: In his relationship with the Blight twins, Nero's normally the sullen loner while they're the social butterflies who try to get him out of his shell. During Chapter 15, their dates stand them up, leading to them becoming sullen and moody while Nero's forced to try and get them to lighten up. The whole thing gives Nero a taste of what it's like to regularly interact with him.
  Emira: Piss off, Nero.
  Nero (Thoughts): Huh, so that's what that feels like.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Nero succeeds in defeating Grom, but the aftermath left him traumatized and depressed for the next three years.
• Readings Blew Up the Scale: When Nero first manifests his Devil Bringer, his mother takes him to be looked at by a member of the Healing Coven, Matilda. After some tests, Matilda explains that Nero's Devil Bringer is functioning as a secondary Bile Sac and is putting out some absolutely ridiculous magical power. To demonstrate her point, she hooks Nero's right arm up to a device used to measure a witch's magical output, and the Devil Bringer promptly explodes said device with little effort.
• Rewrite:
  • The original version of Chapter 4 ended with Belos' POV, showing him as more of a Control Freak whose main goal was to maintain his dominion over the Boiling Isles. This was written before the latter half of Season 2 revealed more about his motives, and after the canonical revelations were made, the ending of this chapter was altered to make his goals more in-line with canon.
  • The original version of Chapter 5 had Edric and Emira's father Alador be the one who ordered them to get close to Nero. After the Blights made their formal debut in Season 2, the chapter was rewritten so that it was their mother Odalia instead due to ssjSega feeling that it was more in-line with her character.
  • Chapter 9 was slightly modified to remove Luz's comments regarding having never known her father so as to line things up better with her canon counterpart, who did know her father growing up. The line is now spoken by King instead.
• Ruder and Cruder: Not so much on the Devil May Cry side of things, as Nero was already very vulgar tongued, but very noticeable when it comes to The Owl House, given that the latter had no swearing whatsoever. The most prominent examples are Lilith and Eda, with the former letting out some very strong curses such as f-bombs when pissed off and the latter slipping swears into casual conversation. Even Amity lets out an f-bomb once (though she was heavily embarrassed by it).
• Ship Tease: Luz and Amity get quite a bit, much like their home series. The first of such instances was when they collided into each other, complete with both of them blushing. Chapter 20 even has a side-plot of them basically playing parents to Selki and happily spending an entire afternoon together.
• Shout-Out:
  • In Chapter 17, Belos makes a few to Darth Vader.
    • When Lilith calls him out on Moving the Goalposts regarding their deal, his response?
      Belos: I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further.
    • He later compliments Luz's magical abilities the same way Vader complimented Luke in The Empire Strikes Back.
  • Upon just barely dodging one of Hunter's laser blasts, Nero mentally shouts "Crapbaskets!"
• Spit Take: Parodied by Eda. When Lilith confirms to her that she is a mother and that the kid she'd just been talking to was actually her nephew, she reaches into her hood, pulls out a flask, takes a swig from it, and then spits it out, either accidentally or purposefully hitting a random bystander.
• Strict Parents Make Sneaky Kids: This is the main issue in Lilith and Nero's relationship. Lilith is incredibly protective and downright smothering regarding her son, refusing to allow him to do anything that could be perceived as dangerous. As a result, Nero frequently sneaks out to fight the demons of the isles' wilderness both for fun and to vent his frustrations. This later extends to him sneaking out to spend time with his aunt, who's far more open-minded and hands off than Lilith. Eda even tells Lilith that her overprotective, suffocating parenting is the main reason why Nero's so sneaky to begin with.
• Sweet Tooth: The spirits that invade the isles during Hallows' Eve Havoc all thrive off candy and sweets. They even combine with all the splattered fruit and vegetable in Bonesborough to form a small-scale version of the Titan for the sole purpose of raiding every candy shop they could find.
• Technician Versus Performer: Hunter/The Golden Guard is the Technician to Nero's Performer. While both are child prodigies in magic, Hunter was rigorously trained from an early age by Belos, being highly diligent in his studies and mastering whatever magic he was taught. By contrast, Nero, while trained by his mother, is more Brilliant, but Lazy, having gained most of his fighting experience sneaking out, doing battle against the demons of the isle's wilderness, and developing a personalized fighting style. When the two come to blows, they wind up completely stalemating each other.
• This Is Gonna Suck: When Luz meets Edric and Emira in the library like in canon, Nero facepalms and groans that the whole thing would end badly. He ends up being right, given that it all leads to the incident with Otabin later in the chapter.
• Time Skip: For the first 8 chapters, Nero jumps from being a toddler, to a kid, and finally to his canon teenage self.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Willow and Amity's trip to Lake Lacuna was cut short when a powerful demon (revealed to be Phantom) attacked, with Willow's dads holding it off to buy Alador time to flee with the girls, barely escaping themselves. Odalia used their 'poor showing' as proof their family was unfit to associate with the Blights, with little protest from Alador.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Nero's friendship with the Blight twins in a nutshell. They mostly love to mess with and tease him, and he returns the favor with snark, but he still seeks them out for advice, and they know when to tone it down.
• Wham Episode: As the equivalent of the Season 1 finale, Chapter 17 fits the bill, especially the ending. Nero comes clean to Lilith about his monster hunts, joins her and Luz helping Eda bust out, and he and Luz fight Belos together before making a getaway. What's more, Belos' talk with the Collector reveals that Sparda actually played a part in sealing them away.
• Wham Shot: The end of Chapter 17 has Belos opening a wooden chest that contains the broken Yamato.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Nero gives one to Eda and Lilith during their convention battle for putting both Luz and Amity in danger with the traps and for making Amity cheat.
  • Happens again when Nero finds out about the twins' plan to “prank” Amity by releasing her diary to the school, effectively breaking off his friendship with them.
  • In Chapter 20, Lilith gives one to Nero for how he's constantly pushing her out of the fight and how he refuses to trust her in having his back.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Discussed and Subverted. Nero saves Graff from Eda because they're a living creature too. Eda just tells him she just doesn't care about her old pranks.

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