Mundus

"As much as it saddens me to do this, I'm more disappointed to see your surprise. You should have learn this by now: The rules are hard, but they are still rules. And I never break the rules."

- Mundus.

Mundus is a devil prince who rules a sector of Hell known as the Demon World and the Dark Army, and had threaten the Human World before being defeated by Sparda.

Overview
He was a former ruler of Hell, after overthrowing the previous rulers of Hell, the Great Evils and killing the God of Evil. Some time after conquering the devil throne, Mundus' rule was challenged by the demon god Argosax, and a great war followed that divided Hell in two sides, allowing Lucifer's army to take over and unite the divided underworld.

Upon trying to take over the Human World, the demon swordsman Sparda, his right-hand man at the time, rebelled and defeated him and his armies, sealing him away in a vault on Mallet Island. As the legends revolving Mundus and Sparda were grand enough that many demons tried to replicate them to feel powerful and important, with some even taking their names as their own.

Appearance
Similar to Lucifer, Mundus originally had a fair and beautiful visage but with innate sense of malevolence and wanton desire for power behind his eyes. He had long ethereal white hair with a reddish hue that went past his shoulders and dressed in regal clothing in correspondence with his position and title as the dark prince of the Inferno. His attire usually consisted of draconic themes and almost always had a single eye in the middle of his outfit which ties into his signature tri-clopean avatar.

Some time later, Mundus began to graft marble-like material unto himself to conceal his mutating form as well as to hold in his power. Mundus' current appearance is that of a gigantic living statue of an ageing, muscular, bearded man with enormous feathered wings, resembling figures such as Zeus or the common Christian depictions of God. The statue has a circular depression in his chest, where an eye-like core is located in his true form. During his final battle with Dante, portions of the statue break away, revealing a grotesque, writhing mass of living tissue, with three eyeballs and hundreds of hands coming out of it.

When compressing his form and becoming more stable with his power Mundus takes the form of a middle-aged man with dark gray skin that bear several cracks mainly around his face, front of his body, and his arms although the cracks themselves appear to be fashioned into a pattern of sorts. His hair shortened and gained a more whitish silver coloration alongside his eyes with his irises being the same color, red pupils, and black sclera. He also his signature third eye in the middle of his forehead which resembles a black gem with a red dot in its midst. He also sports two blackish brown curved horns that emerge from the top of his forehead.

Additionally, Mundus often appears as three glowing orbs (eyes) arcing with energy. He is seen this way while communicating with Griffon, Trish, and before battling the son of Sparda, Vergil.

Personality
"So sad that humans will always be humans, no more. Has the Sparda blood been spoiled over the ages?"

- Mundus.

Even for a demon, Mundus is depicted as an epitome of evil, worse than Lucifer himself. Mundus was utterly ruthless, cruel, arrogant and egocentric, as he revels in torturing his enemies and destroying anyone that crossed him. Mundus has been famously known for his tremendous megalomania, seeing himself as the true ruler of not just Hell but all that of which he feel he is destined to rule. Mundus is therefore the definition of malevolence, terror, and destruction, expressing his power and cruelty over nearly all who dare face him. He has many megalomaniacal tendencies, and often refers to himself as a god.

Mundus is very driven by his goals, setting servant after servant to destroy Dante before finally taking the fight to the devil hunter himself. And even after losing again, he still forced a smaller Hell Gate open in a bid for vengeance on Dante.

Mundus has shown to be completely intolerable towards failure, incompetence, or insubordination. He has no compassion for his minions and act without regard to their loyalty, killing one of his own generals, Griffon, after the latter failed to defeat Dante and pleaded for his master's aid, or even using Trish as a bargaining chip over Dante to ensure an easy victory. He does, however, seem to show attachment to those who either help further his agenda or are related directly to him.

Mundus is extremely obsessive, especially with gaining his goals. Although this is a flaw that many other high-ranking demons have pointed out when it comes to describing him. Mundus is very power-hungry and is desperate to expand his rule beyond the reaches of Hell and this in turn makes him narrow minded but also quite stubborn, very aggressive, and prideful for despite being defeated not just by Sparda but also by his own sons, he would make a vow to return. However, Mundus has, on rare occasions, expressed fear when in situations that he cannot overcome such as when confronted his resurrected master and the sons of Sparda at their most powerful.

He does also neither particularly trust nor likes the presence of the fallen angels in the underworld, specially their leader Lucifer/Satan, when they rally all of his forces on hell to unite and rule it under him through charismatic leadership, bribery, and intimidation. He holds a degree of bitterness and grudge towards the Fallen and their leaders for claiming the ruling leadership of the underworld without waging war against the current rulers of that time, but still tolerates and holds it back, while making his own plans of taking over hell (again) and also the Human World from behind the scenes (though Lucifer is also aware of it through his spies in Mundus' side).

Regardless, Mundus wanted to be like him which is why he would assume the form of a heavily bearded angel or god-like entity in a statuesque form. This form that Mundus would take is, according to Beelzebub, Mundus' pitiful attempt of combining two great rulers (Lucifer and God) into one and exalting himself in a place higher than them both to secure his prideful disposition.

Like most other demons, Mundus has a low opinion of humans, even going so far as to wonder if Dante's human heritage had weakened his father's blood. Completely unsympathetic towards humans he would not shed a tear if a billon of them were slain instead would relish over the reality of ruling over them. He appears to regard humans as entirely interchangeable, being confused at the idea that Dante would not accept Mundus making him a new mother to replace Eva, or "as many as (he would) like." However, he is willing to make deals with humans that are beneficial for his plans, taking advantage of their greed and corruptibility, but should they fail he will not hesitate to severely punish them or outright kill them.

Though he seemingly hates Sparda, he did note he could see the same 'light' from Sparda's eyes in Dante's, which could indicate a measure of respect he once held for his greatest general, though this could also simply be a fallback reference as to how both Phantom and Griffon saw Sparda within Dante. According to Dantalion though, Mundus will kill anyone who even dares to mock Sparda or his legacy, showing some remaining compassion and maybe even love towards him.

Mundus holds a special disdain towards the demon Argosax whose hatred is complied with equal malice. Even with them being on the same side, they are unwilling to work together and have show antagonism to the other.

Powers and Abilities
Hailed as the Prince of Darkness and Devil Emperor, Mundus has the power to back up these titles. He was known for having posed a difficult challenge to the god-like legendary Dark Knight Sparda and was powerful enough to surpass the earlier level of might wielded by the Sons of Sparda, as shown by his easy victory over Vergil and even Dante and he could challenge Dante when he used the full power of the Sparda. Mundus is among the most powerful demons in Hell and while he is nowhere near as powerful as Satan, Lucifer, or even Beelzebub, he is nonetheless superior to the likes of many other powerful monarchs of the Inferno.

As the Emperor of the Demon World, Mundus has absolute control over almost all lesser demons within his domain and has once commanded other powerful entities such as the Hellspawns and the Knights of Hell. Mundus is also shown to be capable of creating other powerful demons to serve him. His power was great enough to rival Argosax, an entity who is both god and demon, to the point where a war between him and the demon god came out even and split the Abrahamic Underworld in two different sides.

Despite his terrifying power, there have been several instances where Mundus was defeated and overwhelmed. The most notable of the defeats he suffered was against Sparda, his son Dante wielding his father's sword, and his own master Lucifer. Even after being defeated, Mundus was relentless and brutal in his battle prowess and was quite difficult to put down as a result but in Lucifer's case it was not even a challenge for the Morning Star whom effortlessly defeated his temporary usurper even when weakened from being awakened from his tomb.

Mundus was humble enough to bitterly acknowledge that Satan was far above him in terms of power and saw Belial as a threat to his ruling, resulting in him requesting Beelzebub to devise a way to get rid of him. He attempted to directly challenge Hades, wanting to expand his rule through Hades' domain, but was convinced by Beelzebub not to move against the god of the underworld for according to the Lord of Flies their fight would make the two underworlds collapse onto one another. Beelzebub also stated that Hades' allies would more than likely defeat Mundus if the Devil Prince challenged him.

Mundus is able to fly using his wings and his attacks include firing red javelin-like projectiles from his eyes or wings (in his winged form), creating lighting bolts and fireballs to strike down on his foes, and sending out a powerful sweeping energy beam. Mundus possesses great strength and durability from most attacks, but the gap in his chest has proven to be his weak point.


 * Supernatural Strength: As a god-like demon, Mundus possesses high amount of strength. He is able to easily punch through stone. Even in his youth, he was already comparable to Ares, the Greek god of war, to the point where a battle between him and the war god was said to have split and warped the skies from their collision and created massive chasms that threatened to swallow distant cities and villages.


 * Supernatural Durability: Mundus is also incredibly resilient, surviving his first battle with Sparda and capable of taking direct hits from Dante wielding Sparda's true power for an extended period of time. Even while his statuesque shell has begun falling apart, he was generally unharmed by a son of Sparda without the power of their father.


 * Inferna-Ergokinesis: Mundus is capable of projecting extremely powerful demonic energy. He can fire red energy needles from his eyes, hands, or back that are strong enough to cause his enemy pain. By charging large amount of energy into his third eye, Mundus can fire a powerful beam of white energy.


 * Flight: By virtue of his wings, Mundus is capable of taking flight.


 * Lesser-Universe Creation: Mundus is powerful enough to create a lesser-universe filled with stars and at least one planetoid.


 * Demon Creation: Mundus is capable of creating powerful demons, as he was the one who created Trish, Nightmare, and many others.


 * Cerebrokinesis: Mundus is capable of suppressing a ones memories and altering ones personalities to make them serve him.


 * Power Augmentation: Mundus can enhance the powers and abilities of chosen individuals.


 * Orb Summoning: Mundus can summon orbs for various purposes. He has dark grey ones that generate a force field to protect him from attacks or that he can fire at an enemy. He has smaller white ones that can fire white energy needles.
 * Electrokinesis: Mundus is capable of sending lightning from the sky at an enemy
 * Geo-Thermokinesis: Mundus displayed the ability to summon dragons made of lava that can spit fireballs.
 * Mineralkinesis: Mundus can summon meteors to rain down from the sky or to hurl large boulders at his enemy.

Beginnings
Two millennia ago, the Devil Prince Mundus was born into the depths of Hell as it snowed in the Human World, and quickly rose to power. After building a great army and immense power due to consuming the powerful Qliphoth fruit, he slew the previous Demon King, known as the God of Evil, and defeated the Great Evils and took the title for himself. After this period, a devil god named Argosax appeared and challenged Mundus' rule, waging a war against the Prince of Darkness. This great war eventually led to the separation of the Hell into two sides; one ruled by him, and the other ruled by Argosax. This divide allowed Lucifer (and Satan), who was freed from his cage and blessed by Ayin, and his own demonic legion to invade the weaken armies of Hell and overthrow both leaders along with many other overlords and united Hell under his rule.

However, Lucifer did allowed to Mundus to rule over a large sector of Hell, known as the Demon World, which once held the palace of the God of Evil as his personal territory to do as he wish. Begrudgingly accepting Lucifer's "gift", Mundus and his army took over the demon world with the archdemons Argosax and his army secretly following them. Throughout the centuries the former ruler desperately sought the throne and the power it provides. Mundus being overthrown resulted in his growing resentment and hate towards his master while also fueling his desire to regain his throne.

Mundus would observe his new master's activities on Earth and was rather fascinated and intrigued by the human race. He was amused by the fact that humans would build monuments and effigies in honor of a being they perceive as divine and came to the conclusion that since humans were so simple in their perception of those they regard as far above their feeble material flesh then he would subjugate them under his rule as well. The more he continued to watch the more he would see the many crimes and atrocities the humans would commit through acts of war, greed, and oppression. Given that they, in his own view, are so fond of power then he would show them what true power is and be under constant fear and total obedience under Mundus' hand. Perhaps the two events and series of developments which truly had an impact on him was when the Watchers taught mankind forbidden knowledge and used said knowledge to create many terrible yet great things and even a thousand or so years later their descendants retained said knowledge to create the Tower of Babel.

While Mundus could not fully manifest himself on Earth due to his power being too great, he would come before humans in the guise of a fair and beautiful being similarly to Lucifer. He would manipulate these humans and have them stray from their faiths, abandon their morals, and slowly corrupt them into becoming deranged worshippers of Mundus. The dark prince reveled in their worship and relished in the euphoric feeling of using his power over the weak and dominating the strong. Mundus' appearance also began to slowly change, his once fair and majestic complexion cracked and peeled away, growing more demonic which befitted his status as a tyrannical being. He resorted to grafting pieces of marble unto his body, starting with his face as it fashioned into the likeness of his master and God, in order to not only conceal his true visage but also his growing power.

Usurping the Throne
While Mundus was not aware of the full scope of Lucifer's New World Order, the pieces of information he gained from overhearing his master during meetings in the Stygian Council made him realize that this would hamper his goals of ruling the Inferno and beyond, thus he conspired against his master. Rumors circulated that Mundus made contact with not only a rouge child of Lucifer but even the true archangel Jophiel, informing them of Lucifer's plan, and plotted to imprison the Morningstar. Beelzebub and Lucifer himself knew of this truth but Lucifer convinced Beelzebub not to move against Mundus for it as the Morning Star promised that Mundus' reign will not last from what he has planned in advance and have Beelzebub engage in the plan.

Lucifer was put to sleep by Lailah, then detained and later imprisoned by Michael using Judecca chains and had Jophiel create a tomb where he would remain until Judgement Day. The elated Mundus took this opportunity to establish himself as the new Emperor of Hell. However, Mundus feared that Lucifer might emerge from his tomb and in response to this would siphon Lucifer's power and add it to his own. Moreover, many demons vied for the taking of the throne whilst others desired for one of the other six princes to rule in Lucifer's stead leading to a civil war. Mundus fought and killed any demon that opposed him and his means of taking the throne until he finally ascended to being the Supreme Emperor of Hell after which he ended the civil war.

Emperor of Hell
Not only was Mundus enthroned as the new emperor but also became the head prince amongst the seven great monarchs of Hell. However, while many demons admired and feared the dark emperor, a majority only had utter disdain for him, especially the six main princes of Hell whom held him in high contempt for his methods of ruling. While he was cruel, stern, and efficient Mundus was narrow-minded and very power-hungry as he only ever focused on expanding his power and authority across not just Hell but beyond its borders as well. Moreover, they were aware of Mundus' hand in imprisoning their former ruler but unfortunately could not move against Mundus due to the laws of Hell.

Because of Mundus' pursuit of expanding his power and rule across the infernal realms he even attempted to colonize his rule through foreign realms like the Underworlds of mythology. His two most prominent attempts and later failures was when he suggested to overtake the kingdom of Hades, finding the precious and exceedingly rare minerals that dwell within the lord of the dead's domain to be quite beneficial for his own uses. However, he was convinced by Beelzebub to not move against Hades for not only would the latter's allies be able to defeat him but this would be a breach of contract between the Abrahamic Hell and the mythological Underworlds.

Seeing that he could not breach this contract as it would incite a war that he knew he would not be able to win despite their own powerful resources, Mundus instead opted to create a symbiotic relationship between his kingdom and another chthonic god's own kingdom. He tried this with the Norse goddess of death, Hel, but the goddess immediately, and threateningly, turned his offer down as she does not take kindly to the likes of Mundus even setting foot into her domain. The Dark Emperor left at Hel's demands in the end, preventing any rising animosity that would spark a chthonic war between two underworlds.

Unknowingly for Mundus, his fear would soon came to fruition when the seals upon Lucifer's tomb were broken far earlier due to Queen Sheba and resulted in the subsequent release of the Morningstar once again. Lucifer with his patience decided against forcefully regaining his throne but instead use Mundus as a puppet for his own schemes.

Belial's Revolt
However, during his ruling period, the demon king Belial could no longer bear being under Mundus' rule and challenged the Dark Emperor. Seeing that his rule was under threat by Belial's power, Mundus had Beelzebub develop a plot to create a revolt against Belial. Beelzebub accepted but only because this would be in accordance to the plan of Lucifer's eventual freedom without Mundus' knowledge.

Using his influence and power, Beelzebub's revolt against Belial was successful and the Lord of Pride was thrown into the lake Cocytus that lay within the deepest regions of the Ninth Circle of Hell with the aid of the Dark Knight, Sparda who lead the Knights of Hell.

Lucifer's Return to his Throne
Ruling for 1000 years, Lucifer had decided to enough with enough due to him realizing that Mundus was too power hungry to rule once again since eating the Qliphoth Fruit corrupted his mind too much, stopped hiding and attacked Mundus' throne room. Lucifer's first course of action was to exact his revenge on Mundus, and when confronted him, demanded that he relinquish his seat of power as well as the power he stole from him.

Mundus had freaked out by seeing Lucifer but refused to lose his throne again so responded by attempting to kill Lucifer, however, despite being severely weakened, Lucifer soundly and effortlessly bested Mundus before draining him of the power he stole as well as his own before taking his throne again. He then inform the denizens of Hell that Mundus' actions were a minor nuisance and set-back for his plans.

However, Lucifer decided against killing Mundus due to him realizing that his own arrogance was the reason for his defeat and so let Mundus go after Mundus told him of his treacherous son that assisted the Dark Emperor's location. Mundus returned back to the Demon World with a deadly warning by Lucifer that if this happened again, Mundus will die permanently. Lucifer would then find his treacherous son and then killed him by having him combust. Unbeknownst to Lucifer, or that is what is believed, his son actually survived by having a sliver of essence escape only to be absorbed by Argosax.

Second Battle with Argosax
After his return, Mundus had to deal with his arch-enemy, the demon god Argosax, who wanted to take the entirety of the Demon World for himself, in revenge for his previous loss against the Dark Emperor. Consuming his own Qliphoth fruit, he became a far bigger problem for Mundus than before. Argosax amassed an army, lead by the demon generals Balrog and Bolverk, with his power alone but was met with resistance by Mundus' own generals.

It was however the action of Sparda himself who was able to battle most of Argosax's army single handedly while Mundus personally fought against Argosax. A battle that surpassed their previous bout all those years ago, they attempted to tear each other apart until Sparda rejoined his master's side and was able to defeat the Argosax who swore revenge against both Mundus and Sparda. Afterwards, they banished the demon god into the depths of the Demon World that lay next to the borders of Hell.

Sparda's Revolt
An unknown amount of time later, and feeling unsatisfied with his rule over the Demon World, Mundus planned to lead an assault (with Lucifer's indirect assistant) on the Human World and conquer the realm for himself and the other Princes of Hell, ruling both worlds as one. Mundus thought back to when the Watchers taught humanity forbidden knowledge and in the process created both amazing and terrible weapons, artifacts, substances, and constructs. This knowledge remained with them even after thousands of years of the Great Flood's passing. Mundus proposed to his master and fellow princes that with the knowledge they hold, they could impart said knowledge to the mortals where under their tutelage could create strongholds, constructs, and weapons in the imagery and likeness of what the princes represent. With such dark knowledge spreading across the lands, they will have an iron grip onto the the human world with their power and mind.

Mundus' ambitions were said to have surpassed his judgement, for while he had creative ideas on how to expand the ruling and shadow of Hell, its execution was flawed. As such, he awaited for the coming of the Conjunction and when it began, Mundus commissioned Mulciber to craft the Seven Gates of Hell across the seven continents of the world. The gates in question would act as conduits for the dimensional energy that would run amok through the main plane of reality, which in turn would allow the demons of Hell safe passage through the gates and unto the Earth.

However, Sparda, a powerful demon knight who was both the first leader of the Knights of Hell and Mundus' own right hand man, woke up to justice, and opposed his masters. He started by vanquishing Mundus' armies single-handedly (while the other Knights of Hell still loyal to Sparda dealt with the rest of Hell) and later engaging the Dark Emperor in single combat then later defeating him after a long and terrible battle. He would then imprison Mundus, his armies, and the other monarchs that followed suite with Mundus' declaration of war. He also sealed away the Demon World, and then seal one of the gates connecting Hell and the human realm deep underground with the assistance from the Archangel Gabriel.

Eruption of Mount Vesuvius
Way after his defeat, Mundus remained embittered at Sparda's betrayal, but more so towards the fact that he defeated the Dark Emperor, which had him shaking with rage. Having his pride be broken, Mundus retaliated with a terrible vengeance which resulted in an event that was cemented in human history books as one of the greatest tragedies on Earth; the Destruction of Pompeii.

As the centuries passed by, one of Mundus's spies relayed information to the Dark Emperor regarding Sparda's whereabouts and activities, and it was alerted to him when Sparda was fighting his generals, the twin demon brothers and knights Azazel and Samyaza. Knowing he would be unable to crossover to the mortal realm in his weakened state, more-so that it would take too much time to have the humans build a lesser Hell Gate, Mundus took it upon himself to find information regarding the construction of the infamous Tower of Babel, which possesses properties that would not only allow Mundus to pass over to the mortal realm successfully but also grant him enormous power, and one that he hoped would have him gain victory over Sparda.

He found one hidden beneath Mount Vesuvius and enacted his plan, which consequently resulted in the destruction of the mountain. Sparda, in the meantime, was amongst the people of Pompeii who witnessed Mount Vesuvius erupting and destroying the city of Pompeii and most of the population completely. The Destruction of Pompeii was the result of Mundus raising one of the four towers of Babel in a vain attempt to the harness the power that lay within the tower to dominate the Earth after his defeat by Sparda. This was the result of Mundus proclaiming a terrible vengeance against Sparda and wanted more power to defeat the Dark Knight, however, the action only resulted in Mundus being severely punished by Beelzebub.

Mundus' Servants
Mundus, of course, was relentless in his vengeance. This allowed Lucifer to push some of Mundus' more gullible servants to track down Sparda's wife and sons. In response, Mundus' soldiers planned revenge against Sparda's family for betraying their master. His demons attacked and killed Eva, Sparda's wife and the mother of his twin sons. While Eva unfortunately perished from Mundus' forces, their twin sons Dante and Vergil survived. When Mundus heard this, he eradicated every demon that was apart of this plot, as he once mentioned that no one would touch Sparda's family but himself.

Meeting with the Sons of Sparda
As Sparda's son Vergil found himself trapped in the Inferno, he comes upon Mundus, who glares down on him silently with his triple eyed avatar. Vergil encountered and challenged him in battle, in his weakened state. Vergil thought that if his father could defeat Mundus, so could he. However, Mundus easily defeated Vergil who was then and tortured by Mundus for several years. Mundus then transformed Vergil into Nelo Angelo, in twisted retaliation to spite and mock Sparda's legacy.

When Mundus finally decided to resurface into the Human World years later by opening a gate on Mallet Island. At the same time, he uses Trish to manipulate Sparda's other son, Dante, into coming to the island so that he can be killed. For much of the event, Mundus remains dormant within the statue of his younger form in the main hall of the castle, with Dante writing the statue off as nothing more than a depiction of the inhabitants god. Mundus attempts to vanquish the young cambion by having his own brother, once thought dead after a vain attempt to defeat him, to kill him only to fail along with the rest of his forces.

Mallet Island Event
He first appears to Dante after the third battle with Griffon, ruthlessly executing his fallen general after he pleads to Mundus to be healed and strengthened to defeat Dante. Mundus is not seen again until Nelo Angelo's ultimate defeat, commenting to Trish that Vergil had fallen and saying she knew what she had to do. While Trish does ultimately lure Dante into a trap to battle Nightmare, this fails and Mundus appears, threatening Trish with the consequences of her failure.

When Dante finally arrives in Mundus' lair, a chapel like area, and sees the Devil Emperor sitting on his throne, musing on the irony of again facing a Sparda, with Dante retorting the irony of Mundus' defeat at his hands. Mundus however has one last card to play: The captured Trish. Playing on Dante's feelings for Trish, Mundus ruthlessly impales Dante with three beams of red energy, taunting Dante's weakness. Mundus prepares to deal the final blow when Trish intervenes, seemingly sacrificing herself for Dante.

Annoyed with his creation's 'behavior' Mundus again attempts to destroy Dante, but the young devil hunter deflects the blast and demands Mundus show himself. Deciding to honor Dante's words, Mundus sheds his marble like form, revealing his aged, angelic body and then transports himself and Dante to his pocket dimension. There, he comments on how he now sees the light of Sparda's eyes within Dante's own. When Dante demands to know why Mundus used his mother's face, Mundus calls her a 'worthless being' and suggests to Dante he could make as many as he wanted. Dante demands silence and this sparks the final between the two, with Mundus flying off into the darkness and Dante assuming his father's form via Devil Trigger.

Mundus then challenged the son of Sparda to a duel and after a lengthy and mighty battle, Mundus was overwhelmed and suffered another humiliating defeat by Dante. After a lengthy and mighty battle, Dante succeeds in injuring Mundus but himself is knocked down into the pit of lava below, Mundus following. Mundus attempts to overwhelm Dante with his raw power but Dante overcomes him after a lengthy battle, and Mundus painfully takes to the skies, screaming as his wings fall away and his pocket dimension fades away, seemingly taking Mundus with it.

However, the prince of darkness returns as Mallet Island begins to collapse, literally tearing open a much smaller Hell Gate in the sewers, directly in front of Dante. The grievously wounded Mundus vowed Dante would not leave, and Dante decided to stand his ground, swearing the island would become Mundus own burial ground. Though his powers had been greatly weakened, and Dante was able to chip away at his body, exposing his hideous true form, Mundus only mocked Dante's efforts, calling his powers weak in the Human World.

But just then, Trish returned and gave Dante her powers, supercharging the devil hunter who then overwhelmed Mundus and made him suffered another humiliating defeat by Dante. At the end, Dante blasted Mundus with his overpowered handguns, sending the Prince of Darkness screaming back into Hell. As he was forced to return to the demon world, Mundus vowed to Dante he would return and rule the Human World.

Aftermath
Because of Vergil's failure to kill Dante and his defeat at the hands of the latter, Mundus took his frustrations and anger out on Vergil. Vergil's soul endured endless, brutal, and unspeakable torture from the likes of Mundus, alongside the Malebranche, Alastor, and Lilith herself. While Vergil would escape each time, he would only fail each time and is returned to the chamber to begin the torture all over again. Despite the fact that Mundus originally claimed Vergil's soul after defeating him, it was Lilith that staked an indirect claim over Vergil's soul as she was among those who knew of Lucifer's grand plan of a New World Order with Mundus having little information over the matter, thus seeing as how essential it is for Vergil to break the first seal with Lilith on the plan, she would have claim over him.

It was because of Lilith's actions, with Mundus in extension, that Vergil's will was completely shattered but did not impede his efforts in escaping and to finally succeed. Mundus was attempting to prevent Vergil from escaping Hell only to fail when Vergil received aid, unknowingly, by Zariel himself, an angel of the Lord. However, this only served as a victory for Lilith as Vergil's escape from Hell was in fact the first seal that triggered the coming events that will lead to the Apocalypse.

Mundus realized what Lilith's plans truly was as he saw the son of Sparda used the Yamato to separate his demon and human halves into two new beings with the demon side summoning the Qliphoth Tree as gain ultimate power much to Mundus' glee. Cackling in his realm, Mundus believed that the son of the traitor Sparda would be to start the end of humanity.

Visions of V
In the memories of Vergil's human half V receives upon forming contracts with the demon familiars, he sees the aftermath of Vergil's failed attempt to fight the Demon Emperor. Mundus strings Vergil's impaled body up, mocking the Son of Sparda and cursing the Legendary Dark Knight for "sullying his blood in a human womb". As the defeated Vergil claims he can still fight, Mundus picks the beaten half-demon up and begins transforming him into Nelo Angelo, stating he has no need for a heart and shall become his servant.

When V and the demon familiar Griffon confront the powerful Nightmare, Griffon reveals the original Nightmare's origins, having been created by Mundus desiring an all powerful demon as his living weapon. Using his own blood as part of Nightmare's creation, the Prince of Darkness succeeded, overwhelmingly so, as the newly born Nightmare possessed the power and capability of destroying the Demon World itself. Fearing this, Mundus quickly enslaved Nightmare to his will, while also sealing the bulk of its power.

Myths and Legends
The Mundus Cereris was a pit in Roman mythology which contained an entrance to Hades, the underworld, which was ruled by Pluto, the Roman god of the underworld; Mundus is identified as Pluto. The stone covering the pit, known as the lapis manalis, would be removed three times a year, and when it was removed it was believed that the spirits of the blessed dead would commune with the living.

Mundus' three eyes are likely a reference to Satan, who is portrayed with three faces in Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy. Satan is also considered the "Prince of This World" and the "Prince of Darkness", both of which are titles that Mundus shares with him. Mundus' pseudo-angelic appearance also coincides with Satan's traditional role as a fallen angel within the Christian faith.

Though Mundus' appearance and basis is rightfully in the fashion of that of Judeo-Christian design, the absence of any God sort of figure mentioned throughout the series appears to draw basis from the Demon King Mara and the fiend's depiction from Japanese Buddhism; known as Dairokutenmaou, or The Great Sixth Heaven's Demon King, Mara keeps his figure as a being who dwells in the furthest reaches of the Sixth Heaven of the Desire Realm, responsible for the creation of the world to keep all in its carnal grasp, and is the leader of demons who follow him under his command. Like Mara, Mundus bears this in his aspects, from his heavenly façade to being the literal king of the Demon World.

Mundus is actually a Latin term referring to the 'vile world' or the 'imagined universe.' The world is also included in the dream-philosophy works of Carl Jung. Therefore, it is not difficult to see how the god of the evil Underworld would have such an allegorical name.

Trivia

 * It is mentioned that Mundus' statue form was a result of his power being "too strong" for him to cross to the Human World in his true form.
 * Mundus may have been worshipped by the inhabitants of Mallet Island since statues of him appear everywhere and items suggesting demonic rituals are found throughout the island.
 * It is possible however that these were constructed by the demons found on the island after they took over.
 * It is rumored that Mundus was the benefactor of the vampire Walter Bernhard.
 * While rumored, Mundus in not the son of Lucifer and Lilith.
 * A powerful demon overlord known as Orbis, using another Earth and a far enough sector of Hell as his bases, had taken the name of Mundus as his own to seek his own power and glory, being joined by his right-hand and blood-brother Gladio who had taken the name of Sparda as his own. They would have succeeded had Gladio not fallen in love with an angel known as Eva and birth two Nephalem sons named after the Twin Sons of Sparda.
 * In recompense, Orbis and his army attacked their house in the other Earth with Eva being killed by Orbis while Gladio took his baby children away, erasing their memories and hiding them, separately, among the humans. Gladio was eventually captured and condemned to endure eternal agony for his treachery while Orbis continued his plans alone until many years later where he would be slain by both of Gladio's children.
 * It is unknown if Mundus even knew of these demons and what they did.

Image Sources

 * (Mundus by jipeto d90jwx9-fullview.jpg) Mundus by Jipeto
 * (6147002-master mundus.jpg) Master Mundus by ???
 * (Mundus-devil-may-cry-38667355-784-1128.jpg) Mundus by Garrandia
 * (Mundus-devil-may-cry-38667356-2189-5254.jpg) Mundus by Garrandia
 * (Nuxcia-mundus.jpg) Mundus by Nuxcia •
 * (Mundus-devil-may-cry-38667357-564-643.jpg) Mundus by Anna M. Pippin
 * (Devil May Cry Human Mundus.png) Mundus by fragilehunter
 * (DnD Disguise Self.png) DnD: Disguise Self by coupleofkooks
 * (Mundus DMC Art Shuffle.png) DMC Art Shuffle - Mundus by ars-daemonum
 * (Mundus by danieledmc123 dex4hg7-fullview.png) Mundus by DanieleDMC123
 * (Mundus wip by arrancarfighter ddr1vrw-fullview.jpg) Mundus WIP by Arrancarfighter
 * (Share the pain by selemantra deldg8y-fullview.jpg) Share the pain by Selemantra
 * (Human Sparda and Mundus.jpg) Mundus and Sparda's human forms by ちむちむ大魔王
 * (Demon Sparda and Mundus.jpg) Mundus and Sparda's demon forms by ちむちむ大魔王
 * (Dante-vergil-nero-mundus-pidgin-dmc5-3.jpg) Devil May Cry 5 - FA 7 by StelarPidgin
 * (Mundus-kill-trish-devil-may-cry-1-43598007-1498-1504.jpg) Mundus killing Trish from TEPPEN
 * (Teppen-Dante's Story-6.jpg) Dante vs Mundus from TEPPEN
 * (Devil Trigger Dante vs Mundus.jpg) Blood Destiny from TEPPEN
 * (Dmc1youngmundus.png) Young God Mundus from Devil May Cry
 * (Mundus dmc.jpg) Aged God Mundus from Devil May Cry
 * (MundusTrueForm.jpg) True Form Mundus from Devil May Cry
 * (MundusThreeEyes.jpg) Avatar of Mundus from Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening
 * (Statue of Mundus.jpg) An angelic statue depicting a younger Mundus from Devil May Cry