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Symphony 1: Requiem of an Undead Queen

Third Movement – Queen of Dark Horizons

The room was barely lit, save for the carefully arranged collection of candles. The candles themselves set an eerie red glow to the room and cast foreboding shadows of the figures within. Kneeling in a pool of blood, Queen Shais was chanting in an evil tongue whose source is of no consequence. As she continued to chant, the room seemed to fill with spirits of the dead... all the lives she had claimed since she had arrived in this dimension. Normally, the sight of all the wailing spirits would impress even an undead, but this was not the first time Shais had preformed this rite.

Deathshrike, one of her vampire princes, stood to the side of the pool. He sat with his back to her, facing an elaborate pipe organ with his head hanging limp as if he were dead. He sat there quietly as Queen Shais continued chanting. Then, all at once, Shais’s voice rose in volume, and the spirits began to blow out the candles as they passed. Candle after candle, the light grew dimmer as the spirits snuffed out the light sources.

“So, we have heard nothing of Raven?” the queen asked in her normal voice as the candles blew out.

“None, my Queen,” Deathshrike replied, making no other move or sound than to speak.

“Nothing of Cross either?”

“Nay, my queen,” Deathshrike answered motionlessly. “We were told by a wayward bat that Alucard lives, and that he defeated your beloved Cross. His spirit now rests forever in hell.”

Now there were only a handful of candles remaining. The red light was cast on Shais’s face in a fashion so that only her mouth and cheeks of her face were visible due to the shadows cast by her hair. “It is no matter. Even the son of Dracula is no match for Akron’s forces. We need only perform the last rite before his vast army of the abyss is ours.” With that, she drew forth a jagged dagger from her thin, blood-stained white gown. “I’ve preformed this rite what seems to be a thousand times, Deathshrike,” she said as she ran her finger down the blade to the specially designed hilt, made to retain the blood that the blade claimed. “The rite to summon Master Akron and his minions to a world to be claimed used to no longer give me pleasure.” She raised the blade up to her face and licked the blood from the pool off of it. “Yet, I feel that I will enjoy this one more than any that I have enjoyed.” The queen smiled as the last candle blew out.

“Isn’t that right, Crystal?” the queen whispered into the darkened room. Without an order, Deathshrike moved once again, and began playing what seemed to be random notes on the organ before him.

*****

Eerie organ music could heard for miles around Queen Shais’ castle. Normally, the sounds of the night consisted only of the wails of the undead, the howling of wolves, the screeching of the owls, and the chattering of crickets. Yet as Crystal looked out her bedroom window, she was positive that she was hearing organ music, and the point of its origin concerned her.

“That’s not normal, is it?” a voice asked from behind her. Crystal gazed over her shoulder and noticed Vergil, in his half-vampire disguise, sitting on a chair in her room. He sat with his eyes closed, his arms folded, and his legs crossed, as if he was either brooding or thinking very hard. The door was still closed, leaving her to wonder how he got in without her noticing.

“Maybe I’ll answer when you learn to knock,” Crystal replied mockingly.

Vergil smirked and opened his eyes. “Yeah, if I didn’t already know you were gazing out your window concerned about the noise, then I would have entered your room through the door instead of quietly leaping in your other open window.” He pointed at the other window, which faced the other side of the house, preventing Crystal from having noticed him entering without him making a sound.

Sighing, Crystal faced away from the window. “You’re right, Verg, there normally isn’t loud organ music coming from Queen Shais’s castle. In all my days of living here, I’ve never heard any from the town.”

Vergil stood up and faced her. “So, what do you suppose it means?”

“Not a clue,” Crystal replied, shaking her head. “It could be something as simple as Shais having a funeral for the prince you killed three days ago, or it could be something as bad as a summoning ceremony.”

Vergil’s gaze hardened. “Summoning ceremony? What in blazes could she be summoning?”

Crystal shrugged. “The way I understand it she doesn’t want Dracula involved, so I have no clue. Something from her own dimension, maybe?”

“I hope that she isn’t summoning anything,” Vergil growled. “If she is, our job is about to get a lot harder.”

“And what do you propose we do about it anyway?” Crystal sighed. “We’ve been running your little hit and fade attacks at her with what vampire hunters we have, and we’re still not ready mount an assault on her castle.”

Vergil’s face was stern. It was the first time Crystal had ever looked at him and thought him to be genuinely concerned. Crystal began fearing in the back of her mind that maybe Vergil knew something more about Shais then she did. After standing silent for a few moments, Vergil finally spoke. “I think it is time to get rid of this disguise nonsense and do what I came to do three days ago.”

Crystal opened her mouth as if to protest, but she changed her mind when she looked more intently at Vergil’s face. He wasn’t joking about this, and her requests to keep the minds of her family and friends ignorant of where she found him would fall on deaf ears now. Yet, should couldn’t help but ask, “Are you sure that’s necessary Vergil? I mean, how do you know it’s anything to worry about?”

“If she has a master to summon,” Vergil replied. “Then I don’t want to know how powerful this master of hers is. We hit her now, and we hit her hard so that we don’t have to find out.”

“Hit her with what?!” Crystal replied frustrated. “What are you going to do? Call down that robot of yours?” She tried hard to hold back tears. “You want to just call in your giant robots and blow up my home as if it was no consequence? Our weapons may be weaker then yours, creature, but they don’t leave scars that take generations for nature to heal!”

Vergil glowered at Crystal. “What did you call me? Did you just call me... creature?!”

Crystal stood up angrily and stared him right in the eye. “That’s what you are, aren’t you?! You called yourself a Neo-Mitocreiten-Creature didn’t you?”

“Neo Mitochondrion Creature,” Vergil replied, and then opened his mouth as if to continue, but Crystal cut him off.

“Exactly! You’re this thing!” she cried. “This damned thing that is so wrapped up in his damned power games with his friends that he doesn’t care at what expense his power costs to others!”

It was then that a yell escaped Vergil’s lips. This yell was something that not even Favmar had heard before. It was a yell of instant rage, inflicted by someone pushed just the right button at just the right time. His mitochondria began raging within him, telling him to burn her where she stood. He felt her presence... he could feel her cells defenseless before him... and then he yelled again even louder.

“If that’s the way you feel, then you’re bloody right!” Vergil yelled at her. Crystal shrank back away from him as if a bigger dog had just barked her into a corner. “So be it! I am a creature! I am powerful! Then so be it; I don’t give a damn what happens to you and your damn planet!” Crystal started to protest, but Vergil already turned and opened the door to leave her room. She opened her mouth to cry out his name, when something impeded her ability to speak.

“If you don’t give a damn then you won’t mind if I take her then?”

Vergil shot a quick gaze over his shoulder. Standing behind Crystal was a tall pale woman dressed in a blood soaked white night gown. Her eyes were glowing with power, and her dark black hair was flying freely behind her as if a personal wind source was casting it around randomly. The woman held a crude blade against Crystal’s neck and her other arm was covering her mouth.

Vergil’s eyes became large. “You’re... Queen Shais, aren’t you?”

“Got it in one, handsome,” the vampire queen replied. “I am here to collect the last component for my ritual. Since you don’t care about her, I suppose you’re not going to resist me.”

Vergil didn’t reply. He instead seemed to study Shais as if she were some great work of art, scanning her whole body. Queen Shais laughed to herself lightly. “What’s wrong boy? Scared stiff?”

“Oh no, not at all,” Vergil replied as the blood on Shais’s night gown burst into flames. “I was simply checking to see if that blood on your dress was pure or if there were some non-blood cells with mitochondria in it.”

The undead queen leapt away from Crystal frantically in an attempt to put out the fire. Vergil used this opportunity to draw Frostmourne from his inventory and charge at Shais. Before he'd cleared half the room, however, Shais became a clear mist and Vergil’s blade passed harmlessly through it. By the time Vergil turned around to see where the mist was headed, Shais had rematerialized, holding Crystal from behind with her mouth on her neck. Vergil didn’t move.

“Now be a good boy and don’t move,” Shais said as she hovered over Crystal’s neck. Her hands bound the vampire hunter’s arms behind her back, preventing her from resisting Shais’ powerful vampire strength. Vergil growled as Shais backed toward the window from which Vergil had entered not too long ago.

“Let her go,” Vergil said in a flat tone as Shais made it to the window. “This is your last warning before I topple your undead empire for all it is worth.”

Shais smiled at Vergil as if he were an ignorant kid. “I bet you’re that R&D fellow my son Raven told me about. Well, Mr. R&D, I invite you to try, but your precious forces will be no match for Akron’s power. I recommend you leave this dimension before you are swallowed in his thirst for souls.”

Vergil smirked. “Your Akron’s power doesn’t fear me. I know someone who serves more souls a day to Khorne then McDonalds does hamburgers. If I don’t kill you tonight, I am sure he will later.”

“I’ll hold you to that, boy,” Queen Shais said as she leaped out the window. Vergil fired a quick shot of Parasite Energy at the figure as she fled, but it was no use; she was just too fast for him.

For several minutes, Vergil stood there in Crystal’s room, cursing every swear word he knew in ever tongue he knew, which was English, Favu, and a few in Japanese and Spanish. He then spent a minute wishing he knew how to swear in Elven and German. After he swore once at himself for standing there doing nothing for several minutes, he marched himself out of Crystal’s room and down the stairs of her house. At the bottom of the stairs, Brian Graves sat at the table he had held the briefing with Vergil three days earlier. He looked up from his late night snack and noticed Vergil stomping into the nearly empty single guest room they had in the house that he had been staying it.

“Vergil, what were you and my daughter yelling about?” he asked in an accusing tone. “And what was all that noise?”

Vergil answered by stopping long enough to look at him, his eyes glowing brightly. “Mr. Graves, you are about to see things you will not understand, and I will not be around later to explain them. Be satisfied in knowing I am keeping your daughter safe.” With that, Vergil marched into the guest room and closed the door. Brain Graves made several protests, but Vergil would not answer any of them.

-| Cue: Rhapsody – Rain of A Thousand Flames – Queen of the Dark Horizons |-

As Queen Shais leapt from tree to tree, quickly carrying her precious cargo toward her castle, Vergil shed his dark half-vampire disguise.

The spell Shais had placed on Crystal knocked her out not too far into the journey, and she was quite pleased with how easily the vampire hunter who killed Raven fell into her grasps. Of course, the man who actually killed Raven was not in her grasps at all. Instead, he was reverting his hair to its normal length, and replacing his glasses on his face. A number of quick calls to the Chronospheres later and he was dressed again in his favorite battle garb: blue jeans, a white shirt, and a favu-print over shirt. Reaching into the shirt, Vergil pulled out his Caster Gun and checked what shells he had on his belt.

Rosa nera sussurrante piange sangue d'innocenza
Dall'abisso lei ritorna per urlare la setenza

Satisfied with the results, he kicked open the door to the guest room and marched out of Crystal’s house. He ignored Brian Graves’ protest as he began issuing orders into his glasses. He continued like this, ignoring everyone in town as he marched out of it, issuing commands in all sorts of radio jargon.

Rosa nera sussurrante piange sangue d'innocenza
Dall'abisso lei ritorna per urlare la setenza

“Where do you suppose he’s going?” one of the vampire hunters asked Brian Graves as he came running out of his house.

“I don’t know,” Brian replied. “Nor do I know what he’s wearing or who he’s talking to.” Not but a few moments after he said this than did a sudden wind pick up. As Vergil made it clear of the town, flashes began to appear in the air far above him.

0:50 – piano

Vergil picked up his march to a fast walk. As he gained ground between him and the town, ships came out from the Chronosphere flashes in the sky, and figures could be seen dropping out of them. Terran Dropships hovered overhead, unloading myriads of Terran troops on the ground behind Vergil. As the units of Marines, Siege Tanks, Goliaths, and Firebats dropped out of the Dropships, Tau Devilfish Transports hovered in next to them. Their side hatches burst open as Tau Fire Warriors broke out of them and began quickly filing up behind the NMC.

It was not too much longer before Protoss Shuttles and Zerg Overlords appeared, dropping of their troops behind the last arrivals. Brotherhood of Nod burrowing APCs popped up from the ground and unloaded Cyborg troopers and GDI Jump Troops fell from the sky like rain. JDA teleport gates opened, spewing forth Castigar Armored Troops and Guardians as Sprawler air transports dropped of Judas Troopers and Rumblers. More Teleport signals went off of as a mobile division of Imperium Tachyon and Plasma Hover tanks raced forward into position. When the last of the flashes came went off, summoning 3 platoons of FavuTech Favu Rangers, the army began organizing itself behind Vergil. The NMC was no longer walking, but hovering above the ground at the ground speed of the troop carriers that ferried the armies into place.

Together, Vergil, and the troops he called forth from his glasses’s link to the Vergil system, marched on to Queen Shais’s castle.

About one mile ahead of the amassing army, Queen Shais glanced behind at all the flashing lights. In her mind, she grew doubtful, fearing that what her son had warned about the powers of the R&Ds were true. She didn’t let this mindset last though. She was confident in the power of Akron, and the growing portal to the dark abyss before her castle’s main gate was proof. Taking a high leap off the last tree before her fortress, Shais flew high into the air and landed on one of her massive gargoyle statues. As she landed on it and bent her legs to leap toward the high tower where she would draw Crystal’s blood, she noticed a pair of tanks lowering clamps and raising cannons from the ground below.

She leaped from the gargoyle, yelling out at the top of her lungs, “Lord Akron! Summon forth your minions in this time of need!” Shais landed safely on her tower when the Siege tanks began firing their shock cannons at the statues, reducing them to rubble. Damn that Vergil! She thought. Somehow he knew!

On the ground, dark creatures of bizarre shapes and sizes began flooding out from the portal. Many of them resembled the typical form of ghouls and zombies, although they all stood at least six feet tall. Some came out in the shape of dark pit lords, wielding blades shining in a blue flame.

As the creatures poured out of the portal, Vergil raised his hand and brought his army to a halt. He made a few hand signals and pair of Protoss Zealot teams raced to his side. Raising his arm again, Vergil yelled, “WWWWAAAAGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!” at the top of his lungs and charged forward. The Zealots followed at his side at first, despite his increasing speed. Halfway to the dark creatures, Vergil had placed 100 feet between him and his nearest allies. The creatures prepared to attack him, but instead Vergil leapt onto the head of the largest creature in front of him and used its head as a spring and leap high into the air. The creature was cut down 3 seconds later by a Zealot’s Psiblade. The battle had begun.

Queen Shais worked quickly and attached Crystal to a crude shackles suspending her against the wall. As Crystal came to, she noticed the vampire queen before her, preparing to stab her with the knife from before. Just as Shais pulled back with the knife to attack, a massive energy shockwave hit the ground behind her and threw her off balance. Landing on one knee, Vergil had arrived on the top of the tower.

2:49 – Lyrics finally start

The witches are riding, wolves howl at the moon
While candles are lighting the black mess of fools
The daughter of evil; the mistress of shame:
Her tomb is now open to allow her awake

“Deathshrike, get him, now!” Shais called out as Vergil stood back up. He drew his Caster Gun, but an unseen shadow leapt from the side of the observation tower and tackled him. Vergil’s eyes flashed as his muscles grew to combat the vampire’s strength and he threw the vampire prince off him. The vampire drew an ornate sword when he landed on his feet and then charged Vergil at full speed. Although Vergil’s eyes couldn’t keep up with his movement, Vergil could sense the presence of his cells, and as the vampire drew nearer, Vergil released a massive blast of parasite energy at point blank range, sending the vampire prince careening off the tower and into the battle below.

For she is the princess of sorrow,
'cause she is the bringer of pain
While gothic portals of sadness
Call her unpronouncable name:

Vergil then dropped to the ground and nabbed his Caster Gun, and pointed it at Queen Shais. “Stab her and you die!” he cried out. Shais held her ground at first and looked hard at Vergil. Both the vampire and the NMC’s eyes then began to glow as if they were trying to measure each other’s powers. In a flash, Shais was no longer at Crystal’s side, but behind Vergil bringing the knife toward him. Vergil realized the attack too late, and was stabbed in the back by the crude blade. Crystal cried out in terror when she saw the assault, but she was reassured by Vergil smiling at her. Sure enough, Queen Shais was disappointed to discover the wound not only didn’t bleed, but closed as soon as she pulled her blade free.

Moonlight is lighting her face
Down in the crypts of the damned
Her sins will not be the last
When the rituals start

“What are you?!” Shais cried as Vergil stood up.

“Your friendly neighborhood ultimate being,” Vergil replied as he raised his arms and hovered freely in the air.

Black candles burning
Announce her comeback
The reign is awaiting
The queen of the dead
Of the dead

Shais moved in to attack, but Vergil, no longer limited to movement on legs, was fast enough to evade her attacks. Finally, Vergil grabbed her and kneed her in the gut. Shais dropped the knife as she was nailed and then collapsed on the ground as Vergil quickly grabbed the blade and hovered over to Crystal.

The poison is ready, the words are pronounced
The portals are open, her soul wanders throught
Her body is moving, her heart of witch pounds
It's Akron who lives in her, in her open wounds

“Vergil,” Crystal said with regret in her voice. “I... I’m s...”

”Save it for the happy ending, okay?” Vergil replied as he cut free her bounds with Shais’s knife. As Crystal landed on her feet, Vergil drew the Belmonts' whip from his shirt and passed it to her. “Let’s take care of this wench in your brother’s name, okay?”

“Deal!” Crystal said, smiling evilly as she cracked the whip. Behind them, Shais stood up laughing amusedly at the prospect of either of them killing her.

For she was devoted to darkness,
Drinking black blood for her god
Witch of perversion and luxury
Suicide as true lover of Akron

“This will be the shortest heroic victory attempt in history,” she laughed as a pair of dark energy balls appeared next to her. “Oh, no, wait, that was when I slew your brothers, wasn’t it, girl?”

Moonlight is lighting her face
down in the crypts of the damned
Her sins will not be the last
when the rituals start

“ENOUGH!” Crystal cried charging forward with her whip. As she brought the whip to crack against Shais, her form destabilized into a mist and the energy balls erupted into a maelstrom of lighting, sending Vergil and Crystal flying into back walls.

Black candles burning
Announce her comeback
The reign is awaiting
The queen of the dead
Of the dead

Crystal struggled to get up, but Vergil quickly leaped back on his feet, hardly phased by the attack. He cried out in a loud scream and a field of plasma energy erupted from his body attempting to damage the mist his foe had become. Shais was forced to reform and went flying against a wall, still holding her knife. The vampire got right back on her feet and leapt at Vergil. Drawing a smaller gun from his shirt, Vergil fired on her several times, each shot parried by the queen. When she closed in enough to strike him, Vergil moved to dodge only to find she hadn’t attacked at all, but had disappeared.

6:02 – Chants

Rosa nera sussurrante piange sangue d'innocenza
Dall'abisso lei ritorna per urlare la setenza

Vergil looked around for where she had gone, but it was too late. Shais had reformed behind Crystal, her blade in cutting position. Crystal spun around to try and counter attack as Vergil cried out to attempt to warn her. The blade missed as Crystal dodged and cracked the whip against the Vampire’s body, her skin burning as it touched her in a pain she had never felt. Shais fell back for a moment only to counter attack yelling, “Now you die, girl!” Crystal moved to dodge as Shais raised her knife...

..and Shais’s blade relieved Crystal of her left arm... completely.

“CRYSTAL!!!!” Vergil’s voice strained as he watched Shais grab her fainting body.

Shais smiled as she bit into Crystal’s neck and drew as much blood as she could in one suck. The queen then pulled away, smiling at Vergil and stabbed the crude knife into Crystal’s back, drawing her blood into the knife. “NOW LORD AKRON! WITH HER BLOOD, COME TO THIS WORLD!”

“HOW DARE YOU!” Vergil yelled, firing a parasite energy blast at Shais. The vampire threw Crystal out the window and tried to dodge, but she was too late. The blast sent Shais clear through the tower and she needed to turn herself into a bat to stop from falling to her death.

Oh, God... the passage... is open
The souls of the damned are ready to cross it...

Crystal’s vision began to blur as she fell. Her pain was great, but not as painful as the regret that filled her heart. She thought she could make out Vergil’s arm reaching for her, but he was too late. She tried to say his name, but her lips were cold and unmoving. The force of gravity pulled down on her and her view changed to the battle below. It looked as if two armies, one of black and one of golden armor, were advancing into each other. All around both sides were taking casualties. It looked as if the gold armored warriors were failing to hold back the dark army’s advance, but a countless line of troops with long range guns kept taking out the advancing army before they could gain more than an inch an inch of ground.

Vergil raised his head up from the edge of the tower and faced Shais, who had just landed and reverted to humanoid form again. She was laughing to her self, proud of her villainous triumph. “See, fool? Now you too will be consumed by Akron’s power as well!!”

Godforsaken witch...!
Your #$*%ing army of dead will never be so powerful
to break the chains of wisdom... beware!

A look of total rage filled Vergil’s face as he gazed back at her. “That was absurd overkill you ... you...” An appropriate curse word failed to reach Vergil’s lips.

“What’s wrong?” Shais laughed. “Care for her a little more than you expected?”

“Oh now you’re just done,” Vergil stated, throwing off his Favu print shirt. He cast Shais one last look of rage before he leaped from the tower after Crystal.

My land, don't cry
My birds, don't stop to fly
Poor child, don't die:
Don't let her taste your blood

Crystal’s view had blurred to the point as she could only make out sky and ground, and the ground would grow near soon. She closed her eyes and let the pain succumb her, hoping she would not be conscious when she hit the ground. Just before she passed out, Vergil fell past her. Angel wings burst forth from his back, tearing his shirt to shreds. Shais growled to herself in frustration as Vergil, appearing like a guardian angel, grabbed the limp Crystal and flew away from the castle to someplace behind his battle lines.

Coming to land next to one of the Tau Devilfish, Vergil gently set Crystal inside it on one of the emergency medical cots the troop transport had. He looked up at the Tau medic who shook his head somberly in reply. Vergil looked at Crystal with regret as he could feel her cells dying off. She wasn’t breathing, and her body was growing cold. He tried his hardest to not look at the wound where her arm was, but he knew that unless he did something about it, she would die. As it was, it might be too late. Quietly, Vergil requested the medic to leave him alone with her, and the Devilfish was abandoned as ordered.

Vergil didn’t have enough time to consider his options. Not taking the time to think about consequences, he closed his eyes and made a low hum. As the air parted from his lips, he felt a part of him seeping away as if he was breathing out his soul. He then placed his lips on Crystal’s, and breathed into her. Seconds later he closed his mouth and leaned over to her wound.  He placed his hand on the wound and his arm became a formless orange substance that attached itself to her wound.  He then drew his arm away, leaving behind enough biomass to give her a new arm.  The substance broke apart and then reformed into his arm and a new arm for her, good as new.  Smiling, he looked down at her and sighed in relief.  “Now that you’ve paid me,” he joked, “I can deal with Shais on a personal level.”

Gargoyles and wizards prepare this last ride
Mountains and valleys are calling your might

Meanwhile, Shais ran down her tower quickly and went into the chamber with the pool of blood. Frantically, she emptied the hilt of the knife into the pool and it began to glow. The blood began to spin in the pool, and after a few minutes, it spiraled out of the pool in the form of a water spout. Slowly the blood evaporated and the pool was empty. Now we need only wait, Shais said to herself, going quickly for an ornate black and red cloak to throw over her sweaty white gown. I must kill Vergil now so he doesn’t interfere with Akron’s summoning...

Back on the battlefield, a Terran Officer banged on the door to the Devilfish. “Sir!” A voice sounded through his classes. “We’re holding the creatures at bay, but their numbers and their power is increasing. We have to do something fast!”

Mystical sunshines prelude to her coming
The black flame of evil is burning and growing

Vergil replied by opening the door and stepping out. “Order your men to prepare to fall back. I’m calling down my prototype, and the Ion Cannons.” The officer saluted and ran off from the Devilfish as fast as his legs could carry him. Vergil then tapped the side of his glasses and through the lens he was surrounded by a virtual bubble, which was his interface to the Vergil System through them. Moving his hands around the bubble, he touched the air before him, which to him, appeared to be keys, screens, and menus. Wordlessly, he began issuing orders to his troops as if he was playing the biggest real-time-strategy game ever.

Queen...
Queen of the dark horizons

On the field of battle, a line of experienced Tau FireWarriors were holding the advancing line at bay. Despite how many of the enemy the fell however, their ranks kept growing. Frantically, the Tau continued firing as they advanced, calling their shots and hitting their mark. The line didn’t break until, without warning, one of them fell to the ground. The Tau next to him peered to his left, only to have his head removed by an unseen blade. The squad turned to their sides and noticed a woman in a dark cloak and a tattered white dress standing before them, an elegant rapier in her right hand. The Tau turned their guns to try and make something of the situation, but the woman moved faster then their eyes could pray to see, and in moments the whole squad fell to her steel. The squad next to them suffered a similar fate, and so did the next, until Shais had single-handedly lead Akron’s forces through the Tau frontlines of Vergil’s attack.

Forest of ghostland give your sad welcome
to the ancestral whisper of hell

Shais laughed in joy as she watched Vergil’s troops running away from the advance. It looked as if the entire high-tech army was feeing in terror of her and her master’s minions. Shais raised her arm and cried out “Chase the cowards down to the last man minions! Take their blood for Akron!” Her troops advanced about fifty feet before the entire left rank was blown apart in a huge explosion. Shais turned to her left and saw something that terrified her.

Sodomy, pestilence, torture and bloodshed
is what she brings from her past of depraved!

There stood, to her absolute shock, a gigantic suit of armor just on the edge of her territory. Its body was colored primarily silver, with dark blue trim around it. Its eyes flashed a bright red as it turned and looked her in the eyes. At that moment, a massive cannon flipped out from behind it and turned over its shoulder. The Cannon then split open and began humming. Shais quickly turned herself into a bat and flew as fast as she could into the sky as the cannon fired, decimating another huge block of troops in a massive explosion.

Queen... queen of the dark horizons!

Sitting inside the cockpit of the Mammoth Gear MK III prototype, Vergil smiled to himself. “I told you I would kill a vampire with a giant robot, didn’t I?” He fired off some more shots with his massive rail gun until all of Shais’ troops were near the portal, at which point he threw one last switch.

It was then that the sky was lit with a brilliant column of light. An electromagnetic shockwave swept over the battlefield as the Oribital Ion Cannon blast decimated the army of the abyss. Another one fired and took out Shais’ castle in one quick shot, and Vergil then took aim with his Mammoth Gear and targeted the portal. After taking careful aim, a nuclear-railgun shell fired straight into the portal, flying through into the other side. Its prompt closing signaled to Vergil that his shot had made its mark.

10:30 – guitar and drum reprise; Reiteration of theme

In a victorious gesture, Vergil deactivated the Mammoth Gear and leapt down from its cockpit. The light from the Orbital Ion Cannons finally faded, revealing nothing left of Shais’ minions, her castle, or her portal. In the moonlight however, he could make out the silhouette of a woman’s form standing up from the ashes of the attack. Focusing his mind on the battle at hand, Vergil issued one last order. “All forces retreat. Queen Shais is mine. If you stay on the battlefield, I cannot guarantee your safety.” Without any back talk, the Vergil forces made a hasty retreat from the battle field, moving as quickly as they could. Chronosphere flashes went off as they were shifted back from wince they came.

Shais’s vision finally returned to normal. Her body felt as if it was starting to fall apart, yet she knew she still had some life in her. She looked around and saw all she had fought to build on this world destroyed. Her minions, her castle, her princes, all added up with her own son as casualties caused by that man. Looking across the scorched battlefield, the only thing left was that man; Alone, the two of them, under a killing moon.

“I believe we both want this,” Vergil said, as he hovered within a hundred feet of her. “Let’s get this over with.”

Shais let out a scream of rage as she flew toward Vergil in speeds he had yet to see a vampire pull. Vergil raised his Parasite Energy barrier and while all of Shais’s hits found their marks, none of them even phased him. Vergil retorted by kicking her into the air, and firing balls of exploding parasite energy in the air after her. The blasts missed their mark when Shais disappeared in a flash of light and appeared behind him. Vergil had only begun to turn around when Shais unleashed a ball of blue energy into his field, which then broke and sent him flying into the air. Vergil preformed a flip in the air and landed on his feet, skidding to a stop away from her.

Shais wasted no time and teleported behind him again. This time the Vergil’s body erupted with plasma energy, sending her flying on her back, and before she could get up, Vergil was flying in the air above her. He held his arms up as a massive energy arrow appeared above him. He threw the arrow down at her, causing an explosion that leveled an enormous area of the battlefield and sent the vampire flying high into the air.

Her body is moving, her heart of witch pounds
It's Akron who lives in her, in her open wounds

As she descended, dark balls of energy appeared by her side, raining a storm of lighting at Vergil. He became too distracted with trying to dodge the blasts to notice Shais landing and leaping behind him. Finally, enough blasts hit to break his parasite energy barrier, and it was then that Shais struck, driving her blade straight through Vergil’s heart. As the NMC coughed up blood, Shais’s face grew an evil smile.

'cause she was devoted to darkness,
drinking black blood for her god
Witch of perversion and luxury
suicide as true lover of Akron

That smile faded when Vergil grabbed her wrist and broke it. As Shais cried out in pain, he pulled the sword out from body and broke it in two. He then pointed his fingers at her and issued forth more energy needles than could be counted, pounding into the vampire. Shais fell back some distance, and finally came to rest, on her feet, but bruised.

Both warriors then stood their ground, panting in exhaustion. Oh man... Vergil thought to himself. Maybe... I gave Crystal... too much... The thought was cut short as Shais got up the strength to take a battle pose again. Vergil readied himself for whatever was coming. In a flash, Shais became a swarm of bats, flying high into the air. Vergil began firing off Parasite-Energy blasts as if he was a DBZ character, trying to take out the bats. The black creatures fell to the ground if they hadn't been instantly evaporated on contact. Blast after blast was fired, and bat after bat was killed, yet the most important one, who didn’t fly with the swarm, came at Vergil from behind. In a flash, all the bats disappeared and before Vergil realized what happened, Shais took form behind him, biting into his neck.

Moonlight is lighting her face
down in the crypts of the damned
Her sins will not be the last
when the rituals start

As Vergil cried out in pain, huge bone spikes erupted from his back and impaled the vampire. She quickly withdrew from him and they both fell to their knees. Vergil felt sick; he could hear his cells crying out to him as the vampire curse flowed into his veins. As his mitochondria slowly grew silent, Vergil felt genuinely afraid for his life. His eyes grew to a huge size in shock and he cried out in terror. Please, he thought, hoping somehow his mitochondria could hear. Please do something! I can’t lose, Not now! Not after all she’s done! Destroy her! Do it in whatever way you can! Send her to hell!

Black candles burning
Announce her comeback
The reign is awaiting
The queen of the dead
Of the dead

Shais got on her feet, pulling the last of her strength seeing Vergil losing his. As she stumbled near him, she wondered where Akron’s power was. She should have been stronger. What went wrong? she thought. This thought controlled her mind as until she noticed a change in her foe. Purple energy bolts began running up his body, arching away from him when they reached the end of a limb. Vergil’s face was like that of a beast grappling with its own imminent death. Suddenly, he stood up, his eyes shining bright red. He let loose a cry of agony, only the cry wasn’t audible to human ears. He stood there, holding out the cry until its frequency was finally audible to Shais. Seconds later, she erupted in a column of fire, incinerated on the spot, as was anything alive for miles around Vergil. Having given it his last shot, Vergil collapsed on the ground.

 

*****

-| Cue: Linkin’ Park - Reanimation  - Track 01 Opening |-

For about an hour, Vergil lay there silently, dust and ash blowing about him in the moonlight. He rolled over on his back and faced the moon, marveling at its beauty. He could feel something happening to his body, something he could not control. He felt as if his very cells were at civil war, a war being fought for control of his body. He placed his hand over the wound near his heart, the only one Shais inflicted that was still there. His breath began to slacken as he could feel his old body beginning to lose the war. A tear rolled down his cheek as he decided to spend whatever moments he had looking at the bright moon.

“Crawling in my skin,” he sang to himself in almost a whisper. “These wounds, they will not heal. Fear is how I fall, confusing what is real...”

He closed his eyes and hummed to himself, occasionally saying a lyric or two. “Something inside me that pulls beneath the surface... hmm hmm hm. Hmm hmm hmm.

... this lack of self control I fear is never ending... hmmm hmmm hm.”

Finally, his eyes closed and he only hummed the rest of the song. When it ended, he stopped making a sound, not even the sound of breathing.  Seconds after his collapse, another figure came to rest next to him.

Symphony 1: ~Fin

< - 1:2 - Beyond the Gates of Infinity | 2:1 - Awakening - >

This is a work of fan fiction. The author does not claim to own any concepts that appear in this peice aside from "Makei" and "Favu." All other concepts are copyright of their respective owners. All music cues are for recommended listening - this site and its author are not affiliated with any of the artists.