< - 2:2 Unknown Allegiance | 3:1 Dawn of Victory - >

Symphony 2: Rhapsody of the Blood Thirsty

3rd Movement: Rage of the Winter

“You know, master, adding your power to mine has turned into one of those useless power-ups in Dragon Ball Z that are used to get the viewers' hopes up even though they know better than to think that it will do anything.”

Raven stood in place and leaned against Kurogatana’s scabbard. There was a bitter chill in the air... one that made his joints ache. He sighed in frustration and the vapors collected in front of his face. Being a half vampire, his cheeks flushed slightly at the cold, which made for an interesting contrast to his normally pale face. Raven’s planet-destroying master did not answer his ungrateful servant.

“I mean, you actually thought that our Vergil would be hiding out in the Phantasy Star Online universe, master? That retired ranger wasn’t even close to the might of the Vergil we’re looking for.” Raven paused as he lost his footing in the deep snow. He stood upon a mountain pass leading higher and higher up the slope. The snow and wind flew against his black armor as if it was determined to turn it white either by covering it with snow, or knocking its wearer into the snow he walked upon. Even with his superior sight, Raven’s eyes couldn’t make out much beyond a few hundred feet. “And once we managed to find this other Vergil, his wife and kids and two best friends were more than a match for us! The whole reason I’m here freezing my nose off is because you’re power wasn’t enough and we had to run away again!”

Akron did not respond again.

Raven stumbled in his step and braced himself against his scabbard. “For a half-summoned worldly conqueror, you sure are useless.”

“Perhaps if you grew some respect,” Akron answered at last. “I wouldn’t let you freeze.”

Raven growled. “What good does it do you to keep me trapped here? If I die, you go with me!”

Akron’s voice ran through out Raven’s head. “On the contrary, my naive servant, if your organic body or soul should fail, I will simply take its place. And the way you’ve been handling my great power makes me feel like a parent watching their child drive a car for the first time.”

The bitter cold made Raven’s nose run. He shivered and sneezed as the blowing winds made for a constant background noise. Suddenly, a dark aura shone from around him. The snow at the base of his feet began to melt, and his body felt perfectly warm again. Not too much later, his tired symptoms from the cold melted away with the white powder below his feet.

“Prepare yourself, servant,” Akron stated, “I sense that our friends the Athenians have sent someone to meet us. This is your last chance to prove yourself of any worth to me. Use it well.”

*****

 

Crystal stood in the large open field. The ground under her felt like the stuff they make those running tracks in high schools for... not that Crystal would know what that meant. To her, it was an oddly hard but bouncy substance that she’d still prefer not to fall on. The field itself was huge, about fifty square yards in size, and she had been told that its size could be expanded with but a moment’s notice. Standing in the stands above the arena was Eve, dressed in the same outfit she had come into the base with the day before. She wore a look of superiority on her face.

Crystal sheathed the sword she had used from yesterday’s fight with Void and stood up straight to face Eve. Around her, various hologram generated Neo-mitochondrial Creatures lay melting away, recently slain by the former vampire hunter. She wore a look of determination on her face which shot back at Eve’s smugness.

“No good,” Eve yelled down to her. “You’re still relying more on your DDS cards and sword play. Unless you allow your mitochondria to arise within you, you will never be able to unlock your full potential.”

Crystal growled at her trainer. “But I am using my mitochondria! Haven’t you noticed how much faster and stronger I’ve gotten! In each fight, I’m breaking the last fight’s time record, and that’s against NMCs of increasing difficulty.”

Eve gave Crystal a look of disgust. “I thought I made it clear to you that my job is to unlock your potential as an NMC, not let you get around it? I’m this close to taking that sword away from you just so that you don’t use it!”

Crystal drew the blade, her short denim vest whipping around as she did. Today the girly favu dressed her in something more becoming of the times, specifically blue jeans shorts with a custom belt to hold the scabbard for her sword. “Come and take it from me then!” she yelled.

Eve laughed. “You don’t want that. You wouldn’t survive.” With that, the Aya clone pushed a few buttons on the control laptop before her. “One more time, and this time try not to use your sword as much as your parasite energy abilities.”

Crystal rolled her eyes and prepared herself for the next onslaught. Soon, solid holograms of more NMCs appeared, with the desire to consume Crystal written all over their faces. The first, a tall fat looking NMC, threw its extendable arm out a Crystal trying to knock her over. Ms Graves countered by spinning around and swinging her blade, severing the arm from the monster. She then planted her left foot and threw her left hand forward, calling forth her mitochondria. From her palm flew a small ball of flame which hit the creature and knocked it on its back. Crystal put a smug smile on her face, but only until the creature got back up and tried again. This time, when Crystal ducked, another NMC was behind her and tackled her to the ground. The horse-like NMC looked down at Crystal with hungry eyes. Moments later its head was gone and Crystal used its body as a projectile as she threw it towards more of its kind.

Eve sighed as Crystal started hacking the NMCs to bits. “I take it you’re not meeting with much success?” Eve turned her head towards the source of the voice, Favdee the High Favu. “How’s Crystal doing?”

Again, Eve sighed. “Well, as you can see she can chop up NMCs with extreme prejudice. But her Neo-Mitochondrial abilities are not increasing much.”

Favdee watched in riveted silence as Crystal fought with the next wave of NMCs, a three-pack of Golem Soldiers. One of the green-clad hulks lowered its stance as it charged at her, preparing to strike her with its energy bayonet. Crystal waited until the last second and then, as if she was a moving motion blur, cut off the Golem’s head, grabbed its body and used it as a shield to advance on another Golem.

“I am impressed at her speed and combat mastery,” Favdee stated. “Are you sure her increased speed and strength are not a result of her Neo-Mitochondrial abilities coming out?”

“That may be,” Eve replied, showing more respect to the favu’s version of the argument than her competitor’s. “There is far more than one could do with these abilities than simply make themselves faster or stronger though.”

“Perhaps,” Favdee suggested, “that is all someone like Crystal needs. She seems to be an extremely good fighter, and I say it’d be a tragedy to make her stop doing something she’s displayed this much skill at. Honestly, I don’t think Vergil could hold a sword to her.”

Eve made a begrudged sigh. “So why are you doing here anyway, Favdee?” She asked, trying to change the subject.

“I’m here mostly to check on Crystal’s improvement,” Favdee replied. “Favmar is out completing the other half of our plan for Crystal, while my half of the plan is to make sure Crystal will be ready for it by the time he gets back.”

“Oh?” Eve asked curiously. “And what is Favmar up to?”

Favdee opened his mouth to answer when a loud boom could be heard. The pair of spectators watched in horror as B’harroth, Lord Chosen of Khorne, entered the Versus Arena. As Crystal finished the last wave of NMCs and beat her record time again, she stopped in her tracks as the Greater Daemon of Khorne and a number of World Eater Chaos Space Marines walked into the arena.

B’harroth looked up in the stands at Favdee. “What is going on here? Are you trying to train this little girl to become something of real worth?”

“That’s none of your business, Daemon!” Favdee replied angrily. “What nerve do you have to be busting in here for?” Before the Daemon could answer, Eve cried out as a pair of squad of Chaos Raptors flew down on her with their jump-packs her and held her to the ground. Favdee watched in horror as she struggled with them, but it wasn’t long before they stood her back up and pointed a plasma pistol at her face. “You monster!” Favdee yelled out.

“So be it,” B’harroth replied. “However, last I checked, this monster is your only line of defense against the other R&D masters, which means I’m pretty much can do what I want around here.” He then turned to Crystal. “So my dear, I see you’ve been practicing. Tell me, do you think you are ready for a real battle?”

*****


“Now, now...” Favmar said nervously. “No need to get upset.” If he had hands, he’d be waving them in front of his round body at this moment.

Three or four townsmen held up their melee weapons. Behind them, Brian Graves stood, pointing Vergil’s caster gun at the favu. “You know something about my daughter, damn it!” Brian yelled. “And you’re trying to hide it from me! Now spill it, before I make you spill something else!”

“Now, wait a sec!” Favmar complained. “You don’t know how that thing works!”

The fire didn’t leave Brian’s eyes. “That won’t stop me from ending you if you don’t give me a straight answer!” The townsmen made thug-like laughs at Favmar as he tried to reason with them.

“You’re also hiding something from me!” Favmar yelled back. “You have yet to tell me where you found that gun!”

“And you have yet to tell me where my daughter is!”

“I can’t tell you if I’m dead! Put down the caster gun first!”

There was silence between the two sides for a few moments. Sensing his chance in Brian’s hesitation, Favmar pulled out a Wild Western-style revolver and shot the Caster Gun out of Brain’s grasp. The townsmen leap forward, but the Favu was fast enough to leap over their heads and use his soul energy to pull the caster towards him. Favmar then landed and faced his assailants, who were madder than a pack of hornets. They stopped in their tracks when Favmar pointed the caster towards them, opened the back chamber and loaded a shell. “I can blow up your whole town if you don’t chill out!”

“Please,” Brian asked as he fell down on his knees before Favmar in a silly change of heart. “I beg you! All I really want is to know what happened to my daughter... GOTCHA!”

Favmar cried out as the man leapt forward and tackled him. The caster gun when flying away from Favmar as the two rolled down the street. Moments later, there was a cloud of dust the size of a house where the two them were. The townsmen looked on with face faults as noises of silverware crashing and fighting came from both the man and the favu. After about a minute, Brian Graves was on the ground with Favmar standing triumphantly on his back with a BFG3000 pointed at the man’s head.

“Now then!” The Favu said clearing his throat. “Take me to where you found Vergil’s gun...

*****


“... kowai...” Favmar uttered in a small voice about an hour later as he and Brian Graves stood before a massive castle resting where Shais’s once had. A veil of eternal night seemed to rest over the place as the castle’s towers sat over the full moon.

“Once Shais was gone,” Brian stated as he and Favmar hid behind a rock formation overlooking the Castle, “there was nothing to stop Dracula’s regular summoning. Unfortunately, Shais did such a good job of dispatching the Belmonts that no one has come to stop him yet. Alucard just went in there sometime last night, and I got the gun because he found it lying around outside the castle.”

Favmar took a good look around the castle grounds. “Hmm... that orange goo that was all over the place when we picked up your daughter is completely gone. I wonder what that was all about, anyway.”

Suddenly Brain picked up Favmar and held him over his head like he was Simba or something. “Please! Don’t keep my daughter prisoner over there! Bring her back to me! She hasn’t done anything wrong!”

”You pathetic man!” Favmar replied, struggling to free himself. “I told you that Crystal is staying with us on her own will! We gave her the option to come home and she didn’t!”

Brian sighed regretfully and put Favmar back down. “I’m sorry,” he apologized. “Please try to understand, Crystal is my only remaining child, I’ve already lost my two elder sons to Shais and I don’t know if I could bear it if my only daughter died at someone’s hands in another dimension.”

A wave of sorrow and sympathy over took Favmar. He snuggled against the man, since he lacked any hands or arms to hug him with. “I promise you sir, we will take good care of her.” Brian cried for a few minutes on the ball of soul energy before he let him go.

“Well, this is what I came for,” Favmar stated as the caster gun hovered upward as if he were motioning towards it. “We’ll be sure to send her back to see you sometime, I’m promise.” With that the two ‘hugged’ one more time, and Favmar walked away to the Mammoth Gear mark III prototype he parked not too far away from the castle. Brian Graves watched eagerly as the mecha came to life, and then was whisked away in the flash of a Chronosphere.

“Crystal, please,” Brian sighed. “Come home to me safely.”

 

*****


Raven advanced up the pass slowly, keeping his wits about him. The dark aura that Akron had generated remained around him, melting snow as he walked through it. The cold wind could not touch him either. He kept an open eye on the pass, watching for attacks of opportunity to come from the cliffs above or from things in front of him. The Kurogatana remained drawn and ready, its dark blade hard to make out against the flowing darkness of Akron’s aura.

His alertness paid off. From his left he heard the stirring of grasses and the crunching of snow and he brought his attention to it. Just as he turned his head to look, someone yelled “Freeze!” from a rock up ahead. Raven used his peripheral vision to sight Zeth standing up from behind the rock, snow sticking to his vest and chest. There was no doubt in Raven’s mind the poor man was cold.

“You’re the one who looks like he’s freezing,” Raven countered, his hair being frighteningly unmoving despite the harsh winter wind. “I thought I smelled human blood, but if you’re there, then what did I hear up there?”

Zeth ignored the comment. “You are under suspicion by the Athenian Dimensional Authority of unauthorized transit between dimensions. You are also suspect to be in league with a war criminal named Akron. You are to drop your weapons, disengage your powers and come along silently.”

“War criminal,” Raven repeated, playing with the word. “Isn’t that a really nice way to put it? Shouldn’t it be, um, 'destroyer of worlds'? Perhaps 'master of genocide'?”

Zeth sneered. “Your jesting at the situation only helps to prove your guilt. Come along quietly or else.”

-| Cue: Rhapsody – Rage of the Winter |-

The snow suddenly blew more aggressively. At that moment, Raven leapt through the air towards Zeth, his blade drawn forward in a stabbing position. The half-vampire moved too quickly for Zeth to anticipate and it was all he could to raise a Ki-Shield and parry the blow.

“Sanguineous, now!” Zeth cried out as he rolled away from his attacker, who still had burning swirls of darkness surrounding him.

Raven turned his head from his frightened prey and leapt towards the cliff where he had heard the noise earlier. Sure enough, another figure with similar hair and eye features to his own, stood up and looked as he was preparing to attack. The figure took notice of his change of position from attacker to defender and drew some blade from a black and silver scabbard. He moved with speed that matched Raven’s and leaped up at Akron’s servant. The two blades clashed in mid air and the duo landed in the snow on the upper part of the cliff, sending powder spraying into the air as they landed.

“You look familiar to me,” Raven said to his opponent. “Tell me your name so I know that if I should kill you or not.”

“I am he who thirsts for blood,” Sanguineous replied, “but does not kill to get it. My true name is as clouded as this blizzard, but if you must call me something, call me Sanguineous.”

“I am known as ‘Raven’,” the other vampire began, but was interrupted as Zeth used a Ki-boosted leap to fly onto the scene.

“San-san!” Zeth yelled from the air, disrupting the dramatic moment. “Quit trying to steal the show and arrest him!”

Cold is the winter snow falls down
mystical lights dance in the sky to the winds of night
Spell of the nature fill all my soul
kiss with your wonderful song my land with love


Sanguineous sighed in frustration as he readied his blade and charged at Raven. Raven took a defensive stance and met San-san’s charge, parrying the blow. Then, faster than Zeth’s eyes could track, the light of cold metal clashing against a dark alloy flashed between the two of them, the actual sword swings impossible to track. They moved around each other in a circle, trying various different motions to get through the other’s defense, but it was to no avail. Finally the blade of Makei creation and the blade of Akron’s essence crossed and the pair pressed their swords together. Raven and Sanguineous stared each other down as they struggled, both unable to shake an eerie sense of seeing their opponent in combat before.

Rage of the winter, mould the horizon!
cover the mountains, forest, and lakes!
Rage of the winter: magical wonder,
enchanted fury, majestic force!


After a struggle, Raven won out. The vampire burst forward and used the moment of instability to drive his sword into San-san’s side, kick him into the air, and then send him over the cliff with three successive blasts of dark energy that nailed his enemy in mid air.

“Sanguineous!” Zeth cried out as his partner went over the edge, leaving a trail of blood from his flight path. Knowing he was Raven’s next target, Zeth activated both of his arm devices and faced Raven.

There are no words to describe the poetry of landscape
I can receive all the magic that my season gives
Tears of the winter falling on me, freezing my dark side,
my heart must be white and pure like ice


Meanwhile, San-san held onto a random branch sticking out from the cliff face. He looked down at his wound and touched it with his free hand. Not but ten seconds later the wound closed and his pain was relieved. Still, he hung there trying to figure out another way to get to Raven, and puzzling over the odd familiarity of his enemy.

Zeth placed his hands before him and focused the ki energy of him and what was alive around him. Golden energy collected around his body and seconds later he was firing rapid blasts of energy at Raven. The blasts exploded with enough ferocity to kick up a barrier of snowy powder that Zeth couldn’t see through, so he kept blasting away. He kept blasting until Raven emerged from the powder, flying at him at top speed.

Rage of the winter, mould the horizon!
cover the mountains forest and lakes!
Rage of the winter magical wonder,
enchanted fury, majestic force!


The golden energy around Zeth took new form around his arms like bucklers. When Raven’s blade came in for the hit, he deflected the blade with so much force that it send the vampire flying through the air, almost off the same cliff edge San-san had just flown over. Raven was much quicker to recover however and leaped to his feet in with a forward flip. Zeth’s ki energy then collected at the ends of his fingers and a golden light-beam flew from each finger towards Raven. Raven grabbed his dark cloak and drew it around him until he suddenly vanished, appearing again behind Zeth in a column of purple light. Zeth simply brought his hand around to his left and the light beams followed, etching a scorched path behind them. Raven tried to dodge them this time, but Zeth was able to control the beams individually, and as Raven managed to get past one, another was on its way. Zeth smirked as he managed to trap Raven between all five beams and they closed in for the kill. Just at the last second, however, the vampire threw out his arms and legs and dissipated into a mist as the beams would have contacted his body, making the kill.

“Blast!” Zeth cried. “Where did he go?!” He looked down to his arm device to ask Piecis for help, but the controls and display were so snow covered he couldn’t tell if he was getting a connection at all. It was then when he found out where Raven was as the vampire rematerialized behind him, nailing him in the back of the head with the butt of his sword.

Zeth threw his hands up and made a ki-shield to surround him as if Raven was going for the killing blow, but he then noticed Raven wasn’t going for him. Again, the vampire was air borne and a second later, Zeth figured out why. San-san landed beside Zeth, blood dripping from his blade and onto the white snow. Zeth opened his mouth to ask if he was okay, but his partner was airborne not but a moment after his landing sent powder into the air. This time, the exchange was several blows long before both parties landed on opposite ends of the cliff level. As Zeth stood back up, Sanguineous and Raven were pulling disappearing acts on each other, each trying to sneak up on the other. Zeth was only able to track them by sensing their half-human kis, and even that was difficult.

Again, at the end of the display, Raven came out ahead, sending Sanguineous over the cliff edge with flying charge. Raven didn’t waste anytime going for Zeth and the Athenian agent who put all the ki he could into increasing his speed and strength and began parrying the Kurogatana's swings with his bare forearm and fist. He tried a few times to sweep and kick the vampire, but Raven was always wise to his moves, somehow just that much faster.

Wordlessly, Raven focused his entire mind into the battle. He felt a level of determination and focus he had not felt since his first battles training with his mother’s vampire princes. He wasn’t sure what brought about this new focus. Perhaps he had trained against this Sanguineous earlier in his life and the man was a former servant of his mother? Perhaps Akron’s power was on delay and was only now taking effect. Whatever it was, Raven found himself able to read Zeth’s every move despite how good of a hand-to-hand fighter he might have been.

Zeth, on the other hand, was beginning to tire. He couldn’t keep up much longer with the vampire’s onslaught and prayed in the back of his head that Sanguineous was alright. As if to answer his prayers, his red-eyed partner came in flying through the air at Raven once again, but this time his sword was not drawn. As Raven broke away from Zeth to prepare for San-san’s landing, the airborne half-vampire threw his left hand forward as balls of fire flew out in breaking patterns of three. Raven danced about the cliff dodging the incoming balls of flame as Zeth looked on proudly at his partner’s display of power.

His hopes came too soon however. When Sanguineous landed, Raven’s evasion pattern lead him right into San-san’s landing and he was not yet ready to defend. In a chance of pure luck, San-san slipped in the snow, managing to only get his shoulder cut by a swing that would have otherwise removed his head. Not taking any time to swing again, Raven leapt out from the spray of powder, landing behind Zeth who didn’t know he was there until after the Kurogatana had run him through, piercing his heart.

Sanguineous leapt to his feet but stopped short when he saw his partner suspended by Raven’s bloodied blade.

“ZEEEEEEEETTTTTTTTTTTHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” Sanguineous cried in shock at the sight.

“Tell... Piecis... San-san...” Zeth choked on his own blood and he struggled out his last words. “Tell her I lov-...” He then fell lifeless on the snow as Raven pulled his blade free from the corpse.

Cold is the winter snow falls down
mystical lights dance in the sky to the winds of night
Spell of the nature fill all my soul
kiss with your wonderful song my land, with love...


San-san let out a cry in anguish as he felt his body grow warm. He felt as if he was losing control of himself as he watched the dark energies of the Kurogatana wrap themselves around Zeth’s body and then return into Raven’s figure, augmenting his form. The black aura that surrounded Raven earlier expanded into a chaotic flowing mass that as pulsated with newly gained power. Without warning, the darkness wrapped itself around Raven’s form, burrowing itself deep inside of him and changing his appearance. His hair, which once hung down to the middle of his back only went as far down as his shoulders. The hair was dual colored, half of it black the other half of it the steel-blue color that Raven’s hair was before the transition. The shoulder pads, gauntlets, and leg guards of the armor, remained, but something that looked like a dark colored body suit with bizarre ancient characters etched onto replaced the torso and leg armor.

Rage of the winter mould the horizon
cover the mountains, forest, and lakes
Rage of the winter, magical wonder
enchanted fury, majestic force!


Sanguineous stood up slowly, his eyes wide with terror and shock at what had just transpired. The beginnings of tears were clouding his vision as the new figure before him started to flex his hands.

“How peculiar,” the figure said in an older, wiser, and more in control voice than Raven’s. “It’s been so long since I’ve needed to take a substantial form, I’ve forgotten how its felt.” He then looked at Sanguineous with a smug look on his face.

“I’m sure you’re wondering what the hell I’ve just done to your friend,” the figure continued. “I made use of the power of his soul to help boost me from my transient form. He’s no substitute for Vergil, but he’s better than nothing.”

“You’ve done what?!” Sanguineous cried, his voice quivering in anger and fear.

“Don’t worry about it,” the figure smirked. “Your friend’s condition is quite permanent. A condition you are likely to find yourself in as well.”

Sanguineous growled. “It’s sad that I don’t know what god I believe in to swear on that you will be destroyed for what you’ve done to him, Raven.” There was that feeling again, the feeling of losing control. His blood felt like it was boiling, his skin radiating with heat. Some force from within him was demanding control of the driver’s seat.

The figure made a light chuckle. “Raven is not quite the correct thing to call me anymore. He only half exists any more. I am his master, the dimensional conqueror and consumer, Akron, Dark Lord of the Abyss... or at least, a watered down version.”

“Well then, Akron,” Sanguineous said softly, his senses returning to him out of no where, but the heat within his body continuing. Akron/Raven’s face made an instant change from one of smug arrogance to one of utter shock as Sanguineous’ eyes turned from red... to a bright glowing shade of purple. Before Akron could figure out what to make of it, Sanguineous threw his hands forward, yellow colored energy rings collecting to them, making a deep charging sound as they did. The aura present during the transformation reformed before Akron/Raven just in time for a bright yellow blast of energy to erupt with enough power to atomize an Abrams Battle Tank. When the light dimmed, both figured stood gasping, not sure what to make of what had just happened. Sanguineous’ eyes returned to their red color, and then Akron/Raven laughed.

“How very interesting!” he laughed. “It is you, then, isn’t it?”

“Is who?!” Sanguineous answered. “What do you mean?!”

Akron/Raven only laughed louder. “How absolutely amazing! I must give much more credit to my former servant Shais. She really did a number on you if you’ve been reduced to this!”

“Reduced to what?!” Sanguineous cried out in frustration. “Tell me, who am I?!”

Akron/Raven ceased his laughter and placed a more serious look to his face. “You have very little time to find out, young one.” He answered. “I’m going to be fair to you,” he said as he threw a watch onto the ground. The pocket watch had a few extra buttons on it, specifically a red one and a green one on the side. “I will give you a few days to try and figure out who are, and reconsider your allegiance. When you are ready to face me again, as friend of foe, just press that green button down for 10 seconds.” Akron/Raven then pulled the Kurogatana, which looked closer to a daikatana now than a claymore, and sliced a dimensional jump in the air. “Don’t take too long though, Sanguineous. I may not be able to contain my desire to destroy everything you care for and love for too long...” and with that remark, he stepped through, leaving Sanguineous alone in on the snowy cliff, with the dead Zeth at his side.

Sanguineous collapsed in the snow, cold tears flowing down his cheeks.

 

*****


Favdee and Eve looked down towards the arena nervously. Crystal, however, didn’t budge. “Whatever you want, daemon,” Crystal replied. “I’m ready for it.”

B’harroth made an amused chuckle. “If you truly wish to die faster... Ancietrius! Show this girl what a Chaos Space Marine can do!”

A Chaos Space Marine warrior with armor that looked metallic with golden trim stepped into the arena, drawing a chain-sword from his belt. He bore the mark of the Iron Warriors, a proud, but unaligned Chaos Faction. This particular warrior probably followed B’harroth to share in his glory in might, not as so much that he believed in this whole Khorne nonsense. Still, a chance to please his master and his masters’ god would not be passed up. Wordlessly, he advanced slowly towards Crystal, who did not move.

Once was close enough, he raised his blade to cut Crystal down. Faster than he could react, Crystal lowered her stance, replaced her sword in her scabbard, and then drew it into the Chaos Space Marine’s torso as hard as she could. The blow shocked the Chaos Marine, but it only made a crack in the armor. Crystal took note that a harder blow would be required.

Ancietrius growled from behind his armored helmet and took another swing. This time Crystal parried the blow drove her fist at the armored suit’s head. She managed to knock the head sideways a little, but not without hurting her own hand. B’harroth laughed from the sidelines. “That armor is an alloy of adamantium and other strong metals. Anti-tank weapons punch only small holes in it!”

“Anti-tank you say?” Crystal asked. This time she went on the offense, leaping to the side of her foe and then swinging her sword into his arm: the hit dented the armor. Her opponent tried to hit her again, but she parried even faster and then hit his chest even harder, this time breaking the ornate sigil on the front of the chest plate. In frustration, the warrior let out a battle cry and reached out to grab her, but she leap over his head, turning her weight to swing her blade as she did. With that swing, the warrior was relieved of his head.

B’harroth clapped his hands together. “Good good, now let’s see how you handle a Berserker!” He nodded to one of his warriors with Red-Gore colored armor and he eagerly leapt into the ring. He swung his Chain-Axe with skill and speed as he prepared to strike against Crystal. Crystal charged at him as soon as he finished his display and their weapons locked. Much to Crystal’s surprise, this warrior was much stronger than the last.

“YOUR BLOOD FOR KHORNE!” the Berserker cried. He broke the lock and sent Crystal off balance. In the midst of her fall, he swung the chain sword at her, inflicting a grievous wound to her lower torso. Crystal took three or four steps back from the hit and grabbed the wound, wincing in pain.

“Heh,” B’harroth laughed. “Just as I thought. Come brother, that is enough!”

A flash of bright lights and a war cry later, Crystal’s wound was completely healed and she charged the warrior whose back was turned to her, her blade driving through the armor and through the warrior’s heart.

“I think that maybe you need to be reminded that my powers come from Vergil, B’harroth!” she cried as she freed her blade from one of Khorne’s elite. “Bring on another!”

Wordlessly, B’harroth nodded and three of the Berserkers leaped into the arena, all landing hear the ground where she stood. Each time her blade contacted either armor or an axe, she got faster and stronger. Each time one managed to wound her, she would leap away and cast PE-Heal on herself to deal with the injury. By the time the third warrior fell by having his head kicked off, a whole squad of eight Khorne Berserkers was already charging towards her.

Their sheer number made combat with them much more difficult. It was all Crystal could do to stay alive, never really getting a hit in despite her further increasing power and speed. Finally, one warrior managed to grab hold of her arm and then throw her to the ground. Another warrior brought his axe down to finish her, but she rolled out the way and into another warrior. That warrior then kicked her into another, who kicked her upwards and then elbowed her out of the melee and into the ground hard. Favdee covered his eyes and Eve winced at the sight.

As the warriors started to break away from Crystal’s battered form, she forced herself back onto her feet. “I’m.... not finished... yet!” She cried as she healed herself again and then fired a blast of Parasite Energy from her hand that took out one of the warriors.

“&#*!^#@%@!” B’harroth cried, the frustration in his voice apparent. “Kill her!” The Khornate warriors charged back into melee combat with Crystal, barely holding their blood lust back. Crystal fared much better this time against the seven of them than she did before, but once again she spent all her time on defense. As she was spinning around to try and slice into one of the warrior’s chest plates, another Berserker knocked her sword free from her grasp. The blade went flying across the arena and landed in shattered bits against the far wall.

Surrounded on three sides by B’harroth’s best and without a weapon to speak of, Crystal began backing up nervously. The warriors didn’t waste any time and began doing as much non-fatal damage to her as they could, Favdee and Eve again unable to watch. The beating ceased when Crystal went flying against a wall, her clothes tattered and torn, no trace of the vest she was wearing remaining. It was only out the restraint of B’harroth’s elite warriors that she wasn’t dead.

As she struggled to get back on her feet the warriors saw their prey had more left and smiled under their helms that they would have to actually spill her blood to finish her off. Their Chain-Axes primed, the warriors charged head-long at Crystal. As they were about to close to 20 feet of her, she suddenly grabbed her head and hunched over. The warriors brought their charge to a halt as a tremendous ray of light shot out from Crystal’s form, blinding everyone in the room.

When the light dimmed, Crystal’s figure had been replaced with that of a body of glowing white light. Small wings protruded from her hair near her ears and longer wings extended from her arms at the elbows. Balls of flame surrounded her fists. The light coming from the warrior was still too bright to discern any details about her face or what she was wearing.

Eve wore a face of total shock, “That... that’s the Liberation attack!” She yelled out. “Even I have yet to learn how to master that technique!”

Favdee looked down at Crystal with interest. “I’ve never seen Vergil use it! What is it?!”

“Aya Brea’s ultimate attack,” Eve replied. “It used all her available parasite-energy when she first learned it to temporarily evolve into the ultimate anti-NMC warrior. Using the enhanced power of her counter-mitochondria the attack was able to inflict heavy damage to NMCs because it liberated their cells from mitochondrial control!”

“So it’s no good here?” Favdee asked.

“On the contrary,” Eve continued. “The attack released such extreme levels of energy when used that I doubt their armor will be enough to protect them!”

The Berserkers, fearing nothing, resumed their charge on this new enemy that hovered in the air before them. They didn’t advance but three steps before the figure disappeared in a ray of light, becoming visible again in front of one of the warriors. She threw her flaming fist into the warrior, a parasite-energy shockwave a hundred square feet wide erupting from the point of contact. The warrior went flying against the far wall, a great hole in the front of his ancient armor.

She then turned slightly and crashed her knee into the next warrior, sending him into the air. As another warrior moved to strike her, she was gone and reformed behind him, crashing a knife-hand strike into the back of his head. He hit the ground with so much force that he left a huge trail behind him as he went skidding to the opposite wall. The other warriors started to back away to come up with other ideas of attack when they too were punched, kicked, kneed, flipped, thrown, and pummeled into submission all before the second warrior hit the ground behind the figure.

When the last of her enemies had fallen, the figure lowered itself the ground, the light dimming until Crystal’s body was again visible, grabbing her head.

“@*^#!!” B’harroth cried. “BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!!!!” B’harroth spread his massive wings and leapt into the air at the recovering Crystal. As his feet left the ground, Psi-blades from the often cloaked Protoss Dark Templar sliced through the Chaos Raptors holding Eve and Favdee hostage. Favmar descended from a wire attached the ceiling.

“CRYSTALLLL!” He cried as he dropped down. “CATTCCHHHH!!!” Crystal looked up to see B’harroth coming right for her and then turned her head to see Favmar throwing Vergil’s Caster Gun to her. Using what little strength she had left, she leapt into the air, grabbed the gun, and then landed on her back, sliding away from the advancing daemon, her weapon pointed at the avatar of Khorne.

“ENOUGH!” Favdee cried out as an explosion went off between the two of them, stopping B’harroth in his tracks. When the smoke cleared, Crystal, her shirt ragged almost up to her bra, and her shorts looking like she was trying to turn them into torn up hot pants, bruises and cuts covering her body, had the armed and loaded Caster gun aimed right between B’harroth’s eyes. The Daemon stood not but twenty feet before her, frozen in a pose where in the next second, Crystal would have been cut in two.

B’harroth frowned and then backed away from the young woman. “You fight well woman, but you are still no replacement.” He then turned around and started walking away, with the warriors that the Liberation Attack humbled getting to their feet and walking away. As B’harroth almost left the arena, he stopped and wheeled around to face Crystal. “You will never replace Vergil. If you do not find him soon, I cannot guarantee your life.” With that remark, he and his warriors retired from the arena, leaving the scattered Chaos Cultists to pick up the dead and carry them away.

Favdee, Eve, and Favmar leaped down from their places in the stands, running towards Crystal, who had yet to move from her place. She heard their voices like a distant cry, her consciousness fading quickly. The one thing she could make out was Favdee saying something along the lines of her being a match for B’harroth.

“No,” she replied calmly. “He is right, I cannot replace Vergil.” With that remark, she fainted into the arms of a Dark Templar standing behind her.

 

*****

 

Waves crashed peacefully against the rocks below. The sight was quite beautiful to take in, especially with a renewed understanding of the fragility of life. The orange sun glowing brightly against the dark figures of the islands off in the distance and the dark but clear skies were enough to move anyone who couldn’t remember the last time he took in such a sight. There was a gentle breeze that soothed him, a welcome contrast from the icy place of Zeth’s fall.

Sanguineous picked up the IV-pouch next to him that had a straw sticking out of as if it were a Capris Sun. The gentle slurping on the straw had been the only sound to interrupt him for at least an hour now as he sat on the cliff edge, in deep thought. His mind played back the horrid events of the last few days back in his mind again and again. The moment he stepped through the dimensional portal, Zeth’s dead body in his arms, the look of terror on Piecis’ face. He recalled Zeth’s funeral, where they placed his body inside a casket and sent it through a dimensional portal to the dimension of his birth, with men at arms and even San-San himself decked out in Athenian uniform. The look on Piecis’ face when her boss ordered her and San-san off the Akron case and had them both take three months mandatory rest and relaxation. He hated to admit it but Piecis’ beauty didn’t fade any when she was sad. Her melancholy expressions only made him feel more attached to her, as if he owed it to Zeth to try and make sure she was happy.

In an act that was extremely generous and unnecessary in Sanguineous’ mind, Piecis let him come with her to a small cabin she owned on some world called “Celebrace” in her home dimension. Her excuse was that it would be a total drag if San-san had to spend three months alone on the space station and that after Zeth’s death, she really didn’t want to be alone either. Sanguineous was more than happy to take her up on her offer, but he feared that it would distract him.

He looked down at the open Hawaiian shirt and shorts that he had on. Piecis said they were her older brother’s but he wouldn’t mind him using them. He felt the soft material between his fingers and smiled. Piecis was a treat to have around to himself. She was such a nice and carrying young woman who even though she was just as bothered by Zeth’s death as he, made a constant effort to entertain him. If he was guessing Zeth’s last words correctly, it’s no wonder he was in love with her.

-| Cue: Linkin’ Park – Reanimation: Ntr\Mission |-

Presently, the distraction herself could be heard walking from the cabin from the beach. Sanguineous turned his head and smiled as the attractive figure approached in a bikini top and a patterned skirt that went down to her ankles. He still had to tell her the last part about his encounter with Akron. He had yet to inform her of the part where Akron threatened to destroy everything he knew and loved if he didn’t go to him soon. In a way, Sanguineous was hoping to leave as soon as Peicis left on R&R, but the offer to stay with her was too tempting. Now he worried that Akron might have already lost some patience...

Presently he felt her hands on his shoulders. She began pressing against his muscles in a fashion that relieved tension built up within him. “San-san, I’ve ordered dinner in tonight and its here. We can eat whenever you want to.”

Once again, the soft voice of his distraction took his mind far, far away from any thoughts of Akron and his threats.

Symphony 2: ~Fin

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