My Calling, Night Warriors: Here comes a new Challenger!
Author: Cornell Valentine Gainsborough
"Speech"
'Thoughts'
MAKAI! Seperates Paragraphs
A/N: Near the end of 2007, I began work on the original version of this story. While it was well-received, I eventually re-read the story, and came to the conclusion that it needed work. Maybe I'm just being my own worst critic, but I honestly feel that the story needed to be made over. Hopefully, this will do the trick.
I'll admit, the idea behind this was partly due to the news of Cross Edge coming out around that time. It's unfortunate that the game bombed out like it did. If only it had just a little bit more time to be developed...
Disclaimer: Disgaea's elements belong to Nippon Ichi, while Darkstalkers belongs to Capcom. Nelius, however, is my OC.
Chapter 1: New World
The world of humans. A simple, yet complex world, much like yours or mine. This world had its own parallel, the world of demons, Makai.
One century ago, one of Makai's high nobles, the vampire Demitri Maximoff, made his attempt to take control over this world. His efforts were instantly undone by the ruling family, Aensland, more specifically, their ruler, the gigantic (read: 200 meter tall) demon known as Belial; his name in other tongues meaning "Lord of Lies."
Maximoff, instantly defeated, was banished to the Human World, which contained the sole weakness of many Dark Ones like himself: the sun. In his significantly weakened state, one stray beam from this mighty star would be enough to reduce him to less than ashes, and so he bided his time, working to restore his power after his defeat. On every full moon, he'd emerge from his castle, ready to feed upon the unwary.
With the passing of time, Maximoff had regained enough of his power, and so worked to change the Human World to his advantage. His first step in doing so? Blot out the sun's rays. Using his demonic powers, he covered the world in thick, dark clouds, removing this essential light from the humans, and allowing the denizens of the dark to roam freely.
It's on this world, in a universe far removed from our own, that we find the next chapter in this young demon's life ready to unfold.
Deserted Farmland
The blinding, twisting light of a dimensional rift seared across the darkened sky. From this thin line that seperated and severed dimensions and entire universes, a blur of green reached out, slamming into the ground. As the emerald glow died down, it revealed the form of a young man with dark brown hair.
"Agh, damn, damn, damn! I have no luck with these gates." Shaking away the feeling of dizziness, Nelius got to his feet, orange eyes surveying the area. "Figures that it'd spit me out into a dump like.. hold on a sec..." Now he felt that something was off. "The air here... it's different, sure, but.." He looked skyward, seeing the clouds that blanketed the sky in every direction. "That darkness... no way it's naturally occuring." Something about the way the clouds covered the sky told him that this was the something he felt was far off. 'Someone or something rather powerful has to be behind this.' The place where he had landed was a mere wasteland, little more than parched, flat ground; from the myriad of tools still lying about, he could tell that this ground was formerly farmland. Seeing nothing else around, he extended his wings and took off, flying low to the ground, which had been his first mistake.
Seeing the lights of a city in the distance, he turned to move in that direction, only to get sneak-attacked by something. Being struck in the gut, the young demon was sent off-course, but he righted himself, and just in time. His assailants made themselves known; they looked like strange imp-esque creatures, but were about two to three inches shorter than he was. They spoke to each other in some odd language Nelius couldn't make heads or tails of.
'The hell are they saying to each other?' He soon got his answer, as three of them made to attack him. 'How'd I figure?' As the first one went for a higher attack, he brought his arm up to block the attack, and suddenly found his wing shielding him from the attack. 'Hold the... how did I do that?' He quickly dodged around another blow aimed for his chest, then jumped back. 'Wait, this is just like what happened back underground at Brad's. If it can shield me, then...!'
Now excited by this turn of events, the three demons revamped their attack strategy, and all went after him at once. Forced to think on his feet, Nelius went on defense, shielding himself from two of the demons, then jumping over the third. As they went after him again, he knew that he had to do something.
'I got it!' As one came in for an attack, Nelius connected with a fist to its gut, following up with an uppercut that sent the demon skyward, and ending it with a reverse somersault kick that knocked him senseless. (Triple Strike) As he landed, Nelius saw his other two assailants coming right for him. Jumping over them again, he found the gun from Brad's ship sliding right into his hand.
'I know it's not fair, but fairness went right out the window.' Taking aim, he shot one bullet right into the ground. Thinking he missed, one jumped up to attack, only to get a delayed blast from the ground. (Gaia Blast) Now seeing he was outmatched, the third one turned tail and ran as Nelius landed. Seeing nothing else, he spread his wings again and took flight, only to get stopped again; this time, it was due to an ad that flew right into his face. "The hell?" Ripping the ad from his face, he was it was an ad for some kind of performance. 'Not to dismiss the arts, but this isn't my sort of thing.' Tossing it away, he resumed his travel toward the city, not even aware of what that ad really was for, or where it was he was headed.
Nelius' home world
Sorry, haven't seen that kid."
"Nope, never even heard of him."
Back at Nelius' home netherworld, the manhunt was still going strong as William had reached the Dimensional Port, and was searching around for any clues as to Nelius' wherabouts. So far, nobody had seen him come here.
'All this time searching and nothing to show for it. Sirea's gonna have my head.' He looked up. 'Still, why is she so obsessed with finding this kid? It's not like he's got something that'll help her out. Far as I can tell, he's as ordinary as any of us.'
The search continues on. Too bad Sirea never thought to place up security cameras around the port. She might've spotted him... twice.
Back to Nelius, across the Cosmos
"Pains in my ass! Die already!"
It looked like that demon who ran off had warned his friends about him, and so rounded up everyone who was ready to fight. Nelius was getting rather annoyed by all this.
Leaning back to avoid a claw swipe, he planted a foot in the demon's chest, then used his foot placement as leverage to send the other foot smashing into his chin. Backflipping out of the attack, two more demons came in to attack, but Nelius had decided it was time to mix things up some. Using a wing to block, he readied a little surprise.
"Blazing Palm!" His fist went forward, generating three horizontal tornadoes that caught three of them by surprise as it tore into them. Shocked by this, some went to flee, while the others waited for a prime moment to attack. As soon as the tornadoes subsided, the demons went on the attack once more. "Mega Wind!" Several more found themselves torn apart by the powerful gusts of the spell, and some of the smarter ones (read: three) ran off.
"About damn time. Good thing to confirm that my abilities can function here." With the distractions out of the way, he extended his wings once more and took flight toward the nearby city. Landing just outside the border of the brightly lit town, he quickly slid his wings into his back as he entered, noticing a general lack of people.
'Hang on, something about this town doesn't feel right. There's a heavy air of animosity around this place.' Hearing the sound of momentous cheering, he rounded a corner to see an insane throng of people waiting around a concert hall. 'Explains where everyone is...' A few seconds later, a convertible drove up, and out stepped a man.
He stood about as tall as Nelius did, clothed in a leather jacket and jeans fashioned with metal studs, the right leg of the pants bearing the Union Jack symbol. His skin and hair were both a blue tinge, an obvious sign of undeath, but nobody seemed to notice or care. Guitar case slung over his shoulder, he flashed a charismatic grin to the people.
"How's it goin, mates? If you all want a real show, then show me the freakin' money, and come on in!" He walked up the red carpet, watching as all the people cheered for him. It was obvious; these people loved this guy.
Just moments after the rock star entered the concert hall, Nelius had noticed some movement out of the corner of his eye, but didn't get a chance to confirm what it was, as the sound of several gunshots caught the attention of the people there, throwing them into a frenzied panic. As he was shoved and jostled around, he could see several humans adorned in brown robes filtering into the hall amidst the confusion.
'I knew something smelled rotten.' Backing away from the frenzied mob, he slipped into the nearby alleyway. Noticing a window several feet above him, he took a leap upward, grabbing the windowsill and climbed into the open window. From there, he made his way inside and onto the rafters overlooking the concert hall itself where, down below, the man from earlier was getting ready to start the concert. Assisting him on drums was some weird cycloptic creature. 'Either that's a really good costume, or it's another demon.'
"Are you ready to rock!" Eerie silence filled the hall, as the humans in the hall weren't here to enjoy the show. He looked down to see the people clothed in the robes, and blanched. "Bloody hell, this crowd's so dead it's starting t' attract flies. Bad smell all right." He happened to notice several of the armaments they were carrying. "Garlic... silver bullets... that crap don' affect me none." Several jets of flame quickly changed his tune. "Now, flamethrowers, on the other hand... Fine by me, looks like it's time to roast or be roasted." With a strum of his guitar, his disguise began peeling away to reveal hollowed out eyes, clawed feet, and a giant chest cavity that revealed rows of sharpened rib bones.
'A zombie, that explains the blue tinge... but I haven't seen one like that before...' The cloaked men wasted no time in going on the attack. Flamethrowers armed, they began taking shots at the ghoul, who managed to dodge and weave through each incoming blast of fire, though one shot had knocked his guitar away.
"Oh, not bad, for a bunch of holy rollers." Stripped of his guitar, he was forced to go on defense.
Close nearby, a white-furred catwoman with blue hair had managed to knock down two of the cloaked men that were planning a sneak attack, but her movement seemed slow and tired. Most likely, it was the air around the city. Anybody with heightened senses would be affected, but animal-type demons like herself were especially sensitive to changes like that.
"There's another of them! Burn it!" Almost immediately, several more humans turned their flamethrowers toward her.
"You OK over there?" That momentary distraction was all that was needed for a torrent of flamethrower blasts to light the ghoul ablaze with a scream. The catwoman had tried to run, but a blast of fire to her back knocked her down.
Nelius had seen enough to know it was time to take action. Gripping the railing of the rafter, he hoisted himself over the edge and dropped down into the small crowd of humans who'd turned their attention to the catwoman, who was now lying prone on the ground.
"Heads up, you bastards!" Using the face of one of the would-be monks as a springboard, he quickly leapt over to two of the other monks, bringing them both down with some well-placed punches to the chest. A third tried to stab him with one of the silver crosses he carried, but soon found the world spinning around him as Nelius kicked him hard enough to send him to the floor.
"Who the hell's this kid?"
"Don't be fooled by its appearance, it's another Dark One, a Darkstalker. Get him!" Most of the nearby people turned their attention toward Nelius.
"The hell they just call me? A Darkstalker?" He nearly was lit ablaze by several flamethrower blasts. Dodging another blast of fire, he grabbed the unconscious body of the guy that tried to stab him, then threw it into one of the nearby crowds, incapacitating some of them, but they had finally decided to make use of their guns, and began firing. One of the bullets, even with all of his dodging, managed to nick him along the length of his right arm. "Fine, two can play at this!" Nelius pulled out his own gun and was about to pull the trigger...
"No mercy for kids, women or furry animals, is that how you roll?" Almost immediately, the ghoul, Lord Raptor, leapt from the flames, completely unharmed. "For a bunch of men of the cloth, you sure got some nasty habits and dark hearts." He began to grin. "Oh, but that's what I like the most! When it comes to feasting on souls, I always did prefer the dark meat. Showtime, baby!" Seeing that their weapons didn't even affect them, the supposed men of the cloth turned tail and ran... or, tried to run, except that Raptor had leapt from his place on stage to the exit. They knew now that they were screwed.
"Aw, the show just barely started. Don't you want to buy my T-shirt?" Rotating his legs at high speeds, he began circulating electrical energy around himself in the shape of a skull. Multiple bolts struck out at the humans, draining them of their souls, causing them to fall over dead. Raptor jumped back to his place on stage, reclaming his fallen guitar.
"Hehe, whaddya say, you two? You want me to save you a couple of souls?"
"Thanks for the offer, but organized religion's not my thing."
"No thanks." 'They eat souls here?'
"Hehe, I'm of the nondenominational sort, myself!" Extending his ribcage bones, he began to absorb the souls with a ghoulish laugh.
Outskirts of town
"There goes another one."
Having assisted the cat-woman, Felicia, to her train ("You smell familiar.", she told him), Nelius had hitched a ride in the back of a pickup truck leaving the city, knowing it was smarter to lay low. Looking around the desolate landscape, he saw the scale of destruction created by the "Dark Ones" or "Darkstalkers", as most people called the demons of Makai. Cities were leveled, buildings still smoking from the various powers that the demons possessed. All across the scenes, many human corpses were seen, slashed, torn open, or completely destroyed.
'Things here make back home look like paradise.' Far off, Nelius could see the remains of a few structures that managed to survive the onslaughts of the demons. 'No discrimination here. Any attractive target that strikes their fancy, they attack.' Now reminded of something, he reached over for an old newspaper.
'Let's see what we have here.. Darkness continues on. Several months have already passed since the sudden arrival of the vampire Demitri Maximoff. Having arrived in our world, presumably being tossed down from the world of the demons, he has covered the world in thick clouds, blocking out any and all sunlight, and allowing the creatures of the dark to roam freely. Already, this has had a profound impact, not only on recent farming, but also on people's actions. Just the other day, there was a brazen...'
The truck unexpectedly stopped, tossing Nelius around.
"Hey, what the hell's going on?"
"Can't go on any further, man. There's this huge fissure in our way."
Standing up to get a better look as to why they'd stopped, he saw an enormous fissure in the ground, stretching from one end of his vision to the other. The bodies of several hundred demons littered the area, random bodies suggesting their deaths by fire, ice, electricity, and some unknown kind of force. Up ahead, there was the burnt remains of what appeared to have been a church.
'Damn, someone got pissed off...' Having heard the doors of the truck open, he looked toward the driver and passenger exiting and running off, only to see a gigantic metallic fist come slamming down on the hood. "Whoa!" Jumping out of the truck bed, he saw his new assailant.
A large, silver machine stood before him. From the intricate designs, one could infer that it had been of Mayan or Aztec construction, but how could ancient civilizations get ahold of that kind of technology? From what could be considered its "eyes", a pair of red slits opened up, data flashing over them.
"Target recognized. Scan executed." Nelius had no idea what the hell this thing was. What exactly was it scanning him for? "Subject's classification: incubus. Target signature matches the origin of power dispersion detected hours earlier. Extermination deemed necessary."
'Wait a second... Incubus? Me?' An arm quickly morphed into a spiked disc, which was launched toward him. The young demon jumped back to avoid it, and the machine quickly morphed its other arm into an iron ball. "Wanna play hardball, eh? Fine by me!" Dodging from side to side to avoid the machine's attacks, he jumped upward. "Mega Wind!" The blast of wind collided with the machine, knocking it back some, but ultimately being of no effect, as the robot went back on offense. "Resistant to magic, eh? Resist this! Phantom Fists!" Jumping over the next attack, he brought his hands back as he launched himself toward the machine. Throwing his arms down in an X-formation as he passed right through the machine, he noticed something very strange. '? My wings again...' His wings had somehow grafted themselves around his arms, forming a pair of nasty-looking claws over his gauntlets.
"Target possesses abilities not yet recorded in database. Adjusting strategy as permitted..." Even with six deep claw marks running through it, the robot turned around to continue. "Additional units may benefit from updated information."
'If this is what I think it is, then... got it!' Now it dawned on him. "Let's go, you walking trash can!" In response to this insult, the forehead bead on the machine opened up, firing a chilling blue laser. Diving right beneath the beam, he quickly popped up, delivering an uppercut slash across the machine's chassis.
"Malfunction... breaking down..." Split in half, the machine quickly exploded. The fight over, Nelius' wings removed themselves from his arms.
"That's that... so much for my ride, though." The truck ruined and the driver long gone, he had no other option than to hike it. 'Still, who constructed that thing? And why'd it call me an Incubus? No way in hell could that be right... could it?'
End of chapter one
Until next chapter,
Cornell Valentine Gainsborough