Dionna smiled as she gazed into the open coffin where Amy's motionless, sleeping body lay. Her fingertips brushed the little girl's cold skin and twirled the beautiful vermilion colored hair. Still, Amy's eyes didn't open. She looked as if she were dead, but Dionna knew otherwise. The girl was very much still alive, just in a coma-like state that Dionna had put her in.
If everything were to go exactly how Dionna wanted, then her plan would be complete.
"Cantero," she said, addressing her partner. "Do you have the souls I need for this to work?"
"Of course." Cantero replied, nodding. He then pointed his staff at a pile of small, equally sized, circular purplish-white orbs near Dionna's throne. The purplish-white orbs were the souls of people who were evil-doers in life. (The souls of people who were good in life were blue-green colored.)
"As you know, Dionna, we've gathered these souls from various mortal warriors around the world." Cantero said. "Each warrior fought in a different style, and this pile of souls contains the knowledge of every warrior's method of fighting on this planet." He then looked at Dionna, a triumphant grin showing on his face. "I do believe," he said, confidently "that we are ready to begin this experiment of ours."
Dionna walked away from the open coffin and went over to the pile of souls Cantero had shown her. She walked around the pile a few times, smiling as she observed their collection. However, her smile soon faded and she stopped in front of Cantero, frowning at him.
"We're not ready." she said, irritated. "There's one style of fighting we're still missing."
Cantero's face showed a mixture of surprise and anger. He had collected those souls himself. How could he have possibly missed one?!
"Wh-which style do we still need?" he asked, determined yet shaken slightly by his failure. "I-I'll go and find a warrior who fights that way immediately!" Dionna only raised and eyebrow.
"Do you really expect to find someone who fights with a ring blade so easily?" she asked in a seemingly bored tone of voice.
Cantero was about to say something, but he was cut off by a loud shout coming from somewhere near the throne room's entrance. Both he and Dionna looked toward where the noise had come from. Soon, they heard what sounded like a young female yelling:
"For the last time: Let go of me you damn birds!"
Recognizing the girl's voice, Dionna smiled slightly and walked over to her throne, sitting down. Cantero also hurriedly took his position, standing next to the right of Dionna's tone as both of them waited for the person to enter. And come she did, being dragged in by multiple ravens, their eyes varying in color.
Dionna looked down at the seventeen year old with a cold, observing expression as the birds released their grip on their captive and let her fall onto the stone floor. The girl had pale skin, dark brown hair in two lopsided pigtails, and an unusual revealing red-orange ensemble with tall brown boots One golden metal glove covered her right hand. The blood-colored raven symbol on her left hand told Dionna that this was one of her servants, but it wasn't just any servant of hers.
"Why Tira, I thought you liked birds." Dionna said cunningly, noticing that Tira was swatting at the ravens with her hands to scatter them. "Aren't ravens your favorite?"
Tira only scowled at Dionna as she continued to be in her gloomy persona.
"Your ravens are nothing but pests, unlike Nightmare's watchers..." she growled, beginning to stand up. "Tell your birds here to leave me the hell alone!"
Dionna gritted her teeth at the mention of Nightmare's name, and abruptly stood up.
"Nightmare is dead, Tira. He was merely a pawn of Soul Edge, nothing more. You don't serve him anymore. You serve me. Nightmare gave you nothing. I gave you freedom and power."
Abruptly, Tira switched to her jolly personality. "That's true!" she chirped. "And I really appreciate all that you've done to help me."
"Really?" Dionna asked as she sat back down onto her throne, feigning a curious tone of voice when she was really boiling with rage inside. "If you were really so thankful for all I've done, you wouldn't have tried to hide from me for two months since I specifically told you to bring Soul Calibur to me after you stole it from Sorel's castle!"
Dionna then snatched her sword and turned the blade into a whip, wrapping and tightening it around Tira's neck with an accurate flick of her wrist.
"So," Dionna said, watching her prisoner attempt to wrestle the whip from her neck. "Where exactly is the sword now, Tira?"
"I-I don't... h-have it..." Tira croaked desperately. Dionna only glared at Tira, not believing her words.
"Don't have it, you say? Then how come I can sense its presence all of a sudden, not to mention that of Soul Edge as well?" Dionna asked, suddenly smiling sadistically as she met Tira's eyes. Something had flashed in them for a short moment. Fear? Whatever it was, Dionna could tell Tira was hiding something from her.
Tira switched back to being gloomy.
"Didn't you hear me? I-I don't... have it and I have n-no idea w-what you're... t-talking about." she replied, glaring back at Dionna as she struggled to get the whip unwound from her neck.
A violet-eyed raven that was perched next to where Cantero was standing suddenly squawked angrily at Tira, causing all three people in the room to turn their attention to it.
"What seems to be the trouble, Charon?" Cantero asked, smiling as he addressed the raven by the name he had given it. It was his raven, after all. Charon then squawked again, it's eyes still focused on Tira.
"Are you saying that little miss Tira here is lying to her mistress?" Cantero asked. "That she really does in fact know where the sword is?" He then chuckled quietly. "How disrespectful! Well then, why don't you help us uncover the truth, Charon, since miss Tira is too scared to do so herself."
Charon then swooped down from where he was perched and flew over to where Tira was. His talons grabbed hold of the Golden glove on Tira's right hand and soon he began to tug the glove off. Tira fought back, however, trying to wrestle her glove away from the furious raven. Try as she might, the raven was able to completely tug the glove off.
As the glove came off, two small shiny objects fell out of the glove and clattered onto the stone floor. Immediately, Dionna unwound her whip from Tira's neck and used it to grab the two objects, pulling them toward her just as Tira reached for them herself. Charon returned to his normal perch beside Cantero.
Dionna placed the two small objects onto her palm and observed them. The first object was shiny, blue-white colored, and resembled a piece of ice. An aura that contained purity seemed to radiate off of it. The second object contained various shades of dark red, and had an aura that seemed to hint of unending wrath and bloodlust.
The shards of the soul swords.
"...Tira?" Dionna said, calmly addressing her servant. She then gritted her teeth and angrily flicked her wrist, causing her bladed whip to smack Tira hard.
"What is the meaning of this?!" Dionna shrieked, now no longer hiding her fury. She then abruptly slammed the shards down on the arm of her throne, got up and stormed over to where Tira was. Once she was right in front of her servant, Dionna roughly grabbed one of Tira's pigtails, yanking her up. "Why have you brought me a mere shard of Soul Calibur?! You have some explaining to do, young lady!"
Tira now seemed to be jolly, but scared as she spoke.
"W-well, a-after Soul Edge was destroyed, I-I wanted to find a way to bring it back." she said. "I-I knew that Soul Calibur would get in the way of my plan, so-"
"...Your plan." Dionna said in an unamused tone. "Your plan!" She then angrily threw Tira back down onto the ground. "You were using the swords for your own personal gain!" Dionna grabbed her weapon and transformed it from a whip back to a sword, pointing it at Tira's neck as she walked towards her. Frightened by the murderous look in Dionna's eyes, Tira backed away from Dionna quickly.
"You, Tira, have disobeyed me for too long!" Dionna yelled. Her tone then quickly changed from angry to sinister. "You are no longer of use to me, nor are worthy of the power I have given you. For that, I will give you the honor of knowing the precise meaning of agony."
Tira then stopped backing away from Dionna and pouted.
"Hey, no fair!" she whined. "That Raphael guy has disobeyed you worse than I have, and yet you're letting him live and are going to kill me?! What gives?!" Dionna abruptly stopped walking toward Tira and smiled sinisterly.
"I have plans for him. Also, who said I was the one who was going to kill you?" the goddess asked.
Tira only pondered on Dionna's statement for a split second before Cantero suddenly appeared out of nowhere next to her. Just as he swung the bladed part of his staff at her, Tira backflipped away. Once Tira was back on her two feet she held out her left hand, causing her weapon to appear.
"Now play nicely with her, Cantero." Dionna said as she walked back towards her throne. "We want her to last a long time before we end her life. And do try to make things interesting this time, alright?"
Cantero nodded his head, acknowledging what Dionna had told him before turning his attention to the weapon Tira had. Her ring blade seemed to consist of two rings: The inner ring appeared to be made out of stained glass, each piece a different color of the rainbow. The larger outer ring that surrounded the smaller inner ring was silver and had blades that seemed to resemble wings. Cantero raised his eyebrows, recognizing the weapon Tira was holding.
"You're using the weapon we gave you." Cantero observed. "Bifrost." Tira beamed with excitement.
"Yep! And I can't wait to tear you to pieces with it!" she cried joyfully before running toward Cantero with great agility. Once close enough, she swung her ring blade in a wide vertical arc, happily yelling out "Swoosh!" as an extra sound effect.
Cantero turned his body to avoid the attack, the blades just barely missing him. Before he could even get the chance to attack his opponent, Tira grabbed her ring blade in both hands and began spinning her body around, intending to cut Cantero to shreds.
'Damn. I forgot how fast she was.' Cantero thought as he quickly moved himself multiple times to dodge the blades. Tira then proceeded to hit Cantero with multiple horizontal slashes. He moved left to avoid the first slash, then right to avoid the second, and then he leaned back to avoid the third horizontal slash. However, just as Cantero was returning to his upright position, he felt the ring blade's cold metal slash his exposed chest, leaving a deep diagonal gash on his skin that slowly began healing as soon as it had appeared.
Cantero gritted his teeth from the pain but remained focused on the fight he was in. He threw his staff into the air and jumped just as Tira swung her blade at him again. While airborne, he grabbed his staff with his left hand. It immediately glowed a golden color and seemed to morph into a different weapon. His weapon ceased glowing as he landed back onto the ground.
Tira looked at the purple and gold weapon Cantero was holding, confused. He was now using... nunchucks?! Just a moment ago he had been holding a staff! She suddenly switched back to being gloomy.
"How did you- augh!"
Tira was abruptly cut off by Cantero rapidly hitting her twice across her face with the nunchucks, then a low sweeping kick to her legs that caused her to trip.
"Nuisance!" Tira yelled as she slowly began to get up off the floor, only to roll out of the way to avoid another one of Cantero's attack. She then noticed that the weapon had changed again; this time from nunchucks to a small double-bladed axe with golden blades.
"What's going on?!" Tira demanded as she angrily swung her ring blade at Cantero again, only to have the attack blocked. "How are you doing that?!"
Cantero only smirked and swung his axe twice in wide arcs. Tira blocked the first attack then evaded the second. He then moved out of the way as Tira lunged herself at him, only to have her fall back onto the floor.
"My staff is a special one." Cantero said with a smile. He then swung the axe at Tira again. She dodged the attack, but it was with difficulty this time. Then Cantero continued talking. "It can cast spells of any element, as well as transform into any weapon that I desire."
"Ha! You certainly haven't been casting any spells yet." Tira said with a smile, indicating she had switched back to being jolly. She then dodged another attack by doing a handstand, and soon landed back on her own two feet with ease before continuing to talk, not paying attention to what Cantero was doing.
"I'm starting to think you're just pretending it can even cast spells, considering I've never once seen you- eeek!" Tira abruptly stopped talking and uttered a small screech as she lifted her feet off the ground to quickly avoid a blue lightning bolt that hit the ground right where her feet had originally been. She looked back at Cantero wide-eyed, finally noticing that he had abruptly changed the axe back to the staff it had been before the duel had started.
"Still think I'm pretending?" Cantero asked, raising an eyebrow. He watched as Tira's face slowly changed from showing shock to excitement, but she gave no response.
Cantero then grabbed his staff in both hands, the magenta stone at the tip suddenly glowing a bright red-orange color. He then swung his staff in a horizontal arc, causing fire to suddenly be shot at Tira. Once again, she dodged the magic blast with the same ecstatic look as before.
"That's it!" she cried playfully. "Show me ya mean business!"
Dionna watched from her throne as the fight went on. She observed both fighters with cold expressions, watching as both of them attempted to strike each other with great force. Neither side was even close to giving in. However, Dionna knew deep down who was going to win, and who was going to lose.
Once more, Cantero swung the bladed part of his staff at Tira, only to have it collide with her ring blade. However, instead of attempting to use brute force to push Tira to the ground, he looked at Dionna as Tira began pushing him back with her own strength.
Cantero watched as Dionna looked at him and narrowed her eyes. She then mouthed four words:
"Let her do it."
Without warning, Tira slammed her ring blade down into the ground for support and swung her feet at Cantero, knocking him off balance. She then let her ring blade fall onto the floor and launched herself at Cantero, toppling him and causing him to land on the floor with her on top of him. She grabbed Cantero's wrists and looked down at him with a gleeful, devilish smile as he attempted to squirm away.
"Nighty night." Tira said with a giggle. She then slammed her lips onto Cantero's, kissing him.
Cantero tried to wrestle himself out of Tira's grasp, but he could feel his strength being quickly drained from his body at an alarming rate. He was starting to feel numb and his vision was blacking out...
Finally, after for what had seemed like an eternity, Tira let go of Cantero's wrists and got off of him, standing up. She backed up a few steps and looked down at Cantero, who was weakly gasping for breath and trying to keep his eyes open. She smiled triumphantly as she heard him take one last shaky breath and saw that he stopped moving completely. The ring blade wielder then turned to Dionna, her back facing her fallen opponent.
"Heh. Now what are you gonna do?" Tira asked with a giggle. "I just killed your finest warrior."
Dionna closed her eyes, sighed, then smiled at Tira.
"I'm impressed, Tira." Dionna said. "You put up a good fight. No one has ever managed to actually kill Cantero before..."
Tira smiled after hearing the compliment.
"Aw, thanks!" Tira chirped. "It was a lot of fun!" After a moment, she quietly sighed and stretched. "You know, it's such a shame that he broke so early. I was really expecting him to-"
"...And no one ever will."
Tira's smile faded after Dionna interrupted her. She was about to speak when she suddenly felt her throat being grabbed tightly from behind her. She struggled to breathe as she tried to release the person's grasp from her. But then a voice whispered into her ear.
Cantero's voice.
"You thought you had killed me, didn't you?" he whispered seductively with a smile. "You thought I was mortal, like the other servants. That's why you used your soul-sapping kiss on me." He then tightened his grip on Tira's throat. "But you thought wrong."
Cantero then released his grip on Tira's throat, letting her fall onto the ground. Before Tira could even stand up, he swiftly grabbed his staff and held the stone next to her; first by her wrists, then by her ankles. As he did this, the stone glowed with a light-blue aura, and Cantero watched as shackles that were literally made out of ice captured Tira, keeping her in a sitting position on the ground.
Tira watched as Cantero moved his way around her, eventually stopping right in front of her. She gritted her teeth in anger, switching back to her gloomy personality.
"Stay away." she hissed. "You irritate me."
Cantero only quietly laughed to himself. "Don't you want to know what really happened during our fight?" he asked while smoothing his raven-black colored hair.
"I couldn't care less about what happened. Now let me go!" Tira demanded. Cantero merely continued talking as if Tira had never answered his question:
"I allowed you to use your soul-sapping kiss on me because it would make you think you had won." he said. "Turns out that you never actually took my soul away, just one of the thousands of souls I have absorbed for eons. Though you did somehow manage to drain my strength away for a short time..."
Cantero smiled sinisterly as he looked into Tira's eyes, observing her anger and hatred toward him. The power Dionna had given her had strengthened the girl's wrath and lust significantly over the years, but Tira wouldn't need the power once she became a corpse.
Keeping a tight grip on his staff, Cantero kept his eyes focused on Tira as he positioned the bladed part of the staff near her chest. Without warning, he thrusted the blades into Tira, causing blood to stain the ground. He sensed that Tira was growing weak as she continued to lose blood.
Cantero smiled as he drew his staff from Tira's body. The two blood-stained cresent-shaped moon blades had closed around a small purplish circular orb.
Tira's soul.
Cantero smiled triumphantly and spoke one final statement to Tira as her life began to slip away:
"How does it feel, Tira, to lose one last time?"
TO BE CONTINUED
So what did you think? Should I write more chapters that specifically focus on the antagonists of this story?
I know Tira's a difficult character to write, so I hope I wrote both personalities correctly.
What do you believe is going to happen?
Let me know how this chapter was in a review! I really appreciate it. And thank you, everyone, for your continued support. Means so much to me.
~ jbanime36