Take What Is Yours
Ch 39 Sins
His very presence hummed with power. Bare armed, he wore a doublet of the purest white, loose flowing breeches and knee high boots adorned his legs. He was tall, easily a head above most and half so to Issah. Six wings, all six feathered like a Mc Caws but with feathers of pearl, lavender, aqua, and cerulean stretched out wide as he hovered in mid-air, surveying everything and everyone. His gold eyes found Akasha, seeing her make way through the throng, ignoring all the baleful gazes directed at him and her. In his right hand he clenched a spear with a polished silver shaft and wide bladed head.
He landed with a gusting flap of his wings, causing a stir and gasp among the throng. He said nothing, just took in Akasha's full measure. The blunt end of the spear tapped when he relaxed his grip.
"Beloved," Akasha lowered her eyes, her head bowed in deference.
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The room became loud with hisses and threatening curses.
Tsukune didn't have to be that well versed in the cultural taboos to realize how bad of a deed he had just performed by Akasha's suggestion.
Ria, it would seem, picked this time to say so. "Your ignorance and your place have certainly been sealed this day, Brother dear. I will speak well of you when you're remembered in history to be the unintended fool of your wife's and her mother's debacle."
She was right. He knew she was right. Looking up at Moka, with eyes red from crying, he could see the defeat and loss of hope that she may have had now dashed. It was very sobering. Whatever Akasha had planned, he reverently wished it would happen soon.
"You are not welcomed here." Issah raised his mithril broadsword in the direction of the seraph's direction. "Leave."
Bardiel's eyes were still taking in Akasha, enamored and enraptured by her. When he touched her cheek, she raised her chin, placed her hands on his chest, and kissed him.
"Blasphemous and repulsive," Gyokuro turned away, covering her face with a blood tainted satin glove.
Shadows stirred all around them, candles flickered with the sudden movement, and the glint of a thousand blades from the castle guards glimmered all around, focusing on Bardiel.
"I have to stop this," Tsukune marched forward, shaking off Ria's grasp and ignoring her hiss to stay out of this. Before he could approach Bardiel and Akasha, Kahlua was there with a very firm hand on his shoulder.
The stillness of her face, the wetness of her eyes starting to tear gave him pause enough to know she was holding in a rage that needed just a nod from her mother to release. From there, things would go very, very poorly.
"Bardiel, I-"
It was Kahlua's yelp, her twisting away from the near touch of the seraph's hand reaching to shake's Tsukune's when he approached. Tsukune marveled at what could possibly cause Kahlua, one of the monster world's most powerful vampires be so easily repulsed without even touching her.
By natural reaction, Tsukune took Bardiel's hand and felt it, his power, his overwhelming presence and dominance. If he could describe it as anything, it would have to be called Judgement.
"Sloth," Bardiel spoke, slow and measured, directed at Tsukune. Yes, Tsukune thought to himself, Judgement was a proper label for what he felt in the angel's eyes.
Unable to say anything, Bardiel shook Tsukune's hand, released it and then made his way over to the banquet table fill to near breaking with an assortment of exotic foods. He picked up a piece of meat here, a fish plate with the head staring lifelessly back, a whole pig and cow spit on a roast that was killed by fire for entertainment value than for consumption.
"Gluttony." He let fall the plates in his hands, splattering the priceless carpet by his feet.
He stepped away from the table, parting a few wary spectating vampires fanning away from him and focused his gaze on Moka's naked form, her still pink hair and swollen belly. Raising his spear, he pointed it at her, speaking clearly for everyone to hear. "Pride."
He turned his head towards Ria, tilting his head to take in her worth. "Envy."
Ria flushed red, curling her lip to rebuttal such an accusation when Bardiel was already out of her ear shot, lifting himself in the air and bound towards Issah and Gyokuro.
He was within striking range of Issah's sword. He eyed their jewelry, their clothes, their many baubles and gaudy getups. He stared high into the ceiling, the buttress and crown molding of the entire hall. When he refocused his attention back to them, he pointed his austere gaze to Gyokuro, "Greed."
"Let he who is without sin throw the first stone," Issah bladed his stance and readied to lunge at the Arc angel with his broadsword aimed to pierce the angel's heart. Bardiel tapped his chest, leaning even closer for Issah taunt him. Within that space of time, Bardiel brought up his spear, clearing the distance a full two feet closer to Issah's face than the vampire lord's weapon was to the angel's.
"I have no stones to throw, sir, for I too am tainted by the sins of my God. Wrath is one of them."
When it was clear that Bardiel had the advantage and none were going to make a killing blow, bladed tips were lowered.
"Just one?" He sheathed his sword.
Bardiel turned his attention to Akasha, he admired her shamelessly. "Lust."
Akasha blushed.
Gyokuro huffed indelicately, "I think I'm going to be sick."
Bardiel tapped the end of his spear soundly on the marble floor. Snapping everyone out of their held breaths with a start. "I have been summoned, how may I be of service?"
Akasha came to his side, by his right and matched Gyokuro's and Issah's gaze. "You are to be Tsukune's Second."
"Who?"
"Sloth."
"Ah," Bardiel released his spear, still perfectly balanced and perpendicular to the floor without support, point up. Marching up to Tsukune, looking down at the young human/vampire. "By your summon, and her will, I will make sure your duel is sanctioned properly. I swear it."
"Just like a creature of the light to believe they can venture where they wish without invitation, invading all in the name of 'good'." Ria crossed her arms and walked past Tsukune, eyeing the spear that every other vampire kept a safe distance from. "Even vampires, with our sin of pride among many others, do not trespass without being properly invited."
"Such a limited way to look at things," Bardiel eyed the three trollies carrying their tortured devices and deadly weapons. "You speak of land, of homes, of property. There is no creation that didn't begin or will end that wasn't made by His will. Perhaps you should take a day, the 7th of the week I suggest, and reflect on it."
"I work on Sunday's," Ria wiggled her fingers, gesturing up to Moka's crucified form. "Idle hands and all."
"Then you will know that the wood, the stone, the steel, the carpet, the food, the congregation isn't the church," Bardiel bowed his head low, staring deeply into Ria's eyes with his own golden ones. "It is inside us that He truly lives. And this is why you fight for her, isn't it, young Tsukune?"
"For love?" Ria scoffed.
"Because," Tsukune struggled to say it, but it was what he believed, "It is what I owe her, and it's the right thing to do."
"And He works in mysterious ways," Bardiel slapped Tsukune's shoulder, marching forward to his spear, swinging it wide to clear a space out in the middle of the grand hall. "What say you, Master of this Castle? What are the terms of this dual!"
Gyokuro glided towards Bardiel, challenged his gaze with a smirk, "We do it as any vampire dual should be done. First, and foremost, let's have fun."
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AN: My dear audience, readers, and fellow authors, there is no apology I can give that will fill the void I have left for all these years. I struggled with a severe depression with so many things going on in my life that there didn't seem to be a way for me to come out of it. Many times over, it seemed the world that I had originally started my writing venture has turned on its head and left me very confused, worried, and above all trapped in a way that what was my pleasure had become a trap because of all the little things that people can cancel, be offended by, and even place false labels on for the sake of their own entertainment and to harm. This was supposed to be fun for me and for you, but I found that I am not as strong as I used to be. My children are grown, my home has lost a lot of its light, and what was once my friends and family have become enemies because of political ideologies. That was a very sad moment for me that I didn't think I could ever recover from.
I want to thank my friends Lord of the Land of Fire and Ron Jeremy Pony in helping me get out of my depression and test my writing hand again.
With that said, I did promise I would continue writing, even if it is to finish what I started. I am going to pick up the pen, or keyboard, and try my hand where I had left off.
Hello, Again,
Your Mistress.