Chapter XVII: Skyfall

Absolution Arc


1617 hours, December 19, 2714

The Summoning Pits, Hellmouth, Moon

The shrill shriek of swords clanging against each other rang out in the Summoning Pits, clashes like sonic screams and cuts left in the rock. A greatsword made from bones of sorts swung wildly yet sure to hit its mark, clashing against two smaller blades designed to render flesh as quickly and painlessly as possible.

Spectre deflected a number of the Stalker's sword swings with Duskdancer and Raze-Lighter, but not completely. Those swings were powerful that he couldn't block them with one sword! In the midst of the last block, the greatsword bounced off the blades and the Stalker staggered. A split second gave him an opening to strike back, and he took that chance. He stabbed the Stalker with Duskdancer.

But he immediately regretted it. As the Stalker gave a low laugh, they stared him down and a hand wrapped around his neck. Spectre was lifted off the ground and just a head above the Stalker. He started to choke as their grip tightened, wearily swinging Raze-Lighter to let him go. Instead, his flaming sword hit the gauntlet of the Stalker who disarmed him and tossed the sword aside.

"My turn." Just in an instant, Spectre was flung to one of the pillars around the Pits with a godly force, shattering it and bringing it down on him. Looking at the sword impaled in them, the Stalker ripped it out. Taken blood spilled from the wound, the Stalker in no clear sign of pain as they wiped it clean and tossed it aside next to Duskdancer.

Spectre emerged from the rubble, grasping a side and leaning on the remains of the pillar. He slipped, back sliding against the remains and breathing heavily. A pain shot through his shoulder and Primus began to stabilize it almost immediately after the HUD detected it. Damn, not again! A hand was at his shoulder, bleeding slightly but the pain just as evident. Hopefully, the bones that had just healed two days ago didn't break again. This keeps up, and I'll surely need a damned plate for it!

"This is supposed to be the heir to Trionus Pendragon? Come on, get up! Fight me!" The Stalker appeared before him, sword at his throat. They made no such move and started punching him. With each punch they delivered, the faster his Spinmetal-dipped iron plates started being dented. Not even the Argon Crystal lining ─ which was supposed to be both the rarest and near-indestructable material the Dark Knights found in the Solar System ─ could repair the damage done.

Even as there seemed to be no opening to counter whatsoever, Spectre took the upper hand and kicked the Stalker back from him. His breath, labored and pained, was starting to return to normal. Reaching for his sheaths on his back and detaching the magnetic locks, he tossed them aside. In a favor done silently, Primus transmatted the discarded swords back to the Xiphos. Only Duskdancer and Raze-Lighter were left. An instant after Primus transmatted it, Spectre rushed before the Stalker and started delivering punches back at the Stalker. He wasn't as strong with his fists as most Titans, but he hoped that his training from Teshin would make up for it. One went to their chestplate, another to the face, and the third one─

─hit nothing, as the Stalker evaded it and grabbed the fist. Spectre threw his other fist aimed at their helmet, but the Stalker caught it just as equally. He growled painfully as he felt his fists being crushed like they were being compacted. The next thing he knew, the Stalker smashed their helmet against his own with a force powerful enough to confuse him for a moment. Quickly shaking it off, Spectre was hit by multiple punches to his kidney and thrown to the ground.

It was then a shadow leapt out of the darkness of the Summoning Pits and attacked the Stalker. It bit their arm with deep fangs, easily puncturing their armor and sinking its teeth in. Spectre looked up and saw an armored canine attacking them, growling and sinking its teeth in further. The Stalker cried out in pain and caught the being by its neck, releasing its fangs from their arm and then flung it aside. He watched helplessly as the canine hit the pillar, whining in pain before being knocked out.

"No!" Spectre's tendrils of Darkness returned to his side, grabbing the Stalker by the arms and legs and flinging the Taken Dark Knight across the pit. He reached for his swords and they came flying back into his hands. Afterwards, Spectre's tendrils picked up the canine and moved it somewhere safe from the fight. In his head, he could hear screams and hissing coming from his tendrils, the bladed appendages showing again. They were his to command, and his sword and shield. The scent of the canine was oddly familiar to him, as the tendrils picked it up. Hence their screams and hissing. But he didn't have time for it right now!

"Is that all?"

"I'm just getting started!" The Stalker yelled.

Spectre blocked a surprise attack with Duskdancer and Raze-Lighter once more, going around and striking in the back. Again, his swords appeared like it barely did anything to them. Before he was grabbed again, he warped back in dark mist and sheathed his swords. He ducked before he was about to be decapitated by the greatsword and tripped up the Stalker. Right before the Taken Dark Knight hit the ground, Spectre spun them around and bent their arm behind their back disarming them.

"Who are you?!"

"Don't you get it, Pendragon? I am your past mistakes incarnate!" A burst of energy sent Spectre flying into the air and the Stalker retrieved their sword.

Right before Spectre hit another pillar, his armor reverted to his Titan armor. His gauntlet's grapnel launcher fired a line at the pillar across from him and a second line at the one he'd hit. Like he was a gymnast, he caught hold of the cable turned tightrope just as his launcher detached and flung himself up, balancing his weight on the cable and high above the Stalker. Spectre breathed heavily, hand on the handle of Raze-Lighter and staring the Stalker down.

"My past mistakes? You don't know a damned thing about me!"

The Stalker's gaze met Pendragon's. "You rejected the Darkness before. Now, you accepted it. You were never one to accept it yet here you are using it like you were born this way," They paced around the ground, greatsword grinding against the floor. "You think no one knows your secret? I suspected from the day we met. I know you're not a fully-fledged Dark Knight, you're only half."

Spectre ground his teeth. "So what? Like that changes anything!" He produced a number of knives between his knuckles and threw them, not at the Stalker but at the sources of light in the Summoning Pits.

The Darkness surrounding the knives blotted out the light, blanketing the pits in darkness. As the Stalker was remotely unfazed at his actions, Spectre threw more until all that was left was the light from the distance. Both of them blended in perfectly in the dark, although their red colors can be a dead giveaway to their location. Then again, Spectre could easily use his Titan armor to be almost invisible. Almost.

"Let's dance, bozo."

Spectre leapt upwards from the tightrope right before the Stalker threw a razor-sharp dagger in his direction, easily cutting it in one throw. He threw more in return, blades flying like a swarm of bees. In the darkness, the Stalker deflected the knives with minimal effort standing still and watched as their opponent swooped down from above, armor reverted to its true look and cape like the wings of a bat ─ or dragon ─ in flight. Raze-Lighter was drawn, flames reigniting and the blade over his head.

-Destiny: Skyfall-

"You're crazy!"

"Warewareha kareno tame ni suru hitsuyouga ari masu. Demo karewo shien shiyo u to, Orikkusu, kareno chikaraha watashitachi no nochikuru. We have to for his sake. If we even try to help him, Oryx and his forces will come after us." Cloud calmly said. All six of the team including Eroxs were in the Xiphos's lower level, where many of the tools and equipment Dark Knights need are stored.

Lightning growled. "I'm his older sister and I swore to mother I'd protect him!"

"Dono you na shiyou ha, warewarekareni warewareha shin de iru?! What use are we to him if we're dead?!"

"I hate to start picking sides but Cloud's right," Silver-79 interrupts, having just enough of this. "If we're dead, it'll worsen Spectre's mental state. We know how the deaths of his allies and friends impacted him."

Lightning lowered her fist and faced the Exo. "When did you become a psychoanalyst, Silver? This doesn't concern you!"

"It does from the moment we became Nero Bianco!" He argued, Arc energy faintly sparking in his hand. "While the rest of you were divided by your superiors, Rez, Reaper, and I have been there for him! I'm not saying it in a negative light, but you had no control over sticking together or not, right?"

Lightning stared at the Exo, all her anger completely dissipated over his words. She turned to Cloud, who nodded in agreement with Silver. Her fist violently shook, and just as she was about to hit something, Cloud caught hold of her wrist.

"He'll make it out. We'll be waiting for the ship to turn around."

"Knowing him, he set his ship's autopilot to come after him when mortally wounded…"

"But can it detect him if he becomes Taken?" Silver folded his arms.

Lightning stared at him horrified. The Taken were extradimensional, and the signal can't go beyond it!

"Artemis, override the autopilot! Turn this ship around!"

"Already on it!"

Reaper looked on from the window, her HUD displaying his vitals. The connection was strong, even if they were close to breaking through the maze under the Moon's surface. His heartbeat was fast, typical of when he fought. But it kept rising. Rising to a point where something like fear ─ or cockiness ─ was starting to show. Either that or defeat.

"C'mon, c'mon…" she whispered, hand over her heart. "Don't die on me…"

Unfortunately, Eroxys had heard her prayer despite not being in earshot. They intercepted the signal coming to and from Reaper's HUD, and they saw the same vitals. Only they understood what it implied. And they didn't like it at all. Their canine companion was knocked out. Guess they underestimated the Stalker's strength. "Looks like there is one thing left to do…"

-Destiny: Skyfall-

Damn, they're good! Even with his night vision module in his visor, he couldn't believe that the Stalker could see his movements coming! Sword clashed against sword as sparks briefly ignited the darkness. Growling, Spectre put away Duskdancer and summoned Hayden's Glaive spinning the bladed throwing weapon to near-chainsaw speeds. He swung it upwards. The Stalker deflected the attack with a dagger, the Glaive flying out of his hand. It went on a flight path of its own, soaring through the dark and headed back. Just as it was within proximity to release its viral gas, the Stalker blocked it with their greatsword.

Now's my chance! Spectre's armor transformed into his Hunter armor and rushed towards the Taken Dark Knight, Glaive returning to his hand and shrinking. He stabbed the Stalker once again and hit the switch to ignite Raze-Lighter's Solar flares. The blade burst into flames, hopefully putting an end to it all.

It didn't.

As the flames evaporated the Taken goo-like blood, the substance just as quickly enveloped the blade and kept the flames from igniting. Right before the Stalker could send another wave of Taken energy, Spectre warped up above one of the pillars and left Raze-Lighter impaled. He breathed heavily, thankful he blended in with the shadows. His cape wrapped itself around him, concealing him from the Stalker's view. Hopefully. Even the light coming from his helmet's visor was dimmed enough to blend in.

"You think the dark can be your ally? You merely accepted it, but didn't embrace it completely," the Stalker said, prowling about after removing the flaming sword in their chest and smashing the blade into pieces. Like they were toying with their prey, the Stalker put away the greatsword. "I was born in the Darkness, shaped and molded by it. Like all the rest, Pendragon. I didn't see the truth until I was already dead, and by then…"

Spectre held his breath. The night-vision module showed him that the Stalker had vanished, evaporated to Traveler knows where. He whipped his head around to try and find them, scanners gone wild in hopes to find them. They were gone. Like they never existed. This can't be right! My sensors are tuned to find any form of anomaly!

"It was nothing but blinding!"

Before he could turn around, Spectre felt a powerful kick hit him in the back and was sent off the pillar. As he was in midflight, his armor changed back and he aimed his wrist-mounted grapnel launcher and fired. Right before the hook hit a surface, another one of the Stalker's daggers tore through the cable, then impaling itself on the grapnel launcher. As another pillar shattered impact, the Stalker readied their bow and drew it back, Taken energy shrouding the arrowtip.

Spectre weakly got out from the rubble of the pillar, struggling to get up on his feet. He tried to stand, only for his legs to give in and have him on his knees. As he looked down on the floor, he watched as part of his helmet fall apart. One of his eyes were exposed from the broken armor piece, blood running down like a tear and bruises littering his face. Even his scar was visible. What was left of his HUD displayed critical damage to both the armor and his own health gauge dropping in numbers. Thankfully, his oxygen supply was directly fed to his body from the armor and not through a breather. He wanted to gag and spew out the blood in his mouth. Instead he swallowed it down, grimacing at the metallic taste.

[Spectre, you know you can't win this! It's suicide!] Primus cried out in his head, watching as his partner was starting to lose completely.

No…! I can beat them! With the help of his tendrils of Darkness, Spectre was brought back up to his feet, some of them helped to maintain his balance. They wrapped around his legs, replacing the damaged emergency exoskeleton within the armor.

[Listen to yourself for once! You're going all in to get this done at the cost of your life?! Can't you be selfish for once?]

The tendrils synced with his legs' movements, shakily making his steps as he held onto Duskdancer's hilt. With a hand over his chest, he tried to steady his rapid heartbeat. He looked upwards and saw the Stalker still aiming their bow at him as the Taken energy continued to grow.

"Go on, shoot me! End it here and now! See if you have the guts to let the arrow go!" Spectre cried out, provoking the Stalker.

"You are too easy to predict," the arrow ceased its channel of Taken energy but it was still drawn. "I know your tricks, Pendragon. You thought you and your beloved sister were the only ones under Teshin's teachings?" The Stalker leapt down from the pillar, bow put away and pulled out a dagger. "Balance and deception were the fundamentals of a Dark Knight like you. Powerful to the uninitiated. But we are the initiated, aren't we Sparda?"

Spectre spat out his blood, staining part of the visor red. "W-who are you?"

Next thing he knew, his head was snapped to the side by a thrown fist and another portion of his helmet shattered. His tendrils attempted to fight back for their defenseless master but shriveled up and turned into smoke as quickly as they could manifest to a physical form. He stumbled to the ground the moment his only support gave way, then his chestplate being stomped on by the Stalker. Quickly, he grasped the ankle to get them off him but it proved futile when another kick struck him in the face and almost lost consciousness. His mouth gasped for breath as the boot was starting to crush part of the chestplate and into his chest.

"Such a shame too. I thought you would be better than I remembered. But here you are, a few steps lost all because of your beloved Vesper," they taunted, the son of Trionus half-consciously glaring daggers at the Stalker at the mention of his dead fiancée. "Admirable to try and pick yourself up, but flawed in every way possible. Your efforts will be in vain, and so will your sister's. Then, I will break you."

Maybe Spectre should've listened to Primus after all. The more the Stalker applied force to the chestplate, the more danger he was in as that region they're stepping on housed the main component of the system directly feeding him oxygen in an environment like this. Spectre raised a hand at the ceiling, followed by the Stalker's throwing dagger thrust down to his chestplate. His head snapped against the floor when the blade had pierced through like there was no armor at all, even right through a rib. Whatever was left of his helmet was gone, unveiling his face and how damaged it was.

Dammit, monofilament edge! Spectre coughed out his blood in his mouth as the Stalker continued to twist the edge and add more damage to it all. He threw a punch at them but all it did was provoke them and punch him straight in the cheek. Primus, can you pull me out of here?!

[I wish I could, but the level of Darkness this guy's making is impossible to get a signal out to autopilot. I told you, you needed backup!] Primus answered.

"Now, what should I break first? Your spirit?" The Stalker plunged the knife into his chest again, another rib gone and most likely hanging by a muscle. Spectre groaned painfully. "Or your body? Which will make you suffer more, Sparda? Shall I give you the courtesy of seeing your beloved Vesper in the afterlife?"

It was no use. With the stabs, his blood already started leaking into his punctured lung. His chest slowly rose and fell to prolong his life a little longer, and his blood formed into bubbles. "D-damn it…"

The Stalker pointed the bloodied dagger right between his eyes, raised for the kill. Just as they plunged it down at him, Spectre caught his wrists and used all of his strength left to stop it from easily killing him. Just as his eyes were fixated on the blade inching its way towards him, the Stalker put their efforts forward and tried to win the stalemate. But they didn't expect Spectre to exert this much strength at his weakest. They knew his weaknesses, both from when they were alive to what they've become now. Vesper was one of them, and another was his own hesitation of the Darkness's power.

"Give up! You are dead anyway! Even if you find a way to escape, I will hunt you down!" The Stalker said, exerting all they could into their arms.

The tip of the monofilament dagger scraped his forehead, his blood started pooling from the wound. He was losing, running out of time. Not even his armor had the energy to transform into his Titan armor. All of it was expended. Taken to keep him alive as long as possible. From what was left, only one percent was left in reserve from the energy that was rerouted. As his ears were deafening to hear, and his vision blurring out, he still kept his strength to stop it.

"…er, no!"

That was the last thing he heard.


Hey guys! I'm not dead! So, I know it's a little too late to say 'Happy 2017' to you all, but I've had a lot of things going down since the New Year's Special.

Basic rundown of what's going on: I fear that I may take too long to update in future chapters after this point mainly due to me writing another story at the same time. It's hard for me to balance out the two when ideas are fresh for a new story and currently in writing. If I spend too long with Destiny: Skyfall, then I may have lost the spark to write the new one by the time I finish a chapter. I can't balance out these two at once!

Now, this is not a hiatus. Far from it! All I'm asking you readers is to please be patient as I try to balance my new project with Destiny: Skyfall. After I finished writing a chapter for my new one, then I'll dedicate time to write the next chapter for this fanfic. Hopefully, this plan will work out as I also have to make it through classes. For this confrontation between Spectre and the Stalker, I suggest listening to Fight Night from the Batman Vs. Superman soundtrack.

Anyways, thanks guys and I'll see you Guardians in the next chapter!