Kiss me, kiss my heart
Kill me, kill me forever
Kiss me, kiss my eyes
Kill me, kill me your love!
Itami wa itoshi
Itami wa hakanai
Itami wa yasashi
Shinjitsu dai yo to
Yoru rakana SOFA no ue
Boku wa machi tsuzukeru

Kiss me, kiss my leg
Kill me, kill me forever
Kiss me, kiss my lip
Kill me, kill me, your gun!
Kono yo wa nazou de
Kono yo wa uso de
Kono yo wa shozekin
Awaremi dakedo
Ai suru mono dake o
Boku wa machi tsuzukeru

PURE na shiyu no tame
Hito wa ano ki desu
Kushimi no naka
Rashiku mo gaki

(Kiss me, kiss my heart
Kill me, kill me forever
Kiss me, kiss my eyes
Kill me, kill me your love!
This pain I'm in, I love it
This pain I'm in, ethereal
This pain I'm in, wonderful
This is, to me, like heaven
Walking by myself in the night,
Destined to travel forever

Kiss me, kiss my leg
Kill me, kill me forever
Kiss me, kiss my lip
Kill me, kill me, your gun!
Afterlife is a mystery
Before death is deceitful
Between the two, I'm screaming
Miserable, and yet, still
Love is something I do not need,
Destined to travel forever

My soul is chained to this world
But just until I can break free
I have no need for mercy
So slash me, bleed me, kill me)
~Kiss me, Kill me –Farfello, Weiß Kreuz





Luce ed Ombra
Chapter Fourteen

Inversion
[By Ultema and Guo]


Several hours later, still pitch black outside, and Dante had no clue of anything that had happened... yet again. A few tosses and turns in bed, and something had disturbed his slumber. A snort followed by a shake or two of his head, and he awoke to the sight of a purplish black shadow -- oh, it was Moofie. He hadn't even realized the poor thing had come along, and had nearly grabbed the beast to strangle it to death … not like it would have worked.

After a moment, and he was sitting up, hand scratching through his still semi-greasy platinum hair. A soft groan and a mumble that took the form of "What do you want?" was let out in the general direction of the shadow feline.

A pair of paws found themselves planted firmly on Dante's chest - a pink tongue lapping at his cheek. It wasn't so much wet as it was like a cold breeze tickling the side of his face. A soft mew given out to the hunter as the outline of the shadow-feline merged with the surrounding darkness, leaping from the man's chest and landing on the floor without a sound. Two pointed ears swiveled on their axis and attention was given to Isabella, sleeping on the bed nearby.

A quick glance, issued by a pair of bright red eyes consulted the hunter, before the small shadow mewed once more, and trotted towards the door, where upon reaching it, scratched at it as though with a desire to be let out.

Dante rose to his feet slowly, attempting to be quiet, and actually managed to do so for once. He made his way towards the door and opened it, assuming Moofie just wanted to be let out. It soon occurred to him this could be quite an important task, in one way or another -- Moofie knew Isabella better than he did, after all -- after Moofie didn't leave, and that he could have snuck out under the door (being a shadow and all) that perhaps he was meant to follow. Confused slightly, he walked back in and looked over Isabella quickly. She was sound asleep, must have been tough to fall asleep in those clothes.

Dante quietly slipped on a pair of his pants... even at night, one must be stylish, so he thought. Though the rest of the outfit was left on the floor, and only his guns were holstered to him. Taking one would have been a bit more practical, but since when did that matter? He never took one without the other. He slowly shut the door behind him, and began creeping up towards the shadow cat in a quiet, half whisper, half mumble,

"Where're w'goin?"

Without any sort of vocal reply, the shadow swept around the hunter's legs, making a figure eight around and between them, and scampered out of the door only to pause for a moment at the wet spot on the floor near the window. Leaning his head down to the puddle; a barely visible velvet black nose twitched in its general direction, before casting a red-eyed glance over his shoulder; tail wavering back and forth idly. A half-choked mew poured forth from the small shadow cat, turning to face the direction from which it came, and a prance in a circle. Moofie definitely wanted Dante to follow.

Chasing after a shadow seemed relatively foolish when said, but in this case it was more like following Lassie. Ok, so it was still semi-foolish, but Dante knew that there could be something actual importance being shown by this feline. Dante knelt down next to the puddle where Moofie was sniffing … yep, it's a puddle. A moment or two later, he rose up and opened the window. As the rain blew in on the bare flesh of his chest and arms, he cowered back a bit; no sort of over shirt or coat made things seem colder than it was. Still, he prepared to step outside onto (hopefully) a rooftop below, he wasn't sure he was all ready for dropping a few stories.

Scrambling upwards after a short hop upwards, the shadow feline leapt upon the windowsill and then down onto the wet rooftop below. The puddles, barely disturbed by the landing of Moofie, reflected the scarcely visible moon through the clouds, and the lightning that streaked across the sky.

Rushing towards the end of the roof, the feline peered over the edge. A way down, there was what looked like a fine courtyard. Trees, bushes, even a lake. Without hesitation, the cat again took from its perch high above the grassy green below, and upon contact with the ground, became a splattered puddle of violet-black goo. For a moment, the puddle remained lifeless but soon enough took the form of the feline again; unharmed and spry as ever. A shrill call above the sound of rain, and the shadow vanished into the shrubbery.

Dante's mouth just lay open for a moment. He was getting too old for this, or at least too lazy. Climbing over the window sill and hanging by his fingers, he kicked off and landed onto the roof with a loud clanging noise, slipping a bit and ending up on his stomach with another thump. Hopping from the rooftop to a nearby tree, he clung onto the limb for dear life, slipping, slipping, and … falling.

Hitting the ground, which was still quite a ways down, directly on top of where Moofie was, a grunt with each fall, and when the last fall out of the tree occurred, he just hoped Moofie wouldn't form a spike or anything, which luckily wasn't the case. Standing up and brushing himself off, although he could really use a wringing out by now, he looked to Moofie with a slight disgruntled-ness in his eyes. Now he wasn't even sure of how to get back to his room, he had always just followed Isabella.

The feline merely looked back with a blink of its bright red eyes, slipping out from under the hunter like a small slug or worm. At least Moofie was in good spirits. After biting onto the leg of Dante's pants, and tugging his leg towards the left, the shadow kitten let go and pranced towards a nearby wall of vines. A loud caterwaul, and the shadow animal was still waiting for the young man to follow as it seemed to disappear straight into the wall of clinging vines. Mewing again as though to let the man know it was possible to continue without smacking into a wall, the sound echoed, reassuring that there was an open area behind the brambles.

Moving to a trot, Dante followed the cat, and attempted to claw his way through the wall of vines. Peering through, it was definitely possible. His gun taken out and shot twice into a few of the knotted areas to release most of the vines. Realizing this probably isn't the most stealthy way to move around, he looked to either side, and again wrestled with the vines. Finally, as though giving up with a deep breath, they allowed him to move through.

Well .. almost. Just as Dante had slipped through the vines, there was a distinct hissing sound. All at once, the vines untangled themselves and shot out towards the humanoid hunter. Wrapping themselves about one ankle, and soon shooting out towards the other, both hands and his throat, the whole wall seemed to have come to life.

Dante's eye widened as the vines came towards him, restraining each of his limbs. Refusing to end up as some statistic of … vine murders … he tilted his head downwards, just barely grabbing hold of the vine with his teeth, his canine's tearing through, and his mouth clenching down as hard as possible. The jaw, in fact, is one of the strongest muscles in the body. Teeth finally tearing through enough to release his throat, he slipped his head under the vine and immediately reached to bite off the one holding his arm, at the same time however, he used the fact that he was now essentially suspended mid air to swing his hips back and forth, pulling his right leg up in a fashion to release his gun from his holster, and fly upwards. His right hand nearly released by way of his teeth, he used a bicep to rip through the rest of the vine, and catch the gun, quickly firing off as many shots as he could in his own general direction (pointed at the vines, of course). Hopefully firing off enough to break partially free, or at least signal Moofie, which he also did verbally with a yelp, before any more vines came out.

The shadowy furs on the back of Moofie's body stood on end, body lowered quickly and braced to the floor on the sound of gunshot, ears slicked back before realizing what was going on. His master's companion was being attacked. Without any hesitation, the shadow kitten nimbly skittered back towards Dante, leaping into the air with great force and, while remaining suspended for a second, head and front paws elongating to form a blade, tail extended like the hilt of a small dagger. Suddenly slipping into motion again, the shadow feline hurled himself in the direction of the remaining vines.

Whizzing by Dante's head, the sound of sliced plant life spilling water to the ground as it became dismembered, the feline-shadow-blade was lodged into the wall for a second, and then rebounded again to land on all four feet.

Removing himself from the vines area all together, staring back, still not quite sure what Moofie was doing, but ever grateful, and would gladly reward him with some milk if he had any, if he even drank milk. Irrelevant questions like this for some reason floated through his mind as he slowly made his way past where he was, head turning back sharply as he made his way in.

"Well that was an interesting start to what should be a great day…"

Grasping Dante's pantleg gently in his jaws, the shadow feline moved around to the front, tugging on the material as he backpedaled deeper into the darkened recess hidden behind what was now a pile of deadened vine. Ears pinned back, bright red eyes radiated faintly to the area around them, stepping further in, the solid ground giving way to something less stone-like, and softer, almost like a powder of some sort.

Dante's eyes scanned the room past the vines, though with Moofie in front of him, he assumed there was no danger whatsoever. Stepping forwards on the powder like substance, his feet felt as though they were slowly sinking, though a solid floor was felt not far down below where he was. The corridor they had arrived in continued down a bit meeting an extremely large metallic door, on the sides of the jagged walls were what appeared to be some form of hieroglyphics and ancient art. A few of the images on the walls seemed to refer to the room, almost as some sort of warning. Dante, noticing something to that extent, though unable to make out any details, felt it would probably be safer for him to stay where he was, and allow the shadow to guide him.

Letting go of Dante's pantleg, Moofie paused and turned around to face the room. For a moment, his red eyes seemed to give off a burst of red light, before two separate beams of the same color lurched forward and filtered over the ground in consideration. Both cone-shaped bolts of light flickered over the markings along the walls, and along the floor. The floor itself, was a dusty powder white color, almost the hue of crushed, or burned bone.

Depressions in the dust that seemed to run the length of the area ahead, and the walls on either side that curved inwards towards the narrower path ahead seemed to have the same indentations in their craggy surfaces, as gilded gold circles. The shadow cast a wary glance behind its shoulder, lit eyes light reflecting off of Dante's pants, and Moofie merely stood his ground as though waiting for assessment from the other.

Dante's own eyes went back and forth between the cat and the path in front of him. Each of them waiting for the other to do something -- seemed this was going places real fast, now. He decided to take a cautious step in between each of the barely visible depressions before, making his way back, eyeing Moofie with the intention of mounting it. Perhaps that would be the easiest way. Taking another look to the end of the hallway, a symmetrical door with areas on each side seemed to sit there as if they were awaiting a sacrifice or gift.

The feline stood and watched the other for a moment, paws gripping the ground below tightly for a moment, shifting the sandy substance below under its padded toes before something seemed to disturb him quite noticeably. Red eyes flickered around the wide, open room for a moment, before consulting the ground below. The sand was shifting around the center of the room, where the edge of a slightly larger depression was visible just barely at the amount of light given off by Moofie's flashlight-like eyes.

It wasn't before long that something else seemed to be happening - now, not only was the fine substance below the center of the room moving, but the entire perimeter of the area seemed to be slithering -- a good three feet wide, and maybe twenty feet long. The smaller depressions in the ground were becoming more and more visible, like sands shifting through an hour glass.

When he had noticed the ground moving and sinking even further down, Dante's reflexes took over. Hands moved to the wall along with one foot. The other was then placed on top of Moofie, hoping it's loyalty and friendliness to its master carried over to him, otherwise his foot would probably end up like a snack of steak on a stick to the shadow cat. Balance wasn't exactly an easy thing to master when standing on a cat, nevertheless, Dante attempted to reach the end of the sandy like floor, a few wobbles back and forth before losing almost all of his stability.

A hand was pushed forwards to intercept the ground just in case a complete fall was about to occur. The door at the end of a small corridor was seeming more and more elusive.

Moofie, for the most part, was cooperative with Dante's efforts to stay out of the path of the sinking sands, but then the wide ripple of dust sped directly below his toes, pushing his body upwards and causing the shadowy furs on his back to rise, little knife like fangs baring themselves in a hiss as his brilliant eyes forced themselves to follow the source as he desperately attempted to keep his balance.

An eye-ripping blue flared in the corridor, as the undetermined art and pictographs came to life with light, encircling the entire, pear-shaped room. Surges of what appeared some sort of energy amassing themselves at the ceiling directly above the middle of the room spreading over the sand and parting it in waves. The feline squinted in the flying dust, as the rolling ground spiraled towards the center of the room, and a massive cloud of dust rose from what seemed an explosion from below.

Before the light even cleared, the faint outline of something reaching the near top of the ceiling was visible -- long, tube-like, several stiff, sharply angular appendages stuck into the ground. The sound of what was like metal grating against a chalkboard filled the air along with the sound of the sand sifting down ... down ... down. Sharp points were slowly becoming visible through the whitish dust, but when the cloud of dust created by the explosion cleared, a leathery-skinned, worm-like creature arched its muscular body into an S figure, two sharp, bladed arms outstretched to its sides and the others supporting part of its body out of the sand was blocking the corridor.

"Oh… Shit…"

Dante's eyes widened as the creature came up to meet them, meanwhile, the sharp objects in the background sounded as though there were getting closer and closer. He froze for just a moment, foot resting on Moofie, perhaps just due to the imbalance, since a moment later, staring directly into what could have been called the 'face' of that creature was Dante, expression charge 180 around with a grin that just seemed to say "I have a death wish". Drawing Ebony from it's holster, pointing it directly towards the creature, the muscles of his leg tightened, and launched himself upwards to start a gunfight.

Just as Dante leapt, the creature seemed to make a violent shift in the hole it was seemingly stuck in. One bladed arm rose and swiped outwards towards the red-clad figure -- a round opening appeared on what was apparently the face of the creature, seven small green orb-like eyes now glistening as hot, fetid saliva poured from the opening in which three rows of jagged, finger-length teeth lay.

Moofie moved as soon as Dante did, as the sand below his paws gave way and started to sink downwards towards the center of the room. Like lightning, the feline had circled around behind the worm-creature - several strong-looking plates of spiked natural armor covered its back, but the feline didn't resist to try an attack. Planting his paws in the ground, the shadow cat's head seemed to narrow considerably, then shoot forward towards the plate, only to make little more than a nick in it's armoring.

The creature, on the other hand, responded in like by sending one of its bladed legs down and into the sand below, a moment later the blade resurfaced from below directly under Moofie. Only with the spry step of a feline, the cat managed to move away with a small scratch to his side.

Dante's jump, which had left him relatively open for an attack, had resulted in his landing sideways on the ground, narrowly missing a separation of his torso from his legs. Several loud, resounding shots were fired off in rapid succession as he hit the ground, but the lack of any effect on the target caused him to stop, and re-think his situation. With no sword, perhaps he'd have to get up close and personal for a few shots.

Using the distraction which Moofie provided, Dante ran up around to the side of the creature. Though he fired with one hand, his focus was on his feet, in the ground. While this sand was where the creature lived, it might also be able to be used as a cell for it, so Dante thought anyways. His eyes roamed the walls, but ended up looking towards the large depressions in the floor.

The sound of bullets being wedged into the thick hide of the creature was drowned out by the sound of its nerve-wrecking screech. The worm twisted and turned in its position, apparently half-out of the sand that sifted even more quickly into its general vicinity, and all at once it seemed to slide downwards, bladed arms and all vanishing into the sand below. The sifting seemed to stop for the moment, as Moofie regrouped himself near Dante.

Now, around the perimeter of the room was the three-foot-wide, twenty-so-feet-long wave of sand circling, then vanish from sight completely. Moofie refused to let his guard down for the moment, however, toes sprawled into the sand as though testing for vibrations in the ground. Ears pinned, slicked back against hits black skull, the shadow cat's tail whipped furiously behind it - again his eyes searching all directions for a trace of the creature.

A trace that came all too soon. Without so much as a sound, four gnarled, pointed spike-like appendages snapped out from the sand and clashed against the ceiling only inches away from Dante's feet and Moofie's paws, and retracted again. A fraction of a second later, snapped behind them -- they had a split second to move.

As the stabbing extension rushed past him, Dante's immediate reaction was to jump backwards, out of the way of perhaps a future guided attack. With no sign of the creature, his back stayed rigid, eyes focused on the various areas around the floor. When a new sinkhole appeared, he fired multiple shots towards it, as if to clear the area of any piece of the creature.

If he couldn't see it above the ground, the best idea that came into Dante's head was to go down below, and fight it where it was. The alternative of waiting for another form of attack, perhaps this time not so "easily" avoided, whether it would even surface enough again in order to attack it, was questionable. Then there was the problem of figuring out how to actually hurt it. As his mind ran over several of the possibilities, his legs was already carrying him over to the sink hole near the wall, pushing against the sand with enough force to keep him from sinking down and restricting his movement.

Again a few shots were fired as he dove head first towards the sand, hopefully bringing him to whatever layer of the room was below where they were, and hopefully not into a stone floor to break his nose; a possibility he hadn't quite fully explored as of yet.

The pass was made again, and as the Hunter flung himself off in the opposite direction, the diminutive shadow cat hung back and watched the circling motion of the creature. As predicted by the feline, the worm surfaced again in the same spot, bullets ricocheting off the hard plates and lodging into the walls, crackling with energy.

Moofie leapt towards the beast, losing sight of Dante for the first time since they had come down here together, as the sand in which the hunter dove seemed to devour his hands, head, shoulders, torso, thighs, calves, and then boots -- the waves of the sand acting as muscles, pushing Dante downwards into the depths within. Just when it was nearly to the point of suffocating him, there was a break in the sand, and the hunter was deposited on what appeared to be the ceiling of the room he was just previously in. Everything was inverted, save for the subsequent lack of Moofie. However, now, at the center of what was above him -- churning sands that defied gravity -- a skeletal version of the same creature was looming practically face to face with him, oozing with a foul black, tar-like substance -- red orbs in place of green.

To Dante's surprise, the creature had stayed above, in fact, it was always above, merely hiding inside the sands. The other half of the creature, located where he was, seemed to be a much more decrepit version of the one above, but he wasn't about to consider it to be any less powerful. He circled the skeleton, rapidly and alternately firing Ebony and Ivory; shooting towards it, looking around for a way back up. He thought perhaps there could be some form of trap door device to perhaps seal the whole thing down below; after all, without a sword, destroying this thing could be relatively tough.

Something shattered. Splinters of bone rained down upon Dante as he continued to circle the creature, though it turned on its axis and swiped out with a sickly looking blade-arm. The finger-length teeth opened up for a moment, and something blue began pulsate from within its mouth. It was then that something else blue became apparent. Something orb like, hidden by hanging flesh and shriveling brown inner organs behind the creature's sternum.

Dante rushed underneath the bone structure where he had seen the glowing orb like structure. As the arm came down towards him, he immediately jumped into the air, firing at the appendage in order to keep it from slicing him, safely coming up level with the creature's mouth. Pointing his gun directly at the beast's open mouth, just as the jaw had began to constrict, teeth rushing downwards towards him, Dante fired inside of the bony mouth towards the bluish pulsating orb, slowly falling to the ground, and continuing to fire -- just then noticing some sort of core in it's 'stomach'.

Head knocked off course slightly, the wail of the creature and its throes thrashed the whitish sand about as more bone splintered and disintegrated into the dust above. The blue pulsing light in its mouth erupted sharply thereafter into a long, thin beam of light sent through the sand that it resided in. The sand seemed to burn and vanish on contact, and the sharp sound of splitting flesh was barely audible above the thrashing of the bone creature. Each skeletal leg flailed the air; blades slicing it in two with a sharp whistle. The head then moved its trajectory, the beam searing the rock formation that was the wall with its light, scarring the surfaces before snapping out in anger towards Dante.

All at once, the creature's hanging body seemed to move with a jolt downward; the sound of tearing above the blockade of sand apparent.

Dante quickly stopped shooting, falling towards the ground at the same time the skeletal worm was thrashing downwards at him. The very second his feet hit the ground, he threw himself into a roll off to the side. As the creature's blades swung towards him, and managed to slice along the side of the hunter, splitting the left hip of his pants as well as digging several inches into the meat of his leg. A grunt was let out from the platinum haired hunter as he stumbled at the end of his roll, hand pressed hard against the side of his leg. Eyes squinted slightly, fixed on the creature, he realized this was a fifty-fifty chance of survival. Despite the loss of blood with each tightening of his thigh muscles, he sprinted towards the creature before strafing around it, attempting to get access to the orb he had seen.

With the sound of another tear, the creature seemed to fall even further, before the next resounding, loud crack sent the skeletal half of the creature plummeting to the rocky ground below; a slick reddish green substance covering where it had once been connected to the other half. Several shattering bones splintered in numerous directions, as the decrepit creature lay prone across the floor, flashing a single bladed arm out towards its assailant with little luck. Half of the skull was gone by now, spilling gray matter and inner organs onto the floor with alternately wet and dry flops.

The brilliant blue orb was clearly visible now, pulsating even more vehemently than it was before as several tendril-like inner organs slipped around it in a vain attempt to conceal and protect it.

Firing Ebony and Ivory repeatedly at the arm which was attacking him to the point where their barrels' heat was making the butt burn in order to deflect it, Dante noticed the orb open and ready for breaking. Taking the slightly more risky way out, a last minute dodge towards the center of the creature resulted in a slight gash on his right ribs, however it was worth it. Now directly in front of the orb, both barrels of Ebony and Ivory were pressed against the orb and fired in alternating as fast as he could pull the triggers.

The attacking arm was dislodged from the body, sent hurdling across the room and shattering upon contact with the wall, while the relentless attack on the now defenseless bone-beast's orb had reached its pinnacle, cracks of red formed in the sphere's surface as it was riddled with bullets. Rays of light emitted from within the sphere, all at once it had shattered under the force of Dante's gunning. The bone-like surfaces almost instantly became motionless, soft and powder-like as the orb exploded, causing a dust eruption and the flinging of several estranged organs all along the walls, staining them with a wet, warm substance. Dante turned his face from the explosion of pieces of organs from the creature, until the raining of the internal fluids ceased.

All at once, the sand that had been lingering on what was the roof of this room, had come to topple down on top of the hunter as the beast was destroyed, leaving the room a mass of white particles of powdered bone and sand, and Dante was buried a live in the eruption.

Dante attempted to swim his way up through the sand, though it was a lot harder than it would have been -- with the quicksand effect due to the loose packing of the sand which had freshly piled up. Not being able to breath nor see, it was a stroke of luck that his body managed to push itself up high enough for his right hand to emerge from the sand, though not extremely high, or long, as he was already sinking back down below.

As Dante's hand sunk back into the sand, another plunged into it grasping his fingers and pulling hard upwards. A set of paws digging frantically at the shifting sands below in an attempt to free the captive, white-haired man from the quicksand. Slender digits wrapped tightly around his hand as a pair of boots gripped firmly to the broken rock they were placed upon, and a heave of a pair of delicate looking, red-clad shoulders, Isabella was there attempting to pull her partner from the jaws of fate, Moofie assisting the gesture as he continued to move the sands around, away from him.







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Author's Notes Haha! Updated. :D;; This one's somewhat long, the song is insanely long too. Ah well x.x Still running here, aside from the fact that it's still taking a while for me to put some of this stuff up. We're falling behind again with the other things we're doing. Please be patient with us as we continue to try to bring you quality stuff. ^^