LEGALITIES: I DO NOT OWN DARKSTALKERS OR ANY CHARACTERS THEREOF.
[]-Indicates thought.
Here I am again, people. As I promised, I will reveal the secret of psi, and Traveler is back! Sorry it took so long to update (poor Galandria is probably suffering mental breakdowns trying to figure out the "psi" reference) but I've been extremely busy these past few days. The most amazing thing I've done is begin a huge cultural experiment. This experiment is a synopsis of Big O! I want to make it a "Expert's Guide" to Big O, and the first section is up. It'll take a while, but read it if you love Big O!
Enough of that. It's...
"SHOWTIME!"
Chapter 15
What Dreams Have Fallen
Lucadra looked up at the green-skin. Her blood-hunger slaked, her bloodshot eyes were finally returning to normal.
" You know that the demons hate fire," she began, her voice still slightly hoarse and shaky. " but not just any fire. A fire elemental will hurt them where a flamethrower will not. They fear psychic fire."
One of the Dukes spoke up. " Yes, we know. But only a Firestarter, one of those born with that power, can control fire. It's too chaotic."
The one-eye spoke. " Anything chaotic in nature is beyond our control. And of the things we can control, only electricity works on the demons, and that's only in high amounts. You know that."
The man spoke up now, and his voice, though still gravelly, was stronger. " Yes, we've never been able to make fire controllable in our psi, and the same goes for the wind, the water, the animals..." he coughed, dryly.
Lucadra began speaking soon after he had stopped coughing. " We've been studying for a long time now. Finally, we discovered the problem. Chaos is too unpredictable, and the mind cannot understand it enough, cannot grasp it fully enough, to control it. But what if Chaos was stopped for a little while? What if enough energy was used that all the chaotic energies were halted, long enough to grasp their meaning? We found out how to do that..."
Dimitri's eyes widened. He had no idea what psi was, but he knew what they were going to say next. It was what he did every time he used his magic. He wondered if psi and magic were one and the same.
Lucadra fell short of breath. Panting hard, she motioned for the man to continue their story. He did so, eyes closed as if remembering something.
" Of the cells in our bodies, few work as hard as the red blood cells. Each of them has the molecular equivalent of a nuclear power plant inside. ( Dimitri had no idea what a nuclear power plant was, but he got the general idea well enough.) We changed our own gene structure, reordered it around... the result was that we can burn our own red blood cells whenever we must. The resultant heat and energy can then be used to halt Chaos, make it workable. The result-"
He raised his hand. His eyes narrowed, and his teeth gritted. Fire flickered from his fingertips, glowing and pulsing as if the man held a hot coal between his fingers. He opened his hand wide and the flame went out. He fell back, breathing hard. Dimitri, fascinated and bewildered by what was apparenlty the true origins of his race, stared at them, not knowing whether to believe it all or not.
One of the human soldiers said, " You mean, you aren't human anymore, are you?"
Lucadra shook her head. " No, we're not. Our genetics are incompatible with human DNA."
The human nodded his head, and said, " What are you, then?"
Lucadra smiled, a bittersweet smile.
" We? We're vampires."
Blackness.
************************************************************************
Dimitri awoke (arrived?) on a small, grassy hill that sat above a fog-shrouded nothingness. It appeared as if nothing existed below that mist, and nothing except the hill Dimitri was standing on and the starry night sky above existed above it. He looked around himself. An old oak tree, beautiful and moving slowly as if in a breeze (but no breeze was present) sat on the hill to his left. And sitting off to one side of it, tobacco smoke rolling above his turned back, was-
" Traveler!" Dimitri said. He was still too shocked and dazed to find much of wonder in Traveler's appearance. " What are you- where am I?"
Traveler let out another puff of smoke. " You are in the Twisting Dark, my friend. A place that lies between life and death. A place of limbo, and also a place where you and I may talk."
Dimitri found that even in his current state he could be alarmed. " Between life and death? Am I dying?"
Traveler shook his head. Dimitri noticed that just like the tree, Traveler's hair blew as if in a light breeze. It's red locks swayed slightly as Traveler talked. " No. Unlike most who reach this place, such as the Wanderer who arrived a few days ago, you are not dying or even close to it. At the moment, your physical body has aged exactly two seconds past the time it touched the tapestry in the Main Hall of Moongrace. Time flows differently here, and what is a long time here is but a short time in your reality."
" Moongrace?" Dimitri said dumbly. " What?"
" Moongrace," Traveler said, taking another puff of his cigarrette, " is the castle you entered."
Dimitri nodded, and then a sudden strange terror seized him. " Traveler, I had a vision-"
Traveler cut him off with a wave of his hand. " Yes, that was why the tapestry called you. It wanted to show you your history, something vitally important if you are to kill Pyron and save your world. Killing him will be simple compared to what you must do to really heal your world."
Dimitri began to speak again, but Traveler once more cut him off. " Let me tell you the story of the Sundering War. It will explain what you need to know."
" Thousands of years past, Four Races, equal under the laws of friendship and honor, spread over the universe. The Four Races were noble and honorable. They consisted of humans, dwarves, orcs, and trolls. The dwarves were the smallest ones, the orcs the dark green creatures, and the trolls the tall green-skins you saw."
" In these days, technology reached unparalleled heights, allowing for their travel to the stars, and they even discovered how to control matter and reality with their minds. They called it psi, short for psychic power."
" But, suddenly appearing out of nowhere, demons struck. You have faced Pyron, so I need not tell you what they were like, although Pyron and his kind are not the only type of demon."
" The Four Races battled them, with their psi and technology. But in the end, it was not enough. The demons and their foul magic destroyed all in their way. On Makai, a desperate plan was born. Five humans, seeking to gain control of Chaos and it's workings, began research on it. You saw the five of them, and what they became. They called themselves Vampires, which in their tongue meant "studiers of Chaos." Their research led to the Four Races initiating a huge vampire program, and thousands of humans chose to become vampires to fight the demons. They drove them all the way back to hell."
Dimitri, staring at him, said, " If vampires truly were so noble, why do humans hate us now? And why did you say "foul magic"? I use magic..."
Traveler, his voice angry, said, " No, you don't. That's one example of demon corruption. They've twisted the words around so you think you use magic. What you do is psi. It requires only concentration and is born within you, but magic requires words... words that worship and consecrate the demons with every sentence. It doesn't seem like much, but when somebody uses real magic, no one suspects the wrong there. They think it's just another version of what they think is magic, never knowing the truth until it's too late."
Shaking his head, Traveler continued, " The demons hate your race. They hate your race above all others, for it was you and your kind that drove them back. So they cursed you. Vampire DNA was corrupted so you could not stand the sunlight. It also gave birth to mutations. The entire incubi and succubi race is actually a mutation of vampire DNA, which is why the two races are so much alike. It was the demon's revenge on you."
" But the worst part of their revenge was against Makai itself. Most humans in other worlds can use psi, but on Makai, the demons cursed the entire planet. No human of your world can use psi. And the demons have been slowly influencing your two races, the Darkstalkers and the humans, into hating each other. The armies Pyron commands are the fruits of this hatred."
Traveler flicked his cigarrette butt off the hill, and it spun into eternity. Dimitri, whose mind was just beginning to sort out what had just happened, watched it fall.
" Now go back, Dimitri," Traveler said. " Go back to your world, and show them truth. Show them that endless hatred with no reason other than prejudice and race will damn them all- is damning them all. Go back..."
Dimitri fell, rushing past dream and nightmare, falling towards reality, and far off he heard singing and shouting and the hammering sound of rain....
************************************************************************
Dimitri was back in Moongrace. Morrigan's shout of " Dimitri!" was still echoing in the halls. Dimitri turned back to them. They shrunk back, for he looked aged and changed to them.
" Morrigan," he began, " what I have seen..."
Morrigan was about to speak, her fear for him overwhelming her hurt towards him, when another voice spoke. This one was calm, collected, and utterly insane.
" What you have seen will not matter in a few minutes, vampiric freak."
From the shadows stepped a tall figure, but all attention was riveted towards a giant sword held in front of him, glowing with a light Jon suddenly thought of as a corpse's light. The sickening, dull-blue glow filled the room with light.
[]-Indicates thought.
Here I am again, people. As I promised, I will reveal the secret of psi, and Traveler is back! Sorry it took so long to update (poor Galandria is probably suffering mental breakdowns trying to figure out the "psi" reference) but I've been extremely busy these past few days. The most amazing thing I've done is begin a huge cultural experiment. This experiment is a synopsis of Big O! I want to make it a "Expert's Guide" to Big O, and the first section is up. It'll take a while, but read it if you love Big O!
Enough of that. It's...
"SHOWTIME!"
Chapter 15
What Dreams Have Fallen
Lucadra looked up at the green-skin. Her blood-hunger slaked, her bloodshot eyes were finally returning to normal.
" You know that the demons hate fire," she began, her voice still slightly hoarse and shaky. " but not just any fire. A fire elemental will hurt them where a flamethrower will not. They fear psychic fire."
One of the Dukes spoke up. " Yes, we know. But only a Firestarter, one of those born with that power, can control fire. It's too chaotic."
The one-eye spoke. " Anything chaotic in nature is beyond our control. And of the things we can control, only electricity works on the demons, and that's only in high amounts. You know that."
The man spoke up now, and his voice, though still gravelly, was stronger. " Yes, we've never been able to make fire controllable in our psi, and the same goes for the wind, the water, the animals..." he coughed, dryly.
Lucadra began speaking soon after he had stopped coughing. " We've been studying for a long time now. Finally, we discovered the problem. Chaos is too unpredictable, and the mind cannot understand it enough, cannot grasp it fully enough, to control it. But what if Chaos was stopped for a little while? What if enough energy was used that all the chaotic energies were halted, long enough to grasp their meaning? We found out how to do that..."
Dimitri's eyes widened. He had no idea what psi was, but he knew what they were going to say next. It was what he did every time he used his magic. He wondered if psi and magic were one and the same.
Lucadra fell short of breath. Panting hard, she motioned for the man to continue their story. He did so, eyes closed as if remembering something.
" Of the cells in our bodies, few work as hard as the red blood cells. Each of them has the molecular equivalent of a nuclear power plant inside. ( Dimitri had no idea what a nuclear power plant was, but he got the general idea well enough.) We changed our own gene structure, reordered it around... the result was that we can burn our own red blood cells whenever we must. The resultant heat and energy can then be used to halt Chaos, make it workable. The result-"
He raised his hand. His eyes narrowed, and his teeth gritted. Fire flickered from his fingertips, glowing and pulsing as if the man held a hot coal between his fingers. He opened his hand wide and the flame went out. He fell back, breathing hard. Dimitri, fascinated and bewildered by what was apparenlty the true origins of his race, stared at them, not knowing whether to believe it all or not.
One of the human soldiers said, " You mean, you aren't human anymore, are you?"
Lucadra shook her head. " No, we're not. Our genetics are incompatible with human DNA."
The human nodded his head, and said, " What are you, then?"
Lucadra smiled, a bittersweet smile.
" We? We're vampires."
Blackness.
************************************************************************
Dimitri awoke (arrived?) on a small, grassy hill that sat above a fog-shrouded nothingness. It appeared as if nothing existed below that mist, and nothing except the hill Dimitri was standing on and the starry night sky above existed above it. He looked around himself. An old oak tree, beautiful and moving slowly as if in a breeze (but no breeze was present) sat on the hill to his left. And sitting off to one side of it, tobacco smoke rolling above his turned back, was-
" Traveler!" Dimitri said. He was still too shocked and dazed to find much of wonder in Traveler's appearance. " What are you- where am I?"
Traveler let out another puff of smoke. " You are in the Twisting Dark, my friend. A place that lies between life and death. A place of limbo, and also a place where you and I may talk."
Dimitri found that even in his current state he could be alarmed. " Between life and death? Am I dying?"
Traveler shook his head. Dimitri noticed that just like the tree, Traveler's hair blew as if in a light breeze. It's red locks swayed slightly as Traveler talked. " No. Unlike most who reach this place, such as the Wanderer who arrived a few days ago, you are not dying or even close to it. At the moment, your physical body has aged exactly two seconds past the time it touched the tapestry in the Main Hall of Moongrace. Time flows differently here, and what is a long time here is but a short time in your reality."
" Moongrace?" Dimitri said dumbly. " What?"
" Moongrace," Traveler said, taking another puff of his cigarrette, " is the castle you entered."
Dimitri nodded, and then a sudden strange terror seized him. " Traveler, I had a vision-"
Traveler cut him off with a wave of his hand. " Yes, that was why the tapestry called you. It wanted to show you your history, something vitally important if you are to kill Pyron and save your world. Killing him will be simple compared to what you must do to really heal your world."
Dimitri began to speak again, but Traveler once more cut him off. " Let me tell you the story of the Sundering War. It will explain what you need to know."
" Thousands of years past, Four Races, equal under the laws of friendship and honor, spread over the universe. The Four Races were noble and honorable. They consisted of humans, dwarves, orcs, and trolls. The dwarves were the smallest ones, the orcs the dark green creatures, and the trolls the tall green-skins you saw."
" In these days, technology reached unparalleled heights, allowing for their travel to the stars, and they even discovered how to control matter and reality with their minds. They called it psi, short for psychic power."
" But, suddenly appearing out of nowhere, demons struck. You have faced Pyron, so I need not tell you what they were like, although Pyron and his kind are not the only type of demon."
" The Four Races battled them, with their psi and technology. But in the end, it was not enough. The demons and their foul magic destroyed all in their way. On Makai, a desperate plan was born. Five humans, seeking to gain control of Chaos and it's workings, began research on it. You saw the five of them, and what they became. They called themselves Vampires, which in their tongue meant "studiers of Chaos." Their research led to the Four Races initiating a huge vampire program, and thousands of humans chose to become vampires to fight the demons. They drove them all the way back to hell."
Dimitri, staring at him, said, " If vampires truly were so noble, why do humans hate us now? And why did you say "foul magic"? I use magic..."
Traveler, his voice angry, said, " No, you don't. That's one example of demon corruption. They've twisted the words around so you think you use magic. What you do is psi. It requires only concentration and is born within you, but magic requires words... words that worship and consecrate the demons with every sentence. It doesn't seem like much, but when somebody uses real magic, no one suspects the wrong there. They think it's just another version of what they think is magic, never knowing the truth until it's too late."
Shaking his head, Traveler continued, " The demons hate your race. They hate your race above all others, for it was you and your kind that drove them back. So they cursed you. Vampire DNA was corrupted so you could not stand the sunlight. It also gave birth to mutations. The entire incubi and succubi race is actually a mutation of vampire DNA, which is why the two races are so much alike. It was the demon's revenge on you."
" But the worst part of their revenge was against Makai itself. Most humans in other worlds can use psi, but on Makai, the demons cursed the entire planet. No human of your world can use psi. And the demons have been slowly influencing your two races, the Darkstalkers and the humans, into hating each other. The armies Pyron commands are the fruits of this hatred."
Traveler flicked his cigarrette butt off the hill, and it spun into eternity. Dimitri, whose mind was just beginning to sort out what had just happened, watched it fall.
" Now go back, Dimitri," Traveler said. " Go back to your world, and show them truth. Show them that endless hatred with no reason other than prejudice and race will damn them all- is damning them all. Go back..."
Dimitri fell, rushing past dream and nightmare, falling towards reality, and far off he heard singing and shouting and the hammering sound of rain....
************************************************************************
Dimitri was back in Moongrace. Morrigan's shout of " Dimitri!" was still echoing in the halls. Dimitri turned back to them. They shrunk back, for he looked aged and changed to them.
" Morrigan," he began, " what I have seen..."
Morrigan was about to speak, her fear for him overwhelming her hurt towards him, when another voice spoke. This one was calm, collected, and utterly insane.
" What you have seen will not matter in a few minutes, vampiric freak."
From the shadows stepped a tall figure, but all attention was riveted towards a giant sword held in front of him, glowing with a light Jon suddenly thought of as a corpse's light. The sickening, dull-blue glow filled the room with light.