Chapter 10
Prince
Sigma's Note: The next two chapters are some of the most pivotal parts of the entire story. They are simply sopping with action and drama, though this chapter is somewhat short. Sorry it took so long, but I hit a particularly devastating lazy streak.
This is also the first of the "Zeppelin Chapters", which means that I blasted my brain out with Led Zeppelin to get the mood right. The selected song for "Prince" is "Achilles' Last Stand". I'm planning on several more.
Baguba Port.....
"Ha ha ha ha!" laughed the heavily armored Dragoon as he lept through the panic stricken streets of Baguba. People ran screaming in all directions as he landed with a thunderous thud from his powerful Jump attack. He brandished a lethal Kain's Lance, it's broad, steel head glistening with blood in the waning twilight. Raphael the Prince took immense, sadistic pleasure in causing such havoc. It was the only thing that fulfilled his life, as though he was a gothic connoisseur of bloodshed. The heavy black helmet clicked open as Raphael let out a searing stream of fire from his saurian jaws. It flowed like a hellish river as it washed over several unfortunate people who had not fled that particular street in time. Their bodies were immediately overtaken by the ravenous flame, leaving behind only charred flesh. The inferno lept up walls and poured into buildings, conjuring up echoing screams as the inhabitants of the city were consumed by the Dragoon's flame.
Raphael Jumped high into the sky again, looking down as Baguba began to shrink into the insignificant cinder that it was. As long as the airship port remained intact, Archemis had given Raphael full reign over the town to satisfy his fetish for destruction. To the north, he could see Archemis's vast military, waiting for him to complete his mission. Having slain all the soldiers left in the city, all that remained was for them to march and take over. But he was having too much fun causing chaos that he had not yet given the order to invade.
He pointed his mighty spear to the ground and directed his fall into a single house that he had seen a family of three run into when he first arrived. A mother and two children. He would savor their deaths like a fine wine. He felt the wind rush past him as his velocity increased, his body becoming as a bolt of lightning arcing towards his target. He could already taste their fear as he would snuff out their lives like candles in a tempest.
Out of the corner of his eye, Raphael caught a black figure rising to meet him. It moved with incredible speed, and struck with equal force. He quickly raised his spear to block the flashing glint of a katana. He succeeded, but it knocked him off course and killed his velocity. As he landed on the roof of a building, he glared poisonously at the intruder who had intercepted his attack.
Ivan landed on a roof across from Raphael. He katana was sheathed as he confronted the one person that he had least wanted to see.
"Marche! Ritz!" he yelled to the two in the street below. "I'll handle the Megalomancer! You evacuate the city!" They nodded in affirmation as they headed into the streets to try and save the poor souls that had come under Raphael's attack.
"Raphael!" Ivan yelled at the Dragoon.
"Ivan!" he responded with a sort of half laugh. "I didn't expect to find my dear little brother here!"
"Stop this now, Raphael. These people are innocents. They don't deserve this!" Ivan tried to reason with his bloodthirsty sibling.
"Last time I heard of you, you had walled yourself up in some monastery in Lutia. I'm glad to see that you decided to take up your sword again. I knew that you would never be able to truly bleed out all the violent blood that I know still courses through your veins. But why would you choose to turn your hostilities towards your kin?" asked Raphael. He was uncertain whether to be happy to see his brother or to be angry that he had interrupted his massacre.
"I'm repenting for my deeds under that evil man. And part of that includes stopping him from spilling any more innocent blood," Ivan said solemnly. Raphael had always been one of Archemis's right hand men. He was the one who introduced Ivan to Archemis, and brought him into the fold of the Megalomancers. Needless to say, Ivan felt that they had a score to settle.
"I don't see why you should feel the need to repent. You did your part to bring a glorious new age to this corrupt world. You where Ivan the Purger, the ruiner of those the ruined this world."
"That life is gone. Ivan the Purger has died, and only I remain."
"That's a shame, since only Purger would have the ability to stop me!" Raphael shouted angrily as he charged, spear outstretched. Ivan drew his Petal chaser fiercely, knocking away the blow. A hostile clang echoed through the evening air as the metal weapons struck each other, the impact resonating through their blades. Raphael lunged again and again, the blood stained tip of his Lance seeming to lash out like a serpent to cut into Ivan's red flesh. But he was prepared, and met his brother blow for blow, blocking and striking with the focus of years of meditation. All the training that he had put towards slaying the innocent all poured from his body in a twister of steel.
Ivan lept into the air, calling upon the powers of the ancient skills that he had learned in the monastery. His muscular body contorted unnaturally in the air, as the Black Skill defied gravity, allowing him to slash and thrust again and again in midair. Raphael laughed haughtily as he blocked each of the aerial blows with his spinning lance. Finally Ivan landed on the ground gracefully, panting. The Dragoon, on the other hand, seemed unfazed.
"I was very disappointed in you, Ivan, when I heard that you had left the service of Lord Archemis. I almost sought you out to kill you with my bare hands, but for whatever reason, Lord Archemis decided to show you leniency. I did, however, go out and kill a dozen or so people to vent my anger," Raphael said as he retrieved a cloth from his belt that he used to wipe down the blood slicked head of his spear. Once clean, it shone with a cruel glint.
"You monster!" Ivan yelled as he launched into a second attack, this one even more ferocious than the first. Sparks exploded from their clashing weapons as the razor thin edge of the Petal Chaser met the heavy metal rod that supported the spear's massive head. He attacked relentlessly, delivering blow after blow with absolute accuracy, and each one blocked by a skilled maneuver by his sadistic brother.
"Yes Ivan! Let that demon blood I know you still carry flow though you! Let it coarse through your veins like a violent river, pouring directly from your soul onto to the edge of that magnificent sword of yours!" Raphael laughed wildly as the speed of the fight picked up, the shower of sparks bursting from the weapons turning into a constant downpour of metal fire. Ivan lept into the air and unleashed his third Black Skill. With the speed of a ravenous scorpion, a single lunge of the sword blasted towards Raphael's head. At such close range, the attack could not possible fail.
Much to Ivan's surprise, though, Raphael lept straight up into the sky the instant before the attack would have buried the steel tip of the katana deep in his warped brain. Without a target, the black skill drove Ivan into the tiles of the roof. Such was the force of the attack that it shattered a crater of tiles five feet in diameter. Ivan pulled his weapon out of the debri before a vicious bolt of lightning fell from the sky and conjured up a mighty explosion as it struck the roof where Ivan had been standing a fraction of a second before.
Raphael landed with his helmet still open, his jaws crackling with electricity and his own diabolical laughter. A second thunderous flow emanated issued from his mouth, covering the rooftop with golden serpents of energy that arched over all surfaces. There was a audible crackling sound in the air.
"Dear brother, don't toy with yourself. You know that you have no chance of killing me as long as you deny your true nature!" he called into the air, where Ivan was descending after narrowly avoiding becoming a blackened cinder. He landed, revealing that his katana was glowing with diabolical energy in the form of a sinister cloud. His eyes had taken on a different appearance all together, one that was bled of all compassion.
"Oh, and when did this happen? When did Ivan the Purger return?" Raphael said inquisitively as he looked deep into Ivan's eyes. He didn't respond, he merely raised his Petal Chaser high into the air, dark energy swirling around it like a newly born tornado.
"What kind of attack is this?" Raphael was unfamiliar with the techniques that Ivan had honed while at the monastery. It would prove to be a grave failure on his part. The Black Monk looked up at the venomous tip of his curved weapon. Suddenly, like a smithy driving his hammer into his anvil, Ivan struck the ground with his Katana, unleashing his tormented fury into the clay roofing. Immediately, a hail of ceramic splinters filled the air, propelled by the rising bursts of dark energy flowing from the cross shaped gash that had been carved into the building by the Dark Quake. Not prepared for the attack, Raphael was over taken by it, the dark magic overcame him, swirling around his body and slicing into his armor with its corrosive grip. Raphael shouted in shock and pain as it burst through his armor, cutting into his tough red skin. The dark horizon continued to expand until it swallowed the Dragoon entirely in its dark maw.
As it cleared, Ivan simply stared into it emotionlessly. Once the darkness had faded, Raphael could be seen still standing, though quite clearly shaken and injured by the Dark Quake. Several pieces of his armor had fallen off and what as left had been heavily damaged.
"I've had just about enough of this, Ivan. As much as I've enjoyed this reunion, I also have orders from Lord Archemis himself to take this city. And I intend to do it even if I have to break you in half!" He charged Ivan again, he spear prepared to pierce Ivan through the chest. But he had underestimated the power of Ivan's darker personality. He swatted the blow away with his sheath, an unexpected move that left Raphael prone to an attack from Ivan's katana. Realizing his mistake, Raphael used his powerful jumping ability to leap into the air before the attack could be driven home. But this time, instead of waiting for him to return to the ground, Ivan pursued him, using his equally adept jumping power to meet him in mid air.
Sword and spear crashed as Ivan and Raphael did battle in the skies, jumping from building to building, roof to roof, each time engaging at the apex of their leaps, knocking each other away only to be brought to the same confrontation seconds later. Neither of them tired as their soared into the darkening sky, the sounds of their weapons striking each other ringing through the city.
Finally, the two landed on the streets, panting for breath. Like a final showdown, the brothers were determined to make the next attack decisive. Their muscles tensed as their hands tightened around their weapons.
Before either of them could launch an attack, a ferocious wind sliced through the middle of the street. A cloud of dust obscured both combatants. The explosive sound of the air expanding reverberated through Ivan's skull, snapping him out of his blood- lusting trance. He stumbled for a moment, as if recovering from a dream.
The dust cleared, revealing the cause of the attack. On opposite ends of the street, Ritz and Marche stood, weapons draw. Ritz's was humming melodically from the Tear attack she had unleashed to prevent Ivan and Raphael from killing themselves.
"Ivan! We've evacuated the city! Now we can help you stop this guy!" Marche called. Raphael ground his teeth together. He was having a hard enough time dealing with his brother, much less having to take on two more warriors of possibly superior strength.
"Thank you my friends," Ivan said. It took him a moment to realize what had happened, that he had somehow tapped into his Megalomancer persona. It had always been a constant pull on his psyche, like a little murderous voice in the back of his mind wanting to take control of his body.
Raphael was beginning to sweat. He contemplated using his ultimate attack, but was worried what might happen to him if he did so. It wasn't supposed to happen like this... he thought. It looks like I'm fresh out of options....
As if on cue, a thunderous rocking overtook the area. It was a tremendous quake, causing windows to explode outwards in a shower of glass splinters and wide fissures to run up the sides of buildings. The four warriors stood in confusion for a moment, but the unmistakable sensation of a immense force bearing down on them soon prompted them to action.
"Move!" Ivan cried out as he jumped into the air. His brother did the same as Marche and Ritz were forced to take to the ground and sprint out of the impending danger zone. Seconds later, like a tidal wave, a great wall of pure white energy rampaged through the city, vaporizing everything it touched with its unstoppable power. It spread out in an unmistakable cross shape, spreading its destructive force in four directions.
As the brilliance of the Saint Cross faded, raging fires took its place. Baguba was burning to the ground. And from within the flaming ruins of the port, a massive figure appeared, his huge frame obscured by the inky black columns of smoke pouring from the crucifix shaped crater.
"I regret to inform you," the figure spoke ominously, "that you are all dead."
Sigma's Note: The next two chapters are some of the most pivotal parts of the entire story. They are simply sopping with action and drama, though this chapter is somewhat short. Sorry it took so long, but I hit a particularly devastating lazy streak.
This is also the first of the "Zeppelin Chapters", which means that I blasted my brain out with Led Zeppelin to get the mood right. The selected song for "Prince" is "Achilles' Last Stand". I'm planning on several more.
Baguba Port.....
"Ha ha ha ha!" laughed the heavily armored Dragoon as he lept through the panic stricken streets of Baguba. People ran screaming in all directions as he landed with a thunderous thud from his powerful Jump attack. He brandished a lethal Kain's Lance, it's broad, steel head glistening with blood in the waning twilight. Raphael the Prince took immense, sadistic pleasure in causing such havoc. It was the only thing that fulfilled his life, as though he was a gothic connoisseur of bloodshed. The heavy black helmet clicked open as Raphael let out a searing stream of fire from his saurian jaws. It flowed like a hellish river as it washed over several unfortunate people who had not fled that particular street in time. Their bodies were immediately overtaken by the ravenous flame, leaving behind only charred flesh. The inferno lept up walls and poured into buildings, conjuring up echoing screams as the inhabitants of the city were consumed by the Dragoon's flame.
Raphael Jumped high into the sky again, looking down as Baguba began to shrink into the insignificant cinder that it was. As long as the airship port remained intact, Archemis had given Raphael full reign over the town to satisfy his fetish for destruction. To the north, he could see Archemis's vast military, waiting for him to complete his mission. Having slain all the soldiers left in the city, all that remained was for them to march and take over. But he was having too much fun causing chaos that he had not yet given the order to invade.
He pointed his mighty spear to the ground and directed his fall into a single house that he had seen a family of three run into when he first arrived. A mother and two children. He would savor their deaths like a fine wine. He felt the wind rush past him as his velocity increased, his body becoming as a bolt of lightning arcing towards his target. He could already taste their fear as he would snuff out their lives like candles in a tempest.
Out of the corner of his eye, Raphael caught a black figure rising to meet him. It moved with incredible speed, and struck with equal force. He quickly raised his spear to block the flashing glint of a katana. He succeeded, but it knocked him off course and killed his velocity. As he landed on the roof of a building, he glared poisonously at the intruder who had intercepted his attack.
Ivan landed on a roof across from Raphael. He katana was sheathed as he confronted the one person that he had least wanted to see.
"Marche! Ritz!" he yelled to the two in the street below. "I'll handle the Megalomancer! You evacuate the city!" They nodded in affirmation as they headed into the streets to try and save the poor souls that had come under Raphael's attack.
"Raphael!" Ivan yelled at the Dragoon.
"Ivan!" he responded with a sort of half laugh. "I didn't expect to find my dear little brother here!"
"Stop this now, Raphael. These people are innocents. They don't deserve this!" Ivan tried to reason with his bloodthirsty sibling.
"Last time I heard of you, you had walled yourself up in some monastery in Lutia. I'm glad to see that you decided to take up your sword again. I knew that you would never be able to truly bleed out all the violent blood that I know still courses through your veins. But why would you choose to turn your hostilities towards your kin?" asked Raphael. He was uncertain whether to be happy to see his brother or to be angry that he had interrupted his massacre.
"I'm repenting for my deeds under that evil man. And part of that includes stopping him from spilling any more innocent blood," Ivan said solemnly. Raphael had always been one of Archemis's right hand men. He was the one who introduced Ivan to Archemis, and brought him into the fold of the Megalomancers. Needless to say, Ivan felt that they had a score to settle.
"I don't see why you should feel the need to repent. You did your part to bring a glorious new age to this corrupt world. You where Ivan the Purger, the ruiner of those the ruined this world."
"That life is gone. Ivan the Purger has died, and only I remain."
"That's a shame, since only Purger would have the ability to stop me!" Raphael shouted angrily as he charged, spear outstretched. Ivan drew his Petal chaser fiercely, knocking away the blow. A hostile clang echoed through the evening air as the metal weapons struck each other, the impact resonating through their blades. Raphael lunged again and again, the blood stained tip of his Lance seeming to lash out like a serpent to cut into Ivan's red flesh. But he was prepared, and met his brother blow for blow, blocking and striking with the focus of years of meditation. All the training that he had put towards slaying the innocent all poured from his body in a twister of steel.
Ivan lept into the air, calling upon the powers of the ancient skills that he had learned in the monastery. His muscular body contorted unnaturally in the air, as the Black Skill defied gravity, allowing him to slash and thrust again and again in midair. Raphael laughed haughtily as he blocked each of the aerial blows with his spinning lance. Finally Ivan landed on the ground gracefully, panting. The Dragoon, on the other hand, seemed unfazed.
"I was very disappointed in you, Ivan, when I heard that you had left the service of Lord Archemis. I almost sought you out to kill you with my bare hands, but for whatever reason, Lord Archemis decided to show you leniency. I did, however, go out and kill a dozen or so people to vent my anger," Raphael said as he retrieved a cloth from his belt that he used to wipe down the blood slicked head of his spear. Once clean, it shone with a cruel glint.
"You monster!" Ivan yelled as he launched into a second attack, this one even more ferocious than the first. Sparks exploded from their clashing weapons as the razor thin edge of the Petal Chaser met the heavy metal rod that supported the spear's massive head. He attacked relentlessly, delivering blow after blow with absolute accuracy, and each one blocked by a skilled maneuver by his sadistic brother.
"Yes Ivan! Let that demon blood I know you still carry flow though you! Let it coarse through your veins like a violent river, pouring directly from your soul onto to the edge of that magnificent sword of yours!" Raphael laughed wildly as the speed of the fight picked up, the shower of sparks bursting from the weapons turning into a constant downpour of metal fire. Ivan lept into the air and unleashed his third Black Skill. With the speed of a ravenous scorpion, a single lunge of the sword blasted towards Raphael's head. At such close range, the attack could not possible fail.
Much to Ivan's surprise, though, Raphael lept straight up into the sky the instant before the attack would have buried the steel tip of the katana deep in his warped brain. Without a target, the black skill drove Ivan into the tiles of the roof. Such was the force of the attack that it shattered a crater of tiles five feet in diameter. Ivan pulled his weapon out of the debri before a vicious bolt of lightning fell from the sky and conjured up a mighty explosion as it struck the roof where Ivan had been standing a fraction of a second before.
Raphael landed with his helmet still open, his jaws crackling with electricity and his own diabolical laughter. A second thunderous flow emanated issued from his mouth, covering the rooftop with golden serpents of energy that arched over all surfaces. There was a audible crackling sound in the air.
"Dear brother, don't toy with yourself. You know that you have no chance of killing me as long as you deny your true nature!" he called into the air, where Ivan was descending after narrowly avoiding becoming a blackened cinder. He landed, revealing that his katana was glowing with diabolical energy in the form of a sinister cloud. His eyes had taken on a different appearance all together, one that was bled of all compassion.
"Oh, and when did this happen? When did Ivan the Purger return?" Raphael said inquisitively as he looked deep into Ivan's eyes. He didn't respond, he merely raised his Petal Chaser high into the air, dark energy swirling around it like a newly born tornado.
"What kind of attack is this?" Raphael was unfamiliar with the techniques that Ivan had honed while at the monastery. It would prove to be a grave failure on his part. The Black Monk looked up at the venomous tip of his curved weapon. Suddenly, like a smithy driving his hammer into his anvil, Ivan struck the ground with his Katana, unleashing his tormented fury into the clay roofing. Immediately, a hail of ceramic splinters filled the air, propelled by the rising bursts of dark energy flowing from the cross shaped gash that had been carved into the building by the Dark Quake. Not prepared for the attack, Raphael was over taken by it, the dark magic overcame him, swirling around his body and slicing into his armor with its corrosive grip. Raphael shouted in shock and pain as it burst through his armor, cutting into his tough red skin. The dark horizon continued to expand until it swallowed the Dragoon entirely in its dark maw.
As it cleared, Ivan simply stared into it emotionlessly. Once the darkness had faded, Raphael could be seen still standing, though quite clearly shaken and injured by the Dark Quake. Several pieces of his armor had fallen off and what as left had been heavily damaged.
"I've had just about enough of this, Ivan. As much as I've enjoyed this reunion, I also have orders from Lord Archemis himself to take this city. And I intend to do it even if I have to break you in half!" He charged Ivan again, he spear prepared to pierce Ivan through the chest. But he had underestimated the power of Ivan's darker personality. He swatted the blow away with his sheath, an unexpected move that left Raphael prone to an attack from Ivan's katana. Realizing his mistake, Raphael used his powerful jumping ability to leap into the air before the attack could be driven home. But this time, instead of waiting for him to return to the ground, Ivan pursued him, using his equally adept jumping power to meet him in mid air.
Sword and spear crashed as Ivan and Raphael did battle in the skies, jumping from building to building, roof to roof, each time engaging at the apex of their leaps, knocking each other away only to be brought to the same confrontation seconds later. Neither of them tired as their soared into the darkening sky, the sounds of their weapons striking each other ringing through the city.
Finally, the two landed on the streets, panting for breath. Like a final showdown, the brothers were determined to make the next attack decisive. Their muscles tensed as their hands tightened around their weapons.
Before either of them could launch an attack, a ferocious wind sliced through the middle of the street. A cloud of dust obscured both combatants. The explosive sound of the air expanding reverberated through Ivan's skull, snapping him out of his blood- lusting trance. He stumbled for a moment, as if recovering from a dream.
The dust cleared, revealing the cause of the attack. On opposite ends of the street, Ritz and Marche stood, weapons draw. Ritz's was humming melodically from the Tear attack she had unleashed to prevent Ivan and Raphael from killing themselves.
"Ivan! We've evacuated the city! Now we can help you stop this guy!" Marche called. Raphael ground his teeth together. He was having a hard enough time dealing with his brother, much less having to take on two more warriors of possibly superior strength.
"Thank you my friends," Ivan said. It took him a moment to realize what had happened, that he had somehow tapped into his Megalomancer persona. It had always been a constant pull on his psyche, like a little murderous voice in the back of his mind wanting to take control of his body.
Raphael was beginning to sweat. He contemplated using his ultimate attack, but was worried what might happen to him if he did so. It wasn't supposed to happen like this... he thought. It looks like I'm fresh out of options....
As if on cue, a thunderous rocking overtook the area. It was a tremendous quake, causing windows to explode outwards in a shower of glass splinters and wide fissures to run up the sides of buildings. The four warriors stood in confusion for a moment, but the unmistakable sensation of a immense force bearing down on them soon prompted them to action.
"Move!" Ivan cried out as he jumped into the air. His brother did the same as Marche and Ritz were forced to take to the ground and sprint out of the impending danger zone. Seconds later, like a tidal wave, a great wall of pure white energy rampaged through the city, vaporizing everything it touched with its unstoppable power. It spread out in an unmistakable cross shape, spreading its destructive force in four directions.
As the brilliance of the Saint Cross faded, raging fires took its place. Baguba was burning to the ground. And from within the flaming ruins of the port, a massive figure appeared, his huge frame obscured by the inky black columns of smoke pouring from the crucifix shaped crater.
"I regret to inform you," the figure spoke ominously, "that you are all dead."