The Eternal Nightmare
By K-Of-Blades
Part 1
The journey of a man,
Eternally cold.
The soul of a man;
Forever sold.
The Balance of Morals,
The lure of gold.
Transcending history and the world;
A tale of souls and swords,
Eternally retold.
Oh! Harken to my voice this hour;
Learn a lesson teachers forget.
Life of one man, and the Balance
Of Morals, eternally upset.
Now back! Back to a place long forgotten!
Centuries past in rock and sand,
Where armies laden in armor
March under many a band.
To where honor and truth had a meaning.
Where greed and power ran wild,
Like pebbles flung unto maelstrom;
The good, the bad and the child.
A time when even swords have souls,
So what is to be feared, the sword or the hand?
Throughout this world in war;
One sword, supreme in all the land.
Driving forth the Black wind,
Gold hair and ice eyes,
He wore always a silver skin,
A Zwiel-hander of masterful size,
Siegfried did draw on Europe's sunrise.
Siegfried, Azure Knight;
Brigadier to the wind of noir.
His father slain, his anger brewed
One dreadful answer of which he was sure.
Siegfried needed an unmatched power
To avenge his father's red demise.
He would seek what could conquer all,
That which could break the strongest ties.
There was a sword,
The greatest of them all.
A sword sought by many;
Which caused many more to fall.
Spawn of man and demon touch,
T'was no form it could not claim.
Warriors sought it for good and bad,
And Soul Edge was its name.
A tyrannical blade with a mind of its own;
Hateful dread,
Upon Souls it fed,
More reckoning than torturous moan;
Yet desired all the same.
Nay, this was no ordinary blade,
It culled out both the strong and the weak.
Glaring eye of red hued bane,
T'was the sword Siegfried would seek.
So the man left on the quest of his life
With ultimate hopes to quell all the pain.
He journeyed the land both far and wide,
Until, one day, Siegfried came to Spain
Siegfried came to harbor gloom.
His ice eyes saw
What defied life's law.
Pirate corpse lay in darkening doom,
And an aura fell emanated from him.
The perfect prize lay by his side,
And yet, before Soul Edge could be taken;
Ghastly flash and dead sea wind,
Corpse and sword rose, re-awakened.
"Come with me to Hell!" to Siegfried said he,
The Hellfire burning in his eyes,
His eyes! His eyes! They told of demise!
Siegfried replied "Give your sword unto me,
Or must you die a second time?"
Great warriors, knight and pirate fought
Over sword with strength to rule the land;
As zwiel-hander dealt a mighty blow,
Soul Edge leapt from its wielder's hand.
Pirate drowned in unholy pain
For his sword had grown tired of its master.
It stood before the victor, Siegfried,
Waiting to unleash the next disaster.
Soul Edge spoke unto Siegfried's head;
"I must devour the innocents' souls,
and then, through I, you will achieve all your goals,
and see father back from beyond the dead."
And their eyes met with demon flare.
Siegfried made his final choice;
Prepared to deal with any guilt.
With greed now smirked across his face,
Siegfried grasped Soul Edge's hilt.
From that point on, he was Siegfried no more.
Sun did flail and moon did wan,
Earth doth quake in dread, in dread
As that former man, malevolence did don.
From silver skin to Cobalt shell,
His long blonde hair was rusted red;
Sin was breathed back unto life,
Welcoming the mortal bed.
From Gothic helm his eyes did bleed
Anguished red behind yellow rage,
Right arm gnarled to claws - liken mind
Bolted to demonic cage.
Many a strength did Soul Edge give;
The power to forever live,
As powerful as evil ring,
That evil blade took just one thing,
It took the choice to live, to fight,
The choice that was the mortals' right,
The wielder now the wielded, the man was torn.
That day, Siegfried died, and Nightmare was born.
Across the land, new darkness seeped;
Fell dreams marched and Shadows crept.
Blade once more carving deceit,
Across the land, the weepers wept
Nightmare was not kin with mercy,
His heart burned a flaming cold.
The towns he shattered, the souls he reaped,
The work of beckoning evil old.
The pair killed across the land,
Nightmare served well Soul Edge's whim.
From noble rich to peasant poor,
They all looked the same to him
Love was killed, dreams were crushed,
Hope was drained as souls did bleed.
And the entire world came to fear;
Nightmare and the Evil Seed.
Part 2
One day, as Nightmare sat in castle dark
A warrior came, singing a righteous song.
Her silver blade with glowing heart
Came together to fight this wrong.
But like Nightmare, this was no ordinary warrior;
Her soul was marked by justice's touch,
Courage and valor shone in her eyes,
And Soul Edge's sole fear, her fingers did clutch.
In this balanced world of ours,
For every wrong there is a right.
If Soul Edge was the darkness,
Then this blade was the light.
The Spirit Sword; Soul Calibur,
The silver sword was the purest blade
Blazing quick in azure haze
Nightmare stared with contempt at the warrior,
And light and dark faced off.
The four souls spoke amongst themselves,
No words needed to be said.
Polar opposites, tension taut
Righteous light and Evil dread.
And so they fought, the saint and sinner
Four souls clashed
Two swords slashed
They fought their best as the hours grew late,
Until, at last, Soul Calibur prevailed.
T'was the first time Soul Edge had lost.
The deed was done,
And good had won.
Now Nightmare would pay the ultimate cost,
And slip unto collapsing void.
Through calamity and souls long lost
And torture did the swordsman fall,
But as blackened heart was kissed with frost,
Siegfried once more heard life's call.
Siegfried rose, feeling life once more
Soul Calibur had only cut his curse.
But Soul Edge still lay next to him,
And compared to death, rebirth was worse.
Cobalt shell had faded away,
But likewise had his silver skin.
His rusted hair was blonde once more,
But signs of the seed still lay within
The Hellfire had seeped out of his eyes,
But the right was scared and marble white.
His right torso and arm was left unchanged;
Ghastly claw and demonic fright.
Though the sword survived, its hold was lost,
Free now, was the mind of Siegfried
Mind returned with realization that
T'was him who had done evil deeds.
Oh! The sorrow, the pain,
The guilt, the shame.
Siegfried gained back his sanity
With memories of those killed by he.
Though he and Soul Edge had worked the same,
Siegfried knew that he deserved the blame.
He saw the trouble in what he sought after,
For Siegfried himself had slain his father.
The sun had risen, but
The day was still trapped in twilight
The earths shaking lessened
And Siegfried regained his eyesight.
His quest for vengeance dwindled to dust.
Siegfried stopped as he thought
What know would he do with Soul Edge;
The power which he once sought?
"To drown the world in crimson once more,
to cast the world back in Shadow and pain,
this Evil Seed need but a warriors hands,
so another's hands it will see not again."
With his evil sword in hand,
Siegfried left on a bleak, new pledge.
Though once he sought only power, now
He would safeguard all from the touch of Soul Edge.
Part 3
The knight departed from the world of men,
With his blade, he wandered far.
Though Soul Edge still called to him,
It went unheard, except by night's stars.
Soul Edge was fragmented,
Full power scattered wide,
To become whole once more,
Its time it would bide
But Siegfried's will was strong once more,
T'was he who lead the duo's fate,
Yet the Evil Seed could still prevail,
Conjure hate in hours late.
Even those most vigil must sleep,
And what then can the vigilante see?
When Siegfried stood down from sentry,
Soul Edge was set free.
That fell blade rage throughout the night,
Blood was spilled
From those it killed
It drank their souls in malevolent might,
And all the while, Siegfried slept.
The night came and passed
The sky was red as Siegfried awoke,
He saw his hands marked by crimson
And to him, the terrors of last night spoke.
He shuddered in shock "How?"
So clear were the images of the bloodbath
Then he saw the dark, that sword
Was bringing him again down that path
Next twilight, history repeated,
And like flags hung at half mast
Siegfried returned to the clarity
Of returning of his past.
For Soul Edge sought its full power
To return to its absolute strength.
With malevolence and deceit,
T'would push Siegfried to the greatest length
For twice two years
The two souls entwined
Fighting a war
Of moons and stars misaligned.
But Siegfried was a mortal man
Human souls were made to break,
And when he had not the strength to take,
A second wave of malice began,
And Nightmare was reborn.
Siegfried broke, the torture hard,
Too much to take was the pain.
Will was drained, Hellfire was sparked
And through wrath and lust the man went insane.
Once more did the darkness seep,
And Fell dreams march and Shadows creep,
The Hand of Fate dealt death's entreat,
Once more did the weepers weep.
Hair was red once more as well
Returned cobalt shell and demon helm
His eyes bled again and told of
How he would bring the world to the spirit realm.
Relentless, Nightmare plagued the land,
Searching for what Soul Edge needed most,
And bit by bit, he gained the strength,
To dismantle the most oppressive host.
The world's fate began to seal
Fell sword flared and souls went cold.
Nightmare slew those of old and yet born
As Evil Seed tightened its hold.
Yes, fate was grim indeed,
Soon, life's bane would be restored,
And then the sword would be free at last,
From broken man that it implored
Soul Edge remembered Siegfried's betrayal,
And soon it would move to bigger plans,
For it needed but to be complete
To be able to kill without man's hands.
But Nightmare had ambitions too,
Soul Edge's power he did seek,
He planned in secret, for the day
When he would silence the demon's shriek.
Then came that fateful day
The day that would seal their fate
Blood eyes met in mutual hate
T'was the hour of great dismay
The ending of all things.
Oh! That day of death and of deceit,
The living metal once more merged,
The air was filled with torturous moan
Belonging to those whose lives had been purged
Like skeletons robbed of tooth and bone.
Oh! Spirit Sword! Where for art thou?
Was last battle with evil just too much?
T'is a shame the world should need you now,
But you are sick from Soul Edge's touch.
The moon and stars became displaced,
And into doom the world was cast,
Fiendish grin as demons faced.
The final hour had come at last,
And Soul Edge was complete.
T'was time to decide the future
Of swordsman and the sword,
The victor of the battle
Could claim the world as their reward.
The sky turned red with streaks of black
and the earth quaked in malicious dread.
How it quaked! As the air caught fire,
Immolating spirits old and dead.
The surrounding life died, the land became barren,
The ground was fissured and screamed.
From the Abyss, came the Hellfire incarnate
Soul Edge's own hand, like a devil it beamed
It took the form of a man but was demon for sure,
Engulfed in flame as eyes blazed white light,
And hatred exploded and souls cried out as
Nightmare and Soul Edge fought their last fight.
They fought in a way not known to man,
Too fast, too strong, too full of hate.
Minutes became hours as time stood still
From early morn to darkening late.
There could be only one master,
Only one would survive the pair.
After toiling long for choice of fate,
The bringer of doom would be Nightmare.
Soul Edge lay defeated at Nightmare's two feet.
"I've been waiting for this day, for too long!" he cried,
But hour of glory was cut short too soon,
As something long lost in Nightmare was revived.
"Resist the evil presence!"
The dormant soul within him spoke,
Before Nightmare had grabbed the hilt,
Siegfried re-awoke.
Siegfried regained his sanity
And the world phased back to norm.
With Evil Seed laid by his feet,
He survived the darkest storm.
Siegfried saw one option alone…..
The man who had struck terror into hearts.
He who had lived a double life.
The man who tried to safeguard the world.
He who with himself was at strife.
He took the sword to a secret place,
Vowing not to sleep as he wondered the land,
And he tossed Soul Edge into the abyss;
Never again to trouble a warrior's hand.
Note: This was origionally English homework. Hope you enjoyed.