Mwahaha, back to the longer chapters! The first part of this reminds me of the opening temple scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark. The second part gets kinda 'deep.' And Dante's language is a little worse than usual, but not much.
Is there some reason that I can't type internet addresses in? They seem disappear when the story is posted… ô_O
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 7: Guardian of the Staff
Wonderful. Guess his brain link was back online with full force. He'd managed to forget about it, not having gotten any sense from it sense he came down to this place. Dante eyed the current room, Staff straight ahead, with serious misgiving. This place reeked of a trap even more than the last one did. It was difficult to think, however, when you had an invisible sentience in your head that was doing the equivalent of a song and dance number.
"Shut up, already!" he yelled to head. The feeling gave an offended 'buzz' and receded to an only semi-distracting bouncing presence in the back of his mind. He sighed.
He studied the room. High vaulted ceiling, a few pillars here and there on the sides for support, and the altar with the Staff on the far side of room. The only creepy things about it were the hieroglyphics. The walls, ceiling, pillars, everything except the floor and around the altar were covered in carved hieroglyphic faces. Dante knew the significance of the faces. It wasn't by chance or by his morbid decorating sense (though it helped) that his walls in Devil Never Cry had the heads of devils mounted on them. They were used as a symbol of power and were meant to warn enemies off. Dante hoped that was all these were for.
He stepped cautiously out into the first part of the room…and barely managed to roll out of the way as a laserlike beam of energy shot out of the mouth of one of the faces perpendicular to him. Unfortunately for him, he rolled out farther onto the chamber floor. He suddenly found himself skidding, rolling, and tumbling as beams sprang from a dozen different faces. Jumping didn't help much since the faces went all the way up the walls. As he managed to get back to the apparent safe zone around the room's entrance, he fired off a shot at one of the faces, only to have the bullet sink into the sand and clay walls and not faze the faces at all.
He gave a sour look at the Staff, then a lopsided grin. If nothing else, at least this wasn't boring. What to do…what to do…his wall jumping wouldn't work here…he might just have to take the place head on. It wouldn't be so bad except that the beams came from various faces at different angles at once. He pulled out Force Edge, shifting his grip on it thoughtfully. With a sudden charge he raced forward into the room.
Multiple beams shot out at him from every, and he frantically rolled and jumped to avoid them. One beam shot directly at him head-on, however, and he quickly brought up Force Edge. It was risky, but worth a shot, he thought to himself as he sliced at the oncoming beam. The sword swished through the energy and separated it into two strands that went to either side of him. He continued to run forward, dodging and slicing the beams that now, halfway through the room, were also coming at him from behind. In the middle of slicing one beam, another slashed painfully through part of his leg. Shit…
Suddenly the beams all stopped. Dante, pumping with adrenaline and having finally fallen into a sort of pattern of dodging the beams, blinked and did an extra roll out of the way just in case. As he rolled up into a squat, he felt his back hit something. Looking up, he saw the Staff rotating in the air above. He must have rolled into the altar. Getting to his feet, he look at the Staff. It was as he had seen in his vision, but now in greater detail. The actual 'staff' part of it was about shoulder height, and the spear shaped outline of the head had multiple thorn like points that pointed inward. Between the body and the head on either side of the Staff were two jangly looking rings. It looked vaguely like one of those Japanese priest's staves. [I'll try to draw this. If ya watch anime, think something along the lines of Chichiri, Rezo, or Miroku's staves.]
The singing and dancing of his brain link unexpectedly swooned in warning. Dante leaned on the altar as the room suddenly swam. What?… He looked down at the wound he had received on his leg. It wasn't healing, it almost seemed to be festering…As he felt himself falling, he reached out and grabbed the staff. A blast of white light seemed to tear through him, though not painfully. Some vague part of his mind wondered if this was what a religious experience was like. Suddenly the white light fell away and he found himself in an unending blank space of whiteness. He turned, looking around. "Did I get sucked into the Matrix or something?" he asked aloud. He looked down at his leg. Strange, his clothes weren't even torn…The whiteness in front of him rippled suddenly, materializing into a gleaming silver shape of a woman that hovered a few feet in the air. Dante felt his mouth grow dry and his throat tighten. While her face had no features and her body lacked any high details, there was no doubt it was a woman.
"Would you face the Trial?" asked a silvery voice that could only be the woman's, despite her lack of mouth.
"Trial?" he asked, coughing as his voice rasped. Damn, she wasn't even human, and here he was acting like a fourteen year old boy.
"The trial for the Staff. It is required. Will you face the trial?" she asked again.
Dante looked at the white nothingness that stretched out everywhere. "Sure. It's not like I've got anywhere to go."
"By what right do you claim the Staff?"
"By what right?" Dante thought for second. "By right of birth." It was his dad's Staff after all.
The woman nodded. "So you have chosen, so the Trial begins."
The figure brought her arms together and in a flash Dante found himself watching a line of people in line for something. They did not seem to see Dante. A man was giving out a package to each person that came along the line, but there were very few packages left. A boy eagerly stepped up to receive the last one, but was shoved aside by a man. "I'm the mayor's son!" he man declared. "My family and I deserve this medicine more than you do!" The man distributing the packages looked uncomfortable, but shrugged and nodded. The boy frantically said, "But my family needs it too! They are all already sick! Why should your needs go before mine?" The scene froze suddenly, the anguished look still on the boy's face.
The voice of the figure echoed, "You claim the Staff by right of birth. Would you then deny others, who fight the same fight as you, the use of its power on the justification of your right of birth?
Dante frowned. "What the hell kind of trial is this?"
"Answer the question. Any untruths will also be your undoing."
He sighed. "People…do what they can with what they can. Just because I have an asset that someone else doesn't, I'm not going to shove that asset under a rock or something."
"So you would put yourself and your priorities in front of those of others."
"That's not what I mea--" he began to the protest, when the scene suddenly changed again.
On his left, a thousand people knelt silently. On his right stood a small girl about five years old who looked up at him with innocent eyes.
"One must die," intoned the silver woman's voice. "Who will you shoose: the one for the thousand, or the thousand for the one?"
Dante spun angrily, looking for the source of the voice. "These questions aren't fair. Either way, I lose!"
Silence replied.
Dante swore and shut his eyes. This was like that stupid ethics class he took in high school. The teacher would always ask questions that didn't have real answers.
"Choose. Who will die?"
Dante didn't like his answer, but he knew what it was. "The child," he whispered.
The young girl's face twisted in pain and horror as she let out a soundless scream. The scene froze again. "So you would save the faceless multitudes and sacrifice the innocent individual," the voice said.
"Fuck you," he gritted through his teeth.
The scene changed, now to a city street populated with people wandering to and from their bussiness. They, like the first people, did not seem to see Dante.
"Would you be a hero?" the voiced asked.
"What the hell do these questions have to do with anything!?" he demanded.
She surprised Dante by giving him an answer. "The one who would wield the Staff would wield great power. Inner truth makes one view power in a different light. I will not give the Staff to one who can not meet the precepts."
"Which are?"
Silence greeted him again. He sighed.
"Would you be a hero?" she repeated.
"I don't even know what that means," he replied dully. "All I want to do is stop the evil of the Underworld."
"…Who would you serve in this course? Good, evil, your friends, yourself?"
Dante hesitated. Fricking weird as questions were starting to get to him. "I serve…those in need. Humanity who suffers a the hands of evil."
"So you shall…" the voice whispered. Dante suddenly saw the people in the street scream and an flee in panic as a dark evil shape roared from above the city. To Dante's surprise, he saw a figure of himself walk forward to confront the devil. His figure and the darkness fought, and his figure grinned as he struck the final blow…then his expression turned to horror as the darkness, released by the killing blow swept out in a last blast of power. Darkness tore through the streets, killing each person it hit until the streets were littered with thousands of dead.
"NO!" Dante shouted, and found himself back in the room of white nothingness. The silver figure of the woman floated nearby.
"So you see…" she said. "There is no wrong or right, no innocent heroes, no great victories without cost, no black or white, only---"
"Shades of gray," he finished for her softly, staring unblinkingly at the floor. Could he…do that? If it came down to it, could be sacrifice a child? Or risk the death of city for victory?
The Staff appeared suddenly before him. "So you have seen…Should I give you the Staff?"
Dante, for one of the few times in his life, was unnerved. "I…don't…know."
"And so it is yours." Dante looked up sharply in confusion. "You see the gray, the many truths instead of the one, and thus you will use the Staff wisely. Go in peace, Son of Sparda."
With that, Dante found himself back in the temple, with a pain in his leg and a Staff in his hands. And a very large, dragon shaped shadow on the wall in front of him.
---------------------------------------------------
Wow. That really did remind me of my ethic's class. Now my head's full of philosophical mush. Hopefully it made some sense.
Next Chapter: A New Ally
Is there some reason that I can't type internet addresses in? They seem disappear when the story is posted… ô_O
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 7: Guardian of the Staff
Wonderful. Guess his brain link was back online with full force. He'd managed to forget about it, not having gotten any sense from it sense he came down to this place. Dante eyed the current room, Staff straight ahead, with serious misgiving. This place reeked of a trap even more than the last one did. It was difficult to think, however, when you had an invisible sentience in your head that was doing the equivalent of a song and dance number.
"Shut up, already!" he yelled to head. The feeling gave an offended 'buzz' and receded to an only semi-distracting bouncing presence in the back of his mind. He sighed.
He studied the room. High vaulted ceiling, a few pillars here and there on the sides for support, and the altar with the Staff on the far side of room. The only creepy things about it were the hieroglyphics. The walls, ceiling, pillars, everything except the floor and around the altar were covered in carved hieroglyphic faces. Dante knew the significance of the faces. It wasn't by chance or by his morbid decorating sense (though it helped) that his walls in Devil Never Cry had the heads of devils mounted on them. They were used as a symbol of power and were meant to warn enemies off. Dante hoped that was all these were for.
He stepped cautiously out into the first part of the room…and barely managed to roll out of the way as a laserlike beam of energy shot out of the mouth of one of the faces perpendicular to him. Unfortunately for him, he rolled out farther onto the chamber floor. He suddenly found himself skidding, rolling, and tumbling as beams sprang from a dozen different faces. Jumping didn't help much since the faces went all the way up the walls. As he managed to get back to the apparent safe zone around the room's entrance, he fired off a shot at one of the faces, only to have the bullet sink into the sand and clay walls and not faze the faces at all.
He gave a sour look at the Staff, then a lopsided grin. If nothing else, at least this wasn't boring. What to do…what to do…his wall jumping wouldn't work here…he might just have to take the place head on. It wouldn't be so bad except that the beams came from various faces at different angles at once. He pulled out Force Edge, shifting his grip on it thoughtfully. With a sudden charge he raced forward into the room.
Multiple beams shot out at him from every, and he frantically rolled and jumped to avoid them. One beam shot directly at him head-on, however, and he quickly brought up Force Edge. It was risky, but worth a shot, he thought to himself as he sliced at the oncoming beam. The sword swished through the energy and separated it into two strands that went to either side of him. He continued to run forward, dodging and slicing the beams that now, halfway through the room, were also coming at him from behind. In the middle of slicing one beam, another slashed painfully through part of his leg. Shit…
Suddenly the beams all stopped. Dante, pumping with adrenaline and having finally fallen into a sort of pattern of dodging the beams, blinked and did an extra roll out of the way just in case. As he rolled up into a squat, he felt his back hit something. Looking up, he saw the Staff rotating in the air above. He must have rolled into the altar. Getting to his feet, he look at the Staff. It was as he had seen in his vision, but now in greater detail. The actual 'staff' part of it was about shoulder height, and the spear shaped outline of the head had multiple thorn like points that pointed inward. Between the body and the head on either side of the Staff were two jangly looking rings. It looked vaguely like one of those Japanese priest's staves. [I'll try to draw this. If ya watch anime, think something along the lines of Chichiri, Rezo, or Miroku's staves.]
The singing and dancing of his brain link unexpectedly swooned in warning. Dante leaned on the altar as the room suddenly swam. What?… He looked down at the wound he had received on his leg. It wasn't healing, it almost seemed to be festering…As he felt himself falling, he reached out and grabbed the staff. A blast of white light seemed to tear through him, though not painfully. Some vague part of his mind wondered if this was what a religious experience was like. Suddenly the white light fell away and he found himself in an unending blank space of whiteness. He turned, looking around. "Did I get sucked into the Matrix or something?" he asked aloud. He looked down at his leg. Strange, his clothes weren't even torn…The whiteness in front of him rippled suddenly, materializing into a gleaming silver shape of a woman that hovered a few feet in the air. Dante felt his mouth grow dry and his throat tighten. While her face had no features and her body lacked any high details, there was no doubt it was a woman.
"Would you face the Trial?" asked a silvery voice that could only be the woman's, despite her lack of mouth.
"Trial?" he asked, coughing as his voice rasped. Damn, she wasn't even human, and here he was acting like a fourteen year old boy.
"The trial for the Staff. It is required. Will you face the trial?" she asked again.
Dante looked at the white nothingness that stretched out everywhere. "Sure. It's not like I've got anywhere to go."
"By what right do you claim the Staff?"
"By what right?" Dante thought for second. "By right of birth." It was his dad's Staff after all.
The woman nodded. "So you have chosen, so the Trial begins."
The figure brought her arms together and in a flash Dante found himself watching a line of people in line for something. They did not seem to see Dante. A man was giving out a package to each person that came along the line, but there were very few packages left. A boy eagerly stepped up to receive the last one, but was shoved aside by a man. "I'm the mayor's son!" he man declared. "My family and I deserve this medicine more than you do!" The man distributing the packages looked uncomfortable, but shrugged and nodded. The boy frantically said, "But my family needs it too! They are all already sick! Why should your needs go before mine?" The scene froze suddenly, the anguished look still on the boy's face.
The voice of the figure echoed, "You claim the Staff by right of birth. Would you then deny others, who fight the same fight as you, the use of its power on the justification of your right of birth?
Dante frowned. "What the hell kind of trial is this?"
"Answer the question. Any untruths will also be your undoing."
He sighed. "People…do what they can with what they can. Just because I have an asset that someone else doesn't, I'm not going to shove that asset under a rock or something."
"So you would put yourself and your priorities in front of those of others."
"That's not what I mea--" he began to the protest, when the scene suddenly changed again.
On his left, a thousand people knelt silently. On his right stood a small girl about five years old who looked up at him with innocent eyes.
"One must die," intoned the silver woman's voice. "Who will you shoose: the one for the thousand, or the thousand for the one?"
Dante spun angrily, looking for the source of the voice. "These questions aren't fair. Either way, I lose!"
Silence replied.
Dante swore and shut his eyes. This was like that stupid ethics class he took in high school. The teacher would always ask questions that didn't have real answers.
"Choose. Who will die?"
Dante didn't like his answer, but he knew what it was. "The child," he whispered.
The young girl's face twisted in pain and horror as she let out a soundless scream. The scene froze again. "So you would save the faceless multitudes and sacrifice the innocent individual," the voice said.
"Fuck you," he gritted through his teeth.
The scene changed, now to a city street populated with people wandering to and from their bussiness. They, like the first people, did not seem to see Dante.
"Would you be a hero?" the voiced asked.
"What the hell do these questions have to do with anything!?" he demanded.
She surprised Dante by giving him an answer. "The one who would wield the Staff would wield great power. Inner truth makes one view power in a different light. I will not give the Staff to one who can not meet the precepts."
"Which are?"
Silence greeted him again. He sighed.
"Would you be a hero?" she repeated.
"I don't even know what that means," he replied dully. "All I want to do is stop the evil of the Underworld."
"…Who would you serve in this course? Good, evil, your friends, yourself?"
Dante hesitated. Fricking weird as questions were starting to get to him. "I serve…those in need. Humanity who suffers a the hands of evil."
"So you shall…" the voice whispered. Dante suddenly saw the people in the street scream and an flee in panic as a dark evil shape roared from above the city. To Dante's surprise, he saw a figure of himself walk forward to confront the devil. His figure and the darkness fought, and his figure grinned as he struck the final blow…then his expression turned to horror as the darkness, released by the killing blow swept out in a last blast of power. Darkness tore through the streets, killing each person it hit until the streets were littered with thousands of dead.
"NO!" Dante shouted, and found himself back in the room of white nothingness. The silver figure of the woman floated nearby.
"So you see…" she said. "There is no wrong or right, no innocent heroes, no great victories without cost, no black or white, only---"
"Shades of gray," he finished for her softly, staring unblinkingly at the floor. Could he…do that? If it came down to it, could be sacrifice a child? Or risk the death of city for victory?
The Staff appeared suddenly before him. "So you have seen…Should I give you the Staff?"
Dante, for one of the few times in his life, was unnerved. "I…don't…know."
"And so it is yours." Dante looked up sharply in confusion. "You see the gray, the many truths instead of the one, and thus you will use the Staff wisely. Go in peace, Son of Sparda."
With that, Dante found himself back in the temple, with a pain in his leg and a Staff in his hands. And a very large, dragon shaped shadow on the wall in front of him.
---------------------------------------------------
Wow. That really did remind me of my ethic's class. Now my head's full of philosophical mush. Hopefully it made some sense.
Next Chapter: A New Ally