Another chapter is up! The final face off between good and evil has begun! Will Nightmare destroy Talim? Or will the wind priestess find a way to save the tragic knight? Well ya gotta read on!
I appreciate Chibi's reviews, but I wanna hear from the rest of you as well! So R&R please.
Only one more chapter to go, it's all coming to a close now. I am writing the last chapter as I type this, so I should have it out in a few days or less. Hope to see you back soon for the big finish!
XIV. Light Versus Darkness
Talim gazed at the carnage around her, a deep sadness settling into her soul. She did not know who the green clad warrior was, but her handiwork was beyond brutal. Two brave warriors had fallen to her ringblade, one a dear friend of Talim's, the other had stood against her, but Talim respected him nonetheless.
Now the woman that took those lives was nothing more than a corpse herself. Talim had watched as she fell, and seen Soul Edge tear through her body. She had also seen the man in purple fall to the evil sword at the same time.
Talim wished there was time to bury the bodies, but Nightmare awaited her on the platform below, and time was of the essence. The young priestess walked to the edge of the platform, and gauged the distance down to the next level.
Time did not allow Talim to seek a safer way down, instead it pressed her into jumping. With the deftness of a cat, the young warrior landed on the lower level opposite of the great Nightmare wielding the sword of oblivion.
Though her landing was so graceful there was not even a sound, Nightmare still took notice and turned towards her quickly. When his sickly yellow eyes took in the sight of the weapons in Talim's hand, the young priestess could swear she saw fear swimming in them.
Nightmare shifted into a battle stance, eager to engage and destroy this last threat to his power.
Talim stepped forward, confidence from Soul Calibur washing over her. She raised her tonfas in front of her chest, in her normal fighting pose.
"This ends now, dark knight."
"Massacre!" Nightmare exclaimed, intending the word to be a threat.
Talim stepped forward, eager to end this engagement and destroy the sword that threatened the entire world. Nothing could stop her, and she knew it. Soul Calibur and Talim would emerge victorious, or the world would fall.
Nightmare did not dare allow the woman reach him, instead he pulled Soul Edge back and shoved it straight forward horizontally. The dark blade rushed out, eager to taste the blood of the wielder of its arch nemesis.
The evil blade forward motion was stopped instantly. Nightmare looked up and saw that Talim had raised her tonfas to block the attack. Soul Edge could not break past Soul Calibur, and the force of the blow was negated completely.
Talim stood still, holding off the massive blade with nothing more than a pair of small tonfas. The power radiating off the slight weapons was beyond intense. The outcome of the battle was already becoming clear.
With a single swing, Talim knocked away the blade, and rushed forward. She closed in, positioning herself so close to Nightmare that his boots pressed beside her shoes.
By being so close, she could prevent Nightmare from properly swinging his weapon, and still leave her ample room for her blows. Taking advantage of this, Talim began striking the dark knight as hard as she could.
Left, right, and then left again the blows came from the small warrior, sending Nightmare reeling, and stumbling backwards. The dark knight knew that he needed to disengage from the powerful priestess if he was to find a weakness in her.
Nightmare turned his backwards stumbling into a fall, and that fall into a roll, putting a comfortable distance between him and his foe. Standing, he eyed Talim warily, his rage and fear building higher and higher with each passing moment.
Without a word, Talim charged in once again. Nightmare responded by swinging his sword in a high horizontal arc, hoping to slam its evil steel into her chest. Talim was prepared for this however, and nimbly ducked under the swinging blade as it passed her.
Immediately rising, Talim punched her left hand, with the tonfa hilt forward, into Nightmare's chest. The blow connects and he reeled a bit from the force of the blow.
He isn't knocked completely off balance, however, and retaliates by bringing his off hand up and slamming it hard into Talim's chest. The blow knocks the priestess off her feet.
Talim bounded back up to her feet as though nothing had happened. Not even taking a moment to recover herself, she instead launched herself forward, her right tonfa sticking straight out in front of her.
"Strike!" she called out, as the weapon smashed into Nightmare's armor.
The dark knight once again stumbled backwards from the force of the blow. He could not understand how the small girl had so much power. Soul Calibur should not have so much power against Soul Edge. Good should not ever outmatch evil, at least not in Nightmare's opinion.
Nightmare recovered from the shock of the blow, and brought Soul Edge to the floor in front of him. He stepped forward quickly, making sure the sword was in line with Talim. Satisfied with his aim, Nightmare pulled upwards with all his might. The sword flew off the floor and upwards in a wicked vertical arc.
The blade was lined up with Talim's chest, and the top edge of the blade would have bitten into her had she been there. But Talim was not there. She had stepped off to the right, leaving Soul Edge to grab at nothing but the air where she had been a split second before.
Talim did not hesitate, instead she took advantage of her superior speed. She stepped closer to Nightmare, and brought her hands together. The tonfas pointed at Nightmare's side, exactly where she intended to strike.
Swinging with all her might, Talim slammed her weapons into Nightmare's side. The pure, blue blades bit deep into the dark knight's armor. The evil metal held the tonfas back for only a moment. As the armor gave way, Soul Calibur tasted the flesh of the wielder of its one true enemy.
Nightmare roared in pain, but before he could react, Talim extracted her tonfas. Nightmare bent over in pain, exactly as Talim hoped he would. She then raised her tonfas above her head, and slammed them down into his shoulders, crashing the dark knight to the floor again.
The dark knight slowly rose from his prone position once again, and stared hard at the young warrior. With each passing moment, and each passing blow, the girl was encased in a brighter and brighter glow. Nightmare's power was waning against her, and her power seemed to be growing by leaps and bounds.
Anger and fear seared even deeper through Nightmare's soul as the sword he held protested the situation. Soul Edge would not allow itself to be destroyed, and surely not at the hands of some two bit, starry eyed brat.
Talim did not move forward, instead opting to see how the dark knight would respond to his latest fall. Nightmare knew that she was toying with him now, taking her time before destroying him.
As he desperately tried to think of some maneuver, some way to defeat the priestess, he suddenly noticed a large shard of metal lying not far from the edge of the platform he was on.
He instantly knew that this was the shard he had sent Tira for. In the small, human part of his soul, he felt a twinge of regret at Tira's death, especially when seeing she had completed the mission he had sent her on.
Nightmare hoped that assimilating this large shard would provide him with enough power to take down Soul Calibur. He lunged forward, but not at Talim, but instead at the shard.
Talim was caught a bit off guard, and did not respond, allowing Nightmare to reach the shard.
"Blood, Darkness, come to me!" he cried, draining the evil energy from the shard and into Soul Edge itself.
Once the power had been consumed from the shard, Soul Edge realized that it was almost complete. Only a few very small fragments were unaccounted for. The sword realized it had enough power to stand on its own, and not be linked to the weakness of flesh.
Nightmare began laughing manically. He fell to his knees, and bent over, laughing as though he had heard the best joke in the world. Talim stood back, not sure how to proceed.
The dark knight stopped his laughing suddenly, and fear and pain swirled about in his evil eyes.
"Inferno!" he shouted at the very top of his lungs.
With that word, Nightmare's armor shattered, and fell from his body, leaving nothing more than a dirty white tunic and deep brown pants clinging to him. He suddenly leaned back, so far he almost fell over backwards.
He did not fall, but instead something else happened. Fire erupted from his body, as though he was expelling flames from his soul. The fire seemed to step out of him, and the flames took Soul Edge with it.
The flames took on the shape of a human, and it appeared that something was burning in the flames, but not being consumed. Soul Calibur whispered to Talim's soul of what she was seeing.
This was Inferno, Soul Edge's form in the mortal plane. It was no longer concerned with the matters of the flesh, nor did it have the weakness of flesh either. If Soul Calibur did not defeat it now, here, then the world was doomed.
Talim could not help but take notice of Nightmare. The man had fallen to the ground behind Inferno. The twisted, deformed hand he held Soul Edge in had returned to normal, and his hair was a flowing blonde instead of blood red. There was no longer any kind of evil aura about him, for once again he was just Siegfried, nothing more.
Talim did not have long to consider the man, for Inferno stood in front of her, holding Soul Edge in a battle ready position.
Soul Calibur gave Talim the knowledge to know that Soul Edge morphed to its wielder the same as the pure sword did, though it did have a 'natural' form. Talim was very relieved to see that Soul Edge kept the same form it had when Nightmare had used it, since that gave Talim a distinct edge over it in battle.
Or at least that's what she thought.
