DARKSTALKERS: VAMPIRE HUNTER
Chapter Seven: Darkness and Light
Fanfiction by Louis the Rogue
(Based on original story by Capcom Inc.)
Since the beginning of civilization, mankind has asked itself, "where did I come from?" This question long ago became an enigma, unable to be proved by any means save faith. And yet, countless answers have been hypothesized ever since.
One such theory is that, in the beginning, there was only darkness; an uninhibited void. When light fell upon the universe, the void was forever shattered, scattering to the dark places between the light. Indeed, the denizens of Makai know this to be their origin.
Now, in the Twentieth Century, a new light has emerged on Earth, seemingly bent on scattering the darkness forever. But this time, the darkness will fight back.
Standing atop the remnants of the Parthenon, two lonely shadows watched as the battle between giants unfolded.
"They are unevenly matched", Anita said flatly, eyes staring forward with that blank expression, "The vampire is slightly weaker, and in his arrogance, he does not see this. He will be destroyed, like the others we sensed."
Donovan nodded gravely, "It would seem the God of War is more than a match for any one competitor… but if they were strong enough, could two defeat him?"
Anita looked away, "Two, like the tragic pairing of Aulbath and Quatos…?"
Donovan narrowed his eyes as he looked down at the solemn girl, a mix between pain and anger defining the lines on his face, "I will never know until I try."
As the emboldened vigilante moved toward the edge of the roof, a little hand gripped tight at his wrist, shocking him briefly enough to force a halt.
Anita's round eyes looked up at him, wanting to show something, anything in those pitiless eyes of hers, but failing the task, "Don't go, Donovan. Don't go die out there."
Donovan stared at her, his expression hardening into a glare, "This cowardice ends here. Deny the truth no longer! Behold! Here, before your eyes, the end of the world, and still you refuse to shed a tear! Stupid girl! I go to fight, for I still have the will!"
Turning away in anger, Donovan stopped again, this time in response to a sound; the sound of sniffling. Looking behind his shoulder, he found the little girl who had been so resolute in her denial of all things humane crumpled to the floor, shaking with silent tears.
"Donovan… if you die, just take me with you… I'll die too.", she muttered through her sobs.
A large hand placed itself over her shoulder, and she looked up to the steadfast face of her brooding friend, "Anita, we go forward now with no regrets. If we are destined to die, we die together."
Her head drooping once more, Anita nodded slowly.
With a wave of his hand, Demitri thrust back his cape, eyes glaring with an unholy fire as his body assumed a similar aura. Balls of red light forming in his palms, he kicked himself up at a backwards angle from his heel, as if the air were solid to him.
Pyron, standing tall and straight, simply outstretched an arm, a tremendous ball of solar power forming in the middle of His fiery hand.
Reaching back with a twist at the waist, Pyron chucked the airborne ball of death like a huge baseball, and Demitri fired no small hail of his deadly Chaos Flare attacks into the center of his opponent's blast.
When the explosive flash set off by the impact made sight impossible, Pyron found himself momentarily at a loss for the vampire lord's location before He was able to mentally shift to a more non-visual means of detection, and naturally, Demitri decided to exploit this opportunity by appearing in Pyron's peripheral vision, Chaos Flare in hand, and swiftly thrusting it down the throat of the devourer of worlds.
Dashing backward with all the grace of a skater on ice, Demitri pulled his cloak around him and waited for the inevitable explosion.
For His part, Pyron had halted, seemingly stunned, and then begun to writhe in mid-air, His body expanding and contracting in an aberrant manner for a short while and then, as suddenly as He had started, stopped, assuming an upright stance and glowering to the disbelieving Demitri, "My body encompasses the energies of the universe, and thus, such an attack is futile on me. Your effort, nonetheless, is commendable."
"This battle has only begun!", Demitri hissed, throwing up his cape to release a swarm of fiery bats at the Golden Shining God. While Pyron extended a hand, forming an invisible barrier of force for the bats to crash headlong into, Demitri vanished, leaving a faint echo of his form behind, and appeared behind Pyron, arms grappled around Him.
"And what is it you suppose you are doing?", Pyron chuckled.
"Great fool, can you not feel your strength leaving your body?", Demitri grinned that horrible grin of his, "Was it not you who said that your were a being of pure energy? Energy can be stolen, and so, you can easily be defeated by one such as I."
Peeking out from a cave in the mountainside, Lei-Lei's eyes flashed with anger, "You demon. I'll get you, and rescue mother's soul while I'm at it."
Inside the same cave, Zabel paused, tilting his head in a feign to look interested while he eyed the hindquarters of his lovely companion, "So, eh, how does yer mum fit into all this?"
Lei-Lei kept her eyes forward to the battle above as she spoke, "It was a long time ago…"
CHINA, 1746
The Forbidden City had never looked more beautiful. Beneath the splendid pagoda rooftops, countless golden lanterns hung in place. High above, fireworks could be seen. Outside its' lilac walls, the people celebrated en masse. Tonight, a new generation of senjutsushi, the mystical diviners of the empire, would step forward to receive their title and highest honor.
Dressed in the traditional golden robes of their sect, two healthy looking young women sat in silent meditation among the other students. Lin-Lin, her shoulder-length hair straight and brown, was the personification of tranquility. Lei-Lei, her also shoulder-length brown hair turned up at a slight curl, kept breaking focus to eye one of the other students whose …"tact" she admired.
As the sound of music floated through the air above like a gentle breeze, the students awoke from their trances and stood in unison, reciting the steps of the ceremony in their minds. After all, to botch such an occasion with a misstep would bring grave dishonor.
The Emperor Ch'ien Lung stood proud and tall, a ceremonial guard in full armor to either side, with others posted throughout the length of the city. His expression was shrewd, like a hawk that could find a viper in darkness if he stared long enough. Dramatically, he gestured his hands to the sky, "Open the gates."
As the massive gates opened, the people of China poured in like water, quickly filling the area around the main building, before which stood the emperor on the foundation, the only thing separating him from his kingdom being the flight of stairs which surrounded the structure.
"Tonight, the stars shine brighter in heaven", he shouted to the sea of shadowed faces, burning lanterns, and brightly colored flags, "For with the coming of the new Oracles, the clarity of vision that has made our Empire strong is renewed! Honor them!"
Hands steepled reverently before them, the students approached in rows of two, their kimonos a striking mandarin in the dark doorway to the imperial palace. Separating at the middle, each row took to one side of the platform front. When all ten of the students had taken their place, five on each side staring straightforward to the crowd, they turned as one to face their Emperor. The two girls, as fate would have it, stood opposite one another.
The crowd fell utterly silent as a woman of surpassing beauty approached, only the weight of her eyes giving a clue as to her actual age. It was all the girls could do not to let themselves smile at the approach of their mother, mentor, and greatest inspiration.
She approached the first student, the boy that the Lei-Lei had fancied, and removed the lavender belt worn round his waist in a single hand motion, taking a belt of deepest violet from the ten hanging at her own belt in another. Pulling it around his waist, she carefully tied it in place, finishing with a specific, ritual bow reserved for one senjutsushi to another. The bow returned by her former pupil, his part of the ritual was complete. He was, for the remainder of his generation, an Imperial Oracle of China.
As Oracle Shao moved toward her next student to bestow the honorable title of Oracle upon her, something unprecedented happened. A mighty wind ripped through the Imperial City, countless screams ringing out as all caught in the winds sharply focused path fell, lifeless, in a stream of blood.
Her eyes darting immediately to the sky, the senjutsu sensai spotted the perpetrator of this dishonorable act; a shadowed form, eyes glowing red with malice, nearly concealed itself against the blackness of the night.
The noise of the crowd in their panic was almost defeaning. "Sister!", Lin-Lin shouted across the platform, "I sense the presence of a Dark One! We must protect the Emperor!"
"Ya think?" Lei-Lei was already jumping the gun as usual, directly beside her sovereign, "Sorry for the inconvenience, your Worship, but it's our sworn duty to protect you at all costs." Without any more warning than that, the brash young girl slung the surprised Emperor over her shoulder and ran inside as quickly as she could.
While confusion reigned below, on the rooftops of the Forbidden City, a battle was taking place. The dark shape lumbering forward at her, Oracle Shao placed her fingers together, chanting a chi spell within seconds. The invisible barriers so created blocked slam after slam from the mighty beast.
Though roughly humanoid, the thing clearly had a sort of wings, much like those of a bat, and its' overly large claws seemed all too perfect for rending lesser creatures limb from limb. Those claws beat at the forcefield, again and again, until the creature finally stepped back, panting in frustration and baring its' equally large fangs.
"Have you tired of this game, Dark One?", the timeless master of the arts inquired, her tone like ice.
"Sister, the Emperor is safe! Let's go show that Dark One what we're made of!", a voice rang out from the platform; Lei-Lei's voice.
Its' long, pointed ears perking to the sound of that voice, the horrible creature's face twisted into a widened grin.
"No!", Shao screamed, trying with all her might to make it sound like an order and not a plea, but it was too late to halt the beast. It had already leapt from the roof.
"Sister, get out of the way!", Lin-Lin shouted, but to no avail. Lei-Lei stood frozen fast with terror. All her training had failed her in this moment, and she was not ready to die.
Fortunately, she would not have to. The demonic creature was suddenly halted, the entirety of its' form highlighted as if from within by a mystical, bluish light. Its' face contorting in agony, the creature bolted from the immediate area, leaping over the walls of the city in a single bound and screaming like a madman into the night.
On the rooftop above, the sisters saw the reason for this sudden turn of events. Glowing with the same light, her form nearly obscured, was Oracle Shao.
"Mother?", the girls wondered at the sight with a mix of surprise and confusion in their voices.
"Yes, my daughters", the woman replied, a brief smile coming over her face, "Your mother dies proud, an Imperial Oracle of China." As the light enveloped her completely, the Oracle's form merged into it, and as the light slowly faded, so did she.
Surprise had turned to shock, leaving the girls speechless as their fellow students surrounded them.
"What did she mean dies…?", Lei-Lei blinked, "She can't be dead, right sis?"
Lin-Lin was drug to her knees by the full weight of the truth, "No Lei-Lei, she is not dead. Her soul can never rest now. That was… the cursed Igyo Tenshin technique."
"So there you have it", Lei-Lei continued, her tone softening, "Our mothers soul, damned to dwell in darkness, and all for a noble deed."
"Sounds like a bluddy bad break", Zabel sighed. He would have said anything to keep her in place. Just like that.
"Naturally, we couldn't take it lying down", Lei-Lei's tone became more forceful now, "We made a pact, that night, that we'd free her soul from that place. The path to reach her seemed obvious; we tried the technique, the last one she'd ever used, but it didn't work the way we planned."
"So whut happened?"
"I became the gruesome creature you see here, and my sister, to keep me from losing my mind, became this little charm you see on my forehead. She still appears as herself in spirit, but she lost the privilege of a body long ago."
To this, Zabel shrugged, "Ya dun look so bad t' me."
"Well, at least it's a functional form", Lei-Lei blew him off, "It was that creature out there that stirred up the Dark Ones back then, and it's him doing it now. If I really aim to defeat them once and for all, I have to stop it here and now!"
"Good luck wit' that", Zabel mused, "I'm not lookin' to get m'self killed, 'owever."
Standing abruptly, Lei-Lei turned her back to him, "And here I thought you were at least a brave man…"
As she walked out of the cave, Zabel started after her, "Wha? I'm brave! Hey! I'm the craziest motha fucka in Makai, an' dunchu forget it! I'll prove it! I'll go BACK to hell! Y'see how crazy I am? I already been once! Ha ha!"
"Perfect", Lei-Lei smiled to herself, "There's a use for this fool yet."
"So, you seek to usurp Me as the mightiest warrior in the universe, then?", Pyron's tone was genuinely curious, "I must warn you then, bold Prometheus, with the gift of fire comes the pain of burning!"
As the heat of Pyron's body increased, unfathomably so, whatever plant life still flourished in the local area was scorched away by the nuclear tide generated from his body, leaving behind a barren wasteland.
Steam now rising from his own body, Demitri began to scream reflexively, clinging fast as his body began to melt away under the heat.
Pyron's diabolically cold laughter rang out, "Call thyself a vampire and refuse to fear the sun? You must be suicidal!"
His hands little more than flesh over bone now, Demitri was all too easily thrust back from his hold by the mighty Pyron, who turned round to extend his hand, another ball of solar power, this one nearly as large as he and a dangerous shade of red, forming therein, "You were powerful, for a thief, but unsuitable to defeat Me. Be gone!"
Firing the blast directly into his target, a tremendous explosion rocked the landscape. As the smoked cleared, Pyron was grounded again, a makeshift mountain of rocks marking the grave of His latest victim. "I must relocate that warrior from the Demon World", He thought aloud as He stood there, arms crossed.
"Hey, Sunshine! Yer my bitch!", a raspy voice crowed from nowhere.
"What cowardly obscenity is this…?", Pyron inquired as He looked about for the source.
Little did He realize that He was walking into a trap with His eyes wide open.