Chapter 2

By Breaeden Swordwind

Luzifer entered the empty castle with the slightest tinge of trepidation. The castle and the sky were painted in a million shades of dull gray and there was the slightest tinkling sound of a stream that ran through the castle. A feint dusty smell hung in the air and on the wind. Nothing moved in it and he was alone. Alone, he knew, except for three eyes that were watching him.

A small piece of mortar fell loose from a nearby wall and crashed its way downward in the silence. The noise it gave off echoed through the hollow recesses of the stone hive. Luzifer tore through the castle in ground-eating but silent strides.

He had been following the trail of the one known as the "Azure Knight", the one who popular opinion had labeled as the bearer of the sword known as Soul Edge. Luzifer and moved quickly and had been gaining ground on the warrior, following the rumors of the massacres the man took part in. He had followed the trail of blood to this castle and it seemed a battle was waiting inside for him.

His path brought him to a set of stairs, which he ascended into a bright light. The sun was rising and it rays shone directly into the corridor Luzifer was moving through and for a brief second he was blinded. After he had adjusted to the glare he moved out of the stairway and outside. He found himself at the top of the high castle wall looking down into a courtyard that had been scorched of grass. Sitting silently in the ashes was a lone armored warrior. A warrior with a disgustingly muscled right arm.

The armor of the swordsman was of the color which his nickname claimed it to be and the designs that the plate armor had…contorted itself into could only be described as evil. The helmet had a large, straight horn coming out of the forehead and a crest the flowed down the back of his head like a steel horse mane. Parts of the chest and the entire arm was overlapped by the disfigured muscle and jutting teeth of the abominable growth on the appendage.

The blade the man held at his side had an eye imbedded in the middle of it, which shifted its gaze onto Luzifer, and the boy knew he had been spotted.

It was odd. Luzifer supposed this would be the moment he was supposed jump down from the rampart in a fury of bloodlust toward the one who had killed his father, or that he was supposed to find new interest in the road behind him when he discovered his reasons for being here weren't quite as strong a case as he might imagine. Luzifer, however, felt none of these things. It was more that his body felt a primal recognition to the man inside the armor. It was that feeling that passed between to people of similar blood who had no knowledge the other possessed a relation to them and just seemed to hold their gaze with the other person a few seconds longer.

Luzifer felt, as well, a intense obligation to free the person who the sword held kidnapped, though his better sense told him that swords didn't hold men hostage. He drew his sword and faced the man on the ground and behind Luzifer could be seen a light over his left shoulder and darkness over his right.

Somewhere, deep in the recesses of his human mind Siegfried sighed with guilt, but unfortunately there was nothing he could do to stop the impending conflict as Soul Edge still had complete control of his body. The boy leapt down from the rampart and landed in a crouch. He drew his sword with his right hand, his left hand dangling from a sling, and kept his low crouch like a waiting serpent. Hehe…another foolish soul…and a strong one at that, Nightmare gloated into Siegfried's thoughts.

Somehow, both the demon and the man inside it were apprehensive. For some reason they had expected someone else to appear and face them. Someone who was older, with more blond in his hair, and a rapier. It was as if the threads of history had diverged and they were on the wrong path. Nightmare shook its head and reset itself into its fighting stance. Prepared to fight its former master.

The boy had the look of a warrior about him and not in the same way as having a sword and the ability to swing it. He had that stoic look that had been hit hard by life's right hook several times and would again. The look that said he would take the hit and reply with one of his own no matter how much it hurt.

From the closer distance Siegfried felt a vague and ephemeral recognition for the swordsman's face. A memory flashed in his mind and it did not seem his own.

"Hey Gladifer! Wait up!" said the young boy behind him. "Where are you going in such a hurry, Glad? There isn't a whole lot for us to do until man is made and His plan is still only in phase four."

Gladifer smiled slightly at his lean brother who, though appearing to be several years younger, was actually his twin. The younger wore his hair a bit shorter and darker and had a different color eyes but they were twins; even more so then the lower orders where someone might look the exact same as someone else. Of course there was also the mutation, but Gladifer didn't like to think about that. "I just wanted to talk to the other Cherubim. They don't seem to want to give us a straight answer on why only they can talk to Him."

Both of them though bore a large, two-handed sword on their backs. The swords seemed normal except that they were specifically tuned to their wielders and they could absorb intense emotions.

"Yeah I don't trust those bastards," his brother said emphatically. His brother had no love for all the others who made fun of his mutation. They called him the 'corrupted' and 'noctifer'. The constant mocking of the others and caused Gladifer's brother to become more and more arrogant towards the mainstream. He even sometimes got into fights with Michael and Gabriel, the two he detested the most. He won his fights, though, because he was supposed to be the strongest of His servants.

"heh… you don't trust anyone. If I didn't know better I'd say you didn't trust Him." Said Gladifer with a grin as they began to head to the Temple-Mount.

The silence he received in response was worrisome. It was a foreboding silence that both shared in. In the silence their futures became set in stone. By the end of the path both would be dead.

Siegfried had no idea where that memory had come from but all the same he began tearing at Nightmare within the confines of his own mind. It was futile the sword had full control and there was little for Siegfried to do but pull together his strength and wait for a better opportunity.

Soul Edge lightly twirled itself in Nightmares armored hand. " Come mortal and donate your soul to the ultimate power." The boy seemed cautious and for some reason held his weapon in only one hand. Suddenly, in a burst of speed, the boy began to move. He was circling around Nightmare and staying out of slashing range. The demon waited patiently for his opponent to make his move. A move was indeed mad and, as the boy leap through the air, the battle began.

The fight had been going on for a few minutes when Luzifer jumped out his opponents attack range with a sword that was broken down the middle. There must have been a damn crack in it! The break was at an angle and so at one of the edges was a sharp point. He began to ponder his alternatives.

He had been fighting as usual, using foot speed and weapon reach to try and create opening for a slow but strong killing blow. Now he jumped back with a sword that had shattered, half way up the blade, in his hand. Shoddy piece of mierda! The blade had shatter diagonally up the blade so that there was a sharp point that could still be used for stabbing and there was some edge left.

All he had to show for the broken blade was a small dent in his opponent's armor. The bastard played a defensive game and kept him back with sweeping horizontals that Luzifer had to struggle just to avoid. The warrior's weapon was interfering with his normal hit-and-run attacks and making hard to keep his distance properly. The blows that Luzifer had snuck in had just grazed of his armor and just a second ago his opponent's parry had completely broken his blade.

He needed a new plan of attack. He stepped out of the demon-man's reach and the creature just stood there patiently, it new that it would not be able to keep up with its much faster opponent. Something about the first time he had encountered the knight. His memories flew through his mind. Individual moments faded with age: His father was on the floor in two very different locations; He could feel the bits of soot he was running through hit his exposed skin; His right hand impacted the eye which was disgustingly soft yet oddly resilient; The creature on the other side of door screamed in pain withdrawing the blade and slamming it massive form against the gate…Luzifer grinned in his maniacal way that showed too many teeth.

Phase one. Luzifer advanced. As he had hoped, the knight launched a high horizontal but Luzifer slid under it. Luzifer came up and smashed the warrior on the side of the face with his broken sword. He managed to get a few more strikes against his opponent's head before his foe pushed him back with a sharp kick. The warrior howled with rage as he tried to get his bearings. Luzifer sharpened his focus.

Luzifer made another move inward and this time his opponent lifted his sword over his head as fire engulfed the blade. It was well known that Soul Edge could summon the fires of Hell at will. The blade came down but Luzifer had anticipated a vertical reaction to the failure of the high horizontal. He easily sidestepped the strike and the blade was imbedded in the ground. The small bits of fire began to move away. Soul Edge had no control over fire after it had been summoned. Unfortunately for it, Luzifer did. The fires wrapped around Luzifer's broken sword as he drove the point into the beast-blade's eye.

The warrior reverberated with pain and pulled the sword away. He used the sword as a prop to lean against and seemed to be having trouble with some fragment of his own mind. Luzifer made the most of this opportunity and attacked the eye repeatedly. Finally the abomination in armor dropped the weapon. The beast's hair began to change colors and the demonic arm began to diminish.

This is my body! Siegfried regained control of his sanity and found a blue, sword in his hands. It had a tapering hilt and a curve where the cross guards should be that enclosed an orb. On the outer edge of the curve was what looked like some sort of fish fin and the blade was wide and had the appearance of ice.

Siegfried felt an ancient affinity for the blade and he felt like he had used it for millennia. It had a consciousness and a presence similar to his. It was like finding the other half of oneself.

He felt an impulse to drive it into the cursed sword at his feet but first he needed to fend of his opponent who was resetting himself in his stance. Siegfried brought the blade in a downward slice but the boy stepped backwards and avoided it. Only not quite. There was a slight cut running down the left side of his face and over his eye. The younger man grabbed his face with one hand and collapsed to his knees.

This was the opportunity Siegfried needed; he drove the sword in his hand into the eye of Soul Edge, which was just now reforming after being sliced by the boy's sword. Siegfried could feel the energy drain from the weapon and from Soul Edge as well. Both sealed away the other's power and soon both became mere chucks of stone with no more power that rocks from a limestone quarry.

Siegfried felt a weight lift from his shoulders and he could feel the sun begin to shift. He could finally feel the sickening feeling his armor exuded. The corruption that had come with the slaughter of countless innocents. He tossed of the helmet and began to stand. That's when he heard the screaming.

The boy was writhing on the ground screaming in endless peels of anguish. His face was emitting a slight wisp of steam and when Siegfried could see that the area near the cut was boiling. He grabbed the boy, the boy who had helped free him from the control of Nightmare and Soul Edge, and dragged him to the nearest source of water, a fountain in front of a church.

Siegfried splashed some water on the boys face hoping against hope it would help but then the water began to steam as it touched the boy's face and the screams redoubled. The wounded adolescent pushed away from Siegfried and ran down to the river that wound its way through the castle. He dipped his face in it. The pain must have eased as he pulled his head up and stopped screaming, silently lying back against the riverbank.

Siegfried was both curious and disturbed. Why would church water do that to the boy? He walked to the river, which was flowing slowly toward its outlet in the Baltic Sea several miles away giving that calm rolling sound that one can only here from rivers when it is perfectly silent. He looked at the boy's face, which looked normal except for the blood coming from the slice that still remained above the left eye. That's when the boy opened his yellow eyes.

The pain was gone, thankfully. Luzifer had never known such agony, even when his arm had been trapped underneath the burning support beam, it had never even approached the agony that occurred when that unholy water had been splashed on his face. It was gone now but the memory would last a lifetime.

His eyes were closed and he let the flowing of the river calm his heart and slowly began to open his eyes. He saw the face of a man he recognized. His mind reeled as something was dragged from the attic of his conscious mind.

He ran down the hallways and appeared on a balcony overlooking the central square filled with Seraphim, Thrones, and Dominions. Set up in the center was a scaffold and upon it was a large chopping block. His brother was blindfolded and two angels looked up to Luzifer (was that still my name?). One was holding his brothers sword in his hand and the other turned to address Luzifer. Both had large white fires coming from their backs that wrapped around them like folded wings. "Well, if 'noctifer' didn't decide to witness his brother's execution I don't know where we would be." The man said, a smile appearing from behind long brown hair that dangled around his head.

"You bastard, Gabriel, on what grounds dare you execute my brother." Even Luzifer could feel the hatred dripping from his voice and his left hand was closed and tense.

"On what grounds? Why, only on treachery, you failed creation." Said Gabriel with an evil grin, " He dared to question the law of the Cherubim and you would be wise to heed his example." Gabriel motioned to Micheal who raised the blade over his head. Luzifer's brother was forced to kneel on the block, his neck exposed to the blade.

"You wouldn't dare you bastards!" Luzifer shouted over the din of the anticipating crowd. "I am stronger than you and you know it! I am the Light Bearer and His Chosen! You won't dare kill my brother!" His arrogance flared within him and he would not let it die out. He needed courage, but there was not enough, so he relied on arrogance to make up the difference.

"Tch…look around you! Look at the angels around you! They are Cherubim, Seraphim, Thrones, and Dominions. Do you think you have a chance?" Gabriel shouted at him. Luzifer staggered back as he devoted hit first real glance to the crowd in front of him. This wasn't a crowd; this was a throng. There were more here then he thought existed. Even Luzifer's arrogance snuffed out before their numbers. Gabriel took the Light Bearer's step back to be submission. He let his hand drop.

Michael dropped Gladifer's sword onto the prisoner's neck. As soon as Gladifer's head left his shoulders the body disappeared but the blood stayed on the sword. The sword absorbed the martyr's blood and began to change. It was turning an ice blue when it disappeared.

"I'll kill you! I'll kill you all! Everyone from the souls of the Platonist Origen to the Cherubim on the Temple-Mount, everyone of you is as good as dead!" Luzifer shouted above the cheers of the crowd. Fires began to form around, dance over, and jump from him.

Gabriel, with a motion of his hand, silenced to undulating crowd. "This death is warranted by the directives laid down by Him. To go against this decision is to go against Him. Are you truly willing to do that to the One who brought you into existence. Or will you show us just how corrupted you are, Noctifer." Gabriel said the last sentence with a smug tone in his voice and an arrogant spring in his walk.

"You will die! I will tear off your wings and teach you the true meaning of pain. Know this! If my brother's murder is warranted by Him then I SHALL NOT SERVE!" As Luzifer said the last four words he could feel his eye change color to the hue, which would come to identify all "fallen". "I will never serve a murderer! My vengeance will come and you will all be laid to waste by it."

Luzifer let his fires follow him as he turned back to the alabaster hall behind him. He dragged his sword against the wall to his right and his claws against the wall to his left, leaving gaping crevices in the pure white marble. Claws? When did I get claws? But his body wasn't the only thing changing, he could feel his sword absorbing his newfound malice and turning into a flesh-bound abomination.He didn't care at the moment though. He let fire spring off him and fill the hallway behind him. Blackening the walls and eating the tapestries. Luzifer laughed. Soon the whole universe would know this burning. And he had a plan to do it.

As he walked out of the hallway into the endless city of the Platonist Origen he saw two Dominions guarding his exit. He sighed slightly as they set into fighting stances. His sword glowed as he put energy into it. Two small beams of light came off and struck the Dominions who fell down dead. "Pathetic fools!" He turned to his flames, which were now coming out of the hall behind him. "Burn what you will but kill no one. As for me, I have an army to raise." And as he said that he smiled.

The entire memory passed in a moment and the man was offering a hand to help him get up. Luzifer brushed it off and stood up on his own. He could feel blood working its way down from the cut and he licked it as it grazed the corner of his mouth. The other man was taking off his plate armor with an expression of disgust, "Damn this armor to hell!" A gauntlet he had taken off hit the ground and stepped on it repeatedly until it badly misshapen.

Luzifer would have asked to have the armor if the man- well, young man, he looked only a few years older than himself- didn't want it but he had a feeling that the knight wouldn't have given it too him if he asked.

The armor destroying continued until all of the armor had been stomped into shapeless hunks of finely hammered steel. It was then that the man turned to him. The formerly-armor knight had blonde hair, which was grown long and straight, and angelic green eyes. He had a scar running over his left eye and he had a dark, melancholy innocence about him that seemed out of place. They looked out of the corner of their eye at each other, both waiting for the other to speak. Eventually, though, the other realized that Luzifer was not going to speak.

"Who are you?" the man said. His voice was burdened and tired.

Luzifer was silent for a moment, over the past few months he had been developing a habit of waiting a moment before he spoke, it helped to keep him speaking in a single language and not mixing others in accidentally. The man had spoken to him in German and seemed to have no difficulty with the pronunciation. Luzifer assumed it was his mother tongue and phrased his response in German as well, "I have no name. But there was one who called my Luzifer."

The other was taken severely aback and gripped his head. It seemed to Luzifer that the man had some sort of internal argument with himself and wondered how the name Blasa had given him factored in to that. Blasa…I'm sorry. He shook his head to push away the depressive thoughts.

The blonde had a strange half grin on his face and, with a half-sigh, "I can only assume you know what that name means." Luzifer nodded silently and the swordsman continued, "My name is Siegfried Schtauffen. Why are you here?"

Luzifer face was expressionless but he was smirking on the inside. Siegfried, obviously didn't trust him, oh well, I don't trust him. "I came to… destroy Soul Edge."

Siegfried hardly reacted but added a small quip, "You and half the world; and the other half wants to find and use the cursed thing." The knight sighed heavily. Luzifer just glanced at him but didn't move or say anything. "I owe you for helping me get out of Soul Edge's grasp and for that I am grateful." Luzifer didn't speak so Siegfried changed the subject finding the boys yellow eyes were burning holes in his mind, "Is your eye alright the wound is pretty bloody." The blood was still running quietly down Luzifer's face and he lapped at it when it came to the corner of his mouth. Luzifer shrugged with a half snarl on his face.

Siegfried turned abruptly and head over to the area where he had left the impaled Soul Edge lying on the ground. The two weapons were cold as stone and seem void of power, though Siegfried would not have staked his life on that. The boy named Luzifer followed and Siegfried became uneasy. It was only natural to be somewhat nervous when a boy named after the supposed lord of demons was following you.

They both stared at the two weapons and Siegfried felt a growing sensation around the formally blue sword, remembering from his days as Nightmare's host that the weapon was known as Soul Calibur. Glancing to his side he could tell the boy had a similar feeling towards Soul Edge and became even uneasier. The boy shook his head. Neither of the two noticed that Luzifer's left hand was opening and closing greedily.

Siegfried decided that it was time he learned whether the boy was a friend or a foe, this uncertainty was a tiring weight on a fatigued mind. From what he had seen the boy bore him no outward malice but there was something…wrong and devastatingly familiar about the boy that kept him from trusting him. And citrine eyes were only the smallest part of it.

"Why do you want to destroy Soul Edge?" Siegfried asked quietly, both still transfixed by the immaculate sculpture that the two most powerful entities in the world had become.

Luzifer thought for a long time before he answered. Why did he want to destroy it? Did he really want to destroy it? Looking at the blade had taken all the certainty out of his quest and he felt a strong desire to draw Soul Calibur from the wounded Soul Edge. My blade of old. Luzifer shook his head again. These random thoughts were getting on his nerves. "I don't know anymore. It was originally because the sword was too much like me. It is evil and so am I. Neither of us should exist." Luzifer said, dragging up so thoughts he didn't want to think.

Siegfried grinned with no hint of mirth, "That's a feeling I can understand. You kill someone dear to you?" The boy was beginning, disturbingly, to remind Siegfried of himself.

"Mother…" Luzifer hesitated a bit; he didn't know what Blasa was to him. He sighed inwardly, "Sister".

Siegfried stopped grinning and his face was serious. The kid had a heavy, somber look about him and seemed to have a strong remorse for whatever evils he had committed in the past. Besides, Luzifer had helped him escape from Soul Edge the least Siegfried could do was not kill him.

Picking up the two entwined swords Siegfried walked into the castle. He had managed to set aside Requiem and his old plate armor before he had succumbed to the machinations of Nightmare and he would need to retrieve them for his next journey. A journey to find a way to destroy Soul Edge forever. Luzifer shadowed him through the empty stone halls were their footsteps echo and reverberated, creating the sound of an army. Siegfried slipped into the castle armory and began to put on his old plate armor, setting the two stone blades on a decaying wooden table. The armor was hanging from a rack and the various pieces were set up in locations similar to where they would be on the human body. It was made of white steel and every surface was beautifully curved to reflect blows. It had a high steel collar around the neck. It had no helmet but now that he was human once more Siegfried had no reason to hide his face.

This was indeed the armor of paladins.

It took Siegfried quite sometime to work his way into his armor as it was not designed to be put on by the person who would be wearing it. There were meant to be at least two squires to help with the dressing process. Siegfried did not have the luxury of servants and did not feel it to be appropriate to ask Luzifer to help him.

During this time there was a heavy silence. To fill the void Siegfried asked something that had been nibbling on the back of his mind since he had first seen the boy, "Why don't you use your left arm? Is it broken?"

The boy responded with a calm terseness that seemed to contradict the severity of what his words meant, "No. It's dead."

Siegfried finished putting on his armor. He grabbed Requiem from where it was resting against the wall and slipped it over his back, into a loop that held the blade up by the cross guards. Requiem had a wide tapering blade that at the end looked like a diamond had been set on its side. Thus the point on the diamond with the most obtuse angle was used in stabbing while the acute ones were used in a slash. An idea came to Siegfried on how to repay the boy when he saw another sword in on of the stands.

"Here," he said holding the massive, should-need-three-hands sword to Luzifer. "The balance of this weapon is off for my style and I can't use it. It's designed to be used in a single hand though it seems too large for that. I thought that since you can only use one hand it would be optimal for you. It's called the Glam."

Luzifer merely looked at the sword. The front of the blade was triangular with a black center etched with yellow runes. The runes read "The Unmartyred Angel" and at the edge of the black it sloped to a keen edge. At the base of the triangle it curved inwards towards the hilt and had two long cylindrical cross guards.

Taking the sword in his hand Luzifer realized how heavy it felt. It probably weighed no more the ten pounds but the way the weight stretched over the entire blade made it feel heavier then it was. He twirled it easily over the back of his hand. Yes, it was indeed balanced for a single hand. It was meant for cuts coming from the outside in. It was meant for constant motion.

Luzifer made a slight head bow to show gratitude. Siegfried began to walk out of the room after grabbing Soul Edge and Soul Calibur. Again, Luzifer followed him. Before long they exited the gates of the castle and looked onto the plains that surrounded it, watching the see of grass turn a rusty red with light of the setting sun. Siegfried looked at Luzifer over his shoulder and told him that Luzifer was to stop following him.

"No. I will destroy Soul Edge." It is part of me and thus must die. Luzifer didn't say the last part because he knew that it would not help his case if Siegfried found that out.

"It is to dangerous." Siegfried said, "You should know from the fight earlier that I cannot control myself if Soul Edge were to come back."

"I fear neither death nor hell. I fear not the loss of my soul." Luzifer intoned with out emotion, the dried blood from the wound on his face, which had finally stopped bleeding, only made his point stronger. Luzifer held up the sword in his new sword and continued, "I am coming whether or not you want it."

Siegfried just looked at him, "Tch…your funeral." With that they both walked into the wide arms of the setting sun.

Sigh… I hate my dialogs. Well, at any rate Siegfried has finally joined the story just like I promised. A guess what? More random foreshadowing!

Please review, if it was whole thing about giving you guys cancer with my mind I was joking okay? Please be nice and review. Might be a while till I update I got exams both this and next week.

Breaeden Swordwind