Hullo. I just want to get side tracked for a bit. I'm leaving off SC: An Epic Saga for a while and would like to experiment on this fic. Moreover, I'm also going to experiment on the length; so, rather than publish 12-14 pages in MS word worth of 1 chapter, I'm going to cut the chapters in half. Also, I'll also be trying a new set of characters. Please help me with reviews and critiques. I'm quite groping right now and trying to feel the characters and trying hard to find out how to characterize them best.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or the plot of Soul Calibur.

Chapter 1: The Setting Stage for the Arena of Death

Ominous…

This would be the closest word to associate with the sky blotted by dark clouds, moving like fluttering human fingers, creeping onwards, veiling the sunlight; the grasses that swayed a deathly dance, accompanied by the ghostly howls sang by the wind—the wind which blew not pleasant cool peaceful breezes but cold, life-draining gales.

Omen…

Every creature that had sensed its foreboding fled in haste, afraid that it would overtake them. All that were capable of one or another means of locomotion had deserted the scene.

All… That is, saved for the avian carrion scavengers that lurk and infested the ground. Ravens—they feasted on the fallen bodies of the slain warriors that carpeted the earth as ebony lush grasses on the rolling plains layered with human bodies. One raven, its eyes glowing like a ruby jewel, scanned its surroundings in satisfaction upon seeing that food would not be scarce for the next days or weeks. For as far as its eyes could see on the ground, it could find more and more of its delicacies.

Crack!

A peal of thunder resounded from the east followed by more lightning and thunders. It caught the attention of the crimson-eyed raven which momentarily shifted its gaze onto where the sounds of thunders and the flashes of lightning were abundant. Dark clouds hovered like dark blankets where the flashes and rumbles were. Underneath the brooding sky was the majesty of an old cathedral, strutting on top of a hill, with a wide crystal clear lake at its back which reflected the dark ambiance of the sky above it. The chapel was hidden halfway at the bottom by the tops of the equally majestic trees surrounding it.

The raven flapped its black feathery wings in excitement as if it knew the events occurring underneath the dark clouds a mile away from the carrion bird. Its crimson eyes reflected the mysterious cathedral several distances away from it.

--

In its reflection, shown clear as in a mirror, the lake exhibited the inanimate structure with fast, soaring clouds in the background. The cathedral was a rectangular structure with a triangular roof and a tall tower in its front, overlooking on a steep hill. Within the walls of the structure were the persons responsible for the turmoil surrounding it.

A silhouette of a man appeared in the windows of its front tower, indistinguishable and mysterious. He held forth his hand in front of him, stiffly extended and shaking. Then, a small light—a purple light—from something in front of him flashed with blinding brightness, faded into darkness, flickered and flashed once again. Slowly, the light became steadier with the flashes increasing in duration and gaining in size with each burst. His silhouette eventually got swallowed by the brightness.

Underneath the tower, inside the cathedral, was the percussive death music of weapons clashing onto each other; the strikes sounding like that of a high-pitched bell ringing furiously.

Crash!

Dust and debris flew as a massive sword struck a pillar, missing the head of a blond male. The male staggered as he recovered from his last minute duck which saved his head. His hands caught a broken long cathedral seat, steadying his stance as he resumed his upright posture. He hastily ran his armored hand through his hair, removing them from his face. He had not bothered cutting them or tying them before even though his hair had reached his lower back. Now he cursed himself for that because of the distraction they brought him.

"Siegfried," he heard his enemy growl. He turned his head towards the source of the voice and saw him approaching. Clad in deep blue armor, his enemy dragged his enormous sword on the ground creating a deep crevice on the stone blocks of the floor. He was imposing in his suite of armor as dark as the midnight sky and a helm that hid his face but not the red glow of his eyes and which also displayed a long, smooth horn at the center of his forehead. His right arm was hideous possessing a talon like that of a monstrous eagle connecting to a shoulder with four bony spikes surrounding what seemed like a mouth full of dagger-like teeth.

The man in deep blue armor swung his massive sword upwards preparing to strike. The sword took every breath away with its unsightly image—that it was not just a sword made of metal blade and hilt, but also with pulsating flesh and an eye bulging and blinking at the bottom of the blade where the hilt initiated. The fleshy part was red like that of skinned meat and, what conveyed its lustful desires, its lone eye, stared bloodthirstily at the man with the blonde hair.

A cloud of dust and debris exploded once again as the weapon cut through the blocks of stone floor. Siegfried successfully evaded the vertical blow and rolled to his side. Upon stopping his own rolling motion, he sprang to his feet and sprinted towards the monstrous enemy, swinging his own sword, equally large as his enemy's but more noble in appearance, a knight's broadsword. The man in dark armor tilted his head to his side avoiding the horizontal swing and holding his own enormous weapon in a back hand grip, he propelled it upwards trying to cleave the man into equal right and left parts.

Siegfried jumped back, just in time to avoid the blow, and jumped forward in a counterattack. A series of blows erupted from them as both engaged in a series of strikes and blocks on each other.

Siegfried ducked violently, bending his upper torso forward, avoiding a high horizontal swing. His long hair flapped like an ocean wave while near their tips, his hair got cleaved off by the enemy sword. Upon raising his head, a large talon-like fist struck his face sending him crashing through the long cathedral chairs. With several heaves, he lifted himself on the ground using his own sword as a crutch.

"Do you think you stand a chance against me?" the Azure armored creature sneered. "I now have the power incomparable to yours; I am the Nightmare. Soon I will devour you and make you experience unimaginable torments."

The blonde man lifted his head once again. Determination swept his face as he pushed himself from his crouching position and lifted his sword over his head.

"I won't let it happen," he declared with ferocity as he charged at his foe.

Pang!

A hoarse laughter erupted from the mouth of the one who identified himself as the Nightmare as both warriors were stuck into a deadlock of swords. Both pushed against each other with seemingly equal strength to resist the other's forward force.

--

From two levels above, a female figure peered through the vertical bars supporting the rails of the third floor corridor, watching from above the fierce battle happening below. As her silhouette walked from the shadow to a small eclipse of moonlight that peered through the cathedral windows, her entire body was revealed. She wore a tattered green and purple outfit constructed from avian skin and feathers sewn roughly on the thigh portion of her pants and the wrist part of her gauntlets. The bangs of her shoulder length black hair fell carelessly at the sides of her face, accentuating her purple eyes and her childish face. A smile crept up on her face as she said:

"Master is going to get what he wants."

She could feel the thump of her heartbeat on her chest as excitement filled her. Her frail small shoulders rose and fell in succession with eyes wide-eyed and awestricken.

Suddenly, a bright flash of a purple light from above caught her attention. As her gaze and soon her head kept track of the flicker in her vision, she felt a cold breeze on her neck accompanied by a couple weak wheezes on her ear.

She startled when she turned around and saw a horde of undead warriors staring at her.

"What do you want?" she demanded, her gay face suddenly morphing into icy coldness. A soft moan from one of the undead answered her which made her irritated even more.

"Go away and find someone else to bother."

She turned around and returned her gaze to the flashes of light that had piqued her curiosity. Her hand rested on the horizontal rails as she began to climb it. As her left knee planted on the rail, a cold hand grasped her left foot and pulled her. With a yell, she fell backwards.

Violently, she rose and picked up her weapon, leaning passively on the rails. Her weapon was shaped like a wheel with the blunt portion at the inner side and the sharp, deadly blade at the outside. Grabbing the weapon by its inner blunt-side, she leapt towards the undead creatures and swung her weapon at them. On the contrary, they were agile enough to avoid her first attack. With equal ferocity, they drew their swords and marched forward to attack her.

Her eyes sparkled upon seeing them with their weapons.

"Good," she said ferociously. "I was just getting bored. You should keep me company."

Laughing menacingly she received her attackers and met their blades.

--

"Har-har-har," a sinister voice accompanied by the clanking of metal boots sounded from behind him as he ran away. He skipped sideways to avoid one deadly swipe from Nightmare's massive blade. He ducked and rolled away, pursued and trying to get away, like a hare being chased by a hungry wolf.

"You can run only for a short time, Siegfried. Soon, your soul will scream as it would be sucked in by this sword as all the others before you. Give it up because the inevitable will engulf you in a little while."

Siegfried cringed as he heard his name from his pursuer. He cursed himself with the thought of seemingly being the prey of the very person he wanted to fall into his hands. Yet, angry as he was, he appeared to be unable to change his current state. This was partly due to one thought that kept bothering him—a feeling of his strength steadily draining as their battle continued on. He felt himself being emptied like wine in a hole-filled wine bag. He never would have admitted it but deep inside, he knew that the battle had ended and everything that Nightmare had threatened him would be his fate…

And was already his fate…

Crash!

Another pillar became victim to Nightmare's weapon, Soul Edge. Siegfried ducked and pivoted right and felt his right shoulder collide with a wall.

He was cornered!

Wide-eyed and breathless, he peered through his hair, tangled in a mess in front of his grimy face.

He had grown unacquainted to this emotion that currently resided in him. It was as if a person he hadn't seen for years had come knocking at his front door. He was just adjusting to this experience that seemed new to him. But then, it began to flood his senses as it reintroduced itself to him: the fear for his life.

Self-preservation. Inherent, primitive and possessed by every life-form. It gnawed at him; it knocked on his mind and appeared to want to burst through him—burst through his cold shell of despair and submission to guilt. The same guilt suddenly seized him and jolted his spirits upright as he remembered.

'No! I don't deserve life. But death would be meaningless if I don't purge this evil before me.'

—There he was in front of him: the Azure Knight. The Nightmare. He hadn't realized how true the stories about this terrifying creature were… until now. His mind was blank and only his left hand gripping his sword moved automatically, raising itself in a half-arc horizontal swipe.

"Ugh!" he yelled as he produced his swipe, though, his efforts were rendered useless; his strike was parried away and his sword only struck the wall behind him harmlessly.

He was about to launch a counter strike when Nightmare's talon-like hand caught his left wrist, swung him around and dragged him on the stone-tiled floor as the Nightmare ran. He threw the blonde knight onto the rows of cathedral benches, smashing them as Siegfried collided and skidded through them. Again, dust and splinters of wood flew in several directions.

Dizzily, Siegfried shook his head and wiped his forehead with the back of his hand; his sweat mixed with the dust on his face mired it. He looked again at it upon realizing that the grime on his hand appeared darker than what he expected… Redder than what he expected. Wiping it again, he made no second guesses as to what stained his hand. A patch of blood.

A cut on my head, he deduced as he pushed himself upright.

He collapsed as a wave of spinning sensation flooded his head. Shaking it away, he tried to get up and almost failed but was able to swerve like a drunken man towards a nearby wall, giving him something to lean his weakened body onto. He knew that he was in pain; however, the dizziness had dampened his senses.

He could see his nemesis marching towards him through his peripheral vision. He knew he could not fight in his present state; he had to recover his strength. He needed to buy more time and yet he knew that time was running out for him…

…An opening through the wall he was leaning onto, several feet before him, caught his eye. Dragging his sword on the floor, weapon ever increasing in its weight, he made a run for it.

--

She back flipped and landed on the horizontal railing, back towards the emptiness plummeting through three floors. She leapt up avoiding a swipe directed towards her legs. As she descended, she produced a drop kick throwing away her enemies immediately in front of her, producing a domino effect to several layers of undead behind those unfortunate enough to receive her kick.

She landed on her back and rolled backwards to a half-kneeling position.

"Tch, tch, tch, tch, tch," she shook her head as she began to spin her ring blade on her wrist like a hula hoop. "What waste. I wanted to finish you all but I'm growing bored with you. You're no fun anymore."

She inclined her head obliquely as a sparkle of idea popped inside her.

"Hmm… I know! Let's play a game. The one who comes in front of me first gets to fly high! Oh! I want to see that!"

She extended her non-bladed hand in slow motion and flicked her fingers several times invitingly. She glared at them and growled:

"Come and get me…"

As one, the horde of undead produced an eerie yell as they charged at her. A glint flashed on her eyes as she swung her bladed wrist upward sending her first attacker and her ring blade in an ascent motion, the ring blade spinning continuously, propelling the attacker upwards and backwards. Weaponless, she spun and dodged through one deadly thrust, caught the attacker's wrist and hooked her leg onto its face and slammed her foe on the floor with a massive force. She leapt and kicked another at the chest and landed on the rails once more.

Her ring blade flew back to her and catching it with her wrist, she spun it once again like a hula hoop as she crouched and swung the blade through a row undead. The blade cut through their chests smoothly causing them to topple backward.

Looking up, she saw the enemy she sent flying hanging above. She hung her ring blade on her shoulder and jumped high. She caught the near falling undead by its feet and using its torso as a swing, she rocked to and fro several times before hurling herself once more upward, twisting in the air and landing on the fourth floor rail.

She turned around and jumped down the rail to the fourth level floor; she dropped in a half kneel. As she rose upright, there before her was a horde of more undead warriors, each equipped with various weapons. Through the layers of rotting flesh revived to fight once more, she saw the purple light once again.

There, behind them, was the object that piqued her interest.

There, behind them, was where she was going.

A half smile crept up the side of her cheek as she picked up her weapon hanging on her shoulder.

"More games," she chuckled. "More games."

Her eyes widened once again in thrill. "Hello, I'm Tira. Let's play…!"

--

From behind the old cathedral, outside, where the ominous clouds cast their shadows, was what seemed like an exterior bulge, like a shirt in a pocket or a man under a blanket. Its horizontal curvature ran from the grassy soil below up to its majestic roof, layered with blue tiles. It appeared useless and a bit like a ludicrous architectural fashion from outside, however, inside it served its greater function. The horizontal arcuate bulge was in fact one of several long staircases within that connected all of its floor levels. And though it possessed several windows here and there, inside it was dimmed with darkness that served as a hiding place for the prey and a place to accentuate the terror of the hunter.

Tap, tap, tap, tap.

The sound of metal boots padding alternately, amplified by the echoes they produced, perceived painfully by the one being pursued. It was accompanied with another soft, slower alternating tap, tap, taps and the clinking of metal armor against each other.

Another sinister laugh sounded.

"You can run from me but you can never hide from me. The smell of your aura would always be strong in my nose; wherever you are, I know!"

Siegfried ignored the threats of his pursuer as he continued his flight. He ignored the eerie sounds of his foe's footsteps. Nothing mattered to him but the alternating left and right motion of his legs, lifting him one step at a time through the dark spiral stairway. He ignored the light shining through a crevice between the floor and what he perceived as a door and continued his run.

Clank! Clank! Clank! Cla-clank! CRANK!

Siegfried turned around in alarm as he felt a soft gush of the wind brush the back of his head. Anticipating, he held his sword across in front of him.

CLANG!

His ears throbbed and ache as if his head was under a church bell ringing furiously; the sound of the impact between his sword and another's screamed at his ears. He toppled backwards, out of control, with the impact and landed on his back. Only with his foot anchored onto one of the stairway steps kept him from sliding downward. Looking up, he could see the red eyes of Nightmare glowing fiercely and feel his warm, deathly breath.

Nightmare's left hand sustained the shoving force of his sword towards the blonde knight as he raised his talon-like hand into the air and prepared to plunge it onto his supine foe's head. Siegfried twisted and dodged his head feeling the opposing claw cut through his shoulder armor and through his flesh causing blood to flow.

He gritted his teeth, trying to ignore the sudden pain as he put all of his force onto his leg and using it, shoved his foe backwards.

Dink, dink, dink, dink…

He got up. His feet felt the pounding rhythm on the floor as Nightmare skidded downwards. Once again, he darted upwards and resumed his flight.

For a while, all he heard was his harsh, turbulent breathing escaping his mouth. He didn't puzzle over the lost of his hunter's footsteps. It didn't matter to him… What was more important to him is to sustain another moment, to have another chance to defeat his foe. Death, he didn't care about. But he wouldn't join hands with it without dragging his nemesis down to hades…

He arrived onto another horizontal slit on the floor that allowed light to enter—another door. Just as his hand touched the door knob, a massive crash bellowed through the door as rays of chaotic light rays flushed through a splintered opening in the door with an organic, pulsating sword piercing through.

Siegfried barely dodged the massive blade and staggered back, holding himself onto the stair rails to prevent himself from toppling and rolling down the spiral staircase.

The whole sword was withdrawn from the door and then the door flew inwards with a loud crash as Nightmare kicked it in. Siegfried barely had time to prepare himself from his foe he had long thought to be left far behind when he was met by flurries of strikes coming from every direction as Nightmare drove him up the stairs.

His head throbbed… He felt his heartbeats drumming on his ears as a heightened sense of his movements arose in him—the sound of battle was drowned amidst his internal noises and every clang of swords clashing each other became subtle to him.

A vertical slash followed by another— Siegfried sidestepped to one side and parried another of Nightmare's vertical strike, redirecting it towards the stair rails. Using the momentary diversion, he slipped between Nightmare's side and the stair wall towards the door that glimmered with light and promised a short escape for him.

He emerged through the door and was blinded, unexpecting the intensity of its brightness. He then noticed that the light that pained his eyes were not of the chandeliers that had lit the cathedral when he first entered it; rather, it came from even more above and was purplish in hue. He slowed to a stop as he gazed onto it, one hand shading his eyes, both eyes squinted tensely.

--

Fine

--

A/N: There. First chapter down. If you identify any errors, please PM me or mention it in the reviews. I've already have chapter 2 halfway and if I could do it through my schedule, I'll try to post it soon.

Btw, I'm still planning on continuing my first fic and I'm still thinking whether I should change the title or not. Please tell me what you think by participating in the poll. Thanks. Ciao. :)