I know that Ezio did not live around 1590-1607, but for the sake of the story, let's just pretend that he did.

Cyril lay with his eyes closed. Not sleeping, but in a sort of trance-like state where he mentally rested, instead of physically. Still, he was very aware of his surroundings; after all, he was currently cradling a bundle of unpredictable killing potential in his arms in the form of a teenage girl.

If his counting had not been off in any way throughout the night, then dawn was a mere hour away, give or take a few minutes. Seeing this as an optimal time to plan his next destination, Cyril carefully extracted himself from his interlocked position with Tira, and rose from the ground as quietly as possible. Having accomplished his goal in not waking the girl, and taking into consideration just how early in the morning it was, the Sentinel was content to leave Tira alone for the time being, confident that she would not awaken anytime soon. Having come to that conclusion, Cyril proceeded to search for the highest point he could find, so that the energies of the earth and sky would be closer to a state of equilibrium, and therefore cause less interference with his supernatural reconnaissance.

The search for such a place took him pretty far from the tree he had spent the night under; several hundred paces, if not more. However, he was sure that he could make it back before the sun rose, and hopefully before Tira woke up. When he did finally locate a suitable knoll for his current task, Cyril realized he had forgotten to take Eiserne Drossel with him. A brief moment of conflict gave him pause; should he go back and retrieve the weapon, therefore being completely assured that it was out of Tira's grasp, or should he complete his task as quickly as possible, with the intention of returning before the girl awoke? Knowing that walking all the way back to the tree and then locating this generic looking hill all over again would take considerable time he did not wish to waste, Cyril decided on the latter. He reasoned that, even if Tira should try to harm him once more, that he could easily defeat her in her weakened state.

With that problem settled, Cyril sat down in the soft grass with in a cross-legged fashion, aware that tracing abnormal energies would require some decent amount of time. He closed his eyes off from the world in an attempt to block out any distractions. As soon as he felt as relaxed and focused as he could be, Eros' Sentinel began his analysis of this world's energies. All Sentinels possessed this ability. After all, without it, locating the Catalyst would have proven nearly impossible. The most powerful sources of energy were detected first: his fellow Sentinels. From here, they were in the West, South, and Southwest. That was all he could tell from their energies though; he had no clue how they were faring in their mission, or what knowledge they may have ascertained thus far.

After those energy signatures were other, slightly less powerful ones. Two of them were easily pinpointed, as both were in the West somewhere, but not as far as the land Xandra was searching. Cyril's best guess would be that these energies were emanating from Europe, although were exactly, he could not tell. A few other signatures were of equal strength to those two, but for some reason, Cyril could not determine their origin. They were either widespread energies, or signatures purposefully scrambled by some other being.

After all of this, came the weak energies of his immediate surroundings: meaning that there were no other energies powerful enough to be detected from were Cyril was. Instead, he detected the natural energy of the surrounding life and world itself, such as the earth and wind, as well as the many animals that were near enough to be detected from his position. His range for such lifeforms was roughly half-a-mile. And as he recounted that little fact to himself, Cyril realized there was something missing in that half-mile radius: he couldn't detect Tira within it. Or Archimedes, for that matter, although that infernal creature had a much weaker energy signature than its master.

Finally exiting the confines of his own mind, Cyril returned his attention to the world, and noted with dismay that much more time had passed than he had originally planned on spending. The sun was already peeking over the horizon, bathing the hilly land before it in orange, and the sky near the orb of flame in fuchsia, instead of the murky blue left over from the night.

The Sentinel quickly rose to his feet, berating himself for having been so careless. Aware that Tira was just as likely to try and kill him as she was to have merely gone elsewhere for some other purpose entirely, Chrysaor decided to take the precaution of re-arming himself. A minor amount of energy was all it took for a Sentinel to manifest their armor. Several blue particles materialized in mid-air, powered by Valhalla's net of magical energy. These particles combined on Cyril's body, and stuck there for a moment, temporarily creating a glowing blue figure of a man. When the armor was finished shaping itself around its wearer, the magical energy disappeared, and left only the enchanted armor that made Cyril into the Sentinel of Lightning in full. This whole process took but a few seconds.

Cyril took this precaution in order to be prepared, should Tira sneak up on him or something. True, he could have just stayed where he was and wait until the girl came into his radius of detection once more, but who knew how long that would take? The Saxon girl could just as easily wait hours on him to come back to her, and then the two of them would've wasted hours waiting for each other to come find their counterpart. Besides, if she had recovered from her injury sufficiently, she could have been escaping him at that very moment, and Cyril was not willing to let a potential source of valuable information get away.

With this in mind, Cyril proceeded to head back to the place where he and Tira had spent the night, ever chary of the deviousness of the girl he dared to call a companion. Still, the short trip back to the tree was totally uneventful. The Sentinel of Lightning was not ambushed or otherwise accosted by Tira or any other creature. Despite this, Cyril kept his guard up, especially as he reached the tree in question, and noted that Tira was not there. Not only was she gone, but so were the things she kept with her: Archimedes and Eiserne Drossel. Now aware that Tira was in fact armed, Cyril intensified his own vigilance; sure, he had had a merry old time with the girl yesterday, but the fact that she was mentally unstable in some way or form was not lost on the Sentinel. Besides, he had no delusions about their very new relationship. They were not friends and certainly not allies. Tira had tried to kill him once and Cyril had no doubt that she would try again if she had the opportunity.

Even so the Sentinel continued on his way, and now that he had entered the vicinity of where Tira was likely to be, decided to draw Naegling: he would feel much safer if he had the mystical weapon at the ready, instead of in its shining scabbard. Cyril continued on for nearly a mile, and watched as the scenery slowly changed, if only a little. The hills behind him had flattened out quite a bit, and ahead of him, trees had grown more plentiful. He wouldn't really call it a forest, but it was too large to be categorized as a copse. Such a pointless matter was dispelled as Cyril realized he was thinking it, and he continued to watch all around him, especially the treetops, for the girl that may have been waiting to slit his throat. Not that she could do that while his armor protected him, but he was still wary.

Cyril spent the better part of an hour investigating the area. It took such time because he thoroughly checked every nook and cranny he could find. With no success in his search for the violet-eyed girl that eluded him, Cyril briefly contemplated attempting to detect her energy again. In the end, he decided against it; one moment of lowered guard was all that was needed for a cunning girl like Tira to ambush him. It would be a farce, and a potentially hazardous one as well, though he truly doubted that the girl would have been able to slay him even in surprise.

Fortunately, his search would not endure much longer. As Cyril rounded another tree trunk, he came upon a small brook. Recalling the time he had found Tira near that stream a few days ago, he hoped to have a similar situation on his hands here. Deciding to follow the brook upstream, Cyril spent a good five minutes following it before finally chancing upon his quarry. Yes, she was near the brook, and no, she was not planning to assassinate Cyril, as far as he could tell. Then again maybe she was. Tira was a difficult person to make assumptions about.

Tira sat upon a tree-branch that was a few feet off the ground, with her ring blade over her shoulder and Archimedes perched on top of it. She was staring into the water below intensely. Cyril decided to take this opportunity to observe the teenager and perhaps glean something significant from the exercise. However, as he shifted his weight to sit down, he snapped a miniscule twig under his metal boots. The sound was very faint; Cyril had hardly even heard it himself. But nevertheless, it was enough to garner the attention of the girl on the branch above.

Tira's head whipped around to ascertain the source of the disturbance. The movement was so rapid, that Cyril was reminded of the way a bird or squirrel jerks its head when it hears something potentially dangerous. As she laid eyes on him, Tira's amethyst eyes narrowed. Clearly, she was not pleased that Cyril had managed to get so close to her without being noticed.

"...you."

Cyril nodded, dismayed that he had made such an amateurish mistake. "Me. What are you doing out here?"

"None of your business."

Hoping to find some way to force the girl into a happier state of mind, Cyril thought of a way to do so. He shrugged and began to walk away. "Alright. Come back whenever you're ready."

He got just the response he had expected. Well, not the exact response, but close enough for him.

"Wait! Ciri, you aren't supposed to give up that easily! You're supposed to be persistent and stuff! Otherwise this is all just boring and lame."

Ignoring the rest of the sentence, Cyril focused on the one part he didn't like. "Ciri? Where the hell did that come from? I told you what my name was."

"Well I told you that I didn't like what your name was. So I fixed it."

Cyril sighed, content with beating his actual name into Tira's thick skull very soon. "Don't count on it lasting for very long. What are you doing out here anyway?"

Tira shrugged, seeing no reason why she couldn't give an explanation. She hadn't been doing anything important anyway. "Fixing my hair. I needed some place with a reflection to do it."

"Was something wrong with your hair that needed fixing...?"

Tira shot the Sentinel an irritated glare, as if she thought that Cyril should know very well what had been amiss. "'Even your hair is completely lopsided. You barely look like you can take care of yourself, never mind me.' Remember that, you jerk?"

Cyril took a moment to examine the equilibrium of Tira's pigtails. They were indeed equal now, instead of unbalanced. "Ah, I did say that, didn't I? I'm sure you won't believe me when I tell you I didn't really mean it, but either way, your hair looks nice."

The girl smiled happily. "Of course it does. And believe it or not, I actually do believe you. After all, I was selected to go on a ton of seduction assignments when I was with..."

With her sentence unfinished, Cyril cocked an eyebrow at her. Besides, it was a strange sentence to leave hanging. "Back when you were with...?"

Tira glared at him angrily. Cyril found it strange that someone attractive like her could look so truly vicious. "If I wanted to fucking tell you, I would have kept going."

Cyril was intrigued how Tira could shift behavior so suddenly. He had convinced himself already that she had some sort of condition, but these little occurrences made him curious as to what it was specifically. Shaking those thoughts from his mind, Cyril wondered what he could say, but before he could respond to her previous threat, he was stopped by the look of genuine surprise on her face.

"What the hell are you supposed to be?"

Cyril eyed the girl peculiarly, confused as to what or who she was talking about. But he didn't have enough time to ask, because in the next five seconds, he would find out on his own.

"Requiescat in pace, bastardo."

Ezio Auditore allowed the Templar he had just slain to slump over in his arms, and the Italian assassin deposited him over the edge of a stone wall and into the waters of the Golden Horn, which separated the European and Asian shores of Istanbul. The body made an audible splash as it hit the surface of the water, but the sound was lost in the hectic bustle of the city. The killing went completely unnoticed.

Ezio flipped open the journal he had stolen from the Templar captain before killing him, hoping to discover what information the man had been attempting to get to his superiors. The master assassin skimmed the pages, looking for anything important. The first few pages were merely pleasantries from the captain to his commander. Ezio skipped over these. Fortunately, he did find what he was looking for; a report on the Templar search for some powerful artifact to bolster their standing here in the city.

But even though this was the information Ezio was looking for, it made little sense to him. It was mostly talk of a pair of swords, supposedly very powerful, that were out of Templar reach. According to the captain, both of these blades were wielded by deadly warriors who resided somewhere in Europe. It was written that one of these men dwelt in a heavily fortified castle within Germany, but the other warrior was currently roaming the continent, and his whereabouts were unknown.

The report was quite long, and Ezio didn't have time to read and comprehend the whole thing. He hid the journal within his garments, and proceeded to make his way back towards the assassin headquarters. Perhaps Yusuf would know more about these "Spirit Swords." Ezio merged into the crowd, leaving the disabled or dead Templar entourage of the captain behind him.

Cyril heard the whistling of the air behind him as something sliced through it at high speed. Acting reflexively, he ducked down, attempting to avoid whatever was being swung at his head. After he heard it pass, he rolled away from his attacker and turned to face it. Before him was some strange humanoid looking creature in a black jumpsuit and a large battle axe. It had several chains wrapped around it, and sported a lot of white highlights. Its eyes glowed green, and one of its red boots was strangely enlarged. It was now clear what Tira had been questioning but a moment ago.

Chrysaor readied Naegling to counter his new adversary. "Clarify your intent, or I will destroy you. And be careful about your answer. The words you utter may be your last."

Tira cut into the confrontation from above. "Oh, Ciri, you sound so dangerous when you talk like that! I like it!"

Cyril's black-clad opponent snickered. "Ciri? That's kind of a bitch name, don't you think?"

The Sentinel of Lightning's anger was instantly redirected from Tira's misuse of his name to his enemy's insulting words. "Believe me, in those tights, I think you have little right to say anything. Besides, I advise against angering me, unless you want this blade in your skull."

The girl above the new opponents clapped, obviously amused by the two men below her. "Hey, Ciri, that's the most violent thing I've ever heard you say! Keep going! Kill him, cut him into a hundred tiny pieces!"

Both men ignored the unstable girl, while the jumpsuit guy retorted angrily. "Tights?! You little fuck, I'll rip you in half!"

With that, Cyril's enemy lunged forward and swung his axe in an overhead arc. Cyril caught it with his left hand, stopping the heavy weapon in its tracks, and retaliated by jabbing at his foe's exposed side with Naegling. His enemy intercepted the blade with his own hand, much like Cyril had done. However, his maneuver did not go without injury. By gripping the double-edged blade, it sliced into the black-clad man's hands. Cyril exerted more of his might to press the blade towards his enemy's torso, and his opponent was forced to compensate by pressing against Neagling even harder. The magical blade cut deeply into his palms, but the blood that gushed from the wound was not red: in fact, it was black, and seemed too thick to be blood. It looked more like ooze to the Sentinel.

So far, the man had matched Cyril in strength, but if the trembling in his arms was any indicator of his condition, then it would seem that he had reached his limit. A little more force and Naegling would plunge into the dark torso of Cyril's opponent. Aware that this was about to happen, his opponent broke their grapple lock by kicking Cyril in the gut and knocking the Sentinel off of his feet. Beyond that, Cyril was not damaged in the slightest. He rolled back to his feet, and prepared himself for another bout, as his opponent took a few steps backwards. Cyril aimed the tip of his blade at the man, while also gathering stream of electrical energy around his other arm to emphasize his point.

"This is a futile battle. I am a supernatural being, you can't hope to defeat me."

His opponent scoffed. "You ain't the only one pal."

The dark figure rushed forward once more, again swinging his axe in an overhead motion. Cyril wondered why he would try the same tactic twice, but decided to leave his good luck unquestioned.

But before he could intercept the weapon like he had done before, Spawn seemingly disappeared into some sort of black hole. Cyril was confused by this phenomenon, but had only a moment to ponder it before that same axe smashed into the side of his helmet from behind.

The impact sent Cyril flying into the brook beside him, and caused quite a large splash for such a shallow body of water. More than amused with the battle, Tira clapped with glee.

"Whoa, that was pretty cool! But try to put more blood into next time, 'kay?"

Cyril shot an irritated glance at the girl. "Tira, I would have appreciated a warning..."

The bird-obsessed teen returned his annoyance with an irritable tone of her own. "Why would I do that? We aren't friends. I'm trying to kill you, remember?"

Archimedes emphasized the sentence with a cackling cry natural to his species, and for the umpteenth time, Cyril thought of turning the bird into fried poultry. If he was lucky, the shot would singe off some of Tira's hair too, perhaps teaching the insufferable girl a lesson.

The Sentinel brushed those pointless thoughts from his mind, despite how entertaining they were. He rose to his feet and charged up a shot of electrical energy.

"You aren't the only one around here with special abilities. You're going to regret challenging me."

His opponent's green eyes narrowed, but he made no move against Cyril. Instead, he spoke a word of farewell. "As scary as that sounds, I'm not even here for you. Just this bitch." He jabbed a thumb over his shoulder to point at Tira as he said that.

"What did you call me, Tights!? I'll tear you limb from li-!"

Tira's enraged rant was cut off as Spawn leaped up to the branch beside her, grabbed her, and slung the girl over his shoulder. "Shut up. You've got a problem, bring it up with the Nightmare guy. His orders anyway."

Cyril was all too aware of what was about to happen, and he made a last ditch attempt to stop his opponent from fleeing with Tira in tow. But he still needed another second or two to charge a decent shot, and Spawn was already prepared to escape. Apparently, Tira knew what was about to happen as well, and clutched both Eiserne Drossel and Archimedes in an attempt to avoid being separated from them.

Spawn made a mock salute and jumped into the air. "Later, metal-man!" With that, he and his passenger disappeared into another black hole, and Cyril's bolt shot met nothing but tree bark, causing the vegetation to burst into flames. Now left alone, the Sentinel allowed an uncharacteristic spurt of anger to overwhelm him, and kicked the ground in rage.

"Damn! I can't believe this..."

"I don't understand. This force is so powerful that it threatens even our realm? But how can something so distant be so potent?"

Link looked to Navi for an answer, but the little fairy merely repeated what the Princess had already told him. "The events surrounding this force will be on such a cataclysmic level that space and time will be rendered useless, in terms of shielding other realms from the destruction. It must be stopped before it reaches that level of potential danger. Use the Warlock's Stone to travel to this lost realm and prevent the impending catastrophe!"

Link sighed. He should've known better than to rely on Navi for a decent explanation. He wondered what could be so powerful that it threatened Hyrule even from another realm. Surely it was a powerful force to be reckoned with. But what was it exactly? A monster? Or an ancient artifact of untold power? Regardless of what it was, the task fell to Link to stop it. But first, he had to acquire the Warlock's Stone, which was of course, locked in a dungeon somewhere.

It was frustrating to Link that he had to spend time in Hyrule just to find the artifact that would get him to this other realm. A quest as a precursor to another quest? That was just irritating.

"Hey, hey listen!"

It was going to be a long journey. Although Navi did talk a bit too much... Link was glad to have her with him. Long travel was always more bearable when there was a friend to travel with.

Yeah, so there was a good bit of language in this chapter, but for the record, Spawn's wiki did say that he was the most foul-mouthed SC character. And as for Link... I've never even played a Legend of Zelda game, so half the stuff I write for him will be concocted bull. What can you do?