A/N - Aw, man, I was like 400 words away from being able to post this last night and keep on schedule. As it stands, uploading early the next morning isn't too bad by comparison. Well, it's not like I made you wait two weeks after a world-shattering cliffhanger that would change the way you viewed this story forever, so I think a few hour's delay isn't too terrible.
I'd like to think Carolinefdq for reviewing and for making me completely unable to take my own minor villain character seriously. The fun part, though, is that the main character from the Nosferatu film isn't actually named "Nosferatu." Nosferatu is the term the film used in the place of "vampires" to keep themselves from getting sued by the holders of the Dracula copyright. (That didn't really work out for them. They got sued, and lost, and most copies of the film were destroyed). The Dracula rip-off was named "Count Orlock."
Notes and translations of the Latin will be at the end of the chapter.
DISCLAIMER: Soul Eater is the intellectual property of Atsushi Ōkubo. I have no intention of monetizing my fanwork, and this is merely an enjoyable passer of time.
Chapter Eighteen - Temporal Resonance - The Vampire Who Eats Souls?! Part 2
Alecto ducked just in time as Nosferatu swung his carving knife, the gleaming blade cutting through the air where her throat used to be. Tick. She straightened up, reaching out for Tempus just as he turned back into his weapon form, the feeling of the leather glove connected intertwined with her fingers a familiar and somewhat comforting sensation. "Twelve o'clock, now!"
Tock. "Got it!" The gears on the buckler whirred and spun as the clockwork hands spun into place, parallel with her upper arm. Tick. Alecto grabbed Nosferatu's outstretched arm. Tock. She swung her right arm forward, knocking the vampire in the temple with the side of Tempus's buckler. The bald man staggered back from the force for a brief moment before wrenching his arm away from Alecto's grip and stabbing the knife towards the general area of her heart. She whirled in a half-circle to block it, the steel of the blade clashing against Tempus's polished bronze surface with a loud clang that echoed amidst the silence that covered the wooded park. Then she jabbed the spears backwards, feeling the force of the tips of the hands cutting into Nosferatu's sides and tearing a shallow pathway through his skin.
Tick. Alecto moved a few yards away, turning to face Nosferatu. Tock. He dropped the knife and clutched his side, the wound clearly visible even through the thick wool of his trench coat. He hissed and crouched low to the ground, glaring at her in such a way that made her grateful that looks could not, in fact, kill. Then he leapt up into the air, quicker than she could blink.
But he'd lost the upper hand he'd gained, and now that Alecto knew what he was doing, she was able to counter it. As he descended, his boot aimed for her face, she quickly threw her arm up, allowing the blow to collide with her shield then. Nosferatu, however, used Tempus as a springboard, jumping up and using the force from the leap to make Alecto stumble and fall backwards, landing solidly on the rough ground of the pathway. "Vae!" she swore, rolling out of the way and jumping to her feet as Nosferatu landed again.
"It's weird," Tempus observed. "Beyond the immediate sensation of pain, he doesn't seem to be affected by what we're dishing out at all." In her mind's eye, Alecto could see his concerned expression, his eyebrows knitted together in analytic concentration
He had a point. The two of them had practically torn Nosferatu's shoulder apart, and yet his left arm was still as limber as his other one. He didn't even seem to be registering the pain, his only focus on the blood still streaming from the wound on Alecto's leg. Kishin Eggs tended to be more resistant to pain and injury than the average run-off-the-mill asshole, but this was ridiculous.
"This is bad," she said. "He's got us on the defensive, Tempus. If we keep fighting like this, it's only a matter of time before he lands a hit that takes us down."
"Gee, if only you had a weapon partner whose weapon form was specifically meant for this kind of fighting. Oh, wait."
"That's not gonna work forever. We need to force ourselves back into offensive," Alecto said, ducking away from another swing of Nosferatu's knife, "and fast." She wasn't about to lose against some German freak with a penchant for sanguiphilia. Tick. "Back to twelve-thirty mode, nunc!"
Tempus's hands swung into position just as Alecto aimed a jab at Nosferatu's wrist. Tock. Nosferatu screamed as the spear broke skin, and pulled his hand away. He didn't let go of the knife, though, and in fact seemed to be holding it tighter than ever.
"Impossible!" Alecto snapped. "That should have disarmed you, easily!"
Nosferatu cackled. "Can't… can't feel pain… blood takes pain away… sweet, sweet blood…"
"The blood takes away the pain?" Tempus echoed. "Jeez, no wonder the guy's so desperate for the stuff. With his mind warped by madness the way it is, blood must be like some form of drug to him."
"Blood… brings relief," Nosferatu continued. "Tucks away the pain… and souls...bring… power."
"Killing innocent civilians and stealing their souls doesn't make you more powerful!" Alecto shouted. "It just makes you more evil!"
Nosferatu grinned, the yellowed surface of his teeth glinting wickedly in the dull moonlight. "You… want my soul...said so yourself. So...what makes you...so much different?" he asked, lingering on each word as if he were trying to force her to have some sort of earth-shattering revelation about her own morals.
Unfortunately for him, she had heard the exact same spiel from a dozen monsters just like her, and she was so very sick of it. "Don't even think that you can compare us," she said coldly. Tick. She ran forward, diving down and delivering a well-placed sweeping kick to his legs. Tock. "I hunt spuria like you to fulfill my duties as a meister." She moved away as he fell backward. "I track down Kishin eggs to live up to the responsibilities I have as a weapons meister and a student at the DWMA." She tensed up as the would-be vampire stood up with rage filling his eyes, preparing herself to duck out of the way again. "I fight against killers and soul thieves to protect innocent people! I don't kill people just for the heck of it, I don't seek souls for my own game, and I don't hunt anyone unless their evil actions have corrupted their souls beyond repair! I'm nothing like you!"
Nosferatu laughed again, crouching low to the ground. "So noble… noble, noble child… your soul will be…" A long pause. "...scrumptious."
"Too bad for you, then, because you're not getting a taste of either of our souls!" Tempus said. "Got any ideas, Ally?"
Alecto narrowed her eyes, taking a couple steps back to analyze the situation. The bloodlust madness that had taken ahold of Nosferatu's soul had affected his ability to feel pain. He seemed completely unaffected what should have been some pretty serious long-term agony. Pain was usually vital in taking down an enemy; pain distracted foes, made them mess up and often revealed vulnerabilities previously kept well-hidden. Without that, Alecto was at a much bigger disadvantage than she liked to admit.
But he wasn't immune. He felt immediate pain, the screaming sensation of a sharp edge tearing through skin and muscle. If she could find some way of exploiting that, perhaps she could take the upper hand. "I've got a couple," she said. "They mostly involve dealing a great deal of damage in as short an amount of time as possible."
"Will that work?"
"Maybe. Let's give it a shot."
"Right!"
Tick. Alecto charge forward, drawing the tip of Tempus's minute hand spear across Nosferatu's torso in a wide, shallow arc. Tock. She dodged away from his outstretched hand as he reached towards her, his fingers curving into talons. Tick. She whacked his left wrist with the edge of Tempus's buckler. Tock. She pulled her arm back and jabbed forward, forcing her adversary to take a step back. Tick. She drove the spear into the wound in Nosferatu's shoulder that she'd given him before, the sharp tip sinking even deeper. Tock.
Nosferatu let out another agonized screech and wrapped his fingers around the pole of the spear, his teeth clenching together. "You… are strong. But…" His beady gaze hardened, and he ripped the spear out of his wound, using a strength he hadn't previously displayed to throw Alecto to the side like she was a ragdoll. "Not. Strong… enough."
"Ally!" Tempus cried. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Alecto said, sitting up. "But so is he. I don't understand, what the hell are we doing wrong?"
Nosferatu let out a hrmph. "Silly… little… girl… the pain is… still there." He raised a hand and tapped a fingernail to his temple. "Tucked away… for later. Blood hides it… doesn't kill it. But the more you hit me… the more pain there is. More pain there is… more pain gets tucked away. Hard to tell...which is now… and which is for later."
"The pain from our newest attacks is blending into the old pain. His mind can't tell the difference apart!" Tempus said, realization rising in his voice.
"That's… what I said," Nosferatu snapped.
"Well, isn't that just convenient," Alecto said. "It doesn't matter. I'll still find some way to take you down, Nosferatu!"
"Heh… heheh. You want… my soul?" Nosferatu spread his arms wide open. "You can try… to claim it… if you can catch me!" Then he turned on his heel and ran, disappearing into the thick undergrowth of the park's forest.
"Idiot," Alecto muttered. "We're faster than he is, we'll catch up to him easily."
"Yeah, but he's got the home turf advantage, so to speak. Unless you think that you can navigate that forest in the dark."
"I don't need to navigate it. I just need to keep up." Tick. Alecto ran forward, keeping her gaze trained on the dark form up ahead. "Tempus, he's shrugging off whatever we're throwing at him. We need to hit him with something that he won't have the opportunity to simply shrug off."
Tock. "You're not seriously suggesting…"
Tick. "Yeah, I am. If we don't take him out in one shot, we won't be able to take him out at all. I'll try and kill him once we catch up, but if a straight up attack doesn't work, we're going to have to go for it, okay?"
Tock. "Yeah, but what if it doesn't work? We might not be able to handle this guy. We… we might have to bow out."
Tick. "We are not bowing out, Tempus!" Alecto snapped. "We've already started this fight. We might as well finish it! I'm not just going to give up on the first mission I've taken on in weeks! Aut vincere aut mori!"
"If you say so. But if you end up unconscious and bleeding out, I am bailing us out of here. Got it, Ally?"
"Yeah," Alecto said, with more bitterness in her voice than she'd wanted. "Nil desperandum, Tempus. Qui audet adipiscitur, memento!"
Tock. "If you say so."
Tick. Alecto continued running forward. The two of them had almost caught up with Nosferatu. Within the span of a few seconds, they would be close enough where she would be able to knock him off his feet. She pulled arm back and swung Tempus forward, fully intending to stab the son of a bitch in his shriveled, twisted hea-
She tripped.
Tock. Her foot slipped on the moss that clung to a tree root sticking haphazardly out of the ground, and she fell, landing solidly face-first in the dirt. "Vae!" she shouted, pounding her fist against the dirt and making an indent in the soft soil. "Vae, vae, vae!"
"Wow, really nailed that fall," Tempus deadpanned. "I give it a six, the landing was kind of rusty."
"Tace!" Alecto said. She looked up, trying to focus on something, anything, through the flat darkness that obscured the wooded area that she found herself entrenched in. "Wait. Where'd Nosferatu go?! Vae!" Ire gripped her heart. He'd apparently managed to outrun her as soon as she had fallen. She looked up, just to make sure he wasn't hiding amongst the trees. It was hard to be sure (dark purple and black didn't exactly make for a strong color contrast, after all), but she was relatively certain that he wasn't up there. She got to her feet, dusting the dirt off her cropped jacket and scowling at nothing in particular. "We need to find him. He can't get away."
A low, almost imperceptibly quiet chuckle resonated behind Alecto. She turned too late as a hand wrapped around her ankle and yanked, sending her falling back down to the ground. Honestly, at this point Alecto was starting to wonder what the point of even getting up was if she was just going to be pushed or pulled back down.
Nosferatu, it seemed, had taken advantage of the momentary disorientation that she'd suffered from tripping and had moved behind her, waiting to strike. Now he towered over her, his knife little more than a dark silhouette as he raised it above his head. "You blood… will be delicious. Your soul… will bring me power." He thrust the knife downwards.
Clang. "Non hodie, gratias!" Alecto replied, wincing as the force of Nosferatu's attack sent a shock of dull, numbing discomfort shooting through her arm. She knocked the knife away and scrambled away, getting to her feet for the millionth time that evening. "I'm really sick of you, you know that?" she said. "Tempus, you ready?"
"As ready as I'll ever be!"
"All right!" She took a deep breath, forcing her heartbeat to steady itself. Then, she and Tempus shouted simultaneously, "Let's go, Soul Resonance!"
To resonate the souls of a weapon and meister was not a feat performed casually. It required that both souls not only recognize the wavelengths of each other, but manipulate their own wavelengths to come to a synchronized balance between the two. If the two souls were out of sync or unable to determine each other's wavelengths, the Soul Resonance would fail, often times with disastrous results.
But Alecto and Tempus weren't out of sync, and as the two of their souls sparked together, the joint wavelength reverberating between them, Alecto could feel the strengths of their souls increasing. She held her breath and threw her arm forwards so that Tempus's buckler was parallel to the ground. "Sundial Spear!" she shouted.
Eyes wide in their sunken sockets, Nosferatu took a step backwards as soul energy enveloped Alecto's weapon and her arm, but it was slow, far slower than what would have been natural. A side effect of Sundial Spear; time was in flux, being desynchronized and resynchronized at random as the temporal powers of the two students combined and expanded.
Not that Alecto was complaining, if it meant that Nosferatu couldn't get away in time.
The resonance energy expanded downwards, forming a flat base against the ground to steady Alecto's aim. Tempus's arms spun so that they were both pointing directly at Nosferatu's chest. "Ready…" he said.
"Aim…" Alecto said.
The spear arms glowed even brighter, seemingly melding together into a single beam of resonance energy that rested upon the flat of the spear. "And… fire!"
The energy shot forward, streaking through the dark woods and casting a sharp light upon all the foliage in sight. To Alecto, it was a second. But to Nosferatu, it was even quicker. The blink of an eye; that's all it was for him as the spear shot outwards and pierced his torso, passing straight through him and leaving a rather sizable hole before dissipating. The light faded, and all was silent for a moment. No one dared move.
Then Nosferatu exploded into a thousand black ribbons, the wide-eyed look of incomprehension etched across his gaunt features being the last expression that he'd ever make. The ribbons swirled around the Kishin Egg at the core before disappearing.
Sundial Spear faded away, and Tempus shifted back into his human form, massaging his shoulders and wincing slightly. "I'm so glad that we don't have to do that often. You're luck, Ally; having my arms fused together by resonance energy feels weird as hell."
"Don't you worry," Alecto said. "I don't think we'll have to pull that off again for quite some time. "She gestured to the twisted crimson echo of a human soul that Nosferatu had left behind. Perhaps her lingering irritation was lending itself to bias, but his soul seemed even uglier and more unnatural than the souls they had collected before. "There you go. Soul number seventeen."
Tempus grimaced. "Ah, yes. The most exhilarating part of hunting ne'er do wells." He ambled over to the Kishin egg, reaching out and pinning the humming soul in his grasp. Tilting his head back slightly, he shoved the soul into his mouth and swallowed it whole, grimacing as he did so. "Ugh. It tasted terrible; like when you bite your lip and you end up tasting the blood."
"Sounds pleasant," Alecto said. "Well, regardless of how terrible his soul tasted, I'm glad we were able to take that sick bastard down. Maybe the people here won't be afraid of leaving their houses anymore."
"Yeah." Tempus stretched. "You would not believe how tired I am. What is it, one twenty-six? Given that and the time it'll take for us to get back to Nevada, I'll be surprised if we get any sleep at all tonight."
"It won't take us that long to get back to Death City," Alecto said. "Transportation for meisters is faster than other methods, remember?" She turned and began to walking in a general direction, hoping it would take her out of the park, or at least back to the path. She'd only walked a few meters, however, when she froze solid in her tracks, stunned realization gripping her heart. "Shit."
"What?"
"I left the tea back at the path!"
A/N - This entire arc was created for two reasons: it gave something for Alecto to do while Maka and Soul were in Italy going up against Crona, and it was an excuse to show of what happened when Alecto and Tempus did a Soul Resonance.
This arc isn't over yet; there's one more chapter in it that'll bring us back to the main canon plot before we move on to the next arc.
Also, how is it that Stein and spirit were in Nevada one minute and Italy the next? The only conclusion I can come to is that meisters have a special mode of vague transportation that lets them get to places quicker.
Now, on to the Latin.
Nunc: means "Now"
Spuria: a plural form of "spurius," which has been previously established to mean "bastard"
Aut vincere aut mori: "victory or death." Not a particularly healthy mindset to have, Alecto.
Nil desperandum, Tempus. Qui audet adipiscitur, memento!: "Never despair, Tempus. Who dares, wins, remember!"
Non hodie, gratias!: "Not today, thank you!"
Next chapter will be posted some point within the week. In the meantime, feel free to favorite and leave a review letting me know what you think!
- Diana "Nocte"
