Eyes of Crimson and Azure [ToriJ]

[Jehanne]

A group of bandits traveled across the black desert sand of Jherrazad dressed in white turbans with their mouths covered. Large daggers strapped to their belts as they came from a small settlement taking everything they owned. They were low lives, murderers and rapists on top of being thieves and they carried no remorse for their actions. As they made tracks across the desert a powerful wind would push them back into one another. The air before them tore apart and created a large circle that blinded them in a white light. Out of that hole was a woman clad in old rusty armor spinning through the air. Twin blades in her hands. The second she landed her spin would persist, the blade in her right hand slicing right through the first bandit as her body came around to cut in half the second. One by one the bandits fell to their deaths as at last they met retribution for their crimes.

As the last bandit fell the armored woman came to a stop at the center of the circle their corpses now formed. Their bodies would be used as a message to those in power here, plunging the right-hand blade into the sand as its twin in the left was held upward, its blade pointing away from her kneel in the middle of the circle. The bodies set ablaze by a blue fire that shot up into the heavens for all to see. A ring of fire. The woman lifted up her head in her kneel, eyes of azure reflecting the flames that danced in her iris. It was only a matter of time now before the message was sent to the Desert Empress and she came to investigate. It was only a matter of time before the whole world knew...

The Aircanian Jehanne was alive.

[Ayen]

The Empress stood in the throne room of her castle standing at the side window in time to see the ring of fire stretch up into the clear blue sky in the horizon. Her eyes narrowing over the sight as she could make out bodies underneath the fire. It would not take long for Ranko to call her right and left hand, Kaso the Black Knight and Alexander, to her side as they got on their camels and marched towards the sight of the fire with their army behind them. The army now consisting of foot soldiers with swords, shields and archers with their bows and arrows at the ready. Ranko came to a stop once they were in range of the ring of fire, the army following suit as crimson eyes waited to see the cause of this fire emerge and reveal itself to them.

[Jehanne]

She heard the sound of camels and soldiers' feet in the distance knowing that her message had gotten across to the Empire. Hearing their movement stop, Jehanne stood up with both her blades still in hand and walked through the fire unphased by the intense heat of the flames that now burned behind her. The knight's eyes looked up to Ranko and then noted the entire army of soldiers behind her before a small smile crossed her features.

"Does the great Empress of the Desert need an army to combat one warrior?"

She mocked. Waiting for what the Crimson Devil would do.

[Ayen]

"Does the great Empress of the Desert need an army to combat one warrior?"

“An Aircanian?”

Ranko climbed down from the back of her camel and began to move towards the woman now standing twenty-five feet away from Jehanne current position in front of the ring of fire as a hand brush across the hilt of Kasul. Studying the woman up and down and noticing the strange glow in her eyes before parting her lips to speak,

“Why have you come here?”

[Jehanne]

"Why?"

Jehanne repeated while her eyes watched the Empress' movements, spotting the hand brush off the hilt of the legendary blade Kasul before returning to meet her gaze. Seeing the masked expression concealing any and all emotion that would have otherwise appeared on the half-devil's face. Jehanne's own smile only growing by the second with each precaution Ranko and her army took in the face of the unknown threat that now opposed them.

"I have come to remove the head from your shoulders and hold it up high over mine as your men kneel before their new Empress."

[Ayen]

"Why? I have come to remove the head from your shoulders and hold it up high over mine as your men kneel before their new Empress."

“You must be new here.”

A couple of the soldiers in the front lines chuckled both Kaso and Alexander remaining on their camels in silence simply observing the exchange between their Empress and the Aircanian. None of them were planning on kneeling before the woman and dismissed her claims as mere illusions. They would watch their leader accept this challenge for her throne and prepare to celebrate yet another victory from the five-hundred year old half-devil.

“Here I thought Aircanians' spirituality was about peace and harmony. How wrong most of us have been. But if it's a fight you want...”

Ranko drew Kasul.

“Then it's a fight you will get!”

In a heartbeat Ranko covered the twenty-five feet worth of black sand that stood between them and swung the soul-devouring blade towards the knight.

[Jehanne]

"You know nothing of my spirituality."

Jehanne's eyes went over to Kaso and then Alexander putting away the twin blades back into the sheaths on her back that crossed over each other forming an X, saving one for each before drawing the long sword at her waist and holding it up upright and close to her face like a baseball bat. When Ranko quickly closed the distance between them the knight swung the sword sideway, the blade meeting the opposing metal as their clash rang across the desert air. The battle for the crown has begun.

[Ayen]

Ranko remained up close after the first strike, lifting Kasul back to her and then delivering a vertical swing towards the blade of the Aircanian.

[Jehanne]

Jehanne shifted her blade from the left to the right to meet her strike, feeling the presence of Kasul grow at a steady pace each time the weapons collided in the desert. Ranko would begin to feel something coming off of the knight as well but she wouldn't be able to place it as her senses would only be able to pick up on a very capable human who has been through hell and back.

[Ayen]

A faint red aura masked the blade of ebony, voices whispering inside Jehanne's mind from what sounded like a collective consciousness. Ranko did indeed feel the abnormality radiating off of the knight as the battle went on but paid it little attention for now focusing on the task ahead. Bringing Kasul down diagonally with enough force behind it to send the average opponent crashing down to one knee even if their blades did meet.

[Jehanne]

Jehanne let her blade drop down and come up to meet Ranko's downward diagonal slash with an uppercut strike, her knees not even buckling at the power coming down against her from the half devil. The knight slid a foot forward through the sand and pushed against the devil; eyes of azure meeting crimson before pressing off and recreating some of the distance that was loss previously. Taking a couple of steps to the right while returning into the Vom tag position.

[Ayen]

The woman was stronger than she looked. Ranko met her gaze and stared directly into the eyes that shinned as brightly as the sun above before pressing off and stepping back to recover some distance. While Jehanne moved to the right Ranko brought her sword to her right, blade pointed backwards and the flat end touching her while sliding her left foot through the sand to the left, moving the right one around it and continuing in that movement until stepping forward – bringing the blade up overheard while turning three-hundred and sixty degrees mid-swing and bringing it down towards the chest of Jehanne using a quick burst of superhuman speed and Kasul's long length to close that distance off a split-second sooner than it would have been otherwise.

[Jehanne]

All Jehanne had to do was wait and plan ahead. She saw the Crimson Devil make her move and met her spin with a powerful lunge assault that threatened to cut her in two. No matter how fast or strong Ranko was she was in no position to avoid the lunge as it came to cleave her mid-spin.

[Ayen]

If this was a normal fight with a normal swordsman and sword, it would be over the second Jehanne's lunge came through. But this exchange was far from normal in any sense of the word. Kasul held off the blade with a magnetic pull, one of many abilities the demon blade had acquired through its soul absorption over the years. It delayed her just enough to allow Ranko to snap off the assault and bring Kasul to the knight's head.

[Jehanne]

The screams of the two swords colliding again was deafening to all those present to hear it. Jehanne had fought against the pull on her sword just enough to make contact with Kasul and pull back, bringing the sword up to her neck where Kasul would have been touching right now had Ranko had her way before taking a step backwards and preparing her body for Ranko's next attack.