Mirror Matched((Ross))

[dmc89]

"Tea? if you're anything like myself... which I'm betting you are, you do like tea, correct?" Behind Sparda, The Dark King was sitting at a patio table sipping from fine china, the residents of the house strewn over the patio with their heads twisted round. "This is, rather interesting if I Do say so myself..." He looked much like the purple clad Sparda, only a bit younger, possibly early thirties max. That, and the fact that he was clad in black.

Dunmus sat leaning against the table, radiating vibrantly within its sheath. The purple clad Sparda would feel two familiar feelings mixed together within that blade, one of the Prince of Darkness Mundus, and another, the force edge's true power. The two seemed to be joined with one another in harmony.

A sip of his tea and he set the cup back onto it's saucer.

[Sparda]

Teleported. Sparda found himself on a plateau overlooking the city - and the destruction engulfing its southernmost reaches. Just as he was about to ignore whatever had brought him here and leap back into the fray -

"Tea? if you're anything like myself... which I'm betting you are, you do like tea, correct?"

He turned around, to find himself staring at himself. Or a younger version, rather, garbed in black and keeping a claymore at his side that seethed with immense power as he relaxed at his table, sipping a cup of tea. Sparda could smell it from here; earl grey, milk and two sugars, just the way he himself took it.

This was exactly as he had feared.

"Sorry," came his response after a moment collecting himself. He turned fully to face his apparent alter ego. "I save my tea for after the job's done. And as far as I'm concerned..."

In that moment's pause, he had drawn Ombra and stared balefully down her sights at his alternate self. Sensing Mundus' essence within the power of that sword, he could make an accurate guess at what had happened.

"This job's just getting started."

[dmc89]

He sighed, simply leaning forward and bit and taking his cup, finishing the rest of it off before tossing the saucer back upon the table. "As you wish..." He stood up making sure to clear himself of the table. "I did always ponder what I would've been like had i fought for the humans instead of over taking their world and the Demon world... what kind of a man I would be...[/b]" his tone grew deeper as he spoke, black aura rising from his roots to cover him before it vanished and a new vision of himself appeared.

He wore a coat, much like the righteous alter ego only it was black and gold. His skin now deathly pale with blue veins running across the edge of his face and his eyes a dark maroon. Vile, corrupt aura dancing from his being. "I always wondered how... badly my morals would hold me back."

As he spoke, his aura sank into the corpses and they began to rise and shift, becoming disfigured with claws and other nasty appendages before they sprang towards the Dark Knight.

i48.tinypic.com/2ep7hq0.jpg <--- Current Form
i46.tinypic.com/2z86iz4.jpg <--- Dunmus

[Sparda]

Sparda listened, his aim completely unwavering, as his alter ego expressed the same curiosity about what he may have been like had things turned out differently in the past. Now both of them had that question answered.

His eyes narrowed as his corrupted other self rose from the table, transforming. He now wore an identical coat to the other, except it was black and gold, and that disgustingly darkened aura visibly rolled off his body and sword; then animated the corpses lying around, twisting them into hideous demonic shades of their human selves that snarled and leapt at their master's foe.

Before they even reached him, Sparda swept his left arm around and squeezed Ombra's trigger three times, plugging three of them with charged bullets that blew great holes in their torsos. These three collapsed, howling in pain, leaving two more that closed the distance in time. These would be cut down by Revelation, the demon stepping deftly around their wild clawing and slashing them apart with quick, precise swings of his blade that left them both missing their heads and one with a severed arm. The remaining three took a bullet each to the head that dropped them for good.

The whole time, Sparda's eyes never left his counterpart.

"If there's one thing you shouldn't have taken from Mundus," he spat, "it's his penchant for sending D-class fodder to do a triple S-class devil's work."

[dmc89]

He only chuckled, his eyes locked onto his counter part that fought for justice. "Good, good. It's nice to know that even my alter ego still hasn't tarnished simply because he awoke to justice.[/b]" He put his arms forward shaping his hands as if he were holding two guns, and then they materialized. They were much bigger, the demonic metal they were crafted from shimmered in the moonlight.

"Mine are bigger. And pack a bigger punch as well." He squeezed the triggers on both guns, Envy and Wrath whining as the Legendary Dark King's aura was place into the gun, creating the nice sized slugs that were now cutting through the air right for Sparda.

i50.tinypic.com/scdu82.jpg <--- Envy and Wrath

[Sparda]

The hellish barks of the gunshots echoed down into the city, but Sparda didn't flinch for a moment. Almost before the slugs left the barrels, two spindly tendrils of condensed darkness shot up from the Dark Knight's shadow, coiling in a twisted helix around his body and whipping the bullets away with a single powerful lash each.

All the while, Sparda kept his eyes on his opponent, Ombra lowered and Revelation gleaming in the moonlight as his very shadow writhed around him.

"Awoke being the operative word," he snapped back. "You clearly remain blinded by lust for power, no better than Mundus was." His own aura rose up powerfully, amethyst flames rolling off his body and his shadow coming to life around him, great tentacles and skeletal limbs emerging from the darkness to scatter the debris and clear their battlefield.

[dmc89]

A small smirk tugged at his lips ever so lightly. "You're mistaken." He put his guns away and walked over to the table, grasping his sheathed blade with on hand and held it at his left side. His the pressure in his aura and power seemed to almost triple.

Even the Corruption in the area would soon become suffocating. "I have all the power I could ever want. I'm simply looking to expand my kingdom is all. And sadly..." He gripped the hilt of his blade the sword itself suddenly morphing into an Odachi.

His entire body became one big blur, a sudden and abrupt moan would alert the Dark Knight that Dimensions were being shifted and fractured before the same blur suddenly manifested itself in front of Sparda a few feet away, airborne. "You're in the way![/color]" He unsheathed his sword releasing a sudden and powerful Driver without even so much as a hint of charging his blade.

A black demonic seal began to glow under his feet as he used it like a spring board, back flipping away back to the ground. He smiled for a moment before it began... A low, guttural moan of the dimensional fabric tearing followed by the entire area around Sparda becoming much darker as powerful waves of slashes made their way for the Legendary Dark Knight.

[Sparda]

His shadow surged to life once more, a gigantic, skeletal hand forming over Sparda's head as a shield against the intense Drive which exploded violently against the mass of living darkness. For a moment, Sparda seemed as if he wouldn't move from the midst of the Judgement Cut's dimensional warping.

At the last moment, though, he exploded into action. From within the shadows he stormed forth, great blades of darkness clashing with the erupting Judgement Cut to protect him as he sprinted forth so fast he appeared to be teleporting. The moment his alter ego touched the ground, the Dark Knight was upon him, blackness shrouding the spreading Corruption as he opened up with a powerful slash of Revelation, his shadow spreading still further, fuelled by his immense power.

The blade was followed close behind by a thick tentacular limb that rose from his feet, swinging forward with equal lightning speed to smash the corrupted alternate Sparda into the ground with the force of a freight train.

[dmc89]

The tendril was instantly pinned by black phantom blades before they exploded and disrupted the limb, Sparda's movements became nothing but a sudden, giant blur before he was leaning back, evading the swing of the other Sparda's sword. Another blur and he was standing upright a few feet away. Dunmus returning to it's original form as Sparda simply began to chuckle.

"You point fingers so easily, but seeing what I do now i have but one question... who was really tainted by a lust for power..."

He taunted his alter ego with a small smirk upon his face, the same, dark feeling he would get from the scene he was in before would shoot around both partners as the scenery began to change and contort, the corruption coming back and overpowering the blackness. Take full hold of the area and twisting it into a horrifying scene.

The air permeated with a crimson fog, the ground beneath them becoming like a hard leather-ed flesh as it ebbed and flowed beneath them. The Legendary Dark King raising a single hand and twitching his fingers back and forth to gesture for his adversary to come with his next attack.

[Sparda]

"I never asked for this," Sparda spat back, his voice lined with venomous contempt for this terrible vision of what he might have become. "But I took this darkness and made it my own. Another weapon against monsters like you."

The next black tendril came from within the alternate Sparda's own shadow, swiftly coiling around his left leg and constricting with enough force to eventually crush his bones. In the same moment, Sparda reversed his grip upon Revelation, black flames dancing along the blade as he poured his great power into it, and unleashed a devastating Drive of his own, the very air warping and ground cratering as it roared forth towards his evil alter ego.

[dmc89]

"Monster?" The words were scoffed out as Dunmus was unleashed and struck clean through the tendril before a quick, solid blur later and The Dark King was already within Sparda's zone... taking advantage of the over-swing his opponent took when releasing the driver and struck forward with a thrust towards Sparda's hip. "I simply followed the path I was meant for till the very end. You split away and became a freak, and yet I'm the monster?"

[Sparda]

His snare had failed, and now his other self was heading straight for him. It would seem as if Sparda had foolishly left himself open to be impaled upon Dunmus' blade.

But just as the mighty weapon was about to make contact, the Dark Knight vanished - and his alter ego would feel a great gash open across his lower back. Lessened by the density of his aura, this wound had been saved from almost becoming a full bisection. Sparda was stood behind him, facing his back with Revelation extended to his right-hand side, blood dripping from its steel.

The dark Sparda had fallen victim to a simple Merjutsu technique; Bautha Zotreth, the Dodge Strike, which the Dark Knight had witnessed used against him just the other day by Arix, now turned against a real threat.

"You were meant to be the dark sheep," came Sparda's retort. "You were meant to bring Mundus' tyranny to an end and show humanity the mercy it deserves, not usurp him and continue his work."

[dmc89]

The gash came quickly and almost took him by surprised before his regeneration kidded and he turned, a smirk upon his lips, it was certainly an impressive move he would say so himself. He did hate fighting his his human form, even his subhuman form restricted him.

His aura now encompassing him and spreading out about five feet and taking a shape that resembled a spectral version of his demon form. "Or perhaps you were supposed to take Mundus' place, and rule over both worlds as a king. Bringing the world into a new order of peace that would be unbroken for eons."

[Sparda]

Dammit, just not enough! He'd have to create a wide enough opening to deal a truly mortal set of blows all at once if he was to win this. Scowling, Sparda tightened his grip on Revelation, listening begrudgingly to his alter ego's version of their destiny.

He had only one thing to say to that.

"Not at the humans' expense." He drew his power back within himself, his shadow shifting and becoming the silhouette of his true form. Wisps of black miasma rose from his body, shot through with rivulets of amethyst light, and he holstered Ombra to take a ready stance with Revelation.

"What are you waiting for? Come at me."

[dmc89]

His lips curled slightly and he chuckled a bit as Sparda's retort. "I'm you, do you really think I would throw myself at myself so openly?" His free hand brushing through his slick backed silver hair, going through all of the reasons his alter ego would've possibly ended up the way he did. A howling wind skipped and rolled between the two of them.

And then it dawned on him, he raised his head towards the sky and placed the palm of his free hand over his face. "It was that human wench. it all makes sense now... you threw away your potential because you were blinded by love. How foolish of you...[/b]" He dragged his hand down his features and looked towards Sparda out of the corner of his scarlet eyes....

And then a hail storm of phantom swords began to rain down upon his enemy.