Death Approach [Chapter IV]

[Maya]

A great darkness rose over the expanse. The wailing of familiars echoed across the cold air and struck fear into the hearts of the ice creatures that resided within the broken city. The ice that remained after the intense heat of a supernova past through here trembled at the presence of a true Nosferatu making siege for Hallowton. Black storm clouds trailed not far behind the female as it served as the primarily source of the wailing, red eyes peaked out from it while the monstrous natives of the expanse dare not step foot on the path of the Nosferatu.

It was unknown what the creatures here feared the most, the approaching storm of familiars or the woman that had the power to summon them in the first place. From behind their hiding places they could see the long chocolate brown hair that blew through the wind as glowing emerald green eyes locked on the road ahead, their gaze threatening to slice through anything that stares back into them. As the woman grew closer, the wailing grew louder sending the creatures back into their hiding places as their bodies were being controlled by fear. Alongside the wailing of familiars came the voice of the one that wielded their power in her hand.

"Gone in a second, ultimate destruction
Gods are warring, sorrow neverending
Endless chaos for an eternity
Welcome to the abyss."

Singing.

[Sparda]

Once again, a storm pursued the refugees who had called Aircano their home.

Once again, it would not go unobstructed.

The sojourn of the vampiress and her legion of familiars had taken them into a stretch of the Crystal Expanse which was impassably walled in on both sides by sheer cliffs of ice. In the middle of this choke point, the nosferatu's only route to Aircano would be through the defender stood at the other side.

He had sensed her approach miles away. Informing only Miracle of his intent to face the coming danger, he had left Hallowton alone to take the field against it. Unmoved by the bone-chilling wind, Revelation impaled upright in the ice beside him, Sparda held his position with just under a mile of icy valley between him and Hallowton. More than enough space in which to turn back this darkness.

The Dark Knight raised a gloved hand and pushed his monocle further up the bridge of his nose, tapping his foot almost impatiently. After a few seconds, as if tired of waiting for her to come to him, he plucked Revelation out of the ice and began a quick, purposeful stride towards his next opponent.

Time to put Amoura's teaching to use.

[Maya]

"Backwater town where nothing happens
Don't let disguises fool you
Evil is coming from everywhere
Destroying all that we believe is good."

Her voice was like that of an angel singing to the heavens yet everything else about her greatly contradicted this. The storm of familiars felt something coming and then Sparda's scent was inhaled into the woman's nostrils as she smiled, excited at the power that was striding towards her. The familiars began to break away from the storm clouds and spread out over the field. Hiding places became useless as now they were everywhere, wrapping themselves around the expanse and warping it to their favor. The ice creatures had nowhere to run or hide as they clamped onto their heads and screamed in pain as they were attacked by insanity.

The crystal ice that remained in the expanse started to reflect the darkness that has seized it, becoming black as coal. As the Dark Knight came closer to the source he would see the red coat that covered her pink garbe. The white bandages wrapped around her right hand and went all the way up her arm whereas her left was free from such bandages. Was she injured? You would never be able to tell through that big bright smile she had on her face as she could barely withhold her own excitement. A knife generated in her left hand and she licked the blade clean before flipping it and clenching the handle tightly while the wailing of the familiars barged their way into Sparda's eardrums threatening to make them shatter.

[Sparda]

The demon had to admit, the veritable army of familiars standing between him and the vampire was quite an impressive sight. It raised an interesting question; how many souls had Amoura and Ranka consumed over the years? Did they command such huge numbers of familiars?

The Dark Knight made a mental note to ask Amoura about that.

Once he was done tearing this mob to bloody pieces, of course.

He stopped in place about a hundred metres from the vampiress, where the anguished screaming of the familiars was just about reaching intolerable levels. Frowning, raising his free hand as if to plug his left ear against the din, he stood in place for a few seconds...

All of a sudden, the demon sprang to life. He leaned to his left side and hurled Revelation into the air, sending the blade spinning skyward above him. While it was airborne, his gloved hands disappeared into his coat, emerging almost within the same instant with Luce and Ombra in their grasp. Scowling, the demon crossed his guns over each other, aiming at the nosferatu. The air in front of their muzzles warped and distorted as if suddenly superheated, sparking with crackles of violet lightning.

"Do shut up."

He pulled the triggers, and the Expanse trembled beneath the hellish roar of the gunshots. It didn't seem like bullets that erupted from Luce and Ombra's barrels, but howling bolts of raw demonic energy. Coiling around each other in a double helix, they compressed the air around them into a wave of overpressure that engulfed the valley in their wake, shattering and cratering the ice as if an earthquake had siezed the land.

The devastating blast of demonic power thundered unstoppably towards the vampiress; any familiars that she mustered to stop it would be utterly obliterated beneath its crushing force, no matter their numbers. The people of Aircano had suffered enough in the past few days; this creature and her minions would not live to even set eyes on the refugees' new home.

[Maya]

Red eyes opened up around the expanse. All around the two warriors that stood on this hot summer day beneath two suns were tens of thousands of familiars, possibly more, staring down at the Legendary Dark Knight that made siege for their mistress. A seemingly infinite sea of familiars set to watch this battle and intervene immediately at the call of their wielder. The one who their souls fell to centuries ago. The Joy didn't even make any move to avoid the torrent of demonic bullets coming for her. Instead she walked right into the path of them, feeling the bullets collide with her body. The bullets themselves were bent beyond all possible recognition but that did not stop the power that radiated off them from tearing her body apart.

Blood spilled from the wounds in great torrents, painting the ground red as the familiars continued to wail in the wake of the ever growing conflict between the agents of light and dark. Even though she was losing blood and wounds were opening through her body until one could see right through her Maya continued to smile and walk towards the man who chose to block her path to Hallowton.

"My mother's ghost still haunts me now
Fortune abandoned by God
Nothing can bring her back to me
Now I will seek to preach and destroy."

Still she sang. Treating this more like a show meant to entertain an audience than a battle where lives were on the line. The knife was hurl through the air, blending in with it's surroundings as the terrible wounds across Maya's body began to finally heal over and the blood absorbed back into her form as the knife stabbed into the shadow of the Dark Knight and glowed, working to paralyze the great warrior as three more knives generated into her hand and were sent for his chest, coming to pierce his flesh. One thing was made perfectly clear on early in this battle.

A true Nosferatu stood before him.

[Sparda]

The charged bullets struck true, and the immense demonic power imparted to them tore great holes in the vampiress' body; yet she kept walking, completely unmoved. It was clear the Dark Knight had quite underestimated his opponent.

He holstered his guns and raised his right hand, catching Revelation as it fell from the sky, then made to take a step towards the persistent vampire; but the dagger sinking into the ice within his shadow somehow ensnared him with the power infused in the steel. His body stopped in its tracks, refusing to move despite him willing it to, and he was left free for the other three knives to find their mark.

They would not meet flesh, however, but darkness given form.

The one which had somehow paralysed him was suddenly sent spinning out from the ice with a shrill metallic ping as the Dark Knight's very shadow solidified, a mass of skeletal hands on tentacular arms erupting from it. Three of them moved to catch the incoming daggers, promptly snapping their blades with naught but a squeeze, while the rest rocketed towards the vampiress who had assailed their master, clawed extremities seeking to rend flesh from bone and rip her very limbs from her body.

All the while, the Dark Knight stood unphased, Revelation clutched in his right hand. He saw two things in this deceptively powerful vampiress; a threat which needed prompt elimination, and a fine opportunity to exercise his dark new power.

[Maya]

The shadows came for her flesh, still she moved forward showing no fear, just a smile. Darkness leaked out of her body and rooted into the ground to hold the vampire in place, as the shadow came she showed no resistance when darkness surround. Not even the familiars could see their mistress now as all that came from the darkness was the sound of battle and song.

"There is no mercy, compassion in the world
Embrace the chaos, for in the end that is all
Now the universe is broken, lost its course
Turn your back on all you have loved, for it is."

The sound of an arm being torn clean off came to the ears of Sparda as her left arm fell from the dark abyss and rolled against the ground by the Dark Knight's feet soon followed by her legs. The next thing to come from the shadows would be the pale white bandages but the arm that came with it would not be seen. The Joy burst forth from the darkness, her left arm and legs having been replaced with new limbs but that would not be the thing to stand out as she crushed the gap between them.

Sparda would see a bronzed cybernetic arm composed of dense titanium alloy, atoms thick of diamond material that was unveiled by the tearing off of bandage. With the distance between them now closed off Sparda would feel the sharp claw that came to tear his face clean off.

[Sparda]

Once again, the vampiress allowed her assailant to strike her. Sparda wasn't holding his breath for any significant damage; instead he stood ready, Revelation raised, awaiting her inevitable counterattack. Soon enough it came, but the vampire had discarded the bandages wrapped around her right arm. They had concealed an entirely cybernetic limb, a gleaming bronze in appearance and with its fingers tipped in razor-like claws that the nosferatu sent swinging at his face.

They would meet nothing but air.

Sparda had simply vanished from sight; evading the vampiress' strike with almost untraceable celerity. From out of her own shadow shot another skeletal black hand that latched onto her cybernetic arm, squeezing hard in an attempt to crush her hand and wrist. In the same instant, the Dark Knight had reappeared a short distance directly behind her, Revelation raised and its blade wreathed in flames of black and violet.

Scowling, he brought the sword down and unleashed a wave of infernal power seeking to cleave the nosferatu in two from right shoulder to left hip.

[Maya]

It did not yield.

The cybernetic arm stood there in defiance to the shadow's awesome prowess as it began to take shape and turn into something truly indestructible making the shadow's attempt futile. Sparda returned with Revelation in his hands, the black and violet flames called out for her skin but it would only meet the same skeleton hand that was at her arm as she used it as a shield against the torrents of flames while it still locked onto her right arm watching it fall to the power of the blade before The Joy reached into her jacket and drew a very unique pistol out of it.

"No escaping when I start
Once I'm in I own your heart."

Three barrels locked onto Sparda, each more terrifying than the last as they sought out their mistress opponent. It was nothing compare to it's father design but it was still a worthy adversary for beings from hell all the same.

"There's no way to ring the alarm."

She pulled back on the trigger as a modified silver .357 Magnum ejected from each chamber simultaneously all aiming for the upper body of the hybrid, all with enough fire power and a strong enough blessing to strike fear in even the strongest of Nosferatu and devils hearts and when it came to the former he was but a mere babe.

"So hold on until it's over!"

[Sparda]

In response to its manipulation, the skeletal hand that had formed from the vampiress' shadow rotted away and disintegrated, posing as little of an obstacle to the flames of Revelation's wrath as possible; but the removal of the diversion came a little too late to allow the infliction of any lasting damage.

In the next few moments, the nosferatu had turned to face her attacker with a triple-barreled handgun in her clutches.

The shots rang out unopposed.

Darkened blood gushed across the ice as Sparda thudded unsteadily to his feet, catapulted back by the force of the rounds as they crashed against his chest. Despite the fact that his body should by all accounts have collapsed on itself, so enormous was the ragged hole blasted through his torso, somehow the Dark Knight remained standing, blood continuing to pour from what should have been a fatal wound.

Slowly, the Dark Knight straightened up... and started laughing.

"Aper aside, since none of us could really have matched him in single combat," he chuckled, "there's been a distinct lack of entertaining opponents around here." The blood dripping from the gaping hole in his chest began to thicken and turn black. "It's only a shame there's too much at stake here for me to drag this out and have some fun testing my new powers before I send you to join my rather small force of familiars."

By this point, the liquid leaking from his open wound was more like tar than blood. Congealing slowly, it built up until it managed to close the hole. On the surface, however, it rippled and stirred like water... as if some creature lurked within the darkness.

"At least give me your name, dear nosferatu..."

Suddenly, the whole mass of tar-like blood lurched forwards and dropped to the floor, leaving behind perfectly healed flesh and even repaired clothing. The globular mound of liquid rolled forth towards Maya, rapidly expanding and taking form; legs, a tail, and ragged wings sprouted from the mass before its horned head formed and his hellhound gave a soul-chilling roar.

"...so that the grave my pet regurgitates you into doesn't go unmarked."

As if taking that as a cue, the shadowy beast sprinted across the distance at the vampiress, jagged maw gaping and spiked tail whipping against the ice. The winged hellhound leapt at its prey with a great howl, jaws seeking to clamp down on her neck and bite her very head off so that it could be devoured first.

[Maya]

The revolver had met it's mark. Maya's eyes watched the violet clad man be knocked back by the gun's ground breaking firepower as she watched the man heal over his wounds in a similar matter she had healed her own.

Then came the laughter. The Joy replied with laughter of her own as she was enjoying this until he spoke a name that sent shivers even down her spine.

Aper.

"So the storm has already came to past."

The Joy had even less time than originally calculated meaning she too would have no time to really enjoy this battle. The two warriors on the field of combat could agree on one thing. It was time to end this. As she stepped forward with her revolver known as Cerberus the man asked for a name to go along with the face. Maya only smiled as the words that parted from her lips would carry a ring of familiarity.

"Silver Bullet."

The cold breeze grew even colder as the smile that appeared on her lips were washed away as quickly as it first appeared. Replacing it was an ice cold mask that sent chills worse than that of the expanse. Her eyes drilling holes into the hybrid, as if going after his very soul. History has been repeating itself from the very beginning of this battle; the cybernetic arm, the triple barreled handgun, the name and now the familiars.

While Sparda hellhound came for her her own familiars leaked into the revolver transforming it into something more devastating and terrible than the original design. The barrels changed to that of a cross-shape cannon, the firearm transcending human design as the handle became even more horrifying than the power behind the .357 Magnum. The Joy pulled back on the trigger, a bright pure-white light shined through the barrel before reaching the center of the cross. The familiar was destroyed at point blank range as the raw power of the detonation shredded the ground around both warriors. Soon everything disappeared in a flash of opalescent light.

[Sparda]

If the vampiress thought the hound set upon her would be put down for good, even by such a level of overkill, she was quite mistaken. Above the blinding flash of light, and the destruction being wrought within it, the Dark Knight stood upon a floating platform of hardlight energy, Revelation's black blade gleaming in the luminescence shining upon it from below. He squinted down into the light, trying to pick out a trace of the nosferatu's scent or movement that would betray her position.

While his senses searched for her, his mind was busily making sense of the nagging familiarity he'd been feeling for a short while. Cybernetic arm? Triple-barreled revolver? Silver Bullet?

He knew where he'd encountered all of those before...

But could she know him?

Pondering this uncanny question, he continued his search through the light of the explosion, waiting for her to come at him again. If he could, he'd have aimed to drag this out and wait for the vampiress to expose any kind of weakness. Simply overwhelming her with brute force was out of the question; she'd heal through his onslaught without much trouble, and he couldn't allow himself to rely on such a simple-minded approach any more. No longer was he merely a demon, so no longer could he believe brute power to be the key to victory.

Perhaps he should have come to that realisation in the wake of his humiliating defeat at Tajna Rasha's hands back in Dominion. At least then he wouldn't have blown up in Amoura's face the way he did, angered by her methods at the culmination of her training, and embarrassed himself further...

No, he scolded himself mentally. There's no time for that kind of thought. Concentrate, Sparda; she'll present an opportunity yet. Just make sure you recognise it.

[Maya]

The light devoured everything, from the beautiful crystallized scenery of the expanse to the endless sea of familiars watching from the heavens. Nothing could cut through the thick blinding light while Sparda repositioned himself accordingly waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.

Seconds became like minutes, minutes like hours and hours like days. As the light began to shred from the surrounding area Sparda would notice one thing about his opponent; she didn't move. Maya remained perfectly still as her appearance reformed in the wake of the bright lights dimming. Even her expression from the lead up to the last attack did not change. The only difference was her arms being at her side, the clawed hand free while Cerberus rested in the other. Their simple battle had evolved from assault after assault, to a standoff. The vampiress, Silver Bullet, returned the gaze of the "Legendary Dark Knight" that stood across from her. Still unmoved. Until the silence was shattered.

"It's interesting, isn't it?"

As if Maya had invaded the very mind of Sparda she continued.

"The new perspective you have on things."

Her voice became less like that of a mad woman and more like the experienced voice of the crimson vampire from day's past.

[Sparda]

It was beginning to irritate the demon how easily his opponent could brush off the destruction unfolding around them. More infuriating still was the thought that the only foe he'd faced in the past who fought so damned casually was Alucard, and that he was therefore the only benchmark against which Sparda could measure this vampiress.

He scowled down at her, vaguely recognising this latest utterance but ignoring it promptly.

"Finally," he scoffed. "I thought you'd never stop singing." He reached into his coat with his free hand, producing Ombra from her holster. His index finger rested loosely upon the trigger.

I wonder...

The demon took a moment to concentrate, closing his mind against the nosferatu's probing. He needed to keep this next gambit a secret.

It pains me to think so, but I doubt my powers are of a nature that can defeat this kind of vampire. I'll need help from the others if I'm to drive her off...

He turned his gaze up for a moment, to where the outskirts of Hallowton lay in the distance. Somewhere in the city were plenty of friends who would assist him, but there was one name on his mind in particular as he reached out to try and whisper into hers.

Miracle... Miracle, can you hear me...?

[Miracle]

Miracle was in the ceremonial hall of Hallowton. They didn't have a temple as the people here were supposedly evolved pass the need for religion so they found no use for temples. But this hall was more than big enough to hold many kind of ceremonies here. Especially a wedding. The young High Priestess felt like giggling. She had performed weddings before back in Aircano but nothing like this. It should be fun as long as nothing-

"Miracle... Miracle, can you hear me...?"

Gets in the way....

"Sparda?"

Miracle turned around but the "Legendary Dark Knight" was nowhere to be found while at the same time she could feel his presence and know he was in trouble. In an attempt to reach back out to him she would respond in the same matter he had use to contact her.

Yes I hear you. What is it?