Member
Author
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Somewhere in the dark recesses of my mind...
Age: 33
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Gah. I'm casting about for ideas...true, I submitted my latest chapter yesterday, but I'm already on my next one, so far, I've got this, but I've got no idea where to go...pah, I'll get something sooner or later...tell me what yah think.
Spoiler:
Negi's bangs flew back as he stood, a lone figure against the rocky, barren cliff. The night air whipped at his face, and dust, dust that would have brought stinging tears to lesser eyes, danced about in the moonlight. The boy tossed his head, a large skeleton key clasped tight in his left, while HeartBreaker laid bare in his right, shining a defiant blood red.
A black cape flapped behind him, its red velvet insides reflecting the sheen of blond hair. Eva stood next to him, looking out upon the same scene he was, the darkness consuming all to the eyes of a mere human, but these were vampires. Powerful, proud vampires.
Yet, even as the boy watched the scene in front of him, the sound of gravel being kicked aside, of dust ground underfoot, made him turn and observe. A lone figure, cloaked in mages robes, ascended up the steep slope.
Nay, the figure was far from lone. Behind them, several cloaked beings followed, silently. Negi watched as they approached. A pale hand extended from the leader's cloak, clutching a tall staff. The hand was young, strong.
A cross flashed from its neck as it sent its staff down into the earth once more, leverage for its climb up towards him. Negi watched as it rose. Its light brown cloak, tattered, flew lightly in the breeze. The boy could make out a short blade thrust into the belt of the other, and the boy felt their power.
Brilliant, glorious power, power that shone to oppose his, which unfurled and wrapped about him, defiant. When they came close, Negi could see it was his inner circle, Asuna, Anya, Alma, Chisame, Nodoka, Yue...only his mother and the two siblings weren’t present.
The boy stood tall against the stranger, who lifted a hand to toss back their hood, allowing Negi feast his eyes upon the other, and once again, Negi felt that clawing urgency to escape...
He was staring at himself, he whom smiled benevolently in the face of his gritted teeth. Negi's fist exploded with dark power as he sent it flying forth, like lightning, the speed it flew, and yet, the other caught his fist calmly, his own hand flowing with calm magic of light.
Struggling against the other, he pushed; he was stronger, faster, better. Yet, in the instant the other's foot slipped, Asuna stepped forward, her hand coming upon his shoulder, and the boy gained strength, his stance holding.
Each time Negi pushed forwards, another stepped forwards and lent the boy their strength, until they stood on even ground, one of light and one of darkness, Negi attacking, the other defending. More of his party stepped forwards, and Negi feasted upon the rest of his class coming up the cliff, forcing him back, and back...
He turned to Evangeline, only to see she had faded from sight, a whisper in the wind. Alone. That was the pathway he had always chosen to travel, was it not? Even now, Negi could see his mother climb up to join the party against him...his power burned against his veins.
More, he needed more! Against this light, he felt weak, and weaker he was growing still against this force. The other reached to his neck and lifted the cross. The Immortal Rosary...he held it high, above the moon even, it seemed to climb.
It touched his skin, and he felt it burn, cut him, sear his skin and through it his very soul. Consumed with pain, Negi could only scream. Holy light, consuming all, her fought, struggled, wrenched the cross form the other's hands, tossing it over the cliff. Yet the boy calmly held out his hands, and into it, the cross returned, slashing right through his chest as it came to the light, drawing precious blood from him.
It was clean as it landed in the boy's hand, and he closed his bright fingers against its shaft, spreading wings of pure light to take to the sky, from up close, they looked like an angels... The cross in his hands shifted, lengthening, forming its blade...
A cross, when turned, does indeed, show itself to be God's blade. The other came down, quickly, too quickly, impossibly quickly, descending from the heavens to stab right through him, running him through with the burning blade, searing his flesh and consuming his vision with brilliant bright light...
It was his screams that he awoke to.
Negi stood there, breathing heavily as he looked off into the night from where he now stood, atop a large boulder. It appalled him, it did, how well Anya did sleep. He himself, well, he wasn't so sure. He had just had a dream, and he was supposed to not be able to "sleep" anymore, right? Well, no one had said he would stop dreaming, but he had grown accustomed to dreamless nights.
It was quiet here… that was why. Too quiet, the silence pressed upon his ears, beating down upon the door to his soul, if it still resided there in his body that was. Was that what the dream was trying to tell him? He had lost his soul to his ever growing strength?
Or was it telling him that his lone wolf style would lead him to destruction? If that was the case, screw the world. He was going to be destroyed anyway, being a vampire didn't change the fact he was a damn catalyst.
Closing his eyes, he sighed heavily. He breathed deeply of the forest air, crisper than any Tokyo had to offer him. As a vampire, one seemed to gain a new respect for the life about them, which was ever the irony. You don't know what you have, truly, until it slipped, gone from your hands.
Negi gathered his energy about him, practicing what Eva had taught him, calmly drawing upon what she called his Mort to lift himself into the skies. Slowly, surely, he floated upwards, the heavens reaching down to finally except him.
Weightless. He was weightless in the air. He felt as if he were perpetually falling, his body struggling to stay up in a constant downwards spiral, like in an elevator going down ever so quickly, yet, still he was, in the air.
Lifting himself higher, he touched down upon the branch of a tree, so lightly he touched upon it that it did not even seem to acknowledge his presence. It was a tall tree, the one he had chosen. He walked along the branch, reaching the trunk to put a tiny hand upon it, feeling the rough bark.
To think that single small hand, his left, he grasped the lives of so many in its hold, the ghostly images of those it affected encompassing a gravity far wider than its actual stature. Live had been taken with it, ripped from their chests, and in the same breath, life had been saved with it.
Off in the distance, Negi saw a mountain range, barren and alive all at once, capturing his gaze. It was the only landmark for miles. They would head there then. He would practice flight tonight, let him stretch unpracticed wings so the morning would dawn upon a fledgling fast losing its soft down.
Quietly, he jumped off the branch he stood upon, catching himself awkwardly on a cool breeze. He would learn, and soar among the skies upon wings fashioned from the feathers he had plucked from the fallen.
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