Every Blade has a Tale.

[Takushi Rena]

Shadows Fall, please do not post in this thread again without permission of the thread's creator. If you have something against someone, please talk it over VIA PM, not doing something childish and immature by spamming a thread. Spamming isn't going to solve anything and it makes you look very stupid in the process, which is not what I think you're going for in this. This is your final warning and, if you post again, you will receive a warning.

[Rokazu]

It was a blink when a sword appeared on Charles’s grip…Then the next when Kiramus had barely managed to escape by creating a space-free barrier and isolating his own space from the rest….then another when everything as small as an atom was sliced in half…When the angel had reemerged from his isolative barrier, pain struck him several spots from the body. His arms and legs were not completely cut off from the rest of the space when Charles had motioned the slice.

A little cut’s unavoidable I guess, Kiramus thought to himself, but damn he’s still crazy, Clear or not...

“Remind me,” Kiramus joked, “not to piss you off when you’re clear again…”

Everything he had done so far was defense after defense. The attacks from the others seemed too intense for him to commence any significant counters. And he was right. At the very moment a deep rumbling sound ripped through the air as the earth began to quake. The angel realized that Methuselah’s probes were sliced to pieces, but that definitely would not have affected it in any way as Kiramus subconsciously compared those little pieces to the planet on which the angel himself was standing. The angel laughed lightly at Methuselah’s voice, which seemed heavily sarcastic in Kiramus’s ears due to its metallic and emotionless texture.

He felt much heavier all of a sudden as the shaking finally ceased. The blood from the angel’s arms fell much faster and heavier than they should have been. With ease, Kiramus condensed space around him once more, including at least several thousand kilometers into an actual expanse of only 0.1 millimeter thick. From heaviness the weightlessness, Kiramus took a brief moment to be used to the new gravitation, especially the 2.5G force had now become virtually zero-g.

Kiramus hastened his own temporal state by about 200%, so that now he reacted three times faster than he would have originally, which was already quite quick. Even the angel’s thought process hastened much more. At the same time, the angel sent out a wave of temporal-reduction wave in all directions, like the others had done so far. If collided with any part of the wave, the object’s temporal state would, in contrast to Kiramus being quickened, be reduced to 33% of its original. There was no energy included in the process so they would not have been able to even detect it, not to mention its speeds of expansion was maintained at roughly twice the speed of light. The only flaw was that Kiramus himself had used energy to produce the flux. No matter, he thought, as moments later he released another wave of equal magnitude.

[Jack London]

"Ouch Charles, that stung."

Charles knew very well that Methuselah would easily have been uneffected by the assault, for the probe was but a mere puppet to the large machine. The assault was more directed toward the angel, Kiramus. As the Weapon Master turned to look over at the angel, he saw that the blade had its way with his arms and legs, although the rest of his body remained unharmed. Apparently, he had used his space manipulation to seperate himself from the rest of them, only his arms and legs didn't seem to make it.

"Not quick enough!" Charles exclaimed.

"Remind me not to piss you off when you're clear again." Kiramus stated in reply to his injuries.

Meiyo knew that to completely avoid this attack would be almost impossible. He would have to take the hit. If there was one weakness to this extremely accurate move it was the very fact that it was nothing more than a blade. And yet, entire armies fell to this single blade, taking nothing more than a single strike. Military strategists constantly tried to find ways around it, only to find the answer right under their noses.

The virtue quickly pressed the brush gently against the canvas, drawing the outline of his body with a symbol on top as well as on the bottom. The symbol on top represented the phsyical realm, and the one on the bottom represented the spiritual. The outline of his body was a magical force that would protect both his phsyical and spiritual self from the Possible sword. The drawing glowed and manifested into existance just as the blade had been swung. The virtue closed his eyes and felt the slight pressure from the blade appearing upon him in all directions, signifying his fate, had he not defended himself.

Charles quickly sheathed the sword and took a glance at the millions of pieces of the probe, awaiting the next move. There was a sudden shift, but extremely slight, upon the planet itself. He could faintly feel it, but just as the shift was completed, he felt a sharp tug upon his entire being. Reacting quickly to this, he knew this couldn't be anything other than the manipulation of Methuselah's own gravitational pull, so he manipulated the pull around the immediate area around him. Gravity, within itself, was a part of nature, which kept balance in its own way. Once his nose was a mere inch away from the cathedral's roof, his descent ceased. His eyes widened slightly at how close he came to a hard hit. However, at the moment, his own gravity was under his control, defying Methuselah's primary pull.

The Weapon Master, in response to the new gravational field, landed face first upon the cathedral, although not as hard as he would have if Methuselah remained in control.

Ow...

Rubbing his nose as he got up and quickly adjusting himself to the pull, he looked up at Kiramus and Meiyo to see what their own defences were. Kiramus simply condensed the space around him, while Meiyo created an invisible bubble around himself, which allowed him to be uneffected by Methuselah's gravity. His body remained at the center of the bubble, always, and by manipulating the movement of the bubble, he can travel. It was only a moment afterward that the Weapon Master caught something strange at the corner of his eye. It was Kiramus' behavior-- he was breathing at a much faster rate. It was very unusual.

Perhaps he had, quite literally, quickened his movements. The Weapon Master wanted to grin, but there was no time. Battle was all about perception. For all he knew, it could have been he that was slowed and simply seeing the angel as that much faster. What he was seeing could be nothing more than an illusion. In the past, he could have easily known illusion from reality. Fighting was never the same. Although he would like this to be a battle without casualties, he knew that they would have to push him to his limit in order for his goal to be realized. Maybe he had to push them too.

A blade appeared within the grasp of Charles' right hand, and within that very second, both his material and astral self were sent to the spiritual realm, leaving nothing but a strange fog in his palce, signifying where he had been. From the spiritual realm, he watched from a different vantage point. Kiramus had depleted a certain amount of energy to release something twice. As he did so, the speed of time itself in certain areas were affected. Not only did he quicken his own state, he was attempting to slow theirs. He was now truly using his speed to his full advantage. Charles had evaded those waves in his disappearance, but he wondered he'd be able to do that again.

"Two can play at that." Meiyo said, in reply to the angel's assault. He drew a clock upon his canvas and produced the same effect Kiramus did to himself. The slow down of his temporal time was nullified and he was now just as quick as the angel was.

After seeing this from the spiritual realm, the fog in Charles' place swayed slightly and it seemingly morphed back into the Weapon Master upon his return. With the Possible sword sheathed to his left, he now also wielded a second blade, which was being held in his right. It was a short sword, no more than four feet in length, with bluish color to it. Both the hilt and the blade were connected to a glowing blue orb, which glowed so brightly at the center that it was simply white. It had a strange spiked attachment to the left of the orb, giving it the illusion that it is an eye of some sort. Strange markings could be seen carved into the blade, within the first half a foot, nearest the hilt. It could easily be detected that a great spiritual force resonated from the orb and channeling throughout the entire blade and to the wielder himself.

This is the holy sword, Soul Calibur.

The connection between Charles and the blade was immediate when the blade was summoned, resulting in a greater spiritual strength, capacity, and regeneration. Due to this, it allowed him to manipulate every spiritual particle of himself to attach themselves to his phsyical shell and, for a few moments, erase it from existance while the spirit retreated to the spiritual realm. The fog was the marker that acted as a gateway for the re-materialization of the phsyical shell. Upon its re-materialization, he returned to his phsyical body and faced them once again. Approximately thirty seconds had passed during the entire process, in which Meiyo had also nullified Kiramus' affects upon him.

In his desire to test his newly obtained speed, Meiyo's eyes looked over at the angel as his hand clenched the paint brush, ready to draw. Suddenly, the paint brush shattered within his grasp and a bluish glow was upon him. With several movements of his body, he evaded the assaults with ease, but he was still surprised that it moved so quickly, even in comparison to his increase in temporal time state. Was his spell faulty?

"Sorry... but I'm your only target, as of now." Charles said to him, pointing the soul sword at the virtue's chest. His expression was a lot more serious now than it had been before. Still, the virtue couldn't help but smile, both warriors now hovering several yards over the cathedral.

"So be it." Meiyo replied, his brush rebuilding itself within his hand as he drew a sword of his own. A sheath appeared upon the right side of his waist, as the brush was put in his left hand along with the canvas, holding the sword in one hand with the other. Three strikes were unleashed upon the Weapon Master, only to be simulteanously met by the soul sword in a three quick parries. The virtue was baffled. The soul sword had increased his spiritual strength to an extent that his speed seemed godlike. However, it was being heldback by the limitations of his physical shell.

They both grinned at eachother, and Charles quickly took the Possible Sword out of his sheath and sent it hurling toward the ground, spinning wildly.

"For you, Meth!" He exclaimed, willing the blade to strike from every possible angle of the core itself, for each time the blade made a single rotation upon its descent. It made about fifteen rotations, before disappearing just as it hit the ground, returning to its own universe.

Charles hastily hovered several yards away from Meiyo as the orb from Soul Calibur glowed more brightly than ever before, releasing a spiritual mist in all directions that would emcompass the entire battlefield within a few moments of its release. It was thick to the extent of one not being able to see his/her hand directly in front of them. Being that of a spiritual nature, its signature resembled that of Charles', with the connection from the soul blade, resulting in him being almost undetectable. Since the mist had the same signature, it would seem as though the Weapon Master was everywhere at once.

The Weapon Master didn't let a single moment go to waste as he immediately sent himself hurling toward Kiramus, at nearly lightning speed. He would be upon him in no more than a moment or two, and the soul blade would cleave directly through his soul like paper, once it came into contact with him.

And so the real test of speed ensues.

[Chariot of Fire]

Now this was quite interesting to observe. Methuselah might even go so far as to infer the emotion he was simulating as the emotion of excitement. Such speed and ferocity in the small beings that stood atop his surface! Each of them managed to avoid the obstacle of the altered gravitational field, and the assaults continued. Although his probe had been divided into dozens of smaller globules of itself, it still watched for him, analyzing and constantly collecting data on the conditions surrounding the battle. All was well as of now… despite the gravity alteration, everything else had remained normal…

However, this changed suddenly. The probe registered a drastic change in the temporal flow of the battlefield. Suddenly, Kiramus winked out of existence, along with the Virtue and Charles himself. The shift in the space-time continuum around them could only mean that they had accelerated the rate of time for their beings, and effectively removed themselves from the normal space-time continuum of this area… Truly an interesting development, although Methuselah was not quite surprised by their course of action. In fact, before he had fallen asleep, he had to deal with quite a similar problem.

As quick as a flash, seven huge pillars emerged from the ground. Like skyscrapers erupted from the earth, these seven black pillars, completely smooth in texture, rose up from the earth, splitting open the grass and the ground so that several cracks were sent spidering their way through the ground. The cathedral remained standing, the arena was otherwise unaffected. The seven pillars, each of them reaching about three times higher than the cathedral itself, towered over the arena, sending huge shadows over the green expanse of Methuselah’s surface. A soft whirring, like that of hundreds of spinning gears, overtook the field, and each smooth black pillar vibrated slightly, as a single blue crease of light shot down the side of each pillar, before blasting outward, sending a paper thin field of blue energy out around each pillar.

This wave of blue light continued to shoot outward, connecting with each other until a huge blue dome of energy was formed over the arena. It glowed brightly for a second, like a sapphire shell had just been placed over the cathedral and surrounding area, before vanishing into thin air, becoming invisible for all those who stared at it with human eyes. The black pillars remained though, strong as ever, and composed of a material so hard, that little more than a supernova could put a put a dent in it. The purpose of these pillars was to create an isolated field, from which Methuselah could alter his own relationship to space-time without affecting those living on his surface… And as soon as the field of energy had isolated this area, Kiramus, Meiyo, and Charles appeared before him again, as he sped up quickly to their time-zone.

If Methuselah could blink, he would have. He suddenly felt a million metal strikes slashing through his core, some of them cutting though swirling Living Dust, while others struck at the powerful energy core at his center. However, each blade simply was broken down into more Living Dust, and every strike at the energy core simply served to melt the blade into vapor. Such a presence was not a threat. However, what might come next would be… It was time to shift things a little bit…

It seemed like Meiyo and Charles had engaged each other. That was all fine and good, but Kiramus would need a little bit of something to keep him occupied. From the green grass that covered Methuselah, a murky black goop began to seep from the ground. This sticky black liquid oozed up from the earth like a sinister volcano, bubbling and twisting as it slid up from bowels of the earth. However, even as quickly as this liquid amassed, it just as soon reformed itself, coming together into a large globule of black liquid before it shot up into the sky, hurtling through the air like a meteor in reverse before it came to a halt in front of the powerful angel. The black liquid sphere rippled once more, this time bubbling as it changed its shape. Black liquid transformed into dull grey skin, and bubbling blackness easily shifted into a deep silver armor. Muscle upon muscle stood at attention as the figure was formed, and as the blackness bubbled further, a large black helmet, smooth as silk and shaped like a bullet, covered the head of this being.

When the transformation was complete, a huge, goliath-like warrior hung in the air in front of Kiramus. Clad in brilliant silver armor, which covered his neck, arms, chest, shins, and thighs, his grey skin was surprisingly dull against the shining angel and his own armor. The helmet, which covered his entire face and did not show any hair, nor eyes, nor mouth, nor nose, simply stood emotionlessly there. He stood there in the air for a moment, immobile, simply watching Kiramus carefully from beneath his black helmet.

Then, grunting almost silently, he lifted his huge hands, and pushing them hard into his own skin, pulled out two powerful swords from within his body. Like a doctor extracting a rib from a dying patient, the warrior pulled out two long broadswords from the inside of his body, grunting heavily before yanking them out a disgusting squelching noise. Each broadsword was made from the mightiest of angelic metal, which Methuselah had discovered and taken for his own use several hundred years ago. On the cross-hilts, there were two cherubim engraved, each one with its wings extended in the opposite direction, marking the same statuettes that were placed on top of the Ark of the Covenant.

“Kiramus of the Heavens,” called the warrior, using a sound generator that was formed inside of him to mimic the language of the angels, “It has been millennia since the Heavenly Host have carried a blade to battle. Let us see if these skills have remained…”

With those words, the warrior tossed the blade in his left hand toward Kiramus, not in a dangerous strike, but lightly enough so that the angel would be able to catch it handle-first. The warrior bent his legs slightly, still hovering in the air as he gripped his broadsword with two hands now, the light of the sun reflecting off his blade brilliantly as he awaited for Kiramus’s response.

[Rokazu]

Perhaps time and space manipulation was something not as unique as Kiramus thought it was. As he thought that hastening himself might tilt the battle to his favor for a little bit, everybody caught up with him in an instant. He would have to strategize something quickly before any of them could do real harm to him. Inside his space barrier, Kiramus floated with zero-g and observed the movements of the Weapon Master and the Virtue. Meiyo seemed to have attempted an assault on the angel but Charles just as quickly thwarted the attack. Meanwhile, seven mountainous sized pillars emerged skyward from Methuselah’s surface just as Charles took another swing at the giant machine.

Before he can do anything Charles began to charge at Kiramus with a deadly speed, almost simultaneously as Methuselah sent forth a part of itself to fight against the angel. Both dashed through the air with inhuman speed, and would have reached Kiramus before the angel could raise his arm. But the key here was Kiramus’s space barrier. The virtual zero-g field produced within his barrier was not conjured, nor maintained, by supernatural forces at all. Kiramus had no weight because of the distance he put between himself and Methuselah when he compressed thousands of kilometers of space. From inside the angel saw everything as though the barrier remained nonexistent, but for anything that the angel willed not to bypass it, it would need to cover the actual distance that angelic being had put in the barrier.

At such rate, the Weapon Master, not realizing, would take several hours to reach the angel. As Charles entered the thin yet vastly barrier, he would seem as though he had halted altogether. It was indeed a strange phenomenon that not many people understood regarding the angel’s ability controlling space. Taking the chance, Kiramus quickly added more distance behind Charles so that now the Weapon Master was trapped in the expanse of twenty thousand kilometers compressed into less than one millimeter. Sensing the exact position of the Weapon Master within his barrier, the angel slashed the space of the barrier in half so that half of Charles was on one side and the arm holding the Soul Calibur the other.

Meanwhile, outside the barrier, the pillars that seemed to reach toward and out of the edge of Methuselah’s atmosphere radiated a beautiful yet eerie blue light surrounding the area that the four beings fought for Charles’s Clarity. For several moments, the angel watched in awe admiration at the creation of light; Methuselah was an incredible creation indeed; knowledgeable, formidable, fearsome…in every way perceivable Methuselah seemed to be the absolute of everything; even in terms of mystery Methuselah surpassed that of any other existence.

Staring toward the Virtue, Kiramus easily conjured a time barrier and mixed special sort of Astral magic around the man. As soon as the sphere slipped into existence it began emitting three different and distinct waves to Meiyo from every conceivable angle. The first kind of waves assaulted against the mind and the mind only, hastening it exponentially by a factor of ten for every wave that Meiyo’s conscious came into contact with. The second kind had effects only on Meiyo’s physical shell. Upon collision with the wave, the biological and physical responses of the body would slow down exponentially by the same factor. The third sort, powered by magic that Kiramus had, simply restricted the Virtue’s soul from being able to leave the current shell.

“Right back at ya, Virtue.” Kiramus declared lightly.

If all worked out successfully, Meiyo’s mind would process much more rapidly than he could conceive to a point that his own evolution of conscience would surpass that of beings existing for millennium before him within less than a second. His body would react equally as fast because of his sharpened senses – if his body could catch up. Simultaneously, the slowed shell would lag behind the hastened thoughts of the Virtue, leaving it unable to react coherently to the Virtue’s quickened neural signals and becoming left behind pitifully and helplessly. Within moments, Meiyo’s shell would not even able to keep up with his subconscious signal for involuntary and vital body functions. Then, the Virtue’s soul would then be trapped within the slowly decaying shell that lagged behind by millennium in comparison.

When Kiramus looked up to immediately before him again, a humanoid shape had taken form in front of him. Unchallenged in its bypass, the black liquid-like substance of Methuselah had already passed through the angel’s barrier. On the outside, the blue light strangely transformed and solidified just as the liquid before Kiramus did, creating a dome-shaped structure that blocked out the horizon and the skies. Kiramus focused to the new opponent, undecided on whether he should use magic. He had already done so once on Meiyo. The angel had pride, and he preferred to rely on his own abilities as much as possible.

“Kiramus of the Heavens,” a metallic voice was broadcasted into the air; there was no emotion, yet Kiramus could felt the pride and solemnity in Methuselah’s declaration of his name. The warrior tossed one of the broadswords towards Kiramus harmlessly, intending the angel to catch and fight with the weapon that Methuselah had offered him as it continued, “It has been millennia since the Heavenly Host have carried a blade to battle. Let us see if these skills have remained…”

“I must apologize if I offend you,” the angel replied indifferently, “but us angels have pride…that if we must fight by sword, we fight with our own.”

Rejecting the weapon, Kiramus conjured a space-less barrier around the sword, forcing to seemingly wink out of existence; if he decided to turn down the weapon, Kiramus was also determined that Methuselah couldn't use take the unused sword to his advantage either.

He has to force me to use magic! Thought Kiramus sarcastically to himself.

Forcing up the magic inside his body onto his arm, a 5-foot blade came into existence upon Kiramus’s right hand. It wasn’t a sword with a legend or great heroic story behind it, but like the one Methuselah held, the one in Kiramus’s possession was built of angelic metal. There were runes of Angelics encrypted onto either sides of the blade that meant Justice and Strength. The angel had not seen another weapon had that encryptions as corny as this one had….nor had he seen one as great and durable as this one. The swords had remained sharp after all those years, still able to slice in half the page of a book; and in the training that Kiramus had with this blade, it did not fail him once. He might have been defeated by others, for he can never claim to be the best of the best in swordsmanship, but it was this blade that accompanied him through his swordsman training. Readying himself, Kiramus awaited the assault of the warrior of Methuselah.

[Jack London]

It was strange, really. At the speed he was going at, he should have cut the angel in halves by now, but the distance between the two didn't seem to be getting any less at all. Slowing to a stop, Charles look at the angel with confusion and then was suddenly hit by it. Of course, you idiot, he condensed the space around him, he thought, quickly trying to make his way back, only to realize that there was more distance behind him now, causing him to become trapped. An instinctive feeling erupted from his stomach area, one that reminded him that death was near, whether or not there was any prior knowledge of it or not-- it was simply a feeling of the near future.

Charles knew only one thing, while he was within this condensed space, he was completely under Kiramus' control, and he needed to escape.

To escape a nailed shut coffin,
Without removing a nail.

The words quickly manifested and isolated the immediate space around Charles from Kiramus' barrier. It wee as though Charles' outline had been cut out of the barrier and placed directly outside of it, away from any harm's way. With a gasp, the Weapon Master's left and quickly lifting up and holding his head. A terrible headache had erupted from the use of word manifesting the second time already. His spiritual energy was drained to a very low point, although quickly regenerating. Looks like the first big mistake of the battle, he thought as he closed his eyes and laid in mid-air, surrounded by the spiritual mist he had conjured. Figuring that he wouldn't be detected for some time while within the mist, he remained to regain his strength.

Meanwhile, Meiyo watched Kiramus' attempt at the vulnerable Charles, after his careless move, meeting his gaze afterward, when the angel turned to look at him. This angel was capable of many things, some of which could almost be considered god-like. The virtue knew nothing of fear, but there was something that he did feel toward the angel that still remained a mystery to him. Regardless, upon the gaze, he felt a sudden gathering of astral magics being targetted at his own position. Upon this, the virtue swiftly drew a thick circle, outlining himself, while keeping space in between. Immiediately, all that could be seen was Meiyo being consumed by a blackness.

If one could detect the composition of something, an eyebrow may be raised at this. This blackness was composed of absolutely nothing. It was simply there. When the barrier was made around the virtue's position, the waves were simply absorbed by the blackness, upon coming into contact with it. The virtue had summoned a small void to outline his perimeter, while maintaining about an inch in between himself and the void. The moment the void was summoned, he condensed the space between the two so that there were several yards within the inch between them.

Looks like we're all learning from the angel.

Had he not done this, there was a good chance that he would have been absorbed by the void as well. It was a dangerous trick, but apparently necessary, detecting the oncoming waves that were constantly striking the void.

Upon drawing an arrow leading outside the void, he was teleported several feet away from the time barrier and the void alike. Being summoned for a specific purpose, the area the void appeared upon would return to normal once the waves Kiramus sent ceased. With a deep breath, Meiyo took one final look at the void before turning to the spiritual mist that Charles had summoned recently and began to traverse through it.

Charles, in little more than a moment of regenerating, could feel a familiar presence closing in upon him at a quick rate. Opening one eye, he looked to see what it was, only to see a dark blur within the mist, growing bigger and bigger as it drew near. Gripping Soul Calibur, Charles brought it up to chest level and collided with another blade, along with an entire body, having great momentum, sending the two crashing onto the top of the cathedral. Slamming his back hard against the solid roof, his muscles struggled to maintain its grip on the soul sword as it defended against the other. Meiyo pressed down with his own weapon, in a vicious attempt to break his guard.

The attack being proved a failure, the virtue leaped off of him and stood several feet away, waiting for the Weapon Master to regain his footing.

"I think you've terribly lost your touch," Meiyo commented.

"How'd you know of my position?" Charles asked, in a poor attempt to not sound tired, although he very well was.

"It was a crafty move, but there was one big weakness. Your position was simply the spiritual signature that was regenerating, while the others remained stationary," the virtue replied, with a smirk.

"I'll keep that in mind..."

With that, seven black pillars hastily rose to the heaven, towering well over the cathedral. The two watched in wonder as the shadows from the pullars engulfed them. Once the pillars had reached their maximum height, they each shot out a blue light, which eventually surrounded the entire battlefield, before becoming transparent. Soon afterward, Methuselah created a warrior and sent it to fight the angel himself.

“Kiramus of the Heavens, it has been millennia since the Heavenly Host have carried a blade to battle. Let us see if these skills have remained,” the warrior said to Kiramus.

“I must apologize if I offend you, but us angels have pride that if we must fight by sword, we fight with our own," was Kiramus' reply, as he summoned a magnificent sword of his own, before having a spar with the warrior.

Charles' brown eyes seemed to sparkle as the sun rose slightly higher up in the sky, over the pillar that was blocking it originally, a smile gracing his features. He watched the angel and the warrior begin their spar, making for an epic battle.

"Interesting..."

Still laying upon the cathedral, he took a better look at the sun's position, seeing that it was about halfway to hitting noon. Taking a breath, he slowly got up from his position, his muscles somewhat struggling as it carried him up. Now standing, the Weapon Master's eyes lifted to look at the virtue, who had teleported his brush and canvas to a pocket dimension so that he could wield his blade to its full extent. Meiyo took a battle ready stance, facing Charles. It would seem that melee was the rules of this battle now, making Charles smile.

"Teach me something, Weapon Master," Meiyo said to him, "perhaps I'll learn something. That is, if you still have enough fight in you."

"Plenty," Charles replied, simply as he held the soul sword with two hands, at level with his face, the tip facing the virtue. The two warriors began to circle eachother, waiting for one to make the first move, neither one taking their eyes off the other. That silence that graced the ambience before any dual was upon them now, to the point where their breathing could easily be heard by eachother. Like two wolves just before a fierce battle, the circle continued, untill a gust of wind passed by them. So alert were they to everything around them, the wind's gentle touch caused them both to suddenly end their movements simultaneously. The passing wind was all that could be heard by their ears, and it seemed to carry a distance voice, that only they could hear.

Go.

The two lunged at eachother, Charles beginning with a diagonal slice from right to left, toward the virtue's shoulder. Meiyo's quick eyes recognized the familiar movements and brought his sword up to block the assault, in a vertical motion, immediately sending his right leg toward the Weapon Master's side. While still pressing foward to break his defence, Charles brought up his left foot and stomped upon the oncoming assault, applying pressure to it as he stepped foward, his face being a little more than inch away from the virtue's face at this point. With the virtue's footing beginning to collapse, his defence also began to weaken. However, by sheer will, he gathered his strength and shifted his entire body weight foward, in order to increase the momentum of his defence.

Both their eyes never left eachother's with every movement that was made, and so swift were they in every movement that no more than a minute had passed. As their muscles continued to press on eachother's weapons, the weapons slowly slid downward in a different postion, now laying adjacent to their bodies upon a diagonal, both of which were still being pressed foward in an attempt to break either one's defence. When neither one let up, Charles made a small and quick leap backward, before charging in again, this time attempting to thrust the blade into his stomach. Quickly regaining his footing, Meiyo side-stepped to the right and made a clear parry to his assault, sending a counter thrust to his collar bone.

The counter thrust was met with another defensive as Charles' bent his knees slightly, before sending the soul blade horizontally upward, both their blades meeting another stale mate in mid-air. Counter after counter, the dual raged on, Charles' movements being a lot more graceful in his personal style of the weapon he wielded, while the virtue maintained an agressive offense.

As such, the morning sun raced toward its position at noon.

[Chariot of Fire]

“I must apologize if I offend you,” the angel replied indifferently, “but us angels have pride…that if we must fight by sword, we fight with our own.”

The grey-skinned warrior smiled slightly beneath his smooth, black helmet. This probe was unable to simulate complex emotions, but it still managed a smile in face of the angel’s lucky decision. Contrary to popular belief, this angel’s pride had just saved his life… The warrior’s second blade winked out of existence as the angelic being removed it from time and space. The probe did not physically acknowledge this act as the angel drew his own blade forth from the nothingness, a similar five foot long angelic blade, composed of the same metals that built the blade held by Methuselah’s probe-warrior. The angel drew the shimmering blade forth, holding it in a defensive stance, floating high in the air, and waiting for his assault… Polite of course. For one with such great power, the high angel had not forgotten the honors of combat.

“Suit yourself,” said the probe-warrior, his voice as monotonous as ever, hiding the glee that was within Methuselah’s inner body below. The angel had made this last longer… That was good, “Let’s begin…”

Methuselah had a personal philosophy, which he often utilized. The best way to study a specimen, was to engage in combat with it. It had served him well throughout these years, and it was this philosophy that he would now employ against Kiramus. Raising his blade with one hand, bringing the behemoth of a broadsword in a high arc above his head, he instantly flashed forward, shifting ever so quickly in space so that it would appear that he had simply blurred out of existence. However, to Kiramus, it would appear that he had simply appeared directly in front of him.

Methuselah appeared a mere few feet in front of Kiramus, his grey muscles tensing as he brought his broadsword down with a crash. This probe was fueled by a small nuclear generator that Methuselah had built inside his stomach. Primitive to be sure, but it would keep the probe going, and gave him enough energy to add an extra punch to his blows. For example, although Methuselah was performing a simple hacking strike down, if Kiramus chose to block, he would realize that the strike was performed with enough power to smash a bridge into pieces. The angel had better find another way to defend himself, for despite his space-time capabilities, he would be unable to absorb the powerful strike administered by the Methuselah’s colossus.

[Rokazu]

“Suit yourself,” Methuselah’s probe declared monotonously as always, but the angel could hear the solemnity and honor in its voice. Something of Artificial Intelligence like Methuselah always intrigued Kiramus. They had an inability to talk like living beings, yet they possessed and even radiated a truer liveliness than many other beings that he had encountered. Was something artificial really that much different from a so-called natural born life form? Then Methuselah brought Kiramus back to the present with his voice, “Let’s begin.”

Below them, the angel realized that Meiyo had escaped his lockdown barrier, not particularly surprised that the man managed to find his way out, but impressed nonetheless that he reacted so quickly and decisively. The virtue didn’t even slow to continue his assault, this time on the Weapon Master. The battle ensued between the two old friends as the four of them unknowingly split up into two pairs against each other. Nevertheless, the opponent that Kiramus was now presented with was a formidable one, and it was indeed an honor to face the Ancient One. I wonder if he had, thought the angel.

Kiramus steadied his stance just in time to meet the machine sending his probe forward to directly in front him. Methuselah swung down his angelic broadsword viciously from above the head. It was just a beginning blow, and the angel would have no trouble reacting to that, not to mention that this wasn’t solely a sword fight. Something seemed amiss as Kiramus hastened his own temporal state so that Methuselah’s weapon seemed to be coming down slowly.

Why did he offer a sword? Thought Kiramus.

He ought to be more cautious fighting the machine; after all, the Intellect was far more massive and could process much faster than even his angelic existence allowed him. Kiramus folded space so that his position now overlapped to directly behind the Methuselah’s warrior. The angel zoomed out of existence from before the probe’s eyes as he released the grip on the spatial fabrics. As soon as he teleported, Kiramus folded the space on his opponent’s weapon so that the blade appeared at two different points in space simultaneously – one where it would have swung down normally, the other above its head. While the grip of the sword remained firmly within the probe’s hands, the blade’s downward swing originally meant for the angel then landed heavily back onto the probe’s “head,” forcing it to take the impact, however strong it was.

True this was cheap, and he would have lost by default on a normal swordsman duel, but this was different. Even though this fight was called for by Charles whose intentions weren’t hostile to begin with, one slight mistake could cost the angel his life. He would have to piece out everything before he directed the attack at Methuselah. Of all weapons he chose one made angelic metals, the angel tried deducing, true it’s stronger than any other kind, but to offer me one as well…The Ancient One should know better than to offer an angel a common weapon of his kind. There must be some sort of trap in that sword…that I needed to hold it – come in touch with it – to trigger.

Kiramus wasn’t inducted into High Courts without his intelligence. He was one who deserved his place in the Heavens. If he should not touch Methuselah or any of his being directly, then he shall not. This I learned from you, kid, thought the angel as he drew up the magic from within, conjuring the antimatter so that they now surrounded Kiramus’s entire being – including his sword. The intricate part of this trick was to maintain and isolate the antimatter from annihilating with matter, and only the Praesul bearer was crazy enough to think up such complicated process. The angel vacuumed the space on either side of the antimatter before condensing them to the thickness of a proton.

It was invisible, but far from undetectable. Maintaining antimatter this way required powerful magic. Fighting against Methuselah alone would eventually be a losing battle for the angel, no matter what he tried. To worry about all who were distracted was, unexpectedly, far easier than to worry about one who concentrated his efforts into defeating the opponent. Even with this trick, Kiramus had to try to reunite the duels between the two pairs back to the free-for-all it was in the beginning.

[Jack London]

Time had slowly escaped from the grasp of the fighters, losing themselves in the battle that had now turned into a two on two, in a way. However, to the warriors, this was an irrelevent piece of information and was pushed aside as their duel continued. The ringing of swords clashing against one another resonated from the top of the cathedral, both combatants still showing no sign of slowing down.

"I see you're in touch with your feminine side, Charles. Your swordplay resembles that of a dancer," Meiyo commented, swinging his blade in an upward motion, targetted primarily toward his shoulder. With a shift in his stance and once the swing had reached its top point, it was brought back and sent outward again in the same fashion, although targetted toward his other shoulder. The movement of the blade looked almost circular, so swift had it been executed. Charles stood with his right shoulder facing the virtue, simply shifting his body in the appropriate direction as the blade came toward him, narrowly evading it.

"Are you trying to mock me?" Charles asked, in a joking manner as he pointed the soul blade toward him.

"Not at all," Meiyo replied, grinning as he placed his blade beside Soul Calibur, the two blades touching. "I just expected having a spar with you to be a little more intimidating."

"Sounds like you're mocking to me," Charles laughed, quickly feinting by thrusting the soul blade foward and toward his throat, as he slid his foot across the ground a moment later, causing him to fall upon his feet. Meiyo had quickly reacted to the thrust, but left himself open to the second strike. As he fell, the Weapon Master accurately struck the hilt of the virtue's blade, knocking it out of his grip as he bent knees slightly in order to catch the virtue before he had hit the ground, with his free hand. He pointed the blade at his throat and smiled. "I believe our dance is over."

However, almost immediately after the words were spoken, a sharp pain erupted from the confines of his mind, causing him to lose focus. Staggering to the side, Charles dropped the virtue and used his free hand to grip his forehead in pain. Standing at the edge of the cathedral, he struggled to maintain focus and balance. What is happening? His eyes were shut tight as he dropped to his knees as well as the soul blade, the pain slowly becoming unbearable. As quickly as it had come, however, it left. The Weapon Master paused for a minute in the same position, taking the time to contemplate what exactly had just happened. Slowly but surely he returned to his normal posture, after picking up Soul Calibur, looking toward Kiramus and the warrior Methuselah had summoned.

"Clarity doesn't have much time left, does he?"

Charles' eyes shifted to look at the virtue, whom may have very well been right. Although Clarity and himself weren't one being, they were directly connected and could feel eachother's pain, if it had been willed to do so. Meiyo sheathed his blade and stood beside him, looking over at the sun, seeing that it had almost hit noon. A deep silence had overcome the Weapon Master as he stood, simply watching the other two battle amongst themselves. Before the sword Methuselah offered to had disappeared completely, Charles could detect something dormant within it, as though it had a specific purpose. It had disappeared before he could really identify a more detailed presence, but it seemed as though he tried to pull a fast one on the angel. Kiramus, however, summoned his own blade for battle. He didn't know whether or not that was by sheer luck or if he truly knew something was up with the blade.

"Perhaps not...but I feel as though that wasn't a warning from Clarity, but an attack from a different source," Charles replied, although he knew not where it could have possibly come from. "I'm afraid...I may have to leave you all soon. I'll be back at the end of the battle to witness any results. I'll be watching, though."

"Leaving? We're only here because of you," Meiyo replied, with a confused tone.

"Do not fret... I'll be here, it just won't really be...me fighting. Well, it is, but it's not... It's difficult to explain. You'll see...when the sun hits noon," Charles explained, or attempted to explain as he shifted his gaze toward the ground below. "Before I go, I must make one last attempt at laying siege to the most powerful of fortresses."

It was then that Charles flung himself from the cathedral, hurling down toward the grassy ground. Diving head first, he brought Soul Calibur out in front of him, holding it over his head, now looking as though he were about to drill through the earth. As he sped downard, a spiritual aura began to surround and engulf him and the blade alike. The very moment the blade touched the ground, the very same aura quickly encompassed the entire area. However, it didn't stop there, for it continued to travel throughout the entire planet, although it only affected and was targetted for plant life. Before his body would have struck the ground, he manipulated the earth so that it opened up and allowed him to dive further in, all the way to the core.

With every plant engulfed in this aura, it enhanced them spiritually, and left them under Charles' complete control. As Charles made his way toward the core, every single root upon the surface began to grow and make their way to the core as well, in order to strangle it. Normally, the roots would have posed as a minor threat, but with the strength the soul blade granted them, they were now capable of destroying massive buildings with minimal effort. The planet seemed to shake slightly with every root moving in such a manner under-ground and at the same time. Once the Weapon Master had come close enough, he solidified the spiritual energy encompassing himself so that it acted as a barrier from anything the machine could throw at him. While this close, he knew not what this being was capable of. He intended to slam himself into the core and pierce through it, if the roots strangle failed.

Meiyo could feel the movement of the planet beneath his feet as he gazed down at the hole Charles had just fell into. It was bottomless, as far as he was concerned, for only darkness could be seen within it. All plant life seemed much more lively now, and it seemed that they no longer leaned toward the sun for energy. They seemed to have possessed their own strength now, which they interpretted as infinite. Never had they possessed any sort of strength such as this. It was almost overwhelming.

"The manipulation over nature in battle... Never have I seen a warrior create such beauty in the heat of battle. To destroy his own blade in a flutter of shooting stars, to wield a single blade as though it were a thousand, to swing his blade as though it were a dance partner, and to grant nature a spiritual power that could make even them a worthy adversary. But, then again, what better to give a loved one than a flower that could live forever? I now see why this man is The Poet's right hand," Meiyo thought out loud, "But he is no God. He is simply a hero...and it is a shame to think that he may one day wake without ever willing another dead rose alive again. And to ever think that the truth could destroy as much as it could cure.

This is truly the beauty of Clarity, in physical form."