The Devil Went Down to Gordias

{BGM: “Pale Blue Dot” }

In all his travels and adventures, Ludwig von Einst had amassed the kind of skill, power and knowledge that approached legendary status. His skill with a sword was known far and wide across the Omniverse, having saved countless peoples’ from damnation at the hand of their enemies. His skill in combat saw him victory after victory, with no record of his ever having been defeated to be found. Then there was the matter of his magick…

When he was born, Einst was cursed by his mixed blood. Half Valkyrion, and half Human, his body couldn’t properly regulate its own power. While evidence of this was few and far between for his initial years, as he began training with his father it resurfaced with tremendous repercussions. His father was forced to perform the Sacred Ritual of Order to seal off his sons gift until he acquired more experience and could attain proper control, which would not happen for some 13,000 years or so. One of the traits of having Valkyrion blood was a prolonged lifespan, and it took considerably longer given the fact that his Father had been murdered when he was but a boy. His quest for vengeance took him down many paths, many of which were consumed in darkness and hatred where others were pure, almost sacred. Then one day, lost within the Void itself, Einst learned from within himself of how to break the three-tiered seals on his soul and unlock his tremendous power. Upon release, Einst was able to force his way out of eternal damnation and once again see the light of day. Ever since that time, he’s devoted considerable time to exploring the depths of his power, acquiring more knowledge and ever more spells for him to draw upon. Whenever he wasn’t locked in battle, Einst was searching the cosmos for the ultimate level of magick that he could bring under his control. He may not have always traveled in body, often relying on deep meditation to carry out his searches.

In more recent times, he had come across a vast power that shone as a beacon in the furthest corners of the cosmos, at least from where he was. Once he had become aware of it, he continued in his efforts to narrow down some meaningful coordinates of its source. He spent most evenings in this way lately, and then something unexpected occurred. There was another, which alone was not surprising. A power such as what he’d become aware of was sure to attract others like him far and wide. But this one in particular was different, because they’d managed to cut through the cosmos and pop out near what Einst could only surmise was the epicenter. He was certain this was the sign he needed, the time to act in not only mind and spirit but his body as well.

He was seated on the dirt floor within the confines of his hut on the world of Tizon, somewhere on the Western Continent away from prying souls. Garbed in his usual attire of loose fitting grey cargo pants, his white and blue boots, a black short sleeved shirt with white cross, and his trademark white and sapphire coat, with his swords propped against the concave walls of the structure. Standing up, he beckoned to his blades, sliding the sheathed enormity of the Valkyrie across his back, the scabbard more than adequate to act as armor for his backside. The Tenrai Hibiki slid beneath his coat, fixed to his belt of his left hip while the newer Ochitsuita took its place on his right hip. Reaching into his inside pocket he pulled out his yPhone and dialed Crim’s number, whom answered after nearly letting it go to voicemail.

“Hey, I’m going away for a day or so. I’ve finally found it...”, Einst began the conversation off, wasting no time on idle talk.

“Hah! Good stuff, alrighty I’ll see ya when ya get back!”, Crim responded, bright and cheery as usual.

“Right then. I’ll be seein’ ya.”

He shut the phone and slipped it back into his pocket before stepping outside of his hut into the hot desert sun. The sweltering heat wasn’t his ideal environment, but the remoteness of the sands took precedence. The sun reflected off his coat, his ivory skin, blond hair and even his jade green eyes, almost giving a mystical air to his appearance. He reached over and pulled the Tenrai from its sheath and slowly glided it through the air in front of him from one side to the other, then back in front of him and aimed it skyward. After just a few seconds the warrior shut his eyes, calling upon the slumbering power of the sword, stirring one of its hidden runes to life.

Forbidden Technique: Tek Var

The world surrounding Einst fractured liken to a mirror on the verge of shattering, which might have everlasting effects on someone’s mind were they watching—but again, he was alone. With space and time so distorted, Einst rotated his wrist in a precise manner, almost like he were twisting the blade as if it were some key. Upon completing the turn, Einst and the effect his technique had on Tizon vanished without a trace—nowhere near the same star system, perhaps even the same universe.

Roughly twenty-five meters beyond the towering gate of Castle Gordias, that same fracture (and it was precisely the same), appeared without warning. His body brought with it all of the heat from the deserts of Tizon, with grains of sand splashing to the lifeless ground of whereever he stood. His unkempt blond hair fell back into place and the White Swordsman proceeded to sheathe the Tenrai in its proper place, sealing its influence upon doing so. He stared straight-forward, taking in the full appearance of the one he’d been fortunate to witness arriving just moments prior. He could sense a great power within the man, and a certain exactness to his mannerisms that suggested a person of considerable attention to detail. Einst on the other hand, despite his grace in combat, must have looked more than just a little slap-dash and ragged. His Divine Shield-EX was in full effect, perfectly replicating his presence with perfect accuracy into his surroundings while removing the lion’s share of his power. To this one before him, Einst would appear to be nothing more than an eager boy with a fancy sword.

“If I had to guess, you’re here for the same reason I am. So...how do you wanna do this?”

Without ever touching the subject directly, Einst cut straight to the chase. There was no need to hash out whether the treasure could be shared, people like them didn’t share. When it came to power? No one wanted to share. Einst wanted power, he wanted knowledge, and he wanted it for himself. Ever chasing his limits, and pushing them further and further...whatever was at the top of this fancy Castle was sure to aid him. He relaxed his arms, resting both hands on the handles of their respective swords’ handles and awaited the man’s response. Would it be words, or would he jump straight into the offensive?
[/b]

{BGM: “Howl of the Dreadnought” }

Both.

The evident mage he’d tracked and found expressed his preference to discuss the matter, followed by his statement of being pressed for time. While the mage spoke, Einst was carefully studying his every move, looking for openings and weaknesses as well as possible strengths. To the mage’s credit, there wasn’t a whole lot he could gather at the present time aside from the slumbering power within. When presented with the decision to handle their situation the old fashioned way, Einst merely offered a smirk. Sarcastic almost, suggesting he knew this would be the outcome all along. The mage summoned forth a blade that Einst couldn’t deny certainly looked powerful, the azure blade hovering near its master.

Stuffing his hands into his crimson coat, the mage released a subtle wave of barely perceptible light, which took on a polygonal shape around his form for all but a moment before vanishing. Einst didn’t appear to do anything at first, his initial response being that of standing exactly as he was, watching the mage engage in his opening strike. A simple nod sent the azure blade hurtling towards him, splitting into two more copies before it would reach its apparent target in Einst’s form. The self same moment that the blade split into a total of three was when everything his opponent had come to rely on in order to gauge his presence would detect a decidedly huge shift.

The shift consisted of Einst simply moving while he loosened the reigns on his Divine Shield-EX. The innate ability was more effective the more control that was exercised on it, while its effect saw a randomized fluctuation with less control. That being said, with less control being employed, a small portion of the White Swordsman’s power was revealed, which was anything but ordinary. His presence, while still not quite whole and more than a little strange, had shifted to one that spoke of considerable danger.

While all of that was good and well on its own, what mattered more was what the White Swordsman intended to actually do. The mage executed a probing attack, he was certain of it, which told him that his ability was successfully throwing off his presence. When his opponent chose to attack in a rather weak fashion despite claiming to be in short supply of time, Einst saw an opportunity to take advantage of, and thrust his body from a stand-still to a rate of speed that massively outclassed the approaching swords. He threw himself into a forward roll, traveling beneath the trajectory of those swords by at least a meter if not more, and executed a tried and true opening strike of his own.

Iron Serpent Style: Twin-Headed Cobra

As he came up from his roll, Einst’s left hand had ripped the Valkyrie free of its scabbard. The enormous great sword was longer than what most conventional methods could properly handle, and as such his roll assisted in removing the blade from its scabbard on his back while his hand guided the weapon along a vertical arc. The weapon was capable of splitting heavily fortified defenses with tremendous ease by various means more or less revolved around overpowering. This was especially so when swung with all of the momentum generated in high-speed movement, which despite it being a roll there was nothing slow about his movement. He aimed the strike to cleave the mage’s right side from just before the shoulder all the way down through his same side leg.

There was, of course, the second strike that would be more difficult to predict, and otherwise deal with. An expert at using multiple swords simultaneously, Einst had shifted his right hand from his right blade’s hilt over to his left. Just as the Valkyrie was coming down with a vengeance, the Tenrai Hibiki flashed horizontally on a path through the mage’s legs at roughly the mid-point between hip and knee. The Tenrai was considerably faster than the Valkyrie even after boosting the swing with a forward roll, as it was lighter, much smaller, and bore a curved blade as it was a traditional katana.

The attack was designed to draw attention to his much larger sword and exploit his gift with using two dissimilar swords, which often caught would be warriors off guard. Furthermore, by attacking along perpendicular paths the avenues of escape were directly guided into a predictable region, which the White Swordsman would capitalize on if needed. By itself, it was a good attack—not his most dangerous by any means, but it was more effort than he showed most. However, that was not all that Einst had implemented; three more factors were of considerable, perhaps utmost importance.

The shift in his Divine Shield-EX was enough to throw off the senses by means of overloading those trying to sense him. Everything became exaggerated, making the movements of his arms much more difficult to accurately track, more so given that Einst hadn’t swung them slowly. Given that Einst was very fast, there was minimal time to spend narrowing down where the attack was coming from. It was almost as though his body were moving in multiple directions at the same time, as if he were unstable.

The second factor was quite simply his swords. Both the Valkyrie and Tenrai had extremely vicious presences if Einst didn’t suppress them, which he did to some degree. The Valkyrie’s more dangerous traits had to be actively stopped, as the weapon had been known for its shriek capable of tearing apart all before it. The blade’s spirit sought the destruction of all creation within the mortal realm, and the louder its song rang the more destruction it caused. This was first directed toward the sword’s wielder, and Einst had spent most of his life learning to control the monster. In this early stage, his opponent would only hear the distant low hum of its discordant song, enough that the Valkyrie would locally (as in along its surface) break down magical barriers of lesser strength. Then there was the Tenrai Hibiki, a sword also possessed of a terribly dark secret.

Unlike the Valkyrie, which was overbearing and powerful in every way, requiring the constant taming of its master...the Tenrai was considerably darker. It was a blade that brought only death and destruction, its Zeranz Essence also capable of destroying all but a few, rare types of energy. Those types of energy were “Infinite source” types, such as the -Wave Existence- used by certain warriors throughout time. This was because the Zeranz Essence was endless in its thirst, or put into laymen’s terms “Infinite destruction of all before it”. Even when not being released from its Zeranium—the only physical substance proven to get stronger with its presence—the blade was possessed of a rare breed of darkness that could frighten nearly anyone. It was this presence, this looming threat of complete and total ceasing to exist that Einst allowed to permeate the air, not the actual destructive ability. Even then, it was thoroughly immune to ether, and could often pass through ethereal constructs with overwhelming ease.

The third and final factor of this opening strike was the White Swordsman’s positioning. By choosing to throw himself into a forward roll of a single bound to close the gap, he had to determine his end position before execution. He would stop directly in front of the mage with the Valkyrie penetrating the ground by several inches, his left leg tucked inward beside it (putting the sword along the outside of his leg). His right arm would be extended fully to his right side, which might goad the mage into attacking it as it appeared to be “exposed” but that was beside its purpose.

Whatever the mage managed to offer in his defense, Einst was eager to see. He had high expectations for this battle, despite his desire to win the prize of the Castle.

[BGM: “Departure”}

Einst had found it both strange and familiar that this apparent mage had chosen to attack him by way of a sword. Strange, because in his initial judgment it was foreign to the man; familiar, because Einst was very much the same. He had dedicated a tremendous amount of his life mastering various swordsmanship disciplines, and even created his own. His first master not his own Father, had saw fit to teach him two styles that Einst to this day was considered a Master of. While he had a rough gauge on how far he’d traveled, it was the last thing he expected--to see one such style used against him.

The mage narrowly avoided his untimely death, executing an aerial dash to put a small measure of distance between the two. His reaction was quickly executed, a tribute to the man’s ability to keep up on a purely physical basis. There might come a time, even in this day, that the mage would learn that Einst wasn’t suppressing and manipulating his presence toward some cowardly end. The White Swordsman wasn’t a coward and hid from no one, except perhaps one fiery attitude bearing half-elf crazy woman on his Crew’s ship. In any case, Einst was impressed with the mage’s ability to rely on his regular old self than some suspected magick designed to discern every detail about a given target. That being said, Einst hadn’t made the foolish mistake of using his ability as a crutch, as there were a great many foes in the Omniverse capable of bypassing his tamperings.

Even so, the Mage wasted little time preparing his counter-assault, repurposing two of his blades and grasping the center, “original” blade. Meanwhile, Einst had chosen a much different response, one completely unorthodox amongst mages and swordsmen alike. He stood, but remained facing away from his opponent, keeping his right arm fully extended bearing the Tenrai to its side, and his left hand seemed to be still gripping the hilt of the Valkyrie.

While he had attempted to utilize his skill to force his opponent to be unable to use extrasensory abilities to track him, the same was far from true of himself. Einst, like most all warriors regardless of creed, was possessed of an acute awareness to his surroundings. It was this knowledge, garnered over thousands of years and honed beyond belief to the uninitiated, that made his Divine Shield-EX so effective--he knew what to bend, what to twist and mold to throw off his opponents.The mage was about to find that his manipulation was not limited to the ethereal, as his left hand was gripping a sword, just not the Valkyrie. This meant that he had to project the image of his body, right down to the constriction of the muscles involved in doing so, standing with the Valkyrie in hand to his left side, blade’s tip still slightly sunken. This of course included the projected position of the sword itself.

The White Lightning spell cast at his back approached as intended, but the moment it passed within a six meter radius of the Valkyrie, the magical spell would find itself subjected to the blade’s song. Now no longer making direct, physical contact, Einst had to control the weapon via his bond. The change resulted in the increase of the song’s “volume”, indicative of its enhanced effect. All that meant was the breaking down of magical barriers was pushed into the destruction of magic cast in its range (six meters). What could not be destroyed by the hateful swords’ fury, would surely find itself dampened or diverted away in some fashion. Because the mage had attacked him with magic, Einst was obviously content with allowing the sword to sing of its rage.

The mage hadn’t chosen to attack at range this time however, and had been hot on the heels of his own lightning spell to unleash an attack with his sword. Despite not facing the mage, Einst had a crystal clear view of his attacker’s movements as he drew near at considerable velocity. The time frame in which the two had already begun to execute decision after decision was most definitely short, but it was one that Einst was comfortable operating within. He saw the feint as it was unleashed, followed by the true strike aimed at the base of his neck, yet still he stood like one of the Castle’s time lost statues. This remained true, even with the obscurement of his Divine Shield in effect.

With his Valkyrie occupying the space immediately to his left, his only option was to go forward and try to run--which wasn’t going to happen--out of harm’s way, spin to his right away from his own sword and attempt to counter-attack, or up and some combination of the other directions. There was something screaming at Einst in the back of his mind as he felt the movements of his opponent, however, that told him not to do any of those.

That style which Einst’s master had trained him in was none other than the self-same discipline his opponent wielded: Mizoguchi Haito Ryuu, otherwise known as the Gatotsu. The technique which the mage utilized was a combination of magic-assisted (as in, he cast a spell immediately prior to) Zeroshiki. All of those details themselves were secondary to that which Einst considered, which was that he could not rely on attacking from above. Moving to the right was beyond predictable, and he wasn’t going to do that either.

Instead, Einst adhered to his own style and made use of his equipment to see him through that moment. He still had the Valkyrie’s scabbard strapped to his back, and the thing was made of the same material as the blade itself. This meant that not only was it dreadfully heavy (and yet, still Einst moved with exceptional speed), but it was also an impenetrable wall fixed to his back. If it were not, then all it would take would be for some dick-head imp to break the enchantments to release the blade’s power without Einst’s knowing and destroy everything in its path. Knowing such a risk being realistic, those responsible for its creation saw fit to make the scabbard able to withstand the blade’s fury inside and out without fail.

Rather than run or chase some predictable avenue of counterattack, Einst twisted counter-clockwise just as the mage’s sword made contact with the scabbard on his back, deflecting the strike and likely throwing him off balance toward his (Einst’s) right. That very same instant, Einst had drawn the sword his left hand was actually gripping, that being the wooden handle of the Ochi. Combined with the twist, Einst executed a type of battou-jutsu like attack, turning the sword-draw into a diagonal slash aimed to remove the mage’s arms at the base of his elbow, leaning his body forward and stepping around/over the Valkyrie. Additionally, the Tenrai wasn’t left out in the cold, with Einst pulling and twisting his arm with greater speed than his initial strike, executing an angled thrust. That thrust was aimed to slip just between where he gathered the mage’s ribs to be, hoping to completely run through his left lung and no further.

Being that he was never thinking solely in the present, Einst was prepared to twist and redirect the blade as necessary to defend himself if need be. Should the decision to wait until his opponent’s attack had just barely begun to land “successfully” yield its full benefit though, the mage wasn’t going to have enough time to react this go-around. With two arms potentially missing and a lung out of commission, Einst would have all but won if his counter-attack was successful. Given the nature of his third sword, which Einst was not required to suppress in the same manner as his others, things were looking quite grim for the mage, especially considering that he was no longer restraining the Valkyrie to the same degree.

{BGM: “Cosmic Ascension” }

Just as every action bore consequence, so too did thoughts, and Einst was nothing if not a man deeply bound in efficiency. He wasted no energy, not in the literal form and not in the theoretical either. As most, if not all, warriors were prone to doing, Einst called on his experience to guide his thoughts, among a handful of other traits of his. Certain skills he possessed made combat overwhelmingly fluid and natural to him, even in the face of new challenges not yet explicitly seen.

Therefore, while he was certainly impressed by the mage’s application of what appeared to be martial based techniques, such admiration was a passing thought and nothing more. The brief phrases uttered by his opponent’s seemed to coincide with his actions, a tribute to his own philosophy that nothing was wasted in the pursuit of efficiency. This too was admired by the White Swordsman, but ultimately deemed insignificant for the time being, as he paid careful attention to the fruit of his opponent’s efforts. Namely, this meant his positioning and follow up actions.

Rather than stand idly by, Einst chose to engage a somewhat “passive” skill of his, though its aptitude for active engadgement hadn’t been recorded. That skill being his War Dance of the Falling Sky, the White Swordsman immediately entered into a specific series of movements after first striking the handle of his Valkyrie with his nearest foot. What followed from there was a visually stunning—perhaps even distracting—display of spinning and twisting movements, all of which seemed to put Einst into an orbit about a single point. Between his feet, Einst continued to strike the Valkyrie in varying degrees of force, flipping the sword at an increasing rate of speed. Meanwhile, the mage carried out his follow up attack with some unseen force that spread rapidly through the ground in his direction. It wasn’t like his opponent was slow either, as Einst had only enough time to complete barely two revolutions at his chosen speed before he was under attack.

This caused Einst to speed things up dramatically, suddenly boosting into several times faster movements. This was combined with subtle changes to the manner in which he struck the Valkyrie, causing the blade to pull upward and change its behavior entirely. Furthermore, Einst focused a small amount of ether to collect along the cutting edge (from one side all the way around to the end of the other), resulting in a dazzling light show. Consisting primarily of white and yellow/gold color, the image of the swordsman would come as difficult to comprehend.

Right as his opponent’s underground assault would reach near enough to his own vicinity, Einst’s movements caused for him to jump and flip backward while twisting, effectively launching the Valkyrie in a spiraling frenzy directly aimed at Vincent’s location. There was virtually no telling what axis it would strike from, but if Einst had gauged things correctly it was due to be horizontal bearing a slight upward curve to his left (opponent’s right).

Then, while he was still at the apex of his jump Einst was set upon by the nasty secret traveling through the cracks in the ground. Multiple spires jutted towards him, angled in such a way to deter moving toward them. If Einst didn’t know any better, it would appear that the mage was trying to keep Einst away from him, but that very well could have just been bait. In any case, Einst reacted immediately by twisting counter-clockwise, his previous maneuver already carrying him away from the situation at hand but only loosely. Besides, the mage was clearly in control of his attack and hadn’t just launched a predetermined spell.

As he entered into another spiraling maneuver, Einst released his hold on the Tenrai, resulting in two highly noticeable changes to the situation. The first and most obvious was that the sword was thrown along a curved trajectory with his opponent clearly the end target, traveling at slightly beyond the speed of the Valkyrie. Given the minute difference at when they were launched, the two swords were due to strike right on top of each other, mere fractions of a second apart. However, the second change to the situation was by no means less, as Einst had made a choice: either he maintain his Divine Shield-EX, or maintain control over the Tenrai Hibiki, since he no longer had it in hand. For all of his skill and might, he simply could not do both, and so he chose the latter. Were he to choose to maintain his shield, the Tenrai would have its devastating characteristics and power unleashed in full effect, undoubtedly destroying this world and those adjacent. Given that his grip on the Valkyrie was already slipping, and those two swords absolutely hated one another, their clashing would have far greater, far more devastating repercussions, and that simply couldn’t be allowed.

So it would be the shield that dropped, exposing Einst’s true nature to his opponent, along with the world around them. He could still suppress his power to some extent by dropping the shield, but now in the midst of being attacked, his opponent would be able to see, and feel his incredible presence all at once. In that solitary moment, the mage would find that he was facing a warrior possessed not only of acutely honed skills, but the kind of raw power that could spell the doom of anyone not properly prepared.

Further still, Einst hadn’t finished his attack just yet. Launching the Valkyrie was merely an act of capitalizing on his maneuvering, while throwing the Tenrai was planned from the start. With the shield dismissed, Einst freely released his inner energy to pull himself out of the trajectory of the spikes erupting from the ground, guiding his body off to his opponent’s right side and landing with minimal sound. He had pulled the saya of his Tenrai free of his belt, wielding it as though it too were a sword, and begun dragging it along the otherwise undisturbed tile while walking in a half circle.

The mage’s attack had occupied a fan-like radius aimed at his previous location, and he had executed the proper movements to take him outside of that radius. His two swords were moving at a high rate of speed along vastly different paths, the Valkyrie mostly horizontal and low to the ground while the Tenrai was roughly chest level. It traveled along a curved, direct route that would seek to impale the mage somewhere on his torso, or slice into his body were he too occupied with dodging the giant, energy-lined blade of the Valkyrie. Whatever the case, the White Swordsman wasn’t concerned in the slightest by relinquishing physical hold over his blades, which an amateur would see as him being careless. Something told Einst that the mage was far from an amateur that would try to grab hold of two swords such as those. Now that his shield was down, he might be able to detect the connection he bore with the weapons, but not how they might have worked. The control over the Valkyrie was slipping due to his having spent more time with the other blade in recent times, and it continued to hum its damning tune.

Last but not least, the dragging of Einst’s saya along the ground brought a heavy, metallic tune to resound through the halls of Gordias. Being that the saya weighed approximately 100 metric tons, it not only spoke of the swordsman’s considerable stamina, strength, and the ludicrous speed he coult attain while wearing it...but it also told of the power it could potentially possess.

”Iron Serpent: Collapsing...”,

There was more, as hinted by his trailing voice’s words, to come. His literal physical actions, combined with the tumultuous storm of power now clearly able to be sensed lying beneath the surface—the next phase executed by the mage would be put to the test, rest assured.

[Got a bit distracted while writing this but it should be okay, just maybe not fantastic lol..sorry]

{BGM: “Enfin Apparu”}

As the old adage states, “With great power, comes great responsibility”, so too did it come with vast complexities. The stage of battle had been ever changing long before his days with the ‘Crew, wildly more so since, and it aided him well in every encounter. Einst intuitively knew the difference between a dangerous, powerful, skilled opponent and one that fell short of the status quo. This mage was proving to be a challenge, that much was certain. Their battle was still in the early stages, leaving much to be discovered and even more to be desired for the White Swordsman. Still yet, the swordsman was waiting for the mage—though he was more akin to a battle mage—to really bring it.

The last second shift of his movement skill was instantly registered by Einst’s own ecosystem of senses, both active and passive. Carrying the weight of his exceptional experience, but not reliant solely upon it, Einst had been actively preparing for the battle to take a sharp turn for some time as it were. His utilization of the War Dance of the Falling Sky would act as a direct enabler, rewarding him with the ability to respond with eerie quickness to everything the Battle Mage would do. It was what placed him directly in his path to begin with; thus, when that path changed, Einst also adjusted. More importantly, his Dance wasn’t the only tool in his kit that he was engaging.

It did not escape his attention when the ice spell below continued unabated, nor did it go unnoticed that with his change in course there came a residual after-image rife with anomalies. His senses were understandably acute, able to discern details both large and overarching, and small and deceptive or nuanced. His opponent wasn’t manipulating the latent ether surrounding them, but was instead channeling some internal source—or relying on stored energy. Time would aid him in narrowing down which source he was facing, as well as its tangible workings that he could actually deal with. For the time being it was enough to know that the Valkyrie was incapable of casually disrupting the Battle Mage’s efforts in full, as he had with the first spell. Granted, that was a more directed application, the core force at work was for all intents and purposes equal. Again, only time would tell. The more immediate thing for him to respond to was the change in course.

Perhaps a youth trying to wield a sword too big for his britches would be at the mercy of the unorthodox sheath he carried, but not the White Swordsman. As was previously mentioned, he had far more tools to rely on, and one such tool was that in a trait he’d developed known as Perfect Balance. While his opponent had no way of knowing it beforehand, in time he would see the trait’s prevalence. It was true that he had used the sheath’s weight to help position himself, after of course sending it on its way to begin with, but that in no way meant he was bound to that relationship indefinitely. His execution of the Collapsing Meteor Fang technique, also, wasn’t bound to fate.

For all of the complex skills and traits responsible for Einst’s flexibility of choice and action, there was also a more straightforward answer. Spending the majority of his life as a warrior, particularly a swordsman of considerable renown, Einst was no stranger to the use of internal ether. It was arguably at the core of his way of life, and over countless battles he’d found that his Ethereal Attunement was nothing short of awe inspiring. As such, Einst merely adjusted the flow of his internal energy to manipulate his body in an excessively unorthodox manner.

The first result of his reactive shift was seeing the after-image left behind morph into the containment field it was concealing, followed by the eruption of the two blades formerly impaled into the ceiling within said containment field. The second was that his own attack was cut short, leaving only a dozen handfuls of the vacuum blades to be fended off by his opponent. The form and power that went into fending those strikes off was certainly admirable, raising Einst’s impression of the Battle Mage considerably. More so than the attempted bait and switch tactic, anyhow.

As might have been suspected, Einst was nowhere near the containment field when it spawned nor the explosions when they detonated. His sheath slammed into the ceiling of the hall, releasing a concussive wave its own that rocked the very foundations of the establishment, possibly jarring the Battle Mage himself. What’s more, Einst could be seen standing, feet shoulder width apart, several meters away a few seconds later, the Ochi sheathed once more on his hip and the Tenrai Hibiki now held in hand. Its blade aimed at the sky while parallel with the ground, leaving the point aimed forward. He held his left palm against the pommel, a traditional grip meant for adding significant cutting power to a slash or more piercing potential to a thrust. That was the least significant detail of his appearance, though.

For one, he was absent his long, signature white and sapphire coat. This exposed his uncovered arms, tight fitting shirt and the sheathed Ochi on his hip. It also exposed the fact that he was breathing slightly deeper than before, but it was entirely intentional. Breathing was a critical aspect to controlling one’s inner balance of energy, and he’d learned from a literal master of the practice since ages past. That practice was hammered into his skull several times over in his recent adventure on his former Master’s home world, Zerania, but that was a story for another time. The simple truth behind it was that even if the Battle Mage had known him beforehand, he wasn’t facing the same man as before.

The significance of Einst having removed his coat, another practice taken from his former Master, was the removal of certain restrictions it placed on him. Along with those restrictions there came significant benefits, such as the extreme defense against ether, as well as against both slashing and piercing damage. Such benefits were at the cost of an extreme weight attributed to the core material it consisted of, which lowered his speed and dexterity exponentially, which also impacted his stamina.

Could Einst have evaded the attack without removing it? Of course, but he didn’t want to allow his opponent to maintain any semblance of accuracy in his gauging. He’d already stopped using the Divine Shield-EX, which would reveal his overwhelming power to those watching. Now, he’d removed the heaviest of his defenses and armaments, arming himself with his most trusted sword and his newest ally remaining on his hip. Meanwhile, the Valkyrie was permitted to stay in its corner, subjecting the halls to its disruptive song. That wasn’t the only reason he removed it however, as there were more factors in play. Namely, he’d made the decision to use a Forbidden Technique in order to arrive on the battlefield in the first place. This was a choice he made knowing full well the repercussions, but also one that was indicative of how much he desired the power at the top of Castle Gordias.

All of this could be summed up in one phrase: the gloves were now off.

Using his arsenal of skill, Einst reacted to the Battle Mage’s change in course, attempted trap and explodey-death all in seemingly simultaneous fashion. The War dance was to thank for initiating the process, while his Perfect Balance, attunement, and Heavy Metal Training all enabled the full execution. The sheer rate of speed he moved made it virtually impossible to rely on physical sight to track him, aided by the eruption of the Battle Mage’s attack. Even a fraction of the light to be yielded from such a blast would be enough to disrupt any trace of his movement, but it would be for naught. As any seasoned warrior knew, there was a massive difference between seeing something and being able to respond quickly enough to that same thing. Einst utilized his inner energy flow to change course, amplify the speed of his movements, and set the next phase into action.

What appeared to be steam rose from his extremely well toned, muscular arms. His air appeared to be damp nearest his head as sweat formed on his pristine, white skin. For a fraction of a fraction of a second, Einst had executed several maneuvers at near his top physical speed. Sheathing his weapon, retrieving another from the opposite side of the hall, and removing his coat somewhere along the way, his overall output had surpassed all expectations—but it was controlled with exacting precision. He could have, in theory, attacked while moving at that speed, but it would have actually cost him in efficiency and slowed him down. With the Valkyrie in play, he was still limited in the full application of his ability, and so for those reasons he refrained from attacking during his ultra-speed maneuvers.

Now, if some how the Battle Mage did manage to see Einst’s movements, he would witness the manner of his movement being “strange”. His body didn’t move in linear, mechanical fashion, appearing excessively limber. Control was the name of the game, but it was far beyond voluntary muscle movement and mental conditioning. His body had been entirely reconditioned to move more naturally, free of the shackles of tradition. His balance was remolded into his new style, now a byproduct rather than a developed skill or trait for him to activate or dedicate focus to maintain. It was perhaps something that would go unnoticed, as Einst’s mind was still a part of the equation and had seen fit to remove his coat in a flourishing manner, a trivial attempt at obscuring possible prying “eyes” but one that sometimes did the trick.

For the time being, Einst chose to remain in position beneath the Battle-Mage. It was possible the ceiling would fall after being subjected to the Tenrai’s sheath slamming into it, but for the immediate time being it was holding form. As for the “steam” rising from his body, its purpose would be more evident in the fact that the magic-sourced snow the Battle-Mage fielded was repelled from his position in a perfect sphere. One thing that his opponent would certainly detect would be the spiraling sphere surrounding his personal space, imperceptible to all but those senses tuned to the ethereal. It gave an almost ghostly appearance to the aptly named White Swordsman. That, and the unmistakable fact that Einst’s defensive state was on high. If his opponent wasn’t cautious—the battle would be over with their next clash.

{BGM: “Into Free”}

The Battle Mage proved to be as intelligent as he should have been, opting to stay back and prepare himself for their next round rather than charge him. If he had, Einst would not have hesitated to cut him to ribbons, having assumed a defensive stance that was nearly impossible to break through despite its deceptively simple nature. Meanwhile, he recycled the energy expelled during his own failed attack, retracting the barrier to somewhere within the depths of his person. In addition to this, Einst noted the mage’s change in eye color and the swelling power, especially noticeable given his actions.

While it was nice to have the luxury of observing without having need to physically act, Einst was already well on his way to executing his next sequence. The spiral flow surrounding his person was easy to misread all things considered, as up to this point all the mage knew was his swordsmanship and aptitude for destroying ether. Now, he was also made aware of the relative heights to his speed he could engage, and based on his appearance he might have seemed to be growing fatigued or strained in some manner.

However, this was not the whole truth. There was much more to Ludwig von Einst.

Breaking his old style and approach to combat, Einst now followed the philosophies drilled into him for the equivalent of 100 Earth Years. Combat was a whole different breed on Zerania, and to not embrace it for himself would have meant an early grave. It taught him to move differently, as he showcased for but a moment. So too did it reveal a flaw in his technique, from how he fought to why he fought. His very thinking had transcended all that he knew beforehand, and having been fighting his way across the Omniverse for over ten millennia he thought he knew it all.

So then what did this have to do with anything? It was simple: what good was it to deny himself of his own potential? The more he locked away, the more barriers had to fall before he could engage. The tiniest fraction of an instant could mean death, and Einst wasn’t about to die on account of self-imposed limitations.

The Valkyrie’s behavior shifted, appearing to rise in volume and intensity. The very air began to feel unstable, but that it hadn’t all been torn apart was a clear sign that Einst was still in control. Sure, he’d allowed it to slip—just a little—but it was all by design. This included the spiraling force surrounding the White Swordsman, and in the few seconds following their separation, Einst had been allotted more than enough time to prepare his Ancient Magic.

The spiraling force dissipated and in its place appeared a large sphere, exactly two meters in diameter suspended in front of the White Swordsman. It appeared as a pit of darkness that belied its true nature, as it was merely absorbing all light which entered and converted it into more fuel for the spell. Normally, most spells would only operate within one or sometimes two lanes, limited to interacting with its own kind and inflicting damage upon a physical entity. In other words, igniting the air in a designated area to burn an enemy. Freezing the water of a lake to imprison all beneath its surface. Manipulating the primordial elements of creation to inflict massive destruction on an equally massive scale—things like that.

This, somehow, was different.

Not only did all light what entered the space of the sphere vanish—the air itself and everything it touched was also frozen, broken and fed into the spell. It wasn’t long before its presence completely overshadowed all within the halls of Gordias—and the Valkyrie’s growing crescendo accompanied it. This would surely inform the Battle Mage that Einst had been acutely aware of his attempt to use the destructive ability of his own sword against him, using it to release the deadly payload sleeping within the copies of the Liberi Fatali. The reason was fairly obvious, because Einst was clearly doing the same—only in complete reverse, made worse by the fact he was in fact the blade’s master.

The primary reason the Valkyrie’s Cry didn’t tear him apart like all else before it, was that he had achieved harmony with the weapon before being ejected to Zerania. Normal magic and ethereal skills he might release would surely be obliterated, but it never threatened to kill him outright. His release of control over it was a slight misconception in that he was giving it room to breathe, so to speak. Knowing the full scope of its capabilities, he manipulated the situation by releasing a spell that had a specific reaction to its call.

Voracious Winter

Forbidden Magic, a crude name to be sure but an appropriate name, existed on a level far exceeding conventional magic. It was magic unique to an individual born with the necessary alignment to Ancient Valkyr, and in Einst’s case he was the son of a man whom once reigned over the entire realm. His half xenogaian blood came with a multitude of drawbacks, but also certain advantages not seen by the purebloods. One said drawback was the need to “charge” or prepare to use these spells, previously circumvented via his accessories that were sacrificed when facing some self-righteous warrior calling herself the “Raven King” or some nonsense. That was a battle which bore no fruit, and as such Einst simply grew bored and continued on his path. He’d had enough time to charge his spell, and as such that drawback was now irrelevant considering the spell had already been cast.

Another, decidedly more severe drawback was the inescapable fate of suffering considerable damage with each spell cast. With his Ethereal Attunement, Einst was capable of accessing higher tiers of his magic with frightening quickness, and this just so happened to be a Tier 3 variety, capable of wreaking havoc across an entire planet—not unlike the potency of the magister’s own attempt. Fortunately, his resolve would prevent any outward display of the pain he suffered, but the damage was still done.

The spell itself, named Voracious Winter, defied the Valkyrie in obvious fashion. Its effects were multiplied at an exponential rate with the constant attempt of its undoing. As the Valkyrie continued to try and destroy the spell, the spell pulled even more of the latent energy around it in all its forms, completely freezing the halls of Castle Gordias. So too did it pull in all visible light, casting the halls into an impenetrable darkness. The effects were comparable to a state of Absolute Zero, but defied the traditional laws considering it was magic. Every attempted motion down to the smallest level strengthened the spell, and as the magister might come to discover, the frozen nightmare he’d created was to his benefit. Everything leading up to this moment in time was orchestrated by Vanza, and the situation would only get worse from here on out.

In his early days, his natural alignment was suppressed along with his access to all forms of Magic. As such, he had grown accustomed to being without the signature weaknesses and strengths associated with elemental affinities. Once those inhibitions were dissolved, Einst could finally manipulate it to serve him best. By casting the battlefield into an infinitely frozen hell, he was in fact boosting himself. From the sweat coursing his hair, the damage inflicted by casting his own spell, or using the Forbidden Technique to travel to this place, all of it was reversed, and Einst’s stamina, power and reserves more than tripled. It went without saying that Einst was sustained through the effects of the spell.

Despite being capable of effecting an entire planet, Einst focused the spell to only occupy Castle Gordias, and the two meter diameter sphere that signified its presence began to ascend. It followed a course locked to Vincent’s spiritual signature, slow moving especially compared to Einst’s ability. Every second that passed would bring the threat of death to the magister, as would any attempts to magically defy Einst’s decree. Should the sphere, the veritable core of the spell, reach the magister’s body, its dreadful secret would be revealed.

The deed done, Einst remained perfectly still, unfazed by the darkness on account of having spent more than his fair share in the deepest pits of the Void.

{BGM: “In Maidjan”}

“Nothing lasts forever…”

This Battle-Mage was proving himself to be not just a worthwhile opponent, but an exciting one on top of it. Einst’s spell continued on its course, defying the threat of being destroyed by the Valkyrie’s Cry. Despite it increasing in intensity, the cry was still a passive effect of the weapon’s natural ability, not a specific and directed application. This was intentional, since there were multiple goals to be achieved that went beyond the obvious, as was evident in Einst not only replenishing his stamina/strength but also boosting it. Even so, the two shared one commonality in the fact that neither of their magic followed convention.

The Red Magister was using some form of internal channeling to generate his spellcraft, the details of which were of no concern to the White Swordsman. He could recognize the nature of the process, just none of the finer details, and to be quite frank there wasn’t enough time to spare for such things. His own spell, the Voracious Winter, was slow moving in order to disrupt the flow of their battle and as it made its approach, it was successful in doing that much. Nevertheless, Einst was quite certain his opponent was possessed of several types of spellcraft, much like himself.

Einst was born with the gift of magic, as was common knowledge now at least amongst his crew. What wasn’t common knowledge was the inner workings of what he referred to as Forbidden Magic, which was only ever used with a higher purpose in mind. If he wanted to alter his environment, or summon a primal being, he’d use more appropriate magicks. All the same, if he wanted to boost or replenish himself, he’d use a specific type of enhancement magick for said tasks. With Forbidden Magic, the possibilities were nigh endless. Valkyrions were naturally attuned to the Primordial Leylines, the pathways which connected all of existence together within the Omniverse. Transcending planar boundaries, dimensional rifts, temporal walls and all other obstructions which typically limited the power of magic, these leylines were constant and immutable. Few species could withstand the tremendous strain placed on the mind, body and soul presented just by the mere attempt of using primordial energies, and over countless eons the Valkyrions had grown to master it. Disconnected from this gift for most of his life, locked behind tiered seals falling within the Sacred Ritual of Order, Einst’s use was far from mastery. His use paled in comparison to a true, full blooded Valkyrion allowed to utilize magic on a daily basis, but his unique experiences tempered his use to be effective regardless. Therefore, when he used the Forbidden Magic, he was exercising a tremendous gesture of respect toward an opponent. Even after all this time, he was still obeying his father’s order to only use it against worthy beings, beings which stood a chance to fairly defend themselves evil or not.

By taking from the Primordial Leyline, Einst was able to yield any effect he could think of. Combining elements, manipulating them to his will, breaking them apart to serve new purpose. The power was essentially unlimited, but his being a half blood meant he was under significant risk of killing himself with even the tiniest mistake. The spell he released was such a thing of chaos that the White Swordsman had to orchestrate its casting several steps ahead of time, long before he actually tapped into the Leyline. For this reason, the state of the Valkyrie played an exceptionally critical role by being present on the field, allowed to increase the potency of its cry a specific amount.


Einst then initiated the next phase of his spell, although not in a typical fashion—he spoke to his opponent.

“You know, I never got your name. Mine is Ludwig von Einst, the White Swordsman.”

The sound vibrations of the White Swordsman’s voice were absorbed shortly after reverberating throughout the halls of Gordias’ main entrance chamber. This too would strengthen the spell, along with the White Swordsman relinquishing his hold on the Tenrai Hibiki. Every movement within the area was fuel to the spell, and the moment Einst released his sword he did not intervene when the sheath moved to capture it. The blade was forged with the explicit rule of not being permitted to be outside of its sheath unless properly controlled by its master—Einst. This was a seldom mentioned feature, but if one were to look through history they would find that Einst never allowed the blade to be drawn without his directly controlling its insatiable thirst for destruction. Following his time on Zerania, his mastery over the weapon was finally complete and he could pull off feats he never would have dreamed of otherwise. This was neither here nor there, as the importance came with the fact that the sheath was near Vincent and moved toward his rear side. He wasn’t necessarily the target of the process, more like an unwilling, unfortunate casualty should he choose to get in the way. Meanwhile, the sheath and blade pulled toward each other and would only stop once the blade was safely held within. The release of energy throughout the hall further fueled his spell, to boot, while Einst carried out the next step in full.

As the spell encroached upon the Red Magister and he reacted with the focused release of both chi and mana of some kind, Einst dashed off to grab hold of the Valkyrie, finally taking the blade back in hand and throwing it up over his shoulder. Clearly the White Swordsman was unfazed by the massive draw on the energy required to move, instead it seemed he intentionally used his overflowing power to dump even more into the spell…

Designed to resist a force capable of unweaving ether, which was already evident before reaching the Red Magister, it was perhaps a mistake to attempt doing the very same thing. The Valkyrie’s Cry was the force of the weapon’s imprisoned soul, which was an ancient beast capable of destroying the magic Valkyrions loved so dearly. When it was in its passive state, referred to as the Cry, the impact was minimal and usually weakened spells but not outright destroy them. Said cry could increase in intensity, usually presented by a rise in volume, to the point of destroying spells of moderate power. This was what the Red Magister had suffered earlier, but there were more disastrous effects it could achieve.

By rising even further, and at a constant exponential rate, the Valkyrie’s Cry could completely pulverize ether before ultimately erasing it. The cry was nearing this level, and out of necessity Einst sought to take command of it more directly. Regardless of the matter, the spell itself was designed to resist all of this. As luck would have it, the Dispulsio spell cast by the Red Magister was of the same category. The attempted erasure of its existence only strengthened the spell further as it effectively condensed, before most strangely: it stopped.

The spell was separated into two layers, only one of which was tangible. The large sphere was akin to a shell, with the core nowhere to be found. Everything was beginning to come together precisely as Einst designed it to, which included the cancellation of his spell. Rather than release it at an extreme velocity, the goal was to disrupt the flow of battle by releasing it in a slow velocity. This gave it time to absorb more energy, as well as all but ensure the completion of the first face in spite of the Valkyrie’s efforts. Theoretically speaking the spell could have been designed to continuously increase in power as long as the Valkyrie’s Cry was present, but Einst only wanted it to do so for a set period of time. When the Red Magister procured his own cancellation spell, and the Voracious Winter grew in response, he achieved his set point nearly instantaneously. The Ars Dispulsio worked in similar fashion as the Valkyrie, slowly undoing the base structure of the spell or at least trying to. Once the spell had grown in power to the designated point, the spell simply vanished without a trace before the Battle-Mage’s very eyes. The “terrible secret” it held within was, for all intents and purposes, absolutely nothing.

Now, Einst was a man of efficiency and balance. He wouldn’t just cast an Ancient Magic spell for literally nothing. His opponent couldn’t have known this, considering the two were strangers to one another. For all he knew, Einst would waste his time like that. In the miniscule moment where the Voracious Winter continued on its course, in defiance to the Ars Dispulsio, he would have seen the complexity to the White Swordsman’s actions. For it to end in total, complete emptiness just didn’t add up. That’s when Einst once more shifted the flow of battle, this time in an undeniably direct fashion.

“Iron Serpent: Wild Lotus”

In an explosion of power, speed and precision, Einst erupted from his place on the floor—the massive Valkyrie eerily silent and held with both hands, blade angled to his right—making his way directly toward the Battle-Mage. Utilizing several abilities in harmony, Einst traversed the few meters between the two on a diagonal trajectory in a veritable flash of chaos. The Valkyrie was surrounded by a field of chi solely meant to detonate any would be spells or attacks, whether they be defensive or offensive. The actual attack itself came in the form of Einst spinning wildly under the guidance of the War Dance, and accelerating his sword with each swing—a total of which there were thirty. Each one would approach his opponent from a different angle, with varying speed—that is to say, each swing came faster and faster—with no discernible pattern. Naturally, to keep from overshooting his target Einst’s movement stopped at the exact distance necessary for his blade to reach the Battle-Mage. By the end of the 30th swing, the Valkyrie was returned to a forward guard position, blade perpendicular with the adjacent wall and aimed toward his foe.

No sign of exhaustion, shortness of breath or other likewise strain—Einst was entirely in his territory. Whether the Battle Mage believed his spell to be an elaborate ruse to fire off this sword technique or not was of no concern to him. In fact, the swordsman appeared to be in some sort of trance. There was a slight grin spread over his lips, his jade eyes glowing ever so slightly with a tinge of sapphire. He had his doubts that the Wild Lotus was enough to fell the man, but even if it had the White Swordsman muttered something just within ear-shot.

“Eternity is a lie…
twenty…
…three of nine.”
[/i][/i]

{BGM: “Lucifer’s Waltz”}

His prior actions had been chosen and executed for multiple purposes, chief among them being a regular practice of many a seasoned warrior. This was quite simply the testing of his opponent, in an effort to determine just what exactly it would take to strike him down. When the Red Magister had summoned forth his blade in preparation to answer Einst’s approach, he trained his senses on the blade and everything that was done with it. In that time, the now sheathed Tenrai Hibiki continued on its path and was caught by Einst’s hand with perfect timing, the skilled swordsman replacing the sheathed blade in its rightful place on his hip while continuing his assault.

The magister too summoned a sheath only to subsequently carry out his variety of a “fast-draw” attack, sending a storm of concentrated “blade-crescents” composed of excited kinetic energy, thus making it a purely physical-based attack. The time-frame this occurred within was small, exceedingly small and thanks entirely to Einst’s own velocity carrying forth his Wild Lotus. Nevertheless, it was to be expected that during such a high-intensity engagement, the White Swordsman was watching for any change, any attack or defensive barrier, so as not to run himself into a painful mistake. For that reason, he was able to make a simple adjustment to his attack to thwart his opponent’s effort, which was nothing more than to begin his final attack-approach early.

Whilst the enemy released the cascade of kinetic blades his way, Einst simply initiated his “wild spin” much earlier, possible through his War Dance, and swung the massive fourteen-inch wide blade in kind. Through his sheer skill, Einst managed to hide behind the Valkyrie for the majority of the attack, but not all: several of the virtually invisible arcs managed to find purchase with his exposed arms, with some also managing to cut through his pants and along the flesh of his legs. Importantly, what hadn’t been outright blocked through the hiding behind his blade had been narrowly avoided via his active skill of the War Dance of the Falling Sky. The effort that would have been required to entirely avoid his taking damage was disproportionate to the reward, as his choosing to do this enabled him to carry out the Wild Lotus as intended. Unfortunately, sequential strikes had no effect on the Magister, despite their normally impressive speed, as he managed to have an answer for it which left the two completely stalemated at the end of the assault. It was then that the Magister introduced himself in kind, commenting in a facetious manner on the White Swordsman potentially removing from him his head.

“Phew...If I ain’t careful, you might end up lopping my head off with a single swing.”

“Name’s Vincent Fiorelli, the Red Magister”

In response, Einst appeared to be overly nonchalant, nearly to the point of insulting his opponent, this Vincent Fiorelli, as he gracefully bowed while extending the Valkyrie out in his right hand, to his right side. It was at that moment though, Vincent would detect the sudden shift in color of the Valkyrie’s pommel from its cloudy white, churning state to a frenzied rain of fire the color of blood.

{BGM: “Hundred Years War”}

Iron Serpent: Venomous Arm: Blood of Angels

Concurrent with the shift in color, Einst’s body also exhibited a powerful pulse. It wasn’t the sword which harbored the technique used, but the man. One of several Arming Techs within his Iron Serpent Style, it was a rarity for them to ever be used. Most opponent’s whom the White Swordsman faced were far too weak to even consider using the arming techs, but the Red Magister was deceitfully powerful. For him to have survived the series of exchanges up to that point was evidence enough that he would have to exercise more effort than usual, and so...he did.

The delay between his bow and the activation of the Venomous Arm was non-existent; however, there was a momentary pause before Einst unleashed the attack he had wanted to follow the Wild Lotus up with from the get-go. When it happened, Vincent found himself under a thunderous assault that simply couldn’t have been predicted.

Iron Serpent Style: Iron Fusillade

From his bowed position, the Valkyrie fully extended to his right, the White Swordsman unleashed a veritable hell on his opponent. The White Swordsman’s skill was his chief characteristic, a trait more complex to gauge than those readily measurable stats such as strength or speed. While it was true that he had exhibited considerable speed and agility, the Iron Fusillade raised that bar a full octave higher as he swung the Valkyrie directly at Vincent’s head, squarely at his ear. In precisely the same time, the Valkyrie was effectively mirrored to attack from the opposite direction, aimed two centimeters lower than the first. Lastly, the Valkyrie was swung vertically along Vincent’s center-line, with the Valkyrie reaching to aim the exact point between its second and final thirds of its length to cleave Vincent’s entire body in half. The effect was, as its name implied, a simultaneous assault from three directions, in stark contrast to the high-numbered, fast sequential strikes of his Wild Lotus attack. At the end of the Iron Fusillade, the distinct ring of metal-on-metal could be heard along with the thunderous crack of each swing being accelerated in the flurry of spatial-distorting slashes. This was followed by a swelling red shower unveiled directly into Vincent’s face. It was an ability of his for which he had been known for, even though those who had seen it were unquestionably long-since dead. It was for all intents and purposes, a small taste of what he was truly capable of, but one that had fallen countless foes before him. He suspected the Magister would engage in his speed-based maneuvers to once again deal with this too, but the White Swordsman’s answer to the Magister came in what hadn’t become a signature of his, that being the Arming Tech.

Upon impact, the Valkyrie would release a unique type of “venomous ether”, microscopic in size. The microscopic particles of ether acted as a sort of ether-toxin, specially designed to break-down a target’s power through physical contact, after which it would rip the target’s power asunder liken to a virus invading a human body and destroying its cells (think cytotoxic venom). The Blood of Angels was such that it could dismantle complex spells, fortified and layered enchantments, or simply pools of ether. The Iron Fusillade was a perfect technique for unleashing the venom, simply by virtue of its mechanics not requiring it to be successful in directly harming the opponent via landing. Being near it was more than enough to be exposed to enough of the Blood of Angels to yield disastrous effects.

Suspecting his opponent to be the highly skilled mage he was, Einst sought only to introduce another distraction, or hurdle for him to deal with while continuing to push his unrelenting assault. In other words, there was far more yet to come. Following the Iron Fusillade, Einst was a single meter lower than he was previously, with the Valkyrie held suddenly with both hands, his left hand just a few centimeters above the pommel. It was smothered in blood from having suffered a glancing blow in his previous approach, and the blood was literally evaporating into the air.

{BGM: “Need to Be Strong”}

The Iron Fusillade was intercepted skillfully with his opponent’s own sword and sheath, the resultant impacts knocking Vincent aside though not entirely on its own. The moment the Valkyrie connected with the man’s sword, a spell was released, which was of no real surprise to the White Swordsman considering he had witnessed its ability previously with the attempted trap and eruption. Regardless, the spell’s activation wasn’t interrupted by his ether-toxin, which only told Einst more about his opponent’s unique style of casting. There was no guarantee that his casting would adhere to the method he employed, not unlike himself and his multitude of methods under his belt. At the very least, it was an effective deterrent much like his release of the Valkyrie’s Cry earlier on. Given that the effect of the spell he cast was unimpeded, Einst too was pushed back, with some of the toxin landing on his body.

Pushed across the hall, the White Swordsman landed on the undisturbed tile of Castle Gordias, meanwhile Vincent remained airborne. He continued to hold his sword in the aforementioned position, diagonally forward with both hands comfortably gripping the coiled-black handle of his blade. The Valkyrie continued to visibly “glower” its crimson, liquid ether-toxin, indicating that the technique remained active and wasn’t a single-use ability. On that note, the toxin which had been pushed back to spray himself immediately went into effect. He wasn’t faced with the full extent of what had been released, as the wind spell fired off in all directions and not just his own, which made the resultant situation much less “impactful” than it could have been. Curiously, the White Swordsman wasn’t visibly concerned, watching the preparations of his opponent with a menacing smirk—covered in “etheric blood”—as if he had maintained the upper hand.

With the newly established distance between himself and the Red Magister, Einst adjusted his grip on the Valkyrie while repositioning his legs. Sliding his right foot forward and rotating his hips slightly, twisting his left foot to orient his knee to easily bend, supporting the bulk of his weight, he drew the Valkyrie into a flatter angle in relation to the ceiling, aiming its point directly at his opponent. He did so while also pulling the handle upward, almost as though he were readying a lance for jousting. For but a brief instant, it might come into focus that the blood flowing down his left hand was collecting within the grooves of the coiled-black handle, especially as he moved his right hand up to lie flat against the massive broadside of his blade, closer to the nearest edge. Given his exceptional mastery over his swords, he clearly knew the exact balance of the massive Valkyrie and his strength was sufficient enough that the decidedly odd stance was of no consequence to him. Of course, it was only odd in that most people didn’t wield a greatsword with one injured arm. At any rate, it wasn’t too likely for Vincent to notice the flow of his blood from his arm, over his hand and finally into the grooves, but its significance was about to be put on display.

He moved while Vincent did the same, his body undergoing a series of cosmetic changes that seemed to herald the release of a “new” power. The very moment Vincent began to move his sword and sheath, Einst initiated his own technique by twisting his right hand and pushing in a snap-like fashion. Immediately the Valkyrie spun like an enormous drill, his blood-soaked left hand offering minimal resistance to the already smooth, coiled grip of its handle. From there, he guided his right hand to hover alongside his left as he revealed the reason he had no concern over being subjected to his very own ether-toxin. In what might be considered a display of defiance, or perhaps arrogance and recklessness, Einst concentrated his chi to release through his right hand, out over his left hand and the handle of the Valkyrie. This caused the blade’s rotation to double, quadruple, again and again. It very quickly spun at several tens of thousands of times per second, the chi assisting in increasing its speed along with feeding the ether-toxin exactly what it wanted. For not only did the toxin seek to breakdown that it came into contact with, but to absorb the power for its own. Not the toxin, but its originator: the Valkyrie. By this point in time, Vincent should have noticed that the Valkyrie’s Cry had subsided considerably, and was now all but gone in lieu of the Blood of Angels.

In likewise procession, The Red Magister crossed blade and sheath to form a large cross of black tinged flame. It wasn’t easily discerned whether the flames mimicked his previous spell-casting, as this felt different in that it possessed traces of magic which persisted. In any case, there was no way to be absolutely certain of the effects it presented, but Einst knew not to take it lightly. Watching the technique form, and the eventual release via his thrusting the sword forward, Einst answered in kind by engaging the third stage of his technique. This time, he did not directly increase the rotation of his sword, but doubled, then tripled the amount and potency of his chi. This fed his venom even greater power, which exponentially increased the rotation of the Valkyrie…

Meanwhile, Vincent’s flaming cross hurled across the hall, growing to massive proportions as it traveled further and further. It wouldn’t take terribly long for it to reach his position, but Einst seemed to be waiting for it to begin carving paths along the floor and ceiling, as his technique finally reached its apex. Were Vincent still capable of seeing the White Swordsman beyond his own attack, he would be met with a vastly different scene. The Valkyrie’s power distorted the world around it, tearing the fabric of space in
a manner only attainable by a true master swordsman.

{BGM: “Reverse Situation”}

Iron Serpent: Flying Dragon of Chaos

The White Swordsman ceased the channeling of his Chi in sync with dropping his right arm, followed immediately by the shift of his weight, twisting of his body and thrust of the Valkyrie. His grip on the blade had relaxed early on to a graceful touch that guided the spinning weapon, which traveled down the handle to offer one final tap against its fiery-rain like pommel. The multi-staged technique was usually executed on smaller scales, but given the flow of this particular battle, Einst had the opportunity to ramp it to terrifying levels. By using the entirety of his situation to his benefit, at a cost, the Flying Dragon of Chaos was able to reach its ultimate form.

Said form was such that the normally present space [read: resistance] was cut away by the spatial distortion, enhanced via the sword’s cutting edge and piercing point. As such it traveled on a path directly through the center of Vincent’s technique, where it would do the very same to its flames and magic. Not via ether of its own, but the extremely chaotic state of the physical blade itself. It also moved with a quickness that far outclassed everything Einst had showcased up to that point, crossing the distance in an instant. The timing was subsequently victim to the disruptive technique, which thereby obscured the true nature of its speed.

If his previous technique, that being the Iron Fusillade, had been enough to severely scar his opponent’s equipment and knock him back, then this one was on an entirely different dimension. The Iron Fusillade, while powerful, was a technique focused entirely on speed and multiple simultaneous strikes. What Vincent faced now was the result of considerably ramped power via equally considerable self-sacrifice, guided by masterful technique to cut the world itself asunder—anyone caught in its path be damned.

The Valkyrie was expected to impale or tear apart Vincent from the exact center of his torso. The power was more than adequate to do so, and, it moved beyond the speed of most beings’ comprehension or conventional measure. This made finding the attack’s weak-point and exploiting it effectively extremely difficult; for some, it would be impossible. Given the Red Magister’s determination to answer his every move with more than adequate effect, there was the realistic possibility of his survival. Whether it succeeded or failed, the blade was destined to lodge itself into Castle Gordias’ wall/ceiling, should its enchantment prove powerful enough to withstand it.

Below, Einst had followed through with his physical motion to spin slam his right foot down and assume a new stance, one primed to the quick-drawing of his Tenrai Hibiki, which he immediately grabbed hold of. Once his hand made contact with the Tenrai Hibiki, his own body underwent a shift in state not too dissimilar to his opponent’s. The Tenrai thoroughly purged the venom from his body, erasing it from existence in one fell swoop. He guided his left hand to grip the obsidian saya, wrapping its navy blue sash about his hand in the process (the sash was normally tied to the saya’s top end, but could be unraveled easily). In the unlikely event his “offensive defense” failed to destroy his opponent’s attack, and his opponent, he would be lying in wait with his katana primed and ready.

{BGM: “Ultimate Battle”}

It wasn’t uncommon for warriors of their caliber to possess the ability to “see without seeing”; Einst nearly smirked as the Valkyrie crossed beyond Vincent’s previous location and sank deeply into the ceiling above. He recognized the nature of Vincent’s movement technique—there was no denying the tell-tale signs of the Shukuchi. The disruption of space giving credence to its meaning “reduced earth”, it was a high-speed maneuver utilized by both his Captain and none other than himself. Due to its predictable nature, however, Einst had long since stopped using it. Merely being capable of tracking the maneuver wasn’t enough to render it obsolete, but Einst possessed certain skills that did yield him an advantageous position against such techniques. He had chosen to forego exploiting it earlier with Vincent’s use of the Shundou, despite employing it in moderation, but with the Shukuchi he reacted far differently.

Before his right foot slammed into the floor to stop his rotational movement, Einst’s War Dance of the Falling Sky surged to the surface. Following the direction of his rotation, Einst catapulted forward at roughly 6,000 meters per second, allowing him to cross the hall in a veritable instant. This caused the path of Vincent’s attack to veer suddenly, but Einst wasn’t nearly finished. The shockwave that erupted throughout the hall blasted the falling debris into the adjacent wall, and most peculiarly, the ceiling above began to crack. Before the closest fireballs could reach him, Einst once more exhibited tremendous raw speed and moved to the furthest edge of the hall, directly centered between the right and left approaches of the fringes of Vincent’s previous attack. Basically he was close to where he had been standing previously but further back, and once more the fireballs changed course to follow him, despite the second release of a powerful shockwave punishing the halls. By this time, which again was a fraction of a second after Vincent executed his Shukuchi and sent the fireballs after him, Einst had pulled the vibrant blade of the Tenrai free of its saya with an indeterminable amount of force.

Throughout his maneuvering, Einst simply used his momentum to aid in the drawing of his sword, resulting in a third effect (the first two being the aforementioned shockwaves), presumably via sheer physical strength alone. This time, the trauma experienced unto the air and space beneath the blade’s cutting edge was exponentially greater. More importantly, it wasn’t a temporary distortion, as it carried its own strange inertia. Without warning, Vincent was assaulted from fifteen degrees left by a curved “blade” traversing the hall with twice the speed of Einst’s own movements. The blade consisted of the raw effect of the space it crossed being cut, which in turn awarded it several benefits without need for further support. One of the most significant of those benefits was that it was unaffected by the normal “drag” experienced by objects moving within atmosphere. This meant that it would travel unimpeded at roughly 12,000 meters per second, splitting anything caught in its path cleanly in two. Fortunately for Einst, several of the fireballs were caught in this path, but not nearly enough…and so, Einst sheathed the Tenrai and executed a third maneuver. By this third movement, the unseen cutting force would have crossed Vincent’s location and cut cleanly through the wall of Castle Gordias, a feat previously thought impossible given its enchantments, but there was a reason for the sudden change. For the moment, the wall remained undisturbed despite no longer being one uniform section.

This time, Einst exploded toward Vincent but off to his opponent’s right, causing the remaining fireballs to once more follow suit, this time aligning into a more condensed formation. Once more, his War Dance intervened and Einst suddenly changed course twice more—first, he ascended vertically and second he reversed course to travel even faster back above his prior path. The transition between his vertical and horizontal movement was when he once more drew the Tenrai, rotating his body to execute another of his devastating slashes…

The fireballs were all but devastated, but this was clearly the least significant detail of what Einst had done. His multi-path evasion, the release of the earlier slash that, while deadly was expected to miss his opponent, and now his spinning slash executed while moving away from Vincent—and the Valkyrie—was all for one ultimate attack. It occurred in completion, rather than being woven together as one might normally do, and even what his assault appeared to be, and it all began with the successful impalement of the Valkyrie into the ceiling of the mind bogglingly powerful Castle Gordias.

The Blood of Angels wasn’t restricted to interacting with living entities or beings, but simply ether as a whole. Once the Valkyrie became embedded within the surface of the Castle, it immediately began to break down the ancient enchantments protecting the structure. In doing so, the Valkyrie grew drastically more powerful, directly correlating to the vast power of the enchantments at work. Since it targeted the enchantments and not the physical location of where it was residing, the entire structure of Castle Gordias had fallen victim to the menacing blade’s power. Thus, Einst had been able to crack the walls and surrounding surfaces with his high-speed movement whereas before such effects weren’t possible. Again, when the first slash sent from the Tenrai would cleave effortlessly through the wall, the enchantment had been further weakened, if not broken by that point.

With Einst’s spinning slash, he also revealed a misconception about his drawing technique. It was heavily aided by his physical motion, but it was the sword itself which yielded the effects of the distorting slash(es). It stemmed from the blade’s ultimate power, that being none other than the Zeranz Essence, but was in fact not a true release of said power. None of the Essence would travel beyond the surface of the actual weapon’s blade, but that was neither here nor there. At any rate, were the technique reliant solely upon Einst’s physical motion, the enormous level of destruction he released would not have been possible…

Eighteen two meter long, curved “blades” exploded forward from the Tenrai’s edge, all of which were aimed along Vincent’s general area as well as himself. This was released at the breaking point of his maneuver, or more appropriately the transition between vertical and backward motion. This caused the blades to release with even greater speed than the first one to claim the wall, and at a diagonal angle. The result was a large wave of extremely powerful invisible blades that left no room to dodge to either side, below and definitely not above. It might have been possible to jump through the attack, though…considering it wasn’t as tightly-knit a net as Vincent’s previous attack.

Whether Vincent intercepted the attack or not, the breadth of the attack was such that the entire side of the Castle he stood upon was cut asunder from two thirds of the wall up on down. The floor beneath, too, was devastated by the attack and in front of Vincent some nine meters. The extremely powerful blades would continue through the earth itself, relentless in its devastation of all it passed. In one moment, the White Swordsman had managed to completely blow out one massive hole of the ancient Castle and the earth beyond it. The blades were small enough that the damage was hardly to be considered on a planetary scale, but the landscape was all but marred beyond conventional repair.

As for Einst, he landed on the opposite side of the hall, Tenrai sheathed and his stance completely reversed. Were Vincent to survive his assault, and once clear of the torrential rain of ancient stone and tile, he would see Einst standing with his left leg forward, knee bent and right leg extended behind him. Most notably, his right arm hung limply in front of the wooden sheath of the Ochi, while his left hand gripped its tsuka strongly. His breathing remained the same, and overall his body appeared completely fine—except for that right arm. It was a temporary price to pay for utilizing a single application of the Zeranz Essence, albeit several times in rapid succession, and it wasn’t even revealed externally. In the end, it was his way of further increasing the stakes of their fight, in an admittedly massive leap. Whatever became of his opponent, he had tremendously more to give before he’d be down for the count.

Last but not least, the Valkyrie remained pierced into the ceiling above, continuing to drink of the ancient and plentiful mana formerly protecting Castle Gordias. Fortunately, the building as a whole remained standing absent one entire section, a testament to the wondrous architectural design of its creators…

Killiak @ 05 NOV 2020 10:02 PST