2,000 years ago... The Dark Knight Sparda turned against his demon bretheren, And took up his sword for the sake of mankind. Though despite his brave efforts in our names, I fear some have forgotten the truth of his great sacrifice.
Another boring sermon. Among the sea of linen hoods bowed in devout contemplation, he's the only one restless, bored out of his mind - listening to music on his headphones and wishing he was anywhere but here. His right arm is bound up in bandages, held in a sling. The man sitting beside him gives him a brief, judgy glance for his irreverence and he glares back - what're you gonna do about it?
He doesn't want to be here, but he promised K████ he'd come.
If the events of that terrible time were to reoccur, The fusing of both the demonic and human realms, We, weak humans, Would have no means by which to oppose our submission.
K████ returns, as inconspicuously as she can, now changed out of her ceremonial garb. When she approaches the empty spot next to him, he turns his head and looks away. Pretends not to notice her as he holds his headphones to his ear. For a moment she's crestfallen, until she notices the elegant gift box waiting for her in her seat - a congratulations he's embarrassed to be giving. Smiling, she picks it up and holds it close, before sitting next to him.
And so I ask you to unite! And pray that even if such a dark time of chaos were to revisit us, Our gracious Saviour would shelter us from the storm. Let us pray!
His Holiness bows his head and clasps his hands together, and the congregation follows suit. Among the sea of the faithful, he stands out as the only one who's made no move to pray - glancing around, disdain wells up inside him and he gets up to leave. The motion stirs K████ from beside him and she whispers, "████, what's wrong?"
"I'm outta here."
"But it's not over yet."
"All this preaching's putting me to sleep."
He walks away, and she follows after him down the aisle, a plea to stay on her lips - but he stops in his tracks before getting far. A glow is emanating from his bandaged arm? Suddenly--
A CRASH from high above, and down comes a silver-haired man amid the rain of broken stained glass. On his back, a longsword with a hilt styled like bones and a flowing, long red coat. He lands directly before His Holiness, draws a gun and-- BANG!
The sound rings across the church. Murmurs from the startled crowd quickly turn to screams as the assassin in red turns and he's splattered with the holy man's blood. Chaos erupts. C████ and the other Holy Knights draw their swords, shouting, "Your Holiness!" as they rush into formation. Yet for all their training, they're disposed of like toys by the man in red. Drawing his skeletal sword, he dispatches of them with ease, even swinging an impaled knight on the end of his blade like a hammer to bludgeon his comrades?
Seeing their first line of defense fall before him, he takes K████'s hand - it's imperative to protect her, before anyone else, he has to bring her to safety - and in the retreat, the gift box she was holding slips from her grasp, to be crushed underfoot by the fleeing mob.
C████ cradles the lifeless body of His Holiness in his arms, trembling with rage and grief. Soon, his knights are all cut down, and no one stands between him and the assassin. When K████ glances back and sees this, she wrenches herself away from the hand leading her to safety, shouting her brother's name. "C████!" "K████!" She doesn't get far, though - before she can reach her brother, she's knocked over by another guard being thrown back, and falls to the ground. When she looks up, the cold eyes of the blood red assassin meets hers. She's frozen in terror, shaking. Then, a roar of anger--
His boots meet the assassin's face in a dropkick.
As the man in red is launched away, ████ draws Blue Rose and shoots - the bullets are blocked by the assassin's sword, but the force of it knocks him back. He lands on the head of Sparda's statue, but ████ doesn't let him have a second's reprieve. Leaping in, he kicks the sword's blade into the stone, and the two of them point their guns in a standoff upon Sparda's arms.
The young woman calls after him, "████!" as she gets up. But he can't let his focus waver.
"K████! Go with your brother and get outta here!"
C████, for whatever good it would do, calls to him as well. "I will return with help! You stall him until then!" and ushers his sister, and the dead body of His Holiness from the church.
When they're safety out of sight, ████ scoffs and shrugs the headphones off his shoulders. "I won't hold my breath."
What ensues is frankly an absurd battle between two silver-haired men, one older and one younger, where they're dodging bullets at point blank, grappling in mid-air, knocking each other around and bringing down the statue's giant sword. It's almost like they both already have Stability, even though they clearly couldn't? It's stupid. Throughout it all, the man in red maintains a cool, confident silence - and ████, for having one arm in a sling, doesn't seem hampered by it at all. The memory cuts off as ████ stands off with his gun at the stranger once more, growling, "You got a jacked up notion of fair play, pal. And it's beginning to piss me off."
Assassin in Red
The Dark Knight Sparda turned against his demon bretheren,
And took up his sword for the sake of mankind.
Though despite his brave efforts in our names,
I fear some have forgotten the truth of his great sacrifice.
Another boring sermon. Among the sea of linen hoods bowed in devout contemplation, he's the only one restless, bored out of his mind - listening to music on his headphones and wishing he was anywhere but here. His right arm is bound up in bandages, held in a sling. The man sitting beside him gives him a brief, judgy glance for his irreverence and he glares back - what're you gonna do about it?
He doesn't want to be here, but he promised K████ he'd come.
The fusing of both the demonic and human realms,
We, weak humans,
Would have no means by which to oppose our submission.
K████ returns, as inconspicuously as she can, now changed out of her ceremonial garb. When she approaches the empty spot next to him, he turns his head and looks away. Pretends not to notice her as he holds his headphones to his ear. For a moment she's crestfallen, until she notices the elegant gift box waiting for her in her seat - a congratulations he's embarrassed to be giving. Smiling, she picks it up and holds it close, before sitting next to him.
And pray that even if such a dark time of chaos were to revisit us,
Our gracious Saviour would shelter us from the storm.
Let us pray!
His Holiness bows his head and clasps his hands together, and the congregation follows suit. Among the sea of the faithful, he stands out as the only one who's made no move to pray - glancing around, disdain wells up inside him and he gets up to leave. The motion stirs K████ from beside him and she whispers, "████, what's wrong?"
"I'm outta here."
"But it's not over yet."
"All this preaching's putting me to sleep."
He walks away, and she follows after him down the aisle, a plea to stay on her lips - but he stops in his tracks before getting far. A glow is emanating from his bandaged arm? Suddenly--
A CRASH from high above, and down comes a silver-haired man amid the rain of broken stained glass. On his back, a longsword with a hilt styled like bones and a flowing, long red coat. He lands directly before His Holiness, draws a gun and-- BANG!
The sound rings across the church. Murmurs from the startled crowd quickly turn to screams as the assassin in red turns and he's splattered with the holy man's blood. Chaos erupts. C████ and the other Holy Knights draw their swords, shouting, "Your Holiness!" as they rush into formation. Yet for all their training, they're disposed of like toys by the man in red. Drawing his skeletal sword, he dispatches of them with ease, even swinging an impaled knight on the end of his blade like a hammer to bludgeon his comrades?
Seeing their first line of defense fall before him, he takes K████'s hand - it's imperative to protect her, before anyone else, he has to bring her to safety - and in the retreat, the gift box she was holding slips from her grasp, to be crushed underfoot by the fleeing mob.
C████ cradles the lifeless body of His Holiness in his arms, trembling with rage and grief. Soon, his knights are all cut down, and no one stands between him and the assassin. When K████ glances back and sees this, she wrenches herself away from the hand leading her to safety, shouting her brother's name. "C████!" "K████!" She doesn't get far, though - before she can reach her brother, she's knocked over by another guard being thrown back, and falls to the ground. When she looks up, the cold eyes of the blood red assassin meets hers. She's frozen in terror, shaking. Then, a roar of anger--
His boots meet the assassin's face in a dropkick.
As the man in red is launched away, ████ draws Blue Rose and shoots - the bullets are blocked by the assassin's sword, but the force of it knocks him back. He lands on the head of Sparda's statue, but ████ doesn't let him have a second's reprieve. Leaping in, he kicks the sword's blade into the stone, and the two of them point their guns in a standoff upon Sparda's arms.
The young woman calls after him, "████!" as she gets up. But he can't let his focus waver.
"K████! Go with your brother and get outta here!"
C████, for whatever good it would do, calls to him as well. "I will return with help! You stall him until then!" and ushers his sister, and the dead body of His Holiness from the church.
When they're safety out of sight, ████ scoffs and shrugs the headphones off his shoulders. "I won't hold my breath."
What ensues is frankly an absurd battle between two silver-haired men, one older and one younger, where they're dodging bullets at point blank, grappling in mid-air, knocking each other around and bringing down the statue's giant sword. It's almost like they both already have Stability, even though they clearly couldn't? It's stupid. Throughout it all, the man in red maintains a cool, confident silence - and ████, for having one arm in a sling, doesn't seem hampered by it at all. The memory cuts off as ████ stands off with his gun at the stranger once more, growling, "You got a jacked up notion of fair play, pal. And it's beginning to piss me off."