Soul of War

Author: Konnichiwa minna (hello everyone)! I welcome you all back to the first chapter of the revised story x3 though I guess it's hard to believe that the last one was just the Prologue, oh well, enjoy it nonetheless.

Disclaimer: No way in Hell or Heaven do I own any of the characters of this game, its original storyline or dialogue that will tie into the game. However I do own my own character and any other characters that aren't part of the game that would be considered Oc.

|And So It Begins|

Darkness. For the longest time that was where I was resting, in total darkness where no light could get in and nothingness filled the spaces of the dark abyss. I wondered if this was where Seira was now, a dark place all alone without her big sister to hold her close and say that it was alright. The thought troubled me and the only thing to keep the tears from falling down my cheeks was to breathe in deep and try to calm myself down. The only good thing that could come out of this was that she was in a better place; up in heaven with the Father where she can live in peace and not have to worry. That didn't seem to help my situation, though, since I was left behind in the darkness where I was stuck for probably all eternity. Though that voice did say that I would open my eyes again and that I wasn't dead…

'Well if I'm not dead then where the hell am I?' I thought to myself, irritated that I couldn't do anything. To be more precise I wanted to get out and do something rather than float inside darkness for the rest of eternity. The voice did tell me that I was going to open my eyes but at that time everything I knew and loved would be changed; I still didn't know what that meant especially when my eyes were open. I actually did try to struggle but it did me no good and I was just wasting strength; I was going to give up, thanks for the stillness of it all, but then something finally happened. I started to hear, what sounded like, wind coming from somewhere swirling around, it made me think that maybe I wasn't in darkness, but deep inside a cave or something. Though that theory was soon discarded after realizing that the wind I was hearing from wherever was actually getting louder, like it was coming to me. It was puzzling indeed until, after a moment, the ground began to shake and tremble; it made me remember about what happened -to what seemed to me- just moments before when meteors covered the sky and everything went to hell.

Panic was soon to take over me again, I was sure, so I tried to keep calm by taking deep breaths but that wasn't working too well, making me even more anxious. The only way to truly calm myself down was to slowly close my eye and try the deep breathing again, to gain what little I could sense of the world. In this state I could hear what was happening outside like a pin being dropped in a room of silence even though there wasn't much to hear. I could hear the pounding of rocks plummeting into the Earth, which made small earthquakes in the city as well as the pumping of my heart. Suddenly an impact, that felt close to maybe where I was at the moment, descend into the Earth with tremendous force; it felt different from the others, much different if you could believe it. My intuition seemed to be correct as I could detect one-no two life forms emerging from that impact and in my mind I had hoped that maybe they could help me. In the back or my mind I felt like my calling wouldn't work, that they wouldn't be able to hear me no matter how much I tried, but I had to, to be free of this darkness that had me locked in place.

'Hello? Can you hear me?' I called out in my mind. I remembered watching shows that made use of telepathic messages going to and fro from characters and even though I wasn't a psychic, I had hoped the trick worked for me as well. 'I'm here… over here!' I said in desperation -not physically since I was still in a meditative state- hoping to be heard 'Please help me!' I cried at last, hoping that whoever was there could hear me and come to my aid. At first I couldn't hear anything relatively new, only the howling of the wind that seemed to be heard outside of the darkness with the occasional crash that hit the ground like a piece of debris or something. Hope seemed to dwindle every minute that passed, though for some reason despite my declining hope I kept in the meditated state, just waiting for something, anything. After moments and moments of waiting I was ready to give up and let myself stay asleep in the darkness when an odd sound came from out of nowhere. It was the sound of footsteps that were getting closer and closer in my hearing distance and it was silent till I started to hear voices outside of the darkness that entrapped me.

"…mys-mysterious pulsat…ions…chrysalis…" were a few words I was able to get out but they weren't clear enough for me to make any sense. But I was happy I was found -wherever I was- and hoped the person I contacted would be nice enough to figure out how to get me out of the darkness and let me go with them for a time. From the fear and despair that I remembered from my very last and vague memory I was sure I would want to be with someone in order to feel safe. With this hopeful thought in mind I started to hear a banging sound until I could feel warmth radiating upon my body. I opened my eyes to see a light shining before me, a thin crack of light was etched into the darkness, sending rays of light to my being. But suddenly it started to grow, having the light expand across my vision, growing bigger and bigger as the sounds of outside grew clearer and clearer with each passing moment. So much so that eventually the light enveloped me, taking me to whoever was waiting on the other side to greet me with warmth and kindness… well I was hoping for something like that. Instead I felt my body hit hard on a concrete surface with my head banging into a rock or another broken slab of concrete; whichever the case, it hurt like -

"Freaking hell!" I cried, putting my gloved hands on my head in order to make the pain pounding on my cranium. "Damn that's one heck of a wake-up call" I sat up, trying to massage my head not even realizing that I wasn't alone until a voice spoke out.

"A Human?" the voice was a bit shrill, one that a person could get easily annoyed to, and surprised more than anything to my being, I guess one wouldn't expect a someone like me to poof up out of nowhere. When I looked up I expected to see Humans like myself, instead I found myself staring at two beings, one looking less human than the other. To be more precise one was bluish black with small wings on his back as well as floating in mid-air with no legs and three eyes on each side of his face while the other was more human-like. He had two shoulder plates, one gold and one silver, as well as silver gauntlets covering his hands, though one was bigger than the other for some reason. Lastly he wore a red hood that covered most of his face, save for the long white hair and glowing blue eyes that said he wasn't human in the slightest… not to mention the huge sword on his back that was bigger than or at least as big as an average human. All I could do was sit there on my butt with wide eyes- er eye seeing as one of them was covered by a tilted bandana, blinking every so often, and having a moment of awkward silence between the three of us.

"Are you the one who called?" the other being asked, his voice being deeper than the black one, though his face remained a bit stern, if not serious. I really couldn't tell, only that he was certainly intimidating

"E-eh?" was all I could get to crawl out of my throat, as dry as it was I was surprised I was able to get anything out at all, though the intimidating figure looming over me wasn't much help either.

"I heard a voice, crying out to me, wanting to be saved. When I arrived I found a chrysalis and shattered it to see you emerge; was that your voice?" the being asked once again. Thinking back the only thing related to what he was talking about was when I was trying to get someone to help me out of the darkness… what is this person? It was the only logical explanation I had so far and I'm sure there isn't any other person around here who would do that, so I could only assume it was me, besides he helped me just like I wanted, so in the end my original goal was made.

"Uh, y-yea, that was me…" I confirmed, not sure what else to say as I waited for a response to come from him, but he was only silent. He probably wasn't sure what to do with me now that I was out, I sure as hell wouldn't know what to do in his shoes, especially since it seemed like he had his own problems to deal with.

"You're not actually thinking about taking the little runt with you, are you?" the dark spirit asked the humanoid, who clearly didn't seem to like me very much and would rather go on with whatever he had business in and leave me out here to die then take me along. I gave the specter an annoyed glance but went back to the huge humanoid and awaited his answer, I certainly hoped that he would go against what his companion wanted and take me along anyway. He looked to the specter then back to me, his face still unreadable from what I could tell but it wasn't hard to figure out that he was thinking about it. A part of me was hoping that he would take me in, a naïve perspective that a person surely wouldn't leave a defenseless Human in a world she hasn't been in for some time and would likely die if not taken in. But the other part of me, the more realistic and thinking part, was more leaning towards the being just leaving me and going on his merry way, not caring if I would perish among the world in which I was sure I would no longer recognize when I saw it. Both of these sides were arguing back and forth through my mind wondering what was going through the humanoid's mind and what would his final answer be.

Suddenly a shift came and the humanoid looked one last time to the specter and then to me before turning his back on my being. I didn't show it, but inside my heart jumped and I could feel my nose twitch as it always did when I felt like I was going to cry as despair of being left behind, being abandoned set into my mind. In this unknown place I didn't want to be left alone, I wanted someone there to protect me from whatever monstrosities that were going to be found and felt like he was just going leave me there to die. Outside the drama going on in my brain my physical outlook was normal… well despite the slight shock of waking up to two otherworldly beings staring at you. Though to tell you the truth I should have known better; sure the humanoid turned his back on me but that really shouldn't have meant anything to me. It's like when you get someone very angry and they raise a fist at you, it doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to hit you, though it's probable, it just means that they're anger tempts them to hurt you. This situation was no different; I'm sure he was tempted to just leave me there like the specter suggested but since he was pausing I could only think that he was still pondering on what to really do with me before he told the answer he had in mind.

"To be honest I don't know what to do with you, Human. I can only say: Do as you wish. If you want to follow me you can, but I can't guarantee that I'll be able to protect you and you may die; keep that in mind when you make your decision" he told me finally. So in a nutshell I could go with him if I wanted to and if I did I might die because he can't fight off a horde of enemies and protect me at the same time, it made sense. But to tell you the truth that little tidbit didn't surprise me at all nor did it change my decision; I was going with this being no matter how much of my life may be in danger because of him. Besides I was sure I would be safer with him than just going off on my own, especially when I didn't have a weapon-

'Wait…' I thought to myself as I felt something hanging on the left side of my shorts. Using my left hand I felt it around, and even though I was wearing purple colored gloves, I could tell that the surface was very slick up to where I felt something poking out. I finally looked down to see what it was and, to my surprise and utter happiness, a katana blade was fastened to my left hip. It looked the same as any katana only the hilt was a different color, like many swords, conveniently it's hilt was purple and black with a black sheath; it matched my clothes quite nicely. I was so busy looking at my sword the only thing that snapped me out of my admiration of it was from the specter's shrill voice that I found irking.

"You can't be serious! You can't bring this Human along, she'll just get in the way; I won't allow it!" he argued, though really it just sounded like wining to me but I didn't say anything as I listened to the conversation.

"I didn't say I was bringing her along I merely stated she could follow if she wanted to, she has the choice whether to come with us or not, that's free will" the humanoid said to the specter, which only made him all the more annoyed.

"Hmph, whatever; just don't think you'll get on the Council's good side for protecting the little mouth-breather!" the specter stated, it was the last thing he said before turning into a black mist and entering the bigger hand of the humanoid. When it disappeared completely the being before me did not move for a moment, perhaps waiting for me to say something or take action, before continuing on his way to wherever he was supposed to go. I sat there for a moment till my brain began to work again and realized he was going to leave without me! Scrambling to get up I staggered, almost immediately falling on my face before catching myself and running to catch up with the humanoid who kindly freed me from my prison of darkness. Now don't blame me for almost falling on my face right when I had gotten up, I had just walked for the first time for who-knows-how-long I was lucky I wasn't crippled for not using my legs in such a period of time. But I was lucky to get out of the cage that I slept in, I probably would have slept there for eternity if I didn't call out for help, even though I don't like to ask for help all that often.

Walking with the humanoid turned out to be more awkward than I could imagine, even worse it was silent as well. The humanoid did not ask me any questions, nothing about me, my name, why I was in the chrysalis (I hadn't the answer to that either) and other stuff to start off a conversation. Of course I could have tried but I really didn't have the guts to talk to him, besides it felt like talking would make the situation even more awkward than it already was. Besides I had other things to keep my mind on, like the brown cloak that I had on that was found on my person when I awoke. Its rim was almost as wide as my shoulders and the ends near the bottom were tattered, as if it was used before it was put on me. While walking I would sometimes pick at the pieces that weren't hanging on too well just because it bothered me to see a piece hanging there when I could pick it off. Also I happened to be feeling my cloak when I felt something soft within one of the hidden pockets; when I took it out I found out it was a map, though I wasn't sure of any of the places that were on it I kept it anyway, just in case.

Eventually the both of us came to a hole in the building that revealed to me what had happened over the time I slept in that chrysalis. Peering from behind the humanoid my eye grew wide with shock: everything was in shambles; the buildings had spikes in them and were partially ruined, signs were hanging only by one piece of steel beams and cars were broken as they lay in the middle of the streets. Everything looked like it was decomposing right before my very presence; I was truly afraid of how long I had been stuck in the darkness and if that meant…

'No… I can't be- I can't be the last of my kind, can I?' I thought to myself, my gut churning and my nose twitching with the thought of being last of the Humans. Looking around I did spy some human-like figures, but they were green and had their brains exposed; they were not Human… well at least they weren't anymore. I could feel tears starting to form but I blinked them away as best as I could, there was no need to cry: the Earth must've been like this for a while and mourning for my race wasn't going to do anything but make me pity myself. That was the last thing I wanted to do, if I was going to start traveling with the humanoid I had to be strong and make sure I wasn't a burden. I remembered, about four or so years ago, hearing about 2012 and how it was going to bring the world to an end as we knew it. The news simply devastated me and I would cry every once in a while when I thought about it and then pray to God to spare us and not let it be true. Over the years, after being depressed, I finally was able to grasp the fact that we all could die and accepted the end of the world as if it was the most natural thing in the world. But now that depression was back after seeing the state the world had become. I would have been fine if I had died with the rest of the race, but being the only survivor made me that much more stressed and alone.

"One hundred years…" I heard the humanoid breathe; it made my heart stop. One hundred years, that's how long it's been? That amount of time that had past seemed impossible; if I had been in that chrysalis for a hundred years, shouldn't I be dead? Then again the crystal substance could have been sustaining my life force, I know that sounds like fiction but hey, it was a good explanation on to why I was alive for a century. As I looked back to the humanoid his look seemed to say this wasn't the first time laying his eyes on this land but he had no emotion of any kind that showed unhappiness or sadness. I wondered to myself on what might be going on in his head, but dismissed the thought and looked back to the desecrated city, feeling so alone in the world and not sure what to do with myself. In my state of temporary depression I didn't notice the slight shift of concrete as the top of the building we stood on started to crumble. The humanoid beside me didn't hesitate to get moving, jumping high into the air and landing on the ground making it shake temporarily. The sight made me sit there, amazed at what he did and wondered how in the hell was I going to get down and looked around to see if there was a way for me to get to ground level.

I finally spotted a pile of rubble at the base of the building that was almost near the ledge I happened to be standing on so I started my way down. Mind you I wasn't that big of a fan with heights and so as I put my body over the ledge I was sweating bullets as I tried to find my footing. From there I started to climb down as fast as I could though not far after starting…

"Oh crap!" I cursed at myself as my foot slipped and I dangled a little bit from the ledge, my hearting beating fast and my breathing accelerating from the fear of falling… or almost falling in this case. Eventually I was able to get my footing again and proceeded to climb down only to have a piece of the building crumble, leaving me to fall on my back on the pile of concrete, which hurt like hell might I add. "Damn, that's going to hurt in the morning" I said to myself before slowly getting up and coughing a little bit, with the dust in my lungs, before walking towards the humanoid again, only to freeze as a very creepy laugh came from the distance. Not thinking straight, and from not knowing any better, I went right behind the humanoid, hoping that maybe whatever it was making that laugh wouldn't be able to get me if I stayed near the being that saved me.

"Subtle, aren't we?" asked another demon-looking creature as he just shot up out of nowhere and giving me a shiver that went down my spine from the creepiness that came from his voice, maybe a 7.5-8 on my creep-o-meter. "I almost didn't hear you coming" he continued, every word creeping me out more than the next and did I mention how creepy he was? Very creepy. I couldn't help but cringe from every word spat out of his mouth, which was lined up with sharp teeth, might I add, and was as blue as the rest of his skin. There was no doubt in my mind that this… creature was another demon, I mean the black horns on his head and the tiny wings on his back kind of gave it away… that and he was kind of floating in mid-air.

"Vulgrim" the being I hid behind stated; so that was the demon's name eh? Well I guess it was nice to know his name but I would have really liked it if the demon did his business and just went away, though I had a feeling the business between them wasn't going to be a short one, or at least one that won't be too short to have him notice me. It made me wonder if the humanoid even knew I was behind him, shaking in my short, black, and not very high heeled boots. If he did he had not indication that I was there, maybe he didn't want this Vulgrim guy to know I was here, or maybe he just didn't care if the demon saw me or not. It kind of scared me on what the demon might do if he saw me, would he try to eat my soul? Make me be his slave? Ugh I didn't want to think about it and preferred him not to see me, but I knew he was going to or at least thought it was highly probable that he would to my dissatisfaction.

"So, the Council finally took me seriously?" Vulgrim asked as he switched from one side to the other, the trinkets around his waist jingling slightly from the movement. From all the trinkets he had; from scrolls around his waist and rings on his fingers to the golden gauntlet on his right hand and the gold and purple headdress on his head, it looked like he was someone who loved antiques… though I have never heard of a demon having such a hobby before, then again Humans didn't know much about demons no matter how many times we read them in books and in the Bible. "If this is so, surely you did not come empty handed… or this shall be the briefest of introductions" he continued; shifting again to another position… I had a feeling he did this often. I also wondered if he was seeking some sort of payment or something from what he said, I guess even demons want some sort of payment before doing favors for other people, though I'm sure the demon would backstab the person once they got what they wanted instead of doing the favor. At that moment the humanoid raised up his larger hand and blue souls started to pour out, rising into the air and entering Vulgrim's mouth, I should have known the payment was in souls, he was a demon after all.

Once he devoured much of the souls he took a moment to savor the flavor, whatever kind of flavor souls would have, I guess they would have all kinds. "Mmm, there were even a few ripe ones in the bunch, spectacular!" Vulgrim stated, from his little sound of delight a random thought came across my mind: were there souls that were considered as… drugs? That was an amusing thought, on certain souls demons would get high and start doing stupid stuff and humiliating themselves to the point that their reputation goes down the toilet for good; I smirked at the very idea. There were, probably souls that had that kind of effect on demons, like maybe pure souls of virgins and small children, or it could be the tainted souls; who knew what the taste of souls were like? I defiantly didn't want to find out; I don't think it would be good for me to start devouring souls on the spot. "And what about… her?" the question that came from the demon's mouth snapped me back to the situation at hand, unfortunately it came to the moment in which I was dreading ever since this Vulgrim fellow showed up. Before I could even blink the bluish demon had already shifted his position again so that he was almost in my face, which was majorly too close in my personal bubble.

For, what it seemed like, the longest time he just stared at me, looking me all over; to tell you the truth it made me feel a little violated, maybe it was because of the way I was dressed, I mean some of my belly was exposed. "I'm sure I could give you a very nice exchange for her" oh God that was something I didn't want to hear, especially coming from a creepy demon like Vulgrim. "She's so young and full of life and best yet, she's from the Kingdom of Man, a rare find indeed. If you give her to me, I'll give you this in return" he continued, making me more uncomfortable as the demon revealed a horn looking thing as the prize of letting him take me. It was so bad the demon was actually going to touch, I repeat, touch me with his clawed fingers, and he was so close too except that before he could the giant sword the humanoid carried barred down in-between us; me almost having my nose chopped off. When I looked around the sword Vulgrim sneered at the humanoid for interfering, while I was praising the Lord for the humanoid keeping the demon away from me. "I hear that you seek the power behind the one called the Destroyer, yes?" he said, changing the subject all together, much to my relief. "To find the answers you seek as well as the font of his power, you will to go… there" he finished, pointing at the humongous tower that was in the distance, kind of foreboding if you asked me.

Just from that tidbit of info the humanoid lifted his sword and placed it on his back before he started to walk towards the direction of the tower, but Vulgrim wasn't done talking, unfortunately. "Are you in such haste to die?" he asked

'I wouldn't be surprised if he was in haste to get away from you' I thought to myself, cause that's what I wanted to do but it seemed like this was going to take longer than I originally thought. With another circle around the humanoid Vulgrim continued with his… lecture, as it seemed like to me, or maybe just laughing in his face for being weak, I wasn't sure.

"You're not even a shadow of your former self… you wouldn't last a heartbeat" he pointed out… pointing a gold plated finger in the humanoid's face. "Besides, the way to the Tower is shrouded by demon magics, even I don't know the way" he said; it made him sound like he was a big shot or something, I doubted it but I guess he had to be powerful if the humanoid was looking for him.

"Then who does?" the humanoid finally asked, after being silent almost the entire time Vulgrim showed his ugly face

"Feed my hunger with five hundred souls, and I'll feed your curiosity tenfold" he stated, though I found it weird to have him rhyme like that, but whatever as long as I wasn't given to him I was fine with it. As the humanoid left I tagged along very closely so that I wouldn't be caught alone so that Vulgrim might spirit me away… or eat me, though I'm sure it wouldn't make a difference.

"Stay back, unless you want to get in the way" the humanoid spoke, making me perk up and back off a small bit before he took out his sword and started killing the monstrosities that plagued the city streets. A part of me was happy that he was going to do all the fighting but another part felt like a burden, like I should be contributing since I was going to be staying with him for however long. My gloves gripped the hilt of the katana on my waist, as if my own body wanted me to rear up and take the demons head on, but I was unsure of myself and hesitated on my own actions. I wasn't even sure how to use a sword and here I was about to unsheathe my katana and go charging in blindly; that wasn't going to help much I was sure, just get me killed was all it was going to do. I sighed at my uselessness as I watched my savior kill multiple demons with a swing or so, which was actually very mesmerizing, well to me anyway. The way the blood flowed from the flesh of the victims as the humanoid sliced them to pieces; it was like a sort of art if you could believe it. I was always the one to like blood and gore when I was living as a normal Human, which cost me little to no friends, but I dealt with it, I had to take care of Seira anyway so having no friends just meant I spent more time with her.

"RAWR!" the sudden roar that was eardrum piercing came up unexpectedly close as it was supposed to be where the humanoid was; something wasn't right and I was afraid to turn around to see what was the source of the awful sound. But I did, and let me tell you I regretted it; staring down on me was a huge demon that was blue, fat, and had over-sized hands that were in flames. I could feel my face become pale as I stared at it and it stared back until it got frustrated with no movement and started to roar again, raising its flaming hand in order to hit me, thank God that I had the sense to get the hell out of the way before it could crash down on my face. When I did the rolling dodge I started to run for my life, because really if I stopped for a second then I was done for. Unfortunately I went the opposite way the humanoid was so I was really just making my situation that much worse. The running was like hell on my chest but I had to keep going lest I wanted to end up killing myself and having Man be wiped off the face of the Earth. So I kept doing so till I was sure that I had lost it, giving me time to breath in deep and get my heart back to its normal rate, though I knew that when I came back out I was going to have to face that demonic beast.

I started to pace back and forth with sweat bulleting down my face as I tried to think of some way to get past the demon without it seeing me; though I doubted that I would be able to pull off the feat. Then there was the thought of waiting for the humanoid to come and destroy it for me, but then I would look so damn pathetic and be just a burden. I always did hate it when the girls always waited for someone to save them instead of trying to save themselves, though I was just as bad in this situation if I thought I should wait for the humanoid to save me. How embarrassing that would be! My face twisted to one of annoyance and it didn't take long for me to decide I was just going to have to get out there and face the beast myself… even if it did mean my death. So I looked around for a weapon because my one hundred and seventeen year old brain was getting old on me and forgot that I had a sword on my hip to begin with. Eventually I found a steel pole on the ground and picked it up and started to swing it to see if I'd be able to use it as a weapon, I shrugged and thought it was good enough. When I stepped out of my hidey-hole the demon had its fat back to me and I thought that it was now or never if I was going to attack, so that's what I did. It was stupid, I know, but I didn't want to sit around when I could try and attack the thing myself; so I charged and jumped in the air with pole raised high. I swung it as hard as I could, though the only thing it did was break the pole in half and my face had a look of 'oh great'.

"… I should have known better" I said to myself right before the demon turned around and used it's fiery fist to punch me in the stomach and hit me into a concrete building that was broken as the rest of the city. I fell on my knees and gagged fluid from, probably, one of my organs that had taken the punch and were damaged, and let me tell you, it felt like I was on fire on the inside and that there was a knife in my stomach shredding me from the inside out. I had never felt such pain in my whole life, it really felt like I was going to die, and the thunder of the demon running towards me wasn't much better when I knew it was coming to kill me. Looking up I could only see the blurred image of blue that was the demon I picked a fight with and now was going to fuck me up. My left arm, for some reason, just went limp and grazed the hilt of my katana that I had temporarily forgotten was there. I was really tired and felt that maybe I should just let it end right then and there as my will started to dwindle as the pain my organs were feeling grew. Suddenly, I felt something, a pulsation I think, near my left hand and instantly grabbed the black slick sheath on my side. The pulsation quickened in place and my right hand slowly went to the hilt of the katana, the palm resting on the deep purple covered hilt before my fingers curled around it securely, having my grip tightening around it. I could feel my heart pulsate with the other pulsation coming from, what seemed to be, the sword itself as the blue blur got closer and closer to my person.

"Shift into position, wait for the enemy, strike when the time is right" I chanted to myself shifting into a position that consisted of my left leg sliding back as my body turned sideways. I waited calmly for the blue demon to come closer and right when it came before me I ran straight for it, despite my hazy eyesight at the moment, and then everything just went slow-mo like the slow motion in F.E.A.R, which was pretty awesome mind you when it's actually happening. Running around the demon I turned 360 and went for the backside of the demon, jumping up and onto its large back, which seemed to anger it even more as it slowly started to try and shake me off, but since it was still slow-mo I hardly noticed. As I stood on the beast I raised the katana with both my hands and then drove it down its back, cutting into its bodily flesh as it roared in pain. By that time the slow-mo effect was gone and I was hanging on for my life by the hilt of my sword, though it was going to last for long for my grip loosened and I fell off the beast and onto my back, though my unusual quick reflexes had me get back up just before the demon swung at me again. I dodged it again by jumping back, making the demon, once again, angry as it beat its chest and started to go after my person. But before it could even reach me a sword that I was all too familiar with came into view -for my vision had returned to normal at this point- and dove into the side of the beast.

The humanoid was silent, but kept his eye on the target that I had been fighting while he was collecting the souls Vulgrim had wanted him to get. It seemed like the demon had the mind of a small child as its mind was easily distracted as it turned from me to the humanoid when it got attacked by him. But I was thankful for the distraction as a window of time opened up for me to get my sword back, so while the humanoid was fighting it I ran onto it's back once again and took my katana in my hands. Despite its swinging I was able to hold on this time, long enough for the humanoid to run his blade into its torso and giving me more time to get my sword out and finishing it off with a single swing that chopped off its head, with my surprise, and disintegrated into blue souls that came into the huge arm of the humanoid.

When I realized it was over I was breathing heavily and sweat was pouring down my skin like it had been raining moments before. When my breathing and heart rate started to return to normal I was able to grasp my sword steadily and put it back in its sheath before pausing and looking to the humanoid. For some reason shyness took over my face as it flushed and looked away, more or less because I found the situation embarrassing, perhaps because it was the first time actually looking at him in normal circumstances and not shocked at the fact I had emerged from the darkness after so long.

"Well, you aren't so useless after all, Human" asked the shrill voice again as the black specter returned from out of the humanoid's gauntlet. "Anyway, we have the souls, it looks like it's time to see what kind information Vulgrim has for us" it stated before going back into the gauntlet, this specter was going to get on my nerves… a lot.

"The Watcher is right, we should go see Vulgrim" the humanoid said before turning to go back to the demon that, seriously, kept creeping me out.

"U-um" I started, making the humanoid stop and look to me, waiting for me to say something "Uh, thanks, for… earlier, I really am grateful you stepped in when you did… with Vulgrim I mean" I told him. Again it was silent, as though he knew what I was going to say more, which I wanted to but I was wondering if he was going to say a "you're welcome" or something from my thank you. "U-uh, oh right I never did catch your name, did I…?" I added, hoping that I didn't have to refer him as "the humanoid" as I had been ever since I met him.

"War… it's War" he stated, making me freeze for a moment before putting things together

"War… as in War of the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse?" I asked, almost horrified at the thought that one of the Four Horseman saved me from the darkness. He nodded, confirming my question before walking on towards Vulgrim before I started to go with him. "Oh, by the way, my name's Claudia…" I added, though War didn't give me any indication that he had heard, but I was sure he did. So now that I knew I was with one of the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse I guess now I felt more safe than ever, I just had to make sure I didn't make him mad or anything or he might just try to kill me.

Author: Well I finally was able to get this up =3 took a hell of a long time though but whateves. And so you all know I was watching F.E.A.R walkthroughs in the last bit so that's why I put that little reference in there. Anyway hope you all enjoyed it and I will get the next chapter up as soon as I can. Though I probably will be trying to have Sorcerer's Blood on my top priority list for now seeing as people really liked it and I'm really pumped with the new plot I thought up. Anyway see you all next time~