The Arena of Sephiro- the battle to come

"Very well Sire. I'll show you why I was the top guard of the first Death.", Kyle said harshly and with resentment, vanishing away heading towards the arena.

Zero looked to Shiju shaking his head, "Thanks for letting me settle this. I know that life and death run hand and hand, but he stole my father's last breath before he took it. That makes him a murderer. If I win, I'll follow you. You have my word.", and with that Zero stepped through a rift and appeared within the arena that was always so close yet impossibly far away.

Sephiro Arena was named after the Shadow Guardian Sephiro the Blade, known throughout the realms to have created weapons of untold might and proportion, passing his teachings to very few before he fell in the shadow wars centuries ago. His legacy remained with a blade that was held by a statue in Shaude Ciates. The blade was six-feet in length and light as a feather, but had been folded so many times until it was unbreakable. Sephiro was the only person who could ever wield the weapon, and the blade was said to have the potential power to cut any shadow creature or being or item in to many pieces with a single cut. It was a legacy weapon, a weapon known only as the Masamune Kage Battosia (Holy Blade of the Shadowman Killer - rough translation).

Upon stepping out of the rift and into the vast arena, the sounds of a million soldiers, civilians, creatures, guards and other shadow creatures roared with excitement at the bloodshed that was to fall upon the black sands of this ancient place. For no two beings had ever walked into his place and both walked out. This place was a death match arena, and only the strongest walked out alive.

White ivory walls stood tall with statues atop them at fifty foot intervals. The arean was a hundred yards around and was infinately tall. The walls were etched with scenes of past battles and told stories of those who had fought in this place. On two sides, north and south, were gates as tall as the walls, covered in iron bars that would rise to allow challengers to enter one at a time, or in packs. Above the west wall a boxlike opening contained several chairs for higher ranking officials and important people where as atop the east wall, was a box designated for highler class people who could afford to sit in such areas. Along the border of the walls and around each piller and statue was a thin layer of silver and gold one atop the other. Around each statue, were circular runes that were like tombstones that said who the statue was and what they had accomplished.

The grounds around the inside of the walls were split into four environmental areas that moved away from the wall 10 yards and were about 20 yards in width, each with their own terrain differences.

The sandy section was filled with black sands and smaller waves that crashed onto miniature beaches, sharp rocks jutted out of the small zone created from the volcanic field on the wall side of the section, lava fell from the center of the wall like a waterfall.

The second section was a plains like environment, the grounds covered it wheat or barley, with a light wind snapping the tops of the terrain. At the wall, storm clouds were gathering against and dropping small lightning bolts which created small craters in the field.

The third section was rocky and rough terrain. The grounds were loose gravel and large boulders with small crevasis between large objects. A cliff like creation was sitting on the with jagged spires standing as tall as the walls themselves.

The fourth terrain was of nothng, jet black and voidlike, a vacuum seemed to be pulling other environments into it. Red orbs floated upon the wall and smoke spewed from the blackness.

In the center of the four terrains was the fimiliar sands of the Roman Arena, flat in some spots, uneven in others but for the most part, the perfect place to spill blood as the sands under their feet would absorb it and turn the color of its absorbed characterstic.
In the center of the arena, no wind, nor sun fell onto the ground. It was as though this arena was lit by the wills of fires and the power of auras. It was lit but with no laterns or sun.

Kyle stood within his cloak and roared with the crowd, amping them up even more and he raised his scythe and screamed out words to get the crowds full attention. Obviousbly, Kyle was not opposed to being here and loved to showboat a bit. Zero on the other hand stood looking at him with vengence and "blood rage" in his eyes. He was focusing on the battle that was to come and allowed his aura to fade into nothingness once more awaiting the crowds attention as he said nothing to get their minds nor did he care. To him this was war, and about the finishing of his last business. He would die here, or Kyle would, either way, he would no longer have a reason to be angry.

Kyle was roaring with the crowd, amping up what would probably be the crowd he had ever seen. Kyle was a fourth time champion in this arena and knew the layouts, and how the realm would react. He could feel the energy of the mob beginning to soar, and it gave him great power to his already oversized ego.

He flared his aura and allowed it to engulf the arena, waves of dark power caused whirlwinds and dust to rise from the ground and lash up at the sky. He focused on Zero holding his hand in front of him and let his scythe dissolve from his back to his hand, then held it high roaring to the heavens and the crowd.

Zero stood motionless looking at Kyle as he amped the crowd further with roars and cheers, pointing to random people asking periodically if they were ready to see this.
Kyle's aura hit Zero hard, causing Zero to think. This was not some ordinary fighter, Kyle wasn't just some two-bit joke that Zero used to step into the ring with. This was Zero's ultimate challenge and now was the time for Zero to pull out all the stops, he would finish the battle his father had started two-hundred years ago against another reaper.
Zero looked to Kyle and let Kyle's energies move around him, letting his own aura fight back just enough to give Kyle something to think about. But in truth, Zero had no type of power that could stand to Kyle's emense chi.

The skies, seemingly sensing the power and the fight to become started to blaze in intensity as lightning and thuder began to overwhelm the arena with echoes and flashing light.

"A single individual can be devastating.", Zero spoke aloud, allowing is thoughts to carry into each and every mind that watched the two, even Kyle's.

"I single person is strong, powerful, and can be something to be underestimated.", Zero reached back and pulled from his side a scroll, tan in color, wrapped in a red velvet ribbon.

"Anger is an individual. It is powerful. It can be used to bring out the power within the smallest man and create a titan.", He spoke using a finger to unravel the ribbon that was held by a glue-like substance, continueing as he did.

"But anger is feral. It is destructive and if unchecked can cause significant damage to those around us and to ourselves.", Zero smiled getting into a side stance, moving his legs apart and holding the scroll with the ribbon hanging down in front of him.

"A single individual with anger will destroy himself and all those around him. I have come from a realm where Anger and Hatred have destroyed everything and now I am here to finish a battle of anger and hatred that started ages ago."

"A single individual will be the deciding factor in a fight, but in WAR! WE SHALL LOOK TO THOSE T OUR LEFT AND RIGHT AND FRONT AND BEHIND AND KNOW THAT THEY ARE THE DECIDING FACTOR!!!", Zero screamed amping the crowd the point of breaking the walls. With that he slammed dropped the scroll and a blackness engulfed him. A power of shadow energy that not only fought against Kyle's energy, it nulled it completely.

The cloud of shadow energy grew around Zero until he was nothing but a shadow inside dust, and as the shadow fog cleared five energy waves erupted from Zero that sounded the return of an ancient power thought lost to the realms. The Shadow Guardians

Five figures stood around Zero in a five point formation. The first was six-feet in height and was dressed like something out of Ninja Gaiden, the aura he gave out pushed out like waves of water and seem to move the ground underneath him into pools like sand piling up from waves crashing to shore. The look in his eyes was cold and murderous, but wise. His hands were clunched with two fingers extended, one to his side, next to a straight katana, and the other in front of him, palm facing out. He was standing at Zero's right at the 11 oclock position.

The second was dressed in the cloak of a wizard and stood to Zeros left at the 2 oclock position. The cloak having dozens of runes representing mastery in many many elements and forms. The hair on his head was dark red and his blue eyes gazed across the battlefield at Kyle, creating a static like feel to the air.

The third figure stood behind Zero and to his left at the 5 oclock position. He had no aura, but was eight-foot in build and was massive. Scales of black and red were covering the massive body with reptilian eyes blood in color.

The fourth figure stood behind Zero at his six oclock, so large he shadowed the other five figures without any issues. He stood fifteen feet in height and was ten foot in width. Grey armor coating he body of something that could very well have been a giant in a previous life. In its right hand was a blade that fit the being using it. ten feet in length and four feet from edge to back, with no guard. Its green eyes peering from a helmet that covered its head and neck. It gave out an aura that seemed to be creating sand out of dirt and then seemed to shimmer in the shadowlight as it formed to diamond.

The last of the five figures needed no introduction. He stood six-foot-five, had long silver hair and carried a blade in each hand that extended five foot in length. As though Zero had reached back in time and pulled out a legend among the shadows, Sephiro stood glaring at Kyle. He to had no aura, but just thought of the prowess in battle made Kyle stand in combat form.

Zero looked at the scroll and spoke in a whisper to the Shadow Guardians, "Welcome home..."

The crowd stood in silence at what Zero had done. He had just summoned the five legendary guardians of the shadow realm's first creation, they were thought lost when enemies of old and from other realms had penetrated the veils of the realms and onslaughted the Shadowrealm.

These legendary guardians were Sephiro, Shade (son of shadow), Draco, Guardian and Rune. Each known for having an unsurmountable power, each known for being the strongest of their arts. But together in the First Shadow Wars, these five held off countless armies and stood against perils that ultimately caused them to fall but not before they saved an entire realm from being erradicated or taken over.

Zero smiled looking to Kyle, knowing he was going to need the power of the guardians to survive this. Kyle was an ancient reaper, something to be feared in any realm, and even with the shadow guardians help, he would need to be unwilling to lose. He would have to break his limits and stand against Kyle to settle the score that seered Zero's soul.

Zero looked at the crowd and spoke again, this time in a voice that would echo in their hearts and the minds, "A single individual is powerful... look back to your ancestors and think of what they did by themselves."

He said looking the the crowd to gauge their response, then continued, "...now think of what they did together..."

With that the Shadow Guardians stepped behind Zero and folded their arms across, as though they would just watch the battle.

Kyle popped his neck and took his battle stance, gritting his teeth for underestimating the resources of this mere mortal.

After a few moments, Zero looking to Kyle and Kyle back to Zero, lightning licked the skies hen descended into the arena carried by the roar of the heavens, struck the ground leaving a three foot glass spear in its wake.
As the bolt of lightning rescended, the spear exploded and with that...

Zero and Kyle...
both powerful and cunning in their own ways...
both resourceful...
both fueled by resentment and anger...
entered into the fight...
that would forever change them both...

Kyle and Zero had been clashing on and off for a few mnutes. Each sizing the others power and speed, abilities and capabilities. Both men were judging their best moves against the others defenses until all the necessary dat had been collected on both parts.

With a blast of energy, the two seperated. Each skidding across the ground, with a hand guiding their directions until they both halted just in front of the wall zones.

Zero had been giving about a quarter of his power during the preliminary bout. Kyle was physically powerful as well as extremely endurant to extreme trauma. Any blow that Kyle took that Zero deemed strong, was merely ignored and countered by an attack of equally or stronger power.

Kyle had taken a few of Zero's hits on purpose. He showed no abilities in any way, merely reacting with physical instinct. The few blows that Kyle had taken did very little but on the other hand, every attack Zero had been hit with was ignored all together. Kyle figured it was something to do with his telekinetics, but something about Zero's methods bothered him.
Why summon the Shadow Guardians? Why bring them forth to watch a battle? What was so special about them that Zero had let them loose? How was this mortal taking him on tit-for-tat?

Kyle straightened himself and took a fighting stance, now finally deciding that it was now time for the human to feel his full wrath and become part of this arena for eternity. He twirled his scythe quickly around him and in an instant and sometime during the twirl, it became two seperate kamas that were connected by a chain of onyxian look. His cloak began to glimmer as its power began to release.
Kyle's armor shifted in color to a brighter silver, completely different from his black armor but matched in strength. Kyle had summoned his unique armor to fight with Lighter and more durable, it was the only thing from the First Death's lineage that he carried with him into this time. It echoed the moans and wails o a thousand souls causing the arena to silence, then after a few seconds, the sounds stopped and Kyle stood ready for the final go at something that should never have stepped foot into the realm of shadows to begin with.

Zero watched as Kyle broke his scythe into two and calculated the timing of the shift between black and silver armor. "One point five seconds.", he noted, and held out a hand giving the "come get some" taunt.
Zero focused and slid his foot forward, barely grazing the ground. His right hand was held above his head with palm facing out as though he were shielding his eyes. His left hand rested outwards of his waist about four inches but with that palm facing inwards. He concentrated on the energies Kyle was eminating. The were aggressive, powerful and blood thirsty, but there was something else there, almost like there was another spirit causing a pulsing energy to slide over him, focusing on his chest.

Zero shifted his stance again, this time getting into a side stance with his feet facing in the same direction, his chest and shoulders forward, his left hand in front of him pointed towards Kyle, and his right hand up as though he were holding a handle.

Sephiro stepped forward one step and took a mirroring stance as though he were training Zero. The second of his blades had faded from view, but the Demon Blade Muramasa was held above his head where Zero's hand would be holding the hilt of the sword.

Kyle watched Sephiro carefullyand began to think, "two pronged attack. One with no blade, the other with the Demon blade. No problem."

Zero controlled his aura and for a moment it seemed to disappear again, then its power could be seen as its shape took form of a ten foot circle around Zero's feet. It began to swirl and move like a maelstrom, a vortex aura that had no effect on the world around it.

The ground exploded under Zero, as he dashed as hard as he could towards Kyle. His steps leaving craters in their wake. The speed of each step causing a line of blurring explosions that made Zero blur in speed.

Kyle was not expecting speeds beyond sub-goldlike. Zero was moving at beyond godlike speed which Kyle couldn't anticipate. A his eyes shifted in an attempt to compensate for the speed at which Zero moved, but couldn't, the strike Zero was attempting was going to be a whopper, so he braced for impact.

Zero glared at Kyle as he rushed across the arena in a flash of exploding craters, he could see Kyle's guard open and thrusted his empty hand forward.

Time stood still as the demon blade appeared instaneously in Zero's hand giving him a six foot extention and giving Kyle even less time to react.
The tip of the blade moved across the air, destroying cells of the air as it moved, the force of the thrust causing vortex push just behind the hilt moving in the direction of the attack.

"Shit!", Kyle gritted through his teeth as the long blade pierced the center of his cloak parting and gashed him in the chest leaving the blade to move through his body then thrown off at such a force to send him flying backwards through the air to land, slide on the ground and roll a few times before laying face down.

The armor hadn't stopped the attack at all, as Zero predicted, but something HAD gone wrong as blood dripped from Zero's thrusting arm. Zero looked at it oddly as the feeling of his warm life began to stream from several points in his arm. Zero hadn't caught what happened but he had been hit. The impact was solid and the piercing blade was certain in Zero’s mind, so even if Zero had been hit, this battle was over, or so he thought.

The crowd booed the events and began to uproar and become something of a jumbled stampede as the emotions of the uneventful battle began to wave across the arena like a plague. The cries of unpleased guests echoed the arena until a solid wave of strange power began to radiate from Kyle’s fallen corpse. The echoes became silence as the radiating energy became a pulse then a steady wave that caused silence and suspense.

Zero could feel the coldness beginning to rush up his arm, countered by the heat of spilled blood. He was beginning to lose feeling in his hand from very precise piercings of the nerves in his arm. As the blade slipped from his grips, it faded away and appeared in Sephiro’s hands as though he had never lost it. Sephiro in response took a step back and resumed his cross armed look to be replaced by a massive step forward by Guardian, also known as the Wall.

Zero tried to focus but his arm had a pain like none other, each tensing of his fingertips and the attempts to move his hand from the wrist was replaced by the pain of a thousand needles running up his arm and into his shoulder. Zero analyzed the points that blood ran from. The holes were perfectly circular and only about a millimeter wide, which made him think of needles, but where had they come from.

As Kyle’s body streamed power like a raging river, Zero took a defensive stance, putting his bad arm behind him and now powering his own aura to compensate for the loss of a limb’s use.

Without warning the energy stopped and across the sands of this arena, the body of Kyle began to stir. First just a hand moving, then an arm, then his legs, each making him rise to his feet from a kneel to a standing position. Kyle looked across the arena and smiled with murderous intent, the aura that bellowed from him causing the crowd to stir and cheer, roar and snap as the influence of such a powerful aura rushed into the seas of seats and into the very essence of this realm’s inhabitants. The Shadow Guardians walked behind Guardia the “Wall” and seemed to be defending themselves from the energies that bombarded them.

Zero began to get enraged and confused. He could feel his emotions becoming influenced by the darkness that Kyle was streaming. Zero’s mind raced for the strongest attacks in his arsenal, picking up the scroll and running his blood across the top, letting it drip from the red ribbon. He gritted his teeth as he fought for control. He was about to do something so much worse than what he had thought of and he struggled to fight his inner self.

The scroll glowed a dark red and seemed to feed from the energies Kyle radiated. It began to hum and shudder in Zero’s hands as he desperately fought the emotions being channeled into him.
Suddenly it hit Zero. The idea that would save him, he thought at least. He gathered his strength and gripped his good hand, making a fist then focused greatly in the middle knuckle. The energies began to steam off his hand as it powered up. Then without warning Zero slammed himself in the stomach, knocking the wind out of himself and doubling himself over. His mind battled anger with pain, creating a power struggle inside Zero’s mind that helped Zero turned the tides of his internal war. He thought back to the training his sister gave him about power words. The only one he had ever learned was simple and to help with combating effects like this, rarely used but effective when done so.

“Tranquility.”, Zero said under his breath, creating a passive defensive barrier in his mind that nullified the outside and anger and let him be in full control once more.

Kyle popped his neck and looked to the sword wound in his chest, then looked to Zero as he patted the dirt off his clothes.

“Is that all mortal?”, Kyle said arrogantly knowing he had the upper hand, then connected his scythes and got into his battle stance. “Try that again… I dare you…”

Zero stood in disbelief as Kyle taunted him; he had pierced cleaned through his spinal cord, his bronchial connection and spilt fatal blood. His confusion lasted as long as the anger did as ‘Tranquility' overtook him and allowed him to focus once more.

((( Part 2- coming soon )))

Zero had to focus his mind around his arm, wrapping it in a very thin layer of psychic threads that allowed him to keep it mobile and in more than full use. Zero had learned a long time ago that when he was immobile, as long as he had enough power he could still control himself like a puppet using telekinesis. The problems with it were a) he wore himself down fast and b) TK Puppetry made him faster and stronger but his bones were still the same and he could do some serious dmage to himself. When in 'Puppet' mode, as he called it, his strength with the appendage was doubled but he would break his bone quickly if hits were done in quick succession. It was a technique he didn' do often.

He moved his wrist around and looked at Kyle as he began a slow walk towards Zero, knowing he had an edge and feeding his ego from that information.

Kyle reconnected his scythe and with each step the one blade on both sides became two and the length of each blade doubled in leangth, making for a very visceral looking bladed weapon. Zero was trying to figure out how he countered AND stood up with a hole in his chest.

"Ok, so this guy has defenses unknown, and power beyond what I have perceived. Time for some recon.", Zero thought holding his hands in front of him and grabbing boulders with his mind. He lifted them about waist high and lobbed them at Kyle who just smiled and jumped back to watch them collide and explode on impact.

"To small...", he thought grabbing a layer of granite beneath Kyle and slamming his hands together bringing up a two (2) one foot thick and five foot length and width walls that were just cut down by a spinning slash by Kyle.

"To thin...", he thought reaching deep with his power and grabbed the ground beneath them. He pulled and gripped with all his might and growled as the ground began to shake and rumble.

A fault like began to crack under Kyle as he looked around and readied himself for something big. In an instant, dozens of multiple explosions began to ring out in a straight line behind Kyle from out of nowhere. Each blast was getting bigger and bigger as they blasted in a linear line towards Kyle who looked at Zero with the look of challenge.

Kyle stepped forward once and rolled forward to cut half the distance between Zero and himself. He rose up and lunged at Zero quickly to take advantage of his non-movement.

Zero smiled at the perfect timing, the ground splintered and collapsed as two fifteen foot tall, ten foot wide and five foot thick walls came crashing around Kyle, at his defenseless position in the air.

Kyle almost paniced when the walls came crashing in. The weight of the stone pushing in as his cloak wrapped him just in time for the entire thing to go surface to surface and smash him in the middle.

Zero watched carefully as the walls exploded where Kyle would have been standing. A bubble had formed and with that information the walls quickly became same and fell to the surface of the arena. He looked at Kyle and smiled knowing now what had parried his strike. The cloak was magically offensive and defensive, meaning physical attacks were out until he removed the cloak.

Kyle's cloak fell to its normal state but without even missing a beat, he twirled the scythe and was instantly in front of Zero slashing with one end and then the other, and continueing a swirling path that would send Zero a flurry of blades from all circular directions.

Zero ducked and dodged quicky as the slashes came close to clipping him and getting closer with each slash. Zero focused hard and in an instanthis power doubled and he reached out to catch the blades incoming by the handle.

Kyle's cloak spined out quickly and countered by trying to pierce Zero's hand. Zero spun around andpushed had with his hands into the cloak and fired off a TK wave that sent Kyle flying back into the plains like landscape.

The world in the arena shifted as a plainer field began to grow and become the prodominent zone for battle. Wheat and grass grew up til they were two feet tall, and the winds began to blow a cold wind as storm clouds brewed in the distance, echoes of thunder becoming more and more frequent.

Zero dashed quickly towards Kyle as he landed. Kyle had landed lightly and dashed for Zero, each one ready for an onslaugt of attacks that would prove nothing except that each had a few tricks up their sleeves.

Zero moved quickly across the plains, and as Kyle moved as well, the distance between them became thinner and thinner. Within twenty feet, Zero disappeared and reappeared Kyle bringing a right hand into Kyle's back.

Kyle was watching when Zero disappeared, but didn't realize what had happened until the strike hit. Without hesitation, he swung the blade behind him to hit nothing but air and to be met with another blow with a hand that felt no pain. Kyle snapped with the hit and split his scythe again swinging in a circle to catch all points Zero could be at.

As Zero made his third attack, Kyle had managed to guess the third point and saw him, the cloak reacted and sent several shape spines up to Zero with horrifying precision. Zero disappeared again and appeared above Kyle bringing down a hammed like attack.

Kyle stepped back and was missed by just a few inches as the earth below where he was erradicated by the impact. Kyle didn't have time to react when he felt the force of something land atop his head and send him face first into the ground with a reciprocating effect as the first attack.

Zero kicked up and kicked Kyle in the ribs and then jumped back kicking again, this time from four feet away. Kyle rolled with the kick and began to stand as the same force him him harder then the first, which sent him flying upwards and away from Zero who appeared above him chanting something in Dragonspeak.

"Dragonic Grand Fireball!", echoed in a low dark tone as flames exited Zero's lips and incenerated Kyle as he was pushed back to the ground and left to burn. Zero appeared at his starting point and grinned knowing that Kyle definately felt the sting of a dragonic attack. But not letting up, Zero lifted a hand and held a palm out and then quckly gripped it into a fist causing the flames and air in the area of the fire to centralize into a singular point in space then explode outwards in a spectacular array of flames and tornadoes that sent Kyle flying high into the air smolding and lifeless once more.

Zero watched Kyle fall and hit the ground at terminal velocity, dust and wheat poofed up from the ground upon impact. Kyle smoldered as the flames began to die. Zero had hit him with a ton of power and watched carefully to see if his foe would yet again get up.

Kyle layed silently for a moment as the feeling in his body began to creep back into his nerves. He groaned as his body ached, his mind lashed out at his body as the pain receptors in his body returned to normal making the pain he would have felt double, which made him tense up and scream.
With slow movements, he began to drag himself to his feet. His skin was burned red and his body convulsed and twitched as the pain welled up inside him, but with inhuman endurance, he stood looking down at his cloak.

The cloak receeded from a dozen points throughout his body and became its natural form. It had pierced Kyle's skin and completely coated the underlayers of his body to shield him from the flames that would have cooked him from the outside in. The ability of the cloak wasn't the original of its own, but an extension of his first cloak, which had the ability to impale foes and destroy them from the inside out. but with the power of both, he had the ability to protect him from the outside or inside.

Zero stood shocked as Kyle rose from the crater. He couldn't believe it at all. no one had ever seen or countered Dragonic Fire or Explosion Field, but somehow this Reaper had done so. He thought about his arsenal, and took hold of the idea that he would have to use 'that' ability and everything he had learned in his 300+ years of being alive.

Kyle's body integrated back and he smiled as the holes in his body grew back and his body became anew.

"Wow mortal. Nothing more inspiring to me than a good fight but...", Kyle's words drew out as he picked up his scythe from the ground and held it out towards Zero.
"...now you get to die. Quickly as you have just earned."