Salem's Lot

Well, she was a tad snarky that much was clear from her response to him. She thought he would give her no direction on how to find a Regalia. Well, she was right for the most part as tracking them down was her job. There was a destination in the journey within yourself to find that object. There was something akin to arrogance in her voice that made him smile. Ah to be young and naive to the world around you. He put his hand out at the last word as the energy that came out was dark. Black energy formed into a weapon. The sky began to darken a bit as the Dark Matter Forged his weapon into being. Slowly black flowers formed around him as his spiritual pressure was allowed to flow more freely. She wished a demonstration of what these blade forms of their people. "Your wrong on one point, it wasn't that our people failed but our leaders failed their people." He waited for her to prepare as he would only show her a single move to make his point clear. Ghislain didn't need his Regalia to fight against her as of yet.


"Prepare yourself." He would give her the time to prepare herself as best she could. The blade within his grip pulsed with power as he stared at the female. Dark Matter was partly the reason why he was called the Dark King. When she was prepared Ghislain vanished beginning his attack on her. "Autumn Rain" Around his blade a strange looking reishi formed as he brought it down at her with extremely quick speed. She would be able to block, however even that had a price. When she blocked or dodged she would feel her entire body pulled to the ground. As though a massive force was pulling her down and if the blade made contact she would be slammed as though gravity hit her. Their moves were based on extremely precise Reishi control. What he was doing was controlling it to a point where he could control directional flow and cause effects from his weapon. Ghislain sighed softly after her action and kept his grip on his sword.

He'd shown her the first sword form and the least dangerous of them for now. "That sword form, in particular, is a favorite of mine..even if your enemy blocks it hits them with a strong pull towards the ground..excellent for disarming them. Sadly there is little way to pass these on and I can't use my Regalia against you at present." his eyes stared at her form in whatever condition she was in. Ghislain had only shown his speed and skill nothing much else. Being proficient with the blade as well as his hands were required at the time. He supposed it was time for the honest truth of what these were for. " These aren't moves that were born for saving a life or protecting things young one. They were born to kill people and fight a bloody war when I pass them on..I am passing on the meaning truths of them to someone." He decided she'd waited long enough and could, at last, hear the power of his Regalia and the truth of it.

"My Regalia can detect others, it's the oldest Regalia in existence so it's able to sense and locate them."

“That’s not an excuse. That’s unfortunately where you and the green hooded hermit are wrong. We were led by faulty beliefs, but our predecessors had as much fault on their failures as the people who led them.”

Sofia had risen up to be the strongest member in her organization, at the moment even more so than the Elect. While beings like Hulderic and Yhwach were indeed mighty and difficult to overcome, it was hardly impossible. Anyone with the talent, the drive, the vision, and the will to achieve a certain result wouldn’t. The difference between the Quincy of old and herself, besides her own unique power was her innate preference for order, calculated measures, and by extension the minimized potential of failure in the treks she undertook.

”Come at me, and don’t hold back.”

She wasn’t quite certain but the hunch seemed to hold validity nonetheless. While he was somewhat stronger than her in power potential, he would be mistaken to underestimate the intellectual strategist that was the musical Quincy before him. Reaching for one of her Dark Seele, she would ignite it. The blade would look distinctively different with its red hue as opposed to the typical blue one seen in most Seele Schneider. With one hand tossed back behind her, the other swung forward in an attempt to have her blade meet with his. Right before it could however, two ginto would be dropped right behind her from her free hand, activating her Doppel technique.

All of a sudden, Sofia would be seen meeting blades with the ex Emperor’s, the weight of the effect of his own technique, squishing and seemingly destroying her into a pile of nothingness. Behind him and up, perhaps more than a few feet away, the Quincy prodigy seemed to spiral in a controlled and artistic endeavor. In one hand she still had one of her Dark Seele and on the other, her Geigenbogen taking the form of a blade this time around.



With the momentum of the spiraling swift movement of sharp deadliness as a defense, the effect would be seen in the form of her Heiling Hieb. Two crescescent slashes would travel at extremely fast speeds, since the technique, already speedy on its own was further enhanced by her use of The Melody pushing it to excess of Mach 1 beyond the lightning fast speed it already possessed. The crescent slash from the Geigenbogen would appear blue while the one from her Dark Seele would seem to present its red hue. Much like the unique abilities of each weapon, each crescent blast would present the same as well. The red crescent slash had the properties of a weapon that loosen up the bonds of reishi in whatever it reached. Meanwhile the blue crescent slash from her violin bow instead used its super sharp qualities to simply push away reishi bonds, allowing it to cut through almost anything. She had to admit that perhaps it would’ve been nice to use her own experienced control over reishi to counter the effects he had tried to project on her. But alas, her decision seemed just as wise, but all the more classy and elegant. Regardless, the ex-Emperor would be faced with quite the conundrum. Dodging presented quite the difficult scenario given the speed at which they traveled. However, attempting to block the techniques seemed to present an even more difficult endeavor, if not deadly. Beyond it all, in her current position, Sofia was quite readily in the best possible spot to counter attack or continue depending on his own actions.

”It looked alright. But I’d be more interested in learning it than just seeing it. But about this myth of the regalia, I don’t suppose you would help me find it just out good will?” She had to ask since most times, most people needed or simply wanted something in return for their troubles.

Spoiler:

He felt the difference in her form a bit and could sense it. He had fought in wars with Shinigami and even some others who used similarly. Using his extremely fast speed of his hirenyaku and created a full decoy as he switched places with the clone. His frame didn't seem to move much as he figured out her position based on calculations in his head. Former Emperor and the Hound of Baskerville. The man is known as the strategist for the King Yhwach. That was a long time ago but he'd hardly lost his touch. Making sure the decoy was perfect it turned and tried to avoid the move but did take a blow. Putting on a good performance he moved quickly. Appearing in a position behind her she would have time to react to this. Though ultimately this was another clone using the hirenyaku speed he'd developed. The clone would strike her very much for real with its blade. It was a physical and solid being as he displayed his martial skills. Locating her position had been simple enough as she'd sent the attack off. "You're correct in that regard, it's time for us to evolve into something more than relics of a bygone age. " The clone said as it brought the dark matter blade down on her form. Its speed was decent and the blow was good enough. When the real Ghislain came down as he would appear where she least expected him.

Coming from the shadow of the clone he emerged and gave his sword a swing upwards. Sending a move out as he spoke softly "Springs Awakening." Ghislain slowly corrected his stance prepared for any outcome. Noticing the difference was a split-second thing. Most people were green and would simply have fallen into her trap. The next thing was this another trap in the stage. If it was the next stage of his sixteen moves were ready. Ghislain had prepared for something interesting beneath his clothing. As it pulsed and convulsed his frame straightened slowly. "I don't mind helping you find the Regalia, I am on a journey to evolve past pointless titles and things. I want to become something beyond that all."

He said calmly as he ran his digits along the necklace that was his Regalia. "Finding yours won't be that difficult, you can become my apprentice and I can teach you the moves and forms. That choice is yours, however, teaching these art forms is a sacred tradition. " He had said his peace and now stood quietly as he prepared to show her if the attack continued what he gained. Ghislain was able to use another power set aside from Dark Matter. It's the very power that earned him his reputation among the Vandenreich so long ago. Ghislain could control and manipulate gravity among other things. He waited for a bit as he knew a follow would be coming. The girl was intelligent enough to know how to do things that much was clear. Using the blades and the decoy's explosion as cover he'd done everything. Slipping into shadows was a Quincy-based skill. Something they were very good at for hunting purposes originally.

How this would play out now depended on Sofia herself, if she wanted to continue clashing with Ghislain that was fine as he had a large bag of tricks he'd not even begun to use as of yet.

It never ceased to amaze. The older the spiritual beings got, and usually the stronger they got, the more gullible and quite often irritating they became as well. It made sense for stronger individuals to behave in certain specific ways especially when trying to assert their own dominance. But, in the advent of proving themselves worthy against others, and in the struggle to show their own worth they failed to see the accomplishments, the skills, and the equally valid and thoroughly rehearsed strategies of their opponents. And just like it had happened many times before, it could be their downfall. Despite the increased power potential he possessed, there was no doubt in her mind that she could give much more of a fight to the ex emperor than his own ego and pride allowed him to believe.

When she sent off her attack, the prodigy wasn’t fooled. Not even for an instant. At a certain point in a Quincy’s spiritual career, there came a time when, for most, becoming attuned to the way reishi worked and how it circulated around them and their environment became moot. Then again perhaps Ghislain was the exception. She had heard the rumors. She knew that whichever power he possessed, likely related with his namesake of darkness, did not allow him to create spiritual weapons from reishi as a real Quincy should. It wasn’t quite a disgrace, but it was certainly unfortunate, and in a way, rather sad. As such, she wouldn’t fault him for not understanding the capabilities of a real Quincy and the extent they could push themselves and their abilities when they truly invested in their own career and hobbies, instead of slaving through a dogma that was eventually doomed to failure by following a dead king that would only lead him to a throne no one cared about, and no one remembered.

When the fake was made to replace the real Ghislain and take the brunt of the slashes, she saw it. When the fight had started, there was an obvious and copious amount of reishi gathering around him. He was powerful, so of course, it made sense that it would. But, so soon as the fake copy had been created, the amount, the density, and the sheer order of the particles drawing themselves to it would become unstable and rather different than before. It made it clear, and beyond that it wasn’t the first time she was tried to be made a fool of in such a manner. More importantly, she knew that even as she had relocated herself after her own use of Doppel, Ghislain wouldn’t have a way to know where she was. Simply put, that wasn’t the way the technique worked, and it was specifically designed for a rather unique purpose. His own skill despite how high it could be, had no means, no reason, and no valid grounds to even be able to fathom the workings of her technique, even if he had actually seen it once before. And for the record, it was the first time. The technique was able to fool those up to a tier higher than her, making it seem as though the replacement was indeed her. But, while those much stronger than her would not fooled by the replacement, they had no way and no means of asserting the largely random location of Sofia, and had no other available knowledge beyond: She’s elsewhere.

As such, the Quincy prodigy would have had a few more seconds than her momentary sparring partner would have believed. But even a second was all she needed. With no time to figure out how or who exactly would approach her, she simply went with her gut feeling. Tossing a couple of Ginto tubes behind her, Platzen, the reiryoku grenades at her disposal would be detonated at her own will. The blast would surely been enough to destroy what she quickly noticed was yet another fake. Though she would notice a bit too late that Ghislain was coming down on her, blade in hand, she never had any intention to remain where she was. The ex emperor might’ve been smart, but he was facing up against someone that simply outclassed him in strategy, intellect, wit, and most definitely creativity and artistic drive. No questions asked.

Jumping off of where stood right as the grenade was thrown, she used her mastery of Hirenkyaku, allowing her to reach speeds so fast that she was hardly seen left for subtle hints of a blur that if struck, would simply end up striking the after image of where she might have once stood. It wasn’t just her masterful speed however, using the blast as a conduit, and even her own unique use of The Melody to speed her up at an additional excess of Mach 1 beyond what she already did on her own, caused her to simply move with ease past the attempts of the ex king.

”I don’t mind learning, but I do mind the title of apprentice. I won’t be anyone’s apprentice. If you'll help me achieve my goals then do so, otherwise, don't waste my time with idle talks of grandeur. because, as history has shown, you all talked quite a lot, and at the end, accomplished nothing.”

She would neither say or ask anything about his goals. She had no idea what they were, and there was no interest or reason why she would be curious to know. She was well beyond wasting time like her kind was so seemingly fond of. She had her own goals and views to meet, and she had no intentions to see herself lag behind in the interest of others. There was also no helping comparing him to the same Wandenreich he was a part of back when Yhwach still lead them. It wasn’t just a failure of their leader despite his own devious agenda. It was their failure. Regardless of how badly Ghislain wanted to reflavor it, the Quincy owed their recurrent misery and failure’s much to Yhwach, as to Ghislain, and every other being that was a willing part or bystander of the pitiful time they lived in. Simply put, the ex emperor was an old breed that was no more, and that sought to continue living, grasping and holding onto anything it could find when simply, it just needed its own eternal peace. The time was one for change. It was the time for a new generation, one that did not carry the stigma of such a past, and that allowed itself to fall as they had. It was Sofia who would echo a new era in the years to come, and with a power that would one day truly make a change. If Ghislain really wanted to be remembered, then he would help her find this mythical item he spoke about, and see her on her way to her own goal while he continued on to his. Otherwise he could continue pushing on, trying to prove something only to himself, and eventually fail as he and his peers had done for each other. Otherwise he was doomed to fall in the abyss of forget, with a story no one would care to tell, and with a legacy no one would bother remembering.

Safely out and away from the reach of the eager ex king, the prodigy was ready. If there was a a bit of intellect left on the man then he would resort to his better judgement, call the sparring off, and simply help her. Otherwise he could continue, and simply lead himself to embarrassment by struggling against someone that wasn’t truly meant to do so. Just in case however, Sofia would be ready. Her Geigenbogen would disappear as willed by her, and her dark seele would simply hover before her, likely due to her own effect over The Melody. Outstretching her hands, she would create one of her custom technique, Ransotengai: Rengoku. From both of her hands, specially her fingertips, light blue reishi threads stretched out before they became seemingly unnoticeable to the eye. They didn’t stick to anything however, and soon they were descended from her hands and suspended into the air around her through both her spiritual energy and the use of The Melody to keep it afloat. Pulling on four more dark seele, she would laid them out and suspend them across the technique, almost as if she created a rather large crossbow of sorts. The crossbow however looked a lot more like a big harp, that seemed as beautiful and classy as it was dangerous and deadly.

"You're strong, but not quite what I expected from the ex-emperor. I don't mind continuing this and entertaining that ego that you so seemingly cling on, in hopes someone would look in awe and what you have done. But that's the issue isn't it? There's nothing to be in awe about. That's why you struggle so much to try and do something of impact so that someone can actually remember your name. Then help me, and then see that the more complicated and struggling treks you seek see their end, and I'll wish luck on to you that they do not end in the same failure that you and the ancient Quincy brought unto our race."