Make The Angel Scream and the Devil Cry! (Part 1)

Job Information:

OOC: A few notes here. The first is that this takes place before I became Guildmaster, but achieved S rank abilities.



Were it not for the strength of the room, it would have come crashing down long ago from Deniel's fury and anger alone. He was on a rampage in his hidden room right now, so much that the walls shook, and so did the ceiling, but they remained in tact. His fist slammed into the rock-solid wall of his room, causing a crack to form within it, an imprint of his fist, and everything around him to shake. He was far from done with a single punch, though. In frustration, he walked away from the wall, almost stomping with each and everyone of his steps. He walked away only two steps before he quickly turned around and kicked the wall this time instead. Followed by the kick, came another quick and furious punch. Following that came a cry of anger, and pure rage: "GODDAMNIT! WHY!? WHY WAS THIS HIDDEN FROM ME!? VERGIL YOU OLD BASTARD!" His fists were clenched as well as his teeth. He could feel his blood and stomach acid boiling, as his throat became almost sealed shut by the feeling of pain in it. Deniel's eyebrow muscles were being exercised to their fullest extent, as what was seen of his furrowed red eyes glowed. He stomped the ground, causing yet another small tremor. These series of small tremors had caused the water pools inside of his room to act like the sea, creating waves along with spilling over and into his room. As well as the pools, but the ped in his room had moved quite a bit from where Deniel originally placed it as well.

All while Deniel performed his little, childish rampage, his sword was safely right on his bed, and was watching the entire scene. He had a strong urge inside of his to intervene, but felt like he would simply make matters worse for his master, as well as him. But in the condition Deniel was in, he had begun to doubt anything worse than this. So, abruptly, while Deniel threw yet another punch at the solid stone, Nidhogg yelled over him. "Deniel!" The word came out of Nidhogg's mouth the moment Deniel's fist collided with the stone, leaving an echoing silence. Deniel remained still for several moments, his fist still inside of the small hole he created. Then, the raven-haired Nephalem turned his head behind him, to the sword that was on the bed. Nidhogg was oblivious to Deniel until now, and Deniel had plenty of rage to get out on him. Nidhogg knew, and Deniel knew, that Nidhogg knew what Deniel had just learned the whole time. Deniel, in earlier days, was somewhat angry with the sword, but went along with it anyway. Now that Deniel knew the truth, his disposition had gone through a very quick shift. "You..." Deniel's voice was relatively quiet, lacking the huge amount of effort that he put into it before, but was filled with much more wrath than it was before. In nearly an instant, Deniel went from having his fist implanted to a wall, to holding his sword as if it were by the neck.

"YOU KNEW ALL ALONG! AND YET YOU DIDN'T TELL ME! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU AND VERGIL HAVE PUT ME THROUGH!? THIS COULD HAVE SAVED ME FROM SO MUCH PAIN AND AGONY! IT COULD HAVE SAVED ME FROM EMOTIONAL SUFFERING! AND YET YOU DIDN'T TELL ME! YOU LET ME GUESS, AND GUESS, AND WONDER! WELL, NOW I KNOW THE TRUTH! YOU HAVE NOTHING TO HIDE NOW, YOU PIECE OF METAL! IF ONLY VERGIL WERE ALIVE, OR ELSE I WOULD TEACH THAT OLD MAN A LESSON!"

"BUT SINCE YOU'RE THE ONLY ONE LEFT! I'M GONNA--" Nidhogg had remained wordless this entire time. Although it was a piece of metal, it was able to express emotions, but even being yelled at as much as it was didn't really change anything for him at all. So, before Deniel could continue more on this tantrum monologue. "Deniel!" Deniel said nothing more, but his emotions didn't change one bit. He was still full of anger and frustration, but if Nidhogg really wanted to say something, he was now free to. "Tell me, what is it that you remember? Just sit down. Take a deep breath. Clear your head. Calm yourself of your emotions. Then tell me what it is that's troubling you so. You've been upset before, and you have to admit, being calm is the best way to go about things." Deniel remained absolutely still for several moments. His frown was still clearly painted on his face, but he did not say anything nor move any part of his body, save for his eyes. They stared at Nidhogg, and then down and off to the side as if he were nervous or upset about something. He sat down on the bed, and put the sword down right beside him. "How could I forget? Oh yeah...I was forced to. Anyway, the day began like any other. Then I got too curious...and I went off somewhere where I wasn't supposed to. And then...they started to stone me. I didn't know what to do. I was six. I felt angry, and then I just....burst out. And that's when it happened."

Deniel went on for several minutes, talking about what he remembered. And it was almost in every exact detail as it happened. Deniel forgot it, but now suddenly he remembered it. It was early in the morning, he had just woken up, and had been living with Vergil for quite some time. Vergil never allowed him outside of the area they lived in, since the outside world would hate him. But Deniel wandered off before the old man awakened. And he wandered off into a place that he definitely shouldn't have. These people were fully aware who Deniel was, and who his parents were. It was his biggest mistake ever to walk inside of that village. Followed by them yelling at hime and stoning him, came his outburst of pure rage. Chaos Energy was created for the first time, and it destroyed the entire village in an instant. Deniel was sitting there, in the rubble and ashes, with glowing red fire around him. It was as if he were in Hell right now. And at that moment, it was when he met his mother and father for the first time. Diabolos the Black Devil, and Arianna the White Angel. The two wanted to kill him, until it was something he said. Just as his father had him by his hair, and was about to rip his heart out and kill his son, Deniel made probably one of the most bold statements in his life:

"I'll make the angel scream, and the devil cry!"

The last sentence echoed in the room, and rung in Deniel's ears. "I'll make the angel scream, and the devil cry!". it sounded impossible, and it probably was. Angels were very fierce warriors, almost unbreakable. Being able to break them, and make one scream, would require an immense amount of valor, pain, and brutality. And that wasn't even the half of it. A devil crying. A demon crying would be impossible, but a devil crying was ludicrous. They were cold, battle-trained, demonic, vile, hardened, destructive beings. They killed, massacred, and did whatever they pleased without a second thought. Their strength and combat capabilities, along with their pain tolerance, were immeasurable. It would be impossible to make one cry. And yet Deniel swore he would be able to do it. After the echo of silence, Deniel's story was done, and he said no more. "So...that's it, huh?" Deniel nodded and got up from his bed. He took a few steps away from it and rubbed his eyes. He was definitely much more calm now, but he was still panicking. He didn't know what to do. "Well, shall we get to it?" Deniel made a sudden turn to Nidhogg, and stared at the sword as if he were crazy, "Wh...what?" Nidhogg gave a short spurt of laughter, almost as if he found Deniel's surprise hilarious. "You heard me, didn't you? And you remember why Vergil erased your memory, right? When the time came, you would get them back. The time in which you can do it! That time is now, Deniel! Let's make the angel scream, and the devil cry!"

Deniel's surprise turned into realization. Then it turned into deep thought. Until finally ending with arrogance and cockiness. He smirked and then nodded, pratically snatching Nidhogg out from his bed. "Yeah! Let's!" From Deniel's memory, he also had another message in his head from Vergil. It instructed him to go to his old shrine in Fiore before he went on to take his mother and father. There would be an important item, that would be useful for transportation and...something else. He never really specified exactly what that last part was. Regardless, Deniel's first step was to get to Vergil's old shrine. In addition to that, Deniel also remembered where exactly Arianna and Diabolos were. The surprising part about that is the fact that he had never actually been there. He just....knew. He knew the vaguest way to explain it, but he could also pin it down to the most precuse and exact detail. He couldn't see where they were, he simply knew. And the most vague way he could say where they were was: Sin and Iceberg. Diabolos the Black Devil, inside of the hellish wasteland of sin. That one made sense, and was quite appropriate. However, it was Arianna's one that made Deniel confused. Iceberg. Why there of all places? That definitely explained how Deniel could tolerate cold temperatures, and remember Arianna's voice when he went on a job with Kyll a while back, but it just didn't make sense. Arianna, the White Angel, was in Iceberg. It made no sense. Why would an angel be in a frozen wasteland?

That same question lurked Deniel's mind throughout his entire journey to Vergil's old shrine. It just never made any logical sense to him. Iceberg was a frozen wasteland, with plenty of blizzards, snowstorms, and a king. That didn't seem to be the best place for Arianna to be. Deniel would find out exactly why or how when he got there, which would be much sooner than visiting Diabolos. Deniel planned this out, and it fit in every way possible. "Make the angel scream" was the first thing mentioned, 'A' in "Arianna" came before 'D' in "Diabolos", and she was a lady. Ladies first. In this case, she would be the first to die. Deniel had already exited his hidden room, and was now on his way to Vergil's shrine. He could have easily used one of his Take Overs to simply take off and fly away, but he felt like conserving his Magic Power. He wanted to save it all for Sin and Iceberg. He didn't know if he would get a break anyway, so he needed to conserve every last ounce of Magic he had in his blood. This meant that it took quite a long time for him to finally reach Vergil's shrine, and once he did, he still had to hike up to it. Vergil's old shrine was located at the top of a mountain located somewhere in Fiore, and to get up there, Deniel had to climb a whole bunch of steps. However, now that he was no longer a little kid and a grown-man (mostly) with a lot of strength, it was no problem. Deniel dashed up the steps and practically leapt up the final one. And there he was, on top of the mountain, and in front of Vergil's shrine.

There was a cobblestone road leading from the steps to the shrine, while passing under a small arch. On either side of the shrine were two small ponds, and fresh grass on both sides of the cobblestone road. Deniel slowly approached the shrine, and looked around himself. It had been a while since he had been here; not since Vergil had died. Even after his death, the place was still neat and at peace. He could only hear the sound of calm water around him, and everything else was non-existent. Despite the height in which he was at, the air was fresh, and made him feel full of energy. The scent of everything was...nature. It was inexplicable, but it made Deniel at peace. That was the goal of this shrine. To make someone feel at peace. Deniel approached the shrine's Shoji entrance, and slid it open. Everything was still, absolutely still. Deniel made a silent footstep, and looked around. The floor was carpeted, and there was almost absolutely nothing inside of the shrine. There were two sides of Shoji, each went into a separate room, and that was about it. There was this large room, where Deniel and Vergil spent their time together, and then there was Vergil's on the right, and Deniel's on the left.

The main room that Deniel was in also had a table in which Deniel and Vergil often feasted upon. And then, there was a black statue at the far end of the room. Deniel, as a kid, never really understood what the statue meant or stood for. Now as he was older, he realized what it was. He approached it, and took a look down at it. It wasn't a very large statue, perhaps a small one that a person would put in their fountain garden or shelf. But it was a black statue of a being with two wings on its back: one was feathered wings, while the other was leathery back wings. Deniel suddenly realized that Vergil carried a statue of a Nephalem around with him. For reasons he did not understand. But Deniel knew the exact reason now, because in his lost memory, Vergil showed him what to do with this statue upon getting his memories back. So, Deniel approched the statue, and placed his hand on the head of the Nephalem. He began to pour his Chaos Energy within the statue, and eventually, it began to move. Deniel took his hand off as the statue shifted, and eventually sunk down into the ground. Then the stones behind it began to move, eventually revealing a hidden storage vault. The vault was beneath the ground, and it wasn't that large, having only around five feet of space within it. However, that five feet, was plenty enough for what Vergil had left behind Deniel. Inside of the vault, were several items: a lacrima, a shovel, and two tombstones. The tombstones had the shape of a cross, and another one an anti-cross. And on the base were the names: "Arianna the White Angel", and "Diabolos the Black Devil".

The shovel along with these two meant that Vergil counted, no, expected that Deniel would defeat the two. He knew the purpose to these tombstones and a shovel, but it was the lacrima crystal that stood out. Deniel reached down in the small hole and pulled out the first three objects first, until finally he ended with the lacrima. Upon touching it and bringing it up to his face, it began to glow and shake with Magic Power. In moments, a small projected figure of Vergil stood on top of the lacrima. A muscular, bearded old man wearing nothing but robes as clothing. It wasn't the real Vergil, but rather a message he left for Deniel. And his message was this:

"Deniel, if you're hearing this, then it must mean that it's finally time. The first thing I would like to do is apologize for doing this to you. However, I had no other choice. At the time, you seemed very keen on going after Arianna and Diabolos, and no amount of talking I could do would stop you. So I had to force you to stop. You know as well as I do: if you chased after them as you were, you would have gotten yourself killed. But now, that is no more. Your memories are back, and so is your resolve. You must already know what the other three items are for. As for this one, after this message is over, it has a primary fucntion. Upon activation, it will teleport you back to this shrine, regardless of where you are at in the world. This can only be used twice. After the second use, it will shatter and never be able to be used or reconstructed again. This is all I can do for you, Deniel. You're on your own now. Well...except for Nidhogg."

As the image of Vergil said his final words, the projection faded, leaving Deniel alone once more. Alone in the silent, tranquil shrine that he had once lived in. It was early in the morning, and he had been awake for only several hours. But in these several hours, his life had changed more than any incident so far: destroying the village, going to prison, joining Eclipse Soul...it was phenomenal. Deniel was baffled, and almost completely ignorant as to what to do. The only thing that flashed in his mind over and over again...was to kill his mom and dad. He knew where they were in exact detail; he could bring up a world map and put down the most precise location they were at in a single moment. He had sworn that he would kill the both of them, and Vergil seemed to believe in them. Without even knowing what condition Deniel was in, he gave him a shovel and two tombstones. In almost every aspect, Deniel was ready. So why was he so hesitant? Why was there an instinct telling him that he was going ot regret this, or it wouldn't turn out as he wanted it to be? There were twi different feelings he got. One told him to go for it, while the other told him to turn his head. Of course, Deniel listened to the one that told him to do it. After closing his eyes and thinking about it, he opened them fiercely and set his mind to it. "Thank you, Vergil!" Deniel abruptly turned away from the statue, leaving the items where they were, except for the lacrima; he took that with him. Deniel stepped out of the tranquil shrine, and started to head out of Fiore towards his next destination: Iceberg. It was time for Arianna to meet her end.

~~~~~~~

The journey itself didn't take that long, and along the way Deniel prepared himself. The first thing he did was find his old black cloak so that he could take it with him. Iceberg was a freezing place, and although he was somewhat used to the cold, since his mother was, he figured he should take it just in case. Following those events, Deniel finally headed to Iceberg. He could have gone two different routes: one was through Bosco, and the other was through Seven. Seven was the better choice, as it was much more of a mage-friendly place, with Bosco holding a population of zero Wizards and Mages. Seven was overall the better choice, and that's what Deniel went with. He had never been to the country before, and it was an extraordinary sight; it was a dense forest that seemed to stretch around his entire point of view. No matter where he went, there were trees, plants, and plenty of wildlife. Not only this, but they all seemed to have spoken as well. One tree asked him on his way through where he was headed. And when he said Iceberg, the tree merely warned him to be careful in that frozen wasteland. Deniel knew that he needed to be, but not from the land itself, but from when he reached Arianna...the White Angel.

The journey through Seven did take Deniel several days, of course, but it was something that he was used to. He made very easy progress with his fast walking pace, sometimes even running for very long amounts of time, seeming endless tracking, and a huge lack of taking a break. He did not force himself to, it's just at this time he didn't have the need to. Of course he did have to take his breaks now and then, and he was able to find food in the wildlife, but the true adventure began when Deniel reached Iceberg.



It was a frozen wasteland, just like the tree informed him. Whilst Seven appeared to be an endless forest, Iceberg was just a plain old endless sheet of ice. No matter which direction Deniel looked, if he could see through the harsh snow, there was snow, ice, more snow, and more ice. Of course, there was smoke in the distance in most places, signifying that people lived here, but Deniel had no iterest in them. In fact, Deniel made sure that he avoided each and every one of these places to make sure that he didn't get off-task. He was after one thing, and one thing only: Arianna. Deniel had the exact location and coordinates in his mind, he just didn't know what it looked like nor what he was looking for. In a place like this, Deniel figured that Arianna probably lived in a cave of some sort, or inside of a tower atop a mountain. He couldn't really see anything glamorous being built here. Not really, anyway. So, Deniel made fast and furious progress. This time he was in a hury. He was so close...and he was not under any circumstances going to be ripped away. It had been about three days since he had left, but Deniel didn't have a care in the world if anyone in Eclipse Soul was wondering if he was missing, nor anyone in the world. This was his goal since he was a little kid, and although he had forgotten it, he remembered it now.

The black cloaked figure wandered through the frozen wasteland, with a black katana hidden under his cloak, and a pair of blood red eyes guiding his way. He walked non-stop, and didn't complain about the biting chill one bit. To him, it wasn't that much of a biting chill at all. Just a cool breeze in the Springtime...at least to him. Deniel seemed to have been heading north when it came to his general direction, to the very tip of Iceberg's borders, which bordered the sea. Although he had not reached the place yet, he couldn't really see anything in the distance. And when he got close enough, he found out why.

It was a phenominal thing, but right in front of Deniel, was a harsh blizzard. No, not a blizzard, not a snowstorm...it was almost inexplicable. The snow and ice where everywhere, so thick that a person could not see right in front of him. And probably so freezing that a normal human being would freeze within minutes inside of there. But Deniel was not a normal human being, and nor was this going to stop him. He could navigate through this with his eyes closed, and that's exactly what he did. Deniel closed both of his red eyes, and walked right through. He used his mind to know where he would need to head...to reach Arianna. But boy, was he surprised when he got there.

He navigated through the massive ice storm for almost an hour, and did not close his eyes when he suddenly felt a clearing of it. Deniel hesitated for a second, but then slowly opened his blood-red eyes. And he could not believe what he saw. Eyes that were initially halfway opened suddenly shot up as wide as they could go. His jaw dropped wide open, and he nearly collapsed right where he stood into the snow. Before him was not a tower, not a castle...but a citadel. A citadel made purely of ice. No, that's what it looked like....there was definitely some metal, but it was so frozen over, it looked like it was made of ice. It was perched up into the mountains, on the most northern part of Iceberg. It was no wonder that the king of Iceberg never bothered with a place like this, and it was most likely Arianna's doing. This place was trapped in an endless ice storm, and it was impossible to get through unless you knew exactly where to walk. And it wasn't as simple as walking North, a person could naturally lose their sense of direction, and Deniel had to head East, West, and even South more than enough times. He feared to think what happened to people who tried to go through that storm to see what was on the other side. But what was on the other side was a massive citadel. A castle was an understatement, as this place was huge. The very entrance was massive, making Deniel look like he was only a couple of inches tall. It was a pair of massive double-doors, and that's when Deniel suddenly realized just how far he had gone in. Looking behind him, the snowstorm seemed no more, and he was right in front of the Citadel.

It was massive, with plenty of towers, but before Deniel could observe it further, the double doors suddenly flung open for him to enter. Inside it looked almost pitch black, but if someone was inviting him in, he was going to take the invitation. Arianna was here, and he knew it. In fact, he could almost see it...she was atop the largest tower. The Frozen Throne. He had no idea how he knew that name...he just, did. There was a mysterious work with his mind in this situation, as if he knew these things all of his life, but was suddenly remembering it all.

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As Deniel took slow, almost hesitant steps inside, the doors began to close. And then they sealed themselves shut, and he was standing in a pitch-black room. But this room suddenly lit itself up, and it wasn't a room at all. It was a hallway, and it was covered in ice. Deniel didn't know if this part had been made of something else, as all he could see was ice. And with ice, came his own reflection. He had no idea where the light came from, but everything was as clear as day. Even the floor was made of ice. Just before Deniel even made a move, though, he heard laughter. It was quite high-pitched, and it echoed through Deniel's ears and through the hallway. He recognized that voice and laughter anywhere, and shortly afterwards, he saw it.

All around him, on every sheet of ice, be it large or small, was a projection of Deniel's mother, Arianna. She was a beautiful woman with milky white skin, long blonde and straight hair, and a pair of sky-blue eyes that Deniel's resembled in his angelic form. She was, by all standards, even just by her face which was being shown, a beautiful woman. Her features were perfect, symmetrical, and absolutely flawless. "Arianna!" Those were the first words that came out of Deniel's mouth upon seeing his mother literally everywhere. "If it isn't my darling son...Deniel." Her voice was soft, sweet, and very much innocent and lady-like. It was impossible to believe this was the same woman from Deniel's memories all of those years ago. And yet it was. "You've got quite the fancy place, mother," he said to her as he walked down the hall, putting emphasis on the word 'mother', "And I take it you know why I'm here." Arianna let out another short burst of laughter, "Hahahah! Yes, of course I do. You've come to kill your dear mother, haven't you? Just like you said all of those years ago. What was it? 'I'll make the angel scream, and the devil cry'? Hahahahah!" She laughed once more at repeating what Deniel said as a little kid. Even she knew something like that was absurd. Not just from being able to make an angel scream, but his ability to beat her. She had full confidence in her abilities, despite not facing him right now. "Yeah...I did say that. And though I was a child at the time..." Deniel suddenly turned and slammed his foot right into one of Arianna's images, cracking the ice. This didn't really do anything, only messing up the projection on that single large peace, "I fully intend to make it so!"

The kick was so powerful that the solid ice cracked on the wall, and the signal to Arianna's face on that particular part was lost, but not the rest of the hallway. Her laughter was heard once more, "Well, then prove yourself worthy of facing me, Deniel! Make your way through my Citadel. Defeat my Seven Guardians, get through the obstacles, overcome the torture, and most importantly: stay alive. Hahahahah! I will be watching you, of course. I wouldn't miss seeing you suffer for the world, you little BASTARD, YOU!" The last part almost sounded like Arianna had lost her temper, despite Deniel not doing anything to make her. He had only sat there and listened, but something about him made Arianna furious. And once she finished saying that, the projection of her had disappeared, and Deniel was surrounded in pure ice once more. He simply turned his body and started to walk back down the hallway; no need to keep Arianna waiting for too long. Of course, while he walked, he did think about what she said. Specifically her "Seven Guardians". Why was there a need for those? And who exactly were they? Deniel was going to find out soon enough. Upon reaching the end of the entrance hallway, Deniel finally came upon the first room to Arianna's Citadel. It was a massive room, also made of pure ice, with four square pillars on each side running down. At the far end of the room was a pair of double doors, along with stairs, one on each side, that went above the doors, and split into two hallways. Additionally, in the center of the two-way hall, there was another starecase that appeared to spiral up.

Upon further observation, Deniel found out that the two split paths weren't hallways, but rather lead all the way back around the room, making a second floor balcony in the same room. Which meant that Deniel had only two options: go into the door, or the spiral staircase. Deniel walked across the room, and started to notice that even the floor was made of ice, adding a bit of slip to it, but Deniel had quickly adapted to it, as if he had been here before. He went for the closest option, and had his hand reach out to the door. Before his hand even got close to it, a Magic barrier appeared around the door and blocked Deniel's access to it. Deniel immediately retracted his hand, fearing the barrier would harm him. Upon finding out that it was harmless, he attempted to reach out once more. The second time was just as the first, so Deniel tried harder. Each time yielded the same results; even to the point where Deniel hit the barrier. As one last attempt, Deniel walked away from the door, but then suddenly turned around and darted towards it. He leapt in the air and turned his body a full one hundred eighty degrees, and gave the barrier a nice kick. Unfortunately, the result was the exact same.

Before Deniel could decide on what to do next, he heard Arianna's laughter. This time, it was much more mocking; she was watching, indeed, and probably getting some amusement out of it. "Well, since you're so clueless to figure this out, I'll give you a hint. That door cannot be opened unless you have the key to unlock the barrier. Unless you are really stupid, then you should know where to find that key. Consider this the only help you'll get, Deniel. Hahahahah!"

"Huuuh. So it's kinda' like a game." That's exactly what it was. This palace was set up to be Arianna's living quarters, but also a game for anyone that would even attempt to challenge her. If they were worthy enough, they made it through and got to fight Arianna herself. Anyone else would perish. Without any other choice, Deniel slowly made his way up the stairs above the double doors, and up the spiral staircase. The staircase was, once again, made of pure ice it seemed. Deniel was once again wondering why an angel would have so much ice, enough to make a fortress out of it. No, not a fortress, a citadel. The staircase seemed to go up more than just one floor, almost five. Still, when Deniel reached the top, he was in a new room. This one was, once again, pure ice. It was circular shaped, around the same size of the previous room, so it was fairly large. What stood out was there was almost nothing in this room. It was a pure ice cylinder room, with no doors, accessories, windows, or anything. There was nothing...except at the far end of the room from where Deniel was standing. Abruptly, behind him, the passage behind Deniel sealed itself with shards of teeth-like icicles. It looked like there was no going back, so he went forward to the far end. At the far end was the first thing that looked like it wasn't made of pure ice. There was a throne, made of some kind of metal. And above it were chains, and these chains had the corpses of what looked like knights or warriors.

This throne, although clearly made of metal, was encased in ice, but more importantly, someone sat on it. He, too, looked like a knight. He wore dark blue armor that covered him from head to toe, almost. His head was concealed by a hood of the same color as his armor. At his side rested a longsword sheathed in a blue scabbard, and a shield with writing on it. It was two simple figures:

貞操

His dark blue armor was trimmed in gold color, similar to Deniel's White Angel form. He also wore a cape that draped all the way down to his feet, and he sat there...frozen, in silence. Deniel raised his eyebrow as he got closer, and started to slow his pace down significantly. Once he reached a certain point, the ice had begun to crack. First it was small, but then it rapidly covered almost the whole encasing. And, in a moment, the knight emerged from his frozen tomb, standing up tall, proud, and mighty. He grabbed ahold of his sheathed sword and put it at his side, and held his shield within his left hand. The knight leapt from his throne and landed right in front of Deniel. Deniel was six foot six, but this knight appeared to be around seven feet tall, along with, of course, having a much more bulky body than Deniel did. Deniel took a step back, and stared up at the knight. The knight bent himself down, almost at Deniel's height, and gave the sound of a sniff. He didn't have a face, Deniel could see, sinec his hood was just a hollow piece of cloth. "You," the knight spoke in a very cold voice, "Your scent is familiar."

Deniel looked up at the colossal knight with somewhat puzzled expression. He looked quite large and terrifying, but he wasn't scared of him one bit. The hooded figure took another whiff of Deniel's scent, and then stood up tall again. "Ahhh. I see now. You are another child of my Mistress, Arianna. Another Nephalem." Deniel shrugged and scratched the back of his head while taking a step or two back. He was very uncomfortable and suspicious of this knight being so close. "Yeah, well...what can I say? Heheh." The giant knight stood there, silent, before he spoke again. "You needeth not to say anything, Nephalem. However....you must DIE!" Once the word "DIE" was almost screamed by the knight, it drew its broadsword and swung it at Deniel. Deniel's hand emerged from its cloak, with his sheathed katana Nidhogg held by it, and clicked the blade open with his thumb. The point of impact made by the knight was right where the tiniest bit of Nidhogg's blade had been unsheathed. A small shockwave was created with the power of the impact, but Deniel wasn't fazed a single bit. "GYAAAAH!" The knight raised its sword once more, and swung at Deniel another time. Deniel blocked it once again with his almost completely sheathed blade, and with only one hand. The colossal knight now sent several attacks to Deniel's way, to which all of them yielded the same result. Block, block, block, block, and block.

Despite that, Deniel was being driven back a bit, as he had been taking steps back, and the knight was taking steps forward. There was a huge size difference between the two, and that was going to be complicated. The knight took another swing at him, but this time, he came from below Deniel. Instead of using Nidhogg, Deniel bent himself back to barely avoid the tip of the blade, with it passing just above the skin of his nose. But once that attack was finished, Deniel was going to be more on the offensive. He grabbed his blade's hilt with his right hand, and finally brought the sword out of its scabbard. The very first thing he did was give a horizontal swing at the knight, which would have hit were it not for one thing: it had a shield. And a big one at that. The knight blocked it with little to no effort, despite the amount of power put into it. Luckily for Deniel, he didn't pour all of his strength into it, even if he wasn't in a Full Body Take Over. He calculated he could win this fight without using one. Deniel brought his blade back and then swung down at the night, with the same outcome as the first. Then he swung left, right, below, horizontal again, and then diagonal. The first couple of strikes had all been blocked, but the diagonal one almost got through to him. He was unable to block it with his shield, but he did parry it with his sword. Deniel had, at least, gotten past that component, which showed he still had a shot at winning this.

The duel between the two just seemed to be filled up with a ton of swings to no avail. First Deniel would give about four or five strikes, which would either be blocked by the knight's shield, or come close only to be blocked by his sword. And then the knight would give him around four or five swings, to which Deniel would parry with his katana. Deniel was very quickly getting annoyed by his shield, as he knew the fight could have probably ended if he didn't have it. He stood there with his blade drawn, and gave a couple of quick pants as he stared at the colossal knight. He gave a frown at the shield, and the symbol on it. "What does that sign even mean, anyway?" The knight seemed relatively unaffected, as if stamina wasn't something that exited for him. He still stood tall, straight, and proud. "This symbol means: "Chasity"! I am Arianna's first guard of her elite Seven Virtue Knights. I am the Knight of Chasity!" Deniel would have laughed or had some humor about the Knight's identity, as he couldn't think of any reason to be proud of being a Knight of Chasity. Chasity was just....abstaining from sex until marriage. But the knight wasn't going to give Deniel time to laugh or make a joke. He held his sword up high, and then swung it in Deniel's direction. Several thunderbolts conjured themselves out of seemingly no where, and zapped Deniel several times. The knight was mostly expecting for Deniel to at least be bruised, but after the small storm had ended, Deniel was left unfazed and still standing.

The hooded figure tilted his head to the side, and then let out a small laugh. "Hahah. You think you are strong, Nephalem!? I have killed countless of your kind! You will not leave this room alive!" Deniel raised his eyebrow at the part where the knight mentioned that he killed countless Nephalem. More of them existed than Deniel alone? Now that was weird. Deniel couldn't dally on it for too long, as the knight went in for yet another storm. Deniel dashed from where he was, narrowly avoiding it. Then as he got in closer, he took a sharp turn to the right, avoiding yet another one. He had already figured out what the Knight's powers and weaknesses were. He could conjure small thunderstorms, but only on set locations, so if Deniel was fast enough, which he obviously was, then he could avoid them. Once Deniel got in close enough, the knight conjured up another storm, but right in front of him where he thought Deniel would come in for a strike. But he was wong. Deniel leapt up in a flip right above the knight, and landed behind him. Now, even with his cloak on, he was completely exposed, with no shield to protect him. "Over here!" Deniel used his first cut to slice his cloak in half, and then came the attack. Deniel slashed and hacked away at the knight's armor, which seemed to be doing plenty of damage and getting through. He was only doing this to weaken his armor, and then came the final attack.

"This....IS IT!" Deniel hopped on to the back of the knight, with his legs wrapped around, and then started to stab Nidhogg repeatedly into his back. But this wasn't just any part of his back; it was the part where normally the heart was. Deniel didn't just stab in once, he did it twice, three times, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten! The very last one, Deniel pulled his blade out, and flipped backwards on to his feet. The looked at his blade, and was surprised to see that there was no blood on it. "Huh?" The knight's giant body tumbled forward on the ground, seemingly dead. Deniel raised his eyebrow and approached the corpse. He grabbed on to the hood, and pulled it back, but there was nothing there. Even further, Deniel could take any piece of his armor, and there would be nothing underneath. His eyebrows now moved down to a frown, "An empty suit? Huuuh. Interesting." Deniel scurried through the piece of armor, and underneath the cloak that hadn't been torn up, he found the key that he was looking for. It was a very small, rusted, key, but it supposedly worked. Deniel clenched it in his hands, and then looked at the entrance. The teeth that were initially sealing him from exiting were now completely parted, and the way down the staircase was open once more. "What exactly do you want, Mom?" Deniel slowly made his way down the staircase, and once he got back to the original room, he jumped down from the small balcony right in front of the double-doors.

He opened up his palm with the key in it, and then looked at the door. He remembered that originally the door had a seal around it, that blocked any form of movement, so Deniel walked to the door, with the key held out right in front of him. Once the key so much as touched the barrier, it immediately shattered like glass. What Deniel found slightly more surprising was it seemed to be made up of the same Holy Energy that he used in his White Angel Take Overs. Once Deniel got through the barrier, he put the key inside of the double-doors, unlocked it, and opened them wide. He was greeted with yet another hallway made up of solid ice, but he still pursued on right through. Once he got inside, the double-doors behind him slammed shut, and Arianna's face was once again projected on the walls of ice. "I see you've made it past my Chasity Knight, my wretched son. Hahahahah! Don't think for a moment that your journey is over, though. I assure you, my son, you will never make it out of this citadel alive! Hahahahah!" She never gave Deniel time to rhetort. Her image was almost immediately gone from the ice once she finished her wicked laughter, and Deniel was roaming the halls once more. She's only taunting me, he thought to himself, Keep calm, and keep going.

The member 'Decayuss' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

Upon walking a few more paces, Deniel felt his foot suddenly sink a bit into the ground. He looked down at it, and saw that he had triggered a switch at his foot. He quickly stepped back, and new that there wasn't really anything he could do about it. So he merely looked around to see what he had caused. At each of his sides, the walls of the Icecrown Citadel began to move, until finally they opened themselves up. Inside of each of them were 5 frozen bodies of ape-like creatures. They strongly resembled Vulcans, beings that Deniel had encountered before, but they seemed different. For example, the small lower body that most Vulcans had were non-existent, they had a much larger muscle mass, and their facial structure appeared to be much more human-like. The ice around them had begun to thaw. Deniel quickly drew Nidhogg in preparation for combat. Once the ice around them had completely thawed, the Vulcan-like creatures opened up their eyes, and they all looked at Deniel. They all moved out of their small wall-cages...whatever...and stared at Deniel. There were five in the back, arranged in a triangle, and five in the front also arranged like a triangle. Deniel aligned himself horizontally to them so that he could get a good look at both sides, and so his back wasn't exposed to either side. One of the Vulcans stepped foward, "Another challenger. It has been a while since we have seen one of you." Deniel was highly surprised: the creature was able to talk. In fact, all of them were. He heard murmurs and agreements between the rest of them.

"What exactly are you?" Deniel asked them, still heavily on his guard and ready to strike at any moment. "We are Vulcans. But do not mistake us for those primitive and inferior species you see in your lands. We are Primal Vulcans: superior in every way. And we serve our Mistress, Arianna, to make sure that she does not waste her time on the weak." "Well I can assure you I'm not weak. But if you want proof, I'll give it to ya'!" The Vulcan Deniel had been speaking with went in for a very swift, yet powerful attack. Deniel narrowly avoided it by jumping, but as soon as he did, the first one from the other side was already coming in for another one. Deniel used its arm to his advantage, hopping on top of it and leaping off. Just as he did, another Vulcan appeared right above him, and smashed him straight to the ground. Once Deniel hit the rock-hard ice, he saw that yet another Vulcan was coming in for an attack. He scowled and cut its arm away with his sword, scrambling up to his feet. Two Vulcans then grabbed both of Deniel's arms, and slammed him against a wall, while a third one displayed martial arts skills and roundhouse kicked Deniel further into the wall, causing a crack to form. So far these Vulcans were right: they were superior in every way to Vulcans that Deniel had fought before.

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Strangely enough the two Vulcans that were holding his arms let go of him, but only so another Vulcan could come in and knock the wind out of him with a punch to his stomach. Deniel's eyes widened in pain as he felt his breath go short, and collapsed to the ground in a second. "What's the matter, Nephalem? Whatever happened to being strong?" This voice was drastically different from the one before, which meant it was another Vulcan talking. It was amazing to Deniel for at least a second, since it seemed like these Vulcans had a very close relation to humans. Deniel coughed a few more times, and the Vulcans didn't make a move. They were waiting for him to get up, so they could at least give him a fair fight. After all, they did heavily outnumber him 10 to 1. Deniel used Nidhogg's scabbard to help himself up, and once he was on his feet, he quickly shook his head and recovered himself. "Tch. I'm just getting started. You're in for a wollop!" Upon saying that, Deniel seemingly vanished from his location, and went started to cut each Vulcan one by one. He managed to cut three before the rest of them caught on. This once again showed their superior intelligence, as other ones wouldn't notice until he finished. When he arrived at the fourth, it swung its fist at Deniel, and even when he ducked under it, used its knee to also go in for another hit. Deniel used this to his advantage, and simply slashed at its knee.

Deniel then quickly ducked under an attack coming from behind, and spun around with his blade held out, cutting deep into the next Vulcan. This one managed to counter attack him with a punch, sending him back, but he also used this to his advantage. Deniel let his body fly back into the sixth Vulcan, with his balde held out behind him, so he could stab it upon arriving. The impact had the blade go in deep, and brought the both of them back a significant distance. Deniel hadn't quite gotten all 10 of them like he had hoped to, and neither did any of them go down in one hit, but it was a sufficient attack. The one he had landed on was separated from the rest of the group, so Deniel gave it one last cut to knock it out, or kill it, he didn't care, and that brought one down out of the total ten. Deniel turned to the rest of the group, with some of them bleeding, but still looking perfectly fine, and held out Nidhogg. He gave all of them his usual cocky smirk, and beckoned them with a jerk of his head to bring it on. "Come on, beasts! You haven't even seen a tenth of the power of a Nephalem. And you never will! You're all finished here!" Deniel's smirk increased, showing off his teeth at the very corner of his mouth. And as that happened, a bit of laughter had escaped his lips.

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At first the Vulcans were following their way of fighting fairly once more. The one that was in front of him came at him first, but before he could even make a move, he suddenly fell to the ground, with two cuts deep into him. Deniel was so fast, it didn't even look like he made a move. This was becasue he was finally unveiling a very large portion he was capable of. Initially, as an A rank, he would not be capable of this, or he would if he used his White Angel Form, but Deniel was beyond that. He was of equal strength as an S rank mage, extremely skilled in almost all aspects even without a Full Body Take Over. The Primal Vulcans tried the same thing, with the next one going in, but it had the same result. These apes weren't idiots, and they could see that going in one at a time wasn't going to work. So they decided to try and attack Deniel all at once. They surrounded him, and let loose. The very first punch Deniel managed to duck under, and severed the arm of the attacker before kicking it away. He jumped over the next attack that came from beneath him, more towards his knees, and spun his blade around, cutting three of them three times in quick succession. "This ends here!" Deniel didn't want to give the remaining ones enough room or time to think, so he simply went for it. He dashed around all of them, and cut each of them at least 2 times. It was all over in seconds, but once it was finished, every single one of them collapsed on the ground, knocked out, and Deniel was left standing.

Deniel used the back of the blade for the most part, as he didn't want to create too much of a bloody mess, and he had developed a sense of mercy for these creatures. Whatever blood he had on his sword, he wiped it off by swinging it, and then sheathed it back in its scabbard. After that, he quickly made his way down the hallway. Now that he knew it was actually filled with Vulcans, or even other monsters, he didn't want to waste all of his strength on these enemies running around Arianna's Icecrown Citadel.




Meanwhile, atop the Frozen Throne, Arianna observed Deniel. She had been doing this by looking through a visionary screen in front of her, almost like a Lacrima Vision. Whatever the ice reflected, she could see. And she had just witnessed Deniel defeat the group of Primal Vulcans, and now running down the hallway. "Hmmm. Not bad. Maybe this one will actually make it to my Frozen Throne. But...it won't be easy. Hahahahah!" Upon laughing, Arianna focused her Magic Power into the Icecrown Citadel, towards Deniel's location. "Hmmm. Now what should I make you do? Let's start off with something simple, shall we? Hahahah!"


Back to where Deniel was running, he immediately slid himself to a stop at what he saw ahead of himself. There were Pendulums made of ice. But not just any kind: these had sharp axes on them. They swung back and fourth, leaving almost no opening for Deniel to run through. It was a trap set by Arianna, and she was waiting to see how he would deal with it.

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Deniel only stood there, observing the patterns of the axes. There were six of them in total, three rows, with two axes in each row. The first row swung back and fourth fairly slowly, Deniel could easily go through it. The second one was quite a bit faster, but the third one was lightning fast. It would be idiotic for anyone to even try to get past that. Deniel scowled at the sight, and Arianna watched. Atop her Frozen Throne, she smiled wickedly and awaited her son's reply. Would he run through? Would he take his time? Would he give up? Or would he just stand there? The answer that Deniel gave was none of the above. Instead, he drew his sword Nidhogg from its scabbard. He put his scabbard in his belt slot, and held on to Nidhogg with both of his hands. This was unusual, as he usually only used a single hand when weilding Nidhogg. Two hands meant he could put an enormous amount of power into a single swing. Deniel planted his left foot in front, right foot in back, and held his sword to his right. There was a brief silence for a moment, and then, Deniel exherted all of his strength into his left foot, and sprung himself off of his location. He went towards the ceiling of the hallway he was in, and then he began to dash horizontally through the pendulums, but not the axes. He swung his blade from his blade slowly as he dashed through, and in less than a second, he was on the other side of the pendulum trap. He stood up straight, and then sheathed Nidhogg back inside of its scabbard.

He gave a very brief pause before clicking it in, and once he did, the pendulums behind him were cut in half laterally, and fell to the ground. Following that, he walked very calmly and casually away from the booby trap set by Arianna.


Up on her throne, Arianna wasn't the least bit surprised, but slightly amused. "Hmph. What a show-off. I hope he's not getting cocky, because that's just the beginning. Still, he hasn't used even the smallest bit of Magic since we got here. Let's see how he fairs against my guards. Then...he'll be up against my Knight of Temperance. Hahahahah!"



Deniel finally reached the end of the massive hallway, and came across what looked like a living room. A very large one, though. It was about the size of the room before, with its own unique features. From where he entered, straight ahead of him at the end of the room, was a fireplace. But, naturally, there was no fire. It was frozen in ice. And then there were two antique, frozen again, couches near it. Along with that was a rocking chair between the two couches, staring right at the fire, but not nearly close enough. Right above the fireplace was a framed picture, but it, too, was encased in ice, and Deniel couldn't see what in the world it was supposed to be. But it's not like he cared.

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There were three exits to the room, three not counting Deniel's entrance from the hallway. He found it strange; these other two exits had doors, while the hallways just lead straight into the room. Other than the two couches, fireplace, painting, and chair, which was facing away from Deniel, there was more in the room. On each of the corners were very small counters, each having a frozen vase with a frozen flower on it. There was a pool table in the right part of the room, and a coffee table in the left with yet another couch in front of it. Everything in here was....frozen. He didn't know why. This was beginning to look more like a rich person's house or something, just frozen over. And he didn't know why Arianna needed all of these rooms, either. She was just one woman. And so far, all he had seen was an empty suit of armor, and a bunch of Primal Vulcans. He had yet to see anyone or anything be able to use this enormous amount of space. Deniel took several steps into the large room, and then heard clattering footsteps behind him. It sounded like armor against the surface of the ice. That meant trouble, so Deniel turned around and drew Nidhogg from his its scabbard. Coming down the hallway was a group of knights, six of them. Finally there was a number that wasn't 5 or 10. What was strange about these knights was that they contradcited something that Deniel expected: they didn't seem like mindless or empty beings. They looked like living beings!

Each and every one of them had a different hair style, eye color, hair color, facial features, body structure, and even a different amount of facial hair. Not only that, but they also had different weapons. Two of them had a sword and shield, one was weilding a two-handed sword, another with dual one-handers and....pretty much everything. They halted upon entering the room, and the one in front of them spoke up, just like the Vulcans. "You there! Under Arianna's orders, you must be put to rest!" It was quite blunt, and straight to the point. Deniel was hoping in some way that these guys could be friends, and maybe help him make his way through this citadel, but, unfortunately, not. They had to be enemies... Deniel gave a shrug and decided to not wait to start the fight. "Alright! Let's go, then!" Deniel lept up into the air and came down behind the one that was in front, who had a sword and shield. He remembered fighting the Knight of Chasity, and how annoying shields could be. However, diving right behind the one in front put him right in the middle of the whole group, but that was his intention. He kicked the one with the shield backwards away from the group, and blocked the cut of the very first one, stabbed him, and then did the same to the second one. For the third and fourth one, he used one very powerful horizontal slash to hit them both at the same time, and that send them flying backwards, too.

The one that Deniel had kicked earlier got back up on his feet, and came right behind Deniel for an attack. However, this left him open without his shield to block the way. While Deniel was facing away from him, he spun Nidhogg backwards, and stabbed him right in his chest.

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After stabbing his chest, Deniel wasn't going to let this one have the chance to do anything more. He turned around, and cut him three more times, each in random directions, and let him fall to the ground. Strangely enough, there was no blood....just like the Knight of Chasity. After the knight hit the ground, his corpse suddenly turned into Holy Energy, and then vanished, leaving an empty suit of armor and weapons. Deniel's eyes widened in shock, and that left him distracted almost enough to where the two knights at his sides had almost hit him. Deniel quickly ducked under their attacks, and swung Nidhogg in a circular motion so he hit them both and sent them flying back. He wanted to focus on the empty suit of armor right now, but couldn't. He needed to beat the other five nights first. So, evidently, he turned away from the suit of armor, to the other knights. Deniel was fed up with a bunch of weaklings, and small fries. So, he finished them off as fast as he could. The very first one, Deniel gave two swift cuts and a stab to the chest to. The second one, three stabs in the chest in a row. The fourth one, Deniel slashed him twice, and then nearly cut his body in half from the waist, but that didn't matter. With the very last one, Deniel stabbed him in the chest, and then right in his forhead. The result came for all of them. There was absolutely no blood, not even on Deniel's blade, and they all just faded away with Holy Energy. "Arianna....you bitch!"


"Hahahahah! What's the matter, my boy?" Arianna's face was suddenly projected on the far end of the room. Right on the picture frame above the frozen fireplace. Deniel turned to her, amidst the weapons and armor scattered across the floor. His face looked quite angry and feirce towards his mother. He said nothing, and she only gave a shrug. "If you're wondering about their fate, there's nothing to worry about. They never exited in the first place. I created them. Figments of my imagination. And my...it's fun seeing them all get stabbed, and cut, and killed by my own son. Hahahahah!" After saying that, her image vanished, and that left Deniel with a lot of questions. What made it so fun? Why did she imagine them with such detail? And again....why was all of this necessary!? Deniel became much more curious, and especially about the framed picture that he couldn't see. He started to calmly walk towards the far end of the room, right in front of the frozen fireplace. The very first thing he did was bend down and hold out his finger. He poked the frozen batch of fire, to see if anything would happen. Nothing. It was frozen solid, despite it being fire. Whatever caused this, it had an immense amount of ice capabilities. The ability to freeze fire. Deniel stood up and took a few paces back, glancing up at the picture.

He scowled at it, and narrowed his eyes. What exactly was under there? And why was it hidden under ice just like everything else? Why? That was the biggest question that was going on through Deniel's mind: why was all of this here. Deniel held up his sheathed blade in a catapult-like fashion, and then flung it up at the image. It spun and spun, and when it came to the impact: the sword's hilt smashed against the picture, shattering the ice like glass. When Deniel saw what was underneath, he couldn't nearly believe what he saw. He was so surprised, that when Nidhogg came back down, he didn't even bother catching it. His eyes went wide, and he could almost feel tear swelling up in his eyes. He felt an immense chill down his spine, and evil lurking up on him from every corner of the room. There, at the picture, was a large, framed photo of Arianna the White Angel.

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The reason why Deniel was so surprised about this was because it looked like the picture was...painted. Like a rich person having a self-portrait of them in their house. Not only that, but to confirm that it was Arianna, below the painting was a signature, written: "Arianna". It looked much more like carved handwriting than a print, which must have meant she wrote that herself. Why would Arianna want a picture of herself just to freeze it. It didn't make sense. He became so engulfed in the tension with looking at that photo that eventually he felt down onto the ice, right next to his blade. "N-Nidhogg...what is this!?" "I don't know, Deniel..." Nidhogg didn't seem to be as shocked as Deniel was. But if he didn't know, then only one person did. Deniel suddenly scowled with two tears coming out of his eyes, and stood up with Nidhogg in his hands. He looked up at the ceiling and began to shout: "I know you're watching me, mom! What is this!? What the Hell is this?! Just who are you!?"

Atop the Frozen Throne, Arianna was indeed, watching him. However, unlike the other times, she said nothing. She stared blankly at the projection of Deniel's location, and then her expression grew very grim. She moved her legs up on to the seat she was on, and then hugged her knees. She pretty much buried her face in her dress, and said absolutely nothing.

"Grr! ...You BITCH! I'LL KILL YOU!" Upon hearing Deniel say that, Arianna's eyes shot wide open, and she stood up straight again on her throne. Her fingernails scratched the icy surface of the armrests, and turned into fists. She suddenly turned wicked once more, completely different from the expression she had just a few moments ago. "Knight of Temperance! End this wretched boy's life!" Arianna's slammed her first down into her armrest, and grew even more angry. Deniel was pretty much staring straight up at Arianna through the projection, and although he didn't know it, they were pretty much looking dead into each other's eyes.



Back down at the living room, Deniel heard ice crack behind him. He turned around to see something he had missed before. The smaller couch between the two larger ones housed a frozen figure. And Deniel had seen this familiar shape before. It was another Virtue Knight. His ice was beginning to crack, which meant Deniel had another fight on his hands. Deniel scowled and drew Nidhogg from its scabbard once more. He put its scabbard in his left belt hole, and gripped on to it with both hands. The ice encasing the seated knight cracked further, until it all shattered, and he stood up from his chair. He wasn't a giant like the Knight of Chasity, and was around Deniel's height. Both knighs had some similarities, though. They both wore a full suit of armor, and had a cloak over their head instead of a helmet, concealing a non-existent face. However, the armor of this knight was much different. His armor was green, trimmed in gold, and had some unique features. There were spikes on the elbows of his armor, and on the tips of his toes, shooting upwards. His cloak draped on his back was also in a green color, and on his chest was a symbol:

禁酒

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Deniel stood there, knees bent, back straight, ready to strike at any moment. However, the Knight of Temperance made no move. Finally, he spoke: "Hmmm. A Nephalem. It has been a while since I have seen one of you. You must have made it past my brother, Chasity. Well, Nephalem! Let us make this a fair fight!" After that, the Knight of Temperance held up his fists, and looked like he was ready. Deniel found it strange that he lacked weapons. Did he fight with just his bare fists? Well, not bare, they were armored, but still. Deniel and the knight stood there for a moment, and then both of them dashed and clashed with each other. Deniel had both of his hands on Nidhogg, and put quite a bit of strength into it. Meanwhile, the Knight of Temerance used only one fist, and it still seemed like the two were even. Deniel managed to shove the knight away, and then leap up into the air. He brought his sword up, and then crashing down on to the knight. It was a hit, but it didn't do some serious damage. All it did was leave a scratch running down his armor. The knight didn't say anything at first, he just swung his leg around and kicked Deniel away from him. Deniel looked like he was going to crash into the firplace, until he stabbed Nidhogg into the ground and halted himself before he could. "Now look at that. You've scratched my armor! Brat!" Deniel dug Nidhogg out of the ground and looked up to see the knight's fist almost right in his face. Deniel rolled to the side right of the way just in time.

As soon as he got up, he was met with another punch, to which he backed away from. Another one came from beneath, going to Deniel's chin. This one narrowly missed, with Deniel bending his body backwards just enough to dodge it. Following that, Deniel managed to get in yet another cut on the knight. He brought his sword in from below, swinging up in a very powerful swing. The way Deniel was using Nidhogg was much more of the way he would use Armageddon, or a much larger sword. The reason for this was because of the very thick armor at the Virtue Knight had. Deniel needed to peirce through that in order to do some real damage. Or so he thought. In reality, Deniel was doing damage regardless of how deep he cut him. The knight clasped both of his hands together in a fist, and slammed down on to Deniel after the attack. Deniel was sent straight into the ground, and for the first time during this whole experience, coughed up a bit of blood from his mouth. He hit the ground, and even felt perhaps a bone cracking inside of him. "GYAAAAAH!" This was only the second Virtue Knight, but it was much stronger than the previous one. And if Deniel didn't do something fast, it might already be the end for him. But he didn't want to use a Take Over. ...Not yet. He still needed to save his strength for Arianna.

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After slamming him into the ground, the Knight of Temperance jumped away from Deniel, and left him there. Deniel, with shaky arms, pushed himself up and slowly got back on to his feet. He panted, with a bit more blood coming out of his mouth, and wiped it off of his lip. "You all have a perfect chance to finish me, or do more damage. Yet you don't take it, why is that?" The Virtue Knight waited patiently for Deniel to stand up, and even then, he still didn't attack him. "Why? Because we are Knights! That's why! Regardless of who we serve, or face, we will uphold our sense of honor, and dignity. And attacking an opponent while he or she is down is strictly against this code!" Deniel raised his eyebrow for a second, a little concerned by the behavior of the knights. Then he just shrugged, and held Nidhogg in both hands again. "Whatever you say. This code will be your undoing. You're finished!" "Come on, then! Nephalem!" A perfect phrase here would be: "be careful what you wish for". Because Deniel was about to finish this off. He raised Nidhogg to the sky, and then suddenly appeared right in front of the Virtue Knight. He slashed once horizontally, another diagonally, before he brought his blade down vertically. Normally the knight would counter attack, but these blows were so powerful, and in such quick sucession, that he was unable to.

The very last thing that Deniel did was his finishing move: a stab through the chest. Deniel wrapped his legs around the knight's torso, and stabbed Nidhogg right into it. The knight collapsed backwards, with Deniel straddling on to him. Deniel dug Nidhogg out, and took a back flip off of his corpse. Just like the Knight of Chasity, after Deniel had killed him, all of his armor pieces came apart, and there was nothing underneath them. It was a lifeless peice of armor. Deniel sheathed Nidhogg back in its scabbard, and started to search through the knight's corpse for a key. The last one had a key, and this one most definitely did. Sure enough, Deniel eventually found out. This key looked drastically different from the one before, being green in color, and looked drastically different from the very first one. Deniel got back up on his feet, and looked at the two separate doors that lead out of the room. The one on the right, and the one on the left. After that, Deniel took a glance at the couch that the Knight of Chasity was seated on. Upon closer observation, Deniel noticed that the couch looked a lot less like it could fit just one person. It wasn't big enough for three but it seemed like it could hold...two. Strange. Deniel looked at the fireplace, the picture, and the couch. All of them seemed very suspicious, especially since Deniel uncovered what the photo was: Arianna.

"Hmmmm. Who exactly are you, mom? And dad...where do you fit into all of this?"

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Deniel hurried to the right door to see where exactly it lead to. He attempted to open it, only to find that it was locked. He tried the key, but surprisingly enough...it didn't work. To make sure that it definitely didn't, Deniel used it several times, and even flipped it over to see if it would even fit. He realized that it wouldn't work at all, and just gave it up. He ran over to the left side of the room, and this time, the key actually worked. The door opened, and Deniel was free to enter.



Up on her Frozen Throne, Arianna hugged her knees once more as she became deeply enveloped in her thoughts. She was pretty much oblivious to Deniel's actions, and her grip on her knees grew tighter and tighter. Her breasts pressed against her thighs, and she closed her eyes tightly. "...What am I doing, exactly? What am I thinking? When did it become this?"

"Hey, Nidhogg. Why exactly do you reckon my mother is such a fucking bitch?"  "I dunno', Deniel. Maybe she's on her period?  "Tch. Whatever. All I know is she's not getting away with this. She's going to die this day. I'm not inclined to forgive her. Not after what she did to me all those years ago."

Arianna heard everything Deniel said, and frankly, she couldn't blame him. The way she was treating him right now....deep down inside, it didn't seem right. She didn't know why. She had killed all of her other children without a problem. Why was she so hesitatnt to kill Deniel. Then, an image flashed in her mind, and her eyes shot open. She stopped hugging her knees, and looked angrily at the screen. "What am I dong!? You can't get soft now, Arianna. He's here to kill you! KILL HIM FIRST! JUST LIKE THOSE OTHER WRETCHED BRATS! Hahahahah!" Arianna once again sent her Magic coursing through her Citadel to unlock another trial set for Deniel. That rhymed.


Deniel walked down yet another hallway, but this one was a lot shorter. He could see the end of it from where he was standing, and he was barely halfway through. But suddenly, around him, he felt the environment morph. And then in almost an instant, he was standing somewhere else, and he easily recognized this place. He was in Bellum, as he could easily tell from the building style. They were all futuristic, made of stone, floating in the air, with plenty of Magic lacrimas on them. It was a small village, though, with not too many people. But there was a huge crowd of people around him, and they had begun throwing stones at him. There were both children, and adults alike. Men and women. Of all ages. They all looked furious at him, and each and every one of them was flinging a stone at Deniel. Not only that, but they all hurled insults at him, despite never meeting or knowing him before. "You monster!" "Nephalem bastard!" "Your mother is a fucking whore!" "This is for my father!" "Get out of here!" "We don't want your kind!"


"Stop..."

More stones pelted Deniel. It didn't hurt, but it did emotionally. He remembered this moment, all of those years ago. Suddenly he could feel himself turning into a little kid once more. Not literally, but the memory brought him back to those days. When his hair was white, and his eyes were sky-blue. He remembered being pelted with stones, but back then it hurt much more physically. He felt his emotions on the inside get torn up, and anger swell up inside of him. "DIE!" That single word once caused Deniel to burst out in anger, and change his life forever. And his appearance. But this time, it was different. Deniel saw ahead of him, behind the crowd, a light. A light that showed him that he could get out of his. Instead of bursting out and killing them all, he just walked forward. His head was lowered, and stones were still pelting him, but he continued to walk. The crowd in front of him backed away to give him room, as they didn't want to even touch him, but they still insulted him. Deniel didn't attack a single one of them. He walked past the crowd, and through the light. It shone brightly in his face, causing him to shut his eyes tight. When he opened them, he was once again inside of the Icecrown Citadel. "I...will be redeemed. I won't make the same mistake again." He said to himself quietly, and continued walking down the small hallway. "Arianna...making me relive that. You will pay!" Deniel was then at the end of the hallway, with a small door in front of him. He put his hand on the knob, opened it up, and walked inside.

The very first thing Denel was greeted with when he walked in the room was a hammer. He closed the door behind him, and immediately a hammer swung and smashed him against the door. "Grrrr!" Deniel saw that it was another one of Arianna's knights. It wasn't a Virtue Knight, since he didn't have the cloak on. Deniel drew Nidhogg from its scabbard, and then swung it several times. The knight was finished off in a matter of moments. It seemed the only thing he did was make Deniel's gut area hurt a lot more. The door behind him wasn't damaged at all, but it took Deniel quite a bit to get that pain out of his stomach. He gripped it tightly after sheathing Nidhogg, and clenched his eyes shut. "Son of a bitch, dude..." Deniel only opened his right eye, but from what he saw, he opened both of them wide, and the pain seemed to be gone. He stood up, and walked right past the knight's empty corpse. This place looked like a bedroom, but not just any one...one that belonged to a little kid. No, not a kid. A baby!

There was a crib in the corner of the room, a wooden trojan horse for rocking down on. Right above the crib was a collection of dangling ornaments to play with. On the left side of the room was a closed box labeled "Toys". Like every other part of the house, this place was completely frozen in ice, so Deniel was barely able to make out the objects. "A baby's room...?"

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