Alyia's Secondary Magic Training [Private]

"Fear."

Shadow Island. It was the very first time Eclipse Soul's Guild Master had ever been to this location, but it was perhaps not his last. There was a lush amount of trees and vegetation on the island despite there being little to no sunlight, and its very center appeared to have a volcano...or a mountain. From where he was walking, Deniel could not tell which one it was. But he was here not to lollygag or relax. He was here to train one of his members in the arts that he was known for having a high level of skill and expertise: Take Over. And his trainee? Alyia. One of the very first and only members in Eclipse Soul he interacted with back in his loner days, one of his long time friends, and a recently appointed ace under his title of Guild Master. Although quite surprised when she approached him for the idea of learning Take Over, it was something he couldn't refuse. She was in need of his assistance, and it was his job as Guild Master and as a friend to see her through to it. When she told him of the location, he was at first clueless as to where it was, but quickly found out, adding it to his database of locations in Earthland.

And now there he was. Dressed in his jet black clothing, with his short sleeved coat, and single black glove on his left hand. What was different about him was he didn't carry his katana, Nidhogg. Instead, on his journey here, he had its demonic form, Armageddon on his back. The massive sword was nearly as big as he was, with only around five inches separating it from the ground. Although his figure had become more muscular in a short amount of time, the way his body was structured made it seem impossible he could even lift a sword of that magnitude, yet he could do it with relative ease.

He approached Alyia with both of his hands shoved inside of his pockets, and his eyes closed. He ceased his movements several feet away from her, and contrary to how he usually spoke, his voice was no soft and calming: "Are you afraid, Alyia?" He let his question sink into her mind for a moment, before he opened his eyes and elaborated it further: "Are you afraid of me? Are you afraid of the beast you are trying to tame? Are you afraid of losing control of it? Are you afraid of its strength? If you are...we might as well forget it and go back to the Guild right now."

Notes

"Fear."

He did not believe her words at first. She carried herself with confidence, but he was a person who was used to the sensing fear from people. That is why he said nothing at first. She said she was not afraid, and maybe she believed it herself, but he did not. He kept both hands shoved inside of his pockets, and stared back at her with lazy red eyes. A brief gust of wind passed by in the silence that the two stared at each other. It wasn't until the second time that she declared her lack of fear did he finally believe her. He briefly closed his eyes and breathed out a very soft sigh, "That's good." This wasn't the first time he trained someone in Take Over. He remembered quite a while ago he had done it for a member in Sabertooth, but he had forgotten her name. Although her beast she was attempting to tame was much less...uncontrollable than Alyia's, the routine would be the same one way or another. Alyia's case was different in the fact that she hadn't learned the Magic, yet becoming a Fallen Angel was possible, just without her control.

But it was time for her to reach control. Slowly lifting his arm to his back, Deniel's right hand with the guild mark on it grabbed on to the brown and spiraled hilt of Armageddon. He lifted the sword from its stillness, bring it several inches away from its initial position, before he brought the rest of the blade from behind his shoulder and head, over his shoulder and in front of him. "Come at me with all you've got. You need to unleash the beast, whether you have control of it or not. And I'll begin the next step. I'll perform an action on you that will send you to sort of an inner world, where you must do battle with the beast." He entered a stance where he firmly placed his left foot behind himself, twisting his entire body so the right side was facing her. He bent his knees, and had his left hand vacant to perform an action, while the right one held on to the massive blade of Armageddon. She might have expected him to enter a Full Body Take Over, but he did not. "And you must figure out the rest from there. Once you're finished, we'll begin the next step. Now...come at me! And don't hold back! I'll use a Take Over only if absolutely necessary."

The lazy, calm red eyes of Deniel furrowed their eyebrows, creating the frown that she might easily remember him carrying multiple times. The hand around Armageddon's hilt tightened, and he was ready for whatever she threw his way now.

Notes

"Make the Angel Scream and the Devil cry!"

She could do it by will. That was fortunate. That meant that he could skip an entire step when it came to their training. Some people, based on what he observed, needed some form of trigger in order to transition into a form that they cannot control. Alyia's ability to do it by will meant there was already some form of control with it. He observed as she no longer became the girl he was familiar with. A creature filled with darkness as black as the night, something that reminded him of what was a part of him. And the hole in her chest. All of it reminded Deniel of himself. The sole difference between the creature that stood before him and the Black Devil that resided within him...was he had control over it. And he did not fear it. It was a part of him. But now it was time to give have Alyia the same power he had. The power of control. His stance was for him to be on guard, and prepared to block any attacks that came his way, perhaps counter attacking, but that was not his intent. As the inhuman creature that was once Alyia attacked him, he made no effort to block, avoid, or even hurt her back. He let her sharp claws scratch past his black clothing and cut through his skin.

She was fast. Although she wasn't fast enough to the point where he could not track her, it was significantly faster than he had expected. He felt the harsh impact, and the stinging pain that followed shortly after her round house kick, and before he could even turn towards her, she came at his legs. It was a wise move by her, taking advantage of her height, and just as she wished it knocked him off of his balance and straight on to the ground. Grunting and groaning, he wasn't going to give her a chance to continue her assault once more. He planted his hands on the ground, even the one that had Armageddon in it, and pushed up his body weight with it, flipping himself back up to his feet. He turned towards Alyia once more, rubbing the part of his head where her kick had landed on him. "Ahhh...that hurts. Jeez." He shook off the pain that was created with her attacks, but made no move to attack himself. "Come on at me again! You can do better than that!"

Notes

"Time to go to work..."

She appeared to be getting faster and more vicious, probably taking his remark as more of a taunt than a piece of advice. It was initially meant to be one...but if it helped her lose more control, that would just speed things up for him. He could keep up with her movements, but some of her attacks were executed in such a spectacular fashion and proper positioning that he wasn't entirely sure if he would be able to block them if he were actually trying. He wondered if she had figured out yet...he wasn't trying to attack her at all, at least not yet. He let all of these attacks go through, and although they hurt for a bit and probably left a bruise or two, he was relatively unaffected and remained calm. She appeared to be having fun abusing him, shown by her swift attacks and attempts to dodge blows that would never even be launched. His body jerked itself each time she had assaulted him, going in the direction that she hit him in. This was more due to the fact that he was putting little effort in himself, and less due to the strength of her attacks.

Eventually Alyia decided to make a bold move, as black feathered wings similar to ones Deniel had used before sprouted out of her back, her frail and small body lifted him up towards the sky following her. That was the mistake that the Fallen Angel would never make again. "Time to go to work..." he muttered as his clothes had clung to his skin, morphing themselves into scales. The teeth in his mouth quickly grew to fangs as his red eyes turned inhuman and filled with rage. The grip she had on him was no longer on clothes, but on the black scales that now covered his body from head to toe. With no warning, no immense release of Magic, no use of Magic circles, and such a quick transformation, it conveyed just how much Deniel had mastered his Take Overs, and now it was time for Alyia to do the same. With his transformation completing, and finally making an effort to do something, Deniel was the one that began to control Alyia. He gripped the Fallen Angel by her arm, which felt so frail within the firm grip of the clawed hand.

While Alyia had attacked and assaulted him, Deniel's rage and annoyance had actually begun to build up, and now as the Black Devil, they were nearly at its peak. However, he still retained control over his sanity and actions, but he needed to get it out. He jerked the Fallen Angel straight for him, and gave a saliva filled monstrous roar right into her face, before gripping on to it with his right hand. His claws threatened to dig straight into her skull, and he began to force her and himself to descend straight into the ground. He smashed her straight down, with the back of her head colliding with the ground first, as his hand sent an enormous amount of Unholy Energy into her mind and body, so much that the area around them, with the ground and trees were consumed with it. Perhaps he had overdone it with his rage, but regardless he ceased his actions, and now forced Alyia into her own mind and body to do battle with the beast within. It was all up to her now.

Notes: Good luck, Alyia~

"A wanderer isn't always lost."

Very shortly after he knocked Alyia out, he remained there for a moments to make sure she had not been faking it, and that his dose of Unholy Energy had worked. The Energy itself was not entirely necessary, but it did speed up the process of knocking her out as it was a very destructive material. The point of this was to knock her out while herself and the beast were seeking control of the body, so the two of them would have to fight for it. One would overthrow the other, and it could not be shared. Satisfied with what had happened, he stood up, momentarily glancing down on her before going to the nearest tree. It was only a few feet away from her, and leaned his back firmly against the tree. Between his scales and the bark was the cold metal of his sword Armageddon, which had observed his actions that he had taken thus far. "Are you confident this will work, Deniel?" Staring down at Alyia's knocked out body, he merely gave a shrug in response before saying: "Can't say for certain. It's up to her."

Remaining silent for several moments, and although knowing almost every one of Deniel's secrets, he was still curious. "When did you develop this method? And have you ever used it on yourself?" Deniel frowned for a moment before he shook his head, crossing each of his arms between each other. "I never had to. I mastered them quite easily, and they're in my blood. I invented this because I'm not an idiot, Nidhogg...I know a lot more about Magic than I let on to." Of course Deniel never told Nidhogg exactly how he developed it, why, and when, but he simply left it there. And for the time being, that was a satisfying answer enough for it. Deniel had been expecting him to be there for at least half an hour, most likely more as taming one's inner beast isn't always the easiest thing to do. However, less than thirty seconds after Nidhogg and Deniel finished their first conversation, Alyia's eyes burst open and she proclaimed that she had finished.

Immediately Deniel doubted that she truly was, and he showed it by letting out a very low growl, almost like a bellow that vibrated from his throat as his fanged mouth opened up. "Is that so? He pushed himself away from the tree and placed his tight grip around Armageddon's hilt, continuing to give his low growl as he did so. "Prove it to me, then! And I won't be holding back so much this time."

Notes

"A wanderer isn't always lost."

She was not ready, nor had she fully taken control of it. The amount of time it took her was far too short, and that's what gave the distinction to Deniel. A beast must be physically defeated and caged...not reasoned with. Although it was unknown whether or not she reasoned with it, he knew for a fact that she had not defeated it in that amount of time. It would take a person's every last bit of strength to do so. However, just as a test for her, he still made no offensive moves. This time was different, though, as he would no longer simply take her attacks one by one and let her do whatever she pleased. He had never physically fought Alyia before, but in the brief moments earlier he figured out her fighting style, and while there was still plenty more to learn about it, he could tell that it mainly consisted of very swift but powerful attacks, usually from below. She was taking advantage of the height difference, and perhaps hoping that the beast before her was as low one, but far from it. While the Black Devil did lack the exquisite and unstoppable speed of the White Angel, it surely was not slow.

Letting her first attack of scratching his leg go through, it was the second one where Deniel would finally take a bit of action. Instead of parrying it as she expected, all he did was take a very small step back, so slight and subtle it was hardly noticeable, but still just enough to avoid her attack. Just as her claw harmlessly passed in front of his head, he let out a short breath from his nostrils which expelled a small bit of smoke. The next attack was not done without any form of swift movement or mobility placement, but rather exactly from where she was standing. He knew not why she had done it, and her gripping her head could probably explain it, but he did not care. She said she was done? He was about to prove her otherwise. The attack she sent in an attempt to knock her over ultimately failed, as her foot only smashed against his boot harmlessly, with the mighty creature still standing tall and firm on two feet. At long last moving with his sword, the Black Devil muttered one word: "Try..." before yelling the other: "AGAIN!" He raised his sword Armageddon on the word 'try', only with a single hand, and on the word again he brought it down with movements of his entire body, putting his back into it as well as his shoulders in a diagonal shaped slash. For the very first time he did not hold back any bit of his strength and his attack, and it showed. The wind created from the force rippled the trees, and the pressure put on to the attack had partially shattered the ground just behind Alyia. It would have destroyed a whole level of terrain if it had not been focused, but unfortunately for Alyia: it was focused on her.

Notes