Exam: Test of Defeat (Deniel A Rank)

Kyll had invited Deniel to join her on the Serene Cliffs. Mainly because she wanted to make sure that there was enough space between her, the guild, AND the village. She knew that what she was about to do may put a damper on Deniel. However, Kyll had promised Nidhogg that this would be a reminder about his goals and what his mission was. Kyll meditated in the grassy area. She knew that this exam was against all of her wishes for Deniel. However, the sword had requested that he teach him this. It was as if the sword was a bit more mature than Deniel. She began to float in her meditation as she became one with the Universe, the one true life stream that ran everything around her. The heart to everything. The reason to everything. Kyll prepared her mind for this exam as she awaited for the one she was about to test.

A deep breath went into Deniel's nose, and escaped his lips as he came upon the familiar site of the Serene Cliffs. "I remember when I came here on a job, Nidhogg." Deniel traced his thoughts back to him finding a Great White Moose, and even taming the beast into helping him find a lost lion cub. It was quite a memory, but he needed to let them all go now. Almost every exam up until now had been simple tasks, but something told him this wasn't going to be so simple. "Just be on your guard, Deniel. Things could get...rough." Deniel could almost laugh at Nidhogg's remark, having know idea what was in store for him. "What's she gonna' do? She can't harm me THAT much. Why would she?" Deniel secured his blade in his left belt slot so he could reach for it with his dominant hand. Another deep breath escaped his lips as he laid eyes upon Kyll meditating and floating in the air. "Kyll," he started to gain her attention. "Let's get this over with." He grabbed on to the hilt of his katana, Nidhogg, and drew the black blade from its scabbard. He pointed it at her, but his standing a distance from her only meant he was challenging her. "Ready when you are! Bring it!" His voice grew a bit fierce, and his eyebrows lowered to create a scowl on his face, a scowl that he hadn't created in such a long time.

The closed eyes mage slowly stepped out of her meditation. She stood in front of him at a ready stance. If he could feel the magic surging from her, it would possibly scare him away. In fact, she opened her eyes revealing the lime green glow. Her magic surged all around her, causing the glow to leak out of her face like green whips of flame. "You will not like this exam," Kyll said. The powerful magic she used seemed to change her voice a bit. As if it was the universe speaking through her. She glared right at the boy and cracked her neck, giving a smirk.

Even though Kyll was charging her meteor spell she did not approach him yet. Kyll looked at the boy and crossed her arms as the yellow aura began to surround her body.

"What the-!?" Deniel felt her magic energy surging around her and causing him to hold his arms up in defense from the force of it. He wasn't scared at all, in fact, he was impressed. He felt his blood rush through his body, a sensation that he had never felt before. "Amazing!" He shouted out, feeling power not only surround her, but also go through him for some reason. He didn't care what he was feeling, only that he was going to take this challenge on. He smirked and lowered his arms. "Oh I think I love this exam already! Arms of the Black Devil!" Deniel held out both of his arms to his side so that his Take Over could activate. After a few moments, nothing happened. The usual magic circles never appeared, and his body didn't change one bit. "What!?" He looked down at both of his arms, surprised to see nothing. He tried once more. "Arms of the Black Devil!" Yet again, nothing happened at all. Deniel started to grow furious. "Nephalem Wings! Wings of the White Angel! Crown of the Black Devil!" He called out all of these Take Over forms, but not a single one of them came to be. He was left completely unchanged.

He grunted and clenched his sword tighter. His voice was only getting harsher, and his red eyes began to glow. "Fine! I'll take you on without them!" Without his Take Overs to unlock his true power, and his mind clouded by rage, Deniel did an extremely reckless move as to charging to her and leaving himself completely open with Nidhogg raised above his head. "Oh dear...this will be worse than I thought."

Just as Deniel was about to hit Kyll, her body seemed to blur. No it moved far too fast for him to keep up. She reappeared behind him and sent an elbow to the small of his back, sending him flying forward toward the cliff. If he didn't use anything to stop his momentum, Deniel would fly off the edge and go crashing down into the water. Kyll wanted to keep her promise to Nidhogg. So she flew up into the air. She reached her maximum height in seconds. She stopped in place for a second and a yellow magic seal appeared, then she stopped in another area making a second seal appear. She did this two more times as they formed the handle to the big dipper.

Spell Used:

Now would be a good time if I had my goddamn wings! Deniel thought to himself as he was suddenly sent flying forward. He knew she was stronger from the beginning, but he had never faced anything like this before. He could just access one of his Take Overs he might have a fighting chances, even his eyes could have given him a chance to dodge that. Maybe. The most important thing is he was going to fly off the cliff, and he didn't have his wings to stop it. He had to resort to more practical uses, and that's exactly what he did. He stabbed Nidhogg in the ground to make the sword slow down his momentum towards the cliff, stopping completely just before he was about to fly off. "Take Overs or no..." he began and dug Nidhogg from the ground, "I'm not going to fail or lose this! When Deniel finally looked up, however, he saw that Kyll wasn't on the ground, but drawing something in the air. "This would be so much easier if I could just use my wings! Come on!" He looked behind himself and focused with all of his will power to try and use one of his Take Over forms, but nothing happened. No magic circles, no wings, no nothing. "Kyll!" He called out to her while starting to walk away from the cliff to make sure he was at least safe from that, "Get down here and fight! I can't use my wings, so I can't reach you!"

Kyll watched him on the ground. "You will have to figure out how to get through this first," Kyll said as she finished the constellation. She had finally made three more seals and flew back behind. The seven seals slowly spun. "The Seven Stars will judge you..." After she spoke her words, the seals began to spin faster like air plane propellers. It began to pour penny sized hail stones of light on Deniel. She then landed right in front of him feet away from his path. Her landing caused the ground to tremble. The green eyed fighting spirit stared at Deniel, full of anger and pride.

"Judge...me...?" That statement is what caused even more clouded rage to go into Deniel's mind. He held his arms up in defense just like he did before to defend against all of the stones that came his way. It didn't matter much anyway, as some of them started to cut into his skin and made him bleed. However, he was starting to get much more furious about what she just said. He was silent for moments, taking the blow like it was nothing, until he clenched his fist even tighter around Nidhogg. "Angels...ARE NOT JUDGED!" Deniel's body started to become sparked with a blue lightning, a source of powerful holy energy. For a split second, his body shifted into that of his White Angel Form, He was padded in a pure white armor layered that covered his legs, and his arms from his elbows to his hands. His body was had in a chestplate that covers him all the way down to his waist complete with golden shoulderplates. Every layer on his armor is separated with golden yellow trimmings. On his knees are two diamond shaped sapphires, and an orange round jewel in the center of his chest. He is complete with giant golden and white wings, which are each as big as himself. Powerful, but not even close to heavy for him. Part of his wings are his armor, which does not appear in the partial form. The parts that come out of his shoulders and extend outwards are the ones that are made of metal. The metal part is only to hold the wings together and create them as a whole, and there are two other sections that form the actual wings. The first part of his wings have two golden, thick crescent shapes that are separated to his white feathers by a long strip of metal that separates the two. Across the stip of metal and on the very top of where his wings first descent out of his back are large, powerful white feathered wings. The golden crescent shapes appear to be covered with feathers on the back side of it, and it's only on the front side that they have the appearance than they do.

This form only appeared for a second or two, until the lightning flashed on him again, turning him back into his human form. His red eyes were still glowing in rage, despite being an angel. "I will not be judged! You are the one that shall be judged, for all of your sins!" Deniel started to run straight through the stones, ignoring all of the pain they caused him. However, he was still as reckless and mindless as before, he raised his sword to Kyll and gave the blade a powerful slash from the shoulders down to the waist.

Kyll clapped her hands together and caught the sword with her gloved hands. His swing was stopped right above her head. The glowing firey green eyes stared into Deniel's soul. "You will not be defeating me so easily." She said as she sent a spin kick towards his stomach hoping to land it and send him flying back. She smirked as she flew forward as fast as she possibly could. Her body was hovering over him. She then slammed him to the ground and her voice spoke again. This was definitely not her, it was her anger. This spirit within her was her fighting spirit. "Admit your defeat... Or I will bring you so close to death, you will be wise to challenge anything ever again." Kyll's skin began to go paler as she pushed Deniel to his limits.

I want to end this soon... Kyll thought to herself. She felt like she had pushed herself aside to let out her fighting spirit. Her inner voice then sounded out to her. The vengeful emotions sounded off.

I will use the stars... To send him into oblivion... and end this then. The voice shouted out in her mind. Kyll could not fight off her emotions now, nor could she control her prideful fighting spirit. It was like a dragon on the loose, terrorizing the world around it. Kyll had hoped that Deniel would stop the exam just as Nidhogg said. He will feel the pain of losing, just as that sword requested. The pain of defeat.

But can I pull it off. The spell takes a long time to charge. Kyll thought.

"What!?" He was somehow surprised when his reckless and pathetic attack didn't land, and his sword was caught harmlessly by her. When her kick was sent into his stomach, it was not only strong enough to send him flying back, but his grip from his precious sword, Nidhogg, was shattered, and the sword fell harmlessly to the ground. Deniel panted heavy breaths, trying to recover from the recent blow. All of his rage and fire was temporarily gone, that is until she spoke up again. "Defeat? Death!?" Just like Nidhogg said, defeat was something that Deniel never liked, and the fact that it sounded like she was mocking and underestimating him. "You...you...YOU DA-" "Deniel!" Deniel had raised his fist in response to Kyll's statement to show her he still had fight left in him. In the nick of time, however, Nidhogg interrupted Deniel's rage once again. The glow in his eyes ceased as he stared at the idle blade in the ground. "Can you forget about Senji already? Just look at her. Do you see the monster from your past? Do you hear a crowd that hates you?"

Nidhogg knew the exact reason why Deniel was so terrified of defeat. He knew the memory Deniel had of his first and only time he lost in prison: the giant monster of a man nearly breaking every bone in his body, and the crowd booing and mocking him. And all of this happened because of a crime he had no idea happened, or remembered at least. "No..." he whispered and looked at Kyll. He closed his eyes and laid both of his hands on his chest, "I surrender. I lose, and I fail."

Just like the flip of a switch. When Deniel finished speaking, her aura exploded off of her body. Like a breeze on the beach it blew passed Deniel and Nidhogg. She stood the young mage up on his two feet and dusted him off. "On the contrary," Kyll said, her voice returning back to normal. She stepped back a couple of steps and held out her hand. She tensed her arm and a white magic circle with a butterfly in the middle appeared. A kaleidoscope of butterflies flew out of the circle and then started to surround Deniel. The butterflies would land on all of his injuries from the exam she gave him and heal the wounds she had caused. She cocked a warm smile looking over at her opponent. "You pass with flying colors." She took in a deep breath. "Had you not stopped earlier, I probably would have put you in a more severe shape." Kyll said with a smile.

He surrendered, but he didn't seem too happy about it. Losing was still losing, and he doubted that by surrendering he would pass his exam. His gaze was set to the ground when he stood up, and his expression was very glum. When the butterflies finishing healing him, he sighed and was about ready to go, only to stop himself from her next statement. "I...I what!? I pass!? B-But I didn't do anything! I lost! I couldn't even touch you! I couldn't even use my magic!" None of this made any sense to him. His suspicions turned the only place that could have possibly done this: Nidhogg. He remembered the blade telling him this exam was going to be rough, and that he should prepare himself. He had to have something to do with this. "What is going on here, Nidhogg?" Deniel walked over to his blade and picked it up. "A mere extermination of a ghost from the past, Deniel. You take defeat as something so horrible, but this was merely to show you that it's not. Defeat is not always a bad thing, Deniel. Perhaps you could learn something from it, such as controlling your rage when you're hurt." Nidhogg's last statement was still something Deniel should work on, since he looked like he was about to strike the blade for tricking him. ""You son of a-!" "Exactly my point, Deniel! ...Just take a moment to calm down. I know I tricked you, but think of the good this will do." Deniel closed his red eyes and sheathed the blade. He took a deep breath of natures fresh air to calm his nerves and anger. He remembered Kyll was still standing there, so he turned to her and gave her a bow. "Thank you very much, Kyll. I don't know if this was easy or hard for you to do this, but thanks for putting up with me. I think...I think I have learned a lot from this."

Kyll nodded to Deniel with a smile. However her inward appearance was more concerned for Deniel's safety. Her smile showed a sense of thankfulness too. "Nidhogg... If you ever make a request like that ever again. I will make sure to break you into two. I do not approve of a 'no holds bars' match against me." She looked down at the ground. "I did not go all out like he requested. There is just something that makes me prevent it all the time. You stopped me before I could break that last barrier into my magic." Kyll put a hand on Deniel's shoulder and smiled. "And for THAT in itself. I thank you."

I now realize why Einrich told me that I take a vow of self defense over actually forcing my magic out like that. Kyll thought to herself. However being a ghost of Deniel's past really did make her reflect back to when Einrich did the same to her. "I don't like hurting fellow humans. It just doesn't sit well with me." Kyll said with a smile. "With that said are you okay?" Kyll said putting a hand out to let Deniel lead the way back to their guild halls.

"Ouch..." Breaking him in half didn't mean Nidhogg was going to die, but it was still a pretty big threat to him. He had also taken a huge risk in losing his master's trust, and perhaps his life, from this. He was just glad it was all over. "I guess we both have something to thank each other for." Deniel felt a warmth inside of him, and the muscles on his lips curving upwards. He turned away from Kyll, since the last thing he wanted her to see was him smiling from happiness instead of smirking. When his face wasn't looking at hers, he let his smile through and the delight go in. Maybe I'm no so different from people, after all... he thought to himself. Kyll's next statement reminded him otherwise and the smile on his face completely faded. "I'm fine, Kyll." He said to her coldly before turning around and scolding her for what she said before that. "But let me get one thing straight: I am not a human. I'm not like you, I'm not like Zeno, I'm not like anyone! Except my mother and father, whoever they may be." He turned away from her without taking her hand so he could head back to the guild by himself and ahead of her. He looked her from the corner of his eye over his shoulder. "No one knows about me or this exam, got it? I don't exist." He looked back ahead of himself and started once again, "I'm this guild's mystery...and that's final."