The horse moved through the snow-filled sky, each bound covering hundreds of feet, as it pushed off from the ground. On it rode a knight with a skull-shaped helm and heavy armor, his eyesockets glowing with an unnatural light, matched by the glow from the horse’s eyes.
An unnatural rider, for an unnatural steed. In his arms, he held two bloody mortals, a man and a woman. The woman was silent, marveling at the moonlit landscape whizzing by with a child’s eyes. The man was struggling to no avail.
“Let… me… GO!”
“No.” Replied the Skull Knight.
“He’s back there. GRIFFITH! He’s far away from his troops now, I can finally-“
“If you face him now, you die.” The Knight’s voice was as implacable as a tombstone, cold and unyielding.
“I don’t care.” Guts twisted, sliding his massive sword between his arm and the Knight’s, prying with his good hand to try and get some leverage. There was a little give, but not enough…
“As long as he dies with me, I don’t care.” And he gave a heave, hearing the metal of his artificial arm creak, and start to crumple as he started to pull free…
With no warning, the Knight reigned in the steed, letting go of Guts! The swordsman sprung free of his perch, to roll across the ground over and over, and end up in a mass of snowy bushes! Cursing, and dripping red on the shrubbery, he used the sword to pull himself to his feet…
“What the Hell?”
The Knight’s eyesockets stared into his own, and he couldn’t look away from the glow.
“If you face him now, you are guaranteed death. And have little chance of ending him. And if you fall, then I cannot guard this woman any longer.” He held up Caska, as she squirmed to dismount the horse.
“Would you sacrifice her to your vengeance? Broken as her mind is, she cannot survive without a guardian.”
And the black swordsman hesitated…
ELSEWHERE
There was a house in the deep, deep woods, miles away from a quiet little town. It was a good house, a large house, but only one old woman lived there, by herself. Occasionally, her adopted children would come to hear her orders, for she was a harsh mother. And they would leave, to do her bidding after she fed them, and comforted them in her own way.
She was Dante. Her story was long, and only Dante knew much of it. Suffice it to say that long ago she had loved a brilliant man, and lost him. And long ago the love had turned to something other, and she knew only the obsession to catch him, to pursue him to whence he had fled.
And to that end, she was drawing in lines of metal. An array pulled from the elements of the earth, as she traced her fingers along the stone floor of her basement, the silver bubbling up under her finger tips through her will, and her knowledge of Alchemy.
She was a great alchemist, and a terrible one, and it was a minor trick to call silver to this place from below. Now, using the crafted metal lines and patterns to focus her will and attempt the next step… That was no minor trick. And she would need other ingredients, that should be arriving shortly.
Soon enough, there were the sounds of feet upon the stairs. One set of heavy footsteps, almost waddling. The other footsteps were delicate, with the clicking of high heels upon stone.
“Mother, we’ve brought the stones.” It was a sultry voice, deep and purring. It belonged to a vision in black shining cloth, a woman dressed in an evening gown and nearly shoulder-length gloves. A red symbol gleamed on her chest, above her ample bosom. Her hair was black, and her black lips curved in a smile that promised pain and pleasure in uneven amounts.
“Can… Can I eat them? Please?” That was the second figure, his high-pitched voice whining as he waddled forward, balancing a keg easily on one shoulder. He was bald and round, dressed in black cloth with white piping. He had the eyes of an idiot, and an eager, hungry grin.
“No.” Dante smiled, reaching out a hand to the smaller one’s head. The short, fat man purred like a cat, as she scratched his scalp, loosely. Then he yelped, as she seized his ear, and pulled his face up to her own. “And you haven’t eaten any of them, have you? You’ve touched NONE of them, have you, Gluttony?”
“NO! NO! Lust wouldn’t let me…” Dante smiled, and let go of the round little man. “Good. Wipe your chin.” Gluttony complied, as she nodded at the woman.
“Every one is there, moth-“ Dante raised an eyebrow. “Mistress,” The woman hastily amended. “I knew what you would do to him, if he snuck a few.”
“Such concern for such a flawed project… Well, as long as you do your work well, your conceits are your own, Lust.”
The woman shrugged, her lips folding into a sneer for a minute. “Well. Do you wish anything further of us?”
Dante opened the keg, and ran her hands through the contents. Small, red gems trailed from her fingers, cascading in a crimson flow, as she let them fall from her palms.
“Perfect. This should be enough to finally open a stable breach. And the military is unlikely to miss such a large supply of flawed stones?”
Lust shrugged. “With Pride secure in his place, and Envy running interference, no one’s ever likely to notice.”
“Good.” Dante took handfuls of the stones, and poured them into the silver-lined diagram she had traced onto the floor. The red stones gathered and collected, flowing like quicksilver as they filled the lines of the pattern, spelling out arcane characters and strange, twisting runes…
“And Sloth, how is she developing?”
Lust’s eyes followed the pattern of stones. Though her face was blank and contemplative, her eyes betrayed her interest as they tumbled past her. Gluttony was far more blatant, his drool smoked and ate into the stone as he watched in hunger, at the crimson bounty before him…
“Hm? Ah, yes, Sloth. It’s good to finally have a sister. She’s a little naïve yet, but with more stones and time, she’ll remember ALL that she’s lost.”
Dante smiled, hard and grim. “Good. We have no more time for children, she’ll have to grow up quickly. At any rate, it sounds like matters are well in hand. Return to that desert town, and oversee that false priest that you’ve propped up.”
“Ah, in Liore? Very well. He’s been begging me to deliver on my promise…”
Dante scooped up one of the stones, and flicked it to Lust. The black-clad woman caught it, her fingers seeming to stretch and twist with unnatural speed for a second, in the lamplight. “This should let him play to his heart’s desire. Miracles for all of his populace, all the water to wine he can drink. And then, wait and watch, and see who comes…”
Lust nodded. “I know it well. Come, Gluttony.”
“Yes, coming!” The little man bumbled upstairs, as the woman left.
And Dante returned to her work…
ELSEWHERE
Bleeding, standing on a barely-functional leg, Guts closed his eye. Even through the shut lid, he could still see the glow from the Skull Knight’s stare.
“No. Not her.”
“I won’t sacrifice Caska.”
And the Skull Knight nodded. “Good. Then I can save you from him. He comes, quickly, and I cannot confront him. If I do then Zodd will come to face me, and Griffith will tear you asunder while I am occupied. I must hide you, get you to a place where he cannot follow. You and the woman both, or he will use her to find you.”
There was a howling scream rising from the South, and Guts shook his head. “He’s fast, and he ain’t gonna stop. You’re gonna hide us, you better have a good place…”
He stopped, and stared. The Skull Knight had tilted his head back, opening his helm’s mouth wide. Inside was radiance, and one gauntleted hand was drawing something, drawing it out of his throat.
It was a sword. Thin and short, barely the size of a gladius. Its blade resembled nothing so much as a mass of colored eggs melted and run together. Eggs with eyes, and melted faces…
It was a sword made of behelits! It was one of the small, egg-shaped… things… that had guaranteed Griffith’s transformation and damnation. One of them could imbue a human with unholy powers, and form. Guts knew their shape well, he carried one recovered from a slain disciple in a pouch, at his side.
This sword, though… This, he knew nothing about. The sword screamed and puffed steam into the cold air, as the Skull Knight pulled it free, and set it into a firm grip. “I have no time for a long explanation. Suffice it to say that this sword will open gates, doors to allow one to travel anywhere in this world… Or to the Gates between worlds.”
“I will have to send you two through different gates. I can guarantee you will find yourselves in the same world… but…”
Guts shook his head. Barely understand what he’s talkin’ about. It doesn’t matter, as long as he does it quickly. “Just do it!”
“If the gate is open from the other side, then I can put one through without trouble.” Intoned the Skull Knight. “But if the gate is shut, then it will demand a sacrifice. And the price could be terrible.”
Guts stared. Then he laughed, without humor, finally shaking his head. “Ha, always a sacrifice. Can’t seem to dodge it. Alright, do it. Send her through an open one, if you can.”
The Skull Knight nodded, and the sword cut down, at the air…
…And tore, peeling away the very fabric of nothing, opening a crackling white rift in the air as the screams of the Behelits forming the blade reached a crescendo…
Guts glanced up, to find a diving silhouette against the moon…
And elsewhere, Dante finished her meditation, focused her thoughts, and slammed her hands against the diagram on her floor. In no time at all, she found herself in a white space, as two vast doors in front of her began to rumble open…
…The Skull Knight finished his stroke, and his eyes fixed on the white point beyond, as he grabbed Caska and pushed her through… “An open Gate!” He called, and Guts smiled in relief, even as he hefted his sword…
…And the shadow against the moon resolved into a birdlike form, diving!
In the place between, Dante threw herself backward as a brown-skinned strange woman in sackcloth burst from the open Gates, black arms trailing from the void behind her! Eyes wide, the stranger raced into the white nothingness, screaming incoherently! Stunned, Dante watched her run, only to feel hands latch around her own ankles.
“No!” She breathed, as she looked back to see the void beyond the Gates alive with eyes, and limbs, and terrible reaching hands of shadow, hands that had latched onto her, and were dragging her backward…
“NO!” She yelled, as she was pulled into nothingness, and the doors shut with a muffled BOOM.
An equivalent exchange, thought Dante. One comes across, and one stays here forever.
And then, there was no more time to think.
ELSEWHERE
Guts raised his sword, squinting in the bad light, trying to see the blurred form swooping down on him. Too quick!
Setting his leg, practically kneeling, he tensed, waiting, waiting, and NOW!
Femto’s silent dive tore into his side, splitting a great gash out of his armor, and his return swing met only air! Twisting, and gritting his teeth against the pain, he set his good leg and recovered, to see the demonic raptor rising into the sky again…
With a small green glow, adorning its back. “What?”
He watched, as it rose… That glow looks familiar…
The Skull Knight lowered his twisted blade, and shook his head. “She is across, and safely! But, there are no more open gates. If I send you through now…”
Guts didn’t spare a look at him. “Hey. These gates of yours… What’ll they do to an elf?”
The Skull Knight paused. “They came from the gates to begin with, they can return through them just as easily. No sacrifice is needed.”
“Good. Puck, NOW!”
And as Femto pulled into his second dive and swooped down upon Guts, the small green form on his back went unnoticed as it pulled itself up to his shoulder! It tucked itself just below the figure’s chin, waited until Guts was a scant 20 feet below and FLARED, sending bright light directly into Femto’s eyes!
Blinded, Femto tried to pull up, and the blade lashed out…
It almost ended him, right there.
Almost.
Even disoriented, his perfect ears still heard the whisper of the blade coming straight towards his head.
He shifted, and the stroke that would have split his head, instead peeled away one arm, and most of its attached wing.
Silently, face frozen in a mask of outrage, Femto whipped past Guts, and crashed into the trees, ripping shards of wood out of their trunks as he collided, bursting through them and rolling to a stop, hundreds of feet away.
Midway through the crash, Puck bailed, screaming as he sped back to Guts’ side.
Guts was already stomping toward Griffith, hobbling on his bad leg, but he spared a grin for Puck. “Hey elf, what took ya?”
“GUTS!” Puck looked over the bloodstained form. “Oh no…” He was bleeding, staggering, barely upright. “Don’t… You can’t… He’ll kill you!”
Guts shook his head, and started past the elf…
…Just as a mailed hand fell on his shoulder. The Skull Knight brought the sword down with his other hand, peeling open screaming white void again, and Guts snarled, bringing the sword around, and sagging in his grip, finally feeling the blood-loss of his wounds.
“Go! I can delay no longer!”
And he shoved the swordsman into the void, as Puck grabbed hold of the tail of his cloak, falling in with him…
And then, there was silence as the portal sealed behind them.
And the Skull Knight looked over at the wreckage of the woods, seeing into the darkness as fallen trees shifted, and a crimson-armored form rose from the wreckage. It held up one mangled arm, that was knitting back together as he watched, wing and arm healing in the space of a few breaths.
They stared at each other for a long minute, before the Skull Knight wheeled and spurred his steed on, vanishing into the darkness.
And Femto screamed, the shrill sound of a thousand hawks on the hunt…
ELSEWHERE, DANTE’S MANSION
A brown-skinned woman tumbled into the center of a stone floor, surrounded by silver and crimson light! With a THOOM, the reaction destabilized and the pattern broke, its maker’s will vanished into the void. Above her, the house cracked and fell to pieces, the spent energy rippling through the structure and lighting up the night sky for miles around! Caska barely had time to cry out, before the ceiling fell on her, and she was left to darkness…
Down in the small village, Lust and Gluttony stared up at the sudden light above Dante’s house.
“What was that?” The fat little man whispered, his normal grin gone.
“I don’t know.” Lust responded, the silver light flickering against her wide eyes. “But it can’t be good…”
ELSEWHERE, THE DESERT
With a hoarse yell, a bloody, smeared, black-armored form tumbled into the sand, stone ruins stretching against the sky in the distance. He panted, breath sobbing into the sand as he lay there for a full minute.
From his pocket, a green glow thrashed, finally emerging to reveal Puck, unharmed by the journey. “What happened? I couldn’t see anything, your cloak got all tangled up. I nearly choked to death! What did I miss?”
“Eh.” Guts said, rolling over onto his back, and looking at the damage.
“Not much.”
And Puck gasped, staring at the bloody mess of thigh, where Guts’ right leg used to be…
“As sacrifices go, not much at all.” And with that Guts slipped into unconsciousness, Puck’s alarmed shouts echoing in his ears…