Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction / Legend Of Zelda Fan Fiction / Devil May Cry - Series Fan Fiction ❯ Knights of the Realms ❯ Ch 17 - Enter Sandman ( Chapter 17 )

KNIGHTS OF THE REALMS

 

 

Enter Sandman

 

 

 

 

 

Tatl prodded Dante some more, unrelenting in her small victory. “Go on! Say it!”

 

The Demon Hunter glowered at the fairy, hoping that she would suddenly drop out of the air. “No.”

 

“C'mon, you lost! Now say it!”

 

“No.”

 

“If you say it, I'll leave you alone…”

 

Dante glowered some more. “Now you won't.”

 

“No,” Tatl conceded, “I won't. JUST SAY IT!”

 

Drizzt couldn't help but laugh at Dante's predicament. “She's not going to let you go until you say it.”

 

“You're not helping any,” sulked Dante, his withering gaze never leaving the bobbing fairy.

 

“Give up already. You're even more annoying when you lose than normal.” Cloud let a rare grin slip as he and Drizzt shared a look behind the Demon Hunter's back.

 

Dante sighed. Even he knew when he couldn't win. Not that he'd always admit it, but he did know. “Alright,” he sighed, with great exaggeration. “The little blue whistle isn't completely useless.”

 

Link smiled.

 

“There,” said Zelda, pointing beyond the newly revealed doorway in the Temple of Time. The group moved forward into the chamber. “Is this what you were looking for, Drifter?”

 

The chamber was wide, at least fifty feet across. At the center was a pedestal, raised upon a series of large, spacious steps. The Drifter zeroed in on the pedestal, making immediately for it. “Yes, Your Majesty. Exactly what I was looking for.” He spread his arms a little, as if experiencing a gentle breeze. “I can feel the flow of time here extraordinarily well.”

 

Cloud raised an eyebrow. “You can feel the flow of time? But doesn't time flow everywhere?”

 

“An astute observation made by someone that has their sensibilities grounded. I like that. Yes, Cloud, time does indeed flow everywhere. You and I are both growing older, dust is accumulating all around us…but there are some places where the time flow is noticeable. Come closer, all of you.” The group moved around the Drifter, standing around the pedestal. “Tell me what you feel.”

 

A long silence held, as each person focused on what their senses were telling them. “I feel…” began Drizzt, “older…?”

 

“That would be one way of putting it,” said the Drifter, “and broadly speaking, that's correct.”

 

“It feels like I'm caught in a stream,” ventured Cloud.

 

The Drifter nodded. “Yes. That is the time flow.”

 

“It feels like…like…like I'm constantly and acutely aware of every second washing over me…” They all looked at Dante. “What?” he said, the picture of injured innocence.

 

“It would appear that this is not your first intimate experience with time,” observed Zelda. “Nor would it appear that your manners are better kept within sacred grounds.”

 

Dante grinned widely. “Sorry to disappoint, but I count this as a victory, Princess my dear. You actually talked to me.” He turned to the side and held his head high, looking at her out of the corner of his eye. “Could this be the start of something…more?”

 

The Drifter put a firm hand on his shoulder. “Dante, there is a time and a place for everything—“

 

“Aw, but don't ya know? Time is just an illusion.”

 

The Drifter smiled. “How right you are.” This got a curious look from all. “Time itself is constantly flowing. Never stopping, ebbing, or surging. The illusion itself lies in the…habit, if you will, of things to stay within the time flow, letting it wash over them with no interference. It is when one steps closer to understanding how the cosmos works when they understand that time is not something one has to conform to. Link, Dante, and yourself, My Lady,” he said, turning to Zelda, “have all taken a step in that direction. And now it's time to take another step.” He reached inside his cloak and withdrew a pouch. “Until now, you've all had vertical movements through time. Backwards or forwards, whether it was merely slowing down time or jumping across multiple years. Now it's time to add a horizontal movement.”

 

He loosened the strings of the pouch and reached inside. “A horizontal movement doesn't have so much to do with time as it does space. In truth, we all have made both horizontal and vertical movements, but few have made them in the same instance.” The Drifter noticed more than a few wrinkled brow's among his audience. “As it is,” he said, “what I'm about to do is a movement through time, by several thousand years, and space, by entire worlds.”

 

“How, if I may ask?” inquired Zelda. “The Temple of Time serves as a link to the Sacred Realm and nowhere else.”

 

“It serves as a link to the Sacred Realm because of the catalyst,” he nodded at Link, “the Master Sword.” A glimmer of understanding showed on the Princesses face. “A link to another world is possible so long as an item from that world is used as the catalyst. In this instance,” he brought his hand out of the bag, and something sifted from between his pinched fingers, “I have the Sands of Time.” He held his arm above the pedestal and sprinkled the Sands down. He took a few steps back, and the others followed his example.

 

The Sands never hit the floor. Their fall simply stopped, as if gravity didn't apply, and they began swirling around a point above the pedestal. They swirled faster and tighter, condensing into a sphere. An intense light shown from the center of the sphere, perforating the Sands around it and cracking the surface. With a whoosh of air the sphere collapsed upon itself and imploded, leaving a bright glow—there being no better word for it—hanging in the air, looking to be equal parts light and sand.

 

“Perfect. Any second now, our guest should ente—“

 

“MU!”

 

The Drifter was bowled over by the man that had fallen out of the glow. “MU!” he screamed again, clawing at the ground in a desperate attempt to get away from the glow…and the thing that had followed him through.

 

“Cerberus, Dante!” yelled the Drifter, and Dante immediately brought out the flail and slammed it down on the tentacle that had wrapped itself around the man's leg. It let go, but did not stop the advance of the creature as it emerged fully. The world had drained of its color, leaving everything dead shades of brown. “Damn,” the Drifter swore, bringing the two swords at his side to bear. “Unexpected, to say the least. Everyone back, save Dante and myself.” The creature brought itself up to full height, an impressive sight, and paused as it took in the new surroundings. “Malku, kataru!” he said, turning to the new man, obviously disoriented yet never taking his eyes off of the creature in front of them. He glanced at the Drifter, noticing him for the first time.

 

“Kataru,” he nodded his assent. “Mu adi la basi alaku.”

 

“Idu,” responded the Drifter. “It's as I thought,” he said to the others, “only water will harm this beast.”

 

Dante swaggered forward, swinging Cerberus casually. “I get it I get it, ice equals water equals ass kicking.” He looked back to Zelda. “This one's for y—“ The beast bodily pushed him away with a tendril that it hadn't had before, and stomped towards the new man. Extracting himself from the impression he had made in the wall, Dante, moved to intercept the creature.

 

“I ain't done with you yet, ugly,” he shouted as he brought Cerberus around and hit the beast full in the face. This time it did reel. It wasn't used to this. Things it hit stayed down.

 

Its attention momentarily diverted, the new man turned to the wall behind the beast and ran straight at it, his momentum carrying him up the wall a short way. As it gave out, he leapt back, soaring through the air to plant both feet on the beast's head, forcing it down and jumping off again before its tendril could find him.

 

This afforded Dante another attack, bringing Cerberus in an arc to land home on the back of the lowered head. Another tortured scream rent the air, and more tendrils appeared about the beast's black body.

 

“You like that?” Dante asked the writhing form, all the while landing blow after blow on the unprotected head. His barrage was cut short when the beast lunged forward, grasping Dante in both of its massive hands. It looked Dante squarely in the eyes, and Dante leaned in to head but the beast. It didn't flinch, and the Demon Hunter's vision went blurry. “Oww…”

 

The beast dropped him suddenly. It screamed louder this time, and was hit once again in the side by a burst of blue energy.

 

“Back, demon! By the Goddess' I banish thee!” Zelda's eyes narrowed and she pushed harder, the blue intensifying as it shot out from in between her hands. The beast staggered back from the force of the blast, barely managing to stand. Inch by inch, it was moving closer back to the swirling sand that it emerged from. In a last effort, two tentacles shot around the blast, going directly for the new man. Two blue glowing arrows made it stumble back the last bit, causing it to fall into the glow.

 

“Seal it!” ordered the Drifter before the beast had completely vanished. “Remove the Sands and you remove the link!”

 

Zelda concentrated, and her magic changed color, now a mixture of hues. The stream of energy broke off to become a bubble that surrounded the glow. It contracted, forcing the Sands into a tighter and tighter space until nothing remained.

 

None moved, save Zelda who lowered her arms and the Drifter to congratulate her. “Well done, Princess! Well done indeed. I had forgotten just how much power is exhibited by the Seventh.” He noticed that the man from the Sands, black hair disheveled and bleeding from the leg, was watching them warily, now that the beast was gone. “Malku,” he said, moving over to him. The man eyed him up as he approached.

 

“Amelnakru?”

 

The Drifter shook his head and held up his hands in a show of peace. “Salamu.”

 

“Just what did you do, Princess, if I may be so bold to ask?” inquired Drizzt.

 

“I am the Seventh Sage, good ranger, a…culmination of the other six, for lack of a better word. Forest, Fire, Water, Shadow, Spirit, and Light. Each one holds watch over their realm, and indeed are a very part of it.” She pushed a lock of hair behind her pointed ear. “As the Seventh, I have all the powers that are granted to each of the others. I called forth not water itself, but the very essence of water.” She smiled at him. “Works just as well and a great deal less messy.”

 

The man looked around, not recognizing anything. “Adannu?” he asked the Drifter.

 

The Drifter put his head to one side. “Adannuma asru,” he said. A brief moment of confusion crossed the man's face. Then his eyes got wide with understanding. “Nergal?” The Drifter nodded. “Mudu?” he asked, pointing at the Drifter.

 

The Drifter chuckled. “Dahaka kunukkum Sarratum. Kasadu eridu, salamu esharra?”

 

The man considered the question before nodding his head. “Ana Harrani Sa Alaktasa La Tarat.”

 

“I helped, too,” pouted Dante, brushing the dust off his coat.

 

“Indeed you did,” said Zelda, turning to face him.

 

Dante beamed. “Finally, some recognit—“

 

“If ever I have need for demon bait again, rest assured I shall send you a summons.”