Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Crimson Curse ❯ Prologue ( Prologue )

Crimson Curse

 

By. DemonGirl-Setsuna

 

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Prologue

 

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Edo:

Spring; 1707

 

 

 

 

The sky was turning brilliant shades of gold, purple and pinks, as two warriors stand back-to-back; defending each-other, in the main court-yard of a castle from the sleepwalking like hoard on people; the mind-controlled slaves of the vampire that had been terrorizing the Mushashi-domain for 200 years.

 

One warrior was male with short mid-night onyx black hair and dazzling reddish-brown eyes wearing a dark green kimono, holding the hoard of slaves back with his katana.

 

The other warrior was female of remarkable beauty, with long chestnut-brown hair tied up in a high-ponytail by a yellow ribbon and warm brown eyes wearing a sky-blue kimono with a dark blue hakama, who was simply warding off the attacks with her bare-hands.

 

“Lucrecia, we need to hurry before the sun sets!”, the male shouts, having to slice a slave in half, when one of the slaves got a little too grabby.

 

“I know, but there are too many of them, Vincent!”, she replies, delivering a knock-blow to the slave that charged at her.

 

Suddenly, a clear pathway to the castle opens up in front of Lucrecia.

 

“Vincent, I've got a clear path inside!”, she says, running through the horde, “I'm going on ahead!”

 

“Lucrecia!”, he yells, turning around to face her and sees her running into the castle, “Don't go alone, it could be a trap!”, he warns, running after her but couldn't advance further as the pathway closed in front of him, “Shit…”, he curses to himself.

 

The hoard of slaves crowd around him, grabbing for anything they could get their hands on.

 

“I don't have time for this…”, he mutters, slamming his fist into the face of the first mind-slave who got in his way as he pushes his way towards the castle.

 

When the first slave went down, it opened up a space for Vincent to sheath his sword and more room to fight hand-to-hand. Five mind-slaves charge in at him from different directions, and he counters with a wide-circling sweeping-kick; knocking their feet from underneath them, he quickly tumbles out of the path of a downward swing of one of the slave's katana. Vincent continues to evade the mad-swings of the slave; eventually finding an opening to escape the hoard and follow after Lucrecia, he back-flips towards one of the slaves he had knocked down as he was getting back onto his feet; runs up it's back and leaps over the hoard towards the castle. But in mid-flight one of the slaves jumped up and attempted to grab him, Vincent just plants his knee into the slave's face; knocking a few teeth out in the process, as he continued to sail over-head. He lands in a graceful crouch, before bounding onto his feet and bolts away from the hoard into the castle. Vincent pauses at an inter-section of hallways, panting for air.

 

“Which…way did…she go…?”, he pants, looking down each hallway.

 

“Oh look brother… he survived…”, a emotionless voice echoes through the corridors.

 

“He must be stronger than he looks…”, another voice echoes, sounding mildly excited.

 

“Or just stupid…”, the emotionless voice says.

 

“Either way… our Lord said we could play with him if he survived…”, a third voice states; resonating authority.

 

“Good… I was starting to get bored after the master got the woman…”, the second voice complained.

 

“What…?”, Vincent whispers, looking around for the ones speaking.

 

“Oh, now don't cry… we get to play…”, the emotionless voice echoes.

 

“Come on out!”, Vincent challenged.

 

“Get him!”, the third voice orders.

 

Vincent instantly goes onto the defensive, not knowing where these hidden foes would be coming from. He catches a glimpse of black to his left from the corner of his eye and starts to evade, but he wasn't fast enough and takes a blow to the chest; sending him flying backwards against a wall. He slams against the wall and lands on the floor in a heap, before he manages to get to his knees; coughing up some blood.

 

“It seems our guest is more of a strategy-type, than strength…”, the third voice says.

 

Vincent looks up at the speaker, and sees three young men standing before him, all with silver hair, aqua-green eyes with cat-slit pupils and wearing skin-tight black kimonos. The tallest one had extremely short hair and a bulky-build, the second tallest one's hair trailed about mid-back, and the shortest; and probably the youngest, had shoulder-length hair and carried a souba; a double-bladed katana, in his left-hand. Vincent wipes the remaining blood from his mouth with the back of his left hand as he stood up, drawing his katana from it's sheath.

 

“Oh look brother, he still plans on fighting”, the tallest one laughs, revealing the elongated-canines in his mouth.

 

`Vampires…', Vincent hisses in his head.

 

“You mustn't under-estimate this one, Loz”, the shortest one warns; his voice resonating authority.

 

“Yes, he killed our Lord's third in-command…”, the third brother emotionlessly says.

 

“I know that, Yazoo!”, Loz states, speaking to the emotionless vampire.

 

“Why not let brother: Kadaj, play with him…”, Yazoo vacantly suggests.

 

Loz doesn't have a chance to answer, when Vincent suddenly finds himself doubled-over with Kadaj's fist against his abdomen.

 

`Cheap shot…!', Vincent curses in his head, swinging his katana in a attempt to decapitate the vampire.

 

But Kadaj simply blocks the blow with his souba.

 

“A katana made of mythril, now that would have killed me if it hit…”, Kadaj mocks, grinning insanely, as he grabs Vincent by the throat with his right-hand and applies pressure.

 

Vincent could only gasp out in pain as his air-supply was quickly being cut off, and within a few minutes of his struggling to get free, he drops his sword onto the floor as the lack of oxygen began to make him light-headed.

 

“Now brother, our Lord requested our guest be brought to him alive…”, Yazoo states.

 

“I know!”, Kadaj snaps, upset that his little game of `how long till the human's neck breaks' was disturbed, “Tie him up!”, he orders, releasing his hold on Vincent's neck.

 

Vincent lands on the floor in a dazed-heap, he could feel someone grab his arms and forces them behind his back; locking them into metallic-shackles, and as the light-headedness slowly ebbs away, he is forced onto his feet and shoved along the hallway; forcing him to walk, and he could hear one of the brothers pick up his katana off the floor.

 

He didn't know where they were taking him, but he knew that their master was going to be there and that wasn't good; especially with the sun already below the horizon.

 

The silver hair trio shoves him into a roofless court-yard with lit-torches all along the perimeter, they grab hold of him and lead him into the center of a strange symbol in the middle of the ground, then hits him on the back of the legs; forcing him to fall onto his knees.

 

“So this is the pest who killed my third in-command…”, he heard a silky male voice say.

 

Vincent just stares at the ground in front of him-self; refusing to look at the vampire, rage building up inside of him knowing he couldn't do a thing.

 

One of the trio grabs him by the hair; tangling their fingers into the sensitive hairs at the base of his skull, pulling his face up to look at the Vampire-Lord.

 

“You are to look at our Lord when he speaks to you!”, Kadaj hisses, tugging harder on his hair.

 

“Kadaj that is alright, if he doesn't want to look then he'll miss seeing his beautiful companion's last moments”, the Lord simply mocks.

 

“What…?”, Vincent quietly mutters to himself, glaring at the vampire before him.

 

The Vampire-Lord stood there looking a like he ruled the world; and he planned to, long silver hair trailed down his back to mid-thigh while his bangs arched up from his widow's peak, piercing emerald-green eyes with cat-slit pupils looked down at Vincent; like he was lower than the dirt he walked on, he wore a black hakama without a kimono or haori, leaving his well-toned chiseled torso uncovered in the light of the raising moon.

 

“That seemed to catch his attention, Lord Sephiroth”, Kadaj sneers.

 

“I assume you want to see your companion…”, Sephiroth says, snapping his fingers once.

 

Out from the shadows of the hallway behind Sephiroth, Lucrecia walks in wearing a blood-red kimono; her steps seemed to be like she was sleep-walking.

 

“Lucrecia!”, Vincent yells, trying to get to his feet to run to her, but couldn't rise as Kadaj still had a tight hold on his hair.

 

Lucrecia just walks to Sephiroth's side, not even acknowledging Vincent's presence; her warm brown eyes were cold and glazed over.

 

“She can't hear your voice while under my spell”, Sephiroth mocks, grabbing Lucrecia by the chin, bending over the 5'4” tall woman and deeply kisses her on the lips.

 

She doesn't even respond when a thin stream of blood begins to flow from in between their lips.

 

“Lucrecia!”, Vincent shouts, struggling to get to his feet despite the pain from his hair being pulled-out by the roots, “Release her you bastard!”

 

“The blood of the bearer with the power to easily destroy me and my kin, is the most divine tasting…”, he says in ecstasy, licking the remains of Lucrecia's blood from his lips, “I want more… A whole lot more…”, he adds, moving to stand behind her.

 

He just simply tilts her head gently to the side, and leans over to bring his face to the nook of her neck, inhaling her scent before sinking his fangs into the tender-flesh above her artery, causing her to lightly gasp as he began to drain her blood from her body.

 

“No…”, Vincent whispers in horror, tears forming in his eyes as he is forced to watch the woman he loves being feasted on by the vampire, “Lucrecia…”

 

When Sephiroth finished feeding, he just tosses Lucrecia's completely drained body off to the side like a worthless doll; licking his lips and fangs clean of her blood, and relishes in the after-taste of her blood.

 

“It's a shame there is only a bearer born every few centuries, because their blood is so addicting…”, Sephiroth loudly says to himself.

 

“Lucrecia…”, Vincent whispers in defeat, letting his head hang as low as it could; with Kadaj still holding him by the hair, as his tears spill down his cheeks.

 

“So what do we do with him?”, Kadaj asks, tugging on the hair of the broken man beside him, “Can me and my brothers feed off of him?”

 

`I don't care how I die… so long as I can join Lucrecia…', Vincent thinks, completely giving up on the fight.

 

Vincent could feel someone forcefully grab his chin and lift his face upwards, as Kadaj's hand releases it's hold on his hair only to be replaced by another hand, that pulls upwards; forcing him onto his feet.

 

“No… I have a better plan then killing him…”, Sephiorth says, gripping Vincent's hair in his hand.

 

“You mean turning him into a vampire?”, Loz shouts.

 

“No dear brother, our Lord means a fate worst than death, becoming a mind-slave, or a vampire…”, Yahzoo emotionlessly replies.

 

“Huh?”, Loz utters, being more on strength than brains.

 

“What our Lord plans to do is the Curse of Eternal-Bloodlust”, Kadaj answers, insanely grin at the idea.

 

“Oh right… now I can see why you're the Lord's second in-command, Kadaj”, Loz says.

 

“Kadaj, the vial…”, Sephiroth orders, as Kadaj pulls out a vial of blood-red and black liquid and hands it to his Lord.

 

Vincent just closes his eyes, praying to die quickly.

 

“Oh no, this curse won't kill you I'm afraid… It will make you live forever until I die…”, Sephiroth mockingly laughs, “With added effects…”, he whispers into his ear.

 

Sephiroth forces the vial to Vincent's lips and makes him shallow the foul-tasting potion; it burning all the way down his throat, then releases his holding on Vincent's hair letting him fall back to his knees.

 

Vincent curls himself over to rest his head on the ground, desperately trying to take breaths into his body but unable to breath as the potion began to circulate through his blood-stream; setting his blood on fire, sweat begins to pour off his face as his eyes glaze over in pain.

 

Suddenly, Vincent screams out in pain as something violently tears out of the skin on his back; making him shudder from the horrid pain that coursed through his body, his body jerking itself up right and the last thing he saw before blacking out was the blood-red lunar-eclipse.

 

 

 

 

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