Sweeper

Chapter 40 Nina, The Lavender Fox

Story so far: Sakura and the others finally arrive at Sheena's cathedral yet again only to be met by Voltez himself. He appears to take away Eureka who continues to slowly turn into a vampire and make her his bride. Inside of Voltez's mansion, Cervantes and Kato resume their battle.

Kato stands across from his opponent Cervantes as the serpents made of purple aura slither around his body. He holds his hand sign firmly against his chest. “Rhevbrandt Broadsword?” he thinks to himself at Cervantes previous words. “Every generation in the Rhevbrandt family there is a child born named Voltez and that child inherits the Rembrandt Broadsword. How did his brother manage to get his hands on it? Unless...?! Yes thats it! He actually found the sword's hiding place inside the mansion and stole it! He plans to use it to slay his brother! Well done! Only accomplished by the sibling of my lord! I'm curious to see the strength of such a legendary sword!”

Holding the broadsword with both hands by the skinny hilt, Cervantes drives the upper half of the sword into the ground. “Chains that bind this sword's power, shatter so that I may possess....” Before Cervantes can finish his chant, his attention is drawn to the caramel hand touching his shoulder from behind.

“Nina?!” says Kato who releases his hand sign. The aura serpents dissipate and his surging power drops once the hand sign is broken. To his own surprise Kato then drops to a single knee. “Damn! I feel so weak...Almost the same feeling I get when I have fed in a while...Could this be the after affects of combing black magic and ninjitsu..?!”

“....Stop...” pleads Nina behind Cervantes. “...I'm begging you...This game of brute force must be put to an end.” She takes her hand off Cervantes's shoulder then to her hip against her lengthy lavender robe. Wasting no time Cervantes rips the broadsword from the ground and twirls around to blindly swipe at Nina only to come up short with air.

“YYYYYAAAAAAHHHHKKKK!” arrives the cry of an unknown beast.

Suddenly a lavender fox on four legs nearly twice his size with three tails hops over his head carrying Kato across its back. Long before the fox touches the ground it bursts into flower petals of the same color that spread across the ground. Perplexed at the sudden string of events, Cervantes knees down to touch a petal with his gauntlet-like covered hand. He looks off at the Purgatory moon in the dark sky still as curious as before.

At Sheena's cathedral...

Sakura shoots up into the air, bouncing at a lightning quick speed so from tree to tree until she leaps forward directly at Voltez atop of the cathedral. She grips her Sweeper Scythe with two hands across her shoulder and executes a powerful swift swing, slicing Voltez's head away from his neck. Gravity brings Sakura to the top of the cathedral as she watches blood squirt from Voltez's severed neck and his head fly off. Suddenly the blood squirting from his neck extends further to catch the soaring head and pulls it back to reconnect itself to the neck.

“He attached his head back to his body!” says Sakura to herself in astonishment. “Just what sort of monster is this guy?!” At that moment Kivaa and Sheena leap onto the cathedral roof beside Sakura with their respectful weapons drawn. “Mmm, she's still alive.” Sheena says nonchalantly referring to Sakura's recklessness. She holds her Sweeper Scythe, Religion Decider in her right hand down against her knee.

“Sakura,” starts Kivaa glancing at Sakura from the corner of her eye. She holds her katana in her hand and the sheath in the other. “I thought we agreed you'd act less impulsively from now on. You could have gotten yourself killed rushing in like that! Maybe we didn't stress to you enough about who Voltez actually is but maybe you'll get a better understand if I tell you that the three of us combined still aren't enough to defeat him!”

Sakura stands in awe of at Kivaa's words and thinks to herself. “The three of us combined still cant bring him down?! That cant be! Sheena's pretty strong! And so is Kivaa! Not to mention I'm much better stronger than before!” Sheena steps in front of Sakura and Kivaa, brings her feet close together and holds her free hand high into the air. “Bloodline Reduction!”

A white circular glyph forms under Voltez's feet, vanishing as fast as it appears. “What cheap trickery have you just performed?” asks Voltez slightly agitated. A smirk slides on Sheena's face as she begins to explain her actions. “Understand this. All bloodsuckers are inherently weakened by Holy magic. This magic is potentially limiting on vampires if used by the right person. With this knowledge, I crammed my head into magic and spell books of all kinds...until I finally came across my desired spell. The only bummer is that the spell lasts for fifteen minutes.”

“Very impressive on Sheena's behalf.” compliments Kivaa to herself. “But I still fear that 50% of Voltez's power still may be enough to crush us...”

“Spare me the lecture!” Voltez opens his mouth wide as a series of redish-black blasts fly out in succession toward his foes. Sheena and Kivaa cut through the incoming blasts while Sakura simply holds her Sweeper Scythe in front of her to deflect them. “Sheena that spell you did just now was cool! How many other spells do you know?” asks Sakura with her eyes on Sheena.

“Sakura focus!” sternly replies Sheena. “If you let your guard down you're going to regret it!”

Sakura carelessly turns her body to Sheena and drops her Sweeper Scythe to her side. “Regret what?” Immediately after her words, a blast smacks her across the face. The force of the shot lifts her off her feet, sending her crashing against the ground tumbling backward uncontrollably. Her Sweeper Scythe disappears upon impact.

“You'll learn someday kid,” remarks Sheena aggressively slashing away at the approaching blasts.