Duel and Descent: Teaser

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This is the beginning of Shura 4. I do not intend to work on this any further until I have finished Archon.
When I have done so, I shall perhaps post a fresh topic.
I'm not feeling exactly well this weekend so I am unable to update Archon, though I have most of the next update done already. Next weekend, folks. Sorry.

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The Emerald Palace sparkled in the weak morning light, filtered through the perpetual mist that shrouded it. Crystal chimes sang sweetly with the softest breeze and the air was sweet with the perfumes of countless flowers that flourished in the Imperial Garden. The elves of the Empire glided about on their daily business, their movements graceful and their speech courteous and fair.

A pair of armored warriors stood at the foot of the Thousand Stair Climb, steps cut into the side of a tall hill upon which the Emperor himself held his court. Their features were sharp and noble, their instruments of war of the finest craftsmanship, for they were samurai, the proud warrior aristocrats of the Empire of Blades.

A lone figure emerged from the mist. He was tall, towering over the samurai by almost a head and his shoulders were broad and mighty. His face was fairer and more beautiful to behold than those of the guards, despite it having weathered millennia beyond count. His eyes were of the deepest green, the same shade as the tiles of the Emerald Palace and they were filled with strength and wisdom.

The guards snapped to attention as they recognized who stood before them. Bu-Shin, the Imperial Defender, returned their bows. With his flowing white cloak trailing behind him, he walked past them and began to ascend the stairs.

Bu-Shin’s real name was lost to the mists of time; so long had he fought and lived. His kin had heaped numerous titles upon him: War-God, Sword-Saint and Heaven’s Wrath. Amongst the humans he was known as the Justice-bringer, Man-killer and Retribution. Amongst the orcs, he was simply called the Tyrant’s Hand. Bu-Shin cared little for the vulgar races of humans and orcs. He had brought death to them in the thousands and enslaved them as it was dictated in the will of Heaven.

He paused halfway on his ascent and turned his head to look upon the rising sun, marveling in the almost mystical beauty of the fiery orb shrouded in mist. The sunlight fell upon his face, revealing the lines of sorrow and age etched upon it. Bu-Shin, the timeless defender of the Empire, had aged in half a decade when he had been unmarked by the passage of millennia. He had been among the first beings that set foot upon this world and now, for the first time since he received the Heavenly Lord’s blessing, he felt his mortality.

Bu-Shin crested the last of the steps. He stood in an archway of the most elaborate architectural craft. The stone and wood seemed to be molded into their shapes rather than hewn and riveted and the designs upon them were wondrous to behold. A single pillar the height of ten burly humans was engraved and sculpted wholly with leaves. Each leaf had its distinctive features.

Two priests of the Heavenly Lord greeted him, bowing respectfully as they did so. They were garbed in robes of the finest white silk and each wore a rosary of jade beads about their necks. Bu-Shin returned their bows and strode on towards the Emperor’s throne room. With a look of unfailing resolution, he instructed the samurai guarding the double golden doors to announce him. One of them nodded and he turned to do so, but a contradictory command, delivered in a feminine voice bade him to wait. The samurai hesitated, looking towards Bu-Shin for confirmation. Bu-Shin gestured for him to stand down and turned to regard the speaker.

An elf maiden glided forth from an alcove to stand before the War-god. Her face was beautiful even by the standards of the elves and her long, lustrous dark hair was held in an elaborate arrangement of gem-encrusted pins and clips. Her kimono was trimmed with the repeated motif of lilies, as befitted her status as the wife of the Imperial Heir, deceased for years now, thanks to the blades of a human assassin. Her large, golden eyes were rimmed with tears as she looked up into Bu-Shin’s face.

“ Princess Mayuko, the heavens grace your highness this day.” Bu-Shin bowed low, sweeping his cloak to one side in respect. The princess did not return his bow. She reached out and clasped Bu-Shin’s armored hands.

“ I have waited, hoped and feared for years…” Her voice was passionate beyond the boundaries of propriety and the samurai guarding the golden doors exchanged embarrassed glances. Their noble nature soon prevailed, however and they blinded themselves to the sight of the crown princess weeping like a lovelorn girl. Tears rolled down Mayuko’s cheeks and Bu-Shin raised a hand as if to brush them away, his heart wrenched by her distress.

He caught himself, however, and snapped his hand away. Bu-Shin turned his back on the princess, steeling his face into a cold mask of stoic dignity.

“ Announce me!” He said harshly to a samurai. The elf warrior complied with much enthusiasm, calling out his name and his list of titles before pulling open the golden doors. Mayuko called out to him softly, her voice breaking with grief but he ignored her. He strode through the doors and the samurai closed it behind him, shutting out all sight of the princess.

The throne room was filled with courtiers, addressing issues and matters of state to the figure seated upon the throne of jade. They fell silent as Bu-Shin walked through their ranks to abase himself before the throne.

“ Eternal life and glory to his Majesty!” He said, with his forehead pressed to the cold tiles of the floor. A low cackle, filled with malice and bitterness replaced the silence of the throne room and Bu-Shin looked up to see what creature could possibly make such a sound here. To his horror, he saw the Emperor’s shoulders heaving in deranged laughter. A wrinkled, scrawny hand flung the cup of wine it had been holding into the chest of a courtier. The elf’s fine silk kimono was ruined and he sputtered in bewilderment at such behavior from his emperor.

“ Out!” The Emperor Yamamoto shrieked, filling every crevice in his throne room with his shrill voice. “ Out! Get out!” His clawing hands indicated the courtiers and his personal scribes and assistants and they scrambled over one another in their haste to comply. Soon, the throne room was empty save for the Emperor and Bu-Shin. Yamamoto stared at Bu-Shin for many moments and his servant did likewise. He had groomed, tutored and guarded him, as he had done with his father, and his father’s father. Generations of emperors have been born under Bu-Shin’s eyes and have died with the War-god standing vigil beside his deathbed.

Yamamoto was a wretched creature, his dark eyes gleaming from his sunken sockets, filled with malice and bitterness. The emperor’s face was creased with wrinkles and his once thick mane of hair now hung in silvery wisps from his pocked scalp. His breaths came in wheezing rasps and blood flecked his lips after a fit of coughing.

“ Failed!” He cried, pointing a claw-like finger towards Bu-Shin. “ You have failed me! Years spent chasing after the killer of my son and what have you to show for it? Nothing save a promise that the filthy human will present himself in the Palace for a fair duel!”

“ Your majesty gave me leave to exact justice as I would.” Bu-Shin pointed out, horror growing within his heart as he looked upon the wreckage of his former pupil.

“ I want his head!” The Emperor ranted, sweeping a valuable vase set beside his throne of its pedestal to crash into a thousand shards upon the floor. “ I am un-avenged and dishonored by your actions!”

“By the honor of Kuroi Itezeru, the killer of your son will stand before you in this very hall in seven months!” Bu-Shin replied.

“ The honor of an abomination has no value! Filth flows through the Black Crane’s veins! I should have executed him all those years ago!” Froth grew at the corner of Yamamoto’s mouth as he raved on and on. Eventually, his tirade died down and resting his elbows on his knees, breathless from the exertion, the Emperor set his baleful glare upon Bu-Shin.

“ You know the price of failure, fool!” He croaked through withered lips. “ I exact it from you now!” Great horror and remorse filled Bu-Shin’s heart at the Emperor’s command. Wordlessly, he knelt and removed the upper portion of his armor. He drew his wakizashi and placed its point against his stomach.

“ As the winter gives way to spring, as the day expires into night, so shall all life follow this cycle.” Bu-Shin spoke the ritualistic death chant of a samurai condemned to honorable suicide. Yamamoto looked on, a gleeful sparkle of malice in his eyes. Before Bu-Shin could finish his chant and complete his own disembowelment, a whirling star of black steel streaked through the air towards Yamamoto’s throat.

Bu-shin’s wakizashi left his hand as the War-god flung it to intercept the shuriken. The short, curved blade transfixed the deadly projectile and pinned it to the wall. Bu-Shin turned his wrathful glare upon a cluster of shadows in the corner of the throne room.

A black-clad figure emerged from the shadows, his face hidden by a mask upon which a demon’s snarling face was portrayed. Darkness seemed to swirl about his body, despite the rays of sunlight streaming in from the sculptured windows of the throne room. Bu-Shin recognized Sendoh Yagyu, the head of the secret branch of the Yagyu clan, the shinobi-master.

The shadowy warrior was almost as ancient as Bu-Shin, having fought side by side with him during the Chaos wars. Over the years, their relationship had soured for Sendoh’s demeanor became more and more bitter and his speech increasingly caustic.

“ What is the meaning of this?” Bu-Shin demanded, affronted at such behavior towards the Emperor. If he had not intervened, the poisoned shuriken would have lodged itself deep into Yamamoto’s throat.

“ That was the only way to keep you from killing yourself, fool!” Sendoh’s voice had a resonant quality to it due to the mask that he wore over his face.

“ You dare go against my will, Yagyu?” Yamamoto asked, clutching the armrest of his throne so tightly that his knuckles went white from the lack of circulation in his hands.

“ Of course not, my lord.” Sendoh did not abase himself like Bu-Shin. His clan was not bound by conventional customs and had a less formal though no less crucial relationship with whoever sat atop the jade throne at the moment. “ I have news that you might want to consider before Bu-Shin kills himself.” The Emperor gestured impatiently for him to carry on with whatever he was about to say.

“ Your son’s killer has arrived upon our shores. Even now, my spies watch his every move and report to me at regular intervals.” Sendoh obliged Yamamoto. Bu-Shin stifled a gasp of disbelief as he realized that the human assassin actually intended to honor the words and promises of Kuroi Itezeru.

“ Where does he go?” The Emperor asked, his face livid with dark glee and anticipation.

“ He heads towards your palace on foot. At the rate he is moving, he should arrive in the capital city of Eto No Jinrai well within the agreed upon three years.” The Shinobi-master reported.

“ Kill him!” Yamamoto’s order shocked Bu-Shin. Sendoh did not flinch in the slightest but he was evidently discomforted by the Emperor’s demands. Yamamoto noticed the fact and his lips parted in a sneer. “ Does my will go beyond the call of honor, shinobi?”

“ The shinobi knows no honor and virtue, my lord.” Sendoh stepped back, melding into the shadows once more. “ Only loyalty!” His parting words were delivered in a harsh whisper. Yamamoto broke out into wheezing laughter for many moments before turning to regard the disgraced Bu-Shin.

“ When the head of the assassin is presented before me, I trust you shall act honorably, then?” He said. Bu-Shin’s face was ashen but he nodded in numb agreement. He knelt and pressed his forehead to the floor once more and left, leaving the Emperor cackling to himself upon his jade throne.

 

COOL. Really interesting.

*hugs Shura*

I hope you'll get better soon.

 

Teasers are cruel.
Utterly brilliant. Insane, stupid and evil elves, the opposite of your boring steriotypical elves. I like it

 

You are indeed evil, teasing us with this! I want more now!

 

Damn good, but now I have to wait Ah well, Archon of Ashes is amazing anyway

 

This is great.

Is there any more that you could add?

please please please please please please please please please please please please please please

 

I'm truly sorry. My current schedule leaves me with little time for writing.

 

isnt yamamoto that guy that directed the attack on peral harbor? anyways,great story