The clearing of forest was unrecognizable, torn to shreds by the intensity of battle. Covering miles of once green grass now black with burn marks, deep grooves of soil where they had torn the earth in battle. Splintered limbs of broken trees jutted at unnatural angles, resembling the jagged fingers of the battleground itself. Through the destruction, Alucard rose, wings of a spinning cocoon of darkness and light, a glimpse of what was yet to come.
On the right hung a black angelic wing, the plumage tattered and exuding divine energy, and the left a leathery vampire wing, a wretched yet somehow regal appendage—a perverse reflection of the one Lazarus had. Alucard's face, though still his, bore the marks of change. His long hollowed-out face burned in power, with empty eyes that streamed tears in silence; he appeared emotionless. It was as if his blame, grief and rage had turned into something beyond being an actual person.
From afar Lazarus watched with his ruby-red eyes glinting with curiosity and fascination. "So this is who you've become," he said with a cruel curve of his lips. "You have really changed, Alucard. CALL THIS NEW FORM... Nephilim."
Alucard did not respond, and his silence spoke louder than any retort. The energy radiating off him shouted—he was a storm of light and dark turbulence, willing to devour whatever stood in his way. The rapier he held was not the immaculate weapon it had been, and now it pulsed with the energy of madness, mirroring the chaos within him.
Lazarus swung his scythe carelessly, "Come then," Lazarus croaked, his tone measured but tinged with menace. "Show me what this 'Nephilim' is capable of."
The tension broke like a bowstring. It was Alucard who moved first, stepping out with his wings pulling and clearing the distance in an instant. His rapier was a line of blinding light, headed straight for Lazarus's heart. It was a deafening clash, the rapier striking scythe in a flurry of sparks that exploded from the wrecked clearing.
Lazarus brushed the blow aside, twirling the scythe to cause the whistling blade to sweep past. But Alucard was relentless. He spun in the air, and his rapier glinted upward in a crescent toward Lazarus's throat. Lazarus leaned back, barely evading the fatal slash, though the edge of the blade howled past his skin, opening a razor-thin line of blood on his cheek.
Lazarus licked the blood off his lip, the smirk widening. "Not bad," he said mockingly. "But you'll need more than that to beat me."
Alucard didn't respond. He lunged once more, his movements focused and dogged. His rapier coursed through the air, slashing blinding radiance and shadow, each lunge straightforward and deadly. Lazarus swept aside, step sleek, and slammed a devastating knee into Alucard's flank. The impact was sickening; the crack of bone carried even over the uproar of the battlefield. Alucard stumbled back, blood spilling from his mouth, but he didn't hold back.
With a defiant roar, Alucard called forth a spiraling vortex of energy—a blend of light and dark magic that ripped through the clearing. The sheer force of it knocked down trees and sent debris flying. Lazarus sprang into the air, just missing the explosion, but the lip of the vortex clipped him, charred his coat and knocked him off balance.
Alucard took the opportunity, his wings driving him forward like a missile. His rapier ripped across Lazarus's chest, cutting a deep gash that bled copiously. Lazarus staggered, his face losing its mask of calm as pain flared in his side.
Lazarus was visibly calm he focused once more on his opponent, and a brilliant glow shone in his eyes. "I am losing my patience," he growled, his words as cold as the grave itself. Lazarus's scythe slashed at Alucard, attempting to render him unconscious. Alucard barely ducked out of the way in time, narrowly avoiding the scythe, but the blade released a shockwave that shattered the area beneath his feet. He's airborne, his body skidding across the devastated dirt before he can regain his footing, and Lazarus descends on him like a gale. The elder twin hit a steel-toed boot into Alucard's chest, demolishing a crater in the ground, and Alucard gave a strangled whimper as the air was knocked from him and blood leaked from his mouth. "You can't take me, Alucard," Lazarus said coldly, pressing down on him. "Stay down." However, Alucard's look was one of hate. His rapier pulverizes, and with a tearful howl, he impales it. The ravening passes through Lazarus's recently implanted side. Blood dripped on Alucard's face, but Lazarus hardly seemed to feel it. "not bad," Lazarus said, scowling as he removed the sword with one finger, casting it aside. It provided Alucard with a brief window in which to maneuver. Lifting his wings, he dove into the wind. The blows, a mixture of light and dark magic, bellowed from above. The concussive beats left smoking holes in the smoldering clearing, and Lazarus danced and dodged, a dancer's arms and legs impossible to keep up with. One snuck through Alucard's guard and contacted Lazarus, shoving him into a toppled tree and kicking his legs out from beneath him.
Alucard didn't let up. He leaped after him, rapier in hand again, this time going for Lazarus's heart. The scythe came up to meet it, and the weapons clashed again. Steel met steel, the two straining against each other, an equal war of strength.
Lazarus, losing his patience, kicked Alucard viciously in the knee. With a sickening crunch, the joint broke and Alucard let out a roar of pain, falling for a moment. But even as pain roiled his body, his desperation pushed him onward.
The blow forced its target to regain its senses, as Alucard used both his legs and arms well, full of strength, to sacrifice balance and deliver a deadly headbutt. The blow broke the vampire's nose into a spray of blood that left Lazarus bloody. Alucard had not wasted an opportunity. Shot forward and pushed the attack, his rapier erratic as he struck, blood pumping through his viewing lens in a half meter thick punch.
Lazarus, bloodied but far from out, counter-attacked with precision strikes. His scythe flowed like a predator, lashing out at every opportunity to finish the fight in one blow. The ground quaked beneath their savage fight as the power of their struggle filled the air.
The fight was more than a test of strength or skill — it was a test of wills. Alucard fought like a man who lost everything, and Lazarus held power like a man who had never lost.
With the battle raging on, even the world stood still, it's body trembling at the power the two wielded against each other