The Godly Paradox

Age Old Mystery
A man in black sat on a park bench in the middle of Karakura Town, completely uncaring that most people didn't even glance directly at him. Not that such a thing would bother him anymore, he was a ghost, unable to be seen in the first place. If he could be seen however, his garb would instantly stand out; a long coat with gold around the collar. On the left side of his coat was a golden cross, the sign of his Quincy abilities. Night was falling and that's all he was focused on, because then they came out to feed. Night was the best chance to attack one of those monsters, and after almost eleven thousand years of waiting, he'd get his revenge, bit by bit and body by body. Sure, his means were unjust, but to him, what did it matter? The humans were the cattle to something much larger, and they couldn't be any more ignorant of the truth. Most discounted the, admittedly embellished, tale of his attack on the vampire known as Dracula as mere fiction. Bram Stoker's novel didn't exactly inspire the populace to prepare to fight a force that once ruled the world, but deep down, the man who gave his name to the main character felt pity that the one warning was ignored out of hand.

Taking off his hat, he glared into the evening Sun and smiled. The sacking of Atlantis would soon be avenged by a total slaughter of the creatures responsible for his torment. Soon, the world would remember his name and his deeds, Abraham Van Hellsing, the Vampire Slayer.

The world was haunted, and this young woman knew it. Obsidian black hair traveled down to her back, waving slightly in the whispering winds. Her jacket flowed outward, the star insignia shining in the moonlight. Her eyes focused and a flame roared within her right eye. After all, it was nighttime when the demons and monsters were most evident, and as their slayer, it was Eleanor's duty to destroy them.

Abraham stiffened as a strange energy signature crossed his sensory range. Although it seemed like a Quincy was the source, it felt...wrong to him. He couldn't place the oddity no matter how hard he tried. Something like this warranted a personal observation, his vendetta would wait another night. In the blink of an eye, the oldest Quincy soul vanished in the cool air of the night.

Tracking the energy he felt was easy, there was no other like it. What he saw when he arrived to where the source was, he was stunned. A young woman with an azure flame overflowing from her right eye was what met his gaze.

"Who...no, WHAT are you child?" was the only question that he could muster in the absurdity of the situation.

Eleanor stared at the man that appeared before her. She had no reaction to his presence, but she did understand that he was a Quincy. She also understood that he was pure, and that he was old...very old. But it didn't matter to her, nothing did except for the eradication of evil. Yet, his words hadn't done anything to provoke her, not yet anyways. She simply walked away without answering, before a single step of Hirenkyaku let her flow alongside the wind.

No answer. Abraham sighed, his red hair being tossed by the wind. Her use of Hirenkyaku had proven she was Quincy, but, that feeling in the back of his mind just wouldn't leave him alone. He had to know the truth behind her existance. Another flicker of Hirenkyaku, this time just following the trail the female Quincy had left in her wake. Even though he expended much less energy with this, he still dared not approach too close, lest he scare her into fleeing.

Unsure of whether the girl was friend or foe, Abraham didn't want to don the cursed mask fragment that was truly a reminder of the heart he almost lost that horrid day, even if wearing it did amplify his power to the point the strange Quincy would never be able to escape him. It was just a tasteless shortcut to obtaining the information he desired to know.

Eleanor turned backward to see the man still following her. He was irksome, that she could tell. He was also, very probably, curious. So, Eleanor decided to appease his curiosity, and quickly altered her path to step on the ground again. She waited for the man to come behind her so that she could answer his questions and then leave.

Abraham stood behind the girl, having altered his own flight path to put some space between them. "Now then, child. Exactly what are you? Your movement technique suggest Quincy, but in eleven thousand years, give or take a few centuries, I've never felt anything like the aura you give off. I'm sorry for being so blunt, but as you heard, I'm old and I've been alone for ages. My social graces are, what's the word...lacking? Yes, lacking would be a perfect word."

Eleanor looked at the man...in slight admiration. He didn't sugarcoat his words, and he was being perfectly honest. Perhaps age really did make some individuals wizened. Nonetheless, she answered blatantly, "I was forged." Those three words were all she needed to convey her message.

"Forged huh? Somebody made you into a weapon. What kind of sick dastards would use a child like you to kill? Not even in our darkest hour did the High Guards, the most elite Quincy of the time, dare to dream of such a barbaric ideal. Forgive me if I get too personal, but do you remember who it was who did this to you? The men responsible, who were they?"

Although Abraham didn't design to hazard a guess, one name kept cropping up, Vandenreich. They seemed very likely the ones would would stop at nothing to "purge" the Shinigami from the history books, even something as cruel as "forge" a weaponized child.

"Yes." Eleanor told the man, and then proceeded to say one more thing, "I killed them already." She continued, before looking at the man in the eye again. She could tell he was...different. In a good or bad way, was debatable.

Abraham blinked a few times. Her words, few as they were, were void of a humorous intent. So much, that he took them at face value. "Killed? Then you gave them their just rewards. I hope that you feel no guilt or shame in exacting your vengance from their flesh. Any and all who would sink so low as force one so young to draw a weapon deserve what they get. You were just a hastening of that fate. And to be honest with you, I'm thankful you did it. That should serve as a lesson, a dark one, but one all the same."

"I do not require words." Eleanor simply said, in response to the man's reaction. "I am what you might call a 'Demon Slayer'. Their deaths were a simple execution." Eleanor began walking away when she asked, "Anything else, mister?"

Again, the girl stunned Abraham. Again with the detached, blatent tone that defies all doubt. "Demon Slayer? I have heard there were demonic entities in this world, but not once had I estimated there were enough to warrent a 'slayer' to be created. But no, I don't require another answer, unless you wouldn't mind indulging a request. Show me, weapon born by hands who now lie dead in the grave, the results of your 'forging'. I'm curious as to what a 'Demon Slayer' is capable of."

Demon Slayers
Eleanor didn't bother even taking a stance or anything remotely similar. If this man wished for a demonstration, she would give him one. Instantaneously, a pistol came out from her jacket, she turned slightly and shot it directly at her newfound opponent. The gintō in the said bullet appeared to cause the reishi liquified around it to be smothered in powerful flames of condensed reishi.

Abraham dodged the flames without breaking a sweat. "Ginto huh? You're smart. But it'll take much more to even scratch me." he said, waving his hand over the rose cross on his chest, creating an elongated siver pistol, the Blut-Schatten. Not breaking his momentum, Abraham leveled the gun at his opponent's chest and opened fire. Streams of blue light exited the barrel of the gun.

Eleanor didn't bother with responding, and quickly made her next move. Drawing Kurotō from its sheath, Eleanor parried the light that exited from her opponent's gun, absorbing the reishi through Kurotō, and subsequently attempted to slash the man before her with a deft overhead slash.

Abraham raised his free arm and unclenched his fist, revealing a small silver tube. "Tilt the goblet to the West! Wolke!" he barked. At his command, the silver tube exploded, releasing all the reiryoku inside in a non-damaging blast that repelled the oncoming attack.

Not letting up, Abraham pulled a second tube from his belt. "Feel the wrath of battle and accept this sacred chalice! Heizen!" As before, the tube exploded, releasing the energy inside. Rather than a simple blast, the result was a silver rectangle made of reishi. For any other Quincy, the Heizen would have taken four Ginto tubes to cast. Being able to do it with one was a testement to Abraham's mastery of Ginto and the absurd level of power he could instill within each individual tube.

Eleanor had this in her database, but hadn't ever confronted it before. But she couldn't lose here, not at all. Within a moment, chains had erupted from all sides of Eleanor, and just before Eleanor was going to be hit by the silver cubic shape, she dissipated into numerous reishi particles, her being quickly formed behind Abraham, where the chain lied. Immediately after, Eleanor took out a slightly elongated pistol, sending out a bullet that immediately transformed into a number of duplicate bullets, mimicking a Gintō known as Spiegel, otherwise translated to "mirror".

Abraham knew he had a single instance, a single chance to create a situation where he could escape the oncoming hail of bullets. He didn't want to trigger another Ginto, and thereby waste a third tube that he would need to replace after the fight, and simply chose to fire at the oncoming horde of bullets, aiming a bit to his left, where a majority of the shells were, which he hoped to remove from existence.

A second later, only a single bullet entered his body, with the rest phasing through. Only a few trickles of blood came from the entry point and the matching exit hole, signifying that in fact, he had not hallucinated what just transpired. Out of the entire swarm of ammunition that barreled towards him, only one succeeded in doing anything. "Interesting. An illusion-based Ginto replication spell. Am I correct in assuming that's what you used?" Part of Abraham knew the question was pointless. He already knew the answer nor did he expect his opponent to answer affirmative or negative.

Answering the man wasn't in her interest, so she continued on with battle. She immediately took out a dual pair of revolvers to replace the gun she had used. She had to continually change her plans before he figured out a pattern in the way she attacked. Using the Gintō known as Tönen (translated to "sound") within the bullets, she fired a number of them and allowed them to ricochet at various surfaces, causing a magnification of tremendous high-pitched sounds, most of which Eleanor was used to. Employing this as a means to distract the man, Eleanor grabbed her chain and threw it closer to her opponent. Just as it was about to land over his shoulder, Eleanor pulled it backwards and transported right on top of the chain; drawing her blade, she attempted to bifurcate him from head to toe.

''Another Ginto? More than that, she's altering her tactics to keep me on guard. Good.'' Abraham thought to himself, barely able to actually hear his own thought over the raw echoing the bullets were causing.

Once he saw the chain, he instinctively reached for it, attempting to use it to his advantage. Only when it went slack did the hunter realize what was about to happen. A split-second later, horrific pain shot up his body and a scream escaped him. Only his Blut Vene prevented him from suffering a total bifurcation. Blood forcibly expelled itself from the open wounds. However, the injuries began to rapidly heal up, a side effect of his contract with Mammon.

Gritting his teeth, Abraham endured the agony of being sliced and restored. "Damn, to have to resort to this. To have to re-create every part of my flesh and blood with the aid of a demonic source." his words revealed a dislike of what just occurred to his body. "But soon, that will all be over."

Once more leveling Blut-Schatten at the strange girl, Abraham decided to reveal his deadliest technique, if one assumed that raw power were all that made something deadly of course, the Heiliger Greller Pfeil. Abraham began the charging process, which created a blue glow from the barrel of his weapon before the shot even fired. A moment later, he pulled the trigger, sending a giant Pfil straight ahead.

Eleanor immediately widened her eyes, and instinctively raised her Blut Vene. But it wasn't enough, and the explosive damage caused her to be blown backwards and down to the ground. She quickly attempted to regain her ground, but the bruises caused by the Heilig Pfeil were notable. What surprised her even more was his instant regeneration, to which she realized he wasn't a pure Quincy at all. Nonetheless, she didn't care about that right now, and immediately her Spirit Weapon forged on her arm.

A cannon of sorts was lined up in front of Eleanor, collecting ambient reishi at a rapid rate. Instantly, it fired off as a massive blast of spiritual energy, rapidly reaching for Abraham; in an attempt to annihilate him that is.

The blast of energy caused every nerve in Abraham's body to send signals of pain, signals which grew more frequent when the immense wave exploded. The shockwave produced sent him flying backward and up into the air. A few micro-seconds after being forced back like that, he suddenly stopped. A white, bone-like mask covered his face. "Looks like I really can't hold back."

"Tear open the voided gate, let me gaze into the abyss!" he chanted, swiping his right hand in a clawing motion at the air, leaving a red line which slowly widened into a circle-shaped portal. Horrific screaming emanated from the other side. Out of the portal, a woman wearing a dark green dress and a red, butterfly-shaped bow over her face walked out, seemingly drawn to Abraham's side. "Always a pleasure, Madam Butterfly, to see your beauty untarnished by the damned pit. I only need your aid for a season, then I will let you rest once more."

As if on cue, the entity known as Butterfly simply charged at the child opposing Abraham, only to swerve around, as if standing vigil, preventing the girl from escaping backwards.

"Tch." Eleanor thought, knowing that she did damage but the evil entity that the man had made a contract with allowed him to regenerate. And then he noticed "Madam Butterfly" and gained an aura of caution around her. She had no choice, the aura was too powerful to handle normally, and so she grabbed her Saigusari and immediately wrapped it around herself as a means to shield herself. Doing so, she stabilized her physical being in one place, for now, while she telepathically sent out four other chains to make a diamond-like formation to keep the chain fortress sealed in a single area.