[background music -
Mad World]
Matt coughed as he slowly got to his feet, his gut still felt like it had a hole punched through it. Breathing deeply the lone man looked behind him, at the doors that the others had only recently run out. How long would it be before they tried to come back in. Before they'd have to face this. Matthew looked back at Cloud and smiled briefly, it was kinda funny, now that he was facing him, revenge wasn't so important. Slipping the bandana that had once belonged to Yuffie around his arm, time seemed to slow down as the once fallen paladin looked around the shattered cathedral. The once proud statues of heroes and villains stood torn asunder, their faces cut, pieces of marble scattered along the ground.
Picking his sword up from the ground, Matthew turned and once again faced Cloud and the swarm of bit errors. "If you plan on getting past me, you'll have to do better than that."
Cloud smiled some. "Very well." The fallen hero held out one of his arms, and among the bitnulls, giant demons came up. "Perhaps you'll recognize some of these creatures from this world. Find solace in that when you die."
Matthew took another step back, and the minions of Cloud charged forward, intent on slaughtering the man. Matthew slipped into a ready stance and drew his blade up as though ready to go into a stabbing motion. Tensing for a moment, the air around the dark paladin grew darker, more sinister, many of the charging bit errors turned from their course to avoid the man's aura of despair. As the remaining swarm continued it's charge, Matthew whispered a prayer to the dark god, in response his weapon began to glow with an eerie malevolence. Yelling out, Matthew met the charge of nulls.
The black blade cut deeply, slicing through a half-dozen errors as the paladin ducked and scrambeled under the arms of a demon. As the errors diverted to fall upon him, Matthew turned on his heel and brought his blade into the leg of the demon he had just passed, without any seeming resistance the blade sliced cleanly through the demons leg and brought it down to the ground. Jumping up into the air, Matthew was bated out of the air by a seeming wall of errors as they crashed head-long into the hero. Bouncing along the ground from the impact Matthew crashed into the walls of the cathedral. Scrambling to his feet another swipe of his black blade destroyed a half-dozen more errors as he tried to gain distance on the creatures. Passing by the demon he had brought down before Matt barely spared a moments thought in removing the creature's head from it's neck as he continued to run, whispering another prayer under his breath.
Matthew ran headlong into the base of the statue of Megaman, the shattered base could not support the weight of the statue as it fell, crushing another demon under it's weight as well as dozens of errors. Matthew scrambled away from the statue, turning to examine where the other creatures were. Suddenly half his vision became blurred, then gone. Matthew felt something warm running down his face. Swinging his blade wildly, the fallen paladin caught the demon that had plucked out his right eye in the ribcage, cleanly bisecting it. Matthew staggered back as the pain hit him, he continued to swing his blade wildly as he backed up against a wall. The three remaining demons circled the hero, their gigantic mouths grinning in victory while the errors around them began to chirp in glee. Snarling Matt charged again.
Ducking low, the half-blinded paladin passed beneath the swiping blades of the demons. Coming to a quick stop, his armored feet skidding across the ground some, Matthew changed his direction back towards the demons, his blade calling out almost as it was driven deep into the demon's back, with a quick twist and pull, the blade exited the demon's body through his collarbone. Pushing off the body as it began to disintigrate, Matthew saw that Cloud had started walking towards the doors. "No!"
Matthew yelled as he charged forward, 20 feet, 15 feet, 10 feet. Then there was the sound of crunching as Matthew came to a sudden stop. Pulling forward Matthew found he couldn't move forward, turning back the dark paladin learned why, his left arm had been caught in the mouth of one of the demons, who held the bleeding limb with a fury. Matthew looked back at Cloud with hate in his eyes as the white-haired former hero simply smiled and turned back towards the doors and began walking again. Yelling out Matthew turned his blade on the creature, but as he did the enchantment upon it faded, and without it, he found himself unable to cut the demon down. Gritting his teeth Matthew continued to bring his blade down on the creature's mouth, but against the armored hide of the creature, his efforts were for naught though. Cloud was getting closer to the door now, in desperation Matthew brought his sword down on the creature's mouth harder, and in response to this, his blade broke in half. Without even the briefest of pauses Matthew began bringing the blade down on his own arm, slowly cutting through the flesh and muscle and bone as blood and flesh spurted from the wound, splattering on the floor and on Matthew's face as he continued to slam the blade down on his own arm. With a satisfying snap, the bones broke and another tug from Matthew tore the rest of the flesh that was holding him.
"Cloud! DIE!"
Matthew charged forward, holding his shattered blade in one hand as he dashed madly towards Cloud. He saw Cloud turn to face him again, shifting the giant blade from his shoulder, the failed experiment drove his sword forward. Matthew's eyes bulged as the blade drove through his armor and into his body, carving through flesh, muscle, and organ. Coughing up blood the dark paladin staggered backwards, pulling himself off of Cloud's blade. Matthew's hand became limp, the shattered blade he'd held dropping to the floor, clattering on the bloodstained marble and sliding away. Matthew dropped down to his knees as Cloud turned away from him again.
Matthew screamed in frustration, anger, and sadness. His death knell ringing out, passing through the stone walls of the cathedral and ringing clearly throughout the entire town.