Every man, woman, and child in the city watched the barrier shatter into a hellish rain of flaming crystals. They saw it from the barricaded schools, the grocery stores, the hotel rooms, and the police stations. Manami saw it from the windows of the conference room, her face painted with dread and disbelief.
“The Russian exorcists…I never expected they’d be so fearsome.” Manami said, her eye stuck open.
Meanwhile, every national guardsman at the senate building scoured through the offices, closets, and bathrooms in search of Johan. They kicked down door after door and cleared room after room, but no one could find him. Taeko stood outside the assembly hall, biting her nails as the troops radioed in to report that Johan eluded them.
“Slippery bastard.” Taeko muttered. “Where did you go, Johan?”
Taeko sauntered towards the windows on the other end of the hall and saw the rain of flaming, scarlet crystals with her own eyes. It wouldn’t have surprised her if a missile struck the senate building at that very moment. All of Minavere was now exposed and vulnerable, with Katya’s AA units being the only protection left.
In spite of the danger the entire city found itself in, Taeko remained calm and collected. She knew Johan’s disappearance and the subsequent shattering of the barrier couldn’t have been coincidence. And so, Taeko did what she had always done best; gamble.
“All units,” Taeko began, “extend your search outside of the senate building. We have troops stationed everywhere in this city except west where that phosphorus hit us. That’s the only place he could possibly go without running into any combat units. Anya has medical units and civilian doctors out there looking for wounded and rounding up the bodies left behind in the retreat. Be sure to alert them to keep an eye out.”
The national guardsmen acknowledged the order and began to widen their net in search of Johan. Over one-hundred soldiers filed out of the building, some of them hopping into transport trucks while others swept through the streets on foot. While she was at it, Taeko radioed Osamu, hanging her head as she prepared to break the news to him.
“Osamu, are you there?” Taeko asked.
The wind sweeping through his hair as Hima raced towards the city in her moonlight dragon, Osamu snatched his radio off his belt and answered. “Taeko! Are you okay?”
“Everyone’s okay. We’re in trouble though. Johan escaped from the senate building. I have the national guard searching for him right now.”
“What?” Osamu recoiled. “How did he escape?”
“By the looks of it, it’s the same playbook he used in Kengir.” Taeko answered. “As long as the man has people he can manipulate, he worms himself out of the most impossible situations. Osamu, the barrier went down right after the incident. There’s no way that’s just a coincidence.”
“Yeah, I agree.” Osamu said. “We saw the flames on the west end suddenly go out, even the white phosphorus. There wasn’t even any smoke left.”
“Thermal transference.” Taeko said, a lightbulb turning on in her head.
“What the hell does that mean?” Hima asked.
“Japan’s exorcist divisions have a similar ability. Thermal transference is a magic technique.” Taeko explained. “In Kyoto, teams of exorcists could use it to stop wildfires or arson attacks. You strip away the flames and transfer them into a controlled ball of fire, then you can extinguish it or put it somewhere safe. It seems the Russian exorcists use it as a weapon instead. They took all those fuel-fed fires and the phosphoric flames and wrapped it all into one concentrated mass. They must’ve slammed it against the barrier and broke it.”
“Now the question is; where did the exorcists come from?” Hima asked.
“That’s the one weakness of thermal transference.” Taeko said. “If you want to use it from long distance, you need more exorcists to weave signs with in unison. If they hit us from outside of anyone’s range, it means they had to deploy with at least a few thousand people.”
“That’s it!” Osamu said. “With that many people, they can’t move quickly. We should be able to hunt them down if we hurry. Taeko, any idea where Johan went?”
“I would guess he fled to the abandoned west end, but I don’t know for sure. We’re still searching.” Taeko answered.
“What are you thinking, Osamu?” Akatsuki asked.
“Here’s the plan,” Osamu began. “Hima, I want you to drop the twins and I off at the western front. We’ll handle Johan. I want you to survey the area and find those exorcists. You have to take them out quickly, before the Russians make their second push onto the city. Your dragon is made up of similar material to the barrier. Any battle we fight now might produce the thermal energy they’d need to take your dragon out.”
“Then we’d be leaving the city’s safety up to Katya.” Hima said. “I trust her, but even our AA units might not be enough to protect everyone from bombardment.”
“That’s why you’ll need to be quick.” Osamu said. “It’s the best option we have, Hima.”
“Damn it! Okay, fine! I’ll hunt those bastards down, you just put an end to Johan!”
Hima’s dragon swooped down low, letting Osamu and the Shoku Twins jump out at the western front amidst a graveyard of burnt out IFV’s and charred corpses. Just ahead of all the wreckage were the blackened outskirts of Yakutsk where the white phosphorus had struck Borya’s unit. The flames were gone, but a thin fog of ash veiled the outskirts and seeped into every melted apartment unit, alleyway, and ruined diner.
“I’ll go on ahead.” Hima said. “After I’m done with them, I’ll come back for you three.”
Osamu nodded as Hima’s dragon took off into the sky, then made a sharp turn eastward. The aurora borealis and the glow of the burning, fragmented barrier cloaked the city in a hellish, red light, casting shadows in every nook and cranny of the outskirts.
“Johan!” Osamu yelled. “Come out! It’s time to end this!”
Osamu’s yell was more than just that. It was a command. If Johan was in the area, Osamu’s bloodcraft would force him out of hiding. With the Shoku Twins at his side, Osamu marched through the charred ruins of the outskirts, stepping over the corpses of his dead soldiers in search of the elusive, blonde devil.
While Osamu forged ahead, the twins watched every shadow flicker beneath the burning light of the barrier. Their ears were bombarded by the sounds of hissing as burning fragments of the barrier fell around them like flaming hail. Osamu stopped in the intersection of two major streets, his eyes immediately darting over to the right.
He saw the shadowy silhouette of a tall, young man walking towards him from behind the veil of ash and snow. The man emerged from the ash with his hands behind his back and his bright, blonde hair slicked behind his ears. Sure enough, it was Johan.
“The destroyer of worlds himself…Osamu Ashikaga.” Johan said, a gentle smile on his face. “It was just like this back in Kengir. The smell of death saturated the air. Bodies twisted and contorted in the most inhuman ways imaginable. Two devils standing over the ruins of it all.”
“No.” Osamu said. “This won’t end like Kengir. You came here to euthanize your own race. I’m here to save them from you and your father’s pathetic ideology.”
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
“Can you truly look me in the eye and tell me, after all the sorrow you’ve experienced in the past seven years alone, you don’t see it from my point of view?” Johan asked. “There is no greater suffering than to be born in this world. You saw it all, didn’t you? You know this world wants all vampires dead because of the atrocities of the past. Our only choice was to either fade away in peace or lock ourselves into a fate of never-ending war with mankind.
“On the other hand, this world wanted you dead as well, didn’t it? All because you aided Inari during those few, fateful days. All because you have her heart beating inside your chest. I was a victim of history while you actively tried to correct it. Look where it got us. Are you telling me you never thought about ending it all?”
Osamu closed his eyes, remembering all too vividly the night he attempted suicide at Izanami’s shrine, the night where he too thought there would be peace at the end of existence. “I looked down into that abyss long ago. If it weren’t for the people I love, I’d have given into it. All living things want to exist in one way or another. We don’t want to fade away and be forgotten. The greatest atrocity one could ever commit is to convince themselves or others that their will to live and is nonexistent or immoral! Our lives are not burdens! They’re our birthright!”
Johan chuckled. “Says the man who’s plunging the world into purest hell.”
“My plan for this world doesn’t end with the destruction of the human race.” Osamu said. “But that shouldn’t concern you anyway. You won’t be alive to see what happens next.”
“Is that so?” Johan asked. “Well then, Osamu, we’re both here. Which one of us do you think is going to survive?”
Osamu glared at Johan with vicious intensity. His hatred and disgust for all that he represented shined through as his brows arched downwards. “End him, Omagatoki.”
“Gladly!” Omagatoki said, extending her hand out to the right, towards one of the ruined apartment buildings. A long and jagged piece of steel framing flew out from the wreckage and levitated above Omagatoki’s head. Watching as another smile bloomed on Johan’s face, she aimed her palm directly at him.
In a split second, Johan took his hands from behind his back, aiming a service pistol right at Osamu’s head. Omagatoki shot off the jagged steel into Johan’s chest at almost the same time Johan fired his gun. Akatsuki watched Osamu fall backwards as Omagatoki’s attack blew Johan down the street.
Akatsuki’s horrified scream ripped through the air. “Osamu! No!”
Omagatoki ran to Osamu’s side, slapping her hand over her mouth in shock. The bullet struck his forehead, the entry wound flooding with blood that streamed down Osamu’s face.
“Oh my god, he’s hit!” Omagatoki shrieked. “Osamu! Hey! Osamu!”
Akatsuki put her head against Osamu’s chest, feeling Osamu’s faint heartbeat against her cheek. “He’s still alive!”
Omagatoki carefully scooped Osamu into her arms as the sound of screeching wheels hissed from down the road. Akatsuki stood in alert, her hands clasped and ready for combat. Her shoulders dropped upon seeing Minaverian transport trucks coming towards them with red cross symbols on the doors. Anya’s medical troops and some of the civilian doctors who volunteered to help poured out from the back to assist the Shoku Twins.
“Go check on that other person down the street! Get him loaded and brought to the hospital!” exclaimed the doctor to the national guardsmen, his black hair combed back and a ballistic vest over his blue dress shirt. “What happened here? Wait…is that Lord Osamu?”
“He’s been shot in the head!” Akatsuki cried. “Please, he’s still alive! He needs help!”
“Load him up in our truck! Quickly!” the doctor ordered.
Three of the national guardsmen helped Omagatoki and Akatsuki get Osamu into the back of their truck before hopping in themselves, while the other three loaded Johan into the truck behind them. Both trucks took off in a hurry to save their injured king. Omagatoki squeezed Osamu’s hand as tears rolled down her cheeks and a lump squeezed on her throat.
“Big Brother Osamu…” Omagatoki wept. “Don’t you dare die!”
“This is bad!” one of the national guardsmen cried. “What about the queen? Where is she?”
Hima had taken her dragon high into the air, surveying the area around Yakutsk to try and pinpoint where the exorcists came from. She frantically looked to the west but didn’t see a single living person anywhere within range of the city. Gnashing her teeth, she turned south, but only saw what was left of Russia’s traditional military.
The next direction was east. Looking towards the far east, she saw thousands of men advancing towards the city, their black cloaks a clear sign they were Russian exorcists.
“There!” Hima growled, her bloodlust and vexation boiling over. “All of your are dead!”
Hima’s dragon rushed towards the exorcists like a snake lunging after its prey. The mere sight of the massive moonlight dragon rushed towards them made the exorcists cry out in fear. Many of them stared wide-eyed at the certain death lunging towards them.
“Don’t cower!” shouted one of the elder exorcists, his white beard speckled with snow. “Erect the mirror!”
Scared witless, the exorcists clasped their hands and summoned a wall of white light in front of them. The light grew taller and extended backwards to protect the exorcists from the top as well. Thinking quickly, Hima aborted her frontal assault and flew above the exorcists’ heads, then snapped around to attack from the rear.
“She’s flanking us! The mirror won’t extend in time!” cried a frightened exorcists.
The massive size and speed of Hima’s dragon made counterattacking almost impossible for the exorcists. The dragon swooped low, almost slithering across the ground at full speed. Hima ran over thousands upon thousands of exorcists with her dragon like it was a speeding car, the impact knocking men far across the snowy plains and hundreds of feet into the air. Droplets of blood rained from their airborne bodies and suffused with the snow. The exorcists were inflicted with broken necks, caved in chests, twisted arms, and fractured skulls as they were slammed into by the dragon.
The few exorcists that were hit focused on counterattacking, clasping their palms and hurling bolts of lightning at Hima, but her dragon’s crimson aura deflected their attacks like pebbles off a windshield. After running through the entire exorcist formation, Hima’s dragon stood upright and faced the surviving stragglers. She clasped her hands and summoned her arsenal of moonlight halberds, sending them speeding towards the exorcists.
Their formation broken, each exorcist extended their palms and summoned their own walls of light to absorb the impact of the halberds. After impacting the exorcist mirrors, the halberds lost their form and morphed into small spikes of crimson light. That light immediately bounced into the air and sped towards Hima like a hail of bullets.
The light pierced through the dragon’s aura and poked hundreds of golf-ball sized holes throughout its body. The barrage of redirected shots took off a lock of Hima’s hair, grazed her cheek, and put a hole in her right shoulder. Blood gushed from the open hole in her shoulder, soaking her arm and upper back.
She almost bit her tongue off from the pain, but Hima gritted her teeth and kept going. Knowing now the exorcists could use her own projectiles against her, she continued running them over with the dragon’s body, decimating the surviving few in seconds. The exorcists were dead, but they managed to fulfill their purpose in bringing down Minavere’s defenses.
“Damn it, they put up more of a fight than I thought they would.” Hima muttered, clutching her bleeding shoulder. “I need to get back to Osamu and the twins.”
As Hima made her way back to the city, Taeko sat alone at a table in the senate building’s courtyard, her radio held firmly in her hand. She anxiously waited for news about Johan’s location, tapping her fingers against the table with a caterpillar-like movement. So far, the battle wasn’t the clear-cut victory she or any of the vampires were hoping for. Humanity came much more prepared for a fight than it did in Fukuoka.
Every victory was met with some sort of defeat. Every win had a caveat. At the rate things were going, Taeko feared the siege of Yakutsk would end in a stalemate at best and defeat at worst. Taeko’s spell of anxiety was broken as a burst of static hissed at her from her radio.
“Taeko! Are you there?” Omagatoki asked.
“Omagatoki? Why are you calling from Osamu’s radio?”
“Osamu’s been shot!”
Taeko’s heart nearly jumped into her throat. The color left her face and faded from her lips as if she had just died at the table. “What? What’s his condition?”
“He’s alive, but just barely! Johan shot him in the head! He’s unresponsive!”
“Oh my god…” Taeko gasped, standing up from the table. “Where are you guys right now?”
“At the hospital on the east end of town, not far from the hotel. Please, Taeko, you can’t let Osamu die! You don’t have to agree with what he’s doing, but we all still need him! He’s the only one who can protect Minavere! Please help him!”
There wasn’t a second that went by where Taeko didn’t think about Osamu’s betrayal, nor the unimaginable consequences of his plans. She knew all too well that innocent people the world over would be slaughtered en masse, that entire races, cultures, and nations would be annihilated.
And yet, Omagatoki had a point. Whether people supported Osamu’s plan or not, everyone needed him for Minavere’s survival. Despite all that had happened between them, Taeko couldn’t deny she still loved Osamu as a friend and comrade.
“A gunshot would to the head…” Taeko sighed. “We have good surgeons, but bringing him back from that will be a gamble. In order for it to go well, he’d need help from a seasoned exorcist that knows medical magic. I’m not good enough at it to save him from a bullet in the head, but…Manami is. I’ll grab her and come to you.”
“Thank you, Taeko. Please hurry!”
The news knocked the wind out of Taeko. She stumbled backwards and leaned against the table for a moment before taking a deep breath and rushing out of the courtyard. She frantically radioed Nastasia as she rushed past scrambling medical personnel and SSK agents.
“Nastasia, I need a lift to the hotel. We need to pick up Manami.”
“Why? What’s going on?”
“…It’s Osamu. He’s been shot.”