Osamu’s eyelids slowly peeled open. He was surprised to find himself staring at the ceiling of an operating theater and not at the sky above the city outskirts. His head ached with a throbbing pain as he sluggishly tore his Venturi mask off his face. He felt around his forehead with his fingers. The bullet’s entry wound was completely gone, but the area still felt tender to the touch.

He slowly sat up and looked around, seeing one of the surgeons and Manami standing on opposite sides of the room, and Nastasia sitting at his bedside reading a small book containing tales and poems from Edgar Allen Poe.

“Looks like you’re awake.” Manami said. “Welcome back to the world of the living, Osamu.”

“What…what happened?” Osamu asked.

“Your friend Johan shot you in the head.” Manami said, taking her hair out of its ponytail. “You…do remember who Johan is, right?”

“Yeah. My head feels weird, but I still remember everything. We’re in Yakutsk, right?”

“Thank goodness.” the surgeon sighed, lighting a cigarette. “Even with the help of an exorcist, there was a risk you’d lose your memory or even some of your cognitive and emotional function. At least where memory is concerned, you seem okay.”

“How long have I been out?” Osamu asked.

“Five hours.” Nastasia answered.

Osamu panicked. He tried to rush out of his bed, but Nastasia pushed her hand against his chest. “No, no, it’s okay. We won the battle, Osamu. Carmilla and Hima were able to destroy the rest of Russia’s forces.”

“Carmilla? Oh, that’s right.” Osamu said. “Carmilla moved our tanks into the city. Is everyone okay, then? We didn’t lose anyone?”

“Well, all the lords are fine and Borya is being treated for his wounds. Johan is dead, Osamu.” Nastasia said, putting her back down on the bedside table. “You did it. You survived. Now all that’s left is the North American coalition. You and Hima should prepare to head north and fight them off.”

“No.” Osamu said. “We can force them to retreat back to their countries without much sacrificing more of our soldiers. Johan warned that the world was rushing to get its nuclear arms amassed in southeast Asia. They’re trying to stop the demons from destroying the world. If we can counteract them, the world will be defenseless. Everyone will pull back to defend their countries.”

“How do you plan to do all that?” Nastasia asked. “Neither you nor Hima are in any condition to spread yourselves that thin.”

Osamu sat up in his bed, his raven hair covering half his face. “…It’s time for the Underworld’s Eye to make its final play.”

“At this point…I don’t care what you have to do.” the surgeon said, shadows seeped into the wrinkles on his face. “Everyone here made a very difficult decision in saving you instead of Johan. My co-workers and assistants don’t support what you’re doing, for the most part. They’re doctors, after all. When we chose you over Johan, we did so believing our friends and families would survive this war. So, go. If you’re going to end this world and eradicate mankind, then do it. You owe it to us.”

“…I understand.” Osamu said. “Thank you for saving me. I promised to free your race from mankind’s oppression and I will. I know it was a tough decision for you. Thank you for making it.”

The surgeon released a wearisome sigh, put out his cigarette, and left the room. Osamu understood all too well what he was going through. The lives of billions of men, women, and children weighed upon the surgeon’s shoulders even more than they did upon Osamu’s. After all, he was the man who saved the life of the world’s destroyer. He enabled everything that was about to come next.

For that, Osamu knew he had an obligation to everyone in Minavere, whether they supported him or not, to carry out the genocide of mankind. The sacrifices they made had to be worth it. It had to amount to something more than blood, ash, and white phosphorus.

“For the record, Osamu, I insisted we save Johan instead of you.” Manami said.

“That doesn’t surprise me at all.” Osamu replied. “What convinced you otherwise?”

“What do you think?” Manami scoffed.

“Yoko…” Osamu muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose. “She’s here, isn’t she?”

“Why don’t you go see her yourself?” Manami hissed, glaring daggers at Osamu. “She’s outside crying her eyes out.”

Nastasia slung Osamu’s arm across her shoulders and helped him out of bed. She was incredibly patient and matched Osamu’s sluggish pace. As they passed through the operating theater door, Osamu hung onto the hallway railing with his other hand. He and Nastasia followed the echoes of Yoko’s sobs, spotting sitting on the sofa with her head in her hands.

Yoko raised her head as she heard Osamu’s slippers squeak against the floor. For a moment, neither of them said a word. There was so much Yoko wanted to say to him that she couldn’t sort out the right words. Every question and grievance she had with the Osamu were all scattered and twisted in a tornado inside her head.

Yoko didn’t see an ounce of remorse in Osamu’s expression. He eyes were blank and tired. He wore the ragged expression of a man who had seen and witnessed far too much and simply wanted it to end.

“Isabella once told me that I’m the glue that holds us all together.” Osamu said. “She was right about me, Yoko. Terrifyingly so. I’m so close to reaching my goal. Just one final push and the fighting will be over. Once I’m done, I can rest knowing that I challenged the whole world…and won.”

“…Are you even hearing yourself?” Yoko cried. “You killed our daughter, our friends, our countrymen, and millions more. Gekko nearly died because of you. Izanami is witnessing the deaths of millions across the world because of you. You’re pure evil. No wonder our kids tried so hard to stop you. If I had known what you were planning to do, I would’ve let them.”

“Everything I did, I did because there was no other way to achieve peace. I don’t regret making the choices I did, and I don’t regret what I’m about to do next to the world.”

“…Next?” Yoko repeated, her eyes widening in horror. “Osamu…what are you going to do?”

“Destroy human civilization as we know it.” Osamu answered. “Let’s go, Nastasia.”

Nastasia bowed her head and continued down the hall with Osamu. Before carrying out the rest of his plan, he needed to see the people of Minavere with his own eyes. He needed to see their faces now that Johan was dead and his path was the only way forward. He needed to see if he won their hearts, having nearly died in service to the nation.

When he and Nastasia stepped out of the hospital’s front entrance, they were greeted with a massive candlelight vigil. The people of Minavere gathered around the hospital and hoped that their king would make it through the operation to save his life. When they saw him emerge with Lord Nastasia, the somber gathering turned into a moment of thunderous elation.

Cheers and proud roars echoed all throughout the city from soldiers and civilians alike. Flags of the Old Vampiric Monarchy waved left to right in the distance. It was a magnificent sight to behold, seeing the smiling faces of tens of thousands of people who had been fearing for their lives up until that moment.

A line of national guardsmen kept the crowd from getting too close to the hospital, but even the troops had to celebrate the return of their king. Many of them took off their helmets and waved them in the air, their faces speckled with ash and congealed blood.

Osamu noticed a parked tank in the middle of the crowd as well. Carmilla and her tank crew sat on top of the main gun with water bottles in their hands as they waved to Osamu. He gladly waved back, thankful to have a lord like Carmilla on his side.

The Shoku Twins and all of the vampiric lords stood in front of the line of troop guarding the hospital and ascended the stone steps leading up to the front door. Borya playfully slapped Osamu’s shoulder and ruffled his hair while Anya gently took hold of his hand and kisses the back of it. Taeko sat on a nearby bench and watched as Minavere welcomed Osamu back to the world of the living.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

Finally, the lords made way for Hima. She ascended the steps and took her place next to Osamu. The people of Minavere chanted Inari’s adage for all the world to hear, so that every man, woman, and child on the planet knew their destruction was nigh.

“Win together! Die together! Win together! Die together!”

The fierce roars of her people made Hima smile. “We’ve done it, Osamu. We defended our nation. With Russia broken, we just have to handle the assault on the northern coast.”

“What are your orders, Osamu?” Ulrich asked. “Should we send our forces north?”

Osamu shook his head. “No. The Americans are attacking us because the world’s nuclear safety net is being deployed in Southeast Asia. It’s a massive gathering of the world’s nuclear arsenal. They’re going to try and obliterate the horde of demons swarming the continent. We need to destroy it.”

“How do we do that?” Hima asked. “We don’t know where exactly they’re being deployed.”

“They’ll be within range of the horde itself. Besides, I have a birds-eye view of the world.” Osamu said. “Gekko nearly destroyed the Underworld’s Eye at the battle of Fukuoka. It should be healed by now. I’ll use it to take care of those nukes.”

“Once we do this, there’ll be nothing standing between the horde and the rest of humanity.” Hima said. “We’ll be signing the world’s death warrant. Are you ready for that, Osamu?”

Osamu looked to Taeko, whose face had gone pale just from listening to the conversation. She wore her disgust and dejection on her face for all to see. Nonetheless, Osamu nodded his head and gave the order. It was time to ensure the destruction of the world.

“We should head there now. All of us.” Akatsuki said. “I’ll take us to Japan so we can be within view of the eye. We’ll need as much energy as we can muster to make this work.”

“We’ve got your back, Osamu.” Borya encouraged. “Girls, we’re ready when you are.”

Osamu stepped forth and faced the sea of cheering patriots before him. Their eyes were glued to him as though he were the last true mouthpiece of god himself.

“Humanity has failed once again! It cannot stop what’s coming!” Osamu shouted. “Johan Sommers is dead along with his father’s self-destructive dogma. The United Pacifist Party will be judged as traitors to Minavere and the vampiric race! Today, you all chose life rather than death. You chose to exist rather than fade away. You put your lives and your faith in our hands.

“I know it was a difficult choice for many of you to make. Despite all you’ve suffered, you still had empathy for the enemy that oppressed your people. You recognized there were many innocents who had nothing to do with the subjugation of your race. Pain often does bring wisdom, and with it, perspective.

“But when Johan and his people sold you out to humanity, your empathy was used against you. He used it to convince you that it was your duty to lie down and die, to forego your right to bring children into the world. Johan lived a hellish and unfair existence, but he had no right to project his own self-hatred onto you. Everyone deserves to exist, but it is precisely because of that immutable fact that we cannot all exist.

“We are going to go and destroy humanity’s last hope of surviving this. Continent after continent, ocean after ocean, nation after nation will be cleansed. In due time, this world will belong to you. No one will ever again have the power to take away your right to exist!”

Seeing the other lords assemble around Osamu, Carmilla stood up and spread her wings, flying from the take to Osamu’s side. Osamu had proven to Minavere that he and Hima had the power to defend their nation against any threat, that there was no need to adhere to the philosophy of Sommerism. They possessed the strength to fight back and make the world anew. Why wouldn’t they use it?

In saving Osamu over Johan, the hospital staff chose to destroy the world and save themselves rather the Johan’s inverse option. The vampires wished for a world where they could live happy lives, where simply being born wouldn’t entitle them to an existence of suffering and terror. On that day, Osamu was ready to give them that world.

Osamu and all the vampiric lords vanished with the Shoku Twins, teleporting to the skies above Japan. Hima’s moonlight dragon soared into the sky, carrying everyone inside of its massive head. She flew beyond the clouds and the earth’s sky itself, giving everyone a sub-orbital view of the earth.

The eyes of the lords widened with wonder as they witnessed the curvature of the earth below them and the vast, infinite blackness of space all around them. The blue hue of earth’s atmosphere shined from below them as they gazed at the earth’s cloud formations and the light of the sun crowning around the raven moon.

The world seemed like such a massive place when they were still in Yakutsk, but now the knew what god’s view of the earth was like. All of a sudden, that blue titan called Earth became like an oil painting, as though they could reach out and grab it for themselves.

The cloud formations and the shadows they produced, stretched out across the world’s oceans by the ghostly, orange glow of the eclipse were like brushstrokes on the earth’s blue canvass. Osamu and the Shoku Twins stepped forth, all three of them clasping their hands in the Zai kuji-in seal.

The Eye of the Underworld rose from above Japan and joined Hima’s dragon in sub-orbital flight. The massive eye was like a grotesque, bloodshot moon staring into the face of Hima’s dragon. The lords looked back in dumbfounded awe and disgust as Osamu and the Shoku Twins rotated the eye away from them and angled it to face the earth.

“Everyone, please feed your energy through Hima’s dragon!” Omagatoki said.

“You heard her!” Carmilla shouted, clasping her hands. “Give it all you got!”

The vampiric lords all clasped their hands and channeled as much fire energy as they could into the maw of Hima’s dragon, everyone but Taeko. She closed her eyes and turned away, unable to believe the sheer scale of what Osamu was about to do. All she could think about were the terrified people on the earth below her and the billions of lives that were about to be extinguished.

Osamu looked for a formation of toxic, black clouds above the earth. He found one that covered Japan like a veil, and then another that was spreading from North and South Korea into Southeast China. It seemed the Korean people had been all but annihilated, so the world’s nukes would’ve been placed in China to stop the spread of the horde.

As the bright, orange mass of energy gathered within the dragon’s mouth, the Shoku Twins proceeded to channel it into the Eye of the Underworld. The mass of energy shot into the eye like a laser beam, giving it a blinding, orange aura.

All the world saw the orange glow of the eye looming above them. Everyone evacuating from their homes in Shanghai, everyone watching the news with pale, horrified expressions in Jerusalem, everyone praying to god in the orthodox churches of Moscow. The eye shined like a second sun in the sky, momentarily lifting the veil of darkness draped over the planet. The sky shined with a Prussian blue radiance and the ocean sparkled beautifully.

The earth’s beauty returned in all its glory for just a single moment. But everyone knew the light that illuminated the earth was a signal of their approaching doom. It was a beautiful mark of death for everyone it was aimed at. Japan and Korea had been ravaged by Osamu’s genocide. Now, he intended to turn the entire nation of China into glass.

Everything went silent for Osamu. His heart thumped wildly in his chest. All he could hear was his own heartbeat and the blood rushing through his head. He closed his eyes and saw horrific flashes of the world’s worst atrocities as vividly as he did when the Shoku Twins first showed them to him.

Every war, every massacre, every labor camp, every human experiment, every mass rape, it all flashed before him like a terrible nightmare. Now, at last, he could accelerate the world’s end. One last, global atrocity and he would wipe away the possibility of anymore world wars or holy wars. Just how his island nation was once crushed and humiliated for the sake of peace, he would do the same to the entire world.

“On your order, Osamu.” Omagatoki said.

Osamu nodded and looked down upon the earth, a storm of rage and disgust exploding within him. “Do it.”

The immense energy within the eye was focused into a small projectile the size of a golf ball. The Shoku Twins shot off the blinding fireball from the eye, sending it towards the earth at subsonic speed. An overwhelming flash of light radiated from the earth as the fireball exploded over China, annihilating the entire country in the blink of an eye.

Its rich, diverse landscape of sprawling forests and immense deserts, its breathtaking rivers and marvelous cityscapes were all incinerated along with the people inhabiting them. Forests turned into fields of flames and cinders, the explosion tearing trees out of the earth. Rivers were reduced to scalding trenches of ash and deserts were turned into oceans of molten sand.

Every single city, town, and village within China’s mainland was vaporized, the ashes intense heat gathering into colossal clouds of lightning-laced smoke. Over a billion men, women, and children were vaporized in their cars, huddled in their homes, and reduced to nuclear shadows on the sidewalks and concrete streets.

The sheer scale of the destruction was unlike anything the world had ever seen. In the blink of an eye, Osamu had annihilated the Chinese people and their homeland. With it, the world’s nuclear arsenal. Nearly every nation across the world saw the flash of light that China’s destruction produced. Millions of people in neighboring countries were blinded by the thermal flash. The world felt the rumble of the explosion, like a massive earthquake that threatened to throw the planet off its tilted axis.

“Oh my god…” Hima gasped, a smile forming on her face. “It’s…beautiful…”

The Chinese landmass burned like a piece of volcanic rock, but from the view of the vampiric lords, the glow of molten cities and deserts was like the sparkle of garnet twinkling in their eyes. Their shock and awe gave way to cheers and laughter. The screamed and shouted with elation, hugging each other tight to celebrate all they had been through together.

Hima’s eyes sparkled with the orange glow of China’s burning land as she gazed at Osamu with tears in her eyes. “Osamu…we did it.”

Tears ran down Osamu’s cheeks, though he did not share the same smile that the vampiric lords had. Rather, he wore the same look of wonder and awe that he did when he massacred the people of Fukuoka and destroyed his home nation. He was trying to see past the chaos and search for the beauty hiding behind the unprecedented act of genocide he had just committed.

Once he saw it, he smiled. “Now the world is defenseless. Japan failed. Russia failed. The Americans will have no choice but to fall back and defend their land. It will all be in vain. This world is done for. The fighting…is finally over.”

Osamu and Hima held hands as they watched China burn to the ground. They watched as humanity’s last ditch effort to stop them failed before their very eyes. With this single, catastrophic act, the world was doomed. No military nor weapon could stop Osamu’s horde of demons. All that remained was the countdown to the annihilation of the human race.