Chapter 30: With a Red Light of Triumph in His Eyes, Part 6

Alex couldn’t hold on to the chandelier for a simple reason: the explosion had also affected the ceiling. Large chunks of it broke off, and as a result, the chandelier did too. Alex found herself in midair, spinning with the chandelier before she even realized it.

Daniela, of course, immediately dashed toward Alex through the smoke and flames. Without hesitation, not for a moment. They always had each other’s backs. But Alex didn’t need it this time. Bracing her boots against the chandelier, Alex used it as a springboard to leap backward and upward. She grabbed one of the black ropes hanging ominously and swung, landing safely.

The improvised strategy had worked. The abomination had lost an arm, and she doubted it would be able to regenerate it—not when it was made of hundreds of different skeletons. That was based solely on Alex’s hunter’s instincts. It didn’t necessarily apply in Dracula’s castle.

In any case, they needed to end the fight as quickly as possible.

They wouldn’t be able to repeat what they had just done. For one simple reason. Alex quickly noticed it.

The cloner had been crushed by the monster’s arm when it flew.

Could one call that an ironic death?

In any case, a person had lost their life. Even if it was a stranger, Alex knew she shouldn’t be thinking of stupid things at a time like this. But the tension was such that she could barely bear it.

What had they achieved with this, after all? It was just an arm.

It wasn’t as if they were a few steps away from winning the fight. If only it were that simple.

Alex was surrounded by strangers. Aside from Daniela, naturally, she only knew a handful of people. And even then, just by sight, nothing more. Still, Alex didn’t want anyone else to die miserably. Not just the mages. Not just the secret army of humanity. Also, the innocent people she had dedicated her life to protecting, who were now dying, screaming out there.

Because they didn’t have enough people. Because they weren’t strong enough. Because they had never prepared for something like this. Dracula, a dark legend reborn. Dracula, the Prince of Darkness before whom even Death bowed.

The battle resumed. Daniela and Alex didn’t hesitate to be among the first on the front lines, as always. Dodging punches at close range. Jumping when the ground shook, trembled. Alex’s head wasn’t elsewhere. She couldn’t afford to think about anything other than surviving.

But her subconscious remained fixed on Dracula. Alex wondered how someone could prepare for something like that, which wasn’t an animal, nor a supernatural creature, nor of course human, but rather like a damned natural disaster.

No way. They couldn’t have prepared even if they had tried. The little information in some dusty books didn’t do justice to reality.

As if their defeat were destined. But it had been that way since the beginning. Since some monkeys gathered the courage to come down from the trees. Since the times when lighting a fire could be a death sentence because there was always something out there. Lurking.

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Humanity should have died out long ago, but they had always managed to overcome any obstacle.

They had wrested the world from the clutches of creatures of the shadows. They had multiplied, grown in every possible way.

This last challenge would be no different. It couldn’t be different.

Alex devised a plan.

She didn’t need to recruit more than a couple of mages to carry out the plan. Any good plan was extremely simple. A complex plan only meant there were thousands of ways it could go wrong. Basically, a death sentence in a situation like this.

Two water tentacles went after the abomination’s remaining arm. That wasn’t part of the plan, but of course, with so many people fighting at the same time, it was bound to happen. As inevitable as things going wrong. They didn’t hold the abomination back.

Not even for a few seconds. What they did was hand it a weapon. The monster wielded the water tentacles wrapped around its arm like whips. Dozens more people died within seconds. Anyone among those poor souls who wasn’t dead yet wouldn’t take long to die.

“We have to hurry,” Alex said to the mages she had gathered.

She was a hero; it was in her damn blood. What Alex feared most wasn’t losing her own life. It was more painful and terrifying than anything to not be able to save someone who needed help.

That bastard moved too fast for its size. It was difficult to prepare, therefore, but not impossible. Nothing was impossible. Four points. Four stakes driven deep into the ground.

“Hurry!” For a moment, Alex wondered if the creature could understand human language, and she took off running. She wondered again. There was a reason they hadn’t warned anyone, not until now.

The ground trembled beneath her feet. She could feel the stones twisting, leaning towards the void. At the same time, she had the strange sensation that her feet weren’t touching the ground, as if she had taken off. All she had to do was let herself fall, and she would fly so far that no one could find her.

The ground disappeared.

But Alex had already jumped, clearing the gap. She would have fallen into the depths like the monster if Daniela’s hand hadn’t been there to catch her as always.

It had worked. The monster had fallen into the void. Dead or not, it was already out of their way. They had a clear path.

“Alex...” Daniela said, a hand on her shoulder.

“This... is only the beginning.”

Alex directed her gaze to the doors, which were slowly opening. At some point, the screams and pounding from outside had ceased. How had she only noticed it now? Alex shook her head. It wasn’t worth worrying about that, not yet.

The survivors took a few moments to prepare and lick their wounds, then crossed the threshold.

They still had no idea of the depth of the darkness of this castle, but they had to find out.

——

“It’s done, Ben screwed up.” Dracula covered his face as if to hide his shame. “It was bound to happen; whose idea was it to make him so big?”

He paused, and no one responded with the truth, that it had been his idea, no less.

Fine.

Very well.

——

The reception had been terrifying beyond what words could express. In comparison, what awaited them beyond the next doors was like a vacation. A handful of monsters as normal as they could be, well, that’s it. Monsters.

Skeletal warriors, with their swords and leather shields, giant bats (for bats, not giants in general). That sort of thing.

It was obvious the respite wouldn’t last.

It was common sense. To begin with, Dracula's strongest servant was Death, and that hadn't been Death, just a pile of the dead. Secondly, he would obviously reserve his greatest forces to protect the throne room, the center of his power. Why risk his most valuable pieces if those he considered weak (as hard as that was to believe, considering that horror) could do the job?

Things would get worse before they got better.

If they got better at all.

Alex grabbed Daniela's hands, helping her execute a spinning attack that covered three hundred seventy degrees, driving back the beasts that were closing in on them, sending broken bones, blood, tentacles, and claws flying in all directions.

With a Red Light of Triumph in His Eyes, Part 6: END