A moment later, atop the city's wall, just below the roof…
Lily digs her hand into the stone to secure herself, then with the other, slashes her claws through the thick rope above. It comes off clean from the short length holding it fixed to the wall by a large nail driven through it, then swings down and hangs off the other ropes weaving underneath it. Lily hops out onto the wall, and black smoke begins to spew from the small gap she made.
「Now, then…」
She turns her attention to the rest of the ropes attached in the same manner, then zaps towards them along the top of the city's wall.
Swish!… Swish!… Fwoop!… Swish!…
Turning into a black and mostly red blur, Lily runs right next to the ropes' ends, and severs them with a quick swipe of her hand. One after another, the ropes begin flying away from the wall, plummeting from the weight of the assorted trash resting upon them. Some of the poorly attached wood and canvas slides right off into the city, while the rest dangles as less and less ropes support the remaining ones. In just a few seconds, Lily has already managed to collapse most of the makeshift roof, and the growing gap only increases as she circles around above the city.
…Fwap!
A minute or so later, Lily slashes at one of the ropes, and realizes the ones ahead of her are getting ripped out of the wall, tensed and stretched to their limit due to the uneven weight resting upon them. The roof begins to collapse, and one rope after another start sliding off into the walls' shadows, along with disintegrating trash. The canvas and cloth float in the air, descending relatively slowly, while the wooden debris, such as segments of hastily torn-apart buildings, plummet dangerously downward.
With her arms crossed, Lily watches the chaos unfold. By the time the interwoven ropes finish their fall, there will be nary a building undamaged below.
「…And with that… Straf, I am done.」
Lily declares with a smug smirk on her face as she turns her gaze sideways, and looks at nothing in particular.
…
At the same time, in the capital, in the strategic planning room…
「Hnnnngggghhh…」
With his fingers interlocked and arms raised above his head, Straf groans as he stretches out.
「…Pfahhhhhh. Yeah, I think I'm done too. Good job, Lily…」
He lets out a contented, if a little fatigued exhale, and looks at the screen with his mouth aslant. Trash fills the streets, and the vampire roof covering the city is gone.
「…I'm going to come over and visit you. For an inspection, or a debriefing, or whatever you want to call it. Mostly to just have a look around… Hup.」
Straf declares, and stands up with a grunt, placing one of his hands in his pocket, while the other one drifts towards his circlet.
「Eh? I thought you weren't going?」
Cycelia asks, blinking up at Straf with confused and drowsy eyes. His circlet pulses briefly as he looks down at her.
「Yeah, I'm not going there to help. My ass hurts, and I think the vampires are done. The sun is already up, their only shelter is the city walls, and even that will be gone soon, too…」
He replies, twisting his torso left and right as he stretches some more with a little strained grimace on his face.
「So it wasn't just me, huh?…」
Cycelia mumbles under her breath, shifting around in her chair as she realizes just how uncomfortable she was this whole time.
「…I'm just going there to have a look, say「Mission accomplished!」to the troops, and stretch my legs a little. I should be back before evening… Pilot, come pick me up from the capital.」
Shrugging his shoulders, Straf adds while Cycelia and Ursa listen. He utters out a quick command while looking at the screen with a bored face, then plucks the circlet off his head.
「…Here, you can have this if you want.」
「Eh?」
Cycelia's chestnut head perks up, and her eyes rise up from her lap as Straf hold his circlet out before her. She gingerly takes it into her fingertips, and Straf turns to leave.
「It's the commander's version. You can check out how everyone is doing and spy on them if you feel like it… Right. See you later then, Lia. I'll be back soon.」
Taking one step away, he explains over his shoulder, and heads for the door. Cycelia hesitantly moves the circlet to her head.
「…Ah! Don't fall asleep with it on! If you don't wear it, the magic screen will eventually run out of mana and shut off. It's powered by the circlet. You might not like the power bill.」
Snap.
He stops just before leaving, snapping his fingers and pointing at Cycelia just before she can put it on.
「Huh?」
「Later.」
Cycelia tilts her head in confusion, and Straf unceremoniously leaves into the hallway. She blinks her emerald eyes at Ursa, who is just a little less tired. Just a little.
「…I don't think Straf would give me something dangerous, right? As long as I'm careful to not fall asleep.」
Briefly glancing at the circlet in her hands again, she furrows her brows towards Ursa. With a tight-lipped grimace on his face, his eyes jump aside as he thinks for a prolonged duration.
「…I think that's true, your majesty.」
「Right…」
He replies with a confidence-devoid shrug, and Cycelia returns a self-affirming nod.
She slips the circlet on her head. The next instant, a supernatural awareness of things far, far away flood her mind. As if watching through someone else's eyes, she sees not one, but multiple viewpoints of people with Flashlights cautiously checking interiors of buildings. When one of the viewpoints looks at a vampire hunter, and so does another, a great sense of unnatural dread and confusion washes over her.
Cycelia realizes she can see two faces she normally shouldn't, at the same time, all overlaid with her own vision. She tries to make sense of it all with her jaw slack, but there are simply too many points of view for her to process. It's not as if the overlapping viewpoints create a blurry mess, or that Cycelia can't see well with one view on top of the other. In fact, it's quite the opposite.
Cycelia can see far too well, with too much clarity, and too much at once. At the same time, she can feel her mana being drained. Slowly but surely, at a steady pace, the circlet is eating it away.
《Let's check the next oClear!Open it, I'll keepIndeed.》《Ah, vampire lady, you're back. Indeed… Just a moment!》《Roland, could you give us a hand!?… Just a moment!》
「Eh?…」
She lets out a confused utterance, when she realizes she can also hear terribly jumbled voices in her head.
Most of the shouting voices are strangers, but she distinctly picks out Roland's without its peculiar, tinny echo of his helmet, as well as Lily's voice.
「Your highness?… Are you alright?…」
Ursa leans in, adding to the confusing stimuli as Cycelia's eyes pick up something moving in her vision. It takes her a moment to realize that it's her own eyes registering it.
On top of Ursa's face moving in front of her, she notices the multiple viewpoints that Straf has showed her before are now moving, and rising into the sky, while the young mage sitting in front of a collection of magic projections fiddles with complex tiny little levers in front of his seat.
《If you could help us clear the rest of the city… I suppose I can.》《If you could help us clear the rest of the city… I suppose I can.》
When Cycelia finds Roland's and Lily's interaction the most interesting at the moment, the rest of the voices and viewpoints fade away, though not entirely. The chaos becomes almost digestible.
「…Your highness?」
Ursa calls out again with a worried grimace on his face. She gets distracted, and the overwhelming amount of sound and images returns. Her hands dart up to her chestnut head, and the empress quickly pulls the circlet off her head. Her large, emerald eyes snap to the marshal while nodding.
「Yes. Yes, I'm fine…」
Cycelia replies, quickly setting the circlet down on the table. When Straf left, the screen was showing Lily's point of view, but now it displays Roland's. He walks just a few steps behind Lily, and given that She glances over her shoulder with her arms crossed at Roland, speaking with no sound accompanying it, the two are apparently voicelessly discussing something.
「I was getting concerned that the circlet might have been dangerous after all… You looked dazed for a moment, your highness.」
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Ursa nods back, and straightens out in his seat. His eyes turn to the projection about the flat stone.
「No, the circlet is not particularly dangerous… It's just a little… Strange.」
Cycelia shakes her head, and stares at the dim circlet resting on the large table. Her brows furrow again. Ursa glances at her, and returns a silent nod once more.
《…Straf wore this without no issue?… How?》
Tilting her head with a pensive look on her face, Cycelia thumbs at her lips, thinking intensely…
…
Less than half an hour later, outside the capital, on the brick landing strip…
Ffffwooooppmmmmmmm… Ffffffwooooooopffffff…
With his hands in his coat's pocket, Straf watches the vampire hunters' VTOL aircraft soar through the sky high above. A specific rumbling noise is spreading through the air, seemingly coming from nowhere in particular, but up. The aircraft turns to a shallow dive, its jet engines leaving white trails of vapor as it rapidly descends, circling the capital. When it descends to many times the height of the palace, its engines begin to swivel, and its exhausts turn downwards.
Fwwwwwwwooopffff!… Fwwwwwoppppppffffffffff!…
A powerful wind blows at the landing strip as the black aircraft's body descends to the bricks of the landing strip, and like a dragon, lands heavily on its four legs. The ramp lowers, and Straf approaches. Though the wind from the exhausts is ravaging the general area around the airstrip, Straf casually approaches as if it wasn't even there, his coat only moving when he does.
「Ah, you two… Good job, I guess! Go sit out the rest in an inn or something!」
He calls out towards the two men who descend out of the aircraft. One of them is visibly discomforted and has his palm on his chest, around the shoulder area.
Clank. Clank. Clank…
「What!?」
A man with a crossbow shouts over the engines' idle noise. Straf rolls his eyes.
「Fuck off!」
He replies, and points his thumb towards the capital's gate while walking past the two.
Fwwwwishhh…
Straf walks up the ramp, then presses a button by a doorway inside. The door opens by sliding to the side with a hiss.
「Heh. Cool sci-fi sound…」
Thwump.
He remarks with an amused smirk as he slumps into the empty seat in the cockpit.
…Swwwwish.
The door slides back shut with another odd hiss.
「…Ahh. Okay, now take me back there.」
Straf lets out a contented sigh as he reclines in the leather-padded seat, then turns his bored gaze to the mage sitting beside him.
「Huh!?」
The young man's jaw drops, and his eyes widen in shock.
「What do you mean, huh? Are you deaf? Take me back there. I want to have a look around.」
Straf narrows his eyes in frustration and throws his hand up, before pointing it forward.
「Just to have a look around!?」
「Yeah. Got a problem with that? Just tell me that you don't want the job anymore. You won't be getting paid for the hours, though.」
「Nnnhhh…」
The young mage lets out a troubled groan, then turns a few knobs and flips a couple switches. The ramp behind the aircraft shuts with a steady mechanical whirr that reverberates throughout the aircraft, and the pilot pushes the throttle forward. A light force presses them both down into their seats. The man pushes one of the pedals with his foot, and the black aircraft rotates around, slowly rising into the sky, far above the capital's walls.
The pilot flips a switch labeled「Engine Pos」to HOR, all written in white on the black instrument panel, and the aircraft begins to accelerate, as indicated by the projected screen in front of the cockpit's glass. As they sail through the sky, Straf crosses his arms and watches the landscape roll past the aircraft…
…
Less than half an hour later, in Murusburg…
Sunlight slowly creeps over the tall walls, descending lower and lower as the sun itself rises. The buildings' rooftops are now illuminated by a warm glow.
Fssssssshhhhh…
A massive, bloodstained pile of horned demon corpses begins to fizzle and burn when sunlight washes over it. The gore, the horns, the mangled bones, as well as the skin and flesh of the fiends turns to black-gray dust, much smaller than the previous pile of bodies, but still enormous. The only thing that remains is the immense amount of dry blood splattered everywhere, as if the slums were turned into an impromptu slaughterhouse for the entire city. A faint rumbling comes from above.
Fwwwwwwoppwfff… Fffffffwwwwwoppppfmmmmmmm…
The black aircraft appears over the walls, turning and descending towards the first nearest open area. Perhaps by coincidence, the pilot picks the slums.
FFFFFWOOOOOSHHHHHH!… FFFFFFWOOOOOOWFPFFFF!… Fwwwwwopffffff!…
The demons' ashes scatter in the violent man-made winds, and the aircraft lands on the poorly maintained road. It bounces up and down slightly as its suspension braces the shock of its weight descending, and the engine noise begins to die down. Roland and the squad of vampire hunters jog up, along with two mage women trailing behind. Lily casually approaches at her own pace. The ramp at the back opens.
「Straf. It's good to see you, but I don't think there's much for you to do left.」
Roland acknowledges Straf with a nod as he exits the ramp, and walks up to the vampire hunters with his hands in his coat's pockets.
「I know. I'm not here to do stuff. I just came to have a look around… Man, what happened here? A slasher?… Or is this another game reference?…」
Straf replies while looking at the gigantic bloodstain on the road, roughly where the aircraft has touched down.
「Straf?…」
The guild girl calls out with her brows furrowed in surprise, as she and Emilia peek out from beyond Roland.
「Eh? Ah. This is Straf, he's our commander for this-」
Roland points his armored hand at Straf, but the two girls run at Straf and leap at him, wrapping their arms around his neck.
「Straf! I knew you wouldn't let your guildmaster die! You registered here after all!」
Tahandra exclaims while rubbing her cheek into his.
「Straf!… You saved me again!… Not personally, but!…」
Emilia, too, rubs her cheek into Straf, albeit into his chest.
「Hey! Get off me! I said I like honest girls!… And I don't like glasses! Off!」
Wiggling his head and trying to writhe out of their grasp without injuring them, Straf tries to push their arms away and break their lock around his neck.
Gritting her teeth in anger, Lily watches on with her arms crossed. One of the vampire hunters looks at her face, and jumps away in panic when her crimson eyes snap to his.
「…I said off!」
Straf finally finds some leeway in their grasp, and slips out. Both of the girls let out large sighs of relief at the same time.
「I was so tired of eating the cold slop that bastard and his so-called men gave us! And he threatened us with so much nasty stuff! He deserved worse!」
Tahandra exclaims, clenching her teeth in anger as her eyes gaze in the general direction of the burning mansion, now extinguished.
「Good grief… And this whole mess ruined my batch of antidote, too. All those rare roots and herbs went to waste.」
Emilia sighs out in frustration as her shoulders slump.
「…What is that, Straf? I thought I heard that noise before, but I had no idea what made it. What is it?」
The guild girl asks, pointing at the aircraft. Straf gives it only a quick glance over his shoulder.
Straf's gaze returns to the two, and he rubs his chin while looking at their skimpy brown rags that barely cover anything…