Disclaimer: All characters belong to their respective owners.
Author's Note: Welcome back! This chapter revolves around Flan and Maria getting to know each other more in two peculiar ways. Also, this is my first shot at an action scene so I gave it my best go. Thank you for the cool reviews so far as the suggestions were helpful in getting me going with this chapter. With all that said, chapter three awaits...
Flandre and Maria had treaded through the rest of the royal chapel without trouble. This was mostly because of Maria summoning her green dragon to vanquish any and every foe that impeded the two girls' progress. The duo went through a wooden door and entered what seemed like a hallway that was falling apart because of the missing bricks in the walls. Flandre turned around immediately when hearing the door shut abruptly.
"Maria?" Flan called out to her companion about to walk down a flight of stairs. She was staring at the area where there should be a handle to open the door.
"Yes, Flandre?" The young huntress turned around and saw her friend looking at the wooden door they just entered through. "Oh. Don't worry. Everything in this creepy castle goes one way." Maria smiled to assure her winged partner.
"Okay." Flandre knew she could have her hand tear through the door given her incredible strength, but the fear of revealing herself as a vampire to this vampire hunter held her back. They were friends. Why would she want to lose a friend and make an enemy in a simple action? Flan didn't believe she was evil, but hiding the truth wasn't exactly a good thing.
"Hey, Flandre, how did you get those colors for your wings?"
The vampire's attention was shifted to her curious companion's question. Remi had told her that she was supposed to have black bat wings like any other vampire.
"Um... My sister said it was because I liked having a lot of fun." Flan answered as she walked next to Maria and glanced at the floor below them.
"Your sister? The one that you said was really scary?"
"Yep. She's scary, but she's the best." Maria could only wonder how it was like to have a sibling. Flandre walked down the stairs alongside her partner and spotted three doorways ahead on the left followed by another wooden door straight ahead. "Are you sure it all goes one way?"
"I'm sure I'm sure! I know it's dumb, but you're going the right way when you see those brown doors." The huntress explained while rubbing her yellow hair. "That's how I found you!" Deep inside, Maria felt ashamed of hiding one detail away from her friend. "But that's how I lost Richter..."
"That makes sense." Once the two finished descending the stairs, Flandre looked behind the staircase and saw a vibrantly white object inside the cracks of the greenish-colored wall. "Hey, Maria, there's something inside that wall. I'm gonna see what it is." The vampiress approached the wall and peered into the large crack of the wall. She gasped and dug out the loose stone pieces of the wall to reveal a huge perfectly baked round cake decorated with fruit and whip cream all on top of a large, blue plate. What made her more shocked was that the pastry had eight blue candles lit up. "It's a big cake..." The huntress joined her friend's side and saw the delicacy that reached up to her stomach.
"Wow." Maria awed at the desert and continued looking at its features. "Richter was right when he said he found his lunch in a wall."
"Happy birthday, Maria!" Flan yelled in pure joy. Maria could only smile at her energetic partner.
"But I'm twelve, not eight." This made the girl in red ponder for a short moment before coming to a conclusion. She split apart four candles in half very carefully, placed them in equal spaces apart from the other eight candles, and lit them all with one of the original candles. "Oh, Flan..." Maria laughed lightly at this and hugged her fellow adventurer. "Thank you!"
"You're welcome," the vampiress responded by returning the embrace. Maybe she could tell her the truth afterall. After a short amount of time, the two separated and looked at each other. "Now blow out the candles and make a wish!"
"Okay," the huntress in pink agreed and turned to look at the twelve candles burning brightly. Her happiness slumped down into a frown as she remembered her last birthday. Flandre knew something was amiss with the long silence so she turned her friend to face her.
"Maria, what's wrong?"
"It's that in my last birthday I made a wish just like I'm about to right now. I wished that I could help my dad beat the bad vampire." Maria paused and sniffled in preparation for the tears to come. "But that wish won't come true anymore! My mom and dad were killed..." Flandre wrapped her arms around her friend when seeing the watery eyes Maria had. This was brand new to her. It would always be her older sister trying to make her feel better when she was sad. But she had never cried or seen anyone cry before.
"By who?" It took a lot of effort for the vampiress to not sound demanding.
"It was a skeleton monster covered in green that had two swords." The twelve-year-old replied with some sharp breaths in between. "It happened so fast and when it looked at me, I thought I was done." Maria continued with a bit of hesitation. "I don't know what happened, but something made me go to sleep right there because when I opened my eyes again, I was being carried by Richter."
"Who's Richter?" Flandre asked out of simple curiosity.
"He's my friend. He's a vampire hunter like me except he's really strong. And..." the huntress brushed away her tears before continuing. "Flandre, we were going to go through the castle together, but I wanted to go one way when he wanted to go another and I lost him." Flan was disappointed when hearing this, but she merely rolled her eyes as she let go of her companion. "I'm sorry I was..."
"Don't be sorry, Maria. We haven't gotten stuck anywhere so you have to be right about the castle going one way." Flandre interrupted with an assuring smile to back it up. "And your wish can still come true. You just have to keep going."
"Aw, thank you, Flan..." Maria was grateful for the support she was getting and now knew what her wish would be.
"Now blow the candles! I'm hungry and this cake looks amazing!" the young-looking vampiress told the huntress with a playful sense of urgence.
"You can't eat it all, silly!" That was all Flandre needed to know that her cheerful partner was feeling better. "It's huge!"
"You can't either! Bleh!" The girl in red stuck out her tongue at her partner in pink. Maria giggled at the act before blowing out the flames of all twelve candles in one long breath. "Ooh! What did you wish for?"
"It's a secret." With that, Flandre took all the used candles from the top of the cake and tossed them aside onto the floor. She would find out the answer sooner or later, but for the moment, the cake was calling to her. "I wished you would be my best friend."
"Time to eat!" It only took two handscoops of the desert for Flan to be stuffed, but something was wrong because she still felt hungry. Maria only took one handscoop of the cake and felt as if her health was completely restored. Flandre ate an orange slice off of the cake, but her stomach continued demanding for more despite the fact that she was full.
"Let's go, Flandre. We can't take it with us." Maria tugged at her partner's hand to lead her to the brown door they saw earlier.
"Yeah. Let's." The vampire replied lowly with annoyance. "Why am I still hungry?"
The two walked across the long hallway and passed the three doorways without concern. Maria opened the wooden door and held it open for her friend.
"Thanks." Now Maria knew something was wrong with Flandre because she was lacking her excitement. Before the huntress could ask her friend in red what the problem was, the brown door shut tight behind her with a loud echo.
"Phew. That was close." the twelve-year-old said while wiping away an imaginary sweatdrop on her forehead. Almost immediately after she said that, the floor around the door rose up quickly to completely seal off the door. "Well, that's dumb. The door only opens one way anways." Flan nodded in response to that observation. The two now looked around the new area they were in. On the opposite side of the room was a large pale white statue of a man sitting on a throne motioning for something to come to his hand. There were many more bricks missing from the walls and there were two, large barred windows on the left. Several pillars of a bronze color surrounded the stone statue that was across the room. Five platforms were sticking out of the wall above the two girls. The last detail was the one elegant silver doorway on the left with dual brown doors blocking its entry.
"There's only one way to go just like you said." Flandre informed and walked towards the doors. However, she felt a few tremors across the floor that made her know that something was coming. She backed away and looked at her friend with curiosity. "What is it?"
"I don't know, but be ready." Maria warned with obvious concern. Not too long after, the dual doors smashed apart into many pieces that landed on the floor. After the dust settled down, Flandre and Maria were both looking at a large axe where the doors had been at. The monster wielding the axe revealed itself as it entered the area slowly.
It had the body of a man with the head of a bull.
A minotaur.
The two girls saw that the beast had a grass skirt to shield its private area and two mini grass anklets. What was more revealing was that this bull had a physical appearance of being greatly in shape with muscles all around his body. The brown minotaur turned to the two intruders and stood still with his axe.
"What mockery is this? Neither of these is the hunter that I was told about," the beast thought in his in confusion. He looked at the two's appearances and thought that they were both young girls who had become lost in this castle. In that case, he spent a lot of time planning an epic entrance for nothing. But why had they ventured this far? Maybe they had been prisoners and were trying to escape.
"Maybe he's friendly." Flan suggested in a relaxed manner. The towering being turned to Flandre and looked at her right hand. He saw that she had a few remnants of whip cream.
"No." He poked a finger at her hand and brought it up to his nose to sniff. "They did." He let a loud moan as he clenched his long axe with both hands.
"I think that was his cake. Oopsie." Maria alerted her partner with worry.
"I thought no one would ever think of finding it in a wall!" He backed away and temporarily put his hand on his forehead.
"But we only ate a little. We're sorry-"
The hunger in Flandre's stomach returned before she could finish apologizing properly.
"Oh..."
"Hmm?" the bull creature hummed audibly as he bent down to the girl in red.
"I'm hungry. Sorry." Flandre advised as she smiled playfully and suddenly leaped at the beast. Her fangs sank into the neck of the minotaur and leeched the blood out of him.
"Ahh!" the large brute hollered in a loud moan as he grabbed the girl and threw her aside. He already felt weakened by the amount of blood she just took from him. Maria couldn't believe what she just saw and gasped at the sight of red blood around Flandre's mouth. "She bit me... But then she must be-"
"A vampire..." Maria mumbled lowly as she backed away from the girl in red.
"Hahahaha! I like playing, too!" the vampiress giggled as she lifted herself off of the floor and stood back up on her two feet. A sinister red aura suddenly surrounded Flandre and created an immediate tense atmosphere in the area the three were in. The minotaur stood his ground with determination. The child had attempted to apologize, but the blood lust got the better of her. He knew this had to be the case because his master happened to be a vampire and had a similar problem at one point.
"Just like the master..." the muscle-bound beast observed as he recalled his master having a similar ability to manipulate the area around him. He lifted his staff-like axe and held it in defense for what was to come.
"Oh! I have my own little helper, too!" Flandre aspirated with excitement in her voice. She twirled around on one foot and raised her right hand high.
"She stole my idea..." Maria thought as she continued watching from a safe distance.
"Taboo: Laevatain!" A burst of flames extended in two ways from Flan's open hand. When the flames faded away a second later, a long, curved metal rod was in her hand. It had a heart shape at one end and a claw shape on the other. That was all Maria needed to see to take off running towards the doorway where the minotaur had entered from. The vampiress twirled the weapon in her hand a few times before getting into her fighting stance. "Let's play!" The sword in Flan's hand burst into flames when she began to swing it. The minotaur observed the motion of the weapon and immediately saw the flames shoot out across the room. He jumped a great height backwards and landed on a platform sticking out of the left wall.
"I must tire her from this state," the brute pondered as he saw the flames from the girl's weapon return to her.
"Huh?" Flan questioned aloud to herself. She made the flames on her weapon vanish and looked over the appearance of her sword. "Where are all the little red dots?"
She swung her weapon with more focus and made a pillar of fire burst from it towards her opponent. The minotaur jumped away onto a higher platform and narrowly avoided the attack as well as hitting the ceiling. But danger came around when seeing the flame passing in front of him release red blips of energy in his direction.
"Red spikes of death." The large beast ducked to avoid one shot above him while he spread his legs to avoid the other below him.
"I have to stop her." Maria peered from the doorway for a moment. "Ahh!" she yelled and immediately backed away to barely save herself from a scorching slash. The huntress recollected some of her courage and looked back outside of the doorway.
"You big, scary scaredy-cat! I'm not gonna let you hide from me!" Flan laughed as she glanced up at the floor where she knew the minotaur was at. She leaped into the air only to land back down on her two feet.
"What?" The vampiress turned to her left wing and used all her focus to try to make it move. "But..."
Even though it only lasted for a few seconds, Maria had seen the sadness in Flandre's face because of the wings that did not want to give her flight. To Flandre's surprise, the muscle-bound creature jumped down from the platform and landed directly in front of her. His landing caused his left hand sink into a crack of the tiled floor and made the vampiress laugh for a short moment.
"Haha! Your hand is stuck!"
"Er!" the bull yelled as he tossed up five tiles at his enemy. Flandre stopped her laughter and looked at the obstacles coming her way with excitement. She dodged all five floor pieces with envious speed in a zig-zag. Her confidence made her stop in front of the brown beast who had taken in a large breath before her pause. The minotaur released his breath in the form of a raging fire that Flandre narrowly dodged with a roll to her right.
"You have bad breath." The vampiress smiled as she swung the Laevatain swiftly at him.
"That is true I'm afraid," the minotaur thought as he leaped onto the platform above her to dodge her slash.
"You can't hide from me!" Flandre thought as she ran to the stone statue and turned around to face the minotaur that was on a higher level. "Forgotten Barrier: Claustropho..." Flan yelled with eagerness that went downhill a second after she trailed off. "No, that's the new one that I haven't finished yet..." The minotaur scratched the side of his head and wondered what this youth was up to.
"The master doesn't declare his attacks. Why is this girl?" He saw the vampiress raise both of her hands high and became alert for the oncoming attack.
"Forbidden Barrage: Catadioptric!" Flandre threw both her arms down and pointed them at the bull with the body of a man. Out of her hands came one large purple energy sphere that flew at the minotaur.
"Purple orb of death..." the large brute thought as he jumped onto a higher, but smaller floor above him. His fear rose when seeing many slower smaller white energy shots trail after the large purple shot. And to top it all off, the large purple energy ball bounced off of the wall and continued its journey. "Don't you dare use another."
"Hahahahaha!" Flandre laughed hysterically as she threw her empty hand in different directions and launched the sphere that was the size of her from each point. Maria saw the area quickly get filled with bouncing magical balls of white and some stray shots were heading in her direction.
"Wah!" The huntress slid to her left to avoid the fury of a few faster moving obstacles.
"It looks like she won't rest with this attack of hers," the minotaur thought as he formulated a plan to stop her assault. He saw a clear path to the slightly higher platform in front of him and dashed onto it. Unexpectedly, a stray white orb went towards his face and he wasn't feeling sure to dodge it so he blocked his face with the head of his axe. When feeling the magical ball hit, the minotaur moved the axe from his face and smirked. "I wonder..." He dropped down below and landed in front of the girl in red. Her red aura was becoming more and more dense that it almost felt as if he was burning up from how close he was to her.
"Ya!" Flan yelled as she pointed both arms at the brute in front of her. A large purple sphere came out of her hands, but that was all she saw before finding herself on the floor. All the rebounding obstacles disappeared a short moment afterwards. Flandre rose up and became a bit irritated at what just happened. "Oh, yeah? Bet you can't block this!"
"Doesn't she know that she has a weapon in her hand?"
"Taboo: Maze of-" Flandre's declaration was cut short when feeling the blunt end of the minotaur's axe impact her stomach. "Ow!" Her playfulness disappeared as she rubbed her injured spot. "Y-You cheater!"
"Cheater?" the minotaur puzzled as he had chosen to hurt her, not pierce her.
"That wasn't fair! We're playing until you break now!" the vampiress announced with a pout. She ran to the brute and swung at him with her dark wand. He blocked the attack expertly with his axe's staff and went in for an elbow. Flan dropped her attack and slid underneath the axe to avoid the elbow that was coming. She kicked her foot at the minotaur's left leg and swung it around to cause him to trip backwards.
"Unreal!" the beast thought as he jumped back up only to fall back down again.
"That's what you get for being a naughty cheater!" Flandre laughed as she backed away and twirled her sword up into the air. When it came back down, she caught it perfectly with her right hand. She then pointed her left hand at her enemy and made it into a claw shape. "Taboo: Kagome, Kagome!" When the bull creature rose once again, he saw himself surrounded by numerous nonmoving green energy orbs. This made him feel as if he was trapped in a cage, but he was going to break out. He swung his axe at the floating green energy and knocked them towards the vampiress that was about to call forth another attack. Flandre bent down on her knees in disappointment before she rose up with a sinister look in her face. "Play... fair!" She swung her sword at the brute and had it blocked again by the axe. But this time she was frustrated and took another swing to his side. The minotaur blocked it once again and saw that a few sparks came out of that collision.
"She is as strong as me." The minotaur buried his empty hand into the tiled floor, instantly alerting the youth attacking him.
"Again?" Flandre questioned with annoyance as she leaped away. However, the minotaur locked his weapon with hers in such a manner that she let go of the curvy sword by accident. "No!" She dove back for her prized possession, but was hit at point blank with all five cement tiles the minotaur threw up. Flan landed on her rear with a thud as her wings rattled around with an echo. She shook herself, looked at the minotaur that had caught her off guard, and saw that the Laevatain was still locked with his battle axe. The huntress continued watching as the moment was getting tense. After what seemed like hours, but was ten seconds, the bull tossed the dark sword at his opponent. Flandre caught it with her right hand and once again became confused. "What are you doing?"
"Being fair apparently." He pointed his empty hand at her with a smirk. He then turned it over and motioned for her to come at him. Flandre smiled devilishly as she rose from her spot and stood on her feet.
"You're fun! Let's keep playing!" she yelled with happiness and hopped a few times to show it.
"Is this really a game for you, Flan?" Maria muttered to herself as she backed into the doorway. Flandre ran her left hand through the colorful prism shards on her left wing and created a white energy ball in her hand.
"Forbidden Barrage: Starbow Break!" the vampiress shouted as she threw the white orb to the ceiling. The minotaur had jumped back, but found himself gazing at the white object for the moment. Even Maria was confused when seeing the attack go where the bull wasn't at. Flandre merely giggled as she raised her empty, open hand, and pointed it to the orb before it touched the ceiling. Then she sharply clenched her hand into a fist. "Kyuu!" To Maria's amazement and the bull's horror, the white ball burst into a rainbow of many equally sized energy balls that rained down all around the area at different speeds.
"Ey!" the bull yelled sharply at the first injury on his shoulder from a purple-colored energy sphere. Flandre laughed as she prepared another white orb in her empty hand. The minotaur dodged shots while he started swinging at a few to the vampiress. Trouble was approaching when she threw another ball of white towards the ceiling. The bull creature ignored all of the pain from the first wave of rainbow orbs as he leaped from platform to platform to rise to the ceiling. He swung his axe and knocked the white orb away before it could touch the ceiling, but a small explosion happened directly on his right after he did so. The brute looked at his favorite weapon and saw the axehead vaporized as he held onto the green staff. "No." The beast moaned in frustration as he threw aside the useless piece of metal and dropped down below.
"Oops. Haha." Flandre laughed playfully as she unclenched her fist. The two girls saw the bull creature crack several tiles on his landing.
"Arr!" the minotaur groaned as he kicked his left foot back three times in anger. "Err!" A bright green energy formed around his right fist as his veins became extremely sickening in appearance on his right arm.
"Flandre!" Maria called out to the vampiress to alert her of the danger she was seeing. Flandre turned towards the voice and shook her head a few times.
"Maria?" She had completely ignored her companion in all this action. Her red aura quickly vanished as her diabolical smile faded away. The leftover magical orbs disappeared as well. The only thing that had not gone away was the anger in the minotaur.
He had returned her weapon, but she had ruined his.
Flandre ran to the angered beast and wrapped her arms around his leg. That was one of the things her sister would do when she had been out of control just like yesterday.
"Sorry."
"Sorry? Her blood lust has left and I was about to kill her." The minotaur thought as he felt incredible burning pain in his body. He had willed his life energy as strength to his right arm and was now quickly losing himself.
"Success."
The minotaur lightly pushed away the vampiress with his left hand before he moaned in despair to the ceiling. A magical red beam came from his mouth as a ghostly purple energy surrounded his body. Both Maria and Flandre cringed at the sight of the beast losing his muscles and becoming reduced to nothing but bones. When all the magic was gone, the skeleton frame landed on the tiled floor in a jumbled mess. After a short while of looking at the fallen minotaur's bones, Maria approached Flandre with nervousness.
"Flan, you're a vampire?" Flandre knew there was nothing to hide now so she nodded in response.
"Yeah. I was gonna tell you, but then you said you were a vampire hunter and I was..." the girl in red looked to the floor before continuing, "I was scared."
"You were scared of me?" the huntress asked disbelievingly. "But why? You have all this power!"
"Because you're my friend..." Flan replied with sadness in her voice. "I don't have a lot of friends back home and I didn't want to lose a friend. Sorry." The vampiress explained and closed her eyes in shame. She opened them again within a few seconds and focused on the huntress with hope. "Are we still friends?"
"What would Richter do?" Maria pondered in silence at the problem she was in. She was a vampire hunter and Flandre was a vampire, but they gotten along really well in the time that they spent together. Flandre was only like this because she needed blood and now that she thought about it, Flan hadn't tried to take it from her. So the huntress embraced the vampiress with relaxation.
"So we are?" Flan repeated to try to get an answer she could hear. She returned the hug as she awaited the response.
"Sure. But only if we're best friends." the huntress assured with a playful voice.
"Okay." Flandre giggled at the deal.
"My birthday wish came true! Yay!" The two adventurers broke apart before looking at each other with cheerfulness. "Well, let's keep going."
"Wait." The youthful vampiress advised as she turned to the wall that had risen up and blocked the door they had came from earlier. She pointed her open left hand at the wall and stared at the center of the collection of bricks. She then suddenly clenched her fist. "Kyuu!" The wall exploded outwards in a mess of bricks as the door was revealed. She repeated the same gesture with her hand and focused on the brown door. "Kyuu!" The wooden door burst into a massive collection of splinters. Maria was astonished by this ability and made a note to herself to not make her friend upset. Flandre dashed through the clearing and into the hallway from earlier. When she returned, she was carrying the large cake on a blue plate from earlier.
"Oh." Maria now understood what her companion was doing. Flan placed the oversized pastry in front of the collection of bones and gave a small smile.
"Maybe he'll get up like those skeletons we were fighting earlier," the vampiress informed with eagerness. The twelve-year-old nodded and agreed. "Let's go, best friend!" Flandre announced and ran off through the doorway that the minotaur had entered from.
"Hey, wait for me!" Maria hollered as she chased after her vampire friend. Her happiness dropped when seeing many rooms with bars and all the large axes stained with red up ahead. "Not the dungeon..."
Author's Note: Flandre and Maria or well, Flandre defeated the minotaur! And Flan has been accepted as Maria's friend even though she is a vampire! But the two were in for trouble as they encounter the darkest portion of the castle... See you next time!
