Author's Note: I decided to make this story reach its seventh chapter back in 2013, but with many a distraction in life, it took a while for me to feel this inner drive to continue. So, without further ado, here is the long-awaited chapter seven for your reading pleasure…
Richter and Remilia had just made it past Carmilla. However, right as the evil vampire was about to be vanquished, she used a distraction to escape. Now, the two adventurers were rushing down the collapsing flight of stairs towards their path across the abandoned boat docks.
"Bad..." Richter muttered as he saw the stairs ahead of them collapse. "Are you ready, Remilia?" Just as Richter had asked that, he saw a silver spear fly down onto the armored skeleton at the base of the collapsing staircase. "Wha-What the heck..."
The undead fiend broke apart into a pile of bones and metal shortly after the impact.
"That takes care of that. Now..."
Remilia wrapped her arms around Richter's own from behind and flapped her wings sharply to bring the two of them into the night sky.
"You saved me in climbing up a large staircase. Time to return the favor."
"Wha—?!" the blue hunter blurted out as he saw the two of them a hundred feet above the ocean.
"Ngh," Remilia grunted as she noticed one problem with the solution she came up with. "Why can't I use my full strength? I can fly, but I don't have enough strength to support him!" the young vampire questioned in discontent as she angled her wings in preparation for a quick descent. "Sorry, Richter. I forgot I can't use my powers—including my vampiric strength."
"You're letting go of me?!" Richter shouted in disbelief.
"Yes. It'll be a few feet above the dock so get rolling at that point." She told him with slight worry. "I'd better get it right. I think this will break my wings if I don't."
Both adventurers watched as the wooden staircase below them burst apart with many pieces littering the dock and the ocean water. Even though it had risks, Remilia had indeed saved Richter from a fatal fall.
Within seconds, the hundred-foot height in the sky became halved.
Within another, it became a fourth as Remilia's mobcap flew off with the wind resistance…
"Go!"
And within a fraction of a second, Remilia released Richter from a four-foot height as she flapped sharply and suddenly to propel herself back up with what seemed to be her vampiric strength. The hunter rolled into a somersault that lasted for several feet while the vampire flew up high and performed a mid-air loop to go back down to the same dock her partner was on.
However, now that she was alone, she controlled her wings eloquently without trouble and eased her descent until she landed next to the fallen armored skeleton with her spear sticking out of it.
Having made it past a very close call, Richter gazed at the partner that had made it possible for him to still be alive.
"I swear I thought I was going to die right then and there…"
Then finally, Richter got up and approached his partner. Along the way, he grabbed the mobcap Remi had lost.
"Thank you for that," the blue hunter announced as he placed the headpiece back on his companion's head.
"Huh? Yes. No problem! Ahahaha…" the vampire replied quickly in an awkward fashion. "Uh… This is a dream, right? Why do I feel like that would have killed me?"
"You okay? You look more shaken up than me, Remilia," Richter asked as he looked at the vampire's face closely.
With a hard pull, the eternally young adolescent nabbed her spear away from the fallen skeleton's armor.
"Yeah," Remi agreed with a sigh. "I'm just getting very bothered I don't have my powers. I could have killed you with that stupid idea I had because of that…"
"Yeah, well…" the vampire hunter began and got an arm around the light blue-haired girl. "Your stupid idea saved me."
Not looking at Richter, Remilia's sadness and worry dissolved.
"By the end of all this, I'm going to have to repay you ten-fold of whatever you like."
She laughed at his proposition and turned to look up at his face with a small, but genuine smile instead of the usual smirk.
"I like having fun. You can start there."
Her spirit rekindled, Remilia turned around and slashed her spear at a crow that had been flying towards them. With a comical "ding" and squawk, the bird was slapped away over the edge of the dock.
Richter stared wide-eyed and jaw-opened at what she did.
"Come now. It was going to peck me."
And so the two walked towards the edge of the large wooden dock they were on. Before they arrived there, a splash of water resounded as something orange landed on the wooden platform.
It had green gills and scales. It had human arms and legs. It was a merman.
Soon thereafter, the aquatic land creature spewed a fireball from its fishy head that was aimed at the tall adventurer. Richter dodged the attack easily with a leap to the right and knocked the merman back into the water with a quick whip.
If this monster came from the ocean waters, then falling in would mean certain death.
"These guys again…"
The two looked over the edge of the dock and saw three teal platforms leading towards the other dock that an armored skeleton was on. In contrast to the wooden piece of architecture, the teal platforms were made of metallic poles. On the highest of the three was one of the skeletons wielding the unknown bright weapon.
"I'll go first." The vampire stepped back a bit before dashing and leaping into the air. She then gave a sharp flap and flew straight towards the skeleton. "Take this!" Remi jammed her silver spear into the monster's armor at the same time Richter crossed the path of teal platforms through various careful jumps.
The skeleton held its shining weapon tightly and slashed at Remilia's chest. Remilia gave a sudden flap that made her go into the air to dodge the attack and pull along the spear from where it was stuck at. In that moment, the skeleton was eye to eye with Richter holding a blue cross.
"Huah!" Richter threw the cross and quickly leaped to the side to dodge the beam weapon from going down his body when the fiend jumped. The cross landed in the skeleton's head and caused the undead monster to crumble apart. The bright weapon that was in the skeleton's hands flashed once before disappearing into the air. Richter grabbed his subweapon from the skeleton head before launching it towards a pesky merman that leaped from the side.
Just above him, Remilia continued flying through the air and used her wings to gain a good height for scanning the enemies ahead. She set her eyes upon the third armored skeleton on the next abandoned boat dock before diving towards him with her silver spear in hand. The fiend thought she would aim for his chestplate and held his beam sword defensively in preparation. But he was proven incorrect when seeing the spear in front of his face for a split second.
"Rah!" Remilia yelled as her spear jammed into the skeleton head and shattered it into pieces. The rest of the body fell apart into a mess as the bright weapon vanished into the air.
"Good work, Remilia." Richter commented as he approached his companion.
"Thank you. Not bad yourself." The eternally young vampire smiled slyly.
Both looked ahead and saw the fourth armored skeleton conversing with two different colored mermen.
"Do it. The blue hunter will be unable to progress any further." The armored skeleton ordered and moved ahead of the two water monsters. The two mermen dove into the ocean water and made the two adventurers suspicious.
"They're onto something." Richter advised to his partner. Not long after he said that, the two smelled something burning. They looked over the edge of the dock they were on and saw that it was on fire thanks to the two mermen spewing fireballs from their mouth. "Move!" The pair leaped off the wooden dock and landed on the metal platform the skeleton swordsman was on.
"Die!" The armored monster positioned its sword to his side and disappeared. In his place were blue after-images showing his lightning quick slash towards his opponent.
"Whoa," Remilia mumbled as she leaped to the side to avoid the fatal attack. She swung her spear at the skeleton, but he leaped away before it landed.
Richter had thrown his blue cross at the same time, but even his attack missed. The cross traveled some distance in the air before returning to its thrower.
"Not this time," the undead fiend pondered to himself as he appeared to take a hard grip on his bright weapon. He tilted his sword to the side and made the two hunters alarmed. In the next instant, the skeleton charged at Richter with full power. Before he could land his attack though, a whip to his chestplate made him jump back in surprise. "Er..."
"Good hit," Remi appreciated her companion's landed attack as she ducked into a sprinting position and launched herself towards the skeleton with the help of her wings. To her surprise, the enemy leaped into the air with his sword facing down.
Both Richter and Remilia were shocked when seeing the bright weapon pierce through the teal metal platform that they were standing on. Richter threw his cross at the monster once more. Unfortunately, it could not land a hit as the skeleton jumped backwards another time. Again, the cross returned to its thrower much like a boomerang.
"Attack!"
All of a sudden, six mermen splashed out from the sides of the dock and landed on the metal platform. Richter and Remilia were both wide-eyed at the odds being turned against them.
But something else happened.
The metal platform tilted inwards where the undead skeleton's sword had sliced and made the fish monsters slip and slide. "Arg. I hadn't thought my attack through..." Richter, Remilia, and the undead skeleton leaped away to the next foothold to avoid being dragged down into the collapsing platform. The pipes all clinked together amongst the many whines of the mermen as the platform behind them plunged into the ocean.
"Ha!" As the three were in the air, Richter whipped towards the armored skeleton and landed the mace end on his chestplate. The foe was pushed back, but landed on a small wooden raft that was moving away.
"For vengeance!" the skeleton exclaimed to himself as he jumped into the air with his sword held above his head. Both Richter and Remilia leaped over the attack and landed on the wooden raft before it would move further away. The armored skeleton had sliced the platform that they had been on and realized he would fall soon. "Damn."
The metal platform gave way and all the adventurers heard was a loud splash behind them.
"That skeleton was a bother," Remilia admitted as she looked to the side and saw a fish monster swimming towards them. She held her spear menacingly for a moment before the water monster swam away.
"Yeah," Richter replied as he turned to make sure nothing was following them. The two looked towards the larger teal platform ahead of them and saw another armored skeleton glancing at them.
"Really? Well, what a night this is..." the youthful vampire said to herself in annoyance. The skeleton above them hopped off the platform with his sword aimed down towards them. Remilia clutched the silver spear tightly while pointing it up. She then suddenly leaped upward with a great flap of her wings to jam the spearhead through the chestplate of the skeleton. The skinless enemy released its sword and was forced back up onto the platform where he broke apart in a quick moment later. Remi looked ahead and saw yet another armored skeleton. "Tch..." To her surprise, the skeleton walked backwards and fell. She moved ahead and looked over the edge to see the raft Richter was riding move onward. So she jumped off and landed on the water vessel gently with the help of her wings.
"These skeletons are the most annoying things to come across right now." Richter commented and pointed to the skeleton on the raft ahead of them. The monster sliced the metal support pipes ahead and caused the teal platform to creak loudly.
"Uh..." The metal platform tilted downward with each moment. If they kept going on their raft, the platform would topple over them. Remilia looked above and threw the silver spear she had with all her strength. "Ha!" She then wrapped her arms around Richter and looked at him with seriousness. "Get ready."
"So this is the end..."
"What? No!" the young vampire revolted with a pout. "Jump!" Richter and Remilia both leaped up at the same time. Remi then gave a hard flap that pushed them higher up into the air. The two landed on the tilting platform and slid down to the wooden raft that the armored skeleton had been on just a few moments ago.
"Thanks for yet another save. I wouldn't have been able to jump that high alone."
"You're welcome." Just as Remilia was telling this to Richter, the two of them jumped towards the small metal platform ahead of them. "It's too bad I had to throw away that spear..." And a few seconds after, they jumped over to the last wooden dock where the two saw a surprising sight. The armored skeleton that had tried to obstruct their path was broken apart all over the planked floor with the silver spear sticking out of its chestplate.
"Wow. Amazing throw, Remilia." Richter commented as they both walked closer to the vanquished foe.
"It was nothing really." Remi smirked with her eyes slimmed. Although, deep inside, she was astounded as the hunter next to her. Remilia stepped onto the metal chestplate and yanked her spear out of it with little effort.
The pair of adventurers continued ahead on the final set of docks and were about to enter the small fort in front of them before they both heard a faint rattling of metal. The two turned behind them and saw the armored skeleton Remilia thought she had just defeated wielding a ghostly, laser green sword instead of the white one he had earlier.
"That looks like something you don't want to get hit by." Richter admitted and set a hand on Remilia's shoulder to get her to back off. To add in more concern, it was almost as if he could hear many moans echoing from the sword despite the constant crackling it kept making.
"Hm... I could kill them both easily, but why is she powerless when she is supposed to be much more powerful than me?" the skeleton in brown and blue armor pondered as he gazed at the vampire and approached her.
"So you want to challenge me? I acc—" Before she could finish her declaration, the skeleton's blade had phased right through Remilia's chest in an instant. "Geh!" In that moment, she felt a tingling throughout her body and couldn't move.
"Die!" Richter yelled and whipped the monster with the strange weapon. Unfortunately, the skeletal swordsman's weapon exited Remi's body and entered Richter's own-paralyzing him right away. "Guh!"
"Stay out of this," the skeleton thought as he turned back his attention on the now-free vampire.
"You leave him—" With a swift motion of the skeleton's sword, she was immobile once again. "Wha—? Stop it!"
"What do you want?" Richter questioned upon noticing that the skeleton was not killing them. All he saw was the undead bone monster continuously gazing at his companion's face.
"This simply isn't correct. Why are her eyes blue?" He looked down at his empty hand and then looked at the vampire hunter's hand. The skeleton then pointed to the hunter's hand, pointed to his own eye socket, and then pointed to Remilia's left eye. "Do you understand?"
"Er... Her eyes are blue. Yeah, I know." Richter responded right away and made the undead swordsman disappointed. The skeleton pulled out the ghostly sword from Remilia before crushing its handle and making it disappear with a series of screams.
"Richter, please..." Remilia muttered and poked her left eye with her left finger. "There."
Oddly, when she took back her hand, she saw a thin, transparent blue strip on her finger.
"What the?"
When Richter and the skeleton looked, the iris in her eye was red.
"Your eye is red, Remilia."
Expecting the same, Remi poked her right eye with her right hand and removed another thin blue strip.
"Both red now."
"He is trying to help me regain my powers..." the Scarlet Devil told his companion after having understood the skeleton not truly harming them. "What else? What is it that I need to do to get my powers?"
"Equipment usually enhances someone's powers. But there are also some that can restrain them." The armored being kept to himself before addressing another peculiar question. "What purpose could someone have in weakening a vampire? And with this vampire hunter at her side... Hmph." He reached into Remilia's dress pocket and was a little late in realizing what was in there.
"!"
Within a moment, the skeleton swordsman broke apart into a pile of armor pieces and bones.
"Huh? No!" Remilia then realized what it was that happened. After all, she was carrying a collection of things that could kill her—a bible and a few vials of holy water.
"What did you do?"
"Nothing. I... just forgot I had these relics here. How stupid of me to not stop him!"
("This powerful vampire cares about a lowly skeleton such as I...")
"But, it couldn't be these items that make me powerless because I didn't have them with me to begin with..." the eternally young vampire admitted as she looked down at the items in her dress pocket.
("In that case, I refuse to die!")
As Remilia was pondering about what could be holding back her abilities, a sharp crack resonated in the air around them. The vicious sound was then followed by a ghostly green mass of faces forming in the air.
An ectoplasm.
"I'm not sure what to do, Richter." Before an action was decided by her, the collection of souls let out a piercing moan as it connected with the spear in Remilia's hold. Within a few seconds the ethereal mass became absorbed into the silver spear and the long moan stopped.
"What was that about?" the whip-user questioned as he looked at his partner's weapon.
"I don't know, but now I have this unending chilling feeling right by my side." Remi observed.
She held the long weapon with both hands and swiped in the air with it. Surprise overcame her at the faint series of screams following the ghostly green trail of the silver pointy head.
"I want to try this spear out on a foolish monster."
"I don't know if he's foolish, but I see an armored guard walking back and forth with a spear."
Sure enough, when Remilia went through the fort entrance, there was an armored being in purple and blue armor marching with a spear that was eight feet long. This spear soldier was making loud metal sounds with each step it took as it paid no mind to the two adventurers approaching.
"Purple and blue? And he wields a spear as a weapon? If he weren't an enemy, I'd like to hire him to guard my mansion."
When she mentioned this, the spear guard stopped its march and faced the eternally young vampire. Then he dropped down on one knee and nodded once.
"Wha—? He accepted?" Richter asked in surprise. But then the armored stranger shook his helmeted head and rose with his spear in a fighting stance.
"No. But, he likes spears; I like spears. Call it sharing amongst differences," Remi replied before nodding herself. "He looks more talented than those skeletons from our waterfall endeavor. He has armor. And he has a longer spear than I do. This is going to be hard."
Remilia then ran for a moment and jumped into the air with some help from her wings. She landed on the crystalline flooring in front of the spear soldier and smirked.
"Then I, Re…" Not realizing the different flooring style beneath her versus the green tiles everywhere else, Remilia fell in a trap as the crystalline floor spun right out under her footing. "…Eh?!"
"Remilia!"
Just as she was about to use her wings to propel herself back up, the crystalline floor sealed itself shut above her.
"Ngh! Really?!"
Using her wings to help slow her down briefly, she landed on her own two feet from a twelve-foot drop with no problem.
"You okay?!" Richter shouted from above and made the Scarlet Devil shake herself.
"I'm fine. Just beat up that deceitful fiend for me!"
Clang!
Metal on metal resounded. But just as she was feeling satisfied at her partner's attack…
"Aw, crap!"
In fell Richter through the gap of the spinning crystalline floor. He landed roughly next to her, but without injury. At least physically because Remilia stared at him with disbelief and disappointment.
"I'm starting to believe even I, as a powerless thirteen-year-old girl with a spear, could win against you in a duel."
"You're over five hundred years old!"
"Then even a senile, old lady could show you a thing or two."
Richter's face fell apart while Remilia laughed mischievously. After a short moment, the eternally young vampire composed herself.
"Just joking," she told the blue hunter with a roll of her red eyes. "Where do we go now though?"
Around the pair were green-tiled floors with large patches of water every so often. There were a few candles hanging by the blue-bricked wall on the left. Then there was the underside of a gray staircase leading back up to the original floor they entered the fort from. This staircase was immediately before the second patch of water in front of their path.
Remilia looked to Richter, raised her index finger while looking up, and brought her gaze back down to him again.
He nodded. They were going to take the stairs. The only thing between their short goal was the eight-foot wide gap of water. Remilia cleared it easily with a quick dash and a hard flap of her wings.
But just as Richter was about to run, multiple squeaky laughs resonated from behind him.
Curious, Remilia looked past him and saw a black gate fall to the floor as out came dozens of disembodied green and yellow heads with snakes for hair—the dreaded Medusa heads. Knowing she didn't have her powers to fight that many, Remi motioned for Richter to come forth rapidly with her right hand.
He obliged as he ran abruptly and jumped off the edge of the platform. With incredible athleticism, the hunter gained a six-foot height midair and landed next to the vampire. Time falling short, the two ran to the staircase and ascended it. Cackles of laughter continued to echo throughout the area below them as they returned to the original floor.
Safety wasn't reached yet, though. The purple and blue armored spear guard was staring down at them both with his weapon at the ready.
"So much for a sneak attack," Remilia thought as she gripped her spear hard and gritted her teeth. "Hng!"
She swung her screaming spear at the foe. Sparks flew as the guard blocked it with his long spear facing upright. Then, he knocked her spear to the left as he used both hands to slash his upright spear down onto her head. She sidestepped abruptly and used the open opportunity to attack with a piercing lunge.
However, what she thought was an open opportunity was a devious deception.
Remilia was expecting his spear to land hard against the floor; it shocked her to instead see the weapon phase through the floor until it was pointing downward. Like before, he used the pole of the spear to catch Remilia's spear stab and knock her weapon to the left.
"What the—?!"
This time, the spear soldier began to lift the mysterious spear back up from underneath her. She jumped into the air with the help of her wings and barely avoided a slice as she felt the iron spearhead that rose from the floor whoosh between her lower legs.
That was enough.
"Hah!" A blue cross was thrown towards the fiend's armored face. "Enough standing around. This guard is…"
In midst of his thoughts, the spear guard had pulled back his spear from his assault on Remilia and spun it around in a wild flurry like the wheel of a high-speed horseback carriage.
Disappointingly to him, the blue cross was rendered useless as it was deflected to the sky. But just when he thought it couldn't get any worse…
"Wah!" Remilia screamed sharply as she pointed her wings straight up and fell to the floor.
Not even a second later, the blue cross flew up in a curve through where she had just been. Her legs endured a sharp pain from the unprepared landing, but she used all her strength despite this to scoot backwards. She was glad she did so because the blue cross landed back down to where she just was a moment ago.
"What the hell, Richter?! This was a fight between me and him!"
His own attack had almost hit the wrong monster.
"I'm sorry! I thought you were in trouble!"
"Well, I kind of am now!" Remilia yelled through tears that she never wanted anyone to see. The sitting Scarlet Devil watched as the blue and purple foe took a step backward with his spear pointing at her face. "Damn it!"
Finding her options limited, the young, but old vampire grabbed the holy blue cross on the floor. With no hesitation and with no prior practice, she threw the sacred subweapon towards the helm of the armored guard.
However, during the same time she was throwing the blue cross with her right hand, Remilia reached into her dress pocket, pulled out a small bottle of blue liquid, and threw the item at the fiend's body with her left hand.
"Hah!"
Her tactic was nothing short of a last-ditch effort and with the guard ready to deliver a fatal blow, she was as good as dead.
Although, she did notice a strategy that the spear guard had been following in the one minute she spent dueling with him.
With her angered expression turning into a wicked smile, Remilia watched her prediction come true as the foe sacrificed his assault in order to spin his spear wildly and protect himself from the projectiles.
Astonishingly, the blue cross was deflected back towards her. But astonishing to him, the glass bottle of blue holy water shattered against his spear and sprayed all over his armor.
Immediately, the unfaithful soldier burst into a huge green flame.
Meanwhile, Richter leaped in and caught the holy blue cross traveling back towards his vampire companion with amazing right-handed dexterity.
Both Richter and Remilia watched as the troublesome fiend suffered under the bright green fire. The iron spear was dropped with an echoing metallic noise and the blackened form of the guard reached out towards the sky before collapsing next to the spear. It was evident that the foe was gone because the armor burst apart into many pieces that became littered across the green floor. That, and the huge green flame finally stopped afterwards.
"Ngh… See? I had it."
Richter turned around and saw the teary-eyed, smirking face of his companion. It didn't sit well with him at all knowing that this was his fault.
"But that really was something. To think that water can turn to fire just like that."
Yet, he continued looking at her face. All the violent bloodlust and charismatic aggression that he had been taught to watch out for in his training was not here.
Even vampires could cry.
"Damn. I can't imagine how she must've been when the villagers in her story raided her mansion. Remilia's all nice now, but if something happened and she did something evil…"
"What? Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Sorry."
Remilia rolled her eyes and rubbed them with her left, red ribbon-embroidered white cuff.
"This is just the ocean water from earlier."
Richter gave his signature smile at her excuse. After putting away his cross subweapon, he offered his right hand down to her.
"Yeah. You're right." He received her right hand in return. He watched as the vampire struggled to lift herself up, but persevered through the pain and stood up with the silver spear at her side being used as a crutch.
Even though she had wanted to deny it, the Scarlet Devil continued releasing tears as she felt strong pressure within her right leg to where the sudden fall could have broken it.
"This pain… I'm almost questioning whether I really am asleep."
Both turned to face the path that they had originally been going on. Past a four-foot gap was a rusty, yellow set of open doors. Past that was another gap followed by multiple stone pillars. At the very end was a gray staircase leading up.
There were three paths: the yellow doorway on the left, the stairs leading up in front of them, or the stairs leading down in the lower path that was probably overrun by Medusa heads from the constant cackling of laughter.
"Which way, my prince?"
"Straight. Then up the stairs. But if it's too hard for you…"
"I'm fine. This is just a short setback," Remilia told as she approached the edge of the platform they were on. She used her spear to pole vault herself a bit in the air before using her wings to make herself fly over the gap. During her slow descent, she used the dull edge of her spear to keep her balanced. Even though she tried to escape pain, her right leg wavered as she felt her eyes continue to get watery. "Come now, I've gone through worse."
Richter jumped over the small gap and landed next to the vampire. He watched as she set her left hand atop the portion of her pink dress covering her right leg.
"I know," the blue hunter responded with a frown that she didn't see. "If those villagers were still around, I'd kick their asses into the dirt for hurting your family."
She turned around and looked at him with an odd smile.
"Thank you. As I said before, my mansion has been born anew with maids, friends, and…" Remilia's odd smile turned to one of wonder as she thought on what her sibling could possibly be doing. "My sister, who I hope will be better minded after this endeavor."
On the notion of her home, a curiosity came to the vampire's mind.
"If we succeed in rescuing the person you are seeking and manage to vanquish the vampire that you are aiming to defeat, would you accept an invitation to my mansion in celebration of our victory?"
"I'd be happy to," he replied and made her feel ecstatic beneath her stoic demeanor. "But one thing worries me, though…"
"What is it?"
"When we first met, you said you were sleeping in your mansion in one moment and staring at the waterfall in the next. Was that true?"
This was the source of Remilia's anxiety. She didn't know if all of what has transpired was a dream or not. She simply couldn't tell. And the more she struggled to make sense of it, the more she struggled wanting to open her feelings to this apparent apparition.
"I understand…" Remi replied as her eyes meandered down to the floor.
Right when she thought a rejection was in place, he kneeled in front of her vision and gazed into her red eyes.
"It's not exactly a mansion, but if you don't know where your home is, you and your sister are welcome to stay at my place."
"I know where my home is, but I don't know where I'm at…"
"Are you sure? You should know: Once you invite a vampire in, they can come in and out whenever they'd like." Remilia said with her usual smirk.
"Yeah. I'm sure. But I wonder if it's even a home anymore. The village I lived in was attacked by monsters and almost everyone was killed by them or by the fires they caused. That or they might have been lucky and ran away."
"What?!" she yelled in her mind.
"Until then, I intend to make the one responsible for the attack pay. And that's the vampire I'm hunting down—Count Dracula."
Remilia stayed quiet when she heard the name come out of his mouth. This trial presenting an opportunity to meet the legend she read about in history books meant that it would either result in an honorary meeting in that Remilia looked up to him, or crude punishment for claiming she was a descendant of Count Vlad Tepes Dracula. With the way things were going in her adventure alongside Richter, the second case seemed to be the more likely scenario. Goosebumps went across her body.
"You're picking a fight with Vlad Tepes? And you were thinking about doing this by yourself? Are you mad?"
"Yes, I'm mad. Until I beat him, I'm going to have this burning feeling in my heart for all he did. That's why I got upset at that ferryman earlier."
"Hm. My home was attacked; his home was attacked. I sought vengeance; he's seeking vengeance…" Remilia thought back to the terrible night long ago. "I did say every human in the village around my home was dead, but even as I was full of fury, I couldn't bear to make the entirety of that statement a reality. And it looks like he had some heart, too, if he didn't attack me outright when we first met…"
She sighed in relief.
"Okay. Let's go beat up the master of all vampires."
Richter frowned.
"Don't tell me he's your master."
"I said that with the stories I read about him in mind. The vampire that bit and turned me was killed by my dad so I've had the privilege of living by my own free will for centuries."
That was relieving to hear.
"Enough," Remilia stated and turned back to face the path they were on. "The sooner we defeat Vlad Tepes, the sooner I get to be pampered by my prince. Let's get to it."
"Hey, I don't know what you're expecting, but it better be reasonable."
"What? Bed, bath, and breakfast?" Remilia turned around with a bright, deceiving smile. "What did you have in mind, I wonder?"
"Um-uh…" he stuttered as an image of her wrapping her arms around him in bed came to mind. "I have two beds so I've got you covered."
"Ah! Splendid!" Remilia clasped her hands together with joy. "One bed will be for my sister and the other will be for us!"
That made him have his mouth open wide.
"I'm only teasing; don't look so appalled," Remilia said and continued on the decided path. She used her spear once again to pole vault into the air before flapping her wings hard to fly over the next gap. For a moment, she saw a few Medusa heads travelling through the air in the floor below. Then, she landed carefully on her left leg to not hurt her right leg as much. "Call it what you may but I can't imagine sharing a bed with my violent little sister. Yet, at least."
"Your sister must really be something if you can't share a bed with her." Richter jumped over the gap and landed at the Scarlet Devil's side. "Then again, you're both over 500."
"Before I became a vampire, she used to hop into my bed all the time. After I became a vampire, she continued going to my bed. And when I granted her vampirism, she still went onto my bed," Remilia summarized briefly. "Everything changed after that terrible night. I made the mistake of going to her bed since she didn't come to mine for once. Want to guess what happened?"
The two walked onward past a stone pillar and watched as four spear guards clad in purple and blue armor revealed themselves from the line of pillars. Richter was stunned, but Remilia remained unfazed. She let go of the silver spear as she reached into her dress pocket with her hands.
"No? Well, she tore off my left arm," Remilia began and threw a vial of holy water at a guard. The enemy foolishly spun its spear to try to protect himself from the projectile, but was doused in the liquid that burst into green flames upon landing on his armor.
"She broke my wings like twigs," she continued and threw another bottle of blessed water at another guard. The foe she was aiming for leaped to the left, but the bottle still made its mark as it broke onto the one behind instead.
"She clawed away my chest and abdomen," Remi grunted and threw two glass vials in a crisscross fashion that confused the remaining two soldiers. Remarkably, each landed square on their breastplates and signaled their defeat.
Oddly enough, one of the enemies dropped what looked like crispy meat on a white dish.
"And I had to suffer through that… The sight of my sister covered in my own blood…"
The four spear guards burned away as the armored pieces comprising them all scattered among the floor. Sure enough with her observation earlier, when the green flame withered, there was a finely-cooked chicken drumstick atop a white plate on the floor.
"Hey, so if that rotten meat healed your arm injury, eating this should make my legs feel better, right?" Remilia asked and picked up the tasty-looking piece of poultry.
"Um. Yeah." Richter agreed after his experiences. "Geez. She single-handedly handled those four… And that bit about her sister… To hell, man…"
The Scarlet Devil took pride in eating her snack and felt the pain in her legs dwindle into nothingness.
"What a weird way to recover health, but who am I to complain?"
Feeling good as new, Remilia picked up the spear she dropped and stabbed into the air in front of her. She couldn't stab multiple times fast, but felt content enough at having the capability to still perform such an attack.
"Ready when you are, Richter." Remi faced her partner with a confident smirk. "And I hope you understand why me and my sister can't share…"
Before embarking on this trial, Remilia was sure Flandre sat on the same bed she was on. Since she went to sleep fast, she could only assume that Flandre climbed onto her bed too.
"You know, if you have a cooked meal nearby, I'd like to give her another shot. I think it'll be good for us both."
"Alright." He smiled at her resolution.
With that, the two ventured across the green-tiled floor until they reached the gray stairway at the end of the hall. Then they ascended and found themselves in what appeared to be an armory filled with various types of ancient armors. Vibrant red curtains—tattered and pristine alike—decorated each of the six archways leading to the lonely brown door a few dozen yards away. The sources of light were the dual candles on the stone pillars that were a part of the archways. Meanwhile, the floor leading through the arches was covered by a vibrant red carpet. A feeling of luxury was evident save for the splashes of dried, red blood on the yellow floor that the red carpet did not cover. And if that was the case, there's no telling how much blood had been spilt on the red carpet itself.
Considering the recent spear guards, nothing but bad sensations came from this hallway full of armored displays.
"Richter…?"
"Yeah?"
"If you have a method of separating demons from decoys, now would be a really great time to use it," Remilia said as she looked at the various blue sets of armor that had red plumes on their helmets and wielded a large metal shield in one hand and an axe in the other.
"Not without a bible," he replied. With excitement, Remilia reached into her dress to pull out said item. "But with you being a vampire, I wouldn't want to paralyze you by accident in hearing the Word of God." That made Remilia stop retrieving said item.
"This bites. I only have one more of these bottles and there's twenty of these armors."
"Oh, you have another? Give it here and head downstairs. I've been saving up my magic in case we ever got into a nasty pinch like this."
"Okay?" Remilia agreed with uncertainty as she handed the last vial of holy water to him. "I haven't seen you use magic, but since you say so…" She then ran down the gray stairs and left him all alone in the gallery full of armors.
With the only audience to his act being himself, Richter brought up the plain looking bottle that had a golden-colored cross as its cork. He opened the vial and grasped the golden cross in his left hand. For a few intense moments, he felt himself channeling power from the golden cross to his heart and from his heart to the bottle in his right hand.
A beautiful thought of a bright blue sky illuminated by brilliant sunshine went through his mind. Then the vision drifted into the soft gray clouds that grew denser and darker.
Flashes of white lightning purged out his wandering thoughts as thunder boomed afterwards to fuel his body's anger amongst billowing faith. The bottle in Richter's right hand was being held to the point of being shattered, but with such delicacy to preserve the sacred item's shape amongst his ritual.
Then, it happened. Multiple bright flashes of lightning blinded his sight as cascades of crystalline water rained down everywhere for as far as the conceivable could be reached.
"Hydro Storm!" Richter shouted into the air as he raised the vial of holy water into the air and invoked an otherworldly power.
The atmosphere in the armor gallery turned a translucent purplish-blue as rain poured down through the ceilings and coated everything in a layer or more of water.
Every axe armor that was in the hall burst into a green flame and let Richter know that all of them had been culprits. He smiled and watched as each set of armor broke apart and disappeared into another realm. Of course, with his invocation of water, all the candles—save for the one on the last archway's right pillar—were put out.
"Great. It turned out really great." Richter told himself at the result of his magical channeling. "Now to…"
Before he turned around, he saw the shadows of four sets of armor still burning from the holy rain that had stopped by now. He didn't give it much attention because he thought they would succumb to defeat like the others.
But then they ran past half the room. Then half of that…
"Mother of God!"
He ran down the stairs and saw Remilia sitting next to the second closest stone pillar.
"What? Oh…" The vampire watched as four golden-armored axe soldiers radiating with bright, green flames followed in hot pursuit of the blue hunter. "Uh…"
She grabbed the piece of holy literature stowed away in her dress and yanked out the book's spine to break free all the pages. Then she stood up and stared down at the oncoming enemies straight out of a nightmarish dream.
"I'm going to hell, but I definitely don't want him to."
With all her thirteen-year-old strength and all the willpower she could muster in going through with her act, Remilia threw the book down in front of her.
But something else happened.
She had expected the bible to burst open on the floor and litter the ground and the air with its pages. Instead, surprise swept through her body as the hundreds of pages of the holy scripture flew in a growing spiral pattern all around her.
On top of that, the text's pages phased through the floor and the ceiling—much like the earlier purple and blue guard's spear. There were a few openings at two-foot intervals to dodge, but with the fiends continuously running forward, the sacred pages phased through the armors and exorcised a dark energy that vanished into the air. What remained was the golden armor and axes that fell apart into a mountain of mess.
Richter had seen what she had done. Knowing normal people would see it as an act of desecration, he was surprised to see his partner use the bible as a subweapon. And with her being a vampire, it made the feat even more unfathomable.
"Haha," Remilia laughed lowly as she stared at the mess of metal close by and watched the pages vanish out of her sight. "I think the Almighty One has a penchant for danmaku…"
She grabbed the silver spear she set aside on the stone pillar and looked at her partner whom was still baffled at what she managed to do.
"That wasn't sacrilegious, right?"
"Unless I'm already damned for doing it a few hours ago myself, I'd say no."
Remilia snickered at his response and saw him shake his head in guilt.
Once again, another entourage of monsters were defeated under the power of the adventurers. Their venture to and through the fort brought them against fish monsters initially and Medusa heads for a couple seconds, but for the most part, the two found themselves wandering past armored foes—especially spiritually-possessed suits of metal.
Believing the last of the armored fiends had been finished off, both Richter and Remilia climbed the stairs and proceeded through the now-dimly lit gallery, where faint reflections of the lonely candlelight were scattered atop the wet sets of armor lying around.
For safety reasons, Remi walked in a cautious manner. Splashing holy water onto any part of her skin would most likely give her an unforgiving experience after seeing monsters seared away from it.
"You drowned an army using only a small bottle. Can you help me find my common sense? I think I lost it somewhere after I saw you eat that rotten turkey wing."
"Come on, Remilia, let that go already," Richter complained at her teasing reminder. "Besides, it was obviously a drumstick."
He had admitted defeat in arguing with her a couple times before. So, he thought he would try to get at least even a small victory out of her during the short, hostile-free trek.
"Hmph. Five hundred years is a lot of time, but not enough to bore me into learning about the anatomy of random animals."
His shot at victory was immediately shut down.
Aimless now, Richter gave a light sigh and scratched the back of his messy, brown hair where his white bandanna was tied around at. The two were only a few yards away from the brown door leading to the next area.
"Five hundred years, huh?" Richter thought to himself. "Remilia?"
"Yes?"
"What did you do for 500 years?"
There was silence as the pair stopped in front of the only door. Remilia crossed her arms and bit her lip.
"A lot of things, really. But if I had to summarize…" she pushed open the door and entered the new area alongside him. "I looked for a place I could call home."
The brown door shut itself tight once the duo went through.
All around them was pitch-black darkness split down the middle by a singular stone bridge. The light provided was from the torches held on the sides of the twelve-foot wide piece of architecture. When Richter looked over the edge, he saw murky purple, blue, and black water.
However, with regretful focus, he could distinguish the purple as putrid human arms reaching and repetitively grasping out towards the bridge. And there were hundreds, if not thousands.
A sickening feeling sat in his body as he forced himself to gander back at the only path ahead of them. The next brown door stood far in front of them as it was at the end of this bridge that seemed double the length of the gallery they just came from.
"Let's get out of here, Remilia. The things at the bottom make me nervous."
Curious to find out what he was talking about, Remilia peered down and became disgusted.
"I'm with you. Let's go."
Not a word was spoken as they made their way across the bridge. Crackling from the bridge's torches and footsteps from each's boots served as the only sources of noise in an area full of frightful danger below. Their walk was smooth and silent this way.
Then they arrived mid-way to a sight that made both cringe. A twelve-foot tall set of emerald green armor landed on the bridge immediately in front of the door they were wanting to go through. The fiend had a large shield with a yellow dragon insignia in his left hand and had a stupendous ten-foot-long, honed sword
"Not good…" Richter broke the silence and clutched his whip tightly.
Just then, a vibration came from behind. Fearing the worst, the two adventurers looked back.
There was another one. Twelve-foot tall, dragon-embroidered shield, and ridiculously long sword. They were identical. And they started to march right to the middle of the bridge.
"Richter, you do see how long those weapons of theirs are, right?" Remilia asked with seriousness.
"Yes."
Her spear was six-feet long. His whip was eight-feet long. Things looked grim for them both.
"We can do it, Remilia," Richter tried to encourage his partner and pulled out his whip. "Just stick together so that we'll make it out alive together."
"No," the Scarlet Devil denied and gripped her spear with both hands. "If you think I'm going to be pigeonholed into an obvious trap alongside you, you're wrong."
He turned and expected an explanation.
"We each take on one. Facing one is easier than being surrounded by two, don't you think?"
Now, he understood. Seeing where the attacks were coming from was far better than not seeing them coming at all.
"Good luck, Richter." Remilia said.
"Godspeed, Remilia." Richter mimicked.
With a dangerous stage set and a risky objective in place, they went their separate ways. Remilia dashed to the armor lord behind; Richter to the one in front.
Richter and Remilia had been fighting well in their adventure together. Richter had his shining moments in defeating foes with masterful dexterity using the Vampire Killer whip and various subweapons alike. Remilia had magnificent shows as she punished enemies with fiendish accuracy using her silver spear and other secondhand items she came across in tandem.
But now came the time to prove themselves.
With stakes raised high and odds turned against them, they weren't just fighting for their own survival.
They were fighting for each other's.
