Happy New Year's Day everyone! First chapter of 2015. Please enjoy! :)
*= BloodRayne Betrayal Soundtrack - 03 The Crabpuncher
*Mantema opened her mouth and let out a growl as Rayne pulled out her remaining guns and she fired at the monster. The bullets didn't do much except annoy the Mother of the Underworld. She rooted herself onto the ground and lunged forward with her teeth bared and tried to grab Rayne but she cartwheeled away from her just in time and Mantema only got a mouthful of earth and gnarled tree roots. She let out a angry hiss and she protruded out her stomach. Just like the nests, a vertical slit appeared on her belly and three Maraisreq came out, two yellow and one red.
The minute they landed on the ground, Mantema's "children" went after Rayne.
"WHAT DO YOU THINK OF MANTEMA'S BOUNTY RAYNE?"
A thick, deep, evil voice rumbled out from the Mother of the Underworld. It sounded a little like Marassa's voice.
"Marassa?" Rayne said in disbelief after she sliced off the leg of one Maraisreq. As she fought with them, the voice spoke again.
"CORRECT, IT IS I… I HAVE BECOME ONE WITH THE MOTHER OF THE UNDERWORLD. I AM NOW A LOA…"
Marassa rambled on as Rayne made a twisted mess of the Maraisreq.
"NO… NOT JUST A LOA. A GODDESS… I WILL BE WORSHIPED, AND RESPECTED!"
Taking advantage of Rayne's distraction, Mantema/Marassa marched towards her and she lifted up her right front leg. With the sickle shaped claw held up high, she brought it down. Rayne got out of the way just in time and the claw crashed into the earth. However, she must have plunged the claw too deeply as it got stuck in the ground and she struggled to free it. A loud snap sounded and the Mother of the Underworld fell right on her abdomen sending shock-waves, her right claw was gone and in its place yellow blood poured out.
Seeing her chance, Rayne ran towards the fallen super arachnid and she laid into her with Blood Rage. Mantema's skin was tough but Rayne cut pieces of off with her blades. Mantema groaned slowly and she suddenly got right back up. Her claw had regenerated. She plunged her left one just above Rayne to pierce her head but Rayne escaped this one as well.
She had to cut off those legs so she could take the Mother of the Underworld down. As if anticipating her plan, the Mother of the Underworld took in a deep breath and a blast of fire was spewed out of her mouth.
"Holy shit!" Rayne shouted and she backflipped away from the incoming flames. The Mother of the Underworld charged her prey, confident that soon her nemesis will soon meet her doom. A deep, shuddering laugh was emitted from the beast.
"WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING MA CHERIE? THERE IS NOWHERE YOU CAN HIDE…"
"Not going anywhere lady! Not until I cut off your legs, use them to pry your chest open and rip out your fucking guts!"
This earned another laugh by the Mother of the Underworld.
"HAHAHAHA! OH MA CHERIE, YOU MAKE ME LAUGH. IT WILL BE YOU WHO SHALL DIE, NOT ME! I AM A LOA, I CANNOT DIE!"
"We'll just see about that Marassa…" Rayne said.
Rayne had used up all of her guns and she only had one stick of dynamite left. She going to have to get quite creative as this battle goes on. Then again, creativity was her specialty. Rayne saw a Diseased man standing dumbly on the shoreline of the island she was on and an idea popped into her head. She quickly sent out her harpoon and when he was pierced, Rayne reeled him in and then threw the man towards Mantema.
She grabbed him in her mouth and acting quickly, Rayne pulled back the chain and she was flown close to the Mother of the Underworld. Mantema opened her mouth again to try and bite down on Rayne but the latter grabbed her upper "lip" and she somersaulted over her head and she landed on the back of the monster. Digging her stiletto heels into the Mother of the Underworld's back, Rayne went to work. She cut off the front right leg, it was surprisingly easy, like chopping down reeds. Mantema shrieked a soul rattling scream but Rayne continued with the amputation of her limbs.
When Rayne severed the last leg, the Mother of the Underworld fell with a loud boom. Rayne immediately entered Blood Rage and she cut and slashed her fallen opponent. Blood and viscera flew as Rayne worked away at Mantema. However, the Mother of the Underworld managed to overcome her pain long enough to give Rayne a nasty surprise. A tumor like mass began to form on the right side of Mantema.
The skin broke open and a glowing red tentacle emerged and it wrapped itself around Rayne's neck and it threw her into the water.
"Aaaaahhhhh!," screamed as the water burned her. She managed to jump onto a nearby rusted ship, her skin blotchy and simmering with a stinging, lingering burn. Recovering, Rayne could only watch from the stern of the ship as the Mother of the Underworld regenerated her legs and stood up.
"WHERE ARE YOU RAYNE?" the Mother of the Underworld called out. Rayne decided to play a game of hide and seek and she retreated towards the deck of the ship. The sounds of screeching and metallic howling filled the air.
"FIND HER!" The Mother of the Underworld said. Her "children" began scamper into the water looking for Rayne. Rayne could hear the sounds of the Maraisreq's feet climbing up the ships and boats, their claws scraping off rust or puncturing rotten wood. The rumble of Mantema's footsteps echoed as well and Rayne's Aura Sense showed that she was coming to the ship she was on. Besides her, Rayne found that she had another unwanted visitor. A Maraisreq came walking up on the upper deck searching for her.
Rayne harpooned it and she stomped on its head before it could scream. It 's head made a sound similar to that of an egg being cracked, the yellow blood was like the yolk.
"Creaaaaaakkkkkk…."
Rayne turned to see that a rusted metal fixture on the ship was broken and it was hanging onto the last of its strength. It had a sharp, jagged end and Rayne had an idea. Just as Mantema looked over Rayne's ship, an explosion sent a column of water rising into the air like a waterspout. The Mother of the Underworld and her children went towards the disturbance, giving Rayne enough time to work out her plan. She ran from the side of the ship where she had thrown the dynamite and she went towards the metal beam that she saw earlier.
Using her harpoon to tear it down, Rayne took the heavy thing into her hands and she jumped on the roof of the ship's wheel room. There, she held up the metal beam with her dhampir strength in a stance like she was going to throw a spear.
"Hey! Underworld Mama!" Rayne called out.
Mantema turned her head immediately towards the source of the voice.
"Heads up!," Rayne said and she threw the beam. It sailed through the air and it staked a stunned Mantema to the ground like a tent through the left side of her abdomen. She let out an ugly, gut-wrenching howl of pain and she began to unleash more Maraisreq from her wounded stomach.
"GET HER! GET HER! GET HER!" Mantema/Marassa shrieked.
"Now she won't be going anywhere!" Rayne said triumphantly to herself. She jumped off the wheel room, twirled over the water and landed right by a torch and she charged Mantema with Blood Rage. Her children came to defend her but Rayne made short work of them all and she went all out into Mantema. Cuts turned to gashes and gashes turned to gaping holes exposing pulsing organs and the dull glint of bloodied bone.
"YOU WILL DIE!" Mantema howled and she breathed fire onto Rayne who avoided it and she ran around the monster. She jumped over her and she sliced one side of her neck, causing yellow blood to pour like a waterfall from the wound. The Mother of the Underworld became lethargic from the loss of blood.
"NO! NO! THIS CANNOT BE… I SHOULDN'T DIE… I AM… LOA… I SHOULDN'T DIE… I CANNOT BE DYING…!"
Mantema chanted this over and over as if it could protect her from the inevitable. Rayne remained indifferent.
"This is for Mynce you bitch…" Rayne said and she repeated the same attack she did before.
"NO!"
The Mother of the Underworld screamed. Rayne sliced the other side of her neck and Mantema just stopped moving but her blood did not cease flowing from her wounds. To finish her off, Rayne ran up, jumped up and she kicked off the Mother of the Underworld's head. The head landed with loud boom. The Mother of the Underworld, had met her end.
Besides her death, Rayne noticed how something peculiar was happening. The few remaining Maraisreq, scattered Diseased and Mutates all began to fall down dead. The plague was over, Rayne's mission was complete. She had exacted her revenge.
"Back to sleep for you." She said to the headless corpse. "Permantly…" she added.
The crickets were the only response she had. Now what? Rayne figured she could go back to the church and get the boat and return to New Orleans to contact Brimstone and tell them about the mission. It was going to be hard to tell them that they had lost an agent and the survivors. Rayne sighed deeply, that's one hell of a way to start off her career with the Brimstone Society let alone remember it.
Rayne walked around the corpse and towards the direction she used to come to the Ship Graveyard. She didn't get too far however when she heard a strange sound. It sounded like a fire starting. Rayne turned around and she saw flames, but it was coming from the Mother of the Underworld's stomach. Disturbed yet fascinated by this, Rayne got closer to the burning spectacle.
But as soon as it started, the fire stopped and in its place was a gaping hole. Rayne could see Mantema's ribs but there something strange about one of them. It was colored red and black and it was glowing.
"Glowing ribs?" Rayne said.
She reached into the hole and she grabbed the rib. She managed to pull it off with great force and she analyzed it. The rib was oddly cold and it looked like it was made out of crystallized fire and blood and it reminded Rayne of that tentacle that the Mother of the Underworld used to throw her into the water. It was the strangest thing Rayne had ever seen and she had witnessed and seen a lot of weird things over the years.
"Maybe Brimstone will know what this thing is…" Rayne said to herself.
Just then, the rib's glow became more intense and it became red hot like a newly forged iron. It vibrated with an intense pulse and it took a life of its own. It took control of Rayne's right hand, making its fingers close around and forcing it to drive the rib into Rayne's right side. Taken by surprise, Rayne used her left hand to tightly grasp her right wrist and she struggled to keep her this thing from stabbing her. Despite her strength, the rib made its way into Rayne's flesh.
The moment it touched her blood, the rib slid out of her hand and it began to attach itself below her other ribs. The whole event was so painful that Rayne fell over onto her side, clutching the area where the rib went through and rolling about as if she were on fire. Sweating profusely, Rayne howled and cried as the rib seemed to have some horrible adverse affect over her. Besides the pain, she had bizarre, fantastic visions. Visions of some great black winged being falling from the clouds… giant, clawed hands… the black winged figure tearing something apart and throwing them this way and that… blood was everywhere…
Rayne passed out.
Some unspecified amount of time later, it felt like hours but it could've only been minutes, Rayne was still there, curled up into a ball too afraid to even move. The sound of a vehicle approached and Rayne could smell the exhaust. She opened her salt-caked eyes and the headlights from the vehicle stung her for a moment. She blinked and she saw that it was a military jeep. Somebody got out of it and walked towards her. She heard the driver of the jeep speak.
"Herr Wulf, sie ist lebendig!" (German for Sir Wulf, she is alive)
The man who was standing before Rayne turned to the driver.
"Ja, ich bin bewusst, dass. Aber es tut aussehen wie sie hat lange, um zu leben, obwohl..." (German for, Yes I am aware of that. But it doesn't look like she has long to live though...)
The man was bald, he had a monocle in one eye and that one was red while the other one was an icy, steel grey. He wore a dark grey army uniform with a black and white badge shaped like an eagle holding an olive leaf crown that encircled a bizarre X shaped symbol in the center of it on his right pocket lapel. On his right arm was a red armband with a white circle that had a another X like symbol on it but it was different from the one on his pocket. The man looked scary. In fact, this man emitted a terrifying aura.
Rayne recognized it as the one she felt earlier before she confronted Marassa. The man spoke, his cigarette holder going up and down with the movements of his jaw, ash falling from the lit cigarette onto Rayne's motionless body.
"I believe that you have something of mine..." he said in German accented English.
"Oh God... Oh God..." Rayne managed to say. It was all she could say.
The man smiled.
"Now don't take this personally, but I will enjoy this greatly."
And with that the man held his right hand up to the moon. It extended into a fiery blade. When he was satisfied with the length the man turned his gaze towards Rayne. He had a sadistic look on his face and he plunged his hand under Rayne's ribs and he grabbed her "newest addition" and he yanked hard. Rayne screamed in pain all over again as the man pulled violently at the bone.
Finally, he pulled the rib out with a loud snap, it dripped with Rayne's blood. The man sported and even bigger grin than before as Rayne wailed uncontrollably with pain.
"Perfect." He said. He brought the dripping rib down towards his own chest and just like with Rayne, the fingers of his right hand clenched themselves tightly around the bone and it plunged itself into his own chest. The man didn't even flinch but when he looked up after doing the deed, his monocled eye was glowing an even more intense red than before.
"Fantastic... Such power..." He turned towards Rayne. "As much as I wish you were that colored witch, I feel that you are a wonderful exception my dear. Now if you excuse me, I must depart."
The man bowed.
"Auf wiedersehen."
The man went back to the jeep and he began to say something to the driver but Rayne blacked out again and all she could feel was herself disappearing into a dark nothingness...
Just one more chapter for this arc and then we get started on the second one. I can't wait to create new characters for the five years. Anyway, thank you for reading and please review! :)
