A/N: Here's a bonus chapter again to tide you over, I'll update a proper chapter soon, promise!
Also I've got a book event tomorrow (12.05.2018) at ALL SAINTS HALL, EATON ROAD, HOVE. It'll be between 2pm and 6pm. If anyone can come to the Brighton and Hove book fayre, it'll be great to see you, it will also have other local authors as well.
(Start of chapter)
Character class: Wizard Knight / Pluto Knight X
Level: 14, 4199xp until next level up.
HP: 844 / 844
MP: 998 / 998
Strength: 40 (52)
Speed: 31 (26)
Spirit: 48 (49)
Magic Defence/Defence: 30 (50)
Magic: 75
Magic Evasion/Evasion: 16 (36)
Weapon: Iron short sword
Headwear: Iron helm
Armour: Iron armour
Accessory: Mythril gloves
Skills: Minus Strike
Abilities: Bright Eyes, Level Up, Man Eater, Bug Killer
Magic: Poison, Regen, Sleep, Panacea, Osmose, Protect, Cure
Trance: Balmung strike
Items: 20 potions, 1 phoenix down, Antidote, 13 Goblin Steak, Traveller's cloak, Isekai ring, silk shirt, lots of regular clothes.
Gil: 2458
A nerfed Dingir in Final Fantasy 9, seriously?
CHAPTER 10.5 (part 2)
Dreams of hiring Dingir
(MULTI POV)
Mark tossed and turned in his bed, his entertainment for the evening had already left, having only been able to stay for a few hours, as they both had dawn duty the next day. His mind surged with recent memories, of killing people to level up, as he finally drifted into a fitful sleep, the memories of fictional self, his Dingir, flowed into him once again.
Kimberlain and the Zombie Hunters waited outside the surgery for close to an hour. Why a general store needed such a thing, she didn't know. A family left soon after they arrived, a mother, father, and three children, they all looked tired, but a sense of relief was clear on their faces.
"Why are you young ladies here?" asked the father.
"We could ask the same of you," Amy retorted.
That made the father chuckle. "Mister Hickson was just patching us up after a monster attacked us, we're lucky Dingir was there to kill it."
"So Dingir is here?" Amy asked.
"Yes, he's with Hickson now, are you here for his help too?" he asked.
"Yes," she admitted, though not willing to discuss why.
"Then you'll be just fine, we'll if you'll excuse us, we've had quite the day. I wish you luck with whatever's troubling you."
"Dingir's all cool and glowy!" giggled one the daughters, as they left.
"Cool and glowy?" Alice snorted. "I can't wait to mention that."
"Please don't," insisted a deep, but young voice nearby. They turned to see the towering form of Mark, nicknamed Dingir by the Devils that both admired and hated him. "I got enough from Hickson earlier when the kids were praising me."
Dingir stood a little over six feet tall, with black hair and grey eyes, which were surrounded with the black colouration of one who seldom slept, he was thickly built, and wore a long leather coat that had several large gashes and burns in the leather, they noticed bandages beneath his half unbuttoned shirt. "Mozella, Amy, Alice, what do the zombie hunters want with me?"
"Not us," Mozella replied. "Kimberlain here wants to hire you to rescue someone." She gestured to the pinkette vampiress, who had gone deciedly pale and quiet, as most lesser demons did in his presense. Which wasn't suprising, as only devils had a chance of defeating him. A mere demon was a insect.
"I don't help demons," Dingir replied coldly, dismissing them. "I kill demons."
"Hey, wait!"
"Concidering that I'm the boss, I think we should hear them out first," said a new voice. It was John Hickson, the immortal owner of the shop. He was covered in incredibly detailed tattoos that resembled spellcraft combined with circuitry, they glowed faintly with a blue light. "If fellow hunters are with her, vampire or not, it might just be something serious, isn't that right, Mark?"
"Tch!" he grunted in irritation. Dingir needed Hickson to hunt more devils and demons, as well as heal him with magic, and the immortal used that maliciously to keep him in line.
"Excellent!" he declared. "Now ladies, follow me to my office and we'll discuss this rescue mission."
'What the hell is this guy?' Kimberlain thought as the shop owner brought them tea as they took a seat in one of several couches crammed into the small room. Her eyes flickering to Dingir, who skulked in the corner, looking almost petulant. A strange aura radiated from him, she couldn't see it, but she could sense it, Kimberlain didn't know why, but it reminded her of the blessed weapons they sometimes used, or holy water. Something that hurt demons, and hurt her. The aura also had a predatory edge to it, and her vampiric senses screamed for her to leave, even if he was ignoring her.
"It's okay," Alice whispered, seeing Kimberlain''s nervousness, and resting a reassuring hand on hers. "You're just sensing his purifying power, as long as he doesn't touch you, it can't hurt you."
"We won't let him either," Amy added. "Sorry, we should have mentioned that he doesn't like demons."
"Yeah," agreed Hickson taking a seat behind his desk, which was piled with scrolls, grimoires, and several porn mags, which he casually slid to the side. "I do not discriminate, but my grumpy friend is a little…Well anyway, why do you need us?"
The zombie hunters nudged Kimberlain.
"I'm want to hire you to help me rescue my family from the Dark Earl," Kimberlain said in response to their prompting.
"The Dark Earl?" Dingir asked, curious, he hadn't heard that name before.
"It's a persona that the Dark God, Nyarlathotep has taken to wearing," Hickson explained. "A hundred or so years ago, the Dark Earl, then called the Shadow Master, nearly destroyed the world. The Vladamir clan's leader, and two servants, including Kimberlain here, were able to send him back into the void, at least until recently."
"So the other two are the ones that you want me to rescue?" Dingir asked Kimberlain. If they were screwing over something evil, he didn't mind helping as much.
"Yes," she replied, nervously. Hickson, as well as the zombie hunters gave the young man a meaningful look. Apologize. Now.
Dingir sighed deeply. "Oh, for pity's sake, I'm sorry if I was rude earlier, or my aura scares you, but I can't turn it off, I'm basically a 24/7 bottle of holy water. Please just act as normal, I'm not going to hurt you."
Kimberlain regarded him for a while, "Okay then, that's better. But don't be mean." Dingir's eye twitched in response.
Kimberlain went on to explain what she had learnt from Matos over the phone, about the bombing of the Council, the slaughter of the Vladimir clan home in Germany, and Countess Vladimir, along with Frederick, being kidnapped by the Dark Earl.
"The Dark Earl has an army of zombies, vampires, trolls, werewolfs, and unknown horrors, even human soldiers, and sooner or later, he'll threaten the human world again, and it'll be too late then to stop him."
"I thought you wanted a rescue mission, a God isn't an enemy I can hope to kill," Mark stated. A devil was hard enough.
"True," interjected Mozella. "But if an opening presents itself, we should take it."
"We?" Dingir snorted. "I was under the impression you wanted me to do it because you couldn't handle it."
"We won't throw our lives away, but that doesn't mean we can't help," Mozella snapped back, volenteering them, despite her earlier words. She realised that, adding, "long range support, that sort of thing."
"Never the less it won't work," he retorted. "We'd be lucky to escape with our lives."
"He's right," Hickson interjected. "But we could fill their base with explosives, Bloody Mary their sprinkler systems, and put a dent in his forces during the rescue." Bloody Mary referred to Dingir adding his blood to a sprinkler system or other water transport method. Dingir's blood, which was a deadly poison to demons, would melt anything demonic or monstrous that it touched better than holy water ever could.
"We'd need more people," Mozella stated.
"What about that Matos guy you mentioned, and any survivors from your clan, he said there was some, right?" Amy suggested.
"I'm sure they'd help."
"Good," smiled Hickson. "But we need to join forces with them, arm them, plan our mission in detail, and of course, we actually need to know where the enemy is based, and if that is where the Dark Earl is keeping them."
"He will," Kimberlain assured them. "If it's the same guy as last time, he'll not want to risk them escaping. We were the ones who beat him last time."
"But that's not the most important point," Hickson added.
"Huh?"
"Money," Dingir muttered.
"Indeed," Hickson agreed. "So let's draft up an estimate of costs and wages, plus a multiplier because you need to get the money post-mission from the Countess, and then I'll look into finding your allies, and maybe, the Dark Earl too."
Matos and Veronica had survived the Dark Earl's brutal attacks, barely, but their being a werewolf and vampire respectively afforded them far greater vitality and healing ability than a normal human. Even so, if not for some of Matos's subordinates coming when they and the Countess didn't arrive, they probably wouldn't have made it. Veronica's hole closed up in a few days after drinking a lot of blood, he however was bed-bound for nearly a week.
The Zynox company that had flown them here before, collected them after they had recovered enough to travel, along with a small force of his werewolves.
There was an underground compound that was being fitted for their use. It was heavily fortified, as it had once been used for less than legal operations before the property had changed owners. In addition, especially to Veronica's delight, their clan's home, which had been obliterated by human soldiers working under the Dark Earl, had not been totally successful in wiping them out. Thirty-one vampires had apparently survived the attack, thanks to the efforts of the Illuminate special responces division, and Zyrox had been able to contact them in their remote hiding space and transport the survivors to the compound.
The reunion occurred a few days after that. It was a both wonderful and horrible, as they saw who had survived, they too also knew who had died. Zervio had been amoung the dead. A terrible loss for them all.
"He saved me," Nostrum told Veronica in a quiet voice. "The time he brought us was…" he paused, "well he died like a true warrior should."
"But such a thing to happen to us, it is unacceptable, the Dark Earl even took the Countess, but I promise you, we will avenge this loss," Veronica declared.
"I would think saving your blood kin would be a higher priority for you," said an unfamilar voice, deep but young, with a faint hint of distaste.
A sudden chill ran down both their backs, as the sensation of being locked in with a starving predator hit them. They turned to face the speaker, Nostrum bared his fangs, while Veronica drew the small pistol hidden beneath her clothing. The speaker was a young man, dark haired and grey eyed, perhaps a little out of his teenage years. He was dressed in a black tracksuit, which bore several subtle bulges of one who hides weapons on their person.
"Who the hell are you?" Nostrum demanded, not recognising the kid, he had a strange scent, it was human mostly, but their was a hint of something inhuman, that made him feel ill, along with the faint scent of blood, not human blood, but demon blood. This person had killed recently. He carried himself like a martial artist, even in the relaxed, seemingly indifferent stance he took.
"You are not with the humans that accompanied the others," Veronica stated, gestuing with her gun for emphasis. "Answer my kin's question."
The young man smiled, a suprisingly unsettling action. "Dingir, I've been hired to come here," he said. They both froze at the name. It was a very ancient term that meant both God and angel, it was also the alias of the strongest exorcist in the world, he worked for the Demon Workshop supposedly, but had also done work for the Vatican, a group that while signing the peace treaty, wouldn't hesistate to destroy their kind either.
For what reason was he here? Then to their great surprise, they saw Kimberlain, the little pinkette vampire slap that very Dingir around the back of the head, and with her vampiric strength, she ended up facepalming him into the concrete.
"What?!"
"Kimberlain?"
"Dingir, you promised to be good, don't be misleading to antagonise my friends, okay?" Kimberlain complained.
"Noted," Mark grunted, standing in one smooth motion, calm, collected, as though he hadn't just been floored, it was spoiled somewhat by the bloody nose he now sported.
Normally vampires had trouble restraining themselves around freshly spilt blood, but the inhuman, but not demonic scent seem to grow stronger, it was most unappetising. "Good thing I wore gloves," Kimberlain grimaced, removing the one she'd hit him with, it was steaming as though burnt, and a faint red rash showed on the skin beneath, Kimberlain focused the little demonic power she had to heal it.
"I did warn you," Dingir replied, wiping his nose clean with the sleeve of his jogging suit, fortunately it was black. He regarded the two vampires, keeping his features stoic, it actually made him more intimidating, but not outright aggressive as before. "I have been hired, but to aid in the rescue of your mistress and her pet. The boss insisted."
"Bum boy isn't a pet, he's one of us," Kimberlain chided, more relaxed around him in the journey to Canada. Hickson didn't want to get directly involved with the likes of the Earl, but had prepared a plan for them to work with, unlike them, he had to worry about being on an Evil God's badside…forever.
'I'm not even going to comment on that,' Dingir thought when he heard the vampire's nickname for Frederick. He turned away, heading for the nearest door. "We have to plan our rescue mission with the others," he said to them as he left. "Come." He left without checking to see if they followed, his bearing demanding obediance.
Exchanging looks, they followed Dingir, despite him being only a teenager, a mere infant compared to their long life spans. After all, revenge aside, they still wanted to save Frederick and the Countess.
Mark opened bleary eyes, yet another memory, he remembered the plot, it was for a game/novel/manga crossover that he had done with another author called Andre Duggan, they had often worked together during his mid to late twenties.
"I wonder what he is doing now?" he thought, it had been a few years since they'd last spoke to each other.
The dawn's bell sounded among the servants sector of the castle. Time to get ready for work.
CHAPTER END
Next chapter: Saved by luck
Thanks for reading the bonus chapter, its set within the Vampire Attack X Dingirverse crossover.
See you all soon. I promise!