Drowning in Darkness.
By: Lazeralk.
Standard disclaimers apply.
In the name of God, impure souls of the living dead shall be banished into eternal damnation. Amen.
Part 18
Sigh. You guys really are slave drivers. Well here it is my masters!
0o0o0
Mauve poured over the maps, written in the ancient language of the Shadow Walkers. It was all here, the world they were looking for with its enchanted fountain. The world was described in detail, but there were no directions on how to get there.
She slammed her fist down on the table, the wood splintering. How the hell was she going to get there? Her lover could get her into the shadow realm, into the Deep. But neither of them knew what to do after that.
"My lady." Said one of her servants, a vampire called Jeremiah that belonged to her cult.
"What?" she snapped.
"Meriquoi, Aramore and Seron are all dead my lady. Arucard and the Shadow Walker are in the castle." He said, sweat running down his brow as he fought the almost overwhelming urge to flee. Mauve could cause a deadly fear, and used it liberally.
"They what?!" roared the vampiress. Jeremiah wasn't sure whom she was referring to, so he kept his mouth shut.
He viciously backhanded him; sending him sprawling to the floor, blood leaking from his mouth.
She turned in a flurry of red velvet and stormed to the throne room to await the arrival of her foes.
0o0o0
Arucard hissed in pain, his shoulder throbbing with the burn. He had to throw his weight into the door in order to open it, and that worried him. Shadow gave him a look and walked past him, partially phasing through both him and the door as she left. Seras, reached out hesitantly to touch him, but her fingers fell short of their destination as her master glared at her.
They walked into the room and stared. A huge throne carved from one solid boulder sat in the center of the room, facing them. A man sat upon it, his eyes dead and burning. Two pillars with torches built into them sat on either side of the throne, the only light. The rest of the room was lost to darkness, but an echoing chill pushed at the walls, and made the room feel huge.
A door in the shadows opened, the hinges creaking loudly. The sound bounced around the room, making it impossible to discern the location of the door.
"Arucard. How good of you to join us." Came a woman's voice, slippery and high-pitched. Mauve emerged from behind the throne, her red velvets clinging to her full figure.
Arucard sneered at her, his fangs glinting in the firelight.
"Ah. I see you've run into Seron. He was a good dog while he lasted."
Arucard ran his tongue along his bottom lip, and spoke the words that had been bubbling in his throat for some time now.
"Releasing power seals to level three until the target has been eternally silenced."
The blood red pentagram fit itself around his feet and then shattered, engulfing his form in rush of red. When he was finished, his hair fell to his ankles, and black leather coated his body.
Mauve threw aside her cloak and pulled a massive sword from a sheath concealed on her back. She leveled the blade, holding it as if it weighed nothing.
Seras found a column to hide behind while she loaded shells into her halconnen, keeping one eye on the fight, and the other on her hands.
Shadow launched herself at the demon in the throne, her blades flashing wickedly.
Mauve, Arucard and Seras all sprang into action as a result, the two older vampires clashing wildly, as Arucard dodged the bade and sought to rip her to shreds with his hell hounds.
Seras let loose a shell at the monster Shadow was fighting and grimaced when it had little effect. Shadow sunk her blades home again and again but the demon lord kept reforming himself until it was as if she were striking at empty air. He then lifted his hand and spoke in his own rough tongue, the words to an ancient spell.
The shadows began to move at his command and swirled at her feet. She looked down at them and willed them away from her, but they only wavered once before rising to engulf her slender frame. The darkness closed like a fist around her and she screamed as she was cast into the Deep, her essence scattered and caged with her kin.
Seras looked on in horror, without Shadow they were doomed! Her master was too heavily injured to save the day as he normally would and all she had was a useless gun. They were all going to die here, she just knew it.
The immortal, invincible Shadow was defeated. Not even Arucard could defeat her, and he was the strongest person she knew. How could they possibly hope to stand up against something the mighty Shadow Walker couldn't beat?
Arucard dodged another strike, his hellhounds sinking teeth into his enemies shoulder. Mauve reversed her next strike and plunged her sword into his familiar's neck, sending searing pain down the limb that bound them. Mauve increased the tangible aura of fear around her body and sent it crashing into her nemesis. He struck out with a claw like hand but missed, the fear creeping into his body and chilling him to the bone. He couldn't believe it, he was actually afraid. He flexed his fingers, fighting with his fear. He pulled at his insanity, wrapping the comforting dark nothingness around his conscience. He was afraid, he could deal with that, it just meant that the battle would be that much more fun.
He increased the intensity of his attack, launching his hellhounds all at once, his face splitting into a mad grin as he envisioned her bloody corpse. He opened his mouth, saliva dripping from his fangs as fear chased across her face.
-Oh yeah, - he thought smugly. – I still got it. –
He slammed into her, tearing at her flesh and seeking the bone beneath, his fingers dug as deep as they could, blood staining his white gloves cherry red. He drew back his arm to slash at her neck and Mauve found her opening, she pinned the nosfaratu to the floor, her blade digging painfully into his damaged shoulder. She leaned heavily on the hilt for a moment, taking the time to heal the bloody rents in her flesh. Then she stood and slammed her foot into his stomach.
Arucard was not fairing well, the fire had weakened him considerably, forcing him to heal the burns agonizingly slow. He was almost out of power, even with his seals released. If only Seras and her stupid sword hadn't drained half of his energy before the fight, he'd be sending this whore to hell right now. He pulled weakly at the sword while Mauve laughed from above him. The fatigue of his uphill battles was catching up to him, adding weights to his limbs and draining the spark of battle rage.
-I must be getting old. – He thought to himself, giggling slightly at the idea. He didn't think so though, he looked pretty good for two thousand if he did say so himself.
Seras dropped her gun in pure shock as she watched her master fall. No way! It was impossible! No one could defeat Arucard! She scrambled to his side, trying to lift the sword out of him, tears running down her face.
"Master! Master! You have to get up! Master!" She cried, pulling with all her might.
"Give it up girl, your precious master is finished!" mocked Mauve, a smug smile on her full lips.
"No!" screamed Seras.
-Mother. –
"No. Master can't die, he can't, you can't master."
-Mother, free me. I'll fix it for you. I can save him. Free me! –
-Allen. Est nuvari kulonralk en venitora naliks. –
-Say it out loud! –
"Est nuvari kulonralk en venitora naliks!" cried Seras, the words flowing easily from her this time. She held out her hand and felt the sword's weight rest there.
"You'll pay for this. You'll pay dearly bitch!" yelled Seras as she charged, the sword glowing with unholy power.
Mauve's eyes widened, she suddenly found herself under attack and without a weapon. She dodged as best she could but the sword caught her at the dip of the shoulder and ran to her hip. The edges of the wound burst apart, blood gushing fourth in rivers. Mauve staggered back and gasped with the pain.
Seras dove forward and pushed the sword through her heart, shredding it instantly. The vampiress screamed long and loud before she dissolved into a bloody heap, then burst into ashes. The dark flecks settled to the ground and lay silent and still.
Seras turned towards her master and made her way slowly over to him, a small smile tugging at her lips. She won. She'd killed Mauve. They'd be ok now.
Her master returned the smile, his eyes alight with pride for his child, then darkened with fear as they focused behind her. Seras gave him a puzzled look before spinning around to find the demon lord towering over her.
"Oh god." She whispered, her face white with terror.
The demon lord took her face in his hands and forced her to meet his eyes. She screamed as he invaded her mind, wrapped his essence around her brain and shut her down, the darkness separating her mind from her body.
-Kill him. - The demon ordered inside of her. To her horror she turned away from her new master and stalked towards her old, raising the Blade to Call All Darkness over her head, preparing to plunge it into him.
"Seras!" Arucard called, holding his hands before him, beseeching.
The blonde's face spilt into a wicked smile, one more commonly found on his face and her long tongue dangled from her lips, thirsty for his blood.
"Police-girl!" he screamed as the blade came down, embedding itself in his stomach.
Seras only smiled, then bent down to drink. She stopped short however, when she felt a strange power, pouring rapidly over his skin. She hissed at him, annoyed by his lack of screaming and this newfound interruption.
Arucard threw back his head and laughed. God it felt good! All the power he'd lost before was surging back into his veins, adding to what power he had left. He reached for Mauve's sword and pulled it easily out, then Seras' blade came out. He tossed the dead vampire's sword aside and then backhanded his child into a pillar, knocking her unconscious.
Fully healed and slightly more insane with the power rush he leapt forward, the Blade to Call All Darkness singing in his hands.
"Time to say goodbye!" he called in a singsong voice, mocking his opponent as he struck again and again. The demon howled without sound, the roar echoing through the vampire's mind instead. Arucard pulled back, and with both hands, impaled the monster on the cursed weapon, digging it in as deeply as possible.
Allen began to feed, drinking down the demon's energy. Arucard sat back to watch, floating above the ground, his long hair flying wildly about as he giggled insanely. The demon's flesh began to collapse inward until he was naught but bone, then they began to crumble, glowing with the sword's power. Then the frame imploded, tossing Arucard's already airborne form aside like a rag doll.
When the vampire managed to figure out which way was up and which way was down, he floated over to the pile of brimstone that use to be a demon. He tapped it experimentally, waiting to see if it would do anything interesting. Alas, a rock is just that however, and inanimate objects do not move.
Slightly disappointed, he floated over to where his child's form lay crumpled against the wall, and repeated the process. He tapped her with his finger, then sat back to wait. She moaned a little and struggled to sit up.
Arucard, just now coming down from his power high, grinned at her.
"Master?"
"It's over police-girl. We won." He told her.
"Oh. That's good." She said, then she touched her jaw where a nasty purple bruise was beginning to form and scowled at her master.
"Did you have to hit me so hard?"
"Hey! You were the one trying to kill me remember?" he snapped back hotly.
Seras shrunk back a little, not wanting to get hit again.
Arucard just laughed however and bent down to pull a twisted piece of metal that was once her brand new halconnen out of a pile of rubble.
"Oh on! Walter's going to kill me!" wailed the blonde, taking the broken weapon into her hands.
"You still have the Cassul don't you?" asked her master.
She checked the holster, having completely forgotten about her back up gun. It was still there and relatively undamaged.
"Good, that's really the only gun you need." Declared Arucard as he studied his old gun with a fond expression.
"Well, lets go home police-girl."
"Yeah." She answered.
0o0o0
"Master? We've been walking for three hours now. How do we get out of this place?"
"Hmm. You know, the main door use to be right here, but now it's gone. I guess Mauve did some remodeling."
"So how do we get out?"
"I really have no idea."
0o0o0
End part 18
Muhaha! You can't do anything without Shadow!
