Chapter 3, Love at first kill

Tricla sighed as she felt her disciple's spirit go poof.

"And that's the first end of her," the mistress announced and reached for another drink.

"I'm sure she gave him a decent fight though," Sciel said in a lazily comforting manner while chewing on an unspeakable snack.

The scorpion nodded but muttered:

"First lesson after her resurrection will be step one of attacking patterns though."

"You aren't worried about him finding out that you were behind the attack then, Sciel dear?" Arachne asked.

The carmilla shrugged.

"Not if she gave him some practice without drawing blood. He gets cranky when he bleeds, the little darling. As long as he doesn't get a lead to me, there's nothing to..."

She got cut off by a sudden call.

"Mistress!"

"Hmm?" Tricla said, looking up and to her right.

From the shifting nothingness burst a seemingly endless flow of yellow and orange, forming a less fuzzy shape beside Tricla's throne. The ending result was tower of scales and muscles, upon which rested an at least partly human upper body.

For a moment it seemed almost as if Nagia had come back to life, until one realized that this naga's scales had a lighter color, and that her long snake tail was in one single piece.

"Hello Slither," Tricla said with a welcoming smirk, "about Nagia, it was lord Rakadra. I recommend caution in his case, darling."

"That's what I thought!" the snake demonette triumphantly grinned, though she was wringing her hands nervously - which almost made her cut her own fingers off with her claws.

The grin revealed fang upon fang and definitely deserved the label "worrisome".

"I saw it, how he killed my big sister!" she continued, "it... he... I..."

She fumbled with the words, stuck in the fresh memory being replayed in her head over and over again.

"You are going to annoy him into a state of berserking, I can tell as much already," Sciel declared, casually spinning her little bowl to stir the stagnating content.

But the interested smirk that followed upon her degrading words hinted at that she rather liked that idea.

And so did Slither, if one dared to read her beaming face.

"That's one of her specialties," Tricla offered, "but there's more to it than that."

"I'm only annoying in the start to catch them off guard," Slither assured, letting her hands fall to prove that she wasn't loosing her head completely.

"Mhm..."

Sciel nodded thoughtfully.

"But when it comes to Rakky," she said, "I would advise you to skip the irritation and aim for the throat. If you want to live through a flirt, that is."

"Thank you, lady Sciel," the naga said, bowing her head briefly, "I will give it a try. Even so..."

She sighed, gaze wandering off into the air in a daydream.

"Such a gory death, too... I could live with that."

And with that she snapped her fingers and disappeared in a black flame.

"I believe that we'll need more blood from Rakadra," Arachne chirped, her claws merrily clicking against each other.

"Oh, I don't know..."

Tricla sipped her drink with a chuckle.

"Slither has a specialty that might catch his interest. Provided she doesn't anger him too much first."

"Kids these days!" Sciel muttered and reached for another snack from the cage on the table, "never listening to their caring superiors..."

*

Rakadra's feet made contact with the ever-changing ground and his lizard eyes scanned the land before him. Or the gap, rather.

The nether was a confusing place of no rules of land that went for stable worlds, but some things were excluded from the ever-changing dark mist that only demons could find their way through.

For example, this ravine.

It spread out from horizon to horizon - this being one of the few places in this world where one even could TALK about a horizon - and its complete void was almost too great for even the demons to fathom.

Rakadra reached out his left hand, pressing the pointing and middle finger against each other while clenching the other fingers without much force. Quickly he drew a few mystical signs that momentarily burned against the air's foreground of the eternal blackness of the ravine, while he muttered under his breath in a guttural voice.

A whispering sound came from the ravine and a shapeless shadow arose from it, seen only because it had a lighter color than the depth.

Rakadra sat down on one knee, holding out the half-eaten heart of the unfortunate naga. Dark blood still dripped from it and covered half his underarm.

"Master Jagan," he said.

A hand and arm, skin as pale as ashes, reached out from the shadow, grabbed the heart and retreated back into the lighter darkness.

Moments passed.

"Fine for a snack, I suppose," the old vampire's voice eventually came from the shadow, "what would a naga want with you, though?"

"I was wondering that as well, but I suppose it isn't that important," Rakadra said, shrugging.

"Nothing you can't handle, no," Jagan agreed, then took on a more serious tone, "how fare the new plans?"

"We're still too exhausted from the last two attempts," the half-breed growled with an angry shake of his head, "and the decline of magic isn't helping either."

The destruction of the Mana Sword and the fall of the Tree had been strategically good - if it hadn't been for the fact that the demons had been among the losers of the evil armies. If the Dragon Emperor hadn't been defeated by the Mana warriors, there would still have been enough magic in the world left for the underworld to launch a massive attack by this time. They had tried with Rolante under Teron Gorefiend - it could have been a start of revenge and a way of accumulating a stable hold of the world with less clean rites - hadn't things gotten out of hand as they had done.

Rakadra preferred not to think too much of is less he'd pop more vessels than he could afford. He had already had plenty of reasons to hate the inhabitants of Rolante before those events. Two versions of Kevin and Lise, not to mention one Jason - which was more than enough (twitch!) - was a little more hatred-worthy than even he could handle. As satisfying as some things of it had been, the ending result...

He shook himself free before he started chewing froth again.

"We're doing our best," he said in a low growl, "worry not, the next atte- wha?"

The last word was caused by the two sudden flares of burning heat that swept forth below both his jawbones from behind. There was a low click and the heat was gone again, all during the time it took to exclaim "wha".

Rakadra spun around, but there was no one in sight.

Click?

He looked down, still trapped in the surprise.

TWITCH!

It took Jagan quite a while to make himself heard well enough to demand an explanation. And the reason he finally made it through was simply because Rakadra eventually exhausted himself to a near-death status and collapsed on the blood-stained ground, panting for air. The skin on his fingers had in large areas been torn to pieces and black liquid seeped from the deep, ragged cuts on his throat.

"What happened? Answer me!" Jagan snarled from the shadow.

Groaning, the half-breed obeyed the words of his dead master, crawling up to the flowing form rising from the depth. A shaking hand that had seen better days floated up and disappeared into the dusk, sending ripples through the shadow.

There was a pause as Jagan read his disciple's last memories. Then the shade violently trembled as the vampire roared with laughter.

With an enraged snarl Rakadra pulled back, too angry to even bothering to notice the fact that all the blood on his hand had "mysteriously" disappeared during the exchange. He was busy KNOWING who was behind the prank this time.

Pushing himself up he cast a spell of darkness upon himself to heal, fueled by his anger. He threw himself into the air before the wounds had even fully closed, eyes blazing.

And Jagan kept laughing. Suddenly limbo had become a lot more endurable.

*
"SCIEL!!"

"Oh my..." the vampiress mumbled, trying to feign calm while she threw up all mental and physical shields she could manage on such a short notice.

Had she been half a second slower, Rakadra's claws would have been cleaving her guts. As it was, he just ended up punching an invisible wall a few inches from her chest. Grey sparkles flew from the connection and Sciel grimaced uncomfortably.

Rakadra was hardly calmed by this distraction and his fist opened, fingers spreading out against the protective spell. Black lightning bolts shot out from his fingertips, crawling over the whole transparent bubble.

Sciel's bowl fell out of her hand, hit the armrest and tumbled onto the ground, its spilled contents oozing and bubbling angrily upon all surfaces it touched. The carmilla had no time to think of that, busy clutching her head in agony as she struggled to maintain her defenses.

Arachne and Tricla watched the spectacle with great interest, but made no moves to aid Sciel, or even raise from their chairs.

Through the intense flares tearing through her mind, the vampiress vaguely noted that there was something peculiar about Rakadra's assault.

"Hold... hold up, Rakky!" she managed to screech, pressing the words through her tightly clamped teeth.

The attack subsided momentarily, only to return in one last, stronger blow that despite the walls knocked Sciel backwards into the backrest of her throne. Somehow she managed to keep her shields raised even as she tried to regain her composure.

Forcing one eye open she glared up at the half-blood and his one outstretched hand, where black needles still jumped between the claws.

... One hand?

The left one was clenched, up by the point below his throat where Rakadra's collarbones almost met. A thin, silvery chain encircled his neck, flowing out from the white-knuckled fist in two small streams.

Sciel wanted to ask, but first thing first.

"What was that for?!" she pouted.

She got both the mysteries solved at the same time as Rakadra replied.

"This!" he snarled, eyes glowing red with rage as he opened his fist and unveiled the source of his fury.

Sciel momentarily noted the remaining stains of black blood on his neck, before her sight was drawn to the item that weighed down the chain. Mainly because since the color of it frankly screamed against the rest of Rakadra's color scheme.

She blinked.

She coughed.

She threw her head back and laughed.

Arachne curiously bent forwards to get into the right angle to see, while Tricla stretched her neck over the table and around the half-demon's shoulder.

Both of them reacted just like two vampires already had done. At least the scorpio managed to keep calm until she had properly retracted her neck before she dissolved in hysterics.

Rakadra meanwhile, understandably, fumed. Literally. The last remains of blood were burnt away from his skin. Had Sciel not kept her shields active, he would have grabbed her by the neck and done uncomfortable things with her spine. But as he wasn't allowed to do that, he slammed both hands against the bubble and let loose another burst of lightning. But even that only momentarily stopped her insane giggling.

"Get this thing off me, leech!" he finally roared.

"It's... not... wahaha... mine!" Sciel croaked between a few gasps for air* and uncontrollable busts of laughter.

She clutched her stomach now, trying to get a little control back while Rakadra snarled raw obscenities at her. Finally she managed to calm down enough to dry her gleeful tears away well enough to peer up at him again.

"It looks kinda cute on you though!" she squeaked, which only sent her and her friends back into the pit of giggles.

Rakadra himself hardly helped pulling them back to sanity.

"It's a heart! It's PINK!!" he roared.

"How sweet!" Arachne squealed, then quickly threw up her net to block a dark blast.

Eventually though, Tricla managed to bring a little peace into the picture. Sorta.

"It's from one of my girls!" she screeched, far hoarser than usual, "it seems she was smitten by you killing her sister!"

Rakadra apparently had troubles sorting out what to do first as he opened and closed his mouth in sync with his twitching fingers a few times.

"How many ARE there!?" he finally settled for.

"Many, dear!"

And she went down in snickers again.

"Don't worry, Rakky!" Sciel giggled, "it's no fun to send several of the same kind after you. We'll think of something else next time."

Deliberately slow the half-blood turned back to the carmilla, speaking in a very low, dark voice.

"Sci-i-iel..."

"Aww, come on Rakky!"

He had been berserking for quite a while now, and it was starting to wear even him out. The last explosion of lightning was definitely weaker than the other ones.

He took in a deep breath to bring a little order to his burning nerves and sent one last death glare at the carmilla.

"I'll find that worm first, and then you better watch your back, Sciel," he growled.

She was still giggling. Snarling, he turned back to Tricla, who had calmed down almost completely and now just worked on her breathing. Meeting the male demon's glare, she smirked.

"Her name is Slither, dear," she replied without the question.

Without a word Rakadra reached up to the cute little pendant and lifted it between two claws, as if it was too hot to touch properly.

"Just be prepared," Tricla added, a few more teeth showing as the smirk grew, "she may still surprise you."

"Don't bother to warn me," Rakadra snapped and took off again with a few powerful flaps of his wings.

"It wasn't a warning..." Tricla murmured.

"What was it then?" Sciel wondered while stretching, a teasing giggle still fresh on her lips.

"She has a speciality..."

Tricla paused and took a new drink from the table. It was quite a sight as her claws were far bigger than her own head.

"... It might interest him," she then thoughtfully continued, "provided she survives long enough to use it, of course."

"What would that be?"

Sciel's neck made popping sounds as she pushed her head from side to side, but she didn't let that get in the way of her query.

"That... is a secret**."

Tricla sipped her drink with a huge grin. The carmilla was about to protest when Arachne got in between.

"Mm, what power! I didn't know that he was that strong!" she grinned, "the force in his attack... aw, Sciel, I'm so jealous!"

The vampiress sighed in content, nabbing another snack before she leant back.

"Such is our Rakadra..." she agreed, basking in the pain's afterglow.



 






*Old habits die hard?

**Aaah, Slayers. I loveth thee.

Yes gentle readers, these people do indeed scare me too.