Harry was getting irritated.
It had been some time since the Grimm had interrupted his assault on the Millennium zeppelins, and no matter how many he killed the rest swarmed him, keeping him from continuing his attack.
They were also causing issues for everyone else on the battlefield, attacking vampire, defender and civilian alike, generally making an even greater mess of the situation. Harry's group had mostly pulled back to defend the civilians at their FOB from the increased assault they were under. Unfortunately this meant that they could not continue their SAR operation, which left a bad taste in everybody's mouths.
Harry grunted as multiple flying Grimm once again surrounded him. Getting sick of this he sent out an omnidirectional burst of white hot flame from himself, turning the Grimm to ash. Quickly seeing that the enemy zeppelin was surrounded by Grimm as well he decided to let the monsters bring the aircraft down for him while he went to evacuate the civilians they'd managed to rescue to a more secure location.
Quickly flying back down to Trafalgar Square he found his team in a pitched battle against both encroaching Grimm and attacking Nazis. He proceeded to perform a strafing run, launching magic that pierced through his targets like railgun shots, eliminating a great amount of them and easing the strain the defenders were under, allowing them to mop up the latest wave with considerably more ease.
Once they'd earned some breathing room Harry landed in front of the Chief. "Sitrep?"
Chief kept his rifle up, watching the approaches alongside Ruby and Penny, the rest of the team tending to the civilians. "We have almost fifty civilians under our protection. We've managed to hold our position against the Grimm and Millennium forces, however doing so while protecting the noncombatants is straining our capabilities. I recommend sending them to a secure location so we can go on the offensive."
"Sounds like a plan." Harry said. "I managed to down one of the zeppelins, so their combat capabilities have been lessened. The Grimm's sudden appearance turned the odds back against us. At least the beasts are as eager to tear into the Nazis as they are into us."
"Where did all these Grimm come from, though?" Ruby asked as she moved closer to join the discussion, Crescent Rose held in rifle form and being aimed along the streets leading to the square in case of more hostiles. "Integra said that they had only dealt with scattered pockets in rural areas so far. This is… a lot more than that."
"At a guess?" Cortana cut in through their earbuds. "She sent a lot more Grimm than we thought with a command to hide themselves until an opportune time. After all, we don't know for how long she had the capability of sending things to this world. It could have been months. Which would have been plenty of time to build up a sizeable force. And with her dead they just kept to their standing orders till the current situation compelled them to act."
"I don't get what she stood to gain from this, though." Ruby said with a frown.
"We know her goal was to die and take as many people with her as possible." Harry said. "It's entirely possible she was testing this world to see if there was anything that was able to kill her. Not only that, this isn't Remnant. There's no telling if the gods' curse would hold sway here. Though she'd have been cautious since she could send things over but not take them back. And her vendetta with Ozpin would have kept most of her focus on Remnant."
"This is a pointless discussion for the moment." Chief cut in. "We need to focus on the here and now."
Harry nodded in agreement before looking over at one of the side streets, spotting moving shadows. "We have incoming. All of you hold them back while I evacuate the civilians to someplace far from here." The other two nodded and turned to begin firing as he walked away, passing the rest of the squad as they rushed to support the Chief and Ruby.
Approaching the civilians he was disheartened to see how few they were, their wounds and traumatized looks making things worse. One would be tempted to say it was a decent amount of survivors, but compared to the sheer amount of people London held it was a truly miniscule fraction of the population.
Many of them looked at him fearfully or warily, while a few seemed hopeful and the rest were simply blank faced in shell shock. When he reached them a boy of ten made his way over warily despite the silent urgings of the woman he had been sitting beside to keep back.
"Are you here to save us from the monsters?" The kid asked, looking tired and drawn.
Harry smiled gently. "That's the plan." He lifted his hand, aiming to the side, before one of his dark portals swirled into existence in the place he was aiming at, causing people to shrink away from it. "This will take you all to Cardiff." He told them soothingly. "It's far enough away that you should be safe while not being so far you won't be able to find your way."
Slowly and hesitantly the gathered people approached the ominously black circle in the air, but then a particularly loud explosion rang out from where the defenders were fighting off the latest wave of monsters, and the same kid that had approached Harry apparently decided that was good enough incentive, rushing towards the portal with his eyes closed and disappearing into it.
The others waited with bated breath, some looking horrified at what the child had just done, when the boy popped his head back through the portal, eyes wide. "It's safe!" He exclaimed. "Hurry!"
The survivors didn't need to be told twice, making their way through as quickly as they could, eager to get away from the hell that was their current location. Harry didn't know it, but many fell to the ground and sobbed in relief when they went through and reached the crisp, clear Welsh air.
Once the last one was through Harry let the portal dissipate, satisfied that at least those few people had been saved from the depredations of the monsters stalking London. Then he turned to see how his team was faring. They were mowing down Grimm and vampires left and right, so Harry took the opportunity to reach out to Alice in Hellsing HQ. Reaching up to his earpiece he called to her. "Alice, what's your status?"
Alice stepped back out of the reach of the vampire that tried to bite her, quickly retaliating with a swipe of the Vorpal Blade, cutting into the Nazi's neck and nearly removing his head. Behind her the Wild Geese were busy shooting their enemies, defending the mansion against them with fury and grit that made the young woman proud to fight beside them.
Stepping back she reached up to her earpiece to respond. "They attacked the headquarters as expected. They very nearly reached the manor with their aircraft, but Seras brought it down with her new equipment." She stepped to the side as another vampire began to fire his automatic weapon at her, shifting her knife for her pepper grinder and taking aim before shooting, her weapon's ammunition removing her assailant's head. Then she resumed her report. "We managed to hold off the surviving vampires with our mines for a time, but the enemy commander seems to have some sort of hypnotic ability which she used to make us let the Millennium forces through."
She remembered her surprise when Seras and the mercenaries all began to cry out and act frightened, screaming about a giant outside the manor. Several of the Geese had reacted as though they'd been wounded, some exclaiming that they'd lost limbs that were very much still attached.
Realizing that her comrades were seeing things that weren't there and that she was somehow immune to whatever was affecting them, likely due to her own… eccentricities… Alice quickly worked to snap Seras out of it, reasoning that her long range accuracy would let her hit the source and make it stop. A good slap and a yell that it wasn't real managed to get the busty blonde to focus. She was still under the effect of the illusions, but she managed to use her innate supernatural senses to see through them enough to find the enemy commander and take the shot, making the illusions end and letting the Geese come back to their senses. They quickly resumed using the explosives they'd planted out on the grounds to eliminate more of the attacking Nazis, but unfortunately quite a few had made it through, and things had turned into a close quarters battle from there.
"Has the enemy commander been neutralized?" Harry asked seriously.
Alice glanced worriedly at where Seras was facing off against the scythe wielding Millennium commander, the blonde vampire not having an easy time of it. "Not yet. But she will be." She then materialized her Vorpal Blade again and rejoined the fray.
Harry sighed as he finished speaking with Alice before approaching his team, who had just finished mopping up the latest wave of enemies.
"So, what's the plan?" Jaune asked as he swung his sword to get most of the gore clinging to it off.
Harry opened his mouth to speak when he noticed Lara's gaze aimed at the sky behind him, making him whirl around.
Moving above London was a bright… thing… of falling light that seemed to take an avian appearance. It moved slowly through the air, looking like nothing else but some sort of divine being.
"What the hell…?" Beast Boy muttered.
"Flares." Chief explained, looking at the new phenomenon seriously.
Then a voice suddenly came over what appeared to be imany ncredibly powerful loudspeakers. "We have come for you!" The Italian accented voice proclaimed. "We are the righteous soldiers of the Angel of Death!" The team glanced at each other, trying to work out what the hell was going on. "And tonight the world below shall know Judgement!"
Cortana quickly cut into their earpieces. "Voice recognition matches Archbishop Enrico Maxwell, head of the Vatican's equivalent to the Hellsing Organization, Section XIII, Iscariot."
"Naming it after the betrayer of Christ." Lara said with a snort.
Now that the flares had stopped falling they could see that what had dropped them was dozens of helicopters, possibly hundreds.
"What are they up to…?" Blake murmured, eyes narrowed.
"England… is guilty." Maxwell said slowly at first. "Heathens… are guilty! You are all now sentenced… to your death!" He proclaimed, sounding almost joyous. "Death! DEATH! DEEEAAATH!"
"Wait!" Pyrrha gasped. "He can't mean…!?"
"I can offer you my pity…" The obviously mad priest continued. "But forgiveness… NEVER!" He cried. "Now prepare to be purged from the Earth, melted down like glass; crushed, like bugs!" Then his laughter rang out throughout London as the troop transport choppers landed, disgorging their cargo.
"Enemies stand to our left! Enemies stand to our right!" Maxwell told his soldiers after his laughing fit was over. "Eradicate all who stand before you! Execute them all. Kill them. Destroy!"
That's when the attack choppers in the air began to fire down at the already burning city, killing vampire and civilian alike, the Iscariot troops butchering the citizens of London as they met the Millennium forces.
"They're killing as many as the vampires and Grimm are!" Cortana yelled in rage.
"God DAMMIT! What do we do now!?" Beast Boy yelled, pulling at his hair.
Harry's fist was clenched at his side, shaking from the force as blood dripped from where his nails cut into his flesh. His teeth were gritted and his fangs were bared. "I'm still holding back." He snarled to himself, self-disgust evident in his voice. "Some part of me is still trying to avoid giving in to my power, even after what Alucard taught me." He whirled on his team, who were all looking at him now, some worried for him, some understanding, all serious and ready. "I'm done with that shit. I'm going up there, and I'm going to kill every last one of those bastards. You all make your way to where Iscariot and Millennium are meeting and eliminate them. It's time they were dealt with so we can focus on rescuing who we can."
Chief checked his ammo out of habit, even though it wasn't necessary anymore. "Understood. Good hunting."
With a nod Harry launched himself into the sky and began flying in the direction of the main bulk of the Iscariot helicopters.
Ruby let out a breath before she glanced at Jaune, who nodded. "Alright, we need to move fast to stop our targets. We'll head out as a group and deal with anything that gets in the way and make sure any civilians are out of immediate danger as we move."
"We'll focus on eliminating the threat for now." Chief added after a nod to Ruby, who looked briefly nervous when she realized she'd given orders he was supposed to provide before she steeled herself. "No FOB. We'll switch back to SAR once the target is dealt with. Understood?" When everybody nodded he nodded back. "Then move out."
As they ran, none of them noticed the blood that coated the streets begin to move.
Harry's eyes narrowed as he rose, and not because of the smoke and ash in his eyes. The sky was full of helicopters and Grimm, firing either at the ground or each other.
He knew he needed to deal with them all quickly, to eliminate the greatest number of threats in the lowest amount of time. That meant leaving the Millennium zeppelin, which was also taking a pummeling from its various assailants, alone for the moment. Still, that could be dealt with after he was done with the small fry.
A helicopter flew straight at him, beginning to fire its minigun. He couldn't see the reaction of his attackers when he held out a hand and created a barrier of dark energy that deflected each shot, but he imagined it was one of surprise. The machine then tried to ram him, but that didn't exactly work out when a swipe of his arm made it fall in two flaming pieces, missing him entirely.
Momentarily left alone he began to focus, holding a hand above his head, an orb of dark energy growing in his palm, increasing from the size of a golf ball to the size of an exercise ball within seconds. Then, eyes closed, he focused on sensing the myriad entities that filled the skies around him. Once he was sure he'd detected all of them the orb burst into multiple large projectiles that hunted down their targets and destroyed them, beginning with the large griffon type Grimm that was feet from him, mouth open to swallow him whole.
The sky began to fill with explosions and smoke as the helicopters and Grimm were destroyed by the magical attacks. Within twenty seconds every airborne helicopter but one had been destroyed, as had all the flying Grimm.
After his work was done Harry panted, mentally exhausted. He hadn't used that much actual power for what he'd just done, but the amount of focus and coordination he'd needed to perform the technical aspects of his attack were significant. He briefly felt something dark rise in him before his discipline reasserted itself once he'd recovered a bit.
Harry then turned to glare at the last remaining helicopter, or rather what was held under it. The person he could only assume was Enrico Maxwell stared at him in horror from the armored seating area of what seemed to be a version of the vehicle popularly known as the Popemobile, an array of microphones in front of him showing how he'd projected his voice.
The teen was about to move towards the leader of Iscariot when he noticed something begin to happen below. A black mass began to flow out of a central point, and when he looked he saw what appeared to be a multitude of what seemed to be people in old armor and a dark aura.
"So, you've released level zero." He murmured to himself as he saw what was happening, well aware of what was going on thanks to his unique insight into a certain vampire.
Putting it out of his mind for the moment he turned back to find Maxwell's chopper turning to carry the archbishop away. Scowling he quickly launched himself toward his fleeing enemy, who looked back in terror just in time to see Harry's fist smash through the reinforced, bullet proof glass, grabbing the gibbering priest and pulling him out of the vehicle, holding him above the burning city as he struggled.
"Pathetic." Harry spat at the terrified man. "Where did that self assurance go, worm?" Deciding he really didn't want to touch Maxwell longer than necessary he floated downward towards a plaza with a smashed fountain in it, dropping the priest once they were close enough to the ground.
Maxwell immediately tried to scramble away only to cry out when he saw Alucard's familiar army approach. When they stopped fifteen feet away, surrounding the two living beings, he turned to look up at Harry. "W-what are you?"
Harry looked down at Maxwell silently, considering what to say. Then he spoke. "I am the one that has fought the evils of the worlds whenever I can. I fought and defeated a Fallen Angel, stealing his power and damning myself in the process. In spite of that, I fight to protect the innocent, like those you cruelly slaughtered in the name of a God you spit on with your every action. Tell me, Maxwell, which of us is the more righteous."
"I-I am righteous!" Maxwell protested, hatred beginning to mix with the fear in his eyes.
Harry smiled a condescendingly cruel smile. "A truly righteous man knows better than to proclaim himself so, you arrogant buffoon." He drew his revolver, cocking the hammer as Maxwell watched in terror. "This gun, Maxwell, belonged to someone you should have been. A brave person who fought till their last breath to do what was right."
Then the archbishop's eyes landed on something behind Harry and they flared with hope. "Anderson!" He called. "Anderson, save me!"
Harry turned to see the large blonde man with glasses and a scar that was the Vatican's answer to Alucard, the two staring into each other's eyes for several seconds, Alucard's familiars simply standing and watching. When the priest in the cassock didn't do anything to stop him, Harry brought the gun up to Maxwell's forehead.
"Why?" Maxwell asked Anderson, betrayal shining in his eyes.
"Your own actions led to this." Harry answered for the Catholic superweapon. "Karma's a bitch, eh?"
"No. No! Save me! SAVE M-" A gunshot silenced Enrico Maxwell forever.
"...May God have mercy on your soul." Harry felt compelled to murmur before turning to nod to Anderson and launching himself back into the air, leaving the corpse with the priest.
There was still work to do.
Holy crap! You have no idea how hard this chapter was to get out!
I'm seriously sorry for the lateness and overall quality of this chapter, but it just seriously fought me every single step of the way. I literally started the chapter over multiple times, once scrapping a thousand words as garbage before beginning again.
Part of the problem is that Hellsing, unlike the next world (well, the one that was originally next, before a certain assassin inserted himself) was not that planned out outside of what I needed from it.
Technically my purposes with the Hellsing-verse were met after Harry and Alucard fought, since that power up and unbinding for Harry was the entire point of the visit. But if they left immediately after it wouldn't have been much fun for you all, and it would have deprived me of a moment of growth for the group as a whole.
The world that originally came after this one, by contrast, is pretty well planned out. I wrote an outline and everything. This is because it is a very important world when it comes to Harry and the group's growth. I'd say it's one of the most important for Harry specifically since Silent Hill itself, with what he got in Hellsing just being a stepping stone towards that.
I really need to plan things out better and more in advance, methinks.
Another problem is that my workplace has removed my ability to use anything but work related websites. I can't get into wikis, or youtube, which has heavily hampered my ability to research. Can't even use Google Drive, which is how I lost about 700 words of this chapter, since they simply didn't save to the drive and I didn't notice. So things are going to be more difficult for me going forward.
In any case, this chapter is finally freaking done. I hope you all enjoyed it well enough despite its issues, such as the timeline being a bit wonky compared to canon.
Hopefully the next chapter won't take as long, and we'll be able to leave this world soon enough.
As always, please keep in mind that you can have a say in what I write through my Pat A Ron. Become a patron, and each dollar donated becomes a vote in my monthly update poll. That's at Pat A Ron dotcom /athanmortis.
As always, thanks for reading, please review, and have a wonderful day.