With his entire body buzzed, David wandered down the hallway while following the red droplets that trailed along the floor. The taste of blood was still fresh on his tongue. It should have been salty and taste like iron, but instead, it was like nothing he had ever experienced. The taste was like nothing he could have dreamed of and the euphoria he felt coursing through his veins was like nothing he had ever before. It was better than adrenochrome. It was the highest of all highs.
The drug he had taken was limited in the amount of strength it provided him. The extra adrenaline made him capable of amazing feats, but they were still human. While he could feel no pain, he was still prone to the same dangers as any other man. His ambitions were massive but his body was still fragile.
What David was after was a new world. It wasn't just a community. It wasn't just a country. It was the world that he wanted to change. Humanity, as is was, was weak. Humans refused to accept their nature—only dipping their toes into the compulsion to dominate on occasion. Why was it that people who held power also engaged in war and cultivated wealth in such a violent fashion? It was because they accepted this truth. Human beings were designed to conquer the planet. They were designed to kill. That is how the species thrived so consistently and for so long. Yet, as modernity sets in and humans become more comfortable, they also become more complacent. They roll over and allow those who dared to rise to the top squash them. That is who David really needed to fight. If his plan to set humanity on the right path before his species goes extinct, he would need to crush those few "old" humans before his psychics could replace them.
Belmont and his kind were advanced humans. They were the next phase in evolution. That is why they needed to make sure that they are able to live on and make the world into what it needs to be. But, as people who are different often are, they are scrutinised. They are deemed "insane" and put in facilities or drugged up due to their natural gifts and abilities. In some cases, those who are supposed to love ant take care of them abandon them out of fear.
It happened to Belmont, himself, so he needed to make sure that the stronger gene was able to overcome these obstacles. He never wanted to feel the way he did on the day he learned that there was no love for him in the hearts of his family ever again. His own mother stabbed herself in the ears with crochet needles in order to avoid the sound of his voice, screaming at him to get out of her head. She was hysterical. It wasn't as though Belmont knew what he was doing was harming her. How was he to know? She always seemed so happy when talking to him. It wasn't his fault. One can imagine his surprise when he was injured and was taken to hospital, only to realise that no one was coming for him. They were finally free him. They were finally rid of him. They never wanted him to come back. If only he had died, what sort of blessing would that have been?
Fine. He didn't need them. They were inferior anyway. They were weaker, primitive versions of a superior species! Once all was said and done, their kind would cease to exist.
Yet, while Belmont could do so much with his own power, he could only do so much. It had limits. He had to be heard by the target directly, which complicated things. It required him to be in the same room as the target and for them to be able to hear him. If they couldn't understand the language he spoke, it was equally worthless. Adrenochrome could boost his physical abilities somewhat, but he was not invincible. He was weak against these monsters. He was no better than an ordinary human against them. Now, however, he had found a new way.
Yes, by consuming the blood of a demon, he gained power. True power. This was nothing like adrenochrome. This was something that was beyond ordinary understanding. Only experiencing it firsthand would one know what Belmont felt as he sought out his prey. Drooling and gnashing his teeth, he sought out the demon again, wanting to take Alois within himself and consume his very essence. He wanted that power. He wanted it so desperately that nothing else mattered to him while he sought it out. At that moment, he was experiencing only a minuscule fraction of it, but with that kind of power, Belmont knew he could rule the world. This is what true power was like, but, it was something that an ordinary human like him could not possibly hope to contain.
His entire body was on fire. In Belmont's mind, it was a brilliant burst of energy that raged out of control and he liked it. In part, he was actually right, as like any roaring flame, it would shine brightly and burn everything in it's path until it runs out of fuel and eventually snuffs itself out. To touch the bones of a demon could make flesh melt from the bone, but to drink their blood? Compulsively, he sought it out, unaware that in reality, this would only lead him to ruin.
As he climbed the stairs to the roof, he could see the crimson droplets growing more scarce. Crouching, he reached down to touch it, only to find that his hands have changed. Veins protruded from his skin and his fingernails were now dark grey. How curious. It would appear that he was changing in more ways than one. Witnessing this, a wicked smile appeared on his face, flashing freshly-sharpened canines. A cackle bubbled up from his throat as he stared up at the slightly ajar door at the top of the stairs. This was it! The power to conquer was within his grasp!
Throwing the door open all the way, he stepped out into the rain. It cooled his burning skin, but couldn't wash away the red that stained it. As soon as his eyes were visible to his prey, however, they retaliated and with reflexes previously unknown to him, he dodged the bullet, watching it disappear somewhere behind him. Swinging upward, he was able to block the sword that was swung at him with his own. Metal clashed against metal and the fight began. Ciel didn't even stop to talk. He needed to kill this man and he needed to kill him fast.
"What? Aren't you gonna at least say 'hello'?!" grinned Belmont, eyes glowing red. "Guess I can't count on monsters to have manners, huh?!"
"Look at yourself if you want to see a monster!" Ciel quipped back. "What did you do to yourself?! Is this another one of your sick experiments?!"
"First you break into my lab on my property, and now you won't even give me your name?! How rude!"
While Belmont was distracted, Ciel slashed him across the chest. It was a blow that should have been enough to kill a human being, yet it was far too shallow. The psychic didn't even real back in pain due to the adrenochrome in his system and simply continued attacking. Roaring and flashing his teeth, David swung his sword while trying to get the upper hand.
"Hear me, demon! You will not be victorious here!" he bellowed. "I will cut you down and feast on what's left! Your flesh will become my flesh and your blood will become my blood!"
"You're insane..." the demon replied. He had actually thought that as hard as David was to catch, that he would at least have some degree of sanity to him.
"No! I am the last chance humanity has! I will usher in a new world where every man, woman, and child is stronger than the primitive excuse for humans that rule the world now! Why do you think we were born like this?! Why were we born with these gifts?!"
"You act as though I care." Ciel snarled. "I don't have time to ponder the musings of some power-hungry madman with a saviour complex as he promotes genocide!"
Then, just as suddenly as Belmont was taken off-guard by his point, the psychic pulled out his pistol and aimed it at Ciel's knee. With a loud bang, a bullet was lodged into Ciel's joint, forcing his leg to give out. The rest of him fell to the ground after it, forcing a grunt out of him. With a smile, he aimed the gun again, this time at Ciel's head.
"You guys are out of it for a while after your brains get blown out, right?" he asked. "That'll be plenty of time for me to ram this blade of mine inside you."
A gun went off, but the Watchdog was perfectly fine. Looking up, Ciel could see a small hole in his foe's shoulder. A generous stream of blood poured from it, causing the psychic to raise a brow and his smile to fall. Turning his head, his eyes followed the line of fire, only to see the blonde demon he had fought before peeking out from behind the structure leading to the stairs. With that observation, his grin returned and a violent shudder ran through him.
A shudder ran down Jim's spine as well, but not at all for the same reason. It was disgust. Revulsion. He could see Belmont's eyes. It wasn't the ominous, otherworldly, red glow that now cursed them that repelled him so. It was the greed with which the beast looked at him. He knew that look well, yet, he did not linger to aim another shot. Instead, he tried his best to relocate himself as fast as possible. He was only stalling for his spouse, anyway.
"Get back here!" David barked, but then spoke in a low growl. "Your power is mine!"
Then, the hair on the back of his neck stood on end and he looked over his shoulder. In an instant, he saw the Watchdog charging at him and stepped aside, causing the man to miss. Whistling a flat note, he was impressed by what he could do.
"Reflexes like a cat." he observed. "This is what a human can do with just a little bit of this power! You don't stand a chance in hell, demons!"
Ciel had to admit, Belmont was good. It felt like he trained for this and Ciel's intuition wasn't off the mark. David Belmont knew the limitations of his power. He knew that words would fail him at times, so skill and might were also important. He took supplementary lessons in the use of various weapons, was on the Warwick fencing team when he was in school- the same team Ciel's own relative was on now- and studied tactics that would sharpen his skills in the art of violence. Belmont seemed like a savage beast now, but he was indeed more calculating on his own. The blood of a demon granted him physical power, but also made him honest. All this time, Belmont justified and rationalised it away, but in reality, the man had a lust for power that could not be quenched.
He kidnapped supernaturals, studied them through painful, humiliating, and invasive means before killing them. To Belmont, it was studying one's enemy and wiping out what he could in the process, as these beings were sure to kill humans. They weren't human. They didn't matter. Yet, he indoctrinated people born with psychic abilities, as well as some who were given them through experimentation into believing that they were the next link in the evolutionary chain before he suggested wiping out those without abilities. He played on their past pains with those who had no way of understanding and called it irrefutable proof. Those other "humans" are not truly "human". Belmont played up the idea that it is humanity's true nature to be violent and destroy everything in their wake, calling it "survival of the fittest" to further justify the use of force. It was "evolution", he said. It was the natural order of things. Enforcing it was only obvious. Nevermind the fact that this only works if he, and only he, is the one at the top giving the orders.
It annoyed him greatly that Ciel was blocking his every swing, for the most part. Just who did he think he was? This demon was up against the man who would lead the human race into a new era! How could this be?!
"Say something, demon!" he ordered. "Are you so much of a beast that you can't even speak?!"
"Are you sure about that?" questioned the Phantomhive. "Are you sure you want to risk that?"
"The fuck are you on about?" demanded Belmont. "You gotta be kiddin' me! There's nothing you can say that'll hurt me! Right now, I'm invincible!"
"Your mother stopped loving you, didn't she?" Ciel deviously inquired. "Ever since you learned how to talk..."
Suddenly, the fire that burned to viciously in David's chest seemed weaker. His stomach dropped and his expression did, too. Tightening his grip on his sword, he swallowed.
"The fuck did you just say?"
"Your mother," the demon began again, "stopped loving you. Didn't she, David?"
"I heard that bit." David replied. "The fuck are you getting at?"
"You're a man-child who never learned proper manners. You got everything you wanted, when you wanted it. You're spoiled and you hate not getting your way. That realisation must have crushed you." the bluenette continued with a smirk. "Which hurt more? When she made herself deaf just to keep you from taking her mind again, or when she had the free will to leave you for dead? She didn't want you in her life. No one in that house did. Did it hurt? Learning that the people who you thought worshiped the ground you walked on despised the fact that you had ever been born?"
Snarling, the Belmont made an attempt to stare Ciel down, but it did nothing to affect the smirk on his face. "Monster..." he accused before raising his sword again. "You think you can mess with me? You think you can get inside my head?!"
"Already there." Ciel said flatly. Tilting his head, he avoided being stabbed in the eye before crouching down to avoid the swing the followed. He then forced the other to leap back when he motioned his blade upwards. This time, he had swung with enough force to kill, but Belmont dodged just in time to receive only a large gash across his chest. It intersected with the one he received earlier in the fight to form the shape of an "X".
"How does it feel, David?" the Phantomhive questioned. "Do you feel like stabbing your ears yet?"
The way that his foe furrowed his brow was so intense that it looked painful. Raising his sword to the heavens, Belmont roared a thunderous cry, causing steam to escape from his mouth. When he looked back at the Watchdog, he prepared his stance to charge at him.
"YOU'RE FUCKIN' DEAD, DEMON!"
A/N: Here we go, here we go...
I had a little more fun writing this chapter, but I didn't get to dive too deep into everything like I wanted to. I'm really worried that I won't be able to, now. Ugh... Hopefully, things come together. If it doesn't, I guess I'll just try again next time...
That's the beauty of really like series like this with multiple arcs, you know. This one has felt really long, but it's probably because I've only been updating like once a week or so since it began.
Who knows what I'm gonna do next, though... I certainly don't. Well, that's not true. I have ideas, but they aren't quite all "there" yet.
Anyways, I gots a question:
"I was kind of wondering, have you thought about just having Ciel light Alois on fire to help heal his wounds? They're demons so wouldn't fire and heat be good for them in some way? Or at the very least comforting?" by HemeGirl
Nope. It wouldn't hurt him, though. He's fireproof. It wouldn't help him, either. It would just burn off his clothes, at most. Interesting concept, though. The healing bit, not the clothes bit. That would be weird.
Also:
"I also have a question. I finally watched all the Harry Potter movies, and there is this boy called Nigel Wolpert. So I was wondering if maybe Nigel Iron was inspired of him, since they're both red-haired." by Kinja145
Honestly, I remember the name, but I don't remember who that is. I wonder if Paps knows... I'm not that big on the Harry Potter franchise. I really like it, but it was never my THING, y'know? Both Nigel's name and hair colour (and even hairstyle) are actually from Nigel Thornberry from The Wild Thornberrys. Come to think of it, he hasn't showed up in a while... I should remedy that...
Until the next chapter, my duckies~!
