All eyes were upon the looming shadow high in the sky, the imposing feminine form of the Vampire Lord was striking against the blood red moon set behind her. Equally venomous red eyes glared back down at the mortals cowering below. Feeble, cowardly, and too full of themselves. It's a wonder The Royal Makai hasn't finished these miserable lot off by now. Camilla sneered down at the assembled Order soldiers, Now they tread upon my lands, set fire to my home, and kill my Mamono! Once this is over I shall visit Lilith and make her pay for allowing this to happen!
Something among the Humans caught Camilla's gaze however that forced her thoughts to seize. It took her mere moments to recognize who it was she was seeing down in the dirt, to the ancient Vampire it seemed like an eternity before her undead heart began to beat once more. Down amongst the filthy Humans there was one of her servants; her maid's uniform was tattered and blood stained, her hair was a mess and had lost it's natural shine, her tail had many broken feathers, and her porcelain like skin was marred by many small cuts and bruises… However Camellia wouldn't mistake her anywhere, it was Dianna.
Twin green gems peered back up at her, full of uncertainty and worry… If she drew closer she might have tried calling out to her, but Dianna didn't know the magicks required to amplify her voice. A terrible force within Camilla howled inside her to swoop down and snatch the poor girl up into safety, but with the amount of guns and tricks up their sleeves there was the risk of putting Dianna in danger if she acted to rashly.
But… She was supposed to be down below in the lower levels with her daughter. Why was she here? There shouldn't have been a reason for the girl to go anywhere near the frontline, and yet, here she was being held captive it seemed by these ruffians! How!? How could they have taken her!?
The answer sat next to the Vampire's dear friend, the man mirrored Camilla's glare under his owl skull shaped mask. The Monster Hunter's leather gloved hand gripped Dianna's shoulder as if to hold her down, he moved in front of the maid while keeping his unflinching gaze locked with Camilla. The gesture daring Camilla to try and take the girl away from him. Molten fury surged through the Mamono Lord's veins at such a brazen act! To steal someone she care for from under her nose and to silently challenge her to take her back!
She would make him suffer.
The seams around the waist of Camilla's black lace dress began to shuffle, the dark fabrics began to come undone as two halves separated and drew themselves back from the elegant curves of the Vampire's bosom. The material of the gown that fell away seemed to harden from silk, to a membrane like structure, each partition growing bones, as well as razor sharp talons tipping each end. Two great wings stretched to either side of the demonic queen of the night. With a powerful flap of each wing gusts were sent down to buffet the gathering of Humans. A few startled cries came out of the previously gaping soldiers, the fear she was causing them filled her somewhat with sadistic glee. Soon, they would have much more reason to fear her.
Drawing mana into her vocal cord Camilla began to recite the summoning chants she had memorized from Gloria. A resonant frequency from below in the Lich's crept, with a dozen of the Necromancer's grotesque creations awaiting delivery… Camilla hadn't thought she had needed to call them anything new, but she supposed the new forms these mindless undead beasts had taken on deserved a name of their own. How fitting then if they were to be called a Grotesque?
A cruel grin began to form along the Vampire's deep red lips, she could hardly wait to see how these newly enhanced Mamono would tear the Order troops limb from bloody limb!
Bullets began to wiz by, the riflemen among the gathered soldiers attempting to disrupt the spell they could see her summoning. Their squad leaders barking orders and spurring them to reload quicker. They were hopelessly ineffective at this range, even if they were to land a hit it would hardly change their hopeless outcome. With a maniacal cackle Camilla swept her arms out to either side, at her command glowing red sigils were carved into the grass all around the Humans. Several humans screamed as arms as big as their torso reached out from within the summoning circles to snag the unfortunate men in bone crushing grips. A sense of glee began to bubble up within Camilla as she witnessed her and Gloria's efforts begin to pay off, and rather messily the success was!
The bullets stopped flying by as the greater approximate danger presented itself. Even then, the bullets couldn't seem to pierce the iron hard hides of the Grotesques' arms, nor the rest of their bodies as they dragged themselves through the glowing portals. Even if they could penetrate the monstrous former zombies would shrug the pain off with their deadened nerves and miniscule brains. Each hideously muscle bound form gradually stood up to their full height to tower over the Humans. Their pallid green flesh and rotten facial visages were about the only resemblance they had to their previous forms. Some of them had skin that was of different colours as their missing body parts were replaced and patched together. Drool leaked from their snarling faces as they eyed the masked Humans with a hunger that could barely be described.
They were not under anyone's command, for they could hardly understand anything aside from their own base instincts. Anything remotely of a higher brain function was overridden by the malicious designs of the ancient book Gloria had created them from. Powered by the natural font of mana below in the Lay Lines they were practically unstoppable. They're perfect for destroying these invaders! Camilla thought.
One of the Humans, their leader that had dared bark at her earlier made some sort of quick speech to rally his men as he strode to the front of their formation. Little good a moral boost would do against their bloody end, but the thought of the burly man trying to give some pithy remark right before his inevitable end did give Camilla a smirk.
A Grotesque, seeing such a juicy pile of meat approach couldn't resist the urge and charged forth, using it's overgrown arms much like that of a gorilla to gallop at break neck speed towards it's prey. The Vampire giggled to herself as she watched the brute face down someone twice his own height, ready to laugh as his head was ripped from his shoulders!
…Only that didn't quite happen as expected. Camilla had to blink, her long white lashes fluttering like butterflies, as they tried to blink away the wrong image she was seeing. Why was the head of the Grotesque rolling on the floor instead of the Human's?
"No! NO! That couldn't be!" Camilla gasped as the oversized Grotesque's headless body crumpled into the dirt. The Human had swung his giant hammer across the temple of the beast, tearing it's head from it's rotten shoulders. Glaring closer Camilla could notice the stitches that had lined the neck had come undone… It seems there was still some work to be done on these Mamono before they were perfected. Perhaps it was an obvious oversight, using necrotic flesh as a basis… Zombies were categorically the weakest of all Mamomo, the hope was to strengthen them up to a level beyond their limitations, to make them more combat effective. And truth be told, using any sentient Mamono for these experiments was off the table until the results with the mindless undead girls proved viable… No matter, even if they had some weak spots along the seams, the rest wouldn't be so unfortunate to have so obvious a weak spot along the neck. Had any of the other Grotesques charged first that hammer blow wouldn't have been nearly so effective.
As Camilla had predicted, the other Grotesques seemed to hold up much better in combat. Even with their leader spearheading the counter charge the average Human was woefully ill-equipped to handle nearly four hundred pounds of pure magically infused muscles. The dozen other green flesh giants tore into the halberds and melee of swords like a stampede.
Good, now that those Order vermin are distracted I'll swoop in and take Dianna away and- Camilla didn't get a chance to finish her thought, because she was suddenly face to face with a scowling blonde and blue eyed boy… At several hundred feet in the air. "…What?"
"DIE YOU FOUL MONSTER!" The young boy began stabbing at her with an infantryman's sword.
Ah, the boy had wings, of course… WHY DOES A HUMAN HAVE WINGS?!
━━━━━━━━━━・.: :. .†. .: :.・━━━━━━━━━━
Jacob had just struck one of the horrid abominations down with his hammer, knocking it's head clean off! A cheer rose amongst the assembled men, a few raising their arms in the air in fists of triumph. The tall Order Captain turned to his men, raising his hammer into the blood red sky. "Steady on men! These grotesque creatures aren't as invincible as they seem! Aim for the stitching, and they'll fall apart like the tattered sacks of shit they are!" Another cheer came from his men, as they leveled their weapons at the oncoming charge of undead monstrosities.
Milo had to content himself to merely watch the battle from the sidelines. He saw the valiant efforts of the platoon, tightly pushed shoulder to shoulder, pushing back against the tidal wave of rotten flesh. Periodic ear splitting bangs marking the few riflemen that could get a clear shot past the wall of pikes and halberds. It irked him greatly that he couldn't take part at the moment, not while his injuries hadn't healed yet. His bones had been set and mended partially by the grumbling healer, yet there was still more internal bruising and damage that had yet to be treated. He could stand and act tough, but that was all bluster, a solid breeze might have taken him out… Which made his words to the Mamono seem rather hallow and foolish now that he thought about it, how was he supposed to protect her from an Ancient Vampire Lord and her army of hulking monstrosities when he was as brittle as a dry leaf? Once more Milo was thankful for the mask on his face hiding the embarrassment that coloured his cheeks.
It was lucky for the Hunter's pride then that Dianna chose not to remind him of the fact that she could still read his surface level emotions, mask or no mask. Though, to be frank she still appreciated the effort to seem strong and protective in order to reassure her wavering emotions. Even if it wasn't necessary, the gesture made her feel a tad more safe amongst the chaos that surrounded them.
Not content to sit idly while there was work to do Dianna set to fixing the only thing she could; the other Mamono that was also captured. After that Captain had defeated Bielka he hadn't made any moves to finish the beaten Hellhound off, much like how he had first treated Dianna. It still greatly confused and unnerved the maid that an Order officer, let alone a friend of the brutal and mysterious Hunter would have been so… Kind to them. It was a question would have risked asking Milo, but he seemed more focused on the unsightly rapid Mamono outside the line of soldiers.
Focusing her attention back on the injury on the naked black furred Mamono Dianna had thought the saying "Tough as a Hellhound" was mostly just an exaggeration, though now as she saw the angry purple bruise along her collarbone… She quite believed it. Sitting next to Bielka the girl began inspecting the wound, she tried to grimace as little as possible, but this was far beyond the scrapes and sprains she normally dealt with. "H-hey Bielka… How's the arm feel?"
The Hellhound, watching the younger girl eye her with worry merely let out a gruff laugh. "A little sore, a little broken, but I'm fine. That punk though, with the huge ass hammer, has got quite the swing! Once this all done and over I'm gonna make sure to pay him back for this! See how he likes being pummeled instead! Ha!"
Dianna nervously chuckled along with, she didn't see why Bielka would be laughing it off as if it were a backyard scrap between children. "Well… I'm not sure how I'm supposed to help you get back to… That… But, I think I read in a book in the library that you should have that arm in a sling at least. Supposed to help with your bones setting right."
Seeing as none of the soldiers would be willing to lend her any medical supplies the Kikimora had to make do with what she had available. With a remorseful glance down at her maid's uniform and the long skirt she knew what she had to do. Even if had been practically ruined with her fight with Herma and by crawling though the dirt it was still something that Lady Camilla had given her. It was also something that when she had worn it helped connect Dianna to her mother who had also worn the same uniform… With a painful rip the black cotton skirt was shortened to just above her knees.
Wiping away a tear Dianna set about fixing the Hellhound's arm in place. Bielka, seeing the sacrifice, felt a bit awkward as the other girl started folding the fabric into a sling, her ears flattened and a lot of the shine gone from her eyes. Normally she wasn't so good with the finer stuff, like emotions, but even she knew she had to do something to help cheer Dianna up somehow.
"Soooo… Probably not the best time, but I gotta ask: Is he yours?" Dianna looked up from wrapping the loose strip of torn fabric over the Hellhound's broken shoulder to see Bielka flicking her eyes between herself and the Hunter, who was busy plucking his shotgun from his holster and checking it's ammo.
"Yes… I would say it is."
"'Yes', it's a bad time? Or 'Yes', he's your man?"
"B-both?" Dianna could hardly believe how relaxed and blasé the Hellhound was to the death and butchery going on around them, not to mention her own painfully broken limb. Now was hardly the time to be poking around other people's… Well personal matters. "Why? What does that have to do with anything?"
The Hellhound shrugged her uninjured shoulder noncommittally. "Ah no real reason, just felt like asking. Was bugging me for awhile since we first met back up on the stairs is all, and if we're about to be brutally torn limb from limb by those out of control maniacs then I'd just wanna die finding out the answer. Well, good on you for not dying a virgin at least."
The blush that rose up from Dianna's neck to her forehead matched the rest of her red hair, she almost looked like a tomato with fuzzy dog ears. A bout of uncontrollable babbling erupted from the mortified Kikimora, but Bielka could only understand a few bits, such as "V-V-V-VIRGIN!" "W-WELL I NEVER!" and "HOW L-LEWD!" Damn, Bielka was starting to realize why Herma was bullying this poor girl so much. Her reactions were top notch.
Speaking of, there hadn't been hide nor tentacle seen of the Gazer since Bielka had escaped with the Prince… She was probably fine. Probably.
Milo turned back to check on the two Mamono still alive and not currently trying to rape, and or, murder everyone present. Why they hadn't done so while everyone had their backs turned still somewhat confused him, but he'd not look a gift horse in the mouth too much, at least while there were a dozen razor filled maws trying to also eat him and everyone else alive. "What are you two doing back there? We hardly need any of you lot goofing off and distracting anyone! Good men are dying out there!"
The injured Hellhound made a show of trying to put her hands in the air, but her broken shoulder quickly dissuaded her from the mock surrender. "Ouch fuck! Daughter of a Cu Sith! That still stings!" Through grit teeth she hissed and Dianna moved to gently lower her down on the ground once more.
"…Wait," a look of slight puzzlement crossed the Kikimora's features, "You said two of us? Where did the Prince go?"
━━━━━━━━━━・.: :. .†. .: :.・━━━━━━━━━━
The ringing between his ears first started when the smooth voice of the monster had called out to them from the shadows. At first Roderick had thought it some spell cast upon the Goddess fearing men of the Order to confused and trick them, much like how her shadows had struck from the unseen, but as the boy had looked around it didn't seem as if anyone else was effected by the painful noise as he was. Least of all it seemed to the Hunter among the men, who chose to show kindness and fraternize with one of the Mamono. Roderick had never trusted the Hunters and their splinter organization, they straddled the line between mere Adventures and agents of the enemy; utilizing weapons and tricks to hunt their prey… No self respecting Man of the Order would use such underhanded tricks nor stalk in the shadows like the monsters they hunt. If it weren't for that damned Hellhound holding him back…
Then, it had gotten worse when the clouds had parted to reveal the vile, seductive and inhuman form of the Master of all Mamono within Kharstien. Lady Camilla herself, appearing in front of the moon, like some evil specter here to reap the souls of the living.
The ringing soon changed, sounding much more like chanting then… No, not chanting, hymns.
Roderick Ainsworthy, blessed by the Chief Goddess herself to be her instrument, heard his calling. His orders, Her divine will! Every once of his being and soul shrieked out at the wrongness of the being in front of him! He recalled his vision, of meeting the Chief Goddess herself, and how she had spoken to him about such a monster. That she was a powerful ancient Vampire, and that the world would be made all the more whole with her wretchedness removed from it. She had given him his wings and sense of purpose, all to see this blight on Humanity wiped from the face of the Earth!
It was, after all this she-devil that had killed his brother!
The wings that now sprouted from his shoulder blades began to glow brighter, the dirt and damage that had been previously done to them by the Hellhound vanishing as Holy essence began to thrum within Roderick's body. With power he could never once dreamed of Roderick coiled his legs and sprung into the air. His wings instinctively began to flap, spurring his accent as he rocketed towards his intended target. With a bit of mana being unconsciously used, a flash of light along his hand that turned into solid matter, and a moment later a glistening silver sword was summoned into his hand.
Seeing the form of his brother's murderer, steadily increase in size as he rapidly approached from below, set his hatred on fire with renewed fury! She had revealed even more of her inhuman features, as two leathery bat wings unraveled from her body to either side of her chest, revealing the ghostly pale skin beneath. She had begun to work some heretical spell, summoning forth her minions to attack the men below.
The Vampire didn't see Roderick's accent, content to watch the butchery below. The Prince grimaced as the fighting began to take place, where good and pious men died horribly to the sworn enemy. Goddess curse those who fight against Humanity! Let their blood not be shed in vain!
Faster! Roderick urged his shining wings, Faster still! I must fulfill my duty and smite this evil bitch!
Like a Zipangu fireworks the boy shot into the night sky, faster than a bullet. With a great last thrust downwards of his angelic wings Roderick Ainsworthy had his prize within his reach. A look of utter disbelief flashed upon the wicked Vampire's admittedly pretty features; wine red eyes encased within platinum eyelashes grew twice fold, her blood red lips curled open to gape at the sight of her holy judgement, and as he approached her voluptuous body bounced slightly as she flinched backwards on instinct to the sudden danger before her.
"…What?" Camilla had asked, more as a statement of absurdity in seeing a Human fly than to expect an answer.
However, Roderick obliged her, in response he shouted from the core of his being at her. From the pain of losing his only brother, to death of the men and women she was responsible for, even his own suffering and pain during the battle, he brought forth his rage in his strike. "DIE YOU FOUL MONSTER!"
━━━━━━━━━━・.: :. .†. .: :.・━━━━━━━━━━