Chapter 18
Akiko was woken up by Alucard saying, "You need to wake up, Akiko. Master needs you for a plan." Akiko woke up and shook herself before heading out, "What happened?" Alucard explained, "Your brother possessed the Prime Minister and tried to distract us from dealing with the Yokai-gumi by sending us on a wild goose chase. Master saw through it, and it made him angry, especially your sister if what Seras told me is true. They tried to threaten that they would go on a rampage, but Master warned them that we would torture our prisoners to death if they did so. They hung up after that, and Master is certain that they're so riled up that they will attempt an attack tonight."
Akiko nodded, "Sakki-nee-san was always short-tempered. However, Aki-nii-san is more collected. He's a planner, if he does go on the offensive then he'll have a plan in mind." Alucard looked at her and smiled, "That's what she's counting on."
They reached Sir Integra's office and Alucard opened the door for Akiko, Sir Integra was already drawing up a plan with one of her captains and Seras. She saw Akiko and turned to the captain, "You have your orders soldier." "Sir!" the captain saluted and left the room with the plan, from what Akiko saw it was a blueprint of the mansion with designs of weak points as well as areas they planned to place explosives and other traps. "Miss Itto, I need to know now, is there a way to force yokai to leave a nation? Some spell, charm, ritual, prayer, anything?" Sir Integra asked her.
Akiko shook her head, "Not to force them out of an entire country. You can exorcise them from a temple, a person, a home, but not the land. Yokai are not demons as people of the West understand the term. They are not from Hell, or another Plane or Dimension, or whatever you want to say. They come from the land; they are a part of the land. We are as natural as any stream or tree or human being. The fact that so many of them left our native soil is proof of how desperate they are. And even then, wards can fade over time or if the original caster dies, or their spiritual power weakens through bad health or loss of faith. You could attach the ward to an ancient tree to ensure longevity, but if anything happens to the tree…"
Sir Integra sighed, "So our only options are to kill them or to scare them so badly that they never return." Akiko grew pale at this and said, "No, please, don't kill them. Yokai are not evil, not all of them. A ward, like I suggested, could work. It's not permanent, but nothing is permanent. At the very least, it could keep them out for your lifetime, and the generation that follows." Sir Integra took a drag of her cigar and blew smoke out through her nose. "Does the ward have to be connected to nature?" Sir Integra asked.
Akiko blinked at this, "Uh…ano…I mean…I've never heard any different. Every magic I know is based on nature, no matter if it's wielded by humans or yokai." Sir Integra smirked, "What if it was something that was supernatural? Like a vampire?" Akiko swallowed and tried to put the implications through her head. She couldn't imagine what such a thing could do, or if it was even possible. And she looked at Alucard, who was rubbing his chin with an intrigued smile on his face, and at Seras, who was staring at her curiously. "I honestly can't imagine the results, or if it would work at all to be honest," Akiko answered. Integra said, "There's only one way to find out."
Later that Night
Alucard stood in the front of the Mansion. He could smell the mines laid all around him, he wasn't sure if the yokai would avoid them or not. For those that could fly, there was Seras on the roof of the Mansion, her Harkonnen Cannons ready. He looked at the waxing moon above him and sensed as Akiko came over to him. "Are the preparations ready?" he asked her. Akiko nodded, "They are, for when the battle is over. But…this feels so wrong, to have to fight my family in a kill or be killed situation." Alucard grunted, "Such is life in all its cruelty. Every human nation has faced this circumstance where brother fought against brother at some point in its history. I've lived long enough to learn this lesson well." Akiko looked and asked him, "What would it take to ask you to spare them?" The No-Life King took off his glasses at this, "You're willing to give anything, even though they hated you and banished you from your home?"
"They're still family, and I don't want to kill them if I can avoid it," Akiko insisted. Alucard chuckled, "Such naivete and innocence, it's refreshing. You would truly do whatever I asked, even if I were to take your body and use it in any way that I see fit?" Akiko swallowed, "Yes. And I trust you, you aren't as evil as you seem to be." Alucard just chuckled, "I'm hardly an angel, my dear. I may never have forced a woman or child, but I still have much blood on my soul. Very well, if you give me your blood whenever I ask, I will spare your siblings' lives, if I can. I will not sacrifice others for them, however. My Master will not allow her men to die needlessly."
Akiko nodded at this, and then stood up on her tiptoes to give the vampire a kiss. Their lips locked, and Alucard could practically taste the supernatural life within her. It was so tempting for him to just give her lips or tongue a small nip and get a taste of her sweet virgin blood. "OI! Lovebirds! Look alive!" Seras yelled out from above them. Alucard and Akiko separated, and Alucard saw blurs flying through the air, before he realized that they looked like weasels, weasels with scythes for paws! "Get to your position!" Alucard told Akiko as he drew his guns and opened fire.
The creatures were fast, but Alucard's supernatural reflexes were even faster, and the weasel creatures were soon reduced to bloody chunks. A murder of three-eyed crows started flying over the Mansion, and Alucard and Seras both opened fire at them. Master, they're distracting us, these are no illusions, they know that Seras and I are your main vanguard. Sir Integra Hellsing responded telepathically, Keep it up Alucard, until the crows disperse. The mines and our snipers should be able to buy time for you to fall back to the second battlement. The vampires both responded, Understood, Master!
After five minutes of nonstop shooting, the crows dispersed, their blood and body parts rained from the sky as Alucard and Seras retreated into the Mansion. He looked back and saw creatures of countless shapes being blown to offal by the mines surrounding the Mansion while Hellsing's snipers held their fire. Alucard headed inside as did Seras. After a few minutes the sound of mines exploding and sniper rifles going off along with what he assumed were the screams of dying yokai, it sounded like a mix between human and animal agony. It reminded him of centuries past and his smile showed his nostalgia.
We're inside Master. Is Akiko ready to do her part? Seras asked telepathically. I'm ready, the kitsune replied as her mind joined with Alucard and Seras'. Alucard soon saw an illusion of demons attacking the castle, demons with ox and dragon heads wielding metal clubs and spears, plowing through the mines without injury. The soldiers were opening fire immediately, only for their bullets to have no impact on these demons either! It's an illusion, Alucard, Seras. We need to break it before the soldiers use up all their ammunition! Akiko telepathically communicated. I have an idea for that, Alucard stated as he formed the image he wished to make in his head.
To the soldiers of Hellsing, it seemed as if Alucard had transformed into his original form of Vlad Dracula, Voivode of Wallachia, and then as he placed his hands on the ground, shadow and hellfire consumed the earth around him, as an army of undead knights, janissaries, and peasants emerged as if summoned from the deepest pits of Hell! This army of the undead halted the army of demons, and the soldiers of Hellsing could only watch in terrified awe at this battle that seemed more like something from their worst nightmares than real life!
Undead knights stabbed and slashed and hacked away at the demons with sword and spear and lance and axe, while unnatural peasants did the same with their bare hands and nails and teeth, only to be stabbed and gored and smashed to meat and carrion! Many of Hellsing's soldiers could only vomit or scream in horror. Others voided their bowels from the same emotion combined with shock. The entire spectacle seemed to drag on for hours with neither diabolical army willing to give ground. After thirty minutes that felt more like thirty hours, the demons at last disappeared, the power keeping them in existence exhausted. Alucard's own army disappeared like mist, and he fell to his knees in exhaustion of having to create such a powerful illusion.
"Are you alright, Seras, Akiko?" he asked out loud and telepathically. Seras answered first, Barely hanging on. Keeping an army like that in order was an ordeal. If you didn't provide the main image, we could never have managed such chaos. Akiko was slower to respond, but she finally said, I'll live. I think it's time for a counterattack, while they're still weak from all that, she said. Alucard joined their minds with Sir Integra's, and she ordered, "Show them no mercy, death or unconditional surrender!" Alucard stood up and told Seras, It's time to go!
Alucard and Seras immediately transformed into swarms of bats and flew out of the Hellsing Mansion. They joined and swarmed over the retreating yokai, outright tearing apart the smaller ones and gravely injuring the stronger ones as their enemies failed to protect themselves. They flew past the yokai and the swarms of bats coalesced into Seras and Alucard, their weapons drawn and firing away at the creatures. The yokai tried to turn back, only for the soldiers of Hellsing to charge at them, firing a storm of bullets at their foes.
None of the creatures surrendered, all of them tried to fight their way through, only to be slaughtered by guns and mines. By the time the smoke and blood cleared, all of the yokai were dead, along with two dozen soldiers. Alucard surveyed the carnage he had helped wreak, smelling for anything familiar, so he could tell Akiko for certain if her family was among the dead. He looked and sniffed the air and found no sign of them. "It seems that Akiko's siblings have abandoned their army. I see no sign of them here," Alucard said. Seras looked herself, "You think they ran away, and sacrificed their followers to cover their escape?"
"I don't know," Alucard said…then his thoughts turned to Akiko. The chaos of the battle, the struggle of the armies both real and illusory, the sheer exhaustion that even he could feel from such mental exertions, all of it didn't make sense. And yet, for anyone to sacrifice their entire army just to give themselves a chance to escape…
They all heard the sound of screams and gunfire coming from the Mansion, and instantly Seras and Alucard ran back to it. The battle wasn't over yet.