What delayed this chapter was that I like 'Third Person Limited' perspective, getting inside a character's head. That creates a problem when you need to write the dialogue of other characters and your POV character doesn't care what they have to say, they think those people need to shut up and die. I've had several chapters after this one drafted for awhile, but I couldn't post them until this chapter was posted, and to do that I needed the Fifth Elder and Kentas' dialogue.
Ugh, getting that written was like pulling teeth.
Having fun with worldbuilding/backstory. Also how people's information is skewed by their sources: Gejutel is oblivious as heck, and he was the only source Frankenstein had on quite a lot of stuff, since Raizel can't reveal information he only has because he's the Noblesse. Trying to figure out what happened tens of thousands of years ago based on the imperfect memory of someone with zero political/sociological understanding whatsoever is going to result in anyone being off-base.
How the Toba Catastrophe really went down will be important whenever the webtoon covers enough that I have Tradio and Maduke details to work in. The werewolves are still pissed, and it ties into why they as a culture refuse to see humans as people.
Know how the earth shakes despite a power-dampening castle when Raskreia gets mad? This was Nightmare Fuel Unleaded, not anger, but under the circumstances, Suddenly, Supervolcano was still getting off lightly.
That aura!
Roctis sat there frozen, focused on what he sensed from deeper within the complex.
It couldn't, it couldn't be Cadis Etrama di Raizel!
And if his power was sealed well enough for him to make it to this island without Roctis sensing him, then he would only have released those seals to, to… "Ignes!" he screamed, and surged forward, heedless of the walls and floors between him and his daughter's lab.
Even as he moved, he felt that aura heading back up, and turned to follow. Was his daughter already fleeing instead of trying to fight the Noblesse? That would let him buy her more time without having to stop to tell her to run.
When he reached the surface, the camouflage of a peaceful island that concealed the horrors beneath, the aura vanished.
It was only when he began to turn, scanning the trees, that he realized how familiar they were.
For all he tried to tell himself he'd abandoned the nobles, he'd still chosen an island, with plants and a climate not very different from Lukedonia's. The pine forests that wouldn't have thrived so well at that latitude if the Lord's Authority did not override mere nature.
Such as tropical climates. The bond between parent and child.
But Roctis Kravei had abandoned all right to speak of right and wrong, hadn't he?
He would have thought that perhaps he had merely 'dreamed' of the Noblesse's presence. Perhaps he had changed himself so much, abandoned his honor and nature as a noble enough to become capable of falling asleep under so much strain and fear, except behind him and to the right – a position that would have been exactly behind him when he came up, before he began to turn – that aura flared into existence.
Close to what he remembered, but far too… was Cadis Etrama di Raizel really that weak, after what they did to him?
Shame tightened in his chest, but it meant his daughter had a chance to live.
"Standing there, with your back to the enemy? It's like you're just begging for someone to put you out of your misery. The way Zarga Siriana was."
Roctis' eyes widened as he turned.
"Taunting a child with the fact he took her family from her. His subconscious hoped her rage and will to survive would call out the full power of the Loyard soul weapon – when he'd added her parent's soul to that weapon. If he wanted to go to eternal sleep so much, he should have done it himself. So, I'm offering you the opportunity," said the Noblesse's contractor.
To mock him, surely. Roctis couldn't send himself to eternal sleep. Not now. Regaining his honor wouldn't be that easy.
"Frankenstein?" Not Cadis Etrama di Raizel. There was still a chance Ignes was alive. "We thought you were dead!"
Frankenstein might have been able to hide from the Union in the past, but that was before he made a contract with the Noblesse. They should have been able to sense the fragment of the Noblesse's soul within him… but Frankenstein had trained with Ragar Kertia, and Ragar said that Frankenstein was helpful in refining the family's stealth techniques. Their ability to hide from noble perceptions and attack quickly enough their opponent couldn't sense them in time to block. The Kertia and Landegre might have seemed like opposites, but both their family styles hinged on keeping the enemy from avoiding or blocking their attacks, the Kertia with stealth and confusion and the Landegre with enough raw force to push through a block and mind control to keep the opponent from dodging.
Of course the human hadn't been helping Ragar study how to hide a noble's aura for Ragar's benefit alone!
"Thinking? I doubt that," the human said, black-purple flowing out from his palms, encasing his hands and forearms in cursed darkness.
"Your weapon still consumes you so easily without his help." Did that mean the Noblesse was here, ready to spend his life to save this human a second time?
"My weapon isn't even summoned at the moment," Frankenstein said, raising one of those hands to examine the claws. "This is what hosting that crazy thing does to my aura. Dark Spear is normally in such a terrible mood, you see. It's understandable. I've had to keep them locked up, and it's been so long and they haven't had their revenge. Today they got to meet someone they haven't seen in such a long time." The human threw him the kind of sharp grin he'd given Urokai as he feigned weakness and invited Urokai to kill him in order to take advantage of their 'spar' to drive that spear into the noble's brain.
The young noble.
Ignes… "Impossible." She couldn't be dead, he would have felt her soul join Cetus! "Where is my daughter?"
"Well, she wanted a soul weapon so much, so I gave her one. Or, you might say… I gave her to one."
Cadis Etrama di Raizel would never smile like that. Not even, especially not, to see justice done. He was too kind a soul.
That smile was too cruel, just like it would be too cruel for Ignes to die before he had even noticed there was a battle underway! It had to be a lie. Provoking him, Ragar and Gejutel said that was his tactic. Roctis had to keep it together, or he would die and be unable to protect Ignes. "What have you done to my daughter?"
"Oh, you want to know exactly what happened to her?" Frankenstein chuckled, and threw his head back and laughed. "Yes… Why not?" he wondered, eyes glowing a manic blue. "Answer my call," he said, reaching up to the heavens.
Blue? This wasn't the power Roctis had sensed from him before. It wasn't even Cadis Etrama di Raizel's power. How much had Frankenstein enhanced himself, with centuries to work with while his master slumbered? How strong had he become, to kill the ones who took away that which was as precious to him as Ignes was to Roctis?
Had he abandoned humanity as Roctis had the nobles?
"It seems that Ignes goes through her captives so quickly that there are only a handful of people in this base, none of them both innocent and… unprocessed. You've gone and challenged us in an area without any civilians." The Bonded of the True Noblesse, the one who had experimented on noble criminals and joined his soul with their executioner tut-tutted at Roctis Kravei, as though he, not Ignes, was the misbehaving child.
The angle of his arm tilted, no longer reaching up to provide a target but reaching towards Roctis as if he was offering something. "Dark Spear."
Agony piercing through his gut, that was more what he'd expected.
"Have fun," Frankenstein said cheerfully, and turned to walk away, dusting the residual darkness from his arms as a thundercloud erupted behind him, black-purple lighting spiraling around Roctis Kravei. And growing. And growing.
"Now, to loot the base," he said, rubbing his hands together, and didn't notice that his laugh of delight was more of a giggle.
"Frankenstein," came his Master's patient tone because really, again?
Frankenstein waved off his concern, sky-blue aura stripping away the ground covering to reveal a tunnel. A flick of the wrist tore the roof off. "And roll for encounters," he said, feeling the blast of pressure on his back as a blood-red leviathan warred with a legion of vengeful spirits, and grinning with the sheer joy of knowing that justice was being done and nothing hurt… "I do hope the Ninth Elder is in." From the additional intelligence Tao was using Crombel and Yuri's codes to dig up from the Union's systems he should be, but he wasn't going to count his Elders before they croaked, he thought, and this time did vaguely realize he was giggling and couldn't bring himself to care even with an audience.
"Frankenstein!"
He staggered and finally realized. "Yes, thank you Master." Slamming the link shut, he winced, absently waving off any possible assistance. "Adjust the ratios of the body's natural painkillers back to normal and then loot the base." For goodness' sake, he'd been high as a kite. What an embarrassing oversight. It wasn't as though he was allowed to forget the adjustments he needed to think despite Dark Spear's agony, and he should have known what would happen the instant that pain was no longer there to kill.
Dropping down into the base, he restrained the urge to muse aloud, 'If I was a computer room, where would I be…' or start humming, even if he was mostly certain he'd cleaned up the neurochemical aftereffects and it was just a beautiful day.
Ignes and Roctis Kravei were in forced eternal nightmare… or would be. Eventually. Ignes' victims had tried to draw out her punishment and now that of the noble who covered for her, but with so many selves to restrain, it wasn't really Dark Spear's fault it had no self-restraint. In any case, the Kravei wouldn't be harming the innocent ever again, so Master would not be forced to spend himself to sentence them.
He wanted to learn about the enhancement technology Roctis' faction possessed, but even that was a secondary priority. He'd done what he came here to do, kept his promises to Dark Spear, and everything else was just icing on the cake.
Hmm, icing recipes. Master had no idea which date the Previous Lord had selected as Master's birthday, but if the Previous Lord could choose a birthday for him, then Frankenstein certainly had the right…
He couldn't resist a casual, "Oh, what have we here?"
"One of the intruders?" the white-robed old man flanked by two organic-looking robots – or more likely, robotic-looking organics – asked. He gave a grandfatherly, approving laugh. "How good of the Second or Third to have the data deliver itself..."
"Oh no," Frankenstein said, deadpan. "A Union Elder. And me without my soul weapon." Tsk tsk. How careless of him. "Whatever shall I do?" he wondered, and let his eyes glow blue. No, even the obvious hint didn't make the Ninth Elder realize what was going on. They really did keep their human slaves so ignorant, even the scientists! Disgusting, but he shouldn't complain when it made it easier to kill the bastards.
"A soul weapon? You must be a clan leader. Kertia, leaving your power behind to sneak into our base?"
Frankenstein hid a laugh behind his hand, knowing it wasn't as scary as he usually preferred, because wow. They really knew nothing, did they?
The Ninth Elder thought the Kertia clan leader had come, hmm? Even a stopped clock…
"I'll have to thank you for coming here. Now I'll be able to test out these anti-clan leader weapons." The elder waved one forward.
One, really? Only one?
Hilarious. This was why he hadn't been able to resist going along with it when Yuri kidnapped him, because really? Just… really? Wow.
"Your corpse will be of great use to the Union."
He laughed, making sure the sound came from the illusion. "You don't even know that much? No, of course you don't."
The man's eyes narrowed, looking at where he thought Frankenstein was standing as Frankenstein let his aura spread. Well, finally. "Nobles don't use energy that way… Werewolf?"
Obviously not. Although in fairness, for all Frankenstein knew the Union was making werewolves psychic now. It wasn't as though Crombel knew anything useful about high-level abilities when they hadn't even told him the difference between nobles and vampires.
"No… Human?" Old-looking eyes widened and this incompetent who couldn't even figure out one of the twenty different ways to repair or ward off the genetic damage called aging actually grinned at Frankenstein. For goodness sake, did the Union just not care how much brain damage their mindwipe chemicals did? "What a wonderful experimental subject."
Frankenstein blinked. Really. And he was trying not to laugh too much, in case he lost control and broadcast to Master again. Or embarrassed himself in front of the one member of the audience who was going to survive beyond the next five minutes. Also, he was standing right beside the Ninth Elder and didn't want to give away his position until he was done mind-controlling the second anti-clan leader weapon. But who could blame him? This was too funny not to share. "You, experiment on me? That is the most hilarious thing I have ever heard."
Especially since it seemed Roctis and Ignes Kravei hadn't allowed their pet Elder to enhance his mental defenses. Of course not, when that type of experiment would have given him some defense against them controlling him.
Or his victims.
Holding on to the Ninth Elder by the one spider leg (spider legs!) he hadn't snapped off, Frankenstein dragged him across the paneled floor until he reached the hole, and leaped up through it. He shaded his eyes, judging the torrential darkness of Dark Spear's current manifestation and feigning ignorance of the two life signs approaching behind him – above-ground, not in the shielded complex.
Life signs, but no psychic signatures.
So they had timed it perfectly. None of the Union officials the Kertia managed as sources had access to the deliberations of the Elders – it was too dangerous – but with Crombel dead, and knowing that the Noblesse had returned, the elders had been investigating their scientists, looking for anyone who could replace Crombel.
Ignes Kravei was the Ninth Elder's apprentice – or more likely the other way around – and should have become the Tenth Elder, if not the Ninth. She was an obvious choice not just if the Union wanted a second scientist (not that the Ninth Elder had been any kind of scientist), but to restore their stock of Elders. She knew the workings of the Union and was raised to rule… not that the Union cared about having competent administrators among its Elders.
According to Crombel's memories, the only reason she hadn't made Elder when she and the Ninth Elder revealed their creation of the Eighth Elder was that Roctis had vetoed the motion.
Then one of the disposable soldiers the Union viewed as little better than furniture was allowed to overhear the Fifth Elder's servant complaining about 'Lunark' being sent to go behind Roctis' back to offer the position to Ignes like she was some errand girl. A werewolf having to go to a noble in supplication? That kind of scutwork was what humans were for.
That was weeks ago, so Frankenstein had honestly thought he'd missed the window. Was the Fifth Elder here to make the request a second time, or had the werewolves dragged their heels for the sake of their dignity?
At this point, it didn't matter. What did matter was that he had two more targets to eliminate.
He'd forgotten what it was like to not have Dark Spear attacking and trying to overwhelm his senses, back in the old days when he didn't have a soul weapon and needed to know what was coming and from where in time to ensure the odds were rigged in his favor. Everything was so clear. It was pleasantly nostalgic to get to dust off the techniques he'd used before Dark Spear not only imposed a time limit on his battles but kept distracting him, with pain and words, enough to limit his ability to strategize. Perfectionist that he was, he loathed having to gamble that he could provoke an opponent into making a big enough mistake for him to kill them before Frankenstein… forget before Dark Spear devoured him, before he had to focus so much of his attention on fighting off Dark Spear that he might miss the crucial opening!
He was fortunate his fights with Ragar and Gejutel let him develop new techniques that would hopefully let him survive using Dark Spear, but he didn't have to like being so damn sloppy. It annoyed him: fortunately, if he was using those techniques, there was obviously someone there to take it out on. Not today, however.
If ever there was a time to win on planning and precision instead of raw power this was it, when he was standing on top of a Union base he still needed to search for valuable information. If only buildings weren't so fragile.
"Hello," he said pleasantly as he turned, casually tossing the whimpering and babbling for mercy Ninth Elder behind him into the hungry abyss. "If it isn't the Fifth Elder. And another Union-aligned werewolf."
"Frankenstein."
Oh? No reaction to the eternal damnation of her fellow Elder? Well, the Ninth Elder was only a human, and in all fairness she might not have recognized him, what with all the blood. Nor had Frankenstein given her enough time to get a good look. Frankenstein hadn't wanted to risk denying Dark Spear such a treat, the heir of the kind of scum who turned them into this, just to tease a werewolf. It wouldn't have been possible for her to recover her fellow Elder (if she had any fellow feeling for him at all) even if she'd charged into Dark Spear right away. Not when the Kravei had made sure that their servant's mind was so easy to control for their own benefit. Frankenstein doubted it would take Dark Spear five seconds to consume the Ninth Elder's soul. Not after Frankenstein softened him up by destroying his faith in that self, and with it his will to defend it.
"Just when I think this day can't get any better, a third Union Elder is dropped into our laps." He smiled pleasantly. "After you, only three more to go. Of course, there's still the three remaining traitor nobles, and of course the other Union-aligned werewolves like this scum you've brought with you, but I think we've made some good progress today, don't you?"
A muffled explosion came from the tunnels beneath him. "Excuse me," he said, "I have a base to loot."
"You think we're just going to let you steal Union data?" the male – Kentas – asked.
"I don't expect you to let me do anything. I expect you to either run away with your tails between your legs, or do the entire planet a favor and die. I don't have a preference," he lied. "What Roctis has been up to is my Master's business, so I'd rather not waste my time putting you two to sleep. But what I really don't have time for is waiting for you two to make up your minds."
Calculation flashed behind the Fifth Elder's eyes, but she mainly seemed nonplussed.
"Oh, you were expecting a berserker eager to give you the fight you want? That would be Dark Spear. You're free to go fence with the sea of them, if you wish. I'm sure they'll be happy to play with you." Quite deliberately, he turned his back on them.
The petty, irritated roar as she charged after him had a different tone once she smacked into the shield that suddenly appeared in front of her. As she twisted to swipe at it, the other anti-clan leader weapon's beam pierced through the ground beneath her.
A moment later he had them burst through the ground. Yes, ambushing from cover was a better tactic, but he couldn't have her taking random swipes at the ground trying to play whack-a-mole with the poor things. She'd destroy the base and with it his valuable intel on what at least one Union faction had been working on all this time. The one most likely to fear that his Master's sleep wasn't eternal and research how to counter a Noblesse. Dr. Aris' focus on using up human lifeforce, when Dr. Aris was a servant of the Twelfth Elder, who served Roctis, was evidence they were examining the Noblesse's powers with an eye to replicate as well as counter.
The Fifth Elder jumped back, looking at the two intruders into 'her' fight. As though this was some kind of game. As though someone who just stood back and enjoyed the destruction of much of downtown could claim to follow any kind of warrior's code. Whining about a fair fight when all she cared about was having fun while humans died, because while the fight raged on the KSA couldn't let paramedics and rescue teams in to search the rubble?
He glared at her disgustedly, then turned to look at the poor things. "They've already avenged themselves on one of their creators, but I think they deserve to take more revenge on one of the people who did this to them before their bodies fall apart."
"So the Ninth Elder was concealing experiments from the Union."
He laughed. "Of course that's what you care about, not how you Union scum kidnapped humans in job lots and tortured them into machines to serve you."
"The Ninth Elder did that? Humans are disgusting creatures."
Frankenstein laughed. "Oh," he said, voice dripping with contempt. "You think this has nothing to do with you."
"Of course it doesn't: the Elders operate independently. I'm not even modified, so no, I don't have anything to do with the disgusting things humans do for power."
"The Ninth Elder was quite literally a pawn of the Union - Dark Spear devoured him so easily because his soul was weak, and who do you think weakened it? You are a Union Elder with a voice and a vote. Unlike most of the humans you blame for their own violation, you chose to join the Union. The Union's crimes are your crimes. Their blood is on your claws. If you want to claim you aren't benefitting from the Union's crimes, then why are the werewolves in the Union? You have to be getting something out of it."
"I don't need-"
"Of course you're not enhanced – you're the werewolf that meets most often with the rest of the Union, your Lord doesn't want to reveal what he's begun to turn your species into. He doesn't want to put his cards on the table before he can stab Tradio in the back. How you've remained unenhanced is not virtue: it's treachery."
"How dare you accuse the Lord of something like that!" Kentas demanded, and the Fifth Elder raised her hand.
"Stay out of this, this is my fight."
Frankenstein chuckled. "Oh, stop pretending you're an honorable warrior when you have killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people. When you have violated the souls of thousands of cubs. If you don't care about human and noble suffering then consider this: You've supported an organization that ripped the heart out of the chest of a member of your family, a fellow werewolf,and stuck it inside an innocent person – and why? No reason, the Elder your Union manufactured wasn't even expecting anything to come of killing a werewolf every bit as casually as he would kill a human!"
Her eyes widened. "You lie!"
"I could show you the cub Master and I rescued and protected from your people, since you have persisted in trying to murder him, the way you ripped out the heart that now lies within his chest… But I know better than to let Union scum like you anywhere near innocent children." He bared his teeth at her, a smile that would have sent Dark Spear crackling around him if they weren't happily occupied a few hundred meters away. "Why so shocked? You knew that the Union was killing people and had no regard for life. You're one of the ones who voted to keep it that way. Why are you surprised that the werewolves are reaping what you sowed?"
"Who? Who did it? No, even the Ninth Elder wouldn't dare."
"Wouldn't dare what? Hurt a werewolf? Why would they balk at doing to you what you did to them? Future generations of werewolves will shudder at your name and ask themselves how a werewolf like them could possibly have become a monster like you. Well. They will if there are any future generations of werewolves, because your crimes have given the two other species on this planet every reason to loathe you for what you have done to our children for tens of thousands of years." The unexpurgated version of werewolf history he'd gotten out of Gejutel… no wonder the Landegre fighting style was designed to kill werewolves. "Taking over our cities. Killing any who defied you. Breeding us like animals. We begged you to stop, the nobles told you to stop, your own Lord Muzaka ordered you to stop, and you refused to act like decent people instead of monsters."
It was a problem. Eventually all of this was going to be revealed to the world, and the werewolves always lost whenever they came in conflict with the nobles for good reasons. Those reasons would also apply to a conflict between werewolves and an enhanced humanity. They just wouldn't have the numbers or discipline to win. And if they did have the numbers to prolong the conflict and kill more humans in the process, then how they got those numbers and whatever they did to make the crossbreeds obedient would just strengthen the desire for humanity to wipe the werewolves out once and for all.
That was why the Fifth Elder would have been Frankenstein's next target after Roctis in any case, and why he wanted the Second Elder dead before the First and Third.
If the nobles and werewolves who joined the Union were safely dead by the time the world found out what was going on, then it would be a war of humanity against traitors to its own species. Or humanity against the concept of the 'superior' humanity the Union espoused.
Yes, some werewolves were monsters, but the same could certainly be said of humanity. No one could call Muzaka a monster, or claim he'd seen Ashleen as cannon fodder to throw at the nobles.
More than that, humanity's honor mattered. He might not be a Noblesse, but he was still going to do his damndest to keep his species from being guilty of genocide.
Again, true.
"Muzaka was a traitor to the werewolves, a noble quisling, not someone we were bound to obey."
"So, he betrayed the werewolves… by saving you from being slaughtered? How dare you. How dare you compare the annoyance of the werewolves at not being allowed to treat humans like animals to the suffering of the humans you killed because that was more convenient than issuing a formal challenge to the clan leaders."
"That was the Eighth Elder!"
"The Eighth Elder. A human, yes, but a human brainwashed and enslaved by your Union."
His fingers clenched into fists: even without Dark Spear's influence, he wanted them dead.
These werewolves were obviously young and stupid, very likely young enough that they hadn't been allowed in combat before the Previous Lord went into Eternal Sleep. Since he doubted their families had the gall and/or sense to ask the traitor clan leaders for a demonstration, that made it very likely they'd never in their entire lives faced off against an opponent who used mind control in combat.
Werewolf regeneration ideally let them survive attacks long enough for their bodies to evolve a response to that threat. All werewolves probably had some evolved defenses against mind control, but that was like saying all humans had some evolved defenses against smallpox – they still were much more vulnerable without prior exposure.
He hadn't had the luxury of testing that theory about the Fifth Elder during their last battle. He'd needed his mental abilities and defenses focused on Dark Spear and the threat of two clan leaders.
The Fifth Elder and her companion were clan leader-level werewolves, and him without a soul weapon. He did have these two anti-clan leader weapons, but they ran on their lifeforce and weren't going to win a battle of attrition with werewolves.
So he needed to take the Fifth Elder and her lackey out with one blow, before they could render his mind control ineffective and eliminate his poor allies.
Time to borrow a page from the Landegre's book.
The time he spent talking to these contemptible Union scum had better have paid off. Monologuing was a weakness, which was why he'd done it himself while he was training 'RK-04,' hoping they'd invent the tactic of playing dead long enough for him to present that opening so they could seize it.
It seemed to have had the desired result in this case: the werewolves' attention was focused on him, and just like the Fifth Elder in their last battle, the new one didn't seem to have the sense to avoid looking into his eyes.
"People like you, who blame the weak for the horrors you inflict on them…" he said slowly, flashing a hand signal he'd learned from Ragar behind his back to tell Rajak to get clear.
Yes, the commands he'd given the anti-clan leader weapons were as refined as he was really going to get, having to split his attention like this.
"Die."
Make eye contact and use mind control to paralyze the enemy long enough to charge and land a decisive blow: that was how the Landegre compensated for Regasus' weaknesses. He didn't have Gejutel's soul weapon.
He had two anti-clan leader weapons, rigged with a self-destruct.
If he couldn't save them, he thought, throwing up a shield to protect himself from the blast once their arms were wrapped around the still-paralyzed werewolves, at least he would let them avenge themselves.
Like another weapon the Union made from its victims.
He checked the most disaster-proofed part of the complex last, because of the need to loot and document the parts that were falling apart (cellphone cameras were very practical things, especially his version) before any more of their contents were destroyed. Any more of the data, the evidence, erased. That was where he found two huge doors that opened onto a still-functioning containment system. The tube's size was practical, not overdramatic, when they couldn't afford any risk that knocking into the sides of the tube might awaken their prisoner.
Frankenstein stood there for some time, eyes narrowed, considering the implications.
Finally, he smiled, opening up text messaging. "And to top it all off, I get to bring Master home a souvenir." Once he built some more portable gift-wrapping and transferred Muzaka into it safely.
An ordinary cellphone wouldn't have signal this far down, but he'd tapped into this complex's intranet, "And look, the Union is sending me helicopters to carry my loot home for me."
Meaning he needed to get up there before Dark Spear grabbed any of the pilots. He was ninety-nine percent certain that the mass of souls wouldn't be able to restrain themselves from devouring the hated enemy, much less manage to keep the body intact long enough to pilot a helicopter, but he couldn't let them escape to the mainland and start eating cities.
Dark Spear's philosophy when it came to potential Union agents (meaning: anyone alive) was 'kill them all and let us sort them out.'
Fortunately he'd made plans for a rather larger number of experiment victims in need of evacuation to a safe location. A non-zero number.
It was a pity he wasn't able to do anything for the last shipment Ignes received, but at least he hadn't needed to be certain the Kertia had gotten them all before he could risk unleashing Dark Spear. There probably was grumbling about him having Rajak bring a force to the island only to send them straight back, but he doubted Lukedonia was going to complain about not having to bring Ignes' victims back to the island and host enhanced humans in his Master's manor once they got them past the Union's fleet.
Frankenstein wasn't going to need assistance hiding one helicopter from satellites until he could insert it into a seemingly-innocent flight path. That was relatively trivial, especially with Tao to hack the flight plan into the necessary systems.
No, the only tricky part remaining was building a safe container for Muzaka.
"Rajak, you wouldn't have happened to find wrapping paper in Roctis' quarters, would you?" he asked the seemingly-empty room.
The remaining enemies are smarter (except Maduke), so next time I write a confrontation between the household and the opposition it won't be this easy. There's a certain satisfaction in people like Crombel and Ignes getting smacked down hard, but only if it feels like something that could justifiably happen. For example, if Crombel had finished going over that data and started upgrading himself with it before Frankenstein acted, I could not have written him that easy to take out.
The Kertia combat style's existence raises the question of who they were hiding from. Can't have been werewolves, not when the Kertia style optimally does 'scratch damage' so the fighter doesn't remain exposed for long periods of time, and that's darn near useless against werewolves since werewolves can regen.
By contrast, the Landegre combat techniques were definitely developed to kill werewolves. To kill a werewolf, you need to land massive hits to outpace their regen. As we see with Regis pre-Regasus (and it'd be worse for non-purebloods), gathering that much power is exhausting and they can only do that a few times per fight, so they can't afford to miss. They compensate for this by using mind control to freeze the opponent – something that probably works better on werewolves than fellow nobles.
Rajak fighting a speed-focused werewolf was the worst possible matchup (why he couldn't afford to try to run and expose his back to attacks – see his Zarga battle for why that's a bad idea), while if Kentas hadn't backed down, Gejutel would have swatted him. On the other hand, against nobles the Kertia style immediately puts their opponent off-balance since nobles (who aren't veterans of fighting werewolves like Gejutel) would have absolutely no experience blocking attacks they couldn't see coming.