"So, my wayward progeny return..." Apollo's voice echoed as Akasha, Moka and Lucy entered the new extended chamber of the Harbinger's estate. "I have to admit, I expected you to come much sooner, if not to once again attempt to sway me." As Moka looked around to find her grandfather she found him just as he emerged from behind a marble pillar as he finally slipped the block into place. "Tell me; has it troubled you, to essentially murder the opportunity of co-existance?" he spoke very dismissively before walking along to the staircase and made his way down.
"Still up yourself, i see." Lucy huffed as she watched him warily, Apollo gave her an aware glance but only for a brief moment as he stood before the trio.
"I would have hoped, before all this that this was simply a leisurely visit, but I have come to realise that those days have clearly passed somewhat indefinitely." Apollo concluded with wings folded.
"It wouldn't have to be, if you would just drop your guard and let us deal with what you began. It isn't your responsibility anymore, Papa." Akasha offered softly as Lucy simply rolled her eyes in distain.
"And just what have you done in the time that I have not been 'responsible?" Apollo asked bluntly as he stroked her cheek. "Have you turned idle as to the state of the Yokai world as of the last fifteen years, or have you simply allowed your 'advisors', Vampires all of them, to restrict your mind so that only those of your species are sated?"
"Apollo, what are you accusing mother of?" Moka asked challengingly and was presented with her grandfather's full attention.
"Hardly accusing; rather I am pointing out fact. Not that you have been very attentive to matters other then those that concern your own children and that of your 'pet'. Apollo responded heatedly before sensing a spike coming from Lucy.
"Still like flying I see?" Lucy sneered before unleashing an arm, posed to knock Apollo back; to her disbelief, the vector never made contact and before she knew it; the Diclonius was being choked in the vice grip of the Harbinger's tail. Lucy tried summoning more of her arms, but the more she tried, the tighter Apollo's tail constricted.
"Still relying on that little 'gift' of yours, I see?" Apollo commented casually before snarling fiercely "DO NOT THEATEN ME, GIRL!"
"Apollo! Let her go, now!" Moka roared as she hurled four of her own Vectors to bind the Harbinger's arms; in an instant, the Vampiress collapsed to the ground, her body quaking immediately after Apollo swung his left hand and with an invisible 'force', severed all four of the tendrils at once.
"That little talent of yours, is indeed formidable." Apollo replied now calmly before waking over, grabbing Moka by her collar and hoisting her to the same height as Lucy, in the grip of his tail. "However these 'vector's are not unlike something I have come across before. The Jigen-Tou technique; of which my associate and friend, Touhou Fuhai utilizes well, works on very similar grounds"
Apollo ironically huffed with a shake of his head before looking at Akasha saddening "And this little gift, that the 'GREAT' Queen Lucy has bestowed, was the weapon you prescribed yourself as the means of 'keeping me down' as you in more or less those words put it? Come now, my daughter, you should know better by now that borrowed power is merely an empty threat when one relies on it too much."
"Please, just let them go." The Vampire Queen asked softly as she just stared back at how the instrument that had once been believed to ensure her father's submission, was in reality nothing more then a façade.
"That I will, once i have said that, what i have to say." Apollo responded sincerely as he turned and stared fiercely at the Diclonius and his granddaughter. "Still so arrogant, after all these years; believing that I am at your mercy while you carry out your 'oh so perfect' plan. You. Know. Nothing. You have seen my intention, but missed out my method. You believe yourselves, along with your 'pet' to be the answer to all of life's problems through show of force with every encounter. Since your 'ascension' you have not even entered the Yokai world even once; you have not seen how it has become a utopia for the Vampire, but dystopia for those of other races; enslaved by Vampires to the point that those victims do not speak out through fear of reprisal."
Moka stared back Apollo incredulously "I do not believe you..."
"Then the proof shall be, in the pudding; as humans say." Apollo responded coolly as he slipped his hand into his robes and presented a blood red orb before raising it into the sunlight. The reflection through the stone, caused a temporary rift between worlds and as Akasha and Moka looked through, they recognized it as the Yokai World.
"I have never been 'trapped' in this prison, Moka; even if I continue to label it such. I have had the luxury of leaving whenever I please though most reason is to acquire what is needed and of course, effects for my dearest Kahlua." Apollo continued as the display continues to depict the vast wealth of the Vampire houses and the squalor of which most of the enslaved races were being forced to live under.
"This...is going on in the Yokai world?!" Akasha covered her mouth in horror as she witnessed herself, going about her business within her estate, all the while being deliberately lied to of the world she was now seeing.
"This is a reflection of yesterday's events, of all things." Apollo responded coldly before looking at his daughter. "You have fallen into the trap that is burocracy. You may rule the Vampires, but the Vampires in turn control you. You talk so much about equality and fairness, when in truth, my daughter; you have not a clue." Apollo's eyes stared deep into the Vampire Queen's "You cannot turn against the Vampires, lest they remove you from the throne and place their own little ruler in place. And you, yourself, nor even with your self acclaimed 'Dark Lord' cannot rally the other races to rise up in your support because to them; you are essentially what their overseers are. A self-centered slave-propagating Vampire who has; in their view, welcomed their misery."
Apollo noticed the disbelief in Moka's eyes as he returned the stone to his robes; the display fading from vision before continuing "And you, my granddaughter have done nothing either; your focus is only on the wellbeing of your family and that your own 'perfection' is assured; you have no idea as to the state of the human world and are completely oblivious to their tolerance of you. As I stated to your 'pet' tolerance is only as good as those permitting themselves to tolerate. Eventually they will see that what they are to you and soon after they will hate you, they will hunt you and they will kill you and everyone who is not human or in support of their crusade."
"If you're so against this, why haven't you done anything?" Moka spat back "You preach on about doing what's right. You defy us all the time..."
"Do not be absurd." Apollo retaliated before finally letting her drop while still holding Lucy in his tail's iron grip. "This is exactly proving my point; my method works, while yours serves only to benefit a few. But since you 'deposed me' as your mother has said, it is no longer my responsibility and last I recall; you exiled me here because I am...as this little one calls me "A bully" so therefore, you should be more then 'capable' of dealing with this." The Harbinger finally swung his tail and freed the gasping Diclonius from his grip before flexing the appendage. "Once upon a time, you would have heeded my council when it was offered, but now; your vanity and following of young Aono's delusions have made you witless and deaf to my warnings."
Apollo motioned to the door with his wing " You will have to learn the hard way, for yourself. I am certain you know your way out." Moka simply glanced back at the Harbinger, defeated and humiliated; the Vampiress lifted Lucy and made her way out of the estate.
"Papa, surely you don't intend to just abandon us. Tsukune told me that you had washed your hands of us." Akasha began sincerely.
"He spoke true." Apollo stated firmly "But I have only abandoned my family for as much as you have all abandoned me, over the promise of power that the selfish bitch, Lucy offers while she commits the crimes that i myself am accused of. Be warned, my child; to embrace the serpent is also to invite it's venom." The Harbinger turned to Akasha before pecking her on the cheek lovingly "I am sorry it has come to this my dear child, but other then for social visits if you come to try and sway my standing, here is a tip; do not bother."
Akasha stared at her father, heartbroken; had her usurpation really come to this? The Vampire Queen looked down as she made her way to follow Moka and Lucy.
"Akasha?" Akasha turned to the sound of her father's voice.
"Next time you speak to Azami, let her know that while I am pleased that she did not turn the boy, I mourn for her loss." Apollo offered kindly before turning serious "But also let Akemi know that she must not undergo the blood rite with the boy she has fallen for."
"I know, because if she does... he'll be your first kill." Akasha nodded back, troubled.
"Humans, are to remain humans." Apollo responded "To put aside self-desire, to abandon self-importance, to devote our duty to our goal...until Man and Ayashi transcend the gods of false. To that goal, know your place." The Harbinger then watched as his daughter walked away, it had been clearly too long since the phrase of which he devised from the motto of his extinct kind had been spoken in its full.
"And the incident involving the Immortals...That is something I will have to monitor as well." Apollo spoke to himself before resuming his project.
