Chapter 17
Having treated her wounds as well as salvaged all her daggers from the previous battle, Miranda abandoned her cave and began to wander again.
Daytime was mostly uneventful. But the opposite happened during night time. The vampire did keep her promise and showed up, taunted the vampire hunter before skirmishing with her for a few moments, and made sure to leave a wound.
"More… I want more…!"
Remilia always said something similar along the lines during the end of their brief encounter. She would allow Miranda to resist a little, before putting in superficial wounds all around her body, one at a time. As if a child playing with a moth, ripping off its wings, one at the time.
No matter where Miranda went, Remilia would immediately knew of her whereabouts and made her appearance, never a time her attendance was missed.
This persisted for sixteen days.
It was the sixteenth night, the moon shone its fullest and brightest tonight. Miranda and Remilia met again for their unnotified yet as if predestined battle, this time on a field of blooming irises. The field of blue covered a large area, almost as large as a football field.
Miranda, battered and full of bandages from the wounds inflicted by the vampire, arrived exhausted and panting.
"My, my, tired already? We haven't start yet."
"Are you sure this is fun?" Miranda now able to speak very directly to her arch nemesis, already chasing and facing her for so many years. The two of them had inadvertently become very familiar with each other, Miranda could recognize the Scarlet Devil's high pitched and childish voice from afar.
"Of course, I want everything of you. You have yet to accomplish that."
"What more do you want?"
Remilia initiated the battle this time, charging head on with her wings as she bared her fangs trying for a bite. Miranda dodged quickly by rolling to a side, each movement becoming more difficult due to the pain radiating from many places in her body.
"Come on! Faster! Faster!" Remilia continued her barrage of attacks, mostly charging ones as she attempted to mow Miranda down. Miranda was completely on the defensive, with her opportunities of attack not coming any more frequently as compared to the time she managed to leave a scratch on the vampire's cheek.
There were times she could dodge the attacks, there were times she couldn't. This time, the vampire did not stop after landing the first attack, and she attacked more ruthlessly as compared to the previous fifteen nights.
"What's the matter? Don't you want to defeat me? Don't you resent me so much?" Remilia kept taunting and taunting as she landed hit after hit on the weakened Miranda, causing new wounds as well as old wounds to open back up. Her body looked like a sculpture now, carved all over.
Miranda could barely stand, her feet gradually giving way as she began to lose her strength from the bleeding. Feelings of despair began to grow and grow in her. This is it…
Remilia charged in again from a distance, Miranda looked on with hopeless eyes at first, no, I can't let it end here! Her eyes quickly opened up and gave out a different aura, this one of desperation. Pulling all her strength together, she jumped sideways, barely avoiding the vampire's attack.
Remilia stopped after her charge went past Miranda, not immediately facing towards the vampire hunter, "Patchouli," she called out, "did you feel it?"
"Indeed, she finally reactivated it again after 3 years." A long, purple haired girl materialized herself in mid-air, she wore long and purplish robes, Miranda never saw something similar among the common townsfolk, indicating that she's not from around here. Another being shrouded by mystery, Miranda retook her stance, assuming that this newcomer was one of Remilia's friends, an enemy.
"Good… gooooooood…!" Remilia again released her maniacal laugh, this time loudest, that every birds from the perimeter all flew away from the shock. She immediately resumed her attacks, "again…! Again…! Again…! Show me again!"
Miranda was totally puzzled by those two speaking riddles. But again Remilia pushed her towards the brink of desperation, cutting every attack very close.
Just as a barrage of red icicles began flying her way and it seemed too late to dodge it, Miranda again made it out safe, jumping away just inches away from contact.
"There it is again. This time longer," said Patchouli.
Miranda looked up and pulled a quick one as she threw a dagger towards the floating Magician. However, the dagger would just stop midway, enveloped by a ball of water.
"What?" seeing Patchouli conjuring a water ball out of nothing shocked the vampire hunter. "Is… is this… magic?"
Patchouli retracted her magic, releasing the dagger from the water ball, which dropped straight down to the ground after losing all its acceleration. "Indeed, I am a magician, my name is Patchouli Knowledge. I am a friend of Remilia's. You, Miranda Rose, are capable of using magic as well."
"What? Me?" Miranda was dumbfounded by Patchouli's words. What magic? She barely had any knowledge to it, and now she was told she could use it?
"Telling her already, Patchouli?" Remilia asked.
"I deduce that this might be a better solution in awakening her power. At this rate, she will die before her time stopping ability is fully awakened."
"Time… stopping…?" Miranda gasped, since when she was capable of such a thing?
Still dazed by the question, she did not realize Remilia had fired more red icicles towards her before it was too late.
No!
Then it occurred to her, the icicles suddenly stopped in their tracks, not moving forward for an instant, Remilia and Patchouli also ceased to move for a while. She hastily jumped out of harm's way, and as she did so, the projectiles moved again and missed their target, so did the two opponents.
It was then, Miranda realized what was going on.
By "everything", Remilia wanted Miranda to unleash this very power, for what? Miranda had yet to know.
But with this newfound power, she believed the chance to finally turn the tables had come.
Miranda tried to toss a dagger forward towards the vampire as she willed for the time to stop again, indeed, it did. The dagger would pause midway, away from her fingers, and she could run up to it and catch it, something she had failed to do the past two years.
Not retracting the floating dagger from its path, she let it resume its course as Miranda proceeded to dash as fast as she could to cut down the distance between her and Remilia, during this unique time-space where only her, and her alone, could move.
Time resumed, Remilia realized she had lost track of Miranda as she no longer stood at where she was before. Suddenly appearing right below her, she was unable to dodge an uppercut from Miranda's surprise attack, and got cut in the forehead, a string of blood began flowing down.
"You…" Remilia was shocked by what Miranda had just did. The vampire hunter had just vanished and reappeared at unbelievable speed, all the while without being noticed.
"This was the longest period of time she had stopped." Patchouli clarified. "It seemed she was beginning to have some control of it as well."
"Wonderful! WONDERFUL!" Remilia was propelled to sheer delight as she had finally realized what she wanted, after observing her prey all these years. She went on for a rampage with her full strength to see how Miranda would fight back.
The vampire hunter did so with flying colors.
Most of the time Remilia's attacks looked as if they would surely connect, only to see Miranda vanished and reappeared, dodging the attack entirely, as well as being able to return surprise attacks that left the vampire without any room to move around them, and for the very first time, the Scarlet Devil was the one who kept getting hits, and being pushed back.
"Oh my, I never realize that time stopping can be used in such an aggressive manner." Patchouli was able to feel every single time magic was used by Miranda, they were of instantaneous and rapid manner, up to three to five times a second, where Miranda would just stop enough to dodge the attack and return one of her own, and the vampire would just freeze on the spot and receive the hit after time had resumed ticking.
If likened to the moving hands of a clock, what Miranda was doing would be equivalent to an old and rusted second hand, moving "a second" slightly slower than a second in real time. Ten seconds in the real time would be around twelve for Miranda, as she had free movement for her own for two seconds, not continuously but in a rapid and intermittent manner.
This method proved to be extremely effective during close combat, as she totally overpowered the Scarlet Devil.
"ENOUGH!" Remilia pulled herself away as Miranda's melee barrage became too much for her to handle. Now full of scars and cuts from the silvery knife, the vampire was the one that appear battered. She would have to be thankful as she also got enough speed to avoid a deadly slash or being stabbed by a sudden flying dagger.
"I want you now… I WANT YOU NOW!" Remilia tensed her entire body and released a huge, red aura out of her. The impact so huge that Miranda could not approach her, unable to maintain her advantage. Not having much of a choice, Miranda had to stand back, braced herself for whatever the vampire was attempting.
Remilia's fangs and claws became longer, as well as her wings, which spread thrice as large as before. All the red aura then condensed into Remilia's right hand as she put it up and gathered all the energy, solidifying them into a form of a spear, so large that it was larger than a five-story building.
"T… this is!?"
"SPEAR THE GUNGNIR!" Remilia then launched the humongous spear-like projectile forwards with blazing speed, the size of the spear as well its unbelievable acceleration baffled Miranda, who tried desperately to stop time as long and many times as she could to give herself sufficient time to move away.
She barely made it, but still took major damage, the spear from the powerful spell managed to graze her side and crippled one of her arms, causing major bleeding and pain.
Miranda screamed, but this time she had no time to hold her wound as Remilia quickly appeared in front of her and held her waist up.
"Miranda Rose," Remilia declared, "Your fate is now mine."
Remilia grabbed hold of Miranda's head with her enlarged palm, squeezed it tightly, and chanted an incantation. A red spark then came out of Remilia's hand and Miranda screamed even louder, her only movable hand grabbing the demonic hand on her head trying to pull it away, but to no avail. During this time, Miranda struggled the most, yelling with pain in her head as the magic tried to conquer her from the inside.
"Resistance is futile, dear hunter." Patchouli looked on, as she descended and slowly floated her way nearer to witness the moment.
The brainwashing spell persisted for quite some time, until Miranda had become silent, passing out from the conclusion of the spell.
Remilia laughed to her utmost content, finally achieving her goals and succeeding in conquering the vampire hunter.
"She needs a new name," Patchouli suggested.
"Indeed."
"She needs a name that had no connections with her past." Patchouli closed her eyes and pondered briefly, "we are going to move to Gensokyo anyway, why not give her an eastern name?"
"Ufufufu… great idea. In respect of the blossoming flowers that witnessed the events today, on the sixteenth night of our hunt." Remilia looked into the unconscious face of Miranda.
"Sakuya, Sakuya Izayoi. That would your new name."