IMPORTANT! YOU HAVE TO READ THIS!
I have to make an introduction before this chapter.
The content might be a bit 'strong' in some of its points, so I do not recommend reading to those who gory scenes or where there is blood can be bothersome.
I'm very sorry, but I've noticed now that the category by the history must be changed in MA due to some content on this and some other chapters, precisely for the above mentioned 'strong scenes'.
I want to clarify that these are only some descriptive references, NOT the entire chapter / story, which remains something I hope enough light, but unfortunately I found them to make the inevitable climax of the chapter and highlight the character of a character.
I am extremely sorry for this and having to do this so suddenly, but I do not want to go against any rules of the site, and I find it only right to point out that in this story there are things like that.
Having said that, I thank you again for follow me here!
Chapter 6 - ... And rescues. (Negi's Group)
Night fell quickly.
In the time spent in the forest, Richard and Marcus had chased some rabbits with magic and, once cooked they had eaten for lunch.
They then spent the rest of the time exchanging notions about magic or the respective places of belonging, of course not mentioning the time travel.
Silently, the group flew over the walls.
In a couple of trips thanks to the stick of Negi and a good spell of concealment, it was not difficult.
As they passed the outer court, they saw the grim coach of the Count still there, waiting: the coachman was still in the box, always with the hood down on his face and the reins in his hand.
Greenish flames flowed out from small braziers placed on either side of the coachman, illuminating him with ghostly reflections.
For what they could see, the rest of the castle was deserted, not a servant, not a guard to make the rounds along the walkways.
After landing, they gave themselves a moment to ponder the situation.
Around them the most absolute silence.
"I feel a strange smell..." Kotaro said, sniffing deeply.
"I've heard this in the past, it seems that of a human being... but it has something different."
He took another breath.
"Wait! There is a human smell too! It 'very weak, and also strangely familiar... but..." he shook his head.
"No... nothing, let's go."
The six shot him a questioning look on the last sentence, then they nodded determined.
They decided to enter through a wooden trapdoor that opened in the middle of the floor.
They went down into a small hallway, surrounded by profound darkness.
"Raster maskir magister ... Veniant spiritus Lucis: Sagitta Magica, una Lucis "recited in a low voice Negi.
A small ball of light, of a pale bluish began to revolve slowly around, weakly lighting up the environment.
The scene that stood before them made them shiver: in a corner were piled the bodies of those who were to be the guards, motionless, with expressions of sheer horror on the faces tilted in totally unnatural positions.
Kotaro approached.
"Dead. Who did it had to have a monstrous force: the sides of the helmets are crumpled ... "he said, confirming their suspicions.
On the corridor faced three doors all closed, and a narrow spiral staircase, which descended into the darkness.
"Likely your friend will be in the dungeons..." Richard was whispering, when a shrill cry rang out in the room: it came from the bottom of the stairs.
Creepy noises and screams followed, which ripped the silence until then total.
"Follow me!" Incited them Marcus, starting to run down the stairs.
They went down to the ones that have to be five levels: at each landing the same gruesome scene.
Guards, servants or guests lay broken on the ground, lifeless.
"There is a strong smell of magic in the air!" Inugami warned before descending to the ground floor.
"And not only that! Be careful."
As Negi illuminated the room in which they were just entered, they all had a retch: the floor was literally a pool of blood.
Scattered around, like rocks, lay the bodies of a dozen people, horribly mangled: multiple deep cuts opened up to all bodies by draining the contents of the same, which went to enrich the floor of decorated stone.
"Oh my god..." Negi gasped bending and putting a hand to his mouth, with the Sagitta Magica that trembled on the verge of dying out.
"What can..."
"The Baron!" Marcus exclaimed recognizing the figure farthest, massacred in front of a broken door.
In the moments of silence that followed the discovery, they could clearly hear several muffled noises coming from the room in question and from which, with unnatural calm came out a grotesque-looking figure, who once had to have human origins, but now it very little reflected.
He had oblong limbs, thin and muscular, with thick and sharp nails, almost like a long finger of the teacher.
The ashen skin was stretched over the animalistic's face, his nose pressed up and elongated ears back that ended with sharp points.
Completely glabrous, the beast stared at them with two ruby eyes and a fierce grin: the lips almost non-existent showed the sharp toothing, highlighting the upper canines, extremely pointed.
The being was completely covered with blood, as the object he held clenched in a fist, a small body, which was badly thrown to one side and from which came a faint moan.
"Uh?" The creature said, his voice burbling "And who are youuu?" Bowing his head.
"A new snack for the Count? Arh! Arh!" he's eyes lit up at his own words.
"Oh yesss! You have been kind... to save the effort of seeking to the Count! "what must have been the Count Herbert continued.
"Get thee behind, hellish creature!" Marcus shouted at him in response, pulling out a long knife from a hidden scabbard.
"Igne sancta, daemonium fugit... Et ignis flammae Domini involvent mea inimici, devorabit eorum carnem et incolere animas eorum. Incendii Rubicans!" he evoked immediately afterwards with stunning quickness and speed and an expression of total contempt on his face.
A huge ruby-colored blaze started from the outstretched hand of the magician, wrapping the vampire completely.
Quick as a flash, Negi dived to the side of the blaze, grabbing the former prey of the Count by the arm and dragging it away before it was incinerated.
Meanwhile Richard had pulled out a small sword and began to recite incantations of protection upon himself and the other members of the group, which in their turn had put his hand to arms, or in the case of Kotaro had extracted his claws.
"WHAAAAARGH!"
The vampire went out running from the flames, with the body in burning and a crazy look in his eyes.
"Damned!" He barked.
"A thousand, a thousand and again one thousand more times damned!" and with an unexpected speed he reached out a hand, grabbing Marcus by the throat.
With fury, the monster raised the magician from the ground like a twig and threw it against the nearest wall, which was cracked on impact.
The beast turned furious at his next target, the one closest to him: the Shinmei swordswoman.
Not particularly sure of her chances of winning, Setsuna threw herself bravely to the assault, carrying a powerful blow to the neck of the creature, which however readily interposed his arm.
The sharp blade thrust only a few millimeters, as if under the skin there was a solid sheet of metal, and the swordswoman did not have time to pull it out of that the vampire came to her a backhanded slap in the chest that literally sent her flying away , emptying her lungs from the impact.
Completing the movement of the arm, tried clawing at Richard Herbert, when something bit him in a calf, unbalancing him: it was one of Kotaro's shadow dogs.
While the Count freed himself with a shake of the hound, Inugami multiplied in three copies and began to shower him with blows on all sides, forcing the monster to defense.
Roaring with rage and frustration, the being hurled to the ground one of the copies with a powerful punch, while the other was torn apart by the claws, disappearing.
With a satisfied and bloodied grin he turned to the true, and now only, Kotaro, when something hit him in the back with violence.
Turning, he had time to see Arthur with a bow made of light in his hand, who was throwing a second magic missile.
Quickly, he dodged the shot and dived to the magician, with a single long leap, nailing him on the ground for his right shoulder, stabbing him deeply with a claw.
The man cried out in pain, and while waiting for the coup de grace, he heard the monster stand up and pull the claw.
Watching, he saw Setsuna back on her feet, unsteady and with a trickle of blood that ran on the chin while her left arm held on to her side. Around her were suspended six Japanese daggers, wrapped in a golden light.
With a wave of the girl, they flew with precision at the Count, aiming his throat.
Four were deflected by quick shots of the vampire, but two managed to thrust bottom in the flesh of the being.
With a tired smile Setsuna fell to her knees, while Herbert tried in vain to remove the blades, gurgling.
"Setsuna!" Kotaro charged the Count, causing him to fall and giving time to Richard to rescue the girl.
Meanwhile, Negi made sure that both the prey and Marcus were alive, after which he began to recite various spells in rapid succession.
Like a flash, he appeared alongside Kotaro, buckling an elbow in the stomach at the vampire, back on his feet, and sending him a few meters behind.
"Sorry for the delay!" He told his friend.
"It's nothing, I would have arranged by myself." The boy replied with a grin.
Kotaro drove off the attack, while Negi supported him from behind with an impressive array of magical darts, which opened several wounds in the charred body of the monster.
The attacks brought by Kotaro made him retreat more and more, also because of the daggers still stuck in his throat, which prevented him from breathing.
Angrily, Herbert managed to settle a strong slap to the boy-wolf, knocking him to the ground with a deep cut in his chest.
"Now youuuu... liiittle magician" he cried in a shrill voice, turning.
...and finding just a few inches from his chest a magician's stick wielded with two hands from the boy, who was finishing to pronounce ... Jovis Tempestas Fulguriens! .
A powerful beam of energy was generated from the tip of the rod, accompanied by powerful winds and a low, deep sound, and with incredible strength he projected itself toward the wall behind the vampire violently digging a path in his chest.
The crash with the wall was tremendous, and made the building tremble violently, though not piercing the thick layer of rock that compose it.
Being stood motionless.
With an air stunned, he looked at the hole that he had instead of the chest.
Then, with increasingly astonished expression fell to his knees.
A series of spasms began to go through the body of the vampire, and then transforms them into a burbling sob, much like a laugh.
The head turned to stare at the young wizard, while they could clearly hear the Count grumbling.
"There is a strooong boy... The Count sees this as a gooood meal..." despite the obvious difficulty in speaking.
Then he crumbled to dust.
A strong wind threw open a door and the voice of the vampire rang through the room.
"He'll be back... The Count can not be defeated so easily!" Finally ceased, along with the strange and disturbing phenomenon.
"Ugh..." Negi sat fell, panting.
"What the hell was that? It 's so a real vampire?" he asked, frightened.
"No, they become so only when they lose the path of reason and fully embrace their nefarious nature." said Marcus, who was raising, massaging his neck.
"This particular filthy exemplar, is certainly not dead. But surely he will need some time before being reborn. This yes. Good job sir Negi."
He approached the unconscious body of the last prey of the Count.
It belonged to a girl of no more than ten years, with gentle features and long wavy hair to below the waist, although indefinable color because of the blood that covered them.
Two holes in the neck indicating where the vampire was feeding.
As he watched that face, that of Negi became paler and paler.
"M-master?" he exclaimed suddenly, recognizing the features and shooting himself backwards.
At that exclamation, as well Setsuna, supported by Richard and Kotaro observed the body and their reactions were quite similar.
"Eva! But what is she doing here?" Setsuna was wondering, while Inugami remained staring at her with an open mouth and shocked expression.
"Do you know her?" Richard asked, frowning, pointing to the three.
Agitated, Negi began to sputter "Yes.. t-that is, no! ...well, here... it depends..."
"A friend of ours is identical to her, so we simply confused seeing her in the face, in this feeble light. Excuse us." Setsuna explained improvising, interrupting the teacher.
"I understand. However she must be the daughter of the Baron. If I am not mistaken she is called Evangeline Athanasia Kitty McDowell." Richard continued, nodding.
"Better to kill her now." Marcus interjected quiet.
"How do she wake up, she will become a Child of the Night. What a cruel and sad fate for such a young woman." he ended unhappily shaking his head and placing the knife at heart level.
"NO!" The three of Mahora stopped him in chorus.
The three Welsh wizards looked at them in amazement.
Arthur had reached them just before, with a bumbling bandage on his shoulder.
"That is... here..." Negi continued frantically thinking "Let her come with us! In our country we have a cure for this curse, and now that Baron is... erhm... departed, we can make our journey without problems, right?" he asked hopefully.
It felt wrong to bring up a dead man, but it was all for the sake of that young life repeated itself to convince himself.
The wizards whispered something for a few minutes.
"So be it. But remember that she will be under your direct responsibility. What you are about to take is a heavy burden." Marcus said finally, serious
"Make sure you move she away from the village as soon as possible. Such kind of creatures are not well accepted among the common people. Now end up the job we came here for." he finished in a softer tone.
Ako was in a dark and smelly cell.
She did not know how long she was there, much less why.
She could not understand anything, since she had disappeared under the eyes of her companions, and reappeared in the middle of a public square somewhere else, full of people who had started to scream and run away.
Even less she'd understood when two big men in metal armor had brought her there by force, despite the protests of the ermine of the professor, appeared from nowhere and still with her now.
She was not even surprised that much that the animal had spoken of how she was stunned.
Shortly before there had been an earthquake, but now someone was coming down the stairs.
Unconcerned, she was curled up in his corner to sob, when a light lit up.
"Aniki!" She felt Kamo exult on her shoulders.
-Wha... - she said to herself, looking up.
"Ako! Thank goodness you're okay!" said the boy throwing himself at her neck, after literally broke down the door of the cell.
"Professor?" She asked incredulously with tears in his eyes.
"B-but what are you doing here? Where are we?"
She then saw Setsuna down the stairs supported by a large man.
"Sakurazaki! You're here too!" now Ako was literally crying with joy when she saw the condition of his companions.
Blanching, she pushed away the professor for a better view.
"B-but y-y-you are hurt! You're c-covered with b-bloo..." she stammered, collapsing to the ground unconscious.
"I told yuo that it was better if I dropped before..." the swordswoman said with a sigh.
"It 's true..." Negi said, running a hand through his hair.
"Kamo! Are you there too! But what are you doing here? "He then asked the ermine.
"Well, Aniki... I was following this sex... interesting girl dressed as a nurse, when we found ourselves to fly and teleported somewhere out here. "explained the pet.
"I see... We will review the situation in the inn. Come on let's go! The others are waiting for us up there!"
-End Chapter-
I'm back! Phew ... I hope I did a good job in the fight scenes! I do not think they are too difficult to follow, but this is just my opinion, so ...
And here's a turning point in history! You did not expect it? (But yes, You surely say ...-_-)
What did you think of Herbert? Please let me know!
P.S. - From now at the bottom of the chapter I will post the English translations of the original spells that are spoken by the characters (in this chapter they are all in Latin), so that it is understandable what the characters are doing! Surely it was interesting to write them!
[Latin]
Igne sancta, daemonium fugit... Et ignis flammae Domini involvent mea inimici, devorabit eorum carnem et incolere animas eorum. Incendii Rubicans!
[English]
And the burning flames of the Lord wrap my enemies, and that they devour their flesh and haunt their souls. Crimson Conflagration!
Sorry if I spelled wrong in Latin, unfortunately it is a language I do not know. If you have best versions do not save yourself from tell me!