Shoutout to my friends in the Netherlands, you guys are the best!
December 25, 2014
My enemy is not human. My enemy is less than a human. Since the earliest dawning of mankind, this is the battle cry! It just happened to be more literal in my case.
–Major, Hellsing Ultimate
Kage's POV:
"This is Apostate calling Azazel, what's your twenty?" I said into the microphone, shifting myself a little more comfortably in the leather seat of the off-roader we'd secured for this particular mission. We were in France again, and Kid was leaning against me on the other side, watching the road. "The kids are secured back home; the tracker we planted in the book's showing up a few hundred feet to my left. It's a clearing in this gigantic forest, so at least we won't have to worry about witnesses. Everything's in place; DK, Lock, and Hazel have air patrol. They'll be watching that Noah creep for any sign of movement while we go in and steal the Book." Kid shifted slightly against my back. "You do realize he won't be giving it up without a fight?" he asked, and Akuma chuckled over the phone. "We're planning on it. "Noah-sama" bites the dust tonight." I nuzzled Kid's asymmetrical hair as he blushed. "We'll be fine. It's what we do, silly boy."
"Stop romancing or I'll sic DK on you."
"Oh shut up."
DK's POV:
I glanced over my shoulder, watching Lock power along on her uniquely metallic broom, scanning the ground below us. Most Nightstalker used such models in case of gunfire or attacks, as the normal wooden Witch brooms were liable to break apart under such pressure. Her black hair was whipping in the wind our passage kicked up, but as always, she seemed utterly focused on the mission, her amber eyes intent. I looked down at my weapon. "How're you hanging kid?" Hazel's face peered up at me from the barrel of her cannon, looking queasy. "I'm still not used to being this high above the ground…" she mumbled, and I shrugged and wrapping my hand tighter around her stock. "Well, you will soon." I pointed out, starting a gentle curve. "We spend a lot of time like this." She swallowed audibly, and a flash of movement caught my eye. "Lock, movement at ten 'o clock." I called, and she let go of her broom for a moment and brought a pair of binoculars to her eyes. "It's Akuma and that Noah guy. They're talking –oh, Akuma just hit his palm. He only does that when he's angry."
I shifted Hazel a little bit, readying to make a quick dive if necessary. "Given that the creep tried to kidnap his sister, I'm not surprised. Ready to dive?" I asked cautiously, keeping my eyes on the scene below. I didn't need human focal points; I was a demon after all. She lowered the binoculars, giving me a withering look. "Go teach your grandmother to suck eggs, why don't you?" she snapped, and I shrugged innocently. "Just saying~." Hazel appeared on her cannon again. "Wait, you're going to dive?!" she squeaked, and I shrugged. "We might, we might not. Depends if that Noah character down there gets any ideas." I said carelessly, and she blinked twice. "Ideas? Like what?" The tiny figures below us reaching a crescendo in their argument, the darker one suddenly reached for his hip and held a book open in front of him, the pages beginning to glow. "Like that!" I snarled, veering and beginning to stoop.
Hazel shrieked, both in my mind and in my ears, as the world rushed past us, Lock balancing on her broom like a surfboard as she rocketed down after us, watching Akuma fighting off the manacles that had appeared from within the book. Fighting against the wind, I brought Hazel up to my shoulder, listening to her squeak of surprise. "W-wait! If you shoot him, won't you damage the book?!" she stammered, and I grinned, curling my fingers around the trigger. "It'd take more than an explosion to damage the Book of Eibon." I said confidently. With that, a dry, hollow roar echoed in the air, and an explosion bloomed upwards from the ground beneath us, sending us both bouncing away from the sudden updraft. I retracted my Shade Wings as soon as I landed, and Lock swerved, bringing her broom to a halt a few feet above the ground.
The smoke cleared as Akuma irritably walked towards us. "Thanks for the warning." he grumbled, his clothing slightly charred as I gave a sheepish grin. "Eh, whatcha gonna do?" I said with a casual shrug, and his eye twitched slightly. "I hate you so much." We all suddenly twitched as Hazel blinked from inside her weapon. "Guys-" All three of us were instantly diving away from our positions, and Hazel squeaked in surprise as the ground where we were standing was suddenly a raging inferno. Skidding to a halt a few meters away, I looked up to see Noah's soul behind a seemingly decorative wall with a winged woman atop it. "Siren. You are rather interfering creatures, you know that?" Noah said calmly from behind the wall. "I think I'll collect you. If you are determined to resist, then I will simply have to make you more compliant by killing you." he added, a dangerous, giddy note coming into his voice. I brought Hazel up with a snarl. "Screw that! I ain't a part of anyone's gimmicky snowglobe collection, least of all yours!" I shouted, firing.
The Siren wall exploded, but Noah rose over it, riding some kind of strange mutated worm. He held up the Book, pages beginning to flip through, seemingly all on their own. Several more distorted shapes began struggling free of the pages. "Fly, my Select Gremlins!" Noah shouted, an ecstatic gleam in his eyes. Lock shot past us and swerved, flinging a wave of Fire Daggers at the incoming hordes. "Leave these to me! You two get that bastard Noah!" Akuma and I nodded to each other, streaking past the goblins and heading for their summoner. I swore as the Book pages began to flip again. "Orthrus!" Noah purred gleefully, and a freakish mix of two tentacled dog heads and a scabby worm shot out of the Book, its coils falling all around us. Akuma whirled the shadows around us into a frenzy with a quick intonation, chopping the monster to pieces. "Try and give us a little more of a challenge!" he sneered as we began weaving towards the sorcerer again, and Noah smirked. "Come forth, Cyclops!"
A gigantic creature roared out of the pages, marked with strange symbols all over its body. "You just had to open your big mouth…" I muttered, whipping Hazel off my shoulder and beginning to fire. Akuma jumped up to try and hit its head, but the creature, showing more resistance than I had reckoned for, raised its hand and swatted him out of the air. I immediately doubled the potency of my shots, seeing Lock swerving around in the sky above us, battling the goblins in a magical sort of dogfight. Akuma came charging back out of the rubble, brandishing swords made out of the shadows around him. Moving faster than before, he shot under the monster, cutting its tendons in a great spurt of blood, sending it to its knees, and then jumping up again and driving both swords through the skull of the horrendous monster. "We're going to be at this all bloody day, aren't we?" I sighed, and Noah smiled slightly. "There is still much to see in my collection…and it is all mine to command. I am the new ruler of the cosmos. I am all."
The Book pages began to flip again.
"Anyhow…I think it is think I brought this to an end. Nightstalker, I will be adding you to my collection. I require your services, Horror Dragon."
My eyes widened as the new monster towered above us.
"Yatte, kutabare, and jigoku…"