War.
It was something she had been familiar with. Coming from a country who had inserted themselves in all major modern wars, the concept was not something foreign to her. Not before nor after. But now, it was merely an amusing pastime for her to indulge in.
And so, not an iota of remorse passed through her as she watched the carnage unfold on the screen in front of her.
Vampires were an interesting breed. Prideful and arrogant to the point where some saw themselves as greater than even Gods and Dragons. Yet, in the end, they were nothing more than blood sucking leeches so full of narcissism that a psychiatrist would have to create a new cluster in the DSM-5 just to classify them.
"My lady, the way things are progressing, acquiring it will no longer be a problem for us."
She looked up from her monitor to her aide.
Her aide was a sharply dressed man. He had messy silver, shoulder-length hair. He donned a black high-collared suit resembling riot armor, but more sleekly designed. There were a pair of black gloves with red fingertips on his hands and a coat tied around his waist. He wore a pair of black dress pants with black combat boots.
She noticed a slight amount of amusement in his heterochromatic eyes. His left eye was red with a black sclera and his right was yellow.
She turned her attention back to the screen.
"We just have to wait. I underestimated them to be honest. Two of the Seven Stars here along with Lucifer's Son. Acquiring it will be… a slight challenge on our part. That being said, I'm disappointed, Eric." She brushed her snow-white hair out of the way.
"Oh? Whatever for, Young Miss?" Eric asked.
"You let a few bats into my hotel room."
As if on cue, a figure burst from the wallpaper in her room. "Die, you monster!" He lunged at her, covering his elongated claw-like nails in hardened blood.
The girl looked at him calmly, with some mocking amusement in her eyes.
BANG!
His claws never reached their intended target. He never even made it halfway.
His head had been completely torn to shreds before he properly made it off the ground.
Eric had his arm held up. Smoke fizzled out of the barrel of his pitch black shotgun.
"Impossible… human weapons-"
The sentence was never completed. His body exploded in a shower of blood. Eric sighed as he swiped the blood off the blade of his segmented machete.
"What a splendid exit line. However, Young Miss, the room is…"
"It doesn't matter. The other bats are here as well," she said, standing from her chair.
"Shit! They found us!"
Eric sighed as several vampires manifested seemingly from every shadow in their room. He raised his arm to shoot when the girl placed a hand on his arm.
"Let's not get too hasty now. I don't want the room to be soaked in blood," she said, lowering his arm.
"Tch! You think you can get away with what you've done? The war… it's worse now because of you! All our efforts… we'll never forgive you! For the sake of peace between our factions, you need to die here and now!" one of the vampires said.
"2947," the girl said.
"If you die here, we can have a chance at ending this war for good and achieving true peace!" another vampire said, pointing her sword at her.
"538."
"Now die!"
All of them rushed at her. Their murderous intent was apparent.
"10,493. Eric, I think I've heard 'Now die!' more times now that I've heard Yuuma talk about the Red Dragon Emperor. That being said…"
The girl's golden eyes glowed. She traced her finger across the air.
It all happened in an instant of time so small that none of them could have seen it coming. All the vampires around her were brutally eviscerated.
There was no sign of any magic cast. No energy being expended that tipped them off. The girl simply drew a straight line in the air and the world responded appropriately.
"Gaaghhhk… Lady Selene… I'm sorry," one of them gasped.
"Hmmm? Selene? Then-"
"Young Miss, look out!"
Eric moved in front of her but was thrown violently to the side.
The girl was slightly surprised by this turn of events. She jumped back as a silver gleam came out of the smoke, barreling toward her at rapid speeds.
CLANG!
Sparks flew everywhere as the blade's tip stopped mere centimeters from her throat. Its wielder's eyes widened in surprise.
Her instincts screamed within her to dodge. She dispersed into a flock of bats and reformed a distance away. Where she used to be, the air suddenly collapsed, rapidly condensing into a visible solid mass.
She… solidified the atmosphere? No, she didn't freeze the air. She made it solid…
She stood up, dusting her clothes off.
"Eric."
"Yes, Young Miss?"
"That girl."
Eric looked at her. Despite her doll-like appearance, the presence she had was of a battle-hardened warrior. The way she carried herself and acted in front of the Young Miss. The average person would have folded from the sheer pressure of the Young Miss's presence.
"She's a Star," the Young Miss said. "How troublesome. To think that a Star managed to locate us. I'll have to dock your pay later, Eric."
"I do hope you're not being serious, Young Miss. I do need to enjoy my time here after all and I need money to buy souvenirs," Eric said playfully.
"Now-" the Young Miss turned to see the Star attacking her once more. However, rather than having her attack be deflected by a wall of solid air, her attack penetrated through the barrier.
Her eyes widened in shock as the wall of air corroded before her. She jumped back, narrowly avoiding the attack.
The Star followed up, relentlessly peppering her with bladed strikes.
The Young Miss blocked her attacks, changing her tactics. She held her hand out. A swirl of black matter manifested and swirled into a staff. She twirled it and parried the Star's daggers, knocking her back.
The Star landed on the ground but had no time to recover. She dispersed into a shower of blood, reforming in the air.
The black staff had fully extended, striking through the wall of the hotel room.
"Heh? You really are deserving of your position as a Star," the girl said.
"As are you, Second Praetor," the vampire said, landing on the ground.
"Heh, thank you. But, I really can't afford a long drawn-out fight. I have to pay for this after all. I can't spend the whole semester paying off student loans and this hotel room so…"
The Star's eyes narrowed when the room began to grow darker. The only source of light soon became the Young Miss. Swirls of red light converged on her body, causing the world around her to distort and bend.
"Please die."
She felt an intense pain shoot through her side. The Star darted to the side, yet was unable to avoid the injury. She fell to one knee, seeing a large gash on her side. The floor had transformed into a blade and struck her.
Her hair stood on end and she jumped into the air.
The wall behind her split open along with the floor.
She landed on the ground with a roll, only to take to the air once more as the floor below her collapsed, devoured by a rapidly spreading mass of black and red fluid.
The Second Praetor's… ability! Caspian… even with your data, her ability to control the world around her is just-
"!?"
She suddenly lost the ability to move.
The Second Praetor's hand was held out as if she were gripping something.
Slowly, the Second Praetor began to close her hand.
The Star felt the world slowly compressing around her. The air. The heat was slowly increasing. The Star visibly watched as the gas in the air around her began to rapidly ignite.
What... this intense heat...? What is she-!?
"Do you know how stars are made? Stars are made when massive pockets of cosmic gas collapse on their own gravity to the point where the atoms inside begin fusing due to the heat generated by the intense density and mass. It's poetic, no? A star being born from a Star," the Second Praetor said with a smile on her face.
The Star bit back a scream as the heat around her began to rise drastically. A golden glow began to emanate from the room, outshining every light within the town. In a matter of seconds, her body would be completely vaporized without a trace.
What a terrifying power… to think… I'd get caught off guard by something like this!? Cas… where the hell are you-
[Exterminate Ray!]
A dense beam of blue energy burst forth from the ceiling and struck the Second Praetor. She was thrown through the wall and into the street below, causing the ground to tremble.
The swirling mass of heated gas dispersed as the Second Praetor's focus was broken and the Star dropped to the ground.
"I made it in time. Selene, can you get up?"
The one asking the question was a man with blonde hair and green eyes. He wore a white blazer over a black suit with white pants and black shoes. On his hands were a pair of black gloves and there was a gold streak running down his right hand. The streak glowed, revealing a set of engraved magic crests.
"Caspian, the Second Praetor, she-"
"I know. Her Law…"
"Tch, this is rather annoying, don't you think? Two Stars in one location?" Eric said, raising his weapons.
"I could say the same to you," Caspian retorted, narrowing his eyes at Eric's relaxed, unserious demeanor. Even his manner of raising his weapons for a fight seemed rather lazy and half-assed.
"Just what is Yuuma doing to let you two past her senses? Oh well, not that it matters before the Young Miss gets back, I guess I'll have my own fun," Eric said.
A red aura began to gather around him, shaking the whole building. He shifted his foot and lunged at Caspian at extreme speeds.
As if on a hair trigger, Caspian waved his hand. A magic circle appeared in front of him and an intense concussive force slammed into Eric, sending him flying through the wall and into the next room. He slammed his hand on the floor as a black projectile came dangerously close to piercing his chest.
The Second Praetor floated in the air just outside the window with her hand outstretched. She gathered red energy into her hand, causing the air to crackle violently.
Selene jumped over the barrier, slicing sending a space-cutting rift at the Second Praetor.
The Second Praetor fired the orb, causing it to rip a path through the world.
A distortion in space formed, colliding with Selene's rift slash. The two warps quickly devoured each other, canceling the other out in a violent manner. Everything within a few meters was sucked in and erased before a violent explosion of energy all but leveled the room.
"Selene, we need to go. You're too injured to keep fighting," Caspian urged.
"But…"
"We can't avenge the dead if we're dead ourselves! Let's go!"
Selene bit her lip and glanced at the corpse of her fallen comrades. She closed her eyes and steeled her heart.
"Stick close to me, Cas," Selene said. She placed her hand in the air and twisted it as if she were twisting a door knob.
From the smoke, a series of black and red blades ripped through the plume of smoke.
However, the attacks never landed. A black and red vortex opened behind the two, swallowing them before it could hit.
The Second Praetor landed on the ruined floor of her hotel room with a slight look of annoyance on her face.
"Eric."
"Yes, Young Miss." Eric stumbled out of the rubble from a few rooms down the hall.
"Go silence any witnesses by any means. I'll handle the room and the hotel staff," the Second Praetor said.
"And… the two Stars?" he asked.
"Let them go. It's not like they can do much at the moment. But tell Yuuma to be more wary. If the two Stars know where I am, then our job here will only get more difficult if we continue to operate as we are now. And one more thing, make sure that things are going as planned in both factions," the Second Praetor ordered.
"Understood, Young Miss." Eric nodded and bowed before vanishing in a black and red mist.
The Second Praetor waved her hand, causing her entire room to move and repair itself.
She sat down in her chair and proceeded to take another sip of her coffee.
"Ah… it's cold," she muttered.
Let's go, new Azure Arc starting before the New Year begins! And before Christmas too! We're now in Romania! The training arc is over! Back to the goal at hand! The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The Praetors from the Third Arc are back which means we finally get to fight War again. And not like briefly like they did with Yuuma and partly when Kok got possessed. And you get two chapters today so I'll explain a little more in the next chapter.
