Red robed mages with a flame pattern trim ran from house to house. Using both spells and torches they started fire after fire in the neighborhood. Several homes were already burning, residents awakened by the smell of burning wood and paper fled. Finally, the alarm bell began to ring but for part of the town it was already too late.
The men turned around a corner and broke to a halt, coming face to face with a bespeckled schoolgirl, one they were warned about. Before they could even get their hands raised, spikes of raw iron shot out of the ground beneath them, turning the ground into a deadly pincushion. Their legs were pieced, forcing their leg muscles to fail and they fell awkwardly upon the spikes. The density of those deadly shards of metal made puncturing and piercing vital organs inevitable.
However, the cultist in the back was spared. He turned to run only to run into Shinji who had already doomed the man with his actions. Without even time to show his surprise he was split in half from crown to crotch by a large spinning saw blade. It stuck partly into the ground before the young man tugged the chain causing it to recoil back to Shinji, fading as it did so. Mayumi stepped forward around her deadly trap as the man fell in two.
"No reason to be kind tonight, my dear," Shinji noted. "Show these knaves the power of Castlevania."
"Yes, my master," Mayumi responded.
V: Burn Notice
"The Order of Infernus," Shinji whispered as he watched Mayumi head towards a particularly large group of cultists who suddenly took an interest in them. "So, With Light is working with the cults more directly now. Celia is willing to sell her soul to see Dracula's resurrection… But this isn't going to go the way she thinks it will. She's doing this specifically to draw us out. I wonder if me avoiding fighting that candidate made her think I was afraid of him."
"Do you usually talk to yourself so much?"
Shinji turned to see Rastur standing there, wearing regalia this time to match the Order of Infernus. But this wouldn't be the first time he's seen him in such. More cultists were filling in around their leader, and Shinji noted his escape routes were being cut off. This didn't bother him in the slightest.
"When my girls aren't around, it seems the only way to have an intelligent conversation anymore," Shinji countered. "How did you manage to con a church cult into working with you?"
"With Light has been aiding us for a long time, ever since our attempts to create the Challis of Aguni. It was easy enough to get her on my side, after all we all want the same thing."
Shinji's eye's narrowed and shifted to a more natural red tone for his species.
"And look at you now," the cultist continued. "You're a fully-fledged Vampire… a creature of the night, just like Count Dracula. Considering your reluctance to take up the mantle, you certainly are wasting no more time with your transformation."
"Maybe I'm starting to realize something… Maybe I've accepted that my transformation into the Dark Lord is inevitable, and that maybe instead of fighting it, I should revel in the power of it all." Shinji's eyes glowed brighter for a moment. "But if you think this makes me your ally… think again. I know what Dracula was like before he lost the one human in his life that mattered to him."
Rastur's face went from amusement to disappointment. "You know about Lisa Tepes."
"Of course, I do," Shinji replied. "My newest girl told me all about her, and what she wanted to do for mankind… and more importantly, why she was the very reason Dracula declared war upon humanity. If I am to become the Dark Lord, I must be better than that."
"That's wrong!" Rastur yelled. "Dracula is the ultimate Dark Force in the world, he is the ultimate evil!"
"You only got one part of that statement correct," Shinji hissed. "Dracula is the ultimate Dark Force in this world, but mankind itself is the ultimate evil. I've come to realize that now. You and your ilk are the perfect examples of absolutely everything that is wrong with this world! You worship him like some kind of god, but he like many of his kin are people of science. They accept the existence of God as fundamental to our universe, but retain the knowledge humanity has lost. Superstition and fear have no place in a civilized society."
"And what kind of Dark Lord will you be then?" Rastur challenged.
Shinji laughed at that question. "I have no fucking clue," Shinji stated. "All I know is, I have to be better than he was, for the sake of this entire world."
Rastur sighed. "You truly are delusional. Fine. I won't waste anymore time on trying to convert you over to our line of thinking, but I must destroy you."
"Come and try, it's worked so well for you so far," Shinji taunted.
"Oh, I won't be doing the work myself. I have people for that… one person in particular in fact, that's been dying to make your reacquaintance since a certain apartment building in Tokyo-2."
Shinji's eyes narrowed down. "You don't mean…"
Rastur stepped back as a whirling fire tornado erupted in front of him. Shinji growled; he could almost smell his adversary. When the flames finally dissipated, the familiar form of Dario Bosi remained.
"'Ello, Mate," he greeted. "Remember me?"
"Oh, I never forget an asshole," Shinji growled. "I owe you for what you did to Hikari's apartment."
Dario's face looked a bit dissatisfied. "So, the bitch ain't here then. Pity. I really wanted to kill her for that humiliatin' loss I took to her last time. Well, no matter. I'll hunt the bitch down after I turn you into a pile of ashes."
"Come on then," Shinji hissed. "Let's see if you have enough heat for that."
Mayumi calmly walked forward, summoning her staff to her left hand. Cultists began to close around her, and as they did, she spun her staff and slammed the end of it into the ground sending a wave of water in all directions, throwing them back to the ground and hindering others from getting close. Her next step caused the water to freeze, making the area treacherous to attempt to fight in. Almost casually, she threw as series of dark bolts in one direction, taking out several cultists instantly, then pointed her staff in another direction, calling down a lightning bolt that incinerated one cultist and shocked several others who were still touching water at the time. Several more rushed her in a desperate attempt to stop her magic, and she obliged, by using her combat skills instead. Within moments she broke nearly a dozen bones with precise strikes from her staff, and knocked several more unconscious with a combination of more staff strikes and well-placed kicks.
"Is it just me or have you actually become even stronger since our last meeting?" came the voice of Dimitrii.
"I have become stronger," Mayumi replied, straightening her posture but not turning to face him. "Have you?"
"I was already more than a match for you before. Your gains are irrelevant to me. I'll make you wish you never met me, young one."
Mayumi turned towards Dimitrii, contempt burning in her eyes. "You underestimate me Dimitrii. Continue to do so at your own peril."
"I'm shaking in my boots!" The last word was punctuated by Dimitrii releasing a swarm of dark bolts on Mayumi's position. She crouched and jumped past them at the last second. Whilst in the air she launched two massive strokes of lightning on Dimitrii's position, he dodged them but still managed to get hit with a secondary bolt that spread from one of the mains. As Mayumi landed, she side flipped away from a return blast of lightning from Dimitrii.
"He keeps using my own spells on me, like 'ooo look at me, I can do that too'…"
A wave of flames rushed forwards from her position. Dimitrii dodged it, once again being licked by the fire as he did so, then returned the blast with an even stronger wave of flames. Mayumi raised her wards in both hands to block the flames without having to dodge and launched multiple bolts of lancing electricity at Dimitrii. He dodged most of them then started returning fire shortly after being hit by one of them. He quickly scored three direct hits on Mayumi, knocking her back and jolting her with lancing pain though her left arm. She didn't give him the satisfaction of hearing her cry out, but the smirk on his face told her he knew she had taken a bad hit.
"Again, he copies me… Wait.." She quickly dodged out of the way of a massive rolling blast of dark energy, the kind he tried using during their first engagement. "Let me try something."
She launched another swarm of lancing electrical bolts, then also threw a rolling ball of lightning with them. He dodged the bolts but as she predicted, the last few managed lance him hard, knocking him away from the rolling thunder ball. He immediately responded with the twin lightning bolt spell she used earlier, which she easily managed to avoid.
"So that's his game," she realized. "He has the ability to copy any power he gets hit with, but I bet there is a limit to how much he can copy at once."
Mayumi began twisting two spells together, unleashing it as soon as an opening showed itself, fire and ice spiralled from her hands like a drill, but again Dimitrii was fast and managed to get glazed by the combined spell. Then he tried to use it and his mind delivered a sharp pain into his brain, causing him to flinch and grab his head.
"You like that?" Mayumi taunted, as she launched a mixture of a lightning bolt, lancing bolt, and rolling thunder spell at once, it looked like a completely new spell and Dimitrii took a glancing hit from it. As soon as he tried to copy it, another massive lance of pain struck his mind.
"What are you doing?!" Dimitrii yelled.
"They, say mimicry is the highest form of flattery, but you're no mimic… just a pathetic copycat. Kind of a shame really; I usually love cats, but not your kind, Dimitrii."
Dimitrii finally understood. "You clever minx, you're twisting spells together! I can't tell where one ends and another begins!" He was suddenly pelted by a combination of metal shards and ice, the lacerations weaking him considerably and throwing him to the ground. "Damn you!"
"You were an amusing puzzle for as long as you lasted," Mayumi noted as she began to weave together more destructive magic.
Dimitri responded with a sudden blast of dark energy, different from what Mayumi had seen from him before. She quickly transmuted the energy she was drawing into a strong ward before her that barely managed to hold the dark power in check. As it cleared, she could see Dimitri was escaping, but the residual energy of his spell slowed her response and she couldn't give chase.
"This isn't over, you wench!" he yelled as he ran.
Mayumi ignored the insult and quickly ran back towards the battle that happening between Dario and Shinji. The later wasn't faring well.
Dario landed from his jump, slamming his fist into the ground and creating a massive flaming shockwave that raced away from his position. Shinji barely managed jump over it, rolling as he did. Upon landing he thew a series of spears at Dario who easily avoided them and launched back with a rapid series of fireballs. Shinji managed to dodge all but one of them, but was able to quickly put the fire out before getting too burned.
Dario slammed his hands together. "Eat this!" he yelled unleashing twin streams of flames that resembled Chinese dragons.
Shinji barely managed to get out of the way, then rushed towards his position summoning a dagger from one of his lesser used souls. Dario flame teleported away before Shinji could slash him and unleashed another series of powerful blasts of flame at his location, then he quickly threw a flame ward up behind him using his right hand to block the mass of incoming ice.
"So, the bitch wants a piece too, eh?" Dario noted, as he whipped his hand back sending a blade shaped wave of fire at Mayumi. She slid under the attack and tried to close with Dario, staff in hand. He responded by slamming the ground with both fists again sending a large wave of fire towards her. She spun her staff while jumping backwards creating a concentrated ward that managed to allow her to ride the wave backwards safely, but lost the ground she gained.
Dario dodged the massive sword swung at him with a low bend at the waist, then sidestepped the next swipe down. Shinji was going full tilt with one of his Sword Lord's blades. Shinji knew he couldn't use most of the summons he had at his disposal as they would be killed too quickly, so he was forced to stick with guardians and weapons. Shinji jumped and swung the sword round wide in at an angle down, only to hit nothing as Dario teleported again. He growled in annoyance as a blast of flame managed to catch him from behind.
"Seems like you can't keep up, mate," Dario taunted. "At this rate, you'll be a briquette rather soon."
The flames on Shinji's back extinguished quickly as he turned to face Dario again. "That barely stung," he countered. "Most vampires are susceptible to fire, but you'll find I'm far more resilient than that."
Mayumi landed next to him. "He's proving to be quite annoying," she noted.
"I couldn't fight him in the apartment complex due to lack of space," Shinji replied. "Here I have room but it's not helping as much as I'd hoped. Any suggestions?"
"We work as a team. You're better in close combat than me, and he seems to be avoiding it at all costs. That must be his shortcoming. I'll try to herd him into a position you can strike then switch to energizing your weapons while you fight him."
"Got it." Shinji rushed at his position again, this time wielding a pair of daggers instead of the huge sword.
Mayumi summoned her broom taking to the air but staying below 10 meters as she unleashed lances of dark energy towards Dario's position. He dodged most of them, teleporting again just as Shinji managed to reach him. Mayumi was able to predict where he would appear and launched a large ball of ice at the same location. Dario appeared right next to the impact point, and was blasted with a wave of cold and blades of ice that tore into his back and side. Despite the damage, he wasn't slowed at all as he managed to blast Shinji point blank with torrent of fire. Only Shinji's use of Final Guard saved him from being burnt to a crisp.
Immediately as the block occurred, Mayumi launched another series of icy comets upon Dario's location, but he suddenly slid backwards leaving a flame trail behind him as he went, avoiding all of them. Standing up, he threw off what remained of his coat, revealing a torn and bloody T-shirt.
"Now this is more like it!" he yelled as his aura erupted again. "I actual felt that one, love! What else ya got?!"
"I haven't even begun to dig into my arsenal, you pyromanical buffon!" she yelled back as she launched a series of icy swords at Dario. He dodged every one, teleporting after the last set came down. She turned as fast as she could but was nailed with a massive fireball and knocked out of the air, her broom disappearing as it was instantly burnt away.
"Mayumi!" Shinji yelled. "Bastard! I'll have your head for that!"
Mayumi hit the ground and rolled to put out the flames. She got back to her feat, observing the burns on her exposed legs and arms and the now tattered and chard condition of her clothing. The pain hadn't kicked in yet, which was good. She'd need to stay on point to survive this battle.
"Our plan seems to be failing," Shinji noted.
"Give it a chance," Mayumi countered. "We need to anticipate where he's going and maximise the damage we deal. He's bleeding… so he's not invincible."
Dario released another set of twin dragon flames, spiraling around each other before the lanced forward to strike both of his attackers. Mayumi and Shinji were fast enough to get out of the way of that, Shinji flanking around to the left while Mayumi summoned her staff again to attack from the right. At the last moment, Dario fired his flames directly down, using the force as propulsion to send him airborn as the two were about to reach him. Both were forced back by the flames.
"When are you gonna learn that you ain't shit compared to me, Ikari?! I'm gonna be the one to take over the night." He landed a good 10 meters away. "But don't you worry… I'll take good care of your girls… well except that green plant bitch. I'm gonna use her for kindling."
"Over my dead body," Shinji countered, spinning his blades in his hands, now holding both daggers in reverse grips.
"That's the idea, mate." Dario raised his hands causing the ambient temperature to suddenly and sharply increase. Shinji watched the sky turn red, then gasped as dozens of flaming meteors were suddenly raining down from above. "Let me show you a glimpse of hell before I send ya off!"
Explosions chained around them, causing both to frantically search for cover, but as Mayumi watched a building explode from a direct hit from one of the meteors, she realized that escape was impossible.
"It always ends in fire, Ikari!" Dario yelled and began to laugh manically as the rain of fire began to intensify.
I never let on,
That I was on a sinking ship,
I never let on that I was down
You blame yourself,
For what you can't ignore,
You blame yourself for wanting more
"Dario is proving to be a far greater threat then Dimitri, but I can't give up just yet, We'll beat him… we have to…"
Next Chapter: Patron of the Art
