I DO NOT OWN EMINENCE IN SHADOW, HOWEVER I DO OWN ANY OF THE ARTS SHOWN IN THESE FICS.
Viewer Discretion : This Chapter contains immense amounts of angst and suffering to the point it feels it's a suffering-porn. (THE SHADOWS) Chapters are a point of plot for the characters and there will be no more chapters like this in the future, it is only this once that we have such scenery. You may not like this special chapter because of it, you have been warned.
--------------------------------------------------------
Special Chapter 7 : The Shadows (2.5/3)
----------------------------------------------------
She was furious, outright murderous and livid even.
Lelaine and Nicholas were injured, half dead, likely to die within the next few hours if they didn't get any help.
She looked to her daughter, her blood boiling angrily.
She could sense it, she could feel it, she could see everything that her daughter had to go through while she was crying herself out. Her daughter was bloodied, she had injuries everywhere... Then there's that bloodstain covering her hands and dress.
It wasn't hers, she could tell.
The smell of the blood was mixed, likely of different people.
Elizabeth gripped her scythe with intense hatred and intensity, her eyes were cold and furious. Belmo was a dead man, she was going to RIP HIM APART.
Belmo seemed to feel what she was going to do to him soon and shook, he steeled himself and screamed. "SIOPILOS!"
His voice rang through the entire room, Elizabeth could sense some dumbass trying to move around the Mansion roof, did he seriously think they could ambush her? Her, the strongest vampire who has tracking capabilities on par with The Trial of the Goddess Shrine's detection?
"Hilarious." She scoffed, she'll deal with him later, but first.
She disappeared in a red blur followed by mist. Belmo's eyes widened, barely able to follow her movements.
Lelaine and Nicholas suddenly found themselves outside the Mansion, placed in a clearing where most of the nobles were patching themselves, all were bloody and injured. They couldn't leave the area right off because every single staff member in the gigantic mansion was a part of Belmo's forces.
They were briefly covered in a red mist that flew back to the mansion.
A split second later, Remilya also found herself on the clearing. She looked around, seeing the people she saved. She slumped in relief, happy that she at least saved a bunch of people.
Suddenly, soft, warm and delicate arms wrapped itself around her, she instantly melted in them. She already knew who it was hugging her, so she immediately hugged back as well.
She felt a few droplets falling to her hair, and a soft sobbing from her mother.
"Remilya.. I'm so sorry... I'm sorry I took so long to get here.. Your mama is such a bad girl." Elizabeth didn't waste any time apologizing to her daughter who had to go through so much. "I'm sorry that you had to go through all of these.. If I could have gotten sooner.."
Remilya tightened her hug on her mama as she herself started crying, happy that she's finally safe.
"I'm sorry for lying to you and keeping you away from your father–"
"--I forgive you." Remilya said without hesitation, she had already planned on forgiving her mama when she saw him, she wanted to at least talk it out with her, but due to adrenaline and all the exhaustion she felt really tired. She simply said the only thing the came to her mind right now.
Elizabeth stuttered at the last second, what did her daughter say..?
"W-What?"
"I forgive you.. I... I'm sure you had your reasons mama... I'm sorry for running off."
Elizabeth's heart clenched, warming up and filled with joy. "T-Thank you.." she sobbed lightly, hugging her daughter tighter. Lelaine smiled warmly from the side, leaning exhaustedly to her husband, both were now relaxing seeing that the Blood Queen herself, someone they managed to become friends with had arrived to their rescue.
"But.. Let me meet him please?"
"Sure.. I already planned on doing that after this." Elizabeth smiled, before her tone became hard and cold. "But first, someone has to pay first. For making you go through all of this."
She stood up, staring back to the mansion where Belmo is currently plotting his schemes.
"I'm going to," She closed her eyes and paused. "Show him what it means to hurt Elizabeth Vlodquinn's and Shadow's daughter."
Shadow...? Remilya pondered, was that the name of her father..?
Because if it was, it sounded so damn cool.
Elizabeth disappeared with a burst of speed, disappearing way faster than Remilya could follow, with Belmo she could barely see him moving, he might have been holding back... But she could feel that her mama was way faster.
++--------------------++
"Commence Phase two, Siopilos. Don't disappoint me." Belmo ordered the finest of his First Children, Siopilos was above Silent wind, he had been the one to sneak up on the Blood Queen and give him the information he now possessed. He trusted this soldier of his to do his job properly, there were Athoryvos and Andreikelo who were Siopilos' partners, their jobs were just as important as well.
The First Child disappeared in a flash, moving away from his position, two other figures in the shadow moved along as well. Belmo breathed slowly, calming his nerves and preparing himself for the hardest fight of his life.
Hearing the sounds of marching, he heard his forces — Consisting of Second and First Childrens, the majority being dummies. A.k.a First Children and recruits. — marching towards his location.
One of the parts of his phase two consisted of splitting his forces into two, all of the second and first children will be fighting alongside him against the Blood Queen, while the dummies will be going for the Dhampir and the nobles outside.
It's all a part of his plan.
He unsheathed his silver sword, the sword strangely gleaming silver once more. He dug into his coat and pulled out his personal firearm. The Thompson Contender, a modern state of the art hand-cannon capable of holding various types of bullets, inside the cartridge was the 'Sleeping Queen' waiting to be fired.
All of his men finally finished marching and scattered everywhere, all of them wielding bear-rifles holding the prototypes of the Sleeping Queen. Oh how he remembered how much money and time he spent to set all of this up, all the preparations and hardworking he'd done.
He ran a Sleeping Queen bullet around his fingers, the bullet being black instead of yellow, the color of it changed because of their attempts on masking its scent.
A terrible failure really, it didn't completely mask the scent. The Sleepful God wine was a strange drink all in all.
And It was finally going to be put to use, all of his preparation.
Now if only the edge of that crimson scythe would stop in its tracks–
—Electricity exploded as he dodged backwards, seeing his life flash before him for a brief moment.
Belmo felt his bones scream in agony after leaning back so fast, his eyes wide as it had ever been.
He ducked down so fast he went flying, rolling to the ground and hitting a few of his men. He didn't waste any time recovering and glancing where he had previously been. His already wide eyes couldn't believe it, half of his men.
Blood splattered everywhere, the First and Second Children that had been behind him were all cleaved in half, their tops seemingly blown away.
"FIRE! FIRE AT HER!" He screamed in with a shaking voice, all of his men snapped out of their stupor and had only realized that their target had already arrived. They all aimed at the Blood Queen wielding a strangely shaped crimson scythe, without pause they all fired.
Elizabeth disappeared before the bullets could reach her, the cloudy yellow mist spreading everywhere. Belmo ate a small pill that acted as an anti-agent to the failed prototypes given to him by his subordinates, since the prototype only induced intoxication it wasn't too hard to make an anti-agent that prevented it.
The soldiers he had in the upper floor were all suddenly blown to smithereens by red lights that had rained upon them. The very same thing that had nearly killed him earlier.
"Blood Magic—!"
"---Correct." A voice came from behind him, perhaps it was because of luck or some kind of bullshit on his end, but he was able to poorly parry a scythe that would have beheaded him. Silver steel met with solid-enhanced blood, sparks flew everywhere as Belmo used his speed to escape, when he gained a considerable distance away from her, he was taken off-guard when she suddenly went inside his personal space, ready to cleave him in half with that scythe of hers.
He frantically blocked it again with his sword, his hand nearly losing its grip on the sword. The force behind her attacks were unbelievably heavy, it's as if a whole mountain was being used as a blunt weapon against him.
He disappeared again with a trail of lightning static, the Blood Queen following after him as a red blur. Multiple sparks of metal sparked within the mansion as Belmo poorly blocked everything Elizabeth was throwing at him, for some reason she wasn't using ranged attacks like she had been reported to be, instead of a close-quarter combatant.
A red mist and yellow lightning became a blur as the interior of the mansion became their battlefield, the yellow clouds of mist created by the failed Sleeping Queen prototypes being cleared as they zoomed everywhere followed by the sounds of metal hitting something unbelievably solid and sparks flying everywhere.
At one point Belmo almost became a smear on the floor as the Blood Queen slammed the end of her scythe at the spot where he used to be, you'd think that swinging such a large weapon would at least slow her down, unfortunately that wasn't the case, she was swinging the goddamned farming implement like a whip, turning herself into a death-zone of red arcs.
Not only that..
'She's like a fucking blender, turning my men into paste!'
A hand suddenly clasped around face, it gripped with an iron-grip and slammed him into the ground.
"Apologize for hurting my daughter!" Elizabeth howled, picking him up again and slamming him into the wall. Belmo groaned painfully as he was suddenly being face-dragged into the wall. "Apologize!"
Before Elizabeth could continue her sudden execution on him, she was suddenly electrified by an intense amount of volts, prompting her to let go of the man. Taking advantage of the momentary shock, Belmo took out a syringe from his coat and immediately slammed it into Elizabeth's thigh despite the pain he was in.
He pressed it in, making sure to inject her as much content as he could in this short window of opportunity.
Unfortunately for him, it wasn't that long as Elizabeth punched him in the diaphragm, breaking the wall behind him and launching him away, Belmo crashed into a wall after a few seconds, leaving him bloodied and gasping for breath.
This was insane, the Blood Queen's power was too immense it's making him rethink his plans. If this continued on he wouldn't even be able to follow up on later phases of his plans. An important detail to his plan was to last long enough, he thought that with his speed he would be able to hold out and stall, that didn't seem to be the damn case right now.
That meant he needed to increase his strength temporarily, so he took out a tiny jar containing his own set of Diablos' tears. Making a quick mental calculation and consideration, his limit was five Diablos' tears before he became unstable and started dehumanizing like that fool of a newbie years ago, Zenon Griffey or that fraud of a man, Mordred, ninth seat of the knights.
Although, even if he did dehumanize, he would turn back in a few minutes as the Tear's powers were not permanent and merely temporary, but the whole point was that the form he might take could decrease his main selling point. Speed.
For now, he'll eat two and use that time to buy himself time. He unhooked the small cap and ate two before hiding the jar again.
His magic exploded, his mana being increased by fourfold, he could even feel his speed being multiplied as well. Addictive as the feeling was, he hated how temporary it was, the power up might have felt satisfying. But he wasn't a fool enough to think that it would be enough, Mordred consumed a part of the fourth ruler and yet he still died, the Queen was likely still leagues above him, but at least the power up would provide him a better chance of stalling.
"UUUUOOHH!" He growled excitedly at the power though, the feeling of suddenly getting stronger was too exhilarating to ignore. He slowly regained his control over his magic moments before the Blood Queen nonchalantly arrived, completely unconcerned of what he'd just injected on her.
"The scent within these yellow clouds is unnatural and your strange syringe's contents, I'll only tell you this now, it's futile to try and poison me." The Blood Queen said, recreating her scythe once more, unfazed by his increase in magic.
Good, she thinks we're trying to poison her. He had no doubt that she would have easily identified the smell of alcohol if they didn't mask its scent with another heavy and dangerous poison's scent.
"That may be so," He replied. "But that won't stop me from trying."
He pulled out the Thompson Contender — He had to holster it back in his coat's traps when he ate the Tears — and fired it at the Blood Queen; he expected the vampire to take it, thinking it wouldn't be a threat to her. Unfortunately she merely obliterated the bullet by sending a barrage of arrows made out of blood.
Making use of his increased speed, he sped away and outran the arrows, yellow lightning crackled wherever he went. He zoomed around the entire mansion, ducking from an arrow and entering a room before bursting drop kicking the walls to enter another room, he was constantly dodging and swerving around the brutal methods of the Blood Queen, he started loading another Sleeping Queen bullet into his Thompson contender as he dodged.
Bursting from the door and running through the hallways, Belmo saw a small glint of light flashing from afar, light being refracted from the glass..? Hmph, just what he was waiting for. It seems that Siopilos had managed to do his part of the plan, he can now finally go to Phase 2's main part.
Lure the Blood Queen into his prepared territory.
Belmo hurriedly pushed himself out of the window and falling, he landed perfectly on his feet and sped off towards the sea, he looked at the still bright and hot sunlight of the afternoon, he would give it sixty minutes before evening dropped.
It didn't really matter how hot or bright the sunlight was, as long as it shone on a vampire, they'll be affected by its effects.
Now, if he could just get to where he should be then he'll be fine—
"Running now? Sorry, but with you knowing of Remilya. I won't be letting you get out of here alive, it's simply too dangerous to let someone like you go and give you a chance to do this again." Elizabeth snarled calmly from beside him, another whistling sound of air being cut went into Belmo's ears. He immediately scurried off and ducked from it, swiftly this time, compared to his initial state without the Tear's effects.
However Elizabeth saw this coming and grabbed him by the back of his shirt with her free hand, slamming him to the ground and kicking him back towards the direction of the Mansion, no doubt trying to keep the fight to a shaded place.
Belmo almost immediately lost his consciousness from her blows, willing himself to keep going he performed some acrobatic moves mid-air and landed back on the ground, pouring all of his magic into his legs and feet he bounced off the ground and dashed forward the sea once more.
Despite his maximum speed being used, Elizabeth caught up to him, her eyebrows furrowed and annoyed. She was taken off-guard by his full speed and had to use half of her own to actually follow him, quite impressive but nothing compared to Shadow's speed.
Belmo ran forward without stopping, forcing his legs to go even faster while Elizabeth flew, slowly catching up to him. They became a blur once more and moved across the landscape, Belmo eventually saw the sea and felt relief.
Only for his relief to be taken away by the Blood Queen reappearing in front of him and grasping his neck, because of the velocity he was going Belmo nearly choke, his neck violently slamming into her open palm. It was merely because of his durability that his neck didn't snap from the force, however that seemed to be the last of his worries as Elizabeth started tightening her grip on him.
Slowly choking the life out of him, he tried to use the same trick he used on her by shocking her. But in spite of that, she already predicted that shocking her was his main method of getting away, she used her own magic and overwhelmed Belmo's own, perfectly nullifying his attempts at electrocuting her.
As strong as she was, she wasn't a fan of being electrocuted because it was a pain in the ass to deal with, having every single one of your nerves be tickled and fried at the same time slightly bypassed her ability to numb pain.
"GUAAAHH—" Belmo screamed desperately, slamming his silver sword into her point-black. But because of the concentration of magic around Elizabeth, the sword broke upon contact with her skin, though annoyingly nicking a good bit of her flesh.
Wounds caused by silver took a long damn time to regenerate, it was annoying.
Belmo helplessly kicked around, he took out his Thompson Contender and fired it at her point-blank.
Again, it failed. Elizabeth caught the bullet with her teeth, spitting it away and falling into the ground motionless.
What did it take for this woman to just get the hint and BE SHOT!?
His vision blurred as he lost oxygen, his life slowly escaping from him with each second Elizabeth tightened her grip on him, his entire word was blackening.
T-This is bad, he was starting to lose consciousness.
His life flashed again, his mind going through his very own library of memories to find a way out of this situation. You see, when a person experiences what is called a 'Near-death Experience', their memories will flash before them, that's a defensive function by the brain where the person will access their memory, whether it be forgotten or barely recalled they will be able to remember it just to survive.
At this moment, Belmo remembered he had another trump card up in his sleeves, an artifact he never really had a place for his plans other than to be a meatshield and stall the Blood Queen, now was the time.
Since his hands were free, he grasped at the trinket necklace he was wearing desperately and ripped it free from his neck. Elizabeth narrowed her eyes in confusion, seeing the small necklace that had a small figure of Oshiana's Water Spirit.
With the last of his breath, he screamed out. "WITH THIS COMMAND I CALL YOU! DIVINE BLESSING CONVERGENT GUARDIAN WATER SPIRIT VIVIAN!"
The world briefly shook, the sea rumbled. Elizabeth immediately noticed something wrong.
Drip.
She sensed water.. Water everywhere. She glanced towards the sea for a few seconds, before her eyes widened.
Wet.
She sensed a huge abundance of water in front of her, she immediately returned her gaze on Belmo only to be met with an open palm that belonged to a woman, stretched out and too close to her face.. And too blue, the skin was blue.
SPLAASSH!
Her head was nearly blown off, causing her to lose her grip on Belmo. She had just been hit by a highly-pressured blast of water, the continuous stream of water slowly became a blue beam and continued to push Elizabeth towards the sea.
Elizabeth regenerated her head from the blast and imbued magic on her palm, making a slapping motion and hitting the beam of high-pressured water and redirecting its trajectory. The force from her slapping it away caused an explosive force of shockwave that reverberated throughout the entire island.
The water spray disappeared soon after, giving Elizabeth a clear view of her new opponent.
It was a floating woman, blue and translucent skin, a majestic dress black and white dress floating them from her form. Her hair was just as long as her's, except it was tied similarly to buns, next to it was Belmo coughing on all fours, still regaining his breath.
She's... Never heard of this before, dragons sure, but a water spirit as strong as this one? It must've had such a long history for it to be this strong then, then again, Oceania was a kingdom she doesn't remember from her time, maybe due to it being incredibly far.
Either way, that's just another enemy, the water spirit seems to be stronger than that despicable man who's name will soon be 'Dead man' once she gets her hands on him, strange though.. She should have been able to crush his neck when she caught him.
She didn't get to focus on that thought when the Water Spirit, Vivian blasted her again. Elizabeth countered with her Blood magic and made a swirling shape, easily prying off and dispersing the water beam. Her eyes suddenly widened when she saw electricity traveling throughout the beam, it reached her barrier as electric shock exploded everywhere, causing her to momentarily lose control.
Her defensive blood barrier lost its concrete concentration, causing it to weaken under the immense pressure of water. Her barrier broke and she was blasted backwards, the beam kept continuing pushing her to the water and making her roll on the water like a skipping stone. She eventually had enough and used her magic to blow it all apart, her explosive outburst reached even the beach slightly throwing off Vivian and Belmo.
She stopped the momentum of skipping like a stone through water by using her ability to fly, she grumbled and wiped some water off of her face.
"That... was strange, I was overwhelmed?" She felt suspicious, something was going on here. Her enhanced sense of hearing picked up on the sound of water forming something behind her, just like before she turned around and was met with another open palm.
"Guh!?" She leaned back to the side, avoiding the annoying water beam and using her claws to swipe at the water spirit.
Her claws cleaved Vivian into five different sections, the water spirit simply regenerated its parts because of the surrounding water and resumed her attempts and blasting Elizabeth again. The Blood Queen was forced back and had to dodge the Water spirit's attacks multiple times, this became even more taxing when the water below her, aka the whole sea suddenly grew tendrils and fired towards her direction.
How turn the tables, it was using her usual tactics of combat. A massacre of nonstop magic barrages until your enemy was overwhelmed by the quantity of attacks, Elizabeth was currently getting a piece of her own medicine and grew annoyed. She raised her hand in the sky and fired her own rain of blood attacks.
Her eyes narrowed when she saw the water barrage overwhelming her blood rain...
Did she get weaker? No, that wasn't possible her strength never waned back in the Haven, not to mention she just had a power-up from the Blood Moon six years ago. Was it from his attempts at poisoning her? That didn't make sense. She was a master of blood manipulation, she should at least be able to tell if something was off with her body.
She nudged her head to the side, dodging a water projectile flying at high speeds.
'This usage of water as projectiles.. ' That in itself was very strange, water wasn't a good conductor for magic and couldn't be used at this proficiency.
That did not seem to apply to this spirit, granted, her name was the Vivan, water spirit .
Likely the very same one Oshiana is currently celebrating. The gender for the water spirit was never confirmed in Oshiana's history; it seems that she was a woman in contrast to most folk tales.
To make matters worse, she was surrounded by water. Something she as a vampire did not get along with, vampires, especially progenitors did not DO well in water, being submerged in water really weakened them for some reason, maybe it has something to do with the story of the Goddess Beatrix purifying the sea.
Speaking of being surrounded by water, this water spirit, Vivian was it? Showed the ability to reappear where there was water nearby.
That made for a good technique to catch enemies off-guard, really good for ambushes and overwhelm enemies under a submergent of water and attacks.
She scoffed, their exchange of aerial and ranged attacks continued on for a while, with Elizabeth losing the clash of firepower. She felt a weird sensation ringing from inside her and nearly made her focus on her ability to fly.
...Ah, now she sees why.
This set up, it did feel strange as to why that man Belmo was desperately trying to run away. He wasn't running away, but rather luring her here.
Bright Sunlight still casting down, The sea and the water bombardment. It was both to weaken her.
Upon realization she needed to change the territorial field, she immediately started flying away towards the mansion once more, only to be met with a silver sword lodging itself in her stomach.
Belmo had thrown himself at highspeeds to stab her using a silver sword, grumbling something in annoyance, Elizabeth threw multiple blood attacks at him, to which the man dodged with his lightning speed movements and started falling down to the sea.
'What was this fool thinking? He can't fly—?!'
To her surprise, the man had landed on the water and walked on it as if it was normal ground. Great, so it IS a territorial advantage on their side, this man was prepared she'll give him that. But now that they were in the same spot.. She decided to increase her output to the maximum while being weakened, bringing her hands together and compressing huge amounts — And I mean, HUGE amounts — of blood together, her defensive attacks were all now disposed of as variants of water projectiles started hitting her, as well as Belmo helping out with a few of his own attacks.
Elizabeth did not flinch, she kept on continuing to mold this catastrophic mass of magic into something that'll help her end this faster.
Ten seconds later she felt herself weaken even more, the attacks kept on continuing, holes and burns in her body appeared everywhere. She didn't bother with them until she felt her magic finish.
She smirked.
"Remilya once told me that saying attacks outloud was useless, but it did make up for a cool factor. Let's see if she's right shall we?"
Her breath paused, her smirk remained as the world slowly became red from her power. Vivian Increased her attacks of non stop barrage while Belmo immediately hauled ass upon seeing the Blood Queen pull out something.
Elizabeth brought her hands forth, showcasing to the world.
"Maximum Output : Deadly Rain Blood" The Blood Queen declared.
The world rumbled into crimson death, red filled the skies and a part of the sea they were on became blood red.
Vivian immediately found herself being torn apart by a heavy rain of blood magic, giving her difficulties of trying to regenerate, the whole sea itself was being bombarded by blood attacks raining down on it. Everywhere was death and magic, Belmo desperately clung to his life by eating another Tear and running away, it was already his third Tear.
As the water spirit fought to keep her form and being alive, she saw the Blood Queen with her hands clasped together. She was raising her output, Vivian glared at her and brought forth the might of the sea, if blood rained then water would rise.
They clashed once more, magic to magic as explosions appeared everywhere akin to how Elizabeth clashed with Shadow using her blood against his slimes.
She was being overwhelmed... Again.
Seeing the water spirit Vivian getting closer to her while enduring her array of attacks, Elizabeth realized that holding back was a no-go against this opponent if her current strength itself was being weakened by quite a lot.
She closed her eyes, opening them as she released her hands from one another and started gathering blood towards her center.
She concentrated on something new, something strong and destructive, something that her daughter wanted her to emulate.
Coagulation.
Mixture.
Magic.
Compress and Imbue.
Between two powers.
Polarized blood into perfection.
She clasped her hands together and readjusted her hold, gripping a non-existent weapon as she stretched her hands wide, a spear-like construct made out of her magic and blood spawned.
The world rumbled, the spear hummed as she took hold of it .
Vivian, a water spirit with a consciousness forced to obey those who use Oshiana's artifact, felt fear for the first time in her life.
Belmo was already back on the island, preparing himself for whatever may come.
Elizabeth aimed the spear at where Vivian was, enforcing fear upon a mythical creature.
The Blood Queen roared, her voice reverberated throughout the entire island as she screamed. " LANZA DEL RELAMPAGO!"
The world exploded.
++--------------------++
"Talk, where the hell is your base?" said Zeta, holding a man over the edge of the Caste of Oshiana's tallest building.
"I-I'd rather die than tell you!" The man wearing a lab-coat persisted.
Zeta scoffed, being in a terrible mood after her talk with her lord. "We can make amends."
The man's eyes widened as Zeta slowly unclasped her grip on his collar, until Zeta suddenly sensed something.
"..." Zeta's eyes slowly widened, this sensation... Her eyes whipped towards the sea. "It's... Stronger than Alpha's magical pressure by a small margin.. Who is—"
Then she remembered, there was one being other than Shadow present in Oshiana capable of pulling off a feat like this.
"The Blood Queen, It seems we're late." She grit her teeth, she COULD go there now, but it's likely that her Lord is already on his way towards the Queen... Or his beloved, she supposed.
Her conversation was still fresh in her mind, and it hurt, alot. Rude as it may, she wished Alpha was here to tear the Blood Queen a new one.
If she could , Beta had once told them that the Blood Queen was stronger than Alpha five to six years ago, it appears that the Blood Queen was still stronger than the current Alpha, even if just by a bit.
She shook her head and Instead focused on the task on hand, she'll just focus on finding their base to distract her mind away from her conversation with Shadow.
Now if she can only get this idiot to talk—
"---Oh shit, I accidentally let go."
++--------------------++
He was really pissed off.
Cid Kagenou-- Or currently disguised as the Super Elite Agent John Smith, grumbled.
' I can't believe my luck has betrayed me today, what the hell man? I thought we were pals Lady Luck'
Why was he so annoyed and upset you ask? It all started when he separated from Zeta and started roaming around Oshiana, completely bored out of his mind and stealing people's possessions --- He cut off from that for now since he was still betting on that promise by Elizabeth --- While he waited for some kind of signal from Zeta to start moving.
While roaming around the fashionably aesthetic Kingdom, he took note of how similar this kingdom was to Midgar. Both aspects of Modern and Medieval Era's being present, something he didn't mind and actually had some fun with, he spent the night mostly meandering around and looking for any opportunities to roleplay as John Smith.
Sadly, no such luck as the whole kingdom was literally too busy celebrating this... Uh.. What was it called again? 'Water Spirit' Festival thingy. Annoyingly loud as it was he appreciated the residents here for having a taste for clothes.
Oh and he spotted a red-haired little girl flying away last night too. Pretty sure she was a vampire, couldn't really see much of her features since she was using Mist form to fly away. He DID try to chase after her, but when he did he got distracted by that ITCHY spot again! Even if it had been a brief distraction it was enough for him to lose the girl AFTER she hid her presence.
Dude, a little girl just suppressed her magical signature enough to hide it away from him . For whatever reason he really felt proud at that moment.
Speaking of that, something about the red-haired girl was off when he was speeding towards her. Like REALLY off, he swore he sensed His and Elizabeth's magic wavelengths mixed together in that girl, completely making a whole different signature.
Different as it was he still felt his signature and Elizabeth's in the girl, once he lost the Lil'Vampire he thought about using Atomic Radar to find her --- And Elizabeth-san as well --- But went against it as it would rob him of something intriguing to figure out.
What? He's been BORED for the past two years, sue him if he wanted to give himself a challenge by not using his awesome hacks to skip a whole storyline.
After that, he tried finding the red-haired girl whom he now dubbed as 'Lil' Vampire Girl' by limiting himself to blending around with the crowds. Suprisingly enough, he wasn't able to find her again, not a single trace of her magic was left when she flew away. That was a really cool technique he wasn't going to lie, he could do something on a similar scale or even better but it was still surprising to see someone capable of doing such a feat, at a really young age no less!
When he was looking for her his mind was mostly occupied with figuring out how Lil'Vampire had his and Elizabeth's wavelengths inside her --- It still is --- Eventually after a good long five hours or something, he stumbled upon a Casino after deciding that walking was better than speeding around to keep himself distracted.
Out of curiosity, he'd gone inside the Casino and started playing around while thinking about Lil' Vampire. A little break wouldn't hurt him after hours of limiting himself right?
Oh how wrong he was, Lady Luck had it out for him last night, like damn!
"T-This sensation..." John Smith's voice wavered, his emotions undergoing some terrible experience as he grit his teeth in fury. He was a man who's emotions were usually calm and composed, but he did get pissed off once in a while. But his anger was rare, he rarely felt so.
And when he did, shit went down.
"I FUCKING HATE THIS SLOT MACHINE!" He said while slamming his fists on the Slot machine.
Bah! He seriously hated gacha sometimes, his pocket-money he brought with him was going to go dry if he didn't win at least a single jackpot here. If it came to it, he'll just steal some jewelry again. That or break this whole place and steal their money, but that was out of the line.
What kind of moron would rob a casino? The whole point of it was to spend money and win some.
Inserting another few silver coins, he started rolling again.
"Come on, win me some." He grimaced while looking at the slot machine. After a few seconds of rolling, the slot machine showed his results
'5 3 2'
"FUCK—! This thing is rigged dude!" He slammed his fists again in shame.
And after that, he left the probably-rigged Casino and resumed his search. Thinking again, his mind traveled to Elizabeth as to what his supposed girlfriend — If they were ever a thing, his mind still remembered when she kissed him after her confession to him, that had been a surprise at the time and didn't know what to think of it.
..? There it is again, a skip in his heart followed by a growing itch on the lower back of his neck. This thing has been consistently annoying ever since he arrived in Oshiana. He used his magic to try and figure out what was wrong with him, to his surprise, there were some hidden traces of Elizabeth's magic signature lying around out.
He was currently walking around scratching the same annoying itch that had been torturing him ever since he came to Oshiana.
He refrained from using his magic to heal whatever was wrong with him after that, his mind now more distracted as he was multitasking on synthesizing Elizabeth's magic that was on the itchy spot behind his lower neck and brainstorming what the Lil' Vampire's connection to him and Elizabeth was.
He closed his eyes as he began to concentrate more on using magic to scrutinize the spot on his lower neck, the other part of his mind going to the Lil' Vampire that distracted him just as much as Elizabeth does.
His heart skipped another beat, his mind slowly getting clouded with thoughts about Elizabeth the more he thinked about her.
'LANZA DEL RELAMPAGO!'
Great, he was now thinking about her so much that he's imagining her using a famous iconic attack from one of the show's he's previously watched for inspiration.
Hold on, was that Elizabeth he was actually sensing or...? Nah, it's probably the weird thing itchy spot thingy. He resumed his musings until he walked to a familiar street where a certain Blood Queen lives.
Sensing more Traces of Elizabeth's wavelength, he continued walking until he felt a huge abundance of her magic to his right. Opening his eyes, his masked form was greeted with the sight of a fashionable and luxurious huge Red-Gold painted house.
His eyes landed on the nameplate on the right side of a small gate.
"Vlodquinn." He read.
++--------------------++
Remilya watched, her jaws slacked.
Her mama really did it, she used it, a fictional move that she loved. She kept her promise.
Her eyes watched as a ginormous red beam of light erupted from the ground to the skies, briefly painting the world red, red light flashed the clouds red.
T-This was how strong her Mama was!?
"HOLY SHIT!" She screamed out, before covering her mouth and looking behind her with panicked wide-eyes.
Auntie Lelaine and Uncle Nicholas had heard her swear, uh oh.
Thankfully the couple was too occupied looking at the hellish power of her Mama, which now slowly dissipated into nothing.
Heh, that meant her mama won didn't it? Who's gonna survive that, No one! That's how! Hahaha!
She wanted to see Rando's reaction right now, he definitely heard her mama scream out the magic words of 'Lance of the Lightning'.
She looked around for Rando, her eyes traveling around the group of survivors. She frowned, she couldn't find him. She increased her sense of eyesight, her eyes glowed red as she tried to find Rando.
Now that she noticed, none of the nobility around her age was here too, the people around her were adults.
"Auntie, Uncle, where's Rando...?" She asked them.
The couple shook out of their stupor and looked at her in confusion, they looked around as well looking for Rando.
"Rando—?"
BANG!
—However their search was interrupted when she heard the sounds of someone getting shot, her eyes whipped to the side, one of the nobles had just been killed.
Her eyes widened as she practically flew into her feet, the people already screaming out in fear. S-She thought it was over, there's more!?
Her eyes darted around the clearing and saw countless people wearing black cloaks and staff uniforms with rifles, the black cloaked people were running towards them with swords, their eyes bloodshot and widened, while the fake-staff members fired at them.
Remilya used her remaining magic reserves to create a protective barrier around the people she was protecting.
"Everyone! Get behind some cover please!"
Auntie Lelaynee helped Uncle Nicholas move while the rest of the nobles frantically scurried off for some cover.
She clicked her tongue, her eyes caught a small glimpse of the ninja-guy from before on top of the rooftop holding a small... Child covered in a black body bag, in the lower floors of the Mansion she could also see a group of children in body bags being taken away.
...Wait, is that one the rooftop... RANDO!
"Rando!" She worriedly shouted, damn it, she was stuck protecting these people!
Thankfully, the barrage of gunshots ended when she heard the sounds of destruction. The side of the mansion she was facing was completely obliterated as a woman with long-red hair appeared before her, killing most of the black-cloaked men.
"M-MAMA!" Her eyes gleamed with sparkly colors and relief.
"You good? Brat?" Her mama asked, wait. Brat?
Her mama turned around with a brand new scoff and mean-looking face. Remilya immediately fell to her rear and got scared.
"W-Wawawa.."
Mean-Mama saw this and immediately panicked, her scoff softening as she tried to comfort her daughter.
"W-Wait, I'm sorry! I-It's me your mama!"
"Mama doesn't glareeee" She cried out.
"I-Ugh, why did I have to be the one to get here, look Remilya, I have a technique that allows me to make clones of myself, think of uh.. Split personalities with bodies of their own!" Mean-Elizabeth explained, Remilya looked at her and made an 'o' expression.
Before she remembered something important. "Mean-Mama! Rando got taken away! As well as the other kids my age!"
"M-Mean mama?! I-You know what? That fits." She stuttered, before getting serious. "And I know, one of my clones Is already chasing after that idiot who thought he could sneak up on me, not sure about the other kids though, I don't know where they went." She scoffed, her sensing abilities were being affected as the main body was weakened.
"I-I saw them being taken inside the mansion! Save them please."
Mean-Elizabeth looked at her daughter, her expression softened. "I was going to anyway." She patted her head and turned back to the mansion. "Stay here with the nobles, I'll get rid of these idiots and save those brats, my uh.. Other self, you can call her Cheery-Mama or something will save Rando."
That was all Mean-Elizabeth said before she thundered back to the mansion, creating an absolute massacre to those unfortunate to be on her path.
Remilya slumped to the ground, at ease now that her mama was taking care of things..
But seriously, clones? She wanted to learn that so bad, if she somehow learned that and could create four clones, there's so stopping her from slapping gem-themed wings on her back and wearing a white hat.
"---Hmmpphh–!"
"Huh?" Her eyes darted around in confusion, there should be no one close to her because all of the survivors/nobles already ran away, and there was no enemy nearby–
BANG!
Ugh!
A bullet suddenly pierced her shoulder blades, groaning, her eyes watered a little from the pain. She painfully turned around to face her adversaries who SEEM TO KEEP COMING WITHOUT STOP!
Her eyes widened when she caught sight of seven nobles, five of whom she recognizes to be one of the few she saved. Five Second Children and two First Children, Remilya didn't know this but she could feel the difference between them.
The other two were new, she noted. Two of the nobles holding onto two child-nobles as hostages while one of the new ones was a woman holding onto a boy whose head was bagged only just like the other two child-nobles being used as a hostage, she didn't recognize either of them.
None of them smelled like Rando too, the boy who was being held by the woman had a strange scent though, as if being masked by something.
She glared angrily, she wanted to scream WHY were they doing this. She saved them and they're stabbing her in the back!?
Then she remembered, back at the gala there were a few nobles with silver knives inside their coats...!
These people must've blended alongside the survivors she saved when she blew that wall open!
They all started firing at her, Remilya prepared herself and lunged.
"Don't worry I'll save you all!"
++--------------------++
"I don't think I remember Elizabeth-san having a last name..." He said while looking at the nameplate.
Sending particulates of his magic around the house, he searched the entire house without moving from his spot, no one was home but he could tell who lived here.
Three traces of magic signatures.
Elizabeth, Lil'Vampire and that maid girl from back at the train... So he WAS right, that girl had been the person he plagiarized some lines from.
His curiosity had been fulfilled, now this whole thing had his attention now. He broke inside the house without any difficulties, having lockpicked the door with ease.
With an occasional rarity, he felt rude and guilty for having snuck inside their house without their consent, Elizabeth had left him off with the money he still had from her and he was here yet again, snooping around her home when she was out.
Well, it's probably fine. Not like he's gonna steal anything from her again, she was simply too scary to steal from because she could easily see through him.
Man, he wanted that level of perceptiveness.
He roamed around the house and noted the huge amount of toys and books lying around. The Itch on his back became worse as he walked around, his heart skipping a few beats when she smelled Elizabeth's fragrance around the house — Which for some reason was still here, did she use perfumes or something? —-
He then saw an array of picture frames above a fireplace in their living room.
Curiously, he strode forward and took a closer look at the pictures.
"..."
Elizabeth had a baby..?
"She had a kid...? Since when and with who..?" Cid confusingly asked no one. He didn't know what to feel about this as he clenched his fist.
Was he supposed to be jealous?
Dude, he was so confused. He's an Eminence in Shadow not a loverboy, scandalous drama involving relationships was something he did not DO!
Come on man! What was this feeling of annoyance in his chest???
Before making any more judgments, he picked up another picture frame and got a closer look of the Red haired little vampire, Red eyes and Red Hair. It was a picture of Elizabeth and the Little Girl at school, the former wearing nice and cozy casual clothes, if he had to admit, made her look beautiful. The little girl was wearing a red-dress of some sort, holding a sign that said 'Winner of Children's Oshiana costume play : Remilya Vlodquinn as an Eminence'
"..." He froze, and after a few seconds he put back the picture frame almost robotically and roamed once more.
He entered every single room without hesitation and eventually found Elizabeth's room that was red-themed, matching the Blood Queen's very color-scheme.
Again, he felt REALLY rude to be intruding here. But something was really picking on his attention, like an annoying bug that won't leave him.
He was about to leave when saw a terribly-hidden diary on top of a shelf, tall enough to overshadow someone of Elizabeth's height, but not him.
Looking at the diary, he felt various emotions whirling around him. He then furrowed his brows and removed his mask, putting it on a desk and grabbing the book.
During these past few years, Cid Kagenou or Minoru had somewhat grown as a person after a few talks with his friends. When he was roleplaying at one point, some dude started yapping about how he thinked of the people around him. The dude's speech was hard enough to get him to think about everything he's been doing up until then.
It was then that he realized he was really being a dickhead to them by ignoring them and using them as means to roleplay as an Eminence In Shadow. Sure, he had that mindset of 'trimming the fat' but did that HAVE to include making people around him suffer? He did notice that some of them were actually serious about their griefs and feelings and were not roleplaying.
After that he had a talk with Alexia of all people after she discovered his identity, a few bla bla bla bla's and he realized, dang he REALLY was a dickhead to them. He spent a few weeks thinking about his actions and his ideals that time, then he thought.
Technically, he could still be the Eminence in Shadow he so wished to be without having to manipulate people he knew and cared for, that thought was even deepened later on after he had a talk with the whole gang — The Shades.
Something he won't be getting into detail.
His eyes inspected the book and felt it in his hands, hesitantly, he opened the book without regards to privacy as his attention was at an all time high — That and it was effectively getting rid of his boredom.
Two birds with one stone, he could do this to get rid of his boredom while he waited for Zeta.
As he started reading the contents, Cid continuously grew nervous and guilty. The diary contained Elizabeth's very thoughts and honest opinions about him, a new and different perspective now that he thought about it.
After a few seconds of flipping pages, he finally got to that part of Elizabeth's diary.
The night where she confessed to him.
He read all of the contents and balked.
After reading the contents of that segment of the diary, he closed the book without finishing it and sat there for a few seconds.
Before he mouthed off the first few things that came into his mind.
"Oh shit, I owe her child support don't I...?" And his other being, "I have a daughter now... I'm a father." He said with an unsure tone. He slowly stood up and put on his mask.
He returned the diary where he found it and walked back to the living room.
His hands shook, his jaw closing and opening repeatedly.
Finally, he couldn't hold whatever he wanted to scream out, a primal roar that overshadowed his other thoughts.
"LET'S FUCKING GOOO!"
Instead of being nervous about the thought of having a daughter or being angry at Elizabeth's trickery on him, he focused on one of the very things that he'd been wanting to do for a while but never made an effort to do.
"I CAN SAY 'I'M YOUR FATHER' NOW!"
++--------------------++
Cheery-Elizabeth closed in at high speed at the weird-ninja-guy called 'Siopilos' and reeled her scythe.
The man was frantically running away from her, which wasn't really going to do anything to help him, the man had managed to run a sizable distance away from the mansion, but not far enough!
She bisected the man in a flash, and grabbed Rando who was currently body-bagged.
Strange though, she swore that man had a leaner build, not this lanky one.
Oh well, gotta check up on Rando-kun first. She gently dropped the boy who was in a body bag, she tore open into the bag with ease, her eyes immediately widened.
"Hold on, you're not Rando." She confusingly said, looking at a whole different child. It was a girl who was tearing up.
Shit, gotta comfort a girl now.
But wait... If Rando isn't here.. Then where?
She mentally called her other self.
"Cheery-Mama to Mean-Mama, are you there?"
Her other self inside the mansion scoffed.
"You were listening when our Daughter called me that?"
"Of course! It's rather cute don't you think?" Cheery-Elizabeth cood
"Of course you'd find it cute, get to the point, what do you want?"
"Rando's not here."
"What?"
"Siopilos, or well, if this IS him, had a different child kidnapped. I can't tell because my detection is really numb right now."
"Rando isn't here either, I'm still removing the bags from the kids, go find Rando while I tell our main-body."
"Got it."
Mean-Elizabeth felt the mental-link cut off, and groaned. "Where the hell are you, Rando?" Seconds later she called her main-body.
"Yo, Mean-Mama to Shitty-Mama you there?"
++--------------------++
"Yo, Mean-Mama to Shitty-Mama you there?"
"What."
"Whoa, so grumpy. What's up with you?"
"If you've got nothing to say then cut this mental link, I need to deal... With this son of a bitch."
Mean-Elizabeth frowned from her side.
"What the hell do you mean? You've already exerted enough force to break a whole mountain, what the fuck are you on about?"
"Just tell me what you called me for already!"
"Fine, Remilya's straight man to her shenanigans is missing, just telling you in case you could sense the brat, mine's too dull."
Elizabeth grimaced, she'll have to keep that in mind.
"Find him with the other me, I'm too busy dealing with this water spirit."
She cut off the mental link and returned her gaze to her opponent.
Water from the sea slowly floated above sea level and formed, morphing into a woman again.
Vivian regained her form with smooth and flowing speed, her eyes fear-stricken at Elizabeth's show of power.
Her regeneration started from one point, like a core. Elizabeth noted.
The Blood Queen narrowed her eyes, taking note of her enemies cards in this fight that were too similar to hers.
The Water Spirit seemed to be nigh-immortal when there's a huge body of water nearby, namely Okeanos' sea where they're currently fighting.
'Just before my attack reached the sea, this Water Spirit immediately melted back into the water and ran away a split second before my attack exploded.'
She needed to kill Vivian with something instantaneous, trying to bring the fight back at the mansion wouldn't do as well, as there was a lake nearby.
It was either kill Vivian or kill Belmo, neither was an easy option because one was too difficult to kill and the other was annoyingly fast.
She had to choose one of these options, in her hastily getting weaker state. If she had to make a calculated guess, her strength had probably lost around 40% of original strength.
Both from the sunlight and being continuously drenched in water, that and whatever Belmo had injected in her earlier. The yellow cloudy mists from earlier weren't that problematic because she managed not to inhale them.
She'll admit, it was foolish of her to ignore that, now because of that she's being weakened. Whatever is inside of her is taking some time to cleanse, whatever the case she was still vastly stronger than these two.
To her annoyance, Belmo was still alive, no doubt gasping for life at the beach.
ZAP!
Speaking of the devil, the bastard came running again into the fight and stood next to the Water Spirit.
She clicked her tongue, she stretched her arm outward calling for her Blood Scythe once more.
But first, she needed some questions to be answered.
"I'll be honest, you've made quite the effort just for this fight." Elizabeth said, annoyed at the current outcome of the fight.
Belmo panted heavily and smiled. "Why thank you your majesty, I've solely focused all of my time and heart on this very moment."
Elizabeth exhaled heavily, getting more annoyed at her drastically lowering strength. The sunlight was also starting to get to her as her skin was starting to emit some small patches of burning sensation.
"I can see that, I would praise you for your efforts but this Queen is rather annoyed at the moment. Tell me, why are you doing this?" She breathed out with some difficulty.
Belmo looked like he had expected this question at some point and snorted. "It's simple, Shadow is to blame for all of this, I would have called him your husband, but I didn't realize the Blood Queen was in such a scandalous drama."
Elizabeth's grip on her scythe tightened, her annoyance slowly becoming anger.
"How do you know that?" She seethed out.
"I'm quite sure Lelaine Omadolcnte had thought she was clever by sending a message to you, I've already predicted that she'll try this at some point, did she not tell you?"
Right, Lelaine's message contained a small part telling her that this man had control over the entire Kingdom. She never told Lelaine or anyone from the Omadolcnte's about her falling out with Remilya, so it's not possible that it was them that told him.
Did Remilya tell him? Unlikely, her daughter was not the type to share drama to people whom she didn't consider a good friend.
If not, then when did he..?
..! Right! There was that man back at the Festival that left moments after she had her breakdown, she vaguely remembered the man leaving a small box with an inverted glass and had only forgotten about it because she'd been distracted.
Maybe it was an artifact or a device that allowed you to listen to people at long distances.. Damn it, she wasn't really too privy to this era's technology.
"If your grudge is with Shadow, then why involve my daughter in it?" Cid-kun didn't even know the existence of their daughter, what good would exacting his revenge on them do?
Belmo huffed. "Is that even a question? I'm a researcher, your majesty. And when I see something worth being subjected to my research, I will achieve it no matter what." He declared, "No matter how high the risk was, if the reward is worth it, then I shall commit myself to it... After all, it's not every time you'd get to see a Dhampir born from the Strongest Progenitor and a Monstrous man like Shadow."
Hmph, Typical bastardized mad-scientists and their reasonings. "If you're committed to this, then know that I will not grant you a quick death."
"I didn't expect you to, your daughter already has decades worth of trauma to deal with." Belmo smiled.
Elizabeth's expression became a cold fury, her eyes becoming sharper than a pissed off Alpha. Her Blood Magic erupted around her and became sharp projectiles, she aimed it at them and fired, charging alongside her own projectiles, hand on her scythe.
Vivian immediately reacted to this and willed the sea to do her bidding, water immediately rose up at highspeeds, looking to interrupt Elizabeth's charge.
Elizabeth weaved through them with a crimson grace, roses seemingly coming out of her afterimages. Her blood projectiles were raining down to block any attack that came near her.
Belmo grimaced, the Blood Queen had decided to get serious. There was no doubt that this was going to be the hardest part yet, the only reason he's made this far was because of his preparations weakening the Blood Queen, had she had access to half of her true power she would have killed him instantly.
His magic sprung to life as he charged forward, Vivian's thousands of projectiles following behind him.
Both fighters charged at one another and came face to face.
Sensing his life in danger, Belmo immediately threw himself to the right as Elizabeth swung her Scythe downwards, cleaving a gigantic part of the sea in two. Belmo lashed out with his silver sword towards her neck, Elizabeth angled her head and parried with the end of her scythe, a dozen blood projectiles came towards moments later as he dodged.
Elizabeth chased after him only to see a giant looming shadow above her, she glanced up and saw a huge body of water, the swirl of water slammed down on the Blood Queen, only for it to be sliced apart cleanly.
Elizabeth continued on with her chase on Belmo, the two became a blur moving from one point to another, clashing across the entire battlefield.
Normally it wouldn't have been possible for such a person to be able to walk on water, but the artifact he was carrying provided more than just summoning the Water Spirit, it also allowed him to walk on water.
But also allowed him to move inside water without any problems, it even enhanced his abilities.
On the other hand, Elizabeth was doing her best not to get too close to the water, lest she lose more of her strength even if it was temporarily.
Elizabeth swung her scythe around with such ferocity and grace, fighting in close-quarter combat had never really been her kind of style, but Belmo's speed made it difficult to hit him. She split her attention in two, ranged against the Water Spirit while close-quarters with Belmo. She reeled her arm back, bringing out her claws and swinging at Belmo.
Belmo desperately dodged to the side, had his speed not been boosted by the Tears he would have died from that as her claws literally cleaved through the sea just like with her Scythe.
Belmo brought his sword up to parry another scythe swing from Elizabeth, which proved to be a mistake as her superior strength completely overwhelmed him. However he took advantage of it by grabbing onto her arm and shocking her. Elizabeth didn't budge from it until Vivian slammed down on her, submerging all of them in the water.
Elizabeth frowned and shook him off of her by kicking him in the side, the man spat out blood underwater as he was sent downwards deeper to the sea. Unfortunately for Elizabeth, she was inside the water with Vivian, the water surrounding her immediately increased in pressure as if it was trying to crush her, Elizabeth grit her teeth as she resisted it. While at the same time a tendril made out of water infused with magic wrapped itself around her leg, pulling her deeper in the water.
Elizabeth tried to break free by releasing her magic like an explosive wave, only for her to be disrupted when a large amount of discharge electrified her.
Damn it! She forgot about his magic.
She exerted more effort on trying to break free, she tried to use Blood Magic only for her constructs to dissipate into nothing. Right, she was surrounded by water, Blood coagulation didn't get along with water since they were both completely different liquids.
Physical strength wouldn't help in this either, she needed to focus on her magic..! Elizabeth gathered magic from her stomach, a small orb coming to life as she tried her hardest to focus on it.
Vivian and Belmo's combined attacks made it difficult for her to concentrate, even more so when Belmo came swimming up with unbelievable ease, swimming like the fastest of fishes. Likely another passive that came with Oshiana's Artifact.
The man that stood on equal footing with Fenrir came lunging in, stabbing her in the stomach with his silver sword.
Elizabeth instinctively gasped in pain, she didn't let go of her concentration on her magic despite the pain she was currently going through. When Belmo saw that she wasn't fighting back, he knew that she was going to attempt to blow them all away again, but he also saw this as an opportunity.
With the Water Spirit Artifact, even firearms should work properly underwater. And with that thought, he pulled out the Thompson Contender and placed the end of the gun on her chest. Elizabeth's eyes widened, thinking that he aimed to shoot her In the heart, she released a small amount of her magic to blow away Belmo, but it was too late, the man fired the gun and hit her in the chest.
To her infinite confusion, the bullet didn't pierce her. But rather, it exploded around her, the water near her becoming black inky.
'Another poison? That won't work, I've already increased my defenses against those.' She inwardly thought. It may not work on her, but the weakening caused by being submerged into water was REALLY getting to her, if she didn't get out of here quickly, she would end up being weaker than him.
As strong as vampires were, they had too many weaknesses.
The water-based attacks underwater kept coming at her, from tearing into her and turning her into a pin-cushion, to literally trying to crush her to paste while Belmo's magic electrified her body to no end.
Reaching the last of her wits, she released the wave of magic she was compressing. Exploding and blowing the entire space near her, Belmo was quickly shielded by Vivian the moment Elizabeth exploded. The sea briefly grew a giant hole as Elizabeth flew out of it, giving her time to breath and regain a fraction of her strength.
She was breathing heavily, exhausted by their continuous attacks. If Shadow Garden had fought these two in their territory, they would have likely been torn apart unless they blew the entire area away.
Unfortunately blowing a small part of the sea didn't really do anything as there was literally the REST of the entire sea unscathed.
"To think I'd be weakened to this extent.. I can see how humans managed to hunt down my fellow progenitors in the past."
From the side of her eyesight, she saw Belmo and Vivian ascend from the water. Elizabeth threw back a set of her wet hair covering her face.
"Your use of magic is unusual," Said Elizabeth, trying to stall for time. Being submerged really weakened her to an extent.
"Ah, why thank you, I take quite the pride in this actually." Belmo said with a satisfied face, he waved his hand around as electricity zapped around. "As a researcher, I first studied how far I could go with magic. Then once I joined the cult, I had witnessed their experimentations and results with the Tears of Diablos', what intrigued me first was not the temporary power boost it gave me."
He looked at her and reached out to her, his palm open as electricity danced around. "It was the change in Magics characteristics that was put under the Tear's influence, I saw that it became erratic and sharp, like how electric currents acted. It danced around and became quicker, so with that In mind, I quickly studied why it acted like that, then it took me a few more years until I finally figured out how it worked, after that my research was found by Fenrir-sama. He helped me become the man I am today as my power and knowledge grew."
"You deliberately change your magic to emulate the same wavelength as electric currents." Elizabeth guessed.
Belmo's expression slightly lightened, not expecting the Blood Queen, someone so literally behind the times to say something like that. "That's.. Quite surprising, you seem to have knowledge about modern science."
Elizabeth puffed her chest. "Please, my daughter is more creative than you with how strange abilities work, I really oughta stop buying her novels." After a brief moment of relaxation, her eyes became serious. "You couldn't have possibly thought you could actually beat me, did you? Belmo Ontrippofz, whatever you have been doing, like poisoning me won't work. I've already raised my defenses against it."
The Researcher's face became stoic, although his eyes were deadly serious as well. "Beat you? Hilarious, my ego is big but not that barbaric.. I've already known beforehand that beating you was impossible even with my preparations." he replied. "I don't need to beat you.. I'm simply waiting for an opportunity, and when that time comes. You'll become nothing but a Sleeping Queen."
"Cute wordplay," She scoffed. "Are you referring to how you sent your men to kidnap my daughter? I'll admit, Little Rando's disappearance was worrying, but I'm sure he's safe now." Elizabeth smiled, confident in her clone's abilities to find Rando. They all shared the same abilities after all, searching the entire mansion shouldn't be too hard for two Elizabeth's even if their detection were dulled as hers.
Belmo grimaced. "Are you referring to your clones?"
"I sure am, I'm guessing you know that because of my history?"
The man huffed. "Of course, what kind of fool would I be if I didn't carefully study my enemies?"
"True enough." Elizabeth closed her eyes, before opening them. Remembering the conversation from earlier, until an idea sprung up.
"Electricity huh..? Basically thunder and lightning." Her eyes briefly traveled to the clouds, the sunlight now slowly burning patches of her skin. "Why don't I take some ideas..?" She muttered her breath, she waved her hand in front of her and prepared another barrage of Blood magic.
Vivian immediately reacted and prepared her own array of attacks while Belmo stanced himself up.
Blood rained within an instant, both forces going back to overdrive and sending attacks of their own. Elizabeth kept waving bladed blood attacks towards Belmo while the man ran around to dodge them.
It was only then that Elizabeth changed her method of projectiles, turning them all into elongated tendrils with different branches, like a root spreading down beneath a soil.
Vivian was momentarily overwhelmed, the Water Spirit trying to think of a way to counter Elizabeth's new method of attack. Belmo on the under hand simply huffed, dodging the new slow projectiles with ease and weaving through them to get closer.
This exchange continued for half a minute, not a single one hitting Vivian and Belmo. For a moment the man thought the Blood Queen was losing her aim, until he saw that she was intentionally missing.
He frowned upon seeing this, he quickly made a quick calculation as to why the Blood Queen would do this. All it would do is quickly exhaust her, even if her reserves were monstrous.
Until he noticed something strange, deciding to take a risk for his confusion and stood still for a second. They all missed, for a moment.
What..?
Then he saw something rising out of the water, continuously ascending without stop..?
Belmo looked up into the skies in confusion after seeing most of her attacks miss, the clouds were unnaturally whirling and turning dark.
A convergence..? She's manipulating water into the skies at a rapid rate, but why? Is that why she was intentionally missing? Vivian appeared to be confused as well.
'Water isn't a good conductor for magic, but could nonetheless be used for tricks like vampire attacks. But rather than using it to attack me, she's using it to raise them up into the skies. That didn't make sense, they were surrounded by a large body of water, that converging of water and clouds, the water evaporating due to a huge stressing of magic didn't make sense either. Why would she- Wait, evaporate? Converge..?'
Belmo's eyes widened in alarm.
She's using magic to forcefully evaporate and cause condensation within the clouds! It finally made sense why it had suddenly gotten darker, the clouds filled with water are now slowly blocking the sunlight, removing one of her weaknesses out of the table!
"Ara? Finally noticed it, Cultist-san?" The Blood Queen spoke across the waters, a wry smile slowly forming over her face.
"You blood-sucking bitch-GAHHH!" The end of a high-heel caught his face before he could finish his line, Belmo was sent flying skipping through the water like a rock after Elizabeth had kicked him. The Blood Queen pulled away her leg and dashed off after him with another follow up with her scythe.
Vivian appeared to be caught between rocks, wondering what she should do. Protect her current user — Despite how she disliked him. — Or stop the strongest vampire from what she was doing?
"VIVIAN! STOP THIS BITCH— GUAH!" Belmo said as he recovered from the blow, only to be met with another foot to the face. Elizabeth found using kicks was faster than swinging her claws and scythe so she decided to use it to stall.
Vivian warped from her spot to Elizabeth's front, using bladed water attacks to intercept her. However instead of dodging it, the Blood Queen took her attacks, surprising the Water Spirit. Elizabeth lashed out with her hand and dug her entire arm inside the Water Spirit's chest, grabbing a small core that looked like it was mechanical.
Vivian gasped in fear while Elizabeth smirked, she was now slowly regaining most of her strength since the sunlight was being blocked out by the convergence in the clouds.
"So that's where you're weak." Elizabeth smugly said while Vivian froze. "I was wondering why a being connected to the sea would run away from my attack when they could simply regenerate with the endless source of water, unless they had a weakness they needed to protect..."
She took hold of the core, holding it with three fingers. "See this Vivian-chan? This is checkmate."
The Water Spirit silently screamed as her core was crushed, Vivian''s form slowly melted into nothing.
In the distance, Belmo recovered once more and stared in horror. "Y-You managed to kill Vivian.. I won't be able to call upon her for another decade..!"
Elizabeth noted that his ability to walk on water didn't disappear, it seemed that the Artifact was separate from the Water Spirit, and was simply something that allowed the wearer to control Vivian.
"What will you do now, Belmo Ontrippofz? With the sunlight being blocked and my strength slowly returning most of its original state, and the death of Vivian-chan. You've effectively lost." Elizabeth condescendingly said, taking satisfaction in the man's desperate and fear-stricken face.
"N-No...! Siopilos what are you doing!? T-This can't be, I just need to stall!" The man howled in anger, he was losing his composure and started hyperventilating.
"It's over, Belmo. Settle down and die with dignity."
Belmo looked at her with bloodshot eyes, his teeth grinding with one another in pure anger and desperation. "LIKE HELL IT IS!" He took a small jar out, he immediately took one and ate it at lightning speed.
"Tch." Elizabeth was already on the move to stop him, unfortunately her speed was still not back to its original level causing her to miss out.
Belmo exploded in a sparkly fashion, he took out another weapon from his coat — A strange ceremonial blade, likely silver from how it gleamed —- It shone with a strange vibrancy that gave her the creeps. That was no normal dagger, that's a whole damn vampire-hunting weapon.
If had it the entire time, why didn't he use it?
Belmo's electric current exploded everywhere, his wounds healed because of the sudden increase in magic like before, his form becoming lightning yellow as he dashed forward. Dual wielding the ceremonial dagger and his silver sword. "GRUAAAHHH!"
Elizabeth met his charge with her scythe, becoming a red crimson blur and clashing with him. roses flying everywhere as they moved around in highspeeds. Belmo was desperately increasing his speed in exchange of his lifespan, his muscles tearing from the continuous increase in electrical current.
Elizabeth on the other hand was merely frowning, annoyed that most of her strength was still not back, about 10% was back from her reserves.
It didn't take long for Elizabeth to start overwhelming him, she started pushing him back by increasing each force behind her blows back to the mansion. And when they arrived at the shore she reeled back and traveled with graceful speeds, once she got close she swung her scythe in an upward arc. Belmo saw this and blocked with both of his blades, only for his defenses to be penetrated.
He gasped, while Elizabeth smirked.
She twisted her torso, reeling back her free hand to claw him, Belmo's life flashed before him, unfortunately for him there's nothing that could get him out of this situation.
It was over—
CRACK!
"---BRAT NO!"
"----REMILYA-CHAN!"
Her form froze when she heard her clones scream in worry, moments later an explosion of magic.
Followed by an anguished, and agonized.
The cracks within innocence slowly broke.
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH—---"
Cry of a child.
Both of them froze,
The world was suddenly illuminated in a red and black light, Belmo looked at marvel despite his current position, he saw the light as something incredible and groundbreaking.
Elizabeth on other hand, saw the light as something dreadful. She looked at it with a horrified and shocked expression.
And as innocence broke. Anguish followed.
"TRULY MARVELO— GUHA!" "GET THE HELL OUT OF MY WAY!" Belmo screamed out something until Elizabeth punched him with haste, making sure to use her full power. Red-crimson magic bursted forward from her fist making contact with Belmo's face as she threw him into the forest.
The force of the Blood Queen's punch ragdolled Belmo throughout the field and slammed through multiple trees. Eventually he stopped as his momentum died out, the man completely bloodied and motionless.
Elizabeth didn't look to check if he was truly dead and flew towards the destructive light that was Remilya.
"Remilya!" She cried in worry.
++--------------------++
CHAPTER END
++--------------------++