Chapter Text
CHAPTER
Last she heard, Alpha and the others were bound to arrive in the next few hours. They’d sped up their travel once they sensed the Blood Queen’s prowess.
But, enough about that.
(art by me)
The wind blew her hair to the side as she stood on top of a tall tree, the green scenery of the forest covered by the moon’s light. From here, she could hear Oshiana’s festival start its third night, fireworks firing off into the skies.
Zeta paid no attention to it. She cared little for anything else at the moment, her mind unintentionally distracted by the thought of the Blood Queen, just earlier, she’d felt the progenitor’s presence make its way to Oshiana, albeit, really weakened.
At first, she thought everything had been handled on their side and that the Blood Queen was simply making her way back. But something felt off, it didn’t take long for her presence to disappear so mysteriously with little trace to be found.
That’s when she realized she’d been bested.
Something had likely happened, maybe the Blood Queen was caught off guard or their enemy simply was just that strong this time around. Which meant, it’s possible she’d be hitting above her current level, even after years had passed.
Not that it mattered. The thought of the Blood Queen, Lord Shadow’s beloved, being bested by these fools simply felt shameful. It was an ugly thought, sure, but deep down, a part of her relished in that.
But she couldn’t just leave her be, she owed Shadow that. He trusted her, even if it hurt.
Now she was here, outside of Oshiana’s walls, not too far into the mountains. At first glance, there was nothing in this forest, but upon closer inspection, this was the enemy’s main base, the one she’d been looking for some time now.
Zeta sighed. Stepping off from the tip of the tree and letting gravity take her down, two blades with golden rims made out of her slimes formed. She gripped them with deadly force, she slammed down a trunk before disappearing, the wind and leaves exploding in her wake as she traveled the vicinity.
Her eyes shone with magic, until she finally found a crack to the underground facility, a patch of metal uncovered by dirt. She’ll admit, even with her natural perception, without magic enhancing it she would’ve had trouble finding it. Though, she couldn’t make out the overall structure of the entire building, if she were to make a guess, there’s a part where it rises inside the mountain. These ventilations simply served for the hallways underground.
Enough of that, time to get down to business.
Zeta bounced off another tree with explosive strength, her body twisted and made a turn. With her magic-enhanced legs facing towards the crack, and with immense speed, she dived through and crashed. Metallic walls and wires broke through, there was the signature advanced technology of the cult.
Her legs planted on the wall as she started dashing through the halls, there, over a turn a group of unsuspecting fools who likely heard the wall crashing down went walking in. They didn’t have time to react as the blades she’d been holding sliced them to pieces.
Down the hall, there were more of them.
The blades transformed into chakrams, Zeta wasted no time throwing them with deadly force.
Okay, is it technically her fault that she forgot that they were launching off fireworks on the Water Spirit Festival’s third night?
No, right? Considering what she went through, it was normal that the date would be pushed back into the depths of her mind.
But hey, the view from up here was something alright. If fireworks were beautiful already just from the ground, it was way better when you have a closer look. Her mouth hung slightly open from the beauty of it as she fell.
BOOOOM!
Would’ve continued to feel the same way if not for the fact she was too close to the fireworks!
Flashback for a little bit. After that wholesome moment she had with her current guardian - Technically, Mr. Smith was her current guardian at the moment - They went on to fly until they reached Oshiana.
Since it wasn’t too late, the city down below had brightened up by the time they arrived. Reminding her that the Water Spirit festival lasted for a whole week, with this being the third night.
Suddenly it felt like everything went too fast, huh. She thought that as well, but it felt longer. When they made for a touch down, what they hadn’t expected was for fireworks to start filling the skies and drown them out in loud explosions. Now, they were here, free falling down to Oshiana.
With Mr. Smith looking at her with an expression she couldn’t quite place. Probably something like ‘Told you we should’ve taken the boat.’
Again, how was she supposed to remember they were firing fireworks on the third night!?
Sure, these things would just tickle them. But ah, it was way too loud for her vampiric ears. And this was supposed to be the initial launch, with more and bigger fireworks in the next three hours.
For now, they had to land safely without being seen.
Mr. Smith was already way ahead of her, as he suddenly wrapped his arm around her waist, carrying her like a sack of bags, again. Having an understanding of his actions, she let her wings disperse, the wings made out of blood seeping back into her shoulder blades.
His current guardian had no issue weaving through the fireworks, speeding the fall of their velocity as they fell down. A few dodges later and they were down with ease, quite the nimble person he was.
They landed on a totally inconspicuous alley far from the population. Mr. Smith gently let her down, not sparing even a glance as he took in his surroundings.
It felt disappointing that their flight ended so fast, she wanted to fly with him more. However, finding her mother took priority. The question was, where do they start first?
Looking at the adult next to her, she figured she’d follow his lead seeing as he was the expert here. Being a Super Elite Agent and all. Instead, he was looking at her with probably his own expression of ‘So, what next?’
At least she thought so.
“Where…” She asked. “Where do we start?”
Where do they start looking for her mother?
How does one usually search for someone that was kidnapped? For starters, you need to try and sense them out and hope that they’ve left traces behind. That or look for spots where you’d less expect it.
Or you know, follow them as they did so. To be honest, searching for Elizabeth wasn’t going to be a problem to begin with, a single atomic-radar would let him find her. But that left out the vibes of what it means to investigate for someone. Picking up clues and piecing them together along with his daughter.
Would be a way of training her already for the future. Plus, it was technically bonding.
The flight they had was nice too, just putting it out there.
Now, was it a dick move to potentially delay finding Elizabeth when he could just insta-find her now? Yes it was, was it going to let him spend more time with Remilya? Hell yeah.
Still a dick move from him but nothing to worry about, he’ll keep tabs on everything so nothing goes bad. He does care after all.
Snapping out of his thoughts, he lowered his gaze to Remilya. He spoke with what he had in mind, spinning some bullshit around since he wasn’t using magic to sense Elizabeth out. “Naturally we’ll look for clues. Preferably servants or subordinates of that… man.”
Shit, he forgot his name again. The guy’s name was just that forgettable. Thankfully, the girl bought it and nodded. Now, he needed time to think of some good shit to spin around here. This kind of specific scenario was never in his list before so he needed a good bit of preparation – Mostly for maximum style points, never hurt to look cool and finish something at the same time.
So-
Suddenly, he spoke to Remilya. “This is where we will test your skills and ability to think on the fly. Naturally, growing up here meant you had a natural grasp of the kingdom, ask yourself this, where do you suppose you’d find some unpleasant fools?”
Done and done, already thought of something. His kid’s got vampiric senses, finding some poor dudes should be easy cake, then he’ll do a faster search around without cheating so it’ll look like he’s two steps ahead.
Bonus points if they do find anyone, and they say some cryptic shit. He’ll just say something.
His kid pondered while he brainstormed, Remilya had a look of consideration before seemingly making up her mind. “I did go around the alleys and streets playing around many times before. If there were any, I think it would be on the upper parts of Oshiana. Strange as it sounds, suspicious people often appear in the richer parts of the kingdom instead of the poorer parts.”
Huh, ain’t that something.
He gestured for her to lead them. Remilya tilted her head for a moment, not understanding what the gesture was for.
“Lead us there, you know this place best.”
Remilya an ‘o’ expression and nodded, her wings came back and- Oops, nah. The hell was she doing? He pulled her down gently before she could take off to the skies, the girl looked at him in confusion. “Why bring out your wings, you’d be giving yourself away with how bright it is outside this alley.”
“Oh, I was actually going to jump to the roofs so we can have better leverage.” She looked flushed saying that. Yeah that uh, made sense. Honestly that was just peak Minoru mindset just now, going on roofs.
“Well, after you then.”
Fumble once, fumble twice. It was hard to do his usual methods when someone else difficult to control was with you.
These accursed, meager, lower intellect neanderthals. He had never been so humiliated in his life before, failure after failure due to some barbaric whores. Barely everything goes to plan, theory and practice are completely different, he knew that well as an avid researcher and scientist. The plan had gone well against the Blood Queen, but the sudden appearance of that annoying servant of hers was unfounded, he was sure she did not possess such ability to fly, that wasn’t in his information anywhere.
Then again, data rarely ever stayed the same. That was simply a factor he had mistakenly ignored to list down, which, of course. Cost him the Dhampir, an incredibly worthwhile research project due to the perfect tandem of her progenitor bloodline and the diablos’ possession, not only that, her raw potential alone may be enough to surpass everyone in this world, just from the raw power she performed at such a young age.
Through unbridled anger, which it was. Now what could have it been if such power were to be controlled? It made him shiver, however, it would’ve been fantastic as well, using her as his puppet against Shadow.
Alas, that opportune was a bust. He at least had his hands on something just as valuable. Though, less in scientific breakthroughs.
The Blood Queen.
Her strength matched like no other, with the exception of that witch Aurora from the legends. And that snivelling little bastard, Shadow of the Shadow Garden.
It intrigued him, you see. The Blood Queen was a progenitor, that much was already established, but the source of both the demonic possession and vampiric curse came from Diablos. What he wanted to know is what differentiated the Blood Queen from a normal vampire.
With the Blood Queen currently in a state of inanimate, he’d have the chance to do that. Emphasize on chance as he needed to relocate, NOW.
He wasn’t so stupid to stay in this location, the kingdom to be precise. Not when that showcase of destructive power the Blood Queen showcased could be seen all the way from here. Frankly, he was quite sure the skies turned crimson red when she hurled that spear of blood towards him.
“Leave those.” He ordered his last remaining subordinates, each of them running around with boxes and assets. A few researchers in lab-coats with files as well. He walked through the corridors of his main location of operations. Limping faintly due to the tax on his body, a result from using the Diablos’ tears. If he were to make an honest statement. He was worried the amount of Diablos tears he could handle wouldn’t have been enough to keep him afloat, if he wanted to have a fair chance of killing Shadow, he’ll need more than just an insufficient temporary power up that destroyed his body.
He needed a stronger alternative. And theoretically, with the creature in his disposal, whose power was waiting to be extracted, and the Blood Queen with him, he’ll be able to give rise to his own current power.
Speaking of which…
While walking through their halls, the lead scientist, one who had given results to him of the Sleeping Queen, ran up to him, sweat falling down from his face as he panted for breath. The balding man stopped in front him, before forcing himself to stay upright.
“L-Lord Belmo, f-forgive my rudeness but we cannot simply just relocate, the project-”
“Save it, Head scientist.” He raised a hand, any other leader would’ve been offended. But he valued his men. “Think of this as a temporary delay. If we stay here, our enemies will find us, and the entirety of our progress will forever be gone. With everyone in this facility dead.”
The balding man seemingly wanted to argue, but found no words as he took in Belmo’s current state. His lord’s words were logical. A project of this magnitude can easily be erased by a single attack, but if they relocated now, all that would happen is a mishap of incredibly long delays. Delayed, but not gone.
It doesn’t help that the stations and other bases in Oshiana had lost contact with them hours ago, it was likely the Shadow Garden were already making their move.
Understanding this, the scientist dared to ask. “W-What shall we do now, my lord?”
Belmo continued forward, prompting the scientist to follow along the halls. As he was, he was headed towards the main research room. “Tell me, are the plans to extract the captured subject’s power complete?”
One look at the Scientist clued him in, the man had a pensive expression. “My apologies, however. While it may be nearing completion, it’s nowhere near safe extraction, my lord.”
Belmo hummed, that’s quite the annoying result. While a researcher’s work must always take time, it is never best to work under a deadline, which they never had one to begin until now. Instead, he asked. “Head, theoretically. If I were to use that artificial artifact from before, how severe would the consequences be?”
“It may lead to the same demonization that Lord Mordred underwent before. Personal strength otherwise, it would still cause irreversible damage to your entire being if attempted.” The man answered without pause.
“Then, arbitrary wise. Where are we in-terms of completion?” By now, they’ve reached the room where the captured subject was held in a tube. With mechanical doors opening, they entered the room and were met with various researchers in white frantically preparing. In this very room, is where the Blood Queen is also held. Within the confines of another tube, the silver ceremonial blade is still embedded in her chest, forcing the progenitor in an inanimate state.
“Completion-wise my lord? About ninety-percent of our hypothesis, however, the last ten percent are the most crucial one for extraction, magic can be delicate when it comes to the soul.” The head scientist apologetically informed him.
“How inconvenient.” Belmo clicked his tongue. “Prepare one of the metal cargos, the ones with those tire contraptions fueled by stored magic, the one by the Mitsugoshi. Strap the tube in there and try to synthesize the completion in there by as much as you could, in the chance I may need to escalate by extracting the subject’s power early on.”
“The cargo truck, my lord? Oshiana's roads are not exactly as advanced as the ones in Midgar.” The head scientist stopped, an assistant running up next to him, both waiting for confirmation. “The appearance and noise it makes would simply just reveal its location…”
Belmo stopped, looking at him. The head scientist and his assistant instantly froze on the spot, afraid that they may have offended him. The man sighed.“As I said, escalation, with us losing contact with other stations. It’s likely that Shadow Garden’s already aware of our presence, the truck would simply be to buy time for completion. Force the vehicle to man the terrain, it should be able to handle it.”
He looked around. “Everyone else will relocate to Oshiana, and move beyond that.”
The head scientist nodded. “Then… us?”
Belmo held a hand towards one of his men, telling them to bring him concoctions to revive his stamina and strength, another preparation that was insignificant to note. “You, the ones involved with this project will be on the cargo truck to complete extraction. The vehicle should be large enough to store the entire tube in it.”
Hearing that, the head scientist nodded again. Signalling his assistant to tell the others what loyal subordinates he has. “What of the Blood Queen, my lord?”
Belmo’s eyes flickered to the unconscious progenitor. “Load the smaller truck, the one constructed for heavy terrains. Bring her there and take her away to the nearest kingdom besides Oshiana, if memory serves right, there’s a facility we could use that’s not been used by the Cult yet.”
Truthfully, bringing the Blood Queen with them was a liability. He wouldn’t even have a single tinge of time to research on her body with the metaphorical guillotine waiting to chop off his head that was the Shadow Garden.
So instead.. “And dismember parts of her, heal as she may. It won’t help that she’s unconscious, take a female from our ranks and stick it to her, she’ll act as a double towards Oshiana, even if most of our stations are gone in Oshiana, the entirety of its government still falls to me. We’ll use the people of the kingdom if needed.”
With how magical traces worked, the Queen’s magical residue should act as a beacon enough for anyone who tried to find her via magical signatures. And with it being in Oshiana, which is currently crowded and populated, it’ll make it difficult for them to find her while they bring the real one away.
With that last order, his subordinates moved off to do his bidding. With that done, he needed a respite to heal his fatigue. Downing the concoctions he held, he felt his stamina and magic gradually come back, the concept of these ones were of another breakthrough by the Mitsugoshi. He simply followed the steps and recreated his own, though, lesser in quality but for a specific reason.
It may bring back his reserves, forceful usage of this caused damage to the soul if done in less than two weeks since drinking the first.
Which means, he shouldn’t have to worry about any possible drawbacks caused by this. Apart from a plausible breakdown of his reserves if any more were to be drunk, the tax of the Diablos tears was simply too great for a couple of hours to ignore.
Now then, for a change of clothes and checking of his weaponry. Then one last round of preparing everything for relocation, he needed to finish things up as quickly as possible. He had little hope that he would have much time to take rest with what’s happening around here-
BOOM!
Suddenly, the entire facility shook, followed by multiple explosions and the alarm ringing.
Oh for the love of-
He sighed, of course. The late Morpshy’s law had to bite him in the rear.
“Round up all of you! Finish what you have to finish and get out. Someone get Stall and his men, stall whoever the intruder is.”
He’ll need his last trained men’s help.
With the lights off and total darkness encompassing most of the facility. The halls flickered from red to total darkness as multiple alarms went off, followed by gunfire lighting the area up. Sparks started flying when two metallic chakrams flew like paper, cleaving through bodies and uniforms as men died one after another, prompting a scream from them.
Zeta ran with incredible speeds, not stopping even once as she ran through the facility, the fact that the place felt like a maze was a testament to the usual cult’s operations. Incredibly annoying.
Another corner, another turn, another group fell. She was relentless, even with all of this, she was not a single bit winded. She sped up her massacre, hoping to end this as quickly and as efficient as possible.
Until.
CLANG!
Halfway through her increasing speed, her chakrams transformed into swords when she saw a glint of metal around the corner. Her blades came up and blocked it, the man holding the sword, a blonde with short hair and a stony looking face in fancy uniform grunted. With her strength alone, factored with her speed, they immediately started skidding back to his side of the halls.
Sensing something off, she jumped off by using his sword as a foothold. Narrowly dodging a strike where she used to be, her eyes narrowed seeing who had tried to get her from the back.
Clones? It was an identical man to whom she had just attacked, down to the appearance and the sword he was using. While she was analyzing her enemy, the idiot started monologuing. “I see you’ve dodged my attack, as expected of Shadow Garden.”
“However!” He raised his blade. The clone did as well. “Don’t think you can get through me, Mani the Many!”
With that, about a dozen of him filled up the halls. Appearing with a flash of light, all arms raised.
She almost snorted.
In an instant, half of his clones were immediately bisected by her swords. The one in the middle, likely the real one, immediately raised his blade with fear. Every clone was blown away by the sudden burst of speed she’d just shown.
They started skidding once more, blowing past multiple walls until they crashed outside, just about near the upper hills of the mountain. There, they crossed blades twice as they moved along their acceleration before his sword broke. The man’s eyes widened, a sword immediately found itself in his throat before he could even process everything that had just happened.
Even as the wind blew on her face, Zeta never once blinked. Simply removing her sword from his throat, before redirecting her acceleration back to the facilit-
Or she would have if not for the highly advanced turrets sprouting out the earth. A few on the upper hills, some in the forest, another batch everywhere else. All of which were currently firing down on her, Zeta clicked her tongue and made no decision to stop moving.
Simply deflecting massive ammunitions with her sword and running towards the nearest turret. And with a swift arc of her sword, the first one exploded, jumping away. She withdrew multiple chakrams using her slime.
Six with both hands, she spun fast. Throwing them with superb accuracy and destroying another batch of them. With another feat of incredible flexibility, she dodged multiple bullets mid-air by twisting around. Landing with the dexterity of a cat on a grassy field, she ran along until she found another pair of these turrets, making quick work of them.
There were still a few left, swerving to the side, she formed a long sword this time. Magic enveloped it with precision, something she finally honed properly instead of being lazy. She swung it repeatedly, sending multiple blue arcs of magic-imbued slashes towards distant turrets, destroying them in the process.
She traversed above countless trees in one jump, sending out multiple slashes that finally destroyed every turret she counted.
She exhaled, not particularly winded. Simply annoyed by the delays-
RIIIIINGG!
A shimming sound came from below her, specifically where she was standing. There was a magic symbol, sensing the build up of magic, she immediately jumped away, performing a backflip as the position she formerly occupied exploded.
‘Landmines, seriously?’
Another dozen shimmerings came from below as she was forced to constantly move, her cat-like eyes narrowed once more.
‘Not just landmines, it’s appearing just about where I stand– Huh?’
True to her words, where she was about to land exploded even before she could touch the ground. Enveloping where she had been with a massive dirt explosion. A few more followed up with a cluster of explosions, regardless of being visible or not.
“Stall-san, I suppose that’s enough, is it?” A first-child with a mohawk clicked his tongue.
“The hell do ya think? That bitch is as good as dead.” He touched the ground, causing more explosions inside the towering smoke. “That’ good enough for ya’?! Ruford?”
“No need to yell, I was simply making sure.” A man with fancy blonde hair that flowed down smoothly. He was somewhat androgynous with his handsome face, not that it helped with his snake-like expression. He wore a black clean uniform befitting of a noble, with a red-cape draped on his right shoulder, on his waist, resting a rapier. “Lord Belmo simply warned us to be cautious.”
Stall, the mohawk-haired man with the same uniform. But instead of a rapier on his waist, were instead gauntlets, snarked at his colleague. “As if she’d survive that.”
His eyes flickered behind them, revealing another man with a clean military cut. Though, somewhat muscular compared to them, he wore the same uniform, and an average long sword behind his back. “You got anything to say, asshole? I can see that glare you’re sending me, Aorafarnrer.”
The military man shook his head. “Simply disappointed, I had thought we’d be getting some form of excitement, turns out it’s all hype.”
Stall barked out a laugh. “Tell me about it.”
Ruford walked past him. His eyes narrowing at the smoke cloud erupting from where Stall bombarded their intruder, something felt off to him. Silently, he raised his sensing capabilities, drowning out Stall’s voice that was calling behind him, likely sputtering more of his profanities.
It seemed impossible, there’s no way anyone would survive that barrage of-
Movement.
His eyes widened. Sweatdropped as he instinctively raised his rapier, narrowly blocking a sword from the therianthrope in-front of him. He was blown off from his position, momentarily clashing with her, however, just like Mani. His rapier broke within a few clashes.
How is she moving!? She should’ve die-
Zeta formed a clawed gauntlet with her left hand, plucking out his heart almost instantly. She was about to move to the next one until she found herself unable to move, a giant magical symbol having formed below her, restricting her movements.
“Keep holding her like that! Stall!” The military man yelled, slowly walking towards her with his sword ready.
These guys were quite advanced, most of the ones they’ve dealt with rarely showed usage of magical symbols… Or was it? Looking at it, it’s simply magic enhanced with technology, making it look advanced that what it actually was. Years of going unattended and hiding under their nose really gave them quite the time to prepare.
Stall, the mohawk-haired one screamed. True to her words, there was something strapped to his nape, a metal of some kind. Something that boosted his magic for him to hold her back.
But, it wasn’t enough.
Zeta smiled ferally. Flexing her lean muscles and magic together as she pushed back against the restricting force.
“W-What the hell!?” Stall screamed. Sparks of electricity screaming out from the metal contraption attached to him. “I can’t hold her! Kill her already!”
She increased the output of her magic, slowly breaking the symbol below her. Just about the same time the man named Stall was starting to deform, demonization by Diablos’ possession? These fools were more desperate than she thought, yet, they never changed.
She struggled more, and the man named Aorafarnrer got closer. However, instead of running, he was walking slowly towards her, his red-cape being blown by the constant gust of wind caused by her struggle.
“KILL HER!” Stall screamed out loud, dying from the backlash of his magic.
Aorafarnrer briefly looked back, then to Zeta. Finally, he slowly raised his blade, it shimmered with red-black magic. Then, his magic grew bigger, as if it was a giant blazing flame.
He swung downwards, rocking the entire forest with a massive explosion.
“I suppose, when you want something done. You have to do it yourself.” Belmo said with an irritated voice. His eyes twitching as a part of the mountain side were now gone, revealing multiple floors of his facility.
Walking out of the smoke, Zeta came out unscathed. Holding two death bodies with swords stuck in their chests. Her feet dug into the grassy plains. “That’s the third time I’ve heard that line.”
Belmo made an ugly snarl, sparks coming out of his body. However, unlike his subordinate who had some kind of device, his magic was all natural. “By Idiots I presume.”
Zeta made a mocking smirk. “Idiots like you.”
CHAPTER END