Demon Deathchase

by Hideyuki Kikuchi

  A PORT TO THE STARS

  CHAPTER 6

  —

  I

  —

  He was at a bit of a loss. On account of the girl. He wasn’t entirely sure what he should do with her. Though the girl was as vibrant as a sunny day, she hadn’t said anything about where she lived or why that huntsman with the countenanced carbuncle was chasing her. Of course, in this form Grove couldn’t very well ask her, so he had no choice but to wait for her to tell him about it. When the girl had regained consciousness, she’d tried to go into the forest right away. Grove made a move to go with her, but she seemed troubled by that so he decided to stay out of it. But, on further consideration, it would be dangerous for a woman to be in the woods alone.

  According to what the girl had said, she was going through the woods in a carriage with someone else when that huntsman attacked them, or something like that. Grove had his doubts that the story was as simple as that, because some parts of the girl’s tale just didn’t fit together right. He got the impression the fuzzier parts of her story were somehow connected to him and his brothers, but that didn’t present a problem for him in his current state.

  Seeing the girl off as she thanked him repeatedly and left, he started after her a few minutes after she’d vanished into the woods, but she hadn’t gone more than a stone’s throw from the entrance—she was just standing there. Ultimately, he ended up going with her in search of her lover, just as she’d asked him to.

  After an hour of walking around looking for the love of her life, the girl was nearly exhausted. She was breathing hard and beads of sweat were strung close together on her brow.

  So weak, he thought, confident in his own healthy body. At that thought, he felt a swell of pity. He really wanted to help her find whoever she was looking for. After all, there was no telling when he’d have to go back.

  Getting the girl on her feet again, he was helping her continue the search when twilight came calling. The woods were dangerous at night. He tried to lead the girl out of the forest, but it didn’t go very well. Now he was lost, too. When the girl saw him with his shrugged shoulders, Grove was afraid she might get scared, but to his great surprise she giggled. Whether she’d been traveling with her lover or not, she must’ve had guts to take a carriage ride this far off the beaten trail on the Frontier.

  Though her brightness seemed to know no end, there was just a hint of melancholy in her smile that whipped up Grove’s protective instincts. At this point, the girl said something rather odd—that as soon as it was night, her lover was sure to come looking for her. Dubious of her confidence-filled eyes, he couldn’t believe that would be the case. They’d be better off asking his brothers—who should be getting closer by the minute—for help.

  Circling around behind the girl so as not to startle her, Grove sent a bolt of lightning into the air. The white-hot streak stretched up into the deepening blue of the evening sky without a sound.

  —

  Borgoff was in the driver’s seat of the bus coming out of a cramped valley, and his narrow eyes sparkled at the sight of the energy bolt. “Wow, if ol’ Grove has gone to all the trouble of giving us a signal—Well, he must’ve found something.”

  —

  Dashing through woods sealed in darkness, Caroline glanced up at the heavens and grinned broadly. “That’s the same light I saw back in the village,” she said. “Surely it’s a signal that boy has found something.”

  —

  Deep in thought as he bent over the corpse of what had been Mashira, Mayerling snapped to attention at the heaven-splitting bolt of light rising from a part of the woods not so far away. “I was wondering who might’ve slain Mashira,” he muttered, “Such raw power . . . Well, I don’t care who it is. If they’ve laid a hand on that young lady, it won’t be pretty, by my oath.”

  —

  The girl felt oddly at peace. That was thanks to the youth in front of her. His innocent face and baby-soft complexion gave her an unrivaled sense of security. The young man didn’t seem to fit into the forests of Frontier, but seemed like he’d be more suited for a life in the Capital.

  The sun would be setting soon. Her love would probably be here in no time. No matter where she might be, she knew he’d find her. The girl was positive of that. As she played her gentle gaze over the youth standing before her in the caress of the evening breeze, the girl thought how sad how it was that he looked so healthy and yet couldn’t speak a word.

  Suddenly, the girl blinked. The young man turned her way, seeming surprised. A grove of trees was visible through his bright face. The youth was fading away.

  His sad eyes gazed at the girl, and his lips formed a word. Goodbye.

  The girl reached out to him. The youth was growing ever more transparent, like glass disappearing in water. Goodbye, the girl said frantically. Regardless of who he really was, she wanted to thank him as he left. Goodbye, goodbye, thank you and goodbye.

  And then the youth vanished. In a corner of the woods growing darker and duskier, the girl was left alone.

  The wind seemed to grow chillier. The eyes of countless blood-crazed beasts peered out at her from the depths of the forest.

  I’m scared, the girl thought from the very depths of her soul. So scared. Hurry and save me, my love.

  There was a rustling of the tree branches. It came from somewhere behind her and off to the right. The girl spun around. Someone was approaching. She couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman, or how they were dressed. Fear wound tight around her throat. It was coming closer. The sound of moss being trampled and twigs snapping. Fifteen or twenty feet ahead of her, the figure stopped moving.

  A probing voice asked, “Who’s that over there? That you, Grove?”

  Even though the girl knew it was a woman’s voice, her fears hadn’t dissipated. She remembered that the man who’d attacked her earlier had two partners, and one of them was female. As for the name of the other man, she couldn’t recall it.

  When the figure took a step forward and she could make out the face of a woman she’d never seen before, the girl finally gave a deep sigh and let the tension escape from her shoulders.

  “Let me guess—Are you the passenger from the carriage?” Well suited to the black hue of the scarf wound about the base of her neck, the woman was none other than Leila Marcus.

  “And you are . . . ?” The girl’s face, which had filled with joy when it turned out the new arrival wasn’t Caroline, grew tight as soon as she saw how Leila was outfitted. A javelin and a sliver gun—there could be no mistaking the trappings of a Hunter. There was no way a Hunter would just be hanging around a place like this alone. Which could only mean she’d come here after her. First Mashira, now a Hunter—with one terrifying encounter mounting on the next, the girl’s shoulders fell despondently.

  “I didn’t get to see your face back there, but you’re the girl that was in the black carriage, aren’t you?” Leila said nonchalantly. “I’m Leila Marcus. I’m a Vampire Hunter here to get your boyfriend.”

  The girl braced a hand against the ground.

  “What’s wrong?” Leila asked incredulously. “You get to go home now.”

  Though she listened to the Marcus woman’s words with suspicion, the girl wasn’t focused enough to catch how Leila’s voice seemed a little feeble. “Go. Please,” she urged the Hunter. “Just hurry up and get out of here.”

  “I asked you what’s the matter?”

  “I’m sure my love will be here soon,” the girl said. “The two of you will fight until one of you is dead. And I don’t want to make either of you kill on my account.”

  Leila looked at the blue darkness steadily filling the vicinity. She nodded. “I suppose you’re right. The night is the Nobility’s world . . . ” For an instant, the fierce expression of a warrior steeled for battle arose on her face, but it was soon replaced by one that was strangely filled with half-hearted hatred. And once again, this time in a surprised manner, she asked, “Are you . . . you’re still
human, aren’t you?”

  The girl nodded.

  “So, the Noble didn’t have his way with you and drag you off then. Seriously, you didn’t go of your own free will . . . That’s what happened, isn’t it?!”

  “Yes, I did,” the girl said with a nod. The pale beauty gazed at Leila. There was a powerful light to her eyes. So long as they had that, a person could endure just about anything.

  “So that’s what happened . . . ” A feeling of envy and sadness softened Leila’s tone. “You love him, don’t you? In love with a Noble.”

  The girl didn’t answer her. Her silence was her answer. But her eyes were sparkling.

  Leila leaned up against the trunk of the gigantic tree. At her core was this hot stickiness. It was spreading through her whole body like a fog borne on the wind. It was fatigue. Twenty years worth of fatigue had finally seeped into her body.

  Leila gazed at the girl. This girl had been carried off by a Noble and had given up being human, yet still had infinite confidence and trust. She, on the other hand, was renowned as one of the greatest Vampire Hunters on Earth but was now merely awaiting a horrid fate. Could it be that the pursued was happier than the pursuer?

  “Doesn’t it bother you?” Leila asked the girl.

  “Huh?”

  “Doesn’t it bother you? Living on the run. He has no place to go back to, no tomorrow.”

  “Neither do I,” the girl replied.

  “Yeah, I suppose that would help the two of you get along.”

  The girl smiled thinly. “Never mind about me. Get out of here while you can. He’ll be here soon.”

  “I don’t care,” said Leila. “I’m plumb exhausted. I’ll wait here for your beloved. So, why don’t we continue our little chat.”

  A low voice from behind them said, “I don’t suppose you’d let yours truly listen in as well?”

  The girl screamed, and Leila whipped around with ungodly speed. The face that greeted the eyes of both was that of the huntsman.

  —

  II

  —

  At the entrance to the same woods where he’d seen the streak of light, Borgoff stopped the vehicle. For a while, he didn’t move from the driver’s seat. A strange expression arose on his face when he got to his feet. An expression stripped of every emotion—almost the face of an imbecile.

  Slipping through the sleeping quarters, Borgoff went into the arsenal and pulled a small timer and explosive from a wooden crate, then returned to the bunks. Going over to Groveck’s bed, he carefully pulled away the blanket. An emaciated face appeared. He put his rough thumb to the barely colored lips. There was a faint flow of air. Groveck was still alive.

  A single tear coursed from Borgoff’s eye. When that shining bead snagged in his frightful beard, it hung there forever.

  “It looks like it’s down to just you and me,” Borgoff said to the dearest of his brothers. It was this, the third born, that he loved more than Nolt or Kyle, or even more than Leila. “But this job’s just about up to the big finale. I really need your power here. Which is all well and good, but you just got back from an attack and there’s no reason you’d be having another one right away.”

  At this point, Borgoff sobbed. “That’s why it’s gotta be this way. I hate to say it, but you’re gonna have to let me give you one. Looks to me like you ain’t gonna stand but one more of these attacks. Once you have the next one, there’ll be no saving you. That being the case, I want you to give your life for me.”

  His words could be taken as both sorrowful and unsettling, but what Borgoff did as he wept was horrific. Turning down the blanket even more, right about where his brother’s heart was—over the thin sternum and above the jutting ribs—he taped the time bomb. Though the time bomb was just four inches of plastic tubing, the explosive packed in it would easily blow away the ribs and take out part of Grove’s internal organs.

  That couldn’t possibly be what he planned to do to his brother’s chest as Grove lay fighting for breath, could it?

  Borgoff said he was sorry. His tears flowed without end.

  Give your life for me.

  While one strip of tape would’ve been enough to guard against the bomb slipping off, Borgoff put on a third layer, then a fourth, just in case Groveck tried to peel it off. Once he finished his work and had gently replaced the blanket, Borgoff lightly stroked his brother’s forehead. “So long,” he said. “I’ll make it back for sure.” And then, with his deadly bow and quiver of arrows across his back, he headed outside with an easy gait.

  Evening was about to change from blue to black.

  Borgoff ran. His gut told him from which way Groveck’s streak of light had come.

  His pace gradually quickened. The muscles in his legs creaked and popped as they swelled, and, perhaps more surprisingly, even the bones grew thicker. His upper body remained as massive as ever, but his lower limbs had been transformed into the legs of a veritable giant. And yet, his feet made almost no noise as they struck the mossy ground. In fact, they barely left a dent in the moss.

  Perhaps this was a behest from his parents, who were said to have possessed genetic engineering technology. But why was it that when he walked up a slope, his body remained nearly perpendicular to the terrain?

  He entered the woods. At a speed nearly five times that of an ordinary person, he headed deeper into the trees. The way his feet moved, it seemed like they didn’t know the meaning of the word stop. Soon, however, they came to a sudden halt. He’d just run into a bizarre area. There he could see what looked like a model of the Capital made entirely out of dirt. A cluster of conical buildings roughly fifteen feet high were connected by transport tubes a foot and a half thick. The Capital seemed to run on forever into the forest.

  However, Borgoff’s gaze was not trained so much on the structures themselves as on the ground beneath his feet. There were white things scattered about—a skull staring fixedly at him with gaping black sockets, a femur that looked like it would make an improvised ax, ribs, a humerus . . . They were all bones. Most of them were from species Borgoff recognized, the rest were from birds and beasts he wasn’t familiar with, but the human bones were certainly easy enough to spot. Despite all the remains, the air here didn’t have the slightest stench of decay. It was as if something had stripped them of their flesh and blood.

  Leaving only his startled exclamation of “Whoa!” in his old position, Borgoff jumped forward a good six feet. He landed without disturbing the moss. At the spot he’d just leapt away from, there were a number of creatures that looked like black grains of rice scurrying around. “Sorry, I can’t afford to be dinner for you guys just yet,” he called back to the minute creatures. “So long.” There was something horrifying about his voice as he spoke, and then, when he was about to make another bound, a shudder ran down his spine. In that instant, he realized who he was going to be up against. The distance to the foe he sensed was twenty-five feet ahead and a little to the right, with the eerie model of the Capital lying dead in the middle.

  All the power drained from Borgoff’s body. Preparing for battle, he struck a pose that would let him use his muscles just as he wanted. The tension others might feel when a fight to the death was imminent meant nothing to a Hunter of Borgoff’s class. Crouching to escape the fierce, unearthly aura shooting through him, Borgoff let an arrow fly with lightning speed. He already had another arrow cocked and ready.

  The unearthly aura died out.

  The Hunter didn’t know where his arrow had gone or what effect it had. But from the way there was no sound of leaves or twigs swaying, he could well imagine.

  The air stirred by his right cheek. He jumped forward for all he was worth. What had just split the air and then stuck itself into the ground was the arrow he’d fired. While the fact that someone had stopped his shot with their bare hands didn’t surprise him, the awesome power with which it’d been hurled back gave Borgoff goosebumps. Any stone or branch out there might become a deadly weapon in the hands of his enemy
.

  Up ahead of him, the Hunter sensed someone moving. Picking himself up and preparing to loose a second arrow, Borgoff stiffened. There against the backdrop of blue darkness, a figure in black suddenly stood. Borgoff’s Hunter-sharp eyes caught the pair of fangs poking out from the corners of his foe’s proper mouth.

  “So you’re my prey then? We meet at long last,” Borgoff said in a tone brimming with delight as he aligned the neck of his deadly arrow with his foe’s heart.

  “I have no words of greeting for a stray dog out prowling for human flesh and blood,” the figure garbed in black said quietly. “However, I have no desire for needless conflict. If you put your tail between your legs and scamper off, I won’t do anything to you.”

  Borgoff laughed. “That’s kind of you to offer.” The direction his arrow was aiming was gradually changing. Towards the sky. “But I’m afraid I can’t!”

  What Borgoff did next was nearly miraculous. At almost exactly the same time as the two arrows he shot vertically left his bowstring, he took two more from his quiver and launched them at his target. The speed of his attack was so great, the Noble—Mayerling—was clearly shaken. Another shaft flew through the air as if to block Mayerling’s way after he barely blocked the first two and moved to the right. The Noble had to twist in midair to avoid it. The instant he landed, two more arrows thunked into the ground at his feet in rapid succession.

  Mayerling leapt backward. A shout of rage split his lips. How could a mere mortal with no more than a primitive bow and arrow put him in such peril?!

  However, one last surprise remained in the trap Borgoff had laid. When Mayerling tried to twist out of the way of the whining menace dropping from above, his eyes caught sight of a black light knifing though the darkness. No matter where he leapt, he’d be under fire! And, when his movements stiffened for an instant, two arrows dropped out of the sky on an almost perfectly vertical path and pierced both of the Noble’s shoulders with what seemed like calculated precision.