And saying that, Glen suddenly looked up at the sky. The moon was out. It was so perfectly clear, it seemed like it could reflect all the activity taking place on the world below. Glen smiled.
“Lovely moon, isn’t it? It’s a pity we have to fight on a night like this.” With a light shake of his head, he then turned to D again. “But my blood just won’t wait. Even though I’ve been made a servant of the Nobility, my blood alone remains unchanged. What’s more, you can’t very well let me live in my new form.”
“Are you the only one I’ll be facing?” D asked.
Although the Hunter didn’t so much as glance at Samon, her whole body stiffened with fear. D seemed to be saying he’d destroy them both at the same time if necessary.
“No, both of us,” she snarled with bared fangs, but Glen raised a hand to silence her.
“It’ll just be me. There’s not a chance in a million you’ll survive, but should that somehow come to pass, let the woman go on her way.”
“I can’t do that,” D replied.
“I thought you might say that,” Glen said with a smile that was actually rather refreshing. Had this man ever looked up at the moon and smiled in all his life?
Samon, on the other hand, was utterly exasperated. “If you die,” she said, “I’ll fill your heart again with the blood of the girl and the Hunter. I won’t allow you to die and leave me here alone. I’ll bring you back time and again if need be!”
“Let the woman go,” said Glen of all people.
Amazed, Samon was about to say something, but she quickly nodded her consent. Although anyone could plainly see she had something in mind, no one could tell exactly what it was. Su-In was given a shove against her shoulder, and as the woman staggered forward, a flash of white came before her face. Samon’s dagger.
While it wasn’t clear exactly what effect it had on the woman, it was only a second later that intelligence returned to her round face. Shaking her head two or three times, Su-In may have still been under the effects of the hypnotism, because she started to walk toward D without any hesitation.
“Go home,” D said succinctly.
“No,” Su-In replied. “I can’t leave you here all alone. I’m staying.”
“Do what you like. Stay if you want to watch how the Hunter dies,” Glen said, his right hand rising from the sheath to the hum of steel. He’d quickly drawn his blade.
Su-In swiftly ran over to one of the stone carvings. No longer even watching the woman, D drew his blade, too. Samon ran to one side like a gust of wind.
Two gorgeous men—and neither of them moving. If Glen was the epitome of deadly determination without affectation as he held his sword out straight at eye level, then the breathtaking sight of D assuming a “figure eight” stance with his blade by the side of his head was just as much the picture of a warrior whose beauty transcended life . . . or death. Most likely, anyone would stand there astonished and accept their fate if it were this young man delivering their end.
However, Glen’s eyes glowed with crimson—the color of the Nobility. As he took a step forward, his sword’s thrust had something behind it that hadn’t been there before, and the instant D parried the blade in a shower of sparks, the impact jarred both the Hunter’s arms. Perhaps feeling more than just a ferocious blow, D blocked a quick follow-up strike without ever getting off an attack of his own. In Su-In’s eyes, it looked as if D were entirely surrounded by showers of sparks.
The two combatants moved around, tracing a tight circle. Glints of light flew madly in the space between them, then the two handsome figures leapt away—one to the right, the other to the left. The sea was to D’s back. Su-In was behind Glen’s.
The moonlight revealed dripping streams of black. From D’s right eye. Down Glen’s left wrist. The figures of beauty were frozen in place. The place was so still, even the sound of the wind and the crash of the waves breaking at the foot of the cliff seemed to have been transformed into pure moonlight.
One working with one eye, the other with one arm—the real question was, who would be at an advantage, and who at a disadvantage? D already had his right eye shut, and Glen was managing his blade solely with his left hand.
D kicked off the ground. As he brought his sword down, it was aimed precisely at the right side of Glen’s neck, but the attack was parried by a horizontal slash from the left of his foe’s blade—a blow that knocked both the Hunter’s sword and his arm back against his own chest and left him reeling. Without time to right himself properly, D made a horizontal swipe of his sword at his opponent’s temple. The only thing that allowed Glen to dive to one side and avoid the slash was the new level of power his blood so kindly supplied. D glided closer without making a sound.
A refreshing melody rang in the Hunter’s ears.
D’s sword became a white flash of light flowing toward Glen’s chest. Glen’s sword did likewise. Before the Vampire Hunter’s flash could pierce his chest, the seeker of knowledge drove his silvery streak through D’s heart.
“D?!” Su-In cried, and she was about to race over to him when Samon spread her arms to bar the woman’s path. “Out of my way!” Su-In shouted as she launched a fierce and certainly unladylike jump kick she’d learned from a warrior. But Samon suddenly vanished from before her, and the woman took a sharp blow to the neck as she landed on the rocks.
Ahead of her, D had already fallen to the ground.
“D!” she yelled once more, but as her hair was seized and jerked backward, Su-In’s words became a cry of pain.
“Take a good look,” Samon told her. “He’s dead. My man has killed him. My love promised to let you go unharmed, but I didn’t. You can go right after the Hunter. And once you comprehend what I’m about to show you, you’ll beg for death.”
Although it felt like her neck was about to snap, the agonized Su-In stared at the end of the promontory.
D had been slain. The blade jutting from his chest was proof of that.
However, wasn’t Glen also on his knees by the Hunter’s feet? His sword had pierced D’s chest. And D’s blade had done the same to him. The only difference between the two had been a slight twist of the body that’d kept one from being hit in a vital spot.
“Glen?! Has he slain you?!” Samon asked when she finally managed to wring the mournful tone from her throat.
Su-In heard the words through her pain and horror.
“Don’t worry,” the swordsman quickly replied. “It seems that I’ve won. Samon, let the girl go.”
“Don’t be ridiculous! I just won’t be right with all this if I don’t send her right after him. Oh, that’s right,” she laughed, “you still don’t know, either. Well, have a good look at what our chaste little maiden is truly like.”
“Stop it,” said Glen.
But there was no further reply from Samon. Putting her hands to Su-In’s head, she peered down at the woman’s face from behind.
The figure that took shape before Su-In’s eyes was the same one as the night before. He was every bit as tall and muscular as D or Glen. And when fully formed, his vaguely cruel features bore a resemblance to someone.
“Who’s he? Who is this man?” Su-In moaned, while above the woman’s head Samon bent backward with laughter.
“Don’t you recognize him? Then I shall have to show you something else—with the power my new blood has given me. Look!”
The air before Su-In stirred, and an image of a second person came into being. Su-In stared at it in a daze, and Glen forgot all about his pain and one other matter as he watched her.
Indeed, everybody makes mistakes. Near D’s waist, there was a muffled noise that sounded like dirt being eaten.
“But that’s—” Su-In cried out in astonishment when she stood face-to-face with the completed image. She recognized it. There was no way she couldn’t. After all, it was Su-In herself.
“Now, go to it,” Samon told her. “Just as you did back then. Re-enact the scene that’s been purged from your memory.”
> The tableau that unfolded before her eyes at Samon’s command seemed as if it could only be some nightmarish bacchanal. Su-In’s other self—the one that’d appeared from her mind—drew a knife, then came up behind a man who seemed to be mulling something over and drove the blade straight into his heart with breathtaking ease. The two Su-Ins screamed. So did the young man. Truth and fiction were in perfect accord. Clutching at thin air, the young man fell forward. But before he could hit the ground, he vanished. The phantom Su-In disappeared, too. All that was left was the woman pinned by Samon, staring absentmindedly into space. Tears rolled from her eyes. Su-In realized she would never again be the same person. The memories her grandfather’s hypnotism had sealed deep within her heart were tainted with sorrow and fresh blood.
That was the warrior who came to my house four summers ago. And I murdered him. Stabbed him in the back . . . So Grampa Han used his skill on me to keep me from losing my mind . . .
Su-In’s personality was imploding. Cracks formed with surprising ease in the ego of the rugged, honest woman, branching out through her entire psyche like the veins of some ill-fated and disturbing circulatory system.
“Stop it!” Su-In shouted. As if mere screams would be enough to check her own collapse.
And as if to keep that from happening, Samon’s laughter split the darkness.
But then both Su-In’s sobs and Samon’s malicious laughter stopped. Glen got up. Before his very eyes, a figure darker than the darkness was eerily rising to his feet, like an immense and gorgeous mountain.
.
III
.
“You broke your word,” said the voice of the night. Glen had sworn that Su-In would be released, and that nothing would be done to her.
Two points of light burned into Glen’s eyes—D’s eyes as he got to his feet again. They were ablaze with a vermilion hue. Bits of black rained down at the Hunter’s feet, and pieces of earth that spilled from the palm of his left hand.
“Yes indeed, nothing beats good solid food. It takes more than wind to fill your belly.”
When Glen realized the second voice had come from the Hunter’s left hand, his lips unleashed his deadly whistle.
The wind snarled with the sound of something slashing through the air.
The instant the glittering moonlit wave touched Glen’s neck, it became a bloody streak of black. The line raced diagonally to the left, splitting him open all the way to his left lung when D pulled his blade away. Simultaneous streams of blood spread from Glen’s chest and back like the wings of a black butterfly.
As the seeker of knowledge fell to the ground without a word, D prepared to bring his blade down on him.
There was nothing Samon could do, but she howled like a beast. Perhaps that was what stopped D’s blade.
Just then, the Hunter felt gravity slam down on every inch of his body. It felt like the darkness itself was sinking. Glen was splayed across the ground. He couldn’t move a muscle.
“Oh, here comes another one,” D’s left hand said with amazement, drawing a fifth person out from behind one of the carved stone faces. There was no need for him to name this man who had gravity at his beck and call.
“Egbert, kill him! Kill the Hunter!” shouted Samon. Unbeknownst to Glen, she’d called the giant here and kept him in hiding. And the line across the tip of the cape marking the boundary of his “kingdom” was so faint, even D wouldn’t notice it.
“So, we meet again,” Egbert said in a ghostly voice. “But this time will be the last. Although I had hoped for a proper fight . . .”
“And here I thought you had more character than this,” D’s left hand barked scornfully as the Hunter barely managed to stand erect. “You don’t even know what it means to have a serious one-on-one duel—which makes me wonder what the hell country are you king of?!”
“Laugh if you like. But I’m in love with her. I want to defend those whom she’d defend.”
Those whom she’d defend—wasn’t that the very man Egbert had tried to kill?
The whole reason Glen had received his Noble blood was because the giant had used his power on the seeker of knowledge and knocked him off of the other cliff. Out of that whole quintet of warriors who would exploit any advantage or use whatever treacherous means they could, Egbert alone had shown a unique character that’d come as a refreshing change. Even when he’d attacked Glen, it had only been to save the woman he loved from being a mere pawn in the hands of the seeker of knowledge. And although he’d agreed to gang up on D, he was surely the only one who’d felt any reservations about doing so. And now, he was ambushing D to protect a man he’d once tried to kill.
“Make sure you don’t kill Glen,” Samon commanded in a tone steeped in bloodlust. “Just get him. Kill the Hunter alone.”
“I know,” Egbert said. Slipping his hand into his breast pocket, he pulled out a number of tiny shapes and tossed them on the ground not far from where D stood. Everyone but Su-In could see that they were little mud figurines. Egbert then threw something else. Even upon seeing that they were twigs and nails, there was no telling how he intended to use them.
At that point, D said something strange: “Aren’t you going to call in the other two?”
Egbert got an odd look on his face, but he said nothing.
A few seconds later, D was surrounded by bizarre soldiers there in the moonlight. A tree of some unknown form sprang from the ground at his feet, like smoke given substance. Roughly spitting up mud, the soldiers then charged forward. Their swords and spears flashed out like dazzling blossoms. Although the kingdom was under five Gs, the soldiers could move about freely. This alone would’ve been difficult for anyone to believe.
The shadowy figures overlapped as they made a beeline for D, but a split second later, they all turned to dust as every head was severed and every torso split. The wind carried away the remnants of the soldiers, and D alone remained standing in solitude. His eyes were gleaming with crimson.
“It’s no use,” the Hunter said. Samon was directly ahead of him. Up until now, the young man had never said anything about his own victory or his enemy’s defeat, no matter how weak his opponent was. Perhaps it was some animosity toward the woman who’d laid Su-In’s heart bare that made him say it now.
D looked at Glen. The swordsman was in retreat. A pair of soldiers were dragging away his unconscious form.
D’s left hand let loose a howling gale. As needles of rough wood pierced both soldiers through the base of the neck, they were instantly reduced to dust.
Seeing D walking calmly toward where Glen lay on the ground, Samon shouted, “Oh no! Egbert! You must do something!”
As if in answer to Samon’s cries, a bizarre form burst from the soil near Glen’s feet. At first glance, it looked like an ordinary bush. But from the way it threw twisted, tapering thorns out into the darkness in all directions, the vegetation was clearly meant to bar D’s path and to shield Glen. By the light of the moon, the sharp branches had a metallic luster. It was doubtful that even D could’ve imagined the nails Egbert had scattered earlier taking on such a form to hinder his foes.
Whistling through the wind, another branch sprang from the bush. In a manner reminiscent of someone holding a rose rather than seizing a razor-sharp thorn, D caught it with his left hand. A thin black stream quickly rained down onto the ground. The rate at which lifeblood dripped from the Hunter was far greater than normal.
“Impossible!” cried Samon. Having received the kiss of the Nobility, she now understood something she might not have known before. She knew now what fresh blood meant to a dhampir.
A number of branches besieged the Hunter like whips, but each was slashed away to rain back down to earth in a wild dance. Making a single swipe of his sword, D then rushed forward toward the steely bush with incredible speed.
There was a flash. With a single burst, and the bush was split in half down the middle.
Glen was motionless.
As D tried to get through the
split, a flash of black lightning shot by his side. Deflected with an earsplitting sound, it was an iron rod. Changing his position, D looked over at the ruler who’d just entered his own kingdom.
“Hurry up! Take him and get out of here!” Egbert said in a forceful tone to Samon, who was behind him. It was not because he was acting on Samon’s orders. Rather, he was risking his life because he knew this was the hated enemy of the woman he loved. Even though he’d become something inhuman, this man of the ancient warrior code hadn’t entirely forsaken his former self.
And D, for his part, took up a position directly opposite the man.
“Strange, isn’t it?” Egbert said flatly. “I’m not doing this just to play hero. I mean it from the bottom of my heart. D, is that how a Noble’s mind works?”
His only answer was the wind.
As a human, Samon had risked her own life to save Glen’s, as had Egbert when he received the kiss of blood. Humans and Nobles—how did they differ?
“I’m ready to pay for my ambush with my own flesh,” the giant said. “I know I can’t win, D, but I’m gonna have at you!”
D readied his blade in a low position. To this man who was facing him fair and square, he didn’t say, “It’s no use.”
The gravity suddenly eased away. Egbert had relinquished his kingdom.
“Hyaaah!”
Backed by his new Noble blood, the giant’s blow was harder and faster and more precise than ever, but D’s eyes glowed crimson and the blade he swung up from below deflected the iron staff, executed an elegant turn in the air, and slid right through the heart of the king who’d cast off his crown. Even after D had drawn his blade back out again, Egbert stood stock still.
“So . . . death is true peace? Now I see,” the giant muttered, his words following him as he fell to the ground.
Letting his eyes drop to the warrior’s remains momentarily, D then turned his gaze toward the road. With Glen over her shoulder, Samon was closing on Su-In.
The Hunter’s left hand flicked out.
Having accepted the blood of the Nobility, the sorceress would get no mercy merely because she was a woman. A needle of unfinished wood pierced the left side of the temptress’ neck, poking out again on the right side. Samon staggered for a few steps, her knees buckling. And yet she still wouldn’t let go of Glen.
Mysterious Journey to the North Sea, Part 2 Page 20
