III
III
The underground chamber resembled an opera house. Wide balconies protruded from the walls. About a dozen men and women wearing evening attire and expensive jewelry stood before a buffet table piled high with food. They laughed while busy waiters in black suits served chilled champagne. Below that, staircases led to the commoners' area, except tonight, the standing gallery was empty.
In the center of the chamber was a hollowed-out pit; it resmebled a coliseum, perhaps. The underground area was wider than a soccer field, and its floor was of smooth concrete. A metal fence surrounded the pit's perimeter. In the middle was a hole, probably for an elevator.
"Are you the surviving nun?" asked the robust man who occupied a large table by himself. As he stirred his fondue pot, he glared at Agnes. His thin eyes were full of anger and malevolence, and underneath his hooked nose was a matching set of curiously thin lips. He didn't seem very bright, but he did have a dangerous aura. "I'm Carrel van derVerf-—I'm one of the Count Four who run Amsterdam. You know why you were brought here, right?"
"F-Father where is Father Hugue?" Agnes, doing her best not to let her teeth chatter, glared back at the vampire with all her might.
"Don't worry. You'll see him in no time. So, anyway Carrel laughed out loud, and rolled Hugue's long staff onto the table. "Sister. Tell me about that incident. I heard from the priest
himself. You saw the face of the killer, didn't you? What did he look like? Was it a man or a woman? A young or an old person? What did they look like?"
Agnes blinked rapidly. She thought she'd already told Hugue everything she knew. Did the vampire not ask Father all this? Why did Hugue tell this man that I knew the killer's face, yet he didn't share the description ?
She finally realized—Hugue saved the details so she could be spared her life.
"Why aren't you saying anything? Speak. I'm short-tempered. If you talk, you'll be freed," urged Carrel, with a hint of uneasiness in his silver eyes.
"Before I tell you where is Father Hugue? I won't talk until I see him," she demanded.
"Oh, so a Terran like you is trying to negotiate with me, Sister?" Carrel was irked. He lowered his voice. "You'd best speak up while I'm asking you nicely Tell me, who killed those priests?!"
She almost fainted at the sight of his exposed fangs, but she stood her ground. "I must see Father! Otherwise, I won't tell!"
"What a stubborn brat." The vampire shook his head in disbelief. "If you want to see him that bad, here he is!"
Agnes heard a low, faint sound. She looked toward the coliseum and opened her eyes wide. "F-Father?!"
A large elevator rose in the center of the arena. The young man was standing in the middle. But what did they do to him?
Hugue was covered in blood from head to toe. It was a miracle that he was able to stand. On top of that, each of his ankles was chained, restricting his movement.
"Well, it's showtime!" Carrel snapped his thick fingers. With a rumbling sound, one of the walls of the arena opened up. Inside the opening was a dark cave—or rather, a corridor.
Agnes gulped and listened carefully. She heard a dull, metallic sound. It sounded like footsteps.
A large, distorted humanoid figure appeared. The armored suit raised its left hand, which held a shield, and awkwardly saluted the noble section of the coliseum. It then pointed a mace, about the size of a small child, toward the priest.
"Begin." Carrel snapped his fingers again, and a black-clothed man blew a trumpet. Upon hearing the fanfare, the armored suit, though clunky, moved swiftly forward.
"Father!" As Agnes covered her face with her hands, the mace thundered down onto the ground. It smashed a crater into the floor. Chunks of fist-sized concrete flew about like grenade fragments.
But the priest wasn't there anymore. Somehow, he'd dodged the blow.
He dragged his chained feet along, running over to the armored suit's blind spot. But he moved slowly, like an elderly man. The armored suit, resembling a cat teasing its prey, forced the priest to the edge of the ring.
"Get away, Father!"Agnes yelled.
The mace swung up again. When Hugue tried to twist his body to dodge it, his shoulder bumped into the metal fence. The mace dropped onto his muscular back.
Hugue gasped in pain.
Reddish black liquid sprayed forth, and Hugue dropped to one knee. The armored suit didn't take another swing, but instead kicked the priest's stomach.
"S-stop…stop that thing!" she stuttered.
"Only if you cooperate, Sister." The vampire laughed. As he stirred the fondue pot, he licked his lips with his pointy tongue. "If you tell me who killed them, I'll free the priest."
A hoarse voice came from below. "Don't Once you tell him, he'll kill you, too."
"Hmph, what an annoying bastard…Willem!" Carrel called out.
The armored suit raised one foot above the priest's head as if it would crush Hugue's skull like a fragile egg.
"What's wrong, Sister? If you don't talk fast, that priest's head will look like this cheese," Carrel said, indicating the contents of his melting pot.
Agnes looked back and forth to the metal staff and the bubbling pot. She pursed her lips. This man is truly a devil. Both of us will be killed no matter what I say.
She wanted to take back the mean things she'd said to the priest earlier. All she could do was to sit there and watch him suffer. The man she'd belittled had found the best way for her to survive, but she couldn't do anything to help him in return.
"Okay," she said.
"Don't, Agnes!" Though she could hear Hugue's cracking voice, Agnes pretended she hadn't.
"I'll tell you everything," she said.
"Good." Carrel leaned forward and rubbed his hands together like a fly. "So? What did the murderer look like?"
"When I returned to the church, a man walked past me. He had brown hair and mauve eyes . He had a cold look."
"Don't tell me it was Memlink?!"Without realizing that he'd interrupted her, Carrel turned and shouted to his men. "Did you hear that? So it was him, for sure!"
"Ca-Carrel!" a black-clothed Terran yelled out.
When Carrel turned back to see what his men were looking at, the hot contents of the fondue pot splashed onto his face."Gah! Wh-why you little bitch!" Carrel cried out in pain.
A Terran might have been blinded, but it was nothing to an immortal Methuselah. It only caused him to temporarily lose sight for a second or two—but for Agnes, those few moments saved her life.
She jumped to grab the metal staff. Before Carrel could claw at it, she threw the surprisingly light weapon down into the coliseum.
As if к was God's will, the staff flew into Hugue's outstretched hand. He lay on his back, panting.
The girl called out to him as she looked down below. "Father . please fight!" Those were the only words she spoke. The next moment, sharp claws grated into her back and slammed her down onto the floor.
"You bitch!" Carrel scowled.
The nun fell down silently. The vampire stepped on her back and growled. He aimed a finishing blow at her exposed neck.
"Ca-Carrel, be careful!" the men said.
The armored suit that was prepared to crush the priest's head suddenly froze in place. Not only that, but
"Wi-Willem?!" Carrel cried out.
It was an unbelievable sight. The upper body of the large armored suit bent at the hip and tumbled down to the floor. It was perfectly sliced at the trunk, red blood spurting out from the incision.
Beside the broken remnants of the armored suit, the priest stood up with his metal staff tucked under his arm like a crutch. The shackles binding his feet had also been sliced off.
"You're next, Carrel van der Verf." His cold, green eyes pierced right through the terrified vampire. Fear was an emotion rarely felt by Methuselah but when the priest stared coldly at Carrel, he froze.
"Wait for me . I'm coming up," Hugue growled sternly.
"K-kill him! Shoot him!"
In response to Carrel's orders, the black-clothed men pulled out their guns. They pointed their muzzles toward the coliseum and squeezed their triggers. These professional gunmen were formerly cops and soldiers—they were excellent marksmen. The priest, standing in the center of the arena, should have been blown to pieces.
But a gray wall appeared in front of Hugue.
By the time they realized that it was his staff twirling rapidly, the rounds were ricocheting around the room. Simultaneously, the violently twirling metal fan was rapidly moving up toward the balcony.
"T-too fast… Hold your fire! You'll shoot each other—"The black-clothed man who called out to prevent friendly fire shrieked and spurted blood as the blade-staff suddenly struck through his throat.
A shadow, slipping past the falling corpse, jumped into the nobles' section of the coliseum. Before the men could fire again, Hugue's metal staff cracked their skulls, swatting each one down like an insect.
"Why, you pesky little Terran!" A noble lady in a blue dress threw her opera glasses to the side and stood up. Long claws stretched out from her slender, beautiful fingers.
"Die!" She scowled and thrust her right hand out, but Hugue blocked it with his staff. The lady's lips curled up, and her left hand tried to strike his face. Even a master like Hugue couldn't dodge that.
But Hugue didn't miss a beat. He moved his right hand slightly and the sound of metal sliding on metal reverberated throughout the underground chamber. There was a small crack in the metal staff. From that crack, there came an awesome white glow…
An air-splitting sound preceded a fountain of fresh, red blood. The lady's head rolled onto the table. Her body stood for a moment, then spurted blood and tumbled down the stairs.
The other Methuselah finally realized that they were in grave danger.
Hugue, cloaked in shadows, kneeled beside the unconscious nun. The black-robed priest was holding a saber with an extremely thin blade and graceful curve. It was radiant.
"What is that sword?!"
"I-I can't believe it. He killed a Methuselah with one stroke!"
While the other Methuselah panicked, Carrel maintained his dignity as a clan leader. He snarled, "How dare you kill my men? You're not a normal priest, are you?!"
Hugue was surrounded by more than ten vampires, but he didn't seem too concerned. The glowing blade in his right hand illuminated his face. He switched from a reverse grip to a forward grip and brought the sword up to his blue eyes. "My name is Hugue de Watteau. I am an AX agent " He whirled his blade around. "Code name Sword Dancer!"
"AX Agent….? So, you're a Vatican assassin!" Carrel yelled.
The priest came up behind one of the Methuselah and pierced his blade through the young vampire's heart. As his sword swung up through the man's neck, it sliced diagonally through the Methuselah's collarbone, creating another curtain of blood.
"Haste mode! Use haste mode to get him!" Carrel ordered.
The Methuselah never imagined that a lowly Terran could kill one of their own.
Carrel barked at the younger ones. "He's only a Terran! Use your haste mode!"
The ultimate power of a Methuselah was to hyperactivate its nervous system to increase speed. Because it burned up the body's energy, they couldn't use it for long periods of time, but Carrel figured they probably only needed three seconds to crush this menace. The older Methuselah went into haste mode, slipped past the dead young Methuselah, and tried to attack the priest's vulnerable back. His fangs extended to dig into Hugue's neck like a wolf about to kill its prey—
"What?!" His fangs met thin air.The priest was gone."Where did he…?"
"You waste too much time in your movements," Hugue whispered into the vampire's contorted face as his long blade-staff stabbed through Carrel's heart. "And you underestimate humans."
"Te-Terran !" Although the blade twisted around and burst his heart, the old vampire still resisted death with all his might. He grabbed the sword that poked out of his chest with both hands.
He should have died by now, but his will to fight caused his heart to contract and lock the sword in place. "Die,Terran!"
Carrel closed in on the weaponless priest. The vampire strained, reached out, and grabbed a battleaxe from the wall.
Hugue reached for his empty sheath just as the heavy axe aimed straight for his head!
There was a momentary clash of metal.
In Hugue's hand was a blade, blocking the axe. Carrel realized that it was a small dagger pulled out from the other end of Sword Dancer's sheath, but by the time he'd figured that out, his upper body had contorted grotesquely. He was pushed back by the priest's fierce strength.
"Urgh!"
Despite the unnatural position, the Methuselah was able to take another swing at Hugue, trying to bring the axe down upon the priest's head one last time. But by then, Hugue had pulled his long blade from the vampire's body.
"Too slow!" Hugue said, pulling the sword under his right arm.
Images of the deaths he'd caused and the deaths he would cause in the future flashed through Hugue's mind. He even thought of his own impending death—but he wasn't going to die now.
With a piercing shout, Hugue kicked the ground and sprang forward. He flung his sword up with one hand to parry the axe. "Omnes enim qui acceperint gladium, gladio peribunt. Those who live by the sword, die by the sword. Amen!"
The sword maintained its speed and thrust into the screeching vampire's throat.
***
The flesh wounds on the girl's back were deep enough to see some of her bones. She'd be okay for now, but she needed treatment as soon as possible. She'd survive, but she might be scarred for life.
"I'll take you to the hospital. You'll be fine. I won't let you die." Hugue picked the young girl up and carried her away from the carnage.
"Did he die?" Agnes, though in a lot of pain, was able to open her eyes a bit. "Did you…kill him, Father Hugue?"
"No, not yet," he answered.
The long blade had pinned Carrel to the wall. It had missed the cervical vertebrae by several microns. A Methuselah wouldn't die easily until its vital point was destroyed. If Carrel moved an inch, the blade would end his life.
"What shall we do? If you'd like, we can kill him. Do you want to seek revenge?" Hugue asked.
Agnes moved her injured neck as best she could. She looked down at Hugue's bloodied hands. She replied sadly, "No."
Her cheek twitched when she tried to smile. "No, I won't seek revenge."
"Good choice," Hugue replied sincerely. "I'll take you to the hospital immediately. Go to sleep for now."
Hugue laid Agnes on the ground, stood, and fixed his attire. He had to do one more thing before he took the girl to the hospital.
"Answer me, Carrel van der Verf." The priest's voice was suddenly cold, completely different from the way he'd spoken to the girl. "Why did you ask Sister Agnes about the murders? Didn't one of your own men do it?"
"Hell if I know." The weak vampire opened his eyes. He couldn't move a thing below his neck. "Framed…I was framed… by Memlink
"Framed? Do you mean Antwerp's Hans Memlink? Is he the murderer?" Hugue asked.
"Maybe. Help me… I didn't attack Oude Kerk, I swear," Carrel gasped.
Even though he might not be guilty of attacking the church, a Vatican priest couldn't just let a scheming vampire go free.
Carrel continued to plead with tears in his eyes. "I really don't know a thing… “
"Then answer one more question about the Watteau clan murder. If you are honest, I'll help you. If not " His fingers touched the long blade-staff. "Tell me. Did you attack the Watteau clan? Which vampire killed the parents, sliced off the son's arms, and kidnapped the daughter?!" Hugue demanded. "Who killed everyone and took my sister Anies?!"
Carrel's eyes rolled to the back of his head. "A Terran named Jan van Maylen asked us to attack Bruges. He hired us
"Jan van Maylen? The master of the Maylen clan?! Don't lie! They're kin of the Watteau clan!" Hugue protested.
"No lie. He was after the post of Chief Inspector that the Watteau clan held for a long time Heh, the Terran consider us to be monstrous, but look at them," Carrel said.
"Who actually attacked the house?" Hugue asked, gripping the hilt of sword so tightly that his hand shook. "Answer me, Carrel. This is my final question. What is the name of the vampire who attacked the Watteau clan?"
"The guy who did it was … was
Hugue instinctively dodged something hurtling from behind. It was a thick arrow.
"No!" Though he successfully dodged it, Hugue cried out in disbelief. The large gray arrow had struck Carrel and instantly killed him.
When Hugue turned around, a gray-coated shadow looked down at him. Half of the figure's face was covered by a large-brimmed hat and a silver mask. But when their gazes met, the masked man's mauve eyes seemed to be laughing at Hugue.
"Wait!" Hugue shouted.
But the gray-coated figure disappeared into the dark hallway. Hugue wanted to follow him, but he looked back at the unconscious girl, who lay bleeding on the ground.
If he left her now, she would surely die.
Every heartbeat brought her closer to death. He took off his priest's robe and pulled her up.
"Just hang on." He had no time to waste. The priest began to run out of the coliseum, hazarding one last glance back at the dark hallway.
"I will never give up."
***
"This is regarding the case of serial murders on passenger ships in Albion waters," said Sister Kate as she read the analysis report. "This is a very touchy subject. There's a possibility that one of the Albion nobles is part of a scandal.This might be the most information that normal staff could uncover."
"So we might need special staff for this case That means we lose another body." Caterina stood near the window and sighed.
Once the sun rose, the air became warm. Spring sunshine filled Saint Peter's Plaza, and the worshippers wore light clothing.
"I guess we have no other choice. Albion is one of the top two secular countries. And we still owe them on the kidnapping case We should be extra careful and dispatch two special agents. Crusnik and Sword Dancer are available, right?" Caterina asked.
"W-well " Sister Kate muttered.
"What's the matter?" Caterina looked concerned at her subordinate's unusual hesitation. Am I mistaken?
"Cardinal, Sword Dancer has not returned to Rome yet."
"What do you mean? The report on the vampire killings was received two weeks ago. I just assumed he had taken some time off, but where is he now?" she demanded.
"Y-yes.You are correct, but…"The nun drooped her gaze. "Father Hugue reported that there were no suspects among the killed vampires. He mentioned that it was necessary to continue the investigation in Antwerp."
Caterina sighed. "I read the report. That's why the investigators are following up on that case. We were supposed to dispatch an AX agent once we found something significant. Is there something wrong with that?"
"He wasn't satisfied with that plan and went to Antwerp himself… I-I'm so sorry!" Sister Kate apologized.
The cardinal pounded her desk. "How dare he run off like that?!" After venting her disappointment, she calmed down a bit, but her eyes were still cold.
Sister Kate asked sheepishly, "Umm, so what shall we do, Cardinal?"
"Tell Crusnik to get Dandelion out of the cage. Let's have those two take care of the Albion case," Caterina said.
"Er, I was asking about what to do with Sword Dancer," said Sister Kate.
The cardinal played with the rosary that hung about her neck as she thought for a moment. It was her call to send Hugue to the Netherlands, despite the risks involved. Also, she was aware of the ongoing Amsterdam case. "Keep sending out return orders to Sword Dancer. If he complies, then I will not punish him for violating regulations. This time."
"Roger. I will pass that on to him," Sister Kate replied.
"Thank you. Oh, and Sister Kate?" Caterina added.
The nun was relieved, but she froze upon hearing the next question.
"So, what is the progress of the Milan case? Please ask the Professor how long it will take Gunslinger to fully recover."
EndFragment