AN ACCOUNT OF THE BATTLE

CHAPTER 3

I

 

You’ve been there a while, haven’t you?” Dynus said to D, but the Hunter advanced without speaking.

He didn’t race forward in a hurry. As the giant suggested, he’d been following the wagon from the very start. He’d seen Brewer’s scheme coming a mile off.

“Hey, there! Wait just a second,” the giant said as he stuck both hands out—although technically, he was sticking them down. “I have no intention of throwing down with you. Don’t wanna use up all my strength before the main event. I’ll give you back the woman safe and sound.”

“From the way you say it, the girl was what you were after.”

“Spare me. I don’t wanna kill someone who doesn’t even know who they are.”

“She doesn’t know who she is?”

“That’s right. Because I don’t have that tingle running down my spine. If I were to fight her now, I’d just be tearing apart an innocent girl. Could you bring yourself to do something like that?”

“No.”

“Wow,” Dynus replied, boldly baring his gleaming white teeth in a smile. “Knock it off. If you smile at me like that, you’re gonna make me all bashful. You lady-killer! Well, hurry up and take her back home so you can get her patched up. Huh?”

As he turned to where Raya had been thrown, his eyes went wide. An elliptical depression had been left in the snow, but the girl’s body had vanished without warning. And without D even noticing.

“I didn’t do it,” Dynus declared with a frantic wave of his hands. “And I’d say you didn’t, either. You suppose it was one of that guy’s cronies? Nah, I’d have noticed if it was one of them. Then it’d have to be—”

“Do you have some idea where she could’ve gone?”

“Let me see,” the giant said, bringing his hand to his chin as he deliberated. “I’d say she’s at her castle.”

Turning toward the forest, D gave a whistle. Climbing onto the cyborg horse that came galloping out, he said, “I’ll show you the way.”

“How am I supposed to get there?”

“You’ve got a wagon.”

“You’re not exactly mister personality, are you? But I see your point. The girl’s in such rough shape, she could freeze to death out here. I guess I’m still half asleep. Just give me a second.”

Dynus wasted no time in returning from the woods carrying the usual log with the cloth bundle tied to one end, quickly righted the wagon, and lashed the headless horses that even now kicked at the earth in hopes of fulfilling their role.

As they rode along side by side, D said to the giant, “I’d like to hear about this situation.”

“Yeah, sure—though to tell the truth, I don’t know much about it either. At any rate, that woman and I are apparently hereditary foes. We’ve probably been set up as proxies in a war between Nobles. Only, I knew where she was right away, but she doesn’t seem to have awakened yet. That’s why the flunkies got here first.”

“Why don’t you just stop the fight?”

“I can’t do that. Or, to put it another way, I was made so I can’t even think that way. And once she comes around, she won’t be able to either.”

“And if she never comes around?” asked the Hunter.

“That’s a thought. If possible, that’s the way I hope it’ll go. I’m made not to fight anyone I don’t view as a foe. So that’d probably be best for the girl, too.”

“You’re a strange warrior.”

“There’s more to being a warrior than just fighting. There’s a little thing called fair play,” Dynus said, his voice rising in a laugh.

Startled snow plopped down from the trees by the road.

“Sure is pretty,” the colossal warrior said as he squinted his eyes. “The world’s such a beautiful place, but it’s just somewhere for me to fight. Something’s just not right about that. Why’d those bastards in the Nobility ever get it into their heads to make something like me? It’s tragic to be good for nothing but killing. I want to be of more use to the world, you know?”

The pair came out onto a plain. At some point the snow had stopped falling, and now the moon was out with a silvery glow. By its light, the snowfields glittered like a mirror that seemed to stretch on forever.

Suddenly the scenery changed. Blue light colored the pair as a desolate, snowless plain bare of even a blade of grass exposed itself.

“This way.”

Dynus drove the wagon through a region studded with one fantastic rock formation after another—they must’ve continued on for the better part of a mile. From off in the distance, rows of spacious buildings that certainly seemed to be ruins crept into view. The castle walls, the domed ceilings, the stone columns, the great foundation—and a huge reactor and electronic barrier larger than most villages made it seem as if there was still life in these ruins that were the size of a great city.

Not hesitating in the least, Dynus slipped into one particularly towering structure and found Raya lying in a room where only the central foundation remained. D had already dismounted and taken the girl’s pulse.

“How is she?” the giant asked.

“Fine,” was all that D said, but it put the giant at ease.

Oddly enough, the two of them seemed to be able to communicate without words. Neither mentioned how miraculous it was that even on foot, she’d managed to get there ahead of them.

Before D could lift her in his arms, the girl opened her eyes the tiniest bit.

“I—What happened to me?”

“You should get some rest.”

Looking all around with fearful eyes, she said, “These are the ruins of Castle Sinestro, aren’t they? What am I doing here?”

“So you don’t remember anything?” Dynus inquired.

In reply, Raya shrieked and clung tightly to D. But the reason she wasn’t really terribly afraid was because she hadn’t seen Dynus running amok. The wagon had been between them, with one in it and the other under it.

“Who’s he?” she asked.

Silence descended.

But just as Raya was about to get suspicious, the giant said, “Heck, I’m your new employee. I heard you needed help out at your place, so here I am!”

Raya looked up at D.

“So it would seem,” the Vampire Hunter told her.

__

The next day, work began at Raya’s house with a change of cast. Dynus was truly adaptable in his activities. And the amount of energy pent up in his body was far different from what a human could store. He set the tilting roof of the main house straight again, then filled the nearly empty woodshed and water tank with a store that would last a good three years.

“You take it easy and leave all the heavy work to me,” the giant told Raya as he peered down at her and grinned. It was the sort of smile one couldn’t help but return, and though the girl’s features were stiff at first, they quickly softened.

“That man—is he really a farmhand?”

“Yes,” was all D said in reply.

“But why would he come to my house? We can’t even afford to pay him.”

“Apparently all he wants is enough to eat in the coming year.”

“But that’s not very—”

“Let him do as he likes. These days, there are a lot of odd characters running around.”

“That’ll be great for our farm, but what should I do? It’s not like Mr. Brewer will let me stay here indefinitely.”

“Don’t worry about him,” D said softly. “We’ve come to an agreement.”

That evening, the three of them returned to her home and Dynus set the severed heads of the men who’d tried to make off with Raya out in front of the speechless flesh trader.

As Brewer tipped over in his chair, D said to him, “You tried to pull a fast one, didn’t you? Leave Raya on the farm until he’s finished his business.”

Like a man possessed, the flesh trader had accepted D’s declaration.

A week passed peacefully, and after finishing repairs on the farm, Dynus turned his energy toward expanding the fields. The western edge of their land was a wild stretch of heavy undergrowth. With a tiny hoe in his hands, the giant worked from early morning at reclaiming the ground, and by late that night he’d succeeded in turning it into rich farmland. Even the girl’s alcoholic father couldn’t help but watch him work.

“Let me show you something interesting,” the giant said after hearing Raya complain about how difficult it was to use the snowy roads.

Gathering the whole group on the porch, he then went out to stand about thirty feet away in the center of the front yard. There was about a foot and a half of snow on the ground.

A summer breeze stroked Raya’s cheek. It was as if the very sun had landed in the yard as steam rose from the ground and the icicles fell from the eaves. If D hadn’t intercepted the icy spears, Raya and Brewer—who was still around—probably would’ve been impaled by them. When Dynus presently appeared from the steaming mist in fine spirits, the whole yard was cleared of snow, leaving the black earth exposed. From this, it became clear that Dynus could control his body temperature and radiate heat at will.

D took that opportunity to escort Brewer back to town and sent off an express letter to the Capital. Naturally, it was to request data on any situations resembling Raya’s from the library. He’d known from the very start that the other story about Raya’s connection to the Nobility had been a fabrication . . .and he’d said as much when the severed heads were laid out.

“How did you know?” the flesh trader had asked, one eye bugging behind his monocle.

Of course, D hadn’t replied.

“So you knew from the get-go? Then why’d you come out here to the girl’s place? Vampire Hunter ‘D’ shouldn’t care at all unless the Nobility have shown their fangs. Yet you came out here anyway. Oh, I get it—you’re sweet on the girl, are you?”

“Was there really a library?” D had asked him.

“Yes, that part was true.”

“Afterward, it’ll be too late to tell me it was another lie.”

Though ice water coursed down his spine, Brewer replied, “It’s true. By the way, you sure I’m not in the way here?”

“We don’t have any real need for a flesh trader.”

“From time to time, you really sound like an old man,” Brewer commented. “I’ve already parted with the princely sum of six thousand dalas, you know. When the time comes, I have every right to take that girl to the Capital. But seeing the awkward incident we had earlier, I’m not saying she has to go right away.”

Of course, Brewer couldn’t very well stay at Raya’s house, but he showed up every day, grinning out in the garden or sitting inside enjoying the tea and cakes he brought just for that purpose. Oddly enough, neither Raya’s father nor the girl herself seemed to harbor any ill will toward this buyer and seller of humanity.

“You’re a strange fella, aren’t you?” Dynus said to him somewhat suspiciously.

“That’s my natural charm,” the flesh trader replied.

The northern sky clouded heavily, as if spring’s eventual arrival were no more than a legend, and the snow continued to fall, stark and white, to freeze the hearts of humanity.

One day, as the white snow piled up on the colossal figure digging a new well, Raya walked up and held her umbrella over him.

“Did you actually come here to help out at my house?” she asked.

“I sure did,” the giant replied without hesitation.

“I find that hard to believe,” Raya said, training her probing gaze on the giant. “There must be tons of better jobs for you in the village. Any place would be glad to have someone like you through the winter. So, what are you doing out here at our spread?”

“Well, it was love at first sight!”

“What?!”

“No, I don’t mean with you. I mean with the young fella.”

“Mister D?” Raya said, putting her hand up to her mouth and making a gagging sound.

“Hey, what’s that all about? Whoever said there was something wrong with one man being smitten with another? I mean, look how gorgeous he is! The most beautiful woman in the Capital probably couldn’t hold a candle to him.”

Raya got a new glint of light in her eye.

“Have you been to the Capital?”

“Nope. Can’t say that I have,” the giant replied.

“But you just said—”

“I said ‘probably,’ didn’t I?”

“I wonder what kind of place it is,” Raya mused as she swung the umbrella to dislodge the snow that’d collected on it.

“It was the headquarters of the Nobility. That’s no place for humans to be living.”

“Is it really that awful?”

“Yeah. You know, the Nobles weren’t good for squat. They completely ignored what anyone else thought or felt and made all kinds of monsters. I wonder how those bastards would’ve liked being one of those freaks.” Then scratching his head bashfully, the giant added with a wry smile, “You get what I mean?”

“You . . . you were made by the Nobility . . .” Raya said, her voice carrying an unavoidable tremble. “So . . . why are you here?”

“The Nobility might’ve made me, but I’ve still gotta eat to survive.”

Dynus brought the hoe down. His timing must’ve been perfect, because he scooped a three-foot-square section clean out of the ground. He’d already gone down ten feet—the top of his head was at the same level as the ground. The hole was more than fifteen feet in diameter, and was more like a pond than a well.

Raya simply left everything to the silence of the falling snow. Though she wished the gorgeous young man were there, the figure in black had gone off to check the farm’s perimeter. This was a problem she’d have to solve on her own. The hand she used to clutch the umbrella trembled a bit.

Raya bravely began, “That day . . . I had the strangest dream . . . On the day I met you, that is . . . I went underground somewhere and got hooked to these mysterious machines . . . and then I understood everything. That I . . . I’m not the real me. The other me is a scary, scary woman . . . one who lives to do battle with someone.”

Taking another bite out of the ground with his hoe, Dynus asked, “You said ‘someone’—like who?”

“You want to know?”

“Yeah.”

Perhaps the giant sensed that at some point the volume of snow falling on him had changed. Raya’s umbrella was still open, but she held it with the tip aimed downward. The end of it was honed to a sharp point for use against monstrous beasts. The back of the giant’s head lay right before her.

Suddenly throwing down her umbrella, Raya ran back toward the house. A number of shadows drifted across her innocent countenance.

Flying in through the front door, she found her father in the living room. It wasn’t until she hugged up against his burly chest that she noticed he didn’t have a certain odor about him.

“Hey, now! What’s the matter?”

“I’m scared, Papa! Really scared. I’m your daughter, aren’t I? I was born here, right? And I had a mother and everything, didn’t I?”

“Sure you did. What are you getting at anyhow?”

“It doesn’t matter. Not so long as I know that. Just keep holding onto me.”

Not knowing exactly what was going on, the father gently supported his daughter’s form. He got the feeling that things were just like they’d been a long time ago.

A little while later, D and Dynus came in together.

“Is she okay?” Dynus asked worriedly.

“There doesn’t seem to be any reason for concern,” D said as his gaze fell on Raya breathing easily as she slumbered on the sofa. Beside her sat her father, protecting the defenseless silhouette with his own hard gaze.

“What’s this?” Dynus said as he took a sniff. “You given up the booze?”

“Yep,” the father replied. “After seeing how you were busting your hump out there, I realized how pathetic I’d become. So I decided to give it another go. And the first part of that was to swear off drinking and smoking.”

“That’s a nice resolution. I was hoping I’d be able to take it a little easier. Give it your best tomorrow.”

“No, I’m getting started today. I’m gonna show you how to dig a well!”

Clutching his belly and laughing for a while, Dynus then said, “Oh, you’re too much! By all means, show me how, sir.”

“You better believe I will. Okay, ready to go?”

Turning toward the door, the father said to D, “Sorry, but could I have you stay with her? I’m sure she’ll be a lot safer with you than with me.”

Saying nothing, D stepped over by the entryway.

 

 

One day, when the sun put in a rare appearance, D was notified that the book he’d ordered had arrived. Visiting the post office to claim it, he met someone there.

“Serna Nichol is my name. I’m the author of the book you requested,” the young linguist said with a smile, a volume containing his latest research in one hand.

But when the two of them arrived at the farm, Dynus and Raya were nowhere to be found, having vanished completely.

__

II

__

The father had gone into town with D and was still there trying to find a cultivator.

D went out back and got on his horse.

Mounting a borrowed horse, Serna said, “It may be they’re already going at it—where should we go?”

“I have a good idea. Wait here,” the Hunter told him.

“It may not look it, but I can handle a steed.”

D galloped off without even replying.

Before he’d pursued the Hunter for even a hundred yards, the linguist gave up. Though D’s cyborg horse was the kind you’d find by the dozen in any town, it raced off at twice the speed of his own mount.

“I’ll be damned. Things like this are why the Frontier scares me.”

Dejectedly returning to the farm, Serna decided to stay put.

__

At a point a little more than a mile from the ruins, D saw a gigantic figure approaching from up ahead. Dynus had both arms out in front of his chest, and in them he carried Raya and his great log of a club. He was clad in armor, and his appearance and that of the girl were a stark testament to what had transpired. Each of them had fresh blood dribbling from their forehead down to their chin.

“She ain’t dead,” Dynus volunteered. “She picked the perfect time to switch back to normal. And the shock of it made her faint dead away. Yeah, it looks like she hasn’t fully gone over yet.”

“I’ll take her on the horse with me,” D said as he extended his arms.

The giant shook his head, saying, “I’ll bring her back. She’s my nemesis, after all. That’s just courtesy. I already put some of my special salve on her wounds.”

“How about those other two characters?”

“Those clowns didn’t show themselves. But they’re definitely hanging around close by.”

That much D already knew—he’d been able to sense their presence in the vicinity of the farm constantly. Perhaps the reason they hadn’t attacked was because Raya hadn’t awakened to her potential, or because they actually feared Dynus’s power. And maybe they hadn’t come out to aid Raya when she lost consciousness because they knew that Dynus was only interested in doing battle with her in her warrior state.

The giant walked back over several miles of road.

“It’s a pity, I tell you. Why the hell does a good girl like her have to fight me?”

“When did she change?” asked the Hunter.

“While I was splitting wood.”

Dynus was out at the woodshed and Raya by the chicken coop a few hundred yards away, but she flew right to him.

We meet at last, Raya had said.

“I was so happy. I’d finally met the very opponent I was always meant to fight, D. And I could tell Raya was delighted, too. Hell, she even said so.”

I’m so glad, Raya had told him. This is the real me. Consider that gentle little farm girl no more than a dream. I’ve been waiting for you for so long. Come!

And then the two of them had gone out to the ruins to square off.

D didn’t ask the particulars of their brutal battle, and Dynus didn’t offer them.

It was soon after she’d been placed in her bed back at the farm that Raya regained consciousness. The frightened look in her eyes belonged to the ordinary girl they all knew. Her gaze clinging desperately to D, she said with bloodless lips, “What’s happened to me?”

But it was Dynus that responded, saying, “Nothing at all.”

“Really? You mean to tell me I was dreaming or something? I think in my dreams I was fighting someone. I’m scared. I can still remember how I felt at the time. I—I was so thrilled by the battle, by the thought of slaying my foe.”

D’s left hand came to rest on her trembling brow.

“You should sleep.”

Nodding, the girl took a deep breath—and she quickly fell into the steady breathing of slumber.

“Wow, that was fast,” Dynus said with admiration.

D told him, “Let’s head outside.”

From her bedroom, the two went straight out to the porch.

“How’s her father doing?”

“He hasn’t come back from town yet.” Tossing his chin in the direction of the house, D added, “I’m going back in to have a talk with a certain scholar. Care to join me?”

“Is it about the two of us?” asked the giant.

“Yes.”

“Don’t bother then. At this point, finding out why we have to fight won’t accomplish squat . . . although I do still worry about her.”

“Here comes another man who wants to concern himself with her,” said the Hunter.

“What?!”

On seeing the motorized carriage coming in through the entrance to the farm flanked by riders, Dynus smiled wryly.

“Well, that’s a kick in the pants,” he remarked.

The carriage bore the mark of the “Frontier Garrison.” Troopers piled out of the vehicle like ants onto the white snow.

“That’s them! They’re the culprits who’ve interfered with my business,” screeched none other than Brewer.

A middle-aged man—the apparent leader—stepped forward from the pack of troopers. Though all the men carried gas-powered rifles, they still had the muzzles pointed at the ground.

“Pleased to meet you. Kevin’s the name. I’m captain of the Northern Eighth Division, Frontier Garrison. Fact of the matter is, two days back, we got a complaint from Mr. Brewer here. According to him, the two of you are infringing on his rights. Now, I don’t mean to—”

“So I take it the flesh trader told you we’re standing in the way of him buying a girl?”

“I resent that!” Brewer bellowed as his eyes bulged in their sockets. Holding up a sheet of paper with his right hand, he said, “Captain, this is the very same contract I showed you earlier. I have the right to bring that girl back to the Capital. Kindly drive these two off immediately!”

“—And that’s about the size of it,” the captain continued. “At any rate, the contract’s real enough. Would you be good enough to hand over the girl?”

“I’m afraid we can’t do that,” the giant replied. “See, I’ve got business of my own with her.”

The captain’s expression clouded as he said, “Then I guess you leave us no choice. We’ll have to use force. You’d best bring the young lady on out here.”

“Sure thing. Why don’t you go get her?”

Respectfully stepping to one side, Dynus gestured to the front door.

D went back into the house without saying a word.

“What, you’re not gonna watch?” his left hand said with obvious dissatisfaction.

“I don’t want any part of that nonsense.”

“Shit, it’d be such a good show, too! You’re no fun at all, you know that?”

Angry shouts and the sounds of a slugfest echoed from the yard. But they didn’t continue for long.

D went into the living room.

Serna was standing over by the window.

“He’s really going at it!” the linguist said, his hand balled into a fist. He was quite excited—he was still so young. “It’s incredible! He just knocked five of them down at once. The whole squad is out of commission now. Oh, he just caught hold of that other guy!”

Letting a carefree smile rise to his lips, Serna took a seat in front of D.

“You may think it rude, but while everyone was out I took the liberty of investigating the house. And I just finished examining the girl in the bedroom, too.”

“And what did you find?” asked D.

“There’s no evidence that she is what we think. However—”

“Apparently she underwent some sort of transfiguration.”

“In that case, there can be no mistake,” Serna remarked, rubbing his temple.

“How about the man?”

“His size certainly fits.”

Serna recalled the tragedy that’d occurred three years earlier while investigating a certain mountain stronghold where a vast subterranean chamber had held rows of artificial human warriors. A section of the massive rock walls looming over them had suddenly collapsed, crushing ten scientists who were busy working down below. At the time, Serna was having a smoke with a colleague out on a deck that overlooked the mountain. Though the hole that’d been dug through the rock wall and the booming laugh that was left behind had done little to reveal the identity of whatever had been down there, at least it solved the mystery of where all of the power had been going. If the giant outside were to be set into that opening, it’d be a perfect fit.

“So it’s just as we thought,” D said, adding, “We’re looking for some way to keep the girl just as she is now.”

“What a waste. At least, that’s what I’d normally say if I weren’t afraid of getting my head bitten off.”

“Do you know of a way?”

“Sure,” Serna replied easily.

On the way back to the farm from the post office, they’d exchanged information on the connection between the giant and the girl. That was why D could speak so directly to him now.

“Six months back, several ancient manuscripts were discovered in the remains of a moving continent. They contained a record of another case like this.”

“Unlike Dynus, she’s just a regular girl. She was born right here in the village to ordinary parents. There’s a mountain of evidence in support of this,” said the Hunter.

“That may be, but in her case I believe it’s actually a matter of something that happened before her birth. One of her forebears, or possibly even both sides of the family, may have undergone some sort of genetic manipulation. The will and strength, the knowledge and superhuman powers of a warrior—all of these slumbered in their blood for uncounted generations until Dynus’s awakening called them to the fore. I’m quite certain that’s the case here.”

“Why was it that she went out to the ruins?”

“I believe that even for someone with the power of the Nobility, it would be a monumental task to attempt to free the warrior consciousness that’s been in her family’s blood for thousands of years. There must be some sort of equipment wreckage somewhere around here that’s intended to aid in that process.”

“Would it be possible to keep her as she is now?”

“If the equipment remains. You said there were some ruins nearby?”

“Care to go there?” asked D.

“I can handle a horse—” Serna began to say, but he shrugged his shoulders and gave up. He’d just recalled his humiliating performance earlier.

At that point, the door loudly swung open.

“Save me!” the blood-soaked Brewer cried as he raced in. Although he was trying desperately to take refuge behind D, at some point the young man in black had turned so that he was facing him.

A shadow fell across the doorway.

“Come on out, you dirty bastard!”

“Me?” Brewer squeaked, throwing himself flat on the floor.

Even Serna backed away.

“I took care of the others outside. Don’t worry—I only knocked them out. Just left one awake so he could drive ’em back in the carriage.”

“We might be able to do something for Raya.”

At D’s word’s, the giant’s eyes went wide.

“Great! Is he the one that’s gonna do it?”

With an apprehensive squeak, the linguist backed against the wall.

“Thank you kindly. I’ll be in your debt. You’re a saint . . . an angel!”

“Oh, I wouldn’t say that,” Serna replied modestly.

A face three times as large as the linguist’s and only a foot away said, “That little girl hasn’t had it none too easy up till now. I’ll thank you to see to it that this is an exception.”

“Are you sure you won’t have a problem with this? You’ll lose your opponent.”

“Ah, what’s that to me? I’ll get over it. Hey, you bastard,” he added as he thrust out a hand and did a remarkable job of snagging Brewer before he could escape. “What do you figure I should do with this here flesh trader, D? Having his head part company with his body would be a gift to humanity.”

“I suppose we should be happy he brought the garrison instead of a bunch of hired thugs,” D remarked.

“That’s right!” the man with the monocle cried as he hung ten feet in the air with arms and legs flailing. “I’ve remained within the bounds of the law. Unhand me, would you? Let me go!”

“Well, I suppose I can forgive you. But I’m warning you: don’t even think about ever showing your face around here again. Hey, D—I’ll leave the rest of it to you. I’m not so good with all that complicated stuff.”

Once the giant had left to the accompaniment of shrieks and jeers, D said to the still-rooted linguist, “Shall we go?”

Needless to say, he had to be talking about going out to the equipment that could save Raya.

“Of course.”

As he was putting his arms through the sleeves of his insulated coat, Serna stiffened. A chill had raced down the length of his body. He’d seen D’s face— he thought the Hunter looked somber. Now he was afraid to look in the same direction.

The door between them and the back room opened, and Raya was standing there. She was in her pajamas. And though she clutched a long broom, she hadn’t come out to do any cleaning.

“Have you awakened again?” D inquired softly.

“I suppose I should thank you again for all you’ve done,” Raya said with a grin.

Though neither her face nor her voice had changed, the girl who stood there giving off a ghastly aura was no one D recognized.

“I have a favor to ask of you. Don’t interfere. This is our job, you know. Just lend your power to the person I am while I sleep.”

Gently lowering her gaze, Raya headed toward the doorway.

As she looked down from the porch, the giant stood on the snow-covered earth below with his club in one hand and stared back at her. Not far from him, a man’s legs jutted from a snow bank, kicking furiously.

“Well, well,” said Dynus.

Raya simply nodded. A second later, she pounced. As she swung her broom down in midair, her figure was swallowed by the sun to her back.

Warrior instinct alone allowed Dynus to get the log up over his head in time.

The whoosh of the broom coming down split the winter air, and with a tremendous roar, the log bowed under the impact.

“Whoa!” Dynus cried as he leapt back, his voice ringing with pain. His arms were both numb.

As he watched Raya close on him, her speed was incredible. Time and again she brought the broom down on him while he barely managed to parry each blow. It was a sight to see as she drove him down on one knee. Such was the force of her blows. The power of Raya—the warrior woman of Sinestro!

There was the sound of wood striking wood, and then the log club was finally knocked from the giant’s hands.

As Raya raised her broom for a triumphant blow, a colossal arm tightened around her waist and pulled her close. From where D stood on the porch, the two of them looked as if they were fusing together in a white-hot glow, and the hot wind that snarled by him carried moisture.

“Stay inside,” D said, reaching back to shut the door behind him as he stared at the core of the raging heat.

The vapor that arose churned at an intense rate. Doubtless the deadly battle unfolding within that cloud was beyond the imagining of even D himself. The white mist burst through the fence and rammed into the forest.

D raced down off the porch. Behind him, he could hear Serna shouting. His field of view was crimson. In the wake of the steam cloud, flames had arisen.

D got on his horse and galloped into the forest. Charging by one side of the vapor cloud, he said, “Go to Castle Sinestro!”

The steam buffeted his cheeks, and the cloud split in two. One half became a stark naked girl who took off into the forest, the other an armored warrior who bounded onto the road. Each of them glanced at D—Raya with a sad look, and Dynus with a thin smile. But these images soon disappeared, borne away by the winter wind.

Tugging on his horse’s reins, D returned to the road. To his rear there was the sound of hoofbeats.

“This is amazing! I managed to rescue Brewer, but if someone doesn’t hurry up and put that fire out, this whole area will be a sea of flames.”

Turning to Serna, D said, “I need you to get word to the village.”

“Okay. But what’ll you do?”

“Meet up with me later at Castle Sinestro. It’s straight down this road.”

“Got you.”

D wheeled his horse around. His coat fluttered out against the wintry sky like something out of a painting. He wasn’t headed down the road—his mount was galloping off into the forest.

Perhaps there was some secret trick to the way he worked the reins, because the completely commonplace cyborg horse he rode performed like a peerless thoroughbred. Though roots and branches jutted out with utter disregard for the plans of passers-by, not once did they ever come into contact with D. His horse’s hooves merely pounded the ground, and the mount never showed a moment’s hesitation.

On glimpsing a plain of white between the trees, D tugged the reins to the right. The snow that fell from a massive branch sent up a spray of white to one side of him. A rough wooden needle seared through the air toward the branch in question.

“Oh, you’re good!” a voice intoned from every possible direction. “It’s Crumb. Remember me? I figured you’d take the shortest possible route to these coordinates, so I set a trap. This time things won’t go as well for you as they did back at the warehouse.”

D’s body rose straight out of the saddle, like a dark blossom opening in a silvery white world. Beneath his feet, his mount met a powdery spray of snow as it was cruelly driven to its knees. But did D see the naked steel that sank halfway into his horse’s neck?

The instant he landed on the massive branch, D made a horizontal swipe with his sword. The blade thrust from the snow that’d collected on the branch changed direction of its own accord, leaving the right arm that grasped it exposed all the way to the shoulder as it became motionless on the tree limb. Although the Hunter had only struck with his weapon once, the awesome power was manifested in the wounds he’d dealt the arm, splitting the flesh wide open from the wrist to the shoulder.

“Fighting a disembodied arm is kind of creepy,” D’s left hand said in a sarcastic tone. “It’d seem the first guy you fought has the ability to do more than just split in two. Watch yourself.”

The hoarse voice flowed downward.

At the same moment D landed on the ground, three streaks of light pierced him . . .or so it appeared. A left arm and two legs—each wielding a sword—fell to the ground, split lengthwise.

Not even bothering to turn, D made an underhanded throw to his rear with his left hand. With only his head and trunk remaining, it seemed Crumb still planned on attacking D.

Having taken a rough wooden needle in a spot about three feet off the ground, the torso was left nailed to the very same tree trunk it’d just leapt out from behind. The needle ran right through its neck.

Not even bothering to look at it, D walked off toward the exit from the forest, and then unexpectedly spun his right hand around like a veritable top. The blob that flew into the iridescent blur cracked in two before falling to the ground. Lacking a head and all four limbs, the trunk now looked somewhat forlorn.

“Not bad at all. But this was actually my true form.”

A miniature version of Crumb’s face poked out from where the old head had been. It had arms and legs attached to it, too. Its tiny hand clutched a knife.

A vermilion line suddenly ran from the tip of his head all the way down to his crotch, and this time Crumb really did split in half and fall dead in the snow.

“Seems they’ve been watching you all along. Were you wise to them?” the Hunter’s left hand asked, but its question was swallowed by the white winds that surrounded D as he dashed on. Lost in the snow.