THOSE THAT SOAR THE HEAVENS

CHAPTER 4

I

__

Miska halted.

“What is it?” May inquired in spite of herself.

Less than ten minutes had passed since the Noblewoman had taken the girl under her arm and started to move. In lieu of a reply, Miska dropped May on the stairs. Truly a professional acrobat, the girl managed an effortless landing before a cry of despair slipped from her.

Roughly thirty feet ahead, the staircase broke off. As her eyes slid further up, they found that the stairs continued on again about sixty feet beyond that. Even for Miska the distance was probably too great. As an expert in the field of leaps and bounds, May understood that much at least.

“What should we do?” the girl said as she looked around. At this point, it was astounding that she didn’t ask, “What are you gonna do?” But she wouldn’t simply rely on Miska—this was how the girl had always lived.

Though they still had a bit of a lead on the liquefying staircase, it would only last a minute or two. While it wouldn’t have been unusual to collapse into madness at this point, the girl said, “Look!”

Her cheery tone made Miska turn. There were ropes or vines hanging down from the ceiling in the direction May was pointing. And the girl had noticed that one of them was some distance from the main cluster, hanging down by the stairway.

“I’m gonna jump over onto that. I’m sure that on your own you’ll be able to reach the other side. That’s the plan!”

“What foolishness!” Miska spat. “Indeed, I shall be able to make it. However, I have to wonder if your legs will carry you as far as the vine. It must be thirty feet.”

“I can just barely make it,” May said with a nod after eyeing the distance.

“What’s more, that vine appears rather old and decrepit. Even supposing you were to reach it, it couldn’t possibly support your full weight.”

“Is that a fact? I’ll have you know I’m an acrobat! And if I don’t make it, at least you won’t have to look at me anymore—isn’t that right?” the girl said, feeling much better after getting that last dig in at the end.

May dropped all the way back to the wall. Even with a running start, she’d be cutting it close, but it didn’t seem like she had enough room. If she were to really reach out her hands, she might barely get the vine. But if it were to snap right off at that point, there’d be no saving herself.

“Well, see you.”

It was unclear whether the girl’s remark was directed at Miska or at the gorgeous Hunter who hadn’t made it there in time.

After the girl had dashed with all her might, her body was caught in midair, and a grunt escaped May from the tight grip around her waist as she whistled off in a different direction.

“Why?” she asked, her question unveiled in midair.

The reply came in midair, too.

“Be silent!”

While it was common knowledge that the power of a Noble by night far outstripped that of a human, there was of course some difference between Noblemen and Noblewomen. Sixty feet—such a distance would be tricky for a man, but Miska flew across it like a great white blossom. Her right hand caught hold of the handrail, and her feet came down on the edge of the stair—which collapsed completely!

May let out a shriek that was swallowed by the pit—but in mid-scream it stopped out of shock. The right hand that’d latched onto the railing was supporting the two of them. There was relief—and then May’s ears caught the sound of the handrail cracking.

“Let go of me! We’ll both fall!” the girl shouted, although even she didn’t know why she’d said it. “Let go of me! Let go!”

“Be quiet for a moment,” Miska said, her tone horribly calm.

Strength surged into her hand.

“Oof!” Miska groaned from the effort, though no one would’ve ever imagined the prim and proper Noblewoman was capable of making such a sound.

Every ounce of her strength was concentrated in her right hand.

The two bodies swung gracefully into the air, this time landing in a safe spot on the stairs.

“Oh my!” May exclaimed, collapsing in exhaustion on the spot.

Miska had released her.

What should the girl say? Was she surprised by all this? Or was she filled with admiration?

Training a fierce look of scorn on the girl, Miska sneered, “Do you now see the difference between human beings and the Nobility? Well, on your feet, then! Be quick about—”

The change in the Noblewoman’s tone made May look up. And it came as little surprise that a gasp escaped her.

From the distant reaches of the spiral staircase, a creature that beggared description had descended. A spider. A tremendous arachnid more than fifteen feet long. Its ash-gray bristles stood out like needles, and its eight legs seemed to grow more animated as it spied the two of them. Perhaps it was the master of this colossal tree, as it had a number of broken spears and longsword blades stuck in its back and sides.

A rasping sound reached the two women’s ears—the sound of breathing.

Out of the frying pan and into the fire—although it seemed they’d leapt into something a hundred times worse than any conflagration.

Miska stepped to the fore.

“What are you gonna do?”

May didn’t ask what they would do this time. Not even the acrobat could think of anything she might do against this monstrosity.

Miska stared without a trace of fear into the unsettling eyes of the spider as it closed on the most delectable of prey, and when the creature had come to within fifteen feet of the women, the Noble raised her right hand high.

“Back!” she said in a high-spirited tone.

May watched dazedly as the spider’s movements halted.

The Nobility could command wild beasts. Not that such creatures understood their words, but rather the communication came from a kind of telepathy.

“Stay just as you are,” the Noblewoman commanded it, and then she told May, “Come with me.”

She didn’t even turn to look at the girl as she said it and then climbed the next step. Her pace was understandably swift, but she stood straight and tall, as one would expect of a Noblewoman. It was as if she didn’t fear the massive arachnid at all. However, in her heart of hearts, Miska was actually terrified.

Although it was said the Nobility could command the lower beasts, that didn’t necessary apply to every creature in creation. Upon sensing the slightest disruption in the will of a Noble, in many cases a vicious beast might suddenly break free of their control and bare its fangs. The woman’s haughty demeanor now was purely a product of her Noble pride and nothing more.

They came before the spider. Its high arching legs were nearly thirty feet long, and they covered the staircase from side to side.

“You mustn’t step on them,” Miska said as she came to the side of the spider’s head. Its reddish-brown eyes were focused intently on her. Though she had confidence that the spider’s mind was under her control, Miska realized that her heart was racing wildly. Right in front of her, a shaggy leg arched high into the air. Merely touching even a single hair on it might bring the spider back to its senses.

The problem would be the space between the body and the legs. The spider’s legs were bent in three or four places to form easy arcs, so the width wasn’t a problem, but the height was low. Getting through them would necessitate bending down far, and if the women lost their balance, that would be the end of them. There were four legs on each side. Two-thirds of the staircase was covered by the spider’s body.

Every nerve in the Noblewoman’s body was focused on the tips of her toes. The tension made her movements stiff. She didn’t want May behind her to see her moving so clumsily.

Miska’s foot sank unexpectedly—part of the dilapidated staircase had given way under her weight. Her body was so tense, her nerves had never relayed the signs of danger.

Without thinking, Miska reached out for something to support her and found one of the spider’s legs. But just as her fingers were about to touch it, Miska was bodily pulled back.

“Of all the—” May said, her plump face full of anger when the Noblewoman turned and looked at her. “Pull yourself together! Can’t you even manage to climb a flight of stairs? This time, I’ll go first.”

Miska was speechless.

“I may not look it, but I’m an acrobat. I’ve done backflips on a wire strung over a nest of man-eating ants before. And the wire was covered with grease.”

Crouching down low, the girl got in front of Miska, and true to her word, proceeded to slip right through the spider’s legs.

Miska moved ahead at the same pace. She was desperate. No human being could surpass the Nobility. Slipping past the last leg, it took her no time at all to reach the tail end of the spider.

“Hey, not bad for a Noble!” May said, folding her arms as she gave an appreciative nod.

Miska looked down at her with utter loathing and said, “That’s the last smart remark I shall take from you. Climb!”

“Yes, ma’am!” the girl said, doing a somersault. But that was where she got sloppy. When both her feet hit the floor, it gave way once more. Letting out a shriek as she twisted her body, she instinctively sought a safer spot on the opposite side of the staircase—and landed on the spider’s back. It was a moment to chill her blood. May froze, forgetting that she should get off the creature as fast as possible.

A hand swiped out from one side to snatch the girl away and toss her down on the stairs.

Unable to even offer any protest, May stared up at the enormous arachnid. Its legs rustled with movement.

Miska brought one hand up to the base of her throat. She was fighting back a scream.

However, the creature’s legs stabilized in their new positions, and it moved no more.

The two women let out long sighs in unison.

“Hurry—let’s go.”

May didn’t give the Noblewoman any argument, but got right to her feet.

“Stupid human,” Miska spat, and then a tiny spider dropped down from the ceiling and landed on her shoulder. “What in the—?!”

Put off balance by her frantic efforts to dislodge it, Miska brushed the gigantic spider’s torso with one hand. That alone probably wouldn’t have been enough to rouse the spider. But what Miska’s hand came in contact with was the handle of a broken spear that was still lodged in the spider’s body.

The spider leapt up—it sprang a good fifteen feet in the air with that one bound. Changing direction in midair, it brought its mandibles together as it touched back down. And caught in their viselike grip was Miska’s torso.

Reeling backward without saying a word, the Noblewoman struck the beast with her fist, but its steely jaws didn’t give an inch. Beneath them, a cavernous maw gaped blackly.

May kicked off the ground, soaring like a swallow in flight. Landing on top of the spider, she used both hands to seize the same spear Miska had just hit, driving it inward as hard as she could.

Now it was the spider’s turn to taste hellish pain. Loosing a screech that was like steel raked across glass, it pulled in its legs.

As Miska fell to the ground, May shouted to her, “Run for it!”

Two of the spider’s legs were dropping down at them from above. The monstrosity had hooked its limbs in directions they shouldn’t have been able to turn. Latching onto May and raising her up, the creature brought her toward its mouth.

Miska didn’t get up. Bright blood was seeping from her waist.

Out of the corner of her eye, May saw the black mandibles closing on her—and then they stopped abruptly.

Suddenly freed, May’s body did a turn in midair before landing on the stairs.

The spider was twitching. A figure in black suddenly stood on top of it.

“D?!”

May could tell for sure it wasn’t the liquefied D of a short while earlier, but rather the powerful Vampire Hunter she had known.

As D stood there in his longcoat with his sword planted in the creature’s back, a whitish haze suddenly hid his form. The back of the spider had sent up thousands of threads. Changing direction in midair, they drifted down again, aiming directly for D. A number of strands adhered to the wall, which gave off white smoke and melted away. Apparently the threads had powerful adhesive and dissolving properties.

“D!” May shouted, but her cry was effaced by a whistling roar. The sound of wind.

Each and every one of the threads rose up, and a silvery flash shot through their base. May watched in amazement as the now-severed threads jumbled like thousands of white worms, spinning in a whirlwind as they vanished into the far reaches of space.

Perhaps its strength was spent, for the tremendous spider slumped down on the stairs and moved no more. May thought the figure climbing down from its back looked like an angel in black. How beautiful his face was.

“D—how did you get here?” the girl asked as she fought back tears.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah.”

“I was under the impression you had run off all alone. But it would seem you’ve mistaken up for down,” Miska said as she remained lying there. Her white dress was stained with bright blood, and the skirt portion had been ripped when the spider’s mandibles released her, leaving her pale thighs exposed in all their breathtaking allure.

D looked out into the cavernous gap in the tree. More specifically, he was looking at the same vine May had targeted for her jump.

“So, you climbed that all the way up here. And you’re back to normal, I see,” Miska remarked. Apparently she, too, found this strange. As she concealed her lovely legs, she continued, “How did you change back?”

Without reply, D extended his hand to Miska.

“Don’t touch me!”

“We don’t have any time. Look,” D said as he turned around. “The walls are melting.”

The same power that had liquefied the staircase had now extended to the walls, and it seemed it would turn the whole titanic bole into water. D had been able to avoid that fate because, just as the sign over the door had said, the room below had been a storehouse for dirt and compost. In the room, D’s left hand had consumed earth, and then caused such a gust of wind that it lit up like a nuclear reactor. Earth, wind, fire, and water—all that remained was water, which D himself had become. The immortal energy his left hand created was easily able to return D to his former state, and going from a cable in that room to another rope, the Hunter had then gone from the rope to the vine, barely arriving in time to rescue the two women from danger.

“Everything down below has most likely dissolved already. Even if we make it up higher, it will all change into water sooner or later. What shall we do?” Miska asked with apparent delight, as if she wanted to lay bare D’s dilemma.

The Noblewoman found her body rising effortlessly into the air. D had scooped her up in his arms.

“What are you doing?!”

“We’re going up,” D said, adding, “You were saved by a little human girl. How did that feel?”

A beastly growl started to rise from the depths of her throat, but Miska made no reply.

__

II

__

It was three hours later that they reached the top of the massive tree.

As they’d climbed, they’d been set upon by one bizarre life form after another. Gaseous creatures that each consisted of a vortex of countless gold flecks, two-headed monster birds, gigantic lightning-generating cats—each and every one of these ended up a stain on D’s blade, although a surprise attack by baglike creatures that spewed toxic gas had felled Miska and May, so that when they finally did reach the tree’s summit, D was carrying both women on his back.

The top of the tree had a domelike lid someone had constructed, yet it was still large enough to allow three or four people to pass at the same time. As the Hunter pushed the lid open, a cry of pain escaped Miska.

The air was tinged with blue, and a watery light was spreading across the eastern sky, and the morning breezes tousled the hair of the trio. They were up more than three thousand feet. The rain had abated. Both the forest below and the distant hills and plains were still sunken in darkness.

“We can’t go any higher,” Miska said from his back. Being a Noble, she was already recovering from the poisonous fumes.

“In that case, we have no choice but to get down,” D said softly.

“That’s fine for the two of us, but what about the girl?”

“Are you concerned?”

“Bite your tongue!” Miska replied, but as she did, she got the feeling she caught a bit of hoarse laughter. And it came from incredibly close at hand.

D quickly stood at the very edge of the treetop. The lower portions—everything up to three feet below them—had been transformed to water, and the massive bole swayed unsteadily.

“Grab hold of me,” said D.

Apparently the whole purpose of climbing to the top of the tree was to get outside. However, while he and Miska could take a fall from a height of over three thousand feet, how would D ensure May’s safety?

D threw himself over the edge. And the three of them dropped like a stone.

The wind snarled in D’s ears as their velocity increased.

“Quite a ride,” Miska remarked, one hand pressed to the cheek that faced east.

Immortal member of the Nobility or not, the woman still seemed to have nerves of steel. This was the kind of conversation only a Noble would engage in while whistling through the air.

“We shall reach the ground soon. What will you do about the girl?”

“Hold on tight,” the Hunter told her.

The woods were drawing closer.

Miska shut her eyes.

The next instant, a terrific shock sent the trio flying upward.

Shooting up through branches and leaves, they flew out of the forest, and then were pulled back down again. Miska heard the sound of a tree trunk snapping. One of her arms was wound around D’s neck, the other carried May like a bundle of firewood.

At the very least, the force of the impact should’ve been enough to crush the life out of D a thousand times over. When they finally stopped bouncing up and down, the Hunter’s body listed to the right. They were falling in the same direction as the tree trunk—or so it seemed for a second—then D made a graceful turn and the trio landed on a bough in another massive tree.

Catching her breath on D’s back, Miska then climbed down onto the branch.

“What did you use?” she asked. As her field of view was filled by the tree trunk that’d been knocked over as all its branches were snapped, she continued, “Did you wrap something around that tree to stop us?”

D raised his left hand. From it protruded the end of a thread so thin as to be almost invisible to the naked eye.

“And what is that?”

“The water harp.”

Taking it in hand for closer scrutiny, the Noblewoman remarked, “This? Well, I warrant something like this wouldn’t break even from that velocity. You certainly take the most absurd chances, leaping from a height of three thousand feet.”

As Miska looked back and forth between the thread and the gigantic tree, not knowing that the former had also been used to slice through the water-transforming Kenlark’s body, D told her, “The sun’s coming up. We’ll have to hurry back.”

__

It was two hours later that the carriages left the deserted village. Although the ground was still wet beneath an unbelievably clear sky, D surmised that since the enemy commander Galil had been dealt a harsh blow, the danger had passed for the time being. Their destination was the airfield to the north. By the time D returned with Miska and May, the pair from the arrival terminal was no longer there. The baron explained that they’d run off hale and hearty.

That’s not to say the inhabitants of their village won’t come and attack us. The faster we can set out, the better, he urged D from inside his coffin.

The village of Krauhausen was still a long way off, and a new foe had appeared, but as D sat on his horse, his eyes were cool and clear.

Soon after passing through the village outskirts, they hit the main road. Up in the driver’s seat of the baron’s carriage, May had her face buried in Taki’s chest. The whole dramatic rescue of the past night had wrought serious damage on the girl, both physically and mentally. When May—as if waking from a nightmare—opened her eyes wide from her stupor, Taki looked down at her with sadness in her gaze. On meeting the girl’s frightened eyes, she gave her a kind nod.

“I wonder if maybe Hugh’s never coming back,” May finally said weakly after they’d driven on under the blue sky for nearly two hours without her saying a word.

“I’m sure he’s perfectly safe.”

“How do you know?”

“I just do,” Taki said firmly.

Her tone made it seem more than just a theory, and that put May at ease.

“Yeah, I’m sure you’re right. He’s always been a lucky one. And I’m sure he is now, too.”

“Of course. You’re exhausted. Try to get some rest.”

But after saying this, the young woman noticed that May’s gaze wasn’t directed at her. Beside the driver’s seat rode a young man so gorgeous he left people fumbling for words despite themselves. And even Taki knew what that look had to mean. The girl sought the assurance of someone strong.

“Say, D. May here is worried about Hugh. Tell her he’ll be fine.”

There was no reply. Not because he didn’t know what Hugh’s fate was, but because the brother and sister had no bearing on D—if anything, you could say they were simply trouble.

Taki let out a sigh tinged with a fair amount of anger. “Oh, that’s right. Last night, you didn’t go out to rescue this girl, but to get the Noblewoman who’d been abducted. Isn’t that right?”

She said that because that much she understood. The dashing young man was not her or the girl’s bodyguard.

__

Moving north after leaving the village, they’d come to a stretch of reinforced plastic pavement after about a mile and a quarter. The melted areas that dotted it were no doubt the remains of human destruction. Apparently quite some time had passed since the automatic repair systems had ceased functioning. D had his mount galloping at full speed. Their foes would be waiting somewhere with glittering eyes.

Though the gates to the airfield were secured, their electronic locks opened with a key the baron had taken from the men the previous night.

Upon entering the site, Taki looked around as if in a daze.

“Dear lord,” she exclaimed, her eyes going wide.

The vastness of the place was astounding to a human being. It didn’t seem like this could simply be an arrival and departure terminal. As the existing land alone had been insufficient for the enormous structure, mountains to both the east and the west were also carved open. Tracks for super-high-speed linear motor transports ran the length and breadth of the place, yet still didn’t seem to be an impediment to the oversized aircraft looming here and there. But Taki simply couldn’t understand the control tower and something resembling a radar array, both of which were a blur in the distance.

Climbing back into the driver’s seat with a firmed resolve, the young woman said to D as they headed for the nearest aircraft, “I wonder why they built such a huge complex?”

It sounded more like she was thinking out loud. For she was afraid she wouldn’t receive a reply.

Unexpectedly, she did indeed get an answer.

“It’s a reflection of their minds. From the time they began to see the decline of their race, the Nobility moved toward making their buildings so large it defied common sense. It might be best to call it the death throes of their collective psyche.”

“So this was their last grab at glory—something like that?”

“I suppose it was,” the young man said. His tone made Taki think of ice, and she sensed a weariness in it that took her breath away.

Realizing they were on the road to extinction, the Nobility strove to construct enormous buildings to stave off their decline—as if to make them forget their own fate. A number of new interstellar routes had opened, and explorers had set out on voyages beyond our own galaxy. When the Nobility dragged part of an extremely ancient sunken continent out of the sea, no doubt some of their kind must’ve believed their twilight had been pushed far off into the distance. However, there was at present no sign of any living creature at the vast arrival terminal as the automated maintenance systems alone mutely continued their labors. The Travelers Center into which they stepped was devoid of people or even so much as a speck of dust, its cleanliness a testament to long years of futility.

So, the party’s over, is it, D? the baron inquired. It wasn’t clear whether this was merely conjecture or if he could actually see it.

Giving no reply, D got down off his horse when the carriages reached the center of a tremendous hall.

“Wait a second,” the Hunter told them as he headed for a door toward the back.

“I’m going too,” Taki said as she got out of the driver’s seat.

May was sleeping soundly. And there was nothing to fear from the baron or Miska.

The second they stepped through the door and into the structure, the two of them were enveloped by darkness. Simultaneously, the lights came on. Taki felt like she was out in the middle of the night.

“What happened?”

“The main computer has produced an artificial night for its guests. Originally, it probably maintained these settings day and night, but to conserve energy, the circuits only kick in when there are visitors.”

“You don’t say! I wonder how many years it’s been?”

There was no reply.

Staring at D’s profile as she thought about rephrasing the question, Taki held her tongue. It was easy enough to glimpse the pain and sadness in the shadows that carved his stunningly handsome features. But it was their depth that had kept Taki from speaking.

“D—are you troubled by the Nobility’s decline?”

Having said that, the young woman then thought her heart might freeze solid, yet D made no reply as he climbed into the vehicle at the end of the corridor.

“This is the control center,” he told her.

“Identification card please,” a mechanical voice chimed. “This is the most critical area of the complex. Even terminal VIPs cannot enter without a card.”

Taki gazed at D.

D pressed the palm of his left hand against the entry slot on the control panel.

“Qualified VIP status acknowledged. Please forgive my impertinence.”

Taki’s eyes bulged with disbelief.

Just a few seconds after the vehicle rushed into motion, the voice informed them, “This is the center. Five hundredth floor.”

Once again the young woman’s eyes bugged.

__

Whether ordered by D without Taki realizing it or through the power of his mysterious left hand, the vehicle glided down the corridors of the vast center and was swallowed by a white door. Aside from the white light, Taki couldn’t discern anything. Even D’s form beside her melted into the glow.

“Welcome to the main control room,” a crisp female voice called to them from nowhere in particular. It was computer synthesized.

Taki envisioned a cold and intelligent beauty scrutinizing them from somewhere.

“You are the first guests I’ve had in five thousand and one years, two hundred and ninety-eight days. And such a regal visitor; I must prostrate myself before you. Kindly convey your every wish to me.”

“I’d like you to calculate the gross weight of those in the carriages in the main hall plus the two of us and prepare a suitable aircraft. Posthaste.”

“Understood.”

“One thing more. A cyborg horse of the highest grade.”

“Understood. Please return to the hall. All shall be prepared in accordance with your instructions.”

As they were headed back to the transport, Taki called out somewhat impatiently, “D—who or what are you? You get the run of the place in an area where even VIPs can’t go. The main computer obeys your every command without so much as an ‘if’ or a ‘but.’ No ordinary Noble could do that.”

Not saying a word, D gestured to the transport.

Obviously the motion indicated she should get in, but Taki wouldn’t move. Her visions of D’s true nature had even made her forget how afraid she should be of disobeying him.

“Dhampirs have a Noble as one parent . . . D, could it be that your parent was—”

“Get in,” the Hunter said, his tone of ice and snow crushing Taki’s will to pieces.

__

III

__

When the pair returned to the hall, they were greeted by the baron and Miska. Ordinarily, when the actual time was day, Nobles couldn’t even move around in darkened places. Although it was clear the baron was somewhat special in that regard, Miska may have been aided by the power of the Destroyer.

Taking a peek into the other carriage, Miska saw that May wasn’t there.

“Before I came out, she said she was going to have a look around and got out of the carriage,” said the baron.

“That’s not good. I’ll have to go look for her,” said an apprehensive-looking Taki.

To which Miska remarked with loathing, “What pleasure could a lowly human find in exploring the Nobility’s complex? Either she shall soon be back, or else she’s lost her way and is blubbering somewhere. Why don’t you go find her so the two of you can enjoy a good cry together?”

Taki was glaring indignantly at the pale beauty when a female voice from above inquired, “How may I assist you?”

Lowering his left hand, D said, “A human girl has wandered off in the complex. Do you know where she is?”

“She is in the outer terminal. Go outside and proceed north for approximately fifteen hundred feet and you should find her headed in the same direction.”

“Thank you for your help.”

“Don’t be absurd. Please feel free to call on me for whatever you require.”

The voice faded, leaving only astonishment in the hall.

“This is quite a surprise,” the baron said with great relish. “That was the voice of a special class-A computer. They have as much pride as any person. She’d never be so subservient to ordinary Nobility. D—who are you?”

Naturally, there was no reply, and even Miska could only stare at D in an absent-minded daze.

D went outside without saying a word. In a landing space about three hundred feet ahead of him, a silver craft lay on its side. Although its stocky exterior could never be described as sleek, the ion engines slung beneath the little wings jutting from the craft spoke volumes about its flight capabilities.

D headed north on foot. And he did indeed see May about fifteen hundred feet ahead of him. The only thing that didn’t jibe with the computer’s description was the fact that she wasn’t moving. She was rooted in place, and before her stood a figure in black. A bit larger than D and a head taller—you could say it was a giant.

Sprinting forward, D left the wind churning in his wake.

May was quickly scooped up. In the giant’s hands, the girl’s form looked heartbreakingly tiny and frail.

D halted about six feet shy of the towering figure.

There was no murderous intent. Nor was there any tension. Between the two of them lay a void immeasurable to anyone else.

“It can’t be . . .” a hoarse voice muttered, but whether that reached the ears of the pair was open to debate. “Could it be . . . him . . . here?”

The voice streamed in a gentle arc before stopping. D had raised his left hand and extended it to May.

The gigantic figure didn’t react immediately. The almost imperceptible wind rustled his wild jungle of hair and tore mercilessly at the sleeves of the black coat that nestled May, exposing the garment’s red lining. Looming over D like some tremendous mountain, the figure seemed rooted to the expanse of concrete.

The giant’s upper body trembled slightly, and then May was resting in the crook of D’s left arm.

At that moment, D heard footsteps behind him.

“D! What’s the matter?!” Taki asked the Hunter as she halted beside him and caught her breath. She’d come out in search of May.

Taking his eyes off the endless expanse of the arrival terminal, D passed May to the young woman. There was a melancholy to the young man that anyone who knew his usual demeanor would’ve found unimaginable.

“D, the baron’s—” she started to say.

“You go on ahead,” said D. His voice held a flat rejection in it. He didn’t even seem conscious of his own words as his beautiful eyes remained concentrated intently on the spot where the massive figure had been before it disappeared.

Taki left without saying another word.

After they’d gone about fifty yards, she asked May what, if anything, had happened.

“This big person picked me up! And then Mr. D came.”

“Was it a Noble?” Taki asked, the color swiftly draining from her countenance. If there were more Nobility at the terminal than just the baron and Miska . . .

“I don’t know. But he was really big! And I wasn’t the least bit scared.”

“In that case . . . I guess he must’ve been something else.”

Just as Taki turned to look at D despite herself, the girl blurted out the strangest thing. And after saying it, it was May herself who was surely the most upset. This was a result of Taki’s expression and tone of voice when she turned to face the girl again.

“What did you just say?”

The young woman’s voice had a ring to it that made it seem like she, too, had been transformed into a Noble, and it frightened the girl.

What May had said was, “I couldn’t see his face, and he wasn’t the same type at all—but somehow, he seemed just like D.”

__

And there was one more thing that left Taki terrified as well.

When the two girls returned to the hall, there was no sign of the carriages, the baron, or Miska. They’d suddenly disappeared.

__

Soon after the two girls had gone, D’s left hand asked, “Was it him?”

“Probably.”

“Probably? You mean to tell me you don’t know your own—”

The voice was cut off there.

His left hand still balled in a tight fist, D asked, “Where did that man go to just now?”

The reply came immediately.

“Whomever could you mean?”

“Do even the computers here play games?”

“Pardon me, but I cannot comprehend your question.”

Saying nothing further, D returned to the hall. And there he found that everyone—Taki and May included—had vanished.

“Where did they go?” he asked, but there was no reply. “Answer me!”

“I cannot disobey that order. I shall give you an answer. They’ve been imprisoned in a given location,” the computer replied, the adoring tone of the voice making the information it conveyed all the more shocking.

“Why?”

“In order to keep you here in this terminal.”

“How long?”

“Forever.”

“If I’ll stay, will you let the rest go?”

“I promise.”

“Tell me why.”

“Actually—” the female voice said, the words vanishing into space. She hadn’t decided against finishing the reply, but rather it had been cut off by an impossible swell of emotion. She was moved.

D noticed someone approaching from the depths of the hall. It was the same gigantic figure again. Disheveled was the best way to describe his hair, and as always, it fluttered in the wind. It almost looked as if the winds were generated by the violent emotions the giant kept in check. Lips that seemed lacquered with darkness opened. And surely enough it was darkness that packed his maw.

D appeared to be waiting for the words that would spill from it.

The wind howled. The giant had just expelled the air from his lungs.

Like someone speaking for the first time in his life, the giant coughed. It was a short time more before a creak of a voice escaped him.

“D . . . D . . .”

When D bounded, it looked as if it were out of anger at having his name said that way.

“Wait!” said a voice that belonged to neither of the men, and the giant leapt back a good fifteen feet without making a sound, his cape spreading wide in the process.

D crouched reflexively, the blade he’d just brought down now held out perfectly straight in front of him. Around them, the walls and doors collapsed like something out of a dream. The winds whipped up by that cape had the power to corrode anything. Just before the wind could hit the Hunter it was hewn in two by his blade, while D waited for the moment the giant’s cape stopped moving to hurl a rough wooden needle. While the giant caught it in one hand, D leapt forward with his sword, and this time he split the other man from the top of his head to the end of his chin. Astonishingly enough, this seemed to be enough to destroy the behemoth. His form distorted, twisting, and by the time it hit the floor it no longer resembled anything human, transformed instead into an amalgamation of countless substances.

“Synthetic proteins, reconstructed muscle—the internal organs are all artificial, too. I’m surprised this thing was able to dodge your first blow,” a hoarse voice remarked with amazement.

“Not so surprising for him,” D replied.

The hoarse voice’s silence signaled its agreement, for the source of that voice was also well acquainted with the man they referred to only as “him.”

Sheathing his blade, D asked, “So, do you have any more of him?”

There was silence.

“Answer me. Where are the others?”

His face was bleached white—the false night had been lost. The lighting faded, and the true sunlight threw a lengthy shadow of D across the floor.

“Lousy computer!” the hoarse voice snapped. “Looks like it’s cut its own circuits, eh? You know the saying, dead men tell no tales.”

“Do you know where it is?”

“In the main control room, I suppose. You know, five hundred stories up.”

Ignoring the sarcastic tone, D walked toward the door in the back.

“That was just a cheap copy of him,” the voice continued without flinching. “But it wasn’t the same one you ran into the first time. Watch yourself. Seems there are more of him around.”

“Why are they after me?” D muttered as he halted in front of the elevator.

The voice fell silent at that, as if dumbfounded. “Why, that’s easy—because you’re—”

Here it took a deep breath.

“But wait—You know, come to think of it, he’s never made a move against you. And then to go to all the trouble of making them look just like himself, it’s really—”

D’s left hand was crushed against the power circuits for the elevator system, for which D had found and opened the compartment. Pale blue sparks flew, and the infusion of this external power made the elevator control system ignore its instructions from the computer and go back into operation.

Several seconds later, D got off on the five hundredth floor.

__

IV

__

The room that had been swimming in light was now submerged in a feeble darkness. Looking around from the doorway, D then proceeded to the center of the room. Apparently he could discern the layout of the control center at a glance.

The end of a four-inch cylinder was set in the middle of the floor.

“Can you do it?” asked D.

“You got dirt?”

Taking black earth from his coat pocket, D piled it in the palm of his left hand. The soil was quickly inhaled, and the tiny mouth that appeared from below it let a satisfied belch escape.

“Next comes the water, you know.”

Raising the hand that had both eyes and a nose, D put his index finger against his right wrist and pulled. The fresh blood that spouted from him was sucked up to the very last drop.

“Not much we can do about fire and wind. But I suppose I’ll manage somehow.”

Before the dissatisfied voice had finished speaking, D pressed his left hand to the end of the cylinder. In about two seconds there was light.

“Okay! The circuits are connected. Now to check out the plans of the place.”

A pale blue tint mixed with the white light. It came from the wall to the right.

Staring at the map rendered there by luminous lines and dots, the Hunter said, “I see. Break out the schematics of the computer’s circuitry.”

“Aren’t you the slave driver.”

At the same time as his left hand made its remark, the diagram changed. The circuitry schematics seemed like they’d be indecipherable even to a computer, but after scanning them for a few more seconds, the Hunter said, “Link the North 289450772 and the South QB lines both to D-XII, D-XX, and D-Z04.”

“Aye aye!”

The lights flashed unexpectedly.

Poised with his left hand still pressed to the floor, D turned and looked at the door.

The flickering lights made the giant stand out starkly and melt into the darkness by turns.

__

“It would appear the computer’s playing tricks on us,” said the baron.

Beside him and looking up at the heavens, Miska nodded, while May and Taki glanced at each other. Even their horses and carriages were there.

The whole group was sealed away inside a cylinder of light. Though it was bright, the glow that illuminated both the earth below and the heavens above was gentle, never harsh enough to hurt their eyes.

All the lighting in the hall had gone out at once, and the floor beneath them had seemed to shake ever so slightly, and then they were here. First had been the baron and Miska, while Taki and May had joined them twenty minutes later.

Another thirty minutes had passed, and after trying a number of things, they’d come to understand their prison for the most part. When they touched the light, it would push far back. And it wasn’t merely one section of the wall that stretched, but rather the entire space grew in a perfectly circular fashion. In theory, if the space kept expanding the further they went, then sooner or later they should be able to get out. And that’s precisely what they thought. When Taki touched it, the glowing wall expanded as if fleeing from her. However, the young woman returned again after about ten minutes. There was no end to it. The baron then got into his carriage and raced off, only to learn the same thing.

“It seems we’ve been imprisoned in an omnidirectional pocket. The glowing wall forms a three-dimensional space and prevents us from being sucked into that multidimensional region. In a manner of speaking, it’s not so much a wall to keep us in as it is a stronghold to protect us.”

“There must be some way out, is there not?” Miska asked, adding, “And who on earth would do such a thing?”

Her eyes glowed with malevolence.

The answer to that question was the same thing the baron had said a short time earlier.

“What leads you to believe this?” asked the Noblewoman.

“Who aside from us would want to do such a thing? If it wasn’t D, then there’s only one other thing around here that possesses a will of its own. And though it may belong to a machine, it is a consciousness just the same.”

“So you mean to say we shall be stuck for as long as it suits the computer?”

“I’m afraid so,” the baron said with an impassive nod. “But I’m not out on a leisurely excursion where I can just sit here and wait for help to come. We must escape.”

“How shall you do that?”

The baron looked up at the ceiling. His face was bleached by the light that poured down.

“Even when the borders expand, the center remains the same. Let’s try focusing our energy on that point.”

“You mean that of the carriages, do you not?”

“No. While they may have power, it doesn’t have the right quality. What we need is the energy of the Nobility. That alone can cause a computer built by the Nobility to capitulate. However, in order to do that—”

When the baron’s eyes slid past Miska to focus on Taki and May, the two girls backed away without saying a word.

For it was their throats that drew the baron’s gaze.

†

__

“Ah, D!” the giant in black called out. His pronunciation of the name was far crisper than that of the one the Hunter had destroyed.

“What are you?” D inquired softly. This was the tone of voice he used with a foe he’d never seen before.

“Why have you—awakened me?”

“Me?” D replied, seeming to find the question strange.

“I should have slumbered here forever. And yet—”

“What are you?”

The giant had no reply to that.

“Who made you? The computer?”

“D!” the giant shouted, kicking off the ground. His cape spread like wings, making him look like some enormous black bird out of the underworld.

D’s blade made an effortless slice through his foe’s body. However, D didn’t even turn to see what became of the giant as he touched down behind him, and a red mist enveloped the Hunter. It was bright blood spraying from every pore on his body.

The giant took a smooth step forward to prepare for another leap, and D spun around. His left hand was still set against the floor. His pose left him at a terrible disadvantage.

“Stop it,” a female voice cried from nowhere in particular. It belonged to the computer. However, it wasn’t the same female voice as before.

The giant came to a standstill, and even D stopped for a second.

“That’s the voice of—” D’s left hand was heard to say in a tone some might even call fearful.

“Please, stop it, both of you,” the voice continued.

But D’s body took to the air, every bit as much a supernatural bird as the giant’s. And a horizontal swipe of his sword removed the larger man’s head. No gory spray went up as the massive form fell, the head bouncing once before landing on top of the corpse, and then both parts crumbled like dried clay.

Planting his sword on the floor and using it to prop himself up, D got back to his feet.

“What a thing to do . . . You’re even more frightening than I thought,” said a doleful voice that made D look up.

“Was that your voice?” he inquired, his tone the same steely one as always.

The female voice had gone back to the earlier version.

“No, I merely reproduced it with help from the great one.”

The Hunter said nothing.

“Five thousand years ago, he honored us with his presence,” said the computer.

He’d only remained there a few hours. For him, this had been no more than the place where he would begin a journey to the next continent. However, not even he could’ve predicted the haunting results of that visit—the arrival and departure terminal’s computer had fallen in love with him during the few short hours he was there.

“Though I knew there was much to be feared, I wanted to learn everything about him, such as the voice you just heard and various other things as well. I may have been mistaken. The data input was gleaned from the memories of that great man I was never to see again, and I ultimately undertook a horrible course of action.”

In other words, it had re-created him.

“Needless to say, it was impossible to make an exact copy. But I wanted to make it as much like him as I could. That’s the reason why you’ve seen two of them here.”

And for five millennia, the computer had remained nestled close to the one it loved.

And then D had come.

“He said that I woke him up.”

“I tried my best to accurately reproduce the great man himself. Perhaps it was a result of that. He had also told me about you. That being the case, it wouldn’t be at all strange if the great men that I created were to detect your feelings and be roused by them. Your feelings of hatred, that is.”

D stood there quietly.

After a while, the Hunter asked in a voice more suited to darkness than light, “Why did you try to keep me here?”

“Don’t you see?” the female voice said, sounding so sad. “You and he are so—”

A metallic sound mixed with the words.

“Please, go. Quickly! Your colleagues have escaped. Their methods, it would seem, were a bit rough. They made a tunnel in the omnidirectional field that has reversed the flow of the imprisoning energies. To be precise, in another fifty-nine seconds, this terminal will be utterly destroyed.”

This wasn’t enough time to make use of any of the aircraft.

“Outside, there’s another of the great ones I created. However, there’s one thing you mustn’t forget. It was you, D, that brought them back to life.”

D left the room without making a sound and returned to the hall via the transport.

The giant’s cape fluttered in the breeze. It was tousled by the winds of destruction. Had he, too, been summoned by D?

“This one’s the closest of all to him,” said the voice from the Hunter’s left hand.

In both power and abilities, it seemed.

There was a sword in D’s hand.

The lights flickered madly. They were replaced by interlacing darkness and light. The moment of truth had come for the departure and arrival terminal.

“D! Come with me!” the giant shouted—and then he turned.

It looked as if the figure in blue had always been standing there with the carriages behind him in the strobing lights of the hall.

The giant twisted his body, his cape spinning out.

In response, a streak of light shot from the baron’s cape. The light that split the giant lengthwise quickly grew thicker, knocking the enormous form in black to the floor.

“Even you couldn’t drop him with one shot, yet he—” the Hunter’s left hand remarked in a dazed tone.

“Go back to your carriage,” D said as he walked over to the new cyborg horse beside the baron.

As they galloped away at full speed through the sunlight, D turned and looked back at the terminal. A dome-shaped light was swallowing everything in its glow. Looking to be several miles high, the massive bowl maintained a surprisingly gentle glow, and just as D and the others were about to make a turn in the road, it suddenly vanished. D made the turn, never to know what remained behind.

__

Once they’d returned to the normal road, D had a question for the baron as he lay in his coffin.

“How did you escape?”

“By drinking blood. Now, don’t do anything rash,” the Nobleman added quickly. “It was my own blood, you see. I believe that’s in keeping with our agreement.”

D said nothing as he gave a kick to his horse’s flanks. A burst of speed put him out ahead of the carriages.

Up in the driver’s seat, Taki and May looked completely spent.