THE OFFENSIVE

CHAPTER 1

-

I

-

It was quiet.

The fighting outside didn’t reach the interior of the fortress at all. The Sacred Ancestor’s technology had become a barrier that repelled every last one of the enemy’s attacks. Seen from a distance, the fortress must’ve appeared to be wrapped in a ball of blue light. This was due to the ceaseless bombardment of lithium atom rounds and proton missiles. However, the fortress’s antiaircraft weapons were shooting down these inbound birds of death one after another, while laser and particle cannons seared enemy troops in rapid succession. Anyone could see the soundness of the fortress hadn’t diminished an iota.

The door on the elevator to the operations center opened and a dashing man in black appeared. The androids that focused their electronic eyes on him halted for a moment. He was so exquisite, even their electronic brains were briefly left inoperative.

Glancing around the operations center, which seemed shrouded in a bluish twilight, D asked, “Where’s the count?”

“He’s not here,” one of the androids replied. “It really wasn’t in his nature to watch the fighting from afar. So he said he was going to join the action.”

“Do you know his location?” D asked.

A vast diagram in glowing lines appeared in the space before him: schematics of the fortress. A single red point glowed on them.

“He’s in the second armory,” the android told the Hunter.

-

From his fighting pose, his strength was evident.

Taking a glance at Seurat in his figure-eight stance, the count smiled and said, “Oh, you’re good.”

It was a warrior’s nature to burn with a longing for battle when he encountered a formidable opponent. Going from a middle position to a low one, Braujou lowered the head of his spear. It was an invitation.

Seurat accepted it. Taking a step forward, he swung his sword at the right side of the count’s neck with all his might.

I’m faster, the count thought.

His spear was ready to deflect the edge of his foe’s blade—but it met only air. He saw Seurat so close their noses were nearly touching. The assassin’s face was devoid of character, like a machine with eyes and a nose.

Steel bit into the nape of his neck. It ripped through the count’s skin and innards like they were water, only stopping when it hit his spine.

“Wish I could let that heal,” Seurat said, oddly enough, as he pulled his longsword back out.

Before the count fell, his foe pierced him through the heart.

-

The enemy assault seemed endless. A fresh volley of missiles exploded against the barrier, their light sliding across it like blue ripples.

“A hole has been made in sector three of the barrier!”

“Energy patch complete. Repairs took six nanoseconds. It’s believed the aerial projectile was a worm hole.”

Turning his back on the mechanical voice’s softly spoken account, D exited the operations center. Taking the electromagnetic elevator both vertically and horizontally, he headed toward the infirmary, where Sue was.

The elevator wasn’t a box, but rather a condensed, subdimensional version of the electromagnetic waves that ran through the center of an electromagnetic coil. Ignoring the law of inertia in instantaneous movements horizontally or vertically, the person inside didn’t feel any kind of shock at all. For a door, there was merely an elliptical opening.

Without warning, D ordered, “Take me back to the floor we just passed.”

His destination was verbally relayed to the mother computer.

“Understood.”

As it gave this reply, an opening appeared in the center of the greenish glow.

A savage lust for killing blustered in. Anyone but D would’ve covered their face and curled into a ball.

When D stepped out, a gigantic black figure that might’ve been mistaken for the count was standing about thirty feet down the hall. At his feet lay the actual count.

The gigantic figure noticed D, too. Not bothering to sheathe the longsword he carried, he asked, “You’re D, aren’t you?”

Perhaps he didn’t expect an answer, because he immediately continued, “I’m . . . Seurat. One of Valcua’s seven. I just slew this one.”

He turned his eyes to the count, who lay at his feet, and then returned them to D.

D saw the giant’s right hand move to bat down all three of the wooden needles the Hunter had hurled.

“Just what I’d expect . . . from D,” Seurat said, the young man in black reflected in his narrow eyes. “No mercy for his foes . . . is what I’d heard . . . But to take it to such a level . . . It makes me . . . burn for battle now.”

A cracking sound came from his right hand as he adjusted his grip on the hilt of his sword. He still didn’t understand D.

While he was adjusting his grip, D kicked off the floor, and by the time Seurat reflexively leaped back, raising his sword, the Hunter was above him, bringing his sword down fast—and splitting the giant’s head open to the bridge of his nose. D twisted his body in midair to avoid a lightning-fast thrust, something only the Hunter could do.

As he landed, another slash came at his head. With only the tips of his toes making contact with the floor, D made a bound to the right as he hurled a rough wooden needle. Aimed right between Seurat’s eyes, the needle disappeared the very instant it seemed to pierce the giant, just like D’s slash of a second earlier.

Seurat charged forward, his sword splitting D’s left shoulder open. Bright blood went flying. It seemed to possess a will of its own as it slapped against the face of the still-pouncing Seurat, blinding him.

A black cyclone zipped to the chest of the stock-still assassin, sinking into him. The Hunter’s blade ran through his heart. At least that was the intent, but the giant leaped back beyond the weapon’s tip, and the elevator to his rear opened. The blade of the sword disappeared.

As he wiped away the blood that covered his eyes, Seurat started to leap for the elevator, but then he stopped dead in his tracks. The huge figure that stepped forward blocked his way. Even on realizing that it was Count Braujou, with long spear in hand, Seurat didn’t look surprised.

“That other one was a well-made android. Are you the original?”

“Rest assured,” the count replied, smiling ferociously. “Though its innards might look just like mine, it won’t turn to dust when it’s destroyed. But you’ll be the one who falls now.”

Though he made a beautiful bound to avoid a horizontal swipe of the long spear, Seurat still found himself in an unprecedented predicament. Behind him an amazingly eerie aura closed in—D.

“D, this fellow wounded you and remains unharmed. What is he?” the Nobleman inquired, but perhaps he realized the Hunter might not reply, for he continued, “Are you one of Valcua’s seven?”

“My name is Seurat,” the giant replied.

“How polite of you to say so. And because you’ve made such a favorable impression on me, I’ll now send you to your reward!”

As the Nobleman took a fighting stance with his long spear, Seurat was the focus of a deadly determination. D and Count Braujou—against these two, even this fiend who’d used some bizarre power to keep the android count from landing a single blow and who’d made D’s blade disappear seemed unlikely to escape unscathed. Nor were these the kind of men who’d be foolish enough to take turns fighting him one on one. Still, Seurat’s face was free of emotion as he took a figure-eight stance with his longsword.

“Well—” the count said, and then the air changed.

It was the kind of phenomenon that occurred when someone who had no place in this world appeared.

“But that’s—” the count began, his words sounding like a death rattle.

There was an incredible being present now. The overwhelming presence seemed to wrap around the count’s bones and crush them, leaving him reeling. The air he inhaled in a desperate breath burned in his chest like acid.

And while all this was happening, a tone that was cool and unspeakably soft yet equally powerful said, “So, you’ve come, Valcua?”

“We meet again, eh?” came the reply, in a voice that was quiet but still had the angry ring of thunder to it. “I gave you a warning before you entered the village of Marthias. Do you remember?”

There was no reply. D was merely staring at a single point in space.

“Good enough. You’re just a small fry, but an interesting small fry. I believe I’ll grant you an audience. Right now, I’m in the fortress’s reactor. Get here within a minute’s time. If not, the fortress will be reduced to a fireball before another minute has passed. Braujou, I leave your fate in that man’s hands.”

“There’s nothing I’d like better,” the count said in a tone brimming with confidence. On hearing D’s voice, he’d been freed from the spell of the Ultimate Noble.

The air eddied. Valcua’s presence had departed. There was no sign of Seurat, either.

Looking at D, the count heaved a sigh. “I’ll be a laughingstock till the end of my days, but may I ask you to do this?”

Before turning around, D gave a faint nod.

Watching the figure in black as he was swallowed by the elevator’s door, the count let out another sigh.

“Seurat, was it? It looks like I’ll have to analyze his power.”

The Nobleman’s nerves were far from calm.

Who was that man, and who was the overpowering “Ultimate Noble” who wouldn’t show himself?

 

Before a huge door, D halted. On the other side of this fifteen-foot-thick entry of ultradense steel, the reactor that gave life to this fortress burned with the intense energy released when protons came into contact with antiprotons.

“I’m inside. Thirty seconds left—you don’t have much time. I feel it only fair to warn you that anyone whose DNA hasn’t been encoded into the Sacred Ancestor’s technology won’t even be able to touch the door. Keep that in mind as you make your attempt.”

Already the computer had drawn a bead on D with a dimensional-vortex cannon.

D stepped forward.

“Ready to die?” Valcua’s voice sneered.

Purple light fell from the ceiling straight down on D. The instant D’s form rose from it the light faded, becoming a single beam that penetrated the center of the door. Slowly the door opened down the middle, allowing D to enter.

“Oh, my—not bad for a small fry!” Valcua said, his voice containing relatively little surprise.

This in itself was worthy of admiration. A person with his DNA encoded into the Sacred Ancestor’s technology—that was tantamount to saying someone came from the Sacred Ancestor’s bloodline. Valcua wasn’t surprised by this. And he himself had made it inside.

“But you’re too late. It’s already three seconds in. The reactor will collapse in fifty-seven seconds. Neither Braujou nor Miranda can press the switch to stop it. Only the Sacred Ancestor could start or stop a meltdown.”

As D turned without a moment’s pause toward the reactor, he heard a sweet female voice say, “Collapse in fifty-one seconds. Fifty seconds . . .”

-

II

-

Who had selected that lovely female voice to inform them of impending death and destruction? Despite the pronouncements by the angel of death, D didn’t seem at all afraid as he walked with great strides to the front of the reactor.

“What happened to your left hand?” Valcua’s voice inquired mockingly. He’d said he was inside the reactor, but there was no sign of him.

Though the reactor was regulated from a control room, there were also controls inside the reactor itself for use in an emergency. The reason D chose the latter was simple: the reactor was closer.

“When those three who didn’t know their place planned this citadel to escape my wrath, they needed the aid of the Sacred Ancestor to design this reactor. First came the reactor, and then the fortress was constructed around it. It is, quite literally, the source of life here. D, can you prevent it from becoming the cause of death?”

As the Ultimate Noble sought an answer to this, D didn’t appear to look for him, but rather stood directly before the reactor.

The woman’s voice counted out forty-six seconds.

Countless silvery grains rose up on all sides. In the blink of an eye they covered D’s body, and then disappeared in another blink. They had been drawn into D’s flesh.

At almost the same time, a green object appeared before D’s eyes. Although the slim and graceful woman’s hand was glowing green, it seemed somehow pale and white.

“Dear me,” Valcua exclaimed, and this time he couldn’t hide the hint of admiration in his voice.

D took hold of it with his right hand.

The female voice counted off, “Two seconds. One second.”

Nothing changed, except for the female voice ceasing its count. The fires of hell that only those of the Sacred Ancestor’s bloodline could control had been splendidly kept in check.

Looking up toward the ceiling as if nothing had transpired, D said, “Come out.”

It wasn’t a challenge. It was a command. A mere Hunter was ordering the Ultimate Noble to show himself.

In a tone that didn’t hide his surprise, Valcua said, “So, you have the blood of the Sacred Ancestor in you?”

However, he soon retracted this, saying with absolute arrogance, “No, a drudge like you couldn’t be one of his descendants. I don’t know what kind of device you might have or where you might’ve acquired it, but this farce has gone on long enough. Die!”

D blocked the streak of light that plummeted straight down at him with his sword. The sparks burned D’s shadow onto the floor. Bounding to either side without a sound, the pair switched places, a fierce will to kill binding them together.

D saw the Ultimate Noble for the first time. Quite similar to the Hunter in height and build, Valcua wore a golden cape. Given the hard, gleaming flecks that covered its surface, the garment seemed to be woven from some sort of metallic fiber. Beneath the cape, his torso and limbs were wrapped in lumpy pieces of bluish-green armor. His weapon was the golden light he gripped with his right hand. It wasn’t metal, but rather seemed to be an ionlike substance that had undergone additional chemical treatment.

Not bothering to change stance, Valcua called out, “D!”

His voice emerged from a screen of gold. His forelock hung down to his chin, concealing his eyes, nose, and mouth, while the rest of his hair reached his waist.

“Nicely blocked. I imagine that is the proper response. Who are you, sir?”

D’s toes inched forward.

“My goodness—you send a chill down the spine of the great Valcua and make my blood run cold. Who knew there was such a man in the world besides him and myself? It would be a shame to kill you. D, will you not join forces with me? Of course, in order to do that, the traitor and the two children would need to be dealt with first. Oh!”

Valcua raised his right hand. His sword of light sent a stream of gleaming particles at D, and the Hunter held his blade up straight to parry them. The light was slashed down the middle.

There was no change at all to the sword D held upright, and from his present position he leaped over Valcua. There was a clang, and sparks went flying. The blade of D’s sword had been blocked over Valcua’s head.

Roughly three feet in diameter, the perfectly circular shield had the same golden glow as the Ultimate Noble’s sword of light. His foe hadn’t kept it concealed. Valcua must’ve had the power to create it from thin air.

Light challenged light. There was no hesitation in D’s attack. Striking with breathless speed, D’s sword was dodged, parried, and countered with glowing thrusts as Valcua backed away.

As D parried one of these attacks, there came a momentary opening. The shield pushed forward. As if driven by the force of the wind, D leaped back. The glowing blade pursued him. When D deflected it, it broke off at an angle, flying up to sink into the reactor’s outer walls.

Before D had even landed, a red light winked on in the room.

“Damage extends to the third layer of shielding,” a mechanical voice informed them. “Repair systems operational. Level-five damage verified. Level-five damage verified. ”

“Repairs are urgently needed. Repairs are urgently needed.”

“It looks as if not even the Sacred Ancestor’s technology could guard against the Sacred Ancestor’s destructive power,” Valcua said, his golden face upturned a little. There was bitterness mixed in his voice. “As this destruction wasn’t at my bidding, there’s nothing I can do about it. I suppose I should leave before I’m caught up in the consequences. D, won’t you come with me?”

Even after their deadly battle, did Valcua still intend to win D over?

The outline of his form became indistinct and he was transformed into a gaseous mass that resembled gold and black oil paints swirled together. Once the air had assimilated it, D sheathed his sword and started walking toward the door.

“At present, repairs are under way. Repairs are under way. The damage has not been contained. The damage has not been contained.”

“A dimensional fusing is required. Development of the technology is under way.”

The stern voices of the machines came from behind the Hunter. They sounded frantic.

D was just coming out the door when he met a familiar face. Moving down the hall was his charred left hand.

“You’re late,” D said.

“What are you talking about? I finally silenced Sigma. Just look at the shape I’m in!”

“Did you destroy Sigma?”

“I can’t say that for sure,” it replied, its tone dropping. “At the very least, I left ’im so he won’t be able to ever send another terminal at us. But as for whether or not his main form has been shut down—”

“The reactor’s been damaged,” D said.

“What?”

“The damage was done by one of the Sacred Ancestor’s weapons. I need your help.”

“You intend to get even more work out of me? You’re absolutely heartless, like some kind of beautiful demon.”

Even as it cursed him, it made mention of his beauty. D had that effect on everyone.

Leaving his left hand, D walked toward the elevator. Seen from behind, he was an exquisite sight befitting the stillness in the hall.

Even now, inside and out, a horrible battle to the death that burned everything down to its very atoms was growing even more intense. Within the fortress, klaxons had resounded for several minutes. The security computers that hadn’t noticed Valcua’s entry had awakened from the sleeplike spell that had been over them during D’s pitched battle.

Even in the fortress’s infirmary, security had its eyes and swords ready to strike down any intruders. Although this facility was intended in part for the trio of Nobles who’d constructed the fortress, there were also a number of sickrooms for any humans who served them. Behind a door protected by android sentries were Sue and Matthew.

Less than two minutes after D’s fierce battle with Valcua, another android was walking past the infirmary. Once it came to the door, it suddenly turned and headed straight for the children’s room.

“Halt,” the sentries said, raising the particle cannons mounted on their arms, but that did nothing to stop its advance. Blue and white lights focused on the intruder, becoming blinding, cracked streaks that clung to every inch of it. The android shuddered, tumbling forward before the memory banks of its control unit were destroyed. Still lying as it had fallen, it reached out with its right hand and touched the foot of the sentry in front of it.

A heartbeat later the android it touched turned toward another sentry and subjected it to the same attack. Ignoring its compatriot as it too fell forward, the sentry drew a bead on the circuits for accessing the sick room with its particle cannon.

-

Matthew was gazing at the face of the slumbering Sue. Ever since he’d been brought back by the same android count that had led him into a trap before returning to its senses, Sue had been asleep. He’d heard she’d been possessed by part of something sent to defeat D. Apparently she’d lost consciousness as a result of that thing leaving her, but as the boy intently watched her sleeping face, something dangerous stirred in his heart.

Ever since she was a child, he’d found Sue’s face to be endearing as she slumbered, and he would wait until she fell asleep before watching her for ages solely by the light of the moon. Even after they got separate bedrooms, he never tired of sneaking in under cover of night to gaze at her. In those days, they were still on the farm, and their mother was with them. But now that he was free of the bonds of that mundane existence, was the face of his soundly sleeping sister so lovely it stirred desire in him?

When he’d learned that his sister had fallen for a man, it bothered Matthew so much it nearly drove him crazy. And when Count Braujou pointed out that the man in question was D, the boy really did lose his mind. He’d attacked Sue, and as a result he’d only driven her further away. What little remained of his reason scolded him, telling him that her reaction was only natural, but now that the two of them were alone again he was finding it hard to restrain the manly urges bubbling up inside him.

Grabbing Sue’s blanket, he pulled it all the way down to her belly. She was wearing pajamas. Matthew’s face looked even stranger than Sue’s had when she was possessed.

Unbuttoning her pajamas, he opened the front of them. Sue didn’t move a muscle, which only emboldened Matthew. The flesh beneath the fabric revealed a pair of sizable swells that seemed fitting for someone her age, if not somewhat large given her fragile appearance.

Matthew’s Adam’s apple bobbed madly. Bringing his face closer to the pale pink tip of her breast, he took a breath as if he could stand it no longer, and then took his sister’s nipple in his mouth. Sue’s body twitched a little. After lightly sucking on her breast, Matthew directed his obsession to her lovely mouth. As her rosy lips continued to draw thread-thin breaths, the boy licked his own lips and brought them closer.

The door abruptly opened just as their lips were about to come together. It was an android sentry.

“What do you want?”

“The enemy is approaching. Please come with me.”

The android came closer.

“Where are we going? What’s the count doing? And what about D?”

“Both of them are fighting a defensive action. I will deliver the two of you to a safe area.”

“But—”

The instant his field of view was filled by the pale blue light that shot from the sentry’s right side, Matthew wondered if heaven wasn’t punishing him.

-

III

-

In the operations center, D, who’d paid a call on the infirmary, informed Count Braujou that the two children were missing.

“They’re gone?” the giant said to the three-dimensional holographic image of D, giving him an intense look as he took a swipe with his long spear. Three androids were sent flying, only to collapse and burst into flames.

“The sentries have been felled? What the hell have the security computers been doing? Rest assured—no matter how they got in here, so long as the barrier is up, they can’t get out of the fortress.”

“If they could get in, they can also get out,” D said softly. “So long as Valcua is here, the barrier means nothing. I’m heading out.”

“Very well, I’ll go with you.”

The Nobleman had intended to go out and join the fighting all along, but after the computer notified him of D’s battle with Seurat, he’d gone to the operations center with hopes dashed. In his heart, his wicked Noble blood ran hot.

When the count got down to the combat exit, D was already astride a white steed. They hadn’t summoned a single android soldier. The two of them pushed their way into the thick of the enemy troops, who were like a swarm of bees. Neither of them found it strange.

“Take these,” the count said, throwing the Hunter something that looked like a pair of goggles.

“They’re an information terminal. An SRPV surveillance drone has already been dispatched. It should locate the children within two minutes’ time. When it does, I’ll cut a path through the enemy. You’ll have to rescue them, D.”

Of course, there was no reply to this.

D put the goggles on. They fit well—to be more precise, their weight was negligible and they didn’t seem bulky. There was no change to visibility with them on, either.

“Give them commands verbally. We’ll soon—”

That was as far as the count got before glowing green lines made a topographical map that filled his field of view. Four luminous points were on the move.

“Expand those points.”

Instantly, they took on the form of three humans and an android. Seurat and the android were carrying Sue and Matthew draped across their shoulders.

“The forest to the west,” the count said, and then the fugitives halted.

A cyborg horse twice the normal size was tethered to the trunk of a colossal tree.

“On horseback, he’ll make for the highway to the west and keep going all the way to Valcua’s domain—he must intend to head north. Let’s give chase!”

The count was also astride an enormous horse. Behind him was his car.

“It looks like the night will be at an end soon,” he remarked in an unusual tone that made it sound like he was making excuses.

He then turned to D and asked, “What happened to your left hand?”

It was missing from the wrist down.

“It’s on the job,” D responded.

Whether repairs to the reactor were going well or not was unknown.

“Well then, let’s go!”

At the same time the count gave a pull to the reins of the gigantic steed, the doors opened. From there they went straight through the central courtyard where a black dirt road stretched toward the distant gates.

First went D, followed by the count and the car. Thirty feet away, the main gates opened. The words “Barrier removal” danced across their goggles. At the same time, crimson streaks of light flew all around the pair. Struck by them, a portion of the ramparts instantly evaporated.

They crossed the bridge. About a thousand yards ahead, the enemy forces pressed forward. In front of them a titanic pillar of flame went up. The fireball that swelled from it swallowed all their foes in a fifty-yard radius. It was the work of a miniature missile launched from the fortress.

The air was still searing hot as D and his mount bounded forward. The reins were wrapped around his left forearm, while his right hand merely rested on them. As the white steed galloped like it was possessed, the enemy troops closed on it. From the horse’s back, a stark flash of light mowed through them, and they fell. Severed heads and torsos promptly changed into dead branches. Valcua’s magic was gone.

Enemies with rifles at the ready were mowed down by a blue light. The blistering particle beam of seven hundred thousand degrees was fired from a cannon mounted on the roof of the count’s vehicle, and it evaporated not only the soldiers, but also trees and earth.

However, ahead of the pair the enemy milled in a thick black swarm, firing beams and missiles at them. The count’s car was hit by the shots, and the count himself received wounds all over his body from flames and shrapnel.

Can we catch up? he wondered.

In addition, the count’s internal clock was telling him dawn was nigh. As the enemy soldiers piled up, not seeming to have dwindled in numbers at all, the first doubts crept into the count’s mind.

Will we make it in time?

Just then, the air suddenly froze. Shouts and shrieks from the enemy—in fact, all sounds—were completely silenced. Even the wind died out.

“What was that?” the astonished count said in spite of himself. He was asking D. Why did he think D knew the reason for this sudden silence?

D gave an abrupt kick to the flanks of his steed.

For some reason the count forgot to try to stop him, and he was unable to even follow D, but rather watched the young man’s fate unfurl.

“What’s this?” Braujou cried out, and rightly so.

In front of the galloping D, the soldiers that fell beneath his horse’s hooves were suddenly transformed into dead branches. D dashed right through an army of thousands, if not tens of thousands, leaving nothing but trampled tree limbs strewn in his wake. The magical might of Valcua—the Ultimate Noble—had been broken!

“What in the world is this fellow?” the count groaned, finally giving his horse a crack of the reins.

-

After racing down the highway for about twenty minutes, Seurat heard the beating of iron-shod hooves ringing out behind him. The android carried Sue and Matthew on the back of the giant’s steed.

Turning around, Seurat was expressionless as he said, “I underestimated them. No doubt only the man known as D could’ve smashed through those military forces to give chase. Grand duke, what would you have me do?”

He posed this question to empty space.

A grave answer came in return.

“Just keep going. I’ve taken measures.”

“Yes, milord!” Seurat responded, feeling a chill run down his back.

Only three hundred feet to go. D’s cyborg horse was rapidly closing on the enormous steed up ahead.

Riding another three hundred feet behind him, the count’s eyes widened as he said, “Such speed! I’m glad it’s not me he’s after—well, actually he is after me, isn’t he? At any rate, I’m glad it’s not me today.”

He watched as the black figure of D dwindled at an astounding rate. A second later, the count gasped. D had sunk without warning. And not just him, but the gigantic horse ahead of him as well. The ground had collapsed. And the black chasm was headed straight for him.

“This is bad!”

The Nobleman jerked the reins to make a sudden stop, but his body went flying through the air. In midair, the count saw his cyborg horse trip and the car behind it slam into the beast.

A section of road twenty feet wide and four hundred and fifty feet long had given way. It wasn’t an explosion or an earthquake. The molecular structure of the ground had been altered, leaving it in an extremely weakened condition.

Were these the “measures” Valcua had taken?

As the ground swallowed him up, D took the reins in his teeth. Using the strength of his two arms and his mouth to control his cyborg horse, he demonstrated a skill that could only be described as wondrous. Though his steed sank up to the Hunter’s knees into ground that now resembled pumice, it went no deeper. Skillfully working its four legs, the horse moved relentlessly, as if seeking solid footing.

No longer sinking but still not rising, D watched as Seurat, the giant steed he rode, and the siblings were swallowed by the colossal cavern that opened in the ground.

A sound became audible. A splash. Obviously there was a river running deep underground.

The earth and sand suddenly began to subside much more quickly. The water had begun to wash them away.

Seurat and the others were swallowed by the darkness.

It took about ten seconds for D to hit the water. Cyborg horses could swim across rivers where it was too deep for people to stand. However, the current here trumped that ability.

As he was swept away, mount and all, D focused his gaze behind him and ahead of him. He couldn’t see Seurat, his gigantic horse, or the Dyalhis siblings. All that flowed through the massive underground cavern was black water. The cavern must’ve been at least thirty feet high.

Unexpectedly, the Hunter’s horse sank. Something had dragged it underwater. And D went right with it.

The Nobility—and others with vampire blood—were known to have problems with water. Of particular note was their inability to cross running water. When completely immersed, a dhampir lost almost all of his Noble strength, leaving him with only the power of a normal human being at his disposal.

Even underwater D’s eyesight was perfect. Leaving the saddle of his cyborg horse, he drew his sword.

The woman who appeared from behind the white steed had a long, white robe streaming out behind her like the garb of the celestial maidens. It was the water witch, Lucienne. Although this sorceress had been evaporated by the flames from a torch, she’d apparently survived by fleeing underground.

“So nice of you to come into my country, D!” she said, her voice as sensuous as ever.

However, the right side of her face was melted and her lips were half gone, leaving teeth and gums exposed. Scorched by fire on the ground above, it appeared she hadn’t been healed even after returning to the font of her life.

“You may be invincible on dry land, but you can’t defeat me here. Eventually I’ll tear Count Braujou and Duchess Miranda to bits in my world, too. But you shall be the first.”

A white piece of fabric closed on D. Lucienne had pulled it from her clothing. No doubt her raiment was composed of many such pieces stitched together.

D swung his sword. The fabric wasn’t cut. It wrapped gently around the blade, robbing it of its cutting edge.

Lucienne laughed seductively. Her clothing had already broken down into a number of strips that lingered around her naked form as if loath to leave her. Her pale female physique had retained its perfect beauty, and even half-melted, her face had lost none of its former loveliness, giving this sorceress an allure beyond compare.

Her right hand pointed at D. Cloth flowed over and latched onto his shoulder, upper arm, and wrist, winding around D from the right shoulder down to the waist. His sword arm was restricted. Another strip wrapped around his throat like a pale arm.

Bubbles rose from D’s mouth. His air had run out.