III

“What?”

“There’s nothing under my castle. All the castle’s systems are maintained by devices set up on yonder planet.”

“Energy from a planet in space?!” the Professor exclaimed, desperately swallowing the words for a castle in the boondocks. Fear had risen in his chest like icy waters. Can it be I underestimated this Nobleman? he thought.

“Off we go!”

They had no time to respond to the grand duke’s remark. The next thing the two humans knew, they’d reached their destination. An incredibly enormous power plant spread across the desolate ground. For they were looking down on it from the heavens.

“Do those pipes and clusters of domes cover the entire surface of the planet?”

The grand duke replied to the Professor’s question, saying, “Indeed. Roughly a hundred and fifty million square miles of them.”

“How many years did that take you?”

“Two and a half days, actually.”

“Excuse me?”

“Two and a half days.”

“Unbelievable!”

At that point, the world changed again. The trio was standing inside a dome. From one of the walkways crisscrossing the place they could see a collection of cylinders directly below.

“That is an antiproton reactor,” the Nobleman explained. “It produces nearly infinite energy.”

“Could you—”

“I shall teach you how it works. It has applications in other fields, as well. Science will make a ruler of you.”

“That’s not what I—” the Professor protested, the feeling that the Nobleman had seen right through him leaving his mind a choppy mess.

“Energy controls everything. Not just here in our world, but out in the universe, at the bottom of the sea, and even off in other dimensions. All to grant your every wish.”

“You seem to have the wrong idea, and that simply won’t do. I’m merely an individual working for the human government in the Capital. My head reels with the sort of things you’re discussing,” the Professor said, donning a fake smile. “But all that aside, would you mind if I asked you something?”

“What is that?”

“Why did you accept our offer? When we received your reply, the Noble Ruins Survey Office was bowled over!”

“I’m getting up in years, you see,” the grand duke laughed. It was unsettling the way his fangs poked from the corners of his lips when he did so. “I have lost the desire to creep into the bedchambers of human girls. Countrified farmers or not, they have thought of a great variety of defenses. And why go through all that needless effort when I can sit back and get the same thing anyway? The warm blood tastes the same either way.”

Pretty crafty for a countrified Nobleman, the Professor thought, clucking his tongue in his heart of hearts. Is that all it takes to get the Nobility to hand their technology over to humans? Well, that’s just fine. No matter what he’s got planned, I want the proper means to control and harness that energy.

“Allow me to show you it in action,” the grand duke said, his voice shattering the Professor’s thoughts.

“W-why, yes—by all means,” Chaney replied, trembling with unmistakable delight from head to toe. The mayor got to his feet, too.

“Look at that red star.”

The grand duke raised his right hand, and sure enough, there it was.

“And now check the horizon.”

The Professor and the mayor peered off across the black wasteland. A single beam of red light split the darkness.

“Unfortunately, even at the speed of light it would take ninety thousand years to reach that star. So let me link them across space. Watch the star.”

In less than two seconds’ time, the red star flared blisteringly hot, blinding the two men, and then it was swallowed up by the darkness.

“An entire star, and one ninety thousand light years away, at that,” the Professor groaned. Though he knew what had happened, he still couldn’t believe it.

“I destroyed about thirty thousand of them before I’d reached the age of four. Although I desisted when my father ordered it.”

So, his father was reasonable, then? the Professor mused, able to accept that. Still, the effect had been nothing if not stunning.

“Grand duke . . . many thanks!”

From behind them came a hoarse voice, saying, “It really ain’t right for a Noble to be encouraging humans this way, you know.”

The trio turned in astonishment. They were out in the universe. Where had D come from, and how had he followed them there?

II

“How did you get here?” the grand duke inquired.

“By the same device you used. It was the only one that was on.”

The grand duke’s jaw dropped. His mouth then opened and closed repeatedly. He was able to . . . to use that? the grand duke thought, slipping toward a state of dementia.

Finally Bergenzy was able to speak, saying, “Just who are you?”

His voice split in two.

Bounding, the Nobleman dodged the blade that swung down at him as soon as he landed in a manner that was nothing shy of miraculous. Both the Professor and the mayor were frozen.

Putting ten paces between them, the grand duke braced himself for battle. D had his sword lowered nonchalantly. The Professor and the mayor heard a faint sound from somewhere.

“Come,” the grand duke said, beckoning to the Hunter. It was an action that spoke of enormous self-confidence—and made one immediately think it was a trap. That much went without saying.

D raced over like a gust of wind, his blade bisecting the Nobleman’s body—at least, it went through the grand duke’s torso. However, the grand duke turned around unconcernedly. There wasn’t even a slash through his garb.

“Most unfortunate, is it not?” he said.

Once again D closed the distance. The blade he brought down on the Nobleman’s head rebounded with a strange sound.

“My person is protected by a reactor harnessing the power of an entire planet. No attack can penetrate it! Look at my arms—they’re artificial limbs, but are no different from the real thing. And then there’s my heart, which you skewered before. Shortly after my birth, it was replaced with an artificial one. As it’s an imitation, I can survive half a day after it’s been pierced. My heart is no longer a weak point.”

“Then I’ll have to see about breaking through your defenses,” said the Hunter.

“What?”

D’s lips were pressed together, but a dribble of vermilion spilled from one corner of them. Blood. He’d bitten open his own lip. And then—D’s throat bobbed up and down. As if he were swallowing something. His eyes gave off a red glow. The corners of his lips quickly turned up. And what spilled from them were the fangs of a vampire!

The Professor’s legs gave out beneath him. The mayor clawed at the left side of his chest. So great was his fear it was causing him heart problems.

“You—you son of a bitch,” the Greater Nobleman groaned in surprise, yet he still managed to back away thanks to the power of his station.

The grand duke opened his mouth. A crimson ball of light sank into D’s chest. The Hunter’s blade had parried it—and it had passed through the weapon without leaving a mark on it. Doubling over, D lurched forward. He barely managed to catch himself after dropping to his left knee.

“That energy sphere had the power of an entire planet in it,” said the grand duke. His tone should’ve been one of complete confidence, yet it shook with fear. The chances of this happening were like finding a needle in a haystack.

The grand duke thrust his right hand into his cape. When he pulled it out again, it gripped a dagger.

“Any dhampir, no matter how great, will die from a stake of wood or steel through the heart. World-renowned Hunter that you are—I, Bergenzy, shall give you your Last Rites.”

He rushed at D, ready to drive the blade he’d raised through the Hunter’s back and out through his heart.

Who would’ve imagined the agonized man’s right hand would flash into action? The grand duke toppled backward. Both his legs had been severed just below the knee. After he thudded to the ground, a rain of blood spurted out.

Writhing, the grand duke cried out, “Drinking your own blood was enough to best the energy of an entire planet? Who are you, D? O energy, give me my legs back. Restore me!”

Buffeted by the Nobleman’s insane words, the vision of beauty slowly got to his feet. His entire weight was supported by the sword in his right hand.

“No, stay back. Don’t come near me,” the grand duke said, a succession of fireballs flying from his mouth. Three of them bounced off the Hunter’s blade, and another sank into D’s solar plexus.

Seeing the Hunter’s knees buckle, the grand duke rolled over and desperately pulled his legs closer, pressing them against the stumps.

“Energy . . . O energy . . . I beg of you . . . Help me. Why . . . can’t I heal . . . from his blow?”

From the corner of his eye Bergenzy saw a figure in black approaching.

“Oh, lend me your aid! Power! It’s power that shall save me. Move, legs! Move, damn you!”

His expression was by turns one of despair or resignation, but suddenly it became one of elation.

“They moved! Ha ha! I’m saved. The energy is still alive and well!”

The grand duke jumped up as if on springs.

D was standing right in front of him. Black smoke poured from his chest and solar plexus, yet every inch of him radiated murderous intent.

“Wha—?!” the grand duke squawked, running. He covered ten yards in the blink of an eye. But that was just his legs and his headless torso. His reeling body had a needle of rough wood stuck through its back and out through its heart.

Confirming that the torso and head of the fallen Noble had turned to dust, D used his sword to get to his feet, then walked off in the direction from which he’d come. When he passed by, the mayor screamed, while the Professor was frozen in place and couldn’t move a muscle. As far as they were concerned, he was a creature far more frightening than the Nobility. Even after D was swallowed up by thin air without giving them so much as a glance, the mayor continued to snivel for some time and the Professor remained just as stiff.

“We’re finished,” the mayor moaned. “It’s all over . . . And we . . . we’re going to die here.”

“What are you talking about? We were able to come out here. It must be possible to go back again,” the Professor countered, having returned to his senses.

“That’s because we had the grand duke with us! Hell, the Hunter was able to go back. But that’s because he’s a dhampir. But we’re just regular old human beings. We got brought all the way out here, and now there’s not a thing we can do!”

The Professor saw tears in the man’s eyes. Reflected in those tears, the look on the Professor’s face made the mayor turn and look.

All the gray dust on the floor was moving in the same direction. Toward the grand duke’s clothing. And look! Weren’t those hands growing from the sleeves and a head quickly taking shape above the collar? Were even D’s blade and wooden needle not enough to slay this Nobleman?

Now the grand duke got to his feet. Not a mark remained on his neck or his chest or even his clothes, and at some point the needle that’d pierced him had fallen to the floor.

“Impossible,” the Professor murmured.

“You came back . . . You came back from the dead . . . Please, help us!” the mayor sobbed.

“You have my thanks, planetary energy!” the grand duke cried out to the heavens. “I have returned!”

A monstrous laugh rolled through the ether. A moment later, the Nobleman collapsed. His face and body were decaying once more. His revival had been incomplete. For the energy of that planet had been no match for D’s blade.

“Grand duke?!” the Professor cried out, racing over.

“No, it’s probably better this way,” the mayor said, folding his hands together and reciting a prayer.

And then they heard it.

“Come . . .”

It wasn’t a human voice. It was a groan from the dead. The rickety, nearly decayed right hand rose and beckoned to the two of them.

“Come . . .”

The voice of the dead echoed darkly in the two men’s heads, hindering their thinking.

The fallen grand duke turned his face and looked up at them. His face? It was that of a mummy, with his eye sockets hollowed out, and both his cheekbones and teeth left exposed. His mouth moved, though his fangs were about to fall out.

“The two of you . . . should . . . become me . . .”

“Huh?”

The Professor’s lips twisted. The expression that graced his deathly pale face was beyond description.

“His sword . . . is fearsome . . . I must concede defeat . . . However . . . I will not be destroyed . . . like this . . . I still . . . have . . . energy . . . And I bequeath it . . . to the two of you . . . The power of the Nobility . . . Do with it . . . what you will.”

“The power of the Nobility—do you really mean it?”

“Yes . . . The two of you . . . will become me . . . Become . . . Noble.”

“And we’d be able to use all the technology here without any difficulty?”

“Of course . . . As far as the human world is concerned . . . you could make yourselves kings . . . without any trouble . . . at all . . .”

Emotions flickered across the Professor’s face with dizzying speed. Fear and anxiety, expectation and joy. All of them still clung to it as he said, “This offer of yours—I’ll take you up on it.”

“Good enough . . . And what of you, man? What will you do?”

Giving a look of scorn to the mayor, who did naught but tremble, the Professor said, “Grant me the power of Nobility. Me alone.”

“Very well . . . Show me your throat.”

The Professor let out a croak of apprehension and his body stiffened. It was hammered into the DNA of every member of the human race what would happen to someone who did that. He trembled from head to toe with inescapable fear and broke out in a cold sweat. His shirt and underwear were soaked.

A mummified hand took hold of his throat.

“Quickly . . .”

The mummy’s face was right in front of him. Red eyes burned from the depths of sockets that were like black grottos. Before the grand duke could even pull him closer he slumped forward, his keen fangs coming straight down on the man’s throat—and piercing the carotid artery directly below.

Bezo, the newly minted mayor, didn’t have a clue what he should do. The very act of journeying out here had been an act unbecoming of a human being. He was the sort of man suited for wielding a modicum of power in a tiny human village and no more.

I just want to go home, he thought, like a mantra. I want to go back to the village. I want to go home and take a bath.

A shadow fell from overhead, covering him entirely. A cold hand touched his shoulder. It wasn’t just cold, but sent a chill right into his bones. He’d heard things from people who knew about the Nobility. They possessed monstrous strength, but their skin was cold like that. Numbed to the bone, he wouldn’t be able to move a muscle.

“Mayor Bezo,” said a voice he recognized. “It is I, Chaney. Let’s go home.”

The mayor shook his head. Not that he didn’t want to go home. Rather, he didn’t think that this man with the Professor’s voice was the Professor.

“Relax. My mind is that of the old me. Our relationship is in no way changed, and I’ll honor every bit of our agreement.”

No, don’t come near. Stay back.

“However, thanks to this, I may no longer move about by day. I find it highly doubtful the four who accompanied me will still obey me. So, I’d like to ask you to fill their role.”

“Their role?” said Bezo.

“Yes, as my new protector and taking care of daily matters for me. After all, I’ll need to master everything about the machinery the grand duke left behind, from the principles behind them to their operation. I’ll require several days’ time. You’ll need to manage until then.”

“What’ll you do after that?”

“A good question. The plan was for me to bring a few pieces of technology back to the Capital, but that was the old me. I suppose I’ll give the government in the Capital a nice little surprise.”

The mayor didn’t know what to say.

“The simplest weapon I learned about from the grand duke is a drug that increases the growth of bugs inside the human body. Intended to massacre OSB who had taken on the shape of humans or Nobility, the drug causes organisms that live in everything but Nobles to grow to enormous size and run amok, chewing the flesh to bits. If I were to release a milligram of it into the air, the Capital would be reduced to a lifeless wasteland in a minute. Were I to demonstrate it on a town of, say, a thousand people, the government would instantly transfer power to me, I imagine. After that, I can do as I like—what?”

The mayor was looking up at the Professor. “Will you have a place for me in all that?” he asked.

“Of course. But I won’t be able to raise you to the same station as myself. I’ll need servants who’ll be able to walk around in the light of day.”

“Anything will be fine. I’ll make your wishes come true. Please, make me one of you.”

“I believe I will,” the Professor said, his voice brimming more with confidence now.

The mayor felt his surroundings growing brighter. On noticing that, he gasped with grief. The shadow of the Professor, which had enveloped him, had vanished at some point.

“I just became one. I’m a Noble now,” the Professor said gravely. It was a declaration from an immortal. “Now I realize what the grand duke’s goal was. The thought of him being satisfied with four human sacrifices a month in his boondock fiefdom is preposterous. His aim was to become ruler of the Noble world. By giving technology to humans, he’d give rise to a king of the human world who was loyal to him. He could control that king, making him send humans out to conquer the universe. And the moment they did, he intended to personally slay the humans and become supreme ruler of the universe. Oh, I see it all. How well I understand it. But the grand duke is dead. And I, Professor Chaney, will fulfill his wish.”

Grabbing the mayor by the wrist, the Professor forced him to stand, leading him deeper into the structure.

The village is going to change real soon, the mayor told himself. The world really does belong to the Nobility. No way the human race would ever beat them. And that being the case, I’ve got to grab what crumbs I can.

Each wrapped in his own thoughts, the new Nobleman and his servant melted away into the darkness, just as D had done. All that remained on the floor was the grand duke’s dissolving head. The last power maintaining it must’ve fled, and the instant it turned to dust, lips that now housed only a single fang grinned quite plainly.

III

He was conscious of the fact that he’d dozed off. And he also realized this was a dream. Yet it was set in his usual underground research center, which was far from sexy. That dissatisfaction had firmly taken root when he heard, Jo . . . zeee—

A woman was standing in front of the door. Even on seeing her white dress he didn’t think of her as being a resident of the castle. After all, he’d always thought she looked good in that color.

The woman drew nearer.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, adding, “Who are you?”

“Have you forgotten my face? Is it because of the dress?”

He didn’t know what to say.

“If not, then say my name. I haven’t heard it in such a long time!”

A pale hand touched his cheek. It was warm. Just like in the old days. He didn’t have the hood on. After all, this was a dream.

“My face—is it still the same?” he asked.

“Yes, but a little bigger and stronger looking, I suppose,” the woman replied, her tone gentle. Not once had she ever scolded him.

“Françoise,” he called out to her.

“That’s right. That’s my name.”

The woman brought her face closer, rubbing her cheek against his. Her next words were unexpected.

“Be careful. Everyone’s out to get you!”

Her tone was so urgent it made him anxious.

“Why?”

“The grand duke was destroyed. But the government official from the Capital got bitten by him and will carry on his wishes.”

“That’s odd. The grand duke bit him, but he’s dead now, right? In that case, the people he bit should’ve turned back . . .”

“Just one bite made him just like the Nobility! He’ll never be human again.”

“Why’s he after me?”

“You’re an obstacle for the Nobility. A human who speaks out against their rule. You’re one of them.”

“But he used to be human, too, right?”

“Yes. He was human. Now he’s a Noble—at least, so he thinks.”

“Will he come here?”

“Without a doubt.”

“Françoise, how can you know these things?”

“Because I’m a dream.”

“A dream?”

“Vyken used his power on me. He can turn anything into a dream. Probably a natural talent that the grand duke amplified. And dreams fade away. But I didn’t vanish so quickly. I wanted to hold on until I could see you.”

“Then this is the last I’ll see of you?”

“I don’t know. I couldn’t leave you in danger like this. But to be honest, I don’t know. Run for it, Jozen.”

She said the name quite clearly. And he remembered. That was his real name. His current name—Cornet—he’d taken when he got his new face.

That’s right—what about this face? Surprise and shame rose about him like a hazy mist, perhaps because this was a dream.

“In dreams I can help you,” she said, “but in reality I can’t. Hurry up and run away.”

“No. If that’s the case, I’ll have to turns dreams into reality,” Cornet said, shaking his head decisively. “Françoise, thanks for telling me this. In dreams or in reality, I’ll put something together.”

“Put what together?”

“A device to swap dreams and reality, of course. If I do that, I can keep you from fading away, Françoise.”

“But—”

“Oh, I’ll do it. I’ve always pushed the limits. If it doesn’t work, we’re no worse off.”

He turned his gaze down to his hands. All the parts he needed were there. He assembled them without a single misstep. It took no time at all. They were in a dream, after all.

“I did it, Françoise!” he shouted.

A pale flower bloomed before his very eyes. Françoise had smiled.

“Great,” she said, her voice gradually become louder and louder.

Great!

Great!

Great!

It echoed through his head, becoming a maniacal scream.

“Please, stop!”

The cry had been his.

Cornet looked all around. There was no one there. This was reality.

“And the swapper?”

There was nothing in his hands.

I can do it, right?

He was solid on the principle behind it. He’d just been thinking about it in his dream. There was nothing wrong with the basic concept. However, he was short on parts and other materials.

“What’ll I do?”

And then it suddenly came to him. I can’t do this in reality. But in a dream, I’m sure I could—

Did I complete it?!

At some point, Cornet had begun squeezing his hand into a fist. He turned around.

Françoise was standing there.

“You—you’re the one I built, aren’t you?” he asked.

“That is correct, sir.”

“Okay. I need you to go to Doc Chavez and—”

He proceeded to give her a list of things he wanted.

“Understood,” Françoise said with a bow, and then she started to walk away.

“Wait.”

“Huh?”

When she turned to look back, an iron screw struck her forehead, making a long noise. Swiftly catching it before it could fall, the android inquired, “What is it, sir?”

“Nothing. I’m counting on you.” And saying that, Cornet sent her on her way.

“Pretty screwed up, isn’t it?” Valen murmured sadly as he looked up at the moon.

“You can say that again. Getting called out to this godforsaken place at this hour,” Lascaux replied. His bandages were so thick that through his coat it looked like he was wearing a stomach band. Rubbing his belly wound, he continued, “Think maybe that son of a bitch is a little full of himself because he’s one of the intelligentsia? Bastard looks down on us, thinking all we’re good for is fighting.”

Another man, Mask, was quietly slumped back in the saddle, but out of the blue he asked, “What’s the story with Ringard?”

“Probably still in the bar hitting on some woman,” Lascaux spat. “He’ll have no one to blame but himself if they dock his pay. But what the hell’s the Professor playing at—or more to the point, what the hell’s he gone and done?”

What Lascaux was driving at was this: it was around noontime that they’d set out, having gotten an urgent message that their employer was headed up to the grand duke’s castle to stop D and that they should come as soon as they could. But the drawbridge wasn’t even down over the moat. As confused as that left them, they were contacted once again and told that he had business with the grand duke, and their orders were to wait there. The sun had set but still the Professor hadn’t returned, and before long, lights sparked in the castle windows, accompanied by the kind of commotion that suggested a ball. Once more word came from the Professor, telling them to head back to the hotel for a while and await further instructions. It was over an hour ago that he’d last made contact—telling them to come to a desolate area just southeast of the village.

“That’s one screwy castle, eh?” Lascaux said, looking to his two compatriots for agreement. “It’s bustling with music. I can hear laughter, too. The party’s in full swing. And still I don’t sense a single goddamned living thing.”

“That’s the Nobility for you. What are you gonna do about it?” Valen replied as he gazed down lovingly at his nails.

“Yeah, but still. I’ve seen Noble parties from a good distance off before, and ones with a hell of a lot fewer guests than that, but they seemed a lot more lively. They might be the living dead, but even that’s still got ‘living’ in it!”

“What the hell would we know about the Nobility? They look pretty much just like human beings. So they probably come in all kinds, just like human beings,” Valen clucked. “But all that aside, there’s something funny about the Professor. Didn’t you guys feel it? First when he told us to go back to the hotel, then again when he called us out here—the voice I heard through the communicator had a strength to it, like he was a completely different person from before!”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” asked Lascaux. His voice was soft and low, and his eyes had a strange glint to them as he stared at Valen.

“Do I have to spell it out for you? The Professor was off with the grand duke!”

An unsettling wind moved through the group, shrouding them in silence.

That was the moment. Mask sat up straight on his horse. The other two also turned to look in the direction his iron mask was pointed.

Blinding lights and a piercing engine roar were drawing nearer on the same road that’d brought them there.

Had the night breeze become an evil gale?

Repressing the killing lust that radiated from every inch of them, the trio faced their employer.