Chapter 73: Alucard (II)

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Her expression hardened, brimming with killing intent as her teeth grit together, revealing rows of sharp canines that gave her a beastly appearance.

"Oh? That's a good look you have there! Though I hope it isn't all just for show?" 

She fired off another set of rounds, each making direct contact with him as the atmosphere seemed to crack in the wake of her bullets. 

But her expression showed no signs of relief, quickly repositioning her guns upon seeing Takauji's body turn into a puff of black smoke, managing to aim at the real him in a matter of moments. 

"I see, your Darkness is awfully strong, strong enough to make you near-immune to my illusions." 

He brought out one of his Sayafushi copies from [Vacio], blocking her shots with his blade and moving in to close the distance. 

She didn't hesitate to toss aside her guns, bringing out what looked to be a longsword and meeting the swing of his blade head-on. 

"Hmm. My [Phantom Blade] doesn't work on you either, maybe it's more than just your innate prowess that's protecting you from my illusions?" 

He continued to trade blows with her, his mind racing to figure out what abilities the Vampire in front of him had as they fought. 

And then he noticed it. 

"I get it now! It's your eyes! Your eyes are capable of seeing through my illusions aren't they? I doubt those other Vampires are capable of such a thing." 

He chuckled as he started to wrap both his body and blade in [Touki], surprising her as she felt her strength suddenly become completely and utterly overpowered. 

"Let's see just how strong that regeneration of yours really is." 

In one swift motion, he cleaved her blade in two, lodging it into her neck and decapitating her in a similar way he did Kokabiel all that time ago. 

"You really are something else! To call you a Vampire would be an insult to your strength, just what are you exactly?" Some sort of red energy seeped out of her neck, reconstructing her head like it was nothing. 

"Figure that out on your own." 

Two bright red pentagrams lit up on the back of her white gloves, the terrain around them becoming encompassed in a thick fog that seeked to dilute Takauji's senses as much as possible. 

"Well that wasn't very nice." He looked down, noticing her longsword having been embedded right through his abdomen. "You can even reconstruct your weapons, what a versatile woman you are." 

As his strength still overpowered hers, Takauji was able to grab the blade with his hands and forcibly pull it out. The Vampire shocked to see his torso regenerate with ease. 

"I'm also pretty good at regenerating, although my ability is still a far cry from yours. If you had gone for my heart I would've died you know?" 

He spun around, his foot crashing into her ribcage as she failed to block it with her sword, being sent flying into the distance with a thud. 

"You probably still have plenty of abilities to show me don't you? Don't worry, I'll get rid of each of them one by one until you've shown me everything." 

A ring of [Rotted Flames] shot out from his body in all directions, eating the fog around him as if it were a mere snack. 

"There we go, now then, what's next?" 

"The Dragons I met weren't nearly as insistent on yapping as you are." 

"Haha, sorry about that. Opponents like you are getting increasingly harder and harder to find, so I get excited when I do happen to stumble across them." 

Takauji disappeared through using [Vanishing Step], the Vampire hurriedly scanning her surroundings to try and predict where he'd appear next. 

"I mean, there is still a way for you to use that fog." She felt a faint pressure on her back, beyond shocked to feel him leaning against her in the midst of their battle. "If you apply it to your bullets themselves, then not only will their trajectory be almost impossible to read, but I won't be able to cancel it as easily as I just did." 

"Just drop dead already," she clicked her tongue. 

A mass of darkness started to seep out of her shoulder, creating the head of what looked to be a demonic black dog, riddled with red eyes all over its body. 

"You even have the ability to summon? I wish I could do that." 

It tried to bite Takauji's head clean off, but his speed was still far too much for her to match. Enabling to evade with minimal effort. 

"It's strange though, for a Vampire of your strength your physical prowess is awfully lacking." He scratched his chin while observing her. "Do you have it sealed or something?" 

"Well aren't you an observant little lizard?" 

"Hey! The l-word is going too far!" He pouted. 

She took a deep breath, positioning her hands together and reciting some sort of incantation. 

"Releasing Control Art Restriction System to Level Three, Level Two, Level One. Situation A. The Cromwell approval is now in effect. Hold release until target is silenced." 

"That's more like it." 

Her white attire coated itself in a thick blanket of darkness, eyes appearing all over her similar to her demonic hound. 

The already existing hound on her shoulder began to multiply, detaching themselves from her body and forming a perimeter around him, all equally as strong as the original. 

Each of them howled, flaring their teeth at him with ever growing furiosity. 

"Well, I make it a practice to reveal my ultimate when my opponent does the same, so here goes nothing I suppose." 

[Chakra] rapidly started to flow into Takauji's body, his hair turning pitch-black instead of golden, and the color of his eyes morphing into a light-blue. 

He had already entered [Draconic Sage Mode]. 

Spheres of blood started to gather around the heads of each of the hounds, spinning at a rapid pace as their volume quickly increased. 

"[Blood Manipulation] as well? I guess that is pretty Vampireish." 

He inhaled sharply, all four of his eyes working to track the trajectories of the dozen or so lines of blood piercing towards him. 

When he deemed the moment right, he swung upwards, able to block to parry the lines going for his chest and neck, but still sustaining injuries in his arms and thighs. 

Nothing some regeneration couldn't fix. 

"You're annoyingly persistent." 

"I've got quite a few people vying to kill me, it's only natural that I'm able to take a few hits." 

"I can sympathize with them." 

Takauji infused his sword with his [Rotted Flame], bringing out his [Umbral Rope] in its close quarters form on top of it to ensure maximum efficiency. 

Her hounds started to lunge at him from all directions, intent on wearing him down as much as possible before he had a chance to reach her. 

It was important he defeated them as quickly as possible, [Draconic Sage Mode] had a time limit of about 2 minutes and some change. Taking the Vampire's regeneration into account he needed to make full use of those precious minutes if he wanted to win. 

His brain made use of all its processing power, creating a path for him in between the hounds that would allow him to evade and attack as he pleased. 

There were thirteen hounds, and with the way she had positioned them he'd need to use one [Vanishing Step] for each of them if he wanted to kill them as quickly as possible, and without sustaining any damage. 

So that's exactly what he did. 

Shocked, was understatement as to what she was feeling. He had basically performed a blade dance as he continuously appeared and disappeared around each of her hounds, cleaving them with his immensely sharp edge. 

But even though he hadn't taken any damage, she could tell his stamina had taken a great hit, his breath evidently labored alongside the heaving of his chest. 

It was an inevitable result of red-lining his brain, using so many [Vanishing Steps] in the span of a second, and having [Draconic Sage Mode] active on top of that. 

She smiled, in his current state she would be able to get the one-up on him in close combat. A sword through his chest or head, and that would be the end of it. 

"You're probably thinking I'm about to close the distance aren't you?" 

He switched [Umbral Rope] into its ranged mode, planting his blade square in her chest before she could even process what he was about to do. 

But after a moment of shock, she snickered. So what if he had stabbed her? She could regenerate such a measly wound like it was nothing.

"Good grief, you're jumping to conclusions again." 

Black flames started to ignite across the rope, engulfing her in a sea of [Rotted Flames] as she felt her Mana being eaten directly from the source. 

She fell onto her back, writhing in pain as her body went through a torturous cycle of regeneration and destruction, the pentagrams on the back of her gloves losing their light as she struggled to maintain control over her power.

"Relax, you're not going to die here." He walked over to her, absorbing the flames back into his hand once he had deemed she was weakened enough to converse with. "You're already aware that I wasn't the one who did this aren't you?" 

He found it strange, for someone so convinced that he had killed her masters his [Delusion] wasn't doing very much to her. 

"You attacked me out of frustration right? I don't really know anything about you so I won't pretend to understand, but I can comprehend your despair at the very least." 

Her silence was enough of an answer. 

"Do you really have nothing left?" 

She nodded in a painfully slow fashion, her eyes almost looking as lifeless as when Takauji had first encountered her body. 

"Then you are without purpose, that must be painful." He looked around the wasteland for a moment. "You mentioned having a master, what is a Vampire of your strength doing serving another? Not to mention that you said they were humans of all people." 

"My existence has no direction without a master," she finally spoke. "I can't even release all of my restrictions without one, my masters were indeed human, but their lives were led with more purpose than anyone else. Their purpose gave me hope, I am not like you Dragons. I cannot be content with simply roaming as I please."

"You like humans?" 

"I adore them." 

He hummed, not sure what to do with her. 

"I was a human once." Her eyes widened a little, looking at him in disbelief. "I also fought a group who believed themselves to be more human than the rest, but alas, their mindset was naught but a delusion. Therefore I cannot understand the fondness for humanity that you hold." 

He knelt down, making eye contact with her and deactivating his [Draconic Sage Mode].

"Humanity is hope for you, but to me they are just potential. With that said, I won't ridicule you for your opinion of them, I don't know what experiences led you to it after all. However, there is one thing I feel obligated to ask you. What now?" 

That was a good question. Her masters were dead, and with them her purpose. So what was left for her? 

"Will you go searching for a new group of humans to pledge yourself to?" 

"No humans like the Hellsings exist, that much I am sure of." 

"Really? You were asleep for quite some time by the looks of things, maybe there is another batch like them somewhere out there." 

"There isn't, do not question my certainty any further." she insisted. "Now hurry up and kill me, I do not wish to gaze upon this wasteland any longer." 

"And if I refuse?" 

"Then I will return to my slumber, what else is there for me to do?" 

"I mean, you could serve me." He suggested much to her bewilderment. "But I'm not entirely sure if that's a good idea, serving me and serving a human are completely different things. I doubt you'll find the same purpose you were hoping to find." 

"Me—serve a Dragon?" She repeated as if the idea were outlandish. 

"Mhm, as a Vampire you're able to increase your strength merely through absorbing my blood, and the stronger I get the stronger I imagine that effect will become, therefore I see a great deal of value in nurturing you. However I won't force you, like I said, I cannot give you what humanity can." 

"You said you were human once, elaborate." 

"Oh boy, where do I even begin?" 

He did his best to explain his first transformation and then his second with as few words as possible, but the process still took a good amount of time to go through. The Vampire's expression grew more and more astounded with every word that left his mouth. 

"I see, you relinquished your humanity and turned yourself into a monster." 

"If that's how you want to put it," he took no offense. 

"I was the same, some millenia ago I was betrayed by my people and captured by the enemy. I seeked to defy, to spite them in my last moments, leading me to drink the blood of the fallen soldiers on the battlefield before they beheaded me." She raised her hands to her face. "But after the axe came down, I lived on. My body refused to accept the death it was given, and insisted on continuing. Turning me into this." 

"I didn't know you could turn into Vampire that way, interesting." 

"You can't, people tried to replicate my actions back then, but it did nothing for them. I am the only one who was cursed this way, my existence is a punishment from God himself for my transgressions. Of that I am certain." 

"God? The Biblical one?" 

"Who else would I be talking about?" 

Takauji chuckled. 

"He's dead." 

She blinked repeatedly, confident that she had misheard him.

"What?" 

"He died a few centuries ago during a war, one of his Seraphs assumed command of Heaven." 

"You're not lying…" 

"Why would I lie about such a thing? There's no merit in it for me." 

"The one who cursed me is dead—but I am still alive. How laughable." She breathed an exhausted sigh. "How laughable indeed." 

"With that cleared up let me ask you once more, what now?" 

She looked at him with a slightly calmer gaze.

"What purpose could serving you give me? If not the hope humanity offered me?" 

"How should I know? The only other being that has a bond as close to me as the one you're looking for is my sword, its purpose is to cut everything in sight." The pact the Vampire was seeking was far, far more concrete then the one he had formed with Raynare back at the abandoned church. It wasn't something he could just remove whenever he pleased. 

"You're not doing a very good job of convincing me, Dragon." 

"I'm not trying to convince you, I'm trying to give you an option other than eternal solitude. That's it." 

"Indeed, I have slept for longer than I would've liked." She smiled faintly. "Oh well, it's not like there's anything else left for me. If you'll have me, then I'll be your servant." 

"And I'll be your master if you're fine with that." 

She gently grabbed his hand, bringing it to her mouth and kissing the back of it, Takauji feeling a faint burning sensation as a pentagram similar to hers formed on his skin, alongside a sea of information being poured into his brain.

"That is my final restriction, it can only be lifted if both you and I consent to it at the same time. Master." 

"I see, also you can just call me Pandora or Takauji if you want. Whichever you like." 

"Pandora it is then." 

"And what about you? What's your name?" 

"I have many." 

"And which do you like the most?" 

"My masters called me Alucard." 

"Alucard it is then." They both smiled. "Now let's get you out of this dump."