It was Sofya who pulled me into the Shadows this time. Rats poured out of everything that could even resemble a door. Easily a hundred Guard Rats had started manning the defenses, and it was likely a hundred more could pour in as reinforcements at any moment.
"Do you need more magic?" She hastily asked.
"W-What about you? You're looking a bit paler than-"
"You are the one who said that survival came first. So survival comes first. Drink!" She demanded as she wrapped her hands around my head and into her neck.
"BATTALION AT THE READY! YOU WILL DEFEND YOUR NEW HOME! NO MATTER THE COST! THIS IS OUR HOME AND WE WILL NOT LET THE VAMPIRE DEGENERATES TAKE IT BACK!" A Sergeant echoed as again we fled into the Shadows.
From underneath a table we emerged, paper spilling from the edges as a single Rat hurriedly crammed papers into a bag.
Sofya placed a finger to her lips for me to be silent, "I'll take care of him."
She stuffed the knife she'd been holding behind her back before slipping her way up towards the Rat.
The Rat Scholar turned and panicked into a whimpering frenzy away from Nora and into a bookshelf that collapsed backwards.
"L-L-Lady Sofya! I-I-Why are you here!"
"Oh… you know," Sofya said with manipulative nonchalance, "I was just looking around."
"T-The doors locked! H-How could-"
"Why don't you explain first, Minovyk?" Sofya asked, sliding the knife into position right near the Scholar's neck. The Scholar squeaked in terror, his eyes entirely transfixed on the glinting blade. He gasped and panted in horror, barely able to get a single vowel from his lips.
Then, he closed his eyes and stammered out "T-T-They're here! The Vampires are back!"
"I know."
"T-They're here! They've come to retake this place! They've already silenced the Gate Bell a-and- You know?"
"Of course I know."
"T-Then we need to use the prisoner! W-We can bargain with a-a-a-all of this research… a-a-a-and that Test Subject! W-We'll still be able to survive-"
It was then that I emerged from under the desk, the Scholar's eyes tracking me wide as I dwarfed him.
"H-H-How did… WE'RE PARTNER-"
Sofya leveled the blade against his lips to silence him.
"Don't squeal now. You know what my husband would do if he found any of us doing what we were doing."
"You're a traitor." The scholar snarled.
"Everyone here's a fucking traitor, Minovyk. We all belonged to Igrin, the Emperor-to-be and a traitor to the Five. And now we all belong to Ikari, who's betrayed Igrin's vision to side with the Five. Who's right, who's wrong, who fucking cares! The only thing I knew was that at least Igrin knew how to get people on his side!"
"Sofya." I said as I placed my hand on her shoulder.
Sofya's grasp on the knife weakened as she used her other hand to hold onto mine.
She stared back up at me.
"What should we do with him?" she asked.
I thought for a moment.
"What's all this research you talked about?"
Something in Minovyk's eyes lit up.
"These are all the notes Lord Ikari scrawls down in his spare time. The progress of the future! A world so far ahead of our own that it boggles the mind! Sadly his world never had magic, and apparently there are only humans in it? Bah, I'm surprised that they've failed to establish a world government-"
"And this is relevant… how?"
"T-T-This is the future! 500 years of our future, all written out here! 500 years that we can prepare for!"
"His world- No, my world doesn't have magic. Has Ikari figured that out?"
"Ah- Erhhh… Well he seems quite satisfied with the Erasmir model of magic, provided with his own alterations."
"Has he talked about kQq/r^2?"
"The fuck are you talking about?"
My eyes narrowed.
"We'll take your research." I said.
"OH THANK YOU! THANK YOU MY LORD VAMPIRE! Y-YOU WILL NOT REGRET-"
"Not you. Sofya, I'll pack some bags, make sure he stays quiet."
Sofya pressed the blade to Minovyk's throat.
Minovyk's jaw stammered before it clenched its way shut.
"You're doing this for him?"
"We all want to live, Minovyk."
"Yeah, and what happens afterwards? You'll eat out of any hand in front of you. You can't be loyal, and that Chivalrous Vampire is too stupid to see it."
"That's why we'll never be better than them."
"Better? Better? Hah! How many Vampires are there compared to Rats? We can take them, and that stupid little castle so easily! Lord Ikari has given us weapons of the future! There's no way we can lose!"
"We'll lose. We have no unity, no common ground other than our hatred. I see it, in every single court, in every single shack. We say that we're together, when we're far from it."
"You're a Bitch," Minovyk spat through gritted teeth, "A power-hungry Bitch who's just chosen the wrong side!"
"Chosen?" Sofya clenched the knife so hard her grip, her shoulders, her everything trembled in fury, "WHAT CHOICE HAVE I EVER BEEN ALLOWED TO MAKE IN MY ENTIRE LIFE!"
I heard Minovyk squeal behind me as Sofya stabbed him. I turned to see her stabbing him again and again and again until all of us had lost count. I rushed over to her as blood soaked the scholar's tunic and onto the papers beneath him before he too collapsed into them.
Sofya toppled to her knees into the growing red pool, her quaking hands dropping the knife. It bounced and clanged off the floor.
"What Choice…" She spat through the tears that poured from her eyes, "WHAT CHOICE HAVE I EVER HAD!"
"IS SOMEONE IN THERE!" A Guard shouted from outside.
I turned to see the door lock rattle.
"Locked? FEAR NOT I'M COMING!" The Guard Rat said before putting his full weight against the door. It only took him three tries before he barged in to see the dead Scholar and the paper-stuffed bags I'd left behind.
This time we fell into a bed, a rich and luxurious bed that bounced us up in the air twice before we actually made the landing. I finally felt a tiny amount of relaxation for the first time in… How long had it been? Had I ever even felt relaxed even in my old world?
But Sofya was not relaxed. She was clenching, grasping at the fur coat she'd given me.
Her complexion was very pale by this point, and I feared that drinking from her once more would make her comatose.
"We can rest here, for now." I panted, "Gather our bearings."
"Why did you come here?"
I glanced down at Sofya who looked up at me with clenched teeth and teary eyes before she battered at my chest with her small hand.
"Why did you choose to come here! Why couldn't you have stayed in your Vampire Castle! Why couldn't you have just ignored me! Why did you choose to care about someone as pathetic as me!" She cried, her tiny fists tantruming at my chest.
I placed my hand on her head. She grabbed onto it, nuzzling against it as the tears flowed out.
My head fell back against one of the pillows in thought.
"I didn't choose to come here. I didn't choose to come anywhere like this. I always… followed the flow, because everyone else was better than me, stronger than me, smarter than me." I sighed. "And I got nothing from it. After all, I wasn't better than anyone, stronger than anyone, smarter than anyone. 'Shikataganai' and all that. But then… but then I killed Igrin."
I laughed to the roof above me. "Maybe that's so obvious. No shit, of course killing someone changes you, but I did something that no one else in that moment could do. I-I couldn't figure that out, doing something that extraordinary. Hertz took the glory for himself though. After all, he was my superior, so it made sense. But everyone else saw through it, saw that I was the one who did it, that I should've been the one to be rewarded. So I demanded it. Herzt locked me up for that, so I put my head down and did what he wanted me to do. So I came here with him."
I looked back down at Sofya, "I knew I needed someone else, someone else who might care enough to get me out of that bind. You just happened to come to my aid first."
Sofya wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me into a kiss.
"So you chose me, didn't you?" She smiled.
The door to the bedroom crashed open, and Ikari came in, frantic and panicking, his sword already drawn from combat. Blood stained his Princely clothing, riddled with gashes and stabs. He didn't even notice us on the bed as he locked all the bolts on the door before he barricaded it against his back and slid down.
It was only then that he saw us. He blinked, unable and uncaring as to everything that had led up to this moment.
It was all falling apart, the dream he'd so wished back in Japan, the opportunity of a lifetime provided by interdimensional fuckery. To finally have some kind of control and power over his life, the ability to tame the dogs beneath his feet, to have his beliefs finally realized. But what did that matter, no matter where you went, people were always the same.
He was smart, he was strong. But smarts and strength weren't enough, College had proven that much. You had to smile when the boss told you to, you had to drink when the boss told you to, you had to laugh when the boss told you to. All while looking the best you could ever look.
You had to be subservient to every whim the boss demanded, even when your fantasies come to life. The only way was to become the Boss. So, that's what he did. He had beaten the Rat Race that was Reality.
And this was how he was rewarded? With his Woman on top of the Enemy who had come back from the grave?
Ikari rose to his feet, his sword hand clenching the hilt with boiling vitriol.
"YOU TREASONOUS FUCKING WHORE!" He screamed as he charged us.
I clenched Sofya tight and rolled as fast as I could off the bed, Ikari's sword coming mere millimeters from where we had both been.
Ikari pounced on the bed, making it bounce as both of us scrambled beneath it.
The sword came straight down through the mattress, reflecting Sofya's terrified gaze.
I cradled her as fast as I could, and once again began casting Otherside Mirror. It didn't matter here, it just had to be-
The sword sliced through the mattress, exposing the both of us to the room's torchlight as Ikari kicked one half of the mattress into an eruption of feathers.
I had no choice.
I surged up through the opening, my gaunt fist aimed directly for his face. It hit, but it looked like it had hurt my hand more than it splattered against his cheek. Next thing I did while he was distracted was try to bite his sword hand so that he would drop it.
Instead, Ikari ripped my unkempt hair back, strands peeling out of my head as he cast me diagonally into the wall and off the bed.
In panic I righted myself in time to watch as Ikari jumped off the bed onto the wooden floor in his bloodstained boots. From under the bed, Sofya grabbed onto Ikari's thigh and gnawed into it with her teeth, but squealed as Ikari's other boot battered her back into the bed frame.
"Pathetic fucking Traitor."
"The only Traitor is you." Came a new voice.
Ikari turned towards the newcomer behind me before a sword sliced his head clean off.
Nora kicked and squealed as Ikari's head bounced away from her and his body crumpled forwards towards me.
I rolled out of Ikari's collapsing corpse into a kneeling position ready to rise to my feet against the newcomer.
"You don't need to kneel that quickly." King Vladimir said.