"What the hell are you? Vampire?"
Tokisaki Kurumi raised the old-fashioned rifle she held and pointed it at Lucius, who was sitting on the ground.
"As you can see." Lucius cracked his mouth open, revealing shark-like teeth, "One vampire is still surviving in the world at the end of this century! "
"That's really weird, I don't remember a vampire not dying after having his heart run through."
She was still able to talk freely in the face of Lucius, who had killed her twice.
"What about you, Tokisaki Kurumi? A spirit who has the power to control time, killed thousands of people, and came to this world because of a mistake? You were killed by me twice, and you're still standing there, aren't you?"
Lucius knew from the memories he had just sucked from his blood that the young girl in front of him was not a human, but an existence called a spirit.
Anyway, Lucius had always thought that this world really wasn't a world where ordinary people should live in. With vampires, werewolves, Espers, Exorcists, and now an additional spirit, maybe, after all, God really existed in this world.
"You…"
A look of surprise appeared on her face.
"Blood." Lucius's hands were stained with the not yet dried blood from Tokizaki Kurumi's 'corpse', "This thing tells me all about you. You're quite a fascinating creature, aren't you?"
"Yes?" Tokisaki Kurumi's smile was still relaxed, "I find Mr. Lucius more fascinating. Mr. Lucius, can you promise me about an arbitrary request?"
"To eat me?"
Lucius knew the source of Tokisaki's power, and that was devouring bodies. As a spirit, she had a limited amount of time. Only by devouring other humans could she have the power and the resource to keep herself alive.
"Ara*, I love talking to someone as smart as Lucius-san**."
She still couldn't comprehend what kind of being Lucius was. A vampire with a heart pierced through would never still be sitting here and being able to have a conversation like this. The wound on Lucius' chest had healed, with horrifying regeneration speed.
"Lucius-san looks delicious." Tokizaki Kurumi licked her lips as if she had forgotten that the man in front of her had killed her twice: "I would like to devour you. So, let's make a deal. You ate me once, and now it's my turn to eat you up."
A fair exchange? Indeed, there were thousands of lives within his own body, thousands of hours, a number that would continue to increase if Lucius wanted into thousands… hundreds of thousands…
He can.
"A vampire is a very greedy creature." Lucius looked at Tokisaki's tender neck, "You're the one looking delicious. I mean, your blood…"
At least this spirit with the body of a young girl in front of him, her blood taste was no weaker than the blood of a virgin. Maybe even much more delicious than that. But, what Lucius valued most was that the spirit before him couldn't die. She could resurrect again, no matter how much blood was drawn from her. That was the reason why Dead River couldn't absorb her.
Dead River would only absorb life that had already died. And he couldn't kill this spirit before him.
"A coincidence? What a mind-blowing coincidence." She loaded the rifle in her hand and narrowed her eyes at Lucius, "We both see each other as delicious mouth-watering food, isn't it? There's only one way to eat each other, then."
"Ah… Combat? Only the strong will win." Blood twisted around Lucius's hands.
The two predators collided with each other, and only the one with more power was qualified to use the other as food. There was a really strange resemblance between Lucius's smile and Tokisaki Kurumi's, both generally excited for the upcoming hunt. But just when the battle was on the verge of happening…
Boom!
A fierce explosion suddenly rang out outside the airport. Lucius could vaguely see through the windows of this room that a rushing flame suddenly emerged outside the airport, illuminating the dark night sky. In this airport, there was only one person who was able to do this, and that was the New Federation of China's A-rank Esper, Major Su Lei! Was he angry? Ah.. the Black Watch's massacre of civilians had stirred the hero's emotion.
"Looks like this isn't a good time to eat." Tokisaki Kurumi withdrew her gun and disarmed his spirit outfit.
"I hate being disturbed when I'm eating."
Lucius stood up, and all the bloodstains on his body disappeared under Lucius' control.
"Ara… We have a lot in common."
Tokisaki Kurumi's body gradually disappeared in front of Lucius.
"Then the next time we meet, I'll eat every bit of Lucius-san remains!"
"It's me who will drink all of your blood without a single drop left."
Lucius didn't think he would lose to the girl in front of him.
"Who knows." Tokisaki Kurumi completely disappeared in front of Lucius.
Spirits…what interesting creatures.
Lucius put on the Black Watch's gas mask and picked up his assault rifle and ran towards the door. Just now, new instructions were coming over from the Black Watch's radio.
"Attention all personnel, evacuate from the rear of the airport, don't get killed. Take the civilians with you, the professor's experiments require food."
Experiments? It's here after all? The real dark side of the New Federation of China. After meeting up with the Black Watch's team, Lucius evacuated from the passages at the back of the airport. The flames in front of the airport had become extremely violent. With Lucius's superb hearing, he could still clearly hear the conversation between the two Espers.
"Stop using your powers, Major Su Lei!"
"Is this…still can be called human? Mordell!"
"Humans? What does it take to be called human? Justice? Kindness? Mercy? Su Lei, humans, are complicated, you've probably saved thousands now, but millions are still dying. Or even the entire New Federation of China! Ditching those useless, troublesome civilians is the right thing to do now! You're a soldier, and soldiers should follow orders!"
"....."
The flames went out at that moment.
The entire night sky fell silent.
Lucius lurked within the Black Watch's troops. Observing everything around him.
This airport had been declared abandoned. New orders had been given to move to one of the military bases not far from Red Night City.
"Should I give some kind of counseling to a certain Major who felt lost?" Lucius felt that it was almost time do take some action.
Tl's note :
*Ara: Japanese words with the meaning of "Oh my…".
**-san: Honorific mention equivalent of Mr/Mrs.