There was a woman in black standing atop a hill.
Summer. Early afternoon. Three days had passed since the end of the conflict that shook the world—the Six Nations War.
Crimson Lord Terakomari Gandesblood had saved this city from being overrun by the Warblades. Other towns in the Dark Core Zone had no such luck.
The war was over. No citizens had lost their life here. It was all thanks to Terakomari Gandesblood. The vampire princess had saved countless people all around the world.
The girl wished to become like her. Perhaps saving lives would be difficult, but at least she could visit places and help people out.
After her parents gave her the okay to go outside, she hurried bravely to her secret base. The place that showed her what dreams were made of. A hill on the outskirts of the city.
Once every few years, a strange phenomenon called "netherscreening" would occur in this city, in which images from another realm showed up on a screen in the sky.
Yes, another world. The ends of a land separate from her own, the place she wanted to visit most.
The girl had become obsessed with the other realm after seeing the netherscreening some years back. It was an unknown land no one had ever been to before, an entirely different place from the world she lived in. She thought it would make the perfect destination.
So she'd make a secret base atop the hill from where she could see the other realm's landscape. She couldn't see the netherscreening all the time. People said it mostly happened every few years, after natural disasters. Nevertheless, she would walk to her base frequently, cradling the faint hope she might just see it again.
And on that day, she found a stranger. A tall woman, clad in long, black sleeves despite the summer heat. She looked as though the sunlight might cook her alive. Like she'd just stepped out of a painting depicting hell.
"I'd only came here because they said it's the place closest to the Netherworld."
She appeared to have noticed the girl.
The woman didn't look like a tourist.
"Not today, huh? Is there some other requirement?"
"A storm."
The woman turned around and stared straight at the girl. Her eyes looked like they had been plucked from a corpse.
The girl flinched but continued explaining.
"You can see it when there's a storm. I've only seen it once, though…"
"You sound knowledgeable. Do you want to go to the Netherworld or something?"
"Is that what it's called? That upside-down town…"
"Yeah. I've been there."
The girl's heart fluttered. This was the first time she'd ever met someone who had been to the town in the sky. She gleefully asked what it was like, and the woman in black smiled as she told her everything.
About the countries of the Netherworld. The peoples found there. Its landscapes. And she also told the girl a lot about this world. All about the world outside, the places she hadn't seen. Just listening to the woman made her soul take flight.
She must've been a politician. A minister would have to know all about this stuff.
"You're so pure. Filled with hopes and dreams. You're the kind of person to see a willow leaf on the ground and think it's gold... But I like genuine people like you."
"? Tell me more about the world outside Frezier!"
"Sorry, but I'm out of time. I'm busy."
It was such a shame. But she couldn't keep her there forever.
"Come back again." The girl waved as she watched the woman go. "Bye." The woman waved back with a smile. But then she stopped and said:
"My country's philosophers blather on about karma and the mills of God grinding slowly. They need to think that their efforts will pay off."
"Huh…? What are you talking about?"
"But that's a foolish mistake. No God is watching over us. Otherwise a villain like me wouldn't able to go out in broad daylight. The only things watching over us are the merciless evening stars."
The next thing the girl knew, the woman in black was standing right before her eyes.
She couldn't move. It was like she was trapped in a spider web.
The woman threw down her cigarette and stomped on it.
"All this about cutting and polishing. I'll show them what happens when you stray from the path of heaven they all talk so much about. I've come all the way here, so I deserve a souvenir."
The sun darkened.
Slowly, the woman reached for the girl.
Come to think of it, this might've been her last memory.
***
It was the Wicked God Slayer who saved the girl from dying in a back alley.
She was beyond repair. The girl had nowhere to go, so the Wicked God Slayer took her in.
Inverse Moon became her home.
The Lunae were friendly, too. Perhaps her lack of blunders paid off. Even Kakumei Amatsu, who had a reputation for being ruthless inside the organization, committed her name to memory. She enjoyed talking with Lonne Cornelius about her research.
Her life after Spica La Gemini took her in was fulfilling.
Which was exactly why she was filled with rage after Terakomari Gandesblood destroyed Inverse Moon.
"She will pay."
The vampire riots sent the members of Inverse Moon scattering to the winds.
She had just barely escaped from the clutches of the government. But so what? She didn't know where Spica or the Lunae were. The organization where she'd found a home was gone.
She had to kill that vampire.
But she didn't think she was enough to beat her in a fight.
She needed a plan.
"Any problems?"
The Correspondence Crystal glowed as a voice echoed from it, like a wind in a graveyard.
The girl tightened her grip on it and answered:
"No. But I don't understand the meaning of this."
"It's an experiment to kill your spirit. The world is formed from your will. Everything is, fundamentally human spirit. and if you can destroy it artificially, that basically makes you the ruler of the world, don't you think? It is sacrilege— breaking through the barrier between man and heaven."
"...I don't really get it." The girl suppressed the emotion surging inside her. "But you'll tell me where Lady Spica is once I do this, right?"
"Society can't work without some faith. You think a Ruist such as myself would break a promise?"
"…"
Shivers ran down her spine at the sound of that voice, which was like a grim reaper's.
The girl had already been gathering information on this woman as a spy from Inverse Moon.
Luna Tryphon Cross had forced her to do so. She hadn't been on board at first, but the target's country had a lot of what she wanted—a great variety of medical recipes. After convincing herself that it wasn't all bad, the girl accepted. This had transpired in the fall of last year.
However, her target knew about her. At first, the woman pretended to be clueless, but after Inverse Moon fell following the vampire riots, she showed her true nature and made a proposition.
"If you want intel on Spica La Gemini, come and be my chambermaid."
The girl couldn't go against her.
She would have rather been dead than be this creepy woman's pawn, and yet…
The woman treated the girl like a tool. She didn't seem to think of anyone else as human. She was nothing like Spica, who was so kind to her subordinates.
"... You better make good on your promise."
"There's no need to emphasize. And besides…this trip might be worth your while. You might achieve your other goal while you're there."
"Huh?"
"Terakomari. You don't like her, do you?"
"...!"
Terakomari Gandesblood.
The evil vampire who'd ruined her life.
The woman on the other side of the crystal snickered. The girl knew everything that the woman had on her mind—but it didn't matter. She didn't have the freedom to choose to save herself.
The girl asked for details, and the woman laughed before replying.
"Terakomari Gandesblood is coming."
Her hour of vengeance was at hand.