Crude crunching could be heard along with a weird sloshing sound. The drops of red falling down Hāto's cheeks had turned into a steady flow.
His body stood frozen in place not by terror, that was an emotion he was yet to feel. He stood utterly stunned by confusion. His brain was reacting all to slow to process what was going on.
Atop the roof of the gas station was a man. He had bloodred eyes and sat crouched on top the roof, cradled in his arms were the mangled remains of a person. Bones had broken with every limb twisted in an unnatural position that was sure to have delivered maximum pain to the victim before their death. Yes, she were dead. Her glassy eyes reflected no light.
The man licked the blood off a severed arm and threw it down. A look of disappointing radiated in his eyes as the arm landed with a thud.
"She was so beautiful but in the end she reeks of alcohol and smokes."
"You should know better than to toy with your food, Perrin."
A similarly inhuman woman struck the young man on the head. A childish grin spreading across his face.
"Ok,ok. Galiene."
The woman sported a similar look to the man. The dark cloaks shrouding their bloodred eyes, the cold indifference the man felt to feasting off human blood made it plane as day. They were vampires, true vampires.
Hāto was still reeling from the shock when the Johan tossed corpse of his mother down like a rag doll.
Mom?
Hāto felt whatever semblance of humanity he struggled to hold onto vanished in those finally moments. A wry grin spread across his face and for a second his eyes seemed even brighter.
"...you... I'll..."
His lips moved as he muttered something incomprehensible. It didn't seem like it was going to stop any time soon.
Not long after, the man on the roof finally took note of him. His lips curved into a sadistic smile.
"Say, Galiene. I can have this one right?"
The lady spared the man a perplexed look and sighed.
"Geez. Help yourself."
In an instant there was a burst of momentum as the man lunged from the roof onto Hāto. Time seemed to stop as the man sunk his fangs into him but then the unexpected happened.
"I'll kill you!"
He furiously bit the man back with every ounce of strength he could muster. Hāto's teeth draw blood from the Johan as he did from him.
The vampire on the roof turned her back to let Johan have his way but in the next second she heard a dull thud.
Below her Hāto's fist landed a devastating blow on Johan's face sending him flying into the fuel dispenser. The shape of the machine instantly warped as Johan crashed into it as did his nose and face, they were all crushed beyond recognition but were already starting to heal.
Hāto stood a short distance from Johan, his hand was brutal disfigured with his every finger broken, the flesh in his arm had practically exploded from the impact with thin cracks spreading across his bone that barely held together.
Johan rose up from the rubble with a confused look, his face had already healed.
"Well that was unexpect..."
He watched speechless as Hāto's hand mended itself. His fingers straighten out and his flesh came together before being covered by skin, all in one rapid motion. It only took mere seconds from start to finish.
Hāto's once orange eyes had turned bloodred and held murderous intent.
"I'll kill you."
Hāto lunged forward with his hands bawled into a fist and so did Johan. Their punches both landed simultaneously delivering a crushing force to each of their skulls. Thrown back by the force of the attack they both paused momentarily. Before too long Johan recovered from the blow but Hāto took one step after another backward. He was reeling from the force of the blow and struggling with a concussion.
Hāto trotted backwards for more than a few seconds before finally coming to a halt. The sclera of his eyes had turned from white to black with crimson lines streaking out of them onto the skin of his face as he cried tears of blood.
Johan froze in shock after witnessing his gruesome transformation.
Just what the hell is this kid?
Once more, Hāto slowly walked forward. His breath could be visibly seen as it escaped his mouth and the air around his seemed to ripple as a haze of heat surrounded his body.
Soon after a deafening cacophony resonated as they each landed a barrage of punches on each other.
Drawn by the odious sound, Galiene caught sight of Johan battling...
Another vampire? Only the half-blood is supposed to be here.
Galiene's though wandered for a second before she composure herself and narrowed her eyes on Hāto.
" By the crackling veins of the tempest's wrath, I invoke thee, O electric fury! From the blackened skies— "
She stretched out her hand and in front of it a runic circle spun itself into existence on thin air glowing ever brighter by the second but then just before it could reach a critical point the vampire watched a single tiny snowflake hit her then the world went mute.
Galiene felt like she was looking through a lens, and she was. It felt cold, unusually cold even for winter. There was no air either. She simply stood still encased in ice.
Out in the distance on the roof of a building, Sapphira stood like a majestic goddess. Her hair fluttered in the wind and her eyes glowed. Her body was covered crimson armor and in her hand was a spear. The colour of the lance was that of blood radiating a palpitating feeling of dread. Tapering towards the tip of the lance were two serpents coiled around it's shaft littered with runes and a pair of wings that guided a heavy crystal blade like an array. It looked less like a spear and more like a demonic sword with an extremely long hilt.
Sapphira was the one responsible for covering the roof of the gas station along with Galiene into a towering mass of ice. She had succeed in halting whatever spell she had been trying to cast and even managed to contain her for the time being. Things were looking good, but were they?
Down on the ground a fog loomed. Hāto was still standing, albeit barely. One of his hands had been severed from the shoulder and was regenerating slower than it was supposed to. Then from fog, Johan emerged, his sadistic smile was even more pronounced and in his hand was a bloodred flamberge. The wavy blade of the snake-like sword was responsible for severing Hāto's arm and most likely the reason it wasn't healing quickly.
"You know you're really something. For one thing, you don't taste like a human but then again I guess you aren't anymore. You turned into a vampire by consuming my blood and then just how did you manage to adapt to a stage of full release so quickly? It just doesn't make sense. Humans don't just give up their humanity so quickly. Unless..."
Before Johan could finish Sapphira's lance flew at sonic speed before biting into his chest impaling his heart and them anchoring him to the ground. His face twisted in agony as he saw the weapon that had pierced him.
"K-kery-ke-ion?"
That was the name of the divine lance. Kerykeion.
Before Johan could do anything his body started to disintegrate into ash.
Sapphira glided down with the help of the wind and turned to Hāto then her face went pale the moment she saw his ghastly appearance. Eventually she turned to Johan and grit her teeth.
"You wretched half-blood!"
They both bore witness to Johan slowly crumbled to ash and watched as even his ash scattered into the wind.
Sapphira spared one last glance at Hāto and saw his once orange eyes that had turned red and hollow. She suppressed the desire to talk to him, after all what was there to say.
Hāto's arm was already halfway healed and he wasn't going to die anything soon. The thought of that at least brought some solace to Sapphira.
She hurriedly picked up her lance, after all there was still one more enemy. Their battle was no where near over.
As if in affirmation to Sapphira's thought, several cracks spread across the pillar of ice holding Galiene before it finally exploded.
From the ice coffin emerged an infernal demon with black eyes and bloodred pupils burning with rage. In her hand was a blade little different from Johan's. It was also the colour of blood but had a blade with a jagged edge much like a maniacal saw. Her descent downward was coupled with a swing of her sword at Sapphira who swiftly parried with the shaft of her lance.
Brilliant sparks of light danced as their weapons clashed resonating a deafening clangor. The proficiency of their skill made their battle seem like art. The art of a deadly dance steeped in bloodlust.
As Hāto stood lifelessly devoid of hope, Sapphira and Galiene clashed with fervour. Galiene appeared to be slowly winning as numerous cuts began to breach Sapphira's armor but at the same time she was losing. Her attacks were laced with rage at the death of her partner and that made her predictable. Just as she was about to bring down her sword, Kerykeion glided down and severed her arm from the shoulder. At the same time it made a diagonal cut down her torso,one not so deep as to be fatal for a vampire, but Kerykeion wasn't a normal weapon.
Sapphira swung her lance once more and was about to completely behead the Galiene when the woman grabbed her sword from her falling hand and blocked the devastating blow at the last second. Despite protecting her head, she was still blasted away by the force and was flung several meters away. Her wounds were going to be the end of her so Sapphira saw no use in going any further.
She could see Hāto standing in front of a pool of blood with the corpse of a woman in sight. Even without knowing much, Sapphira could tell who the deal person was to Hāto. There was no scream or tears. In place of those were silence and cold indifference in his eyes.
Sapphira walked over to him and stood behind him not knowing what to do. The situation was most likely her fault but nothing could be done. And Sapphira highly doubted Hāto wanted an apology.
"Sapphira."
"Um?"
The half-blood vampire felt startled at the fact that Hāto called her name. She couldn't help but wonder if he was going to blame her for his misery.
"What look do I have on my face right now?"
Sapphira watched Hāto face her with hollow eyes and a wry grin on his face. It was an expression wrongness, a mix of pleasure and pain.
"Hāto..."
Standing face to face with the consequences of her actions, Sapphira couldn't help but despair.
"This is all my fault."
Even then she didn't apologize. That would be like twisting the knife even further.
"You half-blood!"
Galiene dragged her quickly disintegrating body across the ground cursing as she fell apart by the second.
At which point even Sapphira found it difficult to ignore her.
"You just don't know when to give up, do you?"
"If I'm going to die then I'm sure as hell going to drag you both with me."
"Why you!"
Sapphira readied her weapon in defense of whatever last-ditch attack was going to come but then Galiene smiled.
"IGNIS!"
Galiene's lips moved and a second later everything turned white. From outer space it looked as if a tiny spec of light flickered. Down below a devastating explosion erupted with a blast radius more than a hundred kilometers and a dust cloud several times higher. In that singular moment, Japan was no more.