Vampire Hunter D: Pale Fallen Angel Parts One and Two

by Pale Fallen Angel (Parts 1

  A hand swiped out from one side to snatch the girl away and toss her down on the stairs.

  Unable to even offer any protest, May stared up at the enormous arachnid. Its legs rustled with movement.

  Miska brought one hand up to the base of her throat. She was fighting back a scream.

  However, the creature’s legs stabilized in their new positions, and it moved no more.

  The two women let out long sighs in unison.

  “Hurry—let’s go.”

  May didn’t give the Noblewoman any argument, but got right to her feet.

  “Stupid human,” Miska spat, and then a tiny spider dropped down from the ceiling and landed on her shoulder. “What in the—?!”

  Put off balance by her frantic efforts to dislodge it, Miska brushed the gigantic spider’s torso with one hand. That alone probably wouldn’t have been enough to rouse the spider. But what Miska’s hand came in contact with was the handle of a broken spear that was still lodged in the spider’s body.

  The spider leapt up—it sprang a good fifteen feet in the air with that one bound. Changing direction in midair, it brought its mandibles together as it touched back down. And caught in their viselike grip was Miska’s torso.

  Reeling backward without saying a word, the Noblewoman struck the beast with her fist, but its steely jaws didn’t give an inch. Beneath them, a cavernous maw gaped blackly.

  May kicked off the ground, soaring like a swallow in flight. Landing on top of the spider, she used both hands to seize the same spear Miska had just hit, driving it inward as hard as she could.

  Now it was the spider’s turn to taste hellish pain. Loosing a screech that was like steel raked across glass, it pulled in its legs.

  As Miska fell to the ground, May shouted to her, “Run for it!”

  Two of the spider’s legs were dropping down at them from above. The monstrosity had hooked its limbs in directions they shouldn’t have been able to turn. Latching onto May and raising her up, the creature brought her toward its mouth.

  Miska didn’t get up. Bright blood was seeping from her waist.

  Out of the corner of her eye, May saw the black mandibles closing on her—and then they stopped abruptly.

  Suddenly freed, May’s body did a turn in midair before landing on the stairs.

  The spider was twitching. A figure in black suddenly stood on top of it.

  “D?!”

  May could tell for sure it wasn’t the liquefied D of a short while earlier, but rather the powerful Vampire Hunter she had known.

  As D stood there in his longcoat with his sword planted in the creature’s back, a whitish haze suddenly hid his form. The back of the spider had sent up thousands of threads. Changing direction in midair, they drifted down again, aiming directly for D. A number of strands adhered to the wall, which gave off white smoke and melted away. Apparently the threads had powerful adhesive and dissolving properties.

  “D!” May shouted, but her cry was effaced by a whistling roar. The sound of wind.

  Each and every one of the threads rose up, and a silvery flash shot through their base. May watched in amazement as the now-severed threads jumbled like thousands of white worms, spinning in a whirlwind as they vanished into the far reaches of space.

  Perhaps its strength was spent, for the tremendous spider slumped down on the stairs and moved no more. May thought the figure climbing down from its back looked like an angel in black. How beautiful his face was.

  “D—how did you get here?” the girl asked as she fought back tears.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I was under the impression you had run off all alone. But it would seem you’ve mistaken up for down,” Miska said as she remained lying there. Her white dress was stained with bright blood, and the skirt portion had been ripped when the spider’s mandibles released her, leaving her pale thighs exposed in all their breathtaking allure.

  D looked out into the cavernous gap in the tree. More specifically, he was looking at the same vine May had targeted for her jump.

  “So, you climbed that all the way up here. And you’re back to normal, I see,” Miska remarked. Apparently she, too, found this strange. As she concealed her lovely legs, she continued, “How did you change back?”

  Without reply, D extended his hand to Miska.

  “Don’t touch me!”

  “We don’t have any time. Look,” D said as he turned around. “The walls are melting.”

  The same power that had liquefied the staircase had now extended to the walls, and it seemed it would turn the whole titanic bole into water. D had been able to avoid that fate because, just as the sign over the door had said, the room below had been a storehouse for dirt and compost. In the room, D’s left hand had consumed earth, and then caused such a gust of wind that it lit up like a nuclear reactor. Earth, wind, fire, and water—all that remained was water, which D himself had become. The immortal energy his left hand created was easily able to return D to his former state, and going from a cable in that room to another rope, the Hunter had then gone from the rope to the vine, barely arriving in time to rescue the two women from danger.

  “Everything down below has most likely dissolved already. Even if we make it up higher, it will all change into water sooner or later. What shall we do?” Miska asked with apparent delight, as if she wanted to lay bare D’s dilemma.

  The Noblewoman found her body rising effortlessly into the air. D had scooped her up in his arms.

  “What are you doing?!”

  “We’re going up,” D said, adding, “You were saved by a little human girl. How did that feel?”

  A beastly growl started to rise from the depths of her throat, but Miska made no reply.

  __

  II

  __

  It was three hours later that they reached the top of the massive tree.

  As they’d climbed, they’d been set upon by one bizarre life form after another. Gaseous creatures that each consisted of a vortex of countless gold flecks, two-headed monster birds, gigantic lightning-generating cats—each and every one of these ended up a stain on D’s blade, although a surprise attack by baglike creatures that spewed toxic gas had felled Miska and May, so that when they finally did reach the tree’s summit, D was carrying both women on his back.

  The top of the tree had a domelike lid someone had constructed, yet it was still large enough to allow three or four people to pass at the same time. As the Hunter pushed the lid open, a cry of pain escaped Miska.

  The air was tinged with blue, and a watery light was spreading across the eastern sky, and the morning breezes tousled the hair of the trio. They were up more than three thousand feet. The rain had abated. Both the forest below and the distant hills and plains were still sunken in darkness.

  “We can’t go any higher,” Miska said from his back. Being a Noble, she was already recovering from the poisonous fumes.

  “In that case, we have no choice but to get down,” D said softly.

  “That’s fine for the two of us, but what about the girl?”

  “Are you concerned?”

  “Bite your tongue!” Miska replied, but as she did, she got the feeling she caught a bit of hoarse laughter. And it came from incredibly close at hand.

  D quickly stood at the very edge of the treetop. The lower portions—everything up to three feet below them—had been transformed to water, and the massive bole swayed unsteadily.

  “Grab hold of me,” said D.

  Apparently the whole purpose of climbing to the top of the tree was to get outside. However, while he and Miska could take a fall from a height of over three thousand feet, how would D ensure May’s safety?

  D threw himself over the edge. And the three of them dropped like a stone.

  The wind snarled in D’s ears as their velocity increased.

  “Quite a ride,” Miska remarked, one hand pressed to the cheek that faced east.

  Immortal member of the Nobility or not,
the woman still seemed to have nerves of steel. This was the kind of conversation only a Noble would engage in while whistling through the air.

  “We shall reach the ground soon. What will you do about the girl?”

  “Hold on tight,” the Hunter told her.

  The woods were drawing closer.

  Miska shut her eyes.

  The next instant, a terrific shock sent the trio flying upward.

  Shooting up through branches and leaves, they flew out of the forest, and then were pulled back down again. Miska heard the sound of a tree trunk snapping. One of her arms was wound around D’s neck, the other carried May like a bundle of firewood.

  At the very least, the force of the impact should’ve been enough to crush the life out of D a thousand times over. When they finally stopped bouncing up and down, the Hunter’s body listed to the right. They were falling in the same direction as the tree trunk—or so it seemed for a second—then D made a graceful turn and the trio landed on a bough in another massive tree.

  Catching her breath on D’s back, Miska then climbed down onto the branch.

  “What did you use?” she asked. As her field of view was filled by the tree trunk that’d been knocked over as all its branches were snapped, she continued, “Did you wrap something around that tree to stop us?”

  D raised his left hand. From it protruded the end of a thread so thin as to be almost invisible to the naked eye.

  “And what is that?”

  “The water harp.”

  Taking it in hand for closer scrutiny, the Noblewoman remarked, “This? Well, I warrant something like this wouldn’t break even from that velocity. You certainly take the most absurd chances, leaping from a height of three thousand feet.”

  As Miska looked back and forth between the thread and the gigantic tree, not knowing that the former had also been used to slice through the water-transforming Kenlark’s body, D told her, “The sun’s coming up. We’ll have to hurry back.”

  __

  It was two hours later that the carriages left the deserted village. Although the ground was still wet beneath an unbelievably clear sky, D surmised that since the enemy commander Galil had been dealt a harsh blow, the danger had passed for the time being. Their destination was the airfield to the north. By the time D returned with Miska and May, the pair from the arrival terminal was no longer there. The baron explained that they’d run off hale and hearty.

  That’s not to say the inhabitants of their village won’t come and attack us. The faster we can set out, the better, he urged D from inside his coffin.

  The village of Krauhausen was still a long way off, and a new foe had appeared, but as D sat on his horse, his eyes were cool and clear.

  Soon after passing through the village outskirts, they hit the main road. Up in the driver’s seat of the baron’s carriage, May had her face buried in Taki’s chest. The whole dramatic rescue of the past night had wrought serious damage on the girl, both physically and mentally. When May—as if waking from a nightmare—opened her eyes wide from her stupor, Taki looked down at her with sadness in her gaze. On meeting the girl’s frightened eyes, she gave her a kind nod.

  “I wonder if maybe Hugh’s never coming back,” May finally said weakly after they’d driven on under the blue sky for nearly two hours without her saying a word.

  “I’m sure he’s perfectly safe.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I just do,” Taki said firmly.

  Her tone made it seem more than just a theory, and that put May at ease.

  “Yeah, I’m sure you’re right. He’s always been a lucky one. And I’m sure he is now, too.”

  “Of course. You’re exhausted. Try to get some rest.”

  But after saying this, the young woman noticed that May’s gaze wasn’t directed at her. Beside the driver’s seat rode a young man so gorgeous he left people fumbling for words despite themselves. And even Taki knew what that look had to mean. The girl sought the assurance of someone strong.

  “Say, D. May here is worried about Hugh. Tell her he’ll be fine.”

  There was no reply. Not because he didn’t know what Hugh’s fate was, but because the brother and sister had no bearing on D—if anything, you could say they were simply trouble.

  Taki let out a sigh tinged with a fair amount of anger. “Oh, that’s right. Last night, you didn’t go out to rescue this girl, but to get the Noblewoman who’d been abducted. Isn’t that right?”

  She said that because that much she understood. The dashing young man was not her or the girl’s bodyguard.

  __

  Moving north after leaving the village, they’d come to a stretch of reinforced plastic pavement after about a mile and a quarter. The melted areas that dotted it were no doubt the remains of human destruction. Apparently quite some time had passed since the automatic repair systems had ceased functioning. D had his mount galloping at full speed. Their foes would be waiting somewhere with glittering eyes.

  Though the gates to the airfield were secured, their electronic locks opened with a key the baron had taken from the men the previous night.

  Upon entering the site, Taki looked around as if in a daze.

  “Dear lord,” she exclaimed, her eyes going wide.

  The vastness of the place was astounding to a human being. It didn’t seem like this could simply be an arrival and departure terminal. As the existing land alone had been insufficient for the enormous structure, mountains to both the east and the west were also carved open. Tracks for super-high-speed linear motor transports ran the length and breadth of the place, yet still didn’t seem to be an impediment to the oversized aircraft looming here and there. But Taki simply couldn’t understand the control tower and something resembling a radar array, both of which were a blur in the distance.

  Climbing back into the driver’s seat with a firmed resolve, the young woman said to D as they headed for the nearest aircraft, “I wonder why they built such a huge complex?”

  It sounded more like she was thinking out loud. For she was afraid she wouldn’t receive a reply.

  Unexpectedly, she did indeed get an answer.

  “It’s a reflection of their minds. From the time they began to see the decline of their race, the Nobility moved toward making their buildings so large it defied common sense. It might be best to call it the death throes of their collective psyche.”

  “So this was their last grab at glory—something like that?”

  “I suppose it was,” the young man said. His tone made Taki think of ice, and she sensed a weariness in it that took her breath away.

  Realizing they were on the road to extinction, the Nobility strove to construct enormous buildings to stave off their decline—as if to make them forget their own fate. A number of new interstellar routes had opened, and explorers had set out on voyages beyond our own galaxy. When the Nobility dragged part of an extremely ancient sunken continent out of the sea, no doubt some of their kind must’ve believed their twilight had been pushed far off into the distance. However, there was at present no sign of any living creature at the vast arrival terminal as the automated maintenance systems alone mutely continued their labors. The Travelers Center into which they stepped was devoid of people or even so much as a speck of dust, its cleanliness a testament to long years of futility.

  So, the party’s over, is it, D? the baron inquired. It wasn’t clear whether this was merely conjecture or if he could actually see it.

  Giving no reply, D got down off his horse when the carriages reached the center of a tremendous hall.

  “Wait a second,” the Hunter told them as he headed for a door toward the back.

  “I’m going too,” Taki said as she got out of the driver’s seat.

  May was sleeping soundly. And there was nothing to fear from the baron or Miska.

  The second they stepped through the door and into the structure, the two of them were enveloped by darkness. Simultaneously, the lights came on. Taki felt like she was out i
n the middle of the night.

  “What happened?”

  “The main computer has produced an artificial night for its guests. Originally, it probably maintained these settings day and night, but to conserve energy, the circuits only kick in when there are visitors.”

  “You don’t say! I wonder how many years it’s been?”

  There was no reply.

  Staring at D’s profile as she thought about rephrasing the question, Taki held her tongue. It was easy enough to glimpse the pain and sadness in the shadows that carved his stunningly handsome features. But it was their depth that had kept Taki from speaking.

  “D—are you troubled by the Nobility’s decline?”

  Having said that, the young woman then thought her heart might freeze solid, yet D made no reply as he climbed into the vehicle at the end of the corridor.

  “This is the control center,” he told her.

  “Identification card please,” a mechanical voice chimed. “This is the most critical area of the complex. Even terminal VIPs cannot enter without a card.”

  Taki gazed at D.

  D pressed the palm of his left hand against the entry slot on the control panel.

  “Qualified VIP status acknowledged. Please forgive my impertinence.”

  Taki’s eyes bulged with disbelief.

  Just a few seconds after the vehicle rushed into motion, the voice informed them, “This is the center. Five hundredth floor.”

  Once again the young woman’s eyes bugged.

  __

  Whether ordered by D without Taki realizing it or through the power of his mysterious left hand, the vehicle glided down the corridors of the vast center and was swallowed by a white door. Aside from the white light, Taki couldn’t discern anything. Even D’s form beside her melted into the glow.

  “Welcome to the main control room,” a crisp female voice called to them from nowhere in particular. It was computer synthesized.

  Taki envisioned a cold and intelligent beauty scrutinizing them from somewhere.