Slash!
Swoosh
It's the spectacle of a fountain of blood spraying in the air and the downpour washing it to the ground.
I bite and tear the necks of those rushing at me, rip off their legs and use them to bash their heads.
I've given up fighting as a human.
It's truly a monster's battle.
I use the power of blood minimally, saving and saving more.
"Arghhhh!"
I shout towards the sky.
This damn world was too painful.
If they had just left me alone, I would have blended in with humans and lived an ordinary life.
Was I careless?
Did I stupidly run out of blood and go berserk, getting caught by the church?
Is just being alive the problem?
"Did I want to be born?!"
I vented my frustration.
Humans created me.
Humans are trying to kill me.
Humans let me live.
"Damn you humans!!"
Slash!
Bang!
Thud!
I tear apart and kill the crazy bastards rushing at me.
I smash them to death.
It's just time for killing.
Now.
Suddenly, their attacks stop.
Swoosh
Only the sound of rain remains on the cliff.
I looked up at the sky.
"You're finally coming, huh?"
As if mocking the rain clouds covering the sun, a new sun rose below the clouds.
The golden flames approach me as if showing off their majesty.
"You're so relaxed even when your subordinates are dying like dogs."
Michael looks at the priests below the cliff without looking at me.
"Everyone."
All the priests look up at him.
"The prayers of our brothers who made noble sacrifices will burn that monster. Our brothers have returned to the Lord's embrace. They are excellent and proud."
""Amen.""
"You've worked hard. Brothers, leave the rest to me and withdraw now."
As Michael's words end, the priests disappear one by one.
Some priests collect cross necklaces from among the corpses before leaving.
Like the tide going out, they disappeared in an instant.
And Michael, who had been floating in the sky, came down in front of me.
"I felt fate. The fate that you and I would face each other like this."
"My type is slim men, I don't want to feel fate with a crazy muscleman like you."
"Huhu... huhuhuh!! When the Lord gave me this power, I became His flame and burned heretics and monsters. Because this was the mission given to me."
"A priest giving confession to a monster, I knew you were crazy from the start, but to think you'd be this mad."
Michael keeps talking as if he's not interested in what I'm saying.
"Now I know. That my mission given by my Lord is to burn you. That you are the great sin that will push this world into the abyss of evil! Huhuhuh...!! Hahaha!! Now, monster!! Make your last struggle!"
"...I'm really sick of this. I just wanted to live. You crazy bastards are the ones who ruined that!"
I unleashed the power of blood at full force.
The blood of the priests I killed on the cliff floats in the air.
I turned all of it into blades and concentrated my attack on Michael.
Sizzle!
Swoosh!
The blood blades evaporate lightly against Michael's flames.
But I didn't stop my attack.
Along with the blood blades, I create blood arrows and pour them towards Michael's front.
Swish swish swish!
Ignoring all attacks, Michael starts approaching me step by step.
I stopped all attacks and turned all the blood scattered on the ground into a blood moon in the air. I wrapped all the blood I absorbed around my body.
And I too approach Michael.
Now there are no techniques. There's only physical attacks.
Whoosh!
Thud!
Sizzle
We swing fists and feet at each other.
My fists that strike quickly and retreat for speed and Michael's heavy fists that ignore them pour out attacks without rest.
Swish swish swish!
Attacks too fast for his muscular build pour down on me.
Every time his entire body wrapped in flames touches me, the blood surrounding me evaporates.
And every time I attack him surrounded by blood, his flames are chipped away little by little.
"Good. Excellent!! You've degraded a lot from the Primordial I know, but you're stronger than those stupid noble monster bastards now!"
Michael flies back far.
I immediately take a stance to chase and attack.
Then, Michael emits strong golden flames and takes a prayer posture.
"Amen."
Golden flames rush in.
This was that technique from when Vincent took me and ran away.
There was no time to wonder if I could block it or not.
I quickly erected the blood moon I had raised in the air in front of me.
"Uahhh!!!"
"Ahhhhh!!!men!!!!"
Boom!!
"Huff... huff..."
I used all the blood I had.
It all evaporated, but I was barely able to block it.
I didn't even have the strength left to move a finger.
If I'm like this, then surely Michael too...
"As expected, you blocked it. Amazing, truly amazing that there's a vampire in this era who can block this miracle kuhahaha!!"
Did he use up all his flames too?
There didn't seem to be any flames left on his body.
But Michael doesn't show any sign of fatigue.
"I poured everything I had, you should at least block that much..."
Suddenly Michael howled towards the sky.
"Huhuhuhuh... Lord!! Please watch over this lamb!! Ameeeeen!!!!!"
I hadn't even noticed when the rain stopped.
But, the rain clouds are clearing.
Then sunlight comes down through the gaps in the clouds.
Michael spreads both arms to bask in the sunlight, then puts his hands together and takes a prayer posture.
"Oh... Lord..."
He sheds tears as he offers his prayer.
Whoosh!
Golden flames burst out from Michael's entire body once again.
"Ha! What is this...?"
Is this really a miracle?
So the Lord this bastard talks about is doing this to protect his little lamb?
Just to kill me?
"I really hate this damn world."
As if all preparations to kill me are complete, the word "death" strangles my neck.
"Come to think of it, you kept howling that you had to keep living or something, huhuhuhuh you're under a big misunderstanding."
"?"
What nonsense is he spouting?
"From the beginning, there was no reason for you to live. You're a foreign substance! In this world prepared by the Lord, a foreign substance like you shouldn't exist at all! Huhuhuh!! Hahahahaha!!!!!"
"...!"
"It's boring. So boring, those useless thoughts about living or whatever. Primordial blood? Were you created? Did you want to be born? What does any of that matter! You monsters just! If the Lord! If we! Tell you to die, you die, and if we tell you to live, you should crawl like maggots to live!"
Michael calms the flames he was emitting and comes right up to me with his bare body, grabs my neck and lifts me up.
"Kuk!! Kuuuk..."
Michael moves me to the edge of the cliff in that state.
"This is the end. Monster, I'm thinking of burning you and reducing the number of remaining noble bastards to less than half. Everything will be accomplished according to the Lord's will."
"Th-that... idiots... not my... business... kuk."
"Huhu, huhuhuh how about it? Want to try offering a prayer at the end?"
I painfully clenched my fist and held it up in front of his eyes.
And I extended my middle finger.
"Go... to hell."
Whoosh!!
My entire body burst into flames.
"Amen..."
Swoosh
Michael threw my burning body off the cliff.
I closed my eyes.
I'm falling.
Down, endlessly falling.
They say your life flashes before your eyes when facing death, but I didn't have any thoughts.
I don't feel any pain either.
Crack crack!
Shatter!
The sound of something cracking and breaking brushes past my ears.
Swoosh!
I should have fallen into the sea or disappeared into ashes, but I felt like I was passing through something.
I opened my eyes in confusion.
The flames that were burning my body had disappeared, and emptiness spread out all around.
[What is this?]
[What is this?]
[What is this?]
My words echo in the emptiness.
[Is this hell?]
[Is this hell?]
[Is this hell?]
Or not? My body seemed to be floating.
Shatter!
Once again I heard the sound of something breaking, and an unknown crack appeared before my eyes.
Swoosh!
And it sucks me in.
My body, unable to resist, was sucked into the crack.
And.
Thud!
My back hit a hard floor.
"Ugh!"
Pain swept through me as if my back was going to break.
"D-damn it, what is this...?"
The world is spinning.
My whole body felt like it was being torn apart to the point where I couldn't even move a finger.
I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and exhaled.
How much time passed, the pain gradually disappeared, and the dizziness started to fade.
And I opened my eyes and looked around.
A room somewhere? A laboratory? What is this? It seems familiar, but the style of the building is different from what I knew.
And it's like ruins, things are broken here and there and there are bloodstains on the walls.
Clatter
"Who's there?"
I tensed up and forcibly raised my body.
"Um... are you human?"
It was the voice of a young girl.
I barely managed to get up and sat on a worn-out chair nearby.
"I should be... human?"
When I said that, I saw a child peeking her face through the gap of a shattered door.
"Who are you?"
"I'm Sadie..."
"I don't know what's going on, but I won't hurt you, so can you show yourself?"
When I spoke carefully, Sadie revealed herself.
She was a grubby-looking child in torn and worn clothes I'd never seen before, looking like she hadn't washed well. Was she over 10 years old?
"Are you... okay?"
When Sadie asked, I finally looked over my body.
Well, yeah, I'm a mess too.
The strange thing is that there are no burn marks. What's going on? No, before that.
"Um, sorry, but Sadie, could you help support me?"
Relying on Sadie carefully supporting me, I stood up.
"Can we look outside?"
"Yes!"
Sadie supported me and took me to the window.
The wind blowing through the broken window brushes past my head.
What spread out before my eyes was...
Tall, big buildings I've never seen before, and the sight of a ruined and shattered city.
Things that look like corpses are walking on the streets.
"Is that...? Undead?"
"Huh? No, those are zombies."
"Zombies??"
Another world...?
"Sadie? Where is this?"
"Here? This is Pittsburgh..."
It was a completely unfamiliar place name.
...I really don't know.
As I stood still with a blank expression of disbelief, Sadie spoke to me.
"If you have nowhere to go, do you want to come with me? I'm heading to LA."
I didn't understand anything, but I felt like I should follow her.
And... somehow the child seemed familiar.
Have I seen her somewhere? I asked the first thing I was curious about.
"Is there... a church here?"
"A church? I haven't seen one, but they say there used to be big ones long ago. Now, I don't think anyone cares about such things?"
Ah, so there were some but not anymore.
Well then... that's fine.
For now, I'm alive and wherever this is, there's no church. Looking at the state outside, it doesn't seem like it'll be easy, but I didn't want to leave this child.
I knelt slightly, breaking away from Sadie's support, looked at Sadie's face and smiled.
And I held out my hand.
"Nice to meet you Sadie, my name is Arian."
"Arian! That's a pretty name! Nice to meet you."
Sadie grasped the hand I extended.
Then, a man wearing a doctor's gown and some kind of black helmet I've never seen before appeared in my mind.
Who is it? Is it someone I should know?
"Sadie, let's find just one more person before we leave, that... what did you call it?"
"LA! They said survivors are gathered in LA! But who are we looking for?"
"I'm not sure either, but it feels like there's someone I need to find!"
"But... outside is full of zombies..."
"Don't worry, I'll protect you. Don't worry about anything."
Without realizing it, I hugged Sadie.
Feeling Sadie's warmth, my heart calmed down.
As if I had come home.
Side Story. Arian of the Parallel World [End]