It was a rainy night, with the rain pounding on the ground, as a terrible storm was about to begin. Hajime was facing Goto's dog, his assassin, to the best of his abilities. The battle was ongoing; they had destroyed several abandoned buildings, cars exploded, destruction everywhere. But now, Hajime no longer cared about anything. As he fought the assassin of his mother, he kept throwing hit after hit, slashes after slashes, at the woman, who seemed to have grown tired.
"You've worn me out. Let's finish this,"
His patience had run out. A gesture with his hands, touching the tip of his finger to his scythe, and everything started to darken. Everything was losing color until it became completely black.
"Domain: Dark Valhalla,"
Hajime found himself inside a kind of black zone, a space where he saw nothing. He was trying to use his fire magic to create light, but it was useless; the flame would extinguish as soon as it lit up. The boy then felt something — true terror, an abyss.
"What... what is this?"
It seemed that the black space was forming a spiral in the center. Hajime watched as it spun, and soon he saw something emerge from the spiral: a monstrous, grotesque creature, a gigantic mouth that struck Hajime with a lightning-fast move, devouring him in an instant. Hajime tried to use all his magic, but it was useless. His skin started to scar; his body felt pain from every pore. His screams and pain were barely audible, as he desperately wanted to die.
But all of this was happening inside the shadow of the woman, who had trapped him in this different space from the reality that the silver-haired boy knew.
"And now it's just a matter of time before I die. I admit I had fun,"
The woman smiled as she took out her phone to contact Goto, to tell him that the mission was accomplished. She noticed a strange shape on her screen — a lollipop emoji.
"What—"
Suddenly, the woman realized something was wrong. A mass of darkness was emerging from the shadows. She tried to strike her with her scythe, attempting to decapitate her, but she dodged with a quick backward step. Above her, a rain of lightning was falling, so she teleported behind Kuro, trying to cut him in half with her scythe. But she was blocked by hardened sand, thrown by Chloe, who was beside her, ready to attack her with her claws aimed at her abdomen, having concealed her presence. With a quick move, she left her scythe unattended but narrowly avoided Chloe's deadly attack, which left a shallow cut on her abdomen.
The three young people formed a formation: Chloe, Kuro, Kimiko, ready for a counterattack.
"Ugh... more masked guys... it's not Carnival, guys,"
(She managed to avoid a deadly attack... this woman is experienced in combat for decades. If she managed to dodge that blow despite my concealment,) (Chloe)
At that moment, Hajime reappeared behind the woman, with smoke covering him like a sack of potatoes. He was covered in wounds, second-degree burns, bleeding, but still alive.
"Mission accomplished! Retreat!!" (Fumio)
"How did he—"
The woman was about to create shadow weapons, but they were canceled by Fumio. As long as she kept her gaze fixed on him, she couldn't use magic, but once she looked away, it would be the end.
But they weren't unprepared. While the other three teenagers headed to the rendezvous point after completing the mission, Kohaku brought hundreds of drones toward the assassin, circling around her like flies. This gave Fumio a chance to escape.
As she turned to leave, the woman destroyed all those annoying drones in just three seconds, but for Fumio, he seemed to vanish completely in an instant.
"Damit!!! I'll have to report to Goto-sama after this... mission failed."
************************************************
And here, in an instant, Fumio reappeared inside the bunker, in the medical zone. Yukihime carried him there immediately, of course. It was clear that everything had gone according to plan. Kohaku had disabled all the cameras and sensors in the area so that the world wouldn't see what was happening, just as Fumio had called her a few moments before leaving. Everything seemed to have gone as expected. However, Hajime was not in the best condition; he had sustained multiple wounds, as if he had been devoured and his flesh torn apart by bites.
"He lost a lot of blood. The seal I had implanted near his heart was broken. His mother is dead, and as if that weren't enough, Goto is now after him… this is quite a mess," (Yukihime).
Fumio was in a panic, trying to save one of his students who was in critical condition. He was attempting to resuscitate him with a defibrillator, but his heart seemed to have stopped beating. The electrical shocks he was administering were now turning red and damaging the entire medical zone, causing circuits to short-circuit. The bed was starting to freeze little by little.
"Damn it!! He has elemental magic, but now it's out of control… Yukihime-sama! If we don't do something, he will die," (Fumio). "I know," (Yukihime).
(I have no choice.) Yukihime could heal all of Hajime's wounds, but the mana required might cause his body and brain to collapse once healed. She knew very well what was at stake, this decision could change Hajime's destiny forever. It could make him… something new.
The woman bit her lip with her fangs, then approached Hajime's lips, passing her blood into his mouth through mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. But this time, it was different from when she had merely restored his wounds. Hajime's icy blue eyes turned blood-red, his silver hair faded to a pale blue like Yukihime's, and longer fangs appeared on his jawline. Was this magic? Or a trait of the Omega mage? Fumio was both surprised and terrified by the scene. Hajime had fully recovered, but now he was no longer human, he had become something else, something different. He had turned into a vampire.
"Y-Yukihime-sama… what did you do?" (Fumio)
"I saved him," (Yukihime).
*********************************************On the other side of the island, inside a bunker at least twenty times larger than the typical bunkers of other districts, there was one of the leaders of New Dawn, Hoshi. She was arming all the regular New Dawn members with weapons and armor made of Glephnir. The woman had secretly provided the information in exchange for a large quantity of that material, transporting it around to melt down and create the necessary equipment for the final battle between the New Dawn and the Black Corps.
She had organized and selected the best 1,000 men, former soldiers and mercenaries, arming them to the teeth with this gear.
"Men. In exactly 10 days, there will be a battle that will decide the fate of the island of Fumetsu and of all Asia! With this equipment, you will be completely immune to magic, so you don't need to fear those corrupt mages and pawns of that bastard who has been operating on this island for too long now. He will surely react, with everything he has to crush us, but now we have an opportunity, a chance. Not everyone will survive, but you are prepared for this, I am too. I am willing to die for this noble cause, which will bring our families and the families to come, a prosperous future, free of threats and humiliation. We will no longer be mere 'Weapons' or 'monsters,' as common beings from other countries call us. We can be much more. We can be better… we can finally be FREE!"
All the soldiers shouted and cheered with hope at their leader's words, ready to shed their own blood to win this war.
(Your end is near, Goto… I will make you suffer just as you made me suffer.)