Enter the Final Movement
The moon punched through the clouds and bared its face. Phantom stood balanced on a wire strung like a spider's web between two buildings and let out a long breath.
"So even if Crimson Glow doesn't land, as long as it isn't raining, I'm still in good shape."
Across from him, Silvester stood on the same wire, hauling in ragged breaths. Two men suspended between skyscrapers like acrobats should have drawn every eye in the street—but the crowd's attention never left Flex Medical headquarters. Recognition-disruption magic had peeled this little world clean away from ordinary reality.
"You still mean to keep going?"
Phantom asked the question while watching Silvester. Of course Silvester was already charging along the building wall, silver sword flashing. Phantom simply dissolved into mist and let the blade pass through empty air.
"Impatient as ever."
He rematerialized behind Silvester and leveled Beast Double. Silvester kicked off the wall, soared upward, and landed on another wire he'd strung across the night sky, drawing Beast and a Desert Eagle in the same motion.
Bang! Bang!
Phantom turned to mist again, slipped the rounds, then cut back with a ribbon of crimson light. Silvester twisted midair in a tight longitudinal spin, landed cleanly on the wire, and Phantom solidified once more on a rooftop opposite him.
Whoooosh—
Silvester's reflexes were ridiculous; he casually dodged the same Crimson Glow that Sarhyuk had taken full-force without even trying to evade. Worse, what ran through Silvester's body wasn't blood at all, so even a clean cut from Crimson Glow wouldn't drain him dry. He was, without question, Phantom's most troublesome opponent.
Still, as long as Phantom stayed mist, Silvester couldn't lay a glove on him. The only real counters to Phantom's mist form were water and extreme cold—liquid nitrogen or a water cannon could pin him down, but those weren't weapons a man carried in his coat. From the outset the match had been stacked absurdly in Phantom's favor. And yet even he hadn't managed to put a single mark on Silvester. Both of them were fighting with every nerve stretched to the absolute limit; neither could touch the other.
KRA-BOOM!
A distant explosion rolled across the city. Both men froze and looked toward the sound.
"Ah."
Flex Medical headquarters was folding in on itself, finally collapsing under its own weight.
"It's over, then."
Silvester exhaled, swung his silver blade, and severed the wire beneath his feet. Phantom stared in surprise as Silvester hit the building wall and spiraled downward in a controlled descent.
"Come find me on a rainy day. You're first on the reservation list."
"…"
Silvester flipped him the middle finger mid-run—his answer to Phantom's courtesy—and vanished. They were clear enemies, yet Phantom always carried that same loose, half-committed air about whether he actually wanted to fight or not. Only the blood of Phantasmagoria, strongest of the lineages, kept his head on his shoulders; any lesser vampire would have been dead years ago.
"Honestly. I want Tetra Anax's files too, but if I ask for them now I'll just get shot for my trouble."
Phantom sighed and let the night wind take him. His long white coat flared and shimmered faintly even in the dark.
"A new amusement for a long vampire life. Han Se-gun… I'll swallow my little greed for today. More nights of entertainment ahead."
He cleanly abandoned any claim on the data Se-gun had ripped from Tetra Anax and turned his back. Hecate and Messiah, though—they would never let those files go so easily.
"…I'd rather no other Jinma die tonight."
Se-gun shook the last of the pursuit and brought the bike to a stop.
"Moving to Phase Four. So far the only Jinma I've met is Hecate… but I know there are more in Korea. And the vampires the other clans sent? Countless."
He transferred the hard drive from his backpack into the motorcycle bag, then stuffed the USAS-12, short shells, and explosives from the bike bag into the pack instead. Detonating cord went into every belt pouch; he topped off Beast's ammunition. Once every piece of gear was in place, some half-conscious habit made his hand drift to his chest.
"Ah."
Only then did he remember the pocket Bible Pastor Yang had given him—the one he'd carried over his heart ever since. It would have taken Elliot's rifle round earlier.
"Let's see."
He pulled it out and clicked his tongue. Completely shredded, blown clean through. A golf pro's driver can punch halfway through a phone book; compared to a bullet, a golf ball is nothing. The idea that a wad of paper could stop a round had always been pure fairy-tale nonsense.
"Damn it. I'm the idiot."
He started to fling the ruined Bible away, then noticed something still wedged between the pages. Right—he'd slipped his family photo in there.
"…Ha. Hahahahahaha. Ahahahahaha."
Se-gun looked at the photo and laughed like a madman. When he covered his face, tears came for no reason he could name. A bullet hole punched straight through the center of the picture… and had erased his own face with surgical precision. Everyone else's faces were still more or less intact. Only his was gone, wiped out by the round.
He gripped the photo in both hands and tore it to pieces.
Whoooosh—
Wind funneled down the narrow alley between buildings where he'd hidden the bike. Shredded scraps of photograph fluttered from his fingers and vanished into the dark.
The green-haired young man jammed his motorcycle helmet on and dragged a thumb across his own throat. Just that—thumbnail against skin—and blood welled up, soaking into his collar.
"All right. Time for the final movement, you goddamn sluts!"
The bike was already screaming through the night at a speed that left the police pursuit behind. The only thing still clinging to him was a single stubborn police helicopter.
"But even the chopper's having trouble keeping up? Now that's something."
Hecate—the woman who had seized the helicopter—twisted a long lock of red hair around her finger and checked the speed gun. Relative speed put the bird at roughly 213 km/h. Given Korea's roads, the motorcycle was running at what anyone would call the wall of death.
"Impressive."
She liked this vampire hunter. Vampires lived long enough to meet every kind of human under the sun, and nearly all of them were fragile, pitiable things next to a Jinma's power. No one ever raised their head against True Vampires. This one was different. It wasn't just guts—he hated vampires down to the marrow of his bones.
She had never been hated by anyone quite like this.
"They say hatred and love run in the same vein. You make my heart race."
She sighed. Kill a human this rare and where would she ever find another? But the hard drive sleeping with Tetra Anax's secrets was far too precious to abandon. R. Gordon's true identity, where he actually lived day to day, how many companies Tetra Anax kept hidden… all of it had to be known.
Tetra Anax catalogued every other Jinma's wealth, bloodline numbers, operating companies, and hideouts down to the last detail, while no one else even knew who R. Gordon really was. Trying to fight them under those conditions was a joke. The ancients had already said it before the Common Era: know your enemy and yourself and you will never lose a hundred battles. Handing over every scrap of your own information and still hoping to topple Tetra Anax? Laughable.
"A shame, but better I take it than let some other vampire have it. After that I'll turn him whether he likes it or not."
She was still savoring that fantasy when the helicopter rotors suddenly bloomed into flame. Metal that large rarely burned; Hecate whipped around and stared out the window.
"What the—!"
There stood the Jinma Agni, a Browning machine gun strapped to each arm, looking thoroughly pleased with himself. He had parked an electric scooter on the hillside of a curve and simply planted himself there for anyone to see. Hecate could erase memories and throw recognition disruption; Agni's public profile essentially read "nothing special except fire."
He could manage simple magic and minor techniques, but the disruption field was far too narrow for a stunt this flashy. In other words, he was openly displaying himself to free-willed humans who hadn't been suppressed by any spell or psychic force.
"Is he serious?"
BRRRRRRT!
Agni opened up with both guns without so much as a greeting. Hecate abandoned the helicopter and leapt clear.
"Waaaaagh!"
The poor police bird reared, then slammed into the roadway. Cars slammed on their brakes; a triple pile-up blossomed in seconds.
"Aaaaagh!"
The road became pure chaos. Hecate spun in midair, landed lightly on the railing where the opposing lanes crossed, and glared down at Agni, furious.
"You!"
She swept her long hair back and raised a hand. Sharp nails slid out with a wet crack.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!"
While they shouted, Se-gun was already vanishing into the night at that insane speed. The helicopter was scrap under Agni's sustained fire; the road was choked with wreckage and burning rotor blades. Realistically, catching him now looked impossible.
"Ahahahaha. Even your angry face is sexy, big sis."
"Do you even know why I'm angry?!"
She almost unleashed a shockwave on the spot—then saw the ordinary people staring blankly and stopped. Even the fringe of a shockwave could kill; using it here would only make the mess bigger. Hecate was a thoroughgoing loner who wouldn't care if thousands or tens of thousands of worthless humans died, but with no clan behind her and no Tetra Anax cover, drawing this much attention was pure stupidity.
BRRRRT!
Agni, of course, believed that worrying about such things gave vampires lifestyle diseases—an argument only he found convincing. He kept hammering machine-gun fire at Hecate regardless of the humans watching.
"Hmph!"
Hecate threw up an Impulse Shield—a reshaped shockwave—and dropped from the railing under the bridge. Agni followed her down to the opposite bank.
"Huh?"
Agni stood half-submerged, guns trained on her. But Hecate was standing on the water. Slim, elegant legs planted on the surface, looking down at him with pure arrogance—the sight was almost unnervingly beautiful. Personality aside, Hecate was a genuinely gorgeous vampire.
"Even among Jinma, you and I are not the same rank!"
"S-seriously?"
Agni asked, dumbfounded. Then Hecate slammed a shockwave into the water's surface.
"Ugh!"
The moment the wave hit the liquid medium it expanded without mercy. Standing waist-deep, Agni had no defense. Worse, she kept firing shockwaves in rapid succession, building resonance.
RUMBLE—
Agni vaulted clear of the water—and something scarlet flashed past his face. He jerked a machine gun up and blocked on pure reflex.
Clang!
"Mmm."
Machine gun met nail. Hecate weighed far less, yet Agni still had to give ground several steps before the balance evened out.
"Big sis, frowning gives you wrinkles."
"Bullshit!"
In the same instant Agni loosed fire and Hecate loosed shock. Her nails tore through empty air; the atmosphere itself rippled and a crushing impact swallowed his flames whole.
"Ugh."
One of the machine guns he had been using to fend her off simply came apart. An enraged Hecate was a different creature entirely—too high a tier for him to handle. Agni was forced, once again, to admit he ranked near the bottom among Jinma.
"Time to borrow some tactics from my dear grandson."
He muttered the words, then vaporized a stretch of the river with raw heat. While Hecate recoiled from the sudden cloud of steam, he ran for it as hard as he could.
"You bastard! You start a fight and then run? What kind of man are you?!"
Blood rushed to Hecate's head; she screamed after him at the top of her lungs.
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK—
Whether from the echo of her voice or not, fissures spidered across the bridge supports. Probably the earlier careless barrage of shockwaves into the water had set up a resonance that was now tearing the piers apart.
"Oh my…"
She eyed the bridge, wondering when it would drop, and scanned the surroundings. No one nearby—fortunate.
"Whew."
She let out a relieved breath and carefully made her way along the riverbank. With the helicopter gone, the chase for Han Se-gun would have to be abandoned for tonight.
VROOOOOM!
Se-gun's bike howled down the road, engine screaming. The police had thrown up one barricade; he erased it with a grenade launcher, sailed cleanly over the wreckage, and after that the cops simply stopped trying. Even with Tetra Anax's Korean branch reduced to rubble, some residual influence remained—or maybe they just feared how much blood would be spilled if they pressed him. Either way, the pursuit had gone soft.
"…Makes all the prep I did feel kind of pointless."
Se-gun discarded every contingency plan he'd built for shaking hard pursuit and clicked his tongue. Not having to worry was fine, but he almost felt sorry for the police. No matter how hard they tried, they belonged to the other world. What happened under the mad moon could only ever be settled by the people who lived there.
"All right—Hecate's busy trading punches with Agni. Next!"
He clenched his teeth and stretched every nerve to the limit. A cold prickle ran straight down his spine.
"Ugh!"
He leaned the bike hard to the shoulder and barely slipped whatever it was. Something tore past at impossible speed along the line he had just been riding. A massive flying creature that looked like a giant ray locked onto him.
Se-gun was doing two hundred kilometers an hour—a speed most birds couldn't match except in a steep dive or a long glide.
"Shit!"
Which meant whatever had just come at him was no natural animal. He felt it coming again and slammed the brakes. The ray-thing overshot his torso by a hair. Even that near-miss left a crack in the motorcycle's fairing.
"…"
If he actually collided with one of those things, it would be over. He opened the throttle and pushed the bike to three hundred, trying to open distance. The rays seemed capped around two hundred; the gap widened—until they simply climbed higher, cut the shortest path through open sky, and closed in again.
Creatures that could fly versus a bike that had to follow the road. The outcome was already written.
"Fine. Phase Five it is!"
He slowed, wrenched the handlebars right, and peeled off the expressway. The salt smell of the sea grew stronger by the second. Ahead lay the harbor barricades. According to the plan, Phase Five was the final battlefield—the Maginot Line Se-gun himself had chosen.
"Hah… hah!"
One-handed, he raised the USAS-12, braced the sling against his torso, and fired skyward. One of the rays racing in sprayed blood, staggered, and smashed straight into the harbor outer wall as it crossed his path.
BOOM!
A deafening crash tore the chain-link open. Se-gun drove through the gap.
"Damn it! We just lost a valuable beast."
The other vampires clinging to their ray-mounts followed him with open regret.
Screeeeech—
Se-gun's bike howled into the maze of stacked containers and vanished. Harbor security carried K1 submachine guns—why they called a 5.56 mm weapon a submachine gun was anyone's guess—which made them a real headache. Most days they only loaded blanks, but after today's terror alert they might be carrying live rounds.
"Tch."
He wove the bike between containers, eyes never leaving the rays circling overhead. A flying creature that could carry a vampire at over two hundred kilometers an hour had to be an artificial construct born of magic. Using beasts like that meant these vampires came from serious bloodlines.
Nothing like the vampires I've fought so far… actual noble houses, then?
That narrowed the field considerably. He killed the engine and dismounted.
Here!
One of the vampires, still hanging from his ray, spotted Se-gun overhead. He probably thought he was shouting over clan-only telepathy—but Se-gun, constantly brushed by the restless dead, felt the vampire the moment he appeared. The ghosts that feared vampires never stopped their clamor; front or back, enemies were easy to find.
"The only good vampire is a dead vampire!"
Se-gun spun and leveled the USAS-12. The vampire shot skyward at speed—but the muzzle had already spat fire.
Screeeeee!
The ray-creature traded durability for raw flight speed. A mere graze from the short shells and it shrieked, then slammed into a container at full velocity.
CRASH!
Metal screamed; mercury-vapor lights swung wildly. Se-gun kicked off a neighboring container, vaulted upward, and opened fire on the vampire leaping free of the wrecked beast.
"Gahk!"
The ray that had shredded the container wall was blown apart by Se-gun's rounds. The vampire, astonishingly, blocked the USAS-12's barrage with a pair of crossed blades and still managed to give ground.
Ting-ting-ting-ting!
It sounded like marbles skittering across sheet metal. Se-gun dumped the empty drum and slammed a fresh one home.
Click-clack!
Blades erupted all over the vampire's body. He charged Se-gun in a blur of steel, every edge screaming for blood.
Shhhk!