Chapter 345: Hypocrisy.
Standing amidst a sea of bodies was a tall man with long black hair, red eyes and who had wings of blood coming out of his back. He was standing and looking at all the beings scattered around the building suffering from their pain.
Looking at the image on his monitor, looking at that man's smiling face, James felt quite... awed.
This being, this creature, this monster… James basically watched him grow in every encounter and report, and in every conflict, he grew quite erratically.
And in a short time, he'd become quite a terrifying creature.
James' eyes gleamed for a few seconds, and unconsciously, he recorded this scene in his head.
And for the first time in a long time in his life, he felt respect, admiration, and most of all awe.
His smile grew a little, and he said:
"...Count Alucard, your existence really is an affront to God."
He clicked the release button.
"S-000, A-000 I released the restriction on your powers... But don't use your powers now. The probability of you fleeing from Alucard and Scathach is very low, I will send a distraction, hold on until then."
Finished speaking, he looked back at Victor, the camera shifted to the women in the sky, and his expression grew heavy.
"...He got even more insane, and gained two more troublesome allies." James muttered as he watched this situation with a small black bug that he asked Sylvie to put on before going to save August.
A bug he'd received from Niklaus.
'And to think that Vlad's ex-wives would ally themselves with this man... Your goals, as expected, are revenge and recovering your children? Hmm... I can use this.' Making plans for Vlad's wives, he looked at the women who began to disappear.
"...These women are his servants." He had already seen some of these women in the reports when Victor started destroying The Inquisition's bases with Mizuki.
But... One woman in the group was strange to him.
Focusing his attention on the long red haired woman who had sharp teeth, and pointy, elf-like ears, he narrowed his eyes even further.
"What is that? A Vampire? Or something else..." Realizing that at some point his enemy had acquired allies he didn't know about, a feeling of impatience welled up in his heart.
Seeing the women disappearing into a blue portal, James' face turned ugly.
'If it continues like this, he will become unstoppable... And I don't know anything about these Maids.' Maria was the only one of the group that he had enough information about her past, but the rest were all question marks for him.
The monitor changed again, and the man looked at his experiments.
"Tsk... If they hadn't wasted time trying to capture Ophis, I would have gotten my hands on Nero." He felt quite irritated.
When he learned of the existence of a natural Hybrid through his new ally, he felt his researcher instinct kick in. He wished to study Nero. Perhaps with the research of this Hybrid he could stabilize the artificial Hybrids he created.
'...Now that she's under Alucard's protection, I have no choice but to ask Niklaus for information... But that bloodsucker will definitely ask for something in return. Ugh.'
His eyes focused on his experiments lying on the floor.
"I can't lose S-000, and A-000 now..."
"They are near perfect products, and my strongest products so far." Looking toward another screen that showed the body condition of his two experiments, James did some calculations in his mind.
'If that monster were alone, one of them might be able to escape.'
'But since Scathach is in this place... It's literally impossible to run away... Tsk why does this crazy woman like this man so much? She's even getting into a conflict that has nothing to do with her daughters or family.'
Stopping to think, he clicked on a communicator, and called a friend of his.
"Yes?"
"General Leonardo, a conflict has taken place, the demon Alucard is in Japan and causing massacres, and he is with one of my precious subordinates." Briefly explaining the situation to his ally, of course he didn't forget to make it look like everything was Victor's fault.
"I am on my way."
"Thanks." He smiled coldly.
Turning off the communicator, he clicked the keyboard again.
"S-001, A-004. I have orders for you."
...
[S-000, A-000 I released the restriction on your powers... But don't use your powers now, the probability of you fleeing from Alucard and Scathach is very low, I'll send a distraction hold on until then.]
"..." Hearing James' voice, Sylvie's and August's faces didn't change.
They just focused on using their powers slowly to recover all the damage they suffered. They made sure to use their powers slowly so Alucard wouldn't notice.
Suddenly Victor turned his face, and his eyes glowed blood red.
BOOOOOOOOOOM
A large ice spike popped out of the ground, and in front of that pillar was a small creature.
Cough.
"Bloody monster, how could you see through my illusion?" Nura spat blood, he was trying to take advantage of the chaos and run away.
"The simple fact that you think you can fool me is funny..." Victor laughed lightly as he looked at the Yōkai, and then he looked at two bodies that were lying on the ground: "Right?"
"!!!" Sylvie and August's bodies shook when they felt Victor's gaze.
Victor snapped his finger and ice stakes pierced the two hunters' bodies.
"AHHHHH!" They both screamed in pain, and slowly the ice on the stake began to change shape.
Victor raised his palm and made some hand gestures, the two suddenly seem to lose control of their body, and they were forced to raise their hand.
A thorn pierced both their hands, and an image that marked an entire religion was remade.
They were crucified.
"This is an experiment." Victor's voice resounded throughout the place.
"Will God save you? Or not?"
"Are you as worthy of God's attention as you were with Jesus, or are your bodies defiled?"
"Crazy bastard." Sylvie growled as she forced her body to regenerate.
"Are you going to spit in the face of the church!? Are you crazy!?" August went on the offensive.
"Don't be a hypocrite." Victor spoke in disdain.
"You don't represent the church."
"You do not represent the Catholic Faith." Victor's eyes lit up:
"In my time that I had with your former General, I saw people. Ordinary people who truly applied God's teachings of kindness and love. They were simple people, people who helped others without wanting anything in return." A time that reminded him that he had once been human, even though it had only been a few months since he'd become a vampire.
He was so lost in conflict, his problems, and his powers, that he'd forgotten what he was before.
"God said: Love one another as I have loved you."
"And there are people who apply these teachings."
"Good people." Victor remembered the vision of an old lady who despite her disability still helped people, for a moment, his eyes turned to violet.
"…But you?"
"You are just tools made by a man who likes to play God."
"A paranoid organization that thinks all Supernatural Beings are their enemies, and yet they ally themselves with other Supernatural Beings when they need to."
"An organization that has been distorted from its original purpose."
"The inquisition was made to protect humans, to protect ordinary people from Supernatural Threats."
"...That is good in theory, but in reality?" Victor flashed a sneer.
"Just like any organization created by sentient beings who have desires, the organization has been corrupted."
"With that, you were created. You are the physical representation of how rotten your organization is."
"And in the end... You just use the name of God to justify your actions."
Victor raised his hands to the sky, and looked to the sky, his voice changed, and became more dramatic:
"I killed an entire community by order of God."
"The community had a Witch, they were corrupted."
"We must go to war, but this is no ordinary war! It's a Holy War, we must fight! God Will's It!
"...I burned a woman at the stake, a woman who helped our country, because she fell into the temptation of a Demon."
"...." Jeanne's eyes fluttered a little when she saw Victor's theatrical performance.
Cough. August coughed and spat on the floor, his eyes glowing blood red:
"How about you!? You massacred innocent human beings, you will massacre all the Supernatural Beings in Japan, you are sitting on top of thousands of corpses!"
"And all this because of a—."
"...." Victor stopped talking, and turned to August. Victor's pure killing instinct shut August down.
"She is my daughter… and I will burn the world for her if I have to."
"...." Scathach, Ruby, Sasha smiled.
Jeanne and Anna looked at Victor with feelings of respect.
Nero thought it wouldn't be bad to have a father like that, a father who did everything to protect his daughter, and who was always there…
'Sigh.'
Victor's smile grew demonic:
"And that's our difference."
"I will take the blame for my actions, I will not hide the sin I did in someone else's name. The Supernatural World of Japan will be stained in blood, and everyone, including myself, will know that I did it."
"My sin is mine alone, I created it, and it will be with me for eternity." He spoke possessively.
"..." August was silent when he heard what that madman said, and soon veins started popping in his head:
"...You talk about us like we're evil, but you're going to cause mass genocide!" he roared.
"There is no good or evil, it's all a matter of perspective. To you and the entire Supernatural Community of Japan, I am evil"
"…But, for my daughter?" Victor looked at Ophis who at some point was looking at him again.
"Well, I don't need to explain, right?"
"...You are a hypocrite."
"Hey, I'm a hypocrite with a conscience, but I'm way better than you hypocrites who hide behind someone else's name."
"HAHAHAHAHAHA~."
From the beginning Victor had always followed a mentality of 'I will do what I want, when I want, where I want.'
His mindset never changed, from the start he knew he was the biggest hypocrite out there.
But... The Inquisition slapped Victor in the face for hypocrisy, yet they were way more hypocritical than he was.
If no one provoked Victor, he'd be a harmless little boy, he'd just train, and go looking for opponents to have an honest fight.
But... He knew the world didn't work the way he wanted.
"...He's completely mad." Anna spoke.
"I wouldn't say that..." Jeanne replied.
"He is very sensible."
"...Huh? How?" Anna looked around and didn't find anyone sane around, she just found a bunch of psychopaths.
"..." Jeanne was silent.
Finishing her orders, Scathach looked at the red moon:
'The reverse world is still standing... Someone needs to be holding this place, are they trying to hold us in this place while gathering strength?' She looked around and found no one.
'Do they think they can arrest me in this place?' She smirked.
Picking up her red spear, she made a casual swing, and a breach opened in the sky.
"…Did you break the sky?" Ruby asked in a ridiculous tone.
"This is the reverse world, it's a technique of Yōkai that uses Yōuki. They usually use this place to fight, and resolve their conflicts. This place is like a scattered dimension of Tokyo itself." Jeanne explained to Ruby.
"Oh...that explains it."
"...By the way, who are you, guys?"
"….Isn't that kind of late?"
"I kind of forgot due to the urgency of the situation."
"...You can say that we are Vlad's ex-wives."
"Oh... Now I understand why you guys know my mother."
"...Do you believe people so easily?" Anna laughed.
"My mother doesn't get along with many people, and I know that in the past she taught the royal guards, so it wouldn't be strange for her to meet you."
"... Make sense..." The two spoke at the same time.
"…Hmm?" Scathach narrowed her eyes.
And she saw a man with red hair and blue eyes, he was alone, he was flying in a kind of golden energy.
'Oh… Is he here, was he revived?' Scathach had memories of killing this man.
In the blink of an eye, the man flew towards Victor.
And punched him in the face.
BOOOOOOOOOM!
A golden explosion erupted out from the impact, and all the bodies around Victor were evaporated, the building they were in was also evaporated, the only thing left intact were the beings that were on the ice stake.
The man seemed to control his strength quite efficiently.
In the next quarter second, the dust that was lifted, and the image of Victor holding the man's fist was seen.
"... And you are...?"
"General Leonardo." The man spoke as he looked at Victor's hand which was covered with the power of blood.
'This power managed to resist the energy of God!?' He was quite shocked, but it didn't show on his face.
"Leo, huh." Victor casually simplified the man's name, for a few seconds his eyes changed to violet, and he looked at Leo...
And he saw a pillar of golden light coming out of the man's body, and his entire internal structure was pure energy.
Victor opened his eyes wide, he had never seen anything like it before.
"Victor don't lose your attention." Scathach warned him.
"... I know." He turned his face, and saw another man similar to the man he was holding was holding the ice pillar that Agust and Sylvie were on.
"Clone?" Looking at the man's body with his eyes, he saw the same pillar of golden light coming out of his body.
"Or twins?"
Suddenly, he felt someone trying to punch him in the face.
Time around Victor froze, and he quickly created a small ice shield in front of him.
BOOOM.
He flew a little in the air, and quickly he adjusted his position in the air, and saw another man just like the two before.
'Twins, eliminated. So clones?'
'He was created in an instant, because of that, I couldn't feel them?' Victor's eyes gleamed with interest.
The man standing next to the ice crucifixs threw the two pillars towards the opening in the sky.
"Oh, you're trying to save them... That's rare."
"They are my companions."
"Even if they are hybrids?"
"..."
Seeing Leonardo's face tremble slightly, Victor's smile grew a little.
"So, you didn't know."
Rumble, Rumble.
Victor disappeared, leaving behind a golden trail, and appeared in the path of the crucifixs.
'It seems that it was not God who saved you, but a general.' Victor thought with an amused smile.
"August, now-" Sylvie spoke up.
"Now, What?" Victor appeared beside her as she flew in the same trajectory as the crucifix.
"!!!"
"Just how fast are you?"
"Who knows?" Victor reached out and grabbed the two Hunters by the neck, he spun in the air several times and threw them in Ruby's direction.
"Ruby, my gift to you... Two fresh hybrids, treat them 'gently'." He flashed a small smile.
Ruby created two ice hands, and took them both.
"Ohh…~" Her smile grew: "I will."
"!!!" Seeing Ruby's smile, the two could easily recognized it. It was the same smile James gave them when the man discovered something interesting to try.
'Fuck!'
FUSHHHHHH!
The two's bodies were frozen by Ruby, and a few seconds later Ruby's ice hand melted, and turned into water. She controlled the water and surrounds the two beings, and soon a block of ice was created.
Leonardo was going to jump in to try to save them both, but he stopped when he felt a person's gaze.
Precisely speaking of two people.
Scathach and Alucard.
They had a look that said, do you dare?
Leonardo's instincts screamed, warning him not to make that decision, because he would die, again...
"Tsk." The two beings similar to him disappeared and returned to his body.
Rumble.
"…I think this is the first time…?" Victor appeared near Leonardo.
"What?"
"This is the first time I've seen a human hunter use these powers without needing enchantments."
"Don't compare me to these useless ones."
"I don't need incantations, because my faith comes from here." He points to his chest while smiling.
"My faith comes from the heart."
"...Oh?"