30 Into The Fire

I hop down from the machinery and hit the ground with a thud. Without thinking, I catch myself using my scorched palm and almost cry tears of blood as the pain assaults my senses.

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"Eira, are you okay, that looked like it hurt?"

I wipe away the small tear from the corner of my eye and turn toward Eden, "Of course I'm fine, didn't even feel it. Wait, where did the idiot go?"

Eden points toward a severed limb on the ground, "After he saw you stomp on the other one's head, he ran away, but I managed to get one of his legs."

"Good job, I suppose, do you know where he went?"

"No, he slipped between the machines just before you jumped down, but he should still be in here somewhere."

I sigh and look around the room, "Well, let's take this chance to get rid of an unpredictable variable then?"

Eden nods, and we spend the next hour walking around the engine room over and over again.

"Eira, maybe you should try to ask him to come out or something..."

I look toward Eden with a blank expression, "I know they're stupid, but I don't know if they are that stupid."

"Well, we could walk around here all day might as well try."

I smirk, put my hands to my mouth and yell, "Hey, Judgment, if you come out, I promise I'll let you eat me...and as a bonus, you can eat Eden too."

Eden blinks at me, "Eira, you should try something a little more..."

"Really!? Do you mean it, Mother!... Hey, wait, are you lying?"

For a second I'm a bit speechless, I wasn't prepared for him to actually answer, "Uh, of course, I wouldn't lie...have I ever lied to you before?"

I try to search the room but mixed with the sounds of the machines, and the echo in the room Judgments location is hard to discern.

Judgment continues to speak, "...well, sorta, I vaguely remember you lied to me once, and we've only talked a few times, so your track record isn't very good."

'I don't remember lying to him...is he talking about when I promised not to hurt the kids during the ritual?'

I glance at the smashed head of Punishment, "Oh...that was just an accident."

"You accidentally, violently and continuously stomped on his head with your foot?"

When I am about to answer, I suddenly feel something land on my shoulder. I glance to my side and find a drop of congealed blood staining my dress.

I grip my weapon firmly and motion to Eden standing next to me, "Well, freak head-smashing accidents do happen on occasion, you know?"

Not receiving a response, I immediately jump to my side and launch my spear toward the ceiling. The spear embeds itself in the ceiling missing Judgments head by a few inches.

"I knew it! Mother, you liar!"

Judgment pushes himself off the ceiling, launching himself toward me on the ground below. On reflex, I extend my claws and swing at Judgments torso with full force, and following my lead, Eden swings her saber. Both of our attacks connect, and Judgment's body slams into the ground leaving several of his body parts behind. His body continues rolling across the floor and eventually finds it's way into a piece of rotating machinery.

"AH! Mother, why!?" Judgment shrieks.

Judgment's body is sucked into the piece of machinery, and the lights in the room go out.

'Please...no. Please, don't break something.'

A few seconds pass as I hold my breath; finally, I hear one last scream, and the sound of breaking bone comes from the machine, and all at once, the lights cut back on.

[23 Essence Acquired]

I take a sigh of relief and sink to the floor to catch my breath for a moment. I glance toward Eden, "Things should hopefully go smoother now that only one of them is left."

"Should we try and find the last one?" Eden asks.

"No, who knows where it is, so let's just block this room off from the inside. When we were looking for the moron, I saw an emergency exit; we can take that out of here."

Eden nods, and we spend the next hour or so hurling whatever we can find in front of the engine room entrance. After that, we swing open the emergency exit door finding a rather long ladder. Ignoring the signals of pain coming from my burnt hand, we hastily make our way up the ladder. Once we reach the top, we unlock the hatch and push it open, finding ourselves back on the deck. The unpleasant sunlight hits my face, and at a glimpse, it seems to be around the late afternoon.

For the first time in a while, I take out my umbrella to block some of the sunlight. I glance at Eden, "Does the sunlight not bother you?"

Showing a rare look of anxiety, Eden turns to me, "Wait, is the sunlight why I feel itchy? I'm not going to turn to ash or anything, am I?"

"Of course not! A vampire's skin is just sensitive to the sun. No amount of sunlight will turn you to ash; it's simply unpleasant, not deadly. The only thing you should keep in mind in the future is if you ever run into someone or something that uses light or holy magic, you should be careful. Our kind tends to be a little more vulnerable to those types of magic."

Not waiting for a response, I toss Eden one of my jackets and start walking toward the bow of the ship. Stepping around the corner, I notice a few silhouettes in the distance.

I frown, "...It seems they caught up to us anyway. Can't I get any time at all to relax?"

**Sigh**

Holding out my hand, I remove a familiar-looking black skull mask along with a jacket from my ring. I place the mask over my face, throw on the coat, and turn to Eden, "Let's get back to the bridge."

Making our way down the desolate hallways, we approach the entrance of the bridge. On the other side of the door, I can hear some happy laughter. I slowly open the door with a loud creak, and the bridge turns silent instantly.

"Oh? What was so funny? Did you all notice the ships in the distance? If you think those ships will stop our fun time, you're wrong." I say mockingly.

"I...is that you, Captain?" the Staff Captain asks with a slight stutter.

"Who else would it be? Anyways don't worry about the ships. Just get back to work and hand me those binoculars over there."

I take the binoculars from the Staff Captain's hands and use them to get a closer look at the ships in the distance. What I find are three Navy Battleships, each flying U.S. flags. Feeling a rare tinge of nervousness, I glance between the ships, noticing a lot of movement around the helicopters on the ships landing pads. They all seem to be the same type of military helicopter except for one model that looks to have a different origin.

'Hmm, I wonder who that might be?'

I hear Eden behind me, "Eira, isn't this pretty bad?"

"It's definitely not good, but I doubt they are willing to sink a cruise ship, especially when they seem to have guests. We just need to make it to port...speaking of which how far are we?" I look toward the Staff Captain.

He hesitates slightly for a moment, "At our current speed, we should reach Anchorage around midnight."

"So about eight or nine hours more than. Well, no time to sit around better start preparing, all of you take off anything that they could use to identify you as the original crew of the 'Moonlight.' Except for you, Audrey."

"Wha..?! Why only me?" She asks me in a panic.

"Because I might need a hostage.", I chuckle.

Audrey doesn't say anything else; she just falls to the ground and stares at the floor.

"Anyways, Eden, I'll need your help with one thing."

"...What is it you're planning to do?"

"I'm going to put on a bit of a performance for them obviously. I just need you to do one thing, and then you can go back to the bridge to keep an eye on the crew."

Eden looks at me with concern, "Oh, okay. Whatever you need, but Eira do you really have everything under control."

I nod and try to give Eden a confident fang-filled smile, but in my mind, I can't help but have a few doubts, 'Things are teetering, and at this point, they could go either way. I'm walking an incredibly thin rope right now.'

Eden tilts her head, "Eira, did you forget you're wearing a mask? I can't tell what you're doing."

"Yes, I'm confident! Now just listen..."

________________________________________________

"Admiral! The helicopters, as well as the soldiers, are prepped and ready to go for Operation 'Moonlight' Recovery."

I turn toward the sailor, "Good. Is the live feed that the White House requested stable?"

"Yes, Admiral. Each soldier has been equipped with their own camera, and the connection is stable."

I give the sailor a firm nod, "Good work. Please tell the Japanese Diplomat and Congressman Miles to join me in the conference room. We'll watch the operation from there."

"Yes, Admiral!" The sailor gives me a salute and leaves.

**Sigh**

"I don't know why, but for some reason, I have a very bad feeling about this operation."