Chapter 289 - One After The Other (Part Two)

The geezer was in the air. 

I figured he'd be here. 

The guy was really everywhere. 

"But are you sure-?" The woman smiled. "I might be your only hope of getting her out of there. After all, we three-"

"You kidnap my sister; you try to take her away and now you want to bargain?" I fumed some more and covered Elsa and the geezer with high-quality barriers. "Trust me, I'm very angry right now."

I formed a large plasma ball. We were basically in the middle of nowhere. 

So.

There was only one thing to do.

She clicked her tongue and started to disappear. 

But before she could, I threw, and- EXPLOSION!

Heat, sound, and shockwaves spread through everything. Cracks appeared but the barriers were still good to go. 

The grove of coconuts was no more, instead, there was a puddle of blood, one arm, and a not-so-small crater. 

The geezer dropped from the sky. I undid all the barriers and tried to wake Elsa. 

She was just unconscious. 

I didn't know why but I had this weird feeling about Elsa. 'Maybe it's just my imagination?'

"Did we get her?" The geezer said. 

"Probably not." I still looked around.

"Why not?"

"She seemed like Hyora at first glance. The way she healed was too similar to that of a primordial vampire." But she wasn't quite the same as Hyora, after all, Hyora was a bit smaller and definitely had better healing than this woman. Also, Hyora was both more beautiful and almost always had a smile. "And this woman could turn things invisible, or maybe move things to a different space?"

Cause, my alpha and beta particles weren't picking up anything. 

I still had a thin coating of barrier over my body and the other three had them too. 

Meaning, if this woman could perhaps travel to another dimension and come out to attack us, it was possible, to mitigate it. 

The blood and the severed limb suggested the woman was no more. 

But the possibility remained. What if she survived and- 'What if she's just waiting to attack us?'

An enemy I couldn't detect, one of my worst fears. 

The smell of blood was still in the air and so was the soaring quietness. 

"Let's get her back." The geezer said, undoing Elsa's knots and picking her up. 

But just then- shit! "Drop it, geezer!"

Before he could react, Elsa bit him: eyes trailing red. No, it wasn't Elsa!

I grit my teeth and grappled the thing's skull, and started crushing it. 

'It's not Elsa!'

Crack!

"He-li-o" It spoke in its cracked voice. 

I knew it wasn't my sister. I should have seen this coming. 

And yet- and yet, though I knew she wasn't my sister, I still didn't want to hurt her. 

It was almost as though I couldn't control my own body- I didn't want to hurt her….

But I had to. 

Splash!

Blood spilled out. But as the girl fell on the floor, her shape changed to that of another girl. Her hair turned white. 

I felt a wave of emotion going through. I was really relieved. I knew this girl wasn't Elsa, but, what if I was wrong? The very thought was cruel, which was why, I was glad beyond reason when she didn't turn out to be Elsa. 

The geezer held a hand on his neck and tried to stop the bleeding. When it had bitten him, the thing had planted its fangs deep, so pulling it out like that, was a bad idea. 

"Congrats geezer, you're gonna live forever."

"Shut up moron." His eyes flickered and his skin started becoming white, and eventually burning. 

"Go hide in the shadows or something."

But the problem was, there wasn't much shade here. And I'd just destroyed the grove too. 

A bit of laughter ensued. The woman was still out there. "As I was saying, you didn't think I'd be that much of an idiot, did you?"

"As a matter of fact, I didn't."

I still couldn't trace her. 

So, my second hypothesis seemed more likely. 

She was probably not in this dimension anymore. 

"Geezer, she's still out there. You good?"

I still had remnants of memories about vampires. Gramps had plenty of stuff to say about them. 

Just getting bit by a vampire wasn't enough to turn into one: one had to somehow take in the blood of a vampire to become one. But a bite or even a scratch was enough to make almost anyone severely weak for a few days.

Then again, if the vampire willed it could potentially leak blood from its fangs, so it could make other people lesser vampires and in turn, its follower. Since the geezer's skin was slightly sizzling and all, we couldn't ignore the possibility of him becoming a vampire. 

Judging by that smile though, we probably didn't have anything to worry about. 

"Don't worry." He grinned, barely able to stay on his feet. "This is nothing compared to what I endured back then."

'Well, back then you weren't a geezer.' Of course, I didn't say it. 

Another trickle of laughter. 

"Where is my sister?"

"The core, first."

"And what're you planning on doing with it?"

"Why should I tell you? Don't you care what happens to your sister?"

She did have a point. 

"I do and that's why I can ensure you, I'd erase your very essence from this world if something happens to her."

"Haha ha hahahah!"

The laughter came from across the place. 

I still couldn't trace it. 

So far, nothing was happening. 

"Got any ideas?"

"Nothing." The old man also looked around.

My saber felt slightly warm. 

'Wait.'

I tried waving the saber around. 

'Technically, this can cut through space and time, right?'

Then again, at the time Enira was still kicking and she made sure that it worked. 

But still, even if this worked without her, I had to find this woman first. 

And- though I looked around, nothing changed. 

But I had a feeling where she'd attack. 

First rule of hunting- always target the weak.

And-

Roughly two seconds later, my alpha particles picked up something. 

"Duck!" The geezer ducked and I sliced the air. 

My saber was already going full throttle. 'Work damn it!'

The saber's black color was coated slightly with a tint of blue. And it vibrated like a chainsaw. 

The woman had manifested and she was about to disappear again when she learned of what I was going to do. 

But- but, it was too late: I cleaved her in two. 

Good thing the geezer was short. 

The sword had gone straight through her- despite the hidden parts not being in this world. Half of her fell near the geezer while the other half, beneath my feet. 

I put my feet on the top half and held her on the ground, my saber strictly placed at her neck. "Well? Where is she?"

The saber still had the blue tint. I guess Enira was sharing those powers, despite being asleep. 

'When the hell are you going to come out?'

"This is also alive!" The geezer shouted as he held the other half in place. 

The woman didn't just go into another dimension. 'So, you can't do that if you're physically connected with something or-' Or she chose not to, to throw me off. 

Or this saber just worked. 

"Kill me and you'll never find her."

"I believe you but," I slowly traced my saber through half her neck. "Are you sure?"

"ARHHHHH!" She screamed, screeched, and her mouth formed way too many jagged teeth which she tried shoving down my feet. But I used my other feet to keep that jagged mess of a face in place. She also tried scratching me with those nails of hers. Though painful, it didn't quite do anything to me. In the end, she just stared at me, dumbfounded. "Why do you have her blood?" She almost spoke like a human for once. 

I had no idea whose blood she was talking about and I didn't have any interest in that either. "Elsa, where is she?" I increased the pressure. 

The woman looked to her right, pointed and Elsa manifested again almost like the first time. "There."

"Really?" I smiled, putting a bit more pressure. "And she's not a fake one this time?"

The woman grinned. "With that cursed majestic blood of yours, you can't tell? Disappointed, I am."

Actually, this time it did feel like Elsa, but I couldn't be too sure. 

"What majestic blood? And who are you? Why'd you want Enira?"

"Oh, you don't know?" She grinned. "Maybe it was worth coming to this realm." Her grin widened. "Choose hero, sister or-" With that said. Elsa started to sink in the sand. 

I clicked my tongue, crushed the woman's chest, beheaded her. "Geezer!" 

I ran for Elsa. 

"Gotcha!"

Elsa almost fully sunk in but at the last moment, I caught her hand. Still warm. 

She was already inside the sand, and so was half of my arm, but I had her. I had her.

"ELSA!" I screamed, pulling her up. 

"Helio?" She opened her eyes looking confused. 

Yeah, it was her, it was my sister.