To the Last Bullet

*Pant*

They flock there at the entrance, thinking that I might escape through there. But I am where I intended to be. Behind me is the glass throne—that's, I think, the hidden Darken Stone.

"You're not gonna get away this time!" they say as they surround me.

I don't wanna look like a scared cornered rat so I smirk at them to at least be a smirky little rat. They are preparing to attack. Before they could do anything, I let out an intense Angelus Light to repel them a little bit. This skill is not high-level nor complicated. In fact, it's just an overly-exerted healing skill. They're fazed and that gives me a little time to hide behind the throne. I examine the glass. It glows like the Darken Stones and the aura it gives is the same. This could be it but I'm not a hundred percent sure. I gotta tell Algron and see what he thinks.

The guards attack me from all sides. My stamina is spent but enough for the last attack. I got nowhere to go but through them. Angelus Light breaks out from my fist as I punch. They turn to dust and scatter like pebbles across the throne room.

*Sigh*

Crap, my energy is spent but I must let Algron know. Come, on legs, move! I kick the ground to run as fast as I can. I frown, focusing my mind to keep my legs moving. However, no matter how much I try, I can't move as fast as before. One way to replenish stamina in an instant is a potion but I don't have that yet nor do I have the skill. If I get through this, I'll definitely work on that.

Argh! I trip forward, sliding on the floor. I try to stand again but my knees give up. Crap! Behind me, they are catching up. Their faces of vengeance turn into smirks as they know I can't fight anymore, easy to slay. Then they get blown into pieces by the bright explosion beneath their feet. I turn to look ahead and it's Algron! I'm saved!

"Hang on, boy!" he shouts, reloading his gun. He then shoots twice at his pursuers behind him. They too get blown into pieces. Damn, I want that gun.

"Algron!" I yell in relief as he helps me up using only a single hand. He casts a spell that replenishes my stamina. What is this spell? I want to learn this but now is not the time.

"Why did you rush here?" he asks, shooting at the enemy in the distant hallway.

"I think I found the hidden Darken Stone."

"Uh-huh? Where is it?"

"It's the Throne!"

"Are you sure?"

"I'm not, that's why I was about to tell you."

"Alright, cover my back, we'll go and destroy it."

"What about the other Darken Stones?"

"We'll figure out on the way."

I don't want to say it but that shows he has no idea how to do that. We could plant the Light Bombs again but it's hard now. They already know about it. Ugh! I can't think of anything!

We're in the throne room again but the floor is now littered with fallen guards. He loads different bullets into his gun and aims at the ceiling.

"Cover your head," he says.

Before I could, he shoots at it. The bullets explode catastrophically. The chandeliers shatter into pieces and rain down on us along with rubble and dust. With each shot, the falling pieces of debris become larger until the whole thing collapses. He looms over me and withstands the falling ceiling. It is very dark as we're buried in the rubble. Grunting, he gets us out of it.

*Cough*

The dust is in my throat! It tastes so bad!

I look around but the dust clouds have yet to settle. Algron is reloading his gun and I prepare myself. Above, I see violet light through the dusty air, seven of them. They're the Darken Stones. From here, we can see them all!

"Once the dust cloud settles, I will shoot them all in quick succession. Cover me."

So that's why he destroyed this place. . .

Nothing has happened yet, only the sound of the hissing sand and the rolling rubble. Then a spine-chilling chuckle takes over. It's her.

"You have done it, Algron!" she growls but I can't seem to locate where her voice is coming from. "I trusted you too much. Oh, you will pay for what you've done to my castle. And I'm gonna enjoy every last bit of it when I gouge out your eyes!"

The dust is suddenly blown away as a pair of large bat wings bloodily emerge from her back. She's up there hanging upside-down from the last standing arch of the ceiling! It crumbles as soon as she lets go and descends to crush us.

Algron kicks me away before he dodges. The pile of rubble where we came from is obliterated. A dust cloud is created once more, but the golden glint in her eyes can be seen through the thick.

Her leathery wings flap once and the dust disappears. She goes to attack Algron but he succeeds in defending himself from her. His bullets never miss but no matter how decapitated, she regenerates quickly. The shots are meant to give him time to escape but then his magazine runs out of bullets and has to reload. She pounces on him and I have to do something!

I charge, preparing to deliver a Light Punch. My fist feels the power I landed on her left body but it barely did anything. She bares her very long, saber fangs at me. Her face crumpled ugly.

*Bang* Her ugly face gets erased. Algron gathers himself from the ground. I watch him shoot at a steady interval, pinning her against a large concrete. She can't move from that spot at all. All the while, he summons a large gun and throws it at me. Woah! I fall on my butt as soon as I catch it. It's heavy.

"Use that to blow them all up!" he shouts in the midst of the noise of his pistol barrage. "Hurry," His reloading is now not a second longer. "before I run out of bullets!"

I don't know how much left he has but I'm not gonna assume that he has a lot left. He tells me to shoot the Darken Stones from this distance in quick succession using a gun I can't carry.

<>

**

The gunfire numbs the hearing of Algron as well as the clanging of the empty shells and Carmilla's snarls. His time left to live is counted by his remaining bullets. It's not much—he thought. Memories of his long life flashes before his eyes.

An image of a fangy grit full of will that has been in the back of his mind is now as clear as the day in front of him.

"I don't want to," she sobbed, hugging her knees as she sat on the ground. Her saliva was dripping, desperate for the only thing that can satisfy her hunger.

"Come on," he said. "you have to eat this food if you want to survive."

"I said, NO!!!" she lashed out. Smoke covered her whole body as she dashed away from him and disappeared into the alley.

In the dark places around the city, she would often hit her head repeatedly, desiring to remove her obsession. But no matter how much she bled, it didn't go away. Instead, it just became worse as the years passed by.

"The brat is a lost cause, Algron," said his closest friend, Darick. "She'll die soon enough."

"We can't just leave her," he reasoned. "Every soul of our kind is precious. None can replace the other. For we're on the brink of extinction."

"Not for long. Daemon flesh will soon turn into something all of us will enjoy. We're gonna be very fat when that happens."

"I don't know about that," he mutters, looking at the piece of sea monster meat he prepared on a dish. He'd rather be a friend to the Daemons than their vicious predator.

Years later, he succeeded in transforming his sustenance but the process was too much to bear. None of his friends could walk that same path as they lacked the ironclad will he possessed. Not even the young vampire he wanted to help. Nisha refused to become an Atasaia above all things. She'd rather suffer hunger for hundreds of years and go mad until she dies.

So desperate to live, he casted away his identity as a vampire and became a regular Daemon but relapses whenever Carmilla calls them. Nisha was stubborn, not wanting to become an Atasaia like them. Even Carmilla herself with her power and control could not make her. Everyone just gave up on her. They expected her to die sooner or later. But here she is, still a vampire.

He thought that, however, takes a lot of will too. Ever been curious, he was, wanting to find out what drives her to do this. It was not because of the will to survive—it was more than that, he thought. He always wanted to know but was afraid to ask. His ego stopped him as he thought there is no other way to fuel one's own will but the will to survive.

"I guess, I'll never know," he concludes.

**

<>

"Boy," he says as I aim.

"Yeah?" I answer while I'm at it.

"Take care of Nisha."

Strange words. . . "What?"

*Ping* It's the sound of the hammer of the gun hitting the firing pin without a bullet.

"YARGHHH!!!" Carmilla roars at the same time flesh and bones splatter.

Her hand pierces through his chest!

My throat feels like it's gonna tear apart as I scream, "ALGRON!!!"