Noble Nocturne

by Ta-kun

The cemetery was always a foul place. The Church that had been erected upon the banks of the nearby river had long since fallen to decay. It's ruins stood awkwardly off to the side. It's bricks had crumbeled to dirt under the conditions, the tapestries of various Saints were ripped and frayed, and damp from their long stage of decomposition. A toppeled reminder of the failure of the Lord's men here.

Walter Komm Dorne stood tall on the boggy earth, youthful eyes taking in the cemetery around him. Twisted roots of bare trees stretched into the murky water of the shallow river. Like desperate animals clawing to reach something unatainable, yet also destructable. A poison paradise, or a hellish haven perhaps. A fallen branch floated listlessly along the current.

Walter trod over the uneven mounds of dirt, the very rare clump of grass crackling under his shoes. The graves surrounded him at all angles. Stone crosses, headstones, angels, tombs, plaques, memorials. There was never a meter between each - another proof of an existance would sit on the earth besides it. Like the actual state of the clearing, each tombstone seemed to reflect the existance here.

Green moss scaled angel busks like tyrant nets. Each statue becoming their own individual Gulliver. Gravestones were broken from being exposed too long without care. The wind and rain had lashed them like whips to match them with their dead keepers. To the right a plaque lay broken and half burried in the rotting earth. A brass urn was turned upside down in it's cove on the wall. The ashes long since had rushed away, racing on the winds breath.

The youth kept his hands within the pockets of his suit, making his way between the mass of obstacles in his path. The crescent moon infront of him was framed on either side by tall trees. Branches seemed to claw over the surface of the light. To contain and keep it. The curved light escaped though, but not untarnished. The light echoed along the ground in cracks, resembling the old stain glass windows of the cathedral.

At the back of the graveyard a fenced off section sat. Various identicle headstones on either side of a stone door stood straight, but blank. The words washed away. The stone door however had kept it's mainstay. The words that had been chiseled upon it were sharp and fine.
One must embrace death to be able to pass into the beyond.

The teenager approached the monolith, the solid stone swinging open freely as if on hinges. Walter crossed the threshold into a crypt. It's walls were the tightly packed trees and undergrowth instead of cement. Ghostly lanterns swung on tree limbs, their ring handels creeking from their lack of oil. The candles themselves however were fresh. Waxy sticks all lit, not even a half inch of the wick melted. The youth wandered down the candle lit path which twisted around a bend. The path broke away at the sides every few meters, each leading to a cement coffin.

At the bottom of the trail a small clearing lay. A lone oak grew up out of the center, various graves around the edges and another cement casket at the back. Walter stopped in the middle of the pathway, watching the lone tree with an indifferent expression. The tree's shadow lay pooled underneath it, growing vastly. Spreading. Stretching. Clawing it's way up the tree and hanging before flowing back out as if the wind blew through it. A solid black cape fell back against the tree, hugging a pair of shoulders belonging to a figure, watching the same tree.

"Another of Hellsing's hounds..." The figure's head turned to peek over it's shoulder at Walter. The eye's were narrowed in an almost lustful look, crimson eye's burning as the canine fangs under a hooked nose became more prominant. "..In the flesh."
Walter's pose never faltered, the teen's hands remaining inside the pockets of his pressed trousers.
"Another FREAK vampire, in the..." Walter paused for a moment, tilting his head downward and smirking as his eye became an obvious impression of the vampires own, peeking out from the black hair over his forehead. "... flesh."

The vampire smirked in return, spinning around to face the new arrival. "Ah, how the young do possess such confidence. Ambition perhaps..." Behind Walter a swinging lamp slipped off of it's perch, free falling before breaking against the firmer ground. He didn't flinch. The vampire's fang's seemed to grow in hunger. "Easily confused with arrogence as well, but never-the-less there. Burning as strong as the blood in your veins. But why waste complements on someone who won't live long enough to enjoy them?"

Behind him, two FREAK vampire's approached Walter. The youth looked over his shoulder at them. Their fangs were beared and they were stalking slowly forward. Walter turned back to face the vampire infront of him, the corner of his lip quirked upwards. "Your sire are pretty unimpressive. If I were you, I'd demand a chance to exchange them." Behind him, the vampires pounced in anger.

Walter stared straight into the eye's of the FREAK, eyebrows raising in amusment before spinning around. His right hand flew from his pocket, curving up in an arc. A flashing silver trail whirred in the air around him, four fillament wires tied to his fingers spun outwards. The two sire vampires were slashed across the arms as Walter pushed forward, palm stretched outwards and dipping vertically. He completed the move as quickly as he started, arm launching upwards as the vampires watched in final shock.

The FREAK by the tree watched as Walter stood facing him. The youth gave the vampire a manic grin as the wires stretched from his crossed hand between his teeth and down to his left. Behind him the two sire vampires split and fell. Clean cut limbs became a bloody pile, scarlet rain splattering them. Not a drop of blood dripped from the silver wire that seemed to spring from his fingerless gloves.

"Considering how much more... traditional you speak for a FREAK, I hope you're not as careless as your sire."

The vampire flexed it's body before throwing itself forward. It's fang's were long and and jaws open, roaring in rage. Walter grinned and jumped sideways, letting go of the wire between his teeth. The vampire followed suit, turning around and glaring at the youth.
"You will go down for what you did to my kin!"
"Go down? I'm going up!"

The Angel of Death stepped onto a fallen tombstone, jumping up onto the nearby cement coffin and crouching low against it. Half of the stepping stone he had used sailed over his head and he saw the letters "R.I.P." before it shattered into another gravestone. The FREAK seemingly stepped straight up onto the coffin however, over the wrecked monument that the human had used.

Walter held two fingers up against his face, smirking. His hand extended outwards as he jumped backwards off of the hollow slab of concrete. Two fillament wires shot forth, stinging the vampire's arms with ease. The wounded creature of the night growled, jumping down upon Walter. A blood chilling roar filled the air as it was inches from the teen, moments from tearing his neck open. Instead, again, it was defied the that what it now needed. No longer wanted, needed. It was cheated again. The human rolled out of the way, something silver filling the air in front of it's face before the hot iron feeling of before slapped it.

The vampire regained it's balance, it's own blood slipping down it's cuts on it's arms and face. Walter stood a few meters away. The Angel of Death staring openly at the vampire. And then he grinned. The air streaked sliver for a few fleeting seconds, like a wild spirit roaring at the living before it was over. Walter stood, hand outstretched.

"Well..? I'm waiting..."

Walter moved his hand an inch, and in the light of the filtered moon shone four wires tied to his fingers, stretched out towards the vampires body.

"It's over. You missed it."

The sound of whirring filled the air. Four wires sliced the vampires body, a bloody assortment of peices slipping between the strands before igniting. The silver shot backwards like a whip being cracked. Walter placed his hand inside his trouser pockets as black ash fell silently to the ground in front of him.

"In the name of God, impure souls of the living dead shall be banished into eternal damnation. Amen."

The Angel of Death turned his back and made his way to the entrance of the crypt. The light from the swinging lanterns dying before he reached the the top of the hill.

************