Chapter 4.4 || Reassessment

Solus Brittanica

Janus 17, 1923 A.V

Astra Universalis College, Thamesford

Olivia Harker

Fire was in the skies. Fire rained down as the ships fell. She watched it. The invaders reeling back as the humans brought in the aquilas and outmaneuvered the Crescent at each turn. The strigoi ships went down one after another, crashing down on some parts of the city. Fire and explosions spread across the already ruined streets.

The battle in the heavens had concluded in a human victory, but there were still the foot soldiers walking across the city. Sowing chaos in their wake.

She scurried across the street, a rat running from cover to cover, determined to get to where she needed to go. The university. She could have gone back home to Dante, but as far as she knew her people were safe underground. Those in Thamesford didn’t have that luxury. 

What are you doing, Liv? 

She shook her head, shaking the thought away. People are dying. Now wasn’t the time to be selfish. No. She could be. She could turn back and let the Fordians deal with their own problems. Yet her feet carried forward again.

The university should have been up ahead. She could see it. At least—what was left of it. She could see it in the distance. Half of what remained was burning up in flames while the rest were a pile of bricks and rubble on the ground. 

No. No. No. Is there anyone still alive? Did they get out in time?

“Sol, there better be someone left alive,” she whispered to herself, dashing forward, vaulting over the university gates. She burst through one of the doors and ran across the hall, kicking down every door she came across.

“Hello?! Is there anyone there!” she called out. “If anyone can hear me it’s not safe! Follow my voice! Get out of here now!”

Nothing. Emptiness. If there was anyone who was in the building, they were probably dead or buried under the rubble. Olivia hissed in frustration. She had checked about three dozen rooms and there was still no sign of any soul. 

She paused in her step, and took a deep breath. She focused on the scents all around her, trying to catch a whiff of something other than smoke and death. Her ears listened in for the slightest of sounds, keeping them open. 

They twitched, catching some shuffling in the upper levels. She quickly took a turn and ran for the nearest staircase. “H-hello?!” she called. “Is anyone there! We need to get out of the building now!” 

She got up to the third floor, where she skidded to a stop. The sounds were clearer now, and a faint sobbing could be heard at the end of the hall. 

It has to be in one of the rooms. 

She sped across the hallway faster than any man, bursting through one of the doors. Whatever barricades that were blocking it were simply thrown by her sheer strength alone. As soon as she entered an ear-piercing shriek welcomed her. A young woman was screaming, pointing at her huddled with two other women and a young man in the corner of the room. 

“It’s them! It’s the strigoi!” the woman cried out. 

Olivia placed her hands up in front of her and tried to speak, but a sudden blow landed at the back of her head, making her stumble. “D-Die Crescent leech!” another man yelled, as he slammed a crowbar against Olivia’s temple. She hissed, baring her fangs. 

“Stop! I’m not Crescent!” she said, raising her hands. “Stop swinging that thing before you seriously hurt someone!”

The young man didn’t listen, charging at her and swinging wildly. Olivia hissed, catching it in one hand and yanking it off the attacker’s grip. “I’m not Crescent! I’m from Dante! Duskwalker!”

Just as she finished talking, she felt a piercing pain shooting from her back. She looked down at her abdomen, seeing a piece of rebar jutting out. “Bloody fucking scheiße!” she growled, whipping her head around to see one of the women backing away in fear.

“I-it won’t die… t-the monster won’t die!” the woman screamed, cowering back to the small group huddled by the corner.

“Qué coño haces?! I’m trying to save you people!” Olivia hissed, pulling the rebar out of her stomach. She threw it to the side, glancing at everyone in the room. She shook her head and took a deep breath, trying to regain her composure. “Look, I know you’re scared but you need to get the bloody hell out of this place now. It’s not safe.”

“P-please don’t hurt us… please, please don’t hurt us!” some of the women whimpered. Olivia threw her hands up in frustration. “Oh for the love of Sol, I am here to rescue you! Get the fuck out of here right now!”

The humans looked at each other in fear, before getting up and running past her, speeding down the hall where she came. She grunted, pulling up her clothes to check on her wound. It was slowly closing up before her eyes. 

“At least it wasn’t laced with silver,” she said. Just as she was about to leave the room, a sudden scream rang from downstairs, nearly making her jump. 

No. But I just—

Olivia ran out of the room and made her way back downstairs silently wishing what she heard was just her mind messing with her, but as she reached the last step of the staircase it was already too late. There were three Crescent soldiers, two of them were feasting on the blood of the two young men, their jaws around their necks.

Two of the three women were dead on the ground, one of which had her bowels torn out, glassy eyes staring into nothingness. The last one—the one who had stabbed her earlier—was crying helplessly against one of the lockers, while the third soldier taunted her.

The soldier slowly turned his head toward Olivia raising a brow. “Who are you?” he asked. “What unit are you from? And what are you wearing?”

Olivia stood there, frozen taking in the scene in front of her. The smell of blood hit her like a truck, sweet and intoxicating, in contrast to the massacre in front of her. Her head spun, suddenly feeling sick to her stomach.

“I asked you a question. Why aren’t you in uniform?” the Crescent soldier said.

The other two paused in their feeding, looking up at the strigoi woman before them. “Mein gott, she’s not one of us. She doesn’t look like one of us,” one of them said.

“Are there strigoi living outside of  Italiemagne? I have not heard of that. Are there more? Here?” the soldiers spoke among themselves looking at each other.

“You!” the one by the woman called, standing up. “Are you from here? Are there more strigoi in Thamesford?!”

Olivia’s eyes were stuck to the bodies on the floor, ignoring the soldier’s questions. “You killed them…” 

“She… she really isn’t one of us,” one of the men gasped. “W-we need to report this! The Rexus and Kaiser need to know there are others outside the walls!” 

“No,” Olivia said. She stared at them, taking a slow step forward. “You’re not reporting anything. You won’t make it out of this place. Not while I’m here.”

“S-stop! Halt! What are you doing?!” one of them said, reaching for his arqer. 

Olivia turned to the woman, still crying on the floor. “Close your eyes.”

“W-what are you—”

In a blink Olivia closed the distance toward the Crescent soldier in front of her, stabbing her hand through his throat and coming out the other side. She took his arqer from his hand and fired two shots into his chest. 

The soldiers screamed in confusion, taking too long to reach for their weapons. Olivia wasted no time. She threw the body at one of the soldiers, before rushing the other. The soldier tried to defend against his attacker, raising his arqer to shield himself. 

Snap. 

The fear set in the man’s eyes as he saw Olivia break the arqer in half with one strike. He didn’t have time to react before the duskwalker’s hands plunged deep into his abdomen, raising him into the air and making him squeal like a pig.

Flesh started to rip, and his spine snapped and popped. The scream was overtaken by horrifying sounds of gurgling. Olivia grunted and forced her arms away from each other. She severed the soldier's top from his bottom, tearing him in half.

“H-how are you…” the remaining soldier muttered before turning around to run. Futile. There was no running away. Olivia caught up behind him before he managed to put some distance between them, and grabbed him by the back of his head. 

She hissed and screamed, slamming the soldier’s head down on the concrete floor with all her strength, bloodying the ground. She did it again… and again… and again. 

She stopped, taking a moment to catch her breath. She looked down at her hands covered in blood, clutching what was barely a head left. 

Olivia took a deep breath, shaking her head and wiping the blood off her hands frantically. “Get off. Get off. Get off!” she said to herself, taking a step back from the scene. She turned her head back to the last surviving woman, still huddled in the corner, now clutching one of the soldier’s arqers.

Olivia slowly walked back to her, putting her hands up as she approached. “Hey. Hey, you’re okay now. They won’t hurt you anymore, okay? It will be okay.”

“T-they killed my sister…” the woman spoke, clutching the arqer to her chest. 

The duskwalker frowned and crouched down, and slowly reached out. “I’m so sorry for your loss. But w-we can’t stay here, okay? We need to get to safet—”

 The woman suddenly pointed the arqer at her “Stay back!” she said. “S-stay the fuck back you monster! Get away from me!”

Olivia took a deep breath. “Look, I know—”

“Y-you don’t know shit! Stay fucking back you bloody leech! Y-you took her away from me. M-my sister is gone! I can’t—! I-I can’t live without her. I can’t go on. I can’t go on.”

“Please, just calm down. You’re not thinking properly right no—”

Bang.

Olivia fell backwards into the ground, a searing pain in her chest echoing across her body. She hissed, clutching the wound where the bullet had entered. She strained her neck upward, looking back at the young woman, with the arqer now pointed at herself.

“I can’t live without her. I can’t. I can’t go on like this. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” the woman rambled on, closing her eyes, the arqer pressed tightly against her own skull.

Olivia’s eyes widened. “N-no wait! Don’t—!”

Bang. 

Olivia blinks, blood all over her face, and the woman in front of her slumped against the wall. The duskwalker stared at the body in front of her, lifeless. Her lips quivered, blood slowly streaking down her eyes. Her hands balled up into fists and slammed into the floor, making it crack. 

She screamed as loud as she could.