Tyrant's Stars: Parts Three and Four (4 page)

stand it no longer, and then took his sister’s nipple in his mouth. Sue’s body twitched a little. After lightly sucking on her breast, Matthew directed his obsession to her lovely mouth. As her rosy lips continued to draw thread-thin breaths, the boy licked his own lips and brought them closer.

The door abruptly opened just as their lips were about to come together. It was an android sentry.

“What do you want?”

“The enemy is approaching. Please come with me.”

The android came closer.

“Where are we going? What’s the count doing? And what about D?”

“Both of them are fighting a defensive action. I will deliver the two of you to a safe area.”

“But—”

The instant his field of view was filled by the pale blue light that shot from the sentry’s right side, Matthew wondered if heaven weren’t punishing him.

In the operations center, D, who’d paid a call on the infirmary, informed Count Braujou that the two children were missing.

“They’re gone?” the giant said to the three-dimensional, holographic image of D, giving him an intense look as he took a swipe with his long spear. Three androids were sent flying, only to collapse and burst into flames.

“The sentries have been felled? What the hell have the security computers been
doing
? Rest assured—no matter how they got in here, so long as the barrier is up, they can’t get out of the fortress.”

“If they could get in, they can also get out,” D said softly. “As long as Valcua is here, the barrier means nothing. I’m heading out.”

“Very well, I’ll go with you.”

The Nobleman had intended to join the fighting all along, but after the computer notified him of D’s battle with Seurat, he’d gone to the operations center with hopes dashed. In his heart, his wicked Noble blood ran hot.

When the count got to the combat exit, D was already astride a white steed. They hadn’t summoned a single android soldier. The two of them pushed their way into the thick of the enemy troops, who swarmed like bees. Neither of them found it strange.

“Take these,” the count said, throwing the Hunter something that looked like a pair of goggles.

“They’re an information terminal. An SRPV surveillance drone has already been dispatched. It should locate the children within two minutes’ time. When it does, I’ll cut a path through the enemy. You’ll have to rescue them, D.”

Of course, there was no reply to this.

D put the goggles on. They fit well—their weight was negligible and they didn’t seem bulky. They didn’t affect visibility, either.

“Give them commands verbally. We’ll soon—”

That was as far as the count got before glowing green lines made a topographical map that filled his field of view. Four luminous points were on the move.

“Expand those points.”

Instantly, they took on the form of three humans and an android. Seurat and the android were carrying Sue and Matthew draped across their shoulders.

“The forest to the west,” the count said, and then the fugitives halted.

A cyborg horse of twice the normal size was tethered to the trunk of a colossal tree.

“On horseback, he’ll make for the highway to the west and keep going all the way to Valcua’s domain—he must intend to head north. Let’s give chase!”

The count was also astride an enormous horse. Behind him was his car.

“It looks like the night will be at an end soon,” he remarked in an unusual tone that made it sound like he was making excuses.

He then turned to D and asked, “What happened to your left hand?”

It was missing from the wrist down.

“It’s on the job,” D responded.

Whether repairs to the reactor were going well or not was unknown.

“Well then, let’s go!”

At the same moment the count pulled the reins of the gigantic steed, the doors opened. From there they went straight through the central courtyard, where a black dirt road stretched toward the distant gates.

First went D, followed by the count and the car. Thirty feet away, the main gates opened. The words “Barrier removal” danced across their goggles. At the same time, crimson streaks of light flew all around the pair. Struck by them, a portion of the ramparts instantly evaporated.

They crossed the bridge. About a thousand yards ahead, the enemy forces pressed forward. In front of them a titanic pillar of flame went up. The fireball that swelled from it swallowed all their foes in a fifty-yard radius. It was the work of a miniature missile launched from the fortress.

The air was still searing hot as D and his mount bounded forward. The reins were wrapped around his left forearm, while his right hand merely rested on them. As the white steed galloped like it was possessed, the enemy troops closed on it. From the horse’s back, a stark flash of light mowed through them, and they fell. Severed heads and torsos promptly changed into dead branches. Valcua’s magic was gone.

A blue light mowed down enemies with rifles at the ready. The blistering particle beam of seven hundred thousand degrees was fired from a cannon mounted on the roof of the count’s vehicle, and it evaporated not only the soldiers, but also trees and earth.

However, ahead of the pair the enemy milled in a thick black swarm, firing beams and missiles at them. The count’s car was hit by the shots, and the count himself received wounds all over his body from flames and shrapnel.

Can we catch up?
he wondered.

The count’s internal clock was also telling him dawn was nigh. As the enemy soldiers piled up, not seeming to have dwindled in numbers at all, the first doubts crept into the count’s mind.

Will we make it in time?

Just then, the air froze. Shouts and shrieks from the enemy—in fact, all sounds—were completely silenced. Even the wind died out.

“What was that?” the astonished count said in spite of himself. He was asking D. Why did he think D knew the reason for this unexpected silence?

D gave an abrupt kick to the flanks of his steed.

For some reason the count forgot to try to stop him, and he was unable to even follow D, but rather watched the young man’s fate unfurl.

“What’s this?” Braujou cried out, and rightly so.

In front of the galloping D, the soldiers that fell beneath his horse’s hooves were suddenly transformed into dead branches. D dashed right through an army of thousands, if not tens of thousands, leaving nothing but trampled tree limbs strewn in his wake. The magical might of Valcua—the Ultimate Noble—had been broken!

“What in the world
is
this fellow?” the count groaned, finally giving his horse a crack of the reins.

After racing down the highway for about twenty minutes, Seurat heard the beating of iron-shod hooves ringing out behind him. The android carried Sue and Matthew on the back of the giant’s steed.

Turning around, Seurat was expressionless as he said, “I underestimated them. No doubt only the man known as D could’ve smashed through those military forces to give chase. Grand duke, what would you have me do?”

He posed this question to empty space.

A grave answer came in return.

“Just keep going. I’ve taken measures.”

“Yes, milord!” Seurat responded, feeling a chill run down his back.

Only three hundred feet to go. D’s cyborg horse was rapidly closing on the enormous steed up ahead.

Riding another three hundred feet behind him, the count’s eyes widened as he said, “Such speed! I’m glad it’s not me he’s after— well, actually he
is
after me, isn’t he? At any rate, I’m glad it’s not me today.”

He watched as the black figure of D dwindled at an astounding rate. A second later, the count gasped. D had sunk without warning. And not just him, but the gigantic horse ahead of him as well. The ground had collapsed. And the black chasm was headed straight for him.

“This is bad!”

The Nobleman jerked the reins to make a sudden stop, but his body went flying through the air. In midair, the count saw his cyborg horse trip and the car behind it slam into the beast.

A section of road twenty feet wide and four hundred and fifty feet long had given way. It wasn’t an explosion or an earthquake. The molecular structure of the ground had been altered, leaving it in an extremely weakened condition.

Were these the “measures” Valcua had taken?

As the ground swallowed him, D took the reins in his teeth. Using the strength of his two arms and his mouth to control his cyborg horse, he demonstrated a feat that could only be described as wondrous. Though his steed had sunk up to the Hunter’s knees into ground that now resembled pumice, it went no deeper. Skillfully working its four legs, the horse moved relentlessly, as if seeking solid footing.

No longer sinking but still not rising, D watched as Seurat, his giant steed, and the siblings were swallowed by the colossal cavern that opened in the ground.

A sound became audible. A splash. Obviously there was a river running deep underground.

The earth and sand suddenly began to subside much more quickly. The water had begun to wash them away.

Seurat and the others were swallowed by the darkness.

It took about ten seconds for D to hit the water. Cyborg horses could swim across rivers where it was too deep for people to stand. However, the current here trumped that ability.

As he was swept away, mount and all, D focused his gaze behind him and ahead of him. He couldn’t see Seurat, his gigantic horse, or the Dyalhis siblings. All that flowed through the massive underground cavern was black water. The cavern must’ve been at least thirty feet high.