DEGARUTA! Episode 07

DEGARUTA! Episode 07: Vanquish the Night!! A Climactic Finish!

    Preparations for the Gate ritual have begun in the basement of Carmina's base. Xavier begins making his way down stairs knowing that Carmina and his comrades are about to begin fighting upstairs. Upon getting to the basement floor he sees several undead, and several lesser vampires preparing an alter for the ritual. Energy has already been gathered and is discharging above the altar in preparation. If he can sabotage things here, whether or not things go well upstairs won't matter. He draws his weapon and prepares to attack.

	Upstairs, Carmina summons several lesser vampires and thralls and begins fighting Mike, Raptro, Erica, and Zentaro begin engaging the adds while also making attacks on Carmina. Despite her vampiric aversions, she is strong in fire magic, and in her feral form her claws prove a match for even Zentaro's mythical blade skills. Erica demands to know what happened to Xavier, because she is a good person, Mike can't be bothered to ask and Raptro doesn't speak any of the common tongue. Carmina reveals that he is ging to be the final piece of the gate ritual to summon the Demon Lord's army, and that even if they should stop her from using him to open the gateway, she still has enough energy to transport a sizable force. With that force she can occupy the city and start the ritual over properly at her leisure.

	Xavier jumps down like a mad man, kills the lesser vampires and the undead because he took them by surprise and no other reason. He studies the altar for a moment and decides he has no idea how to stop the thing so he decides to just break it. Thankfully he has just the thing stowed away in his gear, a combination of alchemist fire and gunpowder in 2 small explosive charges. He remembers for a moment the time he shared with Carmina, and her explanation that even the races being commanded by the Demon Lord are doing so unwillingly, and that she has no choice but to do this for the sake of her people. He shakes it off, cause shit happens and he has no time for that. Shits about to explode.

	As the battle continues to go on upstairs, Raptro unlocks one of his class abilities, as a monk he can focus his ki to harden his skin into a natural armor. Doing so makes his blows more powerful. Thanks to this he makes short work of Carmina's adds. Now the party can focus all of their energy on the Vampire Noble herself. She calls upon the power of her ancestors and achieves a form more monstrous than that of her feral form and attacks, Erica is prepared to use Turn Undead on her but there is something off about her that she doesn't understand. Mike uses his broadsword and imbues it with mana to block her now super powerful attacks while Zentaro prepares a finishing move.

	Suddenly the building is rocked by a huge series of explosions and begins to shake all around them, the floor beginning to collapse beneathe them. Xavier emerges from the stairs into the area and asks what he missed. Everyone, including Carmina stare at him, almost all of them wordlessly asking the same question, “What did you do?” Xavier explains he set some home made magical Semtex on the Altar and blew it to bits, but then everything started getting all shakey. Carmina shouts at him, “You fool! If you've destroyed the altar then the incomplete ritual is misfiring! With the energy it already has gathered its going to pull everything into itself without stopping!”

	Everyone runs like hell as the building begins to collapse on itself. The Vampire now in her human form again, along with our heroes stare at the foundation of where a building once was, and several floors down below where there is a small vortex of energy swirling, the air is beginning to be sucked into the hole like a vaccuum. Mike shakes his fist at Xavier for accidentally causing a China Syndrome, Raptro acknowledges that he knows what that is. No one knows what to do.

	Carmina explains that since the gate was partially completed and disrupted its basically a big hole to the void between worlds now, that it will slowly pull everything into it until there is nothing left unless stopped. Xavier turns to her and asks her if she can stop it. She says she has the power to do so, but asks him why she should, after all she is a servant of the Demon Lord. Erica threatens to use Turn Undead on her if she doesn't cooperate when Xavier explains that it won't work, Carmina isn't a traditional vampire, shes still alive she simply has accepted her vampiric nature. Zentaro threatens to take her head, Mike threatens to use holy water torture methods, Raptro agrees. Finally Xavier says to her, “You hate serving the Demon Lord right? We'll we're trying to stop them, and if all the nonhuman races serving the Demon Lord are doing so unwillingly, then you gotta make a stand somewhere. Yeah you lost the war to protect your lands, but the fight goes on.”

	Xavier continues like this for another few minutes but it amounts to 'believe in yourself, believe in the you who believes in me, we can do it, power of friendship, redeem the blah blah blah.' Strangely moved by this, Carmina explains to the party that she can stop the ritual, but in order to do so she would need to use her vampiric power to unleash a great deal of mana at the vortex, and to do so it would take someone to sacrifice themselves. Carmina accepts responsibility and begins casting a spell to stop the vortex, she explains that when she steps into the lightning, her body will be mass converted into mana and it will stop the Vortex. Erica tells them not to believe her because she'll just use her death to stabilize it. Xavier and Mike have a brief discussion out of ear shot and come to an agreement, as the lightning grows closer to Carmina's body, everyone is blinded as the Mana is discharged and hurls into the vortex, closing it just as Carmina had promised, yet the Vampire nobile still stands with the party, although noticeable covered in gore.

	At the last moment Xavier grabbed and with Mike's help threw Raptro into the lightning and sacrificed his body to convert it into Mana. If she had betrayed them and used it to stabilize the portal they could have dealt with her then to close the portal up, but Xavier had a hunch it wouldn't come to that. Raptro's body is completely obliterated except for some particularly bloody chunks that litter the ground around them.

	As the night draws to a close, the party breath easily knowing the threat to the city is over, the remaining undead have been vanquished by the city guard, and all that remains of the expeditionary force is Carmina. Carmina sits on her knees and awaits her fate. Mike tells everyone Raptro will ressurect in 30minutes and to be careful not to step in him because he isn't sure if he'll feel it or not. Zentaro and Erica want to take the Vampire's head. Xavier stops them however, he explains that she may work for the Demon Lord, but she isn't that bad. He is reminded of how she killed Neil unprovoked, to which Xavier handwaves as “Neil was probably a pedophile, or some kind of anti-semite. I can't prove it but he had the look of it.” His dismissal of their concerns angering the party.

	He turns to Carmina and tells her “The fight against the Demon Lord will continue, they have been summoned to stop them. The information she provided him earlier will go a long way in stopping the Demon Lord's army. And one day they may be able to free her people and their lands. If she will aid them in their fight, perhaps she will see the day the Vampires are free again.” He then unties her and tells her she has her whole future ahead of her and to decide whether or not she wants to spend it to help the people important to her, or waste it letting them remain subjugated. She replies that she'll take it under consideration and uses a teleport spell to get away.

	Doskel is saved, the case of the strange attacks is solved, a new hero has been summoned to help the cause, and both Mike and Xavier now have a better understanding of their respective Cheat Abilities. As the sun rises on a new day, the party stares daggers into the back of Xavier's head as he just let the villain get away on a gamble that maybe she'll help them, something everyone involved highly doubts. After making their final report to the guard they return to the guild to turn in the quest. Turns out they do not get credit or cash for the quest as the quest was specifically to slay the vampire, not demolish several buildings and open up a suction vortex to the void, or let the vampire go.

	The Party must decide the next step of their journey, however a mysterious projection appears before them. Mike and Xavier immediately recognize it as their friend Piper, she is semi transparent and floating in the air, she has no idea what happened or how she got there, only that she has been instructed to tell the 3 of them, “Go To Falgus, the city at the foot of the mountain and the steps of the great canyon.” Before they can ask any more she vanishes. Erica asks why Raptro hasn't respawned yet, Xavier and Mike dismiss their concerns as “it will be fine.” Checking the quest board they see there is actually a delivery quest to Falgus, so they accept it, and turn in for the day. What new adventures await them tomorrow? No one can say. Will Raptro respawn? No one can say. Why was Piper a magical hologram? No one can say. Find out next time on the next exciting episode of DEGARUTA!