Chapter 26: Monster

-big green forest-

The great green forest, a large expanse full of mutated oak trees of more than 20 meters that extends to occupy the space of a large city, the interior of this forest remains almost always in the shadows, with its interior dimly lit

The only thing that limits this great forest are the remains of the cities that were devastated by the mushroom war, which do not allow the passage of more roots abroad.

This forest was not always so extensive and populated by huge trees that block the view of the sky, it used to be a simple forest that was traveled by families, dogs, children, runners, cyclists, etc.

All this ended with the arrival of the war

bombs and artillery ripped parts of the poor forest piece by piece for several months

Until the arrival of the bomb, the radiation took what was left of the destroyed forest and reshaped it from its roots, the new trees soon replaced the old ones and they grew at an accelerated rate swallowing the weaker plants in their path.

in a few years it was transformed into the immense forest populated by all kinds of mutated wild animals

It is in this place that a confrontation takes place between two almost extinct races due to war and hunting.

humans vs vampires

the beautiful starry sky and illuminated by the full moon now free of contamination, due to the near extinction of humanity could not be captured inside the enormous forest

Two figures were standing facing each other, stepping on the long grass, surrounded by the huge trees and the roots that protruded from the ground, almost seemed to simulate a cage that enclosed them.

everything was vaguely illuminated by the few rays of light that came from the moon and entered through the small spaces between the branches in the sky

one of the figures was surrounded by several cages that contained the last known seed of humanity

he was a vampire, the predator of humans, the hierophant

the other figure facing the vampire with frost slightly covering its surroundings

the human hero, affectionately nicknamed The Hunter

"I think that will suffice, Hierophant."

The words that suddenly echoed through the forest startled the vampire as he was arguing with one of the human girls, but his confusion was soon replaced by a smile upon seeing the human.

"ahh yes, finally we meet again, hunter boy, you don't know how long I've waited for this moment"

"Really? The only thing I remember is you and that stupid goblin running away in a panic, you didn't seem very vindictive back then"

Blanche's words only raised the corners of the hierophant's smile a little more.

"Yes... I admit that you were superior boy, my pride is not so great as to block my view, but now I am on the winning side, if you attack me all the humans that you protect so much will die, starting with this girl!"

The hierophant, now fed up with the chatter, stretched out his arm abnormally towards one of the cages and took a human, the little girl who had bothered him before.

the chemy girl

"Hey! Let me go ugly mustachioed vampire!"

The girl tried to resist by shaking, but her strength was nothing compared to that of the vampire.

Chemy was grabbed by her rabbit hat though she kept trying to writhe away, but a steel blade created by the hierophant's transmutation powers near her neck forced her to remain still

"If you move an inch her head will roll across the grass! Now choose OOO hero! Your life or hers!"

the hierophant seemed to have put Blanche in check, he had a hostage and could cut his throat faster than he could move or freeze the environment, if he was alone, then he would have no choice but to obey

luckily that was not the case

Blanche observed and felt the entire environment from the moment he arrived, he could feel Marceline executing the plan they devised before coming.

-flashback-

"what do you mean?"

"Well I was planning to save this for your birthday, but the situation changed a bit, this is for you"

Blanche approached his tent and came out a few seconds later with a metal box closed with a padlock, after opening the box on one of the long nearby tables he extracted a jar that contained a strange mist inside.

it was the essence of sister moon

"This is the essence of the second most powerful vampire in the court, I killed her a while ago and I was saving it for you, this can give you the ability to regenerate at amazing speeds, making you almost unkillable"

Marceline's eyes widened so much that they almost seemed like two perfect circles. Blanche talked to her a bit about the court, but he never really delved into that subject.

"I...I don't know what to say, this is incredible, with this power I could-"

"I know it's unexpected, but now is not the time, we need a plan, the hierophant holds humans captive to restrain me, so I won't be able to move too much, I can only distract him so-"

"I think I see where you're going with this, he doesn't know that I have the powers of the empress, so you want me to take out the humans while you distract him and then finish him off"

'sometimes I forget that Marceline is a girl who knows how to cut heads with a bass'

"Yeah, that's basically all, although you still have to be careful, if he suspects he could kill the hostages"

-end of flashback-

Blanche could feel Marceline's presence behind the cages that contained the humans, now he had to distract the hierophant long enough for Marcy to make a hole in the cages and take out all the humans so he could kill the hierophant quietly.

"What's wrong! Why don't you talk OOO hero, what happened to your condescension!?"

Blanche was taken from his thoughts by an angry hierophant

"It's nothing, I was just thinking about our first meeting, remember? I was just a kid back then"

'I think making him remember will buy me some time'

The hierophant narrowed his eyes suspiciously at the question, something felt strange in this situation, his instincts refined for centuries were alerting him to some danger but no matter how he saw it, he had the advantage, the human girl prevents the boy from moving and the girl with the bass he read about in one of his reports must have escaped, maybe he was just being paranoid

"ahh of course I remember, we finally broke out of our self-imposed jail to avoid the attention of the human armies and went back to where we belonged, at the top of the food chain..."

While the hierophant was lost in the memories of him and monologue as vampires usually do when they have the upper hand, Blanche felt Marceline's presence just behind the human cages.

she seemed to be communicating with the incarcerated as she bit by bit cut a hole in the cages with her bass.

just a few more seconds and it will all be over for the hierophant

"Yeah, those were good times...until you showed up! You were just a kid, trying to stop us with ice cubes, it was a mistake not to take you seriously! We should have killed you, though that doesn't matter now"

The hierophant smiled, almost seeming to be holding back a laugh.

"No matter how powerful or invulnerable you become, you will always have a weakness! You are A HUMAN!"

the hierophant now seemed fed up with the talk

His free arm transformed into a large eagle-like claw with huge steel claws, large enough to enclose a human inside.

"Now the talk is over Hero! Remember that if you move the girl's head it will say goodbye to her body!"

The vampire lightly shook the quiet girl who was held by his other arm with a blade protruding from his wrist just above the girl's neck. This was what kept the hunter still.

"GOODBYE!"

His enormous transmuted arm stretched out at high speed, traveling the few meters that separated them in a few seconds, pointing at the torso of the human who remained motionless.

everything seemed to be in slow motion as the claws slowly approached the hero's body, almost brushing his clothing, but an impassive gaze never left his face.

he even seemed to be holding a smile at the corner of his lips

but finally the claw reached its destination, piercing the hero's stomach before the horrified eyes of the girl

time seemed stopped in the forest, the hero was still standing a few meters from the vampire, almost the same as before... but a huge claw was piercing his stomach

the hero was looking at the arm that was going through his body, so his expression was hidden from the vampire and the girl

a few seconds later, Blanche's whole body began to shake, maybe he was shaking in pain

"*giggle* *giggle* pffff- sorry I can't take it! It always tickles me when it comes to my stomach-"

At the startled look of the vampire, Blanche's body moved like a liquid as he slid to the side, leaving the claw suspended in the air.

The hierophant's surprise was not because of his powers, they have been facing each other for several years and he has already seen him ignore this type of damage, he was surprised that he ignored his threats towards the hostage

"What are you doing? Don't you care what happens to this girl? I'm going to kill her!"

The angry vampire brought the blade closer to the girl's neck with the full intention of cutting off her head, but a sudden voice that came out of the void next to his ear paralyzed him briefly and stopped the movement of his blade.

"I don't think so, you ugly old geezer!

The paralyzed hierophant didn't have time to process the situation properly until a searing, burning pain traveled from his arm to his brain.

"ARGHH!"

the arm holding Chemy fell to the ground in front of boots that levitated slightly above the ground

Marceline was holding chemy, with a blade of fire protruding from her hand, she was unable to bring her bass down due to not being covered by her invisibility.

The hierophant staggered back holding the place where his arm used to be, the wound was instantly cauterized by heat, so it didn't bleed a bit, to his good luck?

The confused hierophant opened his eyes with shock when he saw Marceline, he recognized those powers, the invisibility of the Empress and the flight of The Fool.

He always thought that Blanche had a special method to kill them forever, but he never imagined that a half-demon girl would be the cause of all the permanent disappearances (he acknowledged that Marceline was part-demon even in their canonical confrontation).

the vampire's eyes went to the cages that were already empty, all the humans escaped

finally his eyes landed on Blanche and Marceline a few meters from him, both looking at him as a hunter looks at his prey.

everything was in a tense silence for a few moments

Blanche was the first to speak.

"Marcy, please take Chemy with the others, I need to take care of this"

"what! but I also want...."

Merceline's words stopped when she looked at Chemy in her arms, the girl was shaking quite a bit, being a hostage really isn't a pretty experience.

"*sigh* it's fine, but next time I'll mutilate and you help, okay?"

Blanche answered, but his eyes never left the wandering eyes of the hierophant.

"like glass"

Marceline flew out of the forest with Chermy in her arms, trying to comfort her.

now there were only the two of them left in the silent forest

Blanche was preparing for a final fight, but the hierophant didn't move, didn't even try to transform or speak to him.

"What's wrong? scared? Or have you already given up?"

The vampire did not respond to the provocations, but slowly lowered his only remaining arm and stood still, almost as if he waited for death to end all of this more quickly.

though his eyes were still moving restlessly as if he was thinking about something

This disappointed the hunter who expected more fight

"I guess you really give up, I really expected more..."

The hierophant's eyes finally held steady and he spoke quietly, almost whispering.

"You expected more....hunter? What exactly did you expect? From the moment I had to resort to these dirty tricks to get a chance to finish you off, you should have expected this."

"I...an honorable vampire taking hostages to kill a mere human boy *laughs* is almost comical"

"*sigh* this was my last attempt....I knew that if I failed this would be the end of me, but I had to try, because of my pride and my race, I had to finish you human, I could never understand how a simple child took my race to near extinction..."

The hierophant looked into the hero's eyes

"but looking into your eyes in my final moments finally gives me the answer, your eyes never really looked at me as a threat or an enemy...."

"Looking at your empty eyes...it seems you don't even see me as a living being, so I came to a conclusion."

"You are not a human...you are a monster"

[special thanks to my two Patreon donors Eric Mosby and Yaish who motivated me to write the most]

PS I hope you liked the chapter, I tried to expand the world building a bit and create a classic superhero situation that can't act due to a hostage, the MC is so superior to the Hierophant currently that a simple fight would have been very boring

By the way, I opened a patreon, all the content is free, it contains few things because it's just done but in the future it will have more behind the scenes and various surveys that can influence the story if you want to go look at it I already uploaded a survey to determine what the arc of princess bubblegum will be like and the future of marceline, donations are only optional!

patreon.com/Ims420