Arknights: The Scarlet Devil of Terra — Chapter 74

Chapter 74: The Flying Alina

“Great, great! Super Hunter Flandre is about to go online!”

Flandre Scarlet bounced on her toes, launching herself into the air to execute several flawless somersaults. To the little vampire, the actual task hardly mattered. What truly counted was that she had been given a mission. It proved that Flandre was incredibly capable and that the camp needed her.

“It just so happens that the Yeti Squadron will be heading south into the forest to hunt tomorrow. Little Flandre, you should go with them.” Talulah released a quiet breath of relief upon seeing the girl agree so readily.

After the tactical meeting concluded, Alina approached the little vampire. The gentle woman had encountered several beyond understanding bottlenecks while studying magic. Coincidentally, Flandre was a professional master of the arcane, at least in the theoretical sense. To her, Alina’s struggles were as simple as breathing.

“Flying is super easy. Hmm, let us go practice on the nearby mountain!” Flandre grabbed Alina by the wrist and dragged her toward a jagged peak looming just outside the settlement.

Standing at the edge of a sheer cliff, Flandre pointed into the abyss. “Jump down. Do not overthink the flying part. Just feel the wind lifting you up.”

Alina peered over the precipice. The drop was easily fifty or sixty meters down to the unforgiving rocks. “I will die if I fall, will I not?”

Flandre fell silent for a few seconds. “Probably not!”

“Ah, it is so high. Little Flandre, will you catch me?” Alina swallowed hard, her eyes fixed on the dizzying drop.

“Flandre means, you probably will not die. After all, by normal human standards, Sister Alina does not belong to the category of being normally alive.” Flandre tapped her chin, pondering the best way to articulate the concept. She had never actually seen a vampire fall to their death. Vampires were already dead to begin with. Simple kinetic impacts from a fall would not cause any permanent harm to their physiology.

Alina slowly realized the truth in those words. Although she appeared perfectly alive, her current existence hovered in a twilight state between life and death. Falling to her doom was a mortal concern, something that no longer applied to her new body. Unless the ground below was paved with holy artifacts or silver, she would survive.

“Haha, I completely forgot.” Alina offered a wry smile. She stood at the very edge of the cliff, closing her eyes to recall the complex pathways of the flight spell Flandre had taught her.

“Then I am going down first.” Opening her eyes, she looked at the small girl beside her.

“Do not worry. If you really go splat, Flandre will just use a Restoration Spell to fix you right up.” Flandre patted her own chest, offering a confident guarantee.

Steeling her resolve, Alina took a step forward and leaped into the void.

Flandre immediately dove after her.

“Do not be afraid of the sky! Feel the power of the wind! Then fly!” Flandre’s voice echoed right beside Alina’s ears as the wind whipped past them.

Alina forced down the primal terror gripping her chest and channeled her magic.

A dull, wet crunch echoed through the canyon. Alina hit the ground hard.

“Sigh, what a pity. Just a bit too slow.” Flandre hovered near the ground, scratching her head while casually casting a Restoration Spell over the mangled form.

A few seconds later, the broken flesh and shattered bones knitted back together, restoring Alina to her flawless state. After another dozen seconds, the woman suddenly sat up, gasping for air.

“How does it feel?” Flandre tilted her head, her crimson eyes wide with curiosity.

“It is… it is too intense.” Alina rubbed her arms, her scalp still tingling from the phantom sensation of her own demise.

“Uh, Flandre did not mean the feeling of jumping down. Flandre meant the flight spell.” The little vampire clarified that if Alina wanted to experience free fall, she could do that anytime. This was dedicated teaching time. Flandre considered herself an excellent instructor, which meant her student needed to grasp the concept perfectly.

“I caught that feeling.” Alina nodded, a sudden spark of excitement replacing her lingering dread. If she had possessed just two more seconds of airtime, she definitely would have stabilized her flight. She had simply run out of altitude.

She looked up at the towering cliff face. “I think I can fly up.”

A gentle gust of wind swirled around her boots. Alina’s body became weightless, and she began to float upward, wobbling unsteadily like a newborn bird.

“Great job, Sister Alina! But do not be too nervous. Imagine yourself as a bird.” Flandre lightly tapped the ground with her toe and drifted up beside her.

Alina had indeed been tense, her muscles locked tight in concentration. But seeing the little girl floating effortlessly beside her, offering a bright smile, her anxiety melted away.

A minute later, the two of them drifted over the edge of the cliff and touched down on the solid rock.

The moment her boots hit the dirt, Alina surged forward, scooping Flandre into a tight hug and spinning her around in pure joy. “I can fly!”

“Sister Alina, let us fly down together and give Sister Talulah a surprise!” Flandre grabbed Alina’s hand. Together, they kicked off the ground, ascending higher and higher into the clouds. Soon, the sprawling Reunion camp below shrank until the tents and people resembled tiny ants.

“So this is the sky.” Standing suspended in the boundless air, Alina looked down, her voice breathless with awe.

“That is right. This is above the sky.” Flandre had already let go of her hand.

Alina felt a brief spike of panic without the physical anchor, but the fear was swiftly washed away by an overwhelming tide of exhilaration.

“Very good, Sister Alina. You are no longer afraid of the sky. You can fly whenever you want from now on. Next, you just need to practice. If you spend enough time moving around without your feet touching the ground, you will master it.”

To Flandre’s experienced eyes, Alina still looked incredibly stiff. Rather than gracefully soaring, the woman appeared to be awkwardly swimming through the air. The way she paddled up, down, left, and right was highly amusing. But technique came with time. Once Alina grew accustomed to the spatial freedom, she would be as agile as a true denizen of the sky.

Later, Flandre planned to teach her how to weave danmaku. Then they could fill the heavens with beautiful, destructive patterns and engage in thrilling aerial battles. The mere thought of the two of them painting the sky with explosive light made the little vampire giggle uncontrollably.

“Flandre. Flandre.” Alina waved a hand in front of the girl’s face, pulling her out of her violent daydreams.

“Let us dive back to the village!” Flandre cheered.

“Sister Alina, do not forget to enjoy the descent!”

The two plummeted toward the earth in a sheer free fall. Flandre intentionally dragged her speed, positioning herself just a fraction behind Alina to create a specific illusion.

Down in the camp, several fighters happened to look up. Screams and shouts of alarm immediately shattered the quiet afternoon.

Hearing the commotion, Talulah stepped out of her command tent and followed the collective gaze of her soldiers. Her crimson eyes widened in horror. She saw Alina hurtling down from the heavens at terminal velocity. Flandre was diving right behind her, reaching out desperately as if trying to catch the falling woman but remaining just an inch out of reach.

“Alina, no!” Talulah felt the blood drain from her face. She sprinted toward the projected impact zone, throwing her arms wide in a frantic, hopeless bid to catch her dearest friend.

And then, the falling stopped.

Alina halted abruptly, hovering perfectly still just a few inches above Talulah’s outstretched hands.

The bustling camp plunged into a dead, awkward silence.

“Hahahahaha! Sister Talulah did not actually think Sister Alina was going to go splat, did she?” Flandre clutched her stomach, rolling around in mid-air as she howled with laughter.

“Do not laugh.” Talulah lowered her arms, her face flushing with a rare mixture of deep embarrassment and boiling anger.

“Hahaha, hic. But Sister Talulah, your expression just now was so funny.” Flandre wiped a tear from her eye, still giggling.

Before the little vampire could escape, Alina grabbed her by the collar and deposited her directly in front of the Draco. Looking up at Talulah’s terrifyingly bright, forced smile, Flandre decided to try reasoning. She insisted that she had performed great meritorious service for the Reunion Movement by training their newest aerial asset.

“It is too late for anything you say today.” Talulah slowly raised her hands, her fingers twitching.

Ten minutes later, Flandre fled the scene in absolute disgrace, clutching her bright red, fiercely pinched cheeks. The surrounding Reunion fighters watched the display, hiding fond, amused smiles behind their hands.

Evening descended, painting the sky in deep shades of violet and black. Flandre stood alone on the roof of a supply building, staring gloomily at the pale moon.

“What is wrong, Little Flandre? Are you still angry about the pinching?” Alina drifted silently through the air, landing softly beside the girl.

“No. Flandre is thinking.” The little vampire kept her gaze fixed on the lunar surface, her voice unusually subdued.

“Then what is Little Flandre thinking about?” Alina asked gently.

“Flandre is thinking about why her sister has not come into her dreams for such a long time.”

Alina reached out, gently stroking the girl’s soft blonde hair. “Do you miss your sister?”

“Flandre has only been out for a year, so she does not miss her that much. Flandre just wonders what her sister is doing right now.” She scratched her head, trying to mask the loneliness creeping into her tone.

Alina could easily see through the bravado. The girl missed her family terribly. She needed a distraction to pull her out of this melancholy mood.

“How about we go for a night flight and find something else to do?” Alina suggested.

“Great!” Flandre perked up instantly.

The two launched themselves into the cool night air, wandering aimlessly above the dark, rolling hills surrounding the camp.

Suddenly, Flandre’s sharp eyes caught a subtle movement on a distant, rocky ridge. She pointed a small finger toward the shadows. “Alina, Alina, look over there. It looks like a person.”

Following the girl’s direction, Alina squinted through the gloom. It was a young boy. He was huddled behind a boulder, clutching a set of heavy communication devices and whispering frantically into the receiver.

Using their flight magic, the two approached silently from above, hovering completely unnoticed in the boy’s blind spot.

“Everyone here deserves to die,” the child hissed into the radio, his voice trembling with venom. “They captured my mom and dad. You guys need to come quickly and capture all of them. What? Something happened to your people in the west and north? I do not know, my parents did not say. Hmm, any situation these past two days? The day before my dad and the others were caught, they went to the square for a meeting. After they came back, they were very nervous. Then they told me about this thing and how to use it, and let me stay at my aunt’s house next door. Then they said they were going to the next village to hide, but they were caught that same night. When are you going to send people?”

Listening from above, Alina and Flandre quickly pieced together the boy’s identity. He was the child of the Milo couple, the traitors who had been apprehended during the first internal purge.

The camp leadership had completely forgotten that the traitors had a son. Because the couple had not yet been publicly sentenced, the general populace did not know the exact nature of their crimes, meaning the neighbors had not thought to report the boy to the higher-ups. The Milo couple had confessed to many things under interrogation, but they had deliberately omitted any mention of their child.

As a result, he had slipped right through the cracks. Now, taking advantage of the dead of night, he had retrieved his parents’ backup communicator to transmit their coordinates to the enemy.

Alina stared down at the boy. A deep, heavy sorrow filled her eyes. She understood the cycle of hatred playing out before her, but she also knew the cost of letting this transmission finish.

Her expression hardened into cold resolve. She looked at Flandre and made a slow, deliberate throat-slitting motion.

Flandre’s eyes lit up with predatory glee. She prepared to dive down and rip the boy apart, but Alina reached out and firmly caught her shoulder.

“Leave the child to me,” Alina murmured, her voice stripped of all its usual warmth. “You go and completely destroy that base station.”

Without waiting for a response, Alina floated down silently, landing right behind the whispering boy. She reached out, wrapping her arms around his small frame in a gentle, almost maternal embrace.

“I am sorry. It will be over soon.”

Before the child could even register the voice or draw breath to scream, his vision went completely black.

Simultaneously, Flandre closed her small fist. The heavy communication device in the boy’s hands crumpled inward with a harsh metallic screech, instantly compressed into a useless lump of scrap metal.

When Flandre turned her head to check on her companion, Alina was already rising back into the air. Cradled in the woman’s arms was a grotesque husk. It resembled a macabre teru teru bozu. Only the head remained recognizable, while the rest of the body hung limp, entirely drained of its vital fluids.

[Rhodes’s Note: A “teru teru bozu” is a traditional Japanese handmade doll made of white paper or cloth, hung in windows to pray for good weather. The visual comparison here refers to the drained corpse hanging limply from the neck down, resembling the shape of the paper doll.]