The creature pressed it's thumb against Alucards forehead, who instantly sunk to his knees, overcome with images and sounds that finaly formed a coherent line of events.
He finds himself in the ruin of what once used to be a small store in London. SERT forces had built a small center of command here for the upcoming operation. Alucard chuckled a bit
as he saw the headlines on the old newspapers. Had been the last ones before they stopped printing and evacuated. He was not for a moment disoriented by the fact that he was missing his right arm,
as well as Bartimaeus. In fact, only few faces of the old group were around. Alice sat by a radio station, idly scribbling on a notebook that stood next to a black-framed picture of Icarus.
Kyle was making last adjustments to his power armor, so much bigger than the one he currently wore. The pauldrons would put a space marine to shame. The wall was decorated with the severed head of a fallen enemy.
Oddly enough, it looked exactly like Kyle. Hilda was leaning over a plan of London together with Kaiser. It did not appear odd to Alucard that she was inside the ICARUS-05, her core retrofitted into its
chest.
"Any news on the reinforcements?"
That was the third time Hilda had asked the question. By now, nobody bothered answering anymore. The last news they had was that they had the wild hunt on their tail. Everybody knew what that meant.
Shame about Stella. They could have used her help right now.
"We will have to do it without them. This may be our last chance. Dalia gave her life to land that blow on Targunitoth. She is currently right here, gathering the blood of all the dead in the city in
Wembley stadium to renew her body. She is vulnerable during that time. We have to make it count."
Kyle interrupted.
"If we can make it past Nirraven that is. Remember what happened last time?"
"We learned from that time Kyle. Regardless we have to do this. As long as Targunitoth persists, the sleepless army will never sto-"
He was again interrupted, be Alice shouting into the microphone. "Can you hear me?! Come in group Delta, come in!". She paused for a moment, then took off her headphones with a sigh.
"They broke through. The citadel of fire is about to be overrun."
Alucard was visibly taken back.
"What? N-no. That can't be. Zeuz and Horus were taking care of that. The two of them together should have at least been able to drive Widarc'hal off."
"She showed up there. They had no chance."
Alucard leaned on the table for a bit to regain his composure. The implications of that loss were staggering. This was an entirely new kind of warfare. Not a clash of nations and interests, but warfare against life itself.
He sat up again and tried to hide his hopelessness.
"Nevermind that. We have to move out now and bring down Targunitoth, this is the only thing we can do now."
The group was about to pack their things, as the ground shook. A metalic echoing sound that has grewn all too familiar over the last months radiated through the halls, putting panic into everyones eyes.
"What? The reports said she was last sighted over Asia how does she even kn-"
A high pressured stream of a molten uranium-tungsten alloy cut through the store like a knife, ending Kyles life before he could end the sentence. An enormous, spotlessly white mechanic tentacle the size of a cargo ship tore the building out of the way.
Alucards last impression of the vision were Belkelels large red eye, and pain.
"̢T̴his ͡is th̕e͡ fuţu̢r̡e t̸h̡a͡t ̡m͠ig͟h̛ţ ҉a̡wait͏ y̸o͢u͟.̛ ͟B̵ùt no͘t ͏al̶l͞ ̛i̧s ͝lơst̛. ͟S͘a̢f͠e ̷yơu͢r̀s͞èlf.͜ ̷Be̡c͝ome̵ m͟y s̷e͞r͏v̴aņt, ̡and͏ per͢f͟orm ̶a t͟a̛śk ͠f̷or͏ m̡e̡, a͝nd ̡yo̧u͢ ̕will li̢v̡e ̴ętern͞álý."