Vampire Hunter D Volume 13: Twin-Shadowed Knight Parts 1 and 2 Read Free Book Online

The great subsidence lay to the north of the village. In a spot that seemed unrelated to the pit, Mia dismounted.



What had she come out there to do?
    A desolate plain spread before her. As the soil on this side of the village was fairly acid, it wasn’t suited to farming. And though it was a plain, here and there massive boulders lay on the ground or jutted from the earth as if to add ghastliness to the existing desolation.
    When viewed from above, the spot where Mia dismounted was near a rock that was essentially in the center of a group of boulders. Mia tied the reins lightly around a nearby outcropping of rock, and then began to climb that boulder. Due to the fact that since childhood she’d spent day and night practicing fortunetelling and related spells under her mother’s tutelage, it was safe to say that outdoor activities weren’t exactly her strongest suit. Her hands got scraped and her breathing grew ragged. By the time she’d reached the summit of forty-five or fifty feet, her shoulders heaved with every breath.
    â€œThis is the place, all right.”
    Still struggling to catch her breath, she had both determination and fear in her eyes as she peered down. The eyes of any human but Mia would’ve seen only a vast wasteland, but beneath the black earth, she could see a single red line. A thick one. By her estimate from her present position, it had to be more than three feet wide. Mia pictured a massive and endless serpent gouging its way through the earth.
    How am I supposed to sever that?
    A disappointed sigh escaped her, but the next thing Mia knew, she was tightening her grip on the shoulder strap of her backpack. That and her own judgment were all she had to rely on. As she stared a bit harder, Mia planted the soles of both shoes firmly against the rock’s surface. The power of the rocks that stood in this region flowed into her body—and through her optic nerves.
    Somewhere on the red line. She needed it to be there, somewhere. Her gaze needled its way along the great serpent stretching through the depths of the earth. The red blurred.
    There!
    Using a trick of her eyes to burn the location into her retinas, Mia began to climb down from the rock. On her horse, she reached her destination in under five minutes.
    â€œThe moment of truth.”
    Her heart pounded madly. This was the first big job for her without any assistance from her mother. And now she had to destroy the energy pipe running through the ground. It was down about thirty feet deep. Who could’ve imagined that a conduit for enough energy to destroy a quarter of the Frontier would be buried so close to the surface? Although she had no idea how many decades or centuries it’d been down there, she was amazed that it still survived. Now she was about to destroy it.
    She hesitated for only an instant. Setting down her backpack, Mia pulled an egg-shaped lump of metal from it. Tugging on its red tip, she extended its telescopic, directional antenna. As she reached for the timer, her finger trembled. She switched it on. A red light began to flash. There would be no turning back now. It was simply a matter of getting as far away as possible within the next ten minutes. Through the antenna, the explosive force of the atomic charge would be channeled down some thirty feet underground—more than enough to destroy the energy conduit. But God only knew what that energy would do when it spilled out. There was a chance Mia might go down in history as the grim reaper responsible for killing every living creature in the region.
    â€œMom—here I go!” she said to herself, driving the atomic charge into the ground. Since the explosion would be underground, fifty yards away would’ve been safe, but there was no way of knowing how devastating the energy inside the pipe would be when it was unleashed. She’d have to get three-quarters of a mile away.
    Looking for her mount, Mia turned and was stunned to