An extremely tall silver-haired young man, of a somewhat ditzy disposition, Father Abel got off the train at the main train station of István. In one hand he was carrying an old-fashioned luggage-case. With the other, he adjusted his small round glasses, whose lenses reminded one of the bottom of a milk-bottle:

They were heard.

The giant colonel whirled around and grabbed the boy by his lapels. How dared he, the giant howled, to speak like that of the glorious defenders of the civic order in István!? The boy replied in a pained but clear voice that he only spoke the God's honest truth. The enraged colonel was about to howl something else, but suddenly paused and peered closely at the boy's face. Then his giant anvil-like fist swung down... and the boy's hunting cap went flying off - in a shower of long, beautiful strands of red hair. The ‘boy’ was revealed to be a beautiful red-haired and blue-eyed young woman by the name of Esther Blanchett. The events started take a really nasty turn then, with Esther being about to be raped on the spot by the gorilla-like Colonel.

The priest tried to intervene on her behalf, but only landed himself in hot water as well. The colonel, it seemed, was amenable to inflicting some grievous bodily harm before proceeding with the rape. However, just as the Abel's spine was about to snap under Radcón's feet, the relief arrived and from a rather unexpected avenue. Major Tres Iqus, a subordinate of Radcón, a short-heighted, then and expressionless man, always immaculately dressed, arrived on the scene. The major informed his superior that, fun as it all looked, it would be well-advised for them to return to their duty immediately. For their master, the Marquis of Hungary Gyula Kádár, would be returning to István thirty minutes earlier than planned - at 19:00, instead of 19:30. Cursing profoundly, the colonel hurried away to ensure that all the security was in place for the Marquis' imminent arrival. But not before having ordered, out of the sheer spite, to have Father Abel arrested on the charges of assault against the City Guard and disruption of the public order. The priest was to be taken along to Várhegy, to the Marquis' castle, for further questioning.

Colonel Radcón and his men reached for their guns, in disbelief, but then noticed that, deeply embedded into the side of the train carriage just where the Marquis' head was few moments ago, there was a crossbow bolt. Still trembling from the impact.

And then the night had exploded with masked men and the sound of gunshots.

The partisans of the István Liberation Front came pouring out of the seemingly-empty waiting-rooms and from behind the nearby trains. The guns were fired. The Molotov cocktails thrown, scattering the burning gasoline around. For few moments, a pandemonium reigned. Someone cried: “Never mind the goons! Gyula! Get Gyula!” Another crossbow bolt whistled by Abel's cheek and smashed itself into the lamppost behind him. An acrid stench filled the air - clearly the tip of the bolt was filled with acid of some kind.

After the initial shock died down, the City Guard took cover and began to return the fire in organised fashion. It soon became clear that the partisans are actually very few in number. Colonel Radcón ordered Major Iqus to take ten men and circle around the enemy to cut off their escape route. The partisans slowly began to back off. From behind a far-end carriage, the anonymous sharpshooter kept the deadly volley of the crossbow bolts coming, covering for his comrades. Noticing where the bolts came from, the Colonel emptied a bullet clip in their direction. With a sharp yell, a short-heighted man stumbled out from behind the carriage, carrying a crossbow in one hand and clutching a wounded shoulder with the other. “Csillag!”, cried one of the partisans. “The operation has failed. Escape! I shall cover for you!” The sharpshooter hesitated. “Idiot! We can't have our leader dying here! I shall hold them off, you take our people and get them out of here!”

Suddenly the fire from the City Guard side intensified as the reinforcements arrived. This decided the matter. The ‘Csillag’ put two fingers inside his mouth and whistled. Immediately all the partisans ceased fire and began to disappear into the darkness of the evening. Colonel Radcón, determined not let the partisan's dimunitive leader escape, held out his large gun, carefully took aim... and it was then that everything was suddenly drowned in a cloud of smoke. For the priest, who for the last few minutes was fumbling with something inside his cassock, had at last produced out of it an old-fashion revolver. The kind which didn't even use the bullet cartridges - the gunpowder was poured directly into the cylinder compartments. Shouting that the foul terrorists shall not escape him now, the priest pressed the trigger - and the gun misfired, spitting out a cloud of white smoke which for a few seconds obscured everything in sight.

When the smoke had cleared, the partisans were long gone. The City Guard was treating their wounded and counting their dead. The Marquis Kádár walked over to Father Abel and thanked the priest for saving his life. The priest replied by asking who were the people who had just attacked them. Colonel Radcón angrily spat out that they were the vile terrorists, who infested the István. The scum, who under the command of their leader, the ‘Csillag’, assassinated important politicians, blew up public facilities and otherwise disrupted the peaceful life of the city. The colonel's tirade was interrupted by the several soldiers ushering a prisoner before the Marquis. It was the machine-gunner, who had earlier shouted for the ‘Csillag’ to escape. Smiling the Marquis told the man that he appreciated such a warm welcome provided upon his return to István. The partisans, it appeared, were as lively as ever...

“Monster!”, the prisoner's eyes lit up with hatred. “The bane of our city..! Because of you, foul creature, the István...” “How dare you to speak of Lord Gyula like that..!?” Colonel Radcón's boot silenced the man, as it smashed into his solar plexus and threw him to the ground. Father Abel started to protest, but the Marquis ordered the colonel to stop first. The prisoner was wounded... and it wouldn't do for him to die, before he could tell them all that he knew. But first, someone had to get Father Abel home before the night had descended in the earnest. István was a very dangerous place after dark. Major Iqus was ordered to take a carriage and drive the priest to the St. Matthias' church.

Having waited for the officer and the priest to disappear off the platform, Marquis Kádár turned his attention back to the prisoner. “A monster, you have said...” With a single hand, the Marquis took hold of the prisoner and lifted him up into the air. A strength far beyond the noble's delicate body. Far beyond any human body, in fact. But in the eyes of his victim there was no surprise. Just the terror - and the resignation. Beneath the Marquis's thin upper lip a pair of long fangs appeared, glistening sharply. With an expression of mild curiosity more befitting a high-society wine-tasting party than the grotesque circumstances at hand, Gyula Kádár lowered his face to the man's neck. A short scream filled the air and was cut off sharply.

Few minutes later, the Marquis discarded a now limp body to the side. “Certainly a very strong flavour... but too simplistic. I wonder if this ‘Csillag’ of yours would taste any better...” The vampire spoke softly, wiping the blood off his lips. “Pfeh. Lowly Terran. What's this ‘our city’? Don't make me laugh. This is ‘my city’...”

Colonel Radcón was told to order their intelligence network to set a watch over the priest. Discreetly. Something just wasn't right with the man. Biting down the objections, the giant saluted in obeyance. Starting to walk briskly down the platform, the Marquis asked himself if the priest's presence meant that Vatican began to suspect something? A new priest transferred to the St. Matthias' church just as his plans were nearing their fruition? Not that they could stop him now, of course, but still - all the potentially obstructive elements should be reduced to the minimum. And even if the priest was a Vatican's dog... Well then, he certainly looked... delicious.

Smiling, Marquis Gyula Kádár accelerated his pace.

Once the council was over, Caterina returned to her rooms fuming at ignomity of it all. She switched on the holographic transceiver and issued orders to one ‘Sister Kate’. ‘Iron Maiden II’ was to set course for István immediately. Moreover, there were changes to the orders of the previously infiltrated field operatives ‘Crusnic’ and the ‘Gunslinger’...

Finally, the carriage reached Várhegy. It was greeted by the automata maids, beautiful - and much sought-after - doll servants, the technology of whose making was lost since the Armageddon. Having unloaded Father Abel into their mechanical hands, Colonel Radcón returned to the carriage. The giant was chuckling, unpleasantly, at the last words of the priest. The man was apparently under an impression, that quite soon he would be back at the church...

During the dinner, served by the silently efficient automata maids, the priest inquired what was the delicious wine they were being served. The Marquis replied that it was the famous Egri Bikavér - the ‘Bull's Blood’ - which the Marquis's own vineyards were famous for. Its special taste was achieved through use of a certain fertilizer on the soil of the vineyard. When Father Abel asked what the fertilizer was, he was told that it was the blood. The human blood. After enjoying the expression of shock on the priest's face for a few seconds, Marquis Kádár reassured the man that it was merely a joke. The blood used was that of a bull.

The conversation moved on to the citizens of Pest. The priest implored the Marquis to look into their plight. Surely, with all his wealth, there was something he could do help the people, whose living standards were fast approaching those of livestock animals? Gyula Kádár replied that, as far as he was concerned, they were the livestock animals. And pretty dangerous animals, too. His wife had thought differently, once. She'd been like the priest, she would often say: “They are human too!” She had loved the city, and on the moonlight nights she would go down and hand out the sweets and the medicine to the poor. And nothing that the Marquis did or said had succeeded in dissuading her from doing thus. The look Gyula Kádár threw at his wife's portrait, just then, was full of nightblack sorrow. But one summer, he continued, the Plague had come to these lands. The cityfolk had begun to drop down with it, one after another. His wife, full of concern for them, had gone down to the city to distribute the medicine. She never had returned - she had been killed by the very people she had been trying to save. Now, how were they any better than animals?

Father Abel tried to argue, but his words were soon cut short by his own scream. Having lifted the lid of a newly served plate, he discovered on it a human head. The head of one of the partisans, who took part in the terrorist attack earlier on in the evening. The Marquis smiled unpleasantly and told the priest that these were the just desserts for all the foolish Terrans who would try to defy the Methuselah. Shocked, the priest stuttered out a question. And was promptly told that yes - Gyula Kádár was a vampire. A vampire, who particularly hated priests. For it was one of these hypocritical sowers of the love of God who had his wife burned at the city square. A fanatic, dispatched from Vatican. Just like Father Abel.

A pair of crescent-shaped fangs glimmered dangerously in the twilight of the dining hall. Death, imminent - and no doubt excruciatingly painful, stared Father Abel right in the face and smiled gently. What had saved him was a huge explosion which shook the palace right then, shattering the stained-glass windows and sending the automata maids a-scatter. The arms storehouse! But before the Marquis had as much as a moment to think, the doors of the dining hall burst open and a group of armed men poured in.

The partisans, led once more by their dimunitive leader the ‘Csillag’, first attempted an assault on the Marquis. But neither them nor their weapons proved to be a match for the vampire's ‘Haste’, a special ability possessed by the Methuselah, which through temporarily stimulating the nerve system allowed them to move and react at over ten times the normal speed. One of the partisans went down with his own crossbow bolt, caught and hurled back by the Marquis, buried in his chest. A brown-eyed young man, whom the partisan leader was calling Dietrich, shouted for everyone to get the priest and withdraw. A half of them moved to do just that, while the other half covered for the ‘Csillag’, as the latter engaged the Marquis again. He shot a crossbow bolt and the vampire, once more, had easily caught it. However, this crossbow bolt was stuffed with the explosives and the subsequent blast dealt heavy damage to the Marquis, slowing him down just enough for the partisans to have thrown up a smoke screen and escaped to the outside court.

As the partisans paused briefly, waiting for everyone involved in the attack to re-assemble, Father Abel addressed the partisan leader as ‘Sister Esther’ and asked why was she doing this. Throwing off the gas mask and letting the familiar fiery-red locks fly in the air once more, the girl gestured at the open lid of a sewer chute in a corner of the courtyard. She told the priest that they were withdrawing to their hideout and that he was to follow.

Eventually, the priest excused himself to go to the kitchen and pour himself some more milk. As he was drinking the milk, he heard a female voice greeting him. The kitchen looked completely empty. Far from being surprised, however, Father Abel had greeted the owner of the mysterious voice as ‘Sister Kate’ and proceeded to enquire whether ‘they’ had arrived here. The answer was confirmative. Furthermore, ‘Sister Kate’ had just received a report from the ‘Gunslinger’. Apparently, the City Guard were about to be dispatched on a large-scale mission of yet unknown nature and the watch over St. Matthias' church was to be strengthened. In the view of the latter, Lady Caterina wanted all the church people evacuated to safety. But as Vatican still couldn't move directly, Father Abel was to enlist the help of the partisans for the evacuation. And there lied a complication. It seemed that just before this night's attack, almost all the ammunition had been removed from the arms storehouse which the partisans had blown up. This indicated a strong possibility that a mole had been present amongst the partisans. Father Abel should be very careful in his dealings with them. Nodding, the priest told everyone on the ‘Iron Maiden’ to take care as well and cut the contact.

The bookcase barely had time to return to its original position before a group of the City Guard soldiers burst into the room. Leading them was the familiar figure of Major Tres Iqus in his impeccable midnight-blue uniform. Iqus demanded for Mother Vitéz to hand over the priest. When she protested that she didn't know where the priest is, Iqus took out his gun and shot. But not Mother Vitéz. Instead the 13mm bullets of his Jericho M13 ‘Dies Irae’ blasted the bookcase to pieces, revealing the secret passage behind. The major ordered all his soldiers to commence the pursuit of the priest and his companions. Just then a new voice interfered, countermanding this order. Colonel Radcón himself was standing at the doorway. Claiming to be acting on the personal orders from Marquis Gyula Kádár, he commanded for the pursuit of the priest to be abandoned. The priest was to be allowed to run loose for a while longer. Instead, Mother Laura Vitéz and all her fellow churchmen were to be arrested and taken to Várhegy, on the charges of obstructing the public justice and aiding the escape of a known criminal. The church of St. Matthias was to be burned to the ground.

When Father Abel, Esther and Dietrich got back to the partisan hideout, they were met by Ignatz. The old man, looking rather worried, told them to listen to what was being broadcast on the radio. Marquis Gyula Kádár declared himself the sole ruler of István. All the Terrans in the city - his private property. The City Council and the courthouse were to be immediately disbanded and the whole city was placed under a martial law for an indefinite period of time. Furthermore, it was established that the responsibility for the yesterday's terrorist attack lied with one Father Abel Nightroad, a priest in the St. Matthias' Church. Therefore, it was decided that, along with expressing a most emphatic protest to Vatican who undoubtedly directed the hand of the priest in question, the St. Matthias' Church would be shut down, indefinitely, and all its personnel - detained until further notice...

The last sounds of the broadcast died down, leaving only a stunned in their stead.

To all intents and purposes, István had declared a war on Vatican.

When the Council had recovered enough from the shock to request the information on the total military assets of the Marquis of Hungary, it turned out that they consisted of a mere 2-3 regiments of infantry, a battalion of Germanicus-manufactured tanks and other armored vehicles, one armored infantry company of Germanicus-manufactured mobile armor and robotic soldiers, plus the airfleet - a destroyer and two frigates. Such a force could be handled by the border guard alone, without any reinforcements being necessary. The shock gave turn to the glee, as the Council realised that they had now all the excuse they needed for the invasion of Hungary. None were rejoicing more than Cardinal Francesco di Medici, who was roaring triumphantly that they could easily take István in under three days. But amidst all the rejoicing, Cardinal Caterina Sforza kept silence. It all seemed too perfect to her. Was the Marquis hoping to gain the support of the True Human Empire? But why would the Empire break a self-imposed ceasefire on the behalf of a single free town? That left only one possible explanation. "The Star of Sorrow"...

Having seen that in the looking glass, Esther turned around and told the assembled partisans that Dietrich and his team had completed the first step of the operation successfully. Now it was their turn. They were to take an abandoned subway tunnel to the point, 80 meters below the City Guard headquarters, where the hostages from St. Matthias' Church were held. Esther and her squad, which included Father Abel, were to rescue the prisoners. Another squad were to provide a distraction by attacking the HQ itself. It was now 6:00pm. Estimated time of the arrival to the prison facility was 6:30pm. By 7:00pm, regardless of the outcome of the operation, everyone was to withdraw to the safety. That said, Esther turned around and led her people into the darkness of the underground tunnel.

The voice was unmistakably that of Dietrich. Indeed, it was him who subsequently emerged from the darkness of the tunnel. Battered, bloodied, bandaged - and pointing a gun at Father Abel:

Shocked, Esther asked the priest to answer just one question for her. Was he really this ‘Ax Field Operative’, was he really a Vatican spy? Reluctantly, the priest nodded. Esther blew up, flying off into a fit of high hysterics. Assuming everything else Dietrich said was true as well, blaming the priest for everything, for all the deaths, screaming at him. Dietrich handed her his gun and told her to shoot the traitor. Taking the girl by the shoulders, he told her it would be her rightful revenge. The revenge for the death of Mother Vitéz.

It was then that Esther had suddenly frozen.

Turning slowly around to face Dietrich, she asked him how did he know that Mother Vitéz was dead? She herself was told this barely an hour ago - and Dietrich wasn't there at the time.

“Oh, dear... There nothing worse than the half-clever girls.”

All the fatigue and all the weakness had suddenly disappeared. Before Esther stood a stranger - a beautiful and deadly stranger, who radiated a feeling of sheer power. A malicious fire was dancing in his eyes. Esther took a step back, pointed her gun at him and told Dietrich not to move. Else she would shoot. Dietrich smiled and told Esther to shoot him if she could. The girl closed her eyes and hesitantly pressed the trigger... only to find, having opened her eyes, that she had shot Father Abel through the right shoulder. Her hands moved again, entirely of their own accord. Helpless, Esther stood and watched herself shooting the priest again, this time through the left shoulder. Something was glistening, almost imperceptibly, between the fingers of the Dietrich's right hand. The man explained amicably that the reason for Esther's seemingly inexplicable behaviour was a piece of an organic monomolecular wire. He attached it to her when he had touched her shoulders few minutes ago. A piece of the ‘Lost Technologies’ which he unearthed, the wire buried itself into the body of the victim and attached to its nerve system. This allowed the wielder to control the victim's body at will by sending the appropriate electric impulses down the wire's length. Like this, for instance. A third shot thundered through the air. Father Abel collapsed on one knee, his thigh shot through.

In tears, Esther asked Dietrich why had he betrayed them. The reply was that there were two reasons for that. The first was the business - the Marquis of Hungary was a client of his. The second was that he really loved Esther. And if you loved someone, you really wanted to mess them up a bit, right? Especially someone like her - a weakling, who knew only how to spew out pretty words. A happy girl, loved by all who met her, who didn't ever know what did it feel like to be hated. He always wanted a plaything like that. A twist of a hand - and Esther gasped in a soundless scream. Dietrich explained that he could send anything down the wire: a taste, a feel, a touch... or a most agonizing pain, like he was doing just at the moment. But what should he attempt next? A torture, the likes of which even the Inquisition couldn't match in their interrogation chambers deep beneath Vatican? Or an opposite - make Esther feel like a few dozen men were simultaneously ravishing her body in every way possible? But wait, said Dietrich looking back at the unconscious priest, he had just thought of a really perfect game. Esther screamed, as she watched herself repeatedly press the trigger. One after another, bullets bit into the shoulders of Father Abel. Finally, the nozzle of the gun came to point straight at the priest's face. “Please, stop..!”, begged Esther. “No, I don't think I would”, was the reply. As the shot resounded in the air, the black oblivion swallowed the girl at last as she lost consciousness.

An automata maid announced the arrival of Dietrich von Lohengrin. The Marquis seated both him and Esther Blanchett, whom Dietrich brought along, at the dinner table and ordered the supper to be served. Sister Esther asked where the priest was and got told that her friends were safe. Then she told the Marquis that he was finished - after what he did, Vatican would no longer stay silent. The vampire nodded and said that indeed right at that very moment the Vatican's army was smashing the last remains of the City Guard forces at the border. They were probably planning to be in István by the morrow. The way the vampire said this, made it sound like it was of no more importance than yesterday's weather. Promising to show the girl something interesting, the Marquis told Dietrich to proceed with their arrangements.

Few minutes later, a dark-gray hologram was hovering above the table. Esther peered in and saw an image of a landscape, taken from some very high vantage point. Higher than any airplanes should be able to fly. Then the dots on the landscape moved - and the girl realised the image had been live. The Marquis explained that what they were seeing took place about 200 kilometers west of István, where the 6th brigade of the Vatican's Eastern Army was battling the forces of the István City Guard - and winning. The vampire turned to Dietrich and asked him where the ‘Star’ was. The youth replied that at present the Star was was at 44·5°N, 33·3°E. The territory of the Empire, above the city of Babylon. In 40 more seconds it would have charged enough energy and in 7200 seconds it would be in an appropriate position to fire. The Marquis smiled gently at Esther and suggested she watched closely as this city they arrogant Terrans all worship, this Rome, enjoys what would become its last night.

An operator reported that ‘Sandalphon’, the battleship which provided the air support to the ‘Justinians’, was on the line. Francesco di Medici ordered it patched through. A hologram of a middle-aged man appeared above the Council table. The captain of ‘Sandalphon’ Colonel Arnoldo diCambia reported that the ‘Justinians’ advanced to a point 200 kilometers west of István, that the enemy resistance was insignificant, but that even taking it into account, they should be able to reach István by the morrow. Just the captain was about to sign off, an interference appeared on the screen, breaking up the signal. Suddenly the whole image flashed brilliant white for a few seconds, near blinding the members of the Council, and then vanished altogether. After a few minutes the operators managed to restore just the audio link. The shaking voice of Colonel diCambia stuttered, incoherently, that all their optical devices went dead. An evil foreboding clutched the heart of Caterina Sforza. She surged forward, ignoring an aggravated look of her half-brother, and ordered the captain to get a grip on himself and report the situation as best as he could. Then the whole Council heard that there was a change on the battlefield below the ‘Sandalphon’. Both the ‘Justinians’ and the City Guard troops were annihilated. Not massacred - annihilated. There was nothing left on the ground below!

The giant was clearly deriving an immense enjoyment out of the proceedings. He told the prisoners that his only regret was that he didn't have time to murder them at length, like he did Mother Vitéz and her churchmen. Father Abel paled. Then a familiar voice had inquired from behind the colonel whether they've begun yet. Tres Iqus, newly arrived, explained to Colonel Radcón that he came on the orders from Gyula Kádár to inspect the battle-readiness of the ground-to-air artillery unit, stationed at this airport. Which provided him with a fine opportunity to watch the slaughter of the prisoners. The colonel grunted and ordered one of his soldiers to have it transmitted to the ‘Sárkány’ that they could open fire.

The Gatling gun, mounted at the bottom of the dirigible, started to rotate - and little fountains of earth went up, in a line, bare inches before the first row of the prisoners. All the hell broke loose, as prisoners scrambled to get away from the guns, trampling each other in the process. The colonel shouted for the gunners to get that priest first. Just as the priest, and the old man Ignatz he was helping to run, were swallowed up by a fountain of earth, everything suddenly became very bright. Those, who looked up, could see a huge ball of fire blossoming in the night sky above. As they realised that it was emerging from the broadside of the ‘Sárkány’, a second blast had pierced the helium-filled balloon of the dirigible and skewered the hull below. With a deafening thunderclap, the dirigible split into two and fell to the ground in a trail of fire. It crashed onto a small hill nearby and a second explosion shook the air. Flabbergasted, the colonel struggled to make out what happened in the sky. When he finally saw it, he could barely believe his own eyes. A huge dirigible of pure white, sleek and elegantly shaped, was descending towards them from far above. It was both larger and more beautiful than any airship the colonel ever saw. Burning in scarlet red on its snow-white hull were a catholic cross and the words ‟Arcanum cella ex dono dei”.

A Vatican battleship.

A loud female voice announced clearly from the sky: “This is ‘Iron Maiden II’, a battleship of ‘Ax’, the Special Operations Department of the Vatican's Ministry of State. I am Sister Kate, the ship's captain. This is a warning to all the soldiers of the István City Guard on the ground below. This airport had just been brought under our armed control. Please drop your weapons and surrender immediately. I repeat, drop your weapons and...”

As an indication of the full seriousness of the threat, a blast of guns from the battleship's side tore up a few nearby biplanes as if they were paper planes. Trembling with fury, Colonel Radcón grabbed his wireless operator by the neck. What is the anti-aircraft artillery unit doing!? The giant screamed into the wireless, telling them to shoot that monster down. “It's no good”, a voice from behind the giant told him, emotionlessly, “they were wiped out, to the last man.” The colonel started to shout for Tres Iqus to stop talking nonsense, but suddenly froze. “...came on the orders of Gyula Kádár to inspect the battle-readiness of the ground-to-air artillery...”

As the colonel stood and boggled, one of the soldiers attempted to take Father Abel hostage - and collapsed with a bullet wound the size of a fist. “Were you not clearly told surrender your weapons”, inquired Tres Iqus, now holding a pair of huge guns. “Iqus, you bastard..!”, roared the colonel. “0·44 seconds too late”, replied Tres Iqus and fired. Radcón collapsed to the ground clutching his stomach. “Switching the battle program to the ‘Genocide’ mode. Commencing combat.” Four of the City Guard exploded in a shower of blood. “Major Iqus, have you betrayed us!?”, shouted one of the officers. “Negative. I was never your ally to start with”, replied Iqus and shot the officer's head off. When, eventually, his guns ran out of bullets, Major Iqus had to pause to reload. While he did so, he calmly told the remaining soldiers that they were guilty of an assault on the St. Matthias' Church and would be questioned at Castel Sant'Angelo in an appropriate fashion. “Castel Sant'Angelo..? So you are a Vatican's dog, you bastard!” Father Abel's warning shout came too late. The bionically-enhanced colonel managed, even after taking a 13mm bullet to his stomach, to grab a machine gun off one of the fallen soldiers and stand up. And now he emptied the whole clip at Major Iqus, who was still reloading his guns. “Hah! Serves you right, you traitorous bastard! Did you really think Vatican scum could kill someone like me!?”

“Negative, Colonel Radcón. I never had any intention of killing you. You will be taken to Rome alive.”

The voice from the cloud of dust raised by the machine-gun blast rung with coldness of the tempered steel. And when the dust settled down, Colonel Radcón's eyes popped out of their orbits. Standing before him was Major Iqus, arms crossed in a crucifix, a gun in each hand:

His wife was originally a ‘Programmer’ whom he invited to work on the project. Very few such people existed still, who possessed the skills necessary to communicate with probably the most arcane artifact of the lost civilization - the ‘Electrical Intelligence’. Before long, his wife had become the chief enthusiast of the project. But in Rome they thought that the Marquis and his wife had been restoring some fearsome ancient weapon - and had the wife killed. Without a ‘Programmer’, the Marquis could no longer carry on with the project. And so he wallowed in self-misery, until one day they had contacted him. The Order. Even now he still wasn't sure who exactly they were - but they consisted of both the Terran and the Methuselah and they claimed to oppose the Vatican. They had sent him a new ‘Programmer’, Dietrich von Lohengrin, to continue with the restoration of the Star of Sorrow. Thus he gained his chance to wage a war on Terrans. To gain his revenge. But maybe... The Marquis paused, lost in a labyrinth of his memories. Maybe it was a mistake...

It was then, that Esther swung down the rosario from behind, aiming at the back of the vampire's neck. The Marquis' story threw her into a turmoil - but still she had found it within herself to strike. The vampire's last words, however, caused her to falter for an instant - and that instant proved fatal. The vampire had time to turn around and block the improvised weapon with a palm of his hand. An acrid stench filled the air. The enraged vampire grabbed the girl and threw her across the room so hard that she almost had broke her spine slamming into the opposite wall. Cursing all the filthy Terrans in this world, the Marquis strode over to where Esther had collapsed. Grabbing the girl by the chin, he bared his fangs... and with a deafening noise the anti-UV window behind them shattered. “Miss Esther!”, cried a familiar voice. And the Marquis of Hungary went flying to the floor with a silver bullet lodged in his shoulder.

Right between the eyes.

It was over. The Marquis glanced at the holographic display which hovered above the dinner table. There was ten seconds left until the second blast. Behind him the girl rushed over to her collapsed friend. Seven. A stream of blood spurted out of the priest's mouth. Five. Somewhere high above the surface of the Earth, the Star of Sorrow, rushing at the speed of near to 4,000 m/s, began to concentrate the charged energy. The energy which Gyula Kádár and his wife meant to present to humanity as a gift. Three. It really was all over now. One.

And then the air exploded.

Flabbergasted, the Marquis checked the data on the holographic screen. Indeed the coordinates for the second blast were nothing like what he had specified. While the Star of Sorrow was already preparing for the third blast. Dietrich! He needed Dietrich! As if answering to the Marquis' thoughts, Dietrich's face appeared on the holographic screen above the dinner table. The Marquis told him that something went wrong with the coordinates they had entered, so Dietrich needed to return re-program the system. “Wrong? No, Your Excellency, these coordinates are exactly right”, the youth smiled back from the screen. “The second blast was centered on the City Guard headquarters. The third blast will hit the very center of Pest. And the last blast will be aimed at Várhegy and Your Excellency's palace. My program is in perfect order.” “Dietrich!? You've... betrayed me..? You've used me!?” The Marquis made the only possible conclusion. “No. I haven't used you. I've used the Star of Sorrow. Of what use could a one stupid monster be? You flatter yourself, Your Excellency.” Dietrich proceeded to explain that the goal of his Order here was to escalate an armed conflict between Vatican and the True Human Empire. The last major skirmish between the two occurred 270 years ago, when the 11th Crusade, summoned forth by Pope Sylvester XIXth, was massacred near Debrecen. Not the least reason for this long-lasting peace lied with the neutrality belt of free domains like István, which humans thought was ruled by humans and the vampires knew was ruled by a vampire. An occupation of Hungary by Vatican, therefore, was certain to be followed by an armed retaliation from the Empire. “But why would the Order want that?”, cried the Marquis. “What is your game!? Who side are...” “We are not on anyone's side”, interrupted him Dietrich. “We are contra-mundi. ”

Leaving the Marquis to gape, the youth turned his attention to Esther. He apologized at length for what he had done to her, claiming that he always quite like her beneath it all. As a token of how sorry he felt, he would teach her a magic spell: “IGNE NATURA RENOVATUR INTEGRA.” At the sound of this words, the eyes of Father Abel, whose limp body Esther held in her arms, flew wide open. Unmindful of that, the girl asked what were these words. Dietrich replied that they were the self-destruction code for the Star of Sorrow, which he programmed in, unbeknown even to the Marquis. She only had to enter them using the keyboard on the table and the Star would explode. Provided, of course, she could enter them without someone interfering first... The stares of Marquis Kádár and Esther collided, almost striking a spark. Dietrich laughed and wished Esther good luck. That done, he vanished off the holographic screen.

The girl and the vampire raced each other to the keyboard. Esther stood closer at first - but the Marquis was significantly faster. He overcame Esther and slammed her away from the keyboard, projecting the girl halfway across the room. He then took up the keyboard and looked desperately for a way to regain the control of the satellite. But Esther took hold of the priest's gun and, threatening him with it, demanded for the vampire to step aside and let her destroy the Star. Cursing, the Marquis extended the bone-blade out of his palm. He'd have had to kill her anyway - no one who knew the self-destruct code could be allowed to live. He advanced on the girl. Esther fired - and immediately realized her mistake. The gun was out of bullets. “Die, Terran!” The bone-blade swept down in a flash... and it was then that a tall cassock-wearing figure suddenly stepped in between the girl and the vampire.

The two of them fought.

The Marquis split the bone-blade in his left hand into three and was able to vibrate them so as to create a miniature version of the sonic wave he employed earlier. Father Abel's hands burst - and the dark liquid which flew out instead of the blood solidified into a giant monolithic two-bladed scythe, which the priest used to fight with.

In the end, the vampire used his blade to dead-lock the priest's scythe and then his sides burst open. Eight bone-spears, eight ribs, sped towards the priest from all sides like giant snakes... and bounced off, shattered, as something dark enveloped the priest's body, something tough enough to withstand the diamond-like bone-spears. A pair of huge jet-black wings sprouted from Father Abel's and enfolded him completely.

“What... what on Earth is ‘Crusnic’!?”, cried out the Marquis.

“I am...”, said the priest and whispered something into his ear.

“It can't be..! Then you... no, thou art our...”

Giant black wings fluttered, unfolding with a rustling noise. The black scythe swept down and the bone-blade shattered in its wake, depriving the vampire of his last weapon.

“This is the end.”

The shining jet-black blade swept down once more.

Esther had many questions to ask. But Father Abel, whose body returned to its normal state and whose eyes were once again the pale-blue of a midwinter lake, silenced them all and told the girl that first of all they had to enter the code. He pointed towards the holographic screen, where the countdown to the third blast of the Star of Sorrow was still running. Esther hesitated. But there being no better option left, she walked over to the keyboard and entered the code. “Igne Natura Renovatur Integra.” The girl checked it over once more and pressed the return button. Nothing happened. The countdown continued to run. The priest walked over to her. Together they were staring, puzzled, at the screen when suddenly Dietrich's face appeared on it.

“Dear Esther. If you are watching this, then you've done as I'd told you and entered the code.” Dietrich proceeded to explain that, firstly, this was a pre-recorded video file and that, secondly, he needed to apologize her once more. The code which she'd just entered wasn't the self-destruct code. It was a target-change code, instead. Yes - the target of the next blast was no longer István. It was now Byzantium. The capital of the Empire. The nest of the vampires, whom Esther hated so much. Of course, their capital attacked. the Empire would retaliate. There would be a war. The last, the ultimate war between the vampires and the humans.

“How does it feel, to have pressed the button which would trigger off the Armageddon? You really are an idealist, Esther, to have believed me once more, after being deceived so much already. But then it was, perhaps, this very naivete that I always found so attractive about you... Bye-bye, Esther. Hope we shall meet again some day.”

The image vanished. Esther kept standing there, gaping at the screen, until the blood-splattered fingers of Father Abel hadn't touched the keyboard in front of her. The girl tried to protest... but was firmly told to step away and not interfere.

For a little while Father Abel just stood there and stared at the screen. Then he started to type. Hesitantly at first, but then faster and faster with each click of a key. Once more Esther tried to warn him that it was dangerous to experiment with such a technology. She was plainly told to be silent. The finger of the priest were now flying up and down the keyboard as if they belonged to a virtuoso pianist. A mechanical voice continued the countdown: “39... 38... 37...” Finally, the priest stopped typing and looked at the screen. In a clear voice he spoke out: “Voice input to the super-user program. Requesting to switch the system to the administrator mode.” For a moment, the countdown stopped. The numbers on the screen froze up. A soft female voice, quite unlike the mechanical voice the computer employed before, replied: “Acknowledged. Switching the system to the administrator mode. Welcome. All tasks are running normally. The time remaining until the next blast is 30 seconds... 29... 28... 27...”“Give priority to all the emergency-use commands. Freeze all the ordinary tasks.”“The command file has been erased by the administrator. An error at the address R200055, the...” “Unnecessary. How many commands are available in the system-freeze mode? There is not the time, so don't quote the addresses.” “Acknowledged. Search in progress... completed. Found 1 item matching the query.”“What is it?”“The self-destruction command, based on the security directive #3090.” “Inputting the self-destruction command. Carry out the self-destruction, as per the security directive #3090”. ”An input of the self-destruction command requires a security level clearance of the Special-A class and higher. Please present your administrator pass.” “My administrator pass is...” Father Abel took a deep breath. “...UN Air and Space Force Commander Abel Nightroad. Affiliation: The “Red Mars” Program, Administrative Department, Security Section. ID#: UNASF 94-8-RMOC-666-02ak.” “Security clearance confirmed. The system shall carry out the self-destruction according to the security directive #3090. This will also entail the destruction of all the satellites on the orbit 9982. Thank you for using this system.” The voice went silent. All the numbers disappeared. Father Abel stared at the dark screen and sighed. Glancing through window to the skies above, he said, to no one in particular: “Thanks for all the hard work all these years...”

Esther watched the scene, which played out in front of her, with a puzzled expression. What happened..? The Star..? “The Star is gone”, spoke a voice from the floor, “It's finished now. Or rather, it has been finished. So I've guessed right about you, Father Nightroad...”

His right arm had been torn off at the shoulder, his stomach had a deep gash through it, but Marquis Kádár was alive. Father Abel told the vampire that his purpose was not to kill the vampire, but to stop the Star of Sorrow. The Marquis replied that if he were to be taken to Rome, he would die there anyway. And if he were to die, he'd rather it wasn't in a torture cell of the Inquisition. The vampire asked for Esther to be permitted to exercise her right of revenge. He did, after all, kill so many people dear to her. For a moment, the priest was silent. Then he took his revolver gun, handed it over to Esther and told her it was loaded with the silver. A shot through either the head or the heart - and the vampire would die. The girl took the gun, aimed... but in the end didn't find it in herself to press the trigger. What was the difference between her taking revenge for Mother Vitéz and Marquis Kádár taking revenge for his wife? Was there a difference?

With an expression of relief Father Abel took the gun back from the girl. In the city below the Castle Hill the shooting and the explosions had begun to die down. A familiar figure appeared in the doors of the dining hall. Tres Iqus walked in and reported that 97% of the City Guard forces have been subdued. After their HQ had been blown up, most of them lost any desire to carry on fighting and surrendered. At present, the partisans were sweeping up those few who chose to fight to the bitter end. By the time the Vatican forces arrived, it would all be over. Father Abel heard the report out and nodded. Then it was the time for them to withdraw as well. The rest could be left for the partisans to handle.

Unfortunately, at that point they were interrupted by Colonel Radcón. The bionically-enhanced soldier managed to overcome his near-fatal injuries, avoid the partisan patrols and come all the way out to Várhegy. In his eyes only one thing still remained - a thirst for revenge. He aimed Esther's own crossbow at the girl. Tres, in one smooth motion, drew his M13 out of its holster and fired it over his shoulder. Without even turning around. The bullet hit the colonel between the eyes and went clean through, bursting his brains out of the back of his head. But not before the giant managed to press the crossbow's trigger. The arrow sped towards Esther - and buried itself in the Marquis of Hungary's chest as the vampire stepped forth to protect the girl. The arrowtip was full of silver nitrate and the vampire's end was swift. Within a few seconds, the convulsions had started. Crying, the girl dropped down on the floor and lifted the Marquis' head into her arms.

The last expression on the face of the Marquis was that of a smile.

Tears streaking down her cheeks, made the sign of the cross over the dead body.

“Lord, have mercy upon this poor soul. And let him meet once more those he loved so dearly.

 Amen.”

The whole of Vatican was still busy dealing with the aftermath of the István incident, which took place three months ago. The beautiful scarlet-robed woman at the window was no exception. Turning back towards the room, she motioned for a small priest in an impeccably tidy cassock to continue with his report. In a mechanical voice Father Tres Iqus pronounced the whereabouts of one Dietrich von Lohengrin still undetermined. Caterina Sforza was not particularly surprised. If the man was indeed who the report indicated him to be, he was unlikely to have left any traces behind. They were always very, very prudent... “Igne Natura Renovatur Integra. So the Contra Mundi are still very much in good health...” Caterina Sforza, who went up against them a number of times in the past, knew of their prudence more than the most. Father Iqus complained that the resources of the Ax were stretched to their limit by the investigation and asked if there were anyone else who could be asked to assist them. “Well, I wonder... Come to think of it, when was Father Nightroad going to return to Rome?”, inquired the world's most beautiful Cardinal as drily as she could.

Near the gates, Esther met Father Abel. The silver-haired priest was entering the graveyard with a bouquet of winter-roses in his hands.

“Leaving now..?”

“Yes, leaving now.”

The girl sped towards the carriage which waited for her just outside the gates. The priest walked on towards the graves. Neither of them looked back. Both knew full well their paths would cross again.

In Rome.