Capitolo Terzo: Conquista (3)

Unknown Location, Russia

“Do you understand your first duty, Grigori? Your first and perhaps only chance to really make something out of your miserable life?”

The cackling of that ‘hag’, the mystical power surging to him, the chance to break away from a dissatisfying life- Grigori Rasputin couldn’t help but feel that all of this happened so suddenly and so ‘wrongly’. It was odd, yet alluring. A year ago, the doubts weakened his resolve. Why wouldn’t they? He had a good life despite its mediocrity. A wife, sons, he had been working on his impulses to steal objects and animals. Things were stabilizing for him, but then… she came forth. A pure force of nature, seductive and intriguing, indulging Rasputin in his inner questions. Questions he never brought up to a living soul. Not to his wife, not to his family, not to the church and God himself. It was her that knew the answers, he could tell from a glance. And with each truthful answer sinking deep in his soul, something felt cracking faster than it should have.

A man of simple morals, Grigori never looked at religion or the supernatural. Not because he was never interested in both, but because he found himself content with what he had. Until that woman appeared. Her beauty had done in a few minutes what many deceitful words from traditional fools failed to do in years. He was endeared by her beauty, and her knowledge. Her knowledge struck him out of the blue. How come such a gorgeous woman was living alone in the woods near home? That question should have had him pause for prudence’s sake. But he didn’t. The want had been stronger than the caution. He was yanked right where he needed to be, provided with the information he craved to get, and given a task that, albeit delivered reluctantly, was done willingly and without true hesitation.

Grigori Rasputin was a monster. The village that was chosen by the witch for him to raze was one owned mostly by people that could hardly survive on their own. A ‘pity massacre’, the witch called it, and while a better man would have opposed this hideous execution, this shameless effort to hide away a thirst from spilled blood, Grigori went forth with the task. Magic aided him, their dread further fueled him to delve deeper in his malicious intent and then… things went blank. He was ‘unconscious’, but lucid. So lucid. And he was rejoicing with the kind of atrocity he perpetrated. It was the first of many. His wife thought he had just found a new job that required him to be out of home a lot, yet the woman was already picking up something that was off about him. First his confidence, then his snappier behavior, and finally his disregard for his son. Slowly, steadily- Rasputin surrendered his common sense to madness, his morality for power. He was in too deep to give up and return to his normal life. And the witch knew, with her beauty ‘fading’ as soon as the realization sunk in and he knew who he was dealing with.

At times a hag, many times a helper but also a malicious force of the old ways, Baba Yaga was a treacherous being. Ever-knowing, ever-prepared, and never willing to give Rasputin the chance to break free. She willingly turned him into a puppet, one that was happy and yet disgusted. A paradoxical feeling that further fueled the bizarre feeling of craving for terror he had been interested on. Grigori was lost to his own darkness, and yet he didn’t oppose it. It was his choice, his nature, his dangerous desires. He was condemned by his own existence to turn into a force of evil… and he loved every single moment of that interesting part of his new life. But where he found solace in the fact there was a sense of ‘good’ within what he did, he hardly complained of things. Except now.

This mission, this was unusual from the rest. The magic sphere used by Baba Yaga to show the faces of his victims and preys was now displaying three individuals at once. A man, his wife, and a child. They looked normal, but they weren’t. Grigori’s heart leaped as he could tell these three were different- and the boy. The son was special, important- dangerous. The witch had asked him for a rather simple task: capture the boy, but to not engage the parents. Sounded absurd as he had long learned how to masterfully slaughter people indirectly. His magic was not as powerful as the stronger sorceress, but the woman was forceful with that demand. He wouldn’t get the chance to deal further damage beyond the one he was expected to deliver through that plan.

He knew where they were, the witch’s magic turning him close to where the target’s moving train was passing by. He was allowed to calmly walk through the cold forest without being bothered- in fact, he decided to use the undisturbed slumber of some ‘friendly’ creatures to aid him in this mission. He needed minions for this specific circumstance and he just knew how to strike his current prey. Creatures of old, reassembled for the occasions, growled and roared under his will as they used the trees to cover their presence. Grigori could feel them, and he could feel their hunger.

It wouldn’t be wrong to provide food to these poor famished beings…

And now he just needed for his spells by the railway to fully crystalize the explosive nature of the magic he pumped into it. He may not be a powerful mage, but his spell was keen to work accordingly if he was careful enough. He patiently waited, meditating and praying to God for his soul’s purification, for his day of salvation. Never a man of faith, Rasputin’s belief came from despair. He begged for salvation because he knew nothing here had the means to truly save him from himself and his own malicious actions. And as he waited, as the train finally arrived and passed. An explosion ensued, a smile appeared on his face as he opened his eyes and… saw the train still running through the explosion, as if the railway hadn’t been damage by the bomb.

How is that even possible?

Shaking his head, Rasputin decided to rely on Plan B and send in the newest pets he had created for the occasion. He could just tell that what had just happened was proof of what his mistress had said: this mission was arduous and more troublesome than usual.

But Grigori was a patient man and he was willing to gauge his prey’s strength rather than play all his cards at once...

---------d-d-d-d--------

Something had struck the railway.

Everything was fine until a few seconds earlier as we proceeded to use the railway connecting Minsk to Vitebsk and Saint Petersburg, but then the train rocked and shook intensely. I wasn’t sure what had happened, but someone had bombed the train’s head and almost caused it to derail. I moved quickly, mustering ｢The World｣ in its greatest form for the dreadful occasion.

‘｢The World: Absolute｣.’

Time stopped as I demanded, but I could also move fast through the wagons as I swiftly checked the extent of the issue. The bomb had detonated just in front of the train and the wagons were barely disjointed from the rest of the railway. The damage was impressive as the wood had shattered and the iron had bent in an unpleasant way. Huffing, I could tell there were two possible outcomes out of this: I either used some hamon-reinforced bubbles to pillow the train to a full halt without causing any accidents, risking to do the bidding of whoever caused this issue as it was clearly caused by someone that wanted the train to stop (bandits or worse), or I tried something I had just theorized about and never tested.

I put ｢The World: Absolute｣’s powers to the ultimate challenge by stopping time for five long minutes. I moved quickly, eyes darting left and right as my Stand helped me fix the railway, slam away the flames, and then align the train’s head back to the tracks. I did my best to move quickly and allow as few minutes to pass by as possible. Even with just five minutes and a lot of training put into this ability, I still struggled with it. Then again, it was meant to have a catch to it and limit my scope of action within the state of things. Not like I had anything against these kinds of restrictions. The last thing I needed was to not have a filter in a circumstance where I was literally trying to rely on my own personal skills and not use my combat abilities to wedge my reach into newer realms of businesses.

Beyond that odd circumstance, I managed to get back in my seat, my face sporting a tired look as I plopped down on my place right beside Hannah as she was busy holding close to Giorno. The woman had moved quickly to keep our baby boy safe, and I was glad her reflexes were as quick as mine nowadays. Time soon resumed, and after some more shaking, the train’s smooth pace resumed. I was relieved I had done everything I needed to do right, but my intervention wasn’t lost to an individual that could tell something had happened in the blink of an eye.

“What happened?” Hannah questioned in my direction, knowing I had done something from the strained look on my face.

I didn’t even hesitate in being honest. I saw no reason in lying about it despite how awkward of a lecture I was asking to get through that truthfulness. “Someone tried to bomb the train. I managed to get it all fixed by stopping time and-”

“Dio, we agreed to not test new things out in dangerous situations,” The woman interrupted strongly, her eyes narrowing in worry. “It would be best if you rested for a moment.”

That sounded great, and I saw no reason to say no. Except when numerous creatures soon howled from the forest on the side of the path taken by the train. Glowing eyes burned brightly through the foliage as multiple beings rushed forth from the forest. A quick Hamon pulse that was matched by Hannah provided us both with a single answer to what was going on.

“Undead,” I muttered, my palms tightly forming fists as Hamon erupted from my body.

Still, it wasn’t just mere zombies. Their frames were more animal-like and with scary non-human skulls rather than normal heads. Wendigos, or whatever those things were called within the area, were trying to board the train. Their speed was impressive, but their mind lacked knowledge on how to not get fried by Hamon itself as they started to flock at the train, only to get zapped into a quick treatment of the Ripple. The beasts just couldn’t help but still go forth, almost mindlessly so, as they ignored the death they were rushing onto.

Hamon crackled all over the train as Hannah and I summoned as much energy as we could to protect the train from the approaching creatures. The monsters roared, trying to get inside the wagons, but failing to do more than just frighten the guests and cause a few terrifying screeches before their bodies were shattered by the zapping energy of purification. To their credit, the driver of the train didn’t stop for a moment, actually increasing the pace of the train to outpace the horde of horrible creatures trying to board the train itself.

Eventually we got quickly out of trouble and we managed to elude the large contingent of monsters. The arrival in the city of Minsk was a turbulent one. Other passengers jumped off fast out of the train, the local garrison was warned of the situation and there was indeed a situation where the army detachment was deployed to handle a small invasion of these very creatures, the sheer amount of firepower proving to be enough to smash into the monsters. Differently from normal zombies, these Wendigos seemed to lack the same healing factor as their ‘simpler’ counterparts.

I was glad we managed to spare Giorno from that experience, but the boy was aware something big had happened, and that we were holding it away from him. It was something we had decided long ago, to keep him away from anything that could potentially cause him any trauma. One thing was mermaids, another was undead creatures that sought to devour and kill anything in front of them. So, due to these circumstances, I decided it was best to switch things up and actually take an armored train by using the invitation of the Prime Minister as an excuse to travel in a more protected environment. Captain Kuklin was a bit skeptical of this, but after hearing what happened with the attack on the civilian train, he was willing to allow us in at the condition we were not to distract the troops in the train during training and real action if necessary.

I was glad that this turned out positively, but I could tell this was just the beginning of something very bad…