"I asked you… are you a Christian?"
Seeing the members of the Hawkins Pirates frozen in terror, unable to speak, Alucard's voice dropped an octave, dripping with heavy pressure. Basil Hawkins' face twitched as he managed a quick, strained reply: "Yes."
"I ask of you... who are you?"
Alucard suddenly spoke a line that seemed entirely out of character for his usual style.
Hawkins was stunned. Does this Yonko also read the Holy Scriptures?
Whether it was due to the staggering gap in their strength or his own identity as a believer, he felt compelled to answer the question. "We are the Iscariot, Judas of Iscariot."
"Then, Iscariot, I ask of you, what do you hold in your right hands?" Alucard's lips curled into a smirk as he posed the next question.
"Daggers and poison," Hawkins answered without hesitation.
"Then, Iscariot, I ask of you, what do you hold in your left hands?"
"30 pieces of silver and straw rope."
"Then, Iscariot, what are you?"
"We are apostles yet not apostles, believers yet not believers, adherents yet not adherents, heretics yet not heretics." Hawkins recited the words of the scripture perfectly, without missing a single syllable. [1]
Alucard stopped questioning him with the liturgy. He lowered his head and remained silent. For a few seconds, under the reverent and fearful gazes of the Hawkins Pirates, his body began to twitch. Then, he erupted into a fit of mad laughter.
"Heh... heh-heh... Hahaha! Ah-hahahahaha!!"
He laughed so hard that he clutched his stomach, doubled over in pain.
Half a minute later, Alucard raised a hand, the grin still plastered across his face. His red spectacles glowed with an eerie light. "Excellent! A wonderful answer! Truly excellent!"
Hawkins had no idea why Alucard had suddenly become so excited, nor did he know if this excitement boded well or ill for his crew.
"Then what are you waiting for, Christian?! A monster stands before you! Quickly, now, purge the heretic! Is that not the law you live by as a Christian?!"
Alucard spread his arms wide, signaling Hawkins to attack.
Hawkins understood this command perfectly. There was no way out; he had to fight.
Hawkins slowly drew his saber with his left hand. His combatant, Kyra Calum, looked at his captain in shock and panic. "Captain! Are you really going to fight him?"
Their opponent was a Yonko! The man rumored to be the strongest in the world! How could their current crew possibly…
"Today is not the day of my death."
Though Hawkins said the words, deep in his eyes lay a profound dread, which was slowly replaced by a grim resolve. "Besides, he is right. Purging the heretic is a duty bestowed by God."
As his voice fell, countless long, thin stalks of straw erupted and enveloped Hawkins' body, transforming him into a monstrous scarecrow over six meters tall. He looked absolutely ghastly.
"Demon Face!"
In his Demon Face state, the straw-man Hawkins wielded five-inch nails. His arm suddenly stretched to an incredible length, lashing out at Alucard.
BANG!
A sudden gunshot rang out. A sharp pain lanced through his arm, causing Hawkins' expression to tighten.
His arm had been shot clean through, breaking into two pieces. The culprit was the Casull held in Alucard's left hand.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
Alucard fired four shots in rapid succession. When the first three hit, Hawkins showed no sign of injury. It wasn't until the fourth shot that his face contorted in agony.
"Ugh..."
Hawkins clutched the entry wound of the fourth bullet. On either side of his arms, three small straw dolls emerged, each with a hole blasted through it, before crumbling to the ground.
"I just went through a battle... I haven't had time to replenish them."
Hawkins looked grim. To face a Yonko now was truly...
Alucard walked toward Hawkins step by step. Calum and the other four crew members immediately threw themselves in front of their captain. Knowing Hawkins was at his limit, Calum shouted over his shoulder, "Captain, run! We'll hold him off here!"
Before Hawkins could even respond, the five crew members felt the world transform. The lush jungle vanished, replaced by a vast, crimson sea of blood. The very sky and earth turned a visceral red.
Standing where the castle gate should have been, Alucard was now perched atop a mountain, a mountain of countless, piled corpses.
A scent of blood so thick it was almost tangible rushed into their noses and flooded their brains. Their eyes rolled back into their heads, and they collapsed into unconsciousness instantly.
"What...?"
Seeing his men go from shielding him to collapsing in a single second, Hawkins didn't know what expression to make. He had no idea what had just happened to them.
Alucard stepped over the fallen bodies and suddenly leveled his gun at Hawkins' face.
BANG!
Is this the end?
As the gunshot echoed, those four words flashed through Hawkins' mind. But seconds later, he realized his consciousness was still intact. He opened his closed eyes.
Behind him, several giant trees in the forest had been shattered into dust.
"How disappointing."
Leaving behind that single sentence, Alucard holstered his twin pistols and walked past Hawkins.
The moment they crossed shoulders, Hawkins saw the same vision his crew had seen.
"Ugh!"
Hawkins clamped a hand over his mouth, fighting back the urge to vomit. He deactivated his straw transformation and tried to stand, but his trembling legs buckled, and he fell to the ground.
"In his presence... I can't even stand?"
Hawkins pressed his index and middle fingers to the cross on his collarbone. "Lord..."
———————
[1] Yes, those are the passage that members of Iscariot in Hellsing chants. A part of it.
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