Vampire Hunter D: Pale Fallen Angel Parts Three and Four Read Online Free PDF

swallowed!”
    As if in response to the cry from his left hand, D reached out with his right and grabbed the wooden lever next to the brake—something that hadn’t been there until two days earlier. From a compartment on the underside of the carriage a pair of black globes were released, disappearing into the crevice that pursued the vehicle.
    How far underground was his foe? A thousand feet, by D’s estimation.
    It was three seconds later that a new rumble traveled up through the spinning carriage wheels. A dull explosion could be heard off in the distance.
    â€œIt’s stopped! Looks like that did the trick.”
    As he listened to the voice from his left hand, the Hunter’s ultrakeen senses did indeed tell him the crevasse was no longer pursuing them, but his exquisite face was emotionless as he stared straight ahead, as if everything had gone according to plan.
    Two days earlier, the group had encountered a traveling blacksmith in the middle of a forest. A traveler could ask for no stauncher ally. The last remnants of a band of craftsmen trained in secret techniques passed down from antiquity, they could use the very latest electronics technology that puzzled even the Nobility. Serving travelers and villages on the Frontier, they could upgrade their customers’ tools and weapons, doing conversions to the hardware or even crafting new items on the spot when necessary.
    D had requested that the blacksmith augment the carriage’s armaments within half a day’s time. But there was more to the vehicles of the Nobility than mere elegance. Their sleek bodies were layered with panels that could disrupt three-dimensional radar and ultrasound systems, and many of the intricate carvings concealed equipment that would unleash laser beams or ultracompact missiles, spearheads or iron arrows. Once the doors were closed, the entire carriage was transformed into a fortress sealed tight. And that was merely the standard equipment. The higher a Noble’s rank, the more enemies they had, and their vehicles would be adorned with the staggering array of armaments and defensive equipment dreamt up by their personal teams of scientists.
    In the entire human world, the only ones with the technical skill to match the Nobility and even scorn those accomplishments were the tribe of traveling smiths. The vibrating body that had deflected the enemy’s insectoid incendiary missiles and the weapons compartment on the underside of the carriage were both the traveling smith’s handiwork. The work had been done by a man who seemed to barely be in his twenties.
    After taking his payment, he’d rapped on the body of the vehicle, saying, “Now she’s a match for your average Noble’s tank or even a pillbox. Part of that’s my skill, but of course, she was pretty solid to start. Well, the folks riding inside will be able to tell when they see it, I wager.”
    Traveling blacksmiths didn’t discriminate in their trade. Humans and Nobility were treated equally, and because of that, they were distrusted and despised by a portion of mankind—a situation not unlike that of someone else there.
    Finally, he gave D a clap on the shoulder and said, “Looks like someone worked on it once before I did. That’s okay—I kicked the offensive and defensive capabilities of that up a notch, too. My treat. Godspeed to you.”
    â€œYou have our thanks.”
    The young man’s eyes went wide, and he said, “That’s not what I’d expect to hear from you, but don’t mention it.”
    D had watched in silence as the steam-driven truck raced off into the distance.
    -
    It was about twenty minutes later that the wildfire reached its denouement. An automated plane dispatched from parts unknown had scattered vast amounts of firefighting chemicals.
    â€œThat’d be the Nobility’s fire-prevention systems, I guess,” the Hunter’s left hand muttered.
    Even with