Remilia walked uncaringly through the swamp, paying more attention to the muck squelching at her feet and ruining her shoes than any entities she might meet. Those few things that could truly threaten her would give notice of their presence long before they could actually take action against her … except, maybe, the dragon. Its presence suffused the swamp that it was its home, its shrine, and she would have no warning save its physical presence.
Patchouli had been right, of course; she usually was. She needed something to reawaken her after the debacle with Illyasviel. Gone were the times she could afford to spend weeks or months doing nothing but waiting. She had to force herself to waken, to push back the indolence that suffused her being. If she were human, she would take a vacation, but even for so humanlike a creature as a vampire, such a thing could not work. As a creature of the night - of the darkness of imagination and the world, as well as of the physical night - she needed chaos. And so she had chosen this place, and this swamp, to make a pilgrimage.
She could have chosen other worlds, but this one held certain qualities she desired, and was familiar - a darkling mirror to Gensokyo, suffused in faith and otherness. She could have gone to the mountains, with its monks, its goblins and its barbarians and its ogres - but that would have led to conflict with their demonic masters, and she did not desire that. Not now. She could have walked the paths of the forest, full of life and vigor - and snakes and more monks. She could have strolled through the Araba and Eiganjo, facing naught but humans and the occasional kitsune … and, eventually, Konda himself. That would be a test. Leaving, at last, Takenuma Swamp, with its dead and its kami, its ratfolk and its humans, and the odd ogre. A place of death and corruption. Remilia laughed mirthlessly at her decision. This place was the least-suited place for her, yet it was the place she felt safest and most comfortable in.
Maybe it was the stupidity of the ratfolk.
Three of the vermin chittered at her as she walked down something that resembled a path through the slime of the bog, either ignorant or uncaring of the wings that splayed from her back. Perhaps seeing her near-human appearance led them to believe that she shared human frailties. She looked up and sighed as the first of the nezumi leaped at her, weapon sheathed and claws held to catch rather than strike. Just before it closed its arms around her, she darted under it with inhuman speed, letting it tumble onto the path. It cried out in pain as something cracked on landing, but she paid it no further heed. One of its partners, however, drew its daggers and rushed toward her, hissing; she responded mildly, tearing it apart with her wings and tossing the pieces behind her.
Nothing more attempted to gain her attention until she reached the 'town' in the swamp. At long last, she stopped moving and looked at her surroundings; almost immediately, she regretted that decision. Even if she hadn't been used to luxury and splendor, even if her senses were not capable of capturing details nothing human could even realize was there …. "It's like a disease. Corpse towns are livelier than this place." She murmured the condemnation quietly, vaguely aware of the humans and nezumi that watched her from barely-stable buildings or the surrounding muck. At least it wasn't the poor quarter, where there wasn't even solid ground, only more marshland to build on. A small army of ratfolk scurried toward her, spears and halberds held out threateningly, and one of the poor rodents was thrust out from behind the protection of its fellows. Some of the weapons poked its back, pushing it forward, and the terrified creature stumbled its way closer until it was halfway between its comrades and the vampire.
"Y-y-… you stay 'way! Bad luck!" She considered the foolish creature for a moment, then looked up at the moon, wondering who and what was watching at this moment. Then she smiled quite innocently at the creature.
"Indeed? Did your scriers and shaman tell you that I brought danger?" A terrified nod answered her. "Did they say I would draw the kami to this place?" A brief hesitation, then another nod, and she sighed and shook her head. She surged forward, not in one body but in a horde of bats, past the lone nezumi and into the company behind it, and when she stood on two perfectly clean feet in the center of their formation, they collapsed, dead. "Well, then I suppose I shall have to correct them. It won't take long, but you'll certainly wish that I only brought the kami with me, little mouse." The air around her burned red, the yellow mist that tainted parts of the city turned scarlet, and a horde of bats swarmed up into the night sky, transforming into small circles of power when their targets were in sight.
She already knew how to deal the most damage to this place - who to slaughter to disrupt their feeble defenses, which buildings contained the most valuable concentrations of treasure. But to generate the most fear … she cast her thoughts forward. A simple divination, for her, but in a place like this, so very effective. Already threads connected her to three individuals of worth, and she clucked her tongue as a wave of her arm set the magic circles to spewing their payload across the town. The boy … she set kanji of death in his path. Nothing directly affecting him, but if he ignored the warnings she gave then he would die, and not even is ogre partner could revenge himself upon her. The girl was no fool, and would not risk her precious skin if her sorcery failed. And the rat was too far to interfere, even with her oni-granted strength. Remilia smiled and breathed deeply as her magic began to tear down the weaker buildings of the town.
That was the trick, of course. The stronger buildings, those held by the rich and powerful, and protected by wizards' wards, could withstand the barrage she sent down on the town. The lesser buildings would succumb, sooner rather than later, and then what would those inhabitants do? Where would they go? She would stay long enough to collect some of their misery, to enjoy their plight - because of course, the only safe structures belonged to people who would never share, never trust the low, common folk in their homes. And then, after … she would taste their despair.
Twice, there had been interruptions. A handful of local wizards had gathered up the courage to strike at her with swamp and fire, and she had parried their spells before turning her storm on them. Later, a desperate horde of nezumi had sought to overwhelm her, to the same result. But at long last, much of the town had been rendered uninhabitable, and she sighed deeply, savoring the sweet taste of emotions on the wind … even if that meant inhaling the stench of the swamp as well. And then she turned around to face the others that had come this night.
A horde of lesser kami had crept to the edge of the swamp, some only finally managing to dredge themselves into corporeal forms. She nodded in satisfaction when she saw not a single greater kami among them - the mightiest form she noted was merely a lesser oni, bestial and snarling. She inclined her head, spread her arms, flared her wings above her head. Certainly, there was some greater being watching - perhaps Horobi, definitely at least one oni, perhaps another. But those arrayed before her, enough to overwhelm the city that lay in ruins behind her even had it been fully defended, they were simply the closest to the human world, drawn to the display of power almost against their wills. She grinned - almost … as if it had all been fated.
In the scant few seconds remaining before violence erupted, she considered the kami. They were like youkai, but different - more primal. In the centuries and millennia before her existence, this was the form of man's nightmares: twisted things of muck and blood, of metal and bone, of meat and of plant. Time had … civilized them, made them take proper form that humans could understand and interact with, but this wildness was the true shape of things like Yukari and Yuuka. Youkai and kami had their own strengths and weaknesses, but so many of those depended on circumstance … and here, now, the advantages lay with the vampire that only tolerated the title of 'youkai'.
The kami had waited, still and patient as only formless entities could be, and Remilia rewarded their unintentional kindness with unbridled violence. Faster than all but the swiftest spirits of sky and thunder, she hurtled through the assembled kami, tearing them apart with the violence of her passage and the storm of power that surrounded her. The oni swelled its chest to roar, but a casual backhand from the vampire shattered its toothy maw. And then Remilia laid her final trap - hardening the border between corporeal and spirit. With the kami now forced to live and die in the human realm, unable to escape even in death, she could now properly enjoy herself, if only for a short time.
Much too short a time. Despite the huge number of kami, her decision to keep them all to herself and not let them flee back to the swamp or rampage through the village forced her to butcher them more quickly than she had wanted, blasting them with lances of scarlet energy, strangling them and tearing them apart with bloody chains, puncturing them with brilliant daggers of ruby power, and rushing back and forth to rip them limb from limb with her own two hands. And yet, it came with its own benefit as the mortals of the village watched her slaughter the kami almost effortlessly. Their dread grew, the despair they felt at having been used and dismissed freshened the swampy air, and the desire to live faded.
She laughed, gladly savoring the exquisite fear. Such a banquet was not necessary for a vampire, anchored to reality as they were by their diet of blood, but it was still pleasant and still invigorating. The only damper she felt was that her sister could not enjoy this thrill alongside her - she was still enchained by the Bureau, still acting the good girl for their benefit. But maybe, at least in time ….
Another force stirred, pressing against the barrier between physical and spiritual. Not the guardian of the barrier, but another great spirit. Nothing she couldn't fight, couldn't defeat … but it would take much more than a simple binding and a few minutes to lay it low, and in that time others would come. And she had revitalized herself, had shaken off the lethargy that threatened to remove her from Gensokyo's web of power. Patchouli would … at least stop bothering her. That was good enough.
She smiled at the few mortals brave enough to stare at the ruin in front of their town, inclined her head, and stepped backward through a portal back to her home. She still had things to do.