CHAPTER ONE

THE ELECTORAL WAR

1

Kojou Akatsuki was utterly bewildered.

He was ten thousand meters in the air, traveling at a thousand kilometers per hour. He was in the cabin of a private jet flying from the Northern European kingdom of Aldegia to Itogami Island. It was a charter plane Princess La Folia Rihavein had arranged for Kojou and the others, heroes and saviors of the nation, as a surprise.

The cabin came equipped with everything: a dining room on par with a restaurant, large beds and shower rooms, and even multimedia entertainment. Kojou had just woken up on the leather-covered sofa in the theater room. He’d gone there with Yukina Himeragi, who was—though she would never, ever admit it out loud—afraid of sleeping on airplanes and had started watching an animal comedy targeted at children only to fall asleep.

Yukina was making quiet sleeping sounds right at Kojou’s side.

Or perhaps it would be more precise to say, against Kojou’s side.

Her arms remained wrapped around Kojou’s arm as she slept, almost like a swimmer on the brink of drowning clinging to a life guard. She was also like a cat handed off to a familiar neighbor for safekeeping, looking reassured as she snuggled in a blanket left behind carrying her owner’s scent.

If it was just that, he might call the scene heartwarming.

However, having their arms entwined together meant that Yukina’s body was making direct contact with Kojou’s in several places. Plus, in contrast to her unawareness of the fact, Yukina was beautiful.

Her body was quite slender and delicate to the eye, and her breasts felt very soft as they pressed against his upper arm. He couldn’t put into words the scent that wafted up from her glossy hair. Her eyelashes were long. Her lips were pink. Her neck was exposed and defenseless. And he could see her blue veins right through her white skin—

Kojou hastily averted his eyes, feeling like he might lose himself if he kept staring.

He tentatively thought he needed to do something about their being so close together, but Yukina’s arms had such a firm grip that he couldn’t pull away. One false move and she’d end up dislocating Kojou’s shoulder. It seemed that Yukina had put Kojou in an armlock while she was unconscious.

No matter how afraid of flying she is, does she have to hold me so tightly? Kojou couldn’t help feeling exasperated. He agonized over how to free himself from her arms without waking her.

Consequently, Kojou’s face ended up drawing very close to Yukina’s.

“What are you doing?”

Kojou’s eyes bulged, his movements halting as he heard a frigid voice from behind.

When he looked back, he saw a classmate with an extravagant hairstyle, her body clad in bold, almost comically fashionable clothing.

“…Oh, it’s you, Asagi. Don’t scare me like that.” Kojou sighed with relief and glared with half-lidded eyes.

Asagi Aiba sourly puffed up her cheeks. “Whaddaya mean by that? Is hearing my voice a bad thing somehow?”

“That ain’t it. I’m just in a pinch here ’cause I can’t move my arm.”

“Hmm… So your arm’s numb from Yukina using it as a pillow the whole time?”

“I don’t know how the heck an armlock looks like a pillow to you. More to the point, gimme a hand here. I can’t move at all like this,” Kojou pleaded, slightly teary-eyed from the extreme pain in his locked-up joints.

Asagi shrugged lightly and grudgingly began helping Kojou escape. Gazing at the side of Yukina’s face as she slept defenselessly, Asagi exhaled with a twinge of envy.

“I know everyone has one or two things they have a hard time with, but to take it this far, that’s not so much a flaw as a talent. Who’d think she’d be scared of airplanes that much…?”

“If you ask her, she’ll stubbornly insist she’s not afraid, though.”

Kojou, finally freed from the armlock, made a strained smile as he stretched his stiff arm.

Yukina, a Sword Shaman of the Lion King Agency, could not show weakness before others. After all, that would constitute an obvious weakness in the Fourth Primogenitor’s observer. That was why she absolutely would not acknowledge her fear of airplanes despite it being blatantly obvious. Because he understood all that, Kojou pretended he didn’t notice her fear.

“Well, seems like she finally got some sleep, so let’s leave her like that for a little while.”

Asagi glanced at her wristwatch. “That’s fine, but we’ll be landing soon. It’ll probably be only another thirty minutes or so.”

Kojou’s eyes turned toward the window. However, the ultramarine night sky outside made it hard to track the passage of time. The plane was scheduled to land on Itogami Island before daybreak.

“Landing sooner than I thought.”

“It feels like that because it was a smooth ride. We really must thank the princess.”

“Feels to me like we deserved this much, though,” Kojou murmured to himself as he glanced around the cabin of the extravagant private jet.

During their stay in the kingdom of Aldegia, Kojou had not only ended up being used by La Folia as her purported fiancé, but he had also nearly ended up being cleaved to death by her father. Additionally, he’d been caught up in an international-scale conspiracy, fighting against terrorists. Even if La Folia showed a little consideration after all that, he didn’t think it was anything to feel guilty about.

“Well, fine. So…did anything happen?” Kojou put on a serious expression. Surely she hadn’t come to check on him solely for the sake of freeing him from Yukina’s armlock.

“Well, a bit.” Asagi nodded vaguely. It felt like a half-baked reaction coming from her. “This aircraft, as suits a high-class private jet, has its own Internet connection, but I lost my connection to Mogwai a little while ago.”

“Mogwai? Ahh, that thing… The badly sewn teddy bear…”

Kojou recalled the sight of the AI avatar serving as Asagi’s partner. Even charitably, he couldn’t call the design very cool, but Mogwai was apparently a highly capable agent even so.

Asagi opened her eyes wide with incredulity. “What do you mean badly sewn?! He’s cute!”

“Huh? Uh, well, if you think so, then that’s great… So what about it?”

“I’m saying he won’t respond no matter how much I call him. It’s not just Mogwai, it looks like all of Itogami Island is having network hiccups. At the very least, all communications with the Gigafloat Management Corporation HQ have been cut.”

“They were cut…?” Kojou replied, perplexed. He didn’t have a single clue whether that was a grave issue.

As Kojou and Asagi moved from the theater room to the main cabin, a third party interjected himself into their conversation. Motoki Yaze was sitting in a seat in a reclining position as he held a sturdy mobile communication terminal in his hands.

“Doesn’t look like problems cropped up in just the computer networks,” he said. “Satellite phones and my family’s private line are no good, either. Seems like the submarine communications cable got cut, so there’s no way it’s a simple hiccup. Thanks to that, we’ve got no idea what’s going on back home.”

“…Don’t tell me this is Juranbarada’s doing?” Kojou had no particular basis for that suspicion, but he had a ferociously bad feeling nonetheless.

Asagi furrowed her brow. “You mean that First Primogenitor guy supposedly heading for Itogami Island?”

Just before departing the kingdom of Aldegia, Kojou had met a man calling himself Ki Juranbarada back at the airport. Immediately after the man left for Itogami Island a step ahead of Kojou and the others, they learned Juranbarada was the Lost Warlord, the First Primogenitor.

Kojou didn’t think it would be all that surprising if a man like him, bored of a long life as an immortal vampire, would kick up a disturbance on Itogami Island on a whim. Furthermore, the First Primogenitor’s loyal confidant, Velesh Aradahl, had warned him to absolutely not let his liege become bored. If he did, there was no telling what Juranbarada might do.

Yaze calmly shook his head as if to brush Kojou’s worry aside. “That seemed the likeliest story, but the timing doesn’t match up. From the little bit of digging I did, it seems like Itogami Island’s communications issues started before we even left Aldegia.”

“Oh… Then it’s got nothin’ to do with Juranbarada?”

“I’m not sure we can say it’s completely unrelated, though. We don’t actually know the reason why the First Primogenitor is heading all the way to Itogami Island.”

Asagi kept an optimistic view, though she sounded only half-convinced. “At minimum, it seems the First Primogenitor has nothing to do with the communications trouble.”

Kojou agreed, but there was still a fundamental problem: They still had no idea what the cause behind the loss of contact with Itogami Island was.

“Somehow, it feels like something like this happened before, too…,” Kojou murmured offhandedly as he continued glaring at the darkened window.

He remembered the Roses of Tartarus incident from three months earlier. During that incident, the Eight Trigrams Formation employed by the sorcerous terrorist group Tartarus Lapse had cut Itogami Island off from the rest of the world, obstructing the import of goods. That was certainly different from network communications, but in the sense of isolating Itogami Island, the current situation was much the same.

Tartarus Lapse’s objective had been to stir up anxiety within the island’s populace—to then complete the destructive ritual magic they called the Roses of Tartarus. So he had to wonder if this obstruction of communications was no more than the prelude to a much graver incident.

His thoughts were erased by Yukina’s voice as she suddenly raced into the cabin.

“Senpai!”

“…H-Himeragi?”

Kojou nervously looked back at Yukina to see her abnormally flustered. He assumed Yukina was angrily chasing him down for having abandoned her in the theater room while she slept.

She grabbed his arm and forcefully dragged him off.

“Senpai, please come with me right now!”

“Ahh…calm down, Himeragi. You don’t have to worry. Planes don’t fall out of the sky just like that.”

“Right, right. This model of aircraft is popular because of its safety rating,” Asagi added to try to put Yukina at ease, “and I heard the pilot was handpicked from the best of the Aldegian Air Force.”

That did not ease Yukina’s irritation. She glared at Kojou. “That is not the problem! Nagisa is—”

“What about Nagisa?!”

Kojou’s expression tightened the instant his little sister’s name came up. The way he hung on Yukina’s every word made Yaze and Asagi glare with exasperated faces that practically screamed, You and your damned sister complex.

“Over here!”

Yukina dragged Kojou by the arm toward the main bedroom located at the back of the cabin. His younger sister was wearing her vacation clothes and sitting on the edge of the wide double bed. Kanon Kanase was sitting close to her with concern. The two should have been deep asleep in that bedroom until moments before.

A ferocious choking feeling seized Kojou the instant he entered the room—it was the spiritual essence filling the bedroom. This powerful energy scattering out from Nagisa was a burden on Kojou’s vampiric body.

Realizing her brother had entered the room, Nagisa raised a frail voice. “Kojou…”

Kojou approached her, ignoring his discomfort. “Nagisa?! What happened?”

“Kojou… I’m scared, Kojou…”

Nagisa’s entire body was shaking as she put her weight against him. She wasn’t meaning to hurt him with that spiritual essence. She just couldn’t control it.

“You felt something? Like from before…?”

Kojou slowly stroked Nagisa’s hair as she trembled in his arms. Nagisa weakly gave a vague shake of her head.

“I don’t know, but…on Itogami Island…there’s something’s scary… There’s all kinds of bad emotions swirling… Bloodlust… Madness… It’s like a war is starting…”

“A war…? Why there?”

Kojou was shaken. Judging by the timing of Nagisa’s words and the communications troubles, certainly something was going on. If the First Primogenitor, Ki Juranbarada, had caught the scent of war brewing, Kojou could see how he’d take that as a reason to visit Itogami Island.

“No… Kojou… If you return to Itogami Island…”

Nagisa gripped Kojou’s collar. A huge amount of spiritual energy shot out from her entire body. Her own fears had triggered the explosion. Unable to withstand it, Kojou staggered back. Her power was so incredible that any normal demon would have been knocked out cold from being in the same room.

Even though this explosion could not directly harm Nagisa’s body, she could not endure a prolonged intense release of her spiritual essence, because its source was her very own life force.

“Oh no…!” Yukina gasped.

“Nagisa!” Kanon exclaimed.

They embraced Nagisa from both sides in an attempt to restrain her spiritual energy. Having experienced going right to the brink of transforming into angels, Yukina and Kanon both possessed top-class spiritual energy by the standards of humankind. Of course, their control was excellent as well.

The pair jointly deployed a barrier, which barely managed to keep Nagisa from running amok. Losing consciousness from the exhaustion of her strength, Nagisa collapsed onto the bed.

Asagi patted her chest in relief. Yaze was deflated as he squatted down to the floor.

Nagisa calmly slept as Kanon carefully watched the side of her face with visible concern. Then, Yukina shifted a serious look toward Kojou.

“Senpai, just now…”

“Y-yeah…” Kojou coughed painfully as he spoke. The dregs of lingering spiritual energy still inside his body were making it a little tough to breathe. He felt like a fish out of water. “Nagisa was a powerful spirit medium to begin with. Way back, she regularly went off to Grandma’s for training. That was to keep troublesome stuff like Spirit Sight and premonitions from wrecking her body, but…”

Yaze had a pensive look as he sank into thought. “Seems like an abnormal situation, maybe even a war, is taking place on Itogami Island…”

After witnessing a release of spiritual essence on that level, it was difficult to brush off Nagisa’s Spirit Sight as a figment of her imagination, all the more after they’d already confirmed the Itogami Island communication blockage.

“Even if Nagisa’s Spirit Sight is right,” Asagi said bluntly, laughing, “it’s not like we can just stay away, you know.”

No one spoke a single word in refutation. Everyone present had precious family and friends back on Itogami Island. It was the same for even Yukina, dispatched to Itogami Island in the course of her duties.

“In either case, it would seem best to emotionally prepare ourselves, so that we might respond to whatever situation presents itself,” Yukina said, taking on a sober, serious tone. Her words also seemed to carry a sense of duty; as a professional Attack Mage, she needed to hold herself together.

However, the private jet was assailed by a dull thud before her statement had ceased to reverberate. The frame heavily tilted like a rowboat tossed about by a storm.

“Kyaaaa!” Yukina shrieked.

“Th-the hell?!”

Catching Yukina before she tumbled to the floor, Kojou shifted his eyes beyond the window. It was just for an instant, but he felt like he could see a wingtip light against the pitch-black sky. “Is anyone hurt…?!”

An officer wearing an Aldegian Air Force uniform rushed into the cabin. She was a young lieutenant accompanying Kojou and company, attending to their needs during the flight. “I have a message from the captain. A civilian airplane deviating from its flight path is approaching. We have engaged in emergency maneuvers due to the danger of a near miss.”

“N-near miss…?” Yukina’s voice was shaking as she haltingly echoed the words. She was half in tears at the fact two planes had nearly collided in midair.

The officer confirmed with a sober nod. “Currently, we believe the cause is a cessation of communications from the air traffic control room at Itogami Central Airport.”

“Not being able to contact the airport control room… That’s pretty bad, ain’t it…?”

The latest news made even Kojou pale. If his memory was correct, an air traffic control room was a facility that granted landing rights to aircraft, monitored an airport’s airspace, and managed traffic in order to prevent accidents from occurring.

He didn’t think a safe landing was possible as long as the air traffic control room was beyond reach. If there was another aircraft on the runway when they landed, they ran the risk of a horrific collision.

“Please rest at ease. We have altered our flight plan, and we are expected to land according to visual flight rules at a coast guard airbase in Itogami Island’s southern district.”

“The coast guard? Hmm…,” Yaze murmured.

“VFR without radio guidance… In other words, a manual landing,” Asagi said just as quietly. They both did not conceal their anxiety.

“Rest at ease” my ass, thought Kojou as he lifted his face toward the sky.

Suddenly realizing that Yukina had gone rigid, Kojou cast a sidelong glance at her.

“You okay, Himeragi?”

“Yes… It’s not a problem… I’m all right… I’m all right…”

Yukina was still staring at the wall with hollow eyes, repeating the same phrase like a broken doll.

2

Like the Island Guard, the coast guard was an agency external to the Gigafloat Management Corporation, an autonomous paramilitary organization assigned to preserving order and safety in Itogami Island’s maritime zone.

The scope of its mission was broad, including search and rescue, managing maritime traffic, apprehending smugglers and foreign infiltrators, and on top of that, magically surveying the ocean and even the capture or elimination of marine demon beasts. It was a crucial organization supporting the safety of Itogami Island, a city atop the ocean, from the shadows.

However, in contrast to the importance of its mission, one could not call its budget extravagant. In particular, the coast guard’s air base was a little sub-float tethered to Itogami Island’s shore, and the base’s “facilities” amounted to one narrow runway. The actual station was a two-story prefab wooden cabin, with even lampposts scarce in the surrounding area.

“This is my first time here, but it’s something, huh?” Asagi said as she disembarked the runway.

“That’s because this is a staging area for search and rescue teams and patrol planes.” Yaze strained a smile as he walked down the ramp and surveyed the area. “Well, thanks to that, we were able to land even in this situation… ’Cause there ain’t anything around these parts.”

In spite of Kojou and the others’ tension prior to the landing, the Aldegian private jet arrived at Itogami Island without problems. The pilot really had been the best of the best. The narrowness and shabbiness of the runway and landing manually without air traffic control hadn’t posed any trouble whatsoever.

All that said, seeing a cutting-edge, high-class private jet parked at a station that looked practically abandoned was a disquieting scene in itself. The fact they were currently in an emergency situation had really been driven home.

The young lieutenant acting as a guide bowed politely. “We will be immediately departing for the Japanese mainland. We have a responsibility to convey this situation to our home nation.”

From beside her, Nagisa grinned as she stood straight with perfect politeness. “Thank you for all the help. Please give our best regards to Miss La Folia.”

“As you wish.” The officer smiled, enchanted with Nagisa. Or perhaps the smile was relief that she’d somehow managed to carry out her mission.

When partings were finished, Kojou shot a worried glance toward Nagisa. It hadn’t even been thirty minutes since she’d gone unconscious from her spiritual energy going berserk. “Nagisa, are you feeling okay already?”

However, all Nagisa gave him was a surprised blink of her eyes. It seemed that all memory of her time in Spirit Sight had dropped away from her mind.

“What are you talking about? If you wanna worry about someone, I think you should worry about Yukina.”

“Ahh… Guess you’re right.” Kojou appeared conflicted as he agreed.

Certainly, any observer would say Yukina was far more worn down at the present juncture. Finally liberated from her fear and panic from when they landed, she was leaning against Kanon in a half-dazed state.

Asagi curled her lips as she checked the signal strength on the screen of her smartphone. “…It’s no use. Seems like the cell phone towers are down, too.”

“The street lighting feels pretty dim across the board.” Yaze narrowed his eyes with a pained expression.

It was past 3:00 AM, less than three hours until daybreak. However, many of the residents were nocturnal demons, so Itogami Island was normally rather bright even at that hour, particularly in the case of Island West—Itogami Island’s downtown—which evoked an image of brightly shining LED billboards and neon signs.

On this night, though, the entire island had gone quiet. That bright image seemed like a fairy tale. There was light from neither apartment buildings nor even vehicle headlights. The place was deserted, practically a ghost town.

“So what should we be doing from here?” Kojou asked as he came down from the airplane with everyone’s luggage. He hadn’t had a proper overseas trip since elementary school, so he’d thoroughly forgotten the fine details of the formalities upon returning.

Asagi raised both hands up, at a loss. “Normally we’d be going through customs, but where do we even go for that in this case? I’d ask someone working here at the air base among other things, but…”

She was the most accustomed to travel among them, but even she had no experience with this kind of situation.

Yaze grimaced a bit with a suspicious air. “Come to think of it, why isn’t anyone here to meet us?”

Here they were with a completely out-of-place high-end private jet helping itself onto their base with a bunch of high schoolers getting off it. The normal reaction would surely be for armed guards kept on standby to rush out and surround Kojou and the others.

However, the coast guard station remained silent without a single person coming into view. There probably wasn’t anyone left at the station.

Perhaps personnel had been ordered to disperse, or perhaps they’d been wiped out—either way, there was no mistaking that the situation was extremely dangerous.

“No point sticking around in the middle of a runway, is there?” Yaze said.

“I suppose not. Maybe we can figure out something if we go to that building,” Asagi agreed. She walked toward the weathered, prefabricated cabin.

She had barely taken a few steps when she warily came to a stop. She’d noticed that there were human silhouettes leisurely approaching them from the other side of the base, about ten people in all.

They all seemed to be in their twenties. Every last one wore shredded jeans and leather jackets and the like, biker chic from an age long past, and they wore sunglasses despite it being the middle of the night. They were really lacking in taste.

Nagisa noticed something sooner than the rest. “Kojou…!” Hiding behind her brother in fright, her shoulders trembled with worry.

“Are they from the coast guard? That’s pretty far-out as uniforms go…,” Yaze said, only half-serious.

“Like hell they are!” Asagi exclaimed, playing his joke straight.

However, both no doubt understood the gravity of the situation. The group’s fashion sense wasn’t the problem.

“Senpai, these are…”

Yukina was clutching her guitar case to her as she walked to Kojou’s side. Somehow, she’d apparently recovered from her earlier despondent state.

“Demons, yeah.”

Kojou nodded a bit. Because he lacked Yukina’s training, Kojou was less sensitive to demonic energy than others, but even he could tell that these weren’t normal human beings.

The man in the middle of the group coming off like its leader seemed particularly dangerous.

He was a full head taller than Kojou, probably close to two meters tall. However, what stood out far more was his breadth. He must have weighed over two hundred kilograms with room to spare. His physique wasn’t buff like a sumo wrestler, either. He came off like an obese slob. His long, heavy metal rocker–style hair gave off an even more unsightly impression.

“What the heck? All brats, ain’tcha? You on a school trip or somethin’?” The long-haired big man gazed at Kojou and the others with a taunting laugh. “Well, fine. Welcome to the Ugaki Domain, brats.”

“Ugaki…Domain?” Yaze repeated.

“The heck is that?” Asagi said in a guarded tone.

The term was unfamiliar to both of them. They had no clue how to respond to this “welcome.”

An awkward silence passed between them. The big man hastily began to explain in an effort to smooth things along.

“Right. Figures ya don’t know if you’re overseas. A domain is an autonomous region. So to put it bluntly, this place belongs to me, Mark Ugaki.”

“Mark… Okay…,” Kojou said.

That name sure doesn’t suit him, thought Kojou as he politely went along with it. This place belonged to the long-haired big guy.

Asagi boldly raised a hand. Having lived in a Demon Sanctuary for many years, her personality wasn’t prone to flinching even when dealing with demons. “I’m not really sure what you’re saying, but the gist is something like a delinquent turf war?”

Apparently, Asagi’s attitude and question was rubbing them the wrong way. The minions around Ugaki were stirred up, going red-faced in unison.

“What’d you say?!”

“Who’s a delinquent?! Don’t look down on Ugaki, you bitch!!”

Asagi yelled back in a voice just as loud as the minions, “A-anyone would call you delinquents with one look at you from both your clothes and your attitude!”

Ugaki gave off a hearty laugh with an attitude that was oddly like a big shot. “Ha-ha. Well, fine. We can sweat the details later. Lemme get to the important part. Become my subjects. All of ya.”

“…Subjects?” Kojou muttered. He glanced at his friends.

Based on appearance alone, they’d expected Ugaki to request money and, failing that, to flirt. However, it was unexpected and downright creepy for their objective to be neither money nor women.

“The gist is to become members of my domain,” Ugaki explained. “If you become my subjects, I’ll protect ya from the other candidates. When this Electoral War ends and I become the ruler, it’ll be easy livin’ fer ya.”

The details remained unclear.

“…You’re sure this really isn’t a delinquent turf war?” Nagisa whispered to Asagi.

“So what, this is to become the boss of all the delinquents on Itogami Island…?” she replied quietly.

Overhearing this, the minions grunted at them, stirred up once more. Thanks to that, the conversation wasn’t moving forward at all. What they did manage to understand, if barely, was that Ugaki wanted Kojou and company to become his subjects. They’d come to that abandoned base to recruit him and the others to be part of their citizenry.

“Well, if ya don’t wanna become my subjects, that’s fine by me. That means becomin’ my enemy, though. I don’t show mercy—even against brats.”

Ugaki brazenly bared his teeth. His already large body swelled to over twice its previous size. His skin turned grayish with a blue-green sheen and seemed to harden into some kind of armor. His long, depressing-looking hair also turned gray. It resembled a beast person’s divine bestialization phenomenon, but he came off more like a wicked giant than a beast.

Kojou’s expression did not change even after seeing this transformation. “What’s with this guy?”

Yukina’s face also remained calm as she gazed at the raging Ugaki. “A giant who can transform… A troll, I would think. They are considered rare across the globe. It is said that they have resilient bodies and high regenerative abilities.”

“…That’s it?”

“Er, well, yes.”

Perhaps irritated by Kojou’s and Yukina’s less than impressed reactions, Ugaki suddenly punched the ground right before him. “What are you two yammerin’ about? Look at my peerless, herculean strength, dammit—!”

The runway’s surface caved in as if some giant hammer had slammed into it. As Ugaki squatted, there was also a large hole spreading from under his feet, sending asphalt fragments flying all over the place.

Ugaki’s underlings thrust their fists into the air as they cheered in unison.

“Whoaaaaa!”

“That’s our Ugaki!”

“He’s totally invincible!”

“The Fourth Primogenitor’s got nothin’ on him!”

“Fwa-ha-ha-ha, ya see now?!”

Bathed in praise from his underlings, Ugaki pushed his chest out, soaking in their cheers.

However, the right hand with which he had punched the ground was oddly bent right around the wrist. Unlike civilian roads, which just had an asphalt surface on top of gravel and sand, aircraft runway asphalt ran more than two meters thick. In addition, the artificial isle construction materials underneath it were hardened to withstand the impact of landings. It was only natural to be hurt from punching that with your bare hand.

“Um, that was impressive…but doesn’t your hand hurt?” Kojou grimaced.

Ugaki’s bloodied middle and ring finger joints were bent in odd directions, sending a slight chill up Kojou’s spine just from the sight of them.

However, Ugaki seemed to have been waiting for him to ask that question, full of pride as he thrust that very hand toward Kojou.

“Hey you, don’t take me for a softy! It’s from here on out yer gonna learn the true terror of Ugaki the Great!”

Ugaki’s entire body was enveloped with the glow of demonic energy.

The glow was coming from the demon registration bracelet Ugaki wore on his right wrist. This was both the identification that proved he was a demon officially registered as a citizen of Itogami City and a demon monitoring device that transmitted the wearer’s physical state, location data, and more for tracking purposes.

The bracelet activated small-scale magic that sent Ugaki’s body into overdrive. Ugaki’s injured wrist mended with incredible force, displaying a speed of healing that put a vampire’s regenerative ability to shame.

“What’s with this magic…?!” Asagi’s voice quivered.

A demon registration bracelet had simple magical circuits on the inside, but it wasn’t the first time she’d seen them used contrary to their proper purpose. Previously, they’d been hacked from the outside to force the wearer’s demonic energy into a berserk state, but the bracelets had been further improved since to close that security loophole. She would know—it was Asagi herself who had carried out the work.

At present, interfering with the demon registration bracelets was only possible via the Gigafloat Management Corporation’s City Management System at Keystone Gate. That was why Asagi was shaken. That meant someone had hijacked Keystone Gate.

“Ritual magic,” Yukina concluded, analyzing the nature of Ugaki’s spell from the flow of his demonic energy. “His comrades’ demonic power is being sent to him with spell symbols.”

It wasn’t just Ugaki surrounded by the glow of demonic energy. Little magic circles hovered on the skin of the henchmen surrounding Ugaki, with lines of demonic energy linking them to Ugaki’s demon registration bracelet. He was using the demonic energy thus absorbed to heighten his own healing ability.

“So that’s why he’s gathering followers,” Yaze said with a smidgen of admiration. “In other words, the more subjects he gathers up, the greater the demonic energy he can absorb.”

In contrast to Ugaki’s oddly high level of vigor, the followers whose demonic energy he was absorbing were being exhausted at an incredible pace. However many subjects he’d gathered, it wasn’t enough. If he had a sufficient number of subjects, the demonic energy he could use would be nigh inexhaustible. It might even be on par with a vampire primogenitor.

“Okay… I get the gist of the situation.” Kojou shook his head with annoyance.

He didn’t know for what purpose someone had given Ugaki such a spell, but he understood Ugaki’s objective and his motivation for action. He was also keenly aware that he did not have the luxury of sympathy.

In short, this man was drunk on the great power he’d obtained. He was an idiot living for the thrill of the moment. He didn’t even notice that his underlings were being whittled down as they paid the price for his use of their power.

“Himeragi, please.”

“Yes.”

Nodding at Kojou’s words, Yukina slowly stepped forward. She opened the lid of the guitar case she carried, drawing the sheathed Snowdrift Wolf from within. With a small, grating sound, its various parts deployed, transforming into a full-length spear—a fully metallic, silver-colored spear.

“Hey, hey, are you planning to take on Ugaki the Great with that toothpick?” He laughed and raised his middle finger.

With a stout body and a fast healing ability, from Ugaki’s point of view, a spear or two couldn’t have felt threatening in the slightest, all the more so if the wielder was a little girl.

“…Huh?!”

The instant Yukina’s spear flashed out, Ugaki’s eyes went round, stiffening from shock.

This was because the glow of demonic energy enveloping his surroundings had vanished without any warning. He’d been cut from the demonic energy lines stretching from his underlings, and the magic symbols marking them as subjects had disappeared, too. This meant that no matter how much they hurt Ugaki, his henchmen wouldn’t be the ones bearing the brunt anymore.

“Sorry, Ugaki. I’m tired from a long trip. Sucks to be you, but I’m gonna cut this short.” Kojou ferociously curled up the corners of his lips. Their surroundings were enveloped in crimson mist that transformed into malevolent demonic energy: a mass of energy so dense that it possessed its own sentience.

“H-hold on a sec… What’s with this ridiculous pressure…?! What the hell are you…?!” Ugaki shrieked, only for the sudden whipping of a vortex to erase his words.

“C’mon over, Al-Nasl Minium!”

Rising amid those rampaging winds was a huge bicorn, flickering like a mirage. This was a Beast Vassal, a summoned beast from another world serving a vampire from within his own blood.

The bicorn bellowed, and its roar mowed Ugaki down along with his minions, digging a massive hole into the runway. Ugaki’s punch didn’t hold a candle to the yawning crater, easily tens of meters in radius.

“Well, I guess that’s that.”

Kojou languidly murmured as he released the Beast Vassal from the summons. A few lingering ragged gusts were all that remained as the scarlet bicorn vanished.

Ugaki rolled at the edge of the crater gouged out by the Beast Vassal, eyes spinning in terror. Witnessing the sight, his underlings lost their senses and scattered, running for the proverbial hills.

“So what is this ‘Electoral War’ thingy anyway…?” Kojou asked as he stared down at the still-prone Ugaki. Of course, the unconscious giant didn’t reply.

Nagisa let out a shrill cry. “Kojou! Look!”

She was looking in the direction of a canal cutting right through the center of the island.

As a result of the Beast Vassal’s indiscriminately raging winds, the nighttime mist shrouding the runway’s environs had been blown away. Thanks to that, they were able to get a clear look at the state of the island.

Aside from the minimal level of lighting, it looked virtually unchanged from when Kojou and company had departed. It was the familiar skyline of the artificial isle…except for one thing, obvious to everyone’s eyes.

They were looking at the building in the center of the island. There were cracks running across a huge building shaped like an inverted pyramid that stood at the center of the island. It looked like the aftermath of someone driving a gargantuan sword into it.

The sight felt akin to a declaration of war against Itogami Island itself.

“Someone…wrecked…Keystone Gate…?”

With a parched voice, Kojou somehow managed to wring out those words.

The disaster that had befallen Itogami Island had finally hit them in the face.

3

About fifteen minutes passed until Mark Ugaki woke up.

He’d been bluntly set down on the floor of the abandoned coast guard building. This was not intentional humiliation of any kind; the sofas and benches in the building just weren’t big enough to support Ugaki’s huge body.

He’d tossed around in his sleep and bumped the floor, and the resulting pain made him regain consciousness. Peering in at Ugaki from the side with a look of concern was Kanon.

“Um… Are you all right?” she asked.

“Y…yeah…”

Ugaki blinked in wonder at the silver-haired, blue-eyed girl calling to him so gently. He must have had difficulty accepting the sight before him as real.

Kanon smiled softly in relief, an expression that could brighten the whole world.

“…Is this…heaven?”

Ugaki exhaled, enraptured. He really thought Kojou had killed him earlier.

Kojou gave Ugaki’s forehead a good, hard smack. “Like hell it is. You just got scared and fainted from the blast!”

“Guoaah?!”

Groaning from the pain in his forehead, Ugaki looked like he’d just woken up from a dream. His gaze shifted to Kojou’s face, whereupon he gasped, visibly wary as he sat up.

“Y-you’re that…!”

“Please do not move.”

When Ugaki sat up, a silver blade was pointed right at his throat. The cold sensation made Ugaki draw in his breath.

“This spear nullifies demonic energy. Your troll healing ability will be of no use.”

Yukina, poised with Snowdrift Wolf at the ready, emotionlessly looked down at Ugaki as she spoke. In terms of angelic appearance, she was hardly inferior to Kanon, but Yukina’s hostility made her come off like an angel of death.

Asagi, seated in a cheap office chair, crossed her legs as she coldly said, “Your allies ran away, so I’m not sure how far your precious healing power would get you anyway.”

The two of them were so irritated from having seen the wrecked Keystone Gate. Now that they knew Itogami Island was in far greater danger than they had assumed, they had precious little time to be dealing with the likes of Ugaki. In the worst case, they’d have to resort to threats and intimidation to make Ugaki talk.

Fortunately, Ugaki seemed to have long lost his will to resist already. Seeing Kojou’s Beast Vassal up close had definitely affected him. There would be no need to resort to further violence.

“I guess I’ll ask the first question,” Kojou said, his tone serious. “What happened on Itogami Island while we were gone?”

Ugaki’s gaze wandered as Yukina touched the tip of her spear to his throat. “Er, um…asking what happened isn’t very specific…”

Asagi savagely slammed the top of a steel desk, her patience worn thin. “When was Keystone Gate wrecked? Who did it?”

“Th-that was the Fourth Primogenitor—”

“What?!” Kojou roared, eyebrows raised.

Ugaki cringed. “I’m not lyin’! It’s the truth, Big Bro!”

“When did I become your…?! Whatever. Give us some details, dammit!”

Enraged, Kojou grabbed Ugaki by his collar and lifted him up, shaking his huge troll neck back and forth enough that it rattled.

“Y-yesterday… No, the night before yesterday. Keystone Gate got raided by a group calling themselves the Order of the End.”

“…Order of the End?”

The unfamiliar name made Kojou tilt his head. A perplexed expression came over Yukina as well.

“They wear creepy masks that look like skulls. They tell people they’ve been servin’ the true Fourth Primogenitor since ancient times…,” Ugaki explained, timid.

“The true Fourth Primogenitor…” Asagi rested her cheek on her palm. “I don’t like this.”

A mysterious group claiming to serve the Fourth Primogenitor attacked under cover of darkness, decimating Keystone Gate. She could hardly blame people for mistaking the perpetrator of Keystone Gate’s wrecking for the Fourth Primogenitor.

“What the hell’s the Island Guard up to?” Yaze cut in. “They should’ve been on special alert.”

The possibility of sorcerous terrorism occurring during Kojou’s temporary absence from Itogami Island had been considered in advance. Naturally, the Gigafloat Management Corporation had initiated countermeasures, bolstering the Island Guard’s numbers and even requesting support from the Lion King Agency. He would never have thought Keystone Gate would fall that easily.

Ugaki turned to Yaze in incredulity. “People say they were wiped out!”

“Wiped…out…?” Yaze blinked in abject shock.

If Keystone Gate’s defense force had been wiped out, that meant Natsuki Minamiya—the Witch of the Void—as well as Koyomi Shizuka—Paper Noise—had been defeated as well. Anyone familiar with their might would find such a tale hard to believe.

“From what I heard, three people from the Order of the End took over the Gigafloat Management Corporation headquarters, the City Management System included. The proof is…right here.”

Ugaki showed them the demon registration bracelet he wore on his left wrist. A complex symbol of multilayered geometric shapes was hovering on the screen of the bracelet-style ID device’s screen.

Yukina’s voice was sharp. “The ritual magic spell you used earlier?”

Ugaki fidgeted in fear and nodded. “This proves you’re a ruler candidate. The right to use this an’ make pacts with subjects was granted to all demons. The more subjects you have, the bigger the demonic energy the ruler candidate gets.”

Kojou snorted in exasperation. “So that’s why you were doing the hard sell earlier.”

Ugaki lowered his eyes with a guilty expression. “Sorry ’bout that.”

Maybe he’d reflected on what he’d done; he started talking about it in dribs and drabs without anyone having to push.

“At first people treated it like a little game. But along the way, it escalated to nabbing subjects and felt a whole lot more like tryin’ to kill one another. To win, you gotta gather up all the subjects you can, and if you can’t, the only other way is gettin’ under a powerful ruler candidate’s banner.”

“A game?! If they take energy from people at a rate like that, there’s no way subjects’ll be able to hold out! One screwup and normal humans or even demons with low endurance will shrivel up and die!” Kojou yelled.

Asagi spoke as if chiding the irritated Kojou for his anger. “The group that set this up doesn’t seem to care about that.”

Kojou clenched his teeth. “The Order of the End…”

He wasn’t inclined to fully trust Ugaki, but at the very least, the troll seemed to have told them the truth up to that point. They’d already confirmed that the demon registration bracelets had been hacked, and they’d seen him collect demonic energy from his subjects. Keystone Gate had indeed been destroyed. More importantly, he didn’t think the guy had the guts to lie under the circumstances.

“So what did this Order of the End group want to use you all for?” Kojou asked.

“The Electoral War,” Ugaki replied in earnest. “It’s a no-holds-barred competition between ruler candidates, and the candidate to survive and win and unify all the domains gets to rule Itogami Island in the Fourth Primogenitor’s place, they say.”

“In the Fourth Primogenitor’s place? Who the hell went and decided something like that?” Kojou growled. He had little appreciation of being the ruler of Itogami Island, but that didn’t mean Kojou was all right with someone arbitrarily having his successor picked behind his back.

But the individual’s name on Ugaki’s lips was not what he’d expected.

“Th-the Fourth Primogenitor.”

“Whaaat?”

“That’s right. The Fourth Primogenitor said so in this promo video that’s, like, everywhere.”

“A video?”

“Yeah. If you doubt me, just turn the TV on. Doesn’t matter what channel you pick, either.”

Ugaki pointed to a small LCD monitor at the corner of the cabin. It was a completely common TV for domestic use. It belonged to the coast guard. A remote control was placed on the wall nearby.

Nagisa, right by the wall, reached out to the TV and turned the power on.

The individual displayed upon the screen was far outside Kojou’s expectations. He was a handsome boy with a delicate physique.

“?!”

Yukina lifted her face as if someone had slapped her. There was an air of anger and fear hovering in her eyes. The fingers with which Yukina gripped her silver spear made little spasms from the strain.

“Him…? Why?!”

“…Himeragi? You know this guy?” Kojou asked, surprised by Yukina’s reaction. It was the first time Kojou had seen Yukina show such aggressive emotion on her face.

“…He’s…!” Yukina tried to explain, but her emotions had run so far ahead that she couldn’t get the words out.

That instant, the boy on the TV screen slowly opened his mouth, his eyes remaining shut as he spoke.

“This announcement is for all humans, as well as all demons residing on Itogami Island.”

He had white skin and golden hair that billowed like a flame. Kojou had déjà vu just from looking at him. For no particular reason, the sight of a boy looking so much like her unnerved him.

The boy smiled beautifully as he continued.

“My name is The Blood, ruler of the Dominion of Itogami city-state. Some call me the Fourth Primogenitor, the World’s Mightiest Vampire.”

His voice was melodic as it solemnly spread throughout the darkness.

Kojou and the others stood in a daze as they watched him smile.

4

“They…got us good.”

Asagi was the first to recover from surprise. An expression of keen regret came over her as she ground a heel against an adjacent trash bin in a fit of pique.

“Hiding Kojou’s true identity really bit us in the ass,” Yaze said, covering his eyes with his right hand. “We never thought a fake Fourth Primogenitor would just show up and claim the name.” He was slumped against a wall as if he’d been slugged in the gut. He seemed humiliated by the fact their own plan had been used against them.

“On top of that, they picked a time when Kojou wasn’t on Itogami Island to strike.”

“Going out of their way to smash Keystone Gate up must’ve been to make their might easier to see, huh? Pretty damn thorough.”

“Hey, is this the time to be admiring the jerk?!” Kojou exclaimed, indignant.

He’d previously heard about the existence of the boy calling himself The Blood from Yukina. He was the ringleader behind the group that had shut Kojou and others in another dimension dubbed Onrai Island, toying with other people’s hearts to run experiments over and over.

Kojou was full of energy. “We’re gonna nab that brat and put an end to this Electoral War nonsense! What should I do?!”

“Hmm… Without checking out the situation some more, there’s not really much to say.” In contrast, Asagi’s reply was realistic.

“The first thing we want is intel,” Yaze said calmly. “We want to know the Order of the End’s numbers and strength, and I’m mindful of just how far the effects of this war have spread.”

Kojou could only call his assertion a truly sound one. They had too little info to work with at the moment.

Nagisa, who’d held her silence until that point, gently grasped Kojou’s sleeve. “…Hey, Kojou… Mimori and Gajou are safe, right?”

Asagi hopped right up and strongly hugged Nagisa from behind. It was the natural behavior you’d expect from real sisters.

“Yeah… I can’t help worrying over relatives and friends, too. Aw, darn it…! I could find out in a flash if only I could use Mogwai…”

“So the real problem is Keystone Gate, huh…?” Kojou clenched a fist as he shot a glance at the screen of his cell phone, still showing it was out of range.

The cessation of the communications network and the ritual magic using the demon registration bracelets were both happening because the Order of the End had taken over Keystone Gate. In other words, if they took back Keystone Gate, they could stop the Electoral War that The Blood had instigated.

Of course, the issue was that they didn’t know anything about the Order of the End.

Kojou didn’t think they could take on this level of foe by charging in without a plan and no idea as to the enemy’s strength. That’s why Asagi and Yaze were claiming they needed information first.

However, thanks to the communications network being down, they had no way to gather that information. Getting involved in the war was risky, as was blithely approaching urban areas.

The heck should we do? thought Kojou as he clutched his head.

Ugaki raised a timid voice. “Um…incidentally, how long did you plan on sticking around here, Big Bro?”

“Is it inconvenient for you if we’re here?” Kojou brusquely questioned back, too tired to correct the Big Bro part.

Ugaki’s shoulders tightened out of nervousness. “No, the other way around. I’m totally cool with it, but you used some pretty off-the-wall demonic energy back there. I’m just thinking, wouldn’t folks in other domains notice that stuff, too?”

“Oh, right…” Asagi gasped in sudden realization. “By conventional thinking, using strong demonic energy means you have a lot of subjects under your belt.”

Ugaki nodded firmly with a now you get what I’m sayin’ look. “Yeah, that’s what I mean, Sister!”

“No way I’m a ‘sister’ to you! Next time you call me that, I’m calling you Pork Troll!”

“P-Pork Troll…?!”

That extremely callous rebuke struck Ugaki at his core, as if he lived in a world bereft of pity. Kojou sympathized with the guy a little. It was doubtlessly a riff on his being a corpulent troll, but it was a truly awful nickname to be known by.

“More importantly, what happens if folks in other domains notice it?” Kojou asked.

“Huh, I wonder. It’d be great if they chickened out and ran…,” Ugaki replied, “but these are guys who think they can be rulers of Itogami Island in place of the Fourth Primogenitor an’ all.”

Certainly, if they were runts enough to run in terror from Kojou’s Beast Vassal, they could be left alone and that was that. However, ruler candidates coming to attack in spite of that would be a problem; the chances they’d come with a plan and the power to take on Kojou were rather high.

“…The chance of simple morons without any survival sense coming seems pretty high, too,” Yaze commented, staring at Ugaki.

Kanon abruptly squatted down at Ugaki’s side, like something had suddenly come to mind. “The ritual magic from earlier has a side effect of increasing the caster’s aggression. Am I correct?”

Ugaki blushed as Kanon stared into his eyes. He felt tense. “Ahh, now that you mention it, I get the feelin’ you’re right. It’s kinda like a high.”

Yaze clicked his tongue as he realized the gravity of the situation.

The ritual magic the Order of the End had put together had the side effect of making demons belligerent. Even normally laid-back demons’ personalities were becoming aggressive.

If not for that, even with Keystone Gate wrecked, there was no way demons would fight one another in unison. Normally, everyone wearing demon registration bracelets of a Demon Sanctuary were citizens who desired peaceful coexistence with humankind.

“So that’s what this is…,” Yaze said. “What a pain. It might be a good idea to change locations before weirdos start showing up.”

“Yeah, but where? And how?” Asagi asked.

Even if they left Ugaki, they were a group of six young boys and girls; wandering around in the dead of night would make them stand out like a sore thumb even in normal times. Doing it smack in the middle of this situation was practically begging to be attacked. They needed to think of some kind of countermeasure.

Before Yaze could come up with a tangible plan, he sensed Yukina going on guard.

“No…” She tightened her grip on her silver spear and moved toward the window in the wall.

“…Himeragi?”

“Unfortunately…it would seem we are too late.”

“Some new candidate bunch?” Kojou’s expression grew grave as he looked out the window.

Yaze swiftly turned off the room’s lights.

Kojou spotted a group climbing over the fence surrounding the base and approaching the building. Their numbers were greater than he’d expected—over sixty just from what he could count on the fly. They didn’t have a single defined outfit like Ugaki’s underlings had worn, but their movements somehow seemed to share similar quirks.

Ugaki poked only half his face up the window when his voice went shrill with fear. “This is bad… That’s the Rogues Alliance.”

“…That naming sense sure makes them sound dangerous,” Kojou murmured, unmoved.

Ugaki and his people had a terrible fashion sense. Meanwhile, Rogues Alliance sounded just right for a domain name. Kojou had to wonder if that wasn’t some name taken from a gang out in the sticks.

“You don’t have time to act all calm!” Ugaki’s eyes were in tears as he pleaded. “These guys are an alliance of four domains from around these parts. The leadership’s all beast people, and I heard they’ve got over seven hundred subjects…”

Kojou looked back at Ugaki in surprise. “That’s a lot of people to get in just two or three days, right…?”

“That’s how busy they’ve been crushin’ everyone else. Smashing big domains and grabbin’ their subjects is a pretty efficient way to build their own power…”

“Sure seems like it…”

Kojou understood the reason for Ugaki’s nervousness. It was a federated domain of street fighters that’d swelled in size through repeated conflicts. They would definitely be dangerous opponents.

“We are completely surrounded,” Yukina stated. Even so, she was calm.

“I don’t feel like talking things over will get us anywhere. What do we do? Bust through?” Kojou asked.

The Rogues Alliance supposedly had over seven hundred members, but it didn’t seem they’d gathered the whole crew before coming. However, it was possible there were as many as three hundred people surrounding the building Kojou and the others were in. Based on their battle formation, the officer-class beast men had between twenty and thirty people. Numbers like that were a bit tough to take on in a frontal brawl.

“No… Against beast men, it would be difficult even for the two of us to completely escape them,” Yukina said.

If it was just a matter of comparing offensive power, vampires able to summon Beast Vassals were on top, but in terms of physical demonic abilities, beast people were leaps and bounds ahead. There was a great deal of individual variation, but many beast people possessed explosiveness and endurance and excellent senses of smell and hearing, making shaking off their pursuit frighteningly difficult.

On top of that, the only people on their side capable of fighting such people were Kojou and Yukina—busting through under those circumstances just wasn’t realistic.

“If we can’t break through, should we hole up? But that’d be a siege with no hope of reinforcements…” Yaze sighed as he gazed at the center of the room.

“In the first place, this is a little cabin, not a castle,” Asagi said nervously. “If they light it on fire, we’re finished.”

Thanks to not expecting any combat on the surface, the coast guard station was a cheaply built prefab. It just wasn’t built to withstand siege warfare.

“Shit… This is a pain. So what’s the move? Kick all their butts instead?”

“You can’t, Kojou,” Asagi said earnestly. “If what Pork Troll said is true, they’re victims of The Blood’s magical manipulation, too, right?”

Kojou felt pained as he lowered his shoulders. Even the members comprising the belligerent Rogues Alliance were originally Itogami Island citizens wanting to live in peace. If possible, Kojou didn’t want to hurt them, either.

“Deceiving and controlling so many unrelated people… This is just like back at Onrai Island,” Yukina said in frigid anger.

Previously, the boy calling himself The Blood had employed devices known as nano-shikigami to make people run amok and attack Kojou en masse. This was surely his doing as well.

It was as if The Blood was mocking Kojou’s fate, betrayed by those he was meant to protect.

Kanon’s voice pulled Kojou’s mind back to reality from its momentary lapse. “Akatsuki!”

The skylight, which they’d neglected to take into account, split apart, and glass fragments poured down onto the floor. A bestialized wolf man poked his head through the skylight.

Kojou launched a ferocious punch toward the wolf man, dropping down from the skylight. “Kanase, get down!”

The wolf man evaded Kojou’s punch with ease. Even the vampirized Kojou couldn’t keep up with a beast person’s agility. In a cramped space, it was the other side with an overwhelming advantage.

But Yukina’s attack speed was even greater than that of a beast person’s. Using her Future Sight as a Sword Shaman, she could see an instant into the future and act accordingly. The wolf man could not evade Yukina’s attack, launched after already predicting which way her opponent would dodge.

“Roaring Thunder!”

Yukina’s ritual-energy-imbued kick exploded into the back of the beast person’s skull.

His brain ferociously shaken by the blow, the beast person was unable to even let out a cry as he collapsed onto the floor. Witnessing Yukina’s might firsthand unhinged Ugaki’s jaw.

But that single beast man hadn’t been the only enemy entering the building. Other beast people of the Rogues Alliance broke through windows all over the place, pouring down like an avalanche.

“We found ’em! It’s Ugaki!”

“Don’t let him get away! Circle round the back, too!”

“Whoo, chicks! There’s chicks here!”

With the guttural, hard-to-understand voices peculiar to beast people, the men let loose with excited cries. Kojou’s group was still on the defensive, forced into a corner of the room.

Kojou uneasily gritted his teeth, unable to summon a Beast Vassal in a cramped building. “Shit, there’s too many of ’em!”

Yukina was desperately fighting, but it was all she could do to keep the beast people at arm’s length, and the Rogues Alliance numbers kept on increasing. With numerous comrades of theirs surrounding the building, any chance for escape was slim to none.

Even if Kojou could intimidate them with a Beast Vassal, the Rogues Alliance members were in such an excited state that there was no telling if it would even have any effect.

So there really is no way but to beat them, thought Kojou, a look of despair coming over his face.

He had no clue about the depths of true despair that had already crept so very close.

5

“Koujou!”

Nagisa’s high-pitched shriek caught Kojou’s attention, and he looked back in a surprised panic, fearing some new beast person had appeared and was attacking her.

Fortunately, she was safe. However, her fearful eyes were locked on a scene outside a broken window. A horde of huge tentacles resembling some creature’s innards had emerged out of the darkness of night. Making squishy sounds, they invaded the building, wrapping around surprised beast people one after another.

“What’s with these tentacles…?!”

Kojou stood in shock, unable to react to the unexpected turn of events.

The scared beast men were resisting, but the dark tentacles mercilessly constricted their captives as if they were pythons and dragged them outside the building. It was reminiscent of a fiendish carnivorous plant trapping its prey. The scene was repulsive.

“Ah… Ugh… Aaaah…!” Ugaki made low groans, his face completely pale.

He was looking at individuals in white robes, hovering in midair.

Three bizarre figures were standing on a tangle of tentacles. Each wore masks—lizard, bull, and human skulls respectively.

Ugaki had fallen into a state of panic by the time Yaze shook his shoulder and muttered, “Hey, what gives?”

Ugaki clutched his head like a frightened child. His mumbling sounded delirious. “It’s them… It’s the Order of the End…!”

“What…?!” Yaze exclaimed, surprised. He turned his head up toward them.

All the while, the black tentacles mopped the floor with the Rogues Alliance beast people. It wasn’t just the ones who had entered the building, either. The ones on standby outside and the subjects surrounding them were attacked one after another, mowed down without mercy.

“This is horrible…!” Asagi shuddered.

The Rogues Alliance encirclement had already crumbled. Even so, the attacks did not relent. The subjects who fled in panic were simply attacked from behind, beaten down until they were tattered.

One member of the Order of the End was controlling the tentacles; it was the individual with the human skull mask.

“Stop iiiiiiittt!”

Unable to bear it any longer, Kojou leaped out of the building. Even if the Rouges Alliance people were from a belligerent domain, he couldn’t stand quietly and watch them get beaten to death.

“The hell are you trying to pull?!” Kojou yelled. “You put them up to this, didn’t you? Dammit…!”

His right hand lashed out, cleanly slicing through every tentacle within his field of vision. He’d summoned a fraction of the power of the Beast Vassal of Severing.

The detached tentacle pieces dissolved into thin air and vanished.

The caster manipulating the tentacles was of course unharmed. Kojou felt like the three individuals were smiling scornfully from under their masks. The three members of the Order of the End spoke to Kojou in turn.

“Kojou Akatsuki… Inheritor of the line of the Kaleid Blood…”

“We are the Order of the End. We have served the true Fourth Primogenitor since ancient times.”

“It is our duty to make thee realize thou art king and guide thee to thy true awakening.”

Kojou was dumbfounded, but only for a moment—ferocious anger welled up inside him. The whole point of the Electoral War was to awaken him.

“You’re saying this nonsense is for me…?! Like hell it is…!!”

Kojou poured strength into his feet. Giving in to his anger, he prepared to rush at the Order of the End members, who had descended to the ground. He’d smash their faces in.

But somebody else was on the move first, leaving Kojou in the dust. Survivors from the Rogues Alliance, the leadership-class beast men, were rushing in.

“Why, you! How dare you do that to our buds—?!”

“We’ll kill ya!”

“You idiots, don’t!” Kojou shouted, uneasy at the sight of the beast men recklessly charging head-on. He instantly tried to summon a Beast Vassal to lend them some support.

Simultaneously, Yukina leaped out of the building. She attempted to use the Divine Oscillation Effect of Snowdrift Wolf to nullify the Order of the End’s magic.

Regardless, the three Order of the End members were swifter.

A horde of tentacles shot out from thin air, entwining around Kojou’s entire body, impeding his summons.

The slender figure wearing the bull mask intercepted Yukina. With a transparent curved sword, they blocked the silver spear and obstructed Yukina’s charge.

Then, the figure wearing the lizard mask received the beast people’s attacks.

The instant they came into contact with the figure, the beast people’s bodies were enveloped by pure-white steam and flames. The beast people screamed out, and the distasteful smell of burning flesh wafted all around. The ground under their feet boiled, and the asphalt melted. It was an incredible amount of heat.

“Khh…” A voice of unease trickled out of Yukina. Ferocious sparks scattered before her eyes.

Overwhelmed by the slicing attacks of the transparent curved sword, Yukina was being forced back inch by inch.

The swordsmanship of the Order of the End member far surpassed Yukina’s skill. Even with a Sword Shaman’s Future Sight and the reach advantage of her spear, it was all she could do to hold her own. If anything, it felt like the opponent was holding back.

“That…blade…!”

What was even more dangerous was the opponent’s weapon.

Amid the darkness, the transparent weapon was hard to see, throwing off her spacing against the curved blade’s attacks.

Also, the weapon itself felt like it was enveloped in a malevolent aura. She was certain that it was equipped with some kind of magical ability, but she did not know its nature. Wariness about the blade’s abilities dulled Yukina’s attacks. Everything put her on the defensive. That left her unable to support Kojou in his difficult battle. Yukina’s nervousness pushed her even further into a corner.

Constricted by a horde of those black tentacles, Kojou let out a cry of anguish. “Shit…!”

One slender tentacle was wrapped around his throat, pressing too hard for him to speak further. The pressure on his carotid arteries made his mind hazy.

Pushed to the wall, Kojou heard an unexpected voice reach his ears.

“Kojou! Don’t move!”

Breaking through his ever-vaguer consciousness, he could hear Yaze loud and clear.

Wind whipped around him with a roar. The overwhelming air pressure became a blade that sliced past Kojou’s neck.

He didn’t sense any demonic energy. Compared to the spectacular attacks of the Order of the End, this wind blade was gentler, but it had accurately sliced apart the tentacle wringing Kojou’s neck. The severed tentacle dissipated. There was a gap of a single instant before a new tentacle could wrap around Kojou once more.

With fresh blood sent to his brain, Kojou’s thinning thoughts gained new clarity.

“C’mon over, Cor-Tauri Succinum!”

The ground before Kojou’s feet split apart as a blade of lava burst forth.

This was the second Beast Vassal of the Fourth Primogenitor, a giant minotaur with a body made of magma. Its incandescent physique burned the Order of the End’s tentacles away, freeing Kojou from their grip.

“Ngh…!”

Wary of the minotaur’s roar, the three members of the Order of the End pulled back. However, Kojou’s attack did not relent. Blades of magma thrust out of the ground one after another, chasing the figures in the white robes.

To end the Electoral War, he could not allow these three to escape. They were a precious lead linked to The Blood, whose true nature remained unknown.

More than that, the fiendish behavior they had shown Kojou then and there had driven him into a rage.

Responding to Kojou’s anger, the minotaur increased the force of its attacks. The scale of the blades of magma increased.

“—Senpai!!”

“What?!”

Yukina’s shout, nearly a shriek, made Kojou gasp and come back to his senses.

Suddenly, an explosive gust of wind from above imbued with demonic energy assailed Kojou.

It was a mass of incredible raging wind that felt like a cannon strike. Realizing he could not evade it, Kojou deployed a blade of magma to intercept. Immense demonic energy collided head-on, mutually annihilating each other.

Had Yukina not warned him, Kojou would have surely been crushed helplessly.

“Why, you…!”

Breathing raggedly over and over, Kojou glared deeper into the darkness.

He was grinning as he stood behind the three members of the Order of the End.

He was far smaller than Kojou had imagined. His physique was dainty for boys his age. He had beautiful blond hair that flickered like a rainbow flame.

“The Blood…!” Kojou growled.

The boy kept his eyes closed as he smiled and elegantly bowed his head.

“This is the first time you have directly laid eyes upon me, Kojou Akatsuki. Properly speaking, I would love to have a pleasant chat with you, but it is still too soon. After all, the Electoral War has only just begun.”

His entire body was enveloped in crimson mist imbued with demonic energy. Finally, the mist transformed into a shining, glimmering beast.

“That demonic energy…!” Yukina drew in her breath in fright.

An instinctive fear raced through Kojou as he summoned a new Beast Vassal. He did not have the luxury of any thought of restraint. Moving according to instinct, he indiscriminately unleashed his demonic energy.

“C’mon over, Regulus Aurum!”

“Come forth, Primus Aurum!” The Blood countered as the lightning lion that Kojou summoned transformed into lightning and attacked the boy, who also summoned his own Beast Vassal to intercept. It was a pitch-black lion enveloped by lightning.

Two thunderbolts fiercely collided head-on. Vast heat and shock waves scattered off, devastating the sub-float Kojou and the others were on.

“Ha-ha…ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”

The boy’s serene, carefree laughing voice echoed amid the roars of destruction.

Scorched by electrical backlash, Kojou shouted, “The Blood! What the hell are you…?!”

No one would answer him.

The air shuddered, and the artificial ground split open.

Among those scalding, dazzling flashes, the only thing that continued to reverberate was the boy’s beautiful, laughing voice.