CHAPTER THREE

RULER RANKINGS

1

Kojou heard the water running from the shower.

The room had the lingering scent of a perfume he didn’t recognize.

He was in a room illuminated by moody, indirect sources of light. There was a wide, king-sized bed. It came extravagantly furnished with karaoke, game machines, and a large TV. It looked like a fancy room meant for a pair of lovers. In other words, he was rooming in a love hotel.

A silver-haired girl was taking a shower on the other side of the glass wall of the bathroom. She was washing off all the dust that clung to her from fighting at the sub-float.

Keeping his eyes averted so as not to catch a stray glance at her defenselessly nude physique, Kojou clutched his head.

“Why…? Why me…?”

Kojou’s thoughts were still all over the place as he replaced the blood-smeared tissues packed into his nose with fresh ones.

The garbage bin at the side of the bed was already nearly full of bloodied tissues. His arousal had given him a massive nosebleed.

A beautiful black cat with a lithe frame gazed at Kojou and curtly exhaled. “Arousal over a nude little girl leading to a chronic nosebleed? How pathetic for the World’s Mightiest Vampire.”

“And whose fault is this?! ’Cause it sure ain’t mine!”

Kojou slapped the bed’s mattress for emphasis and closed the distance with the cat.

The black cat with gleaming golden eyes seemed oddly human in demeanor. In reality, this was the familiar of Yukari Endou, an elven Attack Mage in the employ of the Lion King Agency and the mentor to Yukina and Kirasaka.

A sorceress of exceptional skill, Yukari was able to converse with Kojou from the Japanese mainland hundreds of kilometers away. She’d said that once a mental link with a familiar or the like was established, physical distance exerted little effect, but there was no mistaking that her abilities were nonsensical regardless.

The wolf shikigami leading Kojou and Kanon off the sub-float on the verge of its collapse had also been controlled by her rather than by Yukina. It came as no surprise that the master and the pupil would use the same techniques. Kojou had misunderstood all on his own.

However, Yukari had no doubt engendered Kojou’s misunderstanding on purpose, the better to lure Kojou here.

It was Kanon who’d paid the price as a result.

Thanks to Kojou continuing to run with her in his arms, Kanon’s eyes had been thoroughly spinning from motion sickness.

“Setting me aside, Kanon’s just a regular human, so there’s no way she could have safely kept up with your shikigami! Show a little consideration at least!” Kojou berated the cat familiar.

He’d overexerted himself to keep up with the shikigami’s merciless sprint, so Kojou had been forced to run more roughly than Kanon could take. By the time he realized that Kanon was limp in his arms, he thought his heart was going to stop right there. He was so overwhelmed that he accepted the black cat’s subtle temptations and went with Kanon into the love hotel.

Of course, his objective was to let Kanon rest, so he felt no guilt about that. Incidentally, one significant problem with the Lion King Agency outpost on Itogami Island was that it was smack-dab in the middle of the love hotel district.

However, when he thought about it rationally, he felt these excuses were pretty flimsy. This really was an awful situation.

“Relax,” the black cat insisted irresponsibly, caring little for Kojou’s anguish. “No matter what you do to that girl from here on, I will not speak a word to Yukina.”

“Whaddaya mean ‘relax’?! I’m just sitting here, cool as a cucumber!”

“Oh, are you now?”

Kojou forced his heart to calm down as he spoke with a wearied tone. “…Uh, well, I’m a little grateful to you at least. Kanase and I were pretty much at our limits, so I’m glad we could take a breather in a safe place.”

The black cat let out a little laugh. “The ruler of this domain is the owner of the hotels in the area, you see. That makes it fairly safe for the customers lodging here. He seems to have hired a fair number of tough-looking bodyguards, too.”

“I’m not really sure if that info should make me feel safer or not.”

Kojou stuck his cheek on a palm as he made a weak, pained laugh.

The glass door of the bathroom opening interrupted their conversation, spreading forth an aroma from the shower. Kanon must have finished in there.

“Akatsuki,” she said, entering the room, “I am sorry for occupying the facilities first.”

“Are you feeling bet—? Aaah!”

“Yes, I am quite all right now.”

Kanon tilted her little head with a mystified look as she watched Kojou recoil, shaken.

She was wearing only a short white bathrobe supplied by the hotel. He could see her bare, white legs and her modest cleavage poking out from the gap at her collar. She wasn’t wearing any underwear.

Kojou shouted, his voice going shrill. “Clothes! What about clothes?!”

For Kanon’s part, her demeanor was as serene as usual. Making her behave in such a sensual fashion was savagely destructive to his psyche. Kanon being oblivious of the situation made him feel like an even bigger jerk.

“Ah yes,” Kanon said. “Akatsuki, please take off your clothes as well.”

Kanon’s demeanor was completely unguarded as she approached and squatted down before Kojou’s eyes.

Kojou earnestly turned his face away from her bust.

“N-no… This is wrong, Kanase. That’s something you should only do together with someone you really like.”

Kanon blinked her big blue eyes. “I do like you, Akatsuki.”

“Huh…?”

“Therefore, there is no problem in us washing our underwear together.”

“Wh…what do you mean?”

“There is a washing machine and dryer here.” Kanon pointed to a drum-style washing and drying machine. It was the latest model, a high-grade, low-energy machine even able to wash garments graded for handwashing only.

Kanon was telling him to strip so that they could wash Kojou’s dirty clothes together.

“O-oh… So hotels even have stuff like this nowadays.”

Assaulted by a ferocious sense of exhaustion and relief, Kojou wobbled his way to his feet. When he happened to glance at the pillows of the bed, the black cat was on her side as her belly convulsed. She was laughing so much that she was having difficulty breathing.

“Hey, Professor Kitty, you don’t have to laugh that much…!”

Kojou headed to the bathroom, having somehow overcome the crisis of Kanon trying to strip his pants off then and there. The room was lit up in seven differently colored lights, and he found this unhelpful for calming down. He took a shower and changed into a bathrobe before returning to the room.

Kanon was sitting on the edge of the bed, holding the black cat on her lap as she watched television. It looked like a ranking page for pop stars, but the landscape of Itogami Island was showing in the background.

“…What the heck is this?” he asked.

“These are the ruler candidate rankings,” the cat replied.

“Ruler candidate…rankings?”

“Yes, based on territory obtained and the number of subjects. Current standings and betting odds are broadcast to the general public. Updates are largely in real time.”

“Huh?” Kojou glared at the screen in astonishment.

A young demon he didn’t recognize was introducing the various candidates as if it were a promotional video. Information of name, type of demon, age, place of birth, and footage of combat scrolled on the screen.

“What the hell…? This is almost like some kind of sideshow…”

“That is exactly what it is,” the cat said scornfully. “They may call it the Electoral War, but to the vast majority of city residents, it is someone else’s problem, a nuisance and nothing more. It is no different from being a fan of an idol or cheering on a sports competitor. It is the nature of human beings to enjoy watching the conflicts of others.”

“But a lot of people are gonna get hurt because of this! And some people might even die…!” Kojou retorted.

The black cat lifted her chin, coldly blowing him off. “All the better, is it not? In ancient times, there was sword fighting, hunting, bull fighting… People delighted in any number of bloody undertakings. Can you really say with a straight face there aren’t humans who want to watch demons kill one another?”

Kojou’s blood started boiling at the cat’s glorifying tone. However, he said nothing to refute it. This was not because he’d accepted the black cat’s assertion. He was simply too stunned for words.

“Ca…Cas? Why is she…?!” he exclaimed.

The large TV in the love hotel room displayed a blown-up image of a girl with long white hair wielding a crimson long sword. In the schoolyard of Saikai Academy, she was shielding other students while fighting a ruler candidate from a neighboring domain. The footage seemed to have been shot by Itogami Island surveillance cameras.

The screen finally switched to a still, bust-up shot of Shizuri. It was her photo from her identification card used for the city resident registry in Itogami. Her tense, awkward expression was endearing, but of course the current situation did not allow Kojou to find it very amusing.

“Shizuri Kasugaya Castiella of Saikai Academy Domain. Domains ruled: three. Subjects obtained: twenty thousand. Class is grade B, group one. A firmly entrenched ruler at ranking eleven, it would seem.”

“I see, because she’s an ogre… She’s protecting Saikai Academy as its ruler…,” Kojou murmured with conflicted feelings.

As a registered demon, Shizuri was qualified to be a ruler candidate. To run around protecting those close to her out of a sense of justice and at some point naturally falling into this role genuinely fit Shizuri’s personality.

But this also meant that she’d be targeted by other candidates.

Watching as the screen finally switched, this time it was Kanon whose voice trickled out. There was a familiar name among the list of candidates on display. “Ah…”

It was the ruler of Island West Domain 31, the Tensou Academy Domain.

“Yume?! Even she’s joined the Electoral War…?!” Kojou forgot to even blink as he gazed at the screen, dumbfounded.

He held some small hope that it was someone else of the same name and gender, but the still shot displayed was of an elementary schooler he knew very well. There was footage of her employing the power of the World’s Mightiest Succubus to hold a group of beast people at bay.

“Just now, I saw Nagisa.”

“Yeah, I only caught a glimpse, but there was that bastard Yaze, too. What are they doing in Yume’s domain?” Kojou frowned in confusion.

“Nonetheless, they’re safe.” Kanon smiled softly at Kojou. It easily melted away the leaden weight of anxiety weighing on his chest.

“Guess so. I’m sure they’re worried about you, too, Kanase. Let’s meet up with them as soon as we can. Well, not that we can do much until our clothes are finished drying.”

“Yes.”

Kanon nodded, her silver hair swaying gently. Kojou shifted his eyes toward the black cat on her lap.

“Hey, you. Isn’t there any way to get in touch with Himeragi? She’s the only one I don’t know is safe for sure—”

“Unfortunately, magic is not a cell phone,” Yukari replied bluntly through the cat. “I do not mind leaving Yukina to her own devices for the time being. If she lives, she will set eyes upon this channel sooner or later, like it or not.”

“I see… So she’ll go to meet either Cas or Yume, then…”

Kojou and Kanon met each other’s gazes and nodded.

If they realized that Shizuri and Yume were ruler candidates, Yukina and Asagi would surely try to meet up with them. The odds of reuniting with them by waiting in either domain seemed far higher than blundering around searching for the pair.

“Either way, the real problem comes afterward,” Yukari said cryptically. “Even if you manage to track Yukina and meet up with her, what do you intend to do afterward, Fourth Primogenitor lad?”

“…Won’t the Electoral War end if we take back Keystone Gate?” Kojou asked.

The source of the uproar was the Order of the End having hijacked the Gigafloat Management Corporation’s management system. In other words, if they could seize back Keystone Gate, this stupid event would be over. At the very least, it would surely stop the candidates from running amok.

The cat coolly squashed his hopes. “You and Yukina alone cannot retake Keystone Gate when even the Island Guard was unable to protect it.”

Kojou sullenly knit his brows in response to her provocative words. “It’s not like it’s just us who wanna end this war, right? What do the Lion King Agency and other groups think about this?”

“That is a somewhat troublesome subject.” The black cat lowered her head, conflicted for once.

“Ever since the war of the primogenitors, Itogami Island is an autonomous territory on paper. Without a formal request from the Gigafloat Management Corporation, even the Lion King Agency cannot dispatch Attack Mages on its own authority.”

“Well, isn’t it like this because the Gigafloat Management Corporation got raided?”

Kojou touched the black cat’s nose in exasperation. The black cat gloomily swatted his finger aside.

“True enough, but Itogami Island’s proper ruler is the Fourth Primogenitor. The Gigafloat Management Corporation merely represents him. Furthermore, it is none other than the Fourth Primogenitor himself who set up this Electoral War. In the current situation, Itogami Island is in a normal operating condition, politically at least. Carelessly raising a hand would be interfering in its internal affairs.”

Kojou’s tone turned hostile. “Wha…? Normal, my ass. He’s an impostor!”

To avert the Holy Ground Treaty Organization’s invasion of Itogami Island, Kojou had proclaimed Itogami Island to be the territory of the Fourth Primogenitor. That proclamation was the basis of the treaty formed between the government of Japan and the Gigafloat Management Corporation.

Even so, there was not actually a single nation on Earth that publicly recognized the existence of the Fourth Primogenitor. Even the Japanese government internally treated the matter as neither here nor there.

The emergence of a Fourth Primogenitor was an uncertain element greatly altering the worldwide power balance, so it was far better to treat his existence as vague to not kick up unnecessary chaos—such ran the thinking of numerous nations.

That was why Kojou did not announce himself as the Fourth Primogenitor. It was far better and more convenient for him to go back to his normal high school student life.

And The Blood had made full use of that ambiguous situation.

He’d announced himself as the Fourth Primogenitor and plunged Itogami Island into chaos. And that ticked Kojou off. The Fourth Primogenitor had an awful reputation to begin with. False crimes attributed to him burned him to no end.

“You believe The Blood is a false Fourth Primogenitor? Well, can you prove that?” the cat inquired.

“…Huh? Prove?”

The black cat’s logical question left Kojou at a loss for words. He’d never thought Yukari of all people would ask him that question.

“We certainly know that you are the proper Fourth Primogenitor, but there is insufficient proof for you to be recognized as such. In contrast, The Blood and his allies made a great big show of their own might, enough to put your claims to shame.”

“So that’s why they went out of the way to wreck Keystone Gate after they’d already occupied it…!” Kojou growled, recalling the scar on Keystone Gate as if it had been impaled by a gigantic sword. Such destruction carved over the course of a single night eloquently fit the legend of the power of the World’s Mightiest Vampire.

It was precisely because of that initial display that the people of Itogami Island had so easily believed the words of The Blood when he proclaimed himself the Fourth Primogenitor.

“And so, the government of Japan has no reason to interfere. Though I imagine the truth is really they do not want to sacrifice even more people.”

Yukari’s self-derisive words tugged at Kojou as he pressed for more.

“…Sacrifice?”

“The Order of the End’s assault on Keystone Gate killed a great many. The Island Guard has essentially been destroyed. We also lost a Sword Shaman of the Lion King Agency—and Koyomi Shizuka.”

“Koyomi—wait, you don’t mean that Paper Noise person?”

Kojou’s eyes went wide with surprise. The black cat let out a heavy, pained breath.

“Yes. One of the Three Saints of the Lion King Agency. Her condition is grave, and we know not whether she shall ever regain consciousness. Had she not been here in a Demon Sanctuary, she would have most certainly perished.”

“Even her…? You’re kidding…” Kojou shook his head, struck by dizziness.

He knew the girl who others called Paper Noise. Once, Kojou had fought her, only to be defeated without being able to raise hand or foot. He’d lost to her, and she had gone easy on him.

The defeated Sword Shaman probably had power equal to Yukina, if not more. That was because, by rights, Yukina was a Sword Shaman candidate still in training.

“That is the reason why the Lion King Agency is dragging its feet about dispatching others. It is far more efficient to let the ruler candidates crush one another than to exhaust our fighting strength interfering. If things go well, we can learn the Order of the End’s inner workings as well.”

“So bringing me and Kanase here was to tell me all this…?” Kojou flopped onto the bed, sulking.

He had no intention of complaining to Yukari. The Lion King Agency had already been through enough. He couldn’t bring himself to twist their arms for anything further.

This issue was between the Fourth Primogenitor and The Blood. In other words, it was Kojou’s turn to deal with it.

“Well, that is one reason certainly. Besides, you have no hope of victory if you charge into the enemy’s headquarters without even understanding the situation,” Yukari teased.

That way of speaking was her usual, sarcastic self, but he had no doubts that her warning came from the heart. If Kojou charged in without a plan, he would lose. Yukari knew that, too.

It might have peeved him a little, but he could not refute her words whatsoever. Kojou knew exactly how dangerous The Blood and the Order of the End could be.

“You had some other reason, too, right?”

“I suppose I do. It would seem that preparations are finally complete.”

“…Preparations?”

Right after Kojou murmured this with a suspicious look on his face, he felt a ferocious swaying of the air.

Space within the room twisted, and a wave of high-density magical energy gushed forth.

“Spatial control magic…! Natsuki?”

When Kojou saw the mirage-like contours of a person appearing, for a moment, he expected to see his diminutive homeroom teacher. However, it was a middle-aged man with a stern face who emerged out of thin air.

“Geh?! Why are you…?!”

Upon seeing the man, Kojou went pale as he sat up in a hurry.

Kanon opened her eyes wide with a start and put a hand over her mouth. “Father…?”

With a dark expression, Kensei Kanase, former Court Sorcerous Engineer of the kingdom of Aldegia, beheld the sight of Kojou and his daughter sitting upon the bed of a love hotel, dressed only in bathrobes.

2

“Twenty-fourth in the ruler rankings?” Yaze asked while heading down an extravagant corridor reminiscent of a Western castle.

He was inside Tensou Academy’s elementary school section. Nagisa Akatsuki walked beside him as she stared at the school building with beautiful stained glass like it was quite a rare sight. She was wearing a standard Tensou Academy school blazer instead of her own tattered blazer. A student she didn’t know had lent it to her.

“Indeed,” Lydianne answered with pride as she dismounted from her robotic tank. “Class is grade B, group two. Ruled domains: two. Subjects obtained: nine thousand—in other words, nine thousand Itogami City residents have gathered in this domain and depend upon Lady Yume.”

“It is not through my strength alone,” Yume said, blushing slightly and looking away. “We have Miss Lydianne and these children to thank.”

Neatly following behind Yume were threatening-looking demon beasts as if the creatures had overrun the elementary school. However, from Yume’s point of view, it was more akin to taking domesticated dogs out on a stroll. The other students seemed used to it; several were petting their favorite demon beasts as they walked by.

“And these demon beasts? Were they raised here?” Yaze asked.

“Our Creature Club and our affiliated university’s Demon Beast Veterinary Club take care of raising them,” Yume replied.

“That’s amazing…,” Nagisa murmured in admiration. “Well, this is the Demon Sanctuary’s top school for young girls…”

“Well, the top private schools on the mainland raise horses for horseback riding, too… I guess this isn’t too different?” Yaze shrugged with a strained smile.

Tensou Academy was already famous for its high admission fees; the creatures it raised only further separated it from the common rabble.

Lydianne looked back at the demon beasts with a slightly sad smile. “Appearances aside, we doth know they are quite tame children, so we wishest not for them to fight if at all possible.”

“They sure make a striking first impression, though.” Yaze stared straight at the demon beasts, recalling how the Rogues Alliance remnants ran for it.

Among the various demon beasts, there were ferocious dogs three to four meters in length and carnivorous, monstrous birds. Watching them closer, he couldn’t say they lacked charm, but that didn’t make them not scary.

“Come to think of it, what are the other students doing? Why do they have to depend on li’l Yume here? Tensou Academy should have lots of other registered demons.”

In place of the eerily silent Yume, Lydianne replied, “Two days ago, they were all injured, and so they were transported to the MAR infirmary ship.

“’Twas not only our registered demon seniors. Lady Dorm Mother and the other teachers with Guardsmen training were all injured protecting this domain. They were entrusted to Lady Yume, who soldiers on as the youngest of the ruler candidates.”

“It really poses no problem,” Yume said with a composed air about her. “Our remaining seniors and peers are assisting, and the name Lilith makes for an effective bluff—”

Yaze patted Yume’s head, mussing up her hair as she tried to maintain a strong front. “Baby Yume’s working hard. Good girl.”

“Do not touch me in such a condescending way. Also, I have told you many times I do not desire rude nicknames.”

“Ha-ha, you don’t need to blush like that.”

“How can you interpret everything I say according to your own convenience…?!” Yume coldly glared at him. “You are incorrigible.” However, her face reddened, blushing from Yaze’s shower of praise.

“But you really are amazing, Yume. And thank you, too, Lydianne,” Yaze added. “You really saved us.”

Lydianne puffed out her chest in her school swimsuit-style pilot suit. “’Tis nothing, ’tis nothing. It is a warrior’s natural duty to protect others.”

Yaze smiled with genuine admiration. “Your personality makes you reliable in a situation like this. Or maybe I should say you’re lively…?”

“’Tis a product of training day after day,” Lydianne said, taking on a serious tone. “That said, it is in truth most painful I cannot make use of communication networks. It is electronic warfare where my truest strength dost lie.”

She came off as a silly kid sculpting her personality around her obsession with period dramas, but she was also a genius hacker whose value was recognized by Asagi herself.

However, with Itogami Island’s network currently fragmented, Lydianne couldn’t exhibit her true skills. Because she had been on Itogami Island immediately after the start of the war, she might feel even more frustrated than Asagi.

“I am concerned for Mr. Kazuma as well,” Yume said quietly.

Kazuma was Yaze’s older brother-in-law and the director of the Gigafloat Management Corporation. He was also Yume’s legal guardian.

Kazuma was probably close to the scene when the Order of the End assaulted Keystone Gate, hence Yume’s worry.

“Well, nothing gets by him. I figure he’s all right,” Yaze said.

Unusually, Yume did not object to his irresponsible words. All she did was brush him aside with annoyance, pushing past the hand Yaze used to pat her head.

A student in a standard uniform appeared with a cart and greeted Yume when the group arrived at the demon-beast stables. “Ah, Yume, nicely done. You’re not hurt?”

She was a pristine girl and older than Yume—probably a high school student. As befit a young lady at a famous school for girls, she appeared far more mature than Yaze or Nagisa.

“Yes, I am all right. Thank you very much.” Yume removed her beret and bowed reverently. She, too, was unusually well-mannered.

The upperclassman girl fondly narrowed her eyes. “Yume, food has arrived, so we’ve been distributing it to the people taking refuge in the school. We also brought your group’s rations from headquarters, so do have something to eat when you have time.”

“I am sorry for the inconvenience. Thank you very much. Um, if you could use our help—”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. You’re our ruler after all, so it’s fine to act bolder about it.” The upperclassman smiled.

There were cardboard boxes with MAR Inc. logos placed atop the cart the girl was pushing. These appeared to be meals for refugees supplied by the Electoral War Administration Committee.

Just as she was about to leave with the cart she was pushing, she stopped next to Yume and leaned close to the younger girl’s ear. Then she glanced at the side of Yaze’s face.

“Hey, is that person Yume’s big brother?”

“Ah, no, he’s not really my brother… Though he is family in a sense.”

Seeing Yume’s knee-jerk hesitancy, the upperclassman girl narrowed her eyes in delight. “He’s cute. Introduce us later, would you?”

“Er… I… Um…”

“Tee-hee, later then.”

Before Yume could compose herself, the girl pushing the cart had already left.

Watching her as she left, Yume let out a large, audible sigh. Realizing that Yaze was standing quite close, she glared at him.

“Why are you grinning like that?”

“No reason. I’m just happy you acknowledged me as family.”

Yume brusquely brushed him off before scurrying to the stables.

“Please do not get excited over something so trite. You are older and you’re supposed to be more responsible after all.”

Yaze made no attempt to conceal the smile on his face as the demon beasts cut in front of him. They returned to their cages in the stables just as Yume commanded.

With her powerful succubus ability, Yume was able to control demon beasts as she pleased. If she seriously tried, she could probably directly control another ruler’s subjects and put them to sleep. She was a powerful player in this game. The tranquil air within the Tensou Academy Domain was likely a product of the large amount of faith people placed in Yume.

Yaze felt a little uneasy about that. The rulers of nearby domains had surely noticed the menace Yume posed. He didn’t think they’d just leave the Tensou Academy Domain to its own devices.

Yaze pondered that alone until he heard a voice from inside the stables—a hearty, amiable voice.

“Hey there, little ruler. I brought the demon-beast feed. Is here good?” A very tall foreign man tossed the sack of feed grain on his shoulder to the ground.

One might call him handsome, but the man was very good-looking in general. He was slender, yet his physique was reminiscent of a modern sports athlete. He had tough-looking cargo pants and rugged work boots, but they nicely matched the atmosphere he gave off. That said, it didn’t change the impression that he was out of place in a famed school for young ladies.

“Thank you very much, Ki. The children will be delighted,” Yume said.

There was a woman standing beside the tall man. She embraced Yume with incredible force.

She was a mature-looking beauty with golden-red hair. The clothes she wore were simple, yet they looked frighteningly gorgeous just from the fact she was wearing them. The volume of her breasts and the curvature of her hips were also amazing.

In spite of that, she had an innocent face like a young girl as she rubbed her cheek against Yume’s.

“Oh my goodness, Yume! You’re so cuuute today! I love you!”

“Z-Zana… It hurts to breathe…”

“Oh, sorry. So sorry…!”

Even as she said that, the woman didn’t stop squeezing Yume. When Yaze glanced over, Lydianne was hiding in the shadow of the stables, her hands clasped as if wishing for Yume’s happiness in the next life. It looked like the woman named Zana had already given Lydianne a similarly painful experience.

For a time, Yaze and Nagisa stood in a stupor, watching the strange actions of the mysterious foreign couple.

“Oh!” Nagisa exclaimed, remembering something. She pointed at the tall man, the one named Ki. “He gave me the sugar plum at the airport!”

Ki looked back at Nagisa with a dubious expression. Then it hit him as well. “The young miss from back in Aldegia!” he said cheerfully. “So we meet again!”

“I’m so glad that you’re all right. You said you were going to Itogami Island, and I got worried.”

“That goes for both of us. Man, the Electoral War? I had a good scare when I arrived on Itogami Island to find something like that going on. I don’t know what would’ve happened to us if this little ruler hadn’t lent a hand.”

Ki held out his large hand toward Nagisa as a huge grin stood out on his face. Nagisa exuberantly shook his hand, but Yaze’s expression froze. He knew this man’s name from what they’d been told back at the Aldegian airport.

Founder of the Holy Ground Treaty, the oldest of the vampire primogenitors publicly acknowledged to exist; Emperor of the Warlord’s Empire, the Dominion boasting the world’s greatest military force; the First Primogenitor, aka the Lost Warlord.

That was the true nature of Ki Juranbarada.

3

“…Ki Juranbarada… Don’t tell me, you’re…the Lo—”

Zana Lashka gently pressed a fingertip to Yaze’s lips. “Shhh.”

Zana’s seductive smile made Yaze experience such fear that he thought his heart might stop. He felt like a mouse caught by a lioness’s paw.

“You mustn’t speak that name. Not yet, ’kay?” Zana whispered, breathing into Yaze’s ear.

Yaze shuddered, dissolving under the heat of that sweet breath, yet he still managed to return the glare. He held back his fear of dying here. “…Why are you here in Yume’s domain?”

Zana tilted her head slightly, drawing a blank as she spoke. “Hmm, yeah… Why, I wonder? Because she’s cute?” She was definitely dodging the question.

It didn’t look like Zana was lying, though. If judging by standards of cuteness, Yume, the youngest ruler candidate, was unmistakably queen of the hill. It seemed that the First Primogenitor coming into contact with Yume was purely due to that, with no real meaning behind it.

All that said, whether Yaze could completely trust Ki and Zana was another matter entirely.

The pair had likely arrived on Itogami Island right after this war had begun. It clearly was no mere coincidence. The First Primogenitor had known that the Electoral War was occurring on Itogami Island in the first place.

They probably also knew about the Order of the End’s objective, and events that would occur on Itogami Island to come.

“Oh no…! Lady Yume!”

Yaze’s thoughts were interrupted by Lydianne’s urgent voice.

Her robotic tank, hidden by ritual spell camouflage, emerged from behind her. Several alarms were sounding from the open cockpit hatch.

“Has someone wandered in again?” Yume asked Lydianne while the latter entered the tank.

Before Lydianne could reply, a Tensou Academy student was sprinting toward the stables.

“Yume!” the student said, gasping for breath. “Come to headquarters, quick! It’s really bad!”

“C-coming!”

Led by the schoolgirl, Yume broke into a run with Lydianne’s tank following suit. Yaze and Nagisa ended up going after them. Ki and Zana followed.

The domain’s headquarters was actually a tent set up on the main building’s roof. It was close to the demon-beast stables and offered a view of the entire campus, which was why it was a domain defense command room.

Several large TV monitors had been brought into the tent, and these displayed footage from surveillance cameras all over the campus environs. It really did come off like a battlefield station.

Yume’s expression hardened when she noticed a group displayed on the monitor. “Who are these people…?”

It was an organized horde of several hundred armed demons. It clearly wasn’t a group of delinquents like the Rogues Alliance; they were better organized by leaps and bounds, and they were armed like a military outfit.

A student sitting in front of a monitor read data from the screen of an application. “The Matsunaga Domain is at our front gates. Their ruler, Nao Matsunaga, is an Old Guard vampire, and his class is grade B, group two, just like you, Yume. He has seventy-eight hundred subjects. Additionally, at the South Gate, grade C, group one’s Red Thunder and grade C, group two’s Jaws have assembled. Both rulers are beast people, and the number of their subjects is forty-four hundred and thirty-two hundred, respectively.”

“At the North Gate…Shironio Girls’ High Domain! Their ruler is Necromancer Honshin, the Witch of Decay! Class is grade B, group one! Ten thousand five hundred subjects obtained!”

“That’s too many…,” the oldest student present murmured in fright.

Yume had around nine thousand subjects who were Tensou Academy students, their guardians, and residents evacuating from nearby. The four domains allied against it had over thirty thousand subjects.

On top of that, Yume was the one and only demon capable of fighting on Tensou Academy’s behalf, and the enemy was invading from three directions at once. No doubt sensing that Yume was a threat, they had formed a union to tear the Tensou Academy down. Yaze’s premonition had become reality.

“What’ll we do, Yume?” the oldest girl asked.

This situation of a leader-like high schooler to rely upon an elementary schooler, demon or not, felt like quite a farce. The people of this domain had no other choice, though.

“Surrender is not an option,” Yume plainly stated. “After all, our foes are rulers who hate Tensou Academy itself. There is no telling what might befall us if we fall under these girls’ rule.”

The rulers of the Matsunaga and Shironio Domains were famous for their grudges toward Tensou Academy. A part of their spite came from the frustration of failing the entrance examinations, and having their boyfriends stolen by Tensou Academy girls accounted for the rest.

The female students in the headquarters nodded in response to Yume’s words.

“Th-that’s right. And that goes double for Red Thunder and Jaws…”

“But can we fight and win this?”

“Against these kinds of numbers, even Yume…”

A worried voice trickled out from Lydianne over the despondent atmosphere filling the tent. “Lady Yume…”

Lydianne’s robot tank was developed as a powerful anti-demon weapon. The demon beasts raised at Tensou Academy also constituted highly effective military strength that other domains did not possess.

But this time, there were simply too many enemies, and she would be against a vampire. Physical attacks were virtually useless against the Beast Vassals that served vampires. They were the worst enemy for tanks and demon beasts alike.

Of course, Yume knew that. Even so, she could not flee. She was young, but she was the domain’s ruler nonetheless.

Even as she trembled with fear, a look of tragic determination lingered in her eyes. Yume would fight.

A gentle arm wrapped around her neck. It was Zana, lightly embracing Yume from behind.

“It’s all right. Leave this one to Big Sis.”

“Zana…?” Yume looked up at her in surprise.

Ki smirked as he placed his hand on the young succubus’s head. “Gotta pay you back for the food and lodging. That’s the Japanese Bushido way, isn’t it?”

“Th-that may be correct…but…” Yume blinked in bewilderment at Ki’s jest.

“Don’t worry. Could you all lure the beast people away? Zana, can I leave the vampire in your hands?”

“Of course,” Zana replied matter-of-factly as she drew some things out of a back pocket of her skirt, silver-colored metal objects that looked like several rings connected together.

Accessories, I guess, thought Yaze.

Yume began to ask, “Zana…just what are the two of you—?”

“A Beast Vassal has emerged!” interrupted the voice of a student watching a monitor.

Everyone present turned their eyes to the schoolyard below.

Appearing before the front gate of Tensou Academy was a pitch-black bear some six to seven meters in body length. It was a collection of materialized demonic energy so dense that it possessed sentience, one of the beasts summoned from another world said to serve vampires.

It was a Beast Vassal.

However, the density of the demonic energy taking shape as a Beast Vassal was something else. Of course, it was not as strong as that of a vampire primogenitor, but it was far above the norm as Old Guard vampires went. The power seemed on par with the seventh generation removed from direct descent from a primogenitor, if not the sixth.

“So this is the power of seven thousand subjects…?!” Yaze exclaimed, voice trembling.

Even a non-sorcerer like Yaze could keenly sense the powerful wave of demonic energy. Nagisa, a very sensitive spiritualist, was pale and unable to even raise a voice.

Meanwhile, Zana gazed at the pitch-black bear and gave off a slightly exasperated giggle and smile. “Okay… Tee-hee. I understand wanting to let loose after getting your hands on power, but children who get carried away must be punished, yes?”

“Huh…?”

With a flutter of her short skirt, Zana leaped down from the rooftop. She landed without a sound with lithe movements reminiscent of a cat and raced toward the enemy formation.

In both hands, Zana clenched the silvery metal objects she’d taken out earlier. They were brutal weapons embedded in her hands for pounding enemies with her fists.

Yaze’s eyes went wide with abject shock. “Metal knuckles…?! Wait a… What does she plan on doing against a Beast Vassal with those…?!”

Noticing Zana’s approach, the bear Beast Vassal roared.

With a single blow from the Beast Vassal, the barricade blocking the way to the Tensou Academy front gate broke and flew all apart.

Narrowly evading the flying barricade wreckage, Zana crept into the demon’s flank.

Then, using the brutal silver weapon in her right fist, she smashed the Beast Vassal’s side.

The enormous Beast Vassal was forced back, blown several meters into the air before pressing its gouged-out flank and entering a feral rage.

“Sh…she punched a Beast Vassal?!” Yaze screamed.

However glamorous she was, Zana was only about a hundred and seventy centimeters tall, yet she’d punched a Beast Vassal over six meters long into the air. The incredible sight made Yaze doubt his own eyes.

“Goodness… The young ones don’t know how to use their power these days. Pathetic!”

Taking light steps, Zana unleashed one punch after the next as she continued to give the Beast Vassal a one-sided beatdown. The more punches she landed, the more the Beast Vassal’s contours seemed to falter and warp, parts of its flesh sheared off.

The seemingly impossible sight left the vampire girl who was the Beast Vassal’s host standing stiff in a daze, unable to lift a finger. The same went for her fellow vampires and subjects.

“I wonder why… That person… She feels like Yukina…,” Nagisa murmured, hiding behind Yaze. She hadn’t even realized she’d said something out loud.

“…She does?”

Then Yaze noticed it, too.

The fists with which Zana wielded the brutal silver weapons were emitting the pale glow of spiritual essence. It was the glow of the Divine Oscillation Effect that could rend any barrier and nullify demonic energy. Zana’s metal knuckles, like Yukina’s spear, were weapons inscribed with the Divine Oscillation Effect activation ritual.

Unlike the modern, polished weapon that was Snowdrift Wolf, however, Zana’s metal knuckles were far more savage weapons. The brash attacks and Zana’s ferocity and beauty were in sharp relief, instilling feelings of despair and defeat into those who opposed her.

Having relied upon a particularly powerful Beast Vassal, the defeat of that Beast Vassal left the Matsunaga Domain all the more fragile. The one-sided crushing of her Beast Vassal left the ruler half in tears, losing all will to fight. Her subjects fled one after another, and the other vampires began to shift around in worry. The victor was already clear.

However, the Matsunaga Domain was not the only foe Tensou Academy faced.

“Yume, there’s a zombie at the northern gate…!” another girl watching a monitor yelled. She looked sick to her stomach.

A raw stench blew in, riding the wind.

A giant as tall as the school buildings of Tensou Academy slowly rose up, glaring toward the headquarters.

The giant was in fact a mass of rotting flesh colored a bluish-black.

It was a towering zombie created from fusing various kinds of corpses together—cattle, pigs, whales and other aquatic mammals, demon beasts, demons, and human beings. This was the soldier of the ruler of the Shironio Domain, the Witch of Decay.

“Slapping zombies together to make a new creature…” Ki sourly twisted his lips. “Well, isn’t that fiendish.”

Since zombies neither felt pain nor feared death, they made excellent troops. They were also effective at crushing enemy morale. However, the sanitary issues they posed and the heavy depletion of demonic energy made them difficult to transport. Furthermore, the ethical issues involved had prompted banning the use of zombies for military purposes.

And yet she had created this monster and set it loose it in an urban area without qualms. It was an act of heresy committed by a witch, someone who had formed a pact with a devil to become an inhuman being.

“Well, demonic energy fine. I’ll send it back to the dust right this sec.”

Vaulting over the roof’s handrail, Ki leaped onto the roof of the neighboring auditorium. That put him in just the right position to be face-to-face with the giant zombie.

The rotting behemoth swung with a crooked, warped arm. It meant to smash Ki along with the auditorium’s roof.

Ki stood defenselessly as he pointed a fingertip toward the zombie’s heart.

It was what you might call a finger gun.

“Bang” went the quiet murmur from Ki’s lips.

That instant, the zombie’s giant body swayed. Staggering heavily as if it had been shot, it slowly fell onto its back.

This took the witch of Decay’s camp by surprise. The giant zombie they had employed as their vanguard had not only failed to attack the enemy, but now it was falling onto its allies’ own heads.

The endangered subjects fled in a panic, sending up screams as rotting flesh and fluids burst apart.

The necromancer Witch was crazed with rage, but there was no sign of the fallen giant zombie rising anew. Indeed, the zombies surrounding her as bodyguards had stopped moving, too, and the entire army of the dead was in collapse.

“What…? What happened?!” Yaze leaned over the guardrail on the roof, gazing at the back of Ki, who was sitting there, bored.

“It cannot be…!” Lydianne stared at the demonic energy instrument data she read from her tank. “Colliding opposing demonic energy with magical energy to wipeth it out and nullify necromancy?! Surely, surely…that is not even…”

Yaze finally understood the meaning of Ki’s actions.

“Magic muting using interference from demonic energy…?! Technology that military researchers and sorcerous engineers all over the world can’t make viable?! And you used that with just flesh and blood?!”

“Oh no, that Witch is…!” Lydianne’s expression stiffened.

Countless magic circles were lighting up in the area around the necromancer known as the Witch of Decay. Gathering as much demonic energy from her subjects as she could, she was attempting to counter Ki’s magical muting.

However, this was a foolish act.

Her necromancy had not vanished. It was still operating normally. It just looked like it wasn’t activating because Ki was slamming demonic energy against it of the exact same strength.

As an example, her situation was like being unable to hear sound from a speaker because she was wearing high-quality ear protectors.

So what would happen to you in that situation if, unable to hear sound, you cranked the speaker beyond its electrical limits—?

“Sorry, li’l lady,” Ki murmured as he released the magic muting.

A vast amount of obstructed magical energy coursed into the giant zombie all at once. Its flesh couldn’t withstand all of that magical energy. Each individual corpse magically packed into it flew apart, and every magical line was burned away.

The backlash of excess magical energy attacked the caster, the Witch herself. Unable to even scream, the Witch collapsed to the ground, her entire body fiercely twitching. She was unable to recover, not so much as a ruler but as a necromancer. She probably hadn’t understood what had happened to her even at the very end.

“Lady Yume!”

“I understand.”

Yume spread jet-black wings of demonic energy. Using her mental sympathy waves as a succubus, she conveyed her orders to a demon beast under her command.

However, her order was not directed toward the demon beasts in the stables.

Yume had another ally besides them, who was far removed from Itogami Island at a depth of tens of thousands of meters, right on the ocean floor.

On a street near the Tensou Academy school grounds, Red Thunder and Jaws beast people were on standby in a square when an enormous flame gushed up behind them.

An object resembling a meteorite flying in from high altitude had collided with the ground, causing a massive explosion.

“Leviathan’s living missiles…?!”

Yaze opened his mouth at an angle as he beheld the sight of beast people fleeing in a panic.

The monster called Leviathan was said to be a weapon of the gods—the World’s Mightiest Demon Beast, able to wipe Itogami Island itself off the map if it so wished. That was Yume’s trump card.

Yume called out to the opposing ruler candidates using a speaker for public announcements inside school grounds. “That was a warning shot. Knowing this, do you still wish to continue?”

Of course, there was no one who would defy her after witnessing that attack.

The demons had begun to flee, and many of their subjects were raising white flags.

Cheers arose from Tensou Academy students all over the school. The fight was over. Yume had won by a mile.

In a place removed from the excited students, a grave expression came over Yaze. He was standing in front of the vampire from a foreign land, staring at the giant zombie that had burned to ashes. “What’s the big idea, Ki Juranbarada?”

“What is it, lad? Don’t be angry. Whatever it looks like, I worked really hard to hold back.”

Sitting on the auditorium’s roof, Ki scratched his head with a guilty look on his face. He’d apparently misunderstood, thinking that Yaze was angry that the necromancer was beyond saving.

Ki’s words—that he’d held back—were the truth.

He didn’t have to go through the trouble of magic muting. If he’d summoned a Beast Vassal, he could have wiped out a zombie of that level with ease. However, if a Beast Vassal of the First Primogenitor appeared, the damage would never have been limited to one girl. Tensou Academy’s school grounds would surely have been harmed far beyond what had been destroyed from Leviathan’s missile attack.

Yaze wasn’t irritated that Ki had defeated the Witch.

“Why are you lending Yume a hand?” Yaze asked. “Don’t tell me you’re seriously trying to make her the ruler of Itogami Island?”

“Ooh, that sounds pretty fun.”

So that’s one option, said the way Ki clapped his hands together with a serious look. His reaction had such a ring of truth that Yaze was left unnerved.

“Hey!”

“I’m joking, lad. Don’t worry. Well, it’s true that I’m amusing myself with this stupid ruckus called the Electoral War, but technically our objective is something else.”

Ki looked up at the flustered Yaze and smiled with delight.

“Objective?” Yaze grimaced as he probed back.

Ki still had a smile on his face. His eyes blazed ominously. “Putting ghosts to rest.”

4

Unfamiliar people were all over the place inside the Saikai Academy school building. The sights of families with young children and the wounded wrapped with bandages were especially conspicuous. They seemed to be civilians residing in that domain.

“So many refugees…”

Yukina was a little shaken as she walked down a familiar corridor.

All of Itogami Island’s populace was caught up in the war. She’d understood that logically, but seeing refugees with her own eyes made her painfully aware of the gravity of the situation.

Rui Miyazumi was leading the way for Yukina and Asagi. He explained the situation in a soft manner. “There’s a rule in the Electoral War not to cause harm to civilians, but many people feel anxious in spite of that. Maybe there aren’t a lot of trustworthy rulers close by who make people think, I want to be with that one.”

“In other words, all these people gathered together are subjects relying on Kasugaya?” Asagi’s admiration was clear in her raised eyebrows.

Shizuri had enrolled as a student in April, making her a so-called newbie at Saikai Academy. To become the representative of Saikai Academy and gain the trust of so many neighboring residents could be fairly called a brilliant achievement. Even in the emergency situation called the Electoral War, it wasn’t something that could be achieved through any ordinary level of effort.

“Unfortunately, I can claim no credit for this,” Shizuri muttered with a small pout.

“Huh?” Asagi said. “What do you mean?”

Someone approached from the other side of the corridor. Noticing Shizuri, she fondly waved a hand. It was a young woman with her red hair triple braided with dumpling-style hair buns and wearing a Chinese dress.

“Thank you for your hard work, Kasugaya. The meals have arrived. They’re not all gone, so why not sit down and eat right away?”

“…Ms. Sasasaki?”

“Oh, it’s Himeragi and Aiba. When did you come back to Itogami Island?” The woman in the Chinese dress smiled in carefree fashion.

Yukina was so relieved that there was an adult she recognized that it surprised even her.

Misaki Sasasaki was the physical education teacher for the middle school and Yukina’s and Nagisa’s former homeroom teacher. She was a younger classmate of Natsuki Minamiya during their school days, and it appeared that she was a Federal Attack Mage in a similar fashion.

In truth, even Yukina didn’t know Misaki’s true might, but she had no doubt the teacher was very capable. To Yukina, her presence at Saikai Academy was very good news.

“We only returned from abroad a short while ago. I am glad that you are safe and sound, Ms. Sasasaki.”

Misaki smiled cheerfully. “Well, yeah I’m all right. I’ve gotta work hard while Natsuki isn’t here.”

The words Natsuki isn’t here left Yukina with a faint foreboding.

“Could it be it’s actually Ms. Sasasaki managing this domain?” Asagi asked Shizuri quietly.

Shizuri gave a sigh mixed with self-derision. “But of course. I could never have assembled twenty-six thousand subjects on my own.”

“No, no, Kasugaya worked really hard.” Misaki gave Shizuri’s shoulder several pats as if trying to pound her assertion home.

“And those two friends of hers, too. I’m not a pure demon, so I can’t be a ruler candidate, see. It’s really a huge help to have Kasugaya here.”

“Do not be concerned, Ms. Sasasaki. As a Paladin of Gisella, I understand the duty that I must fulfi—Ow, that hurts! You are patting too much! Ow!!”

“Um… I am wondering, what do you mean that Ms. Minamiya is not here?” Yukina asked, interrupting the attention focused on the teary-eyed Shizuri.

Misaki casually shook her head. “That’s what I wanna know. I lost contact with her just before the Electoral War started, and she’s been missing since. Well, she was on holiday, I suppose.”

“She’s missing…?”

Yukina felt a deep stirring inside her chest. Though she had adopted a cheery tone of voice, Misaki had surely noticed for herself that something had happened to Natsuki. If Natsuki had been in full health, she would have never let an idiotic farce like the Electoral War rage unchecked.

Bringing her face close to the unnerved Yukina, Misaki lowered her voice to a whisper as she continued. “Also, there are rumors that the Lion King Agency’s Paper Noise has been killed. Seems like this Order of the End group is pretty dangerous.”

“Lady Shizuka was…?”

All expression vanished from Yukina’s face. It felt like the earth had fallen away from under her feet.

To the Attack Mages of the Lion King Agency, the existence of the Three Saints was absolute. It was not because of the influence they possessed or other abstractions. It was purely because they were so strong. Their power was overwhelming.

Even when told Koyomi had been killed, Yukina could not easily believe it.

But if Misaki’s information was fact, the Order of the End’s power surpassed that of the Lion King Agency.

“Unlike Natsuki, my main job is guarding the school so I don’t have Gigafloat Management Corporation connections. To be honest, the current situation’s filled with things I don’t know anything about,” Misaki said. “So this is purely my intuition, but I’ll give you one word of advice—this whole Electoral War is nothing but a fraud.”

“A fraud…?” Yukina reacted vaguely to the sudden words of warning from her former homeroom teacher.

Misaki paid no heed, proceeding at her own pace. “The Order of the End’s goal is probably something totally different. So I don’t want you to be fooled… At least not you and Aiba. It’s completely fine to leave all the troublesome subject and domain stuff to me, ’kay?”

“Why us, specifically?”

Misaki was confident in her assertion. “You two already decided who your ruler is in your hearts, didn’t you? Long before this war started.”

Yukina was bewildered as she shook her head. “Our ruler…? No, that’s… I am merely senpai’s observer. It is not as if I think of him as a ruler…”

“I don’t remember speaking one word about Akatsuki,” Misaki said, feigning cluelessness.

Yukina’s words caught in her throat.

Misaki turned toward Shizuri. “Right, Kasugaya. Could I have you redeem about ten thousand vouchers? I wanted to distribute food rations and blankets to the people sheltering in the gymnasium.”

“Understood.”

Shizuri took out her smartphone and began operating an unfamiliar application. Asagi peered at the screen from behind her.

“What do you mean…? Vouchers?” Asagi asked.

“Digital tickets issued by the Electoral War Administration Committee.” Shizuri finished operating the application in awkward fashion. The screen was displaying logos for the Electoral War Administration Committee and MAR Inc.

Rui politely explained for Asagi’s benefit. “Of course, the number of tickets you get is determined by your standing in the ruler rankings. Rulers use these vouchers to requisition electricity, water, and food for the subjects within their domains.”

Asagi nodded in understanding. “Ruler rankings… Saikai Academy Domain is grade B, group one, or something like that?”

“Yes. First- to seventh-place rulers are grade A. Grade B, group one is eighth to fifteenth. At the very least, if your domain is at least in grade B, your standard of living is largely unchanged from before the Electoral War.”

“…So put another way, grade B and above means you’re ahead of anything the subjects in grade C domains get?” Asagi knit her brows.

“That’s what it amounts to, yes.”

The ruler rankings weren’t a simple display of the candidates’ combat abilities. The rankings themselves were a trap to instigate conflict between the ruler candidates.

The subjects of smaller, weaker domains demanded victory from their ruler candidates to secure their livelihoods, fearful that they would become impoverished compared to the subjects of powerful domains. These conflicts eventually bred an increase in resentment, becoming the embers for fresh conflicts. This was how the entirety of Itogami Island was being dragged into the vortex of battle. That was the Electoral War mechanism at work. It was a cunning, cruel strategy.

“And that application?” Asagi asked, pointing at Shizuri’s phone.

Unsurprisingly, it was Rui who replied. “That’s an application distributed by the Electoral War Administration Committee. Beyond administering the vouchers, it gives you rapid updates of the ruler rankings and a warning system.”

“Warning system?”

“A warning when subjects of neighboring rulers enter your domain. It works kind of like radar.”

“You mean, this is why you tried to shoot us out of the blue?” Asagi shot Rui a dirty look.

“Well, you should know that I was using a weak paralytic spell to snipe at you…” He raised his hands weakly. “They distributed a number of other apps, too. For example, the free communication app allows you to call not only people in the same domain but also subjects of rulers who have formed an alliance.”

“Alliances… Right, so the Rogues Alliance had to be using this.” Asagi nodded with an odd sense of admiration. Her interest seemed to be purely on a technical level.

“Can we use this application to contact Akatsuki-senpai for instance?”

Yukina interjected as she suddenly remembered something. If she could call another domain’s subjects, then it was possible Kojou was within call range—or so she thought.

However, Rui shook his head, conflicted. “Unfortunately, our team leader has yet to form an alliance with anyone. Forming an alliance requires direct contact between both rulers so that they may exchange codes, making it rather difficult.”

Asagi understood where Rui was coming from. Contact between candidates meant one candidate heading out into the other’s domain. Setting aside cases where you backed the other side into a corner and they had to cooperate, like it or not, the risk was simply too great.

“Incidentally, I wonder if it’s a good thing if we become Kasugaya’s subjects?” Asagi asked. She had only thought of it now.

Saikai Academy was a place Yukina and Asagi were deeply familiar with, and they could trust Shizuri. She thought that was plenty to form a pact between ruler and subject.

However, Shizuri tilted her head as she glared at the screen of her smartphone. “According to this application, the two of you are already registered as subjects of another domain.”

“Another domain…?”

Yukina was a little surprised as she and Asagi glanced at the other’s face.

Asagi grimaced. “Who the hell went off and decided that…?”

“This registration number would put you with the old Ugaki Domain…,” Shizuri said.

“O-oh?” Yukina said.

“Why do we have to be Pork Troll’s subjects?!” Asagi yelled.

Certainly, Ugaki had been the first ruler candidate Yukina and Asagi had come in contact with, but they had no recollection of becoming his subjects. In the first place, he ought to have lost his qualifications as a candidate when Kojou had defeated him with ease.

“Wait. Someone else has inherited this registration number.” Rui pointed out a warning indicator on the app. “There’s no data on this individual, though.”

Naturally, relieved expressions came over Yukina and Asagi.

“You mean he is an unregistered demon?” Yukina asked.

“You don’t mean…Kojou?” Asagi added.

Shizuri read the data aloud.

“Five subjects obtained. Zero ruled domains. This individual has not reached the minimum number of subjects to be assigned a class. Ruler ranking is a tie for one thousand five hundred and fiftieth. The portrait drawn is of a candidate in name only.”

Asagi lightly touched a hand to her forehead. Asagi, Yukina, Yaze, Nagisa, and Kanon—barring Kojou himself and the wounded Ugaki, presumably retired from the contest, the number of subjects was a perfect match.

“Pathetic numbers unworthy of the Fourth Primogenitor,” Asagi mumbled.

“One’s worth is not measured in numbers from foul villains like the Order of the End,” Shizuri retorted coldly.

Shizuri and Asagi were still facing off as Yukina stared intently with a surprised expression.

The ruler ranking positions decided by the Order of the End were meaningless numbers—such an obvious thing had not occurred to Yukina whatsoever until Shizuri had asserted it.

“Wh-what is it?” Shizuri grumbled.

“Ahh, sorry, I thought you said something pretty nice there,” Asagi said.

“Yes. I am somewhat moved,” Yukina added.

“This much is to be expected from a Paladin of Gisella.” Shizuri was proud but also bashful as she blushed. She was still blushing when Yuno, who’d been silent up to that point, lightly tugged on the sleeve of Shizuri’s robe.

“Those worthless rankings just changed a bit.” Yuno held her own smartphone in front of Shizuri’s suspicious eyes.

“Changed…you say?”

“The Tensou Academy Domain’s Yume Eguchi added four to her domains ruled, shooting up to eighth place in the rankings all at once. Her number of subjects went up by thirty-three thousand, too. That puts you down to a tie for twelfth place, Shizurin.”

“I do not particularly care about such a trifling thing, but—”

“H-hold on a sec!” Asagi hastily interrupted Shizuri’s composure. “Tensou Academy—you mean that Tensou Academy? The rich, fancy all-girls school?”

“Yume is a…domain ruler?”

The thumbnail photo on the rankings was most definitely the Yume Eguchi who Yukina knew. Certainly, Yume was qualified to be a candidate given that she was the World’s Mightiest Succubus.

“What the hell…?” Asagi was staring at the screen. “Wait, Motoki and Nagisa are on this page, too!”

For some reason, the ruler candidate individual timeline page contained a video that showed Yaze and Nagisa. Apparently, Yume had saved them when remnants of the Rogues Alliance attacked them.

“Um…Asagi Aiba? What are you two so surprised about…?” Shizuri sounded irritated.

In the brief span of time since coming to Itogami Island, Shizuri had never met Yume face-to-face. Of course, she knew neither that Yume was a succubus nor of her relationship to Kojou.

“But this could definitely go south, huh?” Yuno’s words were grave, but her tone was carefree.

Shizuri knitted her brows with a mystified look. “In what manner?”

“If they shot up in the rankings this fast, the others around won’t just let that go, right?”

“I suppose not,” Rui said. “In particular, the rulers beneath grade A will not take this well. They have had the advantage in combat strength until now, but if Tensou keeps growing at this pace, there is no telling when they will be knocked down.”

Asagi was getting irritated as well. “You mean they’ll try to crush the Tensou Academy Domain?”

“I think that is likely.” Out of consideration for Asagi, Rui restrained himself from graver words.

“Oh yeah!” Yuno smiled cutely as an idea came to mind. “So how about we form an alliance?”

“Alliance? You mean us allying with Tensou Academy Domain?” Shizuri narrowed her eyes, her wariness plain. Her expression showed that she was not a fan of the idea.

It was not as if she bore any hatred toward Yume for being a succubus, nor did it feel like she was resisting because she didn’t know the girl. Her appearance and conduct gave the impression of someone on her high horse, but for better or worse, Shizuri was not one for such trivialities of pride.

Shizuri felt hesitant to form an alliance with Tensou Academy because of the risks it posed.

If Tensou Academy was being targeted because of its rapid rise in power, forming an alliance with them meant the odds of Saikai Academy being attacked would be just as high. Shizuri was fearful that if it played out that way, the subjects of the Saikai Academy Domain would be exposed to danger, too.

However, there were of course merits to the plan. To an isolated area without a powerful ally like Saikai Academy Domain, having more allies to count on when the chips were down was something to be genuinely grateful for. Strategically speaking, it would also be a check upon the ruler candidates of adjacent areas.

“It is all right. You can trust Yume,” Yukina insisted to the hesitant Shizuri. “She is our friend.”

“She’s a bit cheeky, but she’s a very polite, very good girl,” Asagi concurred. “She’s really fond of Kojou.”

“…Even an elementary schooler is not too young for that man?” Shizuri was exasperated simply by hearing Kojou’s name in this context.

Both Asagi and Yukina responded oddly.

“Who’s to say…? But I think her talk about marriage has to be a joke…”

“Yume is particularly cute, though.”

“No denying that…”

Yuno made a cackling laugh with a very interested look. Shizuri froze, lost for words.

Rui used Shizuri’s smartphone to indicate a safe route to Tensou Academy. “Our proposing an alliance with them means the team leader has to go meet her in person.”

Tensou Academy was close to the border between Island South and Island West. It was close to the destroyed sub-float. Thanks to the annihilation of the Rogues Alliance that had been holding that turf, the surrounding districts were blank areas in which one ran the danger of facing off against other ruler candidates.

“Um… If you are going to negotiate with Yume, I will go with Kasugaya.” Yukina modestly raised a hand.

“Yeah. If Kasugaya goes into Tensou Academy by herself, it might be mistaken as an act of invasion,” Asagi pointed out.

“Mistaken… How could anyone mistake this face full of benevolence as the face of an invader…?!” Shizuri retorted.

“It certainly would be better if you went with acquaintances of the other ruler,” Rui advised. “She is an elementary school girl after all—”

Yuno was oddly serious. “That’s right. Go talking to a kid out of the blue and people will call the cops or something…”

“Why am I being treated as if I am some kind of criminal suspect?!”

That said, as a ruler candidate, Shizuri required an escort, and it was also necessary to leave behind people who could defend the Saikai Academy Domain. Having Yukina, Yume’s friend, escort Shizuri and leaving Rui, Yuno, and Misaki behind at Saikai Academy was hardly a bad division of labor.

“At any rate, Yukina Himeragi, about the matter earlier…” Shizuri made a small cough as she stepped closer.

Yukina blinked and tilted her head. “Oh… Earlier matter? By which you mean…?”

“Kojou Akatsuki’s relationship with the ruler of Tensou Academy Domain!” Slamming a hand against the wall of the corridor, Shizuri backed Yukina against the wall so that she would have nowhere to run. “How did those two become acquaintances? Please, tell me! In detail!”

“Eh? …Eh?!”

Overwhelmed by the force of Shizuri’s ghastly aura, Yukina turned her face upward.

Forming an alliance between Shizuri and Yume would not be easy.

5

Kojou was still scared stiff in his room at the love hotel.

Standing in front of him was Kensei Kanase, the former Court Sorcerous Engineer of Aldegia and Kanon’s adoptive father.

Kojou and Kanon were in bathrobes, stiffly sitting side by side on the same bed. Awkward didn’t even begin to cover what they were feeling. It was a dangerous situation. If this man slugged Kojou in the face, Kojou wouldn’t blame him.

After a few more tense moments, Kojou asked in a weak voice, “Why is…Kanase’s old man here…?”

Kensei, a well-respected sorcerous engineer, used spatial control magic. Appearing suddenly was not out of the norm for him—but why now of all times?

Kensei slowly surveyed the area before taking a step toward Kojou and his daughter.

“Wait. You have it all wrong!” Kojou hastily insisted, overwhelmed by the intimidating aura of Kensei’s presence. “Me and Kanase were just washing our clothes! We haven’t done a single indecent thing!”

Given the situation, Kojou could not hope to avoid the man’s ire, but he couldn’t take being scolded by Kanon’s adoptive father for something he hadn’t even done.

Plus, I’ve gotta resolve the misunderstanding for the sake of Kanon’s honor, he thought.

Kensei blatantly ignored Kojou as he addressed the black cat on Kanon’s lap. “My apologies. Setting the coordinates for teleportation was more trouble than I expected. Truly, I cannot emulate the Witch of the Void.”

The black cat yawned a little while grooming her face. “I don’t mind. Thanks to that, I was able to have a nice, long chat with these children.”

In the end, Kensei was there only because Yukari had summoned him. They were acquaintances of a sort.

Kojou looked up at Kensei, whose demeanor was unchanged. “You’re not…upset?” Kojou asked.

Kensei nodded somberly. “Whatever she may seem, Kanon is a very levelheaded girl. She has surrendered herself to you because she trusts you. There is nothing for me to say at this late juncture.”

“Wait. Like I said, she’s not doing anything like that. We’re just waiting for our clothes to dry.”

“But I do demand that you take responsibility as a man, Fourth Primogenitor.”

“You’re kidding, right?!” Kojou clutched his head as he wailed.

Suddenly, a light digital tone coursed into the room. It was coming from the washer and dryer machine placed in the corner of the bathroom.

Oblivious to the current mood, Kanon went to get the laundry. “It seems the clothes have just finished drying.”

A sense of fatigue washed over Kojou. He turned to Kensei. “So what are you doing here anyway? I thought you were in the custody of the Gigafloat Management Corporation.”

“That Gigafloat Management Corporation is all but annihilated. There is no reason for me to remain captive, is there?”

“Is that, um, okay?” Kojou blurted out. Doesn’t that make you a fugitive?

“As far as public records are concerned, Kensei Kanase is not a criminal, you see,” Yukari said through the cat, grinning as much as a feline can. “In this situation, they no doubt allowed him to walk right out. His circumstances are different from a demon prison escapee or other sorcerous criminals.”

Kojou felt uneasy. “The way you said that makes it sound like there are actual sorcerous criminals who escaped from prison…”

“Inmates no doubt form some percentage of the ruler candidates. Otherwise, public order would not have crumbled in the span of two days, no?”

“I was thinking it was weird that guys like the Rogues Alliance just crawled out of the woodwork. So that’s what it is…” Kojou clicked his tongue in annoyance. As he did, Kanon came back beside him carrying the dry clothes she had meticulously folded.

When she began to change her clothes beside him, Kojou hastily shooed her to behind the partition, then continued his questions with a weary voice.

“But the really bad ones are under Natsuki’s management, so I guess we don’t have to worry about that, right?”

For some reason, the vibe inside the room abruptly changed. The gloominess of Kensei’s expression deepened, and the black cat looked away from Kojou.

“What? What’s with the silence…? Hey, Professor Kitty?”

When Yukari sank into silence and started behaving like a normal cat, Kojou scooped up the cat to try to pry out an answer. Even so, he was met with silence.

Kanon broke that quiet space when she returned from changing. “I am sorry to have kept you waiting.”

“Then let us be off.” Kensei Kanase seemed outright delighted.

Kojou glanced between his expression and that of the black cat. “Go? Go where? And what about the hotel fees?”

“I’ll have it put on the Lion King Agency’s tab for today. Yukina can pay for it later.”

“Like hell you will!” Kojou shouted in a shrill voice, despite knowing Yukari had said that only to make him angry.

He thought that if he didn’t hammer in the nail then and there, the black cat would genuinely order Yukina to settle the tab.

During that silly exchange between Kojou and Yukari, Kensei began preparing the magic circle. Teleportation was high-level magic, so even Kensei couldn’t use it without preparation. The only ones able to go without were a tiny portion of powerful witches, one of whom was Natsuki.

“Grab ahold of me, Kanon. You too, Fourth Primogenitor,” Kensei instructed.

Kanon took hold of his extended hand, and then Kensei used his other open hand to grasp Kojou’s.

Next, Kensei chanted a complex incantation to activate the spell. Kojou and Kanon felt dizzy as their vision distorted. They were struck by a momentary sense of being freed from the power of gravity. By the time that sense abated, Kojou and the others were inside an unfamiliar building. It was an unadorned, windowless underground room.

A large quantity of documents, computers, and magical experimentation devices were arranged within.

Kojou’s eyes swept the room. “Is this…your lab?”

“This is Itogami Island Sorcery Lab Number Six. It is a sorcerous research facility assigned the highest level of secrecy because it deals with forbidden classes of magic. It is also one of the few Gigafloat Management Corporation–related facilities that has survived beyond the start of the current war.”

Kensei showed the building’s location on a map via a nearby monitor.

The lab was on the lowest underground strata of Island North and close to a prison. Because it was in an isolated environment, it was spared from the fighting. The Island Guard unit protecting it seemed to have survived unscathed as well.

“This building’s water and electricity are supplied through an independent system separate from that of Itogami Island proper. It has sufficient stores of food as well, and we have a mutual nonaggression pact with the ruler candidates of the bordering domains. It is safe for the time being.”

“For now… Well, I’m pretty glad you’re safe and sound, though.” Kojou shot Kensei a suspicious look. Surely Kensei hadn’t used teleportation for the mere purpose of providing safe shelter.

Standing beside Kojou, Kanon suddenly raised a voice of delight. “Abbess!”

Sitting on top of a worn-out sofa in the lab was a beautiful oriental doll not even thirty centimeters tall. The doll lifted her face in response to Kanon’s call. Then, it opened its mouth with an oddly haughty demeanor.

“Ohh, Kanon. You must be tired from your long journey. Are you tired from the time difference?”

“That’s not the first thing you should be worried about, sheesh…” Kojou sighed.

The doll was actually Nina Adelard, the Great Alchemist of Yore—at least, what was left of her.

Due to a certain incident, she had lost most of her physical body, reduced to the size of a small animal, and Kanon had taken care of her ever since. However, her haughty demeanor had remained. Perhaps that was impressive.

“Why is Nina together with Kanase’s dad?” Kojou asked, his wariness growing even more.

“I called her over,” Yukari answered. “After all, alchemists know the most about repairing a homunculus. As they say, sense comes with age.”

Nina’s cheek twinged as if something had snapped inside her. “You are the last person I wish to treat me as an old woman, O elven elder. I have barely managed to reach two hundred years of age.”

The black cat’s ears twitched. “Aren’t you leaving out a good seventy more? I wasn’t even alive when you had your two hundredth birthday.”

“What an obvious lie, far too sore for the eyes. Were you not the one to pass agriculture and rice farming down to Japan?”

“I don’t recall even elves living that long!”

“Can you fight about your ages later?” Kojou interrupted, exasperated. “More importantly, what’s this homunculus repair business?”

Before Yukari could answer Kojou’s question, Kanon let out a gasp.

“Akatsuki…”

“Huh?”

Following her unnerved gaze, Kojou squinted at the back of the lab.

On the other side of a glass wall inside a dimly lit chamber rested a clear, cylindrical tank resembling an aquarium for tropical fish. The interior of the cylinder was filled with blue fluid, and something was floating within.

That something was a small girl.

Inside the water, her long indigo hair floated like seaweed. Her delicate white skin dazzled the eyes.

Aside from the tube supplying her with oxygen, the girl wore nothing on her body. In place of clothes, her skin was covered in bandages. Her slender torso was immobilized with a cast, and the liquid inside the vat was contaminated with blood droplets seeping through.

“Astarte…”

Kojou called out the girl’s name. Floating inside the vat was a homunculus girl Kojou knew well. Astarte, Natsuki Minamiya’s assistant, was asleep after sustaining grave injuries.

“What’s the meaning of this?! What happened to Astarte…?!”

“The Order of the End happened,” the cat said as Kojou closed the distance.

“What…?!”

“This girl fell into peril while supporting the Island Guard on the night the Order of the End assaulted Keystone Gate…along with Natsuki Minamiya.”

“Her Beast Vassal…? Didn’t Astarte use her Beast Vassal?” Kojou pressed, bewildered.

Astarte was the world’s one and only experimental artificial life-form Beast Vassal symbiote. Even though she was a homunculus, she could summon a Beast Vassal.

Her artificial Beast Vassal, Rhododactylos, was a powerhouse in defensive measures; not even Beast Vassals of the Fourth Primogenitor could defeat it with ease. He didn’t think the Order of the End could easily hurt her if she’d had her Beast Vassal summoned at the time.

However, Nina coldly shook her head. “The Order of the End’s attack cut the Beast Vassal and Astarte both.”

“It cut them?”

“Indeed. Astarte was injured by a slash from a sharp bladed weapon.”

For a moment, Kojou was so surprised that he forgot all about his anger.

Since Beast Vassals were dense masses of demonic energy, simple physical attacks were virtually worthless against them. Bullets or even cannon shells were probably meaningless. For a mere bladed weapon to penetrate a Beast Vassal and harm its host was virtually impossible. It sounded like nothing short of a bad joke.

“Why are you surprised? Do you not have someone who bears a similar weapon very close to you?” Nina inquired.

“What…?”

Of course Kojou knew that weapon’s name. He’d borrowed the strength of its wielder to defeat Astarte’s Beast Vassal in the past.

“The Schneewaltzers of the Lion King Agency and Rosen Chevalier Plus,” Kensei said. “The principles differ, but these weapons can slice a Beast Vassal apart. After all, they are divine armaments crafted for that very purpose.”

A Schneewaltzer, a weapon of the Sword Shamans of the Lion King Agency, could nullify a Beast Vassal’s demonic energy, while Rosen Cavalier Plus could slice through space itself.

“And there is another, a weapon one might call the mortal foe of the artificial Beast Vassal Rhododactylos. That would be the demon sword of Gisella—Hauras.”

Kojou blinked, staring hard at Kensei. “Did you say…Hauras?”

The current bearer of that weapon was Shizuri Kasugaya. It was utterly impossible for someone with such a stifling, overwhelming sense of justice to harm Astarte. Kojou knew that for a fact, and he was enraged by the assertion that her weapon had hurt someone.

However, the gloomy sorcerous engineer remained calm. “Because it can seize the demonic energy of the opponent it slices and transform this into might for itself, Hauras—or a demonic blade on par with Hauras—can slice Rhododactylos apart. After all, this would mean using Rhododactylos’s own demonic energy against it. That is the truth behind the attack that harmed the homunculus.”

“A demonic blade on par with… I get it… So the Order of the End must have a Hauras of its own…!”

Kojou’s fist trembled. He finally understood the reason why Kensei Kanase had brought him there.

This was a warning. The enemy had a weapon that could slice Rhododactylos apart. There was no guarantee a Beast Vassal of the Fourth Primogenitor wouldn’t meet the same fate. That’s what they were warning Kojou about. He couldn’t afford to underestimate the Order of the End.

“Can you save Astarte?” Kojou asked.

Nina laughed with a haughty expression. “Who do you think I am? In the name of Nina Adelard, the Great Alchemist of Yore, I shall save this girl without fail.”

“Please.”

“Leave it to me. And while I’m at it, maybe I’ll increase her bust size, too.”

“Uhhh… Maybe show a little restraint. Okay?” Kojou smiled at Nina’s casual words. Kanon smiled a little, too.

Looking up at Astarte as she floated in the vat, the black cat let out a weary sigh. “By the time I arrived at Keystone Gate, this girl was giving first aid to the wounded Attack Mages despite being gravely wounded and on the brink of death herself. If not for her, Koyomi would have passed away long ago.”

“That’s the kind of girl she is,” Kojou said. “She’s not cut out for combat in the first place. Even Natsuki knows that, which is why she brought her to our school, to give her as normal a life as possi—”

Kojou’s movements came to an abrupt halt.

He was so unnerved that blood seemed to drain from his entire body. His throat trembled. He couldn’t breathe properly. He cursed his own foolishness for not having noticed such an important thing until that very moment.

“Natsuki…?! What the hell is Natsuki doing?! How could she leave Astarte to go through something like—?”

“Natsuki Minamiya seems to have been consumed,” Yukari said, bereft of emotion.

Kojou was dumbstruck. “What do you mean…consumed?”

“Astarte witnessed the tentacle wielder of the Order of the End taking Natsuki Minamiya into her own body. Her status is unknown.”

“But Natsuki’s…”

“Yes. The Witch of the Void’s true body exists within the other-space created within her own dream. So long as she remains asleep, no one can hurt Natsuki Minamiya in a true sense.”

“Then—!”

Kojou attempted to cling to a sliver of hope, but one cold glare from the black cat stopped him in his tracks.

“However, if the enemy has a spatial magic user even greater than the Witch of the Void, that is another story. Perhaps they are able to use her alter ego in the real world as a ‘key’ with which to invade the Prison Barrier.”

“What would the Order of the End want with the Prison Barrier after all this…?”

“If we knew that, things would be simpler.”

“But if we use this well, we might have a lead for ascertaining their true natures.”

“…A lead?”

“Why do they have someone who wields a demonic blade on par with Hauras? Why do they seek to invade the Prison Barrier? If we learn these reasons, we might be able to determine the Order of the End’s objective.”

“Wow. Not convoluted at all,” Kojou replied with all the sarcasm he could muster.

The black cat seemed to crack a strained smile. “That is how troublesome this opponent is. You understand that as well, do you not?”

“…How do we look into this stuff?”

“We’ll take over that part. Information gathering and analysis is the foundation of terrorism countermeasures. This is the Lion King Agency’s area of expertise.”

Since they couldn’t get government permission, Yukari couldn’t request reinforcements from Lion King Agency headquarters, but she could indirectly cooperate through the sharing of information.

It wasn’t a bad proposal by any means. With networks unusable on Itogami Island, it was leaps and bounds more advantageous for them to gather information from the Japanese mainland.

“Got it. Please gather information about The Blood.”

“The Blood…?” The black cat made a dubious wiggle of its whiskers.

Kojou nodded with a bitter expression. “He uses the same Beast Vassals as I do. That has to be a lead.”

“A vampire controlling the same Beast Vassals as the Fourth Primogenitor while claiming to be him? That is a deeply intriguing tale indeed.”

“Save your intrigue for some other time.”

“That certainly constitutes a considerable hint. Very well. We’ll gather what information we can.” The black cat made a leering grin.

“Yeah, I’ll count on you for that part.”

The Order of the End had kept throwing him for a loop, and he didn’t know why. Now, though, he’d finally grabbed ahold of a thread that might allow him to strike back. These were slender hopes, but it was a lot better than having none at all.

“So, Fourth Primogenitor lad, what do you intend to do from this point forward?” Yukari tested him.

“Good question.” Kojou hesitated for a little while.

If he could believe Kensei Kanase’s words about the lab being safe, all he had to do about Astarte was leave her in Nina’s hands. Kojou’s next priority had to be finding Yukina and the others.

“Pops,” Kojou said, turning to Kensei, “can you teleport me as far as Saikai Academy?”

Kensei glared at Kojou with a dour expression. “When did you get the impression you could call me your father?”

“…Hey, I don’t mean it that way! Geez!”

Kensei’s expression morphed into a somber smile. “I am joking.”

Kojou clutched his head in an exaggerated fashion. It was way too hard to figure out when that man was joking.

“But teleportation…” Kensei hesitated. “That is likely futile.”

“Why?”

Kensei looked up at the ceiling with a grave expression on his face.

Dust danced in the air on its way down, and LED lights flickered on and off. There was a dull sound resembling a boom of thunder, faintly shaking the lab building. Itogami Island’s ground was shaking.

“What was that?” Kojou asked.

Kensei shook his head. “A large-scale spatial quake, in all likelihood the Order of the End’s doing.”

“The Order of the End…? And what’s a spatial quake?”

Assaulted by ferocious vertical shaking, Kojou was blown all the way to the edge of the wall. Kanon nearly fell as she tightly embraced the black cat, then Nina.

Kensei turned on a wall-mounted monitor. The image was a display of all of Itogami Island: the blue, tropical sky through which warm rays shined, white clouds, a horde of dense, tightly packed modern buildings… All of them were swaying like a ripple in a pond.

Like raindrops upon the surface of the water, there was a rainbow-colored opening connected to another world. The giant shaking of space covered the whole of Itogami Island. This was the truth behind the tremors shaking the island.

Finally, as if a surface of water had parted, figures appeared out of thin air.

They were human-shaped and clad in all-white robes.

There were hundreds…or perhaps thousands…

Each of them wore upon their heads masks patterned after the skulls of various creatures.

It truly looked like a horde of Grim Reapers had descended upon Itogami Island.

“What is this…?!”

A raspy murmur escaped from Kojou’s lips.

Aftershocks began making the artificial isle tremble once more.

Explosive flames gushed up in the background of the monitor imagery.

Ruler candidates and acolytes of the Order of the End were fighting.

Itogami Island was divided into numerous domains. Ruler candidates were either allies or enemies. And now, thousands of Order of the End acolytes came on the attack.

This conflict was turning into a real war that would burn Itogami Island to cinders.

“What the hell is wrong with you people…?! Order of the End!”

Kojou’s howl echoed throughout the underground lab.

From off in the distance, he felt like he heard the mocking laughter of the handsome boy calling himself The Blood.