CHAPTER FOUR

MY NAME IS KENON

1

Tilting the white porcelain cup, she brought the amber-colored liquid to her mouth. She narrowed her brows. With a grimace of her refined, doll-like face, she shook her head with heavy exasperation.

“Awful.”

Natsuki Minamiya violently hurled the cup away. The golden-haired youth glanced back at her with a constrained expression. He called himself The Blood.

They were in a tearoom of an ancient castle. It was unadorned and windowless. Natsuki and the boy were sitting facing each other across an antique table of beautifully grained wood.

Natsuki was tied to the chair with a long ribbon engraved with a curse. She was currently held captive.

“Does the tea not please you?” the boy asked courteously. “I procured tea leaves of the highest grade that cannot be obtained in the modern era.”

“It tastes worse than Astarte’s piss, and that is putting it kindly. It suits the likes of you very well.” Natsuki laughed haughtily.

Her conduct made the red-eyed girl attending the boy from behind fly into a rage. “You little…!”

Countless black tentacles gushed out from the girl’s white robe.

Each of them wriggled as if a snake with its own independent sentience as the tentacles bore down toward Natsuki. A single attack from the fiendish tentacles could snap Natsuki’s slender neck and mercilessly rend her limb from limb with ease.

Just before the tentacles touched her, their movements stopped.

“What’s wrong? Not going to do it?” Natsuki smiled, staring at the tentacles slick with transparent fluid.

The girl narrowed her red eyes with chagrin.

“You can’t, can you?” Natsuki continued. “It would inconvenience you were I to awaken, would it not?”

“…So you noticed,” the golden-haired boy said gently.

The tentacles writhed around in dissatisfaction as they returned to the girl’s robe.

Even this disgusting sight did not change Natsuki’s expression. If anything, it felt like Natsuki was disappointed that the girl had regained her composure in the end.

“It is an iron rule that the price of a pact is proportional to the power granted to the witch…” Natsuki stirred the tea in front of her as she murmured to herself, “The fact she possesses a Guardian equal to my Rheingold means that the same pact was imposed upon her, namely the role of the warden of a Prison Barrier—am I mistaken, Octo Girl?”

“—!!” With a brief, incoherent snarl, the red-eyed girl stepped closer to Natsuki.

“Cease, Merriloé,” The Blood said sharply. Then he spoke gently to Natsuki, as if trying to soothe her. “I cannot allow you to awaken. I have no intention of repeating the foolish actions of Aya Tokoyogi. The Prison Barrier only has value so long as it remains within your dream.”

Natsuki raised an eyebrow slightly.

The Prison Barrier was an other-space constructed within Natsuki’s own dream.

Like a princess asleep in a castle of thorns, Natsuki remained asleep within her very own dream. And in that other-space where time stood still, she continued to keep vile sorcerous criminals incarcerated. This was the price Natsuki had paid—the price for the pact the young Natsuki had made with a devil in search of the power to take her revenge.

So long as she remained asleep in that otherworldly prison, no one could hurt Natsuki.

She could not age, she could not be harmed, and she could not perish.

Accordingly, those resentful of Natsuki had exhausted all manner of methods in an attempt to awaken her. After all, so long as Natsuki did not awaken from her dream, it was impossible for the criminals in the Prison Barrier to escape.

However, The Blood had stated that he was not inclined to awaken Natsuki. She found this to be unexpected.

“Tartarus, Cocytus, Yomi, the Castle in the Sky—though called by different names, cursed prisons where even gods were shut for eternity have always existed in every corner of the globe since eras long past. And every such otherworldly prison has always had a single person as its warden—just like you.”

“Warden? Surely you mean ‘pitiful living sacrifice’?” Natsuki retorted.

The boy nodded. “I suppose I do. And these people cannot hope to escape from their prisons. After all, they support the very existence of their prisons. If they left their prisons, the prisons themselves would vanish. If there is no one to dream, the dream shall vanish.”

“And if you destroy me here, my real body will awaken, and the Prison Barrier will vanish as well. Is that why you cannot harm me?”

He nodded again. “More precisely, it would not vanish. With the dream connecting it severed, the contents would be cast out into the real world, but well, the effect is much the same.”

Natsuki curled up one corner of her lips. “If you want to dream that badly, retreat into your own. I know a very good sedative. Or would you rather I sang you a lullaby?”

“That is quite an alluring offer coming from you, but unfortunately, I cannot dream.” The Blood’s shoulders sank. “However, yes, you are correct. It is because I cannot dream that I seek yours. You know about the Collective Unconscious, do you not?”

Natsuki was unimpressed. “It is the foundation of spells, yes? A common unconsciousness exists across all beings, spanning all peoples and races.”

“Yes, precisely. One method of accessing the Collective Unconscious is through a dream. Put another way, this means that all dreams are connected to the Collective Unconscious.”

“What…?”

Natsuki’s expression stiffened. She realized the meaning behind this.

All dreams were connected via the Collective Unconscious—in other words, a prison that existed within a dream was connected to them, and they to it.

“At the bottom of the Prison Barrier is a door of which even you are unaware. A door that links this world to the many otherworldly prisons that existed in the past.”

“Tch… Rheingold!”

Natsuki called out to her Guardian. This was a devil’s vassal granted to a witch, proof of her pact with a devil. It was both the source of a witch’s power, and at the same time, a witch’s overseer.

The Guardian Natsuki had acquired was a giant statue of a knight—a golden, clockwork knight. But.

“Outis!”

A humongous black shadow engulfed the golden knight before it could completely materialize.

The shadow was, in reality, countless tentacles slithering from the girl’s robe. They held Natsuki’s Guardian fast, impeding its materialization.

With Natsuki’s Guardian sealed off, The Blood gently gazed at the contortion of her youthful, beautiful face with a look of pity.

“Merriloé, a warden of a prison just like you, can open this door. The door to liberate the acolytes of the Order of the End captured in the past.”

“The Order of the End… You’ve claimed to serve the true Fourth Primogenitor since ancient times, correct?” Natsuki grimaced. “All this time, I thought something was off. When the Fourth Primogenitor—when Root finished the duty of defeating Cain the Sinful God, the Devas that created it carved up its body, sealing them into twelve artificial vampires. In spite of this, the legend of the terror of the Fourth Primogenitor never ceased. The Fourth Primogenitor appeared at various points in history, causing chaos and destruction throughout the world.”

“Yes. The Fourth Primogenitor’s name must be a symbol of terror. It must bear overwhelming malice and hatred, existing to burn the world to ash—if not, their fate is simply too tragic.”

The boy’s words held weight. Unlike the gentle smile he had worn up to that point, a smirk came over his lips born from madness.

“In the distant past, a group claimed the name of the Fourth Primogenitor and committed acts of large-scale sorcerous terrorism again and again—this is the Order of the End’s true nature, is it?”

“Yes, we have always existed everywhere, at every juncture in history. We’ve ensured that the name of the Fourth Primogenitor, the World’s Mightiest Vampire cursed by the gods themselves, was never, ever forgotten.”

The boy tilted his face toward his own feet.

The next moment, the castle Natsuki and the others were in was savagely shaken.

The girl called Merriloé sent a vast amount of demonic energy coursing through her tentacles. The Prison Barrier was shaking.

The bottommost portion of the Prison Barrier opening, sending a tremor from its door.

The impact also flung open the gate separating Natsuki’s dream from the real world.

“Otherworldly prisons, in which the most fiendish and vile sorcerous criminals are locked away, contain an assembly of Order of the End acolytes from throughout history—I shall release them,” the boy said with complete glee. “They shall be resurrected upon the Itogami Island of this age all at once, so as to grant people true despair.”

“You are broken, The Blood,” Natsuki spat.

“It is the world that is broken. We are merely returning it to its proper state.”

He stood up and turned his back to Natsuki. We are done here, spoke his demeanor.

“What is the Order of the End’s real objective?” Natsuki asked.

“Ahh, how rude of me. I forgot to tell you.” The Blood slowly turned around, his eyes still closed.

“A new ruler shall be chosen. A new king to bring all peoples salvation from despair—a true ruler, not only for this Demon Sanctuary but for the entire world.”

The Blood seemed to melt away into swaying space, all sight of him swallowed by the void.

She felt countless prisoners slipping out of the Prison Barrier’s castle gate, following in his tracks. There were innumerable prisoners clad in white robes, wearing skull masks; nightmares in humanoid form.

Natsuki watched them go in silence.

She was utterly helpless, as before, unable to do a thing.

2

The sudden, abrupt rainfall characteristic of Itogami Island lifted, and a vivid dusk sky spread forth.

The red-dyed sky was the background as a horde of individuals became visible upon the rooftops.

From a distance, they appeared to be a group of powerful men organized akin to an army. There were close to a hundred people in all. It was probably the biggest group of demons on Itogami Island.

“So they’re already on the move. Fast.” Yaze sighed with irritation as he peered through a spare pair of binoculars from the school.

The retreat of the alliance of four ruler candidates from the Tensou Academy Domain, resulting in it shooting up in the rankings, was about two hours prior. It was easy to imagine that other forces did not look upon Yume’s precipitous acquisition of power with amusement. Nor was it hard to guess that others would emerge to beat her down before she became an even greater menace.

All that said, even he hadn’t expected them to move with this kind of speed. Perhaps they thought to smash Yume and company before they could regroup from exhaustion incurred during the fighting.

“The group using the home improvement center parking lot as a forward base is the Sanctuary Liberation Front commandeth by Lionel Yoshitani, second place in the rankings,” Lydianne reported from her tank. “Formed around a core of former Island Guard demon soldiers, they are in the running for the top ranking. In quality of troops, they are mightiest among all the domains.”

The title former Island Guard raised a murmur among the students inside the command tent.

Even if the Order of the End had easily sent them packing, the Island Guard was formed of anti-demon combat professionals. With their command structure fractured, they had their backs to the wall and had been virtually annihilated as a unified force, but most Guardsmen were still fighting valiantly on every corner of Itogami Island trying to protect the populace.

However, some members had abandoned their duties to participate in the Electoral War. The Sanctuary Liberation Front was a group of such corrupted former Guardsmen.

Just having such a group set eyes upon them was dangerous enough, but what made it even worse was that the Sanctuary Liberation Front was not the only group targeting Tensou Academy. There was an enemy ruler in sight on the opposite edge of a canal, directly across from the SLF’s camp at the home improvement center.

“Who’re they?” Yaze asked.

Lydianne turned around the tank’s main camera. “The Paradise Company Domain, fourth place in the rankings. They seemeth to be merely observing for the moment. The ruler candidate is President Hakusan Shitara, a dwarf, so he mayeth be the type to solve problems with money rather than force of arms.”

“…So if he sees an opening, he plans to take us down from behind? Disgusting bastard.” Yaze clicked his tongue with a touch of scorn.

Perhaps that candidate planned to let Tensou Academy and the Island Guard duke it out and then launch an attack when both sides were depleted. Such efficient methods really did suit a merchant.

Lydianne concurred with Yaze’s impressions from within her tank. “Indeed. The Paradise Company is a business rival of Didier Heavy Industries.”

Yaze’s face soured further. “I see. So they’re used to civil conflicts.”

A business rival of Didier Heavy Industries meant that the Paradise Company was an arms trader. Naturally, they would have a vast amount of war-related know-how, too. They’d pay for it if they thought of the firm as a simple import/export company.

“Whatcha gonna do, li’l ruler? Go and smack them around first?” Ki asked without the slightest hint of tension in his voice.

He was lying under the command tent, stuffing his cheeks with a tasty snack allotted to him. It was a cupcake baked by an ordinary Tensou Academy student in the home economics classroom. It was a special privilege from being in a domain that was chiefly a girls’ school.

“We can do no such thing.” Yume looked back at Ki with a cheeky, irritated expression. “Our opponent is a large-scale domain with ten thousand subjects. In numbers of combat-capable demons and their equipment, they far outstrip us. We cannot attack them and leave the domain’s defenses thin.”

“One volley from Leviathan and you could mop this up in an instant.” Ki took another gulp of snacks.

Yume glared at him.

“They acknowledge this as well, which is why they employ the commercial facility as a shield,” Lydianne said with a laugh, trying to mediate.

The home improvement center the Sanctuary Liberation Front was using as a base was an important supply depot for supplies needed for day-to-day life in Island West. If they carelessly attacked and damaged it, there would be profound consequences for Itogami City residents. To gain the support of subjects, it was necessary to leave the structure unscathed. As a result, Yume’s trump card, naval bombardment, had been sealed away.

“I have to say, this is getting a little boring,” Zana cut in. She sounded displeased while she dangled a knuckle weapon from a finger and twirled it around. “Can’t they hurry up and attack? Or do they plan to just glare at us forever, I wonder?”

“I’m pretty sure they’re waiting for nightfall,” Ki said.

Zana appeared mystified. “Night?”

“Whether beast people or vampires, their real strengths come out at night. In contrast, our li’l ruler’s bedtime is nine o’clock at night, yes?”

“Dorm lights are turned off at ten PM!” Yume retorted, tired of being treated like a child.

Yaze wearily touched a hand to the back of his head. Setting the bedtime part aside, it was plain that a prolonged battle was to the Tensou Academy Domain’s disadvantage. Besides Ki and Zana, everyone was tired from the combat during the day, and more importantly, their combat strength was overwhelmingly thin.

“What’ll you do? Take a nap now while you have the chance?” Nagisa asked out of consideration for Yume.

Yume frailly shook her head. “But the enemy might well launch a surprise attack so…”

Her sense of responsibility as a ruler candidate was getting in the way and stopping her from saying she needed rest. But if Yume’s endurance was whittled away like that, they’d be playing right into the Sanctuary Liberation Front’s hands regardless.

Maybe we should insist she rest, thought Yaze as his mind began to wander.

Suddenly, Lydianne’s tank gave off a piercing sound of alarm.

Instinctively sensing that something was wrong, Yaze subconsciously looked overhead.

The dusk sky was dyed red. That sky swayed like the surface of the sea during a night storm. There was a dazzling flash of light. The sky was covered in a rainbow-colored aurora.

“How mysterious…,” Lydianne said. Unable to bear the tank’s onboard sensors pleading in unison, Lydianne muted the alarm sounds.

“Yazecchi… What’s that?!” Nagisa exclaimed, anxiously waiting for his answer.

Yaze vaguely shook his head. “A teleport…maybe?”

Ki stepped in, turning serious for a moment despite licking a cupcake wrapper. “No…it’s not. It’s a gate between two interconnected worlds.”

Yaze looked at him in surprise. “Interconnected worlds? You don’t mean…Natsuki’s Prison Barrier?”

“I see. The Witch of the Void was on this island, wasn’t she?” Ki made a heavy nod. “But it doesn’t seem these are mere escaped convicts.”

“…Huh?”

Yaze stared up at the sky once more.

The rainbow aurora was pouring down on all of Itogami Island like rain. Countless figures emerged, slipping out from that curtain of light.

The Prison Barrier was an otherworldly prison constructed inside Natsuki Minamiya’s dream. If that gate was open, the figures emerging from within had to be fiendish sorcerous criminals that no normal penitentiary could hold.

However, the appearances of those who emerged from thin air differed from what Yaze had imagined.

Some were tall. Some were short. Some were humanoid. Some were shaped very differently. Their appearances varied, but they all had two things in common: their white robes and their animal skull–motif masks.

“Those masks…! The Order of the End…?!”

Yaze turned a ghastly pale. The people emerging from the void gate were without a doubt wearing Order of the End outfits. They numbered in the hundreds, if not the thousands.

All at once, they fluttered down toward Itogami Island, gazing at their surroundings from up high through their creepy-looking masks.

Island West, where Yaze and the others were located, was no exception. Several of the acolytes landed inside Tensou Academy school grounds.

Others landed at the camp of the Sanctuary Liberation Front targeting Tensou Academy.

“What…?!” Lydianne let out a bewildered cry as a massive explosion occurred inside the home improvement center parking lot where the SLF had set up camp.

Unit members caught in the explosion were rolling on the ground and on fire. The Order of the End had made a move.

“The Order of the End’s attacking the Sanctuary Liberation Front?” Yaze muttered to no one in particular, and none replied to his question.

Ferocious combat had broken out all over Itogami Island. The Order of the End acolytes were assaulting subjects near where they had emerged, and the ruler candidates of those domains counterattacked as a consequence.

“Are they attacking indiscriminately…?!” Yaze’s voice trembled as he gazed at the flames continuing to rise up all over the place within the island.

The screens of every monitor placed inside the tent switched off all at once.

In the center of the blacked-out screens, the first things that popped up were characters that read, CONGRATULATIONS! The next sentence displayed continued with, MOVE ON TO THE NEXT STAGE.

Nagisa anxiously peered at the monitors. “The next stage…? What does that mean?”

Within those screens, the form of a small-statured, beautiful boy emerged. He had golden hair like a shimmering flame—The Blood. He began speaking.

“To all those aspiring to be Itogami Island’s new ruler.”

His eyes remained closed as he smiled in amusement.

“Now the real Electoral War begins. However, the rules have not changed. I have merely raised the difficulty ever so slightly. Your duty is to protect your own subjects while robbing opposing ruler candidates of their domains and subjects.”

The Blood’s speech was airing all over Itogami Island from every broadcast device on the isle. Naturally, most of the city residents were anxiously listening. The Blood seemed to find this amusing as he continued.

“However, you must not be careless. My Order of the End acolytes are assaulting the subjects of all domains without distinction. Powerless rulers who cannot protect their subjects are not qualified to rule Itogami Island.”

“Lady Yume!” Lydianne shouted before The Blood had even finished his speech.

Yume was already on the move. The Order of the End’s acolytes were indiscriminately attacking subjects.

“Council President! Please call everyone in the domain and have them take shelter inside the Tensou Academy school building!” Yume instructed.

“U-understood.”

The high school girl began preparing for an in-school broadcast. She was trying to organize a general mobilization of students to guide surrounding residents to shelter.

Tensou Academy Domain’s fighting strength was insufficient to protect the entire domain from the Order of the End’s assault. There was no guarantee they’d be safe inside the school, either, but it was far better than remaining out in the city.

“Lydianne, confirm the locations of the acolytes that appeared inside the domain! And request assistance for a counterattack from demons in our affiliated domains!”

“Aye! Consider it done!” Lydianne nodded with her tank.

Busting up the alliance of candidates that morning meant that the scope of Yume’s ruled domains had broadened considerably. This meant the demons under her command had increased, but whether demons who had surrendered a scant two hours before would obey Yume’s orders was anyone’s guess.

“This ain’t good. There’s just too damned many of them…,” Yaze muttered under his breath. “Can’t defend against all that.”

Sending the Order of the End acolytes packing without sacrificing the citizens of Itogami Island was despairingly difficult, and that was putting it lightly.

On top of that, it wasn’t just the Tensou Academy Domain in a perilous position. The Order of the End considered all residents of Itogami Island to be targets for attack.

Amid that situation, Ki, supposedly having nothing to do with any of this, for some reason sank into thought with a serious expression on his face.

“Hey, Zana… What do you think about this?”

“Hmm… It does feel a little off.” Making a small, sexy gesture, Zana tilted her head.

“Off… What’s off?” Yaze asked.

Butting into a conversation between the First Primogenitor and his partner was a terrifying act unthinkable under any set of norms, but for whatever reason, he didn’t feel like he needed to hold back. Maybe the pair just acted too naturally. The possibility that the enemy was so overly formidable that it had numbed Yaze’s senses also ran rather high.

“It’s, like, they’re totally all over the place. Style-wise, I mean.”

Yaze had no idea what she was saying whatsoever. “Style?”

Ki stepped in to elaborate. “With spells, there are quirks and fads. Even for spells that have the same effects, Japan’s ritualists and Western sorcerous engineers differ in the tools and rituals they employ. It’s not just a matter of countries or peoples, either—styles of magic change according to the era. It’s the same for demons like beast people, too. For example, these days beast people don’t roar when they bestialize, ’cause that’ll only make them a target for snipers. Intimidating people with your size was in vogue up to the Middle Ages where fighting was done mainly with swords.”

“Even with vampire Beast Vassals, there are fads that go out of style in every era.” Zana pointed toward urban areas as she spoke.

Beast Vassals summoned by the Order of the End were attacking a unit of the Sanctuary Liberation Front on the street close to the home improvement center. Of course, these were Beast Vassals Yaze was unfamiliar with.

“Bloodlines and affinities differ, but on a basic level, the form a Beast Vassal takes is the product of the host’s mental image. There’s the Four Great Elements fad, the Physical Attack Type Revival—about three centuries separated the two.”

“Okaaaay…”

Naturally, hearing the words didn’t mean Beast Vassal fads rang a bell with Yaze. These were probably subtle differences that a beginner just couldn’t pick up on. Regardless, that wasn’t the crux of the matter.

“So what you mean by the styles being all over the place is that…”

“These acolytes aren’t from the same era. Right, there’s a little something I want to confirm—”

Ki nonchalantly shifted his gaze behind him. Yaze looked back in turn.

Of the acolytes pouring down from the rainbow-colored aurora onto the Tensou Academy school site, one appeared upon the school building’s roof. He wasn’t even thirty meters from the command tent Yaze and the others were in.

Nagisa let out a small scream; Yume blanched and went on guard. Lydianne urgently whirled her tank about, training the barrels of her machine guns onto the acolyte.

But Ki’s attack was swifter.

He released an invisible shock wave with a thrust of his fist, and the acolyte’s mask was smashed apart. With just the release of the demonic energy riding his fist, the acolyte some thirty meters away was sent flying.

With his mask broken, the acolyte’s figure was enveloped by a rainbow-colored radiance once more.

His contours shimmered like a mirage, finally dissipating without a sound. The only things left were the concrete from where Ki’s attack had gouged the rooftop and fragments of the broken mask.

Ki waved his hand dismissively. “It’s just like I thought. These people don’t properly exist in this era and world. They’re just borrowing power from those masks in awful taste to temporarily materialize.”

Yaze was still standing in a daze as he looked back at the nonchalant First Primogenitor. “Then, if we break their masks—”

“They’ll be forced back into the Prison Barrier. But they know that. You won’t be able to break their masks that easily. Might be faster to just kill ’em all to save us trouble down the road.”

“You’re the only one who thinks that’s faster…!” Yaze groaned. He shifted his attention to the sky.

The sky far above Itogami Island was still swaying like the surface of the sea as the rainbow aurora continued spitting out acolytes of the Order of the End.

During that time, several more landed within the Tensou Academy Domain.

“Baby Yume! Tanker!”

“I told you to please cease calling me that!” Yume complained.

“So we commence our destruction of the masks. Aye!”

Yume leaped off the roof, taking the demon beasts with her. The demon beasts under her control made a coordinated assault on the acolytes, ripping off and destroying their masks.

Lydianne switched her machine guns to rubber bullets and began to snipe the acolytes.

Neutralizing acolytes was no easy feat; they were highly capable in combat, but if all Lydianne had to do was destroy their masks, she could handle that.

The number of acolytes appearing inside the domain steadily decreased, and an air of relief began to flow inside the headquarters.

“This gonna work…?”

Watching Yume’s efforts through the fence bordering the rooftop, Yaze let slip an optimistic murmur.

As if to make sport of his utterance, a fresh explosion erupted behind Yaze. It came from the Tensou Academy Domain’s border, in the direction of the canal connecting the artificial isles.

A group had demolished a tall wall enveloping Tensou Academy to invade it. These were not Order of the End acolytes. It was a mixed unit of beast people and vampires clad in black suits as if they were someone’s bodyguards.

“The Paradise Company! To think they would invade a domain at this precise moment…!” Lydianne exclaimed.

A ruler candidate higher in the rankings with the Tensou Academy Domain in his sights had slipped in during the Order of the End attack to launch a surprise assault.

Their target was not the school building Yaze and the others were at but rather an urban area at one corner of the domain.

There, a young girl could be seen at the head of the demon beasts fresh on the heels of retreating acolytes.

Yaze and Nagisa both shouted.

“Dammit! Their target’s—”

“Yume!”

If their ruler candidate were to fall, the Tensou Academy Domain would be picked apart. The candidate of the Paradise Company had been eagerly eyeing the exact moment Yume was isolated within the chaos of combat.

Yume realized an enemy was approaching, and she whirled around. Fleeing was impossible now.

The beast people of the Paradise Company eliminated the demon beasts protecting Yume. Confirming this, the vampires summoned Beast Vassals one after another.

The gunnery from Lydianne’s tank had no effect upon beast people.

Yume could only open her eyes wide in fright, watching rooted to the spot as the enemy Beast Vassals neared.

With a brief click of his tongue, Ki began raising his right hand, but he stopped halfway.

He’d spotted a figure suddenly descending from the heavens to stand before Yume in her moment of peril.

This was a black-haired, small-statured girl. She wore a Saikai Academy uniform and gripped a silver-colored spear in her hands. With finely polished movements akin to dancing steps, she beautifully twirled her spear about, thrusting it into the horde of Beast Vassals.

The Beast Vassals let out agonized roars, with demonic energy flames scattering from them like fresh blood as they vanished.

Yume called out the girl’s name in surprise. “Miss Yukina…?!”

“Are you all right, Yume?” Yukina Himeragi smiled with relief as she confirmed that Yume was safe and sound. “On the way here, I had to be wary of your pursuers noticing me. I am glad I made it in time.”

“Miss…”

Tears were welling in Yume’s eyes. Her fear of being killed by Beast Vassals, and the heavy weight of a ruler candidate continuing to hold up a domain all by herself—these pressed down on her all at once, preventing her from being able to hold her emotions in check.

“It is all right now. We will protect you.”

“Yes…!”

Yume brusquely wiped her tears away. Then, a questioning look immediately came over her face. She apparently had misgivings about Yukina’s use of the plural we.

However, Yume’s misgivings immediately melted away.

Fresh reinforcements arrived, following in Yukina’s wake. A girl appeared, also wearing a Saikai Academy uniform.

Her white hair danced in the wind, and she gripped a crimson long sword. Turning her blade, which resembled a flickering flame, toward the Paradise Company combat personnel, she boldly introduced herself.

“I am ruler of the Saikai Academy Domain, Shizuri Kasugaya Castiella! I have come to aid you in the name of justice!”

“Eh…?”

Yume voiced her bewilderment at the appearance of a ruler candidate unfamiliar to her.

However, the chaos among the Paradise Company was far greater.

With their Beast Vassals having been annihilated in seconds, the vampires had completely lost all will to fight. The subsequent appearance of an unusually confident ogre girl shook the psyche of the remaining beast people.

To begin with, the failure of their initial surprise attack meant they had no reason to continue fighting. And so, the combat personnel of the Paradise Company turned their backs to Shizuri and ran; it was every person for themselves.

Shizuri swung her crimson long sword as she chased after the fleeing assailants. The spectacle made it difficult to tell just who had assaulted whom.

“Somehow, we made it…” Yaze was still crouching against the fence bordering the rooftop as he slumped, drained of strength.

The First Primogenitor and his partner were right beside Yaze, bouncing amused conversation between them.

“Hee-hee… So that girl really is the Fourth Primogenitor’s companion.” As Zana murmured, her gaze was trained upon Yukina, lowering her spear at the time.

“Don’t break her yet, Zana. I’ll run out of playmates,” Ki said.

“Hmmm, what to do?” The beautiful redhead smiled teasingly back at him. Then, she turned her eyes toward the other ruler candidate besides Yume. “Hey, more importantly, isn’t that girl…?”

“A white-haired ogre…and with Hauras, at that?” Ki narrowed his eyes upon Shizuri and the long sword she wielded.

Sharp, gleaming fangs poked between the lips with which he made an impetuous smile.

“That’s a Demon Sanctuary for you. No boredom here. It was well worth coming all this way.”

As Yaze overheard this, he realized that the tips of his own fingers were trembling.

It was the first time he’d felt true terror from the vampire primogenitor before him.

3

The impact from the explosion was conveyed to the lowest strata of the artificial isle. Irregular beats, almost sounding like they were coming from percussion instruments, were likely gunshots from automatic small arms. The armed Guardsmen on security detail were fighting the assailants.

Kensei Kanase glanced overhead. “It would seem the acolytes of the Order of the End have come here as well.” He took a sip of his cold coffee.

His demeanor, unchanged, left Kojou nervously shouting. “This is no time to be calm! Astarte’s in the middle of treatment. If they nail this building’s power supply, that’ll be really freaking bad! Professor Kitty, where’s the exit?!”

“Follow me.”

The black cat motioned with her chin and walked off. Just before following out of the room, Kojou looked back at the homunculus girl sleeping inside the vat.

“Kanase, Nina, take care of Astarte!”

“Yes, Akatsuki!”

“Leave it to me.”

After checking to ensure Kanon and Nina had nodded, Kojou exited the lab for real this time.

Running up the emergency stairs of bulwarks solid enough to be found in a prison, he finally arrived at the lab’s front lobby to find it in quite a state. The glass doors had been shattered into fine pieces, and bullet holes pockmarked the walls. The air was filled with the choking scent of blood, and wounded armed Guardsmen lay amid the rubble.

Emerging from the center of the lobby was an Order of the End acolyte wearing a sheep skull mask. The acolyte under it was probably a sorcerer. The armed Guardsmen’s gunfire had no effect upon the powerful defensive barrier protecting the acolyte.

Then, the acolyte traced a huge magic circle in front of its own eyes.

It was a gun barrel shaped like a tuning fork woven from magical energy. Even someone as ill-versed in magical theory as Kojou instinctively understood that this was the prelude to a powerful magical attack.

“This is bad! C’mon over, Mesarthim Adamas!”

The completed magic circle released a beam of light about the same time Kojou’s Beast Vassal manifested. Countless diamond crystals blocked the acolyte’s cannon attack from the front, bouncing it back toward the acolyte that had cast it.

“…?!”

Enveloped by the blazing beam, the acolyte vanished without even being able to raise a scream.

However, the overly powerful counterattack of Kojou’s Beast Vassal did not end there. The crystals shot out in reaction to the cannon attack proceeded to half destroy the lab’s outer wall, boring holes in the ceiling of the artificial isle underground district.

The chain reaction of damage spread even to surrounding unrelated buildings, causing flames to gush up here and there within the district. The surviving armed Guardsmen had dumbfounded expressions as they gazed at the ridiculous spectacle. The silent, reproachful gazes from the people whose lives Kojou had purportedly saved were downright painful.

The black cat mounted on Kojou’s shoulder sighed. Yukari was at her wit’s end. “Just what will happen if you destroy the building, Fourth Primogenitor boy?”

“It’s not like I’m trying to do that!”

As if attracted by this, fresh acolytes of the Order of the End approached Kojou. Kojou’s expression was marred by unease. Kojou’s Beast Vassals weren’t suited for urban combat. They were far too powerful for pinpoint attacks against human-sized targets.

“Goodness. Don’t move a muscle.” The black cat shook her head and quietly raised a paw.

Twelve spheres appeared in front of her, each changing into a tapered arrow. These were arrows of light spun from pure spiritual energy. Spirit Archery was the specialty of the elf named Yukari Endou.

Releasing the twelve arrows of light without a sound, these precisely impaled the masks of twelve acolytes. Their masks lost, the acolytes’ contours became vague before they vanished, swallowed by the void.

“This kitty’s really strong…”

Kojou curled his tongue in shock at Yukari’s overwhelming fighting strength. Just the fact she was remotely controlling a familiar from the Japanese mainland was surprising enough; sending Order of the End acolytes packing in that state outstripped anyone’s notion of common sense. Now he truly understood why Yukina was afraid of her master.

Yukari watched the mask fragments fall to the ground, going hmph through her nose. “It is indeed just as I thought.”

“What is?”

“These masks, which are in terrible taste, by the way, are magical devices. They exist as an anchor of sorts to keep them tethered to this world.”

“…They’re an anchor?” Kojou didn’t quite follow, but he got the gist; it was a magical catalyst of some sort.

“They are not people of this era. Acolytes from the Order of the End imprisoned in bygone eras are being summoned from the Prison Barrier by force. That is where this huge army comes from.”

“Acolytes from other eras…? Wait, I can see almost a thousand people, y’know?! And that’s just what’s on screen!” Kojou picked up a cracked mask, grimacing with doubts on his face. “Did Natsuki capture all of them?”

“It was not the work of Natsuki Minamiya alone. Since long ago, there have been enough otherworldly prisons dotting the globe to boggle the mind.”

Kojou never would have expected that.

“And,” Yukari continued, “they are all connected at the deepest parts of their foundations. The Order of the End whisked away Natsuki Minamiya to open that door. It is a feat no normal demon or sorcerer could accomplish. There is probably a witch among the enemy. An administrator of a prison just like the Witch of the Void—”

“So the point is, smash the masks and that’s that?”

Kojou, who’d lost track of what she was saying, double-checked what he had to do then and there. The various acolytes of the Order of the End were powerful foes, but if smashing their masks was enough, that made things a lot easier.

“That may drive them off temporarily,” the cat said, squashing his hopes. “However, should they acquire new masks, they shall return again and again. It is not a lasting solution.”

“Then what should I do?!”

“They are using a route to the current Prison Barrier in order to summon these ghosts from the past. You need to merely close that route.”

“That’s why I’m asking you what I should—”

Kojou cut himself off with a gasp. He was staring overhead.

Kojou had previously seen a spectacle similar to the swaying space covering the sky. It was the same sight as back when the giant fortress known as the Prison Barrier had escaped from Natsuki Minamiya’s control, appearing off Itogami Island.

“…I see. All I need to do is get Natsuki back.”

“It amounts to that, yes.” The black cat made an exaggerated nod. “Normally, it is quite a chore merely to reach an otherworldly prison, but conveniently for you, the door is currently thrown wide open. If you have a sorcerer employing spatial control, flying into it is not a difficult prospect. What say you, Kensei Kanase?”

The former palace sorcerous engineer, arriving at the top of the stairs that very moment, was gloomy. “Good grief… You say it like it is so easy, Yukari Endou.”

It wasn’t so much that he’d come to check on them as that he’d realized it, too: His spatial control magic was indispensable if this perilous situation was to be set straight.

“Thanks to the door being jammed open, the Prison Barrier is in a rather unstable state. I can go through the trouble of getting you inside, but I cannot promise I can safely bring you back,” Kensei warned.

Kojou shrugged in silence. He sure didn’t like the idea of going to a frightening place like an otherworldly prison, but it wasn’t the time to say something like that.

“Were it possible, I would like to accompany you, but unfortunately, this body is a familiar being remotely controlled,” Yukari said with concern. “I leave this in your hands, Fourth Primogenitor boy.”

Even with Yukari’s power, the interior of the Prison Barrier was beyond the effective range for controlling her familiar.

Well, I can’t argue with that, thought Kojou with a nod.

“Please stay here and protect Kanase and the others,” he said. “I’ll manage somehow. Basically, I’ve gotta send that Order of the End witch flying, right?”

“Well, I imagine that sort of thing is your strong suit.” The black cat looked pleased. He wasn’t really sure if she was praising or belittling him.

Kojou slapped his cheeks to psych himself up and spoke to Kensei. “Do it, Pops.”

Kensei let out a weighty breath. “You have no business calling me your father.”

“Er… I mean…”

“Legally speaking, neither you nor Kanon are old enough to marry yet.”

“…Huh? What? What are you talkin’ about?”

Kensei’s somehow profound-sounding words confused Kojou.

Heedless of Kojou’s reaction, Kensei maintained a stoic look as he traced a magic circle on the ground.

He was opening a teleportation gate.

After he completed the detailed magic circle in the blink of an eye, the surrounding scenery swayed. In Kojou’s vision, this overlapped with a familiar-looking fortress as if it was some kind of illusion.

“Thou shalt not—!”

“What?!”

Suddenly, right on the verge of the teleportation spell activating completely, Kojou was struck by an impact from the side.

A huge fireball rained down on the laboratory lobby, causing a tremendous explosion.

Bathed in the blast wind at point-blank range, Kensei’s body was sent flying.

The magic circle around Kojou vanished, thus canceling the teleportation. The ferociously unpleasant feeling similar to car sickness drove Kojou onto his knees, whereupon he was assaulted by a new explosive impact that seemed deliberately sent after him.

In truth, this was an attack by Order of the End acolytes.

Only two acolytes had appeared. He recognized the masks they wore.

One mask had a motif like a reptilian demon beast; the other was patterned after the skull of a bull. They were from the initial acolytes who had attacked Kojou and company on the sub-float—part of The Blood’s inner circle.

“Kensei Kanase!”

The black cat tried to rush over to where the wounded sorcerous engineer had fallen. But before the cat could, a beautiful blond boy stood before him.

The sight of him made Kojou doubt his own eyes. The boy who was supposedly the last boss of the Electoral War was standing before Kojou’s very eyes. He’d brought a mere two acolytes with him.

The boy kept his eyelids closed as he spoke with a gentle tone of voice. “If possible, I would have preferred not to meet you like this again, but it cannot be helped. I cannot allow you to release Natsuki Minamiya yet.”

His aura was serene, with no malice evident whatsoever. However, he was the mastermind who’d plotted this war, wrapping Itogami Island in a vortex of conflict.

“The Blooood!!”

Standing up, Kojou surrounded his entire body with a crimson mist imbued with demonic energy.

All troublesome thoughts of strategy vanished from Kojou’s head. For The Blood, ever elusive, to show up in person was unexpectedly good fortune.

If Kojou could defeat him here, the Electoral War would be over. It was a once-in-a-lifetime chance.

“Professor Kitty, take care of Kanase’s dad!”

Kojou charged toward the boy, who awaited him with a handsome smile. The Blood thrust his right hand out. Incredible demonic energy swirled within the palm of his hand.

They were a scant few meters apart. Both simultaneously summoned their Beast Vassals at point-blank range.

The clash of enormous demonic energies made the very air crack.

The impact shook the ground of the artificial isle, and countless tornadoes blew surrounding buildings away.

4

“Yukina! I’m so glad! I was worried!”

Greeting Yukina and the others as they came up to the school building was Nagisa, who was wearing a Tensou Academy blazer. She ran to Yukina and grabbed her in a tight hug.

Yukina strongly hugged her back. “I am glad you are safe, Nagisa. You are not hurt?”

“I have bandages plastered all over me… Ah, keep this secret from Kojou, ’kay?”

“Yeah.”

Watching as Nagisa pointed to her scraped kneecaps, Yukina’s expression loosened from relief.

It wasn’t a situation justifying a single shred of optimism, but she felt that meeting Nagisa had considerably lightened her mood. Yukina felt that the girl named Nagisa Akatsuki was mysteriously talented at relieving the stress in others.

After taking a moment to savor her delight over reuniting with Nagisa, Yukina surveyed the area. Her eyes bulged as her expression stiffened, for she’d noticed a tall, foreign man sitting cross-legged on the school building’s roof. Beside him was a woman with mature beauty she remembered seeing before.

“Um… Yaze… Why are they…?”

Suppressing her presence, Yukina backed away to Yaze, who was slumped against a fence on the roof. Yaze shook his head with a pained expression.

“I don’t really know, either. For starters, seems they ain’t our enemies for the time being.”

“Ah, I see…”

Yukina fell silent. Ki Juranbarada was paying no attention to her as he stuffed his cheeks with a delicious-looking hamburger from an MAR supply bag. Zana Lashka made a pained smile as she wiped some mustard off his cheek.

Yukina felt a light headache coming on as she covered her eyes with a hand.

She’d known the First Primogenitor was visiting Itogami Island, but even she hadn’t expected to find him eating a hamburger on the rooftop of an all-girls school. On top of that, he seemed to be cooperating with Yume to protect the Tensou Academy Domain. Yukina didn’t have a single clue how to react at a time like this.

Yukina was still completely at a loss as someone reluctantly followed her with weighty steps.

When Yukina looked back, she saw Shizuri behind her, head lowered, seemingly very uncomfortable.

“Miss Kasugaya?”

“Um, I’d like to speak to the girl named Yume Eguchi…,” Shizuri said meekly as she intertwined her fidgety left and right index fingers. Her cheeks were faintly reddened. As someone who knew her personally, such an unexpected look on her face left Yukina tempted to burst out in laughter.

“Um, do you have some kind of business with me?”

“Hyaa…?!”

When a voice abruptly called out to her from behind, the already nervous Shizuri let out a shrill cry.

Standing right beside Yukina and Shizuri was a young girl wearing a Tensou Academy uniform. It was an elementary schooler with an adorable face, her appearance reminiscent of a temperamental cat.

“Y-you are the ruler of this domain?”

“Yes, I am Eguchi,” Yume replied with perfect politeness. Taking off the beret she wore and holding it against her chest, she bowed deeply and courteously toward Shizuri. “You are Shizuri Kasugaya of Saikai Academy Domain, yes? Thank you very much for saving me at such a perilous moment earlier. You have my thanks as representative of the Tensou Academy Domain.”

“Ah… Uh… Wa…wait a—What is the meaning of this, Yukina Himeragi?!”

Shizuri grabbed Yukina’s arm, yanked her close, and spoke to her in a tiny voice. Yukina looked back at the sight of Shizuri fiercely consternated with a questioning air.

“What is the matter? Is there a problem?”

“This girl is ridiculously cute! She’s a little cheeky, but she’s levelheaded, she can greet people properly, also she’s small and dainty, and her cheeks look really soft; her skin is all glossy, too!”

“Umm, well… I understand why you find her cute.”

I understand how she feels, but she is still too excited about this, thought Yukina.

“I am sorry for being cheeky. I hear that a lot.” Yume lowered her head in quite an adultlike demeanor.

Shizuri urgently shook her head. “Y-you are mistaken. I did not mean that in a bad way just now; I mean that in the sense you are reliable—everything I could wish for in an ally!”

“An…ally?” Yume looked back at Shizuri with bewilderment.

Lydianne dismounted from her tank and joined the conversation, clearly in favor of the idea. “I see, to form an alliance with Saikai Academy Domain is a fortuitous idea. She has indeedeth been through many battles, and Lady Shizuri is seeneth as a trustworthy ruler candidate.”

As if to underpin her words, an affirming atmosphere began to course among the other students remaining in the command tent. Shizuri saving Yume before their eyes was a major factor, an exploit sufficient for the people of Tensou Academy to trust Shizuri.

“But how does one form an alliance?” Yume asked.

It was a reasonable question. Yukina and Shizuri glanced at each other’s faces, conflicted. It was their first experience with an alliance as well, so they didn’t know the tangible details.

“You shall activate the Ruler App and read forth the secondary barcode from the participating ally’s screen,” Lydianne explained.

Yaze wearily shook his head as Lydianne politely assisted them in operating the app. “…That’s one hell of a design. It looks like friend requests for a video game…?”

With awkward handiwork, Shizuri and Yume operated their applications, and after repeated trial and error, they succeeded in forming a mutual alliance.

Of course, since this wasn’t a video game, forming an alliance didn’t mean anything had changed to the naked eye. Nor was there some change in their outfits or some sort of gaudy fanfare playing in the background.

Nonetheless, the effects of forming the alliance were immediately apparent.

The communication system of Lydianne’s tank suddenly received a message.

“Ohh, Lady Empress!”

Climbing into the tank’s cockpit, Lydianne raised her voice when she saw the icon for the sender. Coursing from the tank’s external speakers was Asagi’s voice, which Yukina knew so well.

“Ahh… Testing, testing. Seems like I finally got through. You hearing this, Tanker?”

“I am indeed hearing you! Lady Empress, art thou in good health?!”

“From the fact I got through, it seems like Kasugaya arrived there safe and sound.”

“…Lady Empress?”

Bewilderment clouded Lydianne’s expression. Considering that they’d finally made contact, Asagi’s demeanor was strange. She didn’t pick up on Lydianne’s tone of voice over the terrible background noise entering the signal.

No, this wasn’t background noise. It was the sound of an explosion.

Aftereffects from blast winds made sounds tremble through the microphone. Shrieking voices could be heard in the distance. Being in the middle of evacuating might have accounted for Asagi’s breath being labored. Combat was taking place near her.

“Tanker…please. Tell Himeragi and Kasugaya…you mustn’t come back to Saikai Academy. Look for Kojou, rendezvous with him, and…”

The state of the transmission worsened, and Asagi’s voice grew distant, mixed in with the sound of glass panels breaking.

“The Order of the End isn’t the only enemy… The real goal of the Electoral War is…”

Asagi’s voice became progressively more broken until it finally cut out altogether.

Lydianne operated her communication system with urgency, but Asagi did not respond to her calls. The only thing she heard over the speakers was the sound of ferocious static.

“What on earth…? What could this mean?” Shizuri muttered as she stared at her own smartphone. She tried Rui’s and Yuno’s numbers one after the other, but they didn’t reply, either. She bit her lip in concern.

“Was it attacked by the Order of the End?” Yaze asked.

Yukina firmly shook her head. “While she is at Saikai Academy, Aiba is able to employ The Cleansing, and Ms. Sasasaki is there as well. I do not think they would be easily bested, even if the Order of the End is their opponent. Besides—”

Yaze’s expression grew graver still. “She said the enemy isn’t just the Order of the End. What the heck does that mean?”

Yukina shook her head again; she did not have an answer. When it came to enemies beyond the Order of the End, her first thoughts were of the ruler candidates of other domains, but she didn’t think even ruler candidates in the upper rankings would give Asagi a hard fight in her current state.

“Besides, what did she mean about rendezvousing with senpai…?” she muttered, sinking into thought.

“Yukina Himeragi,” Shizuri said, breaking her concentration. “We must set aside such talk for now.”

Shizuri was looking up at the sky as it began to be covered by twilight.

A rainbow-colored aurora poured down from the swaying air that covered the entire sky. The Order of the End had recommenced its assault.

Yaze cleared his throat, visibly tense. “Hey, um… Doesn’t it look like an awful lot of acolytes are showing up around here? We gonna be all right?”

Compared to the initial assault, the number of acolytes appearing had increased. Furthermore, it was obvious that many of them were being deployed inside the Tensou Academy Domain. The latter exceeded two hundred with room to spare.

“’Twould seem the acolytes doth prioritize the higher-ranking domains,” Lydianne said.

“The hell…! This difficulty curve is way too intense!” Yaze groaned.

However, Yukina and the others did not have the luxury of voicing complaints—acolytes were pouring into the Tensou Academy school site one after another.

“Reverberate!”

Judging that defeating them one by one would take far too much time, Yukina released silver ritual tablets into the sky. These transformed into birds of prey that assaulted the acolytes immediately after they materialized.

She’d already heard of the acolytes’ weak point from Yume and the others. She thought that the attack power of a shikigami was more than sufficient if it was just a matter of breaking their masks.

“…Ugh?!”

But she felt an electrical jolt through the spiritual essence that she used to control the shikigami. In the blink of an eye, the acolytes’ counterattacks struck down the shikigami Yukina had released.

“What is with these people?! They’re so strong…!” Shizuri shrieked, making Yukina worry.

Shizuri was fighting some sort of beast person. Not only did this person have excellent physical abilities, but they also came armed with huge claws as hard as metal. Its attacks were swift, heavy. Shizuri, a paladin with skills rivaling that of a Sword Shaman, was being utterly overwhelmed.

The robot tank’s machine guns were not able to penetrate a powerful defensive barrier. Yume’s mental attacks weren’t effective, either. Though she tried to employ the horde of demon beasts, the best she could achieve was protecting the two of them. During that time, the number of Order of the End acolytes increased, exposing the ordinary city residents taking shelter inside the school to peril.

“Yazecchi?!” Nagisa cried from the command tent.

An acolyte raised up a scythe aimed at Yaze, who had gone down trying to shield Nagisa.

Yukina tried to rush over to save Yaze, but she suddenly stopped. “…Eh?!”

The acolyte wielding the scythe had not swung it down toward Yaze. Dropping the scythe, it was the acolyte who let out an anguished yell. A dagger seemingly flying out from thin air had stabbed the acolyte in the head.

Noticing the dagger, Ki slumped his shoulders, visibly dejected. “Tch… So the bastard’s already caught up…”

With its mask destroyed, the acolyte dissipated before Nagisa’s and Yaze’s eyes. Afterward, all that remained was the dagger that had pierced the mask—a dagger with a pitch-black blade.

“That dagger… Could it be…?!” Yukina’s eyes snapped wide open when she noticed powerful demonic energy making the air shudder.

When she looked back, she beheld a sky buried in blackness. It was a horde of daggers in vast numbers.

These daggers were no mere weapons. They were masses of demonic energy dense enough to manifest in physical form. They were an Intelligent Weapon—a vampire’s Beast Vassal.

“Dance, Ghoula!”

A male voice filled with dignity reverberated. Guided by his voice, the black daggers poured down toward the acolytes.

All of the acolytes appearing in Yume’s domain had their entire bodies ripped apart, dissipating all at once. Their masks were pulverized, not even leaving fragments behind. It was all over in a second.

“That many acolytes in such a short span of time…?!” Shizuri murmured in a daze as she held her crimson long sword at the ready. Even the beast person acolyte she’d had such a hard time against had vanished, its mask broken with ease.

Their duty done, the black daggers vanished as well. Their vampire host had undone the summons.

The man controlling the horde of daggers revealed himself from within the darkness.

He was a tall man with dark skin. He wore a finely tailored old-fashioned coat. He had hair as black as night.

This was Velesh Aradahl, chairman of the Imperial Assembly of the Warlord’s Empire. As an Old Guard vampire whose pedigree was connected to the First Primogenitor, he was the most powerful of the vampire nobility—the next best thing to a primogenitor.

Ki, still sitting on the edge of the roof, gave Aradahl a thumbs-down and booed like a little kid.

“Hey, hey, don’t go stealing your ancestor’s best scenes. You’re just a stick in the mud as always, Aradahl.”

Zana stood as if cuddling up to Ki as she smiled teasingly and agreed with her partner. “He really is. Where did he get that from?”

Aradahl sighed deeply as he glared at Ki and Zana with a dead-serious look.

“Surely you jest, Your Lordship. Just when I think you’ve come back to the real world for once, what is the meaning of going out of your way to involve yourselves in an uproar like this?”

Ki spoke without a single shred of guilt in his voice. “Do you really have to ask? There’s no way I could watch a fun event like this and not stick my finger into it.”

Aradahl’s temples twitched. He was trying to restrain his irritation. “This will be an… No, it has already become an issue of international concern. If Fallgazer and the Chaos Bride learn you have invaded the Fourth Primogenitor’s territory without permission—”

“They won’t say a thing. Well, just watch. It’ll get real interesting in a bit.”

“…Your Lordship?”

Though Ki’s tone was confident, Aradahl did not share it.

Immediately after, an explosion resembling a volcanic eruption ferociously shook all of Itogami Island.

When Yukina and the others reflexively looked back, they saw a giant tornado reaching hundreds of meters into the air. At the center of the whirling was a vampire’s Beast Vassal.

There was a scarlet bicorn shimmering as if it were some kind of mirage, and there was a pitch-black bicorn as well. The collision of the two Beast Vassals scattered explosive gusts in every direction, turning the surrounding buildings to dust.

“Those Beast Vassals?! The Fourth Primogenitor?! Who’s his opponent…?!” Aradahl exclaimed, his expression aghast.

“So it’s begun? Sooner than I thought.” Ki was enjoying this. His expression was that of an innocent child.

“Akatsuki-senpai…!” Yukina strongly gripped her spear.

There was no mistaking that Kojou was fighting The Blood. There was no guarantee whatsoever that Kojou could defeat the boy controlling the same Beast Vassals as the Fourth Primogenitor all by himself.

Yume called out to the hesitant Yukina. “Please, Yukina. Go!”

“Yume?”

“We will protect this domain. So, Yukina, take care of Kojou.” Yume’s determination-filled words and eyes were powerful.

There was no way Yume didn’t feel unease of her own deep down. The Order of the End acolytes continued their assaults, and there was the abnormality occurring at Saikai Academy, too.

Even so, she’d judged that at that moment, sending Yukina off to save Kojou was the right thing to do.

Shizuri stepped forward, grim. “I shall go as well, Yukina Himeragi. If we can defeat this so-called The Blood, we can put an end to this ridiculous war, can we not?”

Her beloved sword, Hauras, had the special characteristic of becoming stronger the more demonic energy it took from the opponent it cut. It was one of the few powerful weapons that could confront the Beast Vassals of The Blood.

Yukina looked back at Shizuri and nodded without a word.

Then, she broke out into a run toward the perilous battleground where violent winds raged.

“Senpai!”

5

The effects of the clash between two powerful Beast Vassals were felt even within the Prison Barrier.

The boundary between the Prison Barrier and the real world strained, ferociously shaking the interior of the fortress. If the combat continued for long, surely maintaining the barrier would eventually become difficult.

Still held fast by black tentacles, Natsuki murmured with visible delight, “This ridiculously enormous demonic energy… Kojou Akatsuki, then?”

“It has nothing to do with you, Natsuki Minamiya. You cannot even move from this place,” the red-eyed host of the tentacles spat.

Natsuki let out a scornful giggle. “You are mistaken. It’s not that I can’t move. It’s that I do not need to.”

“…Sour grapes, I see.”

“Heh-heh. Keep barking like the beaten dog you are, Octo Girl.”

The pitying expression coming over Natsuki made the red-eyed girl audibly grit her teeth. The tentacles undulated in a creepy fashion as the power with which they squeezed Natsuki increased.

“Please be mindful of your words, Witch of the Void. Even if you cannot yourself be harmed, I have ways of making you suffer. Shall I begin with tearing that homunculus who refuses to die into little pieces?”

“That won’t change the fact you’re a beaten dog. Why is the Order of the End relying on my Prison Barrier? Where did your prison run off to? Or is that corrupted flesh the price you paid for violating your pact with your Guardian?”

“Be quiet…!” the red-eyed girl screamed. “What do you know?! You’ve only spent fifteen years in your prison!”

She took several menacing steps toward Natsuki.

Unable to bear the pressure from her tentacles, the tattered ropes snapped and went flying, exposing the entirety of her body. It was beautiful and looked young, like she was in her teenage years—but that only applied to her upper half.

Everything from her hips down branched off into a disgusting mass of intertwined tentacles as if they were a plant’s roots. It resembled an utterly alien life-form.

Her witch’s body had fused with that of the Guardian that had been her devil’s familiar. It had consumed her body as the price for breaking her pact with her devil.

“Three hundred years…! I lived inside my otherworldly prison for three hundred years! Then I realized! The existence of otherworldly prisons is meaningless! Even if they are shut away in eternal darkness, even if birds of prey peck at their innards while they still live, even if they are bathed in a snake’s venom at the bottom of the Earth, criminals cannot be reformed. They do not make criminals vanish from the world, while the crimes only increase!”

“So you ran away? You abandoned your duty as a prison warden?” Natsuki asked in a flat tone of voice.

“You’re wrong…! I realized something important! Fear alone… Rule through overpowering fear is the only thing that can keep crime in check. Ugly, pitiful criminals must be immediately, savagely, and cruelly judged.”

“So this is the reason you became an acolyte of the Order of the End?” Even when held captive, Natsuki taunted her captor with a vicious grin. “Don’t make me laugh. The ugly and pitiful one is you. According to your logic, shouldn’t you be first in line to be judged, Merriloé, the Witch of Vengeance? What did you do with the power of a witch you obtained from your pact with a devil?”

“—?!”

“Otherworldly prisons are meaningless? Of course they are. The wardens of those prisons are the criminals upon which weigh the heaviest crimes of all. This eternal idleness is the punishment allotted to us.”

“You’re wrong… I…!”

Merriloé fiercely shook her head. However, Natsuki did not cease her mockery.

“Ruling by fear prevents criminals from being born, so you worship the Fourth Primogenitor, the very symbol of fear. The Blood has been allowing you to imprint your childish ideals onto him, nothing more. He doesn’t genuinely desire any such thing.”

“What…do you know…?!”

Merriloé seemed to wring out her voice as she spoke.

“I will not be deceived, Witch of the Void. I will not be seduced by your words.”

“I have no reason to deceive you. Even without resorting to roundabout methods like that, driving off the likes of you is a simple matter.”

Merriloé’s cheeks flushed with anger.

“More sour grapes from you…! What can you do with your Guardian sealed like this?!”

“Is sealing my Guardian enough? This prison belongs to me.”

“What?” Merriloé couldn’t hide her unease.

A coarse, savage voice echoed throughout the fortress room both girls were in. “Ha-ha! Let’s go, Thunder Ax!”

When Merriloé looked back in surprise, she was assaulted by an impact as if she’d been hit by a car.

It felt like she’d been slashed by a giant, invisible ax. Several tentacles were shredded and torn off; the girl herself was sent flying, crashing into a wall.

“Gah…?! Wh…what…?!”

Merriloé fiercely coughed up blood. She didn’t know what hit her. She hadn’t felt any magical energy whatsoever prior to squarely taking the hit.

“Aaah?! The hell’s up with you?! Ya ain’t Natsuki Minamiya at all, are ya?! I thought I’d shake ’er up with one shot finally, and what, I got the wrong girl?!”

A small-statured youth with dreadlocks approached the fallen girl.

He wore multilayered clothes employing showy colors and wore knee-length old street-wear jeans. His crude words and actions and the look on his face did a splendid job of making him come off as a blockhead.

His words and gestures didn’t make him seem like Natsuki’s ally. Yet, as a result of his attack, Merriloé had been sent flying, freeing Natsuki from her tentacles.

“You have done well, oaf.”

Natsuki gently landed and shot him a glance.

“Aaagh?!”

The youth crudely bared his teeth at being called an oaf, but a different man stopped him. “Cease, Schtola D.”

This was a large-statured man with his entire body enveloped in thick plates.

He had steel-colored skin and ashen hair. On his back, he carried a great sword equal to his considerable height.

As a weapon, Ascalon disregarded balance and ease of use; it was forged for the sole purpose of slicing apart the resilient body of a dragon. And bathed in a dragon’s blood, his flesh had been desecrated with the curse of immortality. This was the Great Sinner, Bruté Dumblegraff—descendant of a clan of dragon slayers, and operative for the Western European Church.

“We comprehend the situation, Witch of the Void, but what is it you intend in letting us out of our cells?”

The dragon-slaying mercenary posed the question to Natsuki with a hand still on the hilt of his great sword.

“I am not asking you to fight the Order of the End. Nor do I intend to grant amnesty. This is merely parole on a temporary basis…,” Natsuki replied haughtily, “…but only if you desire it.”

Schtola D exclaimed with visible irritation, “Whaaa—? Do you think we’d do somethin’ just ’cause you asked, you idiot?!”

“Oh, I do. Once you learn their true nature, that is.”

That instant, the expressions on Dumblegraff and Schtola changed. What came over Dumblegraff was delight, and what came over Schtola was a look of fury.

“You don’t say… Very well… I shall play along with thy scheme.”

“Tch… I don’t exactly like bein’ used like this, but this definitely ain’t the time to play with you. Shit!”

When Schtola violently slammed a fist against the wall, a metal manacle appeared on his left wrist. This was the mark of an inmate of the Prison Barrier. Even if they went out into the real world, they would be bound to the Prison Barrier by an invisible chain.

“The time I grant to you is forty-eight hours. Incidentally, don’t harm unrelated human beings. Not if you don’t want me to drag you back to your cells before you can fulfill your goals, that is.”

“Understood.”

“Feh!”

A ripple-like swaying in space enveloped the two sorcerous criminals. Then, they vanished from sight. They had been sent from the Prison Barrier in Natsuki’s dream out into the real world.

The only things left were Natsuki, mistress of the barrier, and severed tentacles that wriggled even still, as well as the wounded Merriloé.

She coughed up fresh blood as she stood. “I never imagined that you would go so far as to release criminals from the Prison Barrier…to enable your escape from us…!”

The tentacles that had been severed by Schtola D had largely finished regenerating.

The tentacles, a devil’s familiar, likely granted her regenerative abilities that made her nigh immortal. So long as magical energy remained within their host, they would likely continue to propagate infinitely, unable to be destroyed.

However, Natsuki gazed upon that girl and spoke with utter indifference. “What, you’re still here, beaten dog?”

“Silence! Call me that again, and no matter what The Blood wills, I shall kill you!” Merriloé screeched.

Natsuki snorted. “Just try it, you beaten dog.”

“I’ll kill you!”

Responding to Merriloé’s anger, her tentacles bulged explosively. From there, they became a pitch-black tsunami as they bore down upon the defenseless Natsuki.

The horde of tentacles came to a stop, all thanks to an arm.

It belonged to a golden, clockwork knight, Natsuki’s Guardian.

A savage smile came over Merriloé’s lips. “That can’t stop me—!”

She and Natsuki were both prison wardens. They’d both paid the same price for their powers as witches. In other words, their Guardians were on equal footing.

However, Natsuki was using the majority of her magical energy to maintain the Prison Barrier. Merriloé had already abandoned her own prison. The price for violating her pact was her Guardian consuming half of her body, but this only increased the magical energy she could freely employ.

In a one-on-one battle, there was no reason for the current Merriloé to lose against Natsuki.

“What?!”

Merriloé was certain of victory when her cheeks stiffened in shock and terror.

When Natsuki’s Guardian appeared, its appearance was not what she had expected.

The beautiful golden armor plates fell away, exposing the Guardian’s innards.

There was no knight within.

Complete darkness from which no light could escape, three eyes from which flames spewed—it was as if the void of the Abyss had been given form.

“Oh dear…” Natsuki let out a languid sigh. “It’s shaken off its bindings.”

Stricken by fear, Merriloé tried to back away, but Natsuki’s Guardian would permit no such thing. The incredible gravitational pull of its darkness caught Merriloé’s tentacles and would not let go.

“I had heard that Rheingold can distort time in this world merely by manifesting… To think that those clockwork mechanisms were to restrain its power…?!” said Merriloé.

“I shall grant your wish, Witch of Vengeance.” Natsuki smiled beautifully, but it struck terror in Merriloé’s heart. The monster attended at Natsuki’s side.

“N…no… Please…stop…”

Merriloé’s lips weakly trembled. The beast of darkness grabbed hold of her tentacles, pulling her in with such overwhelming force, looking as if it were swatting a fly.

The doll-like witch took on an inhuman aura. “Let this ugly, pitiful criminal be savagely and cruelly judged—”

The screams of the Order of the End acolyte echoed through the room of the ancient fortress.

6

His entire body enveloped by raging, tornado-like winds, Kojou landed on artificial ground that threatened to break apart.

He was on the sub-float off Island South, formerly the location of the coast guard runway. To Kojou, it was the place where the Electoral War began.

The sub-float destroyed in the predawn battle had split apart into countless units, floating atop the sea like drift ice.

Of course, there was no sign of human life anywhere, nor were there buildings to worry about breaking. There was no battlefield more suitable for Kojou to really let loose.

The Blood, impressed with Kojou, spoke to his foe. “I see. So your initial attack was to lure me to an unpopulated area.”

Even though he’d supposedly taken an attack from Kojou’s Beast Vassal head-on, he appeared unharmed. He’d summoned his own Beast Vassal to cancel out Kojou’s attack. In other words, The Blood’s Beast Vassals possessed power equal to that of the Fourth Primogenitor.

“Who the hell are you, The Blood?”

Kojou summoned a new Beast Vassal. This was Dabih Crystallus, the mind control Beast Vassal. The Blood countered Kojou’s summons immediately, rendering the Evil Eye useless with his own Beast Vassal.

“Why did you lock me in Onrai Island?”

Kojou summoned yet another Beast Vassal, one with purple flames—Shaula Viola. This, too, was fended off. The Blood’s dark manticore blocked Shaula Viola’s venomous flames.

“Why did you start this Electoral War? Why do you use the same Beast Vassals that I do?!”

Kojou summoned Natra Cinereus. The enormous carapace-covered beast’s silver mist was pushed back by black mist from the blond boy’s own vassal.

“Why do you look so much like Avrora?!”

Kojou summoned yet another Beast Vassal. However, it was in a place impossible for the boy to intercept—beneath the broken ground upon which he stood.

“C’mon over, Cor-Tauri Succinum!”

A torrent of incandescent magma enveloped the entire body of the small-statured boy.

The artificial isle fragment melted, vaporizing the seawater with incredible force. White steam rushed forth, filling the surrounding area.

“You already have the answers to your questions.”

He heard the boy’s voice from the other side of the wall of steam. The voice did not sound pained in any way. The Blood had endured the surprise magma attack.

But how?!

The boy appeared before him.

“I, too, am the Fourth Primogenitor.”

“What?!” Kojou exclaimed.

It was not only The Blood who stood upon the melted artificial isle unit. There was also a man wearing a reptilian bone mask. One of the acolytes of the Order of the End had used his own body as a shield to fend off the torrent of magma.

The robe enveloping him had burned away, and his mask was half-melted as well. However, his body was without a scratch. His skin was like red-bronze scales—dazzling flames gushing from it repelled magma reaching several thousand degrees Celsius.

“Come forth, Primus Succinum.”

“Khh—Mesarthim Adamas!”

Kojou tried to block the pitch-black magma shot back at him with diamond crystals. Fresh blood spurted from Kojou’s shoulder. An attack from an unexpected direction had sliced Kojou’s body and the countless diamond crystals alike.

When the aghast Kojou looked back, he saw another of The Blood’s subordinates. This Order of the End acolyte wore the mask of a bull-like demon beast and wielded a blue, curved blade.

“The other Hauras…!”

Kojou wobbled and went down on one knee.

The power of the Fourth Primogenitor’s Beast Vassals and those of The Blood were equal. However, The Blood had two powerful acolytes. The difference in their strength was clear. Kojou despaired. He saw no hope of victory.

Now that Kojou was backed into a corner before him, The Blood ceased the surprise attacks.

Then, in a gentle tenor, he posed a question.

“Beast Vassals—they are the source of a vampire’s power and his combat abilities in and of themselves. Do you know what they truly are, Kojou Akatsuki?”

“What Beast Vassals…really are…?”

The boy’s abrupt question drew a blank from Kojou. He’d summoned Beast Vassals any number of times up to that point, but he did not know their true nature.

How they were born? Where did they come from? Why could only vampires use them? In all his time living in a Demon Sanctuary, the answers had not reached his ears even once.

To start with, Kojou didn’t know anything about his own Beast Vassals.

“Beasts that serve vampires from within their own blood, summoned beasts from another world—this explanation is not mistaken. However, nor is it the whole truth,” The Blood explained. “Beast Vassals are malice, hatred, curses. They are the souls of the very gods corrupted and transformed into the forms of demons through Cain the Sinful God’s cleansing—cursed beasts born from their wrath and despair. These are a vampire’s Beast Vassals.”

“They’re curses from…the gods…” A chill ran up Kojou’s spine.

Why were only vampire primogenitors able to summon such creatures with extraordinary power? Why did the strength of vampire’s Beast Vassals diminish with each generation?

If Beast Vassals were really curses, that would explain it. The primogenitors were the vampires that had been cursed the strongest; their children were merely inheriting those curses.

“The Lost Warlord, Fallgazer, the Chaos Bride—they, the three primogenitors, were the first, and became the last, of the bloodlines of the gods so cursed. It was they who were granted the most powerful curse, the most powerful Beast Vassals by the dying Deva race.”

“The Devas… The ancient gods…,” Kojou murmured.

The ancient gods who once upon a time ruled the world were transformed into demons through the power of Cain’s forbidden spell, The Cleansing. Then they were hunted by the humans they should have been ruling.

But if The Blood’s words were true, it was the curses of the Devas, exiled from the seat of divinity via The Cleansing, that made the primogenitors from their three demon kings.

“However, even with these curses from the gods, they were unable to defeat the Sinful God.” A thin smile came over the boy as he shook his head, seemingly pitying the gods. “That is why the few surviving Devas created an artificial vampire, the fourth of the primogenitors—the World’s Mightiest.”

“You can’t mean…”

“I do. New Beast Vassals were required to create the new primogenitor. A vast quantity of new curses sufficient to call it the World’s Mightiest—”

“They used themselves?! As living sacrifices?!”

The blond boy nodded without a word. Kojou was horrified.

The ancient gods—the Devas—had perished. They had sacrificed their own lives to create a new primogenitor.

That was how the Fourth Primogenitor, the World’s Mightiest Vampire, had come to be. They had created this god-killing weapon to slay Cain.

“The Fourth Primogenitor must be the World’s Mightiest Vampire. You have a responsibility to prove that it is so! For the sake of those who became part of the curse themselves in order to create the World’s Mightiest!”

“So that’s your whole reason for this bloodshed…?!”

Kojou was stricken by anger so ferocious that he felt his mind drifting away.

Proving that the Fourth Primogenitor was the World’s Mightiest Vampire—that was The Blood’s objective. That was the sole reason for his actions.

The same went for locking Kojou inside Onrai Island and making him experience the deaths of his comrades over and over.

The same went for instigating the Electoral War and demanding that Kojou announce himself.

He was asserting that all of this was to implement the curse of the gods who had perished in ancient times.

“We are not your enemy. The Fourth Primogenitor will become the ruler of this world. We, the Order of the End, exist for this very purpose.”

“Ruler of the whole world… Huh? There’s no way a ruckus on Itogami Island is big enough to cause somethin’ like that, dammit!” Kojou spat. “Don’t mess with me.”

“No. There is a way.” The boy narrowed his eyes in delight. “Have you forgotten? Itogami Island is the altar for The Cleansing, the greatest legacy of the Sinful God. Should there be a legal way to obtain it, it is unthinkable that the other primogenitors will fail to mobilize.”

“A…legal way to take Itogami Island? That’s the point of all this?!”

Kojou couldn’t help feeling overwhelmed by this.

According to logic, the ruler candidate with a monopoly on all the domains would become the owner of Itogami Island, sorcerous device for The Cleansing. But merely obtaining Itogami Island didn’t mean you could use it. In the first place, virtually none of the current ruler candidates would have any idea what The Cleansing actually was.

Kojou could not make his worries disappear, though. He had the indelible, terrible sense that he’d overlooked something, some kind of crucial factor.

“My true name is Kenon. Number Zero of the Kaleid Bloods.”

The boy slowly opened his lidded eyes.

He beheld Kojou with eyes that blazed like azure flames.

These were, without a shred of doubt, the same eyes as Avrora, the Twelfth. They were the eyes of the artificial vampires created by the Devas.

“I am the prototype of the Fourth Primogenitor, and I am your shadow. Furthermore, I am the proxy for the curse of the gods. With all of the power granted unto me, I shall deliver you the world.”

“Before you do that, I’ll send you flying and end the Electoral War!” Kojou howled, concealing his fierce internal unrest.

If The Blood was related to Avrora, that was all the more reason to put a stop to his vile deeds. That was Kojou’s duty as the one who’d inherited her power.

“It is futile.”

Pitch-black mist gushed out from all over the boy’s—Kenon’s—body. This mist, infused with immense demonic energy, changed into the form of an enormous, phantasmal beast. It was a mermaid of ice, or perhaps a siren, spreading forth transparent wings.

“I am stronger than you, for you are incomplete. Come forth, Primus Glacies.”

“That Beast Vassal—?!!”

Vast cold gushing out from the pitch-black monstrous bird assaulted Kojou. The surface of the sea surrounding the sub-float, and the air above it, froze in a split second, coming to a halt.

Kojou had no way to offset this cold, for the monstrous raptor of ice was the prototype for the Fourth Primogenitor’s eleventh Beast Vassal—employing the attacks of the final Beast Vassal that Kojou had yet to obtain.

“Shit…!”

Kojou felt his own mind turning into white mist.

A vampire primogenitor was immortal, but completely freezing him would still render him immobile. The Blood intended to freeze Kojou and advance the Electoral War further during that time.

But even though he understood this, Kojou couldn’t stop it. He’d already lost his vision and all feeling in his limbs. Even his mind felt distant.

With what little cognition he still had, he got the feeling he heard a soothing voice.

He thought he saw the dazzling radiance of spiritual energy…

“I, Maiden of the Lion, Sword Shaman of the High God, beseech thee—”

“?!”

Kenon’s elegant expression twitched.

Leaping into Kojou’s vision was a small girl wielding a silver spear.

“O purifying light, O divine wolf of the snowdrift, by your steel divine will, strike down the devils before me!”

A pale beam of light emitted by the girl’s spear sliced through the monstrous raptor.

As his whole body regained its freedom, Kojou let out a ferocious cough.

“Himeragi!”

“Are you all right, senpai?”

Yukina kept her silver spear thrust forward as she turned a small smile of relief toward him.

When she saw his bloodied shoulder, her eyes quietly scrutinized him.

“Truly, every single time I take my eyes off you for but a few brief moments, you always, always get hurt like this… Just what in the world were you thinking?!”

“What?! Uh, this isn’t really the time to say that stuff…”

“Please save your quarrel for after our predicament!” Shizuri Kasugaya’s painful words came alongside the high-pitched sound of metal clashing with metal.

Shizuri’s crimson long sword was batted downward by the same blue, curved blade that had previously pierced Kojou’s shoulder from behind.

“Cas?! What are you even doing here…?!”

“Obviously, I have come to save you! Goodness, you are such a handful!”

With the brute force of an ogre, Shizuri sent the blade-wielding acolyte flying.

However, the acolyte regained its balance in midair and landed with perfect calm.

“Watch out, The Blood uses the same Beast Vassals as the Fourth Primogenitor. Also, that macho bastard can shrug off bein’ in the middle of lava,” Kojou warned, shooting a glance at the acolyte beside The Blood.

“I understand… From his aura, I can tell this is no normal person.”

“That blue blade…”

Shizuri trained her own sword toward the other acolyte.

That instant, Kojou heard a low, muffled voice, filled with resentment that seemed to echo from the deepest recesses of the Earth.

The voice hailed from the blade-wielding acolyte. A woman’s voice filled with anger echoed from under the bull skull mask.

“I have found you…Hauras!”

“Huh?!”

Shizuri was a little unnerved by the anger suddenly directed toward her.

The blade-wielding acolyte roared and came in slicing. The slicing attack had incredible force. If it were Kojou, there was no doubt he could have done nothing to prevent being split in two.

“Wh-what is with you?!”

Shizuri just barely managed to block the acolyte’s attack. The captivating serrations of the crimson blade gave off sparks as the blue, curved blade clashed with it.

“Silence, descendant of the betrayer!”

“Who betrayed what exactly?!”

The acolyte’s slashing attacks assaulted Shizuri without pause, which Shizuri continued to defend.

Then, the moment it seemed an attack had been completely blocked, the curved, blue blade emitted a flash of light.

Shizuri’s expression contorted in surprise; this sword was able to shoot out its accumulated demonic energy in one lethal attack, just like her own Hauras.

“Cas?!” Kojou yelled, but a huge explosion muffled his voice.

That same attack was so brutal, it hollowed out the sub-float remnants to the tune of tens of meters across.

However, Shizuri endured it. She’d instantly expelled demonic energy from Hauras to fend off the blue blade’s attack. Her clothes were in tatters, but Shizuri herself was largely unscathed. Her tenacity as an ogre was on full display.

“Senpai!”

Just when Kojou let out a sigh of relief, Yukina violently thrust him aside.

Incandescent flames raced through the place where Kojou had stood only a moment before. The other acolyte escorting Kenon had spewed explosive flames through his mask.

“What’s with this flame…?!”

“Please be careful. This attack is not magic!”

Yukina shouted to the bewildered Kojou.

If the flames were not magic, that meant Yukina could not nullify them with Snowdrift Wolf. That was probably why Kojou hadn’t sensed the flames before they’d been shot out.

The mask the acolyte wore melted and fell, burned by the flames he himself had spewed. Taking this as his cue, the acolyte altered form.

The flesh that had been human-shaped transformed into that of a reptile crawling on all fours. His already massive frame swelled to a full ten times its previous size, and his head transformed into something more contorted.

Red-bronze scales covered the whole of his body. Enormous wings spread from his back. He had a long, serpentine tail and razor-sharp fangs. He had a mane, and long horns jutted from his forehead.

“I cannot believe it. That is a…!”

Yukina exclaimed as she looked at the transformed acolyte.

Kojou and the others knew of a species capable of such transformations.

These were beings boasting great intellect and demonic energy, at the pinnacle of Demonkind in a different sense from vampires—

“A dragon?!”

Now completely transformed into a dragon, the acolyte spewed flames once more.

Kojou picked Yukina up and leaped. It was impossible for normal human speed to evade the wide sweep of a dragon’s breath.

Shizuri and her opponent continued fighting in a place just beyond the flames’ reach. Then a sudden change befell the pair of closely matched opponents.

Shizuri, forced onto the defensive by her opponent’s overwhelming anger, abruptly went on the attack, seemingly fed up with it all.

“Why you, cut it out already—!”

Thud! went the dull sound that echoed between Shizuri and the acolyte. Judging that sword fighting wasn’t getting the job done, Shizuri smashed her own forehead into her opponent’s.

“Ghh…”

The acolyte pressed upon her own forehead as she retreated.

Shizuri looked nothing but graceful to the eyes, so the acolyte naturally had never expected Shizuri to choose a method of attack as crude and barbaric as a headbutt. Taking the hit squarely had apparently resulted in more damage than she’d counted on.

“Ow, ow…!” Shizuri also pressed her forehead as tears welled at the corners of her eyes.

After a moment, Shizuri abruptly opened her eyes wide in surprise. She’d noticed the bare face poking out from under the broken mask.

“Y-you’re…!”

Shizuri tried to continue to say something, but her words never made it into her voice. Her mask lost, the blade-wielding acolyte retreated all the way to The Blood’s side.

When Shizuri moved to make a follow-up attack, the dragon assaulted her with fire to drive her back.

Shizuri used a demonic energy release from Hauras to intercept the flames and retreated. She somehow managed to regain her balance and landed at Kojou’s side.

The freshly gathered trio of Kojou and the others ended up facing off against The Blood’s side. However, in contrast to the aggressive posture from Kojou, Kenon’s face revealed no hostile intent.

He looked up at the sky of Itogami Island with mild surprise. It was a night sky without even a single cloud.

Yukina blinked, surprised. “The warping of space…has vanished?”

The rainbow-colored swaying that had covered Itogami Island’s upper sky had dissipated. Of course, this meant that the Order of the End’s attacks had ceased.

This event was wholly unexpected as far as The Blood was concerned. What came over his lips was a pained smile that resembled a resigned expression.

“So Merriloé was unable to restrain her. I should have expected as much of the Witch of the Void.” Kenon sighed. “However, it would seem that we are not too late. We shall retreat.”

“Understood.”

The dragon let the boy aboard one of its front claws. The blade-wielding acolyte climbed upon the dragon’s back, glaring at Shizuri.

“Daughter of the Castiellas… Next time, I shall kill you and take back our sword.”

“Wh-what self-serving nonsense are you—?!”

Shizuri’s shout was impeded by the beating of the dragon’s wings. Spewing flames from its mouth for propulsion, the dragon soared high into the sky in the span of a blink.

“Like hell I’ll let you go!”

Kojou turned his right hand toward the receding dragon. He was trying to shoot the dragon down with a Beast Vassal.

“No, senpai, you mustn’t!”

Yukina stopped Kojou a moment short. It was not that she feared that The Blood would counterattack. It was because she’d noticed the aura of a new Beast Vassal, seemingly appearing to exploit the opening in Kojou’s defenses.

The stars dotting the sky had at some point vanished. In their place, the sky was covered with an enormous black storm cloud with dazzling thunderbolts. This was the new Beast Vassal.

Countless bolts of lightning released by the thundercloud punched through various sub-float fragments floating on the surface of the sea.

This was a warning shot.

Without a word, the host of the lightning Beast Vassal was ordering Kojou and the others to depart. The proof of this was that only the unit Kojou and the girls were standing on had been left to float unscathed.

“That Beast Vassal…?!”

Kojou looked up at the sky, shaking his head in a daze.

He knew the true nature of the giant thundercloud Beast Vassal covering the night sky.

The overwhelming might rivaling a natural disaster came from a Beast Vassal belonging to a vampire primogenitor.

“What are you doing…? …Giada!”

Standing on the arch of the wrecked connecting bridge linked to Island South was a beautiful woman with jade-colored eyes.

The Third Primogenitor, the Chaos Bride, looked down upon the befuddled Kojou with a wild smile.