The Knight of the Sinful God

by Gakuto Mikumo

  Assassination, organized crime, information gathering, controlling politics and commerce—depending on how one used this ability, one could control entire nations. Perhaps she ought to say as expected of one of the Lion King Agency’s Three Saints. She absolutely could not pass off talk of the so-called mightiest Attack Mages of Japan as a mere empty boast.

  “I am sorry, Hisano. I…misread the true nature of Avalon…”

  Perhaps the stabilizing of the battlefield had given her room to work with, for Shirona switched to her inner personality.

  Shirona Kuraki was a descendant of a clan with great power, heiress to over a millennium’s worth of memories and spiritual energy. These women, cursed from the moment of their birth, could be said to be much like the immortal vampires in that regard.

  It was the old personality inside Shirona that made a weak laugh at her own expense.

  “It was just as that girl…as Yuiri Haba said. Avalon was not a seal at all. It was using us, draining knowledge from the priestesses we sacrificed to it to judge when the time was nigh…like a plant using insects to carry its pollen.”

  “So it was not the sacrifices’ spiritual energy it craved, but their knowledge?”

  Hisano’s eyebrows faintly trembled.

  If Shirona’s assessment was fact, the Lion King Agency’s operation had been flawed from its very conception. And the thing inside Avalon had obtained the knowledge of the Twelfth sacrificed to it. That is what had caused the calamity to awaken.

  “Captain Okiyama, I will leave this place to you.”

  “High Priest Akatsuki, where are you going?”

  Okiyama inquired unemotionally as Hisano picked up a spare naginata.

  Hisano quietly gazed at Kannawa Lake, enveloped by cold air, as she said, “If the legends are true—that the houda are merely the prelude of the calamity—the next thought is obvious, is it not? Namely, the houda have a master still lurking at the bottom of the lake.”

  “You are saying that…these demon beasts are merely parasites lurking in the true calamity’s shadow…?”

  Okiyama shook her head as if to say Unbelievable.

  “That is absurd…the only beings that would be served by such numbers of demon beasts would be on the level of a vampire primogenitor…”

  “…Which means we are fighting a foe that rivals a vampire primogenitor.”

  Hisano casually made the declaration with a pleasant smile. A moment later…

  “Aaah…!”

  …Shirona fiercely recoiled as she let out a cry. Hisano could sense a backlash of demonic energy. The countless spirit threads Shirona had deployed were beaten away, with the reaction causing her to faint once more.

  For one instant alone, an enormous figure was visible amid the cold, white mist.

  It was a black, malevolent figure that looked like calamity given form.

  Shirona was able to freely control thousands of troops, but put another way, she could be neutralized by an enemy that even thousands of troops could not defeat. The black silhouette crawling within the mist seemed to be just that kind of foe.

  “What…is that?”

  There was no answer to Okiyama’s question. There was only the calamity’s enormous roar, making even the frigid air shudder…

  3

  Shio Hikawa was surrounded by pure-white mist as she walked onto the vast, icy plain.

  Kannawa Lake was a large body of water, a reservoir of over sixty million cubic tons, but it was completely frozen from shore to shore.

  Thanks to the increase in volume from freezing over, the surface of the lake had swelled into a treacherous mountain of ice, which, along with a cold wind mixed with icy snow, hindered Shio’s advance.

  Using her little remaining ritual energy to protect herself from the cold, Shio desperately climbed over a swell in the ice, whereupon Shio’s ears caught the voice of a middle-aged man that held little sense of tension.

  “Hey, Shio—”

  “D-do not address me in such a familiar manner!”

  Shio shouted, glaring at Gajou as he tagged along like it was the obvious thing to do. What really got under her skin was how the frozen surface of the lake, causing Shio all kinds of grief, seemed to bother Gajou very little.

  “Li’l Shio, then. Whatever works, but you really shouldn’t push yourself. You don’t have much ritual energy left, do you? If another big swarm of those monsters attacks, we’ll die. I’m serious.”

  “That doesn’t mean I can just leave Yuiri out there. And why did you come this far with me anyway?!”

  “I’d like you to stop lumping us together like we’re partners united by fate or something,” Shio grumbled, seriously annoyed.

  However, Gajou paid Shio no heed as he said, “Well, I’ve gotta take care of my daughter. Besides, well, I’d be able to handle most things if it was just me by myself.”

  “What the…? Are you trying to say I’m holding you back?”

  Shio stopped in her tracks, surprisingly annoyed.

  Gajou smiled and shook his head as he put a hand into his coat and said, “I’m not sayin’ that exactly. I’m saying to pick your time and place for being reckless. You can’t save anyone if you die first, you know.”

  “That doesn’t mean I can just let Yuiri be. And why are you coming along with me in the first place?!”

  I really would rather you didn’t say things along the lines of It’s like our fates are intertwined or something, thought Shio, earnestly annoyed.

  Nevertheless, Gajou was heedless of Shio’s sentiments.

  “Well, I have to look after my daughter. Besides, well, I should be able to manage on my own for the most part.”

  “What do you mean by that? It’s like saying I’m in the way.”

  Shio unwittingly halted her feet as something snapped inside her.

  Gajou smiled and shook his head, putting a hand inside his coat as he said, “I’m not sayin’ anything like that. It’s just, you need to pick your time and place to be reckless. You can’t save anyone if you run off and die first, right?”

  Then, with the single-shot grenade launcher he’d just drawn, he pointed behind Shio’s back and fired. He blew off the head of the steel-colored demon beast lurking under the ice with Shio in its sights. Its head rolled onto its side.

  “Sheesh.” A thin trickle of sweat came over Gajou’s brow as he sighed. As he did so, Shio gazed up at him with a teasing look.

  “Well, you’re pretty worn out, too, aren’t you? I don’t think that your Death Returnee power is convenient enough that you can use it without a cost.”

  “Oh, you really are a sharp one. You’re worried about me, aren’t you?”

  “Wh-who’s worried about you?!”

  “Well, I figure that hag was keeping me isolated in that cell to have firepower on hand because she had some idea what was coming…”

  Gajou shamelessly laughed, making that bold declaration as he discarded the grenade launcher.

  “So the fact that I’m being allowed to run across the battlefield means that hag is backed against a wall. Risky or not, I have to at least get Nagisa outta here.”

  For a moment, the sight of Gajou valiantly smiling captured Shio’s attention. Perhaps that was why her caution eased up for a moment, for Shio’s foot slipped, grandly throwing her off-balance.

  “Aaaah!”

  “Whoa there.”

  Shio was on the verge of slipping down an icy slope into a deep crevice when Gajou easily picked her up with his right arm alone.

  “Whew… You all right, Li’l Shio?”

  “I’m all right… I’m all right, so put—me—down…!”

  “You’re so light. Have you been eating properly?”

  “Sh-shut up! Let me go, you middle-aged lecher!”

  “Sheesh… This lake’s frozen down to the lake bed, by the looks of it.”

  Gajou languidly exhaled as he gazed down the crevice spread before his eyes. It was an amazingly deep crevice, like the damage left b
ehind after some kind of giant monster crawling out from the depths.

  The crevice ran forty or fifty meters straight down, but even so, he couldn’t see the bottom. There was no doubt: Every last drop of water bottled up by Kamioda Dam had been completely frozen. Someone’s magical energy had frozen the entire dam.

  “But how…? Nothing short of a primogenitor’s Beast Vassal should be able to do this…”

  Shio shuddered and shook her head as it sunk in that she was on-site at an unprecedented sorcerous disaster.

  Gajou smiled as if it was someone else’s problem. “A primogenitor’s Beast Vassal, huh. If so, it means that’s precisely how.”

  “…Gajou Akatsuki?”

  Unable to discern the meaning of Gajou’s assertion, Shio peered at the side of his face. However, Gajou remained silent, glaring into the pure-white mist.

  “Nagisa…huh?”

  Gajou murmured, speaking in a low, guarded voice. When she heard him, Shio noticed, too: A petite figure was calmly crossing the ice, approaching the pair across where the crevice had opened.

  “No, not her…”

  Gajou, still holding Shio, set her down as he continued to glare at the figure.

  The girl approaching them was wearing a white priestess outfit.

  Her face was indeed Nagisa Akatsuki’s. However, the color of her hair was different. It was pale, blonde hair, changing color with the angle of the light, almost like looking through a prism. The rainbow-colored hair resembled a billowing flame.

  “Who are you…?!”

  Shio unwittingly let her voice trickle out. The girl in the white priestess attire gazed at Shio with eyes like pale-blue flames. Shio shuddered, her spine freezing from the malevolent demonic energy she sensed from the girl.

  That instant, Shio, as an Attack Mage, instinctively realized: It was this girl who had brought about the bizarre freezing phenomenon—

  “Looks like you’re finally awake, princess.”

  Gajou spread both arms wide as he addressed her, seemingly to display a lack of hostility. He spoke with the fondness of one greeting an old friend.

  “You are…”

  The girl in white attire trained her blazing eyes upon Gajou.

  “So you remember me, Sleeping Beauty?”

  Gajou sent a gentle smile her way.

  The girl’s rainbow-colored hair swayed as she weakly shook her head.

  “Why do you smile?” she asked in a broken voice. “I…have no words with which to atone… Whatever scorn, resentment, or curses you bear toward me, I resign myself to them.”

  “Don’t get me wrong, princess. None of us have a grudge against you. Not me and certainly not Kojou.”

  Gajou Akatsuki made this statement with strength in his voice. Shio listened with bated breath to the precarious balance of the conversation between the pair, as if walking a tightrope across a pit of spikes.

  “Is Nagisa safe?”

  When Gajou asked that, a smile trickled onto the girl’s lips for the first time. It was a lovely, fleeting, beautiful smile; the sort meant for someone precious.

  “The soul of the gentle priestess is…right here—”

  The girl closed her eyes, pressing both hands to her chest.

  Then, as if drained of strength, she immediately collapsed.

  Shio finally let go of the breath she’d been holding. As the girl’s mind dissipated, the powerful, oppressive feeling making Shio cringe thinned in equal measure. The cold hovering in the air around them seemed to soften as well.

  “Gajou Akatsuki… Who…was that, just now?”

  Shio asked in a hard, tense voice.

  Gajou did not reply to Shio’s question as he picked up the sleeping Nagisa Akatsuki.

  “Sorry, Li’l Shio. Can I trust you to take care of her?”

  “I don’t mind that at all, but…what do you intend to do?”

  Shio knit her brows as she rebutted. Just what did Gajou Akatsuki plan to do that involved leaving behind the daughter he’d finally gotten back? For no discernible reason, her heart was terribly astir.

  “I’d like to say I’ll look for Yuiri baby for you in your place, but…can’t you feel what’s in the air?”

  “…In the air?”

  When he said it, Shio finally noticed. The air was faintly shuddering. The hard, frozen surface of the lake was swaying in an irregular manner. It was a strange tremor, as if some collection of enormous mass was raging in the distance.

  “Is…something there…?!”

  For a single moment, Shio saw the shadow of something resembling a pitch-black fortress through a break in the mist.

  It had enormously broad wings resembling warped blades. It had four limbs so stout that they made armored vehicles seem delicate. It had a head like a ferocious carnivorous lizard. It had sharp fangs and crimson eyes.

  Though it was her first time seeing one with her own eyes, even children knew the name of the greatest of demon beasts.

  “No way…”

  Shio’s lips twitched and trembled.

  With heavy white mist swirling around it, a pitch-black dragon loosed a terrible roar.

  4

  The pain on her cheeks woke her up. Someone was rudely slapping Asagi’s face. The high-pitched voice of a younger girl continued ringing in her ears.

  “Empress! Empress…!”

  “Can you stop calling me that already…?!”

  With Lydianne’s palm slapping her over and over, Asagi sluggishly lifted her head, glaring at her with tearful eyes.

  She was in the copilot seat added to the micro-robot tank. The redheaded girl had opened the scuffed-up armored hatch and was peering at Asagi’s face with a worried expression.

  “Empress, are you all right?!”

  “No, I am most certainly not all right. I hurt all over. It sucks. So much for the air balloon. It almost got both of us killed.”

  Asagi let her complaints pour out as she crawled out of the tight copilot seat.

  Launching at a thousand meters aboveground, the robot tank had fired its stabilizing boosters as it deployed its four emergency parachutes, lowering their speed of descent as they set down in the Tangiwa Mountains. However, that was all that had gone well.

  The initial trouble came from the air currents raging in the mountainous area they were attempting to land in. Incredible crosswinds ripped the parachutes away, sending the tank crashing onto its side, which rendered the air cushion for landing and leg shock absorbers utterly useless.

  The fact they were landing on a forested mountain with densely packed trees didn’t exactly help. The elasticity of the trees had bounced the robot tank around like a pinball several times, finally ending in a fall to the bottom of a deep gully. That was as far as Asagi remembered.

  “No, no, ’twas most unexpected to have landed in a ravine. I shall make a note of revising the watertight construction upward. However, ’twas fortunate we had the high-spec pilot suits, no?”

  “Wait, is this designed like a school swimsuit because the tank was expected to sink?!” Asagi exclaimed as she looked down at her thoroughly drenched pilot suit, exasperated to the core of her being.

  Since they’d fallen into the mountain stream coursing through the bottom of the ravine, the non-waterproof pilot seats were flooded with water. They were saved by the fact the water happened to be shallow; otherwise, they might well have drowned.

  But just as Lydianne had boasted, Asagi didn’t feel very cold in spite of the water flooding. The fact she’d sustained an impact like that and walked away with only minor scrapes was no doubt thanks to the pilot suit’s high levels of water and wind resistance.

  That said, they couldn’t know how long they would remain safe stuck at the bottom of a ravine like that. The water of the mountain stream was cold—it was the middle of winter, after all—and perhaps it was just her imagination, but she felt like the water level had increased since she had awoken.

  “So what now? Is this tank still usable?” Asagi put
her disheveled hair in order as she returned to the pilot seat.

  They were deep in the mountains in a ravine without even a name, far removed from the main thoroughfare. There were cliffs standing to both the right and left, terrain impossible for human beings to climb without specialized gear. Even if they tried to call for aid, Asagi doubted the signal would reach. If Lydianne’s tank wasn’t mobile, she and Asagi would immediately join the ranks of the victims.

  Though busted in various places from the impact of the fall, the tank’s electrical systems seemed to have remained intact. Lydianne switched circuits and brought up the maintenance console.

  “Self-diagnostic in progress. The electrical system is all green. If we cut off the damaged modules, I believe restarting is indeed possible. Rechecking various sensors is required, but that is within the realm of what can be compensated for with software.”

  “Okay, I’ll handle that part.”

  “My deepest thanks. Then, I shall begin the reboot process forthwith.”

  Asagi spread out her own terminal and connected to the robot tank’s sensor systems. As an experimental prototype, it was possible to adjust the software of Lydianne’s Hizamaru in the field without any great difficulty. With Lydianne and Asagi, top programmers in and out of the corporate world, teaming up together, even wholesale rewriting of the operating system wouldn’t take that much time.

  “Ohh… Here we go. That’s Tanker for you… She writes such pretty code. Since it’s like this, I can just do the minimum necessary corrections…… If I handle this part with a parallel process, I can use the resources freed up to stuff an auto-adjustment package in here like…so.”

  In the blink of an eye, Asagi had isolated the damaged sections of the robot tank; she then proceeded to put together correction programs for each individual section. It was time-consuming, but it was not difficult work for her. Humming, she typed away at the keyboard, and once 80 percent or so of the work was completed…

  “Ugh…”

  Asagi squirmed, rubbing both legs together as she felt her back shiver. That feeling persisted when Lydianne turned back to her with a look of concern.

  “If you must pee, Lady Empress, I believe it is healthier to pee rather than hold it.”