She ended up blurting it out at the top of her lungs.
“Th-the heck?!”
“Yuiri?”
Kojou and Yukina looked at Yuiri with surprise, as if the pair could not understand why Yuiri had said that all of a sudden. No doubt they never even dreamed that their own behavior was somehow untoward.
But seeing Yukina and Kojou in such intimacy melted Yuiri’s sense of guilt just a smidgeon.
The fact Yukina had undertaken a dangerous mission in Yuiri’s place had not changed. However, in so doing, she had gained something that Yuiri did not possess—
“I’m sorry, it’s really nothing. I just felt like yelling it out.”
“R-right.”
She appeared unapologetic, but Kojou nodded nonetheless.
Maybe stuffing her belly had made Glenda drowsy again, for she was already curled up on the blanket, asleep once more. However, the low moans and the small twitches of Glenda’s ears made it seem like she was having a nightmare.
At the same time, Yuiri noticed something else—a possessor of strange magical energy was approaching the cabin. The instant Yuiri tried to tell Kojou and Yukina, she saw the latter already stretching her hand to the spear standing beside her.
“Senpai… A wyvern.”
“So they found us… That didn’t take long. Shit.”
Kojou stuffed the rest of the cereal bar into his mouth and quickly rose to his feet.
When Yuiri looked more closely, both Kojou and Yukina were still wearing their shoes. They might have looked relaxed, but both had been prepared if Azama and the others came raiding.
Yukina, seeing Yuiri rush to go after them, calmly told her, “Yuiri, please take care of Glenda. If worse comes to worst, please, leave us and run.”
“Yukii…”
When Yuiri watched Yukina head out of the cabin, a strained, spontaneous smile came over her.
She repeated the words Yukina had spoken as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
Us, huh…?
3
The gunmetal wyvern landed a short distance away from the cabin.
Riding on it was Azama wearing knightly plate, all by himself. There was no sign of the other wyvern or the gunmetal magic user that mounted it.
Perhaps the wyvern had been entangled in the attack from Kojou’s Beast Vassal. It was heavily wounded all over its body, with bare metal visible underneath where the scales had been stripped off. The wyverns, too, were golems created by the sorcerous devices of the Sinful God.
“Major Azama…right? You’re alone?”
Kojou posed the question as the man in knightly plate dismounted his wyvern.
Azama did not have his lance in hand; he’d taken off one of his sorcerous devices—his knight’s helm. He was unexpectedly young, a weathered man reminiscent of a hunting dog.
“Kojou Akatsuki…… I would like a word with you.”
“With me?”
Kojou dubiously knit his brows at Azama’s unexpected words.
“Yes,” said Azama, nodding gravely as he continued, “Due to my position, I am aware of many of the circumstances surrounding your becoming Fourth Primogenitor—information largely unknown even to the Defense Forces brass.”
“What are you getting at?”
Kojou grimaced. There was nothing comforting about someone he didn’t know or had even seen before saying I know about your past.
“Do you not wish to know the reason why we are attempting to capture Glenda? Or rather, just what Glenda, a so-called dragon, truly is…”
“…I’m listening,” Kojou replied after some hesitation. After all, that was exactly the information he sought.
Having clearly expected that answer from Kojou, Azama smiled as he continued.
“You probably understand from mythology that the ancient superhumans known as Devas quarreled with the otherworldly god known as Cain. We call this conflict The Cleansing.”
“I’ve also heard that it’s not accepted as historical fact by scholars,” Kojou rebutted. “Isn’t that just a myth?”
He wasn’t making light of Azama; he just found it hard to believe such a serious a man would act based on such vague information.
“But the fact remains that, on the other hand, much of the sorcerous technology has vestiges from this Cleansing as their foundation. Sorcery, ritual magic, alchemy, and sorcerous devices—even the Schneewaltzer employed by the Sword Shaman next to you was constructed with an ancient treasured spear as its core. This also applies to you, Fourth Primogenitor.”
“So what of it? What does this have to do with Glenda?” Kojou squinted, his irritation evident.
“Even if The Cleansing was something that really happened, didn’t it end thousands of years ago?”
“Wars repeat themselves, even if both sides originally waging it have perished… It is said that the Devas were wiped out, but sorcery and demons remain in this world.”
Azama spun his words in his baritone voice with an odd degree of reverence.
“…Demons?”
“It is said that Cain is the creator of all demons. It is also said that he taught sorcery and science to humankind. In other words, the legacy of Cain, the Sinful God, is the law that governs this world.”
“Well, you’re free to believe that if you want, but…” Kojou sighed and shook his head. “That doesn’t mean it has anything to do with the here and now. Or do you plan to take God’s place and rewrite the laws of the world?”
“Of course not. Humans cannot become gods,” Azama said with a self-critical smile. Then, he shifted a defiant gaze Kojou’s way.
“But it is possible to resurrect a once-destroyed god…and to control it.”
“Control…a god…?” Kojou glared. “Are you crazy?”
In response, the Knight of the Sinful God smiled as he merely shook his head.
Kojou had heard that the Cleansers were heretic terrorists that worshipped Cain. However, if Azama’s true objective was to control that god, the meaning behind all their actions was turned on its head. The Cleansers were not mere worshippers of Cain—quite the reverse. Their actions were inspired by repudiation of Cain and everything the Sinful God had wrought.
“Glenda, Dragon of the Marsh, is the guardian of the legacy Cain left. She is the vessel for the god’s information. She is neither demon nor demon beast; in other words, merely one component of a system. This system was set to awaken when a particular condition is fulfilled.”
“Particular condition…?”
Kojou felt like the words Azama had spoken constituted a slight lead. What was the true reason behind the Lion King Agency using Nagisa Akatsuki as a sacrifice? What if the key to waking Glenda, a relic of The Cleansing, was the knowledge—the memories—of another relic from the same conflict that only Nagisa possessed?
Kojou arrived at an answer. “I see… The awakening of the Fourth Primogenitor…!”
Azama exhaled at length in recognition. “Certainly, Glenda poses little threat by herself. In spite of this, she is a relic that we Cleansers must obtain by whatever measures necessary. The Lion King Agency used that to set a trap and flush us out, but even if the greater portion of my brethren must be sacrificed, obtaining Glenda makes it all worthwhile.”
“…Why are you telling me all this?” Kojou had some serious misgivings; whatever the Cleansers’ objective, there was surely no need for Azama to tell Kojou.
However, Azama trained a mysteriously earnest gaze toward the Fourth Primogenitor.
“Because, Kojou Akatsuki, you have a stake in this as well. You, once a human being, surely understand that demons possess extraordinary abilities—and just how easily they distort the world around us. A large city can be destroyed on the mere whim of a single vampire. What do you think the true form of this warped world would look like?”
“So what, you want to wipe out Demonkind…?”
Kojou twisted his face in disgust. He’d use the god that created demons to exterminate every las
t one. Azama’s goal was twisted, but Kojou could see the logic behind it.
“We merely seek to return the world to its proper form. Surely, these words must be gospel to your ears, Kojou Akatsuki—you would be released from your curse of immortality and granted death as a human being.”
Azama spoke with a stark tone.
He was telling Kojou to die as a human being rather than live on by himself for hundreds, even thousands of years.
That logic was stupid.
On the other hand, the proposal had its appeal.
To be blunt, the prospect of an uncertain future of eternal loneliness was too great for any single being to bear. Azama could free Kojou from such never-ending anguish.
So don’t get in my way was his message to Kojou.
“Depending on how you look at it, well, it’s not such a bad deal…if what you say is true.”
Kojou accepted the righteousness of the man’s claim. Kojou hadn’t obtained the power of an immortal vampire by choice in the first place. He had no reluctance to cast it aside. After all, immortality truly was a curse.
“Senpai…!”
Yukina trembled with anger when she heard Kojou’s murmur, seemingly devoid of self-preservation. Seeing Yukina like that, Kojou let out a vague, pained smile. It was none other than Yukina who had been assigned the mission of continuing to watch over the Fourth Primogenitor—and if necessary, slay him. Her anger wasn’t very rational.
“Hand Glenda over, Fourth Primogenitor. The vessel is necessary to us, so that we may oppose the Gigafloat Management Corporation.” Azama’s demand almost sounded businesslike.
Kojou gasped, his face going stiff. “The Gigafloat Management Corporation…?! What the hell does Itogami Island have to do with this…?!”
A moment later that he heard a boom like distant thunder. A huge flying object descended from the clouds loitering overhead, looking just as large as a passenger plane coming in for a landing.
“Senpai! That’s…?!”
“The heck?! Is that a cargo plane…?”
The airplane, dabbed in a grayish color, greatly resembled a military cargo plane, but the countless gun ports built into the fuselage’s sides meant it could not possibly be any mere transport.
The enormous, malevolent craft was descending from a high altitude toward the cabin where Glenda and Yuiri remained.
“This is the trump card of the Self-Defense Forces Special Attack Mage Regiment… An AC-2 gunship. Now it belongs to us, however,” Azama stated calmly and without boasting.
The aircraft, its design based on a cargo plane, was packed with a vast quantity of arms and ammunition, granting it heavy weapons and high firepower impossible for a normal aircraft to wield, turning it into an attack aircraft for ground suppression—and the one piloting it was the woman in the gunmetal robe.
“You mean to tell us…you used the aircraft as material for a golem—?!” Yukina explained, her expression freezing once she realized Azama’s intentions.
The gunmetal magic user could transform a weapon of war into a golem based on the original specs. Even the golems based on armored personnel carriers had possessed fortitude and offensive might far beyond what was normally possible for them. This being the case, she couldn’t even conceive of the firepower a monster born from a gunship would possess.
Furthermore, they were able to nullify the attacks of Kojou’s Beast Vassals. Snowdrift Wolf, their only means to defy magic-nullifying barriers, could not reach a golem flying through the sky.
“The discussion is over, Kojou Akatsuki. Leave Glenda here, and withdraw.”
Azama put on his knightly helm. Behind him, the wyvern spread its enormous wings.
“Your story had a bit going for it, Major Azama.” Kojou smiled ferociously, fangs bared. “But I’ve seen you kill one of your own men and not even blink. Thanks to you Cleansers, a whole lot of innocent troops got hurt, too. I can’t trust you, and I ain’t handing Glenda to anyone I don’t trust.”
“I see… Most unfortunate, Fourth Primogenitor.”
Azama couched his lance once more, pointing it toward Kojou’s heart.
Next he announced, with raw emotion in his voice for the first time—
“Then die as a filthy demon!”
4
With a roar, the iron knight’s couched lance opened fire with the same pitch-black spheres that had wounded Glenda.
Kojou could not evade the attack. If he stepped aside, the sphere would strike the cabin, and Yuiri and Glenda would suffer as a consequence. Therefore, Kojou raised his right hand high and howled:
“—C’mon over, Beast Vassal Number One, Mesarthim Adamas!”
Kojou endured the fierce pain hitting his right hand as he summoned a divine sheep that radiated light. The innumerable diamond crystals encircling the Beast Vassal formed a shield to fend off the knight’s attack.
Like pool balls, the trajectory of the jet-black spheres was altered as they slammed into the crystals, one after another. Various crystals turned into bullets of their own, assaulting Azama from various directions. The absolutely inviolate divine lamb was a frightening Beast Vassal of retribution.
However, Azama deployed his jet-black aura to impede those diamond bullets.
Though the black membrane lacked the slightest depth, it seemed to permeate thin air, encroaching upon and repainting the very world itself. Without a sound, the attacks by the Fourth Primogenitor’s Beast Vassal were swallowed up by the darkness.
“That black curtain thingy again…!”
Kojou felt nervous that the knight’s power was neutralizing his Beast Vassal, but also, he was quietly relieved.
Even if he was armed with relics from The Cleansing, Azama himself was just a human being. If he was showered in attacks from a Beast Vassal, he was a dead man. The fact that his opponent was a murderer didn’t constitute a reason for Kojou to kill him…even if his objective was the slaughter of all Demonkind.
“—Senpai, please protect Glenda and Yuiri! I shall take Major Azama!” Yukina said, leaping forward in his hesitation as she poised her silver spear.
Kojou had no time to stop her. He was striking down all the bullets fired by the iron knight as Yukina instantly closed the distance.
“You are in my way, Sword Shaman!”
Azama commanded his wyvern to attack. The flying gunmetal demon beast obstructed Yukina so her attacks would never reach the iron knight. With the wyvern whipping about almost at ground level, its mass alone was a menace. Yukina’s Snowdrift Wolf, lacking additional physical effects, could not fend off such power.
“Himeragi—! Get down!”
When Kojou rushed forward to protect Yukina, the gunship roared.
The enormous silhouette circling in the sky above no longer retained the form of an aircraft. It had adopted the form of a nine-headed mock hydra, its enormity far greater than that of the dragon Glenda or the wyverns. The multiheaded monster, inheriting the gunship’s firepower, spewed pitch-black flames with incredible force.
“A black…cannonball…?!”
Kojou’s Beast Vassal deployed its defensive wall. But the countless diamond crystals boasting great density completely broke apart in the face of the mock hydra’s attacks. It was the same as the gunfire from Azama’s lance: The mock hydra’s cannonball had been granted the ability to nullify demonic energy.
With the Beast Vassal’s wall smashed, the pitch-black cannonball assaulted the now-defenseless Kojou.
Just before that enormous sphere swallowed him whole, a dazzling beam sliced across thin air.
“Rosen Chevalier Plus—activate!”
Yuiri, silver long sword in hand, landed in front of Kojou. The rift in space created by her sword strike fended off the pitch-black cannonball. The cannonball’s magic energy-nullifying ability made the pseudo-spatial severing effect end, but by that time, the cannonball itself had dissipated.
“Yuiri…?!”
“I’m sorry! But I thought hiding against an opponen
t like this wouldn’t be any help—”
“Ah, nah… I suppose you’re right. You saved me. And Glenda?”
“Dah!”
When Kojou looked around, the parka-wearing Glenda leaped onto his back with an audible puff against his parka. The feel of the girl’s light body brought a perplexed look over Kojou, whereupon Yuiri lowered her eyes.
“Er… Kojou, I thought the safest place for her was probably behind your back, so…”
Apparently, Glenda was clinging to Kojou on Yuiri’s instructions. Perhaps Yuiri hadn’t expected Glenda to be quite that close behind him.
“That part’s fine, but this ain’t good. At this rate—”
Kojou felt distinctly uneasy as he looked up at the hydra overhead. If he soaked up the next attack from the hydra, he was pretty sure Yuiri wouldn’t be able to block it. If he didn’t defeat that giant golem before that happened—
“Shit!! C’mon over, Regulus Aurum! Al-Meissa Mercury!”
Kojou summoned two new Beast Vassals—the lightning lion and the quicksilver, twin-headed dragon. These attempted to pummel the hydra dancing overhead and shoot its giant frame down.
The gunmetal magic user standing atop one of the hydra’s heads blocked their attacks. The pitch-black aura spreading from the openings of her robe covered the hydra’s entire body.
The hydra shuddered from the collisions, but that was all. If sealed off from demonic energy, even the Beast Vassals of the Fourth Primogenitor could not destroy the enormous creature.
That said, he couldn’t resort to the same means he’d used to strike down the wyverns before. The hydra was simply too close. If he let his Beast Vassals run amok in that situation, Kojou and his allies would not emerge unscathed, and this time, he’d most certainly kill Azama and his companion.
“No good, then…!”
The hydra unleashed its flames with a roar. Kojou’s Beast Vassals unleashed their respective attacks to counter the flying pitch-black cannonball. Even so, they could not stop it, leaving the cannonball to bear down on Kojou and the others from overhead—
“—Snowdrift Wolf!”
It was Yukina who struck it down right before Kojou’s and the others’ eyes.
The Knight of the Sinful God Page 20