Her expression was composed to an irritating extent.
“So that is your sorcerous device, Captain Okiyama,” Yukina spat with a glare.
The armor that Azama wore was a sorcerous device from the Sinful God capable of controlling the encroachment of Nod itself. Yukina had thought that the woman’s robe functioned as a sorcerous device as well.
It was not so. The magic user–style robe was a simple fraud.
Thanks to her realizing that so late, Yukina’s first attack was spectacularly foiled…even though any delay in defeating Okiyama would put Yuiri in that much more danger.
“Yes, that’s right. Let’s see, you are…Yukina Himeragi, the other Sword Shaman?” Mikage Okiyama twirled the rod in her hand as she glared at Yukina. “Please rest at ease. This sorcerous device is a mere replica. Creating golems and covering things in a veil of nothingness is the upper limit of what it can do. However—”
A second later, Mikage Okiyama grew hazy within Yukina’s field of vision.
Okiyama bounded forward with incredible speed. She thrust her rod. Even with Yukina’s quick reaction, all she could manage was barely evading the arc of the attack. The bayonet attached to the tip of the rod slid just past Yukina’s shoulder.
“Bayonet weapon arts—?!!”
“Do you really believe you can defeat me in close combat? I am from the Special Attack Mage Regiment, you know?”
Mikage Okiyama’s ceaseless flurry of attacks gradually pushed Yukina back on her heels.
She was unimaginably strong. In terms of raw hand-to-hand skill, Mikage Okiyama far outstripped Yukina.
The magic user’s rod was inferior to the Sword Shaman’s spear in reach, but it was far easier to swing in confined spaces. Okiyama was challenging Yukina to a battle of blunt attacks at point-blank range to employ this advantage to the utmost. Yukina, inferior to her in size and musculature, couldn’t grasp a foothold with which to counterattack.
“That spear is claimed to be invincible against demons, but against a human being like me, it is nothing more but an anachronistic melee weapon! And your Sword Shaman’s Spirit Sight is useless against the encroachment of Nod covering me!”
“Ugh…!”
Mikage Okiyama rammed her body into Yukina’s, sending the latter flying. Although, to Yukina, this constituted an opportunity, for she’d finally obtained the room with which to get her spear back into a proper posture.
At the same time she landed, she put her ragged breathing in order and lifted her face. Then, Yukina saw Mikage Okiyama retreat with a backward leap of her own. Why? thought a confused Yukina, and during that momentary opening, Okiyama issued an order to her golem.
“AC-2, open fire!”
“Oh n—!”
A moment after Yukina touched down, the nine heads of the hydra spewed flames toward her all at once.
“Yukii, get down!”
With Yukina frozen in place, Yuiri jumped in front of her. She swung her long silver sword downward, deploying a pseudo-spatial severing bulwark, but the hydra’s initial attack easily smashed that absolute barrier to pieces.
Rosen Chevalier Plus could no longer be used until it had been recharged with ritual energy. Yuiri laughed dryly, seemingly at her own expense, as the hydra took aim for another volley.
We’ll never dodge it—
Yukina and Yuiri made small gasps as they simultaneously grasped that fact.
A moment later, the hydra was engulfed in flames.
The impact from the direct hit of a tank cannon greatly staggered the golem’s enormous body.
“Uu—?!”
It was not Yukina nor Yuiri who was shaken by the sight, but Mikage Okiyama.
A scarlet-painted micro-robot tank had emerged from the dense evergreen forest. Its main gun had sniped Mikage Okiyama’s golem.
With binoculars in one hand, a girl with an extravagant hairstyle poked her head out of a hatch and shouted:
“It felt that one, Tanker! Give it another!”
“’Twas most fortuitous that I upgraded the firepower!”
As soon as the auto-loader finished, the pilot of the robot tank fired the next round. Simultaneously, a large barrage of anti-tank missiles sailed into the air from the missile pods on the back of the tank.
The hydra’s enormous body crumbled in a great mass of scattered metal fragments.
Mikage Okiyama’s gunmetal rod was a sorcerous device for transforming modern weaponry into demon beasts. Its offensive power was inherited by the resulting demon beast, but at the same time, the resilience of the demon beast’s defense was no greater than that of the weapon from which it had come. A gunship design based on a cargo plane wasn’t tough enough to hold up against tank artillery.
The little, scarlet robot tank had delivered a one-sided stomping upon the huge golem. By the time the tank had exhausted all its shells, the hydra had become a pile of scrap on the verge of death.
“Aiba—!”
Yukina briefly stood dumbfounded before calling out to the girl atop the tank, which came to a stop right beside Yukina and Yuiri.
“Sorry I’m late, Himeragi. Where’s Kojou?”
“He’s—”
Yukina awkwardly stopped speaking as her eyes shifted toward the gunmetal knight.
Azama, caring nothing for the destroyed golem, gazed at the thin film of nothingness still spread over the ground.
“So he was swallowed by the encroachment of Nod? Heh-heh.” A foreign boy riding atop the tank, seemingly grasping all from the sight before him, laughed in amusement. He had an abnormally dense level of demonic energy.
“Iblisveil Aziz, I presume…? And the Priestess of Cain. At a time like this…”
Azama drew his lance as he glared at the boy.
Yuiri gawked and looked up at the boy when she heard the name Iblisveil Aziz. For her part, simple bewilderment floated into Yukina’s eyes. Naturally, Yukina, too, knew the infamy of Iblisveil Aziz, evil prince of the Fallen Dynasty. He was an ultra-dangerous individual in the league of Dimitrie Vattler. Yukina couldn’t even begin to understand how such a vile vampire prince had come to act in concert with Asagi Aiba.
“Captain Okiyama.”
“Yes, Major. I shall dispose of the tank—”
Azama and Mikage Okiyama readied their respective sorcerous devices for battle.
Yukina and Yuiri went on guard as well. Even if they’d lost the hydra, Azama still had the encroachment of Nod on his side. Even with the aid of Iblisveil Aziz, they could not afford to be careless.
However, in contrast to the lethal antagonism between Yukina and the rest, Iblisveil’s expression was gentle.
The vampire prince bared his teeth as he gazed at the emptiness left on the ground. “Do not be hasty, Underling of the Sinful God—I am not your opponent. Not yet, at least.”
“What…?!”
Azama’s face was hidden by the knightly plate, but Yukina somehow knew it had twisted from shock. Though he had doubtlessly relinquished control over the encroachment of Nod, far from dissipating, it was slowly coalescing.
It was as if someone was prying open an invisible doorway—
The demonic energy erupting from within the darkness was absolutely not Glenda’s. It was the far more ferocious, far more malevolent demonic energy of the World’s Mightiest Vampire.
“That’s crazy! Does this mean a demon…a mere demon broke through Nod’s barrier on his own power?!”
An echo of bewilderment was mixed into the tenor of Azama’s voice. To he, wishing to subdue Cain the Sinful God, Nod had to be a world that rejected the existence of all supernatural power. A demon returning from that place simply could not be possible. Even the Fourth Primogenitor could be no exception.
“Why are you so surprised? There is one who successfully returned from Nod. Only one, in the very distant past…,” Iblisveil said solemnly, pouring scorn on the rattled Azama.
Azama’s entire body froze, seemingly beside himself.
“You
cannot mean he consumed the memories of Cain?! Such a thing would be absurd—”
Before the echoes of Azama’s broken voice, the darkness parted.
Along with an incredible torrent of demonic energy, a pair emerged: A boy and a girl tightly embraced. The boy somehow had a languid expression; the girl was petite and wore a rather baggy parka.
“Senpai! Miss Glenda!”
“K-Kojou?!”
“Glenda! Kojou—!”
Yukina, Asagi, and Yuiri let out surprised voices from their respective lips. Then…
“Fourth Primogenitor!!”
…clad in gunmetal armor, the Knight of the Sinful God bellowed.
7
“Yuiriiiiii!”
G-Glenda?!”
With incredible force, the steel-haired girl leaped, and Yuiri hastily caught her.
Glenda’s slender thighs were poking all the way out from the baggy parka’s bottom. Asagi’s face twitched as the sight stole her eyes.
“Wh-who’s that?! And why is she with Kojou…?!”
“Ohh, those art lovely legs indeed. A feast for the eyes.”
Where Asagi was nervous, Lydianne casually let out words of admiration.
Seeing the long stares coming from the girls, Kojou made a weary sigh. He was glad that Yuiri and the others were safe, but things seem to have become problematic, too.
As Kojou stood his ground like it was nothing special, the gunmetal knight malevolently howled, “Why, Fourth Primogenitor… Why did the vessel choose you…?!”
“I’m not really sure what you’re blabbing on about, Major Azama.”
Kojou specifically chose his words to get under Azama’s skin. Kojou finally felt real anger toward Azama, the man who’d put Glenda and the others in peril by brandishing his own, self-serving idea of justice.
“Glenda’s the one who saved me. You tried to use her as a tool, but she loaned me her strength of her own free will. Maybe a guy like you who kills his own men like it’s nothing would never understand.”
“How dare a traitor turned demonic down to his very soul speak this way to…” Azama glared with utmost scorn.
“Shut up, old man.”
Without fanfare, Kojou cut Azama’s insults short.
Kojou watched the angry, despairing Knight of the Sinful God with an icy look of pity.
“Maybe you have a point. Maybe this world is warped, just like you said. But if changing the world to its proper form is right, and your ideals are just, what’d you become a terrorist for? Don’t hide behind a mask! Go find a peaceful way to make the world the way you want, like the vampire primogenitors did with the Holy Ground Treaty!”
“Why you little…”
Even through the knightly helm, it was distinctly clear that Azama had rage painted on his face.
Observing this, Iblisveil made a gloating little laugh.
The words Kojou had spoken so nonchalantly had ripped the largest hole in the soft tissue inside of Azama. He’d kept averting his eyes from the truth, pretending that he had not realized it himself.
“You can’t do that, and that makes you lower than any demon. It’s got nothin’ to do with race or abilities. You lost to demons on justice. It’s not the world that’s twisted… It’s you for not being able to look the truth in the eye!!”
As Azama fell silent, Kojou took a step toward him.
The so-called Holy Ground Treaty was formed with the aim of coexistence between humans and Demonkind—and it was the vampire primogenitors’ powerful backing that had made it come to fruition. During the time the Cleansers had asserted the world could only be righted by the extinction of all demons, it was that very alliance of demonic lieges that had shown the world an achievable path to peace.
From that time onward, the Cleansers had lost all right to speak of justice.
That was why they were deemed terrorists and criminals.
“C’mon, old man. If you’re still gunning for Glenda in the name of justice, then I’ll be the one who stops you! From here on, this is my fight!”
“Kojou…Akatsukiiiiii—!!” Azama howled.
Once more, the encroachment of Nod was unleashed from the knightly plate. Once more, it stretched under the ground.
But the instant it turned into blades that attempted to run Kojou through, a silver flash stopped the thin film of nothingness in its tracks.
Surrounded by a pale radiance, Yukina’s spear thrust into the ground at Kojou’s feet.
“No, senpai. This is our fight!”
Yukina stopped the encroachment of Nod as she landed at Kojou’s side.
The subterranean onslaught of the Knight of the Sinful God’s attack was a grave threat, but advance warning made anticipating it no great feat. From the time Azama had first played that hand, he’d lost its original element of surprise.
“Sorry to keep you waiting, Himeragi.”
On his own initiative, Kojou apologized for Yukina’s sake, thinking she’d probably been really worried. However, the gaze Yukina tossed his way was far frostier than Kojou expected.
“—You drank Miss Glenda’s blood, didn’t you, senpai?”
Kojou’s voice went shrill at Yukina’s flat tone.
There shouldn’t have been any telltale trace remaining, but Yukina had apparently realized it long before.
“Y-you’re wrong. Er, I mean, you’re not wrong, but, well, properly speaking, that was both Glenda and…not Glenda, so…”
Yukina listened, unmoved by the meandering, clear-as-mud explanation Kojou offered up. Then, lining up beside Kojou, she spun her silver spear around.
“Really? Then we will have a nice, long discussion about it afterward.”
As he listened to Yukina’s quiet statement, Kojou felt a small sense of despair. She won’t let this go, will she…?
During that time, Mikage Okiyama rushed to Azama’s side, rod in hand. “Major Azama—”
“I entrust the rest to you, Captain Okiyama.”
Halting Okiyama with words like a man about to retreat, Azama pointed his lance toward his own heart. Its tip thrust toward his sternum.
The lance easily penetrated Azama’s chest. There was neither blood nor a cry of pain. But the gunmetal knightly plate turned into pale particles of light as it swallowed the lance.
“Not good…!”
Kojou went pale when he realized what Azama was after. The Knight of the Sinful God possessed two sorcerous devices. One was the knightly plate that controlled the encroachment of Nod. The other was that lance—the sorcerous device that stole characteristics from a weapon, fusing its information to itself.
“He wants to have one sorcerous device of his consume the other…!”
“Huh?!”
Yukina’s eyes went wide in shock. Having consumed the knightly plate, Azama’s lance changed form, proving Kojou’s prediction. Now that the two sorcerous devices had completely fused, they changed into a new, humanoid sorcerous device—in spite of the knightly plate Azama had worn swallowing up his body up in the process.
“Oh no… If he fuses with the sorcerous device, his mind will be lost in the process…”
Yukina clenched her silver spear as she spoke. Kojou kicked off the ground and leaped forward the moment he heard the words.
“Let’s stop him, Himeragi!”
“Yes!”
As if saying it needed more information, the armored monster once called Azama stretched a hand toward the wreckage of the destroyed hydra. The lance sorcerous device could extract properties even from destroyed weapons. Indeed, that was how Azama had stolen First Lieutenant Ueyanagi’s information.
However, without its wielder, the hydra’s information was simply too great for a single sorcerous device to control. Kojou didn’t think a single, coherent personality would be left behind once Azama’s thoughts had been diluted amid a vast influx of information.
The one possibility of saving Azama was to destroy the lance, the key to the transformation, before he had completely fused
with it. But—
“I won’t let you!”
—as Yukina readied her silver spear, Mikage Okiyama thrust her bayonet right at Yukina’s eyes.
She was Azama’s subordinate. She intended to honor his final command to the bitter end.
“Urk…!”
Yukina barely managed to evade Mikage Okiyama’s attack from dreadfully close range.
By then, Azama completely merged with the wreckage of the supposedly destroyed hydra, giving it new life as a new demon beast. It was a bizarre monster resembling a mix between a ferocious crocodile and an oversize serpent. The knightly plate seemed like a carapace; it looked much like the legendary demon beast known as genbu, the black tortoise.
The opponent was now a monster over thirty meters in length. It was beyond Yukina’s power to fight.
“Oh no, you don’t, Sword Shaman—your Spirit Sight cannot fend off my attacks. In pure combat experience, you are nothing compared to me. You have no chance of victory.”
Mikage Okiyama, boasting superior endurance, had practically called for Yukina’s surrender.
Certainly, it is as you say, Yukina mentally conceded. There was probably no way Yukina could beat her one-on-one. But Yukina was no longer fighting alone.
“Haaaaaaa—!”
Mikage Okiyama thrust the rod forward with an earsplitting cry. With Yukina’s movements dulled from fatigue, the tip of her bayonet stabbed deep into the girl’s throat.
The instant she thought her attack struck true, Yukina’s figure flickered like a mirage.
An afterimage. No—an illusion spell.
“Absurd… A Sword Shaman of the Lion King Agency—using an illusion…?!”
Yukina’s unexpected tactic brought Mikage Okiyama’s series of attacks to a halt.
There was good reason for Mikage Okiyama to be rattled. Sword Shamans were heavily focused on anti-demon melee combat; they were not specialists in any area of magic. That was simply common sense. As a matter of fact, Yukina’s illusion spells were strictly novice level.
But for making an opponent misjudge the range ever so slightly in the midst of melee combat, it was plenty.
Yukina had that lesson painfully beaten into her by the fight with Natsuki Minamiya a few days prior.
The Knight of the Sinful God Page 22