A War of Primogenitors

by Gakuto Mikumo

  The Svalinn System, a secret ritual of the kingdom of Aldegia, was said to be the pinnacle of defensive magic. The bulwark created by divine essence supplied by a spiritual reactor was special, able to repel vampiric Beast Vassals and physical attacks simultaneously. All by herself, La Folia was deploying a barrier equal to that of a spiritual reactor equipped by a large-scale warship.

  “…I, Dancer of the Lion, Archer of the High God, beseech thee!”

  A chant escaped Sayaka’s lips. The silver long sword split forward and back, transforming into a recurve bow.

  At that point, she knew what the princess had meant by the bow rather than the sword. Now that the princess had deployed a defensive barrier, the duty she desired from Sayaka was not that of a shield, but that of a ritual spell gun turret to smite their foes.

  “Vika, retreat!” the girl in the blue augmented bunny suit called out to her blond beauty teammate.

  “Urk…!”

  Biting her lip in chagrin, the girl in the red bunny suit cast her machine guns aside, but before she could escape, Sayaka finished preparing for bombardment.

  “Most Brilliant Flaming Horse, Illustrious Kirin, He Who Governs Heavenly Thunder, pierce these evil spirits with thy wrath…!”

  The silver recurve bow fired a metallic ritual arrow. The whistling arrow infused with ritual energy executed a spell chant at super-high speed impossible for a human. A giant magic circle was drawn against the sky above. Pouring down from this was a storm of thunderbolts beyond counting, accompanied by high-density, debilitating miasma.

  Victory and defeat were decided in an instant.

  The cry of the girls in bunny suits echoed all across the ruined city. Lustrous Scale was an area-suppression weapon—an armament for neutralizing an entire battalion of demons. Even with the mobility provided by exoskeletons, they could not escape the ritual spell barrage. With high-density miasma and thunderbolts pouring right down upon them, all the Oceanus Girls tumbled helplessly to the ground.

  They probably wouldn’t be getting up for the next twelve hours, at least. Even if it was technically on the battlefield, Sayaka couldn’t shake the feeling that such conduct toward foreign princesses was somehow excessive. As if seeing right through Sayaka’s regrets, La Folia exhaled in a show of exasperation.

  “My, my. You really let them have it, Sayaka.”

  “And just whose fault is that?!” Sayaka retorted in a ragged tone of voice.

  During that momentary opening, something leaped out from the shadow of rubble from a ruin. It was a crimson Micro Robot Tank about the size of the average car. Crouching down upon its shell-like armor was a little girl wearing a beret. Wings woven from demonic energy spread from her back, and a black tail jutted out from the hem of her short skirt. Sayaka knew her well.

  “Yume Eguchi…! You’re fine with us not chasing her…?” Sayaka looked back and posed the question to La Folia.

  If Yume was the succubus controlling Leviathan, it was pretty much certain to Sayaka that it was the pilot of that red robot tank—Lydianne Didier—directing the Nalakuvera. If they could capture both, the Legacy of Cain’s defense net would crumble.

  However, with Sayaka ready to rush out after them, La Folia strongly held her put.

  “This is not over, Sayaka.”

  “Eh…?!”

  Sayaka’s movements came to a halt, dragged back by La Folia’s surprising strength. After a second’s delay, demonic energy emerged above their heads so vast that they could feel a physical shock wave from it. In the blink of an eye, the demonic energy coalesced into a single bird of prey.

  It was an enormous raptor made of incandescent fire—a vampire’s Beast Vassal.

  “Irrlicht!”

  Baring claws of fire, the bird of prey dove down. Its target was the Svalinn System’s bulwark that La Folia had deployed.

  The collision between enormous demonic energy and spiritual energy made the very air creak.

  The glowing-blue bulwark shattered, unable to withstand the pressure against it. La Folia’s barrier, boasting defenses equal to that of a capital ship, had been smashed apart by a vampiric Beast Vassal capable of destroying even battleships.

  “So even the Svalinn System could not withstand it…”

  Showing no sign of being unnerved, La Folia gently let a strained smile slip.

  A silver-haired vampire stood before the princess—Tobias Jagan of the Warlord’s Empire. The girls in the bunny suits were merely the opening act. He was no doubt Yume Eguchi’s real protector.

  “As expected of you, Count Jagan. However, do you not think it rather rude to intervene in a dispute between graceful young women?”

  “Don’t take this personally, La Folia Rihavein. It may seem underhanded to you, but victory is obtained through smashing with superior firepower. Such is war.”

  Even in the face of the princess’s reproachful words, Jagan’s expression did not budge.

  Sayaka put strength into the hands with which she gripped her recurve bow. Tobias Jagan was Vattler’s close confidant, a vampire known to be particularly militant even by the Warlord’s Empire standards. Defeating him single-handedly would probably take a vampire equal or superior to Vattler or Aradahl. Even with Sayaka and La Folia together, the odds of them being able to withstand his strength were very low.

  La Folia surely understood this. Even so, she did not lose her composure, neither in her actions nor her voice. Sayaka was slightly late in realizing why.

  There was someone gazing down at Jagan facing off against the two girls from far above.

  “I agree, Tobias Jagan—”

  “What…?!”

  The voice arrogantly echoing from the sky made Jagan gasp and look up.

  Illuminated by the midday sun, a single armored airship floated in the azure sky. It was smaller than the Böðvildr, but the hull had a more offensive-oriented silhouette.

  The outer wall was colored a beautiful cobalt blue. The emblem drawn upon it was that of a golden eye—the emblem of Fallgazer, he who ruled the Fallen Empire, Dominion of the Middle East.

  “Then you cannot complain about my lending these two a hand—”

  With a golden mist of demonic energy hovering around him, a golden-eyed boy vampire descended.

  No one was surprised to see him. He was member of the HGTO, one of those who had vouched for Kojou Akatsuki’s identity and status—and a combat maniac no less than Vattler. To him, sitting back and watching while a war unfolded right before his eyes was simply unthinkable.

  “I am most honored to face you in battle. You have my thanks, Iblisveil Aziz!”

  Glaring at the prince descending onto the battlefield, Tobias Jagan bared his fangs.

  Sensing the vampires’ demonic energy colliding behind them, Sayaka and La Folia ran out in pursuit of Yume and Lydianne.

  8

  Kojou and Yukina continued running through the streets of the silver-colored ruins. To the vampirized Kojou, running ten kilometers’ distance was no great feat. The same went for Yukina, her physical capabilities enhanced via ritual spell. However, that was provided one knew the correct route.

  “Shit… We’re completely lost. It’s hard to know your way through this damn city!”

  Kojou spat venom as he cast aside the military-spec tablet Aradahl had handed them. It certainly was displaying the location of the Oceanus Grave II, but it was a map meant for an aircraft. It was virtually useless for examining the layout of city streets, rendering it mere dead weight.

  “I am sorry. Due to the earlier ritual spell bombardment’s aftereffects, I am unable to employ shikigami for searching…”

  Yukina’s breaths were lightly labored as she cast her eyes downward with a constrained expression. It had only been ten minutes prior when a ritual spell barrage had scattered thunderbolts onto the opposite side of a canal. Engulfed in the miasma that had descended with it, the reconnaissance shikigami Yukina had dispatched had been completely wiped out.

  “That really w
as an arrow from Sayaka’s bow, wasn’t it?”

  “Yes. I believe that Sayaka using Lustrous Scale means that she was fairly hard-pressed. And Yume’s mental wave has been interrupted as well—”

  “On this island, I can’t get a smartphone signal to get in touch with Kirasaka, either…”

  Kojou clicked his tongue as he glanced down at his phone displaying an out-of-range signal.

  “Anyway, we’d better look for where the Oceanus Grave II is. Must be good high ground for that somewhere—”

  Coming to a standstill, Kojou surveyed the area for a building that seemed reasonable to climb.

  It was a moment later that an oddly shaped vehicle rushed out together with a violent screech. It was by no means extravagantly huge, but it was a mass of steel and reinforced plastic plenty big enough to instill fear into any human being on foot who saw it.

  “Nuoah, Sir Boyfriend!”

  “Mister Kojou?!”

  The robot tank kicked up a grating, steel noise as it urgently came to a halt.

  Judging from the look on Yume’s face, the girls were right in the middle of fleeing. However, from Kojou’s point of view, encountering the girls was a godsend. Capturing the pair would neutralize Leviathan and the Nalakuvera then and there.

  “Himeragi, don’t let them get away—!”

  “Right!”

  Before Kojou even finished his words, Yukina ran out in the direction of the robot tank.

  Having Kojou, the Fourth Primogenitor, seen capturing a pair of primary schoolers posed various issues, but there were no such concerns if he left it to Yukina. However, as Yukina headed toward them, Yume apologetically brought both hands together.

  “I’m sorry, Miss Yukina…!”

  “Eh?!”

  Yukina’s face stiffened as the robot tank swiveled gun barrels in her direction. These were 7.62 mm anti-personnel machine guns embedded in both front legs.

  “?!”

  “Whoaaa!”

  Yukina instantly took cover behind a building as the machine guns roared and spat out plastic bullets meant for riot suppression. The plastic bullets violently collided with the walls of ruined buildings, turning into ricochets that assaulted Kojou from unexpected directions.

  “You trying to kill me?!”

  Kojou shouted in anger toward Yume and Lydianne as he evaded the bullets pouring down. Plastic or no, firing them with the same means as regular machine-gun rounds made them strong enough to break bones in a human body. In terms of efficient infliction of pain, the weapons were scarier to a vampire than regular guns.

  “I am most sorry! However, we cannot alloweth ourselves to be captured as of yet—!” Lydianne shouted over the speakers as she spun the tank around.

  They meant to make a run for it, and neither Kojou nor Yukina had any effective means of stopping them. Since it didn’t employ demonic energy, Yukina’s spear was powerless against it, and Kojou’s Beast Vassals were far too powerful to use against a pair of young schoolgirls.

  So do we just twiddle our thumbs and watch those two go…? Kojou was about to give up when rainbow-colored wings spread before the robot tank’s route of advance.

  Appearing from a ripple-like shift in the air was a small girl wearing an extravagant, thoroughly out-of-place dress and a homunculus girl wearing a maid outfit.

  “Astarte. Get them—”

  “Accepted. Execute, Rhododactylos.”

  Accepting Natsuki Minamiya’s command, Astarte summoned her Beast Vassal.

  The rainbow-colored wings protruding from her back gradually changed into enormous arms. Furthermore, it enveloped the entire body of Astarte, its host and master, changing into a completely humanoid form. This was the true face of Astarte: an experimental, artificial, symbiotic life-form—the world’s one and only homunculus within whom a Beast Vassal dwelled.

  “What the…?!”

  Physical attacks were ineffective against Astarte’s Beast Vassal, Rhododactylos. All the plastic bullets fired from the robot tank did was bounce futilely off the humanoid Beast Vassal’s surface.

  In contrast, both of the Beast Vassal’s arms pinned down the robot tank, bringing its movements to a halt. Astarte’s Beast Vassal ripped off the robot tank’s legs with ease equal to that of plucking legs from a boiled crab.

  Also, as Yume rode the tank’s back, silver-colored chains shot out of thin air to entwine around her entire body. Yume desperately flailed her limbs, about to somehow escape from the spell, but this only resulted in the chains entwining her tighter. The skirt of her one-piece uniform rose higher, exposing her white thighs and her tail.

  “A final request…! The storage…at least spareth the storage! The backup hath not been finished yet!”

  “Let me…let me go! Mister Kojou is going to see…!”

  Natsuki grandly ignored the two elementary schoolers’ tearful pleas. During that time, Astarte silently continued dismantling the robot tank.

  Oh, geez. Kojou scratched his head as he rose to his feet. “…So Natsuki came, too, huh?”

  Natsuki snorted briefly.

  “It is not as if I came to rescue you. I am merely apprehending these young girls at the behest of the succubus’s guardian. Incidentally, their primary school homeroom teacher is an acquaintance of mine, so I should be able to have her prepare special chastisement.”

  Yume’s and Lydianne’s faces changed color when the girls heard Natsuki’s remarks. The talk of having their homeroom teacher scold them seemed to have quite the effect.

  “P-please waiteth, Lady Sensei! Mercy! The mercy of a warrior—”

  “Nooooooo!”

  Natsuki opened a teleportation gate, and Astarte tossed the pair of elementary schoolers in.

  Consequently, this ensured Yume and Lydianne’s safety, at least for the time being. They’d launched a war against the Holy Ground Treaty Organization; if it stopped at a little chastisement, they were getting away lightly.

  And just like that, the menace of Leviathan and the Nalakuvera had vanished in a puff of smoke. The only enemies remaining within the Legacy of Cain were Vattler and the vampires under him.

  “…Natsuki, could you take me as far as Vattler’s ship?”

  In a sober tone, Kojou made a plea to Natsuki, her official duty already at an end.

  The small-statured witch looked back at Kojou and sank into thought. Natsuki’s formal status was that of a Federal Attack Mage under the Government of Japan. No doubt troublesome diplomatic constraints prevented her from opposing Vattler head-on. Her position was different than Yukina’s, who could use the excuse that she was merely observing Kojou.

  However, in the end, Natsuki sighed, resigning to compromise.

  “Well, that should be fine. This stupid ruckus he’s kicked up has been getting somewhat tiresome.”

  “Thanks.”

  An unwitting look of relief came over Kojou. That instant, Yukina’s expression hardened as she poised her silver spear.

  “Ms. Minamiya, I am sorry. Please go on ahead of us.”

  “…Himeragi?”

  When Kojou prompted, wondering what was up, he saw a crimson beam fly out from a corner of his vision. Flying without a sound was a bullet that struck Astarte’s Beast Vassal down from behind.

  However, as Kojou and the others turned to see, something was happening to the rainbow-colored Beast Vassal before their very eyes. The right arm of Rhododactylos, capable of reflecting demonic energy and nullifying physical attacks, split apart like a mosaic and vanished.

  “Astarte?!”

  “Warning. I cannot defend against this bullet—it is dangerous.”

  The homunculus girl stated it with a neutral expression. Kojou and Yukina gaped at her words. Further vermillion bullets poured down, seemingly clawing into Astarte’s Beast Vassal as they dismantled it.

  The power to rewrite the world itself, to erase the very existence of supernatural power—Kojou knew this attack.

  “These bullets… The Cleansing?!”
r />   Kojou looked up at the sight of a new robot tank on top of a building. A vibrant, turquoise-blue emblem had been painted onto the inorganic gray frame.

  From the open cockpit hatch, the upper body of a high school girl with an extravagant hairstyle popped out.

  “Asagi…!!”

  Kojou called out the girl’s name.

  Yes. The remaining enemies were not vampires alone. There was one other—the worst, and most powerful, foe of all.

  Surely she could truly master The Cleansing, the forbidden magic Cain had created to rewrite the very world. After all, she was the world’s one and only Priestess of Cain.

  “I shall restrain Aiba. Senpai, during that time, get to the Duke of Ardeal! Quickly!”

  The silver spear gave off a dazzling glow as Yukina glared at Asagi.

  Kojou’s back teeth clenched as he closed his eyes, as if in prayer.

  “Counting on you, Himeragi.”

  9

  Slipping through space that swayed like distilled dizziness, Kojou landed on the deck of the Oceanus Grave II. The expected interception attack from Vattler did not arrive. The surface of the ship was filled with nothing but a bizarre silence.

  “The anti-intruder barrier has been lifted… Do you intend this as an invitation, Master of Serpents?” Natsuki murmured as she surveyed the area. Kojou felt a faint stirring in his chest. The fact that they’d been permitted to teleport so easily to the supposed headquarters of the Anti-HGTO Military made it feel less like a trap than a genuinely defenseless ship.

  He could sense no sign of the Holy Ground Treaty Organization non-signatory nations’ representatives that should have been aboard the ship or their bodyguards. In their place was a strange scent hovering inside the ship that smelled like iron.

  “This scent… Don’t tell me…!”

  Kojou’s entire body shook violently. He covered his mouth, making a low groan as he resisted the urge to vomit.

  “…Akatsuki?”

  Kojou’s extraordinary reaction made Natsuki suspiciously narrow her eyebrows. However, neither she nor Astarte had yet noticed the strange scent coursing from within the ship, for they were not vampires—