A War of Primogenitors

by Gakuto Mikumo

  “Thank you, Celesta. That’s a big help.”

  “I do not remember doing this for the sake of your appreciation! Lady Giada asked nicely, so I must help; that’s all this is…! Besides, you and Yukina…helped me, so…thank you.”

  The last two words came so quickly that they could barely hear them before Celesta cut off the call from her end.

  Celesta’s current guardian was Giada Kukulkin, the Third Primogenitor—apparently, she’d seen this coming, so she had lent Celesta to the Gigafloat Management Corporation beforehand.

  Using The Cleansing, the Forbidden Ritual of the Sinful God, required the altar dubbed Itogami Island. And what made Itogami Island that altar was the presence of dragon lines flowing through the nearby seas.

  During the time they were cut, Vattler could not employ the power of The Cleansing.

  The brief span of time during which Celesta’s power could hold was their last chance to defeat Vattler, who’d obtained power that rivaled the primogenitors’.

  “Forty to fifty minutes left… That’s pretty tough.”

  Kojou murmured as he stared in the direction of the sea. It was hard to imagine that the wrecked Oceanus Grave II could move on its own power, but even so, it was a fair distance between there and Vattler’s ship. With the remaining time so limited, he wanted to expend as little time changing locations as possible.

  “Use this, Kojou.”

  Asagi, seeing right through the reason for Kojou’s gloom, spoke those words as she operated her smartphone. A six-legged mechanical life-form that looked like a beetle emerged, climbing over the top of a mountain of ruin rubble.

  “A Nalakuvera…!”

  “This one’s more of a taxi than a weapon, though.”

  Asagi puffed out her chest in pride. It should have been obvious, but the Legacy of Cain included not only weapons but ordinary means of transport as well.

  “Riding that, though…kinda freaks me out…”

  “No complaints,” Asagi said. “I’ll remotely control the remaining Nalakuvera and tanks to slow Mr. Vattler down. While I do that, take the others and go after him, Kojou.” She entered the broken-down robot tank’s cockpit.

  Kojou nodded as he put his hands on a leg of the parked transport Nalakuvera. Gripping her silver spear, Yukina followed Kojou like it was the most natural thing in the world.

  “Uhhh… Himeragi?”

  “What is it, senpai?”

  Yukina bounced the question back at Kojou, finding his surprise rather mysterious.

  “No, uh…” Kojou shook his head. “You don’t have to come with me, Himeragi. This time, the opponent’s way too dangerous…”

  “There is no time, so please get on board.”

  “Uh, but—!”

  Briskly dismissing Kojou’s consideration, Yukina climbed into the Nalakuvera before him. As Kojou watched in shock, Yukina glared back at him in a pout as she showed him her silver-colored spear.

  “I watch over you, senpai, so of course I will be with you to the end. Besides, please do not forget. Right now, the only thing that can defeat the Duke of Ardeal is Snowdrift Wolf.”

  “Well, that’s—”

  I suppose she’s right, silently conceded Kojou. Her spear, able to nullify demonic energy and rend any barrier, was a purging spear able to destroy even a primogenitor. The trump card against Vattler had rested in her hands since the beginning.

  “Certainly, the rest of us would only slow you down…”

  La Folia sank her shoulders in visible dismay as she looked up at Kojou. With a little hop, she leaped onto one of the Nalakuvera’s leg joints, stretched her back, and gently kissed Kojou on his cheek.

  “La Folia…”

  “Go, Kojou— I shall make preparations for our wedding and await your return.”

  “Uh, no, do not make preparations! You say some pretty scary stuff, y’know?!”

  Kojou took the princess’s teasing seriously. Her tone was jovial, but La Folia was scary enough that he couldn’t treat anything she said as a joke.

  “We’ll be Asagi and company’s bodyguards, then.”

  “Dah!”

  Yuiri and Glenda met each other’s faces and nodded.

  “Well, if Yuiri and Glenda say so…,” Shio said as her shoulders sank.

  “Kojou Akatsuki. Here.”

  Walking with great strides, Sayaka produced a little box with a ribbon around it, seemingly out of nowhere, and thrust it at Kojou. The scent of cocoa bean was wafting up from gaps in the wrapping.

  “Th-these are emergency rations, so eat them with Yukina, okay?!”

  Sayaka’s cheeks were extremely flushed as she spat the words out. Upon hearing them, Yukina cast her eyes downward, embarrassed for some reason. Good grief, said Asagi’s exasperated expression as she turned to Kojou.

  “Come back safe and sound, you hear? To our island.”

  Returning Asagi’s serious stare, Kojou smiled.

  His response was brief.

  “Leave it to me.”

  6

  With Kojou and Yukina on its back, the transport Nalakuvera sprinted.

  Despite its large size, riding atop its back was an unusually comfortable ride. It felt very much like riding a horse—only faster. To be blunt, riding on the back of a giant beetle sprinting through ruins at nearly a hundred kilometers per hour was frightening. The odd smoothness of the ride only made it more eerie.

  Kojou and Yukina were sitting shoulder to shoulder atop the Nalakuvera’s cargo bed.

  No words passed between them. It didn’t feel necessary. When Kojou wanted her, Yukina would always be there for him—such went his strange sense of trust.

  “I see him.”

  Yukina’s black hair flapped in the wind as she spoke.

  She was staring at a blond, young aristocrat standing in a plaza in front of a tall tower.

  Fallen all around him were the remains of robot tanks and Nalakuvera, no doubt ones Asagi had sent to slow Vattler down.

  Seeing Vattler standing unharmed from a horde of Nalakuvera, which Kojou had previously defeated with so much difficulty, was a slap in the face, as if to drive home one last time just how frightening the man was.

  But really, it hadn’t been necessary to slow him down. After all, Vattler had clearly been waiting in that place for Kojou’s arrival…

  “Vattler…!”

  Kojou leaped down from the cargo bed of the halted Nalakuvera. Yukina immediately landed at his side.

  The youthful aristocrat slowly raised his face up, looking at the pair with warm eyes.

  “So you have returned, Kojou. I’ve been waiting.”

  Kojou nodded, stepping one foot forward.

  He remembered the sight displayed before him. The remnants of a highly distinctive building. The markings written with unfamiliar characters. The efficient monorail surrounding the island. Kojou knew this landscape.

  He had seen the man who had once stood among these ruins, making his lament.

  “This is…”

  “Yes. This is where the Fourth Primogenitor killed Cain. Now that I have obtained the power of The Cleansing, is this not a suitable stage on which to fight you?” Vattler cheerfully curled up his lips.

  Kojou quietly stared, pitying him. “Vattler, stop this already… This isn’t what Cain wants. Not revenge against the Fourth Primogenitor—and not war.”

  “…I see. So you have obtained the memories of The Cleansing.” Vattler smiled and nodded.

  “Right. Cain did not desire war. It was the ancient superhumans—gods known as the Devas—who desired unending war,” Kojou gravely pressed. “To those immortals, creating various weapons and causing humankind to slay one another in the glorious act of war was their entertainment.”

  “…So Cain created The Cleansing to bring those wars to an end.” Vattler nodded without a word. Via his knowledge of The Cleansing, he, too, had inherited Cain’s memories.

  “In fear of this, the Devas placed a watcher over Cain to seal
The Cleansing, a god-killing weapon able to slay the immortal Cain—the Fourth Primogenitor.”

  Vattler’s gaze shifted toward Yukina. Perhaps he felt the irony of history repeating itself. The very Fourth Primogenitor that she watched was once Cain’s own observer.

  “But the Devas miscalculated. His observer, the Fourth Primogenitor, became Cain’s one and only friend. And in turn, Cain embraced the Fourth Primogenitor’s friendship.”

  “That’s what the gods called Devas were afraid of,” Kojou murmured.

  “Just so. Hence, they cast a curse upon the Fourth Primogenitor, the program known as Root—and controlled by the personality Root, the Fourth Primogenitor consumed Cain.”

  “Yeah,” said Kojou, biting his lip. Within the memories of Nod, a lonely man had stood amid the ruins. Had that been Cain, or had that been the Fourth Primogenitor who had consumed Cain—?

  “Despairing at having slain his friend Cain with his own hands, the Fourth Primogenitor rebelled against the Devas who had created him. Then, he was torn into twelve pieces and sealed away.” Vattler spread both arms wide, deliberately shaking his head in a show of pity. “Though in the end, the activation of The Cleansing destroyed the Devas all the same… Such a sad and pathetic tale.”

  “Not at all,” said Kojou in a strong voice, stopping the young aristocrat’s words short.

  “Hmm,” said Vattler, giving Kojou a look of apparent surprise.

  “Avrora’s alive. Hektos saved her and Nagisa.”

  The artificial vampires dubbed the Kaleid Bloods were the vessels of the Beast Vassals ripped from the Fourth Primogenitor. From among those dolls, born from despair and continuing to live while desiring only to die, emerged one final hope—the Twelfth, Avrora. She lived. She had wanted to live.

  That was all Kojou needed to firmly declare that their existence had not been in vain.

  “Glenda granted me Cain’s dying wish. He left this ark for the sake of his friend, the Fourth Primogenitor—the power…to stop war.”

  “But it will become the spark of a new war,” Vattler said, smiling sardonically.

  “I won’t let that happen.” Kojou bluntly rejected his words. “I’m sure you’ve already noticed. You can’t use The Cleansing anymore. Right now, you’re just a vampire.”

  “Celesta Ciate, is it? The work of Motoki Yaze and the scary grandmother from the Chaos Zone, I take it.”

  Vattler raised his voice in an amused chortle. An explosive level of demonic energy exploded from every pore, enough to make even Kojou wince.

  “But none of that matters to me now. At long last, I can fight you in earnest. It would be boring to use The Cleansing, would it not? ’Nanda! Batsunanda…!”

  “What?!”

  The two serpents summoned by Vattler spiraled and intertwined, transforming into a single, enormous dragon.

  It was a dragon with scales of swords and a mane of flames. The dragon spun its serpentine body as it descended, and Kojou and Yukina split up to evade its forelegs. The place the pair had stood but a moment before split apart with a great rumble. A crevice had been gouged down into the ground dozens of meters, so deep that the bottom was not visible.

  “What’s with that strength?!”

  “The Duke of Ardeal’s Fusion Beast Vassal…!”

  Shocked expressions came over Kojou and Yukina.

  This was a special Ability belonging to Vattler alone: that of fusing two Beast Vassals to create a new Beast Vassal. The Fusion Beast Vassal thus created might equal to a primogenitor’s Beast Vassal, or perhaps more—

  In the past, Vattler had employed that power to devour higher-ranking vampires several times over.

  “I’ve been bored all this time. I was sick of it. The foolish repetition of history. The unchanging landscape of the world. A work of art or a culture, however magnificent, shall fade and turn to dust in time.”

  Flames spewed out by the dragon Beast Vassal dyed the ruined city red. The serpentine body carved more deep fissures in the ground as it undulated. Within the burning ruin, Vattler’s loud laughter continued.

  “Suffering and blood, screams and death, conflict in defiance of truly crippling fear…only these can heal my boredom! Show me how brightly you shine as I destroy you, Kojou!”

  “—Regulus Aurum!”

  Kojou’s summoned lightning lion collided with the draconic Beast Vassal. The dragon’s head seemed to snap back as it rose up, scattering flames as it roared in anguish.

  “I feel sorry for you, Vattler—”

  “What…?”

  “What are you afraid of…? The loneliness of being left all alone in the world? The sadness of losing someone you love? Or what, all of your emotions, your joy, getting warped into despair?!”

  Demonic energy erupting from Kojou’s body became pitch-black wings that swept Vattler’s flames away. This was the same power that Root Avrora had used once upon a time—the power of the genuine Fourth Primogenitor.

  “You’re like some little kid. When things don’t go your way, you throw a tantrum and make trouble for other people ’cause you don’t know any better. You don’t build anything. You’re just chasing after momentary pleasure to forget about your boredom—if you think you can keep doing that forever, you’d better think again!”

  “Ha-ha…!”

  Vattler’s expression twisted into delight as the air at his back warped, with fresh Beast Vassals appearing one after another.

  “Marvelous, Kojou. Your words are so refreshing! In all my years, not one of my enemies has said such a thing to me. Not even the other Primogenitors—! Manashi! Uhatsura! Anabadatta!”

  “Shut up,” said Kojou with a low growl. “You’re not taking anything from anyone. I’m protecting the world you’re trying to destroy. From here on, this is my fight!”

  One after another, Kojou’s wings transformed into Beast Vassals of the Fourth Primogenitor. A scarlet bicorn, a bighorn sheep with a body of diamond, a minotaur, a silver-colored shelled beast—these collided with Vattler’s serpents head-on, scattering incredibly destructive impacts all around.

  Fire and kicked-up dust obstructed Kojou’s field of vision. In an instant, an enormous shadow covered the area above Kojou’s head.

  It was one of Vattler’s serpent Beast Vassals. It had employed protective coloration to hide from sight and sneak its way over. In a certain sense, the attack bore the cunning of a snake. However, Kojou’s expression showed no haste.

  There was a flash of a silver blade above Kojou’s head, thrusting deep into the serpent Beast Vassal.

  “—No, senpai. This is our fight!”

  The skirt of Yukina’s uniform danced with a flutter as she landed at Kojou’s side.

  “Future Sight of a Sword Shaman of the Lion King Agency? No, rather, you read my intent—”

  Vattler raised his eyebrows in a show of admiration. He genuinely seemed to find it praiseworthy that Yukina, a mere human, had managed to drive his Beast Vassal back.

  “This is so fun, Kojou. Such a beautiful battle. Show me more… Ananta…”

  “What the…?!”

  As he stared up at the final Beast Vassal summoned by Vattler, a vacant, flabbergasted look came over Kojou. It was not so much fear that struck him, but the urge to laugh out loud.

  Before him stood an enormous tree stretching to the heavens.

  The closest image he could liken it to was if the so-called World Tree had become a reality. However, the root of the tree, thrusting into the ground, was the wriggling tail of a snake. The trunk of the tree was the snake’s body. Its enormous branches ended in nine serpentine heads.

  The nine serpentine Beast Vassals had intertwined to create a “serpent tree” reaching hundreds of meters in height. Its vast trunk and snake branches completely surrounded the ground upon which Kojou and Yukina stood. It was a virtual barrier of serpents.

  “Such strong demonic energy…”

  The sheer power radiated by the serpent tree threatened to overwhelm Kojou.r />
  Dimitrie Vattler controlled nine Beast Vassals, but it was said that no one had actually seen the ninth in reality. Kojou finally understood why.

  There was no way anyone had fought this Beast Vassal and lived—

  Vattler also possessed the Ability to fuse his Beast Vassals. And they drew upon the inexhaustible magical energy of the Earth. With this, he had likely achieved an overwhelming Ability that probably surpassed the Beast Vassals of the primogenitors. Vattler’s words—that he didn’t need The Cleansing to fight Kojou—hadn’t been all talk.

  “Senpai!”

  “Stay back, Himeragi!”

  The miasma emitted by Vattler’s Beast Vassal spread throughout the barrier. The beautiful, golden miasma encroached upon Kojou’s body, inflicting terrible pain upon it. With her Divine Oscillation Effect barrier deployed, Yukina was enduring the miasma, but the vampiric Kojou could not enter her barrier.

  Vattler stood atop a serpent’s stooped head, leisurely looking down at Kojou. Kojou’s lips twisted in nervousness. The dragon lines Celesta had severed would likely recover within the next few minutes. Once that happened, Vattler would regain the power of The Cleansing, and then he would be impossible for Kojou to defeat.

  However, Kojou could not defeat him with Beast Vassals.

  “No, that’s not…”

  Gently closing his eyelids, Kojou laughed. In the back of his mind arose the eleven girls with identical faces, the eleven Kaleid Bloods. Through the Fourth Primogenitor’s Blood Memories, their vast combat experience was teaching him how to defeat Vattler.

  “I, Kojou Akatsuki, inheritor of the Kaleid Blood, release thee from thy bonds!”

  Opening his eyelids, Kojou’s eyes radiated the color of pale-blue flames. His hair turned into the hues of the rainbow, billowing like fire.

  “—C’mon over, Beast Vassal Number Eight, Shaula Viola!”

  Wringing out his remaining demonic energy, Kojou summoned a new Beast Vassal. This was a manticore with wings and a scorpion’s tail, enveloped by violet flames.

  Kojou’s body, invaded by the miasma, began recuperating at an incredible rate. The manticore that governed all poison produced antitoxins within his blood, making his body recover from the miasma’s encroachment on its own.