Furthermore, the manticore’s abilities were not limited to poison alone—
The manticore sank its fangs into the enormous, serpentine trunk. Through those fangs, a near-infinite quantity of demonic energy coursed into Kojou’s body.
Just like Vattler’s serpent drained magical energy from the Earth, Kojou’s manticore stole the Beast Vassal’s demonic energy from it.
The manticore intercepted the serpents attacking it with wings turned blades, violet flames, and its scorpion tail. The demonic energy coursing into them increased the might of Kojou’s other Beast Vassals as well. A stake of magma thrusting up from the ground tore the tree roots to shreds, and shock waves and blast winds mowed the branches down.
“To think you could resist Ananta to this extent!”
Vattler’s smile cruelly twisted. The enormous serpentine “tree” sent all its branches bearing down upon Kojou in a combined, multi-wave attack. He no doubt meant to squash Kojou flat—and the Beast Vassals of the Fourth Primogenitor along with him.
“My beloved Fourth Primogenitor, you are indeed the greatest of all! Now, die—!”
The swirling sea of enormous snakes encircled the space around Kojou and tried to constrict him. The Beast Vassals of the Fourth Primogenitor resisted this, but the overwhelming mass of the serpents pressed upon Kojou tighter and tighter.
Unable to use Fusion Beast Vassals, Kojou could not win against Vattler.
Not Kojou alone, at least—
“Senpai.”
The nervous Kojou heard a voice in his ear.
Yukina, clutching her silver-colored spear against her chest, was standing extremely close to Kojou. Knowing that death was closing in before them, her eyes were gentle and serene.
Untying the ribbon of her school uniform, she opened the collar of her sailor suit, revealing the distinct, delicate collarbone and pale flesh under it. Then, before the surprised Kojou, she exposed her slender neck.
“I am returning to you the Beast Vassal that Miss Hektos lent to me,” Yukina said as she pulled up the hair over her ear. The side of her face stole Kojou’s eyes.
“Himeragi…”
“You are mistaken.” Yukina sullenly glared at Kojou with half-lidded eyes.
“Huh?”
Her unexpected reaction threw Kojou for a loop. Making a small pout, she hung her head, speaking in a small, embarrassed-sounding voice.
“Just once is fine, but please, call me by my first name… Just like you do with Nagisa, with Aiba, and with Miss Avrora.”
For an instant, Kojou was taken aback; then he let out a tiny burst of laughter.
Here they were, with their own lives and the fate of the world hanging in the balance, and that was what bothered her. Somehow he thought it was just like her. Probably, save for them being in such a situation, she would absolutely never have spoken such selfish words.
For but a single second, they stared at each other in silence. Then Kojou reached his hand out to Yukina’s delicate shoulder.
“—Come, Yukina!”
“Yes!”
Which came first? Kojou moving to embrace her or Yukina leaping into his arms?
Enveloped by a sweet, flowery scent, Kojou sank his fangs into Yukina’s neck.
It was the very next moment that Vattler’s serpent Beast Vassals bore down upon the pair.
Without touching either of them, the onrushing serpents were sliced into pieces and vanished. Dazzling, rainbow-colored flames glowed and enveloped Kojou and Yukina.
The flames flickered, transforming into the form of a beautiful Valkyrie.
“C’mon over, Minelauva Iris—!”
Gripping her rainbow-colored sword of light, the Valkyrie soared into the sky.
The sixth Beast Vassal of the Fourth Primogenitor, Minelauva Iris, wielded the power of Severing. Slicing apart the serpents, their fully charged demonic energy and the miasma alike, it kept going, arriving in the sky above the serpentine tree.
“It’s useless, Kojou,” Vattler declared, proud of impending victory. The holes Kojou’s Beast Vassal had gouged in the barrier were instantly sealed, buried by the undulating serpents. Escape from the serpentine barrier was impossible.
However, Kojou gave a relieved smile.
“C’mon over, Kiffa Ater!”
“…?!”
That wiped the smirk off Vattler’s face.
Kojou’s newly summoned Beast Vassal was an elegant and stupidly huge great sword, its blade surpassing hundreds of meters in length.
More precisely, its form was that of an ancient weapon known as a Vajra sword. It was said to be a Demon-slaying blade used by the gods themselves.
Due to its enormity, precise control was nigh impossible. It was an Intelligent Weapon useless for anything save smashing by using the raw force of gravity.
But it was not a human being wielding that great sword.
The Valkyrie Beast Vassal gripped the enormous sword, taller than she was, easily swinging it as if it weighed no more than a feather.
The enormous black blade’s Ability was Gravity Control, and the rainbow-colored Valkyrie was the Beast Vassal of Severing.
With a mighty roar, a black flash of light mowed down the dragon tree.
The Valkyrie’s Ability of Severing sliced apart what tied Vattler’s Fusion Beast Vassal together.
Split apart, the nine serpents, unable to withstand the volume of demonic energy amassed inside them, exploded. Kojou’s own Beast Vassals formed a shield to protect him from the incredible storm of demonic energy raging about.
“Kojou Akatsuki—!”
Having lost his Beast Vassals, Vattler, wounded all over, leaped at Kojou.
His beautiful features completely transformed. His lips split, and a forked tongue poked out from them. His flesh became covered in hard scales, and his neck lengthened. His lower body had already transformed into a serpent’s—bestialization.
“A…transformation?! So that’s the ace up your sleeve—!” Kojou’s voice shook with unease.
He was aware that some among the vampires possessed the Ability of bestialization. It wasn’t rare for legends to speak of vampires changing into the form of a wolf or a bat, and Giada Kukulkin had once transformed to appear before Kojou’s eyes in the form of Avrora.
However, Vattler’s transformation took Kojou completely by surprise. The Beast Vassals of the Fourth Primogenitor were too powerful to be of much use in close combat. Vattler was exploiting that weakness.
Completely transformed into the form of a snake, Vattler coiled his torso around Kojou’s body. Fangs bared, his enormous head pressed toward Kojou, as if to swallow him whole from the head down.
“You and I shall become one, Kojou. As a new Fourth Primogenitor—”
Employing every last ounce of his vampiric strength, Kojou desperately tried to force back Vattler’s head. However, Vattler’s bestialized power overwhelmed Kojou. Vattler’s jaw widened to encompass Kojou’s upper body, the glossy, gleaming fangs bearing down before his eyes.
Kojou no longer had any means of escaping Vattler.
But this meant that Vattler could not move, either.
“Sorry, Vattler—we win.”
As Kojou smiled impetuously, the serene voice of a girl making a ritualistic chant reached his ears.
When Kojou needed her, Yukina would always be there for him. After all, she was his watcher—
“—I, Maiden of the Lion, Sword Shaman of the High God, beseech thee.”
“Ngh…”
Vattler’s serpentine body tried to flee from Kojou. But Kojou did not let him escape. A sinister smile came over his lips as he poured strength into the two hands holding Vattler’s maw.
In the corner of Kojou’s vision, Yukina danced beautifully.
She danced like a swordsman praying to the gods for victory or, perhaps, a priestess receiving a prophecy for that victory…
“O purifying light, O divine wolf of the snowdrift, by your steel divine will, strike down th
e devils before me!”
“It’s over, Vattler—!”
Kojou smashed a lightning-wreathed fist into Vattler’s lower jaw.
Vattler’s serpentine body reeled as Yukina’s silver spear ran through him.
Engulfed by the pale light that erased demonic energy, the serpentine body dissipated.
The only thing that remained was Vattler, wearing a bloody three-piece suit.
Lying on the ground, a silver spear impaling his heart, a smile of pure satisfaction was plastered across his face.
7
The ruined buildings drawn into Kojou and Vattler’s fight had turned into a mountain of rubble in a radius of several kilometers around. Even the distinctive tower building and the elevated, monorail-like bridge had vanished.
Cain would probably be angry to see the legacy he’d bothered to leave reduced to such a state—at least, so Kojou imagined. Or perhaps he’d be pleased that the war had come to an end.
“You wouldn’t rather finish me off, Kojou?” Vattler asked, the silver-colored spear still piercing his heart.
Yukina’s Snowdrift Wolf was continued to send its demonic energy-nullifying Divine Oscillation Effect into his body. That Vattler was tough enough to speak calmly in spite of that made Kojou coil his tongue.
“I don’t hate you that much.” Kojou gave an annoyed sigh.
With the sea separating them, he could see the still-undamaged Itogami Island floating on the opposite shore.
Vattler had managed to attack even the multinational armada on standby far at the water’s horizon. It wouldn’t have been strange for Itogami Island to have been wiped off the map at his whim. Even so, when Vattler had sent his Beast Vassals on a rampage, they had never attacked Itogami Island.
Slaughter was not what Vattler had desired. To the very end, he had acted only for the sake of the high-stakes combat he craved.
“The way you do things is ridiculously selfish, self-righteous, and a pain in the ass, but I do understand you were being serious.”
“What a pity. I was thinking that if it was you, being consumed would not be so bad…” Despite the serious tone of his words, Vattler cackled.
Kojou grimaced. A certain way of killing an unaging, undying vampire was to rob the opponent of his very existence—cannibalism. Even if someone begged him, no way in hell he was taking Vattler’s Blood Memories.
That said, he couldn’t just leave Vattler pinned to the ground forever. What should I do? thought Kojou with a headache when the air before him shifted.
Silver-colored mist increased in density, transforming into a pair of young men, wounded vampires of the Warlord’s Empire.
“Kira… Jagan…!”
Kojou went on guard, moving his body in front of Yukina, who couldn’t move while she kept Snowdrift Wolf embedded in Vattler.
However, even seeing this did not make Kira’s and Jagan’s expressions change. Both bent on one knee right there, deeply bowing their heads toward Kojou.
“We apologize profusely for our rudeness, Fourth Primogenitor. We have no desire to do battle against you any further.”
“For granting His Excellency’s desire, you have our appreciation.”
Their surprisingly reverential demeanor left Kojou frozen, unsure of how to react.
Kira and Jagan drew closer to the fallen Vattler.
Kojou gave Yukina a glance, whereupon Yukina withdrew. The Fourth Primogenitor trusted that Kira’s and Jagan’s words had no ill intent and were not false.
As if it was no big deal, Vattler slowly sat up, spreading out his right palm as he did. However, nothing happened. Seeing this for himself, he laughed in visible amusement.
“So my power of The Cleansing has been sealed. As one might expect of the Priestess of Cain… She is quite powerful, worthy of being the Fourth Primogenitor’s Blood Concubine.”
“Concubine…?”
Kojou blinked hard as he parroted the word back. He didn’t remember the Priestess of Cain—Asagi—becoming his Concubine. However, the fact remained that he couldn’t have defeated Vattler without her cooperation.
“Am I mistaken?”
“Ah…you’ve got it wrong…”
Kojou’s words awkwardly trailed off as he recalled the taste of Asagi’s blood, which he had consumed only a short time prior. As he did, Yukina watched Kojou with a complex expression.
After laughing to himself for a time, he drew something small and metallic out of his breast pocket. It was an old key that was about the size of a small knife. The metallic glow it gave off resembled the sorcerous devices of the Sinful God that Kojou had once seen at Kannawa Lake.
“Regardless, I have enough power left to achieve my final objective.”
Vattler stabbed the sorcerous device into the ground. In that instant, hollow darkness, swallowing all light, spread like a wave beneath their feet.
Realizing the true nature of that darkness, Yukina shouted, “The encroachment of Nod?!”
“Vattler… Why, you…!”
“I intended to lose to you, you see. From the beginning.” Vattler looked back at the surprised pair with a cheerful smile.
The encroachment of Nod created by Vattler was not the incomplete version employed by the Knight of the Sinful God. If anything, it resembled the teleportation gates wielded by Natsuki.
Vattler intended to transfer himself to Nod, to the otherworld where the gods had once exiled Cain—
“The other-dimensional Earth to which Cain was once exiled, from which he obtained the knowledge of The Cleansing… I shall enjoy seeing what enemies await. It seems I shall not be bored for some time…”
The handsome vampire was pulled into the dimensional travel gate, vanishing from sight. Kira and Jagan followed suit.
The pitch-black gate that had swallowed them gradually faded and vanished. In the end, the only thing left was the Key stabbed into the ground. Finally, it became weathered and decrepit, and it crumbled.
For a while, Kojou stared blankly at what was left of the destroyed Key. However, stare for however long he might, Vattler and the others did not reappear. They had traveled to an unknown otherworld in search of new battles, a nuisance to others to the bitter end.
If, someday, they returned to the world on Kojou’s side once more, they would likely be even more powerful foes, even further beyond the reach of others. But for the moment, the threat had passed. Strength drained from Kojou’s entire body as he internalized that fact.
“S-so tired…”
“I imagine so.”
Putting down her silver spear, Yukina lent the wobbly Kojou her support.
The pair ended up leaning on each other as they glanced up at the passing clouds. At some point, the sun had waned, granting the twilight sky a golden hue. The breeze blowing through the ruined city felt pleasant against Kojou’s tired body.
“—Kojou, can you hear me?” came Asagi’s voice from the wreckage of a robot tank.
The communications system was still receiving power. What appeared to be the cockpit had been crushed, so Kojou’s and Yukina’s voices could not reach her, but Asagi surely understood the pair’s situation, more or less. And so, they continued to listen.
“Notification from the Holy Ground Treaty Organization. It says ‘Recognition of Itogami Island as a large-scale sorcerous device has been revoked. We hereby recognize it as the territory of the Fourth Primogenitor—’”
“Good…”
Kojou and Yukina met each other’s faces, sighing in relief. The HGTO had kept its word. Somehow, they had avoided both the annihilation of Itogami Island and the world being drawn into an all-out war.
“So hurry up and get back here. I’ll be waiting—”
There was static as Asagi’s voice cut out.
Kojou looked behind him. An Aldegian armored airship was floating against the dusk sky. La Folia had called for a pickup.
“Let’s go, Himeragi.”
Kojou called out to Yukina. However, Yukina did not reply. S
till clutching her spear, she simply stared at Kojou’s face as if there was something she wished to say.
“Himeragi?”
“………”
“What’s wrong, Himeragi?”
Kojou drew his brows close, staring at Yukina, confused. It was obvious that Yukina was in a sour mood, but he had no earthly clue why.
“Er…Miss Himeragi?” Kojou nervously revised his address.
Yukina, unresponsive to that point, finally uttered a deep sigh of resignation. Glaring at Kojou with a resentful look in her eyes, she spoke with a visible pout. “Nothing at all, stupid senpai—!”
What the hell was that for?! Kojou lifted his face toward the heavens.
Then, the two stood shoulder to shoulder and walked out into the ruined city.
OUTRO
At a family restaurant in the afternoon, powerful sunrays poured mercilessly from the large window facing the sea.
“So hot… I’m gonna burn. I’ll burn and turn to ash…”
A boy wearing the hood of his parka deep over his head was slumped against the table, seemingly trying to escape from those sunrays as he let out a frail moan.
Sitting beside him was a small-statured girl with a black guitar case placed at her side. In the seats opposite them were a boy with large headphones dangling around his neck and a girl with an extravagant hairstyle sipping on something.
Study materials for high schoolers were haphazardly placed on top of the table, covering English, math, Japanese, science, sociology. All the books were thick. The geometric problem in the notes spread before the first boy was left abandoned and unsolved.
Kojou lifted his head. “…Hey, technically, I’m king of a Dominion, right?” he asked as if he were soliloquizing.
“Well, I suppose so. That’s what it amounts to, technically,” Asagi Aiba replied, toying with her smartphone.
Kojou languidly put his cheek against his palm, gazing resentfully at the pile of study materials.
“So why am I here doing the homework from before fall break in a place like this? And isn’t this way too much homework?! Plus, I’m cleaning all the campus toilets and weeding all the grass as community service! Is this any way to treat a vampire primogenitor?!”
A War of Primogenitors Page 29