But no matter how much Yukina pressed the glowing tip of her spear head against the statue, nothing changed.
“Why?!”
He remained in that state, an unmoving mass of lead. She detected no sign of revival.
Her hands lost all strength. The silver spear slid out of her grip and rolled to her feet.
As Yukina stood in disbelief, she heard a small, halting voice:
“…Once something has been transmuted to metal, there is no longer any active magical energy. Even if that spear can nullify magic, it cannot return him to his original form. What was once Kojou is now a thing shaped like Kojou, not a vampire.”
When Yukina slowly looked back, she saw Nina—but only her torso. The crimson gemstone in her chest was cracked; half of it was missing. So she, too, had been wounded by the Wiseman’s attack.
“…For a single moment, to save his friends, Kojou transformed the ship into mist, which allowed it to avoid a direct hit from the particle cannon. However, thanks to that, Kojou could not escape Amatsuka’s attack, which immediately followed.”
Having stated this, Nina’s body crumbled. Her liquid metal body had deteriorated beyond the point of being able to sustain a human shape.
“…My power was only sufficient to protect thee and Kanon. I am sor—”
With that, Nina’s words cut off. Her voice became inaudible.
Apparently, the Wiseman had finished collecting the fragments of its body that Kojou’s attack had blown away. She was sure he’d be fully operational in minutes.
Yukina reached down to her spear. But she lacked the strength to pick it up again.
Either way, Yukina had no way to defend against the Wiseman’s attacks. What could she do, left alone by herself like this?
And the ferry’s hull had already been split in two. Left behind on the bow and cast onto a lower deck, she had no chance of reaching a lifeboat. Even if the Wiseman allowed her to escape, Yukina had no way to actually do so and survive—
“Eh…?”
In the midst of such thoughts, Yukina realized something was odd.
Yes. The ferry had been split into two pieces. Why, then, hadn’t it sunk? Why did she feel like it hadn’t even begun sinking?
Yukina stood up and looked out the ripped hull in utter disbelief.
“Ice?! The ocean’s been frozen to support the ship…?!”
The seawater around the ferry had been frozen, forming ice that reached a diameter of several hundred meters in breadth. The ship was sitting on an iceberg.
It was freezing magic—but she’d never heard of any demon or sorcerer that could use it on such a scale.
No, there was exactly one exception—a Beast Vassal belonging to the Fourth Primogenitor, the World’s Mightiest Vampire.
As Yukina stood, astonished, she heard a familiar voice. A girl’s voice…
“…A pathetic showing against that alchemist-made piece of scrap metal, boy.”
Yukina looked back. The speaker was Nagisa. But the inhumanly detached tone clearly belonged to another.
Nagisa, who seemed to have appeared out of thin air, approached Kojou in his metal-transformed state. Her hair was undone, making her look far more adult than usual, giving off a loveliness that could make someone shiver.
“But I applaud you for protecting this girl to the bitter end.”
Nagisa’s slender fingertip touched Kojou’s immobile chin, and her lips curled up into a smile. “In honor of this, I shall grant you a small portion of my strength. Awaken, Sadalmelik—”
Then, Nagisa’s lips met Kojou’s.
Yukina forgot to blink as she stared. In shock, her breathing came to a halt. Apparently, even though Yukina was right beside her, the current Nagisa paid no heed at all.
After the kiss, which seemed indecently long to Yukina, Nagisa gently pulled back from Kojou. Then…
Kojou, frozen as metal until that very moment, instantly returned to flesh and blood.
“What?!” gasped Yukina.
Surely, deep down, she’d known from the start it would be so. Nagisa did not linger to watch Kojou revive; she turned her back to him and walked off. And Yukina had been unable to say a single word to stop her.
That was because a sudden, incredible surge of magical energy had begun, shaking the ship and making the very air tremble.
“S-senpai?!”
The power source was Kojou. Having regained his body of flesh and blood, he’d begun indiscriminately releasing an overwhelming, titanic surge of intense, destructive demonic power…
As she realized the cause of Kojou’s running amok, Yukina exclaimed:
“You don’t mean the Fourth Primogenitor’s blood has taken over…?!”
The “woman” possessing Nagisa had probably awakened a new Beast Vassal inside Kojou. But the Beast Vassal had flown into a rage at being so rudely awakened. It still hadn’t duly recognized Kojou as its host and master.
Overwhelmed by the explosive torrent of magical energy, Yukina cried out, “Senpai, you mustn’t! Wake up!!”
If Kojou didn’t get the Beast Vassal under control, Yukina couldn’t even picture the tragic results. If the current Kojou and the Wiseman duked it out that moment, it would surely mean more than the ferry’s destruction. In the worst case, even the Earth’s mantle, deep at the bottom of the sea, might be affected.
“Ugh…!” She didn’t have any time to hesitate. Yukina gripped Snowdrift Wolf and pointed the sharp, polished tip of the silver spear straight at Kojou’s heart.
The weapon ripped through even the incredible demonic power of the Fourth Primogenitor to reach Kojou’s very body.
“Senpai—!”
I’m sorry, Yukina prayed to herself, as she lashed out with her spear.
The torrent of titanic magical energy was instantly cut off. Taking advantage of the momentary opening, Yukina leaped to Kojou’s side. She wrapped her arms around him as he stood defenseless and pressed her lips to his. What then flowed into him was blood: Yukina’s own, after she’d bitten her own lip.
If Kojou’s power as a vampire had been thrown off-kilter, all it’d take was a little stimulation, arousing his vampiric urges, to throw it back in order. Yukina couldn’t think of any other way to awaken Kojou from having his mind overridden by his Beast Vassal. But if she could make Kojou’s lust win over his Beast Vassal’s anger…
“Wha…?!”
She’d anticipated it to some extent, but the change in Kojou was…dramatic.
Feeling herself roughly embraced, Yukina stopped breathing. With her defenseless, Kojou’s lips pressed against hers once more. It was a very, very long kiss, as if he was drinking the blood from Yukina’s lip down to the very last drop…
Yukina felt a soft shiver climb up her spine. After stiffening once, the strength drained from her body.
As if bewitched by Yukina’s scent, Kojou dove toward her neck.
“Ah…”
Yukina’s voice leaked out. As she arched backward, Kojou’s fangs pressed against her pale neck.
Yukina trembled in pain and fear. Even so, she moved her hands to Kojou’s back, the broadest smile she could muster coming over her as she whispered into his ear.
“Senpai… Please… Just, hurry…”
Taking her plea as an invitation, Kojou sank his fangs into Yukina’s flesh.
She fiercely shut her eyes. Until finally, a faint sigh escaped from her lips.
4
What Kojou saw upon regaining consciousness was a completely changed world.
The ferry’s hull had been ripped apart. The surface of the sea surrounding them was covered in ice. Remaining inside the ship was Nina’s Hard Core, smashed to pieces—
And for some reason, Yukina had collapsed against Kojou’s own chest as if she were having a dizzy spell.
“Himeragi…?!”
Kojou was in a fierce panic as he called her name into her ear. He didn’t know why he was in this situation, but he’d vaguely put two and two together an
d figured out what he’d done.
After all, even then, the sensation of Yukina’s bodily fluids remained deep in his throat. He felt strangely guilty about that for some reason.
He faintly recalled that his own demonic power had been knocked out of control, and, too, that he had gained mastery over a new Beast Vassal—
Yukina continued heavily leaning on Kojou as she gently opened her eyes.
“I’m…so glad you’re back to normal, senpai…” Looking up at Kojou’s rocked expression, she breathed a sigh of visible relief.
The sweet scent of her hair tickled Kojou’s nostrils, further throwing him off. Pressed against his chest, Yukina’s shoulders seemed unbelievably slender and delicate, like carelessly touching them with any strength at all would break them. But it was she who had halted Kojou’s rampage.
Kojou cleared his throat and sighed aloud. “…Sorry. Looks like you had to save me again.”
Yes, sighed Yukina, a teasing smile on her face. “You truly are an indecent vampire. However, this time it became our silver lining.”
“Uhh…”
All Kojou could do was make a tiny murmur. Thanks to having no proper memory of the event, he couldn’t refute what Yukina had said. But it was no time to worry about such things. The Wiseman was still alive. And even at that very moment, the passengers and crew of the ferry were in mortal danger.
“Oh, right…! Kanase?!”
Kojou posed the question to Yukina, still in his arms. The pair stayed like that until he heard a reserved voice speak up behind him.
“Excuse me… I’m over here.”
As Kojou turned around, he saw Kanon, who for some reason was sitting in proper Japanese style, timidly waving her hand. The deep redness spotting her cheeks clearly indicated she had been a witness.
“Kanon…?!” Yukina exclaimed.
“K-Kanase?! Y-you…saw?” Kojou asked, his voice as shrill as Yukina’s.
It seemed that Kanon had watched Kojou drink Yukina’s blood. Though the cat was now very much out of the bag, Kojou, who was technically trying to conceal that he was a vampire, couldn’t hide how shaken he was.
However, Kanon’s reaction…differed somewhat from Kojou’s and Yukina’s expectations.
“That was…incredible. Yukina, you looked so…mature…”
Kanon’s words seemed embarrassed, yet tinged with a bit of awe.
Yukina’s eyes widened, even as her face twitched.
“N-no, that wasn’t anything of the sort at all.”
“It’s all right. I won’t tell anyone.”
“I said, it’s…!”
Nina Adelard, watching Yukina and Kanon bicker, shouted, “Leave the minor details for later! There’s no time. The Wiseman will soon complete his regeneration.”
Apparently, she’d assembled the last fragments of the Spirit Blood to somehow reassemble a portion of her body. In other words, Nina’s Hard Core was still functioning.
The next moment, a golden light flew above Kojou’s and the others’ heads. It was the Wiseman’s heavy-metal particle beam. However, Kojou wiped the attack out with a single flick of his right hand.
Kojou’s entire body was emitting incredible demonic power as he glared up at the Wiseman in the sky above them. Apparently, Kojou had gained new strength from taming a new Beast Vassal.
“Kanase,” Kojou asked Kanon in an unrushed voice, “can I leave Nina in your hands?”
The silver-haired girl smiled charmingly and nodded as she embraced Nina. She pulled Nina, still in mid-regeneration, over her lap.
Nina looked up at Kojou’s back and raised a voice of concern. “Kojou… I…”
This was the Wiseman, a man-made “God” born from the darkest secrets of alchemy: Nina knew its terror only too well.
However, Kojou smiled impetuously, baring his fangs, as a malevolent aura spread about him.
“It’s all right,” he assured. “I’m gonna smash Golden Boy to pieces and end your two-hundred-and-seventy-year-old nightmare right here. From here on, this is my fight—!”
Alongside Kojou, the small silhouette seemingly nestled into his side walked forward. Poising her silver spear, Yukina stared above the ripped deck and declared:
“No, senpai. It’s ours.”
The target of Yukina’s glare was Kou Amatsuka, standing with his body in tatters. Having lost his entire purpose, all that remained in his eyes was pure hatred for Kojou and the others.
And floating in the sky above them, the golden giant continued is dry crackle of laughter, as if mocking the whole world.
That was the signal that announced the start of the battle.
5
The Wiseman’s body already stood dozens of meters tall. And though humanoid in nature, he had neither eyes nor ears. The glossy curves covering his entire body looked like something half-designed that had been left behind in a sculpting class. Yet even so, his silhouette, with a high ratio of gold in its makeup, felt strangely beautiful.
Spheres were embedded at various points in his body. They greatly resembled Nina’s Hard Core, moving like eyes as they gazed coldly at all below.
And when his great, skeletal-like mouth opened, there was a vortex of golden light within, swirling like flames.
“Ka…ka-ka…ka-ka-ka-ka… Fools! You defy me still, O Imperfect Ones?”
Charged particles scattered out from his laughing mouth—
But the lightning lion that Kojou summoned swatted down the particle beam.
“Shaddup, Sparky.”
In response, the Wiseman transformed one of his arms into a giant blade, slamming it down toward the hull of the half-wrecked ferry.
It was the incandescent bicorn that halted this attack. Emitting an explosive shock wave, it drove back the seemingly infinite tentacles coming from their massive nemesis.
“It’s not like I don’t have any sympathy. Here you were, made into a perfect being without a clue about anythin’, and then sealed away by having all your blood taken out from you. So your upbringing sucked. If it hadn’t, you’d have understood things a lot faster, but here you are, two hundred and seventy years later and just not getting it.”
The eyes all over the Wiseman’s body leered at Kojou.
“Ka…ka… You do not understand. The imperfect logic of imperfect beings cannot comprehend me.”
Kojou scoffed and laughed with mock pity. “Yeah, you can spit beams outta your mouth, and you have an indestructible body, but what’s that power ever done for ya? Did anyone accept you? Why didn’t you use all that ‘perfect’ power to help other people? You not being able to get somethin’ that basic is why those ‘imperfect’ beings sealed you up to begin with—!”
“Ka-ka… You fail to understand. I do not require acceptance, for I am the one and only perfect being!”
The Wiseman furiously shook his head like a baby throwing a tantrum.
“Oh, is that so? Then I’ll have to spank into you that you’re not the center of the world!” Eyes dyed crimson, Kojou glared at the golden giant. In addition, two new Beast Vassals emerged, their roars making the ice-covered ocean surface quake.
Upon the frozen surface of the sea, the Sword Shaman of the Lion King Agency and Kou Amatsuka faced off.
His liquid-metal tentacles turned into the sharpest of blades and rushed at Yukina, nearly at supersonic speed. However, the silver spear traced a beautiful course, completely striking down the attack.
With their magical energy severed by Snowdrift Wolf, Amatsuka’s sliced-apart tentacles reverted into simple metal fragments and clattered as they scattered all over the ice.
“You know you’re just being used, yet you still want to fight?” Yukina asked quietly.
As it forced its destroyed tentacles to regenerate, a hollow smile came over the metallic life-form calling itself Kou Amatsuka.
“Sorry. I don’t know what else there is for me anymore, so…”
Yukina stared at him just below his neck. “Kou Amatsuka… You’re alread
y…”
The black jewel embedded in his chest was heavily damaged and had lost much of its shape. Even the slightest movement caused fragments to break apart.
“I’m scared…I’ll stop being me… Just who am I? Why was I born? What should I do?!”
Amatsuka’s right arm burst apart along with his shout. The infinite fragments shot through the air and assailed Yukina like a grenade.
As she slipped through the attack, she shook her head. “I don’t know. The search for those answers is what defines us as people!”
“…!”
Amatsuka’s ceaseless attacks let up for a brief moment. Not letting that moment escape her, Yukina’s lips formed a solemn chant.
“I, Maiden of the Lion, Sword Shaman of the High God, beseech thee.”
The ritual energy welling up inside Yukina’s flesh and blood amplified within Snowdrift Wolf. The dazzling light given off by the tip of her spear proceeded to make Amatsuka’s body crumble to pieces.
“I see… I’m…”
As the pale light enveloped Amatsuka, the expression he gave off somehow seemed…soft.
There was no need for him to do the Wiseman’s bidding. There was no need for him to hurt a large number of people and sacrifice them to satisfy his desire for a human body… Because the moment he had truly wished to be human was the moment that he’d become human. If only he had realized—
“O purifying light, O divine wolf of the snowdrift, by your steel divine will, strike down the devils before me!”
Slipping past Amatsuka’s final attack, Yukina’s attack impaled his chest. This time, the damaged black gemstone completely shattered. In that instant, the being that had once been Amatsuka lost its shape, falling apart like a pile of sand. All that remained were fragments of the gemstone, its glow extinguished.
Yukina made a soft sigh before turning her face upward.
“Senpai…!”
Even then, the Fourth Primogenitor and Wiseman continued to do battle.
“—C’mon over, Regulus Aurum! Al-Nasl Minium!”
The lightning lion and the incandescent bicorn collided with the golden giant head-on. The impact split the sea and rendered the very air unstable. Had such combat taken place in an urban area, shocking levels of damage would have been inflicted on the surrounding neighborhood.
Strike the Blood, Vol. 6 (light novel): Return of the Alchemist Page 19