Bride of the Dark God

by Gakuto Mikumo

  In the end, she was taken in by a large, tight-knit, influential group of spell casters. The faction worshipped a foreign goddess who took the form of a sacred beast—a wolf.

  To the group, seeking a sacrifice to offer to the sacred beast as a means of enhancing their sorcery, they surely thought her strong spiritual power to be manna from heaven. They immediately began preparations for the ceremony to bring about the advent of their goddess.

  However, their earnest hopes went unfulfilled, because the government, discovering portents of large-scale sorcerous terrorism, moved to disband the group.

  And so, a single expert in anti-demon combat was dispatched—

  A girl calling herself a Sword Shaman of the Lion King Agency.

  “This is—?!”

  The place Yukina landed was the entrance of a vast ruin surrounded by forests on all sides.

  Rows of countless stone pillars lined the inlaid stone path running between them.

  A half-destroyed stonework temple stood at the center of the ruin.

  Over a millennium had probably passed since its construction. The exterior of the temple was quite weathered, and moss and vines covered the stone pillars. The sun rays that poured down were even fiercer than those of Itogami Island.

  “A temple? Don’t tell me this is the city-state of Ciate…”

  Yukina murmured in bewilderment. She’d intended to use the otherworldly gate Celesta had summoned to enter the egg of Zazalamagiu. However, it was at that ruin Yukina had arrived. She couldn’t see Celesta, absorbed by the egg, anywhere.

  “No, this is an imitation reproduced by sorcery…but…”

  Yukina touched a stone pillar with her silver spear. For that instant alone, the stone pillar shimmered like a mirage, then vanished. That even Snowdrift Wolf could not completely nullify it was due to the unabated flow of demonic energy from which the stone pillar was formed.

  The color of the sky was like flames, resembling daybreak—just like the color outside the egg. This indicated that the place was under Zazalamagiu’s divine influence. She could see no landscape beyond the ruin—and neither birds nor beasts.

  The ruin was probably an enclosed world created by the dark god; it was a barrier.

  Why did Zazalamagiu create this giant barrier rather than take material form directly…? When she considered the nature of the dark god, the answer was as clear as day.

  Zazalamagiu was nothing more than an artificial god, a sorcerous device created to control dragon line energy. The sorcerous device called the Temple of Ciate was indispensable for his complete materialization.

  However, Zazalamagiu had been summoned to Itogami Island, far removed from the temple. Therefore, he had to re-create the temple itself. The dark god would himself build the sorcerous device required to summon him.

  “Then, I should still be in time…!”

  The ruin did not yet appear complete. Even with the dark god’s power, it had not been possible to reproduce matter on that scale from scratch. If that was the case, the dark god was probably trying to fuse with Itogami Island to make up for the missing mass, but that would take a fair bit of time.

  She still had a chance to save Celesta.

  “Celesta—”

  Inside Zazalamagiu’s egg, Yukina probably wouldn’t be able to hold herself together for long. Snowdrift Wolf was still protecting her, but she didn’t know how long that would last as the dark god’s materialization progressed. She had to rescue Celesta while she still had a chance.

  The vines covering the ruin began to wriggle, as if to frustrate Yukina’s resolve. The dark god’s consciousness had sensed a contaminant—this Sword Shaman—within the barrier and had set about expelling her.

  “—Haaaaaaaa!”

  Yukina mowed down the vines assailing her and ran toward the temple at the center of the ruin.

  2

  He’d apparently lost consciousness, if only for a brief time.

  “U…gh…”

  Kojou shakily roused his body, covered in clothes soaked through by his own blood.

  He was on a middle deck of the Oceanus Grave II. Kojou, on the verge of being absorbed by Zazalamagiu’s egg, had been kicked down by Yukina, thus allowing him to escape.

  The bizarre sphere Celesta had summoned was not in the sky above the ship; it had moved right above the harbor. Its diameter was ten times the size as when it had first appeared.

  The many vine-like tentacles stretching from it greedily feasted on Itogami Island; it continued growing that very moment. A few of the vines were even entwined around the railing of the Oceanus Grave II. Kojou subconsciously reached out to rip them away when—

  “Don’t touch them!”

  The sharp, scolding voice halted Kojou’s movements. In surprise, Kojou shifted his gaze in the direction of the speaker.

  “…What?!”

  “Do not touch the tendrils. They, too, are part of Zazalamagiu. Touch them carelessly and they will drain your demonic energy. That will do quite some damage in your current state.”

  The annoyed voice belonged to a handsome vampire—words cold like a knife.

  Tobias Jagan was using his flame-enveloped bird of prey to burn away the vines constantly spewed out by the sphere. The heavy toll from controlling the Beast Vassal attested to the ferocity of his battle with the dark god.

  “Jagan…you’re…?!”

  “Do not misunderstand. I am simply defending His Excellency Vattler’s ship. I do not need thanks from a fool like you. It is an annoyance.”

  Jagan spoke bluntly. Well, if that’s how he’s gonna say it, that’s how I’m gonna take it, thought Kojou. After all, it was a fact the Oceanus Grave II was safe thanks to his valiant combat.

  “So what’s that? What happened…?!” Kojou asked as he glared at the sphere that continued to grow.

  “A barrier to bring about the advent of this Zazalamagiu. He’s probably re-creating the sorcerous device needed to take material form inside other-dimensional space.”

  Unexpectedly, Jagan gave an honest reply.

  “Building it in other-dimensional space… You can do that?”

  “I suppose it means even a dark god is still a god.” Jagan laughed sarcastically.

  Kojou thought back to Natsuki Minamiya’s Prison Barrier—an other-dimensional prison built inside of Natsuki’s dreams. He’d thought of that as the product of incredible sorcery, but this sphere’s size was in a different league. If it kept growing, it’d probably swallow all of Itogami Island soon.

  Furthermore, the fearsome sphere was nothing more than the sorcerous device to call the dark god down. But put another way, it also meant that the dark god had yet to descend.

  “So we might still be able to get Celesta out of there—”

  “Hmph. It seems that others have the same thought as you.”

  The displeasure in Jagan’s voice was the tip-off. At the end of his sharp gaze stood four people, three men and one woman, atop a wrecked Island Guard armored vehicle: the CSA special forces.

  “Angelica Hermida—!”

  Angelica and the others used their bizarre magical gear to blow away the vines obstructing their path as they headed into the dark god’s barrier. Kojou had no doubt they had their sights set on Celesta. That being the case, the odds of Yukina encountering them again was high. I’ve gotta stop them before that happens, thought Kojou.

  However, when Kojou attempted to stand up, he coughed up globs of blood and collapsed on the spot. His injuries were too great.

  His immortal primogenitor’s body was continuing to repair itself. But he was still a far cry from being able to fight. Kojou was able to somehow remain lucid because Yukina had given him her own blood at the end.

  Jagan stared down at Kojou, who could not even stand upright, with cold scorn as he quietly walked forward.

  “…Jagan?! What do you think you’re doing?!”

  “I will crush them. I don’t care what happens to your island, but I will not let the CSA dogs
that bared their fangs at the Duke of Ardeal escape my sight.”

  Leaving those words behind, Jagan leaped toward the interior of the bizarre sphere in pursuit of Angelica Hermida. All Kojou could do was helplessly wriggle and watch him go.

  In such a state, Kojou heard a theatrical, annoying voice in his ear.

  “—My, my, Tobias really isn’t honest about his feelings.”

  The sound of that familiar voice sent Kojou whipping his head around in shock.

  The young, blond, blue-eyed aristocrat was standing on the deck of the Oceanus Grave II, which was rocking in the violent wind. His flesh, purportedly completely destroyed, was without a scratch, and his stark-white, three-piece suit did not have a single drop of blood staining it.

  “Vattler?! How…are you…?”

  Kojou looked up at the unscathed Vattler, murmuring in a daze.

  Vattler had sustained the divine beast’s attack, which had completely burned his flesh away. The injury was far graver than what Kojou had received. Even a noble-class vampire’s regenerative ability did not make returning to life an easy feat.

  “Well done, Kira. That’s enough.”

  Vattler quietly raised a hand, seemingly to answer Kojou’s doubts.

  “Yes, Your Excellency—”

  He heard a new voice, this time from the floor of the deck.

  Pieces of Vattler’s flesh were still scattered all over the deck. Suddenly, those pieces of his body grew thicker, changing into black, shadowy blots. Those blots merged together to form a single large shadow, finally changing into contours identical to Vattler’s.

  The shadow suddenly rose to its feet, progressively gaining thickness and color, finally creating a clone of Vattler that was his spitting image.

  “Your Deionika Nox truly has its conveniences.” The real Vattler smiled in a show of admiration.

  “Not at all. Forgive my rudeness.”

  Dummy Vattler bowed to the original. Its face emitted a faint glow. The light seemed to fall away bit by bit, like an insect’s scales, and a handsome, androgynous vampire appeared from inside the dummy. This was Kira Lebedev Voltisvala—like Jagan, a noble of the Warlord’s Empire. He was Vattler’s other close confidant.

  “What do you think you’re doing, Vattler…?”

  Kojou scowled at Vattler, his gaze tinged with indignation at how Vattler had used his subordinate to feign his own death. However, Vattler demonstrated no hint of guilt as he shook his head.

  “Ahh, sorry to have worried you. It was a bit of theater using Kira’s Beast Vassal to manipulate shadows and mirror images. A literal shadow warrior, if you will.”

  “Why you… You knew from the start the priests had a traitor, didn’t you?! Don’t tell me you pretended to get killed to back Celesta into a corner?!”

  “If I did, what do you intend to do about it?” Vattler chuckled and narrowed his eyes in amusement.

  “What?!”

  “I thought I told you at the beginning. You can kill Celesta Ciate and stop the resurrection of Zazalamagiu, or you can wait for the dark god to descend right here—those are your two choices. The situation has not changed. The time limit has merely come into sharper relief.”

  “You—!”

  Before Vattler’s words had even finished, Kojou moved, kicking off from the deck. Kojou slammed a fist full force into Vattler’s relaxed, smiling cheek.

  Vattler did not bother to evade. A dull sound of bone colliding with bone rang out.

  “That hurt, Kojou. Not that I mind it, coming from you…” Even as Vattler touched his stricken cheek, his wry smile did not falter. “You may rest easy. We have predicted that materializing on Itogami Island will not permit Zazalamagiu to invoke his proper godly might. At present, he can be destroyed with ease. If you do not feel like doing it, I would be happy to do it in your place—”

  “…Stop it.”

  In the face of Vattler’s buoyant tone, Kojou’s teeth remained clenched as he spoke.

  “Mm?”

  “I said keep your grubby hands off! I’m not letting you do whatever the hell you want until I come back with Celesta and Himeragi!”

  “Ha-ha… I expected you would say as much, but what will you do now?” Vattler spoke with the tone of one humoring an unreasonable younger brother.

  Kojou grabbed him by the chest, lifting him upward with his blood-drenched right hand.

  “Don’t forget, you handed Celesta to me. So shut up and watch till I’m done.”

  “Hmm, I see… So that’s how you want to play.”

  For once, Vattler deferred to Kojou’s point of view. He was a man of integrity in some odd cases.

  “Very well. After all, as far as I’m concerned, a more complete dark god would be greater amusement. I might as well wait until Zazalamagiu finishes materializing. You have no complaints, then? Because, by that time, neither Celesta Ciate nor Yukina Himeragi will exist in this world.”

  “Fine by me…!”

  Kojou defiantly accepted Vattler’s terms. He didn’t like it, but Vattler was right. If he didn’t stop the advent of the dark god, Celesta, Yukina, and a whole lot of other residents of Itogami Island would lose their lives. If it came down to that, he’d be too late anyway.

  “Ah, that’s right. If you really want to save those two, you’d best hurry. That temple is stealing matter from this island’s residents and the man-made island itself. The more time passes, the greater the damage will spread.”

  Vattler seemed to enjoy telling Kojou that, savoring the boy’s nervousness.

  Kojou silently left the man behind, practically dragging his own wounded body forward.

  3

  “Ugh…”

  Having disembarked from Vattler’s ship, Kojou headed toward the ever-expanding sphere.

  It was a giant rift carved out of thin air. The other world created by the power of the dark god was swallowing up the physical world, growing at a continually increasing rate.

  Yukina and Celesta had to be inside that sphere. But before linking up with them, Kojou still had something he had to do.

  He needed to stop the dark god’s egg from fusing with Itogami Island.

  Apparently, Zazalamagiu needed to completely re-create a sorcerous device required for his advent inside that barrier. The sphere was trying to fuse with Itogami Island to obtain the magical energy and physical matter required to build that device.

  If so, it ought to have been possible to delay the dark god’s arrival by cutting the sphere off from Itogami Island. That would both diminish the damage to the island and buy him time to rescue Celesta.

  “—C’mon over, Sadalmelik Albus!”

  Kojou poured his remaining endurance into summoning a Beast Vassal.

  The sea parted, and a water maid appeared, its flesh seemingly composed of flowing water. Her upper body was that of a beautiful woman, and her lower half that of a giant serpent. Her flowing hair, too, was composed of countless snakes.

  The water spirit’s giant serpentine body became a raging torrent and attacked the sphere. Its slender hands, tipped with razor-sharp talons, tore at the countless vines eating away at the artificial isle. He wasn’t attacking the egg directly because the lives of Yukina and the others within it came first.

  The Fourth Primogenitor’s eleventh Beast Vassal was an Undine representative of a vampire’s super-healing abilities. Whatever she touched was restored, almost as if time was being flung in reverse. Complex machinery came apart at an atomic level, and living things were returned to a state before they were ever born.

  The water maid utterly destroyed the vines eating away at Itogami Island, returning them to the artificial materials that were their proper form. If he kept that up, he ought to be able to save not only Itogami Island but also chip away at the dark god’s magical energy. But—

  The water maid stopped moving, almost like something was suddenly pulling her from behind.

  “What?!”

  Kojou suddenly dropped to his knees, agony cou
rsing like blood through his entire body.

  New vine-like tentacles spat out by the sphere had stopped the water maid’s movement. These coiled around Kojou’s Beast Vassal like snakes, holding it in place. The water spirit’s talons sliced the tentacles away, but even more tentacles had appeared to replace them. Instead, it was the Beast Vassal’s attack power that was dropping—

  “Ugh…! Al-Meissa Mercury—!”

  Kojou summoned a new Beast Vassal: a two-headed dragon with quicksilver-colored scales. Its two heads stretched out, consuming the tentacles and freeing the water spirit.

  However, that was as far as Kojou’s counterattack could go.

  “Why that…! It ate my demonic energy, didn’t it…?!”

  Kojou breathed raggedly over and over, barely keeping himself on his hands and knees.

  His barely remaining physical strength was being chipped away little by little. Kojou released his Beast Vassals from their summons, judging that he could not control them any further.

  The dark god’s egg was not eating into Itogami Island alone. It stole a vast amount of demonic energy as soon as its vines wrapped around Kojou’s Beast Vassal. Now Kojou understood what had run Jagan so ragged. When protecting the Oceanus Grave II, the egg stole a fair bit of demonic energy from his Beast Vassal all the while.

  Carelessly smashing his Beast Vassals against the egg was dangerous. Even the Beast Vassals of the Fourth Primogenitor were at a disadvantage in prolonged combat with such a foe. He had to cut the sphere off from Itogami Island and eliminate it with a single attack. Nothing less would work.

  That was possible for Kojou—but not in his current state. His endurance had been depleted far too much for that. To the Fourth Primogenitor, his overpowered Beast Vassals were a double-edged sword. One false move and Itogami Island would itself be wiped off the map.

  What should I do? Kojou pondered. His bewilderment left him wide open.

  “Damn—!”

  Sinuous tentacles whipped at Kojou, simultaneously attacking from above, right, and left. He couldn’t dodge them no matter what he did, and Kojou lacked the endurance with which to dodge them to begin with.