“!”
“Defense mode. Execute, Rhododactylos.”
With Kojou frozen in place, what saved him was a giant arm that seemed to envelop his entire body. The humanoid Beast Vassal summoned by the homunculus girl deflected the attacks from the sphere.
“Astarte?!”
Rattled, Kojou called out the girl’s name. The ability of Astarte’s Beast Vassal, Rhododactylos, reflected all magical energy. Even the green tentacles that had eaten into Kojou’s Beast Vassals had not penetrated her defense.
“Akatsuki! Thank goodness… Are you all right?”
With Astarte protecting her, Kanon came rushing over.
“Kanase?! What are you two doing here—?!”
“I am very sorry. We were worried about Miss Celesta and could not help but come to look,” Kanon said, conflicted over breaking her promise.
Seeing that Kojou could not stand on his own power, Kanon offered her shoulder without hesitation. Kojou’s blood sullying her clothes didn’t make her flinch for even an instant. She earnestly propped Kojou up with her own frail body, dragging him toward safety.
“No… Thanks. You saved me.”
When she heard Kojou’s frail statement, Kanon silently shook her head and averted her eyes, blushing.
The sphere’s attacks continued, but Astarte’s Beast Vassal fended them off with little trouble.
Kanon had chosen the interior of the Oceanus Grave II as her place of refuge. The sphere was practically touching the tips of their noses, but they were out of its all-consuming path. It was probably a lot safer than blindly fleeing into a building.
Kojou couldn’t see any of Vattler’s people inside; maybe he’d instructed them to take cover. There was no sign of the man himself. Kojou was a little relieved that he wouldn’t be seen in such a disgraceful state.
“Where are Yukina and Miss Celesta?” Kanon asked, laying Kojou in a corridor within the ship.
“They’re inside that thing. I’m gonna go and get them back—,” Kojou declared, shooting a glare at the sphere, visible through a window.
Kanon’s blue eyes blinked with visible surprise. Nervously, she held Kojou’s body down.
“Akatsuki, that isn’t possible in your current state.”
Kojou, seeing Kanon shake her head at him, bit his lip.
His blown-away heart had finished regenerating, but that was only in terms of functionality. There were still raw scars in the middle of his chest. His torn-off left arm had only just become able to move. He couldn’t even count the other wounds over the length of his body. At that moment, Kojou didn’t even have the strength to push Kanon off him. Of course she was worried.
“It’s all right. Wounds like this’ll heal up in no time—”
In spite of that, Kojou dragged himself to his feet. However, he barely took one step forward before dizziness struck, bowling him over. He had only a tenuous grip on his seemingly distant mind. It burned him, but Kojou had no choice but to accept it: He was in no condition to fight.
Astarte, having released her Beast Vassal from its summons, looked down at the fallen Kojou and stated, “I have a suggestion.”
Kojou glanced back at her with a dubious expression. Astarte had a high degree of medical knowledge, but her knowledge of magic was not very deep at all. That she had something to say surprised Kojou a little.
“What? Sorry, but running isn’t an option.”
“Understood. Strategic retreat rejected. My second suggestion, then.”
Astarte readily accepted Kojou’s bitterly conveyed words. Then, she opened the door to a nearby cabin, grabbed Kojou by the scruff of his neck, and flung him inside. Next, she dragged Kanon along on her way in.
“Oww…! Astarte? What do you think you’re…?!” Kojou exclaimed.
He looked around the interior of the cabin. It was a so-called linen room, with unused sheets and pillow covers piled up. There was a faint whiff of detergent in the air, but otherwise nothing special.
Kojou was beside himself, not knowing what Astarte had in mind. Then, to Kanon, looking just as lost as he was, the homunculus girl emotionlessly stated, “Kanon Kanase, please remove your clothing.”
“…Eh?”
“Strip.”
With Kanon rooted to the spot, Astarte slipped behind her and reached toward the top of her outfit.
That day, Kanon was wearing a frilly, modest-looking dress that had probably caught Natsuki’s eye. It was a slightly old-fashioned design that perfectly fit Kanon’s saintly ambience.
Out of the blue, Astarte undid all the fasteners on the dress’s back. In addition, she grabbed Kanon’s skirt by the hem and yanked it down without warning.
There was no longer anything to obstruct Kojou’s view of Kanon’s understated curves.
“Eh… Ah, um…?!”
Kanon, not understanding what was going on, stood rooted to the spot in her underwear.
Kojou gazed at her in bewilderment, unable to look away.
The sight of Kanon in her underwear affected him especially because it was so taboo. Her skin was so fair, far from the Japanese norm, and she was almost surreally slender. Her underwear was lavender in color, a matching set with a little bit of lace embroidery, making Kanon that much more adorable for it.
The very lightness of her skin tone made her blue veins stand out slightly from her modest breasts, mysteriously adding to her raw allure.
“W-wait! Hey, Astarte! What are you trying to make Kanase do?!”
Kojou, stricken senseless for a while, shouted as he regained his senses. On cue, Kanon covered her breasts as if remembering she was supposed to be embarrassed. The very natural gesture only underlined further to Kojou the fact she was a normal girl.
“My answer is—blood donation,” Astarte replied expressionlessly.
Hearing this, Kanon clasped her hands together as if it somehow made sense to her.
“A-ahh… I understand now.”
Seeing Kojou frozen in place, Kanon nodded strongly to herself. Then, with some goal in mind, she reached behind her back and abruptly unhooked her bra.
With her bra in danger of falling, she pressed it in place with both hands, crouching down in front of the prone Kojou.
Kanon’s graceful, beautiful face peered down at Kojou, unbelievably close.
However, Kanon stopped moving, seemingly at a loss. She didn’t seem to understand where things were supposed to go from there.
“Um…ah…it shouldn’t be just… A-Astarte, please strip, too.”
A frail expression came over Kanon as she sought the homunculus girl’s aid.
“Accepted.”
Astarte emotionlessly nodded and began stripping off her maid outfit. The sight of her exposed body, even tinier than Kanon’s, drew a ferocious cough from Kojou.
“Wait a… Wh-why are…you two…?!”
In the first place, Astarte’s homunculus body fluids would not aid in Kojou’s recovery. Astarte herself surely was aware of that. However, whether she sparked sexual arousal was a different matter altogether.
The trigger for vampiric urges was not hunger, but lust. Having two half-naked girls around him in a cramped room was an extreme situation stirring deep emotions in Kojou that appealed to his instincts, making them difficult for reason to resist.
“Capture.”
As Kojou backed away, Astarte circled around him, sealing off his avenue of retreat. Her bare breasts pressed against Kojou’s back, rendering him unable to move.
“Wait a… A-Astarte…?!”
“I—I am not very good at this, but…”
It was Kanon who touched Kojou from the front. The faint light shining in from the window illuminated the girl’s silver hair. Its faint aroma and the warmth of her skin stimulated Kojou’s senses.
“Wait, Kanon. You’re wrong… You’re being tricked into this! Er, well, not that it isn’t blood donation, but…!”
“No, I am all right. This is simply what you are always doing with Yukina, isn’t it?”
Barely holding his rational mind together, Kojou admonished her as strongly as he could, but Kanon softly shook her head.
“It’s not always! There were all kinds of circumstances, so we had no choice but to—”
“But in doing so, you and Yukina saved me.”
“Eh…?!”
Kanon’s blue eyes watched Kojou from very close, conveying her unshakable determination. Both of Kanon’s arms gently embraced Kojou—like the affectionate embrace of a saint.
“That is why, this time, it’s my turn.”
“Kanase…”
Kojou quietly drew in his breath, enveloped by Kanon’s embrace.
His throat felt very dry. His bared fangs ached.
Kojou had once fought Kanon, who’d transformed into an artificial angel. That was why he understood her kindness more than anyone. He felt guilty for feeling vampiric urges toward such a compassionate girl.
But if Kanon, knowing that full well, forgave him for it, then…
And if it was to save people precious to him…
“It is all right. The words I spoke to Miss Celesta…were no lies.”
Kanon exposed her slender neck to Kojou as she whispered into his ear.
Kojou’s fangs bit into her pale neck.
A little sigh escaped Kanon’s lips, apparently enduring the pain.
Kanon’s arms, embracing Kojou, gripped him stronger. Her breath gently touched Kojou’s ear.
“I have always loved Yukina. And I have always loved…you…”
4
The ruin was far vaster than she had anticipated.
Furthermore, the closer she approached the temple, the more the dark god’s influence increased.
It was not only the vines covering the ruin but also the gravity, the very air, and everything making up that world that conspired to block their intruder-turned-enemy from her destination. The dimension itself was created to give birth to a dark god, and thus, such defensive mechanisms were to be expected.
But in spite of this, Yukina continued onward.
“—I, Maiden of the Lion, Sword Shaman of the High God, beseech thee!”
The silver spear Yukina poised emitted the dazzling glow of the Divine Oscillation Effect. That glow became a powerful defensive barrier that impeded the attacks the ruin sent Yukina’s way.
From Yukina’s perspective, it was a stroke of good luck that the divine aura of Zazalamagiu, wrought from dragon line energies, was a very close cousin to Snowdrift Wolf’s Divine Oscillation Effect. Though she could not nullify her opponent’s power, in exchange, the enemy couldn’t get a good read on her. She was able to move around inside the ruin much like a virus that had adapted to its environment.
“O divine wolf of the snowdrift, let the echoes of thy thousand howls become a shield and repel this calamity!”
Yukina’s spear lashed out, smashing to pieces the shut door of the temple’s entrance.
Protected by her barrier, Yukina stepped into the temple interior.
It was a bizarre room with no sense of up or down.
Where she stood—a floor in her mind—was a wall, and what she’d thought the ceiling was an angled floor. A place she’d thought was a set of stairs was actually nothing more than the back side of a different set of stairs, passing through a hole gouged into the floor and spreading out at the bottom into a beautiful blue sky. Outside the window on the ceiling was a landscape of the bottom of the sea.
It was a dimension of madness. Merely looking at it was enough to rob one’s sanity.
A golden altar stood at the center of that dimension.
At the altar, she caught sight of a woman with honey-colored hair. Judging from the inverted sight, she was floating on top of the altar.
“Cele…sta?”
Yukina ran toward the altar. But that instant, all sense of up and down was ripped from her, and she tumbled onto the floor.
Gravity was misbehaving; however, this was not a defense mechanism of the ruin. This was a place for a god—a space in which none save the bride of Zazalamagiu was permitted entry.
“Please! Celesta, answer me…!”
Cognizant of that fact, Yukina stepped toward the altar nonetheless.
Perhaps Yukina’s voice had reached her, because Celesta slowly opened her eyes. Seeing that, Yukina knew Celesta was still alive. Mentally, she was still a human being.
Above the altar, Celesta slowly turned over and replied, “Plain…Girl…”
The voice echoed of resignation and despair. Considering the situation she had been placed in, it was a very natural emotion.
“What…do you think you’re doing? Run away, quick… Look at me, I’m already…,” Celesta said.
Yukina’s reply was swift. Propping herself up with her silver spear, she lifted her face, looked straight at Celesta, and smiled.
“No, I cannot flee. I am bringing you back with me.”
Yukina’s unflinching reply wrought an audible sob from Celesta’s throat.
“What happens to me has nothing to do with you people, does it?! Go and be lovey-dovey with just you and Kojou at his place or something!”
“I will do that regardless!”
Yukina shouted vigorously in reply. For a moment, the power of it overwhelmed Celesta.
“…N-nice comeback…for a plain girl…!”
“However, I cannot go do that until I have brought you out of here with me!” Yukina declared, climbing another step.
I don’t understand, Celesta seemed to say with a shake of her head. Yukina and Celesta weren’t old friends or anything of the sort. If anything, her existence had to be an annoyance to Yukina and her companion.
And yet, why was Yukina exposing herself to such danger to save her?
“…Wh…y…?”
Celesta unwittingly murmured the word. If she wanted to stop the advent of the dark god, Yukina ought to have killed Celesta then and there. There would be no need to force herself to reach the altar after that.
However, Yukina shook her head with a shy, frail smile on her face.
“Because I’ll never forgive myself if I don’t.”
“Eh…?”
“I was the same as you. I was to be killed as a sacrifice to call down a god. It was before I had turned seven… Not that…Akatsuki-senpai or any of the others know about it…”
Yukina touched a hand to her chest as she spoke. It was as if she felt guilty continuing to shoulder such an abominable secret alone.
“But just before I was to be killed, there was someone who took me with her.”
Her foot was caught in a gravity distortion, and Yukina tumbled again. The stairs were not all that tall, but the inability to soften the blows meant she had to take their full impact. Pain coursed through the core of her body.
Yukina suddenly remembered what the Sword Shaman she’d met in her youth had looked like. At the time, she’d seemed very adult, but now that she thought about it, that girl couldn’t have been much older than Yukina was in the present. Yet even so, she had rescued Yukina all by herself.
“She said something similar to what Akatsuki-senpai said. When I asked her why she was saving me, she said, ‘Do I need a reason?’”
Yukina practically crawled up the distorted stairway, arriving right beneath the altar.
Yukina had been happy when Kojou had said he would save Celesta. Without hesitation, he said he’d save an abominable girl to be sacrificed to a dark god. To Yukina, it was as if he’d been talking about her.
“Thanks to her, I became a Sword Shaman and met you and senpai. That is—”
—my reason for saving you, Yukina was about to say, but Yukina’s body was blown away the instant she touched the altar. Vine-like tentacles punched holes through the temple wall as they stretched, bearing down on Yukina’s body.
“Plain Girl—?!”
Celesta let up a shrill cry. Before her eyes, a dazzling glow reached out like a blade.
The glow came from Yukina’s spear.
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Poising the weapon, Yukina rose up, rending the tentacles asunder.
However, hers was a desperate battle. Yukina was wounded, exhausted, and had little spiritual energy remaining, and the dark god’s barrier held an inexhaustible supply of divine essence. Fight or not, the end result was evident: At that rate, Yukina would die.
“Stop already! You can’t defeat a god by yourself! Don’t you understand that—?!”
“I do.”
Yukina smiled. She’d known that from the beginning.
Yukina did not have the power to completely halt the dark god from materializing. But having reached the altar, the egg would be forced to destroy the magical pathways it had painstakingly constructed in the process. The longer Yukina fought, the more divine essence the egg would lose.
That would delay the dark god’s materialization. She’d earn every second she could. Time until he could recover—
“I know that I cannot win by myself. However, I have watched him all this time, so I know I am not alone in trying to save you. He’ll come. I know he will—”
“Yuki…na…”
Celesta’s lips trembled a little. A glint of will, supposedly lost, returned to her eyes.
As Celesta floated upside down, one of her arms faintly began to move. She stretched her hand forward, toward the surface of the altar that bound her—
Then, the instant Celesta’s fingertips touched the altar’s exterior, the entire temple seemed to shudder. The twists in gravity that had caused Yukina such anguish vanished. The temple returned to its proper form.
The floor was now only a floor. The walls were now only walls.
Pulled down by gravity, Celesta tumbled onto the altar’s surface.
“Oww…”
“Celesta!”
The tentacles assaulting Yukina dissipated. With Celesta collapsed, Yukina cut one final tentacle and rushed to her side. Celesta was too exhausted to stand on her own power, but she was all right.
The temple shook heavily once more.
Yukina realized that the entire world was shaking.
Having lost the sacrifice at the center of the world, the sorcerous device to materialize the dark god was no longer functioning. The vast divine essence that had been barely kept under control to that point had begun to stir in irregular ways.
Bride of the Dark God Page 17