The Roses of Tartarus

by Gakuto Mikumo

  “Losing control in the middle of the city like this?! You’ve gotta be kidding me—?!”

  Even Yaze was thrown into confusion by the unexpected situation.

  The vampire who was the Beast Vassal’s host had collapsed on the sidewalk. The man had no visible injuries, but the metallic wristlet clasped around his left wrist was giving off a strange red light. And the Beast Vassal was not protecting its host; rather, it simply continued raging around in agony. Control had been completely lost.

  Losing control of a summoned Beast Vassal due to physical distress—though not absolutely impossible, the timing for such an accident was unbelievably awful.

  They couldn’t run down that road. Judging as much, Yaze curved toward an alley, but…

  “Wait, Motoki. That one’s no good, either!”

  It was Asagi who hastily urged him to halt.

  Yaze soon understood the reason why. There were fine cracks running all along the top of the road. And at the center of those cracks in the ground was an enormous man, his height over three meters tall.

  Collapsed in the yard of his own home, the giant was at the center of a vortex of incredible magical energy.

  “Gigas Spirit Magic…?!”

  Yaze murmured in astonishment. It wasn’t just the vampire behind him and the Gigas. Here and there, demons had begun engaging in abnormal actions as far as his eyes could see.

  Beast men were transforming in agony right in the streets. Vampires were losing consciousness after turning into mist. Elves were indiscriminately summoning elemental spirits—one could only think that every registered demon on Itogami Island was running amok all at once.

  “What the hell’s going on, Mogwai?! What happened?!”

  Asagi quickly yelled in the direction of her smartphone. The reply from the AI was calm and collected enough to really annoy her.

  “Exactly what it looks like. Across virtually all of Itogami City, demons are having their minds jacked and entering a berserk state. The Island Guard is fully mobilized to contain the situation, but if anything, they’re gettin’ overwhelmed.”

  “So that’s what you meant when you said they weren’t coming to help us…!” Yaze scratched at his head in annoyance.

  Demons within the Sanctuary were all going berserk. He’d never heard of such a situation before, but it was clear this was a man-made phenomenon—the work of the Demon Sanctuary wrecking crew.

  The demons living on Itogami Island didn’t exceed even 4 percent of the total population, but that was still over twenty thousand people. If they began rampaging all at once, the Island Guard alone couldn’t hope to deal with it. Not only would there be civilian casualties, but in the worst case, the destruction of the artificial isle itself was a complete possibility.

  “What caused the rampage?”

  “Who knows. What do you think, li’l miss?”

  Mogwai replied to Asagi’s question with a question of his own. Asagi replied instantly, with barely a hint of hesitation.

  “A delayed-effect virus.”

  “Keh-keh. Agreed.”

  “…What do you mean by that?”

  Yaze, the only one not grasping the situation, asked as a perplexed expression came over him.

  “It’s the demon registration bracelets. They’re embedded with circuits so you can activate simplified magic, like monitoring a demon’s vitals and individual location data.”

  “Wait, you’re telling me someone pumped a virus through those circuits?” Yaze gasped and shifted his attention to the vampire still lying on the sidewalk.

  They had metal bands on them, demon registration bracelets clasped over their wrists. Red light continued to flash from the slits in the geometric shapes carved into their surface.

  “Simplified circuits or not, pretty much all demons wear those things on them twenty-four hours a day. It’d take a powerful catalyst for this kind of ritual. If it’s enough to make ’em fall asleep, no reason you couldn’t do it.”

  For some reason, Mogwai said that proudly.

  Yaze shook his head, apparently finding it unbelievable.

  “So they infected every demon registration bracelet on the island in one go… How?!”

  “They used the Island Guard’s network,” Asagi explained, oddly calm.

  Yaze looked at her in surprise.

  “The Island Guard? …Come to think of it, yesterday you said there was a ruckus over the Island Guard’s HQ being hacked…”

  “So the culprit’s real objective wasn’t taking over the Island Guard’s servers but getting the demon registration bracelets infected with the virus.”

  “Even you didn’t realize what they were up to…?”

  “How could I? By the time I arrived at Island Guard HQ, the enemy’s real program had finished its job and erased itself without a trace, to make sure no one would notice.”

  Asagi’s lips tapered in a visible pout.

  Mogwai let out a hearty “Keh-keh,” sticking up for Asagi as he said, “Those bracelets have all kinds of stiff protection around ’em, so normally, you can’t do somethin’ like that, even if you know the theory of how. The culprit’s got some serious skills.”

  “For that matter, there’s no merit to hacking the registration bracelets, so no one does it. Normally,” Asagi added.

  “Well, sure. Indiscriminate terrorism is just about all you could use it for…”

  Yaze sighed briefly as he ran his eyes over the pathetic state of the island.

  The memory capacity a demon registration bracelet came equipped with probably couldn’t execute a complicated spell. Making demons lose consciousness and causing them to go berserk was probably the most they could accomplish. But even so, as tools of sorcerous terrorism, it was fair to say that the menace they posed was terrifying.

  “Hey, Mogwai. Can’t you do something about the virus thingy?”

  “No can do. Right now, the bracelets are cut off from the Island Guard network, so there’s no physical access route.”

  “So with the connection cut, you can’t send a vaccine program in either, then?”

  “Well, it’s not that breaking into bracelets set to independent activity mode ain’t possible, but…”

  Mogwai’s suggestive murmur made Yaze’s breath catch slightly.

  “Got it… C, then…”

  “C, you mean the computer room they dragged me into a while back?”

  A dubious expression came over Asagi as she looked at Yaze. Room C—this was a special section built in Keystone Gate’s Floor Zero.

  Hermetically sealed off from the outside world, the chamber was packed with the five supercomputers that administered Itogami Island, the nervous system to which every computer system on the island was connected. Its stout exterior shell was said to be able to take a direct hit from a nuclear bomb and water pressure on par with twenty thousand meters under the sea.

  And commands sent via C had the highest privilege-access rights to every terminal device owned by the Gigafloat Management Corporation. Naturally, the demon registration bracelets were no exception.

  Of course, entry into Room C was severely restricted; even senior management of the Gigafloat Management Corporation and the mayor of Itogami City were not permitted entry.

  Rumor even had it that C was an urban myth and did not really exist.

  “I see… That’s why they’re after Asagi…”

  “Huh?”

  An uncomfortable look came over Asagi as Yaze stared at her intently.

  “Keh-keh.” Mogwai laughed with delight.

  Yaze covered his eyes with a look of anguish. “As the registered user, you’re the only one authorized to enter C. If you die, there won’t be anyone left to stop the demons’ rampage.”

  “Huh…?!”

  Asagi’s eyes flew wide open.

  “What the—? This is news to me! Why would you make a system that’s personalized and not even tell the person—isn’t that nuts?! You did that completely without my consent…?!”
>
  The indignant Asagi hauled Yaze up by his chest.

  She might have been an accomplished hacker, but she was fundamentally an ordinary high school girl. Her programming work for the Gigafloat Management Corporation was nothing more than a part-time job for a little spending money. She’d never intended to bear a heavy responsibility that could decide the very fate of Itogami Island, let alone sought to put her own life in peril as a consequence.

  However, in reality, without her being aware of it whatsoever, she had somehow been registered as the proper user for C, and a sniper was after her life because of it. Of course Asagi was angry. But—

  “Urk…!”

  Grabbing hold of the raging Asagi, Yaze rolled onto the ground.

  A bullet passed above both their heads, gouging a hole into the residential wall behind them. Fragments scattering from the impact of the shot showered down on Yaze’s back like scattered hail.

  “I’ll listen to any complaints you have, but first, we’ve gotta do something ’bout this situation. I’m bringing you with me to Keystone Gate, whatever it takes!” Yaze yelled as he forcibly dragged Asagi to her feet.

  “If I don’t, this’ll seriously be Itogami Island’s final day.”

  As Yaze murmured, a strange aura began swirling above his head. The demonic energy emitted by the raging demons was saturating and covering the sky above the island.

  He had no idea what situation that foreshadowed, but he was certain of one thing: It wouldn’t end with anything good.

  “Give me a break…,” Asagi murmured, copying the habit of a close friend of hers.

  “Took the words outta my mouth.”

  Yaze nodded, concurring from the bottom of his heart.

  3

  Dumbfounded, Yukina gazed down from the roof of a nearly destroyed building.

  Demonic energy was running wild from every street and block.

  Among them, it was indeed the vampire Beast Vassals inflicting the most spectacular damage. If fully unleashed, even the Beast Vassals of comparatively young vampires had enough might to blow away an entire residential home. However, this paled in comparison to the Beast Vassals of the Old Guard, with combat capability on par, or greater, than that of a state-of-the-art battle tank.

  However, there was no organization to the places the Beast Vassals were summoned—or their targets. Yukina did not think that their power was running amok with any kind of conscious purpose. It was not of the demons’ own will; they had simply lost control. Someone had possessed them, making their demonic energy go berserk.

  “How is…such a thing possible…?” she murmured haltingly as she continued to prop up Kojou’s wounded body.

  A force of over twenty thousand demons’ demonic energy had run amok—an enormous calamity without precedent. How can such a thing be stopped? she pondered, but no answer was forthcoming.

  The Island Guard was moving to contain the situation, but the insufficiency of their fighting strength was plainer than an open flame. Furthermore, the Gigafloat Management Corporation that commanded them had lost numerous senior managers, remaining in a state of chaos to that moment.

  Even if she requested aid from Lion King Agency HQ, it was futile to expect reinforcements.

  The seas around Itogami Island remained sealed off via Senga’s Eight Trigrams Formation. Everything was proceeding according to the scenario Tartarus Lapse had drawn up. That fact left Yukina in despair.

  “What can I…? What should I do…?”

  Stricken by a bottomless sense of emptiness, Yukina unwittingly cast her eyes downward.

  Perhaps apprehending December or Senga might ameliorate the situation, but now that Itogami Island was in extreme chaos, finding them was nigh impossible.

  Natsuki might have been able to offer advice had she been there. But at that moment, she too remained unable to move. Asagi was under attack by a sniper, with it unclear whether she was alive or dead, and Kojou had fallen, gravely wounded and on the brink of death.

  “Senpai…”

  Yukina held Kojou’s head to her chest as she leaned forward.

  She was the only one uninjured and able to move, and yet she could do nothing, save pathetically watch the sight of Itogami Island collapsing. Yukina’s powerlessness had been made painfully apparent.

  Her eyes grew hot. She let out a brief sob, hanging her head. And then…

  That was when someone’s very, very cold hands gently caressed Yukina’s cheeks.

  “That’s some face you’re making, Himeragi.”

  The supposedly unconscious Kojou opened his eyes, calling to her in a small, raspy voice. Yukina, taken completely off guard, gazed at the sight of him.

  “Senpai…?! You’ve returned to consciousness already…?”

  “Somehow, yeah…”

  Koff! went Kojou as he unsteadily sat up.

  Though many of his internal organs had ruptured due to the dozens of bullets he’d taken, Kojou’s body had mostly finished regenerating in that brief span of time. Compared to the previous times he’d nearly died, his recovery speed had plainly quickened. Kojou’s power as a vampire was increasing.

  Though that fact invited worries of its own, it wasn’t the time or place to ponder them.

  “Damn, that bastard Senga pumped me full of bullets without holding back one bit. Hurt enough to die from.”

  Kojou spoke resentfully as he patted his tattered parka.

  His words, both buffoonish and exceedingly blunt, allowed Yukina to let go of a breath she’d been holding in. Kojou looked back at her with a mystified look and said, “So, Himeragi. Why are you crying?”

  “I am not crying,” replied Yukina in a flat tone, gently averting her face.

  “Mn? …Um, but…”

  “I was not crying. So there.”

  “Nah, your eyes are totally red.”

  “A vampire is not in any position to talk. More importantly, senpai, the city!”

  “Whoa!”

  Kojou, looking at the city streets below them, cried out from tremendous shock.

  Roads and buildings were being destroyed by the demonic riot, and fires were breaking out in urban areas all over. He heard the sounds of human screams and ambulance sirens coming ceaselessly from within the city.

  “The hell is this…?! What happened while I was asleep?!”

  “The registered demons have lost control of their demonic energy. I’m not sure of exactly how this was orchestrated, but I have no doubt that it is the work of Tartarus Lapse.”

  “So they forced the demonic energy to run amok, huh? Come to think of it, it’s a little like what December did to me.”

  “Yes.”

  Kojou’s murmur made Yukina nod. During their first fight with December in the warehouse district, she’d employed mind control on Kojou to hijack command of his Beast Vassals.

  The phenomenon erupting on Itogami Island very much resembled the situation back then. It probably wasn’t a coincidence. Perhaps they had reverse engineered the ability of December’s Beast Vassal and fashioned a ritual to reproduce it.

  “And Asagi…?” Kojou asked with a hard look.

  Yukina shook her head without a word. In these chaotic circumstances, Yukina had no means by which to determine whether Asagi was safe. The shikigami she’d released to search for her had already been lost, swept up in the demonic energy rampage.

  Kojou silently twisted his lips. To the sniper after Asagi, the several minutes Kojou had been unconscious were more than enough time to complete her mission. In the end, Kojou had been unable to stop Tartarus Lapse’s sniper. Regret and despair over that fact weighed heavily upon Kojou’s heart.

  It was a moment after that when Kojou heard a snarky, synthetic voice.

  “It’s all right. Li’l miss Asagi is still alive… Somehow or other.”

  “You’re…Mogwai?!”

  Kojou’s cell phone, LCD screen cracked, was speaking in the voice of Asagi’s AI partner.

  “Keh-keh.” Mogwai laug
hed at the surprised Kojou. “I’ll skip the fine details. Asagi’s heading for Keystone Gate. The demon riot happening in the city was caused by hacking the demon registration bracelets.”

  “Hacking?” Kojou tilted his head, completely beside himself. “You mean the demon registration bracelets got jacked? People can do that?”

  “Well, someone can. And right now, the li’l miss is the only one who can stop it.”

  “So that’s why Senga and the others are after Asagi…!”

  If that abnormality was caused by Tartarus Lapse hacking, that explained Asagi coming under sniper fire. Senga and the others feared Asagi’s genius-level programming abilities.

  If she got to Keystone Gate safe and sound, Asagi could put a stop to the demons’ rampage.

  That would likely inflict fatal damage to Tartarus Lapse’s plans.

  “Tell us where Asagi is, Mogwai. We’ll back her up.”

  “The feeling’s appreciated, but I’ve got a different request for the Fourth Primogenitor an’ company.”

  “…Request?” Kojou echoed back. He didn’t think any action took precedent over keeping Asagi safe when someone was after her life that very moment.

  However, Mogwai continued, speaking for once in a dead serious tone. “For now, could you…stop Itogami Island from being smashed to bits before the li’l miss can do something about the bracelets?”

  “Itogami Island, smashed to bits…? How…?”

  “—Look up, Bro.”

  Prompted by the AI’s voice, Kojou turned his face upward. He was at a loss for further words… Itogami Island’s sky was covered in mysterious hieroglyphics in a radius reaching dozens of kilometers.

  This was both like a dense aurora and a vortex of demonic energy. Perhaps one might say it looked like a beautiful flower garden—crimson, ethereal flowers borne of demonic energy.

  “Roses…?”

  “No, senpai…this is a magic circle. One of unbelievably high density…,” Yukina corrected in a quivering voice.

  Her words made Kojou realize the true nature of the roses for himself. The large-scale phenomenon was the result of merging multiple layers of complex symbols atop one another. It was a magic circle large enough to envelop the entirety of Itogami Island. The vast demonic energy furnished by the Demon Sanctuary was what made its materialization possible.