However, the silver charcoal magic user said nothing in return.
A moment after the woman wordlessly hoisted her rod, an enormous roar made Kojou’s skin tremble.
“What the—?!”
“Senpai, behind you!”
Yukina shouted at the confused Kojou. When Kojou looked back, his eyes beheld the sight of an enormous demon beast beating the trees down as it advanced. It was a two-legged, pterosaur-like creature with a wingspan reaching tens of meters.
“Wha?! The heck is that?!”
“A wyvern—!”
Yukina thrust Kojou aside as the wyvern’s talons raced past, barely missing the top of Kojou’s head. He’d nearly had his head taken off.
“Shit…! C’mon over, Regulus Aurum!”
Kojou commanded his own Beast Vassal to strike back. As the lion materialized via vast demonic energy, it moved to swipe a foreleg down right before the wyvern’s eyes.
But the gunmetal magic user went on the move before it connected. A black aura filtering out from the inside of the woman’s robe spread like ink covering the water’s surface, obstructing Kojou’s Demon Beast’s path.
Heedless, the lightning lion tried to rip it asunder, but—
“What?!”
The instant it touched the pitch-black aura, the lion’s foreleg bounced off without a sound. The thunder and lightning surrounding the Beast Vassal dissipated and vanished; not even a spark remained.
The wyvern enveloped by the aura was unharmed. It had merely been knocked off-balance from the shock of the collision.
Yukina’s eyes went wide, like she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. “It…withstood an attack from the Fourth Primogenitor’s Beast Vassal?!”
A Beast Vassal was a condensed amalgamation of demonic energy; no living being could withstand a blow from such a thing. It was said that nothing could defeat a Beast Vassal save smashing it with even greater magical energy—but there was a single exception.
“Himeragi, just now…!”
“Yes. It is the same as during the Black Bible Incident…!”
Yukina clenched her silver spear as a grave expression came over her.
There was one other way to oppose a Beast Vassal: complete nullification of its demonic energy. That was why Yukina, the observer of the Fourth Primogenitor, had been granted a Schneewaltzer, which possessed that very ability.
So far as Kojou and Yukina knew, there was but a single way to nullify demonic energy other than with a Schneewaltzer—the Black Bible once employed by Aya Tokoyogi. With it, she had rendered Kojou’s Beast Vassals powerless by turning Itogami Island into a world where supernatural power did not exist.
The black energy employed by the silver charcoal magic user greatly resembled the ability of the Black Bible.
“Glenda…”
When the wyvern swooped down, the silver charcoal magic user murmured bitterly, gazing at the fallen dragon as she leaped on the wyvern’s back.
“Wait………!”
When Kojou attempted to summon a new Beast Vassal to strike down the retreating wyvern, his face grimaced with pain. His right hand was pleading for mercy, feeling a pain as if it had been burned. It was his wound from where Paper Noise had stabbed him with Snowdrift Wolf back on Itogami Island.
“Senpai…your hand…”
Noticing something was wrong with Kojou, Yukina’s face went pale as she rushed over. He’d instantly meant to hide it, but she’d noticed too soon.
“Yeah, it’s a bit messed up.” He smiled as he broke into a sweat from the fierce pain. “It’s no biggie.” There was Yuiri and a fallen dragon right beside them. He didn’t think giving Yukina extra worries was a good idea.
“Backlash from summoning the Beast Vassal?”
“Could be.”
Crack-like scars had spread over the back of his right hand. The exact cause was unclear, but the combat a moment ago seemed to have made his symptoms worse.
“More importantly, Himeragi, these girls are—”
Seeing for himself that the immediate danger had passed, Kojou looked behind him. Yuiri, with her long sword, should have been right there with the wounded, fallen dragon, but…
“D-don’t look—!”
Nervousness came over the girl’s face as she stared at Kojou and shrieked.
The dragon was changing shape within the school-uniformed Sword Shaman’s very arms—from an enormous dragon to a small, silver-haired girl. She looked about thirteen or fourteen, and she had an adorable face.
And of course, the girl was not wearing anything. The clothes she’d originally been wearing had most likely been ripped into shreds when she’d transformed into a dragon.
“Ah?” Yukina exclaimed, less surprised by the dragon changing form than by the fact she was naked.
“Huh…?!”
Kojou was just as surprised as she was. He was frozen with shock as he stared at the dragon girl’s naked human body. Yuiri was desperately trying to shield her, but her efforts were largely futile; perhaps she was in a panic herself.
“Senpai, how long are you going to stare?”
Yukina, the first to regain her composure, obstructed Kojou’s vision with a hand as she glared at him.
“S-sorry! My bad!”
Kojou gasped and snapped back to his senses, turning his face aside as he spoke.
It was then that the malicious whispers of multiple people rode a cold wind to reach Kojou’s ears.
“H-hey.”
“Yeah, it’s a vampire… What’s a demon doing here…?”
“And that girl—is she…a beast person?”
Wounded SDF troops were staring at Kojou as they surrounded him from a distance. The troops were meeting one another’s eyes as they continued to whisper in low voices. Kojou was unused to their hostile, inquisitive gazes. It was an emotion largely unexperienced by him to date.
Hostility and fear toward demons—
“Senpai…”
Yukina gently moved her body close to Kojou’s, almost as if lending him support.
Kojou felt her warmth as he slowly looked up at the sky. It was covered with low, thin, gray clouds in the dead of winter, a season never to intrude on Itogami Island’s endless summer—
“Ah…yeah.”
That’s right, thought Kojou as it finally hit him.
“This isn’t a Demon Sanctuary, I guess.”
2
Still held aloft by the robot tank’s manipulator arm, Shio Hikawa returned to the rampart of Kamioda Dam. The wounded Hisano Akatsuki, Gajou, and the still-sleeping Nagisa were with them as well.
“Japan’s defense forces were brutalized, I see.”
Iblisveil made the icy declaration as he gazed upon the wreckage of demolished armored vehicles.
With the arrival of medical platoon troops on the rampart, aid was being rendered to those wounded in action. When the robot tank stopped a short distance away, Shio began administering first aid to Gajou and Hisano. The disappearance of Yuiri Haba weighed upon her, but treating the wounded came first.
Raised to be assassins, the Shamanic War Dancers of the Lion King Agency were exceedingly well versed in the layout of the human body. They also received considerable training in life-saving treatments due to frequently being assigned VIP escort missions. Borrowing a first-aid kit stuffed into a tank, Shio somehow managed to finish treating their injuries.
Hisano’s and Gajou’s wounds ran deep, but fortunately, they did not appear to be life-threatening. Even in such a perilous situation, they had been able to protect their vital spots. That said, it was, of course, impossible for them to fight any further.
“It would seem you are the only one present capable of proper conversation, girl.”
It was the prince of the Fallen Dynasty who addressed the meek-of-spirit, half-beside-herself Shio.
“First, allow me to ask your name. You would appear to be a human Attack Mage, but why is a child such as yourself here?”
Shio slowly
turned to him. You’re the child here, she was in danger of saying out loud, but she swallowed the words.
She’d recovered a little of her depleted willpower, likely from adrenaline secretions from her anger.
“Your Highness Iblisveil Aziz, I am Shio Hikawa, a Shamanic War Dancer of the Lion King Agency.”
Shio rose to her feet and looked straight toward the vampire prince. Oh, went Iblisveil, raising an eyebrow in amusement at Shio’s spirited demeanor.
A girl with an extravagant hairstyle poked her head out of the tank’s hatch and asked Shio from above, “The Lion King Agency… You’re with Himeragi?”
She had the spectacular face of a magazine model, and her name was written on a name space over her breasts. Her outfit seemed rather provocative, and Shio had no idea why she was wearing it. Shio was thinking this was a person who lived in a different world than she did, leaving her somewhat surprised at the name coming from the girl’s lips.
“You know Yukina Himeragi, er… Asagi…Aiba?”
“Huh? How do you know my name…?”
For an instant, the beautiful girl with model-grade beauty tilted her head with a questioning look, then gasped and looked down at her breasts. Her cheeks went scarlet as she quickly covered up the space upon which her name had been written.
“I-it’s not what you think! I was forced to wear this stupid thing to get in the tank, so—”
“R-right.”
First impressions aside, she’s kinda cute, thought Shio, all tension draining away.
Contrary to her appearance, she was quick with her wits. If she was in plainer clothes, she’d probably have boys falling all over her, she thought with a twinge of pity, not that it was really her problem. Either way, the fact that she knew Yukina Himeragi made it likely she, too, was connected to the Fourth Primogenitor. If that was the case, Shio could understand the girl being here.
“Well then, Shio and company, I would ask of you the circumstances. What is your objective, and why have the Cleansers appeared in this land?” Iblisveil resumed his cross-examination of Shio.
Shio bit her lip a little, unsure just what to say.
The boy before her eyes was a prince of another country—furthermore, a vampire of the Fallen Dynasty. Unable to determine whether he was the Lion King Agency’s ally, Shio couldn’t divulge details of the operation to him on her own authority—even if the result was to court Iblisveil’s anger.
“I am…not authorized to speak about—” Shio’s lips trembled as she replied.
“Oh, so you refuse to answer my question, Shio Hikawa. There is value in a faithful hound.”
Iblisveil smiled ferociously. The raw bloodlust emanating from him chilled Shio’s entire body.
“However, if you have no intention of informing he who saved your lives, you are already beneath any beast. Therefore, I must administer appropriate discipline. Perhaps you will be more forthcoming with information after I have torn off one of your limbs—”
Shio could not avert her eyes from the gleaming-white fangs bared by Iblisveil’s smile.
She had a premonition: If she let her guard down for a split second, she would be killed. Cold sweat rose from her every pore. Asagi Aiba is no normal person if she’s fine working with a monster like this, thought Shio.
The fact that Shio still did not bend to Iblisveil’s coercion was due to competitiveness toward her junior, Yukina Himeragi. It was said that Yukina monitored the Fourth Primogenitor, even more of a monster than Iblisveil, twenty-four hours a day. Shio, wanting with all her heart not to lose to her own junior, endured his intimidation.
Seeing Shio like that, Iblisveil grinned with even greater amusement, his ghastly, oppressive might increasing in turn, when…
“Hold up, Your Highness. That’s a little too much teasing for an earnest girl like this. I’m a civilian, so I don’t mind bringing you up to speed on the circumstances.”
Gajou, lying on an army cot, sat up and addressed Iblisveil. In no time at all, the oppressive energy binding Shio in place vanished like it had never existed.
“Gajou?! Are you fit enough to be talking?!”
Asagi stared at the gravely wounded Gajou as she posed her question.
“Ohh, Asagi, huh? The outfits you high schoolers are wearing these days sure are daring. You’re wasted on that fool Kojou.”
“Gyaaa!” went Asagi, letting out a cry as she sank back into the tank.
If only I was only ten years younger, thought Gajou with genuine regret. However, even as he casually shot the breeze, his blood loss caught up with him and his face went pale.
“It’s a tough haul, but I’m managing somehow, thanks to the first aid you gave me, Shio. And to be blunt, I’m gonna pass out if I keep talkin’ like this.”
“…Gajou Akatsuki, the Death Returnee, is it? I heard you were at Dodekatos’s excavation site, but just as rumor would have it, you are a most frivolous man.” Iblisveil cast his eyes on Gajou in minimal admiration. “However, I do not mind if it is you instead. Answer me, then, Gajou Akatsuki. What is the Cleansers’ objective? And what are you doing at this lake?”
“To be blunt, I don’t know for sure what the terrorists want. But what I can say for certain is that the Lion King Agency’s goal is to seal Avalon. So before I knew it, the lake was all frozen like this, and the demon beasts appeared out of the blue—”
“Avalon? What is that?” Iblisveil furrowed his brows as he redirected the witness.
“A relic of The Cleansing. That’s the cover story, at least. Supposedly, a god-killing weapon sealed by the Devas, just like the Fourth Primogenitor.”
“Hmph, I see… You used Dodekatos’s demonic energy to try to seal a relic of The Cleansing, did you not? Only short-lived humans would think of coming up with names for god-killing weapons.”
Iblisveil slowly surveyed the frozen Kannawa Lake. Vast demonic energy that could freeze over sixty million cubic tons of artificial lake water was surely a threat to Iblisveil as well. A look of awe mixed with exasperation came over him.
“So this glacier is the work of Alrescha Glacies, then. Even removed from the blood and flesh of the host, what incredible strength! …Though it irritates me to speak the words, it is not called a primogenitor’s Beast Vassal for nothing. Were Avalon a simple god-killing weapon, this might well be able to seal it away.”
“Then, why…?” Shio murmured, unwittingly speaking aloud.
Truthfully, the resealing of Avalon had failed, and a great number of demon beasts had spawned. This had invited the pernicious terrorists known as the Cleansers to intervene. The Lion King Agency’s operation had failed.
“That is self-evident. This Avalon you attempted to seal was not a god-killing weapon at all. I am skeptical that it was even sealed away to begin with.”
Iblisveil made the assertion in a scornful tone. His words left Shio reeling.
“B-but…if what we tried to seal wasn’t a god-killing weapon, then what exactly is Avalon…?”
“Why, when you heard it was a relic of The Cleansing, did you assume it was a weapon?”
“Huh?”
Iblisveil’s question struck Shio like a sucker punch.
She’d accepted the explanations from Shirona Kuraki and the others without a single doubt, so she’d never realized it, but now that someone had brought it up, the link between relic and weapon was a dubious one. Why did I trust that it was a dangerous weapon hidden inside Avalon without question? regretfully thought Shio.
There hadn’t been a single shred of evidence to prove such a thing; none, save the vague folklore that calamity slept within.
“The first thing people think of when they hear the word relic is some kind of treasure. If it was, say, a divine treasure granted to the one qualified to succeed the Sinful God—well, that would be under some serious protection.”
“So it was being protected rather than sealed away… Then, don’t tell me, the dragon we saw earlier was…”
“A dragon…you sa
y?”
When Shio spoke, it was Iblisveil’s turn to be taken aback.
“Shio Hikawa. You saw a dragon?”
“Y-yes. But it was for only a second, and because the mist is in the way, I don’t know where it is now…”
Shio’s voice went shrill under the scrutiny of Iblisveil’s glare.
The enormous crevice left in the frozen surface of the lake came to the back of her mind. It was an unnatural fissure—as if some enormous creature had crawled out of it. Perhaps that was a trace left behind by a dragon sleeping at the bottom of the lake.
Poking her head out from the tank’s hatch, Asagi Aiba skeptically murmured, “A dragon… A real, live dragon?”
“If it was flying around, we’d catch sight of it pretty fast, I’d think… I mean, there’s still a ton of SDF troops around.”
Hearing this, Gajou, still on top of the army cot, leaped to his feet as he suddenly realized something. “The SDF…! I see… So that’s how it is… Ow!!”
“Ah, Gajou Akatsuki?”
“My, my,” said Iblisveil, shaking his head in exasperation, when his gaze suddenly sharpened. “Asagi, Lydianne…take shelter inside the tank for the time being.”
“What?”
Iblisveil’s sudden warning confused Asagi.
The vampire prince was glaring at a group of soldiers walking across the embankment. The armed men were heading straight toward Shio and company.
“Keep your heads down. You do not wish for trouble with the local authorities, I trust?”
“Ah, yeah. Sorry, we’ll let you handle this.”
“I am in your debt, Lord Iblis.”
“Hmph.”
The pair in the robot tank closed the pilot-seat hatch. Civilians like Lydianne Didier and Asagi Aiba riding a tank in an area closed by the Self-Defense Forces was an issue, but if they looked like retainers of Iblisveil, the SDF couldn’t lay a finger on them—that was most likely the basis of Iblisveil’s thinking. Shio found it surprising that Iblisveil would show such consideration toward the two girls.
“Who are they, Shio Hikawa?” Iblisveil asked the girl.
His attention was on the man with the soldiers who looked like a commanding officer. The man’s entire body was wrapped in fresh bandages; perhaps he’d been involved in combat with the demon beasts.
The Knight of the Sinful God Page 15
