“Are you all right, senpai?! Yuiri?!”
“Yukii…!”
“Himeragi! The wyvern…?!”
Seeing that they were safe, although shaken, Yukina gently pointed in front of her. The wyvern she’d been fighting was writhing on the ground, one wing and its torso deeply gouged. The hydra’s cannon fire had struck it.
No—rather, Yukina had lured it into a position where the hydra’s attack would make it a victim. Yukina had used herself as a decoy to make one enemy shoot the other. With Snowdrift Wolf, she’d shredded the pitch-black aura that would have otherwise protected the wyvern.
“…A Schneewaltzer of the Lion King Agency…a troublesome weapon indeed. I had heard it could rend any barrier, but to think it would even sever the encroachment of Nod,” Azama murmured in a low, half-admiring tone.
“Encroachment of Nod…?”
Kojou mulled over the unfamiliar words Azama had let slip from his lips.
“Nod is another world, that where Cain, the Sinful God, was exiled. So, too, is it a hollow world where, through The Cleansing, the god lost his omnipotence…”
Surprisingly, Azama came right out and replied to Kojou’s question.
I see, thought Kojou as he made a wordless nod. If all demonic energy in the world was the product of Cain, and Cain’s power did not function in Nod, it meant Nod was a world where demonic energy did not exist.
The black aura that nullified demonic energy was actually traces of Nod leaking into their world.
“So that antique-looking armor is a sorcerous device for controlling the encroachment of Nod, then? I thought you just liked dressing up.”
“I hardly desire to dress up like a jester, but—I accept it as a necessary evil. After all, thanks to this, I am able to obtain the power to wipe demons like you off the face of the Earth in one fell swoop.”
Azama spread his jet-black mantle. However, the night-colored aura that oozed forth covered not thin air but was instead silently absorbed by the ground at Azama’s feet.
Perplexed, Kojou watched as the black shadowlike marring spread beneath his own feet. This smear became countless blades lacking any depth, emerging from underground to pierce Kojou’s body—
“What…?!”
At once, Kojou was stricken by fierce pain and dull impacts.
“Senpai!”
“Kojou?!”
Yukina and Yuiri looked over, eyes wide in shock. Even with their ability to peer into the future, the girls had been unable to respond to the invisible subterranean attack.
“Gah… Haah…!”
The blades, the color of night, impaling Kojou’s entire body had dampened his vampiric powers. Kojou coughed up blood, unable to speak a word, thus robbed of the ability to summon Beast Vassals. It took all the strength he could muster to save Glenda by thrusting her off his back.
The darkness spreading at Kojou’s feet proceeded to encroach on space itself, swallowing Kojou’s entire body.
“Yuiri, don’t… Take Glenda…and run…”
Just as Yuiri rushed over, Kojou put a stop to her with a look alone. At that point, if Yuiri carelessly touched Kojou, she would be dragged into the void with him.
Yukina thrust out her silver spear, but the encroachment of Nod was swifter. Kojou completely melted into the darkness, leaving only a black ooze behind.
“Primary objective accomplished. Captain Okiyama, take care of the rest.”
“Copy that.”
Accepting Azama’s instructions, the gunmetal magic user descended from atop the hydra. Azama intended for her to take Yukina and Yuiri on by herself while he captured Glenda.
“I shall buy time! Yuiri, please take Glenda and go!”
“Yukii…!”
Watching from behind, hesitation ran through Yuiri’s eyes as she watched Yukina enter a combat stance.
It was impossible for Yukina to take on Azama, Okiyama, and the hydra all by herself. Having them take one another down with friendly fire like she’d done with the wyvern probably wouldn’t work, either.
That said, if Yuiri went down with her, it would leave no one to protect Glenda.
What should I do? anguished Yuiri when, before her eyes, a completely unexpected act came from Glenda.
“Uu!”
Of her own will, Glenda leaped into the pitch-black stagnation remaining on the ground’s surface—the hollow darkness that had swallowed Kojou. A moment after Glenda, too, vanished, the darkness continued to shrink until it dissipated altogether.
With a flapping sound, only the parka she had worn fell onto the ground.
“G…Glenda?!”
“What…?!”
It was not only Yuiri and Yukina who were surprised. Azama, himself the one supposedly controlling the encroachment, gazed dumbfounded at the unexpected turn of events. He exclaimed in a flabbergasted tone, “The vessel herself…swallowed…by Nod…! How can this be…?!”
The despair of his quivering voice rammed home the stark truth.
Even the power of the Knight of the Sinful God could not bring back that consumed by the darkness.
5
A city of never-ending summer—
There, over the pacific, floated a tiny island.
A man-made isle surrounded by a sea that was red like blood.
The sky was scarlet, as if just after sunset. The ruin of an enormous building towered against the background of the vermillion sky. The broken and battered buildings of the surrounding area had been destroyed, burned to the ground. It looked like a scene right after a great natural disaster had struck—or the immediate aftermath of being razed in the midst of armed conflict.
“What…is this place?”
Kojou frailly murmured as he surveyed the ruins that somehow felt familiar to him. The voice was mixed with an anguished groan.
Azama’s attack led to his entire body being impaled and swallowed by the hollow darkness. When Kojou came to, he was all alone in a strange world.
The raw wounds left all over his body were proof that this was neither a memory nor a dream. The clothes on his body, and even the ground at his feet, were drenched in his own blood as it flowed down his body.
Having lost his vampiric regenerative abilities, it was probably only a matter of time before he died from blood loss. But in that moment, it was not his own life or death that he noticed, but the world itself.
“Don’t tell me this is…Itogami Island…?!”
Kojou was bewildered when he realized that the rubble of the wrecked building bore an uncanny resemblance to Itogami Island’s Keystone Gate. The layout of the streets—and the monorail-like overhead structure that surrounded the artificial isle—greatly resembled those of Itogami Island. But—
“No, it’s different…”
Perplexed, Kojou shook his head when he realized the signs and billboards bore characters he’d never seen before.
As he suspected, this world was not Itogami Island. Though greatly resembling it, this was a different land altogether.
The encroachment of Nod should’ve swallowed me up, so what am I doing in a place like this? That was what Kojou asked himself.
It was the next moment that he sensed someone else approach.
“Who’s there…?! Is someone out there?”
When Kojou turned back, his eyes caught sight of a single man standing in the rubble of a ruined building.
The evening sunrays at his back rendered Kojou unable to get a good look at his face.
What Kojou did recognize was the broken spear he held against his chest—
And beyond that, he noticed the presence of twelve hazy, black wings floating behind his back.
The man looked like he was in mourning—or perhaps singing…
“……”
Finally, Kojou realized that the man’s lips were trembling, as if he was trying to tell him something.
But before those words could be voiced, the man faded and then…vanished.
At the same time, Kojou realized that the i
sland in ruins had begun silently dissipating as well, turning into minute particles of light.
It had begun to fade and vanish, like a memory from long ago—
“Remnants of thoughts…or something like that?”
Kojou felt acute nervousness as he surveyed the landscape being consumed by darkness all around him, for the artificial ground beneath Kojou’s feet, and even Kojou’s own flesh and blood, had slowly begun to dissipate as well.
Everything was emitting a pale light as it melted, vanishing into the void.
“Ugh… This ain’t good…”
Kojou gritted his teeth as he suffered the ferocious encroachment of Nod.
Am I gonna vanish in a place like this? he thought, resentment and anger spreading within.
But as he currently was, Kojou had no power with which to resist his annihilation. It would be the same if he still had his vampire powers. After all, only the Divine Oscillation Effect of Snowdrift Wolf could oppose the encroachment of Nod.
The silver spear only Yukina possessed—
“What the…?!”
The instant the sight of Yukina and the spear dubbed Snowdrift Wolf arose in the back of his mind, ferocious pain ran through Kojou’s right hand.
It was as if he’d received a sudden jolt from an invisible circuit embedded into the back of his hand, sending electricity coursing through him.
The next moment, the assault on Kojou’s body…stopped.
All around Kojou, he was enveloped by a transparent, radiant membrane that resembled a soap bubble. That membrane protected Kojou from the black void.
“A barrier? This light… It’s the same as Snowdrift Wolf’s…”
Kojou murmured, beside himself as he realized the true nature of the glowing membrane that had halted the encroachment of Nod.
Without question, it was a Divine Oscillation Effect barrier that had rescued Kojou from the danger of annihilation. He’d seen and remembered Yukina employing similar techniques several times over.
Yet, Yukina wasn’t there. And yet, such a powerful Divine Oscillation Effect had been embedded into Kojou’s right hand—he could only think of a single possibility.
“Paper Noise… Back then, she must have…!”
The bizarre wound purportedly still carved into his right hand had vanished. The lost feeling in his right hand had returned. In the final instant of their clash, Koyomi Shizuka had sealed Kojou’s right hand with a barrier ritual.
Realizing that she couldn’t stop Kojou from leaving Itogami Island, she’d taken out an insurance policy. She’d secretly planted a trump card into Kojou that could save him from annihilation should he encounter an enemy that could manipulate the encroachment of Nod—without Kojou ever suspecting.
Kiriha Kisaki had identified what had been carved into his right hand as a sealing ritual. However, seals were not limited to ensuring your opponent could not escape. Depending on the circumstance, seals were employed to protect what was on the inside. It was the latter which Koyomi Shizuka had carved into Kojou.
Thinking back upon it, the wound in Kojou’s right hand hadn’t hurt when he’d summoned his Beast Vassals. Without exception, Kojou’s wound throbbed right after someone had used a sorcerous device of the Sinful God. That wound had reacted to the encroachment of Nod.
Even so, thought Kojou, sighing.
Thanks to Paper Noise’s spell, he’d escaped instant annihilation, but that didn’t mean he’d returned to his own world. The Divine Oscillation Effect barrier wouldn’t last forever, either.
Unless he could find a way to slip out from Nod, annihilation really was only a matter of time.
Kojou thought What should I do? and clutched his head—
“Dah… Kojou…!”
A dragon’s roar made the air inside the barrier tremble.
An enormous dragon seemed to be swimming in hollow darkness, heading straight in Kojou’s direction.
By the time he began to fear he would be squished flat by its overwhelming mass, the dragon transformed into a girl.
Glenda slipped right through the Divine Oscillation Effect barrier and glommed on to Kojou’s back.
“G-Glenda?! How the hell did you get here…?!”
Kojou looked back in astonishment at the side of the naked, innocently smiling girl.
Glenda touched one of his bleeding wounds and asked, “Does it hurt? Kojou, does it hurt?”
“If you understand, then don’t touch like that…” He grimaced and weakly groaned as she nonchalantly stroked his wound sites.
Of course, he had no idea why Glenda had appeared in that place. He was mindful of Yukina and Yuiri as well, both left behind in their original world. Either way, Glenda’s appearance meant that waiting for annihilation was no longer an option. He had to bring her back to the real world by any means necessary.
“Shit, why the hell did you have to come here, too?”
“Bring…Kojou back. Make Yuiri…happy,” replied the girl with hair the color of steel.
“Ah, so that’s what it is,” Kojou said quietly, sighing. She must have leaped into that world of emptiness solely to make Yuiri happy.
“Glenda, do you know what we’ve got to do to get outta here?” he asked as he gingerly held the girl in his arms.
In any event, the fact she was naked meant her moving away from him posed a number of problems. Also, he wanted to avoid carelessly letting go of her and letting them get separated. As a result, the girl was pressed right against Kojou’s body.
Glenda’s beautiful, hematite-like eyes stared right back at Kojou.
“Glenda…understands… Glenda…is the vessel for the information… Must reach…the priestess…”
“…Priestess?”
Kojou was perplexed as he listened to Glenda’s terribly fragmented words. The warmth of humanity was gradually vanishing, and her innocent expression shifted to one that almost seemed robotic.
Glenda was enveloped by a faint glow, and her contours became vague and blurred.
“Bring back…Kojou… Everyone will be…happy…”
Glenda, wreathed in blue light, transformed before Kojou’s eyes.
Kojou was on guard for her to become a dragon, but what appeared was an unexpected girl’s face.
She had silver hair and blue eyes. She had a face as gentle as a saint’s—Kanon Kanase.
“Kanase…? How…?!”
Before the surprised Kojou, light surrounded Glenda once more. The next to appear was Yuuma Tokoyogi’s androgynous face. Then, La Folia’s regal visage. Then, Sayaka Kirasaka’s elegant figure rose to the fore.
That was when Kojou finally realized the reason why Glenda knew what they looked like—
“You’re…sifting through my memories…?”
She was displaying the girls whose blood Kojou had once drunk.
An indigo-haired homunculus girl appeared, and after that, Glenda changed into the final girl.
Yukina Himeragi. The small-statured Sword Shaman whose blood was the first Kojou had drank of his own will—
“…My…blood… Please, drink my blood…”
Speaking those words in Yukina’s form, Glenda offered the nape of her neck.
Yukina’s voice, Yukina’s appearance—both were straight out of Kojou’s memories.
“Senpai, through vampiric action, you will gain the memory of the blood… I will grant you the power of the information inside me. The power to defy the encroachment of Nod.”
Glenda—or Yukina—took Kojou’s hand, gently guiding it to her own bosom.
She pressed it over the faint bulge of her chest, so that he might feel the beating of the heart beneath.
“Wai… What are you…?!”
The sensation of smooth flesh and soft firmness he had never touched before blanked out Kojou’s thoughts. His canines throbbed, and his throat was struck by a powerful sense of dryness.
Heavy breathing. Heartbeats. Body warmth. The comfortable presence of her touch—her scent.
Azama had called her a vessel. Glenda had said she was a vessel for information.
Then who filled her with that information…? he wondered.
A song trickled out from Glenda’s lips. A tune of lament that the boy had sung, clutching the broken spear to his chest in the light of dusk.
“I get it… Glenda, you’re…”
Kojou murmured as his eyes were dyed scarlet. Glenda was no longer in Yukina’s form; she’d already returned to her own. However, Kojou obeyed his own vampiric impulses and sank his fangs into her slender neck.
He felt a little guilt toward Yukina, but even so, he had to bring Glenda back with him.
Back to their own world… To the world of the living.
“Ah…”
The girl squirmed in Kojou’s arms, letting out a slender, frail breath.
And then—
6
The hydra’s attack hollowed out the ground. Yukina and Yuiri just barely managed to evade it.
Azama, encased in the gunmetal knight’s armor, deployed the nullifying aura over the surface of the ground once more.
He no doubt meant to open the once-closed passage to Nod anew. Perhaps he hoped that Glenda would return on her own power.
In that case, Yukina and Yuiri’s presence was a nuisance to him. Hence, the gunmetal magic user—Mikage Okiyama—was playing her support role for Azama by attempting to eliminate the pair.
“Yukii! I’ll draw off the big one, so while I do that—!”
“Right!”
Yukina left Yuiri to take on the hydra as she aimed at the gunmetal magic user who’d disembarked onto the ground. Either way, Yukina’s Snowdrift Wolf could not defeat the armor protecting the hydra.
But if she defeated Mikage Okiyama, the thin film of nothingness covering the hydra would vanish. If that happened, Yuiri could surely destroy the hydra afterward.
“—?!”
Yukina’s spear rent the magic user’s robe. But the pitch-black aura enveloping Okiyama did not dissipate. Indeed, she stripped off her own robe, employing it as a shield to obstruct Yukina’s vision.
Then, from a blind spot behind the robe, the rod hurtled toward Yukina. A gleaming, glossy-black rod—
Yukina just barely parried the blow. Had she not blocked it, the impact would have blown her back quite a distance. Mikage Okiyama, seeing that Yukina had not even lost her balance from such a blow, smiled in a show of admiration.
The Knight of the Sinful God Page 21
