Golden Days

by Gakuto Mikumo

  They’d thought this was because the Priestess of Abel was forcing the power of The Cleansing to activate. That assumption was wrong, though. The reason the Priestess of Abel could not draw out The Cleansing’s full capabilities was not because she wasn’t the proper priestess; what had sealed that power was Asagi.

  Asagi wasn’t locked inside the Coffin—it was the other way around. She’d holed herself up in the Coffin to protect Kojou and the others. Knowing her, she was probably waiting around bored while everyone else gave the Priestess of Abel what was coming to her.

  To the very end, Asagi had never told Kojou Come save me, dammit! She’d said “Save our island.” Truly, from the beginning, she had been the one saving Kojou.

  “And…what of it?!”

  Meiga’s eyes clouded in anger. The outer layer of his composure was stripped away. Now all that remained underneath was his anger and hatred toward the world.

  “Even if it is incomplete, The Cleansing’s might is already in our hands. The Priestess of Cain can resist all she wants. Once I annihilate all of you, I can take my time dealing with her—!”

  “Nah, Meiga Itogami. Your revenge ends here. And that’s because Asagi gave us the chance we needed to beat you to a pulp—”

  Fangs bared in his grin, Kojou released a huge burst of demonic energy from his whole body. Meiga, supposedly able to nullify demonic energy, stood awed by its sheer force, retreating a single step in fear.

  “Now let’s get this started, Meiga Itogami— From here on, this is my fight!”

  “Silence—!”

  Meiga fired the thousands of bullets hovering in the air around him. Against their power to alter the world itself, robbing a vampire of his supernatural power, even a Beast Vassal of the Fourth Primogenitor could not escape unscathed.

  Then a dazzling, glimmering barrier from the Divine Oscillation Effect stopped every last one of those bullets cold.

  “No, senpai. This is our fight—!”

  Driving her silver spear into the floor, Yukina smiled with a firm expression. From her entire body, divine essence far surpassing human limits flowed through the silver spear.

  That power forced back the vermillion particles, counteracting Meiga’s bullets.

  “You… You intend to interfere with me to the very end, Yukina Himeragi—!”

  Meiga Itogami directed his black spear at her. No matter how much she amplified her divine essence, as long as Meiga wielded the spear that nullified spiritual energy, she could not harm him in any way.

  Knowing this full well, Yukina resolutely leaped forward. Enshrouded in a pale radiance, her silver spear rent the air as it stretched toward Meiga.

  “Snowdrift Wolf!”

  “A Schneewaltzer! As if such a thing could—”

  Meiga’s black spear clashed with Yukina’s silver spear. No matter how great the force of her running start, the feather-light Yukina could never overpower the jiangshi’s brute force.

  Even so, it was not a glimmer of despair that hovered in Yukina’s eyes—but trust.

  “C’mon over, Cor-Tauri Succinum—!”

  “What?!!”

  A stake of scalding magma burst up, destroying the floor beneath Meiga’s feet. This attack belonged to the Fourth Primogenitor’s Beast Vassal Number Two, a minotaur with a body of magma.

  It harnessed the power of earth, so it could only use a heavily limited portion of its power on an artificial isle floating atop the ocean. Even so, its magma spear, reaching several thousand degrees, could burn a jiangshi body to ash with ease.

  Furthermore, with Yukina holding his attention, Meiga could not fend off the attack.

  “Ugh—High Priestess!”

  Backed into a corner, Meiga called out to the Priestess of Abel. The ghostly girl constructed out of vermillion particles deployed a bulwark around Meiga. Having barely held out against Kojou’s attack, Meiga retreated.

  As he did so, fresh yet stagnant blood spurted from his left shoulder.

  During the moment when he was defending against Kojou’s Beast Vassal, Yukina’s spear had lightly rent his flesh.

  “So it really does have that flaw, Meiga Itogami…just like she figured.” Kojou seemed almost disappointed as he exhaled.

  Yukina had pointed out their chance for victory against Meiga Itogami, and it was Paper Noise who had shown the way.

  During the battle at Stratum Zero, Paper Noise had injured Meiga Itogami, even though he undoubtedly had Fangzahn active.

  “The reason your Fangzahn is called a failure—I had thought it was because only a jiangshi could make proper use of it. But that is not so,” Yukina said before she landed on her feet, spinning backward as she did so. With a diligent poise of her spear, she continued:

  “Fangzahn is a frightening weapon that can nullify both demonic and spiritual energy. However, it can only eliminate one of those forces at a time. Its flaw is that it cannot eliminate spiritual and demonic energy simultaneously. That was why it was deemed a failure and discontinued.”

  Meiga listened in silence as Yukina’s assertion seemed to drive him further into a corner.

  The Divine Oscillation Effect of Demon-Purging Twin Spear Type Zero—Fangzahn—obstructed Paper Noise’s ability. In other words, this was proof that Paper Noise relied on magical energy rather than spiritual.

  In spite of this, Fangzahn, which supposedly nullified both spiritual and demonic energy, had failed to block her attack. And the reason why……was because Meiga had been nullifying Yukina’s spiritual energy at the same time. Meiga could not fend off magical energy while also negating spiritual energy. If, in contrast, he was negating demonic power instead, he was defenseless against the spiritual—just as when Kojou’s Beast Vassal attacked him, Yukina’s spear reached his body.

  “Yes—I had not wished to accept that such a flawed divine armament was my own craftsmanship. Hence, why it is a discontinued weapon.” Meiga detested the black spear in his hands. “However, you have realized this too late. By using it with the world-altering power of The Cleansing, I can compensate for Fangzahn’s flaw. You all never had a chance of victory to begin with!”

  Once again, Meiga summoned his vermillion bullets out of midair. The power of The Cleansing was bolstered by the dragon lines that coursed over Itogami Island’s surface. As long as he remained atop that island, Meiga could employ a nearly inexhaustible supply of energy. If the battle became prolonged, it would be Kojou’s side that would be wiped out first.

  But even so, Kojou’s expression did not falter.

  “That ain’t true at all! C’mon over, Beast Vassal Number Ten, Dabih Crystallus!!”

  “What—?!”

  Kojou had summoned a beautiful aquatic dragon with glittering silver scales. On its front limbs were translucent wings, and its ram-like spiral horn was a beautiful, gleaming pillar of crystal.

  Captivated by that crystal pillar, the Priestess of Abel’s movements came to a halt. The vermillion bullets concealing the whole of Meiga’s body disintegrated as well.

  “A Beast Vassal of the Fourth Primogenitor—?! The power of Charm?! Don’t tell me it’s controlling the High Priestess?!”

  Kojou’s Beast Vassal had seized control of the spiritual entity that was the Priestess of Abel. Realizing this, Meiga lashed out with Fangzahn, attempting to sever the Beast Vassal’s demonic energy.

  During that time, Kojou turned to his small-statured homeroom teacher and shouted, “Natsuki, I’m counting on ya!”

  “Hmph.”

  Instantly reading Kojou’s intent, Natsuki opened a teleportation gate.

  The destination of the warp in space was the sky above Keystone Gate’s Stratum Zero. Thanks to the area having sustained major damage in the previous battle, civilians were not permitted entry. Even if Kojou unleashed power in a somewhat spectacular fashion, he no longer needed to worry about involving the citizens.

  “Let’s go, Meiga Itogami! C’mon over, Sadalmelik Albus! Al-Nasl Minium! Kiffa Ater!”

 
; Kojou summoned a slew of the Beast Vassals he had tamed. An undine with the lower body of a great serpent, a scarlet bicorn, and an enormous sword controlling gravity itself bore down on Meiga, unleashing their demonic energy without restraint.

  “How…foolish…!” Meiga exclaimed as he deployed a vermillion wall.

  The Beast Vassals’ demonic energy whipped up a destructive storm in the area surrounding Keystone Gate. The artificial ground split open, buildings crumbled, and water flooded the various streets.

  The fortification protecting Meiga wobbled insecurely as sparks scattered from it. Supplied with magical energy from the dragon lines, the power of The Cleansing was theoretically inexhaustible, but it was limited by the extent of the Priestess of Abel’s computational ability. Temporal regression of matter, blast winds, gravity—calculating how to nullify demonic energy of such differing characteristics required her to endure tremendous stress.

  All that said, he could not use Fangzahn to nullify demonic energy thanks to the divine essence from Yukina’s silver spear. If Meiga were to use his ability to nullify Kojou’s demonic energy, the girl would no doubt strike at him that very instant.

  And then—

  “I’m not done yet! C’mon over, Regulus Aurum! Natra Cinereus! Mesarthim Adamas!”

  Kojou summoned another wave of even more Beast Vassals. Demonic energy attacks of the other elements assaulted Meiga in a volley from all sides, only further increasing the burden on the Priestess of Abel. His defenses were cracking even more.

  “I see now. The various elements possessed by the Fourth Primogenitor’s Beast Vassals enable him to oppose the power of The Cleansing—”

  Damaged by the backlash of the vermillion particles, Meiga twisted his lips into a smile.

  The Fourth Primogenitor, who was constructed to be the World’s Mightiest Vampire, was a god-killing weapon built for the sake of defeating Cain, the Sinful God. Such a dangerous being had not been granted twelve Beast Vassals without there being any meaning or purpose.

  “However, oh so incomplete Fourth Primogenitor—how long can your mind hold out while using this many Beast Vassals simultaneously? You truly are no threat to me—!”

  Proud, Meiga had no doubts of his impending victory. Even simultaneous attacks from six Beast Vassals had not pushed the bulwark beyond his control. At some point, Kojou’s strength would be exhausted, and then there would be none left to bring The Cleansing to a halt.

  Even so, Kojou smiled, shaking his head as he said, “Yeah, I guess. If it were just me ’n’ Himeragi fighting you, yeah—”

  “What…?!”

  The whites of Meiga’s eyes were plain to see as he opened them wide in fright. He was staring at the top deck of a huge submarine—Cain’s Coffin. Boldly parked atop it was a red robotic tank.

  Using the drills equipped on the tank’s forelegs, it busted the submarine’s hull, and a lone girl could be seen emerging from that large hole. She wore a school uniform, awry in just the right ways, and her hair was styled in an extravagant manner. This was a high school girl who embodied the latest fashions. She carried a standard notebook PC at her side, the kind sold all over the city.

  “I doth apologize for the wait, Lady Empress—”

  The driver of the robot tank addressed the girl in a grandiose tone.

  The girl crawled out of the submarine and stretched her back, almost as if she’d just awakened, exhaling before she complained, “I really was getting sick of waiting. I had so much time on my hands like you wouldn’t believe.”

  Speaking these words, the girl opened her notebook PC without fanfare. Her colorfully painted nails nimbly clacked on the keyboard.

  “Well, thanks to that, I’ve put on the finishing touches to prepare a revenge well served— Let’s go, Mogwai!”

  “Keh-keh. Roger that, li’l miss!”

  A very sarcastic-sounding artificial voice echoed above Meiga’s head.

  The voice was coming from the ghostly, scarred girl floating overhead. The vermillion particles that had composed her body began crumbling away and transforming. The girl’s beautiful yet unsightly form changed into that of an avatar—that of a badly sewn teddy bear.

  “Wha—?!”

  The vermillion particles blanketing the area around Meiga vanished. The dissipation of the Priestess of Abel meant that control of The Cleansing had been hijacked.

  However, the power of The Cleansing itself had by no means dissipated. From the avatar known as Mogwai, a number of vermillion bullets shot out, descending upon the destroyed sections of Keystone Gate.

  It was a moment later that a miracle occurred in Keystone Gate and the buildings surrounding it.

  The building that had turned into a pillar of salt and collapsed, the supposedly destroyed exterior wall, the traces of destruction left by Kojou’s Beast Vassals—surrounded by a vermillion glow, they were restored to their former state in the blink of an eye. The changes in the world arising from The Cleansing flowed backward, re-creating the destroyed buildings. Probably, the SSG members killed by Meiga had been restored as well.

  “Asagi Aiba… So this is the power of the true Priestess of Cain…?!”

  Meiga Itogami was left behind on the ground’s surface, his voice trembling in horror.

  He no longer had the Priestess of Abel at his back. Thanks to Asagi having hijacked Itogami Island’s main computer—the Five Elements—the Priestess of Abel had disappeared.

  “I see… From the beginning, the Fourth Primogenitor’s attack was intended to rob me of the High Priestess’s computational ability. He was certain that if I lost that, Asagi Aiba would seize back the Five Elements—”

  Meiga, wobbling to his feet, readied his black spear. His hollow eyes were directed at Yukina. Even if his desire for the complete resurrection of Cain was lost to him, his hatred for her, as she inched ever closer to becoming a Faux-Angel, was undiminished.

  Fangzahn still remained in Meiga’s hands. That cursed spear granted him the power to nullify spiritual energy, and thus, to defeat a Faux-Angel.

  However, Kojou stood before him.

  “—It’s over, Meiga Itogami,” he declared quietly.

  From his raised right arm, a cloud of demonic energy resembling fresh blood flowed forth.

  “Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa—!!”

  Meiga Itogami screamed. The blades of his black spear traced a complex magical symbol that floated up, enveloped by dazzling demonic energy–nullifying radiance.

  It was then that a solemn chant woven by a girl’s lips resonated across them.

  Raising her silver spear aloft, Yukina danced. She looked like a swordsman praying to the gods for victory. Or perhaps she danced like a priestess to whom victory had been foretold.

  “—I, Maiden of the Lion, Sword Shaman of the High God, beseech thee.”

  “I, Kojou Akatsuki, inheritor of the Kaleid Blood, release thee from thy bonds!”

  Shrouded in the radiance of divine essence, Yukina sprinted.

  Simultaneously, Kojou deployed his own demonic energy. It transformed into the figure of a sentient, phantasmal beast—an enormous, twin-headed dragon covered in scales the color of quicksilver.

  “O purifying light, O divine wolf of the snowdrift, by your steel divine will, strike down the devils before me!”

  “C’mon over, Al-Meissa Mercury—!”

  The voices of the World’s Mightiest Vampire and of his observer echoed together.

  It was a simultaneous attack of demonic energy and divine essence. Meiga’s black spear could not nullify them both.

  “Why…? You two are victims just like I am, used by the Lion King Agency… And yet…why are you…?”

  The maws of the twin-headed dragon consumed Meiga’s black spear, breaking it apart.

  And then, bathed in the divine essence enveloping Snowdrift Wolf, Meiga’s slender body wavered. As if trying to grasp some unseen light, his hand reached out, finding nothing but empty air as he finally fell to his knees, collapsing on the s
pot.

  “Touka…”

  His lips trembled slightly. The fragments of his shattered spear made a hard clang as they fell onto the concrete surface around him.

  All that remained was a gentle tranquility—

  A tranquility declaring that The Cleansing had come to an end.

  10

  “Is it over…?”

  Looking down at the immobile Meiga, Kojou murmured, still wary.

  Gently lowering her silver-colored spear, Yukina reoriented herself toward Kojou. A fleeting smile came over her. That frail smile, as if she might vanish that very moment, made Kojou’s heart beat out of his chest.

  “Himeragi!”

  As he gazed on with astonishment, Yukina swayed. Immediately racing forward, he caught her as she fell gently into his arms. The sheer weightlessness of her body made every hair on his neck stand up.

  “I’m…sorry…senpai…”

  Yukina spoke in a whisper. Kojou hugged her tightly.

  “Keep it together, Himeragi! Weren’t you going to keep watching over me forever and ever?!”

  “I am sorry…but…”

  Yukina lifted her head, weakly shaking it side to side. She wore a meek expression. Taking great pains to speak, like it was something very hard to admit, Yukina continued.

  “I am starving…”

  “Huh?”

  At that instant, Kojou likely had an extremely stupid look on his face.

  As Kojou continued his silence, his ears picked up an adorable little growl from Yukina’s stomach.

  “Um…what about becoming a Faux-Angel? How’s your body?”

  Finally coming back to his senses, Kojou posed those questions. He still couldn’t quite wrap his head around an empty stomach having made her dizzy enough to cause her to fall over in such a suggestive manner.

  Yukina herself must have felt rather apologetic about that, for she lowered her gaze.

  “Um…it seems to be fine. My spiritual energy is not running amok, either, so…”

  “Even after pushing it that hard with Snowdrift Wolf?”

  “That’s probably…thanks to the ring…”

  She lifted up her left hand as she spoke. The silver ring handed to them by Yukari was firmly on Yukina’s slender ring finger. Maybe it was just Kojou’s imagination, but the slender slit running along the ring’s center seemed to be faintly glowing red.