“Nn?! Gah…?!”
“What now?!”
Sounds of frustration over losing control of her tank trickled out from Lydianne’s lips. When Asagi looked harder, she saw glowing symbols of light emerging from the ground at the tank’s feet. The semi-corporeal familiars these summoned were clinging to the tank’s joints.
“Gremlins. Island Guard Attack Mages.”
Mogwai calmly analyzed the situation.
Gremlins were a special kind of spirit for military use that excelled at making machines and electronic devices go on the fritz. They were of little value for attacking fellow Attack Mages, but against modern weaponry, like a robotic tank, they were tremendously effective.
“What the hell are they sending Attack Mages after a high school girl with a legit part-time job for?!”
“Setting virtue or legitimacy aside, using magic against a tank seems to have been a good call.”
Mogwai replied casually, like it was no problem of his. The fact was that making its electronic devices run amok had put Lydianne’s tank out of action. However heavy its weapons, a robot tank that couldn’t move was no different than a paperweight.
“Mogwai, can’t you do something?!”
“No can do. Thanks to the gremlins, there are malfunctions in electronic devices all over the area. To be honest, just maintaining this connection is getting…tou…gh…”
“M… Mogwai?!”
The AI’s sarcastic voice had a frail, broken ring to it. The gremlins were affecting even Asagi’s smartphone.
Cut off from digital networks, Asagi was rendered nothing more than a powerless high school girl.
During the time Asagi was unable to move, Island Guard reinforcements arrived, and Asagi found gun barrels trained on her once more.
“This is bad…!”
Asagi unwittingly closed her eyes in the face of desperate peril. The very next moment, Lydianne’s tank suddenly restarted. With a heavy whirlll, the tank turned, protecting Asagi from the armed guardsmen’s gunfire; in contrast, the machine-gun rounds unleashed by the tank mercilessly gunned down the careless guardsmen.
“—Tanker?!”
“I am sorry to have caused you concern. ’Tis disgraceful.”
She heard Lydianne’s bashful voice over the speakers once more. At some point, Mogwai’s signal had come back, too. The gremlins had vanished without a trace.
“How did you break the spell…?”
“’Twas not I. Rather, it was—”
As Lydianne spoke, her targeting camera moved. Asagi turned her head the same way.
A man in a black Chinese garment was standing atop the grass of a taxiway. He was a bespectacled young man with delicate features. His right hand was holding a long, strange-looking spear with tips on both ends.
And someone from the Island Guard was lying faceup at his feet—the Attack Mage controlling the gremlins.
“You’re…the fugitive who was at MAR!” Asagi shouted, tensing up.
The man in the black clothes resembled some kind of ancient mystic. Asagi had met this man once before.
The young man had casually appeared, seemingly to test Asagi’s abilities firsthand. He departed after overwhelming Yukina with his combat capabilities.
“I am. Please forgive my reluctant and prolonged silence, Priestess of Cain.” The youth in black clothes put a hand to his chest and politely bowed toward her.
“What did you…do to that person…?!”
“You need not be concerned. The recoil from the spell being broken merely rendered the individual unconscious. There is no value in shedding the blood of such a lowly caster where thy eyes may see.”
“So you came to save us, then…?”
Asagi looked wary as she glared at the youth holding the spear in his hand. She’d heard that the black spear he called Fangzahn could annihilate magical and spiritual energy in the area around it.
The youth in the black outfit had used that spear’s power to defeat the Island Guard Attack Mage.
“I only did what was expected. After all, thy wish is also the wish of my King.” The youth shot Asagi an adoring gaze as he spoke in a gentle tone.
Asagi felt a shudder through her entire body and stated with annoyance, “What the hell…? You can’t just leave that hanging out there…!”
“He is waiting for you. All is according to the will of our King—”
The youth in black lowered his head with reverence and backed away, clearing the path for Asagi.
“There’s no time, li’l miss. Island Guard reinforcements will arrive within five minutes.”
“Empress!”
“I get it. Let’s go, Tanker.”
Spurred by Mogwai and Lydianne, Asagi sighed and issued her instructions.
The tilt-rotor transport Lydianne had arranged was already prepared for liftoff. Once she and Asagi reached it, they’d be able to fly to the mainland almost immediately.
The youth in the black outfit smiled with satisfaction as he watched Asagi and Lydianne go.
“Someday, we shall meet again. Until then, have a pleasant journey.”
3
The damage from distorting Kojou’s brain had robbed his body of its freedom of movement. He was essentially punch-drunk. Though he saw the silver chains sailing toward him, Kojou could not move a single step.
“Sh…it… C’mon over, Natra—!!”
Kojou instantly summoned a Beast Vassal. Natra Cinereus—the Fourth Primogenitor’s fourth Beast Vassal—symbolized the vampiric ability of transformation into mist. However, the ability’s effective range was not limited to just Kojou; at minimum, solid matter would lose its cohesive power for tens of meters in a radius around him, transforming it all into silver mist. The fact that there was no guarantee it would return to its original form intact made Natra an extremely troublesome Beast Vassal.
Even so, that destructive power was all he could rely on to fend off Natsuki’s silver chains—
“Too late.”
However, Natsuki’s silver chains caught hold of Kojou before his Beast Vassal could materialize. Laeding, the name granted to that relic of the Devas, sealed Kojou’s demonic energy, obstructing the summoning of his Beast Vassal.
“Natsuki… Stop this…!”
“It is not Natsuki to you.”
Visibly sour, Natsuki waved her fan with her left hand. Kojou’s chain-bound body was being dragged into the teleportation gate floating in midair with overwhelming force. The gate no doubt led straight to the Prison Barrier.
Kojou no longer had the power to shake off Natsuki’s chains. Furthermore, Yukina was still lying on the sandy beach.
The tension of the silver chains stretching from thin air increased, and Kojou’s body was sure to be swallowed by the spatial distortion. The instant Kojou grasped this and began struggling in desperation…
Ting—went the high-pitched sound as Natsuki’s silver chains were severed entirely.
“Dwaa?!”
Kojou, suddenly freed from the chains, hit the sand headfirst with great force. As he did, a black-haired girl wearing an old-fashioned sailor uniform landed beside him with a small flutter.
“If even two on one is insufficient, how about three on one?”
Whoosh! Kiriha’s forked spear cut through the air, leaving a sound behind as she turned to face Natsuki.
Kojou stared up at her in surprise. If her own words were to be believed, Kiriha’s objective was to spite the Lion King Agency. There should have been no reason for her to expose herself to the danger of fighting Natsuki.
Naturally, Natsuki seemed to harbor the same question as Kojou. She knitted her brows, glaring at the Black Sword Shaman with a sour look as she said, “Kiriha Kisaki…Priestess of the Six Blades of the Bureau of Astrology. What do you think you are doing?”
Natsuki unleashed an attack before she heard a reply.
The Witch of the Void assaulted Kiriha with the same invisible blast of wind that had sent Yukina flying. She create
d an explosive shock wave by vibrating space itself. Even if it was produced via a spell, the shock wave alone was a simple physical phenomenon, which was why Snowdrift Wolf’s magic-nullifying ability could not defend against it. Of course, it was impossible for a slender spear to parry a shock wave of pure force.
However, without a word, Kiriha lashed out with her forked spear. The next moment, with a great roar, the invisible shock wave barreling toward Kiriha dissipated.
Kiriha had blocked the shock wave with a physical wall invisible to the naked eye.
“How unfortunate, Witch of the Void. I had hoped to establish a favorable rapport between us, but…”
Kiriha spoke in a frigid tone as she waved away the rising cloud of sandy dust.
“Pseudo-spatial severing. I thought that trick belonged to the Lion King Agency’s ponytail girl?”
“It appears I was correct to copy that abominable Shamanic War Dancer’s ritual just in case…”
“I see… The Bureau of Astrology’s Ricercare… A rather convenient toy.”
Natsuki voiced her words of praise in a largely disinterested tone.
The ability of Kiriha’s forked spear was an emulation of ritual spells used by others. To the Priestesses of the Six Blades, experts in anti-demonic beast combat, switching among several abilities according to the circumstance was far more advantageous than a single, powerful ability.
Kiriha was using this ability to re-create the ritual used by Sayaka’s Lustrous Scale, employing an enchantment to copy the effect from severing space itself—thus, a pseudo-spatial severing ritual.
The crack in space created by these attacks obstructed any physical attack. It was this slice in space that had fended off Natsuki’s shock wave.
“But being a copy, it has surely inherited the weaknesses of the original.”
The shock wave could not defeat Kiriha. Having made that judgment, Natsuki reacted quickly.
Like an extraordinarily skilled juggler, Natsuki scattered about tiny creatures from inside the parasol she held. At first glance, they resembled teddy bears. It was a horde of adorable, two-headed beasts.
With agile motions belying their appearance, the beasts surrounded Kojou and Kiriha.
“What the heck are those things…?!”
Kojou could not hide his bewilderment at being surrounded by the cluster of cute critters. Maybe their adorable appearance is supposed to rob us of our will to fight, wondered Kojou in the back of his mind.
However, Kiriha glared hatefully at the beasts and said:
“Witch’s familiars. If you let them touch you, they’ll send one or two of your legs flying.”
“…Are you serious?!”
“…The pseudo-spatial severing cannot defend against an attack from all directions at once.”
“Don’t tell me that was her plan…?!”
Kiriha’s calm murmur made Kojou’s face go cold.
Lustrous Scale’s seemingly invulnerable bulwark had a number of weaknesses. One was that the crack in space only faced a single direction. A second was that the effect only lasted for an instant. If Natsuki’s familiars rushed them all at once, Kiriha could not fend them off alone.
“Fourth Primogenitor!”
“I know! C’mon over, Al-Meissa Mercury—!”
The horde of beasts leaped at them from all sides. Kojou summoned his Beast Vassal before even seeing the creatures. The vast demonic energy he scattered about solidified into a quicksilver-scaled, two-headed dragon, the Dimension Eater. With its enormous maws, the two-headed dragon swallowed Natsuki’s familiars—and the very space they occupied—whole.
“—Reverberate!”
Kiriha launched an attack through the crack between the overwhelmingly destructive attacks. She fished out thin metal sheets from the cleavage of her uniform, and these transformed into a pair of black leopards.
Simultaneously, Kiriha herself leaped into action, spear in hand.
Thanks to Kojou’s Beast Vassal’s rough eating habits, the space around them was torn asunder. Even Natsuki could not teleport under those circumstances. She’d no doubt judged this was the time to strike Natsuki down.
And Natsuki made no move to elude the attack. Rather than evade it, she opted to counterattack.
Wind coiled around her with a heavy roar as new chains shot out. However, the thickness of these chains was far greater than Laeding. These were steel anchor cables tens of centimeters in diameter thick. Each and every single link of the chain was now its own, vile weapon. Dromi, launched with all the force of a cannon, became a giant cudgel that came swinging at Kiriha’s familiars from the side.
The black leopard shikigami were smashed into pieces with ease.
“Oh n—!”
Using her forked spear as a shield, Kiriha barely managed to fend off a square hit by the chain. However, she could do nothing about the shock wave created by the chain’s sheer mass.
“Kiriha?!”
When Kiriha was blown away, Kojou tried to rush over to her, but Natsuki’s Dromi—the accursed chains—assaulted him. Kojou just barely managed to evade them, and though his balance was heavily thrown off, he subconsciously threw up both his arms, half out of instinct and half out of fear.
As Kojou did so, his face was struck by an invisible shock wave. The Dromi attack had been a simple decoy. Natsuki’s real attack was the blow from his blind spot a moment later.
“Hmph… It would seem you have learned a little.”
Natsuki spoke in apparent praise as her chains returned to the unknown void from whence they came.
“I’m against…corporal punishment…dammit!” Kojou wheezed raggedly as he glared at Natsuki.
His having blocked her shock wave was mostly the product of coincidence. If he hadn’t guarded his chin, this vibration to his brain would have surely finished him. But even if he hardened his defenses, he couldn’t picture that helping take her down. There was no way forward except engaging in a reckless attack.
“Come to think of it…your body that’s here is a clone made with magic, isn’t it?”
Kojou put his breath in order as he posed the question. Natsuki was not a simple sorceress, but a witch. A witch’s ability to freely manipulate a vast quantity of magical energy was granted to her via a pact with a devil. And that pact came with a cost. Natsuki was no exception to that rule.
The cost imposed on Natsuki was “sleep.”
As the warden of the Prison Barrier, she had to continue to sleep—and dream—for all eternity. She was never to grow old, never to touch the flesh of others, simply to continue to dream—
The Natsuki standing before Kojou and the others was a doll she had made using magical energy. In other words, it was nothing more than part of her dream.
“And what of it?”
Natsuki calmly inquired as if to say Why bring that up now?
Certainly, the Natsuki there was a clone. That was also why she was invincible. Even if they defeated her clone, they could not inflict a single scratch on Natsuki’s real body. Even Aya Tokoyogi, a fellow witch, had needed to create a massive upheaval involving all of Itogami Island and pry open the Prison Barrier to attack Natsuki’s real body.
Of course, Kojou could do no such thing. Nor did he need to.
The gist was that all he needed to do was destroy Natsuki’s clone and temporarily render her powerless. During that time, Kojou and the others would reach the airport and get off the island.
“I just wanted to know for sure. In other words, there’s no point holding back, is there?”
“That is tantamount to claiming you could beat me if you didn’t hold back.”
Natsuki spoke with an exasperated tone. The majesty surrounding her threatened to crush Kojou flat, but—
“Sorry, but I have a lot riding on this, too!”
Kojou swept aside that fear and summoned a new Beast Vassal. This was a solemn, ferocious beast over ten meters long, a lightning lion scattering electric flashes everywhere.
; The chains Natsuki wielded were convenient from Kojou’s perspective. Electricity would pass through the chains to Natsuki. Even if Natsuki engaged in attack, the lightning lion could use those chains to transfer damage to her.
However, Natsuki’s expression did not change. She gazed down at Kojou’s Beast Vassal, turning to her own shadow and issuing a single, solemn command.
“—Awaken, Rheingold.”
That instant, a giant emerged behind Natsuki that towered over even Kojou’s summoned beast.
It was a humanoid figure clad in golden armor, rich in both elegance and savagery—a golden, clockwork knight.
Its malevolent presence made the very man-made ground shake.
From inside the thick armor, seemingly locking darkness itself within, Kojou could hear the rumblings of giant gears and motors that sounded like a monstrous roar.
“What the hell is that…?!”
Kojou subconsciously backed up a step as he looked up at the giant knight.
It was not that the quantity of magical energy overwhelmed him. Certainly, the golden knight was emitting incredible magical energy, but the same went for Kojou’s Beast Vassal. The nature of their power was simply…different.
The golden knight construct gave off an air that was clearly not of that world. It was black, devilish power that consumed light.
“Don’t tell me…this is your Guardian, Natsuki?!”
Kojou finally arrived at the golden knight construct’s true nature.
A Guardian was a devil’s vassal granted to a witch as compensation for the pact with the devil. As the word suggested, the Guardian protected the witch and granted her the power to fulfill her wish. And should the witch abrogate that pact, it became the executioner that would reap the witch’s life—
In other words, a so-called Guardian was the physical manifestation of the pact with a devil. Accordingly, its strength was proportional to the weight of the contract. Considering the cost Natsuki had paid, Kojou imagined that her Guardian must be mighty indeed.
Even so, the malevolence of the golden knight construct was twisted far beyond Kojou’s expectations.
And yet, that didn’t change what Kojou had to do.
“Regulus Aurum—!”
The Fugitive Fourth Primogenitor Page 14
