3
The color of the sky abruptly changed.
The serene, blue afternoon sky shifted to an ominous reddish-purple, like the crack of dawn. The clouds swirled in a tornado-like vortex, and lightning flashed a countless number of times. A fierce wind suddenly began to blow, rocking the hull of the Oceanus Grave II.
“Lord…Vattler…… Kojou…”
Celesta Ciate murmured with a hollow, overwhelmed expression.
Vattler, who had kept her spirit aloft, had been slain; Kojou had sustained grievous wounds and was on the brink of death. The spectacle decisively shattered Celesta’s already fragile psyche. Kojou, recipient of the curse of immortality, would not die from wounds that shallow, but such reasoning did not mitigate the terror of seeing Kojou’s scattered pieces of flesh.
The wind raging all around Celesta sent Yukina, who had been guarding her, flying.
“A…aaah…”
Floating above Celesta’s head was a strange sphere that seemed like a hole carved out of thin air. Disgusting speckles appeared on its surface, and it continued to eerily wriggle around like the internal organ of a living creature.
The sphere was not even a meter in diameter. However, it felt like it was growing, feeding on the air itself in the process.
The strongest impression given off by the sphere, which seemed to be projected from Celesta, was that of an egg. The egg from which some grotesque, otherworldly creature would be born—
“Heh…heh-heh…heh-heh-heh-heh…”
The divinely bestialized man laughed as he beheld the remains of Vattler that lay at his feet. The expression that came over him was not exultation in victory but unease. It changed into the frail smile of a small man desperately trying to justify his impulsive act of slaughter.
“How frail, vampire. So even the Master of Serpents of the Warlord’s Empire falls to the claw of a divine beast…”
The divinely bestialized man seemed to speak more for his own benefit than anyone else’s as he stomped on Vattler’s remains.
“Why you—!” Jagan yelled, enraged as he started toward the divine beast. He glared at him as he materialized an incandescent bird of prey. But—
“Wait…Jagan, don’t!”
Kojou, fresh blood still spurting from his wounds, rose to his feet and just barely stopped Jagan, for the other divine beast had moved in front of Celesta.
In that moment, even with the bizarre sphere summoned, Celesta was defenseless. If she sustained a serious attack from the divine beast, her life would be snuffed out like a candle.
“Don’t move, vampire scum. If the bride dies like this, who knows what the dark god possessing her might do. You can’t touch us without blowing the whole island away.”
The second divine beast spoke with a tone that sounded lively somehow. His belly had a deep burn scar carved into it—left by Nina’s particle cannon. They were indeed the divine beasts that had attacked Yukina’s apartment.
“Why…have you…?” a priest asked, voice shaking.
It was the reaction of someone who could not understand the sudden betrayal by his comrades.
“Don’t take it personally. We’ve lived our entire lives tied to the middle of a rainforest pampering little girls possessed by a dark god. She offered us treatment suitable for superior beings like us. All we have to do is hand over one little girl.”
“You fools…,” the eldest priest murmured in apparent pity for the traitors.
Having come this far, Kojou finally understood the whole story. Why did Angelica Hermida know the precise location of Zazalamagiu’s temple? Why had she found Celesta so easily on Itogami Island, a place she had never visited?
That was because she had turncoats among the beast-men priests; they knew Celesta’s scent. That explained the attack on Yukina’s apartment, as well as their pursuit of Celesta as far as the docks—a simple feat for a beast man’s sense of smell.
They’d sold their pride as priests, lured by the sparkle of gold. Small wonder Kojou had sensed something off about the beast-men priests’ conduct. Their acts had been inconsistent from the start because they had traitors among them—
“You old bags of bones, what are you…?!”
It was the first traitor whose voice trickled out in shock; before the eyes of those taking Celesta hostage, the priests carved out their own hearts.
Kojou and Jagan were bewildered as they, too, stared. It had happened in an instant, with no time to stop them.
“So all goes as Dimitrie Vattler intended, does it…? Regretfully, the duty of our tribe has come to an end. We have failed to prevent the emergence of the Deity of Darkness—”
The priests hurled their very own hearts into the sphere above Celesta’s head.
“Don’t tell me you’re performing the ritual to summon the Divine King—!” a divinely bestialized man exclaimed in fear.
One second later, absorbing the priests’ blood, the egg shuddered with an audible thump like a heartbeat.
“With the despair of the bride and our priestly blood…the summoning ceremony is already complete.”
The eldest priest smiled with visible satisfaction.
His flesh dissipated, spewing fresh blood all the way.
The egg ate him, Kojou realized.
From the wriggling, speckled surface of the sphere, whiplike tentacles had reached out, snatching the priest up in an instant.
Nor was the eldest priest the only to be consumed. One by one, tentacles snatched the other priests, pulling them into the sphere. Then…
“S…stop…stoooooooop!”
“S-save me…uaaaaaaaa!”
…the tentacles enveloped the divine beasts’ bodies, too.
The green tentacles were actually vines: ivy-like plant tendrils. These writhed around the huge divine beasts like snakes, pulling them into the sphere, which increased in size as it consumed the priests. Already, the sphere was over seven meters in diameter, growing large enough to cover the deck of the Oceanus Grave II. It seemed to be the seed of a monster, yet also a gate to another world.
Celesta, no longer conscious of her actions, slowly spread both arms to her sides. Then countless vines entwined her entire body.
“Wa…it…Celesta…!”
Kojou instantly reached out toward Celesta when he realized what she was trying to do. She intended to go inside the sphere.
However, before he could touch her, countless whiplike vines struck him. He groaned aloud in agony as the vines wrapped around his limbs and tried to tear them off.
It was Yukina’s clear voice that stopped Kojou’s receding mind at the precipice.
“Snowdrift Wolf—!”
The silver spear lashed out, cutting asunder the vines, which were magical energy in material form.
Kojou slammed onto his back, coughing violently.
“Are you all right, senpai?!”
Yukina twirled her spear around as she landed by Kojou’s side. “Probably,” Kojou said weakly as he forced himself to sit up. The wounds all over his body were slow to heal. That figured for a wound from a divine beast, but the damage from Angelica’s attacks earlier also hindered him. He’d lost too much blood.
Celesta had vanished, already brought into the sphere. At that moment, Kojou and the others had no means to save her. They did not know how to stop the dark god from becoming incarnate.
What’ll we do? wondered Kojou, gritting his teeth at his own powerlessness, when suddenly, Yukina touched the tip of her spear to her own wrist. Droplets of fresh blood poured from the shallow cut in her pale flesh.
“Himeragi…?!”
“I apologize, senpai. Right now, this is all I can—”
Kojou was dumbfounded as Yukina sucked blood from her wound and pressed her lips upon his, blood included. The taste of her blood flowed into Kojou’s mouth, spreading within him.
“Senpai, I am leaving the rest to you!”
“Himeragi?! What do you think you’re—?!”
When Kojou
tried to stand, Yukina delivered a violent kick to his abdomen, sending him flying. Kojou, cast out of the viewing deck, proceeded to fall down the stairs.
“Hime…ragi…… Celesta…”
The last thing Kojou saw was Yukina’s back as she sliced apart the incoming vines and leaped into the sphere.
The disturbance in the heavens grew fiercer still.
Violent winds swirled in the reddened sky. The tall waves that came crashing made all of Itogami Island shudder.
Amid it all, the egg floating in thin air began to pulsate violently.
4
“So this is the revival of the Deity of Darkness that destroyed the city-state of Ciate, huh…? Quite a sight.”
Motoki Yaze murmured with a strained smile as he gazed at the sphere floating in the red sky. He was a young man with short, spiky hair, wearing headphones around his neck.
He was sitting on the roof of Itogami Island’s central airport terminal, the place Natsuki Minamiya had encountered Angelica Hermida not two days earlier.
The huge pier where Kojou and the others were fighting was two thousand meters away. However, even from that distance, the bizarre hole carved into thin air had grown large enough to make out with the naked eye.
Standing beside Yaze, Natsuki Minamiya kept her parasol over her head as she remarked, “You’re very relaxed about this, Yaze. That entity must be a wild card for you lot.”
Yaze looked up at his diminutive, doll-like homeroom teacher and carelessly shrugged his shoulders. “Pretty much. That’s why some of them figure the information’s really valuable.”
“Hmph. Troublesome for you.”
“That’s the position I’m in. Can’t be helped.”
Yaze scratched his head as if poking fun at his own expense.
The flip side of his position as Kojou Akatsuki’s friend was that Yaze was assigned the troublesome task of monitoring the Fourth Primogenitor. In that role, Yaze had been completely blindsided by the Celesta Ciate incident.
High-ranking beast men with the ability of divine bestialization; Dimitrie Vattler, noble of the Warlord’s Empire; Bloodstained Angelica with her Zenforce—they were monsters, each and every one beyond reach of the combat capacity in the Gigafloat Management Corporation’s possession.
Hence, Yaze could do nothing about the situation once he realized Celesta Ciate’s true nature. He’d be lying if he claimed he could watch Kojou suffer like that, offering no aid, and not hate himself in the process.
But it was true nonetheless that the incident provided a precious opportunity for a “rehearsal.”
“—So what’s the Corporation AI’s analysis of that round thing?” the homeroom teacher asked.
“Ahh, a kind of defense field created for letting that Zazalamagiu thingy descend to Earth. Kind of like an egg. They figure there’s some kind of ‘core’ for the dark god inside of that thing. So they’re prepping a laser attack satellite.” Yaze checked the time on his wristwatch. “About ninety minutes to go.”
The space-to-ground laser cannon built into an orbital satellite was one of the Gigafloat Management Corporation’s aces up its sleeve, but the system was not yet complete. Its power generation capacity and the height of its orbit meant it took three hours to set up a single, precise shot toward Itogami Island. It was anyone’s guess as to whether it’d make it before Zazalamagiu took physical form.
Whether the laser bombardment could destroy the egg was another matter altogether.
“And the means to stop the dark god from materializing—?”
“Unclear at this point. We checked info in the other Demon Sanctuaries, but there’s nothing but old records anyway. Guess we’ve gotta count on Himeragi.”
“The Schneewaltzer of the Lion King Agency—that’s reckless, like trying to hold back spillage from a dam with a single stick,” Natsuki said, furrowing her brow.
Even Yukina’s magic-nullifying spear was at a disadvantage versus a foe brimming with divine essence. If Zazalamagiu fully materialized, there was surely nothing she could do.
“I’m sure she’s buying time trusting that Kojou can manage somehow. As a matter of fact, she’s given us extra time to deal with the thing. That girl’s got guts…”
“You seem to really like that about her.”
“Well, I won’t deny it. She reminds me of my childhood friend and all.” Yaze smiled a bit.
Natsuki snorted, unmoved. “To what degree will Itogami Island be affected if it materializes completely?”
“If it’s just the egg, it’s no big deal.”
Climate change is a bit of a bigger deal, Yaze thought, words he kept to himself.
“If it continues growing at its current pace, we calculate it’ll be over ninety-six hours before it affects gigafloat functions. As long as we’ve got ritual spell camouflage, most of the citizens won’t even notice it’s there.”
“—And if the dark god descends?” Natsuki asked without a single twitch of her eyelids.
“Haven’t calculated that.”
Yaze’s reply was blunt.
For the first time, Natsuki’s expression shifted as she asked, “Is that to say, the scale is too large for even the Corporation’s AI to predict?”
“Nah. It means there’s no point calculating it. At this rate, Zazalamagiu will burn up all his spiritual energy before he completely materializes, destroying himself.”
“Really now,” Natsuki murmured in visible admiration. “So the transfer student’s reckless efforts are not in vain.”
“Yeah. Well, in the first place, the thing’s cut off from its own temple and was summoned without proper fuel or a proper ritual. It’d be pretty weird if it could draw on its proper strength, all things considered.”
“I see. But I don’t like it. Damn that Vattler… Did he predict this result from the beginning? If so, why did he…?”
Natsuki was murmuring to herself. Suddenly, the look in her eyes grew graver.
Yaze immediately noticed the shift, too.
From inside the sphere floating in midair, green tentacles spewed out, wrapping around Island Guard vehicles surrounding the pier. The tentacles easily hoisted the armored vehicles, each weighing fourteen tons, and proceeded to pull them into the sphere.
“It ate the Island Guard?!”
Yaze fell to one knee, visibly irate. Natsuki’s lips twisted in annoyance.
“I see… So that’s your move. Damn that dark god.”
“Natsuki…what was that?!”
“That sphere intends to fuse with Itogami Island.”
“Fuse…?”
Natsuki’s words threw Yaze for a loop. Zazalamagiu was nothing more than a collection of energy spawned from dragon lines that had been given form by a giant sorcerous device constructed in the Temple of Ciate. Fusing with Itogami Island shouldn’t have been in the dark god’s tool kit, but—
“It intends to use all of Itogami Island’s residents as fuel to make up for the magical energy it lacks,” Natsuki explained. “Certainly, if it does that, it might endure the materialization process. Not as the proper Deity of Darkness, but as a simple monster—what would emerge would truly be a dark god.”
“Fuel… You can’t mean…”
“It probably means…all of Itogami Island will be consumed,” she calmly declared.
Yaze stopped breathing for a moment. Natsuki Minamiya was not the sort of person to crack a joke at such a serious time. If she said all of Itogami Island would be consumed, then consumed it would be.
“…They’re reacting quickly. So even the Corporation has begun to sweat?”
A horde of unmanned helicopters was taking off from the corner of an airport runway—Island Guard attack helicopters. Of course, Zazalamagiu was their target. However, it was far from clear whether the Island Guard’s anti-demon gear could defeat a dark god.
“Natsuki…?” Yaze looked up at his homeroom teacher.
Natsuki, who hadn’t stirred an inch in all that time, abruptly began to wal
k forward, swaying her parasol.
She was staring at the sphere as it began encroaching upon the harbor district. There was a tall woman standing on top of a wrecked Island Guard armored vehicle—a woman with a fur-trimmed coat, with large-statured men flanking her.
“I have no interest in exterminating fantastical monsters. I have my own job to do—”
Leaving those words behind, Natsuki vanished. All that remained was a ripple in the place where she had stood.
Yaze slowly rose to his feet and put a hand into his pants pocket. The smartphone he took out was not a type he was familiar with.
“Well, then…this has become a bit of a mess. Mogwai…how’s Asagi doin’?”
The liquid crystal display was still locked when Yaze spoke to it. The phone app was not running. However, he immediately heard a reply, spoken by a strangely human-sounding artificial voice.
“Very upset, I’m sorry to say. Fit to be tied. Well, she’s locked in C without a clue why, so no surprise there.”
The badly sewn mascot character laughed as it appeared on-screen.
“Sheesh… Maybe I’d better buy the Empress some cake to improve her mood,” Yaze sullenly murmured to himself before cutting off the conversation.
He looked from the date displayed on the screen to the sphere floating in thin air in the distance, clicking his tongue in annoyance.
“I’m counting on you, Kojou. It’s too soon…”
Yet, there was no way for Yaze’s faint murmur to reach him.
The wind sweeping around him blew stronger—
CHAPTER FIVE
EMBRACE OF THE QUEEN
1
She remembered very little about her parents.
It’s not that they didn’t love me, she reasoned. Her fragmented memories, almost like film clips, contained faint traces of warmth, like the feeling you had from an afternoon nap.
But those happy times did not continue for long.
Her powerful, uncontrollable spiritual powers made her parents afraid. So scared that they avoided her, spurned her, verbally abused her, and alienated her.
By the time she had registered what had happened, she was already alone.
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