Bride of the Dark God

by Gakuto Mikumo

  The destruction of the temple accelerated. The barrier maintained by the dark god’s magical power dissipated, returning them to the real world. Kojou and the others, hurled into normal physical space, were pulled down by gravity, falling onto Itogami Island’s coast, which—eaten into by the dark god’s egg—was now a broken ruin.

  Natsuki manipulated space to teleport them to a safe location, whereupon Yukina landed safely. For his part, Kojou, who looked set to fall into the sea, somehow managed to land in a crouch on exposed building materials.

  Then, Angelica, transformed into the dark god, spread black wings, looming over Kojou and the others from high in the sky.

  “However, public revelation that my nation was involved in the advent of the Deity of Darkness is undesirable. Accordingly, I will eliminate all witnesses.”

  Shrouded in obsidian scales, the deity’s arms became enveloped in pitch-black flames. Their incredible temperature made the atmosphere shudder. The grotesque monster grasped those black flames as it glared at Kojou.

  “The dark god Zazalamagiu governs death. Burn in the hellish flames of the dark sun—”

  The black fire, completely bereft of light, fell silently toward the ground.

  The condensed magical power held enough heat to burn away not just Kojou and the others, but the entire harbor area. The black flames scorched the ground, and white bubbles frothed on the boiling surface of the sea.

  But that intense, destructive heat never reached Itogami Island.

  “Like hell you will, Monster Girl—”

  A light arose before Kojou’s eyes. It was a huge wall of beautiful gemstones.

  The black flames released by the dark god dissipated the moment they touched the pale, transparent wall, seemingly sucked into it. Simultaneously, the gemstone wall shattered, turning into countless crystals that showered the dark god head-on.

  “What…?!”

  The sharp gemstone fragments were imbued with the same temperature as the black flames the dark god had unleashed. The grotesque monster was unnerved at being bathed in the might of its own attack.

  “…You all knew, didn’t you? That Celesta was abducted to be a sacrifice, that her memories were stolen, that she was gonna be killed…” Kojou audibly ground his teeth as he glared at the female soldier–turned–dark god. The vast demonic energy welling in his entire body made the very air creak.

  Vattler said that there were only two ways to stop Zazalamagiu. Namely, either kill Celesta and stop the dark god from materializing, or defeat the dark god after its descent. And should the dark god descend, Celesta would be annihilated, unable to endure the blow.

  However, Angelica Hermida merging with Celesta had thrown those preliminary conditions askew. Angelica had transformed into the dark god, but she had not lost her own will in the process. If that was the reality, it was possible that Celesta remained intact, both in mind and in body. If so, his task was obvious.

  “So you left Celesta to rot, killed all the priests, and on top of that, you still wanna use the god’s power as a tool of war! Then I’ll just beat you down and save Celesta. From here on, this is my fight!”

  Kojou deployed the gemstone wall. Once again, the dark god unleashed black flames, and both their supernatural energies clashed. The fragments of the shattered wall became bullets beyond counting, launching a counterattack against the grotesque monster.

  But the dark god that had unleashed the flames had already vanished from Kojou’s sight. Circling to Kojou’s rear, it scattered new flames from his blind spot.

  Kojou reacted too slowly to create another wall in time. Then, with Kojou gone rigid, the flames parted without warning.

  A dazzling, pale glow had become a giant blade, slicing the pitch-black flames apart. And that blade of light was the radiance of the Divine Oscillation Effect from a Schneewaltzer—the secret weapon of the Lion King Agency.

  “No, senpai. This is our fight—!”

  Twirling her silver spear, Yukina stood with her back against Kojou, covering his rear.

  At her words, Kojou nodded firmly and raised his right arm high.

  “I, Kojou Akatsuki, heir to the Kaleid Blood, release thee from thy bonds—!”

  Fresh blood scattered from Kojou’s right arm which, together with a ray of light, transformed into an enormous beast. This was a dense enough mass of swirling demonic energy to possess a will of its own. It was an absurdly huge bighorn sheep vested with a body of diamonds.

  This was the Fourth Primogenitor’s new Beast Vassal—Agnus Dei, the Unstained and Unerring Divine Sheep.

  “—C’mon over, Beast Vassal Number One, Mesarthim Adamas!”

  Together with Kojou’s shout, the holy sheep roared, scattering gemstone-like crystals in the process.

  The hallowed sheep of diamonds stood unscathed against any attack, reflecting the wounds it would have borne upon the attacker. It was a Beast Vassal that represented the vampiric curse of immortality.

  Kojou’s Beast Vassal created a wall of infinite gemstones that filled the sky behind the grotesque monster, seemingly to hold it in check. If the dark god attacked the wall, the might of its attack would rebound upon it.

  The dark god could no longer harm Itogami Island without harming itself; nor was escape an option any longer.

  Angelica, in her dark god form, glared at Kojou, who had interfered with her mission, and roared.

  The grotesque monster spread its black wings and plunged.

  Kojou’s expression hardened as he looked up at the pitch-black giant drawing near. The dark god was using its own enormous body in an attempt to squash Kojou and the others flat.

  Having already used the Beast Vassal to prevent the dark god’s escape, Kojou could not deploy a new wall. Nor could Yukina’s spear provide any defense against a non-magical, purely physical attack.

  Kojou tried to summon a different Beast Vassal to strike down the dark god, but its attack was faster. The huge, completely black body crashed into the broken coast, smashing Kojou along with it—

  Or it would have, save for the giant, silver-glimmering golem instantly bringing its overwhelming mass to a halt.

  “Anmauth!”

  The steel-wrought golem punched the dark god with all its might, knocking the enormous, jet-black body back.

  It was Tobias Jagan who controlled the golem. He, ostensibly collapsed from grievous wounds, pressed a hand against his wounded chest as he shouted to Kojou, “Don’t let up, Kojou Akatsuki! If she can’t defeat the Beast Vassal, of course she’ll go for its host!”

  “Man, you really are stuck up—!”

  “Silence! Damned fool,” Jagan growled, venting as he glared back at Kojou in annoyance. Thus, Kojou lost sight of when to actually thank him.

  “Irrlicht—!”

  “C’mon over, Al-Nasl Minium—!”

  Jagan, promptly ignoring his feud with Kojou, summoned a new Beast Vassal. Kojou moved simultaneously. An incandescent bird of prey materialized alongside the crimson bicorn, assaulting the dark god from right and left. It was an unbelievably well-coordinated combination attack.

  Surely the attack was unavoidable, but the dark god evaded it with ease. It was the same as when it had circled around Kojou’s wall earlier. The black flames unleashed by its obsidian arms shot the two Beast Vassals down.

  “Absurd!”

  “—It dodged that?!”

  Jagan and Kojou exclaimed simultaneously. They commanded their wounded Beast Vassals to attack once more, but the result was the same. The grotesque monster completely read which way they would move and attacked accordingly.

  It wasn’t that Angelica was drawing out Zazalamagiu’s complete power. Thanks to materializing far from the dragon lines of its native land, forced into an incomplete ritual through use of a sorcerous device, the Deity of Darkness was only able to tap into a small portion of its proper power. The fact Celesta remained in human form and Angelica retained her own will was proof enough. If they could defeat the grotesque mons
ter now, they could surely save Celesta.

  But that wasn’t going to happen if their attacks couldn’t connect. Even that very moment, the dark god was absorbing energy from the dragon lines, gradually increasing in strength. It was only a matter of time until all hope was lost.

  “I see… So that’s how it is,” Natsuki murmured, casually gazing at the sky like this was all someone else’s problem.

  Her utterance reached Kojou’s irritated ears. In a tone evocative of explaining a question on a test, the small-statured witch stated to Kojou:

  “Listen well, Kojou Akatsuki. A magical device capable of predicting the future is implanted in Angelica Hermida’s body. Assume she will evade any half-hearted attack.”

  “Predicting the future…? You mean, just like Himeragi…?”

  Kojou gasped and looked at Yukina. Her Spirit Sight allowed her to peer a moment into the future during combat, allowing her to move faster than a demon. Such was the strange secret combat ability Sword Shamans of the Lion King Agency possessed. If Angelica possessed the same ability, it was no small wonder Kojou’s and Jagan’s attacks weren’t hitting her.

  “That’s how it is. You know how to proceed from here, I take it?” The corners of Natsuki’s small lips curled up in a leer.

  Kojou’s and Yukina’s eyes met, and they nodded at each other.

  They had no time to double-check with words. Time was precious.

  Yukina set Snowdrift Wolf down without saying anything. Kojou circled around Yukina’s back, embracing her from behind. Then, the two put their right hands together.

  “Senpai—”

  Yukina’s face turned upward and over her shoulder, looking up at Kojou from very close. Her eyes were gentle, like someone wearing a bashful smile.

  “When we have safely rescued Celesta, there is a story I want to tell you. What happened that triggered my entry into the Lion King Agency… Are you all right with that?”

  “Yeah, ’course I am.”

  Kojou nodded without hesitation. In that moment, the two felt like there was something connecting them together. An invisible thread seemed to link their nervous systems together, conveying their thoughts to each other through the touch of their flesh.

  Together, Kojou and Yukina observed the horizon.

  The pitch-black dark god hovered against a sky the color of flame.

  If this Angelica who’d turned into a deity really could see the future, they just had to see further ahead than she could. But to turn that into reality, Yukina’s Spirit Sight power had to beat out the power of Angelica’s sorcerous device—

  Yukina can do it, Kojou believed in his heart.

  I will see it. Yukina was certain she could—because Kojou believed so.

  “Senpai!”

  “Regulus Aurum—!”

  The pair’s voices overlapped. A lightning lion was summoned out of thin air, enveloped in a powerful electrical field.

  It became a gleam of purple lightning, dashing through the sky in the direction Yukina pointed, biting into the dark god’s enormous frame.

  The Beast Vassal’s attack, surpassing Angelica’s own predictions, made her emit a high-pitched scream. She—supposedly an emotionless fighting machine—harbored fear for the first time.

  “Well done, my pupils.”

  Natsuki hid her smiling lips behind her open fan.

  From the shadow at her feet, she launched giant, golden chains resembling the anchor of a battleship. This was Dromi, forged by the gods—the golden sorcerous devices began dragging the pitch-black deity down to earth.

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

  Immediately, Yukina grasped her spear and sprinted. Alongside the chant, a vast amount of spiritual energy flowed forth, enveloping the silver spear in the glow of the Divine Oscillation Effect.

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

  Yukina’s spear impaled the dark god’s obsidian-covered flesh.

  She targeted a single spot: the sorcerous device chip embedded in Angelica’s body. She knew where the chip was located from the internal flow of the deity’s divine essence. It was a tiny integrated circuit, the size of a one-centimeter square; Yukina destroyed it with one certain blow.

  In that instant, the deity lost the power that had given it physical substance.

  The grotesque monster visibly shuddered.

  Angelica’s flesh, merged with the deity, was spat out; simultaneously, Celesta was freed from it.

  Together with a roar that made the air tremble, the dark god’s power began to run amok. The vast divine essence accumulated was set to be unleashed indiscriminately.

  “Akatsuki!!”

  Natsuki glared at Kojou as she shouted. Kojou summoned a new Beast Vassal.

  “Al-Meissa Mercury—!”

  The dark god was on the verge of going berserk when the quicksilver, two-headed dragon bit into its flesh. The flesh of the deity consumed by the dragons dissipated, erased along with the very space they occupied. If the dark god’s divine essence was wholly released, even the holy sheep’s wall would not be able to block it. So before that happened, the power of the twin-headed dragon, the Dimension Eater, flung that divine essence into some other, unknown dimension.

  The pitch-black deity roared and thrashed as its flesh continued to be consumed. Wringing out the last of its remaining strength, the dark god cut its own lower half away to free itself from the dragons’ twin maws.

  “What the—?!”

  The dark god’s mangled flesh plunged toward the ground. Seeing this, nervous expressions came over Kojou and the others.

  Kojou commanded Mesarthim Adamas to deploy countless walls. The dark god’s body was worn down, its power depleted with each wall of light it touched. But even so, even with the deity losing its substance, it was impossible to ward off all of it.

  Fragments of the dark god turned into fine shards, pouring onto Itogami Island like a meteor shower. Even the faint traces of divine essence remaining held enough might to wipe the entire island off the map.

  Yukina’s spear would not be enough to knock them all out of the sky, and there was no time to summon a new Beast Vassal.

  We won’t make it, Kojou worried, biting his lip. But suddenly—

  Countless fresh serpents appeared out of thin air and consumed the dark god’s shards, not leaving a single one.

  “Eh…?!”

  The sudden arrival of silence made everyone present stop moving.

  The dark god’s divine essence had vanished from the world. At some point, the sky had also returned to its normal color.

  The serpents, vast enough in number to completely bury their lines of sight, vanished back into thin air, their task complete.

  Kojou didn’t even need to look back. He knew who had summoned the frightening Beast Vassal.

  It was the aristocrat also known as the Master of Serpents—Dimitrie Vattler, Duke of Ardeal.

  “Vattler… He…”

  Kojou subconsciously grimaced as he noticed the young aristocrat’s approach.

  On the coastline, broken and battered from the dark god’s encroach, a girl weakly sat up, her hair the color of honey.

  Having lost her clothes during the fusion, she was not wearing a single stitch. Her radiant brown skin lacked any sign of major injury. She was extremely worn down, but her memories did not seem to be jumbled, either.

  With her in such a state, Vattler stood still before her, smiling elegantly.

  “It would seem you are safe, Celesta Ciate. I suppose I should say congratulations.”

  Vattler put his own coat over the naked Celesta’s shoulders.

  The girl with honey-colored hair looked up at him with visible surprise. Half-unconsciously, she called out the young aristocrat’s name.

  “…Lord…Vattler…”

  He gave no reply to her address and simply walked past.

  Vattler
smiled pleasantly at the injured Jagan, thanked him for his hard work, and brought him along as he departed.

  Kojou gawked as he watched the spectacle, like something straight out of a movie.

  “…Why does it kinda sorta seem like he saved Celesta or something…?”

  Aside from lending a hand at the last minute, Vattler had done virtually nothing. In fact, he’d seemed bent on abandoning Celesta for quite some time.

  When Zazalamagiu became incarnate, the divine essence Celesta Ciate was synchronized with had departed from her, only to be consumed by Kojou’s and Vattler’s Beast Vassals. She was the bride of the dark god no longer.

  Therefore, Vattler had surely lost all interest in her. His gentle gesture toward her was a display of indifference. Of course, Kojou thought it unlikely Celesta would understand that.

  Just doesn’t sit right, Kojou thought with a shake of his head.

  Yukina looked at his face, giggling a little as she smiled. But her grin immediately soured into a twitching cheek of displeasure.

  After all, Kojou was staring straight at the half-naked body of Celesta, who was wearing nothing but Vattler’s coat.

  “Senpai…how long are you going to keep staring at her like that…?”

  “Wh…whaaat?! Wait a sec, that right now was just me being worried about her…!”

  “Indecent,” fumed Yukina as Kojou desperately continued trying to excuse himself.

  As Celesta wiped a tear from the corner of her eye, the rays of Itogami Island’s setting sun shone on her beautiful, happy face.

  Her briefly murmured words were stolen by a strong ocean breeze, never to reach Kojou’s ears—

  “Thank you…Kojou…”

  OUTRO

  That day, Asagi Aiba lay slovenly on an expensive, ergonomic chair, her chin resting on her hand in visible displeasure.

  She was in Keystone Gate’s Floor Zero—the special room at the center of the giant building that was itself the center of Itogami Island.

  Floor Zero was a place called the server room of the Gigafloat Management Corporation—on the surface, at least. It was a completely airtight chamber within which were placed the five supercomputer cores that administered Itogami Island, the nerve center to which every network on the island was connected. The outer shell was said to be tough enough to survive water pressure at 20,000 meters under the sea or even a direct nuclear strike.