The Roses of Tartarus

by Gakuto Mikumo

  Natsuki held her parasol before her as she gave it a gentle flourish. As if this was a signal, a group of armed guards appeared, surrounding Senga. They were members of the Island Guard, around the size of a two-squad unit—probably forty-odd people in total.

  “I see… Certainly, you have somewhat changed.” Senga smiled thinly in apparent praise.

  The old Natsuki would probably have killed Senga, no questions asked. For her to attempt to capture Senga alive—let alone employ the assistance of others to do so—was something the Natsuki of old would never have done.

  Senga determined that acquiring things she needed to protect had made Natsuki weak.

  “As you are now, you cannot halt the Roses of Tartarus, Natsuki Minamiya!”

  Senga, sure of victory, declared as such as he pointed a gun toward the members of the Island Guard. The next moment, an earthquake-like roar echoed across the ruined factory.

  “What…?!”

  The abrupt flow of explosive ritual energy, filling the area around her, made Natsuki’s expression harden.

  The mountains of scrap metal left to rust inside the abandoned factory’s grounds flowed and swelled upward like sentient, living creatures. Finally, these took the form of giant humanoids, howling with the dusky sky at their backs.

  7

  The sun had just finished setting by the time Kojou and Yukina arrived at Island East’s warehouse district. With the bombing incident making the monorail late and heavily congested, moving there had taken longer than they’d anticipated.

  Fortunately, Nagisa had gone to visit their hospitalized father, so it wasn’t very difficult for Kojou to slip out of the house without telling her. Incidentally, he’d also asked Nagisa to check on their mother, who remained camped out at the corporation. At the very least, that ought to have been enough to let them act freely without Nagisa noticing for that night.

  “Figures that it’s pretty cold after the sun goes down.”

  Kojou’s shoulders sank as the merciless nighttime coastal wind blew upon them.

  Though Itogami Island was located in the tropics, the temperature still dropped a fair bit at night in the dead of winter. The desolate atmosphere of the warehouse district, not a soul in sight, seemed to only add to the chill.

  “I was right to bring my coat.”

  Yukina, wearing a coat over her usual school uniform, pressed a hand to her hair, astir from the strong wind. It was a brand-new coat Kojou had never seen before.

  “Well…it certainly is pretty. Bit of a fresh look—won’t get old anytime soon.”

  “Wh-what?” Yukina’s body froze as Kojou’s abrupt murmur threw her completely off. “Senpai…what are you saying out of the blue like that…?!”

  “Himeragi, I thought you didn’t like that kind of stuff.”

  “On the contrary, I do like it…and it’s the design Nagisa picked out for me…”

  Yukina grasped the collar of her own coat, whispering in a subdued voice so quiet that her words might go unheard. Her cheeks were red from the setting sun shining on them.

  However, Kojou twisted his neck as he listened, a questioning look on him as he asked:

  “What are you talking about…?”

  “Eh? What were you speaking about…?”

  “Er, this area was only recently reopened, right? So I was like, it’s fresh nighttime scenery.”

  “Huh…? Nighttime scenery?”

  As Kojou gazed at the seemingly rare Itogami Island nighttime landscape, Yukina somehow seemed to have a wounded look as she glared at him. She sighed deeply as she soon switched to despondency.

  “Is that so? I suppose you’re right.”

  “Well, I was thinking, too, who’d have thought I’d be looking at this landscape at night with you again?”

  Not noticing the apparent sulk on Yukina’s expression, Kojou’s eyes narrowed in nostalgia. He had visited that area along with her once before.

  It had been a little more than four months ago. A series of assaults on demons had been taking place on Itogami Island.

  “And because you couldn’t control your Beast Vassal, senpai, you burned the whole area down to the ground…”

  Surveying the large number of brand-new warehouses, Yukina spoke with a slightly teasing expression. Of course the buildings in that area looked so tidy—they’d only been rebuilt very recently. It was none other than Kojou himself who had annihilated the old warehouse district and turned it into a parking lot.

  “Himeragi, if I hadn’t done that, I couldn’t have saved you at the time, right?”

  “Eh? You’re saying it was my fault?” Hearing Kojou’s retort, Yukina’s eyes went wide in surprise. “Wait just a minute. Certainly, the effect was that I was saved by you, senpai, but it’s not as if I asked you for such a thing—”

  “Well, you were on the verge of being killed, weren’t you?”

  “That may be true, but in the first place, had you not failed to control your Beast Vassal, senpai, there wouldn’t have been that kind of damage!”

  “Couldn’t be helped. It was before I’d had any of your blood.”

  “I suppose you’re right…”

  For some reason, Yukina’s expression suddenly went blank as she replied. She drew her silver spear from the black guitar case she carried on her back. The spear tip contained within deployed, and the metallic shaft slid to its full length.

  “Though, nowadays, it seems you drink not just from me but from a great many other girls as well—”

  “Wait just a… Why are you taking your spear out now?!”

  Kojou recoiled in fear. However, Yukina was not looking toward Kojou but to a huge factory building somewhat removed from the warehouse district. It looked like an alchemical plant that had been shut down.

  The purportedly abandoned site was radiating powerful magical energy. Even Kojou, ill-versed in magical matters, could clearly sense the powerful waves it was giving off.

  “Himeragi! That’s—”

  “The Island Guard! Is that…gunfire?!”

  Amid the darkness of dusk, there were flashes of light that seemed to come from firearms.

  They could hear sounds like gunfire, too. It was an active gunfight. Members of the Island Guard were in pitched combat against someone.

  “Tartarus Lapse’s target wasn’t the food stockpile…?!”

  Through Astarte, they’d reported their theory of targeting the Great Pile to Natsuki, too.

  Hence, it was no surprise that the Island Guard would have located Senga and company before Kojou and Yukina.

  However, the site of the factory-turned-battlefield was close to a kilometer removed from the warehouses built in long rows. Yukina, too, seemed bewildered by the unexpected turn of events.

  “How could…anyone activate a ritual with that kind of range…?!”

  Countless crevices, resembling glowing arteries, rose up from the warehouse district ground surface upon which Kojou and Yukina stood. Vast ritual energy assembled through the use of feng shui was coursing through the entire area.

  Finally, that ritual energy was absorbed, and masses of stone and metal buried within the artificial ground began to move. They were humanoid monsters some seven to eight meters at full height—giant stone golems.

  At the same time that the monsters emerged, a dense mist came over the warehouse district, swirling around and creating gusts like a tornado. The walls of the brand-new warehouses cracked, and debris blown off by the winds danced in the sky.

  “Golems that control storms and waves… Could they possibly be—Stone Sentinels?!”

  “Stone Sentinels?” Kojou inquired to Yukina, who was dumbfounded at the sight of the swarm. “What’re they?”

  “A master-level art within tactical qimen. It is said that long ago, Zhuge Liang, military strategist of the Emperor of Shu, used emplacements of them to destroy an army of fifty thousand under the banner of Wu.”

  “An army of fifty thousand… Seriously?”

  Kojo
u finally came to understand just how frightening feng shui could be as an instrument of war. A single exceedingly skilled feng shui practitioner could rival a force of tens of thousands. Drawing on the dragon lines, he could employ ritual energy to manipulate giant stones and alter the weather as he willed. No wonder they called them large-scale military rituals.

  “Even your spear can’t manage, Himeragi?”

  Kojou glared at the course of the enchantment floating up from the surface of the ground as he made sure. Yukina regretfully shook her head.

  “After all, Stone Sentinels are animated by the energy currents of the Earth itself… Even Snowdrift Wolf cannot…”

  “Figures even it can’t neutralize the whole thing! Then no choice but to do this by force.”

  Kojou ferociously bared his canine teeth. If they could not prevent the feng shui from activating, there was no choice but to stop the monsters created by it. Using the power of the Fourth Primogenitor in poor visibility was a risk, but he had no time to hesitate.

  “C’mon over, Al-Nasl Minium!”

  Kojou’s blood seemed to boil within his body as he released a great amount of demonic energy, summoning an enormous beast out of thin air. Manifesting was a scarlet-maned bicorn, raging winds and vibrations of the air incarnate. This was a Beast Vassal of the Fourth Primogenitor—the World’s Mightiest Vampire.

  Vampires were served by the beasts that dwelled in their own blood.

  A Beast Vassal was an amalgam of pure demonic energy. One’s very existence warped the laws of physics, consuming the host’s life force with incredible power. It was said that only vampires, with infinite negative life forces, could summon and employ Beast Vassals, making vampires the mightiest of all Demonkind.

  The bicorn Kojou called forth mowed down the Stone Sentinels with its hooves. Even the golems’ solid bodies were blown to pieces, as if constructed of fine sand.

  Excess force also spectacularly gouged the artificial isle’s ground, but Kojou pretended not to see. The Beast Vassals of the Fourth Primogenitor, comprised of overly vast power, were exceptionally difficult to control. Precise use was nigh impossible. Even if some sacrifices had to be paid, his top priority was to whittle down the golems’ numbers. But—

  “They’re regenerating…?!”

  In place of the destroyed golems, the clumps of rubble scattering about rose up in humanoid form anew. The more the bicorn destroyed them, the effect was a net increase in the golems’ numbers.

  “So this is how they wiped out a force of fifty thousand…?! This ain’t gonna cut it!”

  Kojou breathed raggedly over and over. The warehouse district, with its densely packed buildings, was ill-suited to combat employing Beast Vassals. The longer the battle, the more the rate of damage would accelerate.

  “I shall defeat the caster! Senpai, buy time here while I—,” Yukina shouted as she broke into a run. She no doubt thought it was not the regenerating Stone Sentinels, but Takehito Senga in the ruined factory who ought to be defeated first.

  However, Yukina had run only a few strides when she stopped in surprise.

  A petite girl was leaning against an old scooter, lying in wait, seemingly to obstruct her path.

  “Sorry, but I can’t let you do that.”

  The girl in the letterman jacket flashed a pained smile as she gently brushed a hand against her helmet.

  Astonished, Yukina called out to the girl. “Miss…December…?!”

  “You remember me. I’m so happy. But you don’t need to add ‘miss.’”

  December was so carefree, just like the first time they’d met.

  “So you really are a member of Tartarus Lapse…?”

  Kojou glared at the girl during the slight pause before the golems regenerated again. Even though he saw her appear on the battlefield, her being here still felt unbelievable.

  “Member? Hee-hee, that has a nice ring to it.”

  December gave him an amused smile.

  “Kojou Akatsuki, the Fourth Primogenitor—if you like, would you become a member, too? Of course, you can bring Miss Neighbor with you. I’d happily welcome you both.”

  “Like hell we will!” Kojou’s voice went ragged. “Did you get close to Nagisa because you knew she was my little sister, too?!”

  “Nah. That’s not why. I’m not saying it was pure coincidence…but, hmm, when push comes to shove, I wanted to meet her more than I wanted to meet you. Either way, it’s not something you need to worry about.”

  “Why did you drop us that hint? That the Great Pile would be attacked—”

  “Hmm… Why, I wonder…” December shook her head, as if to say she did not truly understand it herself.

  Then the girl removed her goggles. Her eyes, blue and radiant like flames, gazed at Kojou.

  “It’s probably because I wanted to see you one more time.”

  December bared her white fangs as she spoke—with large, sharp canine teeth particular to vampires.

  8

  “Himeragi, I’ll stall December.”

  Kojou virtually whispered the statement to Yukina, who was at his side.

  An incredibly ghastly aura was emanating from December’s small-statured body. But this suited Kojou just fine. After all, if his opponent was an unaging, undying vampire, he didn’t need to worry about restraint.

  Yukina nodded, instantly discerning Kojou’s intent.

  “Understood. During that time, I shall go after Senga—”

  “I told you I can’t let you do that.”

  As December leisurely called out, a huge shadow gently swayed behind her. It was a transparent phantom beast that seemed to be clad in thick armor. The incredible sense of might emanating from it was in no way inferior to that of Kojou’s servants.

  “A Beast Vassal?!”

  Yukina was about to break into a run, but her movements halted, wary of December’s overwhelming demonic energy. Even among the vampires Kojou and Yukina had encountered to that point, December was clearly abnormal—it was no exaggeration to say she possessed truly enormous power. Even as her Beast Vassal scattered around a vast sense of foreboding, Kojou could not make out anything of its nature.

  “Shit…! Al-Nasl Minium!”

  Kojou commanded the bicorn to attack. However, a second faster than it could, December’s radiant eyes caught Kojou straight in their sights.

  “Withdraw, Al-Nasl Minium—!”

  “What…?!”

  Struck by powerful dizziness, Kojou dropped straight to his knees.

  The scarlet bicorn howled, unleashing an oscillation wave shell. However, the destructive roar was not aimed toward December’s Beast Vassal. A building of the nearby Great Pile was mercilessly shattered to smithereens.

  “Senpai?! What are you…?!”

  Yukina’s voice trembled as she shouted in fright. However, Kojou did not answer. His entire body was drenched in thick sweat as he let out anguished breaths.

  “Gu…o…!”

  “Senpai?!”

  Realizing that something was wrong with him, Yukina gasped and glared at December.

  However, Yukina could not approach her in any way, for above her, the bicorn descended from the sky, standing as if to shield December from Yukina.

  A huge hoof, swaying like a mirage, attempted to stomp Yukina flat, with Kojou, its host and master, along with her.

  “Urk! Snowdrift Wolf—!”

  Yukina thrust out the silver spear, filling it with all the ritual energy she could. The pale glow of the Divine Oscillation Effect blade seemed to cleave the scarlet Beast Vassal’s attack apart, halting it in its tracks.

  “Not bad, Miss Neighbor.”

  December praised her. Even if it was by borrowing power from the spirit spear, Yukina, a mere human being, had fended off a Beast Vassal of the Fourth Primogenitor. Of course December was surprised.

  “But I have no room for restraint. I’d prefer if you withdrew before you got hurt…”

  “That’s not…!”

  A
s Yukina tried to reject the offer, she felt new, powerful demonic energy emerge behind her. The source of the demonic energy was Kojou, groaning in pain, last she checked. Under December’s quiet gaze, Kojou was attempting to summon a new Beast Vassal.

  A minotaur materialized, its flesh formed of molten amber. This was Beast Vassal Number Two, Cor-Tauri Succinum—

  “Wha…?”

  Yukina let out a murmur of despair. Even Snowdrift Wolf’s ability could not fend off two servants of the Fourth Primogenitor at the same time.

  Its entire body enveloped by scalding magma, the minotaur Beast Vassal swung the battle-ax that was equal to its own height. Its target for attack was a building in the center of the warehouse district.

  However, just before the battle-ax swung downward, the minotaur Beast Vassal’s movements quietly came to a halt.

  Scarlet thorns stopped it.

  Suddenly, countless thorns emerged out of thin air, wrapping around the Beast Vassal and binding its movements.

  “I thought I told you, transfer student… Don’t involve yourself where you do not belong.”

  The voice came from right beside Yukina. The youthful voice clashed with the haughtiness of its tone. Thin air wavered like a faint ripple, and a petite figure emerged, wearing an extravagant dress.

  “Ms. Minamiya…?!”

  “Hmph… Cute to think someone could put the Fourth Primogenitor under mind control… Who are you?”

  When Natsuki Minamiya posed the question, December smiled without a word. Behind the vampire girl, the only thing that faintly swayed was her Beast Vassal’s shadow.

  “Mind…control…,” Yukina said unwittingly. “It couldn’t be…”

  A vampire’s body possessed powerful resistance against all manner of sorcery. Kojou had been the only one unaffected by the mind attack of Yume Eguchi, the Witch of the Night and World’s Mightiest Succubus.

  On top of that, Kojou was a vampire primogenitor. Even if December was a fellow vampire, it ought to have been impossible for December to seize control of Kojou’s mind.

  However, in actuality, Kojou had fallen under her control, as well as his Beast Vassals.