The Roses of Tartarus

by Gakuto Mikumo

  The crimson magic circle was absorbing the demonic energy of the twenty thousand registered demons living on Itogami Island to take form.

  Their collapsing unconscious left and right was probably not caused by the demonic energy running amok alone. It was because the magic circle was draining their energy.

  “So those are the Roses of Tartarus…”

  Kojou’s entire body trembled with fear.

  Even he, lean on knowledge of sorcery, could understand just how dangerous that magic circle was. The vast demonic energy swirling above Itogami Island that moment rivaled that of the dark god Zazalamagiu before.

  “But what do they intend to do by gathering up so much demonic ener…?”

  Yukina seemed to realize something, her breath catching as she looked up, her face pale.

  From the roses formed via magic circles, countless rose petals were fluttering downward. These, in turn, were collections of demonic energy so dense that they could take physical form. Finally, they changed to adopt the forms of sentient beasts.

  “It couldn’t be?!”

  “Beast Vassals—?!”

  Yukina and Kojou shouted out simultaneously.

  The Beast Vassals borne from the Roses of Tartarus unleashed howls bathed in demonic energy. The shock wave transformed into incandescent flames, falling toward the urban areas of Itogami Island.

  4

  The Beast Vassals wrought from the scarlet roses numbered six. Each had a total length of around three to five meters. Their materialization was incomplete, but they maintained virtually perfect bestial contours. Though their strength did not quite reach the level of Old Guard Beast Vassals, there was no doubting they were formidable.

  Pitch-black flames wreathed in demonic energy burned the ground of the artificial isle. It wasn’t in a district with a high population density, but that did not change the fact the situation was dangerous.

  And what truly surprised Kojou was that the Beast Vassal summoning was still ongoing. As demonic energy caused the scarlet petals to bloom and scatter, the number of Beast Vassals increased; one here, one there. They proceeded to flutter down toward the ground of Itogami Island, spreading unlimited destruction to and fro.

  “Who the heck’s summoning them…?”

  Kojou’s face twisted in fear as he posed the question to Yukina. December had to be a powerful Old Guard vampire, but he didn’t think a single person could summon Beast Vassals in those numbers, let alone control them all; that seemed an impossibility.

  “I believe the magic circle itself is acting as the host. It is using the demonic energy drained from demons throughout the city to indiscriminately summon Beast Vassals.”

  Yukina replied with a stiff expression. No way, went Kojou, looking back at her in surprise.

  “How do they plan on making the Beast Vassals do as they’re told?”

  “No, control is unnecessary. At the very least, not to Tartarus Lapse—”

  “You’re telling me they wanted indiscriminate attacks…?!”

  Every drop of blood in Kojou’s body froze in fear and anger.

  December and her group’s objective was the destruction of Itogami Island. They weren’t even trying to use the Beast Vassals summoned by the Roses of Tartarus for precise attacks. Now Kojou finally understood why they were called a Demon Sanctuary wrecking crew.

  Indiscriminate Beast Vassal summons via the demonic energy drained from registered demons—this was the ultimate demolition job, one that could only be realized in a Demon Sanctuary. This was the truth behind the trick they’d kept shrouded in mystery.

  “Senpai!”

  “Got it! C’mon over, Regulus Aurum—!”

  Kojou shot the lightning lion toward the Beast Vassals flying to and fro overhead. Servants of primogenitors were materialized, high-density masses of demonic energy. Furthermore, normal weapons could not inflict damage upon them. It was said that there was no way to defeat Beast Vassals save through smashing them with stronger demonic energy.

  The only weapons that could oppose Beast Vassals were the large-caliber sorcerous weapons in the Island Guard’s possession, powerful sorcerous objects in the possession of some federal Attack Mages, and vampiric Beast Vassals.

  However, the Island Guard’s guardsmen were busy suppressing the rioting demons and engaging in search and rescue; they had nothing in reserve to fight Beast Vassals. The same no doubt went for federal Attack Mages.

  And thanks to Tartarus Lapse’s hacking, registered demons had virtually all fallen into an unconscious state. That moment, the only one left who could stop the Roses’ Beast Vassals was an unregistered vampire lacking a demon registration bracelet—in other words, Kojou.

  Fortunately, the power of those servants couldn’t hold a candle to the Beast Vassals of the Fourth Primogenitor. That single blow from the lightning lion ripped them to tatters, whereupon they vanished.

  He could push them back, no problem. Yet, a moment after Kojou judged it to be so—

  “…They came back?!”

  The Roses’ familiars, surely shredded by the lightning lion, returned to their bestial forms.

  Kojou ordered his own Beast Vassal to attack once more, but the result was the same. No matter how much the lightning lion destroyed them, the Roses’ Beast Vassals kept increasing in number.

  “The summoning is ongoing.”

  Yukina kept her gaze on the crimson magic circle as she murmured ruefully. The Rose petals scattered with increasing speed, perhaps to counteract Kojou’s attack. It continued propagating Beast Vassals, their numbers already exceeding dozens; she could no longer keep an exact count.

  “The more I smash ’em, the faster more of ’em come?! Then—”

  Kojou summoned a new Beast Vassal. This was a gleaming, two-headed quicksilver dragon Beast Vassal—the dimension eater that consumed space itself.

  The enormous, open maws of the twinned dragon mercilessly charged into the magic circle covering the very sky. They shaved away the magic circle along with space itself, distorting it in the unsightly fashion of a flower being eaten by an insect.

  But this too was for a single moment alone. With the vast demonic energy supplied to it from the ground, the magic circle restored itself, and the Roses’ Beast Vassals’ numbers increased further still.

  “Erasing space itself—and still no good…?!”

  Kojou’s voice was racked with urgency. The Roses’ Beast Vassals could no longer be held back by the lightning lion alone. One part of the Beast Vassals descended toward the ground as the other part of the horde bore down on Kojou and Yukina.

  “Shit! C’mon over, Mesarthim Adamas! Sadalmelik Albus! Natra Cinereus!”

  Kojou clicked his tongue as he summoned new Beast Vassals.

  The bighorn sheep constructed of diamonds scattered its crystal gemstones about; the silver, shelled beast transformed buildings into mist to protect the city. Then, the giant water maid restored the destroyed city in twisted form.

  It was far from a complete job, but this was the limit of Kojou’s current abilities.

  Fundamentally, the all-too-powerful Beast Vassals of the Fourth Primogenitor could be used for nothing save destruction. The slightest slip in control and, far from protecting the city, the enemy Beast Vassals would be destroyed utterly—and all of Itogami Island with them.

  “This ain’t…good… Figures I’ve pissed ’em off…”

  Kojou gritted his teeth as he glared at the approaching Roses’ Beast Vassals. At that moment, Kojou’s hands were full with intercepting newly emerging enemies and protecting urban areas. There was nothing left in the tank to summon a new Beast Vassal to protect Kojou himself.

  However, the Roses’ familiars were clearly aiming at Kojou, thoroughly singling him out as an enemy for destroying their brethren to that extent.

  The Roses’ incomplete Beast Vassals had various forms. One was like a bat; another was like a ravenous bird of prey. Perhaps their movements were so simple because they did not
possess complete sentience. All they were doing was enveloping their entire bodies in demonic energy flames, charging straight toward their targets.

  Among them was a single, small Beast Vassal that looked like a dinosaur; this one swung flame-enveloped talons down toward Kojou’s back. Just before striking him, one flash from a silver blade struck it down.

  Yukina’s demonic energy-nullifying spear impaled it. Snowdrift Wolf, called the Lion King Agency’s secret weapon, was the purging spear that could annihilate even a vampiric primogenitor. The glow of the Divine Oscillation Effect wrapped around its silver blade, smashing the Roses’ Beast Vassal like fragile sugarcane, whereupon it vanished.

  “Himeragi…! Sorry, you saved me there!”

  “Think nothing of it. I am your watcher, so it is only natural. More importantly, senpai…”

  “I get it. At this rate, the city won’t hold together long enough for Asagi to reach Keystone Gate,” Kojou muttered, wiping fresh sweat from his brow.

  The Beast Vassals of the Fourth Primogenitor that Kojou had summoned were being overwhelmed. However, fresh Beast Vassals wrought from the magic circle in the sky above, seemingly without limit, had nearly descended all the way to the city. Try as he might, it was impossible for Kojou to intercept them all alone.

  The amount of demonic energy in the Fourth Primogenitor’s possession was nearly limitless, but the willpower with which Kojou controlled it was not. Controlling the too-powerful Beast Vassals chafed at his nerves, accelerating his rate of fatigue. The way things were going, it was only a matter of time before even Kojou’s Beast Vassals went berserk.

  “What should we do, Himeragi?”

  “That’s… If we cannot halt the Roses of Tartarus’s supply of demonic energy, defeating the caster controlling the Roses is the only…”

  “Caster…?”

  “Yes. There must be a caster maintaining the magic circle that robbed control of the demon registration bracelets.”

  “A caster… I see, the one Senga called Raan must be her…”

  Just before the Roses activated, Senga let a command fly to his comrade through use of an earphone mic. The order went to the final member of Tartarus Lapse, who they’d met at the animal hospital. She was probably the hub keeping the magic circle going.

  “But how do we find out where she is…?”

  “I am sorry… Senpai… I tried using search rituals, but I do not have the strength to see all of Itogami Island…”

  The dejected Yukina looked down as she shook her head, about to cry. As a Sword Shaman, Yukina specialized in close combat against demons. Complex ritual spells were outside her specialty.

  “Nothin’ you need to apologize for, Himeragi. Not like I can do it, either.”

  “No, but…”

  “In the end, nothing we can do but wait for Asagi to do somethin’ about the hacking, huh…? It’s gone exactly like Mogwai said. Crap!!”

  Kojou let loose a throwaway laugh as he spread both arms wide. The sarcastic AI had no doubt told Kojou and Yukina to protect the island because he’d figured from the start that this would happen.

  But maybe even the world’s best supercomputers couldn’t predict the Roses of Tartarus turned out to be a summoning circle that’s this much of a pain in the ass, thought Kojou.

  The damage to the urban areas was clearly increasing. The propagation of the Roses’ Beast Vassals increased, their current destructive power thoroughly rivaling that of Kojou’s own. Kojou could no longer protect Itogami Island by himself.

  It’s no good, thought Kojou, struck by a premonition of despair. And then…

  With an incredible roar, a giant beam of light raced across Itogami Island’s sky.

  5

  It was a large-scale ritual cannon reminiscent of a warship’s main artillery.

  It had an overwhelming amount of magical energy rivaling even the Beast Vassals of a primogenitor. The attack engulfed dozens of Beast Vassals summoned via the Roses of Tartarus, not even having time to scream before being erased.

  “Der Freischötz…,” Yukina belatedly murmured as she realized the true nature of the sudden ritual spell cannon attack.

  A single arrow flying at high speed had created the enormous beam. The whistle embedded in its tip was employed to chant spells at too high an intensity than could be reproduced by human beings.

  It was a spell arrow from Der Freischötz, a prototype area-suppression weapon granted to a particular Shamanic War Dancer of the Lion King Agency.

  The fresh whistling arrow flew in, echoing with a special type of strange sound.

  This strange sound created countless small-sized magic circles, each of which transformed into an arrow of light, precisely shooting through the Roses’ Beast Vassals descending upon urban areas—the projectiles struck nothing else.

  “Multi-lock with killer bullets… This technique; it couldn’t be…”

  “Amazing,” Kojou whispered, eyes wide. Yukina, right beside him, felt just as compelled to watch the events in the sky.

  Both of their fields of view caught a small black silhouette that resembled a bird. It seemed to cut through the atmosphere, gliding just over the surface of the ocean. As it approached the island, they realized that this “small” silhouette was actually quite large.

  Its serpentine body resembled the long-extinct dinosaurs; its giant wings had a wingspan of over ten meters. It was a dragon with a mane the color of steel.

  “Kojou! Yukii!”

  One of the girls riding the dragon’s back waved a hand toward Kojou and Yukina.

  Kojou knew her name. He’d met the Sword Shaman girl on the mainland only a few days earlier.

  “Yuiri?! And Sayaka…and Shio, even…!”

  Yukina’s eyes went wide with surprise. In addition to Yuiri Haba, there were two other girls on the dragon. Each held a silver bow at the ready. These two were Sayaka Kirasaka and Shio Hikawa, Shamanic War Dancers of the Lion King Agency. It was they who had unleashed the spell arrows that had shot down the Roses’ Beast Vassals.

  “You’re…Glenda, right?!”

  “Daaah!!”

  The silver dragon began to transform as it fluttered down to the building upon which Kojou and Yukina stood. The enormous dragon was transforming into a long-haired, small-statured girl.

  Of course, once her transformation had finished, the girl wasn’t wearing a stitch of clothing. Kojou stiffened as the buck-naked girl embraced him.

  “Aaaaagh?! Wait a… What are you doing, Kojou Akatsuki?!”

  “Glenda, wait! Clothes—put on some clothes!!”

  Sayaka and Yuiri both nervously raced to Kojou’s side.

  Shio, coldly glaring at Kojou, approached Yukina. “Yukina Himeragi, it seems you’re all right. Can I ask you to explain the situation?”

  “Yes, Shio. But how on Earth did you get to Itogami Island…?”

  “We were close to Itogami Island in the first place. Thanks to the Eight Trigrams Formation obstructing us, we couldn’t get close, but somehow, we managed to decipher it, and then—”

  “You managed to decipher an Eight Trigrams ritual…from the inside…?!”

  “Ah, er, well… It’s not as if I did it by myself…”

  The glimmering praise from Yukina brought an uncomfortable-looking expression over Shio. Apparently, she was struggling with explaining that her accomplishment was actually a joint effort between her and Sayaka—a very Shio-like thing to strain herself over.

  Then, seeing Shio and Yukina speaking on such warm terms, that very Sayaka nervously barged right in.

  “What are you doing getting friendly with my Yukina, Shio Hikawa?!”

  “Because, Kirasaka, you got distracted by a man and took your sweet time!”

  “Excuse you?! I’ll have you know, it’s not as if I was distracted by him that much…!”

  “Nah, you were totally focused on him. Felt like nothing else was in your sights at all.”

  “That’s not true! And if you’re going to s
ay that, Yuiri Haba is a lot more—”

  “Yuiri has nothing to do with this!”

  For a time, Yukina watched dumbfounded as her two seniors glared at each other forehead to forehead. But judging it to be no time for such things, she quickly regained her senses.

  “Um… May I explain…?” she began, clearing her throat.

  Noticing this, Sayaka and Shio hastily composed themselves.

  “—The situation, as you can see, is an indiscriminate attack with all of Itogami City as the target. The instigator is a Demon Sanctuary demolition group calling itself Tartarus Lapse. Known members include a vampire calling herself December, a feng shui practitioner named Takehito Senga, a pyrokinesis-wielding homunculus teenage boy named Logi, as well as a sniper.”

  “Also, a hacker who took over the demon registration bracelet system,” Kojou added, Glenda still climbing all over his back in the meantime.

  “Demon registration bracelets… I see; so that’s it…”

  “That must be where the demonic energy to summon the Beast Vassals is coming from…”

  Shio and Sayaka nodded with instant comprehension. Though there were numerous flaws in their cooperative spirit, they were indeed excellent Attack Mages.

  Kojou continued. “Asagi’s headed to Keystone Gate to do something ’bout this. Until then, we’ve gotta protect the island from these Beast Vassals, but—”

  “In other words, we need to search for the caster controlling the magic circle?” Sayaka interrupted. The way she readily voiced the plan was enough to shock him.

  “You can do it?”

  “But of course.” Looking back at the surprised Kojou, Sayaka thrust out her chest with pride.

  Shio followed up without missing a beat. “Shamanic War Dancers of the Lion King Agency are experts in ritual spells and assassination. Of course, we learn methods to counter ritual spells as well. Tracing a caster is the most basic of the basics.”

  “Wait a… I was planning on saying that…!”

  “Reverberate—”

  Taking spell scrolls from the breast of her uniform, Shio began an abbreviated chant. The spell scrolls transformed into a flock of countless birds, scattering to every corner of Itogami Island.