The Roses of Tartarus

by Gakuto Mikumo

  As the uniformed girl ran, the beast girl aimed precisely at the hacker’s back.

  She put her finger on the trigger, applying only a tiny amount of force.

  In an instant—

  “Oh, no, you don’t…!”

  With a shout that tore through the air, a fierce gust of wind assaulted Carly.

  The impact sent her body rolling. Her unleashed bullet bounced off the road, far from its mark.

  When Carly, beside herself, rose to her feet, she saw a strange silhouette borne from refraction of the air.

  The contours of the silhouette greatly resembled those of the boy protecting Asagi Aiba.

  “Air elemental?! No, a wraith?! Do you think that’ll work—?”

  Carly drew a weapon from a hip holster. This was a large-caliber automatic pistol—a sidearm for personal defense. Its bullets, bearing high penetration and suppressive power, blasted apart the clone the boy had wrought from the atmosphere. The blow had to have passed through the cloned body, causing a backlash to the caster’s own.

  However, the boy’s clone did not relent.

  “Wha—?! Destroying a clone should inflict considerable damage to the caster—then, how?!”

  With incredible force, the mass of gusting wind reformed, attacking Carly once more. She struggled against the blow as she sprayed the remainder of her bullets at it.

  Head. Abdomen. Then heart. She blew away every vital point she could think of.

  The mass of gale-force winds fought on, but it no longer had the power to maintain a humanoid form. The hand it stretched toward her dissipated, vanishing from sight.

  “I did it… Resuming the assassination.”

  She lifted up her rifle once more. Asagi Aiba had already entered the target building. It was no longer possible to snipe her. The only option remaining for Carly was to pursue her and finish her off face-to-face.

  But when the assassin tried to drop down from the building, there was a quiet voice in her ear.

  “I’m not through with you…!!”

  It resembled a whisper from a ghost.

  “Eh?!”

  Carly’s body wobbled from the powerful impact to her rear. The supposedly destroyed mass of gusting wind took the form of a boy and threw a punch at her.

  As a result, the heavy anti-materiel rifle slipped out of her hands. It slammed into the rooftop’s fence and proceeded to fall down to the ground.

  “My…gun!”

  Carly instantly leaned out, trying to grab hold of the rifle.

  To Carly, that anti-materiel rifle was the symbol of her link with Tartarus Lapse. If she lost it, her connection to December would be severed, too. This fear robbed Carly of her composure. The opening it left proved decisive.

  “Oooooooooo—!!”

  The mass of wind howled with the boy’s voice. Wielding the last of its power, it hurled an invisible shock wave that struck Carly like a sledgehammer.

  From the roof of the building she’d chosen as her sniping position, the beast girl floated aloft.

  Buffeted by wildly raging air, Carly could not regain her balance. A powerful downward gust slammed the defenseless girl into the ground.

  Her small-statured body bounced off the surface.

  As she coughed, blood trickled from the girl’s lips.

  The anti-materiel rifle, broken into several scattered pieces, rolled right beside her. Desperately, she tried to reach a hand out to it, whereupon the exhausted girl’s movements came to a halt.

  “Not…in a place like this…! …I’m sorry, December… I…”

  Carly, powerless, forgot the agony assailing her entire body.

  A vortex of wind passed over her head…and vanished.

  10

  Collapsed on a sidewalk curb, Motoki Yaze continued to violently vomit. The vomit was red with blood.

  The causes were twofold: the damage backlash from Aerodyne being destroyed and overdosing on the boosters.

  “…I guess I overdid it a little. Man, this hangover’s a killer…,” Yaze murmured in a sardonic tone as he rolled onto the ground.

  His body was already exhausted enough that he couldn’t move, but after everything, that was just peachy to Yaze.

  Tartarus Lapse’s sniper had been defeated, and Asagi was already headed to Keystone Gate. He’d somehow managed to protect her. It wasn’t that he was proud of that fact. What he felt was less a sense of accomplishment than relief he’d fulfilled his duties to the barest minimum.

  Going the extra mile for Asagi was a trait he’d retained from preschool onward. High-maintenance childhood friend, he thought, letting a pained, bloody smile trickle out.

  As he did so, a flickering figure drew near.

  It was a homunculus boy who possessed an androgynous air. He seemed to be flickering because of the mirages swaying around him. High-temperature air he generated with telekinesis enveloped the boy’s entire body.

  “It was you…?”

  The homunculus shot Yaze a look brimming with hostility.

  Yaze looked back at him with a neutral expression. He simply didn’t understand the question.

  “You’re the one who took down Carly?!”

  The boy questioned him a second time. Yaze unwittingly let laughter slip. He finally realized just who the boy was.

  It was Tartarus Lapse’s pyrokineticist—the serial bomber who blew up an underground parking lot and Yaze’s very own father with it. Yaze owed him revenge for his father, but the boy owed Yaze revenge for his teammate. A Demon Sanctuary wrecking crew member against a Demon Sanctuary hand-raised spy—they’d be trying to kill each other no matter how the two met.

  And in that moment, Yaze had no power left to fight him.

  He didn’t even have enough stamina left to stand.

  “Sorry, I’m leavin’ the rest to you… Don’t make my childhood friend cry, Kojou…”

  Like a soliloquy, Yaze murmured his friend’s name as he listlessly closed his eyes. Incandescent flames swirled in vortexes within the boy’s outstretched palms. They were the flames of a homunculus constructed as a military weapon. No doubt they could turn Yaze’s body to ash in a single second.

  Nor did the boy seem likely to hold back against a defenseless human opponent.

  When they reached a critical mass, the boy unleashed the mass of flames in Yaze’s direction—

  However, Yaze was not assailed by the impact he had expected.

  “Uh…?”

  Yaze faintly opened his eyes. His vision was obscured by the sight of wings. Huge, rainbow-colored, radiant wings had spread forth, shielding Yaze from the flames.

  “—For once, you have worked rather hard, Motoki Yaze. You have my praise.”

  The surprised Yaze heard an arrogant voice behind him. There was a ripple-like shimmer in thin air, and a small, doll-like woman emerged out of the blue.

  With a twirl of her lace-edged parasol, Natsuki Minamiya landed.

  “Natsuki…? What are you doing here…?”

  With a flabbergasted look, Yaze called out his homeroom teacher’s name.

  She let out a snort of visible displeasure.

  “With that rifle blasting around the city in broad daylight, I could find them in my sleep. Right, Astarte?”

  “Affirmative,” replied the homunculus girl appearing with Natsuki in a reverential tone.

  The girl was clad in a maid outfit with a particularly open back. The rainbow-colored wings that had saved Yaze had sprouted from her petite shoulder blades. The wings infused with vast demonic energy moved freely, seemingly of their own will, blocking the flames the serial bomber boy had unleashed.

  “You’re called Logi, yes? Now, what will you do?” Natsuki’s challenge was as icy as her tone. “Politely surrender and spit out Takehito Senga’s location, and I will do you no harm.”

  “As if I’d—!”

  Logi flew into a rage and unleashed his flames once more. However, the effect was the same. Astarte’s wings blocked the flames and proceeded to
toss them into a safe direction.

  “Not willing to talk, it seems. Then, it cannot be avoided— Astarte, I leave this to you.”

  Natsuki commanded the homunculus girl in a dignified voice.

  Astarte’s large light-blue eyes wavered as she nodded.

  “Accepted.”

  That instant, a new wing emerged from Astarte’s back. No—this was no wing, but an arm: a giant Beast Vassal arm longer than Astarte was tall.

  The Beast Vassal emerged from within the body of the girl that was its host, adopting a perfect, manlike form: that of a gleaming, rainbow-hued, humanoid Beast Vassal.

  “A homunculus, using a Beast Vassal…?!”

  The flames unleashed by Logi assaulted Astarte again and again.

  The high temperatures melted the asphalt of the road surface, causing fierce explosions in the ionized air. However, Astarte, enveloped by the Beast Vassal, emerged unscathed despite showing no signs of defending herself.

  Astarte was, in truth, a man-made biological experiment in symbiosis with a Beast Vassal—the world’s only homunculus within which such a beast dwelled. Physical attacks were useless against Rhododactylos, her Beast Vassal. The boy’s pyrokinesis was unable to harm Astarte in any way.

  “Why?! You’re the same as me, an experiment built to be a weapon, aren’t you?! Then why are you working for a Demon Sanctuary’s sake…?!”

  “Affirmative, you and I are the same.”

  Astarte acknowledged Logi’s words. Though her voice was low in intonation, a faintly sad echo was mixed with it.

  “I, too, once attempted to destroy this island.”

  “Then—”

  “It is because they stopped me at the time that I was able to meet precious people again, something I thought lost to me.”

  Astarte’s eyes should have been emotionless, but there was a glint of powerful will within them. This was not out of emotions of anger or pity toward Logi. It was the powerful desire to save the boy who was of her kind.

  “That is why, this time, it is I who shall stop you— Execute, Rhododactylos.”

  Astarte’s Beast Vassal threw a punch at the flame-wreathed homunculus boy. The youth’s small physique was sent flying with ease.

  “The hell is this…? Dammit all…”

  Falling limply onto the road, Logi ceased moving.

  Astarte looked down at him for some time, not speaking a single word.

  11

  December looked longingly at the sea from a lonely plaza.

  Once, the place was surely a thriving market bustling with a great many people. Colorful wagons decorated with popular artwork left behind were vestiges of a once-jubilant atmosphere.

  However, at that moment, December and Raan were the only ones in the plaza.

  A mountain of trash was piled in a corner of the plaza—immobile construction equipment and car parts, and televisions, fridges, and other domestic appliances. Probably, just after Island Old Southeast was condemned, heartless people had used it as an illegal dump.

  A brand-new antenna and communications device was mixed in with the trash, active along with a large, waterproof computer. December and the others had hidden them under the rubbish beforehand. One of the network cables connected to the computer stretched under the muffler wrapped around Raan’s neck.

  “The Priestess of Cain has entered Keystone Gate.”

  Raan, wearing a thick coat, remained seated with a screen on her lap as she spoke in a voice that varied little.

  Through the connectors to her neck and back, she could link her brain directly to the computer network. As a result, Raan had obtained hacking abilities incomparable to those of the average technician. It was because of her that hacking the demon registration bracelets had been possible.

  Even so, Asagi Aiba’s abilities far outclassed Raan’s own.

  “Program: Roses of Tartarus network occupation rate has fallen to 77 percent. Responses from four thousand eight hundred demon registration bracelets have been lost.”

  “I see… So even you can’t stop her. That’s Asagi Aiba for you…”

  December made a lonely smile as she listened to Raan’s report.

  Even if she had expected as much, Asagi Aiba’s arrival at Keystone Gate had greatly changed the state of the battle nonetheless. The virus infecting the demon registration bracelets would be removed: It was just a matter of time. When that happened, the magic circle in the sky would be cut off from its supply of demonic energy, and the Four Holy Beasts would be unable to maintain physical form.

  Could they destroy Itogami Island before that happened…? Tartarus Lapse’s battle now revolved around that very simple question.

  She’d already lost contact with Carly and Logi. The assassination of Asagi Aiba had failed.

  “Understood, Raan. You’ve done enough. Run. It’s okay; I’ll take care of the rest.”

  December called out to the girl in the scarf. However, Raan’s expression did not change. She shook her head a little and said, “I’m sorry.”

  “Raan…?”

  “I won’t run away. I don’t want to let go… It feels…good…”

  Raan spoke absentmindedly as her mind remained connected to the network. The sight unnerved December. The Priestess entering Keystone Gate meant that C had begun to go active.

  It wasn’t simply a matter of snatching back control of the demon registration bracelets.

  The will of C had begun to infect Raan through the network.

  “No, Raan! You’re up against a monster with the entire island in its grip. Even your brain can’t handle that level of traffic!”

  December grabbed Raan’s shoulder and gave it a fierce shake. However, Raan did not respond. Her pale skin was showing a rose color as her gaze wandered; she seemed intoxicated.

  “So this is…the memory of C… A…ah… It’s so pretty…”

  “Raan! Cut the connection, Raan!”

  As December shrieked, her palm jerked back with a dazzling spark. Unable to cope with the influx of information beyond her brain’s limits, Raan’s body had begun to go berserk.

  “Thank you…December… I…understand…”

  “Wait, Raan! Raan, don’t go!”

  December yanked out the network cables connected to Raan.

  That instant, Raan’s body fiercely convulsed, tumbling to the ground like a marionette with her strings cut.

  “I’m sorry, Raan… I love you so much. Carly, Logi…everyone…”

  The girl continued her anguished moans as December laid her down. She gently put the girl’s askew scarf back in order and gave her hair a gentle stroke.

  “…The inside of Raan’s brain has a nervous system sixteen times more detailed than that of a normal person. It gave her information management capability on par with a military strategic computer.”

  December began talking to no one in particular. Her voice carried mysteriously well over the strong coastal breeze.

  “Of course, there’s no way a living person’s brain can handle that amount of information. Cellular metabolism alone will burn the nerves out with no time at all. That’s why she was granted a dead body animated by necromancy. I suppose you could call her a Frankenstein Monster—Brain Mod Version.”

  Without a sound, December stood up and turned around. Her rainbow-hued, gleaming blonde hair fluttered in the wind, fanning outward. Her blue eyes, radiating like flames, gazed straight toward a single boy.

  “Do you really find it strange that I want to destroy the Demon Sanctuaries that gave birth to girls like her? What do you think, Kojou Akatsuki?”

  “It’s not up to me to decide that.”

  The boy spoke quietly, seemingly cutting all hesitation aside.

  The silver-colored, winged dragon had landed in the lonely plaza. It had transported him to that forgotten, ruined artificial isle. Kojou Akatsuki, Fourth Primogenitor… The World’s Mightiest Vampire.

  “Maybe those kids have a proper and just reason to be angry. Maybe, just lik
e Senga said, this island’s going to create a huge number of victims.”

  Kojou looked up as he spoke. The Four Holy Beasts wrought by the Roses of Tartarus were enveloped by demonic energy flames as they gazed down upon Itogami Island. Their materialization was not complete. Their bestial contours were holding at a level one might call seven-tenths’ worth. That was because Sayaka’s and Shio’s ritual spell cannon attacks had destroyed part of the magic circle, impeding the Four Holy Beasts’ summoning.

  Furthermore, the Roses of Tartarus themselves had slowly begun to vanish. The demon registration bracelets were being restored to proper functionality, cutting off the supply of demonic energy from the service. There was no doubting it was Asagi’s work.

  “But however much you people wanna destroy Itogami Island, I wanna protect the people living on it just as much! That’s why I’m stopping you here, Tartarus Lapse! From here on, this is my fight!”

  “That’s your reasoning?! I can’t accept that—!”

  December yelled back, digging in against Kojou’s words.

  The shadow of a Beast Vassal rose up behind her. The demonic energy unleashed from the Beast Vassal’s eyes caught Kojou’s mind in its grip, causing Kojou’s body to waver. It was a mental attack via Beast Vassal, a powerful will trying not only to take over Kojou’s flesh and blood, but even the Fourth Primogenitor’s Beast Vassals—

  It was a dazzling silver flash that cut the powerful, dominating power short.

  “No, senpai. This is our fight.”

  Silver spear raised, Yukina stood to shield Kojou.

  The battle at the warehouse district had proven it: December’s attack couldn’t work on Yukina.

  That was because Yukina’s Snowdrift Wolf nullified the Beast Vassal’s mind control power.

  “Urk!”

  Discerning she was at a disadvantage, December stretched a hand toward the mountain of illegally dumped garbage. On her signal, the spell embedded within the garbage activated.

  With a vibration like an earthquake, the mountain of garbage swelled up, from which emerged numerous giant humanoids enveloped by metallic scrap. These were golems—Takehito Senga’s Stone Sentinels, wrought via tactical qimen.

  With a roar, the golems that had no right to be alive bellowed.

  The Stone Sentinels clad in metal armor assaulted Yukina with agility completely at odds with their enormous bodies. But one of the steel golems’ giant arms was smoothly severed, falling to the ground and left behind.