Strike the Blood - Volume 14 - Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR 

THE CLEANSING 

1 

In a suite of the highest caliber in the City Hotel—constructed on the outer edge of Keystone Gate—Akishige Yaze listened to the report. 

“The Coffin has been released, you say…?” 

“Y-yes. Of the Five Elements, Schedar, Caph, and Ruchbah have exceeded maximum designed activity rate. Tsih and Segin’s activity rates have also climbed. A large-scale Cleansing reading has been measured within the island. The origin point is the external event space on Keystone Gate’s Stratum Three—close to directly above Stratum Zero!” 

Through the monitor, the researchers’ faces spread with the color of unconcealable fear. These were men who had long served Akishige Yaze—chairman emeritus of the Gigafloat Management Corporation—and had been involved in Itogami Island’s construction; in other words, they were trusted subordinates to Akishige, deserving of being called his retainers. That was why they were afraid. They knew the ramifications of the Coffin becoming unmoored. They knew all too well what effect that would have on Itogami Island. 

“Meiga Itogami’s doing, I take it? So the lapdog feels like biting the hand that feeds him… Damned mongrel,” Akishige murmured sourly as he gazed at the reports sent to him one after another. 

The release of the Coffin meant that the submarine, Cain’s Coffin, had docked with Keystone Gate’s Stratum Zero and had connected to Itogami Island’s isle-wide network. 

As a result, the magical program sealing the Coffin had been input into Itogami Island. It was the magic once known as The Cleansing—the forbidden god-killing ritual created by Cain, the Sinful God—reproduced in digital form. 

But it was not the issue of the release of the Coffin that had Akishige in a sour mood. 

After all, even if the Coffin was released, that alone would not initiate The Cleansing. 

There were three conditions required to activate it: one was the existence of Itogami Island, the altar for that purpose; another was the release of the Forbidden Ritual sealed in the Coffin; and the third key was the will of the living sacrifice that served as the control unit and the key to the activation—in other words, the Priestess. As long as the Priestess of Cain, the genius cyber-mancer surpassing all human limitations, remained untamed, it was impossible to initiate The Cleansing. 

Asagi Aiba was the one and only suitable person to be the Priestess of Cain yet discovered. And both her parents were already under Akishige’s surveillance—as hostages. Akishige himself was the only one who could use a direct line to Asagi Aiba now that she was confined in the Coffin. It was impossible for anyone else to engage in negotiations with her. 

And yet, Meiga Itogami had initiated The Cleansing nonetheless. 

That meant Meiga, through whatever method, had obtained a new priestess. 

This was why Akishige was in a sour mood. It was a situation that his organization should have prevented from arising. 

“—It would seem that you are busy, Chairman Yaze. Should I come back another time?” 

As Akishige furrowed his brows, a foreign man sitting on the guest sofa addressed him. He was in his forties, an Asian man, but the paleness of his skin and his ever-present smile were his defining traits. 

Standing beside the man was a baby-faced woman, her age indeterminate. It wasn’t that she didn’t have an adorable face, but thanks to half-closed eyelids that did not want to open, she somehow gave off a sleepy impression. There was a very fluttery air around her that made her hard to pin down. 

“Forgive my rudeness, President Ren. The ruckus is unfortunate, but it is also a good opportunity. I would like you to behold the power of the reproduced Cleansing with your very own eyes.” 

Akishige Yaze swiveled his chair around to face the man sitting on the sofa. The monitor on the wall was displaying images of the areas surrounding Keystone Gate. Something like an explosion was in the middle of one of them. 

“The Cleansing… The ultimate hidden ritual instigated by Cain, the Sinful God, for the sake of insurrection and vengeance against the gods?” the man called Ren asked in a gentle tone. 

Shahryar Ren, president of MAR—founder and chief stockholder of Magna Ataraxia Research Incorporated, one of the world’s foremost international sorcerous corporate conglomerates. 

“However, just how do you intend to prove that power’s worth?” 

Shahryar Ren’s question brought an impetuous smile out of Akishige Yaze, as if Ren had just hit the nail on the head. 

“Is the Fourth Primogenitor insufficient as an opponent?” 

“Kaleid Blood… The World’s Mightiest Vampire, was it?” Ren raised his brows in a show of admiration. 

Akishige Yaze gravely nodded his head and said, “Indeed. The Duke of Ardeal, Dimitrie Vattler of the Warlord’s Empire, and the vile prince Iblisveil Aziz of the Fallen Dynasty have been dispatched to monitor him. If all three are exterminated here, would you be able to say our Cleansing is not all that we determine it to be?” 

“I suppose not. It is exactly as you say.” With a gentle gaze, emotions unreadable, he stared straight at Akishige. “However, what is it that you intend to gain by instigating a new Cleansing, Chairman?” 

“Hmph,” went Akishige, curling his lips up a bit. “Europe’s Warlord’s Empire, the Middle East’s Fallen Dynasty, and Central America’s Chaos Zone—surely you understand what these dominions all have in common, President Ren?” 

“Oil, natural gas, rare metals—valuable underground resources, in other words.” 

“Most astute,” said Akishige with a nod. “We shall eliminate all demons and liberate the peoples held captive in the dominions.” 

“And obtain the mineral rights to those lands, yes?” 

Ren’s teasing words brought about a nod from Akishige lacking the slightest twinge of guilt. 

“Should our zaibatsu join hands with MAR, I believe the possibility of bringing this to fruition is very high. What say you?” 

“It is a deeply interesting topic.” Ren crossed his legs. Then his gaze shifted to Akishige’s. “However, for that purpose, The Cleansing has to be under your control, correct?” 

“What do you mean by this?” 

“Pardon me. But it is my belief that The Cleansing taking place upon this island has divorced itself from your influence—” 

Ren pointed that out with a serene smile. In the next moment, the suite’s interior was filled with a strange, jumbled sound. 

It was Akishige who knit his brows and turned around. The wall-mounted monitor behind him was displaying heavy static, which finally changed into the shape of a lone girl—a beautiful girl with long black hair. 

The girl wore nothing more than a thin robe, causing her to resemble a nymph from ancient times. Her limbs poking out of the sleeves and hem were covered in cruel scars, as if she had been sewn together. 

“Heh…heh-heh…heh…ha…!” 

The beautiful but unsightly girl crudely laughed inside the monitor. 

Her hollow eyes were gazing straight at Akishige. 

“Fools… You are fools, descendants of the greedy usurper. As if such heresy would grant thy wish. The key to The Cleansing is already within my hands. Sink together with this accursed island!” 

“So this is the Priestess of Abel from the reports…,” Akishige spat. Shifting toward the terminal on the writing desk, he addressed the pale-faced researchers once more. 

“What is the Coffin’s situation?” 

“The signal has been cut. There is no response from the Priestess of Cain. As before, the Five Elements are operating just within the limits—they have been hijacked from the outside!” 

The researcher’s words, sounding like a scream, made the corner of Akishige’s eye twitch. 

“So you are the one controlling The Cleansing, you damnable death reject. You’re the one who put Meiga Itogami up to this.” 

“Heh…ha! …Know the humiliation of having your legitimate lands usurped, descendants of Cain—!” 

Leaving those words behind, a declaration of war akin to a curse, the girl vanished from sight. 

The ferociously jumbled sounds grew distant, and the monitor’s image recovered. “Damned ghost,” Akishige grumbled, glaring at the monitor with an annoyed twist of his cheeks. The Priestess of Abel had jacked Akishige’s well-protected, top-secret line. 

“Chairman, what should we—? At this rate…” 

“Keep it together. Hurry and seize the operations unit in the City Administration Office. Search for the Priestess of Abel with all the Island Guard’s resources. Also, inform the commander of the SSG.” 

After scolding the frightened researchers, Akishige resettled himself in his chair in front of the desk. Feeling the cold gaze of Shahryar Ren upon him, he suppressed his emotions as he wrung out his voice. 

“—Kill Meiga Itogami.” 

2 

Meiga Itogami’s entire body was enshrouded by a malevolent, vermillion radiance. 

On the inside of the intricate particles of light, ancient magical characters were flashing in and out. Each and every one of those vermillion particles was probably its own magic circle imbued with powerful ritual energy. It was overwhelming magic unlike any Kojou had previously encountered. Furthermore, the density and radiance of the vermillion particles was only increasing as time went on. 

And even more frightening than that, with so much magical power being emitted, the area around Meiga was teeming with serenity. He could not feel any surge of demonic energy, heat, recoil, or even an aura. The air was simply filled with overwhelming tranquility. Thanks to that, he could not see Meiga’s limits. He felt the unease of staring straight down into a deep pit, the bottom nowhere to be seen. 

“You said you’d…drag out Himeragi… No way I’m gonna let that happen…!” Kojou shouted with his dry, grating throat. 

Triggered less by anger than by fear, Kojou unleashed his demonic energy without limit. With Yukina well on her way to angelification, there was no way he could let her fight Meiga. He would stop it…for sure. He would stop it at all costs. 

That was just how dangerous, how unfathomable, Meiga was as he released that vermillion radiance. It was not reasoning or instinct that told Kojou this, but the blood of the Fourth Primogenitor. 

“Wait, Kojou Akatsuki! Right now, he is—” 

Seeing Kojou entering a combat posture, Natsuki gasped, her expression going hard. But Kojou had already finished ordering his Beast Vassal to attack. The scarlet bicorn unleashed a highly dense bullet of oscillation and raging winds. 

“Al-Nasl Minium—!!” 

“?” 

Hmph, Meiga’s silent smirk seemed to say. Raising his black spear, surrounded by vermillion particles, overhead, he took Kojou’s Beast Vassal’s attack—the bullet of raging winds—head-on. 

Before Meiga’s eyes, the very air shimmered like a mirage, and then everything arising from the Beast Vassal’s attack changed somehow. The attack by a Beast Vassal of the Fourth Primogenitor was unable to force even a single one of Meiga’s bangs to move. 

Kojou stared at the spectacle, mouth agape. 

It was not so much that he was shaken, more that he was unable to comprehend what had just taken place. Even if Meiga’s black staff had nullified the Beast Vassal’s demonic energy, surely it would not have erased even the physical shock wave from the attack already unleashed. 

And yet, Meiga remained enveloped by particles of light as he cruelly smiled. It was a gentle yet indifferent smiling face, one seemingly taking pity at the surprised Kojou and the others with him. 

“So that concludes your efforts? Then I shall seize the initiative—High Priestess!” 

With his right hand keeping his staff poised, Meiga raised his empty left hand aloft. The red particle he was gripping in his hand was an octahedron around the size of a bullet—and this changed into a mass imbued with the magical element of wind. 

The next moment, this gleaming mass of light flew toward Kojou without a sound. 

Literally transforming into bullets, they shot right at Kojou—dozens of them. Even with a vampire’s reaction speeds, the sheer number of them was too great to evade. 

“Shit…! C’mon over, Mesarthim Adamas!” 

Largely on reflex, Kojou summoned a new Beast Vassal. What emerged was a giant bighorn sheep with immaculate diamond skin. 

The countless gemstone crystals enveloping the Beast Vassal accumulated to form a stout shield in front of Kojou. 

The true nature of Mesarthim Adamas was that of a divine diamond sheep that was impervious to any attack. Those that would inflict wounds upon it had those wounds reflected upon them. The Beast Vassal symbolized the vampiric curse of immortality. But— 

“What—?!” 

The instant Meiga’s vermillion bullets touched it, Kojou’s absolutely impenetrable defensive wall was smashed to smithereens, as fragile as a wall of chocolate. It had not been bludgeoned down by overwhelming demonic power, nor had Kojou’s own demonic power been nullified; Meiga’s vermillion bullets simply made the gemstone wall vanish, as if it had never existed to begin with. 

Then, as Kojou stood defenseless and still, the remaining bullets bore down upon him. 

What blocked those bullets was an invisible bulwark created by the arc of a slash. 

“Fall back, Kojou Akatsuki!” 

The severed space created by Sayaka’s long sword swallowed the vermillion bullets. The pseudo-spatial slashing of Lustrous Scale, which did not come into direct contact with the enemy’s attack, had not been affected by those bullets. Apparently, contact with the target was the condition for the bullets’ ability to activate. 

“Are you all right, Kojou Akatsuki?” Poised with her sword high, Sayaka shielded Kojou. 

“Yeah, somehow. You saved my ass, Kirasaka. Thanks.” Kojou sighed in relief. 

Perhaps she had not thought he would offer her gratitude so readily, for Sayaka was taken aback, cheeks red as her lips haltingly opened and closed. 

Truly, had Sayaka not protected him, Kojou was certain he’d have been nailed by Meiga’s attack. Even if he was an immortal primogenitor, he didn’t know if even he could have survived being shot by those bullets. 

“But what the heck’s with that power…? It instantly shot through my Beast Vassal’s defense, y’know?” Kojou uttered. 

Meanwhile, Meiga leisurely approached. Without understanding the true nature of his enemy’s ability, Kojou could not carelessly launch any attacks. At this rate, it would just back him further into a corner. 

It was Natsuki who replied to Kojou’s question. 

“That is The Cleansing.” 

As if they were dizzy, Kojou and Sayaka were enveloped by swaying air; the next instant, the pair had been shifted to the top of a building some forty to fifty meters away from Meiga. Natsuki had teleported them, putting distance between them and Meiga so that they might escape his next attack. 

“The Cleansing…?” 

After the sudden shift, Natsuki’s unexpected words caused both Kojou and Sayaka to look back. 

Of course, both were familiar with the word Cleansing. However, they thought that it referred to a much larger-scale historical incident, something more like a natural disaster. 

Compared to that, the vermillion radiance controlled by Meiga Itogami seemed too…calm. They couldn’t process it as anything but some kind of rare magic. 

Yet, that calm, bizarre ability had completely sealed the power of a Beast Vassal of the Fourth Primogenitor. 

“The forbidden magic created by Cain, the Sinful God, for slaying deities…,” Natsuki explained quietly in a voice that betrayed a little bit of fear, “and the Forbidden Ritual that gave rise to the worst genocide in history—that is the truth behind that which we call The Cleansing. Though, this is secondhand knowledge from Gajou Akatsuki.” 

“Kojou Akatsuki’s father…?” said Sayaka, swallowing her breath a little in surprise. 

The hell is she talking about? Kojou grimaced. Kojou’s dad, Gajou Akatsuki, was absolutely not respectable enough to deserve being called his father. “Shitty dad” was good enough. But setting that aside, he did claim archeology as his field of specialty, which would explain why he was familiar with legends about The Cleansing. 

“Kojou Akatsuki, absolutely do not approach Meiga Itogami. Even with your power, you cannot defeat him. He is not fending off your attacks. He is making them cease to exist.” Natsuki sounded unusually serious. 

“So he’s nullifying the demonic energy? Like Aya Tokoyogi’s Black Bible…?” Kojou asked, bewildered. 

“No.” Natsuki shook her head. “You are mistaken. Aya merely used the power of the Black Bible to mimic The Cleansing. Her self-satisfaction harbored that contradiction from the very beginning. After all, she used this world’s demonic energy to temporarily overwrite the world and create one where demonic energy did not exist. But even if you blot out a painting with ink, that does not make the painting underneath it vanish, does it?” 

“W-well, yeah…” 

Kojou vaguely nodded. Certainly, the world revision brought about by the Black Bible was a temporary phenomenon dependent on the lunar cycle and the position of the constellations. Kojou’s and the others’ supposedly erased demonic energy soon returned, and as a result, Aya Tokoyogi was defeated. 

“But The Cleansing alters the world itself. For instance, even if you sliced up the painting or burned it, he could simply do away with the entire museum.” 

Natsuki’s words sounded very casual, but that made them feel all the more trustworthy. 

“Don’t tell me…that ruin of Nod that Glenda and I saw was…” 

“Perhaps it was a world that perished, destroyed in Cain’s wake.” 

Kojou’s murmur brought a nod from Natsuki. It was a destroyed, uninhabited ruin paired with a world buried in nothingness. The world of Nod that Kojou had witnessed might well have been a vestige of The Cleansing. Left to rage unchecked, the power of The Cleansing could wipe an entire world away. 

“But can a human being actually use magic that can reshape the world?” It was a simple question that had just occurred to Kojou. 

If the ability of The Cleansing was to alter the world itself, the volume of information plainly exceeded that which an individual person could control. He didn’t think such attacks could be fired blindly without a complicated magical ceremony behind it. 

Natsuki mixed a nod with a sigh. 

“Of course a person cannot handle it. That is why he requires the altar known as Itogami Island, and the so-called Priestess of Cain. These constitute a source for magical energy and a device for magical calculations, respectively—” 

Meiga Itogami launched a fresh attack before she could finish those words. 

Controlling the vermillion particles, Meiga created a hexagon the size of a basketball out of thin air. Meiga fired this polygon, which bore the magical meaning of the element of earth, like a cannonball toward the building where Kojou and the others were located. 

With a ferocious collision, the cannonball of light particles scattered, and the entire building was dyed vermillion. It was the next moment when the building at Kojou and company’s feet suddenly began to crumble and collapse. 

In the blink of an eye, the building’s structure had been transformed into a mass of salt. Stark-white salt crystals scattered about as the huge building fell. 

“That said, it would appear this small amount seems to be the limit of the power he can draw…” 

Teleporting them to the ground once more, Natsuki spoke the words like this was someone else’s problem. 

“Gwoah?!” 

“Small amount…?! That’s plenty dangerous enough, if you ask me…!” 

Kojou was hurled onto the hard, concrete surface. Sayaka grabbed hold of the hem of her skirt as she fell on top of Kojou. Koff! went Kojou, his breath caught, as Natsuki coldly looked back at them and said: 

“Be careful. He’s lobbing attacks that break the rules of magic as well as the laws of physics.” 

“‘Be careful,’ she says. How the hell are you supposed to watch out for something like—?” 

Stopping his sentence partway, Kojou lifted his face, whereupon vermillion bullets sailing through the air were reflected in his eyes. Scarlet particles scattered about as they poured down upon him. 

“Urk…! Lustrous Scale—!” 

Leaping forth, Sayaka used a flash of her long sword to create a pseudo-spatial severing wall. It had already been proven that such an invisible bulwark could fend off even Meiga’s bullets. This time, however… 

“Eh?!” 

As if having anticipated Sayaka’s action, the bullets changed course. The vermillion bullets each traced curves that ignored the laws of physics, attacking Sayaka from behind. 

The pseudo-spatial severing of Sayaka’s long sword was powerful, but it harbored the weakness of only being deployable in a single direction. Having already deployed the bulwark in front of her, Sayaka could not defend against attacks from behind. 

“Kirasaka!” 

Kojou, standing up after a delay, called out the immobile Sayaka’s name. Charging in from the side, he shielded Sayaka by pushing her out of the way. The vermillion bullets mercilessly assaulted Kojou’s entire body. His right leg and flank, his shoulder and back—he was shot in four different places, helplessly tumbling to the ground. 

“No way! Kojou Akatsuki?!” 

Realizing that Kojou had saved her, Sayaka shrieked when she also discovered that Kojou was covered in blood. With his barely mobile left leg supporting the weight of his body, Kojou rose to his feet. 

“I’m all right. It’s just a scratch… Something like this’ll…heal soon enough…” 

“Idiot! If his attacks can nullify your Beast Vassals, they might be able to nullify vampiric healing abilities, too!” 

“Looks…like you’re right…” 

Kojou himself was aware of the large volume of blood spilling out of his body. There was no sign of the life force peculiar to demons or the activation of his healing ability. The bullets had quietly robbed him of his supernatural power. 

Salt crystals dancing upward from the collapse of the building covered Kojou and the others’ fields of vision like dust. On the other side of that hazy mist, Meiga appeared, enshrouded by vermillion radiance. 

“Now, then… Have you finally decided to summon Yukina Himeragi here?” 

Toying with a vermillion bullet in the palm of his hand, Meiga inquired in a gentle fashion. 

The words made Sayaka fly into a rage. Meiga’s attitude, and his obsession with Yukina, really rubbed her the wrong way. 

“Like hell I will! It’s ten years too soon for the likes of you to speak Yukina’s name!” 

“Kirasaka, quit it—!” 

Before Kojou could stop her, Sayaka turned her long sword over, slicing toward Meiga with it. 

Meiga’s vermillion bullet shot out. Tracing a complicated arc, it was an octagonal mass flying at high speed. 

Sayaka just barely lured it in and swatted it down with Lustrous Scale. This feat of supreme skill, worthy of being called a work of God, brought an approving smile over Meiga. 

“Pseudo-spatial severing, is it…? As expected of a Shamanic War Dancer. What fine skill. However, you have wandered too close—” 

“Eh…?” 

As Meiga levied his sarcasm, Sayaka’s combat pose suddenly crumbled. Strength drained from her entire body, leaving her to wobble and crumple on the spot. Even so, Sayaka managed to rise up again, but all she could manage was a stagger; she could not stand upright. Her semicircular canals had been thrown awry, and her eyes were not focused on the same spot. 

“Don’t tell me…you poisoned the air…” 

Sayaka let out an anguished groan. The radiance of The Cleansing, the vermillion particles around Meiga, freely altered the very world. If it had enough power to turn an entire building into a pillar of salt, surely turning the air into a poisonous gas would be trivial. 

“If Yukina Himeragi hears your screams, she’ll come running, right…?” 

As Sayaka fell to her knees, Meiga looked down at her as he thrust his black spear without warning. The warped spear was aimed at Sayaka’s right shoulder. He surely meant not to finish her off in one blow, but to rob her limbs of freedom and prolong her suffering. 

“—!” 

Even as Sayaka’s face contorted with fear, she levied an obstinate glare at Meiga. 

“Meiga Itogami! You little…!” 

Kojou dragged his injured body along as he rose to his feet and rushed at Meiga, fist drawn back. Immediately behind Kojou, the heavy thunk of a round being loaded reverberated. 

“Sir Boyfriend, get thyself down!” 

What he heard was Lydianne’s voice, synthesized to sound deep and threatening. Lifting its ritual magic camouflage, her robot tank came into view, unloading every weapon at its disposal. 

These included large-caliber antipersonnel machine guns in the legs, micro-missiles hailing from the back, and stun grenades and wireless Tasers. The main gun had fired a fragmentation round for riot suppression. Meiga’s black spear could not block solid attacks such as these. 

Meiga controlled his vermillion particles to deploy a bulwark around himself. This bulwark, in the shape of a dodecagon, halted Lydianne’s cannon fire. 

“An anti-demon robot tank… I see. Did you think that physical attacks not reliant upon magic could defy the world-altering power of The Cleansing? How very futile—,” Meiga murmured with scorn. 

Lydianne continued firing without pause, but none of her attacks reached Meiga. Every single one bounced off the vermillion wall surrounding him. 

With the dodecagon-shaped wall still deployed, Meiga created new bullets, octagonal ones around the size of hand grenades. If those bullets could turn a building into a pillar of salt, they would surely neutralize the armor of Lydianne’s tank with ease. But before he could unleash his bullets, the air ripped with a heavy clang. 

“No, it is not futile at all—” 

“What?!” 

With a great roar, a golden chain reaching tens of meters in length collided with Meiga’s wall. The apparition of an enormous knight emerged at Natsuki’s back, swinging the golden chain like a whip. This was Natsuki’s contracted demonic vassal—the Guardian of the Witch of the Void. 

Meiga, still fending off Lydianne’s bullet hail, could not evade that attack. Sustaining the collision from an unanticipated direction, Meiga and the wall were both sent flying. 

“Kirasaka, you all right?” 

During that time, Kojou picked up the fallen Sayaka. Hovering around her was a strange, powerful scent that made his nose throb. The poisonous gas Meiga had created had yet to fully dissipate. 

“Lydianne, take care of Sayaka!” 

“Understood!” 

Carrying the immobile Sayaka in a sub-arm, Lydianne’s tank retreated. Thanks to the sustained volley, the robot tank was pretty low on ammo. She’d no doubt judged that continued combat would prove difficult. 

“And you, Sir Boyfriend?” 

“I’m fine. I’ll back Natsuki up. You two fall back to somewhere safe!” 

Speaking those last words to Lydianne, Kojou wobbled as he walked forward. 

Natsuki continued her attacks, but the tide of battle had already turned. The might of her magical gear, Dromi, was formidable, but it could not break Meiga’s wall. On the other side of the coin, Natsuki seemed to be barely evading Meiga’s vermillion bullets through the use of teleportation. 

Even so, Natsuki’s expression remained composed. 

“Kojou Akatsuki—beneath.” 

Natsuki was using some manner of magic to speak directly into Kojou’s ears. 

“Beneath…?” 

Perplexed, Kojou shifted his gaze to his own feet. The only thing there was a concrete surface, with not the slightest thing unusual about it. This was the exterior event space on Stratum Three of Keystone Gate. Beneath it was the unmanned parking space and a supply warehouse. And beyond that— 

“So that’s it! C’mon over, Natra Cinereus!” 

Gathering his remaining demonic energy, Kojou summoned a new Beast Vassal: an illusory, shelled beast enveloped by thick, silver mist. Its giant forelegs crashed into the plaza, transforming the concrete surface into mist. 

The area under his feet literally dissipated, and Kojou’s body tumbled beneath the ground’s surface. What he saw beneath him was an underground chamber encased by a metallic barrier wall—Keystone Gate’s Stratum Zero. In that chamber, filled to the brim with seawater, an object floated that had not previously been present. 

It was a streamlined vessel encased in a metallic, ultramarine-colored shell—the submarine called Cain’s Coffin. 

“So that was your aim, Witch of the Void… It would seem you are indeed my most difficult foe!” 

Scattering scarlet radiance all about, Meiga leaped down to chase after Kojou. 

If Kojou and the others took back Asagi, confined inside the sub, Meiga would lose the power of The Cleansing. There was no mistaking that he acted out of fear of that very possibility. So Asagi really was held captive inside the Coffin. 

“So this is Cain’s Coffin…? Where’s the entrance—?! There—!” 

Bounding upon the submarine’s hull, Kojou ran toward the hatch. Seeing this, Natsuki gasped, her expression hardening. 

“Wait, Kojou Akatsuki! Do not approach carelessly—!” 

“Huh…?” 

Having touched the submarine’s hatch, Kojou was suddenly enveloped in glowing red miasma. He let out a voiceless scream at the ferocious pain piercing his entire body. A cube-shaped cage had surrounded his body. This polygon, bearing the element of fire, transformed into a burning hell to torment Kojou. Foreseeing Kojou’s action, Meiga Itogami had laid a trap beforehand. 

“Shit—! C’mon over, Al-Meissa Mercury!” 

In terrible pain, Kojou found a way to breathe as he summoned a Beast Vassal. This was Beast Vassal Number Three of the Fourth Primogenitor—the twin-headed, quicksilver-scaled dragon bearing the ability to gouge holes out of space itself. He tried to employ that ability to destroy Meiga’s trap. 

But even the maws of the Dimension Eater Beast Vassal could not break the fiery cubic cage. Bathed in a backwash of vermillion particles, it was Kojou’s Beast Vassal that took the brunt instead. 

“Damn…iiit.…!” 

Seemingly depleted of strength, Kojou collapsed on the spot. He had insufficient demonic energy with which to summon a new Beast Vassal. He had suffered too much damage from Meiga’s attacks. 

“And so the first one falls—” 

Eyes on the immobile Kojou, Meiga fired off new bullets. These were cubic bullets bearing the element of fire. He fired nearly twenty simultaneously. These, he launched, ready to shoot right through the fiery cage, and Kojou with it— 

“?Snowdrift Wolf!” 

It was a small girl fluttering down from the heavens who knocked them down. 

Then she swung, and a dazzling silver light lashed out. 

3 

The purging spear able to pierce any barrier pulverized the fiery cage that had caught Kojou. Then, still wielding her silver spear, she landed at Kojou’s side without a sound. 

Impeded by the silver spear, the scarlet bullets shot out by Meiga never reached Kojou’s body. The world-altering power of The Cleansing and the radiance of the Divine Oscillation Effect had canceled each other out. 

“Are you all right, senpai?” 

When Yukina peered at him out of concern, Kojou stared back in abject shock. He was too surprised and flustered for words. After repeated, ferocious coughs, he finally managed to get a raspy voice out. 

“Himeragi?! The hell are you doing here—?!” 

Didn’t she know that if she kept using Snowdrift Wolf, she would vanish? 

Why hadn’t Yukari Endou stopped her—? 

Kojou harbored those various questions, but sudden, crude, and loud laughter erased them from his mind. 

“Ha-ha! …Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! For you to seek me out… Let me show you my appreciation, Yukina Himeragi. Thanks to you, I have been spared a considerable waste of time… Heh-heh!” 

A crazed smile came over Meiga as he shouted, almost like he was a different person than his usual, composed self. As if to defy his bloodlust-filled gaze, Yukina turned her silver spear toward him. 

“Himeragi, watch out. This guy’s attacks rewrite the world’s rules. Even your spear might not be able to defend against it…!” 

“…Yes. I understand.” 

To Kojou’s words, and the bitter warning they formed, Yukina slowly nodded. For a single instant, she looked back at Kojou with a smile; then she closed her eyes, as if blowing something aside. 

“Even so—!” 

Yukina’s entire body was imbued with a pale radiance. Characters were traced in midair, complicated magical symbols identical to the ones emerging upon Snowdrift Wolf’s surface. The symbols adopted the form of wings, spreading forth from Yukina’s back. 

“Himeragi…!” 

The vast spiritual energy Yukina was giving off pricked and burned Kojou’s skin. He knew that sensation. It was damage from being bathed in high-density divine essence, as he had been when he had fought the Faux-Angel Kanon Kanase once long ago. 

“This divine essence… I see, so that is it…!” 

As Meiga continued to laugh, a dark glint of hatred rested in his eyes. All around him, he created vermillion bullets beyond all counting. These he fired in a single volley, bearing down on Yukina from all directions. 

“I will never accept…you stepping into the realm of Touka… This shall not be… For Touka to be used up and cast aside…for the sake of the successor to Snowdrift Wolf—as if I could ever accept that?!” 

“Urk…?!” 

The scarlet bullets pressed down upon Yukina’s wings, corroding them. The Cleansing under Meiga’s control was created as a god-killing, Forbidden Ritual. Even a complete Faux-Angel could not defend against the attack. The only reason Yukina could barely hold out was because Meiga’s power was as yet incomplete. 

“Ms. Minamiya! Rescue Aiba while you still can—!” Yukina shouted to Natsuki. She declared that she could withstand the attacks. 

“Do not give orders to me, Sword Shaman,” Natsuki sourly muttered as she landed at Kojou’s side. “This one says this, that one says that.” 

Due to Yukina, Meiga’s trap laid upon the submarine’s hatch had already been disarmed. The Coffin’s interior barrier was still active, so she could not teleport in, but it was surely possible to open the hatch and enter that way. 

Natsuki slightly furrowed her brows, clenching her closed fan as her movements came to a halt. 

She was staring at the strange, faintly glimmering silhouette floating amid the darkness. Light particles of The Cleansing accumulated, gradually transforming into the form of a girl—unsightly yet beautiful with harsh scars. 

“Thou shalt not…!” 

The translucent, glimmering, ghostlike girl launched bullets toward Natsuki like rain. They were bullets formed of the same radiance as The Cleansing that Meiga controlled. 

“What’s…with that girl…?!” 

Launched at point-blank range, the girl’s attack gave Natsuki no chance to evade. Bathed in countless bullets from close range, Natsuki’s small body was blown away. Fragments of her broken folding fan scattered downward; torn pieces of her extravagant dress danced in the sky. 

“Natsuki—?!” 

Kojou stared blankly, shouting as Natsuki was struck down. 

“Ha-ha!” Meiga Itogami sounded delighted. “I thank you, High Priestess—” 

As he spoke his thanks to the ghostly girl, Meiga lashed out with his black spear. Scattering from its tips was Fangzahn’s black spiritual energy–nullifying aurora. 

“Ah—” 

Slashed and rent by the dark-colored aurora, Yukina’s wings vanished. Vermillion bullets poured like rain. The bullets were too numerous for her Snowdrift Wolf to intercept. Having lost the blessing of divine essence, she was at a disadvantage, crushed by the greater number of cards in Meiga’s hand. 

“Shit! C’mon over, Sadalmelik—” 

Struck by a sense of urgency, Kojou tried to summon a fresh Beast Vassal, but Meiga reacted swiftly. 

“Out of my way!” 

Meiga fired at Kojou, who was helpless just prior to the summoning. Supernatural power–robbing bullets pierced Kojou through his left shoulder and abdomen. 

“Senpai—?!” 

For a moment, the sight of blood spurting from Kojou as he fell distracted Yukina; it was a fatal opening. With the dark membrane shredding the divine essence emanating from Yukina, Meiga slammed the black spear home. 

“It’s over, Yukina Himeragi!” 

With her spiritual energy negated, Yukina could not protect herself against the jiangshi’s strength. Meiga’s black spear knocked Snowdrift Wolf away, and with Yukina’s guard broken, he thrust the black spear’s opposing tip in pursuit of her wide-open throat. 

“No, not yet—” 

That instant, sound vanished from the world. It was a momentary tranquility, as if time itself had gone silent. 

Together with a ferocious noise, that pure-white tranquility was shot to pieces; the next instant, Meiga sailed backward as if his body had bounced off something. Even Yukina, bearing the ability to peer into the future, could not tell what had happened in that moment. Meiga had been supposedly attacking Yukina when, at some point, his body had been riddled with nine bullets. 

“The absolute right of initiative…?!” 

Meiga slowly rose to his feet despite suffering damage that would have instantly killed any normal person. What trickled from his lips was fresh yet stagnant blood…and the low reverberation of invective. 

“So you were alive, Paper Noise…!!” 

Red particles spewed from Meiga’s entire body. A vast number of bullets of light, their number incomparable to what had come before, scattered all around the area in a burst of anger. He was trying to flush out the unseen Paper Noise with an indiscriminate attack. 

The submarine base of Stratum Zero was filled with a firestorm, with broken fragments of the metal barrier wall blowing around like blades. However, there was no sense of him having felled his opponent. 

“So she ran away.” 

Waiting for the smoke screen to subside, Meiga quietly sighed. 

The heavily wounded Kojou Akatsuki and Yukina Himeragi had vanished from sight. That was probably Natsuki Minamiya’s doing. She used a teleport to whisk them away during the time Meiga’s attention had been occupied with Paper Noise. 

“Troublesome, but it is fine. There is one additional person who must be destroyed—” 

Speaking these words, Meiga shifted his eyes overhead. Through the smoke screen that had yet to dissipate, an enormous, imposing building came into view. 

The girl covered with wounds cackled as she hovered behind Meiga. 

A dark, twisted smile rose upon her face, the sort known only to those utterly consumed by revenge. 

4 

Hurled violently against a hard surface, Kojou let out a brief yelp. 

It was a tiny park alongside a waterway. On the opposing shore, he could see Keystone Gate spewing black smoke. 

Judging from the scenery around him, he was probably on the southern bank of Island North. It was a good couple of kilometers from there to Keystone Gate. 

“It seems you are alive somehow, Kojou Akatsuki.” 

Natsuki spoke haughtily as she looked down on Kojou, who was lying faceup. It was indeed she who had brought Kojou out just before Meiga had begun his indiscriminate attack. 

“Yeah, somehow.” 

Kojou weakly murmured as he slowly got his blood-soaked body into a seated position. The wounds from where Meiga’s bullets had shot through him ran far deeper than he had imagined. Thanks to that, recovery was strangely slow, even with a vampire’s regenerative ability. The powers of The Cleansing really had dampened Kojou’s abilities. 

And yet, the overwhelming demonic power of the Fourth Primogenitor was defying the effect of The Cleansing through sheer force, but he had no idea how long he could hold out if he took any more of those bullets. Having come in contact with the supposed forbidden god-killing magic, all that appeared to be no exaggeration. 

“You all right, Himeragi?” 

Kojou shifted his gaze to Yukina as she lent him a shoulder of support. From what he could see, Yukina bore no external wounds, but even at a glance, it was all too clear she was exhausted. There was no mistaking it: This was an effect of using divine essence during her fight with Meiga. However, as if to conceal that, Yukina gave him a cheery smile. 

“Yes, I am fine. However, the one who aided us in the end—” 

“Paper Noise…I presume. I would like to think she escaped on her own power, but…,” Natsuki replied in Kojou’s place. Her voice sounded less resilient than its normal, cruel tone. It felt as if she was confessing I couldn’t save her. 

It was then that Kojou finally remembered that she was wounded. 

“Natsuki… Those wounds…” 

“Not a problem. This body is nothing but a vessel, after all,” Natsuki said with a slow shake of her head. 

In a certain sense, Natsuki’s wounds were more horrid than Kojou’s. For all the lack of identifiable bleeding, her damage ran from the rips in her dress to the deep cracks he could see gouged into her flesh and the way her left arm dangled limply. The wounds were from when the mysterious girl—whose appearance rivaled that of a bloodied apparition—had shot her. 

“However, it is true that even I cannot employ my full power like this. Damn that Priestess of Abel, she got me good…” 

Natsuki’s lips curled in visible displeasure as she suppressed the awkward movements of her left arm. 

Natsuki’s real flesh-and-blood body continued to sleep within the other world known as the Prison Barrier. Natsuki’s body in the real world was a doll—a clone she controlled via magic. 

Even though it was a magically created clone, destroying it left Natsuki with no way to move around the real world. At the very least, the damage her clone body had sustained robbed Natsuki of some of her combat capabilities. Naturally, even she would be reluctant to engage in combat with Meiga in her current condition. 

All the same, there was no way Kojou could fault Natsuki; the sudden appearance of the ghostly girl had been something completely beyond their capacity to predict. 

“That Priestess of A… That ghostlike girl. What is she?” he asked. 

Natsuki gave a cold laugh. “Ghost is an oddly apt description. That girl is a survivor of The Cleansing of old. Though, since her body has long since perished, it sounds odd to describe her as a survivor.” 

“Meaning she is a…vestigial consciousness?” 

Yukina narrowed her eyes in apparent surprise. Natsuki nodded a little. 

“Properly speaking, a corpse infused with a vestigial consciousness. There was a report that she had been smuggled into Itogami Island, and the Attack Mage Branch was dispatched in that direction, but Meiga Itogami’s backers seem to have put a stop to it.” 

“Then the one controlling The Cleansing at this moment is…” 

“Right. It is that woman, not Asagi Aiba. If Asagi, the true Priestess of Cain, had been handling the calculations, The Cleansing would not have ended at such a meager scale.” 

“I think this meager scale was plenty dangerous enough…” 

Kojou set his cheek on his palm as he let out a sigh. The world-altering power of The Cleansing that Meiga controlled was far too much for a single individual to possess. Changing a building into a pillar of salt, nullifying the Beast Vassals of the World’s Mightiest Vampire—it deserved the off-the-wall name of Forbidden Ritual. 

However, if Natsuki’s words were true, the real Cleansing must have had enormous influence, dwarfing what he had faced. And if that was so, it was an ability frightening enough that it could destroy Itogami Island—or the world, for that matter; enough to think that those Nalakuvera and Wiseman’s Blood were little kids in comparison. 

“That woman, who once lost her life from being enveloped in The Cleansing, bears a strong power to resist alterations to the world,” Natsuki explained. “It is like developing an immunity to a transmissible disease. That is why, even though she is not the proper Priestess of Cain, she is somehow able to control The Cleansing.” 

“So that’s why you call her the Priestess of Abel, huh…?” Kojou did not conceal his irritation. “In the end, what is The Cleansing anyway? I dunno about this Senra Itogami guy, but why’d he wanna bring something like that back?” 

“If you wish to know about The Cleansing, why not ask an expert in the field?” As she glared at Kojou, Natsuki closed one eye and shot him a mischievous-looking smile. 

From out of thin air, she took out what looked like a plain cell phone issued by the Attack Mage Branch. Scrolling through her address book, she found a number and called it. 

“Expert?” 

Who? Kojou tilted his head, looking to Yukina for clarity. She, too, seemed perplexed as she shook her head. 

Meanwhile, the other party had apparently answered Natsuki’s call. She wore an especially emotionless look as she said, “It is I, grave robber.” 

Speaking in an unsociable voice, Natsuki switched the call to speakerphone. 

Coursing over the phone was the especially clear voice of a man all too familiar to Kojou. 

“Ahhh? Oh, it’s you, li’l Teach. Sowwy, but Nagisa’s coming to visit me here in the hospital. If I’m making nice with women other than my bride, she’s gonna chew me out again, so I’m hangin’ up.” 

Kojou’s father—Gajou Akatsuki—was rambling in his usual, shady tone. 

Why the heck does Natsuki know Gajou? thought Kojou, seriously thrown for a loop. The unexpected confirmation that Nagisa was all right was the only good thing Kojou could see coming out of it. Apparently, Gajou had yet to hear anything about the unrest at Keystone Gate. 

“I have no intention whatsoever of making nice with you. I am merely calling to ask a question.” 

Bluntly ignoring the bewildered Kojou, Natsuki continued her conversation with Gajou. 

“Question?” Gajou replied, making no effort to conceal his displeasure. 

Are you really okay with giving attitude to Natsuki Minamiya, the Witch of the Void? thought Kojou, seriously concerned for his father’s well-being for once. 

“What is The Cleansing? For what purpose was it instigated?” 

In front of Kojou, by then quite on edge, Natsuki repeated the question with far higher pressure than he had. 

On the other end of the line, Gajou unleashed a conspicuous sigh. “What, that? And here I was sure you were gonna ask me what kind of girls I prefer.” 

“Enough nonsense. Answer me.” 

When Natsuki threatened him over the phone, Kojou practically felt Gajou’s shoulders sink. 

Then his voice abruptly changed. It was sober, serious—one Kojou had never heard before. 

“—Legends, you see, might look like mere fabrications, but they often reflect history at the time to a surprising degree. The legend of a hero dispatching a dragon might conceal behind it a king who prevented a river flood with riparian works. A legend about obtaining a holy sword might be an allusion for the spread of metallurgy.” 

“………” 

To some degree, Natsuki had apparently expected Gajou’s explanation. She nodded but once before instantly asking a question in return. 

“Then what does The Cleansing…? What does Cain, the Sinful God, allude to?” 

“Well, that’s a pretty simple story: a great genocide of demons at the hands of humanity.” 

“You are saying that humankind slaughtered demons?” Natsuki repeated for confirmation. 

Gajou tossed a laugh as he said, “Well, that’s how it turned out from our perspective. But I’m pretty sure they didn’t call ’em demons at the time.” 

“Then what were they called?” 

“Devas—alternatively, ancient superhumans—or perhaps gods.” 

“Gods…?” 

Kojou and Yukina listened with bated breath as Natsuki and Gajou continued to converse. 

They both knew about a race referred to as ancient superhumans. It was they who had created various ancient weapons like the Nalakuvera and who had sealed the twelfth Kaleid Blood—Avrora—in a ruin. Indeed, they had fought a sorcerous criminal who claimed to be descended from the Devas. 

But that they and demons were one and the same—this was complete news to them. It was not something easily believed. 

“You are saying demons are, in truth, gods?” 

“The folks that win a war declare the gods of the defeated nation to be demons and monsters. That’s the cliché play, made by the ruling side all around the world, ain’t it?” 

“This would not be a story warmly welcomed by mankind.” 

“Well, of course not. There’s no way in hell the scholastic world would recognize a thesis like this. So I don’t mind if you pass off all the stuff I said just now as my own personal delusion.” 

“I do not care about that. Continue.” 

Natsuki prodded him to keep going. 

“Li’l Teach is so inquisitive.” Gajou laughed. “…The individual we call Cain was also once part of the people known as gods, but for whatever reason, he must have been exiled from this world. Speaking from my experience, it’d be trouble relating to money or women,” said Gajou in a dead-serious voice. 

“Then, in the world Cain was exiled to, he met humankind. Twisted as he might be, he was still a god. Taming a powerless humankind must’ve been child’s play. Through the worship of the people, Cain turned into a real god. So having become the ruler of this other world, whaddaya think Cain’s next desire was?” 

“To return to this world—and exact his revenge on the gods that exiled him,” Natsuki replied without hesitation. 

“Right answer. But Cain alone couldn’t win against the gods. That said, humankind was way too powerless to fight the gods themselves. It was then that Cain gave humanity the knowledge and the tools to fight against the gods. One was magic. And the other—” 

“The sorcerous devices of The Cleansing.” 

“That’s li’l Teach for you. Quick study.” Gajou raised his voice in what seemed to be genuine admiration. “So for those reasons, he got plenty of troops under him, but the gods’ power was overwhelmingly vast. Humankind had no chance against them in a straight-up fight. So Cain had this thought—humankind cannot kill a god. If that is an iron rule of the world, then just rewrite the rule.” 

“And that is The Cleansing’s purpose, then?” Natsuki snorted and grinned. It sort of came off as annoyed and frigid, though. 

“That’s right. Through the ultimate Forbidden Ritual that altered the world, Cain changed the very nature of the gods. The gods were changed into demons. Humankind cannot kill a god. But if they’re facing demons, that’s a different story.” 

“And as a result, a great genocide was instigated?” 

“I told you, this is all my personal delusion. It’s not like anyone’s gonna accept that humans were the usurpers. Besides, there’s no proof whatsoever that the folks they called gods were benign beings of some sort. Plus, if you told demon folks that they’re descended from ancient superhumans, ain’t like they’re gonna accept that, either,” Gajou said in jest. Surprisingly, Natsuki did not refute him in any way. 

“If this story is the truth, then Cain is indeed the First Sinner, and so, too, the Father of all demons.” Natsuki’s face twisted into a complex expression of sympathy and resignation. 

“I suppose so,” Gajou bluntly replied. 

It was Kojou who forced his way into the adults’ conversation. Natsuki bristled as Kojou half stole the cell phone right out of her hand. 

“Hold on. I get why the first Cleansing happened. But what gives with the folks trying to re-create that thing now? No one needs a genocide anymore, dammit!” 

“Ah? The hell?” 

Gajou raised an annoyed voice at the sudden intrusion of Kojou’s question. 

“Not that I care, but someone there just asked a really stupid question. The whole world’s full of people who’d love to get their hands on the power of The Cleansing. If there were no more demons, they could help themselves to the dominions’ natural resources. Even without fighting a natural war, having a weapon that powerful in their grip would make one hell of a bargaining chip.” 

Kojou groaned, his words caught in his throat. It hurt to admit it, but Gajou was right. 

“So how do you stop The Cleansing?” 

“Whaaat?” 

“There’s obviously a way to stop it after it’s begun. Demons weren’t exterminated, and humanity doesn’t rule over them, so if there wasn’t a way, none of this makes any sense. The one who got destroyed was Cain, dammit!” 

“I don’t know what idiot’s talking, but that’s one stupid, circular question you asked there. I’d like to give your father a piece of my mind,” Gajou grumbled, really throwing Kojou for an emotional loop. “Isn’t it obvious? Cain was destroyed because someone killed his ass.” 

“Killed…?” 

As Kojou murmured in astonishment, Gajou stated toward him in a jovial tone that seemed to see through everything: 

“To kill Cain, the one surviving god unaffected by The Cleansing, the folks once known as the Devas built a weapon for killing a god. That’s what destroyed Cain and ended The Cleansing. That was the world’s mightiest artificial vampire—some idiot they called the Fourth Primogenitor or something.” 

5 

Still gripping Natsuki’s cell phone, Kojou was frozen and silent for a while. His head had gone blank, unable to think of anything. Gajou’s words were so earth-shattering, he couldn’t swallow them properly. 

And so Kojou remained until his ears heard a boisterous voice in an affectation from a period drama. 

“Sir Boyfriend! Art thou in good health?!” 

A red robot tank approached, parting the park’s foliage by force. The shell-like cockpit hatch opened, and Lydianne poked her head out. 

“Oh my? What dost this atmosphere portend?” 

Noticing that Kojou was out of his right mind, the visibly curious Lydianne posed that question. 

Kojou, roughly pulling on his cheek to drag him back to his senses, said, “Uh… Mmm, don’t worry about it. More importantly, is Kirasaka all right?” 

“Lady Shamanic War Dancer…? That is, ah… I am uncertain as to whether I can classify her as ‘all right’…” 

“Huh?” 

As Kojou knit his brows in visible concern, the stopped robot tank lowered itself flat on the ground. Sayaka Kirasaka half tumbled her way down from its back. 

When she turned her hollow, unfocused eyes toward Kojou, a wobbly, defenseless smile came over her as she said: 

“Ah… Kojou Akatsuki…!” 

Speaking those words with a rather sexy expression, Sayaka went to embrace Kojou. Her completely unanticipated action made Kojou’s entire body go rigid. 

“K-Kirasaka…?” 

“Geez, where did you go off to, leaving me alone like that?! I was worried about you! Yukina might disappear on me, so if something happened to you, too, I… I’d… Uh… Waaah…” 

Pounding Kojou’s chest again and again, Sayaka suddenly began to break into tears. With half-lidded eyes, Natsuki stared at the sight of a Shamanic War Dancer of the Lion King Agency in such a state with a look of scorn. Yukina could only do the same. 

When Kojou looked harder, Sayaka’s cheeks were faintly red and flushed, and as she clung to him, her entire body felt oddly soft against him. There was a sweet scent like that of ripened fruit wafting up from her whole body. 

“Ugh,” Kojou groaned, his breath stopping when he realized the nature of that aroma. “…The hell? …You smell like booze…” 

“’Tis the work of Meiga Itogami. Somehow, that man hath altered the content of the air to create ether alcohol—” 

Lydianne mixed a sigh into her words as she slowly shook her head. 

“Alcohol? So that wasn’t poison, then…” 

Kojou covered his eyes in annoyance when he recalled the action Meiga had taken to drive Sayaka off. Thinking about it calmly, at the time, Sayaka had been heading in to slice Meiga at point-blank range. There was no way he could have transformed the air around him into lethal poison gas under that circumstance, for even if he was an immortal jiangshi, the risk was just too great. 

“Even alcohol can slay a person if consumed in sufficiently large quantities. In either case, Lady Shamanic War Dancer hath been in this state ever since.” 

Lydianne made the statement in a tired tone, sounding oddly well versed about the subject. Meanwhile, Sayaka glommed onto Yukina, then standing beside Kojou, snugly pressing her breasts against Yukina’s cheek. 

“Yukinaaa…” 

“S-Sayaka?” 

“Noooo… Don’t disappear, Yukina, don’t leave meeee…” 

“S-Sayaka, please calm down… Wait a— S-Sayaka?! Where are you touching me…?” 

Unable to shove the girl away, Yukina seemed quite conflicted as Sayaka stroked her back. During that time, Sayaka embraced Yukina’s hips and blatantly fondled her breasts, absorbed in her sexual harassment. 

Kojou gazed in astonishment at the sight and said, “Natsuki, can you, um, do something about this?” 

“Leave her be. Even if I force her back to her senses with magic, she’ll be too hungover to fight for a few days. More importantly, Tanker—is that tank still usable?” 

“Lady Instructor? What dost thou have in mind?” Lydianne blinked her eyes a few times. 

“In total, there are five supercomputers that control Itogami Island. If we could sever one part of the network, Meiga Itogami’s power should diminish proportionately. After all, he must borrow the power of Itogami Island itself to control The Cleansing.” 

“Hmm… There dost be merit in the attempt. Though it is most difficult for me to invade the Five Elements alone; should I borrow the power of Lady Empress, then perhaps…? However, for that, a route of contact with Lady Empress inside the Coffin becomes necessary.” Despite her words, Lydianne’s voice sounded innocent and well suited to her age. 

Each of the vermillion bullets under Meiga’s control was a single, independent, and powerful magical formula. Vast computational ability surpassing human limits was necessary to employ magic of that extent. 

Meiga was acting as the agent of Itogami Island’s main supercomputers, dubbed the Five Elements. In other words, a reduction in the Five Elements’ capability meant that The Cleansing would be weakened. 

“Not a problem. Meiga Itogami activating The Cleansing and the Priestess of Abel assisting him are probably circumstances not accounted for in the mastermind’s actual plans. That is where we shall find our opening. Though, Meiga Itogami surely understands as much.” 

“Understoodeth. I shall provide what meager support of which I am capable.” 

With that strong declaration, Lydianne rebooted her robot tank. Natsuki gracefully climbed atop it. 

“Natsuki. What should we do?” 

Kojou asked as he dragged along his wounded leg and rose to his feet. As he did so, Natsuki shot him a glance, her long black hair swaying as she turned around, slamming a spectacular spinning kick into Kojou’s face. 

The injured Kojou, unable to withstand the blow, was pathetically sent flying, rolling until he was faceup. 

“Gu…ah…?! Hey, what the hell?! What was that for…?!” 

“Yukina Himeragi. You get the drunk and the death reject off the island. At this hour, there should be a high-speed ship you can use to get to the mainland.” 

“…Leave the island? Are you telling us to flee?” Yukina inquired in surprise. 

The little witch looked down at the fallen Kojou with an emotionless gaze as she said, “You heard that phone call earlier, did you not? If The Cleansing activates in its completed form, he will be the only chance of stopping it, so make sure to protect this idiot.” 

“Wait, Natsuki! I can still fight—” 

“Let’s go, Tanker.” 

“Sir Boyfriend, I prayeth for your fortunes in battle. Farewell!” 

“Natsuki! Lydianne…!” 

Ignoring the desperate Kojou as he rose to his feet, the tank Natsuki rode rolled out. Completely left behind, Kojou remained on his knees, watching as the girls receded into the distance when: 

“What are you crying about, Kojou Akatsuki?!” 

Kojou remained like that when Sayaka, still inebriated, slammed a karate chop into his back. Unable to endure the pain on top of the wounds where Meiga had shot him, Kojou was teary-eyed as he yelled, “Oh, shaddup, I ain’t cryin’— Wait, what’s up with you and that look?!” 

“S-Sayaka?!” 

“Eh?” 

Amid Kojou’s and Yukina’s nervous reactions, Sayaka cutely tilted her head. Having at some point stripped off her school uniform vest, Sayaka was wearing only the blouse, its collar wide open. 

As Sayaka’s body wobbled and swayed, the cleavage of her breasts and even her frilly bra leaped into Kojou’s field of vision. The way her skin, now pink from intoxication, was faintly glistening with sweat came off as strangely erotic. 

“But isn’t this island, like, kinda hot?” 

“It feels that way ’cause you’re drunk!” 

Kojou screeched in reply to Sayaka’s innocent question. She pouted, desperately pawing at the buttons of her uniform as she said: 

“You can watch if you want, Kojou Akatsuki. You’ve already seen me a bunch of times and all. You even made me take off my bra and stuff—” 

“Senpai…” 

“No, you have it all wrong. Back then, it wasn’t me who made her strip—!” 

Kojou ferociously shook his head as Yukina shifted a frigid gaze toward him. Forcing clothes off a resistant Sayaka was actually Yuuma Tokoyogi’s doing. Though, since Kojou had been firmly present, he had witnessed the proceedings from start to finish… 

“That’s true… It’s not like seeing my breasts makes you happy anyway. I’m not cute like Yukina. Cute panties don’t work for me like they do for her…” 

Having opened all the front buttons of her blouse, Sayaka suddenly got cold feet and curled up, hugging her knees. It was the sort of sudden mood change that the incredibly drunk were known for. 

“That’s not true at all. You’re cute, Sayaka! Right, senpai?” 

Seeing Sayaka leaden and deflated, Yukina earnestly tried to cheer her up. 

“Ah…… I think you’re cute, too, Sayaka. If you keep your mouth shut, you’re a real babe; plus, you have big breasts…” 

Not that this is the time and place to talk about that, thought Kojou, following suit as best he could. 

Sayaka glanced at Kojou with teary eyes as she said, “Really? You really think so?” 

“Well, yeah.” 

“Then, you’ll drink my blood?” 

“What…?” 

Sayaka’s words, taking one gigantic leap in reasoning, left Kojou silent, unable to respond. I mean, thought Sayaka, trying to rise back up. 

“I mean, those wounds… You took those hits for me… If you died because of that, I…don’t know what I’d do…” 

“Wait… Don’t tell me; everything you’ve been doing since earlier was for…?” 

Catching Sayaka as she was falling back down, Kojou murmured in astonishment. 

Hugging Kojou in such a cozy manner, suddenly starting to strip—Kojou had thought the whole time that it wasn’t Sayaka-like behavior, no matter how drunk she was. But if Kojou thought of it as trying to get him to drink her blood, it all added up. 

The blood of powerful spirit mediums like Sayaka had the effect of awakening Kojou’s abilities as a vampire. However, the trigger for the urge to drink blood was sexual arousal. Sayaka had meant to seduce Kojou to stir his vampiric urges. Her normal demeanor was so ingrained that Sayaka’s awkward actions came off as strangely adorable to him. 

It was that Sayaka who rested her weight against him, unresisting and closing her eyes. 

Her slender shoulder was slowly rising and falling as he listened to her regular, sleeping breaths— 

“—Wait, she fell asleep?!” 

Kojou unwittingly exclaimed as he kept staring at Sayaka’s slender neck. Dead drunk and exhausted from crying, Sayaka was out cold. 

“If Sayaka was not asleep, did you intend to do something to her?” 

Yukina stared at Kojou hanging his head in dismay as she posed the frigid question. 

Kojou’s shoulders visibly trembled as he looked back in obvious fear and said: 

“N-nah… That’s…” 

“Goodness… You are truly an indecent person, aren’t you, senpai…?” 

Yukina sighed very deeply. However, this was less angry exasperation than a gentle exhale mixed with a pained smile. Then, reaching a hand to the silver spear resting at her side, she turned its tip toward her own neck. 

“Himeragi?! The hell?! What are you doin’ all of a—?!” 

Seemingly caressing the silver spear, Yukina touched it against her neck, causing droplets of blood to well up. The sight stole Kojou’s attention. 

“This is in Sayaka’s stead.” 

Yukina put a hand to the breast of her own uniform. She undid the ribbon, awkwardly unfastening the uniform’s buttons. 

What rose up and became exposed were her collarbone, the slight swell of her breasts, and her slender waist. 

“You are going off to save Ms. Minamiya and Aiba, aren’t you? Then I must help you restore you power at least a little bit…” 

“But, Himeragi…you’re…” 

Kojou’s voice was strained. At present, Yukina’s physical condition was far from okay. Her body was under considerable strain from rapidly proceeding down the path to angelification. It felt like she was pushing it pretty hard just to engage in normal conversation. He didn’t think she could endure the strain of vampiric actions. 

“It is fine. After all, this might be the last time I am able to grant you my blood, senpai.” 

However, Yukina spoke those words with a beautiful smile. The sight of Yukina hiding her underwear under both arms, offering her slender neck, somehow felt positively divine to even Kojou’s eyes, presumably accustomed to seeing her. 

It was too dazzling to gaze at directly. And yet, he could not avert his eyes. 

“Um… Compared to Sayaka’s, mine are rather small, so I will be embarrassed if you keep staring at them like that…” 

As Kojou stared with bated breath, Yukina lowered her eyes as she gave that frail objection. 

When Yukina did so, Kojou pulled her exquisite body close to him. 

“S-senpai…?” 

Yukina’s eyes wavered in visible fear for only a moment. Even so, Kojou did not let go. 

“Don’t do this, Himeragi.” 

“Eh?” 

“Don’t vanish! Don’t talk like it’s okay if you just disappear…! If you’re gone, Kirasaka, Kanase, Nagisa, me—we’ll all be sad…! Don’t give up! Fight until the bitter end, not just for your sake, but for everyone who cares about you…!” 

Yukina’s voice trembled as she seemed on the verge of tears. “But if I do that, I won’t be able to stand at your side anymore, senpai…! If I stop being a Sword Shaman, then…!” 

“Then just stay with me!” 

Kojou powerfully refuted Yukina’s frail rebuttal. 

“Even if you’re not a Sword Shaman of the Lion King Agency, even if you’re not my watcher, you can just…stay on the island. You can just stay here!” 

“I… I…” 

With Kojou’s words as the trigger, Yukina’s entire body went soft. Then, with surprising strength, Yukina embraced Kojou with both arms. 

“I don’t…want to…leave! Every single day since I’ve come to this island has been a golden day to me… That’s why I—!” 

Venting her secret thoughts, Yukina closed her eyes as if holding back tears. 

She proceeded to put her breathing in order, gently pushing Kojou’s body back. Both of Yukina’s hands touched Kojou’s cheeks. Yukina gazed at Kojou at a range close enough to feel his faint breath on her skin. 

“Senpai.” 

Yukina gave a soft smile. All hesitation and fear vanished from her beautiful, serene eyes. All that remained was her cherubic face, from which Kojou could not avert his eyes. With the sweet scents of sweat and blood passing through his nostrils, Kojou felt a ferocious dryness in his throat. Kojou’s eardrums trembled from Yukina’s whisper-like voice. 

“Please drink my blood. I am your watcher, after all… I always will be, to the very end.” 

“Himeragi…” 

Kojou, doing as his vampire instincts commanded, sank his fangs into Yukina’s neck. Their sharp white tips gently pierced and pulled in Yukina’s flesh. 

“…!” 

Yukina’s body stiffened from tension and pain. Noticing this, Kojou’s movements halted. 

And so he remained still until Yukina stretched her hands around his back, gently whispering to him. 

“…I’m all right… I’m fine, so…please don’t stop… go deeper…” 

“Okay.” Kojou, finding his strength, embraced Yukina tightly. His fangs sank deeper into her neck as he felt drunk from the sensations of flesh touching and the sweet taste of blood. 

“Senpai… Akatsuki-senpai…” 

Continuing to breathe raggedly, Yukina called out Kojou’s name. Her entire body was drenched in sweat, and her white skin was dyed a faint red. Several times over, Yukina’s body trembled in spasms, stiffening only to soften again, until finally, she was limp and exhausted. 

Kojou continued to embrace Yukina, breathing shallow breaths as if fresh from running a marathon, until the moment her eyes opened once more. 

6 

“H…how are your wounds?” Yukina asked in a shrill voice when she awakened in Kojou’s arms. 

Her school uniform remained open, and a mark resembling a hickey had appeared on Yukina’s neck where Kojou had sunk his fangs. On top of that, the two remained locked in the embrace of each other’s arms that very moment. Thanks to that, she felt rather awkward. 

“Feels like complete recovery was too much to hope for. I’m a hell of a lot better than I was, though.” 

In order to conceal his own discomfort, Kojou replied in as businesslike a tone as he could. Then, glancing toward Yukina as she put her disheveled uniform in order, he said, “More to the point, Himeragi. That underwear—” 

“Yes. Kano lent them to me, but…are they strange…?” 

Yukina covered her breasts as a less than confident expression came over her. 

Somehow or other, Kojou had the sense he’d caught glimpses of Yukina’s underwear rather frequently, but setting that aside, the bras she normally wore were exceptionally simple and unadorned. However, that day only, she was wearing a cute design embroidered with frilly lace. 

Though it was true the unexpectedness of it made it look all the more charming on her, Kojou didn’t actually have that much of an interest in underwear design when push came to shove. 

“Nah, I think it’s just fine. But, ah yeah… That’s why they have Kanase’s scent on ’em.” 

Kojou nodded twice as everything matched up in his mind. Apparently, it hadn’t simply been his imagination; he really had caught a whiff of Kanon when Yukina had been embracing him. 

However, in contrast to Kojou feeling refreshed from the solving of the mystery, all emotion vanished from Yukina’s face as she said, “…Excuse me?” 

Faster than her words could reach Kojou, the backhanded fist strike she unleashed made his flank explode. 

“Agh!” Kojou exclaimed, an incoherent cry trickling out. “That hurt! What gives…?!” 

“I do not know you anymore, stupid senpai.” 

Furious, Yukina turned her back to Kojou. The hell was that about? Kojou grumbled to himself, still teary-eyed as he sighed. It was a moment after that when the pair heard a tired-sounding voice right at their feet. 

“…Goodness. Just when I think, oh, I have finally found them, just what are these children doing in broad daylight at a fine place like this?” 

“Master…?!” Yukina gasped and covered her mouth. 

Gazing up at the sight of Kojou and Yukina together was a black cat with lustrous fur perched on top of a park bench; it was Yukari Endou’s familiar. Kojou looked back at the oddly humanlike expression on the cat, his own expression strained as he said: 

“Y-you saw?!” 

“Did you do something that would have been inconvenient for me to see?” 

“Ah, er,” Kojou stammered, prevaricating with vague words. During that time, Yukina picked up her silver spear and put distance between herself and the black cat as she went on guard. She was wary of Yukari trying to bring her back by force. 

“Master, I—” 

“I understand. I shall try to stop you no more.” 

Yukari’s black cat familiar casually waved a front paw as it spoke. Then her golden eyes glanced toward Kojou, glaring hard as she said: 

“In return, Fourth Primogenitor, I require that you firmly take responsibility.” 

“R-responsibility?” 

“You will place this ring on Yukina’s finger.” 

With Kojou unwittingly indecisive, the black cat indicated her own neck. There rested a slender cat’s collar; and right around the throat, something had been attached to that collar using a pink ribbon: a small, glimmering, silver ringed object. 

“…A ring?” 

Kojou undid the ribbon, taking the object into his hand. It was a simple ring design, seemingly from metal vertically fused together. As rings went, its size was quite small. Kojou couldn’t even put it on his pinkie. He might just manage to get it on one of Yukina’s slender fingers, though. 

“It seems to be made of the same material as Snowdrift Wolf, but…” 

Yukina spoke as she peered at the palm of Kojou’s hand. Now that she mentioned it, the ring’s color did greatly resemble the tip of Yukina’s spear. It was a fairly light metal, but he had no doubt that it was far sturdier material than it looked. 

“Well, it is much like a good luck charm. If all goes well, it will prevent Yukina from becoming a Faux-Angel.” 

Without thinking, Yukina said, “Got it.” 

With that, Kojou nodded. He didn’t deign to question Yukari’s words. If it might stop Yukina from vanishing, he didn’t care if it was some baseless charm or an old wives’ tale. 

Perhaps Yukina felt the same way, for she tendered her left hand in front of Kojou without a word. 

He’d thought the silver ring seemed rather small, but it was a perfect fit on Yukina’s ring finger. Yukina twisted her wrist about, checking how the ring fit. 

“Doesn’t look like anything’s particularly changed…,” Kojou murmured in disappointment. He’d subconsciously gotten his hopes up for something dramatic. 

“I told you, it is much like a good luck charm. All we can do is pray that it works.” 

Yukari’s black cat familiar spoke those words with a highly suggestive expression. But in the end, it was just a cat; Kojou didn’t know what that expression actually meant. 

“Senpai—” 

Gazing at the glimmer of the ring on her left hand, Yukina’s expression hardened as she called out to Kojou. 

Suddenly, a wave of bizarre demonic energy seemed to prick at Kojou’s skin. He could see vermillion particles spurting up from the opposite side of the canal—and toward the sky above Keystone Gate. 

A section of an exterior wall transformed into white crystals and fell away. The power of The Cleansing had turned the exterior wall into salt, most likely to facilitate trespass into the building’s interior. 

“Keystone Gate… Meiga Itogami, then! Sorry, Professor Kitty, take care of Kirasaka, please!” 

Lifting up the black cat, Kojou placed it upon the plastered, sleeping Sayaka as her guard. My, my, seemed to say the black cat’s little meow, adding, “And do you have any chance of winning, Fourth Primogenitor?” 

“Who knows? I mean, my Beast Vassals don’t work against him.” 

Kojou shook his head with a bitter smile. He hadn’t intended either to bluff or to belittle himself. But now that Meiga was after Yukina, he was an opponent Kojou had to fight. 

Besides, he was concerned about Asagi, still trapped inside the Coffin. Either way, running from Meiga was not an option left for Kojou to take…even if he didn’t have a chance of winning. 

“No. It is all right, senpai. We will win for certain—” 

Yukina made her declaration by his side. To a surprised Kojou, she stared at him with a mischievous expression, nodding firmly as she gripped her silver spear. 

7 

“Save…” 

They heard a girl’s voice from the screen. 

It was the voice of a girl the city called its idol. 

Digital billboards on the streets, domestic televisions sets, tablets, smartphones—the girl’s voice coursed out of every screen there was. Her extravagant outfit and shapely face remained, all emotion removed from the girl’s expression as she turned her voice toward a single boy, conveying to him her message. 

It was like a broken record. Repeat, repeat. 

“Kojou… Save this…island…” 

The people did not understand the meaning of the girl’s words. 

Even so, they understood that something was happening on that artificial isle. And in places unbeknownst to them, there was someone resisting. 

It was not that they forgot the possibility that the phenomenon was someone’s prank, perhaps a sabotaged transmitter. 

Even so, within their hearts, the people quietly added their own calls. “Save our island,” they pleaded. 

They were still residents of that island, after all. 

Yes. This was their Demon Sanctuary— 

8 

Keystone Gate was an enormous building, with the structure itself serving as both the cornerstone for Itogami Island’s four Gigafloats and as a vast district in its own right. Not only was the Gigafloat Management Corporation based there; so, too, did it contain the Itogami Island city hall, the headquarters of the Island Guard, a string of restaurants, City Hotel, even high-class fashion boutiques—all mixed together in the complicated blocks that comprised the wedge-shaped building. 

There was also a tiny museum inside Keystone Gate. 

Its formal, official name was the Demon Sanctuary Museum. It was a facility oriented toward tourists that accumulated historical materials related to the history and exploits of Senra Itogami, the designer of Itogami Island. 

However, at present, there were no tourists to be seen inside the facility. The museum had been closed ever since the Roses of Tartarus incident. Still in the midst of disaster recovery, Itogami Island had few tourists going out of their way to visit out of idle curiosity; and externally, at least, the facility had been a victim of that incident as well. 

An unexpected group could be seen gathered in that very museum’s employee section. 

It was a robust group of armed guardsmen equipped with cutting-edge anti-demon combat suits and firearms—members of the Island Guard’s Sorcerous Suppression Group. 

And escorted by them was a sharp-eyed man in traditional Japanese attire. He was chairman emeritus of the Gigafloat Management Corporation—Akishige Yaze. 

STAFF ONLY was posted on the door they opened, and Akishige and the others descended to the museum’s basement. 

Ahead of them, a room reminiscent of an airport control room spread open, packed to the brim with machines. 

The breadth might have been around that of a midsize theater or music club. The walls were covered in countless monitors and terraced operator booths. The control panels inside the booths were lazily blinking, indicating that they remained in operation. 

However, there was no sign of the operators that should have been sitting in those chairs. 

Someone had put Akishige’s subordinates to sleep, whisking them away to parts unknown. There was no trace remaining of the deed, as if the perpetrator had leaped through space itself. 

And standing in place of the vanished operators was a single, small-statured figure. 

It was a baby-faced witch with long black hair. 

“So I was right. This was where you were—Akishige Yaze.” 

When the man entered the control room, Natsuki Minamiya looked up at him with a cold smile. 

“Natsuki Minamiya…the Witch of the Void, is it?” Akishige replied without any change in his expression. 

Meanwhile, the armed guardsmen swiftly went on the move, the unit deploying to visibly surround her. Maintaining their silence, they trained their gun barrels on Natsuki. 

She snorted, calmly surveying the room. 

“So this is the control room for the Coffin… A safety mechanism prepared in the event your subordinates might betray you. It is very much in keeping with a sly fox like you.” 

“A mere federal officer from the Attack Mage Branch, running her mouth like she knows what she’s talking about.” 

Akishige cast his emotionless gaze downward upon Natsuki. 

“But I shall forgive it, Witch of the Void—you certainly are capable. It would be a pity to kill someone of your caliber.” 

Natsuki listened to Akishige’s threat with a similarly neutral expression. 

It was said that the interior of the submarine Cain’s Coffin was isolated from the outside world, a realm into which only the Priestess of Cain could intrude. 

But she did not think a man with Akishige Yaze’s personality would ever seriously accept the existence of any realm beyond his dominion, to say nothing of a realm that was the key to The Cleansing. 

Akishige Yaze was definitely keeping hidden a way to control Cain’s Coffin from the outside—that was how Natsuki had read the situation. Apparently, her deduction had been right on the money. 

“Even with the intellect of Cain stuffed into it, and boasting computational capability rivaling that of a God, the Coffin itself is nothing more than a simple submarine. If cut off from Itogami Island, it would simply sink to the bottom of the sea.” 

Akishige sounded solemn, not for Natsuki’s benefit, but so that his subordinates of the SSG might take pride in his words. 

“And what of Asagi Aiba left inside it?” Natsuki quietly pressed. 

Akishige let a tiny laugh slip. “The Priestess of Cain? She is an excellent human sacrifice, but that does not make her an irreplaceable component. We would merely need to search for a new candidate.” 

“The Coffin is supposed to be the nucleus of the network controlling Itogami Island. If you were to lose it, Itogami City would fall into a mass panic.” 

“What of it? The residents of this island are nothing more than human sacrifices themselves, gathered so that the might of The Cleansing can be demonstrated to the world. As long as Itogami Island, the altar itself, continues to exist, how many people die upon it is a trifling concern.” 

Akishige sounded exceedingly calm. 

He was asserting that, to nullify the power of The Cleansing stolen by Meiga Itogami, he would cut the Coffin loose. Even if the result was Asagi Aiba losing her life and Itogami Island falling into a panic, that was fine with him. 

“Or would you care to try to stop me with your body in that state, Witch of the Void?” 

The air swayed all around Akishige. The Yaze family was a direct line of Hyper Adapters, generation after generation. Akishige, head of that family, naturally possessed that ability. 

And he had noticed Natsuki’s wounded physical state. Even if she was the Witch of the Void, he would not be defeated—he was doubtlessly sure of this. 

However, Natsuki looked overhead, a mocking smile on her face. 

“No, let’s not, Akishige Yaze. It doesn’t look like I need to lift a finger anyway.” 

“What…?!” 

Following Natsuki’s gaze, Akishige shifted his own overhead. 

It was a moment later that the ceiling of the control room came crashing down. The exterior wall, acting like a stout blast shelter, broke down and collapsed like so much sand. No, it was not sand, but a white, translucent powder—salt. 

In an instant, someone had turned the exterior wall to salt and brought it down. 

“Meiga Itogami?!” 

The light of vermillion particles trickled through the dense mist of salt hovering in midair. Without a sound, Meiga Itogami, black spear in hand, descended into the control room. 

The members of the SSG tried to turn their gun barrels toward Meiga, but Meiga’s attack proved swifter. Shot and felled by vermillion bullets, the members transformed into pillars of salt and crumbled away. 

Then the bullets unleashed by Meiga bore down on Akishige, who stood still without a word. 

However, without Akishige moving a single finger, the many bullets flying at him from every direction were shot out of the air. He had unleashed invisible blades that had counteracted the vermillion bullets. 

“So you warded off the light of The Cleansing, Elder Akishige. No wonder you style yourselves the descendants of Cain.” 

Meiga smiled with apparent delight as he spoke. 

In contrast, unconcealable unease had come over Akishige’s face. To Akishige, the traitor Meiga knowing of that control room’s existence was an unexpected occurrence. 

“Hell Wolf, errand boy of the dead—what, exactly, are your intentions?” 

“I would prefer that you do not address me by that name, but oh well,” Meiga replied to Akishige’s detestable term for him with a serene expression. “I have but a single objective… The complete revival of Cain, the Sinful God. The Cleansing is a tool toward that end.” 

“Cain’s…complete revival…?” Akishige exclaimed, temple bulging. 

Meiga spread both arms in a theatrical fashion. “Precisely. Just as my father restored me to life from a corpse, I shall revive Cain, the Sinful God, from the Memory of the Sinful God left in the Coffin. His mind, his consciousness! If it is for His sake, I shall offer my very flesh—!” 

“Have you gone mad, Hell Wolf?!” 

Akishige crudely shouted. All the composure in his voice from earlier was nowhere to be found. He thrust an invisible blade in Meiga’s direction, but a dodecagonal bulwark deployed by Meiga obstructed it. 

“All that your grandfather wanted was the Forbidden Ritual of The Cleansing. He did not desire the resurrection of Cain himself. If such a thing becomes a reality, the world itself will be destroyed…!” 

“And what if I were to tell you that is the very thing I desire?” Meiga’s tone was gentle. If anything, it felt like he was enjoying having unnerved Akishige. “With Itogami Island and the computational ability of the Priestess of Abel, the effect of The Cleansing can only affect a radius of dozens of kilometers at the utmost— However, with the abilities of its proper wielder, the Priestess of Cain, The Cleansing would ride the dragon lines, surely covering the entirety of this planet—” 

“So that’s why…” 

Akishige was left speechless. In his place, Natsuki interjected herself into the conversation. 

“So that is why the Priestess of Abel is cooperating with you, Meiga Itogami. The two of you, brought back as corpses, will destroy the world once more. What is your objective—revenge…?” 

“Yes. It is precisely as you say. We cannot forgive the world that betrayed us—or the people who robbed us of warmth. Not the Priestess of Abel—and not I.” 

“You’re insane…,” Akishige spat. 

To him, a prisoner of profit in the material world, Meiga’s thought process was beyond all comprehension—the product of madness. With Akishige’s expression twisted into fear, Meiga shifted his hollow gaze toward him and said: 

“We are simply performing our duties as the dead, nothing more. We require no grand philosophies nor the sweet nothings of justice. We will descend to hell, taking with us each and every one of the living that we can. Is that not what magic, what curses, were originally intended to be—?! This will be our Cleansing!” 

At the same time as he made that smiling declaration, Meiga unleashed his vermillion bullets. 

These did not number ten or twenty. There were a hundred, perhaps two hundred, bearing down upon Akishige Yaze all at once. It was impossible for even the man’s invisible blades to deflect them all. 

“Ngh—?!” 

Surrounded by incredible explosions, Akishige vanished from sight. 

Setting eyes upon that spectacle, it was unfathomable for the few remaining survivors of the SSG to maintain their will to fight. A man seeming like a squad leader shouted “Retreat!” It was every man for himself as the members fled the control room. 

Meiga coolly watched them go. Then he reoriented himself toward Natsuki. 

“—Are you next, Natsuki Minamiya? Or will you leap through space as you always do? Though even if you do run, should this world collapse, it will end the same way for you.” 

As Meiga made that detached statement, his voice carried no hostility toward Natsuki. Now that he controlled the power of The Cleansing, he did not feel threatened by Natsuki any longer. 

However, knowing this full well, Natsuki let out a chuckle, adding a cold smile. “Flee? No, you are mistaken. It is you who needs to flee, not I, Meiga Itogami.” 

“What…?” 

Natsuki’s composure, bizarre to Meiga, made him momentarily knit his brows. 

It was a moment later that the control room was filled with high-density demonic energy, enough to make the very ground quake. The swirling vortex of demonic energy became a dazzling thunderbolt, in turn transforming into a single, enormous summoned beast—a vampire’s Beast Vassal. 

“Regulus Aurum—!” 

Together with a boy’s ferocious roar, the lightning lion swung its front paws. 

Meiga instantly thrust out with his black spear to parry that blow. Meiga’s black spear had nullified the demonic energy, but it could not erase the shock wave created by that explosive demonic energy. Accordingly, Meiga was sent flying backward, colliding against the control room wall. 

Even so, Meiga was unharmed, thanks to the work of the ghostly girl who appeared behind him. A vermillion bulwark created by the Priestess of Abel had enveloped and protected Meiga. 

As he rose to his feet, fresh yet stagnant blood slowly flowed and fell from his forehead. The impact just then had reopened the scar from the wound inflicted by Paper Noise. 

That fact seemed to irritate Meiga. 

And what irritated him even further was the fact that the attack just then had not been aimed at him. That golden Beast Vassal had been summoned for the sole purpose of punching through the control room wall. To reach the control room even a second faster, the offending wall had to be destroyed. That was the true objective behind that Beast Vassal summon. Meiga had merely been caught up in it, nothing more. Meiga, the man who had supposedly obtained the power to destroy the world itself. 

Meiga glared into the darkness with hatred in his eyes. 

Standing there was a teenage vampire with a languid expression on his face. 

“Y’know, I’ve really gotta say, having to trust that shitty dad of mine really burns me, but—” 

As he stepped over the rubble strewn at his feet, the boy murmured as if making excuses for something. A girl at his side gripping a silver spear listened to his words. 

Finally, the boy slowly looked up, narrowing his glimmering, scarlet eyes. 

“We’ve come to put an end to your Cleansing, Meiga Itogami.” 

As Meiga looked back at him, unmoved, the Fourth Primogenitor—Kojou Akatsuki—flashed a ferocious smile. 

9 

Hexagonal vermillion bullets bearing the element of earth went flying, penetrating the cloud of dust, and exploded at Kojou’s feet, making the rubble in the surrounding area vanish without a trace. 

That was just a warning shot. Approach no further, cautioned Meiga’s admonition. 

“What are you trying to do at this point, Fourth Primogenitor? I thought I had made it abundantly clear that you are no threat to me.” Irritation was thick in Meiga’s voice. 

The red particles blanketing the area around him transformed into tiny bullets—more than a hundred, enough to cover an entire wall of the control room. If one were to be struck by all of them, even a vampire’s body would surely be completely annihilated, just like the rubble moments before— 

Meiga’s statement was made in the context of having put such overwhelming might on display. 

“Akishige Yaze meant to destroy you to display the might of The Cleansing, but to me, you are not worth even that. Begone.” 

“Not bluffing, huh? Well, you might have a point…,” Kojou commented, unmoved. 

The sheer lack of drive evident from the boy’s demeanor perplexed Meiga. 

As for the Fourth Primogenitor, he looked back at Meiga, faintly curling up the corners of his lips as he challenged, “But never mind me. What about Asagi?” 

“What are you getting at…?” Meiga’s brows trembled with impatience. To provoke him further, Kojou took his time surveying the control room. 

“This is the control device for the Coffin, right? If you really had The Cleansing in the palm of your hand, why’d you bother coming here?” 

“I see…,” Meiga said before trailing off into silence. 

Natsuki let out a quiet “Heh,” making a sound of distinct interest as she stared at the side of his face. “To resurrect Cain, you cannot avoid bringing the contents of the Coffin outside. Well, it isn’t hard to guess why; the Coffin is a device to preserve Cain’s memory, after all. But if you truly had the Coffin under your thumb, you could simply enter it directly.” 

“So if you came here, it’s because you don’t have access to the Coffin’s contents. How’s that possible, if the Priestess of Abel jacked the Coffin?” 

Kojou continued after a brief pause. 

“Asagi said ‘Save our island.’ She didn’t say Save me—she was focused on every resident of the island. She could have taken control of the Coffin and come out on her own power any time she wanted. Maybe the reason she hasn’t is to keep the Priestess of Abel tied up.” 

“Silence, Fourth Primogenitor—,” Meiga snarled. Behind him, the sight of the ghostly girl floated up once more. The shapely face of the Priestess of Abel was twisted in vivid hatred. 

Paying neither any heed, Kojou continued. 

“Meiga Itogami, Priestess of Abel—you two don’t have The Cleansing in your grip or anything close. What you have only skims the surface. And that’s because Asagi’s kept the contents of the Coffin—Cain’s intellect—locked down tight. All by herself, she’s been protecting Itogami Island, even now. That’s Itogami Island’s idol for you.” 

Kojou grinned with pride for his friend. 

Meiga Itogami’s power of The Cleansing was certainly strong, but it was a pale shadow of its proper might. At most, it could wipe out a single city—it was nowhere near enough to destroy the world itself. 

They’d thought this was because the Priestess of Abel was forcing the power of The Cleansing to activate. That assumption was wrong, though. The reason the Priestess of Abel could not draw out The Cleansing’s full capabilities was not because she wasn’t the proper priestess; what had sealed that power was Asagi. 

Asagi wasn’t locked inside the Coffin—it was the other way around. She’d holed herself up in the Coffin to protect Kojou and the others. Knowing her, she was probably waiting around bored while everyone else gave the Priestess of Abel what was coming to her. 

To the very end, Asagi had never told Kojou Come save me, dammit! She’d said “Save our island.” Truly, from the beginning, she had been the one saving Kojou. 

“And…what of it?!” 

Meiga’s eyes clouded in anger. The outer layer of his composure was stripped away. Now all that remained underneath was his anger and hatred toward the world. 

“Even if it is incomplete, The Cleansing’s might is already in our hands. The Priestess of Cain can resist all she wants. Once I annihilate all of you, I can take my time dealing with her—!” 

“Nah, Meiga Itogami. Your revenge ends here. And that’s because Asagi gave us the chance we needed to beat you to a pulp—” 

Fangs bared in his grin, Kojou released a huge burst of demonic energy from his whole body. Meiga, supposedly able to nullify demonic energy, stood awed by its sheer force, retreating a single step in fear. 

“Now let’s get this started, Meiga Itogami— From here on, this is my fight!” 

“Silence—!” 

Meiga fired the thousands of bullets hovering in the air around him. Against their power to alter the world itself, robbing a vampire of his supernatural power, even a Beast Vassal of the Fourth Primogenitor could not escape unscathed. 

Then a dazzling, glimmering barrier from the Divine Oscillation Effect stopped every last one of those bullets cold. 

“No, senpai. This is our fight—!” 

Driving her silver spear into the floor, Yukina smiled with a firm expression. From her entire body, divine essence far surpassing human limits flowed through the silver spear. 

That power forced back the vermillion particles, counteracting Meiga’s bullets. 

“You… You intend to interfere with me to the very end, Yukina Himeragi—!” 

Meiga Itogami directed his black spear at her. No matter how much she amplified her divine essence, as long as Meiga wielded the spear that nullified spiritual energy, she could not harm him in any way. 

Knowing this full well, Yukina resolutely leaped forward. Enshrouded in a pale radiance, her silver spear rent the air as it stretched toward Meiga. 

“Snowdrift Wolf!” 

“A Schneewaltzer! As if such a thing could—” 

Meiga’s black spear clashed with Yukina’s silver spear. No matter how great the force of her running start, the feather-light Yukina could never overpower the jiangshi’s brute force. 

Even so, it was not a glimmer of despair that hovered in Yukina’s eyes—but trust. 

“C’mon over, Cor-Tauri Succinum—!” 

“What?!!” 

A stake of scalding magma burst up, destroying the floor beneath Meiga’s feet. This attack belonged to the Fourth Primogenitor’s Beast Vassal Number Two, a minotaur with a body of magma. 

It harnessed the power of earth, so it could only use a heavily limited portion of its power on an artificial isle floating atop the ocean. Even so, its magma spear, reaching several thousand degrees, could burn a jiangshi body to ash with ease. 

Furthermore, with Yukina holding his attention, Meiga could not fend off the attack. 

“Ugh—High Priestess!” 

Backed into a corner, Meiga called out to the Priestess of Abel. The ghostly girl constructed out of vermillion particles deployed a bulwark around Meiga. Having barely held out against Kojou’s attack, Meiga retreated. 

As he did so, fresh yet stagnant blood spurted from his left shoulder. 

During the moment when he was defending against Kojou’s Beast Vassal, Yukina’s spear had lightly rent his flesh. 

“So it really does have that flaw, Meiga Itogami…just like she figured.” Kojou seemed almost disappointed as he exhaled. 

Yukina had pointed out their chance for victory against Meiga Itogami, and it was Paper Noise who had shown the way. 

During the battle at Stratum Zero, Paper Noise had injured Meiga Itogami, even though he undoubtedly had Fangzahn active. 

“The reason your Fangzahn is called a failure—I had thought it was because only a jiangshi could make proper use of it. But that is not so,” Yukina said before she landed on her feet, spinning backward as she did so. With a diligent poise of her spear, she continued: 

“Fangzahn is a frightening weapon that can nullify both demonic and spiritual energy. However, it can only eliminate one of those forces at a time. Its flaw is that it cannot eliminate spiritual and demonic energy simultaneously. That was why it was deemed a failure and discontinued.” 

Meiga listened in silence as Yukina’s assertion seemed to drive him further into a corner. 

The Divine Oscillation Effect of Demon-Purging Twin Spear Type Zero—Fangzahn—obstructed Paper Noise’s ability. In other words, this was proof that Paper Noise relied on magical energy rather than spiritual. 

In spite of this, Fangzahn, which supposedly nullified both spiritual and demonic energy, had failed to block her attack. And the reason why……was because Meiga had been nullifying Yukina’s spiritual energy at the same time. Meiga could not fend off magical energy while also negating spiritual energy. If, in contrast, he was negating demonic power instead, he was defenseless against the spiritual—just as when Kojou’s Beast Vassal attacked him, Yukina’s spear reached his body. 

“Yes—I had not wished to accept that such a flawed divine armament was my own craftsmanship. Hence, why it is a discontinued weapon.” Meiga detested the black spear in his hands. “However, you have realized this too late. By using it with the world-altering power of The Cleansing, I can compensate for Fangzahn’s flaw. You all never had a chance of victory to begin with!” 

Once again, Meiga summoned his vermillion bullets out of midair. The power of The Cleansing was bolstered by the dragon lines that coursed over Itogami Island’s surface. As long as he remained atop that island, Meiga could employ a nearly inexhaustible supply of energy. If the battle became prolonged, it would be Kojou’s side that would be wiped out first. 

But even so, Kojou’s expression did not falter. 

“That ain’t true at all! C’mon over, Beast Vassal Number Ten, Dabih Crystallus!!” 

“What—?!” 

Kojou had summoned a beautiful aquatic dragon with glittering silver scales. On its front limbs were translucent wings, and its ram-like spiral horn was a beautiful, gleaming pillar of crystal. 

Captivated by that crystal pillar, the Priestess of Abel’s movements came to a halt. The vermillion bullets concealing the whole of Meiga’s body disintegrated as well. 

“A Beast Vassal of the Fourth Primogenitor—?! The power of Charm?! Don’t tell me it’s controlling the High Priestess?!” 

Kojou’s Beast Vassal had seized control of the spiritual entity that was the Priestess of Abel. Realizing this, Meiga lashed out with Fangzahn, attempting to sever the Beast Vassal’s demonic energy. 

During that time, Kojou turned to his small-statured homeroom teacher and shouted, “Natsuki, I’m counting on ya!” 

“Hmph.” 

Instantly reading Kojou’s intent, Natsuki opened a teleportation gate. 

The destination of the warp in space was the sky above Keystone Gate’s Stratum Zero. Thanks to the area having sustained major damage in the previous battle, civilians were not permitted entry. Even if Kojou unleashed power in a somewhat spectacular fashion, he no longer needed to worry about involving the citizens. 

“Let’s go, Meiga Itogami! C’mon over, Sadalmelik Albus! Al-Nasl Minium! Kiffa Ater!” 

Kojou summoned a slew of the Beast Vassals he had tamed. An undine with the lower body of a great serpent, a scarlet bicorn, and an enormous sword controlling gravity itself bore down on Meiga, unleashing their demonic energy without restraint. 

“How…foolish…!” Meiga exclaimed as he deployed a vermillion wall. 

The Beast Vassals’ demonic energy whipped up a destructive storm in the area surrounding Keystone Gate. The artificial ground split open, buildings crumbled, and water flooded the various streets. 

The fortification protecting Meiga wobbled insecurely as sparks scattered from it. Supplied with magical energy from the dragon lines, the power of The Cleansing was theoretically inexhaustible, but it was limited by the extent of the Priestess of Abel’s computational ability. Temporal regression of matter, blast winds, gravity—calculating how to nullify demonic energy of such differing characteristics required her to endure tremendous stress. 

All that said, he could not use Fangzahn to nullify demonic energy thanks to the divine essence from Yukina’s silver spear. If Meiga were to use his ability to nullify Kojou’s demonic energy, the girl would no doubt strike at him that very instant. 

And then— 

“I’m not done yet! C’mon over, Regulus Aurum! Natra Cinereus! Mesarthim Adamas!” 

Kojou summoned another wave of even more Beast Vassals. Demonic energy attacks of the other elements assaulted Meiga in a volley from all sides, only further increasing the burden on the Priestess of Abel. His defenses were cracking even more. 

“I see now. The various elements possessed by the Fourth Primogenitor’s Beast Vassals enable him to oppose the power of The Cleansing—” 

Damaged by the backlash of the vermillion particles, Meiga twisted his lips into a smile. 

The Fourth Primogenitor, who was constructed to be the World’s Mightiest Vampire, was a god-killing weapon built for the sake of defeating Cain, the Sinful God. Such a dangerous being had not been granted twelve Beast Vassals without there being any meaning or purpose. 

“However, oh so incomplete Fourth Primogenitor—how long can your mind hold out while using this many Beast Vassals simultaneously? You truly are no threat to me—!” 

Proud, Meiga had no doubts of his impending victory. Even simultaneous attacks from six Beast Vassals had not pushed the bulwark beyond his control. At some point, Kojou’s strength would be exhausted, and then there would be none left to bring The Cleansing to a halt. 

Even so, Kojou smiled, shaking his head as he said, “Yeah, I guess. If it were just me ’n’ Himeragi fighting you, yeah—” 

“What…?!” 

The whites of Meiga’s eyes were plain to see as he opened them wide in fright. He was staring at the top deck of a huge submarine—Cain’s Coffin. Boldly parked atop it was a red robotic tank. 

Using the drills equipped on the tank’s forelegs, it busted the submarine’s hull, and a lone girl could be seen emerging from that large hole. She wore a school uniform, awry in just the right ways, and her hair was styled in an extravagant manner. This was a high school girl who embodied the latest fashions. She carried a standard notebook PC at her side, the kind sold all over the city. 

“I doth apologize for the wait, Lady Empress—” 

The driver of the robot tank addressed the girl in a grandiose tone. 

The girl crawled out of the submarine and stretched her back, almost as if she’d just awakened, exhaling before she complained, “I really was getting sick of waiting. I had so much time on my hands like you wouldn’t believe.” 

Speaking these words, the girl opened her notebook PC without fanfare. Her colorfully painted nails nimbly clacked on the keyboard. 

“Well, thanks to that, I’ve put on the finishing touches to prepare a revenge well served— Let’s go, Mogwai!” 

“Keh-keh. Roger that, li’l miss!” 

A very sarcastic-sounding artificial voice echoed above Meiga’s head. 

The voice was coming from the ghostly, scarred girl floating overhead. The vermillion particles that had composed her body began crumbling away and transforming. The girl’s beautiful yet unsightly form changed into that of an avatar—that of a badly sewn teddy bear. 

“Wha—?!” 

The vermillion particles blanketing the area around Meiga vanished. The dissipation of the Priestess of Abel meant that control of The Cleansing had been hijacked. 

However, the power of The Cleansing itself had by no means dissipated. From the avatar known as Mogwai, a number of vermillion bullets shot out, descending upon the destroyed sections of Keystone Gate. 

It was a moment later that a miracle occurred in Keystone Gate and the buildings surrounding it. 

The building that had turned into a pillar of salt and collapsed, the supposedly destroyed exterior wall, the traces of destruction left by Kojou’s Beast Vassals—surrounded by a vermillion glow, they were restored to their former state in the blink of an eye. The changes in the world arising from The Cleansing flowed backward, re-creating the destroyed buildings. Probably, the SSG members killed by Meiga had been restored as well. 

“Asagi Aiba… So this is the power of the true Priestess of Cain…?!” 

Meiga Itogami was left behind on the ground’s surface, his voice trembling in horror. 

He no longer had the Priestess of Abel at his back. Thanks to Asagi having hijacked Itogami Island’s main computer—the Five Elements—the Priestess of Abel had disappeared. 

“I see… From the beginning, the Fourth Primogenitor’s attack was intended to rob me of the High Priestess’s computational ability. He was certain that if I lost that, Asagi Aiba would seize back the Five Elements—” 

Meiga, wobbling to his feet, readied his black spear. His hollow eyes were directed at Yukina. Even if his desire for the complete resurrection of Cain was lost to him, his hatred for her, as she inched ever closer to becoming a Faux-Angel, was undiminished. 

Fangzahn still remained in Meiga’s hands. That cursed spear granted him the power to nullify spiritual energy, and thus, to defeat a Faux-Angel. 

However, Kojou stood before him. 

“—It’s over, Meiga Itogami,” he declared quietly. 

From his raised right arm, a cloud of demonic energy resembling fresh blood flowed forth. 

“Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa—!!” 

Meiga Itogami screamed. The blades of his black spear traced a complex magical symbol that floated up, enveloped by dazzling demonic energy–nullifying radiance. 

It was then that a solemn chant woven by a girl’s lips resonated across them. 

Raising her silver spear aloft, Yukina danced. She looked like a swordsman praying to the gods for victory. Or perhaps she danced like a priestess to whom victory had been foretold. 

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

“I, Kojou Akatsuki, inheritor of the Kaleid Blood, release thee from thy bonds!” 

Shrouded in the radiance of divine essence, Yukina sprinted. 

Simultaneously, Kojou deployed his own demonic energy. It transformed into the figure of a sentient, phantasmal beast—an enormous, twin-headed dragon covered in scales the color of quicksilver. 

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

“C’mon over, Al-Meissa Mercury—!” 

The voices of the World’s Mightiest Vampire and of his observer echoed together. 

It was a simultaneous attack of demonic energy and divine essence. Meiga’s black spear could not nullify them both. 

“Why…? You two are victims just like I am, used by the Lion King Agency… And yet…why are you…?” 

The maws of the twin-headed dragon consumed Meiga’s black spear, breaking it apart. 

And then, bathed in the divine essence enveloping Snowdrift Wolf, Meiga’s slender body wavered. As if trying to grasp some unseen light, his hand reached out, finding nothing but empty air as he finally fell to his knees, collapsing on the spot. 

“Touka…” 

His lips trembled slightly. The fragments of his shattered spear made a hard clang as they fell onto the concrete surface around him. 

All that remained was a gentle tranquility— 

A tranquility declaring that The Cleansing had come to an end. 

10 

“Is it over…?” 

Looking down at the immobile Meiga, Kojou murmured, still wary. 

Gently lowering her silver-colored spear, Yukina reoriented herself toward Kojou. A fleeting smile came over her. That frail smile, as if she might vanish that very moment, made Kojou’s heart beat out of his chest. 

“Himeragi!” 

As he gazed on with astonishment, Yukina swayed. Immediately racing forward, he caught her as she fell gently into his arms. The sheer weightlessness of her body made every hair on his neck stand up. 

“I’m…sorry…senpai…” 

Yukina spoke in a whisper. Kojou hugged her tightly. 

“Keep it together, Himeragi! Weren’t you going to keep watching over me forever and ever?!” 

“I am sorry…but…” 

Yukina lifted her head, weakly shaking it side to side. She wore a meek expression. Taking great pains to speak, like it was something very hard to admit, Yukina continued. 

“I am starving…” 

“Huh?” 

At that instant, Kojou likely had an extremely stupid look on his face. 

As Kojou continued his silence, his ears picked up an adorable little growl from Yukina’s stomach. 

“Um…what about becoming a Faux-Angel? How’s your body?” 

Finally coming back to his senses, Kojou posed those questions. He still couldn’t quite wrap his head around an empty stomach having made her dizzy enough to cause her to fall over in such a suggestive manner. 

Yukina herself must have felt rather apologetic about that, for she lowered her gaze. 

“Um…it seems to be fine. My spiritual energy is not running amok, either, so…” 

“Even after pushing it that hard with Snowdrift Wolf?” 

“That’s probably…thanks to the ring…” 

She lifted up her left hand as she spoke. The silver ring handed to them by Yukari was firmly on Yukina’s slender ring finger. Maybe it was just Kojou’s imagination, but the slender slit running along the ring’s center seemed to be faintly glowing red. 

The heck does that mean? thought Kojou, tilting his head as his and Yukina’s faces met. 

A black cat appeared at the pair’s feet to answer that very question. 

“It would seem things are going quite well.” 

“Professor Kitty…!” 

Kojou reached a hand out to the black cat in surprise. Yukari Endou’s familiar used Kojou’s arm to climb up onto Yukina’s shoulder. Glancing at the state of Yukina’s ring, it made a sound of apparent satisfaction. 

“Master…what is this ring…?” Yukina asked. 

Instead of answering her question, the black cat stared at Kojou and gave a leering smile. 

“Fourth Primogenitor… This means that Yukina has become your Blood Vassal.” 

“Blood…Vassal…?” Kojou curled his lips, perplexed. 

The black cat nodded deeply. “Some call them Blood Concubines, or even Brides. A pseudo-vampire granted the power of immortality by the vampire that is her lord.” 

“B-Bride?!” 

Hearing the black cat’s words, Yukina’s little voice went shrill. 

Though it was a common folktale, becoming a vampire from a vampire drinking your blood was not complete nonsense. A human being that had taken in a piece of a vampire’s body obtained a body just as immortal as the vampire lord’s own. These were the pseudo-vampires known as Blood Servants. 

“…Wait, you made Himeragi into a pseudo-vampire?!” Kojou glared at the black cat in a rage. 

Inevitably, pseudo-vampires lived every day, month, and year of their eternal lives with their vampire masters. This was by no means a blessing. And yet, Yukari Endou had made Yukina Kojou’s vassal in spite of this, to the point of ignoring what Kojou and Yukina, the actual parties concerned, thought of the matter. 

“Well, properly speaking, Yukina is not a genuine Bride. That ring is merely acting as a ritual spell catalyst to create a spiritual pathway. If I had to put a label on it, she is akin to a fiancée. After all, were she to become a complete Blood Vassal, she would lose the ability to use spiritual energy.” 

“That doesn’t mean…,” Kojou snarled. What, you think you can just do this without asking? He grimaced. 

Yukina’s face was completely red to the tips of her ears, squirming as she stammered, “F-fiancée…” 

Exasperated, the black cat sighed. “Fourth Primogenitor, within you rests the divine essence of the Faux-Angel that your Beast Vassal consumed and sent flying off to gods know where.” 

“Y-yeah.” Kojou awkwardly nodded. 

During the battle with Kanon Kanase, Kojou, bathed in divine essence and on the verge of death, had somehow survived thanks to that Beast Vassal, the Dimension Eater. At the time, it was none other than Yukina who had provided him with the blood that had made that Beast Vassal fully awaken. 

“That ring borrows the power of your Beast Vassal, giving it the effect of disintegrating the excess divine essence created by Snowdrift Wolf, you see. Though, witnessing this for ourselves was the only way to know for sure if it would actually work. At any rate—” 

“You mean, by wearing that, Himeragi can keep living life like she’s been doing until now?” 

“So long as you remain close to Yukina, that is. Well, even if you are apart, it should not be a problem so long as you both remain on this island,” the black cat explained in a nonchalant tone. 

Yukina gasped at those words, lifting her face in surprise as she said, “Then my mission…” 

“Well, you can continue watching the Fourth Primogenitor for the time being. The Lion King Agency cannot afford to feed an idle mouth, after all,” the black cat murmured bluntly with a snort. 

“Master…” 

Yukina’s expression brightened. It was youthful and soft; she seemed like a totally different person from the one with an air of tragedy hovering around her until moments before. 

However, Kojou was still suspicious. He directed his attention back to the cat. “A spiritual pathway linked by a ring… What’s the logic behind that anyway?” 

“What, did you not know? The creation of a Blood Vassal requires the master vampire granting a part of his body. Inside that ring is a rib fragment of yours.” 

“A piece of my rib? When the hell did you get something like…? Aaah…!” 

Kojou remembered the very first time he had met the real Yukari Endou face-to-face. At the time, she’d attacked Kojou for no apparent reason, slicing into Kojou’s chest. 

What if the purpose of that attack had been to obtain one of Kojou’s ribs? That would mean Yukari had come to Itogami Island with the intent of saving Yukina all along. 

Say that in the first place, dammit, thought Kojou, unwittingly sulking. 

“Actually, aren’t you a little grossed out stuffing some other person’s rib into a ring?” 

“Better that than a tuft of your hair and a touch of spittle. I properly disinfected and sintered it, so it was not a messy job— As for the gross factor, hmm, I suppose your mileage may vary.” 

The black cat gave Yukina a sidelong glance. She was closing and opening her left hand over and over, gazing at the ring in satisfaction. Kojou had no idea what thoughts were going through her mind while she was staring at the thing. 

However, as he watched Yukina doing that, a thought suddenly arose in the back of Kojou’s mind. 

“Hey, that Meiga Itogami guy… Why did he call that black spear a failure, I wonder?” 

It was a divine armament that could negate not only demonic energy but spiritual energy as well. He didn’t think that, properly speaking, the Lion King Agency, for which Meiga had worked as an engineer, required something like that. After all, a weapon that nullified spiritual energy was able to rob a Sword Shaman of her combat strength, just as Fangzahn had done to Yukina. 

If it was a tool meant to save a lover who had turned into a Faux-Angel due to her out of control spiritual energy… 

“Maybe he made that spear for the sake of that Touka person? Maybe to him, that spear was meant to be the same as that ring is for Himeragi…” 

“That might well be so. Though, I am certain the man himself would never admit such a thing,” the black cat murmured in what came off as a forlorn manner. 

Without a word, Yukina bit her lip, shifting her gaze toward the fallen Meiga. She suddenly stiffened. 

“Eh…?!” 

In turn, Kojou looked over, whereupon his own eyes widened in shock. 

Meiga, supposedly fallen with his strength exhausted, was nowhere to be seen. All that remained were the fragments of his shattered black spear. 

“He vanished…?!” Kojou murmured, standing still and helpless. 

Bathed in vast divine essence, Meiga had been rendered immobile. For that matter, it should have been difficult just to maintain his body. However, in reality, he had vanished from sight. 

“Where the…hell did he…?” Kojou asked to no one in particular. 

No one replied to the question. Kojou was simply bathed in the rays of the setting sun of late-day Itogami Island. 

11 

The girl awaited him in a passageway in the deepest section of Keystone Gate. 

It was a girl with a plain face and boorish glasses. She was holding a thick book against her side. 

She was in a top-secret passageway only the upper management of the Gigafloat Management Corporation was privy to, but Akishige Yaze was not particularly surprised to see that the girl had appeared there. 

“Koyomi Shizuka—of the Three Saints of the Lion King Agency. I had heard Meiga Itogami had given you rather rough treatment, but it seems you are up to walking around.” 

Akishige spoke coldly. However, even as a diplomatic gesture, the girl would be hard-pressed to call Akishige’s condition in good health. Flesh had been gouged out across his entire body, and his well-tailored Japanese-style clothing was dyed pitch-black from absorbing blood. These were wounds inflicted from Meiga Itogami’s vermillion bullets. 

Staring at Akishige’s outward appearance, the girl reverentially bowed her head. “All thanks to you.” 

Akishige used the momentary opening from Shizuka’s downward gaze to activate his Hyper Adaptive power—invisible blades created via psychic energy. The ability made it possible for him to slice apart everything within his field of vision. 

Since it was not an attack wrought by magic, no magic barrier could block it. Even with a Sword Shaman’s Spirit Sight, it was impossible to anticipate and track the invisible blades. It could defeat even one of the Three Saints of the Lion King Agency without fail— 

As long as he actually launched the attack. 

“Guo…!!” 

A momentary silence arrived—and then it was broken. By the time Akishige realized what had happened, his body had been slammed into the passageway’s wall. Both of his arms had been deeply impaled by pages torn from a book, sewing his body to the wall. Akishige’s ability had never activated. 

The girl’s attack ceased just before Akishige could use his own. 

“It is futile, Akishige Yaze. Your ability cannot defeat mine.” 

The girl spoke quietly as she closed the cover of her book. 

“Hmph.” Akishige smiled at his own expense as he said, “Paper Noise… The absolute right of initiative, is it? What an abominable thing. Your family is no doubt the same as mine, both descendants of the Sinful God.” 

“Yes. Ours is a cursed family, the same as yours.” 

Without any special pride in her victory, the girl pulled out a single document. It was an official, court-issued document—an arrest warrant. 

“Akishige Yaze—in the name of the Lion King Agency, I hereby place you under arrest. The charges are aiding in the commission of large-scale sorcerous terrorism and numerous grave violations of the Special District Public Security Code.” 

“You arrest me on the authority of the Lion King Agency…? Do you really think you can do such a thing?” 

Even with his face contorting in pain, Akishige did not lose his cool. If he employed the authority at his disposal, what could the mere Lion King Agency do to him? That was the confidence that bolstered his arrogant words. 

But it was not Koyomi who replied to Akishige’s question. A young man emerged from the back of the passageway and said, “This would probably have been too much during the time you chaired the Yaze consortium.” 

Taking note of the man, Akishige blinked slightly. 

“I see, Kazuma… So this is your doing…” 

Akishige spoke with a flat voice. Somehow, he maintained his dignity to barely hold back and conceal his inner turmoil—but his reaction only served to broadcast the vast extent of his surprise. That moment, for the first time, the man who had employed his own biological sons as disposable pawns was being made disposable himself. 

Paying no heed to his father’s turmoil, Kazuma Yaze spoke in his usual, businesslike tone. 

“Just earlier, the Council of Elders selected a new leader in place of the previous chairman, the late Akishige Yaze. Motoki is our new president.” 

“What…?” 

“Surely you’re not surprised. He, too, is a legitimate heir to the Four Forbidden Symbols. Furthermore, he is very close friends with one of the Three Saints of the Lion King Agency—and the Fourth Primogenitor as well. We have obtained the support of MAR’s President Shahryar Ren. Though, I suppose the situation would have changed had today’s Cleansing succeeded…” 

In a near-silent murmur, Akishige muttered “Absurd.” He did not understand where he had gone wrong. At some point, the people he had discarded as insufficient had obtained power—enough to threaten his position. It was caused not by Meiga Itogami’s betrayal or the failure of The Cleansing by themselves—it was as if the Demon Sanctuary itself possessed sentience, one that was trying to eliminate Akishige from its borders. 

“Do you seriously believe small fry like you can manage this Demon Sanctuary? The darkness enveloping Itogami Island is the same as the darkness that envelops humankind!” Akishige howled, baring his raw emotions. 

Unmoved, Kazuma sighed as a forlorn smile came over him. The girl known as Paper Noise wore a similar expression. 

We knew that a long time ago, said the looks on their faces. 

“I will keep that in mind, Father.” 

Leaving those words behind with his wounded father, Kazuma disappeared in the darkness at the back of the passage. 

Into the darkness of Itogami Island…