Strike the Blood - Volume 17 - Chapter Pr

INTRO 

It was a ruined city— 

In a dark, underground city beyond the reach of sunlight, Rui Miyazumi’s steps came to a halt. 

Beside him was a girl with chestnut-colored hair and bestial ears—Yuno Amase. Behind them followed a middle-aged man wearing a construction company’s helmet and work overalls, his face twitching. 

“This is the passage? You’re certain?” Rui asked as he observed a marker written in chalk. It almost resembled graffiti. 

“Yeah,” replied the man in the overalls. He used a flashlight to illuminate a simplified, handwritten map as he pointed a finger to a fork in the tunnel. 

“Accordin’ to the network logs, two people from Squad Four passed through here yesterday. Their job was just settin’ up a guide beacon, so it should’ve been done in two hours flat—” 

“But they failed to return even after an entire night,” Rui said with a nod, squinting at the darkness ahead. 

The image coming into view was of the raw inner workings of an inorganic city. 

Like a large city of the Industrial Revolution, it resembled a factory, idle in the dead of night, yet also like the interior of a giant, unoccupied spaceship continually adrift. 

This city was Itogami Island. 

More precisely, it was the Sixth Cluster of New Itogami Island, one part of the gigafloat cluster known as the Ark of Sin, a legacy from an ancient superculture hailing from another realm. It was a city-fortress wrought from composite materials, ceramics, metal, and sorcery. 

Amid the hundreds of islands composing the Ark, the Sixth Cluster comprised three artificial islands. In total, its surface area was roughly equal to that of the Shinjuku district of Tokyo Metropolis. Underneath it spread forth a complex subterranean city four strata deep. 

Once, this had been a housing facility for a vast quantity of ancient weapons, but at present, it was nothing more than an empty ruin. After all, about two months prior, the weapons sealed within that land had all been destroyed in a large-scale conflict—the war of the primogenitors. 

That said, it had not lost its value as the Legacy, for it was still part of the Ark; such a large, empty piece of land held a simple charm for immigrants, too. Itogami Island, being the only Demon Sanctuary inside Japanese territory, had many corporations hoping to enter for the sake of conducting demonic biological research and sorcerous engineering development. 

To begin with, a sorcerous relic with so little known about it could not simply be left to its own devices forever. This rather exceptional, urgent situation was the driving force behind the redevelopment of New Itogami Island. 

Scientific study and survey of the innards of the horde of artificial islands, consolidation of infrastructure such as waterworks and electrical grids, and large-scale construction of temporary housing for construction workers and immigrants—such work had begun in parallel all across New Itogami Island. Cluster Six was no exception. It had already been two weeks since local workers had begun surveying work for Cluster Six’s underground city. 

However, that work had run into unexpected headwinds. Rumors of bizarre phenomena occurring therein had spread across the island; construction crews were hesitant to work on Cluster Six. 

As a matter of fact, they weren’t merely rumors. A string of indecipherable incidents actually had occurred in Cluster Six. There were abnormal tremors and electromagnetic waves, and seabirds and fish had vanished from its environs—odd phenomena along those lines. According to reports, this was all due to a fluid leakage, cause unknown, plus the severing of a communications cable. To top it all off, two construction workers had vanished without a trace since the day before. 

“Of course, given the lay o’ the land, they might’ve gotten lost in a side tunnel for all I know. But there’s them rumors goin’ on, so I figured I’d get you two down here, just to be on the safe side.” 

“Those rumors—meaning what, specifically?” Rui narrowed his eyes as he prompted with a suspicious look on his face. 

“Ah, err,” said the man, awkwardly hemming and hawing. “I mean, well, you know, the one about the curse of the Warlord Empire’s Master of Serpents. That the ghost of Dimitrie Vattler is still wanderin’ around under New Itogami Island after losing to the Fourth Primogenitor.” 

Rui sighed. At hearing the term Fourth Primogenitor, Rui’s gaze wandered aimlessly, a tinge of conflict in his expression. Yuno pressed a hand against her lips, curled mischievously, holding back a giggle on the verge of trickling out. 

“Er, of course I don’t believe in curses like that, but you know, just in case…” The man trailed off. 

“I suppose so. I believe your judgment is sound. Setting curses of the Duke of Ardeal aside, it would hardly be strange if some kind of magical trap had survived in this area,” Rui said with a glance at his sorcerous device, a wristwatch-style magical energy detector. The ferocious shaking of its analog-design needle indicated that the latent magical energy density in the surrounding area was rather high. 

“Yeah, probably.” The man exhaled in relief. “Sorry to spring this on you all of a sudden. You’ve only just arrived on Itogami Island.” 

“No, it is a great help to me. I’ve been quite interested in the underground works of New Itogami Island for a while now. Without an opportunity like this, permission to enter them is difficult to come by.” 

“Yep, yep,” Yuno cut in with a grin. “Having clients willing to hire newbie civilian Attack Mages like us is a really big deal. Please call again next time you need us.” 

Not everyone who was a card-carrying, internationally qualified Attack Mage was a federal Attack Mage. Many were employed as sorcerous engineers or researchers for private security companies. Some resolved sorcery-related troubles through contract work they directly received from their clients. Rui and Yuno, attending high school through distance education, had elected to work as such civilian Attack Mages part-time. 

“Ah, well, I heard the president of Genhoku Construction sing your praises, y’see. He said ya were pretty darn good in spite of bein’ so young. That rumor about you being Iroise survivors true?” 

“Yes, I would suppose it is.” Rui shrugged his shoulders and made a pained smile. 

Indeed, they were survivors from the European Demon Sanctuary of Iroise, destroyed some six years ago. 

From their point of view, it was not exactly something to be proud of, but the world at large viewed it somewhat differently. 

A variety of irresponsible rumors had spread, for example, that they’d been trained in endless combat simulations in another realm ruled by a Witch, or that they’d been in deadly combat with the Fourth Primogenitor himself; at some point, just being an Iroise survivor was enough to warrant being put on a pedestal. 

Though to begin with, many of those hailing from Iroise—Rui and Yuno included—were Attack Mages with combat experience, so it wasn’t as if the rumors were wholly baseless. Thanks to that, even Rui and Yuno’s tiny Attack Mage agency had quite a few job contracts rolling in, the current search for construction workers being one of them. 

“Huh?” murmured Yuno, in the lead, widening her eyes as if she’d noticed something. As a beast person, she had excellent nocturnal vision. Her large, broad irises, able to magnify faint sources of light, picked out a golden glow from within the darkness. 

“Ruirui, look. There, the wall over on that end.” 

Rui turned in the direction Yuno indicated, and his expression hardened. “…Stairs? No, is that a depression in the floor?” 

It was an underground street flanked by the backs of tall buildings. Along this street was the gaping maw of a large, bowl-shaped hole. The hole was seven or eight meters in diameter. The depth was not quite five meters, but one of its sides had a crevice, and there was no telling how far that opening ran. 

“The guide beacon was scheduled to be set up in the next block ahead, yes?” Rui asked, turning to their client. 

The man looked perplexed as he nodded. “Yeah, but when we did a drone inspection the week before, I’m pretty sure there wasn’t a hole like this…” 

Yuno peered deep into the hole, murmuring as if posing the question to herself, “Maybe the people got lost and fell down this hole…?” 

“Only way to know for sure is to go down and see.” Rui let out a brief sigh. 

Somehow, the terrain gave off an ominous impression, but because this was their only lead in the search for the missing workers, they could not overlook the anomaly right before their very eyes. 

Anticipating they would head farther down, Yuno immediately began double-checking her beloved armored gloves and boots. Since she was equipped with the agility, razor-sharp senses, and high combat capability many beast people inherently possessed, this kind of armored reconnaissance was her personal specialty. 

“I am sorry, but could you wait here? If anything happens, please contact those on the surface immediately,” Rui instructed. 

“S-sure…” 

Overwhelmed by the serious look on Rui’s face, the client wobbled backward as far as the nearest wall. 

Yuno suddenly gasped in surprise. 

“Wait!” 

“Yuno?” 

“There’s something here! Below us!” 

Yuno placed a palm against the ground, able to detect even the slightest tremor. 

There was a faint air of bewilderment hovering in her eyes. Even with her powerful senses, she could not ascertain exactly what rested beneath them. 

“Someone in distress?” 

“I don’t know, but I don’t think it’s human. The heck, it’s like something’s crawling around underground.” 

“With the latent magical energy this thick, we can’t use detection magic…” 

Rui clicked his tongue slightly; he had been ready to activate the spell tablet he’d taken out. 

New Itogami Island, freshly summoned from another world, still had dense magical energy lingering all over the place. This was especially pronounced beneath Cluster Six’s surface. The amount of magical energy was insufficient to have harmful effects upon the human body, but it was enough to hinder delicate magic, such as that used to detect living creatures across walls, rendering it useless. 

“What has been happening with the stratum below us?” Rui glared beneath his feet. The surface of the ground was covered in a mysterious gray paving material; he couldn’t tell by sight whether it was stone or resin. 

“Well, the investigatin’ isn’t finished yet, but they say this is part of the artificial isle’s inner workings,” the client replied, though his tone lacked confidence in his words. 

“Hmm.” Rui faintly furrowed his brow. “Is there a route I can take there?” 

“Of course not. Ain’t no way in, ain’t no way out…” 

“As I imagined. Certainly, that would not exist.” Rui nodded to himself, drawing pistols from his hip holsters. 

These were strange weapons with large gemstones embedded into their barrels. This type of pistol was a Spell Thrower, a personal sidearm used to fire not bullets, but spells themselves. Thanks to it not being very user-friendly, few could make use of one, but among civilian Attack Mages, not permitted to carry firearms, they came as highly rated weapons. In the hands of a high-level caster, their range and might were said to far surpass that of genuine firearms. 

“I’ll go down alone. Yuno, please guard the client.” 

Rui approached the hole gouged out of the street. 

That instant, there was a ragged tremor, a sound from beneath his feet resembling that of an earthquake. 

“Ruirui! To the right!” 

Yuno called out as she kicked off from the ground. At the same time, Rui twisted his body, just barely evading the crevice formed in the ground without any forewarning. 

Bursting forth was a long, slender living creature that resembled a snake. Even the sole part they could see emerging above the street was nearly three to four meters in length, and it was about as wide as Yuno’s torso. Moving its entire body like a whip, it moved to constrict Rui’s body. 

It was Yuno who shot that effort down. Her armored fist slammed into the creature’s flank, sending it flying. 

“Eeek…?! Eeeeeeeek—?!” 

The very next moment, Rui heard a scream behind him. As he turned back, Rui’s eyes were met by the sight of the man who’d hired them, fallen with his body entwined by the mysterious creature. 

Looking up, his face was contorted in fear as he was being dragged along the ground’s surface. However, at that moment, neither Rui nor Yuno had the luxury of moving to save him, for that one was not the only creature to have emerged. 

The ground was being torn open left and right, with the snakelike creatures emerging one after the next. Launching themselves from the ground, ferociously leaping about like flying fish, they assaulted Rui and Yuno with uncanny precision. 

“What in the world are these things?” 

Rui was firing consecutively with Spell Throwers in both hands. The spell rounds he’d loaded were penetrating types. The masses of ritual energy, honed to a needle-sharp point, bore holes through the torsos of the creatures. 

Yet the creatures seemed utterly unfazed. Transparent fluid scattered forth, but even the ones ripped into two continued their attacks on Rui and Yuno. 

Yuno was faring no better. No matter how many punches she threw, her opponent didn’t seem to feel any of them. If the combat continued for long, there was no doubt that she would run out of stamina before they did. 

The creatures’ movements were akin to the chaotic flailing of tentacles, yet they also seemed to be guided by a single unified will. They were somewhat different than a horde of insects. It was as if they were individual portions of a single living creature— 

“Could it be that…these are actually tentacles?! Then the main body is elsewhere…?!” Rui exclaimed, realizing why the serpentine creatures were abnormally resilient. Even though each was as large as an adult person, they were nothing more than individual portions of a far vaster creature. 

Similar to how an octopus was fine with losing an arm or two, this creature would probably be okay no matter how many of those tentacles they damaged. The only way to stop the tentacles from moving was to directly attack the main body. 

“There—!!” 

Turning toward the bottom of the hole gouged into the surface by the tentacles, Rui fired a spell round at maximum power. The gemstone embedded in the gun’s barrel let off a dazzling glow the color of blood. The strain of the ritual energy made the barrel turn red-hot. 

Even so, Rui did not relent in his attacks. 

Finally, Rui and Yuno heard a ferocious, thunderous roar beneath their feet. 

As if struck by an electrical jolt, the dozens of tentacles that had emerged shuddered and ceased to move all at once. 

“We…did it?” Warily remaining on guard, Yuno looked back at him. 

“No…” 

Breathing raggedly, Rui fell to his knees, his strength seemingly spent. 

As if aiming for that very instantaneous opening, the ground shook with incredible force. 

It was an impact reminiscent of a gigantic explosion. The paving material covering the street was blown away, its fragments dancing in the air. Thrusting through and breaching the ground’s surface was a creature enormous enough to bury their fields of vision. 

“Wha—?! The hell is this thing…?!” Yuno yelped as she stared up at the monster’s enormous frame. Without a sound, that same moment, Yuno was sent flying. A monstrous front paw had mowed her down without the slightest effort. 

“Yuno?!!” 

Rui screamed as he poised his Spell Throwers. However, the meager ritual energy he had remaining was insufficient to activate the spell rounds. Even if he’d had enough, just what kind of attack could he have managed against such a monster…? 

No matter how much magical energy he might smash against it, this monster could not be defeated. 

Likely, that was true even with the power of the World’s Mightiest Vampire. 

After all… Yes, after all, this was… 

“Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa—!!” 

Rui suffered many blows that seemed to break his entire body into smithereens, and then his vision was shrouded in darkness. 

Amid his thinning consciousness, he last saw gigantic eyes. 

There were six red eyes that burned like flames. 

Knock, knock, went the sound. It was the sound of someone tapping the desk with his fingers. 

He was unwittingly displaying his internal annoyance, which only added to the ire of all those within hearing range—such was the nature of the sound. 

It was a dimly lit room deep inside an old building. 

Sitting at that extravagant antique desk was an elderly, broad-shouldered man. 

He was about seventy years old. In contrast to the relaxed flesh of his cheeks, the glint in his eyes was sharp and powerful. Everyone who dwelled in that nation had likely seen his face at least once. He was the leader of the largest political party in the governing coalition, a famous politician known as “the lynchpin of the political world.” 

Several photographs rested on his desk. 

They were pictures of a giant artificial isle, resembling a galaxy formed of countless islands. 

One photograph showed a normal-looking boy wearing a hooded parka. Behind the boy was a small-statured girl who was wearing a school uniform and carrying a black guitar case on her back. 

“Itogami city-state, the so-called domain of the Fourth Primogenitor…” 

The old man spoke with a weighty tone of voice, dignified, cunning, and deep. It was gentle, but there was still the chord of arrogance distinctive of those accustomed to giving orders to others. 

Responding to the old man’s words was a figure at the corner of the room. “Negotiations with the Gigafloat Management Corporation are largely settled.” 

He was nearly two meters in height. His ample white beard gave off the impression of a massive, no-nonsense man like some sort of countryside samurai. He turned toward the old man, going down on one knee as he reverentially bowed his head. 

The outfit the man wore was an all-black ceremonial robe, the formal attire of an ancient warrior. Strange symbols were etched into the scabbard of the sword he wore on his hip. The symbols were identical to those etched onto the spear known as Snowdrift Wolf. 

“In conclusion, this ruckus over independence is not a poor deal so far as our nation is concerned,” the man in black continued in a measured manner. The tone of his voice clashed with his coarse external appearance. “We shall reap rewards from the Demon Sanctuary largely as before, and furthermore, we will be able to assert to other nations that affairs occurring on Itogami Island are beyond our jurisdiction.” 

The elderly man nodded. Once again, his eyes fell to the photos atop his desk. “Meaning, that island is a pawn we can cut loose at any time.” 

“Precisely.” 

“How clever. Were Hanamori and Yomoda wooed by such honeyed words?” 

Heh, went the cruel sound in the old man’s throat as he posed the question. The person in the robe said nothing in reply. 

Hanamori, Yomoda—both were leaders of their own political parties. His memories of these so-called opponents, having seen most of their expectations flipped on their heads, cooperating with him in an unprecedented modification of existing law to grant Itogami Island autonomy, was still fresh. 

“Heh-heh,” went the old man, making that creepy laughter in apparent scorn. 

“Itogami Island…? Who cares about that pile of scrap metal? The issue is the Fourth Primogenitor. Am I wrong?” 

“No,” said the black-robed man’s shake of the head. “You are not.” 

The old man nodded in satisfaction. He picked up the boy’s photo, which immortalized the sight of him drenched in blood, fresh from a deadly duel with an aristocrat from the Warlord’s Empire. 

“Undying and immutable. Without any kin to call his own, not desiring to rule, served by twelve Beast Vassals that are nothing save disaster incarnate, a vampire apart from all the doctrines of the word, existing solely to kill and destroy—certainly, the existence of the Fourth Primogenitor is a blade pressing against our nation’s throat. That does not mean we can allow other nations to have him. Now then, what are you of the Lion King Agency going to do?” 

“We have placed a bell around the Fourth Primogenitor’s neck,” he replied eloquently. “We would assert that this has served us quite well up to this point—” 

However, the old man gave the girl in the photo an extremely sober, scornful gaze. “That is not sufficient.” 

“Pardon?” 

For the first time, the man in the black robe raised his head, obviously perplexed. As he did so, the old man tossed the photo displaying the girl in front of him. 

“The priestess of the purging spear; I have heard the rumors. But I do not think her adequately trustworthy. She is far too young, too immature for us to entrust our fates to her. I have heard that she has no blood relatives to call upon. No matter how excellent her spiritual power might be, I cannot move a government based upon this—you understand, do you not?” 

“You are telling us…to replace her?” The man prompted back to make sure he was correctly reading his intention. 

The old man replied to the question with his silence—a “yes.” 

“I will leave choosing the replacement to you. Do try not to ruffle the Fourth Primogenitor’s feathers, if you please.” 

The old man piled the photos upon the desk atop a large, glass ashtray. Then, with a gold-plated lighter, he set them ablaze. The photos burned up with flickering red flames. The old man gazed upon this with a neutral expression. 

Finally, the photographs finished burning. They had become nothing but white ash. 

By then, the man in the black robe had already vanished. It was as if he were a shadow at twilight—