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Strike the Blood - Volume 19 - Chapter 2.1




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CHAPTER TWO

AN ISLAND DIVIDED

1

Countless sparks rained down, illuminating the sky in the dead of night.

The sight seemed less like thunder strikes than as if storm clouds had gathered upon the ground’s surface. The collision of vast demonic energy made the air creak, and the artificial ground swayed like a leaf.

The runway made of thick asphalt was breaking as easily as a chocolate bar. Seawater was gushing up through cracks all over the place and drawn into waterspouts. The sub-float had begun to collapse.

“Such dense demonic energy…,” Asagi murmured in a daze as she kept looking up, watching the huge Beast Vassals clash.

As facilities on the base were destroyed one after another, the coast guard base building was barely managing to hold together thanks to the barrier Yukina had erected. Wielding her silver spear, she was slicing apart the demonic energy scattering about. Without her barrier, it was beyond doubt that the building Asagi and the others were in would have been vaporized without a trace long before.

However, the demonic energy from the Beast Vassals was simply too vast for Yukina to resist on her own. Plus, her barrier was not enough to fend off the physical effects. She couldn’t stop the raging winds and tremors created as side effects of the demonic energy.

The glass windows of the building were already completely shattered, and the ceiling and walls were shaking. The hole in the ceiling widened farther, and the unpleasant sound of something being ripped open echoed forth.

“This is bad… Everyone outside! The building isn’t gonna hold!” Yaze shouted when he sensed disaster unfolding.

“No! No more! Save me! Kojou! Kojou!” Nagisa clutched her head as she sank down on the spot. To her, already a sufferer of demonophobia, seeing two Beast Vassals clashing so close was shocking enough to drive her into a panic.

“Nagisa! No! Stand up, please!” Yaze tried to force the rigid Nagisa up to her feet and drag her with him out of the building. Then he heard a strange sound behind them.

The very foundation supporting the building had caved in, causing part of one wall to collapse. Yaze saw rubble pouring down from overhead, and he froze, unable to even let out a scream.

From the corner of his eye, he then saw a pale glow, typical of spiritual essence. A beautiful barrier reminiscent of a never-melting glacier deployed, forcing the near-collapsed building back.

“Kanase…?!”

“It’s the Svalinn System of the Royal Family of Aldegia…!”

Asagi and Yaze held their breaths as they watched Kanon, her hands clasped as if in prayer.

The Svalinn System, a defensive barrier drawing on spiritual energy, was among the Aldegian Royal Family’s greatest secrets. No one had taught Kanon how to do this; she’d figured out how to reproduce it on her own.


Of course, compared to the proper Svalinn System employed by Princess La Folia, this barrier was far weaker and less stable. Even so, it was sturdy enough to temporarily prevent the building from collapsing.

“Incredible…,” Ugaki breathed out as if it had touched him right in the heart.

The sight of wings of spiritual energy unfolding while Kanon remained in prayer made her truly look like the popular image of a saint. Apparently, even an uncouth, delinquent troll like Ugaki couldn’t help but be in awe at the display.

“Run while we still can! Asagi, hurry!”

“Wait, Kanase’s…!” Asagi was going to shout back in anger when Kanon vanished from before her very eyes. Rubble falling from overhead had obscured Asagi’s vision. “Kanase…?!”

“Noooooooo!” Nagisa shrieked.

Asagi stood stiff amid the falling rubble. A spiritual energy barrier was protecting her entire body. Had it not, she might have died.

“The barrier’s intact! Kanase’s safe!” Yaze exclaimed with a hoarse voice, spurring Asagi on to flee.

Virtually simultaneously, the barrier that had been protecting Asagi vanished. The building made sounds of collapse behind her, but Asagi didn’t have any time to look back. Huge cracks were running under her feet.

The Fourth Primogenitor’s Beast Vassal and the unfamiliar but similar Beast Vassal had vanished. However, their clash had already inflicted serious damage upon the sub-float’s underpinnings. Its surface was breaking apart like thin ice spread over a lake, turning into multiple fragments that were being split up by the ferocious waves atop the sea. Having lost their buoyancy, portions of the fragments were already beginning to sink.

At some point, she’d lost sight of even Yaze and Nagisa. Asagi was aboard a fragment in a different place, adrift on the surface of the sea. As she tried to search for them, a sight made her recoil, eyes wide.

She had spotted Yukina on top of a sinking fragment of the artificial isle.

Perhaps Yukina’s heavy use of spiritual energy had depleted her strength. She had fallen in a heap, unable to move. If Asagi didn’t do something, it was plain that she would sink along with the fragment into the sea.

“Aw, geez!”

Asagi broke into a run before she could think.

Asagi ran toward the nearly two-meter chasm separating where she was from the fragment Yukina was atop. If she didn’t jump over it, she wouldn’t be able to reach Yukina. Naturally, if she slipped upon landing, she would fall into the sea. However, the gap was gradually growing larger. There was no time for hesitation.

“Himeragi!”

Asagi barely managed to make the jump. She caught Yukina’s right hand just as the Sword Shaman was about to slide down perilously close to the water’s surface.

As soon as Asagi let out a sigh of relief, she heard a destructive sound at her feet. The impact of Asagi’s landing had caused some portion supporting the artificial isle fragment to snap.

“N…no way?!”

The tilting artificial isle fragment turned nearly vertical all at once. Asagi, still clutching Yukina, was helplessly hurled into the sea.



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