Strike the Blood - Volume 19 - Chapter 2.2

2

Asagi heaved ragged breaths as she floated on the choppy surface of the ocean. She was still clutching Yukina against her chest.

Maybe it was Yukina’s instincts as an Attack Mage, but even unconscious, she refused to let go of her silver spear. That was part of why it was tremendously difficult for Asagi to keep swimming while continuing to hold her. It was all she could do to prop Yukina up and keep her from drowning.

“This is completely messed up…!” Asagi yelled at the top of her lungs.

Fortunately, the raging winds whipped up by the clash of Beast Vassals were finally starting to abate. The roiling waves were not completely merciless. The problem was that the fragments of the destroyed sub-float were beginning to sink one after the other. If their descent created a whirlpool, Asagi and Yukina didn’t stand a chance.

Asagi was buffeted by the waves when, all of a sudden, she heard a synthetic, somehow sarcastic-sounding voice in her ear.

“Heh-heh… Seems you’re in a fair bit of distress, li’l miss.”

The voice was coming from Asagi’s smartwatch, which was linked to her smartphone. Surprised by the oddly nostalgic voice, Asagi angrily shouted back, “Mogwai?! How did you…?!”

“We’ll talk later. We don’t have time for a leisurely chat, you know,” Mogwai teased.

Asagi spat out the seawater that’d gotten into her mouth as she grudgingly nodded. “Yeah. For starters, could you do something about this situation?”

She didn’t have the luxury of getting her smartphone out while swimming with Yukina in her arms. Asagi tapped the touch panel of her smartwatch to summon up a self-written application recorded within.

Asagi could not employ magic except for one exception—the forbidden spell known as The Cleansing.

Properly speaking, The Cleansing was not a spell, forbidden or otherwise. It was the ultimate cheat code, directly altering the God Program that was the driving force behind the world.

Through use of the processing device named Itogami Island, designed as the altar for The Cleansing, Asagi could employ her off-the-charts abilities as the Priestess of Cain to change the God Program. In other words, she could rewrite reality.

All that said, even with Asagi’s abilities, it was difficult to control The Cleansing in real time, especially in a situation where she couldn’t properly control a smartphone, let alone a regular computer.

That didn’t mean she was unable to do anything at all. What Asagi had activated with her smartwatch was a ritual macro she’d finished programming beforehand. She couldn’t finely control things with it, but if it was just transforming a single batch of targeted objects, the fiendish thing could execute it with a single click.

“I would’ve slapped together a more proper macro if I’d known I’d be in a tough spot…!” Asagi sighed deeply as the vermilion particles characteristic of The Cleansing swirled around her.

When the particles dispersed, the sea around Asagi began to shine. The fierce rolling waves slowed, almost like a film in slow motion, before they eventually stopped completely.

However, this was not because the ocean had frozen. Upon closer observation, the transparent surface of the sea was making tiny little jiggles.

It looked almost like faintly red gelatin. No, it looked exactly like gelatin.

It was a giant piece of strawberry gelatin reaching six hundred meters in diameter; Asagi had turned the entirety of the seawater surrounding her into an edible treat.

This was to prevent the still-unconscious Yukina, Asagi herself, and the Rogues Alliance subjects who had fallen into the sea from drowning. She hadn’t had any other usable macros on hand.

“Heh-heh, come to think of it, when you were writing this program, you were eating a gelatin cup in a hurry while you worked, huh?”

“I was soooo right not to make it pudding…,” Asagi murmured weakly as she crawled up, pushing her way through the seawater-turned-gelatin.

Thanks to gelatin having firmness and elasticity, it sat on top of the water, but things would not have gone so well if it had been soft pudding instead. Such a blunder, and she might well have sunken into a bottomless swamp, drowning in a sea of pudding, her corpse a laughingstock the world over.

Heavy metals and concrete would fall to the bottom of the gelatin, but comparatively light human beings would not sink. At the very least, the danger of drowning had passed. The crisis at hand had been overcome.

“That said, it’s still just gelatin. Won’t it dissolve when the temperature rises after daybreak? It’s best for your sake to run while the running’s good, li’l miss.”

“I don’t need you to tell me that. It’s a good thing Himeragi’s so light.”

Standing up as she carried the unconscious Yukina on her back, Asagi slowly surveyed the surrounding area.

On her right was the wreckage of the partly destroyed sub-float, having lost about half of its original mass. Farther to her left, she could see Itogami Island proper. Asagi was smack in the middle of both. They’d apparently been carried a fair way since falling into the sea.

After a moment’s hesitation, Asagi began walking to the left.

She was concerned for Kojou and Yaze, but the Rogues Alliance remnants were prowling around the ruined sub-float. Her immediate concern was for Yukina’s safety.

Mogwai was two steps ahead of Asagi. “About ninety meters straight ahead is the broken connecting bridge. Climb up that, and you should be able to get into Island South.”

It was using Itogami Island’s City Management System to obtain visuals of the area and Asagi’s location data. Just because the Order of the End had taken over didn’t mean that the City Management System had ceased functioning altogether.

“Are Motoki and the others all right?”

Mogwai’s reply was blunt. “Unfortunately, I can’t confirm that as I am now.”

Asagi glared with annoyance at the tiny screen on her smartwatch. “Where the hell have you been?! You should’ve gotten in touch sooner if it was safe!”

“Unfortunately, that just wasn’t in the cards.”

“Why not?!”

“Domains.”

“Huh…?”

“Currently, Itogami Island proper has been divided into eighty-one domains in all. Each one has a ruler with effective rule over that territory—or rather, it’s more accurate to say those with a domain’s right to rule are being referred to as rulers.”

“…What do you mean? What is this right to rule thing?” Asagi asked, perplexed.

The badly sewn teddy bear avatar grinned with amusement as it replied, “I’m saying, it’s the right to rule a domain. All right, to make it easier for the li’l miss to understand, think of it as the right to monopolize control of Itogami Island’s City Management System, including power, gas, water, security cameras, radio transmission—the whole works, but only one part out of eighty-one thereof.”

“They’re dividing it up? There’s no way anyone can do that.”

Mogwai was mystified at her exasperated retort. It tilted its head. “You sure about that?”

“Duh. It isn’t a cookie. If you split the City Management System into two, the system load would double, so that’s impossible. And if some domain was using excess water and power, there obviously wouldn’t be enough for other domains.”

“Well, if you don’t have enough, why not just take it from someone else?”

“Huh?! What are you saying? That’s almost like—”

“War?”

“…Oh. So that’s how this whole Electoral War works.” Asagi ruefully bit her lip.

The ruler candidates weren’t expanding their territories out of simple sport. They were fighting over resources—the supplies necessary for day-to-day life.

Mogwai’s tone abruptly turned serious. “Incidentally, rulers monopolizing the City Management System means that subjects defying the ruler don’t get their rations of food and water. If they don’t like it, they can get under some other ruler’s control. Failing that, they give the ruler they don’t like a beating and become the leader themselves.”

Asagi glared at her partner with half-lidded eyes. “Guess they wanna make Itogami Island’s residents fight one another no matter what. That’s some pretty sick stuff. Why are you carrying out a plan like this?”

“Hey, hey, li’l miss, my physical body’s just a computer system, y’know? If the system administrator gives the order, it has to be faithfully obeyed, right?”

“So how did you come crawling out of the woodwork now?”

“Since the boss of the Rogues Alliance got beat, the domain doesn’t have a ruler anymore. That means I can temporarily move freely, but only one eighty-first of me.”

“So the power of The Cleansing I used was only one eighty-first of the real deal, too.”

Asagi sullenly raised an eyebrow, giving the sea surface beneath her feet a light kick.

The jellified sea only spread as far as the sub-float’s southern coast. The Cleansing’s effect had stopped midway into the sea as if it’d struck an invisible wall. This was why there was no way to cross over to Itogami Island proper except by using the connecting bridge. That cutoff point was probably the domain’s border. If she crossed that, her contact with Mogwai would be interrupted once more, rendering her unable to use The Cleansing.

“Wait. Then what happens if someone rules all eighty-one domains?”

“That person becomes Itogami Island’s new ruler. Of course, li’l miss, if one of your friends takes all the domains, then this stupid fuss ends in an instant.”

“If we can believe what The Blood says, that is.” Asagi couldn’t help feeling suspicious of the whole ordeal. Mogwai didn’t refute it, either.

“Well, you have a point.”

The Blood and the Order of the End had written the rules for this dispute arbitrarily. There was no guarantee that they wouldn’t go back on their word at the last second.

Even so, Asagi and the others were left with no alternative but to make use of those rules at present. Whining about the handicaps they’d been given wouldn’t change anything. It was a game that began with them at an overwhelming disadvantage.

“So how is the ruler decided?”

“It’s the demon who gathers together the most pacts with subjects in a given domain.”

“Pacts… Those magic circle–ish thingies?”

Asagi recalled the spell symbols inscribed on Ugaki’s underlings. Not being a sorceress, Asagi had a poor understanding of the principles by which they operated.

Mogwai spoke in an exceptionally businesslike tone. “It ain’t like you need to meet people one-on-one to get their stamps of approval. If a domain’s subjects recognize you as their figurehead, the pact is complete.”

Asagi’s face turned grave as she asked another question. “And if there are multiple candidates in the same domain?”

“They fight one another, and the one who wins inherits the opponent’s subjects.”

“I see… That’s what Ugaki said.” Asagi sighed wearily.

Ruler candidates clashed together and stole subjects from one another. Victory was the fastest way for a candidate to increase the number of their subjects. The more numerous their subjects became, the greater the demonic energy available to the candidate, and no doubt the greater the damage and casualties their fighting brought as well. This was a war enveloping Itogami Island’s entire population.

Mogwai continued its explanation. “To become a ruler, the subjects have to know the candidate’s identity. Well, at the very least, they have to know their name.”

“The hell…? That’s…”

The chill Asagi felt up her spine brought her feet to a halt.

The conditions were not particularly strange. Magically speaking, revealing one’s identity was standard for pacts.

But it also meant that so long as Kojou Akatsuki continued to conceal his identity, he could not become a ruler. Kojou had only one way of putting the Electoral War to rest—naming himself the true Fourth Primogenitor and becoming the true ruler of Itogami Island.

Did all of the rules of the Electoral War exist to drag the existence of Kojou Akatsuki out onto the public stage?

Asagi vehemently shook her head as if to brush such foolish notions aside.

At that moment, the image of Mogwai on her smartwatch suddenly became garbled. “Sorry, li’l miss. It seems I can’t lend you a hand any further.”

“Huh?! Why not?!” Asagi glared at Mogwai.

The jellified sea surface continued ahead for a little while longer. This should have still been an area where it was possible to communicate with her AI partner.

The badly sewn teddy bear avatar shook its head. “That’s because the sub-float’s been completely destroyed. This domain’s been scrapped, and its domain number is being inherited by another area. So this is where you and I go separate ways for a while, li’l miss… Do be…well until we…et again……n’t die.”

“Mogwai! Wait a—Mogwai! We’re in the middle of a conversation!” Asagi stubbornly called out to her smartwatch, but the only thing hovering on its screen was the callous out-of-area indicator.

She had no time to lose heart over that, though. As Mogwai vanished, a huge crack ran across the jellified surface of the sea.

“Geh…?!”

The huge sea of gelatin was splitting apart. Asagi went pale when she realized this.

The effect of The Cleansing that Asagi had used hadn’t expired. The Cleansing was a forbidden spell that rewrote the world itself. Matter that had been transformed did not automatically revert to its former state.

However, once the transformation was complete, the object was affected by the normal laws of physics. Heat gelatin and it melted; apply enough force and you tore it apart. It was breaking down from the effects of the waves as time passed. The phenomenon was occurring before Asagi’s very eyes.

If she had Mogwai with her, she could have utilized The Cleansing once more to mend it, but the AI had already vanished. The only thing Asagi could do at that point was sprint to her destination, the connecting bridge, with Yukina on her back.

Asagi sweated bullets as she desperately made a run for it. The gelatin broke apart as it floated on the water. It was the worst of all possible footings.

Midway she tumbled and crawled on all fours, finally using Yukina’s spear in place of a walking stick as she climbed up a slippery slope. She didn’t care what it looked like. Yukina’s supposedly light body weight was pressing heavily on her shoulders. It was like some kind of horrid game show.

By the end, Asagi was on the verge of collapse when she climbed onto the half-wrecked connecting bridge. The tip of the bridge had sunk into the sea at an incline, making it possible to go up on foot.

Asagi stumbled forward from her momentum, tumbling on the spot.

Fortunately, the bridge’s surface being wet minimized the damage. Her body, accustomed to jiggly gelatin, found the hard asphalt surface downright pleasant.

“Haaah…haaah… Somehow made it in time… I was sure I was a…goner…this time…”

Asagi gazed at the broken pieces of jellified sea surface being carried off by the waves as she tried to catch her breath.

If she’d been even a little slower in reaching the connecting bridge, she would have been drowning in the sea once more. She didn’t think she could swim carrying Yukina with her endurance depleted as it was. She really had escaped by the skin of her teeth.

Gently putting the sleeping Yukina and her spear atop the roadway, Asagi collapsed to join them.

Her entire gelatin-smeared body smelled of strawberry. Her hair and clothes were all a mess. She really didn’t want to be in front of people looking like that.

The conditions were identical for Yukina, but in her case, she appeared fleetingly lovely even like that. There’s something really unfair about this, Asagi complained inside her own mind.

However, Yukina’s entire body was cold, and her cheeks had lost their complexion. This was no doubt from having used far too much spiritual energy. Small wonder—she’d fended off the demonic energy from two primogenitor-class Beast Vassals all by herself.

At least her breathing was stable, but Asagi was worried about leaving her in that state. I have to get her to a safe place, thought Asagi as she prodded her tired body to rise.

Then she sensed someone close by.

“—?!”

The malignant aura, enough to make one shudder, made Asagi reflexively spin about.

A figure clad in a pure-white robe appeared, practically melting in from the gloom, head covered in a creepy-looking mask patterned after a human skull. She heard a voice from beneath the mask.

“Asagi Aiba… The Priestess of Cain…”

“Order of the End…!”

Asagi went on guard, spurred by instinctive fear. Her right hand touched the smartphone in her pocket. Her water-resistant smartphone was functioning just fine even after being immersed in water, but she still couldn’t reach Mogwai. Unable to activate The Cleansing, Asagi was nothing more than the powerless schoolgirl she looked like.

However, even in that state, the Order of the End acolyte trained merciless enmity on Asagi. It was such powerful demonic energy that even Asagi, who lacked spiritual power, could sense it keenly.

“Your existence is dangerous to our plan… Accordingly…”

“Y…you’re kidding me…”

Asagi took a step back, unable to endure the demonic energy blowing her way.

Something squishy wrapped around her left ankle. This was a black, slimy, gleaming tentacle.

Tentacles spewed from the bottom of the white robe, stretching toward Asagi one after another. They were attempting to drag Asagi into the robe’s interior.

“Wah, gross…! Wait a—Cut it o—Stay back!”

Asagi was on her butt as she desperately tried to kick the tentacles away; such resistance was meaningless. In the blink of an eye, both of her legs were held fast, stopping her from moving.

The hem of the robe rose up. Spreading within was pitch-black darkness.

This was likely a gate for teleportation purposes. The tentacles that had appeared from there were trying to return to the other side of the gate once more, still entwined around Asagi’s legs.

The acolyte of the Order of the End made a tiny groan. “Ngh…!”

A silver streak raced like a flash of lightning, and the horde of tentacles trying to drag Asagi into the gate were sent flying. They had been severed by a razor-sharp object.

With agile movements that betrayed no hint of the effects of gravity, a small-statured girl landed before Asagi’s eyes. She was gripping a fully metallic silver spear.

“Himeragi?!”

“I’m sorry, Aiba. I’m all right now.”

Yukina turned her spear toward the Order of the End acolyte. However, the complexion of her face remained pale. She’d probably only just regained consciousness in reaction to the tentacle wielder’s demonic energy. She had to be a far cry from her usual physical condition.

“Yukina…Himeragiii!” the tentacle wielder howled. The demonic energy swelled further as a horde of countless tentacles assaulted Yukina all at once.

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

Yukina made no attempt to evade the horde of tentacles bearing down on her. Honing the little spiritual energy left within her, she kept her spear poised as she wove an incantation. The silver spear shone with a pale light as an aura of tranquility embraced her.

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

Yukina kicked off the ground into a sprint.

The Divine Oscillation Effect barrier shrouding her impeded the summoned tentacles, sending them flying in pieces.

The tentacle wielder’s body recoiled, seemingly shirking in terror, flesh melting into thin air. This was instant movement through spatial control magic.

Nonetheless, Yukina’s attack came before the tentacle wielder could completely vanish from sight. The gate for teleportation was sundered via Snowdrift Wolf’s demonic energy nullification ability, causing the tentacle wielder’s body to reappear in a place a paltry few meters away.

With a crisp sound like a porcelain cup snapping, something fell down to the tentacle wielder’s feet.

This was a portion of the mask. The skull-motif mask had split, exposing the tentacle wielder’s face. Yukina’s spear had rent the pure-white robe, cleanly bisecting the mask underneath the hood.

“You’re…” Yukina’s voice shook with surprise. “…a girl?!”

Asagi’s eyes went wide with shock.

The acolyte of the Order of the End, the tentacle wielder—her bare face was that of a youthful girl. She had pitch-black hair, white skin, and beautiful red eyes.

“So you have seen…my filthy flesh…”

The girl covered the side of her face as if ashamed, glaring at Yukina and Asagi through the gaps in her fingers.

The next instant, a gate activated once more, and this time the girl vanished into the darkness.

“We’re…saved?”

Asagi remained seated on the ground as she murmured weakly.

Her clothes were torn all over, and there were abrasions showing on her arms and legs. That she’d escaped so lightly was no doubt unbelievably good fortune. She could well have been killed.

“Aiba. What happened…?”

Yukina lowered the spear in her hands as she posed the question with an expression of concern. Thanks to being out cold the whole time, she couldn’t have even known where she was.

Asagi wobbled as she rose to her feet. “Right. I wonder where to even begin…”

Though they’d somehow managed to shake off the Order of the End’s pursuit, nothing had been brought to an end. The Electoral War was continuing somewhere on Itogami Island even that very moment. Kojou and the others they’d been split from were on her mind, too. She needed to pass on her information from Mogwai to Yukina and come up with countermeasures as soon as possible.

“First, I want a bath. My whole body’s slimy… Ugh, this really sucks,” Asagi said, smiling but exhausted.

The faint sun began to shine upon the side of her marred face. Daybreak was approaching.