Strike the Blood - Volume 19 - Chapter 3.3

3

“…Ki Juranbarada… Don’t tell me, you’re…the Lo—”

Zana Lashka gently pressed a fingertip to Yaze’s lips. “Shhh.”

Zana’s seductive smile made Yaze experience such fear that he thought his heart might stop. He felt like a mouse caught by a lioness’s paw.

“You mustn’t speak that name. Not yet, ’kay?” Zana whispered, breathing into Yaze’s ear.

Yaze shuddered, dissolving under the heat of that sweet breath, yet he still managed to return the glare. He held back his fear of dying here. “…Why are you here in Yume’s domain?”

Zana tilted her head slightly, drawing a blank as she spoke. “Hmm, yeah… Why, I wonder? Because she’s cute?” She was definitely dodging the question.

It didn’t look like Zana was lying, though. If judging by standards of cuteness, Yume, the youngest ruler candidate, was unmistakably queen of the hill. It seemed that the First Primogenitor coming into contact with Yume was purely due to that, with no real meaning behind it.

All that said, whether Yaze could completely trust Ki and Zana was another matter entirely.

The pair had likely arrived on Itogami Island right after this war had begun. It clearly was no mere coincidence. The First Primogenitor had known that the Electoral War was occurring on Itogami Island in the first place.

They probably also knew about the Order of the End’s objective, and events that would occur on Itogami Island to come.

“Oh no…! Lady Yume!”

Yaze’s thoughts were interrupted by Lydianne’s urgent voice.

Her robotic tank, hidden by ritual spell camouflage, emerged from behind her. Several alarms were sounding from the open cockpit hatch.

“Has someone wandered in again?” Yume asked Lydianne while the latter entered the tank.

Before Lydianne could reply, a Tensou Academy student was sprinting toward the stables.

“Yume!” the student said, gasping for breath. “Come to headquarters, quick! It’s really bad!”

“C-coming!”

Led by the schoolgirl, Yume broke into a run with Lydianne’s tank following suit. Yaze and Nagisa ended up going after them. Ki and Zana followed.

The domain’s headquarters was actually a tent set up on the main building’s roof. It was close to the demon-beast stables and offered a view of the entire campus, which was why it was a domain defense command room.

Several large TV monitors had been brought into the tent, and these displayed footage from surveillance cameras all over the campus environs. It really did come off like a battlefield station.

Yume’s expression hardened when she noticed a group displayed on the monitor. “Who are these people…?”

It was an organized horde of several hundred armed demons. It clearly wasn’t a group of delinquents like the Rogues Alliance; they were better organized by leaps and bounds, and they were armed like a military outfit.

A student sitting in front of a monitor read data from the screen of an application. “The Matsunaga Domain is at our front gates. Their ruler, Nao Matsunaga, is an Old Guard vampire, and his class is grade B, group two, just like you, Yume. He has seventy-eight hundred subjects. Additionally, at the South Gate, grade C, group one’s Red Thunder and grade C, group two’s Jaws have assembled. Both rulers are beast people, and the number of their subjects is forty-four hundred and thirty-two hundred, respectively.”

“At the North Gate…Shironio Girls’ High Domain! Their ruler is Necromancer Honshin, the Witch of Decay! Class is grade B, group one! Ten thousand five hundred subjects obtained!”

“That’s too many…,” the oldest student present murmured in fright.

Yume had around nine thousand subjects who were Tensou Academy students, their guardians, and residents evacuating from nearby. The four domains allied against it had over thirty thousand subjects.

On top of that, Yume was the one and only demon capable of fighting on Tensou Academy’s behalf, and the enemy was invading from three directions at once. No doubt sensing that Yume was a threat, they had formed a union to tear the Tensou Academy down. Yaze’s premonition had become reality.

“What’ll we do, Yume?” the oldest girl asked.

This situation of a leader-like high schooler to rely upon an elementary schooler, demon or not, felt like quite a farce. The people of this domain had no other choice, though.

“Surrender is not an option,” Yume plainly stated. “After all, our foes are rulers who hate Tensou Academy itself. There is no telling what might befall us if we fall under these girls’ rule.”

The rulers of the Matsunaga and Shironio Domains were famous for their grudges toward Tensou Academy. A part of their spite came from the frustration of failing the entrance examinations, and having their boyfriends stolen by Tensou Academy girls accounted for the rest.

The female students in the headquarters nodded in response to Yume’s words.

“Th-that’s right. And that goes double for Red Thunder and Jaws…”

“But can we fight and win this?”

“Against these kinds of numbers, even Yume…”

A worried voice trickled out from Lydianne over the despondent atmosphere filling the tent. “Lady Yume…”

Lydianne’s robot tank was developed as a powerful anti-demon weapon. The demon beasts raised at Tensou Academy also constituted highly effective military strength that other domains did not possess.

But this time, there were simply too many enemies, and she would be against a vampire. Physical attacks were virtually useless against the Beast Vassals that served vampires. They were the worst enemy for tanks and demon beasts alike.

Of course, Yume knew that. Even so, she could not flee. She was young, but she was the domain’s ruler nonetheless.

Even as she trembled with fear, a look of tragic determination lingered in her eyes. Yume would fight.

A gentle arm wrapped around her neck. It was Zana, lightly embracing Yume from behind.

“It’s all right. Leave this one to Big Sis.”

“Zana…?” Yume looked up at her in surprise.

Ki smirked as he placed his hand on the young succubus’s head. “Gotta pay you back for the food and lodging. That’s the Japanese Bushido way, isn’t it?”

“Th-that may be correct…but…” Yume blinked in bewilderment at Ki’s jest.

“Don’t worry. Could you all lure the beast people away? Zana, can I leave the vampire in your hands?”

“Of course,” Zana replied matter-of-factly as she drew some things out of a back pocket of her skirt, silver-colored metal objects that looked like several rings connected together.

Accessories, I guess, thought Yaze.

Yume began to ask, “Zana…just what are the two of you—?”

“A Beast Vassal has emerged!” interrupted the voice of a student watching a monitor.

Everyone present turned their eyes to the schoolyard below.

Appearing before the front gate of Tensou Academy was a pitch-black bear some six to seven meters in body length. It was a collection of materialized demonic energy so dense that it possessed sentience, one of the beasts summoned from another world said to serve vampires.

It was a Beast Vassal.

However, the density of the demonic energy taking shape as a Beast Vassal was something else. Of course, it was not as strong as that of a vampire primogenitor, but it was far above the norm as Old Guard vampires went. The power seemed on par with the seventh generation removed from direct descent from a primogenitor, if not the sixth.

“So this is the power of seven thousand subjects…?!” Yaze exclaimed, voice trembling.

Even a non-sorcerer like Yaze could keenly sense the powerful wave of demonic energy. Nagisa, a very sensitive spiritualist, was pale and unable to even raise a voice.

Meanwhile, Zana gazed at the pitch-black bear and gave off a slightly exasperated giggle and smile. “Okay… Tee-hee. I understand wanting to let loose after getting your hands on power, but children who get carried away must be punished, yes?”

“Huh…?”

With a flutter of her short skirt, Zana leaped down from the rooftop. She landed without a sound with lithe movements reminiscent of a cat and raced toward the enemy formation.

In both hands, Zana clenched the silvery metal objects she’d taken out earlier. They were brutal weapons embedded in her hands for pounding enemies with her fists.

Yaze’s eyes went wide with abject shock. “Metal knuckles…?! Wait a… What does she plan on doing against a Beast Vassal with those…?!”

Noticing Zana’s approach, the bear Beast Vassal roared.

With a single blow from the Beast Vassal, the barricade blocking the way to the Tensou Academy front gate broke and flew all apart.

Narrowly evading the flying barricade wreckage, Zana crept into the demon’s flank.

Then, using the brutal silver weapon in her right fist, she smashed the Beast Vassal’s side.

The enormous Beast Vassal was forced back, blown several meters into the air before pressing its gouged-out flank and entering a feral rage.

“Sh…she punched a Beast Vassal?!” Yaze screamed.

However glamorous she was, Zana was only about a hundred and seventy centimeters tall, yet she’d punched a Beast Vassal over six meters long into the air. The incredible sight made Yaze doubt his own eyes.

“Goodness… The young ones don’t know how to use their power these days. Pathetic!”

Taking light steps, Zana unleashed one punch after the next as she continued to give the Beast Vassal a one-sided beatdown. The more punches she landed, the more the Beast Vassal’s contours seemed to falter and warp, parts of its flesh sheared off.

The seemingly impossible sight left the vampire girl who was the Beast Vassal’s host standing stiff in a daze, unable to lift a finger. The same went for her fellow vampires and subjects.

“I wonder why… That person… She feels like Yukina…,” Nagisa murmured, hiding behind Yaze. She hadn’t even realized she’d said something out loud.

“…She does?”

Then Yaze noticed it, too.

The fists with which Zana wielded the brutal silver weapons were emitting the pale glow of spiritual essence. It was the glow of the Divine Oscillation Effect that could rend any barrier and nullify demonic energy. Zana’s metal knuckles, like Yukina’s spear, were weapons inscribed with the Divine Oscillation Effect activation ritual.

Unlike the modern, polished weapon that was Snowdrift Wolf, however, Zana’s metal knuckles were far more savage weapons. The brash attacks and Zana’s ferocity and beauty were in sharp relief, instilling feelings of despair and defeat into those who opposed her.

Having relied upon a particularly powerful Beast Vassal, the defeat of that Beast Vassal left the Matsunaga Domain all the more fragile. The one-sided crushing of her Beast Vassal left the ruler half in tears, losing all will to fight. Her subjects fled one after another, and the other vampires began to shift around in worry. The victor was already clear.

However, the Matsunaga Domain was not the only foe Tensou Academy faced.

“Yume, there’s a zombie at the northern gate…!” another girl watching a monitor yelled. She looked sick to her stomach.

A raw stench blew in, riding the wind.

A giant as tall as the school buildings of Tensou Academy slowly rose up, glaring toward the headquarters.

The giant was in fact a mass of rotting flesh colored a bluish-black.

It was a towering zombie created from fusing various kinds of corpses together—cattle, pigs, whales and other aquatic mammals, demon beasts, demons, and human beings. This was the soldier of the ruler of the Shironio Domain, the Witch of Decay.

“Slapping zombies together to make a new creature…” Ki sourly twisted his lips. “Well, isn’t that fiendish.”

Since zombies neither felt pain nor feared death, they made excellent troops. They were also effective at crushing enemy morale. However, the sanitary issues they posed and the heavy depletion of demonic energy made them difficult to transport. Furthermore, the ethical issues involved had prompted banning the use of zombies for military purposes.

And yet she had created this monster and set it loose it in an urban area without qualms. It was an act of heresy committed by a witch, someone who had formed a pact with a devil to become an inhuman being.

“Well, demonic energy fine. I’ll send it back to the dust right this sec.”

Vaulting over the roof’s handrail, Ki leaped onto the roof of the neighboring auditorium. That put him in just the right position to be face-to-face with the giant zombie.

The rotting behemoth swung with a crooked, warped arm. It meant to smash Ki along with the auditorium’s roof.

Ki stood defenselessly as he pointed a fingertip toward the zombie’s heart.

It was what you might call a finger gun.

“Bang” went the quiet murmur from Ki’s lips.

That instant, the zombie’s giant body swayed. Staggering heavily as if it had been shot, it slowly fell onto its back.

This took the witch of Decay’s camp by surprise. The giant zombie they had employed as their vanguard had not only failed to attack the enemy, but now it was falling onto its allies’ own heads.

The endangered subjects fled in a panic, sending up screams as rotting flesh and fluids burst apart.

The necromancer Witch was crazed with rage, but there was no sign of the fallen giant zombie rising anew. Indeed, the zombies surrounding her as bodyguards had stopped moving, too, and the entire army of the dead was in collapse.

“What…? What happened?!” Yaze leaned over the guardrail on the roof, gazing at the back of Ki, who was sitting there, bored.

“It cannot be…!” Lydianne stared at the demonic energy instrument data she read from her tank. “Colliding opposing demonic energy with magical energy to wipeth it out and nullify necromancy?! Surely, surely…that is not even…”

Yaze finally understood the meaning of Ki’s actions.

“Magic muting using interference from demonic energy…?! Technology that military researchers and sorcerous engineers all over the world can’t make viable?! And you used that with just flesh and blood?!”

“Oh no, that Witch is…!” Lydianne’s expression stiffened.

Countless magic circles were lighting up in the area around the necromancer known as the Witch of Decay. Gathering as much demonic energy from her subjects as she could, she was attempting to counter Ki’s magical muting.

However, this was a foolish act.

Her necromancy had not vanished. It was still operating normally. It just looked like it wasn’t activating because Ki was slamming demonic energy against it of the exact same strength.

As an example, her situation was like being unable to hear sound from a speaker because she was wearing high-quality ear protectors.

So what would happen to you in that situation if, unable to hear sound, you cranked the speaker beyond its electrical limits—?

“Sorry, li’l lady,” Ki murmured as he released the magic muting.

A vast amount of obstructed magical energy coursed into the giant zombie all at once. Its flesh couldn’t withstand all of that magical energy. Each individual corpse magically packed into it flew apart, and every magical line was burned away.

The backlash of excess magical energy attacked the caster, the Witch herself. Unable to even scream, the Witch collapsed to the ground, her entire body fiercely twitching. She was unable to recover, not so much as a ruler but as a necromancer. She probably hadn’t understood what had happened to her even at the very end.

“Lady Yume!”

“I understand.”

Yume spread jet-black wings of demonic energy. Using her mental sympathy waves as a succubus, she conveyed her orders to a demon beast under her command.

However, her order was not directed toward the demon beasts in the stables.

Yume had another ally besides them, who was far removed from Itogami Island at a depth of tens of thousands of meters, right on the ocean floor.

On a street near the Tensou Academy school grounds, Red Thunder and Jaws beast people were on standby in a square when an enormous flame gushed up behind them.

An object resembling a meteorite flying in from high altitude had collided with the ground, causing a massive explosion.

“Leviathan’s living missiles…?!”

Yaze opened his mouth at an angle as he beheld the sight of beast people fleeing in a panic.

The monster called Leviathan was said to be a weapon of the gods—the World’s Mightiest Demon Beast, able to wipe Itogami Island itself off the map if it so wished. That was Yume’s trump card.

Yume called out to the opposing ruler candidates using a speaker for public announcements inside school grounds. “That was a warning shot. Knowing this, do you still wish to continue?”

Of course, there was no one who would defy her after witnessing that attack.

The demons had begun to flee, and many of their subjects were raising white flags.

Cheers arose from Tensou Academy students all over the school. The fight was over. Yume had won by a mile.

In a place removed from the excited students, a grave expression came over Yaze. He was standing in front of the vampire from a foreign land, staring at the giant zombie that had burned to ashes. “What’s the big idea, Ki Juranbarada?”

“What is it, lad? Don’t be angry. Whatever it looks like, I worked really hard to hold back.”

Sitting on the auditorium’s roof, Ki scratched his head with a guilty look on his face. He’d apparently misunderstood, thinking that Yaze was angry that the necromancer was beyond saving.

Ki’s words—that he’d held back—were the truth.

He didn’t have to go through the trouble of magic muting. If he’d summoned a Beast Vassal, he could have wiped out a zombie of that level with ease. However, if a Beast Vassal of the First Primogenitor appeared, the damage would never have been limited to one girl. Tensou Academy’s school grounds would surely have been harmed far beyond what had been destroyed from Leviathan’s missile attack.

Yaze wasn’t irritated that Ki had defeated the Witch.

“Why are you lending Yume a hand?” Yaze asked. “Don’t tell me you’re seriously trying to make her the ruler of Itogami Island?”

“Ooh, that sounds pretty fun.”

So that’s one option, said the way Ki clapped his hands together with a serious look. His reaction had such a ring of truth that Yaze was left unnerved.

“Hey!”

“I’m joking, lad. Don’t worry. Well, it’s true that I’m amusing myself with this stupid ruckus called the Electoral War, but technically our objective is something else.”

Ki looked up at the flustered Yaze and smiled with delight.

“Objective?” Yaze grimaced as he probed back.

Ki still had a smile on his face. His eyes blazed ominously. “Putting ghosts to rest.”