Strike the Blood - Volume 20 - Chapter 4.7

7

“Kojou…”

The blue-eyed girl gazed at him within the mist of pure-white cold.

Kojou embraced her tiny, frigid body.

They gazed at each other at a distance so close as to share the other’s breaths. Perhaps it felt like being reunited at long last with one’s other half.

“And so we meet again.”

The girl shook her head a little at his heartfelt comment.

“My soul has always been at thine side.”

“Yeah, seems that way.”

Kojou made a lonely smile as he nodded. From the time when she’d been completely annihilated until gaining a new body, Avrora’s soul had dwelled inside Nagisa. He had spent time with her without ever being aware.

“I’m glad to see you anyway.”

He told her this.

“And I—”

Her eyes brimmed with tears. These were tears of joy and tears of parting regrets.

Now that the twelfth Beast Vassal had been released, her duty had come to an end.

A vampire that had lots its demonic energy could no longer maintain a physical body. The girl named Avrora Florestina would vanish—this time, completely.

Even so, the girl shook her head with a fleeting smile.

“Even if this ephemeral flesh must vanish, then there is no greater delight to glimpse thee like this again.”

“Nah, I’m not losing you this time. No way.”

He asserted this with determination, as much to himself as to Avrora.

His eyes were dyed crimson. Fangs poked out from the impetuous smile on his lips.

“But…the collapse of my flesh is inescapable…”

The girl stared at her own two hands in disbelief. They had already begun to fade away.

Kojou clutched the girl to him tightly. She gasped, eyes widening.

His lips crept up her slender neck. Her soft flesh made his fangs throb.

“Sorry, Avrora.”

“Kojou…what art thou…?!”

Her voice cut off weakly. Finally, it changed into a ragged breath.

Still holding her firmly, Kojou embraced his feelings of guilt and prayed.

“Live, Avrora…! Even if I have to trade all my power for it…!”

The uppermost floor of Keystone Gate filled with white silence.

The Beast Vassals fighting in the sky above had vanished from sight, and the madly raging demonic energy had completely dissipated. Kojou and The Blood had surely ended their fight.

All that was left was a cold mist.

“Is it…over?”

Sayaka murmured with concern, wiping blood coursing from her lip.

Yukina closed her eyes, hanging her head without a word.

Kojou had released the twelfth Beast Vassal. This had awakened him as the complete Fourth Primogenitor, which also meant the annihilation of Avrora. The Blazing Banquet had been averted, and the Electoral War was nearing its conclusion.

But was this really the ending Kojou had hoped for? Yukina did not know.

Sayaka picked up the sword she had dropped.

The next moment, they heard a clap, clap of sparse applause from out of nowhere.

Yukina and Sayaka went on guard.

Appearing from within the hovering mist was a Caucasian, middle-aged man wearing a finely tailored suit.

“And so, the true ruler of Itogami Island has been born?”

The man spoke as he continued calmly clapping. His voice was gentle but carried well. It was the voice of someone accustomed to speaking in front of others.

“MAR president… Shahryar Ren…”

Sayaka spoke his name. The owner of Magna Ataraxia Research Inc.—one of the world’s few giant sorcerous manufacturing conglomerates. He was an immensely wealthy man with great influence in the worlds of politics and finance alike.

He had appeared before the Fourth Primogenitor’s battlefield with an amused smirk plastered over his face.

Automated weapons serving in place of bodyguards flanked his left and right—a pair of anti-demon robot tanks.

But the machine on his left suddenly released a crushing sound as something smashed it flat. The reinforced plastic armor was cleaved in two, its internal components flying all over the place. Sparks ferociously scattered as the tank’s functions ground to a halt.

“Why you! Finally found ya, Shahryar!”

A youth in dreadlocks wearing punk clothing appeared from deeper down the corridor—the former Prison Barrier escapee, Schtola D. Swinging an invisible blade, he destroyed the other robot tank as well.

Finally, his gaze shifted toward Shahryar Ren. Schtola raised his right hand high to generate another invisible blade.

“Take this, Thunder—”

“Loud, aren’t you?”

Ren’s expression did not shift as he snapped the fingers of his right hand.

That instant, blood burst from Schtola’s abdomen. He crumpled to his knees, wearing an incredulous expression as blood continued to spew.

“I hadn’t wished to sully my audience with the new king with unnecessary bloodshed…but perhaps this, too, is a fitting entrance for the Fourth Primogenitor.”

As Schtola cried in anguish, Ren stared down at him, unaffected.

He’d used the same invisible blade ability as Schtola D. But his speed and precision were on a completely different scale. Shahryar Ren’s blow had been overwhelmingly polished. He was a different level of Deva.

“…Deva, psychokinesis…”

Sayaka murmured with a shaking voice. Ren made an exaggerated shake of his head and laughed sarcastically.

“I would prefer you call it Divine Power. I have no desire to be compared to psychics…those charlatans your kind call Hyper Adapters.”

“Damn…you!!”

Bloodied and fallen, Schtola D wailed expletives as he glared at the president of MAR. Then, with the look of a man facing certain death, he called out to Sayaka.

“Hey, lady!! Stop that bastard Shahryar R! He’s planning to open Keystone Gate!”

“Open…Keystone Gate?”

She raised a perplexed voice.

The Keystone Gate building served as a crucial structure for Itogami Island, but that didn’t mean it could actually open up.

However, when he heard Schtola’s words, Ren said, “Oh,” raising an eyebrow, as though impressed.

Then he produced a sword from inside his suit. It was an exceptionally aged steel short sword.

“Would you finally show your face, Fourth Primogenitor? Or should I call you the Former Fourth Primogenitor—Kojou Akatsuki?”

Ren called out as he glared deeper into the mist that was finally thinning.

Yukina and Sayaka also turned their eyes in in the direction of the footsteps approaching from down the passage.

Emerging from the parting white mist was Kojou. But the impression he gave off was not that of the Kojou who Yukina and Sayaka knew. The hair on his head, once golden, had reverted to its previous shade. And in his arms he carried a tiny, golden-haired girl.

“Sen…pai…?”

“Avrora Florestina hasn’t disappeared… So that’s it…”

Yukina and Sayaka both spoke up.

Kojou had settled his battle with The Blood. He had unleashed the twelfth Beast Vassal and averted the Blazing Banquet. And yet, he was carrying Avrora, who should have disappeared.

“So this was your choice…Kojou Akatsuki. You chose her over the power of the Fourth Primogenitor.”

Ren continued to clutch his sword as he let out a kuh-kuh laugh.

His statement made Yukina understand just what had happened to Kojou.

If the Beast Vassal in her body was released, Avrora would dissipate.

The unsealed Beast Vassal would return to the side of the Fourth Primogenitor, its proper host and master, and the artificial vampire Avrora would lose her Beast Vassal, the source of demonic energy she needed to maintain her flesh and blood.

But if the released Beast Vassal was returning to the Fourth Primogenitor’s side, all Kojou had to do was make Avrora the Fourth Primogenitor—and that was what he’d chosen.

Overwriting the soul. Kojou had transplanted all of the abilities of the Fourth Primogenitor into Avrora.

Of course, had he been born as the Fourth Primogenitor, there was no way he could have done this. He was born as a human. He was an irregular Fourth Primogenitor, turned into a vampire after the fact.

And it was none other than Avrora who’d turned him into the Fourth Primogenitor. Kojou was simply returning the power of the Fourth Primogenitor she’d loaned to him to begin with.

Thus, the Twelfth, Avrora, last of the Kaleid Bloods, had turned into the true Fourth Primogenitor.

Into a complete Fourth Primogenitor served by all twelve Beast Vassals—

“Fabricated that she is, you threw away the power of the World’s Mightiest Vampire for her nonetheless. What a truly dramatic conclusion. Not one I can comprehend whatsoever—but that’s fine. At any rate, the fact remains that a complete Fourth Primogenitor has been revived. Here and now, let us offer this altar known as Itogami Island as the fuel to open this great gate.”

“Fuel…you say?”

Kojou’s expression hardened as he looked at the short sword Shahryar Ren raised high.

At that moment, he realized its steely light resembled the sorcerous devices of the Sinful God.

“Keystone Gate is…!”

Sayaka exclaimed, realizing that something was very wrong with the building they were in.

The entirety of the giant Keystone Gate rumbled. Its outer wall was dyed in a malignant, metallic darkness. It was resonating with the short sword Ren held aloft.

“Four years ago—when the Twelfth Kaleid Blood was discovered in the Mediterranean, it was not by mere chance that she was transported to Itogami Island. Everything and everyone has been dancing on MAR’s palm.”

Still holding his short sword in the air, Ren explained with a soliloquy like an actor on the stage.

“Nonetheless, this is not a circumstance to boast of. Thanks to a string of irregular incidents, the revival of the complete Fourth Primogenitor was considerably delayed.”

“Guoa…?!”

Sustaining an invisible impact, Kojou went flying. This was Shahryar Ren’s telekinesis at work.

He’d escaped without injury, but that was undoubtedly because the MAR president had held back.

He hadn’t done this out of consideration for Kojou. Rather, Ren’s objective was to rip Avrora out of Kojou’s hands.

“Avrora?!”

Her slumbering body floated up into the sky above Keystone Gate.

It wasn’t just the building resonating with Shahryar Ren’s sorcerous device. The steely darkness now swallowed Avrora as well.

Ren’s short sword must have been the legacy of the Devas he’d stolen.

Moreover, the Fourth Primogenitor was itself an artificial vampire produced by the Devas. It was hardly unthinkable that the two might be connected.

Additionally, MAR had been deeply involved in the construction of Itogami Island itself. Naturally, that included the design of Keystone Gate.

The altar that was Itogami Island. The complete Fourth Primogenitor. The sorcerous device of the Devas—

In that place, in that moment, Shahryar Ren had assembled everything he sought.

“Even the irregular incidents brought bountiful harvests of their own. The appearance of New Itogami Island. The coordinates for New Itogami Island as displayed by Glenda, Dragon of the Swamp. And the data for The Cleansing left by Asagi Aiba—the conditions to open Keystone Gate have been fulfilled. All that remains is making a sacrifice upon the altar.”

Twelve wings spread from Avrora as she floated in the sky.

The inexhaustible energy of the Fourth Primogenitor was fueling Keystone Gate.

Kojou and the others could only gaze upon this in awe. They didn’t even know what was happening.

They hear a clang from behind.

A huge swordsman, his entire body covered in armor, plummeted down from midair. It was the man from the Georgius—the dragon slayer—and a former escaped prisoner just like Schtola D.

“Why you… Dumblegraff! Don’t let yourself get beat that easy, you stupid jerk!”

Schtola D heaped abuse upon the gravely wounded swordsman. Come to mention it, he was on the verge of death himself.

The bronze-colored dragon had cast the man out of the sky. He was the last acolyte of the Order of the End—the Flame Dragon.

“It seems you had quite a difficult duel, Kreyd.”

Shahryar Ren spoke amiably to the dragon dancing its way down.

This shocked Kojou. He understood that MAR had been connected to the Order of the End behind the scenes, but he would have never imagined that a confidant of The Blood would turn out to be Ren’s pawn.

“As promised, I shall show you the landscape you dragons call home.”

Ignoring everyone else’s shock, Ren touched the blade of his short sword.

That instant, the world completely changed.

The color of steel blotted out the brightening sky.

“A city…in the sky…”

Yukina’s voice trembled.

In the black clouds swirling over the entirety of Itogami Island was a giant, spiraling city.

Its shape bore an uncanny resemblance to New Itogami Island—the fortress city that Cain the Sinful God had left behind.

But his was on a completely different scale.

Even the vastness of New Itogami Island amounted to nothing more than a fraction of the fantastical city floating in the sky.

Itogami Island, floating atop the Pacific Ocean.

And this otherworldly metropolis, floating in the sky.

The two cities were like mirror images of each other. When you stared straight up at the city overhead, it was unclear which was really the ground and which was really the sky. Kojou felt like the firmament might collapse on their heads.

And linking the two was a single girl—a vampire with twelve wings.

“That landscape…!”

Kojou moaned as he gazed at the skyline of the fantastical city. Kojou knew it well. He’d seen it in the memories of Cain the Sinful God.

“This is the true form of the floating artificial isle once ruled by Cain the Sinful God—the place you call Nod.”

Shahryar Ren gazed upon Kojou with delight as he elucidated.

The words artificial isle sounded ridiculous to Kojou. After all, a city so enormous as to cover the entire sky might as well be called a continent.

“Only one who possesses demonic energy rivaling Cain can link this world to Nod. In other words, only the Fourth Primogenitor, the World’s Mightiest Vampire built to destroy him—”

Confirming for himself that the otherworldly structure had completely materialized, Ren lowered his short sword.

The metallic darkness shrouding Keystone Gate vanished, and the structure’s rumbling halted as well.

The wings vanished from Avrora’s back. As if strings suspending her had been cut, she began a slow descent—not toward the surface but toward the heavens—

“What’s your goal, Shahryar Ren?”

Kojou glared at the Caucasian Deva.

Ren looked back at Kojou with an exceptionally cold smile.

“I hated you, Kojou Akatsuki.”

“What…?”

“I loathed that you were born as a human but obtained the powers of the Fourth Primogenitor. It is the Devas’ hatred that grants vampires their power. It is not something for a lowly human to touch!”

Ren’s naked ire slammed into Kojou. It felt as though his skin were being pricked.

As he stood now, Kojou was merely a powerless civilian. With his Divine Power, Ren could surely kill him without so much as lifting a single finger.

And yet, Ren did not. He needed to let Kojou live so that he could appreciate his own powerlessness and suffer.

“—I have obtained the power of Nod that agonized we Devas so during the Great Cleansing of Old. Now we have regained the world once more. The Blood said as much, didn’t he? The victor of the Electoral War would become the ruler of this entire world.”

Ren spread both his arms wide, intoxicated.

His words were not some empty boast. Even just the Nalakuvera in New Itogami Island had enough power to reduce a small country to rubble with ease. Kojou couldn’t even imagine what the might that gigantic floating city came equipped with. Even with the combined combat strength of the Holy Ground Treaty Organization, it felt like they wouldn’t be able to hold a candle to that.

Ren had to be stopped before he got his hands on it. But—

“Now you are powerless to stop me. You, who willingly abandoned the power of the Fourth Primogenitor—!”

The caustic words of the descendant of the Devas impaled Kojou.

The bronze dragon flapped his wings as he let Ren onto its front claw.

They were going to head up to Nod before anyone else. Ren’s subordinates—helicopters with MAR combat units aboard—rose up from all over New Itogami Island.

“Avrora…”

Even once the dragon had faded from his vision, Kojou kept his eyes locked skyward.

Looking at the steel city covering the sky, he strained to find the girl that had fallen somewhere within.

The girl that had been revived as the new Fourth Primogenitor—

“Just you wait…Avrora.”

As he made that promise to the sky, Kojou clenched his fist.

The small fist of a powerless human being.