Strike the Blood - Volume 22 - Chapter 1.4

4

“Ick…these sunrays are truly abominable.”

When a Gigafloat Management Corporation employee saw Ladli Ren out to the lobby, she covered her eyes in irritation as she peered at the blue sky visible beyond the revolving doors.

To Ladli and other Devas, the light of the sun was a lethal menace. Mere reflected light inflamed their skin, and light shining through glass could burn their flesh off. If exposed to direct sunlight, she’d probably end up a pile of ash.

“What is Brother thinking, knowing this and sending his precious little sister to this tropical nation? Sunlight is some fright, I tell you.”

Ladli muttered idle jokes to herself as she took out a sorcerous device resembling a brooch. This was a teleportation device using MAR’s latest technology.

The downsides were that it depleted a vast amount of magical energy and could only jump to preregistered coordinates, but the convenience of a nonsorcerer being able to use teleportation so easily was overwhelming. The device was the reason why Ladli could visit the Gigafloat Management Corporation during daylight hours without any concern for the rays of the sun.

The MAR Inc. business jet that had brought Ladli to Itogami Island from the Talaud Islands was waiting at Itogami Island Central Airport. To avoid annoying customs procedures, Ladli pressed the switch of the teleportation device to port straight into the plane. However…

“Dear me…?”

A magic circle glowed as it hovered in the area around Ladli, but it shattered and dissipated. Ladli puffed out her cheeks when she realized someone had interfered with it from the outside.

“I am sorry, but I deployed a barrier to seal your spatial control magic. You cannot leave this building.”

Ladli heard a man’s voice from behind her. The low voice was not aggressive, but it was dignified and direct.

“My, my, the Duke of Severin, Your Excellency, Velesh Aradahl, is it?”

Approaching from the back of the lobby was a man with long hair, wearing an old-fashioned frock coat. This was Velesh Aradahl, chairman of the Imperial Parliament of the Warlord’s Empire, said to be a vital retainer and confidant of the First Primogenitor.

Attending him from behind were four vampires dressed in black. If all of them were noble-rank vampires, they wielded heavy firepower rivaling an infantry battalion.

In addition, a lone woman waved a hand from a short distance away. She was a vividly beautiful woman with hair that was red bordering on blond.

When Ladli looked at that woman, her lips formed a sarcastic grin.

“Even Her Royal Highness, Queen Zana Lashka? I am exceedingly honored to have an audience with you, even if you are the seventy-second, the very bottom of the queen litter.”

“How dare you…!”

Ladli’s insolent statement brought Aradahl’s anger to the surface, but Zana, the one supposedly being scorned, stopped Aradahl with a composed demeanor.

“It’s fine, really. It’s the truth, after all… It would be pitiful if I couldn’t let the ramblings of someone seven millennia my elder slide.”

“Hah?!”

Ladli’s eyebrows rose high when she heard Zana’s mocking words.

“Elder who?! Time flows differently inside the Necropolis so I’m every bit as young as I physically appear! And you don’t age so you’re in the same boat!”

“My age isn’t even one tenth of yours!”

“…Tch.”

After roughly clicking her tongue, Ladli regulated her breathing and changed her tone to gloss that part over.

“So what is your business with me? If you have come to offer your surrender, I will at least consider it.”

“Those are precisely my words to you, Ladli Ren.”

Aradahl spoke with a deadly serious demeanor. The four vampires behind him stepped up as if moving to surround Ladli.

“The Holy Grounds Treaty Organization has issued international arrest warrants for all MAR personnel as large-scale terrorism suspects. Disarm yourself and surrender. If you do not, you will face the Imperial Knights of the Warlord’s Empire.”

“It’s best if you let us capture you here. Fallgazer and Chaos Bride’s people are far bloodier. They’re prowling all over Itogami Island looking for you, you know?”

Zana warned her in a tone blatantly intended to fan her fears.

The publicly acknowledged vampire primogenitors numbered three. Their retainers, the soldiers of the three Dominions, were all affiliated with the HGTO, but that didn’t mean they cooperated with one another. Each was probably moving independently to target Ladli, competing over the same prey.

They had more reason to target Ladli than the simple fact she was an MAR employee. Ladli was Shahryar Ren’s little sister and played the role of Shahryar’s Deva connection to the surface. Whether she was a hostage or a source of information, Ladli’s value was priceless. Of course, the interrogation that would follow Ladli’s apprehension would be…severe.

Zana’s assertion was this—compared to the mysterious Fallen Dynasty and the Chaos Zone renowned for its cruelty, their Warlord’s Empire was far more reasonable.

This, though, was premised on being able to actually capture Ladli in the first place.

“How unfortunate. This would have been so much faster if you’d surrendered.”

Ladli took out a lollipop and twirled it around in her hand. What had begun as a single candy became a trio of them at some point.

“But you know, I suppose the retainers of the three primogenitors, the betrayers who took humanity’s side during The Great Cleansing, wouldn’t serve the Devas at this late stage.”

Ladli smashed the lollipops in her hand against the floor. The candy sticks impaled the limestone floor, then bounced off with incredible force. This was different from Deva divine energy or vampiric demonic energy, but a malevolent power smelling of blood.

“—Velesh!”

Sensing something was wrong, Zana instructed Aradahl to attack.

Aradahl’s subordinates summoned Beast Vassals all at once.

Zana’s Divine Oscillation Effect was able to seal Ladli’s teleport magic, but MAR technology derived from Deva relics was an unknown factor. They needed to completely neutralize Ladli before she could pull any funny business, even if it meant killing her, but—

“Of course, we Devas have no intention of forgiving you, either.”

The attacks unleashed by those Beast Vassals bounced off before ever reaching Ladli. A white figure suddenly appeared in front of Ladli, receiving the Beast Vassals head-on and striking them down.

“What…?!”

Aradahl’s cheeks contorted in surprise.

Standing all around Ladli were humanoid monsters, each covered in a white exoskeleton.

They were two meters tall, or perhaps more. Their legs were unusually long, and their torsos rather thin. They looked like a cross between fossilized dinosaurs pieced back together in a museum and ferocious carnivorous insects. Ladli had used the fragments of the candies she smashed on the floor as catalysts to summon them.

“What are these things…?! Sorcerous weapons?”

Aradahl exclaimed as he summoned his own Beast Vassal. He didn’t think the monsters with exoskeletons could contain enough internal organs to qualify as demons or even proper living creatures, but…

“No…they are living creatures! They are deploying powerful bio-fields! Our Beast Vassals are bouncing off…u-uoooo!!”

Aradahl’s vampire subordinate was wounded when he sustained a counterattack from the monsters. They had incredible agility and brute force belying their fossilized appearance. Even Imperial Knights, the elites of the Warlord’s Empire, were being overwhelmed by only three of them.

“Living creatures, you say…?!”

“Don’t tell me these are…Dragon Tooth Warriors…?! Ewww, not cute!”

Silver-colored metal knuckles over her hands, Zana shielded the wounded Imperial Knight and punched one white monster into the air. Yet even showering it in Zana’s Divine Oscillation Effect, able to neutralize sorcerous weapons, did not stop the monsters in their tracks. The only result was a tiny crack running along its bony, skull-like face.

“Dragon Tooth Warriors…?! I see, these are Spartoi?!”

“Yes. They are sorcerous soldiers, grown from the fangs of my brother’s ancient dragon friend. Now, my good Spartoi, put your fangs into it!”

Glancing at the surprised Aradahl, Ladli urged the monsters onward.

Aradahl, wearing his own Beast Vassal like a suit of armor, blocked the Spartoi attacks. Nonetheless, the monsters were fine after coming into contact with Aradahl’s Beast Vassal, one that supposedly destroyed all that it touched.

Spartoi were legendary artificial demons created from dragon teeth. Just like the dragons from which they hailed, they possessed a powerful resistance to demonic energy. That was why even vampiric Beast Vassals could not destroy them with ease.

“Tch…gouge, Invidia!”

Becoming impatient, Aradahl summoned a fresh Beast Vassal, a long sword the color of utter darkness.

Swinging the Intelligent Weapon with his own hands, he sliced across a white monster’s torso, shattering it. He’d used the vast amount of demonic energy within to break through the Spartoi’s defensive barrier through sheer force.

“That is His Excellency, Velesh Aradahl for you… I thought it’d take five or six cutting-edge fighter jets to take down each one grown, but you sure blew that estimate out of the sky.”

Ladli sadly shook her head as she gazed down at the shattered Spartoi fragments.

Aradahl ignored her laments and ordered the Beast Vassal Invidia to attack.

By rights, the pitch-black great sword was a Beast Vassal meant for destroying castle walls and other fortifications. Barring a monster like the Fourth Primogenitor, it was unthinkable to summon it for melee combat due to its excessive power. Any enemy would be blown away without leaving a trace.

“What…?”

Aradahl, feeling an unusual level of resistance through his Beast Vassal, let a perplexed utterance slip past his lips.

Ladli, a wisp of a girl, had blocked the blade of Invidia, over five times her own height. More precisely, Aradahl’s Beast Vassal had been stopped cold by the steel-colored cane that had appeared in Ladli’s hands.

“A sorcerous device of the Sinful God?!”

“More precisely, a sorcerous device of the Devas.”

An impetuous smile spread across Ladli’s face as she swung the cane like a practiced stage magician.

There were many mysteries concerning the sorcerous devices called Legacies of the Sinful God. The simple fact that Ladli possessed such a device meant it was likely her staff’s abilities posed an enormous threat to Aradahl. Judging it was foolish to approach her without knowing what its effect might be, Aradahl put distance between them.

“Velesh, above!”

Realizing Ladli had lobbed an attack, Zana called out from behind Aradahl.

“Lady Zana…?!”

“Destroy the building’s roof! Devas are weak to sunlight!”

“Oh my.”

I’m in sooo much trouble, Ladli’s touch of her hand against her cheek seemed to say. Itogami Island, the artificial isle of everlasting summer, no doubt had powerful sunlight pouring down upon the building’s exterior at that very moment. Now that she couldn’t teleport, Ladli had no way to escape the sun.

Aradahl did not hesitate. Ladli, who had lived for years exceeding Aradahl and the rest, was a monster underneath her adorable appearance. One couldn’t beat her by being picky about the means. Aradahl understood that full well from their brief battle with her.

“Awaken, Acedia!”

Aradahl summoned a new Beast Vassal. This was a whiplike long sword with a notched blade reaching dozens of meters in length. The enormous shockwave it generated easily pulverized the lobby’s ceiling, wiping out both it and the upper-floor structures without a trace.

Somehow, Ladli seemed amused as she looked up. Her eyes were unshaken. The light of the sun that should have poured down from overhead barely even brightened her flesh.

Aradahl had completely destroyed the structure’s roof, yet the midday sky was nowhere to be seen. For the sun was obstructed by a gargantuan sphere around a whole kilometer in diameter, which floated in the sky above Keystone Gate.

“Hee-hee, guess the roof didn’t go poof. Just kidding.”

Ladli touched a hand to her hat with a cutesy smile.

“How could this…! A Necropolis…?!”

Aradahl somehow wrung out a cry.

A Necropolis, fortress of the Devas, had appeared from another world.

The fortress was carrying Beast Vassal Warheads transported from Nod. Its appearance in the sky over Itogami Island meant Ladli had effectively taken all of Itogami Island hostage.

“To be honest, it would be a little awkward if your liege the First Primogenitor came out, but he’s not on this island anymore. The fact that he sent a young, bottom-feeder queen like you to face me is proof enough. Just knowing that is a plus.”

Ladli spoke casually with a musical lilt to her voice as she surveyed Aradahl and company. Her sociable smile warped into a cruel sneer as her large eyes emitted a crimson glow.

“As thanks, I will be as gentle as possible when I break you. Did you think children who haven’t lived even a thousand years could win against me, Ladli Ren?”

“…!!”

Ladli’s question overlapped with Zana’s cry. Fresh blood scattered as Zana’s sensual body whirled in midair. Zana had been unable to block the divine energy Ladli had unleashed as an invisible blade.

“My lady!”

When Aradahl instantly tried to shield Zana, the severing of his left leg caused him to tumble. The divine energy Ladli emitted had rent even Aradahl’s Beast Vassal armor.

Looking down at the prone Aradahl, Ladli turned her steel-colored cane toward him.

“Regret your actions, lesser creatures crawling over ground stained with your own blood.”

The girl’s eyes displayed no emotion as she murmured.