Strike the Blood - Volume 22 - Chapter 4.6

6

Their teleport finished, Kojou and the others stepped into a vast chamber enveloped by darkness.

Countless cylindrical pillars of varying heights and diameters soared indiscriminately up, down, left, and right, filling Kojou and company’s vision. Stairs and corridors stretching out like arteries had been grafted to these pillars.

Each and every one of those cylindrical pillars was built like a castle tower, probably also serving as the supporting framework for the giant exterior wall. This was the interior of Castle Kalenaren—one of the Deva Necropolises.

Kojou and the others were standing on the top of a cylindrical pillar about ten meters in diameter.

The place, illuminated by burning braziers, looked like a spherical stage.

Some distance away, upon one of the cylindrical pillars standing taller than the others, was a single, extravagant throne. Kojou and the others had to look up a bit to gaze at that vacant seat.

“—Welcome to Castle Kalenaren. What do you think? A beautiful sight, is it not?”

Ladli Ren turned around, standing on the same stage as Kojou and the rest. Based on the proud way she gave her nose a little scratch, she didn’t seem to be speaking ironically.

“So this is a Deva castle, hovering between the real world and another, huh?”

“Seems an awful lot like a haunted house…”

Yaze and Asagi genuinely grimaced as they spoke. To human beings with any sane sense of aesthetics, the irregular geometry of the chamber made it very hard to feel at ease.

“It is not to your liking? What a pity.”

Ladli tapered her lips peevishly at Asagi and Yaze’s less than enthused reaction.

A moment later, a man’s voice echoed through that dark, creepy chamber.

“Welcome, Ruler of Itogami Island.”

The supposedly vacant seat straight ahead had a man of indeterminate age sitting on it, a light skinned, blue-eyed Asian man with a wry, gentle smile reaching all the way to his eyes.

“Shahryar Ren…”

Kojou spoke the man’s name. Shahryar Ren, supposedly in Nod, was sitting in the extravagant throne-like seat, looking down at Kojou and the others.

He was dressed in an ornate robe reminiscent of ancient royalty. The attire no doubt indicated that he was king of the Devas.

“I truly did not think I would be speaking with you ever again, Kojou Akatsuki.”

Ren spoke in a frigid tone. Kojou and the rest had already realized it wasn’t his real body talking. The Shahryar Ren here was just an illusion. This wasn’t even magic, just a hologram.

Ladli turned to her holographic brother, reverently going down on one knee. It was a dated gesture like that of a knight serving her liege. Ren nodded, apparently satisfied with the propriety of her demeanor.

“Allow me to say you have made a wise choice, particularly since you desire to meet Dodekatos…no, Avrora Florestina, once more.”

“Save the small talk. More importantly, you know why we’ve come here, right?”

Kojou cut off Ren’s words with his own.

Kojou’s unexpectedly rude behavior made Ren’s eyebrows twitch several times. Even so, he kept his emotions in check, shifting his eyes to his little sister below.

“…Ladli.”

“Yes, yes. Let’s tune in to events in progress. Your Excellent Excellency Kul Zu of Castle Zu?”

Ladli said, returning to her usual clownish tone.

She was looking at a small cylindrical pillar jutting sideways out of the darkness to Kojou and the others’ right side. A small, elderly man was standing on that cylinder’s uppermost portion.

“…Lady Ladli, I ask that you be restrained in your jests.”

The old man she’d called Kul Zu stood near Ladli and looked up to speak.

If he was the owner of Castle Zu, that made him the owner of a different Necropolis. He was actually the one who’d fired the Beast Vassal Warhead, instigating the sinking of the HGTO military’s battle fleet.

“Forgive my rudeness. The situation has been conveyed to you, Your Excellency?”

Ladli double-checked without the faintest sliver of guilt. Apparently Kojou’s request—fire off a Beast Vassal Warhead into Tokyo—had already reached Castle Zu.

Kul Zu, however, shifted a reproachful gaze toward Ladli.

“You have provided no resupply, yet you tell us to use our final Beast Vassal Warhead?”

“I’m asking you to overlook that. We’ve already arranged replacement warheads.”

Ladli grinned and pressed both hands together.

For whatever reason, the girl smiled teasingly as she shifted her gaze toward her older brother above. Her expression was basically saying the dried-up supply of Beast Vassal Warheads was Shahryar Ren’s fault rather than hers.

“Wait until roughly half past four. We will move our Necropolis. Its destination will be the airspace above Tokyo Bay.”

Kul Zu spoke brusquely.

“I thank you, Your Excellency.”

Ladli bowed courteously. The braziers illuminating that cylindrical pillar vanished, and the old man sank into the darkness. The connection with Castle Zu had been cut.

“Arriving in Tokyo Bay in thirty minutes… You’d planned to attack Tokyo from the start whether we asked you to or not, didn’t you?”

Asagi shifted a critical gaze toward Shahryar Ren. They didn’t understand the process by which the Necropolises moved, but she didn’t think an object over a whole kilometer in diameter could turn on a dime at high speeds. If it was going to arrive at Tokyo Bay in thirty minutes, Castle Zu must have already been heading toward Tokyo for the last several hours. They must have intended to attack Tokyo to begin with.

“Negotiations are all about discerning what cards are in the other side’s hand, Priestess of Cain.”

Ren triumphantly gazed down at Asagi as he spoke. It was tantamount to saying he’d anticipated Kojou and the others’ reaction to the government of Japan trying to sink Itogami Island every step of the way.

“Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind.”

Asagi shrugged her shoulders as she spoke. She squinted at him with a sarcastic air.

“To pay you back, I’ll tell you something nice from my end. It’s a bit of an old story—it’s about the old memories carved into Cain’s Coffin, the deepest part of Itogami Island.”

“…The memories of Cain’s Coffin, you say?”

Ren’s brows twitched faintly. Apparently, even he couldn’t remain indifferent to the mention of the memories of Cain, mortal enemy of his fellow Devas.

Amused by Ren’s reaction, Asagi opened her mouth with a theatrical air.

“In the first place, Beast Vassals are beasts summoned from another world using a ritual spell. They’re masses of demonic energy powerful enough to possess sentience. No one can control them—that’s why the Devas used them as weapons of mass destruction, hence the Beast Vassal Warheads, yes?”

“That’s right.”

Ren quirked his brow. You only understand that now, said his expression mockingly.

Asagi paid no heed and continued.

“Summoning a Beast Vassal takes a sacrifice to serve as its icon, but human and normal demon bodies can’t take the strain of having a Beast Vassal dwelling in them. That doesn’t mean you can sacrifice the precious few Devas instead. So you Devas built the vessels for Beast Vassals we call vampires, girls without memories or even names, just numbers—”

Kojou’s cheeks twitched and tensed. Even the Kaleid Bloods in which the Beast Vassals of the Fourth Primogenitors dwelled were referred to by simple numbers. Small wonder the fire-and-forget Beast Vassal Warheads hadn’t even been given names.

These girls were factory-produced, had a Beast Vassal stuffed into them, and were then encased inside a gemstone. They’d remained in dreamless sleep for millennia as nothing more but terrifying, abominable weapons of mass destruction.

“Also, the Devas were afraid, because the Beast Vassal Warheads were simply too powerful. It was clear that unrestricted release of them would destroy even the Devas themselves.”

Asagi let her words trail off. Ren crossed his legs in apparent boredom.

“Yes, therefore, the Devas brought all the Beast Vassal Warheads in Nod under the administration of the royal family. In other words, all the Beast Vassal Warheads in Nod belong to the Devas. All that remained was for us, the proper and natural successors, to regain the Legacy of the Devas.”

“I figured that’s how you’d put it.”

Giggle, chuckled Asagi, smiling with amusement.

“That’s not what Cain thought, though. During The Great Cleansing—when humankind and demonkind challenged the Devas to battle—Cain closed the gate to Nod and refused to bring out the Beast Vassal Warheads. He was a Deva, yet he was a betrayer doing harm to the Devas… That’s why he was slandered as the Sinful God.”

“…What are you trying to say?”

A hideous scowl formed on Ren’s face. Perhaps he was remembering anew the anger and hatred against Cain nurtured for thousands of years.

Asagi calmly took the brunt of Ren’s hostile gaze head-on. She did not reply to Ren’s question.

The braziers behind Kojou and company swayed, and a fresh figure appeared from them.

“Lady Ladli.”

A man entirely covered in cloth bent one knee atop his cylindrical pillar as he addressed Ladli. Ren grimaced, displeased with the interruption. Ladli turned around and looked at her subordinate.

“What is the matter? We are receiving guests.”

“Emergency message from Arnica Quad.”

Ladli’s subordinate reported in a hard voice brimming with apprehension.

Ladli extended her right hand in a beckoning motion, taking the sheet of paper offered by her subordinate. Her eyes bulged with surprise when she perused the contents of the message written upon it.

“It seems the HGTO military is attacking our MAR headquarters once more.”

Ladli spoke with a perplexed air. The Holy Grounds Treaty Organization had to comprehend the might of the Beast Vassal Warheads by that point, so their trying to invade MAR’s HQ a second time came as some surprise.

Then she shot Kojou a measured look.

“The main force is the airship battle fleet of the Kingdom of Aldegia’s Knights of the Second Coming—the flagship is La Folia Rihavein’s Böðvildr, it seems? Aldegia is a nation allied to Itogami City-State, is it not?”

“…Princess La Folia has?”

Yukina spoke in a voice too tiny for anyone else to hear her.

Certainly, the Kingdom of Aldegia was part of the HGTO, so it was little mystery why it was launching an attack on MAR, the HGTO’s foe, but such an act was reckless to the extreme. An HGTO military battle fleet trying to attack MAR Inc. proper had already been struck and virtually destroyed by a Beast Vassal Warhead. There was no guarantee the Aldegian airship battle fleet La Folia was flying aboard would not share the same fate.

“…Your point?”

For his part, Kojou replied in an unemotional voice.

Oh my, said Ladli, warily narrowing her eyes. She maintained a grinning expression even so.

“This places us in something of a bind. We are forced to counterattack against the HGTO military in order to defend ourselves, but at this rate, poor Princess La Folia will be caught in the middle.”

“That so? Well, it can’t be helped.”

Kojou calmly brushed off Ladli’s warning and the threat implied within.

“Senpai…!”

Yukina raised her voice, unable to endure Kojou’s stony indifference. The situation was not like when she’d faced Kojou’s black Beast Vassals on Itogami Island. Even La Folia had no chance against a Beast Vassal Warhead releasing demonic energy without any restraint. Kojou’s statement was tantamount to saying he’d stand back and watch her die.

“You’re sure about this? Truly? The princess is one of your companion candidates, is she not?”

Ladli checked to make sure, seemingly at a loss. Kojou’s demeanor was unchanged even so.

“As ruler of Itogami Island, my negotiations with you come first. That’s only natural, right?”

“…I thought you would give up the ghost before your princess became a ghost.”

Ladli sighed casually. Then she shifted her gaze to the subordinate beneath her.

“Send word to Lord Alda Ba. I request that he annihilates the HGTO military.”

Understood, said the silent nod of Ladli’s subordinate as he vanished from sight. The braziers shining upon him vanished as well, leaving only the faint sounds of receding footsteps.

“Annihilate, huh? You guys can actually pull it off?”

Kojou mused aloud in a casual fashion. Ladli took no special offense as she gazed at Kojou with deep interest.

The next moment, the interior of the Necropolis bustled with activity.

Numerous people, enough that Kojou had to wonder where they’d been hiding, appeared around Kojou and the others one after the next. These were operators serving under Ladli.

Various screens hovered before them in midair, projecting vivid holographic images.

The screens displayed a metropolis’s nighttime cityscape. It was a real-time image of different parts of Tokyo taken from high above Tokyo Bay.

“Castle Zu has reached Tokyo Bay airspace. Materializing now.”

“Beast Vassal Warhead safety released. Beginning firing sequence.”

The operators reported the situation one after the other.

Shahryar Ren leaned forward in his seat, listening to the reports with unmistakable delight.

Kojou’s expression was completely unchanged. The same went for Asagi, Yaze, and Shizuri, too.

“Senpai, are you really fine with this?! Senpai!”

Yukina was being held back by Shizuri’s arm as she desperately pleaded with Kojou. The only one able to stop the firing of the Beast Vassal Warhead then and there was Kojou. Kojou could sell Itogami Island’s territorial rights to Shahryar Ren. There was no other way to save the ordinary people in Tokyo.

“Castle Ba launching Beast Vassal Warhead! Also, Castle Zu entering countdown! Three, two, one…fire.”

As if to mock Yukina’s apprehension, the operator reported with a neutral expression.

Kojou didn’t budge until the very end.

“Japan’s storied capital, vanishing in a single instant? Well, shoot. Just kidding.”

Ladli let out a disinterested cough. Somehow, her voice sounded a bit wistful.