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Strike the Blood - Volume 22 - Chapter 4.7




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7

“Incoming fire confirmed! Beast Vassal Warhead! Entering our airspace in twenty-five seconds!”

The sensor operator’s voice reverberated across the bridge of the armored airship Böðvildr.

The ship was sailing above the Celebes Sea in the Western Pacific Ocean. The Böðvildr served as the flagship for an armored airship fleet of fourteen ships approaching the MAR headquarters known as Arnica Quad. Their objective was to take over Arnica Quad with a lightning raid, whittling away at MAR’s military strength.

Their operation had been obstructed by the appearance of a Deva Necropolis from another world. It had launched a Beast Vassal Warhead without warning. Such an act of violence violated not just the Holy Grounds Treaty limiting the use of sorcerous weaponry, but the international laws of war.

The crew of the Böðvildr was not nervous, however. They’d expected from the beginning that the Devas would respond with drastic measures. The Devas were so short on manpower that the Beast Vassal Warheads were all they could rely on.

“Böðvildr, all ahead at forty-two knots!”

The weathered captain, looking much like a pirate, sent commands flying in a coarse, throaty voice. The beautiful, pale blue hull glowed with magical energy as it accelerated.

The other accompanying airships spread out some distance away. The Böðvildr, their flagship, ended up charging into the Beast Vassal Warhead’s effective range alone.

“Now then, what will we do? Taking on a primogenitor-class Beast Vassal is a bit difficult in the ship’s current condition.”

The captain murmured with a strained expression, furiously stroking his beard.

“We really forced it against Kojou’s Beast Vassal, after all.”

The princess sitting beside the captain—La Folia Rihavein—smiled with elegance.

Her words, irresponsibly spoken as if she had nothing to do with it, made the captain lift his eyes to the sky in exasperation. The Böðvildr’s hull remained deeply damaged, the cost of holding a primogenitor-class Beast Vassal at bay all by itself.

Not even three days had passed before they were facing a Beast Vassal Warhead. The princess’s recklessness seemed to know no bounds. That all obeyed her without a single complaint despite this was no doubt the work of the tremendous charisma she possessed.

“We have a lock on the Beast Vassal Warhead. On-screen!”

The bridge’s main screen switched to imagery of the Beast Vassal Warhead flying at high speed.

It was a beautiful crystal reminiscent of a gemstone. The faint silhouette within was that of a girl holding her knees as she slept.

“Five seconds to contact! Outer shell collapsing!”

The area around the warhead was enveloped in a faint light. The gemstone-like outer shell shattered, the fragments thereof reflecting the light. As the crystal fell away in tiny pieces, the girl inside it was much more vivid to the eye, the girl within which a ferocious Beast Vassal dwelled—

“Outer shell dissipated! No Beast Vassal on sensors!”

The operator’s voice included a faint whiff of surprise.

The Beast Vassal Warhead’s crystal completely shattered, casting the girl serving as the icon into midair.

Her long, golden hair spread into the night sky. A strong wind blew, causing the girl’s naked body to dance in the air. The Beast Vassal did not emerge. The girl remained asleep as she gently fell toward the sea.

“Princess, this is…?”

The captain looked at La Folia in surprise. La Folia’s blue eyes narrowed as she smiled.

“Just as Kojou and the others planned. As expected of you, Priestess of Cain…no, Asagi Aiba.”

The still-accelerating Böðvildr crossed paths with the girl serving as a host, yet the Beast Vassal still did not emerge. The Beast Vassal Warhead fired by the Necropolis had misfired. Their attack had failed.

“Captain, recover the girl.”

La Folia gently issued the command. The captain gasped and came to his senses.

“Understood. Drop the Aerial Knights!”

“Aerial Knights, first lance, second lance, dropping!”

Knights equipped with flight units flew from the Böðvildr one after another. La Folia had them on standby in the hangar beforehand.

In other words, La Folia knew from the beginning that the Beast Vassal summons would fail. The Beast Vassal Warhead had not misfired by chance. It had been set up to misfire from the beginning.

“Those Devas must be in quite a state right about now.”

The captain glared at the Necropolis floating straight ahead with a hard look.

“We must bring down the Necropolis before it retreats into the ether.”

La Folia spoke with a composed tone. The Deva Necropolis had the ability to submerge itself into another world. If they allowed it to escape, it would not be possible to predict where the Necropolis would emerge next.

“—Daughters of the Gods that dwell in my body, ye who select the dead to bring victory in the Age of the Sword!”

La Folia was enveloped by the glow of spiritual essence as she chanted. She was using her own flesh and blood as an icon in which to summon a spirit from higher-dimensional space. This vast spiritual energy coursed into the spiritual reactor of the Böðvildr, enabling it to exhibit exceptional output far beyond the norm.

“Deploy bow ram! Flank speed! Activate the Völundr System!”

The captain issued one command after another. The Necropolis was a floating fortress reaching an entire kilometer in diameter. On top of that, it possessed a powerful defensive wall employing spatial control magic. Most artillery attacks wouldn’t even scratch it.

The Böðvildr had a trump card to break through that wall.

“Target is Necropolis center, Beast Vassal Warhead launch site! All hands, brace for impact! Ram her—!”

The captain let out a ferocious roar. They were using the Völundr System for a ramming attack, using the hull itself as a giant holy sword.

Protected by spiritual essence, the hull crashed into the center of the Necropolis. They impaled it through the gunnery hatch left wide open from just launching the Beast Vassal Warhead, smashing through the exterior wall.

The Böðvildr was struck by ferocious recoil, but the impact was less than they’d expected. The output of the Völundr System rivaled that of the Necropolis’s own defense.

“Hull, damage report! Reactor, maintain output! Status of the Necropolis?!”

“Envelopes Number Four and Number Six damaged. Buoyancy down to eighty-four percent. No hindrance to sailing.”

“Radar dome electrical system damage. Switching to spare circuit! Sixty seconds to reboot!”

“Necropolis outer wall magical energy reaction confirmed vanished. Mass suddenly increasing!”

Crew members replied one after another to the captain’s questions. They couldn’t allow themselves optimism, but the situation wasn’t all that bad. The Necropolis’s mass suddenly increasing was particularly good news. An increase in mass on the real-world side meant it had lost its ability to submerge into another.

“The Death Returner’s report has proved true, I see. The Necropolis completely surfaces into the real world at the instant it fires a Beast Vassal Warhead…also, it is possible to penetrate the Necropolis’s otherworldly defensive wall with an attack from a higher dimension.”

Releasing her spirit summons, La Folia smiled as she gazed at the Necropolis’s wrecked outer wall.

The lone archeologist dubbed Death Returner had conveyed the Necropolis’s abilities and weakness to the Kingdom of Aldegia. As a result, La Folia had been able to achieve maximum results with minimum loss, inflicting mortal damage on the Deva Necropolis.

“Incoming message from the HGTO battle fleet, sender: Chaos Zone, Third Primogenitor—‘We thank the Kingdom of the Valkyries for its valiant fighting.’”


The communication officer looked back at La Folia and reported. The multinational armada dispatched by the HGTO emerged from the sea to the Böðvildr’s rear, primarily composed of the Chaos Zone’s submersible aircraft carriers. Judging from magical camouflage deployed on a vast enough scale to cover an entire fleet, the Third Primogenitor, Giada Kukulkan, was likely there in person.

Aldegia’s airship fleet wasn’t carrying enough ground fighting power to take over the Necropolis and Arnica Quad to begin with. It was best to leave all the annoying mopping up to her forces.

“It seems we’ve sorted out this end. That leaves Tokyo Bay…”

An expression of relief came over the bearded captain as he spoke.

The Böðvildr had already received word that the Necropolis appearing above Tokyo Bay had employed a Beast Vassal Warhead. The current government of Japan couldn’t have had the firepower to stop it.

“There is surely no need for concern.”

La Folia spoke those words without hesitation. The princess gazed at her left ring finger as a small smile rich in implication came over her.

“I am not the only servant born of the Royal Family of Aldegia—”

In a creepy chamber enveloped by darkness, a white-haired elder dressed in priestly robes screamed. It was the throne room of the Necropolis called Castle Zu.

“Why?! Why isn’t the Beast Vassal Warhead activating?! What is going on?!”

The screen above the elder was displaying the nighttime scenery of Tokyo.

It showed the windows of electric trains moving to and fro unceasingly. It showed the headlights of cars traveling along highways. It showed commercial facilities all lit up. It showed the lit windows of skyscrapers. Everything was perfectly normal for a peaceful city.

There was no sign of the Beast Vassal appearing to lay all this to waste. The Beast Vassal Warhead fired from Castle Zu was a dud falling toward Tokyo Bay.

“Detecting ultrahigh-density divine essence! Range…four hundred! Castle barrier dissipating!”

A new screen floated up to show a girl spreading wings of spiritual essence. It was a beautiful girl with a cherubic face. There was a golden shield in her left hand. In her right, she gripped a dazzling sword of light.

“A Faux-Angel from the Kingdom of Aldegia?! Where in the world did it come from?!”

Kul Zu’s eyes were bloodshot as he shouted.

The existence of the ritual known as Faux-Angel was known even among the Devas. The secret spell of the Royal Family of Aldegia was said to artificially increase one’s spiritual cores, causing unlimited amplification of spiritual energy, making one a higher-dimensional being while remaining in human flesh.

What made the Devas view Faux-Angels as dangerous was not because they represented a spiritual evolution of mankind. They feared Faux-Angels’ capabilities as simple weapons. The vast divine essence at their disposal was able to inflict lethal damage to a Deva Necropolis’s functions.

“Enormous demonic energy detected at sea level! I-it’s Leviathan! Bio-energy laser, incoming!”

Castle Zu’s enormous frame shook violently before the subordinate had even finished the report. An enormous monster rivaling the size of the Necropolis itself was surfacing in Tokyo Bay. It was Leviathan, “Weapon of the Gods,” the World’s Mightiest Demon Beast.

Kul Zu stood in a daze as he gazed upon the legendary monster. Leviathan was a divine-level biological weapon that had existed in the surface world since before the Devas emerged. He could hardly believe anyone had tamed such a creature, but the monster was right there, baring its fangs at Castle Zu.

A tiny figure stood on Leviathan’s thousand-meter-plus back.

It was a young girl spreading pitch-black wings. He could scarcely believe it, but this girl had controlled Leviathan to make it attack Castle Zu.

“Submerge! Emergency otherworld submerge! Hurry!”

Kul Zu angrily shouted at his subordinates.

Even the nigh-absolute defensive power boasted by a Necropolis could not withstand attacks from a Faux-Angel and Leviathan at the same time. The Faux-Angel’s divine essence would nullify the Necropolis’s otherworld defensive wall, whereupon Leviathan’s extreme firepower would pour down upon them. It was the worst situation his mind could fathom.

“S-submerge not possible! The castle wall has been cut through…!”

A subordinate reported in a voice threatening to vanish. This time, Kul Zu simply gaped.

The silver-haired, blue-eyed Faux-Angel had created an enormous sword of light, slicing right through Castle Zu’s outer wall. It was no longer possible to redeploy the otherworld defensive wall. Castle Zu was practically naked.

“The Völundr System…that’s ridiculous…was the Aldegian battle fleet not headed to the Celebes Sea?”

Kul Zu listlessly shook his head. The Kingdom of Aldegia’s Völundr System was one of the very few rituals capable of penetrating a Necropolis’s otherworld defensive wall, but he’d heard that only the princess-priestesses of the Aldegian Royal family could activate this ritual. Yet the girl before his eyes was employing the Völundr System, employing the overwhelming spiritual power of a Faux-Angel—

“B-Beast Vassals! Vampire Beast Vassals directly above! Numbers in the hundreds…no, four hundred…over a thousand…!”

The subordinate looked at Kul Zu with a face twisted in despair. Kul Zu could no longer even speak.

The Beast Vassals filling night sky were a flock of enormous-winged dinosaurs supposedly gone extinct in a bygone era.

The enormous flock was really a single Beast Vassal. In that entire wide world, the vampires able to control such an exceptional Beast Vassal numbered precisely one.

“The Second Primogenitor’s ‘In Memorial Garden’…! Ha…haha…hahahahahaha…! So you use even the three primogenitors as your pawns, Empire of the Dawn!”

“Y-Your Excellency?”

When Kul Zu suddenly burst into laughter, his subordinates looked up at him with confusion.

“It is just as the other clans spoke… They told us, do not raise your hand against the Fourth Primogenitor… It is nothing like the primogenitors we know… I feel like a fool watching a nightmare.”

Shoulders still lowered in dejection, Kul Zu continued his listless laugh. Of the seventeen Deva clans, only two entwined themselves with Shahryar Ren’s ambitions. Kul Zu finally understood the reason why. For the sake of a puny artificial island floating in the Pacific Ocean, another nation’s princess wagered her own life, the controller of a legendary divine beast had come forward, and even other primogenitors had lent their strength. So far as Kul Zu knew, such things had been impossibilities since The Great Cleansing, not occurring even once since that time.

At least not until the Fourth Primogenitor had emerged on Itogami Island—

“…We will surrender.”

Regaining his dignity, Kul Zu spoke with a quiet air.

Expressions of relief spread among the subordinates inside the Necropolis.

The spherical fortress appearing above Tokyo Bay opened its castle gate, from which signal lights blinked on and off. It was an optical signal conveying surrender.

“Oh my? It is already o…ver? Unfortunate…but, that, is…fine…”

The elegant person riding on the huge Simurgh’s back brushed up his purple hair and released his summons of the thousand-plus Beast Vassals. Aswadguhl Aziz was slightly deflated as he sighed.

Word had already come that the Necropolis Castle Ba, under full-scale attack by Third Primogenitor Giada Kukulkan’s forces at the Celebes Sea in the Western Pacific, was falling to pieces. Compared to that, this ending seemed rather plain somehow.

That said, the lord of Castle Zu was no doubt worthy of praise for averting fruitless conflict.

Had the battle been prolonged, Japan’s Self-Defense Forces would surely have deployed as well. Aswad, guilty of violating another country’s airspace, was probably better off withdrawing before they showed up.

“You have also done…well, pretend angel girl.”

Aswad switched moods and looked back. Two girls were riding on the Simurgh beside Aswad—Kanon Kanase, wearing a wetsuit, and the little artificial vampire she held in her arms.

“I am glad this girl was not harmed in any way.”

Kanon looked down at the completely nude vampire girl and smiled.

It was the artificial vampire sealed inside the Beast Vassal Warhead. The girl with short, rainbow-colored hair was limp with her eyes closed. She was as pale as the dead, but her nearly flat chest was rhythmically rising and falling. She remained asleep, with the nameless Beast Vassal still dwelling inside her.

“To think Simurgh would permit any other to ride atop its back…my, my. Also, the Lilith who controls Leviathan…”

Aswad’s red eyes narrowed as he looked down at Yume Eguchi, standing on the back of the giant demon beast leisurely floating on the sea’s surface. The beautiful Second Primogenitor smiled, covertly baring his white fangs.

“Giggle…truly, you do not fail to…amuse. Someday, we must take our time playing… again.”



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