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Strike the Blood - Volume 22 - Chapter 5.8




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8

“What are those two doing at a time like this…eh?! Aaa! Is it all right to do that?! Whoa! That’s…eh?! Ehhh?!”

Riding on Glenda’s back, Shio was beside herself when she noticed Yukina and Kojou embracing. As she gazed straight down on them from above, the pair looked like lovers in the throes of indecent actions.

“Ah-ha-ha…well, for this one moment, it’s fine, right?”

Yuiri’s cheeks reddened as she gave her friend a strained smile.

In the next moment, Yuiri batted down the incandescent beam flying toward them with one swing of her long sword.

The copper Flame Dragon was targeting Glenda as it circled Nod’s night sky. A flock of MAR attack helicopters flew in concert behind him.

The mobility of the two dragons—Glenda and Kreyd—was roughly equal. Kreyd had the upper hand in lift and acceleration, but Glenda was able to make tight, swift circles. All the same, the overwhelming firepower advantage rested with Kreyd.

The houda summoned by Glenda were virtually powerless before Kreyd’s breath. Even with Yuiri and Shio’s support, it was all she could manage to keep things at a standoff.

For her part, Kiriha Kisaki remained in combat with MAR soldiers atop the bridge floating in the sea of clouds.

With the support of a horde of houda, the MAR unit’s coordination was in tatters, but MAR had the Spartoi on its side. The numbers of houda were steadily diminishing in the face of the high attack power and regenerative ability the Spartoi possessed. On top of that, Shahryar Ren had sent in all the Spartoi at his disposal, so Kiriha was at a decisive disadvantage.

“This has become most unamusing…”

Tch, clicked Kiriha’s tongue as she glared at the mangled edge of her forked spear.

Even if Kiriha’s own abilities had increased, her equipment had not been strengthened in turn. Ricercare was unable to keep up with Kiriha’s dramatically increased ritual energy and endurance from becoming a Blood Servant.

If her spear broke entirely, she’d lose her means of attacking the Spartoi. If it came to that, Kiriha’s defeat was inevitable. Kiriha’s beautiful face twisted as she foresaw this unpleasant future.

“—Sadalmelik Albus!”

Someone shouted from behind Kiriha. An immense Beast Vassal appeared from within the sea of clouds enveloping the floating bridge. This was a water maid—a pale undine with a body of transparent, flowing water.

As it swept across the ground with the sharp talons on its slender hands, the Spartoi turned into what seemed like fragments of fossilized bone. The Fourth Primogenitor’s Beast Vassal Number Eleven had forcibly reverted the artificial demons to the raw materials they had been before being born.

“C’mon over, Al-Nasl Minium!”

Next, the air trembled, and a scarlet, twin-horned beast appeared in Nod’s upper sky. With a roar, it spat out a cannonball of shockwaves that shot down the copper Flame Dragon and the MAR attack helicopters with it.

“Tch…Kreyd! What are you doing, you incompetent pieces of garbage…!”

Shahryar Ren, losing most of his side’s combat strength in an instant, tore off his earpiece, slamming it to the ground in an act of pure rage.

Before Ren, wearing a bloody parka, a boy quietly walked forward.

It was Kojou Akatsuki.

“Sorry to keep you waiting, Shahryar Ren.”

Kojou spoke with an utterly unconcerned tone. His demeanor was as warm as if he were passing a friend in the city by pure chance.

Outwardly, Kojou looked just like he had the moment before dissipating when Shahryar Ren shot him, yet the air enveloping him seemed gentler. The malevolent aura remained, but there was no leakage of uncontrollable demonic energy. Kojou himself seemed a little thrown off by the sensation.

“Kojou Akatsuki…is it…?”

Shahryar Ren glared at Kojou, crushing the wireless headphone underfoot.

His Spartoi were completely destroyed. The troops under him had begun to rout. He was facing Kojou all alone.

“Why does a mere human interfere with me? You resurrect after I slay you, you tame Dodekatos, seizing the Beast Vassals of the Kaleid Bloods for yourself… Do you think you are permitted to do this? Who in the world do you think you are?!”

Ren’s questions serving as condemnations brought a genuinely pained smile over Kojou.

Vampire. Observation target of the Lion King Agency. Ruler of Itogami Island. High school student—there were many titles he could think of.

Yet that moment, there was only one thing Kojou could call himself.

“I’m the Fourth Primogenitor.”

Kojou spoke in a joking tone. Ren’s face twisted with lethality.

“There are only three primogenitors. The fourth is merely an urban legend spread by that fool The Blood…a mere rumor without any basis in fact.”

“Nahhh. You’re wrong about that.”

Kojou quietly shook his head.

Certainly, it might have been a baseless urban legend at first, yet over the long, long months, that legend had turned into hard fact. Through the machinations of various forces, several layers of coincidence, and the desires of many people, they had made that legendary monster real.

“The Fourth Primogenitor is the name of the World’s Mightiest Vampire, undying and immutable, with no blood kin, no desire to rule, served by twelve Beast Vassals that are disaster incarnate, a vampire who lives only to kill and destroy, standing beyond all the doctrines of the world—that’s the enemy you’ve made.”

“What nonsense…!”

The air around Ren shifted. It was an invisible blade spawned from Deva divine energy.

Kojou bared his fangs as he smiled.

“So let’s get started, Shahryar Ren. This ain’t got nothing to do with the Devas and Cain anymore. I’ll make you pay dearly for the crime of using Avrora and Itogami Island for your stupid goal of ruling mankind! From here on, this is my fight!”

Kojou howled ferociously as Ren unleashed his divine energy blade toward him, but Ren’s invisible slash shattered in a shower of beautiful sparks. A diminutive figure wielding a silver-colored spear leaped in front of Kojou.

“No, senpai. This is our fight!”

A small, beautiful smile came over Yukina as she launched an attack on Shahryar Ren. Her uniform was still drenched with blood. A huge gash in her clothing, from her shoulder down her chest and back, was still evident. Despite this, the flesh visible through that gash was as white as freshly fallen snow. Not even the slightest scratch remained. Having gained the status of a Blood Servant, Yukina had also obtained healing ability on par with a primogenitor.

“Filthy humans…! It’s no use!”

“Eh?!”

Ren stopped Yukina’s silvery spear with his bare right arm. There was a sound of two metallic objects clashing as Yukina’s attack bounced right off him.

“Wha?!”

Yukina’s body flipped in midair, and she landed like a cat. Her expression was stiff with raw shock.

Visible past his torn sleeve, Ren’s arm was covered in a dark, silvery metal. The glossy surface changed to match his every movement.

He wasn’t wearing armor or some kind of augmentation suit. It was his very body. Ren had replaced part of his own flesh and blood with a sorcerous device.

“That body…you stuffed it with sorcerous devices those Cleanser guys used…?!”

Kojou exclaimed in astonishment.

Shahryar Ren’s divine energy was unnaturally powerful compared to fellow Devas like Schtola D and his little sister Ladli. This grotesque body was the secret behind it. Now Kojou understood why Ren had boasted he was stronger than Kreyd the Flame Dragon. He’d abandoned his own flesh to heighten his combat capabilities.

“The Cleansers? Ahh…you mean the fools who worship Cain like a god, fully ignorant of the truth.”

Ren spat out his words as he spoke. A thin, pitch-black aura enveloped his entire body. The true nature of that pitch-black aura was encroachment from Nod that could sever even the demonic energy of the Fourth Primogenitor.

“I would prefer if you did not associate me with such refuse. This form is the crystallization of all Deva knowledge, built to wipe away the humiliation of The Great Cleansing! It is the ultimate physical form with which to strike down the primogenitors!”

Ren unleashed a divine energy blade, an invisible slash that could not be blocked with demonic energy. Kojou rolled to his side to evade the attack.

“The Beast Vassal Warhead nullification, felling several Necropolises—all you lot have done is futile. So long as I survive, one day the Devas will prosper as rulers once more! I…am…MAR! I…am King of the Devas!”

“Tch—!”

Kojou concentrated his demonic energy and released it like a cannonball. It was the one ritual spell–like trick he’d picked up from training with Shizuri at Onrai Island.

The attack was blocked by the pitch-black defensive membrane enveloping Ren.

“Also, I am far from bereft of cards to play, Kojou Akatsuki! After all, you have brought that all this way with you!”

Ren shouted loudly as he pointed to the wall behind him.

It was the space colony’s isolating wall that Kojou had called the end of Nod. In the weightless zone at its center rested an enormous, smashed sphere resembling a crushed ping-pong ball.

It was the remnant of Castle Kalenaren—Shahryar Ren’s personal Deva Necropolis.

“What…?!”

Enormous things emerged from the half-destroyed Necropolis, seemingly chewing through its outer wall.

Spreading their wings like birds of prey, they calmly flew toward Kojou and Yukina.

They had ferocious-looking heads reminiscent of a lizard’s, snakelike tails, and four bestial limbs—they greatly resembled Kreyd and Glenda in dragon form.

These, however, were not dragons. For that matter, they weren’t even alive.

Their flesh was rotting, fluids from decomposition scattering as they moved.

Their eyeballs had melted away to leave hollow sockets. They had unhealed scars and exposed bone.


They were corpses—dragon corpses controlled by magic.

“Dragon Zombies…!”

Yukina’s voice quavered. Of course, profaning the dead to create zombies was a forbidden art. Making a zombie out of a proud dragon was an absolutely unforgivable act.

“What is left of the abominable Guardians of the Corridor.”

Shahryar Ren spoke with scorn. Kojou knit his brows at the unfamiliar term.

“Guardian of the Corridor…?”

“That’s right. Dragons are observers dispatched from another planet to watch over the Devas’ activities, though once The Great Cleansing left no one able to use Nod, their duty came to an end and they left for parts unknown, save for the precious few individuals left behind on the surface.”

“You took their corpses and made them into zombies? Why do such a thing…?”

Yukina inquired, looking up at the Dragon Zombies as they approached.

A foolish question, said Ren’s shake of his head.

“To use them as weapons, of course. Even if they are corpses, a dragon’s flesh is robust, and they do not lose their supernatural strength. More importantly, their corpses are quite obedient.”

Ren made a low-toned laugh.

Seven Dragon Zombies crawled out from the Necropolis.

If they really did possess power on par with Kreyd the Flame Dragon, they most definitely posed a threat to Kojou and the others even as they had become. Small wonder Ren was triumphant.

“It’s more trouble cleaning up after them than with Beast Vassal Warheads so I hadn’t wanted to use them, but the responsibility lies with you and your continued useless resistance. Now choke on your regrets…ha…haha…!!”

Deploying his pitch-black aura, Ren walked toward Kojou and the others. The next moment, Ren was halted by an unexpected voice. It hailed from Kreyd, back to dragon-man form after being shot down by Kojou’s Beast Vassal.

“Shahryar Ren…damn…you…!”

Kreyd glared at Ren with eyes brimming with anger.

Ren looked back at the wounded dragon-man and laughed with frigid scorn.

“What’s wrong, Kreyd? Surely, you are not irate at my turning the corpses of your comrades into zombies? If so, how sentimental of you…for a filthy demon beast…”

“You…!”

Practically dragging his tattered body along, Kreyd launched an attack toward Ren. The dragon-man was struck by Ren’s invisible slashes. Countless gashes were carved all over the dragon-man’s body. Blood the color of magma frothed from them.

Ren seemed blood-drunk as a cruel smile came over him. That instant—

“…Nanda…Bannanda!”

“What?!”

Ren’s smiling face froze over when, without warning, the skies were filled by flames.

One of the Dragon Zombies exploded. Yet another was split all over its body, turning it into fragments of scorched flesh. The flames dyed the night sky red, as silvery, glimmering lights streaked through it like comets.

“What…what is this…?!”

Shaken, Ren cried out.

Swimming in the sea of clouds was a gargantuan Beast Vassal over thirty meters in length. It was a serpent, its entire body covered in flames and swords—no, this was a vampire beast vassal in the form of an oriental dragon.

“A Beast Vassal…?! That’s absurd! Why is a vampiric Beast Vassal besides the Fourth Primogenitor’s in Nod?!”

Ren was quite naturally beside himself.

Beast Vassals couldn’t be used inside Nod since it floated in outer space. The singular exception was the Star Beast Vassals of the Fourth Primogenitor designed from their inception to be used in space—that is what Ren had believed for millennia.

Kojou, however, was not all that surprised. If anything, he’d had a feeling this was coming.

Of course, a man who loved combat with powerful opponents more than anything would show interest in monsters as rare as Dragon Zombies.

“Heya, Kojou. As usual, you’ve become involved in a most amusing-looking battle, haven’t you—?”

Enveloped by golden mist, a tall vampire appeared atop the wrecked control tower.

He appeared along with Jagan and Kira—his two young vampire aristocrat allies.

Even if they noticed the sleeping Avrora, neither batted an eye. In other words, they’d been watching the battle from the very beginning, including the moment Kojou had lost his power and dissipated, and the instant he had been resurrected as the Fourth Primogenitor.

“Dimitrie Vattler…?! Why are you alive…?! Why can you use your Beast Vassals in Nod…?!”

Shahryar Ren shook his head in what seemed like anguish, but Vattler did not reply to his question. He utterly ignored Ren as he summoned a new Beast Vassal, as if to say, You are not worthy to face me.

A serpentine Beast Vassal enveloped by a crimson radiance assaulted the Dragon Zombies one after another. Kojou knew the true nature of the radiance Vattler had unleashed.

“The Cleansing, huh…well, he was all pumped up about going to Nod to begin with…”

A wilted expression came over Kojou as he recalled their fight during the War of the Primogenitors.

Obtaining the power of The Cleansing with Asagi’s help, Vattler had picked a fight with the Holy Grounds Treaty Organization like it was a good thing, causing Kojou and company no small amount of trouble in the process.

“Yes. He of all people must have modified his own body and Beast Vassals beforehand so they can operate in Nod just fine.”

Yukina murmured with a weary expression mirroring Kojou’s. When he thought about it, Dimitrie Vattler always had a poignant obsession with the existence known as the Fourth Primogenitor. He was probably trying to research the Fourth Primogenitor’s Beast Vassals to find a way to wield power in Nod.

“Absurd…this is absurd, absurd, such an absurdity cannot…!”

Shahryar Ren’s entire body shuddered, as if utterly unable to accept the fact that the Dragon Zombies, his trump cards, were being downed in a one-sided slaughter.

Ren turned his back on Vattler’s combat with the Dragon Zombies and began to flee.

However, his legs came to a halt after no more than a few paces, for Kojou had circled around him to impede his path…

“Where do you think you’re going, Shahryar Ren? I’m your opponent, y’know?”

Kojou said calmly.

His anger toward Ren had already vanished. The only emotion remaining was pity.

He pitied the man, treading water for thousands of years, clinging to his empty pride at having been born a Deva, flung to and fro by the meaningless ambition known as “ruling mankind.”

“Kojou Akatsuki…! Do you not yet understand the likes of you cannot face me…?!”

Kojou fired a demonic energy cannonball, only for Ren to block it with his pitch-black aura. Then he unleashed countless invisible slashes toward Kojou.

Yet Ren’s divine energy blades all dissipated without so much as touching Kojou.

Kiriha Kisaki’s Ricercare had protected Kojou with a pseudo-spatial severing bulwark.

“You’re the one who doesn’t understand. Himeragi isn’t his only Blood Servant.”

Following the girl in the old-fashioned sailor suit’s lead, Kojou ferociously curled up the corners of his lips.

The next instant, a beam of light rent the skies.

The beam became a spear of light, piercing through the pitch-black defensive membrane and Shahryar Ren’s own body. The light spear bored a meter-wide hole, ripping off his right arm and right flank without so much as a sound.

“Wh…at…?”

Dazed, Ren shifted his eyes toward the source of the light spear.

He saw Shio and Yuiri poising a silver-colored crossbow. Freikugel Plus, Armbrust Mode—this was a ritual spell artillery attack that shaved away space itself. It was the pair’s ultimate ritual, able to pierce anything that existed. Even Ren’s “Encroachment” could not defend against that attack.

“I, Maiden of the Lion, Sword Shaman of the High God, beseech thee—”

When Ren stopped moving, Yukina took advantage of the momentary opening, leaping in to attack. With movements reminiscent of an elegant dance, she chanted as she thrust her silvery spear forward.

“O purifying light, O divine wolf of the snowdrift, by your steel divine will, strike down the devils before me!”

“This…cannot be…!”

Enveloped by the Divine Oscillation Effect, Yukina’s spear thrust right through the tear Shio and Yuiri had made in the aurora, impaling Shahryar Ren through his shoulder.

Ren desperately tried to operate his sorcerous device to redeploy the aura, but the interference of the spear impaling him left him unable to completely close the aura again.

As Ren’s face twisted in haste, he beheld Kojou raising his right arm aloft.

Fear hovered in Ren’s eyes.

“C’mon over, Regulus Aurum—!”

The deep crimson bloody mist scattering from Kojou changed into an enormous beast—a lightning lion enveloped by a golden glow. Kojou imbued his fist with the Beast Vassal’s demonic energy that was lightning incarnate, swinging it downward.

—Straight toward the metallic shaft of the spear impaling Ren’s shoulder—

“It’s over, old man! Try not to die on me, King of the Devas!”

A thunderous roar made the night sky of Nod shudder.

Remnants of a sorcerous device scattered everywhere as the man calling himself King of the Devas was sent flying.



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