Strike the Blood - Volume 3 - Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR 

FAUX-ANGEL 

1 

The girl slept within the light. 

Faintly aware, her ears heard the ceaseless reverberations of spell chants that sounded like solemn music. Beautiful light merged with a flood of sound. The light was being emitted by the complex magical symbols imprinted upon her flesh; the sound of singing came from her very own throat. 

Her hideous, mismatched wings remained spread as Kanon Kanase dreamed within the light. 

She knew that she was changing into something else, something not human. 

She understood, without anyone having to tell her, that by the time the change was fully realized, the being known as Kanon Kanase would vanish from the world. 

She did not feel frightened or sad about that. It was simply the way it was. She could do naught but obey the mechanisms of the world determined by God himself. 

The remnants of her consciousness contained a faint reassurance. 

The small lives she had saved; the memories of their warmth upon her cheek. 

Perhaps she was obstinate and tenacious to that degree toward the kittens abandoned by their heartless owners because she saw herself, unaware of her own parents, in their tiny forms. Perhaps she had subconsciously yearned to leave behind some mark upon the world, some proof she had existed, before she vanished entirely— 

Either way, her wish had been fulfilled. Even if no one would remember the girl named Kanon Kanase, no doubt the cats whose lives she had saved would live on. 

Therefore, she had no regrets. Not even that her accursed arms, stained by the blood of her comrades, would never again have the opportunity to carry them… 

Just before she fell completely asleep, Kanon suddenly remembered. 

She remembered the name of the boy, the last one who had called out her name while she had still been human. 

She remembered the glimmer of his scarlet eyes. She remembered the vast demonic energy of the familiars he wielded. She remembered how, even so, he had shouted in concern for her as she moved to tear out her comrade’s throat… 

She remembered the look on his face when he was awkwardly holding that kitten. 

Yes… She was certain that was…Nagisa’s… 

“Big brother…” 

Kanon’s consciousness dissolved into the light. 

As she continued to sleep, a single tear rolled down her cheek. 

2 

The ship was anchored at sea about twenty kilometers from Itogami Island. 

The ship had originally been a freighter for shipping factory-manufactured robots, but its enormous cargo hold now contained only a single landing craft and several dozen Automata. The aging vessel’s original duties now finished, it was currently on loan for the sake of Kensei Kanase’s research. 

“Whew, I feel like lead… These clothes, they’re too stiff. And hot…” 

Beatrice Basler made her way down the rusting stairway with a listless gait. She was fresh from having personally driven a ferryboat from Itogami Island to the ship. 

Stripping off her nicely tailored jacket, Beatrice unbuttoned her blouse from the top down. Reaching a state seemingly designed to flaunt her ample bosom, she untied her hair with ease. She dropped her pretense of being an intellectual chief of research and development, displaying her true and far more aggressive personality. 

She removed the bracelet, which was no longer transmitting, and opened a thick metallic door. The freighter had been overhauled to install this concealed section. It was the door to the lab Kensei Kanase was using to conduct his sorcerous ritual. 

“A dreary ship as always. The food’s bad, too. How can you stay caged up like this?” 

Beatrice spoke with little affection in her voice as she looked over the laboratory Kensei Kanase called “the Altar.” 

It was a cramped chamber packed with seemingly limitless medical devices. It resembled an intensive care unit at a major hospital as well as a lab for handling dangerous pathogens. Or perhaps more like a solemn temple for revering a god… 

Any way you sliced it, it was far from a place that the demonic Beatrice liked or felt comfortable in. 

A man standing in the middle of the room replied to Beatrice’s question. “It’s an illegal experiment. It cannot be helped.” 

He was a man with an austere face with white mixed into his hair. He looked like he was just short of fifty years old. Though not of any great bulk, the man had an oddly overbearing presence. From his appearance, one might mistake him for a pious clergyman. 

But he was neither monk, nor a minister. If anything, he was a man whose beliefs were the polar opposite of theirs. This was a man who sought to master alchemy and sorcery to reshape the world using miracles wrought by his own hand. 

In other words, this was Kensei Kanase…sorcerous engineer. 

“Though I expected it, the level of miasma generated by activating a Faux-Angel above Fifth Stage is too great. Even in a Demon Sanctuary, the release of miasma on that scale would bring the Island Guard knocking on our door with a warrant.” 

Kensei spoke without showing any sign of tiring of gazing through the window before him. 

A solitary girl slept on the other side of the multipaned, heavily reinforced glass. 

It had bone-white walls with a marble floor with passages from scripture engraved into it. There were seven beds placed in it, all surrounded by electronic devices for medical purposes, but there was only the one sleeping girl. Now, she was the only one left. 

“…So, how is our would-be angel doing?” Beatrice asked with a tone of indifference. 

Kensei responded without looking back. “It’s going steadily. The pathways of the foreign spiritual nodes she absorbed have stabilized. A bit of damage remains from the combat, but that too shall surely be healed by tonight.” 

“I heard that the mask was destroyed in combat.” 

Staring at the girl who continued to sleep, Beatrice tapered her lips. 

Normally, the girl’s beautiful face would be hidden under a metallic mask. 

“Minimal effects. It isn’t a problem. I expected that the blinker would become ineffective once she arrives at Stage Seven in the first place.” 

“Ah, really. If that’s so, how do you plan on controlling that monster?” 

As Kensei turned back, a faint, seemingly derisive smile came over him. 

“Corrupted as she may be, this is still a servant of God. A Faux-Angel reaching this stage is no different from a natural disaster once she is first unleashed. I never imagined controlling her as a tool.” 

“…News to me.” Beatrice’s thin eyebrows rose. 

To his sponsor, Magus Craft, what Kensei Kanase was attempting to create was mere merchandise. A tool that could not be controlled had no sale value whatsoever. 

“There’s no need for concern. Think of them as a type of bomb. An awakened Faux-Angel battles her foes out of instinct, and once her duty is finished, she ascends to heaven…in a literal sense.” 

“Ah…is that it…? Well, I suppose it can be sold like that…?” 

Murmuring as she rudely flicked her hair up high, Beatrice turned her eyes to the girl on the bed once more. 

She was a silver-haired girl with hideous, uneven wings. She used to be known by the name Kanon Kanase. 

“So in the end, it was your ‘daughter’ who survived? Thoughts?” 

“I expected it from the very beginning,” Kensei said bluntly in a dry, casual tone. 

“Nothing went against my expectations. She was simply better.” 

“That’s the royal bloodline for you, even if she is a bastard daughter.” 

Beatrice laughed with a look of scorn. 

Though no expression formed on his face, a glint like cold anger formed in his eyes. 

“…Surely you did not come here for such trifling conversation, BB?” 

“Of course not,” went BB—Beatrice Basler—as she made a great shrug of her shoulders. “We’ve secured the Fourth Primogenitor.” 

“The World’s Mightiest Vampire, yes? So it was indeed a Primogenitor who interfered with the previous ceremony…” 

“He has a Sword Shaman from the Lion King Agency watching him, after all… Whether he’s the real Fourth Primogenitor or not, we couldn’t ask for a better opponent for displaying our new product. The people at the company will be overjoyed…” 

Beatrice’s voice was lively as she spoke. After a long moment of contemplation, Kensei solemnly replied with a question. 

“Where is the Fourth Primogenitor?” 

“The Goldfish Bowl. You know it, don’t you—the Automata live fire exercise site? You can go ahead and sink the whole island.” 

“Very well. I could not ask for a finer catalyst for the final evolution.” Kensei nodded solemnly as he replied. Beatrice smiled elegantly and turned on her heels. 

“It’s settled. I’ll tell the captain to get the ship moving…” 

That moment, a small device rang out from Beatrice’s chest. Her corporate pager was receiving a text. It took only one glance at the message displayed on the LCD screen for Beatrice to make an unamused snort. 

“What is it?” 

“It’s from Kirishima. He seems to have found what he was looking for. That Aldegian sow apparently washed up at the Goldfish Bowl… Well, it’s what I expected given the location.” 

“Princess La Folia… So she is still alive. A lucky girl… No, perhaps it has only needlessly prolonged her suffering from her perspective.” 

Murmuring in a tone rich with implication, Kensei made a sigh as if pitying the princess. Beatrice narrowed her eyes in a cruel look as she stuffed the folded pager back into a tight-looking pocket on the chest of her blouse. 

“Now we’ll use XDA-7 to crush them without mercy, yes?” 

“Yes…” 

Kensei made a solemn nod as he gazed expressionlessly at the still-sleeping Kanon. 

“Yes… I suppose we will…” 

3 

The lifepod La Folia had been aboard had washed up on the coast on the west side of the island. It was on the ocean side from Itogami Island’s perspective. It was right on the opposite side of the pillbox Kojou and Yukina had been in, with the spring right in the middle between them. 

“So you really are a princess…” 

Kojou murmured with deep, earnest emotion as he looked at the lifepod left on the beach. 

“Why would I need to lie?” 

La Folia inclined her head as she beheld the confused Kojou. 

Her lifepod, outfitted for a queen, was frighteningly lavish in construction. The egg-shaped hull was surrounded by a plastic shell and an automatic rubber flotation device. In size and shape, it was broadly consistent with Kojou’s mental idea of what a lifepod should look like. But… 

The exterior was a gray metallic color. No rust. No corrosion. Perhaps that had kept it highly conductive and thus resistant to lightning strikes. 

The pod was lined with genuine leather and, in spite of the narrow space, was outfitted with a fine bed; though it of course had food and water, its comforts even included a lavatory with hot water. 

Any way you look at it, there’s no way someone in a lifepod like this isn’t royalty, Kojou thought. He could even accept how La Folia still had impeccable hygiene in spite of having been adrift for several days. 

“So what should I call you, anyway? Is ‘Your Highness’ all right?” 

“Call me La Folia, Kojou. I’m sick and tired of hearing ‘Your Excellency,’ ‘Your Highness,’ and ‘Your Majesty.’ I would at least like friends from another country to call me by something less stiff and formal. That goes for you, too, Yukina.” 

“Eh? No, I mean, but…” 

Yukina shook her head in apparent surprise. Being technically a member of a government agency, she was of course resisting cozying up like that. But seeing Yukina reacting like that… 

“Yes… We could use a pet name.” 

“Mhmm,” La Folia nodded, a serious look on her face. Then, the princess made a proud smile. 

“How about a Japanese-style one… Yes, you can call me Foli-rin. Hee-hee, I’ll have— You know, I’m actually well versed in Japanese culture.” 

“…No, if I may be so presumptuous, I shall address you by your name, La Folia.” 

Yukina spoke with a tone of surrender. She surely sensed that at this rate, they truly were in danger of addressing her by some silly nickname. Certainly she was fluent in Japanese, but at the very least that nickname wasn’t Japanese-style at all. 

Incidentally, Yukina retrieved her drying uniform and immediately changed into it. As squalls were frequent in the area, Saikai Academy used quick-drying fabrics for its school uniforms. 

“So what are you doing in a place like this, anyway?” Kojou asked as he finally felt pangs of hunger. It had to be close to dawn, but naturally, he didn’t feel much like sleeping so soon after being shot at. 

“My ship was shot down while I was on my way to visit Itogami City.” 

La Folia spoke as if it was no great thing. It was Kojou and Yukina who expressed surprise. 

“Shot down…?!” 

“By Magus Craft, perhaps…?” 

Kojou and Yukina both asked questions. 

“That is correct, likely for the purpose of taking me captive.” 

As if lamenting the sacrifice of her subordinates, La Folia lowered her eyes a little as she nodded. 

The armored airship she had been flying aboard had been shot down six days earlier. It was right on the same night of the Masked incidents beginning on Itogami Island. 

That day, La Folia and the knight company escorting her set forth for Itogami Island on a royal armored airship. Then, just as they flew over nearby waters, they were suddenly attacked: an ambush in the dead of night, a thousand meters above sea level. 

With the knight company having lost the initiative and most of its fighting strength, her retainers judged the situation lost and stuffed La Folia into a lifepod. She was given no time to resist; the launched pod then fell into the sea. 

La Folia had apparently drifted in the ocean for about two days before washing up on this deserted island. 

“…Were those Magus Craft people trying to make ransom demands or something?” 

Kojou harbored obvious doubts as he asked her. He couldn’t think of any other reason for demons in the employ of the human corporation Magus Craft to shoot down a ship belonging to some country’s royal family. 

However, La Folia quietly shook her head. 

“They are after my body…of the Aldegian royal bloodline.” 

“…Bloodline?” 

“Yes. Girls born to the Aldegian royal family are, with virtually no exceptions, powerful spiritual mediums.” 

“Spiritual mediums…like shrine maidens?” Kojou glanced at Yukina as he said the words. 

Yukina, discovered by the Lion King Agency, was no doubt a powerful spiritual medium as well. Indeed, with a front row seat, Kojou was well aware of the strength of her Spirit Sight and divine possession abilities. But even Yukina hadn’t had someone show up to try and snatch her. That being the case, Kojou couldn’t even fathom how great La Folia’s ability as a spiritual medium had to be. 

La Folia continued, seemingly in response to Kojou’s doubts. 

“…Kensei Kanase, who is employed by Magus Craft, was once the court sorcerous engineer at the Aldegian royal palace. Many of the magical secrets known to him require the spiritual strength of the Aldegian royal family. That is no doubt why they underwent the risk of attempting to capture me.” 

“Kensei Kanase… You mean Kanon Kanase’s father?” 

Kojou drew in his breath at the unexpected mention of his name. 

La Folia looked back at Kojou, her expression never wavering. 

“That man is not Kanon Kanase’s real father.” 

“I know that. Kanase told us she lived in an abbey when she was little, after all.” 

Kojou made a heavy sigh and turned squarely toward the princess. He glared straight into her pale blue eyes. 

“…What’s your relationship to Kanon Kanase? Why do you look so much alike?” 

“We look alike, you say? I have heard that Japanese people have difficulty distinguishing between foreign faces.” 

La Folia blinked her eyes as she replied with a question. She didn’t really look like she was dodging the issue on purpose. 

“This ain’t no passing resemblance! You look way too close to each other!” Kojou shouted without trying to as he drew close to the princess. 

La Folia gazed at Kojou in silence. Rather than trying to hide something, it was a silence one made while hesitating to speak to another about a secret of grave import. 

“Kanon Kanase’s father…is my grandfather.” 

“…Grandfather? Your granddad?” 

Kojou parroted the word back to her while unable to fully grasp its meaning. La Folia’s granddad, meaning, what, the last king of Aldegia? 

“Kanon Kanase is a child my grandfather had with a Japanese woman living in Aldegia fifteen years ago.” 

“…Huh?” 

“Of course, this meant he was unfaithful to my grandmother…who reigned as queen at the time. Kanon Kanase’s mother returned to Japan right after giving birth to not cause my grandfather difficulties. Learning this after the fact, my grandfather built for her…” 

“…The abbey Kanase was raised in…you mean?” 

Yukina finished La Folia’s sentence. Perhaps she’d sensed it was something like that from the moment she’d encountered the foreign princess who greatly resembled Kanon. 

Kojou thought back to the abbey standing in a deserted corner of the park. 

La Folia had said the abbey had been built for the benefit of Kanon’s mother. 

If that was so, her mother had to have lived there with her. 

In other words, Kanon might well have been living with her biological mother. Even if she’d never declared herself such, Kanon’s mother might have been watching over her daughter from nearby…but… 

“Wait a minute. Your grandfather’s the last king of Aldegia, right?! If he’s her father, then Kanon Kanase’s…” 

“It would make her my aunt, yes.” 

All La Folia’s answer did was plunge Kojou into deeper confusion. Based on appearance, the princess was probably seventeen or eighteen years old. She was clearly older than Kanon. But from Kanon’s perspective, La Folia was apparently her niece. At any rate, the two were quite close blood relatives. In other words… 

“She possesses no right of succession, but she is most certainly a member of the royal family.” 

“R-royal family…?” 

“Several days ago, a minister and trusted confidante learned of Kanon Kanase’s existence from my grandfather’s will. My grandfather fled and my grandmother flew into a ram… Ahem, the royal court is in a slight state of uproar. However, we cannot simply let the matter of Kanon be.” 

The princess made what was for her a rare, frail-sounding sigh. 

Kojou silently gazed up at the before dawn sky. Kanon was the daughter of a king of a foreign country. The scale of it was so huge that it didn’t feel real to him. That was why he felt oddly calm. 

“So that’s why you were heading to Itogami City?” 

“Yes. I had planned to welcome Kanon Kanase to the family in place of my grandfather.” 

La Folia made a casual nod. Kojou remembered the phone call from a few nights before. 

“Come to think of it, Kirasaka mentioned some kind of trouble with a VIP from Aldegia. Guess she meant you?” 

“Sayaka Kirasaka of the Lion King Agency, yes? Your mistress?” 

La Folia looked at Kojou with a look that straddled the line between inquisitiveness and mischievousness. 

“…Mistress?” 

“I heard that she is one of the lovers of the Fourth Primogenitor and that your relationship is one of intense, obscene passion.” 

“Gwuh!” went Kojou, ferociously clearing his throat. From beside him, he could feel Yukina’s frigid gaze pricking his skin. 

“…Like hell she is! Who’s spreading an irresponsible rumor like that?!” 

“Dimitrie Vattler, a nobleman of the Warlord’s Empire.” 

The princess readily divulged her source, though it was not a name he’d expected to hear. 

“Aaah, why that…! And how the hell do you know him, anyway?!” 

“Diplomatic relations. Aldegia shares a national border with part of his territory.” 

“Ugh…” 

Kojou couldn’t even say a word. Now that she mentions it, that frivolous, annoying combat maniac is a— He realized that the names of the two lands—the kingdom of Aldegia and the duchy of Aldeal of the Warlord’s Empire—were a bit similar, too. 

“You said that the spells Kensei Kanase employs require the power of the Aldegian royal family?” Yukina asked in place of Kojou, who had not yet recovered from the shock. 

La Folia, too, had a serious expression as she nodded. 

“I know that there was an incident at the abbey where Kanon Kanase was being raised five years ago. I wonder if perhaps the young Kanon Kanase’s spiritual medium abilities, of which she was unaware, ran wild? Then, perhaps Kensei came to realize that she was of the Aldegian royal family as a result of that incident.” 

“So that’s why he adopted Kanase as his own daughter. He wanted to use her for his magic ritual.” 

Kojou murmured with a bitter expression on his face. His worst fears about the relationship between the Kanase father and daughter had been confirmed. 

“…Do you know what kind of magic ritual Kensei is performing, Kojou?” 

In La Folia’s question, Kojou heard a grave reverberation that hadn’t been there before. 

Overwhelmed by her dignified presence, Kojou’s expression hardened as well. 

“When we saw her, Kanase had…changed into something like a monster and was killing her own kind.” 

“Is that so? So Kensei is indeed moving forward with Faux-Angel.” 

“…Faux-Angel?” 

Kojou raised his eyebrows at the ominous sound of the unfamiliar word. 

“A magic ritual Kensei was researching. The objective is to force an artificial spiritual evolution so that a human being is reborn as a higher form of existence.” 

“That was Kanase in a spiritually evolved state…?” 

Kojou seemed in a daze as he widened his eyes and made a weak shake of his head. The sight of Kanon, her mismatched, ugly wings spread, tearing out the throat of her comrade with her own teeth, wouldn’t leave his mind. Who would ever believe that could be a spiritually evolved state, let alone some kind of angel…? 

“…!” 

In the midst of the awkward silence as Kojou and La Folia stared at each other, Yukina suddenly stood up. With a smooth, sliding sound, she deployed the blades of the silver spear she gripped. 

“Yukina?” 

“A hovercraft,” Yukina informed Kojou and La Folia as they turned in surprise. She was looking at a black ship in a corner of the horizon, kicking up sea spray as it advanced. It was identical to the amphibious landing ship that Kojou had destroyed. 

“That hovercraft… More Automata?” Kojou felt acute annoyance as he groaned. 

Mechanized soldiers came to assault them several times over, but the result never changed. Kojou’s Beast Vassal destroyed them with extreme prejudice. 

La Folia’s lifepod came equipped with a distress signal transmitter. She apparently hadn’t used it until now for fear of Magus Craft picking up the signal, but now that she’d joined up with Kojou and Yukina, they no longer had any such concerns. No doubt a search and rescue force had been dispatched to nearby waters to look for the princess; if they transmitted a distress call, the force would probably pick it up and come running right away. 

That was why they could destroy the unmanned Magus Craft boat, useless to them even if they took it over, without a shred of restraint. With that thought, Kojou began to summon his Beast Vassal. But… 

“No, that’s…” 

Yukina spoke, as if to stop Kojou before he did so. 

As Kojou looked where she was pointing, he understood why there was indecision mixed in with her voice. 

There was a familiar silhouette standing on the deck of the unstylish hovercraft. 

There was a tall, beautiful woman and a man who seemed a little too thin somehow. Beatrice and Kirishima. 

Kojou got a light headache as he realized what Kirishima was waving at them: a large, plain cloth. It was a white flag indicating a cease-fire. 

4 

By a quirk of fate, Beatrice and Kirishima’s landing craft was coming alongside the same inlet that the Automata had landed from but a few short hours before. 

No doubt they picked the place that Kojou’s Beast Vassal had scorched simply because its flat terrain, with bare basalt rock showing, was suitable for landing a hovercraft on. 

The first to disembark was Beatrice. She was wearing a red leather bodysuit that only accentuated the voluptuous lines of her flesh. 

A man came onto land behind her, dressed in black clothing that made him resemble a clergyman. 

The last, Kirishima, popped his face out from the deck as he carried a stupidly huge flagpole. 

“Hi, lovebirds. You look like you’re in good shape. Did you kiss and make up…?” 

“…Lowe Kirishima. …You’ve got some balls, crawling back here…” 

He furiously waved his white flag as Kojou glared at him with bloodlust-filled eyes. 

“Hold on a sec. I told you, if you’re gonna hate someone, hate her. I’m just an errand boy here!” 

Beatrice listlessly flicked her hair back as her subordinate pushed all the responsibility onto her. 

Her display of alluring, corrupt sensuality made Kojou forget all about the complaints he was about to air. 

Yukina glared at Kojou with eyes that somehow seemed reproachful. Then… 

“It has been some time, Kensei Kanase.” 

Defenseless as she walked forward, La Folia spoke as she looked at the man in black clothing. 

Kensei Kanase reverentially brought a hand to his own chest. 

“It would seem you are in good humor, Your Highness… It has been seven years, I believe? You have become very beautiful indeed.” 

“You have quite some nerve to say that after using my blood relative as the offering for your ritual,” La Folia replied with a frosty tone. However, Kensei’s expression did not change. 

“I must object, Your Highness. I have treated Kanon with the utmost reverence. Surely, you of all people understand why I must utilize a girl who is like a daughter to me.” 

“So you must remake this girl into something inhuman, in spite of her being like a daughter to you?” 

A tinge of scorn was mixed into La Folia’s tone. 

“No, I would say, it is because she is like a daughter to me that I must.” 

The silver-haired princess made a sigh as she listened to Kensei’s unapologetic words. 

“Kensei. Where is Kanon Kanase?” 

“We prepared seven Faux-Angel samples. Of these, Kanon defeated three by herself, obtaining for herself their spiritual nodes and those of the ones who were defeated along the way. Combined with the seven spiritual nodes people are born with, that makes thirteen. By linking them together, they become thirty. That is the minimum number for human beings to raise their spiritual consciousness to the next level.” 

Kensei relayed his words in a polite tone. Certainly, his unfaltering manner of speech and tenor was worthy of a former palace magical engineer. Listening to his explanatory monologue, Yukina suddenly went pale. 

“That can’t mean…?!” 

“Yukina?” 

“You made Kanase slaughter her own kind…for this?! How dare you…!” 

The look in Yukina’s wide-open eyes registered fear, shock, and anger toward Kensei. It was rare for her to express strong emotions toward other people like this. Even if Kojou couldn’t understand Kensei’s explanation himself, Yukina’s reaction was more than enough to shake him. 

“The Faux-Angel ritual is a practical application of spiritual infusion. The candidates are made to fight and consume the others’ spiritual nodes, absorbing them into one’s own flesh. By absorbing them, I mean in a spiritual sense… And thus, an optimal body is produced from the survivor,” La Folia explained for the sake of the befuddled Kojou. 

“Spiritual nodes are also called chakras. In other words, circuits of energy for the spiritual energy from which miracles are wrought,” Kensei continued where she left off. 

“All humans are born with an equal number, but precious few can make use of them. Even first-rate spiritualists consider utilizing thirty percent of that potential to be a praiseworthy feat. A man who becomes enlightened enough to employ them all shall wield power equal to Buddha himself.” 

Kensei smiled as an expression resembling sad resignation came over him. 

La Folia continued to gaze coldly at him. 

“Kensei’s hypothesis is that…if the output of the circuits is insufficient, simply add more, thereby absorbing one spiritual node after another from the seven Faux-Angel candidates, already strengthened to the limits of human endurance through sorcery. And through seizing the other candidates’ spiritual nodes and absorbing them into herself…” 

“…It means that without exceeding the capacity of the human body, it becomes possible to undergo spiritual evolution into a being closer to God than man. In other words, an angel.” 

Now that he’d listened to the end of Kensei and the princess’s alternating explanations, Kojou finally understood. It meant forcing a human being to rise to an angel’s level. Certainly, the magic ritual was as La Folia had said. He could accept why Kanon had consumed the bodies of her fallen comrades. 

“But why the hell is your corporation helping out with a ritual like that? Doesn’t Magus Craft make cleaning robots?” 

Kojou glared at Kirishima as he asked. The nature of the ritual was now clear. But the reason why an ordinary for-profit enterprise would provide the funds and human resources for such an inhumane experiment was not. 

Even a Demon Sanctuary like Itogami City didn’t permit a ritual where the Masked would fight each other and do severe damage to urban areas in the process. It was completely illegal conduct. 

“Well, y’see…our company’s kinda…financially screwed.” 

“Huh?” 

“There’s a big price war in the cleaning robot industry, the tech leaps ahead pretty quick, profit margins are slim… So they figured, hey, let’s try developing Automata for armed conflict, we can sell those. Well, not so much if one shot from the princess’s spell gun can wreck ’em like that. Actually, we bought up this whole island to use it for live fire exercises.” 

Kirishima scratched his nose and face as he spoke. His evasive, slippery excuses only made Kojou’s scowl deepen. 

Then, Kirishima sarcastically laughed. “So, that’s why we decided to put all our chips into selling man-made angels as weapons.” 

“Weapons… The heck…? Whaddaya mean by that?!” 

Kojou felt a chill creep up his spine. 

The Masked, which Natsuki’s attacks, Yukina’s spear, even Kojou’s Beast Vassals could not bring down… 

What if they weren’t experimental samples for spiritual evolution, but rather, simple mass-produced weapons? Even without thinking, he understood. They’d shoot to the top of the food chain and completely wreck the existing military balance with ease. There’d be all kinds of buyers. 

“Hah… I’m sick of this. Enough of the small talk already. These brats aren’t going to understand the difficulties of corporate finances or the hardships of hired demons.” Beatrice, who had kept her silence until now, spoke as if at the end of her patience. “Anyway, that’s how it is, so here’s our demands: First, princess of Aldegia, cease your futile resistance and surrender. It’s all right… We won’t kill you if you behave.” 

“Do you think I take orders from a corporate stooge? Well, aren’t you full of yourself,” La Folia scoffed at Beatrice. 

Beatrice’s lips curled up to bare her ferocious canines. They were unnaturally large white fangs. 

“You’re fond of speaking down to others, bitch. Well, fine. I’m not inclined to kill you right away. Instead, I’ll have fun with you until you wish you were dead!” 

Licking her lips in inhumane fashion, her unenthusiastic gaze shifted to Kojou and Yukina. 

“I suppose I’ll give the two of you a chance.” 

“The heck do you mean?” said Kojou, glaring at Beatrice. 

It was not she who moved, but Kensei. As he took a small remote control out of the side pocket of his black suit, Kirishima, seeing this, opened the lid of a container lying on top of the deck. 

It was an airtight container that resembled a casket. 

A small girl lay within, but she slowly sat up, with a pale, frigid aura enveloping her. 

She wore simple clothes like that of a hospital patient. Her slender arms and legs were completely exposed. Her silver hair tumbled down. And she had hideous, mismatched wings. 

“…Kanase!” 

“Kanase?!” 

Kojou and Yukina both yelled toward the girl awakening from her slumber. 

Beatrice’s thoroughly apathetic eyes gazed at the two of them. 

“Fourth Primogenitor, Sword Shaman of the Lion King Agency! I don’t mind if it’s the two of you together. Fight that girl seriously, would you?” 

Anger broke through Kojou’s amazement at the words woven by her lips. 

“…You’ve gotta be kidding me. Why the hell would the two of us do anything like that?!” 

“Surely it’s obvious? For marketing material, of course. Just imagine it, ‘Our company’s Faux-Angel beat the Fourth Primogenitor, the World’s Mightiest Vampire…to death!’” 

Beatrice spoke with a look of contempt, as if she was dealing with a dim-witted child. 

As if throwing down a challenge, Yukina pointed her razor-sharp blade at her. 

“You intend to sell Kanase as a weapon?” 

“Not quite, but hmm, you’re not far off the mark. Heh-heh,” Beatrice chuckled in a relaxed voice as she narrowed her eyes. “I don’t really mind if you have no intention of fighting. That means you’ll just roll over and die. A pity. And I thought I’d let you go if you actually survived… besides, it looks like she’s really raring to go.” 

“What…?!” 

Kojou took fright as he noticed the bizarre miasma Kanon’s body was emitting. 

Her mismatched wings spread out, and Kanon slowly floated into the air. Her eyes were open, but her pupils were unfocused with no sign of emotion in them. 

“And you’re fine with this, Kensei?” La Folia asked as she watched Kensei grip the remote control. 

Kensei, turning his back as if escaping from the princess’s gaze, spoke to the receiver. 

“XDA-7, activate. The final ceremony is upon us.” 

5 

Kojou couldn’t understand right away what happened in that instant. 

Kanon’s wings spread and she floated into the air. The instant Kojou’s mind registered that, a silver flash of light shot past the corner of his vision. 

The flash was actually Yukina’s spear. With Snowdrift Wolf poised, Yukina leaped forward with the force of a bullet, thrusting its blade up at Kanon. 

It was a demon-purging spear that negated magical power and ripped through any kind of barrier. 

If Kanon was an artificial angel produced via magical ritual, all she needed to do was neutralize the spell itself. Surely that’s what Yukina had thought. And that’s what she attempted to do in the momentary opening before Kanon finished activating. But… 

“Urk…?!” 

The instant the tip of the spear reached Kanon’s flesh, Yukina went flying instead. She flew back with the same force with which she’d leaped forward, thrusting her spear into the ground as she somehow managed to land safely. 

“That’s—?!” 

Her hands numb from the recoil, Yukina tried to shelter them as she murmured in abject horror. 

As she did so, Kanon did not pay her the slightest heed, soaring into the sky like nothing had happened. 

“Divine Oscillation Effect…a Schneewaltzer, the Lion King Agency’s secret weapon, is it not?” Kensei murmured with apparent satisfaction as he gazed at the silver light emitted by Yukina’s spear. 

“But it is futile. It is not even theoretically possible that a man-made ‘divine’ oscillation can harm a Faux-Angel possessing genuine divinity.” 

“That’s…not…” 

Yukina bitterly bit her lip. The spear she had been granted, which could defeat even the Beast Vassals of a Primogenitor, had never before been so completely negated. Not even Yukina could hide how it shook her. 

Yet even so, Yukina’s next decision was quick. She shifted in the direction of the remote control–holding Kensei and shot out once more. If she couldn’t stop the Faux-Angel herself, she had no choice but to eliminate the caster controlling it. It was a completely natural conclusion, but it was the speed of Yukina’s decision that was surely commendable. 

However, the spear she wielded was deflected by a crimson flash. 

“…I told you already, your opponent’s over there.” 

It was Beatrice who stood before Yukina, speaking in an unenthused tone all the while. 

A crimson spear had appeared from her hands with the force of freshly gushing blood. The long spear was greater in length than Beatrice’s considerable height. 

The height difference between Beatrice and Yukina was about twenty centimeters. The sensual, beautiful woman dressed in a red bodysuit looked far more extravagant than Yukina in her schoolgirl uniform. With the similarly long spear poised in her hands, the sense of dominance she gave off made it look like the difference between an adult and a child. 

But Yukina was uncowed as she opened the distance between them. Beatrice’s crimson spear was emitting a powerful, ominous surge of magic. Without doubt, that spear was a weapon produced by some sort of spell. Therefore, there was no way it could be a match for Yukina’s Snowdrift Wolf. The demon-purging spear would surely annihilate that crimson weapon with a single blow— 

Beatrice laughed loudly as if to mock Yukina’s thoughts. 

“Jagra! Skewer her!” 

“…?!” 

The moment before Yukina’s spear was about to whirl and strike Beatrice’s crimson spear down, the spear lashed out like a snake, attacking Yukina at a seemingly impossible angle. 

Only Yukina’s ability to see an instant into the future with her Sword Shaman’s Spirit Sight enabled her to escape the surprise attack. 

The crimson spear in Beatrice’s hands changed into something like a living creature, attacking Yukina’s blind spots over and over. It seemed to be attacking on its own, heedless of distance, stance, or the movements of the woman who wielded it. 

“It can’t be… A Beast Vassal in the form of a spear?!” 

“A type of intelligent weapon… Surely that’s not such a rare thing,” Beatrice informed her in an unmoved voice, devoid of any thrill of victory. Even as she spoke, the crimson spear continued to stab without pause; Yukina kept deflecting it at the edges. 

Kojou could no longer follow the attacks with his naked eyes; he could only stand in shock. 

“You’re saying it’s…a Beast Vassal in the form of a weapon?!” 

Kojou, too, had vaguely realized that Beatrice was a vampire. She was probably from a different bloodline than Vattler. Perhaps she was a descendant of the Second or perhaps the Third Primogenitor. 

Of course, this was not Kojou’s first encounter with a vampire other than himself. Compared to an Old Guard vampire like Dimitrie Vattler, her Beast Vassal’s attack power was rather meager. 

And yet Beatrice, who only possessed such a weak Beast Vassal, was completely dominating Yukina. Her Beast Vassal was so menacing because of how it was part spear, part demonic familiar. 

In the first place, the tremendous attack power of Beast Vassals was meaningless in one-on-one combat. It was like carpet bombing: The result was indiscriminate destruction. But Beatrice’s “spear” could pour all of its power into a single opponent. It was obvious which was more effective. 

“Now, then… How about I wrap up my work over here?” 

Making certain Yukina was having a hard time taking on Beatrice, Kirishima leaped down from the hovercraft. 

He approached La Folia, his hands slovenly stuffed into his pockets the entire while. No doubt he meant to finish securing the princess as originally planned. 

La Folia drew a gun from her hip. It was not her beloved spell gun, but rather, an ordinary machine pistol. It was comparatively small and light, with much of its frame made out of varnished wood; it rested quite comfortably in La Folia’s slender hands. 

“Stay back, beast man.” 

La Folia made her warning and fired at virtually the same instant. It was a full auto burst at close range. She blew through seventeen rounds in an instant, but Kirishima, standing wide open, did not go down. 

“Electrum chips, huh? Nice bullets. A shame, though.” 

Kirishima laughed as he scattered the bullets, grabbed with a bestialized hand, at his feet. His slender body became the size of a large tree trunk as he transformed into a beast man with jet-black fur. 

“Why rely on cheap garbage like this, princess? Or is your spell gun out of bullets?” 

Kirishima spoke with a sarcastic tone. La Folia said nothing as she backed off and switched to a spare clip. She finished reloading her machine pistol with skill one wouldn’t expect of a princess. 

Then, she looked up at the sky behind Kirishima in apparent surprise. 

His interest perhaps piqued by her reaction, Kirishima looked up as well. What floated above them was Kanon Kanase, with magical runes glowing over her entire body. 

“Kyriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii—!” A high-pitched shriek gushed out of Kanon’s throat. 

It was an achingly sad cry imbued with holy solemnity well outside a human’s vocal range. The light surrounding Kanon became more intense. Her grotesque body began transfiguring even further. 

The fangs embedded in her mouth fell away; her cherubic facial features changed into a vision of idealized beauty. Her hideous, mismatched wings grew into three pairs of new, beautiful wings that shone with light. 

Giant eyeballs emerged on the surface of those wings. 

Without emotion, the “eyes” glared down upon the earth as if nothing could escape their gaze. 

“That’s…Faux-Angel…?!” 

Kojou ground his teeth as the pulse of hostility emitted by Kanon overwhelmed him. 

His vampiric flesh registered pain, as if his very skin was burning. This overpowering magical energy wasn’t even in the same league as that of the Masked. 

No, this was no longer magic energy at all. It deserved to be called a divine aura. 

“Be careful, senpai! Her target is…” 

Yukina shouted even as she and Beatrice continued to glare at each other. 

The ground combat had descended into a lull with the emerging of the Faux-Angel. 

For his part, Kirishima was still looking above his head, leaving securing the princess for later; Beatrice didn’t seem inclined to take on Yukina any more than necessary. No doubt they, too, wanted to see what would become of the Faux-Angel. 

“Kyriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii—!” Kanon bellowed once more. Simultaneously, the eyes on her wings began to emit a light as bright as the sun. 

The beam she shot out became a giant sword that struck the ground with incredible destructive force. The hard bedrock was pulverized and scattered, with crimson flames blowing all about. 

But Kanon’s attack did not end there. With a flap of her three-by-six wings, the giant, wide-open eyeballs launched another beam at the ground surface, this one clearly aimed straight at Kojou. 

To “Faux-Angel,” a servant of the gods, a mass of “negative” life energy cursed by the gods such as a vampire was a “mortal enemy” that had to be destroyed—all the more so where a Primogenitor was concerned. 

“Ugh… C’mon over here, Regulus Aurum! Al-Nasl Minium…!” 

Kojou no longer had any other options. If Kanon continued attacking him like this, she’d no doubt wipe out the entire island in short order. First, he had to use his Beast Vassals to stop Kanon. If he couldn’t do that, even Yukina and La Folia would be caught in the fallout and lose their lives. 

“Kanase!!” 

The golden lion enveloped by lightning and the mass of vibrations that was the incandescent bicorn charged into the sky toward the angel. These were attacks of a Primogenitor’s Beast Vassals, each said to possess power equal to a natural disaster. 

However, those attacks, possessing enormous magical energy, could not even manage to scratch Kanon’s body. 

Both attacks passed right through the flesh of the Faux-Angel, with only a minor, mirage-like ripple. The atmosphere was rent asunder, and thunder streaked like an azure arrow, but Kanon continued leisurely flying, unharmed. 

“It is futile, Fourth Primogenitor,” Kensei called out to Kojou. 

He was watching Kanon’s form with a look that seemed philosophical somehow. He held no excitement or joy toward the Faux-Angel he himself had brought into being. 

“Kanon now exists on a higher plane of existence than we do. No matter how great the magical power your Beast Vassals boast, they cannot destroy what does not exist in this world…” 

“Ugh…” 

Kojou had no words with which to respond to Kensei’s pitying gaze. 

The giant eyes of the six wings of Faux-Angel turned toward Kojou once more. 

Their bright, overpowering, sun-like radiance shone upon Kojou, leaving not even a single shred of shadow. 

“Kanase—!” 

Kojou shouted as he thrust his hand above his head toward Kanon. A moment later, the beam pierced him. 

All sound vanished. 

The light that thrust through Kojou’s heart, accompanied by a ferocious impact and flames, filled everyone’s vision with a white light. 

Within that world of pure white light, Kojou’s body gently fell forward and collapsed— 

“Senpai?!” 

“Kojou!” 

Yukina and La Folia fought against the furious blast winds as they ran toward the fallen Kojou. 

Kanon’s attack had gouged a semispherical blast crater out of the ground, with white steam hissing its way up from the surface of half-molten rock. Kojou’s flesh was heavily shredded, though it miraculously remained in one piece. 

“Over already… The World’s Mightiest Vampire sure went out with a whimper.” 

Kirishima seemed bored as he murmured while watching Yukina and La Folia stand over Kojou in shock. 

But realizing that the blast winds were only increasing in strength, his bestialized expression grew tense. 

He began to feel sharp sensations mixed in with the wind that buffeted him. Their source: shards of ice. 

The seawater blown up by the blast winds had frozen, transforming into icy blades. 

“Wh-what is this…? Beast Vassal going berserk?!” Kirishima murmured, his voice nervous and shaking. 

Having lost their master, the Beast Vassals of the Fourth Primogenitor had begun running amok beyond all control. It was a frightening situation to even contemplate. If such titanic masses of magical energy released their power indiscriminately, fatal damage would be inflicted not only upon the tiny island, but also on anything else at sea in a ten-kilometer radius. 

But the situation was beyond even his worst expectations. 

“Ooaaaaaaaaaaaaa—!” 

It was not Kojou Akatsuki’s Beast Vassals in the eye of the storm, but Kanon Kanase. 

Clutching her own head, the Faux-Angel wailed as tears of blood rolled down her cheeks. 

Her wail gave rise to a waterspout, expanding into the violent winds that were now freezing the seawater in the area. 

“Kensei Kanase. What’s happening? What is that?” 

Beatrice glared at the sorcerous engineer with a reproachful look. 

Kensei calmly shook his head as he stared at the unresponsive remote control. 

“I don’t know. She shouldn’t be at the point of ascension yet, but…” 

“Ah, really… Haa, so irritating… I’ve lost my motivation.” 

Murmuring as if spitting out the words, Beatrice dematerialized her own Beast Vassal. She turned her back on the Faux-Angel and walked off. 

“Hey, BB?” 

“We’re pulling back for now. I’m not interested in getting caught up in that thing.” 

Beatrice spoke with an unenthusiastic voice, looking back as Kirishima hurried to catch up to her. 

The waterspout enveloping the Faux-Angel had now completely frozen over, transforming into a gigantic pillar of ice. Spiraling its way down to the ground, it had already reached a ten-meter radius even as it continued to grow. Beatrice and the others took shelter inside the landing craft; they had virtually no hope of escaping from the island. 

In the process, they left behind the defeated Fourth Primogenitor and the two girls with him, even as a violent snowstorm raged all around. 

“Akatsuki! Akatsuki—!” 

The small girl in a schoolgirl uniform clung to the Fourth Primogenitor as she continued to call out to him. 

For her part, the silver-haired princess continued to gaze at the pillar of ice that towered above their heads. 

“Faux-Angel… No, Kanon Kanase… You…” 

Within the transparent ice, the man-made angel slept, even as she continued to wail. 

The gigantic pillar of ice and snow greatly resembled the holy tower called Babel that heaven had struck down long ago.