Strike the Blood - Volume 4 - Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR 

HIDDEN PRISON 

1 

The girl had been born in the dungeon of an old castle. 

She opened her eyes to spell chants in place of lullabies. The ones watching over her birth were homunculus maidservants. In place of her mother’s arms granting her warmth, there was only the cold chemical soup filling the glass vat. 

She had no memory prior to the age of six. She had been granted the minimal knowledge required for everyday life and the pact with the devil. That formed all she could remember. 

She was born with the body of a six-year-old, in a castle dungeon, alone. 

… Where is my mother? she asked the homunculus maidservants. 

“She is inside the prison barrier.” 

That was the maidservants’ answer. 

—Prison barrier? What’s that? 

“It is a prison in Tokyo Metropolis, Itogami City, the Demon Sanctuary of the Far East. It is a place of eternal exile in a different dimension sealed off from this world. The abominable Witch of the Void betrayed your mother and keeps her captive in the darkness.” 

The words of the maidservants came down upon the freshly born little girl like a curse. 

“You were born to serve as Mistress Aya’s trump card for escaping her confinement. You are a pure-blooded witch, having formed a pact with a devil at birth. You are the Blue Witch, protected by the Blue Knight.” 

The girl understood none of it. All she could grasp was that her mother was shut inside a place far, far away and that her mother needed her in order to escape from that place. 

But the girl still had doubts. 

If she was born for the sake of a prison escape, what would happen to her once that objective had been fulfilled? Would her own mother need her once no longer captive…? 

“Your body is still young. Long years shall be necessary before you grow able to fully employ your demonic energy. Once you reach your sixteenth birthday, the season of darkness shall begin; on the day of the festival of bonfires, you shall go to the Demon Sanctuary and tear the prison barrier asunder.” 

The maidservants did not allay her doubts. The only words they repeated over and over were to engrave upon her mind the details of the plan for rescuing her mother. 

This, too, was surely a curse her mother had cast upon her. She had been born as a tool, one part of a complex plan for the great spell that would free her. 

“There is no need for concern. We of the Library shall support you in every way. All is as your mother desires…” 

Just as the maidservants had told her, her thirteenth birthday was the occasion for a great many sorcerers to visit the castle. 

They granted her all kinds of knowledge: about the organization called LCO, about the Demon Sanctuary, how to decipher grimoires, how to control her Guardian, how to make use of her powers as a witch— 

From birth, her affinity for witchcraft was well beyond the norm; finally, she obtained the title of Librarian from the organization. However, there was still no one who would answer her question. 

—Did her existence have any value besides her role in the plan? 

She posed her question to the Guardian who stood behind her back. 

However, no answer came from the faceless knight. No answer ever came— 

2 

Kojou and Yukina escaped the throngs of people on the main thoroughfare and ran down a narrow alley. 

It went without saying that Yukina in her apron dress, looking like a refugee from a fairy tale, and Kojou, currently stuck in Yuuma’s body, made quite a sight together. Even in a city full of costumed tourists, the sight of them sprinting together without even a single glance to the side made them really stand out; everyone looked straight at them. But as they emerged from the alley and arrived at a plaza, an even stranger group awaited them. 

These were riot cops bearing shields and armored cars built with gray-colored plating. It was an Island Guard barricade. 

Kojou ground his back teeth as he looked up at the giant structure looming above them. 

“Aw, shit…! They’ve sealed off this way, too!” 

The roof of the inverted pyramid building that was Itogami Island’s defining symbol had been taken over by a mass of creepy tentacles that looked like they came from a kraken. It was the monster Yukina had labeled a witch’s Guardian. 

The Island Guard’s riot police were engaged in combat with that Guardian. Four combat helicopters were whirling above the building, firing machine guns and purification rockets in a merciless barrage. 

Kojou was beside himself as he looked up at the spreading flames. 

“Geez, they broke out the heavy artillery…!” 

The onslaught had broken fragments from the building that poured down like hail falling from the sky. Ricochets and stray shots seemed to be spreading considerable damage to surrounding buildings. No doubt they’d sealed off the approaches to keep civilians from being harmed by such ferocious combat. But. 

“We…can’t get close like this, can we?” mused Yukina. 

“Well, this is their job, if anything we should be praising ’em for reacting so quickly, but…” 

Yukina and Kojou both murmured in impatient tones. Any way they thought about it, with the Island Guard doing a typically robust job sealing off the area, it was useless to try to break through to get to Keystone Gate. Even if Yukina was a Sword Shaman with all the proper credentials, they’d never let them enter a battlefield with combat choppers buzzing around. 

Furthermore, the riot police began bombarding the roof of the building from the ground. It was a barrage of flak guns loaded with anti-demon explosive rounds. Along with the explosions themselves, Silver-Elysium alloy fléchettes with high-purification properties racked the monster’s body. But there was no visible change in the monster’s movements. 

“…Not a scratch?!” said Kojou as he gaped. 

Yukina analyzed the situation with a composed voice. 

“That Guardian has probably been strengthened via magic… It may well be impervious to attack.” 

It’d take an amount of magical energy beyond all good sense to enchant a creature of that size, but perhaps it was possible for a witch with the favor of a devil to pull that off. 

Having withstood the onslaught with ease, the monster began its counteroffensive. 

It extended one of its mottled tentacles like a whip, wrapping it around one of the combat helicopters and snapping it in an instant. The out-of-control helicopter spewed flames as it fell toward the earth. It hit the ground hard, spewing out a huge amount of fumes from the explosion. The eerie shake of the Gigafloat’s ground and the explosion’s echoes between the tall buildings made it seem like they were watching a giant monster movie up close. 

Kojou groaned ruefully as a burning smell wafted through the air. 

“Ugh…” 

The combat helicopter had been unmanned, but there’d been people wounded by the resulting explosion. If combat continued like this, it was only a matter of time before even civilians got wrapped up in it. 

Furthermore, the demonic power emitted from the top of the building grew even greater in intensity. Even while Yukina and Kojou found themselves obstructed, Yuuma was getting closer to finishing her magical ritual. 

Yukina bit her lip without a word. Her spear could easily rip apart the spell that was strengthening the Guardian’s flesh. In spite of knowing this, the monster was on the roof of a building several hundred meters away, well beyond her reach. 

Kojou took out his cell phone to search its map. 

“Gotta be a way to slip past ’em…” 

In a case like this, he didn’t care if it was a tunnel or a Gigafloat maintenance shaft; if he could only find a way to get to Keystone Gate without getting stopped by the Island Guard— 

But Kojou squinted with a feeling of tension as he looked at the photo used as his wallpaper image. 

“The heck’s this…?! …Is that Asagi?” 

Displayed upon it was the innocently sleeping face of his classmate. She looked more baby faced without makeup, with a slight trace of drool on the corner of her lips, but that only made her cuter. He felt like he was watching a kitten happily basking in the sun. 

Yukina icily glared at Kojou, while he stared at the wallpaper image in shock, and asked, “Senpai, where did you get that photo…?” 

“N-no! It wasn’t me! Someone uploaded this behind my b… Wait, ah?” 

Kojou was desperately shaking his head when it suddenly clicked: An icon he’d never seen before had been added in the corner of the wallpaper image. The icon showed Keystone Gate; the text said, “Route Info.” 

“Himeragi, this way!” 

“S-s-senpai…?” 

Kojou took Yukina’s hand and ran off in a completely unrelated direction. Yukina was still confused by the sudden action as she followed, almost like she was being dragged along. Kojou followed the directions on his navigation screen and plunged into an unfamiliar building. 

It wasn’t that he trusted an application someone installed behind his back, but he didn’t have any other leads for breaking through the stalemate. They were screwed anyway; why not give it a shot? 

But the resulting phenomenon was far outside Kojou’s expectations. He was assailed by dizziness, an eerie floating feeling, and a slight impact. When his vision stopped shaking, Yukina and Kojou were inside an unfamiliar shopping mall. 

“A teleport—?! Senpai, what is this?” 

Quickly grasping the situation, Yukina looked up at Kojou in shock. Kojou glared at his phone’s screen and shook his head. 

“This nav program says this is the route to get to Keystone Gate. Figure we’ll come out inside the gate after a bunch of more jumps.” 

“So this uses reverse engineering of the spatial distortions? Who on earth…?” “Maybe Asagi did this…?” 

He didn’t know the how or why, but that Kojou could accept. 

Technologically speaking, making use of the momentary instabilities caused by the spatial distortions to get to one’s destination by the shortest route was doable with the support of the network running throughout Itogami City. But it’d take a system administrator of a freakishly high level of skill to make that a reality. So far as Kojou knew, she was the only one who could produce a program like that in one night. 

That said, Kojou didn’t think Asagi had sent that app to his cell phone herself…let alone with the picture of her sleeping face attached. In the first place, she shouldn’t have had any idea he was headed toward Keystone Gate to begin with. Someone was sitting above the stage pulling the strings. Maybe it was the Gigafloat Management Corporation, maybe the Lion King Agency… Someone was using Kojou and Yukina to overcome the impending situation. 

But they didn’t have time to figure out whom. 

“Anyway, gotta play the cards we’ve got. The next one’s a right turn at an intersection two hundred meters this way.” 

“Yes.” 

Yukina faithfully followed Kojou’s directions and ran off. As they rounded the bend, the floating feeling came at them once more. Spatial distortions had caused them both considerable grief since the day before, but by using them, they now had a way to get past the barricades to Keystone Gate. The instant they finished their fourth jump, a familiar steel tower leaped into Kojou and Yukina’s fields of vision. It was the tallest place on Itogami Island. It was a glass-encased viewing hall at the base of a cell tower; in other words, the roof of Keystone Gate. 

Kojou yelled at the top of his lungs as he realized tentacles had surrounded them the instant they’d reached the roof. 

“…That monster’s all the way here?!” 

Now that he was seeing the mottled tentacles up close, they looked even more imposing than he’d imagined. The mucus-covered surface of its hide was eerily gnarled, with the pulsing veins visible, looking like a swarm of snakes. 

The tentacles, their numbers seemingly without end, meshed together in a complex pattern and tried to crush Kojou and Yukina like bugs. 

An intense silver flash sliced them apart. 

“Snowdrift Wolf—!” 

The silver spear Yukina thrust forward sliced through the tentacles, dozens of centimeters thick in diameter, as if they were paper. 

The monster, which thirty-millimeter rounds from helicopter gunships and rockets equipped with demon-purging warheads had failed to even scratch, was being sliced to ribbons by the spear of a defenseless little girl, the pieces vanishing. This was the ability of the Lion King Agency’s secret weapon, the “Schneewaltzer,” in action. 

“—Yuuma!” 

As the wall from the witches’ Guardian was broken, the sight of the ceremony being conducted within had become exposed. It was a magic circle drawn with fresh blood. Two witches stood to the right and left. And in the center of the circle stood a young man dressed in a formal, black suit. It was a tailcoat that just screamed Vampire! at you. It was the outfit that Nagisa had bought Kojou to serve as his costume. 

“You’re early, Kojou.” 

The young man turned his head and called Kojou’s name. It was the mundane face of your everyday, average high schooler. The only thing you could call characteristic of him was how his forelocks looked light in the dark, like moonlight was shining on them— 

There, standing before them, was the physical body of Kojou Akatsuki. 

“You’ve always been like that. You show up at really important places with no clue at all about what’s going on.” 

An agonized expression came over Kojou as he looked at his very own body. 

“Yuuma…you’re…” 

Yuuma was holding some kind of grimoire in her hand. And the enormous magical power trailing from her fingertips kept the grimoire active as it caused space to distort. That fact brought Kojou to despair. 

Until it was staring him in the face, his heart had indeed held the faint hope that Yuuma was just a childhood friend and wasn’t mixed up in this incident, or that if she was, it was purely as a victim. 

But it finally hit him. Yuuma really had hijacked Kojou’s body. 

She was the ringleader of this circus. 

A gentle smile came over Yuuma as if she was consoling the agonized Kojou. 

“Don’t worry. I’ll hand this body back soon enough. Won’t you wait just a little longer? I’m going to find her very soon.” 

“Find her…find who…?” 

“My mother. I haven’t met her a single time since I was born, though.” 

Kojou’s confusion grew heavier still. 

“Your…mother…?” 

He vaguely recalled that the young Yuuma had been living away from her mother. 

If Yuuma was a witch, it wasn’t much of a stretch to assume that her mother was a witch, too. The chances of Yuuma’s mother being in the Demon Sanctuary of Itogami Island were pretty high. 

That much Kojou could understand. But that was as far as his understanding reached. 

Surely there was no reason to kick up a huge incident like this just to meet her mother. 

Kojou stepped toward the magic circle, as if trying to force Yuuma to dispel his doubts. As if to stop him from doing so, he suddenly heard a laughing voice. He knew the sarcastic tone all too well. 

“…That’s far enough, Kojou. Could you please not move any closer to her?” 

In abject disbelief, Kojou shifted his gaze in the direction of the voice. 

“?! What the hell are you doing here…?!” 

There stood a blond, blue-eyed youthful aristocrat. Leaning back against the steel tower, he had an excessively eloquent smile on his face. 

“Hiya. Kojou, you’ve become quite a bit cuter since the last time I saw you.” A shudder went through Kojou at Vattler’s tone of voice…and how it sounded like he was licking his chops. 

It wasn’t that he was frightened with an Old Guard vampire standing before him. To Kojou, the youthful aristocrat was, in a sense, a more dangerous opponent than the First Primogenitor, the Lost Warlord, himself; after all, this was the man who’d offered Kojou his love even though Kojou was a man himself. He was too terrified to even think about what he looked like to Vattler now that he was stuck in Yuuma’s body. 

Kojou therefore changed the subject with haste. 

“Don’t tell me you’re in on this whole thing?!” 

“No, no, I am merely biding my time, waiting for the ladies to open the prison barrier.” 

Kojou was dumbfounded as he echoed the unexpected words that Vattler had spoken. 

“Prison barrier…?!” 

Even Kojou had heard the rumors about the prison barrier, a hidden prison within which dangerous sorcerous criminals were sealed away. It was a ghost prison. No one knew where it was or even if it really existed. 

Maybe it was a place where the souls of executed criminals loitered, never able to reach the afterlife; maybe it was another name for a temple to an evil god that had sunk to the bottom of the sea. It was one of Itogami Island’s most enduring urban legends. 

“So that wasn’t just some ghost story…?!” 

“Not at all. The prison barrier is a man-made, otherworldly construct using the ley lines that flow under the Demon Sanctuary. Not even the directors who built it know where it really is, but I assure you that it exists—somewhere here in Itogami City.” 

“I see, these spatial distortions… They’re to find the location of the prison barrier…” 

Yuuma was bending space all over Itogami City to find a place hidden in a bend in space. They were looking for the hidden prison barrier a lot like people used graphite dust to highlight the impressions left on a memo pad. 

“Incidentally, opening the prison barrier’s seal requires an excellent spatial control ritual and a huge amount of magical energy that surpasses the ley lines.” 

As Vattler finished explaining the magician’s trick, Kojou shifted his gaze back to Yuuma, standing there without a word. 

Now he felt he could understand the meaning behind her words. 

Yuuma was a witch specializing in spatial control. However, no matter what favor a devil had granted her, she didn’t have the magical power required to drown out the ley lines. The only one here who had that was a vampire progenitor spoken of in the same breath as one did a natural disaster—in other words, Kojou. 

Having obtained the power of the Fourth Primogenitor in an irregular fashion, Kojou was an incomplete vampire. He was largely bereft of the special abilities that fellow demons possessed, and of the Beast Vassals dwelling within his body, he had only been able to tame three. However, Kojou’s physical body certainly possessed a titanic amount of demonic energy. 

To Kojou, it was worthless demonic energy he had no way to control, but Yuuma, well versed in magical spells, could. That was why she needed Kojou’s body. “So that’s…what this is…” 

Yuuma said she was looking for her mother. That was why she was trying to breach the prison barrier’s seal, because her mother, for whatever reason, was inside the prison barrier. 

A pure-blooded witch born from a mother locked away as a sorcerous criminal… That was the truth behind Yuuma Tokoyogi. 

But Kojou didn’t think a mother forcing her daughter to bust her out of prison was the act of a sane human being. Besides, Yuuma’s mother was unlikely to be the only criminal locked away in the prison barrier. 

“It’s going to be so much fun… All those sorcerous criminals locked away in an other-dimensional labyrinth. And they’ll be unleashed upon the city all at once. Well, you can rest easy—I shall take full responsibility and recapture them.” 

As Vattler murmured in an all-too-pleased tone… 

“Are you a moron —?! I can’t rest easy about that!!” 

Kojou’s veins bulged as he yelled. Now he understood completely well why Vattler was casually watching Yuuma and her compatriots do their work: Vattler, a battle maniac through and through, was waiting for the criminals to be released, purely so that he could fight them. 

Having apparently said all he’d wished to say, Vattler turned into a golden mist and vanished. Unlike Kojou, a complete vampire such as him was able to use such means to move when and where he wished. 

But it was no longer any time or place to be dealing with that troublesome man. Yuuma needed Kojou’s body to break the prison barrier open. Therefore, if Kojou took his own body back, that ought to be enough to stop her— 

The next moment, as Kojou glared at Yuuma with that thought in mind… 

“—Senpai, get down!” Yukina called out to Kojou in a sharp voice. 

As Kojou gasped and looked up, his field of vision was buried in giant tentacles. The witches’ Guardian had been commanded to wrap Kojou up and stop him in his tracks. 

“—?!” 

Yukina mowed down the assaulting tentacles with her spear. However, the tentacles did not stop moving. Replacement tentacles appeared one after another, tightening the pressure on Kojou and Yukina. 

The witches standing to Yuuma’s right and left were controlling the tentacles. Unlike Yuuma’s warm demeanor, violence and havoc made their faces twist in delight. It was they who had brought down the Island Guard’s combat helicopters and inflicted grievous damage upon urban areas. 

Yukina’s brow trembled slightly as she realized what ritual they were employing. 

“Black and scarlet witch sisters…! The ones from the Ashdown Tragedy…?!” 

The witch sisters seemed quite pleased for some reason as they made haughty, high-pitched laughs. 

“I see… So the one who can stand up to our Guardian is a dutiful, well-educated little girl,” mused the black witch. 

The scarlet witch agreed with her sibling as she stroked the grimoire in her hand. “—Some kind of shrine maiden, I suppose? What do you want to do, my sister?” 

The black witch shrugged her shoulders in a large theatrical display. 

“If I could, I’d bind their hands and feet, rip out their bellies, and use them as sacrifices for our ritual, but we cannot treat the body of the Blue Witch so… Let us deal with them in a polite manner until we find what we seek.” 

“What a pity. Such pretty girls, they would make such wonderful corpses—” 

The Guardian attacked with greater ferocity as their grimoires emitted an ominous glow. 

“Ugh?!” 

“—Himeragi?!” 

Unable to withstand the force of the advancing tentacles, Yukina retreated step by step. Yukina’s spear was able to neutralize the Guardian’s defensive ward, but it could not defend against the materialized monster’s sheer mass. Somehow, her incredible spear skills repelled its attacks, but Yukina herself was a small middle school schoolgirl. She diverted and sliced apart the attacking tentacles one by one, but the intense effort required to do so was wearing down her physical endurance. 

And all Kojou could do was stand there and watch. 

If he’d been able to use the Beast Vassals of the Fourth Primogenitor, he could have annihilated the tentacles, root and branch, but Kojou had no way to call them now that he’d been cut off from his physical body. With her knowledge of magical spells, Yuuma could use magic even though she’d been cut off from her own body. 

However, Kojou’s abilities were merely the consequence of having happened to become a vampire. Cut off from his own body, Kojou had no more power than the average person. 

That fact meant Kojou couldn’t even get close to Yuuma, let alone stop her. 

All of the Island Guard’s combat helicopters had already been beaten out of the sky; bombardments from the ground were unable to break the Guardian’s defenses. The entrance to the roof had already been blocked off by the tentacles, so they could not hope for reinforcements from the ground. 

Kojou weakly groaned as he looked all around the area. 

“Shit…! What the hell can I do here…?” 

There was nothing he could use as a weapon. Besides, he couldn’t move out from behind Yukina’s back to begin with. One wrong move, and he’d just get tied up by the tentacles and further add to Yukina’s burden. All Kojou could do was despair at his own powerlessness. 

As if to mock that powerlessness, a new tentacle appeared behind both of them. It shot up through the floor of the roof, circling to attack Yukina from her blind spot. Naturally, even Yukina had no way to fend it off. 

When Kojou raised his face in shock, a girl from a far-off nation was standing there holding a golden gun, her long silver hair flapping in the wind. Then, a tall girl with long hair leaped forward, raising a long silver-colored sword up high. 

“—Lustrous Scale!” 

The silver-colored sword the girl swung down severed the innumerable tentacles without any hint of resistance. This was the first ability of the Lion King Agency’s supreme weapon, Der Freischötz—an effect emulating the severing of space itself. 

“La Folia!” 

“—Sayaka?!” 

Kojou and Yukina were more shocked than elated at the sudden and unexpected arrival of the cavalry. 

The environs of Keystone Gate were still sealed off by the Island Guard, after all, and the corridors leading to the roof were shut tight by tentacles. There shouldn’t have been any way for them to get in. 

Kojou asked the obvious question as he watched Sayaka and La Folia emerge with pinpoint precision. 

“Where the heck did you two come from…?!” 

Sayaka’s long ponytail swayed as she looked back, almost like she’d been waiting for him to ask. 

“We’ve come to save you, Kojou Akatsuki. You really are high maintenance. When I’m not here, you always cause Yukina nothing but trou…” 

Then, her face froze in bewilderment as she noticed Kojou’s appearance as he stood there. Surely it had never occurred to her that it would not be Kojou standing beside Yukina in this situation, but rather, a girl she’d never seen before. “Er… who are you?” 

Kojou awkwardly scratched his face as he beheld Sayaka’s confusion. He belatedly recalled that Sayaka and La Folia still didn’t know Yuuma had swapped bodies with Kojou. 

Yukina spoke while Kojou dithered about what kind of reply to make. 

“Er… This is Akatsuki-senpai at the moment. Long story short, he has become a girl.” 

It was a rather crude explanation, but the fine details weren’t going to change anything. 

La Folia went “Oh my!” as her eyes widened in surprise. 

Sayaka froze as if her mind was somewhere else; then, for some reason, she looked almost ready to cry as she yelled… 

“What the helllllll?!” 

Oddly, it was largely the same cry that had come from Kojou’s own mouth half a day before. 

3 

Island West—Thetis Mall. Motoki Yaze was standing on the roof of the shopping center’s parking lot with his cell phone in hand, about two kilometers away from Keystone Gate. 

He was conversing, not with a human, but with a synthesized voice with an eerily human tone. 

A sullen expression came over Yaze at how the AI’s tone conveyed clear amusement. “Looks like it worked out, huh?” 

“Damn right it worked. We crossed a dangerous bridge to get here.” 

“Heh-heh… Kensei Kanase, huh? You sure get involved with a bad crowd.” 

Yaze turned his eyes toward Keystone Gate as he nodded in silence at Mogwai’s words. 

As Sayaka and La Folia emerged from teleportation, another person stood behind them: a man wearing a black suit like a priest’s habit. Kensei Kanase—ex-royal sorcerous engineer of Aldegia. He had been the one to ferry Sayaka and the princess to the witch sisters. 

Yaze spoke in a careless tone. “Witches don’t hold the patent on spatial control magic. Any high-class sorcerer can teleport and move matter. Easy peasy for the sorcerous engineer of the Aldegian royal court.” 

The cause of the spatial anomalies shrouding Itogami Island was the magical ritual being conducted at Keystone Gate. So, destroy the ritual. Princess La Folia had been the one to suggest it. 

An iron rule of conducting big-time magic rituals was to set up a powerful ward to stop interlopers from intruding. But the LCO witches hadn’t set up a ward that could block spatial control magic. They’d taken advantage of that weakness and launched a surprise attack using teleportation. 

She’d presented two conditions for making this happen. 

The first was that Kensei Kanase, in detention for the Faux-Angel incident practically the other day, be released on bail. The princess, whose own powerful spiritual energy served only to ensure spatial distortions cut off her path, absolutely required a powerful sorcerer capable of using a teleportation spell. 

The other condition was that the Island Guard request that the Aldegian Knights of the Second Coming join in the fighting in the city. 

It was a condition that shouldn’t have been legally permissible, but making it happen would turn the whole battle around. This was a Demon Sanctuary—if you wanted to make an omelet, you had to break a few eggs. 

“And the Knights?” 

“Already deployed. Their spiritual reactors are coming online now. They’ll be active in about ninety seconds.” 

Yaze murmured in apparent satisfaction, but his face didn’t show it. 

“…That so. Looks like we’ve got all our cards ready to play.” 

A Sword Shaman and a Shamanic War Dancer of the Lion King Agency were deployed, plus Princess La Folia, a Spirit Master in her own right. He wondered if the Meyer Sisters could match all that. 

But they weren’t the real threat. The problem was that the body of Kojou Akatsuki, the Fourth Primogenitor, was still in enemy hands. The one who’d stolen his body was the witch who was the ringleader for the entire incident. 

Mogwai made an amused laugh as if mocking Yaze’s anguish. “Real shock that the Fourth Primogenitor guy turned into a chick, though. Who’da thunk it.” 

“Asagi would faint if she found out. Bigger shock than finding out Kojou’s a vamp.” I go through a lot of trouble for you guys , thought Yaze as he sighed. Kojou really needed to get his own body back fast, for his sake and the sakes of his bumbling friends. 

In reality, though, Yaze was just as surprised as anyone. 

Yaze, the real watcher of Kojou Akatsuki, couldn’t make use of his Soundscape because of the Hollow Eve Festival. On top of that, the LCO uproar had been working him to the bone since the day before. Thanks to that, he’d been really slow on the uptake that something had happened to Kojou. 

“Yuuma Tokoyogi, huh?” Yaze mused. “Amazing she just came right in using her real name. An old friend of Kojou Akatsuki, who just happened to get the power of the Fourth Primogenitor half a year ago, and blood descendant of LCO’s Great Librarian… How’s that for a coincidence?” 

Aya Tokoyogi, the Witch of Notalia. She’d been locked away ten years prior with all public records erased, so Itogami City customs hadn’t even run a check on her surname. 

Furthermore, there was no record of Yuuma having been active in sorcerous crime herself. Of course, she wasn’t on the Gigafloat Management Corporation’s radar, but not even the Lion King Agency was wary of her. And so, Yuuma had landed on Itogami Island with all the proper formalities, able to casually go about preparing her ritual. 

However, the idea of someone with no criminal record like Yuuma obtaining a leadership position in LCO was strange. Her history prior to meeting Kojou was unknown, but she hadn’t been involved in any noteworthy incidents until the present one, nor did she have any motive to become a criminal. 

That was it. Yuuma Tokoyogi was a blank. She’d been granted the abilities required to kick up this incident…and nothing more. It felt to him like she existed for the sole reason of preparing to bust Aya Tokoyogi out of prison. 

Yaze looked at the surface of the sea north of Itogami Island as he spoke. 

“I don’t like the feel of it, but there’s no time to look into it all. That’s reaching its limits, too, by the looks of it.” 

The witches’ magical ceremony was shrouding the entirety of Itogami Island in a shimmering spatial distortion. From time to time, you could faintly see something appearing like a mirage. 

The contours of a building hidden in other-dimensional space was becoming visible, just as if they were using graphite dust to make the traces of earlier writing visible. 

“The prison barrier, huh…? The game’ll be up at this rate,” mused the AI. 

“…No choice, then. Gotta crush Yuuma Tokoyogi’s body flat.” 

Nodding at Mogwai’s words, Yaze made an anguished murmur as if spitting the words out. 

It certainly looked like Kojou Akatsuki and Yuuma Tokoyogi’s minds had been swapped, but this was only an illusion on the surface created by Yuuma’s magic spell. 

If he destroyed Yuuma’s body, the source of the spell, Kojou would automatically return to his own body. 

Yukina had similarly reasoned that she could use Snowdrift Wolf to do the same, but that was trickier. Compared to Yukina, who was worried about the aftereffects of the spell harming Yuuma’s body, Yaze planned to harm Yuuma’s body in bad faith, thus breaking the spell. 

Of course, Yuuma would surely perish. But he had no other option for protecting the prison barrier. 

“Long-range shot?” 

“Nah. The sisters’ barrier will stop physical attacks like that. It’s time for my Aerodyne.” 

Yaze took a small pill capsule out of his pocket. It was a drug that temporarily boosted his abilities as a Hyper-Adapter. 

The ward the Meyer Sisters had deployed through use of the grimoire Harmonious Expectations blocked pretty much every kind of spell save spatial control magic. However, there were exceptions: light, gravity, and the air—these existed naturally in the world to begin with, so the casters, failing to see them as any threat, did not have their ward block them. 

All that said, sniping lasers and sending in poison gas were likely to fail, for these were things out of harmony with the natural world. But Yaze’s ability was different. 

Yaze was a Hyper-Adapter—a natural psychic who didn’t rely on magic. And by manipulating the flow of the air that already existed inside of the ward to create a sudden gust, he would blow Yuuma Tokoyogi all the way down to the ground. That was the plan Yaze chose to resolve this. 

“Sorry, Kojou. This is gonna hurt a little—” As Yaze murmured with convenient logic, “You’re used to dying by now anyway,” he tossed a pill into his mouth. 

Consciously averting his eyes, less from the bitterness of the pill he tasted than the anguish Kojou would suffer from losing a friend, Yaze bit down and activated his ability— 

“Oops…time’s run out,” Mogwai cut in. 

“What?!” 

The instant Mogwai reported, a vast, unanticipated amount of demonic energy erupted from Keystone Gate. The incredible gust of wind simultaneously sweeping over the area drowned out Yaze’s ability. 

The border of the huge building, meant to be isolated in another world, was rent asunder, dragging it into normal space. This was the cause of the violent wind. 

“Oh, that’s just great,” murmured Yaze. A small, rocky island had emerged beyond Itogami Island’s northern tip. A stonework cathedral stood at its zenith. 

“The prison barrier…!” 

Yaze moaned as he glared at the cathedral. His voice, pregnant with despair, vanished in the wild, violent wind. 

4 

Even now, just after the appearance of the prison barrier, Sayaka Kirasaka had been unable to recover from her shock. 

“I-is it really Kojou Akatsuki…? Not that I really get all this?!” 

Apparently she’d been just that shaken by the revelation that Kojou had turned into a girl. As she looked at Yukina, face down in deep vexation, she seemed practically in tears. 

Something like this happened before , thought Kojou. Besides her propensity for jumping to conclusions, Sayaka seemed to be surprisingly fragile mentally, something on full display here; it was probably because, as Yukina’s senior, she constantly pushed herself to be calm beyond the bounds of reason. 

Then, she pointed at Yuuma, who stood at the center of the magic circle. 

“So what’s the deal with the ‘you’ standing over there?!” 

“Ahh… Er, how should I put this…?” Kojou stammered. 

“That is a fake,” La Folia declared, somehow very certain. “The real Kojou would not have such a gallant look on his face.” 

“Whoa!” Sayaka nodded with a serious expression, apparently sold. “You’re so right, now that you mention it!” 

“What’s with the ‘whoa’?” complained Kojou in an apparent sulk. 

“Um, that body is technically mine, you know…” 

The princess gave Kojou’s current form a thorough examination, from the top of her head to the tips of her fingernails, her eyes finally resting on the hem of her miniskirt. 

“I must say…this really will not do, Sayaka.” 

“No, it won’t.” Sayaka nodded gravely. Then, realizing what she’d let slip, she hastily shook her head. “Eh?! No, it’s all the same to—!!” 

“I cannot continue the royal line like this.” 

“Huh?! I-I’ll have you know I think I heard something really off the wall just now?!” 

“…” 

I’ll just leave them be for the moment , Kojou resolved in his heart, turning to face Yuuma once more. 

Thanks to La Folia’s and Sayaka’s attacks, the witches’ Guardian had been greatly diminished. Now, he should be able to get close to Yuuma and rip that grimoire right out of her hand. 

But as if reading Kojou’s thoughts, Yuuma looked at him and made a pleasant smile. 

The next instant, demonic energy as thick as lava flowed from her, making the grimoire glow brightly. 

Together with a rumble as if the air itself was creaking, a ferocious gust assaulted them. 

The source of the gust was the surface of the sea at Itogami Island’s northern tip. From there, Kojou suddenly noticed the outline of an island he’d never seen before. 

It was a tiny island like the foot of a large, rocky mountain. The island was not even two hundred meters in diameter. Its height was in the eighty-meter range, but most of that was taken up by a cathedral wrought by human hands. 

It greatly resembled an abbey in Europe known as St. Michael’s Mount. Historically, that abbey had been later used as a fortress, and later still, a prison within which numerous clergymen and political prisoners were held. 

Kojou only realized the man was there upon hearing his sullen voice from behind. “I see… So LCO’s goal is to breach the prison barrier?” 

“Kensei Kanase…?!” 

The speaker was a middle-aged man dressed in a black suit that resembled a priest’s habit. Kojou knew very well who he was. 

Though this was unexpected, it was not surprising. Kensei Kanase, former royal sorcerous engineer of Aldegia, was an acquaintance of La Folia’s. It took no special genius to guess that the princess had used him as her means to get to Keystone Gate. 

“So that’s the prison barrier…?” Kojou asked. 

Kensei nodded. “Apparently they have made the border between this world and that one sway. At this point it is not fully materialized, but—” 

“So the seal hasn’t actually been broken yet?” 

“Correct. It is as if we are looking at a ruin sunken to the bottom of the sea from the water’s surface. Even if you can see it, pulling it up from the seafloor requires greater work by an order of magnitude.” 

Kensei’s words made Kojou go pale. 

Vattler had said that an enormous amount of magical energy was required to materialize the prison barrier. 

But that was something Yuuma already had in the palm of her hand. She merely needed to know its location. If she knew what part of the sea it had sunk into, then— Kojou moaned, suddenly feeling like his right hand was on fire. 

“Urk…?!” 

Yukina turned around in apparent surprise. 

“Senpai?!” 

But when Kojou flexed Yuuma’s light-skinned hand, it was unharmed. 

The wound was borne by Kojou’s physical body—in other words, by the young man standing in the center of the magic circle. 

The grimoire in Yuuma’s hand was burning. 

“Huhhh… Looks like this one’s hit its limits.” 

Bathed in the enormous magical power of the Fourth Primogenitor, its capacity had finally been exceeded. No longer recognizable, it burned out and turned into ash. 

“Aah,” the black and scarlet witch sisters vainly cried out. 

“No. 539 is…!” 

They were members of a criminal organization established for the purpose of accumulating grimoires. No doubt the witch sisters found the loss of a precious grimoire to be unbearably sad. 

But Yuuma, a leader of that very same organization, tossed the burned grimoire away without a second thought. 

“This grimoire has already served its purpose. Sorry, but I must be off.” 

The scene before Yuuma’s eyes gently warped. Space bent, much like a ripple spreading across the water’s surface. She’d opened a teleportation gate. 

“Wait—Blue Witch!” the black witch called out to Yuuma in haste. However, Yuuma didn’t even look back. 

“You two stay here and hold them off.” 

This said, she seemed to melt into the void and vanished. 

Kojou stood where he was, powerless as he gazed at a point on the surface of the sea. 

“Yuuma…!” 

He couldn’t stop Yuuma from moving by teleportation, but he did know where she was headed. She was on her way to the prison ward so that she could completely breach the seal. 

La Folia turned to the sorcerous engineer in black. 

“Kensei, can you follow her?” 

Kensei calmly shook his head. 

“Unfortunately I cannot.” 

Unlike a witch who could control space at a subconscious level, spatial control spells like Kensei employed required careful calculation of coordinates before a jump. The method simply wasn’t flexible enough to be used to follow someone. 

“However, I can open a gate near the prison ward.” 

“Understood. Do that, then.” 

The silver-haired princess turned a pleasant, bewitching smile toward Kojou and Yukina. 

“Kojou. Please take Yukina and go. We shall deal with the witches over there. But La Folia…” 

Kojou hesitated to move, resisting the idea of abandoning them in the face of the enemy. However, the princess shook her head with a brave look. 

“There is nothing Sayaka or I can do against a witch who has obtained the limitless demonic power of the Fourth Primogenitor. The only ones who can resist are Yukina with her spear that nullifies magic and Kojou—the true Fourth Primogenitor.” 

“Got it. Saving our skins here.” 

“—You have my thanks, La Folia.” 

Kojou and Yukina spoke words of thanks and looked at Kensei. 

The sorcerous engineer in the black outfit nodded without a word, sprinkling water from a small bottle he held in his hand. The pool of water that formed at his feet displayed a place unfamiliar to Kojou. Apparently that was where they were being sent. 

When he looked closer, he saw that the area around the pool of water was rimmed with a densely packed, detailed, chalk-written spell. Apparently he couldn’t control space as if a natural ability like Yuuma or Natsuki could, but this was wondrous spell casting in its own right. 

Biting his lip as if hardening his resolve, Kojou plunged into the scene displayed on the surface of the water. 

“Ugh!” 

Yukina immediately followed him. 

Remaining behind, Kensei fell to his knees, his strength apparently exhausted. High-level spell casting such as teleportation surely imposed a suitably heavy burden, even upon an accomplished sorcerer as himself. At the very least, however, Kensei had fulfilled his duty. The rest was up to Kojou and Yukina. 

“She said they will take care of us, my sister.” 

“The girl certainly has a sense of humor worthy of a princess.” 

The black and scarlet witch sisters, left behind on the roof, glared scornfully at La Folia and Sayaka as they spoke. They did not feel pressed, even after having witnessed the might of the princess’s spell gun and Sayaka’s sword with their own eyes. 

“We should be honored she has gone out of her way to remain and become our ‘sacrifice.’” 

“Then as befits her, the branches of our Guardian shall rip her innards asunder from hole to elegant hole, making her into such a lovely pile of flesh!” 

The two witches unleashed their taunts, following with haughty laughter in unison. 

“Why you,” said Sayaka, furling her eyebrows as she poised her sword. 

She, an expert in curses and assassination, always addressed her enemies with respect. To a Shamanic War Dancer of the Lion King Agency, enemies were to be treated with the same respect one used when pacifying angry spirits. 

To the fastidious Sayaka, the witch sisters’ scornful behavior toward the princess was unworthy of even the most minimal approval. But the princess made a composed, pleasant smile and stepped forward, as if to stop Sayaka from venting. 

“If you laugh too much, elder ladies, the bags under your eyes shall become more prominent. Ah, the sags of your flesh as well, little by little.” 

The air around them might as well have frozen and audibly cracked. The two witches’ expressions were raw with indignation at the young, beautiful princess’s casual words. 

However, La Folia spoke as if not noticing whatsoever that the witches were shaking with anger. 

“At the very least, the fact your pacts with devils did not grant you long lives without any aging represents negligence of the basics, or perhaps an exceptional lack of talent. I am somewhat hesitant to inform you, but those who are more advanced in their years look rather ridiculous piling on makeup to look young. Don’t they, Sayaka?” 

Sayaka’s face twitched as the ball was suddenly tossed into her court. 

“I-I suppose they do.” 

For some reason, the princess’s gentle, goddess-like smile was eerily frightening. She actually felt sorry for the witch sisters. 

A couple of witches from the sticks should never have tried taunting a cunning princess whose razor-sharp wit was honed by the mind games in a royal palace full of intrigue. 

Knowing they could never defeat her with words, the witches threw their pride to the wind and howled. 

“G-grr… You little bitch…!” 

“D-do you know how much we’ve been through… I hate this! I’ll rip new holes into you!” 

Sayaka was dumbstruck all over again at the witch sisters’ consternation. 

“Th-that actually worked…?!” 

Apparently La Folia’s words had wounded them deeply without her laying a single finger on them. 

Raising her golden gun, the princess called out to Sayaka like nothing had happened. “Let’s go, Sayaka.” 

“R-right…” 

I’m not sure who the real witch is here anymore , Sayaka murmured on the inside as she raised up her blade. 

5 

Yuuma Tokoyogi stood atop a rusted bridge at the tip of the Gigafloat. 

The prison barrier was several hundred meters away. The simple floating bridge connected Itogami Island to the small, rocky island upon which the cathedral rested. The prison barrier had still not fully materialized. 

Yuuma looked at the surface of the sea from which the island jutted and gently extended her right hand. 

The next moment, the space behind her wavered, from which emerged a blue knight phantasm clad in armor. Yuuma had named the faceless blue knight “Le Bleu.” The devil familiar was the witch’s Guardian. 

The prison barrier was already right before her eyes. All that remained was to borrow the enormous magical power of the Fourth Primogenitor and drag it into her own world. Thus would the final seal be broken and her mission complete. 

But before Yuuma could command her Guardian to do so, a voice called to her from behind. “Yuuma!” 

As she looked back, she saw a very familiar body standing there—her own. In other words, Kojou Akatsuki, with whom Yuuma had switched bodies. The girl with the silver spear was standing beside him, too. 

Yuuma called out to them, honestly impressed. 

“You’ve caught up to me already?” 

Right now, Kojou was just a normal human being without any power whatsoever. There shouldn’t have been any way for him to pursue Yuuma after she’d relocated via a leap through space; at the very least, not through his power alone. 

“You’ve made some good friends, Kojou.” 

Kojou twisted his lips in anguish as he replied, “—Don’t say that like it’s got nothing to do with you. You’re one of ’em, you know?” 

Yuuma blinked like she’d been slapped in the face and looked back at him. 

“That makes me so happy. You still think of me as a friend?” 

Kojou pointed beside him to Yukina as he spoke. 

“I told you, I’m used to seeing witches already so I don’t think nothing of that. I’ve been getting to know one weirdo after another coming to the island, so you’re just one more.” 

“That’s rude,” complained the girl holding the silver spear as she glared back at Kojou, eyes wide open. 

It was natural she didn’t want to hear the World’s Mightiest Vampire complain about getting to know weirdoes . But she didn’t actually refute Kojou’s words, either. Kojou was dead serious as he asked Yuuma… 

“Why are you helping people bust out of prison?” 

Yuuma’s reply was brief. 

“Because my mother made me for this.” 

“… Made you?” 

“My mother is Aya Tokoyogi—former head of the criminal organization LCO. She was captured on Itogami Island and has been locked away in the prison barrier since ten years ago. She had a tool prepared so she could escape from prison—me.” 

Yuuma laughed at her own expense as she pointed at her own body, currently controlled by Kojou. 

“I’m a test-tube baby made to grow at a rapid rate. I was born ten years ago, looking like I was six. It was just a little before you met me, Kojou. Mother programmed me to break Itogami Island’s prison barrier from the very beginning.” 

Kojou’s expression grew grave as he pressed the point. 

“Was it part of your mom’s plan to get to know me, too?” 

Yuuma shook her head without hesitation. 

“No, Kojou. That was the only choice that was mine. I told you, you’re all that I have. Besides meeting you, there’s not a thing in this world I can call mine .” 

“That’s not…!” 

Yuuma stopped his objection with a hand and turned her back on him. 

“The plan changed a bit when LCO found out you’d gained the power of the Fourth Primogenitor. Actually, we expected we’d be sacrificing the lives of a hundred thousand or so of Itogami Island’s residents to break the prison barrier’s seal. But thanks to you, that’s no longer necessary… Thank you, Kojou.” 

Before Yuuma had even finished her words, Yukina lunged at her, spear glimmering. 

“Snowdrift Wolf—!” 

She moved at incredible speed worthy of the title of Sword Shaman. But before she arrived, Yuuma had already warped space to shift to a location dozens of meters removed. Having lost its target, Yukina’s spear sliced only air. 

The faceless blue knight floating up from Yuuma’s back raised both arms aloft as its armor creaked. 

A golden light emerged from the gap between the Guardian’s hands. It was dazzling electricity accompanied by a roar. 

Kojou’s and Yukina’s faces froze over, no doubt realizing the light’s true nature. 

It was an enormous mass of demonic energy taking physical form. A golden lion enveloped by lightning… 

“Regulus Aurum…?!” Kojou shouted. Yukina was equally in shock. 

“A Fourth Primogenitor’s Beast Vassal?! That’s not…?!” 

Yuuma smiled under the strain of the uncontrollable surge of magical energy. 

“I haven’t stolen his right to command the Beast Vassal. I’ve just warped time and space to call up a tiny piece of the past when Kojou used his Beast Vassal. All for the sake of this one brief moment—” 

Even having taken over Kojou’s body and drawn out the magical energy held within his flesh, she could not call the Beast Vassals of the Fourth Primogenitor, for a vampire’s Beast Vassals were summoned beasts from another world with wills of their own. There was no way Yuuma, lacking authority over them, could control one. 

However, by mixing the Fourth Primogenitor’s nigh-inexhaustible magical energy with her own power as a witch, she was able to control one through such irregular magical means. She was borrowing the memory buried within Kojou’s flesh when he’d used that Beast Vassal in the past, linking it to current space-time— 

The result of her efforts was a rip through space through which flowed a cascading torrent of incandescence. 

Even Yuuma’s spell and the Guardian’s blessing could not sustain such a ritual for more than a few hundredths of a second. 

The power of the Beast Vassal that flowed through destroyed Yuuma’s ritual, severing the space-time link. The backward flow of magical energy burned Yuuma’s nerves as a destructive backlash assailed the Guardian. 

Finally, the lightning vanished, leaving only Yuuma, who fell to her knees on the spot as smoke wafted up from her, and the damaged blue knight. The rusted bridge creaked, cracked, and was enveloped by blue-white flames. 

“That’s a Beast Vassal of the Fourth Primogenitor for you… Even Le Bleu couldn’t control it…but it looks like it wasn’t for nothing.” 

Kojou and Yukina stayed where they stood, listening dumbfounded to Yuuma’s frail murmurs. 

The prison barrier was burning before their very eyes. 

The island, unstable like a mirage until now, revealed itself completely, burned up, and fell to pieces. The materialization of the island and the connecting bridge kicked up waves and sea spray all around. The prison barrier’s seal had been broken, returning it to normal time and space. 

It was the Fourth Primogenitor’s Beast Vassal that had broken the seal. She had employed destructive power so violent that it could overwhelm any ritual to smash the powerful ward that shrouded the island. It was an act of brute force unworthy of the word spellcraft . 

“The prison barrier’s…turning solid…?” 

Kojou moaned out as he looked up at the crumbling cathedral. The moment the final reverberations of the Beast Vassal’s electrical attack vanished was the moment the spatial distortions had completely evaporated. Everything left was solid and real. 

This was without question part of Itogami Island—a Gigafloat made to resemble an old, rocky mount. 

He could see inside the cathedral from the gap left by a destroyed wall. 

“But…it’s…” 

There was nothing but a cavity. The interior of the cathedral was completely hollow. It was literally just empty space . Yes, just a vacant space— 

Yuuma approached the cathedral, even as pieces of the wounded blue knight scattered about. 

“Looks like even if the ward’s been lost, it doesn’t mean the prison’s been breached… This is definitely the place, though.” 

Kojou and Yukina were thrown off by how she seemed to be aware of the contents of the cathedral from the beginning. Yukina kept her spear up without fail as she gazed at Yuuma’s defenseless back. 

At that moment, Yuuma didn’t have the physical strength left to use big spells. Even so, she seemed at a loss as to whether she should attack. 

Finally, Yuuma stopped where she stood. Kojou and Yukina drew in their breaths as they realized what she was looking at. 

“This is nuts… What are you doing over there…?” Kojou murmured. 

Inside, there was a chair. 

A regular chair was placed in the perfectly hollow interior of the cathedral. The armrests were covered in extravagant velvet. There was a single woman sitting there, asleep with her eyes still closed. 

She was beautiful and young, a witch with a visage like that of a doll. 

Yuuma spoke politely and reverently to the still-asleep Natsuki Minamiya. 

“The key of the prison barrier—it is an honor to finally meet you, Witch of the Void.” 

Kojou and Yukina were able only to stare in amazement, completely at a loss for words. 

6 

Sayaka’s angry shout reverberated across the rooftop of Keystone Gate. 

“Aw, geez! These things are really getting on my nerves—!” 

Her field of vision was walled off by a mass of creepy, undulating tentacles. 

Sayaka’s sword was able to sever the tentacles, protected by powerful magic, with ease. However, their numbers were simply too great. 

With their power fueled by the nigh-inexhaustible magic circle, Sayaka and the princess could not get close to the witches that had summoned them. 

La Folia, too, had a rare look of displeasure about her. 

“Certainly, this is not getting us anywhere.” 

Her spell gun wasn’t able to work at its full potential due to the defensive magic affecting the tentacles. Ordinarily, a single shot from her gun would penetrate a tank and gouge out a crater several meters deep behind it. 

Yet at the moment, she was unable to even counterattack the tentacles that were assaulting them. Perhaps that had raised the princess’s stress level, too. 

La Folia murmured as if suddenly recalling something. 

“They said, the branches of the Guardian…didn’t they?” 

It was a word that had come casually out of the Meyer Sisters’ lips. They had called them the branches of their Guardian. Not tentacles, branches— 

La Folia made a soft giggle and smiled in apparent pleasure. 

“Then it is a plant, not a mollusk… I see. The incident the Meyer Sisters caused made a great forest vanish in its entirety overnight, yes?” 

“The Ashdown Tragedy, you mean?” Sayaka recalled the incident of that name. 

Over ten years prior, the Meyer Sisters had conducted a mysterious magical ritual on the outskirts of Ashdown, the capitol of the North Sea Empire in the northwest of Europe. This caused an anomalous phenomenon that wiped out some three hundred hectares of forest around the capitol. The city of Ashdown was ruined in the process and was abandoned shortly thereafter. This incident made the Meyer Sisters world-famous sorcerous criminals. 

But there remained two questions in regards to the incident to that very day. 

The first was: What kind of magical ritual were the black and scarlet witch sisters conducting on the outskirts of Ashdown? 

And where did the forest that vanished go—? 

“You don’t mean… Then, this Guardian is really…,” Sayaka murmured. 

“Yes. If you imagine the lost forest down to the last tree taking the form of a devil familiar, that would explain this overwhelming mass. No doubt it is useless no matter how many you cut down.” 

Sayaka made a deeply frustrated groan. La Folia looked back at her and shrugged her shoulders. 

Sayaka nodded, lowering her sword in the process. 

“…I suppose so.” 

She knew it was useless to continue her attacks. 

The witch sisters rejoiced as they beheld Sayaka and La Folia like that. 

“Oh my. The little girls seem to be engaged in prattle, my sister.” 

“Yes, truly. Perhaps they’re ready to beg for their lives? It won’t work,” said the witches, laughing with shrill voices. 

The silver-haired princess shook her head, seemingly pitying the certainty of their victory. 

“No, we were just remarking how your trick is less impressive than we thought.” 

“Definitely. There’s plenty of ways to go about this now that we know what we’re dealing with.” 

No doubt the casual rebuff of their fervent taunts was a decisive blow to their pride. The witch sisters unleashed ferocious bellows of rage. 

Responding to their anger, the Guardian increased the ferocity of its attacks. 

The elegant smile that had come over La Folia remained intact as she walked forward, raising the golden gun before her. 

“I entrust this to you, Sayaka. I shall hold the line.” 

Sayaka retreated, her sword still lowered. 

“Right.” 

They’d switched positions, with offensive duties left to the princess. 

The princess did not falter as she watched the onrushing tentacles, reversing the grip on her pistol. Her gold-ornamented pistol came equipped with a silver-colored bayonet. La Folia poised it like a knife as she began to chant a hymn. 

“—Daughters of the gods that reside within me, destroyers of shields, hail and storm, heralds of victory, those who carry the departed!” The eerie tentacles rushed toward the princess’s slender body. One would think she was being attacked by a giant mass of serpents. Certain of victory, the witches’ lips twisted into smiles. 

Their smiling faces froze as a dazzling flash of light shone upon them. 

“Wha—?!” 

The source of the light was La Folia’s bayonet. A fire that glimmered bluish white spewed forth, transforming into a giant sword. It was a sword of light with a blade that reached dozens of meters in length. 

The blade pulverized the onrushing swarm of tentacles like so much stale bread. 

“S-sister!” 

“That light is the blessing of the spirits… That shouldn’t be possible, but…!” 

The witch sisters were falling into a panic as they watched their Guardian being mowed down without any resistance. 

The beam the princess wielded was the Völundr System of the Aldegian royal knights. It was a tactical support system that infused a large mass of spiritual energy into a weapon, temporarily turning it into a holy sword class spiritual weapon. 

It was equipment that normally required a large-scale spiritual reactor to provide the spiritual energy, but La Folia, a spirit medium, was able to summon spirits into her own body to produce the effect single-handedly. 

The spiritual glow, lethal to demons, nullified the defensive magic of the grimoire and mowed down the swarm of tentacles. It was overwhelming destructiveness, akin to using a scythe to cut weeds. 

And the new solemn prayer chant they heard came from Sayaka. “—I, Dancer of the Lion, Archer of the High God, beseech thee.” 

Sayaka’s sword had transformed into a bow since the last time they’d checked. It was a modern-looking recurve bow. She notched an extendable metal arrow. It was called a Der Freischötz. It was a prototype transformable weapon, the pride of the Lion King Agency. 

“Most Brilliant Flaming Horse, Illustrious Kirin, He who Governs Heavenly Thunder, pierce these evil spirits with thy wrath…!” 

Sayaka unleashed her arrow right above her own head. The arrow, whistling in flight, released a sound like that of a wailing voice. 

The whistling arrow unleashed by the magic bow Der Freischötz had an auditory capacity far beyond that of human lungs, capable of chanting high-intensity curses. It was the curse, not the arrow, which was the real attack. 

Sayaka had unleashed a malicious hex that would remove all spells cast upon the Guardian and envelop its main body in flames. The hex traveled through the roots of the Guardian, with lethal effect upon the entirety of Ashdown forest, over three hundred hectares strong. 

It was not even several minutes until the purifying flames annihilated the Guardian of the Meyer Sisters. Aside from the vestiges of a burned-out magic circle, everything had bizarrely vanished. 

“The forest… It’s gone… How can this…?” 

“O-our…Ashdown Guardian is…” Knowing that they had lost, the witch sisters clutched their grimoires with religious zeal as they scrambled to flee. However, their faces were already twitching with despair. 

Realizing that the tentacles had been annihilated, the Island Guard troops on standby in the corridor poured in like an avalanche. Without their Guardian, the witches had no way to flee off the top of a building over sixty meters tall. A hail of warning shots at their feet made the two witches collapse then and there. 

The witch sisters were quaking and embracing each other when the guardsmen arrested them. 

“S-sister…?!” 

“It can’t be… Us, captured by peasants like these…” 

Nose clips to obstruct spell casting; headgear to block telepathy; shackles attuned to the peculiarities of a witch’s flesh—those who upheld the law in a Demon Sanctuary had plenty of know-how where capturing witches was concerned and had been supplied with quality anti-witch gear. It was essentially impossible for people of the level of the Meyer Sisters to escape custody. 

“…” 

Even so, Sayaka stood at the princess’s side without letting down her guard. 

Though it had landed her in combat against witches as a result, Sayaka’s proper mission was guarding La Folia. It was Sayaka’s duty to protect the princess until she left Itogami Island. 

The situation with the spatial anomalies enveloping the entirety of Itogami Island had already been altered. The grimoire used to distort space had been lost, and the possibility of danger befalling the princess had vanished. Yuuma Tokoyogi was still at large, but La Folia no longer had any reason to fight her. 

Besides, La Folia was just as constrained by duty as she was. Her position as princess prevented her from moving as she wished. Even if she wanted to help Kojou and Yukina, circumstances simply did not allow her to do so. 

As a result, Sayaka couldn’t leave that place, either. Even though she knew Kojou, Yukina, and the prison barrier were in danger, there was nothing she could do. That fact caused deep internal distress inside Sayaka. 

Suddenly, they heard a hearty man’s voice from behind them. 

“Your Highness, are you all right—?” 

Men covered in bombastic armored combat suits descended from an Island Guard helicopter hovering close by. They were members of the Aldegian knights—La Folia’s men. 

“It is good that you are here. How goes the hunt?” 

La Folia’s question brought grateful-looking smiles from the knights. Through a covert agreement with the Island Guard, the Aldegian knights had been deployed within the city on special assignment. 

“Four groups of LCO remnants destroyed, seven grimoires seized. They shall be good souveniers for His Highness.” 

The squad leader of the night looked quite proud as he reported the successful completion of their mission. 

La Folia made a teasing smile as she nodded. 

“Is that so. ’Twould seem enough to excuse my moving the knights on my own authority.” The Aldegian knights would assist in the capture of LCO operatives that had landed on Itogami Island in exchange for the grimoires in their possession. That was the condition La Folia had set. 

In so doing, the Island Guard had received aid in the field when it mattered most, and the kingdom of Aldegia had obtained precious grimoires in turn. It was a win-win deal typical of La Folia, a seasoned negotiator. 

“We have confirmed that Her Highness is safe as well. She is currently under the care of Misaki Sasasaki.” 

“…Misaki Sasasaki? The so-called ‘Lady Wizard,’ a Wizard of the Four Fists?” 

“That would appear to be the case.” 

The squad leader nodded respectfully as La Folia raised her eyebrows in mild surprise. 

Sayaka was very familiar with the title “Wizard of the Four Fists.” 

It meant an expert in close combat who had mastered wizardry and martial arts to a very high level. One of them was employed by the Lion King Agency as a martial arts instructor. Even though it was during their apprenticeship, Yukina and Sayaka had challenged that monster simultaneously—and neither of them could lay a single finger on her. 

A monster of equal standing was taking care of Kanon Kanase. Knowing this, an expression of relief came over La Folia. It was an honest expression with nothing hidden that was quite unlike her. 

Then, the princess turned to Sayaka, who had pulled back just a little. 

“I would have liked to watch the course of events a bit longer, but it seems I am out of time. I must depart this nation immediately.” 

“Ah…yes.” For a moment, La Folia’s seemingly abrupt statement brought a dubious look over Sayaka, but she soon realized the princess’s true intent. 

If the princess left Japan, Sayaka’s mission would be over. She would be able to move according to her own judgment. Surely she would be able to go aid Kojou and Yukina until the Lion King Agency assigned her a new mission. 

An opaque expression came to La Folia’s face as she spoke. 

“You have gone through quite a bit of trouble on my behalf. I shall ask the Lion King Agency to give you suitable rest and recreation time until your next assignment.” 

It was a pleasant smile rich in meaning, conveying a secret shared by them alone. 

“You have my thanks, princess.” 

Sayaka made a fervent nod as she gripped the hilt of her long sword. Their role in the incident was not yet finished. 

7 

Kojou and the others headed inside the crumbling cathedral. Yuuma had teleported. Kojou and Yukina were hit by fierce dizziness and tossed onto a hard, dusty floor. 

Yuuma didn’t know why she’d teleported not only herself, but Kojou and Yukina along with her. But she had some vague idea. 

She figured she probably wanted someone to see the instant she had fulfilled her objective, the instant she fulfilled the purpose for which she was born into this world— 

“Natsuki’s…the key to the prison barrier?” asked Kojou. What’s that supposed to mean? 

Natsuki Minamiya continued to sleep in the chair in the cathedral’s great hall. 

She was wearing a laced-up, frill-heavy dress. It was a sweltering outfit to be wearing on Itogami Island, where summer was year-round. But it suited the doll-like, still-sleeping girl to a truly frightening degree. 

No doubt the shock wave from Yuuma’s having breached the prison barrier by force had been conveyed inside to Natsuki. There was a trickle of fresh blood flowing down one of Natsuki’s temples. 

But Kojou still couldn’t understand at all what Natsuki, who’d disappeared on the day before the Hollow Eve Festival, was doing in a place like this to begin with. He wondered if the Natsuki sleeping here was really the Natsuki that Kojou knew. 

“—Think about it. How do you send prisoners into a prison in other-dimensional space even the Gigafloat Management Corporation can’t locate for certain?” Yuuma gave the still-sleeping Natsuki a cold glare as she spoke. “Natsuki Minamiya, the Witch of the Void, is the jailer, gatekeeper, door, and key of the prison barrier. In the first place, Prison Barrier is the name of a spell to seal away vile sorcerous criminals—and she is the only one who can use it.” 

Kojou listened to Yuuma’s explanation without a word. When she put it that way, the logic was simple enough. 

Prison Barrier was a spell Natsuki maintained. That was why she was inside the cathedral. And that was why breaching the ward conveyed the shock wave directly to her body. 

“Witch” was a title borne by women who’d formed a pact with a devil. They employed power identical to that devil’s through the devil familiar Guardians. In so doing, they could retain human bodies while controlling magical power rivaling that of upper-rank demons, with spell-casting skill surpassing even the most accomplished of sorcerers. 

But a pact with a devil came with a price. 

The price Yuuma had paid was the installation of the “Dispel the Prison Barrier” program. She was born and raised to fulfill that command alone, having been granted spatial control power in exchange. 

He wondered what price Natsuki had paid— 

Was the prison barrier itself the answer? 

Continuing to seal this giant, empty prison by her lonesome until the day she died—what if that was the curse imposed upon her when she made her pact with her devil? 

Yuuma spoke as she looked around the dimly lit cathedral. 

“This cathedral is Natsuki Minamiya’s home. She’s been living here the whole time. She hasn’t been outside even once in the last ten years. She remains asleep here, all alone.” 

Kojou objected. “That can’t be right. Natsuki’s been working as our teacher at school all the time!” 

Natsuki Minamiya was Saikai Academy’s English teacher. She was also Kojou’s homeroom teacher. She had a big mansion on prime land in Itogami City where she lived with Astarte and Kanon. What reason would she have to spend her nights in a bare, empty cathedral, sealed away in another world? 

But Yuuma made a sad laugh as she shook her head. 

“The Natsuki Minamiya you know is an illusion the real one created with a spell. She’s just a dream of the pathetic girl you see here.” 

Yuuma’s words made Kojou forget to breathe. 

“An…illusion…?” 

He couldn’t object and say, It isn’t possible . Surely it was a trifling matter for a witch of Natsuki’s power to create a clone with substance that could act like a normal person. 

Now there was a reason for her bizarre youthfulness—or rather, Natsuki not having physically aged since her youth. 

More important, Kojou couldn’t think of any explanation he could accept as to how the girl sleeping in the prison barrier, looking exactly like Natsuki, could be anyone else. 

Yuuma walked toward the girl as she continued to sleep. 

“It’s meaningless to shatter one of her illusions. That is why LCO stayed its hand until now. That is, until her real body returned to our world so that the prison barrier could be released.” 

The blue knight floating up from her back raised a giant fist as if wielding a hammer. A single blow from the Guardian against the defenselessly sleeping little girl would end her life with the greatest of ease. 

Yuuma seemed to be forcing her voice out from her throat. 

“The criminals in the prison barrier are held captive inside her dream. If she is slain, the prisoners will be freed.” 

“—After you free them, what then?” 

Kojou’s abrupt question brought Yuuma to a halt. 

“If you were born only to dispel the prison barrier, what’ll you do after you finish your duty? Do you think your mom’s gonna pat you on the head?” 

“Kojou…” 

“No she won’t… It’s just like you did with that grimoire that burnt up, she’ll toss you away like yesterday’s garbage, won’t she?! Is this really what you want, Yuuma?!” 

Kojou blocked Yuuma’s path, shooting her a glare with the still-sleeping Natsuki behind him. 

She seemed ready to break into tears as she smiled and shook her head. “I know that, Kojou. I know more than anyone the meaninglessness of what I’m doing.” 

“Then—!” 

“But I can’t fight the program that decided it! That’s my price for my pact with my devil!” Yuuma shouted in an anguished voice. For some reason, she looked like a little girl even while in Kojou’s body. 

“The program’s all I have. If I accept that it’s meaningless—my being born into this world—everything about me is meaningless, too!” 

“You’re wrong!” 

Kojou put a foot in front of him. The force of it drove Yuuma back a step. 

“You said it yourself. I’m here for you. I accept that your life has meaning. You don’t have to follow that stupid program!” 

His powers as Fourth Primogenitor were stolen, his own flesh and blood were stolen, yet even so, Kojou’s declaration lacked any hesitance. For a single instant, Yuuma’s eyes made a look like a tearful smile. 

“…It sounds like you’re proposing.” 

“Huh?” 

“You were always fine saying stuff like that since way back, Kojou. You really have no idea how much trouble that’s caused me… But thank you. I’m happy… Really, it’s…” 

It’s enough, Yuuma’s lips mouthed. Kojou couldn’t even yell for her to stop. 

He couldn’t, because by then Yuuma had already vanished. She’d leaped through space without any warning, emerging in Kojou’s blind spot—behind the still-sleeping Natsuki. 

Then, the blue knight, wounded all over, swung its steel fist down to crush her— 

“Ugh?!” 

It was a radiant silver-colored spear that squarely took the fist’s blow. The girl wielding it, dressed in a blue dress straight out of a fairy tale, swung her spear over her head to impede the giant knight’s arm. 

“—Himeragi?!” 

The blue knight was nearly twice as tall as the small-built Yukina. When accounting for the armor surrounding it, its mass must have been ten times hers. It wasn’t an attack to be taken straight on. 

But Yukina’s spear easily breached the armor of the witch’s Guardian and destroyed that fist. 

Yuuma’s expression hardened. 

“I see… That spear is a Schneewaltzer…” 

It was a purifying spear that nullified all magical power. It was the worst match possible for a witch’s Guardian, which was magical energy taking physical form. 

“The Lion King Agency dispatched me to watch over the Fourth Primogenitor.” 

With a ting , Yukina’s spear audibly ripped through the air as she swung it around. The three-pronged tip of her spear turned straight toward Yuuma’s heart. Her position had been eloquently conveyed: namely, now that Kojou’s attempts to persuade Yuuma had failed, she would show no mercy. 

“—I am taking back the body of Kojou Akatsuki!” 

Yuuma laughed on the spot and instantly glanced at Kojou, who remained where he stood. 

“You’re too soft… With the power in that spear, if you attacked my real body you’d settle this right away… Is it Kojou’s influence stopping you? So you’ve been taken in by Kojou’s silver tongue, too?” 

Yukina seemed oddly sulky as she shot back. “That’s not so! I-I’ve simply decided this is best under the present circumstances! Now that the spatial control ritual has been destroyed and there is a prospect of the Fourth Primogenitor’s magical power running amok, I should prioritize recovery of his body, an exceedingly logical conclusion! Besides—” 

“?!” 

Before she finished speaking, Yukina kicked off from the cathedral’s floor. As she moved with the force of a typhoon, her spear thrust forward, aimed precisely at Yuuma’s chest. 

“…there is no great difference in difficulty.” 

Yuuma’s words were no bluff. At Yukina’s speed, enough to rock a beast man back on his heels, there was no way Yuuma, lacking any close combat ability, could cope. “Le Bleu!” 

Yuuma commanded her Guardian to protect her. However, Yukina’s spear slashed through the blue knight’s thick armor like it was thin air. Bluish-white sparks scattered about as the blue knight roared in agony. 

Yuuma clicked her tongue and bent space. She was trying to use a teleport to get at Yukina’s blind spot. But. 

“It’s no use!” 

Yukina turned around like she knew from the start she’d do that, slashing toward Yuuma’s destination point. It was her Sword Shaman ability to see the future. Simple surprise attacks wouldn’t work on her when she was using her Spirit Sight ability in the middle of combat. 

The blue knight’s giant body staggered as fragments of its wrecked armor scattered about. 

“So long as you control that body, your Guardian must employ most of its power to maintain the spatial link. It has very little combat capability remaining.” 

“You have a point… Beating a Lion King Agency Sword Shaman’s kinda tough under these circumstances.” 

Yuuma readily acknowledged the tide was against her. A Sword Shaman could fight on even terms with a vampire primogenitor. They were anti-demon combat pros, not people a mere witch could take on without a plan. 

“You’ve forgotten, though? I don’t have to fight you fair, you know—!” 

Yuuma teleported just after she spoke. She’d leaped into the air where Yukina couldn’t follow, high above the floor of the cathedral. 

“Oh n—?!” 

Yukina’s face froze as she realized what Yuuma intended. The blue knight had activated an offensive spell. It was a beginner-level fireball spell, but when unleashed with a witch’s magical power, it had force on the level of a bomb. And Yuuma had selected as her target neither Yukina nor Natsuki, but rather, the stonework roof of the cathedral above the still-sleeping Natsuki’s head. 

Even Snowdrift Wolf, able to nullify any magical energy, was powerless against falling rock. She had no way of protecting Natsuki against several tons of mass obeying the call of gravity. 

But by the instant Yukina felt despair, Kojou was already sprinting over. 

“Daaaa—!” 

Kojou picked up Natsuki’s tiny body and rolled onto the floor. A moment later, falling stone crushed and pulverized the chair Natsuki had been sitting on. 

Yukina’s eyes blinked in shock. 

“Senpai—?!” 

Kojou had anticipated Yuuma’s attack faster than she, a Sword Shaman, could peer into the future. That fact took her by surprise. 

The answer to the question tugging at her came from Kojou’s own lips. 

“Sorry, Yuuma. I haven’t forgotten the face you make when you’re going for a three-pointer.” 

Kojou made a daring smile as he lifted up his dusty face. Kojou had never forgotten his close childhood friend’s specialty. He’d been watching out for Yuuma to make a long-range shot from the beginning. 

Yuuma’s face twisted in great anguish as she landed. “Kojou…! How can you still smile like that?! I deceived you! I’m a witch made to be a criminal from birth! I’ve been destroying the city you live in and hurting your friends—!” 

Kojou stared back in amazement at the painful shout coming from his old friend. 

“Yuuma…” 

Suddenly, his field of vision was dyed scarlet. Fresh blood was flowing from his own forehead into his eyes. 

“What the…heck is this…?!” 

Kojou was in shock as he realized he was bleeding. 

It wasn’t a wound sustained during the roll. There was no pain. But Yuuma’s beautiful skin was ripped in various places and was fiercely bleeding. 

There was only one possibility he could think of. It was Yuuma’s body crying out. 

The forced link to take over Kojou’s body, drawing out the magical power of the Fourth Primogenitor, calling a Beast Vassal, even for but a single moment, the wounds to her Guardian sustained in the fight with Yukina, one teleport after another—it was well beyond even a witch’s limits. Yuuma’s body had begun to fall apart, unable to endure the sheer output of magical energy. 

“Yuuma!” Yukina’s voice shook. “Please stop this. If you release any more magical energy, your body will—” 

“It doesn’t matter…!” The pain of the backlash was making her lips twist, but even so, Yuuma made a lurid smile. “Just a little more and my duty will be at an end. I’ll finally…be free…” 

Yukina silently bit her lip. Then, she let out a very deep sigh. Without a sound, the silver spear whirled around as her glossy hair flowed downward. Only a single way remained to save Yuuma— 

That was to settle the bout as quickly as possible. 

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

Yukina’s lips wove a solemn chant. She danced along with her silver spear like a warrior praying to the gods for victory—or a priestess granted an oracle that heralded the victory to come. 

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

The silver spear emitted a flash of light, the explosive spiritual energy flowing into it twice as much as before. That flash surrounded Yukina as she sprinted. Yuuma hadn’t seen what Yukina was doing. The blow from Snowdrift Wolf was aimed straight at Yuuma—and thrust through the heart of Kojou’s body. 

Or it would have, had Yukina not stopped her attack. The tip of the silver spear did not reach Kojou’s chest. Yukina had hesitated in her attack in a span less than the blink of an eye. 

Yuuma moved, not letting that tiny opening go to waste. 

The blue knight’s giant fist swung toward Yukina’s flank. Yukina barely managed to receive the blow with her spear. But she could not stop inertia. Her small body was sent flying, sending her crashing down onto the floor several meters away. 

“Himeragi!” 

As Kojou rushed over, Yukina dismissed him and wobbled as she rose. 

“…I’m all right… This is nothing…” 

She reached out to the silver spear, picking it up, only for it to roll onto the floor once more. Her arms were numb from having squarely received the blue knight’s attack. 

Yuuma spoke as she watched Yukina sit on her knees. 

“You’re a kind girl.” 

There was no mockery in her tone. Indeed, her tone was drenched in open envy. 

“The Lion King Agency’s secret weapon, able to nullify any magical power… there’s no way to really tell if even an immortal vampire would come back from being impaled with a Schneewaltzer. That’s why you stopped. You didn’t want to kill Kojou’s body—” 

Yukina somehow got back to her feet by using her spear in place of a cane. 

“…I do not know what you are referring to. That was just a little carelessness.” 

She was no longer in any condition to fight; at the very least, she couldn’t hope for anything like her usual combat ability. She couldn’t properly grip her weapon in any event. Yuuma spoke as if pitying the wounded Yukina. 

“It’ll end the same no matter how much you try it. You understand that yourself, don’t you?” 

If Yukina couldn’t harm Kojou’s body, she had no hope of victory no matter how many times she rose back up. 

“Senpai…” 

Kojou supported Yukina from behind when it seemed like she might fall over. 

He put his hands on the silver spear so that both were gripping it together. 

“Kojou…why…?” Yuuma asked, with her expression seeming to say, Do you understand whose body you’re aiming that spear at…? The Schneewaltzer was a purifying spear able to slay even a rimogenitor. Kojou impaling himself with that spear was reckless, virtual suicide. 

Kojou declared with an impetuous laugh… 

“Sorry, Yuuma. I’m gonna send you packing and take my own body back. I mean, with this body, I can’t go drinking Yukina’s blood like usual .” 

Yukina’s lips made a sour curl. 

Wresting the spear from Yukina’s hands, Kojou charged straight toward Yuuma. 

“Let’s go, Yuuma—from here on, this is my fight.” 

Snowdrift Wolf was heavier than he’d expected. However, it wasn’t too heavy for him to wield. “Kojou—!” Yuuma shouted in anguish. 

Then, she vanished. A teleport—! 

But Kojou had anticipated that from the start. 

Yuuma could not attack Kojou—or rather, her very own body. 

If she caused harm to her own body, the spatial control spell would be broken and Kojou’s consciousness would return to his own flesh and blood. For her part, Yuuma would return to her own wounded body, unable to do any more. If Kojou came at her with the intention of killing his own body, Yuuma really had no choice but to run. 

And Kojou knew where she’d go. 

Yuuma’s objective was to take out Natsuki. With Kojou away from Natsuki’s side, that was naturally where Yuuma would jump to—to the place she could kill Natsuki in her continued sleep. 

So Kojou didn’t wait. 

Before Yuuma had even reappeared from her teleport, he threw the spear with everything he had. 

When Yuuma returned from teleporting, she saw the silver spear flying through the air, aimed at her heart. 

“Ugh…! Le Bleu—!” 

Realizing she’d never evade it, she commanded her own Guardian to defend her. The heavily armored blue knight crossed its arms to block the spear. Without spiritual energy of his own, Kojou’s throw did not imbue Snowdrift Wolf with its proper, magic-nullifying properties. It couldn’t breach the Guardian’s defense—! 

“It didn’t work?!” 

Kojou slid into despair. 

The next moment, a small girl wearing a blue dress cut into his peripheral vision. 

Making an elegant smile, she spun around in midair and unleashed a ferocious spinning back kick into the butt of the spear, stuck in the blue knight’s arms… 

“—No, senpai. This victory is ours.” 

Before Yukina finished speaking, Snowdrift Wolf released a dazzling glow. She had employed a kicking foot to infuse the spear with spiritual energy rather than her numb hands. 

Imbued with a Divine Oscillation Wave, the Lion King Agency’s secret weapon ran through the blue knight’s crossed arms, impaled it through its armored torso, and sank deep into the chest of Kojou Akatsuki . 

Yuuma seemed beside herself. 

“This is insane… Why, Kojou…?” 

Her murmur vanished in a high-pitched shock wave that sounded like the shattering of glass. 

The spatial control spell had been nullified; the recoil made the air itself shudder. 

The blue knight’s body seemed to melt into the air itself as it vanished. 

All that remained was Kojou’s body, slowly falling with his face up, almost like a marionette with its strings cut. 

But what Kojou’s back felt was not the hard sensation of the floor, but something soft and supple wrapping around him. Yukina had caught Kojou’s body from behind just as he was about to hit the floor. 

The scars of the deep spear wound remained in Kojou’s chest. However, the blow had just missed the heart. It was not a fatal blow to a vampire possessing a high level of regenerative ability. 

It was a grave wound nonetheless. Kojou Akatsuki made a frail moan as he pressed down on his bloody chest. 

“Ow…” 

Yukina let out a sigh of relief as she peered down at the look on the Fourth Primogenitor’s face. 

It was not a gallant face, nor a tragic one. It seemed a bit listless somehow, but it was the look of a common high schooler—it was the face he always wore, and one she knew very well. 

Yukina put her hands over both his ears, as if to keep him from hearing, as she murmured gently to herself alone. 

“Welcome back, senpai—”