Strike the Blood - Volume 6 - Chapter 5

CHAPTER FIVE 

THE UNDINE 

1 

At the bow of the ferry, Kanon Kanase stood alone. 

Behind her were the pale sky and the azure ocean, stretching as far as the eye could see. Her silver hair danced under the sun’s gaze, turning nearly transparent. 

It was a beautiful scene worthy of a painting, but Kanon had no time to appreciate it, for the alchemist in the white coat was standing on the deck, cornering her. 

Amatsuka spread both arms and smiled innocently as he said, “Our game of tag is at an end.” 

He wore a checkered outfit that made him look like a stage magician. And his left hand was gripping a golden skull. 

Kanon stepped backward as if trying to get away. However, her slender waist immediately bumped against the railing. There was nothing on the other side of the barrier save the ocean’s surface. There was nowhere left to run. 

Even so, the alchemist shook his head, gazing at the girl in obvious admiration. 

“A wise decision. Here, none of the other passengers will be involved, and there is no way for me to conceal my approach. You can even leap down to the ocean and kill yourself if the mood strikes you. Well, not that it would do you any good.” 

Amatsuka’s sneer was cruel. 

“You are not the only fuel available—the Sword Shaman of the Lion King Agency is here, and a few others as well. Your death will change nothing. Besides, once the Wiseman is resurrected, he’ll kill all of you anyway, so don’t hate me, okay?” 

Amatsuka’s right hand changed into a silver blade. 

A single swing would end Kanon’s life in an instant. However, Amatsuka had no intention of killing her just yet; his objective was to offer her as fuel to the Wiseman instead. She would be infused with his blood while still alive; once she became part of the liquid metal, all of her spiritual power would be extracted until she was reduced to a skeleton, just like the children at the convent long ago— 

Kanon knew this full well, and yet, her eyes never wavered as she gazed at Amatsuka. It was as if she pitied him. “You still cannot remember, can you?” she asked, out of the blue. 

Amatsuka’s expression trembled very slightly. 

“…What?” 

“I remember you. Also, I remember back when everyone at the abbey was killed.” 

Kanon stared straight at Amatsuka. Her expression exhibited both determination and pity—but nothing else. 

“You were a sad person,” she continued. “You didn’t realize that you had been deceived.” 

“What are you talking about?” Amatsuka asked, prickling. 

His voice was clearly shaken. 

Kanon calmly brushed her hair off her cheek. Her gaze seemed to be cowing Amatsuka into silence. 

“What did you want the Wiseman to do in exchange for his resurrection?” 

“That’s obvious. I want to be human again. I want him to revive the half of my body that he ate! I wouldn’t do a single thing he says if not for that!” 

Amatsuka ripped apart the collar of his white coat as he spoke. In so doing, he exposed to her how the quicksilver had ghoulishly subsumed the right side of his body. 

Yet, even that did not make Kanon’s expression waver. Gently, she asked, “Tell me this, then. Who are you…?” 

“Ah?” 

“If you were a human being before, surely you have memories of that time. When were you born? Where? What kind of life did you live…?” 

When Kanon finished asking her questions, a brief pause settled between them. 

Amatsuka made no reply. He couldn’t reply. The very fact that he could not was backing him into a corner of his own. Indeed, he seemed to have to force his next words out. 

“Shut up…Kanon Kanase…” 

But the girl only shook her head. “The Wiseman shall not grant your wish, for you were never a human being to begin with. You are merely something the Wiseman created for the sake of his own resurrection—” 

“SHUT UUUUUUP!!” 

Amatsuka roared with rage. His bladed right arm thrust forward, aimed at Kanon’s heart. It was a remorseless blow. Kanon made no move to evade it. 

She was fully resigned to her own death—until a light suddenly flowed out from her chest. As she watched, it grew into a silver wolf that beat away Amatsuka’s right arm. 

“A shikigami—?!” 

The tentacle branching off the alchemist’s arm beat down on the silver wolf from every direction, ripping it to shreds. The shikigami Yukina had given to Kanon under the guise of a charm soon reverted to a paper cutout. 

Amatsuka breathed raggedly as he lashed out with his whip-like arm to attack Kanon once more. But a new silhouette landed in front of Kanon and beat it away. 

The silhouette—a girl—stood poised with a knife in each hand, shielding Kanon as she glared at Amatsuka. 

“Yukina…,” Kanon breathed. 

The girl sighed with relief when she saw Kanon was safe. “I’m glad I made it in time.” 

The shikigami Yukina had given to Kanon under the guise of a charm had not been solely to protect her. It also functioned as a transmitter, informing the caster—Yukina—of Kanon’s location. 

Amatsuka scratched at his forehead as he laughed roughly. “And so you interfere with me again, Sword Shaman… Oh well, it saves me the trouble of looking for you.” 

A look of nervousness and fright came over Yukina’s eyes. 

The metal deck swayed and melted away, and countless shadows emerged to surround Yukina and Kanon. They were all slender men wearing white coats—clones of Kou Amatsuka. Due to the unreasonable amount of division and growth, not a single one was able to maintain a perfect human form. But that only served to make them all the more frightening. 

Amatsuka’s voice was triumphant. “Certainly those knives are troublesome, but I can fuse with anything I can get my hands on. You have no chance of victory, nor anywhere to run.” 

She was forced to accept that he spoke the truth. They were backed into a corner of the deck with only the ocean behind them. Yukina and Kanon had nowhere to run, nor any weapon that could oppose the man. 

They could yearn for rescue, but this was the middle of the sea. Surely there was no means of arriving all the way to the ship in the short time it would take Amatsuka to dispose of them. 

Surely nothing so convenient existed in that world— 

“Huh?!” 

But the word Yukina let slip in her moment of crisis sounded dumbfounded, and oddly cute. 

The corner of Yukina’s vision was displaying an unbelievable sight. 

“What in the…?” 

Seeing Yukina’s surprised gaze, Amatsuka looked behind him. Then he, too, saw it: a gray, flying object skimming the surface of the sea, a wake of steam trailing behind it. The weapon was pitiless, on a collision course mercilessly aimed right at the ferry— 

“A cruise missile?! That’s insane?!” 

By the time he’d figured it out, it was too late. Floaty, prototype aircraft of the Kingdom of Aldegia, had a cruise speed of Mach 2.8. By the time it entered visible range, it had all but already arrived. 

But they were not immediately assailed by the impact they expected. 

The moment they thought the cruise missile would hit them dead-on, it transformed into silvery mist, grazing just past the ferry’s hull. When the missile finally re-materialized, it slammed into the sea somewhere well-removed from the ferry, shattering into pieces and sinking. All that remained was the thick mist filling up their fields of vision— 

Bathed in the powerful magical surge permeating the air, Yukina shouted: “That mist…?!” It can’t be?!” 

It was no ordinary mist enveloping the ferry. A giant, non-corporeal, shelled beast floated up amid the dense fog. 

This was one of the twelve Beast Vassals that served the Fourth Primogenitor. The thick, destructive fog was the creation of Natra Cinereus, the Fourth Beast Vassal, able to transform any kind of solid matter into mist. 

A dull thud reached their ears as the ferry’s hull trembled like a leaf. 

Then the sonic boom generated by the cruise missile assailed them a moment later. 

When that impact faded away, there was a new silhouette appearing upon the deck of the ferry. The thick, silver particulate collected together and materialized into a teenage boy wearing a parka and a girl with bronzed skin in a school uniform. 

The teenage boy was wobbly as he stood up, wiping the blood flowing down his forehead. 

“—Ow… Aw, crap, screwed up the landing a bit…” 

The girl stared at him, dumbfounded, and pronounced, “You are quite a careless man. I would be dead, ’twere I not immortal.” 

“Couldn’t be helped, geez. We got spat out at thirty-four hundred kilometers per hour there. I thought we’d be pancakes.” 

As Yukina stood rooted to the spot and stared, the teenage boy let out a ferocious laugh. “Well, thanks to all that, looks like we made it in time…!” 

“Senpai…” Yukina seemed unable to believe the sight of Kojou Akatsuki in her wide-open eyes. 

Then, wiping tears from their corners, she sprinted toward Kojou. 

2 

“Huh?!” 

Yukina, half in tears, leaped right into Kojou’s chest. 

With both hands, she was still firmly gripping the knife. The expression on Kojou’s face froze stiff when that sunk in. 

“What on Earth were you thinking, senpai?! How could you do something so dangerous—!” 

Yukina repeatedly slammed her fist against Kojou’s chest. The action itself was rather endearing, but her hand around the grip of a blade made the square blows quite painful. 

Gbah! Kojou gasped as the air was forced out of his lungs, and he somehow managed to get ahold of Yukina’s wrist. 

“Ain’t it obvious?! I came to save you and the others!!” 

“I didn’t ask you to do any such thing!” 

Kojou groaned as Yukina rejected his benevolence. It was a bit deflating. 

“So then you put yourself in danger, too?!” she continued. “And what kind of person comes to the rescue charging in with a missile?!” 

“Er… It’s not a missile, it’s apparently a prototype aircraft…technically.” 

“Don’t tell me an easily disprovable lie like a little child!” 

“Um, no, it ah, it really is an air—” 

Yukina fiercely raised her eyebrows as she glared at Kojou. Kojou, thoroughly at a loss, looked up at the sky. 

“Could you save your quarrels for later? Kanon seems quite beside herself.” From Nina’s tone of voice, her annoyance was clear as day. 

Yukina gave the woman a guarded look. It wasn’t the first time they’d met, but it was the first time the two were properly exchanging words. “And this is…?” 

“The great alchemist, Nina Adelard,” Kojou introduced. “She’s the proper owner, or caretaker you could say, of the Wiseman’s Blood.” 

Indeed, nodded Nina, quite full of herself. 

But Yukina was staring straight at the woman’s unnaturally large breasts. 

“…Why does she look like Asagi? And what’s with that chest…?” 

Upon hearing Yukina’s strangely sullen question, Kojou awkwardly replied, “There’s some pretty deep circumstances involved. Don’t worry about it.” 

“Akatsuki!” 

Kanon had let out a desperate shout. 

Having recovered from the missile’s sonic boom, Amatsuka glared at Kojou and the others with a look of naked rage. 

Kojou took the guitar case off his back and shoved it into Yukina’s hands. “Himeragi!” 

Yukina’s eyes widened in surprise. “That case…!” 

“Special delivery from Professor Kitty and Kirasaka.” 

“From Master and Sayaka—?!” 

As Kojou smiled back and nodded, Yukina drew her silver armament from the luggage. The blade slid out from the grip, its side blades deploying to the left and right. The spear had elongated into its familiar form. 

All at once, the Amatsuka clones surrounding Kojou and the others launched their tentacle attacks en masse. The elongated strands poured in from all directions. However, Yukina no longer felt a need to be hasty. The outcome of the battle had been decided the moment Kojou had arrived with her spear. 

“Snowdrift Wolf!” 

As Yukina shouted its name, the silver spear emitted a pale glow. This was the radiance of the Divine Oscillation Effect, which nullified all magical energy and could rend any barrier. 

With ease, she severed the metallic tentacles born from alchemy, returning them to their proper, original form—in other words, mere piles of metal. 

Kojou summoned a Beast Vassal in turn: 

“C’mon over, Al-Meissa Mercury!” 

It was a two-headed dragon with flickering, quicksilver scales. This was the Dimension Eater, able to consume space from any dimension. It consumed one supposedly immutable Amatsuka clone after another, erasing them from the world. 

Kojou pretended not to notice how parts of the deck were being consumed in the process. It was futile to hope for surgical control of the super-powered Beast Vassals of the Fourth Primogenitor. As long as the ship didn’t sink, it was good enough. 

With all his clones soon lost, Amatsuka’s face twisted in abject humiliation. “Erg…!” 

It was Nina who stepped before him. Desolately gazing down at the man she once called an apprentice, she declared in a cruel yet gentle voice: “Stop this, Kou Amatsuka. Hand over the Wiseman’s remains, now.” 

Amatsuka gripped a golden skull as he let out a halting voice. 

“Nina Adelard…” 

Nina’s gaze fell to his chest, and the black stone embedded within. “You gradually realized it, did you not? You are a homunculus created by vestiges of the Wiseman’s Spirit Blood. He implanted your craving to ‘restore’ your humanity, but he is merely using you.” 

Amatsuka glared up at Nina with bitter hatred in his eyes. “So even you…would say such a thing, Master…” 

However, Nina gently accepted Amatsuka’s gaze. “It is not the body that decides whether someone is a person. It is whether you have a soul. Both I and the vampire there have lost our human bodies, yet we both struggle to live as people. There is no reason whatsoever for you to obey Wiseman.” 

“Reason… My reason… To obey…” 

Drained of energy, Amatsuka let the golden skull fall from his hand. It made a dull metallic echo as it rolled onto the deck, rattling. 

“Ka…ka-ka…ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka…” 

And then, the vibration began to emit a bizarre sound that resembled laughter. 

Nina suspiciously raised an eyebrow. Amatsuka stared at the skull, completely dumbfounded. 

Kojou and the others had no idea what was happening. All they sensed was the malevolent aura that accompanied the skull’s eerie laughter. 

Then, they clearly heard the skull speak of its own volition: 

“Ka-ka-ka-ka-ka… It is too late, Imperfect Ones.” 

It was an eerie voice that seemed to be speaking directly into their minds. 

“…Wiseman?!” Nina shouted, looking around the area in alarm. 

Kojou kept the two-headed dragon materialized as he stepped in front of her, brushing her aside. “Nina, is that golden skull the Wiseman?! If so, I’ll—” 

Just when Kojou was going to order his Beast Vassal to attack, annihilating it and the very space with it, Kojou realized: The golden skull’s open jaw was drawing in an incredible level of energy. 

“—Regulus Aurum!” 

Kojou summoned his Vassal on instinct. The giant lion, enveloped by lightning, materialized in front of Kojou and the others at around the same time the golden skull emitted a bright beam. It seared their vision white, and an explosion shook the entire ship. 

The air distorted so fast and hard that it physically hurt; it was like being next to a lightning-bolt strike. However, Kojou and the others were unharmed. The damage to the ferry was also rather light—but only because the lightning lion had deflected the torrent of energy. 

Yet, the raw power of the golden skull’s attack remained, evident from the heat and the stench of ozone fresh in the air. 

“Senpai…! That’s…?!” 

“The heavy metal particle cannon…?! Shit…!” 

The golden skull’s attack was identical to the assault on the Itogami Island pier: a beam weapon that sucked in a vast amount of energy to spew out energized heavy metal particles. Since it wasn’t a magical attack, even Yukina’s spear couldn’t fend it off. 

But fortunately, Kojou’s Regulus Aurum was a Beast Vassal that controlled vast amounts of electrical energy in its own right. The lightning lion had deflected and neutralized the particle beam with an electromagnetic field. 

However, put another way, it took a Beast Vassal of the Fourth Primogenitor to block the Wiseman’s attack. It was a monster entirely worthy of the man-made “God” moniker, but… 

Like an afterthought, Nina let out a murmur: 

“No…” 

She shot Kojou a bewildered look. “No, Kojou. That is not the Wiseman! If that is the Wiseman, then where is the Wiseman’s Blood?!” 

“—Aah?!” 

Kojou stared in shock at the little skull that had rolled onto the deck. It was just a skull; it was merely one piece of the Wiseman’s body. It didn’t have a single piece of the living liquid metal that constituted the body of the man-made “God.” 

Yukina shifted her gaze to her own feet. “It can’t be!” 

Her focus was not at the damaged hull of the ferry, but farther beneath them— 

“The Wiseman targeted this ship not only because Kanon and I were on it, but because…!” 

Nina let out a cry of horror. “Seawater?!” 

Seeing their reactions, Kojou belatedly remembered something. He’d heard it before from somewhere: The ocean’s water had precious metals like gold and uranium in it. Some said there were hundreds of thousands or even millions of tons in total, enough to build your own artificial island either way. That was why the Wiseman had set his sights upon the sea. 

The precious metals in seawater amounted to trace levels; no technology existed to efficiently extract them, so they stayed in the ocean. But if the magical creature could make use of alchemy through a large enough amount of its energy— 

Hiding in the bowels of the ship, it had probably assembled a rather large amount of precious metals in just the time since the ship had left Itogami Island. The Wiseman probably had more than enough raw resources to make a complete comeback. 

“Ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka— O World, become part of my perfection!” 

Piercing through the ferry’s hull, a gigantic mass of Wiseman’s Blood rose from within the sea. It swallowed the golden skull that had fallen upon the deck and finally took a completely humanoid form: a giant, some six or seven meters in height— 

“Like hell you wiiiiill!” yelled Kojou. 

He commanded his Beast Vassal to attack right when the golden giant unleashed a beam of light— 

And enveloped in the incredible explosion that followed, the hull of the ferry was easily ripped into two. 

3 

“U…gh…” 

Enveloped by soft, crimson fluid, Yukina finally regained consciousness. 

Opening her eyes, she saw the raw edge of the wrecked hull alongside the blue sky. Apparently, she’d fallen into the ship from the edge and blacked out. 

Debris bobbed all around, and the wrecked hull was still giving off considerable heat. 

She’d only been out of it for two or three minutes since the explosion, which should have been a fairly short length of time. 

And yet, the situation around her had completely changed. 

About one-fourth of the ship had been torn away from the bow. The students taking shelter at the boat’s stern were likely safe for now, but the ship would inevitably sink. 

Furthermore, the question of what had happened to the Wiseman tugged at her mind, as well as Kojou, who’d clashed with the creature head-on— 

Yukina gasped and sat up. “Senpai—!” 

Her five senses were operating normally, her body was virtually without a scratch, and she was still firmly gripping her silver spear. She’d fallen some seven or eight meters from the deck, but the crimson fluid had apparently served to cushion her fall. 

Yukina was bewildered, until she realized just what the fluid was. “This is the Wiseman’s Blood…? Ah, Miss Nina?” 

Likely, Nina had returned her own body to liquid metal the instant Kojou and the creature had clashed, in order to protect Yukina and the others. Yukina was safe as a result. 

However, Nina made no reply to her call. That gave Yukina pause. 

Also, Kanon was lying directly beside Yukina, unconscious. “Oh, Kanon?! I’m so relieved…” 

Kanon had no notable external injuries. Like Yukina, she’d simply blacked out from the shock of the explosion. Confirming that there were no irregularities with Kanon’s breathing, Yukina put a hand to her chest in relief. 

But the next moment, Yukina’s relief suddenly inverted to complete despair. 

“Sen…pai?” 

From behind, she saw Kojou, illuminated by the sun’s rays falling on the break in the deck. He hadn’t moved a muscle since releasing his Beast Vassal. His body had stopped, frozen like that— 

“Senpai?! Senpai, get it together!” 

Yukina rushed to his side—only to be shocked beyond words. 

What she found there wasn’t Kojou. It was a lead statue that looked like him. 

She didn’t even have to think about it; what had happened was all too clear. Kou Amatsuka had attacked Kojou, whose full attention was focused on the Wiseman, transmuting him. The immortal, immutable vampire primogenitor was neutralized, frozen in time as metal. 

“N-no…” 

Yukina fell at Kojou’s feet. 

Several times, she had witnessed Kojou suffer mortal injuries firsthand. He’d revived from those like nothing had happened, all thanks to the bizarre regenerative ability that all primogenitors possessed. Even if a primogenitor suffered grievous wounds that would instantly slay even an Old Guard vampire, he or she wouldn’t die, for that was their curse: the curse of immortality, imparted by the gods themselves— 

However, Kojou’s current situation was different. He hadn’t been killed. He’d simply been changed into an inanimate object. He couldn’t move; he couldn’t think—he was simply a mass of metal. 

If he wasn’t dead, he couldn’t come back to life. 

It was simple, even inane logic. But the very fact it was so simple meant there was no way to escape it. Kojou would live on forever…as a metal object. 

“I won’t let that—” 

Yukina bit her lip as she gripped the silver spear. Perhaps Snowdrift Wolf, able to nullify magic, could save Kojou from his present state. If the Divine Oscillation Effect injured Kojou’s body, Kojou would recover from that as he had done so before. If he returned to his flesh and blood, surely he could be saved. 

But no matter how much Yukina pressed the glowing tip of her spear head against the statue, nothing changed. 

“Why?!” 

He remained in that state, an unmoving mass of lead. She detected no sign of revival. 

Her hands lost all strength. The silver spear slid out of her grip and rolled to her feet. 

As Yukina stood in disbelief, she heard a small, halting voice: 

“…Once something has been transmuted to metal, there is no longer any active magical energy. Even if that spear can nullify magic, it cannot return him to his original form. What was once Kojou is now a thing shaped like Kojou, not a vampire.” 

When Yukina slowly looked back, she saw Nina—but only her torso. The crimson gemstone in her chest was cracked; half of it was missing. So she, too, had been wounded by the Wiseman’s attack. 

“…For a single moment, to save his friends, Kojou transformed the ship into mist, which allowed it to avoid a direct hit from the particle cannon. However, thanks to that, Kojou could not escape Amatsuka’s attack, which immediately followed.” 

Having stated this, Nina’s body crumbled. Her liquid metal body had deteriorated beyond the point of being able to sustain a human shape. 

“…My power was only sufficient to protect thee and Kanon. I am sor—” 

With that, Nina’s words cut off. Her voice became inaudible. 

Apparently, the Wiseman had finished collecting the fragments of its body that Kojou’s attack had blown away. She was sure he’d be fully operational in minutes. 

Yukina reached down to her spear. But she lacked the strength to pick it up again. 

Either way, Yukina had no way to defend against the Wiseman’s attacks. What could she do, left alone by herself like this? 

And the ferry’s hull had already been split in two. Left behind on the bow and cast onto a lower deck, she had no chance of reaching a lifeboat. Even if the Wiseman allowed her to escape, Yukina had no way to actually do so and survive— 

“Eh…?” 

In the midst of such thoughts, Yukina realized something was odd. 

Yes. The ferry had been split into two pieces. Why, then, hadn’t it sunk? Why did she feel like it hadn’t even begun sinking? 

Yukina stood up and looked out the ripped hull in utter disbelief. 

“Ice?! The ocean’s been frozen to support the ship…?!” 

The seawater around the ferry had been frozen, forming ice that reached a diameter of several hundred meters in breadth. The ship was sitting on an iceberg. 

It was freezing magic—but she’d never heard of any demon or sorcerer that could use it on such a scale. 

No, there was exactly one exception—a Beast Vassal belonging to the Fourth Primogenitor, the World’s Mightiest Vampire. 

As Yukina stood, astonished, she heard a familiar voice. A girl’s voice… 

“…A pathetic showing against that alchemist-made piece of scrap metal, boy.” 

Yukina looked back. The speaker was Nagisa. But the inhumanly detached tone clearly belonged to another. 

Nagisa, who seemed to have appeared out of thin air, approached Kojou in his metal-transformed state. Her hair was undone, making her look far more adult than usual, giving off a loveliness that could make someone shiver. 

“But I applaud you for protecting this girl to the bitter end.” 

Nagisa’s slender fingertip touched Kojou’s immobile chin, and her lips curled up into a smile. “In honor of this, I shall grant you a small portion of my strength. Awaken, Sadalmelik—” 

Then, Nagisa’s lips met Kojou’s. 

Yukina forgot to blink as she stared. In shock, her breathing came to a halt. Apparently, even though Yukina was right beside her, the current Nagisa paid no heed at all. 

After the kiss, which seemed indecently long to Yukina, Nagisa gently pulled back from Kojou. Then… 

Kojou, frozen as metal until that very moment, instantly returned to flesh and blood. 

“What?!” gasped Yukina. 

Surely, deep down, she’d known from the start it would be so. Nagisa did not linger to watch Kojou revive; she turned her back to him and walked off. And Yukina had been unable to say a single word to stop her. 

That was because a sudden, incredible surge of magical energy had begun, shaking the ship and making the very air tremble. 

“S-senpai?!” 

The power source was Kojou. Having regained his body of flesh and blood, he’d begun indiscriminately releasing an overwhelming, titanic surge of intense, destructive demonic power… 

As she realized the cause of Kojou’s running amok, Yukina exclaimed: 

“You don’t mean the Fourth Primogenitor’s blood has taken over…?!” 

The “woman” possessing Nagisa had probably awakened a new Beast Vassal inside Kojou. But the Beast Vassal had flown into a rage at being so rudely awakened. It still hadn’t duly recognized Kojou as its host and master. 

Overwhelmed by the explosive torrent of magical energy, Yukina cried out, “Senpai, you mustn’t! Wake up!!” 

If Kojou didn’t get the Beast Vassal under control, Yukina couldn’t even picture the tragic results. If the current Kojou and the Wiseman duked it out that moment, it would surely mean more than the ferry’s destruction. In the worst case, even the Earth’s mantle, deep at the bottom of the sea, might be affected. 

“Ugh…!” She didn’t have any time to hesitate. Yukina gripped Snowdrift Wolf and pointed the sharp, polished tip of the silver spear straight at Kojou’s heart. 

The weapon ripped through even the incredible demonic power of the Fourth Primogenitor to reach Kojou’s very body. 

“Senpai—!” 

I’m sorry, Yukina prayed to herself, as she lashed out with her spear. 

The torrent of titanic magical energy was instantly cut off. Taking advantage of the momentary opening, Yukina leaped to Kojou’s side. She wrapped her arms around him as he stood defenseless and pressed her lips to his. What then flowed into him was blood: Yukina’s own, after she’d bitten her own lip. 

If Kojou’s power as a vampire had been thrown off-kilter, all it’d take was a little stimulation, arousing his vampiric urges, to throw it back in order. Yukina couldn’t think of any other way to awaken Kojou from having his mind overridden by his Beast Vassal. But if she could make Kojou’s lust win over his Beast Vassal’s anger… 

“Wha…?!” 

She’d anticipated it to some extent, but the change in Kojou was…dramatic. 

Feeling herself roughly embraced, Yukina stopped breathing. With her defenseless, Kojou’s lips pressed against hers once more. It was a very, very long kiss, as if he was drinking the blood from Yukina’s lip down to the very last drop… 

Yukina felt a soft shiver climb up her spine. After stiffening once, the strength drained from her body. 

As if bewitched by Yukina’s scent, Kojou dove toward her neck. 

“Ah…” 

Yukina’s voice leaked out. As she arched backward, Kojou’s fangs pressed against her pale neck. 

Yukina trembled in pain and fear. Even so, she moved her hands to Kojou’s back, the broadest smile she could muster coming over her as she whispered into his ear. 

“Senpai… Please… Just, hurry…” 

Taking her plea as an invitation, Kojou sank his fangs into Yukina’s flesh. 

She fiercely shut her eyes. Until finally, a faint sigh escaped from her lips. 

4 

What Kojou saw upon regaining consciousness was a completely changed world. 

The ferry’s hull had been ripped apart. The surface of the sea surrounding them was covered in ice. Remaining inside the ship was Nina’s Hard Core, smashed to pieces— 

And for some reason, Yukina had collapsed against Kojou’s own chest as if she were having a dizzy spell. 

“Himeragi…?!” 

Kojou was in a fierce panic as he called her name into her ear. He didn’t know why he was in this situation, but he’d vaguely put two and two together and figured out what he’d done. 

After all, even then, the sensation of Yukina’s bodily fluids remained deep in his throat. He felt strangely guilty about that for some reason. 

He faintly recalled that his own demonic power had been knocked out of control, and, too, that he had gained mastery over a new Beast Vassal— 

Yukina continued heavily leaning on Kojou as she gently opened her eyes. 

“I’m…so glad you’re back to normal, senpai…” Looking up at Kojou’s rocked expression, she breathed a sigh of visible relief. 

The sweet scent of her hair tickled Kojou’s nostrils, further throwing him off. Pressed against his chest, Yukina’s shoulders seemed unbelievably slender and delicate, like carelessly touching them with any strength at all would break them. But it was she who had halted Kojou’s rampage. 

Kojou cleared his throat and sighed aloud. “…Sorry. Looks like you had to save me again.” 

Yes, sighed Yukina, a teasing smile on her face. “You truly are an indecent vampire. However, this time it became our silver lining.” 

“Uhh…” 

All Kojou could do was make a tiny murmur. Thanks to having no proper memory of the event, he couldn’t refute what Yukina had said. But it was no time to worry about such things. The Wiseman was still alive. And even at that very moment, the passengers and crew of the ferry were in mortal danger. 

“Oh, right…! Kanase?!” 

Kojou posed the question to Yukina, still in his arms. The pair stayed like that until he heard a reserved voice speak up behind him. 

“Excuse me… I’m over here.” 

As Kojou turned around, he saw Kanon, who for some reason was sitting in proper Japanese style, timidly waving her hand. The deep redness spotting her cheeks clearly indicated she had been a witness. 

“Kanon…?!” Yukina exclaimed. 

“K-Kanase?! Y-you…saw?” Kojou asked, his voice as shrill as Yukina’s. 

It seemed that Kanon had watched Kojou drink Yukina’s blood. Though the cat was now very much out of the bag, Kojou, who was technically trying to conceal that he was a vampire, couldn’t hide how shaken he was. 

However, Kanon’s reaction…differed somewhat from Kojou’s and Yukina’s expectations. 

“That was…incredible. Yukina, you looked so…mature…” 

Kanon’s words seemed embarrassed, yet tinged with a bit of awe. 

Yukina’s eyes widened, even as her face twitched. 

“N-no, that wasn’t anything of the sort at all.” 

“It’s all right. I won’t tell anyone.” 

“I said, it’s…!” 

Nina Adelard, watching Yukina and Kanon bicker, shouted, “Leave the minor details for later! There’s no time. The Wiseman will soon complete his regeneration.” 

Apparently, she’d assembled the last fragments of the Spirit Blood to somehow reassemble a portion of her body. In other words, Nina’s Hard Core was still functioning. 

The next moment, a golden light flew above Kojou’s and the others’ heads. It was the Wiseman’s heavy-metal particle beam. However, Kojou wiped the attack out with a single flick of his right hand. 

Kojou’s entire body was emitting incredible demonic power as he glared up at the Wiseman in the sky above them. Apparently, Kojou had gained new strength from taming a new Beast Vassal. 

“Kanase,” Kojou asked Kanon in an unrushed voice, “can I leave Nina in your hands?” 

The silver-haired girl smiled charmingly and nodded as she embraced Nina. She pulled Nina, still in mid-regeneration, over her lap. 

Nina looked up at Kojou’s back and raised a voice of concern. “Kojou… I…” 

This was the Wiseman, a man-made “God” born from the darkest secrets of alchemy: Nina knew its terror only too well. 

However, Kojou smiled impetuously, baring his fangs, as a malevolent aura spread about him. 

“It’s all right,” he assured. “I’m gonna smash Golden Boy to pieces and end your two-hundred-and-seventy-year-old nightmare right here. From here on, this is my fight—!” 

Alongside Kojou, the small silhouette seemingly nestled into his side walked forward. Poising her silver spear, Yukina stared above the ripped deck and declared: 

“No, senpai. It’s ours.” 

The target of Yukina’s glare was Kou Amatsuka, standing with his body in tatters. Having lost his entire purpose, all that remained in his eyes was pure hatred for Kojou and the others. 

And floating in the sky above them, the golden giant continued is dry crackle of laughter, as if mocking the whole world. 

That was the signal that announced the start of the battle. 

5 

The Wiseman’s body already stood dozens of meters tall. And though humanoid in nature, he had neither eyes nor ears. The glossy curves covering his entire body looked like something half-designed that had been left behind in a sculpting class. Yet even so, his silhouette, with a high ratio of gold in its makeup, felt strangely beautiful. 

Spheres were embedded at various points in his body. They greatly resembled Nina’s Hard Core, moving like eyes as they gazed coldly at all below. 

And when his great, skeletal-like mouth opened, there was a vortex of golden light within, swirling like flames. 

“Ka…ka-ka…ka-ka-ka-ka… Fools! You defy me still, O Imperfect Ones?” 

Charged particles scattered out from his laughing mouth— 

But the lightning lion that Kojou summoned swatted down the particle beam. 

“Shaddup, Sparky.” 

In response, the Wiseman transformed one of his arms into a giant blade, slamming it down toward the hull of the half-wrecked ferry. 

It was the incandescent bicorn that halted this attack. Emitting an explosive shock wave, it drove back the seemingly infinite tentacles coming from their massive nemesis. 

“It’s not like I don’t have any sympathy. Here you were, made into a perfect being without a clue about anythin’, and then sealed away by having all your blood taken out from you. So your upbringing sucked. If it hadn’t, you’d have understood things a lot faster, but here you are, two hundred and seventy years later and just not getting it.” 

The eyes all over the Wiseman’s body leered at Kojou. 

“Ka…ka… You do not understand. The imperfect logic of imperfect beings cannot comprehend me.” 

Kojou scoffed and laughed with mock pity. “Yeah, you can spit beams outta your mouth, and you have an indestructible body, but what’s that power ever done for ya? Did anyone accept you? Why didn’t you use all that ‘perfect’ power to help other people? You not being able to get somethin’ that basic is why those ‘imperfect’ beings sealed you up to begin with—!” 

“Ka-ka… You fail to understand. I do not require acceptance, for I am the one and only perfect being!” 

The Wiseman furiously shook his head like a baby throwing a tantrum. 

“Oh, is that so? Then I’ll have to spank into you that you’re not the center of the world!” Eyes dyed crimson, Kojou glared at the golden giant. In addition, two new Beast Vassals emerged, their roars making the ice-covered ocean surface quake. 

Upon the frozen surface of the sea, the Sword Shaman of the Lion King Agency and Kou Amatsuka faced off. 

His liquid-metal tentacles turned into the sharpest of blades and rushed at Yukina, nearly at supersonic speed. However, the silver spear traced a beautiful course, completely striking down the attack. 

With their magical energy severed by Snowdrift Wolf, Amatsuka’s sliced-apart tentacles reverted into simple metal fragments and clattered as they scattered all over the ice. 

“You know you’re just being used, yet you still want to fight?” Yukina asked quietly. 

As it forced its destroyed tentacles to regenerate, a hollow smile came over the metallic life-form calling itself Kou Amatsuka. 

“Sorry. I don’t know what else there is for me anymore, so…” 

Yukina stared at him just below his neck. “Kou Amatsuka… You’re already…” 

The black jewel embedded in his chest was heavily damaged and had lost much of its shape. Even the slightest movement caused fragments to break apart. 

“I’m scared…I’ll stop being me… Just who am I? Why was I born? What should I do?!” 

Amatsuka’s right arm burst apart along with his shout. The infinite fragments shot through the air and assailed Yukina like a grenade. 

As she slipped through the attack, she shook her head. “I don’t know. The search for those answers is what defines us as people!” 

“…!” 

Amatsuka’s ceaseless attacks let up for a brief moment. Not letting that moment escape her, Yukina’s lips formed a solemn chant. 

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

The ritual energy welling up inside Yukina’s flesh and blood amplified within Snowdrift Wolf. The dazzling light given off by the tip of her spear proceeded to make Amatsuka’s body crumble to pieces. 

“I see… I’m…” 

As the pale light enveloped Amatsuka, the expression he gave off somehow seemed…soft. 

There was no need for him to do the Wiseman’s bidding. There was no need for him to hurt a large number of people and sacrifice them to satisfy his desire for a human body… Because the moment he had truly wished to be human was the moment that he’d become human. If only he had realized— 

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

Slipping past Amatsuka’s final attack, Yukina’s attack impaled his chest. This time, the damaged black gemstone completely shattered. In that instant, the being that had once been Amatsuka lost its shape, falling apart like a pile of sand. All that remained were fragments of the gemstone, its glow extinguished. 

Yukina made a soft sigh before turning her face upward. 

“Senpai…!” 

Even then, the Fourth Primogenitor and Wiseman continued to do battle. 

“—C’mon over, Regulus Aurum! Al-Nasl Minium!” 

The lightning lion and the incandescent bicorn collided with the golden giant head-on. The impact split the sea and rendered the very air unstable. Had such combat taken place in an urban area, shocking levels of damage would have been inflicted on the surrounding neighborhood. 

“Natra Cinereus! Al-Meissa Mercury!” 

Kojou summoned all the Beast Vassals at his command to keep the Wiseman boxed in. The lightning lion neutralized the heavy particle beam cannon, while the bicorn and the shelled beast nullified the golden body’s physical attacks. 

However, that was nowhere near enough to defeat him. 

Only the two-headed dragon could do that, annihilating the golden life-form and overcoming its infinite multiplication by consuming it and the very space it occupied. But the Wiseman’s body had grown too large for the dragon to remove an effective chunk. 

The amorphous creature freely transformed its golden body to flee from the two-headed dragon’s maws. It was understandable; even Kojou couldn’t conceive of what kind of damage would occur if it simply wolfed down the entire area’s space. The ferry being sucked into a fracture in space might be the least of it. 

“Ka…ka-ka… Why do you defy me, O Imperfect One…? Why do you reject becoming part of my perfect world?” 

Using alchemy to extract precious metals from the seawater, the Wiseman’s power increased to infinity. At this rate, he might very well swallow the entire world, erasing all existence other than himself. He’d probably spared the ferry because he still wanted to use Kanon and others as raw resources. 

The Wiseman, able to fight four Beast Vassals of the Fourth Primogenitor on equal terms, looked very much up to the term God. Even so, Kojou’s will to fight did not waver. Indeed, the enormous demonic energy emitted by Kojou only seemed to increase. 

“I told ya already. You ain’t perfect,” Kojou laughed scornfully, taunting the golden giant. “Just like ya said, I’m imperfect. So if even I can beat you, you’re even less than imperfect!” 

The Wiseman’s eyeballs turned and glared at Kojou all at once. Perhaps he’d only recognized the possibility just then. His exaggerated reaction suggested as much: 

“Impossible… My perfection contains no such contradiction…!” 

His nakedly enraged voice filled the air. 

Kojou bluntly dismissed the tawdry pride for what it was. “What’s your perfection worth if you’ve gotta wipe out everyone inconvenient to you to keep it safe?” 

“Ka-ka… Silence!! I, the perfect being, command thee to be silent!!” 

Kojou had nothing more to say. Instead, he simply raised his right arm toward the enraged golden Titan. Fresh blood gushed out of his arm, bathing it in a pale blue light of explosive magical force. 

“I, Kojou Akatsuki, heir to the Kaleid Blood, release thee from thy bonds—” 

Emerging from within the beam was a new Beast Vassal, its body transparent like flowing water. Its upper half was a beautiful woman; its lower, a snake. Countless serpents ran down its form like hair. 

It was a pale Undine—a sea monster. 

“C’mon over, Beast Vassal Number Eleven, Sadalmelik Albus—!” 

The water spirit’s great serpentine body accelerated into an explosive torrent. Her talons, equipped with sharp claws, grabbed hold of the Wiseman’s head on both sides, dragging him headfirst into the sea. 

The Fourth Primogenitor’s eleventh Beast Vassal was a Beast Vassal of water. The titanic volume of ocean water around them was her very own flesh and blood. Even Wiseman’s freely manipulable liquid-metal body could not escape the sea monster. Then— 

“Ka-ka-ka…ka…ka… Impossible…! I am… My perfect body, it’s vanishing!!” 

His body was dissolving, like a piece of metal bathed in a powerful acid— 

But it wasn’t because Kojou’s Beast Vassal was destroying his foe—quite the opposite. His body, born from alchemy, was reverting to its original metallic form. Bit by bit, it was returning to the sea and land from whence it came, like an unborn infant reabsorbed by its mother’s womb— 

“This is—regeneration—?!” Yukina exclaimed, as she gazed at the creature sinking into the sea. “A Beast Vassal invoking vampiric restoration, to restore—?!” 

The eleventh Beast Vassal of the Fourth Primogenitor, Sadalmelik Albus, was the Beast Vassal of regeneration and restoration. It could “heal” any being, returning it to its previous condition. 

Watching the incredible sight from nearby, Yukina’s entire body shivered as the full force struck her. 

“But that means…” 

The sea monster was restoring it, but not to heal. It was as if time was being rolled back to what it had been before—before it had been born as a living thing. Time flowed backward, from stout castle walls to earthworks, from dense cities to barren grasslands, from advanced culture to before prehistory— 

The word restore was nowhere near sufficient to describe it. This was the destructive power to return all to the nothingness from whence it came. 

In her own way, this beautiful sea monster, too, was a Beast Vassal of the Fourth Primogenitor—the living incarnation of calamity. 

Finally reduced to nothing more than a skull, the Wiseman exclaimed: “Ka…ka-ka…! I understand…! I understand now…” 

And then the golden skull itself dissolved into the pale blue water and vanished. 

“That power…exists to fight…ka…” 

Unable to utter a final word, his voice dissipated amidst the froth. 

All that remained was the surface of the sea and a gentle breeze. 

6 

With the fight over, Kojou bent forward toward the hull of the wrecked ferry. Yukina approached him, spear in hand and steps heavy. 

In spite of the immense toll the battle with the Wiseman had taken, the frozen sea surface remained intact. With a search-and-rescue ship no doubt soon to arrive, Yukina didn’t think those aboard the ferry remained in any danger. 

They’d probably blame the ferry’s “accident” on a collision with an out-of-season iceberg. Those aboard who were unaware of the circumstances would no doubt accept that explanation. After all, there wasn’t a single person who’d believe it was the work of a single Beast Vassal. 

Yukina pondered the identity of the one that had possessed Nagisa; however, the new Beast Vassal Kojou had tamed concerned her as well. Surely that power to cure was what had saved Kojou from being turned to metal. If she could regenerate others to the point of rolling back time itself, repairing Kojou’s transmuted body must have been child’s play. 

The Beast Vassal of ice had known that from the start. That was why she’d awakened the sea monster. 

But Yukina had no means with which to confirm “her” identity. 

Besides, she had other things that came first. 

“Senpai.” 

When Yukina called out to Kojou, he raised his languid-looking face. Somehow, he looked like he was groping in the dark; using that much power must have made even him exhausted. 

“You okay, Himeragi?” 

She pressed a hand to where he’d bitten her on the neck as she spoke. “I’m all right. The wound has already closed, so it’s fine.” 

Kojou seemed relieved as his gaze drifted off—and then, he slowly sank down on the spot. 

“…Senpai?!” Yukina rushed to his side. “Are you all right? Don’t tell me it’s aftereffects from being transmuted…?!” 

“Ah, no, no. I’m just short on sleep.” Kojou waved his hand, annoyed, and closed his eyes. He really did seem exhausted. 

“Haven’t slept properly since yesterday. Fine if I take a little nap here?” 

“Well, that’s a relief…somewhat.” Yukina gave a small sigh and cradled his head over her knees. It was a picture-perfect lap pillow position. One could also say she was cradling his head in her hands. 

“…Uh?” 

Perhaps Kojou sensed that Yukina’s behavior was somehow improper, because he suddenly looked up in concern. 

But Yukina grinned back at him. “It’s fine. Also, I happen to be very interested in what happened last night, especially how you got to know Nina Adelard and why she looks just like Aiba.” 

“Uhh?!” 

Sweat trickled down Kojou’s brow as he averted his eyes. Yukina seemed to take that as confirmation of her suspicion he’d done something behind her back. 

Yukina imagined he’d been trying to be considerate, by not making her worry during her time off. She was glad for the sentiment, but the problem was that, as a result, the chaos had only grown. 

In addition, he just didn’t get it: No matter what the reason, Kojou doing things behind Yukina’s back hurt her. In the first place, it wasn’t possible for her not to worry about him, no matter the physical distance between them. 

Kojou practically shouted as he forced a change in subject: “Er, that’s… Oh yeah, what happened to Nina—?!” 

The reply came from practically right beside them: 

“I’m right here. You did well, Kojou. And you as well, Yukina.” 

Though Nina sounded in unexpectedly high spirits, she was still being carried around by Kanon even then. Kanon had used an inspection ladder to climb down from the tenuous ferry, and a tiny humanoid silhouette was riding on top of the chest of her uniform. The Nina that puffed her chest out as she spoke couldn’t have been more than thirty centimeters tall, no bigger than a fairy. Kojou had never seen the woman’s beautiful Asian face before, but he somehow felt like vestiges of Asagi’s appearance still remained. 

“You have my thanks. Your efforts have finally liberated me from a two-hundred-and-seventy-year-old burden.” 

“Nina… You’re…” 

“Indeed. Pay no mind, the remaining Spirit Blood simply couldn’t maintain a humanoid form beyond this size. It will not prove any great hindrance to my life.” 

As she spoke, Nina patted the crimson jewel that remained embedded in her chest. 

Well, it sure beats livin’ as a blob of liquid metal, Kojou considered, staring. 

“So what, you plan on going with Kanase then?” 

Kanon’s eyes turned into half-moons as she nodded in delight. “Yes, I’ll speak to Ms. Minamiya about giving her a good, loving home.” 

The girl was really into raising small animals. I am not a pet, huffed the Great Alchemist of Yore, crossing her arms with a puff of her cheeks. 

It was then that Nagisa emerged from the break in the hull and shouted, “Ehh?!” 

Her hair was still worn loose, but Yukina didn’t sense the frigid aura of the Beast Vassal that had possessed her. She was back to her usual, boisterous self. 

“What is this?! Kojou?! What is Kojou doing here?! What happened to the ship?! You don’t mean we really hit an iceberg?! And Yukina as a lap pillow?!!” 

“Nagisa…?!” 

Yukina stood up in great haste. Apparently Nagisa really didn’t remember anything during the time she had been possessed. His head rudely ejected from its resting place, Kojou’s ears rang from the bang he sustained. 

Nagisa looked up at the sky as she spoke. “Wow, what’s that, an airship?! It’s huuuuge!” 

Indeed, there was a giant, armored airship floating close to sea level. Apparently, the Aldegian Knights had come to render assistance. 

Kojou clutched the back of his head as he muttered, “Sorry, Himeragi, it’s a shame, havin’ this happen on your time off and all.” 

Yukina mixed a smile in with her nod. “Yes. However, this has only confirmed my suspicions.” 

This said, she firmly clenched her small fist. 

Yukina’s words, filled with determination, brought a look of unease over Kojou. 

“Apparently, senpai, whenever I take my eyes off you for even the shortest time, you immediately stick your neck into danger and act very friendly with girls you don’t know.” 

“Er, wait. Isn’t that logic really messed up?!” 

How’d it turn into that? Kojou objected, vigorously shaking his head. 

However, Yukina’s forthright eyes gave Kojou a look that brooked no argument. “Upon reflection, I must observe you even more strictly from now on.” 

After hearing the declaration, the vampire weakly looked up at the sky. 

“…Gimme a break…” 

The sigh of the Fourth Primogenitor, the World’s Mightiest Vampire, trailed onto the sea breeze, and vanished.