Strike the Blood - Volume 8 - Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR 

THE LAST SUPPER 

1 

It had been barely a decade since an alliance of ghoul clans had called themselves Nelapsi and declared independence. Japan did not yet have international relations with them; many people didn’t even know Nelapsi existed. In the Demon Sanctuary of Itogami Island, virtually no humans paid much attention to the baffling news. 

None save the tiny handful that had experienced prior contact with Nelapsi— 

“Signs of an outbreak…in the Nelapsi Autonomous Region…?” 

Kojou had forgotten to shut off the television, spotting the odd news on the ticker by pure chance. 

It was early morning in the Akatsuki residence’s living room. The smell of butter on toast enveloped the room. 

The morning talk show program was airing images from a grainy home video. In a foreign city, a berserk mob was pouring out, indiscriminately attacking everyone around them. The shocking images looked like they belonged in a zombie documentary. 

“They say it’s a new type of vampire contagion. Scary, huh?” Nagisa, wearing an apron over her school uniform, was nibbling on a tomato as she replied. 

It wasn’t that she didn’t feel any anxiety, but Nagisa’s voice was composed. Even if it was a communicable disease, it was occurring in a foreign country far from Japan’s shores. It couldn’t have felt very real. 

Kojou would have no doubt had the same reaction had he not previously heard the word Nelapsi. 

“…What do they mean by vampire infection? Don’t tell me they’re saying crap like, if a vampire drinks your blood, it turns you into a vampire?” 

“The World Health Organization doesn’t seem to know much about it yet. Since Nelapsi’s been fighting wars all over the place lately, some people think it’s a biological weapon. Hopefully no more people get infected, though.” 

Nagisa explained in response to Kojou’s doubts. Information was apparently limited; the talk show host was pretty much repeating identical information. 

According to the host, the source of the infection had not yet been determined. The contagion struck human and demon alike; the afflicted patients lost their ability to reason and began indiscriminately assaulting everyone around them. Also, the number of infected was skyrocketing. 

The infection itself conferred traits similar to G-type—ghoul-type—vampires, with many of the infected displaying a high degree of physical strength, sense of smell, and other physical abilities. On the other hand, the infected had pronounced memory loss over the passage of time, eventually resulting in the complete loss of rational thought, making it very difficult for them to even sustain themselves day-to-day. 

It was unclear whether this was a mere transmissible disease or the emergence of a new, unconfirmed variety of demon. Since they had not narrowed down the origin, there was no established method of treatment. There were even concerns that it might spread across the globe— 

Having explained to that point, the talk show went into a commercial break, and after that, an infomercial. Kojou nibbled on his toast as he gazed idly at a pro baseball digest from the night before. 

“Well, Kojou, I’m heading off.” 

Nagisa, having put her outfit in order during that time, carried a sports bag in one hand as she called out to him. It was still just a little early to go to school. 

“Ahh…morning cheerleading practice, huh? Don’t overdo it, you hear?” 

“It’s all right, it’s all right. My health has been great lately. Make sure you’re not late, either, Kojou.” 

“Sure,” Kojou said, listlessly leaning against the sofa as he watched his little sister head off. He licked a bit of butter off the tips of his fingers as he mulled the host’s words. 

“Vampires…but not from the First, Second, or Third Primogenitors…” 

The dazzling rays of the morning sun made Nagisa squint as she left the apartment. 

It was six thirty AM. Naturally, the road that led to the monorail station was still empty at that hour. A pleasant morning breeze blew over the deserted hill road. 

Nagisa hummed an off-note tune as she walked toward the station. Except for a housewife out walking her dog, she didn’t really bump into anyone and reached the intersection in five minutes, half the time she usually took walking that path. 

Just after she finished crossing the intersection, an unfamiliar woman sought her attention. 

“Miss Nagisa Akatsuki?” 

“Ah, yes?” 

She instantly responded to her name, but the people standing there seemed rather odd. Three men and one woman were all dressed in plain, nondescript suits. Their appearances suggested they were from a variety of generations, making it hard to get a read on the group. The unified, unwavering look in their eyes was a little scary. 

“Er…who might…you be?” 

Nagisa’s voice became shrill as she realized that at some point the group had fanned around her on all sides. They didn’t feel like police, nor did she think they were acquaintances of her parents. Mimori and Gajou’s friends were all weirdos, but each and every one had an aura around them that put Nagisa at ease. 

That was not the case for these four individuals. They seemed sane at first glance, but it felt like they were missing an important aspect of their humanity. The air around them held no room for dissent, as if to say, Death to unbelievers. 

The woman formed a smile with only the corners of her lips as she said, “Do not be concerned. We are champions of the Guardians of Eden, a relief organization for mankind. We work for the eradication of demons to protect the lives of the good people of this city.” 

At the very least, it meant she could feign being normal, but Nagisa felt pathological fear and hatred emanating from the woman when she spoke of eradicating demons. 

“You’re…supremacists…?” 

“Some criticize us in such terms. But, hey, how do you honestly feel about demons? Don’t you think they’re scary?” 

“Th-that’s…” 

Nagisa digested the word scary. Certainly, she had demonophobia, but that was rooted in personal past experiences. She didn’t think her own personal fear was reason enough to go on a pogrom. 

Then, the woman continued her one-sided assertions as if she’d never intended to listen to Nagisa’s reply from the start. 

“It is said that vile crimes by demons have receded since the signing of the Holy Ground Treaty, but that is a great lie propagated by the government. They’ve been handing out doctored statistics while covering up the real data.” 

“Er… I really need to get to school, so…” 

Nagisa interrupted the woman’s words and attempted to flee. However, the woman spread both arms wide to block Nagisa’s path and smiled. 

“I’m sorry. It’s all right, we won’t take up much of your time.” 

The woman pulled something out of her suit pocket—a small handgun. It was a snub-nosed revolver that looked like a small movie prop. 

“We shall be finished in short order. For the sake of preventing the Fourth Primogenitor’s revival, please die now.” 

The woman grinned as she trained the gun barrel on Nagisa, who suddenly realized that the other three people were gripping guns of their own. Their eyes did not possess a single shred of sympathy or pity toward Nagisa, only the exhilaration peculiar to those with absolute faith in their own brand of justice. 

“You’re humans but…you’ll kill humans?” Nagisa asked them in a shaky voice. 

That instant, enmity came over the woman’s face for the first time. 

“It’s useless to put on a show for sympathy. You have a lot of nerve calling yourself a human being, heretic priestess!” 

The sudden onslaught of ferocious malice gave Nagisa an inescapable sense of despair. Likely, from the woman’s point of view, whether Nagisa was an ally or enemy of demons did not matter. All she wanted was to satisfy her own pride. In that moment, she happened to be seized by her enmity toward demons, but it was anyone’s guess what her wrath would target next. There was no reasoning with her from the beginning. 

“S…someone… Help me… Kojou…!” 

Nagisa continued to hold her sports bag as she weakly murmured. 

“If you do not resist, I shall grant you an easy death.” 

The woman made the declaration in an apathetic tone, like it was a dry formality, and put her finger on the trigger. 

A boom struck Nagisa’s ears. A dazzling beam dyed her vision white. 

Then, the light turned into a shock wave that battered the supremacist group. 

“—Fool.” 

The beam was not gunfire, but rather lightning. There was a small-statured girl, shrouded by electricity, who could have been fourteen or fifteen. Her hair was cropped short like a boy’s; she wore silver armor with gold accents. 

The armored girl stood atop a lamppost along the coastal road as she glared down at the fallen supremacists. She looked rather like a small, female knight, but there was no sword in her hand. Instead, the girl was gripping a pale, glimmering thunderbolt like a spear. 

One of the supremacists remained on the road as he let out a pathetic cry. 

“Eek…! P…Pemptos…?!” 

The suited woman, brought back to her senses by the voice, fired in Nagisa’s direction. But the bullet did not reach its target. Before Nagisa’s eyes, a second girl annihilated the bullet as if gouging out the very space around her. 

The girl’s beautiful facial features contorted in a laugh. In each palm rested a pitch-black sphere that could carve into space itself. 

Her hair, tied in long, twin ponytails, gently undulated like two snakes. She had heterochromia; the left and right irises were different colors. 

“…Tritos…!” 

The suited woman lowered her gun as she looked up at the girl, standing before Nagisa as if shielding her. She now knew that she could not harm Nagisa with such a weak weapon. 

The supremacists tripped over one another as they rose to their feet, scrambling in an attempt to flee the area. As they did so, a third girl, enveloped in mist, emerged from thin air to stand before them. Her small body was protected by thick armor, with over half of her beautiful face concealed by her helm. 

In the blink of an eye, the silver-colored fog shrouding her surrounded the supremacists to blot them from sight. 

The woman, left all by herself, crawled in an effort to escape. 

“…Even Tetartos?! No…!” 

However, mist caught up to her body, which crumbled away without so much as a sound. In reality, the air was the woman herself; her body was no longer solid and had transformed into mist. 

Finally, the wind blew, clearing the fog away; there was no longer a single sign of the supremacists anywhere. They had been swallowed by the mist whole, vanishing without a trace. 

The girl in silver armor leapt down to the ground and asked Nagisa, “Are you all right?” 

The two other girls knelt on one knee, looking up at Nagisa the same way. 

“Who are you…? What happened to those people just now…?!” Nagisa was at a complete loss. 

Strangely, she did not feel any fear. But it didn’t feel real. The girls’ power was complete overkill for merely saving Nagisa’s life. Their very beings seemed to be natural disasters. If criminals died from falling prey to an earthquake or a tornado, did you thank the weather? It didn’t exactly come up under normal circumstances. 

And yet, those girls, natural disasters personified, were kneeling reverentially before Nagisa, almost like knights pledging fealty to their queen— 

“I…see… You’re…” 

Nagisa, suddenly understanding something, murmured haltingly to that effect. The glint of emotion faded from her wide-open eyes. 

“So you have been…watching us…all this time…” 

The girls nodded at Nagisa. 

The silver-armored girl kept her face courteously lowered as she opened her mouth. 

“It was our error that Dodekatos’s coffin was opened. Forgive us.” 

Her voice held a tone of regret, as if she was confessing her own mistake. Yet, at the same time, Nagisa felt awe and affection toward her. These girls, catastrophes incarnate, were afraid of Nagisa’s existence. 

Then, Nagisa looked down at the girls and calmly stated: 

“I forgive you—” 

Nagisa walked toward the train station once more as if nothing had happened. 

The blond girls watched her as she left like that. 

The dazzling morning rays of the Demon Sanctuary’s morning fell upon the crowded city. 

Somewhere, something was beginning to spiral out of control. 

2 

Gajou Akatsuki’s laboratory was an old building on the verge of being condemned, constructed on a university site in Itogami City. Gajou was a professor there. Though treated as a teacher on the surface, the job was more like a cover given to a hired gun, and the pay was cheap. However, being a “university professor” was a convenient thing for Gajou on his frequent international trips. Besides, he was grateful for the mundane fact that, as a man living away from his family, he had a lab he could sleep at. 

The small lab, resembling a one-room apartment, was cramped with piles of old books and tomes. Gajou lay flopped over a sofa placed in a narrow space between the stacks. 

His tanned cheeks had a thin beard on them from not shaving. There were bags under his eyes from late-night work. 

Under Gajou’s hand rested a foreign tome containing writings about the Fourth Primogenitor. After having sought for a way to save his daughter, Nagisa, for so long, he’d finally arrived at such a precious resource. 

But the information recorded within only drove Gajou deeper into despair. He had deciphered the mystery behind the Blazing Banquet. He now knew the reason why Avrora had been sealed in the ruins on Gozo, and the nature of what was possessing Nagisa. And that truth drove Gajou to despair. 

Gajou tossed the tome onto the table and listlessly closed his eyes. Then, on the verge of his first moments of sleep in three days, the door to the lab burst open. Veldiana, dressed in a black maid outfit, flew in without as much as a knock. 

“—Gajou!” 

Her hair was disheveled as she clutched a wrinkled English-language newspaper in her hand. 

“Heya, Veldiana. That’s a different look than usual. Taking a break from work?” 

Gajou gloomily brushed aside his lengthening forelocks as he sluggishly sat up. Veldiana thrust the newspaper against Gajou’s chest. 

“What’s the meaning of this, Gajou?! What’s going on in the Nelapsi Autonomous Region?!” 

“Ahh…this?” 

Gajou glanced at the headline and studied the story beneath. 

The vampirism outbreak occurring in Nelapsi had received only a small blurb at a corner of the page. It wasn’t that they didn’t understand the gravity of the situation; there was simply too little information. 

But some people immediately understood the cause of the outbreak. Gajou was one. 

“It means that bastard Zaharias has finally gotten serious,” he said without amusement. He’d known this would happen someday from the moment Zaharias took over the former Duchy of Caruana and laid his hands on a Kaleid Blood. If anything, it was later than he’d expected. 

Veldiana asked in a broken voice, “Don’t tell me that…this vampirism outbreak is related to the Blazing Banquet?” 

“You didn’t know?” Gajou raised an eyebrow in surprise. “You didn’t hear from the Bookmaker? One of the conditions of being an Elector is ruling a territory of a certain size—as well as a sufficient number of citizens living within it.” 

“How is that related to the outbreak? Certainly, I’d heard that, should the Fourth Primogenitor completely awaken within an Elector’s domain, it would become a new Dominion, but—” 

As Veldiana spoke, she cut herself off in sudden surprise. She’d apparently just thought of something. Her face went rather pale. 

“Don’t tell me…it’s the reverse…?!” 

“Pretty much. It’s not that the Elector’s territory turns into a Dominion from the Fourth Primogenitor awakening. Rather, Electors conduct sorcerous rituals to awaken the Fourth Primogenitor, rituals that use hundreds of thousands of their own territory’s residents as human sacrifices.” 

“Human…sacrifices?!” 

Gajou’s words, spoken without emotion, made Veldiana’s shoulders tremble. 

What was now known as the Nelapsi Autonomous Region was the land formerly ruled by the Caruana family. Over the course of hundreds of years, loyal citizens had served Veldiana’s birth family generation after generation. Of course, their ranks included people that Veldiana knew personally. And their lives were in peril due to the new outbreak. 

Zaharias had set the entire situation into motion. 

“They traced a magic circle in the Nelapsi Autonomous Zone? You mean to tell me that Zaharias used the Nosferatu to invade the Duchy of Caruana to have the land he needed for the sorcerous ritual?! That’s why he killed my father…?! Gajou, did you know this?!” 

“…Your sister’s the one who told me all of it.” 

Veldiana was on her feet, wildly chewing Gajou out, but he silenced her with a single word. 

Gajou brusquely toppled the mountain of books and retrieved a single file: the report that Liana Caruana, Veldiana’s elder sister, had overseen. Within it was written the truth about the sorcerous ritual known as the Blazing Banquet. Veldiana violently scattered the report in front of her. 

Shaking her head as if she could not believe it, she retreated, wobbling over to the windowsill. 

“My sister, Liana… Then, she was trying to obtain Dodekatos for…” 

“I’m pretty sure she intended to hijack the magic circle Zaharias had traced and use it to awaken the Fourth Primogenitor. Liana intended to become Elector herself.” 

“Then Sister…intended to sacrifice the people of the Duchy of Caruana…?!” Veldiana mumbled, her unfocused eyes wavering. 

The Blazing Banquet was really a sorcerous ritual to completely awaken the Fourth Primogenitor. A vast number of human sacrifices, hundreds of thousands of lives, would be the catalyst. The ritual was a grand awakening that none could call unworthy of the World’s Mightiest Vampire. 

Liana knew this and had sought the revival of the Fourth Primogenitor nonetheless. 

“Liana didn’t have any other way of getting the land back from Zaharias. If she let things be, Zaharias would’ve done the ritual on his own. The damage couldn’t be avoided either way.” 

Gajou seemed to be speaking in Liana’s defense. However, Veldiana looked as if she was backed into a corner, shaking her head with intense emotion apparent. 

“…I’d…have stopped this. If only I’d known about this, I would have stopped him sooner!” 

“You’d have killed Zaharias?” 

“That’s right!” 

Veldiana glared at Gajou with watery eyes. They held a fierce sense of guilt that resembled madness. That’s a bad sign, thought Gajou, clicking his tongue inside his own mind. Veldiana wasn’t thinking rationally anymore. She had tunnel vision, and she was unnerved by her sense of responsibility toward her former subjects. 

“You couldn’t have. You understand that, don’t you?” Gajou said in an uncharacteristically stern tone. He meant to drag the girl back to reason even a little bit, but pointing this out only made Veldiana dig in her heels. 

“I’d kill him, even if it meant dying in the process…!” 

In a low voice, Veldiana murmured the words like a curse. Gajou’s lips twisted in visible dismay. 

“I didn’t tell you, and neither did Liana, because we both figured you’d say something like that.” 

“If Dodekatos—” 

“…Ahh?” 

“If Dodekatos gets her memories back, I can use a Beast Vassal of the Fourth Primogenitor… I can kill even Zaharias!” 

A cheerful smile came over Veldiana. She looked like a woman possessed. 

“Hey, Veldiana!” 

“I know. Nagisa, yes? Your daughter stole Dodekatos’s memories. If Dodekatos meets Nagisa face-to-face, she will surely regain her power!” 

“That’s what we thought, too. Until Avrora woke up, that is!” Gajou put a hand on Veldiana’s shoulder, shouting as if trying to get through to a recalcitrant child. “But we were wrong. We were so, so wrong. We had it all wrong from the start!” 

“Shut up! Be silent!” 

Veldiana reflexively swung her arm. Her slender fingertips cut Gajou’s flesh in a single, mighty blow that sent his tall, slender body flying. Even if she looked like a slim woman, Veldiana had a vampire’s physical strength. Gajou could not withstand that. 

He tried to stand up, but his legs buckled, sending him to his knees. Fresh blood was leaking out from his contorted lips. In one blow, Veldiana had ripped Gajou’s abdomen, with the wound apparently reaching to his intestines. 

“Aah…” 

Seeing Gajou like that, it was Veldiana who trembled. She looked down at her own fingertips, wet with Gajou’s blood, and exhaled as if it wasn’t sinking in. 

There were countless needle marks on her arm, too many for even a vampire’s recuperative ability to heal. The drugs she was abusing had made her unable to moderate her own strength. 

“I won’t believe a thing you say anymore…” 

Pressed into a corner, Veldiana spat the words at Gajou to justify herself. She violently waded through the mountains of piled-up books as she headed outside. 

“Veldiana…!” 

Gajou tried to stop her, but his strength seemed to expire as he fell onto the floor. The fresh blood flowing from Gajou’s wound was forming a pool of blood around him. 

He rolled onto his back, limply gazing up at the lab’s ceiling. 

The blood showed no sign of stopping. I know that’s dangerous if I don’t do something, but my body won’t move, so there’s nothing I can do, he thought, as if this were someone else’s problem. After having cheated death so many times, buying the farm at the hands of a vampire heiress’s temper seemed so ridiculous. All he could do was make a strained smile. 

It pained him that he’d never told Nagisa, but for all intents and purposes, his duty was already done. There was nothing more Gajou could do for the sake of his daughter. All he could do was entrust affairs to the actor waiting next in line. 

Gajou gazed at his bloodstained fingertips, thinking he should at least write a witty dying message, but just as he began to think of one, he suddenly realized that someone was beside him. It was a woman in a wrinkled, white gown, standing there as if she was lording over Gajou. 

“Mm-hmmm…you make quite a sight, Gajou.” 

She had morning hair and half-lidded eyes. Her baby face made her look like a girl ten years younger, but she had very large breasts. 

For some reason, she had an amused-looking smile on her face as she gazed at the fallen, blood-soaked Gajou. 

“Heya, Mimori. Did you overhear all of that?” 

Gajou’s lips twitched into a sarcastic smile of his own. Mimori Akatsuki crouched at his side and said, “See, this is what you get for carelessly laying your hands on the serious, brooding types. I wonder if you’ll reflect on your sins a little.” 

“I didn’t put one hand on her! If you heard us talk, there’s no way you’d get that wrong, would you?” 

For once, Gajou made a rather annoyed objection, but Mimori just coolly narrowed her eyes. 

“But you did use her.” 

“…Well, yeah.” 

Gajou nodded with a pained look. To save his debilitated daughter Nagisa, he needed the Key to the coffin, which was passed to the family of the Duke of Caruana, no matter what it took. The only one who knew its location was Veldiana, the sole survivor of the duke’s family. That was why Gajou had made contact with her and brought her to Itogami Island. 

He hadn’t intended to deceive her, but having employed the revival of the Caruana family as bait, he couldn’t deny using her. If one thought of being killed by her hand as the cost, it did seem like poetic justice. 

“You always attract the difficult girls. I hope Kojou does not take after you. How concerning,” she said soberly. 

“Kojou, huh… Who’d have thought I’d end up relying on him to the bitter end.” 

Gajou chuckled with an amused smile as he recalled the face of his still somewhat unreliable son. 

Gajou’s role was over. Kojou was the only one who could save Nagisa now. Now that he had become a Blood Servant of the Fourth Primogenitor, his existence was the banquet’s only wild card. 

But not from Zaharias’s point of view. He was a wild card to the group pulling the strings from behind the curtain—the Lion King Agency. 

Worst case, Gajou would lose two children instead of one, but even so, hoping Kojou could pull it off was the only option that remained. Besides, it wasn’t as if he hadn’t prepared any presents for them. 

“Mimori…there should be a cardboard box buried with the books around here…” 

“Hmm?” 

“The time might come when what’s on the inside is needed. If the time comes, get it to Kojou, would ya?” 

“Cardboard box, you mean this one? The sender’s address is…the Aldegian Royal Palace?” 

Mimori grinned as she glared at the international postal code. 

“Come to think of it, the queen of that country is a very beautiful woman, isn’t she?” 

“Yeah, suppose she is. It’s been a while since I’ve met her, but I doubt she looks any different. She’s one hell of a schemer on the inside, though. Well, no doubt she’s quite a lad—ee?!” 

“Hmmm.” 

Mimori continued to smile as she ground the heel of her shoe close to Gajou’s open wound. Gajou’s deathly pale face twisted from the intense pain as he weakly laughed. 

“Ah…incidentally, Mimori, it feels like I’m finally bleeding to death through this thing, no joke, so I’d appreciate if you could patch me up already?” 

“Tee-hee-hee.” 

Mimori fished some ice out of a cooler, but she began moving her tongue around like she was going to lick it. Gajou sighed deeply as he gazed at the sly, sadistic smile of his ex-wife. 

“Gimme a break…” 

3 

The polite but mechanical voice Kojou heard on the phone belonged to an artificial intelligence. 

“Business trip?” 

“Yes. Mimori Akatsuki, Chief of Research, is on a business trip off-island today. If you have business with her, may I take your message?” 

“Ah…nah, I get it. Just tell her to get in touch with me…her son, as soon as possible.” 

He added a “please and thank you” before ending the call. The cell phone in his hand cracked as he gripped harder without realizing it. 

“Shit, what the hell?! Right when I really need them, I can’t get in touch with either of my parents?!” Kojou spat, violently pounding the corridor wall. A nearby elderly teacher glared at him, but Kojou had no time to take heed. 

That evening was probably the banquet Enatos had mentioned—the night of the last full moon of April. He’d already informed Gajou and the others of that much. 

Gajou had replied, “Just ignore it,” and Kojou agreed. They had no reason to respond to Zaharias’s invitation like gullible fools. If the phase of the moon was fortuitous for Zaharias, that was reason enough to avoid him at all costs. If Avrora’s formal demonic registration was approved, they could get the Island Guard to take custody of her. That way, Zaharias surely wouldn’t be able to lay a finger on her. In other words, all they had to do was get through the night, and she would be completely safe. 

However, now that the night was drawing close, Kojou began to feel uneasy. That was thanks to the morning news: the mysterious vampirism outbreak occurring in the Nelapsi Autonomous Region… 

The timing was simply too good to brush it off as a mere coincidence. 

If the outbreak was Zaharias’s doing, the banquet was no longer the concern of Kojou and Avrora alone. He couldn’t say for certain that a similar disaster would avoid Itogami Island. 

“This ain’t the time to get stubborn. Guess I’ve got no choice but to go crying to Natsuki…” 

Kojou subconsciously scowled as he recalled the face of his overbearing, charismatic homeroom teacher. He was well aware that carelessly asking her for aid was begging for some serious payback later, but even so, Natsuki was an Attack Mage counselor attached to the school. She had pull with the police and Island Guard, too. Now that he couldn’t rely on either parent, he couldn’t think of any other acquaintance who had what it took to defy Zaharias. 

Besides, Avrora might well become a Saikai Academy student in the very near future. If Kojou got on his hands and knees and begged, the odds of Natsuki helping him were fairly high. 

“Wait… Oh, right…” 

Kojou’s expression grew taut as he remembered a means he ought to try before begging. There was one more person who might be able to defy Zaharias: Avrora herself. If she could wield power equal to Enatos, even Zaharias shouldn’t be able to harm Avrora by brute force. 

Unfortunately, that was predicated on her recovering her memory. The key to that was… 

“Nagisa…huh?” 

So it comes down to that in the end, Kojou thought, exhaling as he walked toward the middle school section. Lunch break would be over soon, but he figured he’d have enough time to at least speak with Nagisa. 

He’d ask her to meet Avrora again. If he properly explained the circumstances to Nagisa rather than ambushing her like the first time, she should understand. At the very least, it was worth trying to persuade her. 

Just as Kojou made preparations to leave the classroom, Asagi called out to him. 

“Kojou? Where are you going?” 

Great timing. Kojou turned toward her in a pleading pose. 

“Sorry, Asagi. I’m gonna miss afternoon classes, so could you please make up a good excuse for me?” 

“Wait a… Where do you think you’re going?!” 

Kojou brushed off Asagi’s attempt to stop him and headed for the classroom’s entrance. Her face looked grave as she guessed from Kojou’s demeanor that something was wrong. 

“Did something happen with Avrora?” 

Her question, posed quietly, stopped Kojou in his tracks. He glanced at Asagi, meeting her worried gaze. 

Asagi knew that Avrora was an unregistered demon. She seemed concerned that her connection might get her into some kind of trouble. Moreover, Asagi was pretty jealous of all the attention he gave Avrora. 

“Nah, it’s all right. It’s nothing. Like I’d let something happen, anyway…!” 

Kojou smiled firmly and shook his head. I get it, Asagi seemed to say with a slump of her shoulders. She was conveying that she didn’t exactly like it, but she would not press the matter further. 

“Is there anything I can help with?” she offered. 

“I suppose so,” Kojou said, pausing. “Let’s throw a party.” 

“Huh?” 

Kojou’s non sequitur of a suggestion made Asagi widen her eyes, catching her off guard. 

“Ah, come to think of it, it’s gonna be my birthday soon. Let’s throw a party and have some fun.” 

“Your birthday is in May.” 

“You remembered that pretty well.” 

Kojou felt a little strange as he made that remark. Actually, his birthday was at the start of April, smack-dab in the middle of Golden Week. Thanks to that, even his friends tended to forget about it. 

“I just— I just happened to remember it!” 

“That’s how it is, so please!” 

“That’s how what is? Geez!” 

Asagi, red-faced and seemingly keeping panic just at bay, waved a hand at Kojou as if shooing him away. Kojou went right out and headed to the middle school campus. 

Fortunately for him, Kojou met a familiar face midway down the connecting corridor: a black-haired, glasses-wearing schoolgirl who looked like the chairman of a committee. Kojou remembered speaking to her several times when she’d gone to visit Nagisa in the hospital. 

Noticing that Kojou was approaching her, the girl stopped with a mystified look. 

“Akatsuki?” 

“Koushima, was it? You’re in the same class and year as Nagisa, right?” 

“Yes.” 

Sakura Koushima made a businesslike reply as if it was nothing special. She seemed accustomed to speaking with upperclassmen; maybe she really was cut out to be a committee chairman. 

“Sorry, could you get ahold of Nagisa for me? It’s a bit tough for me to go into the middle school campus and all.” 

Kojou bowed his head as he spoke. 

It was a campus that he had passed through on a daily basis just a few short weeks before, but he hesitated to set one toe into it since graduating middle school. He somehow felt like it wasn’t his place anymore. 

However, Sakura looked up at Kojou with a neutral expression and shook her head. 

“You didn’t know?” 

“What?” 

“Nagisa left early. Someone from the hospital came to pick her up.” 

“…Hospital?” 

Kojou sounded like an idiot as he parroted the word. 

He’d heard nothing about Nagisa being contacted by the hospital. If her physical condition worsened and she was transported there, they should have called Kojou first, but they had not. Even so, someone from the hospital coming to pick her up, rather than her being taken away by ambulance, was a strange story in itself. 

“Who the hell picked her up…?” 

As he murmured, Kojou felt unstable, almost as if the ground was suddenly crumbling beneath his feet. 

Sakura Koushima casually replied in an even tone reminiscent of a homunculus: 

“She said she was from MAR… Miss Tooyama, I believe.” 

4 

Veldiana licked the fresh blood off her fingertips as she returned to the marina. She’d taken a hit of a drug along the way, and the effects were still present, but she was dominated by a bizarre sense of exhilaration. 

Veldiana thought that the slanted afternoon sunrays were rather gloomy as she tottered across the pier. A dry laugh was escaping her lips with no sign of stopping. 

“Ah-ha-ha…ha-ha…ha-ha-ha-ha!” 

Veldiana’s steps were uncertain, almost as if she was drunk. She was aware that something inside of her broke the instant she wounded Gajou. Even if they called him the Death Returnee, in the end, Gajou was only human. She didn’t think he could still be alive after such grievous injury. 

Even if Gajou had only been using Veldiana, he was the one man who’d given her a reason for living. It was Gajou who had saved her, the daughter of a dishonored former lord, from maltreatment. Veldiana had unwittingly killed her own savior. There was no longer any human who would protect her. 

She’d thrown away her demon registration bracelet on the way back. If someone discovered Gajou’s body and contacted the Island Guard, they’d be able to use its location data to ascertain Veldiana’s whereabouts. 

She couldn’t stay on Itogami Island. But even so, she didn’t have anywhere else to go. All that Veldiana had left was her desire for vengeance against Zaharias. 

“I’ll kill you, Zaharias… I’ll kill you, I’ll kill you, I’ll kill you, I’ll kill you…” 

As she climbed aboard the cruiser, Veldiana continued repeating the words to herself like she was chanting a curse. 

The boat had been Gajou’s property to begin with. Veldiana could not remain on it much longer. Consequently, before leaving it behind, Veldiana had to take back that which was hers: Dodekatos—the twelfth Kaleid Blood. 

“…Veldiana?” 

Avrora was on her knees, just finishing cleaning the boat. Veldiana had asked her to do so before heading out. Avrora might have been an amnesiac and rather clumsy, but she steadfastly did as ordered. She was no doubt very happy to be needed by someone. 

Though, in Veldiana’s present state, the girl’s innocence was annoying. If anything, seeing someone as young and ignorant as her past self only fanned the flames of her hatred. 

Veldiana noticed the metal plate on the table. “What…is this?” she asked. 

There were ancient sorcerous symbols engraved upon it. Veldiana couldn’t completely make it out, but she recalled seeing several of the words before, allowing her to work out the gist of it. 

“An invitation to the banquet…?! Zaharias sent this?!” 

“Ah…” 

Seeing Veldiana so surprised, Avrora shrank in apparent fright. She backed off with an earnest look on her face, like a nun being chewed out for sheltering a pagan. 

“Why did you hide this from me?” Veldiana pressed the issue in a low voice. 

“K-Kojou advised that…it was not necessary to respond to the summons.” 

“What did you say?!” 

“Nor…do I desire to. I do not wish to go…” 

Even as her unreliable voice quavered, Avrora spoke loud and clear. The instant Veldiana realized the girl was defying her, her mind went white, boiling over. 

“Don’t play games with me!” Veldiana shouted, indignant and angry as she grabbed hold of Avrora’s arm. She dragged the girl to her feet and tried to lead her off the boat. 

“I won’t allow it. I will not! You’re coming with me! You’re going to kill Zaharias!” 

“…N-no…!” 

“Shut up! Just do as I say!” 

The banquet under Zaharias’s Dominion was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Veldiana to enact vengeance upon him. He had not only exposed his own whereabouts but had also sent an engraved invitation to his unguarded flank. Of course, Zaharias probably had Nosferatu in his vicinity protecting him, but they would prove no hindrance. Veldiana had intended to go down with him from the start. If she fulfilled her revenge, she didn’t care what happened to her after. 

Because her head had banged against the wall, Avrora had lost consciousness, remaining still as Veldiana dragged her off the ship. 

“—Vel?!” 

Just as Veldiana was getting off the pier, someone called out to her in obvious surprise. It was Kojou Akatsuki, wearing a school uniform as he looked at her in shock. 

“What the hell are you doing…? What did you do to Avrora?!” 

Kojou’s face stiffened when he realized Avrora was unconscious. 

When she looked closer, Veldiana noticed that Kojou’s breath was labored, as if he’d doggedly run all the way there. Apparently, he’d had his own issues to deal with. But, as Veldiana saw it, such things simply didn’t matter anymore. 

“Be quiet. It has nothing to do with you,” she declared coldly. 

Kojou seemed nonplussed at her brush-off. 

“Vel?! What are you saying…?!” 

“You know, too, don’t you, Kojou? What’s going on in the Nelapsi Autonomous Region right now. That land is my birthplace. The people living there are the people of Caruana!” 

Veldiana’s shout was mixed with tears, and Kojou stood agape, rooted to the spot. She glared at him with hatred, her canines bare. 

“I cannot forgive Zaharias. He took my father and my sister from me, and now he takes my people. I will kill him… I will kill him!” 

“…And what, you’re gonna use Avrora to do that?!” 

Kojou was not overwhelmed by Veldiana’s hatred; instead, he replied calmly. 

For a moment, Veldiana’s breath caught; then, a charming smile came over her. 

“What kind of nonsense are you spouting?” 

Avrora was still unconscious when Veldiana grabbed her by the hair, lifting her up like her own possession. 

“Of course. This is a weapon. She was built to destroy things, wasn’t she?” 

“—Don’t give me that crap!” 

Kojou coarsely howled as he sprang from the water break and moved to punch Veldiana. Veldiana was startled by his unexpected speed. His velocity was impossible for someone with human strength. Kojou’s physical capabilities were clearly well in excess of a normal vampire’s. 

It finally sank in that he really was the Fourth Primogenitor’s Blood Servant. 

Even so, he was no match for Veldiana, a pureblood vampire—! 

“—Ganglot!” 

A three-headed dog shrouded in flame appeared before Kojou. Its giant front paw caught him, tearing open his chest. Blood, flesh, and viscera spewed as the boy sailed through the air. He slammed against the ground, motionless. 

“Ha-ha…ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha… It’s your fault, Kojou Akatsuki. You’re the one who got in my way…! Ah-ha-ha-ha…ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!” 

Veldiana laughed loudly as she wiped the tears from her cheeks. She didn’t feel a single hint of fear, regret, or pity. All she felt was an unsettling, huge, gaping void where something in her chest should have been. 

She resumed her walk, dragging the blond girl behind. 

The night of the banquet grew near— 

5 

He awoke with the rays of the setting sun on his face. 

The sun, hovering near the edge of the horizon, dyed Kojou’s visage red as he lay prone. 

It took him a while to remember just what had happened. It’d been several hours since he’d heard that Tooyama had taken Nagisa with her, supposedly heading to the MAR hospital, but Tooyama had disappeared, and even MAR did not know her whereabouts. 

Left with no other options, he headed to the marina, only to encounter Veldiana bringing a passed-out Avrora with her. Then, her Beast Vassal had ripped his body to shreds, at which point his mind broke off. 

“Am I…alive…?” 

Kojou confirmed that his arms and legs could move as he forced himself to sit up. He didn’t feel the anticipated pain from the injury. His bloody uniform was torn after the giant claw ripped it from the right shoulder to his left side. However, there was no wound. Instead, there was new flesh across his whole body, like what you’d find right after a scab came off, as if to prove that what had been destroyed had regenerated— 

“So this is the power of a Blood Servant… Sheesh…” 

Gimme a break. Kojou shook his head. Only then had it actually sunk in that he really wasn’t a human anymore. 

Strangely, it didn’t bother him. That was probably because he knew there were things left for him to do. If he died, he wouldn’t be able to rescue Nagisa and Avrora. When he thought of it that way, an undying body didn’t seem like such a bad deal. 

The problem was that he didn’t know how far he could rely on “undying.” Regeneration had taken a good deal of time, after all, and it’d already been established that a vampire’s Beast Vassal could kill him instantly. The ability wasn’t actually all that convenient. 

Veldiana was probably taking Avrora with her to see Zaharias. And when he considered the relationship between Nagisa and Avrora, the chances that Nagisa and Tooyama would be in the same place were high. After all, it wouldn’t be strange for Tooyama, an MAR research and development division employee, and Zaharias, a weapons broker, to have something going on between them. For that matter, it was entirely possible that Tooyama was a spy in Zaharias’s employ. 

“The Blazing Banquet… No choice but to go, I guess.” 

Kojou walked toward the connecting bridge leading off from Island East. 

Zaharias had indicated that the Blazing Banquet would be hosted on Island Old Southeast. As the name suggested, it was a district of the artificial island floating on the ocean southeast of the Itogami mainland. 

Originally, it was a prototype Gigafloat built for experimental purposes; later, the area functioned as a base camp for building Itogami Island proper. Many of its residents had directly contributed to Itogami Island’s founding, including city planners, construction workers, and the families thereof. Old Southeast used to be the beating heart of Itogami Island, but once the four Gigafloats were completed, covering north, south, east, and west, its role was complete; its population continued to dwindle as of late. 

Due to being much smaller than the main Itogami Island with inferior facilities, and the Gigafloat itself butting against the end of its service life, a decision was made to dismantle it within several years, and it was now declared a condemned area. 

It had become an old, filthy ruin of a Gigafloat— 

Surely there was no more fitting place for Zaharias, a merchant of death, to use as the stage for hosting his so-called banquet. 

There were two bridges connecting Old Southeast to Itogami Island proper, but most people would use the ferry. However, Kojou didn’t think that he could board a ferry in his current bloody clothes. Accordingly, Kojou’s feet were headed in the direction of the nearest connecting bridge. 

Just when he caught sight of the entrance to the bridge, Kojou halted, noticing something was wrong. 

“The Island Guard…? What the hell’s goin’ on?” 

There was a small uproar around the connecting bridge. It appeared to be completely blocked off, with a barricade constructed out of armored cars. In addition, he could make out armed, mobile division troops and people wearing hazmat suits. The jarring sight reminded him of a city in a state of civil war. 

“Advisory from the Gigafloat Management Corporation to all Itogami Island citizens—” 

An unmanned public notice helicopter from the Island Guard circled overhead, approaching as if to address Kojou’s concerns. The indifferent artificial voice continued from the speakers of the small, radio-controlled drone. 

“Today, a patient believed to be suffering from a new transmissible disease was spotted in Island Old Southeast. As a precautionary measure to prevent spread of the infection, entry into Old Southeast is prohibited until we are certain that it is safe to do so. The connecting bridges have been sealed.” 

“What the…?” 

As Kojou watched the remote-controlled helicopter fly away, his anxiety was accompanied by dizziness. With that timing, he surely wasn’t wrong to think that the “new contagious illness” was the same type that had occurred in the Nelapsi Autonomous Region. Zaharias was involved in both. 

“Currently, all passage to Old Southeast by boat is prohibited. Furthermore, any vessels coming from Old Southeast are prohibited to dock and will standby offshore. Obey all instructions by inspection officials. Violators will be fined according to the law. Repeat—” 

“Shit… A boat’s no good, too.” 

Dumbfounded, Kojou stood rooted to the spot on the road, grinding his teeth loudly. 

The transmissible illness wasn’t his only problem. Veldiana had surely already reached Old Southeast with Avrora in tow. If the connecting bridges were sealed, he wouldn’t be able to get Avrora back. 

Stricken with despair, Kojou wandered around aimlessly. The next moment, a bicycle appeared before him—a hybrid bike in showy fluorescent colors. 

“Whoa!” 

The brakes let out a ferocious shriek as the bicycle stopped right on the verge of smashing into him. There wasn’t even five centimeters between it and Kojou, who was stiff as a board. He really had escaped by a hair’s breadth. 

“…A-Akatsuki?!” 

A girl in a track suit was riding the bicycle. 

Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw Kojou covered in blood. Her long, slender limbs, well-tanned skin, and short hair suited her well. He remembered the girl from middle school. 

“Ahh, you’re in the girls’ basketball club… Shindou, right?” 

The girl on the bike turned out to be Minami Shindou, his basketball club junior from middle school. She was a year behind Kojou, but he remembered her face from when they’d discussed club business and the like. 

“Akatsuki, how’d you get hurt like that…?!” 

“Ahh, this. Don’t worry about it, it’s not as bad as it looks.” 

“Uh, but—” 

Naturally, Shindou found that hard to accept. He’d hoped he could hide it somewhat because it was evening, but Kojou’s appearance was apparently more grotesque than he’d appreciated. 

“What are you doing out here, Shindou? You don’t live around here, do you?” 

Kojou ignored his shaken junior’s concern and forced a change of subject. 

Shindou seemed to blush a little as she smiled and pointed to the backpack between her shoulders. 

“You heard there’s a victim of vampirism disease on Itogami Island, right? Well, Dad… My father is a technician for the quarantine inspection branch. He’s heading to Old Southeast to investigate, so he asked me to bring a change of clothes to the boat for him.” 

“…Boat?” 

“The Ashvin, the quarantine ship sitting over there.” 

“Huh… That’s kinda rough for your dad, there.” 

Even as Kojou expressed genuine concern for his junior’s family, his mind was preoccupied. Crossing to Old Southeast by boat was forbidden—but a quarantine ship with specialists aboard was an exception. 

The crew of a quarantine ship rushed to the site of a sudden outbreak was unlikely to be on a tight lookout for stowaways. If he could sneak aboard the boat, it ought to get him to Old Southeast. 

“Sorry for getting in your way, Shindou.” 

Kojou waved to the younger girl and ran in the direction of the harbor. 

“Ah… Akatsuki…!” 

“Mm?” 

Shindou called Kojou to a halt, her lips quivering as if she wanted to say something. In the end, she said nothing and merely lowered her head in a formal bow. 

“No, it’s nothing. Ah… See you at school.” 

6 

Quartz Gate was a giant building located at the center of Old Southeast. The building’s main section was six stories tall; in the past, it served as Itogami City’s city hall and the headquarters of the Gigafloat Management Corporation. 

The exterior liberally employed magically reinforced, see-through, diamond-hard glass, giving the entire building the appearance of a huge crystalline palace. A giant, hexagonal crystal clock tower decorated the center. It was the first magically constructed building in history, meant to broadcast the technology of Itogami Island, the Far East Sorcery Sanctuary, to the entire world. 

However, now that Old Southeast was slated for dismantlement, Quartz Gate had also been abandoned. At present, it was an uninhabited ruin off-limits to ordinary residents. A beautiful, empty glass castle— 

Zaharias had chosen Quartz Gate’s central plaza as the stage for his banquet. 

At the center of the plaza, covered with a glass roof, twelve caskets were arranged like a fan. In half the caskets, six girls were asleep. 

Hendekatos, Enatos, Ogdoos, Hebdomos, Deutra, and Protte—the six Kaleid Bloods in Zaharias’s possession. 

Placed in the center between them was the gray-haired girl enveloped by a crystal gemstone. Zaharias gazed silently at her gaunt corpse. 

The clock tower struck nine PM. 

As if it was her cue, a quiet woman’s voice could be heard. 

“I am sorry to have made you wait, Count Zaharias—” 

Zaharias slowly turned around. He was a young-looking man wearing a suit, a gray-haired youth in his mid-teens. The only feature remaining of the weapons broker were those sly, narrow eyes. 

“Thank you for your cooperation, Miss Tooyama. And, Lady Nagisa Akatsuki, welcome to my Blazing Banquet—” 

Zaharias had shifted his gaze to Miwa Tooyama of MAR and Nagisa Akatsuki, who was in her school uniform. The look on Nagisa’s face wasn’t exactly cooperative, but she wasn’t tied up. Tooyama had probably used the threat of holding Nagisa’s family hostage to get the girl to come along. The clear hostility in Nagisa’s eyes as she gazed up at Tooyama was proof enough. 

She looked at Zaharias and aggressively asked, “Who are you?” 

Zaharias put a hand to his chest and bowed deeply. 

“My apologies. I am Balthazar Zaharias, the Blood Servant of the Fourth Primogenitor.” 

“A primogenitor’s…servant…?” 

Nagisa acted resolute, but her eyes were clouded with fear. 

Zaharias, too, had already learned of Nagisa’s demonophobia. As she paled, Zaharias smiled to put her heart at ease and lowered onto one knee. 

“I have no intention of harming you. Please do not be afraid, Nagisa Akatsuki. I am merely attempting to recreate the miracle that you yourself once performed.” 

“Mira…cle?” 

“Indeed. Resurrection of the dead.” 

Zaharias raised up his face and nodded deeply. Nagisa could only shake her head, unable to understand what was being said. Zaharias paused, narrowing his eyes. 

“I see. First, let me speak of my birthplace. I was born in a small city on the Balkan Peninsula that no longer exists. In the past, it was wiped from the face of the Earth during a three-pronged war between the Warlord’s Empire, the Fallen Dynasty, and the Western European Church. It has been some seventy years.” 

As he spoke, Zaharias looked at the coffin placed to his left. In that coffin slept the blond girl with a scar as if someone had ripped a hole in her chest. 

“…It was she whom those launching the war were after. Protte—the first Kaleid Blood, sealed away in my homeland.” 

“…?!” 

Naturally, rumors of the Kaleid Blood, the World’s Mightiest Vampire, had reached Nagisa’s ears. The girl’s young face twitched in shock. 

Zaharias looked with distant fondness at Nagisa’s reaction before shifting his gaze. He next indicated the gray-haired girl floating inside the gemstone. 

“She is Valasta, my younger sister. She is also the priestess guarding Protte.” 

Zaharias’s smile faded, and a faint glint of hatred arose deep in his eyes. He twisted his lips slightly. 

“And the vampires killed her. I tried to protect Valasta, and was slain in the same place. And I alone came back to life. Valasta brought me back to life, as Protte’s Blood Servant—just as you did for your own older brother!” 

“—Older brother? You mean Kojou?” 

Nagisa spoke in surprise. The mention of Kojou’s name at that point had clearly shaken her. A faint, bitter smile came over Zaharias as he scrutinized her reaction, his gaze like that of a watchful snake. 

“As I suspected, it seems you do not remember what you did. You transformed your older brother into a primogenitor’s Blood Servant—into an unaging, undying monster!” 

“That’s…not true…!” 

Nagisa ferociously shook her head as she shouted. 

From her perspective, it was a natural reaction. Zaharias had just called her older brother a monster. A servant of the demons she feared. 

“I don’t have the power to…do such a thing!” 

“Yes. That is true. I understand that. No matter how excellent a priestess you might be, you cannot bring the dead back to life. That is possible only for the king of the dead, risen from the corrupted soil. A god-killing weapon that exists beyond all doctrines of the world. An artificially constructed vampire wielding an infinite negative life force—the Fourth Primogenitor!” 

Zaharias spread both arms wide as he looked to the sky. 

“Please, awaken thy power, the power of the complete Fourth Primogenitor. Fortuitously, I already have six Kaleid Bloods prepared—half of the Fourth Primogenitor prototypes. They have been filled with demonic energy from the human sacrifices of the Nelapsi Autonomous Region. Surely this is enough to rouse you from your slumber!” 

“…Zaharias! …I won’t let you do…any such thing…!” 

Zaharias’s speech was interrupted by a vampiress in a bloodstained maid outfit. Her silky brown hair was disheveled, her eyes bloodshot with anger. 

Then she placed before her a small blond girl she seemed to have dragged with her—Avrora, the twelfth Kaleid Blood. 

“…Avrora…,” Nagisa murmured, staring dumbfounded at the frightened girl. 

Nagisa had met Avrora before. Kojou had been the one to call Avrora over and introduce her. But Zaharias had said Kojou was a primogenitor’s Blood Servant. 

Nagisa’s upper body swayed as if she was having a mild bout of anemia. 

The image of Zaharias commanding Nagisa to awaken the Fourth Primogenitor merged with that of her older brother bringing her and Avrora together. Why? 

What’s happening…? 

Who am I…? 

Why is there a girl inside of me— 

“My oh my, I have been waiting for you—” 

Zaharias broke into a broad grin as if a long-awaited guest had finally arrived. It was the face of a merchant happy that negotiations had gone according to plan. 

Zaharias knew full well that Veldiana was trying to kill him, hence why he had sent Avrora the engraved invitation. Should Veldiana learn of the invitation’s existence, she would most certainly bring Avrora to him, even if it meant defying that troublesome Death Returnee, Gajou Akatsuki. 

Veldiana’s thoughts and feelings had all been dancing on the top of Zaharias’s palm. Even her anger and hatred— 

“Welcome to my Blazing Banquet, Veldiana Caruana. I am exceedingly delighted that you have come all this way to bring me a seventh prototype. You have my sincere gratitude.” 

“Silence!” 

Veldiana summoned two Beast Vassals as she bellowed: a three-headed dog shrouded in fire, and a two-headed dog with freezing breath. They were the most formidable weapons in Veldiana’s current arsenal. From that range, she could strike down the unescorted Zaharias with ease. 

“Die, Zaharias! This is for my father and the suffering of my people—!” Veldiana shouted with a cheerful expression, certain of victory. 

But Zaharias interrupted her declaration, full of confidence and indifferent cruelty. He went to Protte, lying amid the coffins, and took her hand as he quietly uttered a command. 

“Come hither, Mesarthim Adamas—” 

That moment, a huge Beast Vassal emerged out of thin air, apparently to guard Zaharias. The monster was so enormous, it barely seemed real— 

It was a bighorn sheep with a body formed of diamonds. Thousands, then tens of thousands of gemstone crystals floated into the air around the Beast Vassal, forming a shield to defend Zaharias. 

“A Beast Vassal…of the Fourth Primogenitor?! No…?!” 

Veldiana’s expression was dyed with despair as her Beast Vassals’ attacks were unable to even scratch the protective gemstone wall hovering in the air. Then, gemstones burst out like a hail of bullets, shredding Veldiana’s Beast Vassals, annihilating them without a single trace. 

She’d known it from the start. Veldiana’s Beast Vassals could not hold a candle to a primogenitor’s power. She could not defeat Zaharias while he was protected by a Kaleid Blood. 

“Avrora, please! I want you to lend me your power!” 

Her back against the wall, Veldiana pulled Avrora to the fore against her will. Avrora did not move a muscle. She merely stood there, frozen to the spot. 

“You can oppose even that Beast Vassal! Kill him! Kill Zaharias!” Veldiana screamed. 

And then, suddenly, a large rose bloomed in her chest—but it was actually a spurt of fresh blood. Flesh scattered like petals, and Veldiana’s body wobbled. 

“…Eeek…!” 

Avrora’s cheeks twitched as warm blood bathed her entire body. Because Veldiana’s hand had released her, Avrora’s small body reflexively flopped to the ground. 

“Zaharias…!” 

Veldiana spewed blood as she glared at the arms dealer. 

He gripped a small pistol. He’d no doubt used the firearm because he judged that Mesarthim Adamas’s might would have harmed even Avrora. Though it was a revolver for self-defense, the Silver-Elysium alloy round loaded in it had enough power to inflict a mortal wound on a vampire. For an arms merchant like Zaharias, obtaining highly valuable, special anti-demonic ammunition was child’s play. 

As she continued to stand, more gunshots rang out. The five rounds fired sank unerringly into Veldiana’s chest. Veldiana dropped to her knees, and from there, gently toppled to the floor. 

“Av…rora……why…?” 

Veldiana murmured as her empty eyes looked up at the blond girl. 

She moved no more after that. Drenched in fresh blood, Avrora simply stared, dumbfounded. 

“Ah… Aaah…” 

The whimper erupted into a great cry that was beyond any mere lament or angry shout—but the voice did not come from Avrora. 

It came from Nagisa. 

Clutching her head with both hands, she let loose a shout that seemed inhuman. 

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” 

The air crackled and shuddered. The buildings of Quartz Gate swayed. 

Not only Avrora, but even Zaharias gaped at the bizarre spectacle. 

Only Tooyama retained her cool as she surveyed the area and exclaimed, “This is… All the Kaleid Bloods are resonating with one another…?!” 

The six Kaleid Bloods lying in the coffins, all the prototypes except for Avrora, opened their eyes in response to Nagisa’s outpouring of emotions. 

“Ohh!” shouted Zaharias, deeply moved. “So the true Fourth Primogenitor finally awakens! Marvelous! Marvelo…?!” 

Zaharias’s voice, broadcasting his excitement, cut off like a thread suddenly snipped. 

Globs of blood poured out of his mouth. The arms merchant’s body had been rent with a single horizontal slash, as if a giant ax had chopped him. 

He blinked and gazed down at his two hands, smeared crimson with his own blood. 

“…Wh…?!” 

Why? Zaharias tried to voice, but could not, silently collapsing on the spot. 

A wing had attacked him with polished bladelike talons and reddish-black blood vessels naked to the eye—a vampire’s wing. 

That wing had assaulted Zaharias, cleaving his body in two. 

Tooyama called out her name in a broken voice: “…Nagisa…” 

Even her indifferent eyes were now distinctly colored with fear. 

The black wing, teeming with demonic power, had spread from Nagisa Akatsuki’s back. 

Her long, tied-up hair came loose, and she laughed. 

Her eyes emitted a pale blue glow, blazing like flames. 

7 

Ordinarily, it wouldn’t take even an hour of walking to reach Quartz Gate from Old Southeast’s harbor. Yet on that one night, it took Kojou, transformed into a Blood Servant, over three times as long. 

The outbreak was the reason why. 

In under half a day, the vampirism disease spreading through Old Southeast had infected tens of thousands, and was well on its way to being a first-class epidemic. The infected had assaulted one person after another with inhuman athletic ability. Those who were healthy fled in panic. The Island Guard was working to halt the spread of the contagion—combined, the press of those forces made the area around the harbor very chaotic, requiring far more time to give them the slip than Kojou had counted on. 

By the time Kojou arrived at Quartz Gate, everything was already over. 

Or, perhaps that was when everything truly began. 

All of it in a place beyond Kojou’s reach— 

In the center of the plaza covered by a glass ceiling, two girls stood, illuminated by the light of the full moon. One had long, black hair; the other, blond hair that shimmered like a rainbow. Nagisa Akatsuki and Avrora. 

“Avrora!” 

Kojou rushed to the side of the vampire girl, rather than his sister, for two reasons. The first was the simple fact she was closer; the second was that Nagisa was clearly radiating a tremendous aura, a feeling of overwhelming pressure that would not permit a careless approach. 

“Kojou…,” Avrora murmured weakly, welcoming the sight of his approach. She looked like someone desperately clinging to a little branch on a cliff. 

“What happened?! Where’s Vel?!” 

Kojou put both hands on Avrora’s narrow shoulders. Avrora let out a quiet “Eeep!” and lowered her gaze to the ground. 

Then Kojou saw it: Veldiana, bathed in bullets, bloodied as she lay on the ground. 

Crouching at Veldiana’s side was Tooyama. She was supposedly an MAR physician, but she silently shook her head, as if to say, I cannot treat this. 

“Tooyama…what happened here?” 

Kojou asked in a low, suppressed voice. He hadn’t forgotten that she’d brought Nagisa there on her own authority. He couldn’t trust Tooyama, but she was probably the only one who could explain the situation. 

“This is the Blazing Banquet.” 

Tooyama herself gazed at the twelve coffins arrayed in a fan shape. 

A giant crystal encasing a gray-haired girl had been placed at the center of the group. The sight was reminiscent of Avrora when she slept within the coffin of ice. 

“It is the ceremony that Count Zaharias has conducted to awaken the Fourth Primogenitor. The general population of the Nelapsi Autonomous Region is some 2.6 million persons. Of this total, fifteen percent have already been changed into pseudo-vampires via the outbreak. He employed the demonic energy they provided to awaken the Fourth Primogenitor.” 

“Then the infection happening on Itogami Island is…” 

“Likely a side effect of the ritual spell. At the moment, it has somehow been confined to Old Southeast, but…” 

Tooyama replied in a tone suggesting she was aware of everything. Who the heck is this woman? thought Kojou, such doubts seriously entering his mind for the first time. She was getting intel from off the island even while bringing Nagisa to Old Southeast. He’d suspected her of being with Zaharias, but that didn’t seem to be the case. 

“…Why’d you drag Nagisa into this? She shouldn’t have anything to do with the Kaleid Bloods!” 

Kojou pointed at Nagisa, who was laughing cruelly like a wholly different person, as he pressed the point with Tooyama. 

Tooyama looked back at Kojou with a curious look. 

“You did not realize?” 

“Realize what…?!” 

“That Nagisa was the Fourth Primogenitor. Not a prototype, but the real Fourth Primogenitor.” 

“What are…you saying…?!” 

Kojou’s voice went shrill at the wholly unanticipated words. With Nagisa’s black hair fluttering under the moonlight, he felt like the darkness of her smile only increased. 

Tooyama ignored the shaken Kojou and continued. 

“Dodekatos, the Avrora you know, is nothing more than a watcher. She was not the entity the ruin on Gozo Island, the world’s most ancient Demon Sanctuary, was meant to seal away.” 

“…Watcher?” 

“Of the soul sealed within the ruin that is the true Fourth Primogenitor. The Cursed Soul, crafted by the hands of the three primogenitors with the cooperation of the Deva people—we have given her the provisional name of Root. Root Avrora.” 

“And this…Root Avrora is what’s possessing Nagisa…” 

Kojou felt like he’d finally pieced the story together. 

At the same time, he knew he had miscalculated. 

Kojou had been wrong from the beginning. He’d misunderstood. Even Gajou and Veldiana probably hadn’t realized the truth. 

Avrora didn’t have amnesia. She hadn’t known anything to begin with. She was an empty doll, built to protect Root Avrora. Or perhaps to monitor her. 

As for why Avrora herself was sealed within the world’s most ancient Demon Sanctuary on Gozo, alone among the twelve Kaleid Bloods— 

That was because she was an observer. 

That was the truth behind Dodekatos: a surveillance tool in human form to ensure the continued sleep of the soul of the true Fourth Primogenitor, Root Avrora. 

Nagisa hadn’t been possessed by a portion of Avrora’s personality but by the soul of the Fourth Primogenitor itself. By extension, that made Nagisa, who’d taken that soul into her, the Fourth Primogenitor now. 

From Kojou’s blind spot, a blood-drenched Zaharias rose up from the shadow of the coffins placed in the plaza. 

“I suspected…as much…” 

His torso had a deep scar carved into it as if his body had been ripped in half. His injuries were severe, enough that no proper human would even have survived. Like a video playing backward in slow motion, his wounds slowly continued to heal, like a vampire primogenitor cursed with immortality. 

Realizing he was looking at the man now returned to his youth, Kojou exclaimed, “You’re…Zaharias? Why do you look like that…?” 

Zaharias fought back the pain of his wounds as he laughed mockingly. 

“Why are you so surprised, Kojou Akatsuki? You and I are the same, are we not…?” 

“…The same? I see…then you were…a Blood Servant, too…” 

Kojou clenched his teeth as he remembered how he’d been killed once already by Veldiana. 

Zaharias chuckled, smiling in visible delight as he stood tall. He wiped away the blood trickling from the corner of his mouth as he shuffled toward Nagisa. 

“If you are aware of it, that saves time. Now, Root Avrora. Please, bring Valasta, your priestess and my younger sister, back to life—” 

“Thou art a foolish man, Zaharias.” 

The voice came from Nagisa’s mouth, but it was not Nagisa’s voice. It was the voice of the soul dubbed Root. 

The blatant scorn in the girl’s voice made the arms dealer’s face twitch. 

“…Nn?!” 

“I am the World’s Mightiest Vampire, a god-killing weapon built for the sake of The Cleansing. I am undying and indestructible. I have no blood relatives of my own, and I desire to rule none, served only by twelve Beast Vassals, the incarnations of calamity. I am she who drinks human blood, slaughters, and destroys. I am under no one’s control and serve no one.” 

“You will not listen to my request…?! The request of your very own Blood Servant?! I, the Elector who offered sacrifices to you?!” 

Zaharias desperately made his plea. However, Nagisa smiled coldly, as if she were looking at a filthy, noxious insect. 

“Thou art a foolish man. Didst thou not slay the girl?” 

“I…did…what…?!” 

“To gain eternal life, this man sacrificed the nation of his birth and his younger sister to take my rib from Protte, and now he implores me to resurrect his sister? That is not thy sister’s desire, but thine own, is it not? Didst thou believe I would not notice the soul trap thou hast placed within Valasta’s flesh?” 

“G…nn?!” 

Zaharias weakly swallowed his words, no doubt because Root had accurately guessed his scheme. Her pale, glowing eyes turned toward the gemstone enveloping Valasta, and the coffin shattered. The body of the gray-haired girl was enveloped by light, crumbled to dust, and vanished. 

It also meant that Zaharias’s ambitions had collapsed. To Zaharias the arms dealer, even the corpse of her body was merely a tool—a resource with which to get his hands on merchandise of greater value. 

“Filthy peasant. Thou learned of the existence of Nagisa Akatsuki, and this surely made thee jealous and envious. Furthermore, didst thou truly believe thou couldst have me possess and revive Valasta, whom thou believed was equal in power to this girl, so that thou might control the Fourth Primogenitor’s power at thy pleasure—?” 

“N…no. You’re wrong… I merely prided myself on being the one who could raise your worth to the highest possible level…” 

Zaharias’s words, full of deceit, no longer possessed the power they once did. With no leg left to stand on, the arms dealer retreated a step, visibly afraid. 

And to him, Root stretched out her hand— 

“None lacking the will to fight is qualified to serve a god-slaying weapon. I take that power back from thee, Zaharias.” 

“Eeek?!” 

Zaharias’s expression froze as he realized a new shadow had appeared behind his back. 

There, cutting off his retreat was a blond girl with a deep wound in her chest, the Kaleid Blood known as Protte. Her pale, slender arm plunged into Zaharias’s right side like a sharp blade. Kojou could hear the sound of a bone breaking inside the arms dealer’s body. 

Protte was ripping out Zaharias’s rib. 

“S…stop, don’t… Protte…dooooooooon’t!” 

“Zaharias—!” 

The girl pulled out her blood-soaked arm. 

As Kojou and the others looked on, the arms dealer’s body, robbed of the rib, rotted and crumbled away like chips of wood. His personal history in reverse. 

Zaharias had received the demonic energy of the Fourth Primogenitor through the rib. It had probably functioned much like an antenna. Robbed of that rib, Zaharias was freed of the curse of immortality. The time he had experienced flowed into his body all at once, destroying it. 

Finally, the arms dealer’s body had completely collapsed, leaving nothing but a tiny bit of black ash. 

“Hmph,” exhaled Root Avrora, unimpressed, before walking toward the coffins left in the plaza. As if to greet her, the sleeping Kaleid Bloods rose up one after another. 

Even one as ill versed in magic as Kojou instinctively understood what it meant for the girls to come into contact. The awakened Root Avrora probably meant to take the Kaleid Bloods into herself so that she could regain her proper power. The power of the World’s Mightiest Vampire. 

“—Wait, Root!” 

Kojou impeded the path of this being. He stepped forward, glaring at the black-haired girl from the front. 

“Give Nagisa back.” 

“…Mmm?” 

Nagisa, transformed into Root Avrora, looked at Kojou with her cruel gaze. Her blazing eyes could freeze a man’s soul merely by looking at him. Even so, Kojou did not falter. If he let that moment pass, it would mean the eternal loss of any future for the being called Nagisa Akatsuki. That hunch spurred Kojou on. 

“I don’t care who you are or what you were built for, but that’s Nagisa’s body. There’s no way you need it!” 

“I see. Thou art different from Zaharias…though a fool nonetheless.” 

The corners of Root’s red lips curled up in an eerie smile. 

On the one hand, Zaharias had employed even the corpse of his little sister as a tool for obtaining the power of the Fourth Primogenitor. Kojou, on the other hand, had declared his little sister unnecessary for Root so that he could save her. She no doubt found the contrast amusing. 

“Regardless, I shall not heed thy desire. My soul requires a vessel.” 

“Why’d you take Nagisa’s body?! Aren’t the Kaleid Bloods standing there your bodies?!” 

“The Kaleid Bloods…?” 

Root raised an eyebrow, as if annoyed by hearing a very bad joke. 

“Were you not told? Kaleid Blood was the name of the project. Those created as part of that project are nothing but offshoots of me.” 

“…Offshoots?” 

“Man, fashioned in the image of God, has twelve ribs. And just as God fashioned Eve from Adam’s rib, from my twelve ribs were fashioned twelve components. Components serving as hosts upon which to graft Beast Vassals.” 

“Hosts for Beast Vassals…?” 

“Yes. False vessels so that Beast Vassals, summoned beasts from another world, may reside in this world. Dolls. Dodekatos, my watcher, is no exception.” The girl adopting Nagisa’s face lorded over Avrora, rooted in place, and smiled viciously. 

Kojou merely bit his lip and gawked. 

It wasn’t that he hadn’t imagined that possibility. After all, if the Fourth Primogenitor had been sealed away because she was too dangerous, why had she been split into twelve pieces? 

Because the people of the Devas feared that she might rise again. 

Therefore, they split apart and concealed the sources of Root’s power in every land. To ensure that the Beast Vassals serving the Fourth Primogenitor could not be freely summoned by her, each was granted a human body to tether them to the material world. The reason the Kaleid Blood project had produced man-made vampires was simple: Only within the body of a vampire could a vampire’s Beast Vassal be sealed away. 

It wasn’t that Enatos and Protte were controlling the Beast Vassals. They were the Beast Vassals. 

“…So you’re saying Avrora and the others are dolls controlled by the Beast Vassals, then.” 

“Indeed…thou art correct. In other words, now that I have awakened, their continued existence is no longer necessary.” 

The girl adopting Nagisa’s form spread both arms wide. 

With a flutter of her long black hair, giant wings with sharp talons sprang from her back. A vampire’s wings— 

There were six wings total, three on each side. The various appendages, writhing like snakes with their own wills, plunged into the chests of the six Kaleid Bloods. The reddish-black blood vessels on the surface of each wing began to pulse with powerful energy. 

Hendekatos, Enatos, Ogdoos, Hebdomos, Deutra, and Protte—all six Kaleid Bloods were completely enveloped in light. They seemed to gently fade into the wings. 

Root was reclaiming control of the Beast Vassals, parts of herself that had been forcibly ripped away. Via the annihilation of her components, the Kaleid Bloods, the true Fourth Primogenitor would awaken— 

Kojou seemed beside himself as he stared at the incredible sight. “The wings’…colors…” 

Nagisa’s wings, previously pitch-black, shone vividly, changing to the various colors of the rainbow. Their faint, beautiful glow made him feel like he was watching an aurora. 

Those wings stretched at Kojou like blades. 

Root was not attempting to consume Kojou. Rather, her target was Avrora, who stood behind him. To Root, Kojou was nothing more than an eyesore and a nuisance to be mowed down so that she might regain the power of a seventh Beast Vassal. 

However, her goal went unfulfilled. 

Countless pillars of ice thrust up from the ground to protect Kojou, and the aurora wings bounced off them. 

Avrora was the one controlling those pillars. For the first time, the twelfth Beast Vassal of the Fourth Primogenitor used her power of her own will—to protect Kojou and defy Root. 

“…What is the meaning of this, Dodekatos?” 

The girl taking Nagisa’s form glared at Avrora in displeasure. 

Even as her legs trembled with fear, Avrora stepped forward, her eyes burning like flames. 

Then, she spread both arms wide, shielding Kojou. 

Even Kojou could not conceal his surprise at the girl’s unexpected action. 

“A mere doll controlled by a Beast Vassal would defy me, its lord and master?” 

Root’s dreadful aura grew even more oppressive. The demonic power became a gale, causing Quartz Gate’s glass walls to crack. But Avrora did not back down. She, supposedly a Beast Vassal’s puppet, was refusing to obey the Fourth Primogenitor, her proper host. 

“Very well. Do make this amusing for me.” Root spoke with an expression of joy, like a child who’d gotten her hands on a new toy. 

The aurora wings ran wild, lashing out at the surrounding area like enormous whips. They created an enormous tornado of demonic energy, shattering the glass ceiling, raining shards down upon them. 

A pure flash of light transformed into fire, engulfing Kojou and Avrora as she shielded him. 

“—!” 

At that point, Kojou blacked out. 

The last things he heard were the high-pitched laughter of the girl who had taken Nagisa’s form and the heavy tolls of the clock tower’s bell.