Strike the Blood - Volume 12 - Chapter 4.1

Intermission iv 

Dimitrie Vattler was standing in a camp that was closed due to it being off-season. 

Vestiges of incredible destruction extended all around him. White smoke slowly rose from the vast wreckage of golems created from the components of armored vehicles and other modern weaponry that lay around him. 

Vattler had raided the camp, adopted as a base by a Cleansers support unit, all by himself. Around that time, Kira Lebedev and Tobias Jagan ought to have been smashing other hideouts. 

Superficially, this meant he was cooperating with the Lion King Agency; this was hardly his objective. Naturally, he was attacking the Cleansers for reasons of his very own. 

Of course, battling enemies with special sorcerous devices was one of those reasons. In the end, just as he had expected, this had resulted in a one-sided thrashing, but… 

“It would seem you amused yourself, Duke Ardeal,” a clear voice said to Vattler as he inspected the remains of a golem he had destroyed. 

It was La Folia Rihavein—the beautiful princess of the Kingdom of Aldegia. 

“Well, well. To think you would come in person, Princess. You are here for their sorcerous devices?” 

Vattler replied in a theatrical tone as he leaned down then and there. Adopting the manner of a faithful knight toward his liege, he presented something before La Folia. It was a gunmetal-colored rod—old and half-destroyed. 

“If it pleases you, I shall offer it to you. Go ahead. It is to commemorate our reunion.” 

“A sorcerous device of Nod… So it is indeed a replica.” 

La Folia accepted the broken wand from the hand of the vampire aristocrat and gazed at it with deep interest. 

Vattler brushed off the sleeve of his coat and stood back up as if nothing had happened. 

“It has already ceased to operate. Even so, it may yet prove useful if you analyze it.” 

“I suppose so. You have my thanks, Dimitrie Vattler.” 

La Folia called up one of the escorts standing behind her and handed the broken wand over to her. 

“Oh my,” the princess then said, narrowing her eyes at something she apparently had not expected. She had located a survivor of the Cleansers in the shadow of a large, burned-out trailer. 

The dark-green overalls the man wore marked him as a mechanic. However, half his body had already merged with the frame of the vehicle; he had ceased to be a human being. Black, oily fluid flowed out of the cracks along the surface of his flesh; the droplets continually turned into light that then dissipated. 

If they left him like this, he would perish—no, he would simply cease to be. No trace would remain of him in the world on their side. Such was the fate of all who set their hands upon the sorcerous devices of Nod. 

“Curse you, you sly fox! A princess of a nation, and you cavort with a filthy demon like this?!” 

Wringing out the last of his strength, the man vented curses at La Folia. 

However, the princess calmly shook her head with a look of pity for the man as she said, “It is you who seek destruction and slaughter for the sake of greed and hatred, who possess truly tainted souls.” 

“Do not mock us, vixen… Our desire is to return the world to its proper form! A pure, egalitarian world where monsters like the two of you do not exist!” 

The man bared his teeth as he bellowed. 

As La Folia listened to the last his words, a gentle smile came over her lips. 

A beautiful, cruel smile, like a frigid glacier. 

“If you truly believe that sullying the earth with blood through the power of the Sinful God exiled from this world will bring about a pure, egalitarian world, it is rather precious of you.” 

“What…?!” 

“Rest at ease. I shall not allow you to perish. Not until you have told us every shred of intel that you know—” 

“W-wait… What are…? …Stop… St…!” 

The man’s face contorted with fear when his movements halted, seemingly frozen in place. 

The ring La Folia wore on her right hand was giving off a transparent blue glow. 

This was a high-end freezing magic from the Kingdom of Aldegia, proud of its sorcerous technology. Though the scale was small, and the power was low, it was the same type of ability that Kanon Kanase had once employed when she had been transformed into a Faux-Angel. The man’s flesh destruction phenomenon caused by the sorcerous device of Nod was now stopped in its tracks. 

Having watched the affair from start to finish, a satisfied smile came over Vattler once more. 

To him, known as a battle maniac of rare fervor, the worth of others was measured solely by their worthiness as opponents. The Princess of Aldegia demonstrating only a small portion of her power had been sufficient to satisfy Vattler, putting him in a pleasant mood. 

Knowing that she was the recipient of his warped sense of goodwill, La Folia pretended not to notice as she gazed at the remaining trailer. They were trailers for hauling and maintaining attack helicopters. However, there was no sign of the two attack helicopters the trailers had been hauling. 

“I see… So they offered up the information of the combat helicopters to create the wyverns. That is the true power of the sorcerous devices of the Sinful God?” 

“So it would seem,” replied Vattler with a nod. 

“However, they can freely control the power to some extent before Nod corrupts them. Thanks to His Highness Prince Aziz’s strenuous efforts, I have obtained valuable data.” 

“The corruption of Nod… So it is a troublesome power even to vampires?” The princess touched her hand to her lips. 

Vattler shrugged his shoulders in amusement and asked, “Worried about Kojou, perhaps?” 

“Mm, but of course. After all, he shall be my companion one day.” 

La Folia replied in a serene tone from which no one could tell if she was joking or being earnest. 

The female knights acting as bodyguards for the princess put hands to their foreheads with anguished expressions as Vattler smiled in ever-greater delight. 

“However, there is one more thing that concerns me…” 

“The Priestess of Cain?” Vattler carried on where the princess left off. 

She nodded, her usual smile having vanished at some point. 

“Yes. Though he knows that she is in this land, the Knight of the Sinful God has demonstrated no interest in her. For that matter, he has not even taken care to avoid involving her in the fighting.” 

“I can think of two possibilities.” 

Vattler pretentiously raised a pair of fingers, immediately bending one. 

“They may not know of the Priestess of Cain’s existence. It is a rather rude thing to say about those calling themselves the Cleansers, but I cannot absolutely rule it out.” 

“And the other possibility?” 

La Folia elegantly inclined her head as she posed the question. 

Vattler bent his second finger, a ferocious smile coming over him for a single moment as he continued. 

“There is another Priestess of Cain.” 

“It can’t be—” La Folia’s voice trembled. 

Vattler looked back upon the shaken princess with a satisfied smile, spreading his arms wide and looking up at the sky. 

“So wonderful… Entertaining, is it not? Truly, that island is beloved by chaos…”