Strike the Blood - Volume 12 - Chapter Pr

INTRO 

The full-metal silver spear gleamed in the light as it was thrust forward. 

This was the Mechanical Demon-Purging Assault Spear Type Seven, also known as Snowdrift Wolf—a secret weapon of the Lion King Agency built for one purpose: slaying demons. 

The spirit spear, able to nullify magical energy and rend any barrier, inhibited demons’ regenerative abilities, causing the fatal decomposition of their flesh. When impaled, even vampires, proud of their immortality, would meet their doom. The World’s Mightiest Vampire was certainly no exception. 

However, when Kojou Akatsuki faced the blade of Snowdrift Wolf, the Fourth Primogenitor…laughed. 

The instant the silver spear ran him through, he displayed a ferocious smile, his fangs bared— 

The ferocious shock wave shook the ground, ripping through the air with a great roar. 

A section of the artificial isle’s coastline was erased, seemingly gouged right out. 

The steel framework was shattered into fine fragments. The annihilating wave turned the resin back into the dust from whence it came. 

For a brief moment, a giant water maid with a transparent body floated amid the onrushing waves. This was Undine, its upper half that of a beautiful woman, its lower that of a serpent—a Beast Vassal of the Fourth Primogenitor. 

“Urk…!” 

The young woman in priestess attire bit her lip as she landed on the tip of a breakwater that had been ripped to shreds. 

Her body was unharmed. Only the sleeves of her priestess attire and the hem of her hakama’s red skirt were torn—only slightly. She had escaped from ground zero an instant before the Beast Vassal’s attack could engulf her. 

However, as a result, she had lost the silver spear that should have been in her hands. 

She had been forced to let go of the spear to escape from the Fourth Primogenitor’s counterattack. 

“Kojou…Akatsuki…!” 

A thin, veil-like fabric had still covered her face when she unwittingly uttered his name. 

The giant maid of water had vanished, already released from its summons. All that remained was the massive scar carved into the artificial ground, almost like something had bitten it away. 

In an instant, the chaotic assault from the Fourth Primogenitor’s Beast Vassal had no doubt obliterated Itogami Island’s beach down to the atomic level. Had her escape been even a second slower, she would have doubtlessly shared the same fate. 

In an instant, Kojou Akatsuki had turned that desperate, hopeless situation around, backing her into a corner in turn. 

And to do it, he had used his immortal flesh, launching a counterattack by which he himself would be destroyed— 

“It seems you were whipped in rather spectacular fashion, Shizuka. The Gigafloat Management Corporation people must be clutching their heads right about now.” 

The woman stood still as she abruptly heard someone’s voice at her feet. The tone was laid-back, lacking any urgency whatsoever. 

The voice came from a lone feline—a beautiful, black panther with a supple physique. It wore a collar with a large chrysoberyl stone embedded in it. Its golden eyes seemed to glow; they clearly held a glint of intellect. 

“…You were watching, Yukari Endou?” The woman in the priestess attire spoke as she looked down at the talking panther. 

She was addressing Endou, which was the name of the woman controlling the panther. The extraordinary shikigami user was controlling the familiar from the Japanese mainland, over three hundred kilometers away. 

“To think Koyomi Shizuka, one of the Three Saints of the Lion King Agency, would rush out in this manner. The Fourth Primogenitor lad did quite well, too…” 

The talking panther replied with a tone of voice that sounded somewhat impressed. That Kojou Akatsuki had withstood Koyomi’s attack had surely surprised the shikigami user as well. 

The Lion King Agency’s current mission was to ensure that Kojou Akatsuki, the Fourth Primogenitor, was not permitted off the Demon Sanctuary of Itogami Island. By running him through with the spirit-purging spear, Kojou Akatsuki’s demonic energy would be nullified, and the Divine Oscillation Effect’s barrier would drive him into a comatose state. That was one way of using the Schneewaltzer. But— 

“Did you underestimate the boy because he is a combat amateur, Paper Noise? If so, you’ve made quite the blunder.” 

The black panther’s teasing question made Koyomi Shizuka shake her head slightly. 

She was the only one who could employ Paper Noise, the phenomenon that forcibly inserted time that did not exist into the world. 

This was neither stopping time nor moving at superhuman speeds. And yet, when Koyomi attacked during time that ought not to exist, all that remained were the effects of actions that should never have happened in the first place. 

The ability to launch an attack that was 100 percent unpredictable was the reality behind Paper Noise. Even the great and powerful vampire primogenitors regarded this ability, belonging to the leader of the Three Saints of the Lion King Agency, with caution. 

She did not believe Kojou Akatsuki had gleaned the true nature of Paper Noise the first time he had seen it. However, when he saw Koyomi raising Snowdrift Wolf against him…he had smiled. 

The Schneewaltzer’s ability to nullify magical energy affected even Koyomi, its wielder. At the very least, she could not employ the power of Paper Noise while the Schneewaltzer was active. 

Kojou Akatsuki had sacrificed his own right hand to bring Koyomi’s spear to a halt. Then he commanded his own summoned Beast Vassal to attack in a way that would engulf him as well. Her ability to launch an uninhibited first strike did not mean she could nullify her opponent’s attack. Aiming for a mutual exchange of blows was the most effective way to fend her off—indeed, the only way. 

Kojou Akatsuki had understood that—not through calculation, but by intuition. That was why he had smiled. 

To escape from his Beast Vassal, Koyomi had no choice but to let go of Snowdrift Wolf. 

Kojou Akatsuki had sunk into the sea, still wounded, but the important takeaway was that Koyomi had been unable to stop him. And so, even if Kojou was the inheritor to the power of the Fourth Primogenitor, one of the Three Saints of the Lion King Agency had allowed a mere high school student to slip through her fingers. She had no room to refute that it was indeed a blunder. 

“That lad is a true wild card, the ‘powerless human’ who survived the Blazing Banquet to obtain the power of the Fourth Primogenitor. That fact is far more frightening than a primogenitor’s demonic power or Beast Vassals… Not that he realizes it.” 

The black panther’s shoulders sank as it sighed in humanlike fashion. 

From the tip of the demolished breakwater, Koyomi Shizuka gazed at the sea at her feet. 

The surface of the sea was swirling in a ferocious vortex, a side effect of the shock wave unleashed by the Beast Vassal. The sea had to have swallowed up not just the gravely injured Kojou Akatsuki, but his observer, Yukina Himeragi, as well as Kiriha Kisaki of the Bureau of Astrology. 

“…Then we were correct to entrust him to Yukina Himeragi. Method notwithstanding, she has nonetheless somehow managed to bring that wild card under control.” 

“I suppose she has… So what do you plan to do from here?” 

“I shall recover Yukina Himeragi. We cannot afford to lose her now,” Koyomi said before removing her veil. 

Setting the vampiric Kojou Akatsuki aside, she could not abandon Yukina and Kiriha. Those two girls had been exhausted from fighting a foe as fierce as Natsuki Minamiya; additional damage, enough to render them unable to move, had been inflicted by Koyomi herself. Koyomi bore a duty to rescue the pair before they drowned. 

However, when Koyomi moved to unleash a shikigami toward the sea to search for them, the black panther stopped her. 

“…It would seem search and rescue is unnecessary, Shizuka.” 

The panther’s golden eyes were glaring at the opposite edge of the broken breakwater. 

A tall, slender man was standing on the tip of an exposed steel girder. 

He was an elegant, handsome, foreign young man wearing a refined white suit. The corners of his lips formed a smile as Koyomi and the panther gazed at him. Naked bloodlust oozed from every pore of his body. 

The young man’s kind eyes conveyed a chilling message: Interfere with Kojou Akatsuki any further, and I will kill you both. 

The impression given off was not that of a simple threat—if anything, he was thrilled at the prospect of fighting Koyomi. 

“Master of Serpents…” 

Koyomi let out an anguished sigh as she looked back into the young man’s eyes. 

If Kojou Akatsuki left Itogami Island, he would no doubt stir up chaos on the mainland. However, to the young, battle-maniac aristocrat, that would be an auspicious turn of events. 

The young man meant to lead Kojou Akatsuki away from the island for the same reason Koyomi wanted to seal him within it. Furthermore, Koyomi had no means to prevent it… For in that time and place, it was not in her interests to slay the handsome, young aristocrat where he stood. 

“…Endou. Contact External Affairs. There should still be one Shamanic War Dancer able to move immediately, yes?” 

Koyomi posed the question to the black panther in a quiet tone. If they couldn’t stop the young aristocrat from heading to the mainland, a certain number of countermeasures became necessary. As head of the Lion King Agency, she could not simply leave them to their own devices. 

“If you mean my bumbling apprentice, she is under house arrest at High God Forest,” the black panther replied bluntly. 

Koyomi nodded with visible relief. “Then please call her. Now.” 

“As easily said as done. Now then, which one do you want her to monitor?” 

“…Pardon?” 

The panther’s sudden question made Koyomi furrow her brow. Then, when she followed the panther’s gaze, she looked up. 

Her eyes widened in shock. 

A solitary, armored airship was floating above Itogami Island. 

The vessel dominated the ground below as it leisurely cut through the azure sky. The hard, metallic shell encasing the airship was colored a pale blue, almost like a glimmering glacier. The image of a Valkyrie carrying a great sword was engraved into its stabilizer fins—the emblem of Northern Europe’s Kingdom of Aldegia. 

“No… Why are they…?!” 

Koyomi voiced a small mutter when she made out a small figure standing on the airship’s deck. 

She did not recognize the figure—a boy wearing a white turban. His entire body was adorned with lavish golden jewelry. The demonic energy rippling off his small body seemed inferior to that of the young aristocrat with her on the surface—monsters of a level that had no hope of being contained by the Demon Sanctuary. 

Separated by hundreds of meters, the boy and the young aristocrat glared at each other, but the armored airship paid them no mind as it flew over the ocean. The airship was headed north of Itogami Island…and toward the Japanese mainland. 

And when Koyomi’s gaze returned to the surface once more, the young aristocrat had vanished. 

All traces of Kojou Akatsuki and the others swallowed by the depths had vanished as well. The young aristocrat had whisked them away. 

“Good grief… Ugh…” 

Left behind, all Koyomi could do in that place was grasp the cuffs of her priestess attire and quietly murmur. 

Even if she bore the title of one of the Three Saints of the Lion King Agency, she was still only eighteen. It was too much for her to remain serene in the face of great disaster that could only bring the world to its ruin. 

“No more,” lamented the girl, clutching her head, but the black panther pretended not to hear. 

Thus was the siege broken. 

The Fourth Primogenitor departed the Demon Sanctuary, leaving vestiges of destruction behind him. 

But this was no more than the prologue of a new upheaval. 

For even then, the true menace slept at the bottom of a lake on the mainland, far from Itogami Island. 

The menace that could vanquish even the World’s Mightiest Vampire had yet to awaken…