Strike the Blood - Volume 19 - Chapter 1.5

5

“Koujou!”

Nagisa’s high-pitched shriek caught Kojou’s attention, and he looked back in a surprised panic, fearing some new beast person had appeared and was attacking her.

Fortunately, she was safe. However, her fearful eyes were locked on a scene outside a broken window. A horde of huge tentacles resembling some creature’s innards had emerged out of the darkness of night. Making squishy sounds, they invaded the building, wrapping around surprised beast people one after another.

“What’s with these tentacles…?!”

Kojou stood in shock, unable to react to the unexpected turn of events.

The scared beast men were resisting, but the dark tentacles mercilessly constricted their captives as if they were pythons and dragged them outside the building. It was reminiscent of a fiendish carnivorous plant trapping its prey. The scene was repulsive.

“Ah… Ugh… Aaaah…!” Ugaki made low groans, his face completely pale.

He was looking at individuals in white robes, hovering in midair.

Three bizarre figures were standing on a tangle of tentacles. Each wore masks—lizard, bull, and human skulls respectively.

Ugaki had fallen into a state of panic by the time Yaze shook his shoulder and muttered, “Hey, what gives?”

Ugaki clutched his head like a frightened child. His mumbling sounded delirious. “It’s them… It’s the Order of the End…!”

“What…?!” Yaze exclaimed, surprised. He turned his head up toward them.

All the while, the black tentacles mopped the floor with the Rogues Alliance beast people. It wasn’t just the ones who had entered the building, either. The ones on standby outside and the subjects surrounding them were attacked one after another, mowed down without mercy.

“This is horrible…!” Asagi shuddered.

The Rogues Alliance encirclement had already crumbled. Even so, the attacks did not relent. The subjects who fled in panic were simply attacked from behind, beaten down until they were tattered.

One member of the Order of the End was controlling the tentacles; it was the individual with the human skull mask.

“Stop iiiiiiittt!”

Unable to bear it any longer, Kojou leaped out of the building. Even if the Rouges Alliance people were from a belligerent domain, he couldn’t stand quietly and watch them get beaten to death.

“The hell are you trying to pull?!” Kojou yelled. “You put them up to this, didn’t you? Dammit…!”

His right hand lashed out, cleanly slicing through every tentacle within his field of vision. He’d summoned a fraction of the power of the Beast Vassal of Severing.

The detached tentacle pieces dissolved into thin air and vanished.

The caster manipulating the tentacles was of course unharmed. Kojou felt like the three individuals were smiling scornfully from under their masks. The three members of the Order of the End spoke to Kojou in turn.

“Kojou Akatsuki… Inheritor of the line of the Kaleid Blood…”

“We are the Order of the End. We have served the true Fourth Primogenitor since ancient times.”

“It is our duty to make thee realize thou art king and guide thee to thy true awakening.”

Kojou was dumbfounded, but only for a moment—ferocious anger welled up inside him. The whole point of the Electoral War was to awaken him.

“You’re saying this nonsense is for me…?! Like hell it is…!!”

Kojou poured strength into his feet. Giving in to his anger, he prepared to rush at the Order of the End members, who had descended to the ground. He’d smash their faces in.

But somebody else was on the move first, leaving Kojou in the dust. Survivors from the Rogues Alliance, the leadership-class beast men, were rushing in.

“Why, you! How dare you do that to our buds—?!”

“We’ll kill ya!”

“You idiots, don’t!” Kojou shouted, uneasy at the sight of the beast men recklessly charging head-on. He instantly tried to summon a Beast Vassal to lend them some support.

Simultaneously, Yukina leaped out of the building. She attempted to use the Divine Oscillation Effect of Snowdrift Wolf to nullify the Order of the End’s magic.

Regardless, the three Order of the End members were swifter.

A horde of tentacles shot out from thin air, entwining around Kojou’s entire body, impeding his summons.

The slender figure wearing the bull mask intercepted Yukina. With a transparent curved sword, they blocked the silver spear and obstructed Yukina’s charge.

Then, the figure wearing the lizard mask received the beast people’s attacks.

The instant they came into contact with the figure, the beast people’s bodies were enveloped by pure-white steam and flames. The beast people screamed out, and the distasteful smell of burning flesh wafted all around. The ground under their feet boiled, and the asphalt melted. It was an incredible amount of heat.

“Khh…” A voice of unease trickled out of Yukina. Ferocious sparks scattered before her eyes.

Overwhelmed by the slicing attacks of the transparent curved sword, Yukina was being forced back inch by inch.

The swordsmanship of the Order of the End member far surpassed Yukina’s skill. Even with a Sword Shaman’s Future Sight and the reach advantage of her spear, it was all she could do to hold her own. If anything, it felt like the opponent was holding back.

“That…blade…!”

What was even more dangerous was the opponent’s weapon.

Amid the darkness, the transparent weapon was hard to see, throwing off her spacing against the curved blade’s attacks.

Also, the weapon itself felt like it was enveloped in a malevolent aura. She was certain that it was equipped with some kind of magical ability, but she did not know its nature. Wariness about the blade’s abilities dulled Yukina’s attacks. Everything put her on the defensive. That left her unable to support Kojou in his difficult battle. Yukina’s nervousness pushed her even further into a corner.

Constricted by a horde of those black tentacles, Kojou let out a cry of anguish. “Shit…!”

One slender tentacle was wrapped around his throat, pressing too hard for him to speak further. The pressure on his carotid arteries made his mind hazy.

Pushed to the wall, Kojou heard an unexpected voice reach his ears.

“Kojou! Don’t move!”

Breaking through his ever-vaguer consciousness, he could hear Yaze loud and clear.

Wind whipped around him with a roar. The overwhelming air pressure became a blade that sliced past Kojou’s neck.

He didn’t sense any demonic energy. Compared to the spectacular attacks of the Order of the End, this wind blade was gentler, but it had accurately sliced apart the tentacle wringing Kojou’s neck. The severed tentacle dissipated. There was a gap of a single instant before a new tentacle could wrap around Kojou once more.

With fresh blood sent to his brain, Kojou’s thinning thoughts gained new clarity.

“C’mon over, Cor-Tauri Succinum!”

The ground before Kojou’s feet split apart as a blade of lava burst forth.

This was the second Beast Vassal of the Fourth Primogenitor, a giant minotaur with a body made of magma. Its incandescent physique burned the Order of the End’s tentacles away, freeing Kojou from their grip.

“Ngh…!”

Wary of the minotaur’s roar, the three members of the Order of the End pulled back. However, Kojou’s attack did not relent. Blades of magma thrust out of the ground one after another, chasing the figures in the white robes.

To end the Electoral War, he could not allow these three to escape. They were a precious lead linked to The Blood, whose true nature remained unknown.

More than that, the fiendish behavior they had shown Kojou then and there had driven him into a rage.

Responding to Kojou’s anger, the minotaur increased the force of its attacks. The scale of the blades of magma increased.

“—Senpai!!”

“What?!”

Yukina’s shout, nearly a shriek, made Kojou gasp and come back to his senses.

Suddenly, an explosive gust of wind from above imbued with demonic energy assailed Kojou.

It was a mass of incredible raging wind that felt like a cannon strike. Realizing he could not evade it, Kojou deployed a blade of magma to intercept. Immense demonic energy collided head-on, mutually annihilating each other.

Had Yukina not warned him, Kojou would have surely been crushed helplessly.

“Why, you…!”

Breathing raggedly over and over, Kojou glared deeper into the darkness.

He was grinning as he stood behind the three members of the Order of the End.

He was far smaller than Kojou had imagined. His physique was dainty for boys his age. He had beautiful blond hair that flickered like a rainbow flame.

“The Blood…!” Kojou growled.

The boy kept his eyes closed as he smiled and elegantly bowed his head.

“This is the first time you have directly laid eyes upon me, Kojou Akatsuki. Properly speaking, I would love to have a pleasant chat with you, but it is still too soon. After all, the Electoral War has only just begun.”

His entire body was enveloped in crimson mist imbued with demonic energy. Finally, the mist transformed into a shining, glimmering beast.

“That demonic energy…!” Yukina drew in her breath in fright.

An instinctive fear raced through Kojou as he summoned a new Beast Vassal. He did not have the luxury of any thought of restraint. Moving according to instinct, he indiscriminately unleashed his demonic energy.

“C’mon over, Regulus Aurum!”

“Come forth, Primus Aurum!” The Blood countered as the lightning lion that Kojou summoned transformed into lightning and attacked the boy, who also summoned his own Beast Vassal to intercept. It was a pitch-black lion enveloped by lightning.

Two thunderbolts fiercely collided head-on. Vast heat and shock waves scattered off, devastating the sub-float Kojou and the others were on.

“Ha-ha…ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”

The boy’s serene, carefree laughing voice echoed amid the roars of destruction.

Scorched by electrical backlash, Kojou shouted, “The Blood! What the hell are you…?!”

No one would answer him.

The air shuddered, and the artificial ground split open.

Among those scalding, dazzling flashes, the only thing that continued to reverberate was the boy’s beautiful, laughing voice.