Right Arm of the Saint (20 page)

“Sorry, Himeragi. We might not be able to beat them…!”

Kojou’s voice shook with anger, as if directed at his own inadequacy.

One step. Just one step farther, and they could save the island. And yet they could not reach it.

However, Yukina, looking up at the frustrated Kojou, smiled vividly.

“No, Senpai. In this fight, victory is ours.”

As Kojou said, “Eh?” Yukina stepped in front of him, leaving no time for a rebuttal.

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

She danced with the silver-colored spear, like a swordsman praying to the gods for victory. Or perhaps like a maiden to whom victory was foretold.

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

Alongside her solemn chant, the snowflake spear began to emit a shine.

That dim white light was a spiritual resonance wave that could rip apart any barrier. However, its form was different from Astarte’s. It was slender, sharp, like a shining, glittering fang—

“…No!!”

Having realized Yukina’s objective, Eustach heaved back his axe to throw it at Yukina while she was defenseless. However, a sphere of lightning released by Kojou attacked Eustach as he did so. Protected by plated armor as he was, it was not a fatal blow. However, it interrupted his motion for an instant.

That instant, Yukina dashed. Like a supple, pale white she-wolf, she danced in the sky without a sound.

Astarte’s response lagged behind Yukina’s speed.

Both were imprinted with the same DOE. However, while Astarte’s was a huge Beast Vassal with a barrier enveloping its whole body, Yukina’s spear’s power was concentrated on a single point: slender, sharp, for the sole purpose of penetrating the opponent’s barrier.

“Snowdrift Wolf!”

The next moment, the silver-colored spear pierced Astarte’s defensive barrier, deeply impaling the faceless head of the human-shaped Beast Vassal. That moment, Kojou, too, finally understood the meaning of Yukina’s words.

Even though the barrier had been pierced, Yukina’s spear had done little damage to the giant Beast Vassal. However, the spear continued to
deeply impale the Beast Vassal’s head, even now, inside the materialized Beast Vassal’s body, where the defensive barrier would have no effect.

The long metal shaft was as if a lightning rod, beckoning for the lightning—

“‘Regulus Aurum’!”

Faster than Kojou’s command, the Lightning Lion moved at the speed of light.

Yukina had already released her spear, leaping in midair.

And then Kojou’s Beast Vassal bit down on the shaft of the spear she had left behind.

The magical energy of the Beast Vassal transformed into lightning form poured into “Rhododactylos’s” body.

The way to defeat a mass of magical energy was to smash it with stronger magical energy—

This time, the overwhelming magical power of the Primogenitor’s Beast Vassal instantly burned away and annihilated Astarte’s.

“Astarte—?!”

Having lost her Beast Vassal armor, the homunculus girl slowly collapsed onto the floor.

Eustach moaned, dumbfounded, as he gazed upon the scene.

The annihilation of Astarte’s Beast Vassal, with the ability to destroy any barrier, meant the collapse of Eustach’s ambition to release the holy relic from the keystone.

Before Eustach’s wavering eyes, Yukina landed without a sound.

The distracted Eustach was slow to react.

Yukina pressed her palms against the torso portion of the armor-reinforced garb that shrouded him.

“Distort—!”

It was the Sword Maiden palm strike that penetrated armor to convey damage directly to the human body within.

As Eustach made a pained
guhh
, his tall body bent over. And—

“—It’s over, old man!”

Kojou added his own strike, punching the Armed Apostle in the face.

It was a forceful blow with only might behind it, not magic or spells or any other power of a Primogenitor. Consequently, it was an attack no arcane art could defend against.

Eustach’s sturdy body flew back. It bounced several times over, finally collapsing onto the floor.

He slowly outstretched his hand toward the keystone; then, his strength seemingly exhausted, he fell silent.

An eerie silence came over the Keystone Gate’s lowermost level.

Eustach did not move. Even if he regained consciousness, most likely he had no intention of continuing to fight. His defeat had been assured the moment Astarte had fallen.

Eustach’s holy war was over.

Even so, Yukina remained in a fighting stance, as if to guard against a counterattack from him.

“…”

Without a word, Kojou looked over the area. The Gate’s bottommost level had taken severe damage. Even so, the keystone was intact; the wire cables were virtually undamaged. They’d protected the island, if barely.

Having confirmed this, Kojou met Yukina’s eyes.

He unwittingly let out a small smile.

Yukina did the same. Yet in an instant, like a flower blooming shyly in winter, her beautiful smile inevitably vanished from her lips.

They had won a victory. However, that didn’t mean they’d achieved anything in the process.

A great many people had been hurt. And even now, the holy relic slept within the keystone. None of the distortions that enveloped Itogami Island had been resolved.

Even so, having seen her smiling face just now, Kojou was just a little satisfied. Just for that, he thought, this battle was not in vain.

And, it wasn’t as if he hadn’t saved anyone—

“…”

Kojou made a shallow sigh as he looked over the fallen Astarte.

She was heavily exhausted, but she was still alive.

She didn’t seem to be suffering any significant effect from the lightning released by Kojou’s Beast Vassal, either.

When surrounded by metal, a substance that easily conducts electricity,
the person on the inside is unaffected by lightning strikes. The phenomenon was known as “Faraday’s cage”; likely the Beast Vassal surrounding Astarte had produced the same effect.

The girl was a homunculus, granted a life span far in excess of that of a human being.

However, so long as the Beast Vassal dwelled within her, her life span wouldn’t last beyond a few days.

But, if something could be done about the Beast Vassal, she’d be able to live a longer life.

The fallen Astarte was clothed in something like a thin surgical gown.

However, with her now seeming like a wounded fairy, he couldn’t form any lewd feelings while looking her over; it was painful just looking at her all-too-frail form.

Well, can’t be helped
, Kojou thought. He turned toward Yukina.

“Himeragi.”

“Yes?”

“Sorry. Just for a sec…okay?”

Yukina gave a mystified look back as Kojou walked closer, speaking those words as he strongly embraced her.

Yukina’s lips let out a
Wha?
in a small voice.

She seemed in quite a bit of confusion at Kojou’s unanticipated behavior, but her body only stiffened a little bit; she didn’t really try to resist. She awkwardly leaned toward Kojou, entrusting the weight of her body to him.

“S-Senpai…”

Yukina seemed bewildered as her body quivered. She was so soft. So warm. She smelled faintly of sweat and blood. Kojou’s entire body took it all in, seemingly coveting everything about her.

He understood the reason why Yukina was bewildered.

It wasn’t an issue of what would happen to her right away from having a vampire drink her blood. It was said humans felt pleasure and ecstasy from being drunk from, but that was as simple as that.

The problem was if blood plasma from the vampire’s own body flowed from his fangs as they still pierced, and into the other person’s body. Those who received blood from vampires became “Blood Servants.”

That didn’t mean it was guaranteed to happen. That probably changed
according to the phases of the moon, the condition of the human being’s body, and one’s ability to resist dark forces. However, if vampiric behavior was done over and over, eventually the other person would become one of the undead.

That meant living together as partners for the rest of one’s eternal life.

“Senpai…you can’t… We’re not…ready for…”

Yukina tried to rebuke Kojou, her voice frail.

But contrary to Yukina’s words, there was no resistance in how she acted. As Kojou thought that a rather mysterious thing, he squeezed Yukina strongly. Yukina gently moved her hands to Kojou’s back as well.

“—Thanks, Yukina. I can do this now.”

His vampiric impulses having been sufficiently heightened, Kojou promptly let go of Yukina.

“Eh…? D-do what?”

Yukina looked back at Kojou with an absentminded expression. The slight flush on her face was rather cute.

“Er, um… Senpai?”

However, as Yukina did so, Kojou quickly turned his back on her, leaning over the fallen Astarte.

Kojou gently picked up the slender homunculus girl, piercing the girl’s exposed neck with his fangs. He then drank up the girl’s body fluids.

After a long, long silence, he slowly drew his lips back from Astarte.

There was no change in the fallen Astarte’s form. However, he had surely finished all of what he had to do.

Still holding the half-naked Astarte, Kojou sighed with relief.

Next to him, Yukina remained impressively unemotional as she picked up the silver spear.

“Senpai…what are you doing?”

The cold tone in Yukina’s voice was identical to that from when they had first met.

Somehow, Kojou felt a glacial chill up his spine as he turned his face to her.

“I, ah, I thought I’d put her Beast Vassal under my dominion. It’s like a magical energy allowance, or a Beast Vassal rental, see… In other words, if this girl’s Beast Vassal isn’t draining its direct host’s life directly, but
consumes my life force instead, this girl’s life span will be a lot longer than it is now, right?”

“So you’re saying that, in other words, you drank her blood to save her life.”

The tone of Yukina’s voice was filled with unconcealed, cold anger. Kojou, not understanding the reason she’d become angry, made a timid nod.

“Th-that’s what it is. To seize control rights over her Beast Vassal, I had no choice. Right, no choice.”

With his words, he firmly pressed the justice of his own cause. Surely there had been nothing mistaken about what he’d done. To the contrary, it should have been praiseworthy behavior.

However, Yukina’s expression did not change. Indeed, emotion had completely vanished from her.

“I see. If that is so, why did you direct such lewd behavior at me?”

“Er, ah. I didn’t do that out of any lewd feelings, but… In other words, to drink blood, I have to work myself up a bit—”

Kojou’s unsteady words faltered. Sexual arousal was the trigger for vampiric impulses. Having said that, he couldn’t just feel up Astarte’s frail, wounded body like that, so he had no choice but to elicit Yukina’s cooperation.

“I mean, certainly you’re not an all that sexy type, Himeragi, but there wasn’t anyone else, so I had to work with what I had… I just needed to get your help, a bit.”

“…Work with what you have…is it? There was no one else, so you had no choice…”

Yukina was looking down as her shoulders began to tremble. As she did so, Kojou realized his verbal slip. The way he’d put that just now was mean-spirited, but he didn’t know how else to explain it.

Finally, Yukina’s icy expression shattered, her eyebrows shooting up as she glared.

Her face was in a rage, even as she seemed she might to cry at any moment.

“Senpai, you can sink to the bottom of the sea for all I care! Idiot—!”

As she yelled, Yukina swung the broken Snowdrift Wolf downward.

It was Itogami Island’s deepest section. On the lowest level, some two hundred and twenty meters below sea level, the cries of the Fourth Primogenitor reverberated all around—

Island South, residential district. There was a lone girl at the edge of a window of a nine-story apartment complex.

She was a girl in the low teens who gave the impression of being a bit underdeveloped—

Nagisa Akatsuki.

All she had on was a thin shirt in place of pajamas.

The silver moonlight passed through the material, highlighting the contours of her slender body.

Her hair, worn down, was unusually long. It reached almost all the way to her hips.

Perhaps that was why she gave a different impression than her usual appearance, with her hair worn up. Her usual aura of cheerfulness was hidden away; her cherubic face had an adultlike calm across it.

Her long hair swayed without a sound from the sea breeze that blew in through the open window.

She was looking at the inverted-pyramid-shaped building at the center of Itogami Island—Keystone Gate.

Being the highest building on the entire island, she could see it quite well from the edge of the window.

Nagisa Akatsuki silently gazed at the building.

Tonight, the night of Itogami Island was dark.

With its lights extinguished, one could think of the majestic Keystone Gate as melting into the night sky.

For just a single instant, there was a pale glow, as if it had been struck by lightning.

Watching this, the girl’s lips formed a mysterious expression.

She made a smile as if she knew what that glow represented.

“Regulus Aurum… So you have finally awakened…”

Nagisa’s tongue calmly spun the words.

It was a calm voice, as if it were not her speaking, but another person.

But her expression seemed somehow amused.

“So even that boy finally got a little motivated. Heh-heh… Wouldn’t be any fun if he weren’t…”

A fiercely mischievous light dwelled within her refined eyes—a light that resembled flickering flames.

However, when the breeze blew next, both the adultlike calm and the ferociousness vanished from her body. Seemingly forgetting why she’d been there to begin with, the girl closed the window and let out a small yawn. Rubbing her sleepy eyes, she returned to her own bedroom and bed.

Her face was the same as always: that of an innocent, young girl.

“Mm, Kojou-kun…”

Mumbling her big brother’s name, seemingly out of habit, she closed her eyes.

Looking like she was watching a pleasant dream, Nagisa Akatsuki fell asleep.