The Amphisbaena (18 page)

“Kyriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii—!” Kanon bellowed once more. Simultaneously, the eyes on her wings began to emit a light as bright as the sun.

The beam she shot out became a giant sword that struck the ground with incredible destructive force. The hard bedrock was pulverized and scattered, with crimson flames blowing all about.

But Kanon’s attack did not end there. With a flap of her three-by-six wings, the giant, wide-open eyeballs launched another beam at the ground surface, this one clearly aimed straight at Kojou.

To “Faux-Angel,” a servant of the gods, a mass of “negative” life energy cursed by the gods such as a vampire was a “mortal enemy” that had to be destroyed—all the more so where a Primogenitor was concerned.

“Ugh… C’mon over here, Regulus Aurum! Al-Nasl Minium…!”

Kojou no longer had any other options. If Kanon continued attacking him like this, she’d no doubt wipe out the entire island in short order. First, he had to use his Beast Vassals to stop Kanon. If he couldn’t do that, even Yukina and La Folia would be caught in the fallout and lose their lives.

“Kanase!!”

The golden lion enveloped by lightning and the mass of vibrations that was the incandescent bicorn charged into the sky toward the angel. These were attacks of a Primogenitor’s Beast Vassals, each said to possess power equal to a natural disaster.

However, those attacks, possessing enormous magical energy, could not even manage to scratch Kanon’s body.

Both attacks passed right through the flesh of the Faux-Angel, with only a minor, mirage-like ripple. The atmosphere was rent asunder, and thunder streaked like an azure arrow, but Kanon continued leisurely flying, unharmed.

“It is futile, Fourth Primogenitor,” Kensei called out to Kojou.

He was watching Kanon’s form with a look that seemed philosophical somehow. He held no excitement or joy toward the Faux-Angel he himself had brought into being.

“Kanon now exists on a higher plane of existence than we do. No matter how great the magical power your Beast Vassals boast, they cannot destroy what does not exist in this world…”

“Ugh…”

Kojou had no words with which to respond to Kensei’s pitying gaze.

The giant eyes of the six wings of Faux-Angel turned toward Kojou once more.

Their bright, overpowering, sun-like radiance shone upon Kojou, leaving not even a single shred of shadow.

“Kanase—!”

Kojou shouted as he thrust his hand above his head toward Kanon. A moment later, the beam pierced him.

All sound vanished.

The light that thrust through Kojou’s heart, accompanied by a ferocious impact and flames, filled everyone’s vision with a white light.

Within that world of pure white light, Kojou’s body gently fell forward and collapsed—

“Senpai?!”

“Kojou!”

Yukina and La Folia fought against the furious blast winds as they ran toward the fallen Kojou.

Kanon’s attack had gouged a semispherical blast crater out of the ground, with white steam hissing its way up from the surface of half-molten rock. Kojou’s flesh was heavily shredded, though it miraculously remained in one piece.

“Over already… The World’s Mightiest Vampire sure went out with a whimper.”

Kirishima seemed bored as he murmured while watching Yukina and La Folia stand over Kojou in shock.

But realizing that the blast winds were only increasing in strength, his bestialized expression grew tense.

He began to feel sharp sensations mixed in with the wind that buffeted him. Their source: shards of ice.

The seawater blown up by the blast winds had frozen, transforming into icy blades.

“Wh-what is this…? Beast Vassal going berserk?!” Kirishima murmured, his voice nervous and shaking.

Having lost their master, the Beast Vassals of the Fourth Primogenitor had begun running amok beyond all control. It was a frightening situation to even contemplate. If such titanic masses of magical energy released their power indiscriminately, fatal damage would be inflicted not only upon the tiny island, but also on anything else at sea in a ten-kilometer radius.

But the situation was beyond even his worst expectations.

“Ooaaaaaaaaaaaaa—!”

It was not Kojou Akatsuki’s Beast Vassals in the eye of the storm, but Kanon Kanase.

Clutching her own head, the Faux-Angel wailed as tears of blood rolled down her cheeks.

Her wail gave rise to a waterspout, expanding into the violent winds that were now freezing the seawater in the area.

“Kensei Kanase. What’s happening? What is that?”

Beatrice glared at the sorcerous engineer with a reproachful look.

Kensei calmly shook his head as he stared at the unresponsive remote control.

“I don’t know. She shouldn’t be at the point of ascension yet, but…”

“Ah, really…
Haa
, so irritating… I’ve lost my motivation.”

Murmuring as if spitting out the words, Beatrice dematerialized her own Beast Vassal. She turned her back on the Faux-Angel and walked off.

“Hey, BB?”

“We’re pulling back for now. I’m not interested in getting caught up in that thing.”

Beatrice spoke with an unenthusiastic voice, looking back as Kirishima hurried to catch up to her.

The waterspout enveloping the Faux-Angel had now completely frozen over, transforming into a gigantic pillar of ice. Spiraling its way down to the ground, it had already reached a ten-meter radius even as it continued to grow. Beatrice and the others took shelter inside the landing craft; they had virtually no hope of escaping from the island.

In the process, they left behind the defeated Fourth Primogenitor and the two girls with him, even as a violent snowstorm raged all around.

“Akatsuki! Akatsuki—!”

The small girl in a schoolgirl uniform clung to the Fourth Primogenitor as she continued to call out to him.

For her part, the silver-haired princess continued to gaze at the pillar of ice that towered above their heads.

“Faux-Angel… No, Kanon Kanase… You…”

Within the transparent ice, the man-made angel slept, even as she continued to wail.

The gigantic pillar of ice and snow greatly resembled the holy tower called Babel that heaven had struck down long ago.

The rusty, dusty, and dark cargo was filled with sparks scattering from ricochets, the sound of footsteps marching to an eerily perfectly cadence, and ghoulish soldiers clad in black armor, approaching with light machine guns in hand.

“—Heek?!”

Sayaka Kirasaka let out a yelp as she ran about, trying to escape the horrible barrage coming at a speed of 725 rounds per minute.

She was inside the freighter
Amalgosa
. On her way to rescue Kojou and the others, the coast guard patrol ship Sayaka was aboard encountered this ship, belonging to Magus Craft, at sea. And so, Sayaka had boarded to hear what the situation was, only to be greeted by a hail of gunfire.

“What’s with these guys?! No one told me I was heading into a firefight here!!”

Sayaka lamented while wielding her long silver sword as if she was dancing.

The sword was named Lustrous Scale—a prototype transformable suppression weapon developed by the Lion King Agency.

The sword’s arc created a spatial distortion that interrupted all manner of physical attacks. Attacks from mere light machine guns were easy to defend against.

In spite of this, the spatial distortions created by Lustrous Scale were not created by physically slashing through space; it was simply a spell
emulating the effect that was caused
by
cutting space. Accordingly, the effect’s duration was momentary; furthermore, the time lag between activations that accompanied its use was a significant shortcoming. Irrespective of Sayaka’s level of combat skill, it was a fatal shortcoming, one ruthlessly exposed by the ceaseless gunfire.

Sayaka fled under the shadow of a container still remaining in the cargo hold and breathed a sigh of relief, when…

“…Huh?!”

The door behind Sayaka opened; more soldiers appeared.

Sayaka’s expression froze over as she became caught in an unanticipated pincer attack. The newly appeared soldiers only numbered three. With Sayaka’s combat ability, she could neutralize them in mere seconds.

However, during that time, Sayaka’s back would be completely defenseless. That was Lustrous Scale’s third shortcoming: It could not simultaneously create spatial distortions to the front and the rear.

Sayaka clicked her tongue at her unexpected predicament.
Rip through the whole ship then?
Sayaka wondered as she raised her blade high.

Lustrous Scale had numerous defensive applications, but its offensive capability was tremendous. No doubt it could slice through even the thick hull of the freighter like it was paper. If she did so, the
Amalgosa
would certainly sink, but she had no other way to dig herself out of her combat situation.

However, as Sayaka moved without hesitation to swing down her sword, a gentle wave extended across the space right before her eyes. The air wavered like a ripple on the surface of the water as a small human silhouette came through. It was a baby-faced woman covered in an extravagant frilly dress and a raised parasol.

And what appeared behind her was an
arm
: a giant mechanical arm encased with golden armor. Even the palm alone was larger than the girl was tall.

That arm, suddenly appearing out of thin air, lifted up all of the black-armored soldiers that had appeared behind Sayaka at once and crushed them. The attack had all the ease of plucking a weed growing on the roadside.

The soldiers’ machine guns bounced off the golden armor without being able to so much as scratch it, whereas fragments of their smashed cogs and armor scattered all about.

“Natsuki Minamiya? Where did you come from…?!” Sayaka asked while she stood dumbfounded, the timing for her sword strike now lost.

Of course, she was nominally aware that Natsuki Minamiya, a teacher at Saikai Academy, was an Attack Mage of incredible skill also known as the Witch of the Void. However, she could not conceal her surprise at seeing with her own eyes how she could use high-end sorcery like spatial control magic with the same ease as breathing.

“I see. Certainly, this is all according to the data Yaze brought.”

Natsuki Minamiya, the controller of the giant arm, murmured as if bored as she picked up a piece from one of the soldiers scattered apart.

“So this was why a robot maker was doing research in a Demon Sanctuary…? They were using necromantic rituals to get around the First Law of Robotics that’s burned into every Automata’s activation core. Of course, such infantile methods won’t raise capabilities any… No wonder they lost a lot of money trying to sell these to militaries.”

“Automata soldiers… Then, Magus Craft’s off-the-books business is…”

Sayaka’s eyebrows made a scowl as she lowered her sword. Based on the soldiers’ eerily orthodox movements and the strength to wave around heavy machine guns without batting an eyebrow, she could easily accept that they were machines. So the shadow accounts at Magus Craft’s home office were from contracts to sell mechanized troops to the Confederate States of America.

Elegantly twirling her parasol, Natsuki looked behind her at the mechanical dolls.

“We’ve arrested all of the crew aboard this ship. All that remains are these worthless toys. You specialize in dealing with riffraff like that, don’t you, Shamanic War Dancer of the Lion King Agency?”

“N-not that I want to have work just shoved onto me?!”

Even as Sayaka raised her complaint, Lustrous Scale was changing shape.

The blade split and spread out to the front and back, with the long sword changing shape to become a beautifully arched silver compound bow. This was the true form of Sayaka’s Der Freischötz, Lustrous Scale.

Sayaka took a metallic dart out from under her rolled-up skirt, extending it and using the bow to draw it. Then, she shot at the mass of onrushing black-plated soldiers—

The flying arrow scattered about a shrill cry resembling a wailing voice. This was a powerful curse. The cry released by Sayaka’s magic bow made possible the chanting of a spell with intensity that human vocal cords and lungs could not endure.

Sayaka had used an Arrow of Dispel. The sorcerous ritual that controlled the Automata was overwritten and neutralized by a curse of even greater power. Such were the tactics of a specialist in curses and assassination such as Sayaka.

With their strings burned away in an instant, the mechanical marionettes came to a halt.

Confirming this, Sayaka made a weary sigh. She hadn’t come to this place to take on soldiers like that.

“…Is this ship really a research facility for the Masked, I wonder?” Sayaka asked while looking up at Natsuki nonchalantly opening her parasol.

“The cargo hold has an airtight block that was used as a lab. We’ve already seized the data. It would seem the Gigafloat Management Corporation’s board of directors is using the scandal to short sell Magus Craft shares on a large scale. It will either be crushed entirely or become a subsidiary under the Business Department.”

“…Meaning the Demon Sanctuary’s Research Department’s cutting ties with them?”

“Only if their current experiment fails.”

Natsuki spoke with displeasure in her voice. Faux-Angel, an illegal human experiment, had inflicted great damage to Itogami Island. At the very least, Magus Craft’s Demon Sanctuary branch would certainly be shuttered with its employees facing criminal charges.

But if Faux-Angel should triumph over the Fourth Primogenitor, that was another story. No nation’s defense department could overlook a weapon of such capabilities. Even if Magus Craft itself should fall, the research would no doubt be inherited by a different corporation.

In the end, the course of events depended entirely on whether the Fourth Primogenitor—in other words, Kojou Akatsuki—could defeat Faux-Angel or not.

“Ah, one more thing. Just under an hour ago, the coast guard received a distress signal from an Aldegian lifepod.”

“Princess La Folia is safe?”

Sayaka’s expression brightened. It had been a while since she’d had any good news. But for some reason, Natsuki continued her words with displeasure in her voice.

“It seems she’s on the same island as Akatsuki.”

“…Kojou Akatsuki and the princess…together?”

An ill feeling without form or substance came over Sayaka, making her grimace, too.

Sayaka’s intuition as a shrine maiden told her deep inside it was a bad omen. Little was known of her in Japan, but La Folia Rihavein was at the ripe age of seventeen. The princess was so beautiful she was said to be the second coming of Freya, the Norse goddess of beauty.

For Kojou Akatsuki to encounter a beautiful princess on a remote island cut off from all civilization…

No matter what kind of optimistic images she imagined, the only futures that came to mind were filled with despair.

“Anyway, no point staying on this ship any longer, is there? Then, let’s hurry to Yukina and the rest! That’ll settle this whole thing.” Sayaka’s impatience was plain to see.

However, just as Natsuki was about to leave the deck of the freighter, her feet suddenly halted.

“It’d be nice if things went that easy.”

“What do you mean?”

Following Natsuki’s gaze, Sayaka shifted her eyes toward the sea. Then, she froze in shock. Even at the far edge of the horizon, the calamity that was unfolding was visible to the naked eye.

The surface of the sea was frozen over across a radius of several kilometers. Appearing in the center was a gigantic pillar of ice. The pillar, a spiral of frozen water, extended far aloft into the sky.

“What…is that…?!”

Sayaka barely managed to mumble the words. It was clear that the uninhabited island Kojou and the others were on was the origin point of the anomaly. In other words, neither Yukina nor La Folia were uninvolved bystanders.

“It would seem that idiot’s gotten himself involved in another fine mess…”

Natsuki sighed with a neutral look on her face.

Sayaka’s eyes remained wide open in shock as she gazed at the tapered pillar of ice sparkling from the rays of the sun.

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

Raising the silver spear above her head, Yukina loudly recited her chant. As her call echoed loud and clear, the keen blade emitted a dazzling light.

“O divine wolf of the snowdrift, let the echoes of thy thousand howls become a shield and repel this calamity!”

When the pale light vanished, a semispherical space some four to five meters in diameter appeared around Yukina and the others. It was a defensive ward spread using Snowdrift Wolf’s Divine Oscillation Effect.

The outer edge of the ward was a thick glacier-like wall of ice.

Beyond that outer wall, snow continued to fall and blow around ferociously even now, with the surrounding land and the surface of the ocean freezing over. Like the Inuit who dwelled in the Arctic Circle and passed the winter in domed houses of snow, Yukina had constructed an igloo for them to flee into.

Lying in the center of the ward was Kojou, who had not regained consciousness even now. If Yukina had not instantly set up the barrier, he’d not only have been frozen over by now, but also likely crushed under thick layers of ice.

“…You’ve done well, Yukina. We should be able to hold out for a while now.” La Folia spoke while looking over the ice-sealed ceiling.

The flip side of being surrounded by thick ice was that the blowing snow didn’t affect them at all; it was actually surprisingly warm. Eventually they’d suffocate from lack of oxygen, but it seemed they were otherwise safe for the moment.

“Yes. However, I must apologize. Escaping has become even more difficult.”

“There’s no need to think about it now. It’s still a snowstorm outside, after all.”

Yukina was biting her lip with a hard expression as La Folia made an elegant, charming smile toward her.

“This snow and ice. What does it look like to you, Yukina?”

As she touched the wall of ice, Yukina replied calmly, as if making an oracle. “I do not know. But I strongly sense Kanase’s feelings in them.”

Loneliness, unease, fear, despair—it was as if the wall of cold, transparent ice conveyed a frigid sadness. There was no hatred or resentment, only a transparent emotion that approached nothingness.

“I thought you might. That is what I think as well. It is likely Kanon Kanase’s psychological state given physical form, influenced by the Faux-Angel ritual.”

La Folia murmured as she looked up with a pitying look.

She was looking straight at the center of the pillar of ice, where Kanon was curled up in a fetal position. Her sublime, beautiful form looked like that of a crying child.

“If that is so, then Kanase is still…”

Without hesitation, La Folia decisively replied to Yukina’s question. “Yes. She has not lost herself. If we can break the spell, Kanon Kanase will become human once more. However, we cannot get close to her in this state. For that matter, whether we can even leave here alive is in question.”

“I’m sure that won’t be a problem. When Kojou awakens, an ice wall of this thickness won’t pose any problem.”

“Senpai is…”

Yukina knelt by the fallen Kojou’s side and softly peered within.

His body, which had sustained damage that ought to have been absolutely fatal, was already largely healed. His burned flesh, and his gaping wounds that exposed even bone, had already healed without even a trace.

However, one place, a cross-shaped wound impaling the very center of his chest, was the exception…

Realizing there was divine energy blowing out from the open wound, Yukina sucked in her breath a little.

The golden, gleaming divine energy continued to eat away at Kojou’s body, composed of negative life force, like acid, slowly annihilating it.

“This wound…?!”

“The place he was stabbed by Faux-Angel’s sword. The sword continues
to impale Kojou’s body even now. It is a sword neither of us can even touch.” La Folia informed her even as her own Spirit Sight confirmed the existence of the invisible sword.