Yukina lowered her face in embarrassment as she explained meekly, “M-Mrs. Aka… I mean, Mimori said I needed to change into this before entering the lab…”
Certainly, the blue apron dress she’d been wearing was shredded in the course of heavy combat. Her changing into a nurse’s outfit was entirely legitimate from a sanitation perspective. However, unused to wearing the outfit, Yukina seemed quite nervous.
“S-so, it does look odd on me?”
Kojou’s response was frank. “No, I think it suits you really well…maybe too well.”
Yukina gave off a prim and proper sense to begin with; the nurse outfit amplified that, almost to excess.
Of course it does, thought Sayaka as she nodded in silent agreement. Her breathing grew ragged as she stared all over Yukina’s body, as if running her tongue everywhere, to the point Kojou thought she’d be pulling Yukina to the floor right about then had he not been there with them.
Judging that they’d better switch from the nurse outfit to another subject, Kojou asked, “So, how is Yuuma, anyway?”
Yukina nodded, a little relieved.
“Her wounds have been bandaged. Her life should not be in any immediate danger.”
Tension drained away from Kojou’s entire body.
“That so…that’s good…”
It was good news, if only for the moment. At the very least, they’d avoided it becoming too late to save her.
However, Yukina bit down fiercely on her lip as she shook her head.
“But Mimori said that…we cannot expect her to recover from her present state…”
“So even MAR’s gear won’t cut it…?”
“A witch’s pact is a type of super high-end magic spell that cannot be analyzed with today’s level of science. Of course, that means the curse cannot be lifted, and in the first place, there’s far too little data for a definitive diagnosis…”
“…That’s too bad,” Kojou murmured, looking pained.
He was ready for it, but being reminded of the depth of the situation still hurt. At this rate, they wouldn’t be able to save Yuuma from the deep spiritual damage that had been inflicted upon her. It meant Aya Tokoyogi truly had intended to toss Yuuma aside like yesterday’s garbage.
“According to Mimori, only a powerful witch could be relied upon to save Yuuma now. She said that if there’s another witch with power equal to or greater than Aya Tokoyogi, then it is possible—”
“Natsuki…then?” Kojou interjected gravely.
She was a witch of power equal to or greater than Aya Tokoyogi. Besides, he didn’t think anyone other than Natsuki Minamiya would agree to cooperate in healing Yuuma.
Sayaka calmly pointed out the problem with that:
“But we don’t know where Natsuki Minamiya is, do we? Besides, she’s lost her magic and has the escaped prisoners after her, yes?”
Sayaka hadn’t been there, but she’d had the high points explained to her.
If the jailbreakers spoke the truth, Natsuki was currently in a defenseless state, having lost her memories and her magical power. If they were going to save Yuuma, they needed to keep Natsuki safe and restore her to full strength.
“No choice but to look for her,” replied Kojou. “If we don’t find Natsuki before the prisoners do…”
“I suppose so,” Yukina added. “If Ms. Minamiya can recover her magical power, she should also be able to restore the prison barrier to full functionality.”
Yukina strongly agreed with Kojou’s statement. If they could get the prison barrier back to full operating condition, the escaped prisoners would be pulled right back inside it once again.
Natsuki was the center around which the entire incident revolved.
“But how do we look for her?” Sayaka asked, at a loss. “The city’s jam-packed with people for the Hollow Eve Festival…”
“…Yeah, it is,” Kojou agreed, focused on the television as he spoke. “I don’t think we’ll find her by just groping around.”
A local Itogami Island station was running a live Hollow Eve Festival broadcast. It was already past eight PM. The sidewalks along the city’s thoroughfares were packed with tourists waiting for the Night Parade.
Under normal circumstances, the horribly stifling dresses Natsuki wore would make her really stand out in a crowd, but that wasn’t true that night. The island was brimming with tourists wearing even more extravagant costumes than she did.
Yukina made a suggestion while divvying up the rest of the pizza.
“How about we ask the Island Guard for help?”
The Island Guard, in charge of upholding the law in the Demon Sanctuary, was quite likely to find Natsuki before the escaped convicts could—but that was providing the Island Guard could devote the heavy manpower necessary.
Sayaka hummed thoughtfully and knitted her eyebrows. “I’m sure they’re well aware the prison barrier’s been breached, so we could make the request…but I don’t think we should get our hopes up. They have to be really short on manpower right now. There’s not just the escapees, there’s still LCO remnants to take care of…”
Kojou lazily rested his chin on his palms as he contemplated it. “The Island Guard, huh…?”
Although a police service on the surface, the Island Guard was really a private army under the control of the Gigafloat Management Corporation. Their greatest advantage came from employing the vast amount of data collected from information networks all across the man-made island. If they could provide even just suspicious-person witness reports or surveillance camera photos, those alone ought to have made finding Natsuki a breeze—
“…Asagi might be able to search the Island Guard’s info for us.”
“Eh? Asagi…you mean, Asagi Aiba?” Sayaka asked, suddenly glaring at Kojou in displeasure. “I’ve been wondering this for a while…what in the world is she?”
“Whaddaya mean, what…? She’s just a student with a part-time job, right…?” Kojou had no idea why Sayaka saw Asagi as her rival to such a large degree.
But the Gigafloat Management Corporation had rolled the red carpet out for Asagi because of her hacking skills. She probably didn’t even need to do any cracking for something as simple as finding Natsuki.
It was then that Yukina, who happened to be glancing at the TV at that moment, suddenly murmured, “Aiba…”
Kojou turned to her, confused. “Eh?”
Yukina rushed to explain. “Just now, I thought I saw someone who looked a lot like Aiba…ah, there, again!”
She pointed at the corner of the screen. Kojou made a short sound when he recognized a very familiar face as well.
It was at the curb of a sidewalk along a major thoroughfare. A high school girl with a fancy hairstyle was standing there, mingled in with the tourists watching the parade. She had an arm around a little girl with long hair who looked four or five years old.
“Asagi…? What the heck is she doin’ there…?”
Sayaka inclined her head slightly, looking at Kojou like it was his surprise that was odd.
“Isn’t she just bringing her little sister along to watch the parade?”
Certainly, it was nothing unusual for residents of Itogami Island to watch the Hollow Eve Festival parade. If it’d only been Asagi on the screen, Kojou wouldn’t have been shaken to the degree he was.
“N-no… Y’see, Asagi doesn’t have a little sister… ’S it a relative’s kid maybe?”
It was Yukina who finally voiced the question Kojou was afraid to ask.
“Senpai…doesn’t she look like…?”
“Yeah, but…I mean, it couldn’t be…”
The girl was like a little doll dressed in a stifling, lace-heavy dress. Plus, she had an odd aura of power around her for no apparent reason. The little girl Asagi had an arm around sure looked an awful lot like Natsuki Minamiya…
Yes, Aya Tokoyogi had said as much: Her grimoire had stolen Natsuki’s time and experience. That meant it was more than possible Natsuki’s physical body had gone back in time, too…
Yukina had a hand on her nurse’s cap as she murmured uneasily, “This broadcast…is this being sent to every display in the city?”
The parade was being broadcast on the sides of buildings, the storefronts of electronics boutiques, inside rail stations, and on television screens in numerous other locations. And when you put a high schooler with showy looks with a little girl in a lace dress, they stood out even in a crowd of costumed tourists. If one of the escaped convicts after Natsuki just happened to be looking at one of those screens—
“You’ve gotta be kidding me?!”
This is real bad, Kojou thought as he clutched his head—only to dive for his cell phone a moment later.
Dancers dressed in risqué bikini armor performed a marvelous sword dance as they paraded down Main Street.
Even by Night Parade standards, the “Ride of the Valkyries” was always the number one– or number two–rated program. The band accompanying the dancers was performing epic opera music, raising the tension level of the onlookers.
Asagi heard her cell phone ringtone right before the climax of that stirring performance. Though heavily tempted to ignore it, she changed her mind midway and reluctantly pulled out the vibrating phone. But when Asagi saw the name displayed on the screen, her eyes widened.
“Sorry, Sana. Could you come with me for a bit?”
Asagi split off from the crowd of sightseers on the sidewalk and headed toward a quieter alley. Though she expected complaints about not being able to see the parade, Sana went right along with her. Relieved by that, Asagi pressed her cell phone to her ear.
“—Hello? Kojou?”
For some reason, Kojou’s voice sounded tense.
“Asagi?! Where are you right now?”
Bewildered by his uncharacteristic behavior, Asagi looked around the area.
“Where…? I’m in front of the Quadra Building, not far from Keystone Gate. The main parade’s just about to pass by.”
“That’s what I thought from seein’ you on TV just now.”
“Eh? No way…?! You saw?”
Asagi went “geh” with a twitch of her cheek.
Thanks to her part-time job turning into a sleepover, Asagi was still wearing the same clothes as that morning; her makeup was all a mess, too. Letting Kojou of all people see her like that was a major blunder on her part.
However, Kojou paid no heed to the young woman’s distress and switched to a different question.
“You have a little girl with you, right?”
“…Erm?”
Asagi knit her brow as she looked down at Sana, standing right beside her. She had no idea why Kojou would react to seeing an ordinary girl with her on TV. She was pretty sure his interests didn’t run that way—
“Well, I do, but…”
“Who is she? Someone you know?”
“Nah, she’s lost. She seems familiar, but I can’t really put my finger on it.”
The phone conveyed Kojou’s sense of bewilderment.
“…Lost? What’s her name?”
“She doesn’t seem to remember… Ah, does this mean that you know her, Kojou? I mean, she looks just like Natsuki, doesn’t she? I couldn’t just leave her on her own.”
“Th-that so…”
Kojou covered the microphone on his end and began whispering to someone. Asagi frowned in displeasure. The first image that came to mind was the face of Yukina Himeragi. She also remembered Yuuma Tokoyogi, Kojou’s childhood friend. Perhaps Kojou was chattering with those girls that very moment…
However, when she heard Kojou’s voice once more, it seemed filled with a strange tension that was far from the festival’s happy mood.
“Look, Asagi…I want you to listen very closely.”
“O-okay.”
“That girl, she might actually be—”
Sana shouted, interrupting Kojou’s words.
“—Mama!”
Surprised at Sana pulling on her arm in fright, Asagi turned her head and looked behind her.
Sana was glaring at a bald man approaching them from the dark alley.
The man was probably sixty-odd years old. He was quite well-built for his age; his bony physique was covered with simple and humble cloth. His skin was fairly sunburned. He somehow gave off the air of a serious yoga practitioner.
When he spoke, the old man’s voice was raspy.
“Found you.”
His eyes were aimed straight at Sana.
Asagi immediately stepped in front of the girl, shielding her.
“Um? Er…mister? What is your relationship to—?”
The old man gave Asagi a single malevolent glance. It was the kind of disinterested glance one gave an annoying weed.
“Out of my way, girl… Hand over the Witch of the Void now.”
Kojou’s voice came over the phone again, bewildered. “Asagi? Asagi, what’s wrong?”
Perhaps it was the sound of a familiar voice that finally snapped her back to lucidity.
Asagi cautiously stepped back while she warily kept her eyes on the intruder.
“There’s this weird geezer coming our way—”
The old man glared at Asagi and shouted, “Pest! Begone—”
His entire body became tinged with red. This was not from blood rushing to his skin out of anger; his very body had begun to emit light like metal heated to a high temperature.
A hazy shimmer made the air waver behind him. Even at a distance, Asagi could feel the scalding air blowing off him.
The way the red-hot old man held super high-temperature flames within his body made him look like an Efreet.
Asagi cried out as she realized what the old man was.
“A Spirit Master—?!”
Spirits were energy beings that existed in other-dimensional space. They were masses of spiritual energy of extremely high purity.
When summoned into the world of men, elemental spirits fell apart and vanished instantaneously. High-ranking sorcerers and holy men could make use of them for attack spells, but put another way, they had no better way to employ the beings due to their natural explosive state.
It was said that only through use of a giant warship-scale spiritual reactor could one summon a spirit and keep it stable. It wasn’t something an individual could use.
However, there were extremely rare exceptions. These were the Spirit Masters—those who summoned spirits.
It was said that the crown princess of the Northern European kingdom of Aldegia was able to summon spirits into her own flesh and freely wield their spiritual power. This geezer was probably a spirit summoner in a similar vein.
Of course, what he had called up was by no means a high-ranking spirit like those employed by the Aldegian princess. Rather, it was an Efreet of far lower status.
However, on the basis of pure attack power, it still put all other sorcerers to shame. The old man was a monster in human flesh, far more frightening than demonkind.
Asagi’s decision came quickly.
“Sana, run!”
Promptly realizing that Sana was the old man’s target, she ran, pulling the girl along by her hand. Sana desperately clung to Asagi, half-dragged along in the process.
She no longer had any time to speak with Kojou. Asagi fished out her other smartphone and shouted into the microphone as she ran with all her strength.
“This isn’t funny, dammit—Mogwai!”
A synthetic voice with a sarcastic air flowed into her ear.
“I hear ya’, Li’l Miss.”
This was Asagi’s partner—the artificial intelligence, Mogwai.
“Situation?!”
“All analyzed. The old man is Kiliga Gilika. He was born into guerillas in the Kabul valley in the Middle East, a monster who used a spell to transplant an Efreet into his own body to kill his enemies more efficiently. Six years ago, he was arrested on Itogami Island for attempted terrorism and sent to the prison barrier.”
Asagi was beside herself. “The prison barrier? You mean that’s not just some urban legend?”
It was supposedly a prison hidden somewhere in the Demon Sanctuary where the worst of the worst magical criminals were imprisoned. So did that mean the old man was an escapee who’d busted loose? It was hard to believe, but Asagi didn’t think Mogwai would tell tall tales at a time like this.
The old man wasn’t all that fast a runner. At best, he was moving at about the same pace at which Asagi and Sana were running for their lives. However, the old man simply burned away decorative trees and signs obstructing his path, letting him pursue by the shortest possible route. At their current rate, it was only a matter of time before he caught up with them.
“Ugh…Mogwai, calculate route! We’re heading for the utility tunnel to Keystone Gate’s Entrance E. You handle the bulkheads!”
“Entrance E, huh? Roger that. Take a right at the next turn, down the stairs to the underground shopping center…there’s a hatch to the utility tunnel when you get to the landing.”
Instantly reading what Asagi was planning, Mogwai immediately told her which way to flee. Fortunately, the back alleys had been largely swept clean of people while everyone went to see the parade; there was nary a pedestrian in sight to block their escape.
Picking up Sana’s small body, Asagi ran down the stairs and immediately set eyes on the hatch. It was the entrance to a utility tunnel used for work on water lines and buried electrical cables.
Mogwai had already used remote control to unlock the hatch. Asagi kicked the hatch open and plunged into the poorly lit maintenance tunnel. It was a long tunnel not quite two meters in diameter.
After, Asagi ran about fifty meters down the tunnel before falling to her knees. Her endurance was finally at its limits. It was too great a burden for an ordinary high school girl running all out while carrying a little girl in her arms.
For his part, Kiliga Gilika had already entered the tunnel in pursuit of Asagi and Sana.
A thick shutter descended between them, seemingly meant to cut the old man off from the girls. It was an emergency bulkhead meant to protect the man-made island from fire, flooding, and demonic attack.
The bulkhead was some twenty-four centimeters thick, made of high-strength steel imbued with magical energy. It was designed to be ridiculously tough, to the point of resisting even attacks from vampires’ Beast Vassals. Surely even a sorcerous criminal able to summon an Efreet could not easily breach it?
Asagi looked behind her. “It’d be nice if he just gave up, but—”
She twitched with terror, suddenly noticing that the surface of the thick, tenacious bulkhead was emitting a hot orange light.
The super high-temperature flames under Kiliga Gilika’s control were boiling and melting the bulkhead at an incredible speed beyond her wildest expectations.
“This ain’t good, Li’l Miss… The bulkhead’s gettin’ whittled down faster than expected. Its temperature’s gone past the design specs.”
In other words, magic-infused steel was resistant to attack spells, but it wasn’t any stronger than the steel itself against non-magical damage.
Gilika probably didn’t even use spells. He didn’t seem capable of anything as deft as using his summoned Efreet as a spiritual reactor to power offensive magic. He was just conducting the Efreet’s heat. But his method of attack was hard to counter precisely because it was so primitive.
Sana seemed to have decided on something as she looked up at Asagi.
“Mama…”
Her expression almost seemed to be conveying, I’m staying here…run for it!
Goodness gracious, thought Asagi as she exhaled. She embraced Sana around her small shoulders with an impetuous smile.
“It’s all right. I’ll protect you, whatever it takes—we can’t have him looking down on us Demon Sanctuary natives.”
Asagi picked up Sana once again. She didn’t mean it as an empty gesture.
The bulkhead was completely melted. The shutter parted as hot, bubbling ooze, and the red-hot old man emerged behind it. Now that the bulkhead was no more, their only option left was to run.
However, neither Asagi nor Sana had recovered enough strength to sprint at full speed.
The raspy voice of Kiliga Gilika heartily laughed instead. “What’s wrong, girl? This all you’ve got?”
The man was about ten meters away from them, but the heat his entire body was spewing felt right at their backs.
Mogwai laughed with a sarcastic “keh-heh” as it reported, “He’s gonna catch up with you, Li’l Miss, in about thirteen…no, twelve seconds!”
The old man was extending his fire-shrouded arm when Asagi beamed fiercely and stopped where she stood, turning around and glaring at him.
“Excellent…! Right on schedule!”
That moment, a sidewall of the underground tunnel suddenly opened; something gushed in, accompanied by a great roar.
The old man’s body was smashed in the flank and tossed aside.
Sana’s shocked eyes opened wide.
Cold water droplets sprayed all around, soaking Asagi’s feet.
It was water. An underground water vein was gushing in from the wall with incredible force, slamming into Kiliga Gilika’s body like a hammer.
“Arrrrrrg! You little bitch…!”
When the rushing water touched the red-hot personage, it instantly exceeded the boiling point and exploded as steam. It was Kiliga Gilika who was blown away by that shock wave.
Furthermore, the force of the water gushing in from the wall did not diminish. Gilika was dragged into the backflow of the water, only to be slammed against the exterior wall once more.
Sana watched it all in shock as Asagi explained into her ear, “I had the water flow reversed.”
To stop municipal facilities from being flooded by heavy rain, the interior of the Gigafloats had drainpipes crisscrossing through them. The drainage pipes used solenoid pumps and sump pumps to prevent backflow from seawater, but Asagi and Mogwai had taken over the controls to pull seawater in and deliberately flood the underground maintenance shaft.
With Sana still in her arms, Asagi climbed on top of an inspection ladder to prevent them from being swept up in the rushing water. This was the escape route Asagi and Mogwai had cooked up together.
Asagi slid the manhole cover open and escaped to the surface. The subterranean shaft had already been flooded to the brim.
Surely even Kiliga Gilika’s ability to have a super high-temperature Efreet possess him did not allow him to move freely underwater. However, Asagi’s expression remained grave.
“I’d like to say, enjoy being flushed into the ocean…but I’m not that naive.”
The asphalt covering the road behind Asagi and Sana was giving off a strange smell as it melted. None other than Kiliga Gilika crawled out from under it.
White smoke was spewing from the old man’s entire body. He had a series of creepy sunburn-like splotches all over his skin. Apparently, being bathed in a vast amount of seawater had significantly weakened his Efreet.
The old man ground his teeth as he growled, “Now you’ve really done it, girl…”
He approached Asagi and Sana, dragging his feet with each and every step. Even worn down like this, Kiliga Gilika’s combat capability was a grave threat. And Asagi and Sana had no endurance left to flee with, nor was there any usable facility left to flee to.
The old man’s right arm spewed high-temperature flames once more.
“Wonderful…it’s been so long since I’ve had such lively prey. I was disappointed when I’d heard the Witch of the Void had lost her powers, but you are an enemy worthy of being burned to ash by my flames!”
Asagi shook her head. “Sorry, but I’m not respectful enough of the elderly to waste my time with a selfish, senile geezer like you… Mogwai!”
“Keh-keh. Ah, looks like ya’ made it in time—please ’n’ thank you.”
It was a flat, quiet voice that responded to the AI’s verbal request.
“Accept.”
This voice came from a homunculus girl with glimmering, pale blue eyes. Like glittering wings, giant rainbow-colored arms spread out from her back.
The giant arms moved like whips as they slammed down upon Kiliga Gilika. There was a dull impact sound as the air clapped, like two huge boulders had rammed each other.
Smashed into the wall of a building, fresh blood flowed out from the old man’s body like it was lava.
“Guah…!”
A dazzling beam from a searchlight shone mercilessly upon him.
As the old man raised his face, he found a giant golem had appeared before him, swallowing the homunculus girl inside of it in the process. It was a humanoid-shaped Beast Vassal, shrouded in transparent, fleshy armor.
Behind the Beast Vassal, an Island Guard mechanized unit had deployed, weapons fully at the ready. Asagi hadn’t called them over; they’d been right there from the beginning.
This was Keystone Gate’s E Entrance—the emergency deployment route where the Island Guard’s main force was always on standby.
Asagi hadn’t been blindly running around. She’d used herself as her own decoy to lure her adversary right to the Island Guard’s doorstep.
And to Kiliga Gilika’s greater misfortune, Astarte had been visiting the Island Guard’s garrison while searching for the missing Natsuki.
The shake of the assassin’s head seemed to say, Unbelievable.
“A homunculus…controlling a Beast Vassal…?!”
Beast Vassals were summoned beasts from another world. They were masses of magical energy so dense that they were sentient and could turn solid.
Though the Efreet that Gilika controlled had a ridiculous level of spiritual power, it was not a being that contradicted the physical laws of the world itself. That was why spiritual reactors and so forth could be maintained through man-made means.
But Beast Vassals were not so gentle.
Beast Vassals, by their very nature, were beings that did not belong in this world. Furthermore, as much as Beast Vassals possessed destructiveness far beyond the norm, the price the summoner paid to materialize them was his own life force.
Vampires were feared as the mightiest of all demons because their infinite negative life forces, and theirs alone, allowed them to employ Beast Vassals.
And yet, here a powerless homunculus girl was freely employing such a Beast Vassal before his very eyes—
“This is insane!” Gilika rose and spread his incandescent flames as he moved to punch Astarte.
It was the Efreet flame attack that could melt apart a thick metal bulkhead in a single instant.
However, one of the Beast Vassal’s giant arms stopped the attack cold.
“—Execute, Rhododactylos,” came the emotionless voice of Astarte.
Kiliga Gilika’s eyes opened wide in fright. The force of the flames emitted by his flesh was weakening. Astarte’s Beast Vassal was robbing his Efreet of its spiritual strength.
“You’re…eating…my spiritual power…?!” the old man suddenly shrieked.
The voice of the homunculus girl in the giant humanoid Beast Vassal calmly replied…
With all his spiritual power depleted, Kiliga Gilika was being pressed face-first against the ground by the Beast Vassal’s giant arm. Of course, he was no longer conscious by then.
As he lay on the ground, the gray manacle on his left arm glowed; from it, silver chains enveloped his entire body. Then, the old man’s body sank into thin air, finally vanishing completely.
The giant Beast Vassal shimmered like a mirage and vanished, leaving only the homunculus girl in its place. Her long indigo hair swayed as she approached Asagi and Sana.
“Miss Aiba, are you injured?”
Asagi looked down at herself and gave a strained smile.
“Ah no, I’m all right. My clothes are a mess, though.”
Her street clothes looked pathetic, dirty from the maintenance shaft and drenched in seawater. She’d only just bought them, but she had no choice now but to throw them away. The sandals she’d liked so much were all scuffed up, too. At least Sana’s clothes hadn’t gotten dirty.
“Thank you, Astarte. You being here really saved our bacon. But why are you here, anyway—?”
Astarte briefly explained her reason for being at the Island Guard garrison:
“I am currently searching for the instructor.”
Asagi was well aware that her guardian, Natsuki Minamiya, also worked as an instructor for the Island Guard in her role as an Attack Mage.
Consequently, Astarte visiting the Island Guard garrison to meet Natsuki Minamiya was not mysterious in itself. However…
“Searching for…? Wait, you mean Natsuki’s missing?”
Astarte nodded as she turned her sapphire-like eyes toward Sana.
“Affirmative. However…her physical characteristics match the instructor’s to an extremely high degree. May I request an explanation?”
“Physical characteristics match…? Oh, you mean how they look so alike?”
Certainly, Asagi had noticed that Natsuki Minamiya and Sana resembled each other to a surprising degree, but she couldn’t give an answer she didn’t have.
Asagi seemed to remember something while stroking Sana’s head.
“Come to think of it, that jailbreaker seemed like he was after Sana, huh…? As for why they look so much alike, that’s what I wanna know, too, but…”
Asagi’s words reached that point when she heard a small click of shoes behind her. It was the echo of someone agilely leaping down from the rooftop of a building and making a graceful landing.
The sound startled Sana; she looked behind her in fright.
The next moment, they heard a voice with a sultry air that seemed to mock the act.
“…Hmm, shall I tell you, then?”
A woman was standing where Kiliga Gilika had vanished from. She was a young woman with violet hair. Beyond the long coat that covered her, she was dressed only in expensive, scandalous undergarments. The outfit seemed a little too much to be a festival costume.
The woman brushed her long hair from her cheek as she laughed in mockery.
“It’s not simply a resemblance…she really is Natsuki Minamiya. She’s just under a little curse at the moment.”
Her left arm bore a gray manacle that was identical to the one Kiliga Gilika had. That meant she, too, was an escapee from the prison barrier.
All the Island Guard troops raised their weapons. Even the sight of that did not make her beautiful smile falter. The guardsmen were thrown off by her reaction; they couldn’t tell if they should open fire.
Asagi kept her guard up. “Who…are you?”
The corners of the woman’s lips rose in delight. “Gigliola Ghirardi—does that name ring a bell?”
Asagi had a chill run down her spine. “…The Songstress of Cuartas Theater,” she moaned.
Gigliola Ghirardi was a vampire—an Old Guard vampire descended from the Third Primogenitor, the Chaos Bride. And a vampire all the while, she was also a high-class prostitute involved in numerous sex scandals with royals and nobility in every nation of Europe.
Her fortunes had changed some five years before, just after an affair with the crown prince of a small country had been discovered. Fearing a scandal, members of the royal family decided to have her quietly assassinated. Deeply enraged, she had annihilated the assassins that had assaulted her and slaughtered several members of the royal family instead, the crown prince included.
In the vernacular, it became known as the Tragedy of Cuartas Theater.
As a result, other prior thrill-seeking crimes by her were discovered, an international arrest warrant was issued, and finally, she was arrested—and ought to have still been in prison.
Gigliola smiled, amused, as she watched the fright pass through Asagi. “I’m so pleased that there are still children that remember me.”
“Why are you…on Itogami Island…?!” Asagi asked brokenly.
The Tragedy of Cuartas Theater was an incident well-known all over the world, much reported on in Japan, enough that even Asagi, still in grade school at the time, remembered it like it had been yesterday.
However, that was an incident in another country far, far away. Asagi couldn’t understand why she’d appeared on Itogami Island rather than in some European prison.
Gigliola shrugged her shoulders with a frivolous air as she replied to Asagi’s skeptical question.
“I slightly overdid it at the Hispania Demon Prison.”
“Overdid it…?”
Gigliola waved her hand casually. “Yes, I took over the prisoners and the guards and toyed with them as I wished, which of course became a large ruckus. In the end, the Witch of the Void was sent, and I was put into the prison barrier—”
Asagi just stared.
To Europe’s demons, the Hispania Demon Prison was synonymous with terror. It was said that none of the many sorcerous criminals housed there ever returned alive.
And yet, she had said she’d taken the place over. If that was true, she was an even more dangerous being than she was rumored to be, enough that she might be able to destroy Itogami Island single-handedly—
Gigliola spoke in a gentle tone this time.
“So you see, I bear no grudge toward this Demon Sanctuary. If you simply hand the girl over, I shall let you go.”
As Sana stood close, Asagi firmly embraced the child’s body and glared straight back at the woman.
“You don’t really think I’ll just go, ‘oh, sure,’ and hand her over, do you…?!”
Astarte summoned her Beast Vassal once more and stood before Gigliola to shield Asagi and Sana.
“I concur. Please stand back, Miss Aiba.”
Gigliola exhaled in melancholy as she gazed at the giant rainbow-colored Beast Vassal.
Astarte’s Beast Vassal, Rhododactylos, had the ability to consume the magical power of other demons to feed itself, and also, to nullify magical energy. Even the vast power of an Old Guard such as Gigliola possessed could not breach the Divine Oscillation Effect that protected Astarte.
“A Beast Vassal coexisting with a homunculus…this Demon Sanctuary has raised quite a rare breed of doll. Certainly this is annoying…but what can you do about this?”
A crimson whip emerged from within Gigliola’s hand. It was a long whip with thorns running all along it like the stem of a rose. This was her Beast Vassal—a so-called Intelligent Weapon.
However, she did not snap her whip at Astarte’s Beast Vassal, but rather, against the ground at her own feet.
The next moment, a thunderous roar accompanied the staggering of Astarte’s Beast Vassal.
“—Astarte?!” shouted Asagi.
The rainbow-colored golem shielded Asagi as countless bullets rained down upon them.
These were large-caliber anti-materiel rifles, man-portable rockets, machine guns, and arbalests—all specially constructed anti-demon weapons firing rounds imbued with ritual energy.
Ordinary demons would have been blown away without a trace by such concentrated firepower, but Astarte’s golem withstood it.
However, even she was pinned down. The incredible fusillade had completely stopped her in her tracks.
Asagi was astonished. “Why would the Island Guard…?!”
It was not Gigliola who had attacked Astarte, but the Island Guard’s main strike force that had sortied to capture Kiliga Gilika. The guardsmen, supposedly on their side, were hitting Astarte with everything they had.
Astarte casually conveyed in a robotic monotone…
“I recommend that you flee, Miss Aiba. They are being attacked by a Beast Vassal.”
Asagi gasped and looked at Gigliola.
“Attacked…?!”
The tip of her whip was still impaling the surface of the ground. However, when Asagi looked closely, she saw that a countless number of branches had spread out like the roots of a plant, sprouting out of the ground to wrap themselves around the guardsmen’s feet.
Mogwai quickly explained the situation, its voice obvious as always.
“This ain’t good, Li’l Miss. Gigliola Ghirardi’s Beast Vassal, Rose Zombiemaker, has the ability to control minds. Looks like puttin’ all our eggs in one basket backfired on us.”
Gigliola had said she’d taken over the Demon Prison she’d been housed in.
The power of her Beast Vassal was to control the minds of others via a physical link, just like a parasite. The ability made her quite literally a public menace.
In one sense, her ability made her more fearsome than a vampire primogenitor. After all, it was only by fighting in groups that mankind was able to fight demons, with their overwhelming physical superiority, on even terms. However, her ability took away human beings’ greatest weapon and turned it against them. Gigliola became more powerful in proportion to the number of enemies arrayed against her.
Emotionlessly, Astarte stated:
“I shall impede her progress. Please leave the vicinity with haste—”
However, Asagi could clearly hear the urgency in the sound of her voice.
Astarte’s Beast Vassal, which by nature could only be defeated by the impact of greater demonic energy than its own, yet which repelled all magic attacks, was nigh invincible—yet even it had a weakness; namely, that its host, Astarte, was but a frail homunculus. Her body could not endure the summons for a long duration. Without a vampiric body of her own, she simply couldn’t bear the strain of summoning a Beast Vassal for long.
Asagi pulled Sana’s hand along once more.
“Sana!”
She had no idea where to go, but running was their only option.
Astarte couldn’t strike back against the Island Guard. As long as Asagi and Sana remained there, all Astarte could do was shield them for however long she could last.
However, Gigliola watched them turn tail with a pitying look.
“Fu-fu… I’m so sorry, did you really think an Old Guard vampire would be served by only one Beast Vassal?”
This said, she raised her left hand high.
Fresh blood spewed from her palm, finally taking the form of a new Beast Vassal.
This was a swarm of crimson bees. There were dozens of them, each a giant some five or six centimeters long. The swarm bore down on the girls, looking like something straight out of a nightmare.
Gigliola continued her elegant laughter.
“Get them, Aguijón!”
As the swarm of bees overtook them, Asagi fell to her knees in despair. Even she was checkmated this time. Despite the aid of the supercomputer that controlled the Gigafloats, she couldn’t think of anything that’d get them out of this jam.
With Gigliola having taken over the main striking arm of the Island Guard, Astarte was at her limits. Asagi, a mere high schooler, had no power with which to repel a Beast Vassal.
“I’m sorry, Sana…”
All Asagi could do was shield the girl’s body with her own.
Sana offered a gentle, charming smile in response to Asagi’s motherly embrace.
“Don’t worry, Mama.”
As Sana whispered into her ear, Asagi’s eyes widened in surprise. Her vision was flooded with the swarm of crimson bees rushing toward them—