Right Arm of the Saint (15 page)

That would mean that Kojou and Yukina’s hypothesis that they’d been using the lab as their hideout had been mistaken.
Whew.
However, Yukina made a satisfied smile.

“No, Senpai. We were right.”

The silver spear suddenly thrust through the service entrance’s door.

Chingg!
That instant, with a high-pitched metallic ring, Kojou felt like glass was shattering before his eyes. The chain and padlock that should have been locking the service entrance vanished; the door slowly opened.

“Himeragi? What just…?”

“A novice-level illusion spell. Senpai…falling for magic this simple makes you a failure of a Primogenitor.”

Yukina made an exasperated-seeming sigh. Kojou was silent. His heart murmured as if excusing him,
It’s not like I want a passing grade for that!

The building interior was dark. However, Yukina seemed untroubled as she walked within.

Somehow she seemed to have better night vision than the vampiric Kojou. Perhaps this, too, was the special Sword Shaman power Yukina had referred to as spiritual sight.

Certainly, with that much power at Yukina’s disposal, Kojou could understand why she felt he was in the way.

However, that very thing made Kojou vaguely nervous. It was the truth that Kojou was an untalented vampire, but he thought that even so, Yukina was just too perfect.

He didn’t think Yukina’s abundance of combat power and intellect was something a girl fourteen to fifteen years of age could acquire
by any sane method
.

“…”

While Kojou walked, thinking absentmindedly about that, Yukina suddenly came to a halt. Kojou inadvertently bumped into Yukina, drawing a silent glare from her.

“What is it, Himeragi?”

“Senpai… This is…”

Yukina pointed to the scene spread before their eyes.

It was a room with a high ceiling, like the chapel of a church.

Instead of stained glass, the walls were lined with cylindrical vats.

Each was about a meter in diameter. They were probably just under two meters tall. A total of twenty were arrayed from left to right at regular intervals.

The vats were filled with a slimy, amber-colored solution.

Light emitted from illuminated panels made the liquid shine faintly, but the sight was far from what one could call
beautiful
.

This was a simple lab room. Abandoned vats for homunculus adjustment. But…

“This is…a homunculus…? This…?”

Kojou exclaimed as he looked up at the vats. His voice shook slightly in anger.

Suspended within the amber-colored solution were bizarre life-forms about the size of a puppy. Some, one might guess, were like demonic beasts; others, like beautiful faeries. Either way, these were life-forms that did not exist in nature.

“Senpai…?”

A surprised expression came over Yukina as she watched Kojou display fierce anger. Yukina wanted to ask him the reason for that anger, but she
turned her back on him instead. She poised her silver spear and lowered her posture.

She’d noticed someone’s presence emerge from the shadows of a vat.

She was a petite girl with indigo hair. She had splendid, pale blue eyes, but they gazed expressionlessly at the spear Yukina pointed toward her. She was the homunculus girl called Astarte.

“That’s…”

Noticing Astarte’s presence, Kojou turned as well.
Gasp!
However, Yukina spread her left palm before Kojou’s eyes.

“Don’t look, Senpai!”

“Eh? Uh, but…”

“Do
not
look. Don’t turn this way, please!”

“Himeragi? What are you ta—”

“Uhh!” Kojou exclaimed in a low voice as he looked at Astarte’s appearance past Yukina’s palm.

The first thing his gaze fell upon was skin so white, it was almost transparent.

Transparent drops fell at Astarte’s feet. The homunculus girl seemed to have just emerged from a vat, her adjustment complete.

The only thing she had over her body was a thin cloth, like a surgical gown. That cloth was equally soaked, clinging right to her bare flesh. She was as good as naked.

“Senpai…”

As Kojou continued to stare dumbfounded at Astarte, Yukina glared at him, speaking in a low voice. Kojou’s expression stiffened as he shook his head.

“No, you’re wrong…! I’m not, Himeragi!”

“Wrong about what? Goodness… You truly are indecent.”

Letting out a single, ragged sigh, Yukina seemed angry as she looked the other way.

However, Kojou did not shift his gaze away from the sight of Astarte’s flesh, easily visible through the cloth. For under her white, transparent-like flesh, a rainbow-colored shadow flickered.

Abruptly, Astarte calmly opened her mouth.

“…
Warning
. Please leave this place immediately.”

“Eh?”

The girl’s somewhat unexpected words shook Kojou back to his senses. In the meantime, Yukina altered how she poised her spear, shifting to a posture from which she could preemptively attack without warning.

However, Astarte continued to speak, still appearing completely defenseless.

“This island will soon sink. Before this occurs, please flee as far as you can…”

“The island… Sink?! The heck does that mean…?!”

Shudder.
Kojou exclaimed as he felt a chill run up his spine. Perhaps the low-inflection, robotic voice made Astarte’s words more trustworthy. A homunculus like her had no reason to lie to Kojou or Yukina.

“‘This island is a transient land floating where the dragon lines cross the southern sea. Without its nucleus it shall simply collapse…’”

“Eh?”

Yukina let out a surprised voice at the homunculus’s recited words. Kojou couldn’t follow, but the dialogue with Astarte apparently included information that seemed to shock Yukina.

Then, behind Astarte, a huge shadow slowly emerged.

He was a huge man wearing a solemn vestment over his armored augmentation suit. The Lotharingian Armed Apostle Rudolf Eustach.

As he coldly gazed down at the homunculus girl, she turned around, seeming fearful.

“—Indeed. We desire the most valuable, immutable treasure that is the nucleus. And it is thanks to you, Sword Shaman of the Lion King Agency, that we have the power to achieve our long-wished aspiration.”

He turned the blade of his bardiche toward the spear-poising Yukina as he spoke.

The Armed Apostle’s riddling words brought a look of confusion over Yukina.

However, it was not she who replied to Eustach, but Kojou.

“Gained the power…you said…? You mean, you stuffed it into that girl’s body?”

“Senpai?”

The smothered anger in Kojou’s voice clearly unnerved Yukina.

Kojou stepped in front of Yukina, glaring at Eustach with anger-filled eyes. The Lotharingian Armed Apostle stared indifferently at Kojou.

“So you noticed. As expected of the Fourth Primogenitor, I should say. However, even you are no longer any threat to us. We are invincible.”

“Don’t toy with me—!”

Kojou’s thunderous roar shook the air in the tranquil lab.

“Old man, why, you, you planted a Beast Vassal into this girl, didn’t you?”

“Eh…?!”

Listening to Kojou’s angry voice, Yukina looked at Astarte’s slender body in apparent surprise. Then she looked at the bizarre life-forms in the cultivation vats to the left and right of Astarte.

They resembled demonic beasts and faeries, distorted life-forms that should not exist in this world. But could an artificial life-form become host to a Beast Vassal—?

“It is just as you say.”

Eustach conveyed pride with his words.

“The only blood that flows through her veins is that of vampires who make vassals of these beasts. Through implantation of Beast Vassals before they hatch, I have succeeded in creating a homunculus that is host to a Beast Vassal—although Astarte here is my lone success.”

“Shut up!!” Kojou interrupted the bishop’s words. “Don’t tell me you don’t know why no demons other than vampires can use Beast Vassals!! You knew that and still did this—?!”

“Of course I do. When a Beast Vassal materializes, it consumes its host’s life force at an incredible rate. You wish to say that only vampires with an infinite ‘negative’ life force may tame them?”

“Then this girl—”

“No doubt, so long as Rhodaktylos resides in her, her remaining life span shall not be long. She might hold on for another two weeks or so. And that was lengthened greatly via the consuming of the demons we defeated… However, it is sufficient to fulfill our objective.”

Eustach spoke in a tone that lacked a single shred of anguish or guilt.

Kojou was so angry, he was at a loss for words.

Yukina opened her mouth in his place. She gripped her spear as if shaken by the image.

“Consumed the…demons…? You don’t mean, were attacking demons on this island to…”

“Yes. First, their magical energy served as live bait for the Beast Vassal. And the second reason, to complete the technique infused into Astarte… Sword Shaman of the Lion King Agency, the battle with you and the spear you hold provided splendid, precious data for this purpose.”

Yukina’s shoulders shook as he addressed her by her title.

“For this…did you raise that girl for the sake of this alone—?! It’s like you’re using her as a tool!”

Eustach watched Yukina’s display of anger with what seemed like amusement.

“Why are you indignant, Sword Shaman? Did the Lion King Agency not raise you to be a tool as well?”

“…That’s…!”

“Purchased as an unwanted child, instilled solely with skills to oppose demons, and sent into combat like a disposable tool—that is the way of the Lion King Agency, is it not? Sword Shaman, to obtain counter-demon techniques of such proficiency, surely you had to sacrifice something?”

As Eustach calmly pointed it out, Yukina’s entire body froze. She wordlessly bit her lip as her cheeks lost their color, becoming pale.

“Shut up, old man…”

Kojou murmured as if to shield Yukina. However, Eustach’s expression was unmoved.

“I use as a tool that which I created to be a tool; you take those born with the blessing of God and degrade them into tools. I wonder whose sin is the graver?”

“I told you to shut up, you rotten priest—!”

As Kojou roared, his entire body was shrouded in pale lightning. Dazzling lightning emanated from Kojou’s right fist. Kojou should have appeared no more than an average high schooler, but thanks to the dense magical energy he was giving off, his Beast Vassal had partially materialized, using his own flesh as a medium.

“Senpai…?!”

Yukina made a weak exclamation, as if completely overwhelmed by the density of the magical energy he was giving off.

His battle-axe poised, Eustach’s face scowled a little in surprise.

“My. So a Beast Vassal’s magical energy responds to the anger of its
host… So this is the Fourth Primogenitor’s power. Very well—Astarte! Grant them mercy!”

“—Accept.”

Obeying the command of her master and creator, the homunculus girl blocked Kojou’s path.

From her small body, a giant, haze-like Beast Vassal emerged.

It was a translucent giant, glittering with the colors of the rainbow. It was no longer just arms, but a nearly complete body that emerged. It was a giant between four and five meters in height. It was faceless golem with a thick armor of flesh all over its body.

The humanoid Beast Vassal took the girl that was its host within it as it howled.

“Don’t just do whatever the hell he says—!”

Kojou moved to pound the golem with his lightning-infused fist.

Even if it was but a little leaking out, this lightning attack was the power of a Beast Vassal of the Fourth Primogenitor. Surely its might surpassed that of an ordinary vampire’s Beast Vassal. However—

“Senpai, don’t!”

The moment Yukina beheld the scene, she spontaneously cried out.

The next moment, it was Kojou, wrapped in light, who was sent flying.

“Gu…aa!!”

As Kojou let out a loud scream, his body flew back like a piece of tattered cloth.

The moment Kojou appeared to have punched Astarte’s Beast Vassal, a fierce explosion erupted, blowing him back nearly ten meters.

The fallen Kojou’s entire body was shrouded in a white vapor that carried the stench of burn flesh.

It was as if he’d been struck by lightning—as if the magical energy in Kojou’s body had backlashed against him.

“Senpai!!”

Yukina poised her spear and charged toward Astarte, seemingly to shield Kojou.

In concert with Yukina’s ritual energy, the silver-colored spear tip was enveloped in a pale white flash.

It was the holy, purifying light that could destroy even a Primogenitor’s
Beast Vassal. No abilities that demons possessed could withstand a single blow. It should not have been withstood. However…

“Snowdrift Wolf’s…been stopped?!” Yukina exclaimed in response to the strange resistance she felt through the spear.

Snowdrift Wolf’s blade halted just a tiny bit short of touching the Beast Vassal that enveloped Astarte. The spear, able to penetrate any demonic ward, had been stopped cold.

In their previous battle Yukina had felt a similar resistance, but now she completely understood the reason why.

The surface of Astarte’s Beast Vassal, “Rhododactylos,” was surrounded in the same white light as Snowdrift Wolf. Indeed, by the exact same holy, purifying radiance.

“Resonance…?! This power is…!”

“You are correct, Sword Shaman. ‘Divine Oscillation Effect’—the power to neutralize magical energy and tear apart any ward, successfully implemented solely by the Lion King Agency, its trump card for antidemon combat. Using your combat data as a reference, I was finally able to complete my own.”

Eustach made a satisfied smile.

Severely shaken, Yukina barely managed to continue to fend off Astarte’s counterattacks.

Eustach had said that he’d engaged in repeated combat with demons to perfect the incomplete technique.

It was the “Divine Oscillation Effect,” the power to completely neutralize any attack by magical energy, the secret ritual said to be the ultimate counter-demon combat technique, which he had sought.

And then they encountered Yukina.

A Sword Shaman who had come to the island bearing a Schneewalzer—the Lion King Agency’s secret weapons, the world’s only successful implementation of the “Divine Oscillation Effect.”

“No… It’s my fault that…”

Yukina, having lost her will to fight, was being overwhelmed by Astarte.

Even if incomplete, Astarte’s DOE used very similar technology; by combining data obtained from Snowdrift Wolf, it had finally become complete—enough to make the magical energy of Kojou Akatsuki, the
Fourth Primogenitor, bounce off. Yukina’s actions had consequently helped them complete it.

Eustach had obtained the power he desired. Kojou was wounded and on the ground. All because Yukina had come to Itogami Island—

As a hollow expression came over Yukina, Eustach hoisted his battle-axe before her.

“…!”

Yukina, her mental concentration disturbed, noticed the Armed Apostle’s attack too late. By the time she reacted, the battle-axe’s massive blade was already right before her eyes.

Perceiving that it was not possible for her to either evade or block the attack, Yukina instantly resigned herself. An impact rocked Yukina; her entire body was drenched in lukewarm blood.

However, it had not hurt as she had expected.

Instead, Yukina felt warmth envelop her all over, along with a gentle heaviness.

“Koff…!”

Kojou made a small cough into Yukina’s ear. There was a great deal of fresh blood pouring from his lips.

Already heavily wounded in battle with Astarte, Kojou had thrust Yukina back to shield her, sustaining Eustach’s attack in her place.

“S…Senpai…?!”

Yukina’s voice shook. She supported Kojou as he collapsed.

Kojou’s body was unusually light. From his arm, seemingly desperately embracing Yukina, his shredded torso slipped downward.

A single blow of the massive battle-axe had smashed Kojou’s ribs and spine, turning Kojou’s torso into small pieces of meat. The shattered bones fell to the floor as bloody fragments.

With a dry ripping sound, his damaged blood vessels and muscles tore apart.

The spurting, fresh blood formed a blood pool at Yukina’s feet.

The final skin connecting Kojou’s head to his torso, unable to bear the weight of the body, tore apart with a sound like thin paper ripping. All that remained in Yukina’s hands was Kojou’s severed head, his eyes open and vacant.

Kojou’s body rolled onto the floor, his spine, his lungs, his heart, everything smashed and torn into unrecognizable pieces.

Vampires were unaging immortals. However, a single blow from the Armed Apostle had destroyed his heart, the source of that power; his blood, the foundation of his magical energy, now merely poured out in vain…

“Senpai… Why… Oh no…no… Aaaaaaaah…!”

The spear fell from Yukina’s hands. She desperately embraced Kojou, reduced to his head alone, with both arms. However, Kojou of course made no reply.

Eustach gazed at the scene with a neutral expression, lowering his battle-axe.

No doubt he had judged that Yukina no longer had the strength to continue combat. Having now perfected the DOE, Eustach no longer had any reason to fight Yukina.

“Let us go, Astarte… We shall take back our most valued treasure.”

“—
Accept
,” Astarte murmured with a neutral expression, enveloped by the humanoid Beast Vassal.

The Beast Vassal’s giant arms let loose a pale light, blowing apart the laboratory’s outer wall with an explosion. Yukina turned her back to shield Kojou’s severed head from the dust and debris dancing in the fierce blast wind, bent over him like the Virgin Mary.

For a single, final moment, the faceless golem that served the Armed Apostle remained crouched, watching Yukina.

Appearing sad somehow, her look seemed to desperately convey,
Run, quickly
.