Labyrinth of the Blue Witch (23 page)

It was Itogami Island—the coastal wall on the Gigafloat’s northern tip. A man stood there, the dazzling rays of the sun pouring down on him.

He was a handsome, youthful, blond, blue-eyed aristocrat—Dimitrie Vattler.

At the end of his gaze was an old, crumbling cathedral. It was the last redoubt of the true guardian of the prison barrier.

All was laid bare to his vampiric super-sight. Namely, that Yuuma Tokoyogi, who had stolen the body of the Fourth Primogenitor, had been defeated by the combined efforts of Kojou Akatsuki and the Sword Shaman from the Lion King Agency.

And that
the prison barrier itself
remained in ordinary space, completely vulnerable and defenseless—

The corners of his lips turned up in a smile, Vattler murmured without a single shred of chagrin evident in his tone.

“So the daughter of Aya Tokoyogi goes no further. A pity.”

He extended his index finger in a rhythm that seemed childish somehow.

“Nonetheless, now that the prison barrier has emerged, I could simply decide to destroy the final key with my very own hands—”

His narrowed blue eyes became dyed with a blood-like crimson. Bloody mist swirled up around his entire body, finally taking the form of a gigantic serpent.

This was one of the nine Beast Vassals that dwelled within the “blood” of Dimitrie Vattler. It was a sea serpent Beast Vassal with command over water pressure. It could instantaneously raise the pressure inside the cathedral to several thousand atmospheres, or alternatively, put it in a perfect vacuum state.

If he killed Natsuki Minamiya while she slept, the sorcerous criminals held prisoner within her dream would be freed. Finally, Vattler would be able to test how his Beast Vassals would fare against those of the Fourth Primogenitor. It would be no bad thing to test if the Lion King Agency’s Sword Shaman could overcome this crisis, either.

But before that—
Vattler looked behind him.

“Shakala!”

Then, he mercilessly unleashed his own Beast Vassal.

The container yard of Island North was an industrial harbor and storage area for raw materials and other supplies brought in by freighter for corporate interests in the Demon Sanctuary. The harbor’s operations were suspended for the opening of the Hollow Eve Festival, so no longshoremen remained. The only things in the yard were innumerable containers and empty space.

An unfamiliar silhouette stood on top of one pile of containers.

She was a small girl probably not halfway through her teens. However, Vattler was sensitive to the surge of demonic energy surrounding her. That was why he unleashed his Beast Vassal.

Vattler’s Beast Vassal homed in on the object of his master’s ire, changing its flesh to a super high pressure rush of water as it attacked her.

The attack from Vattler’s Beast Vassal had an atmospheric pressure of one hundred thousand—enough to change carbon into diamond. However, the girl swept out a single hand; with her hand alone, she stopped an Old Guard vampire’s Beast Vassal in its tracks.

The impact sent a waterspout-like squall raging all around, causing several containers to tumble down. Even so, the girl continued to look down at Vattler, her expression unchanged.

The girl spoke in a cold, crisp voice.

“That is far enough, Master of Serpents… It is not yet time to disturb their slumber…”

It was an awkward tone, as if one person was using another’s mouth and tongue to speak.

The girl was wearing a black one-piece dress. It tightly squeezed her waist, distinctly showing off the lines of her young body. She wore a band on her head with animal ears poking up. She was wearing cat’s paw boots over knee-high, black socks. Apparently it was a black cat costume of some sort. When he looked closely, he could see a tail, too.

However, behind the cute outfit, the girl’s wide-open eyes conveyed no emotion at all. Only her lips smiled.

The corners of Vattler’s lips curled up in amusement as he asked…

“Who are you?”

The girl made no reply. Her hair was fairly long, but perhaps because she wore it short most of the time, it was oddly disheveled. Vattler did not know that the girl was called by the name of Nagisa Akatsuki, nor did the girl herself announce such a name now.

“—So you have no intention of replying, I take it?”

New Beast Vassals appeared to Vattler’s left and right. The Beast Vassals, now totaling three, spiraled together, transforming into a single Beast Vassal. It was a three-headed dragon with black scales. The dragon breathed in the surrounding air seemingly without limit, further increasing its mass. It loomed as large as a monster from myth and legend. Its appearance made one think it was a natural disaster, such as an atmospheric disturbance turned typhoon, made into physical flesh.

“Then I shall play with you in his place—!”

Vattler unleashed the monster upon the cat-eared girl.

It was far too massive a Beast Vassal to target a single person with. The aftershocks of the attack alone would be enough to inflict grievous damage upon Itogami Island’s man-made surface plating. It went without saying that the girl at ground zero would be annihilated without any trace of her remaining. Vattler narrowed his eyes as he expected to see just that, when…

The next instant, his entire body endured an unforeseen shock that sent him flying.

“Guh…gaha…!”

Flying about ninety meters from his starting location until being smashed against a breakwater, Vattler coughed blood all about. Vattler’s attack, released very much toward the girl, had backlashed against him.

Every drop of blood in his body suddenly chafed and seethed under the pressure. The right side of his torso had been liquefied; not a single bone in his body had escaped damage. A normal human, demon, or a sane level of vampire would have surely died instantly. The fact he did not even lose consciousness was because he was a vampire aristocrat with the blood of a primogenitor flowing through his veins.

Its supply of demonic energy cut off, Vattler’s Beast Vassal had already dematerialized and vanished.

In its place appeared a new Beast Vassal, transparent like the ice of a glacier. It was a beautiful Beast Vassal not even ten meters long. The upper half of its body resembled a human woman; the lower half was in the form of a fish. Wings grew out of her back; sharp, wicked claws extended from her fingertips.

A mermaid or perhaps a siren—

With a frigid aura surrounding it, the Beast Vassal glared down at Vattler as if it was protecting the cat-eared girl.

It was this icy Beast Vassal that had annihilated Vattler’s Beast Vassal and inflicted such grave wounds upon him.

“This is insane… That’s Alessia Gracius… Avrora Florestina’s twelfth Beast Vassal. How are you employing its power?” Vattler’s body was still in tatters as he posed the question. However, the girl made no reply.

Vattler glared with poorly focused eyes at the girl; finally, his shoulders shook as he laughed out loud.

“No, I see… So that’s how it is… Ha-ha! That’s
why
you can use it—”

As he continued to laugh, clotting blood poured out of Vattler’s throat, even as seething bodily fluids poured out of wounds over his entire body. Even so, his laughter did not cease. It was laughter that was equal parts clarity and madness.

“So this is why Kojou Akatsuki consumed Avrora and gained the power of the Fourth Primogenitor…and you’ve been watching the whole time. Gwa-ha-ha-ha-ha…!”

The cat-eared girl on top of the container sounded somewhat beside herself as she spoke.

“…It seems your mood has improved somewhat, Master of Serpents.”

“Oh yes… Thanks to this I’m in a
very
good mood. I mean, it’s quite obvious. There’s only one possibility as to why there is someone other than the Fourth Primogenitor who can employ the Fourth Primogenitor’s Beast Vassals…”

Having finally ceased his laughter, Vattler gently picked himself up.

The bones broken across his entire body had largely finished mending; his lost internal organs and the right side of his body had finished regenerating as well. Even if vampires were immortal by their very nature, it was a shocking level of healing.

The cat-eared girl spoke as she gazed at the revived vampire aristocrat.

“I have one thing to tell you, Dimitrie Vattler.”

“…And what would that be,
twelfth
?”

Vattler’s reply came with a defiant look. For but a single moment, the girl who looked like Nagisa Akatsuki raised an eyebrow in displeasure. She then continued in a calm tone of voice…

“Nothing is finished yet. Nothing—”

Kojou Akatsuki opened his eyes in the dimly lit chapel.

He apparently hadn’t been unconscious for all that long. Kojou could still feel the pleasant coolness of the floor against his back.

But the white fabric touching his right cheek was slightly warm. Kojou had not yet realized that the fabric was part of Yukina’s dress as she cradled Kojou’s head on her lap.

Even so, Kojou subconsciously turned his face over to feel more of the pleasant sensation when…

“Have you come to, senpai?”

Surprised to hear Yukina’s voice in his ear, he sat up in a great hurry.

“—Himeragi…?!”

The next moment, Kojou groaned in anguish from the intense pain racking his entire body. It was as if every nerve in his body had been tossed into a blender.

“Man, my body hurts like I just died…”

“…Just as we expected, then?”

Yukina petted Kojou on the head as if taking care of a high-maintenance younger brother.

Though embarrassed at how she was obviously treating him like a child, healing magic didn’t work on Kojou because he was a vampire; there was really nothing else that Yukina could do. He didn’t think any kind of sane treatment you’d get from going to a hospital could cure the aftereffects of being body-jacked by a witch, either. Going to one would be frightening just by itself.

Having retaken his own vampiric body, Kojou could think of only one thing that would help.

“Hey, ah, Himeragi…maybe some of your blood would…?”

“You may not. You absolutely may not. The other times, it couldn’t be helped because of pressing circumstances!” Yukina pressed her lips together with a “muu” and pinched Kojou’s cheek. This put Kojou at ease. It seemed she was letting Kojou know what she
really
thought.

Yukina had only offered him her blood twice so far. Both occurred after Kojou had already died. That’s why, when Yukina hesitated to use Snowdrift Wolf upon him, he’d told her to let him drink his blood
like usual
.

He was telling her:
It’s cool, even if I die from it I’ll come back.

He wanted to think that Yukina’s finally using Snowdrift Wolf on him without mercy was just her following his good advice.

“I’m glad you realized. Thanks.”

“Please do not say that where others can hear ever again.”

Yukina pinched Kojou’s cheek again as she spoke.
So if no one’s around, it’s okay then?
pondered Kojou, though he had his doubts.

“Right… Yuuma?!”

Yukina’s gaze shifted to Yuuma, who was lying right beside Kojou on her side.

“She’s safe. The impact from having been severed from the connecting space was less than you suffered, but…”

Yuuma’s cheeks were still pale, and there were signs of having bled across her entire body, but she didn’t seem to be in any mortal danger. Her breasts were rising and falling as they should, after all; her face was not twisted in pain. Looking at her from the outside, Yuuma’s face was most definitely lovely. Behind that whole boyish attitude was a style that was surprisingly feminine and totally worked for her. Looking back on it now, he felt like he’d wasted an opportunity. Surely changing clothes and showering one time while in her body wouldn’t have been any great transgression?

As Kojou lazily thought of such impure things, Yuuma suddenly opened her eyes and looked at Kojou. It seemed like she’d been conscious to start with. To Kojou, rocked by the eerie timing, Yuuma murmured in a flat tone, “…Looks like I failed…”

There was neither anger nor sadness, only a hollow ring to her voice. She sounded like an old man who’d lost his reason to live who longed for death.

Seeing his childhood friend like that, Kojou felt a fierce anger and, heedless of how his entire nervous system creaked, he sat up and glared at Yuuma.

“No, that’s not it at all. You’ve been set free.”

Yuuma blinked several times over in surprise. Then, a smile came over her like a flower in bloom.

Kojou’s cheeks reddened as her smiling face took him by surprise. Apparently, in the last four years, that oh-so-handsome Yuuma had become able to display such a gentle expression.

“Kojou.”

“What?” Looking up at the obviously blushing Kojou, Yuuma teasingly asked…

“How did it feel to be inside my body?”

“Wha…?!” Kojou loudly cleared his throat by reflex. “Don’t say it like that, people are gonna get the completely wrong idea!”

“Did you do anything dirty?”

Kojou raised his voice as he felt backed into a corner.