The Amphisbaena

The girl awakened within the light.

Pure white walls, dazzling lighting—even the air lacked a single particle of dust.

The electronic medical devices on the bed the girl lay upon watched silently, like wood carvings. A verse from ancient holy texts had been engraved into the marble floor.

This was both an isolation chamber for a special patient and a solemn, holy sanctuary.

“…Test subject XDA-7, consciousness level rising.”

Somehow, it hurt to listen to the cold, inorganic voice coming from somewhere far off.

The gray manacles into which both her arms had been inserted made a faint but hard metallic creak.

“Blood pressure, heart rate both rising. Body temperature up point three degrees. Blood cortisol spiking. In accordance with standard rule 2,544, requesting hymn from protocol chapter six, verse one, to chapter nine, verse eleven.”

“…Permission granted. Commence the hymn.”

Majestic music poured down from above the anguished girl’s head.

The stanzas of the countless melodies were repeated in canonical style. The reverberations of synthesized voices singing holy verse accompanied
the sublime pipe organ. As if responding to the singing voices, the text carved into the floor glowed with greater intensity.

As an aura of serenity filled the room, the girl slowly stopped moving.

She was a silver-haired girl. It seemed certain that she had not yet reached the age of fifteen.

Her body was clad only in a deep blue patient’s gown and a metallic black mask. The mask bore countless eerie images of eyeballs.

Her bare arms and legs were pale and slender enough to look frail. Bizarre brands appeared on the surface of that white skin. They looked like interconnecting electrical pathways: an elaborate magical formula.

The brands flickered in tune with the synthetic chorus that poured down from above.

“Continue the chant. Administer painkillers and tranquilizers in parallel and resume subliminal suggestions.”

The girl heard the indifferent back-and-forth between the sorcerous engineers while in a light sleep.

She no longer felt pain or sadness. A beautiful light and a flood of sound enveloped her.

The divine pulses created by the sorcerous runes would eventually alter her very nature, shifting her to a higher, more spiritual existence: a being of grace and purity near that of the omniscient God that ruled heaven itself.

Right now, she was not human; she was a servant of God blessed through the power of sorcery.

Then why…?
wondered the girl.

Why is there an aftertaste of fresh blood on my tongue…?

Flames enveloped the entirety of the ship as it cruised through the sky at an altitude of a thousand meters.

The ship was over 170 meters long. It was a giant armored airship covered in a shell formed of a special alloy, outfitted with four turboprop engines and twelve machine-gun turrets.

Upon its stabilizer wings, the image of a Valkyrie bearing a sword was emblazoned—the symbol of the royal family of the Northern European kingdom of Aldegia.

The spindle-shaped hull was painted pale blue like a glimmering glacier with golden ornamentation at its edges. This was a flying fortress exclusive to the royal family and the loyal knights that served it.

But at that moment, the beautiful ship looked pitiful, bearing countless wounds.

“
Whew…
What a pain.”

The tall woman stood atop the deck of the burning ship. Her entire figure was clad in a red bodysuit. Her right hand gripped a long spear.

And her charming eyes were dyed scarlet, as if dripping with blood.

The white fangs that poked out of the gap between her lips revealed her true nature. She was a full D-type—a vampire.

“Sheesh. You’re making me work here. This is really getting on my nerves…”

The woman walked upon the deck, dragging the spear in her wake.

The tip of the crimson spear scraped the ship’s armor, scattering sparks about with a shrill sound.

She was the one assaulting the ship—the one responsible for mercilessly destroying the splendid vessel’s hull and enveloping it in a vortex of flames.

“…Who…are you? Who hired you?”

Standing before her was a knight, his body clad in augmented armor trimmed with gold. His epaulets bore the crest of Aldegia.

They marked him as a member of the Royal Bodyguard and the commander of the flying airship’s military escort.

“You struck knowing the
Ragnvald
is protected by we Knights of the Second Coming?!”

Though he bore wounds over his entire body, the knight glared ferociously at the woman. The sword he wielded emitted a pale light.

The vampire woman listlessly stopped in place, giving the knight before her a look of obvious scorn.

An explosion detonated behind her. One of the gas bladders that kept the hull aloft had been destroyed. As the giant armored airship’s hull lost precious buoyancy, it began tilting ominously.

The knight’s shoulders shook with rage as he watched the golden ornaments of the ship fall away.

The woman flicked her long, waving hair in annoyance.

“I
told
you, didn’t I? Just hand over the rotten little bitch you zealots are protecting already. If you do that,
your
deaths will be quick and painless…!”

Before she finished speaking, her arm howled and roared as if ripping through the very air. The long, crimson spear released a surge of explosive magical energy as it assaulted the knight.

“Don’t get carried away, vampire scum!”

The knight squarely withstood the blow.

The crimson spear was thrown back, a side effect of the incredible demonic energy. Watching this with no special sign of surprise, the woman sighed dejectedly.

“Huh…? That’s Aldegia’s Völundr System thing? It certainly is a bother. So lame…”

“Did you think you could bring this ship down, filthy jackal? You shall do as you please no further, demon!” The knight pointed the pale, shimmering tip of his sword at her.

The Völundr System was cutting-edge knight gear developed by the kingdom of Aldegia. The powerful tactical support system used spiritual energy transmitted by the reactor of the mother ship to turn a mundane weapon into a magical one, temporarily giving it the might of a Holy Sword–class weapon. Thanks to this system, the Aldegian Knights of the Second Coming had gained great fame on the battlefield. Some even called them the mortal enemy of demonkind.

However, even faced with the radiance of the pseudo–Holy Sword, the woman’s expression did not falter. Still listlessly holding her spear, she shot the wounded knight a look of open ridicule.

That moment, a black silhouette appeared behind the woman’s back. It was a beast man with jet-black fur.

“…Sorry to keep ya waitin’, BB!” the beast man called out to the woman in a sober tone. The scent of blood wafted up from his entire body: blood spatter from the crew of the airship he had attacked. There were still pieces of raw flesh stuck to the sharply tapered tips of his claws.

“Yes, welcome back. Where’s the Aldegian sow?” the woman asked without looking. The beast man quietly shook his head.

“Not here. The bridge was empty, too. There’s one lifepod missing. Looks like she got away.”

“So this was all for nothing? Good grief. I wonder if they’ll even pay us. Well, that’s fine…,” the woman said, openly disappointed. As the bloodlust on her beautiful, corrupt face vanished, the crimson spear evaporated from her hand as well. Her arrogant demeanor told the knight leveling his sword at her that his existence was insignificant to her.

“You dare mock me…?!” the knight howled, raising his pseudo–Holy Blade high.

The woman shot an annoyed look back at him and laughed derisively.

“I’ll concede that the Völundr System packs a punch. Your run-of-the-mill demon couldn’t even get close to that light, could they?”

As the knight yelled and unleashed his attack, the vampire woman evaded it with ease. Then, she operated a cell phone–sized device with practiced ease. The word
Advent
appeared on the device’s screen.

A moment later, the sky above their heads was filled with light.

“But I’m
so
sorry…your opponent
isn’t
a demon.”

As if tearing apart the dark nighttime sky, something descended from a rip in a cloud. It was a small silhouette enveloped by a malevolent light. And a number of warped wings with red blood vessels running all over them sprung out of her back.

“What is that…?!”

The knight’s sword lashed out toward the airborne silhouette.

The spiritual energy of the pseudo–Holy Blade became a ray of light that assailed the shadow. This was a spiritual, purging light able to repel any demon. But the instant the blade of light was about to make contact with the airborne silhouette, it smashed against something like a glass wall and winked out.

“That’s insane,” gaped the knight, as the red-clothed woman laughed with what almost seemed like pity.

The airborne silhouette descended at high speed, drawing near to the damaged airship. The pulses of magical energy it scattered about became a raging gale that shook the ship’s hull.

The knight unleashed another slashing attack. But no matter how many times he did, the result was always the same.

The spiritual light of the pseudo–Holy Blade could not touch the hovering silhouette. It was as if the sun itself was mocking the light given off by this pale, man-made imitation…

This was a power that could nullify the purging effect of spiritual light. In other words, it demonstrated that the silhouette hovering before his eyes was not an evil being. This malevolent monster was an existence far holier than that of the man-made, pseudo–Holy Blade fueled by a spiritual reactor.

“This…can’t be an…”

Only then, when the monster landed on the flying ship’s deck, was its form fully exposed to him.

Its bare arms and legs bore eerie runes. Its wings looked as if they’d been sprayed with acid. A bizarre mask covered its head. But even so, its aura was all too serene, even divine…

“An…gel…?!”

The winged monster raised a clear, singing voice as it released a dazzling beam. It was a purifying light that burned everything away.

The red-clothed woman and the beast man had already fled. Without even time to register this fact, the knight’s consciousness was enveloped in a burning light. The beautiful armored warship exploded and broke apart, its wreckage falling into the dark nighttime sea.