“I take it you being here means the angels attacked you, too?” Yahiro became serious and looked at Zen. The Galerie had already sent an encrypted message reporting the angels and the underworld sentries, although they hid Ellie’s identity. Zen should have been aware of it. “No, not us. But we can’t plainly say it’s not our business,” Zen replied as solemnly as always. Meanwhile, Sumika was pouting about being ignored. “Hey! Answer my question.” “What do you mean by that, Zen?” Yahiro pretended not to hear her. “You heard they kidnapped Ayaho Sashou?” “Yes. That’s why we’re here.” “Don’t ignore me…,” Sumika said pitifully. Ellie simply watched nervously. “We were attacked in Japan, by a PMC’s operators,” Zen said calmly. Yahiro was taken aback. “Operators? Humans attacked you, not angels?” “They were after my sword.” “Why would they want that crummy thing…?” “It’s not crummy. It has a lot of history,” Zen retorted before clearing his throat and continuing like nothing had been said. “I heard a Lazarus kidnapped Ayaho Sashou, and it seems it’s the same PMC backing him.” “So you know which company it is?” “We captured and interrogated an operator. It’s a small company that doesn’t even belong to the Guild. The name is Kyuos.” “Why would they kidnap Ayaho…?” Yahiro cocked his head. Ayaho was not an official member of Galerie Berith. She was just a high school girl working part-time at their café. That couldn’t be reason enough for professional operators to be sent to abduct her. “Her kidnapping alone would be baffling if it weren’t for the fact that they also stole my sword.” “…The Relict Regalia… The dragon factor…!” Yahiro gasped. Zen’s sword, used as the catalyst for his Regalia, had approached becoming a Relict Regalia due to being exposed to high-density dragon aura for so long. And Ayaho was a Deserver fused with Vanagloria’s Relict Regalia. The commonality was the huge volume of dragon factor within both of them. “The Lazarus needs the dragon factor to maintain their immortal powers. It’s not something to be worried about when you have a dragon medium by your side, but…” “Without one, you need another source…” Zen nodded. Ellie listened to their conversation with a blank expression. “But isn’t that weird? How can there be a Lazarus without a dragon medium?” Sumika asked. It was an obvious question. A dragon medium’s will created a Lazarus. No matter how much dragon factor one poured into someone, without the trust—the love—of a dragon medium capable of overturning the fate of death, a Lazarus couldn’t be born. It was impossible for a new Lazarus to show up without a dragon medium. “No point wasting time thinking about it. Better just ask the Lazarus himself.” Zen calmly put an end to the unanswerable riddle, as though he knew where the Lazarus was. “Okay, and where is he?” “We don’t know where Kyuos’s base is, but Ayaho wasn’t taken there. They took her to a high-rise hotel by the coast,” Rosé answered. Yahiro was taken aback. “A hotel?” “A luxury hotel for foreigners. You can’t quite lock up a Relict Deserver, can you? Better make her feel safe and comfortable.” “I’m kinda lost there, but she is safe, yeah?” Sumika sighed in relief; as a fellow woman, she worried about how they would treat Ayaho. “Doesn’t mean we can let them be, though.” Yahiro frowned, looking again at Iroha as she enjoyed her reunion with her siblings. He could only imagine how sad she would be if she couldn’t meet Ayaho again. And her sadness could affect the world through the Ouroboros, himself. Whether the Lazarus who kidnapped her was aware of it or not, the risk went beyond the kidnapping of a single person. “We intended to send a few operators to sneak into the hotel to take her back, since we would rather avoid combat in an active public facility…,” Rosé said. “But…” Giuli shrugged. “There’s been a change of plans.” “Why?” “Looks like Ayaho escaped from the hotel already. With the Lazarus, to boot.” Giuli whistled. “…What?!” Yahiro’s jaw dropped. 5 “Should we really have let them go?” a Black man in a white suit asked while looking down at the scattered night lights. He had a shapely face, but it was too symmetrical, like an image created by AI. “Don’t worry. Ayaho Sashou is only bait to lure out Avaritia’s medium,” Suria responded. They were in a high-rise office building in the heart of the city: the executive office of private military company Kyuos. “Her work is done now that Avaritia’s medium has left her stronghold?” a tall old white man asked. He was Kyuos’s representative, on paper. His title had no real meaning. After all, PMC Kyuos was but one of the many covers the underworld sentries had in this world. Suria, one of such underworld sentries, had no idea anymore how long these entities had existed in this world. They had been part of the world’s supervision system for too long. A world created by the Ouroboros had died, and the generation’s dragon medium had created a new one. It was comparable to the lives of plants. Even if one died, from the seeds it planted would bud a new plant in the same earth. And on and on, over and over again. The problem was that changes existed in the world. A different color or form in the new plant was not so harmful, but sometimes, more destructive plants would mutate out of nowhere. And if that destroyer plant spread beyond its parent’s boundaries, it could destroy neighboring plants, too. The creators of the underworld sentries, the residents of Heaven, feared this. That the new Ouroboros in this world could evolve to endanger them. The residents of Heaven had no intention of indiscriminately destroying worlds. They didn’t know all the workings of the universe, either. They didn’t know what effect it would have on their world if another disappeared, because the balance between worlds was maintained as if by a miracle. So they sent these so-called sentries to neighboring worlds. To seal the Ouroboros and end the world only in case a medium’s irregular wish warped the world under the dragon’s power. In a way, the underworld sentries were like viruses sent from Heaven to destroy the world. Suria held no doubts regarding her role. She was only a cog in the system. She questioned nothing. Not until she had rebelled against fate. “But I don’t understand, Suria Almiron. Setting the Deserver aside, is there really any value in using that defective individual? Shouldn’t we nameless angels be enough to seal the Ouroboros?” the old man asked accusatorily. Only three of them were in the room. Four of the seven seats were empty. Suria looked down at the tablet in her arms and shook her head coldly. “I’ve lost comms with our brethren, Afu, Shemihaza, and Armeno.” “What…?” “They were pursuing Elimiel. They must’ve broken the barrier, encountered the Ouroboros, and been defeated.” “Elimiel… The traitor.” The Black man groaned. The old man scowled, too. “We’ve lost over half of the seven archangels overseeing this world. The Ouroboros is not to be made light of.” “Can your toy destroy the Ouroboros?” the old man asked with exasperation. Suria denied it right away. “Impossible. To destroy the Ouroboros, one needs the power to destroy the world itself. Which is why we sentries are meant to seal the Ouroboros, remember?” “Yes, but…” “Its role is the same. The Lazarus Eater is only a tool to seal the Ouroboros. Once the Ouroboros is sealed, the world will lose the dragon medium’s blessing.” The men nodded gravely in response to Suria’s apathetic explanation. “And without the blessing, the world will perish, and thus the Ouroboros, too. What a long road it has been.” “But the Heavenly made the right decision. After a near-eternal loop, this world at last created that defective Ouroboros.” “Yes. We will seal the Ouroboros and destroy this world that puts Heaven in danger. That is the underworld sentries’ purpose.” Suria responded to her brethren without hesitation. Then, she murmured silently, with hatred in her eyes: “You will not get in the way, fallen angel—Elimiel.” 6 “Open, Talaria.” The young man with the white hair and Yahiro Narusawa’s face whispered while carrying Ayaho in his arms. Then she felt a jolt, as if she’d been thrown off a building. After opening her tightly closed eyes again, Ayaho found herself inside a building still under construction, steel frames exposed. Shigure Shindou had jumped over one hundred meters in an instant with his Regalia. “Kuh!” He fell to his knees, short of breath. “Shigure?!” Ayaho screamed. His face suddenly turned pale. He lacked any color, like a corpse. “Don’t worry… It’s just a lack of dragon factor. But this can heal me…,” he said as he reached for the sword on his back. Ayaho knew that sword. It was the Relict Regalia of the Lazarus under the thunder dragon Tristitia’s blessing—Tooru Natazuka. The katana held a great volume of dragon factor within it, but was that enough, without the blessing of a dragon medium? “You just need dragon factor?” Ayaho placed her right hand on his neck. There was no reason she chose the neck, other than thinking that touching his skin directly would be most effective. And indeed, that was the right choice. Vitality came back to Shigure’s eyes as the mark on Ayaho’s right wrist glowed. “Wow. So this is the power of a real Relict Regalia.” Shigure looked up at her with a breath of wonder. “Oh, no, it’s not like it’s my power…” Ayaho looked away immediately. The proximity and the warm sensation on her hand made her terribly conscious of him. “Thanks. I’m okay now.” Shigure stood up. Ayaho then remembered she was in an incomplete building probably fourteen or fifteen stories high. The footing was unstable and the wind was strong. Shigure noticed she was getting dizzy and reached out to support her. Ayaho clung to his arm without timidity. “We should move quick. Suria knows my Regalia can’t take us too far. Kyuos will come after us as soon as they know you’re gone.” “O-okay…!” Shigure held her hand while they nervously went down the open metal stairs. She had lost her bag when they kidnapped her and, with it, lost any way to contact Galerie Berith, but she wasn’t worried. Paola said the Galerie monitored her at all times. They should know her location already if that was true, and they would send someone over as soon as they noticed she had escaped. “The train…isn’t running at this time, I guess. Hopefully we can get a taxi. Ah… I’ve got no money… But if we go to Ginza maybe they’ll give me an advance on my wage,” Ayaho pondered seriously ten minutes later, once they were on the ground. They could only go so far walking, but Ayaho couldn’t think of any method of transport that didn’t require money she didn’t have. “We’ll worry about money later.” “Huh?” “Someone’s after us.” “Did Kyuos already find us?” “No… This isn’t Kyuos.” Shigure unsheathed the straight sword from his back and stood in front of Ayaho to guard her. He glared at the alleyway between buildings. A shadow oozed from the cracks—a giant, colorful monster. “Moujuu?!” “No. These are angels.” “Angels…?” Ayaho blinked in confusion. The monster had wings, yes, but that was the only angel-like element. Its appearance roused instinctive disgust. There was no better word for it than monster. “Suria said it’s a lowest-tier angel, attracted by dragon factor and only here to devour it. Nameless minions, essentially.” “How does Suria know that?” “Because she’s controlling them.” “What…?!” “Down!” Ayaho ducked in a panic at Shigure’s call. The colorful monster’s claws tore through the air above her. Shigure intercepted it with the katana. His space-controlling Regalia extended beyond his bodily reach to dig deeply into the monster’s torso. “That’s one down!” Shigure grunted, spurring himself onward. He swung the sword without rest. A second angel screeched overhead. Shigure teleported the blade to strike it. “There’s no end to them… They want to deplete my dragon factor?” Shigure scowled as he defeated the third and fourth angels in a row. The angels’ attacks were not fierce. Suria had no intention of harming them. Her aim was to send waves of angels to wear him down. Without dragon factor, the Lazarus would fall into a death slumber, and catching Ayaho would be easy. “Shigure, please, step back.” “Ayaho?!” He frowned at the sight of her running toward the angel. Vanagloria’s Regalia had the power to control the earth. She could raise the ground at will and manipulate the minerals in it to create an infinite amount of metallic crystal blades. Her reach was wide, but it was not meant for aggressive attack. Its forte was defense, a skill perfect for the mature and reserved girl. Suria’s angels underestimated her because of that. They didn’t see her as a threat to airborne enemies. And they weren’t entirely wrong. Ayaho would have been helpless if this were a clear, flat land. This was the city of Tokyo, however. And a district full of skyscrapers in the middle of construction, at that. Exposed steel frames were all around them—the perfect resource for her powers. The angels began to hurry when they noticed, but by then Ayaho had already used her Regalia. The high-rise building’s steel frames transformed into blades of metallic crystal and pierced the flying angels from the side. The blades, enveloped in dragon aura, easily slashed and killed the bullet-immune angels. “We should have some time now! Let’s run!” Ayaho turned to Shigure and shouted. Ayaho figured that, by vanquishing all the summoned angels at the same time, there would be a pause in Suria’s attacks. Shigure was dumbstruck for a moment before nodding back. Ayaho was reserved, but not helpless. She had survived the Moujuu-ridden Japan right after the J-nocide. She was no worse than the average mercenary in cleverness and decisiveness. It had taken until just then for Shigure to realize this. The two of them ran side by side before arriving at a wide intersection. Many of the buildings in this office area were still under construction, and there was little traffic at night. A roar broke the nocturne silence. The noise of rotating blades and exhaust of a turbo-shaft engine in the air. A military helicopter descended in the middle of the street. Shigure clicked his tongue loudly. The mere action showed this was no civilian machine. It had to be Kyuos’s operators. Ayaho stopped him before he could raise his sword. “Wait, Shigure! That’s not our enemy!” “…Huh?” He frowned. There was a striking logo on the side of the chopper. The emblem of a crown, a horse, and a devil. This was not Kyuos’s emblem—it belonged to a different private military company. “Galerie Berith…” Shigure lowered his katana. The hatch opened as the chopper descended, revealing its passengers. Shigure bit his lip, at a loss for words at the sight of the black-haired man in his late teens holding a Japanese sword. His face was identical to Shigure’s.
Chapter 90
13 min read