“—Er, yikes!!”
Letting out an earnest yelp without any shame, Kojou leaped and rolled sideways to evade the arrows of light pouring down. He had no time for relief, though—fresh arrows flew to drive Kojou into a corner.
“Ms. Kitty’s spirit archery thingy, huh…! Not knowing where they’ll fly in from makes this rough.”
Kojou breathed raggedly, spitting out the words as he fled to the blind spot of the pillar.
Back when he’d fought Yukari once before, Kojou had been neutralized in a single instant by her Spirit Archery. This was a little better compared to then because he had some grasp of the opponent’s hand. Besides, Yukari’s ability had to be greatly constrained when using it via a cat’s body. In spite of this, Yukari’s voice still felt very confident.
“The offensive power of The Blood’s black Beast Vassals is too great. They are unsuited to defense. Surely you understand this yourself, Fourth Primogenitor lad.”
Yukari calmly warned Kojou while looking down at him from atop one of the cables stretching through the chamber.
“Well, in that body, you don’t have enough power to smash the keystone, do you?!”
Ghh, grunted Kojou, drawing in a breath as he pretty much snapped at her. He felt like the black cat was grinning with scorn.
“Hmm, I wonder?”
“…?!”
A moment later, Kojou was assaulted by a sense of unease that defied words. A sound like silence torn apart echoed in his ears—a sound that should not have existed.
Someone had jammed nonexistent time within the temporal flow.
Time with which to unleash an attack—
“Let there be light!”
“Wha…!”
Kojou drew in his breath, dazed when he noticed the girl in front of him, recurve bow raised. At some point, the supposedly wheelchair-bound Koyomi Shizuka had appeared before Kojou with a drawn recurve bow.
Paper Noise, the right of absolute initiative attack—by the time Kojou noticed her presence, Koyomi Shizuka had already loosed a cursed arrow toward Kojou.
The roar of the whistling arrow generated the same effect as a long-form ritual incantation, forming a ritual spell artillery attack with destructiveness on par with a vampiric Beast Vassal. Slow to react, Kojou had no way to evade it.
Yet the anticipated impact did not strike Kojou.
A giant, rose-colored Beast Vassal arm intervened, blocking the ritual spell artillery attack right before Kojou’s eyes.
“Astarte!”
“There is no problem. My Beast Vassal has neutralized the—”
Enveloped in her humanoid Beast Vassal, the homunculus girl spoke with a flat, emotionless voice, but Kojou was uneasy for an entirely different reason.
“Not that! Above!”
A moment after the artillery attack was finished, Koyomi Shizuka leaped above Kojou’s and Astarte’s heads. Her left hand gripped a silver long sword, Rosen Chevalier Plus—the pseudo-spatial severing its slices generated were not something even Astarte’s Beast Vassal could block.
Driven by vampiric survival instincts, Kojou’s body moved faster than his mind. Drawing on a portion of a Beast Vassal’s abilities, he rent space and intercepted Koyomi Shizuka’s sword.
The collision of twin spatial severings made a high-pitched sound like grating metal echo around them. Koyomi Shizuka, blown back by the recoil from the collision, landed atop a cable with a dance-like flutter.
Her movements resembled Yukina’s, but the degree of polish was off the charts. Even without her Paper Noise ability, Kojou could tell she truly was a supreme Attack Mage.
“So you deflected a pseudo-spatial severing slice with a slice by Primus Iris? That’s quite something.”
Koyomi Shizuka smiled as if praising Kojou. Kojou’s lips twisted slightly.
“What…you faked being hurt that bad? You had me totally fooled…”
“No, I am quite gravely injured. However, I healed myself with willpower. One of the Three Saints of the Lion King Agency cannot remain off duty indefinitely.”
“Is that so…?!”
Sweat oozed from Kojou’s back. Whether Koyomi Shizuka’s words were truth or lies, the girl who supposedly couldn’t stand on her own power was fighting him just the same. To be blunt, having one of the Three Saints join the battle was a very unhappy surprise.
“It is over, ruler lad. Give up.”
Circling around Kojou’s back, the black cat stated this as countless arrows of light hovered around him. Aw shucks, Kojou seemed to say with a touch of his hand to the back of his head.
“You got me… I’d be in a real bind if I didn’t bring extra help along.”
“Extra help…?”
The black cat’s whiskers twitched in surprise. The next moment, the cover of the lowest stratum’s maintenance hatch blew open, and a crimson robot tank leaped in from it.
“—It would seemeth I have arrived in time! I am sorry to have keptest thou waiting, Sir Boyfriend!”
Lydianne Didier announced her arrival in a loud voice as she launched smoke rounds. A scent similar to pesticide pricked Kojou’s nose, spreading around him and the others.
Yukari Endou instantly loosed her arrows of light—yet her aim was slightly off, each and every one falling short of Kojou and Lydianne.
“No, this smell, this is…catnip…!”
The black cat wobbled and tottered, rolling onto its back as if it was flat-out drunk. Even a superb Attack Mage like Yukari Endou couldn’t put up a proper fight when her familiar’s body was intoxicated. Lydianne had loaded her tank’s smoke discharger with catnip rounds as a counter to Yukari’s black cat.
“Yukari!”
Gracefully dropping from the wire cable, Koyomi Shizuka sliced down at Lydianne’s tank.
Faced with Rosen Chevalier Plus’s slashes in space, the robot tank’s fiber-reinforced plastic armor didn’t stand a chance, but Koyomi’s slash never reached Lydianne’s tank, for a figure leaped out from within the smoke barrage to parry Koyomi’s sword.
“Wha… Sayaka Kirasaka…?!”
“—Lustrous Scale!”
Shaken by the unexpected interference, Koyomi was physically forced back by Sayaka. Sayaka’s and Koyomi’s weapons had identical characteristics. The two swords’ abilities canceled each other out, causing the naked blades to cast off sparks.
“I was right to bring along Miss Sayaka.”
“Truly, one’s own kin often proveth the greatest of foes!”
Yume, riding the tank’s back, and Lydianne, in the driver’s seat, respectively let out satisfied impressions.
“—The Witch of the Night’s mind control, is it?”
Brushing aside the blatantly hostile Sayaka’s slices, Koyomi Shizuka quietly murmured with irritation.
Once before, Yume had controlled Sayaka, making her attack Kojou and company. Yume was simply repeating history—but this time, as Kojou’s ally.
“We asked Kirasaka to protect Itogami Island. I hear from Yume that even a succubus’s power can’t make someone obey an order they don’t really wanna, though?”
Kojou was holding down the now-immobile black cat as he explained.
“In fact, given an order reflecting the person’s desires, all doubts vanish, causing her to exhibit greater than normal strength… What a troublesome thing you’ve done.” Koyomi Shizuka calmly replied.
Both she and Sayaka had weapons of equal potency. In combat skill, Koyomi had the edge, but she was in a great deal of pain, so Sayaka had a chance if the fight became prolonged.
Knowing this, Koyomi activated Paper Noise. A momentary silence was followed by a roar. With preparations to attack complete, Koyomi appeared from Sayaka’s blind side, smashing her sword hilt in without hesitation, but—
“Wha…?!”
It was an unavoidable blunt strike, yet Sayaka stopped it just short of hitting. Shock hovered in Koyomi’s eyes as Sayaka drew from her latent potential to its utmost limit, raising her reflexes to a superhuman level above Koyomi’s attack speed.
“Leave this to me, Kojou Akatsuki!”
Sayaka spoke these words strongly as her swordsmanship dominated the shaken Koyomi.
“R…right…”
Kojou nodded, somewhat overwhelmed by Sayaka’s oddly high level of fervor, probably owing to Yume’s mind control. He then turned around.
That very moment, Yukina and Shizuri were locked in genuine mortal combat in front of the keystone to Itogami Island.