In a creepy chamber enveloped by darkness, a white-haired elder dressed in priestly robes screamed. It was the throne room of the Necropolis called Castle Zu.
“Why?! Why isn’t the Beast Vassal Warhead activating?! What is going on?!”
The screen above the elder was displaying the nighttime scenery of Tokyo.
It showed the windows of electric trains moving to and fro unceasingly. It showed the headlights of cars traveling along highways. It showed commercial facilities all lit up. It showed the lit windows of skyscrapers. Everything was perfectly normal for a peaceful city.
There was no sign of the Beast Vassal appearing to lay all this to waste. The Beast Vassal Warhead fired from Castle Zu was a dud falling toward Tokyo Bay.
“Detecting ultrahigh-density divine essence! Range…four hundred! Castle barrier dissipating!”
A new screen floated up to show a girl spreading wings of spiritual essence. It was a beautiful girl with a cherubic face. There was a golden shield in her left hand. In her right, she gripped a dazzling sword of light.
“A Faux-Angel from the Kingdom of Aldegia?! Where in the world did it come from?!”
Kul Zu’s eyes were bloodshot as he shouted.
The existence of the ritual known as Faux-Angel was known even among the Devas. The secret spell of the Royal Family of Aldegia was said to artificially increase one’s spiritual cores, causing unlimited amplification of spiritual energy, making one a higher-dimensional being while remaining in human flesh.
What made the Devas view Faux-Angels as dangerous was not because they represented a spiritual evolution of mankind. They feared Faux-Angels’ capabilities as simple weapons. The vast divine essence at their disposal was able to inflict lethal damage to a Deva Necropolis’s functions.
“Enormous demonic energy detected at sea level! I-it’s Leviathan! Bio-energy laser, incoming!”
Castle Zu’s enormous frame shook violently before the subordinate had even finished the report. An enormous monster rivaling the size of the Necropolis itself was surfacing in Tokyo Bay. It was Leviathan, “Weapon of the Gods,” the World’s Mightiest Demon Beast.
Kul Zu stood in a daze as he gazed upon the legendary monster. Leviathan was a divine-level biological weapon that had existed in the surface world since before the Devas emerged. He could hardly believe anyone had tamed such a creature, but the monster was right there, baring its fangs at Castle Zu.
A tiny figure stood on Leviathan’s thousand-meter-plus back.
It was a young girl spreading pitch-black wings. He could scarcely believe it, but this girl had controlled Leviathan to make it attack Castle Zu.
“Submerge! Emergency otherworld submerge! Hurry!”
Kul Zu angrily shouted at his subordinates.
Even the nigh-absolute defensive power boasted by a Necropolis could not withstand attacks from a Faux-Angel and Leviathan at the same time. The Faux-Angel’s divine essence would nullify the Necropolis’s otherworld defensive wall, whereupon Leviathan’s extreme firepower would pour down upon them. It was the worst situation his mind could fathom.
“S-submerge not possible! The castle wall has been cut through…!”
A subordinate reported in a voice threatening to vanish. This time, Kul Zu simply gaped.
The silver-haired, blue-eyed Faux-Angel had created an enormous sword of light, slicing right through Castle Zu’s outer wall. It was no longer possible to redeploy the otherworld defensive wall. Castle Zu was practically naked.
“The Völundr System…that’s ridiculous…was the Aldegian battle fleet not headed to the Celebes Sea?”
Kul Zu listlessly shook his head. The Kingdom of Aldegia’s Völundr System was one of the very few rituals capable of penetrating a Necropolis’s otherworld defensive wall, but he’d heard that only the princess-priestesses of the Aldegian Royal family could activate this ritual. Yet the girl before his eyes was employing the Völundr System, employing the overwhelming spiritual power of a Faux-Angel—
“B-Beast Vassals! Vampire Beast Vassals directly above! Numbers in the hundreds…no, four hundred…over a thousand…!”
The subordinate looked at Kul Zu with a face twisted in despair. Kul Zu could no longer even speak.
The Beast Vassals filling night sky were a flock of enormous-winged dinosaurs supposedly gone extinct in a bygone era.
The enormous flock was really a single Beast Vassal. In that entire wide world, the vampires able to control such an exceptional Beast Vassal numbered precisely one.
“The Second Primogenitor’s ‘In Memorial Garden’…! Ha…haha…hahahahahaha…! So you use even the three primogenitors as your pawns, Empire of the Dawn!”
“Y-Your Excellency?”
When Kul Zu suddenly burst into laughter, his subordinates looked up at him with confusion.
“It is just as the other clans spoke… They told us, do not raise your hand against the Fourth Primogenitor… It is nothing like the primogenitors we know… I feel like a fool watching a nightmare.”
Shoulders still lowered in dejection, Kul Zu continued his listless laugh. Of the seventeen Deva clans, only two entwined themselves with Shahryar Ren’s ambitions. Kul Zu finally understood the reason why. For the sake of a puny artificial island floating in the Pacific Ocean, another nation’s princess wagered her own life, the controller of a legendary divine beast had come forward, and even other primogenitors had lent their strength. So far as Kul Zu knew, such things had been impossibilities since The Great Cleansing, not occurring even once since that time.
At least not until the Fourth Primogenitor had emerged on Itogami Island—
“…We will surrender.”
Regaining his dignity, Kul Zu spoke with a quiet air.
Expressions of relief spread among the subordinates inside the Necropolis.
✦ ✦ ✦
The spherical fortress appearing above Tokyo Bay opened its castle gate, from which signal lights blinked on and off. It was an optical signal conveying surrender.
“Oh my? It is already o…ver? Unfortunate…but, that, is…fine…”
The elegant person riding on the huge Simurgh’s back brushed up his purple hair and released his summons of the thousand-plus Beast Vassals. Aswadguhl Aziz was slightly deflated as he sighed.
Word had already come that the Necropolis Castle Ba, under full-scale attack by Third Primogenitor Giada Kukulkan’s forces at the Celebes Sea in the Western Pacific, was falling to pieces. Compared to that, this ending seemed rather plain somehow.
That said, the lord of Castle Zu was no doubt worthy of praise for averting fruitless conflict.
Had the battle been prolonged, Japan’s Self-Defense Forces would surely have deployed as well. Aswad, guilty of violating another country’s airspace, was probably better off withdrawing before they showed up.
“You have also done…well, pretend angel girl.”
Aswad switched moods and looked back. Two girls were riding on the Simurgh beside Aswad—Kanon Kanase, wearing a wetsuit, and the little artificial vampire she held in her arms.
“I am glad this girl was not harmed in any way.”
Kanon looked down at the completely nude vampire girl and smiled.
It was the artificial vampire sealed inside the Beast Vassal Warhead. The girl with short, rainbow-colored hair was limp with her eyes closed. She was as pale as the dead, but her nearly flat chest was rhythmically rising and falling. She remained asleep, with the nameless Beast Vassal still dwelling inside her.
“To think Simurgh would permit any other to ride atop its back…my, my. Also, the Lilith who controls Leviathan…”
Aswad’s red eyes narrowed as he looked down at Yume Eguchi, standing on the back of the giant demon beast leisurely floating on the sea’s surface. The beautiful Second Primogenitor smiled, covertly baring his white fangs.
“Giggle…truly, you do not fail to…amuse. Someday, we must take our time playing… again.”