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“Engines, full stop! Spiritual reactor, emergency shutdown!”
“Otherworld submerge impossible! Castle Kalenaren is surfacing!”
“Our propulsion is…at this rate…the castle will…!”
Ladli’s subordinates cried out one after the other. Castle Kalenaren’s otherworld submerging had failed, meaning it would be completely defenseless in the real world. For that matter, it had lost its buoyancy and had begun to fall to the surface.
“Motoki Yaze…are you determining Castle Kalenaren’s layout with, echolocation…?”
Ladli barely listened to the cries of her subordinates as she glared at Yaze.
“Underestimated the ‘Deva knockoff,’ did we?”
Yaze feigned innocence as he smiled.
A Necropolis’s layout was complex, its interior spaces twisting without regard for the laws of gravity. On top of that, the critical sections were protected with multiple labyrinth-like defensive walls. Even divination magic couldn’t identify the Necropolis’s weak points, yet Yaze had exposed them with ease. He was relying on mere sound echoes—no, it was precisely because he relied solely on sound echoes that he’d slipped beneath Ladli’s radar.
“Kojou! We’ve returned to the real world!”
Asagi clung to the fiercely swaying cylindrical pillar’s floor as she shouted.
Got it, said Kojou’s silent nod as he thrust his right arm forward.
“C’mon over, Primus Mercury!”
An explosive torrent of demonic energy came forth as a pitch-black Beast Vassal appeared. It was an enormous, twin-headed dragon with both necks intertwined. It took an enormous bite out of the very center of the Necropolis, the Shahryar Ren hologram included, and kept going until it burst straight out the Necropolis’s outer wall.
Moonlight illuminated the interior of the Necropolis as a powerful sea breeze blew in. They could see the nighttime skyline of Itogami Island and the surface of the sea through the rift in the wrecked outer wall.
“…It would seem this castle is done for. All hands, I entreat you to retreat!”
Ladli ordered her subordinates in a casual tone, but the interior of the Necropolis had already fallen into great chaos, Kojou questioned whether her words had really reached anyone. In the first place, there was no guarantee that the Necropolis was even equipped with escape devices.
“You will pay dearly for this, Kojou Akatsuki—”
Ladli glared resentfully at Kojou as she took out a small sorcerous device from a breast pocket. The device rested in her palm like some kind of remote control. The instant she activated the sorcerous device, the sight of her was swallowed up by a ripple-like sway. She was escaping via teleport.
“—Senpai! If the Necropolis crashes like this, it will be a disaster for Itogami Island…!”
Yukina seemed to be at the very end of her wits, withstanding the violent tremors as she closed the distance between herself and Kojou.
Having lost its buoyancy owing to Kojou and company’s attacks, the Necropolis was accelerating, pulled by the force of gravity as it fell toward Itogami Island’s urban areas. If the Necropolis crashed into the surface with that kind of momentum, Itogami Island wouldn’t stand a chance. It was the worst-case scenario Natsuki Minamiya had feared.
“Suppose you’re right. Guess it comes to this in the end.”
“‘In the end’…?!”
Yukina raised her eyebrows at Kojou’s irresponsible statement, but Kojou smiled awkwardly back at Yukina.
“Sorry, Himeragi. That’s how it is, so will you stick with me to the bitter end?”
“Senpai…? What are you saying…?”
“Talk and you’ll bite your tongue, Himeragi!”
“…Huh?!”
Yukina replied in bewilderment. Before her, Kojou quietly closed his eyes.
The next instant, his entire body unleashed a surge of massive demonic energy like never before. Touching his palms to the floor at his own feet, Kojou began summoning a Beast Vassal. Even Yukina, watcher of the Fourth Primogenitor and witness to a great many powerful Beast Vassals, was sensing demonic energy of such an incredible level for the very first time.
“C’mon over, Primus Ater!”
Kojou summoned his new Beast Vassal.
The interior of the Necropolis roared like a painful cry as it tore apart. A ridiculously huge sword with a blade surpassing a hundred meters pierced the Necropolis straight down from directly above.
Assaulted by an impact like never before, explosions began erupting all over the place in the Necropolis’s interior. The few intact remaining cylindrical pillars snapped, and the outer shell creaked.
On the other hand, a change came over the Necropolis’s movements. Its acceleration caused by the force of gravity diminished, and Yukina and others were assailed by a strange, floating feeling. Their falling speed had clearly slowed.
Finally, the Necropolis fell completely silent and began floating once more. It slowly gained altitude as if completely freed from the force of gravity.
“Beast Vassal…gravity control…!”
Yukina’s eyes blinked wide open as she spoke. The pitch-black great sword was the black Beast Vassal able to control gravity. Using its abilities, Kojou was dragging the Necropolis higher into the sky. Its destination was the giant magic symbols drawn in the night sky—the gate that continued on to Nod.
“—Lady Empress! Thou art safe?!”
As the Necropolis continued to creak, a loud, speaker-amplified voice echoed within.
A crimson robot tank with a flight unit attached roared its way in through the giant hole Kojou’s Beast Vassal had punctured. Kojou could make out Yuuma Tokoyogi on the tank’s back, too. They’d been on standby in the upper atmosphere to secure an escape route for Asagi and company.
“Looks like our ride’s here to pick us up. This is where our job ends.”
Asagi sighed with her smartphone in one hand.
The Necropolis’s interior was already in tatters. Few of the surrounding cylindrical pillars looked like cylinders or pillars anymore. The area around Kojou and company was only safe because Asagi had deployed a bulwark using The Cleansing.
Asagi could not use her ability in Nod, however. The Cleansing could not be activated without the support of the sorcerous device called Itogami Island. That was why a conflicted expression hovered over Asagi. She must have felt like she was powerless to help Kojou when he needed it most.
“Well, it cannot be helped. Our abilities cannot be employed on that side after all.”
Shizuri shot Yukina what seemed to be an envious expression. As an ogre, Shizuri would also lose her abilities in Nod, where demonic energy was nonexistent. The only people able to use their abilities even in Nod were Kojou, who’d obtained power on par with the Fourth Primogenitor, and Yukina, who wielded spiritual energy.
“—I apologize for the wait, one and all! Now, now, let us swiftly depart!”
Lydianne’s tank batted aside falling fragments as it landed.
“Might be best to hurry up. Looks like MAR’s reserves standing by in New Itogami Island are on the move. I think they’re planning to conquer the main island as a last resort.”
Yuuma, hopping off the tank’s back, spoke with an atypically serious tenor.
Kojou gasped, his expression hardening. MAR had a large force garrisoned at its staging base on New Itogami Island. Just because the Necropolis was dead in the water didn’t mean the threat they posed had vanished into thin air.
“Go get ’em, Kojou. I know you can bring Lil’ Avrora back, too.”
Kojou hesitated for a moment whether to abandon charging into Nod and move to Itogami Island’s defense when Yaze encouraged him. Kojou looked back at Yaze in surprise. Then the two bumped fists without another word.
This was probably his last chance to bring back Avrora, a chance that the combined strengths of Asagi, Yaze, and many others had provided him. Kojou couldn’t let it go to waste, no way, no how.
Besides, Yaze’s encouragement held the subtext of Leave this to us. All Kojou could do was trust them to see things through to the end.
A jet engine noise whined and echoed once more as the robot tank lifted off. Yuuma activated a teleport. The crimson robot tank was enveloped in a ripple-like sway.
“I’m leaving Kojou in your hands—”
From the back of the tank, Asagi looked down at Yukina and spoke those words. She along with Yaze and Shizuri were clinging on to the tank any way they could. A two-seater tank was carrying five people, a situation that was really pushing it.
“Yes.”
Asagi and the others completely vanished before Yukina’s voice ever reached them.
Soon after, Yukina and Kojou were struck by an intense swaying of their own. The Necropolis had made contact with the gate to Nod.
Unable to endure the warping of space, the Necropolis’s innards began to crumble. Their fields of vision darkened, and rubble poured down on them.
When Kojou seemed ready to bowl over, Yukina instantly squatted and grasped him in support. The two clung to one another as they breached the gate to Nod.