As the mist thinned, the first thing entering his eyes was sea. A vast sea as far as their eyes could reach spread above Kojou’s and Yukina’s heads. At their feet, they saw a starless night sky covered by clouds. The remnant of the half-destroyed Necropolis was hovering uncertainly between sky and sea.
“Why is…the sea above us…?”
Yukina spoke in a daze. The undulating surface of the sea didn’t feel like it was going to come falling out of the sky it stretched through. It seemed that gravity pulled things upward the closer one got to the surface to the sea.
Yukina shifted her gaze farther, her big eyes opening wide, for she noticed the presence of the enormous wall completely covering the space behind the Necropolis.
A steel-colored sheer, vertical cliff spread from the surface of the sea above to the bottom of the sky below.
The surface of the wall was carved with odd, interlocking marks, clearly indicating it was an artificial construct. It was like a bulwark built to isolate the world.
The remains of the Necropolis the pair were in clung to that wall, halfway caved in like a crushed ping-pong ball.
“What is this wall…?!”
Yukina weakly shook her head. The series of abnormal, mind-boggling spectacles were apparently causing even her to lose her cool.
“Ahhh, this is the end of Nod. We can head outside from here.”
Kojou calmly explained in sharp contrast to Yukina’s surprise. He was acting like a tourist visiting a place with mildly rare scenery.
“Outside?! What do you mean by that? Outside of Nod…?”
“Right, Himeragi didn’t know.”
Seeing Yukina approach, Kojou grappled with internal conflict.
“Himeragi, Nod’s apparently a world inside some super-huge artificial island floating in space.”
“Huh…?”
The sudden term space made Yukina freeze, her expression vanishing.
“…An artificial island floating in space… Are you saying this is a space colony?”
“Yeah, that… I feel like I’ve heard that somewhere.”
Kojou readily nodded as he gazed upon the steel-colored “world wall.”
For a time, Yukina stopped entirely as if frozen solid, after which her tiny voice quavered.
“Then this weightlessness, the sky and sea being inverted…and not being able to use demonic energy in Nod…it’s all because this is inside a space colony?”
“It’s not so much the sky and sea are upside down as the inside of the colony walls are all one big sea. Apparently this keeps the bad effects of cosmic rays on living creatures to a minimum. All that said, the gravity here is artificially made with centrifugal force so it figures gravity’s weak near the center like we are right now.”
Kojou flicked a piece of rubble floating in midair with a fingertip as he continued.
They were floating in a void far removed from the earth inside a gargantuan space colony over two hundred kilometers in length—this was the true nature of the otherworldly land known as Nod.
As a result, Nod’s sun always floated right around the water’s horizon. Eternal twilight without any noonday sun and long, starless nights—such were the days in Nod.
“And the gate to Nod only opening at night is…”
Yukina aired that question with an expression that was still incredulous. Kojou narrowed his eyes as he recalled some kind of vague memory.
“That’s related to the Earth’s own rotation. This time of the year, Nod’s on the opposite side of the sun from Earth’s point of view, so the gate only opens when the sun sets. It can be the other way around dependin’ on the season.”
“Ghhh…just how far from the earth are we in tangible terms?”
“Asagi guesstimated it was somewhere between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, but she doesn’t know that for sure. There’s not even any proof it’s inside the solar system.”
Kojou sighed casually. Maybe an expert in spatial control magic like Natsuki could accurately determine its coordinates, but Kojou was an amateur. What he did know with crystal clarity was that this place was far, far removed from the earth. The very fact that Fourth Primogenitor–class demonic energy was required to maintain a teleportation gate was proof of that.
“Just who did this…and for what purpose…?”
Yukina shook her head with visible confusion.
“This is a way station. It seems to be some kind of corridor for headin’ to planets outside this solar system. Did you know? They call themselves Devas ’cause they’re visitors from the heavens to start with.”
Kojou made a pained smile as he continued.
There was no proof the Devas really were visitors from another planet, but the fact remained that at the peak of their glory, they had built and employed the space colony known as Nod. They intended to use Nod as a way station en route to other solar systems.
“Seems like the decline of the Devas starting even before The Great Cleansing means they don’t have the technology or the passion to actually continue space development, though.”
Kojou mused aloud in a tone that somehow felt forlorn. In the end, Nod never had a chance to shine as that way station and was used as a simple storage facility for Beast Vassal Warheads. The only thing left in the Great Sea of Nod was the steel-colored artificial island, deserted and abandoned.
“…You know quite a bit about this, senpai.”
Yukina kept her voice calm as she glared at Kojou with a deeply wounded look. Her reproachful gaze shook him up a bit.
“Eh?”
“Senpai, why do you know all of this? I thought you were bad with history classes?”
“Ah…er, that’s…”
“This is Aiba’s knowledge, isn’t it? You drank Aiba’s blood and gained her Priestess of Cain memories in the process, didn’t you?”
Yukina pressed the issue with Kojou with half-lidded eyes. Kojou gently averted his eyes in silence. It was exactly right that Kojou had drunk Asagi’s blood and made her a servant during Yukina’s absence.
Scrutinizing Kojou’s deep, awkward silence, Yukina sighed deeply.
“Senpai, you really do rush to do indecent things with other girls when I take my eyes off you for even a second…”
“It wasn’t exactly indecent.”
“…Yet you would not drink my blood.”
Yukina ignored Kojou’s half-hearted rebuttal and pursed her lips, visibly peeved. She was apparently still nursing a grudge over the incident at the hotel the prior morning. She was surprisingly stubborn about such things.
Kojou shook his head in exasperation, abandoning all resistance.
“Well, it’s fine. More importantly, we’ve gotta go look for Avrora, huh…”
“I suppose we should…but how would we look for her…?”
Yukina slapped her own cheeks and got serious. At great pains, they had arrived in Nod, only to find it far vaster than she had imagined. She didn’t feel like they could find Avrora in any kind of random search, but…
“…Kojou.”
Kojou and Yukina were at a loss when someone abruptly called out to them. It was a very familiar voice.
Turning around, the pair saw a girl with long black hair who’d appeared out of the blue.
“Nagisa?!”
“Nagisa, how…?!”
Kojou and Yukina called out her name in surprise. Floating there while enveloped by a glow was Nagisa Akatsuki. She was wearing a monochrome sailor suit greatly resembling her Saikai Academy uniform.
“Nagisa…the hell are you doing in Nod…?”
“Wait, senpai. You are mistaken. This is not the real Nagisa…”
When Kojou tried to rush over, Yukina swiftly stopped him.
The girl in front of them changed shape. Her long black hair adopted a metallic glint, and her sociable face changed into one that seemed a tiny bit mature.
Kojou knew a girl who could change her shape like this. She was the one who’d appeared before Kojou when once caught up in encroachment from Nod, saving his life.
“You’re…Glenda…?”
“…Giggle, so we finally meet, Kojou Akatsuki…”
A Glenda grown to sixteen or seventeen years of age looked at Kojou with a smile. Seeing this expression, Kojou instinctively knew that this was not the Glenda whom Kojou knew, but someone else—no, a different Glenda.
“Over here…the last daughter of Mizen is waiting.”
Beckoning the bewildered pair with her hand, the girl with steel-colored hair started walking.
Kojou and Yukina nodded to one another and chased after the second Glenda.