“Kojou…Kou…jo…u…”
Avrora was in a detached state as she kept deliriously repeating the same word.
Since she was unable to maintain the incomplete summons of her Beast Vassal any longer, it returned to mist and dissipated immediately.
The golden-haired girl’s body had countless cracks running all over it. Her skin had lost all color as if she were turning to stone, and droplets of fresh blood dripped from the deep cracks. Unable to withstand the backlash from summoning the Beast Vassal, she had begun falling apart.
“Hmm…a disposable artificial vampire in the end…so this is its limit…”
Shahryar Ren murmured in an indifferent voice.
He’d already lost all interest in the battlefield. Kojou Akatsuki had dissipated, and Avrora was beginning to crumble away. The Attack Mage girls and the dragon girl remained, but they were little threat to him. Ren didn’t even need to take them out himself.
“What of the…gate, to my homeland…?”
Upon landing, Kreyd the Flame Dragon inquired, remaining in his dragon form.
The demonic energy of the Fourth Primogenitor was necessary to open the gate to Else, homeland of the dragons. Kreyd seemed concerned that the dissipation of Avrora’s body would lose any means of doing so.
“There is no need for concern, Kreyd. Nod has over six thousand artificial vampires. We need only use one of them as a vessel for the Star Beast Vassals in Dodekatos’s place. Indeed, managing them should prove a far easier task.”
Smiling as he spoke those words, Ren then called over his surviving subordinates. There had been casualties from the combat with Kojou, but such sacrifices were well within expectations. He had higher priorities than healing and recovering the wounded.
“—Prepare a replacement doll at once. After that, put those Attack Mage girls in chains. I do not care if you break their limbs, but ensure you do not damage their heads. It has been quite some time since I’ve obtained such lively prey. I must take pains to enjoy them.”
Ren looked down at the Attack Mage girls as he issued those tyrannical commands to his subordinates.
To the Devas, who required acts of vampirism just to remain alive, humans were nothing but food to them. Among these, Attack Mages with strong spiritual energy were the highest class of prey and rare captures. Ren planned to savor every bit of the girls’ suffering, fear, and lamentations as he wrung every last drop of blood from them—even he could not fail to feel a stirring in his chest.
Yet those very Attack Mage girls were glaring at Ren and his people, yet to sheathe their weapons.
“You still intend to resist? Kojou Akatsuki, the one you relied upon, has dissipated without so much as a single cell remaining. Do you really think you have any chance of victory…?”
A scornful smile arose over Ren as he addressed the girls. A faint doubt of misgiving hovered in his eyes because he noticed the crumbling Avrora picking up a tiny, metallic object.
Amid the ashes of the dissipated Kojou Akatsuki, this had remained until the end.
It was a silver-colored ring.
The still-collapsing Avrora tightly squeezed that precious ring.
The tears of blood flowing from her dripped down onto the ring in her palm.
“Kojou…”
Avrora pressed the red-colored ring against her own chest.
Thump, thudded the large heartbeat they felt.
✦ ✦ ✦
On the back of Leviathan, floating in Tokyo Bay, a silver-haired girl let out an agonized breath.
“Nnn…aaa…”
Kanon Kanase curled up and writhed as she pressed on her left hand.
Her cheeks were red from the blood rushing to them. Her blue eyes were moist as if they were running hot. With the faint moonlight shining on her, the sight somehow felt…obscene.
“Haaa…haaa… Miss Kanon…this feeling…”
Yume Eguchi, sitting alongside Kanon, breathed raggedly over and over. The young succubus girl had bewilderment, fear, and unconcealable euphoria on her face.
“It is all right…let go… It only hurts at the beginning.”
“But I…I’ve never, felt like this bef…aaa…noooo!…”
Yume’s entire body shuddered within Kanon’s gentle embrace.
The rings on their left hands gave a sense of drawing something out of them as their bewitching glows increased.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Ahhh…!”
On the bridge of the armored airship Böðvildr, La Folia Rihavein’s back twitched and shuddered. Her white skin had turned the slightest shade of pink. Her blue eyes were watery.
“Princess? Is there something physically amiss…?”
Interceptor Knight Justina Kataya, attending at La Folia’s side, inquired with concern. La Folia squirmed, rubbing her thighs together, shaking her head with a strained smile.
“There is no need for concern. It would seem that my partner is doing something indecent again.”
“Partner…do you mean Sir Kojou Akatsuki? I shall urgently check upon Itogami Island.”
The dead-serious Justina spoke with a particularly earnest tone. La Folia, however, gently pressed the ring on her left hand to her chest and shook her head, an oddly sensual expression coming over her as she smiled.
“No. Such consideration is unneeded. This is a secret between just the two us—”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Having this happen…is a bit…embarrassing, even for m…mnn!”
Half-buried by rubble, Yuuma Tokoyogi’s body twitched and squirmed. Her normal voice had a deep, boyish air to it, but at that moment, Yuuma sounded as lovely and sensual as a voice actress.
At a place a small distance removed, Sayaka and Shizuri writhed in similar manners.
“Nooo…more…no…I can’t take this…save me…Yukina…Yukina…!”
“Uuu…what is this…why is this happening to…n-no…aaaaa!”
Sayaka let out a sweet voice that made the usual impression she gave seem like a mirage. For her part, Shizuri was simply bewildered at experiencing such sensations for the first time.
Also, inside her own wrecked robot tank, Asagi was biting her thumb as she desperately endured the waves of pleasure crashing into her.
“…That idiot…what are you doing, at a time like this… It’s too mu…aaa…!”
Asagi was still halfway hurled out of the tank’s driver’s seat when her entire body suddenly stiffened. Then she limply collapsed facedown on the ground, letting out a frail, trembling breath.
“Lady Empress…what is doth happening…?”
Lydianne, the only one keeping her cool, asked over the radio. When that voice finally dragged Asagi back to lucidity, she shook her head with a guilty look.
The glow had already vanished from Asagi’s ring. The strange pulsing and the agony and pleasure of having her blood sucked into it were gone, too. In its place, she felt a deeper connection. She felt like he now existed deep inside her body. That sensation was giving Asagi strength, literally the strength to—
Asagi crawled out from under the robot tank, shoving the frame back with brute force. She didn’t feel any of the wounds she should have from the humanoid demon beast’s attack. There wasn’t even a scar.
“Keh-keh…you look like you’re having a pretty good time, Lil’ Miss.”
She heard a voice from the smartphone in her pocket. The oddly human-sounding synthesized voice felt downright nostalgic. The phone didn’t even wait for Asagi’s input before a badly sewn teddy bear avatar came on-screen on its own.
“Mogwai? You’ve finished your business?”
Asagi rudely greeted the partner AI she hadn’t seen in some time. Maybe it was a simulated personality reproduced from the memories of Cain the Sinful God, but to Asagi, it was just her mouthy partner.
Mogwai replied in a perfectly normal tone of voice, too.
“Yeah, I got a huge load off my shoulders, thanks to you.”
“Oh really. Then you’d better move your ass to make up for all the slacking. I don’t come cheap.”
“Please be gentle, Lil’ Miss.”
Mogwai laughed with a sardonic keh-keh as his real body—the main computer of Itogami Island—began a vast amount of magical calculations. Asagi called forth a crimson light from the magic symbols floating on-screen.
This was the light of the fearsome forbidden spell that could overwrite the physical laws of the world.