✦ ✦ ✦
“Forever…er, Himeragi, you’re all right with that? Never leaving my side?”
“Yes. I am your watcher, after all…so please…”
Yukina gently pulled up her hair. Then she offered her slender neck to Kojou like a sacrificial offering.
“Please, drink my blood—”
Kojou sank his fangs deeply into her defenseless neck. A fleeting sigh trickled out of Yukina’s mouth as Kojou strongly embraced her.
The starless night sky of Nod gazed down at the sight of the pair seemingly melting into one.
✦ ✦ ✦
“What are those two doing at a time like this…eh?! Aaa! Is it all right to do that?! Whoa! That’s…eh?! Ehhh?!”
Riding on Glenda’s back, Shio was beside herself when she noticed Yukina and Kojou embracing. As she gazed straight down on them from above, the pair looked like lovers in the throes of indecent actions.
“Ah-ha-ha…well, for this one moment, it’s fine, right?”
Yuiri’s cheeks reddened as she gave her friend a strained smile.
In the next moment, Yuiri batted down the incandescent beam flying toward them with one swing of her long sword.
The copper Flame Dragon was targeting Glenda as it circled Nod’s night sky. A flock of MAR attack helicopters flew in concert behind him.
The mobility of the two dragons—Glenda and Kreyd—was roughly equal. Kreyd had the upper hand in lift and acceleration, but Glenda was able to make tight, swift circles. All the same, the overwhelming firepower advantage rested with Kreyd.
The houda summoned by Glenda were virtually powerless before Kreyd’s breath. Even with Yuiri and Shio’s support, it was all she could manage to keep things at a standoff.
For her part, Kiriha Kisaki remained in combat with MAR soldiers atop the bridge floating in the sea of clouds.
With the support of a horde of houda, the MAR unit’s coordination was in tatters, but MAR had the Spartoi on its side. The numbers of houda were steadily diminishing in the face of the high attack power and regenerative ability the Spartoi possessed. On top of that, Shahryar Ren had sent in all the Spartoi at his disposal, so Kiriha was at a decisive disadvantage.
“This has become most unamusing…”
Tch, clicked Kiriha’s tongue as she glared at the mangled edge of her forked spear.
Even if Kiriha’s own abilities had increased, her equipment had not been strengthened in turn. Ricercare was unable to keep up with Kiriha’s dramatically increased ritual energy and endurance from becoming a Blood Servant.
If her spear broke entirely, she’d lose her means of attacking the Spartoi. If it came to that, Kiriha’s defeat was inevitable. Kiriha’s beautiful face twisted as she foresaw this unpleasant future.
“—Sadalmelik Albus!”
Someone shouted from behind Kiriha. An immense Beast Vassal appeared from within the sea of clouds enveloping the floating bridge. This was a water maid—a pale undine with a body of transparent, flowing water.
As it swept across the ground with the sharp talons on its slender hands, the Spartoi turned into what seemed like fragments of fossilized bone. The Fourth Primogenitor’s Beast Vassal Number Eleven had forcibly reverted the artificial demons to the raw materials they had been before being born.
“C’mon over, Al-Nasl Minium!”
Next, the air trembled, and a scarlet, twin-horned beast appeared in Nod’s upper sky. With a roar, it spat out a cannonball of shockwaves that shot down the copper Flame Dragon and the MAR attack helicopters with it.
“Tch…Kreyd! What are you doing, you incompetent pieces of garbage…!”
Shahryar Ren, losing most of his side’s combat strength in an instant, tore off his earpiece, slamming it to the ground in an act of pure rage.
Before Ren, wearing a bloody parka, a boy quietly walked forward.
It was Kojou Akatsuki.