“Sorry to keep you waiting, Shahryar Ren.”
Kojou spoke with an utterly unconcerned tone. His demeanor was as warm as if he were passing a friend in the city by pure chance.
Outwardly, Kojou looked just like he had the moment before dissipating when Shahryar Ren shot him, yet the air enveloping him seemed gentler. The malevolent aura remained, but there was no leakage of uncontrollable demonic energy. Kojou himself seemed a little thrown off by the sensation.
“Kojou Akatsuki…is it…?”
Shahryar Ren glared at Kojou, crushing the wireless headphone underfoot.
His Spartoi were completely destroyed. The troops under him had begun to rout. He was facing Kojou all alone.
“Why does a mere human interfere with me? You resurrect after I slay you, you tame Dodekatos, seizing the Beast Vassals of the Kaleid Bloods for yourself… Do you think you are permitted to do this? Who in the world do you think you are?!”
Ren’s questions serving as condemnations brought a genuinely pained smile over Kojou.
Vampire. Observation target of the Lion King Agency. Ruler of Itogami Island. High school student—there were many titles he could think of.
Yet that moment, there was only one thing Kojou could call himself.
“I’m the Fourth Primogenitor.”
Kojou spoke in a joking tone. Ren’s face twisted with lethality.
“There are only three primogenitors. The fourth is merely an urban legend spread by that fool The Blood…a mere rumor without any basis in fact.”
“Nahhh. You’re wrong about that.”
Kojou quietly shook his head.
Certainly, it might have been a baseless urban legend at first, yet over the long, long months, that legend had turned into hard fact. Through the machinations of various forces, several layers of coincidence, and the desires of many people, they had made that legendary monster real.
“The Fourth Primogenitor is the name of the World’s Mightiest Vampire, undying and immutable, with no blood kin, no desire to rule, served by twelve Beast Vassals that are disaster incarnate, a vampire who lives only to kill and destroy, standing beyond all the doctrines of the world—that’s the enemy you’ve made.”
“What nonsense…!”
The air around Ren shifted. It was an invisible blade spawned from Deva divine energy.
Kojou bared his fangs as he smiled.
“So let’s get started, Shahryar Ren. This ain’t got nothing to do with the Devas and Cain anymore. I’ll make you pay dearly for the crime of using Avrora and Itogami Island for your stupid goal of ruling mankind! From here on, this is my fight!”
Kojou howled ferociously as Ren unleashed his divine energy blade toward him, but Ren’s invisible slash shattered in a shower of beautiful sparks. A diminutive figure wielding a silver-colored spear leaped in front of Kojou.
“No, senpai. This is our fight!”
A small, beautiful smile came over Yukina as she launched an attack on Shahryar Ren. Her uniform was still drenched with blood. A huge gash in her clothing, from her shoulder down her chest and back, was still evident. Despite this, the flesh visible through that gash was as white as freshly fallen snow. Not even the slightest scratch remained. Having gained the status of a Blood Servant, Yukina had also obtained healing ability on par with a primogenitor.
“Filthy humans…! It’s no use!”
“Eh?!”
Ren stopped Yukina’s silvery spear with his bare right arm. There was a sound of two metallic objects clashing as Yukina’s attack bounced right off him.
“Wha?!”
Yukina’s body flipped in midair, and she landed like a cat. Her expression was stiff with raw shock.
Visible past his torn sleeve, Ren’s arm was covered in a dark, silvery metal. The glossy surface changed to match his every movement.
He wasn’t wearing armor or some kind of augmentation suit. It was his very body. Ren had replaced part of his own flesh and blood with a sorcerous device.
“That body…you stuffed it with sorcerous devices those Cleanser guys used…?!”
Kojou exclaimed in astonishment.
Shahryar Ren’s divine energy was unnaturally powerful compared to fellow Devas like Schtola D and his little sister Ladli. This grotesque body was the secret behind it. Now Kojou understood why Ren had boasted he was stronger than Kreyd the Flame Dragon. He’d abandoned his own flesh to heighten his combat capabilities.
“The Cleansers? Ahh…you mean the fools who worship Cain like a god, fully ignorant of the truth.”
Ren spat out his words as he spoke. A thin, pitch-black aura enveloped his entire body. The true nature of that pitch-black aura was encroachment from Nod that could sever even the demonic energy of the Fourth Primogenitor.
“I would prefer if you did not associate me with such refuse. This form is the crystallization of all Deva knowledge, built to wipe away the humiliation of The Great Cleansing! It is the ultimate physical form with which to strike down the primogenitors!”
Ren unleashed a divine energy blade, an invisible slash that could not be blocked with demonic energy. Kojou rolled to his side to evade the attack.
“The Beast Vassal Warhead nullification, felling several Necropolises—all you lot have done is futile. So long as I survive, one day the Devas will prosper as rulers once more! I…am…MAR! I…am King of the Devas!”
“Tch—!”
Kojou concentrated his demonic energy and released it like a cannonball. It was the one ritual spell–like trick he’d picked up from training with Shizuri at Onrai Island.
The attack was blocked by the pitch-black defensive membrane enveloping Ren.
“Also, I am far from bereft of cards to play, Kojou Akatsuki! After all, you have brought that all this way with you!”
Ren shouted loudly as he pointed to the wall behind him.
It was the space colony’s isolating wall that Kojou had called the end of Nod. In the weightless zone at its center rested an enormous, smashed sphere resembling a crushed ping-pong ball.
It was the remnant of Castle Kalenaren—Shahryar Ren’s personal Deva Necropolis.
“What…?!”
Enormous things emerged from the half-destroyed Necropolis, seemingly chewing through its outer wall.
Spreading their wings like birds of prey, they calmly flew toward Kojou and Yukina.
They had ferocious-looking heads reminiscent of a lizard’s, snakelike tails, and four bestial limbs—they greatly resembled Kreyd and Glenda in dragon form.
These, however, were not dragons. For that matter, they weren’t even alive.
Their flesh was rotting, fluids from decomposition scattering as they moved.
Their eyeballs had melted away to leave hollow sockets. They had unhealed scars and exposed bone.
They were corpses—dragon corpses controlled by magic.
“Dragon Zombies…!”
Yukina’s voice quavered. Of course, profaning the dead to create zombies was a forbidden art. Making a zombie out of a proud dragon was an absolutely unforgivable act.
“What is left of the abominable Guardians of the Corridor.”
Shahryar Ren spoke with scorn. Kojou knit his brows at the unfamiliar term.
“Guardian of the Corridor…?”
“That’s right. Dragons are observers dispatched from another planet to watch over the Devas’ activities, though once The Great Cleansing left no one able to use Nod, their duty came to an end and they left for parts unknown, save for the precious few individuals left behind on the surface.”
“You took their corpses and made them into zombies? Why do such a thing…?”
Yukina inquired, looking up at the Dragon Zombies as they approached.
A foolish question, said Ren’s shake of his head.
“To use them as weapons, of course. Even if they are corpses, a dragon’s flesh is robust, and they do not lose their supernatural strength. More importantly, their corpses are quite obedient.”
Ren made a low-toned laugh.
Seven Dragon Zombies crawled out from the Necropolis.