"...That was a little weak."
Watching Regulus-Aurum gradually scatter across the sky and return to raw magical energy, Ciel said something astonishing.
The giant lightning lion was a dense mass of magical power, one with its own independent will. If that much power were released without restraint, it could, in the worst case, burn half of Itogami Island clean to scorched earth.
It could easily be called a walking natural disaster. Yet from Ciel, all it earned was "a little weak."
Because she had seen true Primogenitor-class Beast Vassals.
The Fourth Primogenitor was known as the strongest vampire, a god-slaying weapon, and its power should have far surpassed that of the other three Primogenitors. But when Ciel compared the lightning lion she had just destroyed with the Beast Vassals summoned by those three Primogenitors, there was no small gap in both destructive force and magical scale.
"Is it because the one controlling the Beast Vassal isn't the true Fourth Primogenitor, but a vessel?"
Ciel murmured to herself.
Although the golden lion had been destroyed, as a mass of magical power, it had not truly died. Once it collapsed, it returned to the fifth vessel's body to recuperate. As long as it was supplied with magical power again, it would recover quickly.
The fifth vessel stared fixedly at Ciel and bit lightly into her lower lip.
"..."
In the past, whenever she had summoned a Beast Vassal in front of others, she had often heard people use one word to describe her.
But now, she had to use that word for the woman before her.
A monster in human skin!
"Phew! You look like that hit you pretty hard. Is it because the fight ended too quickly? You can't really blame me for that. The Beast Vassal you summoned was too powerful. Just look around. It was only out for a short while, and it already wrecked the place this badly. If I hadn't dealt with it quickly, it definitely would've caused even worse damage, right? I don't want Natsuki-oneechan scolding me."
Ciel spoke as if every word were perfectly reasonable, but the fifth vessel only felt stifled after hearing it, a nameless anger rushing straight to her head.
Too powerful? Do you hear yourself?
Because your opponent was too powerful, you one-shot it?
If Kurama had been here, he would surely be nodding like mad in heartfelt sympathy.
Exactly. Hashirama Senju had been the same back then, shouting, "Nine-Tails, your power is too great. I'm sorry, but I can't let you act as you please," before grabbing him in his hand like he was catching a chick.
Like hell I believe you! You rotten old man, you're awful!
The fifth vessel glared hard at Ciel, but Ciel suddenly looked behind her, her attention shifting elsewhere.
The Nosferatu that had been pierced through by Black Keys and were already dead... Their bodies suddenly began to melt in an uncanny way. The melted portions did not turn to mush, but to a silvery-gray substance with the sheen of liquid metal.
The human body contained many metallic elements, mainly calcium, potassium, sodium, magnesium, iron, and others.
Calcium was the primary component of bones and teeth. Potassium and sodium mainly existed as electrolytes within bodily fluids. Magnesium participated in numerous enzymatic reactions. Iron was a component of hemoglobin.
On top of that, these Nosferatu had also undergone human modification surgery.
The materials making up this liquid metal came from those metals.
The corpses of the already-dead Nosferatu began moving on their own. Since most of their bodies had become liquid metal, the Black Keys that had pinned them in place earlier could no longer hold them.
They charged toward Ciel, and not slowly.
WHOOSH!
Ciel threw a Black Key, its sharp blade cutting through the air.
The pierced Nosferatu corpse stopped under the force of the Black Key's impact, but in the next second, it continued charging toward Ciel, utterly unconcerned with the wounds on its body.
The vampire-suppressing formula on the Black Key did not work. These Nosferatu were already dead. The only reason they were still moving was that strange liquid metal.
Ciel put away the enormous whip sword and drew a Black Key with one hand, her back to the fifth vessel, seemingly not the slightest bit worried that the girl might attack her from behind.
That contempt made the fifth vessel burn with anger.
Ciel said, "These things are disgusting... Are they related to you?"
The fifth vessel said, "No. I think they're disgusting too."
Ciel said, "Heh. Then we agree."
While the two of them spoke, the Nosferatu corpses, eighty percent of their bodies swallowed by liquid metal, had already closed in on Ciel at high speed.
"Fire... No, wait. I'll use burial instead."
After all, playing with fire in a forest was dangerous.
Ciel aimed at the Nosferatu corpses and threw the Black Key in her hand.
The same trick again? No. Of course there was something new this time.
The Black Keys pierced the liquid-metal-covered Nosferatu corpses. The areas they struck petrified, turning to stone.
As weapons, Black Keys had a history of nearly seventeen hundred years. In modern times, because they were difficult to handle and modern weapons generally had tremendous destructive power, very few people still used them.
But that only applied to ordinary Executors.
One should not mock the armaments of a previous age. A thousand years of history had granted Black Keys all manner of variants.
This was one of them: the burial rite.
Though the enemy seemed capable of using all metal elements, the areas petrified after being struck by the Black Keys did not become a mixture of calcium, silicon, and other elements. They simply became the concept known as "stone."
Traces of petrification spread outward, gradually robbing the Nosferatu corpses of their ability to move. The dozen meters between them and Ciel became like an insurmountable chasm.
The next second, the Nosferatu corpses swelled grotesquely.
The violent magical power within their bodies turned them into human bombs.
Just as they were about to explode, a barrier suddenly trapped all of them inside.
The Black Keys Ciel had thrown earlier had not been forgotten. Ciel had prepared them in advance to set up this barrier.
Inside the barrier, the flow of time seemed to have slowed by several hundred times.
The self-detonation of the Nosferatu corpses slowed drastically as well.
"Self-destruction, huh... What a tasteless way to attack."
Ciel pinched her chin and delivered that assessment from outside the barrier.
"Natsuki-oneechan, come help me out."
Ciel had not spoken in any particular direction, but the instant her voice fell, Natsuki Minamiya appeared beside her.
With this much commotion, even the Fourth Primogenitor's Beast Vassal had appeared. How could Natsuki Minamiya, who was at Saikai Academy, possibly have failed to notice?
As a witch skilled in Spatial Control Magic, she could teleport here in an instant. In truth, she had arrived long ago. It was just that with Ciel present, there had been no opening for her to act, so she had simply stayed nearby and watched over the situation.
Opening her folding fan, Natsuki Minamiya raised her chin slightly.
"Hmph! So I'm optional most of the time, and you only remember me when you need me?"
"No way. You've been right at the center of my heart this whole time, haven't you?"
"Oh? Have I? Why haven't I noticed?"
Natsuki Minamiya tilted her head and gave Ciel a meaningful smile.
"Come to think of it, the two of us have both been very busy lately, and there hasn't been much time for just us... You haven't been complaining about me in your heart, have you? About how I haven't spent time with you."
"How could I? Natsuki-oneechan, you have so many burdens on your shoulders. As your little sister, of course I have to be understanding..."
"But I have a complaint. It's been so long since the two of us went out and had fun together..."
She covered half her face with her folding fan, her gaze on Ciel carrying more than a little resentment.
Only when the Nosferatu corpses inside the barrier were about to explode did she close her eyes and withdraw the gaze that made Ciel feel so awkward.
Using Spatial Control Magic, Natsuki Minamiya directly tossed the barrier and the human bombs inside it into the sea, reducing the damage from the explosion to a minimum.
Natsuki Minamiya turned her head and looked toward one spot.
The place where the fifth vessel had been standing earlier was already empty. Taking advantage of the chaos caused by the Nosferatu corpses, she had escaped.
"Not going after her? That girl looked exactly like Avrora. She's another vessel, isn't she?"
Natsuki Minamiya asked Ciel curiously.
She could teleport, and Ciel was just as fast. Catching up to the fleeing fifth vessel would be no trouble at all.
Ciel thought for a moment, then slowly spoke.
"Forget it. That child was running for her life so desperately. Let's not kick her while she's down."
"Do you believe that yourself? Since when were you this considerate toward vampires? Before, whenever you saw a vampire, didn't you want to cut them down to the last, trace their whole family tree, slaughter every vampire relative they had, wipe out their whole household, nine generations and all, and even kill the guard dog?"
"Hey, hey, hey, when was I ever that excessive? As long as that dog isn't a vampire, I'm not so far gone that I'd kill the guard dog too, okay?"
"So you're not denying the part about wiping out their household, nine generations and all?"
"Ehehe~?"
"Ehehe, my foot! Be serious!"
Ciel was troubled too.
A Fourth Primogenitor vessel like Avrora. Killing her outright would not be appropriate, but keeping her by her side like Avrora was even more impossible. Avrora alone already gave her enough of a headache. If several more showed up, she would lose her mind.
Putting away her smile, since Natsuki Minamiya wanted her to be serious, Ciel decided to discuss something serious.
"Natsuki-oneechan, you saw what happened to those Nosferatu, right?"
"Mm... What exactly was that silvery-gray stuff? It suddenly poured out of the Nosferatu bodies, and it could even control their corpses..."
"That should be a product of alchemy."
"Alchemy..."
Natsuki Minamiya furrowed her brows, her expression turning grave.
She remembered the alchemist who had attacked Adelard's Abbey back then and nearly killed Kanon Kanase and everyone else there.
"Kou Amatsuka... He's back? I thought he'd keep hiding like a rat in a ditch."
"From the looks of it, he has some kind of arrangement with the Nosferatu... No, wait. Since they're villains, I suppose it shouldn't be called cooperation. More like mutual exploitation."
"Is he here for Avrora? That alchemist is after the Fourth Primogenitor too?"
"I don't think so. From what I know of Kou Amatsuka, the only thing that should interest him is Wiseman's Blood... Also, the news that Avrora is with us shouldn't be known to many people at this point. Right now, those people are all focused on the vampire who attacked MAR, not on us. It may be a coincidence."
"You mean... the reason these Nosferatu came here was because of their arrangement with Kou Amatsuka. They tried to steal Wiseman's Blood from the abbey, only to discover Avrora's existence by chance?"
"That's just my guess."
Ciel remembered that Zaharias, who had become chairman of the Nosferatu provisional government by providing them with weapons, was an exceptionally talented arms dealer. Because he had set his sights on the Fourth Primogenitor's value as a weapon, he had participated in the Blazing Banquet.
As long as it was a powerful weapon, he would want to add it to his collection.
In that case, as long as Kou Amatsuka showed him the value of alchemy and Wiseman's Blood as weapons, it would not be difficult for them to reach an arrangement.
Zaharias would not reject other powerful weapons just because he already possessed a Fourth Primogenitor vessel, just as ordinary people would never complain about having too much money.
Whether one should say the Nosferatu were unlucky or Ciel's group was unlucky, when the Nosferatu arrived at the abbey for Wiseman's Blood, Ciel and the others just happened to be there. The result was that the Nosferatu were completely wiped out. Not even one of them made it back to report, and they did not even leave complete corpses behind, having been thrown into the sea to self-destruct.
Even if they had come to the abbey while Ciel was absent, it would have been pointless. Once Ciel knew about Wiseman's Blood, there was no way she would leave something that dangerous there. She had already taken it away. Kou Amatsuka simply did not know that.
Had Ciel's group not happened to be there, the Nosferatu, working with outdated intelligence, might have blown up the entire abbey and still failed to find Wiseman's Blood.
Ciel and Natsuki Minamiya later returned to the abbey.
There, they saw Avrora stammer, "Th-Thou didst depart so suddenly, leaving me and Kanon here unattended. What crime dost thou think thou hast committed...?"
Those words were clearly directed at Ciel.
Kanon Kanase hurried forward to explain to Ciel. "Ciel-oneesama, Avrora was worried about you. You left so suddenly just now, and your expression didn't look very good."
"Hm? Is that what you meant, Avrora?"
Ciel looked at Avrora and saw her nod timidly.
"All right... I thought you were blaming me. I was thinking, if you've gotten this bold, maybe you wanted to drink flammable oolong tea again."
"Wuuu?!"
Avrora let out a sobbing whimper.
"Ow!"
Ciel's forehead was suddenly struck hard.
"You, honestly. Have you actually reflected at all? My sofa and carpet are still blocks of ice right now!"
"Natsuki-oneechan! I was only saying it! I was just scaring Avrora a little. I won't actually do it!"
Faced with Natsuki Minamiya's furious glare, Ciel could only cover her forehead and back down. After all, she was the one at fault.
Kanon Kanase also spoke up to comfort Avrora.
"There, there. Ciel-oneesama said so herself, didn't she? She was only scaring you. She won't really do that."
The angelic smile swiftly dispelled the fear in Avrora's heart.
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T/N: this kou guy