"Research on artificially creating vampires…?!"
Ki's words stunned everyone present except the Progenitors themselves. Even Kaiser raised an eyebrow, giving him a long, searching look.
"Something that valuable, and you're just handing it over?"
Vampires were the very definition of immortality—fragile-bodied among the demon race, yet elevated to the strongest of all thanks to their Familiars. To create such beings artificially was unthinkable.
Artificial life wasn't rare in this world. From clones to bioengineered organisms, humans had long experimented with creating life for labor or companionship. Records traced the earliest attempts back to the 16th century. But because of ethics, human rights, and prohibitive costs, the practice never spread. These days, artificial life was mostly confined to pharmaceutical research, where genetic alteration and controlled test bodies were indispensable. Every major drug company maintained its own artificial life labs.
But artificial vampires—that was something else entirely.
Modern technology had never produced one. The only man-made vampires in existence were the twelve girls once created as vessels for the Fourth Progenitor's Familiars—Avrora Florestina among them.
Yet now, Ki had handed over that forbidden knowledge to Kaiser. That alone was shocking.
"This was never something meant to exist in this era," Ki said with a shrug. "We've been keeping it under lock and key all this time."
The three Progenitors' history stretched back to the age of myths—when the Devas still walked the earth. Together with them, they had created the so-called god-slaying weapon, the Fourth Progenitor. Of course they would have retained the technology to manufacture vampires.
Kaiser knew what few others did: the Progenitors themselves had once been Devas. The so-called ancient superhumans, demi-gods of legend.
In truth, the Devas were not of this world. They descended from beyond, their lifespans vast, their bodies near-indestructible, their minds wielding godlike psychic force. They built civilizations that dwarfed human history, forged weapons of impossible power, and fashioned countless lesser species to serve them—beastmen for battle, giants for labor, fairies for household tasks, merfolk for underwater work. Many of today's demon races were their creations.
With their power, the Devas drove back the rampaging monsters that plagued the world before their arrival. They built shining cities, reshaped the earth, and for an age were hailed as gods.
But they were cruel. They waged endless wars for sport, enslaved other races, and incited slaughter among humans and demons for amusement. Eventually, rebellion rose. Humanity and the demon race fought back, dragging the Devas into ruin. Their empire collapsed, and they vanished from history.
Ki, Aswad, Giada—these three were survivors. Vampires born from a whim of the Celestials.
To control the Familiars—their greatest weapons of mass destruction—the Devas had turned to artificial vampires. Familiars, once summoned, burned forests and cities alike, reshaped the land, and drained the memories of every living being to sustain themselves. Even the Devas couldn't contain them. So they bred living vessels that could shoulder the curse. Thus were the first vampires born—eternally cursed to immortality, binding calamity within their blood.
The Progenitors, cursed to carry these beasts, birthed the vampire race. Only then could the Familiars—ultimate weapons of indiscriminate annihilation—be tamed.
No one alive knew vampire origins better than the three Progenitors. They had made themselves vampires, created the Fourth Progenitor, and even helped forge the twelve vessels. Naturally, they possessed the knowledge to create vampires artificially.
But they no longer believed in using it. Why bother, when their blood alone could turn humans into vampires, and their descendants would inherit the power? The vampire race already existed as the strongest of all demon races, shaping world affairs.
The research had become a useless relic, something too dangerous to discard yet too pointless to use.
Until now.
"You'll need this, won't you?" Ki winked with a grin. "So it should be worth something as a bargaining chip."
Kaiser stared at him, silent.
Why would he need it?
Because of Nagisa Akatsuki—or rather, the Avrora within her.
Avrora had lost her body. Her soul survived only because Nagisa carried it, but that union put Nagisa's life at constant risk.
There were only two ways to save her.
Nagisa could be turned into a vampire herself, so she could withstand the cost of summoning Familiars. Or Avrora could be separated from her, given a new body of her own.
Either way, this research was essential. Especially the second option—without a body, Avrora had no future.
Of course, Kaiser had other paths. With a Zanpakutō, he could perform a soul burial and send Avrora to wherever souls belonged—if this world had such a place. Athena, too, had whispered to him:
"With my dominion over the underworld, I can claim the soul of this Fourth Progenitor, make her your servant, as the Godslayer Voban once bound the dead with his Authority."
Athena could enslave souls as easily as breathe. But that would put Avrora in her hands, no matter how prettily she framed it. Kaiser would never let the goddess hold that leash.
And sending Avrora into the unknown with a soul burial—who knew where she'd end up, if anywhere?
So the problem had lingered.
But now, with this knowledge, Kaiser finally had another way.
"As for ownership of Itogami Island…" Ki suddenly turned, addressing the air. "How about you, one of the island's guardians, serve as witness?"
As he spoke, space rippled. A magic circle blossomed, and a small figure stepped through.
"I'm just a teacher. An attack mage," said Natsuki Minamiya flatly as she emerged. Her sharp gaze fell first on Giada before she sighed. "I don't have the right to decide this island's fate. But if all I need to do is witness so you lot will leave, then I'll gladly do it."
Her annoyance was clear. To her, the Progenitors were nothing but calamities. Their presence here was already bad news. But if conceding Itogami Island to Kaiser meant the three Night Empires would finally back off, then so be it.
"Good. Settled." Ki clapped his hands, still smiling. "With the jail barrier's administrator as witness, the Island Management Corporation won't think we're joking. We'll convince Japan's government. Their prime minister isn't foolish enough to risk fighting the Warlord's Domain, the Extinction Dynasty, and the Chaos Realm just to hold onto a single demon district."
"The Fourth Progenitor, and this island as well—they'll be your territory, your property. I'll raise it at the Garden of Whispers. And in the name of the Sacred Treaty Organization and its member states, we'll make the declaration official."
"Aswad? Giada? Any objections?"
Their reactions differed.
"…Fine," Aswad said with a shrug, as if indifferent.
"…Guess I've no choice," Giada muttered bitterly. She clearly hated owing favors to the other two, but she wasn't foolish enough to push back here.
Vatler, Aradahl, and Iblisveil exchanged looks, each lost in thought. They understood: a new sovereign had risen. A king equal to—or greater than—the Progenitors.
The fate of the Fourth Progenitor had been handed to Kaiser. Itogami Island would be his base. And once the Sacred Treaty Organization announced it to the world, he would step onto the global stage as a recognized ruler.
What kind of change would that bring? None could say. But it would not be small.
Some feared it. Others, like Vatler, secretly longed for it—for new chaos, for a world reborn in upheaval.
And so, with Kaiser's tacit consent, the three Progenitors departed. The nobles followed suit.
Kaiser stood, flash drive in hand, Nagisa unconscious in his arms, as Natsuki Minamiya glared at him.
"Don't look at me like that. I'm the one they came after," Kaiser said dryly.
"Hmph!" Natsuki snapped. "Once I'm done cleaning up this mess, I'll be coming after you next."
She vanished on the spot.
Kaiser was left alone, holding Nagisa, when a voice rang through his mind:
[You have reached an important juncture in this world. Life experience complete.]
[You may now return to the Library to settle this record.]
He let out a long breath.
"So… it's time to go again."
The lazy life he'd been clinging to was over.
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