"No way... How could this be...?"
In the Stratum Zero of the Keystone Gate, Aiba Asagi stood inside a room designated 'C'.
In the dim, chill-filled space, the girl's breath misted white in the frigid air.
Her gaze was fixed on the vast, spiraling expanse ahead, where entire walls were densely carved with strings of strange, spell-like characters.
Embedded all across the walls of 'C' were ancient stone slabs etched with unfamiliar script.
Characters hitherto unknown in human history. Records, accounts, memories, information left behind by something other than human.
"This is 'C'. Cain's... Coffin."
Aiba Asagi muttered with a fearful voice, her fingers clutching her phone tightly.
"Mistress, welcome to the 'Coffin of the Sinful God'." Mogwai chuckled, its strange mechanical laugh echoing through the space.
"Mogwai... what is all this?"
"Don't worry, Mistress." The odd mechanical voice softened, as if to comfort the girl. "I told you, there's no danger. This place holds ancient memories, belonging to the Sinful God, Cain."
"The Sinful God... Cain?" Aiba Asagi whispered the name.
Cain—said to be the progenitor of all demonic tribes.
And inside here... were his memories?!
"You, as Cain's Priestess, are meant to know all this."
Suddenly, as if reacting to the echo, the multitude of characters carved on the stone slabs began to glow faintly.
"Mogwai... you—!"
Aiba Asagi—the girl called 'Cain's Priestess'—let out a scream.
The light grew increasingly dazzling, filling her entire field of vision.
A few seconds later, as if being swallowed whole, the girl's figure vanished within the radiance.
--+--
There were three conditions to activate the 'The Cleansing'.
First, the island of Itogami itself, serving as the altar.
Second, the release of the forbidden spell sealed within the 'Coffin'—that is, having the submarine 'Coffin of the Sinful God' reach the submarine base on the Stratum Zero of the Keystone Gate and connecting it to the island's network.
The final key was the will of the 'Priestess' who served as the core control component for initiating the 'The Cleansing', the sacrificial offering.
Yet, Yaze Akishige had activated the 'The Cleansing'.
This meant...
"So Aiba Asagi is that 'Cain's Priestess,' huh? But why would she..."
First, deal with the guest.
Minamiya Natsuki threw down the phone that had cut out due to signal interference, her cold eyes turning towards the figure approaching slowly. "Long time no see, Takehito Senga."
"Minamiya Natsuki... It's been about fifteen years, hasn't it? You haven't changed a bit."
A middle-aged man around forty years old emerged from the darkness, looking at the petite woman before him. Takehito Senga narrowed his eyes nostalgically. "It seems because you're too close to the Fifth Primogenitor, the Manmade Island Management Corporation hasn't shared much intelligence with you."
Takehito Senga... was her former teacher. But he had another identity.
A member of the demonic special zone destruction group—Tartarus Lapse.
"So Yaze Akishige actually sought you out?" Minamiya Natsuki looked at him coldly. "It seems he's lost his mind too."
"No, not exactly." Takehito Senga's lips curled soundlessly into a faint smile. "We were the ones who approached him."
"That man, Yaze Akishige, would never easily give up on Itogami. After all, this island is an altar meant for the resurrection of the Sinful God Cain."
"And so, we finally waited for Yaze Akishige to make his move."
He closed his eyes calmly. "How ironic. In the original plan, he was the biggest threat to our scheme. But now, thanks to the chaos he's caused, we can begin our plan."
"Demonic registration certificates all over are suffering network attacks." Not far away, Trimmau suddenly froze in place, purple pupils rapidly flashing with streams of data.
Attacking the demonic registration... Was it to make the demons living inside Itogami lose control?
And also...
Minamiya Natsuki slowly raised her head. High in the distant sky, a mysterious geometric pattern dozens of kilometers in diameter covered the heavens.
Aurora-like lines of magical power intertwined in the night sky, tracing the outline of a gigantic, deep crimson rose.
"You're behind this too, aren't you?"
She stated it as a certainty, her gaze growing colder, the killing intent within spilling out towards Takehito Senga as if it were tangible.
"Correct. The resurrection of the Sinful God Cain would bring great catastrophe. The designer of Itogami wished for Cain's revival, and a group of people inherited his ideology."
Takehito Senga's face was stiff, his words devoid of emotion. "There is only one proper conclusion for this island—destroy it."
Having said that, his shoulders suddenly relaxed and slumped as he looked up at the rose in the sky. "It shouldn't have been possible this quickly originally. I put in quite some effort, you know."
As his words fell, the rose in the sky trembled slightly.
Several petals slowly separated from the rose. Like real petals, they drifted gently down to the ground, carried by the wind.
And then, they transformed into dense aggregates of magical power—Beast Vassals.
The Beast Vassals born from the 'Abyssal Rose' let out magically charged roars, the fluctuations turning into scorching flames that rained down upon the urban areas of Itogami.
"'To catch rebels, first catch their king!' Don't just stand there, you idiot, attack him!" Root sat straddling Avrora's head, pulling tightly on the golden locks.
"App-appear now—Alrescha-Glacies!"
A stinging pain from her roots brought a glistening tear to the corner of Avrora's eye.
She swung her slender arms forcefully, and a small icy mermaid materialized behind her, carrying a bone-chilling cold.
The temperature plummeted, and a frigid white mist surged towards the man opposite like a wild beast.
"A Fourth Primogenitor's Beast Vassal. So she is..."
Takehito Senga looked at Avrora's face with understanding, then calmly tapped his foot.
Beneath his feet, a complex-looking magic circle had appeared at some point. A torrent of magical power like a gale shot skyward, parting the onrushing cold air.
"Is this all?" He shifted his gaze somewhat disappointedly, turning it back towards Minamiya Natsuki, who held her parasol.
"Hmm..."
Avrora pressed her lips together tightly. The Beast Vassal she had summoned was not in its complete form; she hadn't mastered these Beast Vassals of the Fourth Primogenitor.
"Why won't you switch?!" Root rapped her knuckles irritably against Avrora's small head, the hand gripping her hair pulling even tighter.
"B-but... I can't let you..."
This reply made Root squeeze her legs tighter around the slender neck between them, her tail lashing Avrora's cheek in frustration.
"Feng Shui arts?"
Minamiya Natsuki expressionlessly swung her parasol. The surrounding space rippled like the disturbed surface of water.
Countless chains shimmering with golden light flew out from the void, attacking Takehito Senga like living serpents.
He lightly tossed out several wooden talismans, the engravings on them glowing faintly.
In the next instant, his figure was far away from the chains.
"...A spatial translocation spell." Minamiya Natsuki narrowed her eyes at the sight of this, her most familiar magic.
"Though not as skilled as you, I can still use it."
A whirlwind abruptly sprang up out of nowhere. Takehito Senga reached into his robes and pulled out a string of explosives, tossing them into the wind.
A spatial distortion akin to vertigo enveloped the Kaleid Bloods around Minamiya Natsuki. The golden-haired girls without combat ability were relocated by Natsuki to the nearby Aiba residence.
The defensive barriers at the Councilor's home were still intact.
BOOM—
In an instant, the artificial island shook with the sound of the explosion.
Gushing flames illuminated the night sky, blasting away the streets of the upscale residential district.
The wind fanned the flames, and the whirlwind carried the fire, sweeping through everything around it.
"I didn't expect the Fourth Primogenitor to be able to move about outside so freely." Takehito Senga looked at the small, large-horned sheep that had appeared before him at some point, narrowing his eyes. "Itogami is the Fourth Primogenitor's Dominion—it seems the 'Moon Princess' isn't just using the Fourth Primogenitor as a front."
He wiggled his fingers, flinging out more packets of explosives, while calling out in a flat, unmodulated voice, "Loki."
BOOM—
The roar of explosions sounded again.
"A pyrokinesis user?" Minamiya Natsuki's figure emerged slowly from another direction, casting an indifferent glance into the darkness not far away.
Blue short hair swayed in the night air. A boy stood with his hands raised, flames bursting forth from them.
This hair color couldn't occur naturally. Like Astarte, he was an artificial life form created through alchemy and genetic manipulation.
"So he's the one detonating the explosives..."
The hardest part of using bombs wasn't the explosives themselves; the biggest issue was ensuring they detonated as planned.
As long as one could prepare an excellent detonation device, even common fertilizer or flour could suffice as explosives.
The intense shockwave blew back Minamiya Natsuki's long hair. Her deep blue eyes peered through the firelight, fixed on Takehito Senga in the distance.
Countless crystalline gemstones blocked the oncoming flames as the small 'Divine Goat of the Golden Horn' slowly rose from the ground.
"Carly." Suddenly, Takehito Senga spoke softly into his comms device.
Simultaneously, a faint glint of light flashed from the top of a building several kilometers away.
His companion...?
Before she could ponder it further, Minamiya Natsuki's eyes widened abruptly.
In the instant Takehito Senga called for his companion—
A bullet was already right in front of her face.
--+--
T/N: I have a Patreon! While it may seem empty as of now, webnovel will get 2 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.