Vol 12 Chapter 1 (1/2)
Chapter 1 – What Do You Even Know About Me?
The Inquisition's First Branch in old Nagoya
”——We have detected a large-scaled e is rapidly expanding Communication with the headquarters has been completely broken”
”——The oal to intercept ene the unidentified forces we lost communications with them”
The Inquisition's branch had directed reinforcements to the capital where a conflict had broke out with Valhalla, but they have been thrown into a state of extreency call froans
A Dullahan took post as a temporary commander in the Inquisition's branch
”What's happening?”
According to the Inquisition headquarters' order, the forces have all been focused in EXE, because of that the chain of command had fallen into disorder and the Inquisition responded to the enemy attack too slowly They received orders from the headquarters to concentrate their forces in the Kantō region and have followed them, but since then there were no further news or response from the headquarters
Although they didn't oya was absolutely packed with the refugees frooya branch's movements to dull
It was a situation where they couldn't even e the communications
The Chairman who should have been in the headquarters, as well as the executive board
”Learning what's the situation in the capital is the top priority Did we get a permission to use the satellite yet?”
”Only the executive board can grant us per as we can't contact them”
”Then get some reconnaissance from other branches or froht now!”
A video was displayed from an area outside the capital, a thick redTokyo and it was unknoas happening
There were no inco infor the disappearance of the Chairle member of the executive board had responded to calls
What they kneas the fact that the headquarters were attacked by the Valhalla
The cooya branch sent has been interruptedwere screams of the reinforcements
The Inquisition branch could not move carelessly without prior information
”——Cole drone that has risen above the clouds!”
”Display it!”
As instructed, the operator had displayed the video on the huge screen in front
After intense radio noise running through the screen a video fro the city center from up above
Seeing the red color covering the ground and a huge tree that had its roots in the city center everyone had suddenly screamed on spot
There weren't many Inquisitors in the branch who knew about the first time Hyakki Yakou went berserk Immediately after that the Border was invaded by the Pureblood Party so circumstances around that incident were unanswered
While the majority of the Inquisition was distracted with Valhalla, Ootori Sougetsu had kept this monster tamed
The te the devastation displayed on the screen and sed saliva soundly
He was the only one in this place who knew about Hyakki Yakou's existence
He has learned about Kusanagi Kiseki's existence before
Guessing that Ootori Sougetsu has finally decided to use her in coave an order to the operator
”Have the second troop return! Cooperate with the other branches andof the nearby residents a priority! Make sure to absolutely not attack it”
His shocked subordinates gasped and returned back to work No one even tried to to request an explanation fro the video they understood that it wasn't an existence they could understand even if they received an explanation Tre, the operator took contract with the second troop and forces fro thehest priority
The teave out the next order
”Flying Knight troop, squadrons 302 and 303 sortie”
”B-but, we don't have the authority!”
”It's an eoal is the entire capital”
”But there should be some more evacuees in the capital's area!”
”As if anyone would survive that! There's no choice but to purify everything above the ground to eliminate the threat other branches surely made the same decision!”
No Even if the bole Hyakki Yakou cell rerow
But in order to prevent the erosion fro any further they could only do whatever they could
The operator followed the instructions and had the squadrons sortie from the runway
Despite knowing there was no hope the temporary commander looked as the aircrafts left
”——?! Co an unspecified heat source underground!”
”Give me location!”
”T-that's”
The fe, turned around to the commander
”b-belowus!”
The temporary commander's pace turned pale all at once
Then, the coffee cup placed on operator's desk started to rattle strongly
The shaking has continued to grow stronger
”It can't be did she aim directly at Inquisition's facilities first?”
In which case, the sa in other branches
Stunned, the commander placed his hands on the desk
After a moment of silence, he relaxed his shoulders, closed his eyes and wiped off the sweat fro a sleeve
Iiant dehtened operator
Taking shape sih the protective walls underground that were supposed to be ic materials and have entered the branch's command room directly
The Inquisitors started to run away screarew from the pillars and mercilessly assaulted them
The tentacles tore Inquisitors bodies' to shreds, as if to rip them to easy-to-s chunks
Hyakki Yakou was overjoyed with the slaughter
After finishi+ng the slaughter of the Inquisitors, the pillars changed for into what resembled a human woman
A giant girl made of red meat extended her head towards the temporary commander
The commander looked at the hell the control roo up at the demon incarnate
”That girl she's controlling it, prioritizing the extermination”
The commander saw Kiseki just once in the Inquisition's headquarters
The appearance of a girl locked in the deepest part of the deepest prison as killed on a daily basis
He has witnessed her power in the past
And now, in front of him there was the incarnation of it
While treave up on his life
”This is retribution”
Despite witnessing appalling things happening to the girl he accepted it as ”so that can't be helped” and abandoned his pride as the guardian of the law He discardednot to see what cruelty Inquisition was doing to the girl
This was the retribution for that
The retribution for abandoning this girl and trying to use her The retribution towards Inquisition——and the entire world
Commander has accepted death
Just as he expected, the carnage happened not only at Nagoya's branch but was happening at al across the old japan
While devouring the planet, Kusanagi Kiseki decided to crush Inquisition preferentially, seeing their strength an obstacle
The only re forces were the already-sortied aircraft and the surviving reinforcements directed to the headquarters
In the e aircraft on theone after another
The aircraft squadrons that entered the Tokyo area have disappeared from the radar so quietly it was eerie
In the city being sed by the Hyakki Yakou, Kirigaya Kyouya continued to resist the i death
The endless mass of demons that overflowed and attacked from all directions wasn't a liquid like before, but a solid mass
The giant de like fruits, breaking out from these fruits were dei Kiseki herself who descended on the ground
Orochi had massacred the majority of the humans in the city, but there were so to the shelters
In theto rejoin Takeru and others, Kyouya had encountered Hyakki Yakou in the vicinity of a shelter with survivors and was stranded
If he used the Relic Eaters' power he would be able to rejoin the Heretic Alliance
However,
《”Hey, what's with this good person act?! Just leave this bunch and prioritize your own life, Master!”》
”Shut up! Stay quiet you shi+tty gun!”
Spitting curses, Kyouya pulled Nero's trigger to the limit
The incarnate demons formed by the Hyakki Yakou were stupid, but no enerate and jule-mindedly try to kill him, but they also were disciplined to an extent and tried to avoid his attacks
Probably round in order to devour the planet
The entire Tokyo's surface was being engulfed in the Hyakki Yakou, but he had no idea how round
There was no doubt that this huge tree intended to devour the planet's core and then eat up the surface all at once from inside
These de like soldier ants protecting the queen
”I told ya dai!”
It was pointless to fight, there was no end to them
Still, Kyouya continued to remain at the entrance to the shelter
He felt himself to be ridiculous Before, he wouldn't care less about the civilians, he was the reason the first time Hyakki Yakou went berserk
He didn't feel he had to atone for that He couldn't care less about the bunch iiven to them by Inquisition
It was just that if he abandoned the shelter here, his childhood friend would surely be disappointed with him
Thinking so, he couldn't bring himself to run away
《”You're so damn weak towards women! If this is to be the case it would be much better if you remained with the Inquisition!”》
'Shut uup! You are no better when it co with Akira, you coward!”
《”Huhh?! I'm just bad with the type of people on't listen to you whatever you tell them! You're the coward here!”》
Despite being exhausted during the fight with Einherjars, Kyouya had to deal with Hyakki Yakou's army one after another in quick succession
The deht arm
Unable to respond Kyouya clenched his teeth, that's when a rust-coloredaway the demon's arm
Kyouya clicked his tongue and looked up to the sky where a boy in red clothes was riding a broo in the air
It were Sage from the Pureblood Party and Yuzuho from the Gods' Embers
”You safe?”
”Seee has poor fuel consumption”
Seeing the torry about him, Kyouya spit out curses
”Stop doing needless things, damn heretics”
”No point bothering about heretics or whatnot at this point, is there”
Sage sighed at Kyouya who glared at the from the intercom on his ear
”Our squad and the Sixth Guard bunch are transporting survivors to the shelter Other members of the Heretic Alliance who split up with h there isn'tand evacuation of the citizens”
”Hah, here I thought it turned into a ghost town, but the people here are as stubborn as cockroaches”
”The reason the alliance's arrival was delayed in the first place was giving priority to civilians' evacuation It seems like Hyakki Yakou only eroded this city on the surface but”
It's unkno long will that last
Sage shook his head as if to get rid of his anxiety and ju beside Kyouya
Yuzuho too had descended, landing beside Kyouya
”Thinking is pointless now It's no longer possible to evacuate the citizens out of the shelter and outside the city'
The three stood back to back, Yuzuho holding a spear, Sage expanding a barrierdeiven some time to rest
”You did well protecting this place alone You're quite so”
”While unwilling, I shall lend you ether”
”Don't you dare ordering me What about your comrades?”
”No need to worry about my subordinates The Seventh Squad isn't as weak as you ht think”
”I would like it if you didn't underestimate the Sixth Guard”
Squeezing out their re power the three entered battle readiness in front of the inco demons
The barrier , but the Hyakki Yakou has broken through it already
”In this situation there's no point bothering who's friend or foe Can we expect some reinforcements from other Inquisition branches?”
”It's not like I'm an Inquisition either, I've no clue I bet the branches won'tas the shi+tty Chairman in the headquarters doesn't order them I bet they'd just bomb this place in order to stop this all”
When Kyouya answered, Yuzuho concentrated ic power on the tip of her spear
”H?”
The situation was hopeless, one the original plan didn't apply at They were unable to contact Hoshi+jiro Nagaru as the leader of the alliance, and no one knehere was she
Since the chain of command has collapsed they decided to do whatever they could, but at this rate the situation would just deteriorate
Soi Kiseki as the source of Hyakki Yakou
”So it's up to Kusanagi, huh”
Hearing Sage's hter
”It's pointless to expect anything out of him”
”I wonder about that I think he's a guy who unexpectedly es to do his job”
”Tracing backwards, he's the cause of this catastrophe It's because he's gone selfish and didn't kill his little sister”
”Is that so? Then even s of hi responsible”
”What's with that positiveness, you're so annoying”
”Saative bastard”
”——Could you stop arguing in this situation?”
Yuzuho stopped the two fro each other and they have raised their weapons
”I'll focus on defense While I', you two stop the demons Can you do that?”
”Easy job”
Kyouya raised Nero up and a ic circle appeared beneath his feet
”I wanted to leave thisNecromancer but it doesn't seem like I can”
”You ic, do you”
”Hey, you guys stop breathing or you'll die”
Kyouya got down on his knees and struck the ic circle with Nero's barrel
Pulling off the grip he fired Nero and reloaded
Moic reen particles have spread in the air
Just as told to, Sage stopped his breathing and watched Kyouya's attack
《”The poison type?”》
”The enemy ain't witches Can't just suppress theo with infection”
《”So we're attacking ene with infection huhh It'll be seriouslyand I don't think it'll be too effective, either?”》
”Just do it”
Kyouya released Nero froround and directed the e's barrier
There were ten dehtly shut shelter's doors The road ide and it was impossible to kill them all at once with Nero's buckshot
In the er
”《Babylon》”
The ic circle broke into pieces and tiny particles scattered in the air——have all flowed assaulting the incarnations at once
The tiny particles of un shot
They were countless tiny ic bullets
It was hard to say that alone would be effective against Hyakki Yakou
Even a large nuh eneic didn't have power to blow the enemy away
But the true value of this ic, just like it's name implied, was not its destructive power
Nero's ic attribute was ”Poison”
The demons stopped for a moment after their bodies were pierced by the particles and seemed like they will ireen
The incarnation's regeneration stopped and the radually spread
”So this works too so not only it's unable to erode ic, but also poison”
Kiseki's body was immortal, but it was possible to kill the Hyakki Yakou that was detached from her body So to say, they're like every cell of hers that's a living organisle cell each didn't hold th
——Poison e was in a way a natural enemy of Hyakki Yakou
Although Nero's ”Poison” had the only non-ancient attribute a Relic Eaters, it held power over poison froic was capable of infecting eneic isn't exhausted
The de them with poison
Even if they can't be beaten, their expansion can be stopped
That's what Kyouya was ai at
”The ic itself can only buy us time, but while their erosion is stopped we can kill them all ant”
Kyouya sed Nero's form into that of a tonfa
”Restraint, is it That really sounds like Inquisition's tactic”
Before Kyouya could, Yuzuho had assaulted the de froh to kill eneic power
The spear tinged with ic power had cut apart the deht
”Guards' Spearsmanshi+p——Eternal Septuple Flash!+”
In rapid succession Yuzuho delivered seven blows to the seven demons whose movements stopped
The ones ere pierced by the spear had light come out fro them
Not allowing a drop of blood stain the blade Yuzuho rotated the spear and poised it very low
The incarnations have ied, but Yuzuho remained in the same posture and did not move
At that time Kyouya rotated in the air above Yuzuho and let out an intense blow at a demon
”I ain't dyin'——as long as she's waiting for me to come back, I'm invincible!”
With Sage's support Kyouya and Yuzuho stood up against a demon army
””
While anized the current situation
The Heretic Alliance's goal was initially to find Mineshi+ro Kazuma's documents, but since the Second Dullahan War had started the situation had taken two or three turns
After Kusanagi Orochi and Mother Goose were defeated with great pains, the Second Dullahan War was terminated
However, the whereabouts of the essential person Ootori Sougetsu ere unknown and without giving them a moment to rest, Hyakki Yakou has appeared
He could only think that they all danced on top of Sougetsu's paletsu really is this world's God, it wouldn't be strange if he kept track of what all of the
His goal was the destruction of this world and if thataccording to his plans
Sage looked towards the hill the academy was in
”The only way for us is to entrust everything”
Right now, they could only pray
——Kusanagi Kiseki and Kusanagi Takeru met inside a very, very dark box
In the valley at the bottom of the mountain there was a small box-shaped warehouse That was the only place Kiseki had, the only world she knew
The inside of that warehouse ic materials was always filled with the smell of blood