Shinmai

Maou no Keiyakusha
vol.9

by Namekojirushi

Novel Updates
Translation Group: Shinmai Maou Translation Project
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Prologue: The Long Night Begins

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Chapter 1: What Those Eyes See

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

Part 6
Part 7

Part 8
Part 9
 Part 10

Part 11

Part 12
Part 13

Chapter 2: Beyond the Four Gods

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6
Part 7

Part 8

Part 9
Part 10

Part 11
Part 12

Part 13
Part 14

Part 15
Part 16
 Part 17

Part 18

Part 19
Part 20

Part 21

Part 22

Chapter 3: Completing the Master-servant Contract

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4
Part 5

Part 6

Part 7
Part 8

Part 9
Part 10

Part 11

Epilogue

Part 1
 Part 2

Afterword
 PROLOGUE:
THE LONG NIGHT BEGINS
 PART 1

It was a late night, where the sky had been dyed a deep black.

And the chill of the surrounding wind, cold as the freezing temperatures of the
winter highlands, blew across such a place.

It was the Heroes’ Village —specifically, an area where the elders had
constructed themselves a ceremonial hall.

The ceremonial hall was one of the rarest constructs set up from the villages
across the world, and while it was usually under the protection of sturdy barriers,
it had completely lost its strength and sophistication as of today.

It was because the sacred treasures that had designated the venue as a sanctuary
—the Four Gods—had been stolen by Shiba Kyouichi.

Basara and his group had attempted to stop Shiba’s violent actions, and as a
result, the walls and the ceiling of the ceremonial hall had been heavily damaged
amidst the battle. And opposite the direction of the clear, sharp evening air, a sky
of deep black filled with countless stars stretched across the horizon.

Those who visited such a place for the first time would surely be taken away by
such a stunning spectacle.

At that moment, however, not a single person who was gazing up at the night
sky amidst the destroyed ceremonial hall was in the mood to enjoy such a
picturesque scenery.
Shiba Kyouichi had escaped his prison set up in the deepest part of the village,
and, with the exception of the Byakko, had stolen the other three treasures
known as the Four Gods —the Seiryo, the Genbu, and the Suzaku— along with
the Georgius, the holy sword that belonged to Celis Reinhardt, one of the holy
knights and inquisitors of the Vatican, before disappearing following his
getaway.

For such an occurrence to have unfolded in the middle of a political ordeal

between the Vatican and Japan’s Hero Clan faction, the Village, was a worst case
scenario that no one could have ever possible have accounted for—no, no one
could have even imagined a situation such as this.

At present, only Basara Toujou and Takigawa Yahiro had been directly involved
in the skirmish against Shiba in the ceremonial hall; Naruse Mio, Nonaka Yuki,
and Nonaka Kurumi, on the other, had rushed toward the scene of the battle
having caught on to the thunderous sounds of the battle; whereas the three elders
of the Village, Fuji, Atsuta, and Kumano, along with Shuuya, Kurumi and Yuki’s
father, as well as the rest of the high-ranking leaders had gathered together, for
all the members of Japan’s Village were to hold a conference on how to handle
the current situation.

And in addition — Takashi and Celis, having sustained heavy injuries after
clashing with Shiba, had been delivered to the medics for emergency care. And
amidst all of that

“— At any rate, our current situation is as I’ve just described.”

Toujou Basara, who stood slightly farther away from the ceremonial hall, was
explaining the present state of affairs to Mio and the others as they caught up to
him.

At the same time, Maria and Zest, who were now away from the Village unlike
the rest of the group, were also listening into the conversation through Basara’s
cellphone, which he held in his right hand as he elucidated the matter to them.

“I understand what’s going on as of now, but…what are we going to do about it,

Basara?”

Mio was the first to speak after Basara had finished explaining, as she asked of
what they were to do from here on out. It wasn’t that she had immediately asked
for Basara’s judgment without giving suggestions of her own stemmed out of her
dependence on him or the fact that she gave up on thinking; rather, she was
completely aware of the fact that the present situation, much like conference the
Village had with Celis, the inquisitor of the Vatican, in the ceremonial hall, was a
highly sensitive, political matter.

“……” “……”

Yuki and Kurumi now shared the same look as Mio as they stared at Basara.

It was likely that Maria and Zest, the both of whom were waiting for Basara’s
answer from the other end of the call, possessed the same expression as well.

They were both well aware of the severity of the situation.

And they also knew that heading into the fray recklessly would only worsen
things, as well.

Fervent emotions, were, above all things, a convenient tool to use in politics; it
was essential that they stayed calm no matter what to avoid their feelings being
used against them. No matter how zealous the fires of the heart burned, it was
crucial that the mind should be composed at all costs; no one among Basara’s
group was unfamiliar with such a concept.

Their visit to the Village this time around was for a political reason, after all.
And in response to her question, Basara quietly, yet clearly, spoke of his view on
the situation.

“I have no idea what Shiba’s intentions are, nor of his current whereabouts…
though from the way he sounded before he left, I’m confident it’s not going to be
a matter we can overlook.”

And if one were to ask why —

“The decision to seal him away by the elders was out of the fear that he was
thought to be an existence more powerful than the human race, aside from being
someone whose mind itself is dangerous to them. And as it stands now, he’s also
stolen a power on par with my Banishing Shift and disappeared.”

Basara had already made his decision.

“— We absolutely can’t sit by and do nothing.”

This was the answer he had got for himself after carefully contemplating on all
factors involved;

himself, the current circumstances, as well as the situation between the Village
and the Vatican, and he’d even considered what implications his choice would
have on the Demon Realm.

“Of course, there’s also the possibility that I’m overthinking things, and perhaps
Shiba-san’s satisfied after obtaining his freedom and he’ll just go into hiding
without a trace. It’s not an entirely dismissible possibility, but if he truly has
something in mind …there’s no telling how worse things will get if we turn a
blind eye on him.”

Basara emphasized the extremity of the situation yet again.

“He’s stolen the Four Gods as well as Celis’ Georgius. The worst we can expect
is that he intends to put us in a helpless situation where he’s harnessed a power
so powerful that we won’t be able to stand a chance even if we joined forces.”

It would be far too late for everyone if that were to happen.

“That’s why we have to stop Shiba right now, no matter what…and through our
own efforts.”

Basara’s voice was the epitome of determination as he said those words.

“But that means…” “We first have to figure out where Shiba is, right?”

Upon hearing Yuki and Kurumi’s suggestions, Mio, along with Maria and Zest
on the other end of the phone, stayed silent in response.

How were they to look for Shiba when he might as well vanished as good as if
he were thin air?

However,

“I have an idea.”

Basara muttered, as all eyes were now all him.

“It’s simply that I require — ”

And as Basara was about to continue explaining,

“— Basara-kun.”

Someone suddenly called him from behind. It was Yuki and Kurumi’s father,
Nonaka Shuuya, who was supposed to discuss countermeasures after the attack
from Shiba with the rest of the elders. As Basara turned and recognized him as
the latter approached him, he waited for him to arrive in front of him before
asking,

“Uncle, the elders…has the Village made a decision?”

Shuuya shook his head with a stern expression on his face.

“…Unfortunately, there has been no verdict as of yet. We cannot deny that we

hold full responsibility for Kyouichi going out of control, but the one who had
helped him escape and stole the Four Gods happened to be a Demon disguised as
a Vatican assistant.”

And besides —

“And that’s not considering the fact that Celis’ Georgius has been stolen as
well…although the Village and the Vatican are discussing plans to deal with all
this through communication magic at the moment, And as Shuuya gave his reply
—

“—How long are those old men going to beat around the bush?”

Takigawa, who had been leaning against a wall of the broken ceremonial hall
and had silently overheard the conversation from the sidelines, snorted in
response as he revealed himself.

“It’s typical of those higher-ups involved in politics to like to talk about self-
protection and rights.

And to avoid other factions of the Hero Clan scattered across the world from
criticizing the Village and the Vatican, they’lll just pretend to have calmed down
after temporarily join forces after dragging and blaming each other into this
mess.”
However , said Takigawa,

“Come to think of it, these Vatican folks have always been so harsh, haven’t
they? They went as far as to send that blondie—Celis was her name, I take it? —
to act as an inquisitor for the political discussion so that things would favor their
side and tell her to unsheathe the sacred sword given to her for battle if things
don’t go their way.”

On the other hand—

“The Village also wanted to use that lunatic Shiba as a trump card against the
Vatican…I don’t think either side’s going to give in that easily.”

“But…from how Basara-sama put it earlier, it seems that the Vatican no longer
wants to discuss the Village’s custody of Basara-sama and all of us.”

It was Zest who abruptly spoke up from the other end of the phone.

“Ignoring the whole battle between Basara-sama and Celis earlier, shouldn’t
there be no real issues for both sides to cooperate at this point of time?”

“Unfortunately, it’s not all that simple, I’m afraid.”

A wry expression appeared on Shuuya’s face as he explained why,

“Maybe this is merely my personal opinion…but I think the Vatican hasn’t stood
down simply because it has finally approved of either your group or the Village.
They have yet to think other than the original conclusion they had come to, and
remain under the impression that our custody of your group remains
inappropriate and lacking. But since Celis-kun had lost to Basara-kun, they’re no
longer taking extreme measures in defending their stand all the while adamantly
persisting on the notion they had arrived here with.”
As such—

“They may approve of what the Village currently has to say on the surface, and
pretend that our custody of you is not lacking in any of the sort…but the moment
your group causes any issues concerning any innocent parties, they’ll
immediately seize the opportunity and deny the Village’s ability to control you
guys and label your group as a dangerous threat. It’s not a stretch to assume that
they might able facilitate that very opportunity themselves.”

“But that’s…then what about…”

The words come out from an astonished Mio as if she were groaning about the
situation. Even after all the political discussion in the ceremonial hall and the
fight to the death between Basara and Celis, things have still not taken a turn for
the better? And noticing the visibly troubled Mio,

“Don’t worry…no matter what they have on their sleeve, we’ll be ready.”

Basara now possessed the divine blessings of Hasegawa Chisato—otherwise

known as Afureia, as well as one of his mothers, Raphealine, two members of
the powerful Ten Gods. Any underhanded tactics in any attempt to harm or
degrade Basara would result in the production of Kegare. Even if the higher-ups
of the Vatican were to cut off any loose ends to avoid responsibility from falling
to them, the production of the Kegare as a result of the giving the order of
assassination would likely still befall under the real perpetrators who ordered it.

Basara would likely be able to expose the true mastermind behind the strings the
way he was now. If the Vatican were to deny involvement of the higher-ups
when questioned about it, the resulting, newly produced Kegare would be the
truth that would triumph over any wordplay they might use to retort their claims.
“But heading back to our topic, our original plan was to prevent the Village and
the Vatican from seeing us as a threat and eliminate all foreign relations and
restrictions. On one hand, we need to stop Shiba before he gets what he wants,
and on the other we can’t afford to let them see us as more dangerous than we
already are to them.”

“So are we going to demand guaranteed freedom and protection from the Village
and the Vatican with the condition that we’re going to stop Shiba?”

Kurumi asked, creasing her brows.

“No, that might only just backfire on us…even if we do get our protection and
freedom, we might just end up escalating their fear of us.”

Basara continued on,

“The Village and the Vatican probably don’t want to make any more judgment
and consideration from here on. If they were to approve of us acting on our own
and if the situation were to worsen…all being said, it would be them that would
need to take responsibility. If our request were to bring that sort of risk to them,
we don’t know how long it’ll take before they’ll officially permit us to do this.”

And because of that—

“If we were to beat around the bush over such stupidity, we would be giving
more time for Shiba, who now wants to refine the Four Gods at present, to
achieve what he wants. Wait any longer and he’ll have done that sooner or later
—and we’d be throwing any chances of victory out of the window.”

Thus—

“We won’t wait for the Village and the Vatican to make a decision. We’ll act
right now with what we have. The sooner we move, the greater the chance we
have of defeating Shiba.”

“And with this being the case, if anything were to happen in the meanwhile, we
would need to take full responsibility. It would be convenient for the Village and
the Vatican, but we’d be inevitably carrying the risk with us.”

“…If we were to successfully defeat Shiba, we would be able to win the favor of
both the Village and the Vatican.”

Yuki deduced Basara’s intent correctly, as if she heard the very exact words from
his previous sentence.

“That’s right. We’ve already given our requests during our conference in the
ceremonial hall, and this might just be the quickest way to earn their approval.
Rather or give off the impression that we’re a threat or want to negotiate terms,
maybe it’s better for us to settle their problem behind the scenes to win them
over.”

“Sigh…seriously, we’re just so unlucky, aren’t we?”

Imagining the resigned expression from Maria on the other side of the phone cal
elicited a wry laugh from Basara.

“Yeah…tel me about it. But we’ll all be in trouble either way if we don’t do
something about Shiba regardless. If we can’t avoid fighting him, we have to see
to future preparations, don’t we?”

Mio and the others smiled in approval to Basara’s suggestion.

“Basara-kun, do you really want to do this?”

Shuuya asked, appearing hesitant about their discussion.

“Yeah…I think that this is perhaps the best course of action for us now.”

Basara nodded confidently as he addressed Shuuya’s concern.

“It’s just that I have two favors to ask of you, Uncle.”

“What is it you need? I’ll do my best so long as it’s well within my

capabilities…”

“For one, so that it’ll be easier for Yuki and Kurumi to fight with me…I need the
Sakuya and the Spirit Gauntlet. Preparing any other weapons would waste a lot
more time, and the fact that they might not be used to any other weapon, I’m
afraid, would put us at a disadvantage in defeating Shiba-san.”

“I understand…I’ll think of something to get those weapons for them.”

And after he had agreed to the first request,

“And the other favor?”

“It’s the Byakko. Shiba-san stole three out of four treasures of the Four Gods as
well as Celis’

Georgius, and the Byakko, being one of the four sacred treasures, should be able
to detect the waves of the other three weapons…in other words, it’s necessary
that we should have the Byakko with us if we are to ever locate Shiba-san.
That’s why I need the elders’ permission for us to use the Byakko—outside of
the Village.”

That was the method of which Basara had devised to locate Shiba’s
whereabouts.
“True, that might be the best course of action as of yet…but will the elders and
the other members of the Village willingly grant it to us?”

Zest asked from the other side of the phone upon realizing Basara’s suggestion.

“Will the elders really agree to all this?”

Kurumi was visibly worried about the slim chances they possessed.

“It’s a role that only you can play for us now, Uncle. I’m sorry to cause you so
much trouble once again.”

“Oh, no, please, don’t worry about it…I did say I’d do my best for you, right?
And both of your requests are well within my capabilities; you can count on
me.”

After he said those words, Shuuya turned away and left the area without delay.

Perhaps he had gone to immediately retrieve Yuki and Kurumi’s weapons.

And after he decided that Shuuya had went away for a suitable distance,

“Hey, Basachi…,remember that that sacred spear Byakko rejected that Shiba
guy. It’s probably because it’s already chosen that blonde guy with the dark eyes
as its wielder…your childhood friend, correct?”

It was then that Takigawa began to speak.

“The way things are now, do you really think it’s going to sit by and willingly let
you use it?”

“…I can’t say I’m very confident. This alone I have no guarantee.”

In response to Basara’s honesty, Takigawa’s eyebrows clenched together.

“Hey, hey, you’re being quite unreliable, aren’t you…”

“I’m just stating the facts. Can’t help it, can I?”

Basara shrugged and said, Nevertheless, there’s no doubt it’s going to be a tough
task, isn’t it?

Toujou Basara contemplated on the possibility of being compatible with the

Byakko.

—The Byakko had already selected Takashi as its wielder.

It might even be by Takashi’s side as he lay unconscious in the medical bay,

even now. And Takashi had used the Byakko against Basara in the past, and the
Byakko had been shattered by Basara amidst the fighting.

It was rather likely that the Byakko would not recognize Basara as an allly—it
might even see him as an enemy.

And yet—

“We don’t have any other options…in that case, we’ll just have to figure out a
way to convince it to help us.”

Basara said, as if he were trying to convince himself that things would go

smoothly, one way or the other.

“Basara-san, what about Zest-san and I? Do we head over and meet up with you
for now?”

“No. The both of you are demons, and arriving at the village might just attract
unwanted attention and complicate things more than necessary. Especially given
the highly sensitive state of the elders right now —we’d do well to not bother
them any further.”

As such—

“I’ll contact you again when Yuki and the others’ weapons as well as the Byakko
are in our hands. After we find a lead on Shiba-san’s whereabouts, we’ll meet up
while we’re on the road.”

“Understood. We’ll make preparations so as to be ready to move any time.”

After Basara ended the cal after Zest and Maria had received their orders, he
turned to Mio and the others.

“Takashi and Celis’ medical procedures should be complete by now, so I’m

going to pay them a visit for now, and afterward…I’ll try and have a word with
the Byakko.”

He needed to ask it to provide him with the power of the Four Gods so he could
locate Shiba.

“Yuki and Kurumi, after your father gets your weapons back for you, make
preparations to head out like the rest of them.”

“Mmm.” “Got it.”

And after Basara nodded to them in response, he returned to Mio.

“Mio…go with them.”

“Mmm…don’t worry, I won’t wander off anywhere.”

Although the Village now declared itself in a state of emergency fol owing
Shiba’s escape, and most of their attention was now primarily place on him, this
place was still the headquarters of the Japan faction of the Hero Clan, and the
fact remained that Mio was the daughter of the previous Demon King.

It’s true that Takigawa had brought a personally written letter from the Demon
King requesting the sanctuary of Basara’s group, and while that had caused the
Hero Clan to avoid laying a finger on Basara’s group to avoid a full scale
conflict…

On the contrary…

To use Mio as a hostage would be to hold the ultimate secret weapon in one’s
hand.

She would be as effective a hostage against Basara’s group as with the Demon
Clan.

And Mio, too, understood the gravity of the risk involving her. And knowing
that, she understood the intent behind Basara’s words and steeled herself so as to
not end up being alone.

…And with this all that’s left is—

As he thought of that, he turned toward a certain someone who remained.

“Takigawa…what are your plans from here on out?”

Takigawa responded to Basara’s question with a wordless silence.

That’s why all eyes were suddenly laid upon him.

As a Demon, surely Takigawa too understood the gravity of their current

situation.

Thereupon he shrugged and explained himself under the gaze of all the members
of Basara’s group:

“Yeah, about that…I personally don’t know either. I only came around this time
as a messenger to the Hero Clan. I know you guys are in an urgency right now,
but the way things are now, it’s no longer up to me alone to decide what I’d do
next.”

After all —

“I’m really annoyed and hate the position I’m in now, though. Much like their
Excellencies Leonhart and Ramusasdono, I’m now something of a middleman
representing both the currently reigning Demon lord as well as the moderate
faction. If we were to move carelessly, there’s no telling if that Shiba guy would
take advantage of it.”

And thus—

“I should be saying bye-bye to you all right now and report things back in the
Demon Realm…I guess it’s better to say that I’m in for a real pickle if I don’t get
back and give my findings soon.”

“Because of Leonhart’s older sister?”

“Yeah. If I mess things up, I can’t say I’ll enjoy my head thoughtlessly dancing
in midair.”

And besides—

“Don’t forget. Even though the Cardinal Sins are no more, it does not mean that
the Demon Realm…the Demon Clan will be fully united. And one way or the
other, somehow, even if they were to treat you guys as you desire, there’s a
plentiful chance that everything would just turn inside out in the blink of an
eye.”
“…You’re right. I understand.”

Basara didn’t have any leeway to attend to matters concerning the Demon Realm
at present. Though there was no doubt that the notion of having Takigawa…or
maybe even Ramusas or Leonhart as allies for their battle was very reassuring.

And it was only because influential members of the Demon Clan existed
amongst their ranks that were supportive of the protection of Mio—Ramusas in
particular—that the secret letter they had sent to the Hero Clan included the
discussion of the sanctuary meant for Basara’s group. It was probably that they
were provide their aid should Mio be in grave danger at any time.

But if that were to be the case…

Basara and the others would appear to side with the Demon Realm in the eyes of
the Hero Clan. Even if they were to resolve the problem of Shiba getting out of
hand, the Hero Clan would only continue to potentially exercise more caution
and vigilance towards Basara’s group in the future.

And if either Leonhart or Ramusas were to provide Basara’s group with their
help, it would be a perfect opportunity for factions that were not supportive of
the currently reigning Demon lord to sever their existing alliance, wouldn’t it? If
that were to happen, it wouldn’t be just the relations with the Hero Clan that
would be compromised; even that of the Demon Clan would also suffer as well.

Under such a basis, Takigawa returning to the Demon Realm and working
toward smoothening their alliance would be more appropriate and helpful than
asking the Demon Clan for aid.

—The most important thing for Basara’s group right now was to maintain the
balance and sense of distance between all sides.
Between the Hero Clan and the Demon Clan, the group would not cut all contact
or treat both conflicting sides equally; the best course of action was to maintain
their respective and appropriate relations and distance between the two.

Evaluating the situation on a personal and familial level, one would think that
the remaining members of the Demon Clan surrounding Mio and the disorder in
the Demon Realm were a thing of the past fol owing their battle against the
Demon King’s faction as well as the destruction of the Cardinal Sins; however,
from the political standpoint concerning Basara’s group and the conflict Hero
and Demon Clans, things had only made a turn for the worse, and things would
only get more complicated and difficult from here on out.

But such a thing was inevitable—with an increasing amount of things one

treasured or wanted to protect, it was certain that such a complication would fol
ow. And if he really didn’t want to lose any of it, he had no choice to be carry
out what needed to be done to the letter.

Even if he couldn’t do it elaborately or perfectly, he had to at least defend the

minimum line for himself.

I’m doing this to protect what I can’t let go of. As Basara reminded himself of
that—

“…Well, it’s about time I got going.”

As Takigawa was about to turn and leave,

“Thanks, Takigawa. We owe it to you for the fact that we managed to interact
with Celis and the elders. Once all this is over, let me treat you to lunch again,
like the last time.”

“Haha, is it going to be roast pork again?”

“Yeah —I’ll add some shabushabu and some sukiyaki on top of that.”

Takigawa and Basara exchanged light chuckles as they finished their banter.

“See ya.”

Takigawa turned away, raising a hand to say farewell before disappearing into
the darkness.

“Yeah.”

Basara, too, nodded in response before turning to leave Takigawa.

Takigawa had his own business to attend to; Basara was simply doing the same,
nothing more than that.
PART 2
After Basara temporarily parted with Mio and the others, he went to the medical
department of the Village.

He’d gone there to visit the room where the wounded had been tended to just a
short moment ago.

Takashi and Celis, the both of whom had been heavily injured amidst the fight
against Shiba and Balflear, were now resting within.

And the person who was treating them was Yuki and Kurumi’s mother —
Nonaka Kaoru.

And when Basara asked her on the condition of the two patients,

“Celis-chan has been treated successfully…so while she’ll be asleep for a while,
she’ll automatically wake up eventually when there’s no longer any serious
danger to her body.

“Is that so…”

Part of Basara felt relieved, but it was too early to think for the best. It wasn’t
because Shiba was on the loose and his whereabouts were unknown, but the fact
that Kaoru had made the individual statement that “Celis-chan has been treated
successfully” meant that there was a contrast.

“Kaoru-san…then what about Takashi?”

At Basara’s question, Kaoru went silent for a few moments, her expression rigid.
And then,

“I’ve tried what I could…but to little avail.”

“Has he been poisoned or cursed of some sort?”

“No, I didn’t manage to find any external cause. That’s why I must ask you,
Basara-kun, if you in particular can feel as though if you can notice something
within Takashi-kun?”

“Are you talking about…me?”

“Yes. The complete elimination caused from the Banishing Shift is a result of the
invocation severing its particular core, and your ability to use this technique is
due to the fact that you were born with different eyes. You’ve since honed this
power of yours through the many battles you’ve fought alongside Naruse Mio
and the others, haven’t you? Am I wrong?’

Upon hearing her conjecture, Basara found himself astounded at the wise gaze of
the mother of his childhood friends.

True enough, possessing the power of Master-servant contracts made with Mio
and the others, as well as the fact that he was Byrnhildr’s host up until now…in
addition to his contract with Hasegawa, a member of the Ten Gods, Basara, the
way he was now, possessed a power that made him indistinguishable from his
previous self when he lived in the Village — no, perhaps even a power that was
on a completely different level now. It was likely that Kaoru did not know the
whole truth of the situation, and she had likely just guessed that Basara’s current
state was different than it was before. However,

“………”

Basara said nothing, instead reaffirming her assumption in silence.

If he were to directly affirm what she’d said, Kaoru would be aware of the truth
in its fullest.

And knowing of a particular truth or reality would, at times, shackle one with the
burden of the responsibilities that came with the news.

No matter how obvious the truth of the matter was, confirming her suspicions
directly would inconvenience her given her particular standing on the matter.

“————”

Basara remained silent, his eyes fixated on Takashi’s enfeebled form as he lay on
the bed.

And as he noticed the flickering of his body’s composite center — that which
was the core that maintained Takashi’s existence, Basara surmised on Takashi’s
unusual state.

“This is…”

“As I thought…your eyes, too, can see that something’s horribly wrong with
Takashi-kun the way he is now.”

Kaoru’s tone was grave as she imparted the reality of the situation to Basara,
who has his eyebrows knitted in a perplexed look.

— Basara and Kaoru likely had a different perspective view of what lay within
Takashi.

It was because the two had observed him with their different, respective abilities.

But the two detected the same disorder within him despite that difference — that
was the extent of Takashi’s current situation.

The issue was the terrible stagnation that pooled within Takashi’s body; it was a
very unnatural occurrence.

Kaoru-san was right; this was neither poisoning nor a curse.

If something wrong with Takashi were to occur as a result of a foreign cause,
Basara’s eyes would be able to detect it, one way or the other.

But Takashi’s body had no traces of abnormalities caused by an external source.

…That’s right.

Basara thought back to the short exchange he’d had with Takashi in the
aftermath of being crippled by Shiba.

Takashi had said so himself — although he was supposed to have defended

himself from Shiba’s attack, he instead sustained grave damage in the process.

That was why Basara had initially suspected that Takashi had either been
poisoned or cursed.

…Could it be that the problem was actually…Takashi’s body itself?

How could this be? It was obvious in Basara’s eyes that the interior of Takashi’s
body had become terribly unstable.

It was as if Takashi’s body itself had been been driven out of whack, such that
his recuperative or self-recovery mechanisms were failing him. And although he
couldn’t deduce precisely what it was that brought about Takashi’s current state,
it was likely that — no, that was, without a doubt, the actual cause of Takashi’s
condition, wasn’t it?

The problem lay within the peculiar secret of the unidentifiable power Shiba
possessed. And as Basara thought of that,

…Wait. What if —

As Basara continued to think deeply, a possibility crossed his mind.

“…Excuse me, Kaoru-san. But could you please leave us alone for just a
moment?”

“I don’t mind that, but…”

Kaoru appeared hesitant as she said those words. Under normal circumstances,
for Kaoru, who was responsible for the medical attention of Takashi’s still
unstable condition, to leave Takashi would only bring about a great risk.
However,

“Please…I won’t take too long.”

Basara insisted on his request regardless. He didn’t let her in on the details, and
simply with his gaze alone gave her his intent —that he wanted to try something.
Thereupon Kaoru gave her reply, as if understanding what Basara meant,

“I see…I’ll be in the next room if you need me, so cal me if you need anything.”

Kaoru left behind that sentence and left the room.

Basara turned to face the bedridden Takashi once again.

And as the sight of the stagnating sediment in Takashi’s body glistened in his
eye, Attempting to eliminate that sediment, he raised his right hand.

And manifested the Byrnhildr in it.

It would be similar to back then, when he had eliminated Wilbert’s power within
Mio when it had gone out of control.

He wouldn’t be harming Takashi at all ; he would simply use the Banishing Shift
to eliminate the stagnation that lay within him.
The change didn’t occur from Takashi — but something suddenly appeared
beside him out of thin air.

“…Byakko.”

The white spirit spear materialized itself in front of Basara, floating in his way as
if to protect Takashi from him.

And in response to the Byakko,

“There’s no need to worry…I have no intention of hurting Takashi. I’m sure you
can feel that, right?”

As he said so, he did something to evidence that he really meant what he’d said.

He dematerialized the Byrnhildr that he had just manifested in his right hand.

And after he had done so, he extended an empty hand toward it and said:

“I want to help Takashi —s o please, even if just a little. Lend me your power,
Byakko.”

Basara had been the wielder of Byrnhildr only after that tragedy had happened
many years ago.

However, the Banishing Shift was a technique that he had learned before it had
occurred.

Of course, the Byrnhildr had since become Basara’s favorite weapon to this day.

There was no doubt that the Byrnhildr was the easiest weapon Basara could use;
the thought of using any weapon other than it never crossed his mind. Even
during that time concerning Mio and from the times there on out, Basara had
always cut his way out of all of them with the Byrnhildr. As such, if he were to
simply cast Banishing Shift, utilizing the Byrnhildr for it would, in normal cases,
be the desired option.

However…

Basara was convinced that there was no other way than to use the Byakko if he
wanted to save Takashi.

The Banishing Shift was a technique that required absolute concentration to

perform. And the target of said technique, in this case, was within that of a living
body —i n a scenario with such specificity, all the more it would require the
most extreme caution and a high resistance to nervousness or tension. As such,
compared to the Brynhildr giving Basara the ability to cast Banishing Shift in
response to Basara’s plea to save Takashi, casting it with the Byakko, that
already possessed the intent to save its wielder to being with, with likely yield a
higher chance of success.

The sacred spear, the Byakko, wasn’t simply a mere tool —much like the
Brynhildr, the magic sword, it was a weapon that fought alongside the person of
whom it recognized as its rightful wielder.

Perhaps doing it this way and using the Brynhildr for such a matter would only
make the tiniest of differences.

And yet the success of some things, however, depended on said tiniest of
differences to decide if it were to succeed or fail. And the outcome of success or
failure meant everything at this very moment.

“Byakko…”

Basara called out the spear’s name once more, as the Byakko remained floating
between Basara and the unconscious Takashi.
Its body, however, that was initially glowing with a light of a darker sheen,
calmed slightly, as if to acquiesce to his request.

As such, Basara slowly extended his hands, before tightly receiving the shaft.

Tightly gripping the spear that was to protect the West —t he Byakko — he
found that there was no resistance from the white spear in his grasp.

“Thank you…”

Basara thanked the sacred spear he now held in his hands, before he made a
decision.

With the way things were now…

He decided it was best to simply drown out the stagnation within Takashi’s body
rather than eliminate it entirely.

The stagnating sediment within Takashi’s body did not come from an outer
source.

A stubborn portion within Takashi’s body had developed into a state that would
produce negative reactions, and if he were to solve it by process of elimination,
he would end up banishing the flesh surrounding the infection as well.
Minimizing the damage to Takashi’s body would mean that simply removing the
sediment was the only option, and it was a process that would be comparatively
less difficult.

And yet…

While it might be easier than the instance with Mio on paper, the difficulty lied
in the difference in the procedure.
— Basara had eliminated Wilbert’s power the very moment it burst from Mio’s
body back then.

He absolutely couldn’t have destroyed Mio back then, but he managed to

completely get rid of the overflowing power within her.

The difference here was that he was to remove the part of Takashi’s body that
was infected with the stagnating sediment to return it its original state.

And he was not to eliminate anything in doing so, as well.

That’s right — he was not to eliminate what was within him, but to remove it in
order to restore it to its original state. And he had to accomplish this with the
Banishing Shift.

— Was it really possible for him to do this?

Basara neither had the guarantee or the confidence to do so.

However…

Since there was no other option, Basara decided that he would only move
forward.

“—————”

Toujou Basara sharpened his spirit as he readied the Byakko in hand.

…Takashi.

Basara thought of the fact that he and Takashi could no longer regain the
relationship they shared in the past.

However — it was possible for them to build a new relationship in the future.
And no matter what would happen, it wouldn’t change the fact the two of them
were once childhood friends.

…He had to succeed.

I don’t want to lose a childhood friend…I absolutely don’t want to lose anyone
important to me anymore. That was why…

“Just hold on, Takashi…I’ll put you at ease now.”

And with that murmur, Toujou Basara unleashed the Banishing Shift, Basara had
aimed toward the left side of Takashi’s chest.

— What he’d intended to use was not the edge of the spear’s tip, but the end of
the handle.

It was thus more apt to say that he had intended to strike him rather than stab
him.

It was all for the sake of minimizing as much damage to Takashi’s body as
possible —and simply deliver a shock to him that would drown out the
stagnation within him.

The technique was on the same level of martial arts of the highest caliber, such
as karate or Chinese martial arts, in terms of inflicting a direct strike.

Basara’s plan was to cast Banishing Shift utilizing a spear he was not familiar
with.

Nevertheless — it would still be an unequivocal cast of the Banishing Shift.

Even the slightest mistake would mean that the point of the cast would vanish
entirely. It was necessary that he reached the absolute limit of his concentration
and meticulously concentrated on factors such as the position, strength and
timing.

And even then —

The Byakko would likely cover for any insufficiency present during the
procedure.

The guardian deity of a beast within the Byakko, a member of the sacred
treasures known as the Four Gods serves to protect any existence that it has
recognized as its wielder.

Not out of repose or dependence—but out of trust. And thus,

“——————”

Basara, who had cast a different variation of Banishing Shift, slowly withdrew
his hand that was wielding the Byakko.

Although Takashi’s body remained unchanged at a glance, there still were

noticeable differences.

Such as his expression —and his breathing.

“…”

Takashi’s pained look and breathing gradually calmed down into a more
comfortable state.

In addition, Basara could no longer detect the stagnation within his body that
was visible just a short moment ago.

It was too early to assume that everything had went along smoothly, however;
subsequently, Basara went to the other room and called upon Kaoru, who had
been on standby in the other room, to reaffirm Takashi’s condition.

And after examining Takashi again, Kaoru let out a sigh and relaxed her
shoulders.

“Everything’s alright now…the medication and the magic should have effect
now.”

“Is that so…thank goodness…”

After hearing those words, Basara’s chest finally lightened itself.

He had managed to save Takashi —having been made aware of such a

conclusion, the first thing that came to him was relief.

“Takashi…”

He called out the name of his childhood friend, attentively gazing at his sleeping
state.

He had no desire to wake him up —he understood that he needed rest more than
anything at that very moment.

There were many things he wanted to tel him —but for the time being, placing
his feelings in the simple mention of his name would suffice. He would simply
convey them in detail later on when he would return; there was a place where he
and the others couldn’t afford to not go at present. It was then that Basara’s gaze
fell on his right hand.

“Byakko…please, lend me just a little more of your power.”

As if to respond to Basara’s plea, the handle of the Byakko — the sacred spear,
who had helped him rescue Takashi, pulsated it laid in Basara’s grasp.
And with it, Basara’s grip on the handle tightened. And as he raised his head, he
saw a young man whom he knew as one who wanted to fulfill his bottomless
desires, someone who even at this moment of time, somewhere unknown, would
wear the same smile he always wore on his face.

It was Shiba Kyouichi. And at that moment —

“I’ve heard my husband speak of this —you’re going to seek him out, aren’t
you, Basara?”

In response to Kaoru’s desire to affirm his decision, Basara nodded and

answered:

“That’s right. While I still don’t know what in the world Shiba-san’s up to, but
I’m sure it’s going to be a terrible risk to all of us, and I’m not going to sit by
while he’s on the loose.”

“…Mmm…I see.”

“I’m going to need Yuki and Kurumi to fight alongside me this time round as
well…I’m really sorry for the trouble I’ve caused and how I’ve made the two of
you worry, though, Kaoru-san.”

“There’s no need to apologize. This is the road of which they have chosen, and
we are fully supportive of it.”

However —

“We agree to this, however, knowing that it is what they want, knowing it is
what would make the two of them happy, and not because we think nothing of
the possible dangers that might happen to all of you, or approve of you behaving
recklessly…please remember that.”
“…I will.”

Basara definitely understood what expectations a pair of parents would have for
their own beloved children.

They all shared the same vision — the same direction for the future, despite their
differences.

Why else would Wilbert have erased his existence for Mio’s sake?

Why else would Shera would have hidden the truth of Maria’s parents as well as
her bodily transformation from her?

And why else would Shuuya and Kaoru permit Yuki and Kurumi to go forth with
their choices?

They all held the same answer, the same reason —as such, Toujou Basara did not
want to disappoint their good intentions.

It’s for that reason alone, isn’t it?

Basara had decided that he would be willing to do anything well within his
capabilities, no matter what it may be.

The very feelings Jin and his two wives, Sapphire and Raphealine, had shown
Basara as well.

It was through Hasegawa’s explanation that Basara had learn of what the three
had done for him and the hopes they had.

And perhaps the three of them wouldn’t approve of Basara’s intentions at

present, as well as what he wanted to do.

But it didn’t mean that Basara didn’t think much or looked down on the goodwill
of all the parents involved.

—It was all for that which he could not give up on.

That was why he had to stop Shiba no matter what. Thereupon Kaori continued,

“I understand that you want to leave as soon as possible, but I’m afraid that my
husband will need more time before he can successfully persuade the elders.”

“I suppose so.”

Basara’s group had yet to receive proper permission from the Hero Clan to act.

Even if they were to approve of it without a word, it wouldn’t be right for them
to not gain at least the most basic form of permission.

However, this was a matter that not only concerned the Village, but also the
Vatican, as well as the Demon Realm—no matter how well versed Shuuya was
at persuading, it wouldn’t be an easy task regardless.

As Basara nodded in understanding, Kaoru began her next sentence with a

“That’s why”.

“For the time being, I think I really need to tel you about something.”

She stopped talking momentarily—

“Before you head off to battle—you first need to understand Kyouichi’s secret.
Something no one from your generation knows about.”
 PART 3

At the same time Basara had finally managed to rescue Takashi, Shiba Kyouichi,
who had since fled from the Village, was already beginning to work towards his
goal at a faraway place.

“Now, let us begin…”

Standing a communications tower known for its unparalleled height such that it
all owed one to be at one’s closest to the sky, he snapped the fingers of his right
hand as he enjoyed the view of the mesmerizing night scenery on the edge of the
broadcasting antenna.

And fol owing his gesture, the Four Gods, the most powerful treasures of the
Village of which Shiba had stolen, soared overhead him as if they were meteors,
their phosphorescent tails glistening behind them as they each dispersed to
individual points in each of the cardinal directions. The Seiryu in the north; the
Genbu in the south; the Suzaku in the East; and in the West, the Byakko, an
apparent form made from the holy sword Georgius.

It was then that all four of the sacred treasures, unseeable to the naked eye,
pierced the ground simultaneously; thereupon a special space formed along the
vertex of which the four weapons had been placed.

The elders had utilized the four treasures to create their sanctuary; on the other
hand, Shiba had made duplicates of normal space before elevating the
dimensions to create a domain with a high phase contrast.
Such a superior three-dimensional space would not be affected by any outside
intervention, but would all ow one to decide whether or not the space could be
influenced from the inside or outside.

At a glance, the establishment seemed to have been perfect; however, Shiba

seemed unsatisfied with the outcome, muttering:

“Hmm…as I thought, a forcibly procured Byakko lacks as much balance; it’s

slightly deformed.”

Using the Georgius as a substitute for the Byakko, in the end, had caused some
undesired effects after all. The force of the space from the west was
comparatively weak, and it caused to the space to be rather unstable. As a result,
if he were to simply let a bit of time pass; the three other sides would simply
adapt to the west wise and rectify the distortion. However,

“Basara…he would make it here before that happens. ”

The true Byakko was in the hands of the enemy; what Shiba possessed was a
mere replica of the Byakko using the Georgius as a base. If the real Byakko were
to be destroyed, there was no guarantee that the three other sacred treasures
would not be affected. Although Basara having arrived earlier than expected was
a major contributing factor to the issue at hand, the real problem lied in the
reason why the Byakko had rejected Shiba.

“Damn it…who would’ve thought that Takashi would’ve managed to put us in

such a bind.”

“— Allow me.”

As Shiba sighed with a wry smile on this face, a voice, coming from a fellow
young Demon who was floating in the air called him from behind.
It was one of the younger members of the high-ranking Demon Realm —
Balflear.

“The curvature is due to the holy Sword Georgius being of a sacred element,
yes…as a Demon, perhaps all owing me to refine it would save much more time
than waiting for it to adjust itself.”

“Mhm…sorry for bothering you, I guess.”

“No worries. After all, after this road is paved clear for us, we will finally be
able to realize our dearest wish.”

In response to Balflear saying such words with a light chuckle, Shiba simply
muttered “Yes” to affirm his statement.

“There’s no need to be so fastidious with the matter, though; its stability will no
longer be a concern once it has advanced to the second stage.”

“Kyouichidono, I take it you find it necessary to forcibly progress things to the

next stage given our current situation?” To which Shiba then replied beginning
with “Yes”,
“Our enemy is Basara, after all.”

“It’s true that his Banishing Shift might have the capability to eradicate this
established space…”

Balflear scrunched his eyebrows in thought.

“Although it’s slightly unstable, this is, nonetheless, a near-perfect, high level
dimensional space. Even if the Byakko copy were to cause any further
instability, as long as his technique cannot reach the center from the outside, I’m
sure he’d still be unable to completely destroy it.

But come to think of it —

“If they attempt to forcibly destroy or damage any of the corners, the power
within the space would leak out immediately in one go. It would swallow all of
them and the space will return to being a flat piece of land. Though I don’t think
they’d be so reckless as to attempt something like that.”

“That’s about right. But before that is complete, we’d best think of any worst
case scenarios just in case.”

Isn’t that right?

“It’s true that Basara and the others are a nuisance —but they are not our only
enemy.”

“True. Since our current position is merely the start of everything, as it were, it’s
true that we need to take measures to avoid being set back by our enemies. I’ll
get to work right away.”
The instant he had finished saying those words, Balflear vanished without a
trace, as if he had dissolved into the air.

He had gone to refine the Byakko copy.

“And next”

The very moment Shiba opened his mouth, a bird danced before descending
before the man a fair distance away from the section of the antenna where Shiba
was standing on. It was a very rare bird—a white crow.

Crows were commonly black as a breed—to give birth to an albino was an

incidence most rare.

And yet its white bodice, that would stick out among its flock of black brethren
like a sore thumb, also meant that it had a very rare chance of survival in the
natural world. As such, the chances a being of such rarity merely dropping by,
and even being able to exist within the superior dimensional space, no less, were
essentially zero. And the crow raised its head, gazing at Shiba to talk to him—

“I didn’t think you’d go so far as to do something this foolish.”

To reveal words spoken by a cold man with a hoarse voice.

“To think you’re actually thinking of defying us…It appears all the time you
spent being locked up has twisted your mind…would you care to explain
yourself?”

And in response to the white crow,

“Hey, Albareos —how many years it’s been since I last heard your voice?”

A thin, light smile appeared on Shiba’s lips, before he continued:

“You were the one who created us, and yet you orchestrated the complicity of
forcing the Japan Village to be in custody of us, and cover up all that would
otherwise sully your reputation…and it’s been what, twenty years since then?”

“Oh? It appears your sense of time is still normal for a lunatic.”

The masculine voice that came from the host of the white crow hid his subtle
mirth.

“My, my. Such lack of manners. I thought you were already brazen before, but I
didn’t think twenty years of training would make one this arrogant.”

“I suggest you watch your words…I’m sure even you have heard what has
become of me during your imprisonment?”

“But of course. For someone like you, once merely a member of the church to
rise to the role of the almighty holy king…strange, isn’t it?”

Among the Vatican, the holy king was the officiated top of the clan, holding an
authority that surpassed even that of the Pope.

He was deemed to be a superpower, a saint capable of miracles and wonders

above the average human, the apex of the pyramid that governed the Hero Clan.
And the title wasn’t just for show; it signified that whomever who held it
possessed the power befitting of reigning over the entire Hero Clan.

It was likely that the white crow had been made from Albareos’ power. And
while it had likely also infiltrated the space through the unstable west side, this
was still a fully isolated, superior dimensional space — there was no questioning
that the quality of the space was of an exceptionally high level. At the same
time, it was also no coincidence that the crow had arrived immediately as
Balflear had left, and the crow had managed to arrive here because its control er
already had full control of the situation. It was then that Shiba asked the speaker
of his intentions.

“So what business does the esteemed leader of the Vatican have with me?
Although I suppose I could take an accurate guess.”

“I’m here to warn you —for the first and last time.”

Albareos’ voice, transmitted from the crow, lowered even more as he said those
words.

“I don’t think you’ve forgotten…even if I am handing you over to the

supervision of the Village in Japan, your thread of life still remains in my hands.
So if you still insist on trying anything funny”

“—You’re going to kill me, are you?”

Shiba’s words come out as a murmur, but the smile that gleamed on his face was
deeper, more profound.

“Do you really have the guts for that, Albareos? You of all people, who created
me…you know more than anyone else what killing me would entail, right?”

“………”

In response to Albareos from the other end of white crow that was now still and
silent, Shiba continued,

“I am that which is the inconvenient, smothering truth your self-indulgence has

caused you to suppress, that which has been sealed only when it has proven too
much for you to handle…there’s no doubt where the contents within this vessel
would go should it be destroyed, yes?”
Am I wrong?

“If you kill me, you’ll die with me as well. And not you alone, the entire Vatican
will be swallowed in the abyss of negative energy…I’m really not convinced
you’d willingly throw away the very post you’d worked so hard to build and
schemed so elaborately to maintain, as well as your own life.”

He was right —Shiba, despite being a massive risk to the Hero Clan, had been
spared from execution out of the fear of the thing that was sealed within him.

“Although perhaps it’s because of your all high and mighty post that prompts
you to say all this to me? Though to think you would use something that means
absolutely nothing to me as a threat before me…you’re making a fool out of
yourself. I’d ask you quit your charade of being almighty and all and just spill
out your real intentions.”

And as the voice replied to the maniacally laughing Shiba,

“…I’ve already told you my goal —I’m here to warn you.”

Something suddenly appeared on Shiba’s neck.

It was a mark—one that, much like the Master-servant contract, seemed to

contain some form of demonic energy.

“And I think I’ve already said it just a short moment ago…this will be your first
and last time.”

At the same time, a blinding, white light burst from the seal, enveloping and
swallowing his entire body.

And fol owing it came the explosion of a thunderous roar that shook the
atmosphere.
 PART 4

The capital of the Hero clan exists in Europe, located a considerable distance
away from Japan.

It was the Vatican — a place where history and tradition had since intertwined
and developed into a capital where its people were reliant on it until it grew into
a symbol of worship. And within the Vatican, there was a sacred existence
reigning over the Hero Clan with an authority that meant even the Pope would
have to bend their knee before him.

It was the holy king, Albareos.

Amidst the secret underground cathedral known to none but the Hero Clan, a
high seat was established in the middle of the hall, such that it enabled the sitter
to oversee the entire vicinity;

it was the throne exclusive to the holy king himself, as Albareos remained seated
upon the peak of which evinced his title and privilege.

“How idiotic…”

A faint voice resounded across the room, its tone cold, yet tranquil. The large
jewel embedded on the ring on his right index finger had let out a moderate, faint
viridian glow a few moments earlier.

The glow signified that the magic of the curse engraved onto Shiba had been
activated.
— Everything that Shiba Kyouichi said then had been the truth.

He was the Achilles Heel of the Hero Clan —to the Vatican, specifically, among
all others, that was the very center of the Hero Clan itself.

To light a candle was to cast a shadow, as they say, and it was an inevitable,
inescapable fact in this case.

— It was all for the sake of protecting the world from the evil clutches of the
Demon Realm.

Simply wielding a symbol of regality and justice would not have brought their
ambitions to fruition; those who spoke of justice really had the effort of realizing
their ideals to back it up.

As a result, the Hero Clan needed a means to exercise that justice, to bring it to
fruition; they required a way for the clan to live on and extend for generations. A
system that would justify all of the Hero Clan’s actions.

There was no room for the perfect dream of being able to realize that without
compromising one’s values; there was only the option forcing themselves to
believe that their actions were in the name of justice. To describe it as merely
filthy or dirty would be utterly tepid; it was a bottomless abyss of darkness in
every sense of the world.

One could even compare it to the historical massacre of Witchhunt that occurred
in the Middle Ages in terms of how gruesome it was.

But all that couldn’t be helped; the Demon Realm would have stopped at nothing
to get rid of the Hero Clan.

Moreover, the Demons were once of the Gods as well; the Hero Clan itself only
possessed part of the divine blessings from the gods as part of their strength, and
as such, to be able to match the power of the Demon Realm, they had to opt for
some extreme measures.

The verdict was that no matter how great the corruption they would produce,
problems that came from said corruption would no longer be an issue should
said corruption be eliminated, and better yet, they could be seen as a new source
of power.

At present, Celis Reinhardt and her department of holy knights and inquisitors
were the predecessors of the special forces department that held the darkness of
the Vatican on their backs.

However, no one in Celis’ department was aware of the other side of their
special forces department. They all believed that their own actions were done out
of justice and willingly fulfilled their duty with their life; there was no need to
shake their resolve by spilling out any unnecessary truths.

However, it was difficult to pass off someone that existed as something that did
not, in addition to needing to cover it up…that was why the special forces of the
Vatican worked directly under the bureau of the holy king.

“Twenty years it’s been, hasn’t it…”

He muttered under his breath, letting memories of the past flood his mind.

— It was almost twenty years ago.

Under the name of a section better known as the dark side of the Hero Clan,
Albareos had been the person in charge of commanding the front lines.

It was a profession that demanded one throw away all semblance of reason and
logic from one’s mind to participate in. Common sense would retain the
normality of the human heart but would also restrict the heart and restrict one’s
ability to think or act on their own, and the dark side of said profession was a
realm that only those who would willingly relinquish their sanity could step in
—there was simply no way for one to be able to retain their heart while doing
such a job.

And having been shielded under the justification of him having been in a state of
insanity, he had committed many crimes and taboos in the name of the Hero
Clan.

And the one surviving plan of Albareos’ who had lost his sanity back then …
happened to be Shiba Kyouichi.

The dark history of the Hero Clan was tucked within Shiba’s body as if it were a
curse.

And because of that, they could not make a move on him even while being all
too aware of the dangers of his existence. And that was why —

“Did you think I would have possibly kept a blind eye toward your threats
forever…?”

The flow of time would wait for no one —at the same time, given enough
dedication to research and study, what once could not be tampered or meddled
with would come to have a solution;

and to Shiba, who knew that he could never possibly been sentenced to
execution, his imprisonment had been as if he were a bird in its safe cage—no,
perhaps as safe as a baby in its cradle.

Unlike Shiba, however, who had been trapped in that small, secluded world all
by himself for all that time, Albareos had been spending the last twenty years
protecting the world from the Demons, all the while carefully planning and
considering the best course of action to eliminate the threat that was Shiba
Kyouichi. And thus—

“With this”

As Albareos all owed a light smile to surface, mixed feelings washing over him
—

“— ‘There’s no longer anything capable of binding me anymore’, is it?”

The voice of Shiba Kyouichi abruptly rang across the room, taking away the
smile Albareos had on his face.

“Impossible…”

Unable to believe his eyes, his gaze darted to the jewel inlaid upon his ring

To discover it shattering with a sharp cracking sound before his very eyes.

Albareos’ widened his eyes at such a sight, yet again refusing to acknowledge its
occurrence.

“…The flow of time is unkind to everyone, Albareos.”

Shiba’s voice resounded across the cathedral.

“I have no intention of denying that you’ve done your share of hard labor all
these twenty years, carrying the lives and deaths of the Hero Clan on your back,
and living and dying with the world as if it were your own very life…but I
haven’t been lazing about for the past twenty years either. After all, I’d know
better than not to be aware that you want nothing to do with me. The world I live
in is nowhere near as broad as yours, and the skills and knowledge available to
me are also quite limited as a result.”
However, Shiba continued,

“In exchange, I’d spent every moment of the past twenty years dealing with
myself…amidst the depths, the deepest depths where you lot who live with an
unrestricted view of the world cannot reach. When you handed me over to the
Village in Japan, you cast a lethal binding upon me for insurance. You did that,
thinking you could either limit or restrict me.”

A pity, isn’t it?

“However, I’d already figured out how to dispel that lethal form of magic a long
time ago, somehow. To take a page from your own book, it’s true that there’s no
longer anything capable of binding me anymore. I guess I have you to thank for
that, don’t I, Albareos?”

“!…You darned”

Shiba’s words came out with a mocking laugh, as Albareos, driven by fury,
uttered through gritted teeth,

“I won’t deny that you’ve become so immensely powerful…but do you seriously

believe that you’re capable of taking on the entire Hero Clan on your own?”

As if to mock him with ‘you’re still capable of hiding behind the power of your
clan despite all that?’, Shiba’s voice came out as a light, faint titter,

“Hard to say. You’re not the only ones with an ace up their sleeve, after all.”

“You’re talking about the Four Gods, aren’t you…do you think you can turn the
tables with the four treasures alone?”

“Who knows? But it’s not like I need tel you what that would entail…the answer
will be revealed very soon, after all.”
And as he spoke up to that point, his tone turned cold.

“There was a time where mankind had been chased out of the paradise that was
the heavens —out of committing taboo and incurring the gods’ wrath. And now
it’s your turn; it’s time for the Hero clan to understand just how far gone they
are, Albareos. The day of judgment is nigh.”

Look forward to it. And in response to the ominousness of Shiba’s words,

“What…What in the world are you planning?!”

There were no words in response from Shiba to Albaeros’ question.

The link between them had been completely severed —as Albareos did not know
whether the white crow that he had conjured with magic had been destroyed, or
if the refinement of the Byakko copy that was causing unstable space in the
south had just been completed.

Albareos, the holy king, had just lost all means capable of stopping Shiba just a
short moment ago.

— It only meant one thing.

The Hero Clan had always managed to repel the Demons and protect the world.

But they were no longer capable of stopping one thing — the abomination of an
existence they themselves had created.

Shiba Kyouichi himself.

A young man wanted to protect that which the Hero Clan had been incapable of
protecting.

And then there was the group of girls who admired him.
And after he’d had an understanding of his childhood friend’s current situation
and learned of Shiba Kyouichi’s past, he went out of the hospital and toward the
ceremonial hall destroyed by Shiba with the sacred treasure Byakko in hand,
discovering that the trio of Mio, Yuki and Kurumi was already there waiting for
him.

“Sorry about that—I ended up being late.”

As he said that, the young man—Toujou Basara—noticed Yuki wielding her

spirit blade, Sakuya, and Kurumi with her spirit gauntlet in hand, and felt rather
relieved.

“Thank goodness…it seems that he managed to successfully convince the

elders.”

“Mhm. Things seems to be have transpired smoothly on your end, too.”

With a nod and a noncommittal reply in response to Kurumi, he lightly

brandished the white spear Byakko in hand, inspecting the weapon’s edge with a
serious expression.

“It seems we’re all set and done, then. Let’s get going.”

Toujou Basara made a silent declaration:

“We have to stop him—we have to stop Shiba-san.”

 CHAPTER 1:
WHAT THOSE EYES SEE
 PART 1

It was only fair to cal that practice taboo. The Hero Clan exists to protect the
world from Demons. And in its long history, nobody will deny that Jin Toujou
was the strongest Hero ever. Even before the Great War, his reputation was
already set in stone.

The Vatican had long set their eyes on Jin and his abilities. During Jin’s short
tenure at the Vatican, without telling him, they had taken his DNA from his hair
samples. And using forbidden magic, they cultivated his DNA to mass produce
clones of Jin. The clones’ physical age was 14

years old, the age in which the Vatican got Jin’s DNA samples. A younger clone
also made it a lot easier to produce with a lower rate of failure.

However, even with the use of forbidden magic, creating an perfect identical
clone, and the first batch of ten clones were disposed of, their abilities far from
anything resembling Jin’s. From the second batch onwards, the very nature of
the cloning project changed. Instead of creating a clone of Jin Toujou, the
Vatican decided to create a more powerful being by combining the cells of
mythical beasts, spirits and Guardian Spirits.

Of course, getting involved with such taboo practices will lead to ‘corruption’: a
corruption of such a scale that could bring the end of the Hero Clan. But the
Vatican and its researchers were prepared to fight against the corruption.
They used the failed Jin Toujou clones as a container to seal all the corruption
from the experiments. They made a systematic process out of creating corruption
from making clones, and using said clones to seal away the corruption. The
system was sin itself of the highest degree.

The research continued in order to protect the world from demons and to create
warriors strong enough to fight against them, but such activities that created
corruption will not bode well for the Hero Clan if the gods found out. After all,
the Hero Clan answered to the gods themselves. Luckily for the Hero Clan, they
had a strong allly in the form of a high ranking god, who supported their
research from the shadows without letting the other gods know.

This god was as powerful as one of the Ten Gods, and he had lent his powers to
the Hero Clan to ensure that they didn’t create too much corruption. Under his
watchful gaze, the research was able to flourish. And it was in the 13th batch of
countless clones, that Kyouichi Shiba was born.

Shiba was originally deemed a failure, just like all the other clones, but due to
having the cells of a high ranking demon inside of him, his capacity to store
corruption within his body knew no bounds. Further to that, Shiba had the
unique ability to convert the corruption inside his body into power, giving him
the potential to become as powerful as Jin Toujou.

Shiba was the ray of hope for the Vatican researchers. His success was the
justification that the researchers needed to legitimize all the forbidden practices
they have been doing thus far. And Shiba represented the dreams of the
researchers who wanted to create the strongest ever warrior.

From there on, the project focused on making Shiba stronger and stronger. But
that was the beginning of their path on creating Frankenstein.

One day, out of nowhere, Shiba’s powers amplified to the point that even the
researchers who created him weren’t able to contain him. In their panic, they
requested help from the high ranking god to do something about it, but perhaps
fearing the repercussions if the other gods were to find out, the high ranking god
did not offer his aid and simply disappeared.

They couldn’t just kill Shiba since the corruption within his body, once set free,
would have swallowed up the entire Vatican. So there was only one route
possible for the Vatican to take. That was to hide Shiba’s existence from the
world. And it was there that the Vatican struck a deal with the Village in Japan.

There was a reason why the Village, knowing the risk of what Shiba carried,
took him in. Although the Village was home to the Jin Toujou, its political clout
was close to none, and the Village didn’t have any political influence against the
Vatican or any of the other Hero Clans. Taking in Shiba was the Village’s way of
doing the other communities a favor, and the Village demanded political backing
from the Vatican.

The Vatican too, wanted to create an accomplice out of Japan. Even if Shiba’s
existence was to one day come out to light, Japan, who had knowingly taken him
in, would also go down with them. And so, an agreement between the Vatican
and the Village was made. The Vatican was able to load off their bomb and the
Village in return was able to climb up the political totem pole of the Hero Clans.
Especially after the Great War and Jin Toujou’s accomplishments, the Village
was second only to the Vatican in terms of political might.

While the Hero Clan exists to fight together against the Demons, the reality
consists of a power struggle between the different communities. And this current
tragic situation is just one of the outcomes of the power play.
 PART 2

“And that’s what Kaoru-san told me about Shiba-san’s past.”

Basara, having met up with Maria and Zest, explained to the others as they
pursued Shiba. Their method of transport was in the form of a wind dragon
summoned by Kurumi. While the dragon travelled at fast speeds above the
winter sky, none of its passengers felt the cold. The spirits have summoned
protective barriers to negate the effects of the cold winds, and have also provided
a magical cover for the group as to not be seen by people below.

They were currently headed east, the location the spiritual spear of Byakko was
pointing towards.

“…”

Looking at the grim and silent faces of the others, Basara wasn’t surprised that
the others found Shiba’s story hard to believe. Even Basara himself wasn’t able
to say much when Kaoru first told him the story.

But this was not the time to debate Shiba’s story. They had to catch him as soon
as possible before he brought calamity to the world. Of course Basara could have
simply not told the girls about Shiba. Knowing how kind they were, they would
have probably been unable to fight him, knowing the suffering that he went
through. That hesitation to fight him could cost them their lives on the
battlefield.
But Basara determined that going in blind would be an even greater risk. If
Shiba was to disclose his past in the midst of battle, the girls would not be able
to move at all out of shock. And Shiba was precisely the kind of guy who would
play mind games like that to get the upper hand. Preparing Basara against Shiba
was one of the reasons why Kaoru decided to tel him the truth as well.

Mio, Yuki, Kurumi and Zest all had frowns on their faces. They knew how much
Basara idolized his father. And to learn that Shiba was the clone of Jin just made
it all the more harder to fight, and potentially deliver the killing blow to the man.

“Huh… To think that man was a clone of Jin-san. The Vatican sure screwed up
this time.”

And just like that, Maria broke the awkward silence in the group. Basara could
only chuckle in the brash way she decided to cheer up the others.

“You’re right. We’ll have to give the Vatican a talking to once all of this is over.”

“But for now, let’s think about what we’ll do with Shiba-san.”

The girls all nodded in understanding and any doubt in their eyes were gone.

Kurumi decided to get the ball rolling in their meeting.

“Why do you think Shiba-san is heading East?”

“If he wants to steal the “Four Gods” shouldn’t he be heading West instead?”

“Is there something in the West?”

Basara looked at Zest to answer her question.

“Oh right… We haven’t really told you about the origins of the Four Gods have
we?”
“No, it is my fault for not knowing. I do understand that they are supposed to be
vessels of some sorts.”

“The Four Gods were originally spirits that appeared in Chinese mythology…”

Yuki took it upon herself to explain the Four Gods to Zest.

“Suzaku, Genbu, Seiryuu and Byakko were protectors of the four corners of
heaven.”

“While it was a Chinese thing, it eventually made its way to Japan and was
implemented into Japan as well.”

Mio added. Basara told her the basics of the Four Gods that one time they had to
face Takashi, wielding his Byakko spear. Zest hadn’t been a part of the family
then. And even if she was observing Mio and Basara with Takigawa, she was
more focused on Mio and probably didn’t pay too much attention on Takashi’s
abilities. But Zest was a smart cookie. From the small amount of information
given to her, she was able to analyze the situation right away.

“I see… So for Shiba to fully utilize the powers of the Four Gods he took, he
must head westward to either Kyoto or Nara in Japan, or to China itself.”

“Exactly… but instead, he’s heading East.”

Basara looked at the Byakko spear he was holding in his hand. This spear has
been pointing eastward the entire time since they have left the Village. If Shiba is
heading East, there must be a reason why.

Just when Basara was thinking of the reason, the spear started to glow and
pointed towards the top of Mount Fuji.
“What…?”

“Basara-san, look at that!”

Basara looked at what Maria was pointing towards and he found his ‘answer’. In
the distance he saw a humongous barrier surrounding Tokyo.
 PART 3

The half-sphere barrier’s diameter must have been at least 40 kilometers long.
Basara looked at the barrier and things finally clicked.

“I knew it…”

“What do you mean Basara?”

Mio asked, still confused at the sight before her.

“While it’s not as historical or holy as the Heiankyo or the Heijyokyo in Kyoto,
the city of Tokyo, back in the days of the Edo Period, was built in consideration
to Feng Shui.”

Ieyasu Tokugawa, the Shogun of the Edo Government, designed the city in a
way that the Imperial Palace was in the center of the four corners facing the Four
Gods.

“In order to appease the Four Gods, certain geographical conditions must be met
for a place to house them. You need a mountain in the north, then a river in the
east, roads in the west and a body of water in the south.”

Yuki fol owed.

“In the case of Kyoto, there is Mt. Funaoka in the north, Kamo River in the east,
Sanin Path in the west and Lake Ogura in the south.”
“So you’re saying that Tokyo, I mean Edo, was built in the same way?”

Basara replied to Zest.

“Well it’s just a theory but, they do have Mt. Kanda in the north, Sumida River
in the east, The Koushuu Pathway in the west and Tokyo Bay in the south, with
Edo castle right in the middle of all of it.”

“I see… but if what you say is true, isn’t that barrier too big for just the locations
you mentioned?”

“You’re right.”

Maria did indeed have a point. The barrier was reaching all the way to Chiba
Prefecture’s Ichikawa in the east and down to Kawasaki in Kanagawa Prefecture
in the south. From the size of the barrier, it was definitely different to what
Tokugawa had in mind when designing Edo Castle.

Whatever the case, it was clear that Shiba was inside that barrier.

“Basara-niichan, what should we do?”

It was a surprise to hear Kurumi cal him that in front of the others, but it was the
result of him deepening his bond with the Nonaka sisters.

“Drop us off on the west side of the barrier where you feel a strong spiritual
presence. This barrier is definitely using the power of the Four Gods. If we are to
try to break through the barrier, we’d have to use the power of the real Byakko
while we are in the west.”

“Okay.”
Kurumi ordered the dragon to descend and Basara and the others arrived at the
Kinuta Park in Setagaya Ward. Basara stood in front of the massive barrier and
poised to strike with Byakko when Maria cut in.

“Basara-san, Byakko is our trump card. In case we need it later on, why don’t we
try other ways to break the barrier first?”

“We could use my fists or Mio-sama’s magic to find what this thing is made of.”

“Yea, it would be great to analyze and find weaknesses… but this is Shiba-san
we are talking about. It’s not just the strength of the barrier itself. He’s bound to
have put some traps on it. I’d like to avoid the risk of spending too much time on
this thing and you never what kinda damage his traps can do.”

“All I know is that, whatever traps may be in place, it won’t be enough to

destroy the real Byakko. The Byakko that Shiba-san has now is a imitation by
Celis’ Georgius. If things go well, we might even be able to, we could get it to
summon us from within the barrier.”

“Right now Georgius is only pretending to be Byakko to make up for the loss of
the real Byakko and so, it probably hasn’t synchronized well with the other three
Gods. If we can sync the real Byakko with Georgius, we could trick it to think
that it’s the real thing and we could get it to revert to its original state.”

“And if Georgius returns to its original state, one corner of this barrier will be
nullified and Shiba-san won’t be able to maintain this barrier.”

This surprise attack was going to dent whatever plans Shiba had. Basara gripped
the spear tightly and whispered to it.

“Let’s go Byakko. Let’s get your friends back.”

Suddenly, Byakko began to glow and emit a white light which enveloped Basara
and the others. When the spearhead touched the barrier, the surface of the barrier
suddenly bloated in size and with a bright flash, swallowed Basara and the
others.
 PART 4

The flash of bright light lasted only a few seconds, but Basara and the others felt
something change during that time. It was the feeling of slipping through the
barrier into another dimension.

As the fog cleared, Basara was able to see his surroundings.

“This place is…”

It wasn’t that they were sent to some alternate dimension. The area looked pretty
much like Japan and nothing seemed out of place.

“As expected of Shiba, this isn’t just a normal dimensional barrier.”

As Mio just said, it was true that something was amiss.

Usually when one passes through a dimensional barrier, the scenery inside the
barrier is a continuation of what is outside. Because the barrier merely creates an
identical copy of the world outside it. But Shiba’s barrier was different. Just
before, outside the barrier, Basara and the others were standing in a small park.
Now, they were at the foot of a river.

“Tch… it’s no use.”

Basara tried to find his location using the GPS on his phone to no avail. The
dimension within the barrier was cut off from the outside world. So things that
belong in the outside world, like GPS and internet, didn’t work inside.
“…I’ve seen this place before.”

“Really?”

Basara was surprised that Kurumi knew of this place.

“Yea… it’s in Tokyo. I recall…”

“Everyone, dodge!”

Everyone dodged the moment they heard Basara shout. Just as everyone jumped
out of the way, a loud explosive sound was heard before a large shockwave
blasted the ground they were all standing on just before.

“This wind type attack… Georgius’ Byakko Copy!”

Perhaps it was like the last time Takashi lost control of Byakko. The Byakko
Copy was unstable and identified them as an enemy that must be removed.

Having analyzed the situation, Basara flipped back to the riverbed and looked up
to face Byakko.

“…!?”

Except it wasn’t Byakko that he faced, but Seiryuu.

“Basara, are you okay?”

“I’m fine, what about you guys?”

The girls all nodded and looked towards Seiryuu’s direction.

The blue dragon, while floating in the air above them, made no move or
indication to attack them. Maria furrowed her brows.
“It’s not attacking us.”

“The Four Gods are Guardian Spirits… just like with Takashi the last time, they
won’t attack us unless we provoke or attack them.”

“Then what was that before?”

“Perhaps we encroached its territory or it’s because of this guy”

Basara pointed to the spear in his hands to answer Mio’s question.

“Byakko and Seiryuu are beings on opposite corners. But the Byakko in the
barrier is a fake that Shiba-san created out of Georgius.”

Maybe Seiryuu didn’t acknowledge the fake Byakko because it wasn’t the real
one. So the sudden appearance of a being with the opposite power in its own
territory must have startled it.

“But that Seiryuu… It is far larger in size and powerful compared to Byakko
when your friend lost control. Is there an order of strengths between the Four
Gods?”

Basara replied to Zest’s observation.

“No… there might be a slight difference in power, but it’s minimal. The Four
Gods each protect their own domain so their powers are balanced.”

“Then that Seiryuu’s strength…”

“Must be representative of the strength of the wielder.”

A weapon’s effectiveness is determined by the skill and power of the user. Godly
vessels were no different. And the current wielder of the Four Gods were Shiba,
not Takashi. The difference in power between the two were clearly on display by
the majestic strength and size of Seiryuu.

“While that makes sense, we entered the barrier from the west. How is it that
Seiryuu is here? And why did he even use a wind attack?”

Maria pressed further.

“I was under the impression that wind attacks were Byakko’s forte.”

Mio and Zest also shared a look of confusion. They clearly remembered the way
Takashi fought using wind attacks when wielding Byakko.

“No… It’s actually not so far fetched for Seiryuu to use wind attacks.”

Basara and the Nonaka sisters knew in fact that it was possible for Seiryuu to use
wind based attacks.

“It is true that Byakko used wind based attacks back in the Village. But that was
because the Village made it do so.”

“The Village made it…?”

Yuki replied to Mio’s question.

“Fire, Water, Earth and Wind make up the Four Elements. And in addition, the
gods have granted us the use of the power of Light. These are the powers of the
Hero Clan. The Demons are able to use the Four Elements along with their
demonic Dark element.”

“The Village divided the Four Elements to each of the Four Gods. But the
original Four Gods didn’t use these elements.”

“The Four Gods are also originally Guardian Spirits from China.”
Kurumi continued.

“Over there, they believe in the Five Elements of Earth, Metal, Wood, Fire and
Water. And the Four Gods over there were no exceptions to that belief.”

“In the idea of the Five Elements, the eastern domain that Seiryuu protects falls
under Wood. And the Wind element is part of the element of Wood in the
Chinese Five Elements. So it’s not surprising that Seiryuu can use Wind based
attacks.”

“Since the Four Gods in the Village can only use the Four Elements to serve the
purposes of the Hero Clan, they aren’t able to use their powers under the control
of Shiba-san, who betrayed the Village. So he must have ‘reset’ their status
somehow to the original state.”

Even while explaining it, Basara had to consider the frightening thing that Shiba
had done. The Four Gods are not just weapons. They are Godly Vessels with
their own thoughts. For someone to just change the elemental affinity of the
Godly Vessels would mean that the Gods had accepted and recognized Shiba as
its new master. It has only been a few hours since Shiba left the Village and he
already has control over the Four Gods. There was no telling what he could do if
he were to have more time.

Especially because the Five Elements had something the Four Elements did not
have.

While Basara was thinking of all the potential chaos that Shiba could bring
about, Zest and Maria were having thoughts of their own.

“The Five Elements… It is true that they are different from demonic energy in
the way that they directly channel the energy of the earth. But if Seiryuu is still
the Guardian Spirit of the east in China, was there perhaps a trap that sent us to
the east when we entered the barrier?”

“That would make sense… If Shiba was trying to buy time, sending us to the
east and as far away as possible from Georgius would be quite the plan.”

“Then that means … this is…”

Overhearing Maria and Zest’s conversation made Basara realize the critical error
in his judgment.
 PART 5

“No way… Dammit, he got us!”

Basara spat out in anger.

“What happened Basara…?”

“This is… Edo River.”

“Edo River… doesn’t that mean that this is the east side?”

“This barrier has some sort of protective measure. Like a mirror. So when we
enter from the west, we end up in the east. That’s why we ended up coming face
to face with Seiryuu.”

“No wonder I vaguely recognized this place.”

Kurumi explained her recognition.

“I came here on my mission with Shiba-san and Takashi to scout out a location
to fight Basara and the others. We passed by this river but I didn’t recognize it
since the mirror image flipped the shape and direction of the river as well.”

“But Basara-san, is there a problem if the directions are flipped…?”

Basara answered Maria’s question with a bitter look on his face.

“There is. A catastrophic one.”

“The Four Gods are most likely set in their respective positions within this
barrier. So right now, we’re in the east side of the barrier, but in the outside
world, it’s the west.”

“If for some reason the barrier was to be dispelled, The Four Gods will end up in
their opposite corners. They won’t be guarding their respective corners.”

“I see.”

Zest understood the situation and what Basara was trying to say.

“The Four Gods act as Guardians within the barrier… If the barrier was to break
and we were to be returned to the real world, the Gods will be placed in their
opposing corners, meaning that their very reason of existence will also flip.”

“In other words, they’ll go from ‘protecting’ to ‘destroying’.”

“What…”

Mio could only express her shock. If what Zest was saying was true, the Four
Gods will go berserk in the middle of Tokyo, and will most likely destroy the
city. The casualties of such an outbreak will be immense.

“Kh…”

Even Basara couldn’t hide the dread he was feeling. This revelation also meant
that they couldn’t just destroy the barrier like they originally planned. And now
that the entire city of Tokyo has been effectively taken hostage, even if they were
to corner Shiba down, he could just threaten to dispel the barrier.

Basara knew that Shiba planned every step of this. Tokyo lay on the opposite of
Japan from Kyoto, one of the holiest places in Japan. It was very fitting for him
to flip the Four Gods in the city that stood across from Kyoto. Shiba made the
first step and it was a move that made sure to keep the ball in his court.

Basara and the others were at an overwhelming disadvantage. That was a fact
they couldn’t ignore. But that didn’t mean they could just give up. So Basara had
to give an answer.

“If we’re going to find the four directions, we’ll have to find the center first… I
got a feeling Shiba-san will be in the center of this barrier.”

“I’d like to head there right away but we’ll need to restrain the Four Gods first.”

Last time Basara fought against Takashi’s Byakko, when he cut through Byakko,
he didn’t destroy him, but merely forced him back into the spear. If they could
do something similar and restrain the other Gods, then even if the barrier is
dispelled, they can avoid disaster.

“It’s actually the only thing we can do.”

“I had a spirit look inside the barrier, but it seems like this isn’t just about
flipping over directions.”

“What do you mean?”

Kurumi answered Yuki’s question.

“This barrier isn’t made with the Five Element design. There seems to be
“Earth” in the middle and north, east, south and west fanning around it. And
since those directions are closed off, only the middle barrier is open.”

“Huh, but doesn’t that mean we can go right into the center without fighting the
Four Gods?”
Kurumi butted into Maria’s question.

“As I said, it isn’t so simple.”

“According to the spirit, the space between the center and the barrier is
disjointed… and is connected to the west side of the “Metal” element. After that
is the Fire and Water element, and the center is right at the very end.”

Basara, having heard the layout of the room, quickly grasped Shiba’s plan. He
realized the certain “flow” given out with all those elements laid down in that
particular order.

“I see…”

“Did you notice something Basara-san?”

Just as Maria asked her question, Yuki stepped in front of Basara, Sakuya in
hand, and looked up towards Seiryuu.

“I’ll take on Seiryuu. Basara, you take the others and go ahead.”

“Huh!? What are you saying? You can’t fight that monster on your own!”

Mio was shocked at Yuki’s sudden declaration.

It was no surprise that Mio was worried for her friend. The Byakko that they
faced in the past when Takashi lost control, was nothing compared to the Seiryuu
in front of them.

Still, Yuki shook her head.

“This is for the best… If we were all held back here, we will only play into
Shiba-san’s plan.”
“Basara and Kurumi have already realized this but if the elements of the Four
Gods were changed to the Five Elements, then their weaknesses and
compatibility will also change.”

The Four Elements fol ow “Platon’s Ring of Conversion” where Fire turns to
Wind through condensation, Wind liquifies into Water, Water hardens into Earth
and Earth sublimates into Fire.

And similar to the Four Elements’ “Platon’s Ring of Conversion”, the Five
Elements have their “Weakness” and “Compatibility”. Trees burn into Fire, the
ashes from the Fire turns into Earth, and from the Earth comes Metals, and
Water condenses on the Metals, which nurture Trees and the cycle continues.

In opposition, the Trees receive nutrients from the Earth and the Earth absorbs
Water to stop the flow. Water extinguishes Fire, and Fire melts Metal. The
melted and shaped Metal are used to cut down Trees, and thus continues the
cycle of “Weakness”.

This “Compatibility” and “Weakness” in the Five Elements represents the “Yin”
and “Yang” The Light and Dark.

Unlike “Platon’s Ring of Conversion”, which equally converts the elements,

“Compatibility” and “Weakness” in the Five Elements strengthens and weakens
the elements.

“Shiba-san is aiming for either “Compatibility” or “Weakness” or both.”

Zest creased her brow to Yuki’s statement.

“Wouldn’t he be aiming for “Weakness”? From what Kurumi-san said, the order
of the rooms are Earth then Tree in the flow of “Weakness”. Perhaps he will use
that to attack us.
“That’s true if you just look at the space.” Basara cut in.

“But Shiba-san went out of his way to take the Four Gods. If he wants to
maximize and keep that power to himself, he will make sure to increase the
power through “Compatibility”. As proof of that, Seiryuu here in Edo River.
He’s considering the effects of Water and how it is compatible with Trees.”

“Even if the distortions affect the walls in each room, they are all connected.
“Weakness” will be used to fight intruders like us while the “compatibility”
strengthens Shiba-san. And he is most likely planning to use his new power
against the Vatican or the Village… or against the whole Hero Clan.”

“Compatibility” strengthens over time, so the longer they took, Shiba gets
stronger. He was ridiculously strong as it was. If he was to become stronger,
there would be no stopping him.

“So we have to get to Shiba-san as quickly as possible… Seiryuu’s affinity is

Wood, so the opposing element would be Metal, and thus, my Sakuya should do
the job.”

Sakuya clutched in hand, Yuki’s voice was calm and composed. And that was all
Basara had to see to make his decision.

“Okay…we’ll leave it to you Yuki.”

They will trust Nonaka Yuki and leave this place to her.

“Big sis…”

Yuki smiled at Kurumi’s concerned look.

“It’s okay… I’ll be right with you once I finish up over here.”
Gripping Sakuya, Yuki charged at Seiryuu. Kicking up from the ground, she
reached top speed and was moving as fast as the wind for half crescent swing…

But just as her attack came close to landing, a barrier of wind blew her attack
away. The wind blades deflected from the barrier landed into the Edo River,
causing an explosion of sounds and water vapors.

“Go, NOW!”
Basara and the others took Yuki’s cue and sprinted ahead. They didn’t use
Kurumi or Mio’s magic to grant them flight, in order to avoid detection from
Seiryuu. If Seiryuu was to find them, it would waste Yuki’s efforts to distract it
to let Basara and the others go ahead.

“Kurumi, the barrier is organized in the way of the Five Elements and some
areas are closed off right?”

“Yea. The only one open is the one in the center where Shiba-san is. But as I
said, the space is distorted, so we won’t be able to make it to the center so
easily.”

“Right… The next room is connected on the west side, right?”

Maria and Zest chimed in.

“Then the next one waiting for us would be Byakko.”

“What is Byakko’s element under the Five Elements?”

“It’s Metal. So its weakness will be Fire.”

“Then it seems like it’s going to be my turn next.”

Mio looked ahead with determination in her eyes.

 PART 6

As the group ran through the abandoned Route 14 in the dark, a memory from
the past suddenly resurfaced in Mio’s mind. Back when they first fought Byakko
and Takashi, all she could do was buy some time.

And while Maria and her did go through with their task, it was Basara who
eventually cornered Takashi and defeated Byakko. And it was also Yuki who
created the opportunity for Basara to defeat Byakko.

All Mio could do was watch.

But Mio knew that she was a different person now. With the city of Tokyo held
hostage and Shiba using “compatibility” to abuse the power of the Four Gods,
Mio was now determined to fight with Basara against Shiba.

She knew that Yuki felt the same. So when she saw Yuki offer herself to fight
Seiryuu all alone in order to help Basara defeat Shiba, Mio knew that she had to
do the same when the time came.

When they head west, Byakko, with its “metal” affinity will be waiting for them,
and that will be Mio’s turn to fight against it with her “fire” affinity.

“Kurumi, how long until we reach the barrier that leads to the western side?”

“We’re nearly there. It’s just after we cross the Sumida River.”
Just as Kurumi replied, the group saw the outline of the Sumida River and the
bridge.

“While it’s good to know that the barrier is distorted, where exactly in the
western side does it lead to?”

Basara answered Maria’s question.

“Most likely back to the park we were at…”

“Basara-san how do you know?”

“You need “earth” to create “metal”. The park is full of it and also has an entire
baseball field as well. It’ll be the perfect place for Byakko to reside in. But if it’s
just “earth” then there are other potential places too though.”

“For the Five Elements, their powers are dependent on how much they are
exposed to their affinity. But the power of the Four Gods are based on the
direction that they are facing. So to maximize their strengths, it’s paramount that
you place them in the right order.”

“If Shiba-san is looking to obtain the power of the Four Gods, he’ll have to place
them in the proper order. In Tokyo, Edo Castle is considered to be the center of
Tokyo. With the Four Gods, Seiryuu should have placed been placed near the
Sumida River but this time it’s set in Edo River. This is probably to increase its
power based on the Five Elements. The Edo River is connected to Tone River,
which has the biggest basin area in Japan, so the amount of water that flows
through it is a lot more powerful than the Sumida River.”

“It’s the same with having ‘metal’ in the west with the high quantities of ‘Earth’
and the large roads that lead to the west…”

“Goes right to the park?”

“Exactly. South of the park lies the Tomei Highway and the 3rd Capital Highway
is to the north and still connects to the center.”

Mio showed her understanding and Basara went on to explain more.

“But this is just a possibility. Nothing’s set in stone so if we do get to the other
side and find out that we’re somewhere different, we’ll have to deal with it
then.”

“Alright, let’s do this!”

As they approached the bridge, once again, they were surrounded by a flashing
white light.
 PART 7

The moment the light left and they landed on the western side, they saw the
park.

Basara knew his prediction was correct when they found themselves on the
baseball field of the park. And they were able to find the Georgius “Byakko
Copy” right away.

Right at the pitcher’s mound, a similar looking spear to the one Basara was
carrying, was stabbed into the ground.

“… Something’s not right.”

The Byakko Copy was right in front of them with its own barrier. There was no
way that it hadn’t felt Basara and the others’ presence. But unlike Seiryuu from
before, this Byakko made no attempt whatsoever to attack them.

“Basara, what should we do?”

Mio asked in a cautious whisper. She hadn’t let her guard down just in case
Byakko made a sudden move.

“…”

Basara didn’t have an answer right away and kept his silence. Originally, he was
planning to use the real Byakko against the copy to dispel the barrier, but they
can’t do that anymore as the Four Gods will go berserk into the middle of Tokyo.
If they were to reverse the Byakko Copy to its Georgius form, things will be
fine, but the other 3 areas with the other gods will still face catastrophic damage.

And with Yuki still in the east fighting Seiryuu, it will probably be for the best to
have Georgius maintain its Byakko form. In its copy form, it won’t be able to go
berserk. Further to that, by bringing the real Byakko to the center, it will
potentially screw up the balance that Shiba is trying to create to increase his
power.

“Let’s leave things as is and get going.”

Having said that, they kept their distance from the Byakko Copy and started to
move.

“I’m afraid I can’t let you do that.”

The voice cut through the silence like a knife. Basara and the others instantly
turned around to face the voice coming from the pitcher’s mound. Right there,
stood the once second-in-command of Leohart’s army. The man who cooperated
with Shiba to steal the Four Gods: Balflear.

“!!!”

Basara and the others took their positions in a heartbeat: the close range fighters
Maria and Basara at the front, and Mio, Kurumi and Zest, with their magic,
fanning out behind them.

“Balflear was it? Did you come here to stop us?”

“I didn’t come here… It was you who appeared before me.”

“As you are aware, the Byakko over here is but a replica. Since it needs some
adjustments, I was tasked to oversee the task. After all, we can’t have Kyouichi
leave his current spot.”

“I see… Shiba-san’s aim is to trigger the Five Elements by using the Four
Gods.”

“Oh, you were aware of our plans. In that case, please do the smart thing and
leave behind the real Byakko here.”

“Seems like you’re quite full of yourself…”

Maria quipped in.

“You think you can just win on your own?”

It was no secret that Balflear was strong. But he was up against 5 people and
while they may not have fought against each other, Takigawa had told them of
Balflear’s powers before they left the village. Of course there was a chance that
Balflear had other abilities up his sleeve, but they had the master-servant
contract and they have become stronger since they last fought in the Demon
World. They had the advantage of numbers so as long as they didn’t fight him
alone, it shouldn’t have been a problem.

“Don’t get me wrong. I never said that I would face you all alone and win.”

“But I should be able to at least get that spear from you.”

And with that, Balflear pulled out the Byakko Copy from the mound.
 PART 8

“Wha…!?”

The moment Balflear pulled out the spear, there was a distortion in the air and
from behind them, Basara heard the sound of something being peeled off. It was
the eastern barrier they just came from, and from within the western side, Basara
saw the Edo River. So he was right in guessing that this barrier was made to
mess with the directions. But more pressing was the fact that Balflear laid the
first trap!

The Five Element Barriers that Shiba and Balflear created using the Four Gods
was something like their lifeline. So there was a chance that they would dispel
the barriers to cause the Four Gods to go berserk. But that was something Basara
thought they would do after cornering Shiba: an ace up their sleeve. What they
weren’t expecting was for them to dispel the barrier so quick, and Balflear of all
people to do so.

“As you can see, I’ve dispelled the barrier. It’ll only be another 20 or 30 seconds
until the entire barrier is gone.”

What he meant was that there was only 20 or 30 seconds left before the
destruction of Tokyo began. Balflear snapped his fingers and the Byakko Copy
disappeared.

“Now, there’s only one way for you to stop this.”

“Basara!”

Basara heard Mio’s cry of desperation and could only shout in rage.

“Damn it!”

There was no time to waste. Basara, with a burst of speed, appeared right in front
of Balflear, swinging the Byakko spear with all his might.

Only for Balflear to disappear and his swing just slicing through air.

But Basara had already read that, and made his way to the pitcher’s mound to
stab his spear into the ground. That was the only way. The only way to prevent
the destruction of Tokyo.

“Kh…!”

The moment he stabbed the spear into the ground, Basara leaped backwards. For
Shiba, as powerful as he was, had forcefully converted the very being of Byakko
from its “Wind” entity as a Four God, to the “Metal” entity of the Five Elements.
And thus, Byakko was forcefully awakened to protect the Western barrier. Gone
was the Byakko that aided them just moments before. This was the same Byakko
that went berserk under Takashi’s watch. Only stronger, and completely under
Shiba’s control.

Countless iron spears shot forth from Byakko. The only way to evade those
spikes of certain death was for Basara to summon Brynhildr and unleash an
incomplete Banishing Shift. But before he could use his signature move, there
was something else that protected Basara from the spears. What protected Basara
was the wall of fire that shot up from the ground. The heat from the wall was so
immense that it instantly melted all the spears that Byakko shot out.

“Leave it to me Basara… real or not, I’ll be the one to take on this tiger.”
Mio stepped forward coolly. Indeed, Byakko’s affinity of Metal would make Mio
the perfect one to fight against it with her fire.

“Alright… But you take care okay?”

And with that, Basara left Mio to take on Byakko and started to make his way
forward until he heard a crackle in the wind.

“Oh? Did you think I’d just let you go?”

 PART 9

Balflear disappeared the moment Basara swung Byakko’s spear. But he didn’t do
so to escape from the field of battle. He simply used his powers to remove his
physical body. While he is a High Mage, he was different to High Wizards like
Mio, who converted the magical power within their body to use elemental
magic. Instead, Balflear practiced something similar to “contract magic” which,
like Yuki’s Sakuya, all owed him to use the powers of those he had signed
contracts with.

His ability to disappear came from the high class demon the “Wraith”. Using his
abilities to erase his presence was useful for all the covert operations he did
under Leohart, and for him to slink away in the midst of the fight between the
Moderates faction and the Current Demon Lord faction. His ability to disappear
was so polished, that even Chaos himself was unable to sense him.

But such a power did have its weakness. He wasn’t able to attack while he had
his presence erased. So he remained in the air, looking down at Basara and the
others, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike, when he realized something.

Basara, Zest and Kurumi had left Mio behind and was making a beeline to the
next area… There was one missing. At that moment, he felt a presence behind
him.

“Your opponent will me be.”

Just as he heard that, he heard a powerful sound unleashed. It was a powerful
roundhouse kick from the succubus, Maria.

“I had thought of as much.”

Maria’s kick never hit Balflear’s back as it collided with the defensive wall he
erected. Maria gritted her teeth and landed back on to the ground.

“Oh? Don’t act so surprised. You can’t possibly think that we didn’t prepare for
a situation where you launched your attack. We were aware that you were
preparing against the Five Elements.”

Balflear himself predicted how Basara and the others would act. So he knew that
if it came down to it, Maria would be the one who will fight him.

There are 6 members in Basara’s party and 6 “members” on their side if you
included the Four Gods with Shiba and Balflear himself. Balflear knew that
Basara will arrange the fighters in a way that their elemental affinities will best
oppose the Four Gods, so the natural conclusion was for those who don’t have a
specific elemental affinity to come after himself and Shiba.

“And so, with Shibadono’s destined opponent being Toujou Basara, I came to
the conclusion that you will be my opponent.”

“I see… It seems like you had us read like an open book.”

But it wasn’t anger or caution that Balflear saw adorn Maria’s face. No… it was
a smile.
 PART 10

Maria smiled. It was reassuring to know that Balflear knew what they were
planning. Because this meant that they could successfully separate Balflear and
Shiba. After all, splitting them up to avoid fighting them at the same time, was
one of the most important things for them to do.

As Balflear said, if they removed the 4 who will fight the Four Gods, the only
ones left over are Maria and Basara. Since the both of them were close range
fighters, there was no problem with them working together. But it was a different
story to fight against both Shiba and Balflear. If they were to consider the
abilities of Balflear and Shiba, Maria and Basara would be at an absolute
disadvantage.

And according to Takigawa, Balflear’s ability was to hide himself, not just for
sneaking around in covert missions, but he can do so in the midst of battle as
well. He’s shown these skills when he hid from the Heroes right in the heart of
their village, and when he helped Shiba make his escape with the Four Gods.

It wasn’t just his ability to hide himself. After all, this was the man who took out
Takashi in a single hit. If he were to use that power while he remained invisible,
the amount of damage he can inflict while remaining unseen will be devastating.
That’s why it was lucky for Basara and the others that Balflear was here to make
adjustments on the Byakko Copy.

Balflear was most likely here, not just to oversee the adjustment of Byakko in
the Five Elements, but to also balance its power with the other Four Gods.
Byakko was currently fighting Mio on the other side, and judging by the sounds
of the explosions, it was an intense battle. But there was another reason to keep
Balflear away from Shiba. Shiba wasn’t the only one with a one-hit-kill move.
Basara had his own move as well.

“What a shame… I’m sure you wanted to keep Basara at bay here for as long as
possible.”

“We knew that you would most likely read through our plans. But the moment
you knew that it was me who would stay behind, all your attention was focused
on me.”

“I see… that was your plan.”

“Exactly… it was my aim all along to keep you distracted.”

And while her surprise attack on him failed, Maria had succeeded in getting
Basara and the others away while engaged with Balflear.

“That’s impressive… I thought you were just a mere simpleton, but it seems like
you do indeed have a head on your shoulders.”

“!?”

The moment he made his little joke of a comment, Maria felt a chill up her spine
and saw multiple grey-coloured magic circles on the ground. Not just magic
circles…but summoning circles. And from those circles rose some strange
magical creatures.

“Those things…”

The creatures were nothing like what Maria has seen before. Their bodies were
sludge-like with a single big eye on their heads. And compared to how
frightening they looked, Maria couldn’t sense a strong power from their
presence. But the problem wasn’t about their power but their sheer numbers.
Balflear didn’t summon a handful of creatures. There were at least few hundred
of them.

“To summon so many magical creatures within the barriers of the Five
Elements…”

“Oh that’s simple really. They aren’t magical ‘creatures’. They are “Legion”,
devils that have signed a contract with me.”

“Devils…no way.”

Maria knew about devils. It wasn’t so long ago that Chaos was summoned in the
midst of the battle between the Moderate Faction and the Current Demon Lord
Faction.

“As beings of a Higher World, Devils can be summoned here unconditionally.

And while Chaos needed a lot of sacrifices to summon, as I have a perfect
contract with Legion, I can summon as many of them as I want without any
restrictions.”

“You were so confident before but… do you still believe that you can defeat me
on your own?”

“…”

Maria had to bite her tongue. When Basara and Mio fought Chaos, they needed
the help of Leohart and Ramusas as well, and even then, they weren’t able to
defeat him fully but, simply banish him into another dimension.

That’s how powerful Devils are.

But Basara is heading towards Shiba now. To protect something he must protect
at all costs. And Maria knew that she was a part of that something Basara wanted
to protect. It has always been Basara protecting Maria and the others. So that is
why this time, she will be the one to protect him. Yuki and Mio are already
fighting the Four Gods and Kurumi and Zest will be fighting them soon as well.
So she will have to fight as well.

“I’m not arrogant to say that I’ll definitely win…”

“But this is one fight I cannot lose.”

And Maria charged right into the army of Legion.

 PART 11

Basara and the others raced down the 3rd Capital Highway as fast as they could.
This highway directly connected the Sansendo path to the city center and thus,
was funneling power into Byakko. So this was most likely an area that Shiba
wanted to protect at all costs.

“…”

Basara continued to run down the highway in silence. With a grim expression on
his face, he could hear the sounds of combat from behind him slowly fade away.

“It’s okay Basara-niichan.”

“Mio, Maria and… my sister.”

“Yea…”

Basara nodded in understanding as to what Kurumi was trying to say.

“Basara-sama, is it not possible for us to destroy this road on our own?”

“If this road is funneling power from the Sansendo pathway to Byakko,
destroying this road would all ow us to support Mio, who is fighting Byakko.”

“Yea that is a possibility.”

It wasn’t just Mio fighting back there. If they were to weaken Byakko, then Mio
could provide backup to Maria after subduing Byakko.
“But I feel like we shouldn’t do so. A Guardian’s main mission is to protect its
area. If we started destroying this bridge, Byakko might decide to race over and
target us instead of continuing its fight against Mio. And that would waste Mio’s
efforts in keeping Byakko away from us.”

“The Four Gods themselves are irreplaceable. But the city of Tokyo is
replaceable for Shiba-san. Even if we were to destroy this bridge, he could
always find another location to use the power of the Five Elements again. If we
were to destroy this highway, Tokyo would lose its value for Shiba-san and
nothing will stop him from just simply dispelling the barrier and destroying the
entire city by letting the Four Gods go berserk.”

“That’s why we have to defeat Shiba-san while keeping the barrier up.”

Satisfied with Basara’s answer, Zest nodded in understanding.

“I see… In that case we must make haste.”

Just as Zest spoke, they started to see the connection between the 3rd Capitol
Highway and the Kanjo Highway, and the barrier that separated the two as well.
The southern area they were currently headed towards had the affinity of “Fire”,
which meant that the Four God awaiting them was Suzaku.

“Basara-niichan, where do you think we will end up next?”

“Hmm, so far the geographical location have all aided in powering up the Four
Gods. Seiryuu with its “Tree” affinity had a river nearby, and Byakko with its
“Metal” affinity had a lot of earth nearby at the park.”

“But Suzaku needs swamplands, and based on the center of Shiba-san’s position,
I’m guessing that “swamp” will be Tokyo Bay.”

“However, Suzaku’s affinity is “Fire”, so being placed near a body of water like
Tokyo Bay should actually weaken it.”

“The same could be said for Genbu in the North. His affinity is “Water”… but
the northern areas are full of mountains, which will hinder his powers.”

“Exactly. But that’s exactly why we can’t let our guard down. Shiba-san most
definitely knew all of this, yet went ahead to position the Four Gods in their
respective places.”

“You’re saying that there’s some sort of mechanism in place to help them?”

“Precisely… Kurumi, can you get us up?”

Nodding in understanding, Kurumi chanted her flight magic to get Basara, Zest
and herself above ground. This was to prepare themselves in case the other side
of the barrier was indeed above Tokyo Bay. But she didn’t get them to float too
high in the sky, in order to avoid an aerial battle with Suzaku right off the bat.

“I’ll also cast a wind barrier around us just in case.”

Just as she did so, the flashing white light blinded their vision once again.

As the flash blinded him, Basara smelled sea salt in the air, and knew that they
had transported from their position before. But when they opened their eyes,
they were not above Tokyo Bay. They were on top of land. Worst of all, they saw
many trees in the area, trees that were compatible to Suzaku’s fire affinity.

Kurumi dismissed her flight magic and the others landed onto the ground.

“Rinkai Park huh…”

While Rinkai Park had trees that were compatible with Suzaku, it did not change
that fact that it was right by the coast, which meant that the water in the sea will
be detrimental to Suzaku’s fire affinity.

“Basara-sama…”

“Yea, I see it…”

Basara looked towards the location Zest was facing and saw a source of bright
light. A great bird surrounded in fire: Suzaku. Shiba had indeed overcome the
affinity problem for Suzaku to summon it here, but how…

“I see… that’s how he did it.”

Kurumi sighed and nodded in realization.

“The spirits have told me that this place is called Chidori Park.”

That was the name of the man-made island towards the south of Tokyo Bay.

“I see… so “Chidori”, meaning thousand birds, can empower Suzaku with its
name alone, regardless of the geographical affinity it presents?”

Basara answered to Zest’s observation.

“That’s not all. There is another thing here that will aid Suzaku.”

And he pointed to a large facility.

“That’s the Kawasaki Power Plant.”

Shiba was able to use the power plant, that sat on the coast of Tokyo Bay, to
strengthen Suzaku with its properties of fire to the point that it could counter the
detrimental effects of the water in Tokyo Bay.
Meanwhile, Suzaku flapped its wings and flew above them with no indication to
attack. Perhaps it was just observing them for now. If they were to start a fight
here right now, they might damage the power plant. Shiba most likely ordered
Suzaku not to fight near the power plant, as it was responsible for Suzaku’s
powers in the area.

But that actually did not help Basara’s situation. Just like with the highway from
before, if they were to destroy the power plant and weaken Suzaku, Shiba could
just dispel the barrier and wreck havoc in Tokyo. But they won’t be able to
defeat Suzaku without doing so.

“Basara-niichan, Zest… please go ahead.”

Kurumi stepped forward to face Suzaku.

“Kurumi-san…”

Kurumi turned around to face the concerned Zest and Basara and gave them a
big smile.

“It’s true that Suzaku has manifested to quite the impressive thing. But it doesn’t
change the fact that we’re right by Tokyo Bay. So I have the geographical
advantage. At least, my situation is a lot better than that of Mio and Big sis’.”

“So go ahead you two. If you’re here I can’t focus on my fight against it.”

Basara smiled and responded.

“Okay… Don’t go overboard though.”

“Yea… Leave it to me.”

And with that Basara and Zest raced off, their footsteps echoing further and
further away. Kurumi chanted a magical spell. It was her flight magic. She
floated up until she was at eye level to Suzaku.

“Since you’re a spiritual creature, you must understand what I’m saying right?”

“Let’s fight it out up here. I think it works against both of us if things below
were to get destroyed.”

“We’ll go all out up here.”

 PART 12

Leaving Kurumi to fight Suzaku, Basara and Zest headed north, where they were
teleported to the northern area where the water affinity Genbu awaited them.

“This is…”

What lay in front of them was a huge structure surrounded by big walls.

“This must be somewhere in the northern district.”

The Four Gods needed to be placed accurately in order to fully utilize their
powers. They needed to meet the requirements of “Mountain”, “River”, “Road”
and “Swamp” while at the same time meeting the elemental requirements of the
Five Elements. But Shiba was able to solve all these by finding specific things to
offset the negative and positive energy. With Suzaku, Shiba placed it near Tokyo
Bay, which would have weakened Suzaku if it were not for the Kawasaki power
plant that cancelled out the weakening effects of the water. Genbu had to be
placed near the mountains, but its affinity of water is usually cancelled out by the
“earth” affinity surrounding the mountains, unless there was some sort of
mechanism here that would overcome that as well.

“I guess they were able to use the name of the location “Northward” to manifest
Genbu here by linking the name of the location to it.”

Basara replied to Zest’s observation.

“But that can’t be all. Even if that was the case, Shiba would still place Genbu in
a place that will maximize its power.”

“If the goal is to maximize Genbu’s power, then would the furthermost north
work?”

“Perhaps…”

Just as he answered Zest’s question, Basara and Zest braced themselves and
turned around. The reason for their sudden reaction suddenly started to waver
and move. The structure that is.

In fact, it wasn’t a structure at all.

“Gen…bu…”

“Basara-sama, look at that.”

Basara looked towards where Zest was pointing. Right there on the fence that
surrounded Genbu was a sign of the facility: JGSDF Camp Jyujyou.

“I see…”

The Japanese Ground Self Defense Force’s goal was to protect the country, an
objective similar to the Four Gods. And because Camp Jyujyou was located on
high ground, it also acted as a “mountain” to meet the requirements to
summoning Genbu. Basara had to give Shiba credit. He was analyzing and
reading into things a lot deeper than he would have ever done and at a level he
still won’t be able to completely imitate.

And Shiba has succeeded in setting the Four Gods in the style of the Five
Elements. Shiba had the upper hand in placing all the Gods in their places and
arranging the field the way he wanted to. That shouldn’t discourage them
however. They each still had their respective jobs to do after all.

“Basara-sama, as planned, leave this place to me.”

But this time Basara didn’t reply and just maintained his silence.

“…Basara-sama?”

“This is Genbu we are dealing with… perhaps it’s better for me to fight it with
you.”

“Are you saying that unlike the others, I won’t be able to face a God on my
own?”

“No, it’s not that I don’t believe in your strength Zest. It’s just that even within
the Four Gods, Genbu is special.”

“Genbu is a mixed entity between a snake and a tortoise, so it’s the combination
of two spiritual creatures, which makes it the strongest of the Four.”

“And since these barriers are made using the powers of the Four Gods, Demons
like yourself will find it hard to unleash your full strength. If only we could
defeat either the snake or the tortoise first.”

“I see… you were worried about me. But there is no need. A maid’s duty is to
serve her master and fulfill his wishes.”

“Basara-sama, I am your maid. I will never fail you. As long as you trust in me, I
will fulfill any order that you may have. If everything you have been saying is
true so far, then that man Shiba is the most dangerous. If you were to help me
here, everything we have all done so far will go to waste.”
Basara understood why Zest was so worried for him. The late Tokugawa Ieyasu
incorporated the Four Gods when he created Edo. And that all owed him to
create a dynasty which lasted over 250 years, and continues to live on today as
the city of Tokyo.

But Shiba is doing far more than just having the Four Gods. He is also
incorporating the Five Elements as well. Shiba was already ridiculously strong.
For him to also be in full control of the Four Gods will simply be unimaginable.
Perhaps he will be as strong as the gods themselves who reside in the heavens.

“Don’t worry Basara-sama. I believe in you, just like Mio-sama, Maria, Kurumi-
san and Yuki-san does.”

“Only you can defeat that man, Shiba Kyouichi, and put an end to his plans.”

“Zest…”

“So Basara-sama, please trust in me as well.”

“Alright then Zest… As your master, I order you to defeat Genbu. You must
win!”

Zest gave a bright smile then crouched and placed her right hand onto the
ground. The next moment, she summoned a gigantic Golem similar in size to
Genbu.

If you were to count the snake and tortoise as two entities, then Zest and her
Golem should even out the battlefield.

“Basara-sama, good luck to you too.”

Then facing Genbu, Zest declared

“I have received orders from my beloved master to defeat you. Prepare
yourselves!”

And with that, her Golem charged into battle towards Genbu.

Basara continued on ahead without turning back. He had faith in Zest and the
others. Now it was his turn to step up to the ring.
 PART 13

Basara sprinted down south like the wind until, once again, the blinding white
lights surrounded his vision.

“…”

As the blinding lights faded away, Basara found himself facing a huge tower of
light. The symbol of Tokyo: Tokyo Tower.

“So this is it…”

There were many buildings that could act as the ‘center of Tokyo’ for Shiba’s
design like the Government Building and the Imperial Palace. But the Imperial
Palace was something Tokugawa Ieyasu built as the center of Japan, and wasn’t
necessarily the central structure of Tokyo. Tokyo station was another option, but
the station was more a doorway of Tokyo than the center of it. Plus, the nonstop
flow of people would have made it hard to concentrate the power of the Five
Elements.

But the Tokyo Tower was different. It was right in the middle of the city and was
a popular spot for a lot of people to visit. It being a communications tower also
meant that it is able to attract waves in the same way the Five Elements works to
draw in power. The Tokyo Skytree was also a communications tower, but it was
too far out in the east and relatively new so the people of Tokyo still didn’t really
think of it as representative of Tokyo.
“I see you’ve made it.”

Basara heard a soft chuckle. There stood a young man right under the middle of
the tower.

“Shiba-san…”

“I heard about your past.”

Basara looked towards Shiba for a reaction. If he grew up and went through the
same things Shiba did, maybe it would have been him standing where Shiba is
standing now.

“But even then, I will do everything I can to stop you Shiba-san.”

Just like how Shiba was dead set on his mission, Basara was determined to
protect his loved ones as well.

“Hmmm, from the way you talk, it seems like you heard quite a bit about me.”

“But I highly doubt those old geezers would tel you the truth. So I’m guessing
either Shuuya-san or Kaoru-san?”

Shiba gave off a light chuckle.

“It’s really horrible isn’t it? That they would do that.”

“I know that what the Vatican did to you is unforgivable, but do you really need
to go this far to…”

“Huh? What are you talking about Basara? When I said “horrible” I didn’t mean
about the experiments they did to me.”

“I’m talking about Shuuya-san and Kaoru-san telling you about my secret.”
“They felt it was necessary for us to know to prepare ourselves in case you
suddenly told us in the midst of battle…”

“Oh yea, I don’t deny that. But you see, they’ve been keeping mum about my
secret all this time to the person they should have told first and foremost.”

“They haven’t told Jin-san.”

“That’s…”

Basara had to bite back his retort. The truth about Shiba that Kaoru told them.
That he was a clone of Jin’s, and that’s why they weren’t able to tel him.

If Jin was to find out that a clone of his was being experimented upon, and that
same clone was being used as a political pawn then Jin really would have never
forgiven the Vatican or the Village. Worse, Jin could have even fought against
the Hero Clan as an enemy.

Only a handful of individuals knew about the relationship between Jin and
Wilbert and about Basara’s birth. Even the truce between the Hero Clan and the
Demons were based on Jin’s involvement. If Jin was to turn against the Hero
Clan, there really would have been nothing holding back the Demons from
attacking and wiping out the Hero Clan.

Considering the risk of Jin turning, the elders must have told Shuuya about
Shiba’s secret. While torn as he was, Shuuya didn’t want the war to continue any
longer, because if it did, it would be his children’s generation would have to
continue the fight. While it was a bitter pill to swallow, Shuuya must have kept
that secret with him in order to end the war.

While Basara understood the reasoning behind the Nonakas not telling Jin, there
was one thing that felt a bit off.
Could that Jin really not have realized the truth just because Shuuya and Kaoru
didn’t tel him?

“I think my father knows about you Shiba-san…”

“Oh yes. Jin-san does know. After all, it was I who told him all about it.”

“You did so yourself?”

Basara had to tread carefully right here. If Shiba-san was trying to play mind
games with him, this would be an effective way.

“Did my father believe your story?”

“Of course he did. He’s not just strong. Brute strength alone won’t let you get to
the top like that after all.”

“Even before I told him I guess he already knew. That’s why even after I told
him, all he said was ‘I understand’. But guess what he said to me after that?”

“He said ‘So what do you intend to do?.’ I thought it was amazing. I mean, this
man just found out that the Vatican was making clones of him in secret, but he
was already thinking of his next steps based on my answer.”

“And I was delighted really. Of course I used to curse myself from being born
out of an experiment, but if I was based off a powerful person as Jin-san then I
was quite flattered really. I mean, this was a guy who was so powerful that the
Vatican was willing to taint their hands with the most inhumane experiments just
to recreate his power.”

While Basara was listening to what Shiba was saying, there were still some parts
he didn’t understand.
Shiba’s hate towards the Vatican and the Village were justified and logical. And
in extension, he should also feel anger towards all the experiments and cloning
they were doing. Yet…

“Then why did my father…”

“Oh, you mean why didn’t your father do anything?”

“That’s simple. He was able to discern why his best pal Shuuya-san didn’t tel
him the truth.”

“And that’s how much you, Basara, meant to him.”

“Me…?”

“Hmmm… you know, you seem to really love and respect Jin-san but you sure
don’t know how much he loves you huh…”

“Just think about it. If Jin-san was to have acted out of anger and decided to get
revenge on the Vatican, the Vatican would have simply came after you. And
since you were just an infant, it wasn’t like he could just take you with him. And
even if he was to have left you behind at the Village, the elders would have just
used you as a hostage. If he was to have fought against either the Village or the
Vatican, they would have come after you and Jin-san with all their might.”

“And if he did successfully attack the Village or the Vatican, the warhawks of the
Demon World would have taken the opportunity to attack the Human World. No
matter how strong Jin-san was, he wouldn’t have been able to fight all of them.”

“When you hold something so dear… it’s really difficult to protect it.”

Dad…
Basara realized just then about how exactly his father has always been watching
over him.

“That’s why 5 years ago… oh it’s almost 6 years now… Right after the horrible
incident, Jin-san was able to leave the Village without any second thoughts or
regrets. Because he had something he had to protect. Something that was far
more valuable than the Village or the Hero Clan.”

“You must know that feeling now… That feeling of facing an entire clan to
protect your loved ones…”

“…”

“For Jin-san and you, things like ‘family’ must be your most precious thing that
you will protect at all cost. Then what do you think is the thing the Hero Clan
wishes to protect?”

“That’s of course to protect this wor—”

“Protect this world from Demons? If that’s your answer I’m afraid you’re
wrong.”

A ghost of a smile traced Shiba’s face.

“The thing that the Hero Clan must protect is not the world, but their reason for
existence. They do things according to what they think is rightful. That’s why
they’ll do anything and justify it if it means protecting this world from Demons.
But if there is anything outside the scope of their mission, they don’t even lift a
finger.”

“I mean, look at all the wars, famine, natural disasters and the diseases all over
the world. If the Hero Clan actively engaged themselves, imagine all the lives
that could be saved. If they wanted to, they could even stop things like global
warming and desertification.”

“If our powers are to be used to protect this world, then they should have been
used for far more. Instead it hasn’t been used and it won’t be used. Because this
isn’t the ‘mission’ of the Hero Clan.”

“So I thought… we don’t need ‘Heroes’ like these who only think about their
own well being.

Don’t you agree Basara?”

“I understand how you think Shiba-san. And I also understand what you’re
trying to say.”

“But the world needs the Hero Clan.”

Basara let out a breath.

“Shiba-san, you’re wrong.”

“It’s impossible for the Hero Clan to fix all the problems in this world. It’s too
much to ask for them to do so. We’re members of the Hero Clan but we’re also
people as well. The things we can protect are limited so that’s why we protect
what we can with all our might. That’s what it means to be human.”

“It’s not just the Hero Clan protecting this world. You have doctors, scientists,
the police and soldiers. And not just those in positions to provide care and
security. Even normal people who work in offices, will use their earnings to put
food on the table for their family and keep the economy going by providing
employment. Everyone who lives in this world contributes to the world in their
own way.”
“The Hero Clan’s role is to protect this world from the attack of Demons. Sure
they could perhaps do more… But they have been successfully doing their jobs.
Even if they may have made questionable judgments and bad decisions, the
members of the Hero Clan have always put their own lives on the line to protect
this world. And that’s a truth that nobody can deny.”

“Even if that person is you, Shiba-san.”

There was no hesitation in Basara’s eyes and Shiba saw that clearly.

“Well aren’t you quite the romanticist.”

Shiba started to cackle with laughter.

“In my opinion, I don’t think anyone is saving this world. Everyone is playing
their part in destroying it. So what I’m planning on doing will actually save the
world… but I guess we’ll be talking in parallels.”

“Yes. From the way I see it, what Shiba-san is trying to do will destroy the
world. I… no, we, can’t let that happen.”

With that Basara summoned Brynhildr and clutched it tightly.

Shiba gave a thin smile.

“I see… in that case.”

He raised his right hand and a loud metallic screech sounded. That was the
sound of Brynhildr being stopped by Shiba’s right hand. The moment Shiba
caught Basara’s blade, Basara slowed down his charge and the two had a
moment to stare at each other.
“Let’s decide with a fight Basara. The winner should choose how they would
save the world.”

And with those words, the fight to determine the fate of Tokyo began.
 CHAPTER 2:
BEYOND THE FOUR GODS
 PART 1

In the Eastern District of Shiba’s Five Element barrier.

Nonaka Yuki, who raised her hand to fight Seiryuu alone, had a plan. It was to
change the field of battle. Seiryuu who protects the Eastern domain has an
affinity for wood. Because water is compatible to the wood element, the Edo
River is making Seiryuu stronger. Continuing to fight near the river would only
be advantageous to Seiryuu.

The Master Servant Contract that Yuki has with Basara, strengthens those in the
contract the deeper their bonds are. Prior to visiting the Village, Yuki’s fighting
strength was already that of a Pre-S Class but by deepening her bond with
Basara before their fight against Celis, her strengths were now that of a S Class.

However, after analyzing the power of Seiryuu while they fought, Nonaka Yuki
came to a quick conclusion: if they were to continue fighting in their current
location, she would not stand a chance.

Therefore, she had to change the battlefield. But just stepping away from the
river wasn’t good enough. The whole area was named “Edo River District” and
thus, while not as strong, was still compatible to Seiryuu’s wood element to
strengthen it. To make things worse, the entire eastern district of Tokyo within
the barrier was full of locations associated with water. Just south of Edo River
District was Ichikawa District, which had the character for river in its name. The
neighboring Urayasu district is also a landfill site that sits on top of the sea and
historically speaking, was also a famous salt farm. Salt is considered to be a part
of the water element in the Five Elements, and thus, Urayasu might be an even
more dangerous place for Yuki to fight.

Westward was not looking so good wither with Koto District also containing the
character for water in its name. If however, they were fighting outside the barrier
and not within it, Koto District could have been an option. Koto District is home
to the Kameido Sengen Shrine, an offshoot shrine to the Sengen Shrine in Mt.
Fuji, the shrine that houses the spirit of Konohana Sakuya-hime, the same spirit
that resides in Yuki’s blade Sakuya. If they were outside the barrier, the shrine
would have definitely helped in powering up Yuki’s Sakuya.

But within the barrier, while the carbon copy of buildings were recreated, the
holy spirits that reside in the shrines themselves were not brought into the
artificial world recreated within the barrier.

And to make things worse, the name Kameido is a name given to worship the
water deity.

Kame, meaning turtle, overlaps with the God of the North, Genbu, who is a
turtle himself, thus making Kameido a very dangerous location for someone
fighting Genbu.

However, the directional advantages and their elemental compatibilities do not

only strengthen the 4 Gods, but also helps Yuki as well. The opposing element of
Seiryuu’s wood element is the element of metal. And the metal element was out
in the west.

So Yuki headed towards the west, further than Koto District. She made her way
for Sumida District. While it wasn’t in the west per se, but in the western side of
the Eastern Districts, getting away from all the water would weaken Seiryuu’s
wood element and Yuki needed all the help she could get.
But Sumida District wasn’t without its own problems. The very name Sumida,
while spelled differently, comes from the Sumida River, and thus, once again is
affiliated with the water element that will strengthen Seiryuu.

So Yuki decided to fight just before Sumida District, at the town of Kinshicho.
Metal was most concentrated near the train station so Yuki headed towards the
South Gate of the station since it was facing the business district with all its high
rise buildings and also gave distance from the northern side of the station which
was home to Kinshi Park which would have played to Seiryuu’s wood element.

“This place will surely…!”

Just as Yuki arrived near the south gate of the station, she looked up towards the
sky only to see the dragon charging down at her.

It wasn’t difficult to lead Seiryuu to this location. After all, it was the dragon’s
duty to protect the eastern districts. And since Yuki already attacked first, it had
determined Yuki to be a threat to its domain and will relentlessly chase her
down.

With all the water in the nearby areas, Seiryuu had grown to a tremendous size.
To protect its area, it had no qualms in recklessly charging into Yuki. Yuki
quickly jumped off the pedestrian overpass that she was standing on, and in the
next moment, saw the entire overpass being destroyed by Seiryuu’s charge.

“Ha!”

Taking advantage of the momentum of her jump, Yuki swung Sakuya several
times to send multiple slashes towards Seiryuu. But before the blades could
reach Seiryuu, a giant barrier of wind surrounded Seiryuu and negated the
oncoming attacks.
“Kh…”

Yuki bit her lip in anger. She was a versatile swordsman who fought close and
mid range using the power of spirits. With her element of metal and Seiryuu’s
affinity for wood, she should be right up close to Seiryuu and delivering as many
slashes and strikes as she could. However, the Four Gods have direct control
over their elements and that means the wind barrier that Seiryuu has, makes it
impossible for Yuki to approach it. And unlike Mio and Kurumi, Yuki was not
exactly proficient with elemental magic or long range attacks. Even if she were
to use Sakuya and somehow break through the barrier, if Seiryuu sent another
gust of wind her way, she would have to use Sakuya on the defensive and won’t
able able to attack the dragon directly.

But since Seiryuu was the guardian of the eastern districts, the dragon would
most likely refrain from using any long range destructive attacks to target Yuki.
The way it charged at Yuki at the overpass was an indication to its will to
preserve the buildings and structures of the area. Yuki could buy some time by
dodging those physical attacks and wait for a chance to strike.

However, the fact that the wind barrier from before so easily deflected her blade
attacks meant that Seiryuu’s wind affinity was definitely stronger than her wind-
based blade attacks. That’s why Yuki had to do everything she could, to bring
Seiryuu someplace that will weaken it.

After landing on a building, Yuki carefully analyzed the situation. She could
continue to dodge and weave and find an opening to strike, but she didn’t step
off the building for her next jump. It wasn’t that she was afraid of being hit.
She’s fighting one of the Four Gods. Of course she won’t come out of this battle
unscathed. In fact, she would have to prepare to throw her life away to defeat
Seiryuu. But she couldn’t just do that. After all, she made a promise to make it
out of this alive. If she were to die, the master servant contract would also
weaken Basara, and that would make it all the more dangerous for him to fight
Shiba.

So while Yuki’s enemy was the dragon in front of her, it wasn’t as easy as to just
winning against Seiryuu. This was Shiba’s home turf. Any sort of dirty play
could happen. Even if she were to use all her powers and subdue Seiryuu, Shiba
could send in some reinforcements to kill her or kidnap her. Whatever she does,
she had to make sure that she did not become a hindrance to the others.

Yuki watched as Seiryuu rose back up after destroying the overpass. She had to
remain calm. She had to consider the risks as long as Shiba’s barrier was active.
If there was no barrier, she could unleash all of her powers.

“…”

Yuki heard something cal out to her. Something voiceless reaching out.

“Sakuya…?”

She felt it through her hands that gripped the blade. The sword was telling her to
trust it. To let it unleash more of its power. And that was what Yuki needed to
find her plan to fight against Seiryuu.

“In understand.”

With that, Yuki faced her back to Seiryuu and began to sprint towards the main
road, jumping over roofs on the way.

With Sakuya to guide her way, she headed south towards the location that would
weaken the dragon the most.

But Yuki wasn’t aware yet.

Aware of the thing behind Seiryuu who was chasing her.

That while the barrier was supposed to replicate everything in the outside world,
there was an important thing that was missing within the barrier.
 PART 2

Unlike in the eastern district where Yuki was moving around to find a more
advantageous location to fight Seiryuu, Kurumi in the southern district did no
such thing against Suzaku.

Since Suzaku was a bird, the very flapping of its wings gave it an affinity to
wind. An affinity to wind also meant an affinity to the element of wood. Since
Suzaku was naturally a fire element creature, the wood and wind element
complemented its natural powers and you could say that Suzaku was in its
complete form from the getgo.

But the reason Kurumi did not move was because their field of battle was at
Tokyo Bay right near the marine park. While water does complement the wood
element, it still opposed Suzaku’s natural element of fire. So, Kurumi had to use
her water element attacks to fight Suzaku.

But did the elemental advantage help Kurumi in battle?

That answer wasn’t as clear.

Battles are a constantly evolving thing. And so, as time passes, many new
problems start to appear. In the case of Kurumi, she had to remain as close to the
surface of the sea as possible if she would like to fully unleash her water element
attacks.

“Kh…”
Kurumi had to dodge quickly, while flying, to avoid the explosion. For Suzaku
was shooting down fireballs into the ocean and causing the explosion of the
impact with the water to try and damage Kurumi.

While she could dodge and weave using her flight magic, it was never a good
thing to let your opponent fight above in the midst of an aerial battle.

“Damn!”

While gliding over the surface of the sea, she got into touch with the spirit in the
water, and began to fire back the water towards Suzaku like a cannon.

But Suzaku did not budge at all or defend itself. So all the water cannon shots
that Kurumi sent, hit it directly.

Except that nothing happened. Suzaku was a giant bird surrounded with fire.
Some measly water attack that Kurumi came up with on the spot won’t affect the
fiery veil surrounding the bird, even if the water attack was a natural weakness
to the fire element. Simply put, even if Kurumi used a water element attack,
Suzaku’s fire element overpowered it.

“I guess I’m going to need something else to damage him.”

Kurumi had to think whether to sacrifice her water element attacks by engaging
herself in aerial battle against Suzaku, or to sacrifice her flight to stay on the
surface and focus on her water attacks.

But it was neither option that Kurumi had to take. Suzaku above her, spread its
wings wide, and in the next moment hundreds of burning feathers were
unleashed from the bird and came hurtling down towards Kurumi.

And she couldn’t just dodge. The way Suzaku was causing steam explosions the
last time, any of these feathers could cause an explosion to get her. And setting
up a water barrier might not do so well either as the fires from the feathers might
evaporate the barrier, and that would be deadly.

So Kurumi had to go with a third option: to defend and evade at the same time.
The first thing Kurumi did was to set up a barrier; not a water barrier but a wind
one. Controlling the wind barrier to form a sphere around her, she used her flight
magic to move quickly. Not horizontally, but by dropping straight down deep
into the sea.

Just as Kurumi sunk below into the ocean, the fiery feathers all hit the surface of
the sea and caused countless explosions. And since Kurumi was now surrounded
by water, she was able to better utilize her water element.

“Haaaaa!”

Kurumi concentrated power into her hands in front of her chest to create a huge
whirlpool inside the ocean. And by clapping her hands, she sent that whirlpool
high above to create a gigantic pillar of water that began to form itself into a
water dragon, bigger than Suzaku, in the air. The water dragon then charged
towards Suzaku and swallowed it whole.

“I won’t let you!”

As Suzaku started to wrestle and fight inside the belly of the water dragon,
Kurumi called forth more water to maintain the shape of the dragon and dragged
down Suzaku into the depths of Tokyo Bay while she herself flew out into the air
once again.

The water element snuffs out fire. So for Suzaku being trapped inside the ocean
would be akin to a normal person taking a bath in poison. The water surrounding
it would surely take its toll on Suzaku.
“Now, all I need to do is…!?”

With victory almost guaranteed, Kurumi couldn’t contain her shock when a giant
fireball broke out from the water prison and charged straight at her.

“Damn it!”

Kurumi just barely avoided that charge by using her flight magic. But the fireball
she dodged wasn’t an attack by Suzaku, it was Suzaku itself. Just like how
Kurumi used a wind barrier to surround herself with to create distance between
herself and the water within the ocean, Suzaku did the same using a fire barrier.
It created a fire barrier so hot that it instantly evaporated any water that came to
contact with it. And by doing so, it survived being dragged into the ocean and
was able to come back and retaliate.

“I thought I had it in the bag…”

“But it’s not like that was a complete waste.”

She did not say that out of bitterness. It was actually true. The Suzaku she
currently saw in front of her was definitely smaller in size than before. Even if it
was for a moment, Suzaku was indeed dragged into the ocean, so the opposing
power of the water element must have taken its toll. So Kurumi knew that all she
had to do was slowly chip away at Suzaku’s fire elemental energy.

But Suzaku suddenly charged at her. Even if it may have been weakened,
Kurumi would still be unable to create a carrier strong enough to protect her
from a headlong charge. At worst, Suzaku will just smash through her barrier
and will kill her.

So Kurumi quickly used her flight magic to evade above Suzaku and fired a
water element attack towards its back.
“Huh!?”

At that moment, Kurumi saw that Suzaku wasn’t charging at her, but at
something behind her. And what she saw horrified her. For Suzaku was charging
towards the port with all the containers. Not just normal containers, but oil
tankers.

A series of massive explosions rocked the area as the entire port went up in
flames. Then suddenly, all the flames began to morph itself in the shape of a
giant bird: into Suzaku.

Now Suzaku was far bigger than anything Kurumi had ever seen.

“I see…when you aren’t on a rampage, you can actually use your brain to fight
smart.”

Because Kurumi used spiritual magic to fight, she doesn’t use any of her own
magical powers and that does help her conserve some energy. But her physical
stamina and spiritual energy were at low levels, especially after the water dragon
and prison technique from earlier. While she could possibly pull off those moves
a few more times, there was no way that was going to work on the current
Suzaku. In fact, the current Suzaku was probably big and powerful enough to
evaporate the entire Tokyo Bay.

But even faced with such a calamity, there was no doubt in Kurumi’s eyes.
Because Kurumi was entrusted to fight Suzaku here by the others. She couldn’t
let the others down. So Nonaka Kurumi knew that she had to do everything she
could to defeat the giant flaming bird.

When Kurumi and the others fought in the Demon World, she lost her fight.
Even if she did finally defeat the same enemy with the help of Maria during the
fight with Chaos, it didn’t change the fact that she still lost and that her loss put a
burden on the others.

So she swore that she would never lose again, no matter how strong her
opponent may be. And for that, Nonaka Kurumi would give her all in this fight.

“I can no longer afford to lose…!”

And with that, Nonami Kurumi charged straight towards Suzaku.

 PART 3

Of the Four Gods, there is one which is often considered to be different to the
others. The defender of the North, Genbu. There were two things that separated
Genbu from the rest. First, Genbu was a combination of two spiritual beasts: a
turtle god and a snake god.

The second was its name. The other gods, Seiryuu, Suzaku and Byakko were all
names with a combination of “color” and “beast” for their characters. While the
“Gen” in Genbu can be considered as the color “black” it also meant “snake”.
And the “Bu” in its name has the meaning of “turtle” and “God of War” at the
same time. So unlike the other beasts, both Chinese characters in Genbu’s name
refers to beasts, and the second character referring to Genbu being a God of War
was not just a simple reference. Genbu really was the most powerful and battle
oriented out of the Four Gods.

That is why even when the massive golem charged towards Genbu, it didn’t
even flinch. It is true that the element of earth is strong against Genbu’s element
of water. But their attacks still did not do anything to Genbu. None of the
golem’s punches or the earth magic that its castor was using did anything to
penetrate Genbu’s hard shell.

But Genbu was not just a big turtle with water element magic. The snake part of
Genbu was another weapon itself with its whip like body and sharp fangs. The
snake tail of Genbu struck the charging golem like a whip and disintegrated the
upper torso of the golem instantly.
But Genbu knew that it was not over. Genbu looked up and saw the castor
floating in the air with some sort of wings on her back. She must have flew and
dodged the snake whip the moment it hit the golem. But she was wrong to think
that being airborne would help her dodge its attacks.

Genbu prepared its water element magic, but instead of water, it was ice. Genbu,
being the protector of the north, also had the property of “winter”. That meant
that the water element that Genbu uses can also be molded with ice properties.

“Kh…!!!”

The castor must have realized what Genbu was doing and quickly started to
create defensive magical barriers. But Genbu did not care. There was no way the
castor was going to survive the mil ions of ice shards he was going to shoot her
way. With a combination of water magic and ice magic, he used a power shot of
water to hurtle all the ice shards towards the castor at the speed of sound. The
shards tore through the castor’s earth element defenses like cotton candy and hit
the castor.

“…”

But something felt off with Genbu. He definitely felt his magic hit the castor, but
it didn’t feel like the feeling of hitting flesh. More like the feeling of hitting hard
stones. His instincts told him to turn southwest, and that’s when he saw the
castor with her eyes not losing a single shred of determination. She then turned
her back to Genbu and flew away to gain some distance.

The figure that Genbu hit before must have been a stone clone. For a castor who
could control and create golems, a stone clone should surely be easy. The castor
flew off towards one of the bright light areas of Tokyo. It didn’t matter whether
she was fleeing or whether she had a plan. For Genbu’s role was to protect the
northern districts and to destroy anyone who threatens it.
 PART 4

Kinuta Park was currently the battle ground for two seperate battles: Mio and
Byakko’s fight near the baseball field, and Maria and Balflear’s fight.

But Narse Maria’s opponent wasn’t Balflear. It was the countless numbers of
sludge shaped creatures that covered the turf.

Legion.

The devils were all the same shape and size. Each of them were over 2 meters
tall and around the same size as Maria’s past enemy, Valga. Each of them were
not so powerful, but their large fists could definitely pack a punch, and the sheer
number of them was quite daunting.

There must have been at least a hundred of them there, and while they did not
possess high levels of thinking to dodge and evade attacks, every time they
guarded an attack, it slowly chipped away at Maria’s stamina.

Maria had to adopt a hide-and-snipe approach to take them out one by one to
conserve energy. Although she could have hid in the forest in the park to sneak
up to each creature, it would also give the devils a chance to sneak up on her. So,
Maria took the fight out into the open in the wide open field.

Quick on her feet, she dodged all the lumbering punches from the Legion and
executed perfect counter punches and kicks to defeat each monster as they came.
When four or five of them charged her at once, she punched into the ground to
create a shockwave to blast them all away.

The blast also took out another dozen at the back.

“Hmmm, there really is no end to this.”

Even Maria had to admit that the odds were not in her favor. She must have
killed over 100 of these Legion already but more and more of them just keep
coming out from the summoning circle Balflear created. She won’t be able to
stop the swarm unless she defeats Balflear himself, but she wasn’t able to sense
his whereabouts. But he must be in this area as he has to maintain control of the
Legion while also providing maintenance to Byakko’s condition. He must be
using some sort of magic to hide his presence. The silver lining of that magic
was that Balflear himself wasn’t able to attack Maria as he had to conceal his
location and presence.

Still, Maria had to do something quickly. Fighting all the Legion was taking a
toll on her physically and emotionally. If she was even to be hit by one attack,
the others will jump on her in an instant and that will be that.

And she can not let that happen.

She had already tasted defeat during the fights in the Demon World. Technically,
Kurumi and Zest lost as well but their situation was different. Kurumi couldn’t
unleash her full powers because she thought that Basara was held hostage, and
Zest lost as a penalty for stepping into Kurumi’s fight to stop the fight.

But Maria… She lost fair and square.

Of course, her opponent was that Takigawa, Lars if you wish, so he was never
going to be an easy opponent. And just because Maria was the only person to
lose, it did not mean that she was weaker than the other girls.

Nevertheless, she still lost that fight. So, this was one fight she couldn’t lose.

There had to be a way. Balflear’s contract with Legion meant that he could
summon these creatures endlessly without consuming any of his own magical
energy. So what Maria had to do was create an opportunity where Balflear will
reveal himself. And she would have to strike him in that one opportunity, or she
will lose.

And while Balflear could use his barrier magic to block Maria’s attack, she
wasn’t without a trick up her sleeve. She could unlock her seal, overload her
powers and focus all her energy in one strike.

But that was one hand she couldn’t play. After all, the last time she lost against
Lars was specifically because she overloaded on her powers and her physical
body was unable to handle the stress. For a close ranged fighter like Maria,
losing control of her own body was the same as losing the fight. And while she
had been training with Basara to slowly unseal her powers bit by bit, she had
never tried it in practice, and this would be the first time she would do so. It was
simply too risky to unseal her powers in front of Balflear. How ironic that all the
training and preparation for unsealing her power had made her cautious in
actually using said power.

If she were to actually use her powers, it would be a gamble. And this fight
wasn’t just about Maria. Mio was fighting against Byakko nearby as well. If
Maria was to lose against Balflear, the Legion will simply target Mio next. And
even if Legion was summoned by Balflear, because of his ability to hide himself,
Byakko won’t consider him a threat to the area and will simply attack both
Legion and Mio.

If only she could link up with Mio. Then perhaps the two of them could work
out a way to defeat Byakko and Bal—

No.

She couldn’t think like that. She had to defeat Balflear and Legion right here and
now, then go and help Mio take on Byakko. And she did have one last hand she
could play. Something she picked up while training with Basara.

She only had one chance.

And she would not fail.

So, Maria set her plans in motion, to defeat Balflear and Legion.
 PART 5

The fight between Basara and Shiba in the central district was taking place in the
midst of all the highrise buildings to the west of Tokyo Tower.

An area that would usually be full of business people was without its hustle and
bustle within the barrier. But the area was not without its sounds. Dull sounding
clashes vibrated through the air and a faint buzzing similar to a guitar amp, rang
through the district.

Suddenly, a gust of wind whooshed past. Except, it was no wind. The streak of
color moving close to the speed of light was Basara charging towards Shiba. It
was Basara who chose this place to fight. Away from all the buildings that lay
north of Tokyo Tower. The Azabu and Toranomon area to the north and north
west of Tokyo Tower were full of embassies from countries all over the world. If
Shiba were to dissolve the dimensional barrier during their fight as the combat
took place in those areas, any damages inflicted on the embassies will have a
disastrous consequence for Japanese diplomacy.

So, it wasn’t just Tokyo. Shiba was taking the entire country of Japan hostage.
While fighting towards the east of Tokyo Tower would have moved the fighting
away as well, Shiba would have been placed closer to the Four Gods and would
have accumulated their powers more quickly.

The central district they were fighting at had the affinity for the Earth element.
The fields and parks that lay to the east of Tokyo Tower would have also
complemented his power. And while the high rise buildings had Earth and Metal
affinity, the property itself was of Wood. For Shiba to increase the power of the
Earth affinity, it would have been beneficial for him to reduce the Wood affinity
within the area.

There was another reason for Shiba to fight in this area and that lay with the
Zojyouji Temple in the district. Part of the JodoShu Buddhism established by the
Tokugawa family, the feng shui of the temple held significant powers. The Ura-
Kimon Gate in Zojyouji Temple and the Kimon Gate in Kaneiji Temple lay
northeast and southwest respectively and were used to focus and concentrate the
power.

Just like how the military base in the north strengthens Genbu, the Kimon Gate
and the Ura-Kimon Gate also played their part in Tokyo city. With their long
history in establishing the feng shui in Tokyo, if either of the gates were to be
destroyed, it will cause an unbalance in the feng shui in Tokyo and will cause the
Four Gods to go berserk and in turn, will lead to the destruction of Tokyo.

And so Basara had to fight while making sure that the fight was taking place
well away from the gates and the embassies. As long as they were away, Basara
could fight at full strength as well.

Moving faster than the wind, Basara closed his distance with Shiba and
unleashed Brynhildr.

Shiba, seeing Basara’s movement, began to move, only for Basara to raise his
speed and step away to the side. Shiba’s eyes tracked Basara but suddenly,
Basara disappeared from his sights with another sidestep.

Using his momentum as a pivot, Basara spun on the spot to unleash a powerful
horizontal slash, faster than the naked eye could fol ow.

“Phew, that was close.”

And with a curl of his right hand, a defensive barrier sprung up and surrounded
Shiba. Basara’s slash hit Shiba right in his blindspot but the barrier absorbed the
full impact of the slash.

This was Shiba he was fighting. Basara gave his all in that strike, and it didn’t
even scratch his barrier. That just proved the difference in their strengths. But
this time around, he couldn’t depend on the help of his friends as they were
fighting their own battles.

No, it’s not that they couldn’t help him. They were helping him. They were
helping him by fighting the Four Gods and Balflear. And it was Basara’s job to
defeat Shiba. That meant that he had to expect situations when his plans went
awry. This was Shiba after all. However, he wasn’t expecting his first and fastest
strike to be so ineffective, that Basara was left hanging in the air in a mild state
of shock. His eyes saw a black blur and his brain registered that it was Shiba’s
foot.

But for a speed type like Basara to not be able to keep up with the blur of a kick
meant that the kick itself must have been some sort of ability of Shiba’s.
Thinking on instinct, Basara continued the momentum of his horizontal slash to
spin his body away from the kick, and he felt a strange gust of wind pass his
cheek.

“Oh, you didn’t use Brynhildr to block it?”

“You must be really cautious of my attacks Basara”.

Of course, he was. Takashi was adamant that he dodged Shiba’s attack, yet he
was damaged so badly to the point that even Kaoru’s magic couldn’t heal him. It
must be something to do with Shiba’s ability. Right now, Basara wasn’t able to
identify that ability so he had to make sure he dodged everything.
With a backflip, Basara gained his distance from Shiba and made multiple
slashes towards Shiba. The slashes cut through the air but Shiba just swayed on
the spot to dodge all of them. But Basara expected him to dodge.

Shiba heard a groaning sound from behind and turned to see a giant building
falling his way.

Basara’s blades weren’t for him, but for the building behind him.

“Geez, just because we’re in a barrier, you sure do crazy things.”

Shiba let out a chuckle. He still had time to dodge.

“!!!”

But Basara didn’t let him. With a great swing, Basara brought down Brynhildr
for a vertical slash. But it wasn’t for the Banishing Shift. No. A red glow
surrounded his blade. A red glow that was only given to those who shared the
blood of the previous Demon Lord Wilbert. It was the same slash that defeated
Leohart in the battle in the Demon World.

The Gravity Slash.

Back then, Basara needed the help of Sheila’s medicine to use this ability. But
since the battle with Celis at the Village, where he was able to use Belphegor’s
spirit, Basara had learned to control his demonic powers at will.

If the gravity would crush Shiba, that would be for the best. But even if he
didn’t, the gravity could keep him trapped long enough for the building to come
crashing down on him.

“Oh, so this is the famed Gravity Slash… I’ve heard all about it from Balflear.”
Shiba spoke in such a nonchalant manner that you wouldn’t have guessed that
this man was about be crushed by a highrise building. But Shiba was the very
image of calm, and he raised his right hand as if to catch the building. Basara
stared in shock. Even Shiba won’t be able to catch the force of a falling building
with a single hand.

He didn’t. Basara could only watch as a brownish glow appeared on Shiba’s

hand. And in the next instant, the entire building, concrete pillars and all, were
reduced to dust.
 PART 6

Basara watched Shiba turn the building to dust and it dawned on him. So that
was Shiba’s ability. What Shiba just shot out from his palm wasn’t magic. It was
most likely “Ki”. Unlike Magic, which was used by higher beings such as spirits,
Ki was available in abundance on Earth. The Five Elements themselves are all
properties of different Ki. Ki resided in nature, and people and animals were not
exempt from that. But for people and animals, their spirit determined how their
Ki was used. There were those within the Hero Tribe who were able to channel
their Ki for combat, but those numbers were few as the Heroes themselves
usually fought using the power of the Four Gods. And those who did fight using
Ki were usually only able to use the Ki within their body.

What Shiba used right now was definitely Ki. And from the brown color, Basara
was certain that Shiba was channeling the Earth energy of the central district.
Shiba must be able to manipulate Ki to fight with.

The very reason Shiba set up the Five Element dimensional barrier was probably
for him to absorb all the Ki that was being generated from the different
complementing and opposing elements in the area.

Basara finally understood now. Even if he may be faster than Shiba, things such
as “killing intent” and “presence” were all parts of Ki. That’s how Shiba was
able to sense and predict all of Basara’s attacks. And with Takashi, even if he
was able to physically block Shiba’s attack, all Shiba had to do was channel and
overload Takashi with Ki to damage him indirectly. A well trained Ki user is able
to channel the Ki from the elements to and fro one’s body. It was no surprise that
a master Ki user like Shiba would be able to channel Ki through other people.

Now that Basara knew what Shiba’s ability was, he could finally formulate a
plan to defeat him. But Shiba must be aware of Basara’s trump card. The
Universal Rejection that he used against Celis, which allows him to negate all
physical and magical properties. The Universal Rejection must have negated the
visual magic that Shiba was using to observe the match. So he must have a faint
idea as to what Basara’s trump move may be. Shiba also must be aware now that
Basara is able to use his Banishing Shift again, unlike when he was fighting
Celis.

He wasn’t able to use his Banishing Shift then because of the contract he had
with Chisato screwed up the spiritual balance inside his body. But with the help
of Belphegor’s spirit restoring balance during his fight with Celis, he was also
able to remove the corruption within Takashi’s body. Shiba wouldn’t have
known about this as he had already left the village by then. But for someone who
can sense Ki, Shiba should be able to sense that something had changed in
Basara’s spiritual makeup.

And the way he was acting so relaxed, there must still be many cards for him to
play. For now, Basara could only guess what those cards were. This does put him
at a disadvantage. There was a clear gap in their strengths and Basara had
already shown all his cards while Shiba has not revealed his. However, Basara
has always overcome situations like these. His opponents were always stronger
than him. So Basara focused on a plan to defeat Shiba. And by the time his mind
came up with an idea, his body was already moving on its own and charged into
the smiling Shiba.
 PART 7

Yuki continued to head south from Kinshicho while avoiding Seiryuu’s attacks.
Sakuya’s element was metal. But her wind blade attacks did nothing to Seiryuu
whose element was Tree. So now she was headed to Sumida Ward, an area she
once rules out as a battleground, because of its abundance of water, an element
that would complement Seiryuu’s Tree element.

“So that’s why you wanted me here.”

Yuki now understood why Sakuya was leading her to this area. The further she
headed southwest away from Kinshicho, the stronger Sakuya began to glow and
give off power.

And she arrived where Sakuya was leading her. To the Monzen-Nakacho Station
of the Tozai Subway Line. Precisely, to the Ooyokogawa River nearby. The word
for “flower” in the name of the spirit that resides in Sakuya, Konohana Sakuya
Hime, means “Sakura” (Cherry blossom).

Sakuya was a Tree element weapon.

And the riverbanks of Ooyokogawa River were full of cherry blossom trees.

Sakuya’s metal property is an opposing element to Seiryuu. But unless she can
get close enough to strike Seiryuu, it didn’t mean anything. Seiryuu’s wind
barrier was simply too strong.
But Yuki knows that Sakuya is just as, if not more, powerful than Seiryuu. On a
head to head, perhaps Seiryuu’s strength was stronger than that of Sakuya. But
Sakuya chose Yuki to be its wielder, and they have overcome many adversities
together over the years. The bond that they share, and the bond that Yuki shares
with Basara and the others, are more powerful than any flimsy bond between
Shiba and Seiryuu.

That is why Yuki will not be fighting Seiryuu with Sakuya’s opposing property
of metal. She will believe in her sword. She will believe in Sakuya who had
chosen her. She will believe in the bond that they share together.

Atop the Ishijima Bridge on Ooyokogawa River, Yuki clasped her sword and
focused.

As if to answer her cal, Sakuya began to glow, and the very nature around Yuki
also responded. The sakura trees that only bloom in late March suddenly all
bloomed in unison. The bright light from Sakuya, the moonlight from the
crescent moon and the countless sakura trees in full bloom, enveloped the entire
area in a light crimson color.

Seiryuu flew above them. It knew that Yuki was down there. The sudden surge
in the tree element power made Yuki a shining beacon in the darkness. But Yuki
did not care.

“Sakuya…”

Having her name called, Sakuya summoned a vortex around the river, the wind
carrying the thousands of sakura petals into the air. The petals and the wind then
concentrated and was absorbed into the blade of Sakuya, changing its color from
silver to a sakura-pink, and finally to crimson.
When Seiryuu saw the change, it acted quickly. It opened its huge jaw, and
blasted a gigantic blue and green beam from its mouth. Seiryuu fired a Tree
element beam attack towards the girl. It used the tree energy within its body and
not from the surrounding sakura trees as the sword absorbed all the powers from
the nearby trees. Recognizing the threat that the girl now possessed, Seiryuu no
longer paid heed to the environmental destruction, and decided to blast away its
strongest attacks to eliminate the threat.

Seiryuu’s beam blasted the entire area around Yuki. Seiryuu experienced the
same feeling Yuki experienced when she sent wind blades to it the first time.
Seiryuu’s beam met a wall of crimson that was pushing back against it. Seiryuu
then changed its attack to a wind element attack and let loose another attack,
only to have it be blocked by the crimson barrier again.

That meant one thing: at that moment the girl’s power outmatched its own.

A huge explosion rocked the area from the collision of the beams and Yuki’s
barrier. Luckily for Seiryuu, its wind barrier protected it from the explosion. It
quickly judged that Yuki would have to absorb the powers of the sakura trees
again in order to fire another one of that crimson attack from before, so it wasted
no time in attacking the girl to prevent her from absorbing power.

Seiryuu swooped down to where the girl would be and dispelled its wind barrier
to prepare to fire off another beam. Except, the girl was charging through the
dust and debris of the explosion, straight to Seiryuu. And Seiryuu finally saw it.

On the line of trajectory of the girl and itself lay a sakura colored “road” lain out
like a carpet of flower petals. The smoke and dust from the explosion had
covered this road so Seiryuu wasn’t able to notice it, and because the area was
already full of Tree element energy, it was unable to sense this sakura stairway
either.
The girl ran to the top of the sakura pathway then took a leap right behind
Seiryuu in its blindspot, then unleashed a devastating vertical slash of deep
crimson through the night sky towards the blue dragon.
 PART 8

The south district was the home to the fire element. Having blown up the oil
tanker and absorbing all the fire energy within the area, Suzaku glided along the
night sky, all but guaranteed of its victory.

Ever since it has absorbed the fire energy of the oil tanker, the battle went from
being a battle between beast and spell caster to a battle between hunter and prey.
The spell caster was originally able to fire off some water based magic. But now
all the prey could do was to run away and evade attacks.

But run away it did well. Suzaku was still unable to land the finishing blow.
Although, a big part of the was because Suzaku was not using any mid to long
range attacks, reason being that it had absorbed too much fire energy. It had
absorbed too much power to the point where Suzaku might risk destroying the
area it was assigned to protect, if it unleashed any long range attacks. And if
Suzaku was to evaporate the Tokyo Bay, it would greatly imbalance the
waterways in Tokyo and may even affect the elemental powers of the other Four
Gods.

That is why Suzaku was currently remaining airborne and attacking from afar
with small burts. Currently, Suzaku’s flames were strong enough to turn the girl
to ash by slightly brushing against her. But the girl’s use of wind magic meant
that she was able to survive by the skin of her neck each time Suzaku attacked.
However, sooner or later. Fatigue will strike the girl. She would not be able to
continue this cat and mouse chase forever.
“!”

Suzaku saw the girl floating in the air, preparing to cast a spell. But it did not
care. Even if Kurumi was able to use all the water in Tokyo Bay for her attack, it
would not be enough to take down Suzaku. Wind attacks will only make Suzaku
stronger, there was not enough earth above the water for any Earth element
attack that could cause considerable damage, and any fire based attack by her
would simply be absorbed.

And while the girl did use spirit magic, which was separate from the Five
Elements, none of her powers or her spirits were strong enough. There was
simply no spiritual being stronger than Suzaku in this southern district.

So the girl posed no threat at all. And Suzaku saw that she was casting wind
magic, which would only strengthen its flames, so it charged right towards the
girl.

But in the next instant, something crashed into Suzaku.

Impossible. Currently Suzaku’s flames were hot enough to evaporate anything

that it came into contact with. There was simply nothing in this area that could
physically hurt it.

And that was when Suzaku realized, when it looked around, the the flames
surrounding its body had seemed to have disappeared.

“Seems like the plan worked.”

Kurumi Nonaka gave herself a pat on the back for her strategy. In this battle,
Kurumi was using two different elements: water elements for attacks that
opposed Suzaku’s fire affinity, and wind magic to give herself the ability to fly.
And it was during her flight that Kurumi came up with her strategy.
When she had cast her water dragon spell and dragged Suzaku underwater, it had
used a flame barrier to evaporate the onslaught of water. She had done the same
with a wind barrier when she had to go underwater. And that gave her an idea.
To surround Suzaku with a gigantic wind barrier. To remove a crucial element
that Suzaku needed.

Oxygen.

Normally, fire from magical spells and spiritual magic don’t require oxygen and
doesn’t exactly fol ow the laws of science. But the Five Elements draws its
strength directly from the natural source of energy. Therefore, the amount of
flame that Suzaku was unleashing would have to burn through a lot of oxygen to
maintain it. It was only a matter of surrounding Suzaku with a wind barrier and
the fire burnt through the oxygen real quick.

Without the flames, Suzaku was nothing but a gigantic floating bird at this point.

“Look at you. You’re just a floating piece of teriyaki chicken.”

Kurumi’s little joke couldn’t contain the sense of pride she felt with her plan.

“I’ll teach you why you couldn’t defeat me.”

“It’s the difference in fighting experience… and the fact that you have never
tasted defeat.”

And with that countless water lances shot out from the sea to penetrate Suzaku.
 PART 9

Zest, who was fighting Genbu in the northern district, was currently heading to a
different location. Southeast from their previous location, Zest was heading
towards the business district of Ikebukuro.

Floating atop of the train station, Zest was certain that this was the best place for
battle. She had came to this area once. After their fight in the Demon World
against the Current Demon Lord faction and it was decided that Zest will move
into the Toujou household, they had come here to shop for furniture. As the maid
of the household, she was entrusted with the finances. And while the generous
funds in their bank account, thanks to the contributors in from the Demon World,
meant that money was not an issue, there would be no wasteful spending under
the eye of Zest. That is why Zest and the others had come to Ikebukuro to shop
for cheap deals. And that was related to the reason why she chose this place to
fight Genbu.

Because she wanted to learn more about the places she visited with her master
Basara, Zest always made sure to research the history of every location they visit
together. Ikebukuro was no exception. The first reason why they moved here was
to get away from the military base that was strengthening Genbu. And the
district they were in before had the Sumida River flowing through, which also
added to Genbu’s already frightening power.

Regardless this northern district was still a disadvantage for Zest. But there was
something here that will all ow Zest to close the gap between their powers.
That was the earth itself. In the northern area before, there was plenty of earth,
but the mountain earth was full of water, which gave power to Genbu. The lands
around Ikebukuro did not seem to contain water, which would all ow Zest to
create more powerful versions of golems.

There was also the issue of buying time. Genbu was a massive creature. Further
to that, as the dimensional barrier currently covering Tokyo was created by the
holy magic of the Four Gods, a pure blooded demon like Zest was unable to use
her full power. But this northern area was connected to the central district where
Basara was fighting. If the others defeat their respective opponents, they would
be able to come and help her fight Genbu.

But that was was an option Zest did not want to take. She already felt like excess
baggage by not being able to enter the Village with Basara and the others. While
that was done in order to not aggravate the villagers, she still felt like she was
unable to provide support to Basara when he really needed her. So it was
impossible for her to play the waiting game. To depend on someone else. Genbu
was hers to fight and her alone.

“How weak of me… to even consider the need for help.”

At that moment, a monumental object came crashing down from the sky and
destroyed the building under her, the Sunshine Aquarium. And absorbing all the
water from the aquarium was the grotesque turtle-like creature.

“Genbu…”

The creature’s eyes turned towards Zest and she summoned two new golems as
if to challenge it. When she summoned one golem before, it was easily
overpowered by the turtle and snake beast. This time, the even numbers should
give Zest more of a fighting chance. The white and blue golems Zest created this
time were coated in armor and wielding swords and shields. The golems were
created from the Seibu (West) Department Store and Tobu (East) Department
Store respectively.

“Go forth!”

Controlling two golems was no small task. In fact, it wasn’t a matter of using
double the magical reserve. Instead, it was double the creation magic and double
the controlling magic, so in reality, it was closer to 4 times the magic to control
two golems, and this was going to be a strain on Zest if the battle was to be
drawn out.

The two golems charged at Genbu and began a synchronized array of attacks.
These golems wielded swords but that did not mean that their attack power was
greatly strengthened to rival that of Genbu’s. However, the use of swords and
shields have made a significant change to the battle. Genbu was being pressed.
Genbu was made of two separate creatures connected together. That meant both
the turtle and the snake had to make independent decisions each time they
attacked or defended themselves. This of course meant that things did not go
smoothly when they mess up their timings. It’s one thing to join forces and fight
one enemy.

Fighting two equally sized enemies alone was a very different task. What made
things worse for Genbu was that the golems didn’t have that problem. They were
simply puppets being controlled by Zest. That meant that they were able to move
fluidly and synchronize their attacks to the same heartbeat without any
confusion.

Of course the snake could still propel itself like a whip from before and strike
down at the two golems, but Zest was sure that it was not able to do so. The
reasoning lay in the nature of the golems’ attacks. There was a reason why Zest
had the golems equip swords. While the snake’s whip all owed it to attack
enemies from afar with a powerful snap of the whip, that whip-like motion made
it extremely vulnerable to the blades. If the golems were to block the whip with
their swords, the snake will risk cutting itself on the sharp blades. While the
turtle was blessed with an absolute defense, the snake did not have a hard shell
surrounding it.

Watching from atop the ruins of Sunshine Aquarium, Zest was preparing for her
final plan when Genbu let out a bellowing wail.

“What…?”

In an instant, Genbu had turned a large part of Ikebukuro into ice. Her two
golems were also frozen in place with the rest of the city.

“!”

Zest dodged the quick attack from Genbu, only to see a large snake head come at
her from above.

What Genbu did before was to unleash all the water it had stored inside its body
to freeze the area. This was all a strategy from the very beginning. The reason
why Genbu did not use its ice attack twice in the mountains before was to give
off the impression that it needed a large body of water to use ice attacks. The ice
attacks consumed a lot of energy, and Genbu needed to make sure that the target
was the real one: it had already been deceived by a mud clone before after all. So
after confirming that the woman floating in the sky was indeed the real one,
Genbu launched its ice attack. And in case she was able to dodge them, it send
its snake tail after it as well. All the snake had to do was swallow the woman
whole and crush her in its mouth.

“…!?”
It was at that moment that Genbu realized that something was off. First, it was
suspended in mid air, even after using the propulsion of water from within its
body to launch itself at the woman. Second, the mouth on the snake head was
not closing.

“I knew you would have eventually ignored the two golems to attack me
directly.”

Genbu looked up to see the woman floating above him.

“I knew that you would have factored the risk of using your whip attack. So you
would most likely attack me with the turtle part of your body.”

“And I used all of that against you, in order to penetrate your absolute defense.”

Genbu understood what she was saying. And it knew why it couldn’t move and
why it couldn’t close its mouth. It knew exactly what the woman did.

The tall white building that the woman was standing on before was turned to
sand. Not just any old sand, but sand that was being funneled into Genbu’s body
through the mouth of the snake. The reasons why the snake couldn’t close its
mouth was because the density of the sand was far greater than the biting
strength of the snake’s jaw. Genbu’s absolute defense was only from attacks
from the outside. It cannot block attacks from within. The woman was planning
on overfilling its body with sand to rupture it from within. It won’t let that
happen!

Genbu tried to throw up the sand from within the body when

“It won’t work.”

Sand started to pour into the turtle’s mouth as well and Genbu wasn’t able to
throw up the sand. It started to hear a creaking sound as his body was starting
swell from all the consumed sand and the hard shell was finding it hard to
contain the body.

“Ikebukuro’s name literally means ‘landfill’ as was the origin of this town. Its
very name origins means that the land itself killed the water in the area.
Therefore, there is no stronger a land than this to defeat you.”

“I am Basara-sama’s maid… I cannot be eaten by the likes of you.”

“So feast on this land as much as you want. I shall grant you a feast that shall
appease your gluttony to your heart’s content.”

Genbu lay suspended in the air as sand continued to flood its mouth and fill it
up.

“After all, as Basara-sama’s maid… I must be hospitable and accommodating to

guests at all times.”

And as the woman stopped talking, Genbu felt its body implode.
 PART 10

While Maria was looking for an opportunity to use her trump card, Mio too, was
fighting at Kinuta Park. Precisely, at the baseball field against Byakko. Byakko,
who protects the west, had an affinity for metal, which made the fire using Mio
its natural threat. But things were not going so well for Mio.

It wasn’t that her magic wasn’t good enough. Having defeated Luca in the
Demon World and continuing her training with Basara once they returned, as
well as having more ‘extra sessions’

with Basara compared to the other girls, Mio was definitely stronger than when
she was in the Demon World. And while the barrier by the Four Gods meant that
there was some restrictions on her power, she should still be strong enough to
take on Byakko.

But no matter what fire attacks she threw at it, it didn’t work. She threw fireballs
at it, rained downs spears of fire and created pillars of fire at its feet.

Byakko was simply too fast.

Its reactions speed was faster than Mio’s speed to cast magic. And Mio couldn’t
just cast a spell that would attack the entire area as Byakko always stayed within
the baseball pitch. To be precise, Byakko only lingered around the pitcher’s
mound where the Byakko Spear was planted.
And Mio couldn’t damage the spear lest it destroy the barrier that the Four Gods
set up. The barriers were created for Shiba to take the people of Tokyo as
hostages. If they were to accidentally destroy the barrier, the Four Gods will go
on a rampage and will lead to the destruction of Tokyo.

But Mio couldn’t just approach Byakko either. For every time Mio tried to do so,
Byakko will fire off multiple crescent shaped blades from its body that will
chase after Mio.

“Kh… Damn it!”

Mio was pushed to defend herself, using her magic to create fire pillars to block
Byakko’s attacks. She was only able to create the pillars and barriers in time as
long as she kept her distance, so fighting close range was not an option.

“You really are a bother aren’t you?”

Mio was forced to admit that their difference in speed was causing a lot of
trouble for her. For a fighter like Mio who relies on casting powerful spells from
a distance, speed type enemies are her worst nightmares. The first time she faced
off Basara in his living room, he had Brynhildr pointed at her neck in an instant.
And even with her fight against Takashi, she was only able to buy some time for
Basara.

But that was all when she lacked any real combat experience. She was definitely
stronger now. And she will never forget the bitter feeling of being so useless.

She glanced towards the other side of the park and saw Balflear summon
countless creatures to fight Maria. That was a man who was second in command
to the current Demon Lord Leohart. Of course he was going to be a force to be
reckoned with.
Time and time again, Mio had been saved by Maria. Ever since the time when
Zolgear came and killed her parents. But has Mio managed to return the favor? It
seemed that Basara was always the one to help Maria when she needed it. Back
when Sheila was taken hostage, it was Basara who fought and defeated Zolgear.
When Maria felt like she lost her position in the house, with Zest coming to live
with them, it was Basara who cheered her up.

“Now it’s my turn.”

Mio Naruse promised herself. It was her turn to help Maria. And together… No,
with everyone, they were going to go and support Basara.

“Let’s do this.”

Mio began to cast a spell and suddenly a strong vortex began to swirl around
Mio. The vortex picked up the sand from the park and resulted in a giant tornado
in the middle of the park.

Byakko stared at the black tornado. That must be some sort of plan of attack for
the girl. But Byakko was not afraid of such a threat. The tornado in the Five
Elements fell under the Tree element, which was weak against Byakko’s Metal
element. The Metal element was already being strengthened by the Earth
element of the park. If Byakko was to attack the tornado, it will cancel out the
tornado and shred the girl at the same time.

But before Byakko could launch an attack, a glaring white light shone
throughout the area and a loud sound ripped through the air. It was a
thunderstrike. And it struck right in the center of the tornado.

The girl must be causing this. But Byakko wasn’t able to grasp her intentions
until he felt himself being pulled towards the tornado. As his body was afloat, he
wasn’t able to dig himself into the ground and Byakko found himself being
dragged closer and closer to the tornado. It tried to create a wall of metal to stop
his pull, but the metallic wall was simply pulled into the tornado.

“!”

In a last ditch effort, Byakko grew metal spikes all over its body. If it’s going to
charge head first into that tornado, it was going to make sure to impale the girl
while at it. So Byakko stopped fighting back and let the magnetic force pull it
towards the tornado.

Just then, the tornado changed from black to crimson. And the magnetic pull on
Byakko stopped. But it was too late. Byakko wasn’t able stop itself from
charging head first into the crimson tornado.

Byakko didn’t even make a sound.

It simply evaporated.

What Mio Naruse used was magnetism. By using magic to create a vortex
around her, she was able to pull in the iron sand in the area to cause a magnetic
field. And that field was just too strong against Byakko, whose entire body was
made to create metal. And while the wind element was weak against Byakko’s
metal element, it was also used to power up Mio’s fire element. That was why
Mio was able to instantly change the tornado into a tornado of fire by adding fire
magic to it. It was so hot and strong that Byakko evaporated the moment it came
in contact with it.

“Phew…”

Mio dispelled the tornado as she relished in her victory. That was one thing she
could tick off her to-do list. But her job wasn’t done yet. Their battle was still
ongoing.
“Mio-sama!”

Mio snapped her neck towards Maria’s scream. At that moment, she didn’t
realize that it wasn’t a scream of congratulation from Maria. It was a scream to
warn her. And Mio saw why Maria let out a warning. For one of the disgusting
looking creatures that Maria was fighting, was right in front of her, and it
brought down its massive fist towards Mio.
 PART 11

Maria’s brain snapped into overdrive as soon as she saw Mio in danger. It
seemed that her cry out to Mio did reach her ears. But that wasn’t enough. At
any other time, Mio would have been able to deflect the attack from a single
Legion, but the current Mio had just given her all fighting Byakko and
controlling lightning magic. Her senses and reaction were just not the same.

Damn it!

If it was her, she would be able to survive a blow from Legion. But not Mio in
her current weakened state. Any direct contact will be devastating at this point.

But Maria could not fault Balflear for this seemingly underhanded attack on
Mio. He was the commander of his army. He must have predicted the outcome
of Mio’s fight to set his plan in motion after factoring all the possibilities. And
fights like these didn’t have rules. While Mio fought with Byakko and Maria
chose to fight Balflear, there was no unspoken rule for Balflear to focus solely
on Maria. For Balflear, Mio and Maria were all part of the same group trying to
stop Shiba. So if there really was anyone to blame, it would be Maria. For all
owing Balflear the opportunity to attack the vulnerable Mio.

What can I do!?

The distance between herself and Mio was not something that could be covered
by a short sprint. And there weren’t any time for her to unlock her seal. But she
still had to do something. She had to protect her precious family.
“Arrrrrghhhhhh!!”

Maria Naruse let out a ear splitting scream and, out of pure instinct, brought
down her right fist towards the ground.

Balflear watched Maria as he hid his presence with the Wraith ability.

“What a pointless endeavor.”

Balflear smirked to himself. There was simply too much a distance between the
baseball field where Mio was, and the park where Maria was standing. And no
matter how powerful Maria’s fist was, the shockwave of her punch will weaken
as it emits further away from her. Even then, Legion’s fist would strike Mio long
before the shockwave of Maria’s punch reached her.

Deciding that Mio’s fate was sealed, Balflear focused Legions’ attention towards
Maria.

“!?”

But he was faced with an unbelievable sight. Maria’s fist, while it struck the
ground, did not create any shockwaves. Instead, a crimson colored glow emitted
from her fist. In an instant, that crimson force field expanded, and the Legion
surrounding Maria were all crushed by some unseen force, including the Legion
that was about to strike Mio.

“Unbelievable…”

Balflear understood what that power meant. Maria Naruse just used gravity
magic.

“Maria…?”
Mio was in a state of shock as well. Not just at finding herself safe from harm,
but also at seeing Maria use gravity magic.

“…Mio-sama…I’m so glad…”

Mio saw Maria look her way with a smile as her legs gave way from under her.

“…Maria!”

Mio quickly activated her flight magic and propelled herself to Maria, catching
her just before she hit the dirt. As she clung onto Maria’s frail body, Mio sensed
for oncoming attacks but couldn’t detect any movements. There were no Legion
in sight. Perhaps Balflear deducted that a two on one will not be advantageous to
his situation, and made a hasty retreat.

Taking a soft sigh of relief, Mio looked down at Maria in her arms. She had lost
conscious but looked to be sleeping in peace while breathing gently.

“But…what was that…?”

No one answered her question. The only things left at the park were a sleeping
succubus and a massive crater.
 PART 12

The fight in the Central District between Shiba and Basara had changed. That is
because Basara changed the way they fought. Basara adjusted his fighting style
to a mid-range fighter by using his Extinction Sword to adapt to Shiba, who was
able to channel his Ki for both close and mid-range attacks. By doing so, if
Shiba was to use his Ki like before which destroyed the building, Basara would
be able to evade and even use the Extinction Sword to counter it.

But that did not mean that Basara had the upper hand. The Ki which Shiba emits
from his hands can manipulate the Extinction energy of Basara’s blade as well.
Therefore, even if Basara was able to destroy the buildings surrounding Shiba,
Shiba himself was left unscathed. To a bystander, this fight may have looked
one-sided with Basara, who wanted to keep his distance, and Shiba who
continued to press him. But Basara was content with that. After all, this was all
part of his plan to lure Shiba into a trap. Specifically, he was luring him towards
Daimon Road, close to Zojoji Temple.

By turning around and facing Shiba, Basara was now facing west while Shiba
faced the east. And as Basara was running at ground level while Shiba pursued
by hopping over buildings, Basara was looking up to Shiba while Shiba stared
down at Basara. Currently, Basara had his back to the Old Gate of Zojoji
Temple, while Shiba stood in between the World Trade Center Building and the
Cultural Broadcaster “Mediaplus” building. And that was exactly how Basara
wanted it to be.
“Oh… this is interesting.”

Shiba let out a little chuckle, as if he knew what Basara was planning. Zojoji and
the Tokyo Tower were key buildings in the Central District. If they were to be
destroyed, it will cause a rupture in the Earth element in the area and will risk
weakening or breaking the barrier: something Shiba would have wanted to
avoid.

While the destruction of the barrier meant that the Four Gods will destroy
Tokyo, that wasn’t Shiba’s plan, but merely a last resort. His goal, after all, is to
absorb the Ki energy of the Four Gods to turn himself into an omnipotent being.
So this location right now should limit Shiba’s liberal use of his Ki blasts.

But this plan did have one big gaping hole.

That is, while Basara wanted to end the fight as quickly as possible, Shiba did
not mind taking his sweet time. As Shiba was absorbing Ki every moment, the
longer the fight was drawn out, the stronger he would get. But the fact that Shiba
gave chase to Basara meant that he did not want Tokyo Tower and Zojoji Temple
to be destroyed… Or he could have just been bored and wanted to play cat and
mouse.

Another issue was that, Basara himself didn’t want the barrier to be destroyed.
The Four Gods destroying the city of Tokyo must be avoided at all costs. And
that is why he had his back facing Zojoji Temple and the Tokyo Tower; to make
sure his Extinction Blade did not accidentally destroy those buildings.

With Basara wanting to avoid damaging Zojoji Temple and the Tokyo Tower,
Shiba could indeed use that to his advantage and corner Basara. But making
Shiba think he had Basara cornered was also part of the plan.

“!”
In the next instant, Basara Toujou made his move. As quick as the wind, he
dashed towards Shiba.
 PART 13

Shiba stared down as Basara made his quick sprint towards him.

Hmmm?

Shiba sensed that something was off. Basara knew that his ability was to
manipulate Ki. And that is why he had been keeping his distance all this time.
Even coming out here to fight was to restrict his use of Ki.

But then why?

Why was Basara charging right at him?

Basara wasn’t the type of person to just charge in blindly without a reason, and
Shiba knew that. That meant that this seemingly suicidal move was a stepping
stone to victory for Basara.

But what exactly was he plotting?

Right then, Shiba saw the trump card Basara had been hiding. A crimson hue
started to surround the charging Basara.

And in the next moment, he disappeared.

 PART 14

Basara moved with an explosive burst, leaving behind sound and reaching godly
levels of speed. This was the anti-gravity “Universal Rejection” that he used in
his fight with Celis.

The only way to defeat an enemy who is stronger, and with a potential hidden
ace in the hole, was to defeat them with speed before they can play their
strongest card.

Appearing right in front of Shiba, Basara swung his sword to cleave Shiba into
two.

“Ah… the power you used to defeat Celis.”

Basara heard Shiba’s voice and looked up to see his hands enveloped with
golden particles. At that moment, Basara knew that whatever was coming, was
Shiba’s ace in the hole. And this time, he was emitting Ki far greater than the
amount he used to blow up the buildings from before. Shiba must have deduced
that he would not be able to block Basara’s blade with his bare hands while he
was rushing at him with the explosive speed of “Universal Rejection”.

With that amount of Ki charged in his hands, Basara knew that being hit by it
would mean his death.

“Arghhhh!”
Basara swung Brynhildr with all his might. And just as expected, Shiba went in
to stop the blade with his left hand covered in Ki.

“!?”

Shiba had a look of shock on his face when the Ki around his left hand
dispersed. It was Banishing Shift. Basara knew that Shiba was aware of him
being able to use Banishing Shift again, as well as “Universal Rejection”. But
the reason why he was still able to catch Shiba offguard was because he was
holding Brynhildr in one hand.

Banishing Shift was an attack that needed two hands to activate. And Shiba was
keeping a keen eye on when Basara would change his grip to two hands. And
that is why Basara used a one-handed Banishing Shift. This was by no means, a
complete Banishing Shift. But ever since his fight in the Demon World, Basara
was aware that there may come a time when adversaries, who have studied his
Banishing Shift, would come after him. And so, Basara had spent considerable
time in practicing a one-handed Banishing Shift. But this was by no means the
same as the real Banishing Shift, but it did its job to deflect an attack.

When the spiritual balance in his body was unbalanced due to his contract with
Hasegawa, he wasn’t able to use this move during his fight with Celis. So this
made it the perfect opportunity to use it against Shiba.

As Basara’s Banishing Shift cancelled out the Ki surrounding Shiba’s left hand,
what resulted was a ear-piercing clash between Basara’s Brynhildr and Shiba’s
armguard. Their metallic weapons were of similar toughness, and thus, the clash
of their weapons made the both of them lose their balance.

“Got you.”
Shiba let off a little smirk as his right fist came hurtling towards Basara. Shiba
was already preparing his fol ow up strike. And unlike his left fist that had its Ki
dispersed from Banishing Shift, his right fist was cloaked in a layer of Ki.

“Kh!”

Basara activated Universal Rejection to the back of Brynhildr’s blade to quicken

the slash. Not only that, the Universal Rejection that now surrounded the blade
will nullify any physical or magical property, meaning that Basara’s slash was
going to strike Shiba once again.

“Rrrgaaaaaahhhhhhhh!”

Letting out a roar, Basara swung Brynhildr and felt their attacks collide. He also
heard a loud explosion like a cannon being fired, and one of them was blasted
away. Basara saw Shiba becoming smaller in the distance.

Except, it was Basara who was being blasted away.

“Rrrrgggaaaaaahhhhhhh wha!?’

He didn’t even have time to comprehend it. Basara was blasted straight through
and destroyed the Old Gate, before being flung into Zojoji Temple. He collided
into into the main altar within the temple and everything went black.
 PART 15

“Ugh…gh…urk!”

Even as the dust settled after the impact of the collision, Basara did not get back
up. He just took the full brunt of Shiba’s right hook, Ki and all, and his body was
not responding to anything. The inside of the temple was a mess from Basara’s
collision and Shiba’s Ki blast.

“You guessed right that I could manipulate Ki Basara… but you were off by a
bit.”

Shiba spoke as he walked through the entrance that Basara just smashed through.

“Although I use Ki, my attack itself is a physical blow and you can classify it as
such. And so, you used that same defensive move you used in the fight against
Celis, to nullify all physical and magical strikes.”

“And I believe this ability comes from your mother, who was the younger sister
to the previous Demon Lord. You were able to combine your mother’s power to
control gravity with the magic of one of the members from the Demon Council.

“Huh…?”

Basara could only mutter weakly as Shiba picked apart the concept of Universal
Rejection so easily.
“Judging from your reaction, I guess you have no clue as to how I did what I just
did… I presume that you don’t know the difference between “magic” and “Ki”.
You probably think that they are two completely different things. You are both
correct and incorrect in that assumption.”

“Ki exists in all things, and it also exists in magic. Magic is a type of Ki…
therefore it also existed in that Universal Rejection ability that you used.”

“With my punches, I am able to manipulate the Ki of anything my fists touch. So

of course, when our attacks clashed, my punch was stronger than your blade.”

“Kh…!”

As Basara lay on the dirt floor, unable to move, he knew that Shiba simply had
the better hand when they revealed all their cards.

But one thing still confused him. Shiba didn’t hesitate at all to blast Basara into
and destroy the Old Gate and damage Zojoji Temple. Destroying the building
will surely bring unbalance to the barrier. And as a Ki user, Shiba should have
been able to sense Mio and the others defeating the Four Gods. If the balance for
the Five Elements were broken, Shiba will no longer be able to absorb power.

Shiba should have been able to send Basara into any direction. So that meant
that he deliberately send Basara to crash into Zojoji Temple.

But why?

Basara heard the answer from the man himself.

“Seems like it will all go well.”

As Shiba gave a smile, the area was bathed in a golden glow.

 PART 16

Nonaka Yuki, after defeating Seiryuu, made a beeline towards the Central
District where Basara was. After finding Mio and the unconscious Maria in the
Western District, Mio carried the unconscious Maria with her flight magic and
they all made their way towards the South District.

When they didn’t find Kurumi there, they knew that she was successful in
defeating Suzaku as Suzaku was also nowhere in sight. They presumed that
Kurumi made her way to the north, so the group continued onto the North
District where they spotted Zest and Kurumi.

But their happiness to see each other was short lived. It wasn’t that Kurumi and
Zest were waiting for them. But it was strange for the two to not give chase after
Basara in the Central District. Yuki soon found out why, when the hand she
stretched out to the barrier connecting to the Central District, was rejected by the
barrier. Although they never faced any problems going through other barriers,
this one was refusing to let them in.

“Then let’s try this…!”

Yuki unsheathed Sakuya and let off a slash, only to see it being absorbed by the
barrier.

“Kurumi-san and I have tried with both magic and physical attacks but to no
avail. The barrier must be made from the same barrier protecting the four
directions.”
“That means even my gravity magic won’t work…”

Mio muttered a sigh from behind Zest.

“But that doesn’t mean we can just twiddle our thumbs out here.”

Basara was inside the barrier in the Central District. They had to do everything
in order to get in there.

Kurumi voiced her plan.

“The Central District’s element is Earth right? Since the Eastern District is the
Wood element, the barrier might be weaker there.”

“But there is a fissure between the Central and Eastern district. I’m afraid that if
we force our way through, the fissure will send us to another district.”

Mio shook her head to Zest’s concern.

“No, my gravity magic will be able to directly impact the fissure, so when we
attack the barrier, it’ll get us through.”

“… We should refrain from doing that.”

All heads turned towards Yuki.

“We have no idea what will happen if we attack the fissure. It’ll be good if we
can make our way into the Central District. But what if we end up causing a
fissure inside the district?”

“Even worse, there’s a chance that the entire barrier will break down.”

All of them had fought the Four Gods to make sure to stop the Four Gods from
going berserk. All that they had done would be for naught if they were to
accidentally destroy the barrier themselves.

“Right… sorry, I thought I had an idea.”

Yuki places a reassuring hand on her sister’s slumped shoulder.

“Don’t worry, thanks to you, I was able to come up with a plan.”

“Really, Yuki-san?”

Zest asked eagerly.

“Yes… this should work.”

“First, we have to”

Yuki stopped her train of thought as she saw something at the edge of her vision.

Seeing Yuki freeze up, Mio and the others fol owed her gaze.

They didn’t know how it got there. But there was a bright gigantic golden dragon
wrapped around Tokyo Tower.
 PART 17

Basara felt a ripple through his body.

This…is…?

Having the Ki inside his body destroyed, as well as having multiple organs
damaged by Shiba, Basara was in no state to move. The ripple was not his
heartbeat. It wasn’t wild and erratic, but stable. And it was coming from the very
ground below him as if the earth itself was throbbing.

Basara looked up to see what Shiba was planning the whole time.

Right there, on the 300 meter tall Tokyo Tower, was a colossal golden dragon
that wrapped itself around the tower.

“No way…it can’t be…”

“It is… That’s “Kouryuu”. You know about it don’t you, Basara?”

The name uttered by Shiba was the name of the Divine Beast that held dominion
over the Four Gods. The Four Gods not only represented the four directions but
also the four seasons as well: Spring for Seiryuu, Summer for Suzaku, Autumn
for Byakko, and Winter for Genbu.

But in the Five Elements, there was another direction and another season. The
direction was the “center” and the season was “midsummer”.
And Kouryuu was the very representation of both the center and midsummer.
The dragon was often used as a symbol for emperors, and its element of “Earth”
all owed it control over the destructive forces of volcanoes and earthquakes.

Kouryuu’s power was not limited to Japan. It was the Earth itself. That meant it
had control over the all the land on the earth. If it so much as willed it, it could
wreak havoc anywhere in the world.

So that was Shiba’s plan. It all made sense now. If he had control of Kouryuu,
Shiba would be able to attack the Vatican while he stayed on the other side of the
world right here in Japan.

“But…how…?”

Ignoring his body’s cry of pain, Basara stood up to face Shiba. Basara still
couldn’t believe what he was seeing. After all, there was no sacred vessel for
Kouryuu. The idea of the Five Elements and the existence of Kouryuu was not
an idea that only Shiba knew of. Therefore, if there ever was an object that
would summon Kouryuu, the elders would have used it long ago, and the
Vatican would have never all owed the Village to be in possession of a power so
powerful that it could destroy the whole world.

That was the very reason why the Village in Japan was in possession of the Four
Gods and their four elements and not the Five Elements. They also only had 4
sacred vessels.

While Shiba managed to forcibly turn the vessels and the Gods into part of the
Five Elements, surely the Vatican and the Village must have had their own
safeguards against situations like this.

But here they were, and Basara was seeing Kouryuu right in front of him. The
only possibility that Basara could think of was that Kouryuu was a
representation of absolute authority. It was said in Chinese history that Kouryuu
would often lend its powers to emperors.

Even in Japan, during the Heian Period, there are records of Kouryuu appearing
in front of the Uda Emperor. In short, Kouryuu at times would lend its strengths
to kings that were deserving of its power.

“Kouryuu…chose you…?”

Not to history’s great leaders, not to heroes… not even to the strongest hero Jin.
The fact that Kouryuu would pick Shiba, a man who was trying to wipe out the
Hero Clan, was a baffling reality to accept for Basara.

“Oh no way… There’s no way I’d leave it to a matter of chance like that.”

“While it’s true that in raw strength alone, I might be considered special, but that
alone won’t make me an authoritative figure like a king. Even the kings which
Kouryuu served, some of them knew how to wield a sword and were strong
enough, but there were many warriors and generals under said kings who were
far stronger.”

“Kouryuu merely lent its strength to the ‘king’… In that case, you’d expect the
Elders in the Village to receive Kouryuu’s blessings right?”

“Then…why…?”

“You have no idea…?”

Shiba smirked as Basara’s face drew a blank.

“Kouryuu is the leader of the Four Gods, and is tasked to protect the center… so
it’s not surprising for it to appear when it has to protect the center right?”
“That…”

That did make sense. But… there was no threat to the Central District. Shiba had
an absolute advantage over Basara currently.

“!?”

Then Basara realized something. Realized something he was ignoring ever since
he entered the Central District. That was for him to locate the girls’ positions
using the Master-servant contract. He was able to sense the girls around the
barrier separating the Central District and the outside. The fact that they were all
there together meant that they had all won their respective fights. Which meant
that they had all succeeded in weakening the effects of the Five Elements. While
that was progress for Basara and the girls, to Shiba and Kouryuu, that was a
threat closing in closer and closer.

“It was because… Mio and the others…defeated the Four Gods?”

“Exactly… it’s not up to me or you whether this area is in danger or not, it’s up
to the Gods. And those Gods had had their spiritual reincarnations destroyed by
your friends. There’s no greater threat than that, no matter how much I was to
beat you here.”

Shiba’s little talk did make sense, but there was just something off about it for
Basara. There was no way that the Elders in the Village or the Vatican would
have let something as simple as this happen. They would have had safeguards
for a situation like this. But then how did they…

“As I thought Basara,… you have it all wrong.’

 PART 18

Shiba taught the confused Basara how Kouryuu was summoned. Secrets and all.

“You and those Elders are all the same. You’re all just running different
simulations in your mind, without ever thinking of how powerful Kouryuu really
is. You’re all thinking of ‘how to prevent summoning’ Kouryuu.”

“Meanwhile, I was always thinking of ways to summon it. So while you all
focused on the different ‘situations’, I was thinking of the ‘requirements’ needed
to cal forth Kouryuu.”

The need for a worthy authoritative figure. The need to defend the center from
threats. That is when the leader of the Four Gods, Kouryuu, will appear.

“But Kouryuu is not borne from those requirements. Kouryuu has always
existed. It simply appears when those requirements are met. Then all I had to do
was present a situation where those requirements happened.”

“The reason I chose to center my plans around Tokyo Tower wasn’t because it
was the symbolic figure of Tokyo… It was because this building was one of the
tallest towers in Tokyo.”

“A dragon lives in the heavens. So instead of ‘summoning’ Kouryuu, we have to

‘bring it down’

from the skies. In order to do that I needed the Tokyo Tower.”

“That’s not the only reason however. You see, the way this city is designed in the
Five Elements, Tokyo Tower has another very important role to play.”

“Judging from your reaction before, I’m guessing that you knew Zojoji Temple
was used to repress the ‘Rear Demon Gate’ of Edo Castle? A popular myth for
these Demon Gates is that they were built to prevent demons from entering an
area. And that is why the two temples, Zojoji Temple and Kaneiji Temple, were
built to protect the ‘Rear Demon Gate’ and ‘Front Demon Gate’ respectively…
But that’s not true.”

“You see, the route from the Front Demon Gate to the Rear Demon Gate was
made as a path for the gods to take. Humans aren’t meant to walk this path. So in
this Edo City, where the city itself was designed to incorporate parts of the Five
Elements, the path for the gods lay from the Northeast to the Southwest. And
Zojoji’s role was to ensure that the gods can pass through smoothly. But imagine
if Zojoji was being used for exactly the opposite reason?”

“What if Zojoji was used to trap a certain god that made its way into the center?”

“Trap a god… you mean…”

Shiba smirked as realization dawned on Basara.

“Yes… Kouryuu itself. Kouryuu revealed itself in the Edo Period as well, not
just during the Heian Period. But Ieyasu Tokugawa wanted the power of
Kouryuu for himself and successfully trapped it by building Zojoji to block Edo
Castle’s Rear Demon Gate. And in his grandson, Iemitsu’s generation, the city
building based on the Five Elements was almost complete. Iemitsu built the
Kaneiji Temple to block the Front Demon Gate to make sure other gods weren’t
able to make their way in.”
“And so the Tokugawa family were able to rule for many generations to come by
rapping the power of Kouryuu.”

“But with Zojoji now destroyed, the exits have been unsealed. Since Tokyo
Tower was built within the precinct of Zojoji Temple, it made it so much easier
for Kouryuu to appear.”

That is why Shiba deliberately summoned the Four Gods, to make Basara and
the others fight them. Switching around the directions to threaten the group with
the god’s rampage. The reason why Shiba didn’t destroy Zojoji himself was to
make sure that Mio and the others defeated the Four Gods first, to make way for
an easier summoning of Kouryuu.

“But…that wasn’t all I needed… I still needed a ‘container’.”

“A ‘contai— No way!”

“Yes, Georgius.”

Shiba couldn’t hold back a laugh at Basara’s shocked expression.

Basara looked towards Tokyo Tower and saw, right at the foot of it, Georgius
stabbed proudly upright.

“The ‘Earth’ that Kouryuu represents is made up from the other four elements…
therefore Georgius, which can harness all four elements at the same time, makes
the perfect vessel for Kouryuu.”

“And while it’s true that Georgius can only use the four elements of fire, water,
earth and wind, Georgius has proven itself to be easily manipulated in the way it
made a copy Byakko when pressured by the other gods and myself. I knew that
if I were to channel the four elements into the weapon, it will know what it has
to do and will act accordingly.”
“Originally, Georgius was a Saint for Harvest. It has a natural affinity for the
earth.”

“Kgh… Then when you left the village and left Byakko behind…”

Shiba almost pitied the way Basara was grasping for answers.

“I needed Georgius for my plan from the very beginning. But I didn’t forcefully
bring it against my will in case it broke Byakko. That would have ruined my
entire plan. That’s why I had you guys deliver it to me.”

“I knew that you would have guessed my plans had I went for Byakko myself.
That is why I used Georgius to create a fake Byakko, to make it look like
Georgius was only a tool to be used for the sake of creating a fake Byakko. And
that is why even after Balflear removed the weapon, you paid no mind to it, and
thus, didn’t realize what my plans were.”

“If you had remained calm, perhaps you would have seen an another angle to the
whole event. After all, if the only thing I needed was the Four Gods, I could
have taken all of them from the village and just left.”

“But I chose this moment to put my plans in motion. After hearing about my
story from Kaoru-san and my desire for revenge against the Vatican, you would
have thought that I made my move because the Vatican dispatched Celis to the
Village. That is kind of true. I did take advantage of all the confusion to push
forward with my plan.”

“And even after your victory against Celis, and how our fight was cancelled, I
goaded you all by saying that I was able to escape because of you let your guard
down. By then all of you were thinking about the threat that the Four Gods and I
presented.”
“Basara, with me as the enemy, that made things even worse for you didn’t it?
Because you knew that it was not just you who had to fight against me. It meant
that your precious girls also had to take part.”

When Basara assassinated the Demon Council during their fight against the
Current Demon Lord faction, Basara was able to attempt such a daring feat
precisely because he knew that Jin had his back. If something was to happen, he
could still count on Jin for backup.

But because he was late to his own fight, Kurumi ended up being hurt, and
Basara would never forget the consequences to his actions. This time, without
Jin, and without time to prepare against Shiba, Basara’s mind was being
overtaken by his instinct to protect his girls. There was no way his mind could
think things through carefully and analyze every part of Shiba’s plan. The girls
taking on the gods on a one-on-one fight did not help the stress he was going
through either.

“There was a small risk of you not figuring out how to use Byakko’s power or
Byakko not lending you its strength. But I’ve already seen you tame Byakko
before when you fought Takashi, so I took my chances that Byakko will help you
out.”

So Basara was the perfect worker ant. Dancing on Shiba’s palm doing all of his
bidding.

“I’d like to thank you, Basara. Thanks to you and your friends, I was able to cal
forth Kouryuu.”

Basara stared at Shiba’s wicked smile. Then without saying a word, he gripped
Brynhildr and prepared for battle.
 PART 19

Toujou Basara did regret that his action had led to Shiba accomplishing his
objectives.

But not yet!

He knew he couldn’t give up just yet. And that feeling was stronger than any
regret that he felt.

And Kouryuu was still not fully summoned. It might have been that the power of
the Four elements were diminishing, or that the threat levels in the Central
District was not as high. Regardless, it wasn’t over yet.

Over the course of history, Kouryuu had only lent its power to emperors
defending their own territories. If Shiba is indeed planning on using Kouryuu to
attack the Vatican, he would need to charge Kouryuu with a lot more energy
first. That meant that Basara still had a window of time to take out Shiba.

“You’re still going to fight me in that state of yours?… That’s admirable. But
aren’t you forgetting something important?”

With a snap of his fingers, Shiba materialized some sort of screen from nothing,
showing Mio and the others. The girls weren’t in the Northern District like they
were before however.

“How smart of them. They’re heading to the Southern District once they saw
Kouryuu being summoned. The Southern District shares an affinity for the fire
element, and that brown skinned girl you brought from the Demon World is of
the earth element.”

“Naruse Mio is going to use her fire magic and Kurumi-chan will use her spirit’s
power to neutralize Mio’s fire affinity to send to that brown skinned girl, which
will then mimic the same flow of elemental channeling like the Southern District
to the Central District. Then the girls are planning on slipping through with the
channeling of the elemental magic. Not a bad idea at all.”

“But what a shame. It’s not like the Five Elements are all about opposing and
complementing elements. Even the earth element from this Central District can
be channelled to the Southern District.”

Shiba snickered as he spoke to Kouryuu.

“Kouryuu, as the one who presides over all four directions, you must see the
enemies who are trying to break into this place. The very enemies who defeated
the Four Gods.”

The golden dragon twisted its neck to face south and Shiba’s sickening smile
became even wider.

“Now show me… show me the power that defends the center of all things.”

As Shiba gave his command, Kouryuu began to glow even brighter. Basara saw
this and screamed out

“No!”

The rest of what Basara was going to say was drowned out by the bright beam of
light that shot out from Kouryuu’s jaws. The light from the beam instantly
enveloped all the girls.
 PART 20

Kouryuu’s beam razed everything in sight in the northern area of the South
District. The unblockable beam simply blew apart the ground itself and even
reshaped the very land that was Japan. A large chunk of land in southern Tokyo
was turned into one massive crater, and the sea water was already flowing in like
waterfalls to fill it up.

Shiba looked over all the destruction with a faint smile on his face.

“What a shame… They could have just forcefully dispelled the barrier by killing
one of the Four Gods. But they were so considerate by thinking of the people
outside the barrier. Such admirable girls. I’m sure you were… proud to cal them
your girlfriends Basara.”

Those words were the last straw.

“Aaaarrghhhhhhhhh!!”

Basara ground his teeth and let out a howl of rage before flickering out of
Shiba’s sight.

“Oh… that’s the fastest you’ve been today. Even with such a battered body.”

“But that won’t be enough to reach me.”

Shiba spun his arm guards in a circular motion, and like some invisible
forcefield, it deflected the sword slash that Basara hurled his way.
“That’s enough Basara… You’ve done enough.”

Shiba buried his right palm into Basara’s torso and flooded in a wave of Ki into
his body.

“……!”

Unable to even let out a cry, Basara’s eyes rolled into the back of his head and
his knees gave out. This time he was done for sure.

“Phew, well that settles that… But now to make sure…”

Shiba walked towards the collapsed Basara, and pointed his right palm at
Basara’s back. A spherical ball of Ki appeared in his hand.

“Goodbye Basara…”

But Shiba’s final attack never happened.

Because Basara’s body just disappeared.

And it wasn’t because of the super speeds that he showed before when he
moved. Basara was unable to move at all.

Then it only meant one thing. That another person was able to enter this barrier.

“Wow… I’m surprised you were able to make it in here.”

Shiba sported a smile on his face as he turned to face the uninvited guest.

Right there was a figure clutching onto the beaten and unconscious Toujou
Basara Hasegawa Chisato.
 PART 21

As she clutched onto Basara, Chisato Hasegawa, also known as Afureia, was
relieved that she made a contract with Basara. Not long ago, Hasegawa and
Basara went to the hot springs resort together. There she revealed her secret and
the truth to him, and when he accepted, she erected a dimensional barrier in their
room and they spent a time together longer than night.

Through the contract they forged that night, Hasegawa, who was once one of the
Ten Gods, was now a subject to Basara’s control. And by doing so, she was now
able to sense where Basara was at all times.

She was tracking him in secret ever since he left for the Village, and when he
used the power of Byakko to enter Shiba’s barrier, she used a method only
known to the Ten Gods, to infiltrate within the barrier.
Hasegawa entered from the Northern District. When Hasegawa and Basara made
their contract together, they did so in the area of Nikko. While they were
traveling together, they prayed at two different shrines. One was to bless them
with happiness, and the other was the Nikko Toshogu, the shrine that worships
Tokugawa Ieyasu. As Hasegawa was a god herself, when praying at the shrine,
she was able to receive a divine blessing and was able to sneak through the
barrier undetected. And she was able to bide her time to find the perfect
opportunity to save Basara.

But judging from his wounds now, she wasn’t quite sure if she should have
waited.

Basara’s heartbeat was faint and he was weakening by the second. And his
bleeding wasn’t stopping either. There was no denying that his condition was
critical.

“…How dare you.”

The boy in her arms was the very reason for her life. Hasegawa glared at Shiba.
She was about to explode in rage.

“Wow, such killing intent… scary.”

“Is it okay for a Ten God to favor an individual so much?… Or maybe that
behavior is in the blood?”

Shiba smirked.

“Your cousin also favored Jin-san didn’t she? To the point of giving him a child
and being sealed away to pay the price.”

“Am I wrong Afureia?”

Shiba spoke like he knew everything about her, and Hasegawa responded in
kind.

“If you find fault in me helping Basara, then what does that make you?”

“I sense a very familiar presence from you… A presence of a Ten God who
disappeared 20

years ago to visit the Human World, never to come back.”

“Those arm guards of yours… must be Reginleif”

Shiba raised his arms to show his weapons and laughed.

“As expected of ex-colleagues. The Ten God Reginleif is now part of my arms…
since that time 20 years ago.”
 PART 22

The Vatican was taking part in forbidden practices 20 years ago. It was the
cloning experiment for Toujou Jin. And there was a god behind that treacherous
activity. The man who pulled the strings from behind Albareos, one of the Ten
Gods, Reginleif.

But as Shiba’s power became too much that they couldn’t control it, Reginleif
also disappeared. Many simply thought he returned to the Divine Realm, but that
was not the case.

It was not because they couldn’t control Shiba, that Reginleif disappeared. It was
because his disappearance only made Shiba stronger.

How nostalgic. Shiba could never forget the time he was reborn 20 years ago.
Reginleif was interested in him as a vessel since his body was able to absorb
unlimited amounts of corruption. In fact, he wanted that body and ability all for
himself. So much that he was slowly converting Shiba’s body into a divine
vessel without Albareos or anyone in the Hero Clan finding out.

But there was something Reginleif overlooked.

First was that Shiba’s body did not only absorb and store corruption.

And that Shiba’s body was not just a container, but that he was on a whole other
level.
Worst of all, Shiba was already aware of his abilities. So it was only natural what
happened after. Reginleif tried to use two arm guards to absorb Shiba, but Shiba
was able to absorb Reginleif instead.

And by absorbing a Ten God, Shiba became an entity that even the Hero Clan
did not try to mess with.

Now it all makes sense why the Four Gods, Georgius and even Kouryuu itself,
all decided to adhere to the wishes of Shiba. It was because of his overwhelming
strength.

So that was why Shiba was not scared of Afureia. Shiba currently had the power
of Reginleif and the Four Gods. So that is why he was able to give Hasegawa a
nice smile.

“So what will you do? If you’re angry about your injured Basara, we can fight
right here. Although it’ll be the first time I’d fight a Ten God.”

Shiba looked down at Basara being held by Hasegawa.

“Threatening you by attacking an injured Basara might make the fight more
interesting. I really would like to know how powerful you are now that you have
the bloodlust and rage.”

“I see…”

“But that won’t be by my hands.”

And she and Basara disappeared in an instant.

“Huh… she made a great escape after saying such things.”

Shiba heard an answer.

“Don’t worry, you’ll find out soon.”

And her voice disappeared with the wind. But there was a sound of conviction
from behind that voice.

“My feelings will definitely destroy you.”

 CHAPTER 3:
COMPLETING THE MASTER-SERVANT CONTRACT
 PART 1

It was a common symptom for one’s mind to be befuddled after regaining one’s
consciousness.

“———?”

More so if they were to awaken somewhere unknown —such was why Naruse
Mio could not make out her current situation the moment her eyelids rose as if
they were stage curtains.

She could make of her current surroundings, though.

For instance, the fact that she was laying on the spacious bed of a foreign room.

A king-sized bed…no, the mattress and the frame were far too large for a bed
expected of that size. It was likely a special, tailor-made product or some such.
The bed felt like that of the one in the basement that Zest had made with magic
in the Toujou residence, the bed that could accommodate everyone in the
household to sleep on.

…Huh?

Mio suddenly realized that the bed she was on wasn’t simply uncanny
resemblance; she literally was on the exact bed situated in the basement of the
Toujou residence.
There was no mistaking it; even from the distorted angle that came from Mio’s
sleeping position as she lay on her back, she could recognize that the features on
the headboard on the bed, made from a whole, sizable piece of wood, were
exactly the same. This was the bed of the Toujou household — and for some
unknown reason, Mio was laying upon it in an unfamiliar room.

“…What’s going on?”

As Mio sat up while enduring the unfamiliarity within her head, she realized she
was not alone on the bed and the other girls that lived in the Toujou household,
much like herself, were also present. Kurumi and Zest in particular sandwiched
her in between the two as they lay beside her, left and right respectively.

“…………” “………”

The two had their eyes shut, their breathing steady — they were asleep, likely,
much like she was just a few moments ago. And the moment such a thought
crossed her mind —

“Mio-sama!”

“Thank goodness…you’re awake as well.”

The two who spoke were at the edge of the bed.

“Maria…Yuki…”

Dumbfounded, and as she called out their names —

…Ah…

Mio remembered the situation from before they all had passed out.

“That’s right, we were—”

Attempting to enter the center of the battle between Basara and Shiba, the group
had made their way toward the east, attempting to infiltrate the space through the
flow of the Five Elements. However, a sudden surge of blinding light had
swallowed them in the middle of it all, dying their vision and consciousness into
nothing but whiteness.

“What in the world was that light…”

“— It’s probably the attack of the Kouryuu that suddenly appeared in the
center.”

Immediately and without delay, it was Yuki that responded to Mio’s murmur of a
question. It was likely that she and Maria were the first to have regained
consciousness and subsequently evaluate and settle on their current situation.

However — if it was an adversarial attack earlier, how in the world could they
have been rescued, then?

“Have we been captured?” Mio asked, suspicious of such a possibility.

“Yeah…I guess so. Yuki-san and I have attempted to leave the room to no avail,
but…” said Maria.

“The doors and windows are like decorations. You can touch them, but you can’t
open them. We’ve already tried to break past the walls, the floor and the ceiling,
but our attacks don’t leave as much as a scratch on them.”

“My Sakuya can’t cut through any of it, nor can Maria’s fists suffice as well…”

As Mio listened to Yuki lamenting regrettably over the situation, she thought of
the fact that attempting to use her own magic would probably fail to destroy the
room as well, given that the full efforts of the two yielded no results.
…But if it were possible to escape, given one way or another…

True enough, Mio knew the means to escape their current predicament.
Thereupon which she asked,

“Basara…right, where’s Basara?”

“…I don’t know. We’re the only ones here.”

“I can’t find him through our Master-servant contract, either.”

“But that’s…” Mio exclaimed softly in response to their chagrined expressions.

To which Yuki then firmly said,

“But our Master-servant contracts are still intact. That’s why I’m sure Basara’s
still alive.”

And the moment she finished, the door, completely shut just a few moments ago,
suddenly opened.

“——— …!?”

In response to the unexpected occurrence, the three inhaled deeply and prepared
themselves for battle. Yuki and Maria readied themselves at the front whereas
Mio stood at the rear end, protecting Zest and Kurumi, who had yet to regain
consciousness.

“I see your reactions are swift. I take you’re all alright now, then?”

The voice came from a figure who smiled as she entered the room — someone
who Mio and the others were all too familiar with.

“Hasegawa sensei …”
“Though perhaps that’s to be expected…I can understand why you’re all so
nervous at the moment.”

“Come to think of it, though, I suppose I would’ve been more perplexed if you
didn’t react like that…

“Basara’s power…”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean this,” With those words, Hasegawa snapped her fingers. The wall that
held the door suddenly became semitransparent, all owing one to see what
appeared on the other side.

There was a bed in the neighboring room, and upon it was —

“— Basara!”

Upon realizing that it was Basara that lay on the bed, Mio abruptly raised her
voice in surprise.

His eyes were closed, and he appeared sound asleep. Thereupon Hasegawa
continued to explain,

“The moment I made it to the scene —Basara was about to killed by that man
called Shiba. Although I managed to save him in time…he was fatally wounded.
That was why I was trying to treat him all this time, and his condition is stable as
of now.”

“…Were you the one who saved Basara, Sensei?” Mio asked after hearing her
words. Before Hasegawa could give her answer, however, someone else spoke
first.
“Hold on a second. How do we know you’re telling the truth?”

It was Maria who spoke. She held a skeptical, glaring look at Hasegawa, saying:

“It’s possible that you might be one of Shiba’s associates and in truth captured
Basara-san and the rest of us here.”

And that wasn’t all —

“Yuki-san couldn’t deduce Basara’s real location while she was surveying the
area some time ago. That said, whether or not that’s the real Basara-san can also
be put into question.”

“I see your point in that…in that case, you’re free to try and ascertain his
presence once more.”

At Hasegawa’s suggestion, Mio and Yuki, the two who were bound by the
Master-servant contract, exchanged looks with each other.

“Please do.”

And fol owing Maria’s exclamation, the two closed shut their eyes
simultaneously for a moment, and then in the next— Mio and Yuki opened their
eyes in shock, as they immediately turned to the translucent wall that hid Basara
behind it.

“…Mio-sama?”

“I can feel it…there’s no questioning it. That’s the real Basara.”

As Mio confirmed Maria’s doubts, it was Hasegawa who then spoke.

“I didn’t want to be interrupted until I’d settled Basara’s treatment, so I cast a

special seal on the room…knowing that you all would likely suspect me.”
“………”

However, Hasegawa’s words had yet to put Maria at ease. Even if Basara was
real, the fact of whether Hasegawa herself was real was still questionable.

And even then…

Even if it was truly Hasegawa that stood before them now, did she show herself
before them as a friend or foe?

“Perhaps it’s a good thing that you’re so profoundly suspicious…it means you’re
well aware of the various possibilities surrounding your current situation.
However, before you come to question as to whether or not I’m real or fake, I
ask this of you: how are you all so sure that you’re all real as well?”

“There’s a Demon who specializes in disguise in your enemy’s ranks…and fol

owing the attack by Kouryuu, you all lost consciousness…and yet you all
suspect nothing of each other after waking up off the sole fact you’re all
together. How can you be so sure as to the fact that the enemy isn’t
masquerading as one of your group right now?”

“…Touché.”

In response to having her questioning turned onto her, Maria nodded in

understanding and calmed herself.
 PART 2

Hasegawa Chisato looked at the young succubus before her as the latter relaxed
herself.

A sign of trust, perhaps.

“Good grief…it seems that I’m rather poor at acting.”

Hasegawa neither hated nor saw enemies in Mio and the others; she loves Basara
more than anyone ever could, and thus would never do harm to anything or
anyone that Basara valued and treasured.

However —the fact remained that Hasegawa had not managed to truly save
Basara in the nick of time, for the process of having to rescue this group of girls
who had been under attack from Kouryuu before subsequently hiding them in a
space where neither Shiba nor Barflear could find them had taken quite a lot of
time. And while it was true that Hasegawa had saved Basara from danger
without the both of them being further harmed, she wondered if Mio and the
others would have the wariness she expected of them when she had revealed
herself. On the contrary, if they were to immediately believe in someone for the
mere fact that they appeared to be someone familiar to them, Hasegawa would
have truly thought lesser of the group.

If they were to have stooped so low, she wouldn’t have all owed them to fight by
Basara’s side — even if Hasegawa understood how much Basara loved them,
and even if she wouldn’t stop them from living together.
Hasegawa had saved Mio and the others, and had managed to maintain the
slither of Basara’s life that hung on a thread during his battle with Shiba.

Moreover, she adjusted the ill, imbalanced airs within Basara, and rescued him
from certain death.

Rescuing Basara was an infallible task to Hasegawa that laid at her top priority
—s he had never intended to use such a deed against Mio and the others as a
quid pro quo. Nonetheless, the group having acted more warily and hostilely
than expected toward Hasegawa had inevitably left an acerbic taste in her mouth.

It was thus that she’d said some rather uncomfortable things to them.

…Oh well.

Perhaps she’d only found herself saying such things because she had more than
enough energy to spare after she’d stabilized Basara’s condition.

“—How exactly did you deduce that I was on your side from our earlier
exchange?”

Hearing Hasegawa’s question, Maria shrugged and answered: “I was the first to
wake up…I had already checked the identities of Mio-sama and the others
before you needed to ask. As a succubus, I can peek into their dreams to identity
them.” Her line of sight that turned horizontally to a certain someone beside her
—

“The one who was the second to awaken was me…and for our safety, I asked the
Sakuya to confirm whether or not all of us in the room were the real thing,” It
was then after Maria finished that Yuki spoke, “And so, in the end, we concluded
the enemy didn’t blend into us. At the very least, we’re certain he’s not among
the five of us.”
“Is that so…”

“Correct,” Maria nodded to Mio, who seemed to have finished taking in the
information that they had conveyed. “The one named Balflear — his abilities of
disguise are really powerful. …We need to be careful.”

Appearing as if she had understood the situation, Mio then turned to face
Hasegawa.

“Hasegawa-sensei …if you were truly an enemy, you would have kept a close
eye on our actions, and yet you didn’t know what Maria had done. So you really
were focused on healing Basara, and yet we…”

Before Mio could finish, she lowered her head, bowing before Hasegawa.

“And yet we suspected you…We’re really sorry about that…and we’re also
grateful. The fact that we’re here means you’ve not only saved Basara, but all of
us, as well— am I wrong?”

Hasegawa gave off a wry smile — wry, but gentle, a smile that signified that she
approved of their abilities.

“Don’t think anything of it…I’ve said some rather uncouth things myself, after
all, and I’m sorry for that.”

She had no intention of condemning them the whole time. At the very least, the
group had successfully carried out their post duties, having toppled the Four
Gods and forcing Barflear to retreat.

And as much as Shiba had played the better hand this time round —

It was all inevitable, in the end. They could not have possibly managed to fend
off the enemy —not while they had Kouryuu, manifested from the Four Gods,
along with Reginleif, a member of the Ten Gods — as their trump cards.
Thereupon which Yuki asked,

“Sensei …can you tel us why you’ve decided to help us?”

“Well…” Hasegawa nodded, as if in thought, before replying:

“As much as I too wish to explain everything…but I’ve already made a promise
with Basara about it all. Perhaps it’s best for Basara himself to explain it to you
once he wakes up.”

As such —

“In exchange, I’ll tel you all that I know of your current situation, then.”
 PART 3

Nonaka Yuki, Mio and Maria listened to Hasegawa’s explanation together.

They learned of how they were still within the barrier constructed by Shiba
through the Five Elements, and how they were now within a special, double-
thick barrier constructed by Hasegawa at the eastern vicinity.

They learned of how the wave of light that attacked them was indeed an attack
from Kouryuu.

They learned of how Celis’ Georgius was the medium that Shiba had used to
summon it.

And how even at the very moment they were speaking, the power of Kouryuu
was only going to grow even stronger through the power of the Five Elements.

“Anything beyond that I can only speculate…that man named Shiba — it’s
likely that he intends to all ow Kouryuu to fully awaken, such that it would
ascend to a state where it would be able to control the veins of the entire earth.”

“If that were to happen, Tokyo won’t be the only area under his grasp…but the
entire world as well…however, I’m afraid he has another true motive, as well.”

“His true motive…?”

“Yes,” She replied upon hearing Yuki’s question, “I can’t be fully certain, but …
it’s very possible that Shiba intends to absorb Kouryuu into himself at the end of
it. It would mean he would no longer be dependent on an external power
Kouryuu’s, and achieve an unparalleled state through his own abilities alone.”

Nevertheless —

“Before that happens, it’s likely that we have a period of time for a
counterattack.”

“How can you deduce that?” Mio asked.

“The greater the power, the more difficult it is to control it. It’s a principle that
applies to one’s innate power; attempting to control a foreign source of that size
makes it all the more difficult. The drastic change in power can cause the body
to lose its balance, such that it may even affect one’s own innate abilities.”
Hasegawa said. Which was why —

“I imagine he intends to wait until there are no more obstacles in the barrier
before absorbing Kouryuu. Which is to say he would do so after eliminating us
beforehand, or after procure some such similar scenario himself.”

“That said, we can’t keep running away — it’s doing nothing to stop Shiba’s
plan. See for yourself. ”

A massive screen projected itself onto the ceiling to reveal Kouryuu twining
around the Tokyo Tower.

“…It’s growing bigger?” Yuki’s brows knitted themselves together upon

discovering Kouryuu’s altered form, different from how she had seen it during
their clash in the northern and southern regions.

“Yes…when it attacked you with the power of the elements, I’d say it had
already manifested around 10% of itself.”
“And it was only 10% back then…?” Mio could not believe Hasegawa’s words.

“How unfortunate…from the looks of it, it seems to be more than 50% complete.
In the past, Kouryuu could only manifest itself up to no more than 50% when it
was bestowed with the power of the kings…that alone should tel you how bad
things are getting right now. If we let it manifest itself to 100%, I’m afraid we’ll
run out of options to defeat it.”

“Then we have to think of a solution, and fast…”

“Calm down.” Hasegawa said to Maria, who looked evidently distressed. “As
I’ve said earlier, the greater the power, the more difficult it is to control. There’s
still a bit of time before Kouryuu develops into its complete form. However,
immediately barging into the scene like that would be a suicidal move.”

After all —

“Kouryuu is a big problem, no doubt…the real issue here, though, is still that
man, Shiba. His magic gauntlet isn’t something you want to take lightly.”

“His magic gauntlet?”

“Yes. Much like Basara’s magic sword, Brynhildr, Shiba’s gauntlet utilizes a
special soul as its core.” Hasegawa nodded to Yuki, “In terms of raw strength
alone, Basara’s Brynhildr would be no match…as is the case with your spirit
blade Sakuya, Yuki. That’s also why Basara had been badly beaten by that man.”

Furthermore —

“The Four Gods have recovered all the power of the Five Elements that they’d
lost when your group had managed to subdue them when they were manifested
and have become stronger since. It’s thus likely that Shiba won’t rely on the Four
Gods in order to fully develop Kouryuu’s final form. However, even if we all
attack him together, and even if we’re lucky enough to force him into a corner…
he’d just release the barrier when that happens.

“We can’t do that. If that were to happen, we would no longer be able to chase
down Shiba.”

If Tokyo were to be destroyed, the Village would force responsibility upon

Basara’s group.

The Vatican would support the Village’s actions as well—much like the Village
had used Shiba’s danger as an anomaly to earn their place amongst humankind.

And in addition—

There was the concern of Byakko, that the group had forcefully brought along
with them; it was likely that the lance saw Yuki, Kurumi and Basara as enemies
to purge, whereas Mio, Maria and Zests were targets it needed to annihilate.

“In other words…if we are ever to manage to defeat that man, we have to do it
through the arrangement of the Four Gods, one way or another.” Maria’s tone
was heavy as she said so.

It was to be expected: Shiba was now in a position where he could release the
energy of the Five Elements into the surrounding districts with Kouryuu as its
center. And given that Shiba’s ultimate goal was to absorb Kouryuu as soon as
possible, any move Yuki and the others would make on the Four Gods would
thus be met with immediate resistance — it wouldn’t be a significant delay if he
were to eliminate any obstacles before Kouryuu would reach its final form.

“…………………”

“Um…” As the group dwelt on the direness of the situation, the natural silence
that swept across the room was broken by a noncommittal murmur.
It was Mio.

“Um, sensei …can you hear me out for a bit?”

Mio peered into Hasegawa’s eyes for a moment, before letting out what she
wanted to say.

“This probably isn’t…the first time you’ve helped Basara and us, isn’t it?”
 PART 4

Mio could notice the change in Hasegawa’s expression after she had asked her
that question.

The latter’s eyes had reduced themselves to thin slits.

“…Why would you think so?”

Having had her question returned with another question from Hasegawa, Mio
explained her guesses.

“You’ve saved us when we failed to resist Kouryuu’s attack, and you’ve also
saved Basara, who couldn’t defeat Shiba back there…and now you’ve made a
space that Shiba himself can’t even touch or detect in the very space he himself
created. Given all of this there’s no doubt that your abilities are far beyond ours,
sensei.”

However —

“This also isn’t the first time that we’ve…no, this isn’t the first time that Basara
has been involved in a life-threatening battle.”

Takigawa was the first of such instances; there was also Takashi, who had
wielded Byakko during their battle; and then there was Zolgear.

Even if he’d grown far stronger at his current state, the aforementioned battles
were all fights to the death with Basara having the lower hand, such that it
wouldn’t be surprising if Basara would have perished in any of those fights back
then.

“That said, it’s odd to think that you’ve always been watching on the sidelines
and have only opted to to help us directly for this instance alone…it’s more
natural to assume that you’ve always managed to help us in some way, however
subtly.”

“…………”

In response to Mio’s conjecture, Hasegawa said nothing, a mere composed smile

alight on her face.

“If I am to be particular — during the school sports festival.” Discerning that

Hasegawa’s smile meant that she was confirming her suspicions, she gave such
an example.

Basara had been attacked by an unknown assailant during the preparation period
of the festival; the perpetrator was eventually revealed to be none other than
their homeroom teacher, Sakasaki Mamoru. He’d manipulated Onizaki into
using his tornado magic to devastate the festival, knocking out Mio and Yuki in a
surprise attack, and had held Kurumi hostage against Basara. And Basara had
somehow managed to defeat Sakasaki despite the aforementioned dilemma…at
least, that was what Mio and the others knew in terms of the details of the
incident. That said, the elephant in the room was the fact that the stage of that
previous battle had been set at Higirigasaka Academy — the very place where
Hasegawa herself had obviously been present back then.

And in addition…

Mio and the others had awoken in the infirmary after being knocked unconscious
by Sakasaki.
According to Hasegawa, she had found them unconscious at the rear of the
school compound and had sent them to the infirmary as a result back then; given
that Hasegawa was the school nurse and would have brought any other
unconscious student to the infirmary as she had done to the both of them, there
was nothing particularly off about such an explanation.

Assuming that Hasegawa was truly just a normal human being, that is.

Hasegawa was more powerful than Mio and the others and had acted as a
protective existence to them without their knowing; Hasegawa had brought Mio
and Yuki to the infirmary back then with the intention of protecting them much
as she had done for the group this time round.

It was even possible that…

Hasegawa herself was the one that had caused them to faint back then, rather
than Sakasaki.

Moreover, Kurumi had also fainted during that incident — it was unnatural that
she had been the only who had been taken hostage while Mio and Yuki had been
left aside. Of course, there was no denying that the search for too many hostages
would prove to be a distraction, but a greater number of hostages would have
made it easier to force Basara to surrender to Sakasaki rather than posing a mere
threat.

“Well…I suppose it’s fine if I explained this bit to you.” She chuckled lightly,
knowing that it couldn’t be helped anymore. “It’s true that I’ve given him some
advice and have also given him some of my power that would protect him…
however, it’s through your own efforts and resolve to persevere to the bitter end
that’s gotten you all through all those crises back then… There’s no need to
question that. I was also involved in the incident with Sakasaki, for it involved a
special issue that I had to take into my hands personally.”
Mio then questioned Hasegawa, who had confirmed that she had indeed aided
Basara in the past, once more, the former’s eyes gazing into that of the “all too
beautiful” school nurse’s.

“Then…did you make the Master-servant contract with Basara during the sports
festival as well?”
 PART 5

The question that Mio had proposed before her very eyes had shocked
Hasegawa.

Mio had actually asked Hasegawa of the timing of which the latter had made her
Master-servant contract with Basara.

It was a question that was completely unrelated to the previous query of whether
or not Hasegawa had helped them in the past beyond this instance — a question
that came about only after Mio had learned and confirmed that Hasegawa had
indeed initiated a Master-servant contract with Basara.

It wasn’t impossible that Mio had put two and two together and had associated
this instance of Hasegawa’s intervention with how befuddled she was after
recalling the events that occurred during the school sports festival; Hasegawa
and Basara had both kept their relationship secret all this time, however, of
which included two instances of making contracts with one another. That was
why Hasegawa was the unseen ace up Basara’s sleeve.

But not even a single Hasegawa word had said until now had hinted toward that
secret, nor did the gaze in Mio’s eyes show any semblance of deception.

Which only meant that…

After Hasegawa had ascertained the truth, she spoke as she returned Mio’s gaze:

“I see…you’ve already gone that far in your contract with Basara, Naruse.”
The Master-servant contract offered its contractees the secondary ability of being
able to track down the location of one another.

However, the master can choose to deny their servant the ability to track their
location with a contract of an adequate level. Such an ability was derived from
the elevated position of the master within the Master-servant contract — a
binding relationship between the master and the corresponding follower.

An enhancement of such a nature was exclusive to the master, however. And yet
it wasn’t only the master that would benefit from a deepened contract—likewise,
the servant would also develop their own set of enhanced tracking abilities,
although such enhancements were dissimilar to that of their masters.

If the master were to ever be in danger, the servant would be able to sense it even
if the master attempted to hide their location —a benefit that would all ow the
servant to make haste in rescuing their master.

Should the servant believe that their actions are truly in the best interest of their
master, any disobedience that would come from the corresponding act would not
trigger the curse of the Master-servant contract—a privilege exclusive to those
who swore absolute loyalty to their masters.

However, masters were usually far stronger than their servants by virtue of the
nature of the Master-servant contract.

The servant’s efforts to save their corresponding masters were thus likely to end
in futility; as such, the development of the servant would provide them with
another ability: The ability for the wielder to determine the existence of another
servant whom shared loyalty to the same master.

It was thus likely that Mio—perhaps even Yuki—had sensed that another of
Basara’s servants was nearing them before the elemental of the attack of
Kouryuu could devour them before their rescue.

It’s come to this, hasn’t it?

There was no hiding it any further now; as much as it would be best for Basara
himself to reveal the truth of her relationship with him to Mio and the others,
deceiving them any further would merely be running away and placing the cart
over the horse, for the future now held obstacles that would arise from their
ignorance of the truth. And knowing that —

I’m so sorry, Basara. She apologized in her heart to the young man still asleep in
the neighboring room, and she finally divulged the truth.

“Basara and I had made our Master-servant contract around two months ago…
not long after your group had returned from the Demon Realm. I used to be one
of the Ten Gods, much like Reginleif once was. That said, I’ve made such a
contract with him to lend my power to Basara.”

“The Ten Gods… so you’re saying that you’re a god?” Maria asked,
flabbergasted.

“I’ll explain that further after the other two have woken up…it’s a long story,
and it’s important to them as well. Besides, given that the level of your Master-
servant contracts have already increased to such a degree, there are some things
that I would like to…,no, there are some things I need to explain clearly to you
all before Basara wakes up.”

“Things you need to explain clearly to us?” Yuki repeated Hasegawa’s question.

“Yes,” Hasegawa nodded, as her gaze swept across the five girls who were
bound to Basara by their Master-servant contracts, much like Hasegawa herself
was. “You all need to prepare yourselves…only then will you manage to defeat
that man called Shiba Kyouichi.”
 PART 6

Toujou Basara awakened through the pain and suffocation that emanated through
his body.

“…Haa, cough…?”

His befuddled vision first revealed to him that a ceiling that he could remember
he’d seen somewhere before, before realizing that he was looking upward due to
his state of lying down.

And as he went through his library of memories, trying to remember why exactly
he was in this current state —

“————!”

He immediately remembered. He remembered how he impulsively charged

toward Shiba, only for the attempt to backfire by a counterattack, and how he
lost consciousness as a result.

And he also remembered something else, something that stole away any
semblance of composure and caused him to overflow with violent emotions.

He lost everything he loved.

Basara slowly raised himself from his sleeping position —t hereupon which he
ascertained that he was indeed on a bed of a room that he’d seen somewhere,
someplace before. But such knowledge was no longer relevant right now.
He could still move, even if just barely. Then there was only one thing to do…

A cold glint appearing in Basara’s eyes, he descended from the bed, determined
to hunt down a certain someone he needed to take down…no, someone he
needed to kill— and the door suddenly opened before he could reach it.

“Basara! …Thank goodness, you’re finally awake.”

A girl appeared from the door, and after noticing Basara beside the bed, she
rushed toward him and embraced him. The girl was someone Basara thought
he’d lost — a very important family member.

Naruse Mio.

“Mio…weren’t you…but you were attacked by Kouryuu…” And as the

dumbfounded Basara found himself asking the question reflexively,

“Yeah…it was a close cal, but we were saved, luckily.” Mio replied, as she
parted from Basara temporarily to lock her eyes with his.

“The others are also all unharmed…everything’s all right now. We’re safe here.”

“Right…”

Basara couldn’t resist the urge to embrace her once more after hearing Mio’s
gentle words — nor could he resist the wave of emotions surging within him at
that realization.

“!…Thank goodness…you’re all alright.”

“…Mmm.”

As Basara let out his immense relief, Mio gently returned his embrace, settling
into the warmth of his elbows wrapping around her for the moment. After he
calmed down a bit, he asked:

“Where are the others?”

“Oh, wait just a moment…I’ll go bring them over.” Mio exited the room as she
said so.

“………………”

As Basara’s gaze fixated itself on his palm, the lingering warmth from Mio’s
embrace causing him to stroke his chest in relief —

A loud noise resounded from behind the door Mio went through, shaking the
room Basara himself was in.

That meant that there was an immense crash in the neighboring room —

“———— Mio!”

Basara hurriedly leaped off the bed. Even if the pain was excruciating, Basara
forced his weakened state forward, dragging his right leg toward the door.

“! —— Kyaaaaah!”

Mio’s shrill screams resounded from the other room — to which Basara
extended an arm in response, but given the poor condition of his body, he lost his
balance and fell to the floor.

“Gah…are you okay, Mio!?”

“I’m all right.” She nodded as he raised his head asked about her condition,
though her attention wasn’t toward Basara. Basara thus turned toward her line of
sight, to reveal —
“Why, hello, Basara — so this is where you’ve been hiding.”

A young man, standing in the middle of the debris of the devastated room, turned
toward him with a chuckle.

“Shiba…!”

As Basara exclaimed his name and immediately urged himself to summon

Brynhildr — he realized that there were four girls surrounding him, spreadeagled
at his feet.

“Maria…Yuki…Kurumi…Zest?”

His voice quivered and stuttered as he attempted to muster out their names, the
scene before him a pool of immeasurable blood drenching his group of four girls
on the floor. Not a single one of them responded to him.

And Toujou Basara knew what such a scenario entailed.

The important existences to him that had been saved just a short moment ago —
their lives had been stolen just as easily.

“How dare you…!”

Through clenched teeth and a kneeling position, Basara materialized Brynhildr.

“Mio…use what you used when we faced off against Chaos.”

He was referring to the means that she had used to defeat Chaos during their
battle in the Demon Realm.

Mio had used her gravity magic to create a black hole, of which Basara would
then fol ow up with a gravitational slash, thus trapping the victim between the
resultant dimensional space. Although they had Leonhardt’s aid during the battle
against Chaos—

We have no choice…!

They couldn’t think of any other way to defeat him — they could only combine
their powers to facilitate an opportunity.

“I understand. Leave it to me.” Mio nodded in response as a crimson aura began

to rise from her body.

And then —

“—————!”

Toujou Basara moved as if he were a flicker. Given that he needed to initiate for
Mio to perform a followup attack, he had to move first for them to acquire a
suitable timing.

That was why Basara took the first move — and as he shortened the divide
between him and his foe in the room,

“My, my…for someone who was knocking on death’s door just a short moment
ago, you’re still quite reckless.” With an acerbic smile, Shiba brandished his arm
equipped with Reginlief — a backhand gauntlet that emanated an ominous aura.

“Haaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!”

Wielding Brynhildr in both arms, Basara forcefully brandished his blade —

performing Banishing Shift.

He wasn’t able to detect the corruption, and while he wasn’t capable of

completely removing it, his slash managed to parry Shiba’s aura.
And the fact that Shiba had raised his right hand meant that the lower half of his
body was open — such that Mio could aim her gravity magic there and then —
at least, that was how he expected things to go.

“Dangerous, aren’t you? You can’t even hold your sword tightly enough and
you’re still swinging it with such reckless abandon.”

Amidst the dancing aura, Shiba’s right backhand blow still proved to be too
powerful…and Basara’s hands could not withstand the force of his strikes. It was
such that the next moment, Brynhildr broke free from his grasp —f lying past
Basara’s ear and continuing to lunge behind him.

“…Eh…?”

Toujou Basara knew who was situated near the reach of his blade that had been
disarmed from him.

And so he turned around with disbelief to see —

“——————”

His magic sword — Brynhildr — stabbing through Mio’s chest.

“But how…”

Alarmed, Basara quickly dematerialized Brynhildr as Mio collapsed before him

like a puppet cut of its strings, as Basara immediately rushed toward her to
collect her in his arms.

But he didn’t cal out her name — it wasn’t like Mio was in a state where she
could respond even if he did. The broad blade of Brynhildr had pierced straight
through her chest, carving a gaping hole in it — the exact location where her
heart lay, the heart that controlled the flow of life within her.
It was an instant death — the very words made Basara’s mind utterly still.

“I told you so — dangerous, no?” A voice tinged with mocking laughter

resounded behind him, “Brynhildr absorbs the soul of the victims it cuts through,
though…which, in some ways, I guess you can cal it a blessing in disguise?
You’ve just got yourself a little upgrade to your magic sword, which I suppose
adds some semblance of chance for you to defeat me, however small. She’d be
delighted to have proven useful to you, wouldn’t you say?”

Basara did not want to listen to those words.

They resounded in his ears, but they refused to reach his head.

“———————”

Instead, laying Mio’s perished corpse to rest, he subsequently stood up and

turned behind him.

And when his eyes caught sight of and locked onto Shiba’s figure, Brynhildr had
already materialized once more in his hand.

“……Wooo…”

He didn’t know when the little voice he had in his throat had since erupted into a
scream.

“WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAA
AAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

Unleashing the greatest extent of his power and his hatred, Toujou Basara
released Banishing Shift.
However, he was now in a state where he would be doing so without a composed
and normal rationale as a limiter.

Such a reckless move would only result in the overwhelming energy from the
casting of Banishing Shift to run out of control.

He would be reenacting the very tragedy that had occurred that day many years
ago yet again.

But before the amplifying amount of calamitous energy would erupt and spread
out from within, with Basara as its center —

“Whoops.”

Before the wave of destructive energy could be released, however, Shiba had
vanished from the scene without a trace.

And it was too late to stop the fury of the unleashed power that had completely
run wild.

By his hand, the destructive energy was going to eradicate everything that he
loved, exactly as the tragedy in the village had done many years ago.

And as the fury of the devastation began to envelop Mio and the others —

“Basara !”

“————!”

There was a sudden scream — and Basara reflexively trembled and his eyes
opened wide in response.
 PART 7

Mio forcefully shook Basara, who lay on the bed, awake from his nightmare.

After listening to what Hasegawa knew of their current situation, Mio and the
other two girls that were awake had waited for Zest and Kurumi to regain their
consciousness before the five of them proceeded to discuss what they were to do
from there on out.

After getting everyone on the same page, all that was left for them was to
silently and patiently wait for Basara himself to regain consciousness.

Hasegawa had told them that she had finished treating Basara’s injuries, and all
that was left was to wait for Basara’s strength to recuperate before he would
wake up.

The five of them had thus pleaded with Hasegawa to let them stay by Basara’s
side — beside the bed he was sleeping on.

Mio and the others had not been able to help Basara during his battle or when he
needed treatment…as such, they wanted to at least be there for him in moments
such as this. They didn’t want Basara to worry about them unnecessarily when
he woke up, much like they had worried over his safety after waking up and
failing to find him.

However, as Mio and the group continued to watch over him, a drastic change
occurred within Basara before their very eyes.
Basara was having a terrible nightmare—and Mio and the others were no
stranger to seeing Basara suffer over his nightmares.

During a time where Basara and Jin were still members of the Hero Clan, a
horrible tragedy had ensued in the village, one that left terrible scars to everyone
involved.

Basara, knowing that he was chiefly involved in that incident as the inadvertent
perpetrator of that tragedy, had been scarred with regret and guilt all the more,
and the very scene of that tragedy had since inevitably become one that had
haunted his every nightmare.

Nevertheless, Mio and the others, who lived with him and loved him dearly, all
wanted to ease him of the demons of his past that would manifest in this dreams.
Maria in particular was particularly capable in that regard, for she had the ability
to tinker with one’s dreams by virtue of her abilities as a succubus.

Maria had attempted to administer medicine that would eliminate Basara’s

nightmares, and had proposed the remedy to him for far too many times to
count; Mio and the others had prompted Basara to accept Maria’s cure as well,
not wanting to see Basara suffer any longer.

Basara would only reject such a suggestion and thank them for being considerate
every time, however. And while he never explained why he would reject such a
solution, Mio and the others didn’t persist against it, either — they could only
assume that Basara wanted to get over that tragedy through the pain of his
nightmares.

As such, Mio and the others had naturally consented when Basara had requested
them to do nothing when Basara would be stirred in his sleep.
When it came to someone that was so important to them, however, to watch him
sleep in tranquility was bliss; to watch him sleep in torment was misery. By
virtue of their deepened submission to him through the Master-servant contract,
Mio and the others would silently embrace him in the instances where Basara
would have nightmares as they slept on the same bed. They could do nothing
more than that because of their promise to him, however; they could only
continue to watch over Basara as he continued to suffer in his sleep.

Mio and the others had always been by Basara, facing the reality of Basara’s
resolve just as Basara went on day by day attempting to confront the tragedy that
had continued to plague him.

However, they could not sit by and do nothing this time.

The pain in Basara’s expression was of a degree that they could not bear to look
any longer…and Maria promptly touched Basara in her hand, wanting to see for
herself what it was in Basara’s nightmare that had caused him to elicit such an
extreme response.

After they’d realized that Basara was dreaming of losing them due to his own
helplessness, Mio had immediately attempted to rouse Basara from his
nightmarish slumber through shaking and screaming. Although doing so would
have otherwise been an act of breaking a promise made with Basara, Mio was
unaffected by the the Master-servant contract’s curse having genuinely taken a
course of action that she believed would be for the the best for Basara. Nor did
anyone else among the group blame her for her actions, for all of them shared
the same sentiment that it was for the best that she did so.

“……………”

“……Mio…?” And as Basara slowly sat up on the bed,

“…Basara, are you feeling better?”

“Can you hear us, Basara-san?”

Yuki and Maria were the next to worriedly ask Basara of his condition, of which
his current state, having yet to be able to distinguish between what was a dream
and what was reality, simply responded by turning to them. And upon seeing
Basara’s awakened state —

“Basara-sama…”

“Basara-nii-chan…thank goodness.”

Zest and Kurumi also looked relieved.

“Everything’s alright now, Basara. It was a close cal, but all of us have been
rescued now.”

Naruse Mio was unmistakably telling him that what he was seeing and hearing
was reality.

“What’s more, that Shiba person can’t come into this space, so he can’t get rid of
us now…so — ”

You don’t have to worry anymore — Mio didn’t manage to finish those words.

A pool of tears brimmed at the edge Basara’s left eye before trickling down his
left cheek.
 PART 8

Toujou Basara had finally realized that he had truly regained consciousness.

It was none other than the positioning sensor of the Master-servant contract that
ascertained him of such a reality.

And he was thus assured that it was really Mio and the others were standing
before him right now; he could assume the same for Maria and Kurumi as well,
even if they didn’t possess a Master-servant contract with him as the other three
did.

His nightmare had been of the stuff of what Basara feared most. And as he
settled into the relief that it had only been a dream —

“………?”

He suddenly became aware that Mio and the others were all looking at him with
dumbfounded looks, before realizing the situation he was in.

“…Oh, I’m sorry.”

Wiping away the last of his tears, Basara let out a sigh to ease his wild heartbeat.
That was when —

“Finally awake, I see.”

The door of the room that Basara and the others were in suddenly opened to
reveal Hasegawa entering and walking toward them.

“Sensei …why are you here?”

“It was Hasegawa-sensei that saved all of us, Basara.”

Immediately, Basara could roughly assume what had transpired after hearing
what Mio had said. “I see…thank you, sensei.”

“There’s no need to thank me…I just did what I had to do.” A smile lit on
Hasegawa’s face as she replied so — and Mio and the others seemed to accept
Hasegawa had rescued them as if it were natural.

“…You all already know everything about Hasegawa-sensei?”

The five girls nodded simultaneously, and explained that they know of how
Hasegawa was a God of the Divine Realm that had descended upon the human
world to protect Basara, and how she’d made her Master-servant contract with
him. Hasegawa had revealed such information to them before Basara had woken
up because she deduced it would be hard for them to trust her if she didn’t come
clean with who she really was.

However, it appeared that she had yet to reveal the secret of his birth history to
them.

…I see.

Basara’s birth was not merely a privacy for Jin and the others — it was a delicate
problem that spanned across the three races of humankind, demonkind, and the
divine beings. Basara’s birth was an anomaly, for he was the child born from the
union between the strongest warrior of the Hero Clan, the sister of Wilbert, the
latter of which who had been the strongest Demon Lord in the race’s history, and
a member of the Ten Gods, a group of beings who stood at the pinnacle of the
Divine Realm.

If such a truth were to be revealed, Mio and the others would be dragged into the
risk that came with Basara’s very existence; as such, Hasegawa had simply
revealed her own origins, and had found it best that it would be Basara’s
decision as to whether or not he would reveal his own history to them, rather
than hers.

Hasegawa had not only saved them —s he’d also thought for the best of the girls
all this time.

“I’m sorry…for hiding this from all of you all this time.” Basara apologized to
Mio and the others.

“…No need to apologize,” Yuki shook her head. “You hid the fact that you’ve
made a Master-servant contract with Hasegawa-sensei because you believe it
was for the best…and it’s proven to have been the right decision.”

“That’s right. It’s all thanks to her that we were all able to escape with our lives.”

“Well, I’d be lying if I’d said if I didn’t wish in the slightest that you would have
told us all this beforehand, though.” Kurumi, who stood next to Maria as she
nodded in agreement what Yuki had said, let out a wry smile as she expressed
that.

Though at the end of the day —

“It’s exactly because Basara-niichan didn’t tel us that she became our trump card
and successfully saved us, so I can’t say I can really complain.” Kurumi said,
glancing at Hasegawa — and then it was Zest’s turn to speak, beginning with
“That’s right,” as she nodded in agreement:
“If Basara-sama had told us of the relationship and contract he’d shared with
Hasegawa-sensei…perhaps we would’ve felt a lot better about it. However, if
she had been involved in our initial plan to engage Shiba, however, perhaps we
wouldn’t have been saved right now…it’s because she hadn’t been an ace up our
sleeve that we were aware of and had acted on her own during our time of crisis
that we’re able to stand here and talk right now.”

“That’s why you really don’t need to mind it, Basara. There’s nothing wrong
with keeping secrets from us. Our relationship isn’t something that will be
affected over something like that. Besides, if we were only capable of trusting
each other on the condition that we wouldn’t keep secrets from one another, we
would have been dead a long time ago.” Mio said, “However, now that that
Shiba guy is aware of the fact that Hasegawa-sensei’s on our side…we need to
keep this in mind the next time we do battle. We won’t be able to defeat him
otherwise.”

“…Quite right.” Basara nodded, knowing that her words held true.

— Their battle had yet to come to an end.

They needed to stop Shiba no matter what — that’s why they were all here.
 PART 9

And so Basara, with the newfound aid of Hasegawa, continued to discuss with
Mio and the others on how to deal with Shiba.

They were now within a special space constructed by Hasegawa. And so —

“How fast is the flow of time here?”

“It’s as fast as the space he’s set outside. He possesses the power of Reginlief as
well as the ability to manipulate Ki, so avoiding detection would require us to
blend into the surrounding space. Maintaining such a state where we can remain
undetected by him has cost me no small amount of my power,” She answered.
“Also, I need to say that I’m sorry…there’s nothing else that I can do to help you
all directly from here on out. As I’ve mentioned earlier, after I had relinquished
my position as one of the ten gods, a large amount of my power had been sealed
away. And while it’s true that I can still use my power for your sake…it’s not as
strong as what Shiba’s done, absorbing Reginlief and having power on par with
that of a god.”

“It’s alright…you’ve done more than enough for us. That said, we can still use it
to our advantage.”

“What do you mean, Basara-san?”

“Not only has sensei escaped with us, she’s also set up this space where we’re
completely hidden…It’s likely that Shiba’s going to have his guard up against
Hasegawa-sensei, but he’s probably not aware of her restricted powers as of
yet.” Basara explained. “After all, Shiba had absorbed Reginlief before I was
born…which would mean that it happened before Hasegawa-sensei had given up
her title as one of the Ten Gods.”

“Didn’t Shiba immediately realize who Hasegawa-sensei was, though?”

“It’s likely that Shiba had also gained Reginlief’s knowledge, memories or some
such after absorbing him. What’s more, Shiba now has the ability to control the
Ki of anything around him, and while it’s not surprising that he’d learn of
Hasegawa’s identity through her Ki, I doubt he can gauge any more about her
beyond that.” Basara said to Kurumi, “That’s why it’s in our best interest for
Shiba to be under the impression that Haesgawa-sensei is our trump card. So
long as there’s a chance that he lets his guard down on us…we take it as a
moment of opportunity to win.”

“Then…it’s better for you to remain here in this space then, sensei .” Yuki said,
“That way, Shiba can’t properly deduce your whereabouts…and will become
more cautious because of that.”

“…That’s right. Are you willing to stay here for us, sensei ?”

“Very well…if it means being able to help all of you.” Hasegawa answered
Basara.

“Unfortunately, that alone won’t mean we’ll manage to defeat him…he’s

continuing to fuel Kouryuu with the power of the Five Elements as we speak.”

“How much has Kouryuu materialized since?”

“It’s nearly 70%…as I’ve said earlier, again, the ability to control one’s power
errs with the strength of said power. As such, Kouryuu will materialize more
slowly as it gets closer to its final form, but that doesn’t mean we have a lot of
time on our hours.” And for better or worse —

“We only have about five hours before Kouryuu becomes fully materialized…
the more time we waste, the closer it’ll get to its final form, and the harder it will
be for us to defeat it. That said —”

“It was only 10% materialized when it attacked us with the elemental powers…
rushing to face it at its current state would mean that we have no chance of
victory.”

“………”

Basara couldn’t utter a word against Mio’s words; thereupon which a still silence
swept across the room.

A silence that meant that no one could think of an effective counterattack for the
current situation.

Basara knew that his powers were a far cry from Shiba’s during their battle.

And it’s likely that he has yet to fully play the cards left in his hand — nor did
they know what said cards would entail to them.

…What should we do?

There was no way that it would be impossible to defeat Shiba.

Both Kouryuu and Shiba would vanish to dust so long as his wave of destruction
hit either of them; thinking of such a method on paper, his attack could be
complemented with the gravitational magic that Mio had used against Chaos in
the past.
However, Shiba’s abilities were now far too powerful, and he also possessed
Kouryuu at his command.

It was unlikely that they could manage such a high-level coordinated attack
given the current circumstances; it wasn’t even a stretch to say that they would
not even be able to facilitate an opportunity to do so. Forcing themselves over
such a reckless plan might just turn Basara’s previous nightmare into a reality.

Moreover…

How they were to handle the reversibly arranged Four Gods was also a grave
issue; doing battle with Shiba without devising a proper plan would mean that
the entire city of Tokyo, currently held hostage by Shiba, would likely perish
with them.

At this stage where Kouryuu was nearing the final moments of its full
manifestation, it was possible that the Four Gods would not assume their sacred
beast forms. And yet they thought back to how the synergistic process between
the Four Gods was still ensuing, and how they were more powerful than their
previous battle even if it would halt the manifestation of Kouryuu. The damage
that would come from such a worst case scenario would be greater than they’d
expected.

And that aside…

The high-ranking Demon, Balflear, was still out and amok.

Much like the previous attempt, Mio’s group of five girls were to attend to the
Four Gods as well as Balflear.

It would mean that Basara would have to face both Shiba and Kouryuu all by
himself.
But how could Basara possibly face the Kouryuu and Shiba alone, the latter of
which had already proven to be his better in their previous skirmish?

“…………!”

The dire situation caused Basara to clench his teeth.

— They couldn’t just give up no matter what.

And yet the situation was far too difficult no matter how they looked at it — they
were against an enemy whose powers were far greater than theirs.

And even then —

Shiba was also the one with the sharper mind; surely he’d anticipated and
prepared for any possible movements they would take against him.

He wouldn’t sit by and wait until Kouryuu reached its final form; there was no
doubt that he’d prepared some protective measures against any possibility of a
counterattack. If they were to defeat Shiba in his current state, they would need
to catch him off guard; they needed a plan that Shiba would not have possibly
expected or an indestructible plan, one so perfect that Shiba could not attempt to
stop even if he tried.

But such a means would not suddenly appear before them out of thin air.

…What the hell are we supposed to do…!

The more Basara tried to think, the more he thought that the situation was
helpless. That was when —

“There is a way.”

It was Hasegawa who’d said such hopeful words.

“Shiba’s using the circulation of the Five Elements to achieve affinity between
them…the only way we’re going to match him is by using the same method he’s
using.”

“The same method?”

“Yes,” Hasegawa nodded. “Naruse and the others make exactly five people —
among which four have elemental capabilities that rival that of the Four Gods.”

And so they must —

“The girls must transfer their power to you, each representing one of the five
elements…and perform a five-elemental link within you that would enable them
to achieve affinity with you.”
 PART 10

Hasegawa told Basara and the others of the remaining possibility they had left
for themselves.

“! …Is it really possible for us to do such a thing?” Despite the conviction in

Hasegawa’s words, Basara still found it hard to believe for a moment.

“It should work in theory, anyway…however, it’s because of that that it’s
important for you and Mio and the others to build a flowing cycle of power
between one another. Fortunately, you all already possess the basic foundations
to do so.”

“We do…?”

“Yes,” Hasegawa reaffirmed the dumbfounded Basara. Said foundations being

—

“Your Master-servant contracts.”

She was right —such a contract was one that bound the souls of its master and
servant together, an invisible link binding the two as such that their strength
would increase through the deepening of their bonds. The contract would also all
ow the contractees to mutually determine the position of the other. And yet—

“It’s a shame that it’s still not enough at its current state, though…your contracts
are all so deeply connected that they’re nearing their limit, which leaves little
room for growth. I’m afraid attempting to synergize the connections you all
possess at their current state wouldn’t amount to a significant power-up.”

“Then…what are we supposed to do?”

“You need to vow your Master-servant contracts — do you remember hearing of

something like that?”

“We need to vow them? You mean the process Takigawa had mentioned
earlier?”Basara exclaimed, the very idea going through his mind.

“That’s right…when the loyalty of a servant towards their bonded master

transcends its limit, it deepens the contract into a vow, which is the final stage of
the Master-servant contract. This was something I’d learned of when you were
discussing it with Takigawa while eating at the Yakiniku restaurant as well…and
after doing a bit of investigation, I’d discovered that there are three conditions to
achieve the vowing status.”

Hasegawa began to count on her fingers as she explained what they were.

“The first is for the servant’s loyalty to already be at its absolute limit, the
second being the master requesting the servant for their absolute and eternal
loyalty, while the servant must willingly surrender their entire body and soul to
their master. With all those criteria fulfilled, the contract would deepen into a
vow…it would no longer be severable like that of a normal contract, and bind
the contractees eternally and absolutely as master and servant.”

This act of relinquishing everything to their master excluded their life — death
would mean that they would no longer possess the servant’s power, leaving them
with nothing.
On the other hand, however, it meant that the servant would need to surrender
everything else that they had other than their life.

“Their entire body and soul…are you saying…”

“Correct.” Hasegawa answered Basara, who stood in disbelief at the revelation.

“You are to take away the purity of Mio and the others amidst the fervent desire
of having them all to yourself…that is the requirement of developing your
contracts into a vow.”

“But that’s —” Basara refuted, “There’s no way something so absurd would

work, would it? If such a means to acquiring the final stage of power really did
exist, there would be at least be some other successful precedents before in the
past.”

“You can count said successful precedents with one hand, and even then those
instances are on the level of legends, at best. And this is where the third criteria
comes in—timing.”

“I’ve explained earlier, didn’t I? The servant’s loyalty must be at its absolute
limit. Nonetheless, it’s difficult to assure that the servant’s purity would not have
been taken before that limit is achieved, with the exception of platonic Master-
servant relationships. That said, such a relationship would also mean that the
virginity of the servant would no longer be involved. Generally, masters would
take their servants’ purity before the time is right, during the earlier stages; and
even if the feeling is seemingly authentic and reciprocal, the servant would not
have absolute recognition of their full loyalty to their master before the threshold
is reached, such that there would also be one side of the contract that would be
inadequate.”

If one were to explain why—

“Many Master-servant contracts out there are made through the master’s special
abilities as such that their victims are usually cursed, and the forced nature of the
contract prevents the servant from giving complete loyalty to their master. If said
abilities happen to involve mind control, the servant would possibly believe that
their loyalty is due to their master’s control of them, and thus cannot place
complete trust in their master.”

Furthermore —

“A master in possession of the hypnotic abilities of a succubus or incubus would

be able to take one’s chastity as easily as if it were child’s play. The fact of the
matter is that such difficulties in achieving so are what make vows so rare…the
contract you share amongst the many out there can be considered a miracle. And
there’s no better time to use that miracle than right now.”

“No, but…”

Basara, still hesitant, looked toward Mio and the others, still unsure of what
Hasegawa had just described. They had yet to say a single word since Hasegawa
began explaining.

It’d be difficult for them to decide over something so sudden. And as Basara
attempted to evaluate the expressions of Mio and the others with such a thought
in his mind —

……Eh…?

His mind froze for a moment. The girls’ expressions were all composed, as if
they had fully accepted the acts that they would need to do to develop their vow
as Hasegawa had explained.

It wasn’t supposed to be an expected occurrence. And thus —

“You mean to tel me you’ve —”

“Yes,” She nodded to Basara, who had been taken aback by the sudden
realization. “I’d already discussed this with the girls before you’ve woken up…
and have told them to prepare themselves for this.”

“………!”

Hearing this, anger toward Hasegawa immediately rose in Basara’s chest — and
so did the urge to yell at her and condemn her over how she’d decided to do this
on her own accord.

— But nothing came out from his mouth. He knew all too well that he was in no
position to protest against her.

Basara had failed to defeat Shiba and had his life saved by Hasegawa —Mio and
the others had also only been saved because of her efforts.

And now, Hasegawa had provided them with a winning moment of opportunity
when they had yet to think of a way to defeat Shiba.

All they had to do was to resolve themselves to cross the line and take it for
themselves.

The way things were now, Basara had no intention of deluding himself that his
relationship with Mio and the others was nothing less than what it really was—
nor did he want to turn a blind eye to their feelings for him. They would not
reject him should Basara ever truly request for it—Basara could not be more
sure of that. They’d already fostered a relationship of such an extent, after all.

It was likely that Hasegawa felt the same as well, and he had no doubt that she
too would gladly welcome Basara’s embrace should he ever want her.
Nevertheless, they were as much a reason as they were a deterrent, for it was
because of they were who they were that Basara had suppressed his desire
toward them as man down to the thinnest thread. If the only choice before them
was a road of no return, he wanted to be only one who needed to cross it—he
would not see to the girls committing to such an irreversible decision or anything
likewise.

Basara was also well aware that the fact that taking responsibility for it was
easier said than done; deludedly thinking he was in a position where he could
decide whether or not he had the capabilities to assume that burden would be
mere self-appeasement.

The Master-servant contract was truly a shackle to them, as if it were a curse.

And despite their act of deepening their bonds between one another a matter of
mutually increasing their strength—for his sake as much as their own—there
was no denying the inevitable loss of sanity that came with it on the other end.
Basara’s relationship with the girls had already progressed far beyond what one
would consider normal, as did the nature and values that came with their
relationship. It wasn’t farfetched to say that there would be no one that would
genuinely give their blessings toward their relationship—and there would be no
escaping the criticism of anyone who knew, as they would be laid bare to the
numerous views of discrimination, prejudice and consternation.

If they were to deepen their contract into a vow, there would be no turning back
—ever.

“………………!”

The rigid truth caused Basara tightly clutch the bedsheets, unable to decide for a
moment — before a hand piled upon his own.
It was Mio’s hand. Raising his head, Basara found himself facing an expression
that was tranquil in every sense of the word.

“…We all know why…we know why you’ve never been willing to cross that
line with us up until now. It’s simply because…you value us all that much.”

Mio’s voice was gentle as she spoke.

“We know you’re really worried about us…we’re also worried that we can’t be
ourselves again. But more than that we’re worried about something more.”

That being —

“We’re worried that we can’t be with you anymore, Basara.”

“Mio…” Basara reflexively addressed her.

There were tears in her eyes. And yet she did not wipe them off, continuing to
speak through the light shivering of voice and her shoulders.

“Whenever I think about that, I become really scared, so scared that I don’t
know what I’d do…there are things that we’re not willing to give up on, just as
you do, Basara. That’s why I don’t intend to lose to that man who intends to get
rid of all of us…we can’t possibly let that man take our future away from us.
That’s why —”

Mio had yet to stop speaking.

“Maybe we’ll no longer be able to walk the path everyone else can…and even
though it’s perhaps just a little bit possible that we can go back to how
everything used to be, we’ve decided that rather than die for such hope, it’s
better that we see through it to the end, and we believe that it won’t be the wrong
decision.”
Mio smiled.

“We’ll think carefully about what comes next after we defeat him…don’t worry
about it now. As long we’re all together, we can overcome any obstacle, however
big or frequent. We’ve already managed to save the world from danger, after all
…there’s nothing for us to be afraid of.”

Besides —

“I know that you care for us more than anyone else, and you’re worried about us
not being able to turn back…but at the same time, you don’t want us to belong to
someone else either, right?”

“That’s…”

Mio’s words rendered Basara speechless.

— Everything she’d said had been exactly right.

If they were to cross the final line, Basara would no longer be capable of giving
Mio and the others normal happiness…and yet he would hesitate, knowing that
he would much rather have them for himself over surrendering them to someone
else —even if anyone else could give them the happiness that he himself could
not.

“We feel the same as well.”

In response to Mio’s words, Maria, Yuki, Kurumi and Zest all smiled in
approval.

They knew that there was no replacing Basara anymore.

And the next words that came out of Mio’s mouth emerged decisively — and yet
they were delivered to him as if they were a wish.

“Please, oniichan…take me —take us .”

 PART 11

Toujou Basara possessed things that were more important to them than anything
else.

People he would protect even if it would cost him his own life.

And all the more, he wanted them to be happy.

And yet he knew — he knew that they would be walking down a perilous path
devoid of the blessings, understanding and acceptance of normal society if they
were to continue on like this.

It made him fearful.

However…

The girls — Mio and the others — now willingly stood at the edge of the point
of no return, beckoning their hands toward him.

Hands that held their hopes of Basara taking them in his…and to continue
walking alongside them on the path they themselves had chosen.

And upon witnessing the gazes of Mio and the others, their intensity signifying
that they’d decided on how they’d like their lives from here on out —

“……………………”

Basara shut his eyes slowly. And the next moment he opened his eyes —
“———————— ”

And Toujou Basara wavered no more.

He would see it through to the end —he’d progress to the next stage of the
Master-servant contract with Mio and the others.
EPILOGUE
 PART 1

And then – as Toujou Basara was resolute in this.

Naruse Mio got on the bed with Maria.

From here, Mio will finally find herself held by Basara.

However, it’s not just the two of them – there is a reason Maria was there,
different from the night before the decisive battle against the current demon lord
faction in the demon world.

The reason Mio and the rest are being embraced by Basara now, is not for the
goal of the next step of their passionate love.

No, there is that – but the reason why they decided to cross this line they’ve
protected together up to this point is to win against Shiba Kyouichi. With Basara
finally embracing them in this way, their master-slave contract will turn to that
of a vow, at the same time as that giving them great power, it would have the
elements under Mio and the others flow to Basara, to exist within him.

And then, from the perspective of how to prioritize the elements Mio and others
are in charge of respectively and how they counter against the four gods, it is
decided that Mio is fire, Kurumi is water and Zest is earth. Yuki too, had fought
against the manifestation of Seiryuu, despite how she had initially challenged it
with “gold”, it was “wood”, the same element as Seiryuu had an advantage and
caused it to fall.
On the other hand, the remaining Maria is in charge of Balfrea, is not against the
four gods.

As such, it is judged with the attributes Maria and Yuki are in charge of, with
each’s five attribute and classification with the idea of it, the cause and effect
would be equally strong. With that, Maria who has the wood element when using
the ‘eye’ of the succubus baptism was put in charge of wood, while Yuki, whose
spirit sword is gold is in charge of that.

On top of that, it’s necessary for them to achieve the utmost result of affinity as it
flows to Basara to further strengthen him.

Their opponent is Shiba, in order to strengthen himself, he had set up a barrier

concentrated on ‘earth’ in the center area ruled over by the yellow dragon.

In short, the affinity running in the space of Shiba’s barrier starts with ‘gold’,
‘wood’, ‘fire and lead into ‘earth’, circulating in that way.

As such the way they match on their side, is to put to priority the amount of
power Basara gets. As a result, the order of the attributes flowing into Basara
became: fire, wood, water, gold and earth.

This is, a reversal on the original compatibility.

However, their goal is not in compatibility – their goal is increasing the strength
within Basara. As such, for instance if the “earth” attribute flows in to where
“fire” is, and despite strengthening earth by means of compatibility, the fire that
had came in earlier as due to the compatibility of the base material would be
weakened. That would have no meaning.

To let Mio’s attribute “fire” be received by Basara to a greater breadth, one put
in Maria’s “wood”, as such lighting up the ‘fire’ that Mio had put in first and
then, to strengthen the power of “wood” for Basara, Kurumi’s “water” is added,
and to strengthen “water”, then they add in Yuki’s ‘gold’ which holds water. And
then, to strengthen the ‘gold’ added into Basara, Zest’s “earth” which holds gold
is added.

In short, it’s the order the attributes are then to flow into Basara.

Truth is, there are those who had done this without realizing it.

Edo Castle, in the middle of Edo City which was once Fuusui Toshi the runners
that once ran in the surroundings of the Imperial Palace.

Departing from Sakuradamon from the south that is, where the attribute fire
enters them, running counterclockwise, you have in order wood → water → gold
going in, the four elements before having the ‘earth’ that is contained in the
middle, and as they go around this, they unknowingly increased the power in
them. The rule for the counterclockwise run, as well as how many people
assembled, there was this reason they didn’t know behind it.

However, this method had a side effect of the later elements being weaker. It was
no problem for simply running but, for those looking to fight Shiba, they cannot
have this. Therefore, while someone gives the power of the element which they
are responsible for to Basara, the person whose element is added to him next
would be touching the former, as such, the element that’s added in later won’t be
weakened. In short, Mio who’s in charge of fire will not just be giving it to
Basara, but it’d be in the condition where it’s matched with Maria who’s in
charge of wood.

In this way, Basara did not just receive the strongest power, for instance for
Maria who’s next, her ‘wood’ attribute that is easily weakened by Mio’s ‘fire’, as
she would be touched by Kurumi with the attribute ‘water’ after, it would be
received by Basara without it being weakened.
As such, the person who’s to be embraced by Basara, gets on the bed together
with the next person to be embraced by Basara, while the other three, so that
they don’t cause interference, wait outside of the room.

That’s why now – Mio is together with Basara and Maria are on the bed. And
then, “Haah… Nn, oniicha…n… chuu, mm… oniichan, haaaaah ♥”

Mio is presently entranced as she faced Basara and they entangled their tongues
together lewdly.

Her sighs are mixed with her sweet voice, and this is as he’s groping her breasts
from over her clothes.

Since they exchanged the master-slave contract, Mio had experienced

tremendous pleasure through Basara, submitting to him in climax she can’t fully
tel. In general, this involved attacking her weak point, her breasts.

As she was aroused lewdly by Basara’s hands, Mio’s chest that grew more and
more sensitive became weak to the pleasure in her panties too, pleasure to the
point it makes it feel like her mind is melting.

That much, is as to the point where Basara loses himself in his aim at truly
making Mio submit.

However, there is something necessary before that happens – hence as Mio

kisses Basara, she began to strip off his clothes. And then, with Basara’s
cooperation her hands which are used to this, stripped him off, and this time it’s
Basara’s hands at her chest that unfastened the necktie of her sailor suit and the
zipper of it. How the zipper’s slider curved lewdly down, was as Mio’s chest is
simply that big. Mio’s breast which were developed completely by Basara was
not just rich in their sensitivity, but their plentiful size grew even bigger… The
clothes she had when she first met Basara no longer fit her.

As the zipper was pulled down to the lowest point, Mio’s front was completely
exposed.

“…Mm…”

Subconsciously, Mio’s body slightly trembled. As they kissed, her chest was
groped by Basara and it filled her body with a sweet fever, together with how it
was exposed to the air of the room gave her a pleasant cool sensation.

With that, Basara moved his hands within Mio’s sailor suit taking it off was easy
from here. Following her collar bone, sliding his hands from the inside outwards,
he would be able to take it off her shoulder and arm. However.

“…Basara-san, could you refrain from stripping off Mio-sama’s clothes

completely at the very beginning?”

Therefore, Mio’s partner Maria spoke from the back as she embraced Mio
tightly.

Basara’s hand stopped at the suggestion of the young succubus who had initiated
sex and pleasure when the master-slave contracts took place.

“But… Then it would get her clothes dirty.”

Basara voiced a question back.

“That much is fine. I have received a confirmation from Hasegawa-sensei.”

Said Maria.

“This space is not just to hide us from the enemy, but to deepen our bonds with
Basara-san. As such, things other than our bodies and spirits, things like clothes
and accessories, is preserved in the state it was before we enter the space.”

Hence.

“If we leave this room to the room next door… if we go to the room we first
opened our eyes in, our clothes will return to the state it was before we entered
this space.”

“Is that so… But, there’s no reason for us to keep the clothes on as it is?”

At Basara who said that,

“In a usual bond, of course but… However, this time you and Mio-sama must
deepen your bonds to a more absolute level than now”

As such, said Maria.

“Removing it bit by bit would be able to give a deeper sense of bashfulness

but… There won’t be anything more if you strip it off in one go. More than
worrying about clothes, we must prioritize thinking on the surety of your master-
slave vows with Mio-sama”

“…I see.”

Basara said, agreeing.

“Mio… Do you not mind that?”

He asked her. And hence,

“Yeah… Oniichan you should do as you like.”

Mio gave a meek nod in reply.

“In any case… It’s already too late.”

Maria from the back said with a smile in her voice, she moved around and pulled
Mio down to lie covering her and then, Mio whose skirt was lifted,

“Aah… No… Mm”

With her shy voice, she bent her hips up a little. She simply did not want Basara
to see her underwear – she knows what kind of condition her panties are in.

As Maria said it was too late, by Basara fondling her chest and kissing, Mio was
already overflowing with her womanly honey, the panties she wore were wet at
the crotch to the point she couldn’t make excuses for it.

“Fufu… Mio-sama definitely is now the world’s most sensitive virgin”

Maria laughed seductively. With that, Basara who sees Mio in this state.

“…”

He gulped down audibly as he looked at her With that, Basara’s member which
was already exposed grew big very quickly as it stood, even now it expanded
looking like it looked it was to burst.

…Ama, zing…

Seeing that intensity and manliness, Mio gulped down overwhelmed. Basara is
bigger there than she’s ever seen him up til now Naruse Mio thought. Now, that
will go inside her.

When she tied the master-slave contract with Basara, she did not think she would
be embraced by him in this way.

It is true, Mio was to be the master,Basara being the subordinate is something

she couldn’t believe…

…But

After their fight with Zolgia, she had thought she would one day be embraced by
Basara.

As they went to the demon world… As they approached the present demon
king’s stronghold, she could only think of Basara to do this with.

And then for the decisive fight as they went to the stronghold, as the five of them
chose to submit to Basara in the guest room too, she was ready to belong to
Basara.

So.

This isn’t the last line for them to go over, it’s the beginning of a new
relationship.

And now finally, that moment had come.

“…”

Basara silently moved his right hand towards her hips, he slipped his finger
under the bands of her panties and slowly, he began pulling it down.

“…Mm”

Mio’s hips thrust forward slightly as if answering to him, taking it off her left
leg.

By that time, she was already on Maria’s lap.

Thinking of that, It’s a reproduction of when they exchanged their master-
servant contract

“Oniichan…”

As Mio gave a shy smile, she took a pose to make it easy for Basara to hold her.

With both her hands, she lifted up her legs lewdly to part them into an Mshape,
exposing her treasured place.

Toujou Basara, saw Mio trembling right in front of his eyes.

He had seen Mio’s naked form many times. It was also not the first time he had
seen that spot for Mio.

Up til now, he had inserted his member into her underwear, rubbing up, that last
line had been in front of him many times, so even for a bit, he may even know
better about Mio’s body than herself. But,

“—”

This condition now, in which everything is all owed, gave Basara a completely
new arousal.

Looking at it, the collar mark of the master-slave contract had appeared on Mio’s
neck. Most likely, she felt some guilt that came with the shame of being held by
Basara. At the Mio who feels so much about this, Basara gets worked up.

Mio’s entrance, even at a glance, was incomprehensibly small and narrow.

Realistically, it would be most effective to have foreplay where he would lick

her with his tongue.

However, Basara can’t do that – doing that with his tongue is servicing her.
It isn’t a problem for Mio whose subordinate to Basra but, there are things that
Basara has to avoid as Mio’s master – at the very least, this time where they need
to emphasize the master-servant bond.

However, Mio could feel it even without Basara’s tongue licking her.

Her part, dyed with her pleasure as blood rushed in, is already plenty hot and
wet. This sight is sublimely lewd as such,

“…”

As if drawing in Basara’s tip, it made a splash sound.

Mio’s womanly entrance was ready to accept Basara.

After this, it’s just their mutual feelings – their resolution.

And then, with Basara and Mio having really resolved that.

“…”

“…”

Looking to each other wordlessly, they moved forward together.

Basara pushed in his member, which is large enough to hurt, within Mio.

At that,

…Ah…

At placing it there, Basara’s member faced an elastic resistance.

That is something Basara clearly knows.

The proof of Mio’s purity, which has guarded Basara from piercing through up
til now.

That’s where their relationship had just about stopped til now.

What they had taken care of til now now, Toujou Basara and Naruse Mio will
break.

“Let’s go—”

“…Yeah. Come, oniichan.”

Calling to him in this way, a smile surfaced on Mio’s face as she nodded.

So then, Basara moved to thrust forward his lower body.

He pushed.

And with that the resistance that is the proof of Mio’s purity, gradually let Basara
pierce in.

Just as it felt like he cut through something, his member continued in deeply.

“No… Aaah…”

Mio let out a lewd voice, her body trembling to stiffen slightly.

At the same time, Basara’s tip is tied in, covered by a hotness,

“…”

Gulping down, Basara let his gaze fall. With that, his tip was definitely buried
inside Mio… And then from the side, something flew out.

It was the most beautiful red in the world as such.

“—”

Toujou Basara, felt a sense of accomplishment yet corruption at that.

After all just now, he had taken Mio’s virginity.

At that truth, Basara trembled. On the other hand, “…”

Mio clenched her eyes shut.

This is their first time. They don’t know if with this, he’s really tied to Mio.

With that, Mio let herself sink in and meet Maria’s eyes.

“—”

She said ‘not yet’ with her eyes. And then,

“…”

Toujou Basara, after affirming Mio’s condition, thrust his hips.

With that there’s nothing to obstruct them anymore What had not been all owed
til now, as if opening Mio’s tightness, Basara pushed his member further and
further in.

And then, despite it being her first time, Mio’s inside melted like hot caramel.

“…Ah…!”

At how good the lewd ties felt, Basara let out a gasp spill, as his member is
further swallowed in.

And then.
At last, he pushed into the base, his tip touching something.

This was, the real end of it – the deepest part of Naruse Mio.

There’s no mistake having come all the way here. That’s why,

“Mio…”

Toujou Basara, as if telling Mio that truth, spoke her name.

At Basara who called her name gently, Mio slowly opened her eyes.

At that, Basara was looking straight at her,

“It’s inside”

Even with such short words, Naruse Mio understood everything.

She’s no longer a virgin. She now belongs to Toujou Basara.

At that truth, she trembled and felt great pleasure.

“…”

Without her realizing it, Mio was crying. At her,

“It hurts doesn’t it… Are you alright?”

Basara asked her with worry. So then,

“No, I’m fine… I’m happy”

Mio shook her head with a smile, what she shed was happy tears.
Of course, she would be lying if she said there’s no pain at all. However, it’s
nothing she can’t stand.

Of course. Even if it’s her first time, this pain doesn’t exceed the battles in which
she had risked her life. With that,

“Basara-san, Mio-sama… The two of you are connected now”

With a serene voice and congratulatory words, Maria who has Mio on her lap
wiped away Mio’s tear gently. And then,

“…How is it Mio-sama, can you see?”

Saying that like she was urging, Maria reached out for Mio’s skirt and lifted it
up.

With that, Maria could see where Basara and Mio is connected without having
Mio move from her lap by tilting her chin.

However, she can’t truly confirm how Basara’s member was inserted by sight.

Mio and Basara’s lower crotch completely stuck to each other. Even so, Mio’s
insides surely – has the feeling of something spreading her all the way inside.
Furthermore, in a situation where it feels even all their hairs connect, there is no
mistaking it at all.

…A, amazing… I, really took in all of Basara…

Mio still couldn’t believe it.

Mio, who has serviced Basara many times using her hand, mouth and chest
knows his size well. She had thought that perhaps it wouldn’t fit after all,
stopping halfway through. But despite that, Mio had surely swallowed up
Basara’s member to the base – as if reading the surprise in her transparently,

“If the master-slave contract has its characteristic, so does the vow. Furthermore,
Mio-sama, you and the others have the aphrodisiac characteristic to your bond
with Basara”

Hence, said Maria,

“To reach a vow where you are completely devoted to your master, Mio-sama,
you have to reach true satisfaction by your master Basara-san… Your body and
heart now Mio-sama, is an existence that can give Basara-san the utmost
pleasure. There’s no way it can’t fit”

“No way… Then…?”

At Maria’s words, Mio found herself dumbfounded.

She thought of how Basara is holding her, and how she’s only completely his.

However – it isn’t so.

Mio’s spot, even before Basara held her, had been his.

At the realization of that truth, a hot sensation wells up in Mio’s inside.

“No… Aaah, fuaaaaaaaah ♥”

At the moment she understood that was pleasure Mio’s body stiffened. What had
she become without her knowing… She climaxed, realizing that truth. At a
moment, her eyes were dyed white was she spasm lewdly, waves of pleasure
washing up inside her.

“…Haah… aaah… nnn… haah ♥”

Spilling out sweet moans, gradually, the mist that clouded her became clear and
she thought of her first climax. She had climaxed with Basara inside her at that
fact, a trembling happiness rose up within Mio.

Hence Mio, without thinking, met Basara’s gaze,

…Ah…

What she realized there, made her feel shame for being happy by herself.

If it’s just to confirm their love, there’s a choice to simply stop here.

With how they’re tied with the master-slave contract, they’re like a real family,
and more than anything Basara had shown kindness to Mio and the others.

That too existed at the time they did lewd things to deepen the contract.

However love and kindness has been in hand as is.

What they want for now… What they want to achieve and wish for is beyond
this.

To say absolute vow.

For Mio to truly devote her everything, she has to become Basara’s in all ways.

All her heart and body swearing eternally in her soul.

More than anything, Basara’s hardness that had been inserted into her is still
stiff, wanting her.

That’s why Naruse Mio, said the words to permit everything of the boy who is
her master.
“Please, oniichan… kill me, a hundred times over…♥”
Whatever you think of, indulge in it on her that’s her invitation to Basara.

To Mio, Basara showed her the happiest response of a man, that is, not holding
back.

Letting go of his reason. And then,

“…Aaaaah!”

Basara began to thrust suddenly. It was a movement too intense for Mio who
was just a virgin.

However,

“Haah, nnn… fnnnn ♥ oniichan… aah… haaah”

The first time is painful and nothing more that was a lie.

Mio had already become a being that takes in all of Basara… That’s why, the
feeling of heat that pieced inside her, Mio only felt happiness at being a woman.

Up til now, Mio had her weak point attacked by Basara multiple times and
climaxed, in that she had been subjugated.

However, if Mio’s breasts are her weak point, what Basara’s member was
rubbing against now is all women’s weakness.

And then Mio was truly a woman. So,

“No, aahn ♥ Fuuh, nnah ♥ haah, aah… Aaaaaaaaaah ♥”

Mio moved her hips lewdly as his member thrusted into her, drowning dreamily
in the pleasure from Basara. How sensitive was their membranes, finally
touching, their hips moving together again for a lewd round, and without long as
Basara thrusted into Mio, where they met made lewd sucking sounds – and it
changed to a lewd wet sound. And then,

“It’s time to strip off the top…”

Said Maria, taking off Mio’s sailor suit and unhooking her bra.

With that, Mio’s puffed up breasts tensed up… With Basara’s thrusts, her large
breasts moved in circles, swinging lewdly. Basara took grasp of Mio’s breasts,

“No♥ Aahn… Fuuh, naahh ♥ haahn, ffuh… Fuaaaah ♥”

As the shape of her breasts changed as they’re being fondled roughly – at that,
Basara’s lower parts buckled up many times. At that intense pleasure,

…Eh?…

Mio felt how Basara’s member grows more erect and hotter in her.

That’s the sign Basara’s limit is near.

That’s why Mio whose carnality was heightened, wrapped her legs around
Basara’s waist, and the part where they met completely clung to each other with
zero distance.

That is the true will of a woman vowing to the young man in front of her.

They don’t know any other way to accept all of him to truly become his Basara
promptly answered that feeling towards him.

Both wishing to cling on to each other, moving to an angle naturally… Mio’s

legs riding up to Basara’s shoulder, him covering her to reach the limit of their
depths.
“Mio… You, you’re mine!”

With him thrusting in intensely, he shouted his words of conviction, to that,

“…Yeah, I’m oniichan’s… Oniichan’s… Haaaaah ♥”

Mio once more, had her body shake with intense pleasure as she nodded
furiously, affirming Basara’s words dreamily.

And then – that moment had come.

“Mio… ah!”

As Basara called her, him at her deepest… The entrance of Mio’s womb thrusted
into by Basara’s member – at the same time, with a throb she understood his
climax she was creampied by Basara.

That was a feeling so sweet it scared her.

…Amazing, it’s throbbing…

She understood how good Basara’s member felt as it trembled inside her.

With that, from the depth of Mio’s body, from where she would bear children,
she felt that where they met leaked out semen in the opposite direction.

“Ah… Aah… Haah, nn… aaah… nn ♥”

Moans filled with ecstasy spilled out, as if covering that up, Basara kissed her
gently,

“Mm, chuu… Nn ♥ Mmm… Ahmm… Chuu… licks… Haah ♥”

Wanting Basara for herself, Mio tangled her tongue with his.
And then.

After they exchanged saliva in a long kiss – slowly, Basara’s member drew out
of Mio slowly.

At that, to her who still melted in the reverberation of her intense climax,

“Now Mio-sama… It’s done done yet”

Maria, who has Mio on her lap gently rebuked. At those words,

…Ah…

Since when was Basara there in front of her… And then, she saw his member
which was just inside her, was lewdly wet.

That’s why Mio, slowly moved her mouth towards Basara’s member.

“Haah… Nn… Chuu… Haah… Chu… Nn… ♥”

And with a sloppy noise, she began to lick his member clean.

The seeds Basara released, mixed together with Mio’s honey, was on his member
and it gave a taste that’s lewder than she could have thought Enveloping his
member with her mouth, she had it in her mouth with her saliva, drinking it up,
at that moment,

“Mio”

Basara called out to her, surprised. At that, Mio raised up her head.

At that, red lights danced on Mio’s neck – at the next moment, it vanished.

Maria, who saw that

“You reached a true vow… Congratulations, Mio-sama”

Calling out to her excited, but Mio did not hear her.

To Mio now, it’s more important to clean up Basara’s member… So she

continued to service him dreamily.

And then – from her lower lips, which the member was just in.

Plenty of Basara’s semen came spilling out.

 PART 2

50 hours before Kouryuu’s manifestation reaches a hundred percent.

Of the result of them considering for rest and battle planning, that gives them
five hours each to have each one held by Basara.

And now, it’s closing on to the end of Mio’s five hours.

Even after they tied the vow with no problem, Basara continued to embrace Mio.

That was, so he could really take in the ‘fire’ power inside of Mio.

After having ejaculated inside Mio once, the two of them no longer have fear.

Mio was cute as she’s in extreme pleasure that came from Basara attacking her
sensitive spot… Following his prideful impulses, Basara marked climaxes into
Mio. And then within that five hours, more than a hundred climaxes that she had
said, was marked upon her by Basara.

Of course, Basara had come many times as well but, even so his arousal doesn’t
fall. Because this is the space that had been set by Hasegawa for them to tie their
vows.

That’s why no matter how much he comes inside Mio, not just within her, but to
the point all her body is covered in white, he does not reach his limit. And then,

“Ah… haah… nnn… uh… ♥”

As Mio was reaching her limit, she’s in a state of extreme intoxication in her
ecstasy.

So Basara stroked Mio’s cheeks gently.

“…Basara-san…”

It was someone other than Mio it was Maria, who has the youngest body of the
five girls who adore Basara. She no longer had Mio on her lap, and she said that
to Basara impatiently.

After that,

“Basara-niichan”

Kurumi who’s on another bed to continue on with Maria, was surely affected by
Mio’s condition…

Her eyes were already wet with sensuality.

At those two,

“…Yeah”

Basara nodded, and slowly went towards them.

Yes, it’s not over yet. This is just one of five.

It isn’t enough.

Not his own power and the ‘vows’, as well.

That’s why Toujou Basara won’t stop.

Just like Mio.

The girls precious to him, he will make them all his.

To defeat Shiba Kyoichi to protect those he will never give up on.

 AFTERWORD

To everyone who has read this book, and to those who plan to read it after this,
and to those who have it in their hands, thank you very much. This is Uesu
Tetsuto.

As mentioned in the afterword of the previous volume, this volume was

supposed to of such a large scale that it would be the biggest volume of the
Shinmai series, and I talked about how it would thus require more time for its
release. Truth be told, the original plan was to complete the series with this
volume, but in the end, part of the plot alone was already an amount that would
fit a whole book…to cram all of the original content into this one book would
have been too much after all, so the best option I had was to make adjustments
and split it into two books.

Well then, let’s talk a bit about the content of this volume. Our founding editor
was the one who proposed the idea of Basara and Mio tying the knot in the final
act, and at last I was able to describe that particular scene in this volume.
Nowadays, in a world where works where the protagonist and the heroine cross
the line so easily are rather common, the feeling of Basara, Mio and the others
maintaining their diehard demeanors while reaping what they sow in the end is,
in some ways, something which profoundly fills me with a lot of emotions as an
author.
It’s just that as the series continued to progress, more and more readers found
themselves attracted to the other heroines…I thus endeavored to create a
scenario as such that all five of them could be with Basara, while simultaneously
befit the idea of the final stage of the Shinmai Maou series, and thus came up
with the idea of the setting being in a massive, fivefold barrier in the middle of
Tokyo Tower. Mio and the others make up a coincidental total of five, and the
previously featured “Four Gods” can also be instrumental when used in tandem
with the five elements which is particularly suitable for the series. If everything
goes smoothly, volume 11 will be the last volume in the Shinmai Maou Series.
Truth be told, the final scene is already complete…to put it simply, though, an
empowered Basara will start his counterattack against Shiba, who also isn’t
going to be lazing about in response to that in an epic, conclusive battle.

Of course, the next volume will start off from where Basara connects with Maria
and the other girls, so do look forward to it!
Allow me to give my thanks to all those involved with this series. To Okuma-san
from Nitroplus, many thanks for your fantastic illustrations this time round!
From the dark, grim tone of the cover to the scene where Basara finally unites
with Mio and the others, they’re all simply wonderful. And to Miyako-sensei,
who would’ve thought that Basara and Mio would come together in both the
comic and the light novel; I was very surprised at the coincidence! Kisosensei’s
serial “Shinmai: Arashi” has also come to end, and I’d like to say good work and
thank you for your efforts, and I look forward to your next work!

The DVD/BD’s of the second season of the anime have also been released; many
thanks to all those who have been involved! I admit that there were issues with
time management this time round, and thus I had to inconvenience and to all of
you…I sincerely apologize for that. And finally, I would like to express my
greatest thanks to all you readers out there who have brought this book.
Well, thank you for reading and please look forward to volume 11!
Commissioned by: Shinmai Maou Crowdfund

Translated by: Nomi, On, and Jhunius