times like this that made Kojou curse his body for not being able to fly through the air in true vampiric fashion.
Then Kojou, gasping for breath, arrived in the park that was his destination.
The man was standing on the plateau just as before. He was coldly lording over the nighttime skyline as a faint surge of bloodlust rose all around him.
“—Rudolf Eustach!”
Kojou called out to the man by his name. He was a blond foreigner, a soldier with his hair cut very short. His left eye was covered up by a metallic, eyepatch-like monocle.
He was over 190 centimeters tall, covered with a priest’s habit, and wore a metal suit of armor under that. It was an armored augmentation suit employed by heavy army infantry.
You didn’t exactly confuse a guy like that with someone else.
Two months prior, the Lotharingian Armed Apostle, Rudolf Eustach, Astarte’s master, had engaged Kojou and Yukina in a deadly duel, bringing Itogami Island to the very edge of destruction.
“Why are you here?! Didn’t you go back to Lotharingia—?!”
His tone was gentle, even as Kojou glared at him with a look of raw, shaking emotion.
“To meet someone who knows my common name… Who might you be?”
Kojou yelled indignantly.
“Don’t play dumb with me! Itogami Island decided to return the holy relic already. You shouldn’t have any business here. Or did you come here to take Astarte back?”
“If you have discerned my objective, this, I cannot ignore.”
Eustach drew his weapon from the back of his habit. Kojou recognized the metal bardiche. It was a battle axe with a giant blade.
His monocle flared red over and over as it scrutinized Kojou. Eustach’s vision was filled with a heads-up display from the analysis.
“A vampire of unknown bloodline…? Mmm… If you are an abominable demon, you are here to interfere with my crusade. As an Armed Apostle, I have no reason to hesitate to execute thee!”
“Don’t you remember who I am…?!”
He and Eustach were talking past each other. That fact enveloped Kojou in despair. Kojou knew why he hated Itogami Island and had attempted to destroy it. That battle was over. Many had paid the price, but Itogami Island had escaped destruction by the skin of its teeth, and Eustach had returned to his own nation.
“Stop it, old man. You and I don’t have any more reason to fight—”
“Silence, demon!” Eustach roared.
He unleashed his bardiche down at Kojou, his body accelerated by the augmentation suit. It was too fast to be dodged, but Kojou somehow managed to evade the attack anyway. He’d fought Eustach more than once before; he was well aware of the man’s might.
“Stop, old man…!”
Eustach easily pulverized the concrete bench Kojou had used as a shield. His destructive power was as nutty as usual. This was no opponent Kojou could defeat with his bare hands.
At this rate, Kojou would be slain with ease before he could get through to the guy—
“Shit, you damn hard-ass! C’mon over, Regulus…!”
Out of other options, Kojou began to summon his Beast Vassal.
These were beasts summoned from another world that dwelled in his own vampiric “blood.” When materialized, they were giant masses of demonic energy; they were the reason vampires were known and feared as the mightiest of demonkind.
Only the unlimited negative life energy of a vampire could endure the extreme consumption of the host’s life force required to use a Beast Vassal. In turn, the destructive might of a Beast Vassal was overwhelming.
That went even more for the Beast Vassals of the Fourth Primogenitor, the World’s Mightiest Vampire, with each said to unleash destruction equal to a natural disaster. Even a Lotharingian Armed Apostle had no way to oppose such might.
But Eustach’s attacks did not cease even so—
“—Too slow!”
Eustach’s battle-axe was faster than Kojou’s Beast Vassal summons. Gazing dumbfounded at the giant blade lunging at him, Kojou resigned himself to
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