After the wedding of Ryougi and Kokutou concluded, I found myself once again aboard a plane bound for foreign shores. Though I had spoken of taking a rest, my actions only served to prove that I am a hopeless workaholic who constantly seeks out new tasks.
…A tragic realization, truly.
Regardless, I have no acquaintances or friends in the mundane world. Even the people I know—my associates—are all tied to the underside of society and the world of magecraft. The only place I could really go was the Clock Tower in England… but this time, I wasn't heading for London. Instead, I set my sights on a forest in a small European country.
The target was a member of the Twenty-Seven Dead Apostle Ancestors, one of the most reclusive and enigmatic entities… a mystery so deep that even the Holy Church has failed to grasp its true nature.
I set out to meet the seventh-ranked member of the Twenty-Seven, Einnashe… or more accurately, I set out to subjugate it.
"And so, I'll be counting on you, Tohno-kun."
"No, why is it being treated as a given that I'm here?"
"Don't be like that, Shiki! It's been weighing on me too, how I didn't properly finish off the Sea of Einnashe back then!"
"…Sigh, there's no stopping the two of you."
The previous Seventh Rank of the Dead Apostle Ancestors had long since been demolished by Arcueid.
The Ancestor had been an entity ranked within the top ten, evaluated as impossible to kill through ordinary 'physical force.' However, compared to Arcueid, who possesses little vampiric impulse and can spam Marble Phantasm, Einnashe was weak. It once managed to retreat by successfully placing a suggestion on her, but it was promptly pulverized once she broke free of the mental interference.
The problem arose when, before the Church could clean up the blood of the predecessor left behind by Arcueid, a vampiric plant drank it. That plant mutated into a Phantasmal Species, gathered kin around itself, and became a massive, mobile, blood-sucking forest. That is the true identity of the Sea of Einnashe.
"I never imagined the entire forest itself would be the Dead Apostle. I assumed it was just a Reality Marble deployed by an Apostle who inherited Einnashe's rank."
"It's better to view the forest itself as the Dead Apostle."
The plane carrying us flew over the forest that was Einnashe. Looking through the Bounded Field of magical energy with my Rinnegan, I began to perceive the true scope of this nightmare.
"According to Merem, I thought Ciel Elesia had acquired the forest's Idea Blood!"
"It was strong enough to place a suggestion even on you, wasn't it? Perhaps, like Lululily, it acquired the Idea Blood of another Apostle or was tricked with a forged one."
"Certainly, that is a possibility!"
Suddenly, she kicked the plane door open and tore it off. Amidst the roaring gale, she began to ask about the Dead Apostle's characteristics.
"Does that thing have any weaknesses?!"
"Does it even matter? We have the person with the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception to create weaknesses for us!"
"That's true. Anything else unusual?"
"The inability to use atmospheric mana in its vicinity is an issue, but since Arcueid uses Marble Phantasm, Shiki-kun uses his Eyes, and my Mystery is self-contained, does it really mean anything?"
"You're right… In that case, since we've decided to kill it anyway, I can just do as I please…!"
Arcueid had long since awakened as the Crimson Moon once before, reclaiming her power, and had overcome her vampiric impulses after the death of Roa.
In the distant past, her hair—stolen when she lost to Altrouge while her power was drained by bloodlust—had grown long again. The Marble Phantasm she had once unleashed on the Moon was now being used with a degree of casualness that bordered on abuse, simply for the convenience of her daily life.
"I might fall short of Archetype: Earth, but… I am still a True Ancestor…!"
Immediately after, massive 'boulders'—large enough to blanket the entire forest—began to plummet from the sky toward the trees.
* *
As the meteor storm descended, thick smoke and craters pockmarked the landscape. I converted my magical energy via the Asura Path, creating napalm bombs imbued with a high level of Mystery to rain down upon the Sea of Einnashe.
The explosions and flames forged from my prana lived up to their name as 'incendiary weapons,' incinerating patches of the forest. The woods, previously shrouded in dense fog and dust, revealed themselves, lashing out with tentacles and vines in an attempt to suppress the inferno.
Arcueid's mass-bombardment and my flames were elemental attacks that were quite difficult for the 'Sea of Einnashe' to handle. Arcueid, Shiki, and I intended to use this opening to drop into the center of the forest, but…
"Wait, what is that?!"
"…High-speed growth magecraft? No, it looks like it concentrated its prana into the vampiric plants and purposefully set them on fire."
"Even so, isn't that a bit much? A Grass-type winning against a Fire-type is… well, it's a bit outside common sense, isn't it?!"
"Hey, if you're talking about things outside common sense, the greatest offender is right in front of us."
"Fair point. I accept that."
"Shiki?! Why are you looking at me while saying that?"
I ignored the bickering couple and looked down.
The Sea of Einnashe's answer to the napalm and meteors was simple: it overwhelmed the fires with an sheer volume of vegetation that prevented the flames from spreading further.
Tens, hundreds, thousands… perhaps tens of thousands of trees and grasses smothered the prana-born flames and rooted themselves directly into Arcueid's meteors, shattering them from within.
"As expected of a Dead Apostle Ancestor. It's not soft, is it?"
Arcueid spoke casually before grabbing Shiki's arm and dragging him toward the open plane door. Shiki looked at me, his face pale.
"Wait, wait a second. Karma-hyung, are you really planning to jump down there?! Arcueid, I'm sorry, but can we rethink this? I really don't think this is it."
"What's wrong? Won't it be thrilling!"
"Arcueid!!!"
As the True Ancestor princess jumped with a bright smile, I activated my Rinnegan and followed suit.
Amidst the fierce wind, dozens of vines bristling with thorns lunged at me. I habitually repelled them with Shinra Tensei as I touched down on the ground.
* *
The moment we landed, the vegetation of the Sea of Einnashe rushed at us. The three of us dealt with the flora in our own ways.
I either repelled them with Shinra Tensei or literally tore them apart using the Asura Path, while Shiki responded by tracing the 'lines' of every plant that approached him. Arcueid? She just flicked her wrist and slaughtered everything in front of her.
When I used Shinra Tensei to uproot the surrounding trees, roots erupted from the earth to entangle me. Shiki threw several knives he had concealed, piercing the 'points' of the plants and neutralizing those roots.
"A rain of napalm is scheduled for delivery. Please prepare your fireproof suits and umbrellas…!"
As I focused my magical energy to spray napalm into the air once more, Arcueid quickly used Marble Phantasm to manifest insulated clothing that looked as if she had carved out a glacier, and she even changed my and Shiki's outfits to match.
While I focused solely on burning the Sea of Einnashe via the Asura Path, Shiki kept the grasping plants at bay, and Arcueid handled any obstructions in our path. Finally, concentrating strength into her arm, she punched a massive hole through the woods, creating a straight path to where Einnashe's fruit ripened.
"Now, let's go before the fruit burns too!"
"…Y-Yeah."
At this point, I wondered if Arcueid could have just come alone, but we nevertheless dashed toward the heart of the Sea of Einnashe. There, in the center, we found a reddish, egg-like fruit… the Fruit of Einnashe.
"It's a fruit containing the blood and essence siphoned over decades… Incredible, isn't it? It can grant a temporary form of immortality capable of even evading the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception."
"Hmm… Arcueid, you don't need this, do you? Since you don't have vampiric impulses to begin with."
"That's true~ I'm mostly just here to settle my past business and count this as a date."
"…Arcueid, normal people definitely do not call this a 'date'…"
"Hehe, but lately we've only been doing dates the way Shiki wants, right? I thought this might be nice once in a while!"
Ignoring the couple lost in their own world, I reached out toward the fruit and harvested it using Bansho Ten'in.
"Ah, Karma-hyung. I think this is the core of Einnashe. The largest 'point' I've ever seen is right there."
"Good… With this, the Seventh Dead Apostle is finished. So, including this, Arcueid has already hunted four Ancestors?"
"That sounds right."
While I was in America, Arcueid had mentioned she dismantled the Dead Apostle known as Vlov—introduced in the newer records—just out of boredom. Combined with the successful hunts of Roa and Nero Chaos, her contributions were immense.
"Stanrobe Calhin… the Ghost of the First, and Zepia Eltnam… I think he's currently the Night of Wallachia? Anyway, if we take out those two, you've effectively hunted six."
"Then there's the other two. Since Merem and Gransurg Blackwing are following my orders for now, they won't clash with the Church. In Merem's case, he's on good terms with the Church in more ways than one."
Exactly.
The reason I went out of my way to engage in a Dead Apostle hunt that I didn't particularly care about was for the sake of future negotiations with the Holy Church.
Even if the Sessyoin Kiara has abandoned her 'ascension,' I still need to meet her at least once… And since Kirei Kotomine, who was dispatched by the Holy Church, later appeared as the Demi-Servant for Grigori Rasputin and served as an Apostle for the Alien God, it was necessary to keep a close eye on that organization.
"Still, you're probably the only person who catches Dead Apostles just to get on the Church's good side. With Nero and Roa alone, the Church should treat you with the utmost respect. But you went after the Sea of Einnashe—which they had essentially given up on—and now you're talking about the Demon King of the Financial World and the Rose Dead Apostle Ancestor?"
"I don't intend to personally kill Van-Fem. I'll just place some restrictions on him to stop his external activities."
"Ah, you mean the gambling on his cruise ships? Then what about Rita Rozay-en? Surely you aren't planning to attack the Rail Zeppelin directly?"
"Am I insane? Why would I wage war with the Rose Ancestor? I'm only visiting her to ask some questions regarding a strategy meeting for after the Bleaching of the Human Order. Anyway, I've killed six Dead Apostles… seven, actually, if you count the fact that Crimson Moon left because of me. I've taken out three of the top ten already. At this point, the Church should feel guilty enough to let me meet a member of the Burial Agency."
"…You're going through a lot just to meet one Burial Agency member. You could just force your way in with power, couldn't you?"
"But then cooperation with the Holy Church would be impossible. To those faith-filled lunatics, my abilities are dangerous because they flatly contradict their doctrines. Especially with people like El Nahat… in terms of how their powers function."
Arcueid nodded in rare agreement.
"That Dead Apostle is indeed dangerous in many ways. Even though I have frictions with the Burial Agency, I tend to avoid direct confrontations with the First or Second seats."
"A wise choice."
"So, Karma-hyung, what do you plan to do now?"
"Hmm… if you're free, want to come to England with me? There are remnants of the Forest of Einnashe left there too. Since we're out, why not hunt another one?"
"…Absolutely not."
When Shiki Tohno replied with a rare, dead-serious expression, Arcueid and I burst into laughter simultaneously. Looking at the stunned Shiki, I patted his head.
"Relax. Hunting Dead Apostles back-to-back is actually quite draining for me too. If nothing comes up, I'm planning to head to Tokyo first."
"…Tokyo?"
"Yeah. I have someone to meet."
Finally, it was time to meet the Omnipotent Princess, a meeting I had delayed for so long.
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