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Back on Itogami Island—
The explosion of power from Dimitrie Vatler earlier had been so violent that it shook the building and jolted Kirasaka Sayaka awake.
In nothing but her freshly laundered pajamas, she had instinctively grabbed her Lustrous Scale - Demon-Purging Bow, rushed barefoot into Nagisa's apartment, and was now anxiously scanning the living room like a SWAT team on edge.
"What happened?? Yukina?? Are you okay??"
"We're... we're fine."
That familiar voice came from behind the couch. Sayaka turned toward it just in time to see Yukina Himeragi's slightly damp head of hair poke up over the sofa.
Beside her, Nagisa did the same.
Sayaka quickly vaulted over the couch to check them both, eyes sharp and alert. Once she was sure they were unhurt, she finally let out a small breath of relief.
Then, her gaze shifted to the living room's glass balcony doors—or rather, what was left of them. The frames were shattered, the glass mostly blown out, with only a few shards still clinging to the grooves.
She recognized that kind of damage. Her own bedroom window next door had suffered the same fate a few minutes ago—like someone had set off a gas line right in the middle of the street.
"So... what the hell happened here?"
Sayaka just couldn't wrap her head around it.
Yukina glanced at the ruined window and hesitated for a second, then replied quietly. "It was Vatler."
"Vatler??" Sayaka stiffened, tightening her grip on her Bow.
"You mean that bloodsucker from the Ardeal Duchy?? But I thought... didn't Bokue Keikain toss him into the middle of the ocean?? What, he crawled back already?? Did he try something on you? I swear, I'll kill him myself—where is he??"
There wasn't even a pause in her logic flow. The moment she connected the dots, Sayaka had already pulled up the "eliminate target" subroutine in her head.
How dare that man even think of laying a hand on Yukina?? That bastard was dead.
"No need," Yukina quickly cut in, shaking her head gently. "Bokue already took care of it."
"...Oh. I see."
Sayaka blinked, her killing intent draining all at once. Her Bow lowered.
Yes, that made sense.
Yukina exhaled silently.
She'd seen it with her own eyes. That proud vampire noble—the one hailed as the strongest below the Progenitors, Dimitrie Vatler—hadn't lasted half a second against Bokue. Not even close.
One blink, and he was gone. Compressed into a goddamn tennis ball.
No resistance. No drama. Just pure, clean annihilation.
"So where is Bokue now?" Sayaka asked, still curious.
Before Yukina could answer, another voice interrupted her.
"He's back already."
It was Natsuki Minamiya, finally looking up from the couch. There was a glint of confusion in her violet eyes.
"Earlier, I couldn't sense his presence at all—but now... he's definitely somewhere on the island."
❁❁❁❁
Meanwhile, above Itogami's western harbor...
Having just returned from deep space, Bokue Keikain hovered calmly over the water.
Below him was the floating port island—the one he'd yanked out of orbit, taken on a quick solar field trip, and now gently returned to the sea. He lifted his hand and, with a single thought, the bridge connections that had been sliced earlier reassembled seamlessly.
The entire port infrastructure—the warehouses, the cranes, the delivery systems—all repaired in an instant.
"Huh... that's actually pretty convenient."
Bokue raised an eyebrow.
Before this, he'd needed at least a moment of mental focus to reconstruct matter—like remembering a target's exact features before writing their name in the Death Note.
Now? Just a passing thought, and reality bent to his will.
"Whatever. Everything's wrapped up. I should swing by and check on Asagi."
And with that—no sound, no light, no flash—he vanished.
❁❁❁❁
At that very moment, in Eastern Europe—
Within the vast territory of the Lost Warlord, the First Progenitor of Vampires, a small section of the kingdom had become something terrifying.
A blank slate.
No buildings. No roads. No trees. No signs of civilization.
The capital city, once a sprawling Gothic marvel, had been erased from existence. Not destroyed. Erased. Like someone had hit "Delete" in the dev tools of the universe.
Surrounding areas remained bustling and intact. Cars moved. Lights blinked. People lived.
But the capital was gone—and in its place was a flat, sterile expanse of chalky-white land, spanning several hundred square kilometers.
At the center stood a single monolith:
A golden, divine spear, like a skyscraper forged from the wrath of a god, driven halfway into the earth.
Tap. Tap.
Footsteps echoed in the silence.
A tall man with cropped silver hair and a dragon tattoo across his left shoulder approached the impact site. He was barefoot, his eyes narrowed, his face emotionless.
He was the one man in the kingdom with the right to appear now.
The Lost Warlord—Ki Juranbarada, First Progenitor of the Vampire Race.
He walked until he stood at the base of the divine spear.
And there, he found something.
Not a crater.
Not a bloodbath.
Just a tiny, grotesquely compressed ball the size of a fist, with a barely-recognizable face on it—shoved beneath the spear like an offering.
It was a man. Or at least, what used to be one.
That ball-sized horror was all that remained of the once-proud vampire duke:
Dimitrie Vatler.
And despite being speared, despite having his body crushed and his spirit shattered—he was still alive.
More than that—
He was reciting something. Over and over.
"I am Dimitrie Vatler... Duke of the Ardeal Duchy... appointed ambassador to Itogami Island by the Warlord Domain..."
"I colluded with the remnants of the Black Death Faction..."
"I used the Warlord's name and resources to smuggle Nalakuvera into Japan..."
"I—Dimitrie Vatler—am Guilty of High treason against my people..."
Again and again, like a corrupted school kid punished to read his crimes on loop in front of the entire class.
Juranbarada stared down silently.
"Vatler... is that you?"
The moment he heard that voice, Vatler froze.
Even in his deranged, broken mind, that voice rang like a divine command.
And then...
He wept.
Thick, crimson tears of blood spilled from what remained of his eyes, sliding down the orb's mangled features.
"L-Lord Juranbarada... p-please... save me..."
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