Chapter: 10. The Current Savior
Tokyo, nighttime.
The city lights seemed to be stained with an eerie tone by a deep crimson moonlight.
A blood moon hung ominously above Tokyo, completely obscuring the stars.
From a high vantage point, silver and neon were nowhere to be found, replaced instead by a vast expanse of reddish haze.
On the streets, groups of pedestrians roamed slowly, with synchronized steps and hollow expressions, as if the entire city had been swallowed by a tide of blood.
Somewhere on the ground.
A team of abilities users from Special Circumstances Group Sema narrowly escaped an enemy attack and took refuge in the nearest parking structure.
The man, who was the team leader, was almost dragging an injured and unconscious member into the shadows, and his own condition was not much better; his stamina was nearly depleted, and his magic had been completely drained by the opponent, leaving him on the brink of despair.
“Damn it! Headquarters, where’s the support? This is a threat level 8 primordial entity! It’s not something our regular team can handle!!!” He shouted into the communicator with the only hand he could still move.
As soon as he finished speaking.
A sharp screech echoed through the blood moonlit night sky.
What poured forth like a tidal wave were countless dense, blood-red bats, emerging from some kind of nightmare’s gaping maw, cascading down from the shadows of skyscrapers and enveloping the entire district in a trembling blood cloud.
Seeing this scene, the man immediately realized that their position had been compromised.
But how could they have been—
Lost in thought, he sensed an emotionless gaze beside him.
He turned his head in terror to see one of his team members who he had just dragged in; now, the member’s face was devoid of color, and in his hollow eyes was a flash of blood-red that did not belong to a human, as if that blood moon was suspended in his eyes—
Blood Moon Domain.
It can transform all unconscious beings within the area into “Blood Servants,” supplying its host with the original life force and stamina.
The man’s expression turned desperate; with his magic depleted, he could no longer summon fantasy armaments. However, as a member of Special Circumstances Group Sema, he held onto the belief of protecting ordinary people against fantasy entities and exerted the last ounce of strength to draw his conventional weapon from his waist.
His phone slipped from his pocket due to the rough motion, fell to the ground, slid for a bit, and lit up the screen, showing a photo of the man with his daughter.
“Damn it, damn it, damn it!!!” he cursed as he pulled the trigger until the gun was empty, but the “Blood Servant” standing before him remained unmoved.
This was a fantasy entity, one that ordinary weapons were incapable of harming. Moreover, these “Blood Servants” were able to gain some of the primordial entity’s power. In other words, each of these Blood Servants alone posed at least a threat level of 4.
At that moment, a group of figures emerged from the nearby blood fog—those figures had hollow gazes, pale faces, and blood-stained corners of their mouths, as if they had walked out from a blood pool, yet they were clad in convenience store uniforms, office suits, and even elementary school uniforms.
Seeing this, the man felt his fighting spirit evaporate. He couldn’t even deal with one Blood Servant; surviving against this many Blood Servants and the swirling blood bats in the air was simply impossible.
“I’m sorry… Airi, Dad can’t come back…” Just as the man despairingly closed his eyes, softly apologizing to his only loved one—
A noise crackled in his earpiece, as if there was finally a response from the other end.
【Reinforcements—】
Too late.
Perhaps an ace-level abilities user could eliminate this fantasy entity, but he wouldn’t be saved.
The outcome of this mission might be judged as successful, but his life, along with those of these people, would only be the necessary sacrifices for success—
【S-level abilities user Tsukimi Kanade has arrived—】
Upon hearing this, the man suddenly opened his eyes wide, and the light in his vision was quickly swallowed by darkness, which was a pitch-black flame.
—Then, the entire night sky fell silent in an instant.
The swirling blood bats similarly halted in place—not that they had stopped, but that they had been cleaved apart.
Multi-colored streams of light traced an elegant line through the darkness, as countless blood wings shattered into fragments, peeling away layer by layer from above, as if a perfectly carved red jade had suddenly fractured, with each shard enveloped in a mass of black flames.
Then the man saw it—a young man in a school uniform stepping out of the darkness, an incredibly radiant golden light exploding from his eyes, exuding a soul-shaking dignity.
“Save, Savior…” The man couldn’t help but murmur.
The visitor was indeed Kanade.
Compared to the youthful boy from three years ago, he now stood taller, his gaze calm yet sharp, seemingly devoid of emotion, as if he had become a finely honed blade, losing all excess warmth and abandoning all hesitation.
There were no proclamations, no warnings.
He merely swung the multicolored blade in one hand, then took a step forward—his entire figure vanished.
In the next moment, Kanade’s figure appeared suddenly behind the fantasy entity, which was reconstituting itself from the mass of shredded blood bats, closely followed by a stream of dreamlike, aurora-like multicolored light.
With just one slash, he penetrated the fantasy entity’s past, present, and future.
Countless blood bats instantly turned into blood mist and dissipated with the wind.
The domain that enveloped the city began to collapse; those who had been transformed into Blood Servants lost consciousness and fell to the ground, reverting to a comatose state.
The blood moon overhead faded along with the shattered domain, and a silver moon cast its pure, flawless light upon the city below.
“The domain… has been lifted? Just with one slash… it took down a threat level 8 primordial entity…” The man, sitting on the ground, stared at the figure standing alone at the crossroads, unable to utter a complete sentence.
Kanade decisively swung the blade of life in his hand horizontally; the blade immediately transformed into a streak of multicolored aurora and merged into his right arm.
He then turned and walked towards the only remaining conscious abilities user from Special Circumstances Group Sema.
“Th-thank you for your rescue—” The man looked somewhat flustered as he watched the Savior approach him, but before he could finish his words of gratitude, he was coldly interrupted by Kanade.
“What were you doing? No evacuation, no plan, and not even an ace on-site to confront a primordial entity?” Kanade’s tone was icy, instantly stirring the primal fear within the man.
“…I…we…were acting on orders from the command center…and…we should have an ace-level abilities user…to be on-site directing…”
The man tried to explain further, but he saw Kanade lose interest and turn his head away, causing his voice to falter.
“Quit before you go back. You’re not fit to participate in this battle.” Kanade left without looking back, leaving the man who had just regained his life sitting dazedly in place.
“…C-Captain?” At that moment, he suddenly heard a voice beside him.
He turned his head sharply and saw a mass of pitch-black flames dissipating in the wind, and then that team member who was supposed to be seriously injured and on the verge of death surprisingly rose from the ground as if nothing had happened, looking at him with a puzzled expression.
“We… survived?”
“…Yes, we were rescued.” When he turned his head again, Kanade’s back had already disappeared from the gradually reviving city.
