113 Four fiends, Fourth Beast (4)

Lavinia produced light using her magic and illuminated their surroundings.

As for what was there...

"Ugh!"

Natsume's involuntary reaction was being at a loss for words.

What was revealed by the magical illumination was a ghastly scene coated with blood.

Throughout the area, there lay men wearing business suits who had been turned into gruesome corpses. Those who had been chopped to pieces, those whose arms and legs had been removed, and those whose heads had been mashed into a pulp.

The scene had become something they couldn't bear to look at.

Sae and Shigune forcibly suppressed their shrieks with their hands, have turned their faces away.

Perhaps out of consideration for them, Lavinia regulated the light so as not to illuminate the remaining corpses.

In this scene that caused people to avert their eyes, there was only one living thing that was moving.

Lavinia directed the light at it, and standing there was a single boy.

The boy had an unkempt black hair set with gold highlights here and there, and an indescribably ominous thing was coiled around his entire body.

He was Koga Hyousuke.

He was wearing his old school uniform from when he'd transferred away from Ryoukou Senior High School.

Something was resembling a gauntlet equipped on his right arm. Jason's gaze was focused on that because it resembles too much the Boosted Gear, Red Dragon Emperor's Gauntlet.

Even as Koga was looking towards the light, he was wiping the blood of the men off his face with his hand.

Koga noticed that Shigune was there and spoke with a light-hearted expression.

"Oh, if it ain't Nanadaru. So you came back. Something is going on…other than this that is."

Becoming aware of Tobio and the others around Shigune, he began counting them off one by one, pointing at each in turn.

"Let's see, Ikuse, Same-chan, Minagawa, and Toujou…and three foreigners besides that. By any chance, the lineup of the Four Fiends…did it unexpectedly ends up becoming the six fiends?"

As he inclined his head while letting that comment leak out, at his side, there existed a body that looked like a mass of deep black fur.

Under a closer look, it looked similar to a black-furred dog. With a protruding mouth like a dog and four limbs with claws, the creature seemed to embody a dog's characteristics, but with the fur covering the area around the eyes, its face was indiscernible.

A long-haired breed was not what it seemed to be. The aura the creature was clad in was a stagnant black, to the point of inducing feelings of unease.

Having noticed Tobio's gaze on the dog-like creature, Koga spoke.

"Aah, this is Blitz. He's what you'd call my Sacred Gear."

As expected, that creature was Koga's Sacred Gear, the last member of the Four Fiends, Húndùn.

Directing his gaze towards Jin, who was at Tobio's side, Koga was astonished.

"That dog… it's exactly like my Blitz. By any chance, is Ikuse or Toujou one of the actual Four Fiends?"

Tobio shook his head.

"No, Sae and I are not of the Four Fiends. Jin here is my Sacred Gear."

Hearing that, Koga stared at Jin with great interest.

The black dog, Jin, and the black dog-like Four Fiend, Blitz, also made eye contact with each other.

Tobio and Koga watched as the Sacred Gears stared at one another. Then Koga shrugged.

"Well, whatever. Leaving that aside. "

Koga's gaze settled amidst the interior of the mountains. Jin and the other Sacred Gears also reacted, glaring in the same direction as Koga.

"It seems our guests have some business with us."

From out of the depths of the mountain, what which appeared together with darkness was an elderly foreign woman with the appearance of a magician in a purple robe.

"We have been surrounded."

Lavinia spoke while glaring at the Witch who was before them.

Jason could see the cold look in Lavinia's eyes as she looked at the Witch. Thanks to that, he was able to deduce more or less the identity of the Witch.

Augusta of the Purple Flame.

Augusta had appeared having brought along a girl wearing gothic style clothes, her disciple Walburga, along with several magicians.

Augusta observed Tobio and the others one by one while narrowing her eyes.

"Since I had heard that there was a hard fight against those guy from the 'Utsusemi Agency', if I were to come here with my disciples, I would find that the dog from before and Glenda's disciple would also be here."

Augusta spoke with a pleasing sounding voice.

Subsequently, a chill began to dominate the area. The season changed to a cold atmosphere, which wafted throughout the area.

The source of this outbreak was Lavinia. Her expression had become frighteningly cold, and as her breath turned white, she stated the following.

"This is just great. While assisting Tobio, Natsume, and my other companions, I will eradicate all of you."

To Lavinia's provocation, the old magician displayed a fearless smile.

"Those scary eyes are so unlike you, Glenda's disciple."

"That was caused by you all."

In this state of heightening tension, a loud ringing voice resounded from up in the sky.

"Hmph, one of the Longinus, Incinerate Anthem. So the user is the Witch of the East from Oz."

Looking in the direction of the voice, Tobio and the others could only just make it out.

On a tall tree, standing on a branch overlooking them, was the figure of a silver-haired boy, Vali.

The wings of light that were his Sacred Gear had appeared on his back.

While folding his arms, Vali spoke to Augusta with a magnificent smile.

"I am Vali Lucifer. The being that carries the Vanishing Dragon with him. As those possessing similar Longinus, I wish to compete with you by all means."

Natsume spoke to Vali who was up in the tree.

"Va-Vali! I-It's dangerous so get down from there! Don't go making provocations from such a place, you can do it just fine down here!"

Disregarding Natsume's statement, Vali and Augusta glared at each other.

The old Witch laughed with a "Kah kah kah."

"Oho, so a small boy like you is this era's White Dragon Emperor. Moreover, as rumored, it's the successor to 'Lucifer'. This is quite interesting."

"Well, perhaps you'll enjoy this as well."

As he spoke, Vali flapped his wings of light, descending until he reached the surface.

"Do you always have to do that?"

Vali blushed when he heard Jason.

"Don't ruin my moment, aniki"

"Yes, yes. Continue"

It wasn't possible to say anything about Vali's previous statement… but since the members other than Tobio, Natsume, and Samejima seemed to have generally come to terms with it, given the situation, they decided to assume battle poses while paying it no mind.

Koga, though watching over this carefully, broke the silence, and spoke while scratching his cheek.

"Somehow, I don't really get it, but is it fine just to say that the purple grandmother is our opponent?"

From the tip of Augusta's staff, a magic circle for the sake of using magic was formed in midair as she herself spoke.

"That's fine. It seems that the likes of you understand."

At the old woman's reply, Koga nodded and said, "I see, I get it now."

Subsequently, after giving a single stroke of his Sacred Gear—the beast Blitz, he took a single step forward.

"Well then, I guess this is the continuation. Blitz."

Koga, advancing together with Blitz, held out the right-handed gauntlet from before, and operated a slide on that gauntlet with his left hand. Just as the gauntlet started glowing, it began to release an ominous brilliance.

Simultaneously, Blitz, who was beside him, began releasing a profound black aura from his entire body, which resonated with the brilliance of the gauntlet.

The vibrations made the atmosphere tremble violently, and as a sound was emitted from the gauntlet, Koga raised his voice.

"Balance Break."

'Si-xiong HúnDùn Over Booster!!!!'