"————"
This was a dream.
A dream that did not belong to Kaiser, yet felt as if he were personally experiencing it, accepted by him as though it were real.
In the dream, Kaiser became Avrora Florestina and lived through her brief yet brilliant life.
The Fourth Progenitor, the Kaleid Blood, was a God-Slaying weapon created jointly by the three Progenitors and the Devas. Due to rebelling against the Devas, it was split into twelve base bodies, each containing one of the twelve Familiars, and scattered across the world to be hidden.
The base bodies were purely seals, vessels for the Familiars of the Fourth Progenitor, and at the same time, they were artificial vampires created by the Devas, just like the Fourth Progenitor.
Avrora Florestina was the vessel for the Twelfth Familiar of the Fourth Progenitor—she was the twelfth base body.
She originally had no name and had been asleep beneath Gozo Island since her creation.
Gozo Island, part of the Republic of Malta in Europe, is a famous tourist destination, belonging to the Northern Sea Empire Federation. It is the oldest special zone for demons in the world, once a battlefield with a long and storied history.
Within this ancient demon special zone, in an underground tomb, the twelfth base body of the Fourth Progenitor lay in slumber.
Her sleep lasted until four years ago.
Four years ago, a group of people excavated the old ruin where the twelfth base body slept and broke into her resting place.
Among them were fallen nobles from the Night Empire ruled by the First Progenitor, the Lost War King, as well as experienced archaeologists, and even a young brother and sister.
That's right—Akatsuki Kojou and Akatsuki Nagisa.
The reason they were there was because the archaeologist leading the excavation was their father, Akatsuki Gajou.
Due to difficulties encountered during the excavation, Akatsuki Gajou called in Akatsuki Nagisa, who was a hybrid ability-user. With her powerful medium abilities, she received the lingering consciousness of the tomb's creator, which allowed them to successfully open the tomb and enter the stone chamber housing the twelfth base body.
Thus, the Akatsuki siblings saw the twelfth base body for the first time. Upon seeing her slumbering in the ice coffin, Kojou unconsciously murmured:
"She looks just like a sleeping beauty…"
And so, the twelfth base body received a name.
Avrora Florestina—derived from Princess Aurora, daughter of King Florestan, known as the Sleeping Beauty.
At that time, Avrora had not yet awakened and remained in a slumbering state.
Until… another group broke into the tomb.
The Black Death Emperor Faction, radical terrorist beastman supremacists, aimed to completely destroy the Sanctuary Treaty and seize control of the War King Domain of the Night Empire from the First Progenitor, the Lost War King. They were true war maniacs.
During the Old Ruins Incident four years ago, this terrorist group invaded the tomb. Their leader killed the fallen noble of the War King Domain present at the time and gravely wounded Akatsuki Gajou. When they tried to kill Kojou and Nagisa, Nagisa forcibly broke Avrora's seal and drew out her power, killing the leader. The rest of the terrorists were annihilated—none survived.
From then on, Nagisa's frail body couldn't endure such trauma and fell ill. She and the still-slumbering Avrora moved to Itogami Island, where they were monitored.
"This is pretty similar to how I was treated."
Watching this unfold, Kaiser thought to himself.
He had also appeared around four years ago and was taken in by the Lion King Agency, placed under their surveillance, and transferred to High God's Forest for training.
"Could it be that at that time, I already had some connection with Avrora?"
Kaiser couldn't help but think this.
And what happened next confirmed his speculation.
Up to this point, everything Avrora experienced more or less aligned with the development in the original story.
But at this moment, a clear deviation occurred.
Kaiser personally witnessed the first and only interaction between him and Avrora when she was transported to Itogami Island while still asleep.
When the aircraft carrying Avrora flew toward Itogami Island and passed over a dragon vein, the Leviathan sleeping there awakened.
At that time, Avrora's seal had already been broken once, and the magical power within her—similar in nature to Kaiser's—began to leak out. This triggered a reaction in the sleeping Kaiser inside the Leviathan.
Thus, the Leviathan awakened and, sensing Avrora's magical power, appeared on Itogami Island.
Avrora was startled awake by the Leviathan's magical power and awoke as well.
So, Avrora escaped from the ice coffin, fled the transport aircraft, and went missing on Itogami Island. Meanwhile, due to Kaiser's awakening, the Leviathan's vessel and sacrifice—his body—first surfaced, washed ashore on Itogami Island, and was discovered by members of the Lion King Agency.
Both were vessels: one sealing the Familiar of the strongest vampire, the other sealing the world's strongest magical beast.
Both were sacrifices, human pillars, artificially created lives.
Thus, their magical power resonated with one another, and they awakened simultaneously, setting off on different life paths.
Kaiser was taken in by the Lion King Agency, while Avrora wandered clumsily around Itogami Island, eventually finding Nagisa, who was receiving treatment there.
The meeting between Avrora and Nagisa was inevitable.
Because Nagisa carried something Avrora had to reclaim.
At that time, no one knew that the reason Nagisa fell ill wasn't just from forcibly drawing out Avrora's power, but also due to a foreign entity within her.
As an artificial vampire, the Fourth Progenitor—created by the three Progenitors and the Devas—had several built-in safety mechanisms to prevent endangering its creators.
Among them were Root: Logic Bomb, used to safeguard secrets; Root: Freeze, which stripped self-awareness to serve purely as a magical power source; and the virtual personality Root: Primordial, which governed the Fourth Progenitor's aspect as a weapon.
These safety measures were inherited by the base bodies. The virtual personality, Primordial, existed as a cursed soul sealed within Avrora's body.
Avrora, the twelfth base body, not only served as the container for the Twelfth Familiar of the Fourth Progenitor, but also as the monitor of the Fourth Progenitor—a vessel for the cursed soul, Primordial.
When Nagisa forcibly broke the seal in the tomb on Old Ruins to draw out Avrora's power, the Primordial sealed within Avrora awakened, escaped the seal, and possessed Nagisa, causing her to fall ill.
After awakening, Avrora gradually realized her mission and sought out Nagisa, intending to re-seal the Primordial's soul within herself.
Unfortunately, Nagisa did not agree.
"This development is completely unexpected."
Kaiser hadn't expected events to unfold like this.
Nagisa was an exceptionally talented spirit medium with powerful Spirit Vision and medium constitution, capable of full divine possession—an excellent spiritual vessel.
She knew what had happened to her. When possessed by the Primordial, she also gained many memories through divine possession.
So, she knew about the Primordial—knew it was a cursed soul, a highly dangerous virtual personality, representing the weapon aspect of the Fourth Progenitor. Its manifestation would bring destruction.
At the same time, she understood Avrora's mission—that she was a vessel, a sacrifice. If she were to seal the Primordial again, Avrora would have to die.
After all, the seal by the Devas had already been broken. For Avrora to sleep again would be difficult. Only by dying with the cursed soul could all future threats be eliminated.
How could a kind girl like Nagisa possibly agree to that?
After all, Avrora had been asleep since creation and had only just awakened.
In other words, her entire life had only just begun. It was no different from that of a newborn baby.
From Nagisa's perspective, asking Avrora to fulfill her mission was no different from sending a baby to die.
Thus, Nagisa firmly rejected Avrora, and their conflict lasted three and a half years.
They were once enemies and even dragged those around them into their conflict.
They also became friends—despite Nagisa being seriously ill and Avrora being childlike and innocent, they traveled to many places together, shared meals, encountered dangers, supported each other, and became deeply bonded.
In the process, they developed an extraordinarily deep bond.
Until six months ago, the Blazing Banquet began. The other eleven base bodies besides Avrora all arrived on Itogami Island, shattering that peaceful time.
During the Blazing Banquet, the awakened Primordial used Nagisa as a focal point to collect the other eleven Familiars and succeeded in reviving.
To save Nagisa, Avrora—supported by Kojou and others—fought the Primordial and successfully separated its soul and the Fourth Progenitor's power from Nagisa, sealing them within herself.
In the original story, to end the Primordial, Avrora used an unbreakable Blood Binding Curse to control Kojou and made him shoot the Anti-Magic Holy Spear—created to destroy Progenitors—into her own heart, dying together with the Primordial's soul and passing the Fourth Progenitor's power to Kojou.
But here, because of her prolonged bond with Nagisa, Kojou never became Avrora's blood servant. As a result, she could not force him to kill her.
Avrora could only carry the identity and power of the Fourth Progenitor and use the Anti-Magic Holy Spear to die alone.
Nagisa then did everything in her power to absorb the entire soul of Avrora—who had become the complete Fourth Progenitor—into her own body, saving Avrora's life...