"What… what is that…!?"
Looking at the enormous rose magic circle in the sky, Yukina and Avrora both showed expressions of shock.
Especially the sight of the seemingly endless Beast Vassals descending from the heavens—it completely stunned both Yukina and Avrora.
Rozen likewise narrowed his eyes, staring intently at that gigantic rose magic circle in the sky.
With Rozen's current level of magical mastery, even though that rose magic circle was extraordinarily complex and intricate, layered and vast beyond what ordinary magus could decipher, he still managed to preliminarily analyze part of the formation through his Wise Eye.
That formation was unmistakably familiar to Rozen.
"A summoning…"
Yes.
The spell formation within that gigantic rose magic circle was clearly a summoning ritual.
A vast summoning formation was ceaselessly calling forth Beast Vassals from another world, unleashing an unending army of masterless creatures.
These Beast Vassals, lacking any master—some even incomplete in form—upon being summoned from the other world, immediately fell into a state of chaos due to the absence of control, rampaging violently across every corner of Itogami Island, launching indiscriminate attacks.
Buildings began to collapse under their assault.
The ground cracked open repeatedly.
Even the atmosphere of Itogami Island itself seemed disturbed by the berserk magical energy of the uncontrolled beasts, becoming dangerously unstable.
Amid their rampage, screams echoed from all directions.
Itogami Island, in real time, was walking the path of destruction.
"What exactly did you do…!?"
Yukina recovered her senses and shouted toward December and Senga Takehito.
Even Rozen looked over, eyes filled with suspicion.
For such an enormous summoning ritual to suddenly appear in Itogami Island without any sign—this was highly irregular.
If a summoning ritual of that scale had emerged on the island, there was no way Rozen wouldn't have noticed it. Even if it had been activated using the island's altar, unless it used something like the Eight Trigrams of Kimon, a summoning formation of that magnitude wouldn't escape the notice of a summoner like Rozen.
However, the method by which the magic circle had been constructed was highly unusual. Even with Rozen's knowledge and insight, he was unable to discern the structure of the circle. That was simply impossible.
Yet, by using Wise Eye and Mind's Eye, Rozen could still observe that at this very moment, streams of mana were rising from every corner of Itogami Island, converging into that rose magic circle.
This phenomenon didn't seem like some magical mechanism had been triggered. Rather, it felt more like something was forcing the sources of mana to be drawn in, stripping them helplessly without resistance.
Mana from disparate origins was being siphoned away nonstop—how could that not be unsettling?
To this, Senga Takehito merely smiled.
"This is our trump card. The power that once annihilated countless Demon Sanctuaries—Tartarus Rose."
Senga Takehito raised one hand high and pointed toward the rose magic circle in the sky.
"The ritual formula forming that magic circle doesn't exist in the real world. It was injected like a virus into the servers of the Special Zone Defense Force."
Upon hearing this, Yukina and Avrora still hadn't fully grasped the implications, but Rozen's eyes suddenly widened in realization.
He clearly remembered that earlier, Aiba Asagi had mentioned how the Defense Force's database and servers had been hit with a military-grade virus, throwing their entire command system into chaos and rendering their servers completely inoperable.
Originally, Rozen had thought that Tartarus Lapse had used that as a diversion to disrupt the Defense Force's actions, buying time for their own operations.
But now it was clear—that move held a far deeper significance.
"You're aware, aren't you? That the Demons in the Demon Sanctuaries are all regulated by the Management Cooperative and issued official Demon Registration Bracelets?"
Senga Takehito continued, "And the system managing those bracelets is under the control of the Special Zone Defense Force."
If that system fell, and control over the Demon Registration Bracelets was seized by another party, what would happen?
It was simple.
"Those bracelets contain simplified magic circuits for monitoring vital signs and tracking location. Though rudimentary, these circuits act as catalysts worn around the clock by virtually every Demon."
Senga Takehito's voice echoed calmly.
"Although the memory capacity of the bracelets' built-in devices isn't enough to execute complex rituals, inducing unconsciousness and causing the wearer to lose control is easy."
Based on this vulnerability, Tartarus Lapse, an organization devoted to destroying Demon Sanctuaries, had created a special ritual. It was injected via hackers into the bracelet management system as a virus, infecting every Demon wearing a Demon Registration Bracelet within the sanctuary. This caused them to lose control and forcibly extracted their mana to form the Tartarus Rose magic circle.
Through this magic circle, the gateway to the Beast Vassals' realm would open, unleashing an endless flood of uncontrollable monsters into this world, attacking everything beneath the ritual circle.
And there was no way to dispel this formation.
Because the summoning ritual itself existed as a virus in cyberspace, even the most powerful mages couldn't interact with it, let alone dispel it.
Rozen included.
"Unless a hacker even more skilled than Rahn intervenes and eliminates the virus, the rose cannot be undone. Unfortunately, as far as we know, there's only one such person on Itogami Island."
Senga Takehito said these words confidently.
Rozen's pupils contracted.
It couldn't be…
"That's right."
Senga Takehito smiled.
A confident, assured smile.
"We already made our move against Aiba Asagi."
The moment these words fell—
"Come forth…"
A voice as cold as the arctic dropped the surrounding temperature to freezing.
"Regulus Aurum!"
A blinding cascade of thunder and lightning struck the earth.
"ROAR!!"
A massive lion cloaked in thunderous brilliance bellowed furiously, bursting forth like a divine bolt of light.
Wherever the thunder lion passed, the very air evaporated, the earth cracked and shattered, shaking all of Itogami Island with its overwhelming might.
This was truly an earth-shattering strike.
Should that blow strike the island, even Tartarus Lapse wouldn't need to act further—Itogami Island would be sunk instantly.
Rozen, with no regard for the island's survival, had unleashed the No. 5 Beast Vassal of the Fourth Primogenitor.
And in response—
"Come forth…"
A girl's resolute chant echoed in answer.
"Dabih Kryastalos!"
A Beast Vassal mighty enough to rival the thunder lion was summoned forth by a foreign maiden.