Aozaki Aoko Case File

It had been several hours since Touko had scattered her spider-like automata across various locations in Souya Subprefecture.

While this period of time was neither particularly long nor short, for Touko herself, she hadn't expected to find information about the Ancestor of the Dead Apostles so quickly.

Or rather, Touko hadn't anticipated that an Ancestor would dare to act so brazenly in the bustling, vibrant nightlife of Souya.

Unlike the True Ancestors, who are akin to planetary spirits, Dead Apostles are entities that negate the history of humanity itself. In other words, they are the antithesis of Alaya, which embodies humanity's collective consciousness and history.

These beings stand in direct opposition to heroes who affirm human history—that is, Heroic Spirits. Even if a Dead Apostle has achieved incarnation and has been reborn in modern society, a Hero like Artoria, who represents humanity's history, would feel an inexplicable sense of disgust and anger upon encountering any Dead Apostle.

The Ancestors of the Dead Apostles are no longer mere prey for the True Ancestors. These ancient Dead Apostles are like scarlet stains that drifted from the moon to the Earth's surface—a remnant of destruction birthed after the death of the Crimson Moon.

These creatures, whether to the planet or humanity, bring no benefit whatsoever; they are nothing more than parasites.

To contain the rampage of these Dead Apostles, the Aozaki sisters sought to restrict their activities within Souya. Beyond deploying various familiars and automata, they even spent a considerable sum to hire the Nanaya family—the only remaining faction of the Four Demon-Hunting Families with combat capability—to form a defensive perimeter around Souya, preventing ghouls and other creatures from spilling outside.

"You don't need to enter Souya," Aoko had told Kiri Nanaya at the time. "Just ensure that no creatures below the level of Dead Apostles escape while we're working in Souya."

That said, Touko and Aoko still prepared specialized mystic codes for these close-combat assassins. They imbued tools with enchantments countering the regenerative abilities of vampires, crafting weaponry specifically tailored to deal with blood-sucking entities.

Aoko even purchased a spring-loaded dagger made from top-tier alloy steel and enchanted it with the spell Greater Magic Weapon.

If the Nanaya clan encountered a particularly troublesome Dead Apostle, Kiri Nanaya would be tasked with wielding this weapon to pierce through the ancient Dead Apostle's mystical defenses, bypassing their layers of mystery.

Naturally, the Nanaya family welcomed such a lucrative yet seemingly simple job. Even Kiri's older brother—a twisted individual who took pleasure in slaughtering humanoid creatures—had no objections to the generous commission and task offered by Aoko. When it came to work, he was quite serious.

In summary, all these preparations were made to ensure that Aoko and Touko could perfectly neutralize the crisis caused by these human pests coming to Japan to stir up trouble. It was also a guarantee that they could successfully secure greater rewards from Ciel, the wealthy benefactor from the Church.

Despite her daily appearance of being obsessed with curry, Ciel had, as the ace of the Burial Agency, singlehandedly eliminated many of the Church's enemies, including wealthy Dead Apostles and rogue magi.

Strictly speaking, what Touko's spider automata had discovered wasn't the Ancestor of the Dead Apostles, but rather a suspiciously large black dog.

Judging by the intel Aoko had provided earlier, this black dog was most likely Chaos, a familiar of Nero Chaos, one of the Twenty-Seven Ancestors, and also a part of Nero's body.

As a gestalt-like entity, Nero had long since diverged from the magus he once was in Wandering Sea. Or rather, the magus who had once been Fabro was entirely absorbed, becoming nothing more than sustenance for the group consciousness of 666 individual entities.

It would be inaccurate to say that Fabro continued his magus research after becoming a Dead Apostle. Instead, Nero Chaos now acted purely on inertia.

As his existence expanded, his tendencies as a higher-order intelligence gradually eroded. All decisions that seemed like the actions of a sophisticated mind were, in reality, driven solely by the need to maintain the balance of the primordial sea of chaos within him.

From a scholar striving for ideals, he had devolved into a beast driven solely by hunger. This was the reality of Nero Chaos.

He had responded to the call of the White Wing Duke, joining the hunt for the White Princess, solely because he believed that devouring the White Princess would grant him even greater power. This, in turn, would increase his capacity and allow him to assimilate more powerful lifeforms into his sea of chaos.

Touko transformed into a bird and flew through the pitch-black night. It wasn't long before she found the black dog familiar, sitting motionless in an alley, observing passersby.

Perhaps it sensed something or simply grew impatient, but shortly after Touko arrived, the black dog slipped further into the alley.

Taking off once more from the air-conditioning unit of a building, Touko followed the swiftly moving black dog through the dark, narrow spaces between buildings. After circling for a while, she eventually arrived at what appeared to be a paper recycling plant.

The scene there could only be described as utterly horrific.

Numerous grotesque beasts were feasting on the flesh of hundreds of human corpses. Some of the humans weren't even fully dead, their bodies twitching as they let out silent cries of pain.

At the center of this hellish feast of blood and flesh stood a man in a black trench coat. His appearance was inherited from the magus Fabro Rowan of Wandering Sea, but now he was in the 10th seat of the Twenty-Seven Ancestors: Nero Chaos.

Nero's body, now bearing the name of Chaos, resembled a viscous black gel-like substance—it might be more apt to compare it to crude oil.

Some of the beasts that had finished feeding began returning to Nero Chaos's main body. This return was literal; the black dog that had been scouting crashed directly into Nero's body, merging back into the chaos that comprised him.

This was only natural—they were originally the same.

Having gathered enough intel, Touko relayed the information to Aoko. It seemed that Aoko had only managed to capture one lower-level Dead Apostle as bait, whereas Touko's side had hit the jackpot.

Touko was particularly intrigued by the properties of Nero Chaos's sea of chaos. She planned to use his body as a medium for magical experiments after killing him.

As Nero Chaos was reviewing the information brought back by the black dog, he suddenly sensed an entity approaching the barrier he had set up around his hunting grounds.

The intruder barreled through without any resistance, undoubtedly a being of considerable power. Nero Chaos silently raised his alert level, though his body remained still.

He noticed a bird he had never seen before circling in the sky. Moments later, the bird dissolved into a golden mist.

The golden mist spiraled downward, rapidly descending to where Nero Chaos stood. It then reformed into a beautiful woman wearing a green trench coat and sporting wine-red hair.

"Who are you?" Nero Chaos asked in a deep voice. Though he had a guess, his habit compelled him to ask.

"You've got it wrong, Nero Chaos," Touko replied, adjusting her glasses. "Between the two of us, it's you who is the intruder on this land."