Lord of Vermilion: The Crimson King

Tokyo was suddenly assaulted by the Great Collapse! The moment they heard it, everyone in the city fell into a coma. When they awoke, Tokyo was enveloped in a red mist. Though some plotted to escape, not a single person has made it through the red mist alive, and Tokyo has become inaccessible. Tokyo is now a shadowy and inaccessible city from which there is no escape! Five months later, the very last person still in a coma, univeristy student Kamina Chihiro awakens, and curtains rise on the fierce Vermillion legend!

The man who was like a father to the solitary Chihiro transformed into a giant troll before his eyes. Unable to fight properly, when Chihiro is struck by the creature's blade, his eyes glow a deep red, and something begins to awaken inside him! Can the blood staining his hands never be wiped clean? As Chihiro despairs, the mysterious and beautiful Yuri appears before him. The sound of her bells drags Chihiro into an even more unforgiving battle!

Seeing Kotetsu about to be killed, Chihiro reawakens his Heroic Blood. He remembers Eiko's real name is Cerdid, allowing her to leave her human form for he true one. She is a Defender assigned to Chihiro. Jun remarks to Yuri her beloved is a problem. Chihiro kills the monster, but angrily tells Cerdid it used to be a fellow university student; she counters by saying once a human becomes a familiar there's no going back. Kakihara and Tsubasa snap pictures of the fight, claiming this is a huge scoop. Kakihara calls Chihiro a monster and now understands how he killed 13 years ago. Jun and Yuri approach with two more monsters and Jun claims he can continue to summon more so long as he has humans to open the gate. His orders are Death to the Heroic Lineage and he will carry them out. Enraged, Chihiro goes berserk, overpowering an enhanced monster at the cost of losing control. Tsubasa is pained by the energy Chihiro puts out and her body begins to transform. A frustrated Kakihara doesn't know what to do when Shōko Hanashima tells him he should awaken his Heroic Blood as well. Shōko then awakens his Blood and tells him to call out Tsubasa's true name - Aero. Revealed to also be a Defender, Tsubasa fully transforms into a harpy-like form. The arrival of a third Vassal leaves Jun flabbergasted. Chihiro attacks Jun but Yuri saves her partner. Seeing her transformed, Chihiro recalls killing her in the prologue of episode one, the shock wrenching him from his berserk state. Outnumbered, Yuri and Jun leave. Shōko warns him Chihiro he'll die of blood loss fighting like that, shutting down his transformed state. Ikuro is left half a familiar, and Inuki and Koume take him into custody. The group is confused by their knowledge of everything, so Shōko takes the three Vessels to Maldeus Church. Shōko explains the Church is the stronghold for the Heroic Lineage who fight against Chaos. The Lineage's leader is Dux who tells them the world will be destroyed in 40 years, and the death of the old world will usher in a new one, led by the Lord of Vermilion. If the Lord is not born (all Heroic Vassals are dead) there will be no new world. Thus, the Church must win. At the base of Chaos, Jun and Yuri report three new Heroes are allied with the Church, which their leader, Grumman, finds troubling. He claims the Church is trying to destroy the world to create their personal paradise, according to Van Drail, who agrees and says the world will be destroyed in 40 years because the Church destroys it. Chaos caused the Great Resonance, enabling creatures from other worlds to enter this one using living humans as gates, which they hope to use to kill the Lineage and prevent the world's destruction. Dux tells the Heroes they need to survive, and destroying Tokyo will close the gate and prevent new monster from coming. At the hospital, Cerdid and Aero return to human forms. Cerdid took Eiko's form after she died in the Great Resonance, but Aero simply attached herself to Tsubasa's form and slept until she was awoke. Aero does not know what happened to Tsubasa, and Kakihara blames Chihiro. Ikuro is in a coma, still half-familiar, but he should not change further. However, they know no cure for him. Inuki states all humans have an Arcana gene, the soul to speak, like creatures from another world. When the resonance between two beings with the Arcana gene strengthens, a gate opens and a monster crosses over. It became possible to create this connection through the Great Resonance. Some could stand being used as gates, like Tsubasa and Eiko, which allowed the familiars to possess them. The rest turned into red mist. Chihiro blames himself for Ikuro's friend's state. Chihiro has a vision with Dux, who says it is all his fault, including what happened 13 years ago. However, he can seek salvation, even if his hands are stained with blood, if he can save the world from despair and win against Chaos. He promises he will.

Chihiro uses his high power to unleash energy from his spike, letting him systematically raze Tokyo and destroy the barriers keeping the red mist in place. Without the barrier, the portion of Tokyo it defended crumbled, but the red mist disappeared. He will destroy Tokyo if it means saving the future. Watching are Kotetsu, Koume, Inuki, and Shōko, all Heroic Vassals allied with the Malthus Church. Two barriers are destroyed. If all are destroyed, gates will no longer be able to be opened. Kakihara confronts him about how he must have enjoyed giving in to violence. Inuki collapses that night, ill, and does not go with Kotetsu, Koume, Chihiro, and Cerdid as they search for barriers to destroy. Jun and Yuri are scolded by Grumman for letting the Church's Heroic Lineage do as they please, and the two use their Heroic Blood to interrupt the Church before they can destroy a barrier. Kotetsu is knocked into the barrier during the fighting and confronted by Tsubaki Manazuru, a Vassal looking for the leader who he begins to fight. Chihiro destroys a barrier under his and Yuri's feet, and the enormous release of energy throws them into a dream world. With Chihiro's Arcana vanished from the world, Cerdid falls and cannot move. Yuri asks if he thinks destroying Tokyo is the right thing, but Chihiro says doing so will stop the familiars. However, Yuri says Tokyo will crumble with the barrier gone and most people trapped in it won't survive. He asks if she thinks it is alright to turn humans into gates and swears he'll stop her. If he can find forgiveness for those he killed by fighting then he will do so. Who cares if he breaks a world made only of despair to do it? Yuri asks him to join with her so they can change the world together, saying she'll vouch for him for the rest of Chaos, which Chihiro knows means she knows how to get out of here. Yuri agrees to show him the way rather then leave him trapped. Koume overpowers Jun, but is stopped by Minakami Haru, a Vassal and classmate of Chihiro and Kotetsu, allied with Jun and his Blue Skull gang. Kotetsu continues to fight with Tsubaki and her Defender Densuke. Both realize the other thought they were with Chaos and turned people into gates, though neither are. They stop fighting and Tsubaki leaves. Chihiro recalls memories of being with Yuri when they were both children. Yuri states "it is all because of your mother" before leaving.

Haru and Jun tag-team Koume until Chihiro interrupts. They leave and Jun lets them to check on Yuri, who he thinks was beaten by Chihiro. Shōko says Tsubaki was a member of the Guardian State, an ancient organization that has been protecting Japan before the country was officially formed. Chihiro lies and says he can't remember what happened after he destroyed the barrier. Kakihara enters and says there is a spy, which is how Chaos knew where to ambush them. Even the Guardian State was involved, they knew everything. Shōko says there's no need to speculate randomly and presses they must destroy Tokyo, but the others are more hesitant since Chaos was lying in ambush. The mission is temporarily halted. A troubled Chihiro confides in Inuki he can't remember his childhood or his mother, which amuses a nearby Kakihara. According to Kakihara, 13 years ago, there was an explosion at the AVAL Science research facility, in which Chihiro's mother was responsible for. The nature of the research never went public and Chihiro's mother went missing. Kakihara continues to accuse Chihiro of killing his parents, stating he could tell him how he stabbed his father to help him remember how he killed his mother. After Chihiro and Kotetsu leave the hospital from visiting Ikuro and are stopped by policewoman Kurokami and Tsubkai of the Guardian State. The two don't intend to fight them and ask about Jun, who she thinks is behind a string of grisly murders. Kotetsu agrees to help but Chihiro turns them down. After coming back to his office to see it has been ransacked, Kakihara gets information from Kurokami and tracks down Jun with Aero, who he starts to warm up to. Visiting Ikuro again, Chihiro speaks with Inuki. He believes he can only create despair, saving one by killing another, while Inuki believes they can save everyone. Inuki vanishes later that night before he can treat Ikuro, his lab in ruins and a window smashed out. After hearing a scream, Tsubaki finds a recent victim from the same chain of murders, but is attacked by the killer, a red wolf-like creature, and saved by Kotetsu. The creature flees and transforms back, revealing it is Inuki covered in his victim's blood. He looks at his bloody hands in horror before screaming.

Tsubaki tells Kurokami later she didn't see Jun, just familiar and victim, unaware the familiar was actually Inuki. Several Blue Skulls are ordered to find Inuki, but are killed by the transformed Inuki first. Kurome does not tell Chihiro of the state of the lab as she informs him Inuki is just exhausted from his research and he should rest. He keeps looking for him, troubled by a dream he had that Inuki would die (like the way he dreamed Kotetsu's father died). Inuki is human again and almost transforms into the familiar before the Blue Skulls find him. Chihiro also arrives, relieved Inuki is alright, but Inuki pleads with him to stay away. He starts to transform as the Blue Skulls confront Chihiro and jumps into the bay to avoid killing them. Chihiro returns to the Church, where Kakihara reveals Inuki is the traitor. During his investigation he learned Inuki and Jun were raised in the same orphanage, Hikari-en, practically brothers. The orphanage is controlled by the AVAL Science Foundation, which controls the agents of Chaos. AVAL is run by Aldo Grumman Shiraki, Yuri's father. Alone, Kurome confirms to Chihiro Inuki was the traitor. He did so to protect the children of Hikari-en as there is a barrier within the orphanage. If the Church destroys the barrier, the children would die. Kurome was also raised at Hikari-en. The children are guinea pigs for AVAL to learn how to generate the red mist and turn humans into gates. Because Jun, Inuki, and Kurome were Heroic Vassals, they could not be turned into familiars, and were discarded as failures. However, Inuki was still suffering from the side-effects of the experiments, making it harder to remain human. Visiting his childhood home, he came across Yuri, who is there watering the garden. When he calls her by her full name, she thinks he remembers her, but he only knew her name from Kakihara. She is saddened briefly. Chihiro asks her about his past and sits next to her. On a bridge, Inuki apologizes to Jun for killing his friends, which Jun accepts. Inuki says he can barely hold it together now, even with his Heroic Lineage, and asks Jun kill him before the transformation becomes permanent. Jun refuses, begging him to come back to AVAL to see if they could help but Inuki doesn't want to return there ever again. He wants to die as Jun's brother, not a monster. As he starts to lapse, Jun moves to kill him, only to be stopped by Chihiro. Inuki fully transforms into a familiar and even his Heroic Lineage goes out of control, giving the familiar blood armaments which let him overpower Jun and Chihiro. Trying to stop Inuki, Chihiro goes berserk again. Inuki regains partial control of himself and absorbs Chihiro's power to bring him under control, though he absorbs so much power he dies. He promises Chihiro he can control his power and tells him not to give in to despair.